.All "El-Hazard"
references are copyrighted by AIC and Pioneer. This is an amateur,
non-commercial story, which is not produced, approved of, or in any way
sponsored by the holders of the trademarks/copyrights from which this work is
derived, nor is it intended to infringe on the rights of these holders. Truly,
truly.
“I hadn’t even a single memory.”
“Then let me give you mine.”
Oblivion wasn’t all that bad, when you got down to it. There was something oddly comforting about drifting about aimlessly in sheer nothing. You didn’t have any duties to attend to. You had no meetings. You had no appointments. You had no orders to destroy cities and decimate populations. You could just close your eyes, relax, and…drift.
Of course, there were memories to contend with. Within your mind’s eyes they played over and over: the carnage, the destruction, the screaming, the smell of acrid smoke and burnt flesh. Knowing that these thoughts would be keeping you company for the next ten thousand years would most certainly result in madness.
Ifurita didn’t worry about this, though. She now had something else to dream about. She’d been given a most precious gift from dear Makoto, the boy she’d just left and was destined to meet in another time, another place, another dimension. But before their final parting, he had bestowed upon her…his life. His dreams and memories. These would comfort and strengthen her, and perhaps give her the courage to face the next hundred centuries of emptiness.
A gentle smile…the first one of her existence…spread across her lips as she drew those precious memories to her. Ifurita closed her eyes and let the images drift through her thoughts: she saw herself in Sensei Fujisawa’s classroom, sitting beside Makoto and giggling as the young man struggled to stay awake. Later, the young couple strolled lazily down the main street of town for the ice cream shop. And now she and Nanami were sitting in the stands as the Shinonome High School Track and Field Competition culminated in a fierce race that found Makoto the winner. And there was the night she and Makoto crept across the Jinnai family’s front lawn and climbed the old tree that sat beside the house. A quick climb later, they found themselves with a perfect view of the bathroom and waited for Nanami to take her evening bath…
What?
But much to their surprise, it wasn’t Nanami who entered the bath a few minutes later; rather, it was her brother Katsuhiko. Nonetheless they continued to watch breathlessly as he stripped down and began to bathe. Ifurita felt her heart pounding and her face growing red with excitement as she watched the young, slender body stretch and strain as he cleaned himself…
Ifurita stirred and shook her head. Strange. It must have been an odd dream. She closed her eyes again and returned to her dreams of Makoto.
The lovers smiled at one another as they snuck into Sensei Fujisawa’s classroom. The teacher was sprawled out on the floor, his love of sake once again getting the better of him. And best of all, he’d left the better part of a bottle behind. They could go out and enjoy themselves, then return the empty bottle before morning. He’d never know; he’d think he’d drunk it all himself, just like all the other times…
Ifurita shuddered, a soft whimper growing in her throat.
Such wonderful times they’d shared. The break-ins to steal the test answers and pad their grades. The bribe money to the various school clubs, all given in Katsuhiko Jinnai’s name though the dolt had no idea what was going on. The carefully-written notes that were placed in various boys’ lockers that extolled Nanami’s undying love for them. The night they and Alielle watched, stunned, as Afura Mann administered a stern spanking to Shayla-Shayla. All these memories and many more played through her mind over and over and over again.
Ifurita sighed. It was going to be a long ten thousand years.