Bet you thought this story was over. Well, me too! But instead I kept on overthinking and overdeveloping this AU and what you see here is the result. This chapter, and a few more to follow, are sort of an interquel made up of ideas I couldn't quite fit into the original finished Static Sky anywhere, but ended up fleshing out in my mind anyway long after I finished and posted the story. This chapter takes place directly after the ending of Static Sky, but the others will probably take place in alternate timelines, and/or could be seen as standalone oneshots.
Some warnings: this chapter contains suicidal ideations, destructively co-dependant relationships and references to symptoms or severe depression. If any of that triggers you...maybe skip this chapter. The upcoming one is far more light-hearted, I swear.
"Say, Nanako, what ever happened with that boy that was picking on you?", Yuko enquired when the Dojimas, plus Yuko and Adachi, were gathered around the kotatsu one evening. "What was his name? Tanuki?"
Nanako giggled. "Takumi-kun?" Her smile quickly turned to a frown. "He's still being mean. Not as often now, though."
"Nanako, are you being bullied at school?" Dojima instantly became stern. "Do I need to have a word with his parents? What's the school doing about this?"
Seeing Nanako's mortified expression at the idea of her father making things worse, Yuko jumped in to help. "Oh, it's nothing that bad. Nothing us girls can't handle!" She turned back to Nanako. "But if you want Big Sis to have a few words with him…"
"It's okay. I'll deal with him how you taught me!"
"Now I'm even more worried…" Dojima muttered to himself.
"To be honest," Yuko continued, "I think he just has a little crush on you."
"That's what my teacher said! But I don't get it- if he wants to be friends, why doesn't he just be nice to me? Then she said that boys and girls speak different languages and I didn't get that either…"
"Oh, well, that's simple. Watch this. Hey, Adachi-san? What are your thoughts on marriage?"
"It's an outdated institution built on making money out of people gullible enough to tie themselves down to one person for the rest of their life just for the chance to throw their life savings away on one day of having everyone looking at them," he said in a rehearsed monotone. "But more than that…" he sighed, "marriage is where fun goes to die."
Yuko turned back to Nanako brightly. "See, that's man-speak for 'I'm awkward and can't talk to women'"
Dojima laughed out loud, "Heh, she's got you figured out."
Adachi ignored him and jabbed him chopsticks in Yukos direction. "Hey, I can talk to YOU just fine."
"Yeah, and I think you're a dork, so where's that got you?"
"Now you sound just like Takumi-kun…" Nanako mumbled to herself. The inspiration struck her, and she gasped, "Big Sis, does that mean you like Adachi-san?" Nanakos expression quickly switched from 'eureka' to 'oops' when she realised her faux-pas.
Yuko flushed bright red while Adachi turned smug all of a sudden. "Yeah, Yuko, what does that mean? C'mon, speak up."
"Hah!" Dojima barked, saving Yuko from her embarrassment. "If you ever land a girl like Yuko, I'll give you a million yen! And Yuko-" he turned to his niece, "If you end up with a guy like Adachi…well, God help you."
Come to think of it, Dojima never did pay up.
They were sat opposite one another at a kotatsu drinking their morning coffee in the tiny apartment they rented together near Tatsumi Port Island. Adachi, nearing forty, had finally got the transfer to the city he'd always wanted (although his rank in the force remained stagnant), while Yuko, now in her late twenties, supervised as a teaching assistant at a primary school (a small step up from a summer job she had taken during her stay in Inaba all those years ago). Living costs in the area were expensive, and their living conditions were far from luxurious, but with their combined income they just scraped by. The apartment was modest and spartan, with tatami flooring and a single bedroom. The furniture was cheap and mismatching, with a few surfaces adorned with cute ornaments Yuko had picked out, mostly cat-themed; porcelain cats of varying sizes, cat plushies, the odd maneki-neko, and a wind chime in the shape of a curled-up cat hanging from the curtain beam. They had a small windowsill garden, where Yuko cultivated tomatoes- off-cuts of the ones Nanako still grew back at the Dojimas garden in Inaba. There was no TV. Everything was online streaming services now, anyways.
Since Adachi rarely had weekends off, it was rare they shared a full day off together, and this was the first weekend they'd shared, sipping coffee in the morning with no rush to be anywhere, in forever. They'd elected to spend their two free days together doing absolutely nothing, like all the best weekends.
"Hey," he broached, casually, "you ever think about, y'know, just getting married?"
Yuko froze, her mug to her lips, and gently set it down to look at him for a long time, trying to work out if he was joking. "Where's this coming from? I thought you hated the idea of marriage."
"Well, I mean…it's a financial thing, right? I could die out there, y'know. Or you could get stabbed by a six-year-old running with scissors or something. If anything happened to one of us, the other would be left with nothing."
"Uh, we don't have anything to leave each other."
"That's not the point! One of us could win the lottery or something."
"We don't play the lottery."
"Still not the point."
She smiled a little. "If you want to get married, you can just say it. You know I don't mind either way."
"Well, if you're not interested…"
"I never said that. I just mean… You don't have to do it just to keep me around, you know I'm not going anywhere."
He realised he'd been talking into his coffee for the last few minutes, and had to look up at her because no, he didn't know that. Somehow every day with her felt like borrowed time, like she might just dissipate into fog and float away at any moment. Right now, she was looking at him the way she sometimes still did, the way she used to look at him ten years ago, with a shy smile and a faint tint of red on her cheeks. She looked at him like there was nowhere else she'd rather be than here with him, and he still couldn't understand why.
"Say, Yuko…" he spoke, realising he must have been staring. "Do you ever…" He reached across the kotatsu and took her hands in his, suddenly needing to be reassured that she was really there, "…regret anything?"
"No." She answered without hesitation. She knew what he was referring to. But they'd never spoken about it again. Not since their little rendezvous in the TV that one time. Somehow, once it was all out there, none of it mattered any more- not the murders, not the TV world, not even their weird pseudo-memories from other lifetimes. They'd silently resolved to move on, and move on they had. It was almost chilling how easily they'd put it all behind them and lived a normal life. "Do you?"
"Do you really have to ask that question?"
"I mean…you know what I mean. I mean, do you regret…us? Just moving on with our lives like nothing happened?"
He didn't have a straight answer for that. It was easy for her- she only had to live with knowing what he did, not having actually done it. He'd thought about turning himself in- but who would believe him? How could he possibly explain how he killed two people by putting them inside a TV screen? They might not even lock him up. They might let him off on grounds of insanity. Then he'd be left with no job, and probably be forced to waste his time and money on all sorts of therapy and medication. He'd never find a decent-paying job again, and on Yuko's salary alone, they'd never be able to afford to live. Or maybe he would be locked up, leaving Yuko all alone. It'd be easier to just finish what he tried to do ten years ago, when he stepped into the TV with no intention of coming back. Maybe that world wouldn't be so forgiving this time. Maybe this time it'd chew him up and spit him out on a TV antenna, just like it did the others, just like he deserved. But then he'd think of Yuko, following him. Maybe she'd bring him back again, or maybe she'd fail, and they'd both wind up hanging from an antenna a few days later. Even if he didn't use the TV- even if he tried a more…organic method, he had a feeling she might try to follow him anyway. He knew she'd be better off without him, but she'd never see it that way.
Instead, his answer was to circle the table to sit beside Yuko and pull her into his lap, holding her close. "I wouldn't trade the past ten years for the world." The perfect answer. It wasn't a yes, wasn't a no, but it was true.
Wanting to press him for a real answer but unsure of whether she wanted to hear it, Yuko stayed silent and opted instead to kiss him deeply, which he responded to eagerly. Sliding an arm under her knees, he stood and carried her bridal-style through to their bed- the king-size western-style bed that was the only piece of 'nice' furniture they owned in their shabby apartment. Between their active sex life and the fact that Adachi would usually simply stay in bed all day on his days off when Yuko wasn't there, it got more use than anything else in the apartment.
They undressed each other slowly and reverently, and as Yuko slid her hands up his body, dragging the hem of his t-shirt over his head, she noted that she could feel his ribs- he'd lost weight again. She swore to cook more often, even when she got home late. He always ate her cooking. She didn't trust him when he said he'd already eaten.
She pushed him to the side, flipping them over so she was on top, and they made love as though she were trying to transfer all of her warmth and passion to him, through her sex, her lips, her teeth, her touch- at least enough to keep him alive.
They both drifted off to sleep in their post-coital bliss, and Yuko found herself in a familiar setting. Red tiles forming a path through an endless sea of fog…and a hazy figure stood in her path. She'd had this dream before, ten, almost eleven years ago, on her first night in Inaba. Although "dream" didn't feel like quite the right word. The name "Izanami" floated into her mind, and the final drop filled the chalice of memories in her mind, all of the pieces finally falling into place. A woman in a white cloak, a red skeletal figure, the image of her friends- or rather, Yu's friends- getting dragged into the ground one by one… Right now, the hazy figure was taking the form of a pale woman with silver hair, her form now defined against the fog.
"Hello again," she said to the woman casually.
"Why?" Izanami cut through her casual greeting. "Why do you choose to live like this?"
"Uuuhh..." Yuko frowned, slightly offended. "We, uh, we don't make a lot of money. This place is really the best we can afford-"
Izanami sighed. "No. I am asking why you chose the path you did. You didn't avert your eyes from the truth- nor did you try to expose it. And it would seem that you have no intention of doing either. I have watched you, and waited, for a decade- the blink of an eye, yet a significant portion of a mortal life- and yet still you show no signs of wavering."
Yuko made a face. "You were watching…?"
"Are you content with this turn of events? Is this your truth? To conceal it, and carry this burden with you for the rest of your days?"
"Is that why the fog never took over the real world? Because you were just hanging around, waiting for us to do something? You had your little experiment, right? Give some humans the ability to wander into a proxy for the collective unconscious, show the world a glimpse of what's in their hearts, then sit back and see what happens? Well, not much happened. Not this time. A couple people died, the case went unsolved, and the world moved on. Sorry if you're disappointed."
Izanami was looking at her strangely. "This time…?"
"Are you responsible for the multiple timeline stuff, too? Did you make me, and put me here, after Yu wished for a better ending?"
The goddess stayed silent for the longest time. "Whatever are you talking about, child?"
Now Yuko was confused. She had assumed that whatever higher being had caused the fog was the same one that brought her into being. This would require some thought. Izanami, however, had already moved on from the conundrum.
"You…" She picked over her words slowly, as if in pain, no longer looking directly at Yuko. "You…have seen someone's darker nature. Their ugly side. And yet you accept it. You do not run or fight it…you forgive, and move forward together." The goddess looks much smaller, all of a sudden. Not in stature, just in…presence. Less ethereal, almost like a normal human being.
"Yeah," Yuko shrugged, uncertain of what else she could say. It's a long story, after all, and one Izanami has apparently been watching start to finish. There was little left to explain.
"Tell me, my child. Are you…happy?"
Yuko swallowed. She took in a deep breath, closed her eyes, and let it out slowly. "I wouldn't trade these past ten years for the world."
When she opened her eyes, Izanami was smiling faintly, with a hint of sadness. "I see now that some humans can be…truly unpredictable."
"But if-" Yuko blurted out, "If you gave us this power…the TV thing…then you can take it away, too, right?"
"Are you afraid I'm going to?"
"No. I want you to." She looked down, trying to blink away tears. "Please. Tohru is…broken. And I'm not enough to fix him. If he goes back into that world alone…and I don't get to him in time…" Her words were cut off by a strange sudden sensation in her mind, like glass breaking, or a cord snapping.
"It is done."
She didn't have time to react- before Yuko could even look up, she was awoken by a jolt beside her in bed. It must've been the middle of the day now, as the deceptively cold winter sunlight was streaming in almost undeterred by the cheap, thin curtains, making it easy to see the source of the disturbance. Adachi was curled up with his back to her, clutching his head. She could see his shoulders shaking and hear his breathing hitch, and she knew the nightmares had come for him again. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled herself against his back, and felt him go still.
"Yuko? You awake?", he whispered. She mumbled incoherently in response, hoping to pass off the action as unconscious sleep-cuddling. She knew he hated her seeing him like this. He either fell for it or simply appreciated the gesture, because she felt him relax and cover her hands with his.
It was times like this when Yuko would ask herself the real questions, the ones she didn't want to answer, but couldn't help herself. She had no regrets- that wasn't a lie. There was nothing she would have done differently, given the chance. But seeing him, the way he was now...there was no way this was right. She wondered if it was actually kinder to bring him to justice, the way Yu and his friends did, than protect him. Letting him develop a conscience and remorse for what he'd done had only made him punish himself worse than the law ever could.
Still…
They were here. They were together. And despite everything, she was grateful. She knew it was selfish. She knew this wasn't the ending Yu had wished for. Part of her hoped this whole reality was nothing more than a stepping stone on the way to a happier world…but if that happier world were to wipe away the present that they'd struggled so hard to live for…she wasn't sure she could allow that to happen.
Not for the world.