Chapter Text
Look how gently the wind bears the leaves
As the ties turning grey
Fall away
Closely, closely hold them gently to your heart
As seasons turn again…
--
Pale rose eyes fluttered open to a calm scene- the wind still gently rustled the leaves and grass, and the flowers still vibrant as ever. Chisato Ueda, Super High School Level Botanist, sat up, rubbing her eyes as she felt around for her glasses, sorely confused. Hadn't Komaeda been here not too long ago? He'd slashed her throat, so why was she still alive? A dream, surely, She told herself as she finally found her glasses and put them back on her face. She noticed her schoolbag was gone, but paid no mind to it as she got to her feet. It was starting to get late, and she figured she might as well head to the dining hall for dinner. "I must have fallen asleep in the gardens after class again," The botanist sighed. "Ah well. Nothing to be done about it now, I suppose." Chisato got to her feet and walked back inside of the building, finding the halls strangely empty considering the time of day, but considering recent events, she wouldn't really blame anyone who didn't want to be out in the halls by themselves. Even so, where was everyone?
Passing the doors to the auditorium, Chisato noticed they were open, and that the Principal was giving a speech. There were the faint sounds of sobs and hushed gossip from the crowd as students came and left flowers at a coffin that was sitting on a table near the stage. A stone sunk in the botanist's gut- there must have been another death. She hurried through the isles, walking briskly as she walked down to the coffin just as she saw Ryouta Hoshino, her rival of a year and a few months so far, leaving flowers, to the surprise of some. Shizuka Matsuki passed next with Kazumi Katsuya, the painter's face flooded with tears as she left her flowers- and Chisato would soon see why. As she approached the coffin, she saw a familiar pink ribbon and the gleam of wide-rimmed glasses. The botanist felt like she should be running, but her feet kept carrying her towards the coffin, and what she saw struck her cold. Her own body, dressed elegantly and surrounded by chrysanthemum flowers, still wearing her glasses and ribbon, and her neck was stitched up neatly with an almost-invisible surgeon's stitch. There was only one reason that could be possible.
Chisato stumbled back as if she'd been punched in the face. Panic rose in her chest as she looked around. No one could see her, heads were hung low and sobs echoed around the room. "No…oh God, please tell me I'm dreaming…!" She looked over at Hikari, who was sobbing into Naoto's shoulder, and tried calling out to her, but no reply came. She looked to Shizuka, who was a complete mess, and tried calling out to her, too, but again there was no reply. The fear hit home when voices rose in volume and footsteps echoed behind her, and Chisato looked to see Nagito Komaeda with a look of crushed hope in his eyes as he walked almost dumbly down the aisle towards the coffin. "Nagito-kun…!" The botanist's eyes filled with tears and she tried to rush to him, to throw her arms around him, but he went straight through her. The whispers were what got to her before Komaeda had fallen to his knees and started to cry ("How dare he show his face here!", "I bet he was the one who did it.", "What was she thinking, dating someone like that?"), and Chisato could bear it no longer.
Storming over to Komaeda and standing at his side, she wanted so much to beat him black and blue. "YOU MONSTER!" She shouted as tears ran down her cheeks in rivers. "How could you?! HOW COULD YOU?! I give you my heart, I treated your illnesses, and this is how you repay me?! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HOPE SOMEONE MURDERS YOU NEXT SO I CAN WATCH YOU BEING DRAGGED DOWN TO HELL!" She had never been this angry before, and she could scream herself hoarse if she had vocal chords that could be strained into silence. She swung her fists at Komaeda's head, hoping somehow it would give him a headache, screaming in anguish and fury, and only stopped when she felt a hand upon her shoulder.
"C'mon, now. That ain't gonna help nobody."
Chisato stopped screaming long enough to look behind her, where a man stood with a smile on his face. His hair was styled like a bosouzoku, like the boy she used to talk to in the hallways, only his clothes were white and his hair was jet black. Much like the boy she used to talk to, his eyes were a pale violet colour, and there was something about him that made him seem approachable, yet intimidating at the same time.
"What…who are you?" She asked.
"Name's Daiya Oowada." The man patted her shoulder. "Come on, we need to talk." His hand moved to the small of her back and he started to lead her away. As they walked back through the auditorium, Chisato cast one last look to the ones she'd left behind
- Shizuka, who was still shedding her tears, Ryouta, whose head was hung low, Hikari and Naoto, who were still sobbing, and the young man standing next to Kiyotaka Ishimaru, whose name she'd never known, and she could have sworn she saw his shoulders shake before She and Daiya had cleared the door.
–-
"So, how was wakin' up for ya?" Daiya asked casually. By now, the two were in the library and the man had put his feet up on the table.
Chisato shifted nervously in her seat. "Not that much different to waking up normally, really..."
"Well, I ain't never met anyone who's been to their own funeral. Pretty brave of ya." Daiya was still smiling as if nothing mattered, and it was starting to get on the botanist's nerves. The smile soon turned sad, though, and he sighed. "My lil' bro looked awful torn up about it, though. The kid don't do that well at funerals."
"Your brother?"
"Oh yeah, you talked to him in the halls sometimes."
Chisato looked away guiltily. "Sorry, I never really got his name."
"His name's Mondo. You would'a liked him." Finally correcting his seated posture so his feet were on the floor, Mondo leaned on the desk towards Chisato. "He really had a thing for ya."
"We can talk about that later." To be honest, Chisato didn't want to talk about love when there were more important things at hand- like the fact that she was a ghost. "Why am I still here? Shouldn't I be in Heaven?"
"Tha's th' thing, y' see." Her companion gave a casual shrug. "You bein' here means y' got somethin' t' do before ya go to the other side. Like me- I just know I gotta take care 'a my bro until I figure out what 'm supposed to do."
"You can't do much when he can't see or hear you," Chisato said bitterly. "And what else would I have to do? I'm a ghost- I can't touch anyone, or talk to them."
"Ain't you a famous scientist or somethin'?" Daiya's smile seemed to be permanent. "Yer' smart, you'll work it out. I'll be here t' help if y' need it."
Chisato sighed, and they were silent for a long time. "So...how did you die?"
Daiya's smile finally dropped. "Car accident," He said, sounding almost guilty. "I died savin' my brother, an' he blames himself."
The younger of the two frowned, concerned. "What happened?"
Daiya gave a long sigh. "It was supposed to be a race. I was retirin' from bein' leader of the Crazy Diamonds, an' I was gonna open up an auto shop to make somethin' of m'self. An' Mondo, well...he's always got somethin' t' prove. It was a dark night, an' the road wasn't that well-lit 'round that part of the highway. I don't think I saw the truck comin' until just before I pushed him outta the way." The man placed a hand on his abdomen, almost subconsciously. "When I woke up, it was th' day after my funeral, and I was hangin' out by my own grave."
"And Mondo was there?"
"Yeah. The poor kid thinks he murdered me, an' there ain't much I can do 'bout that now." Daiya shifted in his chair. What 'bout you, kiddo?"
"...Murdered by my boyfriend."
"I heard he cheated on ya."
Chisato sighed. She didn't want to remember that, but the memory was still fresh. "Yes, he did. With some supermodel who's a few straws short of a haybale, or so I've heard."
"Wasn't he the same?"
"He has dementia, and his weak health impairs his judgement from time to time," Chisato explained, trying to sound professional. "It wasn't just that incident that was the problem, though...I guess I was just too stupid to leave him." She smiled sadly. "He said he needed me. He said he adored me, that he believed in my dream to find a cure for all illnesses through my studies of medical botany...but he was so...impossible at times...he'd have violent episodes, and I was willing to forgive him because of his dementia. I was told I should have left him the first time he hurt me, but I just..."
"Y' wanted to believe you could fix 'im." Daiya reached over and held her hand. "I've seen it before, kiddo. My mother was th' same with m' old man."
Chisato tried to blink back tears. "I'll bet Enoshima made him do it," She snipped, her voice so cold to the point where icicles may as well have been forming on the words. "She's always been out of her mind, and it shows in her personality."
Daiya said nothing on that. "Look, y' still got some ends that need tyin' up, questions that y' never got answers for. Once y' get that fixed up, you can move on. Any questions?"
Chisato thought it over for a moment or two, then shook her head and stood up. "I'm gonna go for a walk," She sighed, giving a half-hearted wave as she walked away. "I'll see you 'round, Oowada-san." Daiya said nothing as she left, and Chisato was grateful for his silence. She had a long way to go if she was going to leave this world, it seemed, but just how could she do it, she wondered? Ghosts couldn't interact with people. For now, she decided to head for the dorms. Her room would be locked, but with luck, she could probably just walk through it, if the things she'd heard about ghosts were true. On her way there, she saw Shizuka Matsuki and Kiyotaka Ishimaru, who was consoling the girl in her grief as they sat in her room together. Matsuki must have had another anxiety attack, or so Chisato guessed. She sighed sadly, her throat feeling choked up despite the fact that she didn't have a body that could feel anymore. The painter had been the last person she'd spoken to before she'd been murdered. The last words that she'd spoken as they passed in the hallway that morning made this whole thing hurt worse: "I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you."
She and Matsuki had always gotten on like a house on fire. Matsuki gave Chisato art lessons for a while so the botanist's field notes could look a little nicer and to give her something to do, and as they kept talking, the two wound up being quite close friends and often hung out in the gardens together- Chisato had given her a tea set that she'd bought while working in England for a short while for her birthday, decorated with hand-painted illustrations of rabbits, which the painter loved, and filled the teapot with some of the pretty gemstones in her collection and the botanist wondered if she intended to keep it now. She wondered what would happen to her things now that she was gone, her research papers would probably go to Hikari and Naoto, but beyond that she didn't know what would happen. In between trying to answer her questions that she didn't know and hadn't asked yet and somehow tie things up before moving on to the other side, the thought of such an impossible task made Chisato want to cry, but for now, she felt exhausted. Walking past Matsuki's room, she continued to her own room, where flowers were laid at her door, which was still locked as far as Chisato remembered. She walked through the door and sat down on her bed, staring blankly at the mirror which no longer held her reflection. She could remember how she'd stand in front of it to fix the ribbon in her hair or dance to whatever was playing on her stereo, but the room was quiet as the grave, and Chisato just flopped to one side and tried her best to sleep and forget any of this was happening at all.