NorikoPatricija holds you a little tighter, tight enough to feel ear pulse if y'know, she had one. Still she's pleasantly warm at least. Sure enough the hexagonal snow globe of Guantanamo Bay soon comes into view and with it, the resort held within.
"<Oh wow, I've never been here before. I tried visiting it a while ago, before they really started work on the resort but um, it really didn't work out.>"Some time agoThe gates were flimsy, utilitarian. A simple wire mesh topped with barbed wire. Fabric to hide the interior, guard tower to keep watch. Built from whatever materials they could scrape together, simple steel and plastic, concrete and cement. It seemed almost primitive. It was so ugly and yet, so flimsy, could this really keep the place safe? It looked like a simple fireball would blast through, let alone an Aramitama.
Two figures regard the gates. The first was a man sporting the powerful generically handsome build of an isekai protagonist, dressed in akubra hat and what could charitably be called military attire. At his hip was attached the harness locking him firmly to the ground, next to a boomerang and an awfully large knife. He was not the man the history books would remember him as and yet there was something unmistakeable about him, something about that glint in his eye. Standing beside was a young girl eyes filled with something a few shades more negative than wonder, a feeling not quite disappointment but still rather appalled, the crown on her head, an internet connection in her brain.
"<Are you sure this is Guantanamo Bay?>""<It is the only one I know of.>"That, that couldn't be right. The air felt dead here. It was hot, humid, and yet she couldn't help but feel cold. There was no magic here, no mana in the air. Her charms had broken, her clothing had lost their lustre, even the snacks she brought for the two of them had crumbled into dust, sawdust to be exact. This barren empty land, this, was Earth. The cradle of civilization. To think people lived here, to think that to many this was all they knew.
A muffled scream breaks her reverie.
"<I don't think this is the right place...>""<...Mistakes may have been made.>"With a shrug and some deal of confusion the two turn around and go back the way they came, and in the distance a soldier cries out
"<Holy shit, is that Harold Holt?>"And now back to our regularly scheduled broadcastYour flight slows, the rush of the wind becoming a gentle sea breeze as the descent begins.
Home. Home for now at least. You feel another pang of worry in your heart. Is Kouta safe? Will he be okay? If something happened... if something happened, Ren should be able to take care of it. She's capable, clearly experienced and well, she probably knows what it's like to worry... that girl at the hospital, that girl she was watching over. That girl she's left behind to help guide you. You doubt she'd take it lightly. If something happened, you would probably know by now. Enn and Winter, they, you, you can't call them reliable. Their focus is always elsewhere, some other call some other problem, but they, well, they
care. They care unlike so many others in your life. If something did happen, they would tell you even if your comms unit is missing, even if you left your phone behind. That, you're sure about it. And yet, and yet, you can't shake that feeling, that something could be wrong, that lingering anxiety in your chest. It's, well, it's not
just your Awakening is it? The confirmation that your nightmares really were real, that newfound power that you're pretty sure came with the ability to parallel process your own damn worries too.
No, things, well, things never have been very good have they? Family to family, foster home to foster home, you've started over, over and over again,
maybe this will be the time you thought, a faint hope that grew only fainter. Running away with Kouta, that was probably the best decision you could have made, but it sure didn't feel like it at the time. Where the hell would you live? How would you get food? How would you survive? How, how? It was not an easy road and yet you made it work, one way or another, and what moments of happiness you've had since, you've guarded zealously, because you knew damn well how easy it is for it all to be taken away again.
It's hard, to forget those instincts, those inclinations, because as painful as they are, they probably kept you alive during those times. Something like that anyway. You know it's irrational, but it is a part of you, and so you worry still. And so when you spy Kouta there, sitting on the shore, happy and excited in his own little way, you can't help but to breath a sigh of relief.
With a streak of white water, with a series of splashing trails, a stone skips across the water, thrown with supernatural force. There was Ren, standing beside him, evidently the source of the stones. She doesn't see you yet but you do see her as she produces something from her pocket, something small, dull, and metallic. She presses it against her chest quietly, almost solemnly, and without a word skips it across the waves, a pair of silver tags sinking into the sea, never to return.