>To Chen. "Alright, now."
>Poke head through to Ran. "Now!
>Let's re-intertwine some histories.
>With a word to both of them, you close your own eyes and focus on bringing Ran back into the outside world.
>You can feel it. You can feel both of them; alike, yet different. In the same world, yet not. You are a bridge between histories and history flows through you. You can feel the past of both of them, alone and then together, the flow of their experiences harmonizing. They are complements and they are family.
>But they have more than a shared history. There is a part of the each of them in the other's being; such is the bond of a shikigami and its master. Even separated by a splice in reality itself, a part of them still reaches out for the other, grasping at something just beyond their reach. But you have bridged the gap in dimensions that separates them. You can be the conduit through which their bond reasserts itself. You feel it trying to do so, even now.
>You open yourself to the sensation and feel a part of them reach out through you and touch each other. You sense a glimmer of recognition, and feel a bond knitting itself tightly together once again. And then you set to work.
>Ran and Chen belong to different realities. The history they are anchored to is not the same. But they are connected now in a way more profound than almost any other. There is already so much of each of them in both their histories, so much of each of them in each other. It takes little more than a push of will to grasp onto this and weave the few dissonant chords of their histories together. Each change feels natural and proper and slips smoothly into place like it was always meant to be that way. It feels like no time at all has passed before you feel them anchored as one again. In heart and soul and history. And then you pull.
>Ran stumbles across the barrier as you yank on her arm, nearly losing her footing. You open your eyes and look around, feeling very hazy as though waking from a long nap. From the looks of it, both Chen and Ran feel similarly. And then you can feel the precise moment where they become aware of their surroundings again.
>Chen looks up at Ran, and Ran back at her. There is silence for a moment and then with a great cry Chen leaps through the air and throws her arms around Ran's neck.
>"Raaaaaaan!!" she cries, and starts to bawl.
>Ran returns the embrace fiercely and then falls to her knees
>"Chen...." she says softly, smoothing her shikigami's hair with her hands. "Oh god, Chen...." Then she starts to cry, herself.
