A/n: For het_100 theme #3 - the persistence of memory, and written smack in the middle of Testing Week Nightmare. Cheers! And guys, I do mean SPOILERS for ep. 24-26.
(Disclaimer: I don't own Mai-HiME.)
Yuuichi didn't like to think of it as death.
Purgatory, collective unconsciousness; whatever it was, it was deep and dark and there should've been no returning from it.
He figured what did it - what allowed him to crawl back to life when only the memory of light was there to guide him - were his thoughts of red hair and purple eyes and the knowledge that he couldn't - wouldn't - leave Mai alone a moment longer.
His last memory of her was not going to be the pain on her face like she'd had when he'd...
As Mai Tokiha prepared to face the Obsidian Prince, Yuuichi Tate dragged himself out of nothingness and back to reality with only the strength of his conviction that he had something to tell her, too.