The King of Shujin Academy

by Ouya2

Ren Amamiya is sent to Tokyo on probation. Will he be able to get through the year without any trouble? As soon as he arrives in Tokyo the answer is a resounding no. A Persona 5 AU where Ren rejects Arsène and the Phantom Thieves never come to be, yet the threat of the Metaverse remains.

59. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt 1

Wednesday, 9/7

"I'm gonna be honest with you, and this is only 'cause I'm your best friend. So…" Ryuji took a deep breath. "You look shit."

Ren kept staring out the window of the still grounded plain. They'd been waiting for the plane to take off for the past hour, even with everyone already boarded. "Oh, you think?"

"Hey, don't worry about it, man," Ryuji said, placing his hand on Ren's shoulder. "I'm scared shitless by planes too. This is my first time on one."

This might as well be my first time on one. It's been… thirteen years, I think. Yeah, we went to South Korea back when I was three. That'd be a cool trip to have memories of, but I can't remember jack shit from before I turned four.

Ren preferred not to talk about anything related to the Amamiya family, so he kept things simple. "Same."

"Did ya lose sleep over it?"

No, but I did lose sleep over Makoto dying, so at least I have my priorities in order. I would've been up all night if Tae didn't give me the sleeping pills… I can't make a habit of that, can I?

"You could say that." Ren tried to get the message across that he wasn't in a great mood, but the eternal optimism of the hobbled runner persisted.

"At least you got a whole flight to catch up!" Ryuji couldn't stop moving around in his seat, glancing around at the other students, who'd all sat with their friends. Ren considered sitting next to Makoto, but that might as well have been escorting the elephant into the room by himself. Ren didn't think he would ever be ready to have the talk about Makoto's imminent death with Makoto herself.

Luckily for him, she was obligated to sit with the other teachers and chaperones. Ren saw her grab a seat with Haru, who'd become a last-minute addition at the beginning of the week. That fucked Ren's plans over, as he had to find someone new to take care of Morgana. Futaba came in clutch, but Ren didn't appreciate the hassle. Nor did Morgana, who still hadn't gotten his sushi from Ren letting Makoto stay over.

Ren didn't even bother with asking Yusuke to take care of the cat, but it turned out Kosei was traveling anyway. Apparently, their destination would be Los Angeles in California. Ren heard about the city quite a bit, mostly that their main American Football team sucked and that their head coach looked like a baby, among other things. Ren didn't follow the NFL, so he couldn't care less.

Despite all that Ren had going on in his head, he stuck to simple replies. "Yep…"

"Don't worry 'bout me, man. I'll let you get your beauty rest," Ryuji joked, slapping Ren on the shoulder again. He felt Ryuji turn away, not getting any more chatting in his ear.

Why can't they get us off this god damn runway?!

Anyone would get sick of having the same shitty view of asphalt for an hour, especially Ren in his agitated state. The image of Makoto having her windpipe crushed stuck in the back of his head, and his measly three hours of sleep had been intentional, but he still felt like shit.

Suddenly, as Ren pressed his forehead to the window, the plane shifted, and so began the long process of getting the plane aligned for take-off.

Man, fuck planes. I had to wake up early, I had to stand in a long-ass line of Shujin students to get my ticket, I had to go through security, I had to wait an hour for the plane to move an inch, and now I have to wait even more…

At this point, Ren's list of complaints piled to an insurmountable level. He even shocked himself with his own moodiness, even if he understood it.

Mope all you want, Ren, but don't ruin this vacation for others. Let them have their fun. It's Hawaii, for fuck's sake.

---

The announcement speakers buzzed with a voice drowned in static. "Ladies and gentleman, please prepare yourselves for takeoff." Not a moment later, the plane began its first bit of progress on the seven-hour flight.

Ren watched from the window as the terminal slowly moved out of view, the plane rapidly accelerating. He felt gradually more and more force pushing his body into his seat. Again, he looked out the window, just in time to see the plane lift off the runway and into the air.

Ugh… I hate this feeling…

His gut didn't like him looking out the window. As the plane turned on its right side, Ren immediately shut his window with the plastic cover, darkening his and Ryuji's seats. Ren glanced over to Ryuji to make sure that his friend didn't care about the window.

Woah… I guess I'm taking this better than him.

Ryuji didn't even notice Ren closing the window. In fact, he didn't do anything. Like a corpse locked in rigor mortis, Ryuji's pale hands gripped his armrests, his creepily wide eyes staring at the seat in front of him.

The last time he looked like this, he'd chugged eight energy drinks and stayed up all night. Ah… the good ol' days. Well, not everyone handles flights the same. Ryuji's going to be… seizing up, I guess. Me? I'll be sulking, brooding, moping, and attempting to find synonyms for those words.

Ren averted his eyes from his distressed friend, instead laying back in his cushioned seat. Closing his eyes, he hoped that sleep wouldn't be too cruel to him, but he didn't get that wish. He didn't even get to sleep.

Only a few minutes passed when Ren heard a banging noise above him, as if something was trapped within the plane. He looked up, his eyes getting blasted with the air coming from the AC.

Ren grunted and mumbled to himself. "Shit, fuckface, Godzilla-fucker, god damn son of a dickwad…" Annoyed, he reached up and tried to twist the AC knob, only for a hand to grab his and force it back into his lap. With a furious look and a will to punch whoever stopped him from solving his minor annoyance, Ren turned to his right to face the stewardess.

"I'm sorry, sir, but the air conditioning must remain on for the first third of flight," the woman said with a polite, if not passive-aggressive smile. "Company policy."

Again, a banging noise came from above, and again, Ren looked directly up into the AC. Instead of cursing the stewardess's ears out, he scrunched up his face and sank back into his chair. Another loud bang echoed, yet the stewardess didn't react. She kept her eyes on Ren, likely to make sure he wouldn't be a problem with how rude his demeanor was.

Ren turned to the stewardess again, a renewed look of false kindness. If the stewardess was passive-aggressive, Ren had outdone her in that regard. "Could you at least figure out what that banging is?" he asked. "I think it's something in the carry-on compartment."

The stewardess's quizzical look told Ren that he was crazy, but she complied. Taking a few steps back from Ren and Ryuji's seats, she reached up to open the compartment. Ren couldn't see whatever she was doing, but he could tell that she was digging around up there.

Leaving the compartment open, the stewardess ducked her head under the opening to give Ren another smile. "There doesn't seem to be anything making a banging noise."

Well, how about you- oh. Question answered.

A pair of long, thin legs, wearing black khakis, dropped down from the opened luggage compartment, dangling behind the stewardess.

Uh… what the fuck?

Apparently, Ren had been staring. "Sir? Is there a problem?" the stewardess asked, waving a hand in Ren's face. The pair of legs dropped to the floor, now attached to a thin torso that wore a white shir-

Oh my god. Yusuke snuck onto a fucking plane!

"Ma'am, I think you should turn around," Ren said, pointing at Yusuke, whose head still remained obstructed by the opening to the luggage compartment.

The stewardess, still craning her head downwards to not bump it on the opening turned around. Her bowed head was an inch from Yusuke's chest, but she didn't react. Instead, she turned back around to Ren, her airline-obligated smile completely faded.

Does she not see Yusuke?! Wait…

"Young man, if you are-"

Seeing a trip-ending conflict on the horizon, Ren cut the woman off. "No, ma'am. Definitely not. Thank you for your help." The most he could give her to compensate for her time was the most forced smile of all time, but she didn't complain.

The stewardess backed out from under the opening, closed the luggage compartment, took one look at Ren, and stormed off down the aisle of the plane, brushing past Yusuke in the process.

Fuck… that's one crisis averted. Time to get caught in another.

With the opening closed, Yusuke's full face had been exposed. "Greetings, Ren. I supposed I should accompany you. I wouldn't want you to be bored on your seven-hour flight," Yusuke said with a proper bow, his right hand on his chest and his left hand extending in the air.

Ren, his face full of total shock that Yusuke somehow snuck onto a US-bound flight in a post-9/11 world, stared in disbelief up at the artist.

Yusuke raised from his bow. "I nearly forgot my flight equipment."

Flight equipment…? Oh no. Yusuke's a terrorist, isn't he?

Thankfully, or unfortunately, Yusuke reached straight down into his black pants, giving Ren a very uncomfortable view of his pants being rearranged from the inside. Just as Ren thought it couldn't get any worse, Yusuke's arm emerged with treasure.

An afro wig, with a speedo draped atop it, rested in Yusuke's hand. With his free hand, he plucked the speedo free before tossing it randomly to the side. Ren strained in his seat to see where it landed, only to find nothing.

Then, as Yusuke put the wig on, it finally clicked.

Tae, you motherfucker. I asked for none of that twenty-four-hour bullshit, and what do you give me?

Bob Ross Yusuke stretched his arms out wide, still standing in the middle of the aisle, and looked down at Ren. "Now, are you ready for the best seven hours of your existence?"

You give me bullshit.

---

"We're up all night 'til the sun, we're up all night to get some, we're up all night for good fun, we're up all night to get lucky, we're up all night to get lucky, we're up all night to get lucky, we're up all night to get lucky, we're up all night to get lucky, we're up all night…"

Make it stop.

An hour of unmitigated chaos already passed, with more hallucinated friends joining in on the fun. Ryuji passed out, and Doctor Ryuji joined the fray, sitting atop the actual Ryuji's lap, filing away at his nails. Executioner Haru had been dragging her axe up and down the aisle, glaring at Ren, for whatever reason. He would've been intimidated if it wasn't for Bob Ross Yusuke and his will to annoy.

"We're up all night 'til the sun, we're up all night to get some, we're up all night for good fun, we're up all night to get lucky…" Bob Ross Yusuke had broken into the groovy chant ten minutes prior, taking no breaks or letting Ren get any rest.

Of all things to chant, this? Fuck, it's annoying…

Yet it continued. Ren put in his earbuds, trying to drown the chant out with music of his own, only to remember that Bob Ross Yusuke and company were produced by his brain, therefore he was imagining the chanting.

And that means that I can't drown it out, and I can't stop hearing it until this shit wears off or Yusuke gives up.

As Yusuke continued his chants, Doctor Ryuji took the opportunity to speak to Ren. "That's right, Renny-Ren-Ren. You need to help us with ouragenda if you want the pain to stop," he said, filing his nails while extending an uncomfortably skimpy leg under the seat in front of him.

The only nice thing about Yusuke's chanting is that it blocks out literally everything else, Makoto included. That raises the question… what would I rather deal with? Reliving Makoto's death, or Yusuke singing for another six hours?

Doctor Ryuji made his opinion known. "Personally, I'd rather hear Yusuke sing, but that's just me."

Please leave me alone.

"We're up all night 'til the sun, we're up all night to get some, we're up all night for good fun, we're up all night to get lucky…"

Doctor Ryuji responded to Ren's thoughts. "You know that we can't do that. As I mentioned, we have an a-" he tried to say but stopped when Ren interrupted with his train of thought.

Yeah, I get it. You have an agenda, yet you haven't told me what the fuck it is.

"Well… I'm happy that you're so curious." Doctor Ryuji stopped filing his nails, carefully tucking the file itself behind actual-Ryuji's ear. The false doctor turned in Ryuji's lap, now facing Ren directly. Just behind him, in the aisle between seats, Yusuke continued his chant, now dancing along to the groove. He thrust his hips to a four-count, disturbingly reminding Ren of the king of pop.

Yeah? Are you finally gonna tell me why you're here?! I mean, I know you're here because Tae wanted to fuck with me, but what the hell is your goal in annoying me?!

The left corner of Doctor Ryuji's lips cracked. "Crashing this plane."

Ren just stared at Doctor Ryuji, hoping that the hallucination would laugh off the unfunny joke and go back to annoying him.

"We're up all night 'til the sun, we're up all night to get some, we're up all night for good fun, we're up all night to get lucky…"

With no clarification whether it was a joke or not, Ren stood up as much as he could under his seat belt, using his newfound height to try and find Executioner Haru. He spotted her a few rows back, gracefully stroking the face of a random student with the flat of her axe. With Bob Ross Yusuke's continued song and dance, and Doctor Ryuji's strange insistence on staying in Ryuji's lap, it seemed that the plane would be in no danger of crashing if hallucinations could even do that.

Of course they can't, Ren. Don't be stupid. You're imagining them. That's why that guy with Haru isn't reacting to the axe; because she doesn't exist for him.

"You're right; we can't crash this plane, " Doctor Ryuji said, extending a hand towards Ren's cheek. He attempted to give it a good ol' rub, only for Ren to quickly slap it away. "But youcan."

What?!

"We're up all night 'til the sun, we're up all night to get some, we're up all night for good fun, we're up all night to get lucky…"

"Yusuke is pushing you to your tipping point, isn't he? " Doctor Ryuji tried again with his cheek-rub, this time succeeding because Ren simply gave up. He sat down in his chair again and listened to the doctor. " He'll stop if you obey us. Crash the plane, Ren."

I'm not crashing this plane, get the fuck out of my head.

"We're up all night 'til the sun, we're up all night to get some, we're up all night for good fun, we're up all night to get lucky…"

You know what? Fuck you guys. I'm going to the bathroom.

Ren unbuckled his seatbelt and started the very uncomfortable process of pushing past Doctor Ryuji's outstretched limber legs. The doctor didn't move his legs, forcing Ren to step over the unnervingly unproportionate limbs and join Yusuke in the aisle. Maintaining his standard for bullshit, Bob Ross Yusuke got in Ren's face, his lips moving only a few inches from Ren's eyes.

"We're up all night 'til the sun, we're up all night to get some, we're up all night for good fun, we're up all night to get lucky…"

"Go to the pilot's cabin. Threaten them," Doctor Ryuji urged from Ren's side, still on Ryuji's lap.

I would kick the shit out of you, but I would look like an idiot and I'd probably hit Ryuji. Go fuck yourself, and make sure you do it sincerely.

Ren opened up the luggage compartment, with Yusuke still jabbering in his ear. He grabbed his bag, luckily the first one he saw, and began unzipping the front pocket. In it, he found his savior. Ren took the small plastic bottle out of the bag, quickly slipping it in his pocket to not look like a junkie who couldn't hold himself together for a single flight.

As Ren began walking down the narrow aisle toward the bathroom, his hallucinations taunted him from behind. "Tah-tah, Renny-Ren-Ren!" Doctor Ryuji and Executioner simultaneously called after him.

Unlike his friends, Bob Ross Yusuke continued towards the bathroom with Ren, keeping his head practically on the suffering student's shoulder. "We're up all night 'til the sun, we're up all night to get some, we're up all night for good fun, we're up all night to get lucky…"

Ren slid the bathroom door open, locking it behind him even though he knew it wouldn't work. Within seconds, Bob Ross Yusuke proved him right. He phased through the door, not even pausing his groove. Ren hunched over the sink, clumsily unscrewing the cap before dropping it into the sink on accident. "Fuck," he muttered under his breath.

"We're up all night 'til the sun, we're up all night to get some, we're up all night for good fun, we're up all night to get lucky…"

Just stop already…

Even the internal voice of Ren's own thoughts sounded deprived of will. Just as he'd done the night before, he dry-swallowed two pills in succession. He hated the feeling it gave him, but he knew it'd be worth it when Yusuke shut up.

This gets worse the more I think about it. The voices in my head are telling me to crash a plane, so I take medication for them to shut up… Jesus. This is what I've gotten to, huh?

Ren pushed Bob Ross Yusuke down to the toilet seat, then quickly walked out of the bathroom. The hallucination followed after, but Ren just didn't care anymore. At his seat, he was greeted with a surprise: Doctor Ryuji had vanished, and Ryuji had woken up from his petrification.

"Hey, man. Wanna watch a movie?"

Finally… something normal.

Despite his gratification, he rejected Ryuji's offer. "Can't. It's naptime."

"Suit yourself," Ryuji said, pulling his phone out. After Ren stepped past Ryuji to get to his window seat, Ryuji flipped out his tray table and propped his phone upon it.

Ren settled in, still hearing Yusuke's chants in his head, but knowing they would fade when he drifted into sleep. He closed his eyes and waited for the pills to take action.

---

Out of the freezer, into the boiler room.

The unnecessarily cold cabin of the plane had been replaced with a cramped, hot, musty bus as soon as everyone in Shujin had finished with baggage claim. Each student's first steps into a new country were only to get on the bus to the resort where Shujin would be staying.

Ren and Ryuji had been among the last to board. Ryuji struggled with waking Ren up as the plane landed, leaving Ren with the awful feeling one gets after a nap. His unquenchably dry mouth and perceived exhaustion remained an annoyance, only exacerbated by the humid, mid-eighties weather.

At least it's less humid than Tokyo.

After their seven-hour flight, another hour was dedicated to driving in a convoy of buses to the resort, during which the teachers were required to make announcements. Luckily for Ren, he got on the same bus as Kawakami, the lead chaperone for the trip. She stood at the front, just next to the driver, reading off a paper.

As always, Ren initially gave Kawakami his undivided, absolute attention while other students chatted amongst each other and did anything other than look at Kawakami. "Listen up!" she yelled, shutting the chatter up quickly. "I'm going to list off your room assignments for the hotel, so you better pay attention!"

Naturally, Ren did the exact opposite. He and Ryuji both looked out the window, marveling at the geography. On the side of the bus facing the center of Hawaii's largest island, a slow, gradual slope climbed up to what Ren assumed to be a volcanic peak, and a very anticlimactic one, at that. Instead of the jagged, black, violent-looking mountains that he saw on TV, the volcanic hill was covered in green up to the very top, where the clouds obscured the peak.

On the other side of the bus, the ocean remained close by. Waves crashed against a beach of black sand, sliding up and down like they would for any other beach.

"Amamiya!" Kawakami called out, pulling Ren's attention from the window and towards the front of the bus.

Time to pay attention.

"You're in room three-oh-four with…" As if she truly hated Ren and wished for him to feel the most painful suspense in the world, only to end it with the purest form of disappointment, Kawakami paused before ruining Ren's whole vacation. "Mishima!"

---

Ren and Ryuji stepped off the bus of crushing disappointment to the purest embodiment of vacation they ever saw: the Shilton Waikoloa Village. All they needed to see was the reception area to know that the rest of the resort would be glorious.

A giant, open-air lobby, now packed with students, gave way to a glorious view of the ocean in the distance. Despite the sun setting in the distance, crisp, satisfying upper-seventies air blew through the lobby. Among the packed students, cliques comfortably settled together, taking up different spots of the lobby. Ren scanned his eyes across the room, searching for GRAVY's most distinct features.

Blonde hair, blonde hair, blonde hair…

Finally, he spotted Ann and her hair near the back corner of the lobby. He led Ryuji through the giant crowd, revealing more of Ann with every step. She fully came into view, along with the other girls of GRAVY. Each of them took a seat on fancy, wooden cushioned benches, eagerly looking around the group of people.

Ann's in her element, Haru's a little nervous, and Makoto's…

Makoto's head slammed into the wall, only leaving blood in its wake. Her body crumpled to the ground with Yoshiro pouncing on her, pressing his hands to her throat, crushing her un-

Ren stopped walking and closed his eyes. Ryuji bumped directly into him from behind, but Ren held his ground.

"Hey, man?" A firm pat on the shoulder opened Ren's eyes. "You good?" Ryuji asked.

"Y-yeah… just tired…"

"You slept for six effin' hours. Time to wake up, right?"

"Mhm."

"Good. Let's go meet up with the others." Ryuji took the lead from there, with Ren dragging his feet on the way over to his girlfriend. The girls noticed them soon after, all of them standing to greet them.

Makoto quickly went for the hug, which Ren didn't reject. He knew that he needed it. "How was your flight?" she asked, pressing him close to her.

"Meh. I slept the whole time," Ren said, Makoto withdrawing from the hug. Her deep red eyes searched through his own, analyzing like she always did. When they stopped moving, Makoto frowned but turned away from Ren to face the group.

The hell? Did she notice that something's off with me?

"This guy slept for six effin' hours!" Ryuji added, shaking his head with a laugh. "I still can't believe it."

Ann continued with the questions. "Did you guys get a room together?"

"Nah, they put me with some random kid who I've never met," Ryuji answered, happy to take the attention of the girls. "I think his name was… ah shit. Can't remember."

"Who'd you get, Ren?" Haru asked.

Ren took no pleasure in answering, though he did keep a straight, unbiased face. "Mishima. I'm sure he's excited."

I haven't seen him since everyone was waiting in the security line at the airport. I'm sure it's going to be rough when we first get to the room tonight.

To Ren, it seemed like the girls shared his lack of enthusiasm over Mishima. "Ooh… that's rough," Ann quipped, but quickly refocused on more exciting topics. "Did you guys hear yet? Apparently, we get to eat at a pre-paid buffet every day."

Ryuji quickly shot down the possibility as too good to be true. "No chance. Shujin's just a bunch of cheap asses who-"

"Actually, Ann is correct. Shujin students have full access to the buffet,' Makoto said.

"Not after I get there, I'll tell ya that…" Ryuji mumbled. "Makoto, you're gonna regret letting me go to a buffet."

Makoto laughed, opening her mouth to reply, but stopping when Kawakami's voice shouted over the whole lobby. "Attention, please!" Silence spread, with the last few students not quite getting the memo until Kawakami loudly cleared her throat. Finally, she began the important announcement. "We'll be leaving in just a minute to go to our rooms, so please start getting your bags ready to go. Once each of you gets your bags settled into your rooms, please report to the Big Island Breakfast building for dinner by following the signs."

Easy enough.

Ren only had a suitcase and his over-the-shoulder bag with him, so he was already prepared to go. Students began to trickle in the direction of stone steps, going downwards out of the lobby. Ren and GRAVY followed, descending the steps until a canal, crystal blue water splashing at its edges, came into view at the bottom of the steps. Students huddled together at the edge of the canal, with Kawakami at the front.

The fuck?

GRAVY spent the next few cramped minutes trying to make small talk, only failing because of the crowded base of the steps. People constantly stepped on Ren's foot and pushed against him, but he forgave them all because reminding a group of Shujin students that the resident delinquent was there with them was never a good idea.

Suddenly, the crowd hushed. Ren could barely see over all the students as the top of a small brown boat came around the corner, slowing to a stop in front of the ledge where the students gathered.

"Dude…" Ryuji, like the rest of the students, was in disbelief. "We get around the hotel on effin' boats?!" When reality finally did hit him, he turned to Makoto. "Props to you for going all out."

The boats were small, only fitting ten to fifteen students at a time, but they arrived soon after one another. GRAVY finally got onto a boat with a few other students. The significant weight sank the boat down a few feet, letting Ren easily reach his hand out and dip it in the flowing water as the boat traveled down the canal.

The sunset brought Hawaii into dusk, with the lights of the resort illuminating the canal. The boat dipped under arched bridges, moving for just a few more minutes before it came to a stop at another ledge. One by one, each passenger of the boat took their bags with them, stepping onto the ledge of the new area of the resort.

Doing the same, Ren could finally see the splendor of the resort. Before him, a giant, four-story building with a glass elevator at its center begged him to go forth. To make things even cooler, a large fountain rested in between the boat stop and the elevator, with stone dolphins shooting water out of their blowholes.

Ann summed up the mood pretty well. "Holy shit…"

"I didn't think Shujin would ball out like this!" Ryuji added.

"Many parents are enthusiastic about school trips, so we receive quite a few donations towards the trip every year," Makoto explained. "Though a few cutbacks had to be made this time. There are fewer school-guided activities, but students have more freedom than ever."

It's a little ridiculous that they would trust us with something like that.

The group followed the other students, walking towards the fountain and elevator. Just as they passed the fountain, an American in a black suit at a desk just in front of the elevator stopped them. He held a tablet in his hand. "Name?" he asked in perfect Japanese.

"Amamiya."

Swiping through the tablet a few times, he tapped it once more, then smiled at Ren. He reached under the desk, soon coming back up to pass Ren a room key. "Room three-oh-four. Enjoy your stay." Ren took the key and got out of the way so his friends could get their own keycards.

Standing in front of the elevator, Ren slipped the black card into his pocket for safekeeping. He wondered how much time he'd be spending in his room, considering that he felt like his presence deflated any fun out of the people he stood around. Not just the Shujin students giving the delinquent a few odd looks, but his friends too. Earlier, in the lobby, it felt wrong to be with them, like they hadn't known him for months and considered him a friend.

Ryuji and Ann walked up. "Where's your room, Ren?" the latter asked.

He didn't mince words. "Third floor. You?"

"Agh, I'm on the second! Literally, everyone is on the third floor and above," she complained, using her signature foot stomp. Ren never understood why she did the stomp, as it looked awkward and uncomfortable, but he never asked.

"Cheer up," Ryuji said, patting Ann on the shoulder. "We won't be in our rooms much. It's Hawaii!" Ryuji's eyes drifted into visions of the future, his body language relaxing as he leaned on Ann's shoulder. "Long days on the beach, sunsets with American girls… I could stay here forever!"

Ann gulped after that last bit, sliding Ryuji's hand off her shoulder. "You haven't even been here for two hours, and you're already thinking about girls!"

"Yes, but food, too!"

"I can't believe you."

Makoto and Haru walked up with their own room keys, both white instead of black. "What room did you get?" Ren asked, looking Makoto in the eye. He knew he'd probably need to know that, especially because he shared a room with one of the last people he wanted Makoto to be around.

"Four-twenty," she said, holding up her card. "All chaperones get their own rooms on the top floor."

Don't mind if I stay with you, Makoto. I'm sure Mishima won't care.

GRAVY went and boarded the elevator along with a few other Shujin students. As soon as the doors closed, an awkward silence settled over them. Ren could feel the eyes on him from across the tightly cramped elevator, choosing to say nothing about it.

After Ann stepped out on the second floor, one of the unknown students on the elevator made his opinion on Ren's presence known. "I can't believe they let you come along," he said, staring daggers at Ren. The elevator doors closed and it resumed its upward movement.

I didn't want to start anything while here, but I can guess I can make an exception…

"And I can't believe they didn't let me bring your mom as a plus-one."

"Yeah?!" the guy challenged back, only to step off when he realized how few decent comebacks he had at the ready. "At least I… don't kill people?"

Unamusedly, Ren ended eye contact with the guy. "Good one."

The elevator stopped on the third floor, with Ren, Ryuji, and two other students stepping off. As he was about to walk away from the elevator, Makoto spoke out to him. "See you at dinner, Ren."

He turned back around to face her just as the doors were closing. Every time he looked at her face, he saw Yoshiro behind her coming in for the kill. "Uh…" He couldn't reply to her, deflating her smile just as the elevator doors closed.

At this rate, you're not making it through the vacation, Ren.

The two students Ryuji and Ren got out with walked to the right. The walkway they were on only afforded them two options: left or right. Both of their rooms were to the left, so the duo walked together.

"Wanna meet up before dinner?" Ryuji asked as they walked.

"Sure, I'm just gonna put my bags in my room and leave because I'd rather not deal with Mishima," Ren replied. "Meet you in front of the elevator in a minute?" Ren's early numbered room meant that his stop came nearly immediately.

Ryuji kept walking, but he gave Ren a thumbs up. Ren just swiped his key card into the door, feeling a weird dopamine rush when the scanner lit up green. He opened the door to a very fashionable hotel room, with a bathroom next to the entrance, a small closet, two queen beds, and a TV. There was no balcony, but Ren didn't mind, considering that Shujin probably went bankrupt to finance the trip.

Among the features of the room, there was one problem: Mishima was already there. He unpacked his suitcase onto his bed, turning around with eyes full of fright when Ren walked up.

"A-Amamiya, h-h-"

I really don't want to deal with this for the whole trip, especially now.

Mishima, the easily-interruptible person that he was, stopped talking as soon as Ren opened his mouth. "Before you say anything, I offer you a truce. I'll be chill if you're chill. Deal?" Mishima's fright calmed, and his mouth closed. He gulped but nodded in agreement. "Great. I'm going down to dinner," Ren said, plopping his suitcase onto the unoccupied queen bed before turning around and leaving.

---

Makoto and Haru set their full plates down at the circular table, still waiting for the rest of their friends to arrive. The circular-shaped room, which sat on the shore of a beach, wasn't too crowded, housing a few tourists and mostly Shujin students. The pair had taken the liberty of getting food from the buffet, which Shujin had reserved for every day of the trip. Makoto liked the idea until she actually got the food.

It turned out that because the resort only offered a breakfast buffet, Shujin would be getting breakfast all day, every day, and they couldn't back out. This does look decent, though, Makoto reasoned with herself, looking down at her plate of eggs, sausage, and strawberries.

Haru had gone off to what appeared to be an omelet bar, coming back with the Mona Lisa of egg-based foods. Makoto considered throwing her plate out just to go get an omelet, but she knew it would set a bad precedent, especially as the student council president, to be picky.

As she and Haru took the delicious bites of their food, Ren and Ryuji pulled two seats out and sat down. "The eff? Breakfast for dinner?" Ryuji asked with some anger in his voice.

I don't blame him. A steak would've been nice, considering we sat on a plane for seven hours, Makoto thought.

Then, Ryuji looked over to Haru's plate, where she took apart the omelet corner by corner, slowly eating it with small bites. "Is that an omelet?!"

"Yes, there's an omelet bar ov-"

Ryuji scooted away from the table and hurriedly walked away from the table. "Gimme! Gimmegimmegimme!" Makoto tried not to spit her food out laughing, but she maintained.

Her boyfriend fulfilled his seemingly self-set word quota for the conversation. "Food any good?"

Just as she did each time they met up, Makoto focused solely on him just for a moment. She avoided any slip of her own expressions, hoping not to upset Ren or make him think she was reading into him. She was reading into him, but she preferred that he didn't know it.

What's going on with you…? Dodgy eye contact, minimal blinking, bags under the eyes; Makoto had seen these on Ren before, always indicating the same thing. I'm guessing that he went to the clinic for one of his… visions. I think I have to believe him, given how upset he gets… but why the hell is he trying to avoid me? Asking me if the food is decent is the bare minimum, and he knows that. He couldn't even hug me back when we met up in the lobby!

Every time Ren chose to close himself off, it agitated Makoto more and more. Long-term relationships weren't sustained on a lack of communication, and she'd made that known to Ren multiple times. If he didn't already open up to her and didn't plan on it, maybe Ren wasn't worth Makoto's troubles…

But… I really love being with him… I feel comfortable, and I can say anything, and… I get the feeling he doesn't think of me the same way. When I'm with him, he's cautious, defensive, and dodgy. He deflects by joking and flirting. He's really damn good at it because it works every time, and I wish it didn't. I can't keep having a weekly talk with him about him trying to improve, Makoto thought to herself, arriving at a conclusion. Ren needs to get there, and I'll give him the chance while we're here in Hawaii, but if he doesn't…

Makoto hated the possibility of Ren giving up. They would break up, Ren would slump back into purposely agitating teachers, students, and anyone around him, while Makoto would slip back into the quiet pushover who had nothing to her.

But yes, the food was good.

"Quite," Haru answered for Makoto, filling the awkward silence that followed the question. Makoto felt bad for the heiress, as her being present unwittingly placed her amid a wordless squabble. "You should try the omelets."

Ren scooted his chair out. "I'll do that," he said, quickly walking away in the same direction Ryuji went.

"You two are getting along well," Haru said, her tone flat and empty of judgment.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Kobayakawa can probably tell that things are off between you two, and he's all the way back in Tokyo."

Makoto sighed, setting her fork down. She propped up her elbow on the edge of the table, resting her cheek in her head. Angling her head, Makoto looked over to the omelet bar. Ren stood in line, looking back and forth between the people in line with him, with an empty plate in his hands. The concept of being able to truly go inside someone else's brain, as seen in the movies, always intrigued Makoto, but she'd never wanted to do it more than at that moment.

He's a perpetual liar, Makoto thought, though it never came from a place of resentment. Ren had done so much for her and became so integral to her life that she didn't know if she could give him up, even if it would be to both their mutual benefit. But he's myliar.

GRAVY's last unarrived member finally pulled a chair out. Ann sat down, fully changed into pajama sweatpants and a red t-shirt.

"Sorry, guys. I hate the school uniform so much," she said, brushing her hair out of her eyes with her hands. "Can't believe they made us wear it for the flight."

Makoto grew a little defensive, given that she was one of the people who made the students wear uniforms. "It's to help the chaperones more easily identify everyone, you know."

"If the teachers don't know their own students at this point, that's on them," Ann said, glancing around the room. She saw Ann and Haru's breakfast plates and her eyes widened.

All she needed was a single word. "Crepes?"

Haru nodded. "Crepes."

Even faster than Ryuji, Ann backed out of her seat and rushed off towards the buffet. The similarities between the two blondes were uncanny, even if they would both fight tooth and nail to deny it.

Think of the devil… Makoto thought just as Ryuji arrived back at the table, carrying plates up and down his arms like a waiter. Makoto quickly counted up seven plates, each with massive omelets of varying colors and ingredients.

Haru couldn't believe it either. "Ryuji-kun!" The heiress looked down at her measly omelet to compare, with Ryuji's omelet army crushing hers.

"Heh, I know, right?" Haru helped him set a few of the plates down so that he could free up a hand. After that, he arranged the plates himself, forming a little circle of omelets at his seat. "They started offering me all these effin' choices, in English, of course, so I was like, 'Gimme all of it.' I just started pointing at food, they started making omelets out of it."

"That sounds like it won't end well for your stomach," Makoto said. Some of the omelets did look good, but a few of them… Makoto shuddered. One held a dark green hue, and only God knew what rested inside that omelet.

Ren got back with a much more acceptable single omelet, some yogurt. If he's going to lie to me, at least he can eat healthily, Makoto thought.

Ann came back with two chocolate-filled crepes stacked atop one another, strawberries and powdered sugar topping the whole thing off. It looked delicious, but surely it would knock Ann out of her perfect physical form after a single bite. After all I've seen of Ann eating, it's a miracle that she still has a model's body, Makoto thought, fighting back longing for her own chocolate crepe. She lived with quite a bit of dietary discipline, though the occasional cheat day did come along. It didn't help that Ren didn't stock his fridge whenever she was over and was quick to order from food-delivery services no matter the cost.

With Ann joining them, GRAVY's final missing piece of the Hawaii trip had been assembled and now the group could finally relax together. Ryuji had the honor of starting things off. "Did you guys see the trailer for that new Ratman movie? It looks sick!"

"Ooh, I saw that while watching TV on the plane," Haru said. "It looks quite a bit darker than the older ones."

Makoto, as a cinephile for dark crime thrillers, had watched and re-watched the Ratman trilogy from the late 2000s, and could probably recite those movies word for word. She'd seen the new trailer, and it offered her hope that Ratman would finally get out of the decade of mediocrity that he'd been stuck in.

Ryuji couldn't contain his excitement now that he discovered at least one of his friends actually wanted to talk about the movie. "Yeah, they're finally giving the Diddler a chance to be a movie villain!"

"Pfft!" Ann spat a strawberry out, quickly grabbing her napkin and wiping her face. "You're telling me that the villain of the movie is called 'The Diddler'?"

"I thought that the movie about popes came out last year," Ren muttered, still loud enough for the group to hear, but not loud enough that his words would escape beyond their table.

It was Ryuji's turn to spit out his food. "Hah!" He slapped Ren hard on the back, getting him to cough up food as well. "That was an effin' zinger!" Ryuji sat forward again, beginning to cut up his second omelet. "But yeah, the Diddler is finally gettin' some screen time."

"I believe he is a retired baker, who emerges from the cold isolation of old age in the upcoming motion picture."

Uh… is that who I think it is? Makoto turned to her left, finding a new person in the seat next to her.

"Yeah, that's exactly what it is, Yusuke," Ryuji said. "And he's goi- Yusuke! How the eff did you get here?!" The group shared Ryuji's moment of realization, all of them simultaneously turning to face him.

Yusuke's familiar white shirt and black pants showed no signs of wear, even after whatever he'd done to get to Hawaii.

Ren didn't let Yusuke answer. "I thought Kosei was going to California."

Yusuke clasped his hands together at the edge of the table, comfily settling into his seat. "We planned on it, but I decided that we would be making a slight detour." Yusuke plainly looked each GRAVY member in the eye one by one, none of them making any sense of his presence.

Ren kept up the pressure on Yusuke. It felt off to Makoto, as Ren had always been the one most accepting of Yusuke's strange quirks. "How'd you pull that off?"

"I simply requested that the pilot land the plane."

"Dude…" GRAVY uncomfortably looked at Yusuke in silence, afraid of what he actually meant. Ryuji put it into words a bit too easily. "I think you're a fucking terrorist!"

"I resent the implication."

Ryuji slammed his hand down on the table, standing up in his seat. He pointed the most aggressive finger Makoto ever saw across the table at Yusuke. "That's exactly what a terrorist would say!"

Yusuke remained unaffected by it, but the rest of GRAVY didn't, especially as the aftermath of Ryuji's words set in. His slamming of the table silenced the dining room enough that his words were heard by everyone.

Still standing, and with all eyes on him, Ryuji nervously glanced around. "Heh… sorry 'bout that. Freudian slip, ya know?" He sat down, scooting his chair in like a changed man who would never go out in public again.

I don't think he knows what a Freudian Slip is, Makoto thought, continuing to eat her food to avoid any embarrassment that came from sitting with Ryuji. She knew she shouldn't care what any of the other students thought, but the eyes behind her back always hurt.

"I am no harbinger of destruction. I approached the pilot as a simple man with simple goals in a simple life. He obliged."

"And what would those goals be, Yusuke?" Ann asked, dicing up her crepes. Of all the members of GRAVY, she'd grown the most accustomed to being watched and actively disliked by other students, so she had no trouble going about her business.

"Crafting my own beautiful, dark, twisted fantasy."

---

Ren looked himself in the eyes in the hotel bathroom mirror. The opened bottle of pills rested at the side of the sink, waiting for Ren to tilt it over and drop two into his hand. He'd slept six hours on the flight, and he already wanted to go back to sleep. Those six hours had been nightmare-free, and the only solace he'd had in the past twenty-four hours from the horror Tae's drugs showed him. He hoped that the pills would come through again and keep his night empty of any dreams.

He needed them to.

The five-hour difference in time between Tokyo and Hawaii wasn't wreaking havoc on Ren's sleep cycle yet, and he certainly didn't plan on letting it. The pills would be his workaround, and hopefully help him readjust when he got back home.

If he had enough of them remaining, that is.

Dinner had been a long, tiring affair. Exchanged glances across the table with Makoto, the girl he should've been sitting next to, didn't help, as he could tell that she was angry at him. She never did very well with hiding her emotions, but that probably made it worse on Ren.

You're acting like a child, Ren. Grow the hell up, or just take the pills and go to bed.

Ren hoped that the options he thought up weren't mutually exclusive as he took a sip of water to wash the two pills down his throat. He snapped the lid on the plastic bottle closed, tucked it into his bag of toiletries on the sink counter, and ducked out of the bathroom. He'd gotten into some nightwear as soon as he got back from the buffet, wanting nothing more than to go to bed.

Dealing with Yusuke made things worse, too. He'd only offered vague, mildly concerning answers to how he got to Hawaii, and wouldn't do anything to clarify. Ren didn't even know where the hell Yusuke would be sleeping, but he lost the will to care anymore.

If he wants to fuck around and be weird, that's fine. He just shouldn't expect help when he needs it while we're out here.

Ren contemplated the strange resentment that formed towards Yusuke, knowing that he shouldn't think like that. Yusuke had been a friend, albeit a weird one, through Ren's time in Tokyo and didn't deserve to be Ren's mental punching bag.

Especially since a better one was ten feet away from Ren.

Damn, I hate Mishima. Now, even more, because he turned the fucking heat up and it's eighty degrees in here!

"Mishima, you can't be serious with the heat."

"What's wrong with it?"

"It's practically a sauna."

"Ren…" Even Mishima's whiny voice told Ren that he was about to be served a plate of bullshit, complete with a cherry on top. "When my lair gets too cold, I go on demon time."

Your lair?! Fuck, he's the worst… Ren, don't screw around with him. He can just as easily ruin your trip. If he sleeps in an eighty-degree room every night, it can't be that bad, right?

---

Mishima's snores shook Ren to his very core. After every deep breath, the nuisance would exhale in the worst way possible.

"Mimimimimimimimi…"

The heat didn't help.

I think every nutrient in my body has left me after sweating so much. The sheets feel like I fucking pissed myself!

Ren felt genuinely sick, but the threat of Mishima on "demon time" sounded worse than any heat-related thing he could imagine, so he saw only one option:

Gotta sleep naked. He's left me no choice.

Ren tossed his t-shirt against the wall and pulled his sweatpants off while still in bed. He left his boxers on as a buffer because there was no chance that he would be able to withstand the heat and cover up with the blankets.

About time that the pills kicked in, no?

---

Thursday, 9/8

Ryuji rapped his knuckles on room three-hundred-four's door for the third time in the last minute. Still, no response came from the other side. Ryuji checked his phone, seeing that they only had ten minutes to get down to the buses that Shujin would be taking up the island.

"Do you think he's even in there?" Ann asked. "Maybe he's already down at the lobby."

Makoto refuted Ann's assumption. "Haru and I both texted him. He didn't respond, so I'm guessing he's still asleep."

"Shit… I'd love to miss the hike if it didn't count towards participation grades," Ryuji said, now starting to slam his hand against the door. "Get the eff up, Renny!"

Shujin had decided to keep the school-related activities to a minimum this year, as students constantly complained about them in the past and they increased the trip's budget dramatically. As this was the first year going to Hawaii, Makoto didn't know if it was the right approach, but she didn't have a say in that matter. The only school-led activity would be a wilderness hike through the forest to see Akaka Falls. Unfortunately, the waterfall's status as a landmark in a state park kept them from swimming in it, so they would find no reprieve from the heat and humidity at the end of their hike.

The only problem was the two-hour hike that it would take to get there. Ryuji hated hiking, even though his lone experience with it was when he and his mother took a trip out to the countryside and spent a day hiking. He didn't mind being with his mom, that was the only part of the trip he liked, but he did hate the pain in his legs and knowing that he could run through the entire hike at a much faster pace.

"It doesn't seem like he's coming out," Haru said, hinting at the possibility of leaving Ren behind. Ryuji legitimately considered it, as Ren hadn't been overjoyed to be in Hawaii, but shot the idea down with another pound against the room's door.

Suddenly, the lock clicked and the door opened. "Hey, Ren, we gotta- oh." Ryuji unintentionally punctuated the group's disappointment at seeing Mishima. "'Sup, Mishima. Ren in there?"

"Yeah, but-"

Ryuji took that as an invitation to push past Mishima and enter the still dark hotel room. "Great!" GRAVY followed him inside to see Ren. Unfortunately, they were missing Yusuke, as he'd disappeared to a place unknown after the dinner. Ryuji saw a few students from Kosei at the hotel that morning—he recognized them from when he and Ren visited back in July—but the artist had been missing.

Ryuji, Ann, Haru, and Makoto walked around the entrance corner of the hotel to find the glorious GRAVY leader splayed out across his bed, defeat written into his position on the bed. Limbs spread like a spider, Ren laid face down into a pillow, with each arm and leg extending towards a different corner of the bed. Worst of all, only his underwear protected his modesty. Everything else was laid bare for GRAVY to see.

"Oh my god." Ryuji could practically hear Ann's eyes roll as she stormed out of the room. "I'll be on the first bus."

"I believe he is still asleep."

"Thank you, captain obvious," Ryuji muttered in response to Haru. He walked over to the bed, standing beside Ren. "Makoto, you might wanna leave so he's not too embarrassed."

"No, it's-" Makoto tried to insist upon her being there, but Haru turned the student council president to the door and led her out.

Ryuji took the cup of water on the nightstand, not caring if it belonged to Ren or Mishima, and tipped it over on Ren's head.

Immediately, Ren flipped over in bed, revealing his bare chest and now wet hair, dripping down his face. Panicked, he glanced around the room, going in between Mishima and Ren to find out who wronged him.

"Man, we gotta leave for the hike in five minutes."

Ren blinked at Ryuji, obviously not able to understand. I know that feeling. I can never understand Ma after she wakes me up. What can I say? I'm a heavy sleeper, Ryuji thought before repeating himself to Ren.

"Shujin's doing a hike in five minutes, dude. Get the eff up, put some clothes on, and come with me."

Ren sat there in his strewn apart sheets, blankly staring at Ryuji. His soaking wet hair stuck to his forehead, with the moisture dripping into his eyes. With one hand, he wiped his hair back. "You're the only one who came to get me, right?" he asked.

"Sure, man. Believe that."

---

"Hawaii's the worst state, I just know it."

"Have you actually been to the other forty-nine states?"

"No, but I can just tell," Ryuji said, huffing and puffing from the endless walking along the forested path. "None of them have hikes that are this effin' stupid…"

Ryuji wasn't the only one complaining about the hike. Haru could hear many Shujin students moaning and groaning over their exhaustion, and she certainly felt the burn in her own legs. Just to get to the hike, they had to take the buses to a parking lot on the other side of the island to swap them out for SUVs designed for off-roading. From there, the convoy of SUVs took Shujin across the bumpiest road imaginable into the forest. The drivers quickly kicked the students out of the vehicles and left them at the start of the trail, all of which was laid out with a wood path and railings on either side.

Getting to the start of the trail took an hour and a half, finishing it would take another two and a half. Unfortunately for Ryuji, they were only an hour in.

Only one of the teacher-chaperones went on this excursion, with that teacher being Kawakami. Haru admired Kawakami quite a bit, but this hike was crossing into the territory of being cruel rather than fun.

The views are very nice, no matter how sweaty everyone gets, Haru thought to herself. Her top stuck to her body, and she had it better than the rest of them. Ryuji looked like he had a damn heart attack and his yellow tank top became skin-tight from the stickiness.

Nonetheless, they all pressed on.

I hope we don't get lost out here. Cannibalism is quite unfortunate, especially for those who get eaten. Haru knew they wouldn't get lost because of the wooden path persisting for the whole trail, but the fantasy of a hike gone wrong distracted her from the lactic acid building up in her legs. She considered the hike a reminder that she didn't work out nearly enough, only walking two miles on a treadmill twice a week. Perhaps I should hire a trainer. Ooh, maybe I could hire Mako-chan!

What sounded like a fun idea quickly deflated into a horrible one. For that to happen, Makoto would have to come over to Haru's house, which only continued its descent from a home to just a place to sleep at night. Kunikazu's political ambitions ramped up by the day, with him spending more nights in hotels or somewhere that Haru didn't know than at home. It made Haru's life less complicated, but she would always long for the family life of her youth.

Kunikazu didn't take any convincing for Haru to be added to Hawaii's chaperone list. She emailed him the paperwork and he got it back to her with a digital signature within a few hours, probably not even checking what it was for. He might not even know I'm in Hawaii , Haru thought to herself as she kept walking, breathing heavily.

The order that students walked in varied greatly over the course of the hike, but GRAVY generally stuck close together. Ren and Ryuji had held up the front, but Ren slowed his pace until Haru caught up to him, then matching stride with her.

"Makoto and Ann keep looking at me," he said.

"Hm?"

"I keep getting the feeling that someone's watching me, then I turn around and they're both looking at me. Did she mention anything, or…?"

Talking wasted Haru's breath, increasing the difficulty of the hike, which got even worse as the path began to slope upwards again. "Ren-kun, I'm just trying to keep walking. I don't know anything about why they would be looking at you."

"You sure? Nothing weird happened with you guys when I wasn't there last night? Or what about this-"

"Maybe it's because they saw you in your underwear."

"What?!"

Did he not know that we all came to get him? …Oops. Still, Haru had to explain herself to Ren.

"Ryuji didn't tell you? We all came to get you this morning, and you were lying on your bed in your underwear."

"Fuck."

"Sorry, Ren-kun. I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"Don't worry about it. It's better than not knowing why they kept looking at me then whispering."

They walked next to each other in silence until Haru worked up enough courage to address the proceeding elephant on the hiking trail. "Why were you in your underwear, though?"

Ren's embarrassment forced him to hesitate with a long, drawn-out breath. "Eh… Mishima apparently goes crazy when rooms get cold, so he keeps it really damn hot. I couldn't take the heat, and… you get it."

"Oh my."

"Yeah. It's unfortunate. I've been getting used to the AC back in my apartment."

"You guys talkin' about the air conditioning?!" Ryuji called from the front, not looking backward. He kept his eyes on the trail as he continued trying to talk to Ren. "That shit was exquisite! I've been needing some of that since this summer's been crazy hot!"

Makoto chimed in with some concerning news. "Sorry, Ryuji, but that's the only night of AC that we get. We went all-in on the prepaid buffet and rooms, so we couldn't afford the bills for all four nights of air conditioning."

"For real?!"

"Looks like Mishima's in for a fun night," Ren mumbled under his breath, still loud enough for Haru to hear. She didn't question why, as she didn't want to know.

The group continued walking, all of them hoping that they could zone out and that the hike would end with a snap of their fingers. Haru checked the time on her phone. It's only been five minutes… ugh, she thought, her disappointment showing in her slouching shoulders and bowed head.

"You doing alright?" Ren asked. He didn't seem any better off than her. His pale face had gone red, shiny from the moisture. His feet dragged along the wooden path, and his hands fidgeted at his side.

"Honestly, no, I am not."

"Yeah… we're all in the same boat at this point. I don't think anyone's enjoying this hike unless the waterfall ends up being the coolest thing ever and grants us three wishes or some shit."

Haru jumped at the opportunity for conversation, even if it would tire her out faster. "What would you wish for?"

"Infinite wishes."

Ann laughed from ahead, though not with Ren, but at him. "Come on, Ren. That's what everyone says. What do you really want?"

"Well, my first wish would be for Kobayakawa to be on this hike."

"If… he… fell… over… then…" Ryuji had the hardest time of any of them. Haru knew of his bad leg, but she didn't think he would be this tired. Maybe the bad leg gave him an excuse to not take care of his body, and he'd fallen out of shape over the summer. "Eff… can't… even… make… a… fat… joke…"

"My second wish would be for GRAVY to get the luxury suite back at the resort." Ann and Makoto hummed in approval, prompting Ren's final wish. "And… uh… the last one's a bit personal."

"Ren, now you have to tell-" Ann tried to press, but Ren stayed one step ahead.

"What would you wish for, Ryuji?"

Ryuji wheezed like an eighty-year-old at the front of the group. "I… want… to… die…"

"But then you wouldn't get any more wishes!" Haru called to the front, heaving for breath after yelling.

"Effin'... worth… it…"

Unprompted, Ann gave her three wishes. "Um, first, I'd wish for Shiho to still be at Shujin." Haru nodded her head in approval, or from not being able to hold it steady out of exhaustion. She wasn't quite sure. "Then I'd wish for that stupid girl Mika to have her hair set on fire or something, then I'd-"

Ren cut in, showing more life in his interruption than any other point in Hawaii. "Woah, hold the fuck up. You want a girl to get her hair set on fire?!"

"She's stealing my cover shoots!"

"Even if all her hair burnt off, couldn't it grow back?" Makoto was in the best shape of anyone in GRAVY, but the trail still provided a challenge for her. She'd done the best out of any of the Shujin students by staying quiet and keeping her head down, so her responses came off as a bit intense.

"Not if someone rubbed salt into her scalp after," Ann said a little too pleasantly.

Ren quickly doubted Ann's strange fact. "Uh… I don't think that's a thing."

"It is, too! One of the CosmoPollination makeup guys told me about it!" Ann's defensive yelling increased her physical workload, leaving her out of breath to keep arguing.

"Ann, I think you're having a Ryuji moment."

"What the hell is a Ryuji moment?!"

"When you believe in a fact that has no actual basis."

Haru laughed, then joined in with Ren. "Ann is having a Ryuji moment!"

"Screw you guys, don't compare me to him!"

"Eff… you… guys…" With one final pained breath, Ryuji collapsed forward onto the wooden path with a thud.

---

GRAVY triumphantly dropped Ryuji to the ground at the end of the trail, finally overlooking the waterfall they'd hiked for nearly three hours to see. Nearly every Shujin student joined in the collapse. Ren could hear everyone wheezing for breath like they'd all gotten the wind knocked out of them.

"Who's… idea… was… it… to… carry… him…?" Ren stared into the sky as his dry throat barely got his raspy words out. The only comfort of laying down was the moist grass on the back of his head, cooling him down a bit.

"Kawakami told me to have you guys do it," Makoto said, sitting on the grass instead of laying down. She looked out at the waterfall, appreciating its beauty instead of treating it as the end of the worst three hours of her life.

Curse you, Kawakami. If you weren't as fine as you are, I'd push you off this cliff.

"You guys know that this is probably the only time you'll be here, yet you're spending it laying down," Makoto said harshly. Ren could tell she was annoyed, and she'd been speaking to all of GRAVY differently that day. He blamed his own behavior, though he entertained the thought that the world didn't revolve around him and Makoto had her own reasons to be moody. "Get up, we should take a picture."

Only if Kawakami wears the maid costume for the rest of the trip. I'm never trusting her again, even though that hike definitely got her fucked up, too.

Ren sat up, his breath returning to a calmer rate, but the sweat on his brow, in his hair, and on his entire body didn't cease, nor did the ache of muscles he didn't even know that he had. Ren scooted towards Ryuji, who'd been passed out for about an hour, and gave him a little slap on the face. The runner's eyes opened and he turned his head to look at Ren.

"Did I pass out?"

"Yep."

"You better not have given me mouth to mouth."

"I didn't, but that Yusuke came out from under a rock just to pump some air into your lungs."

Ryuji smirked, laughing off Ren's joke. "Man, hiking is effing stupid." As Ryuji sat up, Ren scooted away to give his friend room to breathe.

"We should've gotten a petition started for no hiking before we flew out."

"Petitions accomplish even less than hiking."

"Hah, true." On shaky legs, they both stood up, finding balance and breath at the same rate. Ann and Haru also got up, wiping dirt and sweat from their foreheads.

Finally, not grounded by exhaustion, Ren could look over the edge of the cliff and bear witness to Akaka falls. Where the group currently stood, they were straight across a small canyon from where the falls began, descending in a flurry of mist and water. Ren looked over the ledge, seeing only mist from the water crashing down below.

That's pretty and all, but it's definitely not worth the hike.

Makoto beckoned them all towards the ledge, with them naturally lining up shoulder to shoulder for a photo. Makoto went down the line, person-by-person, making sure that everyone stood up straight and didn't have stray leaves or noticeable dirt across their bodies. When she got to the end, just next to Ren, she called out for their teacher. "Kawakami-sensei?" Kawakami sat on the ground near the ledge, typing something into her phone. She looked up at Makoto. "Could you take a photo of us?"

"Oh, of course." Kawakami stood up and walked over to the group. Ren passed her his phone, and she took a few steps back from them, angling the phone so that it captured the waterfall behind them. "Say… 'Worth it'!"

"But it wasn't," Ann quickly quipped, with GRAVY nodding in agreement.

"Well, you guys have to smile. It's a photo!" Kawakami insisted on having a happy photo rather than a realistic one. "Someone tell a joke."

GRAVY stood there in awkward silence, arms on each other's shoulders, waiting for someone to speak up. Finally, after enough time of only hearing the waterfall and the chatter of students around them, Ryuji brought a joke to the table.

"Okay, so Tony the concierge gave me this one earlier today," Ryuji began, giving him an excuse if the joke sucked. "What did the blind man say when he passed the fishmonger?"

Kawakami played along. "I don't know, what?"

"Good morning, ladies!"

Kawakami burst out laughing as she took the photo, with GRAVY not sharing in the hilarity. Ren held back a laugh, considering that he had a girlfriend and had to be above such vulgarity, Makoto didn't laugh, and both Haru and Ann turned and gave Ryuji alarmed looks.

"Ryuji-kun!"

"What?! She asked for a joke, I gave her one!"

"For one, I quite enjoyed your joke," a voice said from the end of the line. "In fact, I chortled at it."

"At least someone appreciates me," Ryuji said, shaking his head as he stepped away from GRAVY's line. "Thanks, Yusuke."

Yusuke?!

Everyone in GRAVY turned and saw Yusuke, still in the same white shirt and black pants as before, now ripped and covered in mud. Despite his beaten attire, Yusuke's hair remained perfectly parted and slicked to one side. His skin remained untouched by nature, sparkling in the misty haze of Akaka Falls.

He looks like he's from a skincare commercial.

"You look surprised to see me."

"How the fuck did you get here?!"

"I walked."

"No shit, we all did," Ren said, snorting at Yusuke's ridiculousness. "Where'd you walk from?"

"My campground is one and five-eights of a kilometer north from here."

I have so many questions, but I'm sure I'll get none of the answers I want. It's not even worth it.

GRAVY pestered Yusuke for a decent explanation, but Ren didn't partake. He walked over to Kawakami, accepting his phone back and quickly glancing at the photo. Out of the several that Kawakami took, Ren chose to save the best one. In the center of GRAVY, Ryuji had a huge smile. To his left, Ann and Haru both gave him disgusted looks at his crass joke. To Ryuji's right, Ren bit his lip to hold back a laugh, giving his eyes a crazed look, while Makoto scrunched up her nose in response to the joke, but held a decent enough expression for the sake of the photo.

Oh, look. Even Yusuke got to poke his head into the edge of the frame.

Ren thanked Kawakami for the photo as she walked away, immediately sending it to the GRAVY chat for the others to see. He glanced over to see GRAVY still bickering with Ryuji over his joke and Yusuke over his Yusuke-ness, none of them checking their phones for the photo.

Finally, Ren had his first real moment of emotion since coming to Hawaii. He smiled to himself.

God, I hate hiking.

---

Dinner had been much easier than the first night. Despite his rude awakening, Ren no longer felt the exhaustion of the day prior, now in much better spirits. He hated every second of the hike, but the pain distracted him enough from his thoughts to actually have fun with his friends again. He carried that moment through dinner, joking and laughing instead of wallowing in silence. Yusuke had joined them yet again, though it had thankfully been far less eventful than before.

Now, Ren's sore muscles needed rest. He and Ryuji went back to their floor of the hotel together after dinner, both of them feeling the burn from the hike. They parted ways after Ren stopped outside his door, with Ryuji continuing on to his own.

Ren yawned as he swiped the key card. The lock clicked open, and Ren pushed the door to enter, only realizing that he couldn't see shit once the door slammed behind him.

Fuck me, it's cold in here… where the hell is the light switch?

Ren blindly felt across the grooves of the painted wall, desperate to find a light of any kind, even if it would wake Mishima up with a flash. Finally, Ren got tired of aimless searching. He pulled out his phone and turned its flashlight on to face the wall. Immediately, he found the light switch.

Well, technically he found its remains. The panel had been ripped from the wall, a mass of cables with broken ends left hanging out of the hole in the wall.

Uh…

Goosebumps stood on Ren's arm as he took just enough steps to see around the entrance corner of the hotel room, bringing the beds into view. He shined his flashlight on them, finding them perfectly made with no flaws.

Oh, thank fuck. I thought Mishima was in here.

Just as Ren breathed a sigh of relief, he got a reason to be scared again.

"Your soul reeks," a low, gargling voice hissed from somewhere in the room. Ren directed his light around in every direction, even at the door behind him, finding nothing. "You invade my discussion with my online girlfriend with no warning, no hesitation…" It sounded like it'd spent the day screaming and swallowing glass.

"Mishima?"

"I want your soouuul…" it hissed again, its voice growing in Ren's ears. "I will eat your sooouul!"

"Dude, chill the-"

As soon as Ren heard movement on the other side of the room, he knew it was time to leave. "Come to daddy! Come to daddy! Come to daddy!" He spun around, throwing the door open as something pounded against the ground behind him, getting closer with every millisecond. "Come to daddy! Come to daddy! Come to daddy!"

Ren stumbled out of the doorway, slamming the door closed behind him. Panting, with his hands on his knees, Ren made the decision to never go in that hotel room again.

I guess I know why he keeps his room warm…

"Yo, Renny! Are ya good?!"

Ren looked up from his knees, seeing Ryuji walk over. Ren fully stood up, trying to relax from his close call with a demon. "I think Mishima just tried to murder me after I walked in on him talking to his online girlfriend, or some shit."

"You kidding? You could kick his ass."

"You don't get it. He started talking about how he was gonna eat my soul," Ren said, getting a little defensive. "Nearly had a heart attack."

Ryuji shrugged. "If you say so." He turned and faced away from Ren, back towards his hotel room. Ren thought his friend was going to offer a place to stay for the night until Ryuji turned back and spoke. "Bit of a weird coincidence, but my roommate kicked me out so he could talk to his online friend tonight."

I sure hope that's a coincidence.

"What? Dude, let's just go in there and-"

"No can do. I left my card in the room."

Uh… fuck. Where the hell do we sleep tonight? I'd go to Makoto's, but then I have to find somewhere for Ryuji to sleep. I don't want him third-wheeling.

"Screw it, let's hit the buffet and brainstorm."

---

As they stepped off the boat and back to the lobby area of the hotel, Ryuji and Ren conversed while walking, eager to get some more food. The Big Island Breakfast room was close enough to the lobby that they had to take the boat there instead of directly to the breakfast area. That being said, fear lingered in the back of both their heads that the buffet had long closed and they would be out of luck. After all, it was nearly ten in the evening.

As they walked, Ryuji suddenly stopped. Ren kept walking, but turned around and walked back to join his friend, following his eyes to see what the deal was. They both looked straight ahead at the hotel's gift shop.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Ryuji asked.

"No, but let's do it anyway."

They both went inside, immediately separating to find stuff for themselves. Ryuji initially went towards the sports section, hoping to find some form of entertainment that would keep the pair busy until they thought up an idea of where to spend the night, only to find something even better:

A Zonga energy drink cooler rested in the corner of the souvenir shop, sandwiched between a bin of frisbees and paddleboards leaned up against the wall. Within the cooler, rows upon rows of every different flavor imaginable begged Ryuji to drink them until his heart exploded.

Can't say no to that, Ryuji thought, running up to the front of the store and getting a bag from the cashier. He went back to the cooler, opened it, and began scraping the Zongas into the bag, each plopping in and tugging on Ryuji's hand with their weight. Looks like… that's fifteen! Perfect , Ryuji thought before going back to the front, coincidentally at the same time that Ren placed his purchase for the evening on the counter.

"You love Hawaii, huh?" Ryuji asked, lining up behind Ren with his bag of energy drinks. Ren chose to spend his hard-earned cash on one of those 'I Love Hawaii' sweatshirts, though with a heart representing love.

"Eh, it's alright," Ren said, shrugging before handing the cashier some of the American money that the chaperones helped students exchange for back at the airport. "I just don't know how long we'll be stuck outside, so a sweatshirt can't hurt, right?"

"True that." Despite Ryuji's agreement, he didn't think that he would need one. Compared to Ren, Ryuji was built different and didn't need sweatshirts to stay warm in low-seventies weather.

As Ren got his change, he turned back to face Ryuji. Raising an eyebrow, he looked down at Ryuji's bag of Zongas. "Uh… the hell is that for?"

"We're gonna play Seven Bottoms Up!"

---

"The buffet's closed?"

"That's what the sign says."

"I didn't fly my ass out to Hawaii for the buffet to close at ten!"

"I didn't fly out to Hawaii to get stuck rooming with Mishima, but it is what it is," Ren said, walking away from the locked door to the buffet room and past Ryuji. "Come on, let's just go to the pool." Ren led them away from the buffet building and over one of the arched bridges. The pool was a short walk away, hopefully with some scenery that would inspire a better idea.

Ryuji, growing more frantic, followed behind Ren with his Zongas clanging against each other in his bag. "The eff are we gonna do, man?"

Lemme think… Ann's sharing a room with someone already, Yusuke's subsisting in the fucking jungle, Haru's got her own room and bed, and the same is true for Makoto. I could sleep with Makoto, Ryuji sleeps with Haru?

"I could stay with Makoto, and you could ask Haru if she'll let you sleep with her."

"Dude, that's weird. I'm not sleeping with Haru."

"I'd rather share a bed with Haru than sleep out in the open for a night," Ren said as they walked over one of the arched bridges. "And I say that even though I have a girlfriend."

"Nah… you know what, man? It's warm out, you got a jacket, I got my energy drinks. Let's just sleep outside."

"If you can find a comfy place for us to sleep, I will sleep outside tonight."

"I knew you'd come around!"

---

Well, fuck. There goes my plan of hanging out with Makoto.

"I told ya it wouldn't be so bad," Ryuji said, walking up to the hammock that they'd found in a grass area right next to the pool. Ren literally walked himself into that one, so he couldn't be mad. Luckily for him, there was another hammock.

Sighing, Ren put his new sweatshirt on, surprised by its comfort and high quality for a cheap tourist item. He started walking over to the hammock, only for Ryuji to grab his sweatshirt from behind. Ren turned around.

Ryuji held a Zonga next to his face and waved it at Ren. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Dude…" Ren was left in disbelief. "We can't chug energy drinks before sleeping outside for the night."

"Why not?"

"Because it's Hawaii."

"That's exactly why you should…" Ryuji said, building up to raising his voice. Yelling so that everyone outside could hear him, Ryuji cupped his hands around his mouth. "BECAUSE WE'RE ON VACATION!" The runner's yell echoed around the resort, making Ren cringe and pray to Bob Ross Yusuke that nobody heard them.

…Am I really gonna go along with this?

Ryuji tossed one Zonga to Ren, forcing him to catch it. "At least have one, Renny."

Yes. Yes, I am.

---

"Whaddya think our purpose in life is?"

"Drinking energy drinks while getting locked out of your hotel room on a school trip to Hawaii."

"Hah, that'd suck ass."

"Yep," Ren said as he weighed down the hammock, sipping an energy drink. "Couldn't be me." He and Ryuji split the energy drinks, though not evenly. Ren took a modest three, while Ryuji took enough to kill an elephant with twelve Zongas. Ren only got halfway through one and didn't plan on more.

I actually need to get decent sleep, because being tired brings Yoshiro back. I can't see that shit anymore… I can't…

Struggles aside, Ren knew that something big was on the horizon for him and Makoto. Their lack of interaction in Hawaii meant that she would be approaching soon, likely when Ren would be the least ready for it. He didn't look forward to that conversation, even if it would benefit their relationship, because Ren knew what he had to tell her.

How the fuck do you tell someone that they're gonna die? "Hey, you have two weeks before a volleyball player strangles you to death. Keep your head up. Also, I put the killer's name on a suggestion website for a deranged murdering vigilante. Hope it helps!"

He and Ryuji occupied their respective hammocks in silence, letting the wind rustle the leaves of the palm trees. The distant crash of the waves kept things from descending into awkward silence.

Makoto wasn't the only issue. Haru had her own family problems, which Ren expected himself to help her with, even if he had no clue how. Her dad was powerful enough to send ads for his campaign directly to Ren's phone. How the hell could Ren keep Haru safe from him?

Yusuke seemed to be going batshit insane. Ren didn't know if Yusuke was even real at this point, as he figured the vacation would probably end with Yusuke performing some sort of ritual then jumping into a volcano.

Ann liked Ryuji, but Ryuji had zero clue about romantic feelings that didn't come from his dick, so they would need someone to play cupid for them.

Out of all of GRAVY's members, Futaba seemed to be doing the best, and that was probably because she knew Ren for the least amount of time. Maruki helped her every week with her problems, with Ren assuming that the doctor had gotten to the root of Futaba's trauma and helped her come to terms. She'd been the most upbeat during the last week or two of summer, which Ren certainly appreciated.

And then there's me. Obviously, my biggest problem is how the hell am I going to save Makoto, but… what else is there for me? Even the hallucinations don't give me answers. I couldn't stop crying in the last one, and the fake version of Haru couldn't stop talking cryptically. I know I have to tell Makoto what I saw, but I don't think she can help me if the visions can't. It's too di-

"Hello, Earth to Ren!"

"Hm? Yeah?"

"Dude, are ya falling asleep already?"

"No, nah, uh, I was just thinking about Makoto."

"Ah, you lucky man," Ryuji said. "I'd cheers to that, but we're about ten feet away from each other, so it'll have to wait." Ren heard Ryuji take another long sip from his energy drink before smashing the can on the ground with his hand and opening another. "Well, are you really that lucky? Seems like there's trouble in paradise, no pun intended."

"I'm in paradise, and there's always trouble here."

"Girlfriends aren't all they're cracked up to be?"

"I mean, Makoto's the best part of my life, no offense GRAVY Runner Sakamoto, but we have our rough patches."

"Seems like you go through your moody rough patches every week."

"Can't speak for Makoto on that, but I do."

"Then stop looking at her funny while the whole group's out together, go talk to her about it!"

Ren stammered in protest, hoping that Ryuji would get off his case. "Well, that's the plan, but-" Ren couldn't take the pressure and let Ryuji cut in.

"Nah, I mean that you should do it tomorrow. As soon as we get back into our rooms and clean ourselves up, you're gonna go tell Makoto what's on your mind."

"I am?"

"Eff yeah, you are. If you pussy out, I will literally punch you."

"I could probably take you in a fight."

"Not the point, man. Listen to me: go talk to Makoto tomorrow and keep your relationship together. When you guys aren't acting like kids, you're much more fun to be around."

Ren hesitated, but who was he to deny Ryuji's insistence? The only mark he'd left on the world in the past week was writing a high schooler's name on an online hit list. "Fine. I'll do it."

"Great. Then after you do that, we're gonna go out on the beach and win the volleyball tournament."

Ren nearly turned over in his hammock, spilling his Zonga across his brand new sweatshirt. "We're gonna win the what?!"

---

A/N: As next chapter is the end of the second act, it'll be cranking everything up to 11. Yusuke will be at his craziest, Ren and Makoto will have a scene or two, and everyone gets to go insane with Yusuke. Even Mishima gets to have a bit of fun. Oh, and a character who hasn't been in the fic since the first act will have a cameo. Who could it be...?

Anyway, thanks for reading. Hope everyone has a great week, unless you're a Rams fan.