Note from the Author!
Operation: Chapter 5, Start! Finally, we get into the main plot! When I first started writing this fic, I quite literally had almost NO IDEA what the main portion of the story would be about. I threw around a few ideas, but most got thrown away. Some ideas were too strange, some too boring, but most of them were just straight up bad. I also wanted to fix a few things. I mistakenly made Kanade say Otonashi instead of Yuzuru, a small thing but I want this fic to be relatively canon (Or at least as canon fanfiction can be). I'll still refer to him as Otonashi in most places, only not when Kanade is talking or thinking. I have fixed the first few chapters and this one. Enjoy the chapter!
-{Chapter Five: The Girl on the Piano}-
Otonashi stood in Darkness. No Pianos, No Hospital. Just complete and utter darkness. He could see his body but that was it. It was like he had stepped into a shadow. What's going to happen this time? Otonashi thought. Just as the thought had entered his mind a single image appeared before him. It was a picture of him the moment before he died.
He was holding the organ donor card in his hand. His face was covered in dirt and dust. However his expression didn't match what he looked like. He was smiling, and his eyes sparkled. He would be able to still help someone, even if he was dead. He remembered the moment well.
Another image was shown. It was Otonashi's corpse in the morgue.
Another Image. A Surgeon taking Otonashi's Heart.
Another. The young Girl with the black hair on a surgical table surrounded by doctors.
Otonashi's Heart being inserted into her chest.
The girl sitting in a bed smiling, a woman and man on either side of her.
Suddenly Images began to fill the blackness around Otonashi.
The girl sitting at a table eating.
The girl surrounded by others, smiling.
The girl holding a small certificate.
The girl running towards another younger girl, trying to catch her.
The girl, who was clearly now a teenager, brushing her hair, which was turning grey.
The girl sitting on a bed, watching TV.
Slowly the images began to fade away. Only one picture remained.
The Girl was sitting with her back facing to Otonashi. Her hair was now a pure white. A soft melody began to play, the same one Otonashi had heard in his first dream. The girl continued to play the melody as Otonashi's vision faded.
The Melody kept playing.
Otonashi woke up on the roof of the school. The melody was still playing in his head. I must have fallen asleep… He remembered that after his kiss with Kanade, they snuggled up and looked at the constellations together, although she was nowhere to be found now.
The song was still stuck in Otonashi's head. It was like…
Someone is playing it now.
He could hear the song being played over by the stage on the field. Without hesitation he left the rooftop, went through the school halls and headed towards the field. He was heading towards her. To the Pianist. To the white-haired girl.
To the one who had his heart.
The field was littered with various pieces of food and trash. Various tables and chairs were flipped over and there were even a few students passed out on the ground. But Otonashi didn't care about any of that. He was fixed on his goal. Otonashi could hear the piano melody coming from the stage, so he raced towards it.
As he approached the stage, he saw the white haired girl from his dream, her fingers moving deftly across the keys. As he approached her she played the last few chords, finally finishing the melody.
She turned around revealing her bright yellow eyes, filled with tears. "Hi Yuzuru."
"Kanade…"
She stood up from the chair and hugged Otonashi. "Thank You."
"I was in a critical condition when I receive you heart."
The two were on the roof again. The sun was just beginning to peak over the Horizon.
"The surgery lasted for more than 5 hours. The doctors had to repair all of my broken nerves and replace the heart. I was almost assured to die during it."
Otonashi listened attentively, sitting next to Kanade. "But I didn't. The surgery was a success. I was able to live longer because of your heart."
Kanade gripped the left side of her chest, where her- no, Otonashi's heart was. "Of course, the surgery didn't completely fix the issues. The nerves eventually just stopped working. Then I woke up here."
There was a moment of silence. "Kanade…" Otonashi said, "Why exactly are you here? It sounds like you were able to live longer and you were happy the way it turned out. What regret do you have that made you stay here?"
Kanade looked off into the rising sun. "I wanted… I wanted to thank you."
"Huh?"
"My only regret was that I wasn't able to thank the person who saved my life. THAT'S why I'm here. In fact, it's the reason you're here too."
"What."
"Well I wouldn't be able to thank you like I did if you weren't here!" Kanade pouted.
"Oh… But if I died first, how did you get here before me?"
"Don't you remember what the AI said? Souls waiting to be reborn are stuck in a waiting period. That's why Iwasawa and Yui could be brought back. You must have been in the waiting period when I got here. Why you didn't arrive the same time as me… I don't know. You must have been stuck for a while, like what happened with Shiina."
"What happened with Shiina?"
"You don't know? Shiina arrived after Yurippe, but we think that she's from Feudal Japan…"
"Oh… Wait what?"
Kanade laughed, "Don't worry the details now. Anyway, when I arrived here I met a few other people stuck here. There was only 4 other people beside me. They've all passed on though."
"Well we won't have to worry about that anymore, right?"
"Right!" Kanade said with a smile.
The entrance to the rooftop suddenly opened interrupting the conversation. Yurippe stood there; her clothes were covered in dirt and cut in quite a few places. "Meeting Room. Now."
As Yurippe left, Kanade gave Otonashi a puzzled look. "What was that about?"
"I don't know," Otonashi said stretching as he stood up, "But we'd better go find out."
"We have a problem." Yurippe said, her voice downtrodden.
The SSS members were in the Principal's Office, their old strategic HQ. Yurippe stood behind the desk, her clothes still in a state of disarray.
"Problem?" Hinata said from the couch, "What's the issue, and why are you all beat up?"
"What I look like is not an issue right now. We have an issue involving… The Programmer."
"Wait- The Programmer. As in, the one who changed the world the first time? The One who made the Shadows?"
"Yea, him."
"Damn…"
"Well, what happened?" Otonashi said from behind Hinata.
"After the message that Kanade received a few nights ago, I wanted to do a little digging and make sure that the guild and the computer room was destroyed. But…" She leaned over the desk and pressed a button on the side. A large Holographic map appeared. Yurippe pointed to the map. "The Old Guild was still there."
The old guild was one of the first places inhabited by the pioneer SSS members. It was where the group had discovered how to make tools and weapons out of dirt and clay. And it still existed, even after the reset.
"While the old equipment is gone, the cave and some of its tunnels are still there. When I went to go delve deeper into the caves, I was attacked."
The SSS members held their breath, waiting for Yurippe's next words.
"I was… killed. He somehow had a sword of some sort and stabbed me. I blacked out after that, but when I woke up, this," Yurippe took out a blood stained paper out of her pocket, "Was in my pocket."
"Let me see that." Otonashi said. Yurippe handed him the paper.
"When you live and die a thousand times," Otonashi read aloud, "you tend to forget things."
"Uhhh, what does that mean?" Naoi said.
"I can't say for certain but… I think it means that when we die…" Yurippe said
"We lose a portion of our memories." Kanade finished.
The room was silent once again. Was a thing like that even possible? They had never lost memories before, why now?
"I assume you have a plan Yurippe?" Iwasawa asked.
Yurippe smiled, "Do you know me Iwasawa? Of course I have one."
She pressed another button on the desk and a Briefing Manager text appeared on the hologram, along with the SSS logo.
"I call it Operation: Tunnel Rat."
"Nice name." Takeyama grunted which caused several annoyed glances to come his way.
"We'll split up into teams of 5." Yurippe said ignoring Takeyama, "We'll be exploring the tunnels in the old Guild to try and find the Programmer. Chaa, can you and some of the other guild members create some weapons by tomorrow?"
"We can get it done," the man said gruffly, "But don't be expecting anything fancy."
"Good. Shiina, you know those caves better than anyone else so I need your help to create a few maps of them so we don't check the same areas."
"Understood."
"The rest of you, form groups of five. Operation, Start!"
He sat on one side of the campfire. The flames were small, so he sat close. Across from him sat a red-headed girl, shivering. "Hey, are you cold?" he asked her.
"A little bit."
"Why don't you come over here? We can warm up together."
The girl smiled and walked over to him, "Thank you, uh, what's you name again?"
"Suke. Akio Suke."
"Right, thank you Suke."
"Don't worry about it." He said, "Any luck regaining your memory yet?"
"No… I still don't remember anything."
Suke's grin turned into a frown. "I'm sure you'll get your memory back soon. It should come back eventually." His voice dropped to a low whisper, "Then you'll remember me."
The girl said nothing, leaving Suke to his own thoughts. I'll make you pay for this, he thought; I'll make you pay for bringing her back to this hell!
~End of Chapter 5~