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“How you feel Kronininininini?”
A shock went through Kronii’s spine the moment she heard Raora speak that. It took just a moment to register those words and all of a sudden she was back at the EN office, fresh faced and brand new member of HoloEN’s 2nd generation, along with the four others around her.
“Hey!” She exclaimed. She was a tall blonde, and exuded much warmth. They’d talked over call before, but it still took Kronii a moment to connect her voice to her name.
“You’re... Sana, correct?”
“Yup! You must be Kronii then?” Sana guessed. As expected of an extrovert, thought Kronii, making the connection instantly.
The others around her introduced themselves. Fauna, Mumei and Baelz. She had talked to them all over chat and call beforehand, but only now was she coming to the realization that these were going to be her coworkers, or rather, her genmates. She introduced herself as well, formally. Only Sana had to courage to go around shaking hands and excitedly introducing herself. Apparently she didn’t feel at all awkward in a new workplace, an experience to which Kronii could not relate.
Soon after their manager arrived (who insisted on being called Enma) with a few other staff members. They started explaining how their initiation was going to go, when their debut video will be released, and so on.
It took a while, but they were finally done. Enma said they would be leaving early, and asked them to stay a while and get acquainted. Easier said than done, thought Kronii. She had no idea what they would even talk about. Turns out she didn’t have to, Sana took initiative on her own.
“Hey, well, now that the staff isn’t around...” She began, looking around with a mischievous smile on her face, “Why don’t we change our names to like bananas?”
Kronii just looked on, dumbfounded. Where the hell had that come from? Thankfully the others thought the same, and Bae even voiced it.
“Wha-? What do you mean bananas?”
“And why exactly do you want to do that?” Fauna added.
Sana gave a small laugh, expecting this. “Well, bananas because, well, just because! And it’ll be fun! A little team bonding activity never does anyone any foul. Right, Faunana?” She finished with a wink.
And at that, Mumei burst out laughing. Even Kronii found herself stifling her chuckles, purely because it’d be unprofessional to be laughing at one of their own genmates.
Turns out, Fauna was not someone who took anything lying back. After being surprised for a moment, she folded her arms and said, “Sure, whatever you say, Sanana.”
And with that, the ice was finally melted. Whatever Sana did was definitely working, because now both Baelz and Mumei were laughing, while Sana looked affronted. Only for a second, as after that she grasped Fauna’s hands and started gushing about how perfect that name was.
Mumei asked, “Then does that make me Mumeina?”, to which Baelz replied, “No, you’re Bananashi!”. It took a mere second for her to descend into laughter at her own joke.
Mumei looked at her and then at Kronii, smiling. Kronii smiled back, glad that their first meeting was going so well.
Kronii then piped in with her own two cents. “Well, her name’s practically made for this. Just call her Baenana from now on.” At that, Baelz looked up at her, affronted, while Mumei laughed in the background. Bae was muttering “Betrayed by my own Council member, how could you” as Sana patted her back while giggling herself.
When Kronii looked around, she found Fauna looking at her, deep in thought with her hand under her chin. Kronii looked back, confused by the attention, until Fauna spoke up.
“What about Kronii? How would we turn her name into a banana?”
That caused the other three to glance at Kronii, and start thinking. It made sense for them to be stuck, as neither her first nor her last name sounded banana-like.
They brainstormed for a minute, no one speaking. Kronii was about to call them out and say that it was fine, she didn’t need a silly banana name that bad (She did. She also wanted a nickname like her genmates, wanted something silly to bond over in this new workplace, but she’d be dead before she ever admitted so). The very moment she was about to speak, however, Sana looked over at her with a smile, and showed a glimpse of her never ending kindness, which she’d go on to do for the rest of their time together.
“Isn’t it obvious? She’s Kronini!”
“...Kroninininini?”
Kronii blinked, and suddenly she was back in the present, streaming, with Raora asking her how she was. That name had dragged up a very specific memory, filling Kronii with that familiar bittersweet feeling. Chuckling, she replied to Raora, “I didn’t know my name was so long, Raora.”
Sana’s graduation wasn’t exactly a surprise, but it was still unexpected. As her genmate, Kronii knew that better than anyone, and so did the other girls.
That still didn’t make it hurt any less.
She came in their lives, shining bright like a star with a heart as vast as space itself. The way she made sure to include every one of them in any activity, right from their first meeting, was just one aspect of her kindness, and Kronii was one of the lucky few who got to experience it the most.
What surprised her was that even a direct reminder of her antics didn’t hurt as much now as it would have done an year ago. Was it a sign that she was moving on, or that she had accepted the reality? She didn’t know. What she did know was that right now, her dear kouhai was asking her if she liked her new name, and she had to answer her.
“I love it.” Kronii said with a gradually growing smile, “I think it’s cute!”
It was natural for someone to be sad about a loss, be it of any kind. To grieve is to be human, and ironically, Kronii has had enough time to come to terms with it.
But Kronii knew that the best way to honor Sana's memory was to carry her passion forward with a smile on her face. A BEEG smile.
“It’s especially cute because you came up with it!”
And as she heard Raora make happy sounds over her proclamation, she knew that regardless of where she had gone, the Speaker of Space would always watch over them.
After all, Sana is eternal.