Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Hey guys! Here's my next story. So it's going to start with a flash forward, to get you to try to see where life is for everyone. But I promise next chapter it will explain what happened and be during the tragedies of a year ago.
This is kind of a five senses AU I suppose? I wrote the plan for it after I finished the Sin of Hope, a seven deadly sins AU. Each of the keronians will resemble a sense.
Uhh...Spoilers I guess?
At the moment it's going to be 27 chapters. I hope you enjoy it.
Also, my sister has finally edited this fic. (Or at least the first chapters) And I apologize about the bad clip art cover.
Natsumi sighed as she looked down at her journal. In the last year, she had categorized every day of the hell hole she lived in. It was one of the few tasks she'd promised herself she'd do to keep sane.
Skimming through the pages and entries, she saw pages and pages filled with her own mundane words, explaining the boring details of her new life.
She opened the journal to a blank page, pencil in hand. She was ready to jot down the boring aspects of her imprisonment again.
It was the only thing she really could do.
Day 365 of living in the safety of the base,
Things remaining mostly the same. Boring as always. The outside world still is deemed unsafe from the nuclear warfare that destroyed most of humanity a year ago. Radiation would probably kill us instantly if we went outside, so Fuyuki, me, Saburo, and Koyuki remain here, as always.
It's occurred to me that we're probably the last humans in existence. I know we've held out hope that Mom somehow survived, but... it's very unlikely. We four are the last ones alive. I... I don't know how to feel about that.
I doubt anyone else had alien technology to hold out this long. Living a year after the apocalypse is pretty good, I guess.
But supplies are running low. We don't know how much longer we can last. A year after the apocalypse might be the longest we can survive.
The base can no longer supply four people living in it. And I don't know when we'll run out for good.
We've fought off death valiantly for a year, but I think the end of our days is coming up.
And... honestly, I don't know how to feel. Is this a good thing? We've all been living like dead people. Sad, silent and mostly in shock. We've all known the inevitable will happen and that we've avoided death long enough, but still... we still fight. If there's one thing that we share it's the desire to survive.
But, even that might not be enough to save us.
Natsumi finished her entry. The sadness in her body no longer even existed at the sad aspects of her new life.
This was merely the facts. She lived this life now and she had to make the best of it.
She tried to skim to the first pages of her journal, but it was mostly smudged by tears. She frowned when looking at it. The first days had been the second toughest to deal with, but three months had been when she cried the hardest.
That had been when the frogs had left the safety of the base. She looked down at a smudged page with just the words "Giroro come back" over and over again.
He wasn't coming back, though. Deep down, she knew that. He had insisted that Keronians would be immune to the radiation outside, that he would come back just like the rest of them. But nine months later and he still hadn't returned.
He had died out there. He had died because he thought the outside world was safe. He was wrong.
Despite what her journal suggested, Natsumi kept smiling in front of her companions in the base. She knew she had to be the one to keep up hope, to keep them sane. She kept a list of mundane tasks that they all did, to try to make sure the isolation and being in the same place everyday didn't get to them.
She needed to be the strong one to them. The warrior, the leader. She didn't mind this job. It was the only thing really keeping her going.
She needed to hope. For them.
Fuyuki, Koyuki and Saburo all seemed to have glum expressions on their face as they met with her all sitting on various chairs as they looked at nothing except the blank white walls.
"So..." Natsumi cleared her throat, glancing at her friends and brother. At least she wasn't dealing with this apocalypse alone. "Status on the supply problem? Anyone discover a hidden trove or something that... they left behind?" She tried not to mention the frogs in front of Fuyuki. It just hurt him.
She tried to take charge, to gain their attention. Her voice was the only thing filling the empty halls of the base.
Saburo's arm was draped around Fuyuki's shoulders as he pulled him closer. Fuyuki's eyes were just filled with an empty expression as Saburo snuggled up to his... boyfriend? Friend? Natsumi wasn't sure what they were. She knew Saburo sometimes kissed Fuyuki, but it honestly seemed to her only a bland way to pass the time. Fuyuki always acted like a limp, dead fish. He had never really recovered from the aspect of their imprisonment, and especially the fact that Keroro hadn't come back and that Momoka had most likely died when all the bombs had been falling.
It was really odd, seeing her former crush kiss her little brother, but honestly she couldn't blame him. Anyway, to pass the time was fine with all of them. It was so dull in the base.
Honestly, she just felt bad for Fuyuki. He obviously wasn't very into it, but he was just so depressed that at least it was something happening in his life.
"The supplies aren't doing good. As I said yesterday, we've almost run out of food. Water's still good, but this base can no longer supply four humans living in it," Saburo told her. Natsumi nodded. She knew that, but it still hurt to hear.
Most likely they'd either have to die together or kick someone out. And she was not about to kick any of her friends out of the base.
"If... If we do kick someone out... how long will the rest of us have?" Koyuki spoke up. She wanted the realistic facts.
"About an extra month," Saburo admitted.
Natsumi nodded "We need to decide what we'll do soon, then."
The meeting was dismissed.
As the leader of their unofficial group, Natsumi tried to keep things generally normal in their heads. Or at least, that was what she wanted to cling to.
To do this, she always spoke to each of them one-on-one to see how they were faring.
"How are things going, Koyuki?" Natsumi asked. A part of her heart was happy that at least her best friend had survived this. She was so glad that Koyuki was with her, even if in the last few months they had started talking less and less as depression and hopelessness had settled into Koyuki's mind. Koyuki had given up hope of things ever getting better, and Natsumi couldn't lie to her and say that she believed that it would get better.
Optimism was supposed to be Fuyuki's job. But he never had any of it now.
"Same as it was yesterday," Koyuki told her, curtly and bluntly. She wasn't much for conversations anymore.
"Koyuki... You know we could talk about it, about what you're feeling..." Natsumi tried to comfort the girl.
"Talking about it won't do anything. We'll still be imprisoned here," she pointed out. Out of everyone, Koyuki had a problem with being contained in one place the most. Being raised in a ninja village, Koyuki hadn't even known what nuclear warfare was until Natsumi explained it to her.
She had believed that she could have fought it off with a kunai blade for the first few weeks. She had been wrong.
Natsumi put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it, but knew being there wouldn't do any good. She finally nodded and left.
Her brother was next on her list.
"I think we should just all die," Fuyuki said simply, and to Natsumi's horror.
"Wh-what?" Natsumi asked.
"They did, after all. They died. Everybody dies. Mom did... Momoka... and him..." Fuyuki didn't even cry anymore. He was just too broken. "Humanity died. It's our turn."
Natsumi wanted to cry after hearing her brother say that. She hugged Fuyuki. "We have to live, Fuyuki. For all of them. We may be the last humans, but we can't just give up."
Fuyuki didn't answer. He was afraid of death, but there was a part of him that still desperately wanted to give up.
Saburo was the one who was coping the best. He wasn't broken like Koyuki and Fuyuki were. But he was incredibly bored, which was a problem.
Sometimes in the past year, he had even tried to stir up trouble just to have something interesting in their lives. It was a problem, but at least it was something to do.
Saburo played with a hacky sack as Natsumi approached him to talk.
"Kululu would have known what to do," he said quietly, referring to their issue about the supplies. Koyuki and Fuyuki barely talked about the frogs, and Natsumi had forbidden Saburo from mentioning them by name in front of them because it caused either of them to start crying. Alone, Saburo talked about them a lot.
"But Kululu isn't here," Natsumi responded gently. "He's gone."
"He shouldn't have left. Didn't he know it was an idiot move?" Saburo expressed regret. Natsumi nodded.
"I know... They promised they'd be back. I miss them too," She sympathized, thinking about Giroro. He had promised her that he'd be back. To wait for him. And she was still waiting. He had never returned.
She tried desperately to fight back her tears. Saburo noticed and pat her on the head, gently.
"I'm sorry," he apologized.
"It's all right. I told you not to talk about them to Fuyuki and Koyuki. Not to me. I can deal with it," she told him.
Saburo pulled her closer and gave her a gentle, reassuring hug.
"I know you can," he whispered, "You still have a lot of fight left in you. I mean... If it wasn't for you, we'd have all given up. The only reason we're even considering kicking someone out instead of dying is thanks to you. We still deep down have the desire to survive. And it's all thanks to you."
Natsumi nodded. She needed to be the one with hope. For all of them.
Sitting in front of her journal for the second time that day, she smiled. Saburo was right. She had to be the one to hope for them to fight.
Humanity will recover. She wrote down the most hopeful words that she had in a long time in her journal. After all, we're still alive. She could keep up the fight, for all of them.
Still, she wondered if what she'd written was true. Realistically, there were four of them. If they kicked one of them out and the person managed to score some supplies on the outside and not die of radiation poisoning, then perhaps they could live out the rest of their life in safety.
Making humanity recover required breeding, though... And there were four of them. Since Fuyuki and she were siblings, and even if they were the last people on Earth she wouldn't pair off with him, that meant tha Saburo and she would get together in the future, and Koyuki and Fuyuki.
She didn't like thinking about it, but it seemed to be the most realistic option for humanity to recover.
Koyuki and Fuyuki though? They're such a weird pair! I have never seen them have any interaction like that. Natsumi laughed as she jotted down her thoughts.
Saburo and her though... She wouldn't mind it. It would require breaking her promise though, but it seemed to be the best way for humanity to survive.
We can survive, she smiled, writing the words in her journal over and over again. She set her pencil down.
Her door opened and Saburo walked in.
"It's time, Natsumi. We can't put on the decision any longer. We need to decide what to do," he told her. "I've called a meeting. You ready?"
Natsumi nodded. She was as ready as she would ever be. And she would take whatever tough decision they settled upon, as long as they decided it together.
She was their hope. Their warrior. And she was ready. She wanted them to live. The question was... did they?
I'd just like to say for the record I do not ship Saburo/Fuyuki. I just believe and feel like Saburo kind of has a canon crush on Fuyuki from what I've seen.
I actually ship Momoka/Fuyuki. And...I think that's going to be the pairing in this story Fuyuki-wise? I'm saying I think because I don't remember what chapters/feature/talk about Momoka.
Anyway, all my normal pairings will be featured in this story, because it is me. I'm not much of a muti-shipper to be honest. Just wanted to clear that up.
Please review! Tell me what you think.