Fortissimo EXS // Trigger: Verzweiflung

[Draconic]

Hold on a sec... did everyone just sacrifice themselves?

[hero]

I'll be updating this monday.

[Ayakashi]

H Y P U.

[hero]

[Typhous]

Hero, I'm not really sure about how I feel about this. Part of me is excited that there's more after having read the whole RP but another part of me felt it left a sour taste simply because it COULD have ended there. Anyway, I love what you've done and hope to see a satisfying end to the journey.

[hero]

its only missing a few more team attacks!

[Ayakashi]

I bring to you, the fucking golden truth.

[Airen]

I'll write Akio's part soon, had to split it

>.>

<.<

[Bring]

So did this die at the very end?

[Ayakashi]

The GM is currently busy. IRL happened to him.

[Bloble]

[Airen]

Nani?!

[hero]

So yeah, if you want to share anything related to where your characters would be one year after the events of the RP, now would be a good time to let me know via chat/PM. That way I can mention it in the epilogue.

[Bloble]

"It was fun! I'm glad I met you all!"

[Spinach]

Eternal stillness

[Ayakashi]

"I suppose that I'll settle with watching over you all now."

[Airen]

Horizon
'Until We Meet Again'

I hear a sound.

I hear the sound of waves crashing against the shoreline, as the world continues to spin on without regret.

Stars greet me as I start to wake up.

"..."

The feeling of sand beneath my fingers reinforces the fact that I'm not at home. Lying on the beach, head resting on arms that were far too sore from the day's events, the reason for my lying here is something that I can't recall, not immediately at least, and thus I send my thoughts spiraling back down the chain of memories. Reunions had led to battles; it was an unfortunate reality for us when we all got back together again, there were some things that could only be found by crashing head first into the fists of your friends, but...

Honestly...

Looking back, it really seems like people have it out for me in particular. Fukami or Sawai, Aunt Rose, Rei...

Being sturdy is fine, but the problems that come with that sort of reputation, well...

It's troublesome.

Even so, I smile.

That bet had been fun enough, and while I'm paying for it now, there's a certain amusement in it that I can't deny. Really, it reminds me of...

Of...

"..."

The chain of thoughts leads to a static conclusion, a jumbled mess of images and sounds that become more and more meaningless the further back into the past I try to reach, as if someone had slammed their fist down onto the television screen that was my life.

"..."

The first time it had happened, a dull sense of dizziness and nausea had crawled up from inside of me, but nowadays, it's simply an unpleasant sensation that appears from time to time without a true cause.

A price of that day that hadn't quite gone away yet.

It's not as bad around the others, but even so, when he tried to reach for a 'memory' that no longer existed, everything seemed to just crash for a couple of moments, a handful of seconds. He had clung to what was important in the end, so he couldn't say that he regretted it; those that he had placed closest to his heart had remained there, unperturbed by the greedy magic of the Fool, but...

Even for them, and definitely for some others, some specifics had slipped away.

What day had this happened? What had the weather been like? Who had I met in other countries? What had we done together?

The farther you got away from this island, the murkier everything seemed to become; Aesop had the answers to most of these questions, when we were together I could sort of feel it by Osmosis, but in the end those memories weren't truly mine even if they are similar.

It was 'someone elses' perspective.

And in that sense...

A lot had faded away on that day.

More than me than for most.

Perhaps because of that, I could recognize that Fukami was also not quite the same as she had been before, even so...

Even so, what was done was done.

I can't say that I'm exactly the same as I had been back then, but I like to think that the core of 'Nakamura Akio' had remained strong from start to finish.

Is that true?

I can't really say, even so, it's what I like to think.

I stand up.

It had taken me a bit, but I remembered now why I had wound up in this place.

"Hey."

There was a motorcycle waiting on the beach, facing the crashing waves as if it meant to plunge into it's depths.

"You ready to go?"

Smiling at me, the Magical Weapon that had suggested this in the first place, asks for my okay as if I really have a choice in the matter. This was something she had been preparing for some time now, getting various jobs to save up for the motorcycle in question; buying food and hiding it away from every other member of the family to spare it from Raku's occasional mood swings, I had thought that she was just getting into the habit of being a human rather than a weapon, but today, after everything had gone down and I just collapsed...

She had sweetly told me I was being kidnapped.

It was a journey all around the world; something I had done once before, but had forgotten in the aftermath of the final battle. It had been bothering me, she had said, forgetting so many people, and so she had decided to take me (by force if she must) to meet them all once again now that things had calmed down. Really, it was only one of many reasons... I had been thinking myself that perhaps it was time to leave, to just wander off and see where the wind took me...

After all, just as the people I had forgotten must be met again, there were some who were lost that must be found...

A promise made under a Sakura Tree must be kept after all; it might take awhile, and a number of others have forgotten that she existed at all, really, it's a miracle that I remember it, I can't say we were particularly close up until the end, but...

Well, parts of me might be missing, but that stubbornness persists even now.

Just like a star I might never reach it, and I can't say it's the only goal I'm pursuing... Even so, I have to throw out my hand to grab another that might not be there.

That's the only way to find those that are invisible.

Reaching out to what you can't see.

Of course, phrasing it noble like that, the reality is that I'm still allowing myself to sneak away under the cover of night-fall. Aesop claimed that I couldn't just let my 'girlfriends' dictate what I do and do not do, and in that sense, she's not entirely wrong...

I don't mind going on this journey with her.

My first escapade from the island had started with just the two of us once before, and starting it again in a similar fashion, on a journey to 'recapture memories' seemed poetic in a way. Of course, the side-cars, as well as the fact that she had added a good four other seats onto the back and other sides, show that we're both sure it won't stay 'just us' for very long.

And that's fine.

Really, that reality makes me smile. If I asked them to come with me they probably would, but at the same time, I'd rather that they decide that sort of thing on their own, and if they do...

Well, we'll just call it fate.

A certain magician might find her way here too, who knows?

"Yeah."

After all, the future is uncertain for a reason...

That's what makes it so interesting.

That's what makes it worth running towards.

"But kidnap victim or not, I'm driving."

"Fair enough."

Arms wrap around my waist.

A card road opens up, parting the waves.

We're not as strong as we were a year ago, but planes had never been the Nakamura Style; leaving like this, astride a motorcycle and into the rising sun...

This was fine.

The engine reverberates beneath me.

Roaring out, it's the first thing that calls out in 'goodbye.'

I've never been good at that sort of thing, even so...

This one 'goodbye' is a bit more important.

To the 'you' that continues to watch even now, the Dreamers that surpassed that 'Dreamer.'

Right here... Is where I think we'll be parting ways.

We never met face to face, but I know I didn't imagine the voices that cheered me on from 'another place.' I can't reach you where you are, and really, I don't think you can reach me either, even so...

Thank you.

To everyone that watched after me until the end, thank you.

The 'door' might close soon, but even so, I'm not going to say goodbye.

We may never cross paths how I'd like, and I might not be able to hear your voices anymore, but even so, I think we'll see each other again someday.

So...

I won't say goodbye.

It's not my style.

It's not partner's either.

We might be parting ways, but that doesn't mean we're saying goodbye.

So to you, to all of you out there-!

"So long-!"

Revving an engine, a bike carrying 'hope' dashes into the future.


________


"Until we meet again!"