Senku stood there. All was quiet. He had just watched his cure fail.

Where was she? That girl…Ruri…

He saw a figure in the distance, someone standing in front of a door. He thought for a second that it was Chrome, but no, it looked like…Kohaku, but not..

She was pulled into the doorway within seconds. Senku stood there. He waited for her to come back.

She didn't.

He ran over to the door. "Let her out! Let at least some of her out! You can't take everything!"

"She's dead," said a voice.

Senku turned angrily. "What?"

"The girl," the voice replied "She died the moment your experiment failed, SCIENTIST!"

Senku woke up, bolting upright in bed. It was still dark.

He ran to the window and tapped it, waking Chrome.

"Senku?" Chrome said blearily. "What is it?"

"CHROME…remember how Kohaku…" Ed paused. "Remember how when I met her for the first time, she mentioned she was looking for her sister Ruri? And…remember how when we asked later if she had found her, she didn't answer?"

"You don't think that…" Chrome replied. "Maybe you should ask her."

Xxx

Kuri didn't know at first.

It was just strange flashes.

She had blonde hair. Kuri knew that. And honey brown eyes. She was happy. Sitting on the side of a fountain. She was with a young man, blurred..

They were laughing. He held her around the waist, kissed her neck.

Kuri felt herself flinch.

She pulled away and walked towards me. "What's wrong? You betrayed me, now I'm betraying you, isn't that how it works?"

Her voice was quiet, taunting. The tone that I had come to fear.

Kuri stepped back. "I-I didn't betray you…"

"You left me behind," she spat. "That's what you're best at. But you know that, don't you? This is all Senku's fault. After you—he's next."

A knife appeared in her hand. Kuri stepped back again, but she was too quick. Kuri's own sister stabbed her.

Kuri woke up. She shivered, trying to make the shaking subside.

Senku entered the room. "I didn't want to wake you. You looked really tired."

Kuri got out of bed wordlessly and walked into the bathroom.

Why was she with Senku? Kuri wondered, washing her face. Why am I thinking about him again? Damn it.

Kuri went back in my room. She wished I could talk to Senku.

Xxx.

"Hey Chrome?" Reiko asked. "How did you open the portal between this world and yours?"

Chrome laughed a little. "We were doing an experiment and melted the floor and fell in the hole."

"Can you try it again?" Reiko asked. "I kinda wanna see my friend, Kuri."

"I guess so," Chrome said. "I have the same stone we were using."

He pour something onto the stone, all on the same mirror that had let him in.

The mirror lit up. Suddenly the house shook…and all the lights went out.

Kuri came in her room, holding a flashlight. "You guys okay?"

She flashed the light over by the bed, looking for them. The beam of light landed on the fallen form of Chrome.

She gasped. "Chrome? What are you doing here?"

Chrome got up off the floor. "I'm not sure…I think Reiko just tricked me."

"She wouldn't do that," Kuri said. "I don't think."

Chrome sat down on her bed, and the power kicked back on.

Kuri looked at him for a moment, then left the room

Chrome turned his own attention to the show.

Reiko stepped over, and sat down in her chair. "I'm sorry. If she tricked you."

"It's fine," Chrome said. "I've been meaning to come and see you."

Reiko stared. What?

"I…" Chrome looked down. Was he blushing? "I wanted to know if…you would come to dinner with me?"

Reiko's mouth was suddenly dry. What? Why can't I answer? I'm frozen!

"Y-yes," she said after a pause.

Chrome exhaled, like he had been holding his breath.

Xxx

Kuri had fallen over.

"Hm…looks like Chrome's gone," she said.

"Um…Kuri?" Senku said. "You fell on my foot."

"Oh no!" She exclaimed, jumping up. "I'm sorry, did I break it?"

Senku got up, shaking his head. "No." He stared at her. He had a wide-eyed expression on his face. "W-What did you do? Don't tell me you're a scientist."

"Nah," I replied. "I just tricked Chrome into opening the mirror. I wanted to see what would happen."

"Be Careful!!" Senku burst out. He stared at her harder. "What if there was…a rebound? What if—"

"I said I wasn't an scientist Senku," I replied. "But this ain't science, is it?. I would never put him at risk. Now come on, let's have some dinner, okay?"

Senku ate happily. This world actually had better food than his home world.

"Hey Senku?" Kuri asked. "How do you think you got here?"

Senku paused, his fork halfway to his mouth.

He swallowed, and spoke "Someone brought us here. Someone else opened the doorway, not me or Chrome.."

There was a silence.

"How are you going to get back?" Kuri asked.

"I don't know if I want to go back," Senku replied. "Not until I figure out how and why this happened. Figures, second we get back, whatever sucked us out might send us somewhere worse. It ain't bad here; food's good.."

Senku went to the fridge, in search of a drink that wasn't carbonated. He wasn't used to this world's carbonation, slightly more CO2. He froze suddenly.

"Kuri?" He picked up a picture. It had fallen to the floor when he had touched it. "Can I keep this picture?"

Kuri nodded. "That's just my neighbor Robert. He's a pretty great guy, given that he lost his teenage son Samu—Senku why are you looking at me like that?!"

Senku grabbed the bookcase for support, but he couldn't stop shaking. "His son…died? Was he my age?"

"Oh," Kuri looked at the picture. "Yeah, why?"

"I…I gotta…" Senku ran over to see Chrome.

"Senku, if that's really your father, then he's—"Chrome began.

"Dead, I know, " Senku replied. "But he's alive here. I wonder if he knows what happened? Maybe he knows how he died!"

"We can't just ask him that!" Chrome said indignantly. "What if he doesn't remember?"

"Then we say it was an honest mistake," Senku replied. "Chrome…what if we stay here? What if we get a second chance?"

"Senku, there's no way—" Chrome stopped. "Kuri is Kohaku and Reiko is Ruri. Don't you think they should know?"

"I'm pretty sure Kuri knows something," Ed replied. "She's pretty sharp. But Reiko—"

"Talking about me?" Reiko asked, coming back in.

"No!" both boys chorused guiltily.

Xxx

Kuri curled up in my bed and went to sleep. Suddenly the door opened.

"Are you crazy?" Senku asked.

Kuri sat up, annoyed. "I'm pretty sure I'm not."

"Well…your dog is. He's asleep," Senku said. "And he took over the bed. And he makes noises! How am I supposed to…what are you doing?"

Kuri was pulling out the second bed. "Come on, it's no big deal."

Suddenly he was by her side. "Here, let me help you."

They popped the bed up, and Kuri made it. "There ya go. Now you can sleep, right?"

Senku nodded, and it was time for bed.

It was dark, and they were both in bed, when he spoke.

"Kuri…have you ever…seen something you couldn't explain?" he asked. "It was just so weird that you couldn't define it?"

Kuri thought about it for a minute. "Yeah…but it was in a dream. Someone spoke to me….told me it was my time…time to wake up. And then…I saw that I was leaving someone behind. I felt like it was important. Like I needed to remember her…but then…her face was forgotten. That's my earliest memory in this life."

Senku sat up in bed.

"What?" Kuri asked tiredly.

"What do you mean your earliest memory?" Senku asked.

"I was in a coma for a long time," I replied. "I woke up in the hospital. I couldn't talk, eat, walk, or read, until age eleven. But I caught up fast. Nia helped me. She was in a coma until age two. She told me that while I was asleep she read to me. And she said that when she was asleep we talked. But I think that was just childhood fantasy cuz I don't remember any of it. Sometimes when I strain my mind really hard I remember things. Flashes…like a slide projector. You know why Robert is such a close family friend?"

"Why?" Senku asked.

"Well…he was the only relative besides my parents who kept coming to visit me at the hospital, when I was recovering. I was about fourteen when he first started visiting."

"How old are you now?" Ed asked.

"Nineteen," I replied.

Senku was certain of it now. This world was a place where the dead of his world came to finish their lives. Some kind of wacky version of heaven.

Dad knew, he thought. He knew that Kuri was Kohaku…or at least that she was from their world. That's why he visited her. And he didn't come till she was fourteen because…that's when he died. When I was fourteen. Kuri and I are the same age. So this means he can help me. I have to find some way to get to him. And I have to tell Kuri the truth. Maybe if she remembers she can tell me what really happened the night Ruri died. Maybe she can tell me if I really did cause her death. And…maybe I can apologize.