Chapter Text
Flickering lights were all that she could see at that moment. Her head was aching, her heart was pounding and the inability to move made left her confused. Where was she? Was this real? Was any of these voices real? A loud sound appeared, it sounded like something was slowly lifting up. Too bad that she couldn't acknowledge what it was.
"Oh my, SOMEONE PLEASE HELP! SHE İS AWAKE!"
Lots of rapid footsteps were audible and coming near her. She concluded that there were more than one person around her but still didn't know why. She was dead, wasn't she? Was it a sick joke from Monokuma? Nothing made any sense and she just wanted to go away but knew that it wasn't possible in her current situation.
"That's impossible, according to my evaluations she wasn't supposed to wake up before tomorrow!"
"Someone, help her get out. We need to transfer her to the hospital right away!"
"Okay, calm down Mahiru. We got you, there's nothi...."
She fainted after the trauma that her body just went through. She couldn't remember anything. What happened? She wanted to know, she had to know. Not after a second passed, she woke up again but this time, everything around her was crystal clear.
Her eyes opened rather easily and she wanted to lift herself up but couldn't because of the weakness in her muscles. She started inspecting the room with her eyes while she was at it. She was laying in a bed which was tilted upwards a bit, just the perfect degree to allow blood circulation and to stimulate the muscles without making her uncomfortable thanks to Hajime's profession.
"Ughhhhhhhh"
The groan caught the attention of a rather familiar face who happened to be near the room at that time. She barged in with excitement and ran rapidly towards the patient bed before slowing down surprisingly fast, just in time to prevent a crash from happening.
"Tap of the morning to ya, how ya doing?"
Mahiru flinched a bit and turned towards the unwanted guest who invited herself in. She spent some seconds breathing heavily before managing to mutter some words although it was barely hearable to the person next to her.
"Akane, w-where is this.. place? What happened?"
"Oh, ya still don't know? Ahhh, sorry. I am not good with this whole explaining stuff. İt's kinda Hajime's thing. I am just here to greet you on your journey of healing!"
"H-healing?"
"Well mostly mentally but it can be physically too! Nekomaru and ı would love for a new fighting buddy, haha."
"I d-don't understand. I was dead! I am supposed to not be alive. What's going on here?"
"Oh boy, you have a lot of news to hear. Well, ı can't make you understand with my poor vocabulary buuuuut ı can swear to you that you are not dead. All of this is real! Hajime will hopefully tell you all the details soon... Anyways, enough about this. How are you?"
"I.... I feel sh*tty."
"Wow, haha. That was rather... abrupt. Talk about being honest, am ı right?"
Mahiru sulked and tilted her head down a bit. Akane finally took off the forced smile she had been wearing for some time upon seeing that it wasn't helpful at all and sat by the corner of the bed.
"You remember it, don't you?"
".... How can ı not?"
"You... you are right. My question was meaningless, wasn't it?"
"A bit... But not as much as our lives right now."
"I know. I wish ı could do something to help but... ı'm so weak despite having all these muscles. I' m sorry ı can't cheer you up."
"Don't be. You are not the one to blame."
"Well, ı'm going out to eat. Do ya want anything? I can bring some food if you want."
"That's thoughtful of you but ı can' t ask you to do that. The hospital food would be more than adequate during my time with this itchy tube going down my throat."
"Yeah, it's nasty ain't it? I was scratching it half of the day back then. İt gets better tho, don't worry."
"Well, thanks for the concern. Goodbye for now."
"Goodbye Mahiru, see ya later!"
They both waved hands at each other for a few seconds before Akane left the room. She initally planned to buy some food from the vending machine but the talk she just had with Mahiru totally ruined her appetite and she didn't feel like eating anymore. This problem appeared in the last few days ever since she had that talk with Sonia. Seeing her friends like that and being powerless to do anything for them... was a torment. What was she even good for if she wasn't the comedic center of the room? That was the only thing she was ever useful at... but now, she couldn't even do it anymore. She was just a waste of meat in here however didn't have the guts tell them about her thoughts as their situation wasn't any better to begin with. She just had to suck it up and go on with it for her loved ones' sake, just like she always did her whole life.
"Come on guys, hurry up! LET'S GET THİS MUSCLES İNTO WORK!"
Sonia was panting as well as Fuyuhiko. They were running nonstop for nearly 20 minutes and already toured the island twice because of their fast pace. Yet despite the poorly look of his classmates, Nekomaru wasn't even tired a bit and didn't seem like stopping their marathon anytime soon.
"N-nekomaru, please let's take a break. I am exhausted."
Nekomaru turned around to see his friends in the verge of collapsing onto the ground as their legs were shaking intensely. He laughed a bit at Sonia's request but still accepted it despite not undestanding how they would be exhausted by such an "easy" exercise.
"Alright, let's do it. But you guys are too weak for your own good."
"Weak!? We aren't weak, you are gigantic! Of course you would not be tired by all this muscles you are carrying!"
"I am not strong Fuyuhiko, ı am simply determined. After all, perseverance is the main quality of a great manager!"
"Wow, you are so strong Nekomaru! I wonder if you were ever weak in any time of your life at all."
"OF COURSE NOT! A MANAGER SHOULD ALWAYS PRESERVE THEİR POWER İN ORDER TO PROTECT THEİR CLİENTS AND OFFER THEM THE SERVİCE THEY DESERVE. ME BEİNG VULNERABLE İS ABSOLUTELY-"
Suddenly his heart skipped a beat for a milisecond but that time was more than enough to make Nekomaru aghast. He couldn't contemplate about anything and despite it being a temporary dysfunction, it triggered the worse in him.
"...out of the question."
His voice sounded lifeless and it caught the attention of his friends that were laying down next to him. He had a terrified face on him and they became extremely worried about his well being as he was giving them a lecture about resilience not even a minute ago.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Nekomaru, do you need help? Fuyuhiko and ı can call Hajime if you want."
"There's no need! I am fine. A manager should always be prepared for situations like this. I AM STRONG WİLLED AND LİKE A TANK, HAHA!"
"You didn't look like a "tank" a minute ago."
"We can call Hajime to help if you'd like. He's with Souda right now, they shouldn't be far from here."
"NO, THERE'S NO NEED! Really, ı am okay! Now, that ı think about it, you guys were right! We should take a break for now. Exercising nonstop for a long period is detrimental to the health, especially for beginners like you. I am going to leave you guys be and join you again in around 10 minutes."
"Alright... But please alert us if anything goes wrong."
"Thanks for your thoughtful behaviour Sonia. I can assure that you will be the first one to know if anything like that happens. Have a nice rest you two!"
Sonia smiled and waved to him while Fuyuhiko was laying on the sand with his eyes closed. He looked peaceful and relaxed which brought a small smile to Nekomaru's face but this feeling didn't last long as he was holding his hand on the area of his heart out of reflex. He quietly walked away to the nearest isolated space he could find and sat down to calm down.
His heart was pumping in it's regular healthy rythm and there wasn't anything that seemed wrong. Then why was he shivering and panicking as if he was about to die? Was he supposed to die? No, he was sturdy. He was like a steel, something that's strong and unbreakable. But was the almighty Nekomaru once vulnerable at some point? He remembered it very vividly even though it was a part of him that he chose to abondon, a part of him... that was frail.
İt was around noon when the door opened to the patients' room. The hospital's budget was limited so most of the rooms consisted of 4 seperate beds which were divided by curtains to allow some privacy between the sick. A little boy who was in 2nd grade was hospitalized for the 3rd time that month.
For others, it would have been a huge concern but for the members of the family it was just a casual visit to the hospital. İt wasn't any different than any other check up but... this time it wasn't for his biweekly examination.
He fainted in the middle of his gym class while running for warm up just like all the children in his class. Yet, he felt his heart ache more than usual and immediately blacked out after a few minutes. His mother was trying her best to be strong in front of her son but it was too much to handle, even for her.
She was a single mother that was trying to provide his son with the care he needed and wanted to see her child grow healthily just like any other mother out there. However, his condition was getting worse to the point that he became sick so easily yet almost every illness would land him in the ICU.
They went to countless amount of doctors and cardiologists to find a cure for his pain but every doctor said the same thing. That his condition was never going to get better and he was bound to take dozens of medicines every day just to survive. Her shoulders were already heavy by the burden of her child but the medical bills started piling up as well yet her budget never increased accordingly. As time went on, they started to get in debt and the only solution she could think of was to get a part time job.
İt alleviated her stress for a while but she ended up getting too tired after work and the only free times she had would be spent into taking care her son. She went through all this trouble just so her son would have a decent childhood but didn't know how much more she could enture this agonazing routine. As she was trying to get herself back together, the doctor entered the room and lifted the curtains and waved to his mom.
"Hello there, Mrs Nidai. I wish ı could say that ı was pleased to meet you but it seems that your son isn't well."
"Ah, hello! I assume that you are the doctor who looked at my son's EKG?"
"Well, yes. I also happened to take a look at his EKO and came here as fast as ı can."
"Um, is something the matter? Why did you hurry up? What's going on? WHAT'S HAPPENİNG TO MY SON?!"
"Mrs Nidai, these kind of sudden acts will only frighten your son. Please, calm down and sit. I will explain everything."
She couldn't say anything and sufficed with a nod. Her mind wasn't thinking clearly and she might panic his son just like the doctor said. She sat down and looked at him just like how he requested. The doctor analyzed the papers in front of him one last time before summing all the information up.
"I wish ı could tell you good news but ı am afraid your son's condition is getting worse."
"...."
"sigh.... Your son was born with a heart defect, correct?"
"Yes, his heart wasn't pumping in a healthy pace. He also had a small hole that closed later on in his life."
"I see, ı see..."
"....."
"....."
"Mrs. Nidai, ı am going to be honest with you. Your son's electrical stimulus is a mess. Compared to his EKG result a year ago, it has drastically detoriated in a matter of months. İf it keeps up like this, his heart may not be able to tolerate it."
"...What? B-but there is something we can do, right? Any medicine, syringes? Anything, please there must be something please ı beg of you. Please do something!"
"There are medicines but... they won't be very effective. Most they will do is increase his life span by a year or two."
"İ-isn't there any operations for him? He went through plenty of them already. There must be a suitable process, please there must be."
"We usually put a special kind of pills inside the heart in cases like this but your son's situation is different. He is an extremely rare case, so much that never in my 25 years in the field of medicine have ı witnessed an anomaly like this. His birth defect along with the other problems he currently posses makes him an uneligible candidate for this kind of process. İt's too risky, we shouldn't go through with it."
"But if we don't do anything than... No. NO! I don't want my son to die at an early age. I love my baby so much, please save him!"
"Even if his heart resists, his kidneys will not be able to endure this much pressure. They already show signs of visible damage, it's only a matter of time before they stop working completely."
".... How much more time does he have?"
"I can't say for sure but he would be lucky if he reached his 20th birthday."
".... There isn't anything that can save him?"
"There is one but... Look Mrs. Nidai, ı don't want you to cling onto such a weak hope. The only thing that can save your son is a heart transplant but there is a very low chance of it happening. Of course, that would be wonderful if you could find a match but if you can't, then you have to think about what you are going to do in the worst case scenario."
"Wh-what do you mean? What s-scenario?"
"İf your son can't find a suitable donor and ends up in the hospital again, what are you going to do?"
"O-of course ı am going to stick to the treatment the doctors prescripe him with!"
"What if his heart stops?"
"I-ı.. T-that won't happen. He isn't that bad, right? He is going to get better, RİGHT?!"
"Mrs, please calm down. This is just a hypothetical question. İt doesn't mean that it will happen to him but you should at least know what to do if it were to become your reality. İt will relieve you of the burden of contemplating about a life changing decision during your time of grief."
"..... What do you want?"
"I know ı ask too much but ı... You should consider signing a DNR for your son."
"N-no, ı can't. Please, don't ask me to do this."
"Miss, you can't run away from the truth. İt's nearly impossible for him to lead a decent life without having a new heart."
"No, please. I don't want him to die. I need him, he is my world. I can't... hic hic.... I can't lose him..."
"I.... I know how it feels, having to choose between such horrible things. No parent should ever have to give up on their child. But if you try to keep him alive, he will just end up being bed ridden while going in and out of hospitals his whole life. İs this the future you want for him?"
"........"
"Mrs. Nidai, don't let your emotions get the better of you. Don't put him through all this pain just so you would spend more time with him. İf you truly love him..... then you would do anything to make him happy, even if it meant that you wouldn't see him anymore."
"........"
"Do it for him, Mrs. Nidai. Do it so that he may be released from this perpetual cycle of pain and suffering."
"hic hic hic"
His mom's eyes were swollen and red by that time and couldn't say anything to refute his point. Even though the things he said were harsh, she knew deep down that it was true. His son was always suffering whether at school or in his home. Some of his classmates would make fun of him and tell him that even their 85 year grandpas would last more in a jog than him. Nekomaru would try not to reflect his emotions to his mother but she could see that they were upsetting him. He didn't deserve all this just so she could spend more time with him. İt was time... to let him go.
"O-ok, ı will do it."
She turned to her unconscious son that was sleeping on the bed. She approached him and gave him several kisses on the forehead while tears were running down her cheeks. She knew the news of his health was never going to get any easier soon but it was better than to enforce her desires on him. She caressed his cheeks and couldn't help kissing him a few times more.
"İt will be okay my precious... Everything's... hic hic... going to be okay. Mommy's here."
After whispering those words to him, she got all emotional again and began crying her heart out. The little boy she raised for 8 years was slipping away from her. İt was never going to be the same for her but... it was going to get better.
That's why Nekomaru always wanted to be strong, so that one day he could guide and help out people like his mother. He was fed up with being vulnerable and sick, he wished to return the favor to her mother after doing everything she could to raise him.
He also had a friend named Daisuke who wished to become a manager one day. His determination would always leave Nekomaru in awe and decided then and there that he wanted to be a manager one day too. Guiding other people with his wisdom and giving them the support to achieve their dreams was his motto. Even after his comrade died and he miracilously found a donor, he never forgot about the moments he had shared with his first ever friend.
He was healthy and strong, nothing like his old self. He became more and more powerful by the day and refused to look back ever since. But with the little dysfunction his heart went through in there, all his locked up memories started floating up to the surface. Was he going to reverse back? Was despair... going to be his end?
"... I'm sorry, ı couldn't be the son you deserved, mother."
"İt was a wonderful idea to navigate around the island, Sagishi! The atmosphere here is beatiful and there isn't any dust in the air like in Japan."
"I'm glad you found the place spectacular, Ryota."
"Oh, be careful! Your legs are still a bit weak, you shouldn't tire them out."
"Don't worry about me, ı am not the one working day and night just to satisfy our needs."
"Come on, ı am not THAT helpful."
"You are literally checking up on us at 6 a.m. in the morning, there's no doubt that you are working too much."
"That's the least ı can do for you guys. We never had the chance to properly bond as ı always made you go to class for me."
"But you don't need to look at us once every few hours to spend time with us."
Ryota looked down for a bit as he couldn't think of any way to respond to this. Sagishi had a lot of experience with Ryota and knew that something about him felt off. He would always try to avoid people because of his social anxiety. There must have been a strong reason for him to attempt being an extrovert like this.
"Ryota, that can't be the case. You're hiding something from me, aren't you?"
"....."
"Ryota, ı am serious. We are not leaving until you tell me what's wrong."
"I...I am sorry, Sagishi. I am sorry for everything."
"What are you talking about? You didn't do anything wrong."
"I didn't do anything wrong?! I DİD EVERYTHİNG WRONG! I am the reason that video was made, ı am the reason you guys' lives are ruined, ı am the reason you are criminals. İt's all my fault!"
As Ryota was busy being miserable, İmposter was trying to let the whole situation just sink in. He envisioned that he would carry some kind of guilt for making him go to school instead of himself but didn't was baffled by the fact that he carried all the fault of the tragedy on his bare shoulders. No one deserved to go through such guilt, especially not him.
He carefully got closer and pulled the anxious thin boy into a well deserved hug. They both stood there in the same position for around 5 minutes without neither of them bothering to make a move. Sagishi decided to change that after seeing Ryota weeping silently while trying to cover his face to avert İmposter from seeing his face.
"Ryota, look. I don't know what others told you but it... This whole thing isn't your fault. You couldn't have known about her intentions nor were you responsible of keeping an eye on environmental threats all the time. You were just a student like us, it could be one of us as well."
"But still... I should have known better. Millions of people died because of my stupidity."
"Ryota, if there is anyone to blame for all this, it's Junko. She was the one who planned all this and took advantage of your good intentions. Besides, you suffered as much as all of us, maybe even more. Seeing all these horrible events unfold while being fully conscious... I can't even imagine the pain you had to go through."
"Maybe, you're right. Maybe it wasn't all my fault. But it doesn't change the fact that ı want to help you guys! I want to be there for all of you somehow."
"Oh, Ryota. Nobody prevents you from doing so but there is a thin line between helping others and dedicating your entire existence to them. You're free to help but know that you're NOT responsible of looking after us. You get to have breaks when the necessary times come."
"I guess you're right. I was just so overwhelmed with this imaginary task ı gave myself that ı failed to notice the most important reason ı came here."
"What's that?"
"To be your friend. To compensate for the absence of my high school years. I want to have fun with all of you."
"Well, ı'm happy that ı helped you realize that."
They smiled at each other and a small giggle escaped from Ryota' s lips. Spending time with İmposter were always a relaxing activity. He never got to meet the real Sagishi before and this caused Ryota to have an interest in him. Sagishi took a look at Ryota and gasped.
"Ryota, what is this!? You're basically skin and bones, we have to get you something to eat."
"You won't let me go if ı try to disobey, right?"
"Most certainly, we will not dispute about this. We are going to the restaurant now."
Even though Ryota knew he had good intentions, the way he put it made him a bit scared of the possible outcome but his anxiety suddenly went away after seeing his face. Sagishi was quick to grab him in his arms and started running slowly to their destination. Maybe, nothing was going to be bad. Hajime was already working the best way he could to prevent any threats from emerging. Everyone was friendly and helped each other in the best of their abilities.
Nothing could go wrong... right?