TEMPORARY MESSAGE:
Hey! I'm happy that you made it to chapter 12!
I have just a few things to say before you continue reading.
First of all, I wanted to tell you that from now on I will update less often because I want to make sure that every chapter is good enough for me.
Secondly, I would like to thank you for all likes/votes/kudos and encourage you to use the comment section :)
Last but not least, if anyone would want to make a cover for the story (since the current one I made is pretty bad ngl) then you can contact me in the comments or anywhere you want :)
That's all, thanks and enjoy!
When Kyoko felt a sunray on her cheek, she realized that the time to get up has come, yet she decided not to open her eyes.
"I'm still very tired, it's better if I give myself just a few more minutes..." She thought and dozed off cuddled to her friend...
...
...
...
"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!" Her watch started making a loud noise.
"Huh?" Kirigiri briefly opened her eyes, sat up, and began trying to turn off the alarm. After a few seconds, she finally managed to hold the right buttons.
"..What was that noise?" Makoto asked with a very sleepy voice.
"It's nothing, you can go back to sleep. The entire blanket is yours." She informed.
"Uh, thanks but it seems like I'm actually a bit too hot..." Naegi told and uncovered himself.
"That's weird, I hope that it's not a fever." Kyoko walked to her suitcase with a slight blush.
"No worries, I'll just rest a little longer if you don't mind." He yawned and rolled to his other side.
"Take your time." Kirigiri replied and silently took out her tube with medication.
"Kyo-ko Kiri-giri. Not as cold as they say after all, is she?" Junko smiled while standing in front of her with crossed hands.
"I need to set the alarm so it goes off a bit earlier next time." She said in her mind, swallowed a pill, and started readjusting her watch.
"Alright fine, I won't bring that up because you asked me so nicely and were totally adorbs, but I will ask you something else instead!" Enoshima cheered. "Why did you encourage him to grab your hand back at the explosion huh? How will you explain it?"
"I did it to simply highlight that we are united in this fight against your followers." Kyoko answered.
"Ooooh right. Just make sure to kiss the shit out of him next time to highlight your support!" She chuckled in sarcasm.
"Why do you ask me this anyway if you have access to my memories?" Kirigiri questioned.
"I can see what you saw and hear what you heard, but I can't read your past thoughts. So when the pills kick in I'm only a spectator. If I could remember all your dirty thoughts then-"
"Did you already forget our last chat?" She interrupted Junko.
"Of course not, it was awesome! I made you reveal your anger for the first time so I wouldn't forget it so easily duh." Enoshima replied.
"Mhm." Kyoko grabbed their appropriated wineskin and tore out some lovegrass.
"Mad at me again? Fine, I'm gonna go look at some cute memories with your mommy then I guess." She turned around.
"You're not gonna see much, I barely remember her." Kirigiri sat on her suitcase and began extracting water from the plants.
"Oh really?" Junko turned back to her. "That's weird because I can see everything clearly, every moment you spent with her, and her every word is accessible to me."
"You're lying." She denied.
"Nope! I can totally recall every scene! If I wanted, I could even restore these memories for you." Enoshima ensured.
"If you're trying to blackmail me then you're wasting your time." Kyoko stated.
"Blackmail sounds terrible. Let's call it a bestie's favor for a favor, shall we?" She proposed.
Kirigiri ignored the Ultimate Despair and took a few sips of her freshly gathered life-giving liquid.
"..Ya know what? It may actually be better, you won't get to know the bitter truth." Junko faded away with an ominous smile.
"I'll erase her eventually.." She thought, got up, and gathered water in their five empty bottles.
After a while, Makoto sat up and was greeted with a bottle of water.
"Tell me what happened yesterday." Kyoko sat next to him.
"Thanks, s-sure." He took a sip. "Alright so, we were halfway there when you started mumbling something about an iced coffee and that you see a cafeteria. I realized that you may have been dehydrated so I told you to stop to check on you and that's when you fell on me heh." Naegi chuckled.
"Oh, now I think I remember.. And then you carried me? And both suitcases?" She asked.
"Yeah, seems so." Makoto rubbed his head with a smile.
"That was, truly heroic." Kirigiri primped her hair.
"Don't exaggerate, you're not that heavy." He told.
"So, I'm just a bit heavy? Good to kno-"
"N-nO I didn't mean that! Y-you're not heavy at all!" Naegi shouted nervously.
"I'm just playing with you." She smiled pretty widely and looked away.
"Oh, y-yeah, again heh." Makoto chuckled still a bit anxiously.
"Maybe you should rest here for some more time?" Kyoko suggested.
"No need. We have no time to waste. Besides we don't want to run out of food either." He got up trying to hide pain in his legs.
"Your legs are a bit wobbly aren't they?" Kirigiri pointed out.
"It's fine Kiri, I got this." Naegi gave his friend a cheerful smile and packed his clothes in his suitcase.
After a few hours of slow wandering, the Ultimates finally saw something different than sand or rocks.
"Road! Kiri it's a road!" He ran forward in excitement.
"It seems like it's a really solid one, and it's also wide. It may be one of the main roads of the desert." Kyoko theorized.
"It must be! Now we'll just have to follow it, and well, let's hope that there'll be no despairs driving by." Makoto said.
"You're an expert when it comes to hope so we shouldn't have a problem." She smirked.
"Yeah, you're absolutely right I guess." Her friend smiled back.
They followed the road for just a few minutes when the Ultimate Detective noticed something.
"Did you bring the binoculars?" Kirigiri questioned.
"I didn't have any space for them. Why do you ask?"
"Look." Kyoko pointed at far away. "I think that I see a road sign."
"It may be, I can't really see because the air is shaking of heat. Let's find out." He said with enthusiasm.
After longer than they expected, they finally reached the unknown object.
"It turns out that your hawk-eyes were right." Naegi told.
"It says.. Fort, Lotfi." She guessed from the partly scraped letters.
"Fort? Hm.. And what are these weird symbols below?" Makoto asked.
"It's probably their language, they use different letters like we do." Kirigiri assumed and glanced over at the worse in quality perpendicular road to which the sign was pointing. "Let's go this way."
"I don't know Kiri, fort sounds like it's related to military. What if it's already captured by despairs?" He questioned.
"It's just a name, besides we don't have much of a choice. The main road could be a highway so it can be hundreds of kilometers long without any built-up areas around." Kyoko speculated.
"Okay then, let's check this side road." Naegi agreed.
Not more than a few minutes of walking passed by when a village mostly consisted of flat roofed-mud brick buildings got revealed from under the horizon.
"Finally! Some human infrastructure!" Makoto cheered.
"It's too early to celebrate. We still don't know if they're not brainwashed." She reminded her friend and took out her gun from her suitcase.
"Looking at their houses I doubt they are. But let's be careful just in case." Naegi prepared his pistol as well.
The Ultimates both wore their suits and hid their weapons in them.
As they were approaching, Makoto spoke out.
"I don't see any monokuma flags whatsoever, we should be safe."
"Even if they're not here they may be searching for us. We can't let our guard down." She stated in a serious voice.
"You're right, even though I don't want you to be so tensed up all the time. It won't do any good for your health in the long term." Naegi pointed out.
"It's all right, I'm used to this." Kirigiri told.
"Not all of your habits are necessarily good for you." He replied.
"They're useful, that's good enough." Kyoko stated stubbornly.
"I keep worrying about her more every day..." Makoto thought.
After a while in silence, they carefully entered the village.
"Look, it seems to be a restaurant." Naegi said after he noticed a few people eating and chatting through a small window.
"We can try to order something." She entered the building along with her friend.
Everyone froze for a moment when the Ultimates calmly walked up to the counter.
"madha yumkin an ajlibh lika?" A young girl wearing a shawl on her head asked with a surprised gaze.
"We would like to have something to eat." Makoto said with a smile.
"'ana asf lakiniy la 'afhamuk ya sayidi." She replied with a confused look.
"Um, we are hungry, we want to order food." Naegi tapped his belly and pulled out 2 thousand yen.
"aismahuu li 'an 'as'al mishrafi , min fadlik aintazar huna." The woman took the banknote and showed it to some other girl behind the counter. After a short chat, she entered a room and then returned to her customers holding two deep bowls. "tabaq alyawm hu marq lahm albamiat alkhasi bina." The waitress put the dishes down. "'atamanaa lak wajbatan shahiatan." She spoke with a smile, gave them two wooden spoons, and walked away.
"T-thank you!" Makoto appreciated and sat at a table in a corner with his former classmate. "It looks like a stew." He said after scooping some of the soup on his spoon, revealing pieces of meat and some unknown to them chopped vegetables.
"-Wait" Kirigiri stopped his hand. "Can we trust them?"
"We either trust them or we die from starvation." Naegi tasted the soup. "Mmm, this is delicious."
Kyoko couldn't resist the tasty smell and ate the meal with her friend.
"How was it?" He asked with a smile.
"Not my taste, but after such an exhausting wander I enjoyed it a lot." Kirigiri replied and cleaned her mouth with a tissue she found in her suit.
They returned the dishes and happily exited the restaurant after satisfying their hunger.
"Alright, let's take a look at your wound now shall we?" Makoto proposed.
"Hm? Do you mean my head? Oh right, I forgot to thank you for stopping the bleeding." She replied.
"You can thank me by letting me take a look at it." Naegi smiled cheerfully.
"It's fine Makoto, but if you insist then I guess I don't have a choice." Kyoko agreed.
They found a hotel and argued about the payment but eventually, the owner agreed for the Ultimates to pay in yen. Afterward, they went inside Kyoko's small room.
"It's not much but at least we won't have to sleep on our clothes." He chuckled and sat on a wooden couch with big pillows on it. "Come on." Makoto patted the pillow next to him with a smile.
"It's a trifle." She sighed, took off her makeshift bandage, and sat next to him bent over.
"Alright let's see." Naegi lifted some of his friend's hair. "It's hopefully just a bruise and some dried blood. Luckily I have a bruise gel in my medkit so I will make you a new dressing while you can take a bath and wash the blood off." He offered.
"Thanks doc, you could use a bath as well." Kirigiri smirked at him and stood up.
"Oh r-right, will do." Makoto smiled as she calmly entered her bathroom and went to his room.
