—"Remember, it's best not to get too involved with them."
With a click, squeaking on rusted hinges, the door swung open.
—"The living, the deceased—they think differently than we do."
An endless blue sky. A cold, clear day.
—"When you don't have much time, you get desperate."
A silhouette leaning over the rail.
So. She was already here.
—"You, me—we have more of it than anyone could ever need. And they hunger for that."
In his mind, he could picture Rokkaku folding his hands.
—"Do you understand, Kirishima?"
He had nodded.
—"Good. …But then, you don't seem the type to form deep relations with anyone."
That uncommon laughter—soft and subtle.
—"We'll have to work on that. For now, maybe I'll assign you to work with that one—"
The sound of footfalls echoed over the tile.
She didn't move. He could hear the sobs from where he stood.
"Maki."
The head turned.
"…What do you want?"
"Shouldn't it be obvious?" A step closer. "You committed a crime. That crime must be punished."
"It's not my fault…"
Shaking.
"Not my fault…not my fault…"
Head turn. Smile contorting into a sick grin.
"IT'S NOT MY—"
At the scream, his hand flew to his sword.
…No.
"So, what did you think?"
"We watched someone's life go by."
"H~~mm. It's interesting if you put it like that."
"…Only if you put it like that, huh?"
"Their lives are short. Not much happens. Still, I'm sure they're far more interesting to those that lived through them."
"…Weren't our lives short once?"
"Were they?" Saeki closed the hospital's door behind them. "By now, I can't remember."
He stopped short.
The hand found its way to his pocket instead.
Cold metal.
Pieces that belonged to Yuu, to Maki, to Kirishima.
Her voice cracked, and she sank to the ground.
"Not my…"
"The living? Ooooooh, they're reeeeeaal interesting. It's funny, when they screw up~"
"…Don't care."
"Couldn't care less, as long as I get the job done."
"The living have the best alcohol~ Hey, we should sneak out and buy liquor one night~"
"…Their medicines aren't particularly effective, but their stories are interesting."
Matsumoto continued to wind the bandage around Kirishima's arm, oblivious to his bewilderment.
"They're…interesting?"
"Yeah. …I think I can say that, since we get one or two in here sometimes." He cut the end from the roll. "They see things I don't. Tell me what it's like outside the hospital, outside the Capital. …Heehee. Not that I'd want to leave."
Comedy, boring, irrelevant, alcohol…informative? Entertainment?
While he couldn't say he was particularly attached, none of those things quite described how he saw them.
"Here."
He dropped the necklace on her lap.
She removed her hands from her eyes, and stared down.
"It's yours, isn't it?"
Her lips moving without words.
"It means something, doesn't it?"
"…Yuu."
"Yuu." He sat on the rail, swinging his feet over the side. Quite a drop. "So, that was her name."
She was silent.
"…What does it matter to you?"
"Nothing."
Nothing, as long as the mission is completed, as long as the crime is punished, as long as we come back in one piece, as long as, as long as…
"But, you know…"
His feet on the roof again.
"It matters something to you, doesn't it?"
"…"
"Every minute you spent with her. Giving each other something, and taking from each other something. In a moment, gone."
"Yuu…"
"With that in mind…" Finally, he turned to look into her eyes. "What do think we are?"
She pulled the necklace closer to her chest.
"…Demons? Angels? Ghosts?"
"Yes and no." He put a hand on her shoulder. She flinched. "We're in between what you are—each of you. Working where no one will see us, cycling through every one of your boring stories—as soon as one ends, another one begins. Can't remember any of them when it's all done."
He felt her loosen under his hand.
"There isn't much that matters in the kind of world I live in. You get blown to pieces, you get patched up. You see the next day, and the next one again. …But in your world, it's different. One shot, and done."
"…It's not…replaceable."
"Yes, exactly. Even if there are millions of human stories, they aren't interchangeable."
That was it.
That was why he couldn't exactly call them—
—Or hers—
Uninteresting.
He slid his hands into his pockets, turning away. Over the rail, the ground below—had she really fallen that far, or did her memories exaggerate the distance?
"So." Voice completely monotone. "To me, at least, it'd make sense to come back to the Capital with me."
"W-why?!" He didn't look, but he was sure her hands curled into fists. "So all of you can toture me—and I'll be punished—for all of eternity?!"
"You won't do any better here. If you fight, they'll just keep sending more of us back."
"But at least—"
"And who said anything about all of eternity?"
She stopped.
"No matter what happens there—" He knew, but to tell her would be a breach of protocol. "—you've still got better odds if you go. Sure, you might be tortured for all of eternity—but so might Yuu. Or, you might live again. …You and Yuu might live again."
…
"Let me ask you again: what does it matter to you?"
"It matters enough. Come on."
He walked past her, headed for the door.
Half a second later, he heard her footsteps behind him.
It was impossible not to get caught up in the stories, he knew. Not to find that one thread that could tie the whole thing up so nicely—a necklace, or whatever it might have been.
Was there something more to it? He didn't know. What he had told Maki only seemed practical, after all. Something that a human might tell another human.
"Aah, Kirishima—"
Saeki's voice, and the endless blue sky closing off behind them as the door slammed.
Notes:
This is kinda based on the MAD HEAD LOVE music video's course of events (please search for it on NicoNico, it's pretty great) rather than the game's canon…which is why we don't get as much of Maki proclaiming her innocence.
I'm not quite sure I ship this, but the scenario was too interesting not to write, platonically or otherwise.
This also kind of works from the headcanon that the escorts were human once (I remember this theory floating around early in the manga's translation, but I dunno if it's a thing anymore…).
I'm worried that Kirishima seems too emotional, but I think he was trying to give Maki practical advice more than anything.