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When KAITO appeared in the Empty SEKAI, he was born from Mafuyu’s emotions. Anger, hatred, any of those inner feelings she had kept bottled up in that time. But yet, they were still connected. Whenever Mafuyu is in SEKAI, KAITO can feel the emotions she feels. And it doesn’t help when one day, she comes to the SEKAI as a mess.
Kanade and the others tried to help. They even tried to play the songs that Kanade “saved” her with, but to no avail. She’d yell at them, telling them to go away and leave her alone. Yet, in another part of the Empty SEKAI, KAITO’s feelings were bubbling. A few hours before Mafuyu’s breakdown, something in his chest felt off. It felt unusually tight, but not in the way he would feel when confronting Mafuyu. No. It was something else. Something seemed to cloud his mind.
He spent the next few hours pacing around, trying to calm himself. It felt like the air around him was thickening, emotions strangling him like a hazy blur. What would be the cause of this? His hands and fingers started to tremble. He felt weak. Not in the usual sense, when he’d tense up while telling the other vocaloids that they were coddling her too much. This was something much different, though he couldn’t pinpoint the cause of it.
Then he heard it. The raw, pained scream of Mafuyu a fairly large distance away, though loud enough for him to hear.
And that’s when it hit him.
The cause of all of his emotions, the things he had been feeling for the past 5 hours were from her. It wasn’t as serious as it could’ve been, since she was in the real world, but now that she’s in SEKAI, everything hit so much harder. Being a direct manifestation of fury from her wasn’t so efficient as he thought it would be. Tethered through her torment, whatever she felt, he would feel, too.
The tightness in his chest worsened, his breath hitching and ragged. His legs felt weak, giving out as he collapsed on the floor. Everything was a blur, both emotionally and physically. He tried to fight off the tears that would attack his eyes and threaten to spill over, but it didn’t work. His surroundings became unrecognizable as he started a sob, everything slowly becoming unstable around him. His hands shook with delicacy, refusing to be seen as the weak one all of a sudden. He was supposed to be the blunt, straightforward one, not someone who broke down at the slightest tinge of emotion from someone else. He clutched his chest, fingers tangling with the frill of his dress shirt and its dull, red ribbon, wiping his face with the back of his hand, but no matter what he did, the tears wouldn’t stop, and, of course, no one was there to comfort him. Everyone was preoccupied with Mafuyu, trying to calm him down, leaving him forgotten as he tried desperately to stop his broken, lonely sobs. Who would even be there for him, anyway? Mafuyu was the one being coddled, not him. It seemed like no one would ever come for him. He was just the one who would be too harsh, with no one caring about his feelings.
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Len was the first one to find him.
He had wanted some space after the whole ordeal with Mafuyu, finding it painful to watch her suffer. He wandered the SEKAI in solitude, footsteps quiet, when his ears picked up the sound of faint sobbing, ahead of him rather than behind him. Perking up, he slowly advanced towards the sound, wanting to be cautious. In the middle of the obsolete SEKAI was KAITO’s figure, shaky and slumped over on the ground. Len’s eyes immediately widened, and he rushed over to him, crouching down to meet his eye level. KAITO had curled up on himself, knees tucked up to his chest.
“What happened…?” He asked, his tone weary and timid.
He didn’t bother responding. As long as Mafuyu kept having her breakdown, he would be the same. His throat burned with each shaky sob he let out.
Kanade had also heard it, too. Knowing that Mafuyu just needed some time alone, she wandered off as well, planning to accompany Len. Seeing him trying to comfort KAITO was odd, and seeing KAITO like this in general was stranger. She made her way over to the two, being quiet as to not startle him.
KAITO being upset like this was extremely out of character. Instead of the usual angry demeanor he had, he was reduced to a weeping mess, and all because his emotions were tethered to Mafuyu. Kanade knew about KAITO being formed from Mafuyu’s emotions, but she didn’t expect it to be like this.
They both stayed there to console him until he was able to calm down enough to be able to talk. He didn’t say anything at first, but after concerned stares from Kanade and Len, he spoke.
“I didn’t think we’d connect like this,” he whispered, his voice hoarse from all of the sobbing. “I knew we were connected in some way, but emotions…?”
He wiped his face again, the sleeve coming back a lot more damp than it was when he first did it.
“You don’t have to go through this just by yourself, KAITO,” Kanade replied, rubbing his shoulder as Len played with his hair. “You’re still a member of SEKAI, even if you’re not like the others.”
He hesitated for a moment, wanting to speak up, but he didn’t. For now, all of the silence surrounding him was enough. The presence of someone who finally cared was enough. And for once, he felt like he was enough.