Chapter Text
Typically, when you go into Denden Misao’s respective dorm on any given day in this hellhole, it would be exceptionally organized. You’d see her neat usual outerwear hung in her closet. Her soft pillow-like Umi-Usagi propped up in front of the frame on her bed, and her art supplies organized neatly on the iron desk in this space of hers. Her rug would be on the ground not flipped over or folded in any way. But tonight, that wasn’t the case. As Denden was letting all of her creativity out, her vibrant set of cool colored pastels were scattered like confetti from a party popper.
The wax of the oil pastels met with her light blue striped pajama onesie, as paper scraps still covered with glue joined the ground. Even with all this mess, she continued to doodle and sketch fervently. Her eyes started narrowing on the fine details on her oil pastel painting. Denden loved the feeling she was getting from all this, she thought it would be super stressful like the tape shirt get together hosted by Ogura, but this seemed a bit easier!
Even with all of the icy colors and crafting supplies around her, she couldn’t shake the events that happened just two days ago. She wanted to be in her own little world again. Seeing Nishiguchi's pale lifeless face was a reminder that she contributed to her death. Her stomach churned at the uneasy feeling of the silent ambience when everyone was around her. It was the only thing holding her back from moving her arms around loosely across the page.
Whenever she didn’t do anything with her hands, she remembered everyone’s pained and distrustful looks from each other after Ogura’s trial. It rang in her ears like a piercing bell. If she wasn’t doing anything in here alone, she’d be reminded of the fake responsibility that she continued to believe she had for everything recently, even though she never had a choice to opt out. The guilt engulfed her like a flame. Exposing herself as one of the Bleeding during the trial caused all of the Bleeding to lose. It was all her fault.
But one good thing did come out of all of this, and it was the reminder of the other talents she overlooked in the past, like the flow of creativity that she had now compared to when she was little!
As a kid, Denden wasn’t really an expert at her ultimate talent yet. She only used a pencil and ruler to make basic animal drawings that she’d usually use for her sculptures, and even then, they didn’t look quite right. As she got older, she got better at sketching out her sculptures, but they were as dull as the graphite she used.
But the institute doesn't give her the opportunity of being able to sculpt the sketches afterward. After her recent playdate with Ikeda, he lended her some of the supplies he uses in his room. So today, Denden decided to just experiment with different art supplies in her room instead of going outside, like oil pastels and paper crafts! The oil pastel painting was easy, she mainly had to experiment and sketch first. But creating a hat for her Umi-Usagi was pretty tricky, even for her standards. How can making a paper hat for a plush be harder than it looked, even harder than chipping away at ice! Seriously, why wouldn’t the tape just STICK!?
Meanwhile, the painting was coming along exceptionally well, to the point where Denden was mesmerized at how far she’d come. As she continued to scribble, vibrant colors hugged her back. Her ideas started to flow more freely, focusing more and more on the painting in front of her rather than her dread, guilt and that silly hat. Her arms were more loosened as her strokes started to drag.
She didn’t even notice how much time went by, as an unexpected knock interrupted her painting.
“Who is it?” Denden called, lifting her head from the two projects.
“It’s Yokoi! Can I come in?” The cheerful voice responded.
Like a puppy scrambling to its owner when it heard ‘park’, Denden got up and scrambled to the door.