AN: I don't remember the name of the town RIP

MAKI

Nothing interesting had ever happened in the town of Akisame before the latest cosmic improbability. It was a farming town with a college attached; and usually the most exciting event was the harvest festival which Maki had missed with a twenty-page paper waiting for her in the back of her mind. The college itself was good but very niche, primarily focusing on pre-med, but rarely winning any recognition beyond that. The other point of interest was the shrine- it had some historical significance- but it wasn't enough to draw anyone beyond the odd pilgrim every other year.

What had drawn Maki's parents to the school was the full ride scholarship; and if pressured, would have admitted Akisame was very far away from ink-haired girls who showed up at their doorstep at strange hours, and the glow of music and idols. No distractions.

Little did they know.

In the coming colder days, Maki wasn't the only person who felt they were in a fog. Professors would forget what they were doing. Students would find themselves in places they didn't remember walking. Stored closed early. Classes were cancelled. Researchers came back from the crash site with pounding headaches and glazed over eyes. Unease hung over everyone, as if the tension were a heavy cloud ready to burst with rains. One student even transferred out. No one talked about the green lights that lit up the darkest parts of night, staining the sky like watercolor spreading on wet paper.

Maki didn't watch the countryside anymore, on her daily train trip into town. Everything was supposed to be dead and brown. She didn't want to see tips of the trees still shimmering green with some mutant bioluminescence, on the corners of dried leaves. The landscape was not hers anymore. It was as if it were from a different time, a different land. Even the glass of the windows seemed tainted with a faint green film; although when she looked closer, she decided it must have been a trick of the imagination.

Maki read. Some wizard book. Anything to put the reoccurring nightmares out of her head. Last night was pain. Pain like nothing she'd every imagined. Metal crunched. Bones snapped. Blood rushed out onto the water- Honoka had recommended the wizard book. It was some foreign series. Maki had never read it, and when Honoka had found out she'd forced Maki to download the first one as they sat in the restaurant. It was charming. She supposed. Not that she'd admit that to Honoka until she was forced to. Pages swiped quickly as the train went towards the school. Would the young wizard boy survive his trip into the forbidden forest-

The train was slowing down.

Maki stood up on autopilot; as she always did at the third stop after she got on.

But the train did not stop, instead blaring its horn like an alarm, and Maki stumbled against the window as it moved forward. Unfamiliar houses passed by, awaiting passengers at unknown stations. Where were they? Suggestions of faces turned to contorted masks before they whipped behind the speeding vehicle.

"This isn't the Akisame stop, is it?" Someone tapped her shoulder. An auburn woman looked at her worriedly, twisting her tan purse with one hand.

"N-no. I don't know where we are."

Another long droning alarm sounded again. Maki winced. How hadn't they stopped yet? It stopped somewhere 9:29-9:40ish, give or take five minutes either way. She shot a quick glance at her phone- 10:10. The horn was like a late clock, trying to wake the tardy sleeper. Her ears rang. Each blast pierced her. Other passengers whispered with pale faces, huddled together.

A voice over the speaker requested that everyone remain calm, and to please stay in their seats.

Maki's heart beat that much faster. Grey and green blurred together in the landscape. She sat down, gripping the edge of her seat. Somewhere lights were flashing, red lights-

There was a horn; a wholly different horn with a sharper tone greeted them.

The last thing Maki thought before impact was that she was going to miss seeing Honoka in Dr. A's class-

It hurt.

It was a white hot hurt. Burning. Her head was splitting. The world seemed red. Everything was red. Someone was trying to get her attention, someone reaching out and lifting her. Maki moaned. Her eyes barely opened, only seeing movement and colors. Shades stumbled unbalanced. Everything felt sideways. Sirens were going now. Maki was on her back. Maybe. Somehow she moved. Would her parents would be there? She laughed, trying to imagine her parents in such a small town. They would be mad at her, she thought. Honoka would be worried.

Images flashed over her head. Mint masks. White ceilings.

Darkness.

AN: a few notes! Sometimes- rarely, but sometimes, and often for simple continuity issues/logic issues, I edit older chapters. Unfortunately FF makes this much harder so I only do it on A03 (archive of our own) If for whatever reason you ever want to do a re-read, do it there cuz i don't even know how to edit things past a certain date rip