redacted ★ for sisi

[infreefall]

[ Everyone leaves the Realm with a few momentos of their time there. The PHS goes everywhere with Ochako lest she miss a message, kept in her bag next to the insignia pin from Claude’s uniform - both reminders that while her friends are far away, while they may not be able to see each other again for some time, they’re still there, never truly gone. There’s a jian tucked away in the furthest corner of her closet, an attempt to avoid questions even as it inspires Ochako to take kendo classes when she has the time to spare, so that if the day comes that she needs it again, she will be able to wield it well.

There is the silver butterfly, always somewhere within sight. Even when she returns to class, when the sheer normalcy of being back in school like nothing ever happened makes Ochako wonder if the Realm was just some crazy nightmare, the flutter of silver wings catches her eye from the classroom windows, a comforting presence that brings a small smile to her face. She talks to it sometimes when she’s alone, as if Hua Cheng himself might hear it and offer an answer from another world - mostly about how strange it is to have to go right back to everyday life, without any of their friends from the Realm at her side. Funny how she’d gotten used to that so quickly, but readjusting to normal things is turning out to be a struggle.

In the middle of telling the butterfly how hard it is to remember what she was doing for the English essay due this week after eight weeks spent in the Realm, it shatters, and Ochako’s heart stops. For a few long, agonizing moments, all she can do is stare in horror at the place it had been sitting on her desk as the last fragments of silver begin to fade. Then she lunges for her bag, frantically digging out the PHS and searching for the right app. Never did she think that this would be the reason she’d make use of it, as she looks Xie Lian and Hua Cheng’s world and, despite all the promises she’d made to everyone else, immediately enters to look for them. ]

Xie Lian! Xie Lian, did something happen? The butterfly - Is Hua Cheng-san okay?

[ Just looking at Xie Lian will probably be enough. There are no words that she can think of to offer - it was all supposed to be over, after the Realm. They were supposed to be okay. So she gives the only comfort she knows how, throwing herself at Xie Lian to hug him as tightly as she dares. ]

Comments

[dianxias]

[ oh, no, ochako, your timing.

for the sake of kindness, we'll say that the world uber won't give her the exact moment - it's rather a little while after. when ochako appears in xie lian's world, she appears not in the place where that butterfly first disappeared, but rather, in a run down building that must be someone's home. there's a recently patched hole in the wall, and a breeze whistles quietly through the cracks between the boards, but there's no doubt that this is xie lian's beloved puji shrine, and the owner of said shrine, is...

...well, he's here. the sudden arrival of someone in the shrine was unexpected, but he's finding it hard to properly react to it. xie lian looks like... he looks like a mess, honestly, beaten up and bruised, though his healing is moving so quickly that they're rapidly changing and fading in color, and his hair is down instead of in its usual half bun. when he looks up from where he's sitting, it becomes almost blatantly obvious that his eyes are puffy and red, like he's been crying. ]

...Miss Ochako...?

[ and that's all he really has time for, before she throws herself at him in a hug.

her panicked question, the warmth of her hug - xie lian's heart lurches, as he thinks of the answer, and he focuses instead on hugging her back, lifting his arms and curling his fingers in the fabric of her shirt at her back.

he closes his eyes, for a moment. takes a deep breath, in and out.

all banquets in this world must come to an end, your highness. ]

...He's not here right now. [ xie lian says, quietly. because that's what he has to believe. he has to believe that's it. his voice stays gentle as he speaks, aching. ] I'm sorry.