Chapter Text
Despite Ryoji Mochizuki’s optimistic outlook on life, many people were… “unnerved” by his presence, saying things like how “wrong he felt” or how “hard he was to deal with when upset’” which, in his personal opinion, was completely invalid because he wasn’t a handful when sad, he never cried or screamed unless he knew he was alone. Ryoji was as much of an optimistic child as he was useful, always helping out when needed and listening to the adults if they needed something from him! So it always confused him when he never lasted more than a year in a foster family’s home before being tossed to the next, but that was okay! Ryoji was tough! If he kept trying and believing that with enough effort, everything would turn out okay, then surely it would come true eventually, and to his glee, he was eventually proven right! When Ryoji Mochizuki turned sixteen, he received a scholarship to attend Gekkoukan High in Tatsumi Port Island for his second year of high school!
He could barely contain his excitement on the train rides there, but after an accident that delayed his last ride, in all honesty, he got nervous. He hadn’t been in Tatsumi Port Island since the incident in 1999 when he was discovered to be the sole survivor left on Moonlight Bridge. No one could identify who his family was nor could he remember anything about them or the life he may have lived before. Honestly, the more Ryoji thought about this, the more the situation felt like fate, or maybe even destiny.
Regardless, he wasn’t going to let his lack of a past dampen his mood! As the train pulls to a stop, Ryoji leaves the vehicle with a pep in his step and a pamphlet and travelling bag in his hands. As he reads the instructions he wrote for himself, Ryoji tried to ignore the world around him. He’d been having the same sort of… hallucination since he was six, where the world would turn green at midnight, and blood and coffins would litter the streets. The strange lucid dreams used to concern him and unsettle the adults watching over him, but over time, Ryoji just learnt to ignore the visions. Although he didn’t mind the green nights anymore, it certainly didn’t change the fact that he felt relief wash over him to see that he had arrived at the address on his pamphlet: Iwatodai Dormitory.
Walking through the doors, Ryoji is met with the sight of a brightly lit (which in itself is a surprise to him since electricity never seemed to work during the green hour) room that vaguely resembled that of a hotel room. It was well-furnished and clean, but in a way that made the place look uninhabited.
“You’re late.” The ravenette almost trips over his own feet when he tried turning around. He had grown so accustomed to seeing no one during his lucid dreams that he practically reeled back when the first thing he heard after entering the dorm was a greeting.
Behind the counter was a boy only half a head taller than his shoulder, with dark blue hair swept over an eye and one silver earphone pinched by the cord in between his fingers, the other still clipped onto his ear. Music could be faintly heard emanating from them. “Though I guess you’re not really at fault for that,” the boy continued, idly playing around with the balance of a folder’s corners as Ryoji approached him.
“It’s quite unfortunate, but I’m here now. My name is Ryoji Mochizuki, and I’m guessing you’re also a student here, right?” he comments, observing the uniform the blue-haired male wore. The other merely shrugs as he stops playing around with the folder and lays it flat in front of him, opening it to reveal a piece of paper. Reading the large text at the top, the ravenette could immediately tell what it was.
“Before you can relax, I was asked to have you sign this contract,” the boy informs, handing Ryoji a pen.
“What’s it for?” he asked with a nervous chuckle. “The language used is a little foreboding.”
“All it’s asking is for you to accept full responsibility for your actions. Normally, I would say that it’s not as bad as it’s trying to make itself sound… but…” he looks away, seemingly bored.
When it’s clear that the bluenette had nothing else to say on the matter, Ryoji read over the contract again.
Contract
Time never waits.
It delivers all equally to the same end.
I hereby agree to the statement above,
And I chooseth this fate of mine own free will.
Signature Block
Makoto Yuuki
Kotone Yuuki
“Uh… it’s already been signed,” he tells the boy sheepishly. “Twice, actually.”
“Yeah, we ran out of paper to print out new ones so you’ll just have to use someone else’s old contract,” the boy replied, seemingly disinterested. Ryoji raised a brow, but when he was not even spared a look, he decides to look through the document again. Besides the ominous tone and the fact it’s already been signed before (this has to either be illegal or frowned upon), Ryoji couldn’t find anything else that set red flags off. After flipping the page over and checking for any fine print, he shrugs and adds his own signature underneath the previous two.
“Aaaaaand… done! Here’s your pen!” The boy doesn’t hesitate to throw the writing utensil somewhere behind him the second it’s placed in his hands. Instead, he prioritizes the action of closing the folder.
“No one can escape time, for eventually, he will deliver us all to the same end.” Ryoji didn’t fail to sense the change in the boy’s tone as he carelessly held the folder over his right eye, turning it to its side as Ryoji watches the contract vanish right in front of his eyes. “But that doesn’t mean that whatever happens in between holds no value,” As the boy rounds the counter to stand in front of him, Ryoji felt something stir within his chest “In life, people will make a myriad of choices, some more right or questionable than others, but full of consequences all the same.” It was only when he saw the boy’s subtle smile that he realized what it was.
“Have… we met before?”
The boy’s smile falls.
“W-WHO’S THERE?!”
Ryoji’s heart leapt out of his chest as his attention was drawn away by the sight of a figure on the other side of the room. He had trouble seeing her due to the lack of light (when did they turn off?!), but what his eyes immediately picked up on was the holster on her leg holding what, Ryoji believes is safe to assume, is a gun.
He immediately backs away when her fingers wrap around the grip, but before he could yell at her to hold on, another voice cuts in,
“Takeba, wait!” As the girl- whom Ryoji assumes is Takeba- looks away to meet the gaze of another figure walking down the steps, Ryoji finds himself momentarily distracted. The blue-haired boy from earlier, the one who brought him the contract, was nowhere to be found.
“What…?” And before Ryoji could think about him more, the green hour had ended and the lights reilluminated the previously dark dorm, almost blinding Ryoji with their luminescence.
“Don’t worry, he’s an ordinary transfer student.”
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
That night (or he supposes morning) Ryoji lays in bed, reviewing the events that took place that night. When he was properly introduced to one Yukari Takeba and Mitsuru Kirijo (a Kirijo! Crazy, right?), Ryoji almost thought that somehow, he had found himself in the girl’s dorm before he was informed that it was co-ed and that he was only going to be there temporarily before being moved to the boys dorm, a choice that he personally thought was a little strange since this dorm had about three floors, two of which were for housing students, and excluding himself, there were only three students living here. But he supposes that it’s really none of his business.
What was his business, however, was the silent, somewhat suspicious conversation between Takeba and Kirijo regarding him, and although he’d normally be flattered to know that he was on a girl’s mind, this wasn’t really the context he’d been hoping for. Ryoji wasn’t the suspecting type, but he definitely felt as if there was something big going on that he should probably be worried about.
In other, just as strange news, Ryoji couldn’t stop thinking about the blue-haired boy from earlier. Something about him felt so very familiar to him, something that made Ryoji crave being by his side. Inquiring about his identity should have been a simple question… but… when he asked Takeba
“I was wondering… who was that boy at the front desk earlier? The one with blue hair who asked me to sign that contract?”
All she responded with was a confused, somewhat annoyed expression and the words
“Boy? Contra-? What are you talking about???”
Because apparently, there was no blue-haired boy asking him to sign contracts. It was just a hallucination, a small drop in the ocean that was the green night.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
Ryoji was seriously starting to believe that his previous foster families were lying about him having an “ominous aura” and just didn’t like having an extra mouth to feed, because besides initially thinking he was an intruder, Takeba and Kirijo didn’t seem unsettled by him, and in addition to that, all the girls he flirted with thought he was one of the most charming students in class, and he even made a friend in one Junpei Iori, so overall, yeah, foster families? A bunch of liars.
Anyway, his day continued as normal as he had expected; he got to meet his teacher, got to meet his class, sat through a boring assembly, studied, eventually went back to the dorms, and repeated the same process the next day. Though later on in the evening, he did get to meet a new face at the dorms.
“Good evening,” a man with wavy, slicked-back hair and glasses greets. “My name is Shuji Ikutsuki. I’m the chairman of the Board for your school!” Despite his friendly disposition, there was something about the man that unsettled Ryoji. Something that wasn’t because of the puns or jokes, but because of something in his eyes that itched him the wrong way.
Ikutsuki had allowed him to ask some questions regarding his extended stay (because apparently, there was trouble with his rooming arrangements that required him to remain at the co-ed dorm for an undisclosed period of time), but all his answers were either vague, cryptic, or sounded like lies to Ryoji.
With a tired huff, he decided to ignore it for now in favour of turning in early for the night. With the all-nighter he pulled two nights ago and his efforts to adapt to the school curriculum, Ryoji would return feeling completely drained of life and energy. Without even bothering to change out of his school clothes despite the fact he’d have to deal with the wrinkles tomorrow, Ryoji dropped onto his bed with nothing but sleep on his mind.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
Ryoji had a dream that night where he was heading up the stairs to the school rooftop. He’d been hearing a song hummed by a familiar voice, beckoning him to come find them. When he had stepped through the doorway, Ryoji saw him again; the blue-haired boy.
Where everywhere else was washed out by blinding lights, he looked solid, like a real person reading through a stack of letters and envelopes, and although Ryoji couldn’t see his face, he could imagine a smile gracing his lips.
“It’s rude to stare, you know?” the boy had said, not even sparing the ravenette a glance. When the words registered in his mind, Ryoji waved his hands in front of him, flustered.
“A-Ah! I’m sorry! I couldn’t help but be mesmerized by you…” He suddenly felt a little embarrassed about that pick-up line, but the boy only laughed lightheartedly.
“Aren’t you a charmer?” Ryoji’s heart almost felt as if it was fluttering, like he could walk on air, but something about the boy’s tone sounded down, melancholic, maybe even a little resigned.
“Hey,” as he speaks, the blue-haired boy stands up to look at Ryoji, but Ryoji can’t see his face. “There’s something you need to know.”
And then Ryoji had woken up.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
The next day, the same thing happens all over again: Ryoji attended school, he hung out with Junpei in the afternoon and went to bed at night, except… Ryoji finds himself wide awake. Sitting up from his bed, he barely noticed the green sky outside his window in favour of the feeling he was feeling. Ryoji did not know how to describe it, just that he felt as if he should be weary… as if something powerful was close by…
BANG BANG BANG!
“MOCHIZUKI, WAKE UP!” That was not the type of tone one would use to wake up an oversleeping student, that was the type of tone you’d use if someone was asleep in their room and there was a fire in the building.
“ARGH!” Ryoji slams hard onto the ground, legs tangled in his blanket when he tried to escape. Tearing the fabric off, he quickly yanks the door open to see a stressed Takeba. She looked tense, constantly looking behind her shoulder as if she was expecting something terrifying to appear.
“Takeba what’s going on?!” he asks as she looks at him.
“I don’t have time to explain!” She says, roughly dragging the boy out of his room. “We have to get out of here, now!” As if on cue, the whole building shook .
“What the-?!” Ryoji uttered when the force almost sent his knees buckling in. After a moment of silence, Takeba begins rushing him down the stairs where they make their way to the back door, but before they could leave, Ryoji hears the sound of something ringing.
“Takeba, do you read me?” Kirijo’s voice calls out from nowhere. Takeba holds her hand over her right ear as if she had an earphone in (which she didn’t).
“Y-Yes! I hear you!”
“Be careful! There’s more than one enemy!” When she hears that, Ryoji can feel his heart drop to his stomach just as fast as Takeba’s expression does. ‘What did she mean by enemies?! ’ “The one we’re fighting isn’t the one Sanada saw!”
“What?!”
BANG!
Both students almost were sent to the floor by the mere vibration given off by a pound on the door as Takeba looked horrified.
BANG BANG!
The two quickly back away as the girl ushers him back through the common room.
“L-Let’s pull back!”
As the two run up to the roof, Ryoji could feel nothing but dread. What sort of person or creature could have caused those bangs on the wall?! Is he panicking too much or not enough?! Should he have exercised more before this?! Probably!? Most likely!?!? It wasn’t that death scared him, but the idea of feeling nothing but excruciating pain in his final moments is not exactly something he enjoys.
Ryoji Mochizuki was completely out of breath and unsteady on his feet from all the shaking and rumbling the building was doing, he already lost count of how many times he tripped over a step! It was almost too good to be true when the pair had walked through the roof door.
Turn out he was right about things being too good to be true, because just as Takeba said that they might be safe, the building rumbles again, methodically, almost as if each individual shake was a footstep. Ryoji thought there was no way it could get any worse, and hoo boy- was he wrong !
From over the ledge of the three-story tall building, about a dozen enormous, oozing black hands reached up from the depths of hell and grasps the building’s edge, using it as some kind of handhold as the ink-like creature pulled the rest of itself up onto the roof, the exact same roof that they’re on.
Ryoji wasn’t the type of person to look-shame others, but this creature was an abomination that should, by no means, be alive with how little sense its biology and proportions made. The monster was a mass of writhing hands that all seemed to be connected by a single blue mask with a large ‘I’ on the forehead. As if sensing the offence, however, in a matter of seconds, each of the creature’s hands were equipped with their own razor-sharp swords, the reflection from the blades blinding him despite the lack of light.
It was horrific, monstrous, and clearly hostile. It was completely at home in that dark hour.
“Takeba, we need to go back!” he exclaims as the creature approaches. The brunette doesn’t reply as she grabs the handle of the door they just came through. When the door doesn’t budge, however, the feeling in Ryoji’s gut grows worse.
“Shit. Mochizuki, stay behind me!” Takeba exclaimed, placing herself in front of him before. Even in a life-or-death situation, his morals wouldn’t allow it.
“Takeba-!”
But all she does in response is pull out the gun that had been in her holster.
“Stay back! You don’t have the means to fend off that shadow!”
Shadow?
Ryoji’s head throbs.
What an odd word, it’s sticking out to him in a way he can’t quite comprehend, but before he can mull over it more, Takeba holds the gun up to her forehead.
“What are you doing?!” He’s blown away when pavement and bricks explode around them. Ryoji is disorientated as he’s thrown into the wall behind him. His back was on fire and every touch his skin made burned his nerves, but he couldn’t think about it now when Takeba was still in between him and the monster, struggling to get back onto her feet. Just as she manages to hold the gun back up to her forehead, she is immediately sent through the air and across the roof.
“TAKEBA!” Ryoji’s heart stops for a moment as she hits the opposing wall roughly. He fears for a moment the damage those swords must have done to her, but thanks to some miracle from some god somewhere, she had just been smacked. She may very well still be alive!
But because the situation wasn’t bad enough already, the creature- the shadow who saw her as the biggest threat abandoned the thought of him and instead… approached her .
‘Shit!’ He has to do something! He’s… not sure what yet, but he can’t let that thing kill her! He has to fight!
As he makes a step forward, however, his foot hits something. When he looks down, it’s Takeba’s gun.
… …?
As he picks it up, he notices that it looks different from any gun he’d seen in movies and TV shows.
Be strong, Ryoji…
He points it towards the creature and prepares for the gun’s recoil, but when he presses the trigger, nothing fires.
Because that’s not how it’s used, is it?
Then how is he supposed to use it?
You already know he hears the blue-haired boy say.
He thinks back to Takeba, and he thinks he does.
With movements that almost feel too slow, Ryoji holds up the gun to his head. He can feel every detail of the barrel pressed against his skull, feel his fingers twitching over the trigger.
He’s not afraid of death… even willing to do it if it meant saving Takeba’s life! But…
As he sees the shadow loom over Takeba’s barely conscious body, he can’t help but think;
‘Why am I so scared to pull the trigger?’
SLASH!
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Ryoji was… by all means not prepared to hear such a pained yell coming from the shadow or to see a dozen of its arms drop onto the floor.
Thunk!
And before he can even begin to process it, a figure lands before him in a crouched position.
“̴L̴e̸t̵ ̴m̴e̵ ̸h̸a̶n̵d̵l̶e̴ ̵t̷h̷i̵s̵,̴ ̵p̵l̴e̴a̷s̵e̷.̷”̷ Its voice was jarring as if multiple layers were placed over each other. When it… they(?) stand up, Ryoji is taken aback a little. By definition, their saviour could also be called an abomination, what with the winged torse attached to their back with the extra pair of wings sandwiched underneath, the extra arms, the mismatched legs, the face on their hip, the antenna shaped on their head, and the way half of their face clearly wasn’t made to fit the other, but it doesn’t unsettle him like it does with the shadow. It almost makes him feel at ease, but before he can question why, the white-haired youth readies their weapon; a double-sided blade with a gun barrel welded to its side.
In the blink of an eye, they were gone, and in the next second, they were tearing the shadow apart limb from limb. It had all happened so quick, slashes and gunshots, crackles of lightning and burst of lights and darkness. Ryoji could only tell it was all over when the white-haired boy tore the shadow’s mask off the rest of its body, crushing it into a million small pieces. Even after the shadow went limp, however, they did not relax, instead, they held out their hand in front of them, closed their eyes, and muttered some words.
At this point, Ryoji wasn’t sure what was happening anymore and had half the mind the call out, but before he could, a circular rune of light materialized on the floor beneath the remains of the shadow and absorbed it whole. When the light vanished, so did the shadow, leaving the white-haired boy’s full attention on Ryoji and Ryoji alone.
Or, well, not Ryoji alone . They did glance at Takeba, and with a wave of their hand, all visible wounds on her body seemed to vanish (and although he hadn’t noticed at the time, the flaring pain that ran through his body seemed to fade as well), but after that had been done, their attention was on Ryoji and Ryoji alone.
Despite all the bulky body parts and limbs, with how graceful and effortless their moves had been while combatting that shadow, it almost surprised Ryoji to see how heavy and unsteady their footsteps towards him were, almost as if their body was on the brink of falling apart on itself. Finally, with a slump that almost looked limp, the white-haired boy kneels in front of him on one knee, almost like a knight pledging themself to him. He met Ryoji’s eyes with a tired gaze and spoke with words layered upon themselves:
“̵F̵r̷o̶m̸ ̶t̴h̸i̵s̴ ̵n̴i̸g̸h̷t̶ ̴o̷n̷ ̸t̵i̷l̵l̵ ̸t̵h̶e̶ ̴r̶e̶s̴t̸ ̶o̶f̴ ̶o̸u̸r̵ ̵t̶i̵m̷e̸ ̷s̵p̷e̸n̴t̸ ̶o̴n̷ ̶t̵h̸i̷s̵ ̵m̸o̷r̸t̷a̵l̵ ̶p̷l̷a̵i̶n̴,̷ ̵I̵ ̷w̸i̷l̵l̶ ̷b̷e̶ ̶y̶o̷u̴r̸ ̸s̶w̴o̸r̸d̶… ̵a̵n̸d̶ ̶y̷o̶u̵r̵ s̶h̵i̵e̵l̵d̴.̶”̸
Crackle!
“̴A̴s̸ ̷l̵o̷n̷g̴ ̷a̴s̸ ̸y̷o̸u̴ ̶a̸l̵l̶o̶w̸ ̷m̵e̶ ̵t̸o̷ ̷s̴t̸a̸y̷ ̵b̵y̸ ̷y̷o̵u̵r̷ ̴s̶i̴d̸e̶,̴”̴
Crackle crackle!
“̷N̷o̶ ̶h̸a̸r̸m̷ ̸w̶i̶l̷l̵ ̸c̷o̴m̴e̵ ̷t̵o̸ ̴y̸o̶u̷.̶”̵
And just like that, the white-haired boy’s entire body seemed to convulse and short-circuit. Sparks of rogue electricity spurred through every joint of their body, and they collapsed on the floor in front of him.
All he could do was stare with a heavy heart.
Despite Ryoji Mochizuki’s optimistic outlook on life, he had a feeling that this will be a very difficult year.