2/12/2017 - Just a small update with more introspection and details on the what-ifs


-The Fool's Aeon-

The rain was unrelenting on that day...

Even so, a great many people from across Tatsumi Port Island had come together undeterred by the weather.

The mechanical maiden recorded the entire event, her servos quietly whirring as she took it all in.

A broken people, a family, have come to bury one of their own.

Today, they bury Minato Arisato.

"How're you holding up?" a familiar voice, lined in sorrow asked the blonde.

"I am alright Mitsuru-san," the mechanical maiden addressed her senpai, "I'm not."

"That's good," Mitsuru paused, "if you ever need someone to talk to after this, everyone's here for you."

"Thank you, I'll be fine on my own" Aigis tersely smiled at the other woman, "please don't go."

"All the comforts and condolences from all the people in the world won't bring him back," the blonde thought to herself, "but we must press on, despite the pain, for his sake or none of it would have mattered."

And it was then, unbeknownst to most people in attendance, in the cold rain, that Aigis was broken.

-The next day-

...5:00 AM...

The mechanical maiden did not understand, she knew that he was gone, and yet, the blonde stood dutifully in front of his door like all the times she had been there for the previous year.

"Why am I here?" Aigis asked herself, her hand running through the door, feeling each crack and splinter on the hard wood "If I open this door, I won't find him sleeping on that bed."

*Creak*

It was as the gynoid thought,there was no one in the room. The silence where she once heard faint breathing, weighed heavily on her.

"Even without anyone else here, it still feels like him, like he was still here," the blonde mused as she stared at the bed with longing and regret, "was it worth it?"

"I would have scanned for his vitals then," Aigis grinned at the fond memory, "is this truly how cruel the world is? Just as I've come to feel...human."

A single tear fell from the blonde's eye, her systems painted it as a fluid containment error.

Aigis knew better.

"When I had finally found myself a reason to stay, beyond the fighting, to live," sadness present in the girl's voice, "the one who gave me that reason was taken away."

Another tear moistened the mechanical maiden's eye, her HUD briefly flashed red with diagnostic data.

"I must be malfunctioning," she stared at her own hands, the tears slowly trickling down to the floor.

-The Answer-

It had been a week since SEES had dealt with the Abyss of Time, since the team had renewed their resolve and found a new more purposeful reason to go on.
Yukari and Aigis had decided to be roommates, not too far from Fuuka. Ken received a full scholarship from Mitsuru's company and found himself some new friends. Junpei had straightened his act and visited Chidori, who was slowly recovering more of her memory each day, the girls found it touching, like a scene from a Nicholas Sparks novel. Mitsuru and Akihiko both went to college, the former taking up the Kirijo family business and the latter training to be a policeman. Time had truly passed for the group.

-Minato's Grave-

"It's been awhile since I was last here, huh?" the blonde lowered her head as she cleaned the dust off the headstone with her immaculate hands.

"We had another adventure right in the dorm," Aigis smiled, "but I guess you know that already."

"It is difficult," the girl paused, "moving on, I mean."

The mechanical maiden grasped the headstone tightly with both hands as her legs gave out.

"We miss you," the now-senior high schooler said, "all of us, we always will"

...Several hours pass...

The girl was sitting in front of the boy's grave, waiting for a reply. Night had just fallen and the light of the moon was shining in the sky, a beaming white glow that was a welcome change from the sickening yellow hue she had grown accustomed to.

"I suppose I should head back now," the girl said with a lift in her mood.

"Wait..." an ethereal yet familiar voice called out.

"?" time had stopped around the blonde and she slowly turned her head, excited and at the same time, afraid.

In front of Aigis was a familiar room of Velvet blue...

But the occupants she had acquainted herself with were not there...

Instead, it was him...

"Are we inside the Room?" the blonde asked the bluenette.

"..." the boy nodded quietly.

"Hm?" the girl looked away, "Can you not speak?"

"..." in his usual silence, Minato turned his head.

"I see," the mechanical maiden looked the bluenette in the eyes once more, "I trust you overheard everything I said."

"..." the boy gave another silent affirmative.

"Are you alright wherever it is you are right now?" she asked with a concerned look in her eyes.

"..." the boy got up and stood face to face with the girl before nodding and embracing the blonde.

"You are still warm," Aigis said in a mix of joy and sadness.

The pair stood silent in their embrace for what felt like forever to the girl.

"This is the real you this time, right?" the blonde cried.

"..." the boy nodded.

"When will I see you again?" Aigis posted a question to Minato.

The bluenette closed the distance between their faces and whispered to the girl's ear, "...Always."

And in a brilliant flash, the Velvet Room vanished around them and time had slowly started to resume once more.

"Was I merely dreaming?" the girl asked herself.

As if fate had decided to answer the girl's question, a blue butterfly zipped around her.

"This feeling," the mechanical maiden focused on the butterfly that circled her, "I feel silly for asking."

-A month later-

People had started taking notice of the blue butterfly that followed Aigis around wherever she went, there were rumors that spread about it being the ghost of the boy she loved, haunting her waking moments, but that was the exact opposite of what it was, she didn't feel haunted in the slightest.

-9:30 PM-

Aigis was alone in her room, Yukari was preoccupied with a group project that had to be done in a classmate's house.

"Did I ever tell you about my dream last night?" the blonde looked at the blue butterfly that rested on her fingers, "You were there."

A faint glow followed the butterfly's wings as they flapped.

"I dreamt that you were still alive," the girl smiled at her "friend", "it's funny how much time could pass in a single night's dream."

"We both finished college," Aigis moved to her bed, "you and I...got married after Junpei and Chidori's first child had been born."

"..." the butterfly's glow grew stronger, leaving a sparkling trail behind it.

"Then we...we had a son," the butterfly's wings slowed down a little as it continued listening to the girl, "he was every bit as curious as you were, but he had my eyes, hair and even naivety. You can imagine he was a handful."

"Everyone still doted and loved him all the same. We named him..." a stream of tears had formed in the girl's eyes as she fought the pain of knowing that this dream would never come true, "Teddie."

The brilliant Velvet light of the butterfly's wings had enveloped the room until the light moved from its wings and flowed elsewhere, to a rural town called Inaba, but that is a story for another time.

-End-