A/N: I'm back, ladies and gentlemen, with a Naegiri fic!
Chocolate-chip cookies to those who know what that title is!
*thump*
*thump*
*thump*
The press's constant pounding never seemed to stop. The whole ground shook with such intensity and ferocity that the locks that latched on to Kyoko's feet rattled fiercely, but it never came off. That would be too convenient for someone like her. The truth is, she was going to be executed for falling for the mastermind's trap. No one had the evidence to prove otherwise, except for them, naturally.
*thump*
*thump*
*thump*
The enigma's eyes widened slightly by the last thump, not expecting it to be much louder than a gunshot fired three meters away from her. Her heart started to pound faster and more irregularly than the mechanical timing of the press. Were it not for this insane bear's lessons about the reproductive system and the specifics of a sexual intercourse between a man and a woman, she could've suppressed the imploding panic in her heart. The way it emphasized on the climax during an intercourse and the erotic sensations that came from it… the heat of the burner at the very back and the arousing atmosphere that ensued when it slammed its stick on the center of what looked like a woman's vulva made a single bead of sweat discreetly trickle down the side of her head, barely registering for the usually keen-eyed Kyoko. The mastermind knew exactly how to break through her iron-clad defense and provoke very strong reactions from her, to which, by her surprise, she never knew that she was more than able to do so due to her being so used to quelling any emotions that threatened to show.
*thump*
*thump*
*thump*
The thumping grew louder. Was it close or was it not? That question was a mystery she couldn't solve. The farthest she could look was to her side, but even with that, she could not determine how far the press was from her. Each thump was deceptively louder than it should be; then again, this room is rather spacious, which meant that the booming sound would reverberate and amplify itself repeatedly, like shouting at a bunch of megaphones all lined up neatly and orderly, pointing towards the other's microphone. Her heart raced and the feeling of dread did not stop eating away at her mask. If the mastermind thought they could squeeze out a screech or even a small whimper from her, she will deny them the luxury of reveling in her despair.
*thump*
The press drew closer…
*thump*
The belt quaked with each blast tremor from its powerful pounding…
*thump*
She grasped her skirt tight as that was the only thing she could do to calm her trembling-
*THUMP*
Something snapped within her and her adrenaline spiked up to critically high levels, trying to break off the shackles that tied her feet to the legs of the seat and flip the desk over to escape this execution. This was no feeling she could suppress- no, this was something no human can suppress: natural instinct. Every creature has it. When pushed to the brink, creatures fight through thick and thin to survive, to escape the suffocating hold of death. All logical thought gets discarded and overwritten with this primal feeling.
Still, she had to fight back the urge to scream. She won't ever show any signs of weakness to the mastermind. Kyoko shut her eyes as tight as she managed and waited for the metaphorical hammer to slam down on her.
It won't hurt…
She won't feel a thing…
She shouldn't be scared of something that comes instantaneously…
It'll all end with one blow: her struggles, her efforts, her goal, and her life.
Everything she strived and risked her life for to find the truths hidden behind this killing game will be erased - forgotten completely like her memories, with a swift decisive-
*THUMP*
This was it.
Just one more…and then…
And then...
. . .
. . . .
. . . . .
It's not…coming down…? she asked to herself. She dared to open her eyes and look up, and the breath she held in anticipation was completely taken away. A miracle happened. Alter Ego had come to stop the press before it could squash her. Monok-the mastermind looked surprised as well and had completely shifted their focus towards the unexpected random fluke in their plans. Even with how crafty and cunning they were, they couldn't have predicted this.
Now that the bear was directly under the press, it suddenly started back up again, smashing the robot into pieces and knocking the table over with its force. Kyoko's eyes widened as she plummeted down the seemingly endless void at the end of the belt, still shackled to the chair. Now that the desk wasn't pinning her hands down, she quickly grabbed the legs of the chair and positioned herself to try and minimize the fall damage that she would receive, not that she expected to survive this. It was still a pretty long fall and she doesn't have enough clues to hypothesize where she was headed.
Wait a minute…
Wasn't there a hatch on the first floor?
The answer to that question completely escaped her grasp when she crashed - her consciousness abruptly cut and now drifting aimlessly in the sea of her lost memories. She must have been hit pretty hard in the head, for the impact jogged her mind to fill in the missing puzzle pieces of the mystery that is Kyoko Kirigiri - the Ultimate ???
She caught glimpses of some "normal" life of a high school teenager in school with lavender hair, braids, gloves, jacket and tie that matched her own. This teenager was very stoic and distant towards the others. A boy with spiky hair often approached her and she, after being constantly pestered for so long, relented and pleasured in his company. He was very optimistic and…funny. The situations they often ended up in provided a good chuckle from that doormat of a man, and although he stood or groveled at the receiving end of fate's unprejudiced cruelty, he smiled. That affirming upturn of his lips erased all common notions of the idea that he was a frail child. He looked strong and dependable.
Too bad, her detective instinct doubted this.
It was in human nature to harbor deceit, malice, cowardice etc. People like her father are proof to this. No man is as saintly on the inside as they are on the outside. She did some investigating on the boy and found out a lot of truths that gripped her heart with a hand more frigid than the desolate iciness she exudes. She let her guard down and thought that this boy considered her special but because of what she found out, she found it hard to continue her pursuit of the truth, so she took her mind off of the boy and resumed her investigation on the school.
That memory ended then another started. The same boy came to her with worry and guilt etched on his face. That much she can tell just from a second's glance at him before she briskly walked away, furrowing her eyebrows in an attempt to squeeze out all those troublesome thoughts about him away.
"Kirigiri-san!" shouted and panted the boy. "Please wait...!"
She stopped in her tracks and fixed him a glare, telling him that she didn't have much time to waste "hanging out" with him. "...What is it, Naegi-kun?"
"I know that you're always busy and that you have a lot of important things to do...I understand that, but if you're ever hard up on something...I want you to remember that you can always ask me for help..." his face turned red. "...y-you know...as a friend...?"
That's all she gathered from what he rambled amidst the occasional stuttering. She flicked a strand of her hair behind her ear then crossed her arms, avoiding eye contact to focus on his words. "...Is that all?"
He flinched at her question and the tuft of hair on his hair jerked up to a straight thorn protruding upwards and not at an acute angle. "You...don't have any input to that at all?"
"I...want to think about your words, Naegi-kun." her gloved hand reached toward the back of her head and untangled the knots. "But I don't have a lot of clues to provide a sound conclusion." she concluded with a quiet unsure tone.
"Then...let's talk about it together!"
She shook her head. "Not today...I have important matters to attend to right now."
"I-I see..." he replied dejectedly.
Her eyes lingered at his sad puppy eyes, her unaffected expression unchanging no matter how pitiful his state looked, but there was a pang, a twinge, of guilt that kept her from breathing easily. Another rigid hold gripped the artery to her heart and she instinctively clawed at her chest to loosen its suffocating squeeze. "…Naegi-kun…" she started, choking out his name with such discomfort. "…I want you…to answer just one question for me…"
Concerned, he replied, "Sure…! I'll answer honestly if that's what you want…"
"Good…" she doubted it, but hearing him say that eased her a little. She used this opportunity to reinforce her mask. "Why do you still insist on getting closer to me? I imagine it must be very irritating to deal with my aversion to leisurely company…"
"Well…I try to befriend everyone as much as I can…"
"Are you trying to dodge the question? You should know exactly what I'm asking about."
"H-Huh? D-Don't tell me…you…you're-"
"Answer."
"Ok ok! I assure you, it's not what you think, Kirigiri-san! I really want to try to become close to everyone and understand them more! That's all there is to it, I promise!"
She stood silent and gazed directly into his pleading eyes, searching for the evil she hypothesized that existed within him. She detected fear and worry, a common tell to see when she interrogated criminals. The only thing that separated a criminal and this boy was the sudden mood shift when she demanded an answer to press his buttons - to get him to fumble in his words and catch him in his lies. He didn't play dumb. He knew what she was thinking of and answered with the same response.
He only wanted to become friends with everyone.
Her face twitched at the mention of "friends", a sudden shift of her eyebrow and a crinkling of her cheekbone. He didn't have kinetic vision, like her, but if she was in his spot and saw that minuscule twitch, she would have deduced that the girl in front of her was hurt by his answer.
Hurt?
Since when did her feelings come into play?
Maybe that was it…she was overreacting, wasn't she? She should expected a normal response from someone like him. She knows he isn't capable of subterfuge or having a hidden agenda disguised by his friendly approaches with the others, despite what they think about him. No, Makoto was a good friend to everyone and his intentions were as obvious as his thoughts. Her feelings about him casted a heavy sensation of doubt on him and his words that continued to echo in her head.
What a rookie oversight…
She turned her back and left him after greeting him a curt goodbye. The truth tended to be dissatisfying at the best and worst of times just to remind her that being a detective was not mere child's play. To efficiently find the truth, one must cast aside all feelings, personal bias and be impartial to all sides. Refraining to do so will only obscure the truth with unnecessary problems. In turn, for being a detective, one must carry the burden to doubt even the most obvious of answers, so that they can find more evidence to make a deduction.
For this particular case however…she wondered if it was her detective's instinct that made her discard the obvious answer or if it was her wishful thinking that made her turn her sharp unrelenting eyes away from the truth - the truth that she was just as special to Makoto as any other person he tried to befriend. Whatever it was, she quickly got over it by finding relief in acquiring the truth. In her years as a detective, the truth was her only sense of hope.
The truth...
Hope...?
This school...
I must not leave this place...
...no matter what...
...no matter what...!
"Gh...!" dripping with cold sweat and reeking of repugnant odor, Kyoko's body shot back up only to hear a deafening ring resound in her ear, feel a painful sensation course all through her body and a warm liquid flow slowly down the side of her head. Now that she thought about it, she felt her life dwindling and weakening by the second. Her world swayed to the side, making her struggle to regain her senses. A heavy feeling of light-headedness overtook the bleeding woman as she shambled to pick herself up with her numb, stiff legs. Despite her shaky composure, she managed to get her energy to flow easily to her limbs. Adequately recovered, she examined her surroundings using the talent that she had now remembered during her unconscious state.
Heaps of scrap metal, plastic, rotting food and other materials with questionable origin and stench were stacked like makeshift columns upon the base of even more trash. From the site where she crashed, the remains of the broken desk and chair scattered sporadically, with some heavily dented and bent metal added in the pile. She deduced that the shackles miraculously broke from the impact. Their edges were jagged and irregular, indicating that some force was used to break them off of her ankles. Aside from all the piles upon piles of junk, there seemed to be nothing noteworthy...save for the iron gate that looked like the only exit to this trash pit. On the gate, there lied an hole engraved on a block, resembling that of a keyhole. Fortunately for Kyoko, she had the right tool to do the job. Her hand dove under her jacket and fondled with her secret pockets to find the mastermind's not-so-secret weapon.
She froze on the spot after finding out that the key suddenly disappeared. The mastermind couldn't have snuck it away when they dragged her to the execution, could they? That bear wasn't exactly light-handed enough that she wouldn't notice that it had stolen something from her before it was too late. She must have dropped it sometime when she fell down. Frantic, she begun to scrounge the place for the key. She dug through the pile around her landing and examined every heap of broken glass shards, burnt fabric, soiled underwear and many other strange things for anything that resembled the key. It would be ideal too if the key out of this place ended up here but that would be too improbable. Their captor, despite their chaotic and insane actions, was very thorough; all the crime scenes from these past murders were scrubbed clean of any evidence that indicated a murder - every bloodstain, speck of dust, drop of sweat and piece suddenly vanished without a trace. To think that the mastermind would pay better attention to their tools after what she did wouldn't be a far-fetched theory.
Seconds turned to minutes, minutes turned to hours, and before she knew it, two full days had already passed with no such luck of ever finding the lost key - or at least that's what she thought. Blood loss and hunger weakened her significantly to the point where she lost her sense of time and drive to investigate the trash pit. She must have gone through a full day without a wink of sleep - that she was absolutely certain of. Expecting to find the key before she fell to this state, Kyoko opted to sleep and continue her endless search once she was fully rested.
The light of hope flickered ever so lightly and it begun to fade for the detective. Everything seemed so…hopeless. She started to accept the possibility that the key wasn't here- no, it was supposed to be a given from the beginning of her investigation. This must have been why the mastermind didn't even bother to ascertain that they had killed her. Rotting here in this desolate place of disposables as a disposed afterthought would've been a fate far worse than her supposed execution. No one knows where she is and she doubts that anyone had the guts to come rescue her.
She resigned herself to her fate and withered slowly. There's nothing she could do about her situation. Making a key from all these scrap metal would've been a good idea, and it was probably her best bet, but she didn't know how, especially for this lock. Picking the lock wasn't an option either as the lock's mechanisms are unique and complex, rivaling that of a miniature labyrinth, compressed and compacted until the walls are insanely tight and unnavigable. Perhaps, the only key that can unlock this door was that key she had been searching for an insanely long time. Such ridiculous security was unnecessary for a place no one would dare visit, which makes that key, considering who originally owned it, the most fitting one, literally.
There was…one last thing she could do, one last shameful act. It wasn't suicide. She would never do that, not after the fourth class trial. It was a noble sacrifice, an attempt to get the remaining students to stop quarreling over her. Sakura died with honor. She didn't die because of her despair, she died in hopes of getting them together to stop the one who held the strings over her, controlling her every movement, destroying every sense of free will that she had, and tarnishing her great honor as the Ultimate Martial Artist by naming her as the traitor who deceived them just to appease the puppeteer. If Kyoko committed suicide, Sakura and Alter Ego's deaths would've been in vain. She promised to honor their memory by fighting to live…but…this situation…
…What can I do in a hopeless situation…except to cry for help?
And so, she screamed. She screamed for help to come. She screamed for someone, anyone, to come down and help her.
But nobody came.
Her hoarse screams went unheard and now, she truly lived in cold, filthy, grimy solitude.
She closed her eyes and drifted out of consciousness for the second time, no longer expecting to wake up to the smell of freedom. This was her new home now, down in the dumps.
One name resounded in her thoughts, a name that made her smile a little at the face of her despair. "Naegi-kun..." was the name she whispered to herself so that only her and the other insects crawling around can hear. She hoped that her silent plea made it to Makoto somehow. Even after he had betrayed her trust by telling him that she had the key, she was too tired to doubt or despise the boy for what he did. Thinking about it now, it was because of her that they were caught in the trap, wasn't it? In a way, she betrayed Makoto too. She expected him to let her blatant lie go and take the fall for her, and he didn't know about any of it. She had been so caught up in her goal that she forgot how peop- how Makoto would feel about being betrayed. If being betrayed knowingly made her so cold and distant towards him during her execution, how much more when he was the one sitting on that chair, waiting for the press to come down and crush him? Can she still hate Makoto for doubting her in order to find the truth?
...In the end...I still can't confirm anything, even my feelings...
She couldn't fully dispel the hate and pain she felt in her heart. She needed to talk to him, and she's certain that he felt the same too. When they do get to the chance to talk, she'll find out the truth behind him.
"W...k..."
The girl stirred lightly, drifting in and out of consciousness. Her constitution admittedly wasn't the best even though she had been suffering from blood loss, hunger and dehydration in addition to the countless sleepless nights and insufficient meals she ate these past few days. Needless to say, she should've died just after two days and considering the facts, her time's nearly up.
"Kiri… pl… up…"
She mustered any strength she had left just to open her eyes partially. She couldn't see anything. Amidst her struggle to fully regain consciousness, she felt something wet travel down the side of her neck and heard a sound. It resembled that of a little puppy's pitiful whine combined with the sound of a human sobbing. Putting one and one together, the person beside her must be crying.
…Wait…a person…?!
The energy that was siphoned from her slowly came back to her in short bursts of excitement. She fluttered her eyelids open and noticed that a heavy weight pinned her right arm to the ground. She heard the sobbing more clearly than a whispering murmur in her ear.
"…I-I'm sorry…" he hiccuped. "…I-I'm sorry…that I doubted you…a-and…I'm sorry…that I was too late… Please come back…that's all I want right now…"
"Naegi-kun…?" she turned to look at her right and saw Makoto crying on her arm. Although she couldn't see his face, she surmised from the state of his hair and clothes that he was clearly affected by her execution. "Naegi-kun." she repeated, this time in a clearer voice, and pulled him out of that sorrowful state by lifting her arm.
"Kirigiri-san…!" his head perked up and he met her tired stare incredulously, as if he wasn't expecting to see her alive and…*well*. "Y-You're alive…!"
He pulled her to his level so he can hug her and continued to cry out his happiness on her shoulder. Kyoko couldn't help but crack a smile and relinquish her cold stoic persona to savor this moment, even if it meant that she needed to forget past transgressions temporarily. Seeing Makoto again brightened up the depths from which they both plummeted from the floors above for Kyoko. The same *could* be said for the boy, albeit in an extremely varying degree. Nonetheless, they were both glad.
Sooner or later, the sweetness of the moment had to pass. The detective used her regained strength to focus on the more important matters at hand.
"How long was I here for?" asked Kyoko, pulling herself up with Makoto's support.
"Oh…" he stared at the ground pensively. "…It's nighttime now so maybe around…two days?"
"What were you doing then, Naegi-kun?"
"U-Uhhh…" his face twisted with a cringe-worthy smile, like he was trying to act innocent towards her interrogation. "…I was…umm…preparing to come find you and bring you back…?"
Kyoko crossed her arms and arched her eyebrow upwards in response to that suspicious answer from Makoto. "You prepared my rescue for a whole day? Alone?"
Makoto opened his mouth to answer before hesitating and giving up on the act completely. He then brought out a white plastic bag and carried a first-aid kit on his left hand. "…You're bleeding a little, Kirigiri-san. Is it ok if I patch you up a bit?"
She let the abrupt change of topic go for a while and permitted the lucky student to treat her wounds. He handed the bag towards her. Kyoko's eyes widened in surprise upon opening the bag. Her stomach growled and her mouth started to water with the sight of clean edible food and water. She didn't waste any time taking the food inside the bag and ate it slowly. The taste of bread popped in her mouth and immediately cured her hunger pangs. She alternated between taking a bite on the sweet bun and sipping on the small bottle of water. She could feel her body starting to rejuvenate at a comfortable pace, her mind processed things much faster than before and her steps felt a little lighter compared to the weakening weight that occasionally caused her lower body to fail and stop functioning completely. Makoto's attempts to heal her injury helped a little as well.
As soon as he was done bandaging her head, he stepped back from her and grabbed something from his jacket. He held out the mastermind's tool on his palm and refused to meet her gaze, shutting his eyelids with a sorrowful and shameful expression on his face. She slowly grabbed the key on his palm and examined it just to confirm that this was the genuine one. The bits of dust, signs of wear and slight chips on the grooves of the key confirmed that it was used quite considerably. She left Makoto behind and tested the key on the gate. Sure enough, the lock clicked and the barrier keeping her away from the outside was finally unlocked. Freedom was within her grasp, all she had to do was reach out and…
…Hesitating for a moment's notice, she turned back to see a gloomy-looking Makoto sitting by his lonesome self, staring at an empty space and contemplating something in his mind. Guilt swirled and stirred in both their chests - the thick miasmic air exuded from this trash pit suffocated them, denying them the ability to breathe easily. True, it may have been his fault that she suffered and decayed slowly for a crime she didn't commit, but she knew that this wasn't the way to absolve him of that sin. Or what if…he didn't think she'd forgive him as easily as he had hoped? Essentially, he almost killed her, unaware of the consequences that followed from his actions. In his mind, he must have thought that she had put her life in his hands by telling him about the key. Forgiving Makoto…was easier said than done, it seems.
No… Being forgiving was something Kyoko found difficulty in doing, especially when she comes face to face with the most evil sin in human nature: treachery. What Makoto did was no different from deception, and yet, he came to free her from her prison and took the time to tend to her needs, but after what happened, it was difficult to tell whether or not he could still be trusted. Perhaps this was just a ploy to make her feel more comfortable with him again and make more promises he can't keep…or perhaps he was genuinely making an effort to make things right.
Which is the truth and which is the lie?
A detective's duty is to find the truth, no matter how painful it may be.
With those words guiding her actions, she walked away from the exit and approached Makoto. His face never gave a hint that he noticed him nor did his eyes waver from the blank stare he gave. Aside from the class trials, this was the most thoughtful expression she saw from the lucky student.
"Hey," she tapped his shoulder. "Aren't you coming? You shouldn't stay here."
That seemed to break him out of his reverie as his face finally gave way to emote. "Oh. I didn't realize…" he shook his head. "…Yeah, I'm coming."
They walked out of the trash pit in silence. Kyoko closed and relocked the gate for preventive measures. Beyond the exit lied an incredibly long ladder. She looked up and started to question how she managed to survive a fall from such a height with minor injuries. The chair and desk couldn't have softened her impact; there should've been splinters scraping her back if that were the case. However, that mystery didn't matter to her now - all that matters was that she survived an execution and she needed to think of a new plan to beat the mastermind at their own game.
She felt the steel rung of the ladder. Its cold touch told her that not many had descended nor ascended this ladder. Its structural integrity was then put into question and one way to test it was to climb it.
She closed her eyes and let out a quiet sigh. Now was the perfect time to address the elephant in the room. She turned around and gave Makoto another serious look before starting her interrogation.
"How would you define trust, Naegi-kun?"
"Kirigiri-san…I know yo-"
"Spare me from your apologies please. I want to know your version of putting your trust in others because I think we have different outlooks on it. You speak of trusting others with all your heart and yet you managed to break my trust. Twice. In my eyes, you're untrustworthy, Naegi-kun."
Makoto's expression underwent an unexpected change. He closed his eyes and clenched his fists before opening it again once he found his answer. The light in his eyes glowed a cyan hue in contrast to the dim lighting of the depths. She listened intently for he was now serious. Had he been preparing for this confrontation in his mind?
"You're right, Kirigiri-san. I didn't know what it meant to trust others back then. I always thought I could always believe in others while avoiding the doubts that came with it, but now I realized it. I wanted to trust that you had a good reason to lie, so I confronted that doubt by calling you out. I believed that there was a way out of that trap without having to lie, but the mastermind took advantage of my naïveté… Even so, I never meant to fully doubt you, Kirigiri-san! I wanted you to prove me wrong so I can trust you again!"
"So, you chose to not have blind faith on me. I see…" she stepped away from the ladder and stood closer towards his face. "I was wrong about you, Naegi-kun."
His serious demeanor faltered and he hung his head low in shame. "…I'm really sorry about what I did. It should've been me instead-"
"Yes, in fact, it should've been you. You should've been the one who goes through the execution. And for that, I apologize."
"Kirigiri-san?"
"The mastermind was out to get me by rigging that class trial. I knew too that if they failed to catch me, they would either name you as the culprit or have everyone else executed for not finding the right culprit. I…wanted to live so I can solve the mysteries of this school, so I chose the alternative by manipulating your trust in me to suit my desires." Kyoko's guilt became clearer in her face as she too clenched her gloved hand in frustration and ground her teeth. "…My reasons for pinning the blame on you were more selfish than yours. I don't expect you to forgive me."
He looked shocked after her confession - a normal reaction after hearing someone you trusted openly admitting to sacrificing you for self-preservation. She truly was wrong about Makoto. He was right in doubting her and that was the truth.
To her surprise however, Makoto responded by holding out his pinky towards her, a gentle and understanding smile plastered on his face. The gesture rang some bells, familiar bells…then it eventually hit her.
That's…a pinky promise, isn't it?
"…Then let's make a promise. You remember what this is, don't you, Kirigiri-san?"
"A pinky promise…" she muttered her thoughts out loud as she slowly locked pinkies with the other.
"Let's swear to fully trust in each other from now on, ok? We can solve this school's mysteries together-"
"As friends…" she recounted Makoto's words during her dream. She smiled, tugging his pinky with firm conviction.
"Yeah…that." they broke off the exchange and turned towards the ladder. "Shouldn't we be going now?"
"After you, Naegi-kun. I'm not letting you sneak a peek under my skirt."
"H-Huh?! Th-That's not what I was-"
She stifled a quiet giggle with her hand and turned Makoto around with her other hand. She brushed off the potato chip on his shoulder. "…Relax, I know you're not that dirty-minded, Naegi-kun. At least I hope so…"
"I-I'm not…!"
He quickly started to climb the ladder, desperately trying to escape her teases. Kyoko followed suit and couldn't be any gladder to finally be able to leave that place and climb the ladder towards true hope. Although their ascent was long and physically taxing, it wasn't enough to override the relief of finally releasing the heavy burden of guilt in both their hearts.
This isn't over yet. They still needed to face the mastermind but with Makoto by her side, Kyoko shared his optimism and had hopes for overcoming the despair they would eventually face.
A/N: This was incredibly difficult to write. Even with how easy I find it to write logical, cunning and analytical characters like Izuru, Nagito and Kokichi, writing DR1 Kyoko was more difficult for me since she doesn't really reveal a lot about her thoughts. I only know that she hides her feelings behind an iron mask and is incredibly smart and keen, which means that she must be able to spot details that readers don't normally see and oh boy was that a tough one to portray XD.
Moreover, I had a hard time figuring out how to end this fic with a proper resolution. My two best options was for Kyoko to forgive Makoto while the other, angsty, one was the exact opposite. Nonetheless, the real challenge was the delivery of the ending.
Combining the difficulty I had with these two things, I took very particular attention to my words in this fic and used it to make the ending better.
Oh well, I might've f*ed this up. :(