Ascension Rebirth - This is the End

PROLOGUE

In front of me was a crying girl.

No, calling her a 'girl' wouldn't be quite right, in truth she was a 32 year old woman. Even still, her stature was small and even without make up on she looked considerably young for her age.

With her hands over her eyes tears dripped through her cheeks. Luckily she usually never wore make up on so there was no threat of her facing being smudged by mascara.

She was my fiancé [Shinohara Kyouko].

Her usual straight, long black hair was a disheveled mess due to her shaking her head as she cried. She really was a kid deep down inside, even so, I loved her.

"Don't go."

The moment she tells me this I have half a mind to quit this trip in its entirety. However that was no good.

This was an important business trip with the company and if all goes well I could very well receive a promotion. When that happens our dream of purchasing a house on a lakefront may not be so farfetched.

Well that part was a joke, Japan doesn't have many lakefront houses. Still, it was true that I wanted to buy a house so we can live together for the rest of our lives, and this business trip was one step forward to realizing that dream.

"I'm sorry Kyouko, I'll try to bring back souvenirs."

She shook her head.

She knew it was important that I went on this business trip but she was so adamant about me not going. This was because the trip will likely take at least six month to a year depending on how negotiations play out.

It was a long time to be separated.

I gently stroke her head to calm her down. I can feel her trembling. She was a like a small animal shaking in fear.

Please stop, if you continue on like this even I don't have confidence that I won't drop this trip and take you straight to bed.

Steeling myself I let go and start walking towards the airport terminal.

My flight was in a few minutes so I had to hurry.

As I tried to leave she grabbed the hem of my shirt.

Feeling a sense of defeat I turned around and give her a deep kiss.

At first she was surprised but soon she calms down.

I don't know how long the kiss was, perhaps a few minutes? I could feel the gaze of people around me, of course such a scene wasn't too rare at an airport terminal where people part.

Though I admit it was far too early in the morning for this.

Suffice it to say it wasn't a bad gaze, more of a pitying and sympathetic one.

After the kiss we stay in each other's embrace for just a little while longer.

"Kyouko, we'll get married as soon as I come back so please wait for me."

She doesn't answer me but gives a small cute nod. Ah, she really is cute, I just want to stay embracing her for all eternity. I can't believe she's 32 years old but still so cute.

Once again I stroke her head, this time she has considerably calmed down but has her eyes towards the floor. Perhaps it was hard to see me leave. Well, it's fine I can understand.

"Then, take care, Kyouko."

As I leave I can hear her silent weep. Every step I take away from her it hits my heart like a two ton truck. Must I leave my cute fiancé like this? The answer is obvious.

I once again steel myself and leave through the terminal.

B72. That was the seat number indicated on my ticket.

Feeling a little melancholy after that exchange I was happy that I was given a window seat. When I look out I can see plane's left wing. It was a magnificently large with two turbines underneath.

It really is a miracle of science that such a huge, metal cylinder can fly in the sky with those turbines.

Yes, I was just distracting myself from the pain of leaving Kyouko behind. Trying to get my mind off it.

I took out my smart phone and started to mess around with the apps. It wasn't as though I had anything specifically to do, I just kept opening and closing random applications.

"B73- B73- Ah, here it is."

I heard the voice of a woman to my right.

When I turn I see a beauty. Stylish brown hair and dark brown eyes. Her body proportions were perfect; bust size not too big nor too small, visible hips.

That being said, Kyouko doesn't lose out in that regard either.

It could be that my eyes are already tinted with the 'Kyouko glasses' but even as I see such an amazing beauty I don't feel much of a thing.

Perhaps if it was 10 years ago I would have felt flustered and acted pathetic trying to get her attention but right now I have a fiancé, I can't do that. Even if I didn't have Kyouko, that was no way for a 32 year old man to act.

"Hello."

Her voice complimented her visual style. Soft but confident.

"Hello. Please to meet you."

I offer my most professional business smile and a hand.

From the looks of it she was just a bit younger than I was, perhaps around 29~30? Then again you can never tell with women.

She was no amateur either, she returned my handshake with a professional smile as well. Right, this was the persona of adults, a smile.

She probably had a lot of experience in the business sector as well with that level of professionalism. That's what I could tell, all from a smile.

After packing her stuff up in the overhead compartment she took a seat next to me. As she did an audible 'pomf' could be heard. It was rather cute…

Wait, no! I have Kyouko!

I scolded myself as I tried playing with my smart phone again. Since the internet function has to be cut off before a flight there really was nothing to do on it. I didn't have any games on it, for the most part my phone was only used for business protocols.

I messed around with the settings trying to distract myself once more.

Resizing the font, changing the ringtones, adjusting brightness.

Ahhh~. And this was supposed to be an 11 hour flight as well, how am I going to survive in this boredom. Dammit, I should've at least tried to press my boss for a first class ticket if I knew it was going to be like this.

I just know he embezzles at least 3% of the company's annual profits, that bastard is rich, I should have demanded an upgrade to first class.

Maybe I should rat him out when I meet the board of directors.

"That's a cute strap."

As I was cursing my boss in my head the woman next to me compliments the strap attached to my smart phone. It was a miniature plastic banana.

Was this cute? Well, it was given to me by Kyouko for my birthday last year but I never thought of it as 'cute'.

"Aha, thanks, my fiancé gave it to me for my birthday last year."

"Hmm~, you're fiancé has good taste."

Was that a pun? No what did she mean by that anyway?

As I wondered she pulled out her phone which also had a similar strap attached to it. Though instead of a banana it was a miniature plastic strawberry.

"These are the fruits series straps, I heard they stopped selling them last year so I was surprised when I saw someone who had one."

"Ah, I see. Sorry, I wasn't knowledgeable about such things."

"Haha, don't worry I didn't expect a grown man to know about such things."

She giggled, when she did she revealed a truly beautiful facial feature. It looks like I had won the battle of professionalism as she had dropped her business like persona.

Or maybe I was just deluding myself and there was no battle at all.

I guess there was no need for me to keep up with this façade either. I let the tension in my face be relieved.

"[Kirisaki Yui]."

She introduced herself while once again offering a hand.

"[Hiyama Kyousuke]."

I took her hand.

Throughout the wait we made various small talk. About where we were from, what kind of company we worked at and why we were here on this plane.

For the most part we kept it strictly professional.

She was an interesting person.

Born and raised in Tokyo with her single father. Currently she had no significant other. Though that part was a rather private matter the conversation had steered to that way since I had already said I had a fiancé.

Apparently she worked for an insurance company and was going overseas to do a business negotiation with one of their sponsors.

Speaking of which I was also going on a business trip to handle negotiations although I had the added bonus of having to manage an entire sector by myself for the next six months to a year.

The flight finally took off after 30 minutes.

I've been on quite a few plane rides but I always found it amazing that the turbines were so quiet from within the plane, even though it was extremely loud from outside.

Well that was the miracle of science and engineering.

After talking with Kirisaki for an hour or so I started to get sleepy.

Well, it wasn't a surprise, I did have to wake up at midnight to catch this plane.

Having a look around everyone else was sleeping too.

Catching some shut eye during an eleven hour flight wasn't too bad of an idea.

And so, my consciousness faded into a slumber.

"Hiyama-san! Hiyama-san!"

I was being violently shook from my right.

At first I tried to ignore it but it only got more violent.

"Please wake up, Hiyama-san!"

"Nngh~?"

I conceded, no one could sleep through that. To my left was supposed to be Kirisaki; even though we got a little friendly we were still strangers. What possible reason could there be for waking me up?

"W-what is it?"

As I turned to Kirisaki I saw a frantic face. One mixed with panic and panic and more panic. She was trembling as she clutched onto my shoulder. It hurt but she didn't let go.

Being a man I didn't really say anything about the pain.

She didn't say anything.

Or rather she was so spooked up that she couldn't say anything.

She merely pointed to the direction that she wanted me to look, which was to my left.

Though to my left was a wall, no that wasn't right to my left was a window.

I turned my head to see and then even I started to panic and tremble.

To my left was a circular window.

Outside that window was the quiet turbines that I had thought were a miracle of science.

When I saw what was outside I immediately thought that this miracle shouldn't have come to pass. Then I would still be grounded with Kyouko.

What laid beyond my sight was the turbines but smoke was emitted from it.

No, smoke wasn't emitted from it; smoke was rising from a fire on the turbine.

It wasn't just one but three turbines. The two to my left were ablaze and the one on the right side of the plane was completely charcoal.

SHIT! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! I thought.

My first thought was vulgar swearing,

What came after was the thought that I was going to die in a blazing metal tube in the sky. But I wasn't really that afraid of my death, well, I was but I was more afraid of the fact that I would be leaving Kyouko behind.

I promised her I would come back. I reassured her so much, but now I was going to die a liar.

Would she laugh at me and say 'I told you so?'

Probably not, she'd cry even harder than when we were separated at the airport terminal.

That girl, despite trying to look tough to everyone around was a genuine cry baby.

No, no, no, no, no, no, I can't die here! I have to get back to Kyouko!

I stood up and noticed everyone else was also panicking really badly.

Screaming and kicking. I could hear the cries of a baby… poor thing.

"Oi! What the fuck are you doing?!"

"Do something!"

"We're all going to die!"

"Noooo!"

"Mother!"

"Oh god no!"

I could hear the people crying and panicking. They were trying to get answers from the pilot or whoever was in charge of all this.

Of course there was not going to be any announcements about this. What the hell would they say? 'Sorry for your inconvenience our plane has caught fire and we're all fucked.'?

Despite knowing that, I tried to leave my seat and head to pilot's compartment as well but I was stopped.

The hem of my shirt was clung onto tightly by Kirisaki. She didn't say a word but kept trembling. She somehow reminded me of Kyouko when she did that.

I gently stroked her head. I wasn't a sea of calmness myself but that was all I could do to distract myself.

"A-Are we going to d-die?"

She asked me in a feeble voice.

I couldn't answer that. Not answering was the correct decision, probably.

I continued to stroke her head.

She then hugged my arm make me sit back down.

She cried.

I could feel tears falling down my cheeks as well.

"No- I don't want to die."

"Yeah…"

"Save me Hiyama-san…"

"Sorry."

"Uuuuu~"

"... Sorry."

I could feel our plane slowly tipping to one side. We were so high up in the air that I couldn't tell which direction it was. But as I felt the plane tipping I knew we were rapidly descending.

I could hear the sobbing of everyone around me.

Kirisaki's trembling escalated.

I wrapped my head around her back and hugged her in closely. That was the only thing I could do in this situation.

If this counts as infidelity, I'm sorry Kyouko.

The plane began to shake violently. Some of the people went flying due to gravity.

We didn't even get to hope that maybe we could survive if we landed on the sea. Because beneath us was ground. Solid ground.

The oxygen masks came down long ago but we decided to ignore it. It wouldn't help anyway.

Using my right hand I pulled Kirisaki's head towards my chest.

I think she stopped crying and was just bracing herself for impact.

Well that was the best we could do.

And black.

Black.

I'm sorry Kyouko-