Anonymous text after the Taurus event

[trainwrecking]

[No way is he showing his face to Hinoto-Ri: not now, not soon. Time heals all wounds, and time is exactly what he needs to work through the aftermath of the event.]

The government announcement and star sign "sickness" —

Will this happen to us a lot? Is this just how it works here? What can we do to... stop it?

...

I'm sorry.

Comments

[trainwrecking]

Uhh I think so? I only ever referred to it that way. . . Except I've heard there's more than one, so maybe I shouldn't anymore . . .

[He's not sure if that's worrisome or comforting.]

Yeah, I did. I don't remember exactly where... Japan, I know, but no specifics.

[otakuro]

...Huh.

[There were too many questions to decide which one to start off with.]

Well. This is still Japan, I think. Just... after the apocalypse or something.

...I know this is kind of off-topic, but you're awfully casual about being dead.

[trainwrecking]

It sounds Japanese, but I was never sure. . .

[He stops. Well, yes--he had gotten so used to people saying "oh, okay" that he hadn't thought twice about mentioning it.]

I'm not as casual as some others. . . It became a joke to everyone else

"Oh it's not like you can die!" or "I'll kill you! Isn't that funny?" After a while I guess you just have to accept it. Being dead I mean, not being killed over and over again just because you'll come back anyway

[otakuro]

Being dead sounds an awful lot like... being alive. Just in a different place. Is it... the Christian heaven? Hell? Some sort of alternate dimension where everything is made of chocolate?

[trainwrecking]

It was. . . It felt so normal that I thought people were lying to me about it. Except you can never die permanently. . .

Christian heaven or hell? Uhh... no, I don't think so. I'm not exactly well-versed on Christianity but I'm sure it wasn't like that. It was, uh

well

it looked like a private school ground.

[otakuro]

...Oh. So. ...Purgatory?

[Haha very funny etc. etc.]

Did you actually have to go to school?

[trainwrecking]

Uh. . . I guess you could call it that yeah. Isn't that a harsh place though?

[Maybe he's wrong, but wasn't Purgatory a place of suffering? The afterlife had suffering, but not fire-and-brimstone style.]

No not exactly. We were supposed to go, but only one person heavily enforced it. The punishments for not going weren't that bad otherwise.

[otakuro]

S-So... Does dying mean anything? There's no change? You just sort of... keep going to school?

[trainwrecking]

It does. I'm not explaining well

. . .

It was somewhere to fulfill your regrets from life and live normally if you didn't get a chance to when you were alive. If you lived a normal school life and felt fulfilled, then you disappeared from there.

[otakuro]

I think I see...

[Vaguely. It did seem vaguely purgatory-ish.]

Sorry to ask so many questions. ...I'm not sure if your afterlife will be the same as mine, but it might be good to know.

Ah.

But you're alive here now, right?

[trainwrecking]

[It's complicated. He's sorry.]

It's OK. I asked a lot of questions when I was introduced to it too.

I'm alive here, though I'm not sure how that's even possible. I don't mind, mostly

[otakuro]

Do you think you'd want to go back?

[From this guy's description, purg -- the Afterlife honestly didn't seem like such a bad deal. But... still. If you vanished after living a 'fulfilling life', it either meant the end of existence or it meant there was still something else after this private school.]

<font face="courier'>...You don't have to answer that if you don't want to.

[trainwrecking]

I. . . don't know. I wanted to when I showed up

Now I feel like I should make the best of it here, too. This is a second chance for me to live as myself. . . I didn't think I'd get that.

[... Even if it hasn't been so great lately.]

I have a question for you, too. . . It's sort of related.

HTML fail, sorry. =(

[otakuro]

Oh! Sure. ...It's probably only fair you get to ask me a few things, aha.

happens to all of us, no worries!

[trainwrecking]

I'm not even sure if you'd know, but. . . you seem to know more about Hinoto-Ri than I do

. . .

How long have you been here? I notice that people disappear from here too, like the Afterlife.

[otakuro]

...Ahh, I think it's probably a different phenomena.

[It had better be.]

See, you don't have to stay here if you don't want. Some people just decide to go home after a while. ...That's what they tell us, anyway.

[trainwrecking]

So you're saying that a person has to consent to go back home?

. . . I don't know if that's the only way.

[otakuro]

What do you mean? Someone you know went home against their will?

[trainwrecking]

No, nobody I know personally. I hear about it, but that's it.

But it seems weird that we can leave whenever we want after they brought us here to " save the city. " I remember wanting to leave as soon as I got here, but that didn't do anything.

[It just sounds too easy. Of course it did in the Afterlife too--accept your life and move on to leave--but that at least had purpose.]

[otakuro]

Yeah, you're right.

What I hear is that even if you leave, they might bring you back again just to make you give it a second try or something. I'm not exactly sure, though...

You do have to talk to the government, I think. Maybe Philemon, too.

[trainwrecking]

A second try? That's weird. . . I wonder if you remember any of your stay.

[He's musing to himself a little again.]

Ah so you don't just " disappear " because you want to, you have to go seek it out. Maybe fill out paperwork even if the government's involved. . . ?

[otakuro]

I'm not exactly sure... I've never done it myself, so I've never asked. It would probably be good to know, though.

Anyway... It sounds like you do, when you get back here. Some people do, anyway.