When Shuichi and Maki had first started their new, horrifying jobs, Himiko had thought that being left behind would come as a relief, but she found that all this time by herself, with nothing to do but think, was more stressful than relaxing. She still wasn't entirely sure when she had left behind wanting nothing more than to do nothing all day, but her expectations for herself were still sometimes wildly mismatched.
She'd tried to rest, napping or lying in bed watching movies, but instead she spent more and more of her time pacing the halls of the Institute. Himiko wished now that she'd volunteered to help, alongside Maki and Shuichi. There was only so much she could do; when they came home for the night, she would try to comfort them, but neither one of them wanted to talk much about much of anything, especially not their work with Team Dangan Ronpa.
She could tell, by Shuichi's silence and Maki's increasingly fierce protective glare at anyone who might possibly stress Shuichi out, that they were both having a hard time dealing with the work. Bugging them too much about it would only make it worse. She tried to smile, be cheerful, and even do some magic to help them relax, but she always felt like she should be doing more. Much more.
From what Himiko could tell, everyone else left at the Institute felt the same. Jonas, who previously spent almost no time at the Institute unless there was a particularly important meeting, had taken to spending his afternoons in the lounge waiting for Hikari to drop Shuichi and Maki off on her way home. Carlos was too stressed by the situation to even pick his usual fights with him. Eventually, Yume had started taking pity on Himiko, and recruiting her to help around the office. Both had quickly realized, however, that Himiko was a disaster with paperwork and had a knack for causing printers, copiers, computers, and even staplers to mysteriously act up.
Not wanting to get in the way, the Ultimate Mage had resigned herself to pacing and biting her nails until she could think of something that would actually help her friends. It wasn't until one particularly tense afternoon, the day after Shuichi flat out refused to eat dinner and Maki punched a hole in the wall, that Himiko finally lost her temper with Carlos and Jonas, as they all sat uneasily in the lounge.
"Can't either of you think of anything we can do about this?" She shouted at the two men out of nowhere.
They both jumped, turning to look at her. "Like what?" Jonas asked bitterly. "We've done our bit, now we get to sit and wait."
"I know it's frustrating, Himiko." Carlos told her soothingly. "But we've done all we can."
"I don't believe that!" She tugged irritably on her hat. "There has to be more we can do. Shuichi and Maki are making themselves sick over this!"
"I'm not their parents, I can't just call in and get them a sick day or something." Carlos sighed. "They're adults, and they've made the decision to do this. I don't know that they'd thank us for interfering."
"Fuck that!" Jonas suddenly snapped, his perspective on the matter seeming to shift on a dime, the moment Carlos took a stronger stance for him to oppose. "We can't just sit here and let them half kill themselves for us either, Carlos. Himiko's right!"
Himiko high fived him proudly. "Exactly! If we just sit here and let them hurt Shuichi, Maki, and Hikari, then the Company still wins in the end. I didn't come this far to let them win now."
Carlos sighed, taking a few moments to consider thoughtfully what the two of them had said. Finally, he nodded. "Alright, let's call Adele in, see what she can find that we can do." Wasting no time, he pulled out his phone and sent off a quick text.
"Hell yeah!" Jonas grinned at Carlos and flashed him an enthusiastic thumbs up, and the other man smiled tiredly back. "You really don't just have to sit back and let this shit happen. Haven't you figured that out by now?"
Carlos started to answer, but was interrupted by the sudden sound of the door swinging open behind them, as Nakamura entered the lounge with an amused smile. "I'm told the three of you need my help?" She asked
"We're trying to figure out how to help Hikari, Maki, and Shuichi. This job is hurting them and it's not fair." Himiko explained firmly. "But we have to find a way that doesn't break the agreement."
Nakamura nodded. "They have been rather beat down lately. We won't be able to change the working conditions at the Company, I'm afraid. But…there is a potential loophole. Depending on how all in you're willing to go on this."
"I'd do anything." Jonas told her seriously.
Himiko nodded her agreement. "Anything for them."
Carlos was silent, and Nakamura turned to him with a sharp look. "This would need you too. Three of them agreed to participate, three of you would need to agree to take their places."
"Take their places?" Carlos looked horrified by the thought. "I have work to do here, I can't just-"
"Oh, shut up." Jonas told him. "You know full well Yume and Kaoru would be able to keep things going without you. There's no new survivors to settle in, no active legal battles. There's nothing that needs you on deck immediately right now. You're just too much of a coward to come out from behind the desk."
Carlos glared at him for a moment. "Just because you don't have any damn idea of what it is to dedicate yourself to something doesn't mean it would be easy for me to simply step away for potentially weeks or even months."
Jonas stood up. Every muscle in his body was tense, and for a moment, it appeared as though he was just about to throw a punch at Carlos.
Suddenly, however, Himiko jumped onto the table between them. She'd grown a lot in the past few years, but even standing on a table between both Carlos and Jonas, she was still comically small. "STOP IT, BOTH OF YOU!" She yelled at them. "This is too important for you to get caught up fighting each other like you always do! It's our best chance to help our friends! Please, Carlos."
Carlos looked from Himiko, on the verge of angry tears, to Nakamura who looked just the tiniest bit smug, and finally to Jonas. He stared at Jonas' face for a long moment before nodding. "Fine. Okay. I'll do it."
Nakamura nodded. "You'll want to talk to them tonight, and I'll send word to the Company in the morning that we're swapping the survivor contractors. It's in the contract that they have no say in which of us is there as long as there is a consistent number of us for the whole time. I suspect it was intended to ensure consistent attendance, but it gives us a loophole."
"I'll talk to Hikari." Jonas told them all firmly. "I'm a showman. I'm better suited for this stage of things anyway. She'll listen to me."
"Himiko, I'll talk to Shuichi and Maki if you want, but it would probably be best coming from you." Carlos told her carefully.
Himiko nodded and tried not to look as nervous about that as she felt. "I'll do it, don't worry."
Himiko couldn't decide whether it was lucky or not that all of this was decided only an hour or so before Maki and Shuichi were home for the day. On the one hand, she would've liked to have more time to figure out how to convince them. On the other hand, maybe it was best if she could get this over with as soon as possible. She wasn't protective like Maki or clever and persuasive like Shuichi. Despite her best efforts, she knew that to some degree she'd been dead weight to them during the entirety of the Killing Game. Her most significant contribution had been finding the secret bathroom entrance, and in the process she'd nearly gotten Shuichi into a lot of trouble.
All she really had was enthusiasm and a stubborn streak, something she'd inherited from Tenko. It was the best of what was left of the Ultimate Aikido Master,, but would it be enough? Could it be enough to not only convince Shuichi and Maki to let her do this, but deal with the actual hardship of the position she'd be expected to fill? Although she was scared, Himiko was sure Tenko would've been up to the challenge, so she would have to be too.
When Shuichi and Maki got home that evening, Himiko knew she was making the right choice. Shuichi hadn't looked as emotionally frail as he was then since their escape from the Killing Game. And Maki… well, she was clearly making an effort to appear fine, but Himiko knew her well enough to recognize that when she spent so much time glaring around every corner, she was emotionally worn out enough she was falling back on old habits.
She took a deep breath, letting Tenko's courageous voice fill her chest, and approached her friends. "Hey guys? I hate to bother you, but… I need to talk to you both about something important."
Maki glared at her. It was the glare she normally saved for active threats, which just further proved how worn out she must have been. Himiko had… mostly learned to stop being scared of that glare. "Can't it wait?" Maki snapped.
"No, it really can't." Himiko insisted, trying to keep strong, confident Tenko in her mind. Tenko would not have backed down, so she wouldn't, either.
"Alright, let's all talk in my room then." Shuichi told her tiredly. "Will it take long?"
"Um… Hopefully not?" Himiko replied.
"Fine." Maki said, and led Shuichi into his room, making sure he was as comfortable as he could be before taking a seat nearby as well. "What is it, then?"
Himiko did not sit, hoping it would make her look stronger. "I was talking to Carlos, Jonas, and Nakamura earlier. We came up with an idea for how to help you two and Hikari out."
"We're fine." Shuichi insisted, too quickly, the shaking in his voice betraying his answer.
Maki scowled at him for a moment. "What was the idea?"
"Well, according to Nakamura... since three of you signed on to help, as long as three of us are working with them at any given moment, they have to let us swap out. And it's obvious that all three of you need a break really bad!"
"Himiko… No, listen, don't worry. Maki, Hikari, and me, we're fine. And I couldn't ask anyone to- " Shuichi started, but Maki cut him off sharply.
"Shut up." She insisted, glancing between Shuichi and Himiko. "So, Carlos, Jonas, and Nakamura would be taking our places for a while?"
"No, Nakamura says she can't, she has to be able to watch them and make sure they stick to the contract. I was going to do it with Carlos and Jonas."
Shuichi sounded more than a little worried. "You really don't have to do that. I'll get by. Maki and Hikari can take that break, but I'll keep at it, it really is fine."
"Not a chance." Maki told him fiercely. "If you think there's any chance of me leaving you to go through this alone, you're worse off than I thought."
"But Maki- "
"No. Fuck that. When was the last time you ate a real meal, Shuichi?"
He looked away and didn't answer.
"Himiko, are you sure?" Maki asked her fiercely. "You've never had to do anything like this before. If you tell me you can, I'll believe you, but you have to be sure."
Himiko nodded, trying to look as tough as she could. "I'm sure. I can handle it."
"Okay. I trust you. Shuichi and I will take a break."
Shuichi opened his mouth with an expression that suggested he might be about to disagree further, looked at Maki, and closed it again before saying instead, "Thank you, Himiko. Just… please tell us if you need one of us to trade back with you. If we're going to do this, we might as well use it to all of our best advantage."
A/N: Posting this slightly early because all sixteen spots are taken holy crap wow! Thank you to every last one of you that has submitted, I love all of your characters and I'm so excited to tell a story with them. Next time I'll start introducing the Ultimates, and then it's only a couple chapters before the Killing Game properly starts. Until then, I'm bumping up the updates to one a week, I'm sure you're all as eager as I am to get this show on the road.