Drabbles from the Velvet Room

Rebirth

"This is how it should be."

As Shinjiro made peace, something stirred.

Elsewhere, a dark cloud began to form. It began small, but rapidly gained more material, forming clawed limbs. Yellow eyes blinked as it began to grow into something humanoid.
Its finished form was incomplete. While it had all features of a human silhouette, it lacked any more detail than that: this shadow's host had died, and the shadow had forgotten its form.

The shadow should, therefore, be unable to exist, but it felt something holding onto it. Something which forcefully prevented it from dying like its host had. The shadow didn't care what was keeping it there; it was just glad it hadn't found the peace that its other half had. This plane was uncomfortable; a fate fitting for Shinjiro Aragaki.

Shinjiro's shadow largely spent its time alone, replaying over and over the memories its counterpart had finally accepted. This form of torture was what it thrived on; self hatred seemed to be a large part of its existence and it felt as though Shinjiro deserved every ounce of pain it was able to inflict upon itself. The best part was that no matter how beat up the shadow got, it would always reform, as though something were feeding it to ensure its continued existence.

Along with this came some interesting side effects. It began so small that the shadow didn't notice, but eventually it realised its anger had been dulled, pushed aside by other feelings. These brought with them memories the shadow had buried: feelings of warmth and happiness, times spent with friends, staying alive because it was fun rather than viewing it as a punishment. As well as this, the shadow gradually took on the features of its host until even its distinctive yellow eyes cooled to grey.

It stopped torturing itself, pondering its identity: it no longer felt like the hidden elements of Shinjiro Aragaki. It was almost as though it had become him. The only thing missing was life.

—

The entity that now considered itself to be Shinji wandered slowly through endless darkened streets. As he did so, his mind grew accustomed to the new identity, shifting to accommodate the new traits and memories being fed into it, and working the shadow's thoughts and memories into the narrative until it was a near perfect copy of the original, waiting only to be brought back to life.

While his mind was foggy and dull, Shinji could feel something pulling him in; and the closer he got, the more the fog lifted and the more alive he felt.
As soon as he saw Minako beneath a flickering street lamp it was as if a huge weight had been lifted from him. Holding her tightly in his arms, Shinji once again knew the feeling of truly being alive.

Once the two managed to escape from the darkness it was confirmed: Shinjiro Aragaki was no longer dead.