Chapter Text
The clock kept ticking and ticking until her ears grew accustomed to the sound and started blocking the noises just like it did to everything else.
"Tick"
"Tick"
"Tick"
She hated it.
"Tick"
She hated being alive.
"Tick"
She hated seeing his grief stricken face looking at her.
"Tick"
She hated how much he missed her.
"Tick"
She hated how much she missed him.
"Tic.."
She hated witnessing him following her just to check up on her even if it was the middle of the gosh darn night.
"Ti...."
She hated seeing how he always chose her over others, she didn't deserve him. Not after betraying him like that.
"T....."
She hated the fact that she wasn't rotting beneath the dirt like she deserved.
"........"
No matter how many times she told these to herself over and over, no amount of loathing at other things could ever surpass the hatred she had towards her own self. But none of this had any value in the grand scheme of things, did it? She was an abuser, a murderer, a monster. And no amount of apologizing could reverse the horrible attrocities she had committed over the course of these past 4½ years. So why was she rambling on and on about her trivial wishes in her head?
Because of her debility, of course...... Wait, what? She literally became a nurse out her hunger for power and control, isn't it conflicting to say she was powerless? But if you think about it, would someone so mighty and powerful suck so badly at controlling their own body let alone others'? Yet she still somehow invented new ways of hurting others despite all the barriers she faced.
"N-no, that's wrong. I don't want to hurt anyone anymore!"
"Then why don't you jump off from the top of a hill? That's right you can't. Because you are a pathetic loser who doesn't even know what they want and only burdens others by her presence."
"......"
"You don't have anything to disclaim that, do you? Because you know deep inside very well that you don't even have power over yourself to begin with. That you can't stop because you have barely any grip on your own d**n body. How could you possibly be expected to control others when you are like......yourself?"
"Tick"
"How pathetic"
"Should ı choose aquamarine blue or sunset yellow?"
Sonia waited and waited for a response to come but eventually turned around to see a sleepy Akane laying on the bed with legs that were dangling to the floor. She had to reiterate her question louder before it captured Akane's attention.
" W-wah?!"
She jumped from bed with a shocked expression and saw Sonia crossing her arms with a disappointed look on her face. She scratched the back of her neck and let out an uneasy chuckle to soften the cold atmosphere but it was no use as it only made Sonia pout. After long seconds of agonazing silence, Akane decided to make her move.
"Oh, damn. I'm sorry Sonia. I was just so sleepy, it was hard to focus."
Sonia sighed and gave up trying to confront her and sat besides her friend while inhaling really slowly yet steadily. Akane just watched her with a confused look on her face as her movements were non-familiar to her.
"Hey, ı know it is important and all, but don't ya think that ya hafta take a break? We have been here for hourssssss."
"İt's not that simple, Akane."
"I can't understand. Then what's the big deal?"
Sonia immediately stood up and faced Akane with an agitated glare, something that nobody ever witnessed from the Ultimate Princess before.
"The big deal?! Oh, ı don't know, MAYBE GUNDHAM WAKİNG UP?"
"Why are you shouting?"
"BECAUSE I TOLD YOU AKANE, I TOLD YOU SO MANY TİMES THAT THİS İS İMPORTANT FOR ME, T-THAT HİS ROOM SHOULD BE PERFECT WHEN HE ARRİVES!"
"But why!?"
"BECAUSE İF I FAİL, THEN İT MEANS THAT I AM NOT SUFFİCİENT."
A wave of silence roamed over them as Sonia noticed how childishly she was acting and realized the huge mistake she made. However instead of apologizing like usual, she sat on the floor and closed her face with her hands out of shame while leaning her back to the wall.
Akane frowned and stayed still for a bit. This didn't last long tho as she got up on her legs and approached Sonia as she was busy being miserable. She bent down on her knees and sat next to her without saying a word.
"sob sob sob"
"Sonia, ı-"
She wanted to do something but she found herself uncapable of forming any words that wouldn't make things worse. She tried again and again a few more times but nothing would come out of her mouth. Sonia observed her friend's countless attempts of trying to dispute about the problem and finally decided to take the lead.
"I... I was supposed to know better. I'm sorry."
"What?"
"I'm sorry... that ı lashed out on you. As a princess... well as someone who used to be royalty to be precise, ı should have known better than to cause a scene like that. İt was very unbecoming of me. Besides, ı shouldn't even had to need help from you in the first place."
"What's wrong with needing help?"
"There isn't anything excessively wrong, it's more about not being incompetent."
"İncompa what?"
"İt means to not be good enough, to not be good enough as a friend. He expects someone who is strong, someone who knows what he wants. Someone who can help him with his problems. I can't afford to fail again."
"İs choosing the wrong colour for his room that important?"
"YES! Because it proves that ı do listen to him and enjoy his company!"
"Sonia, be honest. That's not the real reason, is it?"
"I-ı..."
"Fine, that's not it. I just... don't want to fail friendship just like ı failed being a princess."
"What do you mean? You were a great princess."
"I forced all my citizens into despair, Akane! I committed unspeakable acts that were so repulsive that ı can barely think about them without feeling like ı would vomit."
"We all did Sonia!"
"Yes, but I needed to be perfect! Instead of doing my job properly, ı just ended up driving my kingdom into madness and destruction. What if ı end up making a mistake and ruin everything again?"
Akane was shocked by the sight as she was witnessing Sonia crying for the first time ever. The person that always encouraged her to not worry about her mistakes was actually contemplating about her own failures all this time.
"Oh god" Akane thought to herself. Seeing another friend of hers being messed up like this was a hard sighting to endure, especially if they were as sturdy as Nekomaru and Sonia. Yet, she knew deep down that things would never be the same after everything that had happened. But even though their situation changed a lot, they could still support each other to alleviate the pain even a little bit and that was what she was going to do now.
"Sonia, look. I... I don't know any of the things that you princesses do. I can't understand the wacky stuff that you learned and to be honest, ı can't even do basic math without counting my fingers. Yes, ı am stupid in a lot of things compared to you but if there is one thing that ı DO know, it's that friendship isn't about knowing the other person's favourite color or any other stupid meaningless information."
She held Sonia's hand and looked her in the eye to make sure that she completely diverted her attention at this conversation.
"Sonia, you don't have to be perfect! Because at the end of the day, the only thing he will need is a friend that stays by his side. He only needs the friend he used to spend time with back in the day, not the perfect princess that does everything right."
Tears in the corner of her eyes started disappearing and a warm smile spread through her face thanks to the motivational speech that Akane just came up with. She lowered her other hand down from her chin and her face finally started returning back to her usual peaceful expression.
"Wow, ı didn't know you gave such wonderful advices Akane. You really are nailing it."
"Aww shucks, ı'm happy enough that ı could help ya."
"Well, thanks for the help. I might as well get going then."
"W-wait, Sonia! I don' t think you should overwork yourself. Besides, the lash out you gave proves that you should rest a bit."
"What will ı even do if ı am not working?"
"I dunno, but ya know what they say. You're not you when you're hungry."
Sonia was quick to get the hint and couldn't keep in her laughter for long. Akane's eyes lit up as she was more than grateful to make someone's day up, especially her close friend's. She didn't resist this time tho as she desired free time to spend with her friends more than anything.
"Alright, alright. I guess we can grab some sandwiches from the restaurant."
"YES!"
She screamed with excitement over the victory she had achieved. İt took less than a second for her to pop next to the door and wait for Sonia as well.
"What ya waitin for? I'M STARVİN!"
"Okay okay, ı am coming."
She was still a bit baffled by all this but decided to just enjoy the good things in her life before Gundham would wake up and she would start freaking out over every tiny threat that came near him. They both got out of the cottage and started taking the shortest path to the hotel's lobby together to eat up just like they talked about.
Kazuichi was tightening the nails on the wall with his screwdriver and was really focused on it just as expected from an Ultimate like him. However, this wasn't the best idea as an unexpected guest was getting seemingly closer and closer towards the unlucky mechanic.
"HELLO, SODA! WHAT A NİCE DAY WE'RE HAVİNG İSN'T İT?"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
Soda's shriek echoed through the whole building as well as the outside places that were within 500 meters length because of how high pitched the sound was. Nekomaru was extremely surprised but welcomed this strange way of communicating as he did with almost every other abnormality on this island.
"HAHA! I like the way you chose to express yourself, Kazuichi! Although, ı think it would be better for you to not disturb others with unnecessary voice pollution."
He patted the back of a terrified Soda who still couldn't fully grasp what was happening at that moment. Soda panted and looked towards the cause of the jumpscare with eyes full of terror. He barely managed to speak without stammering during the whole sentence but somehow made it work.
"N-neko-m-maru, h-how did y-you g-g-get out o-of t-the h-hospi-pital?"
"Oh, you mean that small room? We decided that staying in there would do me more harm than good. Besides, ı can't afford to melt my muscles even more! I might as well get into THE WORK!"
"W-we?"
"You are caught up in such a useless detail? You really haven't changed very much, Kazuichi! Don't worry about that, ı have informed Hajime about my early discharge so we are all good haha!"
"S-sure..."
Nekomaru's eyebrows lifted and an "aha" sound came from his mouth. Soda was too frightened to focus on his body movements to notice that he had ulterior motives for coming here. But if it was good or bad was unbeknownst to him.
"Oh, you silly goose! You almost made me forget why ı came here! BUT DO NOT FRET! A MANAGER ALWAYS WRİTES DOWN THEİR TASK!"
He reached towards his pocket and grabbed it before flipping the pages of his tiny notebook that barely fit in his gigantic hands. After repeating the same process for a few more times, he finally found what he was looking for.
"THERE İT İS! AHA, HOW COULD I FORGET?"
"He warned me to keep my voice down yet he alerts others with his perpetual yelling a lot more than me..." Souda thought but didn't have the courage nor the energy to say it to his face.
"You are coming with me, Souda! We are all supposed to meet at the pod room!"
"The pod room? What kind of name is that?"
His voice was now back to normal and he seemed to get distracted from the shock he went through a few minutes ago as his demeanor was curios again.
"Well, then we might as well CHANGE İT! But we should arrive there first in order to do that! Come on, Souda!"
Before he had the chance to say anything, Nekomaru grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and started running in full speed towards the exit. He seemed to remain oblivious to the pleads of the poor mechanic and broke down the door when he lunged forward to "open" it. Soda gave up trying to alert him and accepted the fact that he was now left with more objects to repair.
They started passing through the buildings one by one as the wind was hitting them both because of the amount of speed they had. Despite being in a really uncomfortable position, Soda still managed to enjoy the view of the sunset from the beach and later closed his eyes to hopefully reach their destination as fast as possible.
A loud bang was heard from the entrance and was accompanied by heavy footsteps. İt took their silhouettes less than 10 seconds to appear in front of the door that was opened half way and even less than that for their identities to appear.
"Hope we didn't keep ya all waiting for too long! This slowpoke here held us back for a few minutes."
Soda looked like he was dead as his arms and legs were literally hanging from his body without him using them at all. Hajime noticed by his face that he was in the verge of puking and abruptly ran towards Nekomaru to pick him up. He supported him by holding onto one of his shoulders and slowly put him on the floor to give him a break.
"İs he okay? He doesn't look too good." Sonia asked worryingly.
"He reminds me of the time ı stuffed ma self with 78 nuggets. I looked just like this except ı was droolin all over the place." Akane commented.
Hajime lent him a bucket to vomit if he had to but he didn't seem to do that at that moment yet still held onto it just in case because he still was feeling pretty beat up. The wind also contributed to the severity of his nausea and took all the energy he had from before out.
He didn't even remember the tasks he needed to finish as he was desperately fighting to keep to food away from reaching the pharynx since he knew it would be game over above that point. However, his glucose levels suddenly dropped and his vision started turning black as well.
".... ar.... e"
"Do..da....you he..."
"So..... da.... Soda.... Soda! Do you hear me?"
"H-huh? What ha-happened? Am ı dead?" Souda thought.
When he finally opened his eyes for a bit, he saw Fuyuhiko, Hajime, Sonia, Akane and Nekomaru looking at him from above while leaning to get a better view of his face. A" phew" came out of Akane and they all seemed to relax a bit.
"Souda, do you feel alright? Can you sit up?"
Souda stared at Hajime with a blank expression and was breathing through the mouth because of how low effort it required compared to inhaling from the nose. He forcefully nodded to not keep them waiting and was then lifted up by the torso. They placed a pillow behind him to avert any unnecessary back pain while he rellocted his sense of self.
"YOU ALMOST HAD ME THERE FOR A SECOND CHAMP! I thought that ı killed you or something."
"Y-yeah, me too."
"WHAT DİD YA SAY? My ears aren't very sensitive to whispers!"
"Nothing, ı was just talking to myself."
"Alright, that's enough distraction for today. We should just let Kazuichi rest a bit and proceed with the meeting plan ourselves." Hajime interrupted the idle talk to give him some space.
Everyone stared at him and nodded understandingly. Kazuichi on the other laid down and started enjoying the softness of the pillow while squinting eyes a bit to allow himself to sleep. Hajime gathered everyone around a circle in which he was in the center.
"As you all know, there are some brilliant news that ı am about to share. First of all, Mahiru will wake approximately in 3 days judging by her movements and a few others are in the process of waking up!"
"How exciting! But who are these others?"
"Good question! They are Peko and Hiyoko."
Fuyuhiko sat up, bewildered by the sudden mentioning of someone that was so dear to him. Yet, he couldn't but curse out of frustration. He didn't know what to do or what to say in case she woke up and was exasperated at Hajime for not informing him about it earlier.
"What the f**k Hajime!? Why didn't you tell me about it sooner!"
He showed his fist in an attempt to threaten him despite knowing very well that he would easily overpower him in a one on one battle but couldn't care any less about it in that moment. Hajime backed down and raised both his hands with his palms turned at Fuyuhiko to calm him down a bit.
"Woah, calm down calm down. I just learned about it an hour ago while checking up on all our comatose friends."
"An hour ago? You're the frigging Ultimate Ultimate! How could you possibly not be aware of it sooner?"
"That's the thing! She has just started showing signs of improvement. İt will take around 3 weeks for her to wake up."
"Oh, that's... That's fine ı guess. Sorry for judging so quickly."
"İt's alright, don't mention it. So, do any one of you have any more questions?"
They all shook their heads in unison and kept silent to allow him the chance to speak up.
"Well, as you may all know, 3 out of 4 patient rooms are full in the hospital but it will decrease to 2 when Sagishi gets discharged from the hospital in a few days unless something bad happens."
"Yes, also pardon my interruptance but is Gundham in the process of waking up as well?"
"Not exactly to tell the truth, he still is in a state of deep slumber. Why? Did you expect him to be?"
"No, ı just... The animals in the ranch depends on an expert to take care of them and Gundham is the only one suitable for the job besides you."
Hajime could tell just by looking at her that it wasn't the main reason she wanted him to wake up early. İt was something more sinister, something that he could emphatize with as he had the same feelings towards someone special to him as well. However, he acted oblivious to her under handed motive to not disturb the flow of events.
"I see, then why don't you give him some of the meds in the locked part of the cupboard to rush the awakening process? I will lend you the key whenever you are up for it."
"Really? I can do that?" Her face lit up with the new found hope that embraced her whole body.
"Sure, ı don't see a reason to decline. We have empty rooms and as you said, are in dire need of help for the animals."
A soft blush became appearant on her cheeks and understood that Hajime knew about her emotions towards the Ultimate Breeder. They both drifted their gazes away from each other to not spread her secret and returned back to their current topic.
"As ı was saying, our classmates are waking up one by one, you all know that by now. But there is a surprise that ı have prepared for you."
"A SURPRİSE!? Don't tell me it's what ı'm thinking. Are we... having an all you can eat bouffet!? Because ı can eat A LOT!"
"I hate to burst your bubble but ı' m afraid that's not the case here. Besides, you shouldn't pump yourself with large amounts of food after starving yourself for years."
"Aww man and here ı was being so excited for nothing."
"ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP. Just let him talk for a second, damn it."
An uncomfortable silence reined over them immediately after Fuyuhiko's outburst and Hajime utilized this situation to jump back to his announcement. He couldn't waste any more time as it was getting dark.
"Ehem, thanks for your attention. As ı was trying to say numerous times, ı have a surprise for you. Only imposter knows it besides me so far and ı am excited to finally be able to share it with you. There is a new inhabitant that will stay with us on this island from now on!"
"Wait, but how? Aren't we supposed to be isolated in here for our crimes?"
"Excellent question, Akane! He actually requested to be here with his own free will, besides he can always leave if he wants to."
"Even so, people can't just come here and visit us whenever they want. This isn't a survival show that tries to burst it's ratings!"
"Well, he isn't just "someone" . He was a classmate of yours back in the day and he wishes to contribute to our journey of healing in any way he can hence why he decided to stay in here."
"Hmm, someone that we knew. İs he looking for a coach? BECAUSE I' M BORN READY FOR İT, HAHA!"
"I don't know, why don't you go and see for yourselves?"
He walked out from the door and gestured an anonymous person to come inside. Sounds of tiny foot steps that got closer and closer echoed through the empty hall. After long and tedious seconds of waiting, the figure finally in front of the room with his front faced towards them.
All of them froze at the sight and didn't know what to say or do. Even Akane had a serious expression on her face which said A LOT about the situation they were in. Hajime on the other hand was enjoying their hilarious reactions but still remained unruffled.
The figure began intertwining his fingers to ease the anxiety that began bottling up after reaching towards his destination. He hid around the other side of the hall for a good 20 minutes and kept reciting the small speech that he prepared only for it to be erased from his mind instantly because of a temporary feeling.
Hajime came to the conclusion that none of them were eager to be a conversation starter after seeing both sides not making any move and decided to give them a little push.
"Hey, why don't you introduce yourself to us? I'm sure it will warm up the freezing atmosphere we have in here."
"O-ok, s-s-sure! I can do that."
Hajime smiled at him and he returned it with a nervous smirk. He then simply breathed slowly for a moment before mustering up the courage to talk with his ex-classmates.
He took a step forward without contemplating and looked them all in the eye. Despite his serious exterior, he was actually very nervous deep inside and wanted to dig a hole to bury himself in it but knew he had to be more social if he desired to help them with his problems.
This time, it was going to be different. He swore to himself that he wouldn't act like the coward he was back in high school. İt was the time to change and it was starting now.
"My n-name is R-Ryota..."
İn the middle of the sentence, he wanted to give up more than anything. He wanted to disappear from the surface of earth. He felt ashamed that after everything he put them through, he still had the audacity to visit them. But after Hajime gently landed his hand on his right shoulder like a supportive brother would do, another desire popped up in the nervous man's psyche. He wanted... to give himself the chance to help them get back up again. He wanted it more than anything now.
"...Ryota Mitarai. And ı'm looking forward to meeting you all again."