Chapter 2: Paying the Iron Price VI
"A life without me?" I can't quite believe what I'm hearing. Would Monokuma really kill me just to get a reaction from Hikari? I'm almost certain he's capable of it. Suddenly the next couple of days are a trial of their own. More than anything, I'll need to keep a close eye on Hikari to ensure nobody else winds up becoming a victim. It's obvious that I've made a huge impact on her life in a short period of time, but so much so that the prospect of returning to her old life fills her with dread?
"That's what I have written here, and I can assure you everything contained in this notebook is one-hundred percent accurate," says Rin. No amount of trying to appease the deities of Mesopotamia will save me this time. Not that it ever did anyway. This is a new level of sadism even for Monokuma, taking advantage of the connections between students to provoke some sort of reaction. With Hikari's eccentricity and unpredictability factored in, he'll be confident of this gambit working out in his favour.
"Shit, no wonder Hikari freaked out the way she did," I say, and Rin nods.
"Indeed." As much as Hikari won't want to talk about it, there's not much choice. I've got to know her true feelings, especially if I have less than 48 hours left. I rise from my seat and bid Rin farewell for now, and as I stand up I feel myself reeling. All this time I've spent awake is making me feel weakened. I need to eat before I face Hikari. I grab something to eat off the shelves, not really looking at what it is, although I'm lucid enough to notice that it's shrink-wrapped. I'm not the only one who's hungry though. Akira comes over and grabs a sandwich off the shelf next to me.
"You alright?" I ask out of courtesy, noticing that he's facing away from me so I don't see the black eye.
"Yeah, don't worry about me," he says. "I bumped into Haruki earlier and he said you'd been talking to him about this whole fear thing, trying to get everyone to open up. Do you think you can pull it off?" You know what would be a nice start? If you told me what you're most scared of. Of course, I can't just ask him about that while he's trying to get lunch. That just doesn't seem right, although I could justify it by saying he was the one who brought it up in the first place.
"We've got to give it a go," I say as he reaches across me for a bottle of orange juice. As he's reaching over, I catch a cursory glance of his newly-acquired shiner in all its black and purple glory. I've never seen a more perfect example of a bruise than that.
"Good luck with that," he replies, sincere for once. "When you've got people in here like Daisuke, it's pretty much impossible to get anything done as a group. Man that guy is so up himself…" Just as he says this, Daisuke walks into the cafeteria.
"You might wanna keep quiet," I advise Akira and he complies, silently taking his meal with him. My curiosity gets the better of me and I watch for a short time as Daisuke goes straight over to Rin's table and the two begin conversing. I'm too far away to really hear what they're saying but I'm going to assume it concerns the documents and the way that massive book relates to them. It's quite obvious that those medical files are the key to finding out why we're in here, but without the required medical knowledge I just can't connect the dots. Never mind that now, though, I've got a crappy shrink-wrapped sandwich to eat.
I go over to the table where Hikari and Nanima are sharing their enthusiasm for some game or other. There's no point in me trying to watch the screen because I'm not gonna be able to make any of it out, so I just sit down and eat in silence. It's good to see the two of them are still getting along well. Hikari's even letting Nanima share her sweets, which is a bit of a far cry from her jealous reaction this morning.
"Quick, get that one on the left there!" she yells, jabbing at the screen of Nanima's console. Incredibly, the Ultimate Internet Star doesn't seem even the slightest bit annoyed by the intrusion despite the fact that if her skills displayed on stream are anything to go by, that enemy on the left would have stood no chance of escaping anyway. As I'm finishing up my lunch, Hikari finally notices me and almost knocks the table over in her haste to grab me and put her arms around me, knocking what remains of the sandwich out of my hand in the process. Oh well, not like I particularly wanted to finish it anyway.
"Hi, Hikari," I gasp as her strength constricts my airways. I tap her on the side with my right hand and she seems to get the message, letting go of me almost instantaneously and sitting on the table. Good job I was done eating already.
"Where did you go? I missed you sooooooooooo much!" She starts running her bare feet across my knees, something that I have to admit feels dangerously sensual. It's so distracting, I've forgotten what it was I was supposed to ask her about.
"Well, uh, I had to take those files back to Daisuke," I try to explain, but it's difficult when Hikari's rubbing her feet on me. Thankfully they don't smell too bad or I'd have to change out of these trousers immediately. This doesn't last too much longer as Hikari does another nimble leap off the table, running across the cafeteria to greet Zange and Haru at the entrance. Rin and Daisuke have vanished from their corner, and when I turn back around it transpires they're actually sat at the big table. I guess Daisuke wanted to be closer to the coffee machine.
"Hey guys!" Hikari's so loud that I'm willing to bet everyone in this hospital just heard that.
"'Sup Pyro?" asks Zange, jovial as ever, before being led over to our table. If everyone decides to sit here, it's gonna be a bit of a tight squeeze. "Mike told us there's gonna be a meeting here or somethin', so we're here in advance." A meeting? So Haruki really took that talk earlier to heart. He possibly feels that he's got to atone for the deaths of Eiko and Ryusuke by personally organising everything and taking steps to ensure there won't be a repeat. It would've been nice if he'd actually discussed this with me before organising everything himself though.
"Should we move to the big table? It's getting crowded here." I stand up, prepared to leave this table behind. Hikari hangs over Nanima's shoulder, waiting for the prime opportunity to bring her out of her gaming trance and urge her to take a seat at the big table.
"Oh, have we become popular all of a sudden?" Daisuke enquires as everyone starts to gravitate towards 'his' table.
"Haruki's convinced that we can conquer our fears through the power of friendship or some shit," Haru says. He's clearly not a believer in the power of friendship, having been a hero himself; he'd know the truth of what saving the day really takes. Daisuke finds this suggestion most amusing, unable to contain a scoff of laughter and derision.
"Does he sincerely believe that our unanimous exultance is sufficient to assuage our ursine captor's devilish desires? Preposterous! He really is an utter fool if he thinks any of us will believe that."
"Yo, what's goin' on?" Dulce joins us at the table along with Nayumi, who immediately falls asleep once she takes her seat. I still don't know how she does that.
"We're waiting for enlightenment," Daisuke replies.
"Well, we ain't gonna find it in the cafeteria," Dulce says matter-of-factly. "Back in a sec, I want some cookies." She leaves the table and Akira drifts by like an errant ball flying across the green. As he reaches the counter, he doubles back, possibly realising he's just walked past something potentially important, and asks the same question as Dulce.
"We're waiting for Haruki," I tell him as he takes a seat. He could probably do with getting some ice on that eye of his because it's swelling up like a balloon.
"Oh yeah, that's right," he says, rubbing at his eye before recoiling and wincing in pain. Yeah, might not be the smartest idea to try and soothe it like that. "He might be a while though. When I saw him he was on his way to the gym. I think Alicia might be up there too."
"Hey, who wants some cookies?" Dulce asks, cradling several packets of the chocolate-chip variety.
"I suppose one could do no harm," Rin concedes.
"Allow me to fetch some hot milk and I shall join you," Daisuke says, showing some warmth for once. I think that's genuinely the first time within the group dynamic he's appeared even remotely human, and it's rather refreshing to see. Dulce goes round the table in a similar manner and, of course, everyone accepts her offer. Only a fool would turn such a generous offer down. Even Eizou, who crosses over to the table straight from putting his lunch tray away, accepts a few, stuffing them into his big pockets for later. He'll have fun picking bits of rock out of his teeth when he's done.
Shortly afterwards, Zygoth comes running in, looking as though something terrible has happened. Did Alicia go spare and brutally murder Haruki? Is he here to tell us that King Beeblebrox the Millionth or whatever is dead again?
"Incoming message from the Big Giant Head!" he announces urgently. "The Council of Slartibartfast has declared war on the Xandythian Empire! Apparently Lord Wonnacott had been double-booked for another coronation in their system, causing a massive argument…"
"Dude, nobody cares," interrupts Dulce. "Calm down and have some cookies." Zygoth suddenly notices the confections and his expression lights up instantly.
"An excellent suggestion," Zygoth says, sitting down and grabbing a cookie. Alicia is next to arrive, this time in her archery attire complete with the bow and quiver. As she sits down at the table, I notice that her hair appears to be wet. Could it be that she's murdered Haruki and washed the blood off in the shower? Wow, I'm getting paranoid.
"Haruki won't be a moment," she says, only taking one cookie in her manicured fingers. "I've put him on laundry duty." And speak of the devil, there he is, carrying two identical blue sports bags that he sets down by the door. Looks like she's got him whipped. How humiliating.
"If I knew there were cookies on offer I would've worked out twice as hard," Haruki says, removing his gloves so he doesn't get them completely coated in crumbs. "But anyway, I'm glad you've all gathered here today. Some of you might still not know the reason you're all here. I have to say, the cookies are a nice touch, but that's not the reason."
"No, it's something far more sinister than that," Alicia informs us, shivering, which could be because of the possible consequences of today's meeting or the fact her hair's still wet from her post-workout shower.
"Where am I?" Nayumi asks, waking up rather suddenly and stretching her arms out wide. "And why are there cookies?"
"We're having a meeting," Dulce tells her, and Nayumi acclimatises relatively quickly, taking a cookie for herself.
"Sorry, I've not really been following along," Nanima admits apologetically, sliding her headphones off her ears and pausing her handheld device before pocketing it. "What's this meeting supposed to be about?" This could well be the moment where shit hits the fan. After all, these are our greatest fears, the one thing above all else that would send us into paroxysms of despair if we encountered it in the outside world. It's not going to be easy for some of the more vulnerable among us to share those.
"We're here to talk about fear," Haruki says succinctly. "Specifically, the fears that Monokuma wants us to face. What you all need to remember is that none of us are going to be going it alone, we're all facing the same thing. Not literally, of course, but in the metaphorical sense. The entire point of this motive is to induce despair by basically frightening the hope out of us, but if everyone knows what's ahead for everyone else, we can all depend on each other to pull through. Now I don't know how he's planning to do this, whether it's one by one or what, but either way, we won't go down without a fight, right?" I thought Zygoth was supposed to be the one who came from a political background, but Haruki's sure giving him a run for his money with these speeches. If we ever get a Ministry of Motivation, stick this guy right at the top.
"Can we just chill out and eat cookies instead?" Dulce asks. "Better to just forget about it than keep talkin' about it, right?"
"But…"
"I agree with Dulce," says Nayumi. "Fear can only hurt you if you let it. If we all just sleep past the deadline…" She yawns loudly, and without ever finishing her sentence, begins eating her cookie. I think it's fairly clear we're not going to get much done today.
"It's very unfortunate that our elected leader is no longer with us," Zygoth laments. "Why did we not have a contingency plan in place? Any government system needs a successor in place, much like Zaphod the Seven Hundredth and Zaphod the Seven-Hundred and First."
"That's a monarchy, though," I point out just to be awkward. "Unless these space kings are head of their own parliamentary system, that's not gonna make much difference."
"My point remains the same. Without a leader, we get disorganised. Why, even I don't fully know why we've all been gathered here. At any rate, we won't make any progress if these things aren't made clear!" Zygoth stops to take a bite from one of the cookies, an action that makes his speech seem a lot less serious.
"Let's just have a cookie party and forget all about this!" Hikari suggests. "We can sort the other stuff out tomorrow!"
"You know what? That sounds like a good idea," Haruki concedes. "No point getting ourselves all worked up right now, is there? We've still got another day to go, after all." For once, we're able to act like actual friends and forget about our problems for a while. Some may argue that we shouldn't be wasting our time with stuff like this and should be looking for a way out of here, but there's no point in trying to do that until everyone's willing to trust one another.
For a short while, everyone's able to forget their fears ever existed, eating cookies and swapping stories about our lives in the outside world. It feels good to just be able to put everything behind us and actually enjoy each other's company for once. Distraction is definitely a decent antidote to despair, hence why Nanima constantly carries that console around. We don't really need to know each other's fears to face our own, do we?
"Hey guys, who wants to hear a story?" Akira asks. For once, everyone's actually willing to listen. "Alright, here goes. One time, there was this bear…"
"Puhuhu! What have we here?" Of course, just when it looks like we've found a distraction from all this murder talk, Monokuma shows up, leaping over the counter from the direction of the kitchen.
"Go away!" Hikari yells, throwing a cookie at Monokuma, who catches it in his mouth. He takes a big bite out of it and allows the rest of the cookie to fall to the floor.
"Mmmmmm , delicious!" he declares, rubbing his rotund belly. "Nothing like the great taste of despair cookies!"
"D-despair cookies?" Nanima asks nervously, making a point of placing the one she has in her hand down on the table.
"Didn't you know? Those cookies are made by my own two paws! The secret ingredient is… well, I can't tell you that, can I? I won't have you trying to steal my recipe!" I'd like to be able to pretend that these are just ordinary cookies that haven't been cut with some hallucinogenic drugs or something like that. I suppose we'll find out later.
"You can't make cookies with those paws," Hikari says. Hard to argue against that.
"Oh, yes I can!" Monokuma protests. "I'll have you know I had everything all set up to roll out my despair cookies nationwide. Then there was a surprise visit from the health and safety inspectors. They told me I wasn't allowed to make my employees work twenty-four hours a day, so they shut me down..." Monokuma looks down at the floor forlornly, the cookie at his feet serving as a metaphor for his failed cookie legacy. Or something like that. I doubt cookies made by a black and white bear would have been successful in a mainstream market anyway.
"Is there any purpose behind your little visit?" enquires Daisuke, clutching a glass of milk.
"Well, there is just one teeny-weeny little thing…"
"Are you trying to incite violence again? Well, let it be known that while I, Zygoth, still stand, there will be nothing of the sort occurring here!"
"I, uh…" If Monokuma had thumbs, he'd be twiddling them right about now. Without them, he just has to be content fidgeting like he's holding in the world's biggest piss. "I was just here for some of these deeeeeeee-licious cookies! May I have some, Dulce, my dear?"
"Go ahead, we got plenty," she says, surprisingly chilled out about the whole thing. Monokuma obliges, taking as many cookies as his tiny arms can carry before scampering off into the kitchen area. Well, that's one to cross off the list of things I'll never see. Anywhere else, if you told someone a black and white bear just took your cookies, they'd call you crazy. Then again, perhaps that hypothetical person isn't wrong.
"What on Xandyth have I just witnessed?" Zygoth asks. He might have a firm belief in aliens and the occult, but even he's been completely confounded by Monokuma's cookie heist.
"So, you gonna tell us that story?" Dulce asks.
"All of a sudden, I don't feel like it," Akira says. "I shoulda known he was gonna show up as soon as I mentioned a bear." He glances over his shoulder quickly, just in case Monokuma decides to pop back out at the mention of his species. Eizou sheepishly slips the cookies he'd stashed away back out of his pockets and onto the table, some of which have bits of rock stuck to them. Without another word, Nanima slips the headphones back on and goes back to her game.
"What a shame," Daisuke says. "I'm sure it was a fascinating tale." He remains unperturbed, dunking one of the cookies into his glass of milk. Next to me, I hear Nayumi snoring away, her head resting on the table. Is it me, or has everyone started losing interest?
"I'm going to check on that laundry," Alicia announces, rising from her seat. "Haruki, are you coming?"
"Won't it be on the spin cycle now?" Haruki asks, receiving a glare from Alicia in return. "Fiiiiine... but you'd better tell me your fear in return for this." The two of them leave the table and head out of the cafeteria, paving the way for more departures accompanied by lame excuses.
"Can we spend some time alone, Shinji?" Hikari asks me as the room begins to empty. "I like it when it's just you and me and the chair and the shower."
"You know, I was just thinking the same thing," I reply, ignoring the odd looks the few remaining students are giving us. I was thinking that we should return to the dorm, but probably not for the reason she's thinking. Either way I soon find myself being pulled along the corridor at top speed back towards our dorm, narrowly avoiding slamming into the wall as Hikari pulls up short, remembering that I'm the one who holds the key. Once we're safely inside, I urge her to sit down on the bed. I pull up the green chair and sit down, ready to ask the big question.
"I've been waiting for a while to bring this up, but your biggest fear is a life without me, isn't it?" Immediately, like someone's flicked a switch inside her brain, her face doesn't so much drop as completely plummet. "I'm sorry I brought it up, but I just had to confirm it. I didn't believe it when Rin told me…"
"Rin told you about that? Did she tell you anything else about me?" Hikari enquires.
"Nope, just that. I know you're scared of what might happen to me, but please, don't do anything stupid. You know how this game works. Remember the rules. Only the blackened gets to leave." I can't have her going and killing someone just to try and protect me. Besides, 'a life without Shinji' doesn't mean I'm gonna die. Maybe she just gets her room key back. I really hope that's what it means.
"Don't leave me," Hikari whimpers, dissolving into tears. "I won't let you leave me…" I'm left with no choice but to hold her tightly and assure her things will be alright.
"I don't wanna leave you, either," I say softly. "I won't let Monokuma take me away. The others won't either, I can guarantee you that."
"You can't," Hikari cries. "You just keep saying stuff in the hope it'll make me happy but it's all empty. I don't want you to ever leave my side again." She buries her face into my neck and I feel the wetness of her tears on my skin. Then, I feel something else, even wetter, against my neck, and hear a suckling sound.
"What do you think you're doing?" I ask her in a stern, almost paternal manner. I'm not comfortable with what she's trying to do. She pulls herself away from my neck and gazes directly into my eyes, tears still trickling down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry," she says. "It's just we've spent so much time together these past few days, and I'm so happy you've accepted me and let me stay with you and stuff. But there's so much more stuff that we might never be able to do together…" Oh for the love of Nergal, she's not trying to woo me, is she? If she is, this is completely the wrong time for it. Both of us have tried to hide the truth, that the despair's getting to us, crushing our very souls, and now that it's just the two of us in here, everything's starting to fall apart. Both of us tried convincing ourselves everything's going to be fine, and today almost helped us forget about that, but Monokuma's appearance has left us both shaken, reminding us of the fear and despair threatening to take hold of us.
"Look, let's just keep things as they are for now, right? We still have another day left. There anything you had in mind for us besides trying to give me love bites?" Hikari shakes her head, her magnificently long wavy hair wafting around everywhere.
"I don't mind what I do as long as it's with you," she says, respecting my wishes and backing off to give me some space. When I turn back around after figuring out where the hell I was in Gantz, she's lying on her front, waggling her legs in the air, and of course, wearing nothing but those lacy white knickers.
"What'cha reading?" she asks innocently. She must be conscious of what she's doing.
"It's about people in a game in hell," I answer. "A bit like us, really."
"Sounds cool. Can I read some?" she asks.
"Sure," I say, reaching down to pick up the first volume. "Just make sure you don't burn it because Rin won't be happy if you do." She takes it, not even expressing any disappointment at the fact that I told her to keep fire out of the equation. I think she's just happy that I'm staying by her side. I pull the chair up next to the bed along with my collection of books and we sit side-by-side just reading manga and talking about random stuff. Even though we're both worried, we can depend on each other, and as long as we remember that, we should be fine.
As the nightly announcement rings out, my eyes start to grow heavy and the pages seem to be moving of their own accord. I don't remember this being an anime. I yawn loudly, which catches me off guard. I never yawn, do I? Hikari's already dozed off beside me, her face buried in the book. That's the last thing I see before my eyes shut and I feel myself drifting off…
A.N.: Next chapter, someone's gonna wind up dead. But who will it be? And just what was the secret ingredient in those cookies? Feel free to speculate in the reviews.