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Nothing.
It’s strange to admit, but after the trial, after everything Makoto saw and learnt: how Sayaka tried to frame him for murder, how she ended up the one to die after her plan went awry and how Leon was horribly executed for her murder, he didn’t feel a tinge of fear, anger or even sadness when he returned to his room for the night. The only thing Makoto could feel was absolutely nothing.
‘Fitting really’ Makoto thought to himself, as he entered the bathroom where his childhood friend originally was only to find it in the same shape he was; empty. The brown-haired boy thought back to the night it happened, Sayaka seemed so scared, frightened by the letter she held in her hand; even though Makoto knew it was all an act now, back then he was completely clueless to the truth. Maybe if he was more aware, Sayaka would be…
As Makoto continued staring into the shower, he could feel a few tears start to form; the result of a sudden but inevitable realization. ‘Sayaka… she’s really…”
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a noise coming from outside the room, as the boy turned back to the door, he could hear the same noise repeat itself; no doubt, someone was knocking on his door. Passing through his broken bathroom door, Makoto sluggishly made his way to the entrance of his room, opening the door with little hesitation, feelings of emptiness being completely ignored, his eyes widened seeing exactly who came to see him.
“Hina?” He asked in a quiet tone, indeed standing there was the Ultimate Swimmer herself, Aoi Asahina. The sight sent Makoto into a bit of a daze; despite not being on hostile terms, the two of them rarely ever hung out together. Makoto was always tagging along with Sayaka whilst Aoi was either training with Sakura or lazing around the cafeteria. Aside from the morning meetings, the only time he really spent time with her was the day before yesterday where she recommended some kind of “remedy” as she put it to help him get fit. Truth be told, Makoto was perfectly content with never doing that for the rest of his life.
“Hey Makoto,” the tanned girl greeted in her usual manner, though Makoto couldn’t help but notice it come out drier than usual. “Sorry if I’m intruding, I didn’t wake you up did I?”
Makoto shook his head. “Don’t worry, I haven’t slept yet.” He then looked down, a sad expression painting his face. “Honestly, I don’t think anyone has had a chance to sleep after what just happened.”
“Actually, that’s why I wanted to see you.”
His head shot right back up to look at Aoi after what she just said, “You… wanted to see me?” he asked, and Aoi just nodded ‘Why?’ He thought to himself, ‘What reason could Aoi have for talking to me?’
“Look, it’s just that…” Aoi continued but suddenly, stopped as she looked to the side, and Makoto swears he saw a bit of red tinge on her cheeks for a second there. “I know this sounds weird, but can you let me in? I’d… prefer it if no one heard what I wanted to say, you know?”
At those words, Makoto froze for a moment. He wanted to believe Aoi, she didn’t seem like the girl to have ill intentions; but then again, her behaviour right now, it wasn’t at all dissimilar to how Sayaka behaved the night before she was… the bottom line is, Makoto had no way of knowing that Aoi won’t do to him what Sayaka already tried to do. That question brought him to even further pause, he knew this train of thought was completely unlike him, he was never the type of person to distrust others and always gave everyone a chance; ‘This “killing game”, it’s starting to take control of me.’ Makoto thought to himself, he knew it wasn’t fair, but so was this situation he found himself in. Just what is he supposed to do?
“Makoto?” He suddenly snapped back to attention for just the second time in a matter of minutes, looking back to the Ultimate Swimmer herself as she grabbed hold of his shoulder. At that moment her face, her entire behaviour, it seemed… different to how Sayaka acted; if he could describe it, she felt more ‘genuine’ if that made sense.
“Sorry, I’m fine. And… sure you can come in if you like” The boy finally responded stepping aside to let Aoi pass through, future consequences be damned, Makoto still wanted to trust everyone. When she stepped through the doorway, Makoto caught notice of the box she had tucked inside of her other arm. “Hey Hina, what have you got there?” He asked, pointing to the box in question.
“What?” Aoi could only blink in response and looked down to where Makoto was pointing towards, and her eyes immediately widened as her eyes landed on what he took notice of. “Oh shoot!” The brown-haired boy could only watch in bewildered amusement as the swimmer’s head darted around switching between looking around the room and back to him before setting her sights on the nightstand next to his bed.
After placing the box on top of the small stand Aoi turned back to Makoto, her face as red as the jacket she wore. “D-Don’t laugh, okay? It’s just that, I’ve been… ‘collecting’ boxes of donuts from the storage room for a couple of days. Apparently, whoever’s running this place has been restocking it almost daily, they must be really efficient or something huh?” She shook her head, cheeks somehow getting redder. “Sorry, going off-topic! Point is, after the trial, I grabbed one of the boxes and began eating out of it.”
Aoi’s face grew slyer as she looked towards the ground, “And when I got the idea to go see you, I guess I… forgot… to… notice… that I was still holding onto it.” She turned back towards Makoto, a nervous laugh leaving her mouth.
At her words, Makoto could only blink in shock. From what little he’s seen of the Ultimate Swimmer, she tends to be an eccentric girl, to put it mildly; from writing his name on her palm to remember it later to recommending stripping down to stay healthy with a straight face and now completely forgetting that she was holding a box of donuts on the way to his room. “It’s…” Makoto’s brain went into overdrive finding the appropriate word to describe what happened before settling on, “…certainly crazy.”
“Right? You’d think I’d notice if I had something like that in my hand. I’m a pretty attentive gal, you know what I’m saying?”
Makoto didn’t have it in him to say that she wasn’t entirely accurate there, instead giving a small nod and walking over to sit on the side of his bed. He gestured for the tanned girl to join him by patting the space next to him, which she gladly accepted with a bounce, a small shockwave passing through the bed as she did.
Not wanting to drag things out any further, Makoto got the conversation going. “So, what did you come here to talk about Hina?” At his question, Aoi looked down to the floor before turning back to Makoto with a serious but remorseful look in her eyes.
“Truth be told, I wanted to check up on you.” She spoke with a solid tone in her voice, catching the brown-haired boy off guard.
“Me?” He blinked, “I-I’m fine, why do you have to worry about-” Makoto was suddenly cut off by Aoi grabbing his shoulders and turning him to directly face her.
“Makoto,” even when she only said his name, Makoto could feel how strongly she was feeling with this. “You can’t fool me you know? It goes without saying, but everyone could see how close you and Sayaka were. And with everything that happened in the past few hours.” Aoi paused, images of the aforementioned events visibly running through her mind, before shaking her head and looking at the boy again. “I just… wanted to make sure you weren’t beating yourself up too hard, you know what I mean?”
Once again, Makoto was taken aback by what she just said; though unlike before, this time his bewilderment was more emotional. Here was Aoi Asahina, a girl who just moments ago was completely oblivious to the fact she was holding a box of donuts on her way to his room, admitting that she knew - or at least had a feeling - that Makoto was hurting over current events. Not just that, but she wanted to make sure he was okay and not carrying any emotional burden over Sayaka’s death.
‘Sayaka’s…’ That’s right, everything happened so fast that Makoto never even got the chance to fully accept it. Indeed, Sayaka - one of his closest friends since childhood - was dead. And now that it was finally accepted, the tears began to form in his eyes once more; something that did not go past Aoi, who let go of him in horror and began to apologize before Makoto stopped her, no longer capable of holding back what he was feeling.
“I… honestly don’t know anymore.” He admitted, tears now loosely falling down his cheeks. “What am I supposed to feel at a time like this? Sayaka… my best friend is… dead. No, not just that,” His voice was erratic as he spoke between sharp breaths. “She died trying to frame me.”
Makoto wiped his eyes with his jacket’s sleeve, leaving behind a pair of red-ringed eyes. “Kyoko… she spoke to me after the trial, you know? She believed that Sayaka was uncertain of her plan, and that…” another shudder “…she was thinking about me until the very end. But how does that make things any better!?” At this point Makoto began to lose control of the tone of his voice, reaching the halfway point of shouting his words. “Am I supposed to forgive her? Believe that she wrote Leon’s name to ‘protect’ me because she… because she still cared!?” His body began to shake as he finally lost control.
“If she really cared, why did she try to kill someone in the first place!?” Makoto shouted, in a way that - if not for his room being sound-proofed - everyone in the building would’ve heard him. But he didn’t care, he was nothing more than a sobbing mess now. Wrecked by all of the emotions he felt toward Sayaka: sadness, anger, betrayal, and even love, hitting him at once.
Makoto didn’t know how long he stayed there, eyes closed shut as he continued to sob, until he felt something warm touch his cheek. Opening his eyes and looking up, he saw Aoi looking at him, a sad smile on her face. ‘Ah, that’s right,’ Makoto thought to himself. ‘She was here as well, huh? How stupid of me, spilling out my guts in front of someone like that. Although, I guess it was because of her that I even did that in the first place.’
It was then that Aoi would surprise him for the third time in just a few minutes, pulling the boy into a hug, his head lying directly on her shoulder. No words were said for a while, and none were needed; the only sounds being Makoto’s resumed sobs echoing through the room, slightly muffled due to his face being hidden beneath the swimmer’s red jacket.
Eventually, Makoto pulled back from the hug, rubbing his eyes to wipe the stray tears that were still on his face. “Thank you, Hina.” His voice began to sound more stable as opposed to just moments ago.
“Don’t mention it,” Aoi responded, a bright smile on her face, and Makoto swore he felt his heart beat a little faster when he saw it. “Really though, I’m glad I could help you, Makoto. You must’ve been holding that in for some time, huh?”
Makoto could only give her a nod of affirmation, unsure if his words could perfectly describe how he felt back then. Neither of them knew when it happened, but at some point, Aoi’s hands moved downwards to grab a hold of his, just as Makoto was about to point it out, he felt a yawn escape his mouth and found himself having a hard time keeping his eyes open.
“Wow, you must be really exhausted right now, huh Makoto?” She laughed nervously, “I should probably get going now. It’s pretty late and I’d much rather avoid someone finding out I came here by myself.”
“Right,” Makoto let go of her hands as she rose from the bed, slightly amused by the fact she was still unaware that they were intertwined just seconds ago.
Getting up himself, the two made their way to the exit, Makoto opening the door to let Aoi back out.
“Hina,” The boy said as she stepped outside. “I know I said it already, but thanks again for what you did.”
“You’re welcome,” Aoi responded, once again grabbing Makoto’s shoulder. “If you ever need someone to talk to, just let me know and I’ll be all ears, okay?”
“I will.” He nodded with a smile on his face, “Goodnight, Hina.”
“Goodnight, Makoto.” Aoi said as she let go of his shoulder and walked back to her room.
Once Makoto heard the footsteps stop and another door open and close, he shut the door to his own room and locked it just in case. Just in time to let out another yawn, this one louder and much more drawn out than the last one. He began to take slow steps back to his bed; but before he could fall to the side and enter a night of deep sleep, something caught his attention.
A box, lying dormant on his nightstand, and Makoto knew exactly what it was. Much to his lack of surprise, Aoi Asahina somehow managed to forget the box of donuts she brought with her, which in itself was its own accident. Makoto wanted to just let it slide and go to sleep, but a thought managed to creep up to the front of his mind.
‘Surely, Hina won’t mind if take just one donut, will she?’
He didn’t bother to contemplate it, opening the box he noticed two rows: one completely empty, the other three-quarters full of the very treats advertised on the box’s cover, brown and coated in sugar. Sitting back down on his bed, Makoto took one of them and brought it to his mouth.
He took a bite; it was sweet and for reasons unbeknownst to him, made him feel warm inside.
It was a feeling Makoto kept with him as he finished the snack, and lay back down to enter a peaceful slumber.