Work Text:
Clover had what felt like dozens of questions crowding the forefront of her consciousness after the horrific events of the past nine hours. Being kidnapped from inside her home with her brother, then placed in that same testing facility that she had suffered inside nine years ago, having to solve puzzle after puzzle and narrowly avoiding being burnt to ashes thanks to... whatever the hell was happening between him and Akane through the Morphogenetic Field.
And that really was the crux of this whole scenario, wasn't it? Clover hadn't actually met Akane prior to this recreated Nonary Game. Light must have met both of them on the Gigantic, but they both didn't particularly enjoy talking about what they had gone through. It rarely, if ever, was brought up in their conversations, so after a while, the specifics of that traumatic experience faded from their minds. As for Akane, though... she still didn't quite understand what the deal was with her.
Why did she need her and the others she kidnapped specifically?
What had happened to her to make her want to go from a victim to a mastermind?
How much of her persona as June was really her?
Were there truly no other ways that she could save herself?
And then, most pressing of all... When was she going to stop running away?
The van was getting crowded and rowdy now that there was another passenger squished in the back seat, but the more that the others talked and laughed and shuffled around, the less that Clover wanted to speak up. She couldn't get Akane Kurashiki out of her head, no matter how much she tried to think about anything else. She needed answers, and not from Junpei— she wanted the context she was missing straight from the source.
Uproarious laughter once again came from the back seat, and in retaliation, Clover slammed on the gas pedal as hard as she could, accelerating the van to the point where the tires might blow out if there were any bumps in the road larger than a pebble. She was getting frustrated with it all, and tears began to leak from her eyes while Hazuki gently tried to get her attention. Alice, Seven, and Junpei yelped as they were blown back into the seat from the sudden momentum. Ace probably slammed into the back of the van, hopefully getting a concussion in the process.
Only when she realized that her brother had been speaking to her this whole time did she stop her outburst, and the van skidded to a halt as she slammed her foot on the brake this time. She took a shaky, shallow breath in, ignoring the five pairs of eyes on her while she tried to resist bursting into a screaming sob with all the willpower she could muster. She wished she could explain what was on her mind, or why she was so upset, or even ask any of the questions that were hurting her brain to think about, but she got the feeling that no matter what she said, she'd never get the answer she wanted.
Maybe that was for the best. If she stayed fixated on Akane like Junpei was, she would inevitably go insane.
Or maybe she already was crazy and head over heels… dammit!