Two hands interlocked fingers.
“Hey Yami! That’s all of them, so pull me out now!”
Yami, who was sitting in front of a computer, typed a command, then hit enter. He turned his head to the hospital bed that Alexis lay in. As the lights on the front of the helmet, which corresponded to the vitals of the helmet, turned off, Alexis slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times. Yami stood up from his chair and walked over to Alexis. Alexis smiled and sat up as he did so. Reaching to the sides of it, Alexis pulled off the helmet and handed it to Yami.
“All of my memories are backed up. I hope you don’t mind, but I took some time to relive some of my favorite ones.”
Yami set the helmet on the same desk that the computer was on, then walked back over to Alexis.
“I don’t mind at all. Were they as good as you remembered?”
Alexis looked down, yet continued to smile.
“Yes. They were maybe even better after I saw them again.”
Yami stretched, saw it was dark outside, then turned to face the clock.
“Well, it’s 10:30. You wanna head home?”
Alexis nodded.
“Yeah, just give me a moment to get dressed.”
Yami sat back at the computer and began to copy files to another hard drive, then turned off the computer. Reaching below the desk, Yami withdrew a flash drive that stuck out of the tower. Sliding it into his pocket, he stood up from his chair. He spun around to talk to Alexis, who had already put on all of her clothes, and was trying to tie her hair back.
“You ready?”
With a hair tie in her mouth, Alexis could only nod as if to say ‘yes’. Yami patted her back and led the way out of the room.
Driving down the expressway, Yami had his left hand on the steering wheel, and his right on the arm rest. Yami looked at Alexis, who was resting her head against the window with her eyes shut. Yami grinned.
“I love you, Alexis.”
Yami felt something warm grab his right hand. Looking at Alexis again, he saw her left hand resting on his right. Alexis opened her eyes.
“I love you, Yami.”
Sitting farther up in her seat, Alexis shifted her head to rest it on Yami’s right shoulder.
“I’ve never felt so… complete. Thank you, Alexis.”
----------------------------------------
Yami was in his old body, forming spheres in his left hand, and kicking up large rocks with his right foot. Slamming the sphere into the rock caused pebbles to fly and trees as if they were shrapnel. Taking a breath, Yami held out his pointer and middle fingers in his left hand as if he was about to poke someone, then swiped the to the right. A user interface appeared before him with controls. In order, they read:
Resume
Pause
Freeze
Auto-Pilot
Fast-Forward
Reverse
Notes
Exit
Yami tapped notes, then began to speak to Alexis.
“Hey Alexis! You said I should try this?”
“Yeah. It may be the next triangle for your Sirushi Inochi.”
“Okay, I’m going to try it. Keep searching for something, alright?”
“Yeah.”
Yami cracked his knuckles, then gripped his left forearm.
“So it’s just like those other two. If I just visualize my life essence like how they did, it may just be the next step to mastering my Sirushi Inochi.”
----------------------------------------
After typing some things into the computer, Alexis slipped on a pair of glasses. While no one could see what was behind the glass, Alexis could see perfectly well that she was in Yami’s memories. Pieces of Yami’s life since he became the Jinsei no Hogo flashed at Alexis. Her eyes took in every detail.
Alexis gasped.
Hitting a button on the side of the glasses paused the memory that Alexis was watching. Hitting another button on the side of the glasses and the memories began to go in reverse. She watched closely. It was the assault on the school. It was apparent that Yami had just begun to fight the hordes of people advancing on him as he wasn’t separated from the others.
“Everyone, are you still holding up fine?!”
Posche’s voice resonated as everyone responded.
“Yeah,” Shitto yelled.
“These bastards don’t give up, do they,” Shippai replied.
Yami cut through three people as he ran into Posche. Alexis paused it.
“Hey Yami!”
Yami looked up from where he was standing, which had become singed.
“What’s up?”
“I think I found something. I’m sending the memory and timestamp.”
Yami opened his UI, and, as Alexis said, there was a message from a sender simply called ‘HQ’. Yami tapped it, and was dragged backwards to the exact moment that Alexis had paused. Yami looked around, but didn’t see anything special.
“Look at Posche’s chest!”
Yami turned to see that, as Alexis claimed, there was a diagonal cut on Posche’s shirt that revealed another tattoo - another Sirushi Inochi. Excited, Yami opened ‘Notes’ and began to draw the pattern that was on his chest. It was a very simple one. It was three lines,which ran horizontal above one another. Closing his notes, Yami unpaused the memory. The slaughter resumed.
“Hey, Alexis. You feeling alright?”
Alexis was no longer at the computer. She was standing above a trashcan, coughing and spitting out the residue that the vomit had left in her mouth. Yami ripped off the helmet and ran up to her.
“Hey, you okay? What happened?”
Alexis tried to answer him, but instead began to throw up more. Yami held her hair and rubbed her back. As she stopped puking, she walked over to the sink and washed out her mouth. As she wiped her lips, she looked Yami in the eyes.
“How am I? How are you? I’m not the person who owns these memories, and even I’m traumatised by them.”
Yami sat down on the bed.
“I guess you could say that I have just gotten used to it.”
“Yami, if you ever need someone to talk to, you know… that I’m…”
Alexis tried to walk over to Yami, but stumbled and fell onto the ground.
“Alexis! Are you alright?!”
Yami rushed over to Alexis, who lost consciousness.
----------------------------------------
Alexis was blinded by the bright light as she opened her eyes. Wiping them, Alexis sat up to see Yami sleeping in a chair next to the hospital bed that she lay in. Feeling an annoying throbbing, Alexis reached up and touched her head, promptly feeling bandages wrapped around it. Looking back to Yami, she lightly shook him, but it was enough to wake him.
“Alexis! You’re awake? How are you feeling?”
Alexis’ lips moved, but hardly made any sound.
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“Alexis, you gotta speak up.”
“I said what happened to me, Sei?”
Yami shook his head.
“I’m Yami, and you fell and hit your head. Luckily we were already in the hospital, so we ran some tests and made sure you were okay.”
Alexis shook her head.
“No, you’re Sei, right?”
“Alexis…”
Knock knock knock
A doctor, dressed in all white, walked into the room.
“Why, good morning, Alexis! Glad to see you’re up! How are you feeling?”
“My head hurts, but aside from that, confused.”
“I don’t blame you. Yami, did you tell her what happened?”
“I was in the process of it…”
“Alexis, I have some good news, and some bad news. The good news is that you didn’t injure your brain when you fell, so aside from some bruises and a headache, you’ll be okay. However, when we were doing some tests, we identified some complications.”
“What kind of complications?”
Yami put a hand over his face and looked at the ground.
“I’m afraid you have some type of disorder in your brain. That is, your brain matter is becoming deteriorated, if not destroyed.”
“I don’t understand. So my brain is being… destroyed?”
“Yes. What this means is that overtime you will begin to lose memories, motor functions, and it may even be terminal. The fact of the matter is that we have no idea how to tackle this. We’ve never seen anything like it before, so we don’t know how fast it is acting, nor do we know if it will end.”
Alexis looked at her hands, then glanced over to Yami, who was sobbing in the palms of his hands.
“I’ll leave you to rest. You’re free to leave or stay in the hospital. I wish you the best.”
The doctor left the room and shut the door. Alexis looked at Yami.
“That’s Sei, right? Why is he crying?”
Alexis shook Yami.
“H-Hey, are you alright?”
Yami looked up at Alexis. He wiped his eyes.
“Y-Yeah. I guess you must not know who I am, huh.”
“You’re Sei, right?”
Yami nodded his head.
“Yeah, I’m Sei.”
“Why are you crying, Sei?”
Yami grabbed her hands.
“Because I’m your husband. I love you.”
“He’s my… husband?”
“Really? I didn’t know I was married.”
“Y-yeah, we are. We got married about a year ago. Do you remember when we first met?”
Alexis thought hard for a moment, but drew a blank.
“I don’t know, Sei.”
“Do you remember what we were working on?”
“No.”
“Do you feel okay to walk?”
“Yes.”
“Follow me, then.”
----------------------------------------
Yami opened the door to the hospital room with the machine and patted the bed.
“Lay down here.”
Alexis did as she was told, and laid on the bed. Yami turned on the computer and picked up the helmet. He walked over to Alexis.
“Can I put this on you?”
Alexis nodded.
“Alright.”
Yami pulled her up away from the bed so he could slide the helmet on. Making sure that it was put on right, Yami slid the helmet down onto Alexis’ face. She looked into Yami’s eyes. Yami looked back into hers. The two pairs of soft lips embraced each other as Yami kissed Alexis.
“I love you.”
Alexis nodded.
“I’m not sure why, but I love you, too.”
Yami walked to the computer and plugged in a flash drive.
----------------------------------------
“Where am I now?”
Two hands interlocked fingers.
“Wait a second, this is when Yami proposed to me. Am I in the memory helmet?”
Alexis swiped with her fingers, and as expected, the UI popped up.
“Yami! You here?”
“Yes. I’m here. Do you remember everything?”
“Yeah, and I know I have a disease. What is going on?”
“I’m not sure, but I think that somehow… somehow the memory helmet corrupted your brain.”
“So what can we do?”
Yami was silent.
“I-I’m sorry, Alexis. I don’t think there’s anything we can do.”
Alexis forced a smile.
“Well, I’d rather die like this. Old and experienced.”
“I’m so sorry. If I’d have been more careful - no, if I wouldn’t have dragged you into all of this, then maybe…”
Yami’s sobbing was heard from the ceiling of the living room. Alexis’ face became enraged.
“Yami Shinpai!”
Yami looked up at the computer screen, pausing his tears.
“I’m the wife of the Jinsei no Hogo! For you to dare say I shouldn’t have been involved in this is blasphemy! I love you, and I’d die for you a million times over, because I know you’d do the same!”
“I know, but if I’d only been more cautious, maybe none of this would’ve happened…”
Alexis sighed.
“Yami, you can’t blame this on yourself. We both knew the risks. You have to keep moving forward. You aren’t even part of this world, so you need to focus on getting back to your own world, okay?”
A faint reply answered her.
“Okay?”
Yami repeated his answer once more, only more loudly and certain.
“Yes ma’am! I will fulfill my duty as the Jinsei no Hogo to go back to my world and protect as many lives as I can!”
Alexis smiled and shed a tear.
“That’s more like it.”
The couple sat in silence for a few moments.
“So, Alexis, what do you want to do?”
“What are my options,” Alexis asked defeatedly?
“You can choose to stay in the helmet and retain your memories and thoughts until you die, or you can leave the helmet and live the rest of your life without strong memories and weakened motor functions. Staying in the helmet may seem better, but you’ll, in all honesty, die faster.”
Alexis shook her head.
“There’s no decision to be made. I’m staying in and helping you until the very end.”
Yami nodded.
“Alright. Let’s try to do this. I need help finding the Sirushi Inochi that was used on me. Can you investigate my last memory and try to determine what it looked like and where it was?”
“I’m on it.”
Alexis was dragged into Yami’s memories, just after Shinkai killed the mayor. She gasped for air, then looked up at Shinkai. She ran at her, and sure enough, the memory reset.
“I have to try to see if she uses a hand, a leg, ANYTHING.”
Alexis ran at Shinkai again, but she seemingly stood still.
“Damn it! What is it?!”
Attempting to run at her again, Alexis fell onto the ground, out of breath.
“My brain is already shutting down! I need to at least do this much!”
Alexis reset the memory and ran at her again. Just as the memory was beginning to reset, a look of shock ran across Alexis’ face.
“Hey! Alexis! You okay?!”
Yami put on the glasses, then pulled out a cable from a drawer. Plugging the cable into the helmet, then into his glasses, Yami powered on the glasses. He awoke standing next to Alexis. He kneeled down next to her.
“Hey! Are you okay?”
Alexis opened her eyes. She opened her mouth and attempted to speak, but no sound came out.
“Alexis, are you okay? Please, tell me you’re fine!”
“I have to tell Yami. With the last of my strength… Yes. With the last of my strength, I will help Yami one last time!”
Alexis’ arm slowly started to lift. She began to point, then continued to lift her arm.
“It was her... “
“Eye.”
Alexis’ finger was pointing directly at her own eye.
“Thank you, Alexis.”
Alexis smiled.
Yami watched as her lips moved.
“Yeah, I love you too.”
With one final kiss, Yami laid her on the ground.
“I’ll see you in a better place, Alexis.”
----------------------------------------
12 years later…
“Yami Shinpai’s marvelous release of his decades of research has continued to pay off as the first affordable cure for cancer has been released globally!”
A hand clicked a button on the remote, causing the TV to turn off. Yami stood up from his couch and walked over to the kitchen, where he prepared a cup of coffee, which he enjoyed while reading the newspaper.
“Extinct species are being brought back to life after applying ‘Universal Element’ research!”
Yami set down the newspaper and put the coffee cup in the sink. Walking out of his house, he promptly locked the door behind him and entered his car. Driving down the road, Yami pulled into a large cemetery. Pulling onto the side of the road, Yami turned of his car and exited it, making sure to grab the bouquet of flowers, then began to walk down one of the rows of headstones. Finally, he stopped in front of one headstone. The name read ‘Alexis Shinpai’. Yami set down the flowers.
“Hey, Alexis. Today’s our anniversary, so I figured I’d give you some flowers.”
Yami looked up at the sky.
“I think it’s been long enough. I’ve done as much as I can in this world, and now it’s time for me to return to mine. But…”
Yami began to tear up.
“You made this world a blessing in disguise, Alexis. I can never forget what happened here, and I know that we will meet again, someday.”
Yami set his hand on the headstone.
“I love you, Alexis.”
----------------------------------------
Yami opened the door to his house. Closing the door behind him, Yami took off his coat and his shoes, neatly setting them next to Alexis’ old clothes. Calmly walking up the stairs, Yami walked into his mother’s old room.
“Goodbye, mother.”
Yami walked into his room. Shutting the door behind him, Yami turned on his computer and plugged in the flash drive with Alexis’ memories. Then, Yami put on the helmet and laid down on his bed.
“Goodbye, world.”
Yami shed a final tear as he powered on the helmet.
----------------------------------------
Yami drifted through Alexis’ memories, absorbing them and becoming entranced with them. Yami wiped his eyes as he saw her point of view on all of their significant points in their relationship. Than, a new memory which Yami had never seen before appeared.
Alexis stood up and waved to Yami.
“Hey, future Yami! This isn’t a memory of mine, but rather a quick thing I did. I implanted this in my memories right before I died, so I could tell you how I felt forever, whenever you needed it.”
Yami began to tear up.
“Alexis…”
“Since I met you as Sei, then as Yami, I knew I’d love you. I knew I’d do anything for you, and I followed the will of my heart until the very end. Yami, I don’t have much more time, so I just wanted to say two things. The first being that my death isn’t your fault. I know you, and even though we talked about it, I know you’ll still hold resentment against yourself, because that’s just how caring you are. Nothing would’ve stopped me from dying, Yami. We all do one day or another, so I’d rather it be helping you than dying in my sleep with no one beside me.”
Yami began to cry profusely.
“The second thing I wanted to tell you is that I love you. Forever and always. I’ll be by your side wherever you go, and don’t forget that. I can’t wait to see you on the other side, Yami.”
Alexis’ hand reached towards Yami, but her image disappeared just as she reached him.
“Alexis…”
Yami rubbed the tears off of his face, then became determined.
“I will win. For you.”
----------------------------------------
Yami pulled himself to his last memories.
“Yami!”
Rikai ran up to Yami’s body which lay on the cold, hard ground. His face was petrified.
“Yami, what’s wrong?! Get up!”
Shinkai laughed maniacally.
“This is the best part! He fell for it the moment he looked into my eyes! In about ten seconds after making eye contact, he’ll have spent 100 years in my Sirushi Inochi! I absolutely love the look on peoples’ face as they awake in this world after being dead in another!”
“What was that?! My memories are supposed to have stopped at that moment! Why this? Could it be that… time itself hasn’t stopped in my world? She said I’d have spent 100 years in this world… So that means I still have about 40 more years to spend here… No. I’m not going to waste any more time.”
Yami cracked his neck and began to adjust to his old body again.
“I will win.”
----------------------------------------
Rikai’s chest was pounding as she stood over Yami.
Shinkai laughed maniacally.
“This is the best part! He fell for it the moment he looked into my eyes! In about ten seconds after making eye contact, he’ll have spent 100 years in my Sirushi Inochi! I absolutely love the look on peoples’ face as they awake in this world after being dead in another!”
“What are you talking about?!”
Shinkai had an evil grin.
“You’ll see in about two seconds.”
Rikai closed her eyes and counted in her head.
“One Mississippi… two Mississippi.”
Yami’s eyes opened.
“Yami,” Rikai screamed!
“This isn’t where my memories end. This is the real deal.”
Yami pushed himself off the ground, then pulled out his knife. He slashed three horizontal lines on his chest, then clapped his hands together and poured all of his thoughts into them, then slapped one of the hands onto the marks, encoding it with life essence. He then used the knife to begin cutting around his eye. The pattern he carved appeared to look like the outline of an eye wrapped around twice. Then, Yami grabbed the katana.
Yami shed a tear.
“I’m back.”