hi, welcome to something i've been writing on my own. sorry it took this long, and don't worry, i'll get back to stargazer too. i wouldn't say i've been busy, more like distracted (see: drakengard, drakengard 2, and umineko), so i apologize for that. hopefully this makes up for that!

fun fact: this was originally intended to be kotoumi.

spoilers: it's not

A cold winter's breeze blew across a desolate land. There was very little green to be see, in fact, everything was covered by a gray debris from the fallen buildings that had long ago given in to gravity. The wind only made it look even more pathetic, carrying up debris into mini-cyclones, creating the only visible life in sight.

A hand twisted the blinds of an intact building shut. Averting her eyes from what was going on outside, Umi Sonoda walked over to another room of the former house, to what was probably an office.

"I closed the blinds, no one's out there," Though the comment was meant for the two women working on the suspicious machine, they obviously had been too absorbed in their work to hear it. Sighing, Umi added: "Do you guys want anything?"

Cursing in some foreign language, the blonde-haired woman looked up. She straightened her labcoat, and elbowed the other woman working with her.

"I'm fine myself. Maki, do you want anything?"

"Preferably a break. But I suppose beggars can't be choosers." The resting bitch face, which was Maki's default expression, always made the younger girl look older than the other two, despite the fact she was the youngest. "Damned thing won't even turn on now. We must've blown something. Eli, hand me a spare cable."

"You two need to be more careful with these," Umi sighed, looking over at their supply. "If we blow too many then-"

"Yeah yeah, limited amount, we know," Maki replied, a little oddly as she was bent in an odd position, most likely trying to plug the cable in where the other one had died.

"Maybe you should get her some coffee?" Eli looked over and Umi and smiled apologetically for Maki's behavior. "She's probably just tired. I don't think she's slept well recently."

"I don't think any of us have slept well for a very long time."

"Honoka, wait up!"

"No way, Umi, we'll miss it! We'll miss them!"

Who was "them"? Where were they going?

"Honoka-chan, please slow down!" Heavy breaths and panting. It seemed they were… going somewhere important? And following behind someone, too…

"Look, look! It's A-RISE! Aaaah, they're so cool…!" A-RISE? Wasn't that some idol group? They must've been really popular back then, huh? Well, it was to be expected. They were an idol group after all. Those things practically caught fire back then.

"Woah… their costumes are so... intricate! I'm so jealous…" That voice seemed out of breath, judging by the breaks in between the sentences. Whoever this came from probably wasn't an athlete. "Those are some expensive materials too!"

"But the dance moves are the best part! They're all like BAM and KYUUN!" Shuffling of feet meant the person talking was trying to imitate those dance moves. "Oh, oh! And this part, with the jump- aaaa!" Thud. Seems they fell down.

For some reason, it felt like Umi was trying to withhold a laugh at the sight.

She didn't wake up in a cold sweat, but she definitely felt uncomfortably warm. Exhaling loudly, Umi kicked off her covers and stood up. The fans wouldn't be working; they were already expending most of their electricity on the machine in the office, as well as a few other utensils so they could make and store food. Walking past the other rooms, Umi couldn't resist the urge to peer into her friends' bedrooms. Maki's was the first one she reached, and the door was shut tight. Turning and tugging on the knob resulted only in resistance, so it seemed like glancing into Maki's room while she was sleeping was out of the question. When she walked a little ways further, to Eli's room, she found the door to be slightly cracked. Due to the machine in the background, there was always a light on somewhere in the middle of the night in the hall. Meaning the reason Eli's door was ajar was…

She's still afraid of the dark. Every member of their friend group knew this, but Nozomi went out of her way to exploit it. She was one of the few people that could get Eli to face her fears.

Umi shook her head. Reminiscing in the past only brought pain, but often she'd accidentally (Or maybe on purpose? Even when Maki explained the "subconscious" she could never wrap her head around it.) let her mind wander. That's probably what happened to her mind while she was sleeping, and dreamt about her time in high school. That dream was about a day Honoka had told her and Kotori to be up extra early because she didn't want to even risk missing-

Ah, that again. She really needed to stop that. That was eight years ago. Eli (jokingly) said that if they kept talking about everything before the big war, they'd turn into old hens.

Eight years ago, I couldn't have even imagined things would get this bad.

She wandered into the room where the machine lay, and picked up some blueprints. Maki would probably be yelling at her now, saying that reading with no lights was going to ruin her eyesight.

I can't believe I let that girl lecture me, she'd slumped down in a swivel chair. What kind of senior am I?

The plans were for the machine, naturally. A time machine, to be blunt ("Why a time machine? It's more like a device, really."). It was Eli's idea initially. She and Umi had gone down the path of studying sciences in their university days, and mechanics weren't difficult to follow with a guide. They had managed to find Maki, through the Nishikino hospital, and convinced her to join them (with much resistance along the way, thanks Maki). The goal was fairly simple: send one of the three of them back before the war destroyed everything, and try and make sure it doesn't do that. Admittedly the plan was in progress as well, and was going to be put on hold until after the machine was finished. Hopefully there were not going to be any electrical sabotages in their future (fingers crossed).

Some of the prior plans for the build of the machine had proven to be too power-consuming or generally inoperable. There were a few comments scribbled here and there, and it was easy to tell who wrote what. Maki's handwriting, especially when she was aggravated, was downright atrocious, and barely legible half the time. Her commentary had a few profanities here and there, with a few of Eli's notes telling her to tone it down. Speaking of which, Eli's handwriting was extremely neat, only making Maki's look even more messy by comparison. To be expected of a former student council president, if Umi was to be honest.

It was probably those two that kept her going after all this time.

"FUCK!"

"Maki, language."

"Oh, my bad. I'm certain the debris outside will really lose sleep if I curse. I'll tone it down, sorry."

"I think. Think, as not to jinx it, that we finally finished this." Maki rolled back in the swivel chair and wiped her forehead. "What, no applause?"

"It was a team effort," Eli placed a hand on Maki's shoulder. "I think we should all be proud of what we accomplished together."

"Eli's got a point," Umi fished through some papers to find another document. "But we've got to move onto our next priority." She put a pencil to her mouth.

"Which is...?"

"Uh… 'decide who will make the journey back in time'." Everyone's face twisted. Despite over a year of working on the time machine (or device, as some people would put it), the conversation of who would go back in time had never taken place. They probably all knew, in the back of their heads, but decided not to speak up about it. Heck, they knew before the project even began, that sending more than one person back in time would probably not bode well with a recently-constructed time machine. Putting off this much-needed conversation had done more harm than good at this point.

There were a few moments of silence, with everyone trying to avoid each other's gaze. Maki coughed, Eli set down the mug she had been holding, and Umi removed her glasses. And finally, to break the awkward stalemate:

"I'll do it." The two girls looked at Umi as soon as she said the first word. Maki stood up, and opened her mouth to say something, but closed it and turned her gaze to the floor. Eli gave that smile, that one a proud parent would give their kid, and moved in to give Umi a hug. Umi didn't resist, but she did reach her hands up to pat Eli's head when she could feel the latter cry into her clothes. Stepping back from the embrace, the older woman's face shone with tears, though she still kept her smile.

"After we choose who goes back, what's in your plan?" Maki still didn't meet anyone's gaze. "The next step."

"...We'll need to resume the flow chart of what to do when we- I go back." Umi had been a bit taken aback at how to-the-point Maki had been.

"It's Maki's way of showing her concern," Eli said, under her breath. "She's not very good at showing her feelings."

Maki had been quizzing Umi on the flow chart for a whole two weeks now. Though it felt relentless, they both knew how vital this content was. And now, the younger woman was going over it for the last time. Eli, not too far from where this was happening, was tampering with a few things behind the machine, most likely double-checking all the equipment. When she got back up, she flashed a thumbs-up at Maki and Umi.

"Well, it looks like you're good to go," Maki set down the flow chart and pulled a pack of cigarettes from her pocket (a bad habit she'd picked up recently). Umi stood up slowly and walked over to the machine.

"You'll be fine. You've been studying the flow chart with Maki for two weeks straight." Eli reassured her, and guided her to the deeper part of the machine. "I'm sure it'll all be a cinch for you."

"Eli, get out of there. I'm about to turn this behemoth on."

Sighing, Eli complied with Maki, giving Umi one last wave before exiting, the doors shutting behind her. That meant Umi was left with only the sound of her breathing.

Suddenly, the engine began to whirr, meaning Maki had already started it. That girl was really blunt, wasn't she? She had always been like that. And Eli? She hadn't really associated until her own second year of high school. Eli Ayase had been the cool and collected student council president. Maki and Eli said they were aiming to send her near the beginning of her second year of high school. They wouldn't know her but she'd know both of them. That was going to be weird, introducing herself again.

All too quickly, she felt tired. It was expected (she'd been working on the machine since forever ago, so she knew this would happen eventually), but it still felt sudden nonetheless. Umi sat down, knowing not to fight the drowsiness if she wanted this to be simple.

Her vision then faded to black.

"Honoka, wait up!"

"No way, Umi, we'll miss it! We'll miss them!"

Was this a nightmare? It seemed like another nightmare.

"Honoka-chan, please slow down!" This had to be a nightmare. You were always running away from something in those, it was pretty obvious she was running.

"Look, look! It's A-RISE! Aaaah, they're so cool…!" Gah, it was bright! If she was running, then why the hell were her eyes closed?

"Woah… their costumes are so... intricate! I'm so jealous…" That voice...was Kotori's. The other was Honoka's. "Those are some expensive materials too!"

"But the dance moves are the best part! They're all like BAM and KYUUN!" Honoka was trying out some of those idol-esque dance moves. "Oh, oh! And this part, with the jump- aaaa!" And her feet came out from under her.

"Oh, Umi-chan, what's wrong?" Kotori was suddenly looking at her, her eyes wide open.

No, nothing was wrong. Maybe there was something her eye, because it sure felt like she was crying.