Chapter Text
The end wasn't as near as everyone thought. Even after the final showdown ended, and they all woke up in their pods, life didn't end. And even after everyone else slowly rose from their green-lit coffins, life didn't end. Not for any of them. Not even Kazuichi, who felt as if his brain would pop ever since the final trial. Everything was different, but somehow the same.
The Future Foundation had kept them in some sort of facility while waiting for their peers to wake up. The mechanic didn't remember much of it, the dim room he called his own a hazy memory. He still felt the cold bathroom tile against his bottom and his back as he curled up, feeling as if getting up and going out was the hardest thing ever.
They were brought to Jabberwock Island after everyone woke up, but everything was run-down. At the same time, they had the same lack of communication with the outside, so at least they had a smidge of familiarity.
However... while their surroundings were familiar, the sudden existence of bugs and animals and unfavourable weather was something they had grown accustomed to not having. So... it was strange. Sitting in a dimly lit cottage, lights off, curtains partly closed, listening to the rain pour. The pattering of the rain against the window filled his ears, drowning out all thoughts. Out of the blue, a guttural scream pierced through the air. Truly exquisite, Kazuichi thought. He never flinched anymore when he heard them. Their memories were tangled messes, their minds still far too weak to handle them properly, eliciting such extreme reactions
He himself was burdened by his own horrid memories, but he'd had more time to adjust to them than the others. They had all woken up in the order they died, just as Hajime predicted.
Man, Hajime being a genius is SO weird... like, it feels like he was just a normal high school student yesterday.
The ceiling wasn't the perfect option for a conversation. Kazuichi had given up talking to himself out loud to preserve his voice, so he chose to think like he was talking to somebody.
Another scream. A knock at his door.
I wonder whose turn it is to make dinner tonight...?- Wait.
A knock at his door? The mechanic swings his legs over his bed, in which he was laying in, and drags himself to the door. Socalising was scarce, now that everybody was... well... in shock after recent events. His mind flew to the worst of places. What if something happened to somebody? Did someone finally gather their courage and kill themselves?
Luckily, his unexpected guest was feeling extra generous that day, and opened the door before he reached it. Ibuki Mioda stood in front of the door, dripping wet. The usual sparkle in her eyes didn't shine as bright, and she looked tired. The eye bags certainly weren't helping her case. Her long, brightly colored hair was glued to her head, and she wore a plain, long-sleeved shirt and a skirt, both drenched, sticking to her slim body. Seems like she hadn't been eating well. Still, she plastered the largest smile she could on her face.
"Yo, Kazuichi! How have you been?" An obviously rhetorical question. He couldn't even stand straight, he'd probably lost weight, his hair was a matted mess and the eye bags... lord, the eye bags.
"Okay, I guess." Still, he musters a small smile and heads towards the open door. He tried to make his jumpsuit neater, but to no avail. What was this, his second day wearing it? He really should change it...
"You're the only one that was gonna answer the door. Wanna go do something? Hang out?" She was right on the edge between inside and outside, dripping water on the floor, a small puddle starting to form.
Kazuichi took his first step outside that day. It was pouring.
"What can we do here? It's all run down."
"Ibuki thought she could help you with dinner."
Confusion is quickly wiped away by realisation on Kazuichi's face. "Was it my turn to make dinner?"
"Yeah. That's what Hajime said anyway." Ibuki shrugged.
"Yikes. We better hurry to the restaurant then."
The pair runs under the rain towards the restaurant, their journey uninterrupted by any of the other students. Everybody chose to stay inside to break down, instead of getting soaking wet. Wise choice...
They both slow down to a full stop before the stairs that lead to the restaurant. None of them takes a step inside, not even to take some shelter from the rain. Instead, they stand there, taking it in. They look at each other and smile. The rain feels like millions of tiny hugs, gluing their clothes to their bodies, making them shiver.
"This is so corny." Kazuichi lets out a breathy laugh, then turns to the entrance. "Let's go in before we catch a cold."
Ibuki nodded, but she didn't budge, that stupid smile still plastered on her face. Her eyes looked through Kazuichi, somewhere far away from the restaurant entrance, far from Jabberwock Island.
"I thought you were gonna help me with dinner!" He crossed his arms.
"Don't you feel alive?"
"Come on, Hajime will kill us if we drip all this water on the floors, and we're already drenched." He grabs her wrist and pulls her inside. The musician makes no effort to oppose to the change of location, but lets out a long and loud sigh.
Kazuichi drags her by the wrist all the way to the kitchen, where the pair starts taking inventory. Luckily, the Future Foundation was providing them with food. If it weren't for Naegi and the others, they would've been positively screwed. Without the Future Foundation... they wouldn't have been there at all. They'd still be wreaking havoc, causing despair, ruining the world and themselves n the process. He sighed as he pulled out the rice from a cupboard. He sure as hell missed Teruteru's cooking.
Now that Ibuki wasn't under the mysterious influence of the rain anymore, she was energetically helping the mechanic cook. Boil the rice... steam the vegetables... wait, do we have any curry stock? No? Okay, cook some chicken... plate and serve. They hurry around the kitchen, tripping each other up and bumping into one another. In theory, cooking for a group of 15 should be easier when two people are doing it, but it seems like Ibuki just made it harder.
The restaurant is empty, so they start laying down the plates in front of every seat. Slowly, but surely, everybody came in and took their seats. Conversation was slow, but it was there. The original survivors were making the most effort, of course. Kazuichi sat in the corner and scoured the room, counting in his mind. 12... 13... 14........ 14?
"Are we missing someone?" He turns to Ibuki, who took her usual seat: in front of him.
"Dunno." Her words were muffled by the rice she was shoving in her mouth. She didn't even bother taking a look around the restaurant.
Kazuichi tried making a list in his mind of everyone. All the survivors were there... Togami, Teruteru...... Koizumi, Pekoyama... Ibuki (obviously), Sayonji, Tsumiki... oh, she was at the hospital with Nidai. .... Nidai wasn't there, but he was resting in the hospital, and.... Gundham Tanaka? He was missing.
Come to think of it, the screams seemed to be coming from the direction of his cottage.
It was strange. Tanaka was oddly quiet even since he woke up, but he showed up to mealtimes and the scarce activities Hajime organised. No... something was off. Had he seen Tanaka at all the past few days, since it started raining? Without realising, he got up from his seat and leapt out the door, hurrying down the stairs, dashing outside, into the rain. He ran as fast as his legs would take him towards Tanaka's cottage.
He didn't particularly care for the breeder, but he didn't want anyone to die. They'd already lost so many people... and that's not counting their kill counts as Remnants. Their classmates still haunt Kazuichi's dreams sometimes, crawling out of the ground and grabbing at him. He feared the worst as he finally stopped in front of the wooden door, panting and lifting his fist to knock on his door. Three quick raps. Nothing. Louder. Nothing again. Kazuichi slowly presses down on the handle and... the door is unlocked.
The door creaks as it opens and lets the light into the dark cottage. The room is full of clothes and other miscellaneous items carelessly tossed around, Tanaka lying in the floor, curled up like a dead bug. Kazuichi lunges himself at his side, urgently shaking him.
"Hey... hey! Tanaka, you okay? Come on man.... don't die..... you got so much to live for!..."
The breeder lifts up his gaze agonisingly slow. His eyes were half open, his tangled hair obscuring his gaze, and he looked malnourished. But... he was alive.
"Jesus, Tanaka..." Kazuichi lifts him up by the shoulders and hugs him. "I thought you died!"
Gundham lays in his arms like a discarded doll. He makes no effort to push him away or to hug him back. He doesn't emanate warmth, like anyone would. He feels cold. He feels lifeless.
"Come on man, we gotta get you some food and water... and- jesus!... When was the last time you showered?"
Kazuichi lifts up the breeder, looking in horror at how this clothes hung on him. Had this dude been eating at all?? He slings Gundham's arm over his shoulder, but he isn't strong enough to carry the both of them, so they practically drag all the way to the restaurant. The rain had let up a bit, but they were still soaked by the time they were arrived in the lobby.
As soon as he reached the top of the stairs, the pair collapsed. After the others' shock subsided, they all hurried to the pair. Most flocked to Tanaka, but Hajime put his hand on the mechanic's shoulder, looking him in the eye and asking whether he's okay or not. Kazuichi didn't know what to answer, unable to look his friend in the eye. His gaze was glued to Tanaka, whose shoulders were being held up by Akane. Sonia crouched in front of him, her hand reaching for his cheek, talking softly. He couldn't look away from the breeder. His eyes were pointed at the princess, but they looked empty. The two girls lifted him up, dragging him to a table.
Hajime stuck with the mechanic, helping him to his table. Kazuichi was able to walk, but he still felt shell-shocked, Hajime's warm hand on his back keeping him anchored in the restaurant.
He'd seen dead people before. As a Remnant, most of his work was behind the scenes, but he went out on the field sometimes as well. Those days were rare, but they existed. days when he'd go and wreak havoc himself, watching with twisted pride at innocent civilians' futile attempts to run from his Monokuma bots. Sometimes, he would stand in the middle of narrow street, preventing anyone who might try running there from advancing. If they didn't recognise him, he'd pretend to help them, holding them by their shoulders, trying to calm them down as the mechanical clanking got closer and closer. Then, with a sweet smile and a flash of his sharp teeth, he'd push them away, into the bots' jaws. And with twisted pleasure, Kazuichi would watch their blood splatter, the life leave them. But he'd never seen someone who was alive look dead. He'd seen the transition from the former to the latter, but he never thought he'd see it the other way. Would Tanaka get the light back in his eyes?
Now sat back in his seat, moving his food around mindlessly, he glanced at the table in the opposite corner, where a small crowd former around Tanaka. Sonia talked to him gently, trying to coax him into getting something in his stomach. He couldn't hear her, but he knew her tone was gentle. Kazuichi knew how she cared for the breeder.
He would. He would come back to life. Under Sonia's watchful eye, he'd become better. Eventually.
It was one of the many things he admired about the princess. Her unlimited kindness and patience, her undying wish for everyone to be better. She didn't seem to like Kazuichi all that much, but she checked up even on him while in the facility. Just like she crouched in front of Gundham, she'd crouched in front of him. He remembered the moment vividly. Sonia gently put her fingers on his knee, where he rested his forehead. She talked gently, a small, worried smile on her face that seemed to widen when she finally got the mechanic to look up at her. In any other situation, Kazuichi would've been on cloud nine, what with his crush so close to him. But in that moment, he wanted nothing more than for her to leave. When she smiled at him, all he saw was the innocent lamb smile she put on as she talked to the masses, guiding them to havoc, to despair.
The first time they'd worked together, he remembered her in so much detail. Her pristine royal attire, her carefully done hair, the gleeful smile on her face as he let her do the honors of pressing a big red button, letting fire rain from the sky. He'd built drones and sent them across the world, tiny bombs at the ready for him to shoot them whenever. He stood in front of his workshop's huge window, watching in awe as his inventions did their thing. A rain of fire... they were achieving the unachievable. Screams from outside and from the monitors that showed other parts of the world filled the room, a sound that seemed as soothing as the pouring rain to him.
Still... With all the memories he had of the princess, he couldn't help but feel incredibly jealous of Gundham. He wondered if anyone would teat him like that if he'd starved himself. Would they even notice? He'd gather blankets from his supermarket, pile them on his bed as one final comfort. And after, he'd lay there until he withered away in the dimly lit cottage. He'd hear the rain patter outside, he'd hear Ibuki's cheerful voice talking to somebody outside. Maybe he'd hear knocks, but no one would enter if he didn't answer.
He'd be free to be himself in that room, to not hide. Maybe he'd be able to wear a tank top, no longer having to hide the things he'd done to himself as a Remnant. What he'd do in middle and high school paled in comparison to his despair filled self. His tiny scissors were nothing compared to the shattered glass scattered all around his workshop when an experiment would fail. It brought him immense delight, feeling pain. Watching his own blood stream with a perverse curiosity and pleasur. And he'd never bandage them until he was forced to. He didn't remember who pressured him to, but there was always a presence in his memories, keeping these habits of his at bay.
After all, it would've been a pity if they'd lost Kazuichi. He'd become a valuable asset in their mission to spread despair. If he mutilated himself to inability to build bots or other devices that were oh so helpful, the Remnants would have a huge loss. And after that, what would he be good for? Whoever that presence was... he appreciated them.
Ibuki snapped him out of his thoughts when she got up from her seat, taking her plate and utensils to the kitchen. Kazuichi looked at his own plate, nearly empty. His stomach felt full, but he didn't get up. Instead, like magnets, his eyes were glued on the small crowd again. The number of people had decreased, but a fair amount were still there, their own plates laying forgotten.
Mikan hurried around them, trying to interject, give tips on how to help Tanaka and not harm him. In her frantic movements, a small gap formed between the students gathered, showing a glimpse of Tanaka. Kazuichi, whose eyes were blankly fixed on the crowd, met Gundham's grey ones, who pierced through him, shooting lighting through the mechanic's spine. The gap closed as fast as it appeared, the breeder disappearing from Kazuichi's eye-line again. He broke out into a cold sweat as he got up himself and headed to the kitchen. He quickly rinsed his plate, mind at Tanaka's gaze. Those eyes, so lifeless previously, who were so intensely staring at him. And... what was it? Sadness, melancholy, anger in them?
Kazuichi shook his head. There was no point in thinking about it. As soon as he was done with his plate, he hurried out of the kitchen, trying to stay focused on the stairs. But... he couldn't help it. His eyes darted back at the crowd, but Gundham was still obscured. Maybe he'd imagined that stare. Whatever. Tanaka was in good hands now, he had no reason to worry.