This WAS going to be a oneshot, but it went way out of control and I realised that even with my standards, I have limits too. Which is saying something, because you probably know by now I have a tendency to write really long oneshots. But yeah. So now this is a two-parter.

Anyway, this is the sequel to 'Choice', which I promised was going to be a thing. I recommend you read that first if you haven't already, so that you have some idea of the context of this AU. I was just going to wait until I'd finished the second part of this and publish them together, but this part has been finished for a few days now, and I'm procrastinating as a way of killing time and nervousness (I have a presentation at uni this afternoon, and I'll be rehearsing it with some classmates before that), so yeah, have an earlier-than-planned upload. Consider it an early Christmas present to the fandom.

One last thing-there is a crackpairing/rarepair in this fic. I don't know which category it would fall into, because it's specifically for this AU only, and I have tried to develop it seriously, and so I quite like it now, but again quite literally only for this AU, especially as both characters in the pairing belong to a different more popular pairing, and generally speaking I ship both of these existing pairs massively. But yeah. It will become obvious what the pairing is when it emerges in-story, so I decided not to spoil it in the character tags or anything, but I appreciate some people may be weirded out, so this is just an advance warning that there IS a strange pairing in this fic.

But yeah, all that aside, I don't know when the second part will be uploaded. Most likely after Christmas day. But in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this first part, and do leave me some feedback!


"Is that it?"

Kyouko had forgotten Munakata was there as she'd painstakingly chronicled every detail of the two dead at her feet. He'd been that quiet, simply sitting there and waiting. Something seemed to have come over him. The dark air he had exuded when he'd followed her here had dissipated, and now it was replaced with something that she couldn't quite name, but knew all too well.

She suspected that when she next got hold of a mirror, she would look much the same herself.

"Here, certainly." She answered after a long pause. "But there's still a victim that needs to be identified."

"…..so you were both serious, then?"

"If you didn't think that, then why were you prepared to give me the benefit of the doubt?" Kyouko challenged.

Munakata said nothing to that, instead searing her with a sharp look before sighing and looking down, shrugging. There was something uncharacteristically adolescent and bashful about the gesture. In any other circumstance, she might have allowed herself a wry smile because of it.

As it was, she just huffed, shook her head, and continued on. Footsteps behind her confirmed that Munakata had decided to continue following her. She didn't know whether to be relieved or concerned about that.

"Answer one thing for me."

"What would that be?"

"The attacker, have they been different each time?"

Kyouko couldn't conceal her surprise and whirled around to gawp at Munakata.

"What makes you ask that?"

Munakata glared at her.

"Just tell me. I need to know." He snapped. "I need to know for sure, so that I know if I was right to….."

Halfway through whatever he had been planning to say, his steam ran out and his shoulders sagged. He suddenly seemed decades older than her, not just four years.

I'll be much the same, by the end of this.

"In a manner of speaking, yes, they do. "She started, carefully, as they started walking again. "But, it's not in the way you'd probably expect. The attacker, and their victim, they ar-"

She was cut off by an unearthly, loud screaming from somewhere further along, and they both skidded to a halt.

"Wh-what was that?" Munakata's hand tightened around his sword, as he looked wildly around them.

Kyouko didn't answer him, and instead started to run towards the sound. It stopped and started over and over in irregular bursts, sometimes sounding like vaguely distinguishable words, at other times simply being an incoherent voice of utter pain.

And she knew she had to go and see what was happening.

Gradually, it started to get closer and clearer. Whoever it was seemed now to be sobbing and struggling, but Kyouko couldn't see who it was. Scanning the corridor, and the various closed doors, she frowned.

"What's happening? Where are you?" Munakata called out imperiously, almost drowning out the sound. "What's the matter? We're out here, but we don't know where you are, so we can't do anything."

Whoever it was fell silent suddenly at that. Kyouko frowned even more deeply, wondering just how that would help, when she heard something new, and looked over to her side to see a set of large double doors slowly edge open. Munakata spotted the motion, and swiftly strode over and pulled the doors aside, only to step back in surprise as Izayoi almost fell on the ground in front of him.

What?

Bloodied, bruised, breathing heavily and his long red coat torn to shreds, Izayoi somehow managed to grab onto the door and remain upright, but even that was an effort, for he was almost doubled over in pain, his arms and legs shaking. But even so, he managed to lift his head.

"Ruruka…." He gasped out, the hoarseness of his voice indicating that he was the one responsible for the noise. "Ruruka…..she isn't breathing anymore….she isn't…..I tried to…..stop it….stop her…..but…help her, please."

"Okay," she said, simply, having to work extra hard to keep her voice from trembling. "Okay. "

She nodded to Munakata, indicating that he should follow, and he did. Izayoi followed, stumbling, almost mutely, but his legs gave out and he sat near the doorway, breathing heavily. Kyouko looked around her, taking stock of her surroundings.

They appeared to be in the library. There was nothing particularly strange about it. There were shelves upon shelves of books, and the room was simply decorated (apart from the out-of-place Mono-Lisa painting on the wall, yet another clue they were not where they were meant to be). Some of the books had fallen from the shelves, but, deducing they'd been flung there because of the tremors of earlier, she was not too concerned about these

There was a long, almost L-shaped red sofa placed in the middle of the room, and she noticed two sets of boots leaning against the side of it-one sturdy black pair, and another very distinctive pointy-toed light pink pair. Directly opposite to the sofa, there was a screen.

Or rather, what was left of the screen.

Nearly all the glass of it had shattered and fallen out, the little bits sparkling like diamonds on the ground below it. The rest of it was dented from many blows, and some of that was explained by the one knife that was still embedded into a corner of it, and others which had fallen down and now lay amongst the glass fragments. These knives had a unique shape, and she made the assumption that these were Izayoi's own knives.

It did not take her long to locate where the knife that the attackers used was though, as she quickly spotted its handle further away. Quickly taking a few steps over to have a closer glance, she confirmed her suspicions that the knife was indeed covered in blood, and it looked as though it was flung there.

And not too far from this carnage, the fourth victim lay.

Or one of them. From what little she understood of this, it looked like two people had woken up to be the attacker. At the same time. Something about that made her utterly sick, and she had to breathe in and out deeply to push it down as she swept some sweets aside and knelt next to Andou's body, and started to examine her.

How bad was it, whatever you saw?

Whatever it was had been enough to result in such….violence. She wasn't sure what else to call it, but it was definitely off the scale. The bodies of the other victims hadn't even approached this horror. She'd really gone to town on herself, slashing almost everywhere, but Kyouko couldn't see just how bad the injuries were, for most of Andou's body was now bandaged, desperately-tied strips of red material all over her limbs and some of her torso.

Some of the bandages seemed to be doing their job, but the rest were gradually getting soaked through. Another strip of cloth, crumpled and dumped in the corner, had apparently been used to wipe her face and neck clean, for though there was some minor injury there, there was no blood. She also noticed that one of Andou's wrists had been twisted back at a slightly odd angle, her fingers slightly curved as if she'd been gripping something.

Frowning, Kyouko glanced back over at the knife on the floor-the attackers' knife-and she started to build a better picture of what was happening. The destroyed screen, the bandages, the severity of the injuries…

God, oh god.

"Izayoi. Tell me what happened."

Kyouko's eyes almost bugged out of her head as Munakata, who had been broodily standing guard, suddenly looked down at Izayoi, who blearily lifted his head.

"I-I tried…th-th-the screen, i-it…..did something to us, b-but…." Izayoi stopped for a moment. "I-I….I…."

"You're not making sense. Think! Did you see the attacker?!" Munakata demanded.

Izayoi said nothing to this, but something flashed in his eyes, painful and desolate.

"Munakata-san!" Kyouko sharply said. She quickly checked something on Andou, and stood up to go over to them. When she got there, she smoothed down her skirt and knelt down in front of Izayoi.

"Izayoi-san. She still has a pulse."

He stared at her.

"There's a pulse there. Faint, but definitely there. So there's…"

Kyouko bit her lip and hesitated, wondering if it was right for her to say what she was about to say, but then shook the feeling away and continued anyway.

"There's still hope for her. If we can defeat the game, we'll get her out of here. So tell me, as best as you can, what happened."

"Her….her Forbidden Action….-"

"I noticed that. For now, don't worry about that."

Izayoi closed his eyes painfully, and for a moment Kyouko worried that he'd lost consciousness. But then, he started to talk again.

"M-M-Monobear, o-on-on the screen, woke us both up…said th-that we'd be-been selected a-as the attacker….but….didn't respond to us…a-a re-re-recorded animation."

Izayoi stumbled through his explanation, and the words often seemed to snag on themselves or trip over themselves as he struggled to get them out, but he continued, unprompted. When he started to talk about how Andou's cry of pain had snapped him out of his own video-induced trance, his eyes opened again and his breathing became shallow and harsh, voice veering up and down in panic as his eyes seemed to fix on something unseen in the distance.

What are you seeing, Izayoi-san?

"It'll be fine," she murmured, almost inaudibly. "This can be solved. She'll be helped."

How did Naegi-kun do it? Words, the right reassuring words that could distract from pain, even if just for a moment?

As she sensed Izayoi's explanation start to power down, she studied Izayoi's injuries with a critical eye, then shrugged off her blazer and tore it into irregular strips. Munakata noticed what she was doing, and knelt down and took over at that point, expertly turning the strips into bandages, and taking off his tie to use as an extra.

"What did he tell you?" he asked as he worked. Kyouko related what he had said, and took the opportunity to write his testimony in her notebook as she did.

There's no doubt at all.

"So Tengan tricked me." Munakata concluded, dully. Kyouko frowned at him.

"Excuse me?"

"He told the truth, but he tricked me. He said that nobody was immune from being despair, that the attacker alternated each time…."

Munakata trailed off, and his face contorted in pain. Kyouko frowned. Something wasn't adding up, between his story and her explanations.

"Munakata-san….what did you do?"

Munakata met her eyes and held them levelly, before he sighed.

"Something unforgiveable."

"…"

"Based on what I knew, it was the only way to end things. But…it's unravelling. I was wrong. And it's unforgivable."

"…Do you think that there's a way you could be forgiven?"

Munakata tilted his head at her and narrowed his eyes.

"Go." Kyouko told him. "Go, and find out. It's something you need to do. I will be fine here."

"This seems to me to be more like advice that Naegi would give."

"It is. But he's not here to give it. And it is not wrong."

"No. It isn't."

"But a bit of advice that is mine-stay away from the screens when the next limit hits, if you don't get there on time."

"Understood…." Munakata sighed and stood up. He pensively scanned the room one last time and then, sword gripped resolutely, he strode back out of the room and disappeared. Kyouko stared, and for a moment thought she probably should have ordered him to stay away from Mitarai, considering.

It turned out she didn't need to worry about that thought, for just a few minutes later, after she had finished bandaging Izayoi-who had eventually lost consciousness-Mitarai and Asahina burst into the room suddenly, wide-eyed and out of breath.

"Kyouko-Chan!" Asahina exclaimed. "So you ended up here! What actually happened, to make you run like that? And where's Naegi?"

Kyouko didn't respond, and looked down at her lap.

"….Kyouko-Chan?"

Kyouko got through the explanation of everything that had happened, somehow. She had to stop, and start and circle around to get it all out. Though she didn't blame either of them for it, Mitarai and Asahina's constant disbelieving interruptions also challenged her. But somehow, eventually, she got through it.

She had barely taken a breath after her conclusion when Asahina, still sobbing, suddenly flung herself at her.

"Kyouko-Chan!" she wailed. Awkwardly, Kyouko patted Asahina's back. Mitarai hovered nearby slightly awkwardly, shifting from one foot to another and wringing his hands. Though it was just as likely he was very disturbed by both the carnage in the room and the events Kyouko had detailed, she narrowed her eyes at him and watched him flinch.

How are you involved in this?

"S-so, now what?" he asked, not calling her out on it. Asahina let go of Kyouko and straightened, wiping her eyes.

"Obviously we need to find a way of getting these bracelets off! Especially for those two, then we can get them the hell out of here!"

"B-but how w-will we do that? We can't remove the bracelets!"

"But, we have to think of something, right?! And for now, we're safe now that we know how this is working…"

"Ah." Kyouko blinked, realising she had been deep in thought. "Speaking of that, Mitarai-kun."

"Y-yes?!" Mitarai jumped and blinked.

"I believe I mentioned that the video in question was an animation, rather than any sort of live feed."

"I-I…It wasn't me!"

That was fast.

"Wait, what?" Asahina blinked.

"It wasn't me!" Mitarai protested, shaking his head. "I didn't do anything, I didn't have anything to do with this! It was Junko Enoshima!"

"Junko Enoshima is dead." Kyouko said blandly. Mitarai started to tremble, and shook his head more violently.

"No! S-she t-took my animation skills and, and u-used them for despair. T-that's why th-they ….my cl-class fell to despair. I-it was my fault! A-and I couldn't do anything, I just ran away…I didn't w-want to run away anymore and now, this is happening…..m-my animation is causing despair again….it's…"

"Mitarai-kun." Kyouko snapped.

"I-I just wanted to save the w-wor-"

Mitarai's rambling came to a halt as suddenly, the lights of one side of the room turned off.

"Huh? What the…?" Asahina muttered. Kyouko frowned, and a moment later, the next ones turned off, plunging them into darkness. It was not pitch black, and so she could still see her companions, and the general outline of everything else in the room. But as it was still very dark, she relied mostly on memory to make it over to the door and push it back open.

"Somebody's turned off the power." She murmured, looking down the corridor. Hearing a small series of clatters, she left the door open and turned back to see Asahina and Mitarai behind her, looking astonished.

"They've come off! The bracelets have come off!"

Kyouko gawped, unable to help herself, then she looked down at her arm and noticed the black half of the bracelet snagged on her shirt sleeve. She picked it off carefully, and pressed it, reading her forbidden action as it scrolled past. Then, without thinking too much about the reason why, she tucked it into the pocket of her skirt, before looking up to see that Mitarai had received a message on his phone.

A video from Tengan.

Mitarai played it, and they all stared at it wordlessly as all their assumptions were turned on their head. When it stopped, Kyouko sighed deeply.

That…explains everything and nothing.

"T-Tengan-san…was a despair?!" Mitarai stuttered. "H-he was u-using me too?"

"It would seem like it." Kyouko agreed.

"H-how? H-how could that have happened? A-and I-I s-showed him h-how to a-animate. H-he said tha-that I could…."

"Mitarai, you're rambling." Asahina said, bluntly. "In any case, it not like it matters now, what with the power off, and the Director being dead. Let's just get out of here, right, Kyouko-Chan?"

"That seems to be the best course of acti-"

"No!" Mitarai almost shrieked. "I ha-have to do something. I-I wasn't able t-to before, b-but…..we need to g-get rid of it, I need to get rid of despair. O-otherwise we're all going to die! I-I'm g-going to get ri-rid of i-it with my Hope Video."

"Your what now?" Asahina sounded as confused as Kyouko felt. Though she had a suspicion that she knew anyway.

"A v-video t-that will fill us with hope, that will get rid of the pain and sorrow in the world. I managed to make one."

Getting rid of pain and sorrow….that won't bring anyone back. That won't bring Naegi-kun back.

"I wouldn't advise that. There are more pressing things. Izayoi-san and Andou-san, for instance. There's still a chance that they could be saved, meaning that the death count for this game would be two lower than if we left them. They need to get out of there."

"Ah, yeah! Yeah, that's true!" Asahina chimed in. "We'll talk about your Hope Video or whatever later. For now we need to get out of here!"

Mitarai just gawped at them, opening his mouth and shutting it, almost goldfish like. Kyouko rolled her eyes. While she empathised with the guilt he felt over his talents being used for something he hadn't wanted them to be used for, she had no time for this.

So she turned away from him deliberately, and beckoned Asahina to her so they could figure out how they'd get Izayoi and Andou to the exits between them.

But that turned out to be a mistake, for a few moments later, Mitarai snuck away.

Everything for her became a blur after that point. Things got chaotic very quickly. But apart from discovering that Sakakura (with some assistance from Munakata) had been the one to turn down the power, and the moment that Togami and Hagakure had appeared in front of her to pave the way with the soldiers that were apparently brainwashed, she barely processed anything that was going on until somehow, finally, she was outside.

The sun had been a surprise to her. Though they had only been in there for some hours, it had felt like years. She'd almost forgotten that the sun was a thing in the first place. But the brightness, and the faint warmth against her face was welcome, as she closed her eyes for a moment and felt it before looking around her again.

Togami had been apt enough to bring paramedics and a helicopter ambulance, and they were fully occupied not just with the more severely injured Andou and Izayoi, but also Sakakura, who also had a stab wound in his middle, in addition to his self-amputated hand. She watched as they were loaded in, and as Munakata argued until he was allowed on with his friend. She supposed that was a continuation of his way of trying to find forgiveness. She didn't think it was a bad thing.

At least they have that chance.

Once the medical helicopter was off, she watched until it was little more than a speck in the sky, and then turned and went back to the tent where the others were. They were all looking at something on a tablet Togami was holding.

"Have they left now? What is that?"

"To answer the first question, yeah, we just waved them off." Asahina answered. "As for the second….I suppose it's a gift."

"Oh?"

Kyouko sat down on the chair that Hagakure pulled over for her, and then Togami replayed the video, which showed all the former Remnants looking as if…well, they were still very much active as Remnants. But she understood that this was a fake, and understood full well what it meant. It didn't need saying, so she nodded at Togami, and he switched off the tablet and held it.

"Well, that wraps things neatly, doesn't it?" Asahina said after an awkward moment of silence.

"Yup, exactly!" Hagakure agreed. "One thing less to worry about now!"

"Yes, but this is not without consequences." Togami pointed out, making them fall silent again. They remained that way, and Kyouko remembered the bracelet piece. She reached inside her pocket, and curled her fingers around it.

The costs were far too high.

Sighing, she let go of the piece, but kept it in her pocket. She pushed back a lock of her hair, and looked upwards, where she could see a fragment of sky through the tent top, and wondered what would happen next.

When the rest of them were finally picked up, they made a detour to a hotel in the middle of Towa City, to fulfil the promise Naegi had made.

Two figures were waiting on the roof when they got there, and even before the helicopter got close enough for Kyouko to properly see, she knew straight away that the athletic, more youthful figure who immediately started waving was none other than Komaru. And when they did get closer, the resemblance was unmistakable.

How can I look her in the eye?

Kyouko felt her stomach churning, but when they landed, she tried her best to ignore it, and took a few deep breaths. She waited for Togami and Asahina to get out first, and then slowly undid her belt and went to follow them.

"Kirigiricchi, are you okay?"

Just as she'd reached the helicopter door and was about to step down, Kyouko turned and looked at Hagakure, who was regarding her quizzically as he struggled with his own belts. She sighed and gave him a fleeting, slightly bitter smile.

"I'm fine, thank you, Hagakure-kun."

She went down, and stood by the helicopter. A few seconds later, Hagakure came stumbling down and whizzed right past her, going straight into the friendly-chaotic conversation the others were having. Standing there, on the edge of things, for a moment she felt light and relieved that she was reunited with her friends once again, that she was even able to be here for such a moment.

But of course, it didn't take long for the missing piece of the puzzle to become glaringly apparent.

Naegi-kun….

"Hey, you're Kirigiri-san, right?"

Kirigiri blinked as she suddenly found herself face-to-face with Komaru, who grinned earnestly at her. Fukawa stood by her side, while the others awkwardly congregated nearby.

"I am."

"Ah, I thought so. You seem exactly like what Onii-Chan described to me. Pleased to meet you, Kirigiri-san. I'm Komaru Naegi!"

"Kyouko Kirigiri." She returned, shaking the hand that Komaru offered to her. Komaru beamed, but her gaze was piercing as she looked Kyouko up and down. She wondered just what it was Naegi had told his little sister about her.

"Say….where is Onii-Chan? Shouldn't he be with you all as well?"

Just like that, the atmosphere plummeted. Kirigiri stiffened, and Asahina, Togami and Hagakure exchanged looks. Fukawa eyed them suspiciously.

"Something definitely happened, didn't it?" Fukawa asked. "Something awful."

"Ah, well, you see….." Hagakure started, and then trailed off, his sentence devolving into stilted, awkward laughter. Komaru looked at them all, wide-eyed, before returning her gaze to Kyouko, who felt herself shrink.

The piece of bracelet nestled in her skirt pocket suddenly felt as if it was burning a hole. It took all she had to not reach for it and curl her fingers around it, as she had been doing constantly on-flight.

"He promised he was going to come and get me, afterwards. And I assumed that in such a case, he would be introducing you to me rather than…."

"K-Komaru…." Fukawa stuttered.

"But he isn't…..Kirigiri-san, is he dead?" Komaru hesitantly asked. When Kyouko could not answer immediately, the younger girl's voice sharpened slightly.

"Is he?"

At that, all Kirigiri could do was nod, and close her eyes.

"Yes. " She said simply. "I'm sorry."

Such empty, empty words. But I don't have anything else.

Komaru stared at Kyouko for a long moment, and her lip wobbled. Her eyes misted over, but she remained relatively composed as she stared.

Don't ask me how or why. Not yet. Please.

"Are you sure? One hundred percent sure? There isn't any mistake, or….?"

"There was no mistake, Komaru. Kirigiri wouldn't make a mistake like that." Togami corrected.

But I made the mistake of being the one alive.

"I…I see….."

Though she was still composed, tears spilled over. Komaru tilted her head.

"Do you know why then, Kirigiri-san?"

"I do."

But there are some things that I don't understand, still.

"Then…..later. Will you tell me later? When we've gone back?"

Kyouko swallowed, and nodded. Komaru managed a smile, and then turned away, wiping her eyes and sniffing, loudly. There was the strong sense that she was trying very hard to be mature and composed about everything, which struck Kyouko as incredibly unfair. Then again, everything about this was unfair, so she found herself wondering just why that was special.

"Come, come, Komaru-Chan, let's go." Asahina stepped in at this point, putting her arms around the younger girl and coaxing her on the helicopter. And the rest of them just followed silently, for there wasn't really anything else that could be said at that point.

The next few days and weeks were a whirlwind to her. Staying in Togami's building while they figured out just exactly what to do with the Future Foundation and what to do next, Kyouko threw herself into the aftermath investigation as if her life depended on it. More than ever, she was determined to get results.

She knew, in the end, that she would have to present some lies, especially given the video the 77th Class had left for them as atonement. But she was damned if she wasn't going to include as much of the truth as she possibly could in the final investigation. It was the least she could do.

And the only thing she knew how to do.

In between investigating, however, she kept tabs on the three who had come out of the game in the worst condition, visiting them as often as she could. Of course, everyone visited them, but she dedicated herself to this.

Sakakura, she didn't really need to worry about so much. He pulled through his surgery, and though the months and years ahead would be full of hardship, given his missing hand, he was well on the road to recovery, regaining his strength quickly and cooperating with the measurements and procedures needed for him to get a prosthetic. Though naturally he was still as grouchy as he had been before.

But the main thing was, he had support.

Munakata was like the reverse of Kyouko, pooling all his energies into helping Sakakura heal, and then using any leftover time to help with restructuring the Future Foundation, and nobody had a problem with that (or at least, they didn't complain). Whenever she saw them, Sakakura always seemed a touch embarrassed, Munakata overly-concerned, as though his friend was made of spun glass. But true happiness was still clearly in their reach.

The other two were not so blessed.

Andou struggled almost valiantly through her injuries, but in the end, it was too much for her body to take, and two painful days after their escape, she passed away without once regaining consciousness. Izayoi also remained unconscious, but at least remained stable in that time. After four days, he did wake up-but only long enough for him to immediately ask for Ruruka, and to see the answer in her eyes before he slipped back into the dark again.

Izayoi remained there as the days stretched, and though his condition only got slightly worse, it did not get better, either. Nothing changed, as day after day Kyouko would go in to check on him, only to be told nothing had changed and to see this for herself. Day after day, things remained the same.

Before the game, though she had not particularly had any strong negative opinions of him, she had not particularly talked to Izayoi or interacted with him in any way to have any strong positive ones, either. Yet now, each time she saw him, she was gripped with fear, that he would be lost to her.

It was not something she completely understood. She knew that it stemmed from the game, from finding him in the library and listening to his pain. And she suspected that it was guilt, too. She'd given him hope that Andou would survive, and then had to tell him that she hadn't. But again, given that she hadn't known him that well before all this, she could not figure out just why it mattered to her to the extent that it did.

But she remained gripped with that fear. And so she kept visiting and praying and hoping and waiting, each and every day.

After a month had gone by, one evening when she had just been sitting there, writing up her notes on the day's work as she dictated it to him, she paused to regard him. Then, sighing, she closed her notebook, put it down on the bedside table, and leaned in.

"You can't die here, not like this. Not after you made it out of the game." She whispered into his ear.

"I…understand, you know. Why you'd not want to bother any more. Most likely better than you'd assume. But still…come back. Don't let go. Come back. Please…"

She straightened. Izayoi remained solidly unconscious, there was no indication he had heard her, or even cared. Embarrassed, she felt her cheeks heat up, and she tucked a strand of hair back behind her ear. Then, she got up and left the room with an abrupt goodbye, and headed back to her own room.

A couple of days later, she was sorting out through evidence when her phone rang in her pocket. Warily, she took it out, noticed it was Munakata, and answered the call.

"I thought you'd want to know," he said without preamble. "Izayoi is awake."

Kyouko lifted her face to the sky when they got out, and let the breeze hit her. With so many people from all the different former divisions crammed in there to pay their respects, the funeral home had been so hot. It was a relief, now it was finally over.

As others streamed out, she was aware of them having to side-step her as she looked to the sky, and so she went over to one side, and stuck her hands in the pockets of her long jacket, shivering a little. Still, the feeling was much preferable to the stuffiness of the funeral home.

Now….now what do I do?

She sighed, wishing she knew. A few people flicked glances her way, and she could feel the contempt of some of them too. Unconsciously fiddling with the chain of the bracelet that encircled her wrist, she thought she didn't blame them, not really. Hadn't she felt the same herself? It had been her fault, in a way, after all?

No. If Kizakura-san hadn't been so insistent on knowing, if he hadn't told Naegi-kun…

She shook her head at that, vigorously. She couldn't go passing off the responsibility on others. Even if that much was true (she had the photograph on her own desk now, she knew that that much was true), the fact remained that it rested on her. It should have been her amongst the people everyone had gathered here to mourn and bid farewell. It was that simple.

Someone came up next to her, and linked arms with her, resting their head against her. Kyouko turned her head to look down, expecting to see Asahina and instead looking down at Komaru. For a random moment, all she could think was that Komaru's hair didn't look so messy, it now more closely resembling the bob she had in various pre-Tragedy photographs.

"I miss Onii-Chan." Komaru murmured, looking down at the ground. Kyouko stayed silent. Even if Komaru had accepted her after listening to her explanations, she didn't want to inadvertently defend herself when she didn't have the right.

"I know you do too. " Komaru started to trace an invisible pattern on the ground with the tip of her smart shoe. Kyouko watched it, trying to discern it.

"Many people do." Was all she said, neutrally. Komaru looked up at this, and frowned.

"Yeah, I figured that much. But it's different for us, isn't it?"

"I…I suppose so."

"So, anyway…." Komaru switched to a more cheerful tone. "I was thinking, I might just call you Onee-Chan, instead. "

This, Kyouko was not expecting.

"W-what? That's what you probably would have been anyway, if Onii-Chan was here now!"

No, I wouldn't. You'd be comforting him and mourning me instead. There would be no reason to call me something like that.

"You're not going to say anything?"

Kyouko blinked, and realised that she had indeed not said anything. She opened her mouth, but found that she didn't know what to say. So she closed it again, and just shrugged, hoping to convey the fact that she didn't mind, but wasn't sure. Komaru frowned again, and let go of her arm, and after considering her for a moment, gave a shrug of her own.

"In which case, I'm just gonna annoy you with the name until you decide to tell me to stop. Okay….Onee-Chan?"

No….no, no.

She woke up in a flash, almost automatically stuffing the corner of her pillow into her mouth so it would block the scream that had threatened to stumble out of her throat. Curling up in a tight ball, she waited for the trembling to stop, but she did not fight it.

She was too used to it by now, after all.

Waiting, she kept her eyes open, not yet wanting to slip back into sleep, and looked around her. Her eyes soon found their way to her alarm clock, and she saw it had only been a couple of hours since she'd gone to bed. Again, it was something she was used to. But she hated it, so much.

Eventually though, she felt her body calm down, and after pulling the pillow out, she cautiously untangled herself from the quilt, and sat up, putting her hand over her heart and feeling it rattle.

God, when will this ever end?

Tonight's nightmare had been of the moment she'd woken up there, and the realisation that something was horribly wrong with the fact, of how desperately she had run searching and hoping and wishing that she was mistaken. Other nights, it was Kizakura, his past self-fading in and out of the background of his death scene, taunting her with his unhinged devotion.

The worst nightmares were always of Naegi, trying to imagine exactly what had been going through his mind when he had taken the knife and plunged it into himself. There was no doubt that the final blow had been self-inflicted, but just how it had reached that point was something she could only speculate about.

And her mind was all too happy to disrupt her sleep to do just that.

A fitting punishment. But how do I live like this? How?

Sighing, she got out of bed, and crossed over to the cupboard, and flung the doors open, before crouching down and pulling out a box. At this point, she didn't need to turn on the lights, or even look properly in that direction, to locate it. She could just reach in and grab at it. Once she had done so, she shifted so she was sitting cross legged on the floor, and then opened the box, and took each item out and laid it on the floor beside it.

A white fedora, pens, a set of silver cufflinks, his pocket flask, a stack of photographs tied with a ribbon, and the negatives of the photograph that had been on her father's desk at Hope's Peak. She knew those things off by heart too. They were the only things of his she had taken, when sorting through his effects afterwards. The rest had been donated towards helping people, or simply disposed of. Perhaps she should have gotten rid of these things, too.

Because why on earth would she want mementos of someone who had hurt her so much?

But as she picked up the pocket flask and traced the writing on it, as she stared askance at the pile of photographs and the very familiar old ribbon wrapped around them, her younger self, tucked up in the corner of her mind, still laughed and giggled and called for him.

"How many times do I need to say it? I'm not infected. I never was. Not everything is despair."

"Oh, it would have been so much easier to understand if you had been, though." Kyouko bitterly said aloud.

Tiredly, out of habit, she unscrewed the pocket flask's lid and breathed in deeply. There was only a small trace of bourbon there, more smell than substance, but still, it was there. A reminder of him.

She still couldn't stand it, but a part of her now wondered if he had been driven to drink because of her and her father. If perhaps there was some sort of Kirigiri curse that meant she was fated to abandon and hurt, to fail in such a way.

And if that would be enough to justify her turning to it now that she was on the receiving end of the demons.

It would be nice, to go through life with that numb kind of nonchalance. If Kizakura was any example, she'd still be able to keep her intelligence anyway, still be able to function. But she'd be more relaxed, calmer, and even more able to get through each day, not to mention sleep through the night. All she needed to do was start with the dregs of the pocket flask, emblazoned with her name as though it was a sign.

No. No, not like this. That's not the answer.

She knew it wasn't. No matter what, she knew it wasn't. So she lifted her head, pointedly held the flask away as she re-screwed the lid, and then piled everything in the box and stashed it back where it belonged before getting up again.

Then, she stumbled back into bed and wrapped the quilt around herself, before reaching over to switch on the bedside light and picking up the book she'd left on the table earlier, and continuing where she had left off. It wasn't as if there was any point in going back to sleep, after all. The same cycle would happen all over again.

When she got to the meeting room, only Munakata, Sakakura, Togami and two of Togami's right hand men were present.

"Good morning." She greeted politely as she went to a seat at the end of the large table, her preferred seat. Munakata returned the greeting, Sakakura saluted her self-consciously with his prosthetic hand, and Togami simply got up and went to the sideboard before approaching her a few minutes later with a cup of tea that had apparently just been made.

"You didn't have breakfast." Was his only explanation, delivered calmly with a slight frown. Kirigiri raised an eyebrow at Togami, but nodded, acknowledging that he was correct.

"Are you stupid, not having breakfast in the morning?" Sakakura exclaimed. "What are we going to do if you end up fainting on us halfway through this?!"

"I'm not that hungry anyway. But I will eat something afterwards. In the meantime, I have Togami-kun's cup of tea."

"If that was my cup, I wouldn't have given it to you." Came Togami's response. And sure enough, he had resumed his seat, and was sipping from his own distinctive cup. Kyouko could not help but chuckle at that.

They all (asides from the henchmen) started to chat quietly, and the others started to drift in. Munakata got up to put the presentation he had planned on the screen, but Yamanabe, the new head of the 4th Division, cajoled him into switching it over to the TV function, given that they were still very early and the rest had yet to arrive.

After some back and forth Munakata eventually gave in, and Yamanabe cheerfully flipped it onto a flamboyant looking talk show, before sitting down. The inane sounds filled the room, and while some seemed engrossed, for Kyouko, it was just a welcoming background noise. She imagined most of the others thought the same, based on their reaction.

"W-what….what is that?"

Distracted from the conversation she had been listening to, Kyouko turned to see that the question had come from Izayoi, who seemed to have frozen the moment he'd walked in through the door. His eyes were fixed on the screen.

"Oh, this?" Yamanabe answered. "Just a time passer till ever-"

"S-stop it. D-don't…."

"Eh? Izayoi-san, you don't like this show?" Asahina asked. "Should we change it?"

"Aww, man, do we have to? It's just getting fun!" Yamanabe pouted.

"We're only waiting on a couple more people, so now's a good time in any case." Munakata pointed out.

"No, no, stop it. Don't…."

"Izayoi-san?" Kyouko murmured. Something was wrong, she could sense it, and carefully, she got up.

"What are you saying? I won't….I won't…." Izayoi's breathing became heavy, and his horrified gaze was still fixed on the screen. It seemed that he hadn't heard or even noticed any of them.

"Izayoi?" Munakata asked. "Is something the matter?"

"NO! DON'T! STOP IT!"

The room was stunned silent by Izayoi's sudden outburst, the show on the screen the only noise left, but before anyone could do or say anything, from nowhere he pulled out three knives and flung them at the screen. Asahina shrieked as she ducked, along with Togami, and Sakakura was quick to push Munakata out of the way as all three blades hit the screen, shattering it, before falling along with the other glass fragments.

Oh. Oh, Izayoi-san.

Putting the pieces together and realising what must have happened, Kyouko felt something heavy in her chest, and she wanted to cry. But instead, she watched in horrified silence as Togami's two right-hand men sprung into action to restrain Izayoi, just as he appeared to be hit by a wave of exhaustion and his knees gave out.

"I won't…." he gasped out. "You won't….hurt…Ruruka. S-stop…"

"What the hell was that?" one of the others in the room asked. "What the hell was that?"

"Is he even okay?!" Yamanabe gasped.

"Explain yourself! What was the meaning of this?!" one of the right-hand men asked Izayoi, gripping him roughly by the arm and shaking him slightly.

"Yeah, exactly, what was that?"

"He's seeing something else." Kyouko said quietly, finally finding the ability to move. "Let him go. This is nothing to do with us. He won't hurt anyone."

Everyone stared at her blankly.

"But, Kyouko-Chan, did you see what…?"

"I saw, Asahina-san."

"Nah, she's right." Unexpectedly, Sakakura got up and made his way around the table. "Let him go."

Kyouko levelled a look at Togami, who let out a long suffering sigh.

"Shindo, Isozaki, listen to them."

They did, and when they let go of Izayoi his shoulders slumped in defeat, and he remained on his knees, still breathing heavily, eyes still wild and desperate.

"Ruruka…"

"Oi, Izayoi!" Reaching them, Sakakura knelt, blocking Izayoi's view of the screen. "Izayoi! You're not there, okay? Wherever that head of yours thinks you are, you're not there. It's not real, it's not happening anymore. It's over, alright? It's over."

Izayoi blinked and stared, but did not say anything for a while.

"You understand me, right? You. Are. Not. There. You're here, where it's safe."

There was silence for a little while longer, as everyone watched the two of them, agog. Eventually though, Izayoi's breathing evened out, and when he blinked and stared again, it looked like this time he was actually seeing what was in front of him.

Thank goodness.

"S-Sakakura?"

"Yeah. Come on, kid." Sakakura got up with a groan, then held out his good hand to Izayoi. "I think you need a break or something, before you spontaneously combust."

"I think that train left the station." Yamanabe muttered. Kyouko turned and glared at her, with more feeling than she'd expected. Yamanabe's eyes widened, and then she turned away pointedly.

"Oi, Munakata. Can we excuse ourselves this time?" Sakakura asked once Izayoi was up. Munakata nodded.

"Yes, go."

And so they did, the rest of the room sighing a collective sigh of relief when they did. Kyouko just sighed, and went to sit down again.

"Isozaki." Togami was quick to direct one of his men. "Go and get somebody to clean this up. And see about getting a replacement screen for this room.

"Yes, sir!" Isozaki said, before leaving.

"Okay, that's all well and good, but what about what we're meant to be here for?" one of the others asked irritably. Munakata nodded seriously.

"The presentation would have been useful, but I have notes here. We can do without it."

And so he did. The rest of the meeting went smoothly, though Kyouko was barely paying attention. When it had finished and they were leaving, the cleaning crew had arrived, and Togami stayed behind to deal with them.

News of what Izayoi had done spread through the building quickly, and some of the whispers made Kyouko bristle, and it took all she had to not just abandon her work and give them a piece of her mind. But it didn't seem like Izayoi would have heard any of it, for no matter where she looked in the free minutes she had across the day, neither he nor Sakakura were anywhere to be seen.

When she did eventually come across Sakakura, it was very late, and she was heading down for dinner just as he was coming out of Munakata's office

"Sakakura-san!"

"Oh, hey, Kirigiri." He gave her a quizzical look as she reached him, but then before she could ask anything, his face cleared.

"I took him out on patrol with me today. For the entire day. It was relatively chilled, nothing too taxing, though we did end up spending a couple of hours with a bunch of elementary school kids, cos it turns out he's a bit of a figure amongst them. They even call him 'Yoi-sensei'. It's crazy."

Kyouko waited.

"Wait, you know, don't you? That all the metalwork stuff he does, and some of the other bits he's been teaching himself, he's been teaching kids around here as a way of rebuilding the area." Sakakura asked.

"Ah." Kyouko nodded, remembering. "I've heard."

"Yes, well. I somehow cajoled him into giving me a few pointers on handling the knives like what he has, and he agreed. Not," Sakakura glared suddenly. "That you needed to know that or anything."

"Yes, of course."

"But anyway, we didn't talk about…..you know, but he's alright now, though he still seems a bit shaken up. I told Munakata it might be best we do something about the screens around here so that he doesn't freak out again, least until he sees someone about that or something. Also, he's not so bad a guy either. We talked some back in the hospital, but I've never spent a proper full day just hanging out with him, and it turns out he's pretty cool. But yes, as I said, he's fine. There's no point you going to check on him now-I sent him off to go get some sleep, because he's pretty beat and we did stop for food on the way back, so yeah."

Kyouko nodded, and raised an eyebrow.

"Why do you say that about me checking on him?"

"Because I can see your need to do so written all over your face." Sakakura snorted. "But anyway, you should go down to his workshop tomorrow or something, see him in action in his 'Yoi-sensei 'mode. It really is quite something."

"I see." Kyouko nodded, trying to keep her facial expression as neutral as possible. Sakakura laughed, and shook his head, clearly not buying it.

"See you later, Kirigiri." He called as he headed off in the opposite direction. Kyouko stared after him for a moment, then shrugged and went to dinner, thinking about that.

"So, that's all good and ready to go." Kyouko stated as she closed the file and slid it across the small table to Togami. He took it and nodded.

"Yes, I'll make sure it gets processed on time. " He got up, and crossed the room to put the file on a pile that, while still neat, was rapidly becoming unstable. He seemed to notice it himself, for he frowned at it and shook his head in annoyance before looking over his shoulder at her.

"What else do you have to do today?"

"I have to chase up Tanaka-san, and I have to prepare for testifying tomorrow. But I was going to make a quick visit to the workshop before all of that." She said, referring to the basement workshop which Togami had essentially handed over for Izayoi to work in.

She went there every so often now, mostly to reassure herself, because the screen incident had made her flash back rather vividly to the time trapped in the Future Foundation killing game, and what had occurred in the library.

"And what time are you dealing with Tanaka?" Togami inquired, making no comment about the workshop.

"Three thirty."

Togami quickly looked up at the large wall-clock, and nodded.

"In which case, there is time for a cup of tea."

In your world, there's always time for a cup of tea.

Kyouko didn't think that was a bad thing though, and she knew that this was Togami's way of looking out for her as a colleague and comrade. And in any case, there was no arguing with Togami when it came to tea (though he was hard to argue with under most circumstances anyway), so she smiled and nodded.

Going to the sideboard where he kept all his tea-making equipment, Togami set about making two cups of tea in silence. Kyouko didn't mind so much, simply leaning back in her chair and waiting.

Who could have imagined that I'd spend my days like this?

This was very, very different from the future self she had once visualised. But of course, that future self had almost entirely stopped being possible from the moment she'd set foot in Hope's Peak, really. And after the second Mutual Killing Game she had been involved in, any hint of possibility had been smashed to pieces.

Not that she should have been here to contemplate this in the first place.

"I can hear you brooding, Kirigiri." Togami said almost as soon as the thought occurred to her. A few moments later, he turned, and Kyouko saw that he had put the cups on a tray, and added a plate of very fancy biscuits. She stared at them, wondering where Togami had kept them that she hadn't even noticed him take them out in the first place.

"I hide them, otherwise Komaru gets to them whenever she comes here. And then insists on giving some to Fukawa, completely depleting my biscuit supply. Just how many biscuits can two young females handle in one go?" Togami complained, shaking his head as he sat down across from her.

"Now that's a question." Kyouko remarked, raising an eyebrow and picking up her cup. "Perhaps you should do a formal experiment to find the answer, next time they come."

"And waste all of my best biscuits? I'd rather not." Togami retorted, somewhat sniffily. Kyouko held back a chuckle at that, but did allow herself to smile.

"But to get to the point-you're still not sleeping well, are you?" he asked. Kyouko looked at him.

"I'm managing fine."

By which I mean I've figured out how not to scream, so I don't need to keep stuffing the pillow in my mouth each time.

"Kirigiri, there are bags under your eyes, and you're quite literally amongst the very last people to clock out each day. If not the very last person. "

Kyouko remained silent. Togami shook his head and sighed in annoyance.

"Well, at least you don't skip meals anymore. Komaru in particular was concerned by that, as I'm sure you're aware. "He continued. "But what are you hoping to gain from pushing yourself to the brink?"

Closure? Forgiveness? Distraction? All three, and something else?

"If it's guilt, then stop. There's no point to that. What could you have done? You weren't the only player who factored into what happened, and there was no way you could control two grown men, especially not one who had known your father for that long and was significantly older than you. Working yourself up is pointless. "

"Yes, it is."

"But of course, in these matters, using logic isn't that easy." Togami sighed. "I suspected that much. Especially given that it's Naegi we're talking about. He was loved, inexplicably enough. "

"I know….."

"Do you? Then, explain that bracelet." Togami pointed to it, and instinctively, Kyouko covered it with her other hand and stared at Togami searchingly. He narrowed his eyes at her, but didn't say anything. It took her a moment to realise that it was her turn to say something now.

"It's….a reminder. Of what happened. I'm not entirely at fault, I am aware, but that doesn't absolve me of any responsibility for Naegi-kun's death. Or even Kizakura-san's death. I suppose I do overplay it in my mind at times. However, the fact still remains. And I can't let that slide."

For what seemed like the millionth time, Togami sighed deeply. He rubbed his forehead, and prepared to launch into another mini lecture, but Kyouko still had something to say, and she beat myself to it.

"I also didn't plan for surviving afterwards. Of course, nobody made concrete plans as such. But quite literally, I proceeded through the game with the mind-set that I would die, and that was that. That is what I planned for. So now that I am here, though I'm grateful for life…..I'm not sure what to do with it, if that makes sense. I don't know how to live, what life is. I survived, yes, but living is a different matter, and I can't solve it. So I work instead, just going through each day one at a time, because I at least know how to do that. And perhaps in the meantime I'll figure out how it is I live."

Clearly, whatever Togami had planned to say had become completely useless in light of this confession, so there were a good few moments of silence. Kyouko took the time to down most of her tea, and she had just selected one of the biscuits off of the plate when he spoke up again.

"But is that not what life is? Going through it, one day at a time?"

"Erm…"

Is it? Is it that simple?

"I suppose only you can decide that. Though for the record, I think pushing yourself for these very reasons is foolish. But I want to make a deal with you."

Kyouko tilted her head curiously.

"What sort of deal?"

"When you think you have your answer-when you've figured out what it means to live as opposed to survive- then you need to get rid of that godforsaken bracelet."

Kyouko looked down at it. For a moment, she was taken back to when it worked, seeing the words of her forbidden action scroll by as if they were actually doing so. Feeling a small headache come on, she rubbed at her forehead, then sipped at what tea remained in her cup, before looking at Togami, regarding her with arctic blue eyes, waiting for her answer.

So slowly, though she had so many doubts and new questions, she nodded and sealed the deal.

Curled up in the corner of the bench, she watched from over her notebook as Izayoi made the last checks and then move to retrieve his coat when he glanced over his shoulder and stopped. After studying her for a moment, he turned back on his heel and crossed the room in a few large steps, looking increasingly ready to bolt with each one until he stopped directly in front of her.

"You're still here."

"I am."

"That's…unusual."

Well, I can't argue with that one, can I?

"Aren't you usually busy?" he queried.

"Things are slow on my end this week, so not so much." She sat up straighter, feeling it would be better to continue the conversation if she was actually sitting up.

"It's mostly a few non-urgent loose-ends that are better off dealt with in the morning. And some admin, too."

"Ah." One side of Izayoi's mouth quirked up. "Paperwork. Of course. Escaping it?"

To that, Kyouko simply turned her notebook over and showed it to him, so he could see the sheet that she had leaning against the pages. Izayoi looked at it levelly, and nodded. He stuck his hands into the pocket of his trousers and studied her. She met his eyes just as calmly, and there was a moment of silence as they both assessed each other.

"I suppose it's the same either way." Izayoi broke the silence. "It's almost become reassuring, having you here keeping an eye on me."

"I'm not exac-"

"You are though, that's the thing. Or at least you were. To make sure that I don't snap again."

Internally, Kyouko winced, remembering that day. Izayoi hadn't done anything like that in the months since, but looking back, it was easy to see that all the signs had been there. But between hospitalisation and the fact he spent most of his time down here, it hadn't been so easy to notice these signs earlier. And perhaps there had been the assumption that after just over three years, they were moving forward in healing, not backwards.

But given that she still had nightmares, and still dealt with them by dragging up that box of unwanted memories and testing herself with the pocket flask, so she of all people should have realised that the assumption was a stupid one. Even if she didn't need to muffle herself with a pillow anymore.

I'm starting to acquire a track record of this, aren't I?

"I don't think badly of you for it, Kirigiri."

Kyouko blinked at Izayoi's suddenly quieter tone, and the sadder look on his face, but waited. Though they'd had semi-serious conversations before, this was the first time any of their conversations had taken this particularly personal sort of turn. She did not want to mess things up.

"I'm not angry about that. If it were Ruruka, I'd want someone to keep an eye on her and look after her. "

"Izayoi-san…"

"Besides, this isn't completely out of the blue. You've been trying to look after me right from the start. Even back then…when I was in the dark. I can't say I remember it in the same way I'd remember an actual memory, but I remember your voice from back then. I probably still will…"

Kyouko frowned.

"Izayoi-san, are you thinking of killing yourself?" she blurted out in a hurry.

Now it was Izayoi's turn to frown down at her, and for a moment she thought she had blown it before his face cleared and he shook his head.

"I always think about it. I always think about it. But….I have no solid intentions that way."

"Thank goodness." Kyouko couldn't hide her relief, and Izayoi tilted his head at her curiously, and then smiled slightly.

"Thank you, by the way." He said. "For….keeping an eye on me. Like I said, it's….reassuring, somehow."

"It's nothing you need to thank me for." She told him. He nodded, and then promptly changed the subject.

"What's that around your wrist?"

Kyouko looked at her hands, but it took her a moment to realise he was referring to her bracelet.

"You mean this?" she indicated. "A bracelet."

"Is it what I think it…."

Izayoi's sentence petered out, and he knelt down in front of her. Staring at him, for a moment Kyouko was taken back to the game, when their roles had almost been reversed.

"May I see?"

Wordlessly, she stuck out her hand. To her surprise, Izayoi used one of his hands to hold hers, and the other to study the bracelet, twisting it around and looking at it from all angles.

"This brings back things. You only used the black half though?"

"I didn't hold onto the other bit."

"Ah. But…." Izayoi frowned, and pressed the black tubing. When it didn't work, he looked closer at it.

"Ah, it's just tubing now, so of course…. But how…..no, wait, I see how…..who did this for you, actually?"

"I did it myself." Kyouko stated, thinking of nights filled with fiddly finger work and being cautious of getting glue on her gloves. Izayoi looked up and blinked in confusion, and she sighed.

"Well, who would I have asked for something like this?"

"That's true." Izayoi nodded sagely, as if that made sense. "Lucky, though…"

Kyouko raised an eyebrow at this.

"Lucky?"

"Bad choice of words, perhaps." Izayoi grimaced. "But…."

He bit his lip and looked away to the side, his eyes gaining a far-off look to them. Kyouko tilted her head curiously.

"Izayoi-san?"

"You have a more tangible sign of your pain there, for everyone to see. For you to see. Proof."

"….I'm not sure I understand."

"Proof that this is all real…everything that happened, my feelings now. Seeing is believing, right?"

"It is all real. Nobody is doubting what happened."

And I can see your pain clearly.

"Hmm." Still looking away, Izayoi stopped fiddling with her bracelet, but didn't let go of her hand. Another moment of silence stretched out between them, longer this time. Kyouko found that she didn't mind that.

Eventually though, he looked up and gazed at her searchingly.

"Do you still have time on your hands?"

"Yes, I do. Why?"

Izayoi let go of her hand and got up, before sitting down on the bench, next to her.

"Do you think we could stay here for a while longer?"

"Of course."