A/N: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING AHEAD!!! DO NOT PROCEED WITHOUT PLAYING THE GAME FIRST!
I'm serious. Before you start reading, play it first. Deemo is a great game and it is definitely worth the money spent. There aren't many rhythm games that have a great story in them and this is a jewel among the handful of rhythm games.
Last chance to turn back now.
Come on now...
...Any moment now...
...Lalalalalala...
...Still here?
Oh well...
Don't say I didn't warn ya.
"Goodbye, my beloved sister, Alice..."
"NO! Wait! Please... I don't want to go... I don't want to say goodbye just yet!"
"I'm sorry, but you can't stay here forever..."
"Hans... Please... I... I want to stay here... with my brother..."
"I want to stay here with you too, but you know that I can't."
"You still have a life to live."
"Alice..."
"Alice, please don't cry anymore. You won't be alone because I'll be by your side until the end."
"...I have to go now. Farewell, sister."
Alice jolted up from her bed with tears in her eyes. She screamed and sobbed hard in her Mirai doll, wanting to seek comfort from her strange-looking doll - the last tangible memory connecting her to her dear brother. It all happened too fast. One second she was holding her brother's hand, happily walking across the road with the large doll in her other hand, and the next thing she knew was...
Alice gripped the doll tightly in her arms and continued to let her tears spill on its plushy material. The doll never hugged her back but she just wanted something dear to hold on to. She missed her brother. Why did he have to go? She never knew the answer, and she thinks that she might never get the answer to that question.
After some amount of time had passed, Alice heard her stomach grumble, telling her that she still needed to eat breakfast. She ignored this signal and opted not to get out of bed yet. She wasn't done hugging her doll. She wasn't ready to say to goodbye to her...
"No... Hans wouldn't want this, would he?" she thought to herself, trying to stave off the horrible thoughts from plaguing her mind.
With some reluctance, Alice let go of the Mirai doll and set it down on her pillow, tucking it on her bed and singing a lullaby for it to sleep peacefully. A permanent smile was stitched to its catlike face which made it look creepy but she thought differently. The doll represented her in a morbid sense. Often times, she felt that the smiles she felt were stitched to her face in order to express joy or gratitude to her other friends. Beneath that stitched smile lied a whole bunch of depressing memories that tainted her innocence, hence the dark part of the Mirai doll covering a small portion of the right side of its head. It wasn't like her to look at things through a negative lens but it was ingrained on her ever since her parents left her and her brother to fend off for their lives.
She knows that some people have to say goodbye eventually.
She knows that goodbyes were hard to say, especially if both parties don't know when they'll see each other again.
Which is why she needs to move past this grief and give her brother a proper farewell. She knew exactly how he wanted it to go.
She'll reincarnate her brother's last recital to her. It was only fitting that she returned the favor to him after all...
"I'll do it for you, Hans."
After Alice freshened herself up for today, she approached the covered piano in the living room. The sun shined down at the perfect angle, bathing the glorified piano in its golden light. She missed watching her brother happily playing it with her sitting on top of it as she observed his fingers move across the keys in an entrancing manner. Her mood would always sway with how he played it. Some were happy, some were sad. Others were lively, while the others were calming. Whatever piece he played for her, it was monumental - something worth treasuring in her precious box of memories.
She remembered how she would pester him to teach her how to play the piano every time they met. He would always smile and carry her towards the piano seat. It was a good thing that the seat's height was adjustable so that she wouldn't have to crane her neck every time she wanted to play it.
She learned most of the basics and fundamentals at this point but playing the piano was still difficult and tedious. They wouldn't get far since she always lost her interest and motivation quickly. She'd rather watch her brother play it instead of her playing it for him.
And now, he's gone and she's never going to hear him play her favorite pieces ever again...
With a newfound look of determination in her eyes, Alice removed the dust that covered in piano from prolonged periods of disuse and lifted its cover. She carefully examined the piano keys and mindlessly dragged her fingers across the Ivorite and ebony blocks from left to right. She heard the blocks strum the strings inside the piano in a gradually increasing pitch. She concluded that the piano was still in mint condition after repeatedly dragging her fingers across the keys.
Alice grabbed the thick book that was sitting on top of a small round table beside a vase of assorted flowers and placed it on the slot where she could read the notes while playing the instrument itself. She took a seat and flipped the pages towards a simple and easy piece to do a quick warmup.
From the first time she touched the piano to this point in time, she had gotten considerably better at playing it. Alice took the time and effort to enroll herself in tutorials so she can become as good as her brother. While it's true that she's approaching his level, she wasn't quite there yet. He was incredibly talented with his hands. Those fingers of his can masterfully maneuver around the keys at different speeds without losing their sense of rhythm and accuracy. Alice still had a difficult time in replicating that skill and if she ever hoped to give his brother a good send off, then she had to practice constantly.
Alice started to play the piece, filling the vast living room with the piano's slow and melodious voice. She kept her focus nice and steady on the music sheet in front of her while her fingers hit the keys in an almost perfect accordance with the notes on the sheet. Of course, she made a few mistakes, like out-of-sync notes and hitting the wrong keys. Every time these things happened, she would pause her performance and take a deep breath before starting over again. She would repeat the process over and over until she's satisfied with how her piece turned out.
Eventually after finishing her warm up, she felt ready to practice the recital she would perform for her brother. She flipped the pages of the book until the page showed the page she wanted to rehearse. She started off slow, like how the piece should be played, and kept the tempo like that.
Flashbacks from that strange place began to play in her mind as she went on with the piece. Her mind left her body and her fingers struck each key with an unnatural accuracy that made it seem that she had played this before. The truth was that this specific recital was special to her. The notes, as soon as she had first heard them during her comatose state, stuck in both her mind and heart.
Hans… are you listening?
She listened when Deemo played this for her as the tunes that came from his piano that was starting to wither along with him and the surrounding world carried her towards the true exit of her dream. She listened… and she cried as she saw her brother for the first time after a long while.
"̴̖̈́̎Ğ̴̼͙̀͝͠o̵̭̐o̷̻̖̊̔̐d̷̤̯̠͛̄͜b̷̨̖̎̏̃y̵̬̮͗̉̈́͂e̷̜̰͇͌,̷̪̏̓ ̶͍̙͋́ṁ̷̟y̵̯͗̄̈́ ̷̻͆̌̆̅b̴̲͍̳̉̋̕ë̵̖̹́̕l̷̮̱͍̫̈̒̓̐ö̴̝̥́v̶̻͂͘ë̴͉̬̩͇́̋̉͠d̴̻͇̦͗ ̸̤̫͛̎s̴̤̝̑i̶͙͝s̵͍̟̰͒ṯ̶̡͓̓̿͑̐ę̴̢͍̪̒͋͆r̸̝͉̭͉̂́̉̚,̷̝̝̝͑͠͝ ̸̣̘̤̹̅̑A̴̡͒͒̕l̸̺̠͑͂̓i̷̞̤͓͒̑̎c̴͕̒͋̿e̴͐́͜͠"̸̗̘̦͂͋̉
And just with that farewell, everything came rushing back, like the truck that sped at them. Her memories, the stranger's true identity, the manifestation of her desire to remain with her brother... Yes, everything came back and she experienced it all once more as if it were her first time.
Alice carried the feelings those memories invoked all throughout the piece, without her being consciously aware of it; she played the piano as if it were just as natural as breathing air - an involuntary action. She closed her eyes and found comfort along the soothing melody. She feels her brother sitting beside her and helping her play along. At the crux of the piece, she poured all her feelings out as this was the most difficult part. This was the reason for her recent warmup. If doubt took a grasp on her heart, she would mess up. She could not afford to mess up now that she was nearing the end.
She nailed the last set of notes perfectly and her hands slowly glided back to her lap.
"Farewell, Hans. I'll keep playing the piano for you. I'll carry your legacy."
There…
…She finally said it and felt completely content returning his goodbye.
She stood up and covered the piano once more before carrying on with her life, moving past the grief of her brother's death and living with her eyes always pointed forward.
A/N: Hmm, decided to do something different today. I hope I haven't lost my touch!