Chapter 21: Concession Time

"There you are!" Byakuya said when he finally came across Mikan and Chiaki as they exited the airport. What they'd been doing there, he had no idea. However, he had been looking for them everywhere and he was a bit annoyed that it had taken so long to find them.

While Mikan seemed a bit scared, Chiaki looked curious. "You were looking for us?" she asked. "Sorry, we've been walking around a lot to evolve our pets."

He walked over to them to join them at the building's entrance, puzzling over that statement. "Pets?" Had Gundham given out hamsters?

"Yeah, didn't you check in your student handbook? We've got these little virtual pets."

He wrinkled his nose. "No, I didn't." Now that she mentioned it, he did remember his handbook bleeping a few times during the first day on the island. He had checked it the first time and there had been an… egg? If he remembered correctly. As he had deemed it irrelevant, he had ignored the alerts that followed and at some point it had kept quiet, so he had forgotten all about it.

Chiaki pulled her hood over her head. "Anyway, I guess you wanted to talk about something else?"

"Indeed." Byakuya looked at Mikan. "I wanted to discuss something about Nagito with you."

He had her attention. "W-what about Nagito? Do you want me to check up on him?"

"No, this isn't about his injury."

Truth be told, he hadn't considered that she would jump to this conclusion. Just like the cut on his arm, Nagito's wound had healed exceptionally fast and he was almost unbothered by it. Yesterday, Mikan had even given him the okay to walk again. Only under supervision and very carefully, but at least he wasn't completely incapacitated anymore.

"I talked to him and I want your opinion on what he said," Byakuya cleared up. Then he explained what he had found out about Nagito's past. Mikan looked horrified. When he was done, he pointedly waited for her evaluation.

"Uhm. I-I just want to remind you that I'm a nurse, n-not a psychologist, so I'm not really… qualified…" She fidgeted under his gaze.

"Qualified or not, you probably have a better understanding of the situation than me. You'll agree that the things that happened to him are extreme?" Despite wording it as a question, he didn't wait for the obviously coming affirmation. "Which might explain some aspects of his personality. Though I'm unsure how it led to him latching onto hope the way he does. The tragedies in his life severely outweigh the positive outcomes, so it makes no sense for him to see everything that happened to him as ultimately good luck."

She mulled it over in her head for a moment before she answered. "It might be a coping mechanism. It doesn't sound like he ever talked to a therapist… e-even though he really should have! Uhm." Wringing her hands, she avoided his eyes by looking down at the ground. "But I mean, if he had just focused on the bad things, he probably wouldn't have been able to deal with that. We're… not really d-designed to endure this much trauma."

"So you're suggesting he exaggerated the positive aspects in his mind and told himself that they were on an equal scale?"

"Yes. If that's what he took from it, that good and bad things need to balance each other out…" Mikan trailed off, still not looking at him, but Byakuya realized what she was suggesting.

"It would make sense for him to think something extremely good would come from murder," he added to her statement.

Mikan nodded meekly.

On one hand, it was comforting to know that Nagito probably really did see murder as something horrible. Byakuya hadn't been quite sure of that before. On the other hand, that still wouldn't help if he didn't see it as something that should be prevented at all costs.

"The question is," Byakuya said, trying to find a solution, "how do we change his way of thinking?"

Chiaki decided to get involved. "We'll have to prove him wrong," she said.

Byakuya, who had more or less ignored her presence up to this point, looked at her warily. "What do you have in mind?"

"We need to change his way of thinking, so you should make sure he has positive experiences without anything negative happening to him."

"On this island?" he asked incredulously. "Do you know how much you're asking of me?"

"Please, you have to at least try," she insisted.

He had to, huh? Easy for her to say; she wouldn't have to deal with him. Byakuya sighed deeply. He really didn't want to do this. "Why are you so invested in him?" he asked to stall his final decision.

"I'm invested in everyone's wellbeing," she answered immediately. "Everyone deserves a second chance… I think." Despite the addition, she was oddly serious.

It pained him to admit it but if he was honest with himself, he already knew that he was going to try. He didn't know what else to do, so what other choice did he have?

When he took too long to answer, Chiaki kept going, "Byakuya, please. I'll help in any way I can. He tried to start the killing game and that's unforgivable, but he didn't succeed and we need to make sure he won't make any other attempts."

Knowing he was just dragging this out unnecessarily, he conceded. "Alright, alright."

"Thank you so much." It was one of the sincerest sounding 'thank you's he had ever heard. It threw him for a loop for a second.

"Right. I'll see what I can do." As he turned to leave, he stopped. They had helped him in a way. Was it expected of him to…? Ugh, whatever. "Thanks for your input," he said curtly and quickly left them behind. God forbid they noticed how embarrassing that was for him.

Back in his cottage, he thought about the best way to do what Chiaki had brought up. Whether he would be able to change such deep-rooted beliefs, he had no idea. In any case, this was not something that could be accomplished in a day. And if this was going to be a longer project, it would be a good idea to make some preparations.

Therefore, he settled on one of his pillows at the small table and made himself comfortable as he got out the notebook that he had taken to carrying around. He started by writing down everything he knew about Nagito so far, circling some key words and trying to turn it into something relatively coherent. Then he thought about his own journey. He himself had changed his perspective of the world, but this was hardly the same situation. Could his experiences be replicated in some way?

Well, he remembered the many times Makoto had sought him out to spend time with him. Even though Byakuya had never invited him or even encouraged him to come back. Back then, he had been amused by it. The commoner that tried to get closer to the Ultimate Affluent Progeny. But that hadn't been what it was in the end. Somehow, they had become friends over the course of the killing game. In retrospect, these little chats had probably been one of the deciding factors of him rejecting despair.

Maybe there was something sensible in what Chiaki had said.

While he was trying to figure out his next steps and writing down his thoughts, he was interrupted multiple times by various students who came to see him. Nekomaru and Akane just wanted to give him an update on Ibuki and Teruteru.

They told him that they had brought the two back to the hotel, so that was one less thing to worry about. However, it seemed that Teruteru had collapsed on the beach. Maybe they weren't such a good match either, though at this point he wondered if there even was a good match for either of them.

To his surprise, Mahiru visited him next, with Hiyoko and Peko in tow. Apparently, Peko had offered to teach everyone self-defense and they wanted to suggest it as this day's evening activity.

It looked like he had misjudged Peko after all. She must have taken his words to heart when he had told her to keep an eye out for Mahiru if she was concerned. At the time, he had said it more or less to get her to leave, but to see that she really was worried and took initiative in making sure she was a little more safe was a welcome turn of events. She really was more reliable and helpful than he had taken her for. Knowing that now, he might be able to make use of that in the future by entrusting her with some of the more important tasks.

Needless to say, he was happy to approve their idea. It was probably one of the best ideas he had heard from the other students yet.

All in all, this was actually all working out so far. There had been some problems here and there, but everyone was alive and they even started to work together on their own accords. He was quite happy with their progress.

Therefore, he was optimistic even when he got up to work on his own new project. Before he went over to visit Nagito, however, he went to the hotel kitchen. Now was as good an opportunity as any to help the boy gain some much needed weight.

When he arrived at the kitchen, he encountered an unexpected pair. The oven was on while Ibuki and Akane were lounging around, leaning against the kitchen counter and the fridge respectively as they chatted about something. Well, Ibuki was talking animatedly at Akane while the other girl listened and nodded.

Ibuki noticed him first. "Byakuya!" she greeted him with an exuberant wave. "Here to get some food?"

What else would he be doing here? "Yes. Are you going to be here long?"

She bent down in an awkward angle to peer into the oven. "I think they're almost done. You can just wait, we'll leave soon."

"About two more minutes," Akane confirmed with a glance at the egg timer ticking away on the counter next to her.

"What are you making anyway?" Byakuya asked and also tried to catch a glimpse of what was in the oven without looking too invested. It smelled nice. Something heavily seasoned.

"Akane suggested we make a nice snack for Teruteru and we found bags full of chicken wings in the freezer!"

Chicken wings sounded heavenly right about now.

"He just needs to eat some meat and he'll be better in no time," Akane confirmed, nodding wisely.

"Yes, you told me that he collapsed earlier. I take it that things didn't go so well?" he asked, directing his question at Ibuki.

Ibuki didn't look bothered. In fact, she seemed unexpectedly cheerful. "No, actually, apart from that, everything's fine! He's been resting for a while now, and then I'll cheer him up with the chicken wings! I also asked Chiaki and she said she'll let me borrow a board game, too! Exercising just wasn't the right thing for him."

And she couldn't have seen that coming? "Well, at least you seem to have a plan."

Looking very satisfied with herself, she nodded. "Yep! Ibuki's got it all figured out! Just trust me." Then she seemed to think of something. "Oh, that reminds me, I think it would be a good idea to integrate Teruteru a little. Can't he join us for our evening meetings?"

"No."

"But-!"

"No!" he reiterated, slightly irritated. "I said from the start that I wouldn't allow that."

To his chagrin, she didn't let it drop. "I think it would be good to distract him. Please?"

Again with the please. What was with everyone today? "We're having self-defense lessons today," Byakuya said.

Akane perked up with interest. "Nice!" she exclaimed with a grin.

"Yeah, that sounds fun!" Ibuki was easily infected by her excitement, apparently not realizing what he was getting at.

So he spelled it out for her: "You just said that exercising didn't suit him."

The timer rang shrilly and Akane moved and got some oven gloves to take the tasty treats out of the oven. The smell was even stronger now and made his mouth water.

"Oops, yeah, he'd hate that," Ibuki said meekly. "What about tomorrow?"

"We are not having this discussion. I said no."

She clapped her hands together in front of her face as if she was praying. "Come on! I'll make sure nothing happens! I'll even come up with an activity for everyone and take care of everything! You don't have to do anything!"

Byakuya glowered at her.

"You can have some of our wings if you say yes!"

"Hey!" Akane protested. "Don't decide that on your own!"

"Are you trying to bribe me?" Byakuya asked, appalled at her audacity.

Ibuki grinned. "Is it working?"

He hated to admit that it just might. The smell was incredibly tempting. Even though they weren't fried, they looked great as well. A greasy shimmer on golden brown skin. And he wouldn't have to prepare something else for Nagito… Still, letting Teruteru on the loose during a possibly chaotic activity? That was a risk. That meant he would have to keep an eye on him as well. Which was more work for him.

Then again, was he really going to wait another half hour just to make his own chicken wings? If they had even left some for everyone else. They had crammed quite a lot on that tray…

"Fine, I'll give him a chance to prove himself," he decided and stopped Ibuki from interrupting him by holding up his palm. "You can bring him to breakfast tomorrow and we'll see how that goes. Depending on how he behaves, he can join us in the evening. Provided you plan our activity in advance and run it all by me early enough. In detail. In exchange, I get a third of your chicken wings."

Akane's jaw hit the floor. "A third?!"

"Deal!"

Upon hearing Ibuki agree immediately, the gymnast grabbed her shoulders. "You can't give away a whole third of our wings! There won't be any left for us!"

"It's for the greater good!" Ibuki argued. Akane very much looked like she didn't consider Teruteru's wellbeing to be the greater good. "Besides, we made so much, there's still more than enough for us."

"You can never have enough chicken wings," Akane grumbled, though she let go of Ibuki reluctantly. "Fine, have it your way. But I'll take half of what's left!"

"Okay, sure. It was your idea anyway." Ibuki's agreement came easily. "And I don't think Teruteru's gonna be very hungry. It's fine if we just have a few to snack on."

Akane stepped away from her, shaking her head and muttering to herself, which allowed Ibuki to grin at Byakuya.

"Thanks! You won't regret it!"

"I sure hope so." Mostly for her sake. If this didn't pay off, he would send Ibuki into solitary confinement as well. Maybe only for a day or two as punishment.

…

He was making an awful lot of concessions today.

A/N: I wanted to update yesterday but I was too tired. This chapter is a little on the shorter side but the next one's gonna be back to regular size and will be posted on the 30th of March.