zero-damage

The bitter chemical tang in the air is the first thing Naoto notices, even before the cold against her back and wrists. Not the same sticky sweet chloroform she remembers from earlier; this is sharp and burns her throat."Don't fight it, Naoto-kun."It's her own voice, but the deeper one - the one she's practiced for years and never quite mastered. A figure slowly blurs into her vision, leaning over her as she gazes at the ceiling."We're going to make things better, you'll see, so, so much better."Her vision sharpens. The smudged face resolves itself into hers - but the eyes are less wide, the lips thinner, the jawline stronger.It's how she ...

The ride to Port Island is horrible. It's hot and stuffy inside his suit, the train stops at every station even though they all look the same, and he finds out that if humans think something looks out of place, they immediately want to throw it away. By the time he arrives, he's exhausted. He's sitting on the ground beside the station steps, hollow suit standing next to him, when a girl in black walks up.She's pretty. Her fur - wait, hair - is the same colour as Kanji's but as long as Yosuke's, and her eyes are even bluer than Naoto-kun's. The headphones she's wearing are a lot like Yosuke's too. He thinks he should say hello - try out the...

1. It's late November, at seven o'clock in the morning, and Naoto's five years old when the postcard arrives in the mail. Yakushiji-san tries to hide it from her."The wrong address," he tells her. Naoto knows he isn't telling the truth; she recognizes the handwriting. The postcard also has a picture of a flag she knows from the atlas in her grandfather's study.The postcard is from France. The accident happened there too, twelve days ago. Naoto explains this to Yakushiji-san.He looks at her for a moment, then leans down and places the card in her hands.After breakfast, Naoto takes the card upstairs to her room and holds it up to the window....