ONESHOT: Hikari and Itachi, Vaporshipping
In which a cycle of reincarnation occurs. Includes Naruto, Bleach, Fairy Tail, Fullmetal Alchemist, Percy Jackson, and Pokémon, none of which I own.
-O-O-O-O-
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING ONESHOT IS EXTREMELY LONG. READ AT THE RISK OF YOUR TIME.
-O-O-O-O-
(Naruto)
-O-O-O-O-
When she dies, Hikari suddenly thinks of Itachi.
She's not sure why; their deaths couldn't have been more different. One was killed by his brother. The other, taken by time. But she thinks of him, and has an abrupt revelation:
Death is cold.
He must have been cold, she thinks, vision darkening. I hope he's warm now.
-O-O-O-O-
(Bleach)
-O-O-O-O-
She awakens in the body of a child.
It's startling, because she isn't supposed to be alive. Isn't supposed to be tan, Isn't supposed to have black hair and green eyes, Isn't supposed to be. She's confused and alarmed by this new life, because if it is a new life, why does she still have her memories?
But the kunoichi in her takes over. Compartmentalize. Adapt. Survive. So she does. She adapts to this new world, this world of shinigami (immortal but not; spirits, souls) and zanpakutos (swords with spirits, of all things) and—
Reiatsu.
Reiatsu is strange. Spirit energy, a gauge of one's spiritual strength, used to power kidos and zanpakuto attacks. This world's equivalent of chakra, but also not at the same time. Because while chakra flowed (flows, she corrects herself) through a system, with several gates and tenketsu to adjust the flow, reiatsu just… is. It's just there, in her body, waiting to be used.
So she uses it. Well, she tries to use it, but it doesn't want to be used, so she somehow manages to sign up for the Shinigami Academy (while bemoaning the fact that she has to attend yet another academy) to learn how to use it. And, of course, to keep her track record of academies straight, she graduates early, at the top of her class.
Flash forward two hundred years and she's the fifth seat of the Fifth Division, the Kido-centric division of the Gotei 13. Kidos are familiar. Comforting. Their incantations are strangely reminiscent of the passwords Konoha used (uses), and they are a bit like jutsus and sealing. The duties of the division are close to her specialization as a kunoichi. It is as close as she can get to home.
So she lives like this, taking missions, training, remembering her life back in Konoha. She does the same exercises she always did as a kunoichi, takes them, and combines them with the style of a shinigami. She resigns herself to her new life, gradually opening herself up to her coworkers and acquaintances, slowly building her way to friendship again (even though she's scared she'll lose them like she lost Naruto and Sasuke and everyone else).
And the funniest thing is that her zanpakuto is based on water, like her chakra nature was.
She doesn't look for anyone else from Konoha, from Before. Doesn't even entertain the chance. There's no way that someone else slipped through like her.
Which is why she collapses on her knees from shock when she meets him.
Itachi.
-O-O-O-O-
It is not his face. But neither is her own.
He is a healthy peach, unlike the deathly pallor from Before. His eyes are purple, angled, and his hair is blonde. She notes that he's kept the ponytail from Before. His nose has the slightest tilt, his mouth small, and she is upset that even after coming into this second life and gaining a completely different appearance, he is still gorgeous.
But it isn't this that identifies him as Itachi to her. It is his demeanor, the soft steel behind his voice, the way he holds himself. It is how his lips allow the slightest curve as he smiles at her.
"I'm Miko," she introduces herself, holding her hand out after standing up.
"Satoshi," he replies. His grip on her hand tightens, squeezes in standard Konoha Morse code: I-am-here. "But I think you know me by another name, Hikari."
And she drops everything to throw her arms around him, because it doesn't matter what his history is; he's from home.
He hugs her back, tightly, and pulls away. "I have to patrol."
"Eleventh Division?" she asks, not very surprised (because it's just so him, peaceful and pacifist yet strong and ruthless). He affirms with a nod.
"I'm fifth seat in the Fifth Division under Aizen-taicho," she offers. Then, she hesitates. "Itachi…" Her head is spinning from the revelation that she is not alone, her emotions are churning, and her things are all over the floor. "Can we meet later?"
He pauses. Brushes a hand over her cheek as if checking that she is real. "Of course. We can… spar."
He completely schools her, of course, even with her water zanpakuto's advantage over his fire zanpakuto. But it's okay, because his movements are familiar (step-sweep-slash) and it's training.
So they spend as much time as they can together, bound by Before. They are each others' links to the past, constants in this cycle of reincarnation. It is during this time together that the topic of the Others comes up. "Do you think anyone else followed us here?" she asks, hoping against hope.
He stops. Levels his eyes at her. "No, I don't think so," he says softly. She drops her eyes, hugging herself. Then, she smiles.
"At least we have each other."
-O-O-O-O-
The betrayal of her captain during the fuss about Kuchiki Rukia catches her off guard.
Aizen? A traitor? Impossible.
But it happened. It happened, so she trains to the point of exhaustion, Itachi alongside with her. She prepares for when the clash between Aizen and Soul Society will occur, and when it comes in the form of the fake Karakura Town, she and Itachi are ready.
They slice their way through the arrancar, forging a path for the rest and working in tandem. Where she falters, he steadies, and where he misses, she hits. When she is thrown back by an arrancar, Itachi is there, forming a launch pad with his hands, and she rebounds off of his hands back at the arrancar. When he is pushed back, Hikari uses a kido to reinforce his legs. They are effective. Efficient.
They are shinobi once more.
Which is why it doesn't make sense when she finds she can't move out of the way of an incoming sword. Doesn't make sense when Itachi runs full tilt into her, slamming her out of the way and getting speared instead. Doesn't make sense when he grimaces and finishes the arrancar off, only to fall to the ground himself.
She is scrabbling, crying for a Fourth Division medic, attempting to comprehend what is happening because it can't be happening. But it is.
She's going to be alone again.
He catches her hands, which are pressed to the wound in his chest. His eyes meet hers. "See you in our next lives."
And she is alone.
-O-O-O-O-
Her death is quiet, like her first. Heavy injuries from the battle against Aizen, the medics say. She could have healed from them, instead of suffering for these past few months. If only she hadn't given up hope…
They're wrong. She dies because she hopes. She hopes to find him and banish the solitude.
But she's past caring. She can feel her soul ascending, traveling across universes until it stops at the right one. The one with him.
So Miko, fifth seated officer of the Fifth Division, dies with a smile on her face.
-O-O-O-O-
(Fairy Tail)
-O-O-O-O-
She is born Elaina Forester, and she is a mage.
This time, she does not panic. She is calm, rational, and tactical. She creates a plan.
First, she assimilates. Learns what she needs to about this world. Magic is everything. Magic is power. She researches the guilds in Fiore, takes note of which one he is likely to join. The land here is large, and it is unlikely that she'll find him immediately, but that doesn't mean she can't narrow down where she'll search (because this is Itachi, of course he would be a mage).
Second, she trains. She trains for over a decade with her magic, force and pressure magic, while laughing at the fact that the universe didn't give her rune magic, the equivalent of this world's seals.
Finally, she searches. Sets out an actual journey with her magic, a bag that holds the essentials, and her resourcefulness. She takes the odd job requests to pay for things, and her reputation as a force mage grows.
Of course I get a reputation. Can't run away from that.
It takes too long to find him. Sure, in their past lives, she waited two hundred years. But last life, she didn't know he was there too. She wasn't looking for him in her last life.
Then, one day, she walks into the shopping district of the guild Fairy Tail. And there she finds him, lounging at the bar with a glass of something that looks like a fruit smoothie in his hand with casual grace, drop-dead gorgeous as usual.
"Itachi," she says, all doubts of what if I came here alone this time fleeing from her mind. They are younger than they were last time when they found each other, and they look completely different again, but it doesn't matter because she'd recognize him no matter what.
He turns, looks her in the eye. Stands up, walks until they are close enough to touch. His hand brushes her cheek again, like it did a lifetime ago. His thumb caresses the beauty mark under her eye. "That's new," he murmurs. She smirks.
"I'd think that we're used to new by now." Because they are, after two lives of completely different worlds and appearances.
She joins the guild. Of course she does, because he's a part of it. Her guild mark is on her left shoulder, black, like his, a secret homage to ANBU. They become partners, doing jobs together, movements familiar to the other because they spent their last lives fighting next to each other.
The guild knows them as Elaina and Isaac, the force and ocular magic duo. Possibly a couple, Levy speculates. Most definitely a couple, Lucy disagrees. Mirajane begins a betting pool to see when they officially "get together", but time passes and it never happens, resulting in huge stakes.
The guild knows them as "those two". But they know each other as Hikari and Itachi, Miko and Satoshi. They know each other as the Other One, the One who consoled them that they were not Alone. Because being Alone is a terrifying prospect when they are cycling through lives and worlds, unable to move on like the Others from Before.
"Besides," she says while blasting away an enemy. "I don't think I'd be able to love again, not when I still have my memories of the last person I loved."
He says nothing in return, channeling his will through his eyes to make it into reality. After they finish burning through the corridor, he says, "I'm willing to wait."
Her breath catches. "What?"
His eyes, as red as the Sharingan, bear into hers. His magic deactivates, revealing sharp brown irises. "I can wait for you. As long as you need." It goes unsaid, As many lifetimes it takes.
He leaves her confused, afraid, and the slightest bit flattered as he turns the corner to attack the next hallway.
-O-O-O-O-
The funny thing is, Hikari is the one who makes S-Rank, not Itachi.
The guild thinks that Itachi is strong. Of course he is, everyone in Fairy Tail is strong. But he isn't deadly. He's peaceful. Average, for Fairy Tail. He doesn't have any outstanding skills, and his magic is capable enough for both offense and defense. Ocular magic, able to cast illusions through vision and manipulate anything that is seen.
And the guild is left in complete awe when Hikari is captured by a dark guild that wants to extract her magic. Because Itachi, the peace-lover, the normal mage, is furious. While the rest of the guild is still preparing and planning out their attack, Itachi strides into the dark guild. There are screams and the ground shakes, and at one point, the entire building goes up in black flames. And Itachi walks back out with Hikari safe in his arms, leaving behind nothing but ashes and a crater where a building once stood.
Gray eyes him warily. "You didn't tell us that you could set things on fire with your eyes."
Itachi merely glances at him as he passes, grip tightening on Hikari. "You never asked."
-O-O-O-O-
"You of all people should know that revenge is unnecessary," she accuses, folding her arms. "You didn't have to kill the entire dark guild."
He uncharacteristically folds his arms as well, narrowing his eyes. "And you of all people should know that they wouldn't have stopped. It was the best decision."
"There were other ways," she argues. "Detainment, for one."
"I went in there with the goal to get you out alive and safe," he says, eyes smoldering red, "and that took precedence over safely detaining the guild members. Anyone who got in the way was terminated."
"They're not shinobi!" Her outburst startles both of them, but she grits her teeth and continues. "They're not shinobi... and neither are we. Not anymore."
It's this statement that breaks him. Because to him, it has always been about being a shinobi. In their first lives, he lived and sacrificed and died for what it meant to be a shinobi. For the village. For Sasuke. And to cast aside the mindset of a shinobi would mean to leave behind his first life.
"You're throwing it away?" he asks, quiet. "So easily?"
"I would never," she swears. "I'm not. But this world, this life, it's so, it's so different from Konoha. Sure, there are mages, but it's so innocent. Not ruthless. Life is seen as something more precious and less replaceable. Maybe we forgot, because we get multiple second chances, but for Lucy, for Levy, for Gray, for Natsu, this is the only life they have. They're mages, but they're also so civilian. It's not the same."
"But we can still be shinobi," he urges, the slightest note of desperation entering his normally even voice. "We can remember."
She smiles sadly. "We can," she agrees, "but only with each other. To everyone else, we're Elaina and Issac, mages of Fairy Tail. And Fairy Tail believes in life. Maybe..." Her smile grows hopeful and tragic. "Maybe we can too."
Maybe they can learn to love their lives, instead of waiting for death and holding on to each other until they meet their loved ones again. Maybe they can stop being afraid of forming bonds.
Maybe they can hope.
Because it is the only thing they can do.
-O-O-O-O-
"Hikari."
"Hm? What is it?"
"Promise me that you'll never commit suicide just to follow me."
"..."
"Hikari?"
"I promise. But you have to promise it too."
"Of course. I promise."
-O-O-O-O-
Time passes, along with their youth. The time for adventures is over for this life, left to the new youngsters of the guild.
The betting pool for Hikari and Itachi is never closed. Even now, when they are feebler with weaker voices and crows' feet around their eyes, Lucy winks and raises the stakes for the next week, Natsu rising to match her bet. Hikari and Itachi smile wryly, but confirm nothing.
Then, too soon, Hikari is laying in her bed, unable to do anything but inhale slowly. Her eyes are as inquisitive as always, but her body is failing, and her magic is too strong to do anything but harm her when she tried using it to reinforce her body. She tries lifting her hand, the effort requiring more energy than expected, and Itachi catches her hand with his own, easing her of her burden. He is seated by her side, smoothing the hair off of her forehead.
They stay like that, waiting. When she begins taking shorter breaths, they know that it's time.
With a sudden burst of strength, she lifts her hand and places it on his cheek. "Don't keep me waiting," she says.
"I won't."
She smiles, crinkling the beauty mark. "Itachi."
"Yes?"
"We can hope."
A sigh. And her hand falls.
-O-O-O-O-
(Fullmetal Alchemist)
-O-O-O-O-
Itachi is born to two loving parents who name him Ren Xi. They are the sixth clan in line for the Emperor's throne, and he is suddenly reminded of clan politics from Before. There are more lands beyond Xing, like Amestris. And when Itachi can't find Hikari through his royal resources as the sixth-in-line, he knows that she is in a different country.
Things in this world are strangely similar to Before. For one thing, the weapons are more similar, in Xing, at least. Alkahestry and alchemy are like fuinjutsu (so Hikari should be fine, he muses). And his appearance is much closer to that of his first life.
So when he catches wind that some of his younger cousins are thinking of leaving for Amestris in search of the Philosopher's Stone in several weeks, he packs some bags, bullies his attendant into carrying them, and sets off.
He first comes across the Elric brothers. They're an interesting pair, an unstoppable force coupled with an immovable object. He sticks with them for a while, because they tend to attract trouble, and Hikari is definitely trouble.
The Homunculi and chimera are horrifying, to other people, but Itachi has seen worse, been through worse. Chimeras had nothing on Orochimaru's test subjects. And Homunculi? A poor imitation of jinchurikki.
He's lucky that he decided to stay with the Elrics, because it turns out that Hikari is a state alchemist assigned to guard him.
To be honest, he's surprised when he first sees her. Not because of the blue military uniform, not because of the transmutation circles tattooed on her hand and fingertips, and not because of her wheat blonde hair and decidedly electrifying blue eyes (that jolt him back to the color her eyes were Before). He's surprised because she's six years older than him.
"Rosa Jaegis," she says for appearances. "Colonel Mustang ordered me to babysit Edward."
"He did not!" Edward insists. "You're my bodyguard, which I don't need anyways!"
She gives him an unimpressed look. "Say that when you're out of the hospital with a functioning arm." She turns back to Itachi, arches a brow, and motions for him to play along. "Who are you?"
"Ren Xi." She hums.
"Alphonse, I'm going to get some water. Keep Edward out of trouble." Alphonse salutes her, much to Edward's spluttering. "Ren, will you accompany me?"
He acquiesces and they leave the hospital room. She's the first to break the silence.
"You know, I thought that you were in the military," she says, stretching her arms out. He shoots her a dry look.
"Clearly, I'm Xingese and therefore unable to join the Amestrian military."
She smiles at this. "It was because of Colonel Mustang. His title is the 'Flame Alchemist', which is why I thought it was you. Fire-natured chakra and all."
He scoffs at this. "What's your title?"
To this, she grins with a touch of feralness to it. "Light Alchemist." This actually startles a laugh from him, because honestly, the languages are different, but the meaning of her name from Before seems to be chasing her.
"I take the energy from light particles or the bonds between molecules and just manipulate it," she says, demonstrating. An agitated glow comes to her hand, humming with potential. "Thus, Light Alchemist. What about you? Any alchemy?"
"It's called alkahestry in Xing. And no, no alchemy."
They stand in silence, having halted on their journey to the water dispenser. "We should go back," she whispers. He suppresses the flare of disappointment easily as they begin walking back.
"Itachi?" When his eyes flick towards her, she continues. "Just know that the only reason I'm not hugging you is because I'm on the job."
The disappointment fades.
-O-O-O-O-
"Why do you stay with the Colonel?"
A pause. The setting down of a book. "Because he reminds me of Tsunade-sama. The way she inspired others."
A pause, this time from him. Then—
"I hate this."
She hardly looks surprised at his declaration (admission).
"I hate how we're forced to live multiple lives. Why us? Why were we chosen for this?"
Her hand closes over his. "I don't know," she says. "Maybe it was an accident and we slipped from the path to the Pure World. Maybe it was deliberate. Maybe there was a reason."
"Like what?"
"To give us a chance at something we never had before."
He is silent, and so is she, but they need no words as their hands tighten on each others'.
-O-O-O-O-
Staying with the Elrics turns out to be bad for one's health.
"Spare me from little shorties who insist on throwing themselves into life-and-death situations," she hisses. Itachi wryly notes that Before, she was the shorty throwing herself into life-and-death situations. She turns to him with a glare, years of familiarity allowing her to know what he is thinking.
Then her eyes widen and she pushes past him desperately to reach someone behind him. He brings his arms up to catch her, but she is already across the room, body-checking Roy Mustang out of the way as the homunculus Wrath throws his swords.
It's too fast. She's pinned, a gate appears, black hands swarm out and drag her in, and she is gone.
Itachi knows this isn't like Konoha. Isn't like Magnolia, when she was kidnapped. This is a gate to another realm, some other power. Truth. He is not an alchemist. He cannot get her back.
But the counterattack begins as the Alkhestric Reverse is activated, and the final battle against Father begins, and she is there.
Her beautiful eyes are clouded, unseeing, and she is frozen, afraid to move in the wrong direction, but she is alive and solid and there. He reaches her, presses his lips to hers, tells her that he loves her and that she's not allowed to leave him again like that, where he can't follow. She laughs, staring blindly ahead, fingers skittering over his face.
They join the fray.
Edward yells at them that they need to force Father to use up his Philosopher's Stone. With Itachi directing her, Hikari launches lasers, beams, attacks so powerful that they light up the sky of the solar eclipse as if it is midday. Her energy hums through the air, splitting it, cutting a path straight to Father. It's working, he thinks.
Then a backlash of energy from Father rips her from his arms, throwing them back into a wall. Itachi is lucky. He hits the wall with his shoulder, which breaks upon impact.
Hikari is not so lucky. Her head hits the wall, and even from the distance, he can hear her neck break.
Before she hits the ground, he knows that she is dead.
But time doesn't stop for her or for him, and the battle continues. No one can stand. No one can move. Humanity has failed, and Father looms over them, powerful and unstoppable. It's okay, Itachi thinks selfishly. It's not the end for me.
Then Edward stands up.
He has two arms, Itachi notices blankly, because Edward is standing, Edward is running, Edward is shining in the latent light leftover from Hikari's attacks. Edward is hope.
And hope always wins.
After the battle, Itachi sits on the ground, legs crossed. Hikari's head is in his lap, and he strokes her hair, saying goodbye. The sound of footsteps has him looking up to see Roy Mustang hovering awkwardly. After some obvious indecision, he lowers himself to crouch by Itachi.
"She saved me," Mustang rasps. "From the Gate. From Truth."
Itachi nods. He knows. He saw it.
"She was one of my best officers," he continues. "She always talked about you."
Their eyes meet, and a shared understanding passes between them. Smiling slightly, Mustang limps away, joined by his lieutenant.
Itachi's eyes slide over to Edward, who is staring at him and Hikari, eyes swimming with grief. "Aren't you sad?" he asks him.
Itachi smiles. "We'll see each other again."
Edward is confused but accepts his answer, plopping down next to him to say goodbye as well.
It will be a lonely few years. He could stay in Amestris, because Ling has claimed the Philosopher's Stone and will become the next Emperor. He could stay with the new friends he's made, maybe even get an Amestrian citizenship, learn alchemy, and join the military. He will be without her.
But it is okay.
-O-O-O-O-
(Pokémon)
-O-O-O-O-
They're the same age this time. Born in the same town. Neighbors, even.
"Are the higher powers giving us a break?" she asks. He snorts. He wishes.
"I doubt it." But it seems like one. This world with Pokémon is calm. Relaxed. Happy. It is hardly dangerous, compared to Before.
They get their starters. She goes with the water starter, the Mudkip. He knows what she's doing, so he gets the fire starter, the Torchic. They grin at each other.
Chakra natures.
They journey together. And okay, maybe this world isn't as safe as he thought it was, because there are bandits and scumbags and groups of people who call themselves Team Magma and Team Aqua and want to take over the world, but it's still not much compared to Before, Magnolia, and Amestris. They don't need to train themselves to the point of hyperawareness and autoreflexivity. Their Pokémon are enough to protect them.
Itachi is the first to get a badge. Hikari is upset, because it should have been her, her Pokémon is stronger than his, but he just smiles smugly and pins the badge to his jacket. She grits her teeth, sprays her Pokémon with superpotions until they're all at full HP, and returns within ten minutes with the same badge.
From then on, it becomes a competition. First she's ahead of him in badges, then him, then her. And when he discovers Pokémon contests, they burn through the ranks faster than anyone else, earning them the nicknames of Super Rookies.
It is when they are crossing over a mountain (sadly bereft of any caves to pass through) that it happens. She slips, loses her footing, and tumbles off the side of the cliff.
He reaches for her, hands brushing her fingers, but she's beyond his reach, and she falls.
He curses, something he's never done Before, and pulls out his Pelipper's pokéball, but he knows he won't be able to catch her in time.
Itachi spends days combing the mountainside. He's upset with himself, because if it had been Before, he would have been able to grab her in time. But this world has allowed him to relax, believing that no harm would come to either of them.
Still, he searches, hoping that she somehow survived the fall. But he knows. He knows that she had no flying Pokémon. She had no Pokémon that could use Vine Whip, or String Shot. There was nothing that could have stopped her fall but the ground.
And he is furious, because this world was supposed to be safe. They were supposed to be together until the end. And when he finds her body, broken, he finally falls apart. Through his tears, he eyes the nearest tree branch. It's high enough that his feet won't touch the ground, and sturdy enough to hold his weight. He takes some escape rope out of his backpack and is fashioning a noose when their promise flashes across his mind.
"I promise. But you have to promise it too."
"Of course. I promise."
He wipes his tears and calls on his Combusken to burn the rope. Then, he sets to work with a garden trowel.
Hours later, he is patting down the dirt with her underneath. Taking a knife, he carves her name, her name from Before, into a stone and places it firmly at the base of a makeshift cross. He's taken her Pokémon and supplies, leaving only her clothes.
Her Pokémon, coupled with his, form a full party.
Wait for me, he thinks.
"I'll find you again."
-O-O-O-O-
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians)
(The Heroes of Olympus)
-O-O-O-O-
This world has gods.
Hikari wonders if that means this is the final world. Because the higher powers have been toying with her and Itachi. And the Fates sound like they could be those higher powers.
But then again, she'd thought the same when she'd met Truth in Amestris.
She's a daughter of Janus, the God of Beginnings, Endings, Transition, Doorways and Keys. It's ironic, because of her lifetimes and slipping between worlds, but fitting. Very fitting.
She's inducted into the Twelfth Legion at Camp Jupiter. The Roman lifestyle is strict, stricter than the Amestrian military, but she survives, because that is what she does. And after searching for Itachi, who is nowhere to be found, she concludes that he must be Greek because he's definitely not a mortal.
It is the first time since Before that they are on opposing sides. She doesn't like it, but the Roman way doesn't allow her to question her loyalty. That's okay, because she knows where her loyalties lie.
So she defects.
Because screw monsters and legions and praetors and gods, nothing is going to keep her from him.
Traveling to the East Coast is easy for her. She's the daughter of the God of Doorways. All she has to do is open a door, think of her destination, and she's there. Most of the time.
The Fates must be smiling on her, she thinks, because she arrives in the middle of a training field, swords and spears and arrows pointing at her as soon as she falls on her butt.
"Who are you?" a blonde girl demands. "How did you suddenly appear here?"
"Hi- Hannah," Hikari replies. "I'm a demigod. Daughter of Janus?" Her voice trails off into a question as she catches sight of the boy standing next to the girl who asked the question. He's blonde too, so they must be half-siblings, but that doesn't matter because she is absolutely certain it's Itachi.
"Hello," he says, stepping forward and offering her a hand. "Welcome to Camp Half Blood."
"Ryan—" the girl says, but he cuts her off.
"Calm down, Annabeth. I know her."
Then he pulls her into a kiss, a proper kiss, and her head is swimming and the campers are hooting and Annabeth is looking extremely unimpressed, but Hikari pulls back to examine him.
"You're older."
"Yes," Itachi agrees. "Everything is right again."
She smacks him.
-O-O-O-O-
There's a war. Of course there's a war. Again. With Gaia, instead of the titans.
"Why is it that whenever we're reborn, it's into a crisis, usually of saving the world, worthy of publication via book or television?" she questions.
"Because we're heroes," he says. "It's our destiny."
"Destiny must hate us."
"Probably."
They are facing down an army of monsters. As wars go, it's not so bad, even if her body isn't the same as Before. She slices through them, coming face to face with her old Roman comrades, but they fight by her, not against her, because somehow, Reyna has brought Athena's statue and mended the Roman and Greek feud.
At the end of the day, good wins over evil.
And Itachi dies from his wounds, clutching Hikari's hand. She's not far off either, so she says nothing and closes her eyes.
See you soon.
-O-O-O-O-
(Earth)
(The Final Stop)
-O-O-O-O-
The cycle continues on, but it's okay because their souls are intertwined. They will always be able to find each other again.
Then, one day:
"Itachi," she calls, staring at her laptop screen. She begins twirling the ring on her left hand unconsciously. "Come look at this."
He appears behind her, nose buried in a book. "Hikari, this better be good, because I have to finish this book for my midterm—"
"Look." She shoves her laptop at him. He glances at it and returns to his book.
"So? It's a manga."
"No, Itachi, look."
He looks again and has a double take. Because on her screen is the cover of the first volume of Naruto. "Is that—"
"Yeah. I found everything. From our lives. From Before. There's Bleach, when we were in Soul Society, and Fairy Tail and Fullmetal Alchemist and Pokémon and Percy Jackson and everything. Don't you get what this means?"
He stares at her, understanding dawning in his eyes. "It's—"
"Yeah," she agrees, laughing joyfully. "The final stop. The last world in the cycle. Itachi, it's almost over."
He grabs her, hoists her up and spins her around. "Marry me," he demands, smiling with joy.
"Silly, we're engaged."
"No. Now. Marry me."
She can't say no. How could she, when she's full of such joy and happiness and relief?
This life passes quickly, a whirlwind of family and children and faces. Then, soon, after falling asleep for the final time, she wakes up to see Itachi's face hovering over hers.
Itachi's face. From Before.
She looks down at her hands, seeing a sight that she hasn't seen since forever. Her hands are scarred from where kunai nicked them, calloused from use. And on her right hand is a burn that she'd received on a mission against an angry Katon user.
"Hikari!"
All around her are people. Loved ones from each lifetime. There is Lucy, holding back tears, and Natsu and Fairy Tail, Rukia smiling with Ichigo and the gang, Edward, dear, temperamental Edward, with Winry and Alphonse and Mustang and Riza, and standing a little away from them is Naruto.
He grins at her. "Welcome home, Kari." Beside him, Sasuke snorts, earning him an elbowing from Sakura. Kakashi sighs, weary as ever, and there is her mother and father and the rest of her friends and her old team and oh, her first crush is also grinning at her and Itachi, and everything is okay.
"We watched you," Lucy is explaining. "Your souls. So we'd be able to know who you are when you finally came here."
"Man, you had it hard," Ichigo says. "Congrats on making it."
She's speechless, unable to register the fact that yes, she is in the afterlife, and that yes, it was over. Itachi pulls her over to Naruto, who hugs her fiercely, joined by Ino and Sakura and her team and even Sasuke.
And finally.
Finally, their journey is over.
-O-O-O-O-
A/N: Oh my god, this is finally over.
I slaved over this for so long. It was going to be longer, actually, with Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings and Yu-Gi-Oh and even Kuroko no Basuke (lol), but I cut it because it was just too long. I mean, the wordcount isn't that long, but there were too many fandoms to include.
(One can never have too many fandoms.)
Reaching should be updated sometime in the future. And Strawberry Days is always open to requests!
See you next time!