The first time she had the dream, it was two months into their marriage.
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"Sweet bean bread!"
The world was black and white, while Furukawa Nagisa stood at the base of the hill and recited her lines.
"Do you like this school? I really, really love it. But nothing can stay unchanged. Fun things... Happy things... They can't all possibly stay unchanged."
Flashes of color started to enter the monochrome world.
"Even so, can you keep on loving this place?"
And in this world, Okazaki Tomoya stayed in place, even as Nagisa turned around and walked on by, thier eyes never meeting. 'It's better this way, if she had never met me. She could have a better life...'
The world returned to grey as the two walked away from each other.
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Nagisa woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, feeling cold all over. Contrary to her frequent fevers, she had an icy feeling inside her heart, a feeling that only grew worse as she opened her eyes and saw the sleeping form of her husband. Banishing the thoughts away, she returned to sleep, never remembering the dream but remembering the feeling of the coldness that had washed over her.
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The second time the dream plagued her, it was exactly five months into the pregnancy of their child. She was just starting to show her pregnancy to the outside world, and planned to go out tomorrow with her mother to buy several maternity dresses.
That night, she dreamt that she was at the bottom of the hill, again, and again, Tomoya-kun didn't talk to her. She was disappointed at him. So disappointed. But she kept walking in the grey light, in the opposite direction that her husband walked. They walked away from each other, again.
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The third and last time, the dream had happened during her labor giving birth to Ushio. Over the last month, she had been sick at home, so the midwife and her mother had popped in every day to do the house chores and generally helping her out while she stayed in bed.
The labor had been hard and arduous, keeping their entire family up until the the wee hours of the morning. Nagisa had nearly passed out several times, but the love she felt from her beloved had kept her awake, as she did her best to bring a new life, their new life, their child into the world. When the long ordeal was finally over and she could hear the cries of her baby, she slipped into a daze and started to pass out. Her hand was cold, and Tomoya's was warm. Her whole body felt cold, but she heard Tomoya call her name over and over again.
"Nagisa! Nagisa!"
She opened her eyes slowly. "Tomoya... kun..."
His visage with watery eyes filled her vision. "I'm here! I'm right here, Nagisa! You can hear it, right? The voice of our chile crying?"
For some reason, he looked panicked, so she gave the best answer she could while so tired. "Yes..."
He moved a little away from her and held up the red screaming bundle of joy. "Look. I'm the first one to hug her."
Her mind was getting increasingly foggy. "Yes..." Her eyes rolled down until she could see her child even as the edges of her vision blurred. "She's beautiful."
"It's our child. This is Ushio."
"Shio-chan..."
"It's a girl! A lively girl!"
"Yes... I'm glad I was able to have her at home." Her vision blurred further, unable to see her child, no matter how much she strained. "Though, I made Shio-chan go through extra trouble."
"Well done... You've done a great job."
She closed her eyes for a bit. "But, I'm a little tired now. May I rest for a while?" Anything after that, she heard lost in white, as she passed out from the strain of birth. Her hand, which she wanted to keep in her husband's forever, lost it's strength and dropped to her side.
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"Sweet bean bread!"
This time, the world was in full color. Furukawa Nagisa could see the sakura blossoms being carried by the wind, while she recited lines from a play.
"Do you like this school? I really, really love it. But nothing can stay unchanged. Fun things... Happy things... They can't all possibly stay unchanged. Even so, can you keep on loving this place?"
She turned around and walked towards Okazaki Tomoya, eyes downcast, as she hoped for him to pick her up and hold her close. He was the only one for her. She could feel his thoughts, here his thoughts as emotions flitted across his face.
'If only we had never met... We should have taken different paths.' She passed by him, confident in the fact that he would come after her and scoop her up. 'I wouldn't have dated Nagisa, nor would I have married her. Ushio wouldn't have been born, either. Then this sadness would never have haunted me.'
As she walked away from him, he had one last thought, unaware that she could hear everything. 'I should never have met her.'
Her heart broke. What were the vows for marriage for then? In her world, the skies turned bleak, and the color drained out until it was monochrome. And soon enough, there wasn't a world anymore.
Okazaki Nagisa didn't die from overexerting herself during the pregnancy, nor the long labor that gave birth to her child.
She died from a broken heart, a betrayal of the deepest kind. Her husband didn't want her in his life. As the icy cold rushed from her heart, she prayed that in the next life, she would be able to forgive her husband.
Okazaki Nagisa died ten minutes after delivery of her child. 'At least... I got to see her. Shio-chan... At least... You didn't betray me...'
