Leon 6; Beginning of the End
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Undisclosed Location; Somewhere Near Nagasaki; September 25th, 1994
The trio had walked quietly along the way for the past two days, not making much in the way of conversation. Leon rubbed at his eyes slightly, feeling constantly plagued by nightmares. The crowd yelling for Your Man Just Ain't Good for Ya, all of the mics too tall to adjust, the disapproving glare of his mother, the hopeful eyes of Kanon begging to go on tour with him. It was beginning to be too much.
"The wildlife came back so quickly," Yasuhiro marveled, watching some birds fly around above them. "Especially since it's only been a hundred days since the first outbreak,"
"Yeah, but all the dogs and pigs are gone. It wasn't enough to kill off humans, you had to take their best friends and their favourite food source too," Kaito sighed.
"The cats are left," Leon said.
"We still have Blavatsky-!"
"We had Blavatsky,"
They walked in silence again for a time, soon talking about dogs and pigs and cattle. Smaller animals too. Kaito said rabbits were starting to come out of the woodwork and make their burrows near previously-populated cities again. Chihiro and Gonta had come across a family of them while traveling. He thought it'd be something if in their lifetimes, the whole entire countryside would be overrun with rabbits.
On the twenty-eighth, they finally reached the target they were looking for, and paused when they saw a large group of vehicles parked in a pile in the distance. They kept walking, taking each other's hands as they got closer.
Eight police cars were neatly parked around a barricade, and several men were standing in front of the cars, carrying guns.
"I don't think they look that different from our guys," Kaito pointed out.
"Are you Naegi-san, Kuwata-san, Hagakure-san, and Momota-san?" A heavyset muscular man asked, walking up to them. "There's only three of you, who's missing?"
"Makoto-san...Naegi-san. He broke his leg on the way here," Leon responded.
"Well, nothing for it now. I am Nidai Nekomaru, and sorry to say, but I'm under orders to put you boys under arrest," He motioned to the men behind him.
"Whose orders?" Yasuhiro asked immediately.
"You know,"
"Then say it," He took notice of the sudden flash of terror in Nekomaru's eyes. "And if you won't, then I will. Because she's no more a woman than any of us; she's a she-devil! She is Lilith, Prospina, Bast, Izanami, call her what you like. She is essentially the Devil and all of you kiss her feet,"
"Arrest them," Nekomaru ordered, and the men quickly grabbed the three in response and loaded them up onto trucks; Leon and Kaito in one and Yasuhiro in another one.
I'm being arrested, Leon thought to himself and realized he found it amusing. Kaito sighed a bit next to him once the truck started moving.
"Something wrong?" Leon asked.
"No, I'm just glad to finally be off my feet for once!"
A blond man in a hat sat across from them, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "That annoying loud mouth your leader?" He asked.
"Nope, that would be me," Leon pointed to himself.
"What happened to that Naegi guy?"
"We left him after he broke his leg,"
"That's rough. Kuzuryuu Fuyuhiko. Guess you could say I'm head of security and defense around here," He just looked away.
"How long will it take us to reach Nagasaki?" Leon asked.
"About five or six hours. Can't go too fast because there's still some damn stalls in the roads," Fuyuhiko shook his head.
"To think, we've been walking all of this time and we'll end up getting there in less than five hours," Kaito marveled. "Now that's something,"
"You guys are pretty fucking stupid for coming all this way like that. Don't you know it's just going to end badly?" Fuyuhiko eyed them.
"I guess we're just meant to kill Junko," Leon shrugged.
"Good luck with that. She'll not make her plans easy on you. She's got huge ones and I can tell she won't let you off easy at all. That's why she asked for your arrest. All you can do now is just comply and hope she goes easy on you. She hasn't been in the best of moods lately,"
"Why?"
But Fuyuhiko looked away.
It took them six hours in total to get to New Nagasaki, the workday finishing up when they finally arrived. Leon found himself marveling at all of the technology already set-up.
Once they were herded out of the cars, Nekomaru held out two pairs of handcuffs.
"No way! It's bad enough I have to go to jail as it is, but now you're thinking of cuffing me like some common criminal?!" Kaito shook his head in anger.
"Please, don't make this harder than it has to be," There seemed to be a hint of remorse in his eyes. "I have my orders,"
"The person who gave you those orders was the same person who murdered my friend Chihiro-kun! You seem like such a nice guy normally, why are you following someone like her?" Kaito carried on. Yasuhiro was led over to them.
"Keep them in separate cells," Fuyuhiko said. "Separate wings too,"
The three were each led away.
Nekomaru led Leon down a separate corridor. Leon spotted a sign leading to the showers and stared at it. "I wouldn't mind a shower," He mused.
"Maybe, if you cooperate. We'll just have to see," Nekomaru commented. "I still don't understand what you all were thinking. Normally I'd admire such determination, but she's just going to kill you. Whatever she wants, she gets,"
"I'm only here because I was told to by the little blind girl. Lady Nanami. You probably dreamed about her,"
Nekomaru cleared his throat and removed Leon's handcuffs, pushing him into the cell and locking the door behind him. Leon heard his footsteps echoing down the hallway for a long time.
He had a few brief stints in jail, mainly over drug possession, so it wasn't anything new to him. He ran his hand down his clothes and found one last cigarette. He slowly lit it up and took a drag. He sat down on the creaky bed and sighed. "I'm not afraid. I won't be afraid of anything," He spoke out-loud and decided he liked the way it sounded. "I'm not afraid,"
His sleep was dreamless but peaceful.
The next day, around ten in the morning, Junko and Hajime paid Yasuhiro a visit in his cell. He was sitting cross-legged in his cell, just on the floor, trying to write out a poem in English with some charcoal he found. When he heard a door open, he froze slightly and broke out into a grin, ignoring the dull ache in his bones and the chilled air. He heard the clack of heels on the floor. "I finally get to see what she looks like in the flesh," He said quietly to himself, and still smiled when the wearer of the heels came to a stop in front of his cell. "Why, you look nothing like the horrifying witch we were all picturing!"
Junko was standing directly in front of Yasuhiro, wearing a black, red, and blue gown with a high collar that resembled a dark version of Snow White's with a hoop-skirt. Her hair was up in a fancy bun-braid and one cheek was painted with a red teardrop and the other with Kuma-chan. One arm was covered in a white opera glove; the other one, black. Hajime's hair was hanging loose in his face and he wore a simple grey suit with yellow trimmings. He wore a black skull around his neck.
"I'd be honored for you to meet a dear acquaintance of ours," Junko began in a regal tone fit for a queen. "Hajime-kun, this is Hagakure Yasuhiro-kun; a former con-man and sociologist, Hope's Peak Minister of Communication, and their only surviving think tank after the truly unfortunate passing of their dear Chihiro-kun," She curtsied.
Hajime just nodded at him.
"I have decided to let you go. Isn't that right, Hajime-kun?" She looked over at him with a smile.
"Yes," Hajime wouldn't look at her.
"That's great then!" Yasuhiro smiled.
"Am I not a thoughtful ruler? A true queen always thinks of the needs of everyone who passes through her kingdom. You shall be given a small motorbike to drive back whenever you fancy," She folded her hands in front of herself and gave him a demure smile.
"Appreciate the offer, dudette, but I'm not leaving without my friends,"
"But of course! You may leave with them too!" She smiled more. "And all you have to do is grovel at my feet like the peasant that you are,"
Yasuhiro started to laugh and laugh. "No thank you, your highness. Only thing you could properly rule over is a playground at a fast-food place,"
The demure smile slipped from Junko's face and she scowled angrily at him.
"Stop laughing,"
"Man, we were all so scared of you, but you're pretty much nothing but an insecure teenage girl playing dress-up! It's just a phase!"
"Stop laughing at me, you worthless scum!" She cried, whirling around to Hajime. "Shoot him. I command it,"
Yasuhiro had fallen over on the floor from laughter. "Shoot me yourself, your royal highness! Where's the man to cut off my head with a sword?"
"I said to shoot him, goddamn it! Your queen demands it!" Junko shrieked.
Hajime nodded and aimed the gun, firing it, only to have it ricochet off the walls.
"Are you blind? He is standing right in front of you!" Junko tried to keep her dignified accent, even then. "And yet you still missed!"
"If you're going to shoot someone, shoot her. I now see clearly she's just a she-devil in disguise, or was anyhow. Now she's just a frightened little girl, and she knows it too, because she doesn't even have despair to fall back on anymore," Yasuhiro said seriously, staring Hajime down. "Shoot her and save us all from even more bloodshed and horror,"
"Shoot somebody, at least! Prove to me you are more than a measly commoner!" Junko commanded. "I saved you from starvation, do you no longer recall? I gave you everything. You said you wished to get back at men like him. Men who have all this talent and use to keep talentless people like you down,"
"She's right," Hajime aimed the gun at Yasuhiro again.
"She's lying,"
"She's told me far more truths than anyone else in my life has," Hajime shot Yasuhiro three times in the chest and watched him fall over onto his side. Blood dripped out of the wounds, and yet he was still smiling.
"That's alright, I'm not mad at you,"
"Shut up!" Hajime cried, shooting another round at his face. He continued to spray bullets at the corpse until he was panting and the gun only uttered an empty click.
"We are very impressed with you, Hajime-kun," She purred.
"I didn't kill him for you," He stared at her levelly, making her laugh.
"On the contrary, doesn't everything you do have my name written on it?" She stepped closer and gently ran her finger down his skull necklace. "You like to pretend you have free will, secretly knowing that you belong to me more than any of the others. Because I made you like this, Hajime-kun. I created you in the perfect vision of despair. I know a few of my servants wish to leave me, but you never would. You are my faithful servant to the end, aren't you?"
"Yeah," Hajime admitted softly. "Until the end,"
Junko smiled. "Hifumi-kun knew that about us. That is why he wished to join us and be ruled under us. He was far too full of ideas though, bad ideas. And we had to put a stop to that. Much like we'll put a stop to all of this tomorrow night. This quest of hope. We'll stop it by finishing off Leon-kun and Kaito-kun. Here is my idea for how to do it..." And she told him an idea that was fit for a queen.
Hajime didn't sleep for a long time that night and instead hung out on the hotel's front lawn with a bunch of other people, watching the construction go down. Souda took one side while Iruma took the other. Their faces were covered by goggles and plate masks, which only added to their extravagant appearance; Souda's hair had grown longer and he had a large toolbelt around his waist with a bright yellow mechanic jumpsuit on. Iruma wore a sultry steampunk princess gown that was low-cut and extremely short. One long white opera glove covered up the burns on her arm while a kid glove was on her unblemished arm.
"I hope we're invited tomorrow. I wanna see these babies work!" Souda chuckled. Iruma loudly turned the power-drill on.
"Look, Ibuki-mama! A fireworks show!" Satoshi pointed eagerly. Ibuki laughed, wearing a dark purple and red punk-styled kimono.
"But those are fireworks for adults. Good little boys should be in bed," Ibuki took his baseball cap off his dark head and jokingly pulled it down.
"Awww, can't I watch them work?"
"If they're still working tomorrow, you may," Ibuki promised with a grin. "I'll even sing you a lullaby tonight!"
Satoshi pouted, and Ibuki quickly led him away.
"Yeah, just what the fuck has gotten everyone so excited?" Hiyoko asked, her hands on her hips. Her hair was worn loose and flowing for once with a flowery pink cluster of flowers pinned to the side. Her kimono was a flowing pale pink furisode with white trim; her sleeves reached the ground. She wore it with red geta and covered her smirk with a pink fan. "Better be something worth my time,"
"I myself am unclear on the exact details, but I believe our Dark Empress of Evil intends to punish the nonbelievers," Gundham suggested loudly, wearing a tight robe and jacket with tribal marks painted on his forehead.
"But what are we going to do to them?"
"Nobody knows...but does it matter?" Tsumugi sighed happily, dangerously swaying on her thick black heels. "Tomorrow, everyone will know. Everyone in New Nagasaki is going to know. It's going to be life-changing," She drooled happily, her hair up in pigtails tied with Kuma-chan scrunchies. She wore a sheer brown slip dress patterned with pink splashes that exposed her lacy black underwear and matching lacy caramel thigh-highs and garters.
"Looking good, Tsumugi-chan! You should dress like that more often and flatter your figure!" Teruteru whistled from somewhere, decked out in a red and yellow chef's outfit. Tsumugi yelped in embarrassment and desperately tried to cover herself up.
"S-She told me this was something she'd wear!"
Hajime went to bed shortly after that exchange. The work continued for an hour more before that was finished as well and the crowd soon dispersed.
Standing on the trunks of two flatbed trucks were two cages with four large chains attached to square-shaped holes on the inside, hooked to the ends of four cars. Inside the cages was a single set of silver handcuffs.
Leon woke up the next morning of the thirtieth to the sound of footsteps. He sat up and got out of bed, realizing he must've spent most of the night thinking. He went up to the bars. Whatever would happen next that day, it would ultimately end in their deaths. That was that. He figured Yasuhiro had already been killed yesterday, as there were a lot of gun shots coming from the direction he was kept in, and not Kaito. Maybe it was for the best.
"Wake up, nonbeliever. The time has come for you to pay your dues," A man in a makeshift straitjacket ordered, and Leon nodded. Next to him was Nekomaru, wearing a stainless white coat and thick gloves.
"None of this was my idea," He said to Leon as he opened up the cell and handcuffed him again.
"I'm bettin' none of this is," He responded. "Who was killed yesterday?"
"Hagakure-san, trying to escape,"
"Isn't that something? I bet one of these days, one of you will be shot trying to escape too,"
They led Leon out of the hallway and into the main office, meeting up with Fuyuhiko and Peko, who had Kaito between them.
"They told me too," He grumbled lowly. "I couldn't believe it at first,"
The two were pushed into police vans and locked up, sat across from each other with their cuffed hands between their legs.
"I heard from that swordswoman all of New Nagasaki is going to be here. Do you think they're going to crucify us?" Kaito asked quietly.
"Probably, or something like that," Leon sighed. "I'm badly scared. Believe it or not, I'm not great with pain tolerance,"
Kaito just nodded. "I just can't believe it'll end like this. We're going to get killed, and all for nothing,"
The two sat in silence for the remainder of the ride. Leon leaned back slightly and closed his eyes, thinking of Kaede. He thought of his mom. He started thinking about random things like getting out of bed for school in the mornings. Attending his first baseball game with Kanon. Finding a discarded swimsuit magazine in the trash and looking through it curiously when he was around nine. That time he threw up in gym class. He was still afraid and didn't want to die, but somehow he also knew it was the way things were meant to be. Life was very much just an idle backstage room, waiting for your chance to go on. Maybe his next life would be something more fulfilling. Maybe his next life would be something more peaceful.
After a few minutes, the trucks stopped and Peko, Fuyuhiko, Gundham, and Nekomaru threw open the doors and dragged the two men out, pulling them silently over to two giant cages set up on the backs of two flat-bed trucks. Surrounding the trucks was a huge crowd, cheering and chattering loudly. There were even obvious couples and friends there; lots of hand-holding and being hoisted onto shoulders to see the scenes better. Leon looked at their faces; many turned away, seemingly afraid. Others seemed more excited for what was to happen.
He also thought it looked more like a demented costume party; one woman standing in the center was wearing an elaborate ball gown covered in bloody roses. A trio near the front had a girl dressed in a sexy nurse outfit, a man wearing a forest-green Shinto shrine outfit, and another woman wearing a black and purple Queen of Hearts outfit with a black mourning veil pulled over her face.
Leon and Kaito were dragged over onto the trucks, and Kaito's eyes grew wide and he whispered urgently to Leon: "They're going to rip us apart!"
"Go on, get inside," Fuyuhiko pushed Leon over onto his own truck, and he stood on it. "And take your shirt off!"
Leon complied, slowly slipping it off and feeling the cold morning air on his skin. Kaito took his own off too, making several people in the crowd gasp audibly. Their ribs were visible and they were horribly thin from their walk.
"Get in the cage." Peko was giving the orders then, walking over to them. Leon wildly thought how in another life, he'd enjoy getting bossed around by a femme fatale in heels. He backed up into his cage and heard the four cars starting up behind him. Peko and Nekomaru worked together, helping get everything situated. Peko's expression was unreadable, but Nekomaru seemed disgusted.
"Damn, she's even got women calling the shots for her here, huh? That's something that'd never fly where we're from!" Leon spoke up, smirking at Peko as she slipped his hands into the cuffs. The crowd tittered nervously, unsure of what was happening. She offered him chains, but he spat on him and a few scattered cheers sounded through the crowd.
"Please stop making this harder than it has to be," Nekomaru ordered, almost sounding remorseful.
"Ooooh, a rockstar in chains? That should be his new album cover!" A girl snickered from somewhere in the crowd. Leon somehow knew the majority of them, despite cheering on the resistance, wouldn't actually resist themselves. There was something too terrifying about open rebellion. Still, maybe there was still hope.
Peko and Nekomaru finished strapping them in, pressing their arms firmly at their sides and locking them in the handcuffs. They hurried out of the cage and the doors shut, sealing them inside. Leon glanced over at Kaito and saw him standing there, defiantly.
A giant sign above them flickered a few times. Leon looked out over the crowd again. "I hope you all remember what you see here today! We're only being executed because she's afraid of us, afraid of our hope! Just think about that the next time you feel it, or try to run from her! You'll just be next, she'll execute you too, execute you like you were some expendable bystander!" His voice carried through the crowd, strengthened by years of singing. "Some of you already know that this is wrong!"
"Leon-san!" Kaito called out.
Junko was walking down the steps then, Hajime by her side. He kept his head down, dressed in a simple black suit with his hair in his face. Junko, on the other hand, was decked out in a tiny red gown that hugged her curves tightly, thigh-high lacy boots with thick heels, leather red gloves, a long black cloak with a spiky high collar, a large red scepter, and her hair up in pigtails tied with Kuma-chan scrunchies. A crown was also on her head.
It was truly her moment, shown by the cheers and applause she received as she strode out on stage, her heels clicking loudly in a tone of other-worldliness. She smiled sweetly and stepped over to the microphone set out.
"Hajime-kun," She cleared her throat, and he wordlessly handed her a purple slip of paper that she unfolded. "On this day of September Thirtieth, in the year of 1994 that will now be called Year One after the pandemic, I, Junko Enoshima-"
"But that's not truly your name, is it? Tell them what you're truly called!" Kaito called out, but Junko just ignored him and continued on.
"These two men are spies, sent here with seductive and destructive methods to uproot our beautifully-established community!" She gasped. "Much like we sought out and killed the other spies sent by their community, we must now do the same here. Kill them, execute them, punish them, for they had done something bad and got caught!" She giggled and handed the paper back to Hajime. "And what would be a good execution for a wannabe rockstar and a wannabe astronaut, hm?"
Most of the crowd remained silent, but a few chose to speak up.
"Crucify them!" The nurse cheered.
"How about you burn them alive and cut off their heads?" The gambler tittered.
"Dismember them," The priest nodded.
"Do all three!" A cosplayer shouted from the middle of the crowd.
Junko laughed. "I think dismemberment would be a very fitting execution for them indeed. So, let's not waste any more time and get straight to it then!" She smiled. "If you have small children, you are excused from watching,"
Ibuki chuckled a bit. Satoshi was still in bed, asleep.
Junko pointed her scepter at the cars, which started up their engines. "Let's give it everything we've got! It's Punishment Time!" She cheered loudly, about to give the order when a freckled redhead jumped onto the stage.
"N-No! Please stop this! This is wrong!" She scolded. She had a fancy black camera around her neck and wore a simple white T-shirt and tight ripped jean shorts. "Everything about this is wrong! I wasn't much before the world ended, just some latchkey kid who liked to take pictures. But I do also know this isn't how Japanese people act! We call ourselves such a proud nation, yet we want to encourage this? Listen to the whims of some...some...blonde, despair-loving whore with fake tits?!"
The crowd gasped in shock and disgust.
"I know I'm speaking out of turn, but that's what she is. I'll go take my seat now. Just know that whatever you see here today, even if you think it's alright, will haunt you in your nightmares for life," She started to walk off, only freezing when she heard Junko's sickly-sweet voice reach her.
"Mahiru-chan...Mahiru-chan...!" She slowly stepped towards her. "I knew about everything, you know. Your plans to leave...but why? You were one of my first, one of my best and most loyal workers. I would've given you everything you wanted, you know," She stood directly in front of her, and Mahiru looked horrified. "But I guess it doesn't matter now. I don't need you anymore. I need people I can trust,"
"N-No..." Mahiru took a few steps back, teetering at the edge of the stage.
"I suppose you could say that you've been let go!" She snickered and shoved Mahiru right off the stage. The redhead didn't even have time to scream as her head hit the ground hard, blood splattering from it.
Ibuki and Hiyoko screamed in absolute horror, Ibuki quickly rushing over and trying to rouse Mahiru. Hiyoko cried.
"You are a fucking crazy bitch, you know that?!" She accused, pointing a finger at Junko and running out of the crowd.
Junko just ignored the commotion and sighed in a bored tone. "Does anyone else wish to interrupt?" She scanned the crowd. Even Mikan seemed terrified, slinking back with a face as white as her clothes. Junko smiled brightly. "Then let's continue-!"
Everyone suddenly turned to look, glancing around and whispering about the last-arrived guest. It was something not even Junko had predicted, and she angrily stomped her foot.
"It's that crazy bastard, Servant!" Iruma cried, hands on her hips. "He's going to fucking run us all over and kill us!" She dashed from the crowd, and a few other people panicked and took off running as well, making Junko wring her hands.
Everything was starting to go wrong again; she hadn't foreseen any of that, like with Kizakura and that woman slitting her throat on the window glass, and Mukuro falling from the balcony with her niece in her...
A few other people began to take off as well, finally beholding what had made Miu Iruma of all people terrified; the man once known as Nagito Komaeda who was now known as The Servant, driving a heavily-armored tank dangerously close to the crowd.
"Goddamn it, stay still! Don't walk away from me like that! I'm supposed to be giving you despair, nobody else!" Junko cried, tightening her grip on her scepter.
The Servant climbed out from the top of the tank, his clothes ragged and covered in red-pink blood. His hair was limp and messy and falling out in some places, and his eyes were sunken-in. Still, he smiled at her. "Look what I got for you! This'll be good, right? You like this, right?" He became consumed by a violent coughing fit, falling a few steps out of the tank and hacking the blood profusely onto the grass. The remaining members of the crowd gasped and drew back in horror.
"Kill him," Junko ordered Hajime, her eyes still trained on The Servant. "He is ruining my execution! I want him gone!"
"Right..." Hajime jumped off the stage and wandered over to where Nagito was getting back into his tank, holding his hands up.
"Look, Hinata-san! Look what I brought!" He exclaimed.
"Yeah, it's great, but it's too big to drive around a place like this," He subtly reached for his gun. "Get it out of here before you accidentally run someone over,"
"Awww, you're no fun," The Servant pouted, accidentally elbowing the dashboard and making the tank jerk backwards, ramming into an electrical pole. Sonia screamed and just narrowly dodged it as it came down in a puddle of water, sparking.
Up on the stage, Leon and Kaito stared at the sparks curiously.
"I don't think that's normal," Leon whispered to himself before Kaito suddenly perked up.
"Look! Look at the sparks!" He yelled out, and indeed the sparks had multiplied by a thousand fold, setting off a small fire that gradually started to grow.
"Shit! Souda-san, do something about that power line!" Hajime cried out.
The air felt full of electricity, and Junko cried out in pure despair.
"No!"
Leon blinked and saw that she was no longer there; only thing that remained was her scepter, which clattered lamely onto the stage.
"You think it'll be enough?" Kaito asked, and Leon nodded as they watched the fire suddenly spread and begin to consume everything in its path. It roared loudly. He heard a familiar feminine voice telling him he had done a great job, and he smiled widely.
"Thank God...I'm not afraid of anything, I will go without fear in my heart-"
And both the hopeful and despairful alike were consumed alive by the holy fire that day.
