"Give me your life"
"What?"
Enoshima laughed. The feeling of danger crawled on her back as she tried to hide her fear.
What is she up to? She wonders, trying to guess her thoughts.
"I must say, I'm impressed that such an ordinary girl from the reserve course could befriend an entire class from the main one! You sure are something to be that important for Class 79" She exclaimed, a playful tone in her voice as the words escaped from her lips. She instinctively took a step backwards without even noticing. "That's why I'm kindly negotiating with you! Give me your life and I'll leave your oh so beloved friends alone"
"I..." What should she do?
"And lemme tell ya' that if I were you I would totally accept" Then, the strawberry blonde shrug, closing her eyes as she gently shook her head before returning to her unfinished sentence. "I mean, such an ordinary person without talent is not even worth than a whole class of Ultimates, y'know." Akamatsu noticed in her playful voice that sense of pity. Akamatsu's mind fell apart.
She is right. She is absolutely right. I'm just normal. Talentless. They deserve more than a useless person like me.
She did not care about the blooming grin in Enoshima's face as she admired her blank stare at the floor. She did not care showing at her how lost she was. She did not care showing at her weakness. She did not care how selfless she was. She did not care to hide her despair.
She softly nodded, trying to pull herself together. Enoshima clapped her hands satisfied, as she gave little excited jumps in her place like a child who recently got what they wanted. Akamatsu tried to say something, but the word did not want to come out. Did she do the right choice? She must be. At least it was her and not her friends. Just one person instead of fifteen Ultimates.
"Then it's decided!" The taller one shouted, extending her arms at her sides, like if she was expecting a hug. She rapidly changed at a different pose "So, what I want you to do is quite simple" Her grin grew "I want you accept joining the beta project" She stated, one of her fingers pointing at her while her other hand rested on her hip. No joking, no lies, Akamatsu understood her command without finding anything behind. However, when the word 'project' resounded on her hears, something clicked inside her mind making her head to look up as her frightened lavender eyes meet the contrary mischief blue ones.
"W...who did you...?" She tried to vocalize. Enoshima spoked between her words.
"I have my own ways" She admitted uninterested as she checked her nails. However, Akamatsu did notice some proud inside that confession. She said nothing. "So! No goodbyes, no meetings, or else I'll go back on my word. And don't worry, if by some reason they don't want you anymore, I'll fix it. I'm countin' on ya!" She smiled at her, again, Akamatsu tried her best to not fall apart. Holding her need to scream and her acid tears, that feeling of danger manifested again. Feeling how her breath became irregular and heavier, she understood. But before she could turn her head and look at back she felt a faint pain in her neck. The only thing that stuck on her head before everything went black was a happy Enoshima waving at her as her lips silently whispered at her 'don't let me down, my sweet kohai'.
~0~
"Have anyone have seen Akamatsu-san lately?" Shirogane asked out loud, trying to hold some dresses that slipped from her arms. "She promised me to try a few of my cosplays a few days ago, but I couldn't find her at the fountain" Tsumugi said in a soft but decayed tone. Ouma poked his head over Gokuhara's shoulder, who was holding a happy Yonaga swinging on his right arm, an excited Yumeno on his left shoulder and a curious Ouma on his back.
"Ohh? That does not sound like Akamatsu-san at all!" Yonaga pointed.
"Now that you have mention it, I have not met her in a while too" Toujou, who was cleaning the back of the classroom, also admitted, leaving her task in oblivion to direct her gaze to the small crowd in front of her.
"Are you sure you didn't miss her or anything?" Momota asked rubbing the back of his head. "I mean, Akamatsu-san is not the type of miss a meeting, especially without notify first."
"Let's ask Saihara-chan!" Ouma shouted, gaining the attention of everyone, including the mentioned one, who seem to react a little late than the others.
"Uh? W-well I—" The black haired boy, who seemed a little uncomfortable to have all the gazes on his person, tried to speak. However, for his bad (or good?) luck the sound of the door being violently opened cut him over before he could say something. The room went silence as they stared at the door, where a shaken Iruma who had a devise pressed against her chest and a frightened look.
"GUYS, HOLY FUCK!" She yelled trying to catch her breath as she started to explain "I FOUND T-THIS VIDEO AT MY LAB AND, AND, A-AND—" She breathed again "Y-You need to s-see this sh..shit! I-is about I-idiot...matsu!" They did not need to hear more. And without wasting any second, Harukawa was the one to act first by taking the device Iruma was holding.
~0~
"Kamukura! Kamukura! Do you still remember good ol' me? it's your lovely senpai!" Enoshima shouted out of excitement. Ikusaba seem to hesitate at the younger one's presence as well at her twin's reaction. The aura the other person acrossed seem obviously dangerous and it just made the tense the ambient among them just worst. What's why she did not give her the will to go off guard, she should be extremely careful by focusing on their companion for as long as they where in the room.
But the youngest one of the three did nothing in response. Kamukura, as Enoshima called before, was sitting on a simple bed placed in the center of the darkened room they were in. With crossed legs and hands resting on her lap, she stare in silence at her visits (or should they be called intruders?) With an empty but sharp glare. Her exaggeratedly long hair hide some parts of her body. Being the most noticeable one the curtain of hair that hide half of her face, leaving just one of her blue glowing eyes visible at simple view. The nearly invisible locks of her natural golden hair mixed with the artificial white ones descended like waterfalls at her sides.
"Aw, don't tell me you really forget about your senpai, Akamatsu-san" The strawberry blonde one said in a fake sadden tone. Making her way inside as the sound of the footsteps resounded on the, a side of the bed and people, empty room.
"Akamatsu" did not bother to react at all. She did not mind when Enoshima stepped forward, becoming more and more near to her. She did not care when Enoshima took out a weapon in order to harm, no, kill her. She did not care when Ikusaba jumped in order to attack her. She did not care of Enoshima's hysterical laughs because of her apprehended state against the floor without even have the capability of move, making her being completely paralyzed.
How boring.
But, for her surprise, she did care, or at least it seemed, at Enoshima's proposal. To found a way to break her monotone world full of nothing but boringness? Very well then, at least that sounds intriguing.
She easily knocked out Enoshima; she was starting to become more bored by just hearing her laughs and her speech about despair. But just because it ended in a horrible introduction between both of them, it didn't mean that it will be their last meeting.
~0~
The remnants of despair even though they are not working under Enoshima's orders unlike the remnants of class 77, she still managed to plant a seed of despair in their hearts. It's well known that unlike class 77 who praised and loved Enoshima, class 79 absolutely despised her and wished for her dead. It all began with an anonymous video who was delivered to one of the students of class 79, Iruma Miu. The video stated that in some place of the country the person they care and love was hidden, kidnapped. The video showed an unconscious blonde hair girl who was gagged, bound, and defend less. It stated that it was useless to ask for help to the police or any professional help. It was their friend, it was their problem. Akamatsu's family couldn't do anything, because, what could dead people do? They did not care about her daughter, so Enoshima decided for them to be murdered for the sake of despair. And so, the class did not expect to be tricked. Because they watched a video that was meant to warn but at same time, trick and caught them under Enoshima's trap who couldn't be happier by just knowing how perfectly the brainwashing worked on them.
So, filled with despair, they started to destroy cities, harm and kill innocents, learn secrets and plan massacres. All in order to find the one they lost. It was not because of their love for despair, but for they search of hope.
There's the theory, that if they manage to found the one they lost, all the attacks would stop and so the cause could be cured. And because of that, not only the remnants look for her, but also the victims, along with the despair and some big organizations like for example the future foundation desperately search for her. And so, the years went through. Rumors said she was already dead, others explain the possibility of her been in a coma, and her body were still locked away, hidden from society. But they didn't care, they keep searching.
Kamukura Kano, who was the named the ultimate despair gave her after the second and final Kamukura was born, did nothing but watch. Blankness in her gaze as she watch her past self's (Akamatsu's) friends destroy everything they can. All for nothing. Maybe this was Enoshima's plan from the very start. To trick her (Akamatsu's) friends to go search for Akamatsu Kaede when in reality there was nothing left but wasted empty fragments of her memento.
So she just watched in silence. She was just a half perfect being, as they referred to her. Been capable of everything but not the way they wanted. Her existence did not say perfection to them. So, she stayed as a 'Beta' and with the research they got from her, from their failures on her, they finally made the perfect talented being they wanted so badly. Even though she completed the tasks and succeed at the tests with unbelievably high scores, just because she still possessed fragments of Akamatsu's past they said that was the only flaw that prevented her from being perfect. They needed (wanted) a new being, not a recycled one.
She walked past Chabashira and Yonaga's massacre. She stared in silence, watching Chabashira kill so many innocents, while her body sprinted fast, looking at all places, just like the others, she was searching.
Yonaga left big spots of paint in the walls, in the streets, in literally every part she could or in every person she saw. But, if you where far enough, then you could understand that what she was doing was not only destruction but art. She was painting a massive and strange but beautiful landscape over the north part of the city. The polynesian girl was holding some type of gun that had been doing the work of shooting the paint for her. She saw how people screamed as the paint reached their bodies. Yelling in pain as the chemicals of the painting slowly killed them by burning their skin.
The weapon must be the Ultimate Inventor's creation. That's the only thing that went on her mind.
What she saw was suffering, destruction, color and beauty. It's impressive to see how just two people could be capable of such big trouble. She noticed that just like Chabashira, Yonaga also moved her eyes constantly, and not because of looking for the perfect stop to leave her trace. No, both of them we're (still) searching. She keep moving, ignoring both remnants as she made her way out of the city to move to the next one.
How useless.