Chapter Text
Aru Akise already knows he's likely to die. The diary says he kills Yuno, but it's never going to be certain. Deus seems to have something against certainty.
Another important detail is how his beloved Yuki is going to feel about this if he does manage the feat that is killing Yuno. He seems to have fallen so far into her lying embrace that he genuinely loves her. Everyone but Yuki, Yuno, and Eighth are dead. Their friends are dead. The only thing that's salvagable is him and Yuki.
He doesn't know what the future looks like beyond this killing game. But he knows what he wants and that the only way he can get there is killing Yuno Gasai, or her imposter, or whoever this is. Kissing Yuki to enrage her likely made her reckless, so she won't be as precise.
He moves quickly, aiming for where she already injured herself earlier. Her phone is in her hand, sure, but it seems safer just to beat her to death, honestly. This girl has a lot of tricks up her sleeve and Aru isn't going to fall for that. Dodging out of the path of her blade isn't easy, she's way too practiced with that thing--how has she been so good with it, this entire time?
He manages to hit her again with the broken pipe he scrounged, and this time it hits her neck with a sickening crunch. She falls. Aru drops his makeshift weapon. He feels sick, even as he knows he was doing what he had to.
"What have you done?" Yuki asks, horrified. Aru's surprised when he manages to move to Yuno's side, as he was frozen the whole time before.
He leans against crumbling stone while Yuki checks for a pulse. He already knows that if he finds one, it's fading.
"Your plan was to kill her anyways, wasn't it?" he mutters, "For all intents and purposes, I've made your path to godhood easier. Now all that's to be done is kill Eighth."
"I don't--" he pulls away from Yuno, tears streaming down his face.
Aru feels a tinge of sympathy. They both lost everything of importance to them today--Aru lost his friends, and his ignorance towards what he truly was, and Yuki lost his crazy bitch of a girlfriend. And also the hope that he could resurrect all the people he killed. Aru sighs.
"Are you going to kill Eighth or do I have to up my murder count?"
"I... I'll do it."
Aru wonders idly if Eighth is really the last or if Yuki will have to kill him, too, since he happens to be a diary holder now. Probably not. Killing Eighth gets rid of all the diaries her server's spawned, right?
Yuki moves himself away from Yuno's body, taking her blade with him. Aru is 80% sure that Yuki will charge him with it, but he just passes towards Eighth. The woman uses her last words to ask him to make the world better for children. Go figure. Her death is silent. Yuki drops the blade and steps back, dropping to his knees and staring up at the sky.
Carefully, Aru approaches. "How does the whole becoming God thing work, now?" he asks.
"How would I know?" he says. Of course he's crying again. Even in the face of becoming God, Yuki cries.
"Maybe we should just get out of this rubble."
A sob wracks him. Aru helps him up and leads the way out of the mess of crumbled infrastructure. The rips in space-time seem to have all disappeared, so there's that.
"I really can't bring them back, huh?" he asks, wiping his face as he pulls away from Aru in the street.
"No, you can't."
"Not even my parents. What's the point?"
"I figure that's up to you, being that you're probably God and all."
"A mess like me shouldn't be a god..."
"How about we try and find a standing hospital?"
"Why? Neither of us are that injured."
"I think you could use some ice, at the very least. You're pretty bruised up."
Yuki seems to ignore him, sitting down in the grass by the road. "I killed our friends."
"That you did."
"You killed Yuno."
"True again."
He flips open his phone, his eyes scanning through all the entries. It's functioning like a normal diary again. He types in all that's happened since Eighth was killed. Then he tries typing something he wants to happen, just as a test. Maybe thats how being God works. Nothing seems to happen, but he doesn't delete the entry.
"The whole world is wrecked."
"While I'm quite enjoying your commentary, I do think us staying here covered in blood isn't the best idea? I mean, obviously the police are... quite busy, but we don't want to be connected to these murders, whether or not youre God now," Aru says, pulling Yuki up by his forearm.
Yuki goes along with him. Why do anything else? Really, Aru's the only person he knows in the world at his point. Everyone else is totally gone.
"We can bring you to my parent's, maybe. They might be dead, but if they aren't, well, they'll probably be fine taking an orphan in! I mean, our house is wrecked, but they were at work, so..."
"I don't want to live with your family, Akise! You just killed the only person I had left."
Aru releases his arm. "And you killed my only friends. I really think that your death count is much higher than mine, Yukiteru."
"And I can't bring anyone back..."
Aru sighs. He knew dealing with Yuki's problems would take a while, but it is difficult to help when he's angry about Yuki killing their friends.
"Right, yes, that is true. Listen, we just need to get to a hospital until that imp lady shows up, then you're God and everything is good."
"What if she doesn't show up? What if I'm not good enough to be god?"
"Then you go to her, isn't that something you diary users can do? We need to get somewhere safe, first. Like..."
Aru can't think of anywhere that wasn't destroyed by those orbs.
"My house is destroyed," he says, "How's yours?"
"No better than yours. Yuno's might be alright, though."
Aru gets the idea that Yuno's house would make him spiral worse.
"Let's just go towards the center of the city and ask someone if there's any relief centers set up."
"Like anyone would have had time."
"You're right, then let's go to the hospital like I suggested first, they'll already be setting up medic stations."
Yukiteru follows Aru without sparing anymore words. Aru wonders if he'll make as good a god as he thought. He doesn't seem like the strongest. But he'll probably be fine, right?
"Who do we know that isn't dead?" Yuki asks after a while of walking.
"My parents are probably alive. If they survived the whole reality tearing thing."
"I didn't think you had parents?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
Yuki shrugs. "I've never seen them, you've never spoken of them, you work with the police and I assume any right-minded adult would have some qualms with that, you're just... very independent. I assumed you were an orphan."
"Well, I am adopted. I probably don't have real parents, as apparently Deus created me to be his observer--"
"What? Really? What does that mean?"
"To paraphrase... He needed somebody in the action doing detective work, because observing from afar wasn't cutting it. So he made me. Evidently all the things I've been doing were of his accord... But we spoke. And I've proven my free will to him."
"So you aren't human, are you?"
"I don't know what I am."
"If only we could ask Deus."
"Ask Murmur. She knows things."
"I guess there are more pressing matters."
The hospital seems to have been left in a hurry. Medical equipment seems to have either been looted or taken with the doctors. They can't find any evidence of where everyone went on the doors, so Aru steps inside, advising Yuki to wait.
Yuki gets antsy and follows, finding Aru searching through the front desk.
"What are you doing in here? This building could collapse. It's not like your diary would tell you anymore."
He shrugs, and picks up a pad of pastel pink post-it notes. The top note is about an order of flowers. He continues picking things up and reading them. Is this what being a detective is like?
Of course, instead of ever finding the paper, they just end up hearing a citywide announcement about where to go for medical attention and shelter.
"I guess they didn't write anything down, then."
Aru shrugs. They start walking towards where they said shelter was after a very brief discussion where Yuki insists that others will need more medical attention than them so they shouldn't bother any doctors for a few scrapes.
"What are they going to think when we show up covered in blood?" Aru asks, stopping in front of a shop window that's destroyed.
"Are you kidding?"
"What? Do you want to be arrested? Worse, I know you're not a very good liar without some serious scripting."
"I've gotten way more used to lying recently."
Aru steps into the store, knowing he's going to follow. And he does, of course. They grab some new clothes, Yuki opting to keep his pants because a) they don't have much blood on them, and b) he absolutely doesn't want to change his pants in front of a guy who kissed him an hour ago.
Aru takes about an hour trying to decide on clothing-- he doesn't even really have any blood on him, only dust-- and ultimately decides that it would be suspicious to be too clean. He doesn't change anything, but he does grab a pair of leather gloves.
"Come on, they look cool!"
"You have to be kidding."
"And they're expensive normally. Listen, Yuki, if I want gloves I'm taking them because the world almost ended and I helped save it. I deserve a bit of a reward."
"...Right. Can we find safety, now?"
"Sure."
Aru dials up his father while they walk. Then his mother. "Connection's blocked. Figures, there must be a billion outgoing calls right now. The whole world is calling people."
"Yeah. Aru, what do you think they're going to do when they realize I don't have any family? Will they put me in a home?"
"I know you don't like the idea, but my parents will probably help you. Hopefully Murmur shows up before then."
Yuki nods.