Thanks to all you guys who reviewed for "Things Left Forgotten". I'm still very happy that a number of people seemed to have liked it.

As a few of you have asked for a sequel, I decided to make it a set of oneshots. To make a full length story would probably have been too much work for me, so these oneshots link to each other in a way but each tells their own story. Hence, they may go on or this might be the last, and the status will always be completed.

Yes, it's short, I know. I'm sorry.

Again, thanks and enjoy! (Usual disclaimers apply. Obviously.)


It seemed to be the only right thing to do.

During the war, Shinn Asuka, pilot of the Impulse and later the Destiny had killed many. Too much to count, and he meant it literally. And he had hurt much more than he had killed.

While he was fighting, none of that mattered. It was a matter of life or death –kill or be killed– and nothing was more important than to stop the enemy and protect his comrades. That was the single purpose he fought, and that was the only thing he had believed in.

After the final battle, after the whole conflict came to a halting end, everything changed.

He started having dreams…then nightmares… then even hallucinations of the people he killed and their families, and how they all cursed him for what he had done to them. It also weighed down a lot more in his heart, since he had more than enough his share of deaths around him. It got him depressed, then it stopped him from sleeping, and then all he could was apologize to those invisible beings and beg for forgiveness. And then, finally, it became too much for him to bear. He bought a bottle of sleeping pills and forced it down his throat.

If the ambulance had come any later, he would have been dead.

Luckily for him, his girlfriend, Lunamaria, decided to visit him that night; he had been acting strange lately, and she desperately wanted to help him. And she did, since she ended up saving his life.

But, even she did not have the power to truly save him.

xoxox

The setting sun tinted the sky and sparkling waves a deep hue of red. The clouds were the most delicate shade of pink, and time seemed to have disappeared amidst the sound of the gentle, rippling waves.
"Shinn!"
A bell-like voice rang out to him from his back, and he looked back, surprised.
"Stellar…"
There stood the long-lost sweet little girl… She, who he had vowed to protect but couldn't.

"Stellar… Is that really you?"
His voice only reached his ear distantly, and for a moment he doubted that that was really happening. But when he felt the familiar cool, smooth touch of Stellar's hands on his outstretched ones, he knew that it was real.
"Shinn… Shinn! I missed you, Shinn."
"… I missed you too, Stellar."
"Stellar never forgot Shinn. Stellar remembered you!"
"I never forgot you either…"
Shinn felt a tingle run down his spine as he looked into those beautifully innocent magenta eyes. And before he knew it, he was kissing her on her lips.

After a breathless, fluttering moment, the two stared at each other in the eye.

"…I love you……I love you, Shinn."
"Stellar…"
"When I was on the Destroy, I stopped because you were there."
"…Yeah."
"And I still haven't forgotten you… Stellar always dreams about you."
"………Wait, you're still alive?"
The girl nodded, and she pulled away. Shinn tried to reach for her once again, but this time, he ended up grabbing the air.

"Stellar!"
"…Find me, Shinn. Please."
"I will, but wait! Where are you? Stellar!"
"……nd….e…"
"Stellar!"

He cried out trying to keep some of her vanishing figure, but the more he tried the faster she went. As the last remains of the shimmering blonde hair disappeared, he shouted her name once again, fell down to the sea which was no longer sparkling red.

xoxox

When Shinn Asuka recovered his consciousness, he had lost all of his previous memories except for the dream he had while he was being treated on. He no longer remembered Lunamaria, or his career before, or the pain and guilt he had suffered that cause his attempted suicide. All he remembered was the blonde girl called Stellar, and that he had to find her.

She was still waiting for her.

She was the reason why he did not die.

In the end, it was "Stellar" who gave him the hope to live.