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a-crack-in-the-universe · 2 years

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‘What was it like, in the Realm of Darkness?’

He’s not sure what possessed him to ask that question. He knows that this is a delicate topic, and that what she went through still haunts her, just like his time as Xehanort’s vessel still haunts him.

To his surprise, though, Aqua actually answers him.

‘Cold,’ she murmurs. ‘Dark. Terrifying.’ She shivers and tightens her grip on his hand. ‘It sucks all the light out of you, if you stay there long enough. I couldn’t sleep, or eat, or do anything except walk and fight Heartless. And lonely. I missed you and Ven and the master all the time. Sometimes I saw you and Ven there, but you were just illusions that faded away when I got too close. I… I could have died. Sometimes I wanted to die, but you and Ven always stopped me.’

‘I’m sorry,’ he says. Sorry for dredging up bad memories. Sorry for everything he did that led her to her fate.

‘Don’t be,’ Aqua says, squeezing his hand. ‘It wasn’t your fault.’

‘No?’ He looks at her skeptically. If it weren’t for him stupidly falling for Xehanort’s tricks and succumbing to darkness, Aqua would never have been put in that position in the first place. How can it not be his fault?

‘It was my choice,’ Aqua says firmly. ‘I’d do it again if I had to.’

He hates knowing that she’s right. That she willingly sacrificed herself for him, when she could have saved herself and let him sink into the darkness. Yeah, he would’ve been lost, maybe for good, but at least Xehanort would’ve been trapped. And he wouldn’t have had to be aware of Xehanort using his body for his evil plans.

He doesn’t go into that, though. It’d only end with them arguing and Aqua insisting that she could never leave him like that, not even for the greater good.

‘I know,’ he says instead. ‘Thanks,’ he adds. ‘For… doing that.’

He means it. Not that he likes that it resulted in her exile in darkness and the almost breakage of her sanity, but appreciates the thought behind her choice. That she loved him enough to brave that hell to save him.

Aqua smiles slightly and breathes out, ‘You’re welcome.’

‘I never thanked you, Terra.’

Aqua’s startlingly-loud voice jolts him out of a light doze. He opens his eyes to find Aqua gazing at him expectantly, as if waiting for him to say something.

‘Hmmm?’

‘You guided me,’ Aqua says softly. ‘In the Realm of Darkness.’

He looks away. ‘It was Namine,’ he tells her. ‘She’s the one who convinced me to find you. To help you.’ He swallows hard. ‘It’s her you should be thanking.’

‘You still came,’ she responds. ‘In Enchanted Dominion and later, at the Dark Margin. It was your heart, and Ven’s too, that helped guide me to Destiny Islands and stopped me from drowning. That helped me break through the wall between the Realm of Nothingness and the Realm of Light. So… thank you.’

‘Ah… you’re welcome.’

‘And… thank you for tonight. For being there for me.’

He keeps his eyes away from her beautiful blue eyes, lest they wreck him completely. Instead he keeps his gaze locked on their joined hands.

‘You’re welcome,’ he repeats.

#terra kh #terra #aqua kh #aqua #kh fanfiction #my fanfiction #terraqua #kingdom hearts #kh #kh 0.2 #kh bbs #birth by sleep #this is actually an outtake from one of my old kingdom hearts fanfics #I ended up rewriting this section because it didn't fit with where the story was going #post-kh3 #post-kh3 fanfiction #slightly au now because it was written before kh3 came out

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uzyplus · 6 months

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1. December - 0:05 Rewrite+ VN There will surely be spoilers and I'm not gonna mark any of them, as this is more of a diary rather than anything.

At last, we're here. How long has it even been since I first started it? I watched the anime around December of 2017, probably picking the VN not that long after. The date would fall back to when I was still a first year, at most around the second year of high school. It took me five and a half years to read it from the start to the end. Truly impressive, a new personal best. Back in those years, I'd used to have my HDDs fail on me all the time, being my fault for using old shady ones, that I dug up from whoever knows where, and thanks to that I was reluctant to pick the game back up due to the lost progress. Little did I know that "progress" was in reality just the tip of the story, I'd reckon not even 1/5 into the common route.

Well, part of why it took me so long is that I'd feel embarrassed watching anime or playing related games when people could see what I was doing. At first, I had a room all to myself, with the desk placed next to the door, hidden from the line of sight. Later I'd change the position of the table, which looking back on the room layout, I'm not sure why I went with the most visible spot, but that doesn't matter, as I started playing osu! a lot anyway, forgetting Rewrite even existed. Lastly, I swapped rooms with my sister and now had to share with my brother, who's quite a bit annoying, so I stopped a lot of anime-related things altogether.

And so one afternoon I decided to give the game another go. Thanks to mainly using a laptop (Legion 5 Pro 16ACH6H), I could just sit on the bed, playing without being interrupted or anyone watching my screen. The starting date is 7.2.2022, about a week after the end of the exam period with one more week to go until the next semester. I had great fun with the common route, playing it for a big chunk of time for the next 5 days, and so school started and gameplay stopped.

Taking a look at the saves, looks like there were roughly 11 hours to go, which I then got done a whopping 7 months later, entering Kotori's route on 3.9.2022. And guess what? The next save is from August the next year :kekw: Classic Uzy, what a guy, batshit insane.

Just a bit of an observation beforehand, I just skimmed through the Rewrite first season of the anime, I must say, whatever drugs they were on while making it, I need to get my hands on some of that. To fit all of the routes into such a short time and on top of that to make up so much story that's nothing like the VN, wow, that sure takes a skill or something. I wonder what was going on with me more though, I didn't remember anything at all, so much info that was crucial in the VN, yet when reading it I didn't recall any of it.

But now seriously, from then on I played the game actively, until school started, finally finishing in small increments in late November. The first route I got was Kotori's. My memories at this point are a bit too hazy, having read it more than a year ago. Ranking it, I would have to say it was my least favorite, I found it very saddening, the burden and overall depression. I genuinely felt bad reading the story, seeing how there was no hope for a happy end. Being the first route, I went with Kotori on most selections, because of how fun it was seeing her always cheerful and so carefree, only to then see the opposite. As the first route, it left an impression on me, that all the routes in this stage will be nothing, but pain, displaying that there is no hope in them, but in contrast, the rest were so much better thanks to it. Out of all the stories, I somehow remembered the way Kagari dies here rather vividly from the anime. So strange that I'd remember a 3-minute section of S2E1 despite totally blanking on the rest, but oh well.

Some common story skipping later, I decided to pick Shizuru's route next, however consequently picking Lucia over her. I loved everything about it, just how I hated all of it. The story was a wild ride, making me overly happy the one moment, just to shatter everything the next. I simply wanted Lucia's story to go no way, but great, always thinking the story was finally reaching its end when things were beautiful and peaceful. Lucia made for a wonderful romance heroine, I genuinely wish to read more of Key's works that are focused on that later, but alas, I forgot to grab them during the Authumn same. There isn't a lot that can be said about this route than that. If only Kotarou wasn't such a dork, if only Lucia wasn't so easily manipulated or perhaps the story pulled some miracle. Anyway, in the end, I found the story very satisfactory, Kotaro and Lucia are together, despite all the complications, what more could I ask for? As far as the routes go, this one would be the most impactful. I was always either so happy or unfortunate, so much so that I had to brag a lot about it to my friend. Despite not being as informative as some other routes, I will look back on this one a lot more.

Next up Shizuru. First thing first, during the common route, I enjoyed her interactions a lot, leaving behind way too many saves of her and even more screenshots. I don't have a lot to say about this route. The change of storytelling was nice, Kotarou having lost his memories and slowly regaining them, and the story progressing from that viewpoint. Overall the route was quite calming and easygoing in contrast to the previous, Lucia's. It also introduced Chihaya's standing, which made me excited for her story. I'm not sure whether this was the route where I got to see Gil and Pani, probably. I was honestly amused when I saw them. What goofy ahh hell are these creatures?? I had a great laugh, I didn't expect them, I remembered nothing from the anime, what a joke. The two were a great addition to the story, I truly had fun interacting with them. Also one more thing, Miss. Nishikujou's voice when speaking in a happy tone, man I need more of that in my life, truly healing.

And now it's time for Chihaya. Other than Akane, I still have her fresh in my memory, since I played the majority of it just this week. In the early stages, I'd say I liked her the least out of all the characters. There was a certain front-facing sprite of her that I didn't like looking at for whatever reason, but overall I'm not sure why I disliked her character in the first place. My opinion changed to the point where I’m having a hard time deciding whether her route was my most favorite or not. Tennouji developed quite a bit in the previous 3 routes, but it was here, where I recognized his as well as the others' development the most. Instead of coming out as a foolish kid, who had his mind still focused on getting the club back together, he was now more focused on protecting the girl he had left, while still keeping his ideals, as can be seen later in the abandoned church. The story put him through hardships, which with help he conquered and built character. With Midow's message always on his mind, he was aware of the consequences of his actions and was therefore more serious. Other than Kotarou, I got to like Sakuya a lot. At first, I viewed him as an obstacle, always managing to one-up Kotarou in certain situations, I just couldn't see them ever coming to friendly terms, which made me cherish the relationship between them all so much more. The story was very informative, it led me to understand the path Kotarou will take in the Terra route, due to the similarities between him and Sakuya, and overall the end was happy.

At this point, there was one thing that however bothered me quite a bit. I'm not one to mind small details a lot, I mean if it's convenient for the story then so be it, but the fact that it made a big deal about Kotarou almost bleeding to death, because his old wound opened after Kagari is gone in Kotori's route not being reflected in the other routes did bother me. I didn't notice any other major disparities, a lot of the differences in the stories can be written off as Moon Kagari setting different variables for that individual branch, but it's just that one part that bothered me a bit.

And so we're at the door of the grand finale. At this point, I was getting pretty curious about my reading speed, but unfortunately, I haven't tracked the time I started for one of the days, so I could do that only in the final routes. Would you believe me when I say that I currently cannot recall absolutely anything about the route despite finishing it just 3 days ago? The route seems to be blending in a bit with the Terra, due to taking so much place in the Gaia environment. Let's see. Tennouji's character was very enjoyable in this one. Being able to let all the frustration out and steadily getting over his childish self was a refreshing sight. He was able to sully his hands with blood to fight for the one he loved, Akane. A whole new perspective overall, thanks to the story progressing way further, surpassing the timelines of all the other routes. I felt the downward spiral of events towards the end, but I was still surprised and fooled. I expected Akane to simply give up, I thought that was the end of the road, the Holy Woman steps down, the spiritual branch of the Martel Group disbands and leaves with a happy ever after. Except we got the song of Destruction, not quite the same thing, but it turned out quite the same I guess. I was more than happy to see Yoshino once again, seriously, it's characters like him, Sakuya, and Mr. Esaka I am really happy to interact with. As for the end, Kotarou forces Akane to live to repent her life for everyone she killed, I feel like I've heard those lines somewhere. Either the anime managed to fit those words in it, or it appeared in some other anime at some point in time. In the end, we got our happily ever after, an ending I can get behind.

If I were to order the routes by how much I liked each of them, then I wouldn't be able to do so on a ranking system. I certainly liked Kotori's route the least and Chihaya's probably a bit more than the rest, but in the end, all of the stories were different, good in their own ways, and bad in others.

I'll quickly jump over the Moon route, I remember a lot about it from the anime and I feel like it was adapted very faithfully to the VN. I found a few places that clarified things I missed in the anime, but nothing major. For some reason, my recollection of the events of Season 2 of Rewrite is very good unlike Season 1. I spent in total 169-minutes on the Moon route, which at 4044 lines (data from https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/2000121-anime-and-manga-other-titles/65843636) is about 23-24 lines per minute. A number that is pretty close to my estimation of 25 which I got a while back when I counted how many I could read in one minute. By this calculation, the whole game should've taken me about 72 hours, which it certainly didn't, but it's nice to know that my reading speed is around average. Terra took 445 minutes, 24.7 lines/minute.

As for the Terra route, I too remembered a big chunk of it from the anime, but a lot less. I didn't remember how Tennoji got to the Guardian training camp, only that he was there as well as some of the people he interacted with there. I'm pretty sure I knew about Imamiya, but not so much Nishikujou. Seeking her not happy makes me very sad :<, happily that got fixed around the half :>. Another thing is that I didn't realize for a while that the kids Kotarou saved were the ones from Chihaya's route. I only remembered Midow by name and only confirmed my hunch in the end scenes where I saw them next to Jasmine. I also didn't remember at all what the way Kotarou approached escalating the conflict between Gaia and Guardian, only that he was a double agent and messed them up from the inside. And lastly the ending. Getting there made me extremely happy, it's been a long journey and I'm glad I embarked on it. There's only one remark, for me, the ending scene in the VN couldn't possibly compare to the end in the anime. Come on, I'm just a dude brought up on watching Disney and whatnot romance movies, in which case the VN end felt a bit bland. I'm not one for deeper messages, nor digging any lore up or open endings, I simply yearn for a nice kiss end scene that I can look back to and remind myself of the story I went through.

One last thing, unfortunately, I wasn't able to port the cracked game's saves to the full game after I bought it due to some format conflict, so I had to finish it up on the cracked version, guess I'll never know whether there's any difference between the two. My Steam at this point is a graveyard of games I played cracked, then bought afterward, just to never put a single hour on, ~sigh~, guess I'll have to change that in the future.

I'm unsure what to read next, I still have WorldEnd EX to read and then pick up the unofficial translations, thanks to Yen Press never picking the SukaMoka and after that, I have Planetarian ready, which was another anime I really loved, so I'm super excited for it. Next on my list would Little Busters or Summer Pockets, but well, those will wait, mostly because I forgot to grab them during the Steam sale, and being a former FGO player, I'm really good at waiting, so no worries. Chances are, even if I had the games, I wouldn't pick them up for the next 5 years.

But that's really all from me. For this entry one picture simply won't cut it, so let me find a few of my favorites in the screenshots. Also, 2500 words, let's go.

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