Summary: Busy Busy Busy...
"Is this going to be a permanent thing?" He limped down the corridor of the Despair Hotel, bat thumping against his leg with each step. After an hour or so of relatively peaceful sleep, the smell clinging to his clothes had sent him careening into the bathroom with the urge to peel his skin off. While he couldn't do that, washing himself under scalding hot water and way too much soap was a close second. Awkwardly dressing himself while two aesthetically attractive individuals were in the room because he forgot to grab new clothes was awkward, but like most things in his new life, he chose not to think too much about it. They flanked him on either side, matching his pace with little difficulty considering he was walking at the same speed as someone on crutches. Although, the way Enoshima was narrowing her eyes with each near-fall, he was starting to think she was alarmingly close to just picking him up and carrying him over his back. He was starting to think that being an Ultimate came with an unholy constitution as a package deal.
Kirigiri lifted her shoulders a fraction before lowering them. "Depends." She eyed him with a hint of amusement, and more than a little ire. "Are you planning on physically assaulting anyone else?" He winced at the reprimand, but conceded the point. She nodded, turning her gaze back to the front. "If I'm being completely honest with you, this is more of a formality than anything else."
"That's just a fancy way of saying that you'd probably charge right through us if you really felt like it." Enoshima had her hands behind her head, and he politely ignored the fact that her proximity to him had increased over the course of this walk. "Originally they were gonna stick the discount-gangster onto you…but I manaegd to convince them that you were more likely to resist if someone who you didn't particularly enjoy being around was breathing down your neck 24/7."
"Originally Fujisaki volunteered as well—" Kirigiri offered him her hand as they began to ascend the staircase, but he waved her off and began to drag himself upwards using his bat as a makeshift walking stick. "—but after the way he tore into Celeste following your little scuffle, it was decided upon majority vote that we couldn't afford to have both people guarding you to be ardent supporters."
"...and why not someone like Ogami-san?" He resisted the reflexive urge to wipe his lips, the taste of blood thick and disgusting in his mouth. "She'd probably be able to put me in my place if I chose to act up— what? What did I say?" Both girls were exchanging a look that could only be described as "Lord, throw this fool some brains…or stones, as long as your aim is true."
"Maybe it was something to do with the fact that she nearly killed you just a little less than a week ago?" Her eyes bore a great resemblance to the frozen surface of the lake he had crawled out of two winters ago. "Sure, the bimbo was completely fine with that, but more people were concerned about the possibility that she'd just snap your neck in your sleep. They want to keep you under control, not dead." That was one way to put it.
Naegi conceded that point as well. He wasn't exactly the most socially competent of individuals. "So she's guarding Celeste-san then?" The Luckster was slightly hesitant to figure out the true extent of the damage he had wrought without remorse. He was sure it wasn't enough to kill her, considering he was still walking around instead of being sent straight to execution, but he hadn't been holding back as much as he should've.
"Celeste is a complicated case." Kirigiri folded her arms into her standard lecturing posture. "Unlike the Ultimate Martial Artist, who attempted to kill you under duress, it can be argued that she did succeed in murdering someone. And for money, of all things." The edge of contempt to her tone was sharpened by the almost wicked look of delight in her eyes. "Of course, she didn't expect you to torch her prize afterwards. Nor for her accomplice to stab her in the back. But as we all know, we've dealt with Ogami's crime by ignoring it and pretending nothing had happened. We can't exactly do that with her walking around."
"Bitch would probably try and kill someone else if Monokuma decided to bring back the ten mil. But thankfully, she's been stuck in the infirmary." Enoshima was a little too cheerful while saying that. Not like he had much of a leg to stand on considering he was the one who had tried to crack her skull against the floor. "You did quite the number on her. She'll be nursing a concussion for a while."
"More specifically, a broken nose, a black eye, possible fractures in her jaw, two broken fingernails and a concussion." Kirigiri corrected. She wasn't smiling, but she certainly wasn't listing off the Gambler's injuries to make Naegi feel bad. "It may have happened under less than ideal circumstances, but her temporary stay there gives us some time to figure out what to do. And keeps her alive."
"Right. The Failure mechanic." That made two people who were prime targets for another murder. He briefly wondered if four people would be allowed to leave if two individuals committed simultaneous murders and somehow made it through the Class Trial. "Any other bad news to share?"
"There's a distinct possibility the Headmaster will speed up the motives." The glove-wearing teenager shook her head. "As you might be able to tell already, the fact that he opened up three levels of the school at once is most likely to incentivise killing." He inclined his head in agreement. "Which means we're now working with a deadline. Either we figure a way out of here…or we can expect the bodies to begin piling up."
They were on the third floor now. Naegi began his cursory sweep of the place, ignoring the way his body was screaming with every movement. He could rest later. Plus, access to the infirmary meant access to painkillers. With a little bit of coffee, he might even be able to brew up the unholy concoction that had gotten him through the worst periods of his youth and promptly sent him to the hospital afterwards, every single time. He smiled at the memory. A weird thing to smile at, perhaps, but he was a weird person. The Luckster resisted the urge to bash his head against a wall. When had he started sounding like an old timer yearning for better days? The pain was starting to make him delirious.
"I'd like to go through all three remaining floors by the end of the day—" Naegi held up a hand, already anticipating talk about things like "health" and the fact that someone could probably pull his parts of his cheek off with a strong tug. "—but considering the fact that it's already starting to approach the afternoon and I'm already starting to lose feeling in my legs, we can just stick to this one for now. I'm assuming you two don't mind?"
"Not like we have much of a choice in the matter." Enoshima rolled her eyes. "But there's a room on this floor with a billiards table I think, and I've spent way too much time reading the same things over and over again, so we can park there for a while to let you catch a breather."
"Right, right. Now then, where do we begin?"
"The hallway to our right ends with two more classrooms. Our left, on the other hand, has quite a number of facilities to unpack." Kirigiri led the way with confidence, and the Luckster did his best to shuffle after her. "We can make our way to the end before doubling back. Hopefully you won't collapse midway." On that cheerful note, the trio stopped in front of an odd door. Checking the sign beside it explained nothing.
He tilted his head, eye scanning the double doors. "Is this supposed to be automatic or something? What's with that design? And why is it so different from everything else?" Naegi stepped towards it, noting with some interest when they slid open with the slightest hiss of hydraulics. Fascinating.
"I guess whoever built this thing heard that it was supposed to be a Physics Lab and thought, 'how can we make sure people know the purpose of this place?' before creating this monstrosity." Enoshima quipped dryly before moving into the room. He snickered, following after her without a second thought.
Huh. Big. He scanned the room, noting the suspicious machine in the center and the walkways along the top half of the lab. No staircase to get up there, but there was a ladder bolted to a wall, with caution tape haphazardly binding it. He knocked gently against the unknown equipment stacked against the wall, noting the data flashing past on screens and blinking lights. Best not break these things. Worst case scenario, it was going to blow up in his face. Rifling through the cupboards next to an open door garnered nothing but the standard stuff you'd find in a physics lab; boxes of light sensors, ammeters and neatly coiled wires, along with a small stack of batteries of varying sizes. Useful.
Stepping towards the middle of the room, he eyed the machine, craning his head slightly to observe the weird glass orb at the top, along with the numerous cables and hoses disappearing into the ceiling. "Now what you might be…"
The barely muffled curse from his companion alerted him to the presence of the last thing he wanted to see right now (well, the last non-human being he wanted to see right now). "Why, Makoto-kun, it's a time machine!"
He flicked his gaze to the bear, too tired to give it a reaction, even after it appeared right next to him. "Is that so?"
"Yup yup! Pretty awesome, right? It was designed by a student right here at Hope's Peak! The Ultimate Physicist...although, they don't go here anymore. They died during The Tragedy!" The bear clapped its paws over its mouth. "Oops. Spoilers." Carefully filing away the confirmation that whatever was happening outside was terrible and true to panic over later, Naegi returned his gaze to the machine, narrowing his eye slightly to try and interpret the information on the multiple screens built into the side of it.
"Unfortunately, this particular time machine can only go back one minute. It comes in handy when you, like...you're not listening to me, are you?" Naegi had tuned out Monokuma as soon as it started yapping, taking a seat on the chair to type several standard programming commands using the keyboard. "Hey! Pay attention to me!"
He sighed, arching his back to peer at the angry bear currently throwing a tantrum. Enoshima looked torn between disgust and amusement. Kirigiri was as stone-faced as ever. "It's an air purifier."
"Eh?" The bear jumped back, sweat comically trickling down its face.
"Why would you say that?" Kirigiri questioned, an analytical glint to her gaze. "Do you recognise it?"
"Nope." Naegi gestured for them to get a little closer, clamping down on the urge to kick Monokuma into a wall when the bear hopped onto his lap. It was heavy, dammit! "I had a suspicion considering the hoses and cables…also the fact that we hadn't suffocated in our first week here despite every opening to the outside world being sealed behind vault doors and metal plates. See this here?" He tapped a screen. "It's measuring the amount of air in the school and filtering out the carbon dioxide, which is later used here," next screen, "to help generate the necessary electricity to make the process almost perpetual. That's about all I can figure out though. Weird that there's a heartbeat monitor over here as well."
Enoshima leaned over his shoulder, giving him a brief look of contemplation before turning her attention to the screens. "The more information you pull out of your ass, Naegi, the more I'm starting to think you enjoy playing the average teenager card just to fuck with people."
He shrugged, tucking feet underneath the chair. "Hope's Peak had a pretty stringent entrance examination for me, and reading the curriculum indicated that I'd have to work twice as hard as you all…considering I didn't have a Talent to develop." There was a stack of notes taller than himself somewhere in a cupboard back in his house that attested his efforts. "At the very least, I wanted to be able to understand the scientific jargon that was used at higher level education. Didn't expect my class to have so many non-academically related individuals."
"Makoto-kun's a smart boy~" Monokuma wiggled in place. On his lap. The metal creature was really heavy. "This thing can produce clean air no matter where you're at. You could even live on Mars! But what with the discombobulating gravity and deadly low temperatures, you prolly don't wanna live on Mars."
"Space travel is an excuse for excessively rich people to toss money away and will never be open to the general public until…maybe another century?" Naegi sighed, shaking his head. "Now would you kindly get off me!?"
The Principal laughed, a sound that grated at his ears, but was apparently in a good enough mood to do as he asked. "Just thought I'd check in on my favourite student, especially after that beautiful performance you put on yesterday~" The bear did a little dance. Naegi really wanted to introduce it to his bat. "Mind if I join you on the tour?"
"You'd follow us even if he said no." Enoshima looked like she had swallowed a lemon. The Luckster bit back a particularly nasty swear before getting to his feet. Kirigiri had already approached the door on the other side of the room while Monokuma was distracted with him. Good for her.
"An equipment room." The mysterious Ultimate stated blankly. Naegi wished he had a mask or something to block out the sharp scent of formaldehyde. More lab equipment was neatly stacked against the walls, and a little bit of searching got him a single Monocoin, which he promptly flicked at Monokuma. Apart from some plastic sheets and yet more expensive things that they would probably never use, the room was largely unimpressive. At least the bear seemed to be entertained.
Kirigiri produced a tacky camera, extending it to Naegi. "This was on the table outside. Recognise the character on it?" He turned it over in his hands before quickly handing it off to the Fashionista so he wouldn't crush the digital device. A camera could be useful.
"Shit…" Enoshima tossed it back to Kirigiri. "That's the thing that killed Yamada yesterday."
"Indeed." The purple-haired teenager slid it into her pocket. "Which begs the question of why exactly this was found here, on a floor we had no access to."
"...I've got a couple of ideas, but none that I'll share right now." Especially considering what's waddling around with us. "Might as well keep it. Might come in handy someday."
"So mean!" Monokuma pouted, eliciting a visceral shudder from all three of them. "Fine then, what's next on the agenda? I'm so excited~"
…somehow, this was almost as bad as yesterday.
Omake: When Worlds Collide [5]
"Naegi" grinned sardonically at her silence. "What, did you hope I was from Fenrir?" He tapped the back of his neck with one hand, keeping the other in his pocket. He appeared defenceless. Easy to kill. But the instinct that had kept her untouchable told her, in very clear terms, that a single action against him would result in her demise. Ikusaba swallowed back her trepidation, bandaged hand twinging with the reminder of who had delivered the first wound she had gained in her life.
"...who are you, really?" Ikusaba had two knives and a pistol on her, the maximum number of weapons school regulations allowed. He had a baseball bat, a knife tucked up his sleeve…at least, that was what he had shown. She cursed her own recklessness. Just because this person shared Naegi's face didn't mean that he was just as innocent and fragile as him.
"Me?" He laughed, closing the distance between them in three steps. She took note of the marks on his red eye, and the eerie similarity he had to her sister in his mannerisms and movements. "I'm nothing special. A remnant of a dying world. A boy who lost everything. But to you…I'm the person whose life you ruined. Although that really doesn't make me special." It was like the reaper's scythe was nipping at her neck. "You ruined a lot of lives."
"So you're not from an alternate universe." That had been a bold-faced lie. "You're from the future." Was this what Junko's plan had done to him? Their classmates? If it had turned the kindest person she knew into someone who moved like a seasoned professional, now staring at her with hate she didn't know he could muster…something akin to nausea churned in her stomach. Was this what Despair felt like?
"Well, not exactly." He shrugged. "I'm still pretty sure this is a different world. Your Naegi looks too happy. But some things don't change."
"Are you going to kill me?" There was no other reason for him to divulge all this information and keep her alive. She readied herself, even with the knowledge that her death was almost certain. She had to protect her sister.
"Hmm~" Her brain stuttered when he reached a gloved hand out to cradle her cheek gently, brushing his thumb against it. "No, I don't think so. I'm not a fan of the whole killing someone in anticipation of their future crimes thing."
He grinned, and it was like glimpsing the face of the devil. "But I could use your help."