Chapter Text
The rain was starting to pick up as the sun got closer to setting. The streets were dark and gloomy, no lights from the shops or streetlights to illuminate the small street's features. Once the sun would set, there’d be no way to figure out if you were about to hit a curb or even a wall. The city was truly abandoned and cut out by the outside world.
Although, as the rain continued to fall faster and harder, it was easier to hide the sounds of footsteps. Assuming you weren’t a soldier in a group, holding a rifle, uniform with all sorts of things strapped on, and a gas mask to avoid breathing in any spores that weren’t already taken care of. Because then being quiet would be impossible.
“It’s going that way!”
One of the soldiers yelled over the sound of his own group’s footsteps.
“Since when the hell did they run?”
Another spoke up, trying not to trip as they tried to understand their situation.
“What, are you getting tired?”
The third teased.
“Huh? No? Wha-Is this not a brand new behavior? A zombie running away? I mean, it ran out of a clothing store!”
“He’s right,” The fourth and final member spoke, “But regardless of this, all that matters is extermination. We’re still trying to reopen Shibuya. And considering the containment protocols the government took, this should be the only time we deal with this.”
“Aren’t you confident?”
The third asked, hoping for a better understanding of this situation, but was quickly cut off by the one in front.
“Dammit! It turned the corner towards the border. Move it! We can’t lose any of them.”
ーミクー
The footsteps of the death stampede behind her was relentless. They’d had to have been running for a long enough time for Miku to not ever remember this part of Shibuya from her many disguised walks. This had to have been far from her home and Scramble Crossing, after all that’s where her and her friends would normally stroll.
The distance ran was starting to catch up to her legs. Even in death, or undeath, or whatever this state of living was, her body would ache. She just needed to find somewhere to hide. Immediately she was thinking about dodging into the next alley, but white beams of light started to reflect off of the wet street around the corner she just passed.
Without much of an idea on what else she could do, she ran to find the next alley. Which at her inconvenience was at the end of the street where it became a dead end. So either she’d have to find the perfect hiding spot, or beg not to be shot. Though, it didn’t seem like the majority of that party behind her would care about her not being brain dead. So hiding was really the only choice.
She grabbed onto a railing that led to the entrance of the building by the alley to help redirect her motion towards the alley so that she didn’t have to stop herself and then run, or accidentally trip and miss the alley in favor of the wall right ahead of her.
At least what she did helped her to trip onto an old mattress in the alley. Letting out a small exclamation as she fell onto it and bounced back up slightly so that when she landed, her head almost missed the mattress. As she took a moment to recognize how badly that could’ve just ended, she heard a nearby groan. A generic one that reminded her of another way her life could’ve badly ended.
As she sat up and held a hand up to her head to stabilize and reorient herself, she saw the top of a torso sticking out from under some clutter. It was hard to see anything in the alley, but she could assume it was trash or something. The sight tugged at Miku’s heart, even though the other zombie wouldn’t be able to talk or react like they likely used to in their past life. She almost wanted to take the other’s hand, to help them, maybe reassure them. She hadn’t really encountered a sight like this before, normally zombies weren’t stuck and still alive.
“One of you, stay at the entrance to this street. Everyone else, check the clutter by the street, it could be trying to hide from us.” The leader’s confident order was met with a few “Mph”s of acknowledgement. And Miku started to really understand that she had little time.
“Sorry.” She whispered towards the zombie before she looked around the alley for anything. And then she spotted a ladder above the trapped zombie. It looked like the side of an apartment building, with the ladder leading to a balcony. All she needed to do was release it from up there so that she could reach it.
She looked back towards the ground of the alley, and luckily the flashlights’ quick movements reflected every direction and flashed a step-ladder next to the zombie. This alley was already weird enough. Trash bags and now a step-ladder? What did people do back here anyways?
But she didn’t have any time to think about these things, every second brought her closer to removing the first two letters from ‘undead’. She quickly scrambled up from the mattress, grabbing the slippery handles of the step ladder and moving it under the balcony’s ladder.
She quickly looked down to watch her feet as she stepped up, trying her best to avoid falling. Her body was much easier to scrape, and she only had so much thread left in her skirt’s pocket. And she wasn’t too fond of attempting to stitch herself up without honey. It nullified some of the pain, and needles were quite painful at full force.
As she looked up at the ladder, she saw one of the soldiers crouched while searching some of the clutter across the street. Seeing any of them this close was terrifying. Just knowing that all it takes is a little noise just for them to turn around and shoot. It didn’t matter that she wouldn’t be able to return to her idol career, it mattered that she felt the need to live. As if there was something for her beyond this.
“Nothing…” The soldier grumbled, uncrouching and moving back towards the entrance of the street.
Miku took a deep breath to steady herself, which didn’t really do too much as she didn’t have a heart that needed soothing, looked back up at the ladder, and jumped. She could feel the front of her shoe slip slightly on the stool after she had already thrown herself towards the ladder. It wasn’t enough to affect her jump, but it unsettled her how bad that could have been.
As her right hand hit the ladder she tightly shut it around the metal bar, the impact making a small sound that was drowned out by the rain. Miku reached to grab the bar with her other hand and took a moment to let out a sigh of relief. She was about to escape them, or at least make much more distance than she currently had.
Until the ladder slipped down and clanged a bit against the balcony.
Miku’s eyes widened, she tightened her grip on the bar. Silently begging for the soldiers to not have heard her, and for the ladder to stay still.
Only one of her wishes was heard by the universe, because the guards didn’t hear that first sound.
But that ladder did slip further down again. And hanging onto the bottom bars let Miku feel how much she could wiggle it around. This ladder had seen better days, but it wasn’t going to make it through the night.
“Wait, come on!” Miku quietly strained as she quickly moved to grab onto the next rung of the ladder. To which, the ladder slid down a bit further before momentarily getting caught on something. And without much of a choice she tried to pull herself up fast enough to grab onto the metal railing of the tiny balcony. As she leaped and grabbed onto it, she frantically tried to find footing. Which resulted in her kicking the ladder.
Scratch that, the ladder wasn’t only not going to make it through the night. It wasn’t surviving the first 30 seconds Miku touched it.
It landed upright onto the ground, letting out a loud metal clang and giving Miku a ringing in her ears. As the ladder carefully chose which direction to fall, it tipped towards the trash bags that trapped the zombie. Loudly hitting what sounded like glass bottles within the bags.
“Oh n- I-” Miku looked down with fright and some guilt. But before she could even consider saying sorry to the zombie after her immediate reaction-
“It came from the alley, everyone with me!”
Miku continued to look down at the zombie in shock before seeing the white beams of light get bigger on the ground in front of the alley. And the footsteps started to get much louder than the heavy rain.
She pulled herself over the metal railing, and caught herself when she fell onto the balcony flooring. She felt a slight numb pain on her hands and knees as she hit the surface. She grimaced, and looked in between the metal bars of the railing and saw the front of a figure’s head blurrily run into the entrance. She quickly crawled onto the other side of the balcony and laid flat on her back. Staring straight up at the bottom of the balcony above her. All she could do was wait for them to leave now.
“You see anything in there?” The third soldier asked from the start of the alley where he held his rifle up with the attached flashlight to see further down the cramped space.
The fourth who ventured into the alley kept silent for a moment as he looked over at the trash bags. Making out the outstretched arm and head of a human figure.
“Yep, zombie. This should be the one.” He calmly replied.
The other two soldiers’ footsteps caught up as the leader moved past the third, their shoulders hitting as he moved to look at the zombie being illuminated.
The third looked at the second who more cautiously approached the alley, and gestured towards the leader with an incredulous expression. To which, the other untensed and kept in a laugh.
“You sure this is the one?” Asked the leader.
“It’d have to be. It must’ve knocked over the ladder, which also knocked down trashbags on the way to hit him.”
As Miku listened to them, the flashlights allowed her to faintly see the reflection of the glass door next to her.
The leader nodded and stood straight up as he took a device out of his pocket. Biting the tip of his glove to take it off.
“I’ll mark this spot for clean-up then.”
The fourth nodded before toggling his gun’s safety and immediately firing.
Miku just stared up at the balcony above her with wide eyes. There wasn’t a second where they even acknowledged that the zombie was once a person. They just fired.
“Okay, let’s regroup with the other squads and review. Considering that this is the last section we’ve been ordered to clear, we should be done.”
“Wait? Like done-done?” The second asked with hope.
“Sure hope so. We’ve been clearing out this section multiple times a day for like a month now. If there’s a zombie still out here, I’ll be damned.” The third stated with much displeasure.
He nodded towards the fourth, both of them moving from the alley. The other two just stood there for a moment longer to take a breath.
The second looked at the other, “So you’re telling me we see a zombie come out of a clothing shop, and run away from us, and you just don’t think for a second that this is different?”
“I never said I didn’t.”
“You didn’t really acknowledge it either.”
He sighed, “Yeah, it was honestly kind of spooky. Guess I didn’t really want to.”
“What if that wasn’t even a zombie, but just another person who was trapped in this section?”
The third raised his eyebrows in surprise, then carelessly pointed his rifle towards the dispatched zombie, “No if’s. That was what we chased. And for a smart zombie, it wasn’t hiding. It was reaching out.”
“Oh. Yeah…”
The third chuckled, “But hey, if you want an apology or something. We could go out to that one club sometime. The rabbit one?”
“I- How does that make for an apology?!” He stammered.
“They have good drinks, and entertainment I hear.” He mocked.
“What did I do to be assigned to the same team as you?” The second muttered his complaint before the other laughed and left the alley. The second begrudgingly followed him.
Miku gave it a few more seconds before slowly pulling her knees towards herself as she sat up. She looked at the direction the men left in, and blankly stared at her knees. Surprised at how desensitized they were to killing a zombie.
She couldn’t really see much anymore as the soldiers’ flashlights no longer reflected from a distance. But she knew there was a glass door next to her. And it wasn’t like she would find any benefit from going back down.
She felt the shape of the spool of thread in her pocket and thought back to how much she had left. After she finished stitching herself up in the bathroom of the clothing store, she had a couple rotations of it left. It would probably be enough to stitch herself up again.
She balled her hand into a fist and moved parallel to the door. Moving her arm back before sending it straight through the glass door. Thank god it wasn’t thick or high-quality glass, otherwise her hand would probably be broken. But she felt a significant dull pain in her knuckles, and some lines on her arm. At least it was numbed.
She reached for the handle, being careful not to hurt herself further on the glass, and opened the door. She pushed it open, watching as it slowly creaked open. Once it lightly hit the wall and stopped, Miku stayed still as she listened for anything beyond the rain. But she no longer heard anything.
She stepped in and closed the door behind her. Looking into the room that she couldn’t make anything out within.
“I just need a mirror and light…” She sighed. Putting her uncut arm out and playing a suspenseful game of feeling around for furniture and hopefully nothing with a sharp edge.
Once she found the wall, she traced it with her fingers as she moved along it. Kicking what seemed like food bags, bottles, and cans. Her fingers eventually hit the corner, which startled Miku a bit. But all she had to do was the same thing again with this wall. Eventually hitting the rim of a door frame.
Miku raised her eyebrows with hope at what could be on the other side. Realistically it’d be another dark room, but the more she had mapped out in her head the better.
She traced the door with her hand before finding the handle and twisting it. Sliding her right foot back to make sure she wouldn’t trip on any trash before doing the same with the left so that she could open the door fully.
As the door finally passed her face, she could immediately see the other side of a hallway. A light illumination streaked across the walls and doors. Curiously, she stepped out into the hallway and looked at the direction the light seemed to come from.
A building across the street had its lights on. And almost immediately Miku felt that feeling of hope from earlier nearly bloom. It had been so long since she saw lights that weren’t from flashlights or lamps.
She quickly walked up to the window the light came from. An audible squish from her shoes and socks every step and rain water dripping from her body.
As she stared across the street and through the rain that had slowed somewhat, she saw that it was a hallway with an average spacing between doors. Not like the building she was in. It could’ve been a hotel or an apartment building, but all that mattered to her was that she could get somewhere with light.
It didn’t seem that any power was available in this building, or maybe the light switches were already switched off before the area was cut off from electricity. Regardless, Miku wasn’t going to risk going down blacked out stairs or getting stuck in an elevator. And the window was right there.
She put her hands on the inside edges of the window and felt around. Trying to feel if there was any way for her to open it. The light from the other building was making it hard to see with the contra-
Miku stared blanky towards where the window was, as it seemed the window would rather die than just open for a moment.
There was an audible crash. To which Miku stared blankly out the window. Normally a sound like that should mean run and hide. But, she was able to break open that glass door earlier without any interruption. Not to mention, the soldiers went the other way to rendezvous with the others. So surely she was safe. And if she wasn’t. Well, she’d have to run and just hope that the city helped her. Because she hadn’t recognized anything here yet.
Miku leaned her head out of the window, her pigtails resting on the sill as she looked at the smashed window below her on the ground. At least it wasn’t too big. The frame only being a bit larger than her head. But that also meant she’d have to squeeze through the space it previously occupied.
She went back and put her legs out, her front facing inwards, and pushed herself out. Holding on tightly to the window sill, which didn’t seem like it would do much good to hang onto for any longer.
She looked down at the ground, and noticed that she luckily pushed the window out a good distance to where the glass shards weren’t directly below her. She let go of the window sill and landed on her feet with a small thud. It wasn’t that far of a fall, she felt her legs softly groaning through her nerves, but she could still move fairly easily.
She then turned towards the building. It wasn’t directly across the street but rather across on the corner of the street, which was wider than the one she fled on. It looked like a nice area. Relatively clean too. Ignoring the broken glass.
Miku walked around the glass and onto the street, nearly hypnotized by the lights coming from the building. She couldn’t think about the numb pain on her arm or legs. All she could do was keep walking towards what might finally be something for her.
As she got close to the building she noticed a paper posted on the door. She walked up the few steps to the door and looked at the paper.
Cleared
On the bottom of it she could see a symbol that she could only assume was something to do with the government. Meaning that she reached a clean area. No longer in the dangerous part of the quarantine, but the place they won’t patrol again.
She looked down at her still bleeding arm. It wouldn’t do any good to track blood anywhere. She looked behind her to see that there was some noticeable bleeding. Hopefully they’d just see it as the cleaning crew failing. But Miku needed to fix this before heading inside.
Though, the apartment lobby’s lights were good enough for Miku to clearly see her arm outside. It also shone upon the front flower beds, which were discolored and sad from all of the neglect.
Miku went over to the flower bed and put her arm above the soil, reaching in her skirt pocket for the thread and needle.
She wasn’t the best with her left hand, but she knew the general motions. Hopefully that would help her to do a decent enough job.
ー
“And there.”
Miku wiped off her arm with her other hand and brought it to the front door where the light was the best outside. Her right hand was definitely dark now, but also had some new red stitched down it. Honestly, it wasn’t a bad job. Maybe not as perfect as the stitches she did with her right hand in the past, but it was definitely more than just passable.
She looked up from her no longer bleeding arm and to the apartment building. And then the realization dawned on her, what if the building was locked? If she broke a window, then they’d definitely have to investigate the building. Then she’d be found and killed.
She reached down to at least try the door.
“Oh.”
Miku was pleasantly surprised by the door moving smoothly in. Although, she didn’t want to waste too much more time being out here. Just imagining resting safely sounded like the best feeling there could be. Even if rest didn’t feel like it used to. Something about the routine was nice. On top of that, being soaked was starting to make her feel too cold and slow. Though, the front of the building gave protection from the rain, allowing Miku to have already dried off a decent amount. Dry enough for her shoes to not leave wet prints at least.
Upon entering the apartment she could immediately feel the temperature rise. It was a good feeling, or it was just the fact that it was different from the past year, or however long she was out there in the cold.
She felt as if there was something else she wanted to remember, but right now she just focused on what mattered. Getting into a room.
She looked around before spotting the long reception desk against the right wall. Without much understanding on where to find any room keys, she went behind it and searched through all the drawers.
There was nothing. Nothing besides random documents, which didn’t help a person outside of civilization.
Miku furrowed her brows as she looked around for anywhere else to check. The lobby only had unoccupied seats, dust, and an empty feeling. She could imagine people sitting around talking, and their faces, they were… She couldn’t make them out at the moment, all she could focus on was getting into a room nicely.
As she turned around to lean up against the desk, she noticed an employee’s only door at the corner of the wall behind the desk. And surely they kept the keys for the rooms in there. Right? That’d just make sense, there was no better spot.
Miku pushed off of the desk and walked towards the door, her hopeful expectation clear on her face. She grabbed the doorknob and twisted it, or at least tried. The knob only jiggled in response to the motion. And Miku responded back by trying again with more force. The only new result was more noise.
Miku let go and clenched her fists, glaring at the doorknob. But that only did so much to further her goal. The only thing she could really do now was try doors. Which sounded like a great experience, truly unforgettable.
She walked towards the hallway with the elevator. Staring down at the call button, before disappointedly turning around to take the stairs. All that mattered anymore was getting to a room, even if it took what was left inside of her. After all, she avoided eating anything living for the past year-or-so. So she only had so much stamina before she would go hungry.
ー
Miku was tracing the last hallway on the top of the building. She could feel her body slow, but at least her clothes were mostly dry now. And she was finally near the end, and closer to the likely realization that she would have to break into one of the rooms. Didn’t stop her from hoping, a trait she kept from before everything. In fact, she held on so tightly to what she was. Or at least what she remembered herself as.
She twisted the knob of yet another door, having already anticipated the sudden stop from the lock. It didn’t even disappoint her anymore. At least the apartments were safe to live in, right? So that was nice… Not helpful to her, but helpful to any future residents.
As she walked to the other side of the hall to try the opposing door, she noticed a new sight from the corner of her eye. Her hand hovered above the doorknob as she turned her head to see a shape on the floor at the end of the hallway.
She dropped her hand as she walked towards it. A hopeful glimmer returning to her eye. The fact that there was something out of place, could it be a key? Could it please be a key?
. . .
It was a piece of cloth.
Miku stared down at it, not sure how to react to her shattered expectations. It was her fault for hoping it was a key, or at least something helpful.
She sighed and crossed her arms and turned to look down the hallway she walked down. It hurt her head to think about how long she had really taken trying all of these doors. Then she realized that she didn’t remember which door she was at before coming over here.
She face-palmed, moving her hand to cover her eyes. She could just try the doors from this side and work back to where she knew she had checked. But this was so mind-numbingly boring. Checking doors again and again.
And yet, she felt like she had to get into one of these rooms.
She dropped her hand and turned to the door the cloth was in front of. And it was cracked open already. The light from the hallway shining onto the door in the apartment’s hallway.
Miku slowly snapped herself out from the daze she was in. Slowly moving her hand to push the door further until it was gently stopped by the wall. And she could see the lightswitch against the inside hallway.
“Anyone there?” Miku called out, if this door was open then it could be occupied.
. . .
“Reassuring…” Miku nervously murmured as she walked into the apartment and flicked on the lightswitch.
Immediately she could see the interior of the apartment. The left of the hallway opened up to a living room area, with a kitchen behind it. The right of the hallway continued the length of the living room before opening to the right, however it had two doors on it.
Miku opened the door on the left side, which was a washer and dryer stacked on top of each other. Then she opened the first door on the right, which was just an empty square room. It was somewhat spacious, probably fit for an office space or something of the sort. The second door opened to a bathroom with a shower/bath to the side. It was simplistic, but pleasant in that way.
Honestly, just seeing clean rooms was a nice sight. It had been so long since Miku found an untouched room. Let alone one that wasn’t locked up. However, the lack of anything decor-wise was boring. Not like the little room Miku had set up at the clothing store. She had merchandise of herself and friends. It was quite colorful, unlike this.
With the original reason for her being to find a mirror, she didn’t waste time exploring the rest of the apartment. She stepped into the bathroom, found and flicked the lightswitch, and walked to the mirror above the sink to look at herself. Her red eyes scanning the image in front of her.
Her skin above her nose was a darker color above the stitch line. The pink lines connecting the pale and slightly green skin paired nicely color-wise. And her skin still looked normal besides its differing colors and stitches. At least it wasn’t rotting like the other zombies. And her hair was the same tealish color, but the tips were now pink, as if they were dip dyed. Her pigtails were shorter now, but that was for convenience. Having long pigtails wasn’t worth it in the quarantine, especially since the zombies couldn’t even appreciate it.
And then there was the whole mushroom crown thing.They were just on her head and stuck out of her hair in a ring shape. They were red-to-pink, and still confusing to her. She didn’t even understand what they were there for. All that made sense was that it was the giant mushroom on the building that infected people with spores, and that they came from that. But these mushrooms only seemed to be an accessory that Miku couldn’t get rid of.
Her graphic crop top was still faintly damp, causing it to stick to her skin. However, the pink on the short sleeves matched her pink hair tips, and the color around the zombie heart on the front matched the lighter parts of her skin. It was a cute outfit, but if she understood that it was raining and there were soldiers patrolling tonight she definitely wouldn’t have picked to wear this.
After looking at her immediate appearance, she pulled the thread out of her pocket to put on the rim of the sink. Careful to avoid poking herself with the needle that was tightly tied to the spool with the remaining thread. Then she took off her wet crop top and skirt, putting them on the side rims of the sink to help them dry further. Then she stepped back until she could see most of her body in the mirror. Raising her arms and rotating as she kept her eyes on the mirror.
This was a part of a routine to make sure she didn’t let herself bleed out. Blood didn’t seem to clot like it used to. It wasn’t like hemophilia, but it definitely wasn’t like a normal person. And because injuries were harder to feel, the only way to truly make sure she wasn’t cut was to check herself. And if she was, stitch herself up. Normally honey was involved in the process because it just, sorta helped. Somehow it would numb the sharp needle feeling, which was the only feeling besides major injuries that was very noticeable to Miku.
The amount of stitches in Miku’s body helped to show how uncomfortable the quarantine was. And the way the skin was a different shade across each stitch line, it looked like some weird art.
But at least tonight there wasn’t anything to worry about. She was fine. Her body was faintly aching, but that was just from all of the activity today. It’d go away. Probably.
She lowered her arms and walked back to the sink, moving to pick back up her clothes before stopping and looking over at the shower. Yet another wish in her mind, one that was once again reaching too far from realism.
“If there’s power,” She spoke softly as she moved and reached to turn the lever in the shower, “Then there’s water,” She smiled as water did start shooting out of the shower head.
She put her hand under the stream, which was cold, but she had already bathed in cold water. Although, this water was clean, or it at least looked like it was.
She briefly giggled, “What a stupid thing to say.”
It reminded her of someone.
ー
As Miku exited the bathroom with no dirt on her skin, she walked down the hallway to check out the rest of the apartment. She had already seen the living room and kitchen, but she didn’t see the room that was at the end of the hallway. It wasn’t separate from the kitchen and living room, and it was vacant as the rest of the building. Just a bed in the corner of the apartment, and a large closet that took 4/5ths of the wall opposite of the windows and bed.
Without much else to do, Miku went to the sliding closet door and tried it, unsuccessfully.
“Huh?” Miku furrowed her brows and tried tugging it to the side again.
“Seriously?”
And again…
“Come on!”
And again…
After the fourth time, Miku let go and took a step back. Looking at the sliding door for anything that would stop it from opening. But there was nothing. Meaning that it had to be something inside.
She gave up for the moment, looking at the opposite wall. Looking through the window at the horizon. It was big, and between the bedroom area and the kitchen was a door. Obviously a balcony door. The rain had stopped, so there wouldn’t be much harm in checking it out.
As when she entered, exiting had presented her with a noticeable temperature change. It was nice though, nothing bad.
The balcony was spacious, stretching along the apartment room. A wall on the right where the next room’s balcony would be, and just a railing on the left that connected to the building. Which made sense considering this was the last room on this side.
Miku looked across the horizon. It felt like she could make out a familiar layout of some buildings far off, but she couldn’t remember what they were. The reason she could remember the layout was the view from her old home.
Suddenly, multiple memories came back to Miku. She could remember talking with her friends at her home. And watching the sunset from her own balcony with Teto.
“Teto…” Miku murmured, “Wait a second!” Miku suddenly remembered more. It was her and Teto’s home. They lived together, and they loved each other. They’d watch movies and commonly invite the others in their idol friend groups over for hangouts and parties.
How could she forget for even a moment about her friends? Let alone letting the image of her love slip from her head. It had been a long time without anyone to actually talk to her, but even this was inexcusable. She couldn’t specifically remember what Teto’s touch even felt like anymore.
Miku rested her cheek on her palm and smiled as she reminisced about her past. About every single loved one. Kaito, Meiko, Luka, Rin, Len, Gumi, and Teto. She longed to know how each one of them were doing. To one day see them once more with her eyes, if even just for a fleeting moment. It’d be better than the merch versions of them all, which her quarantine home was filled with.
If only she had her phone and a charger still, then maybe she could’ve plugged it in here and could check on their careers. What was Magical Mirai without Miku now? Was Teto’s idol career as strongly independent as it was after Mezmerizer? So many questions.
And maybe it was too far of a dream, seeing them all again. And yet, that was who Miku was. Hopeful, even when the odds were stacked against her. What harm would it do to wish for these things?
“Oh?” Miku’s eyes opened wider as she saw a light in the sky. It almost looked like it was streaking, like a shooting star. And Miku’s red eyes shone like one when she assumed that. Clasping her hands together, closing her eyes, and looking down.
May I see all of my friends again.
Miku’s body slacked as she looked back up to see it, feeling relieved. Up until she realized that the “Shooting star” was actually a military helicopter. Then she quickly retreated back into the apartment.
She knew tonight couldn’t continue forever for her, it needed to end. But she began to feel comfortably warm inside with all the memories. She walked around the apartment again before returning to the bedroom area. Being left with the only good hiding spots being the closet or under the bed.
“Look at me, a monster hiding in a bedroom.” She smiled as she turned to the jammed closet. If she wanted to be hidden in this apartment building, which currently felt correct to her, the closet would be best.
She gripped the inverted handle of the closet and used her full strength to get the closet to open slightly. At the sight that it was possible to open this stubborn door, Miku grabbed the end of the door and pulled it until it stopped. Which wasn’t too much further. This wide closet was hardly opened compared to what it should be, but it was enough for Miku to squeeze through.
Surprisingly, the closet door was easy to close. And it was spacious enough for Miku’s shoulders to only lightly brush up against the door and wall.
She moved to the far side of the closet, sitting down against the side wall. Hugging her knees against her chest and resting her cheek on her upper arm with a hopeful smile.
“To the future.” She softly said before closing her eyes and letting go of her worries in favor of her fond memories.