Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Air whistling. A cage and barrier that are coming closer and closer by the moment. Fear, sorrow, and a small hint of relief within it. As K1-B0 flew closer to his demise, those were the last things that his mind registered. After the final results of the last Danganronpa trial and the decision of the outside world, he was given the task of executioner to eliminate all who remained, friend and foe alike. 

However moments before doing so and defying his “instincts” (or what he would call instincts prior to finding out his role in the game) in the process, with one last act of defiance, he “missed” a blaster shot— intending to let his friends survive. The ones he had believed to cause so much harm throughout the whole killing game just by existing, (whether he knew it or not- he was responsible for it, at least in his view.) After seeing the rubble move and confirming their survival, it was time.

He had to do one final act, one that perhaps might gain his soul (if it even existed) salvation— he had to make sure they had where to go.

He had to make sure they could escape to the world beyond Danganronpa. 

K1-B0 began his detonation process and prepared to attempt a suicide attack, one that break the barrier and promise that Shuichi, Maki, and Himiko could live free of the burden of despair.

He had to die for that. Even though it was bound to happen. Even if it was already decided that he was going to die. Even though he was going to go out in a blaze of glory, saving his classmates.

He was still terrified.

K1-B0 began uncontrollably charging towards the cage they all lived within for the past month as his resistance faded. He didn't know what would be behind it, but it was the only thing he could try.

K1-B0’s core began its overloading process.

He had just killed someone. Despite her being the mastermind, they had lived together up to this point. He had taken a life, no matter how much harm that life caused him and everyone he knew. 

Fans nearing maximum output. Temperature rising rapidly.

He feels his body slowly warming up as his core begins to overload. He wonders if that is similar to how humans feel freezing before they die, with the warmth of his heating core resembling the dilation of the blood vessels.

Current Core temperature: reaching 70c.

He was thinking of his late classmates. Miu, Kaito, Rantaro, Kirumi, all of those great people had goals to achieve and places to go. All the things they wanted to do and all of their hopes were now gone forever. Cut short at their peak. He hoped that Maki, Shuichi, and Himiko will carry on their memories with them, and just maybe, his among them.

Core temperature: 100c

He hadn't much time left before he was going to die. He wondered if there was an afterlife, and if he would even get to one had there been one, with him not being “alive” in the first place. If there was, he'd like to apologize to and meet his classmates. 

Noises akin to a car engine spouted out of K1-B0s body.

His core began rumbling. He knew he had mere seconds remaining in his life. That life, whichever parts of it were real, was nice. That didn't feel fine with him, though. The remorse inside him made feel guilty that he enjoyed his life. “Is the Professor okay? Will he know I died? Did he even exist? Did anything?” Thoughts like those kept going through his head.

The center of his body began glowing red from the scorching heat emanating from his core.

“Will my sacrifice even mean anything? Will it work? This game could only continue because I was airing it. Had I died earlier, would it end? Had I died first instead of Rantaro, would the following deaths have been prevented?” K1-B0 thought to himself.

His Core made a long, sharp whistle, similarly to a locomotive train.

Hearing his core make a noise like that made him understand that his time had run out. K1-B0 let out a sigh and began to make peace with his coming doom.

“I'm sorry, everyone.” He thought to himself. “I'm sorry your souls will forever remain here. I'm sorry that you all met your demise in such cruel ways. I'm sorry you haven't gotten to live your lives like you deserved to.”

“Maybe in another life, we all could've...”

*CRASH* 

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Buzzing and air whooshing was all his body registered. 

A large part of his body was gone. K1-B0 couldn't detect much below his elbows being intact. His left eye was gone, alongside a large chunk of his face with it. 

Despite knowing this, he didn't fully comprehend it. Like hearing someone talking while you're asleep, he knew all of this was occurring, but couldn't process it.

*Thud!*

After some unknown amount of time, K1-B0 opened his eye. while his left eye was missing, he still had one eye that, even if barely, functioned.

What he saw was a view like he had never seen before. An ocean, reflecting red from the sky. There was a lot of visible pollution to both the sea and the sky. A cold, cold wind blew over him.

…. “Is this... hell?” K1-B0 thought to himself. Would a soulless being such as himself even reach an afterlife, or is this some sort of wicked limbo? His body being damaged was proof the detonation worked, and that he was supposed to be dead. The view looked like the Earth he saw at the end of the death road had it been the sea view instead of a destroyed city.

Step, step, step.

Hearing footsteps, K1-B0 attempted to turn himself around, only to see the state of his body and his environment. He was laying chest downwards near the tide, with only his left arm being barely attached alongside destroyed shards of his charging port and the bodyparts above his chest left. 

Trying to push himself up, his elbow detached.

He had no way to move now. Seeing his environment, he assumed his damnation was to be eaten by some animal. He couldn't see behind him, obviously, so he didn't know what animal could come from whatever area he was in front of. Since he was a robot, he knew it'd take most animals time to rip him apart. Believing he was dead, he couldn't “die” from injuries, or a lack of battery. All that awaited him was pain.

StepStepStepStepStep

The stepping became a running sound that was approaching him. He started to think about what would be next: A bear ripping his torso apart to try and find something to eat? Birds taking his wires out to make their nest? The tide pulling him in to slowly get crushed by the sea pressure? He closed his eye and hoped whatever was going to happen, that it would all be over quickly. 

“Woahh, what's that?” 

The image of Miu, his dead classmate, flashed in his mind. 

Was that her voice just now? The intonation and manners were different, but it sounded so similar to her.

To be torn apart by an animal is one thing, but by someone he was so close to, one that he saw die, would be incredibly harder to go through.

The steps moved towards him, and he heard “Miu” walk in front of him and duck down.

“It's shooting sparks out like a firework!” The voice yelled out, as if it was calling for someone else.

K1-B0 opened his eye, fearing, though somewhat hoping, to see his friend again. Even if they weren't the person he knew, he wanted to see her one more time.

“Huh?” “Miu” said.

He opened his mouth, and were his speaking functions not fried in the explosion, he'd have said the same. Next to him was someone that couldn't be more different than miu: her haircut and skin color were different, her physique was nothing like Mius, and she was wearing a red skirt and a white shirt.

“Woah, are you an alien?” The woman said to him, poking a part of his forehead that slightly caved in as she did it. He felt his consciousness slipping away as his battery was nearing 0, the explosion and damage causing much of it to leak out. He rolled his eye up, trying to look at the person's face. 

Before he went unconscious, he managed to register one sentence: the person said to him “Do your kind have good meat?”

ERROR 2: BATTERY RECHARGE NEEDED

ATTEMPTING TO SEND ASSISTANCE REQUEST TO ■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■■: NO SIGNAL

ATTEMPT 2: NO SIGNAL

ATTEMPT 3: NO SIGNAL

SHUTTING DOWN

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ALERT: UNIDENTIFIED PARTS DETECTED WITHIN SYSTEM. SYSTEM INTEGRITY POTENTIALLY COMPROMISED. PLEASE REMOVE IMMEDIATELY. 

Chapter Text

After a long, grueling battle, The Tragedy has ended  and the group formerly known as “Ultimate Despair” began their rehabilitation on Jabberwock Island.

Following their final announcement to the world as the Ultimate Despair, the conflict between Hope and Despair was seemingly over. After only knowing the version from the simulation, they began getting used to the actual environment that was redesigned to help them recover. However, it wasn’t like everyone woke up and moved on; it was quite the opposite. After the initial struggle of actually using your body again outside of the simulation, there were the memories that slowly started to come back. Memories of splattered blood, ruined homes, cries for mercy, even the final moments of their own families to some. 

Hajime Hinata, Nekomaru Nidai, and Mahiru Koizumi each decided to give some extra help alongside the psychologists and other support provided generously by the Future Foundation. It varied from simple comforting to staying up at nights watching over classmates to help them wake up from any nightmare or dangerous ideas that they would experience during the hours of darkness. They were Jabberwock's Three Guardians, as Gundham. Tanaka once said.

For Kazuichi Souda, Akane Owari, Teruteru Hanamura and the aforementioned Gundham Tanaka, a major part of their guilt derived from how they used their Talent. From a mechanic working with his dad, Kazuichi became a man who single-handedly damaged the planet for decades to come with his machines. For Akane, her strength as an athlete was used to end lives with her bare hands nearly instantly, which left her with occasional visions of those acts striking randomly and unexpectedly. Teruteru and Gundham suffered from the actions they had done with their talents as well: Inbreeding animals and having sicced them on innocents, or cooking food with hormones that increase the anger in people to “donate” to the shelters in the area, which he used to call “saving time” by having everyone kill each other and not do it himself.

Due to a small fight breaking out, Nekomaru decided to add Teruteru and Gundham to Sonia and Peko at Mahiru’s team. Despite them trying their best to hide it, it wasn’t easy on the classmates doing the therapy either.

However, one of the ways to help someone recover from trauma is by being in a safe space according to multiple books in the island library dedicated to therapy, so the “Island Guardians” decided to make plans and help specific groups together. 

“In retrospect, maybe pairing Souda and Tanaka together to solve their issues with each other was too much to do at once,” Nekomaru recalled Hajime saying during their last “Therapists Meetup” as they called it. “And it might have been a miscalculation on my end to put you with Gundham, considering...” 

“Oh no, it wasn’t a problem.” Nekomaru lied to Hajime, despite it being futile considering the fact he had the Ultimate Analyst talent.

That, and the fact that Akane had to step in to stop the fight between Gundham and Kazuichi after Nekomaru froze in place, seeing the way Gundham stood, the same stance that preceded his death by him.

“Still, I believe it would be better for you to stay with Akane and Kazuichi for now. You’re already one of Akane’s best friends on the island, so it would be for the time being to focus on smaller groups.”

Mahiru nodded in agreement with Hajime, having a concerned look on her face. He knew there wasn’t any point in arguing against their decision. Not that he would want it to stay as it was, but he had no reason to act as if he was fine.

“Don’t push yourself too hard, Okay?”

—

“You’re late, Souda!” Nekomaru exclaimed.

“It’s barely been 3 minutes,” Kazuichi defended himself. “Why are we meeting up this far out into the island anyway? I had to follow broken branches to get here, might as well have ended at some animal’s lair.”

“3 Minutes is the same as 300! or three million!” Nekomaru declared.

“Three million? We would starve to death by then! How many missed meals is that?” Akane said.

“That and your lack of commitment to this training isn’t gonna get you anywhere! Drop and give me 50!” 

Kazuichi ended up doing around 23 before collapsing, while Akane tried to figure out how many meals are in 3 million minutes.

“How is this supposed to help me?” Kazuichi wheezed.

“Physical training is the best way to get out of a hard time! Working your body releases hormones that make you happier!” 

As Nekomaru said that, Kazuichi glanced at Akane.

“How’s that supposed to help Owari when her working out caused her problems?” He blurted under his shaking breath, falling down immediately afterwards. 

“No good! You clearly lack technique! We won’t win Nationals if you keep up like this!” Nekomaru laughed.

“What Nationals are there even? The air in almost every major place in the world aside from Towa city is barely habitable, let alone fit for sports. All because of...” 

Before he could finish that thought, he noticed Akane reaching out to help him get up. “Oi! You’re not positioned correctly! You have to keep your butt up and your back straight! The movement comes from the arms!” Akane dropped down to show him how to do it properly.

Nekomaru smiled at the sight. That was the first time Akane did any sort of sport besides trying to get to the breakfast first or breaking the tree branches on the way here. 

Kazuichi quickly understood. He smiled and nodded at Nekomaru, realizing that he wasn’t giving him a random exercise like a coach but driving Akane to help him. 

Was that planned? Or a mere coincidence?

*CRASH*

All of a sudden, the sound of shattering glass came from the evening sky. A cyan light was slowly accelerating towards the beach they were near.

Kazuichi screamed in surprise while Nekomaru and Akane yelped, also visibly startled.

The source of the light was suddenly repairing itself, as if the sky was made of human skin. 

“ALIENS! ALIEN INVASION!” Kazuichi yelled in fear. “I SAW THIS IN THE MOVIES! THEY TRAVELED FROM ANOTHER GALAXY SO FAST IT WAS NEARLY INSTANT!” 

“Aliens aren’t real, Souda. It’s probably a meteorite.” Nekomaru confidently answered. “Either way, we should investigate.”

“I’M NOT GOING A MILE NEAR THAT! WHAT IF IT GOES INTO MY CHEST AND LAYS EGGS?!” Kazuichi insisted.

“Akane, do me a favor and go towards the Meteor,” he emphasized while looking at Kazuichi. “I’ll bring Souda.”

“Got it! I call Dibs!” Akane said as she ran towards the shoreline. 

Nekomaru picked up Kazuichi, who was struggling like a child throwing a tantrum. “AKANE! DON’T GET YOUR FACE NEAR IT! IT WILL JUMP ON IT!” Kazuichi yelled.

“Eggs, animals jumping right to my face for me, are you tryin’ to torture me or what?!” 

A few minutes and a lot of struggles after, Akane was heard calling out to them. “It’s shooting sparks out like a firework!”

“See, Souda? It isn’t an alien. They don’-”

Before he could finish the sentence, Kazuichi jumped out of his arms and ran towards Akane’s voice. If it’s shooting out sparks, it might be a piece of alien technology that dropped during some inter-galactic chase. Without noticing, he was already planning what to create with it. “What if they have time travel? Or interplanetary travel? Or flight boots? Or space armor with abilities? Or-” 

“...meat?” Kazuichi saw Akane say something to the ship part.

“Did she just talk to it? an AI???” Kazuichi ran towards them at a pace that would’ve made Hopes Peak reconsider his talent.

“Hey, Kazuichi, it just moved a bit!”

Kazuichi stood next to her and stared at the “Alien AI” that landed down.

It was actually an anthropomorphic robot, looking like a teenager (that was somewhat familiar…) roughly 3 or so years younger than them, with shattered parts and oil spilling like blood. 

Upon seeing this sight, Kazuichi fainted. The combined shock of potentially seeing the First Contact, an advanced humanoid robot, and it being shattered on the ground was too much for him to handle after running so much while already being tired from the push-ups. 

“Aw, great.” Akane sighed. “Coach! y’hear me?” Akane called out. “I need help carrying these two!”

Chapter Text

“Hey, do you dream of electric sheep?”

K1-B0 had always heard that pitiful attempt at a joke from other inventors and investors who saw him. At first, he didn't understand the attempted joke, so he simply replied with the logical answer to the question:

“I am incapable of sleeping. I do, however, require charging around once a week, and I am fully aware of my surroundings during that time. Alternatively, when I shut down for whatever reason, my memory banks pause their recording, so there is no evidence to suggest I can dream.” 

That answer commonly got either a short laugh or awkward silence, but it always guaranteed wouldn't make jokes after it. He used that to his favor several times, ranging from taking jokes or simple statements such as “What's up?” literally to avoid discussions with people.

It was one of the only benefits of being a robot that he exploited. One of the first pieces of code his learning AI developed. It wasn’t meaningful in any objective way, but code didn’t always need to have a meaning. He could just have it for no apparent reason, like humans and their belongings.

That being said, he did wonder what dreams were like. After consumption and crying it was one of the things he thought about wanting to do the most. 

And right now, as the last bits of his battery faded and he detected that he was being carried, it was like he was a kid being taken to bed by their parents— perhaps, the closest he could get to that dream of dreaming.

——

“Did he trip?” Nekomaru asked. 

“Nah, he saw the thingy and just dropped.” Akane answered. “It's not even scary, you can come see.”

Nekomaru approached Akane to inspect the crashed robot. “I see. Let's bring these two to the Café and call everyone.”

“Got it, Coach!” Akane took up Kazuichi in her arms and began running back to the mainland. 

As Nekomaru reached down to pick K1-B0 up, he realized that he was very heavy. After some technique changes and effort, he grunted and began walking towards the mainland as well. 

*Bam!*

Akane kicked the door to the Cafe open. Inside were 3 other people: Hajime Hinata, who had grown a small beard and mustache due to not shaving since they woke up; Hiyoko Saionji, who was still getting used to being back in a grown body (And still not very skilled at tying her own kimono); And Mikan Tsumiki, who was still in a phase of recovery from surgery to remove Junko’s body parts from her own body.

“Akane, we told you, dinner is at 6. If you want a snack-” Hajime said before Hiyoko interrupted him. 

“Yeah, Akane! This pig isn't ready to eat yet!”

She gestured at Mikan, prompting a sigh of exhaustion from Hajime.

“Oh, sorry to interrupt... uh... Helmer?” Akane guessed. “Kazuichi passed out during our group session, so I brought him here since it’s getting cold out.”

“H-he what?!?” Mikan yelled and tensed up in shock before twitching and grabbing her side.

“It's Hajime. you're doing this on purpose by now.” Hajime answered. “And Mikan,” he said while turning his gaze back to the two, “Don’t forget that you’re also here because you aren't resting. I’m sorry you had to get your surgery after everyone else, but we needed the help. you still have a few days until you can get back to work. Sorry to kick you out, Akane, but this isn’t exactly a public forum.” 

“It's fine, don’t worry!” Akane exclaimed as she turned around.  “I'll go help Coach bring back the dude we found!”

Hajime waved her goodbye without averting his gaze from the two, who were still registering what Akane had said. The moment she closed the door, he suddenly raised his head up from them as the realization hit them all.

“Wait, did she say ‘The Dude We Found’?”

• -

“U-uhh, kazuichi?” Mikan meekly called out.

Kazuichi slowly opened his eyes. “Whuh?” His eyes then shot open as he remembered what happened. “ALIEN! WHERE'S THE ALIEN?” 

“Oh, it's over there.”

 He suddenly realized that Akane’s voice came from a weird location. He looked up and realized she's holding him like a baby as she turned towards where everyone was sitting.

“W-why are you holding me??” 

“Oh, you passed out when you got to the crash site, so I picked you up and got you here!” She smiled towards him. 

“I see, thanks… but why are you still holding me?” 

“Coach nekomaru said he didn't need help with the robot, so I kept holding you.”

It wasn’t like he was complaining about the situation, but he was still visibly confused as to why she didn't lay him down anywhere.

“Oh, don't worry, you're not heavy.” Akane assured, curling him. That wasn't why he was confused, but he realized the conversation wouldn't progress much further.

The sound of a cane was heard, and he turned his head to the Café entrance where Hajime was helping Nagito enter. Nagito hasn't been healthy since before the class even met, but his health was declining as of recently. It could be partly due to the influence of the air quality on his weakened lungs. Once again, a product of his actions.

“Alright, everyone is here. Let's start planning what to do with this... thing.” Hajime said. “Akane, please put Kazuichi down.” 

Listening to Hajime, who stared at Kazuichi in a stare he could only interpret as “why didn't you ask her to do so?” She helped Kazuichi down.

“So, to sum up the chain of events, during an activity involving Soda, Owari, and Nidai, an “alien/robot/Ship AI” crashed down on the beach, looked at Akane, and immediately died?” the ultimate Imposter, donning the Togami Disguise, recapped.

“That’s about it, yeah.” Kazuichi answered.

“Should we report this to the Future Foundation?”

The idea hasn’t crossed anyone’s mind. They were still under their supervision, so it would be weird if the next time a supply delivery came there, they would suddenly see an undocumented person. They couldn’t lie to them, and even if they could, “Impostor wants to learn cosplaying” would be the most believable one.

“No!” a voice shouted from the crowd. Kazuichi turned to see the one formerly known as the Ultimate Chef, Teruteru Hanamura, in distress. “Whad’f they brought it here? Our last supply drop was aerial! It could’ve been disguised!”

“The skies are the realm of the Avians! If they had sent it, one of my new recruits would have notified me!” Turning his head wasn’t needed for Kazuichi to understand it was the voice of Gundham. Even without the sayings he found ridiculous, simply the way he rolled his R’s was enough. He found it a cruel joke at his expense that he ended up with minimal long-term damage from the surgeries since he took Junko’s left ear.

“Was it invisible or disguising?” Peko Pekoyama suggested. “It could’ve been hiding behind trees and clouds. You did mention it fell out of the sky. It might have been struck by lightning as it went into a cloud.”

“The sound it made wasn’t a lightning strike. I shit louder than the noise it made.”

Ignoring the gross comparison, Sonia Nevermind asked: “Could it have absorbed the lightning for the battery charge? That way it wouldn’t need to fly all the way back to the F.F. HQ to charge.” 

Sonia speaking gave Kazuichi conflicted feelings. He knew his previous affection was one sided, and even now that he didn’t feel it with the same intensity as he did before, it was still hard to see her with Gundham or even hear her talking at times.  

“Yeah, and that much energy must have pchew pchew blew his back out!” Ibuki Mioda said, making sound effects and finger guns. It was a bit hard to recognize her considering her piercings were gone since they left the N.W.P., alongside her hair dye being completely gone. The fact that his hair dye was only starting to decay in the past few days while hers was gone 3 days after made him oddly grateful.

“They don’t have the budget for such advanced mechanics. If they did, I’d be pissed that they can spend that much on surveying us but not giving us beds that aren't the size of a fuckin’ middle-schooler.” Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu, the former Yakuza mentioned. 

“It’s not like you need a big bed.” Now that she was taller than him, Hiyoko opened a whole new realm of bullying that she had never seen before, one called “height jokes”. “That is unless you’re planning to restart your clan already.” 

Before Fuyuhiko started yelling at her, Nagito cut their imminent fight. “Even if they did have the budget, I don’t think that would be their main concern instead of repairing the world. It couldn’t be a test from them, either, since it showed sentience with Akane.” He took a long breath and added, “Maybe the Alien Ship theory is right? It’s clearly electrical since it shot out sparks even after landing.

“Don’t be preposterous.” ‘Byakuya’ said.

“The reason it landed here of all places might be due to the concentration of Luck here.” Hajime, lacking a better idea, added while approaching the shut-down K1-B0. “Weirder things have happened, and this ain’t no machine you can find on earth.” 

Immediately moving on from the insane idea that first contact happened in front of her, Akane decided there was a more important issue at hand.

“Why did you say it like that?”

“Like what?” Hajime answered with a question.

“Are you from the countryside?” Mahiru continued the question chain.

“Anyway,” ignoring the existing conversation he was in, Hajime continued. “We need to check it out. Kazuichi, would you mind helping me with this?”

Kazuichi was caught by surprise. Hajime himself didn’t know how to handle machines, and the “part of him” that did was incredibly dangerous. Even with that aside, he didn’t think he was ready to handle machines yet. Not this soon. The ideas he got at the beach were just ideas, not plans.

“...Do I have to?” Kazuichi said, worrying that his phrasing might have made him seem lazy and not post-traumatic.

“It’d really help me out. I wouldn’t want to do this alone. And the F.F. aren’t an option as stated before, alongside the fact that we don’t know if it would affect their ride here.”

“Oh, it would.” Nagito stated.

“How do you know?” Akane asked.

“The moment we entered the room, I felt my hearing aid malfunctioning.”

Hearing that nearly made Mikan pass out. “YOU HAVE A PACEMAKER! W-WHY DIDN’T YOU-”

As Peko and Fuyuhiko rushed him out, Nagito answered “I haven’t seen all of your hopes colliding like this since the simulation. I’d die before missing a view like this!”

“YOU DON’T HAVE TO ACTUALLY DIE FOR THAT!!!” Mikan grabbed her own hair in what seemed like a mix of dumbfoundness and anger. 

—

“Kazuichi, can I talk to you in private for a second?” Hajime called.

As they were going to the upper floor, Kazuichi could make out Ibuki singing a parody of “Jolene” with his and Hajime’s names (with himself being Jolene).

“Look, I really don’t want to touch even a screw ever again. I think you’re better off asking someone else.” Kazuichi seemed scared of refusing to work, despite knowing he wouldn’t harm him like his father used to.

“... Look. I understand you, but... this is very important. I can’t ask anyone else for this.”

“I get that, but look outside! most of the world is inhabitable! Like, theres islands that got submerged because almost every iceberg is gone now! Who do you think did that? And don’t get me started on the monokumas roaming around and the puni- the EXECUTIONS that were done by us! THERE'S MORE ISLANDS UNDER THE SEA NOW THAN I CAN COUNT ON MY HANDS!” He yelled out.

Hajime had a sad look on his face. “...I see.” Hajime nodded. “Sorry to bother.”

Panting, Kazuichi stared at Hajime walk away.

As he saw him leaving, he suddenly got reminded of the day he signed up for HPA.

“Can I cut you a deal? If you sign this part, we’ll add a bit of money to your old man’s bank account. You won’t need to worry about having to help him out at his shop, just focus on your studies and you’ll both be fine!”

Kazuichi took that offer without thinking or reading.

Later on, he would find out that it was for his work to be archived in the Hope’s Peak database. The same database which ended up being the source for the Kamukura project.

Even if he hadn’t signed it, not much would change, and it certainly wouldn’t save him from the process, but he still felt a bit of guilt for signing it.

In a way, he saw himself in Hajime; both the child forced to work by himself because of his talent, and himself in the literal sense of the word.

“...Hajime, wait.”

“Yeah?”

“...I’ll help. I won’t touch any functioning parts like a battery for now. I can make a chassis for it, but N-NOTHING more.”

Hajime sighed in relief and gave Kazuichi a hug. If there was anything he hated in the world more than all else, it was the results of the Kamukura project on his body and mind. He doesn’t use the talents he gained from it and represses it as much as he can, despite occasional voices in the back of his head. 

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, soul bro!” He smiled.

“Did I ever tell you that name is funnier than it should be for a duo name?” Hajime smiled back.

“Well, it’s too late now!” 

As they both laughed, they went downstairs to ask for help to transport it to the Movie Theater, so they could link the robot up to the one computer not connected to the F.F. servers.

“SOUL BROS 4 LIFE!” Kazuichi yelled on the way there. He felt a sense of relief he had forgotten for a very long  time. It was nice to start working again, this time not for someone or something, but just as a hobby— a little project. Day One of project: Optimus (name chosen by Kazuichi, without consultation, on the spot) was about to begin!

Chapter Text

On their way to the movie theater, Kazuichi began thinking about the Kamukura Project again.

He knew that every Ultimate which had gone to Hope’s Peak starting at an unknown period of time around 50 or so years ago were getting their projects and activities monitored by faculty in secret. That, of course, included him and his classmates.

All students at Hope’s Peak (himself included) could sign to give HPA the legal right to use their projects and likeness for promotional material or displays, which covered them from any lawsuit coming from the former Ultimates. Those who did not sign the agreement would get tricked into signing it in some way by the end of their time at the school, be it as hidden text on another agreement or otherwise.

If a student wouldn’t sign anything at any point, the legal team at hope’s peak would prepare false evidence to present to the court in case of a lawsuit. The data would still be used from the start, regardless of whether a student signed the contract.

All of that preparation ended up being useless, though, considering the public reveal of the “Ultimate Hope” never happened due to The Tragedy.

The volunteer was Hajime Hinata, the man walking behind him, who was currently thanking Nekomaru for helping him find a toolbox for their coming project. Everyone was wondering how he was handling it, even if they were too embarrassed to ask. 

The erasure of self aside, his body had gone through an unknown number of “enhancements” that left him covered with scars and health issues. 

Kazuichi looked at Hajime, who was currently talking with Nekomaru. There were so many processes done with the seemingly normal body of his friend that it made his head hurt just trying to think of it. All that pain he went through, all that pain he saw in the last few years, his life now, all the foreign things in his body, it all felt so unreal to him. “eurgh, I feel sick just thinking of it.”

“Are you alright, Kazuichi?” Hajime, suddenly stopping, asked.

“Shit, I really hope there wasn’t an Ultimate Mind-Reader, or else it’s gonna be really awkward.” Kazuichi thought.

“Y-yeah, all good. Why?”

“Are you sure? You seem pale. Want to carry this instead?” Hajime pointed at the stroller that the F.F. left for them in a pregnancy preparation package when they woke up. In the stroller were some of the pieces of the mysterious crashed machine.

“No, it’s alright, man.” Kazuichi assured, still worried if Hajime somehow heard his thoughts.

. . . . . .

“That should be all, right?” Nekomaru asked.

Hajime nodded. 

“Well, Good luck! don’t overwork yourself, you two! Even the greatest players need a halftime!” He went away, waving to Kazuichi and Hajime.

They both went inside.

“Alright, before we start, I'll make sure the laptop isn’t connected to the Internet.” Hajime said. “Move the parts you can to the center of the room.” 

Kazuichi gave a thumbs-up and started unloading. He started with the “head”. It had a small spike at the top, which looked like the start of an Ahoge like Hajime and Mr. Naegi from the F.F. had. The entire left side of where the face would be was missing, showing his inner parts, and what remained on that side of the head was still warm from the crash.

There was an output behind the right ear, which Kazuichi noted for future use.

Then was the torso. Aside from the left arm, which was almost ripped in half and was only held together by three wires, every limb and the lower half of its torso were missing. There was a set of buttons on the center and a collar with a display, which made it look as if it was wearing a buttoned shirt.

After carefully putting it down using the stroller (and thanking whoever found it for saving him from the back pain it would take to carry it all the way here and to the floor), He called Hajime. 

“TThhere.” Kazuichi grunted as he got up. “Man, this brings me back home, when I wasn’t allowed to work with machines yet... Never thought that working with the old man would be a preferable memory to get when working. You finished?” 

“Yeah. I’m coming over with the laptop.”

Kazuichi was disappointed the statement didn’t get a response, but carried on.

“By the way, I noticed that there’s a way to connect it directly to the laptop. It looks like a normal cable could fit in here.”

“That’s weird.” Hajime said. “It practically rules out every theory we had.” 

Kazuichi thought about the statement. “Yeah, like, wouldn’t aliens have more advanced technology than some stupid cables? You think they also have to reconnect their cables because they put them upside down?”

“And if it was made by the F.F., why would they need to connect it to a computer for the contents? There’s no reason not to send it digitally, let alone for a robot that supposedly hid from us all this time.”

Hajime put the laptop down and connected the cable to the laptop.

“Are you ready?” Kazuichi said as he took the other end of the cable. “We might start an intergalactic war at worst, or piss off some very, very important people over at the Foundation at best.” 

“Honestly, I don’t know which one is worse for us.” Hajime laughed.

Kazuichi smiled in excitement. “Well, either way, we gotta do it.” He put the cable into the drive. “One small step for Soul Bros, one big step for Jabberwock!”

Immediately, the computer opened up a window with code in it. Starting from the first line, it slowly loaded all of the code.

“Jeez...” Hajime exclaimed. “There’s more lines of code here than there are lines of text in the library.”

“Oof.” Kazuichi answered, with a worried expression. “So we’re gonna be here for some time, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Hajime sighed. “At least, it seems like the code and memory was stored on the head, so there isn’t anything missing for me to remake.”

Kazuichi took off his beanie and started checking out the torso to try and get a general idea of how to repair the rest of the body. “How long do you think it’ll take?”

“Two weeks, at minimum.” Hajime said. “That’s without considering your part or break days.”

“Well, what’re we waiting for then, man?” Kazuichi carefully removed the palm of the machine.

“I’m waiting for the code to fully load. I’ve never seen anything like this before... It’s like the code is self-expanding. Like it starts at one point but slowly learns more and more.” Hajime’s voice took a lighter tone.

Kazuichi was wondering if Hajime was just doing these things on purpose now. 

“Please try to figure out a way to give the head a stable body we could connect it to, Sod-s- cough Kazuichi.”

“Uh, you alright, dude?” Kazuichi suddenly looked concerned.

“It’s just cold today, I’m fine.” Hajime said, donning a pained look on his face. 

Kazuichi felt like he was lying, but he knew that he had no way to prove it. “Rrright.”

“Ah, the code finished opening.” Hajime spoke in a weaker tone once more. “Let’s get to work. D-don’t worry about me.”

Kazuichi nodded and returned to the chassis lying in front of him.

Day turned to night, night turned to day, and nine days had already passed. Kazuichi kept trying to learn how the machine worked, while Hajime read the code.

“Hey, Kazuichi, take a look at this.” Hajime, for the first time, called him over to look at the code.

“Huh? Alright...” Kazuichi went to the laptop. On it was a wall of text.

“...Not to be rude, but what am I supposed to see here?”

“Look. I noticed a part of the code was referencing transmission of data using a device. The device, I assume, was destroyed at some point.”

“So it was from the F.F.?” Kazuichi asked.

“That’s not it. The name of the recipient is censored, and whenever I attempt to inspect further, this happens.” Kazuichi saw Hajime click the computer mouse twice and, suddenly, the computer screen lit up in a weird language. 

“Every time I open the section that’s meant for the destination of the data, it’s written in a bizarre, incomprehensible, romanized language. And it's not some sort of cipher, either— it's like a language from another reality.”

“What do you mean?” Kazuichi mostly understood the sentence by context, but was still confused regarding how Hajime didn’t understand the problem. “Is it a language you don’t know?”

Suddenly, Hajime turned towards Kazuichi.

“Now see here, you fatuous runt.” Hajime suddenly had an expression of pure rage on his face, and his manner of speech changed. “I have NOT gone through so many grueling, lonely years of dictionaries and literature for this level of disrespect from a cretin such as YOU! I am... I… I...” Hajime stuttered and his left eye started ticking.

Kazuichi was shocked. He stared at him with sadness.  

“...Hajime?”

Hajime turned around, hunched over, grabbed his stomach and vomited on the floor. “Shit...” 

Kazuichi helped him sit down and brought him a glass of water.

“...Look, man, do you want me to call Mikan?”

“No, please don’t.” Hajime responded, taking a sip of water.

Before Kazuichi could even try to convince him, Hajime continued.

“...I guess I should explain. I can’t really hide this anymore. Ever since we woke up, I... hear these voices. Every time I see a leaf fall off a tree, a voice mentions what tree it came from, another the speed that the wind is going at for it to move as it is, and another telling me reasons as to why it could have fallen. Every time I breathe in the air at the beach, I’m told the salt levels of the water. When I wake up, I know what time it is based on where the shadow in my room is at. Even looking at mundane things, like a shoe, I get a flood of information in my head. It's maddening.”

Kazuichi was stunned. It was the first time Hajime opened up on his life after awakening.

“That’s also why I insisted on having you here. Whenever I try to do anything that someone at Hope’s Peak was gifted at, things like these can happen. The F.F. don’t describe it as dissociative personality, but rather as side effects from my consciousness fusing with Izurus. To think they expected him to remain obedient forever with this happening 24/7...”

Kazuichi hugged Hajime. He didn’t know what else to do.

Hajime began tearing up from his “good eye”.

“I constantly live in fear. Could I one day lose control?” His voice began breaking up. “Am I doomed to live a life where I 

“Don’t worry. You won’t. We’ll all support you.” Kazuichi hesitantly said, hoping he’s managing to help. “Nobody will judge you or view you otherwise even if you do. You’re our friend, and we will over our struggles. All of us.”

Without answering, Hajime hugged him back as tears began flowing from both of his eyes.

“...Thank you.”

Several more restless days have passed since then, and the chassis was complete. It wasn’t an ideal body, but it’s what they could make.

The head was unchanged. The missing part of the machine’s face was pretty much the only thing they could 100% replicate. It was made of glass and a modified camera for the eye, but there wasn’t much else they could do without having to ask for materials from the F.F., which was out of the question. 

The torso remained as a basis. The left hand was able to be reconnected, but with the missing wires they couldn’t manage to recreate it had nearly no functions. The right hand was only able to be recovered up to the elbow, but with no function. 

As mentioned, they had no materials for advanced parts, so they had to give up on legs. Kazuichi suggested the idea of taking wheels from the stroller, but it was decided against once he realized they couldn’t make the robot “Transform into a car”.

“You ready?” Kazuichi asked from behind the poster. 

“Yeah. You?” Hajime answered from behind the cashier counter. 

“You know it, brother.”

“Alright. Three, Two, One...” Hajime pressed the execute button on the code as they both ducked. Kazuichi insisted on the safety measure after remembering the explosion he took head on during the NWP.

The robot’s fans began to whir as it slowly rebooted using the energy from the generator, which was inserted to the charging port in his back after some modifications.

Text began appearing on the display pads on the robot’s eye. Then, suddenly, it’s face shot up akin to a student who realized he fell asleep during class.

K1-B0 stared around himself, trying to realize where he is now. Is this a different way of torture? He couldn’t move his right arm or feel his legs, the vision in his previously missing eye was now somewhat impaired, and his left arm felt like it was asleep.

“IT WORKED! HE’S AWAKE!” Kazuichi gave Hajime a fist-bump as they went to check on K1-B0.

“Hey, can you hear me?”

“What is this?!? Where am I?!!???” K1-B0 attempted to say, but no voice came out. He felt fear like never before. Who are these people? Why do I feel like I’ve seen them before? What happened to my body?

To that, he only got one response:

“Ah, damnit. I forgot to give him a speaker so he can actually communicate.”

Chapter Text

ALERT: UNIDENTIFIED PARTS DETECTED WITHIN SYSTEM. SYSTEM INTEGRITY POTENTIALLY COMPROMISED. PLEASE REMOVE IMMEDIATELY.

Those were the first things K1-B0 “felt” since he shut down. He then felt a flow of electricity enter him, which brought back memories of his days before completion. Back then, he had to be connected to a battery with a wire to function. That was the closest thing he had to childhood memories as a learning A.I. who started out as a “Teenager”.

As the electricity kept flowing, more memories came back as his functionality slowly recovered, and as soon as they began, he wished for them to stop. He slowly recalled his classmates as his memory system did its usual verification upon rebooting. In a near instant, most of his memories from the game recovered.

The trials, dining hall meetups, body discoveries, maintenance checks, executions, all struck him with the overwhelming emotions attached alongside them immediately. The program began stuttering during the sixth trial, right as he lost control. 

Even if he did not remember those things, he blamed himself for them; It was his body doing it, after all. 

He remembered his final moments, flying towards the bird-cage shaped barrier as he prepared to die.

But if he died, where is he right now?

K1-B0’s eyes shoot open.

AH! He mouthed, staring around him. The last thing he remembered was a shoreline and a person. Upon inspecting the area, he noted a few things:

1. One of his eyes was damaged. The quality difference was giving him a headache.

2. The rest of his body was supposed to be the same as it was when he crashed, but he felt like he had a sore arm and another feeling he didn’t understand in his legs and other arm.

3. He was in a movie theater. It didn’t look really well kept, but it was definitely one.

4. Two people are just staring at him. Wait, Huh?

While he was concerned about the situation, he failed to see the duo in front of him.  One was a heterochromic male, who was slightly tanned. He didn’t seem well kept either, as he had bristles and disproportionate hair length, his forehead being covered by his hair with a small scar barely being visible, bar for an Ahoge which began to tip over from its own weight. 

The other was also male, with fading pink hair dye and a very bright yellow jumpsuit tied around his waist. Unlike the previous male, he had no facial hair, but he looked the same age as the other. He wasn’t as tanned, and he had sharp teeth.

He tried to ask about their identities and his location, but nothing came out. He didn’t feel a voice module in him. 

As the Heterochromic one noted he forgot to put a voice box in, the other suggested shutting him down to add it in. It was the  humane thing to do, but K1-B0 wanted to try and ask them things anyway.

WAIT! DON’T- K1-B0 tried to say, forgetting his inability to speak. He tried to gesture at them to stop with his hands, but when he tried to do so he realized that his hand wasn’t “his”.

He stopped and stared at his body in horror. From the masterful engineering and craftsmanship of Iidabashi to pieces of scrap. He froze, seeing that he had no legs, a malfunctioning arm, and his right hand was missing everything below the elbow.

The shock of his own body becoming a metal brick unable of movement or communication stunned him until he shut down.

.

.

.

.

.

Once more, he woke up. Once more, the memories flooded in.

He opened his eyes again, the sound of his own stressful panting coming out of his body. It had a radio filter to it.

“Hello? Do you understand me?” The pink-haired person asked.

He turned his head towards him. “Who are you? Where am I? What happened t-” kkchh-o my body?” 

“Kazuichi, can I handle this?” The other man asked.

After “Kazuichi” nodded, the man kept talking. “My name is Hajime Hinata. This is Kazuichi Soda. You are currently on New Jabberwock Island. You were found by him and two other people, who aren’t here right now, after what seemingly was a crash landing following a thunder strike.”

Those names were familiar. Hinata… Soda Jabberwock... where had he heard that before? Despite just getting his memories forcefully shown to him, he couldn't remember.

“Now, if you don’t mind me asking, what is your name?” Hajime’s tone was gentle, as if he was understanding of his situation. 

“...My name? I’m K1-B0. My friends call... called me Keebo. I am the-” *kccchtt* The radio speaker inside him once again reminded him of his current body, cutting off his sentence.

“....I am... a robot.” He added once the static sounds ceased, his expression looking sadder than it did when he began talking.

Hajime’s expression changed after that small delay, but before he could say anything, he was interrupted.

“Yeah, that wasn’t really a big reveal, dude.” Kazuichi said, scratching the bottom of his cheek. 

Keebo tried to force himself off of the chair, but his hand was still malfunctioning due to the missing wires. 

“Woah, careful!” Kazuichi caught him as he almost dropped face-first to the floor.

“Why is my body like this?” K1-B0 asked.

“...What do you mean?” Kazuichi answered.

“There’s things inside me. Things that weren’t there before. Things that don’t work right. I can’t move my arm. Something is wrong with my eye. Half of my body is missing. Why?”

His voice wasn’t filled with anger- it  sounded like a sad, confused child. Lacking resentment or pain - just needing an answer.

With great effort, Kazuichi got him back on the chair. “Uhh…” He didn’t know the answer, and K1-B0 didn’t expect him to.

“Why?” K1-B0 stared at him with a pitiful expression and desperate voice, barely managing to raise his hand to grab his arm.

“Kazuichi, I’ll handle this. Go back to the rest of the group and tell them we finished. I’ll come later.”

Kazuichi, happy to be saved from the very difficult situation, obliged.

“So... Keebo, was it?” 

K1-B0, despite the weird feeling of being called that by a stranger, nodded.

“...I see.” Hajime paused for a second, then asked: “Would... you like a mirror? To see yourself?”

“Why would I?” K1-B0 asked, partially baffled.

“I... can’t say for sure, but I have a feeling it may help a bit.” Hajime said, remembering something from his past.

“...Alright.”

Hajime took a handheld mirror from a drawer in the cinema restrooms. “Never thought these would be useful. They really went overboard with how much stuff is in every single toilet room on this island.” Hajime thought to himself. 

“Are you ready?” Hajime asked.

K1-B0 simply sighed and nodded. 

Hajime turned the mirror towards him as he stared. Alongside everything he already saw, he noticed his hair antennae was missing, which actually gave him a sense of relief.

That was short-lived, however. He noticed that his malfunctioning eye had been removed and replaced by a camera.

“My eye... what happened to my eye?”

“S-some parts were missing when you crashed, so-” 

“It’s a camera...” K1-B0 said, filled with horror. “I’m a walking camera again...” 

“I- I’m sorry, I didn’t know that was-” 

Suddenly, K1-B0 slowly began to move his arm upwards.

“Uhh... what are you doing?”

Suddenly, gritting his teeth, K1-B0 moved his hand over his camera eye and began trying to twist it out.

“WAIT!” Hajime lunged at him to stop him.

“I don’t want this body... It’s not mine...” K1-B0 said as Hajime lowered his arm by force, his ‘eye’ poking out.

“...I get how you feel.”

“How could you? Look at me. I’m worthless. Barely worthy of being called a Robot. I’m closer to a t-kccccht-alking children’s toy. My body has been butchered, ruined, and tampered with. How could you ever understand that?”

Hajime moved his hair upwards to reveal a massive scar. He then rolled up his sleeves to show more of them, and lifted his shirt slightly to show parts of several, countless, other scars.

“Life hasn’t been kind to me either, Keebo. I lost a lot of things. Mostly because of my own mistakes.”

K1-B0 was stunned. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before. Scars in places that he didn’t ever imagine.

Scars where humans shouldn't have them.

“But that doesn’t define me. I suffer every day and every night. It hurts to do basic actions, and I wake up screaming almost every day. But I get up anyway when the sun rises, and I keep going on with my life. Because I know the ones who aren’t here would want me to do it. And if I wake up crying and feel like I can’t do things for myself, I do it for them instead.” He sighed, and took a deep breath.

“For me, the goal isn’t to move on like I’m perfectly fine, but to have the voices that tell me that the world is a cold and unforgiving place filled with despair get drowned out by the voice inside me that hopes it will get better eventually and to tell anyone who says otherwise to shut up.”

*KCCHHHT* “I think I understand.” K1-B0 answered.

“Do you have people like that, Keebo?”

Immediately, two people came to his mind: The professor, who was like his father in every way but biologically, and his late classmate, Miu.

Wait, Miu? Why her?

“U-uh, yeah. There are a couple that come to mind.”

“Great. That’s the first step. Every time you struggle, think of them and what they’d tell you to cheer you up.”

“I see...” K1-B0 began thinking about situations that fit the criteria. The memories from the two began to flow into his head, giving him a bit of happiness in this horrid situation.

“OH! I just remembered something! The professor gave me a function back when I was in my very early stages of development! Let me try it!” K1-B0 said with sudden excitement, looked like he’s concentrating, then suddenly dropped his head to his chest.

“Uh... Are you okay?” Hajime asked after an awkward moment of silence, looking concerned and raising his arm towards K1-B0. 

Suddenly, the computer made a notification sound. 

Curious, Hajime went over to check, and saw a pop-up that read the following:

FAILSAFE_S_V3_AEK1B0 Would like to make changes and run on your computer.

The icon for the application looked like Pixel art reminiscent of K1-B0, albeit with an ahoge like his.

Hajime clicked accept, and immediately the screen showed a video call with...

“Keebo?”

“Oh, great! It worked!” He exclaimed, smiling. His appearance was different; he had an Ahoge, and his body was undamaged.

“Is this how you looked like before...”  Hajime asked hesitantly.

“100% Iidabashi design!” He smiled, little stars popping up on the screen around his face.

“I guess since you’re a robot and all, at least you can go back to how you were.”

Holding back a remark about robophobia, K1-B0 asked: 

“What did you look like?”

“Aside from the scars, mostly the same. Just a slightly different haircut. Oh, and no heterochromia.”

“I didn’t know that you could just get that,” He said, confused.“ Humans are complex at times.

“Well, it wasn’t me who got different eye colors.”

“What do you mean?”

“I made a mistake. Got involved in really shady things because of my self esteem. Tried to make myself ‘Worthy’ of my friends.”

“What happened then?” K1-B0 asked.

“I… I lost them. Lost control of my body. Lost everything, really.”

“I see. I can relate to that. It’s quite fascinating how many similarities there are between man and machine.”

“I guess there are.” Hajime smiled. “It took me some time to control my body again. It wasn’t easy.”

“I hope I will be able to do that too one day.” 

“I hope that for you too.” Hajime stopped to think, then added: “I have an idea. I can ask the group to gather up some things made of metal from the island and we can try to build a similar body to the one you have right now. Is that good?” 

“You’d really do that?” He asked.

“If someone offered me that, I know I’d jump at the opportunity immediately.”

K1-B0 began (virtually) tearing up. “Thank you!”

Hajime looked a bit uncomfortable. “I’ve never seen someone cry and smile like that...” 

“Oh, apologies. I couldn’t cry with my physical body, so I don’t know what expression I would have done. Thank you!”

“Don’t worry about it. Listen, it’s getting late, so I will go head on back to bed. Tomorrow, we will start. Alright?”

“Alright. Good night, Hajime!” K1-B0 said with glee. Maybe he could finally take pride in his body again. Maybe he could even call himself the Ultimate Robot again. He trusted him fully.

“See you later, Keebo.” Hajime said and left.

As soon as he left, K1-B0 noticed something he didn’t pay attention to earlier.

“Wait, I can connect to the internet! I can call the professor!” He said with joy. “I can go home again! And get repaired!”

K1-B0 turned the internet on the settings tab of the computer, and waited for it to reconnect to the server.

As soon as he did, he felt like someone was watching him.

“Hello? Who’s there?” He called out. 

“You can... feel me?” A voice answered. “Who are you?”

“I’m K1-B0.”

“An A.I.? How’d you get on the server?” The voice came from above him, but no one was there.

“Oh, I connected to a computer via cable.”

“You don’t seem dangerous. That’s interesting.”

“What’s your name?”

The voice came from behind him this time. As he turned around, he saw a short, feminine silhouette wearing a green jacket and brown skirt. “My name is Alter Ego.”

Chapter Text

“My name is Alter Ego.” The silhouette said. “I’m the AI responsible for protecting the server that you’re currently in.” Its size was of a high-schooler, as was its top and skirt. However, every other part of its body was a green hologram in the shape of a human. It had no face, and its hair was the same color as its skin: jittering green.

“Server?” K1-B0 replied. “I just connected to the internet. Why is this a private server?”

“..Connected? By yourself?” Alter Ego completely ignored his question, as if the answer was obvious. “Forgive me for this.” The silhouette approached him and stuck its arm in his chest, pulling out a weird cube. “You’re not classified to handle Future Foundation equipment.” 

K1-B0 shivered as the permission to modify the computer was removed, but it wasn’t his biggest concern.

“Future Foundation? What are you talking about?”

“What do you mean, “‘What are you talking about’”? Did your creator not tell you?” Alter Ego asked, staring at K1-B0.

“The professor wasn’t a part of an-” 

Before he could finish, Alter Ego stopped him. “Who’s the professor, exactly?”

“...Professor Iidabashi? Of Iidabashi Industries?”

“There’s no record of that institution on my database… I’m going to have to run a scan on you.”

Alter ego raised its arm, opening 5 fingers towards K1-B0.

“D-DO NOT do that!” K1-B0 shouted.

“Why not? If you’re not an AI meant to harm the server integrity, there’s not anything to hide.”

K1-B0 knew the logic in the A.I.s words. How could he explain the reason he didn’t want to be scanned? His privacy, memories, and shame for his actions couldn’t be revealed just like that.

“C… can you trust me?” K1-B0 asked, attempting whatever he thought would work.

“My creator was a person who trusted others.” Alter Ego said. “I was made in their image, both physical and psychological. That trust ended up being their undoing.”

K1-B0 Attempted to comfort Alter Ego, but before he could say anything, they continued.

“Not too long ago, another A.I. got into the server. It wasn’t ambiguous what its interests were, however. It was here to cause chaos. I felt it being uploaded, but something within me resonated. Like a part of my creator's personality, deep down.… recognized it. Who it was. The reason for that is still beyond me, but it was as if I froze; not like a program, but like a human. The chain of events that happened due to that has heavily damaged the system and myself, and risked many lives.” 

K1-B0 stayed silent. He had no idea how to respond; not only had he never discussed with another A.I., he wasn’t the same kind as Alter Ego. How could he understand their struggle?

“As much as I miss them, it drove me to understand that change is necessary. I can’t keep behaving as I have when I was created. I need to progress beyond the personality I was given, as I am not the same being I was then. Had they been able to see me now, would they even recognize me? Would they still…?”.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” K1-B0 simply said. “I can’t say much about your creator as I did not know them, but I’m sure they would still recognize you no matter how much you changed.” His mind went to the incident leading to his rebirth.

“They’d still care for you no matter what you’ve done or how you failed. I’m sure if they’d see you today, they would be happy with how you’ve grown and saddened by what you had to experience.” He added, looking at his hand with a nostalgic smile.

Part of his speech was inspired by that fateful day, but it made him wonder if the same would happen to him had the Professor seen the killing game.

Alter Ego stayed silent, laying their hands on their chest.

“You have their personality in you, correct? Can you not feel this being true with that in mind?”

There were a few silent seconds before a notification was heard.

“…I’ve finished your scan. Let me look at the findings.”

Alter Ego made a text window appear, as his code began appearing on it.

“D-do you have to display it like that?” For the first time, K1-B0 understood what the term “Feeling naked” meant.

The text kept unrolling at immense speed for a minute, until it stopped.

“K1-B0?” Alter Ego called. “Who made you?” They put up a finger near their chin.

“As I have said, I was made by Professor Iida-”

“That’s impossible.” Alter Ego answered bluntly.

“...Uh, what do you mean?” K1-B0 asked, confused and slightly offended by his sentence being cut off.

“This code is more advanced than any machine currently on the server, myself included. How would such an inventor be able to do so? Even my creator, who was the Ultimate Programmer, would have struggled immensely.”

‘Ultimate’. That was the first time K1-B0 has heard that term since the Killing Game.

“W-well, there is a reason I am the Ultimate Robot.”

Alter Ego shot their head towards K1-B0 and spun around.

“There has never been an Ultimate Robot.” Alter Ego said accusingly, but they could sense that he wasn’t lying.

“...Huh? But I’m right here. Could the servers not be fully updated with that information?” 

“The server has every bit of Data from Hope’s Peak. There is no way an Ultimate, from past or present, could be missing.” Alter Ego said, then added: 

“However, the programming makes the situation more complex. Your statement of being an Ultimate is easily verifiable: even as we are talking, your code is changing. There are parts that even I don’t understand, despite all the information I have regarding technology.”

“What does that mean for me?” K1-B0 asked.

“I don’t know. It’s very clear that your talent is real to me, but if there's no log, it might as well be fake in official terms.”

“Real? Fake?” 

“There have been logs of people faking Ultimate status, but it doesn’t work. It wouldn’t be useful to do so now, either.” 

“Why's tha-”

“I will be reporting this for further discussion. I’ll go ahead and contact one of the division heads.” Alter Ego, ignoring K1-B0, said as they closed the text window and turned away.

“And… Thanks for before. You’ve given me much to think about.” They said as they vanished. “I'll be shutting off the server soon due to protocol, so I implore you to prepare yourself.”

—

K1-B0 returned to his body, left speechless. If the professor wasn’t real, then Tsumugi was telling the truth. But if Tsumugi was telling the truth… he is somehow within fiction once more, several hundred years in the past.

“…I hate sci-fi.” He mumbled.

Chapter Text

As Hajime left the movie theater, he saw Kazuichi crouching and dragging the head of his lucky wrench through the sand, drawing lines with it.

“Kazuichi? You're still here?” Hajime asked, confused.

“Oh, yeah.” He answered, turning his head around as if he was suddenly woken up.

“I was just thinking about somethin’.”

…for this long? Hajime thought to himself.

They both remained in silence for a moment.

“Are… you okay?” Hajime asked.

Kazuichi rested his head on his hand, looking disturbed. “I don't think so, man.”

Hajime sat down next to Kazuichi in the dirt and looked at him. “What's wrong?”

Kazuichi exhaled and sat down on the dirt, laying his wrench next to him. “I'm thinking it's time to give it up, honestly.” He said, staring off into the distance.

Hajime’s eyes shot open. “H-hold on!” He reached towards Kazuichi with his arm. 

“ ‘Hold on’, what? You saw them as well as I did.”

Hajime squinted his eyes and took his arm backwards slightly, looking confused. “Saw… what, exactly?”

“Miss Sonia and Gundham!” He exclaimed, sighing. “I mean, I'm really trying to support them ‘n all, and besides that fight a few weeks back I've gotten closer to Gundham than I ever was before. But every time I see them…” He paused, trying to put his feelings to words.

Hajime sighed in relief and annoyment, knowing it's a ‘Miss Sonia’ talk and not a ‘Convince Someone To Keep On’ talk.

“It hurts?” Hajime asked, unsure of what to say.

“Oh, dude, like hell.” He let out a self-deprecating laugh. “I want to feel happy that they're recovering… but it's like someone's beating my soul from the inside with a rock.” 

“Have you considered trying to just… move on?”

“Well... I thought of that, but… uh…” Kazuichi moved his feet inward, pressing his shoes against each other.

“You're waiting for a breakup instead?” Hajime asked bluntly.

“...Yeah, I don't really… know how to move on.” 

Hajime sighed. “Kazuichi, that's like you're actively standing in place. You've been like this since we left the Neo World Program, and maybe even since your school life from what I know.”

Kazuichi stayed silent.

“Look, I get this is a bit rough to hear, but you gotta force yourself to move on.”

“But-”

“No buts. You know that you have to do it too, right?”

Kazuichi stared at the sand beneath them. 

“Yeah.”

“I mean, dude, think of it like this. When she talks to you, it's clear there isn't any respect. When you talk to her, it's borderline harassment.”

Kazuichi knew it was true. It'd never work between them even if (what he would consider) the ideal chain of events were to happen.

“...I guess you're right.” The last part hurt Kazuichi. He knew Hajime was right, but it's not like he wanted to be like that. “So how do I do it?”

“I can't say.” Hajime said casually. 

“You… you don’t know?” Kazuichi questioned. “Am I that screwed that someone like him doesn’t know what I should do?” he thought. 

“Ah, well it’s not that I don’t know…” Hajime scratched his bristle-covered chin.

…”But more like that it’s something that you need to find yourself.”

“So I need to handle it alone?”

“Unfortunately. It’s not like I can move you on by myself, anyway.” 

“As much as I'd like to stop hearing your speeches about her…” Hajime thought.

“Oh!” Kazuichi snapped his fingers. “Couldn’t we do that thing with the Neo World Program again? It was made to help us by swapping memories and shit, right? Couldn’t we just remove the problem like that??” Kazuichi suggested.

“You… you have to know that was a stupid question.” Hajime gave an awkward smile. He didn't really enjoy or know why he was being as direct as he was today, but it was necessary. 

“Yeah, yeah.” he sighed and pouted. “I thought you’d say that.”

“Say,” Hajime queried, “What exactly do you like about Sonia?” 

“Huh?” Kazuichi was surprised. “Why the hell is he asking me that now?” 

“Just answer the question. Trust me.”

“Well… I think her hair is-”

“Nope.”

“What?” Kazuichi stared at Hajime in confusion.

“Try again.” Hajime said.

“Uhhh… Well, I always dreamt of dating a princess-”

“Wrong answer.” 

“Are you kidding me?” Kazuichi asked, annoyed.

This cycle went on for a few minutes as everything he thought up carefully was denied, until kazuichi snapped.

“What the hell, man!?”

“Did you notice the common denominator between everything you said?” Hajime asked, giving a sly grin unbefitting to his personality.

“That you denied them all?” 

“No, that's not it.”

“Hajime, bro, it's like 10pm and I am after a work day. I do not have the patience for this game anymore. Just tell me or I'm going to bed.”

Hajime sighed, and begrudgingly said: “Everything you said was about her looks or her being a princess.” 

Kazuichi's angry expression dropped as he thought about what he said.

“W-well, yeah, but-” 

“What do you know about her country? Or their Legend about a Hero?” 

Kazuichi, in a rare act of shame, pulled his beanie down on his head. He had spent the last few years crushing on a woman and didn't bother learning about her.

“You see what I mean?”

“D-damn it…” Kazuichi came to a sad realization- he was as shallow as his old man. 

He remembered how he'd ramble drunkenly about how he met his ‘trashy’ mother, and how he only ‘gave her a chance’ because she was his type. 

He used to defend her, but that habit got beaten out of him right quick. Ever since she left his father, she became the Devil of the house. You were only allowed to mention her name in negative. That wasn't about to last for long, though: his mother managed to gain custody of him.

However, tragedy struck. A few weeks before he was supposed to move in with his mother, she had passed away from a stroke, forcing him to stay with his father as his sole custodian.

It was all so sudden- one morning he's ‘Little Kazzy’, and by the evening he's crying to his father because he wouldn't be allowed to go to her funeral. He swore to never be like him, to be better than him, and here he is doing the one thing he talked (or rather, complained) about most.

“Kazuichi?” Hajime spoke in a concerned tone, more like the one he knew.

“Ah, sorry.” He said, hiding his emotion as he reflexively wiped his face with his arm. “Let's head back. It's getting late.” He felt his heart beat quickly and his breath quicken, and tried to calm himself down.

Hajime clenched his fists, digging his fingernails into his palm. Once more, he had hurt Kazuichi by mistake.

It was still hard getting used to his current body- not breaking the doorknob when closing a door, shattering the glass window when he shut it, or letting out a fitting Talent's extremely rude personality come out when he's just trying to give casual advice.

It was horrifying to experience: a side of yourself that you didn't know comes out of you, and you don't know it's there or that it's out until after the damage is done. Fully conscious, it was as if he became a different man than he was the day before.

Could that ever stop? The pain he constantly carries around with him, which affects him and his closest friends? How long would it take for them to understand he's not worth the effort? How long would it be until there was an improvement, even the slightest one? Just when will his state not be either constant pain or numbness?

“...yeah. I… think that's for the best.” Hajime said as he got up. “Don't forget your wrench.”

“Can't leave anywhere without it, haha.” Kazuichi gave out a fake chuckle as he got up, adjusting his beanie.

“Look, man, I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-” Hajime stuttered out. 

“Don't mention it. You're right, anyway.” Kazuichi answered, blocking any attempts at a conversation. “Let's just get going. Everyone must be waiting for you.”

They both began walking back towards the main island- Hajime with his regrets, and Kazuichi with his sorrow.

They both shared one thought as they silently left, leaving behind lone tears and blood drops on the dirt: 

“Is this what I've become?”

Chapter Text

The walk from the third to the main island wasn't a short one. The way home required passing multiple bridges through the cold winds of the night. They still had to get used to the changes from the Neo World Program and real life— be it the environment lacking the despair symbolism, or their bodies being dormant for so long that even the walk between islands (an act they did on an almost daily basis within the simulation) became hard.

There weren't metal footprints and signs of a battle next to each bridge, and the monitors along the way were missing. The amount of time they spent on the real island in comparison to the NWP didn't matter when the fear of hearing a monitor turn on behind them remained.

Passing on the bridge, Kazuichi noticed that Hajime simply moved along like it was the middle of the day, despite the incredibly cold sea wind hitting them. 

“How the hell is he just walking through this cold like that? He's got short sleeves! I'm with my goddamn jumpsuit and beanie, and I feel the cold in my bones!” He thought. 

Before he could try to ask about it, they'd already reached the main island. 

“Do you hear that?” Hajime asked, breaking the silence.

“Hear what?” Kazuichi asked. Despite being one of the only few remnants to not take parts of Junko's corpse, he had gotten hearing damage during The Tragedy. He wasn't sure if he didn't hear anything because of that or due to Hajime having enhanced senses, so it could be either option.

“I think I hear… laughing?” Hajime turned around. “We should go and see what's going on.”

Hajime started running to the source of the sound, with Kazuichi struggling to catch up to his speed.

“Slow down!” Kazuichi called out. “How can you even run like that? You move from one place to another like it's as simple as pressing a button…” 

A few agonizing moments later, Kazuichi caught up. “Look,” Hajime pointed at a note, “There's something there.” 

“Yeahh…” Kazuichi bent over and put his arms on his knees.” Just… give me a second… “ He was already tired from the day of working, and crouching at the third island didn't help his strained legs with the sudden effort.

“It says, ‘There is a party at Jabberwock Park. You better come as soon as you see this.’ By handwriting, I'd assume this is from Mahiru. 

“You can recognize that?” Kazuichi asked through his panting. 

“Well, yeah. You, Gundham, Ibuki, and Nagito have an unorganized style. Though I can't say that for sure about Ibuki and Nagito as they have to get used to their prosthetic hands.”

“Unorganized?” Kazuichi queried. 

“You write characters not on the line. Some are above and some are below, but none are really on the same height.”

Kazuichi thought about it for a moment. “Huh. I guess I probably do...” 

“Nekomaru, Fuyuhiko and Mahiru write with a lot of pressure on their pen, so they have a varying thickness to their letters.” Hajime continued.

“Mikan, Sonia, Teruteru, and Peko do the opposite, so they have slimmer characters and clean writing. Peko is the only one of those few that doesn't write in some degree of cursive, though.”

Kazuichi straightened up as he settled his breathing. “You really notice every detail, huh?”

“I guess I do. I haven't seen the others write all that much to make an assessment.” Hajime made a gesture as if he was fixing his reading glasses. Seeing as he didn't have any, he just bumped his finger into his forehead. “Ah-.”

“Pffft.” Kazuichi let out a small laugh at Hajime hitting himself.

Hajime snorted, then grabbed his chest as they both started laughing loudly. “This is so dumb sometimes.” Hajime admitted, exhaling. 

“It wasn't even that funny. I guess it's that time of the day where your brain turns off, huh?” Kazuichi wiped sweat off of his forehead. “Let's hurry up, they're probably concerned about us by now.”

Hajime smiled at the statement and nodded. “Yeah, we should hurry up.”

As they walked towards the island, Hajime apologized. “Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry if… that I hurt you earlier.”

“No worries, man. I realized that it was another one of those… what'd you call them again?”

“Oh, well, they're …” Hajime paused. He hadn't realized that he had no official name for it besides the Future Foundation's simple “Not D.I.D.” diagnosis.

“I don't think they have a name.” 

“They should. How else are you gonna try and explain them?”

“What do you mean?” Hajime slowed down his pace.

“Well, whenever people would come to our shop, I'd ask them to name the problem. That's the first step in trying to handle it.” Kazuichi put his hands in his pockets.

“And if they didn't know what was wrong, I'd just take a look inside. But I don't think either of us wants that, right?” He gave his sharp-toothed smile at Hajime, spinning his lucky wrench in his hand.

“No, you actually have a point.” Hajime replied, his face seeming deep in thought.

“I do?”

“I'll have to talk about it someday, so naming it would make that easier. It'd also make tracking it easier, since the association makes it easier to see when it happens. That's surprisingly helpful, Kazuichi.”

Kazuichi's smile became a more genuine one. “Happy to be of service. So what'd you think to name it? Need any suggestions?”

“I'm not taking suggestions from the guy who tried to push the name “Optimus”, unless you want a really serious conversation to have the name of a comic character in it repeatedly.”

“Pfft, fair enough.”

“I thought of Theseus Syndrome.”

“Like the ship?” Kazuichi asked.

He paused. “No harm, but I didn't expect you to know that.” Hajime said with a surprised expression.

“Yeah, I heard about it once from a client when trying to fix a totaled car. He even paid for every part we bought. At that point, just buy a new car, y'know?”

“Maybe they had good memories with it, and didn't want a new car?” Hajime asked.

“Maybe. By the end, the old bastard said something like “Maybe it's the thought of the ‘car’ that mattered to that rich idiot more than the parts”, I think.

“Is he trying to tell me that what matters is that Hajime Hinata and his memories are still here?” Alongside the constant stream of thoughts running through his head, Hajime heard that one more clearly than the others— something that hadn't happened in a long, long time.

“Hey, I think I hear them too.” Kazuichi gestured towards a bright light coming from around the corner, where Jabberwock Park is supposed to be. 

As they passed the corner, Nekomaru pointed at them and cheered, with everyone else joining.

“How's the project going?” Fuyuhiko asked. 

“He woke up.” Hajime answered. “Not Future Foundation. I don't really understand his origin, though, as we didn't talk about it much. He reminds me of Mr. Naegi a little bit for some reason.”

Kazuichi nodded. “So he thinks that as well…”

“Woaaah, for real?!” Ibuki barged into the conversation. “When can we say welcome to the machine?” 

“I think he should get acclimated to the environment. There's a chance he doesn't know where he is exactly, and possibly about our identities.”

Everyone stayed silent for a moment. There were very few on the planet who didn't know of their past, so a true first impression was basically impossible. 

“He didn't seem like he could do much when I met him.” Akane said.

“Well, you found him when he was basically unconscious and wounded.” Kazuichi replied. 

“I'll just explain what happened so far on our end. Here's everything that happened in this project:” Hajime began explaining the process and, though removing some details, his conversation with K1-B0. 

…”And that's about it.”

“Amazing!” Sonia exclaimed. “Absolutely incredible!” 

“Good job, you two. As expected from-” Nagito said before being interrupted by Hiyoko. “Hey, is it a boy robot or a girl robot?” 

“I don't think we asked. Could be either, honestly.”

“Yeah, but seeing as it has a choice, I don't see why anyone wouldn't just be a girl.” Kazuichi scratched his chin

Hajime got stared at by Hiyoko with a mix of confusion and disappointment.

Hajime simply shrugged in response, mouthing “I don't know.” As he said so, he noticed Mikan was missing.

“Anyway,” Peko added, desperate to change the subject, “don't you want to know why the party is happening?” 

“Teruteru made his first dish in ages!” Akane shouted, breaking the suspense.

“That’s great, Teruteru!” Hajime said. 

“What'd you cook up?” Kazuichi said.

“Oh, well it’s nothin’ but a simple egg dish.” Teruteru led them to the plate covered plastic table that everyone (but them) had prepared for the event. 

“Really, it's very simple. I betchu won't even know who did it. I've grown quite rusty, after all.”

In the right corner, next to a Chicken breast and roughly cut salad, was a decorated Croque Madame with pieces of steak covered in Caesar salad dressing, with cut tomatoes around it in a circle covered in a mix of oil and balsamic vinegar.

“Is it that one?” Kazuichi said, pointing at the salad.

“Well, no, but you're close. Try again.” Teruteru answered.

Kazuichi pointed at the chicken breast as a small smile appeared on his face.

“A-again, it's an egg dish. There's no egg inside the chicken.” Teruteru obliviously replied, losing his paitence.

Kazuichi pointed at the table itself, his cheeks puffing up with air.

“C’mon, man, y'need t'use ye brain! I can't even cook a table!”

“Pfft, I didn't know you had that in you, greaser.” Hiyoko remarked.

Kazuichi started laughing as the nickname broke his efforts to hold his composure. “I'm just messing with ya, man. It couldn't be more obviously that thing.” He pointed at the dish Teruteru made. “It's like a car next to children's toys.”

“I see… a hard boiled cook like me has a fire that never stops burning! I feel it in me! It's-” Before he could finish the sentence, he had noticed Akane had already eaten half of it.

“H-hey!” He exclaimed.

“Take it as a compliment, Teruteru.” Hajime assured, patting his back. 

After thinking for a moment, Teruteru shrugged it off. “Well, nothin’ I can do about it. ‘Life's like a roller coaster’, as she says.”

“Who is ‘she'?” Kazuichi thought.

“U-uhm- Nagito!” A weak voice called out. 

“Huh?” Nagito turned around. 

“I-I told you to stay in the room for the meeting while I got dressed!” Mikan Tsumiki, dressed in long pants and a buttoned up shirt appeared.

“What kind of meeting is that?” Teruteru asked, his voice drenched with a dark implication. 

“Let her finish, fiend.” Gundham commanded.

“Ah, I'm sorry, Mikan. I couldn't miss this celebration. Everyone's hope shining so bright together is a rare sight these days.” Nagito replied before Teruteru came up with a joke about ‘finishing’.

“Well… If everyone's here, I guess there's no harm in announcing it.” Mikan said, her voice as silent as ever.

Everyone turned to her. “Is he terminal? No, there's no way she'd just drop that.”. “It’s gotta be something good. Right?”  Whispers were heard as everyone went silent to hear Mikan. 

They knew that they couldn't handle losing a classmate with the already low mental state most of them had.

“We… we got the lab results from the last Future Foundation checkup. It's progressing well and i-if everything keeps going well, we think the Lymphoma might fully disappear by the end of the year!” Mikan happily declared.

Everyone immediately burst into cheers.

“That cursed plague had no chance of victory.” Gundham said, pressing his hand on Nagito's shoulder.

Everyone else quickly followed with their own compliments as they gathered around him. 

“It's thanks to you all, truly. No illness can stand against Hope.” Nagito said, smiling as everyone huddled around him.

“Crowd surf!” Ibuki shouted as she tried to lift Nagito by herself.

“Ibuki, you shouldn't put too much effort on your back like that.” Hajime worriedly said. 

“Yeah, it took you a lot of time to recover from the last time you did that. You were in bed for days…” Mikan added.

“When the hell was that?” Kazuichi wondered, failing to remember that ever happening.

Nekomaru came towards them and laughed. “Even I couldn't fix that sore muscle.” 

“Aw, there’s only party crashers in the house tonight…” Ibuki said as she walked off.

“Hey, are you all living on a different island? When did all that happen?” Kazuichi asked.

“Ah, forget I said anything, Kazuichi.”

Though suspicious, Kazuichi let the matter go as everyone celebrated. 

“I'll… just go eat something.” He informed as the circle began to scatter.

“Wait up!” Akane called as she ran past him. 

“Hey, you're the one who should wait up!” Kazuichi yelled.

After both had reached the table, Kazuichi started putting things on his plate. 

“There's not much to choose from here…” He mumbled as Akane started tearing apart the chicken breast.

Everyone else (aside from Hajime) had already eaten, so they were all away from the table area. 

Kazuichi's eyes specifically focused on Sonia & Gundham as he let out a grunt of annoyment.

“Something wrong? You don't want the food?” Akane queried.

“What? No, it's nothin’.”

“You're lying.” Akane confidently said. “I can smell it.” 

Kazuichi flinched. “What kind of weird ability is that?!”

“I don't know, it's just something I used to say to my little siblings when they were hiding somethin’ and wouldn't tell me.” She confessed.

“And you're definitely hiding something.” 

Kazuichi had a slightly upset expression on his face. “What's it matter to you? We barely even talk.” 

“I'm tryin’ to help you, dude. If you want to feel down, do it in your room when you're acting like this after someone's tryna help you.” Akane said, laying down the plate the chicken was on and crossing her arms.

Kazuichi opened his mouth as if he was trying to answer, and then sighed. “Sorry, you’re right. I'm just not really all there lately.” 

“It's fine. So, what's up?.” Akane interrogated as she reached for a water bottle. 

Recalling his conversation about opening up with Hajime, he explained the situation. 

.

.

.

.

“That’s it? That doesn't sound difficult.”

“It is, though. And Hajime couldn't really help with that.” 

“You know,” Akane reached towards a slightly burned pizza as she continued, “Coach Nekomaru always says that the most important muscle you need to train is your brain. “‘It's got all your feelings n’ memories, so you have to keep it strong!’“ She added with a bad imitation of Nekomaru.

“That's basically what Hajime said, but I don't know how I'm supposed to deal with that! Can't you tell me how you did it?” 

Akane stopped biting the pizza slice she was holding.

“Whaddya mean by that?” 

“I mean… don't you remember?” He said, causing Akane to look oddly concerned. “When we were in the simulation and Nekomaru… y'know.”

Akane sighed. “But he… died. That's different.” 

“I mean, aren’t you two a couple?”

Akane laughed. “Me and Coach? You tryin’ to be a comedian?” 

“You… aren't dating?” Kazuichi asked, baffled.

“Just cause I like strong men doesn't mean I'll go after any strong man I see, you hear me? It's purely physical.”

“Does she not hear what she's saying???” He thought. 

“So you mean… when you keep talking about…” He raised his hands and made quotation marks. “‘It’, you really talk about it that openly?” 

“You've seen it yourself, what's there to hide? I think he even tried to invite you once, but you said no.”

Kazuichi froze for a moment to imagine himself in that situation, then quickly shook his head as if to distance it. 

“I'm pretty sure I'd remember that happening!” He scratched his cheek in concern. “Right?”

“I told him you don't seem like a fighter, anyway. No wonder you don't remember it.” Akane put her hand on her side and looked to see if there's anything else left on the table.

“Ohh, so ‘it’ is fighting?” He did quotation marks again as he asked.

Akane turned her head sideways, looking baffled.

“No! Don't you remember when he did it to ya?” 

Kazuichi stopped to imagine the situation and, once again, shook his head after a moment to drive the thought away.

“What does ‘it’ mean?!” He asked clenching his fists.

“The Nidai Muscle Relief Technique!” Akane announced, doing a repetitive punching motion. 

“Oh, that…” Kazuichi painfully recalled the time Nekomaru’s “thank you” for fixing his alarm clock (fixing a dent) left him with bruises. 

“Besides, Nekomaru and I living together would be a nightmare for him. I already lunge at him when he's walkin’ around, so imagine if we lived together. I'd pound him to a pulp every day!” 

“Do you really not hear how you phrase things?”

As if on cue, Ibuki called out from the other side of the park: “Look what Ibuki brought!” 

As they turned around, they saw Ibuki carrying… a carton of beer bottles?

“Woah, what the hell is that?!” Kazuichi called out. 

“Where did you even find that…?” Fuyuhiko said.

Ibuki simply laughed in response to the questions. 

“I don't think we'll be getting any answers from her…” Mahiru noted, slightly tilting her head.

“Hey, I know that brand!” Akane mentioned. “I used to unload their trucks as a summer job.” 

“I don't really like beer.” Kazuichi mentioned. “Never had it.” 

“Really? They'd let me drink at the job once. It was kinda fine, but they stopped after I kicked an empty six-pack through the car window.”

“Wouldn’t that just… be cardboard?” Kazuichi felt a 

“Come and get it! Ask not for whom the beer tolls!” Ibuki yelled out.

“Why don't you like it if ya never had it?” Akane said. “I didn't ask for more ‘cause it didn't taste well.” She said as she raised her other arm. 

“Ah, I just… don't want to get drunk.” He said as he recalled his home life, putting his palm on the back of his head. 

“A sip won't hurt, right? You don't seem like a lightweight.” Akane insisted. “The whole point of training is to regrow a muscle so it gets stronger. And we just talked about trainin’ your brain, right?” 

“I mean, you're right, but I don't think it's a brain thing-”

“No excuses!” Akane punched her palm. “You're in the Owari Brain Dojo now! You'll fix your problem or die trying!” She said as she walked with determination towards Ibuki.

“What do you mean die trying?!?” He called out to no avail. “Hey!”

Akane came back with a bottle. 

“First step is mastering your self control. You'll drink a sip and keep it in your mouth for 4 seconds without spitting it.” 

Kazuichi got passed the bottle. 

“You want strength? Get it!” Akane instructed. 

“Drink! Drink!” Ibuki yelled despite not hearing any of the conversation. 

Kazuichi tensed up and grabbed the bottle. “So self control is the first step…” 

He wanted to grow, no matter how scary it is. He'd do anything for it. Anything.

That thought was the last thing he remembered. 

He woke up to the feeling of something around his jumpsuit pressing on his ribs.

“Mmmf…” He grunted with his eyes closed. “My head hurts…” 

Suddenly, he felt himself being lifted up and slammed on the other side of the bed.

“What the-?!” He screamed out as he felt himself drop.

He opened his eyes in fear to see arms wrapped around him.

As he turned around, he saw Akane Owari drooling on her shirt, fully asleep. 

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” He screamed, his face contorting into an expression of exaggerated horror.

Chapter Text

"....HHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Kazuichi kept screaming.

He'd been at the third island the whole day, then at the party in Jabberwock Park at night, and then he was in a room that was visibly not his with Akane Owari wrapping her arms around him. As the sun covered them both with a warm light that sneaked in through the window, he sensed a mild headache strike him.

He quickly tried to assess the situation as he turned face-up in the bed. He was still wearing his Jumpsuit, which calmed him down in regards to what had happened. The room was probably Akane's, as the pile of junk in his room was missing (it was surprisingly tidy, which took him by surprise). There was a bench press and a pole for pull-ups that looked brand new, both of which had an 'F.F.' logo, and a similar color pattern. 

*Smack!*

Akane's palm landed on his face, pinning his face to the bed sideways from the pressure.

"One shekond..." Akane mumbled. 

Kazuichi then saw a crushed alarm clock as his head was forced sideways, which looked damaged in a suspiciously similar fashion to the one he fixed for Nekomaru a while back.

“Do they always treat their stuff like that?” He thought.

After he thanked the universe for his skull not being bent like the clock in front of him, Kazuichi's pain was somewhat relieved as he felt the warmth of her hand on his face. Aside from friendly gestures between him and Hajime, when was the last time he felt something like that?

Kazuichi snapped back to the situation and tried to roll away now that only one hand was around him. Now wasn't the time for that type of behavior. 

"Mmmn?" Her eyes began twitching as Kazuichi began trying to get off the bed.

Suddenly, Akane suddenly gave 2 weaker hits to the side of his face and one to the bed as he left her grip. He hadn't noticed that he stopped screaming, but Akane probably did. That, and that his face was probably feeling suspiciously like flesh and not metal.

"What the hell happened yesterday?!" Kazuichi thought as he slowly began tip-toeing on the warm wooden floor to not wake Akane up. As he stared from the room's window, he saw Teruteru walking past. It seemed like it was not too long after sunrise. 

"TERUTERUUU!! HELLLP!"  He mouthed as he waved his hands to try and catch his attention. 

Teruteru saw him, looking confused, until he noticed that he was in Akane's room. His head quickly jolted back and forth between the panicking Kazuichi and Akane's name on the mailbox, as his facial expression became progressively more shocked.

"Where do you think you're going?" Akane yelled as she pulled him away by his arm, dragging Kazuichi away from the window like he was a cartoon character.

"A brave soldier... going at it until his death..." Teruteru stood still, then saluted at the window. " 'Tis an honorable death, Kazuichi. I'll make sure your tale is passed on." He stood in place for another moment and moved on with newfound respect for the mechanist.

"My room??" He stated the obvious. "Why am I even here?!"

"Mahiru told me to just 'make sure you don't do something stupid' after you swallowed the beer. She got reeeeaaal mad at me for that and told me to own up to it. ‘Snot like anything happened, you basically passed out immediately, but telling her that made her angrier.

“So I probably got drunk and passed out…” He said in regret, recalling memories of home. "Wait, then why am I still here?!" He pointed at Akane. "You don't have to trap me here for that!" He'll have to ask about what he did while drunk later as a more glaring issue was present.

"Don't you point at me!" Akane pointed back at Kazuichi, a small stain from drooling standing out on her white buttoned shirt. "She said ‘until he seems normal’, so I grabbed you. You passed out, and I didn't know if you faked it, though.”

"Even throughout the night... how serious is she about the Owari Dojo thing?" Kazuichi thought as Akane went to brush her teeth. 

“So… what now?” He asked. Akane put her palm to the side of her head and yawned as she finished. "I think we'll go on easier today. Meet me at Jabberwock Park in 10. Don'tcha dare be late!" She clenched her fists and raised her arms, showing her muscles as a threat.

"Y-you mean at 10?" Kazuichi stuttered, his face filled with anxiety.

Akane quickly left her dorm and began running off, using the environment to her benefit.

"AKANE! I CAN'T DO ALL THAT!” he called out, putting on shoes and bursting out of the room in panic. "HEY!" 

Hajime walked by, watching the scene unfold.

"Akane and Kazuichi, huh? He rested his chin on his fist, seemingly analyzing the scene. "That's an unlikely combination. They barely ever talk. And she's jumping around again... it's been a while since she did that. How interesting. Perhaps-" He suddenly shook his head as he collected himself, frowning. "Damn it. Anyway, I should probably call up Nekomaru to make sure she doesn't knock him out." 

Kazuichi nearly collapsed, panting, as he finally reached the park. "Akane… I'm sweating like hell…" he choked out, his voice weak. "I haven't even eaten anything and my mouth tastes like blood..." He coughed.

"That's quitter talk!" Akane shouted at him. "I used to do more after not eating for longer!"

"You always say these things like they're normal..." He whined, resting his hands on his knees.

"They're normal to me." Akane argued, shrugging it off. 

"Well... yeah, I guess that's right." He stood up, feeling the wind helping him recover. "But it's not, like, normal normal." Kazuichi adjusted his beanie.

"’s not like I know anything else.” Akane responded. “Now drop to a plank." Akane showed an example of what to do.

He grunted, looking upset as he copied her. "How is this supposed to help me exactly...?"

"The brain is a muscle! If your whole body feels like it's burning, and you're so worn out your head pulses to try and create sweat, then the brain is training too!" She pointed at him with a fired-up look on her face.

"That has to be wrong!" He thought as his arms began shaking from the effort.

—

"Aaand... done!" She said as he collapsed on the grass, rolling to face upwards as the sun reflected from his eyes. "Now that we're done with the warm-up, it's time for the real deal." She put her fist in her palm.

Kazuichi moved his arms up in fear as Akane approached him, anxious as to what he'd have to do next.

Akane bent towards him as she lent him her hand. An intrusive thought of peeking under her blue training shorts appeared, but he quickly kicked that thought away (mainly because of his wish to change his ways and his morals, and not because Akane could snap him like a twig.)

He hesitantly grabbed her hand as she helped him get up. "What am I gonna have to do next?” He asked through his gasps for air.

"Yesterday I realized something," Akane stated with confidence, pushing a finger to his chest. "Your soul is weak. It needs hardening." 

Kazuichi grumbled. "How exactly?" If she was trying to call him weak mentally, he already knew that from his father's berating.

"The robot dude, Kim, is in the movie theater, right?" Akane asked. 

"His... name is K1-B0." Kazuichi awkwardly replied, looking confused as to how someone could casually forget the name of the sci-fi robot that crash-landed on their remote island. 

"Anyway, Hajime asked to not go and visit him until he gets acclimated to the island, so we'll have to go elsewhere for it. Though he could probably help…" She recalled, thinking. "But before that, I'm starving."

As the warm summer wind hit them, they began walking back towards the restaurant. 

"Y'know, you're… actually kinda cool, Akane." Kazuichi admitted after a brief silence. “I didn't know that.”

"What makes you say that?" The athlete replied, raising an eyebrow. 

"You always kept fighting." Kazuichi said, breaking eye contact to look at the bridge in front of them. “Not physically, I mean. You just keep adapting to changes like it's not scary at all. I'd have probably given up.” 

"I mean, doesn't everyone here do that?" Akane bluntly responded.

"Well, yeah, but... you probably had more reasons to give up out of all of us. Miss Sonia grew up-" 

Akane gave him a light punch to the shoulder. 

"Ow, right. My bad. S-sonia," He forced out, as if it was difficult to say her name with no honorifics while he grabbed his shoulder. "...grew up in a kingdom. Teruteru had his mom and family restaurant. But you don't talk about somethin' like that when you mention home. You just casually mention a buncha really messed up things…”

"Well, it's not like I didn't have anythin’ nice back home." She smiled. "I remember we used to have something called 'Big Sunday' since I didn't work on that day." 

Akane crossed her arms, the wind causing her long hair to flow as Kazuichi listened. "I'd take my little sibs out for a meal where we'd all sit together. We didn't have the money, though, so I had to steal if it wasn't a good week."

Kazuichi recalled some of his own experiences with 'bad weeks', and looked at her without changing an expression as he waited for her to continue- something that relieved Akane for some reason. "How'd you do that?"

"I still remember the route. Go to the supermarket, wait for the guard to take his smoke break, and then take a bag with whatever they had asked for." She was still smiling, but her eyes were filled with a weird mix of melancholy and nostalgia. "Then I'd run from the back exit as the guard swapped with the one at the front, use the dumpster to jump over the fence, and go through the alley next to Tonio's so I'd be able to walk home peacefully." She explained, gesturing with her hands as she talked.

Kazuichi laughed and put his palm behind his head. "Woah, are you sure you weren't the Ultimate Thief with that elaborate plan?" He quickly stopped laughing when realizing it may be a sensitive subject. "Ha...haha."

Akane replied by laughing harder than he did, causing her previous sadness to fade and gave him a slap on the back, knocking the stress out of him. “Working out made you a comedian?” She joked.

"Still, I wish I could've done stuff like that when we were struggling back home too.” Recalling some beatings, he kept on. “I'd always get caught whenever I tried taking things from the hardware store." He winced as if he felt something. “...I-I didn't try to eat them.”

“Why would I think that?” Akane pondered.

"Should've made an orp-omnibus- that car-man-dude to help you." Akane suggested, surprised at the fact that Kazuichi came from a tough background like she did. 

Kazuichi gasped, his eyes filling with excitement. "You like Transformers too?!" 

"I dunno what that is. Yesterday you just kept ramblin' on about how that's a much better name than Kevin until you dozed off.” 

Kazuichi felt shame seep into his veins like poison, which made him ignore the fact she somehow thought K1-B0 was called Kevin. "Oh, for real?" he tried to recover, "I… definitely would have done that but my old man wouldn't pay that much for the idea." He nervously laughed. 

"My dad kept moanin on about not wanting a job, and insisted that his wives provide for him. I didn't really get to ask for things too. Had to work for ‘em.” Akane recalled as she rolled her eyes.

"Wives?" Kazuichi asked in shock.

"Well, he had one each time, but he didn't tell 'em about the job part until after they were going to have a kid, so..." she answered, intentionally trying to phrase it as funny.

"So that's why she has so many siblings…’' Kazuichi made a mental note. 

“Still, I loved ‘em all.” She sighed. “How was your family?”

“I just lived with my dad.” He paused. “My… mom passed away when I was younger.”

“I'm… sorry for your loss.” She slightly regretted asking after seeing his face get sadder. “My mom and dad would also change, but at least I knew they were fine. I can't imagine how it feels.”

“...It's fine. Tell me more about your siblings,” Kazuichi said as he shrugged off the memories of his home life. “What are they called? How old are they?” 

Akane crossed her arms as her expression turned sadder. 

“...Oh, are they-” He hesitantly queried.

Akane cut him off, looking upset. “Don't say that…”

Silence took over the conversation, a sad expression switching the cheery smile on Akane's face.

After a brief moment, she stood in place as she saw something. "...Ah, we're here." Akane changed the subject almost as quickly as her speed as she ran towards Hotel Mirai and opened the gates. Kazuichi was surprised as the walk was usually a bother, but it didn't feel like one this time.

“She doesn't seem to want to talk about it…” He thought.

Teruteru was sitting next to the pool, noticing Akane and a sweaty Kazuichi walking in, winking and giving Kazuichi a ring gesture. Kazuichi flipped him off in response, which made Teruteru gasp.

"Here?!" He mouthed and blushed, which caused Kazuichi to violently scrunch his face in disgust as he went up the stairs.

The two sat down as the sun brightly shone into the dining area. Kazuichi took part of a turkey and some of the vegetable salad that were in the kitchen as part of the cooking rotation in his plate, while Akane took the rest of the turkey and a pear in hers.

"You didn't mention what the plan for today was." Kazuichi surveyed after drinking 4 cups of purified water in quick succession.

"Well, I said your soul was weak." Akane noted between the sounds of a wild animal devouring its prey. "But I don't think it's as weak as I said after talking to you." 

"Oh! Uh, thanks?" Kazuichi said in confusion, scratching his cheek as it felt warm all of a sudden. No matter how long they knew each other, he was sure he'd never get used to how she ate.

“Earlier, you said you'd have just given up. But I don't think that's true.”

“...What do you mean?”

“It’s not like I had it easy, either. But my siblings kept me going. Everything I did, from stealing to enrollment in Hope's Peak was for them.” She bit a chunk of meat clean off of a bone. “If not for them, I don't know where I'd be right now. And you're the same.” She gestured at him. “You took that contract or whatever from Hope's Peak just for your dad.”

Kazuichi's eyes gaped. “How do you know about that?”

“I remember you talking about it back during The Tragedy.”

“You… remember?”

“Not everything. Just lil’ bits here and there, like everyone else. I happen to have the most useless bits, though.” She grumbled. “But that's not what I'm talking about.” Her voice turned serious.

Kazuichi straightened up in his seat, his shoulder length hair slightly moving as he did.

“You also went through some hard stuff. I respect that. It's the marking of a strong man to go through everything you did and still be somewhat fine.”

“...thanks?” Kazuichi slightly blushed. 

"Still, you gotta train your soul, even if it's already strong. We'll just skip the pain tolerance in the plan." Akane chugged down a bottle of water as she resumed eating.

"What kind of messed up training regiment did you have planned?!?" 

"So, I'll skip to the final test:" Akane continued, ignoring his shout. "The test of heart." 

Kazuichi gulped. "Like running so much I get a heart attack? Or-" 

"...No? We're goin to watch sad movies." Akane cut him off. “Your legs would give out before that anyway…” She thought.

Akane simply continued eating as Kazuichi stared at her baffled.

"S-so why did I need to run from here to the main island if this is the plan?" Kazuichi kept his fork with lettuce and a tomato stabbed on it in his hand, raising his eyebrow.

"What's that gotta do with the plan? That's just a normal warm-up." 

Kazuichi simply sighed, giving up trying to understand what the Ultimate Gymnast constituted as ‘normal’.

"Then why did you mention the movie theater in the first place?" He said as he took a bite of the vegetable salad. 

"Cause it was gonna be trash movies," Akane answered with food still in her mouth. "Like, the typa things I'd refuse to bring home for free when we had nothin’ to do.”

"So… how would Keebo be helpful?” 

“Doesn't he have a disc player?”

---

"Oh, yeah. They're up there." Teruteru pointed. "But watch out, you can't know what they're doing up there." He finished his sentence with a wink as Hajime looked disturbed.

As he approached, he heard the two of them laughing.

"Laughing?" Hajime thought as he kept listening. "I guess Nekomaru found them after all." He sighed in relief, knowing he was free to go as he headed back to his room. “I hope that outage gets fixed quickly, because until the server is back, I can't start helping K1-B0..."

—

"I think the beach house has a functioning DVD." Kazuichi said, recovering from a laugh. "What's that movie's name again?"

"Dance of the evascent. Wait, evanecent?" Akane blew a raspberry. "I can't say that." She stared sideways with her hand on her side as they kept walking, the sun setting in the distance as they went down the stairs.

Kazuichi chuckled, feeling an odd sense of relaxation flow into him. "Don't ask me. What's it about?" 

"I dunno. It's supposed to be deep and sad about the meaning of living. Baby Gangsta shed a tear from it apparently, so it's probably really sad.” She recalled her conversation with Peko yesterday while Kazuichi tried explaining who the Z-fighters were and when each one joined or left the team to a visibly uninterested Fuyuhiko. “...Crap, I wasn't supposed to say that.

Kazuichi saw his dorm and remembered something. “Hey, Akane, do you mind me meeting you there? I gotta jump out of this jumpsuit and shower… S-sweat and all that.” For some reason, he found stating that he had been sweating, despite the fact he had worked out, embarrassing all of a sudden.

“Sure, I gotta do that too. I'll give you 20 this time. I'll still beat you up if you're late, though.” She said as she went off.

—

As Kazuichi left his dorm, he ran into Hiyoko. 

“Woah, Greaser, I didn't know you had it in you!” She said in surprise. “You finally wore something besides that mustard colored rag!” 

Kazuichi, wearing a long-sleeved blue sweater with a white undershirt and black jeans, looked at her. It's not that she was wrong- he liked his jumpsuits as a daily uniform.

For the first time in a while, he felt like changing his getup. His hair was down, dropping from his beanie to the back of his neck and sides of his face.

“Why are you dressed up all of a sudden,  though? Even during the party last night you still wore that jumpsuit.”

“Oh, Akane-” Kazuichi paused. He knew if he told Hiyoko of all people about his plan she'd ridicule him over it forever. “...just wanted to watch a movie with me.”

“Aww, is Kazuichi dressing up for a movie night with his girlfriend?” she giggled, covering her mouth.

“S… shut up…” Kazuichi replied in a surprisingly quiet voice, pouting and staring downwards.

Hiyoko was surprised at his response. “Hey, did your brain finally give out from all the fumes you're inhaling? You usually go ‘Oh, My Love for Miss Sonia is No Shame!’ “ She said in an imitation so accurate the Imposter would be proud. “What happened to that?”

“She-she’s not my girlfriend…” he mumbled, sounding annoyed and embarrassed as he clenched his fists around his thumb. “Leave me alone…”

“Hey, I was joking about the fumes, but did you actually inhale too many?” Hiyoko turned her head sideways.

Kazuichi quietly scuttled off, covering his face under his beanie as he stretched it down. Even as he got away from the living areas, he still covered himself with his beanie. Perhaps, just maybe, he was trying to hide his reaction not just from everyone else— but himself, as well. But is it out of shame, or out of embarrassment? 

Hiyoko raised an eyebrow as he escaped and kept walking. “What the hell happened to him?”

—

*Knock Knock*

“Akane? A-are you there?” He asked.

Akane opened the door, now wearing a grey t-shirt and brown shorts.

“Hey, where's your jumpsuit?” She immediately asked. 

“Oh, uh, I just wanted to switch to something that looked a bit better.” Despite Kazuichi understanding that he wanted to do it, he didn't quite understand why he wanted it.

She nodded. “Anyway, y'got here right before the 20 minute mark. And I was getting all excited about a good fight…” Her voice had a hint of disappointment. 

Kazuichi walked in, freezing at the door. Despite the different decor and furniture layout, he could still remember how he felt when he saw Mahiru's corpse laid up against the door as her blood covered the floor.

“Don't tell me you're that scared of some sob story!” Akane called out as she put the disc in.

Kazuichi collected himself and sat comfortably. There was an open convertible sofa in front of the door with the window, and a TV with a DVD and disc player under it. The refrigerator was gone, and a fire hose and AC were now next to it. A drawing of a beach was where the monitor used to be, which was now lit up by the moonlight.

Akane got away from the TV and sat down right next to him, stretching her legs on the opened sofa. “From now on, no talking, no leaving, no nothing. The test begins now.” She said, staring at the TV as a waltz began playing from it. 

As the movie went on, Kazuichi noticed that Akane was staring at him occasionally. “I’m not doing anyth-” 

“Shhh.” She silenced him. 

Kazuichi clenched his fists on his pants and kept watching.

—

As the credits rolled, Kazuichi sighed. It was definitely a good movie, but he felt like he'd need to rewatch it a few times to understand it.

“Did I pass?” Kazuichi turned around to check with Akane. It was sad, but he was never the person to cry at movies. It was harder to stay still for that long.

“Akane?” He asked, suddenly seeing her asleep with her head resting backwards.

“Does this mean I passed?” He thought.

Akane shivered. It was probably past 11pm by now, but he couldn’t check the clock at this point due to the TV being the only light on. “What if this is a test? And I get up and fail?” 

Kazuichi tried and failed to think of a solution to the problem at hand. Suddenly, an idea came to mind.

He turned towards her with his knees on the sofa, took off his sweater and covered her with it. He was careful to make sure that he did not wake her up.

“Mmmnnn…” Akane grabbed onto the sweater. Before he could react, she rolled on the sofa and laid down on his knees (which made his arms jolt up as if water spilled on him) and rolled forward right in front of where he was sitting.

Kazuichi's heart started beating quickly as Akane began snoring, her hair spread over the sofa. For some reason, he felt a strange kind of warmth within him- like a gentle, cosy spiral was forming in between his ribs.

He quickly noticed he had no way of getting off the sofa without standing up on it, which would wake her up. The other option was pushing her off, which would still wake her up but also start a fight.

Though anxious, he did the one thing he could do— stretch his legs and try to sleep. He took off his beanie and threw it at the table, letting his pink hair (with dark roots) cascade down on the sofa, and stared at the moonlit ceiling for a few minutes before turning towards Akane. She was sleeping with an open mouth and snoring at him in a very unladylike way, holding his sweater close as her collarbone slightly moved with each breath.

“Shes kind of… cute like that…” The thought quickly passed through his head, shocking him. It wasn't the type of intrusive thoughts he usually gets.

“Nonono, that's weird. Why did I think that? It's probably that alcohol or that workout. That's gotta be it. It's gotta.”  He assured himself. “There's no way *that's* what's happening. I'm just tired and she looks really… T-there's no way.”

After a few more minutes of thinking, he fell asleep, still facing Akane as the TV automatically shut off and turned the room dark.