Chapter Text
A glimmer. There was a glimmer of light. Soft and dim, yet there wasn’t any warmth in this light.
Cold. Everything that he was–the glimmer, his form, his being–everything, were nothing more than flickering fragments of light and regret. That was all his existence amounted to. A useless form without shape or purpose.
As his mind flickered to life, he remembered a face. One not quite his own, like a reflection of a life he never had. Dark hair that shimmered purple, eyes the color of lilac, and skin a pale, sickly ivory that contrasted against the dark gray surrounding him. There was no semblance of color in the face that mirrored his own, nothing to indicate that the mirror image he was staring at was even alive. Even the smile seemed forced.
Was he alive? Apparently yes, as his eyes blinked and welled with tears.
Why was he crying?
He remembered his own form moving. With purpose, with reason, now laying beside the boy with lilac eyes. The other’s lips parted and moved, but he could only remember fragments of the words he said.
One thing, one thing among the broken words managed to stick out to him and his shapeless form, loud and clear.
“Could you at least pretend to forgive me?”
Everything else faded into the darkness. Did he even respond? There was a warm sensation in his hand. It felt foreign, outside of himself, but the echoes were fading. The light flickered, and the memory flickered with it. His mind felt like shattered glass, and he was trying to pick up the pieces to paint a clear picture.
And then, there was nothing. No light, no sound. No form, no voice, no memory. There was nothing to his existence. Where was he? What was he? Who was he?
Another glimmer of light appeared before him. This one was stronger, warm and bright and beckoning. As he moved closer, the fog in his mind started to lift, and he came to the realization that the light he saw was his very existence.
He extended out a hand, a hand that belonged to no one, to take a hold of the life he once held.
As the darkness faded and light burst all around him, he remembered who he was. Everything surged through him all at once, and the light grew so bright in his hands that it had started to blind him.
Among the chaos of his being, he heard a voice. A voice, calling out to him. A voice he started to move towards, through thick air, as if the gravity of the earth wanted to pull him under.
No, not this time. With the force of sheer willpower, he ran towards the voice. There was a loud, mechanical hum coming from behind him, something that made him cry out with terror and desperately try to run faster. As he did, a piece of his light broke off and flickered away. Memories, a fragment of his memories were gone, and as the void swallowed the light whole, he couldn’t even remember what he was running from–and whatever it was, it roared behind him, just as ear piercing as it was mechanical.
Soon, the hum and roar died down, and the voice grew louder. Louder, louder, until it sounded like the voice was right in front of him. When he reached out again, he was consumed by darkness and felt a barrier in between himself and the other. There was no light, no matter how many times he blinked. Now he was confined in a small space with nowhere to go.
"Hello?"
There was a voice just outside of his prison.
“Is anyone there…?”
He needed to get out.
“Hello…?”
He needed to get out.
The thought drew out a soft gasp from his lungs, and he started struggling. As he struggled and pushed, the door of the locker he was trapped in flew open, and with a loud yelp, he stumbled out and fell to the ground.
“K-Kurochi!”
Dazed, Kurochi didn’t immediately answer the other, even as he rushed to his side. He groaned, shaking his head as if that would expel the fog that crept up from the impact. Had he hit his head that hard on the ground? He had thought he’d fallen onto his arms, his elbows surely scraped from his tumble, but his head was throbbing.
“Rochi–” Suddenly, there was a hand on Kurochi’s shoulder. “Are you okay? Rochi? Are you hurt?”
Looking up at the other, Kurochi’s eyes met with a face that mirrored his own. Lilac eyes, messy dark hair that glimmered purple in the light, pale skin. Twin. His identical, baby twin brother.
“Ah, Kokichi!” A strong sense of relief settled in his chest. Maybe it wasn’t right to feel relieved to find that his brother was in this situation with him, but he couldn’t help it. The thought that he might’ve been alone in this unfamiliar place for unknown reasons was a daunting prospect.
Upon Kokichi’s question, Kurochi took stock of himself. Aside from the tumble out of the locker and a splitting headache, he couldn’t identify anything else wrong with him. He gave his brother a sheepish smile. “No, I’m good. I’m okay. What about you? Are you hurt or anything?”
"No, I'm fine..." Kokichi said, though soon, he was smiling too. "Well... aside from the headache I have from falling on my face." It was a small joke, something to help ease the tension and that made Kurochi snicker. Well, that put them in the same boat.
The brief moment of cheer vanished, however, once Kurochi looked around the room. “Where are we? A classroom? We’re in some school?” His mouth twisted in a frown. “… How did we end up here?”
"Beats me… What's with this place?" Kokichi looked at the windows, frowning. "Why is there barbed wire on the windows? Are we... trapped here?"
Trapped... his chest tightened at the thought. Brought to this place only to be locked inside. He had the urge to run to the classroom door to see if it would open, but he stomped it down. As much as he wanted to, they couldn’t act rashly. Not before they knew just what kind of situation they were in.
Kokichi then turned to him, his eyes alert and focused. "Kurochi, what's the last thing you remember? Do you remember anything?"
“I.... it’s really fuzzy.” Kurochi placed a hand to the side of his head, wracking his brain. “I was...” He heard a dull roaring in his ears, drowning out the sound of his own voice as he mumbled the memory as it came to him. “… Walking. I was walking and someone... they grabbed me and pulled me into this car.” Kurochi wrapped his arms around himself. “I-I don’t remember much else. I think I had a weird dream, though.”
“Weird dream, huh?” Kokichi brought a curled fist to his lips, lost in thought. “Probably from whatever they used on us to knock us out. I remember being taken, too. I was right behind you...” Kokichi’s brows furrowed. “After they pulled you into the car, they got me, too... I tried to call out for help, but no one seemed to give two shits about us at all." Kokichi gritted his teeth. "What a rotten world."
Taken right off the streets, and no one batted an eye. How depressing. Anything could’ve happened to them, and the world didn’t even care.
Kokichi stood, and offered a hand to him to help him up. "Well. We're just gonna have to play this by ear for now, right? There's nothing we can't do as long as we stick together." Kokichi smiled, but Kurochi knew it was forced. "Besides, sitting here's not gonna do us any good. We need to look for an exit."
Kurochi did his best to return Kokichi’s smile as he took his hand, and hoisted himself onto his own two feet. “Yeah, first thing’s first. Let’s see what we can find.”
"Yeah. Stay close, okay?" Kokichi’s hand was shaking, so subtly that you wouldn’t be able to tell just from looking at it. Kurochi could tell he was nervous, scared even, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.
He didn’t dare call him out on it, though, and only forced out a smile he could only hope was reassuring. “Right.”
As he followed after his brother on his own shaky legs, Kurochi refused to let go of his brother’s hand just as much as Kokichi wouldn’t release his. It was a childish habit they had, one they never truly outgrew, but it was comforting to them both.
"This is a really run-down school. Like, really run down...” Kokichi muttered. “Can you think of any abandoned schools in Japan? I can't think of any."
Kurochi took a good look at their surroundings. He tried to think about any abandoned schools in Japan that they might be in, but none came to mind. “No... I can’t either.” His frown deepened. “Why would we be brought to a school? And just... left in the lockers like that?”
"Hmm..." Kokichi's own frown deepened as well as he glanced around. "I don't know. I think... maybe they wanted us to escape the classroom. I don't know why, but it doesn't make sense otherwise."
“But, why…?”
The question was rhetorical, and Kokichi didn’t bother to try to answer it. They both were in the dark as much as the other, unaware of their situation and surroundings. It was a terrifying place to be in.
“Well, if this is a school, then there should be an entrance.” Kurochi broke the silence, hoping to dispel the tension. “It can’t be too hard to find...”
At the mention of the exit, Kokichi's grip on his hand tightened. "... Yeah. There's got to be an entrance around here. Look for an exit–or, maybe stairs that could lead towards one."
Things fell silent between them as they continued, the sounds of their footsteps echoing down the empty hallways. The hallways of a school, abandoned with barbed wire over the windows. The two of them stuffed into lockers, their memories of how they got there fuzzy. And yet the doors had been unlocked and they left the classroom easily.
Why? Why was all of this happening? Why were they here?
The only thing that kept Kurochi from falling into panic was perhaps Kokichi’s hand holding his, tight and warm, helping him to continue moving forward. “If we just keep following the walls, we’ll find an exit eventually. Shouldn’t be too hard,” he said, looking over his shoulder, half-expecting someone to be there. The thought made him shudder–he wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.
"Hmm, that's a good idea actually," Kokichi turned around to glance at his brother with a smile. "Let's follow the walls with windows. That should do it, right?" Kokichi had said that just as they turned the corner, and the sight beyond it alone made them both freeze with terror. There was a giant machine, facing away from them. It looked like some kind of monster, a robot right out of a sci-fi movie.
Fear petrified him, and Kurochi sucked in a quiet breath. His grip on his brother’s hand tightened, teeth gritted hard to keep himself from making a sound and alert the robot to their presence. He couldn’t breathe, the air freezing solid in his lungs. Kokichi began to move backwards. Kurochi mirrored the steps, each one shaking and difficult. Not even two steps in and Kurochi’s heel got caught on some debris, and he tripped with a loud yelp.
He didn’t fall, thanks to Kokichi’s grip on him, but that was only a small blessing when Kurochi realized the monster was turning around.
"Hey! There you are, you bastards!" A feminine voice came from the robot. “I’ve been looking all over for you!”
“Run,” Kokichi breathed, but Kurochi couldn’t respond. He was too petrified, shaking and eyes wide. Though before another moment passed, Kokichi grabbed his wrist and started sprinting in the opposite direction. “Rochi, run!”
"H-hey, wait...! Don’t run away, you’re only going to make this more difficult than it has to be!"
All Kurochi heard after that was a loud, mechanical roar. Terror raced through his mind as he sprinted alongside his brother, desperate to not drag him down with how tight Kokichi’s grip was on his wrist. It really was like something straight out of a horror sci-fi movie, like a piece of a fictional world broke off and into reality.
A huge, terrifying machine, following close behind them. Kurochi nearly stumbled when they found and rushed down the stairs, and his heart froze in fear. Somehow he kept his footing, and didn’t bring both him and his brother crashing down to their deaths on the stairway.
The floor they reached was overgrown with plants and grass, like some place that had been abandoned for a long time. There was little time to ponder that, however–he hoped that the thing chasing them couldn’t run down the stairs after them, but he didn’t want to test their luck. “D… doors,” he gasped out, spotting a pair of them at the end of one of the turns. Someplace for them to duck into, and hopefully the big machine couldn’t follow them in.
Kokichi’s eyes fell on them, and they both sprinted towards them. Soon, they threw the doors open, and they were in a room that looked like some sort of gymnasium. Even stranger still, was that the gymnasium was full of other breathless, terrified-looking students.
When they all turned to face them, it was clear–they were all terrified and lost, out of breath and even wheezing from exertion. With so many people, all of them now staring at him and his brother, Kurochi felt like he was going to be sick.
So many people, so many students, all trapped with the horrifying realization that all of their lives were in grave danger.
“Ohhh… More people have arrived.” A brown girl with white hair exclaimed.
Kokichi turned to her and blinked. “More… people?” Kokichi and Kurochi glanced around, frowning at the other people they saw in the gym.
Kurochi watched them as they stared at the twins, or muttered to one another so quietly that he couldn’t hear what they were saying.
“Hey… what’s going on here?” Kokichi asked, and Kurochi felt Kokichi’s grip on his hand tightened.
Something felt off. Kurochi knew, something felt so off, so familiar about these faces, about this situation, about everything that had been happening–
“Were you chased by those monsters?” A girl with short red hair asked, trembling and whimpering as she wiped stray tears from her eyes. “Th-they... they chased us here, too…”
“What… are they?” A deep voice cut through the crowd, and Kurochi took a moment to realize it was the shortest student who had spoken, one that clearly had dwarfism from how small he was. “What do they want with us?”
Kokichi turned his head towards the doors he and Kurochi had entered through, brows furrowed. Much to Kurochi’s dismay, Kokichi withdrew his hand from his wrist and took a step forward.
“H-hey! What do you think you’re doing?!” A feminine, powerful voice called out to him, and Kokichi turned to the girl with long black hair that was tied up in some sort of twin braids.
Glancing her over, Kokichi only frowned. “Checking things out, those monsters might be nearby–”
“You can’t!” She interrupted. “It’s too dangerous!”
The assertion that it was too dangerous to go out and check sent a chill down Kurochi’s spine. He shifted uneasily. “Maybe we should stay here for now,” Kurochi said, eyes darting between his brother and the doors they’d come through. If nothing else, just to give the monster a chance to move off, since they evidently inclined on coming into the gym. He didn’t want Kokichi to go out and get hurt if they’d found a safe place to hide.
“W-wait, wait! Hold on!” one of the girls, the one with blonde hair and pink eyes, spoke up, her voice cutting across the room. “Who even are you guys? Why am I here–?”
“There’s seventeen of us.”
“What?” The girl turned her attention to who had spoken, a guy with green hair standing with his arms crossed as he surveyed the room. Which was right; Kurochi didn’t understand what that had to do with the very valid question of who the rest of them were, and why they were here. Not just in the gym, although he didn’t understand how the monsters could’ve chased them all into one place, but the school itself.
Had they all been kidnapped? How? Who would’ve done this?
“There are seventeen of us, all students,” the guy said, as if repeating it clarified his intentions any.
“What’s that supposed to mean…?” Kurochi murmured, mostly to himself. Other than the fact that it was suspicious that students–teenagers all around the same age apparently–had all been kidnapped and rounded up in the same area.
“Seventeen…?” Kokichi repeated, and Kurochi glanced over to him to see him doing a quick head count. He blinked. “I guess there are...”
“We should wait and see if there are any others,” A guy with blue eyes and white hair muttered. His hat was hiding a good portion of his face. “There could be more…”
“I-if there is more, then maybe I should go look for them?” Another male voice called out, coming from the tallest one among them. Kurochi thought that he might be a bodybuilder, with how muscular he looked. “I can bring them here safely!”
“Like I said, it’s too dangerous!” The girl with braids cried out again. “We don’t even know if there are any others!”
Kokichi’s hand found its way back to his brothers at some point, and as the other students were debating about it, some kind of dread formed in his stomach.
Then, Kokichi spoke again, low and slowly, his voice slightly wavering with as much fear as Kurochi had ever seen his brother openly express. “I think… I think that we’re all there is.”