Author's Note: Though this may be the end of this particular fic, there's still the related short story Night Surf which I plan to retell using SDR2 characters that I've alluded to a few times in this fic, as well as doing some AU stuff like if Chihiro had joined Junko's side and not Chiaki's, maybe. Also a new miniseries is coming out and Stephen King is going to write a new ending for that featuring Stu and Fran several years later, so if I like that enough I'll make it a new chapter in this fanfic.
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Hey now, hey now,
Don't dream it's over.
Hey now, hey now,
When the world comes in!
They come, they come,
To build a wall inbetween us.
We know, that they won't win!
Part 7; Hope; January 9th-July 7th, 1995
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Makoto 13: Sayaka's Child
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Hiroshima; January 9th, 1995
Sayaka was dozing off in her bright hospital room, a romance novel folded up in her lap. She was thinking of juicy strawberry pie, cutting herself a slice of it, and pairing it with some cold plum juice. She had her waist-long hair up in a tight bun and papery green hospital pajamas on. If Makoto ever came back and saw her, she wondered if he'd recognize her at first glance.
As she dozed, a nurse had come in to check on her and she wildly asked if Chiaki was dead yet; so groggy she wasn't quite sure if she meant her daughter Chiaki or her namesake Chiaki.
"She's perfectly alright," The nurse had said, but Sayaka could tell by her eyes that she was lying. The baby she made with Shuichi Saihara was dying somewhere in the hospital, being written-off. She heard both Kaede and Maki were pregnant and knew their children would have far better luck. Both parents were immune to the Despair Disease, after all. Aoi was dead, but if she wasn't it'd be the same situation. It was brutal but perfectly understandable for the community to write off her daughter's survival and only care about women who became pregnant after July 1st.
Sayaka sighed a bit and started to close her eyes. She thought of when she first held her child; Chiaki Maizono-Naegi. She thought of Makoto's eyes. She thought of Makoto being in her hospital room with her.
"Makoto-kun..." She mumbled a bit, looking over at the doorway.
"Sayaka-chan," A voice reached her in her swimming conscious, and she opened her eyes slightly. "Sayaka-chan,"
In her dream, Makoto was wearing a forest-green jacket that was dripping slightly, his hair slightly longer and stubble on his face. Then she noticed Gonta standing behind him, and...Blavatsky at his heel?!
"Makoto-kun...?" She asked slowly. "I'm dreaming," She insisted.
"No, you're not. It's me. I'm finally home," He insisted, limping severely over to her.
"Is that truly you?" She gasped as he finally reached her bed, and they embraced tightly.
Seiko, Miaya, and Yasuke all came in an hour later, Makoto sitting in a chair by Sayaka's bedside. Miaya wrote in trembling hands:
They're saying you saw the destruction of New Nagasaki. That there was a fire,
Makoto nodded. "I saw it, and it was definitely a fire of some sort,"
"You...feeling?" Seiko asked Sayaka.
"I'm fine. Very happy to finally have my husband back. But what about my child?" She asked worriedly.
"That's what we came in here to tell you, and we're not going to mince words or anything," Yasuke took over, letting go of Miaya's wheelchair. "That way you can understand better,"
"My daughter is dead, isn't she?" Sayaka asked firmly. "You've come here to tell me that,"
"What? No. We came here to tell you we think the newborn is recovering,"
Everyone in the room was stone-silent.
"I saw...lots of cases...this summer. Even got sick...myself," Seiko begun. "When your baby first became sick...the symptoms were classic signs of the Despair Disease. The last part...the final part...internal bleeding...never happened though. So, we believe...since the child has partial immunity from you, she will fight it off and recover..."
"What of other women who were pregnant from fathers who weren't immune?" Makoto asked curiously.
"We think they'll have the same struggle Minister Naegi's baby is having right now," Yasuke explained. "But we'll soon enter a time when children are being born to parents who were both immune, and that time will come very soon,"
Sayaka slowly nodded in understanding. "I just want her to live because she's my daughter and I love her," She reached her hand out for Makoto and looked at him. "She's my last connection to the world before. She has her father's eyes, you know. And if anything from Shuichi-kun had to be passed on...I'm glad it was his eyes. She'll look so pretty with them when she grows up," She felt Makoto squeeze her hand. "That's what I think,"
Makoto suddenly thought about how much he missed his old friends and family. They all liked to tease him and call him 'extraordinarily ordinary' because he wasn't good at anything and just had his luck and optimism to fall back on. Only in that moment did he finally realize how right they were.
The trio nodded. "We have...lots to do. Eighteen women here...pregnant...nine before the pandemic. So we're going to be busy..." Seiko explained.
We'll keep a very close eye on your akachan though, don't you worry at all, Minister Naegi! Miaya reassured her through her writing. And Minister Naegi, please see me about your leg,
"What's wrong with his leg?" Sayaka immediately asked.
Broken, overtaxed. Nothing that can't be fixed though! Just come see me whenever you're ready,
"Oh, he will,"
"Guess I gotta, my wife says so," Makoto laughed awkwardly.
Once they left, Sayaka made Makoto walk around on his leg, watching him stumble and grimace. Once he made it back to her bed, she started crying.
"What's all this?!" Makoto asked worriedly.
"So many people died...Hifumi-san, Asahina-chan, Fujisaki-san...they didn't deserve that. They deserved to be here with us, celebrating your return," She sobbed. "And what about Yasuhiro-san? Leon-san and Kaito-san? Kaede-chan and Maki-chan are going to be here in an hour. What are we supposed to tell them? They're both almost five months pregnant themselves,"
"I think Leon-san and Momota-san died over there. I think they might've been a sacrifice, or something. Who'd ask for a sacrifice like that, I don't know," Makoto finally said, more to himself.
"You better not tell the girls that, they'll become upset,"
Makoto just sighed.
Around midnight, Makoto and a young nurse helped Sayaka into a wheelchair and pushed her down the clinic's wards, stopping at a blue-and-pink ward with a glass window. Makoto looked in, interested. Only one pink crib was occupied, a mobile above it.
A card on the crib read: Maizono-Naegi Chiaki; Female. Mother: Naegi Sayaka, née Maizono, rm. 23. Father: Saihara Shuichi, Deceased.
"Maizono-Naegi?" Makoto couldn't help asking her.
"I thought it was fitting because it's like our two families becoming one," Sayaka explained shyly. "I can change it if you want-"
"No," He cut her off.
"I just feel sad when I see all of those empty cribs. I want her to grow up and have lots of other kids to play with," She bit her lip.
"She won't be alone for very long," Makoto tried to comfort her, hugging her tightly but clumsily. He glanced back at the newborn girl and saw she had fluffy blue hair on her head already and olive eyes. She was laying there calmly, her tiny hands in fists. Makoto then started to cry himself, making Sayaka stare at him in confusion and worry.
"What's wrong?"
He shook his head and pulled her closer.
"She's just so beautiful. Just as beautiful as her mother," He smiled at her.
The two tightly embraced each other and gazed upon Chiaki as she finally fell asleep as if she was the very first child ever born upon the earth.
Hiroshima; April 29th, 1995
The winter finally ended, though Makoto spent most of it holed up in bed after Seiko rebroke his leg and set it in a plaster cast, and it had only come off a few weeks ago. He had gotten autographs from seemingly everyone in Hope's Peak on it in the meantime. By that time, the community had numbered eleven thousand, and Kiriko Nishizawa even headed her own office with a computer terminal at the city's bank. She was head of the Census Bureau, after all.
That day, the couple sat out on a picnic blanket, having some lunch with Kaede and Maki. They were watching a huge group of children chase each other around the community; the first 'It' was none other than Gonta Gokuhara. It was Sayaka's idea.
"Haha, nobody can catch me! I'm the fastest!" Masaru cheered before Gonta easily scooped him up. "Awww, guess I gotta get someone else!"
"Catch me! I'm an easy target!" Monaca suggested from her wheelchair, then easily dodged him. She laughed. "I'm not even playing!"
"Sure you are!" The children were all decked out in the pastel sweaters and yellow hats that denoted them as members of the elementary school in the community.
"But have we found Nagisa-kun yet?" Monaca wondered.
"Hm..." Masaru slowly snuck around and pounced on Nagisa, who jumped. He was hiding behind Momota Rock and thought he found a perfect hiding place.
"I wasn't even playing," He insisted. "I'm too old for this,"
"Sure you are!" Masaru teased.
After everyone grew bored of playing, they'd head up to the amphitheater; renamed to Fujisaki-Asahina Amphitheater, for a large picnic lunch. Sayaka and Makoto had just finished setting it up and wanted to dig into their own share.
In the playpen Makoto had brought outside, Chiaki began to cry heavily. Sayaka started to head over there, but Kaede was there first, despite being heavily-pregnant.
"I think her diaper needs to be changed," Sayaka warned, and Kaede laughed.
"I'm not afraid of that. She's not hiding anything I haven't seen before!" Kaede gently scooped Chiaki up out of her playpen. "What's wrong? What's wrong, baby?" She set Chiaki down on a separate blanket they brought for a changing table and started to unbutton her pink dress. She glanced over at Maki. "Why don't you help me? It's good practice!"
Maki just stared at her in annoyance, finally coming over to help.
"You two could go for a walk," She addressed Sayaka and Makoto, and they agreed and walked off together. They walked up some of the higher hills, Sayaka sighing a bit.
"Are you suggesting we get divorced?!" Makoto suddenly gasped, making Sayaka turn back and laugh dryly.
"What?"
"I saw an intense expression on your features. I just assumed..."
"What? No! I'd never divorce you! I can't imagine my life without you," She sighed. "I just feel homesick. I know that sounds silly because both Nagoya and Hiroshima border the ocean, but...Nagoya beaches are different. They're far prettier especially during the summer nights. Don't you ever want to return back to Yokohama?" She looked at Makoto, who shook his head.
"No." He answered truthfully. "This is my home now. But I'll follow you where-ever you go," He took her hands. "We're married now, Sayaka-chan. It's my duty as a husband to make sure you're happy. And if you want to go back home to Nagoya, then we shall,"
"But what about the council? I heard you got offered your spot back, as well as the position of being Prime Minister," Sayaka asked.
"Ours was more of a temporary thing we founded in the middle of a crisis. Now there is no crisis," He softly kissed her. "When?"
"July? I think Chiaki-chan will be old enough by then. And I want to see Kaede-chan and Maki-chan give birth," Sayaka decided.
It was entirely possible the two women would be the first two to have children born of two immune parents.
"July 1st then," Makoto decided. "But what about if you get pregnant again?"
"There are books we could read about it. And I was pregnant once, you know? I'm sure I could handle it again," Sayaka teased.
"Yes, but..what about illness? That's still a very real possibility. Even for people as young as us," Makoto said, thinking of his bout with cholera, and how Tayu; the idol-wannabe with a ponytail, was just Sayaka's age yet she died that February from pneumonia.
"There's books for that too...still, I like to think we'll be alright," She replied firmly, feeling a bit sad again over Tayu's death. Chiaki had started crying from something and she stood up. "Let's go see what's wrong with the queen,"
Kaede carefully handed Chiaki back to Sayaka. "She was trying to crawl off and accidentally hit her nose," She explained.
"Awww, poor baby," Sayaka teased, rubbing Chiaki's back.
"Poor baby indeed," Makoto agreed, making a funny face at her. She smiled a bit.
"I heard you two are thinking of leaving the community," Maki said. Sayaka nodded.
"But that's not for a few more months. At the very least we want to see your own babies be born," Makoto reassured them.
"You know, I really have no idea if Kuwata-kun ever wanted kids, and if he did, how many he'd want. This one I have...that'll just have to be enough, won't it?" Kaede said, more to herself. The bell ran for lunch and she gingerly stood up, her hands on her expansive belly. "Hear that? Time to eat. Ow, don't kick me, I'm going!"
Sayaka laughed a bit and handed Chiaki to Makoto. "Let's take ours up there and eat it,"
Makoto nodded in agreement and followed after her. They walked to Fujisaki-Asahina Amphitheater together.
Hiroshima; June 16th, 1995
Makoto and Sayaka smiled at Kaede as she gently held her newborn twins in her arms, a tired but happy expression on her face.
"Twins, I just can't believe it," Makoto finally said.
"Seeing is believing," Sayaka teased him.
"I think he'd be very happy with this," Kaede commented, kissing her sleeping babies on their foreheads. One was a boy and the other was a girl, but both had brilliant red hair and soft violet eyes. "In fact...I'll name this one Kurt Cobain, and this one Courtney Love. He really loved American grunge rock..."
"I think they're just perfect," Makoto nodded in agreement.
Maki gave birth a day later to her own baby; a son who resembled her physically aside from his father's purple hair. She quickly named him Sora. Himiko instantly attached herself to the infant and started showing him magic tricks.
Blavatsky, who ended up living for sixteen more years, got with Helena and had a litter of six puppies. It seemed as though both human and canine populations would not only survive but recover.
It had only been a year since the Great Plague of '94.
Hiroshima; July 7th, 1995
Sayaka smiled to herself as she spun around in a light pink furisode patterned with cherry blossoms, a matching kanzashi in her hair and a glittering gold engagement and wedding ring on her fingers. She was finally an adult. The setting sun painted her in brilliant red and orange. She looked over at the sound of footsteps and smiled at her husband; now nineteen, standing in the doorway.
"She's getting all dirty!" Makoto gasped, pointing to Chiaki eagerly crawling around in the mud. He had grown his hair out slightly to wear it in a small ponytail.
Sayaka laughed. "Lady Nanami has a well here, it'll be fine. Besides, it's just some mud, it won't kill her," She placed a hand on her flat stomach. "You worried about the baby?"
"Of course not," He smiled at her. "The little queen won't be very happy about having to share our attention though,"
"Who cares? She should be happy she's not part of a set," Sayaka teased, referring to Kaede's twins. She then sat down on the porch, sighing a bit. Parked in the distance was a blue Honda; Makoto took driving lessons from some older community members before he left and felt more assured about it. And indeed, Makoto wasn't the only one with a sense of adventure. Seiko had wanted to visit Hawaii. Gonta and Himiko set off for Australia. Yasuke wanted to see if anything could be salvaged from Nagasaki. Sakura and Kenshiro wanted to check out America and see if they had gotten further in reconstruction efforts in comparison.
"She lived here for a long time, didn't she?" Sayaka finally asked after a time.
"Yeah, she did. Which reminds me," Makoto walked back inside and pulled a faded photo out of his hoodie pocket, setting it out on the makeshift shrine. He lit some incense as Sayaka followed after him curiously, holding a squirmy Chiaki in her arms.
"Hey, that's-"
The picture was the one the Ministers took right before their first successful meeting; it still had 'Hope '94' written on it.
"I wanted to set up some shrine for them somewhere in Hope's Peak, but it somehow didn't feel right. That's why I suggested coming here for a minute. She connected us all together, you know? We all dreamed of her. We all loved her dearly. And Fujisaki-san and Momota-san were the first of us to actually come here to see her in person," Makoto explained. "I thought this would be the perfect resting place for them,"
Sayaka lowered her head. "I think their souls are finally resting in peace. They did everything they needed to do,"
"They did," Makoto agreed, standing up.
Suddenly, he blinked and briefly caught sight of Chiaki, dressed in a virginal white kimono; spotless and folded differently. She was carefully playing her shamisen, singing a graduation song.
The lyrics never sounded as ironic to Makoto as they did then.
He saw all of them there then; Leon and Kaito were quietly sitting in front of Chiaki, listening to her play. Yasuhiro and Kyoko having another debate about whether aliens interacted with cavemen or not. Kizakura watched them carefully, a hand on his hat.
"Come back here!" Aoi gasped and giggled, rushing past him to catch up to a little girl who was laughing as she darted behind a tree. Chihiro covered his mouth with his hand, laughing too.
Mukuro and Hifumi were there too, Hifumi poring over a fandom magazine and pointing out in amazement all of the new series coming out. Mukuro nodded in understanding, taking notes of new cosplay outfits.
Chiaki looked up at Makoto, giving him a warm smile. Her eyes were the brightest shade of pink he had ever seen, and then he realized that she was only just then seeing what he truly looked like, what any of them truly looked like.
"Thank you. You gave everyone hope. Because of you, we can all exist like this...and your living friends can continue living on peacefully," She stopped playing the shamisen and it disappeared as she stood up, folding her hands in front of her.
"Yeah, you're a true friend, ya know?" Chihiro teased, making Chiaki gasp as he took one of her hands.
"Time to go, Miss Chiaki," Kaito gently nudged her, holding her other hand.
She nodded and allowed herself to be led away by the two, briefly glancing back once more at Makoto. The others slowly started to vanish as well, though Makoto swore he could still hear their voices and smell their scents even long after that fact.
Even in death, they were still living.
He blinked again and they were gone.
Were they ever really there in the first place?
"Time for her to take a nap. Come help me?" Sayaka asked, breaking him out of his illusion and motioning to Chiaki, who yawned cutely. Makoto nodded, his hand on his head, and walked with her into the living room, setting Chiaki down on a cot in a tiny purple nightgown. She was asleep within seconds. Sayaka stared at her carefully.
Makoto found himself wondering if humanity would ever truly learn, if Chiaki would learn from the emptied world to never repeat the mistakes of her forbearers. He could only hope.
"Makoto-kun?" Sayaka asked slowly, and Makoto pulled her close.
"Yes?"
"...Do...do you think humanity will ever learn from their mistakes? Do you think this time, we can be better?" She stared at him.
"Well, what do you think?" He asked her instead.
She then stared ahead at nothing. "I don't know." She said at last. "I don't know."
Undisclosed Location; Unknown Date, 1995
She woke up suddenly at dawn, shivering despite the heat. Above her was a clear blue sky, below her was simple pieces of white sand. She ran a hand through her hair and found it was a perky red, the colour of blood.
She blinked. Blood? What was that? She rolled over onto her back and unknowingly placed her hand in the water. Several fish sprung up, dead. A bird overhead balked at her and turned the other way, slamming itself into a tree. She breathed heavily.
Things were starting to slowly come back to her. A character that sounded like it could've been a name to her. Perhaps it was her name, perhaps it wasn't, but it was still a name nonetheless.
She managed to sit up and found she was clad in nothing but a white bikini. She coughed, her throat feeling heavy.
"Oh, thank goodness you're alive!" A woman's voice reached her ears. "You washed up on that shore a while ago. I did my best to revive you..." The woman had bright hair tied into a ponytail.
The red-eyed girl just stared back at her, confused. So this woman saved her life...she suddenly wondered how the woman would feel if if she just jumped right back into the ocean and tried to drown herself again. Would she feel...
Despair...?
"My name is Yukizome Chisa, what's yours?" She continued, folding her hands in front of her. "I'd like to be your friend..if you'd let me. You seem very nice,"
The girl smiled prettily, very slowly standing up on shaky legs. She managed a tiny bow. "Otonashi Ryoko...that is my name,"
"Ryoko-chan. That's a pretty name!" Chisa chirped and carefully took Ryoko's hand. "Let's get some food in you and some better clothes,"
Ryoko nodded and followed after the woman. "Hey...I think I'd like to be your friend too,"
"Really? You would? Great! Let's be best friends then!" Chisa beamed.
Ryoko smiled at her then, a smile that sent shivers down her spine. It was a pretty smile full of malice and coldness. A smile full of despair.
For as long as hope exists, despair will always exist as well.
