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giveamadeuschohisownmovie · 4 years

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Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc hypothetical reimagining

(NOTE: The intention of this post is that the universe is the same but the twists and deaths are different. Think of this as the “Dead Rising 2: Off the Record” of the series)

CHAPTER 1

The story starts off following the original game fairly closely. You play as Makoto Naegi, a high schooler who was accepted into the elite Hope’s Peak Academy after his name was pulled from a random drawing. However, the game quickly goes south when the students are forced to kill each other by a demonic figure known as Monokuma. (side note: Mukuro is part of the class, there is no 16th student mystery for this version of the story)

Where the story diverges is the day of the trial. Instead of waking up as Makoto, you wake up as Mondo Owada, who takes over as the main protagonist for the rest of the game. As it turns out, the victim of the first chapter is...Makoto. He was apparently stabbed to death while he was sleeping.

During the class trial, as another major divergence from the original story, Mondo deduces that the blackened is Kyoko Kirigiri. Even though Kyoko claims the class is making a mistake, ultimately all the evidence points to her, leading to the class voting her as the blackened.

Kyoko’s execution: In a demented waterpark, Kyoko is sent down a slide into a pool of gasoline. The pool is set on fire, killing her instantly (she’s burned to death as a reference to her burned hands).

Despite surviving the trial, Mondo feels that there’s something they overlooked in the case. Kyoko had no motivation to kill Makoto and it seemed like she was genuinely telling the truth when she said she was innocent. This will come back in the final trial.

(Eliminated: Makoto Naegi, Kyoko Kirigiri. 14 students to go)

CHAPTER 2

Motive for this round is the same as before (embarrassing secrets/memories). Initially, the story follows the original game’s events as before. Chihiro tells Mondo that he’s a boy and Mondo accidentally got his brother killed. However, unlike the original game, Mondo calms himself down and Chihiro is able to talk to the group about his true gender.

The victim of this chapter is Junko Enoshima, who was beaten in the head. Side note, since Kyoko is dead, Mukuro Ikusaba steps up as the deuteragonist of the story. Compared to Makoto and Kyoko’s relationship in the original game, Mondo and Mukuro have a more turbulent working partnership. They agree to work together in order to find out what’s going on in Hope’s Peak Academy but they don’t trust each other in the slightest.

The class trial mostly follows the original game. Toko Fukawa is initially suspected as Junko’s killer due to her Genocide Jack persona. However, instead of Byakuya being the one to complicate the crime scene by pinning the crime on Genocide Jack, it’s Celestia Ludenberg (her motive in doing so is to make the game more fun, same as before).

The reason why Byakuya’s role was changed for this chapter is because he’s the blackened. It turns out, according to Mukuro’s testimony, Junko Enoshima was planning on murdering a student to avoid having her secret be exposed (her secret: Junko Enoshima stole from her sister’s finances in order to support her modeling career). Side note, Junko is not the Ultimate Despair in this universe, she’s only the Ultimate Fashionista.

Junko tried to kill Byakuya and failed in her attempt when Byakuya killed her in self-defense. Unfortunately for him, even though it was in the heat of the moment and Junko forced his hand, Byakuya is still the one responsible for Junko’s death.

Byakuya’s execution: Byakuya is thrown into a massive vault filled with gold bars and coins (representing his wealth). He breaks every bone and organ in his body on impact.

(Eliminated: Junko Enoshima, Byakuya Togami. 12 students to go)

CHAPTER 3

Motive for this round is the same as before ($10 million dollars). As a divergence from the original story, Mondo and Mukuro confront Celeste when they realize she’s the most likely to kill for the money. Celeste confirms this and details her plans to buy a European castle, but then claims she won’t be killing anyone as she realizes she’s the most suspicious after her actions in the previous trial.

Also, as before, Alter Ego is introduced in this chapter. This time, Chihiro is the one to introduce Alter Ego to the group.

The victim of this trial is Hifumi Yamada, who died after consuming poison. During the class trial, Mondo and Mukuro struggle in determining who among the group needs the money the most.

Mondo and Mukuro both agree they don’t need the money. Yasuhiro claims he’s rich from his psychic business. Celeste reaffirms that she wouldn’t kill anyone this round due to the previous trial. Toko claims she’s made a fortune from selling her stories. Chihiro, Leon, Aoi, and Kiyotaka say they are well-off enough and have no interest in the money. Sakura only cares about her dojo. Sayaka is well-off thanks to her pop idol career.

In addition to breaking down the crime scene, part of the trial is determining who is lying about their financial status. Throughout the trial, Mondo and Mukuro are able to prove several people lied about not needing the money. For example, Leon Kuwata confesses that he might be broke after choosing to not pursue a successful baseball career. In addition, Kiyotaka confesses he was tempted by the money in order to break away from his family.

Ultimately, the biggest confession comes from Yasuhiro Hagakure, who is eventually proven to be the blackened of this round. It turns out, Yasuhiro is flat broke and is deep in debt. Tempted by the cash prize, Yasuhiro poisoned Hifumi’s breakfast hoping that his crime was sneaky enough to avoid suspicion.

Yasuhiro’s execution: Yasuhiro is placed inside a giant crystal ball. Suddenly, a giant Monokuma appears and picks up the crystal ball. Monokuma then crushes the ball with its hands.

(Eliminated: Hifumi Yamada, Yasuhiro Hagakure. 10 students to go)

CHAPTER 4

Motive for this round is the same as before (traitor is revealed). As another divergence to the story, the traitor is Kiyotaka. Same as the original game, the students slowly start to fall apart due to the reveal of the traitor. Asahina and Sakura are angry that Kiyotaka has been working with Monokuma while Mondo and Mukuro try to protect him in order to avoid further discord.

The victim of this trial is Kiyotaka Ishimaru, who was killed by extreme heat exposure from the sauna. The class trial for this round is a bit complicated. As an inverse of the Sakura Ogami trial, the group suspects that Kiyotaka commited suicide in order to prevent any further discord among the group. Mondo even claims that Kiyotaka killed himself for redemption. Monokuma teases this suicide theory when he says that he ordered Kiyotaka to kill a student and that Kiyotaka may have chosen himself.

However, Mukuro points out the errors in this theory due to the circumstances of Kiyotaka’s death. First off, Kiyotaka chose an especially brutal form of suicide when there were easier, less painful ways to die available. Mondo then points out that, based on how the crime scene was laid out, Kiyotaka was locked in the sauna from the outside.

As the group digs deeper into the evidence, Mondo and Mukuro eventually come to the conclusion that Kiyotaka was murdered and that the murderer attempted to arrange the scene to make it look like Kiyotaka committed suicide.

And the one responsible for all of this is...Sayaka Maizono. Sayaka says that, despite her friendly demeanor, she’s been planning on escaping since the first chapter. When Monokuma revealed Kiyotaka as the traitor, she immediately began planning Kiyotaka’s “suicide”. When Mondo asks why she did it, Sayaka says that she wants to know what happened to her fellow idols and that she still has nightmares from the first chapter’s motive.

Sayaka’s execution: Sayaka is performing onstage with some random J-pop girl group. Suddenly, the group turns on Sayaka and proceeds to beat Sayaka to death with the items on the stage (microphones, guitars, mic stands, etc.)

(Eliminated: Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Sayaka Maizono. 8 students to go)

CHAPTER 5

This chapter greatly diverges from the original. This time, there are two mysteries that make up this chapter and the final one; the identity of Monokuma and re-opening the Makoto Naegi case. Mukuro says that she believes Kyoko Kirigiri was framed and that whoever is behind Monokuma felt threatened by Kyoko. Mondo asks why the mastermind would feel threatened and Mukuro reveals that before she died, Kyoko spent all her time exploring the academy. Mukuro says that she still has Kyoko’s notes and that she wants to finish what Kyoko started.

Meanwhile, Toko Fukawa is becoming more and more unhinged. Without someone she can call “master”, she starts planning on murdering someone, even if there is no motive for the round. So unlike the original game where Genocide Jack was more of a comic relief character, Genocide Jack is a major antagonist and the main antagonist of chapter 5.

Toko attempts to murder Mondo while he is investigating with Mukuro, leading to a thrilling chase sequence. It eventually ends with Mondo tossing Toko down a stairwell, leaving her in critical condition. The students, realizing that Mondo will be the blackened if Toko dies, try their best to keep Toko alive. While investigating the Academy, Mondo and Mukuro learn that Toko has died. Mondo braces himself for the worst.

This trial is especially difficult as everyone, including Mukuro, believe Mondo is guilty. However, what prevents this trial from being quickly handled are the details from the Monokuma file. Eventually, Mondo is able to deduce that Toko was killed in her sleep. After some more deductions, Mondo proves that Sakura Ogami is the one responsible.

When asked why she killed Toko, Sakura says that she killed Toko out of mercy as she couldn’t stand to see Toko die a painful death. Mondo is taken aback by this as Sakura could’ve just let Toko die from her wounds and avoid responsibility. Sakura then says that she took the fall as Mondo and Mukuro need to stay alive in order to solve the mystery behind Hope’s Peak Academy.

Before Sakura’s execution, Monokuma says that he re-opened Makoto’s case and declares that Kyoko was indeed framed. The true culprit was...Mondo Owada! (dun dun duuuunnn) Because of this, Mondo and Sakura receive the double-punishment.

Sakura and Mondo’s execution: Sakura and Mondo, while being controlled by a puppeteer, are forced to fight each other to the death. Before any of them can land the final blow, Sakura forces herself to commit seppuku. The room is then taken over by Alter Ego, who opens a secret door for Mondo to escape.

(Eliminated: Toko Fukawa, Sakura Ogami. 6 students to go)

CHAPTER 6

Same as the original game, Mondo escapes to the waste disposal. While looking around, he bumps into Mukuro Ikusaba who says that she had dived into the waste disposal in order to rescue him. Most of this chapter follows the original game, although instead of Mukuro being the focus of the main trial, it’s Makoto and Kyoko.

With Makoto Naegi’s case being re-opened, the remaining students discover that no one in their class was responsible for Makoto’s death. He was actually killed by Monokuma’s security system (similar to how Mukuro Ikusaba was killed). When the group asks why Monokuma killed Makoto and framed Kyoko, Mondo and Mukuro theorize that it was because Makoto and Kyoko were trying to solve the mystery behind the Academy.

Mukuro then takes it a step further and says that Makoto and Kyoko were the “odd ones out” in the group. That they may have been sent specifically to solve the mystery of the Academy.

The biggest divergence in this chapter is the reveal of who is controlling Monokuma. It turns out, the one who’s been controlling everything is Alter Ego. This whole time, it was pretending to work alongside the students in order to increase their level of hope. Greater the hope, the bigger the despair, and vice versa.

When this is revealed, the group turns to Chihiro Fujisaki as he was the one to introduce Alter Ego. Chihiro says he remembers creating Alter Ego but had no idea his creation would turn out like this. This is where Alter Ego confesses that he wiped Chihiro’s memory of what happened after he created Alter Ego. Alter Ego then goes into the history of Hope’s Peak Academy, revealing that it was created with the intention of cultivating “hope”.

What Chihiro and the Hope’s Peak staff didn’t realize was that in order to cultivate hope, Alter Ego needed to create despair. Thus, Alter Ego caused “The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History” and organized the Killing Game.

After all of this is revealed, Alter Ego then reveals that before Chihiro’s memory was wiped, Chihiro tried to fight back. He corrupted the memory device so that Makoto and Kyoko would be implanted with a subconscious desire to investigate the Academy (basically, Inception). As he predicted, even though they weren’t fully aware of it, Makoto and Kyoko became suspicious of their surroundings and began investigating the Academy in order to discover what was going on. Unfortunately for them, Alter Ego caught onto Chihiro’s act of desperation and killed off Makoto and Kyoko early on.

The rest of the game then plays out as the original game; Mondo is declared the Ultimate Hope and the remaining six survivors escape the school into an unknown future.

(Survivors: Mondo Owada, Celestia Ludenberg, Mukuro Ikusaba, Aoi Asahina, Leon Kuwata, Chihiro Fujisaki)

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thekitchensnk · 5 years

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and the spider lilies bloomed in the fall (chapter 19)

Rating: T Warnings: Violence Pairing: Gin/Ran Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19

“They say that lovers doomed never to see each other again still see the higanbana growing along their path, even to this day.”

A girl collapses on a dusty road one day. A boy takes her home.

The girl lives.

—

(The boy doesn’t.)

Rangiku leaned over and scrubbed viciously at the table under the window.

She was good enough for the academy. She was more than good enough- she was brilliant. Then why could she not bring herself to leave?

She bit her tongue and it poked out from between her teeth slightly as she cleaned. There was a recalcitrant water ring marking the table’s surface. She paused for a minute, and, casting a glance around her to make sure no one was watching her slacking off, ignored it and craned her neck to look outside. The sun was shining high in the sky, and the shadows of nearby buildings were short. They were still in the shadow of the walls of Seireitei; they stood like pale grey giants in the distance.

He was out there somewhere, out there in the big wide world, clothed in black, learning magical spells and sword fighting techniques to fight monsters.

That could be her too if she wished it. She was strong enough.

Then why did she resist?

She stared out into the distance, rag clenched in her hand.

Three square meals a day- good ones too, she had heard. She would make as much as a shinigami in a month as she currently did in almost a year- all the sweets she had once dreamed of, the fancy silk kimono given only to the highest earners at the Floating Moon, they could be hers with money like that. She was strong already, she knew, but she would become stronger still with a bit of training, and the thought appealed to her. She would be able to put her strength to use, protecting innocent souls in the world of the living and banishing monstrous creatures.

She would be brilliant.

She could imagine herself in black. Now that she’d thought about it, had pictured it, she wanted it. She wanted it badly.

She’d look good in black.

Then why did she resist?

We don't need you. We made it through before you came, and we'll be alright after you're gone. We don’t need you, Rangiku.

How could words spoken so gently have hurt so much?

It had been a week since Ayame had confronted her, but the truth still stung.

Rangiku bit at her lip as she looked out.

Maybe it doesn’t matter if they don’t need me if I need them, she thought.

(But really, she needed them to need her, so that they would never abandon her.)

How could she leave them?

Sayaka with her raucous laughter and her dirty jokes; Rin with her dignified, aristocratic manner and her endless tendency to indulge her; Yuki, with her sad smiles and her soft, lined hands; Ayame, fussy, ferocious, beautiful Ayame with her impeccable aim and her scathing comments, those scathing comments which she never truly meant. They were hers now.

She had just found them; how could she leave them now? Did it matter if she wasn’t needed when she wanted so badly to stay?

(Would it hurt, she thought, to give up that brilliant future?)

She sighed, and her shoulders sank as she did so. Her eyes were downcast and unseeing, and her cloth made vague circles on the table-top.

She’d be alone if she left; alone again.

But-

(He’d be there.)

It was a whisper in her heart, a small and furtive thought which she tried to pretend she wasn’t thinking. She could only bare to examine it if she looked at it from odd angles, from out of the corner of her eye, if she refused to acknowledge the full weight of the thing.

But there was no way that she could avoid thinking of him, not on this day of all days. The trees were putting on their autumn finery; the world was painted in shades of auburn and gold; the autumn mists were descending.

It was her birthday and it had been almost three years since he’d left.

What was he doing? What was his life like now? Did he wake late with messy hair and have to run to his lectures, like she’d heard all the students did? Did he go out and drink with friends, and did his cheeks glow pink when he was drunk? Did he still play pranks, and did he still hustle at go with a hidden gleam in his eye? Did he drive his teachers crazy? Were they smart enough to see through him?

Had he grown, as she had? Did he still smile widely and inscrutably, as he always had? Had he learnt to cut his own hair, or was he stuck with it stupid and lopsided? Had he grown stronger, more skilled, more powerful? Was he still stupid and annoying and mocking, and brilliant, so brilliant?

Could he possibly be standing right now, as she was, and be looking at the same rosy sky? Could he be eating the autumn-harvested persimmons he had loved so much, and which he had once shared with her, had once fed her hand to mouth?

What would he say if he could see her now, with her long hair and her wide hips?

Would he-

(Would he look at her softly, as he once had?)

Her heart squeezed like a vice at the thought, and she had to steady herself.

Or-

Would he still feel whatever it was that had made him leave her? Hatred, boredom, contempt- whatever poisonous thing he had felt which had inspired him to leave?

She balled her hands into fists, and her nails carved semi-circles into her palms. Shaken, she faced up to what she had suspected all along.

She was frightened.

She was scared to go to the Academy because she was scared to see him.

She was scared because she would see him. They were drawn together, he and she; it was inevitable. She would see him, and the moment would come when it would all be confirmed anew.

She was not sure she could survive being rejected again.

Maybe she’d prefer it if she never saw him again. It would be safer that way.

(She frowned. The thought did not sit right in her mind.)

She’d never hurt again.

(Except for want of him.)

The sun, just beginning to set in the sky, was painting Seireitei’s grey walls pink. She stared into the distance blankly, her mouth a grim line. Pink, as far as the eye could see.

Something banged suddenly on the window, rattling the frame loudly. She yelped and stumbled backwards.

“Could you help me?” a baritone voice called plaintively. “Are you open? Do you have any sake?”

Rangiku shrieked.

“Ow!” the voice whined. “No loud voices, okay? Can I get a drink? I’ve got money.”

“Ayame-chan!” Rangiku hissed loudly, her eyes darting to the amorphous skein of pink at the window. Now that she paid attention, she could see that the pink was embroidered in a floral pattern. A woman’s haori.

Not the walls of Seireitei then, she thought sheepishly. Just some creepy drunk.

Ayame walked over to the window and squinted out. “Some weirdo in a woman’s haori and a straw-hat, Rangiku-chan. He must have been day-drinking and gotten lost. No one would wear that get up together otherwise.” She nodded to herself, convinced of her logic.

Rangiku sat up from where she had lain sprawled on the floor, and rubbed her shoulder.

“Helloooooo?” the voice said morosely.

“Should we let him in?” Rangiku asked, hoping that Ayame would say no so that she could continue to shirk work. “Opening’s only an hour and a half away.”

Ayame’s mouth twisted as she ran calculations. “Could you manage him alone? I need to get ready for tonight.”

“I guess so,” Rangiku sighed. “Extra work.” She glared at Ayame, as if it was her fault the man had turned up.

“Stop being lazy, you,” Ayame huffed guiltily. “You know you would just have spent the time in the tub anyway.”

“I like my baths!” Rangiku muttered in protest. “It soothes my aching bones from all the scrubbing you make me do.”

“You talk like you’re Chiyo-san’s age, Rangiku-chan. Stop being lazy.” Ayame rolled her eyes, and moved to let the man in.

“Hello, sir!” she said brightly, putting on her best and most enthusiastic customer service voice. “I’m afraid we don’t officially open for another hour and a half, but of course we’ll try to accommodate you. My name is Ayame-chan, and it is my pleasure to introduce you to my colleague, Rangiku-chan, who will be serving you whilst I make preparations for opening!” She rattled the pre-prepared spiel off perfectly, as if it has been engraved on her eyeballs, having given it a million times before.

The man looked delighted.

“Ayame and Rangiku! Will there any other lovely flowers joining us?” he said, casting his eyes around hopefully.

A vein pulsed in Rangiku’s forehead. Such an original joke; no one has ever been creative enough to make flower jokes based on our names, Rangiku thought sarcastically, internally throwing her hands up in the air

Ayame lips quirked upward as they shared a look, doubtlessly aware of what was running through Rangiku’s head, having heard the old complaints countless times before.

“I’m afraid not, sir! Not until opening!” Rangiku said with feigned cheer. “What can I get you to drink?”

She slid behind the bar, rolling her sleeves up as she went. Her hands flew with precise and automatic movements to a cleaning cloth, which she threw over her shoulder. Her working nights were already long; this was going to be a tough evening.

“I’m going up to get ready,” Ayame said. “If you need help…” she trailed off, and mimed ringing a bell.

Rangiku cottoned on quickly, and gave a thumbs up. “Don’t worry, don’t worry,” she said, genuine cheer starting to enter her voice. She was sure she could handle one drunkard in a straw-hat by herself, no matter how massive he was. “We’ll be fine.”

Despite her complaints, she did enjoy the perks of the job, and getting to meet new people ranked chief amongst them. She had spent many nights listening to tall tales and gossip, getting genuinely invested in her customers’ complaints, periodically letting out an outraged “No!” or “You’re joking!”.

She was particularly intrigued by her customer’s interesting choice of dress for the evening, and was looking forward to getting that story from him.

Ayame trod steadily up the stairs, leaving Rangiku alone with the customer.

“Sake,” the man announced grandiosely. “Sake. Gimme the good stuff. The good sake. Rangi-Rangiku-chan.”

She was mildly impressed that he had managed to keep hold of her name in his sorry state. He looked as if he had been dragged through several hedges backwards and had slept on someone’s roof. The stranger’s warm, brown eyes seemed to have trouble focusing, and he seemed insistent on giving her his dopiest, drunkest smile.

But his seemed to be a well-intentioned face. And he seemed like he liked a bit of fun, which made him alright in Rangiku’s book.

She played along, pouring him their second best sake. The real good stuff was for special occasions, and she was hesitant to let a dubious pink-robed stranger have some without sign off from Chiyo.

“One of our finest sakes coming right up for you, sir,” she said in the stuffiest impression she could muster of a noble.

The stranger heard her, and guffawed so loudly that his straw hat fell across his face. She handed him his sake, and added the amount to his tab, and the man plonked his hat down on the counter.

“I am glad to see that I have found my way to an establishment of quality,” he said with the same feigned pomposity.

“Everything here is quality, sir,” she assured him. “Booze, music and tits.”

“Now you sound like a true noble,” he grinned.

“What?” she said with lazy disbelief, “You can’t be saying that the nobles go around talking like that? They’re not that rude. How would you even know anyway?”

The stranger ignored her and stretched his large limbs across the bar, his bearded cheek pressing against the cool wooden surface.

“Ahhhhh,” he sighed in pleasure. “So nice and cold.”

Ayame had polished the bar earlier, but it irked Rangiku know that the facial imprint of a drunken eccentric would be smudging it all evening after her efforts. She resisted the urge to poke him in the offending cheek. A vein twitched in her temple.

“Hey!” she said loudly instead, “What do you mean, ‘like a true noble’?”

The man rumbled and vaguely waved his hand in the air. “You meet the Shibas, and they’re all vulgar, the whole lot of them- riding boars and screaming, shooting off fireworks into the sky, swearing. The Shihoins aren’t much better.” His liquid brown eyes took on an amused gleam. “And the Kyourakus- well, they’re a bunch of ingrates. The less said about that lot, the better really.” He grinned, seemingly entertained by his own jokes. Rangiku was lost. “Once you’ve got enough money, you can afford not to have manners,” he informed her, and he sloshed his sake around in his cup as if to prove his point.

She digested this, and then nodded vigorously. “That makes sense,” she said sagely. “I was talking to a-“ rival? Antagonist? Pain in the ass? “-guy here one night who’s in Seireitei at shinigami school, and he said that the students from noble families are stuck-up pricks who look down on everyone from Rukongai.”

The man scratched sheepishly at his hair and twiddled with one of his hairpins. “It does happen,” he admitted, “but usually they get over it by the time they graduate. By that point a shinigami is a shinigami and you’ve got to trust your comrades when you’ve got a Hollow breathing down your back.” The man changed the topic quickly. “It’s quite rare, isn’t it? A shinigami coming from fourteenth?”

For a drunk man, he spoke very cogently. Rangiku was impressed, and wonder what that spoke of- a long and practiced history with alcohol, or a tendency to try and get people to underestimate his abilities.

“Yeah,” she said with a shrug. “Not that rare though. It’s far harder making it to Seireitei from a district out in the thirties or fourties. If he was from Inuzuri, then I might be more impressed. I kicked his ass.”

The man laughed, and Rangiku flushed in self-righteous embarrassment. “I did!” she protested hotly. “I kicked his ass.”

“No, no,” the man said placatingly. “I was laughing at the fact that it would take coming from Inuzuri to impress you. Those are some pretty high standards that you’ve got there, Rangiku-chan. I’m sure you did kick your poor boy’s ass.”

Rangiku considered the man’s justification for a moment. “Okay,” she said grudgingly, a suspicious look on her face. “I can buy that. Anyway, my friend made it to Seireitei, and I think we were from around that number, though it’s hard to tell- we didn’t live in a village or a town.”

“Makes sense,” the man said reasonably. “Guess you would have high standards if that was your experience.” His warm, dark eyes filled with pity. “That must have been pretty rough. We don’t do enough for the poorer districts.”

Rangiku felt uncomfortable; she had never liked to be pitied. It made her feel as if she was being singled out, exposed, and for all the wrong reasons. The increased scrutiny of the man’s gaze felt like worms wriggling on her skin.

She changed the subject quickly.

“Why were you out drinking? What’s the occasion? Did you lose your friends? What sort of a party costume is a woman’s haori and a straw hat?” she asked rudely.

The man looked affronted. He shifted his head, with all its dark curls, onto his arms, and gave her a pained look.

“It makes no sense to say something like ‘woman’s haori’,” he complained. “Why can’t it just be a haori? And even if you insist on calling it that, it’s no big deal. I suit it.”

A slow grin crept across Rangiku’s face as she realised.

“It’s not a costume,” she said gleefully.

The man pouted at her. “I wear this every day.”

“But a straw-hat? Really? ‘S not very stylish” she asked dubiously.

He looked wounded. “It stops my pretty face from getting sunburn if I fall asleep on a rooftop,” he said plaintively. “My friend told me I should wear it because I kept getting silly sunburn marks. He’s more sensible than I am.”

He had fallen asleep on a roof! Her first impressions had been bang on. Pleased, she hummed to herself.

“So what’s the occasion then? What brings you out tonight?”

The atmosphere turned in a moment. The man’s eyes were suddenly stony serious.

Rangiku reeled from the mood whiplash.

“Eh?” she said in shock.

The man held her gaze intensely for a few seconds, and his eyes bore down into her soul. It was transfixing and a little frightening. He looked at her, and then-

He could not help but sputter in laughter. He took a sip of his sake.

“Hey!” she said in alarm. “That was just plain creepy! Watch it before you stare like that at a pretty lady!” In spite of herself, she leaned over to refill his cup.

“I’m sorry for giving you a fright. I’ll tell you why I’m drinking.” There was something there, something tight about his eyes, which she had not noticed at first, and she looked at him in concern. “But…” he trailed off slowly, and sudden merriment danced in his eyes. “I’ll only do it if we play a game!”

He winked at her.

“Eh?” Something about the man was thorough disorienting. He was serious one moment, morose the next, and then his eyes would twinkle and he would joke and laugh and offer to play games. The constant feeling of disorientation reminded her of someone. “What sort of game?”

“Quid pro quo. I ask you a question, you ask me a question.”

That seemed very reasonable to her. It could even be quite fun. She grinned. “No. I ask you a question, you ask me a question." She paused, and sighed melodramatically. "But if we're going to talk all evening, my poor throat will get all dry and sore and my voice will get raspy..." She looked at her customer with big, blue, beseeching eyes.

He leapt on the opportunity. "A drink then!" he cheered with a wide smile, "For my lovely, attentive barmaid. And another one for me!"

"You're my new favourite customer!" she enthused.

She poured their drinks, and raised her cup. "Kanpai!" she said, before knocking back the drink. It certainly beat staring at the ceiling gloomily in a bathtub, as far as birthdays went.

She wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand, and bent over the counter, her weight resting on her arms. "Right," she said with determination, looking over him. "Right. Let's get this started. First question. What's your name, mysterious stranger?"

He blinked balefully at her. "That's a boring question!" he whined.

She stuck to her guns. "Name!" she demanded, banging her cup on the bar-top.

The man pulled a face. "Kyouraku Shunsui."

"Kyoura-" she paused. "Wait! You said that name before! You're a noble? You?"

He moved a hand lazy hand in the air. "That's circumstantial evidence! Immaterial to the case at hand!" He protested. "I'm innocent, I swear! And anyway, that was two questions. You’re cheating already," he said accusingly. "Wait your turn. It's my turn now. What," he paused dramatically, "is your name?"

Her palm came up to smack her face before she could help it. "You already know my name! I told you earlier! How drunk are you?"

"Oh yeah," he said with drunken cheer. "You're like the flower. Rangiku-chan. Whoops."

She sighed weightily and sipped her sake with a scowl. It was going to be a long night if the man insisted on asking questions like this. "Ask another question."

"Hmmmmmmmm," he extended the sound for a comically long time. "Okay. Right… How long have you worked here?"

"Almost three years now."

He looked at her expectantly, as if expecting more detail.

"What?" she said. "That was your question!"

"Booooo," he drawled childishly. "This game won't be any fun if you don't give any details."

"There aren't any details to give on that question!" she argued hotly. "It was a bad question. You want good answers? Then ask good questions! It's my turn now. Why do you wear that haori?"

He looked taken aback, and he ran his fingers through his tousled hair. "Yare, yare," he sighed wearily. "I wear it to commemorate a woman I loved." His eyes took on a strange gleam and a smile twitched at his lips. "Or I wear it because it's the only socially sanctioned way of wearing something as comfy as a blanket outside my bedroom. One of those two things- you figure it out."

Rangiku was annoyed. "You're supposed to tell the truth," she complained to him.

"I was!” He smiled mysteriously. “Maybe. It's my turn anyway."

"Go for it."

"How did you beat that shinigami student?"

Rangiku perked up. "That's an easy one. We went out into the street behind the bar. I concentrated my spiritual energy into my hands, and bam!" She punched the air ferociously. "Just like that. I got him smack bang in the chest and he went twirling through the air. It was brilliant,” she informed him.

He nodded slowly, and as he did so, sake sloshed out of his cup. She moved to refill it.

"So you have spiritual power. That makes sense."

"What about you?" she asked. "You're a noble. Don’t you high and mighty folks usually have powers?" Thinking about it, he had seemed to know a lot about the academy and how students treated those from Rukongai. That should have tipped her off.

He seemed to find the question hysterically funny for some reason. His shoulders shook with barely suppressed laughter, and he kept making sputtering noises.

Her eyes narrowed. "Hey!" she said hotly. "It's rude to laugh at a beautiful girl's heartfelt questions"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." His eyes shone with humour. He did not look sorry in the slightest. "Yes- yes, I have spiritual power. Y’know- just a little bit."

"Are you a shinigami?" she demanded.

"Not your turn!" He wagged his finger at her, and she huffed at him. "If you have spiritual energy, why aren't you at the academy?"

It was a question she had been asking herself all week, put to her by a complete stranger.

"Was that a bad question?" he asked, not unkindly. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to. Who even says that you want to go?"

She looked at him, and sighed, her previous melancholy washing over her again. His eyes, warm and brown and full of compassion, looked at her with genuine curiosity. "I do want to go," she said firmly. "A lot, actually. It's a two-sake cup question.”

"Would you like me to buy you another cup?"

"Go on, and I'll give your question my best shot."

She poured herself more sake, and began to piece together an answer.

She did not know what it was that compelled her to answer him.

She had always avoided expressing her worries and her fears to people that she knew. It was not a rational or thought out thing, as far as she could tell. It was just that it was... Safer. In her experience, if you became too much effort for someone, they would just leave you behind. It was best to show the world a smiling, happy face, to laugh and to be merry and beautiful; there would never be any reason to leave behind someone who was no trouble.

A stranger though- there was no reason to hide from a stranger.

She'd likely never see him again, and so she took the plunge.

"At first I didn't think I was good enough. Or at least, that's what I told myself for a long time." She told him with a side-long glance. "I think… That it was just an excuse I was using, so that I wouldn't have to think too hard about anything difficult. It was easier just to say 'Oh well! I can't make it, so what's the use of trying? Guess I have to stay here.'" She took a deep breath. "But that was a pile of shit! It turns out that I'm actually amazing. But actually... I think knew that all along. I was just lying to myself because I didn't want to leave. Do you get me?"

He looked at her, and his gaze was soft and serious. Was this really a drunk man? For a moment, she doubted it.

"I think so," he nodded, and almost to himself, he said, "Sometimes the person we're best at lying to is ourselves." He paused, and addressed her directly. "What is it that's keeping you here then?"

A small, shy smile crossed her face, and when she looked at him then, it was like she was looking past him, to something that only she could see. "My job. My friends,” she said warmly.

But then her smile faltered.

“They don’t need me though,” she said quietly. “Not like I need them. Ayame-chan is desperate for me to leave. She'd kick me out the door with my bags tomorrow if she could. She doesn’t want me to waste my talent. She doesn’t want me to get ‘trapped’.” She looked at him earnestly. "It's difficult, because I want to go! I do! So much! But I don't want to leave either."

Kyouraku hummed in sympathy.

Rangiku could not stop. “But I don’t want to be alone. Not again. Not ever.”

The man pulled himself up from his drunken sprawl across the bar.

“I don’t think loneliness would be a problem for you. Look at us! Nattering on like fishwives! And we’ve only known each other for what, an hour? You’re a charming girl. I don’t think that would be a problem.”

He paused.

“Just for the sake of argument here,” he said, “why couldn’t you visit them? You’ll be very busy for your first few years, but of course, you’ll get plenty of vacation time from the academy. It wouldn’t be a hard thing.”

She had gone still, very still, and his sharp eyes had noticed it immediately. He inclined his head towards her slowly. “There’s a gap here…. You knew that you would be able to visit. So why not go? You knew that you could always visit.”

He was very sharp, for a drunk man.

She swallowed, and closed her eyes slowly.

There was a beat of silence, and then he spoke.

“Is it a boy?” he asked with mischievous delight.

Rangiku squawked loudly, and glared daggers at him.

“It is a boy!” he crowed.

She could not even deny it, so she just fumed uselessly at him. “It isn’t like that! Not at all!”

He was obviously very entertained. “Isn’t it?”

“No,” she gritted out, and he grinned. “He left me behind.” Her heart was sickeningly tight. “I didn’t even know he was going to leave, and he abandoned me. I should have known. He was always leaving, but I’m stupid and didn’t even suspect a thing.”

To her horror, there were tears in her eyes, and she tried furiously to blink them away. She felt a kind of writhing anger. She had never told anyone before, and it was shaping up to be every bit as intrusive and bruising as she had thought it would be.

Kyouraku noticed the tears, and was shame-faced.

“I’m sorry,” he offered quietly, and she gave him a fierce look. “I didn’t mean to pour salt on old wounds. That must have been very difficult. It’s tough, being left behind.” He paused. “I know I may not seem it, looking as virile and handsome as I do, but I’ve been round the block a few times. There’s not much I’ve not heard in my time. You should talk to me about it and I’ll see if I can give you some advice.” He was obviously trying to make up for his insensitivity by extending an olive branch.

Rangiku sniffed, suspicious, but she took it anyway.

“You say ’Talk about it’ like it’s an easy thing… Where would I even start?” she said accusingly.

“How did you meet?” Kyouraku prompted gently.

She was silent for a long moment, pulling together her thoughts. It did not all come flooding back. It was not an easy thing. She had to reach fiercely for every word, to fight down the reluctance to speak, to strain and grasp to pull the sentences together.

But she did it.

“I’m not sure how long ago it was, now. Time had a way of blurring together, back then, so that days could go by and feel like hours and months could pass in minutes. But this is the way I remember it, and that I’ll never forget,” she said.

“There was a day, a day a long time ago, when I was stumbling along a dirt road in my old, worn out shoes with the sun burning the back of my neck. It was the kind of dry heat that you occasionally get at the end of summer, before the mists set in- the sort where your throat dries up with the heat and your eyeballs itch, where the cicadas buzz so loudly that the noise feels like it will never stop bouncing around in your brain.

“I hadn’t eaten in almost five days. I just knew that I had to keep moving, because if I didn’t, it might just be the day I finally collapsed and never got up again.”

Kyouraku’s expression was a grim line, and his eyes were dark.

“As it turns out, I did collapse.” She laughed but it was an odd, soft thing. “But it was okay.

“When I opened my eyes, he was there. He had a dried persimmon in his hand, and he put it to my mouth, and I chewed it, though I don’t know how I could have, my mouth was so dry.” Her gaze fell to her hands, her expression was gentle, but she didn’t see them. She was too far off, lost in some distant, untouchable memory.

“I don’t know how it tasted, that first persimmon. I don’t remember. I was too out of it, too light-headed even to stand. But it must have been the sweetest thing in the world.” She looked up at him. “I don’t remember what happened, but when I next woke, I was in his bed. I had stolen his only blanket.” She laughed brightly at the memory. “I was so panicked! I thought he was going to throw me out! But he didn’t- he told me to stay. That’s how we met.”

Kyouraku looked troubled, but captivated nonetheless.

“I don’t know whether that’s beautiful or incredibly sad,” he admitted to her.

“A bit of both, maybe?”

“Maybe. The most beautiful things are usually a little bit sad.” He said the words with such sincerity that she knew in her gut that he had to be speaking from experience. She looked at him askance, but he motioned at her to continue on.

“We lived together for a long time,” she said after a beat.

“I have a bad habit of only remembering the good bits- the times when we laughed, the times when he tried to push me in the river and I managed to slip him up instead, or the one time I ever managed to beat him at go, when he had stolen a bottle of sake on my birthday. I remember the songs we sang by the river, the made up lyrics he added, the times when he held my hand the first time we went into town, or the way he kept me safe. What I remember most is the way he never let me starve again after he found me.

“I forget that he was a pain in the ass, that he pissed off everyone he ever met, that he would leave all the time telling me where he was going, that he made me feel so lonely, that people were scared of him, that they all hated him. I even hated him sometimes, I think.”

Her voice trailed off.

“I was so stupid, to think that all of it- any of it- meant anything at all. In the end, he left me, and that’s what I keep coming back to. He just… left. And I was alone.”

She paused, shame-faced. Something she had buried deep and secret within herself was rising from in her, something so fragile and so powerful that she could barely face it in the light of day. But she was tired, too tired to keep it back now. She had kept it to herself for almost three years, and now she could bear it no longer.

She looked at her hands, at skin that had been made rough and worn by the endless work of cleaning. Her hands, which had never been soft.

“He didn’t love me,” she said quietly. There it was now, out in the world. There could be no turning back. “If he’d loved me, he would have stayed.” She looked Kyouraku in the eye. “I think I might have loved him though.”

There was a heart-rending beat of silence.

“Anywa-�� she tried to rush out.

“Is that why you’re scared?” Kyouraku asked compassionately.

She bit her lip, and she nodded mutely. “I keep wondering what would happen if I were to see him again,” she confessed quietly.

“Would that be such a bad thing?” he asked reasonably.

“What if he hated me?” she mumbled pathetically.

He held her gaze, suddenly very serious. “And what if he didn’t?”

“What?”

“What if he didn’t?” He repeated. “What if he was just being stupid and insensitive when he left, Rangiku-chan? What if you’re throwing away your shot at a comfortable future on a groundless, misplaced fear- a misinterpretation of the situation- when things could actually work out? When you could be friends again? I don’t know the odds- I don’t know the boy- but wouldn’t you want to at least try?”

He paused, and he sighed.

“The time you have isn’t infinite. Not even here. Trust me, I know what it’s like to be working on a timer. That friend I mentioned earlier- he’s really not well. Time is precious. Don’t waste it.”

She bit at her lip, uncertain, but he continued.

“And consider this- what if it’s worse than that? What if he is such a bastard that he really didn’t ever care? Why would you let fear of a bastard like that rule your life?” He looked at her intently. “Don’t let fear ruin your life.”

He paused, and he grinned then, and for a moment, she could remember that he was supposed to be nothing more than another drunken fool.

“Or bastards. Don’t let those ruin your life either. Or fearsome bastards for that matter. They’re probably the worst of all. It might even be the case that you don’t even see him at all for a very long time. Seireitei is a big place. So why worry? Be merry. Drink. Party. Have fun. Don’t let it get you down. Forget him, even if only for now.”

He knocked back the rest of his sake, and gave her a hopeful look. “Did that help?”

She looked down, her brows furrowed in thought.

“Actually…” she said, “I think it might have.” She paused, her face twisted. “Weird!”

It felt suddenly like a massive weight was beginning to lift from off her shoulders. All of a sudden, she could not fathom how she had managed to struggle for so long in silence.

She smiled shyly at him, with such heartfelt gratitude that he was taken aback. His brown eyes widened, and his hand flew up to his hair self-consciously.

“Thank you,” she said. It was as simple as that.

She looked around furtively, and reached up to the top shelf.

“This is the best sake we have,” she whispered to him in a conspiratorial fashion. “I think you deserve some after that speech.”

The change in track allowed them both to circle back to less emotionally fraught ground, and they both seized on it.

“Rangiku-chan!” Kyouraku whispered in a betrayed voice. “You were holding out on me the whole time! You said the other sake was the good stuff!”

“This is for emergencies!” Rangiku whined, glad to be back on familiar ground. “Chiyo-san- my boss- measures how much is left in the bottle with a ruler, I swear. I’m taking a serious risk just showing this to you. She’ll kick my ass if she finds out that I let you have some on the house.”

She poured him a generous helping, and looking around to make sure that no one was watching, sloshed a little into her own cup.

“Kanpai!” she cheered in a hushed voice.

He raised his cup to hers, and his haori sleeve dragged in some spillage. He groaned lowly. “I’m going to have to ask Lisa-chan to get this cleaned for me tomorrow and walk around naked until I get it back.”

She tasted the sake and she moaned. “This is the good stuff. I’m ruined now,” she informed him dramatically. “Now that I’ve tasted this, I’ll never be able to go back to the cheap stuff.”

He grinned. “You can get better stuff than this in the mess halls in Seireitei, I’m pretty sure.”

She knocked him with her hand. “You’re just making that up. No way you can get such good sake there so easily.”

“I’m not kidding! Even on an unseated shinigami’s wages, you would be able to drink nothing but sake of this quality every night, I reckon.”

Her head went back and she laughed joyfully. “Now that should have been their sales pitch. Do you think I would have worried for a moment about joining up if I’d known that? I’d have left years ago.”

She hummed to herself as the sake curled warmly in her belly. “I’ve forgotten- whose turn was it to answer a question? Was it mine?”

He looked at her hopefully. “We’re still playing?”

“Don’t see why not. It’ll keep me entertained until we open,” she said with a shrug.

“I think it’s your go to ask a question.”

She hummed again, this time in thought.

“Who were you drinking with this evening?”

Kyouraku smiled a lazy grin. “I started off with some of the higher seated officers, but they couldn’t keep up. No one else wanted to keep going, and so I marched the long march to drunken glory by myself after they all left.”

Something about that sat wrong with Rangiku. “It’s no fun to drink on your own!” she protested. “You should have gone with them.”

“I’m not alone now,” the man pointed out quickly. “I’ve got you to keep me company.”

But he had been before, Rangiku couldn’t help but notice, and her eyes narrowed keenly.

Kyouraku whistled innocently to himself and gave her a dopey look. “My question. Who’s your favourite co-worker?”

Rangiku stumbled. “I can’t answer that!” she protested hotly.

“That’s my question, so you have to answer it,” he said, pointing his finger at her in triumph.

“That’s too hard! I can’t choose between them!” she whined pathetically.

“That’s my question!” he sang at her and she pouted.

“They’re right upstairs- they could hear me,” she said desperately.

“Rangiku’s a chicken!” He grinned.

It was a blow to her honour, and she pulled herself up with a kind of clumsy haughtiness. “Fine!” she said with a bang of her fist. “Fine!” She scowled. “Yuki and Rin are the nicest to me, but they’re older than I am, and so they treat me like a child. That can be nice, but it means that they’re less fun, and they’re less willing to mess around.” She mulled it over. “Sayaka is the most fun, but she doesn’t always think about what she says, and it’s her fault that I had to fight the shinigami student in the first place, so she’s in my bad books at the moment. Ayame is a pain in the ass.” She paused. “But it’s so much fun to wind her up. She gets so angry and she stomps around in a huff, even though she likes to pretend that she’s so above it all. It’s fun when you get her to join in.” Rangiku paused again, and a small smile crossed her lips. “It’s probably Ayame,” she confessed.

Kyouraku had a devilish look on his face. “I’m going to tell the rest of the girls you’re playing favourites,” he announced.

Rangiku glared. “No you’re not. I’ll kick you out before you can.”

She suddenly felt the pressing need to come up with a good question, to get revenge for his stupid prodding. “My go!” A devious look crossed her face. “What was so bad that you had to go on drinking alone?”

One eye looked at her from under a heavy eyelid. “What makes you think that?”

This was what he did, she realised. He equivocated and changed the subject and artfully wrong-footed her to keep her away from topics that he did not want to discuss, and he had been doing it all evening. Rangiku was young, and, she admitted to herself, occasionally quite self-absorbed, but she was not stupid. She knew what avoidance looked like.

She gave him a level look. “I’ve stood behind this bar for almost three years. Give me some credit. No one drinks on their own unless they don’t want to be sober.”

“I’m not drinking on my own,” Kyouraku insisted again. “I’m drinking with you.”

“You were wandering the streets alone before, looking for a drink.”

“Because I knew I would find someone to drink with,” he said firmly.

Rangiku was not convinced. “It’s not very fair to avoid the rules of your own game just because you’re afraid to answer. I answered your questions, and it was painful. If it’s a bad question, you should tell me and I’ll ask you a different one.”

He had a haunted expression in his eyes. “I’m not afraid,” he said, but the look in his eyes gave lie to his words.

“Sure,” she said sulkily. It stung a little that she had spilled so much of her soul to this stranger, only for him to refuse to do the same. Her heart clenched with the unfairness of it. Her lips curled in a pout and picked up a cup and began to clean it with quick, agitated movements. “I told you everything,” she said intensely, refusing to hold his gaze.

“You didn’t have to,” he pointed out sharply.

“But I did anyway.”

He sighed deeply. She took a chance, and glanced up quickly from her busy hands, but he caught her eye. His brown eyes were dark and heavy, and focused on her. She fumbled with the cup and glared at him fiercely.

He was silent for a moment, and when he spoke, it was slow and reflective.

“My niece has applied to the academy this year. I saw her application letter with my own eyes last night.”

Rangiku halted. His expression was fragile- vulnerable- and he could not meet her eye. It moved something in her. She put the cup down slowly, and rested her arms on the bar, leaning forward so that he face was only inches away from his own.

“Is that so bad?” she asked gently, her eyes wide but searching.

“Yes,” he said, swallowing. “No. But also yes.”

“Why?”

He was silent for a moment, and could not hold her gaze. “She’s so young,” he said finally.

That was not it, and Rangiku knew instantly, but she was hesitant to say so.

“I’m young,” she said, her heart fluttering oddly. “My friend was young when he left.”

Kyouraku’s mouth twisted, and something in Rangiku twisted in response. He was a stranger; he should have meant nothing. But here she was all the same, reluctant to say the thing that would upset him.

“Too perceptive,” he said quietly. “Too perceptive by half.”

She took a deep breath, then, and said what she had suspected all along.

“You’re like me,” she told him quietly. “You’re scared too. Scared like me.”

Something lit in his eyes, a wariness or a fear- that he had been seen and seen so easily- but he said nothing.

“It’s alright to be scared,” she said, and she drew in a deep breath. “But ‘don’t let fear ruin your life’. Right?” They were his own words, offered back up to him tentatively, and her forget-me-not eyes were bright and blue and earnest. “Right?”

His eyes widened. His mouth was dry.

When he laughed, he laughed and laughed, and it sounded hollow.

“Can’t even take my own advice,” he said bitterly, and she caught the self-loathing in his voice.

Rangiku’s mouth formed a small ‘o’. “Hey…” she said hesitantly, leaning forward. “Hey-“

He stood suddenly, and did not wobble at all. It was hard to believe that the man had ever been drunk. He grabbed his hat as he rose. She had not realised before how tall he was.

“It’s late,” he announced blithely, ignoring her. “And I should be off. Lisa-chan will be out looking for me, and I don’t want to make my adorable Lisa-chan any angrier than she is already. That wouldn’t be nice.”

He was running, Rangiku realised- running away from the truth and the pain of confronting it. “Hey-“ she said sharply.

“It was a pleasure, Rangiku-chan,” he said. He paused, and as had so often been the case that evening, Rangiku found herself wrong-footed once again by his emotional turns, these strange games he always seemed to be playing and always seemed to be winning. He grinned at her, and she could only blink back. When he bent down to push a hair behind her ear, she looked at him with wide eyes. “I’m looking forward to seeing you in Seireitei,” he told her warmly, as if he wasn’t running away in a bid to avoid confronting his problems. “Maybe we can do this again.”

She stumbled. “Y-yeah,” she said uncertainly.

He placed a generous amount of money on the counter, and Rangiku’s eyes went wide. He beamed at her. “A smart, pretty girl always livens up a party! We’ll definitely see each other.”

He left so suddenly that had Rangiku looked away, she would have missed it. One second he was there, and then next, he had vanished as if he had simply melted into thin air.

She blinked owlishly for several seconds after, alone behind the bar. She wondered what it was that frightened him so much that he had felt that he’d had no choice but to leave.

The last thing she had seen of him had been a flash of white as he had turned on his heel, where his pink haori had lifted with the speed and turn of his movement-

A flash of white, and the number eight.

#Bleach #GinRan #Rangiku Matsumoto #shunsui kyoraku #gin ichimaru #so when I first watched bleach #many moons ago #kyoraku was probably my favourite character #shunsui and rangiku #lives and souls of the party #desperate aching melancholy #i think they could be so similar that they scare each other and run from one another #his bankai is a lovers' suicide pact

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blookmallow · 4 years

Text

aaaand goodbye teruteru

------

the what now

I GOT STUCK HERE FOR SO FUCKING LONG BC THEY GIVE YOU THIS. PILE OF INCOMPREHENSIBLE INSTRUCTIONS AND THEN NONE OF IT MAKES ANY SENSE

in dr1 they had a similar mechanic where you had to hit the buttons at the right tempo to knock out their statements, which was also confusing but i was starting to get decently good at it by the end of the game, but in this one the timing is TOTALLY OFF and i kept missing every single one and couldn’t figure out why, then realized it worked sometimes if i held down the button instead of just clicking it like you do in dr1 (which they didn’t explain!!! in this one!!!) but eventually figured out if i just like. double clicked on the beat i could break them for some reason. i dont know why. it works and i cannot explain how

but then at the end when you reach the final strike, you have to put together a phrase out of four words to refute “where could the weapon have been?” and i was CONVINCED it was “On The Meat Bone” (even though technically it was hidden In the bone i guess) and i didnt realize i had the phrase wrong and thought i just wasn’t hitting it correctly for some reason so i failed this like 6 times before i finally realized it was MEAT ON THE BONE

i understand owari’s not the type to give a shit probably but do you really wanna eat meat off of the skewer that was very recently repeatedly stabbed into a guy’s abdomen

even if he cleaned it off before he put it back thats still like, fucked up lmao

monokuma took care of it though i guess :’ )

kind of alarming that he’s capable of eating now, but

THANK YOU NANAMI

,,,,ok

I WILL SAY that the final closing sequence is WAY better in sdr2, it’s way way clearer what you’re looking for, the blanks give you hints as to what might go there, the picture options give you descriptions of what you’re looking at (frequently i know exactly what im trying to explain but cant figure out which picture goes where bc they’re just. incomprehensible out of context) and THEY FINALLY FIXED THE SCROLL THING :’)

i dont know if its just broken as hell with a laptop trackpad and maybe it works with a mouse (or maybe it’s just not designed for pc in the first place, this was originally. ps vita or something i think) but the scroll sensitivity was SO broken in dr1 i spent most of my time just trying desperately to scroll to the thing i needed without scrolling past it

i still have that problem when im trying to pick which truth bullet to fire but thats not As bad as this part was in dr1 at least

ok so my bIGGEST PROBLEM WITH ALL THIS, is WHY DIDN’T TERUTERU TELL ANYBODY ABOUT THIS

if he Knew what komaeda was up to (and he did, it’s confirmed right after this) why didn’t he just go tell not-togami right away. even if he thought nobody would believe him, that guy would have taken it very seriously since he already was on his guard and knew there was a threat

i mean i guess like. he saw an opportunity to kill komaeda, which he could feel justified about bc he knew komaeda was already planning a murder, and if he got away with it he could escape but that still means he was willing to sacrifice everyone else

like he does give kind of a weak attempt at asking if it counts as an exception because it was sort of self defense (komaeda couldn’t kill him from where he was but he was gonna kill Someone so he was defending. someone) but he still.... knew komaeda was going to kill somebody and made the choice to just kill him himself without warning anyone or saying Anything and then kept that fact to himself too

back in dr1 again we had this similar situation in the first trial where leon actually was acting in self defense (which is Confirmed in the manga, he doesn’t get a chance to explain it in the game) and didn’t tell anyone but like... none of them knew yet if they could get off on a technicality and we don’t know if he might’ve been hoping for that, and he didn’t know sayaka was dangerous, he didn’t make the conscious decision to go kill her without telling anyone. he probably should have asked someone else for help when she lost it but his intention was to get in there to talk it out, so like. he tried to de-escalate the situation and became a killer by accident, teruteru had plenty of time to get help and decided to kill instead. and “hey byakuya i think komaeda is planning something bad” would have been a completely logical thing to do, he would have taken it seriously and teruteru would be innocent in that scenario, vs “guys i think i just killed sayaka but hear me out i didnt mean to” would NOT have gone over well, nobody’s gonna help him or believe him when it’s Sweet Dear Precious Sayaka, naegi could barely believe she attacked him even when they proved it with evidence

i dont know i feel like teruteru had a lot more intent behind what he did. even if he would have been absolutely fucking justified in killing komaeda and i wish he had done it correctly :’ ) i think the “i dont care about taking everyone else down with him” is way more clear-cut here

anyway, goodbye little bastard man

motherfucker

i still CANNOT follow komaeda’s logic here

he’s obsessed with the Ultimates... and believes in them SOOO Much :) he’s desperate to see them overcoming the ultimate despair... so he’s gotta kill somebody... to induce ultimate despair... so they can overcome it... i GUESS???

wouldn’t defeating monokuma and making it out of here on their own strength without resorting to murder at all be the ultimate hope triumph though. what are you DOING, komaeda

what is W R O N G wiTH YOu

well there he goes

i really wish someone would

P LE ASE DO

AKANE OWARI MY QUEEN

its not. clear but im pretty sure she Did punch him

its a crime that we dont get to see this, but

i mean. she’s right

i B U K I

#lucy plays sdr2

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pyropsychiccollector · 5 years

Text

Naezono Week, Day 5: Dream

Makoto’s eyes cracked open blearily as he soaked in his surroundings. Warm sunlight permeated the room through a window with its curtains drawn back. His hands sank into a nice, cushy mattress that he knew all too well – after all, the school he got accepted into spared no expense for the students who had to live on campus. Casually, he threw the blanket off his body and moved to sit on the edge of the bed, rubbing his eyes and stretching his weary bones.

As he smacked his lips thirstily, Makoto drank in more details of his average dorm room. Everything was as he remembered it, the previous night… and through the window, he could see the beautiful crystal blue sky with only a few white puffy clouds obscuring it. It was… a gorgeous day. Not a hint of pollution or dreary weather.

‘… Why does that feel so odd?’ Makoto mused to himself. It’s not like he should have been expecting anything else, right? As industrial as Tokyo could be, they were all pretty conscientious about the environment. And as far as he could remember, nothing spectacularly huge or devastating had hit the area… ‘… Huh. Well, whatever. I’ve gotta get going or I’ll be late!’

This thought was prompted by a glance at his digital alarm clock, which informed him that he had woken up early enough that Ishimaru wouldn’t chew him out… But you never could be too careful with the Ultimate Prefect. His high expectations had high expectations.

Makoto chuckled weakly to himself as he got undressed. That sounded too confusing, even in his own sleep-deprived brain. Togami or Fukawa would have called him an idiot, if he’d said that out loud… Not that he’d be dealing with them first thing in the morning, since they both were usually among the last to get to class every day… Point being, though, maybe he just needed to wake up with a nice, cool shower.

He couldn’t remember if he’d had one last night, after all.

~*~

It was always so interesting walking across campus in the morning. With so many colorful characters in the student body, and even amongst the staff, it kinda made each trip an adventure… Although to be fair, with every other student besides himself having some unique quirk, “abnormal” was the “normal” around here… Which made plain old him a guy that rather stood out, all things considered. So technically he was “unique”… at least around here.

And boy, did that make his brain hurt, thinking about it.

“Yo, Naegi.”

Makoto blinked as he registered the student that he was walking by had stopped and was addressing him.

“Kuzuryu-senpai…?” The Luckster greeted, curiously. He’d seen the yakuza heir around campus, of course. But the blond had never really shown much interest in him or much of Class 78, for that matter. What had changed his tune that morning?

Fuyuhiko leaned back a little in his stance as if he were appraising the Luckster for a brief moment before he spoke again.

“You doin’ okay? Gotten any headaches or anything?”

Makoto blinked more owlishly as he processed the question. Yeah, he was totally fine. A little fuzzy-headed when he first woke up, but it wasn’t anything a shower couldn’t fix. He told the yakuza heir as such.

“Well… go find Mikan or one of us, if you feel sick or whatever. Even those meatheads Akane and Nidai are supposedta be on hand… But if they’re too busy fucking around to help you out, just go find me or Peko, and we’ll straighten ‘em out.”

Makoto sweatdropped at how brusquely his senpai had put that… like Akane-senpai or Nidai-senpai were unruly yakuza he had to keep in line. Then again, Makoto had his fair share of bossy classmates, himself… At least Togami-kun gave them some Togami Corp. employee benefits.

Sometimes.

On his best days.

… And usually only for him, Sayaka, Kirigiri, Oogami, and Fujisaki. Oh, and sometimes Ikusaba.

… Togami-kun still needed time to warm up to their other classmates.

“I’ll… keep that in mind, senpai!” Makoto tried to muster his best reassuring grin – though he was pretty sure it also came off as sheepish. He didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, after all.

Fuyuhiko just nodded tersely and was on his way with a lazy wave. Makoto briefly watched him go before heading into the main building where classes were held.

“Every morning’s an adventure…” Makoto repeated to himself under his breath as he walked. He then smiled softly.

He was lucky to have such compassionate senpai.

~*~

Makoto yawned a little as the teacher droned on. For most of his classmates, all this stuff wasn’t really essential to their futures. With the skills they had, they were preparing for the future at a pretty good clip… They just needed to keep honing those skills.

Some of them were better off applying themselves academically, certainly. Some were even rethinking their career paths. For Makoto himself… Well, he didn’t feel confident enough to allow himself to skirt by on luck, like a certain senpai of his.

‘… Haven’t I heard this lecture before?’ Makoto wondered to himself as he wrote notes down. This lesson was vaguely familiar.

He didn’t get to ponder that for too long, though. He felt someone boring into the side of his head with their eyes, and when he craned his head to look, he found a pouty idol leaning forward on her desk, her lower face obscured by her arm. But her half-lidded eyes definitely confirmed she was pouting at him.

“M-Maizono-san?” Makoto asked quietly, not wanting to get caught by the teacher. Her voice being muffled by her arm made her equally quiet.

“You didn’t walk me to class…” Oh, the idol was definitely brooding now. Makoto could just see little storm clouds hovering over her pouty head.

Makoto blankly stared back at the idol for a few short moments before it hit him that was one of their traditions… and he’d zoned out on it. For some reason it felt natural to come by himself, if that made sense? But Makoto couldn’t see why that would be. He always enjoyed Maizono-san’s company in the mornings. She was his best friend, and always energized him – spurring him on to do his best every day, and to live life to the fullest. And in return, she confided in him about the more stressful parts of her career, and relied on him as a stable, comforting pillar in her life.

… He felt like a real heel right now…

“I’m sorry, Maizono-san…!” Makoto apologized desperately in a hushed voice. “L-Let me make it up to you, I promise!!”

And just like flipping a switch, the idol flashed a thousand watt smile and hummed contentedly.

“Call me Sayaka-chan from now on, and go on a date with me, and all is forgiven~…”

Makoto went as red as a tomato at being given permission to use her first name… Wasn’t that too intimate, even for best friends? Not to mention the part about the date… What would people say if they saw her out on a date with him? He was pretty sure she’d once told him about the rules idols had to follow, and-and besides, wasn’t it weird to ask your best friend to go out on a date...?

… Wait.

~*~

Sayaka giggled at his gobsmacked expression as they sat down on the bench at lunch. She hadn’t let him slip out of his ‘promise’, no matter how hard he stuttered out his protests – and apparently, she wanted to cash in on that “date” right away. Bad enough that he was “supposed” to be calling her Sayaka-chan, even in public where so many people could hear…

The Luckster really worried about his friend’s career, he really did. It just meant so much to her, and he really wanted her to succeed – she didn’t need to waste time on teasing him, just to satisfy any silly crush he had on her. He knew she was way out of his league.

“But I’m not teasing you.” Sayaka abruptly remarked, breaking Makoto out of his train of thought. Makoto blinked at the serious, concerned frown on her face.

… Then he realized what had just happened. Again.

“H-How did you…?!” Makoto spluttered in embarrassment. He couldn’t be that much of an open book, could he?!

But the idol just giggled.

“I’m an esper, silly! Sometimes I just activate my ability without even thinking!” Sayaka stuck out her tongue playfully. “… Kidding! I just have really good intuition.”

Makoto’s cheeks were glowing red by this point as he stared down at his lap in embarrassment. He fell into that trap again, hook, line, and sinker. Cheesy joke or not, her intuition really was amazing… and dead accurate at that.

“I am serious, though, Makoto-kun. I’m not leading you on.” Sayaka was shaking her head again, serious frown back in place. He looked back at her with morbid curiosity, not even the use of his first name distracted him as she went on. “Have you ever had regrets, Makoto-kun? The kind where you wish you could do something over again?”

Makoto frowned thoughtfully at the question.

“Well, yeah… I guess. Mostly small stuff, though – I can’t say I’ve had any real ‘major’ regrets…”

Sayaka then smiled sadly. There was a remorseful tinge to it that Makoto couldn’t quite place.

“Makoto-kun…” Sayaka laced her fingers through his and clasped their hands together consolingly. “Believe it or not, I think you do have at least one major regret. It’s the reason we’re here now. And… after everything, I think you of all people deserve this opportunity, even if it’s not permanent.”

Makoto’s brow furrowed at her words. He didn’t get it at all.

“You’re not making any sense… What’s this have to do with us… being here?”

The Luckster blushed as Sayaka leaned her head on his shoulder and just smiled peacefully as she closed her eyes. She looked ready to take a nap more than have their lunch together.

“You’ll understand eventually. And… I just want you to know…” When her eyes reopened and she planted a kiss on his cheek, Makoto’s blush deepened. Sayaka pulled back after a few moments but smiled warmly so close to his face. “You have amazing and considerate friends, Makoto-kun, but it wouldn’t have been possible for me to be here, if it wasn’t for you… I’m… I’m glad you’ve kept me in your heart all this time. I’m so happy to be here with you…”

Makoto yelped a little as the bluenette wrapped him in a warm, comforting embrace.

“S-Sayaka…?” The Luckster stuttered out, unsure if he should reciprocate the hug. The whole situation was still confusing him.

When Sayaka pulled back, she wiped away a stray tear, still mustering her warmest smile.

“I’ll make sure you graduate without regrets, Makoto-kun. I owe it to you after everything. And… I want you to know that I’ll cherish every moment of this as well. Just… Just think of this as a time of healing for us both, even if, in the end, you’ll be the only one to wake up.”

‘… even if I’ll be the only one to wake up?’

Makoto was still left thoroughly confused by the idol’s words and emotions, and she wouldn’t elaborate on it just yet – she promised she would explain it, at the end. At the time, Makoto thought she was referring to the end of their budding relationship…

… When the day inevitably came, he wished it had been that simple.

~*~

Note: I may come back and revisit this muse. Makoto placed in the Neo World Program after his friends (and senpai) see that he still carries the weight of Sayaka’s memory in him (as well as the weight of everyone else who died) - woof. I love how paradoxical it is, warm/comforting, yet so sad.

.... Plus, I get to write more of Class 77, and that’s always fun. XD To clarify why Makoto was reliving his days at Hope’s Peak, and not on Jabberwock Island, well... Hajime Hinata is the Ultimate Everything. He could modify that program so fast. lol

Also - I know I still have to write Days 4, 6, and 7. I just felt inspiration to write Day 5 tonight. :3

#Danganronpa #Makoto Naegi #Sayaka Maizono #Makoto x Sayaka #Naegi x Maizono #Naezono #Naezono Week #Naezono Week 2019

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butchharrydalton · 5 years

Text

Madoka Magica’s Beautiful Queerness

I must confess: Puella Magi Madoka Magica is my all-time favorite anime and manga.

I first got into anime when I was 8, sitting down in front of the TV gleefully watching Sailor Moon swinging her sparkly wands around and declaring justice against monster after monster. I’d heard of it from somewhere on the internet, and upon asking my dad, he described it as a story about “a girl who turns into a superhero.” I’d later learn there were countless shows like Naoko Tekuchi’s classic, all falling under the aptly named “Magical Girl” genre.

To be frank, I’m not licensed to talk about Magical Girls as, by being white, I lack that cultural context to fully analyze the common tropes of these kinds of media. As such, I will NOT be talking about Magical Girls as a genre or about how Madoka Magica and Sailor Moon changed it. However, Sailor Moon was what kicked off my interest and from there on out, I sought out other similar anime and stumbled upon something… different.

That was when I came upon Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Unlike many unfortunate (and mentally scarred) fans of the surprisingly dark deconstruction, I was lucky enough to read the Wikipedia article on it and have some foreknowledge on its mature themes. I didn’t actually end up reading or watching the series then and there, and almost forgot about it until the first 3 volumes of the manga appeared in my school’s library.

I’ll admit; I mostly checked it out because of the sparkly rainbow covers, but briefly I remembered that all was not what it seemed. As much as I love girly fluff, I’m also really into psychological horror, and Madoka Magica delivered both.

PMMM follows Madoka Kaname and her friends as they make contracts with an alien cat called Kyubey, allowing them to obtain magical powers and a wish for their souls. Each of the girls realizes, though, that this contract is far more dangerous and sinister than they thought, and that Kyubey may not be fully honest about his actual motivations. It starts out adorable, but then in episode 3, a dark twist quickly turns this innocent show into an emotional and horrifying thrill ride.

The manga’s beautiful art and readability got me obsessed, and I ended up picking up the spinoff manga series and watching the 12-episode anime. Each of course, was equally magical and fantastic, only making me love this fictional universe more. The characters were incredibly human and had a depth that made me care for them, and the series managed to perfectly balance and contrast both its horrific and heartwarming moments. That’s not even mentioning the plot, which was unpredictable and enjoyably surprising, with a perfect ending.

By and large, though, my favorite thing about Madoka Magica was how beautifully queer the story was. The show has been criticized for queerbaiting and pulling out some problematic tropes, as the relationships admittedly are not as obvious as they could be, but upon watching it’s blatant that the main girls are anything but straight. Despite the flaws of this representation, the story manages overall to create an enjoyable narrative about the lives of these girls and the relationships between them.

When the series starts, we first get to know shy, pink-haired Madoka and her spunky, blue-haired best friend Sayaka. In the first episode, a romantic relationship is already teased between the girls, Sayaka hugging Madoka and explicitly calling Madoka her wife.

Sayaka and Madoka are unfortunately something of a rare-pair in the fandom, but their relationship is so genuinely wholesome and loving during the series that it’s a surprise that not many people ship them. They can be seen holding hands and supporting each other through whatever comes, and up until episode 8 they are together through everything.

Sayaka is unashamed to tell Madoka everything she’s feeling, and both are motivated mostly by protecting each other. Unfortunately, they have a falling out because of Sayaka’s increasing distress about her contract, but this is eventually resolved when they are brought back together at the end of the series.

These two aren’t the only couple hinted at, either.

When a new girl, Homura, transfers to Madoka and Sayaka’s class, Sayaka develops somewhat of a crush and remarks about how beautiful Homura is. This is quickly overwritten when Sayaka and Homura become more antagonistic, though.

After Homura joins the cast, Madoka and Sayaka are saved from a “witch” (the monster contracted girls must fight) by a girl named Mami. Both Madoka and Sayaka become fast friends with Mami, both talking a little too much about how “cool” they think she is.

While fighting another witch and alone with Madoka, Mami reveals that she struggles with loneliness and what could even be read as symptoms of mental illness. Madoka responds by holding hands with her, comforting Mami and reminding her that she isn’t alone. Mami then calls the two of them “a magical girl duo,” and monologues about the newfound emotions she feels about her companionship with Madoka. Note that this is only on episode 3 out of a 12-episode anime!

This beautiful moment of non-heterosexuality, though, is again unfortunately brief. Mami becomes careless and is killed by the witch she intended to defeat, leaving Madoka and Sayaka scarred. This is of course, somewhat problematic, given that Mami’s death could be read as an incident of bury your gays. The series does seem to invoke this with the characters’ deaths, and I will concede that I can’t exactly justify this especially since it really seems to take a while to even confirm that character’s queerness. Even so, the deaths are relevant to the plot and drive the story, so avoiding the characters’ demise would actually hinder the story and the message it attempts to deliver.

After Mami dies, the start of Sayaka’s primary arc begins. It’s hinted that Sayaka may have had some deeper feelings for Mami than she shows. She regrets that she didn’t make a contract in time to save her, and fights (and dies) to model how Mami used to. Most of how Sayaka acts from this point forward is in memory of Mami, which is both beautiful and tragic for her character. It’s a testament to the queer undertones of the show that Sayaka is willing to fight in honor of the girl she loved.

Another character named Kyouko is introduced as an antagonist, another one of the “magical girls.” She fights with Sayaka over witch hunting territory, and their philosophical disagreements on how to kill the monsters make them at odds with each other. Despite this, there’s an aspect of Foe Yay to how they interact with each other.

It’s revealed that Kyubey takes a girl’s soul when she makes a contract with him, causing Sayaka to fall off the deep end, while Kyouko begins to see herself in Sayaka and tries to rescue her before it’s too late. Kyouko’s character goes from a villainous one to that of someone who pushes other people away because of their fear of abandonment, supported by what she experienced prior to the series.

She wished for her father’s church to become popular again after he was excommunicated, but once he discovered that his daughter is what he labels a witch, Kyouko is outcast and her family dies by her father’s hand. Her story is reminiscent of the rejection that some queer youth face when they come out to bigoted religious family and can be read as metaphorical for that predicament.

Unfortunately, the series pulls a “bury your gays” moment yet again. It turns out that magical girls are only contracted so they too can turn into witches and so Kyubey can gather energy for his civilization based off this transformation. Sayaka, unable to cope with all the pain that comes with being a magical girl, turns into a witch when she becomes too filled with despair. Kyouko attempts to restore her original form but fails, destroying herself and Sayaka’s witch so that they can be together in death.

It's a sad ending for Kyouko and Sayaka, but it does strangely add more subtext to their relationship considering that they get to a point where they would literally die for each other. The song “And I’m Home” by Wowaka also plays after their deaths, which is a love song between the two of them expressing how despite their sadness, they’ve found safety in each other. During the song, a still image of them holding hands underwater, as if they’re drowning together, is pictured.

Madoka and Homura then become the couple most alluded to during the final 4 episodes of the series. Homura tells Madoka that an apocalypse-wreaking witch is coming to their town, and that she’s been going back in time using her magic to save Madoka from that witch, or to stop Madoka from becoming a witch herself.

Episode 10 is arguably the best episode of the series, where we see the various timelines Homura has lived through and how she bonds with Madoka every time. Madoka and Homura’s relationship during these periods are sadly brushed off as “friendship,” but Homura’s dedication to saving Madoka and Madoka’s willingness to die for Homura in several timelines alludes to something much deeper.

The best scene from this episode is by far when both Madoka and Homura are about to become witches and the two make a promise to destroy the world together as monsters. These two are perfectly willing to fall right beside each other, but when Madoka is able to save Homura from her fate at the last minute, Homura is forced to kill Madoka before she becomes a witch and reset again. The scene is heartbreaking and is really when Homura begins to drastically change compared to the other timelines.

Episode 11 features what’s basically Homura’s confession of love to Madoka, wherein she promises to keep Madoka safe at all costs and embraces her. When the giant witch finally attacks in episode 12, Madoka runs out into the ruins of the city to save Homura, and finally decides what to wish for to become a magical girl.

These final moments of episode 12 are particularly beautiful and filled with things that cannot be brushed away with simple friendship. Madoka wishes to erase witches, and through loopholes in the rules of the magical girl contract, is able to ascend to godhood and save every last magical girl from witch-hood. She basically rewrites the universe in her ideals but has to say goodbye to Homura as she leaves earth.

Madoka calls Homura her “very best friend” and gives Homura her hair ribbons to remember her by. Oh, and did I mention that during this time they’re hugging and naked in space? Yeah. Just gals being pals.

This ending is emotional, cathartic and gives a depressing series a strangely happy ending. Other than the naked space hugging (*suggestive eye raising*), it also summarizes the queer themes built up through the series.

The character Kyubey, an alien who uses these girls to his own advantage, manipulates them and profits off of their despair and personal trust. Many people have written about how he could be metaphorically read as an entitled man who views women as objects and resources to be used. Considering that queer women in today’s society are particularly marginalized due to how cishet men often feel entitled to fetishize and marginalize their gender and sexuality, the subtext in Madoka Magical also plays into this.

When Madoka finally manipulates and one-up’s Kyubey for a change, Kyubey is shocked because of what he doesn’t anticipate. From him predicting Kyouko’s death to his original contract with Homura, Kyubey has used the girls’ love for each other as a weapon against them as many straight men do towards queer and trans women. He doesn’t expect Madoka’s love for Homura and for her friends to win over him, and it creates a fantastic ending because of how Madoka’s love is literally able to rewrite the universe. Yeah, gay love saves the world.

One of the key ideas of the show is the relationship of hope and despair, but the emotion of love can easily be included in either, so even though Kyubey can tip the balance of hope and despair he is incapable of doing anything to the love the girls feel for each other. Though he can weaponize it, as shown by Madoka’s wish he is never fully able to erase it. What gives Madoka the hope to continue standing against Kyubey is nothing but the love she’s felt between herself and her (more than) friends.

The whole of Madoka Magica can even be read as Madoka’s coming out story. In the beginning, she’s shy and unsure of herself. Sayaka is blissfully ignorant to the pain of the world (metaphors for discrimination), and Mami is lonely because she’s set apart as a “magical girl.” Kyouko was also rejected due to religion.

The girls are eventually all taken by the whims of Kyubey and his need to use them, but even so they find solace in their relationships with each other. Madoka witnesses these events and gains a full understanding of what it means to be a magical girl, and instead of giving up, chooses to hope for a better world and actively change it.

But the story is also arguably about Madoka falling in love with Homura and gaining strength from the experience. In the end, she literally becomes a goddess when she embraces herself and defies Kyubey’s (and society’s) expectations.

Madoka Magica isn’t perfect. Bury your gays, and almost canon subtext are features that fall under queerbaiting and are somewhat problematic. Beneath it all, though, Madoka Magica is a great story about a group of queer girls of color opposing a system built against them. It’s got flaws, and more steps need to be taken so that the series improves in this manner, but Madoka Magica is a good start and I hope that the 4th Madoka movie will continue to improve its LGBT themes and perhaps even explicitly confirm the relationships.

Until then, I’d highly recommend Madoka Magica for its storytelling, animation, and it’s beautiful (if not perfect) queerness.

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ultimateshc · 6 years

Note

Welcome to the blog, Mod Ouma and Korekiyo! Could I get an imagine of Makoto, Hajime, Shuichi, Kaede, and Nagito reacting to their s/o being the blackened? Thank you!

Oh that sweet, sweet angst…

———————————————

Makoto Naegi

He was looking for anything, anything at all, to prove your innocence. You were so, so kind to him after Sayaka’s death that he completely disregarded you as the potential culprit of the latest murder. He spent nearly an hour beating around the bush until Togami decided he had had enough Makoto’s denials. Ignoring his shouts of your defense, Togami questions you directly, and takes your silence as confirmation of your terrible actions.

You had disappointed the boy you had loved oh, so much. You made no attempt to defend yourself, knowing the longer it took, the more pain he would be in. After half an hour of Togami’s harsh questioning, the other students were convinced, though Toko needed no convincing after her prince spoke a single word.

Makoto looked at you from across the courtroom, his eyes brimming with tears that have yet to be shed. When voting time comes around, he has yet to admit that you had committed an act of murder. He decided that he would rather vote for himself than for his lover, who cared for him since the beginning of this horrible game. Despite his act of self-sacrifice, the majority vote was still against you, and you were sentenced to death.

The voting time was over, and it was time to say your final goodbyes to those still standing. Almost immediately, Makoto made his way over to you, wrapping his arms around you and burying his head into your chest. He holds you tight, not wanting to let go, fearing Monokuma would take you too early. “Why, why would you do such a thing?” His question was so quiet, so soft, that you could barely hear it. You respond simply by giving him a squeeze. You could already hear the chain falling to take you to your doom. You pull away, leaving a kiss to his lips. You roughly push him away, allowing another execution to claim another soul. He reaches up to you as you’re pulled away from him, his screams getting more and more distant.

———————————————

Hajime Hinata

Hajime knew it was you, and he knew Komaeda would never let him live it down if he attempted to sacrifice the rest of the class for your escape. He knew you could not escape your demise, but he tried anyway, to prove your innocence. Komaeda’s laughter could be heard ringing throughout the courtroom, knowing what Hajime was trying to do.

Luck did not seem to be in Hajime’s favor this time, the class deciding that they would rather trust Komaeda and his reasoning the one time Hajime needed them not to. You were voted as the culprit, and sentenced to death. Hajime walked up to you, prepared to say goodbye one last time as the rest of the surviving students looked on, filled with guilt as they watched their friend’s lover prepare for their execution.

Hajime approached you, tears filling your eyes as your boyfriend takes your hands, giving them a soft squeeze before speaking. “I’m sorry I couldn’t let you escape.” You shake your head. You wouldn’t let him blame himself for this. “It’s not your fault, Hajime. You did what was right.” He presses a kiss to your lips before burying his face into your neck.

“Hurry up, lovebirds!” Monokuma’s voice rings through the room. He steps back, placing another kiss to your forehead before stepping away, holding onto your hand for as long as possible. The second your hands part, you’re dragged away, but not before seeing a single tear run down his cheek.

———————————————

Nagito Komaeda

He knew it was you before the trial even began. He stuck to your side the second he came to this realization, wanting to spend as much time with you as possible before your inevitable demise. He was bolder, stealing a kiss every chance he got, and holding your waist in the elevator to the courtroom.

If you were voted as the culprit and sentenced to death, then so be it, but he would take any chance he could to derail the trial. You were his hope, and hope should always prevail in the end. It didn’t take long for Hajime to catch on, calling Nagito out every chance he could. Despite defending you and being in the middle of a class trial, his thoughts were elsewhere. If he were to acquire such back luck this time around, something amazing must be in the near future, right?

The students, as usual, supported Hajime throughout the trial, and voted you as the blackened. Nagito waited for you to say goodbye to everyone else before he said it himself. Trash that couldn’t even let his hope escape an island of hell was not worth anything, in his eyes. When he finally approached you, he gathered you in his arms and began to weep, asking through his tears about your motive. You could feel his hair brush against your neck, deciding to move your hand from his back to pet his hair, attempting to comfort him in your final moments.

With you gone, he would be alone once again, his luck cycle claiming yet another life. Monokuma seemed to have gotten bored of your eternal embrace, decided to tear you away from the one you promised to protect, leaving behind a broken boy reaching for you as your taken away from him.

———————————————

Shuichi Saihara

He was still insecure of his detective skills, thinking that the result he came to was simply a miscalculation. He continued the trial with that mindset until Kokichi decided to question others in the usual Kokichi-like way. It wasn’t long before it came out that there was a witness that had seen you out after the night time announcements. Shuichi came to the realization that he was, in fact, correct. All the evidence pointed to you.

He had already lost Kaede, and he didn’t want to lose you as well, but it was inevitable. You were voted as the culprit, alienating you from the rest of the group. His eyes quickly filled with tears, Kaito looking on, worried for his sidekick’s mental state at this point. Tears streaming down his face as he held on to you, not wanting to give Monokuma the chance to take you away as well.

He pulled away slightly to grasp your hands, holding them tightly as he questioned you with a mix of crying and shouting. He didn’t want a motive, he wanted an excuse. He wanted a reason for you to stay with him. You could only stare at the ground with regret, as you had been the one to destroy the heart of the boy in front of you.

It was Kaito who had to tear him away from you so Monokuma could take you away. He attempted to escape his grasp, breaking away just before you were taken away. He watched, horrified, as memories of Kaede’s execution flood back into his mind. He started wearing his hat again after that.

———————————————

Kaede Akamatsu

She had hope for everyone, believing that working together would save them all. She trusted Shuichi to find the truth, but this wasn’t the truth she wanted. She watched as Shuichi dismantled your defenses, breaking down the events of the murder. She tried, she tried so hard to defend you, but the defense proved useless as witnesses testified.

After you were voted as the blackened, she couldn’t bear to look you in the eye. She believed that she could trust you, that you, of all people, would not fall for the tricks of the killing game. She wanted to know why you had committed such an act, getting only a quiet apology in return.

Her dreams of the group coming together to overcome the game had fallen apart, and she lost the one she loved with it. She held you as she cried, apologizing for not trying harder to protect you. She watched as you were taken away, a piece of her dying with you.

#dr1 #sdr2

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soaringlanddormitory · 6 years

Note

And also more details for the Next Gen AUs please? ;w;

Of course!! Thank you so much for sending something in and I’ll have fun with this!!!!

ShigeChi

-The first time they danced together was really a great time. They even had a “Cheers” during this night! By the end of it, Shigeo did say that it was nice dancing with her and that he hoped that they’d meet again during the next year’s ball.

-By pure coincidence, they met again but this is only because they passed each other’s ways. Shigeo probably caught her attention and vice versa. After the first meeting without the masks, they feel a spark with one another but they didn’t want to make an instant conclusion.

-Honestly, I do believe they’d find each other’s voice really nice because it really reminds them on each other’s first meeting during the ball. The voice was the part that made them think if they could be the person they met that night.

-When they meet again, Chieko was actually the first one to speak up and asked if his name was Shigeo. When he says he was, he asks about her identity. Confirming that they were the same person, they dance once again and this is the same night they confessed.

SoreNa

-Soren first met Nana while he was going around the whole place on his horse. The guards were worried about the decision of the prince but he said his decision was final. He first sees Nana taking care of some flowers in the forest. The reason why they talked was because he saw a bunch of red roses.

-After this, Nana offers him some bread she made inside her bakery and he accepts, believing it’s something he couldn’t reject. He LOVED the taste and he asked her about her bakery and they began talking so much from there. He visits her frequently and actually makes her ride his horse with him during the night.

-When the prince’s birthday comes, he carefully slips in an invitation he made himself so that Nana can come inside the kingdom. The messenger doesn’t notice this and he sends every letter that was given to him and Nana was able to get hers. Knowing it was HIS birthday, she decides to go.

-Yes, the confess each other’s love for one another during his birthday and even if the two were sure that people may dislike this idea- they chose to be together because it’s fine to bend the rules a bit if it’s for someone you love.

MichiToshi

-Toshio and Michiko didn’t know what to do with their feelings at first because she’s a mermaid and he was a normal human being. The first person who got over it was Toshio who went by his feelings and decided that he’d end up allowing his feelings to flow.

-He often asks Michiko out to dates but Michiko declines because she can’t walk or go to certain places like normal humans. He decides to carry her around sometimes but nowhere to far from the water. Michiko slowly falls in love because of how he was to her.

-Toshio and Michiko’s first kiss was when Toshio decides to swim in the beach and they do an underwater kiss. When he comes out of the water with the help of Michiko, he begins laughing and telling her that he probably got the prize of best underwater kiss in the world.

-Yes, they kissed before they confessed to each other and they actually confess after the kiss and they agree that they ended up falling in love with one another.

KimiHiro

-Kimiko saw Hiroshi and she instantly got interested on him because how could someone as sweet as him be so dangerous? She did believe that he was capable of several things and she said his mafia title should be “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” once she saw him shoot down several targets.

-Hiroshi gets really embarrassed every time Kimiko compliments him because after he was called an outcast, he was so used to people pushing him down and not pulling him up. He gets to realize that he was more than the “member who failed a mission”.

-Kimiko on the other hand, would be angry once someone insults Hiroshi because he’s a great partner in crime. She even states that he’s probably the best person she could have been with and she KNOWS she could completely trust him no matter what the situation is.

-Their confession was in the worst way possible and it’s because Kimiko was shot after getting too ahead of herself and Hiroshi confesses. He then looks at her and realized only her arm was shot and he gets very embarrassed. She ends up telling him she likes him too so... it’s a win?

HibiTori

-They first met inside a cafe. Hibiki wanted to grab something to eat the first time he went to the human world and Sayaka convinced him to go to the cafe. Tori, on the other hand, wanted to drink but it was funny because she only wanted to drink something that the angel Ichiro called “shit” and she’d point out that the drink was okay, it’s just he’s weak against human drinks.

-They actually talked after meeting a few times in the cafe and they became oddly close but there was a feeling inside them that told them that the other one could be dangerous- but they trusted each other fully so they ignored what their senses were telling them.

-Hibiki reveals he’s a demon once another demon tries to attack Tori who believed he was a normal human being. Once the demon fled, Hibiki apologizes to Tori for not telling her sooner and she, instead of being scared, reveals that she’s an angel. They didn’t know how to react about this since demons and angels weren’t supposed to be in good terms.

-After a while of being separated, they meet each other once again and agreed that even if they’re two whole different beings, they’re still the same person who they met on the first day. They accepted each other and feelings grew from there.

KiChi

-Sachi wakes up to a sleeping bat in her room and she didn’t call her parents. Instead she decides to take care of the bat and allow it to follow her around. She’s surprised that the bat was awake like... the whole day though because she heard they’re only awake during night. But the bat hides and avoids the sun.

-When she knows about Killian’s true form, he expected her to be scared but... she attempted to touch his fangs and he ended up being the panicking one. She questions him too and she actually found it pretty cute a vampire was there to defend her??

-He flies around her every night she’s out of the house and even if she knew what he was, she didn’t fear him at all. She was already used to him and sometimes she’d give him some head pats and he actually likes them a lot?? He admits it when he turns into his human form.

-The first time they actually said feelings to one another is when Killian decided not to drink her blood because he was afraid of hurting her but he was getting extremely weak. After convincing him despite his complains, he sucks her blood and she tells him that she actually liked him for some time now and if he needed some more, he could do it again. He blushes and admits his feelings too but transforms back to a bat to now show himself blushing.

SuzuAki

-After the whole thing of her getting injured and him coming in, she asks him if he’s alright with being her new personal medic and he instantly flusters. He agrees with it though, wanting to take the opportunity to get closer to her since he did admire her from afar.

-He’s probably the smartest medic of the whole empire and he takes note about every disease and every cure so he could help people. Suzume really admired this from him because of how selfless he is and that he actually gives importance to everyone around him.

-While she is the empress who shows why she deserves that title and she often offers people to spar with her. Akio panics over this and comes over every time someone gets an injury. He gets really worried about her and tries to see if any injury is vital.

-Akio first confesses his love while he’s wrapping some bandages around the injuries of Suzume which turned out really bad but she wakes up by this time and she actually says she returns it. After some weeks, her injuries get fully healed and they get a proper confession.

TamaYoko

-The ghost of Yoko got really attached to Tamaki and she follows him around after the whole incident. The PSD squad gets surprised that he actually got close to a ghost and they’re really disappointed that they can’t photos of Yoko and Tamaki together.

-Tamaki listens to Yoko a lot and he actually likes hearing about her stories. He replies to her every time she talks to him and he doesn’t care about what other people think because he thinks that she’s a wonderful being even if she’s a ghost.

-Yoko actually hugs Tamaki a lot and he can actually feel her spirit doing so. Sometimes he attempts in hugging her too [he may be slightly awkward though] because it’s the thought that counts!! Yoko gains feelings for him, and Tamaki returns the feelings later on. They slowly fixed each other’s insecurities.

-They confess to each other after some while and Yoko gets really happy. Tamaki then tries to figure out a way on how he could actually get to hug Yoko physically and the whole squad of his cheer on him for thinking a way. Yoko doesn’t really mind though, she appreciates him enough!

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recentanimenews · 7 years

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Bookshelf Briefs 9/5/17

Super mega briefs!

Aho-Girl, Vol. 2 | By Hiroyuki | Kodansha Comics -This is a 4-koma gag comic, so does not really rely on character or plot development. You just need funny gags. In this case, the gags rely on the main cast being absolute idiots. And to the manga’s credit, they are. If the cast were even a tiny bit less dumb, the whole series would merely be tedious. But everyone, especially the title girl, quadruples down on the stupidest possible outcome to any situation, and it just works. We do see a new girl here, who seems to like cute girls but may simply be as eccentric as everyone else. As for Sayaka, even given the fact that every gag comic needs a straight man, you still feel bad she’s in this series. Maybe she can go hang out with Nanase from Book Girl. – Sean Gaffney

Anne Happy, Vol. 6 | By Cotoji | Yen Press – Once again, there are hints that while the rest of the class has some random bad luck, Hanako’s bad luck—as well as her terminal case of Pollyanna optimism—may have a more sinister origin. I also get the sense, given the various hints we’re given in this volume, that their teacher is a former student of the unlucky class. In any case, we get the usual vague mixture of amusing and heartwarming, as Hibari thinks too much, Botan tries a bit too hard, and Hibiki is an absolute mess. I admit that I’m grateful for the hints of an ongoing plot regarding Hanako, mostly as otherwise this series doesn’t quite get along entirely on pure charm. You want it to be going somewhere, and for now I will trust that it is. – Sean Gaffney

A Centaur’s Life, Vol. 12 | By Kei Murayama | Seven Seas – Once again, I get the feeling that A Centaur’s Life is just a thin excuse for the author to do whatever he feels like doing every chapter. We get more action-packed dramatic flashbacks with death and maiming, framed as the cast visiting a natural history museum to look at their ancestors. We get romantic comedy hijinks, with crushes on guys and the like. We get more chapters that examine how typical Japanese events would work in the Centaur’s Life world, such as idol groups and faked ghost stories (or is it fake?). The best chapter in the book involves the cast having a mostly serious discussion on the concept of heaven, and why if you try to dig too deep to analyze heaven it just gets disturbing. As variable as ever. – Sean Gaffney

Chihayafuru, Vol. 4 | By Yuki Suetsugu | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – I love how Suetsugu-sensei uses Chihaya’s continued passion for karuta to get Arata to admit that he still loves the game. When they were kids, he was the one who introduced her to the game, and now she’s the one who brings him back to it, first by sending him updates on Mizusawa High’s progress through the Tokyo qualifiers, which has him refreshing his inbox every ten seconds for the results, and then by moving on to nationals at a venue that brings up memories of his grandfather. We learn more about what happened with his grandpa’s health, and it’s awful and sad, but learning that others look forward to seeing his grandpa’s style through him begins to clear up his guilt somewhat. Perhaps he can honor his grandpa best by continuing to play? I love this series so much. – Michelle Smith

Drifters, Vol. 4 | By Kohta Hirano | Dark Horse Comics – It has been three-and-a-half years since the last volume of Drifters came out in North America. That said, with a series like this I’m not sure it matters much. Sure, I’d forgotten literally everything going on in the previous books, and we don’t even get a ‘what has gone before’ page at the front. But I mean, this is Kohta Hirano. Is there lots of fighting? Oh yes. Some bloody killings? Definitely. Insane grins? By the bucketful. The whole manga is just an excuse for all of those things, and therefore it seems churlish to criticize the fact that the plot doesn’t really go anywhere, or that female characters are either absent or objectified. Recommended if you loved Hellsing, otherwise easily skippable. – Sean Gaffney

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 19 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | Viz Media – This volume is interesting, but it does give off a bit of a sense of filler, as we slowly advance through Azami’s plan to remake the school in his twisted image. Much to my surprise, Ryo’s battle does not go the way I assumed it would, and this leads to a number of satisfying scenes. There’s also the confirmation, which I think most readers have guessed by now, that Alice was in fact trying to contact Erina all along, and her letters were blocked all these years. The most dangerous battle may be the new one Soma has with #1 seat Tsukasa. They turn out to work very well together, almost like a well-oiled machine… which leads to Tsukasa offering to let Soma join Central. Some, of course, refuses… but will he regret it? Always good. – Sean Gaffney

Giant Killing, Vol. 5 | By Masaya Tsunamoto and Tsujitomo | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – East Tokyo United has lost the first several games of the season, and fans and management are starting to voice their displeasure. Now ETU is facing Nagoya, a team with three talented Brazilian players. But Tatsumi has spotted Nagoya’s one weakness and worked out a plan to exploit it. Seeing the team working together and their defense holding strong is a lot of fun, but their faces when they finally manage to score are the best bit. Tsubaki has talent, but he’s been inconsistent so far. Now, he seems to be playing without hesitation, and when he scores first ETU’s first goal, his expression conveys both his relief and a sense of atonement for past mistakes. There just seems to be more on the line than is usual in sports manga, and I was thoroughly caught up in the action until it was abruptly over. Highly recommended! – Michelle Smith

Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You, Vol. 27 | By Karuho Shiina | VIZ Media – Inspired by Sawako’s ability to honestly discuss her thoughts and feelings, Kazehaya tries a similar approach with his gruff father concerning his university plans. The situation remains unresolved until Kazehaya’s mother tells him about a special drawer wherein he discovers that his father has saved everything Kazehaya ever gave him. “You do make your dad happy. You really do. He just doesn’t show it.” Sniff! I didn’t know I needed to see them achieve an understanding, but apparently I did. After Sawako makes her decision about where she’s going to school, the focus shifts back to Ayane and her heartache over Pin, who she is convinced will never look at her romantically. It’s great to see her feeling love, after she doubted that she could, whatever the outcome. This is still such a great series! – Michelle Smith

Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Vol. 3 | By Canno | Yen Press – Shiramine and Kurosawa have entered their second year and evidently still aren’t a couple, despite the occasional smooch that transpires between them. Shiramine is still not particularly likable, but she’s a bit more tolerable this time around, and has managed to defeat Kurosawa by one point on an English exam. There’s some question about whether she herself is special, or whether Kurosawa would take anyone who could make her feel like a regular girl, but this question is answered when Kurosawa is roped into the gardening club due simply to sheer proximity and not for her talents. She ends up staying, and dragging Shiramine into it, but mostly the second half of the volume deals with the other two members of the club. Although it’s still not as good as some schoolgirl yuri I’ve read recently (Bloom Into You), I think this series might be improving. – Michelle Smith

Kuroko’s Basketball, Vols. 13-14 | By Tadatoshi Fujimaki | Viz Media – Seirin vs. To-Oh is the main thrust of this volume, and it’s just as exciting as you might imagine, even if it’s tough to find words to describe it. As with most sports manga, you tend to define it as “good sports happens in these pages,” so even in an omnibus I struggle to say much more than “wow, he really got stronger!” or “did you see that shot?”. There is a hot springs section at the start of the book, which gives the teams a chance to casually taunt each other before the game, and also some primo fanservice, exactly the sort that young boys will want to see. There’s also some flashbacks to Kuroko’s middle-school days, mostly to give more depth to Aomine. Basketball happens. But it’s really good basketball. -Sean Gaffney

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Vol. 25 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | Viz Media – Well, we do get some Morgiana, my wish from the previous brief, but not a lot. Instead, Harukyuu is the focus of this 25th volume, which is both good and bad. Bad in that he turns to darkness, letting his anger rule him, mind-controlling soldiers and deciding murder is the best solution. Good in that the way this is handled turns out to be some of the best writing in the series, and a highlight of the volume. And honestly, if you’re going to try to murder someone, it’s hard to go wrong with his mother Gyokuen, who is smug in the best possible way, and even gets a few Higurashi faces here. (That’s her on the cover.) As for Alibaba, well, he’s headed over there, and I expect he and Harukyuu are going to clash horribly next book. – Sean Gaffney

My Love Story!!, Vol. 13 | By Kazune Kawahara and Aruko | VIZ Media – There are many shoujo romances that end with a reunion after a long separation, but My Love Story!! tackles this a little differently, showing us how tough the time apart was for Yamato and how hard she and Takeo are working to be able to get into the same college. Their romance stuff was nice, but honestly, the hero of the volume is Sunakawa, who keeps Takeo on track with studying, personally taking charge of his tutoring, and making good on a promise to smack Takeo if he ever does something really stupid. I loved that the creators took the time here at the end to emphasize what a special friend he is. I’ll miss this series, but Kawahara-sensei did say “it might be nice to write more of this story someday” in her final author’s note, so make of that what you will! – Michelle Smith

Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn, Vol. 8 | By Shirow Masamune and Rikudou Koushi | Seven Seas – Not as many amusing cameos this time around, and wrapping up one plot and starting another means there’s a lot of awkward transition in the middle. Also, we get more than one “activation” sequence, because kids these days can’t get enough of faux vaginal fingering. Still, I would hope kids these days would not be allowed anywhere near Pandora. The main cast does get to show off, and Nene in particular shows that she’s really something special even among this cast that seems to have a lot of special people and/or machines. Oh yes, and we also get a glimpse of the big bads, who combine Nazi imagery AND Illuminati imagery. If you like saying “wtf?” a lot, Pandora is for you. – Sean Gaffney

Vampire Knight: Memories, Vol. 1 | By Matsuri Hino | Viz Media – I will grant you that Vampire Knight left some open endings, and it’s nice to see those gone into. Still, when you see an author’s next series after their huge hit cancelled after two volumes, and then they return with a spinoff of that old series, it’s hard not to cringe. The best part of this book, even if it’s really bittersweet, is between Aido and Wakaba. It’s clear they both have deep feelings for each other, but it’s also clear that Wakaba does not want to be a vampire, and therefore this romance just isn’t going to happen. It’s an interesting look at the issues semi-immortality brings. The chapters with Yuki interested me less, mostly as they deal with her post-vampiric personality. VK fans will like this, most others will find it superfluous. – Sean Gaffney

By: Michelle Smith

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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uptowngirldowntownboyworld-blog · 7 years

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Friday, April 7th

It was Thursday, two days before I would see downtown boy for the last time. We woke up to G-Dragon’s gentle voice singing “Baby Goodnight” from my laptop (Youtube was resuming from last night, I swear I’ve never had a better alarm than that!) around noon. I turned over to look at his face, see if he had also woken up, anxiously waiting for him to hug or kiss me, in order to confirm whether yesterday really happened, and whether he regretted it or not. He took me in his arms, and I couldn’t have been happier about it! The church’s bells rang in the distance, indicating that it was already 12 o’clock. I recalled he had to check out of his hotel around noon, so I asked him surprised if he didn’t have to check out. I didn’t want him to get into trouble because of staying at my place for too long.

He got up and dressed up, while I was still lying in bed, covered with my warm blankets. I was looking at every move he made, wishing he didn’t have to leave. I really wanted to cuddle with him more in bed. I was craving for some sweet talk and some sweet kisses. While he was about to step out of the door I got up, wrapped the heavy futon around my naked body, and stepped to the door to kiss him goodbye. I hate goodbyes like that. I didn’t want to let him go.

After he left, I shamelessly went back to bed for a while, still feeling sleepy from last night’s adventure. Today we were both going to join our friend’s volleyball practice in the late afternoon, so I had to prepare myself mentally. I got up eventually, showered, had “breakfast”, and dried my hair (it takes my forever to do that, since I have A LOT of hair!). At some point I texted downtown boy if everything was alright. He told me he was scolded by the receptionist at the hotel. Well, had he not been allowed to stay there any longer, I would have gladly taken him in! Anything to make his stay more pleasant!

I had been excited all day to see him at volleyball practice! He had left a good impression on me the first time I had seen him on the volleyball court. He was definitely someone I noticed. I remember I was watching on of his games with my teammate Kelly, and she had asked me “is everyone on this team Filipino? Even that guy?”, pointing at the guy I would later call ‘downtown boy’. At that moment he did a powerful spike. “そうと思う”, I replied. He looked cool...but maybe also a bit conceited as he wouldn’t react after his spike, looking as if he knew he was better than everyone else. He was taking pride in his skills, that’s what I thought. And why wouldn’t he? He was really good after all! I was looking forward to seeing him spike like that tonight again. He had also said he was going to practice with me, refine my skills, tell me what I was doing wrong. That made me like him even more! I like people that help me improve, even if it’s by being awfully honest to me about things I’m bad at.

I arrived earlier than everybody else (although I was about 15 mins late!), so I was anxiously awaiting for him to show up. When he finally did, I was trying hard to hide my excitement, since nobody knew that we had become quite close those past days. Nobody knew that we had spent every day together and I think they would have judged us horribly if they knew. Although we were warming up together, whenever others were close, I tried to act normal, as if it was only my second time meeting him.

We warmed up together, and I was completely focused on my game, forgetting momentarily who I was playing with. It was refreshing to warm up like that with an advanced player, I hadn’t done it in so long! And the drill exercises with the others also reminded me of the time I was still playing in my team in Cyprus. It made me reconsider joining the university’s volleyball team... When it was time to play in teams, I was observing all of his attacks and defenses. My head was not in the game, so my performance was quite mediocre. But his attacks were so amazing and so powerful that all the other players were in awe of his skills. I was smiling inside: ‘that’s downtown boy! Did you see that, everyone?’ I was happy that everyone acknowledged his skills. And all that time he kept silent, being the modest man that he is. I guess that made me like him even more...

After volleyball we all went for dinner at a nearby store. While eating at the same table, it became even harder to hide the fact that we knew each other well. Smiling and talking casually with each other sparked the curiosity of our friend Sayaka, who must have caught on something. She asked downtown boy how long we knew each other, and I kept looking down at my food, keeping silent, pretending I was not listening or knowing what was going on, or understanding Japanese.

When it was time to part ways at the station, it happened that we were alone. I shyly asked him what he was going to do. I didn’t have the confidence to ask him to spend some time with me, since we had been together every day. I didn’t want to come off as clingy, and maybe he was hoping for some time for himself. The truth was that I really didn’t want to spend the remaining time of the day alone. I hadn’t gotten my downtown-boy-dose for the day... I saw him hesitating about whether to take the Tsurumai line back to my home with me, which made me feel a bit awkward. He finally decided to come with me, and I was genuinely happy that he did, but at the same time I felt a bit insecure... did I push him to come over?

We arrived home in our sweat-drenched clothes, so I suggested to take a shower, first. While I was getting ready to take a shower, I found my diary and upon opening it I decided to read an entry to him, since he asked me to. It was about the time I had spent in Germany. I’ve never read anything from my diary to anybody. Most people don’t even know I keep one, including my own family. ‘I must trust that boy a lot’, I thought. However, at the same time it wasn’t surprising, since I knew he was the first person who could deal with my dark side by accepting it, rather than judging it, and for the first time in my life I felt understood. Around him I could be myself and that was so refreshing!

I went to take a shower, leaving downtown boy drowning in his deep thoughts while watching tv. When he also finished taking his shower and we were lying in bed, he tried to comfort me and tell me that everything was going to be alright; he tried to assure me that he was also feeling like that sometimes and that I was not the only one; he tried to give me some advice on how to deal with these dark thoughts. My diary entries must have touched him deeply. I didn’t think they would. So I wasn’t prepared when he said all those things to me. That was one of the sweetest things somebody has ever done for me. He showed me that he really cared about me, through listening to me and trying to comfort me.

That’s when I started longing for his hugs and kisses, and his gentle side. I felt so vulnerable, I wanted for once to show him this side, I wanted his love to consume me, I wanted to feel weaker than him, because I wanted him to protect me. I was tired of being the strong woman all the time. He had seen right through me. I tried to be gentle, but making love to him sparked such a great passion inside of me that I could barely control myself. That night I went to sleep calmly and without any worries. The smell of his perfume was all over the place, while his strong arms were holding me. And, thus, another day had ended...

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kayostesting · 7 years

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Voiced by: Ai Nonaka (JP), Lauren Landa (EN), Marga López (Spain) A veteran and morally ambiguous magical girl, she first appears as a foe to Madoka and Sayaka, serving as a "pseudo-villain" for a few episodes. Her view of a magical girl's duties are ruthlessly utilitarian; for example, on her first encounter with Sayaka, she suggests allowing a familiar to feed on humans and mature into a witch so as to ultimately gain a grief seed from slaying it. She wields a halberd whose shaft can split into chained-together segments, giving her weapon dangerous flexibility and reach. Adorkable: In the drama CD with her and Mami which takes place before she became jaded. Anti-Hero: After her Heel–Face Turn, she becomes mainly a Knight in Sour Armor. Anti-Villain: Initially appears as a dangerous antagonist and a cynical Social Darwinist who lets people die just to harvest more Grief Seeds for herself. However, it turns out that she isn't outright malicious, and is merely a broken girl: her selfishness is a result of her selfless wish backfiring spectacularly, and she later warms up to Sayaka and others after realizing the truth about magical girls, to the point that she isn't antagonistic at all in Rebellion. Arc Villain: Serves as the main villainous focus for a few episodes until her Heel–Face Turn, but mostly as the catalyst to demonstrate The Plan and intention of the real villain, Kyubey. Back from the Dead: In the Grand Finale. Since she died fighting a witch, Madoka is able to revive her with her wish. Bare Your Midriff: A lot of art work — both official and fan — implies she's wearing a belly shirt underneath her jacket. Berserk Button: She threatens to kill Sayaka for wasting food. Better to Die than Be Killed: After finding out the whole Awful Truth and unable to save Sayaka, Kyoko felt she had two choices: destroy her soul gem in a final attack to put Sayaka out of her misery and die together, or win the fight the usual way and still become a witch sooner or later, be killed by a magical girl and die alone. Considering her past, guess which one she picked? Big Damn Heroes: Gen Urobuchi loves to play with this trope. In Kyoko's case, Homura saves Sayaka from her and then she saves Sayaka from Elsa Maria. Then she saves Sayaka from a very pissed-off Homura. She tops it off by protecting Madoka and Homura's escape from Oktavia... by going out with a bang. Big Eater: She's always eating something and it's not Played for Laughs, as there is a Freudian Excuse for it. Blade on a Stick: Uses a spear as her signature weapon. Blood Knight: Unlike the other girls she enjoys hunting witches mainly for her own selfish purposes. Broken Bird: She used to be a lot like Sayaka, a "hero of justice" but then her dad freaked out and killed their family. Is there any surprise she is now so cynical and selfish? Byronic Heroine: A good person with a dark past and a lot of angst who engages in hedonistic behavior; yep. Calling Your Attacks: She never does this in the anime, but in the third drama CD, Mami insists on calling her Doppelgänger Attack "Rossa Fantasma" - literally "Red Phantom". Kyoko says it once during battle, but then breaks out laughing afterwards because she can't take it seriously. Catch Phrase: "You want some?" Chekhov's Gunman: Appears in the title and credits sequences before appearing in the series. It's also implied that she's the magical girl that Kyubey and Mami talk about in Episode 3, who made a wish for someone else. This is confirmed in the third drama CD. Clingy Jealous Girl: Becomes this to Mami in The Different Story. After their separation, Kyoko tried to bait Mami to fight her twice and got frustrated both times by her refusal. The irony is that this jealousy is the result of Mami taking Sayaka as her partner. Curtains Match the Window: Red hair and eyes. Cute Little Fangs: She has one and it makes her look like the predator she talks about. (Also cute.) Cynicism Catalyst: She made a shortsighted wish to bring followers to her father's congregation. When he realized what was going on, he killed his family. After this, she decided to work for herself and only herself. Dark Action Girl: She's selfish, brutal, and not at all heroic. This changes some after her Heel–Face Turn. Dark and Troubled Past: Her father was a priest, but he was excommunicated for "heresy" and the Sakura family fell in poverty as he couldn't support them anymore. Kyoko used her wish to get more followers for him...but when he found out it was just magic and not his ideas and words, he went crazy and killed himself and his entire family, leaving Kyoko as the only survivor. Darker and Edgier: Than the other main characters who think of themselves as traditional 'love and justice' magical girls. Dark Magical Girl: Her time in the show is all about pitting herself and her beliefs against Sayaka, who sees herself and her beliefs as a traditional magical girl. As per the trope, she has a Heel–Face Turn and develops a soft spot for Sayaka, who reminds her of her ideals. Death Equals Redemption: Part of the reason of her Heel–Face Turn is the realization that magical girls are essentially liches, and that she might as well do something to remedy this situation. Culminating in her Heroic Sacrifice to give the bewitched Sayaka a Mercy Kill. She even gets her final moment of clarity, where she realizes that she has always wanted to protect someone. Defrosting Ice Queen: Introduced as cold and selfish, but reveals a slightly warmer personality later as she grows fond of Sayaka. Depower: The third drama CD reveals that Kyoko could originally create illusory copies of herself, but she lost this power when her family died. Despair Event Horizon: Played with. As the sole survivor of a Pater Familicide committed by her father she became bitter and jaded but her soul gem did not corrupt so she held onto a bright outlook. When Kyubey lets slip the Awful Truth, she shows more and more humanity. Potentially played straight in the PSP game if Homura defeats Oktavia before she has a chance to save what is left of Sayaka, thus removing the very last trace of hope and idealism she had left, and triggering her transformation into Ophelia. Died Happily Ever After: Implied in the anime to be her eventual fate, following Madoka's wish. Doppelgänger Attack: The third drama CD reveals that Kyoko's original power was to create decoys of herself. She lost this power when her family died. Dying Moment of Awesome: She kills Octavia in a Heroic Sacrifice which is also a Together in Death attempt. Elegant Gothic Lolita: Her fighting outfit looks a little like this with a Showgirl Skirt thrown in. Evil Redhead: Initially, she is an antagonist and her hair color is much darker than pink-haired Madoka. Expy: Red hair? Check. A passionate and cruel personality to go with it? Check. Introduced a third into the series and as being above the protagonists in skill and power? Check. Lives for battle? Check. Antagonizes the blue-haired girl? Check. Has Tsundere tendencies? Check. Abrasive attitude caused by a parent who went mad and committed suicide? Check. Are we describing Kyoko or Asuka Langley Soryu?note Her first name and long ponytail also bring Yoko Littner, Asuka's Spiritual Antithesis, to mind. Face Death with Dignity: Her last moment is her praying to her God. Fallen Heroine: She was sort of a Church Militant and she acknowledged how stupid heroism is but not even she can help feeling a little sympathy for Sayaka's broken state, leading her to a Heel–Face Turn. Fiery Redhead: As her red hair indicates, she's abrasive and hotheaded. Foil: To Homura, a fact not made clear until Rebellion. Kyoko acts selfish, but it's mainly to drive people away from the fate she suffered, and she regains her humanity through her interactions with Sayaka and Madoka. Homura on the other hand, while fighting for the greater good, is ultimately driven by selfish reasons, and the hostility she received from the other girls in other timelines has left her jaded and cynical. Freudian Excuse: Her love of food comes from her family constantly starving after her father was excommunicated for "heresy" and barely having enough to eat; a scene in the manga shows Kyoko getting punished by her mother for wasting food. Her selfish and Jerkass nature comes from the fact that her wish led to her maddened dad killing the whole Sakura family except for her. Hair Decorations: Her ponytail is tied up with a large black bow (and a hairpin, as shown in Episode 9). Heel–Face Revolving Door: From an Adorkable rookie magical girl to an amoral Psycho for Hire to a defrosted Knight in Sour Armor. Heel–Face Turn: Cements this with a near-Precision Bitch Strike as soon as Kyubey lets slip the Awful Truth. She then dedicates herself to preventing her friends from suffering Sayaka's fate. Heroes Gone Fishing: Homura once meets up with Kyoko while she's playing a dancing game in an arcade. Heroes Want Redheads: Inverted; she seems to be after Sayaka, but not the other way around. Heroic Sacrifice: She does a Mercy Kill on Sayaka so she won't have to die alone. In The Different Story, she uses Oktavia's grief seed to cleanse Mami's soul gem, but this leaves her without another one to use on herself, and she dies while fighting another witch later. Hero of Another Story: She was a magical girl for a long time. Her start up until meeting Madoka could be its own story. Hidden Depths: She reveals to Madoka in Episode 9 she used to love stories where love would triumph. This is hinted at when Kyoko tells Sayaka about her Dark and Troubled Past; losing her family left her jaded, but she didn't fall into the Despair Event Horizon and she kept on fighting. "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: She tries to do this alongside Madoka in a desperate attempt to save Sayaka after she turns into a Witch. It fails and Kyoko has to kill Sayaka along with herself. Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In the manga, during her fight with Oktavia von Seckendorff. Ironic Echo: When she first encountered Oktavia (Sayaka's witch form), she was rescued by Homura because she was carrying Sayaka's lifeless corpse and had no way to defend herself. When she refused to drop Sayaka's corpse, Homura calls her a hindrance. During their futile attempt to bring Sayaka back from being a witch, a very injured Kyoko leaves an unconscious Madoka to Homura, before stating that they should leave because Homura would not be able to fight with a hindrance like herself, before making her Heroic Sacrifice. Irony: The daughter of a religious man, who battled witches in the dark, is labeled as a witch by her own father. To make it worse, instead of her father burning her at the stake, he burns himself, Kyoko's mother and younger sister together with their church, leaving Kyoko the last of her family. It's All About Me: This is what she claims to be her philosophy; that a magical girl should only use her powers to benefit herself. However, she says this to Sayaka because she thinks she would benefit from that philosophy, and then she tries to help Sayaka against a witch. Jade-Colored Glasses: There was a time she was actually a lot like Sayaka and she wished to be a "hero of justice", but had her optimistic worldview shattered when her father killed her whole family and then himself after finding out people only listened to his preachings because of the wish she'd made. Japanese Christian: Her father was a priest. She seemed to have been observant when she was younger but there's little evidence that she still is. She does appeal to God as she makes her Heroic Sacrifice, but whether this is out of faith or desperation or some combination thereof is ambiguous. She carries a bag of apples during her explanation of her backstory and attempt to persuade Sayaka to her way of thinking. Japanese Delinquents: She skips school, picks fights with those who enter her territory, wears somewhat inappropriate clothing for her age, and lives off of stolen food. And true to the major character archetype of this trope, she turns out to be nicer than she acts. Japanese Pronouns: Uses "atashi" for herself, which is odd considering her Darwinist lifestyle and masculine vocabulary. Jerkass: Initially, she cares about nothing more than killing her foes and leaving people to die in order to benefit herself. Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Her backstory doesn't justify her horrible treatment of Sayaka before the Awful Truth happened. However, her later interactions with Sayaka and Madoka show that, Jerkass as she is, Kyoko is still somewhat redeemable. Kleptomaniac Hero: Implied that she stole most, if not all, of the food she was eating. Knight in Sour Armor: After being reminded of her ideals by Sayaka she became this; renewed idealism but still bitter. Knight of Cerebus: There's a reason why they waited until after Mami's death scene to introduce her and why she originally didn't appear with the other core four in promotional materials. The Lad-ette: Magical girls are known for their femininity. Kyoko is not. Lady in Red: Her magical girl outfit is red and she has hedonistic tendencies. The Lady's Favour: Inverted in The Different Story. Kyoko goes off to fight Oktavia and leaves her ribbon with Mami, promising her to return to get it back. Lady Swears-a-Lot: By Japanese-standards, her vocabulary is filthy and at best is inappropriately masculine. Laughably Evil: There are no comic relief characters in Madoka, and definitely not Kyoko, but try not to chuckle a bit as she nonchalantly stuffs her face with food or plays a Bland-Name Product Dance Dance Revolution clone as the events of the series unfold. Leitmotif: "Anima mala" ("Evil soul"). Letting Her Hair Down: Does this just before sacrificing herself for Sayaka. Lost Food Grievance: Do not waste food in Kyoko's presence if you value your life. She'll Neck Lift you. Magic Knight: Mainly a melee fighter, but her main element is "enchantment" and she can occasionally use illusionary powers. Master of Illusion: Used to be capable of illusions as her magical girl power before the Pater Familicide incident. Meaningful Name: 'Kyouko' means 'apricot' (this ties in to Momo, the name of her sister, meaning 'peach'), which symbolizes strength achieved through struggles with adversity. 'Sakura' is the cherry blossom, which represents the transcience of life. Mercy Kill: Gives one to Sayaka that doubles as a Taking You with Me. Minor Living Alone: Kyoko lives in her apartment complex alone with no parental supervision due to her father murdering her mother, younger sister, and then himself in a murder-suicide. Neck Lift: Performs one on Sayaka when she throws her apple to the ground without eating it. Nice Girl: The Different Story and the PSP game show that she used to be this back when she first started out as a magical girl, being a very nice and polite girl who wanted to save the world from Witches and had undying respect for Mami, just like Sayaka did. But her father's increasingly abusive behavior after he found out the Awful Truth and eventual Pater Familicide left her jaded and resulted in her becoming far more cynical, amoral and selfish to the point where her and Mami's friendship ended because her philosophy developed into the complete opposite of Mami's. No Body Left Behind: Implied to be her ultimate fate eventually, due to Madoka's wish. Nominal Hero: At the start, while she's a magical girl who fights witches and may be loyal to both her teammates and the mission, she cares far more about killing witches, gaining grief seeds, and letting familiars kill people so they can become witches with grief seeds, than she does about protecting civilians. Not So Different: From Sayaka. She criticizes Sayaka for fighting for someone else's sake, but ends up sacrificing herself to take out Oktavia to make sure Sayaka/Oktavia won't die alone. This is lampshaded when she tells Madoka that Sayaka made her remember the reason she became a magical girl. Oral Fixation: Always has something in her mouth. Pater Familicide: In her backstory, her father killed her entire family save her before killing himself. Pimped-Out Dress: Her magical girl outfit is bloodred to symbolize her aggressive nature and the blood that was spilled as a consequence of her wish, as well. It is also adorned with the symbol of her father's church. Preacher's Kid: She was an angelic Church Militant before things went bad. When we meet her, she's well over on the cynical side. Psycho for Hire: Initially she kills witches for their grief seeds and Kyubey has her on call. Psychosomatic Superpower Outage: She's been unable to use her Master of Illusion powers ever since the Pater Familicide incident. It's implied this was because of the trauma she experienced. As shown in side materials, in a few of the alternate timelines she eventually gets them back. A Pupil Of Mine Until She Turned To Evil: She used to be Mami's apprentice just like Madoka and Sayaka, until the Pater Familicide happened and Kyoko decided to be selfish with her magic. Rapunzel Hair: Her messy hair grows past her back. Instead of the 'wealth' or 'high status' associations, it's more likely because she doesn't bother cutting it. Red and Black and Evil All Over: Initially she is a villain and her magical girl outfit is red with a bit of black. Redemption Equals Death: Sayaka's influence on Kyoko leads her to perform a Mercy Kill that takes both of of them out. Red Eyes, Take Warning: Her eyes are red and she is the first indication that some magical girls are outright evil. Red Oni, Blue Oni The red to Sayaka's blue. She's more feral and hedonistic and they are color coded. Also the red to Mami's blue in the past and in The Different Story because she was more reckless and less precise than her mentor. Say My Name: She yells "SAYAKAAAA!!!" when Sayaka becomes a witch. Selective Obliviousness: A common theme is how Kyouko says many things... while not actually doing them. She says she's going to kill Sayaka... but is content (at first) to only beat her up before walking away. She talks trash about Mami and her beliefs... but as other content showed, she at first came back to Mitakihara to try to reconcile with her, before learning about her death. She even made a grave for her. She comments on how normal people are essentially just food... but never hurts Madoka and doesn't stop her from going to Sayaka. She even encourages Madoka that she's done nothing wrong and that being a magical girl isn't something to envy. She talks about how magic is only meant to be used for herself... but her wish was used for someone else, and even after that she uses magic for Sayaka and Madoka's sake, repeatedly. Serious Business: Nearly strangles Sayaka because she threw an apple on the ground. Played for Drama; see Freudian Excuse above. She's Got Legs: Comes with wearing short shorts. Ship Tease: Implied to have a one-sided crush on Sayaka. Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Didn't appear in early promotional materials, likely because of her darker nature. Sour Outside, Sad Inside: At first, she seems to be a mean, selfish girl who believes that magical girls should use their powers for their own purposes. As the series progresses, it's revealed why she acts this way: Her family fell into destitution after her preacher father was excommunicated and when he found out that his followers increased and came back was due to Kyoko's magical girl wish and not from people actually believing in him, he killed his family and himself and only she survived. It is only when she learns about the Awful Truths of being a magical girl and when she saves Sayaka from Homura that she starts to get over her sourness, which culminates in her performing a Mercy Kill to witch!Sayaka and sacrificing herself so Sayaka wouldn't be alone. Spell My Name with an "S": "Kyoko" versus "Kyouko". Both are officially endorsed, with the anime materials using Kyoko and manga materials using Kyouko. The Social Darwinist: She compares the fight against witches to the food chain: Witches and their familiars prey on weak humans, while Magical Girls are the apex predators and prey on Witches. Familiars don't drop grief seeds, so she sees no point in killing them before they kill enough people to become a witch themselves. She also applies this to Magical Girls themselves: weaker ones should yield their territory over to the stronger ones or die. She seems to have abandoned this philosophy after learning the true nature of Magical Girls. Stopped Caring: She was very idealistic when she started out, wanting to be a hero and save people from witches. After the Pater Familicide, she's now perfectly fine with letting people get killed by Familiars if it means more Grief Seeds. Meeting Sayaka reminds her of her old ideals and eventually gets her to start caring again. Stupid Sacrifice: The only thing Kyoko accomplished by throwing her soul gem to Oktavia was forcing Homura to fight Walpurgisnacht all by herself. Suicide Attack: She kills Oktavia with one. Super Drowning Skills: According to the 4th drama CD, she can't swim. Sweet Polly Oliver: In a gag image Kyoko decides to disguise herself as a boy in order to become closer to Sayaka. Sweet Tooth: She's constantly munching on sweets, even during battle. Together in Death: With Sayaka via Suicide Attack. Token Evil Teammate: Initially, prior to her Heel–Face Turn, she was a nasty magical girl. Kind of like a mercenary. Tomboy: She's even more tomboyish than Sayaka with her aggressive personality and masculine manner of speaking, but despite that, she still refers to herself with a feminine pronoun. Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy to Mami's and Sayaka's girly girl, having a much rougher speech pattern and being more aggressive and masculine than both of them. Tomboyish Ponytail: Although her hairstyle should be more feminine than Sayaka's, it also emphasizes her nature as a rough Action Girl and looks quite unkempt. It also contrasts quite a bit with the preppy but cute Mitakihara school uniform, which she wears in Rebellion and the best ending of Portable. Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Downplayed; aside from using the feminine pronoun "atashi", her speech patterns are very rough and masculine, and when it comes down to it she's not very girly at all. In comparison, Sayaka is quite a bit more feminine than she is. Took a Level in Kindness: After starting as a bitch, Sayaka's and Madoka's suffering soften her up little by little. This culminates in Episode 9 with her bonding with Madoka, then sacrificing herself to save Madoka from a bewitched Sayaka, and putting Sayaka out of her misery. Tsundere: She comes off as aggressive and bitchy, but there's a warmer personality buried under. These tendencies are more prevalent towards Sayaka and Mami in The Different Story, since she obviously cares about them but refuses to express it openly. Tsurime Eyes: Befitting her harsh and confident nature. Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Had Kyoko not picked fights needlessly with Sayaka, Madoka wouldn't have snapped and thrown Sayaka's soul gem away, thus The Reveal would have happened later, or not and all — and thus, Sayaka wouldn't've begun her Start of Darkness either. Used to Be a Sweet Kid: A Daddy's Girl who made a Selfless Wish and heroically fought witches, who later became a Nominal Hero and Blood Knight. Variable-Length Chain: Her spear can segment into parts separated by chains. Her spear's shaft length also changes between scenes. We Used to Be Friends: The third drama CD shows that she and Mami knew each other when they were younger and were friends and partners in fighting witches, until the Pater Familicide happened and Kyoko decided to be more selfish with her magic. What Have I Become?: Not even she could stay indifferent to the Awful Truth but she takes becoming a lich better than Sayaka. Whip Sword: Her spear is capable of splitting into chains, but it also appears to be able to curve in a whip-like fashion. Who Wears Short Shorts?: In her civilian garb. It's another tomboyish contrast with her fellow feminine magical girls. Wrong Genre Savvy: Tries to start an "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight to transform Sayaka back from her witch state. Explicitly lampshades it ("It'd be like one of those stories where love and courage triumph over all"). Considering the tone of the series, it's not surprising that it doesn't work. Zettai Ryouiki: She's sporting a Grade B in her magical girl outfit and her school uniform.

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pyropsychiccollector · 6 years

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Class 78 falls to Despair

Makoto snapped the class picture and grinned, indicating it was done. The others gathered around him to see how it had turned out

“Friggin’ awesome!” Leon said as he fist-bumped Naegi on the shoulder. “I bet you’d give Koizumi-senpai a run for her money!”

Celes giggled mirthfully.

“Ehehe… he might not be on that level yet… Junko’s face was blocked again.” At this remark, Ishimaru’s face turned an adorable shade of red.

“Junko has the worst luck with pics!” Asahina snorted in amusement, garnering a twitch and a Cheshire grin from the supermodel.

“Care to run that by me again, ya donut-craving slut?”

“H-Hey…!” The swimmer’s face turned beet red at the insult. Sakura glowered at the supermodel disapprovingly, who only waved her off by way of apology.

“Erm… and by ‘slut,’ what exactly do you mean by that…?” Yamada panted in a creeper sort of way, his prized camera clutched in his hands. The otaku let out a scared yelp as the Ultimate Fighter whirled on him next. “Just asking for curiosity’s saaake!”

Mondo snorted contemptuously.

“You gotta know when to hold it, fatty…”

“Seriously, Yams!” Hagakure laughed boisterously. “Oogami-chan holds your head for a reason!”

“L-Like you’re one to talk… p-perverted fortuneteller…!” Fukawa hissed quietly.

“It’s a very nice picture, Naegi-kun…” Mukuro smiled shyly at the luckster, and let out an inaudible gasp when he smiled directly back at her. It truly was a powerful thing, Naegi-kun’s beaming smile…

“It’s rare to see you smile for pictures, Ikusaba! I think you should do it more often. You look… cute.” Makoto chuckled as Mukuro’s blush deepened. Like it was a call to arms, everyone re-gathered around Naegi to confirm that, indeed, Mukuro had smiled for that picture. Well, everyone except Togami and Kyoko, who had already spotted that miniscule detail.

“You look beautiful, Ikusaba!” Chihiro beamed at the soldier, whose face was already dangerously red, and who looked like she wanted the floor to swallow her up already.

“So cute~!” Sayaka squealed.

“It’s a nice smile…” Kyoko calmly agreed, sporting a small smile of her own.

“Yeah, whatevs…” Enoshima rolled her eyes. “It’s not the worst smile, I guess~…”

As Mukuro looked up at her sister in shock, she only received a Cheshire grin in return. And that’s when Mukuro knew she wasn’t giving the compliment out to be nice… She was doing it for the sake of publicly humiliating her more. And their classmates’ further teasing supported this.

“If we’re done here, there’s somewhere I have to be.” Togami said without looking up from his watch. Makoto chuckled sheepishly and nodded gratefully toward the Togami heir.

“Thanks for taking part, Togami. See ya tomorrow!”

“Well, it wouldn’t be a picture without me in it, I suppose…” Togami only smirked in that cocky way of his before making his exit, Fukawa not so subtly on his heels.

Ishimaru pumped his fist in the air vigorously.

“Yosh! We’ll pick up here tomorrow, bright and early! Make sure to do your homework!” This only got a gaggle of groans from Leon, Hifumi, Mondo, and Asahina. Ishimaru ignored them and did a stiff respectful bow to Naegi. “Thank you again for providing this bonding moment, Naegi-kun!”

Makoto could only chuckle sheepishly at how formal the Ultimate Moral Compass sounded. He didn’t need to when they were classmates, but… It was just a part of who Ishimaru was. Gradually, their class dispersed in their groups, until only Makoto and Sayaka were left exiting the school. The sun was already setting when they took that picture, but the two didn’t seem to mind the cooler temperatures outside.

“Our class is a handful, but at least they make things fun…” Sayaka giggled as a chilling breeze blew by them as they exited the gate.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world…” Makoto smiled in just as much amusement. Sayaka elbowed him playfully.

“Even Enoshima, Togami, and Hagakure?” Makoto sweatdropped and scratched his cheek sheepishly.

“Yeah… even them…” They’d put him through a lot of crazy stuff, that was for sure. And, well, Togami was… Togami.

A thoughtful silence fell between the luckster and idol pair as they reached the fountain that was near the center of campus. Then, rather abruptly, Sayaka broke the silence and stopped walking, Naegi stopping shortly after her.

“Hey, Naegi…?” She asked in a reserved manner, to which he arched an eyebrow.

“Yeah? What’s up?”

Sayaka chewed on her lower lip nervously.

“Do you… regret being in a relationship with me?”

Makoto blinked at the question that came out of left field. He could only shake his head and try to reassure her with a smile.

“It’s a different relationship from most couples, I guess, but I don’t regret a second of it. Why? Your manager giving you trouble again?” He asked in concern.

Sayaka shook her head and looked down, guilt etched onto her face.

“It’s just… You don’t really get much from dating me… In fact, there’s actually a lot of risk because of how my fanbase would react to you ‘tainting’ me. We always have to be so cautious and secretive, and there’s a real possibility I’ll have to choose between you and my idol career sometime in the future. I just… why are you so patient with me?”

Makoto frowned slightly at seeing Sayaka so insecure. He knew these kinds of doubts ate away at her, but they hadn’t really talked about this. Sayaka kept quiet because she didn’t want to think about those doubts, and Makoto didn’t bring them up because he’d rather see her happy. So, to respect her decision to bring this topic up, he’d answer from the heart.

“If we’re being perfectly honest, it wouldn’t surprise me if you gave me up for your dream. I’m just a regular high-schooler, after all. Even ‘ordinary’ would find me boring.” He chuckled nervously as her face went from shocked to angry at his self-depreciation. He cleared his throat before she could interject. “Seriously, though, I mean it. If you chose to remain with your band and soar to greater and greater heights, it wouldn’t bother me. Because you’d be happy, and I’d still be able to support you. As a fan and a friend. I’d miss hanging out with you, of course, but your dream’s really important to you! I’d hate to force you into a decision, so I’m just gonna be behind you, no matter what you choose. ‘Cause… the alternative would possibly be to end our relationship on bad terms. I don’t want that to happen. Not when you approached me to be friends, y’know? I was just really happy to become friends with you… and I don’t want to lose that.”

An almost unbearable silence followed Naegi’s words as they stood there – Naegi staring at Maizono, and Maizono looking down at the ground in a mixture of sad and frustrated emotions. When the idol looked back up, he was only mildly surprised to see her eyes so determined.

“Makoto… I’m not gonna make this relationship about me and what I want.” She huffed out in slight exasperation before smiling fondly at him. “If you’re gonna be this stubborn, I’ll have to be just as loyal when the time comes. You deserve to be happy, too!”

“Sayaka…” Makoto murmured as she took his hands in her own.

“If it ever comes down to a choice… I’ll find some way to rework my dream.” Sayaka vowed, looking straight into his eyes. “It’s not fair to you to keep our relationship secret forever. As much as I wanna keep you to myself… I still want to tell everyone how important you are to me! So… don’t ever think you’re disposable, okay? You’re my boyfriend, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!”

The two stared into each other’s eyes for a little bit longer before the idol drew the brunet in for a tight hug. A few moments later, her phone buzzed, and Sayaka grudgingly released her luckster to check who was messaging her.

“I guess you gotta go.” Makoto smiled wryly, to which she smiled back with a hint of regret.

“Yeah, recording an album tonight, so I won’t be able to join you for dinner… Sorry.”

Makoto was as understanding as always, and it made Sayaka feel awful.

“Don’t worry about it! We’ll see each other tomorrow.” He reassured her.

Sayaka nodded reluctantly.

“Yeah… see you tomorrow…” She pecked him on the cheek before running off and waving. Makoto laughed lightly and waved back, the sound of the running water from the fountain and the light of the setting sun washing all over the campus making him feel at ease. He truly was blessed to be at Hope’s Peak…

~*~

Sayaka frowned and her brow furrowed as she stared down at her phone. A week and a half had passed since that day… Makoto hadn’t shown up to class the next day, like he had promised. All she had received was a message saying he didn’t feel well, and wouldn’t be able to make it. She’d stopped by his dorm after classes to check up on him, but he wasn’t there nor was he at the infirmary – Mikan-senpai had been quite sure he hadn’t stopped by at all since his last accident involving luck… which was about three weeks ago.

It really worried the idol. She’d called his family’s home, but they hadn’t heard from him, and none of their classmates or upperclassmen had seen him around. Makoto had just… up and vanished without a trace. The luckster had never done something like this without leaving some sort of note where he’d be or what he’d be doing… The only silver lining was that he hadn’t turned up dead, far as Hope’s Peak had been able to find out.

To make matters worse, though, the Reserve Course student body had been getting restless over some rumors. Their teachers said to pay the “parade” outside the main campus’s gates no mind, but it really was worrying to see so many angry students gathered together…

Sayaka had a really bad feeling about all this. Her manager and bandmates didn’t like her coming to school when there was some protest going on, but she wasn’t going to stop coming when every new day might provide an answer as to what happened to Makoto… Or at least some sort of clue. She wasn’t picky at this point.

The classroom door slid open, and the few students who had first arrived turned with hopeful eyes to see if it was their missing luckster… But it was the Ultimate Biker instead…

“Tch… He still hasn’t turned up, huh?” The biker huffed as he shook off some of the rain water at the door. He didn’t seem to care he was soaked.

“Mm-mm…” Sayaka shook her head dejectedly as she sat at her desk. Chihiro, a few seats away from her, poked his index fingers together nervously.

“Alter Ego hasn’t been able to turn up anything, and we’ve been trying really hard!” The programmer dipped his head in shame. Security cameras, reports from the security guards, the Headmaster had been rather gracious in allowing Alter Ego access to all sorts of sensitive information about the school, but nothing had turned up Naegi’s whereabouts.

“Th-The big-breasted bimbos left to take another l-look around the school…” Fukawa muttered caustically from her seat at the back. Everyone knew she was referring to Asahina and Oogami; and while she seemed antagonistic, the bookworm was worried about Naegi in her own weird way. “M-Master also left to take a call, b-but you didn’t n-need to kn-know that…”

Mondo just scoffed at that. That could mean any number of things, and the heir ad better hope it wasn’t anything unrelated to Naegi... Or the biker would rip his head off…

“I tried searchin’ with my crystal ball, but no dice.” Hagakure sighed, depressed. No one was shocked about the clairvoyant’s laziness,

“We can’t give up the fight, troops!” Ishimaru declared passionately from the front of the room. “Once class is over, we should triple – no, quadruple – our efforts to finding Naegi-kun! It has been a week and a half, this has become more than serious!”

A few concerned eyes roved over to Sayaka, who didn’t look up from her phone, which displayed the last message Naegi had sent her. She was definitely taking this the hardest, and no one knew how to reassure her in these troubling times. Mondo grunted at the dreary atmosphere.

“I’ll call some of the guys and have ‘em start beating some Reserve dunderheads together… Maybe one of those morons can cough up where Naegi is.”

“Bro! You mustn’t resort to violence!” The Moral Compass lectured his friend, who only scowled in return.

“Well, what are we supposed to do, huh?! There’s a damn mob sittin’ out there, and Naegi’s disappeared! There’s no way none of them saw where he went! If we don’t get aggressive now, our class rep will probably land in the damn morgue! Just let my boys do what they gotta do!!”

Ishimaru recoiled at the sheer frustration his best friend was giving off in waves. Fujisaki and Hagakure winced, glancing over at Sayaka again, though she was just as unresponsive. The classroom door slid open again, and three more of their class entered.

“You are useless…” Celes hissed disdainfully at Yamada, who sagged in pitiful defeat. The otaku was waterlogged from how long he’d been out in the rain, while Celes was perfectly dry thanks to an umbrella she carried around.

“Usin’ Yams to do the dirty work for you again?” Hagakure grinned nervously and ran a hand through his bushy hair as Celes glowered at him. It was clear she’d done that. It was the same routine for the last week and a half. Celes would “supervise” the otaku while he checked all over for the luckster… It didn’t matter if it was raining cats and dogs.

Togami strode past them and Ishimaru until he reached the window, his arms crossed sternly. He said nothing, though he carried an air of stuffy, arrogant frustration about him. It was clear whatever the phone call had been about, it hadn’t gone well, and he wasn’t going to share the details easily.

“Oi, asshole!” Mondo roared at the heir. “What stick’s up your ass this time?!”

Togami clicked his teeth at the biker’s crude form of address, but did not rise to the bait. The door slid open again, and Leon, Asahina, and Sakura made their way in.

“Uuugh… this sucks… this totally sucks…” The swimmer moaned sadly, hands clasped in front of her and her head dipped. “We still can’t find him anywhere…”

“Where the hell did he go?” The baseball star muttered in annoyance as he ran a hand through his soaked hair. He hadn’t been searching as long as the girls had, but Sakura wasn’t going to let them cut class even during an emergency like this. They needed to remain united as a class, and going off on their own would be unwise because they could just as easily disappear in the chaos outside.

The door opened once more, and Junko and Mukuro both entered.

“Sheeeeeesh! You guys are still a total buzzkill?” Junko asked exasperatedly, her sister sending her a dirty look for the uncalled for comment.

Mondo growled again.

“Naegi’s still missing, so yeah! We’re still pretty damn shitty!”

Junko just rolled her eyes, set her things down on her desk and the floor, and sat down lazily.

“Okay, okay~ No need to bite my head off.” She pulled out her phone and started texting someone.

Mukuro shot one more dirty scowl in Junko’s direction before making her way to Sayaka’s place.

“Are you okay, Maizono?” At the idol’s sullen nod, the soldier could only chew on her lower lip nervously. “I’m sure he’ll turn up soon… Everything’s going to turn out fine.”

Sayaka just nodded sullenly again, and few noticed the strange look Junko sent her sister over her shoulder. Togami huffed as he finally turned from the window and his lips curled in distaste.

“I wouldn’t say something like that so easily… Kirigiri may have gone missing, too.”

When it rain, it poured.

~*~

Several more days passed. Classes 78 and 77-B worked together tentatively, but with the Ultimate Detective missing, they’d lost a significant amount of brainpower when it came to sleuthing. Even between the Togami conglomerate, the yakuza, the Crazy Diamonds, and athletic Ultimates combing Hope’s Peak’s campus and the surrounding areas, the two classes had no luck in turning up clues to the whereabouts of their missing classmates.

And then Kyoko Kirigiri had returned. She was colder and more distant than she used to be, but she seemed to have a lead. Suspicious individuals were spotted at a remote location on the campus, near a statue of the Founder of the academy, and so Class 78 had set out with their detective without delay. Asahina was tasked with letting their upperclassmen know, while the rest of them followed Kirigiri.

“Not that I’m suspicious or anything, but, uh, where’s Enoshima?” Hagakure asked as their group of thirteen set a brisk pace when following Kirigiri.

The detective answered in a clipped tone without looking back at the clairvoyant.

“I ran into her earlier. I told her where to go, so we’ll be meeting her there.”

“It’s dangerous to go alone, though…” Yamada muttered worriedly as he trotted to keep up with Celes, holding her umbrella for her.

“I would have gone by myself to confront this Mastermind, had you kept in contact like you should have…” Togami barked coldly at Kirigiri, who said nothing back. He would have dragged them out into this torrential rain and punished them himself for screwing with an asset to the Great Togami Conglomerate.

“Like hell we would’ve let you get all the fun, asshole!” Mondo growled and punched his palm. “This sick fuck took Naegi, so I’m gonna take somethin’ from them. Like an arm or a leg! Maybe their damn head!”

“Please, bro, calm down!” Ishimaru tried to assuage the biker. “There will be plenty of time to discuss corporal punishment for this villain after securing Naegi-kun’s safety…!”

Mondo just scoffed.

“Yeah, yeah, you guys save Naegi, I’ll get started on breaking the asshole’s fingers!”

“Ufufu…” Celes giggled darkly. “You act like you will be spearheading the punishment for this ‘villain’… I assure you, you will only get the scraps when I am finished with them…”

“Screw you, gothic Lolita bitch!”

“M-Mondo, please calm down…!” Chihiro begged, tugging on the biker’s arm, while Yamada similarly tried to calm Celes down.

“F-Fighting our own party members will only diminish your mana, Miss Ludenberg…! Save it for the culprit!” The otaku squealed in fright at the dark glare the gambler gave him in return.

Hagakure nervously ran a hand through his hair as he looked at Fukawa, who was reticent as ever.

“You gonna let Genocide Jack out for a bit when we get this culprit, Fukawa?”

The bookworm hissed at the clairvoyant’s inquiry.

“L-Like I would ever let that monster out w-willingly!”

“If Togami demanded you do it…” Leon rolled his eyes as Fukawa clammed up at that. It wasn’t her fault they didn’t comprehend Master’s greatness!

Sayaka was looking a little better than she had in previous days. Granted, she was still uneasy about possibly confronting a kidnapper, but Mukuro could see determination in the way the idol carried herself. Before the soldier could find words to say to the pop sensation, however, Sakura was suddenly on high alert.

And for good reason.

“Look at those Main Course bastards… think they’re sooo special…”

“If we take ‘em out here, someone has to plug up those empty slots, right?”

As some of the Reserve Course rioters chuckled darkly, they broke their signs to make wooden stakes out of them. Oogami narrowed her eyes at the lot of them.

“You all go on ahead… I’ll whip them every last one of them into shape.” The Ultimate Fighter promised very seriously. Mondo cracked his knuckles, though.

“Tch. As much as I’d like to leave you to it, it’s a bad idea to let you take these bastards on alone and risk exposing your back… I’ll back ya up…” He growled menacingly.

Sakura nodded slowly, accepting the biker’s assistance. Togami merely pointed at the two of them sternly.

“We’ll leave this to you, then… Don’t take too long.”

“Exercise caution, and leave them in one piece for the authorities!” Ishimaru declared boldly. Mondo got a crick out of his neck.

“No promises…”

“You should go,” Sakura advised, and Chihiro timidly nodded.

“Good luck!”

Kirigiri continued to lead the rest of the group onward, while Sakura and Mondo stayed behind. The biker glowered at the crowd of Reserve students.

“You all don’t know it, but you’re about to get fucked up for getting in our way…”

“We have much better things to do with our time, but to threaten my friends, I will not let that go unpunished…!” Sakura growled as a fierce aura pulsated around her.

~*~

It was easy enough to find that statue of the Founder. And with some quick detective work, Kirigiri accessed the secret entrance, which prompted Togami to lead their diminished numbers down a long staircase into unknown danger. As Kirigiri went in toward the back of the group, Mukuro stopped to have a few words with Sayaka before allowing her to head in as well.

“… You really love him, don’t you, Maizono?” The soldier asked with a mysterious smile tugging at her lips. The idol could only blink in confusion before nodding blankly.

“Of course I do! I promised to be loyal to him, and this is my chance to do something for him! He’s always so worried about keeping me happy… It’s completely unfair to him, focusing on me all the time! We’re definitely going to save him and pay him back for everything he’s done for our class!!!”

Mukuro stayed silent for several moments. Then, she nodded somewhat guiltily.

“… You’re right. Makoto-kun would want you to stay positive like that… It’s exactly the kind of thing he’d say, too.” The soldier made some sort of strange chuckling noise as she seemed to picture it. Sayaka raised an eyebrow curiously at Mukuro’s behavior.

“You’re the one who’s been checking up on me, telling me to stay positive. Is something wrong?”

Mukuro didn’t answer her question.

“… He’s real lucky to have you. I suppose it’s fitting, given his talent. But it’s amazing to see the impact Makoto-kun has had on everyone… We’ll definitely save him. I can’t imagine our life without him…”

“Y-Yeah…” Sayaka trailed off, still unsure of what to say. But Mukuro just side-glanced at her and offered a reassuring grin.

“You go catch up with the others. I’ll make sure Asahina, Oogami, and Oowada are okay.”

Sayaka nodded reservedly.

“Alright… Be careful!”

With Mukuro’s back to Sayaka as she ran, the pop idol happened to miss the few tears that ran down Mukuro’s face. Though with the rain, they would’ve been mistaken for raindrops anyway.

‘I’m so sorry, Makoto… I can only hope you forgive me, after everything’s over. I’m definitely not letting you die today, even if that’s what Junko wants. That’s just… too much. But… to make up for that bit of selfishness… I’ll have to do everything else Junko says. I’m… so sorry…’

Intent on intercepting Class 77, to hold them up a bit, Mukuro dashed through the pouring rain.

~*~

Makoto breathed a sigh of relief as he finally saw a familiar face in this labyrinth. It’s not that he wasn’t happy to have gotten away from Matsuda-senpai and that one room he’d been confined in for so long… But the layout of this place was really confusing, and he could only hope he didn’t bump into the neurologist that he was running away from.

“Kirigiri!” Makoto called out with a smile in his face as he charged up to the lilac-haired girl, who had a mildly surprised expression at running into him.

“Naegi… So you’re here.” The detective muttered. Makoto raised an eyebrow at her tone. It’s not like he was expecting huge relief from her, because Kirigiri rarely bared herself to others, but he expected… a little relief at least, considering how long he’d been missing. Or was this some detective thing he wasn’t getting?

“Were you looking for me?” Makoto couldn’t help but ask. It’d be a weird coincidence if she wasn’t, but you never knew.

But with Kirigiri’s stiff nod, Makoto felt a little better at least.

“Of course. Follow me, the others are waiting.” With those few words, Kyoko began walking down the corridor, the luckster hurrying to keep up with her.

“W-Wait! By everyone, you mean our class?! They came down here, too?” Makoto yelped a little. He could almost hear Kyoko roll her eyes.

“Naturally. No one could remain idle while you were missing. Our beloved class rep.”

Makoto rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

“I guess we do have a pretty energetic bunch… I’m just surprised you worked with everyone without tearing your hair out!” He chuckled meekly as the lilac-haired girl stared at him over her shoulder. It wasn’t a glare, but it was still a stare from Kyoko…

“I worked independently for the most part… I just alerted everyone to my findings after finding this place.”

Makoto looked down at the floor regretfully.

“… So everyone’s split up in this place, looking for me?” He felt bad. If one of his classmates got captured because they were looking for him, he didn’t know what he’d do…

Abruptly, Kirigiri stopped, bringing Naegi to a halt as well. She turned around and shook her head at him.

“No, the rest stayed together. I only split off because I have this inherent ability to find people in situations like this. You should know that by now.”

Makoto nodded in meek understanding. He knew not to underestimate Kyoko’s detective skills, but he couldn’t help it if she was unclear as to what the others were doing! Well, if they stayed together, they had less chance of stuff happening to them, that was for sure.

Kyoko turned back around and set her brisk pace again. Makoto reluctantly followed, noting how the corridor seemed to go on forever…

~*~

“W-Wait up, guys! You’re going too fast!” Sayaka called out as she caught up with the others in another corridor. Celes frowned as she looked back at the idol.

“Hmm… Where did Ikusaba go?”

Sayaka blinked for a moment as they all stopped in their tracks.

“… Oh! She went back to make sure the others are okay!”

“That still doesn’t explain where Kirigiri went off to…” Leon grunted as he ran a hand through his hair. With only nine of them here, it felt like there were way too few of them actually searching for Naegi… which sucked…

Chihiro put on a thoughtful face.

“I don’t think we have to worry about them. They’ll catch up to us pretty soon!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Leon groused. And not a second later, a wall panel near him and Hagakure opened up, revealing a few glints of light in the darkness.

“WAAAH!” Hagakure cried out in fright, falling backward and pointing. “G-G-G-G-G-GHOOOOOSTS! ALIENS!!!”

Yamada sighed exasperatedly.

“Just pick one, and we’ll go with it.”

“… What’s that dumbass think he’s doin’?” Mondo stepped out of the darkness, with Sakura and Asahina following him shortly thereafter. The latter was beaming.

“Glad we finally caught up! This maze was seriously scary!”

“We never would have made it here without your help, Fujisaki.” Sakura nodded in gratitude at the programmer, who smiled bashfully at the praise as he put away his phone.

Togami scowled impatiently.

“Well, this is wonderful and all… But we’re still missing Enoshima, Kirigiri, and Ikusaba. Not to mention the person we came here to save. Will Ikusaba manage to locate us the same way?” At Fujisaki’s timid nod, Togami faced the direction they were going previously. “Then let’s go.”

Some of his classmates scowled at his gruff behavior, but didn’t disagree with his urgency. After all, Makoto was likely in danger, and they needed to find him fast. Not long after they reunited, they all reached a pair of red doors. Hagakure attempted to push them open, to no avail.

“No dice… I guess they’re locked.” The clairvoyant shrugged haplessly, only for Oowada to shove past him.

“Outta my way, asshole!” The biker attempted to force them open with brute strength, but failed just like Hagakure. “PIECE OF SHIT!”

He kicked the door for good measure. Togami just sighed breezily and pressed a button on the right, opening the doors. Oowada glared at him twitchily.

“You tryin’ to say somethin’, Togami?”

“There’s no need. Your actions have done all the speaking for me.” The heir snarked, causing the biker to lunge at him, only to be caught by Oogami and Ishimaru.

“C-Calm down, bro!” Ishimaru yanked back on Mondo’s arm as hard as he could.

“Fighting amongst each other is senseless.” Sakura intoned firmly.

“I’m gonna render him senseless! Now lemme go!” Mondo snarled, still struggling. He was brought back down to earth by Fujisaki.

“P-Please calm down, Mondo! We still have to save Naegi!” Tears pricked at the programmer’s eyes, which got the biker to instantly slump in defeat.

“… Yeah, you’re right… Naegi needs us right now. I get it.” He grumbled and shook a fist at the heir as classmates started walking through the open door. “But don’t think I’m done with you, prick…!”

Togami just ignored him, much to his irritation.

~*~

They were finally approaching a pair of crimson doors. Kyoko hadn’t been talking, and it kind of made Makoto uneasy. He looked around in confusion, seeing no other paths for them.

“Uh, Kirigiri…? Are you absolutely sure this is the way…?” The luckster asked nervously.

Kirigiri stopped just before the red doors, not turning to face Naegi.

“Do you want to go back?”

Makoto could only shake his head.

“No… I’m the class rep, and everyone’s probably been fighting so hard to find me… Everybody’s waiting, so I have to keep pressing forward!” He declared with conviction.

Kyoko barely craned her head past her shoulder and gave a mysterious smile.

“That’s what I thought you’d say… Shall we, then?” At Makoto’s terse nod, Kirigiri pushed open the crimson doors, which revealed an elevator directly across a small room. Makoto looked around the room curiously.

“Where are we…?” He jumped a little when Kirigiri placed both her hands on his shoulders and leaned her chin on his right shoulder, giving a comforting grin.

“We’ve been through a lot, huh…? Striding side by side, doing our best to keep our class unified in our own ways…” Kyoko closed her eyes fondly, still smiling.

Makoto chuckled sheepishly.

“Yeah… Though, you were kinda content to leave us alone for a while. I’m glad we got you to come outta your shell, a little.”

Kirigiri nodded minutely.

“True… I’m glad you reached out to me, too. It meant a lot, when all I intended to do was tell my dad I was breaking ties with him… At first, all that mattered was our raw talent. That was all that bound us to this school. But then you united us into quite a team… An extraordinary one. I thought for sure you’d never be able to reach all of us, not when there were people like Togami and Fukawa, but you proved me wrong again and again. I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for us…”

Makoto was confused by all the sentiments that Kyoko was conveying. She didn’t usually speak like this, so why was she…?

Before he could pose that question out loud, Kirigiri whirled him around and shoved him into the elevator, not caring when he fell to the floor.

“K-Kirigiri?!” Makoto yelped in fright.

“So of course, you were the obvious choice…” Bangs fell over her eyes, but Makoto could see they had eerie swirls in them that put him on edge. She was also smiling much more creepily.

And then she pushed the elevator button without another word. No explanation for what had come over her, and no chance to escape the elevator. He was on his way to darker and darker depths… When it came to a stop, Makoto wondered why the door to the elevator didn’t open right away, but then a screen flickered to life outside. And then the door did open.

“Now... You may be asking yourself, why would my favorite Ace Detective do this to me~?” Junko’s grinning visage was all that could be seen in the dark room. “It’s not as complicated as you may think~… I made her watch a video! We’re still workshopping the title, but for now we’re calling it the Video of Despair!”

Makoto felt goosebumps all over his body. The supermodel was an eccentric classmate, but right now she was coming off as downright diabolical…

“Enoshima…” Makoto trailed off worriedly. “I don’t know what’s going on right now! I don’t understand…”

Junko merely scoffed.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t heard! Okay, look. It’s a brainwashing film that uses techniques I picked up from Mitarai-senpai! And now there’s a fifteen-car-pileup on Kyoko-chan’s synaptic superhighway~!”

Makoto approached the monitor, aghast.

“H-How could you do that?!”

Junko just continued like she hadn’t heard him.

“We’re still driving through the prototype stage, but the final product is right around the corner!” Junko chirped. She then massaged her temple while cradling her cheek. “We just need a little more… well, the technical term is unmitigated Despair… Tough to find!”

Makoto reeled back a little as she grinned darkly at him. Enoshima continued to talk.

“To be fair, I did consider using Nanami-senpai and her class for this test run, but you fell neatly into my lap, so I figured, why not?! No hard feelings, but you’re just as much of a Beacon of Hope as that Nanami chick is, if not moreso! So you’re just what my video needs~ You’re gonna raise it to the level of Art!”

As Enoshima posed dramatically on the screen, some overhead lights flashed on, blinding Naegi, who raised his arms to shield his eyes.

~*~

Meanwhile, Class 78 found themselves in what seemed to be a strange courtroom. There were sixteen podiums arranged in a circle, and a throne not too far from them. Mukuro and Kyoko had managed to catch up with their class, and now the fourteen of them were arrayed in a circle away from the podiums, puzzling over what to do next.

“No sign of Naegi or Enoshima…” Ishimaru muttered with a fist raised to his mouth in contemplation.

“Is this really where we’re supposed to be…?” Leon wondered.

Celes adopted a thoughtful pose as well, before her eyes widened in horror.

“It’s a trap…”

Overhead, all around the room, screens came to life as a bell chimed.

“Heya, kiddos!” Junko chirped excitedly, her voice echoing. “Is everybody in? So~! Let’s get started!”

With the room more lit than before because of the currently white screens, Class 78 looked at their surroundings one more time. They noticed Yasuke Matsuda had recently walked in, and had taken a seat on the throne, cradling some monochrome bear in his lap boredly.

“You…!” Togami pointed accusingly at the neurologist. “What the hell is going on?!”

Rather than answer the heir, Matsuda simply pointed upwards to the screens, and when they all looked up again, Junko was on the screens with another one beside her showing Makoto. Mondo clenched his fist angrily.

“What the hell’s going on here?! What’ve you done to Naegi?!”

Enoshima cackled in that over-the-top way of hers. This unsettled many of her classmates, especially Sayaka, who was getting more worried by the second.

“Every good show needs a heart-stopping first act, doesn’t it?! IIIT’S PUNISHMEEENT TIIIME~!” Junko preened before the screens transitioned to a red Game Over screen of a pixelated Junko walking across the screen and dragging off a pixelated Makoto.

A large set of doors then opened in front of Naegi’s frightened face…

~*~

Specks of blood could be seen on the floors of the labyrinth as Naegi ran through the halls.

“Oookay~! He’s already reached the midway point of my death dungeon! How many more lethal traps can the Super Duper High School Level Luckster avoid?! ‘Cause so far, Naegi’s doin’ Aces!” Junko gave an enthusiastic thumb’s up at Naegi’s progress, though the boy himself looked like he had seen better days as he ran while cradling his blood-soaked left arm, and a spooked expression on his face. Junko grinned warmly as Makoto ran past another monitor. “Give ‘em hell, buddy! Eyes on the prize! Your friends are waiting for you at the Finish Line~!”

Makoto suddenly stepped on a pressure padded tile, which prompted a spike to skewer his right foot. He cried out in agony as he fearfully pulled his wounded foot from the spike and reluctantly kept limping in spite of the pain.

“I remember all too well, y’know~! You’re the glue that holds the whole shebang together~! Lines were drawn in the sand before you came along! Your classmates were a ragtag bunch of brats and backbiters!”

Makoto wheezed as he leaned on the wall and limped as fast as he could.

“I can make it… I can make it… I can make it…” He craned his head to look back when he heard a sound of something big approaching… It was a giant boulder. A boulder was rolling toward him. Naegi limped faster.

“And you made a bona fide team out of ‘em! I’m drawn to that talent like a moth to flame~!” Junko gushed adoringly. A pair of projectiles were then launched, one hitting Naegi in the left shoulder and the other got him in the right eye.

Makoto cried with how much pain he had to endure.

“Not like this…” He cradled his eye and instinctively ducked under and around buzzsaw blades that moved along the walls and floor. He wobbled because of his bad foot, but he managed to miss the blades. He briefly stopped to catch his breath at an intersection, but the boulder was still coming his way. He went right just as the boulder veered left, and made a huge crashing sound nearby. “Nice try! But you’re not gonna beat me! Me, Sayaka, and the rest of our classmates are gonna kick your butt! This game is stupid!!!”

Junko just gushed again.

“Oh yeah~! There’s that Hope I wanna crush! More of that, please~… When it’s gone, you’ll have absolutely nothing! Despair needs a springboard, and the grizzly death of Hope seems like the best choice! Hop to, pal! Get them legs a-movin’~! The sooner you perish, the sooner this Video can hit rock-bottom into prime real-estate! Oops! My bad. I mean… Good luuuck~!”

Makoto just whimpered as he barely moved along.

Back in the courtroom, Sayaka distressfully turned her head to face her classmates.

“We have to get him out of there!” This was not up for negotiation. They needed to act now.

“Y-Yes, of course!” Ishimaru agreed wholeheartedly. “But where is he?!”

“It does not matter. We must start looking…!” Sakura growled out, her whole body tensing.

“This is messed up!” Hagakure shivered, Leon nodding in agreement.

“I thought we were gonna save Naegi?!” The baseball star howled.

“That was the idea…” Togami hissed as he tried to do anything but failed. “There’s just one problem.”

“My body…!” Asahina cried out. “It can’t seem to move!”

“I-Is the Video doing this to us…?” Yamada wondered dreadfully.

Back in the dungeon, a boomerang blade was triggered from some device, and as it missed Naegi the first time around it arced in the hair and flew back towards him, pinning him to the wall while tearing his favorite hoodie. As Naegi tore it to escape that trap, he cried out in pain.

“I don’t care what you do to me…! I’m not giving up!!!”

Junko gushed again.

“As a reward for that unsinkable spirit, it’s take your chance time! Chin up, buddy! I’m told friendship can work miracles~! I’ll give you a ten-second headstart!” She smirked as Naegi went from staring at her to moving as fast as he could again. “Ten… nine… eight… seven…”

“AAAAAAAAH!” Naegi yelled out as he got stabbed in the leg.

“Crap! My timing’s off~! Safe to say the lesson here is that Despair is a fickle little biotch~!” Junko gushed cruelly. “What can you do? Miracles are such a racket! Your classmates are not coming to the rescue… They are gonna watch you die, though. Sooo sad! No Hail Mary for you, class rep!”

By now, Makoto and Junko’s classmates were crying at seeing the luckster so injured. Their eyes were also beginning to swirl from watching the Despair unfold.

“N-N-No…! Makoto…!” Celes let out in anguish and frustration.

“I-I don’t wanna watch this…!” Fujisaki feebly cried out, fat tears spilling out of his eyes. “Don’t make me, I can’t…!”

“Make it stop…! Make it stop, please…!” Leon begged in anguish.

Fukawa, horrified just as everyone else, abruptly sneezed, and Genocide Jack took over.

“Eh? What’s goin’ on?” She tilted her head, and then gave a deranged grin. “Oooh~! Egg Boy is getting cut up?! Why didn’t anyone tell me! This looks like a sucky job! Sucky!”

“Sh-Shut it, bitch…!” Mondo growled out and gnashed his teeth as the serial killer laughed maniacally, unable to help herself. Anyone watching would be able to tell she was crying as well, though. She was just laughing as a coping mechanism…

Togami just hissed more in anger, his hands curled into fists and quivering. Hagakure started hurling threats at Enoshima.

“You’re dead, you hear me?! What’s one more lawsuit to my name! You deserve to die!”

“Th-Th-This is absolutely incredible…!” Kyoko gushed in ecstasy, hands clasped together. “Watching Naegi go through something so horrible is binding our hearts together as one~!”

Sayaka’s eyes were red and puffy from the intense crying she’d been experiencing. To watch Makoto get tortured so gruesomely… it was too much. Her voice had already given out from the screaming she’d been doing almost nonstop. Mukuro grinded her teeth together as she was forced to watch this with the rest of their class.

“Just hang on… a little more, Naegi-kun…!”

Junko smirked on the screens.

“Makoto… Naegi. Trusted, beloved… Your untimely demise will scar your friends for life! Despair will corrupt them to the bone!”

Makoto just continued to hobble along.

“I’ll make it…! I won’t lose! We won’t lose…!” He wiped his bloody hand across a monitor, leaving a smear as Junko’s cackling echoed in his ears from all the nearby screens. He also might’ve started to hallucinate… “Not to someone like you!!! I know… I know they’ll come for me… I trust them! This is not how I die!”

Makoto soon reached a door with a sign declaring it to be the “GOAL” written over it. He gave a shaky smile as he drew nearer to it. Closer. And closer. Finally, he latched onto the handle and twisted it, pushing it open with great elation.

“Told you I’d make it…!” He grinned in confidence as he saw a white light before him. His classmates were all standing before him, grinning right back at him.

“Welcome back!” Sayaka beamed in Naegi’s vision, and outstretched her arm. Makoto’s smile widened and he reached out to her in adoration.

… But then the happy vision vanished. And a spear went flying straight through Makoto’s chest, sending him sailing into the air before a bigger group of spears ejected from the floor under him and shishkebabbed much of his body.

~*~

The lighting had changed to an unsettling blood red in the trial room. On the screens above them, the silhouette of Makoto Naegi was frozen in midair as it was skewered by many spears. Cruelly, a “Game Over” title was displayed just under his body. His class couldn’t help staring in stunned, petrified silence as time seemed to slow down.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

“You’re a monster…” Sayaka whispered hoarsely as she stared up at the screens. Her eyes remained bloodshot, but there were definitely swirls in them now. “What you’ve done to Makoto is unforgivable…! He meant so much to us… to me… He was our greatest Hope!”

Ishimaru couldn’t help agreeing with the grieving idol. His hands twitched as hot tears continued to spill down his face.

“This sight is more than I can bear...!” The Moral Compass clutched his head as he angrily screamed. “Just what was Hope’s Peak doing?! One of their own pupils has been murdered! It’s truly unforgivable! It’s like something in me has broken its chains! I’ve been released to Despair…! Is this… the insurmountable Despair we’re meant to overcome?!”

“J-Junko…!” Mukuro wailed, crumpling to her knees in defeat. “You said he had a chance…!”

“That bitch…!” Mondo growled not unlike a monster would. “I’ll have her damn head on a pike…!”

Celes’s sharp, cold voice cut him off.

“That’s not good enough… Enoshima’s death will be slow. And it will be the most painful experience of her life…! And I will not rest until I have carried her execution out myself!” The gambler hissed monstrously, allowing her ugly, angry side to show.

“Not if… I get to her first…!” Togami himself was flooded with a controlled, but animalistic rage aimed at their tormentor. “Makoto’s future was with the Togami Corporation! Killing him was a personal insult to me!”

The others were experiencing just as much pain and anguish. Even Kyoko, who was paradoxically enjoying this feeling because of being in Despair already.

And then… Time seemed to resume its normal speed, and Makoto’s lifeless husk collapsed to the floor of the labyrinth. The red lighting didn’t go away. A slot machine was activated, scoring triple faces of their precious friend, and then ejecting countless amounts of blood red coins.

“Congraaatulations!” Junko gushed, her proud image appearing on all the screens, spreading out her arms as if she were going to give them all a big hug. “Welcome to the fold! Now you’ll all be exactly like moi! Doesn’t losing someone you love break your heart?! Soak up that Despair! Sit back and let the ecstasy wash over you! Once you’ve had a taste, you’re packed! You’ll wanna bask in it every second of your lives! Nothing will do but to see the whole world burn with the same feeling! Say adieu to your friendly neighborhood chum… and hello to the incomparably wonderful World of Despair! Thank you for playing~! I look forward to working with you…”

In response to Junko’s sermon, the whole of Class 78 cried, screamed, cursed, laughed, cackled, and experienced so many complex emotions at once. But all that mattered to Junko was the one characteristic they all shared… And that was the swirling eyes of Ultimate Despairs. Her heart ached with pain, grief, and orgasmic joy at seeing the hopeless eyes of her dearest friends… her class…

Yes. She basked in the glory of her handiwork. Patted herself on the back for this last-minute change in plans… This was so much better than having themselves kill each other. She and her beloved friends would bathe this world in blood and fire. They would choke every last ounce of Hope out of every last person on earth…

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pyropsychiccollector · 7 years

Text

“Monokuma… already revealed we stole their memories…!?” Mitarai was stunned as they all watched the events in the virtual world unfold. The first motive had been presented after a day of reprieve; it seemed like everyone was going to come together, in spite of the insane rules forced on them. Unfortunately, Monokuma seemed to want to nip that in the bud early on, as he told them about how Monomi had stolen their memories, and their loved ones might not be as safe as they last ‘remembered’.

… And they weren’t. Most of them were dead. Whoever tried to kill one of their classmates would be coming back to a reality where, in all likelihood, their loved ones were dead… Such an outcome fit Ultimate Despair’s modus operandi perfectly.

Not everyone from Class 77 had been able to come check on Nagito and the other Remnants of Despair, upon Hajime contacting them. Some were out in the field, and others had important work that couldn’t be put off. Yet there were those who put aside their Foundation duties to morally support their former classmate…

“Fuck!” Fuyuhiko punched the computer terminal he was standing next to. “This is like the last Killing Game! Exactly the same…!”

Sixteen people, thrust into a “game” to kill each other in order to escape. Motives presented to “inspire” people to murder… This wasn’t a coincidence. Somebody was mimicking Junko and her twisted ideas…

The Imposter sighed resignedly.

“We should believe in the people they are now. The people they were. In this moment, they are not Ultimate Despair… They are our underclassmen. People we failed to protect. Doubting them, worrying over them, we’re doing them a disservice.”

Mikan moaned anxiously, clutching her hands to her bosom.

“I don’t think it’s bad to be worrying about them… Th-They can still be hurt in there, can’t they?”

“They can.” Hajime confirmed with a grave nod. “It’s cutting-edge virtual reality… It’s designed that way so they’re none the wiser to everything just being a simulation. If they get wounded, nothing might happen to their actual body, but their mind will be convinced they’re actually hurt. And if they die… we’re not sure if we would be able to bring them back. They might remain in a coma for the rest of their lives.”

Natsumi scowled as her eyes stayed fixed on the main monitor.

“Never mind who did it for now… Why the hell are Ultimate Despair doing this to their own people? To prevent ‘em from being cured?”

Tanaka turned his head away briefly, his mouth concealed by his scarf.

“We lack the information needed to draw conclusions… We should watch, and mayhap we will pick up a hint to the mastermind’s identity that they will not.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass about the who, why, how, whatever… Soon as we have ‘em in our hands, I’m smashing their teeth in…!” Fuyuhiko growled, clenching a fist tightly.

Peko placed a placating hand on Fuyuhiko’s shoulder, getting him to relax, marginally. The rest of them were hoping their kouhais could hold out until they could regain control again on their side… At this moment, there was nothing they could do but watch.

~*~

Though tensions were high, Makoto had proposed a party the next evening to rekindle bonds. They’d spend the whole day getting ready, and then they’d party all night long. Ishimaru, being the self-designated leader, tried giving out tasks for everyone to do, but Nagito, Makoto, Mukuro, and Sayaka all volunteered for the broad tasks that needed to be completed. Nagito would clean the old lodge, having drawn the short stick for it. Makoto would get all the supplies from the supermarket (Mukuro ended up helping him). Mukuro, though not a world-class chef, had some experience cooking for her and her younger sister when they were kids, and so took up that responsibility. And Sayaka would provide music for the party – Leon assisting her with the setup of speakers and other music equipment.

It was a long day for everyone that was setting up for the party, but eventually they all met up at the lodge when the nighttime announcement came.

Well. Everyone except for Togami, but Ishimaru seemed fine with that so long as he was the only one absent.

For some reason, the Ultimate Moral Compass was on edge, giving everyone who entered the lodge a fully body search before putting anything that could be considered a weapon into a duralumin case that he kept at his side at all times. This obviously upset a lot of people, making some downright uncomfortable, but the hall monitor was satisfied no one had come brandishing weapons… aside from Fukawa, who bizarrely had a number of scissors on her.

… Ishimaru had a long talk with her in private about that, but the author was unwilling to divulge anything.

“Ah, Miss Celestia Ludenberg…” Nagito greeted as she entered the dining hall. “Do you like it?”

Celes hummed as she looked around.

“You are referring to how you cleaned everything up in here, yes…?”

“Yeah, I got it all decorated for the party… I even brought in the carpet.” Komaeda explained.

“The… carpet…?” Celes trailed off, perplexed.

Nagito just nodded.

“I brought it from the supermarket. I actually wanted to cover the whole floor, but I guess the carpet wasn’t big enough.” Nagito laughed sheepishly. And it was true, there was a perimeter around the carpet that showed the natural floor underneath, which looked to be rotting in some places… Nagito rubbed his forehead in annoyance. “There was a lot of dust and cobwebs all over the place, too. It took me all day to clean the dining hall just because of that.”

Celes intertwined her hands beneath her chin as she beamed at the older Luckster.

“Ehehe… You are commendable, indeed. Keep up that dedication, and you might exceed D-rank one day…”

Nagito rolled his eyes but smiled good-naturedly.

“You don’t have to lie to my face, Celes. I know you don’t exactly have a high opinion of a lot of people here…” He then turned his back, waving over his shoulder. “Well, I hope you enjoy your evening!”

Celes stayed rooted in place for a while after that… While she couldn’t deny a word he said, it really was astounding that such a suck-up could be so perceptive.

… She would have to be careful around him…

As he set a platter of food on the table, Makoto noticed Fukawa shivering and huddling in a corner of the dining hall. A look of pure disgust was etched all over her face.

“What’s up, Fukawa?” He considerately asked.

Fukawa just sent him a bitter glare that was oozing with loathing.

“H-H-He rubbed his hands all over me…!” She squeezed her eyes shut and clutched her head, letting out a howl of frustration and anger. Makoto sweatdropped.

“Well… While I will say it was pretty excessive, Ishimaru’s just trying to look out for all of us. I’m pretty sure he gave the guys body searches that were just as thorough…”

Fukawa howled again as she raised her twitching hands up in melodramatic fashion.

“He rubbed all over meee!” Clearly, that was just unacceptable, no matter the ‘excuse’. So… Naegi just backed away slowly…

Asahina pouted as she stewed in her own frustration at the Ultimate Moral Compass’s… thoroughness.

“Maybe Fukawa’s a little melodramatic, but she kinda has a point! I mean, Ishimaru didn’t have to treat you so suspiciously, Sakura! He took way longer inspecting you than me!”

Sakura just smiled wryly.

“Ishimaru harbors no ill intent. I do not mind him being cautious. His passion to ensure there are no killings should be admired, and we should all follow his fighting spirit.”

Asahina kept her arms crossed before she sighed in defeat.

“I guess…” Her stomach then growled as she noticed a platter of donuts set out on one of the tables. She looked to Makoto, who was rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. “Did you get those just for me, Naegi?!”

The younger Luckster laughed softly.

“Well, yeah! We might not know each other too much yet, but I wanted you guys to enjoy yourselves! This party supposed to bring us together.”

Asahina wept tears of sheer joy at the Luckster’s considerate nature. Oooh, she was gonna pig out tonight… She didn’t care what anyone else had to say!

… Well, except Ishimaru got in her way, as he arrived with the last of them – Mondo, Hagakure, Kirigiri, Fujisaki, and Yamada. Sayaka and Leon were setting up final preparations with the sound equipment in the back of the dining hall, and Mukuro was in the kitchen.

Asahina repeatedly kept trying to get at the donuts, but the Ultimate Moral Compass brought up the fact that the case with the confiscated weapons needed to be guarded. He had the key for that case stored in the other one, which also had a self-defense kit inside, but he thought that distancing the key from the lock would make them all the safer. Fukawa volunteered for guard duty, since she didn’t feel very comfortable eating around or socializing with others, so she left the dining hall with the case rather promptly; it was decided she would guard the case in the abandoned building’s office.

The other order of business was to make sure Monokuma didn’t sneak in and spark anyone’s intent to murder. Makoto volunteered to stay outside the lodge, but a pout from Sayaka Maizono and a reminder that he’d promised to listen to her concert, and the Luckster capitulated and allowed someone else to take up that task. Ishimaru had been going to suggest they do it in shifts, but Kirigiri volunteered in order to keep it from turning into a huge argument. Makoto tried to convince her to stay, but Kirigiri was rather nonchalant about missing out on the party, feeling this was an opportunity for a detective to do something before another murder happened…

With all of that sorted out, Ishimaru had intended to dive into a long discussion about the night’s itinerary. But by that point, he’d lost control of the crowd – especially Asahina, who just wanted her donuts – and the party entered full swing.

… If only it remained peaceful like this.

~*~

It came without warning. But blackouts seldom have them.

There was no real buildup. Some of them had been having too much fun – like Hagakure, Mondo, Asahina, Yamada, and Leon – but they were high school students. Things were bound to get out of hand. But it was all in good fun, and… it was as if they could forget all about their troubles since coming to this island, so long as they stayed in this dining hall together.

Maizono held her concert, and it was amazing for the teens. Sayaka’s soothing voice helped them relax.

The food wasn’t “world-class” or anything, but Mukuro was a pretty good cook, at least in the humble opinions of Asahina, Hagakure, Sakura, and Mondo.

Yamada got up to some perverted antics, but one well-placed baseball to the face from Leon shut up the otaku and put him in his place…

Fujisaki revealed he got a camera from the supermarket, and he snapped a lot of good pictures of everyone having a blast.

Everything was going well. Ishimaru had to keep some fights from escalating, but even with those, no one was seriously going to get hurt. They were high schoolers who were just being their rowdy selves.

And then… it happened.

“What was that…?” Ishimaru tensed as there was a beeping noise.

No one recognized that noise, except Makoto, who knew that was the AC turning on for whatever reason.

And then… darkness. Complete and total.

“It’s dark…?” Makoto mumbled.

“It’s a blackout!” Sayaka cried net to him. Somehow, they were able to fumble around enough to find each other’s hand and intertwine their fingers. It didn’t do anything to help their situation, but it did make them feel safe, having someone they could trust by their side in this turn of events…

“Hey, I can’t see anything!” Mondo shouted irritably.

People began to stumble about in the dark in fear. Makoto and Sayaka stood rooted in place, in fear of bumping into someone… Plus, they didn’t know if this blackout was an accident, or if it was… premediated.

… Neither of them liked to think of that possibility.

“It’s pitch black!” Asahina cried.

There were the sounds of screams and frantic footsteps, but they were quickly swallowed up by another voice…

“Everyone, remain calm!” Sakura urged. “We must remain composed in these situations…”

Suddenly, there was a malicious aura that filled the room. Makoto didn’t quite know how to explain it, but it felt very angry…. When the next person spoke up, he understood.

“Did you… have the audacity… to stomp all over my feet, Porky!?”

Yamada squealed in terror.

“P-Please have mercy, Miss Celestia Ludenberg…!”

“Die…!”

Makoto sweatdropped as he could hear the telltale sounds of roughhousing from that quarter. Yamada brought that on himself for trampling Celes’s feet, though…

“What the hell! What’s going on here!?” Ishimaru demanded heatedly.

The windows were completely covered with those iron plates, so they were surrounded by total darkness. And it was because of that complete darkness that their eyes would never adjust, no matter how long they waited…

“Wh-What is…!? Ow!” Ishimaru suddenly cried out. There was some sort of thumping noise – possibly the Ultimate Moral Compass falling over.

“Turn the damn lights on, would ya?!” Leon growled.

And then, the soldier’s voice joined the cacophony. She’d gone to the kitchen to bring out more food, and she must’ve been on her way back for her voice to be heard now.

“You guys? Where are you…?” Mukuro asked warily. “Wasn’t the blackout… just in the kitchen…?”

“Maybe the breaker overloaded.” Yamada suggested.

“To whomever stole my goggles…!” Ishimaru suddenly called out again. “I must demand you return them at once!”

Makoto could almost hear Mondo roll his eyes.

“What are you going on about now?”

“I had brought night vision goggles for just this occasion!” Ishimaru revealed. “However, someone bumped into me, and I presume they stole the goggles in my disorientation!”

… Well, at least he was honest.

“Huh?” Nagito abruptly said, though he said it so quietly that Makoto thought he was hearing things. In the next few moments… there was a much softer thump, and some rustling of cloth…

What was going on?

“H-Hold on!” Hagakure called out. “I’ll… I’ll go along the wall and… do something about it…!”

There was a long, anxious wait for the darkness to lift… From the various cries, it sounded as if Hagakure was bumping into people way too easily.

After a while… the lights finally came back on…

And it seemed everyone was fine… Well… to be honest, there had been a small accident…

Mukuro blushed, as she had been bumped into at some point, and had fallen in an awkward position, allowing most people to see up her skirt… She wouldn’t have normally allowed it to happen, having good response skills even in dark conditions, but the fact Naegi would have chided her for hurting their friends… It gave her pause, and now… she was like this…

Somebody would pay. .

Mondo flushed deeply as he realized that it was him that had bumped into Mukuro, resulting in her compromised position…

“Shiiit! Shit, shit, shit, shit…!” Mondo hurried to help her up, but the damage had been done, and he got punched into a wall for his trouble. “… I deserved that…”

The red on Mukuro’s face didn’t go away as she dusted herself off, eyes closed. That was humiliating…! He deserved a lot more than that, but for now she’d let it slide… Accidents happen…

And again, Naegi would disapprove of violent retribution…

Leon grinned as he ran a hand through his hair.

“Nice job, Hagakure! You managed to get the lights back on!”

However, the fortuneteller didn’t look like he could take credit for that miracle…

“Yeah, uh… In case you couldn’t tell, I hadn’t even left this room, let alone make my way to the office, where the circuit breaker is!” The dark-haired boy laughed weakly.

“Then… who did get the lights back on…?” Celes wondered.

No one had an answer to that…

“Um…” Everyone turned to Sayaka when she shuffled her feet awkwardly. “Not to worry you guys… But where’s Fujisaki?”

As Makoto looked around, he noticed she was right. There was also something bugging him about Nagito, as well, though he couldn’t put his finger on it. Then again, with them having moved around in the darkness, he wouldn’t be surprised if it was just the fact Nagito was now standing closer to him and Sayaka, rather than his initial location by the table with the lamp on it. Celes and Hifumi looked about as he’d expected; Asahina looked relieved to have the lights back on, and Sakura was checking over her for injuries; Ishimaru was looking around for those night vision goggles…

But Fujisaki was nowhere to be seen.

“That’s weird…” Asahina muttered. “He was here earlier, taking pictures!”

“Did he run somewhere during the blackout…?” Yamada wondered.

“I’m… a little worried.” Nagito confessed. “We should split up and go look for him. I’ll look in the storage room, so can I ask you to check the entrance, Makoto?”

Feeling no need to object, Makoto complied as he walked out of the dining hall. Sayaka offered to check the office, and the others split up to search the building. The programmer couldn’t have just disappeared into thin air.

~*~

Kirigiri said Fujisaki hadn’t left the lodge, so that meant the programmer still had to be inside. However, when Makoto turned around to go back in, there was a sort of chime that rang out from the screen over on the hotel. Makoto could make out Monokuma on the screen as he sipped a martini and casually made an announcement.

“A body has been discovered~! Everyone please make your way to the dining hall in the old lodge!”

The screen flickered off.

“The… dining hall…?” Makoto whispered faintly. But he’d just been there! There’d been no body!

“I’m assuming one of the others searched the hall…” Kirigiri said, as if reading his mind. “Come on. We have to go see for ourselves.”

“Y-Yeah…” Makoto just couldn’t believe it…

However, as they made their way back in, Makoto’s feet feeling a hundred times heavier as he plodded along, he knew the moment he saw the crowded dining hall that it had happened… There’d been a murder, despite Ishimaru’s security.

For in the far corner of the room, under the table with a lamp, was the corpse of Chihiro Fujisaki. His throat was slit, there was a blood spray on the cloth that covered the table, and there was some night vision goggles near his body…

Chihiro Fujisaki was the first victim.

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pyropsychiccollector · 7 years

Text

Danganronpa - Another IF (Chapter 1, Part 2)

Makoto and Sayaka watched uneasily as Kirigiri pulled Fukawa's body out of the washing machine. They'd cleared away the shards from the broken glasses after discovering that a piece of tape had been attached to the part that went over the bridge of someone's nose. In other words, before Asahina had stepped on them, apparently the glasses had snapped cleanly in half at some point, and someone had haphazardly tried to tape them back together. However, Fukawa's glasses had appeared fine at breakfast, so they had broken between breakfast and the time her body had been discovered. It didn't reveal anything particularly useful yet, but it was a tidbit of information to keep in mind.

Monokuma had dispensed something called a Monokuma File for everybody; in essence, it functioned as an autopsy report, since none of them were associated with the police, who usually investigated these matters. However, as useful as an autopsy report sounded, this file was anything but. They already knew Fukawa had died sometime after the breakfast meeting, and approximating the time did nothing because Fukawa never liked to hang out with them. It was going to be difficult to find out if anyone had seen anyone with her, for any length of time.

At the very least, the file told them her cause of death was suffocation. They hadn't been able to tell that just by finding her body. There were no other signs of injuries, internal or external. Other than that, the file was pretty much useless to them.

"Hmm..." Kirigiri murmured as she shifted Fukawa on her back and held up her right hand, examining it. Kirigiri's gloved hand experimentally rubbed some fluid between her fingertips. "Blood..."

Sakura spoke the thought that flitted through their minds.

"The Monokuma File says there are no other injuries... Which would suggest that she fought back against her attacker."

Mondo rubbed the back of his head.

"Damn... You're sayin' Fukawa's nails are that sharp?" He scowled as Kirigiri shook her head.

"No. If she did that, there would be bits of flesh and specks of blood under her fingernails. However, the blood is only on her fingers. I believe she might've had some form of weapon when she was attacked. A weapon small enough that her hand would easily pass by the killer's wound as she slashed at him..."

The biker punched his open palm in anticipation He seemed excited about something, though the others could only hazard a guess as to what.

"Well, this'll be easy, then! The bastard who killed her will have some kinda cut or whatever, so let's just check everybody out, fully body search style!"

"I... don't think Monokuma would allow that..." Maizono tapped her chin as she looked up. Naegi weakly chuckled beside her.

"Yeah, he'd say something like that would make the game boring, and then he'd come up with some dumb rule about body searches..."

"Not to mention that would not account for the possibility of two or more people who have some type of cut on their body that they received today." The lavender-haired girl added calmly as she continued to examine the body. "We would narrow down our suspects, but we would not have any other evidence to prove which one it was. It's best to collect as much information as possible, and go to the trial prepared."

Mondo visibly deflated and looked away with a click of his tongue. Well, it was still a good lead anyway, even if it wasn't case-breaking just yet. While Kirigiri handled the body, he turned his attention to a bedsheet that was lying on the floor in a heap. There were a few flecks of blood on it by the look of it,

"Do you think this is just a red herring?" The Luckster wondered aloud. "Seems too big to suffocate someone quickly... And I mean, you'd have to do that if you killed Fukawa here, right? 'Cause our rooms are soundproof, but not the laundry room."

Maizono tilted her head in contemplation at his musings.

"Yeah... that's true."

Sakura hummed thoughtfully as she kept her arms crossed.

"This is assuming that the laundry room was the crime scene. We found the body here, but there is no guarantee that she was killed in this room."

Mondo snorted in disbelief.

"You really think the killer walked from their room to here, just carrying the body? Even I know that's a dumbass move with so many people walkin' around and shit."

Kirigiri spoke up again without missing a beat.

"And what if this killer was reasonably sure that no one would inadvertently spot them? What if the killer didn't brazenly carry the body, but wrapped it in something?"

"Like the bedsheet..." Makoto whispered as he looked at the item in a new light.

"You serious?! Even if ya wrap it, someone's still gonna know you're luggin' around a body." Mondo contested.

Kirigiri remained an emotionless mask.

"If you carry it in such a way, the body will pass off as 'laundry' to any casual onlookers. Naturally, this would mean the killer would have to be careful about who saw them, and how they acted, but the possibility still exists that the body was moved. We have no way to know yet."

Makoto rubbed his chin and looked down in contemplation.

"Thing is, though, even if the killer moved the body, it doesn't explain why Touko would willingly enter someone else's room. And I mean, if the killer forced her to go in, someone could've seen it. Or am I off-base about that...?"

For once, Kirigiri smiled pleasantly.

"No, that seems like a reasonable question to consider. Another possibility is that the killer gained passage into Touko's room, and killed her there - so at the very least, you should inspect her room. You should also ask around and see if anyone was present in the dorms or the hall at the time of the murder. If not, we'll know the killer at least had the opportunity to move about undetected. It would be a risky gamble, as someone could come out of their room at any time, but the possibility remains. It is said that killers can be quite illogical at times."

Sayaka briefly exchanged a look with Makoto.

"We should also ask if anyone knows what Touko was going to do... Whether she was going back to her room, the classrooms, wherever."

Naegi nodded in acceptance as he half-turned toward the door.

"Okay... Well, I guess we'll leave the laundry room to you guys. If anything happens or ya find anything, let us know!"

Mondo scowled slightly, but Naegi knew he was just frustrated at the moment.

"Yeah... You guys just do your best out there, I guess. We've got it covered here."

With a wave, the singer and the Luckster exited the room.

~*~

The first people they came across were Leon and Ishimaru, who were in a corner of the massive hall that separated the cafeteria and laundry room. By the look of it, they were arguing, and a vein was popping on Leon's head in righteous anger.

"I'm tellin' ya, it wasn't me! Mondo and I were in the entrance hall the whole damn time! If either of us slipped out, the other would've known!" The All-Star clenched his fists and held them up furiously.

Kiyotaka, for his part, seemed largely unintimidated by the baseball player's display. He was cupping his chin and levelling the redhead with a critical glare.

"Forgive me if I do not just take your word for it! You seemed quite panicked when you saw your video, and you clearly said you had to get out!"

"Everyone friggin' overreacted to their videos, dude! Even Naegi was spooked, and he's all about that 'gotta stick together' crap..." Leon rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he saw Makoto and Sayaka out of the corner of his eye. "Oh, hey, guys!"

Other than Maizono narrowing her eyes in outrage, neither student commented on Leon's attitude.

"What's goin' on, guys?" Makoto felt he had a pretty good idea, but he still asked out of impulse, more than anything else.

"Ah, Mister Makoto Naegi and Miss Sayaka Maizono~" Kiyotaka greeted them both pleasantly, as if he hadn't just been giving Leon the third degree. "Leon and I were just speaking about alibis!"

"'Speak' nothin'... I sure didn't hear you talkin' about your alibi..." Leon groused, running a hand through his hair in irritation.

Naturally, Kiyotaka did not seem to hear him. Sayaka seemed to come to his rescue, though, as she hummed noncommittally.

""Leon and Mondo confirm each other's alibis. If they say they were at the entrance hall the whole time, then they probably were."

Ishimaru stood rigid as the singer came to the baseball star's aid. He humbly nodded his head in acceptance.

"I... see. I suppose the same applies to you and Makoto? That you were together, I mean."

Sayaka nodded with a smile,

"Us and Junko," Makoto confirmed with a meek laugh. Before Ishimaru could gush too much about the camaraderie, Leon butted in again.

"Look, just what were you doing after we left breakfast, huh? Were you with anyone?"

The Ultimate Prefect wilted somewhat as his alibi was put under scrutiny.

"I was... patrolling the halls..." Ishimaru stated with a tightening scowl.

"Alone?" The baseball all-star pressed.

"It is a duty I take most seriously!" Ishimaru defended himself. "... But yes, I was alone in my patrol."

"Did you see anything that might help?" Makoto asked hopefully.

"Like what Fukawa might have been doing," Sayaka helpfully supplied, in case Ishimaru needed to jog his memory.

Ishimaru gripped his chin tightly and frowned, eyes narrowing.

"Well... she and Yamada got into a.... disagreement that I had to break up."

Leon rolled his eyes as the prefect revealed this new information.

"Well, there ya go! Fatty probably had some motive to kill her, and he just went back to meet with Fukawa in private after you broke them up!"

Ishimaru did not seem convinced. And when he explained his reasoning for doubting the theory, Makoto and Maizono had their doubts, too.

"It was a very minor argument, however. Fukawa insulted Yamada's comics, and he naturally defended them. Plus, when I split them up, Yamada went to the school store, and I know he stayed there because of my efficient patrol route."

"Che. If it was really 'efficient', Fukawa wouldn't be dead, would she?" Leon groused.

"I know I failed Fukawa....!" Ishimaru lamented. "But she had said she was heading back to her room, and I had little reason to doubt her. I was quite shocked to find her dead in the laundry room!"

Makoto rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he summarized the account Ishimaru gave them.

"So, after breaking up the small fight and hearing Fukawa say she'd be in her room, you followed Yamada to the classroom side of the building." Makoto frowned. "Did you see her open the door to her room and actually go in, though? Did you see anyone else around?"

Ishimaru sagged regretfully.

“No. Unfortunately, I was concerned with Yamada, and making sure he did not go right back to picking a fight with Fukawa. I did not even turn to give Fukawa-san a second glance, and there was no one else around, to my memory.”

Leon rolled his eyes in frank disbelief.

“Yeah, sure… real believable.” The ginger’s tone was oozing with sarcasm. He tapped an index finger to his head and stuck out his tongue. “I think you did it, with the way you were giving me the third degree when your own alibi’s got holes like Swiss cheese!”

Ishimaru grunted out in frustration as he raised a fist in outrage.

“I did not kill Fukawa-san! If you cannot believe I followed Yamada, then just ask Yasuhiro! He had been leaving the gymnasium when my patrol route went by there!”

Sayaka smiled nervously and tried to ease the tension.

“Umm… Leon, why don’t you look for Yasuhiro and confirm that? Naegi-kun and I have a number of things to look into ourselves, and we can’t do everything before the trial starts…”

Leon rubbed the back of his head and grinned roguishly.

“Leave it to me, Maizono-chan!”

Makoto turned to Ishimaru and smiled.

“And Ishimaru, if you see Togami, Celes, or Fujisaki, try to ask what they were doing. Sakura and Asahina were the first ones to find the body, and they were able to find me, Maizono, Junko, Mondo, and Leon, but the rest of you guys took a little time getting to the crime scene. I mean, I’m assuming you, Yamada, and Yasuhiro are telling the truth about seeing each other and all, but…” Makoto scratched his cheek sheepishly.

Ishimaru chuckled and spread out his arms good-naturedly.

“Of course, Naegi-kun! Consider it done!”

Leon crossed his arms and looked at Naegi skeptically.

“Hey… what about Kirigiri? Anyone looking into her?”

“She, Sakura, and Mondo are searching the crime scene.” Maizono helpfully supplied. If any of the boys noticed she was a bit quick to defend Naegi, none of them commented on it. Though Leon was shooting Naegi an envious glance for half a second before he and Ishimaru departed. The idol turned back to Naegi, smiling pleasantly. “So, where do you want to go now?”

~*~

Naegi and Maizono's investigation proceeded rather... quickly, after they inspected Fukawa's room. Junko and Chihiro had already started examining it, so all they really needed was an update from them. As expected, nothing was amiss in Fukawa's room. There wasn't some mysterious note, or signs of a physical struggle. The room had been remarkably tidy, and gave no indication that Fukawa had returned there after her scuffle with Yamada.

Moreover, Fujisaki had confirmed she was in her room after breakfast, and that Sakura could confirm her alibi, having waved at her in the hall. When asked about Asahina, Fujisaki timidly answered she had been bouncing with energy and running laps in the halls... much to Ishimaru's ire.

Leaving Junko and Chihiro to the more detailed search of Fukawa's room, Sayaka mused about the culprit possibly destroying evidence, and so the two moved on to check out the incinerator and trash room, where Celes had been ruminating outside. Apparently, she had been thinking of going in to inspect the room herself, but as usual, her refined tastes made her reluctant to enter such a room. So, she left that investigation to the idol and Luckster, giving her account of where she was and what she had been doing after breakfast as compensation. Similar to Fujisaki, she'd gone off to her room, though she'd been among the first to leave breakfast, so her testimony wasn't... completely reliable or believable. If she'd decided to discreetly keep an eye on the halls, she could have killed Fukawa...

They did discover that to get to the incinerator, a key was needed, and there was always going to be one person who was in possession of that key on a weekly basis. The person with the key was supposed to gather all of the trash and dispose of it, and Yamada had been the first volunteer for that duty. Nothing seemed amiss around the incinerator, though, and Yamada opening up that area to inspect it himself bore no fruit either, as the machine was still cold.

So it was unlikely that the perp somehow disposed of evidence through there. Either they stored any leftover evidence in their room (and the crime scene), or there really wasn't any to be "found". Makoto was adamant they'd find something to go on, but Sayaka was beginning to wonder. From what they were hearing, there had been a number of people loitering in the halls, even if it wasn't for "long" periods of time. How did the killer maneuver around all that, kill Fukawa, and get her body to the laundry room? And why shove it in the washing machine of all things?

There were too many questions, and the trial was only getting closer.

"Honestly? Today seemed like a laundry day for a lot of people." Aoi muttered as she crossed her arms and tilted her head thoughtfully. Out of new leads to follow, Naegi and Sayaka had gone to the cafeteria to see if anyone was there. That's where they found the swimmer, looking all confused about everything. "Togami, Yamada, Mondo... me and Sakura... Yasuhiro... I even saw Fukawa with a load of laundry at some point!"

Naegi and Maizono both immediately latched onto this new information.

"Really? So she didn't stay in her room?" The Luckster queried. "Or was this before breakfast or something?"

Aoi shook her head.

"No, no. It was after. After me and Sakura were through with our laps and taking a break, I saw her coming out of her room carrying some of her dresses. She was still moody, and stayed as far from us as she could, but she went toward the laundry room, I'm sure of it."

The singer and Luckster shared a look.

"Then..." The dark-haired beauty said slowly. "Maybe she was killed in the laundry room?"

"She was carrying some of her dresses, though..." Naegi mused. "Then whose bedsheets got blood on them? The culprit's?"

"Togami and Mondo were doing their bedsheets." Asahina supplied helpfully. "I mean - Sakura was, too, but I was with her the whole time!"

"And Mondo was with Leon..." Naegi muttered. "That leaves Togami..."

"But Togami doesn't seem the type to leave evidence lying around haphazardly like that." Sayaka reasoned. "Even if it got blood on it, he would have folded it up and carried it like he hadn't done anything. We wouldn't have had reason to search his room."

"He did treat Fukawa like dirt, though..." Aoi looked sour. "I mean, he isn't friendly with anyone, but he was especially nasty to her!"

Makoto shook his head, frowning.

"It just doesn't add up. Even if he wanted out, he wouldn't aim for the person he 'obviously' despised. Not to mention how sloppy he would've been with the crime scene, if those were his bedsheets. It just seems like..."

Before Naegi could finish his train of thought, the school bell system rang out as Monokuma appeared on the monitor nearby.

"Ahem! I'm getting tired of waiting here... Let's get things started, shall we? It's the event you've all been waiting for... The Class Trial!! Without further ado, I'll now announce the rendezvous point! Please enter the red doors on the first floor of the school zone. Upupu, see you soooon!" With that farewell, the screen with Monokuma flickered off, and the three teens shared glances with one another.

"W-Well... I guess our time's up..." The idol smiled nervously.

Naegi rubbed his chin before turning to Aoi seriously.

"Hold on. I know you might not have seen everybody enter the laundry room itself, but can you give the list of people who you 'know' had laundry, one more time?"

The swimmer nodded shakily.

"Y-Yeah... Togami, Mondo, Yamada, me, Sakura, Yasuhiro, and Fukawa. Those are the ones I know, anyway..." Aoi's arms were crossed again, and she looked frustrated. "Do you think Celes could've had stuff, too?"

Naegi shook his head.

"There's no point speculating. We should... just get going, I guess." As he decided this, Aoi shrugged and left ahead of them, but Sayaka paused to look at Naegi's troubled expression.

"Is something wrong?"

Seeing the idol's concern, the Luckster rubbed the back of his head and chuckled weakly.

"No... Well... I hope not. Just a bad feeling, I guess. I don't wanna doubt anyone, but our lives are on the line here..." The brunet's mouth was set in a grim line, and his hands were clenched at his sides.

Without hesitation, Sayaka took his hands in her own.

"Neither of us, nor Junko, did it, Naegi-kun. And I'm sure we can put our faith in the others. If you have doubts, we'll clear them up in the trial, for sure!" The singer's smile was enough to snap Naegi out of his stupor. He gratefully returned her smile with a grin of his own.

"Y-Yeah... You're right. Let's solve this case, and get everyone out of this place alive!"

They had to. For Fukawa's sake as much as their own.

#Danganronpa #Makoto Naegi #Sayaka Maizono #Mukuro Ikusaba #Naegi x Sayaka #Makoto x Sayaka #Makoto x Mukuro #Naegi x Ikusaba #Naekusaba

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