Chapter Text
Trauma Central
(Six members are online)
Coral: if i jump out of my third story window will it kill me yes or no
Coral: this question is time sensitive
Zephyr: are you jumping for the beef or what?
Ember: here in parkour civilization, no one jumps for the beef
Ember: FR though Coral I have no idea LOL
Ember: you're tough tho I think you'd be fine
Revenant: I would highly advise against trying. You might survive but you will be incredibly injured.
Coral: i prefer Em’s answer that i could take it
Coral: at least someone has faith in me
Ember: show that ground who's BOSS :D
Sol: It would depend if you're jumping straight into concrete or attempting to cushion your fall with something like bushes. It's highly likely you would break something depending on how you landed and even if you do fall into bushes you could still be seriously injured by twigs, branches or thorns.
Coral: thank you Sol for an actual answer, your hard work is always appreciated
Sol: :-)
Revenant: I also gave you an actual answer you know.
Coral: sure but youre not Sol
Sol: :-3
Zephyr: still w those freaking noses man I JATE TGEM
Ember: she jate on my tgem till I
Zephyr: die.
Coral: retweet
Revenant: I still don't understand that meme format.
Sol: How are you the same age as the rest of us again?
Wisteria: why are you trying to jump out of a third story window anyway Coral?
Revenant: My job keeps me too occupied to be wasting my time on the same silly things you do.
Zephyr: bros employed n shit
Ember: CRINGE
Coral: [replying to Wisteria: why are you…]
my mom's on my ass again and i cannot deal with her anymore
Coral: so same shit as always ಠ_ಠ
Wisteria: sorry to hear that
Ember: gah teria you're so cold :(
Ember: you'll be okay Coral!! Just remember you don't have to put up with her forever!! You've always got us looking out for you too!!
Zephyr: all of us suck at comfort em
Zephyr: that's what you're for
Zephyr: comfortmaxxing
Ember: it wouldn't hurt for you guys to learn a thing or two from me then!!
Sol: no thanks :-)
Ember: so cruel… so cold… ;-;
Revenant: The day I learn something from you Ember is the day the world stops turning.
Coral: youre sweet Em i really appreciate it :)
Ember: Rev I could snap you in half easily don't try me hoe
Ember: always happy to help my friends out, Coral :D
Revenant: So violent. Are we not friends, Ember?
Zephyr: holy Numbers this gc is a fuvking nihtmareo
Ember: we're not friends rev you're like my sibling who activates my Cain Instinct the most
Revenant: Awwww. You think of us as family. Adorable.
Coral: worst most fucked up family dynamic in history
Sol: found (in a lab) family
Wisteria: ha!
Ember: YOOOO teria laughed !!
Ember: good job Sol that was a good one
Sol: I'll be here all night :-)
Sol: because it's not like I have anything better to do
Revenant: I want no part of this family dynamic. You are all terrible annoyances to me.
Revenant: Aside from Sol, of course.
Sol: :-3
Coral: you know what that's fair
Zephyr: based actually
Wisteria: everyone likes Sol.
Coral: however i'm sorry to inform you that there is no leaving this family
Ember: once a Lost Kid, always a Lost Kid.
Ember: you're stuck with us foreverrrrrrr
Revenant: Joy.
Zephyr: act as tough as you want Rev I know you're smiling sceretly
Coral: WRONG actually Rev only smiles at his boss who he's in love with
Revenant: I am certainly not in love with my boss. I just respect him and appreciate all he has done for me.
Sol: you do talk about him a lot
Revenant: Well yes. I live with him and he did save me after the Incident.
Zephyr: ah, daddy material
Zephyr: SAVE ME REVENANTS MYSTERIOUS BOSS
Revenant: He is only two years older than all of us. I think he would have to be a lot older to be considered “daddy material”.
Ember: still don't get how he can be eighteen and be in a position of power at whatever tech company u work at Rev
Wisteria: nepotism.
Ember: that'd do it
Coral: hey Rev i don't suppose your boss would want to take in any more highly traumatised kids with terrible coping mechanisms?
Revenant: Depends. How good are you with a computer, Coral?
Coral: atrocious
Coral: i can make boss man an epic oil painting however
Coral: hows he feel about getting a pony-sona?
Zephyr: that's hilarious I want 14 of them now
Ember: hey teria is good with computers though right?? Maybe your boss could take him in?
Wisteria: I don't need to be adopted
Wisteria: I'm emancipated anyway
Ember: being emancipated at 16 is exactly the reason I mentioned it
Wisteria: I look after myself fine enough.
Revenant: Do let me know if you change your mind, Wisteria.
Coral: [replying to Zephyr: that's hilarious I…]
bold of you to assume I don't already have pony-sonas made for everyone here
Ember: oh my Ra that's unhinged. I love it.
Coral: i am cringe, but i am free
Sol: why do you wanna be taken in by Revs boss anyway Coral? Was the fight with your mom that bad?
Coral: okay i need to come clean with you guys
Coral: i didn't jump from my third story window but i DID climb out of it
Coral: i might be sitting in a park trying to figure out where to go from here
Coral: LOL !
Sol: oh…
Sol: well you're definitely free now
Zephyr: BESTIE IT IS ONE AM AT LEAST STAY SOMEWHERE WELL LIT AMD IN VIEW KF SECURITY CAMERAS
Ember: SECONDED PLEASE BE SAFE
Wisteria: I take it that going back isn't an option.
Coral: no.
Coral: I'm done with her.
Revenant: Do your best to stay alive for now Coral. Let me know where you are and I'll be over as soon as I can.
Coral: really? your boss isn't gonna be mad at you?
Revenant: Not for this.
Ember: OMG LOST KIDS REUNION??
Ember: I always hoped we'd all get to meet for the first time at some theme park or smth :(
Sol: I've never been to a theme park before
Ember: MORE REASON WE SHOULD ALL GO ONE DAY !!
Zephyr: I fucks w a theme park
Zephyr: Em I'm going to kick your ass at all the mini games
Ember: BET.
Coral: I've also never been to a theme park :(
Wisteria: same.
Revenant: They seem like terrible and crowded places.
Ember: Ra this gc is so fkn sad
Zephyr: we're goign to a thmee park and that's FUVKING FINAL
Sol: oh and let us know when you're safe Coral
Zephyr: oh yeah and rhat I guess
Coral: will do girlies
Revenant: My boss and I are en route to pick her up now.
Coral: YOOOOOO SUCK IT I GET TO MEET THE BOSS MAN
Zephyr: I MUST JNOW IF HES DADDY MATERIAL PLEASE CORAL
Coral: SIR YES SIR
Revenant: I've changed my mind. You can die for all I care.
Zephyr: what the freak Rev you can't speak to Coral like that
Coral: yeah what the sigma i thought i was your favourite sister??
Revenant: We are still not a family, you realise this, don't you?
Revenant: Besides, you would be my only sister which is not a fair comparison.
Coral: idk sometimes i think Wisteria could be a fellow girlfailure
Wisteria: ???
Coral: I know what you are.
—
When Miyu had set out in the hopes to find the other victims of the Lost Incident, she really wasn't expecting much.
She had hoped, of course. She hoped so desperately to find the only five other people in the world who could ever understand what she had lived through. But she knew just how miniscule her chances truly were.
Maybe if the Incident hadn't been so thoroughly covered up. Maybe if they could have seen each other through those stark white walls or could have spoken to each other when they were finally allowed to rest for the day.
But in reality they had been kept so completely isolated that Miyu had barely managed to catch a glimpse of the others when the police had carried her out of that room.
She didn't bother with asking her mother if she knew anything either. She used to be overbearing on a good day but since the Incident, Miyu was lucky if she was allowed to even look out the window of the tower she had been locked up in. If her mother knew that the phone she had, an old and outdated Kaiba Corp model that probably only functioned through the CEO’s pure willpower anymore, could reliably run any sort of messaging app she would throw the thing into the ocean.
Her mother didn't want her speaking to anyone and would barely tolerate her therapist or doctors being around either.
So Miyu couldn't ask after the other kids but she never stopped thinking about them. Like how the thought of Aoi, of finding her and apologising and being able to see her smile again had helped her survive the torture, the thought of the other Lost Kids helped her through the crippling isolation of being rescued.
Because she wasn't alone and there were people out there who would understand.
She meets Zephyr by accident.
She's ten and lurking in some chats that she maybe shouldn't be. But for all her mother's paranoia, she never really gave Miyu any talks about internet safety or restricted her internet access. Something which Miyu has learned to take full advantage of while she's locked away like Rapunzel. Something which led her to finding the first of the other Lost Kids.
The two of them became fast friends. They never shared their names or their cities or their schools – not that Miyu had a school name to give him in the first place – but Zephyr shared how the Incident had affected him; shaking hands, a weakened heart, an older brother indebted by sudden medical bills who suddenly didn't want anything to do with him anymore.
And in turn, Miyu told him of her own shaking hands and her crippling agoraphobia and her controlling mother who took full advantage of that fear to keep her completely isolated.
And in time, Miyu eventually told him of her hope to one day find the others the same way they had found each other.
They're twelve when they find Wisteria. Thirteen when they stumble across Ember and Sol and fifteen when they finally find Revenant.
Now at sixteen, they're all as close friends as she could have ever hoped for. The only five people in the world who could ever understand what she has been through just like she is someone who will always understand them too. No longer does she have to feel so alone, locked up in her tower for ten long years. No longer do they all have to feel so outcasted from the world after what they had been through.
Now at sixteen, Miyu finds herself alone with a half packed backpack, a thick woolen cardigan clutched tight around her to stave off the chill of the night as she sits shivering on a park bench.
Running away from home was something she had daydreamed about for years now, but it was never something she thought she would actually have the courage to go through with. She hated playing the part of Rapunzel, but at the end of the day, she knew she was safe up in her tower.
The outside world was as scary as it was tempting. Miyu used to love the beach when she was younger and for ten long years she had only seen the waves in her dreams.
She wonders if Revenant and his mysterious boss will let her see the beach. She wonders if she's being absolutely insane with the fact she places so much trust in someone she's only known through teasing messages, and someone she's only heard vague stories of.
A part of her, still a scared kid terrified of duel monsters cards and white walls and clinging desperately to her mother, begs her to go back home. To climb up the lattice and balance on drain pipes and settle back in her bed and pretend this whole thing never happened in the first place.
But she's not that scared kid anymore, and this taste of freedom is the best thing Miyu has known in years. The night air is chilly in her lungs, and the shadows are scary and the yellow light of the street lamps offer terrible protection against them, but there's a lightness in her chest that makes her feel like she could fly.
Her phone buzzes in her hand and Miyu glances down at the screen to see a message waiting for her.
Revenant: Five minutes away. Do try not to get kidnapped (again) in that time.
She cracks a smile to herself and despite everything, she finds she isn't scared.
As they do so often, her thoughts wander back to Aoi. The little girl who had been her first real friend and who had put so much on the line for her.
She wonders if her old friend would be proud that she's finally taking her life into her own hands again.
Five minutes pass in the blink of an eye and from her perch on her bench, she spots a car pull up to the side of the park, the engine left idle as the doors are thrown open and two figures step out.
In her hand, her phone buzzes again, but Miyu doesn't need to read the message to know that Revenant is here to take her to safety, just as he promised.
Miyu stands, bag slung over her shoulder and slowly approaches his shadowed figure. His features come into focus slowly in the darkness, but Miyu can tell that he's pale, tall and willowy. His face is angular, his hair ghostly white and despite the late hour, he's dressed in slacks, a collared shirt and a vest.
“Hey,” Miyu greets him hesitantly. She had always hoped to find the other Lost Kids, had known how impossible her odds were, and even when they had all stumbled into each other eventually online, the thought of getting to meet any of them face to face still felt insane to her.
But here they are. Two of six. Together again.
“It's good to meet you properly, Coral,” he greets her, as polite and proper with his speech as his texting habits are and the comparison makes her grin.
“My real name is Miyu.” She holds her hand out.
He takes it, a grin of his own on his face. His hand is cold and calloused and Miyu remembers him telling them all that he loves to garden. She wonders if that's where those callouses came from.
“My real name is Katouro.”
“I'm gonna hug you now,” she warns him, waiting a beat for him to pull away before she dives forwards and wraps her arms around him.
He's still for a long moment, obviously unused to the action, but Miyu doesn't mind, because hugging isn't something that comes naturally to her either no matter how much she finds she likes this.
Katouro eventually softens, wrapping his own arms around her to return the hug properly and they pull apart soon after.
“And this is my boss, Ryouken,” there's a bit of emphasis to the title that makes Miyu grin a bit. Katouro gestures to the man standing off to the side behind him, a little taller than himself, also thin and well dressed. He has his hands in his pockets and nods politely towards Miyu.
“It's a pleasure to meet you,” he says, just as polite and reserved as Katouro. Which makes sense considering they had apparently grown up together.
“I appreciate all you’re doing to help me.” She thanks him with a clumsy bow and offers him a grin. “It's, uh, nice to meet you also.”
“It's the least I could do,” he tells her seriously. “We should go however, before your mother realises that you're gone.”
The reminder of her mother and her situation makes her throat close up a little, but she nods and grips the strap of her bag tight. Katouro is a steady presence at her side as he leads her to the car and Miyu doesn't let herself hesitate as she slips into the backseat.
Her life will be her own again, no matter the peculiar ways she has to take hold of the reins.