From: TimeRunner <keiichi@i-manila.com.ph>
To: FFML <ffml@fanfic.com>
Subject: [fic][GT Project]After All - Timerunner Reprise
Date: Sunday, April 30, 2000 1:14 PM
Technically speaking, this fic was written quite some time before the
Gratuitous Theater Project was conceived. However, as it is a reprise of one
of Nik 'Switch' Toledo's early oneshots, I figured it deserved a place under
the GT Project header.
Enjoy!
======
After All - TimeRunner Reprise
[Oh My Goddess! shortfic]
Parking the car, he sighed to himself. Another day, another job
to be done.
It wasn't that he had much to complain about. He had a well-
paying job as a self-employed independent contractor, which he decided
to do after graduating from Tokyo University. The Lancer GSR behind
him was testament to that and his skill at playing the Nikkei Index,
the profits of which he had used as capital to start his contracting
firm. His employees looked up to him, respected him for the success he
had achieved in so little time. All this at the age of twenty-seven.
He chuckled. I could chalk it up to all those micro-management
games I played when I was younger, like Capitalism, or Kintaro Tycoon.
It was all a matter of putting theory into practice.
So why do I feel like something's missing?
He stepped out his car, grabbed the laptop from the back seat,
and walked into the construction site.
The foreman greeted him. "Good afternoon, sir."
"Good afternoon."
"Sir, if you will just follow me, we'll show you the progress
we've made with the building."
He nodded. "Very well. Lead the way."
He surveyed the building before him. Babel Tower. The modern
replacement for the aging World Trade Center, it was to be the tallest
building in the entire world. The steel frame alone was an impressive
site, towering over the center of Tokyo like its namesake towered over
Babylon.
And it was here, all because of him.
What was it with him and heights, he thought as the construction
elevator he was in made its way to the top. What made him reach ever
higher and higher, no matter what he did, whether it was his studies
or his work, or the buildings he built?
He stepped out, and then gave a start. Oh, I nearly forgot! he
thought, opening up his laptop booting it up. I have that fax I have
to send to Mishima-san concerning building materials acquisitions! Now
if I could only find her number...
Hastily, he clicked one of the numbers listed in his fax
program.
Busy.
He rechecked the number, re-typed it, and tried again.
Busy.
What a bother, he thought. He selected several numbers, dialed
them all, not sure which one was right, not even sure which numbers
were whose, for that matter, and auto-sent the document to all of
them. I'll explain to the others later, he thought.
The elevator door opened, and he exited at the top floor.
At the sight before him, he placed his laptop down on one of the
makeshift platforms and walked along the girders with the courage he
so sorely lacked before, finally reaching the front, where the
building could not obstruct his view.
His breath caught in his throat.
There was Tokyo below him, set against the backdrop of Fujiyama.
And he remembered the first time he saw this sight, the first
time he realized what leaving his shell could bring him. And he
remembered how it became possible.
"All this time I've been reaching, knowing less and less why I
did, forgetting, consciously, anyway. But all this time, I knew. And
at the point in my life when I feel I have everything, I remember.
After all this time, I remember."
He spread his arms wide, looking up to face the sky, the high
winds blowing around him. "I remember why I do this, and I know what
it is I've been wishing for. What it is I wish for."
At the top of his voice, as if to let the heavens themselves
hear, he cried, "I wish to be with her! I wish for her to be with me
again, now and forever!"
After a few moments, he lowered his arms, and sighed. What were
you thinking? He shook his head sadly, and turned to go back.
And, standing in front of his laptop, which was lying there wide
open, there she was.
Smiling, tears in her eyes glistening in the light of the
sunset, Urd said, "Wish granted, Shohei."
TimeRunner, December 2, 1997
=====
w.o.m.
TimeRunner's Web Page:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/7482
=====
"A little naive? Was that what you were going to say? A little naive?"
"I was going to say a little clueless, but yeah, that about covers it."
- Skuld and Keiichi, "What Wish?"