A/N: I promise you I am not quitting on you guys. Just... my life has been a bundle of mess that is inappropriate to write this with. So, hopefully I'll be back on this one with fervor after this upcoming week. I'll see you later!
3.5-6
They don't hesitate, they don't even think to. They all move together towards the sound of someone's tears. Jyou is moving so fast he almost misses her, tripping over a frayed shoelace.
Hikari isn't much more than a blur in the dark, white lines revealing exhausted features. She sniffles again. As they move closer, her head snaps up, eyes their abnormal shade of red. She shakes her head. The tears are streaming still, but her intent is clear.
Leave me.
"Come with us." They all say it but someone says it first.
Hikari shakes her head and raises her arms. Chains rattle. She shakes her head again and points to the right, to the path ahead.
"But-" Mimi begins.
Hikari smiles wetly and points again.
They go, but they don't want to, despite her attempts to kill them. Koushiro thinks of the weight of the chains, of the puffiness of her eyes. She wouldn't have come, even if she could have. She already knows.
The dead can't follow the living. And she did die.
The three of them keep walking and slowly, the darkness begins to lighten. They are greeted with the sight of Sora and Yamato glaring at each other. Taichi isn't looking at either of them. Takeru looks despondent until he sees he bounces to his feet.
"Koushiro-san! Everyone!"
The stupor is broken. They all run to each other, relieved because they are still alive. Hikari weighs on them, of course, but there is hope with them, and perhaps there is hope for her as well.
There's a tiny giggle and they stop. Taichi turns and waves. The little girl makes Koushiro step back. There is something of that old couple in her face, in the way her eyes sparkle.
"Hey, you brought us here, right?"
The little girl nods, smiling. "You are here to see," she says. Her lips don't move. "The past, the present, the future, all are together. I, Mayu, am here to show you. Let's look, let's look!" Beneath their feet, the darkness dims, filling with streetlights. Odaiba glows beneath their feet.
"A long time ago, there was a car accident. That accident opened a rift from your world to ours. From that rift, we searched and searched for children who could save us from the evil buried behind the flames."
"You found us," Yamato interrupts.
Mayu shakes her head. "We found them. But through them, we found you."
"Them?" Koushiro feels his heart start to race.
"The Chosen Ones, of course!" Mayu laughs. "My friends! You didn't think you were the only ones here, did you?"