Nidai Nekomaru strolled out to the deck of the the Remnants' stolen ship to find Kazuichi Souda leaning on the railing and staring at the sunset. That is... his body was pointed in the direction of the sunset. However, due the fact that he was hanging his head in misery, he was actually staring straight down the side of the boat.

Nidai stepped up alongside Kazuichi to find his eyes open and seemingly drilling a hole straight into the ocean's roiling surface below. "You doin' all right there, man?" Nidai ventured.

Kazuichi sighed heavily. "Miss Sonia is... " His voice rapidly grew high-pitched and he trailed off, opting to be silent for a few seconds. At last, he finished, "She and Tanaka are dating or whatever. They're going ashore in Bangkok for a whole night out."

His companion's face showed no reaction. "I'm sorry," Nidai said flatly. "If you've been paying as much attention as it looked, then you should've seen this coming."

Kazuichi gritted his teeth and shut his eyes, still facing downwards over the edge of the ship. "Kinda figured... yeah," he half-whispered. "But expecting it's not the same as actually gettin' it."

Nidai's eyes shifted sideways. "Yeah, look, I can get that," he replied. "Sometimes you know you're up against overwhelming odds, but you still think you can overcome 'em in your heart, which makes the expected loss just as painful as ever. But you listen to me now." He put a hand on the back of Kazuichi's jumpsuit before he continued, "There's no shame in any loss so long as you tried your best. Sure, it may feel frustrating to think you tried your hardest and it still wasn't enough. But the fact is, there was another team on the field. It's not that you blew it, it's that you faced an overwhelming force."

Raising his head slightly, Kazuichi turned a little to regard Nidai. "You mean Tanaka?"

Nidai shook his head. "HaHA! Naaaah, man — I mean the princess. You think you were in some competition with Tanaka to win her heart?! I got news for you there: The greatest obstacle you faced wasn't some other guy, it was the tastes of the lady. Tanaka could've not even been here, and you still never woulda had a damn chance."

"Oooohhhhhhh," Kazuichi groaned in anguish, hanging his head again. "This is not helping, Nekomaru," he said hoarsely.

Nidai scowled when he saw tears coming down his friend's cheeks. "Cut that shit out," he growled. "This ain't something to mourn, bud." Kazuichi only sobbed in response.

"Oh, what's this?" called a feminine voice. Nidai turned to see Mahiru Koizumi approaching the pair. He nodded his acknowledgement of her. Kazuichi, on the other hand, just kept crying without paying her any mind.

She smiled warmly at Nidai. "Souda's crying and Nekomaru's talking about feces or something — a pretty normal evening, then?"

"Heh," Nidai chuckled. "A fair jab, Koizumi." Kazuichi let out a whine. "Even so," Nidai continued, "Tonight's not as normal as you think. Souda's finally realized that Nevermind is outta his reach."

Mahiru stepped up to the railing on the other side of Kazuichi, her brow slightly furrowed. "Souda, a woman isn't some prize you can hope to win," she explained in a somewhat haughty tone. "Nevermind-chan is a person. She was never yours to begin with, so honestly, you never lost anything."

"I know all that," Souda hissed. He paused, swallowing hard. "But I thought maybe she could at least acknowledge me as someone who cared about her happiness, or something?"

The redhead frowned. "It's not her job to validate you," she said pointedly.

"Wish it was somebody's," Kazuichi said bitterly. He pounded a fist on the side of the ship in frustration, causing a hollow blang sound. "You know, if you've got nothing else to say, leave me the hell alone."

Mahiru gave a questioning glance to Nidai. He shook his head and pointed back at her, directing her to follow up and try again.

She took a deep breath. "Iiiiiii... " she began uncertainly, "I'm... sorry to see that you're struggling... with this. But I, aaahhh... " She looked up at Nidai again, who merely shook his head, then rotating his hand in the universal signal for "keep going."

Mahiru paused to clear her throat before she went on, "But you know, so what? Can you really say you were in love with her, or did you just think she was soooo perfect in some ways that you ignored all the ways she wasn't?" She flashed a quick grin at Nidai, who folded his arms and nodded his approval.

Kazuichi raised his head slightly and opened his eyes a bit. They were still wet, and he narrowed them to stare at the sunset through his tears. "I... I don't know if it's love... is love... was love?" He sighed at length, his breath coming raggedly. "I mean, maybe I don't or didn't love her. But I still know that Miss Sonia is perfect."

Mahiru pursed her lips for a moment and cocked an eyebrow at him. After a few seconds, she turned her attention to the sunset. "Souda," she asked, "Can you tell me what a Skong is?"

Kazuichi turned his attention towards the redhead and frowned at the question. "Some animal," he told her. "I guess it lives in Novoselic and like, you have to eat one to become an adult for some reason."

Her eyes drifted over to Kazuichi once more. "Okay then. What about a Makango?" she added.

Kazuichi groaned and rolled his eyes. "Jeez, Koizumi," he grumbled testily. "What is this? Some kind of pop quiz to see whether I paid enough attention to Miss Sonia?"

"No," she responded firmly. "That'd be, ah... pretty pointless." She giggled lightly.

Nidai grunted his agreement with her. "I think we all have seen how you hang on her every word," he told Kazuichi jovially, slapping his back as he did so.

Kazuichi hung his head again, sighing. "Jeez, you don't gotta say it like that," he mumbled.

"I just wanted to point a few things out," Mahiru told him. "First: You can search through books, you can go online, but you'll never find any biologist talk about a 'skong' or a 'makango.' And I get that Novoselic keeps its borders pretty closed, but that's still kind of messed up. Second: I was on a high-profile photography mailing list back before the tragedy. There was one wildlife photographer from Canada who was obsessed with capturing images of every animal on Earth, but she classified the skong and makango as cryptids."

"So what?" Kazuichi asked defiantly. "So they're probably just funny names for regular animals or something."

"That's the best-case scenario, sure," Mahiru said. "But there are other possibilities."

"Like what," Kazuichi spat.

It didn't sound like a question, but Mahiru answered it anyway. "Like maybe Nevermind-chan is kinda-sorta... delusional?" she said with a smirk.

Kazuichi shot upright and turned on her with anger in his eyes. "You can not talk about Miss Sonia like-"

"She doesn't need your goddamn protection!" Mahiru yelled in his face, interrupting him. "She can handle herself, and you're never going to be her white knight!"

"Shhhh," came Nidai's voice. They both turned to find he'd placed one large hand on each of them, holding their shoulders. "Lose the tension," he ordered the pair. "This is a team. We're all friends here, and we're all trying to get to the same place. Koizumi cares about you, Souda."

"Pffft," was the only sound Mahiru made as she rolled her eyes.

"I expect better from you than to scoff at the suggestion of your own empathy, Koizumi," Nidai warned her.

Her frown remained, but she nodded curtly. "All right," she said softly. Nidai did not remove his hands. Mahiru forced her eyes met Kazuichi's again, and she said, "No one here really believes that Tanaka is some dark overlord of magic and mystery, right? He's very talented with breeding and training all sorts of animals, but none of us think she's got mystical demonic powers. None of us except Nevermind-chan, that is."

Kazuichi shook his head again, this time in bewilderment. "So?!" he demanded.

Mahiru had to bite her lip to stop herself from rolling eyes at him. "So, you deal in reality. You may have some wacky aspirations and you might be pretty much a basketcase-" Nidai's disapproving glare forced her to pause momentarily "-buuuut you deal with real things that do real things. You connect objects logically, you use practical science to build and operate devices that you can touch with your hands. Maybe you're just too practical for someone so impractical, and maybe you don't need anyone who weird and wacky in your life, either. Maybe someone as loopy as Tanaka is exactly what someone as, ah... eccentric as Nevermind-chan needs."

"Y-you're not being fair to her!" Kazuichi insisted. "Miss Sonia is a lot more complex and intelligent than some nutball like Tanaka!"

"I never called either of them a nutball!" Mahiru snapped. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to speak calmly once more. "Look, nobody doubts how much you've doted on her. But for everything you adored about her, did you also adore her interest in serial killers? Or her affection for occult rituals?"

"I, ah... w-well... " Kazuichi stammered. "It's very impressive, h-how much she knows ab-bout that stuff," he finished uncertainly.

Mahiru mouth upturned only slightly, a vague look of satisfaction on her face. Nidai, for his part, smiled quite readily.

"Don't you get it, man?" Nidai told his friend as gently as his gruff voice could muster. "Sure, she's refined and beautiful, but your personalities never meshed. You need chemistry, compatibility and all that shit. You deserve better than someone who loves serial killers or believes in imaginary creatures."

He looked over Mahiru, who was smiling broadly. She shook her head in disbelief at Nidai's little pep talk, but she found herself grinning all the same.

Kazuichi was facing Nidai now and standing upright. His head was bent down, looking at the deck of the ship, but he managed a small nod. "Maybe you're right," he said. "I just wish... "

He shook his head again and wiped his eyes with the back of his yellow sleeve. "Forget it," he said. "I'll work on that later. I'm... I'm gonna go build something."

"We're here for you, like any good teammates!" Nidai said a bit too loudly. "Are you sure you don't wanna tell us what you were thinking? Because I've always got your back."

Kazuichi looked back with his reddish eyes and scratched the side of his head. "I was just gonna say that... I was gonna... " his voice vanished into a squeak, and he let out a mild ugh at himself. "Y'know," he began, attempting to restart, "I've been bullied and teased damn near my whole life. You can imagine what it was about: I was a crybaby, a whiner, and I got some other names that weren't that nice." He half-grinned in a way that made one side of his jagged teeth seem to gleam in the remaining sunlight. "Tried to change my look, see if I couldn't get out from under all that crap. Never quite worked out 'cause it didn't change the way I am. Hope's Peak recognized me, and I thought I'd find some kin there, right? I'd be somewhere where everybody else was a freak, same as me, because of all the crazy talents or whatever. So I go, and I meet this gorgeous girl who seemed so pure and good, and I thought... she's not gonna have anything to hold against me, right? Plus I mean, I always wanted a blonde girlfriend, and here was this stunner."

"Shallow," Mahiru mumbled under her breath. Nidai nudged her gently with his elbow, frowning.

Kazuichi didn't miss the comment. "Guess you're right," he admitted, closing his eyes. "But to meet someone that looked exactly like my dream woman? I guess I thought it was fate somehow. I thought Miss Sonia was like some... some angel who was put in my life for a reason, and who was so righteous and good-hearted that she'd never look down on me. Not for how I look or how sensitive I am or for how I look or whatever the hell is always wrong with me. She seemed too perfect for that."

Mahiru held her tongue but looked away. More than a few things he'd said annoyed her, but she wanted to try to hear him out before she pounced. Nidai patted her shoulder slightly, giving a silent approval to the way she was waiting for Kazuichi to finish now.

His pink hair blew in the wind when he turned his head sideways and shoved his hands into the massive pockets of his jumpsuit. "I know that's real dumb," Kazuichi acknowledged ruefully. "I get it now, at least. I was, uhh... Hina-kura once said I was projecting something onto her, I think. Like, idealizing her, or maybe it was projecting my own ideals, or... it was something like that. Whatever it was, I get what he meant: He meant I imagined Miss Sonia was something she's not. And ultimately, of course, she thought I was some freaky-ass stalker, so even the sweet golden princess turned out to be just one more person that saw me as a loser and a weirdo, and it... " He stopped to swallow as he felt tears begin to sting the edges of his eyes. "So yeah," he went on. "I was just gonna say that I just... I wish I didn't feel like I most fit in with everybody back when I was destroying the freakin' world with you guys. And I wish somebody finally thought I was worth a damn, is all."

Kazuichi chuckled and winked at his two friends as though he was trying to blow his little speech off as a bad joke, but no one was convinced. Nidai and Mahiru's faces both collapsed into blank, pained stares.

After a moment, Nidai closed his eyes, clenched his fists, and bellowed, "Do not say shit like that about yourself, damn you!"

"Wha-haaa?!" Kazuichi blurted, stumbling backwards in shock. He fell onto his rear and found himself trembling nervously as Nidai continued his rant.

"Everyone on this ship is your friend!" Nidai yelled. "We all care about each other, and that includes you! You're an important, valuable member of this team, and goddamnit, your happiness matters to me! It matters to all of us!"

"Yes, I've got to admit it," Mahiru said with a shrug. "I would like to see you cheer up and maybe even build us something cool." She smiled and folded her arms. "We couldn't even keep this rustbucket running without you, you know. I'm surprised you haven't made it run on corn sleeves or optimized it to go into maximum overdrive or something. I mean, a creative and energized Souda might be a little bit scary at times, but I'll take that any day over the mopey and pining one."

"Damn straight," Nidai agreed with a grin. He reached his right over to his left shoulder and patted it lightly. "You need a shoulder to cry on? Mine are huge," he said, ending with a boisterous laugh. "And if you're looking for people who care about you? This ship is full of 'em. And every single one knows you're worth a lot more than a 'damn.'"

"Even Saionji-chan said you've been surprisingly useful lately!" Mahiru offered. "And she never compliments anybody."

Kazuichi clambered back to his feet with tears still in his eyes. "Y-you guys," he said shakily. "I mean... thank you, Nekomaru." He clenched his fists and nodded. "You too, Koizumi! I mean it. You've both really... it means a lot, what you've said."

Mahiru half-smiled and gave him a nod. "You're welcome," she said.

"Anytime, brother," Nidai stated confidently. "Now what say you go make this boat's engine kick things up a few knots?"

"Hell yeah!" Kazuichi cheered. "I can't wait to see how fast I can make this thing move!

He jogged off towards one of the nearest entry hatches as his two friends watched him leave with satisfied smiles.

Mahiru turned to regard Nidai. "Maybe they should've called you the Ultimate Relationship Coach," she suggested, grinning.

He guffawed loudly as he rubbed the back of his head. "Even the best players sometimes need help through their personal problems," he explained. "I wouldn't be much of a coach if I couldn't help a guy over a broken heart and get him back to being fighting fit."

"So is that where he is now?" Mahiru asked skeptically. "Is he 'fighting fit'?"

"Not quite," Nidai said simply. "These things take some time. I'm pretty sure Souda's still a newbie when it comes to relationships. The fresher they are in the game, the longer they take to heal from the injuries."

"Okay," Mahiru said uncertainly. "What was this, then? A first push?"

"Something like that," Nidai agreed. "It took him a damn long while to let go of his hangup on Nevermind. It wasn't easy for him. So yeah, he took the fall hard. He's not totally over her, of course, but at least he's back on his feet. It's a good place to start. Let him throw himself into his work for a while and focus on his friendships here, and he'll running on his own again before you know it."

Mahiru smiled at the large man before her and patted his arm in appreciation. "Lucky for him that he's got you in his corner."

"And you," Nidai said pointedly. "You came into this lookin' pretty green, but I gotta say - you really pulled through for him."

"Oh, jeez," Mahiru said in disbelief, looking away.

"I mean it," Nidai insisted. "You told him some things he needed to hear."

She chuckled shyly as she began to walk away. "Thanks, then," she said over her shoulder. "If only I could make Saionji-chan stop antagonizing Tsumiki-chan, I'd really feel accomplished."

"Wanna team up on 'em?" Nidai suggested with a cocky grin.

Mahiru paused her departure to consider the offer. "Huh," she said in consideration. "That might not be a bad idea... "

This is something I've been wanting to write for a long while. Why Nidai and Mahiru as the two that helped him deal with this? I don't know exactly why, but it made sense in my head and heart for some reason.

I consider this part three of my loosely connected "Remnants at Sea" series which also includes A House Call At Sea and We're Not Friends - all stories that take place on the damn boat, but which are otherwise unrelated.

Thanks for reading and for any other support you can spare! Feel free to swing by hopeymchope dot tumblr dot com for lots of Danganronpa-related blather.