Interlude time! Gonna write one more interlude chapter before returning to the main story. He he he. Can you guess what will happen to Yuna? I mean, it's so obvious! Thank you, and enjoy.
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Back when Michael died on Earth, Yuna and Sam could not believe their eyes. They have always seen such events happening in the news… light novels… and other media. But when someone truly experienced the event… that was when they began to understand it. Yes, Michael died, and an extremely cliché death at that.
A week after his death was his burial. Sam and Yuna both came to mourn for their deceased friend. Yuna seemingly aged by at least ten years. Wrinkles appeared all over her face and her dried out eyes would appear to let the tears loose any minute. Astonishingly enough, even her hair had obtained a slight greyness. Needless to say, Sam didn’t look that much better. The death of Michael impacted their bodies a lot.
Another week had gone by and the two were walking together. They haven’t talked much to each other these past two weeks and were barely shuffling their feet forward with their heads low. After a long period of silence, Sam was the first one to initiate the conversation.
Sam: [He was a great guy, eh?]
Yuna: […Hmm?]
Sam: [I just said that he was a great guy.]
Yuna: [Oh… yeah.]
Sam: [I think both of you loved each other for a very long time before admitting to it.]
Hearing those words, Yuna’s head snapped upwards to look at Sam.
Yuna: [And what about you? Cracking jokes about how you loved him as well?]
Yuna could see how Sam’s brows dropped to create a serious face.
Sam: […That wasn’t a joke.]
Yuna: [Wait. You’re telling me you were gay all along?]
Sam shook his head vigorously before continuing.
Sam: [That’s not it. Even right now, I’m as straight as one could be. It’s just that… Michael was so… charismatic. He just attracted me to him and, over time, I began to feel something for him. I don’t think I’ll ever fall in love with a guy other than him. I’m pretty sure you understand how I felt about him.]
Yuna: [Yeah. Though he wasn’t the most attractive person, he had such a magnanimous aura. It felt so warm to me that I couldn’t just let him go like that. I still can’t believe he died.]
Sam: [Well, let’s think about it optimistically! You know how in his favourite light novels, the MC always gets hit by a truck and is then reincarnated into a world of magic.]
Yuna: [You mean…?]
Sam: [What if he also went though that route? It’s possible. Though it would be funny it he got reincarnated as a girl, ha ha!]
Yuna: [Don’t even joke about that!]
Sam: [Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Yeah, there’s no way that would happen. By the way, didn’t he tell you about some fiction he read online before he died? What was that about?]
Yuna’s eyes opened widely. She didn’t think about her last moments with Michael. Quickly, she turned around to run to her house.
Sam: [Hey! Where are you going?]
Yuna: [Sorry! I need to check something out real quick!]
Yuna made a quick dash to her house. She needed to find it. It felt as if though that it was the only thing that still connected her to him. Maybe she’ll even find out the truth behind his death, although the chances for that are highly unrealistic. Still, she grasped at the miniscule amount of hope that was presented to her.
When she arrived home, she discovered that no one was there. She knew that her parents were at work, but it was strange that her brother wasn’t there. However, Yuna didn’t really have time to work about that before she dashed to her computer. Booting it up, she decided it was prime time to search the internet.
Yuna: ‘What was it called again? ‘Goddess of Beauty’, I think. It’s probably on the royalroad site. Let’s see… nothing? Why can’t I find it?’
Yuna spent about half an hour desperately searching for the fiction that Michael read before his death, but all her efforts were for naught. It was as if it had vanished off the internet.
Yuna: ‘Maybe the author deleted it because he thought it wasn’t good enough?’
It seemed that all her efforts were wasted. Yuna took a deep breath and sighed at her misfortune.
Yuna: ‘Looks like I won’t get to read it… wait a minute.’
Even though it was deleted, Yuna still had a ray of hope left. She left her house and made a run to Michael’s house instead. Luckily, their houses weren’t that far apart, only a fifteen minute jog at worst.
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When Yuna arrived, she rang the doorbell to Michael’s house. Fortunately, Michael’s mother took off work to grieve for her son, so she was at home.
Mother: [Hello? Ah, Yuna. Do you need anything?]
Yuna: [Hello, Mrs. Klein. I just thought that I would check out something in Michael’s room that has been bothering me for a while. Is it okay for me to come in?]
Mother: [Sure. We haven’t cleaned up his room as part of our mourning… just make sure to not make it messy.]
Yuna: [Thank you. I promise to keep it tidy.]
When the two finished exchanging their greetings, Yuna went upstairs to Michael’s room. She knew where it was because he invited her to study with him and Sam multiple times.
Yuna: ‘Please don’t be off, please don’t be off. Phew, his computer is only in sleep mode. And luckily, he doesn’t have a password on it. Yes! There it is.’
When Yuna booted up his computer, the page that immediately popped up was the prologue of the fiction Michael read. Since he was in a hurry last time, Michael didn’t bother to turn off his computer nor close the page he was reading. As a result, even though the fiction itself was deleted off the internet, the page itself was cached, so his computer effectively saved the data. Utilising this fortune, Yuna read through the prologue.
Yuna: ‘It… was pretty good, though I feel like I expected more from it. Why did I think reading this would help me find out more about Michael? The deaths were quite similar though.’
In the end, Yuna felt disappointed, though she could only fault herself for that. She didn’t know why, but she was expecting something more from her efforts. But she realised that she was incorrect all this time, all she read was the prologue. It was nothing special, and it certainly wouldn’t bring Michael back to life.
Yuna descended down the stairs of her former friend’s house.
Yuna: [Thank you, Mrs. Klein. I was able to check out what was bothering me.]
Mother: [Not a problem, dear. Michael had such a crush on you when he was alive.]
Yuna’s heart throbbed when she heard that. All she could feel was an intense pain.
Yuna: [Goodbye, Mrs. Klein.]
Yuna exited the house. She didn’t know where to go. All the attachment she had left in this world was Sam. She felt hopeless and just wondered around aimlessly. At some point, she found herself at the riverbank that was near her school. She sat there to think about how she should live from now on. However, while being in thought, she noticed a familiar thing in the distance.
Yuna: ‘Is that…? No, it’s probably just something similar.’
On the other side of the river, she noticed a truck painted blue that was speeding across the road. Mysteriously enough, there weren’t any cars there at that time, so the truck stood out like a sore thumb.
Yuna: ‘I’m probably too concerned about Michael’s death. I keep visualising things that are connected to his death.’
Yuna shook her head to dispel her thoughts.
Yuna: ‘Still, it does look similar.’
Yuna kept observing the truck from a distance. She felt a connection to it, as if though it was calling for her. Suddenly, when the truck was parallel to Yuna, it swerved towards the river.
Yuna: ‘An accident? It’s going to sink!’
Then, the most unbelievable thing had happened that was beyond anyone’s imagination. When the truck hit the water, it began to ride on it. No, it wasn’t riding on water, it was gliding over it. Yuna blinked twice and rubbed her eyes to confirm that she wasn’t just seeing an illusion.
Yuna: ‘Wait a second! At this rate, it’s going to crash into me!’
Yuna began to get up so that she could dodge out of the way, but it was all for naught. Anytime, she would run to the side, the truck would turn towards her direction, as if though it was mocking her. It took a couple seconds, but the truck finally reached the riverbank. A split second later, and it rammed into Yuna herself.
Yuna was lying there, with her body smashed to a pulp. She felt as if though she was just about to lose consciousness. In her final moments, she was staring at the sky, watching the truck fly away in her final moments. Before she passed on, she uttered her final words.
Yuna: [What the heck… just happened…?]
With those final words, Yuna ceased to exist in this world.