“It’s time for me to go make a wish come true.”

「Long time, no see.」 

Aoi flashed a smile in Light’s direction, even though he was well aware that he couldn’t see it. Hopefully it carried to his voice. Hopefully Light recognized his voice. It had been months since they’d crossed paths for the first time in nine years, and they hadn’t been around one another for long. 

「Man,」 he said, standing up straight from where he’d been leaning against a wall, 「it took me FOREVER to figure out where you and Clover were hiding. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were avoiding me.」 If they were, Aoi couldn’t exactly blame them. Sure: he’d had good intentions by helping to set up a Nonary Game, but that didn’t mean that it was a pleasant experience for either Light or Clover. 

「How about we do Christmas a little early this year?」

Maybe the question seemed to have come out of the blue, but Aoi had been sleeping on the idea for some time now. It wasn’t as though he didn’t have his reasons. Soon enough, Akane would be headed out to Nevada—a place that Aoi never wanted either of them to go back to if he could help it. He couldn’t, though: like so many times before, Akane staying or leaving would literally decide the fate of the universe. 

Of course, her work in Nevada would start on Christmas. It was ALWAYS Christmas. The universe really liked to taunt him, didn’t it? Maybe Akane even knew that he would ask her what he just had, and had simply kept quiet. 

「You must be Phi.」 

Aoi slid off of the tabletop that he’d been perched on to make his way over, then sticking out a hand. 「Akane’s told me all about you. The name’s Aoi—Kurashiki Aoi. It’s good to know that I’m the lucky me who actually gets to meet you.」 Another version of himself dying in the Radical-6 outbreak didn’t sound like an experience that he wanted to have. Was it selfish for him to feel bad for himself if said version of himself wasn’t really him? 

The universe was such a pain in the balls…. 

It’s good to remember that Aoi isn’t…entirely mentally or emotionally stable. Considering his circumstances, he’s a lot better than he could be, but he’s not the epitome of mental health. 

(( There are a lot more Zero Escape roleplayers than I expected to find, which is a great surprise! I didn’t think that there was an active fanbase for the games, but I suppose that I was wrong about that.

Anyways, I’m still working on a couple of things for this blog, but I’m going to throw out a starter call to get to sometime tomorrow at the very latest. If you’re a multimuse, please specify which of your muses you’d like me to write the starter for! Lengths will vary, and the setting will vary, since what happens to Aoi after “9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors” is left very vague, but it’s heavily implied that he’s sort of…dead. 

(( I’ve got to get the heck out of the house in, like, ten minutes, so excuse me while I throw up a really quick and shoddy promotion.