Wake up call.

I can't exactly recall what happened after I fainted, probably lots of complicated stuff, but regardless of that, the end result was me regaining consciousness in a hospital bed.

*Two days later*

"Ugh..." My eyes fluttered open as I groggily began to stir. "Ngh..." I groaned as the first thing that greeted my sight was a bright light. "Ow..." So naturally I shut my eyes, but soon enough in the background, I could hear a commotion building up behind a door. "Hm...?" After a moment of gathering my wits and giving my eyes time to adjust, I stiffly sat up. "Wha...? What happened...?" I wondered, still confused as to where I was, "Is this... a hospital...?" I looked around at the pristine and clean room I was lying in before spotting a mirror nearby sitting atop a desk. I took a bit to observe myself; it appears I've been cleaned up and redressed, and a hospital gown wrapped itself loosely on my body. "I'm not... hooked up to anything... that's good, right...?" I scratched my head, then... ".....!!!!!!"

All the stained memories came flooding back.

"Agh... Ah...!" The blood, the terror, the pain, the pure hatred, and worst of all the appearance of seeing someone so crazed and determined to kill me and my kids began to circulate repeatedly in my head. "Ahh..." I wanted to scream, to thrash about, to vomit everything out, but I didn't, thankfully, a more rational part of me realized that making that kind of scene would not help me out in any way and so I barely kept myself contained to simply gripping the bedsheets tight while chomping down on my lower lip. "How could someone... that's just... so...ugh..." My breathing was barely under control, my chest rose and fell as fast as my heartbeat, my body trembled so badly that I thought I would shake myself off of the bed, everything felt cold and dark, and I could barely see anything anymore as my vision turned cloudy.

Just as I was fighting off a very real panic attack, a pair of familiar voices entered the scene, kids' voices.

"M-Mama!!!!" A young girl with blonde hair and ruby-colored eyes quickly jumped onto the bed and hugged me tightly while tears streamed down her face. "Mama...!!! Mama...!!!!"

"Ah..." Was the only thing I could manage to let out before another child, a boy with blonde hair and aquamarine-colored eyes did the exact same thing as his sister.

"Ai...!!!!! Mama...!!! Ugh...!!" He cried out as he buried his face into my shoulder, wrapping his small arms around me as best as he could.

"..." For a moment, I was just stunned, just a mere moment ago, I was on the verge of a panic attack, but now, with these two kids, something overrode the impending internal crisis, and I hugged them back. "...I'm sorry... I'm sorry I worried you both..." 'What was I saying? Why did I just say that? Why are tears coming out of my eyes? Why am I apologizing, it's not like I'm...' My thoughts trailed off and my eyes opened wide and that's when the realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I forgot for a moment who I actually was. I once again looked towards the mirror and saw myself, I was still in Ai's body. That's right, I possessed her and saved her life. Right. Another pair of voices soon graced my ears.

"AI!!!" Ichigo, the president currently of the company Ai works in spoke. He was a man wearing a pair of tinted shades and short, blonde hair who appeared and hugged me as well, "A-Are you okay? I-I'm sorry am I hugging you too hard?! Y-You are okay right??? Did you need anything?? At all??" He sounded **** and relieved at the same time.

"We heard what happened from the police and got here as fast as possible... we thought you... Oh god...w-well... I... I'm glad you look okay..." Miyako, a woman with long, strawberry-blonde hair and the president's wife looked at me with motherly concern, though unsure if she wanted to hug me as well.

"Oh..." This was a bit overwhelming, admittedly, I wasn't sure how to respond, if at all, to anything anyone was saying.

"Everyone." A more professional-sounding voice spoke up and, someone I presume to be the doctor came through the door. "Please give Miss Hoshino space, we have no idea how she's currently processing any of this. Too much stimulation right after she woke up could be bad for her mental and emotional health." With that statement, everyone was quick to release me, though reluctantly to say the least. They were then told to wait outside while the doctor examined me. After some mundane questioning and light conversation, it didn't take long before I was told that I could go home for the day since I didn't appear to be injured and was mentally and emotionally stable enough to be subsequently discharged.

It was an interesting trip, to say the least. Everyone was very tender and gentle with me, treating me like I was some fragile object about to shatter at even the softest touches. 'They must be thinking I'm an internal wreck right now, they aren't exactly wrong either, I'm still trying to process what just happened.' I thought to myself as I stared out of the window. 'These events were crazy, after all. And I managed to survive it, yes, that's right, and in the process, I saved Ai's life, her future is now what I make it. Yes... that's right.'

"Mama... are you okay... you're crying..." Ruby's worried voice brought me back from my thoughts as I briefly saw that my reflection was indeed crying.

"D-Did you need something, Ai? Are you hurting?? Do we need to turn around and head back to the hospital??" Ichigo asked, glancing into the mirror while trying to drive.

"Ah...no, I'm fine, really. It's just... hehe... I survived..." I replied with a beaming smile, catching everyone off-guard in the car. "Yeah... I'm crying.... because... I just realized I survived..." I repeated as I placed my hands on top of the kids' heads, giving them gentle pats, "And it's because of these two right here..."

"Us...? But, we didn't do anything..." Aqua mumbled, seemingly embarrassed as he responded.

"No... You both did plenty..." I assured them both softly while bringing them closer to me, "You both did plenty."

With that, the mood in the car lightened up considerably with jokes and laughs being shared throughout. After some time when the sun set and night came, we reached our temporary place of residence, a rather splendid-looking hotel.

"Woah..." I gasped in awe as I entered the hotel room, I checked it out in the meantime and the President did not spare any expense, every inch of this place, from the soft carpeted floors to the expensive wooden furniture, to the silken curtains, not to mention the sheer size of the whole place. This wasn't a room, this was an entire floor! All to ourselves!!! "Pres... did we walk into the wrong floor by any chance? And if not... uh... can we really afford this...?"

"Woahhh!!! Aqua, look at our bedroom!!! It'sssss hugeee!!" I could hear Ruby's excited voice coming from a nearby room as Aqua looked at me.

"...Hm~ Go on." I encouraged him and he took off immediately, wanting to see what their room was like.

"Hehe..." Ichigo simply grinned, like he was expecting me to act this surprised and dumbfounded, "Don't worry about a thing, Ai! If there's one thing we currently have a lot of, it's money!" He rejoiced with his arms wide open. "Of course, this won't last forever... we'll find you three a new place, a more secure and well-off place, within the next couple of months, but... Ai..." He smiled gently at me.

"We want you to take it easy... okay? You and the kids... you all deserve at least this much for what you went through." Miyako finished for him, smiling quite tenderly as well, "Don't worry about the Dome... or about performing right now, or any other idol activities, we'll handle that part on your behalf as well. For now, just rest and recover."

"...Jeez... you guys..." I blushed, this wholesomeness was going to bring me closer to **** than the crazy fan encounter was. "...Thanks." I hugged them tightly as we soon said our goodbyes.

"Make sure to have some fun, and if you ever need anything, just give us a call and we'll be here in a flash!" Ichigo nodded to me as the pair left and shut the door behind them, leaving me to my own devices.

After settling down and putting the kids to sleep, I was soon left with some time to myself.

"Haa..." I sighed as I finally settled down onto the soft, fluffy bed. "What a week..." I flopped back, letting the stress flow right out.

"Indeed it was~!" A young girl's voice quickly brought me back to full alertness. I sat straight up and saw her standing by the door.

"It's you...?" I asked, perplexed, to be honest, I didn't think I'd see her again.

"It is indeed me~" The young girl spoke, "Hmm~ You seem to be settling in quite nicely, no~?" She tilted her head.

"Oh, yeah, this place is pretty sweet, I never thought I-" I was then cut off.

"I wasn't talking about the suite~" She smiled wider at me and I realized then what she meant.

"...Ah..." I fake coughed right afterward, "Y-Yeah..."

"It appears your spirit's bonded to hers~" The mysterious girl stated, "I'm sure you've noticed that by now though, after all, you can see her memories, feel what she feels, and act like her completely, all without even thinking too hard about it, yes~?"

"I... well... yes... actually..." I slowly nodded, "...Why are you here, exactly...?" I got straight to the point, this entity rarely appeared in the manga.

"Huhu... I wonder indeed...~ Well, I want to make a proposal~" She smiled happily.

This was new, strange, odd, and weird. I thought about it, minutes ticked by as I thought, and the girl did not look impatient or annoyed whatsoever, she gave me all the time in the world. Then, finally, my answer came.

"...What's the proposal?" I asked, looking interestedly at her.