Chapter 38: Back to the Beginning

In which Sakura and Rei go home, and Pandora's Box is forever closed.

2018

Three days after Rei defeated Leviathan for the second and hopefully last time, there was an official council called to decide how to best end the threat of Pandora's Box forever. The first half was largely underwhelming, seeing as how they already knew what they had to do, and who best to do it. But just to make the old-timers and the miraculously survivable Karin feel better, Rei let it all get hashed out again. It gave him a chance to lurk in the corner while Sakura earnestly pressed her course of action onto her parents, and admire her as openly as he felt comfortable doing in front of others.

(Away from the others, however, was a vastly different story. They hadn't tumbled into bed with each other—not yet, at least—but every spare moment was spent in breathless kissing and touching. And while those moments were rare—there was much to do to set the end of his modern life in order; innoculate himself against everything Eden had vaccines for; prepare himself as best he could for social, culture, and linguistic changes; attend Maka Fujiwara's funeral, and of course to avoid Shibuya, who had decided the best way to close Pandora's Box was to begin by killing him—they were increasingly fraught. He'd accidentally set at least three inanimate objects aflame the first time she took her shirt off. He'd barely been able to do more than set his mouth to her nipples before they'd set the fire alarms off, and then barely gotten her respectable before her father had burst in, looking mad-eyed and fit to slaughter.)

But the plan boiled down to this: Sakura would open Pandora's Box, which was still linked by the power of the negation to the moment it had first occurred on Dec. 32nd, over a century ago. They would attempt this by mixing their blood and hoping like hell intent was enough, because otherwise Ai might have to come too, just so he and Rei could fight. Yet once it was opened and they travelled through it, using the immense power of negation to fuel time travel, they hypothesized that the power holding the box would be undone, destroying it utterly . . . and leaving them trapped in the past.

Then, if they survived the initial fallout, they would live the entirety of their natural lives in their original time. They would have to spend every moment avoiding Eden and any other power users as well as the surviving heroes of their current age. Even to stumble across Karin and Maka would change things and probably for the worse. Karin, in her waking moments, verbally dictated her and Maka's past history as well as she could but there were still holes. They had spent many, many years together, but Maka had gone off on her own for decades, and Karin could not promise she was always where she'd said she was.

('Kids these days,' she had said with a watery, determined smile. 'And those days too. But I guess you'll see that for yourselves soon enough . . .')

It was terrible of him, but Rei could have wished for Maka to be just a little bit stronger. Toki had quietly told him about what he'd seen of her Code:End but having no blessed idea where she was from 1945-52, 1966-72, and 1985-1997 was going to make things difficult for them.

This, along with the natural disasters of those ages. Sakura had spent the last three days cramming world history and major pressure points that would make it safer to traverse those years. She was relying on him to know Eden's measures, which Heike shared with him alone.

('You will protect her, Ogami,' he chastised him. 'Let her deal with the everyday history of non-power users. You must know the darkest methods Eden possesses, so you can keep the both of you off of our radar.')

Perhaps it wasn't an impossible dream to visit Siberia again, Rei thought, with no little fondness. No one went there, and it wasn't like he couldn't keep Sakura quite warm in the tundra. It would be quiet and still and the amount of people per mile was ludicrously small—they'd have time to be alone together, time to talk and to learn each other and to—

Well. He knew what he wanted time alone with her for. And from the look she'd given him right before the fire alarm went off, she did too.

Yuuki stood, interrupting Sakura and drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "Guys, one more time. This isn't going to work."

"Yuuki, give it up already. Time travel is a thing now," Toki said, looking down at his phone and texting rapidly.

Yuuki looked frustrated, which was an odd look on him. "Ok, I will grant you that clearly time travel has to in fact exist as we have undisputed proof of it in the room. Here's my question: what are you going to do when they inevitably die?"

Shibuya stopped trying to talk Sakura into joining a nunnery. Kouji stopped making eyes at Rui. Zed stopped discreetly fondling Sakurako. Toki went so far as to glance up from his phone.

Even Rei started paying full attention, rather than reflect on the exact shade of Sakura's nipples.

Shibuya cocked his head at Yuuki. "Come again?"

Heike smirked and waved away his concerns. "Yuuki-kun, Rei's power level is such that I have no concerns about him living as long as I have. Without aging, even! And of course Sakura will figure out a way to do the same, if she hasn't already. I have full confidence that we will see them again. And if all goes well, it could be as soon as the next day, depending if they make their way back to Japan in time."

Yuuki sighed deeply. "And I can't because I know there's a massive problem with that reasoning: two genetically identical beings cannot exist concurrently. When time traveling, you cannot exist at the same time as yourself. There can only be one entity that houses you. Do you see what I mean?"

"Yesssss," Sakura said slowly. "But I don't see the massive problem?"

Yuuki turned to her and took her hands. Rei thought about smacking the backside of his head, but as it was more earnest than amorous, he let it go. "Nyanmaru, think about it. You and Ogami will go back and time and that will be fine, as there won't be a younger version of yourself to displace. They've already been displaced, because you're traveling at exactly the same time. And, assuming you use your power to persist through the century, that'll be ok too. But when you hit the point at which your five-year old selves originally landed—whatever month it was in the year 2000—one of two things will have to happen, because there will already be a version of you in the current time.

"You can't displace them," he stressed. "Because then you would unravel the chain of events that led to the displacement. So option number one is, and I have to admit it's the statistical outlier: you might shoot forward to the next point at which you time travelled. That would, as Heike said, bring you right back to the current minute, but we can't specify location. You could be halfway around the world, or it might drop you right back into the room from which you left. There are a lot of factors I can't isolate, largely as the chances of that happening are practically nonexistent."

"Or?" Rei asked, already seeing where this was going and not liking any of it.

Yuuki dropped Sakura's hands and faced him. "Or you're winked out of existence, because you can't coexist with your earlier selves."

"Ah," Shibuya said. "No. Let's . . . not do that."

Sakura looked back at him, so strong and sure. Rei felt his body move to hers before he mindfully decided to. It was inevitable, them standing together against whatever might come. Because the choice was this: one hundred years of hiding and knowing the exact day of their deaths, or living apart in fear of sparking a negation deadly enough to re-open Pandora's Box. Because negation would happen—and was part of the reason Ai and Mishiru were still quarantined—but it was manageable. Particularly if they didn't engage in the type of sex Ai and Mishiru were having and eschewed warfare of all kinds. Then it could absolutely be manageable.

But they weren't the type of people to hide away from the world or each other, and Ogami did not think he could justify such a life for himself. The cross hung heavy on his back even now. But if he told himself that this was his duty, to protect Sakura throughout the century and maybe, just maybe, find a way for rare kinds and power users to live together, he thought that could offset the weight of his sins.
Toki sighed and stood. "Ok, not to be a downer, but our options are pretty limited. We've seen the nonsense these crazy boxes can get up to when left alone for a bajillion years. What's to say Pandora's Box won't reopen when we're all old and fat and complacent, and the next generation is completely blindsided? Besides," he continued, grimacing at Rei. "We aren't actually immortal. Some of you fuckers may seem like it sometimes," he gestured at Shibuya, Kouji, and the hospital bed upon which Karin reclined in one shot, "but we kind of aren't. They could die from anything, in any way. Not that I want them to, but the possibility is out there. They're not safe, even if they stay in the current time. None of us are."

It was a little meandering, but Rei got the point. Toki was thinking this through logically and agreed with him, even if Yuuki and Shibuya were naturally opposed. Rui and Kouji were whispering fiercely, Sakurako was hugging Sakura, Zed had a hand on Shibuya's shoulder, lending support. Sakura's eyes met his from over her mother's shoulder. Her gaze was steady and true and unswayed. They would do this. They would go into the past and close that box, even if it meant they would know the very hour of their demise.

They would go into the past and have what any person in love could ask for: a lifetime together.

"We could leave journals," Rei said. "In a safe location. Maybe one of Shibuya's lockers? Locked with my power? But we'd . . . leave some evidence of our lives. Whatever we live through. You'll know."

"What happiness we make," Sakura said quietly, her eyes brimming with emotion.

Yuuki made a sound like a dying balloon. "Guys, that is definitely not going to work. It's like none of you have the slightest clue of how the space-time continuum works!"

Rei didn't, nor did he care. He was spared from entering that conversation by Rui throwing her arms around Sakura, pulling her away from her mother.

"Kouji and I will be married a year from now," she announced. "We'll make it a year and a day from the day you two leave. That way you'll have enough time to get back for the ceremony. You know, in case you get dropped off in Alaska or something. Without passports. Oh I don't know, but this is your formal invitation. Be there, or you'll never see me in a wedding dress for as long as you both shall live."

From behind her Kouji muttered something about her already working on the vows. As Sakura promised their attendance, Rei locked eyes with Shibuya and nodded. "Let's see this done."

And it was so.

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…

Two weeks later it was time. Sakura felt as ready as she could be. Every conceivable preparation had been made: from period-perfect clothing and currency and weapons; to in-depth knowledge about everything that occurred in that time (both normal history and of the power users); to medical vaccinations, herbal and rare kind blood infused work arounds; to a subtle shift in accent that oddly enough, Sakura found far easier to emulate than Rei. Toki teased him that maybe he'd given up his sense of hearing as well as the other smell and taste. For her, she felt unaccountably good about knowing she'd have to take the lead on social interactions until his accent had settled. Seeing as how he was not so discreetly keeping everything Eden related from her, she thought it was as close a trade off to equality as she would currently get.

Give her a few years or a thousand kisses—whichever came first—and maybe she'd get him to come round on his secrecy.

She had the time and the inclination, regardless.

To ensure safety and that the wrong people weren't shunted back into the past, they'd split into two groups: Sakura and Rei underneath the modified Shibuya Mansion, and Ai and Mishiru on the other side of Japan. There had been talk of them leaving the country altogether, but as the last ditch option was Rei and Ai fighting (if he and Sakura could not open the box and jump start the negation on their own) they'd had to hold him in reserve. And as Mishiru would not be separated from the father of her child, they had been deposited in a safehouse at the edge of too far and not far enough for Yuuki to race in and grab him.

Just in case of further emergencies, however, the power users as a whole had been split into two major groups, with Karin (still recuperating in Eden) and Yukihina being the two sitting out on the sidelines, just in case. With Ai and Mishiru were Kouji, Heike, and Zed, and she and Rei had made their goodbyes the night before. With them now were her adoptive parents, Rui, Toki, Yuuki, Shibuya and Sakurako, the ones who loved her and Rei best and would miss them the most if . . . if Yuuki was right and they would never see them again.

(That Yuuki had given her a five minute long hug several nights ago attested to his continued belief in this. Especially as he hadn't even tried to cop a feel, and then proceeded to hug Rei for almost twice as long before Rei inevitably got uncomfortable and tried to set him on fire.)

Rui had wept and blushed and smacked them all quite hard at least once a day for the last few days, on and off, whenever she saw them and remembered they were leaving. But now she was stony-faced and calm, ready to protect in case anything went wrong. She and Toki had been the last line of defense the last time negation loomed, and she was taking her protective role seriously. She and Rei fist bumped, and Sakura snatched a quick hug, but that was all.

Yuuki was still muttering about impossibilities, but hugged her again. Over his shoulder she watched as Rei and Toki made their goodbyes. From a distance she couldn't quite hear what they were saying, but from the jut of Toki's hip and the smirk on Rei's lips it was posturing, largely insulting, and completely par for the course.

Rei would miss him quite a bit. Clearly, they needed a cat to partially fill the void. Just as clearly, they needed to name it Toki.

Speaking of cats . . . there was one other thing that would be coming back with them. Standing with her adoptive parents and Sakurako was Shibuya, and with him was Puppy. He squirmed in Shibuya's grip until settling in her own.

"We wanted to make sure that you had some kind of supervision," Shibuya said, eyes brimming with tears. He tugged his wide-brimmed hat down over them, but Sakura hugged him anyway. Then she turned her attention to Sakurako and her adoptive parents and hugged them quite firmly as well.

"Please take care of each other," she murmured, as her other mother cried and her other father held them both too tightly. Sakurako's eyes were dry but her clutch was equally concerning."Rei and I will be fine, but please look after—after Takehiro and Sakurako as well. They are a little odd but very good people, and I love all of you very much."

Her adoptive father smiled wryly. "Odd is one word for it, yeah. But we will. Don't worry. We're all a family, and Sakurakoujis take care of their own."

With that, he freed an arm so he could extend his hand to Shibuya. His fingers were spread apart in an invitation to undertake the classic Sakurakouji family promise. After a moment of hesitation, Shibuya took his hand, fingers tightly together. Sakurako was already holding Sakura's other mother's hand, and like that, her parents had come together and she had no real worries left for leaving this time.

There was only one thing left to do, and this was the moment to do it. She broke free of her quadrangle of parents' grips and strode purposefully in Rei's direction. He felt her coming and met her halfway. She stepped close and murmured, "Are you sure about this? This is what you want to do?"

He looked confused. "Sakura, there is no other choice. We have to do this. We have to close the box and we can't possibly send Mishiru back in time when she's four months pregnant."

"But if there were a choice? Would you still choose this?" She stressed, hoping he'd catch her meaning without further elucidation.

Miraculously he did. After a moment his face cleared. He leaned down and matched her quiet tone, "Since I met you for the second time, Sakura, I always have and always will choose you. No matter the time or the place or the catastrophe."

Love arced through her, and she exhaled shakily. So far, so good. Now all she had to do was muster her courage—

"Then . . .if that's the case—" She sank down to a knee and looked up at him. He frowned down at her and she realized she wasn't doing it quite right. Possibly due to her heart beating wildly in her throat and ears. That couldn't be possible, but it certainly felt like it.

She took his hand and cleared her throat. It took her two tries. She was very likely blushing. Her mind could not settle and she was trembling. But she had to do this now, in sight of everyone, otherwise she would regret it for years and years to come. "Ogami Rei, will you do me the honor of —may I have your—" With her frustration came a moment of coherency. "Oh hell, will you marry me?"

Her father squeaked and then whimpered. Her mother may have punched him into silence, she wasn't quite sure. Rei stared down at her with his noh mask firmly in place. Everyone else in the basement was also staring, albeit with a wide variety of expressions. She could see Toki's and Rui's from out of the corner of her eye. Neither were helpful (or all that unexpected) so she focused every ounce of her attention on Rei, who was still blank faced.

Oh Lord, she hadn't broken him, had she?

"Rei?" She prompted in a whisper. "Did I break you?"

(It was better to be blunt about such things. Otherwise she'd never learn anything at all.)

Rather than answering, he dropped to his knees. That left her one more moment to panic before he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

It was a long kiss. It was a thorough kiss. It was a kiss that had her half in his lap by the time it finished, and had either her father or Puppy growling somewhere in the background but she could not care because this was the kiss to end all kisses, and she could not think when his mouth was on hers. And then, just when she thought she could take no more whilst fully clothed (and with an audience,) he pulled back and said, "I was going to ask."

"Ask what?" She asked, love-drunk and befuddled.

"For you to marry me," he said, sounding breathless and a little amused.

"Oh." She considered this, but not with the same amount of interest as she did his mouth. "Does that mean you're saying yes?"

His lips curved in a tiny, private smile. "Yes, Sakura. It means I'll marry you."

"Oh, good," she breathed, before leaning back in. She would have kissed him again, too, if not for the sudden spray of water directly over their heads.

Yuuki stood next to them, looking unapologetic. He held out a water bottle, droplets still clinging to the rim. "Uh, sorry guys. I'm all for watching, but Sakura's four parents are getting a bit wanna kill you deadsies. Sixth, maybe you should be concerned."

"I'm not!" Sakurako called out. "Don't stop on my account!" But a swift glance proved to Sakura that her other three parents were looking a bit murderous. Even her other mother, who was fairly open-minded about that whole thing but had only met Rei once, and so she didn't really have a good grasp of his redeemed character.

Sighing, she untangled herself from his embrace. Time to do the proper thing, she decided, and taking his hand, pulled him over to her parents and introduced him formally as their new son-in-law.

"You didn't actually have a ceremony," Toki pointed out as he slung an arm over Rei and then just hung there, like a monkey.

"Close enough!" She said cheerfully.

Rei just glared at him, but she figured that was assent. Actually, now that she thought about it . . .

"But it is a little strange," she said, thinking out loud. "You all are certified to do just about everything else. Drive planes and cars and boats; identification to get into just about all forms of government classifications . . ."

"Actually I'm a licensed minister," Yuuki shared, popping up between them.

"You're what?" Toki said, aghast.

"Yep. 3 years now."

"Why on earth would you do that?"

"I was bored. Ok, so, who wants to get married, then?"

Rei gave him a look. "Who do you think, Yuuki?"

Yuuki looked supremely unconcerned. "Maybe it's not the sassmaster over here, I dunno. What do you think, Ruirui?"

Rui looked an uncomfortable mix between smacking them all upside the head and bursting into tears again. "I think I'm going to be the witness," she said firmly.

Sakura saw the way the wind was blowing. She turned and took Rei's hands and, in front of all her parents and about half their friends said, "I, Sakura Sakurakouji, take thee to be my husband. I forget the rest, but we can have a do-over when my father isn't trying to kill you with his brain."

Yuuki nodded. "Good enough. Your vow, Sixth?"

He gripped her hands tightly before saying, "I take thee for my lawful wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part."

Sakurako looked impressed. Shibuya did not. Her other parents she could not see because her eyes were getting misty, and she was trying very hard not to kiss him again.

Toki grinned. "Someone's had some time to practice his vows, I see. Hey, Yuuki, I think our advice got through to him."

"You didn't say your name," Sakura pointed out.

"I'm not getting married under the name Eden gave me."

"So then use your first name," she pointed out.

"I'll tell you when we're in the past," he said, not looking away from hers. His gaze was ardent. Earnest. It made her want to throw herself at him again but Yuuki still had to finish the impromptu ceremony.

"I now pronounce you Sixth and Nyanmaru. I mean, man and wife," Yuuki finished, deadpan. "You may now kiss the hell out of each other."

They proceeded to do so, because clearly Rei had gotten over his shyness. This was wonderful, even when Sakurakouji's cell rang. Her response was helpful in that her response revealed it was clearly Zed that was calling.

"Not now, babe! My daughter's getting married! I'll call you back in five."

When it was over, Shibuya rubbed his temples. "Let's get this show on the road," he said. "Otherwise I'm going to murder my new son-in-law."

"Yes, Father," she said dutifully, because her blood was still thrumming in her veins and the sooner they went back to the past, the sooner they could have their wedding night.

…

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…

For all their worries about the ritual itself, it went more smoothly than they could have imagined. Sakura looked over at Rei, he looked back at her. They breathed in unison, and then sliced a small cut on the pads of their thumbs. While everyone else hunkered down in various corners of the basement, they reached for each other and clasped hands. Their blood mixed, their intent united, and with a glorious flash of light and energy, Pandora's Box was reopened.

Negation loomed, throwing them into violent relief as the shadow loomed all around them—

Rei yelled something, but Sakura simply held on tighter—

A second pulse of energy, as Sakura closed her eyes and thought we will go home—

And then it was all over.

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…

Sakurako Sakurakouji blinked her eyes, trying to make sense of it. Although she had expected nothing less, it took her a minute to take it all in. Rei and Sakura were gone, the energy spent as if it had never been, the basement dim in the absence of the strange light. All signs of negation were undone. Pandora's Box was closed. It had worked.

So why did she feel like crying, then?

Oh, right. Because her only child was gone, and likely gone forever. And even though she had given her up once before, it hurt almost as much as the first time.

Takehiro walked up to her, slowly, giving her a chance to assert her need for distance if she wanted. She did not. This was their baby that they had made together, that she had betrayed to Eden. And now that same baby was fixing all their mistakes? She truly was Takehiro's daughter, and even if they weren't together and had not been for a long time, she wanted for just one moment to remember that closeness.

She turned and embraced him. For a moment, it was silent, save for her cousin and his wife's sniffling. Then, her phone rang.

She answered it without letting go of Takehiro. "Yes?"

It was Zed, because of course it was. "Is it five minutes later, now?"

Oh, bless him. He always knew when she needed most to hear his voice. "Yeah. Are Mishiru and Ai ok?"

"Yesssssss," he said, sounding confused. "But Ai is hungry. He keeps complaining. Can I feed him before Heike ties him up and does unspeakable things to him? Apparently he's into that sort of thing but I don't think Mishiru wants to share."

"Feed him, yeah," she said.

He fell quiet for a moment. Takehiro may have been crying. She couldn't quite tell, but his arms were shaking, and this was not the usual effect of hugging her.

"So, did it work then?" Zed asked, his voice gentle.

"Yep," she said. "It worked. They're gone."

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...

In none of my outlines did I ever have Sakura or Ogami proposing to each other. Nor were they ever going to be married to each other. And yet here it is! How mysterious. QUÉ MYSTERIOSO.

One chapter left. It's going to be finished and I hardly know what to do with myself. Go, me, go.

Last chapter: In which there is a wedding and a pleasant surprise, indeed.