When I open my eyes, the only thing I see is Kasumi staring down at me.
My worst nightmare.
"Kasu-" I try to talk but it only makes everything I'm feeling worse. My throat is burning and my neck is still extremely sore from being electrocuted. My head feels extremely fuzzy - like they did something else to me when they decided I needed a little shock therapy.
Kasumi's eyes widen and she looks away from me. "J-Juriya! Juriya she's awake!" she calls out.
In a flash, the Ultimate Surgeon is also staring down at me, a calculating look on her face. "I was about to ask you how you're feeling but it's probably best that you don't speak for a while." Juriya says and turns to Kasumi. "Can you go find Miss Tamatsuki and ask her if Sugawara can borrow some pieces of paper?" she says. At the unsure look on Kasumi's face, Juriya sighs. "I'll keep an eye on the child." she says, glancing in another direction. "Just close the door on your way out."
Kasumi sighs and nods. She turns back to me and smiles reassuringly at me. "I'll tell you everything you missed when Juriya is all done with you." she says and heads out of...whatever room we're in.
"I guess that saves me the trouble." Juriya says with a wry smile. "I'm going to take a look at your neck to see if anything feels off - I won't lie, it's probably going to hurt."
I give her a thumbs up and prepare myself for the worst-
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck-
Juriya clicks her tongue when she sees the sheer look of panic and pain on my face when she starts examining my neck. "I told you it was going to hurt." she says and after a few more seconds, she retracts her hands. "It seems like there isn't going to be any lasting damage to your neck or your vocal chords. You might have a little scar but we won't find out unless the collar comes off." Juriya reports. "I took the liberty of trying to see if there was any damage that I could spot by opening your mouth-"
Um-
"-but fortunately everything I could see only seemed to be inflamed. So long as you keep your talking nonexistent for a while, you should be back to normal within a week or two." Juriya says and stands up. "Oh, and I'm not sure what kind of food they're going to give us here but if you can, stick to soft foods."
I give my fellow inmate a mock salute and sit up. I look around the room to see Yukiko fast asleep with a stuffed toy cuddled to her chest. A...narwhal, maybe? I'm not quite sure. She also seems to be asleep on some kind of hospital bed. I look down at what I'm sitting on and it also appears to be a hospital bed - I guess that settles what room this is. Of course Juriya would make this her spot.
I get up off the bed and investigate the room.
I don't have to look around long to figure out that this is a Medical Ward - it's pretty obvious. Counting the bed I was just occupying and the one Yukiko is currently in, the room has a total of ten beds. The room itself is rather big and seems to be well stocked. It has all of the basics: bandaids, larger bandages, cotton balls, tongue depressors, rubbing alcohol...you name it, it's here. It seems a bit strange to have such a well stocked infirmary since the whole point of us being here is to die but hey, I won't complain. As for the design of the room, it's very...white. Like, crazy person white room white. The lights bouncing off the pristine tile floor are almost blinding but hopefully I won't be spending much longer here. The white walls are just as white - as are the countertops, cabinets...pretty much everything in here is as shiny and as white as it could be. The only color in the room comes from the dark green bed sheets.
I guess the pro of everything being so white is seeing how clean everything is. And right now, everything is clean.
I turn to move next to the still sleeping Yukiko. Why is she here by herself? Where's Luan? Why did Juriya make it seem like Kasumi was looking after her?
Just then, I hear the click of the door opening. "Ah - huh? Where's - oh!" Kasumi says as she reenters the room. "How're you feeling?"
I shrug and make a 'so-so' motion with my hand. Then I point at Yukiko with a frown on my face.
Kasumi sighs and explains everything I missed while I was out. Apparently my alleged sins (along with Luan's and Harumi's) were so bad they didn't know where to categorize me. The shock therapy was just 'for fun' and after they knocked me out, they administered some kind of drug to erase certain 'troublesome' memories I have.
Well, had, I guess.
They also separated us from the boys - the thirteen of them elsewhere and the fourteen of us (fourteen now that we have Yukiko) here. Luan asked me to watch over Yukiko if something happened to him but since I was knocked out by our lovely Wardens, he asked Kasumi too.
(When I wrote that down to tell Kasumi, she insisted that we were Yukiko's mothers now so I slapped her upside her head.)
Apparently Hanako also said that Yukiko is to be kept out of harm's way at all times or else. I'm assuming that if any harm comes to her, the person who did the harm likely doesn't have much longer to live when our Wardens find out. At least they have some morals.
Kasumi offers to show me around all of the areas we have access to so she scoops Yukiko up into her arms and bids goodbye to Juriya. Juriya only offers a half-hearted wave in response, too engrossed in her book to give us any more attention.
The jump from the pristine white walls of the infirmary to the halls outside is pretty extreme. There's clear mold on the walls, the lights aren't really the best, and the walls are rugged and chipped. There's suspicious stains on the walls and the floor. This is what I actually expected when they said 'correctional facility'.
"Yeah," Kasumi starts when she sees the look on my face. "It's weird." she agrees as she leads me down the hall. "All of the halls look like this but all of the rooms look like they came straight from Hope's Peak: they're furnished all nice and everything is clean." Kasumi explains. "According to the map and the label in F-Pod - your PDA'll update when we get to our pod, by the way - this entire hall is the A-Wing."
I nod and continue to follow Kasumi down the hall. I can hear the faint sounds of...laughter? Or arguing. Maybe a bit of both.
We come to an arch entryway, revealing the inside of the room Kasumi brought us to. Just like the Medical Ward, this place is just as nice-looking.
"Welcome to the Rec Room." Kasumi says. "And don't worry about there being no door, we've already tested it and it's far enough away from the pods that being loud in here won't disturb our sleep." she says.
The Rec Room is...fancy, to say the least. The floors are a nice nylon looking black carpet and the walls are a dark green. All kinds of pictures and posters decorate the walls: band posters, movie posters, landscape pictures. There are some historical and religious portraits too. There's even a portrait of two faces everybody should know: Makoto Naegi and Junko Enoshima.
I wonder what they're trying to do by including Headmaster Naegi…
The room itself is furnished with lounge chairs, bean bags, and two large tables that seem to be the centerpieces of the room: a pool table and an air hockey table. The equipment for each game is mounted on one of the wall sections that aren't covered in pictures. There's shelves arranged almost like a library that look like they have a countless number of board games and a variety of toys stocked in them.
Currently situated at the air hockey table is an interesting pair: Greyface and Kanna - the source of the laughter and yelling I heard when Kasumi and I were walking in. Harumi is sitting on a nearby beanbag by herself. There's a pensive look on her face that looks completely out of place on someone like her.
I decide to leave her alone for now and approach Kanna and Greyface, writing out my question on a piece of paper as I do.
Kanna notices me first and she beams. "Sora! I'm glad to see you up and about." she says and her smile falters. "It was scary to see them do that to you...b-but I'm sure it was much scarier for you, obviously. How are you feeling?" Kanna asks, putting her smile back on.
I give her a thumbs up in response (she doesn't need to know I feel like I'm slowly dying) and hold out the paper for both her and Greyface to read.
"'Is she threatening you?'...?" Kanna reads off, sounding confused.
Greyface bursts out laughing and drops to the floor. "Am I threatening her!? BAHAHAHAHAHAHA! As fun as that sounds, no. This was all Kawagiri's idea!" she says with a crazed grin. "The Ultimate Bitch over there didn't want to play with her - and I didn't either until Kawagiri offered to let me stab her if I won." Greyface explains and her grin drops. "I didn't expect her to be so good at the game though…"
Kanna smiles innocently. "I didn't either! I've never played this before, it's so fun!"
Kasumi moves to stand beside me. She looks at Greyface suspiciously but shakes her head and turns to Kanna. "What's the score?" Kasumi asks.
"41 to 0!" Kanna says happily. "Neither of us are sure how the scoring goes exactly so we're just keeping track of how many times we make it in."
Kasumi and I exchange a look.
"I mean...I'm not trying to say you should but…" Kasumi tries to put her thoughts into the right words. "You're...you. And we were all kidnapped to kill each other." she says slowly. "You could just...stab her anyways…jeez that sounds so bad to say." Kasumi says and covers her face. "You know what I mean, right?"
"That is absolutely true and as much joy as that would give me," Greyface says and puts on a cocky smirk. "I don't plan on getting caught when I do get one of you." she says seriously, a crazed look in her eyes.
And with that Kasumi and I silently agreed we should leave Greyface and Kanna to their strange wager. Kanna still looked unbothered when Greyface straight up admitted she has plans to kill one of us but I'm not in the right state to be dealing with any of that mess right now.
I walk over to Harumi and plop down on the beanbag across from her. She looks up and flinches when she sees me, her hand moving to her neck. I raise an eyebrow and she quickly covers whatever that was up with her usual bitchiness, "I see they didn't kill you." Harumi sneers. "Shocker."
I have half a mind to laugh at the pun but I'm more interested in that reaction to seeing me. Harumi's collar (black, just like Kasumi said it would be) is locked over the white bow around her neck. I wonder…
"You don't seem as bitchy as you normally do." Kasumi says bluntly. "In fact, you were freaking out about the placement of your collar and you lost it even more when they…" her face twists as she recalls the memory. "...hurt Sora. What's wrong with you?"
"That's none of your goddamn business." Harumi snaps. "You know your eyes are one of the ugliest colors I've ever seen? Green is shit-"
Kasumi rolls her eyes and interrupts Harumi, "Look, we were just trying to be friendly. We all heard what Monokuma said about you." she says.
"Wh-Wh-What?" Harumi stammers, still recovering from her panic attack. "I-I-I'm not s-sinful!" she chokes out, sniffling. "D-Don't put me in the same boat as these - these c-commoners!"
Monokuma tilts his head to the side and puts a paw on his chin. "Oh? But, Harumi, you're the worst one of the bunch." he says.
"You're going to need more friends than the girl who doesn't know anything that went on while people were literally killing each other on her doorstep." Kasumi says and turns to me. "Come on, Sora." she says.
Harumi scoffs as I stand up. "You really think you and the rest of these losers will actually fall for whatever that fucking bear has in store?" she laughs. "Puh-lease, don't make me laugh you idiot. I'm the esteemed heir of the Danuja Dynasty - once my father realizes that I'm missing he'll come for me." Harumi sneers. "And...you guys too, I guess." she says and leans back in her beanbag. "You'll see. And when he does, you all will be licking the dirt off the bottom of my shoes." Harumi says, sounding more like she's trying to convince herself than anything. She starts examining her nails and with that, the conversation is over.
"She's...irritating." Kasumi says as we walk out of the Rec Room.
I pat her on the shoulder, careful not to wake Yukiko, and give her a reassuring smile.
Kasumi nods and smiles. "Yeah. I'll get to her eventually though," she says confidently. "Just like I got to you, I'll get her to stop being so her."
I immediately pull out a piece of paper and start writing. I shove it in Kasumi's face with a frown.
"'Are you seriously comparing my bitchiness to hers?'." Kasumi reads off and shakes her head. "No, of course not!" she insists. "She's a bitch," Kasumi says and grins.
I narrow my eyes at her.
"you're my bitch."
"That was mean, Sora." Kasumi pouts, rubbing her sore cheeks.
I can only glare at her, Yukiko on my back now that Kasumi is recovering from the consequences of calling me her bitch.
The next room Kasumi leads me to would be perfect for Yosuke. I don't really see anyone else using it for its intended purpose.
The Church is a bit plain but I guess that's to be expected. The whole point of a Church is to worship, not admire the decor. Its cream colored walls are empty apart from a cross attached to the center of the far wall with a picture of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary on either side of it. The floors are a polished marble with a set of three long benches on either side of the room. It's a rather small room compared to the Rec Room and the Medical Ward.
Interestingly enough, Candace is in here. She's sitting silently on one of the benches, staring up at the pictures of Jesus and Mary.
Kasumi and I move into the room silently. I gently place Yukiko down onto one of the benches and we both move to sit on either side of Candace.
"You okay?" Kasumi asks when we're close enough to see the wistful look on Candace's face.
Candace gives us a half-hearted smile, "I'm okay, thank you girls. I'm just...thinking."
Kasumi hums, "I mean, I was robbed of all my earthly possessions, but," she smiles when she earns a real smile out of Candace. "penny for your thoughts? This doesn't seem like the best place for someone who's into Satanist performance art."
"Well you're not completely wrong." Candace laughs. "This room just reminded me of my family." she says, her smile disappearing again. "They weren't the most religious bunch but they had the same values as religious conservatives, to say the least. I haven't thought about them in a long time but Monokuma brought them to my mind again." Candace reveals.
"So your…'sin' has to do with your family?" Kasumi asks.
Candace nods and sighs, frowning. "I'm sure we'll all be talking about the exact reasons we're here eventually but that time isn't right now, ladies. I just…can't." she says and stands up. She stretches out her limbs and turns around to face both of us. "Thank you for worrying about dear ol' me, girls, but I assure you I will be fine." Candace says and turns to face me. "And I'm glad you're okay, Suga-"
I quickly pull out the paper from before and write something to Candace, showing it to her with a smile.
Candace smiles back and starts over, "I'm glad you're okay, Sora."
The only ones we haven't seen so far are Mai, Sasaki, Shun, Yume, Kaori, and Nemiko. I wonder where they could be?
After the Church the hall led us to the biggest room so far. This room is…?
"Welcome to F-Pod, 'Female Pod' according to Hanako." Kasumi says. "This is where we'll be sleeping and doing any number of other things." she says, gesturing at the steel tables and benches.
While F-Pod doesn't exactly look the most comfortable, it's still cleaner than the hallway of A-Wing. The floors are smooth concrete, as are the walls. The steel tables and benches don't have any cushioning but they still look squeaky clean so there's that, at least. The far end of the wall has our cells. There's six on the bottom and six on the top, a set of stairs on either side of the room providing access to the top level. I don't see any showers or bathrooms so I can only assume that they're inside of each cell (the cells appear to have actual doors so fortunately there's some privacy there).
What catches my attention the most are several boarded up sections of the walls around the pod. Above each boarded up section has words painted in giant black lettering: B-Wing, C-Wing, and so on and so forth until it ends at F-Wing.
I wonder...does that have anything to do with what Monokuma, Hanako, and Taro were saying about 'not being ready'? And if that's the case, where are the boys? If we have A-Wing, where are they staying and what do they have access to?
Kasumi pulls me out of my thoughts, "This hall doesn't have a label above it so we've been a bit hesitant to go down it." she says, pointing to an open hall. It looks about as clean as the A-Wing hallway. Then Kasumi gestures to the hall on the next side of it, "The others are over there, come on." she says.
That hall is labeled 1st Wing.
I nod and let Kasumi lead the way.
The 1st Wing is a bit shorter than A-Wing and it's immediately apparent why. Kasumi and I pass by a door (the laundry room she says, nothing interesting in there) and two arch entryways (showers, nothing interesting there either but Kasumi said it was worth noting there were boy's and girl's bathrooms).
At the end of the hall are two yellowish double doors that remind me of gym doors. Before Kasumi can start explaining what's behind them, a body slams against them, throwing them open, and the poor unfortunate soul rolls into the hallway and stops at our feet.
Shun looks up at us, a dazed smile on her face. "Hello, ladies. Nice to see you not being electrocuted, Sora." she says. "We were just playing some dodgeball - I just dodged a little too hard. That kid's got an arm on her."
"Come ON, Shun, get your ass back in the game!" comes Kaori's rather aggressive voice.
Shun sighs. "And Kaori is being a bit...overly competitive." she says. "She's only targeting Yume and while that's all well and good for Nemiko, it's...an experience." Shun sighs and pushes herself onto her feet. She gives us a half-hearted salute and walks back...outside? I don't really see the sun but then again I don't know what time it is either. Only one way to find out.
I take in a deep breath of fresh air when we step outside.
"This is the Yard." Kasumi says. "It's exactly what it sounds like and no, there is no escape this way." she says before I can even think about it.
The Yard looks exactly like the ones you see on TV. Tall barbed wire fences and a big grassy area with a concrete court. Contrary to the ones on TV, we have exercise equipment (not limited to treadmills and the like, dumbbells, and various other things), and instead of human guards watching our every move, there are Guard Monokumas on each corner of the fence and roaming outside the fence are horrible looking beastly Monokumas. They look exactly like 'Daddy Monokuma' but these ones are more fierce looking. They're moving on all fours, have canine-like legs, and their teeth are horrifically sharper. Their 'fur' is messier too.
Well fuck.
Just like Shun said, she, Yume, Kaori, and Nemiko are in a heated game of dodgeball. Nemiko, Yume, and Shun look like they're just having fun while Kaori looks like she's out for blood.
"EAT SHIT, NII!" Kaori yells, lobbing ball after ball at the poor girl.
Yume just dodges each one with ease and throws them back, laughing like Kaori doesn't want to beat her to death with the dodge balls.
Nemiko, as Shun said, has incredible aim, narrowly missing both Kaori and Shun by centimeters each time. She still isn't speaking but she looks just as cheerful as her teammate.
Poor Kaori is left to dodge the onslaught from the Yume and Nemiko duo, having no time to pick up a ball herself.
I reach into my pocket for another piece of paper and write out a message for Kasumi:
I've seen enough here.
"Yeah," Kasumi agrees. "Me too. Let's go get your PDA updated."
When Kasumi and I return to F-Pod, Mai and Sasaki are sitting at one of the tables together, the former silent with a troubled, pensive look on her face and the latter rather chatty with an encouraging look on her face.
When we get closer, it seems like we've walked into a narrative about Sasaki's family. "My brothers? Oh they're the best. Sure, Harikēn doesn't talk all that much but he studies the weather! Can you believe that? He's sure grown a lot now. And ol' Basho…" she trails off thoughtfully and puts her smile back on. "Well, he's Basho." Sasaki says.
Kasumi gasps dramatically, "Your whole family survived the Tragedy!?"
Sasaki looks over when Kasumi makes our presence known and she smiles again. "That they did!" she nods.
"Lucky." Kasumi pouts.
I smack the back of Kasumi's head, giving her a look. Don't be so dark.
Kasumi sticks her tongue out at me and starts rubbing the back of her head. "Anyways," she turns back to Sasaki and glances at Mai worriedly. "Is she, like…okay?" Kasumi asks ever so eloquently.
Sasaki frowns, turning to follow Kasumi's gaze. "She's still having a hard time accepting our situation." she says. "Mai says she'll be better by tomorrow mornin'. I'm helping keep her mind off of it." Sasaki says.
Mai nods wordlessly and drops her head against the table. She turns her head so her cheek is pressed against the table and stares at us with emotionally exhausted pale lilac eyes. "Continue." Mai requests.
Sasaki laughs awkwardly and continues, "In fact, they were accepted as Ultimates at Hope's Peak too!" she says, her smile turning positive again. "Harikēn, an Ultimate Palaeotempestologist - a mouthful, I know-"
I can practically feel the question brewing in Kasumi's head so I pull out my paper and start writing. I offer Kasumi the paper and-
"-and Basho, an Ultimate Taxonomist." Sasaki finishes.
I pull my hand back and start writing again.
Kasumi laughs lightly, masking her confusion with a smile. "Sounds like you're all…really smart." she says, scratching her head. Kasumi beams when I offer her the paper again and she reads, "'The study of past tropical hurricanes and the science of classification.' Oooh, I can be a pala-whatever - Sora leaves a hurricane of destruction in her wake whenever she's hungry!"
I slap the back of her head again and Mai stifles a laugh.
Luan
"Luan Delvina, how are you feeling?" Takeshi asks me.
"I am...okay." I say and sigh. "I miss Yukiko."
Takeshi smiles sympathetically, "I can only imagine how you're feeling." he says and pats me on my back. "As long as we can make it through these next few days, we should be reunited with all of the girls soon." Takeshi says encouragingly. "You left her with Kasumi Yuan, right?"
I nod. "A-And Sora. I asked her before we went up there." I say.
Our new living conditions are...interesting. We're sleeping in an area called M-Pod and according to the announcement they sent to our PDAs, we'll have access to new rooms in 12 hours. We'll be able to see the Church, the Medical Ward, a Rec Room, a Laundry Room, Outside Showers (separate from the ones in our cells), and the Yard.
In the meantime, we've investigated this small area we have access to. It's not really much to talk about. There are only twelve cells, meaning two of us are going to have to share.
Interestingly enough, Toshiro volunteered to share with Sting. It's...an odd pair.
There's not much else to see until we get access to those rooms. I wonder why we can't see them just yet?
Everyone seems to be taking our conditions quite well so far. We're all a bit restless - which is to be expected - but there's really not much else to do but wait.
Takeshi is here killing time with me, Toshiro is trying to talk to Armen, Hitoshi and Kensuke are holding back Yosuke from hurting a taunting Sting and Harlequin, last time I saw Masaki he was curled up on his bed in his cell, Ryu is just watching everything unfurl, Kano is doing sit ups in his cell, and I think Val is asleep in his cell as well.
Like I said, there's not much else to do but wait.
I mean, there's that unlabeled hallway we could always check out but even Armen is uninterested in checking it out.
So. We wait.
A/N bop bop bop straight to the top
