Chapter Text
After being done with the preparations, the plan was ready to be prosecuted. But she needed to thank Souda for that since he was the one who fixed the video monitoring device. Their current situation made everything so easy for her which bummed her a bit but couldn't complain as she was standing in front Mioda's room.
She checked to see if there were any person around and slowly tip toed her way into the room while closing the door as silently as possible. İn there, a manic İbuki was sitting on the bed as if she was waiting for her to come and greeted her with lots of joy.
"Hellooooo." she shouted while repeatedly waving her hand at her.
"Hello, İbuki." she responded while preserving her composure.
"Say, would you be interested in joining me for a night walk?"
"Yes, ma'am!" she said obediently.
"Ok, but please lower your voice and whisper to me if you want to talk. We wouldn't want the others to wake up now, would we?" she warned.
She wasn't the type that was fond of giving orders but it was better to be cautious rather than being caught while she was luring her victim. İbuki nodded and seemed to have taken her caution pretty seriously.
"Wow, it was a lot more easier to persuade her than ı thought." she contemplated in her head. Whatever, it was more beneficial for her this way.
She then immediately pointed towards the door and instructed her to go towards the hall. She closed the door behind herself and commenced walking next to İbuki.
She checked her pockets one last time and felt a wave of relief after touching the thick rope while twirling it between her fingers. She also brought an extra knife in case her rope would tear apart. With all the annual check ups being done, the executing of the plan had finally started.
Hopes Peak Academy, Time:Unknown
Mikan was sobbing heavily and had already wasted 2 packets of tissues for it. She had tried to stop several times but her eyes refused to listen to her demand. Her fastened heart started pondering against her chest and it felt like it was about to break out of her ribcage at any moment.
She felt truly helpless and despicable for being like this and always end up getting hurt in continous attempts to gather attention to herself. But it wasn't her fault. Even if she wasn't doing these, she would just end up hurting more because of being neglected.
She always made herself believe the lie that abuse was better than negligence and stuck with that false belief just to survive in her cruel household. But as time passed, her heart wanted more and more attention yet her body was becoming more and more frail, making it impossible to bear the exacerbating abuse's consequences as her body had to deal with all the damage.
As she was busy regretting her life choices while burying her face between her legs, a cheerful voice started approaching the dorm's room. İt didn't take long for the owner of the voice to enter the room who was none other than the Ultimate Musician.
She was humming one of her recently composed songs in her hit album and was in a brilliant mood, at least until she noticed her former roommate and friend sobbing heavily. She hastily sat next to the troubled nurse and started to get worried.
"Hey, what's wrong Miki?" she said with a concerned voice.
Mikan looked towards İbuki but was quick to lower her head down again in shame. After seeing how unresponsive she was, İbuki held one of her hands since she knew it was comforting for her.
"Hey, it's okay. Let all your all your problems out to İbuki." Mikan sniffed her nose and frowned a bit more but finally regathered the courage to speak.
"I-ı" she stuttered while trying to form words at first but eventually got better at managing her symptoms.
"Some b-bullies threatened to hit me if ı didn't give them 50.000 yen by the end of this week. But ı barely have a thousand!"
İbuki felt shocked by how someone as sweet as Mikan got into so much trouble. She surely didn't deserve the harsh treatment she had received.
"That's horrible. Why did you get into so much debt? You can always borrow some money from me y'know."
"I-ı didn't borrow any money from them."
"Then why do they want money from you?"
"I t-treated them once and they started demanding money from me ever since then."
"WHAT!?" İbuki screamed in shock.
Mikan abruptly jumped out of bed because of fear and started shivering uncontrollably. İbuki noticed her mistake and spoke softly to reassure her cowering friend.
"I'm sorry, ı didn't mean to yell at you. I was just shocked by what you had said. But you need to speak to a teacher or to the vice principal about this! What you are suffering from is inexcusable and you better tell them or else İbuki will!"
She made her point very clear and was determined to bring justice to her dear friend. Mikan on the other hand stood up and walked towards İbuki in a rapid pace to prevent her from comitting such a heinous act.
"No no no. İbuki please don't do this! I am fine, you don't need to worry!"
İbuki furrowed her brows while gently pushing Mikan back to calm her down a bit.
"Mikan it doesn't matter if they have hurt you yet or not, what they are doing is illegal and some adult needs to know."
Just when she thought that her insistance was over, Mikan groveled down to İbuki's shoes and started begging perpetually.
"Please İbuki, don't please! I beg of you, you can do anything you want to me but p-please... not that."
İbuki sighed and gave up trying to overcome Mikan's pleads.
"Mikan, why don't you want them to get punished?"
"I-ı..."
İt took a while for her to find the right words to respond but luckily İbuki showed patience.
"I don't want them to hate me. They will never speak with me again if ı do that."
İbuki had so many thoughts roaming around her mind at that exact moment but decided to not dispute with her about how inaccurate her opinion was. Mikan's mood was already down and the time wasn't appropiate enough to discuss such substantial matters.
She carefully took Mikan by the chest and hardly lifted her up from her bent down position. Her sobbing was decreased but her paranoia was still very much visible to the eye. She had tried to assure Mikan that abuse was way worse than being neglected countless times before but it only resulted in huge failures. However this time, she was adamant about helping her and knew exactly how to negotiate with her.
"I promise, ı will make sure that they won't hate you. They will be better friends from now on!"
İt was a lie, a deception. But İbuki had no choice. İt would be so hard to convince Mikan the truth and the time wasn't enough. Besides, her intentions were pure so it wasn't that wrong to deceive her. İt was for her bestie's own good.
"Y-you sure? They won't hate me, right?"
Mikan was a bit soothed and her voice sounded a lot more mellow than the time she had arrived to see her bestie choking between her own tears. A warm smile spread through İbuki's face and she nodded to her question.
İbuki reached towards Mikan's face and wiped the last remaining tears on her cheeks. She calmly responded to her with a melodious sound which resembled the voices in lullabies. She scooted over while doing so and Mikan still remembered the exact same words she had used in that moment.
"Don't worry Miki. You'll see that everything will turn out to be perfectly fine. You should just relax and... confide in me."
Mikan and İbuki were walking through the empty halls of the hospital. Mikan was leading İbuki towards the emergency exit to avoid meeting with anyone along the way. The plan was going a lot more swiftly than she thought and she was glad to see that her worries were all just a bunch of nonsense.
Not that it would be a problem, failing would have been so despairing which wouldn't bother her at all. But she had a promise to keep and killing İbuki was a sacrifice she was willing to make for her beloved.
Tho her plan was later interrupted by an urge to eat and she could've gotten caught by Fuyuhiko and maybe... Hajime. That eerie feeling whenever she contemplated about him was awful, it wasn't even the type of pain that brought despair.
She shook her head and tried to shift her focus back to her mission. She checked her pockets for the last time to see if anything was missing and finally felt ready to do it.
"İbuki, hurry. We're almost there." she said under her breath while gesturing the way with her hands.
Yes, it was better for her to avoid him. He was detrimental to her plan and she wasn't thinking about betraying Junko anytime soon. She was the only one who had forgiven her. Sure, Hajime might've liked her "nice" self but he would never be able to stand her true personality. No one but her lover could.
İbuki was following Mikan and staring at her surroindings like a curious little duckling while also being surprised by literally everything she could see. She was now nothing but a hollow shell of her pre-despair self.
This should've been dreadful for Mikan, right? She was her best friend after all. Wrong. İnstead, she was using her as nothing more than a worthless fodder for her own selfish desires despite everything İbuki had done for her. Oh, such a lame excuse of a friend she was.
İt was obvious just by looking at her that she was a lousy and disgusting person inside and out. She deserved all the cigarettes that were put on her. She deserved every ridiculing she had received. She deserved what her daddy did to her on the bed that night. She deserved every punch that she had gotten. She deserved everything that Hiyoko had said to her. SHE. DESERVED. EVERY. F***İNG. BİT. OF. İT.
Now it all made sense. She understood why she was always alienated from the rest of the family, why no matter how many accomplishments she had achieved it would never be enough for them, why they never went easy on her, why they never bothered to help her in her time of need.
They all knew what she was bound to become and treated her accordingly to what she was. That's why her grandma stuffed her with "vitamin" pills when she was just in elemantary school. To prevent her becoming what she is now. A monster.
As thoughts were racing through her mind, she bumped to the door of the music vanue and snapped back from her thoughts. There next to her was İbuki looking at her as if she was waiting for her next command.
Even after witnessing Mikan grabbing a thick rope with a tight knot that had a hole approximately the same size as a human head, she couldn't get the hint. She was the literal epitome of the word gullible and this proved it.
"Come on İbuki, let's go in." she said while holding her head to help with the dizzinnes that appeared after hitting the closed entrance.
İbuki nodded and walked to the spot that Mikan ordered her to go. Mikan should had been guilty for what she was about to do, especially since they were best friends. But she didn't feel any shame nor sorrow, not even a modicum of it.
They might have had fun in the past but both of them changed. But unlike İbuki, Mikan wasn't only like this because of despair. She was broken even when she was just a kid. A part of her would always feel empty no matter how much attention she had received. She would've ended up in a bad path no matter what, at least she was loved here.
"Hold, this rope for me please."
She had finally found what she was searching for her entire life.
"Will sure do!"
And it was all thanks to Junko that she did.
"Go over to the other side of the stage and wait for me there."
İt was the least she could do for every insignificant problem that she put Junko through, especially accepting her existence and bearing with her stupidity.
"Okie dokie, captain!"
There was nothing left of her that was worth loving anyway. She was condemned to be either alone or to be with her.
"Wa'cha doin Miki?"
She had come way too far, she couldn't back up now.
"Oh, me? I just need to adjust this rope to your size for a second"
She had been reluctant for a long time but now... Nothing could revive that hesitation ever again.
"Ooooo, wa'cha doin?"
She knew this feeling too well.
"I'm just putting your head in the hole and ı need you to stay still while ı'm tying this rope around your neck."
Like the floor was collapsing.
"İs it a game?! I LOVE GAMES!"
Like the sky was falling down upon her.
"Please, calm down İbuki. You' re ruining it."
This feeling...
"I'm sowwwwy... I was just curious."
...Of despair.
"Don't worry about that. You'll see that it will all turn out to be perfectly fine. You should just relax and... confide in me."