No No Apologies

Part 3

Naegi lay on the bed in his dimly lit room, arms crossed behind his head. His mind felt thick and slow, which was mostly due to his going straight to sleep as soon as he got home. Exhaustion had whittled away at him the moment he was off the campus grounds - once the adrenaline and mind-numbing fear had worn off, he had become aware of how little energy he had left. The events of the day spun around in his head incessantly, mercilessly - not for a moment could he take a reprieve and forget.

The faces of the unchosen students, contorted with fear and outrage, had burnt into his brain, and they were all he could see when he closed his eyes. Cries of fury, of hundreds of voices rising up in uneven unison, could hardly wash out the blare of the sirens that rang out in the other corner of his head.

This mess of images and sounds, as horrible as it was, did nothing to conceal his own repulsive thoughts. Why am I so calm after all that... when it could just as easily have happened to me? If I had done what I wanted to do and ran away…

He groaned and rolled over onto his stomach, burying his face and continuing to make noise into the pillow. It was only six o'clock in the evening, and the ClassChat feature went live at seven. He couldn't even keep himself preoccupied with the company of friends until much later. The atmosphere in the school wasn't right for inviting people out to lunch, he realized. Ikusaba's response was a clear indication of the fact, and it wasn't something he wanted to think about again. The topic simply brought too much embarrassment for him to bear.

Naegi figured he might as well look outside his window to pass the time, knowing full well that his mind would float off to who knows where and the time for talking would come only too soon. With a mighty groan he rolled off his bed and got to his feet, his entire body sore from laying still for so long. Lumbering over to his window, he propped himself up with his elbows and rested his head against the glass, scanning the streets for something - anything - to occupy his mind.

Aside from lonely figures crawling up and down for as far as he could see, nothing stood out. Truly, this city was remarkable only for being in the presence of the towering school building, to which his eyes naturally gravitated. Even as a dim silhouette against the setting sun, Hope's Peak Academy looked incredible.

Never in his wildest dreams would Naegi have imagined actually setting foot inside, let alone as a student. It was with a pang of guilt that he recalled the vast majority who didn't make it in when they were mere footsteps from the door. Out if everyone in Japan, he was picked to participate, and out of all those incredible students, he was handpicked to stay. Indeed, the source of his guilt, he realized, was the sense of relief he felt that it wasn't he who was kicked out.

Had Ikusaba not dragged him inside at that critical moment, he'd have ended up just like them - without dignity, without a school to go to, without hope. Naegi gulped. Not to mention, those sirens… That was the police! What could they possibly have been doing to make those students scream like that? The street had been littered with broken pencils, torn notebooks, and even the odd scrap of cloth. He recalled seeing a cleanup crew working over at the far corner then.

The city police was the most well-reputed public service, even more so than the emergency services like the firefighters and ambulances. Local rumors said that the entire police force was currently headed and run by a graduate from Hope's Peak, which would explain why their operations are always so smooth and with minimal violence. For this reason, Naegi couldn't imagine that anything endangering could have taken place there, not out in public, and definitely not against students. Still… those screams… they weren't angry, they were afraid! What happened out there?

Naegi checked the clock - all that despairing thought, and yet only a minute had passed. This isn't working… I need to take a walk. That'll be more than enough, and I could use the exercise after laying around for so long.

He slipped into his shoes and shut the door behind him as he left his room. Padding softly down the stairs, he kept an ear out for signs of his parents. They generally were fine with him leaving at this time of night, but preferred that he not be late for dinner. Being a compliant boy, he kept his outings short enough to make it back in time. He didn't hear anything happening in the kitchen, and figured that dinner was still a long ways away. Relieved, he hurried to the door and gasped as he bumped into his sister, who was sleepily coming out of the family room.

"E-eh!? Watch where you're going, Makoto! One of these day's you'll kill me, geezie!" she cried out indignantly, rubbing the back of her head tearfully.

Naegi quickly apologized and made sure that her head had no bumps on it. He had pushed her into the wall, and her head connected with it, producing a loud thunk! Probing gently with his fingertips around the spot she was pointing at, he couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Satisfied that she wasn't hurt, he kissed the top of her head and smiled sheepishly at her.

"See? All fine, you're a tough girl, right?" he said, drawing a snort and a pout from her.

"Yeah, I know that!" she snapped. Then, after a pause, "Where are you going? I was just about to order pizza with the money Mom left. Do you want anything special on it?"

Naegi frowned at that. Huh? We never order pizza unless we're home alone…

"Where's Mom? Are our parents home?"

"Eh? They're at your school, attending some weird PTA meeting. Some girl came by earlier today inviting them. We're home alone till eight, I think."

This came as a shock. There was no mention, nor any notification of a meeting with his parents. While it made sense for his parents to have to go through something like that, he didn't know why he himself wasn't told to notify them. In any case, this development opened up his evening considerably.

"I wasn't told anything about that, weird… I definitely would have heard about that… Hey, I was on my way out. Can you watch the house while I'm gone? Will you be okay if I'm not here for about fifteen minutes?"

She rolled her eyes, saying, "This is coming from my brother who just got done telling me I'm a tough girl. I'll be fine, nothing ever happens around here anyway. Go do what you need to do, I won't even tell Mom." The last part came with a mischievous wink, though Naegi hardly appreciated the accusation. What do middle-school girls get up to?

Naegi shot her a grateful smile as he walked past her and out the door, calling out as he did so, "Make sure there's no garlic, onions or olives on the pizza!"

He shut the door just as she began to complain. "But that's all the stuff I li-!"

Naegi closed his eyes with a grin and breathed in the fresh evening air, smiling to himself as he ambled out onto the street. This is what I needed, some outdoor time. He slipped his hands into his hoodie, contently meandering down the street.

At this time of the day, there was practically zero activity - even in the mornings this neighbourhood was relatively quiet compared to the rest of the city. It was in the solitude of the suburbs that he could unwind and hum out parts of his favorite songs, bob side to side, and generally act goofy without fear of being seen. For as long as he could remember, this stretch of the city belonged to him, seeing how nobody claimed it for themselves to begin with.

This was the last place he would have ever expected to be in danger.

Naegi patted himself down, worried that he'd forgotten something at home. Sure enough, all he had in his pockets were his student ID and some dusty old lint. He had gotten used to the weight of the ID, and somewhere along the line he'd subconsciously discarded his trusty flip-phone.

Naegi exhaled sharply at his carelessness. He disliked walking aroudn withing being able to get in touch with family or friends. He figured that since he was practically at the halfway mark for his usual rounds, it would be a good idea to turn around. The sun had set a while ago, and the city relied on its streetlights for seeing. He pulled out his ID and checked the time. He sighed. Only fifteen minutes have passed, huh? I'll just circle around this next block to kill a bit more time.

Lost in his thoughts, he failed to see the person standing a few yards down the street from him. As he approached, a hand shot out at his chest and jarred him to a halt. He snapped out of his daze immediately and blinked in confusion at the feminine form before him. Wha..? Who's this?

A small part of him began getting excited at the familiarity of the situation. "Ikusaba…?" he started, a faint, eager smile pulling at his mouth.

He was interrupted by an icy, malicious voice, "You conceited little fuck..! You expected me to jump out of your way and grovel, didn't you? I was supposed to defer to motherfucking senpai-sama, right?"

As she spoke, she pushed him back over and over with increasing aggression. He could barely stay on his feet, she kept rocking him back onto his heels. Finally, however, he planted his foot behind himself and managed to push her back. Alarm rushed through his mind from the alien sensation of striking a living, breathing body. This definitely isn't Ikusaba. There's no way I could've stopped her like that.

His reaction brought them to a pause, and he sized up her silhouette with steadily rising alarm. She wasn't much taller than him, but she was obviously stronger. Her face was concealed by her hoodie, and her stance suggested that she wasn't done with him. Instead of attacking him again, however, she began shouting.

"Why is it that you got to stay and not me?" she roared, stamping her foot, "You, who got in by fucking chance, and not by fucking merit?"

She was shaking visibly, and Naegi was much more afraid than before. This girl was one of the rejected SHSL students, and he had no idea what her talent was. His life was potentially in grave danger, and there was no one around to bail him out.

Hold on…! She's a human being, I can talk to her.

After what seemed like an unbearably long pause, he cleared his throat and spoke.

"I-i know that you're upset, but please, listen…!" he said cautiously. He tried speaking soothingly, but not condescendingly, as that would get her upset even quicklier, "I'm just as confused about what happened this morning as you are, I don't even know why I was chosen out of all of those students! If I knew how, I'd switch places with you in a heartbeat…"

His voice trailed off when he saw her deflate at his words, her head lowering as her shoulders slumped. Her body jerked softly to accompany what sounded like sobs, though Naegi was sure she wasn't in a crying mood. His sister wouldn't cry so soon after being upset with him, and so he figured most girls were like that.

"This is rich… this is really fucking rich… As one of the few who have the privilege of attending this private school, you don't even want to BE there? How can you be so ungrateful?".

This isn't what I wanted to say! Why did I panic mid-sentence…!?

"All my friends… every single one I had met today… They're all being hospitalized." Her words hung in the air, and he didn't know how to respond. "As soon as that horrible girl told us to leave, those… cops... swarmed the streets."

She didn't seem to be focusing on Naegi at all, and although he desperately wanted to run away, this was possibly the only chance he had to find out just what happened that morning. He swallowed hard and took a tentative step forward.

"What did the policemen do?" he asked quietly, "I could hear screaming even from inside the school, and there must have been about twenty different sirens going off at once. I've never heard anything like it!"

Wrapping her arms around herself, she answered, "Those people… those weren't policemen. Those were thugs in cop cars. The girl, she had told us to leave, but…"

She must be referring to Junko. What an terrifying girl!

Her throat caught before she could continue, "It was a fucking roadblock. We were surrounded on both sides, there was no possible way for the crowd to leave on foot! Before I could even see that we were trapped, they fired on us with rubber bullets! I happened to be in the center of the cluster, so I wasn't hit then.

"Everyone was running everywhere. It was complete chaos! Once enough students were on the ground, they started climbing in over the barricades, with... bats and pipes…"

Her voice had taken on a distant tone, and Naegi was certain that she was reliving the morning. He didn't have to see her face to be able to imagine the haunted expression. He stayed silent and waited for her to keep talking, but only out of a sense of obligation. The brutality of it was already sounding to be too cruel to be true.

"This big one was coming up to me, ready to break my legs like with everyone else… But then - oh, Satoshi, you imbecile - my friend pulled me back as he was swinging and took a blow to the head. Like an idiot, I stood there watching him writhe on the ground, and that gave the fucker a chance to practically blind me. He dumped half a canister of mace into my face before I was dragged off by a group of students."

Her voice changed into a grim monotone, "I'm the only one who got away today. I know it. It's because of my skills as SHSL Parkour that I could escape the barricade, navigate the rooftops and outrun them while half-blind."

Naegi's heartbeat escalated quickly, and it continued to do so as she pulled something out of her pocket. She held up a small pocketknife in her fist for Naegi to see, and his blood froze the moment his brain registered what she meant to do.

"I'm the hero of this riot, because I'm the one who will reveal this incident to the city. The brutal beatdown of hundreds of students by its own police force, instigated by Hope's Peak Academy! But no one fucking listens to me…! Even Satoshi's parents… they insist that they don't have any kids of their own, even though I saw a boxed lunch spill out of his bag with my own eyes…"

She trailed off again, shaking her head.

"I'm so sorry that it's come to this."

The girl drew a foot back, easing into a fighting stance, and Naegi began retreating, a scream building in his throat.

"Since you're under their protection, you're one of the bad guys now. If I kill one of the most widely known students in Japan, there will be an uproar! There will be an investigation, and that means the school's activities will be kept under surveillance. Keichi Nagou will be known as the one who survived, and she will be the one who fucking destroys this fucked up institution!"

With that, she lunged forward with the blade pointed at his chest, and Naegi threw up his hands in panic, turning away as he screamed loudly at her to stay away from him.

OH MY GOD, SHE'S GOING TO KILL ME! I DON'T WANT TO DIE. I DON'T WANT TO DIE. I DON'T WANT TO DIE.

A burning, stinging sensation shot through his wrists as the sharp edge slid across them. Kimichi slashed once, twice, three times at his neck, but Naegi had turtled up, leaving his wrists even more cut up. It felt like his arms were on fire, while his back was being hosed with ice water. He couldn't see anything, his eyes were instinctively shut tight.

I'M GOING TO DIE. SHE'S GOING TO KILL ME. I DON'T WANT TO DIE. HELP… HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!

"Hold still, fuck! It doesn't have to hurt, just… one… slice! I said hold still!" she hissed as she shredded away at his sleeves.

Keichi suddenly jumped at him, planted both shoes on his chest, and launched into a backflip. Outweighing him, the force of the her feat sent Naegi falling like a mop. His head smacked into the concrete, sending his mind into a blank, and it was there that he began to accept the futility of fighting back. She was too strong. His arms felt like lead, and the night sky was spinning too fast for his liking. He felt Kimichi straddling him.

It hurts… everything hurts… I'm so tired… I don't want it to hurt…

Naegi weakly looked up at the stranger who so badly wanted him dead, and wondered if she would succeed. He's a nobody among a school of legends, and she's a revolutionary for a righteous cause. She's suffered so much, and has so much work to do.

He suddenly noticed a figure approaching them from across the street, bringing his mind back to focus immediately. This highschool girl wanted to kill him out on the street, and Naegi was nearly going to accept it. Why... why am I just rolling over...? I want to live! He grit his teeth and stared defiantly at her, trying not to give away whoever was coming. Can he see us…? Will he save me? His own face must have revealed something; the girl turned around quickly, sat motionlessly for a second, and sprung to her feet.

"You..! You fucker, I'll kill you!" she roared at the figure who was still dark and indistinguishable to Naegi, and ran at him. There was a struggle, accompanied by the clatter of metal on pavement. Newfound energy rushed through his body, and with a great deal of effort he was able to prop himself up on an elbow.

The fighting had taken to the ground, with the figure now in plain view before Naegi. With one knee on the girl, a large, muscular man dressed in a sleeveless police uniform was raining punches down on her. His features were concealed by a clumsy-looking headpiece, with a sinister, cartoonish bear face painted on the front. Keichi called out to him even as the large fists crashed against her raised arm..

"He dropped his gun, it's right there! Shoot the fucker, he's one of the guys who beat the shit out of those students! He's an evil, dirty cop! Prove to me that we're on the same side!"

Only a few feet away from him lay a pistol, and the interlocked brawlers turned to look at him, frozen in place to see what he would do. Naegi's head pounded as he clambered over to grab it, and only when he had his hand slapped over it did he stop to think, though it was clear from the beginning what he had chosen to do.

Gripping the thing tightly, he lifted his head to look at his rescuer, tears streaming down his face.

With a choked sob, "Stop her! I don't want to die…!"

Her hood had fallen off, and Naegi saw the girl's eyes widen as he tossed the gun behind him.

"Motherfucking…! I knew it! I knew you were just like them!"

She tried to buck the bear-man off by kicking at his face, but he wordlessly caught her foot and sharply twisted it, snapping her ankle. She screamed defiantly, and somehow managed to knock him backwards, getting to her feet to escape. Even with a crippling injury she was able to move quickly, but the man was slowly stepping into his car to give chase. Without her ability to scale buildings, it was only a matter of time before she would be caught. Naegi didn't intend to see the conflict through to its resolution, and shakily rose to his feet. Her screams continued to echo down the lonely streets as he turned tail.

He sprinted back home with his heart still pounding like a drum, tears stinging at his eyes, and his arms slowly losing feeling. Running through the the concrete streets, the slaps of his shoes against the pavement boomed within his aching head. Naegi didn't care that his voice had turned high-pitched, or that he was gasping loudly, he only cared about being inside his house, in his room, in bed.

Naegi stumbled on his way up to the porch, literally on all fours by the time he got to the doorknob. He entered, saw that nobody was around to see him, and raced up the stairs as he stripped off his bloodied jacket.

Around half an hour later, Naegi's electronic ID card began buzzing and bleeping, snapping him out of his absent-minded stupor. With cumbersomely twitchy fingers, he opened up his ClassChat application, and surprise shot through his mind.

He already had a pile of messages waiting for him, but they were only from two different people. The first one was called "Hope's Peak Head", and he opened that one first.

"Big sister is always watching you, Naegi!" the chatlog read, "If ever you're in trouble, you can sure as hell count on me to find out and get to you! I heard everything that the rowdy ex-student had said, including the bit where she told you to shoot a school security guard. It's hard to surprise me, but you went and even managed to impress me with your loyalty to Hope's Peak!"

"Do me a favor, and don't talk about this to anyone else. We don't want this getting out of hand and stirring up a panic, do we? Let the school police take care of this."

Naegi stared blankly at this mass of texts, feeling an unshakeable sense of dread creep over him. A lot of this sounded threatening, but he couldn't quite determine why. Enoshima-san was listening in on him the entire time, judging from the contents of the message. Lacking the energy to tackle the implications of this realization, he sleepily pulled up the second chatlog.

Wha..! Ikusaba-san!

"Naegi! Answer me as soon as you get this! I want you to tell me everything you know about the incident earlier this evening. If you're hurt at all, let me know. There were a lot of sirens blaring where I am.

...

Also… Hi. No doubt you're pissed off about earlier today, but I really was busy with some prior commitments. I'm not going to hold my breath, but... I'm up for anything if we agree on something with advance notice."

He was at a complete loss for words. Naegi didn't know what to say, or what constituted an appropriate response in this situation. He had to say something, however - to give in to sleep now would be incredibly offensive to any person showing concern for his well-being.

Wait… how did she find out I was involved? I didn't say a word to anyone - I didn't even have access to ClassChat before now!

The questions began to pile up in his head, but he didn't have the heart to confront her while she expressed these sentiments. Besides, I'm way too tired to start up pointless conflict. As that thought bubbled out of his head, he gave a mighty yawn, nearly passing out on the spot. He decided to pace around the room, rather than linger on his bed.

He feebly pushed himself up and looked down at his wrists. The slices had finally stopped bleeding, though his entire forearm was developing overly tender bruises around the cuts. His head continued to ache, as did his chest. Aside from moderate shaking in his fingers, however, he had no trouble moving his body. I guess I caught a lucky break...

He focused back on addressing Ikusaba and shrugging away sleepiness.

"Hi, Ikusaba!" Naegi started, but he hesitated for a second, unsure if he should confide in her the night's events. He flipped a coin to decide - once for heads, once for tails, and once again for heads. All three times, it came up to telling her what happened.

"I'm… not okay. Not at all. But I'm alive, so that's one point in my favor!" he continued, "I'm not sure how much you heard… or how you heard at all, but... I was attacked by someone with a knife. I nearly died, but a policeman from Hope's Peak happened to come by to save me."

There was a long pause, and finally she answered, "Do you know anything about your attacker? Did they talk to you beforehand?"

A flicker of annoyance played at the back of his head. It didn't sound like she was quite as worried as she initially said. He flipped the coin three more times to convince himself to volunteer any more information. "Yeah, we talked. She said that she was one of the students who was rejected from this morning's entrance ceremony, and that she's… the only 'survivor' of the incident."

He paused after sending the last text, embarrassed that he was talking about something like this with seriousness, "She might have been crazy, though, I don't know if I can trust a word she said. I mean, she tried to kill me, after all."

Naegi waited for a response, but it was a long time in coming. Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes passed until she responded, "I say we get together tomorrow, lunch is on me."

Naegi glared incredulously at the screen, shocked at how little to do with what he just said her invitation was. "No. No, I don't think so. That's not much of an advance notice."

A quick response came this time, "I hate to do this, but I'm going to have to insist. It could even be fun."

With a huge sigh, he gave in. She clearly had something in store for him, he wasn't oblivious to that. It also sounded like she was trying to be goofy, but he couldn't be sure. "Alright, Ikusaba. It sounds like a plan. Hey, while we're talking, why don't we get that assignment out of the way?"

After a pause, she replied, "We'll have plenty of time for that tomorrow. You've earned yourself an extension, don't you think? Get some sleep and tell our homeroom teacher what happened tomorrow."

Rubbing at his eyes, he reluctantly agreed with her. Even his brisk pacing was doing a number on him, and he landed heavily on his bed with a grunt. Uh oh, getting sleepy. I'd better say bye before I'm out cold.

He sent her a polite goodnight text, and some time after he drifted off, his ID blipped.

"Hey, are you still awake?

...

No, I didn't think so...

Goodnight, Naegi.

I'm glad that you made it through the night, and that you're okay."

End of Part 3