Chapter Text
Ranmaru Kageyama is, at best, ambivalent towards Sara Chidouin.
Personally, he has nothing against her. Of course, there's the whole, "just because I died in a cruel torture game rigged against me doesn't mean I should be your slave" thing, but as a person, she's alright. Her uniform is cute and trendy, her hair is an utter disaster, and she's taller than him. Like most people. Which he Absolutely Doesn't Mind.
Really. He doesn't.
...
Anyway. Sara.
She's a natural leader, even as a high schooler. Well-liked wherever she went. The adults deferred to her, the kids looked up to her.. The guy she came with would have taken her as the Sacrifice plus-one if he'd won, no doubt.
It just really, really sucked that he had to kill her.
⁂
But of course, things start adding up.
"There's no time. I need to introduce you to the dolls who will be supporting you!"
Hiyori's voice echoed throughout the confines of the cemetery, and as their tombs started quaking, Ranmaru knew it was his cue. The curtains had opened and the director had begun role call.
Death made him dramatic, he supposed. Especially in the way he hastily clambered out of his coffin to stand with the other dummies.
At least it was dark.
The lights flickered back to life, leaving them face to face with the survivors. Anzu gave a disgruntled complaint, seemingly disoriented from her dirt nap, while he eyed the motley crew before them.
He didn't let his gaze linger on Sara Chidouin. He couldn't.
Instead, he crossed his arms. "Can't stand it..." He grumbled. "We have to support these guys?" The words were ash in his mouth. Keeping up this nonchalant facade like the whole situation was just another inconvenience. As if they hadn't been gearing up to murder another human being. Like their own lives didn't depend on their own acting skills. Whatever mystery parts made up his stomach, he felt sick to them.
Ranmaru tuned out the rest of the reactions from the dummies. He didn't want to see if their acting was any better than his was. Their pitiful attempts or their broadway smiles, it was tragic enough either way.
Even when Hiyori was explaining their upcoming game, he didn't care enough to listen to the explanation yet again.
He already knew what he had to do.
"Now, Red Thread of Fate... Activate!"
..God, that sounded so dumb. Their kidnappers really went all out on the cheese factor.
The so called-red thread finally gave him an excuse to focus on Sara Chidouin, whose previous calm was twisted with bewilderment once they were bound. Her reaction was expected, not ideal, but at least it wasn't as bad as some of the other pairings were sounding. The garish gorilla of a man, Q-taro, had his hands full with Mai, and he wondered if the beefy guy with a bad dye job would getting anything from Hinako that wasn't a snide comment or dark humor. And at least he didn't have to babysit like Kurumada and Hayasaka.
He just had to deal with the de-facto leader. Hooray.
He turned to her awkwardly. What do you even say in this situation? He'd rather die again than get on his knees and profess his loyalty to his new master. He guessed Mai was having fun with that, though. "...Uh, Sara, was it? I'm Ranmaru," The doll paused. What else, what else...
"I'm in high school, like you." He said, rather lamely. It wasn't much, but it's not like he was given a lot to work with!
God damn it, he really wasn't used to talking to girls. Or people his age. Or anyone. This felt a lot more do-able when he was just reading a file about her.
But instead what he expected (tension, discomfort, constipation, who knows) she just gave him a barely-there strained smile, like she knew he was trying his best. "Nice to meet you."
Well. At least he wasn't the only one struggling linguistically here.
It was suddenly difficult to look at her. That purple gaze was a lot more intense when it was trained on you. "Uh.. Yeah."
Luckily, her attention was drawn back to Hiyori, who'd begun his own introductions.
Thank god. He was tired of feeling like a bug under a microscope.
It was a few more minutes of his usual platitudes, getting a rise out of the survivors while the dummies watched in unease, the eccentricity they'd all come to expect. Just more toys for this sadistic kid to play with, already winding them up and watching them go.
Then he turned his gaze to their new duo.
Or to the leader, more likely.
"Hey, miss Sara. You act as a representative and give me a new name!"
Seriously? He knew it already, but jeez, this guy was crazy.
The leader remained silent for a moment, contemplative. He wondered what way she would take it. Something convenient, something obvious?
Then, a tiny smirk gave way.
"Seaweed."
No way.
"Pft-!"
Ranmaru couldn't stop it coming out. It wasn't even that funny. It was a grade school insult. Worse than that. But he couldn't stop his knee-jerk giggle.
Sara's gaze was immediately focused on him. Not really fair, since he wasn't the only one who was chuckling, but his luck was always garbage. Averting his gaze, he started feeling just the slightest bashful, but she only huffed. There was a little nudge from her elbow, like she was saying look at this clown, isn't he hilarious? before she turned back to Hiyori..
Ahem. Seaweed.
And if he had to guess, it started there.