Trigger warnings apply to this, and as I usually do, the specifics are at the bottom if you need pre-warning of those specifics. But holy damn once I managed to get going with this chapter I really just went. I'm even up somewhat late to get this up for you all today-though the fact it's a bank holiday weekend deffo helps.

Anyway, enjoy!

Mitsuhide

I couldn't believe my eyes. I hadn't quite clocked it with the voice, but that face was unmistakeable. It had been a long time since I'd seen him in person, and even then it was only in a crowd. But over the past few days I had seen his younger self in photographs and even the odd video clip.

I knew who this was. I looked at the others, and saw recognition on some of their faces. Takaaki looked as if what little colour he had was completely drained from him. I waited for one of them to say it, but they didn't and we stood there in a stalemate for a while. Quickly though, I got fed up and decided to just start it. Whatever this was.

Our demise, probably, I thought as I stared at him and said:

"Y-you're Kazutaka Oomori!"

Kazutaka Oomori smiled. He looked quite genial, even with the gun he was holding out.

"That's right. You're the Okita boy, aren't you? Pale in comparison to the rest of your family, don't you? Audiobooks are all well and good, but they don't quite come close to the magic of movies, do they?"

I normally had a few perfect responses for this type of comment, but I couldn't bring myself to repeat any of them. The insult didn't even seem to matter.

"Are you really the one responsible for what was in there?" I asked instead.

"Well, why else would I be here?"

"Great, is this where you reveal all your evil plans because you think that you're going to kill us and nobody will ever find out?" Rieka asked. "Ooooh, big reveal time, sooooo scary."

"Um, I don't think this is the time, Amasaki-chan…" Akio murmured.

No, it wasn't. But I was kind of glad that she was being inappropriate. When she'd been all forlorn back in the torture basement and all hysterical in the courtyard, it had really perturbed me.

"Well, I suppose so. It's a shame that I don't have a camera…but you have, don't you?"

"E-eh?"

Rieka blinked rapidly, but pulled herself together to demand:

"Why?"

"To film this, of course! It's a shame you're not the same seven, but the impact wouldn't be the same. They're all grown up now, and I suppose their terror is…less potent. Besides, they left their friends behind, it just doesn't fit thematically. You're the same age as they were, and technology has come a long way in twenty years so…"

Not a single piece of family gossip had even hinted at the fact that Kazutaka Oomori was apparently insane. Still, there was a part of me that wasn't so surprised. His name had come up, hadn't it? He was intimately tied to the old Hope's Peak's affairs, and we'd all been pretty much in agreement with the fact that the senior staff and their associates had known something.

"Now, it's a shame that I can't call more colleagues down here, but there are media reports on your disappearance, and the few that I've managed to spare are too busy tied up with the gallant people who came to save you, so I'd appreciate it if you cooperated and came back down with me. "

"Like hell." Rieka hissed. "There's seven of us and one of you!"

"Eight, technically." I muttered.

As usual, I went unnoticed. Kazutaka Oomori certainly didn't seem to care how many of us there were, for he simply held his gun up to the air and fired a shot. We all flinched, and he nodded at us smugly as he lowered it again. He still pointed it at us, though. His other hand went to the bag that he'd put on the ground. I made a point of not looking at it, because I didn't particularly want to know. Of course, he told us anyway.

"I have restraints. Once you're all in line, it will be easy to escort you. Of course, you'll cooperate to being restrained. It won't hurt…but a bullet through your stomach might."

I gulped. I was sure that we all remembered the sounds of gunshots and those awful thuds and cracks. If Oomori had instructed the other men to wait, then there'd be more guns we'd be up against. Warily, I looked to the others. Rieka was pale and trembly again, Otsuka was almost snarling, but they all still seemed to look how I felt. We were all terrified, and powerless.

Well, almost all of us.

Akemi's eyes had widened for a moment, sure. But that had lasted for only a moment and now she was utterly serene. Or maybe serene was the wrong word. Her lovely face seemed to not have any emotion at all. But then she stepped forward and asked:

"Would one person do?"

"Hmmm?"

Oomori raised an eyebrow.

"For whatever it is you want to do, would taking just one person do?" Akemi asked.

Kazutaka Oomori frowned, and Akemi elaborated.

"Well, it might not work for picking up where you left off with your filming, but just one person would be enough as a shield, right? That would give you time to make pla-"

"Oi, oi, oi, what are you suggesting?" Otsuka demanded suddenly.

Akemi paid her no heed, instead staring at Kazutaka Oomori, whose gun-arm had lowered slightly as he kept frowning at her. I couldn't even pretend to be confused, even if I wanted to, because I had a horrible feeling I knew what she was going to suggest. I couldn't believe it. That was the type of heroic thing that I should be suggesting, to save the day. I was supposed to be a gallant, dashing gentleman after all. But:

"As much as I despair at it, I'm a lot more valuable than any of them, in terms of prominence. If it's money or notoriety that you're after, you'll get just as much with me alone as you would if you had them as well. So, please, let them go and just take them."

"No!" I called out.

She's right, she's right. But we can't…

"Koizumi-sempai!" Akio exclaimed. "No, don't suggest that!"

"We can't leave you behind, we won't." Akagi said, voice shaking.

Akemi turned to look at us:

"You can, and you will. I'll be fine, really. I just want all of you to be safe. I had…I had such a lot of fun, before we got trapped. Didn't you all have fun?"

"Yes, but…" Akio stuttered. "You-you c-can't just…"

Rieka, Otsuka, Akagi and I also chimed in with protests of our own, while Ritsuka just stood there, mouth open as if trying to find the words and failing.

Akemi gave us a small smile, then turned to Oomori.

"Let me just say goodbye to them."

"Woah, hold on, I never agreed to this. You might be valuable, but those two…"

Kazutaka raised his gun again, but before he could point it at any of us, Akemi grabbed a hold of it. She then looked down at her hands and let out a little gasp and abruptly let go, sinking to her knees. Rather than get up again though, she looked up at Kazutaka Oomori.

"Please," she said. "My friend is hurt and the others, they…just, please. Take me, do what you want with me. Just, let them go."

"Hmmm."

Kazutaka looked at Akemi, his gaze flicking up and down, taking on a glaze I didn't like.

"Well, you do look good on your knees, I suppose…Alright then, come on."

Even me, able to flirt and charm as well as I could breathe, didn't immediately get it and then when I did, I wanted to gag. Not even any of the characters I'd narrated would say something like that. And even if they did, they would not say it to someone still in high school.

Do something, I willed myself. Punch him in the face or at least call him out. Of course, my perfectly useless hands stayed by my side, my honeyed tongue numb. Whatever insults Rieka would have cooked up for me would be deserved, this time.

Kazutaka Oomori bent down to look in the other bag, and I briefly thought of springing forward and overpowering him. But just as quickly, he had fished out a pair of handcuffs and snapped them around her wrists. Akemi didn't react at all.

"Koizumi-sempai!" Akio called. "Don't do this. Please don't do this, Koizumi-chan, please-"

"Too late, she's already offered herself up to me. Are you jealous, maybe?"

Akio's forehead creased, and I thought at first he was confused but then Ritsuka was trying to restrain him and yelling (Ritsuka, of all people, yelling, I couldn't believe it) and then Rieka and Otsuka were too, while Akagi just stood there, still confused. Takaaki still looked pale and faraway. I realised that despite his leg, Akio was trying to get up again. Somehow, by leaning against a tree, he managed it and attempted to push himself forward. Again, Ritsuka tried to pull him back, but he shook her off. Still holding onto the tree, he managed it again, and then reached out to another tree.

Kazutaka Oomori seemed amused as Akio kept trying to do this, but then rolled his eyes. He pointed his gun somewhere low, which struck me as an odd choice until he fired it and Akio crumpled again. Takaaki was momentarily jerked out of his reverie long enough to catch Akio and settle him back down on the ground, as Otsuka and Ritsuka both knelt by his side.

Akemi flinched at the sound of the gunshot and turned, her eyes widening and filling with tears. She tried to reach him but Kazutaka yanked her back and fired off another shot. Akagi flinched as the bullet went past him, clutching his shoulder, but I still couldn't tell if it had hit him or not.

"We came to an agreement, you know. Now, let's go. I'm confident that we'll have plenty of time to ourselves."

And since everyone was back to fussing over Akio-was he hit? Was he actually hit?-it was only me who stood there, watching him drag Akemi away. And that was all I did. I saw an opportunity to be brave, a proper hero, more than what everything and everyone in this world thought of me and all I did was stand there and watch.

The worst thing was, despite how distraught she was at Akio going down, she still let herself get dragged away. At the last minute, she looked up and saw me watching, and I cringed. But rather than look with me with contempt, or even despair, she just gave me a smile. It was shaky, forced. But it was still a smile.

And then they were both out of sight, and I still hadn't been a hero. I rubbed my face, self-loathing making my stomach churn, and then I went back to the others. Otsuka, Ritsuka and Takaaki were knelt by Akio's side, ripping up more of Takaaki's clothing to make yet bandages for Akio's leg. Some of those had a bloom of red on them, and I put a hand over my mouth.

"It's not that bad, I don't think." Akio said weakly.

"Not bad? Not bad? It's a gunshot! You got shot!" Rieka said, hands trembling as she clasped them to her chest.

"We still don't have a signal, we need to go back up, I think." Otsuka said, looking grim as she crouched there, staring at her phone.

"But we need to guide him up," Ritsuka pointed to Akagi. "That's going to be difficult too."

"Leave us both down here," Akagi suggested. "I'll look after Akio-kun."

"Uh, no offense, but you're blind." Rieka snarked.

Akagi stared back. He was still holding onto his shoulder, and he didn't look befuddled anymore. More pained, and still somehow trying to hide it.

"It hit you, didn't it?" I asked.

"Only a little."

"Shit, why didn't you say?" Otsuka exclaimed. "Right, let's have a look."

Otsuka manifested beside Akagi, and shone a torch at his shoulder. I saw red seeping through his sleeve but didn't want to see anymore. Otsuka muttered something about not being a doctor, and something else about bandages (since every other word seemed to be swearing, it wasn't as if she was being particularly coherent) before she then looked in her bag and discovered a blue scarf, which she wrapped around Akagi's wound as best as she could. Be a hero, be a hero, be a hero I kept thinking. Although, was there any point now? The worst had already happened. Then again…

I looked over my shoulder, to where Akemi had left so willingly with Kazutaka Oomori

"We definitely need to get up there, then. I'll carry Arisato-kun. "

"You? You with your noodle arms and your high-maintenance outfits?"

I did not remind her that some of this outfit was at least half stuff she had lent me, let alone the fact that the entire thing was beyond worrying about it now. I still deserved it, after all. Instead, I met her eyes, and said (as evenly as I could):

"I'll figure it out."

"And I'll take care of Akagi here."

This from Takaaki, who instantly became the target of Rieka's ire:

"Hey, why the fuck didn't you do something? You're the adult, right? That's why you came? Then why didn't you-"

She marched right up to him, raising an arm as if she was going to punch him. For a moment, I really thought she would. But then, Takaaki shrugged and said:

"I know. I'm sorry."

Rieka sagged, then whispered:

"Keep us safe now, please."

"I will."

"It's not that bad," Akagi tried to say. "My arm's not that bad at all, really."

"I really think we need to work on your definition of 'bad'," Otsuka said. "But regardless, it needs treatment, and I suspect that if Oomori wasn't such a perv over Koizumi, he would have wanted to take you two instead. So let's just go, quickly, before he decides to change his mind and come back."

I knelt in front of Akio to lift him onto my back. Takaaki suggested tying him, and it turned out that Otsuka had put some rope in both her bag and Ritsuka's bag, so that was used to tie Akio to me from around our middles, while his arms looped around my neck. And as it turned out, climbing uphill with a heavy load was a lot easier with my arms free. Rieka and Takaaki were in charge of both the torches and Akagi, while Otsuka kept an eye on her phone, waiting for a signal to come up. I thought perhaps Ritsuka had been put in charge of the bags that couldn't be carried, like mine, Akio's and Akemi's.

None of us said a word, but we all moved as fast as we could. We didn't dare stop. Even when I started to get thirsty I didn't even bother trying to delicately clear my throat. I just kept going, like the others did, until we finally saw light.

And quite literally, we did.

As we came up out of the overgrown plants and onto the side of another motorway, the sky was lightening. It was not at the point of a sunrise, but no longer was it the deep darkness of night. I stared up at the sky for a moment, overwhelmed by just how vast it was. We hadn't even been stuck there for that long but I had already forgotten that the sky was such a vast, wondrous thing. Maybe being in the great outdoors wasn't so bad, after all.

"We should go back for her…"

Turning to see a person strapped on one's back wasn't the easiest endeavour, but I tried it. Of course, I failed, so I said.

"Are you alright? Does it hurt?"

"I…yeah…but Koizu…Koizumi-chan…"

"I know, but it looks like Jihara's calling the police now…"

Sure enough, Otsuka was on the phone, but also appeared to be watching all the cars intently. One of them pulled over, though Otsuka hadn't actually waved them down. A man and a woman got out, while I could see two young children in the back seats, staring at us with impossibly huge eyes. I assumed that they were on their way to or on their way back from a holiday trip.

"Oh my goodness, are you all alright?" the man exclaimed.

"Yes, did you just come from there…?" the woman gestured vaguely to where we had indeed come from.

"We were trapped, and we've just managed to escape. Two of our friends are hurt." I said. "Please can you help us?"

The woman noticed Akio tied to my back and her eyes widened, looking a lot like that of the two children.

"Kotaro, come and help me here!" she called out.

The man-Kotaro- came over and finally, I was released from Akio's weight. The woman started asking Akio what had happened, and how he'd been injured. It turned out that her name was Mitsuki, and she was a nurse, though one that worked at an old person's home, so while she didn't know much about gunshots she knew enough to help. Mitsuki also had a first-aid kit that was a great deal better than what we had, and she went back to get it, bringing the kids back with her. Takaaki bought Akagi over to her too, and she concentrated on doing what she could for both of them. Kotaro went back to the car, presumably because his kids were there and the rest of us sat down.

My first thought was to finally, finally get a drink of water so I looked around for Ritsuka to ask her for my bag. And then I stopped, confused. There was Otsuka, still on the phone and Kotaro with the car and the children. Takaaki sat with Akio and Akagi as Mitsuki did her best to treat them. Rieka sat next to them, fiddling on her own phone while guzzling down water. My bag was piled up with a couple of the others, but nobody was beside it.

Otsuka, Takaaki, Akio, Akagi, Rieka. Me. I went through the list over and over, but I still came up short.

"Oi, what are you doing?"

Rieka looked up from her phone now, and immediately noticed me looking.

"Have you seen Nishimiya-chan?"

"What are you talking about? She's right the-"

And Rieka's sentence faltered, because now she could see what I saw. Ritsuka was not there.

She wasn't anywhere.

…

Tetsuji

I thought that I was probably losing quite a lot of blood.

I couldn't remember if I had been shot or not, but after the guns had gone off and I'd fallen to the ground those two men had fled, clearly terrified. One of them had dropped their gun, so I'd taken it and now I had been dragging myself around this building looking for an exit for who knew how long. I'd been going in circles, and a part of me knew it shouldn't have been difficult to find where I'd come from.

But I thought I was losing a lot of blood, and I had hit my head when I'd fallen and that throbbed too. I clung to the walls as I turned another corner again. The floorboards creaked beneath my feet as I did so, and paused, sure that they hadn't creaked before. The noise came again, and I realised that it wasn't the floorboard, but somebody groaning. I rubbed my head, hoping to ease away some of the pain and get some clarity as I listened. I heard shuffling sounds, and a sigh, and then other sounds I couldn't quite comprehend. However, I had just about enough coherence to realise that they were in a room somewhat ahead of me.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I pulled myself to the nearest room and looked in there. Seeing it was empty, I attempted to take a step towards the next door, but I stumbled and lost my footing, crumpling to a heap on the floor. Despite the new pains erupting across my body, I forced myself to sit up, and then to attempt to get up. It was as at that moment a person emerged from that very room. A tall man, not one I had seen before, but who seemed oddly familiar. I opened my mouth to say something, but then someone else emerged behind him. A teenager, a young girl.

One I recognised.

It was the girl with the strikingly bright blue hair who had been with Otsuka. She shuffled out behind him with a resigned air, and her eyes looked worryingly dead. I had not had much to do with living victims when I had been working, but I recognised that exact same look in her eyes now. Even if I hadn't recognised that look, however, the handcuffs around her wrist were a big clue. She was shivering, but I wasn't entirely sure if that was down to the cold, because I wasn't even sure whether I was cold or not.

However, even though I still didn't recognise the man's face it didn't matter. Whatever his name or job or whatever was, there could only be one person this was. This was the man who had asked for the children to be trapped in that basement, and therefore the one who had kidnapped my daughter and Takaaki and all of their friends. The one who had hurt them all. And now he was going to do it all over again. Judging by the look on that girl's face, he had probably already started.

I had been so selfish before. I would not be that selfish again.

Pushing myself up, I held up the gun I had still somehow managed to hold onto, my hands shaking as I attempted to pull the trigger. I staggered back at the recoil, but hoped that I had somehow managed to hit him. Unfortunately, the gunshot's fading echo and the clatter of it dropping to the floor was replaced by his rising laughter.

"Oh dear, I certainly hadn't expected it would be you when one of my men called me to say an old man was rampaging. Still, I suppose fathers seeking vengeance for their dead daughters is one of the most tried and tested tropes in history. It's a shame I didn't bring some recordings along-perhaps you would have liked to see some footage of her death. Just for closure?"

He stared to say something else, but I didn't let him finish. Charging at him, I tackled him to the ground and hit out at him, trying to land a punch anywhere I could. More importantly, I tried to grab for his gun, which he had still managed to hold onto. But he was younger, and stronger, and uninjured and although I managed to punch his mouth and face, he soon got the better of me and I was lying on the ground, winded while this man leered down at me. He pressed his knees into my chest and I gasped, struggling for breath, my hands flailing.

"Brave attempt, but now…"

The man blinked, and I realised that he had finally dropped the gun. I turned my head slightly, looking for it as he shifted, easing the pressure on my chest ever so slightly. As he turned one way to look for it, I spotted it in the opposite direction, and tried to move my arm to get to it. My fingers brushed the edges of it and I tried to ease it towards me. Gradually, it got close enough that I could grip it in my hand properly and raise it, attempting to pull the trigger and hopefully hit my target this time.

I pulled the trigger once, and the man noticed, tackling me once again, We fought, and I heard the gun go off once more, then once more again. The girl screamed, and everything became hazier again as I fought as hard as I could. Suddenly, something exploded in my chest and my vision started to darken. The adrenaline rush abruptly left me, making me weak and hollow. Despite knowing what this feeling meant, I felt no dread. I did not try to fight it. I had been selfish before, but not anymore. Besides, I knew what had happened. That was enough.

So I did not fight it.

But just before everything went black, I held on long enough to see what I thought was someone else enter the room and approach the other man from behind, holding something heavy as if to strike him.

And my last thought was: at least he'll never hurt anybody again.

…

Akemi

I had no idea how, or when this had even happened, but Ritsuka hit Kazutaka's head with the large tree branch once and he fell, just like a tree himself, right on top of the man I understood to be Moeka Kamiya's father. Ritsuka stared down at him, and then hit him with the large branch again and again until finally she lowered it, staring at him blankly and breathing heavily. After a few moments, she said:

"Well, I guess I'm a murderer, then."

"He's…he's actually dead?"

"Well, he looks it. I guess I'll find out in a moment anyway."

Before I could ask her what she meant, she put down her branch, grimaced very slightly and proceeded to pat him down, searching in his pockets. After a few moments, she produced the keys to my handcuffs and came over to me. She unlocked my handcuffs, then threw them to the ground. I immediately rubbed my wrists and then hesitated, not knowing where to turn. Instead, I looked at Moeka's father and Kazutaka Oomori. Especially Kazutaka Oomori.

And then I turned, bent over and threw up.

When it felt like there was nothing else left to come out, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, then wiped it against my shirt. The taste in my mouth was horrible, but at least it erased what had been there before. When I looked up again, Ritsuka was watching me, hands in her pockets.

"What did he do to you?"

I would not answer that question. I could not.

"What are you doing here?" I asked instead. "You're meant to be safe."

"I am." She responded.

"But you might not have been!" I exclaimed. "You were meant to get away and get help, it's only me who was mea-"

"And we did. We are. They were calling the police when I left, plus someone stopped for us. A nurse and her husband. Help will be here soon, no doubt."

"That's good, I'm glad."

I was glad. I really was glad. I hoped that Akio would be able to get treated soon, and that they could all see their families soon. Yet at the same time…

"The others think you were being noble."

I waited. I wouldn't try to defend myself from Ritsuka's judgement, because I didn't deserve to. I was just a fake, and on top of that, I was disgusting now. She didn't need to know the specifics of it, nobody did, although I was sure the evidence would speak for itself. I was fake, dirty, useless. Hopeless.

"You were noble, that's true. Thank you, by the way. I should say that at least. But that's not the point. The point is, 'noble' wasn't all you were being, was it? Remember you saying, I don't want to go home? That's what made you go. You weren't expecting to survive this, were you?"

I felt tears well up, but I bit my lip. I couldn't let those tears fall. I couldn't, anymore than I could talk about what Kazutaka Oomori had done. Ritsuka narrowed her eyes at me, then shook her head. When she spoke again, her voice rose.

"You were hoping that he'd kill you after whatever sordid things he did-"

"It wasn't that bad, really-"

It wasn't that bad, because it was only the beginning. Walking the corridors, before we got to this room, he had not hesitated to tell me all the plans he had for me. It wasn't that bad, it wasn't that bad, it wasn't that bad. Of course, Ritsuka didn't know that, so she interrupted me with a glare.

"That makes two of you with skewed sense of reality. You didn't want to survive this though. You didn't want to be rescued. Yes, I know you wanted to save us, and Arisato especially, but you were the one who told me your biggest secret and left me to read behind the lines! You never hoped to be rescued, you planned to die here. And for what? For our sakes?"

"Yes, that's-"

"Bullshit."

Ritsuka stopped, breathing heavily. She glared at me, and I was startled at the look in her eyes. I had always thought the colour had a fiery quality to it, but this was the first time I'd seen her eyes blazing so brightly.

"It's bullshit," she repeated. "Look, Arisato-kun may not like you the way you wish he would, but he likes you. And Benbow-kun does actually have a thing for you, I'm pretty sure. The rest of us like you too and as for me, not particularly liking you doesn't mean I want you to die. What gives you the right to leave us behind?"

"You don't understand. I can't go back. Once this is all over, when I'm rescued, it will be more of the same. I'll be leaving you behind anyway. You all expanded my world so much and I'm really grateful, I really, really am…"

I'd started sobbing now, and no matter how many breaths I tried to take I couldn't stop, so I powered through it.

"I'm so glad that we had fun together and we spent all this time together, and I love you all, but I don't want to go home. I can't go back to what I was before, I just can't. You all gave me hope, but it was only ever going to be for a limited time. So I thought, if I could just finish this life remembering all the wonderful things you all gave me, and knowing that you were all safe and that it was over at last…well, that would be enough. It would be a fitting end. "

Pausing only to take a deep breath, I rushed on, still crying:

"You could turn back now. I can tell them it was all me, all of this. You don't need to become a murderer. If I'm imprisoned, that would be another end and that…that would be something, I suppose. Again, thank you, really. Thank you. But you didn't need to come back for me."

"For someone who's supposed to have all these talents, you're really, really stupid."

Ritsuka's response was quiet again, her tone flat. My vision was blurry from all the tears but still I had a feeling that her eyes blazed.

"More than stupid," she continued, accusatory. "You're messed up. I mean, only a messed up person would think that dying or a prison sentence are the only ways to escape."

I waited for her to say something, but she didn't. Not at first. I wiped my eyes, but more tears sprung up in their place. But what else am I supposed to do? I wanted to ask her. What else is someone like me supposed to do? Looking at Ritsuka, I saw she was biting her fingernails but when she saw me looking she moved her hand away from her mouth. She rubbed that hand over her face and then shook her head.

"I didn't want to be the bearer of your suicide note."

"That's not…I mean, that's…I…" I stuttered.

"That is what you did," Ritsuka put a hand up to stop me. "That conversation we had, that was your suicide note, and I don't want to carry it."

I started crying again, but softer this time. I kept wiping the tears away, but they kept coming. I tried to apologise, but I couldn't make my voice work anymore. Ritsuka sighed at me, her expression shifting slightly but remaining inscrutable.

"Let's just sit outside until the police come. I don't want to look at them anymore."

She pointed to Kazutaka Oomori and Moeka's father. I glanced at them again, and nodded tiredly. I stumbled out of the room, and sat on one side of the doorway, hugging my knees to my chest. Ritsuka followed and sat on the opposite side of the doorway. I looked at her, and she looked at me.

"If you were able to show me that scar on your head, you can show the others. Tell them the truth, and let them help you. Whatever 'burden' that ends up being, they'll prefer to bear that than the burden of losing you."

I blinked at her tearily, and Ritsuka shrugged heavily, rolling her eyes and concluding: "That's up to you though, I suppose."

And after that, there was nothing more to say.

The trigger warnings are for the implication of a sexual assault/the threat of one (nothing explicit or extreme but it's definitely there) as well as suicidal ideation (mainly the accusation of having such ideations, but not an incorrect accusation).