Silence.
Shirou thought it was something he was well accustomed to. He had, after all, lived alone for quite some time within his own serenely quite house. He used to crave the silence of a good afternoon with a cup of tea on hand. He used to enjoy the silent companionship of Sakura as they enjoyed each other's presence without a word.
Silence. Absolute silence. A dark expanse of nothing filled everything, the floor, the roof, the pain.
The only sound he could remember in this dark expanse was his own thoughts. He could not speak. He could not shout. He could not hear his stomach rumbling, nor could he hear his heart beating.
He just existed with silence.
He didn't remember how long he had been walking for. Weeks? Months? Years? It felt like an eternity since he had finally brought down Gilgamesh. And yet… he didn't remember what happened afterwards. Rin… where was she now? What had happened to the grail? What had happened to everyone? What had happened… to himself? Where was he?
He shook his head. Too many questions, not enough answers.
And maybe it was because his whole existence had been noisy thus far, but he found himself deeply irritated by the silence. There was nothing to be found here. And similarly, no progress could be done.
That bothered him more than he liked to admit.
"-!"
A voice?!
He turned his head back to the endless expanse of black in a desperate attempt to recognize it. A familiar voice, one he couldn't put a name on. A faint, beautiful, voice. One that struck the chords of his still heart.
"-!"
There it was again. At the corner of his consciousness, a light voice calling out to him. So heavily contrasting the dark expanse, the voice crackled like the first bloom of spring. A slight warmth filled his body, and for the first time in a very long time, he felt hope.
He turned to face the general direction of the voice. With renewed vigor, he set out once again into the endless expanse of black.
-Beep-
-Beep-
-Beep-
The slow but constant sound of the heart monitor strangely consoled her.
Rin sighed once more as she watched the sleeping boy. She walked up to his old, dilapidated bed, sheets old enough to bring doubts to resurface. She checked the clipboard next to the bed.
"Last Changed: March 4th, 2014"
A week ago. A change of sheets was long overdue. A sudden rush of frustration and indignation overcame her. The audacity to leave a patient under the esteemed Tohsaka's name uncared for? She shook her head as she reached over the frail boy's form to hit the nurse button.
She waited in patience for the inevitable fallout.
And just as expected, not 1 minute later a nurse came running through the hallways and burst through the flimsy door to assess the situation. The frantic look on his face slowly faded as he took in the patient, lying down completely unconscious, and Tohsaka with her trademark smile.
The nurse sighed as he grabbed his chest in exasperation. "Miss Tohsaka how many times do we have to tell you. The call bell is not something to hit on a whim."
A vein threatened to pop out. "Well if you would just do the job that we pay you for, I wouldn't have to hit the bell. Nurse."
The nurse bristled at that. "I assure you we do the best for any and all patients in this establishment. I have no idea what you are on about."
"Rigghhht." She drawled out, crossing her arms as she did so. "So why has patient "Shiro" been in the same sheets for the past week?" She began tapping her arm as her smile strained. "Must I really call your superior about this?"
Cowed, the nurse took a step back. "Uhh-"
"When was the last time he had a checkup?" She continued. "Have you even tried new methods to wake him up for the past year?"
Silence. The beeping of the machine next to her strangely didn't comfort her any longer.
"Really?" She adopted an exasperated look. "Are you trying to kill him?"
The nurse mumbled something as he hunched over to escape the woman's wrath.
"What was that?!"
The nurse sighed. "Miss Tohsaka," he began, "Isn't it about time that you gave up on him?" He turned to look at the boy in question. "After all."
"Its been 10 years since he's been in a coma."
And wasn't that true. The media had lost all hope years ago, only a year or two after the tragedy first happened. Her family followed soon enough, and now it seemed the doctors had as well.
"You… you." She began, astounded by the sheer disrespect of the nurse. "How dare you." She spat as she struggled to reel in her anger. "How dare you say that. Do you realize what happened to this boy? He was someone my age, at that time only 5, a child!" She counted backwards from 10 as she took a short time to regain her breath.
"And it was our fault, my fault, this happened."
And wasn't it? She could remember the fire like it was yesterday. The massive inferno that blazed across the city. The cries of the wounded, the despair of the trapped, the agony of the dead. An amalgamation of death and decay struck the city as it roared like an enraged beast. Like a monster that wished to destroy everything in its path. It did exactly that.
She was there that day. Not in the fire of course, but in a safe helicopter watching over the blazing inferno. The blazing inferno that was caused… by the Tohsaka Conglomerate.
Everyone was celebrating the newest building of the Tohsaka Conglomerate in Fuyuki at the time. Friends and family joined together in a celebration for their newest addition. It was completed in record time, the largest building in Fuyuki. And not even an hour after its completion, when everyone had come together to view the tower from afar, an explosion erupted from the top of the building, raining fire and death everywhere.
And rain death it did.
Estimated deaths over 1000. Property damage of 20% of the city. The largest and most tragic manmade incident in the past decade. And the only known survivor, Patient White.
She walked over to the patient. A multitude of emotions filled her. Sorrow for stealing his life from him, for his childhood to never be a truth in this sad world of pain.
And curiosity at how such a boy could possibly stay alive and fight even after 10 years.
Maybe it was something about his determination that helped to calm her nerves. Something about him seemed to fill her with determination and strengthen her own will enough to face her problems. He was undoubtedly someone who would have grown to be a charismatic leader, one with many loved ones that followed him.
And yet here he was. Wasting away his life in a bed, never to wake up again.
She caressed his face. A single tear escaped her eye.
"I'm sorry, 'Shiro'."
And then something happened. Something miraculous, something that Tohsaka would remember 100 years later, old and grey, with fondness and incredulity in her eyes.
He opened his eyes.
Shirou was getting closer.
The voice, the warmth, everything that was not the darkness. His blood rumbled ferociously, as if it knew how close he was to his goal. His prana, long asleep before the voice, hummed as he excitedly took off running to the voice.
"-Nurse."
He was getting close enough to hear what was being said. And… he could see a white pinprick of light. The change in color suddenly blinded him as his eyes struggled to idnteify the sharp contrast of black and white.
"10 years- coma-"
The white pinprick was a white circle now. A door way. To free himself of the darkness. To get some answers. To find Saber. To find Sakura. To find Rin.
"-child!"
He was nearing the door now. Getting closer and closer to the doorway. The white now completely blinded him as he stumbled forward. In the doorway, a creature stood. A fish? A small whale? He wasn't sure. It was lit a beautiful green and it… strangely reminded him of Tohsaka. Of Rin.
"-my fault"
The beautiful creature floated serenely in the air, its luminous green aura lighting up his vision. Just its presence seemed to soothe all his wounds, his pains, and his doubts. The creature perked up as it noticed the new presence.
The green pulsed a slow heartbeat. The creature began to slowly swim through the air, soothing the empty space around it with its presence. The silence that was so very deafening before, was silenced.
Closer and closer it came, so close that it could be touching-It was inside of him.
"I'm sorry, Shiro."
An inexplicable feeling rose from his chest. A warmth that he had almost forgotten filled his body, and slowly… he heard a beat. Then two. Then three, and suddenly his vision exploded with a cacophony of colors and sounds. It surrounded him, swallowed him, and regurgitated him as-
He opened his eyes.
AN: EY its me again. Back from the dead. Better known as school and irl stuff. Army stuff got postponed, probably will go sometime around June. Until then I thought why not begin writing again. Reading my stuff again, I keep realizing i'm really bad at writing... But nevertheless I'll try my hand on a Coma Theory story. My other story will probably get updated soon. Or I might just revamp the whole thing. Not sure what to do with it. Anyways, enjoy the ride.