Chapter 3: The Bear and the Maiden Fair III
The events after the kiss come to a rather inevitable conclusion, with neither of us really caring whether Monokuma sees or not. Hikari's seemingly endless energy ensures that she remains in the driving seat, dominating me and exciting me in ways I never knew were possible. Gazing up at her and looking deep into her emerald eyes as she pins me down, I see nothing but hope awaiting us both. Eventually, though, Hikari succumbs to the need for sleep, nestling in my arms in a state of pure euphoria. So that's what all the fuss is about…
As both of us lie on the small hospital bed, huddled together due to the rather limited amount of space we're afforded, a loud buzzing sound rings out. Someone's at the door. I almost forgot we had doorbells. Suppose I'd better go see what's up. I unlink my arm from around Hikari's body and slip out of bed, scrambling to find my boxers on the floor. It's a bit of a struggle to find them among the other discarded clothes but I eventually manage.
"Cover yourself up," I order Hikari as I put them on. Reluctantly, she hides herself under the covers as I leave her side to open the door. Who could be calling at this hour? Upon my opening the door, our visitor shields her eyes. Ah, Nanima, such a delicate little flower.
"I'm sorry, I hope I didn't interrupt anything," she says, trying desperately not to look at me. Come on now, I'm not that repulsive am I?
"Nah, don't worry," I assure her. "So what brings you here?"
"Well, I was hoping you'd come to breakfast with me, but if you two are busy…"
"Too busy for breakfast?" Hikari calls from across the room. I turn around and thankfully she's still clutching the sheets to her chest. "That's impossible! We'll be along soon!"
"Awesome!" Nanima says, grinning widely and no longer feeling like she has to avert her gaze. "See you guys soon!" Once she's gone, I return to the bed and plant a kiss on Hikari's lips. It takes all of my willpower not to get too carried away, but there'll be plenty of time for that later.
"Hey, I've got an idea," Hikari says. "Let's shower together! You don't have to be all embarrassed about it anymore so it'll be fun!" We'd be returning to the place where it all began…
"Sure," I find myself saying almost immediately. We spend quite a bit longer than we anticipated beneath the shower head, almost forgetting that we're supposed to be getting ourselves cleaned up and not just fooling around in the shower cubicle. Neither of us particularly wants to get dressed, but for the sake of the others, we must. Hikari goes for the classic look, wearing the very same clothes she woke up in once more. As for myself… well, I've only got one outfit and nobody else has got anything that'll fit me. Thankfully it doesn't take us as long to get dressed as it did to get showered and we're soon out of the room and into the corridor, where Nanima's waiting playing that weird dungeon shooter thing I saw her playing the other day.
"Sorry for the wait," I say as I lock up. "We got a little… carried away."
"That's fine," Nanima says as she switches off her handheld, hardly batting an eyelid. We arrive at the cafeteria to find it bustling with activity, which is almost unheard of for a morning. Once we've found a table, Hikari goes off into the kitchen while I go to get coffee for everyone. The coffee machine has other ideas this morning, though. As I wrangle with the stupid machine trying to get it not to just spit out boiling water, someone taps me on the shoulder.
"That confounded contraption requires a bit of a knack," says the distinguished voice of Daisuke Kobayashi. There's no doubt that it's Daisuke because he's got his glasses on and he's not wearing his jacket like a cape. He presses an odd sequence of buttons on the machine's convoluted interface and soon enough it's working properly once more, although apparently it's out of milk. Monokuma really ought to be keeping on top of this stuff.
"Thanks," I say, grateful for the help. When did Daisuke's sanity return?
"My pleasure," he replies. Was he always this polite before or did Deus' batshit craziness make Daisuke look like a saint by comparison? As much as I'd like to give this a great amount of thought, Hikari demands my attention by calling my name from right across the room, prompting me to move away from the coffee machine rather quickly. Three plates of food are set out. That's unusually thoughtful.
"Wow…" Even though we're together now, I'm still stunned by Hikari's gesture. In all my time here I don't ever recall her doing anything like this.
"Looks good, doesn't it?" Hikari asks. She's set out a full English breakfast for all of us, with bacon, sausages, eggs, toast and a slice of something black that I don't recognise. I don't know if I can eat all this but I'll give it a good try.
"It does. Thanks, Hikari. You didn't need to make this for me but I'm glad you did." I set the coffee down and seat myself in front of the plate piled high with greasy breakfast foods. No wonder Westerners are so fat if this is what they eat every morning. Combine that with the abundance of fast food chains and it's easy to see why there's an obesity crisis.
"It's my special treat," Hikari replies before chomping off a huge chunk of toast. "You deserve it for being awesomely amazingly wonderful!" She's spitting crumbs all over the table as she speaks, going through a dictionary's worth of superlatives to describe me.
"Glad you think so," I say. "Not many people do."
"Awwww, why not? Are you surrounded by idiots? They'll change their minds once I'm finished with them!" I bet they will, if they've got any shred of their sanity left. Or any body parts at all. It's certainly going to be interesting to see how people react to her when I introduce her to them. Not that there's many introductions that will need to be made, of course, but Haruka and my parents may be slightly taken aback. I don't think Hikari is quite the type of girl my family might expect me to bring home. I always thought I'd end up with someone quiet and bookish, most likely with glasses. Funny how things never go how you expect.
Hikari continues gushing over me all through breakfast, and the meal is over in a flash. I can't believe I've managed to eat so much. The only thing left on my plate is that slice of black stuff, mainly because I have no idea what it is or whether it's actually safe to eat.
"How come you've not touched your black pudding, Shinji?" Hikari enquires.
"I don't trust it," I say, poking it tentatively with my fork. "What's it made out of?"
"Pig's blood," Hikari says nonchalantly as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Fucking hell, people eat that for breakfast? I thought this was supposed to be contemporary food, not some relic of a bygone era.
"You have it if you want," I say to Hikari, pushing it away. Jesus, I was right not to trust that shit. Thankfully Hikari has no such qualms about eating blood formed into the shape of a circle as she instantly grabs the slice of black pudding off my plate with her hand and crams it into her mouth. I must be mad falling for her.
"I don't see the problem," says Hikari. "I mean, aren't sausages just made of all the random bits of pig that nobody else wants? The outsides are made out of intestines! See, this is why eating meat is great. All the stuff that sounds yucky and horrible always turns out to be delicious! I find that so exciting!" Glad somebody does. The rest of us just try not to think about the grim reality of the abattoir.
"Where did you learn to make this stuff?" Nanima asks, breaking her silence after having concentrated more on her meal than the goings-on around her. Just as well, really. "That was really something. I've never had anything like it before."
"It's a family recipe," Hikari says. "It dates back... ooooh, I'd say about three generations. My great-grandma did a load of firework displays in Europe and when she came back, she started cooking this every morning. Everyone since then has had to learn how to make it too! Hey Shinji, how about I show you how to cook breakfast? Then you can bring it to me in bed!" I guess it's only fair I repay the favour, but maybe it'd be better if someone else taught me. I find myself picturing pillars of flame erupting from all corners of the kitchen while Hikari stands in the middle laughing maniacally to herself. Sure, we might be romantically attached but that doesn't mean I trust her around any potential heat sources.
"Yeah, I imagine that'd be nice for you," I say. I'd ask if she could do the same for me one time, but of course, I never spend much time in bed anyway.
"Don't worry, Shinji, I'll reward you for your hard work," Hikari says, making me blush. If it's anything like last night then I'm in for a treat. "If I feel like it." You always feel like it. You've hardly been able to keep your hands off me ever since we met. Took me long enough to come round to the idea that it was near enough impossible to stop once you got me going. Frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way. Hikari, you may be an atrocious singer, but you're fucking amazing in bed.
My joyful reminiscence on the previous night's frivolities is interrupted by Zygoth, who starts banging away on a mug with a spoon and imploring us all to listen. What could it be this time? Is the new king of the Zandick with a Glottal Stop Empire dead already? How many grandkids did this one leave behind?
"May I have everyone's attention please?" Zygoth requests as the hubbub of the cafeteria starts to die down slowly. "I've just now decided to hold a meeting today; starting when all of us are gathered around this conveniently large table. Alas, since the death of Dulce we have no access to stationery with which to write minutes, so someone will just have to remember everything." I guess he forgot about Rin and her book of secrets. I don't get what there could possibly be to discuss at a meeting, but regardless I vacate my seat and motion to the two girls at my table to follow suit and move to Zygoth's table.
"Hold on a minute," Haruki says. He's unusually punctual, but then again when your balls are firmly in the grip of Alicia, what choice have you got but to learn to be compliant? "Has anyone seen Zange and Haru this morning? They don't appear to be with us." I note that Haruki is seated next to Zygoth, with Alicia on the other side. Seems like he's banned from sitting next to the other girls. Not that any of them are likely to steal him away.
"Nope," Eizou says, picking at his teeth with a Swiss army knife. Watch yourself with that thing or you're gonna split your tongue in half. There was a guy at school who did that, but apparently he did it deliberately. Fork-Tongue Inoue, the others used to call him. I called him Ginyu because he reminded me of that useless twat from Dragon Ball. That and his first name actually was Ginyu.
"I have not seen them," Rin says, and I note that instead of the usual black notebook, she appears to be carrying with her a copy of Franz Kafka's The Trial. "However, I suspect the two of them are currently in Haru's room, taking full advantage of his somewhat larger facilities..." Goddamn, I didn't really want those images in my head. How the hell do they even do it anyway if he's lost everything below the belt?
"Can't we just, like, start without them?" asks Eizou. "I mean, is this meeting really all that important?"
"Well, not really," Zygoth admits, looking down at his pocket and shuffling a couple of pens around. Red ones only today. Red as blood. I hope that's not an omen. "I just thought it might be an idea for us all to congregate in one area at a specific time and share any urgent matters on our mind. Think of it as rallying the troops in the war against despair! We shall fight it on the beaches, and the landing grounds, and in the hospitals…"
"I like this idea," Nayumi says. "We should definitely do everything we can to keep morale high. And if Monokuma does give us another motive to work with, this gives us a chance to discuss it properly instead of letting things get bottled up."
"Well, there might be some things people don't want to talk about," Nanima says. Yeah, like your schizophrenia. That strikes me as a rather confidential matter. "We can't force everyone to talk."
"Actually, if we were to acquire some sodium thiopental and administer injections to everyone, we could," Zygoth replies.
"You'd better not," Alicia says.
"I think I might be allergic to that," Hikari says. And how the fuck did she find that out? Pretty sure sodium thiopental's not something you can just get over the counter at the local chemist.
"Bugger that plan then," Zygoth mutters. "Right, let's get this started, shall we? Let the first meeting of Hope's Peak Academy's lost students commence!" There's a marked silence in the room after this proclamation as nobody's particularly keen to go first. All I can hear is Daisuke slurping his coffee and the sound of Nayumi snoring.
"Hey, Shinji," Hikari says. "Wanna tell everyone about what we did last night?" I'm tempted to slam my face into the table. I can't believe she's just brought that up. Everyone turns towards me, expectantly waiting for me to provide an answer. All the pressure's on me now. I'd rather not share what we did last night, but I'm not being given much choice. This could go down either really well or really badly. It better not be the latter because like hell am I going back to the way things used to be.
"Wasn't planning on doing," I answer. "Well, if you're all listening, then it's time to just come out and say it. Me and Hikari, we're an item. She gives me all the hope I need to keep me going." I wrap my arm around Hikari's slender shoulders and lean my head towards hers. We kiss again, only briefly this time, but the softness of her lips, her strange yet alluring scent of charcoal and perspiration, the clear definition of her cheekbones, all serve to take me back to the previous night and the happy memories we created. I love you, Hikari.
"Is that all?" Alicia asks condescendingly, looking at me like I'm something she just scraped off the bottom of her shoe. Looks to me like someone's jealous they've never been snogged. "I thought you were going to tell us something we didn't know."
"Look, things have changed over the past couple of days," I say defensively. "I didn't realise how I really felt until yesterday. I doubt any of you believe that but it's not important anymore. What's really important is how I feel right now." Hikari reaches her left hand downwards, sliding it down my leg and dancing her fingers around my inner thigh. I should tell her to knock it off, but hey, why would I want her to stop?
"Hikari, what's your opinion on this matter?" Zygoth asks.
"I think it's great," she replies, her hand retreating back up my leg. "I wish I'd known Shinji before I came here. I actually think he's my soulmate. We were destined to be together forever and ever, and once we get out of here I'm going to marry him!" Her hand is suddenly on the back of my head, gripping my hair. I know what she's after and I'm eager to comply, kissing those sweet lips again. I used to be so against public displays of affection but now, knowing what love feels like, it all makes so much sense. It's like all my inhibitions have gone and I don't care what anybody else thinks, I just want to show the world the unique bond I share with Hikari. Alas, most of the world won't be able to see it.
"Ahem, well, I think that's all that needs to be said about that particular matter," Zygoth says. "May your love be as long and bountiful as the Xandythian sunset! And hopefully it won't grow as laborious as a Xandythian coronation in the latter stages. Congratulations!"
"I'm happy for you two as well," Nayumi says. "Love is a wonderful thing, isn't it?" Interesting that she's said that. Is someone waiting on the outside for her? Whoever they might be, they'd have to be incredibly patient, but as far as her personality goes you can't go far wrong.
"Indeed, 'tis a many-splendored thing," Daisuke concurs. "I trust that my darling Yui is coping commendably in my absence. Incidentally, while I have your attention, I would like to apologise profusely for my abhorrent behaviour as of late." As of late? Surely he means 'since I was born?'
"Yeah, that was some weird stuff you got up to yesterday, man," Haruki says. "I've never seen anything like it."
"I affirm that my dissociative identity disorder is decidedly not something I wished to speak of, but alas, none of you acted with the alacrity required to prevent this occurrence. I cannot blame you, for I have never exactly endeared myself to any of you, relegating many of you to mere peons in my mind. I'm afraid I did rather forget that we are all contemporaries, each of us selected by Hope's Peak Academy for our talents, regardless of intellect. I shall not allow myself to denigrate you any longer, at least while my mind is still sound." Humility from the Ultimate Critic. Who would've seen that one coming?
"Don't sweat it, man," says Haruki. "You're one of us. You're like a brother to me, y'know? We're all friends here."
"Don't kid yourself," says Alicia.
"I cannot say I consider any of you to be close comrades," Rin says, resting her hand upon The Trial. Please don't tell me that's some sort of omen as well. Is this all part of some weird conspiracy Zygoth's cooking up or something? "However, I do accept that cooperation is the only way that any of us will be able to escape here."
"You're not entertaining thoughts of murder then, I take it?" enquires Daisuke. Rin does not reply; she only tightens her grip on her book. Careful, you don't want to go creasing the spine or crumpling all the pages, do you?
"That comment was in incredibly poor taste, Daisuke," Alicia says.
"Speaking of poor taste, avoid the spaghetti carbonara at all costs!" Zygoth commands. "It's simply ghastly!" Well, it sure as hell won't be a patch on some of the stuff I've had. Proper home-cooked spaghetti simply can't be beaten. I suppose the people who are happy enough to eat it out of a can, covered in watery tomato sauce with no seasoning, don't know any different. They never lived in Italy. Perhaps once we get out of this hell-hole, I'll have to plan a trip back there with Hikari so I can take her round and show her all the wondrous sights. She'll love it, I just know it.
"You should try some of my ramen," Haruki suggests. "That'll definitely take the taste away." Oh boy, will it ever. Had I not already consumed a colossal breakfast of champions, I'd be half-tempted to take him up on that offer myself.
"What a fantastic idea! A good broth can't be beaten!" At this point, what was supposed to be a meeting about personal matters develops into a discussion of all things culinary. Eizou's giving us a rather surprising recipe for deep fried albatross served with seaweed when I pick up the sound of squeaking wheels on the edge of my hearing. Rusty Wheels is rolling into town. Bet those wheels aren't the only things that have been squealing recently.
"Nice of you two to join us at last," Alicia says.
"Ah, shit, I'm gonna have to start from the top again now, aren't I?" Eizou utters in frustration, running his hands through his hair. "Okay, what you need is some fresh cocaine…"
"Y'all might wanna stop what you're doin'," Zange says urgently. "We just got a surprise visit from that darn bear!" Oh dear, how dreadful. I do hope you two were dressed by that point. Is it me, or does Zange's skirt look more ruffled than usual?
"…and a spoonful of- sorry, what was that?" Eizou asks, having been paying more attention to his own recipe than Zange's sudden outburst.
"Monokuma just appeared in my room," Haru says, picking up from where his partner in crime (and justice) left off. "The bastard handed me an envelope and then vanished. The hell does he think he's playing at? And why did he have to appear then of all times?" Sounds like he ruined their fun. Typical Monokuma. Hell I'm surprised he didn't burst in onme and Hikari last night, but perhaps he was too busy playing with himself. If he ever offers me a jar of his honey, I sure won't be eating it.
"What's in the envelope?" asks hard-boiled detective Haruki. He's got the shades for the job, at least.
"I haven't fucking opened it yet," Haru snaps, his patience worn and possibly exacerbated by a bad case of blue balls. "I'm gonna guess whatever is inside it relates to our next motive or something. I don't know what the bear's got planned for us, but it definitely doesn't feel good." Our bonfire has been thoroughly doused by the piss of despair. Just like that, the mood in this room has fallen through the floor. The meeting that was supposed to be about all-encompassing hope has been tainted by despair again. Way to fucking go.
"Don't panic," Zygoth says. "We mustn't panic, we mustn't panic…" The Conspiracy Theorist is unable to stick to his mantra as he starts breaking out in a cold sweat, his shaky hand reaching into his pocket for his chalk so he can draw a protective glyph.
"It's just an envelope," Eizou remarks. "What could possibly be in it that's so terrible?"
"Bank statements," Hikari says. "Those always fill me with dread." Yeah, presumably because you have to pay out the wazoo to cover the costs of all the shit you end up burning. We're definitely going to stick with separate accounts once we leave this place.
"We should proceed with caution," Rin says authoritatively. "Recall how one of the many rooms we visited on the second floor was full of assorted medicines. Perhaps Monokuma has resorted to germ warfare. This envelope may contain harmful airborne bacteria for which we would need to find a cure. Or perhaps Monokuma himself holds the cure? Was anything said before his departure that could indicate such an event?"
"Not really," Haru says. "I dunno what he's playing at, but if this is anything like the last time, we've all got one of these. Everyone should check their rooms just to make sure. Report back whenever you've got it. Or don't, it doesn't really matter to me. Just remember, I may have lost my legs, but I haven't lost my instincts. I can tell when evil's afoot, and this situation reeks of it." Wise words from the former hero there. Suppose there's no hiding from this. We've got to find out what sort of motive Monokuma's setting out for us this time.
A.N.: Back from my holiday. Now I'm working three days a week and working on getting several mental health issues sorted out so while I don't intend to put this on the backburner, it's probably gonna take time to get each chapter out.