I beat this game recently, and it was pretty much inevitable that I'd come out of it with at least one all-but-nonexistent f/f pair. And these two fit my type so well, two girls who are stoic in different ways and yet have such similar motivations. I only hope that I can do them justice.
Title is from TS Eliot's "The Waste Land", because I get even more pretentious when I am tired.
She'd only picked the Necronomicon up for the investigation. The page she and Shuichi had read seemed to have all the information about the ritual, but Maki half expected Monokuma to make them debate some minor detail on the last page. It was better to be prepared.
Not that it mattered, in the end. The only details that ended up being relevant were ones Shuichi had committed to memory. By the time the execution began, she was too disgusted to spare a second thought for a supposed magic book.
She only remembered it when she got back to her room and discovered it still in her pocket. She dropped it on the coffee table unceremoniously. It had served its purpose, so with any luck Monokuma would take it away and they could stop worrying about it. It's not like it could have worked anyway.
She might have succeeded in putting it out of her mind if she hadn't woken up and found it exactly where she'd left it. Its cover gleamed innocently.
She ignored it and got dressed for breakfast. They'd survived another trial, so today they'd have to explore the school yet again. She wasn't going to let something as ridiculous as this distract her. She'd killed more than enough people to know that there was no way to bring them back.
It wouldn't be the first impossible thing you've seen at this school, a treacherous part of her brain thought.
Maki did as she was trained and squashed any glimmer of hope before it could become a liability. All she could do was keep moving forward, and try to put the dead behind her.
Their investigation went about as she'd expected. They found a few more research labs, Shuichi found another Flashback Light, they learned even more confusing details about their pasts that didn't seem to connect to any of what they'd already known. Maki didn't spend any amount of time thinking about who she'd want to revive. It seemed cruel, that her only chance to bring someone back would have to be wasted on someone she barely knew.
Not that it would work. It wouldn't have been worth resurrecting any of the students who'd died anyway. They'd all just be targets, either for having proven their weakness or for fear they'd kill again. Having them around would just be tempting fate.
Not that it mattered, because it was impossible.
She shook her head to clear her mind. It was time to go "train" with Kaito and Shuichi.
She'd meant for it to be a distraction, the physical activity and her classmates' constant chatter keeping her in the present. Instead, Kaito had to be an idiot and leave when they'd barely begun. Shuichi on his own was a terrible distraction. He was always caught up in the past and his own head himself.
Maybe she could blame that for what she did next. "Did you… like Kaede?" she asked. She knew as soon as the words left her mouth that she'd revealed too much. She didn't understand her own feelings, most of the time, but Shuichi would see right through her and then she would pay.
She realized with a pang of regret that driving Shuichi away would hurt more than she'd expected. He should never have let Kaito drag her into this. She'd be fine proving her trustworthiness from a distance.
But Shuichi didn't pry. He didn't need to. Maki just kept blabbering, laying out her own confusion under the guise of clarifying the question. She hadn't known any of her classmates for very long. Liking someone under these circumstances was weird. There was no reason to be thinking about it.
In the end, all she succeeded in doing was confusing Shuichi as well. She was thoroughly grateful when Kaito returned and cut off the awkward conversation. With him there, she could finally think about something other than the Necronomicon and the impossible things she still wanted, at least for a few minutes.
Her respite lasted until she got back to her room and saw the book staring at her. That's when she made up her mind, or maybe she admitted that her mind had been made up for a while.
Crafting an effigy from only the things in her room wasn't easy, but she wasn't willing to risk anyone seeing her gathering incriminating materials. The Necronomicon claimed the effigy's appearance didn't matter. She'd have to count on that, since her final product barely even looked like a person. She certainly didn't want to sink too much time into such a futile endeavor.
She grabbed a Post-It note from her desk to use as a label and called it good.
She went over the Necronomicon's instructions one last time, memorizing them like they were the escape route for her next job. Then she burned it. There was something satisfying about destroying the thing that had caused so much trouble.
She sprinkled the ashes over her effigy with care. Her heart was pounding, though she didn't know why. It wasn't like she'd had any hopes to get up in the first place. She was very careful about that.
Now all that was left was to close her eyes and chant. She didn't enjoy making herself vulnerable like this, even in her own locked room in the middle of the night. Her whole body was tense and ready to strike. She began to speak, her voice soft enough to listen past it for any sign that the ritual was working.
Saying someone's name three times took no time at all. She was done before she could talk herself into stopping. She strained her ears, ignoring the sound of her racing heartbeat as best she could, but the room was deathly silent. There was no sign that she'd done anything but fall into Monokuma's trap.
She was about to admit defeat when something touched her back. Her eyes flew open, her hand reaching for her knife instinctively as she whirled to face her attacker.
There was no one there. She glanced first at the ceiling, then into her closet, but she was still alone.
She turned back to the coffee table, ready to clear away the evidence of her weakness. That's when she noticed the body on her floor.
It was scarcely recognizable, its clothing tattered enough to expose wounds that had barely healed over. It wasn't until it struggled to its feet that Maki could believe what she was seeing.
Kirumi's expression was wild, as feral as it had been in her final moments. Even so, she held herself with dignity and grace, or as much as she could manage with how badly she was shaking. As she took in her surroundings, her face soothed back into the image of serenity.
Maki cleared her throat, and the mask immediately shattered. "You," Kirumi said. Her voice was full of accusation and regret, and maybe some other emotion Maki wasn't as familiar with.
She wasn't willing to admit to any amount of confusion or weakness, though, not when the only reason Kirumi was standing there was because Maki had been weak. She just looked at Kirumi coolly, waiting for an explanation.
Whatever Kirumi had been thinking would have to wait. She opened her mouth, but before she could say anything else, her eyes widened. That was all the warning Maki got before she collapsed to the floor once again.
Maki approached her warily, but as far as she could tell, Kirumi really was unconscious. She supposed coming back from the dead would take a lot out of a person.
She stared at her for a long moment. Distantly, she was aware that her feelings were waging war on each other, but she couldn't identify which ones.
Whatever they were, they drove her to pick Kirumi up and carry her to the bed. After a moment's though, Maki grabbed several of her spare ties and used them to tie Kirumi up. Maki may have decided to bring her back, but she knew better than to trust her. Given the chance, the maid would sacrifice everyone in the school for the sake of her people, and she'd do it with no regrets.
Not that Maki was in any position to judge her. She just didn't intend to give her that opportunity.
She settled into her armchair to wait for Kirumi to wake back up. It had been a long day, though, and Kirumi showed no signs of being close to consciousness. Maki's glances at her shortened, while the time she spent blinking increased. Before long, she'd closed her eyes altogether and sunk into a light sleep.