"Hey, Mahiru!"
The voice belonged to Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu, who had just entered the dining hall — really more of a redressed military-style mess hall — aboard the stolen Future Foundation ship that the former Remants of Despair shared. Peko Pekoyama strolled in close behind him.
Mahiru Koizumi sighed at the sound of Fuyuhiko calling her name, but she put on her best smile as she dropped her spoon into her bowl of cereal. She glanced down momentarily, making certain that no milk from the bowl had spattered onto the camera she had set down about a foot away from the cereal.
The only other individuals in the room were Hajime Hinata and Nagito Komaeda, who were eating some bagels a couple of tables away from Mahiru. Komaeda turned to watch the young Yakuza enter. Hajime's red and green eyes seemed to eye everyone in the room with equal caution.
Fuyuhiko threw a quick wave over to Nagio and Hajime before returning his attention to Mahiru. "I've got a favor to ask of you," he said as he sat down on the other side of her table. Peko remained standing directly behind his chair.
"You do?" Mahiru answered, sounding genuinely surprised.
"Sure," he continued. "Peko and I were wondering if you could take some pics of the two of us. You know, we don't really have any shots with both of us in 'em, just the two of us. Not since before we went to Hope's Peak, even. You got some full-class pictures with us in there, yeah, but we were so focused on hiding our past relationship that we lost the chance to have a more personal record of our school years together."
"I see," Mahiru said.
Fuyuhiko was a bit thrown by her non-committal response. "So uh, are you game for that?"
Mahiru avoided eye contact and glanced sideways. "Yeah," she muttered, "I guess I can do that."
"Okay, cool," Fuyuhiko said.
Peko smiled at Mahiru. "We appreciate it," she told her.
Mahiru looked up at the other woman and managed to say "No problem" in a deadpan tone.
Fuyuhiko looked up at Peko, then gave a curious stare to Mahiru. "Second question for you," he told the latter. "Why are you being so fuckin' weird?"
Mahiru looked at him with a furrowed brow. "Uh, I dunno. Am I?" she deflected.
"Hell yes you are," Fuyuhiko asserted definitively. He looked thoughtful for a moment, then snapped his fingers. "Oh, I get it! Are you freaked out because Peko here killed your ass when we were inside the Neo World Program?" Peko did not look pleased by the casual manner in which Fuyuhiko brought this up.
Mahiru merely rolled her eyes. "It's definitely not my favorite memory," she acknowledged, "But no, that's not what's on my mind."
"You got a problem with me, then?" Fuyuhiko asked her, sounding aggressive.
Mahiru finally locked eyes with the young Yakuza and let her face fall into a frown before saying, "Actually, yes."
Fuyuhiko leaned back in his chair and folded his arms, smirking. "Oh really? Photo girl doesn't like Yakuza?"
"Not particularly," she admitted, "But that's still not the problem I have right now."
"Then what?" he responded.
"Have you really forgotten?" Mahiru asked. She still looked unhappy, but now she also appeared sickly amused. "That's funny... " she murmured to no one in particular.
Realization dawned on Kuzuryu's face. "Wait, are you talking about-"
"You killed my best friend," Mahiru said in a monotone. "Weird to think you can even forget that. I couldn't. Not even if I wanted to."
Fuyuhiko grinned in the most threatening way he could muster. "I've killed a lot of people. What, you're gonna act like you're a fuckin' angel?" he fired back. "You've done plenty of sick, evil shit. We all have."
"Yes, and I regret all of it every single day," Mahiru said quietly.
"So do I!" Fuyuhiko replied adamantly.
"Do you regret killing Sato, then?" Mahiru asked him.
His angry scowl melted into an expression of confusion. "I... well... "
"You don't, do you?" she pressed.
And just like that, Fuyuhiko's anger returned. He jumped up and shoved his chair roughly aside. "That bitch killed my fuckin' sister!" he said.
Mahiru stood up in the blink of an eye. "DO NOT CALL HER THAT!" she yelled, slamming her fist onto the table.
"STEP AWAY!" Peko yelled in response. She drew her sword in a flash and jumped to the side of the table, advancing towards the photographer.
Mahiru backed up a step, her lips curled back. She looked ready to either scream, cry, or snarl.
The room fell silent.
At the other table, Komaeda dropped his bagel and watched the exchange with wide eyes. "Habimem?" he mumbled with his mouth full.
"I know," Hajime told him calmly. "I've been watching."
Mahiru returned her gaze to Fuyuhiko. "Did you know her?" she continued. Tears began to well in her eyes. "Did you know anything about her?"
"I knew what she did," Fuyuhiko responded, still seething.
"For a fact?" she demanded.
Fuyuhiko said nothing.
"Did you hear her confess?" Mahiru went on. "Did you watch her do it?!"
"As a matter of fact," he answered with a smile, "She did confess to me."
Mahiru's heart rate escalated. "Oh my god," she said breathlessly, shaking her head. "You... you bastard, you tortured her, didn't you? That's why she was missing for three days before they found her body." Her voice transformed into an angry hiss as she continued, "You and your people... you enjoyed hurting her."
Fuyuhiko said nothing.
"And I'm sure you'd do it all again, right?" Mahiru continued, letting out a maniacal-sounding chuckle. "You thought that because she killed your sister... that made it right for you to torment her, make her bleed, and then watch her die... "
"It wasn't just right," Fuyuhiko interrupted her. "Who I was and what I was made it necessary."
Mahiru started trembling now, either in pain or rage. Hajime stood up, ready to approach the confrontation at a moment's notice.
"You'd do it all again... " Mahiru said in a hushed tone, her voice shaking. It wasn't exactly a question.
"You mean, if someone I loved was murdered?" he asked. His eyes darted over to Peko, then back to Mahiru. A defiant look flashed in his eyes. "Yeah. Yeah, I would."
Mahiru turned away from the table, folding her arms. She sobbed quietly to herself with her back turned for half a minute.
Peko stepped back, moving to Fuyuhiko's side, but kept her wooden sword drawn.
Fuyuhiko sighed. He was still frowning, but his rage and defiance had vanished. "Look," he told Mahiru. "It all happened years ago, all right? Can't we just, ya know, try to move the fuck on? We all went through the hell of being Remnants, we all went through the Neo World Program... Enoshima screwed with us for years. Haven't we had enough and shared enough to let this old shit go?"
Mahiru's sobs stopped.
"Fuyuhiko," Mahiru began quietly, still facing away from him. "I... I don't think... you're a bad person, exactly. Not at heart," she said with sincerity. "I'll work with you to atone for what we did as Remnants."
When she turned around to look at him again, tears were still streaming down her face. And when she spoke, she did so through gritted teeth.
Mahiru said, "But I loved her, you piece of shit." She drew a ragged breath before she continued, "I won't turn on you. I'm not gonna betray you. But I also won't forgive you, and I will never be your friend."
She grabbed her camera and stomped out of the dining hall, her feet hitting the ground hard enough to echo throughout the adjoining passages.
Peko finally sheathed her sword. Fuyuhiko sat back down at the table and groaned to himself. He was so focused on what had just transpired that he didn't notice Hajime and Nagito coming up behind him. Only when Peko's attention shifted to the new arrivals at the table did he finally look up.
"The revelation that you were the one who killed her best friend was one of the last things she processed in the Neo World Program," Hajime reminded him. "It's still relatively fresh for her."
"So... what?" Fuyuhiko asked. "You think she'll get over it with time?"
"No," Hajime said firmly. "She'll never get over it. Her pain will never go away. But it will dull, and as that happens, she should become less hostile towards you."
Fuyuhiko looked away from him and stared forward. "You sound like a goddamn therapist," he grumbled.
"I had to study a lot of Miaya Gekkogahara's work while I was trying to get everyone else out," Hajime said by way of explanation. "She did help create the Neo World Program, after all."
"This is an incredible opportunity, Fuyuhiko!" Komaeda suddenly enthused. "Koizumi is experiencing such despair right now that, when you and her finally bury the hatchet, it will birth a truly amazing hope!"
"Aw Christ," Fuyuhiko moaned, laying his head on the table.
"Not helping," Hajime whispered to Nagito.
Fuyuhiko felt a hand on his shoulder. He recognized who it was without even having to look, but he still raised his head and looked back to give Peko a weak smile.
Peko returned the smile. Hajime was quick to observe how her mere touch comforted him.
Hajime cleared his throat, causing Fuyuhiko to look back over at him with irritation. "Got some more wisdom to share?" he asked sarcastically.
"Actually, just a fact," Hajime said simply. "Your sister regularly threatened to kill Mahiru."
That kicked Fuyuhiko back into full rage mode. "What the fuck are you talking about?!" Fuyuhiko said angrily, glaring at Hajime.
"Only what I said," Hajime continued. "I shared classes with both Natsumi and Sato, and I saw it myself. Not only did she threaten Mahiru's life repeatedly to Sato, but she even threatened her directly."
"Well, what do you expect?" Fuyuhiko hissed. "My sister was crazy, even for our family. But more importantly, she was Yakuza. We got a goddamn reputation to consider."
"Very reasonable," Hajime said insincerely, smirking at him. "But you should also consider this: What would you do if someone threatened Peko's life, and you believed them to be fully capable of making good on that threat? What might you do to the person doing the threatening?"
Fuyuhiko's face drained of color quickly, but his irritation only rose. "Are you tryin' to tell me Natsumi deserved to die, motherfucker?!"
"Not really," Hajime answered, shrugging. "I don't think anyone deserves to be murdered. But you should acknowledge that in her shoes, you would've done the same thing as Sato."
Fuyuhiko looked away from him, visibly pained. He clenched his fists at nothing before he growled, "Fuck you, Kamakura."
"That's enough," Peko interjected, glaring at Hajime. "Leave him alone."
Hajime just smiled at the pair, unphased. "Everyone has someone they'd do anything for," he explained. "For both of you, that person is patently obvious. But for Mahiru? That person is dead. She died screaming-"
"Stop it," Fuyuhiko whispered.
"-at your hands," Hajime continued. "And why did you do it? Why did you make her beg while you watched her die?"
"I SAID ENOUGH!" Peko yelled at him, grabbing her sword by the handle.
Hajime continued to smile coolly at her. "You did it because she did something you would've done exactly the same in her place."
Fuyuhiko slammed his fist on the table without looking back. "I told you to fuck off."
Peko drew her sword. "It's time for you to go, Hinata," she ordered him firmly.
Hajime nodded. "Perhaps now you understand," he said, turning away.
As they headed back to their table, a wide-eyed Komaeda leaned over and whispered to Hajime, "Not cool, man."
Hajime barely glanced at his friend. "It was necessary," he responded.
"You almost got killed," Komaeda told him. "Good thing I was standing nearby to bring you luck."
"I was never in danger," Hajime assured Nagito as he sat back down. "They live by a code that would never allow them to kill me. I'm the one who brought Peko out of her coma. Ergo, they owe me a debt."
"Oh," Komaeda said, still looking confused. He looked up at the ceiling, thinking to himself. "In that case, maybe I should've stood further away, so my awful luck didn't get me killed."
Hajime smiled a little. "My point is that if Mahiru and Fuyuhiko are ever going to move forward, he needs to regret his actions."
Komaeda scratched his head and shrugged. "I suppose garbage like me can't hope to understand the wisdom of Izuru Kamakura," he noted with a smile.
Hajime rolled his eyes. "Be quiet and eat your bagel," he sighed.