Chapter Text
It had been a month since the terrible disaster that struck the world had ended. People were relieved and were beginning to rebuild their lives. They kept thanking the Future Foundation. They kept thanking him.
He resented their praise. He didn’t deserve to see their happy faces or see their tears of joy. He was not their savior. He’d almost killed their savior.
Kyosuke Munakata sat in the corner of a dark room, wallowing in his thoughts as he did most days. He wasn’t sure what time or day it was. It didn’t really matter. He had nothing to do and no one to be with.
Naegi had begged him to join them in reviving Hope Peak Academy. He declined. He couldn’t understand why he would ever want to return to a place where his friends were brutally murdered. Where the disaster began.
No, if Kyosuke had it his way, he would never be a part of something as big as that. And he would rather die than ever lead again.
Painful thoughts returned and he closed his eyes, hoping that sleep would take him. He knew nightmares awaited him, but it was better than sitting alone.
He was running on an empty street he didn’t recognize but he didn’t stop. Something thunderous was making a deafening sound. Someone was gripping his hand tightly. When he turned back to see who it was, it was Chisa. Further behind them was a wave of Monokumas.
“Keep looking ahead!” someone familiar yelled at him. He turned to his left and saw Sakakura running next to him. With him having to pull Chisa, Sakakura could’ve easily out ran them to safety, but instead he remained running next to them.
Something whizzed past his head. Another falling to the ground behind them. Javelins were being thrown at them. Sakakara hit the ground and a glance behind showed that he had been stabbed through the torso.
He kept running. He didn’t go back, even as Chisa begged and hit his arm. He begged his legs to stop but it felt like his body wasn’t his own. Go back. Go back!
A high hill with a cliff came into view. If they made it up there they would have a better chance at surviving. Finally, he stop.
“Climb up,” he heard himself say, “Keep running, even if me and Sakakura don’t make it.”
He turned and finally ran back. He could just make out Sakakura pulling the javelin out of his back. He seemed to notice Munakata running back to him. Another javelin went through his chest and skewered him to the ground. Then the wave of Monokumas overtook him.
“Kyosuke!”
He turned to Chisa’s scream, just in time to see her hit the ground with a finalizing thud.
They watched as Munakata woke up with a start, sweating and frantically looking at his surroundings. There were times when he would look directly at them, but couldn’t see them.
“It’s getting harder to wake him up,” Chisa sighed.
Juzo broke his gaze and nodded. As much as they tried to help, waking their friend was getting next to impossible. And even though they were ghosts, they still had limits to their energy. If they spent too much, they would have to go back to the theater.
They watched helplessly as Munakata brought his knees to his chest and hid his face. They couldn’t hear it, but they knew he was crying. Chisa tried to stroke his hair to comfort him, but her hand went through him.
“You knew that wouldn't work.”
“I know that, Juzo,” she said quietly, “But I can’t stand to sit here and do nothing while he’s like this. I know you feel the same way.”
Of course he did. That’s why they both were there. Every time Munukata was in danger, hurting, or something like that, they would feel it and be compelled to leave their theater afterlife and go to him.
They remained there until Munakata slumped against the wall and finally went back to sleep, this time peacefully.
“He’s going to hurt himself if he keeps sleeping like that,” he said as they both stood.
Chisa wiped her eyes. “He’s already hurting himself.”
Without looking, he grabbed her hand from her face. They stood there, hand in hand, staring at their disheveled friend until the world blurred and faded away into an empty theater.
“You did it that time.”
“Shut up!” Juzo said as he snatched his hand back.
“I’m only teasing,” she said as she grabbed his other hand, “You know that’s my only source of entertainment.”
He slumped into a seat, guiding her into the one next to him. “You need a new hobby.”
“Don’t we both?” She looked up at the screen, always playing and always spying on the living. “Looks like it went to Naegi again.”
“Change the channel.”
“Stop it, you know you like him now. Plus, I love what he and the others are doing with the school. Hope his staff is really good too. I plan on keeping an eye on things.”
“You can’t do that forever.”
“...We don’t know that.”
A deep unease traveled through them both and they gripped each other’s hands just a little tighter.
Juzo was convinced that he would have become some crazed spirit had Chisa not found him here. When he first arrived, he was alone and he couldn’t stand and all he could hear was Munakata and Junko fuckin’ Enoshima in his head. All curses and insults. He thought that would be his eternity and something felt like it was stabbing through his heart. Then Chisa tapped his arm and smiled as though the world had never ended.
‘What are you doing on the floor, silly?’
She’d seen the killing game through everyone’s eyes, especially his and Munakata’s. She’d seen what the monitors had done. She’d seen what her colleagues had done. And worst of all, she’d seen what her best friends had done. She had admitted to him that she had been angry with all of them, him included, but that anger didn’t compare to the rage she had against the man she loved. Because he’d stabbed Juzo.
But even though she’d seen the entire thing, she still helped Juzo acclimate to the afterlife and she still went to see Munakata.
“Caught ya starin’.”
Again, he snatched his hand back and stared at the screen like watching Naegi fill out paperwork was interesting.
Chisa laughed. “You know, that’s not a bad thing.”
“It’s still weird.”
“Well, yeah. But there’s no one here to say anything. Why be embarrassed?”
She made a good point. Didn’t make it less embarrassing. Especially since they couldn’t tell Kyosuke.
She leaned over the arms of the chairs and planted a quick kiss on his cheek. By the time Juzo turned to her, she was already watching the screen again.
He smiled a little and turned back to the screen. Yeah, still weird.
The video was showing Naegi looking over at his ringing phone. He answered it.
“Hello?”
“You have to do something with him.”
“Byakuya? With who?”
“Who else?! I understand that he’s lost everything, but Munakata cannot continue draining our resources especially when he no longer does anything!”
“We’re helping him because he’s a person.”
“A person who has been wasting our resources. Please reassure me that you are not so naive that you can’t see that he doesn’t want to be here anymore!”
Juzo wanted to jump up and punch the screen, right where the phone was. Yeah, the bastard was right, but he didn’t want to hear it from him.
“I know! I’m afraid for him. But I get it, you know? Seeing friends die is crushing. He…was so defeated and angry when Yukisome died and when Sakakura died…he looked like he’d lost everyone.”
They squeezed each other’s hands.
“We can’t give up on him, Byakuya. He’s been too important in our fight. He’s stubborn and…scary, but he wants to put the world back together as much as we do.”
“Save your breath, I never said we needed to give up on him. Believe me, I know how thin our numbers are. But we need to do something .”
“...Hagakure-”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“You don’t know what I’m going to say!”
“He suggested the same idea to me and it’s idiotic. It will not work.”
“It might?”
“Does his talents even involve speaking with the dead?”
The two spirits shared a look.
They saw Naegi stand up and start pacing. “I’m not sure, but there’s a positive even if it doesn’t work.”
“Enlighten me.”
“If the ritual works, Munakata can make peace with his friends and hopefully move on. If it doesn’t, it’ll show that they’ve already moved on and he should do the same.”
“Oy vey. Let’s say that Hagakure can get this to work. Who’s to say that these two spirits won’t be violent?”
“But they were Munakata’s friends.”
“ Were . That is the key word. When they died, one was brainwashed by Junko and the other was stabbed in the torso by the very man we are trying to save!”
Juzo was standing now.
“Believe it or not, I’m not trying to be the negative one, but we can’t afford another incomprehensible mess.”
“I don’t think Yukisome’s soul would be brainwashed since she doesn’t have a physical brain anymore-”
“You stupid twink-”
“And as for Sakakura…I don’t think he would come back vengeful. He told me he was turning off the monitors to save Munakata. You know, the way he is around him kind of reminds me of someone we went to school with.”
“If you’re referring to the plebeian with that god-awful hair, then yes, I suppose I see what you are trying to get at, but we are comparing a pair of grown men to two teenagers who were sword fighting overnight!”
Makoto made a noise. “Byakuya!”
Juzo could hear Chisa snickering and pulling him to sit down. He did.
There was a pause of silence on the phone. Then Byakuya sighed. “Only on three conditions. One, I will not attend. Two, someone with more brain cells will oversee this. And three, I WILL NOT be the one to tell Hagakure or Munakata. As far as anyone is concerned, I was never told about this. Understood?”
Juzo checked out of the conversation after that. There was a lot to take in. “They’re going to try and talk to us?”
“Isn’t it exciting?” Chisa smiled, “We’ll finally be able to talk to Kyosuke. He’s going to be okay!”
“They don’t even know if it’ll work. As far as I’ve seen and heard, Hagakure is an idiot.”
“It’s not going to rely on him. It’s going to rely on us! All we need to do is make it work.”
He gave her a side glance.
“Come on, you’re not even going to try to speak to Kyosuke?”
“I am, I just don’t want us to get our hopes up if it doesn’t work. I don’t even know what I would say to him if it did.” He could feel her stare on the side of his head. “What?”
“...I’m still mad at him too-”
“It’s not that I’m mad…or maybe I am…”
“You can still love a man and be mad at him. He’s going to get an earful. But we’ll still tell him we love him.”
“Is that what it’s like with me?”
“Love hate? Not nearly as bad. At least you’ll look at me when you talk to me.”
“Yeah, instead of looking out the phone or out the window.”
She rolled her eyes. “I got a new dress and the janitor noticed before he did.”
“But it lets you look at ‘em without him noticing.”
“Ah, his hair. I just wanna go through it and…” she took her hand and shook it.
“He would've never let you do that. It would mess up his appearance.” He slowly facepalmed. “It’s not like you can mess it up! He could walk out in pajamas and he’d be fine.”
“Fine as hell! Does the jawline make you go wild?”
He shook his head. “It’s a weird one but it's his collar bone.”
“Collar bone?! When did you ever see it?”
“Whenever we would train together.”
“What?! I want details!”
He gestured for her to come closer. When their faces were almost touching he whispered, “Six pack.” She screamed and fell over onto her chair. “Oh gods, bring me back!” She suddenly sat up. “That’s okay though. I was lookin’ at that ass of his.”
Juzo snorted. “What ass?”
“Right! Not even those tight pants could show anything!”
“You think someone would hurt their hand if they hit it?”
“The only thing they would hit is bone structure!”
They were both laughing. A good laugh that they hadn’t had in a while.
After a moment, Chisa took a few calming breaths. “I wish we did this when we were alive.”
Juzo nodded as they leaned on each other. “So do I.”