Leon 5: Aftermath

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Hiroshima; September 3rd, 1994

That next day, around dusk, huge floods of people arrived to camp out on the doorstep of Leon and Kaede's house, talking lowly with each other. Kiriko bounced on her heels anxiously while Aiko shared a filled picnic basket with Tsubasa and her boyfriend Taro. Yasuke was there, pushing Miaya around in her wheelchair. Sakura and Kenshiro were there, speaking quietly with Tayu; that idol girl and her best friend. And those were just the people that Leon could readily recognize; he was sure there were far, far more around than them.

He was looking out at them through the bedroom window, trying to breathe in through his mouth, as behind him was a sickly smell of illness. It reminded him of-no, don't think about her, you'll puke and you hate puking-but yet he refused to move into another room.

He considered it to be his punishment for getting out unharmed while Chihiro and Aoi both died; people who deserved to live more than he did. Damn, Aoi was even knocked-up with her own baby and yet she still died and he got to live. How was that fair? According to the doctor, he had been thrown halfway across the yard into some flower beds by the blast. He was released earlier than Kaede was because there was nothing wrong with him at all. Yeah, Chihiro dies, Aoi dies, he lives. Just like old Leon, he ruefully mused. Even Kaede was diagnosed with shell-shock after she tried to escape the house through the kitchen and got trapped under the staircase when the house collapsed.

Same old Leon indeed.

Seiko was checking on Chiaki silently behind him, though he knew her examination was almost done and soon she'd head back to the clinic to check on her other patients.

Hifumi had done that to them; he was certain of that. Him and Mukuro both. He followed that boy halfway across Japan, following his signs and instructions left behind, read his journal for fuck's sake and yet he never saw it coming when he should've. And what of Mukuro? If he had accepted her pleas that night, would she have fallen like that? He couldn't of, he wouldn't of, he had Kaede to think about, but still...

The community likely wanted to execute Hifumi for his crimes. In the old world, even though he was a minor, his assassination attempt killed enough people that he would've been given the death penalty, easily. Hifumi wasn't all bad though; it was Enoshima. Her and Mukuro were the ones who did the majority of this and just strung Hifumi along. Twins of despair they were indeed. And he had no doubt that Enoshima was thrilled with the endeavors of the previous night. Makoto was still alive, sure; the mouth that Chihiro never had, and Yasuhiro who gave good points of discussion every so often, but Chihiro had been the very heart of their council; their leader, their Prime Minister, their hope. Aoi had been their soul, their moral guidance alongside Sayaka.

She'd reward them well when they finally reached her, no doubt about that.

He finally turned away from the window and found Seiko finishing up her check-up while Kaede walked into the room, carrying a tray full of breakfast foods. "Nothing is better than breakfast for dinner!" She said cheerily.

"Is she going to survive the night?" Leon asked Seiko instead, who looked up at him.

"...Don't know,"

"How is she now?"

"Same..." Seiko then bowed politely and left the room while Kaede placed the tray on the nightstand. Nothing but Western-style foods. Didn't Miss Chiaki say she enjoyed Japanese-style breakfasts the most?

He then glanced over at the actual figure on the bed; clearly still female but just barely alive. Her hair was chopped short and her bangs hung in her face; her mouth was open slightly so one could hear her labored breathing. Her yellow yukata was torn and dirtied and a boot was missing while the other had holes in it; they disposed of it. Scratches and cuts marred her body, and that itself was practically nothing more than a thin stretch of skin. Her stomach was the only large thing that remained; swollen and painfully distended. Leon was one of the few who hadn't found her eyes creepy even in their dreams, but looking at the dull, listless pools of pink now, he couldn't fight a shiver going down his spine. It was made worse when he remembered she couldn't even see any of them. Did she even know where she was?

"I brought oatmeal and bacon and eggs and sliced oranges and some orange juice!" Kaede continued to smile and rolled Chiaki over onto her other side gently so she was facing her. "The oatmeal will be lighter on your body so let's start with that first,"

Chiaki didn't respond, just slowly swallowed whenever the spoon was placed into her mouth. Leon thought it was one of the most pitiful things he had ever seen in his life. She reminded him of something he read in a book once about Buddhist monks who made the decision to further isolate themselves from society and atone for their selfishness and committed suicide by mummifying themselves. Was that what she had been trying to do? Seiko had said she was suffering from extreme weight loss and was like a doll when she was lifted into the bed, though she had no clue if it was self-inflicted or related to her disease. What sort of gods or spirits or whatever else would make her suffer like that?

"I think she came back because she has something important to say," Kaede suddenly announced as she was in the middle of feeding her. Leon looked at her strangely.

"She doesn't even know where she is right now,"

"So? She came back for a reason, Kuwata-kun. And the spirits won't allow her to die until she tells us what she needs to," She put the empty bowl back on the tray. "But it can't be anything good...somehow, I just get the feeling that many more people are going to die..."

Leon went back over to the window and jumped a bit when he felt her gently wrap her hands around him. "I love you,"

"I love you too..." He started to shudder as she held him tighter.

"You can let it all out if you need to," She whispered gently, and soon he felt hot tears flow down his cheeks as he cried hard. She rubbed his back soothingly.

"Oh God, what is any of this?! Why did this all happen?" He cried, and Kaede just listened to him pour it all out, not knowing either, while behind them Chiaki finally fell asleep, her breathing still labored as she tried her hardest to hold on.

The next day another emergency town meeting was held in the temple once more with a great turnout. Behind Makoto sat Leon, Kaito, and Yasuhiro, while Kaito held a Walkie-Talkie in his hand so Sayaka could hear the meeting from her room; her back still hurt far too much to allow her to get up.

"There's a lot of things that need discussed tonight," Makoto began slowly. "I don't think there's a single person in this room who isn't aware of Lady Nanami's sudden return, or of the explosion that killed our beloved Minister Asahina and Prime Minister Fujisaki. But let's talk about something positive for once tonight, huh? Kaito-san?" Makoto moved aside to let Kaito take the floor.

"The power is going to be up and running by tomorrow afternoon! We finally finished building the last panel for our solar farm and I think it looks quite nice!" Everyone gave a healthy round of applause. "Before we actually turn it on, however, please make sure everything in your house and your neighbors' houses are all turned off. It's just respectful and since this is all hooked up to a generator we can't afford an overload,"

Everyone nodded in agreement and there was a small amount of applause as Makoto took the podium again.

"Let's talk about what happened at Kaito-san's place on the 2nd. As both your Minister of Defense and your Deputy Prime Minister, it is my job to do so," He found himself inwardly trembling at how everyone hushed at that, nearly leaning forward with greedy looks in their eyes. He tried to compose himself and explained all of the events that happened leading up to the explosion.

"Yesterday morning Kaito-san and I combed through the rubble for three hours and found some remaining pieces of dynamite hooked up to a Walkie-Talkie, while Yasuke-san and Kenshiro-san found a matching one up by the amphitheater. We assume the bomb was set off there-"

"Assume?! There's no need to assume anything! I'll tell you who it was...bastard Yamada and that chick Mukuro of his!" Yasuke suddenly yelled. Everyone nodded and murmured in agreement, ignoring Makoto's pleas to silence. He finally sighed.

They don't care about our losses at all, do they? They just wish to see Hifumi-san and Ikusaba-san dragged back here in chains, put on a trial for murder, and then executed. They don't care about Fujisaki-san or Asahina-san or that little girl who died. They just want people punished...are these really the good guys?

He finally loudly pounded on the podium. "Please settle down! If I have to yell again I'll cancel this meeting," He waited for everyone to silence once again. "We suspect Yamada Hifumi-san and Ikusaba Mukuro-san of the crime, we have reasonable evidence for that but no solid proof. If they do somehow come back though, I'd like them taken to me. I'll give them a fair trial and hear their side, and then lock them in prison. I know they're the ones responsible but...can't we all just be civil about this?" He laughed nervously and scanned the room. "Anyway, two new positions are open that need to be filled soon. We won't do that tonight, but if anyone has any suggestions..."

A few people raised their hands, and when called on, all said the same thing; Yasuke Matsuda. Makoto felt despair bubble up in the pit of his stomach.

Replace Chihiro Fujisaki with him? Yasuke wasn't a bad man at all and split his time evenly between the power committee and the clinic; and that was part of the problem, he was too busy and versatile. Plus he had a temper where Chihiro was originally easy-going, a good fit for Prime Minister. This felt like a joke. He was Deputy Prime Minister, meant to take on the roles and responsibilities just in case the original Prime Minister was unable, so surely he could just forever remain in the position, right?

"We'll consider that option and let you know our own choices for the two empty seats next week on the eleventh," Makoto eventually sighed.

Sorry, that was an awfully lame send-off, Fujisaki-san.

"Seiko-san is also here tonight to inform us of Lady Nanami's current condition," He continued on, giving her the floor as she bowed shyly and walked over to the podium.

She began by mentioning the status of everyone who was injured in the blast; all making full recoveries. Once her subject changed, so did her tone, and several people leaned forward eagerly.

"I...I can't do anything for her," Seiko said slowly. "She's blind and weak...weak immune system...more likely to get certain diseases...she ate nothing...prepared...for two weeks...needles and seeds and fish...she is currently suffering from...diarrhea...hard to tell but...some roots were found,"

Someone in the audience gasped. Seiko just continued on. "I...I...don't know what...sick with. I've never...seen before...cuts cover her body...she is painfully thin but her stomach...bloated...I think she started to try starving herself..."

"Hey, can't you stop it?" Someone else yelled out. "Have some decency when talking about a young girl!"

Seiko trembled. "I...I can't do anything for once!" She cried and pulled off her mask; the first time she had done so since Chihiro's death, nobody else needed to see her lips. "I dreamed of her before I came here. It was only two times, but I had. I was one of the best at my job before the pandemic, and I'm deeply saddened by my uselessness here. She is as dear to me as she is to all the rest of you, but everything is in her own hands now. If she believes she deserves to be healed, than she will be healed. Otherwise I can do nothing," She looked close to tears as she finally stepped away from the podium and ran back over to her seat, and several others in the audience were quietly crying as well. Yasuhiro took the floor next.

"I think now is a good time to talk about the most pressing issue on our minds other than Lady Nanami's recovery, and that is that of the fashionista,"

A few people folded their hands up or crossed themselves at her mention, and one woman slashed at her throat and ears in an eerily-similar way to Chihiro Fujisaki.

"Let's try to put the pieces together using what we know from our shared dreams. Police do that sort of thing all the time, man! For starters, her name is Junko Enoshima. That is what she has chosen to name herself in this current form. Seeing her presents a feeling of dread, darkness, sickness, despair. And an ever-lasting feeling of coldness afterwards," Everyone nodded in agreement. "She resides in the west and according to several people, Lady Nanami included, she crucifies people who step out of line. They see it in their dreams! She will stop at nothing to defeat us, and I think Hifumi-san and Ikusaba-san did what they did to please her. I know I believe in the old magic and powers and what not, but I'm being completely serious when I say that Lady Nanami is to us what she is to them,"

Makoto took the floor back after that amid wild applause and opened the discussion up to potential ideas of what to do. Many were wild such as stockpiling weapons somehow or a bomb squad. Eventually some people had given up and walked home due to the late hour, while others remained and recited in intimate details their dreams of Lady Nanami.

The meeting ended at around one-thirty in the morning and for once since his wedding, Makoto felt his spirits starting to lift at the good-natured conversation the townspeople had. He was beginning to feel hopeful again.

The power returned on the fifth of September on a day the community would call Power Day; right at noon. Makoto was with Sayaka in her hospital room when the bright fluorescent lights flickered on, off, on, off, then stayed on, buzzing madly. Sayaka reached out for Makoto and felt tears well up in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" He asked, his own wide. "Is it the pain?"

"No...Fujisaki-san was a programmer and gave so much time to trying to figure out how to bring our power back...it seems so wrong that he's not here to see this...he would've loved this the most, I just know he would've," She started to cry and Makoto gently rubbed her back. He found himself missing Chihiro again, and Aoi as well. Hifumi hadn't just killed them, he had robbed the whole council of their hope.

Once Sayaka finished crying, he gently pushed the button to raise her bed and placed a light beside her so she could read at night.

"Wake up. Wake up. Man, wake up!"

Makoto shot up in the middle of the night, looking around frantically and finding Yasuhiro's form standing there in the dark, with Blavatsky at his knee. He rubbed his eyes. "It's the middle of the night..." He turned the light on quickly and blinked several times as the bright light flooded the room. "What's wrong?"

"Lady Nanami," In the light, Makoto could make out that Yasuhiro looked pale and frightened; desperately frightened.

"Is she dead?" He asked, but Yasuhiro shook his head.

"No...hate me for this but I almost wish she was. She asked for us to come see her. I guess she's feeling more coherent now,"

"Just the two of us?" Makoto was already pulling on clothes over his pajamas.

"All five of us. I don't know how, but..she's gotta be physic too, I think! She knew Maizono-chi was in the hospital and that both Fujisaki-chi and Asahina-chi were dead," The two hurried outside. "She's got something important to say to us...and I'm almost afraid to hear it,"

The night air was chilly and the white moon looked down at them. The same moon was looking down on Kizakura and Kyoko and Gonta, the same moon was keeping an eye on the strange doings of Hope's Peak. Makoto zipped his jacket up higher.

"I got Momota-chi up first and told him to bring Maizono-chi right over in his van," Yasuhiro continued.

"She's not in any position to be moved!" Makoto scolded.

"So what, dude?! This is a very special instance!"

"You said you were afraid of what she has to say, yet you seem so eager to hear it,"

"Because I'm also afraid of not hearing it," Yasuhiro admitted softly.

Leon's house was ablaze with electric lights, much like the orange street lamps that dotted the road Makoto stared at in interest. Kaito was already pulled up to the house, opening up the passenger seat and showing Sayaka off, her back propped up with a large red pillow.

"Hi," Makoto waved awkwardly as he gently scooped her up and carried her up the steps. Leon stood there next to Yasuhiro, also looking tired in a shirt buttoned the wrong way and untucked jeans. Sayaka suddenly gasped in pain and Makoto tried to prop her up better.

"I'm so sorry to get you like this, and I mean that," Leon hissed as he saw Sayaka's pained face. "I was keeping watch on her and dozing on and off. She just needs help to use her bedpan; she barely eats. Kaede-chan had gone to bed about an hour ago and I had snapped out of my doze and like...she started talking. Her voice is barely above a whisper, but it's still her. She said she knows she's about to pass on but wanted to speak with the ones who hadn't. I asked her what that meant and like, she knew. She knew about Aoi-san and Fujisaki-san dying and Sayaka-chan being in the hospital,"

"I made coffee," Kaede appeared at the end of the hall, somehow looking more ghostly than Chiaki did. "If anyone wants any..."

"Thanks babe," Leon thanked her and Kaede nervously looked away.

"Can I listen in on this too? Or is it just for the Ministers?"

"I don't think stuff like that really matters anymore," He sighed, and everyone hurried up the stairs to where Chiaki was being kept.

"She'll tell us everything. She will," Kaito said quietly.