Chapter Text
The cold feeling of the collar closing around her neck.
The breath leaving her body, her attempts to breathe futile.
The tone-deaf, stilted melody, played with her dangling body.
The dull pain of the stones hitting her everywhere, bruising her, breaking her.
The sickening crack of her ankles breaking, then her waist, then her neck.
The world fading away as the spiked lid fell upon her.
Then darkness.
When Kaede regained consciousness, she was sitting in a large, comfy velvet armchair. The first thing she noticed that it didn’t hurt anymore. All her injuries had disappeared, her skin completely unblemished and her bones unbroken. Sitting up in the chair, Kaede surveyed her radically changed surroundings. She was in a spacious room with a scattering of tables here and there, with armchairs similar to the one she was in surrounding each table. The floor was polished mahogany, and the walls lined with towering marble pillars were punctuated by curtained Gothic-style windows through which light filtered through. It was clearly some sort of hall, one meant to accommodate many – possibly for parties or get-togethers – but currently, Kaede seemed to be its only occupant. But what drew her attention wasn’t the furniture.
On one side of the room, sitting in a central stage area which was brighter than the rest of the room despite the lack of any visible spotlights, was a majestic grand piano. While a small part of her mind worried that it was another death trap set up by Monokuma and his band of bears, Kaede slowly rose from her seat and walked towards it as if by instinct. Up close she could see that the piano was no ordinary instrument – it was completely free of dust and polished to perfection, so much that her reflection glowed faintly on its glimmering marble-white surface. The bench was lined with the same deep red velvet as the armchairs, with intricate detail sculpted on all four legs. To her fascination, it was also slightly pushed back, as if beckoning her to sit on it. Kaede took the offer of the mysterious instrument and took her place before the keys. There was no score, but she did not need one, as she knew what piece she wanted to play within her heart. She opened the lid, and began to play.
Each key was tuned to exactly the note it should make, with just the right amount of give beneath her skilled fingers. To Kaede, the experience was liberating. It was as if some mighty being were washing away her pains and her sorrows one by one, until all that was left was her and the music. She almost felt bad that the piece she chose was too short, and had almost decided to play another one before another sound caught her attention. Someone was clapping to her performance. Apparently her assumption that she was alone in the hall was wrong, as she soon discovered that she had an audience of one. A man wearing a white dress shirt, sitting in an armchair in front of a table, was the source of the applause. More out of politeness than anything, Kaede stood up for a slight bow. When she did, however, the man beckoned her to come over. Uneasily, she took a step.
“Have a seat,” said the mysterious man, offering her the armchair opposite from him. She took it. The man leaned forward in eagerness.
“Debussy’s music is always the best, isn’t it? I enjoyed your performance quite a bit – it’s not often that someone comes around here, and much less so the Ultimate Pianist! Why, I’m honored to bear witness to such magnificent music!”
Kaede’s curiosity and unease at the whole situation, momentarily relegated to the background during her experience with the piano, chose to spill over the moment the man was finished.
“Where am I? Who are you? What am I doing here? Why am I here? How do you know who I am?”
The man merely smiled serenely (or, at least she thought he did – his facial features would conceal themselves in some sort of staticky haze any time she tried to actually focus on them), and offered her a cup of tea. It, like the man himself, had completely escaped her attention until the moment he offered it.
“I’ve heard you like chamomile. As for your questions, I’ll try to answer them to the best of my abilities. So please rest a bit while you try to make sense of my words.”
Kaede, seeing no other option, agreed and sank into her chair with the teacup. The man likewise reclined into his own chair and began to explain.
“I’m afraid I can’t really tell you where you are right now. This room is kind of separated from the rest of spacetime – it’s nowhere, and everywhere at the same time. I know you because it’s what I do, and also because you have died, and were able to find this room.”
“I died. I know that. But how can I be here if I’m dead? How did I find this room? Is this Heaven? Are you God?”
“No, Akamatsu-san. I wouldn’t be so presumptuous to call myself in such a name, and this is not Heaven. This room is a crossroad of sorts between life and death, and I’m its keeper and custodian. Ordinary people never even glimpse this room even when they die, but some – including you – come here.”
“What makes me so special?”
“That you have something anchoring you back at the living world, keeping you from passing on completely. Something clamoring you to come back. A force even stronger than the gravity which balances the universe, or the nuclear force that holds protons and neutrons together. A force that travels faster than the finite speed of light and transcends all physical boundaries and limitations, even life and death. That, my dear, is the Ariadne’s string that tethers you back there. I’ll say that it’s actually quite stronger in you than anyone I’ve seen recently.”
Kaede wasn’t getting it. The gist seemed to be that part of her was stuck back on the real world, which prevented her from completely dying, because something there was holding her back. But something kept gnawing away on her mind, slowly eating away a hole that was steadily growing larger.
“Why’d anyone want me back?”
The man laughed heartily as if she’d just made a particularly funny joke. “Why? Akamatsu-san, you are easily the best person I’ve ever met in my time, and I’ve spent a lot of time here. If anyone deserves such a strong connection, it’s certainly you.”
Kaede’s mind, however, had started down on a long cycle of self-deprecation.
“I don’t deserve this.”
The man halted in his motion of lifting his teacup to his mouth, slowly and gently setting it back down. He shifted in his seat uneasily.
“I’m pretty sure you do. You wouldn’t have shown up here if you didn’t. This room has its standards, you know!”
Terrible recollections resurfaced like a swarm of piranhas eating away at her soul. Kaede buried her face in her hands, clawing at her own face to keep the memories away, but the sight of Amami - lying on the ground with his head smashed open, cold, dead, murdered by her own hands - refused to budge from her mind whatever she did.
Before she could vocalize her thoughts, however, the man rose from his chair after a quick glance at his wristwatch. (Had he been wearing it when he first appeared? Kaede had trouble remembering.) “We’ve spent a bit too much time talking,” the man declared as he beckoned Kaede to stand. “and it’s time for you to make the choice.”
Some of the strength had returned to Kaede’s limbs, and she found it in herself to look up at him and ask, “What choice?”
The man led her in a brisk walk from their table to another side of the hall. Their destination was an ornately decorated bronze door set into the middle of the wall. Hundreds, no, thousands of small bronze figures decorated each and every square centimeter, in a variety of shapes and sizes. It almost seemed as if they were alive – they seemed to move animatedly whenever she wasn’t looking, only to freeze in their places whenever she focused on them. Just as she was trying her best to side-eye a particular figurine hoping to see it move, the man’s voice jarred her back into reality (if the situation she was in could even be called reality, anyway.)
“This door is your choice. It can lead to anywhere – your will is the power that can anchor it to a certain point in spacetime. You could choose to sever your ties with life altogether and pass on to the true afterlife, which I’m sure will treat you well, or you could choose to go back to the world of the living and try a new hand at life – anywhere you want to be. Give it good thought before you go through.”
Kaede’s sense of suspicion, well-honed from participating in an actual killing game by the most nefarious of foes, reared its head. “There’s got to be a catch.”
The man took a step back, leaving only her facing the door. “There isn’t, though I’d advise not to spend too much time deciding. Time flows differently in here, and an hour here is much more than that in the real world.” He glanced at his wristwatch again. “And for your information, you have been here for about... forty minutes.”
But the warning was unnecessary, as Kaede had had enough of the whole Killing Game. Return to life, for what? Another shot at trying to murder her friends for her own survival, or even getting killed by one of them? Plus, there was no knowing what trick Monokuma might pull to keep her dead, which would render any point in returning moot. No thank you, she thought, and reached for the door. The decision was simple...
Or was it? Her hand hesitated midway to the doorknob, hovering awkwardly in midair. Something, or someone, was calling out to her from the back of her mind. Kaede took a moment to focus and listen to the voice in her mind. Its voice was so small, tinier than the lightest note that she had to strain to pick up what she was hearing. yet so fragile and heartbreaking that no person alive or dead could resist it. After what seemed to be both moments and eternity simultaneously, she could finally hear what it was saying.
I’m nothing without you.
I can’t go on without you.
I’m sorry I couldn’t keep you safe.
I miss you.
I need you.
Shuichi.
Thinking of him made fresh tears well up inside of her, threatening to spill over her eyelids once again. They had certainly shared something, something akin to a close bond, but she had ruined it by using his trust against him. Still, even though she thought Shuichi would never want to see her again, she missed him very much. At least, she decided, even if returning could put herself in peril once more, she would tell him what she truly felt about him – and apologize for betraying the faith he held in her. That alone could make the sojourn worth it. That moment, Kaede made her choice.
Before she went through the door, however, she turned to face the man one last time.
“Can... can you do me a favor?”
The man gestured for her to go ahead. Strangely, everything in the room – and even the man himself – seemed to be dissolving away, fading into a white light that seemed to come from the very space itself.
“My friends... they’re still trapped in that academy. More of them are going to die. Can you promise me that you’ll give them the same chance you gave me?”
The man, again, smiled. “That is what makes you worthy, Akamatsu-san. You care for others despite the hardships you face yourself. But don’t you worry about that any longer – if they deserve to find this room, they will find this room with no exception. Now I must bid you farewell, however, and I certainly hope you enjoy the life that awaits beyond your choice.”
With that, the man turned and walked away into the light that had consumed the entirety of the room except for the door, eventually vanishing into the glow. Now the furniture and the windows and even the floor had vanished into the glow, leaving only her and the door in an endless white void. Kaede also turned, and opened the door in front of her. After a moment of calming her breath, she stepped through.
The other end of the door was an unfamiliar room. It seemed to be nighttime, as the single window in the room was dark except for a small trace of moonlight. For a moment Kaede thought there she had made a mistake until she saw a frail silhouette on a chair, sitting by a desk on the other side of the room. It didn’t take her a second to recognize it as Shuichi. However, despite seeing her dear friend mere feet away, Kaede wasn’t quite sure about what to say. Resurrection certainly wasn’t an everyday occurrence, and she couldn’t exactly search the Web for ‘what to say to best friend after returning from death’, either. Hesitatingly, she took a step towards him.
“Saihara-kun?”
His reaction, however, was beyond anything she expected. On hearing her voice, the detective almost jumped from his seat and curled himself into a ball on his chair, cowering away from her.
“No, no, please... I’m sorry, Akamatsu-san, don’t do this to me...”
“Saihara-kun!”
The second attempt only got him to curl up tighter and plug his hands with his ears, squeezing his eyes shut and raising his voice into a shrill, panicked scream.
“No! Please! I’m sorry, I’m so sorry I couldn’t do anything, please don’t do this to me! Just leave me alone... please...”
During their (admittedly short) time together, she had never seen Shuichi look so broken, so... fragile. It broke her heart to see the detective reduced to this shattered mess she saw before her.
“Saihara-kun, listen to me!”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, I should’ve done a better job, it’s all my fault! So please just go away pleasejustgoawaypleasejustgoaway!”
His tone was full of fear, of absolute grief that Kaede felt her heart wrench at the sight. The pianist, however, wasn’t going to back down just yet. Taking another step, she reached out to the trembling detective and gently pried his hands off his ears. A violent tremor went through his shaking form at the touch.
“Shuichi!”
The mention of his given name sent another jolt through his body.
“Shuichi. Look at me.” She gently took his face in her hands and coaxed it towards her, “You did a great job, and you certainly don’t need to apologize to me. You did the best you could do.”
Finally, Shuichi turned to look at her in the face. Up close Kaede could see Shuichi was truly a pitiful sight – the dark bags under his bloodshot eyes indicated he hadn’t slept for at least a few days. He stammered out, “I... I couldn’t save you. I failed, to protect you. You died... because of me. I’m s-”
“Shhhh. You did your best. I’m here with you now. and I’m never going to leave your side ever again.”
She wrapped the still-trembling boy in a warm, genuine hug, feeling his heartbeat through her skin. The beating was still fast and agitated, but it was beginning to slow down gradually. Kaede stayed still, wordlessly pouring her emotions into him, until finally Shuichi’s heartbeat fell into a steady rhythm and he fell asleep within her arms. Giving the slumbering detective a small smile, she gently laid him down on his bed.
“I’m never going to leave you alone again,” she whispered in his ear.
She stayed next to him throughout the night, until the sunshine of a new day filtered through the window and bathed the room in its warm glow.