Ryukoto Week 2021
Day 7: Free Day (Shared pain soulmates AU)
"Ow!"
"Makoto? What's wrong?" her father said.
Makoto pouted and rubbed her elbow. "I don't know... It just hurt all of a sudden."
Her father's eyes lit up. "All of a sudden?" he said. "And you didn't do anything?"
She shook her head. "Uh uh..."
"I see... Well, we can't be entirely sure yet but...it probably happened because you have a soulmate."
Her brow scrunched as she looked at her father in confusion. "A soulmate?"
"Yes. It's rare, but sometimes a person can have a soulmate. And when you have a soulmate, you can feel the pain they're feeling, so sometimes it'll hurt out of nowhere."
"Really?" she said. A realization came to mind. "So does that mean my soulmate got hurt?"
"Yes," he said. Then he smiled. "But don't worry. Unless it really hurts, I think your soulmate is just really playful."
"Playful?" How does being playful have to do with getting hurt?
Her father chuckled. "I mean they were probably playing outside and got carried away."
Oh.
Makoto looked at her elbow. That made sense. Maybe her soulmate was running around and fell over, scraping their arm on the ground.
But then another thought came.
"How am I supposed to know who they are? I can't help them if I don't know them..."
Her father stared for a moment before smiling again, his smile even warmer than before.
"Oh Makoto...always so kind... Well, I'm sorry to say this, but that's the hard part. You'll have to find that out yourself."
Makoto grumbled. That was so annoying...
That had been years ago, back when she still had loved her father dearly and had not resented him for being absent in their lives. That had been before her father lost his life in the line of duty and she had grown guilty over feeling any of that resentment and not doing anything to fix it. And that been before she ignored any fantasies of meeting her soulmate and the pain she felt from them, replacing it with studying as hard as she could, unfortunately now putting aside her aikido, just so she could help her sister.
But, well...
"Don't waste your food Makoto! We never know when we won't have the money anymore."
Makoto sighed. Even though she was getting top grades, if not outright number one in school, it didn't actually do much to help. But still, she would push through. She had managed to get voted as student council president in her second-year at Shujin Academy. She would make the most of her grades and her new position to get to a good college. Which was why she was going to the faculty room along with Ikeda-senpai, the captain of the track team, as apparently there was something they wanted to discuss with them.
Inside, she found Mr. Ushimaru and...Mr. Kamoshida waiting for them. Makoto kept her face neutral even though she wanted to frown upon seeing the burly man. He had only transfered about a month ago, at the beginning of her second year, but she didn't particularly like how he stared at her whenever they had gym class. It was there Mr. Ushimaru informed them of Mr. Kamoshida being assigned as a supervising coach for the track team.
It became that much harder to keep her face neutral as they discussed some details.
Why would the volleyball coach supervise the track team?
Though perhaps it was simply because of his former Olympic athlete status adding more "prestige" to the track team, Shujin's best performing sports club. Makoto wouldn't be surprised. It wouldn't be the first time Mr. Kobayakawa did something for the sake of an esteemed image, even if half of his attempts usually ended in poor results, like that one time, before she began her first year in Shujin, that he tried a school exchange program with Gekkoukan High School and it resulted in a formal complaint from them, instead of praise.
So she put that question out of her mind and continued on with her life.
Once again, she heard her classmates gossip about how submissive she was towards the faculty, how being the favorite was how she got her position as student council president. Once again, she studied in the library alone, while the few who did study in the facility had friends with them. And once again, she went home to an empty apartment, not much better than an irritated Sis.
And as if to top it all off, the soreness she would always feel from her soulmate while studying and sometimes even after school was even worse than normal, as if they ran far beyond their limits.
And there was nothing Makoto could do to help them.
Makoto grunted and flinched, rubbing her throat to sooth the phantom pain. One hour, one hour of a parched throat and no water to quench it. And paired with it, her lungs and legs felt like burning to ash...more or less the same time as yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. But not on Sunday. And it has been two weeks since this started.
Makoto was rather used to feeling her soulmate's pain. Since she was young, she had felt scrapes and bruises often and consistently. But as she got older, it felt more like her soulmate had taken beatings constantly. That had greatly worried her when she was younger. She had assumed they were in terrible circumstances. No one derserved to be hurt so much. But a few years ago, that kind of pain stopped entirely and she had thought they had gotten out of whatever was causing them to be abused. It was quickly replaced by the familiar feeling of sore muscles and tired lungs, the kind of exhaustion gotten from exercise like she would get after practicing aikido. So it was easier to put thoughts of her soulmate out of her mind, knowing they were relatively fine.
But now...now it was like they were being abused again.
And the worse part was, it happened the same time when she began noticing more bruises and bandages on the volleyball team and track team members.
She knew the chances were low. Her soulmate in the same school as her? She didn't even want to try calculating the odds. Not only that, it would be very risky for her to accuse Mr. Kamoshida of abuse, with how Principal Kobayakawa treats him, the former Olympic athlete might as well have been the school's mascot. Not to mention his behavior not hinting much potential to being a abuser. She couldn't just do it on instinct and the pain she shared with her soulmate. But...
...seeing the members so battered, and remembering that her soulmate already went through that experience and escaped it but seemed to be stuck in it again...
Makoto closed her eyes, breathed out and set her jaw.
...she knew what she had to do.
Even if it ended up that her soulmate wasn't a part of either of those teams, she would get to the bottom of this.
Makoto groaned, collapsing against the desk, thankful the student council room was empty.
One week. One whole week and no one was speaking up so far. Every volleyball member she spoke to would deny any and all accusations of abuse. Not even the few track team members who trained under him would speak out. She thought she had a lead with Suzui-san, but even she wouldn't speak out. She attempted to reassure them they would actually do something about their treatment, but, perhaps predictably, they didn't believe her words as a student council president they thought as incompetent.
"You're leeching off of me and you can't even do anything about it..."
Makoto clenched her fist.
No. If there was one thing she remembered from her father, it was to chase any lead down until there were no leads left.
So, after a quick psych up, she went to find her last "witness":
Ryuji Sakamoto, star of the track team.
She found him talking with some of his fellow members. Ignoring the touch of envy at seeing them so happy and carefree despite their obvious injuries, she went up to them and said,
"Sakamoto-san?"
They all quieted down, as if she drained the life from them. Well, actually, all but Sakamoto who, despite being looking just as wary as his friends, tilted his head and said, friendly enough,
"Yeah, that's me. What you want?"
Before she could say anything, one of them said,
"Come on, Niijima-senpai, are you asking again? How many times we gotta tell you—"
But they got interrupted in turn by Sakamoto saying, "Tell her what?"
She took the opening.
"I wanted to ask you a few questions about the volleyball team."
Now Sakamoto became wary as his gaze turned pointed and frowned. "Yeah? About what?"
"Your experience in it," she said. It was only a half truth but it was the best she could do while remaining cautious.
"Dude, she's gonna ask 'bout—"
"Sure."
"Sakamoto!?"
Makoto stared, surprised he acquiesced, but quickly regained her composure and said, "Then may you please follow me to the student council room?"
"Sure. See ya later guys."
Thoughout the short walk, Makoto fought to keep her front, trying to steady her hands, breath and step, nervous about this ending in failure, just like all her previous attempts. But, just as they took their seats, before she could even begin her plan to convince him to speak, Sakamoto said,
"Is this about the rumors, Miss Prez?"
And Makoto's façade nearly broke in shock.
Her game plan was out the window. She was already "caught".
Makoto sighed. "Yes," she said, deciding to be upfront. "I'm looking into them."
"Even though everyone's tellin' you they're fake?"
Makoto flinched and looked away. "Yes..."
"You don't believe 'em?"
"No," she said, firm and instant.
"Why?"
She gripped her skirt. "Because it's not right...but no one's doing anything about it."
She knew it was stupid. She knew it was just as silly to tell him that. Something as simple and selfless as that was hard to believe to be true, and yet that was the truth. Yes, she started this because of her fearing for her soulmate's safety, but even without that, she would've done something about it. Or at least, she liked to think she would...
But instead of a scoff or a mocking laugh, Sakamoto said in a defeated tone that brokd her heart,
"But what are you gonna do if I tell ya? It's not sayin' anythin' about it will change anythin'...and I don't wanna be the one to ruin everything..."
Makoto gasped and looked back at Sakamoto, slumped against his chair and eyes downcast in defeat.
"So you're saying...?"
"Yeah, it's true. He's trainin' us way too hard to be proper trainin'. Don't know 'bout the volleyball team though. Not like it matters... There's no way they'd boot Kamoshida..."
"I'll find a way."
Sakamoto was startled by her words, not that she blamed him. They were very tall words.
"Yeah? How?"
She tensed and couldn't hold his gaze anymore. "I uh...I'll figure out something." But then she looked back and said, "I promise. I will find a way to stop this."
For a few moments, they locked eyes, Sakamoto's neutral but unguarded, no doubt examing her, hers determined but scared, worried what was his next action.
Then he said, "All right... I'll tell you what I know."
And Makoto properly stared for a good while, absolutely dumfounded. She only stopped because Sakamoto snapped her out of it with his poor attempts at hiding his laughter.
She frowned. "What's so funny?"
"Oh! Uh, um, sorry, it's just..." He smiled. "I didn't think I'd see Senpai surprised and all."
Her checks stung a bit in embarrassment. "A-Anyways...can you tell me what you know?"
Admittedly, the info she gained from Sakamoto wasn't much more than she could already infer from both the injuries she noticed and the phantom pain she felt from her soulmate, but a testimony was a testimony, and it helped it was from someone who was an important part of the track team, so that meant she had more ammo to use against Kamoshida.
When they finished, Makoto gave a slight bow and said, "Thank you for telling me."
"No prob, Senpai."
She looked at the time. "I'm sorry for keeping you so late."
He grinned. "Hey, I said 'no prob', right? Don't worry 'bout it."
"Very well. I shall see you later," she said as she stood and began to head for the door.
She stopped when he said, "Oh hey!"
"Yes? Is there something else?"
"Since it's late...wanna get somethin' to eat before we go? I know this pretty good beef bowl shop that's nearby."
She was about to refuse when her stomach answered for her.
He laughed.
"Sakamoto-san!"
"Sorry sorry!"
She accepted the offer despite her embarrassment. She was glad she did, not just because she got to eat already before she found out her sister was staying out late at work again, but because the beef bowl was delicious and the company was good, Sakamoto always managing to garner a smile from the depths of her heart.
"No."
"But Mr. Kobaya—"
"I said no. This accusation you're putting is no doubt false, Niijima-san. Now don't look into this again or there might be serious consequences for the school."
Makoto groaned. She hated that she had been right about Principal Kobayakawa. He was very likely one of the reasons, if not the biggest reason, why none of the athletic students under Kamoshida spoke up.
Well that wasn't true. No one spoke up except—
"Didn't go well huh?"
—Ryuji Sakamoto.
She peeked out of her arm cave to see he had entered the student council room unbothered and took a seat beside her. Makoto loosed an exhausted sigh and tucked her head into arms again.
"It's rather obvious, isn't it?"
"Yeah, it kinda is. All that's left is a huge sign on you that say 'I'm upset' or somethin' like that."
Makoto, despite the situation, giggled at his joke.
"Indeed."
"But you're not gonna give up, right?"
She lifted her head to look straight at him. "Of course not. I promised."
He smiled. "That's great to hear." He hit his fist into his palm. "So, what's the plan now, Senpai?"
It was easy enough for her to think of. The only problem had been how to do it. However, now that she basically had an insider...
"I'll need your help again."
Sakamoto grinned. "Why you think I'm askin'?"
Makoto smiled. "Very well. Here's what I need you to do..."
She would admit, she had forgotten that when she made Sakamoto be her spy by telling him to record for a whole week any and all conversations on his phone while doing track, she was effectively telling him to suffer for one more week before they could do something about it. She didn't like it one bit. She almost cancelled the whole "operation". But when Sakamoto reassured her that he could withstand it for a while longer if it meant more evidence to use against Kamoshida, she decided to continue, if somewhat reluctantly.
As if to further reassure her, for the past few days, when Sakamoto was done with track practice, they would go eat together, sometimes in the beef bowl shop they went to the first time, sometimes a ramen shop he preferred in Ogikubo and other times just anything they felt like. In that time, she came to find that Sakamoto was every bit as kind and passionate as he was reckless and loud, always aware of what she's doing when she's eating and offering things to her yet incredibly loud when he did anything, including of course track. And he also absolutely adored his mother, despite his "complaints" about her personality, always picking up groceries and doing other errands for it. It honestly brought a smile to her face to see him pick out the food he guessed she would love whenever they went somewhere he frequents and how he treated his mother.
It was the fifth day of Sakamoto's surveilance and, if she was frank, as much as she wanted the evidence, she was actually looking forward to go out with him after he finished track just as much. Hence why she was trying to hurry up with student council business, specifically assisting the treasurer as they overviewed the budgets of all the clubs. She was transferring some papers when—
CRACK.
"GYAAAAAAAAAH!"
She gasped, the pain in her femur searing and nearly making her topple over.
Makoto's breath caught as realization struck her.
Oh no.
She ran.
"Niijima-san?!"
She ran past students who stared.
She ran past teachers who scolded her.
She ran past doors that blocked her way.
She ran and ran and ran all the while ignoring the boiling phantom pain in her right thigh.
She slammed the gym doors open and froze at what she saw.
There, on the ground, was Ryuji, right leg bent unnaturally, and Kamoshida was towering over him with a smirk on his face.
"Oh poor Sakamoto... You shouldn't have hit—"
Makoto charged.
"—ack!"
She grabbed his left wrist, spun under his arm, and dragged him down down. Before Kamoshida could retaliate, she locked her arm on his neck.
"Stay down. Or Ryuji won't be the only one with a broken leg."
The man was livid and moved to resist, but she tightened her grip and made him gasp for air.
"All right all right!"
She eased her grip but kept it around his neck, too wary of him going after her when her back was turned, before she said,
"Someone splint his leg! Now!"
Chaos erupted as students scrambled to do as she told, teachers came to figure out what was going on and Kamoshida trying to spin it all to his advantage. Makoto paid his nor the faculty's words any mind, ordering the students to handle Ryuji with the limited medical knowledge she had before having them call emergency services. Before she knew it, after incessant insistence, she rode inside the ambulance with the medics, with Ryuji on the gurney.
No, there was nothing she could really do in the hospital when they got there and Ryuji was brought inside the emergency department...
...nothing but stay there alone in the crowd of fellow worried friends and family.
She didn't know how long she sat there, waiting for any news on Ryuji, but suddenly someone else joined the waiting room, an ageing woman who was in a panic, leading to some of the staff to calm her down. Then the woman said,
"Please, is my Ryu-chan okay...? Where is he...?"
And Makoto realized who she was.
She stood and walked to her. "Are you Ms. Sakamoto?"
She was surprised to see someone address her, but she still said, "Yes, I am. You are...?"
"I'm...his friend," she settled on, also realizing she wasn't actually sure what was the nature of the relationship anymore. "I was the one who rode with him here."
"Oh...wait... Are you Makoto Niijima, by any chance?"
She was a little astonished to hear the woman already know her name, but she assumed Ryuji told her. She ignored the implications of that.
"Yes, I am."
The older woman smiled. "I see. I've heard of you from Ryu-chan."
As she guessed. She punched the parts of her brain that were excited and embarrassed.
"Would you like to sit down with me?" she said to focus away from that.
"My pleasure. And thank you."
She wasn't sure what Ms. Sakamoto was thanking her for, especially considering it was her fault Ryuji was in this situation, but she still said out of politeness,
"You're welcome."
By the time his operation was done, it was well past evening. To her surprise, Sis had been texting and calling her, but when Makoto saw the header of the first message title "Can you tell me what happened at school", she decided to put it off. She... She was still too focused on Ryuji right now to deal with explaining to her. So it would also be a bit until she went home.
"You can work it out yourself, can't you?"
But there was someone else who should definitely be resting.
"Ms. Sakamoto?"
"Yes Makoto-chan?"
Makoto jerked but tried not to show her reaction to the honorific. "You should be heading home. Ryuji wouldn't want you to tire yourself like this."
The older Sakamoto had a look on her face that Makoto couldn't quite decipher before it changed into her typical warm and welcoming smile.
"Okay. Do you mind escorting me then?"
Makoto stared.
"Excuse me?"
The older woman smirked. "Please? It is late after all and it wouldn't be good for an old lady like myself to walk home alone. I know Ryu-chan would ask you the same."
She...had a good point. Though she was a bit embarrassed at the thought that Ryuji would trust her to help his mother considering how dear she was to him. And she was a bit suspicious about that smirk but...
"Okay. If that will convince you to go home," she said.
The woman's expression turned victorious as she said, "Thank you Makoto-chan."
It wasn't until they arrived and Ms. Sakamoto used the exact same reason she said to Makoto to have her come along as a reason to stay over did she realize why she had that face.
She can now see why Ryuji complained about her sometimes. She felt like doing the same.
To her surprise, when she told Sis she would be staying over at Ryuji's place at his mother's insistence for what she's done, she didn't mind. Makoto had thought her sister would be demanding answers but no, she just wished her good night. Shame as it was to admit, it had her suspicious for a good while. But come early morning, when she had to go back home to change into a fresh uniform and other such chores, instead of an empty house and a meal in the fridge, Sis was still there, waiting for her, still not angry or upset or even annoyed. No, her sister was concerned and wanted to hear her side of the story when she came back from Shujin.
She wasn't sure what prompted such a thing, especially considering what she found out at school was likely what Sis had been told.
Once she arrived at school, unsurprisingly she was "captured" by the faculty and, essentially, found out she and Ryuji have been labelled as delinquents for assaulting Kamoshida while he fought in self-defense, but was going to drop all charges because of her good grades and "in compensation" for breaking Ryuji's leg.
Makoto was very tempted to punch him since she didn't have the chance yesterday.
Instead she thanked them for their consideration before continuing on her school day, the only difference being that the rumors around her changed from "whishy washy student president" to "violent and hair trigger tempered bitch".
She was very tempted to prove them right just to shut them up.
But she didn't want to cause any more trouble than she had already done so soon, especially since Sis had messaged her that she was waiting for her back home. It was only then did she realize that maybe, just maybe, the reason why Sis wasn't being mad was because she knew and trusted that Makoto wouldn't do cause a ruckus like this without a good reason.
A part of her wanted to go back right away, her hope of seeing her big sister waiting for her and trusting her like this exciting her.
But another, much bigger part, the one that knew for sure who her soulmate was, wanted to see Ryuji again before she did.
And so when the school day was finally done, she did, after telling Sis her plans of course.
Luckily for her, Ryuji was awake in his room when she arrived and well...
"Effin' hell!"
He was enraged, to put it lightly, when she told him of what had transpired while he was unconscious, swearing up a storm alongside his would be threats towards the man who broke his leg. Had this been any other time, she would've scolded him for his language, but instead she just listened to his tirade. He was right to be angry after all.
"I'm sorry..." she couldn't but say when it petered out.
He stared in confusion. "Huh? What do you mean 'sorry'? What're you bein' sorry for?"
Makoto eyed his elevated and casted leg. "If only I had done something sooner than you wouldn't have..."
"Hey, you don't gotta be sorry for that. If anything, I should be saying that."
It was her turn to say, "What for?"
"I mean, 'cause of me, you had to fight Kamoshida and now you're being called a punk too."
"Well you don't have to apologize for that," she said, stern as her rage returned the slightest bit. "He's lucky I didn't decide to just break his leg anyway."
The only reason she hadn't was because she wanted to focus solely on Ryuji's leg and safety.
The boy stared in wide-eyed shock at her words but then smiled. "All right then...how about this? We both won't be sorry so that we don't have each other be sorry, deal?"
Makoto chuckled at his wording but still said, "Deal."
They laughed together afterwards. Maybe it was out of relief, or maybe because of their silly deal, either way it felt good to laugh again with Ryuji, despite everything that led to this moment.
But when they finished, he had this confused look on his face and she asked,
"Is something wrong?"
"Ah nothin', I just... How'd you know Kamoshida broke my leg?"
Makoto tensed and her cheeks grew heated.
"Uh..."
Should she tell him? This was hardly the time to say it but...
"Senpai...?"
...she wanted to.
And there was an easy way to confirm it for sure.
Makoto went and pinched her left arm.
"Ow! What the hell?" Ryuji said and rubbed his left arm. "What was that?"
"That was me."
"Huh?"
She felt her cheeks get hotter. "I... I knew that someone broke your leg...because I'm your soulmate."
Silence.
Ryuji stared, absolutely dumbfounded.
Makoto sat, attempting to keep a calm gaze as she met his.
This stretched on for quite a bit, to the point that Makoto felt like squirming. But she wanted to give Ryuji time to process it. After all, finding your soulmate was a big deal. It certainly was for her. Eventually, he said,
"Really?"
"Y-You felt that pinch, d-didn't you?"
Then he smiled, so warm and touched and it made her heart melt.
"I'm glad it's you, Makoto."
And she returned it with her own.
"I'm glad it's you as well, Ryuji."
Author's Notes: And then Ryuji proceeds to gush about how badass Makoto was. And then a whole snowball of events happens because Sae decides to have Kamoshida arrested after Makoto explains what happens but the plot of Persona 5 is still happening.
No. I'm not gonna write even more about this AU right now. I already have one long fic to deal with thank you very much.
Ahem. Anyways! This is my only entry for RyuKoto Week 2021...and it was kind of a "last minute" thing since I didn't really have any ideas for this year's RyuKoto Week until I was looking through the tumblr had got inspiration to do this one piece. And boy did I enjoy doing this. I'm a sucker for soulmate fics in general and the shared pained version is something I find fascinating. I don't remember where I first saw this but when I remembered that, and Ryuji getting breeaking his bone, this fic just spiraled into existence. So yeah, that scene is what birthed this fic. Oh, and just in case you might not realize it, Ryuji doesn't have his hair dyed at this point.
Also, you can complain all you want about Makoto easily knocking down Kamoshida being unrealistic, even if it's true (cause I actually don't know how realistic would it be for someone with Makoto's build and skill level to do what she did), I headcanon that she's super strong anyway because of her volleyball spike, so just hand wave with that. If I described the "aikido" technique poorly, or if it's too advanced for Makoto to know, my apologies. I basically just looked up "aikido takedown techniques" on Youtube.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed this year's RyuKoto Week! Maybe I might join for the whole week next year. Maybe.