#But killing her in a way that might have killed mahiru as well...assuming whatever is special about mahiru is needed for the ritual

[childrenofthesun77]

Back when mahiru thought his uncle might be dead he had a flashback to the accident that resulted in his mother's death, but one thing I noticed is that we don't actually see akira in this memory? It feels like either mahiru (or someone like lily or jeje) is supressing his memory here.

And if someone possibly killed akira on purpose, who was it and why?

#servamp #akira shirota #mahiru shirota #I mean the biggest plot twist would actually be that she faked her death and is actually alive/a vampire for whatever reason #But assuming she's dead who would have a motive #touma seems unlikely I feel like he would have taunted mahiru with that back when he mentioned killing several people #I forgot how old mahiru was when akira died but mikuni was probably still too young and also he used to hate humans getting killed #No idea why he's working with tsubaki to do a ritual that will kill all of tokyo now #Tsubaki maybe? He might know about what is so special about mahiru. In that case killing the mother (who also knew what's special about him #Would make some sense. She can't tell mahiru or anyone else about it if she's dead. #But killing her in a way that might have killed mahiru as well...assuming whatever is special about mahiru is needed for the ritual #Risky #But maybe mahiru's memories were faked like misono's were with the night kiriko died and mahiru wasn't actually there when akira got killed #Trying to kill tooru after he had to reveal his ties to c3 before he could explain to mahiru what's special about him #Would also fit with tsubaki #tsubaki would also have a motive not to taunt mahiru with it so nobody tries to look into it and finds out what killing her would achieve #If mahiru is needed for the ritual it's probably even better that mahiru and kuro found a way to get rid of the distance limit #because the enemies probably planned with the distance limit in mind meaning mahiru not needing to be there when kuro tries to stop tsubaki #Might be unexpected to them and throw a wrench in their plans

[hisakata-resutomoshibi]

You guys still with me?? Alright, here we go with more obvious observations!

Part Three- Things That Probably Don't Prove Anything but I Still Find Worth Note

Still going strong with my undying devotion to the "Free Mikuni of Underserved Hate" crusade, I want to bring up that looking back at the C3 meeting, it's Tsurugi that first suggests they deal with Mikuni before the fight. I was wildly distraught at first, and then curious why he would insist on such drastic measures (kill him, really Tsurugi??) but it's most likely that he just wants to ensure that they send him and so he plays up the stakes: "Obviously Mikuni is someone that only Tsurugi could handle."

Now, Tsurugi himself, has claimed to have "no sense of responsibility" (bless his heart) so why bother bringing it up at all? Why not just go out on his own if it's so important?

Answer- he's a smart cookie too and knows that Mikuni has boxed himself in, he's now a wanted man; he can't go to the headquarters, nor can anyone there freely contact him. So what's the next best thing? Getting himself assigned to actually go look for Mikuni. If he's under orders, no one can interfere.

"So why are you so sure that Mikuni cares about Tsurugi??" you demand.

I'm glad you asked!

There are several instances of his flipflopping, most notably his interaction with Mahiru during the collapse of C3. He shows Mahiru how to find Tsurugi, even suggesting they go look for him together, but then has Jeje separate them and insists Mahiru go on his own. Mahiru claims that Mikuni must actually be worried and he admits that yes, he is, but all while making what is definitely a horrendously twisted face.

"So he doesn't really! It's a trick!" you argue.

I don't think so! And here's why-

The last time they met was outside the hospital and you could make the claim that it did not go well.

However! I've always found it strange that Mikuni, after dragging Tsurugi -specifically- out of the hospital, starts a fight and then leaves without killing him, or really doing anything at all aside from roughing him up and throwing around some insults. Tsurugi was on a top floor, behind a closed window, in one of the hundreds of rooms. Mikuni must have been searching for him. Again, why go to all that effort for what was essentially a waste of time?

Because it wasn't about winning.

He was protecting Tsurugi. He was keeping him occupied and away from Freya. After it's clear that Tsubaki has found her, Mikuni suddenly seems to lose interest and says there's been a change of plans and that he and Jeje are leaving.

But there was no change. Tsubaki was obviously there to get Freya; from the start Mikuni was simply ensuring that Tsurugi didn't throw himself in between Tsubaki and Freya and as soon as he's sure that it's safe, he gives up the act.

Another good example, though potentially vague and up to interpretation, is Mikuni warning Mahiru to stay away from Tsurugi. On the outside it seems a rational warning; Mikuni hates Tsurugi and likes Mahiru and wants to keep him from being pulled under by C3. But once we start to question Mikuni’s end game, become suspicious that he’s working with Tsubaki, it can be interpreted as him attempting to keep Mahiru, someone of potential power, from helping C3, ensuring that the force Tsubaki is against is weaker.

But I don’t think either of these is entirely correct.

Mikuni makes clear that his motive in the beginning is to keep Mahiru from joining C3 but after Mahiru does anyway, Mikuni states that having talked with Mahiru he’s “not worried about it”. This implies that Mikuni trusts Mahiru’s judgement and morals. 

So why the four pages worth of shit talking Tsurugi? 

Because Mikuni knows the best way to ensure that Mahiru pursues Tsurugi himself is to emphasize that he’s a broken, lonely person. There’s no other cliche that catches Mahiru’s attention quite like that and Mikuni needs Mahiru to do what he can’t himself- help Tsurugi heal.

Anyway, all of this is just to say that these two know each other, far better than even they will admit. It's clear from their interactions and the things they say to and about each other. They have unshakable faith in the existence of the other. And at the end of the day, that will continue to draw them together, again and again.

Another constant, as you should have seen coming when talking about Mikuni, is Abel.

I've been stewing on this for a while and, even when compared to my Black Magic Iori, it's far fetched so brace for Impact!

Mikuni is strange and childish, one might even say nonsensical, but he's not completely insane; there must be a reason for Abel and I argue that that reason goes beyond a prop for his power usage.

When Kuro and Mahiru (remember, our main protags? lol) first meet Gear and Youtarou, they see a doll that looks just like Abel. This implies that, at some point, some how, some where, Mikuni most likely came into contact with Gear and Youtarou (adding credence to my belief that Mikuni is aware of Tsurugi's background).

Youtarou places some of Mahiru's hair in the doll, claiming that it will mimic him and Kuro will hopefully confuse the doll for Mahiru.

It's logical to assume that Abel would have the same properties.

Abel who is in Mikuni's possession.

And Mikuni who, up until this point, has theoretically been running around with the creators blood.

If he injected Abel with it what would happen? Would it confuse Tsubaki? Would it interfere with whatever summoning spell thing he's attempting? Would it be enough to destroy whatever fragile spell Tsubaki is weaving?

I have no idea! 🎉

Time to draw your own conclusions, my friends~

Part 1

Part 2

#servamp #MORE RAMBLING #is anyone going to stop me? #Mikuni Alicein #Tsurugi Kamiya #Mahiru Shirota #theory shit #part 3 #my writing

[the-peak-of-despair]

Mahiru Koizumi x Blackend!Reader

I NO LONGER HAVE ACCESS TO THE ORIGINAL ASK! 

anon asked:  Omg I just read the Fuyuhiko angst and it was amazing 🥺💖 Anyways I was wondering if I could have the same sort of plot with Mahiru if it’s not too much trouble? I love your blog💖💞💖

Definitely don’t listen to as the world caves in by matt maltese as you think about Mahiru watching your execution. I’m kidding, do it. Interalize it. -Mod Akane

Holy shit.

Holy.. fucking.. Shit.

You’d done it.

You’d killed Peko Pekoyama. 

You watched her eyes, she was there, at your feet, dying, looking up at you. So many emotions warped her red eyes. She rasped, as if she wanted to say something, but then.. Her eyes.. The light faded, near a gray dull color as she expired in front of you, moonlight shining down and giving her body a light glow, the most light it would ever give off again. 

You never thought you’d kill someone. Let alone the Ultimate Swordswoman. But still, looking down at her now, lifeless...bloody… a knife still in your hand….

The world around you collapsed, as you started to realize...

oh dear god, what had you done?

---

As everyone shuffled into the courtroom once again, Mahiru warily looked around, eyeing down anyone suspicious as she put her hand in (Y/N)’s, approaching her podium cautiously as (Y/N) joined right next to her. 

“So.. where shall we start..?” Sonia trails off as everyone settles. 

“I’m not sure, but whoever did this..” Mahiru starts, “it’d be better to just fess up.” She feels (Y/N)’s grip tighten, for only a second.

“W-Well, for now it might be easier to start with Mikan’s autopsy results?” Hajime suggests. 

“A-Ah, y-yes..!” Mikan starts. “W-Well, it’s obvious, her c-cause of death w-would be the gash o-on her neck.. T-There’s signs of a struggle with her clothes and scratches on her t-torso, b-but that’s a-about it..” She plays with her thumbs, looking down and away from the rest of the trial. 

“Man, to think someone got the jump on Peko..” Akane says, scratching the back of her head. “It’s hard to believe, you know?” 

“Maybe someone close to her betrayed her?” Sonia suggests. “It is the only thing I can think of, for such a skilled fighter..” 

“Hey.. Fuyuhiko.. You alright..?” Kazuichi asks, turning the room’s attention to Fuyuhiko, who was breathing heavy and gripping his podium, staring down at the floor.

“I-I’m fine. Just get o-on with the stupid trial..” He mutters, briefly glancing up at everyone else in the room. (Y/N)’s grip tightened once again, and Maihru glances at her. Eyes widened and almost like she was shaking.. 

“..You okay?” Maihru asks quietly, worried more about her lover than everyone else as the trial moved on.

“Y-Yeah. I-I’m fine.” (Y/N) turns to Mahiru and smiles weakly, before turning back to Hajime, who was rambling something about finding the murder weapon.

As a photographer, Mahiru knew smiles in and out. Better yet, she’d known your smile like she knew photography. She’d fallen in love with it. Which is why it concerned her, realizing that your smile was forced, and most likely fake…

Had you been hiding something from her? 

“Well, obviously, the weapon was a knife. We’d seen it at the scene, correct?” Nagito asks, a blatant rhetorical question. It was only the second trial, but it was pretty clear that this is how he would be acting during every trial.

“Well, duh! We saw that much, genius.” Akane rolls her eyes. “That doesn’t help any.”  

“Maybe it could help..?” Sonia suggests. “Does anyone know where the knife came from?” 

“U-Um.. judging by the size of it.. And the d-design i-itself.. I-I’d assume it’s a k-kitchen knife..” Mikan comments, shaking like a leaf. 

“Well, the only people who go into the hotel kitchen are.. Mahiru and (Y/N).” Kazuichi points out. Mahiru drops (Y/N)’s hand in shock.

“Me? You’re going to accuse us?” Mahiru asks. “Why would- would either of us have any reason to kill Peko? That’s ridiculous!” She waves her hands around dramatically, akin to a mother lecturing her children. 

“We haven’t accused either of you yet..” Hajime comments. 

“Still, the notion is ridiculous!” Mahiru argues. 

“I-I did it.” (Y/N) states, shaky yet a calm demeanor plastered over her face.

“W-What..?” Mahiru turned quickly, looking at (Y/N) with fear. “I-If you’re joking, this i-isn’t funny…” 

“I..I killed Peko.” (Y/N) takes a heavy breath, eyes brimming with tears. “I- I didn’t.. I don’t want you guys to argue a-and potentially get hurt c-cause of me..” “T-This isn’t funny, (Y/N)!” Mahiru places a hand on her shoulder, as she begins to cry. “S-Stop trying to joke around!” 

“I-I wish I was..”

“Y-You..” Fuyuhiko begins.. “Y-You bastard!” He takes a heavy breath, finally standing up straight before beginning to scream at the girl. The girl Mahiru loved- the girl- who killed their friend- oh God..

“L-Leave her alone!” “Like fucking hell I will! She fucking- she- sh-she killed Peko! Whatever fucking punishment she gets, she can take it!” Fuyuhiko argues, refusing to even look at (Y/N). 

“Take that back!” Mahiru reprimands him. “I don’t care, she didn’t kill Peko!”

“Mahiru..” (Y/N) sets a hand on her arm, even though she was still wincing from Fuyuhiko’s verbal assault. 

“I’m not gonna believe it! Not until there’s cold, hard evidence!” 

“You can deny it all you fucking want, she’s a FILTHFY FUCKING KILLER!” Fuyuhiko screams. “I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU WON’T BELIEVE!” 

“Guys, please stop argu-” Chiaki tries to intervene. 

“Stay out of this, Chiaki.” Mahiru stops her, without even looking at her.

“Mahiru!” (Y/N) snaps for her attention, and finally Mahiru- along with everyone else- finally turns and looks at (Y/N). She rolls up her sleeve, to reveal a gash across her arm, still slightly dripping with blood. “This is proof. When P-Peko fought back..” 

“N-No..” Mahiru covers her mouth, going as far as biting her hand to hold in her sobs. This isn’t happening. This was a dream, she’d wake up any second, or maybe Hajime would prove (Y/N) wrong..

“See?! There’s your fucking evidence!” Fuyuhiko yells. “Let’s just start fucking voting already!” 

“Weeell, if you insist!” Monokuma cheerily intervenes. “NO!” Mahiru starts screaming as she turns to her classmates, already pulling their levers. “PLEASE! She’s not- she’s not guilty! Please! You- You’ve gotta believe me!” 

“Stop, Mahiru..” (Y/N) sets a hand on her shoulder, even as Mahiru votes for herself instead of (Y/N). She turns, tears streaming down her beloved’s face..dear God, this was a nightmare. The world began to cave in around Mahiru as it was confirmed, (Y/N) was guilty.

“W-Why? WHY’D YOU FUCKING KILL PEKO?” Fuyuhiko slams his hands against his podium, daggers in his eyes as he stares down (Y/N) with daggers in his eyes. “I WAS PROTECTING MAHIRU!” (Y/N) screams. “I-I played that stupid game Monokuma set up! A-And- I saw what happened! And I heard you talking to Peko, Fuyuhiko!” 

Fuyuhiko’s taken aback. “What?” 

“Sh-She was your friend! Your bodyguard! And Mahiru- Mahiru just wanted to talk to everyone and- and fix everything! That’s why sh-she even wanted to invite Hiyoko, and Mikan, and I-Ibuki!” (Y/N) argues, wiping tears from her eyes.

Mikan looks between them, overwhelmed. “O-Oh, dear, l-l-let me t-take care of your arm-!”

“Don’t you fucking dare, Mikan!” Fuyuhiko interjects, earning a startled shriek from Mikan.

“Please, fix her arm, Mikan!” Mahiru adds, only overwhelming the poor girl.

“What am I missing here?!” Akane interjects. “What the hell happened?” 

“That- that game! I-It was about- our school life- our memories. and Mahiru just wanted to talk to everyone involved- b-but Fuyuhiko and Peko were planning to kill her! Because F-Fuyuhiko’s sister-”

“Don’t you fucking DARE-” Fuyuhiko starts to yell, before taking a deep breath- “talk about my fucking sister.”

“Heey, hey, hey hey!” Monokuma interjects. “The vote’s over, y’know! (Y/N). Is. Guilty!”

“N-No! M-Monkuma, d-don’t-” Mahiru begins pleading, and some part of her is praying to every god she’d ever known, please, don’t take away (Y/N), don’t take her away.. 

“Don’t whaaaat? You know the rules, sweetheart! (Y/N)’s the blackened! And I’ve prepared a veerry special punishment for her!” “Wait, I’m still confused..” Sonia stops Monokuma. “Let them explain..”

“Heey, I’m sure Mahiru and Fuyuhiko can do all the talking! Come on, stop delaying me!” Monokuma complains as Mahiru pulls (Y/N) into a hug, holding her close. 

“D-Don’t leave me, p-please..” Mahiru starts sobbing, hiccups to boot. “P-Please, (Y/N)! Tell me you didn’t kill her!” 

“I-I’m sorry, Mahiru..” (Y/N) wipes Mahiru’s tears as the hug ends, and Mahiru leans into the touch. “B-But it’s like y-you said at the s-start of the trial, right..? T-The killer d-deserves to be punished..” (Y/N) forced another smile. 

The realization slams into Mahiru as she realizes what she’s said, and what she’s done. “Oh, god, n-no..” Mahiru can’t even protest as she starts to cry even more, maybe the last time she’d ever see (Y/N) alive begins to blur with tears.

“Come on! Iiiiit’s PUNISHMENT TIME!” Monokuma shouts with glee as (Y/N) walks away, out of her grasp. “I’ve got an extra special punishment for our Ultimate (talent)!” 

Mahiru can’t even speak as she watches the execution. Her entire world, maybe even the Earth around her itself, began to cave in on her. It all became blurry, through her tears and her screams of protests.. All she really knew anymore was you were dead by the end of it all. No one said a word, not even after the execution was over, the room was near silent aside from Mahiru, on her knees crying and screaming for (Y/N) to come back, her entire personality itself shattered. 

No one said a word on the way back to their cottages. The killing game would continue, if you were there or not...

#mahiru koizumi #mahiru koizumi x reader #danganronpa #danganronpa 2 #angst #blackened reader #fuyuhiko kuzuryuu #mikan tsumiki #akane owari #nagito komeada #mod akane #oneshot

[danganronpa-21]

B1 with komahina?

All Hajime wants to do is take a nap. Nagito intends to make sure that doesn’t happen.

___________

For Hajime Hinata, living on Jabberwock Island was regularly a test to his patience.

In defence of everyone else, though, he did do this to himself. Technically people wouldn’t have really noticed too much if he just went back out into the real world and started calling himself by Hajime Hinata, because hey, he only looks suspiciously like Izuru Kamakura. There was no proof that the two were the same person, right?

At least, that’s what the others told themselves, for the sake of justifying Hajime’s decision to stay with them. Really, they didn’t know why he chose to stay, especially when he seemed so overwhelmed with them sometimes. It seemed like every day he’d get caught up in one of Kazuichi’s hare-brained schemes, or get looped in to doing Hiyoko’s dirty work. And if he wasn’t serving and spending time with the other members of the island, he was usually being exasperated by what they did when he wasn’t around. On Jabberwock Island, you only made the mistake of doing something Hajime disapproved of once or twice a week. Otherwise, Mikan would start to fear for his blood pressure. And you’d start to wonder if he might really up and leave someday. Sometimes the other islanders would wonder if Hajime might leave, if it weren’t for his boyfriend. Well, that was more something that they joked about. They knew deep down that Hajime loved and cared for them. His relationship with Nagito, the most chaotic person on the island and the biggest test to his patience, would be proof enough of that.

And of course this particular day was no exception. No, he could not have one moment’s peace, so long as Nagito was around. After being put through a long day of anonymous charity work for Future Foundation, all Hajime had wanted to do was take a nap in his cottage. Considering all of the work he’d put in for the foundation, he figured he deserved it. To just curl up in his bed, with a plush pillow under his head and a soft blanket draped over his body… to sleep and sleep until he felt like he’d recovered from the poor sleep he’d had the night prior. That had been his ambition for the day; one that seemed like a foolproof plan. Except for, of course, one tiny problem:

He couldn’t find any pillows.

None!

The moment the realization dawned on him, he didn’t even bother fighting off the groan that tried to escape his lips. His eyes scoured the room desperately in search of at least something, a throw pillow, a neck pillow, a memory foam one… He couldn’t have cared less. He didn’t even care what pillow it was! It could have been one of Ryota’s creepy anime body pillows for all he cared! He just wanted somewhere soft to rest his head. Somewhere soft, and squishy, and comforting… Somewhere that would let him drift off so much easier than the old mattress that sat on his bed. Though he slept on it every night, he never cared much to think about where it came from. He was almost certain that it had been dug out from somewhere unmentionable. He was technically a prisoner, after all. They wouldn’t exactly be sparing him many comforts.

But damn it, at least they had the decency to give him a pillow! A pillow that someone had so rudely stolen. It had been there earlier in the morning after he woke up! What kind of jerk steals a pillow, Hajime grumbled to himself. All of the others should have pillows anyway, there isn’t anyone who should need more. And if they did, it would be a simple matter of asking the foundation for more. Clearly, whoever had stolen Hajime’s pillow was out to get him. That was the only logical explanation. Whoever they were, he was going to make them understand just how wrong it was to steal another man’s pillow, and he could be certain that they were really going to get it. It was just plain wrong to interfere with someone else’s nap like that! They were going to pay, no matter who they were.

Something Hajime had to tell himself twice, as deep down, he knew the pillow thief was probably Nagito.

Now, to be fair, he sort of did tend to assume that everything that went wrong was Nagito’s fault. Not because he didn’t love Nagito — the two had been dating for almost a year now — but because he tended to be a little bit of a troublemaker. While the foundation had done a successful job in getting him some treatment for his more… unusual tendencies (such as his confusing desire to construct bombs on the regular), he still held a tendency to be a bit of a prankster. Especially to Hajime, who he claimed was “obliged to put up with him” on account of their courtship… which was sort of true. But if he were being completely honest, Hajime sort of liked all of Nagito’s little pranks. He always found that there was something charming about his boyfriend’s fit of cute giggles when he was being mischievous. Like his whole face lit up with this sort of glee that he didn’t always show otherwise. After all, Nagito did spend more time than what was healthy talking about what a pathetic person he was. So those moments where he could see his expression twist into one of merriment, where there was little worry on his mind, they meant the world to him. 

However, just because he loved him didn’t mean that he would get away with being a pillow thief. As nice as it was to help people, Hajime dreamt of this nap all afternoon. So whether or not Nagito was cute when he played pranks or not became irrelevant. He fully intended to get his pillow back, and take the nap of the century… whether Nagito liked it or not. He didn’t get a say in the matter.

_________________

Nagito knew he had a say in the matter.

As captor of all of the island’s pillows, truthfully, Nagito did manage to get a lot of say in how these things played out. 

In his defence, his pillow thievery wasn’t to torture his boyfriend. Oh no, quite the opposite. Knowing that Hajime would have probably had a long, hard day, Nagito just wanted to do whatever would allow his partner the opportunity to just relax for once. So he stole his pillows, as well as the pillows of everybody else on the island. Which sounds like something a jerk would do, but he hadn’t done it with the intent to hurt anyone. He did it with the intent to make Hajime happy. He did it with the intent to build his boyfriend the pillow fort of his dreams.

If he were allowed to toot his own horn he would confess that his fort was starting to look pretty darn good. It had seen a sturdy construction, a cheerful decoration, and a meticulous refinement from the inside out. He’d managed to use everyone’s pillows in such a way that would compliment the structure, and keep it from tumbling down with the two inside. Akane and Nekomaru’s pillows were used for the outer walls; they preferred flatter pillows on firmer mattresses, so they were better for support. He’d tossed in Mahiru and Ibuki’s pillows on the outside, too, for the sake of adding a little colour. The two of them had such exciting pillowcases, he’d remarked, his eyes dancing over the green plaid and splashes of neon colours. Such fun reflections of the girls’ personalities! His own pillows were supportive pieces to the ensemble, just as boring as basic as he found himself. But hey, at least they gave support to what spaces needed it. He figured that they should carry the brunt of the weight, so that the more exciting pillows could shine just like their owners did. 

Hajime’s pillows were kept on the inside. They would probably find the best use in there. He found it funny how alike they were to Hiyoko’s or Fuyuhiko’s… all soft and plush, smelling like clean bedsheets and ocean breeze. He couldn’t help but sigh as he breathed in the scent — Hajime always smelled like that. Always smelled like a peaceful calm that Nagito had never known. He couldn’t help but relish it. Just like he hoped Hajime would, when he came in and discovered this pillow fort of solitude. 

The fort was close to completion. All decked out in pink fairy lights and “borrowed” bed sheets, with everyone’s pillows all around to support it… Just a pillow or two more and he could start making the hot chocolate he’d been planning on brewing. Actually, should he do hot chocolate? Jabberwock Island was already hot enough on its own, especially considering it was the middle of the summer. It certainly didn’t help that Hajime was also the hasty type. He’d probably get so excited about having something nice done for him that he’d burn his tongue within the first four seconds. Maybe a different beverage would be the superior choice.Would lemonade be a suitable option? He stopped to ponder the thought. Lemonade was cold and refreshing. He was pretty good at making it, too. His luck always allowed him the perfect combination of sour and sweet, but he usually ended up spilling some of it. He’d need to ask someone else for help with delivering it to the fort, to avoid that unfortunate course of action. But who would be a good choice for that…? Most of the others were busy. Perhaps he could ask Peko, he thought. She had been kind enough to lend him a hand a couple times as of late, when she wasn’t trailing after her new group of friends. If he did decide on lemonade, she’d be the first person he called over.

He supposed he’d need to get access to Hajime’s  laptop somehow, too. Being one of the survivors of the simulated killing game, he received certain privileges that the others did not. One of such privileges was his personal laptop, which he was technically expected to use for work rather than personal leisure. It was a producer of documents and phone calls to mainland (usually to Makoto Naegi, who kept in contact despite his resignation). In this case, though, Nagito hoped for it to be a producer of movies. As a reward for good behaviour, he’d managed to get a couple of movie discs to watch. He and Hajime would use them from time to time when they were bored, but since they actually had this whole set-up now, he figured that there would be no better time to use them. Thankfully, his boyfriend’s laptop would probably be where he expected it to be, in his cabin. He often took it home after doing the day’s work, so Nagito thought perhaps he could beat him back to grab it.

Underline word here being “thought”. A familiar pounding at the door silenced that thought almost just as soon as it was born.

“Hmm?” The former lucky student mumbled, lifting his head from his pillow fortress of extreme joy. Though he knew it was exactly who he thought it would be, he still felt inclined to call out. “Hajime, is that you?”

The answer from the other side of the door was sharp and blunt. An even further proof of what Nagito already knew. “Yes,” He snapped, “I’m sure you know why I’m here.”

Because your pillow is gone, Nagito thought to say, but he didn’t utter them. Instead, he chose to plod up to the door and open it, being greeted by Hajime’s unchecked exasperation. His brows had lowered over his hazel eyes, and though he tried to hide it, Nagito could see that the other man’s jaw was clenched. His lips were even curved downward, a displeased frown apparent on his typically neutral face. It was unlike Hajime to frown quite so intensely. If he had been more vain, he might have worried about frown lines, with the way he was scowling. I must have gotten him bad this time, Nagito thought. 

“Quit stealing all of the pillows!” 

He blinked in surprise, caught off guard by the outburst. What a drama queen, he snickered to himself. He couldn’t help but melt into a relaxed smile at the other’s frustration, mostly on account of the fact that he knew it was flimsy. That grouch wouldn’t last three minutes against Nagito’s pillow fort of love and happiness.  “Hello to you too, Hajime.” 

“Don’t give me that!” He threw his arms up in the air dramatically for a second, following promptly by folding them across his chest. The chest that he’d puffed up a bit, Nagito noted, to show that he meant business. Still, he could barely believe it. He could act big, but everyone knew he was a teddy bear on the inside. “You know exactly what you did, at least own up to it when I confront you.”

Could he take this further? Seeing how sour Hajime was, he kind of wanted to. His ability to push all of the right buttons just made him think about how perfect they were for each other. If he couldn’t mess with him in this way, he might have worried that they weren’t meant to be. It was good that he could tug on his lover’s leg.

“I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about.”

Hajime’s eyes narrowed. “Bullshit!” He gestured to the area behind Nagito, which did, in fact, make all of the stolen pillows incredibly visible. He almost snorted at the mental image of how this whole thing probably looked. The only thing that kept him from doing it was the want to push things further.

So he pretended not to see them. “What are you getting so worked up about? Tough day?”

“Yes,” The other party answered, his scowl slowly transitioning into a childish pout, “I’ve had a long day and I’m exhausted, Nagito, so I just want my pillow. I just want to relax.”

Nagito let out a cheerful hum. “That’s why I stole it.”

“Seriously? You would steal my pillow when I’m tired just to antagonize me?”

He couldn’t help but laugh at his partner, bopping him playfully on the nose. “You’re silly, you know that? Of course I’m not doing it to antagonize you,” He moved aside, gesturing towards the fortress, “I’m trying to help you, see?”

It was almost funny how quickly Hajime cycled through expressions when he caught wind of what Nagito had actually done. At first there were the parted lips and double take of surprise, then the flushed cheeks and the rubbing of his neck, and then finally the bright eyes and warm smile of admiration. That was all it took for Nagito to know that he’d done incredibly well. I wonder if he’s all that embarrassed, he wondered internally, having accused me of toying with him when all I wanted to do was help.

When he finally spoke, his voice came out soft. “You… built me a pillow fort?” So soft that Nagito had barely caught it, amongst the roar of the waves and the cries of island birds. “So I could relax…?”

He nodded, sticking his tongue out at his boyfriend playfully. Sure, he didn’t want him to feel bad about how he’d reacted, considering it was justified. But he definitely did want to tease him about it, just a little. “Yep! I was thinking we could do like, a movie night or something. I was just going to see if I could sneak in and grab your laptop.”

If Hajime hadn’t been embarrassed before, he was now. Nagito could see it in the way that he averted his gaze, turning his head more towards the ground. He never did like to admit too much when he’d made a mistake.

“Are you going to say sorry, now?” 

“Sorry.” 

“Sorry for?” He pressed further, bouncing on the heels of his feet. 

“Sorry for getting all high-strung about the pillow thing… You were just trying to do something nice for me.”

Nagito couldn’t help but giggle, leaning forward to press a gentle kiss to Hajime’s cheek. He swore he could feel the other man’s face heat up at the action, still unaccustomed to such affections somehow. The fact that he would still blush madly despite their almost year of dating only made him giggle more. 

“It’s okay. I know what you’re like when you’re sleepy. Now what do you say we go get your laptop and some lemonade, and settle into our pillow fort?” 

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Hajime replied, giving a cheeky wink, “Maybe we can even sneak a couple of cookies out, too. Mahiru was in the kitchen baking some last I checked.”

“Ooh! I like the way you think, Hajime!”

#if this doesn't have a read more im sorry #i keep trying to add one and it wont let me #Super Danganronpa 2 #danganronpa #komahina #nagito komaeda #hajime hinata #Koto's 100 Followers Gifts

[huesofthemorning]

The Frog Kingdom

Words: 4800

Summary: The girls go fishing. Somehow, they’re actually successful. Who would have guessed? Meanwhile, Nana introduces monarchy to the frogs.

“This is possibly the worst idea we’ve ever had,” Junna said, “even worse than the Pool Noodle Massacre.”

“No way,” Claudine argued. “Nothing is worse than the Pool Noodle Massacre.”

Junna, who was already completely sunburnt, looked Claudine dead in the eyes and asked, “Are you sure about that?”

Claudine laughed, reeling in her fishing line. “I still can’t believe you burn faster than me. Didn’t you put on like seven layers of sunscreen?”

“Yes.” Junna pouted, arms crossed. She had stolen Nana’s sunhat, too, the wide brim casting a shadow over her red face. “What I can’t believe is that you actually know how to fish. Where did you learn that?”

“Oh, you know,” Claudine answered, throwing her line back into the lake.

“No, I really don’t.” Junna followed suit, her hook landing with a quiet splash. They were sitting on a big raft in the middle of a lake, legs dangling in the water. It was warm. The sun was shining, and only the barest breeze ruffled through the trees lining the shore. Somehow they had all agreed to a day of fishing, despite only three of them having any sort of experience. Futaba and Mahiru seemed confident in their skills, though Junna was starting to doubt Claudine’s claims. The rest of them were making it up as they went. Those of them that were actually trying, that was. Kaoruko was lying in the middle of the raft, parasol propped up to shade her face. Futaba and Nana were sitting nearby, discussing the best types of fish to eat, their poles sitting idly in their hands. Mahiru was on the other side of the raft, coaching an energetic Karen and a strangely awkward Maya. Junna had a feeling that Maya had never been this far from a city before in her life. She was going through a rough adjustment period.

Junna pulled in her line and grimaced at the clump of pondweed stuck to it. “Are there even any fish in this lake?”

“Does it really matter? You don’t go fishing for the fish. Come on, Jun, get with the program.”

“Then why are we actually here?”

“Cause we’re a bunch of gay losers with no better ideas?”

“....Fair enough.”

“Ah! I got one!” Karen shouted, jumping to her feet. She was holding her fishing rod like a baseball bat, trying to pull the fish out of the water. Mahiru hurried over to help, reeling in the line. The group watched with only mild interest. This was the fifth time Karen had called that out this hour, and each time it had been a disappointment. It was looking like there was finally a chance for success, though. Karen and Mahiru were fighting for their fish, pulling with all their might.

“We’re almost there!” Karen shouted.

Bubbles rose to the surface of the water, a dark shadow beneath them. The group leaned forward, holding their breath. Was it true? Did Karen do it?

“Alllllllllmooooooossssssttt!” Karen and Mahiru made one last, big push of effort. Something broke through the surface-- everyone gasped--

“Wait- Hikari-chan????”

Hikari looked up at Karen and Mahiru’s shocked faces, the hook stuck in her hair pin.

“I found this,” she said, handing Mahiru a purplish piece of seaweed. “It reminded me of you.”

With that she sank back underwater, swimming away. Everyone stared after her, open mouthed.

“I hate these group trips,” Junna finally said.

“What… do I do with this?” Mahiru asked, looking around at everyone, seaweed in her hand.

“Eat it, probably,” Kaoruko said, choking on her laughter. “What a catch, Karen-han!”

“You might just win biggest fish of the day!” Futaba called. They were keeping track, of course. They were too competitive a group not to. Junna had her notebook tucked inside her oversized shirt - another stolen item from Nana, who was delighted by the sight - and was ready to mark down the winners. Assuming any of them managed to catch a fish in the first place.

“I’m going to go look for frogs,” Nana declared a few minutes later. She slipped into the water, swam underneath the raft, then reappeared by Junna’s feet. “Wanna come with, Junna-chan?”

Nana’s usual banana hairstyle had fallen apart after their initial swim to the raft. She had retied it into a short ponytail, and combined with her eager smile, she was too adorable to dismiss. Junna sighed.

“I suppose.”

“Yay, Junna-chan!”

“You’re so whipped,” Claudine said.

“Shut up.”

Junna joined Nana in the water, careful not to splash her glasses as they swam over to shore.

“How interesting,” Kaoruko said, watching the pair go. “The parents have abandoned their children. Whatever are we supposed to do now?”

“Probably something that’s not whatever you’re thinking,” Claudine said.

“How boring. I’m sure Tendo-han would be interested in my idea.”

“What?” Maya looked up from the tangled mess of a fishing line she’d managed to create. Futaba winced at the sight of the giant knots.

“Tendo, how did you even do that?”

“I’m… not sure.” Maya frowned at the disaster sitting in her lap.

“You’re just useless when you’re not on stage, aren’t you,” Claudine said, rolling her eyes. Art and fishing, Tendo Maya’s apparent weaknesses.

“What if we make this a stage?” Kaoruko asked sweetly. Instantly everyone turned to her, a gleam in their eyes.

“Go on,” Claudine said.

“Wellllll, I was simply thinking that’s it been soooo long since we did any improv work…”

“Let’s pretend we’re on a boat!” Karen shouted, bouncing up and down, the raft rocking under her feet. “I’ll be captain!”

“Woah, why are you captain?” Futaba countered. “You’d strand us in the middle of the ocean!”

“We are in the middle of a lake…” Maya commented, looking thoughtful. She set her rod aside and got to her feet.

“I’m calling for mutiny,” Claudine decided, standing up as well. The rest of the group followed.

“W-wait!” Mahiru said, wrapping an arm around Karen. “Let’s not be hasty! I’m sure Karen-chan can get us out of here.”

“Thank you, First Mate Mahiru!” Karen said. She placed her hands on her hips, striking a confident pose. “I will get us out of here, absolutely!”

“You better!” Futaba placed her hands on Kaoruko’s shoulders, who instantly adopted a worried look. “My fiancee and I were supposed to get married on this ship! Not get lost at sea!”

“Yes!” Kaoruko chimed in with her perfect offended princess voice. “How dare you! I’m lodging a complaint!”

Claudine laughed. “You’re lodging a complaint? To who? The shark?”

“Shark!?” the group cried out. Hikari circled the raft, hands pointed above her head to mimic a shark fin. Karen sang the Jaws theme song under her breath for dramatic effect.

“Everyone, behind me!” Maya called, throwing an arm out. All her city girl awkwardness had disappeared under the shine of the stage. Her voice echoed with power.

“What if we sacrifice her?” Claudine whispered to Karen as she huddled with the rest of the group.

“I’m on it!” Karen rushed forward and flung herself at Maya.

“Ah!” The pair hit the deck, wrestling for control. “Captain Aijo! I demand-- be sensible!”

One moment Karen was on top, straddling Maya’s waist, the next Maya had flipped them over, trying to catch Karen’s wildly swinging arms. Claudine was laughing so hard she was crying.

“C-Captain Karen!” Mahiru called out. “Watch out--”

Karen and Maya rolled right off the edge of the raft and into the water. Immediately Hikari dove after them, teeth bared in a feral grin.

“Well,” Futaba gasped through her laughter, “I think that makes Mahiru the next captain?”

“Ummm. That’s okay. I’ll pass.”

“I’ll be captain!” Kaoruko announced, graciously stepping forward. “As the most beautiful person on this ship, the duty clearly falls to me.”

“Hold up,” Claudine said, eyes narrowed in challenge. “Most beautiful? Says who?”

“Says the fact that I’m the one getting married, of course!”

“Yeah? You’re just a fiancee right now, Hanayagi. I am a wife!”

The three girls still alive on the raft gasped dramatically, hands to their chest. Claudine smirked, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

“Never expected that, huh?”

“Objection!” Futaba said, pointing a finger at Claudine. “I’m engaged to Kaoruko, so you can’t be married to us. Mahiru was shocked by your announcement, so you can’t be married to her either. That leaves only Captain Aijo and Tendo, who have both been tragically killed.”

The group paused for a minute of silence, the memory of their comrades’ deaths still fresh in their minds.

“You’re forgetting someone,” Claudine said after the moment passed.

“Who?”

“I,” Claudine stated in her haughtiest voice, “am married to the shark.”

There was a beat of silence as everyone processed the words.

“EHHHH????????”

Hikari surfaced, leaning on the edge of the raft and flashing Claudine a grin.

“Good work, my beloved,” Claudine said, returning the smile. “Soon this entire ocean will be ours.”

Hikari winked and disappeared again.

“Isn’t my wife hot?” Claudine asked the rest of the crew. They mumbled their agreement, casting fearful looks between them.

“But, but…” Karen whispered, treading water a few feet away. “Hikari-chan is…”

“Hush. We’re dead, remember?” Maya pushed Karen’s head under the water.

“Now!” Claudine said, taking control of the ship. “I am your new captain, and I expect order! I want all three of you cleaning the decks. I want them spotless, you hear me?”

“Yes ma’am!” The three girls saluted and went to work, getting on their hands and knees and pretending to scrub the raft. Claudine oversaw them, commenting on Futaba’s and Mahiru’s work, while purposely ignoring the way Kaoruko scooted over to the edge.

“Hey, hot shark girl,” Kaoruko whispered, looking behind her to make sure Claudine wasn’t watching. Hikari raised her head out of the water.

“Yes?”

“You like your wife, right?”

“Of course.”

“You want to make her happy, right?”

“Ideally.”

Kaoruko grinned. “Good. Because I bet Claudine would be really, super happy if you decided to eat her. If you know what I mean.”

“Hmm.” Hikari dropped below the water again, keeping eye contact with Kaoruko the entire time,  until she was deep enough to swim beneath the raft. Then she was gone.

“Hanayagi!” Claudine called. “That doesn’t look like work to me!”

“I’m very sorry,” Kaoruko said, lacing her voice with false sincerity. “It’s simply that I finished already.”

“Finished? That fast?”

“Oh, yes. If you don’t believe me, why don’t you come inspect it?”

Claudine thought about it for a moment. Futaba and Mahiru were watching out of the corner of their eyes, waiting to see what would happen. “Fine. I think I will.”

Claudine marched over to the edge of the raft, peering down at the wood. “Hmm. Looking at this, I don’t think you spent a single second working at all-- Ahh!!”

Hikari burst out of the water and wrapped her arms around Claudine’s legs, pulling her in. They disappeared in a cloud of bubbles. The trio left alive watched as Claudine’s bright hair faded away into the murky depths.

“Another one bites the dust,” Mahiru murmured.

“I’ve had enough of this shark!” Futaba declared. “It’s eaten three of our friends! It must be stopped!”

“Babe, no!” Kaoruko cried out as Futaba dove into the water after Hikari. More bubbles rose to the surface as they wrestled under the water. Kaoruko and Mahiru caught only flashes of movement.

The fight must have ended in a draw, for neither returned to the raft. Instead they joined Karen, Maya, and Claudine, treading water in the designated Dead Person Zone.

And then there were two.

“Well, I’m still planning to get married on this trip,” Kaoruko said, turning to Mahiru.

Mahiru took a step backwards. “Ummm. Well, we don’t have anyone to officiate anymore, so…”

“I think that’s fine,” Kaoruko said, taking a step closer to Mahiru. “If there’s no one to officiate, then there’s also no one to complain.”

Mahiru’s heels were at the edge of the raft. One more step and she’d tumble into the water. She had to do something - but what?

“I…. I have a confession to make!” she shouted. Kaoruko paused, eyebrows raised.

“Oh?”

“Yes!” Mahiru nodded seriously. “I will only marry someone who can beat me in a wrestling match!”

Kaoruko paled, fear flashing across her face. “Wait-”

Back on shore, Junna looked up from her frog hunting just in time to see Mahiru tackle Kaoruko across the raft, the two of them tumbling into the water, Kaoruko’s shriek piercing the air. Then all was still, almost picturesque, an empty raft floating quietly in a lake. Junna decided she didn’t want to know what had gone down in her absence.

“Nana, I’m never saying no to frog hunting again.”

“Great!” Nana beamed at her, holding out her newest catch, a small speckled toad. “What should we name this one?”

Junna frowned. “Isn’t that Shakespeare again?”

“No, no! Shakespeare was smaller.”

“I see,” Junna said, not seeing at all. How Nana managed to keep track of the dozen frogs she’d found so far, Junna didn’t know. “How about…. Anne Hathaway?”

“Isn’t that some American actress?”

“Yes. But it’s also the name of Shakespeare’s wife.”

“Oh! That’s great, Junna-chan! Let me find Shakespeare again, I have to introduce them!” Nana bounded off through the reeds, Anne Hathaway carefully cradled in her hands. Junna watched her go with a fond, if exasperated, smile.

“Alright,” she muttered to herself, standing up and looking across the water. “Time to make sure the rest of these idiots haven’t drowned themselves.”

Said idiots were all treading water in the middle of the lake, pondweed tangled in their hair and algae freckling their skin with green.

“I can’t believe you betrayed me like that!” Claudine complained, glaring at Hikari. “We were supposed to be powerful together!”

“Kaoruko told me to eat you.”

“And you listened!?”

Hikari shrugged.

“Speaking of listening to bad suggestions,” Maya said, frowning at Karen.

“You don’t say no to sacrifice!” Karen declared.

“Exactly!” Futaba agreed. “Especially when that sacrifice is heroic.”

“My hero,” Kaoruko said, swimming over to Futaba and clinging to her arm.

Mahiru sighed. “I’m going back to the raft.”

“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” Claudine said, nodding her head in that direction. The group turned to look, then immediately turned right back around.

“Maybe if we pretend we didn’t see her,” Karen whispered, “she won’t notice us.”

“No way, she has her glasses on this time, we’re done for,” Futaba moaned.

“I don’t know why you’re complaining, Futaba-han,” Kaoruko said, cowering behind her, “You’re not the one she gets mad at!”

Claudine hummed in thought. “You know, Karen, I’m thinking we should go the sacrifice route again.”

Maya nodded. “This time I agree.”

“Aye-aye, captain!”

“Wait! No!” Kaoruko cried out as Karen grabbed hold of her and began dragging her to the raft, where an expectant Junna was waiting with her hands on her hips.

“Ah, Karen-chan, maybe you shouldn’t…” Mahiru trailed off, wincing.

“No, this is good,” Hikari said. “We can sacrifice both of them now.”

“Karen! Hanayagi!” Junna said, her voice loud enough to carry to the rest of the group. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“It was Kaoruko-chan’s idea--”

“Karen-han tackled Tendo-han--”

“Stop, stop.” Junna rubbed the sides of her head, already feeling a headache form. “One at a time. And the rest of you, come over here too.”

“Yes, Dad,” Claudine muttered as they paddled over to the raft.

“I heard that.”

Claudine made a face, sticking her tongue out. Maya giggled. When the entire group was assembled on the raft again, Junna asked, “Okay. Who is going to explain what happened?”

The girls looked at each other, none willing to speak up. Finally Maya poked Karen in the back, whispering something about sacrifices.

“Right!” Karen said, jumping to her feet. “See, Kaoruko-chan said we should do an improv play. So I decided to be captain of our boat, but Futaba-chan got mad because I stranded everyone in the ocean and she wanted to get married to Kaoruko-chan, but then we realized that Hikari-chan was being a shark, so I tackled Maya-chan to sacrifice her, and we both got eaten!”

Kaoruko picked up the story next, after a pointed look from Futaba. “Our dear Kuro-han then told us she was married to Shark Hikari-han, so I told Hikari-han to eat her, as any proper wife should, and then Futaba-han bravely jumped in to fight her, and then Mahiru-han tried to propose to me by wrestling me, and then we both fell off the ship!”

Everyone looked at Junna with determined faces, ready to defend their play. Junna stared back at them, open mouthed. It took several moments for her to collect her thoughts.

“So… You’re telling me… That we go to the most prestigious theater academy in the country… and this is the best improv play you could come up with?”

Everyone turned away, making various awkward faces as they tried to avoid eye contact with their disappointed pseudo father figure.

“So,” Futaba said, attempting to give a normal, friendly smile that didn’t show her embarrassment, “how’d the frog hunting go?”

Junna let out a long sigh. “Nana found 13 different frogs and has started weaving grass into little hats for them to wear.”

“God. Nana is really just the cutest person in the world, isn’t she,” Claudine said, shaking her head.

“It’s certainly impressive,” Maya agreed. “She’s still planning on cooking dinner, yes?”

“That depends. Have you caught any fish yet?” Junna asked, the silence confirming the answer she already knew.

“Okay!” Mahiru decided, taking charge. “Let’s get back to it! Maya-chan, I’ll untangle your fishing rod. Hikari-chan, stay out of the water, okay?”

“But-”

“You’re probably scaring all the fish away! If you want to swim, do it somewhere else.”

Hikari pouted, taking a pole and moving to the edge of the raft. The rest of the group followed suit, Karen and Futaba joining her. Mahiru took Maya to the other side, getting to work on the tangled fishing line. Junna and Claudine returned to their original spot, Kaoruko flopping down beside them.

“You’re not going to help?” Claudine asked.

“Of course not! Futaba-han is the one who does the fishing. I’m the one who does the eating.”

“It’s always eating with you, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Speaking of which, Junna-han, I’ve always wondered, does Banana-han taste like bananas?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Junna said, voice surprisingly steady for her red face.  “I’ve never eaten a banana in my life.”

Claudine snorted. “Don’t let Nana hear that. She’ll cry.”

“Ugh. You’re so boring today, Junna-han.”

“Alright, Maya-chan,” Mahiru said, handing Maya her detangled rod. “Just throw the hook into the water.”

“That’s all?” At Mahiru’s nod, Maya tossed the hook as best as she could. It landed with a sad plop a foot away from the raft.

“Try… throwing it a little harder than that,” Mahiru suggested. “Like a baseball!”

“A what?”

“A… baseball?”

Maya gave Mahiru a blank look. Mahiru was starting to get very concerned.

“How about… I’ll cast the line, and you can reel it in once we get a bite?”

Maya nodded, gladly relinquishing control.

“Hey! Hey! I got one!” Futaba shouted, a fish dangling from her line. “Look at that! Hey, Junna! You gotta measure it!”

Futaba bounded across the raft and shoved the fish in Junna’s face. Junna grimaced. “A little less enthusiasm, Isurugi, please.” Junna gingerly took the fish and pulled out her pocket ruler. “It’s about… six inches.”

“Six inches! Nice!”

Futaba ran over to their bucket and threw it the fish in, watching in awe as it started swimming around. Junna wrote down the exact measurement in her notebook, marking Futaba’s name with a star. She was the current winner. Claudine leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Do we tell Futaba that six inches is the smallest thing she can catch in this lake?”

“No,” Junna whispered back, “she’s already short enough. We don’t need to shrink her ego too.”

The fish started coming quick after that. Mahiru and Maya pulled in an eight inch one, topping the leaderboard for an hour. Karen was winning in terms of amounts, catching fish twice as fast as the rest of the group. There were whispers going around the raft that she was catching the same one, throwing it back in already on her hook. Their bucket kept filling up, though, two dozen small fish swimming in circles, scales flashing in the light.

“We should start cooking these,” Maya said, depositing her latest catch. “I’ll bring them over to Daiba-san.”

“Careful,” Claudine said, “she probably has a frog army at this point.”

“But they’re all wearing cute hats,” Mahiru reminded them. “So it’s okay.”

“Please make sure she hasn’t tried to become one with the frogs again,” Junna said, looking over at the shore with a frown on her face.

“Again?” Maya asked.

“Let’s not talk about it.”

Maya left for shore, bucket held above her head. She set it on the beach, next to their little grill, and headed off into the reeds to look for Nana. The croaking led Maya right to her.

Nana was crouched in a little clearing, several driftwood structures in front of her. It looked like a little village, complete with walkways and road signs. Frogs and toads of all kinds covered the ground. each one wearing a small grass hat. There must have been close to 50. Nana was moving them about, humming to herself. Maya took it all in wordlessly, then turned around and left. She’d come back to this later.

“You know,” Claudine said, “I’ve been thinking we should ban Nana from frogs. I think she’s too into them.”

“I think it’s kinda cute,” Junna said.

“Sure you would. But did you hear what she told me the other day? She told me the frogs watched over my dreams and then sang her songs to tell her what they learned. That’s terrifying.”

Junna paused for a moment. “Okay, maybe you have a point.”

“Yes! Catch number 13!” Karen held up her newest fish and twirled around. “Aijo Karen, the best fisher girl in the world!”

Mahiru clapped politely. Junna sighed.

"I think I’m done with this," she said, getting to her feet.

"What, annoyed that Karen is having more luck than you?" Claudine asked.

"Yes.” Despite her best efforts, Junna hadn’t managed to catch a single fish in the entire two hours. No matter. She didn’t need a fishing rod to fish. “Kagura?" Junna held out her hand. Seconds later and a knife was in her grasp. Junna slid into the water and took off for shore.

"What is she doing?" Futaba asked.

"Trying to stab the fish?" Hikari suggested.

"More importantly," Claudine said, watching the awkward doggy paddle Junna had to use to keep her glasses above water, "why didn’t she bring her contacts?"

“I don’t think JunJun owns contacts,” Karen says.

"What?"

"Yeah, she says they’re annoying."

Maya frowned. "Wasn’t she wearing contacts during Starlight?"

"Nope!"

"So you’re saying that she was essentially blind the entire time?"

"Probably!"

"Oh, man," Futaba laughed. "That’s hardcore!"

"That explains why she was so insistent that the set pieces were placed in the exact same spot every time," Mahiru realized. Futaba started laughing harder.

"And why she ran right into the stairs when we moved them 2 inches forward!"

"What a loser," Kaoruko said.

"No, I’d say that’s very impressive," Maya said

"Don’t tell me," Claudine guessed, "you’re going to start practicing with a blindfold now, aren’t you."

"I was thinking about it."

"Oh my god."

“Oh?” Kaoruko asked. “I thought you’d be into blindfolded practice, Kuro-han.”

“Kaoruko, I’m going to push you off this raft soon.”

“Um, Daiba-san,” Maya said, back on shore. “Are you busy?”

“Hmm?” Nana looked up from her frogs. The village had grown in the fifteen minutes Maya had been gone, and now included a little driftwood castle. As best as Maya could tell, Nana was roleplaying a princess rescue, one frog trapped high up on the castle with a little grass crown, the other hopping along the ground and fighting the guards with its little grass sword.

Maya had no idea how to react to this scenario. She’d rather go back to the raft and learn about baseball. “We were… thinking of cooking soon. Did you want to help?”

“Oh! Of course!” Nana put down the seven frogs she was holding and tapped them on their heads. “Be safe now, okay?” Maya breathed a sigh of relief, leading Nana back to the grill.

“Were you able to catch a lot fish?” Nana asked.

“Somehow we managed.”

“Great!” Nana inspected the bucket, letting the smallest ones go free and passing the larger ones to Maya. The two of them set about to cleaning and cooking the fish.

Back on the raft, Kaoruko was getting bored.

“Futaba-haaaaan,” she called out, rolling across the wood to where Futaba was sitting. “I’m done with fishing.”

“Have you even touched a fishing rod yet?”

“No. I’m a lesbian, I don’t do that.”

Futaba turned around to high five her. “If I let you sit in my lap, will you be patient?”

“Yes!” Kaoruko scooted over and gladly took up her favorite position, head resting on Futaba’s legs.

“Oh! Me too!” Karen said. She laid down in the middle of raft, head resting on Kaoruko’s stomach. “Ahh~ This is nice.”

Mahiru and Hikari looked at each other and shrugged, joining the pile, Mahiru in Karen’s lap and Hikari in hers. Claudine looked over at the cluster of people.

“Wow. We’re all just abandoning fishing now, are we?”

“Yeah,” Futaba said, setting her rod aside and falling backwards. She landed on Mahiru’s stomach, sharing the space with Hikari.

“Hmph. That’s fine. If there’s no one left in the competition, then I’m the automatic winner!” Claudine pulled in a medium sized fish and tossed it in the bucket.

“Nice one, Kuro,” Futaba said. “Where’d you learn to fish so well?”

“Oh, you know. Hey- Looks like Junna is finally coming back.”

“Is she… carrying a bunch of sticks?” Mahiru asked.

“Alright, I’m ready to fish,” Junna said as she reached the raft, pulling herself up. She was indeed carrying several sticks, each sharpened to a point, as well as a larger wooden creation.

“Did you… make yourself a bow?” Claudine asked, dumbfounded.

“Yes.” Junna dried the wood off with her shirt and tested the string, nodding proudly as it vibrated the way she wanted.

“But. How?”

“It’s not that hard. You just need a knife and the proper tree.”

“Junna, you’re a menace.”

“Are you going to shoot the fish?” Futaba asked, looking eager.

“Yes,” Junna answered again. The rest of the girls sat up, moving closer to watch Junna at work. Junna picked up one of her makeshift arrows and pulled the bowstring back. She’d have to be careful. Without feathers, the arrows would fly differently. There was refraction to take into account as well. That was fine. Junna had calculated harder angles. She spied her target, several feet below the surface, and let the arrow fly.

A fish floated to the surface.

“Incroyable!”

“That was amazing!”

“JunJun, you’re the best!”

“See?” Junna said, looking smug. “Who needs a fishing rod to fish?”

“Am I allowed to stab fish with a knife now?” Hikari asked Mahiru.

“No.”

Nana arrived a short while later, swimming over with Maya sitting gracefully on her back, carrying the tray of food. The smell reached the girls well before the food did, their stomachs growling. Pretending to fish all day was hungry work.

“Dinner time!” Nana called. “I’ve got nine hot plates of Banana Grilled Fish!”

“Yeah!” the group shouted, rushing to take their share. It was delicious, as was everything Nana cooked

“Mm, Banana, you’re the best,” Futaba mumbled around a mouthful of fish.

“Did you bring one of your frogs with you?” Junna asked, spying a patch of green on top of Nana’s head.

“Yes! I didn’t want Anne to be lonely.”

“What happened to Shakespeare?”

“She ate him.”

“...Ah.”

Claudine frowned at the pair. “Do I want to know what you two are talking about?”

“No,” Maya answered, thinking of the frog village, “you don’t.”

“Hey, JunJun! Who won the fishing contest?”

“Me, right?” Futaba asked. “My first one was pretty big.”

Junna flipped through her notebook, scanning through the numbers. “I won.”

“What?”

“I won.”

“You only caught two fish!” Claudine protested. “And you shot those with arrows!”

“And I aimed well!”

“Congrats, Junna-chan!” Nana gave a big smile.

“Yeah, congrats,” Claudine said, making eye contact with Karen. “And you know what they say: the winner is the sacrifice.”

“What?”

“I’m on it!”

“Karen!”

Karen tackled Junna right off the edge. They landed with a loud splash, quickly sinking below the surface as Junna tried desperately to fight off Karen. None of the girls reacted.

“Sacrifice?” Nana asked.

“Oh, you know,” Claudine answered.

#shoujo kageki revue starlight #revue starlight #my stuff #ro fic #junna actually has a good time in this one! #mostly #maybe like 80% of a good time #thats a solid start

[komaedanagitotrash1]

This is a Danganronpa Hogwarts AU!

Notes: around 66% of the sortings and quite a few headcanons are based off of two posts by @thekomahinafucker. The two posts can be found here:

DR2 Hogwarts AU Headcanons

NDRV3 Hogwarts AU Headcanons

Word Count: 1,793 

Warnings: Language

Toko Fukawa could remember very few times in her life that she was completely and totally happy. She had been through what many people considered way too much for anyone to handle in the span of eleven years. Attending Hogwarts was inevitable, as her father was a wizard, so she was standing at platform nine and three quarters, mentally preparing herself for her a year of hell- it didn’t matter if this was a special school were the students might be thought of as freaks by certain people. 

There was one thing her mothers had made abundantly clear when a woman in blue robes who called herself Professor Sinistra came to the door with the letter: Toko had split personalities, one of which was the infamous Genocider Syo.

“You can’t seriously want a serial killer at this place!”

“She may look innocent, but the second she faints, or if she sneezes, out comes the crazy one!”

“Ma’ams, the Headmaster is well aware of Toko’s other personality, and, if she chooses to attend, special circumstances can be made for her. We’ve dealt with things far more serious than a serial killer.”

“Oh, really?” one of the women grabbed her on hand feather she always kept on her, waving it in front of Toko’s nose. The young girl’s eyes widened in shock and betrayal right before she sneezed. She stayed still for a moment before looking up at the Professor with bright red eyes. 

The ‘various accommodations’ that were made for Toko included her never sitting alone on the train ride to Hogwarts. So, while the Prefects, Head Boy, and Head Girl were discussing duties, she was stuck in the corner of the compartment, writing in her journal to distract herself.

She was sorted into Ravenclaw after about a minute. Much to her dismay, no one really talked to her that night. 

Or the night after that. 

Since the guessing game of who she would wake up as might as well have been Russian Roulette, the girls in her dormitory were automatically warned about Genocider Syo. However, they were forbidden from speaking about it to anyone outside of themselves and the Prefects. Most days they were lucky, and she woke up as Toko. On the days they weren’t, they were greeted with a large amount of cussing, especially for a eleven year old, and enough scissors for all.

They were very thankful for the fact that Syo never attacked women. Even then, Syo wasn’t stupid enough to try and go wizards with scissors. And when she did, she was always apprehended. But then there had been that one time-

Toko shook the thought out of her head. Since she had gotten Syo mildly under control in the past year, she had been upgraded to a compartment without Prefects. She was quite happy about it, even though a Prefect still came and checked on her every half hour. Toko understood where they were coming from- she hardly trusted herself.

Just two nights ago, Syo had tried to make a legendary escape out the window in an attempt to make it to Durmstrang. Syo had heard about it back at the end of term feast last year. When she heard of it’s reputation, she was quick to figure out the location and set course, trying to leave. If she hadn’t sneezed, the girl may have actually made it out of the country. 

“Not this time,” Toko muttered. 

“Are you talking to yourself?” she heard a recognizable voice. Looking up very slowly, she saw exactly what she had been dreading. 

The bright blue eyes with the white-framed glasses. The golden colored hair. The skinny and tall frame.

Byakuya Togami.

“Not this time.”

Byakuya stopped in the hallway, leaving the other boys to stop themselves just in time. His posse consisted of a fellow second year Slytherin named Mukuro Ikusaba, a third year Slytherin, Hajime Hinata, and a few newcomers who were destined to be sorted into the snake house

Once he pushed his way past the group, they understood what he was doing. Sliding open the compartment door, he stood in the door frame, looking down at one of his fellow second years.  

Toko Fukawa, a Ravenclaw. She always seemed to be a bit nuts, but talking to herself? Really?

“Are you talking to yourself?” he sneered. She slowly looked up at him, cringing. 

“T-Togami...”

“Guess I should have known someone as insane as you would talk to herself. Geez, it reeks in here. Do you even bathe?”

“O-Of course I do! I-It’s just t-that...”

“I’m going to leave while I can still breathe,” Byakuya spat, once again turning around. He closed the door forcefully behind him. “Come on,” he took to the front of the group, leading them the short distance from the compartment they were just outside of to the compartment reserved for them along with several other fellow Slytherins. The compartments towards the front were much larger, which was why they chose this one.

The door was already open, so the group piled in. The all of the girls were already there, the exception being Mukuro- it was typical that the group would try and find new potential Slytherins. Excluding the two Byakuya and his group had found, there were two new ones. 

Sayaka Maizono, Celestia Ludenberg, and Hiyoko Saionji were sat next to and across from the two girls. One had dark red eyes, partially obscured by her brown hair, which was all over the place. The other-

"Kirumi?" he asked, recognizing the Togami family maid. Despite being only eleven, the young girl had taken up the job of serving the Togami family when she was much younger.

"Do you two know each other?" Celeste asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Yes, we do," Kirumi said, "I have been the Togami family maid for over five years now. Master Togami, if you would like, I can leave immediately. I had no idea that you-" she began to get up.

"Sit down, Kirumi," he said sharply, and she obeyed, placing her hands in her lap and looking down at the floor. "It's fine. This is school, not the Togami mansion. You're allowed to live a normal Hogwarts life," he then looked over at the other girl, who still gave him and the other boys a questionable look. "And you are...?"

"Maki Harukawa. I've recently moved here from France. I'm a first year-"

"Obviously. You look too young to be any older than eleven," Byakuya rolled his eyes. Now that she mentioned it, her voice did have a slight French accent to it that seemed to be starting to fade. "Well, do you come from money? Are you pureblood? Is your family very influential?"

"My family is dead. I've been an orphan for the past ten years. However, mother dearest happened to be quite the figurehead- previous Headmaster of Beauxbatons. Naturally, that was where I was destined to go, even after she died. But... I didn't want to be like her. I wanted to go to Hogwarts, like my father. Next thing I know, the caretakers are apparating me to a sister orphanage in Britain. My father was a high-ranking ministry member before he inevitably got killed because he knew too much."

"Who was your father?"

"I believe his name was Hector Fawley. I was given my mother's last name at her request."

"Due to your mother being Headmaster of Beauxbatons, and your father belonging to the Sacred twenty-eight, I'm guessing it's safe to assume you boast a tremendous amount of wealth, along with pureblood status?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Excellent. Now, ladies, may I introduce Kokichi Oma and Korekiyo Shinguji, both excellent candidates for Slytherin."

"You are saying those words as if you get to choose what house we are put into. Rather foolish, isn't it?" Korekiyo looked over at Byakuya.

"Oh, shut up. That's a real nice one you've picked there, Togami," Hiyoko said, sneering at the boy. "He looks totally insane. What about you, shortie?" she turned to Ouma, "Are you a freak too?"

"Nishinishi... well..."

“Where’s Hajime?” was the first thing out of Nagito’s mouth when he stepped into the compartment. Chiaki, along with a few fellow Hufflepuffs, looked up from whatever they were doing. 

“Ibuki doesn’t know!”

“I think I saw him headed off to another compartment with Byakuya Togami and a few others,” Mahiru said.

“Yeah, he said he was going to come over here later,” Chiaki added on. “Come on, sit down. You know Asahina, right?”

“Hi~!”

“Hello. Who’s she?” Nagito glanced over at the girl sat across from him. She had on some rather interesting accessories, and seemed to be staring off into space.

“Angie Yonaga, she’s a first year. She doesn’t really know anyone, so we invited her to sit with us.”

“Oh, okay. Nice to meet you Angie.”

“Atua led me here, I can sense it,” she said suddenly.

“Er... great...”

“This year is going to be amazing! All you have to do is sleep well, eat well, and shit well!” Nekomaru Nidai bellowed.

“Hell yeah!” Akane Owari threw her fist in the air. 

“Whatever...” Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu turned his head away from the rest of the group of Gryffindors, looking out the window. 

“And, with you the Quidditch team we’ve got this year, there’s no way we can lose!” Leon Kuwata said, smirking. “We’ve got me, Owari, and Tanaka!”

“Speaking of which, where is Tanaka?” Peko Pekoyama asked.

“Probably off somewhere with some of the Ravenclaws,” Mondo Oowada shrugged. “He said he wanted to talk to Nevermind last year, so maybe he’s doing that.” 

“Eh, why do you even care Kuwata?” Fuyuhiko glanced over at the second year.

“Strategies for this year’s matches!”

“You aren’t even on the team yet! We still have to hold tryouts!”

“Whatever...” Leon scoffed.

“Aw, they’re adorable!” Sonia Nevermind gushed.

“Lady Nevermind, the Four Dark Devas are far from adorable,” Gundham Tanaka corrected, keeping a careful watch as all four of the hamsters climbed up on her shoulders, with one somehow getting to the top of her head. 

“Careful miss Sonia, those things could bite you!” Souda said warningly, glaring at Gundham. In Souda’s mind, Gundham was an obstacle when it came to getting Sonia’s affection.

“Do not worry, Kazuichi. The Four Dark Devas would not dare harm a lady,” Gundham said. “With the exception of Enoshima. I am still quite sorry for what happened at the beginning of the train ride.”

“It still hurts like a bitch,” Junko said, rubbing her cheek. “I’ve got to go and find Mukuro, I’ll see you guys back at the Ravenclaw dorm,” she stood up, walking out of the compartment as Chihiro Fujisaki, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, and Kyouko Kirigiri walked in. 

“Why was Junko cursing Tanaka’s name under her breath?” Chihiro asked.

“Gundham’s Four Dark Devas accidentally cut her on the cheek earlier,” Sonia explained. 

“Let the record show she was adequately warned and still chose to pick up Steel Red Elephant Maga-G. It was the curr’s own fault.”

“Yes, it was! Now, Kirigiri, how was your summer?”

#toko fukawa #professor sinistra #byakuya togami #hajime hinata #sayaka maizono #celestia ludenberg #hiyoko saionji #kirumi tojo #maki harukawa #korekiyo shinguuji #ouma kokichi #nagito komaeda #chiaki namani #ibuki mioda #mahiru koizumi #aoi asahina #angie yonaga #nekomaru nidai #akane owari #fuyuhiko kuzuryuu #leon kuwata #peko pekoyama #mondo oowada #sonia nevermind #gundham tanaka #kazuichi souda #junko enoshima #chihiro fujisaki

[sunbrights]

dvd commentary: viewfinder

(For anon, because I also have a special place in my heart for "viewfinder", and I wanted to talk about it more.

This isn't going to go on AO3, for a few reasons that I'll spare you guys from getting into, but I know that Tumblr isn't very kind to long text posts. If this is a pain to read let me know and I'll try to find another alternative!

I hope you guys enjoy!)

I originally wanted to write "viewfinder" as the first of a series of quickfics exploring friendships that have a lot of potential, in my opinion, but don't get a lot of screentime for whatever reason. I really enjoy both Peko and Mahiru as characters, though, and the longer I went the more I wanted to do a deeper dive, which is how it came to be what is now.

(I still want to do something similar to what I was originally planning, though I don't think they'll be quickfics anymore; probably longer oneshots like this one. I do have another fic planned in the same vein that's intended to be a sort of companion to "viewfinder," though that might be a while out.)

Essentially, I was interested first by the fact that Peko mentions Mahiru a few times in her FTEs, which leaves open the possibility for them to be friends even if it's never looked at explicitly in the main game. There are a lot of peppered references to both Peko's and Mahiru's FTEs in here as a result of that (which may or may not have already been obvious). Second, I was interested in the impact on Peko of having to kill her, outside of the consequences for herself and Fuyuhiko in the context of the killing game, especially if the two of them had been friends beforehand. Striking a balance between those two concepts, tonally, was really tough, but in the end I decided I didn't want to leave either one of them out.

Nitty gritty commentary under the cut!

** **

Koizumi has taken at least four photographs of her since they arrived on the island. One was a group photo, taken the first day; the other three were taken covertly, when she thought Peko wasn’t aware. (Peko cannot afford not to be aware.)

I really agonized over how many photos Mahiru would reasonably have taken at this point. I think this number (and the one later, when Mahiru shows Peko all of them) changed at least five or six times. Why?? I have no idea. Weird hang ups in editing hell.

She does the same with the others, with similar frequency; most of them rarely notice, if ever. Peko allows it because she sees no reason not to, but she does consider the possibility of Koizumi having goals beyond a few candid photographs.

(She brings this up to the young master, and he rolls his eyes.

“Koizumi’s a fucking goody-goody,” he says, feet kicked up on the edge of his desk. “She’s not worth worrying about. If it bugs you, tell her to knock it off. Otherwise, I don’t give a shit what she does.”)

The next time Koizumi takes a photo of her, Peko is out splitting coconuts on the beach. It starts out as just her, Mioda, and a handful of others, but once they start shouting about the quality of the coconut juice, it isn’t long before the rest of the class begins to file in.

This section was tough to get right, and a lot of it ended up getting cut; I almost ended up cutting the whole section (I did a couple times, I think), but I'm glad I was eventually able to get it where I wanted it. The coconut special event in particular felt like a good starting place to me because it's the earliest point that we see Peko bonding and socializing with the others, even if she didn't really intend to.

At one point Souda, Hinata, and Mioda hold six coconuts out in a line; Peko slices through all of them in a single swing, and hears the familiar snap of Koizumi’s shutter behind her.

The others all whoop as the tops of the coconuts hit the sand. Koizumi rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling even as she steps back. When they start handing out the remaining shells, Peko brings one over to her.

“I was wondering,” she says, after Koizumi has taken the first sip of her juice, “would it be all right for me to see that photo?”

“The one I just took of you? Sure, if you want.” Koizumi pulls on the strap of her camera to swing it back up towards her. It looks unwieldy to hold in one hand, but she does it without much effort at all. “Don’t worry, you look really cool in it.”

The digital display of the camera is grainy and cluttered with functional symbols, but the most important parts of the image are clear. Peko discovers that she isn’t the subject of the photo, as she’d assumed— instead, she is the dynamic foreground to the actual subjects: Souda, Hinata, and Mioda, their hands held out and their faces lit up in varying degrees of awe, fear, and delight. The line of Peko’s shoulders and the draw of her blade act as a frame for the smiles of her classmates.

(Peko can also tell that her form is off: she’s holding her right shoulder too high, and it caused the cut in the final coconut to be uneven. It’s hardly Koizumi’s fault, but having such laziness immortalized will bother her for days.)

“What do you think?”

“It’s... surprising.”

“‘Surprising’?” Koizumi draws the word out. It’s the wrong one, going by the way her brows pinch together. She twists the camera back towards herself to squint at the display. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Peko struggles to elaborate. It’s difficult to find the words to describe something when she isn’t certain of what it is in the first place. “It could have simply captured the trick they asked me to perform,” she decides on, “but instead it captures the feelings of everyone involved.” She hesitates, then clarifies: “I like it.”

Peko's much better than Hajime at giving the kind of feedback Mahiru likes to hear. She's a thoughtful character in general, but I also think she'd be familiar with what helpful feedback sounds like, sort of a counterpoint to her own criticism of herself above.

Koizumi looks up at her, eyebrows lifting. “Yeah.” She smiles, and it’s easy and friendly. “Yeah, that’s it exactly, actually. Thank you.”

Mahiru's smiles get mentioned a lot in this story, which is intentional; Peko's hyperawareness of them is meant to play into her own self-consciousness over struggling with smiling herself.

“You’re welcome,” Peko says, even if she doesn’t understand what she has to be thanked for. Koizumi seems pleased regardless, and she leans over to show Peko the other photos she’d taken so far.

There’s no harm in letting her keep taking them, she decides.

*

They have lunch together, sometimes. Both she and Koizumi tend to eat earlier than the others, so the hotel restaurant is often empty; on the days when neither of them are away doing other things, they sit out on the balcony and Koizumi shows her the photos she’d taken that morning.

“You know, I actually had something I wanted to talk to you about,” Koizumi says one day, dimming a photo of Togami and his spread of breakfast from her camera’s display. She pulls a small, squat album out of her camera bag and lays it out on the table between them. “Here. These are all the pictures I’ve taken of you so far.”

By Peko’s tally, Koizumi has taken six photos of her: the four she’d already been aware of, the one of her slicing the coconuts, and an additional group photo since.

In this album, there are eight.

I feel like a talent like Mahiru's has to be multifaceted; she's creatively and technically talented, obviously, but she also has to be adept enough to physically take photographs in a way that captures moments without imparting an observer effect.

That, and I think it creates a point of commonality between Peko's talent and Mahiru's (Peko being constantly aware of herself and her surroundings vs Mahiru separating herself from her surroundings in order to document them) that helps make them peers, in a backwards sort of way.

“I feel like I must be getting something wrong,” Koizumi says. She leans her chin on one hand, and the puff of her sigh scatters her bangs. “No matter what I do, I can’t seem to get the right shot of you.”

Peko touches the edge of a photo of herself leaning on the hotel restaurant’s railing. She tries to remember when it possibly could have been taken. “I don’t understand.”

“Well… Okay, look at this one.” Koizumi taps her nail against one of the group shots on the page: all eight girls standing together, smudged with chocolate and flour. “You had fun that day, right? At least, I thought you did.”

“Yes,” Peko answers. She studies the photo, trying to understand the flaw. The form is excellent and the colors are bright; it’s everything one would expect from Koizumi’s talent. “I… enjoy baking, sometimes. It was a welcome distraction.”

I like the idea of Peko enjoying cooking, especially baking, in spite of her not liking sweets. (The logic being that it's something fun she can do, and the results can be shared with people she cares about to make them happy, too.) Y'all probably can probably see that cropping up in a few stories of mine.

“But you’re the only one not smiling in the picture.” Koizumi flips the pages of her album back and forth. “See? You’re not smiling in any of them. This one kind of comes close,” she touches an image of Peko sitting together with Tanaka and Mioda while the Four Dark Devas of Destruction explore a sand castle, “but I’m not sure it counts. You look happy, but you’re not really smiling.”

This is the first reference to a FTE, specifically Peko's third one:

PEKO: Mahiru told me that... I'm the only one who doesn't smile for her pictures.

Oh. It’s about that. Peko closes her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “It wasn’t my intention to ruin your photos.” If Koizumi’s goal is to capture moments of positivity in their circumstances, it makes sense that Peko wouldn’t fit into that vision. “If you’d rather I avoid being in them from now on, I understand.”

“What?” Peko feels Koizumi’s hand clasp around her wrist. When she opens her eyes, Koizumi has her other hand splayed out over the open page of the album. “No, no. That’s not what I’m saying at all, Peko-chan. I just thought... maybe there are other times when you’re having more fun, you know? Maybe I should take pictures of you then instead.”

I think ultimately Mahiru's photos celebrate mundane joy in her friends' lives; I don't think she'd want them to be a source of anxiety for anyone, especially not a friend.

Even through Koizumi’s fingers, Peko can see how the photos of her don’t fit in well with the ones on the opposite page. There is a clear interruption in the theme of the collection. Looking again, she doesn’t know how she didn’t notice it the first time.

“It isn’t that,” she says. “Smiling can be… a challenge, for me. It may be more efficient for you to focus on the others.”

“Oh.” Koizumi’s forehead creases in what Peko assumes is a combination of sympathy and confusion. “Well, that’s okay. It’s not really about the smiles themselves, anyway. It’s more… whether or not you’re happy in the moment.” She smiles then, one that’s small and apologetic, and for a moment Peko can’t fathom it ever being that easy. “So don’t worry about it. Okay?”

Peko says, “I’ll try,” and means it.

She still thinks about it for the rest of the afternoon.

*

Koizumi takes fewer photos in the days after Hanamura’s execution. It’s understandable; there aren’t many causes for any of them to be smiling in that aftermath. She spends most of her mornings and afternoons out away from the others, but when Peko asks to see the photos, she declines. (“I’ve never been proud of my landscapes,” she admits. “It always feels like there’s something missing.”)

Little crossover tidbit: Natsumi preferring to take pictures of nature in "by the claw of dragon" is a reference to my headcanon here that Mahiru doesn't enjoy it much.

The next time she arrives at the hotel restaurant early enough for lunch, she’s the brightest Peko has seen her in days.

“Peko-chan! Look, I have a surprise for you.”

She slides onto the opposite bench and sets her lunch aside, an afterthought. “I was right, I think.” She unzips one of the outside pockets of her camera bag to produce a photo, newly printed. “I just needed to get the right shot of you.”

Having said the above re: Mahiru not wanting her photos to be a source of anxiety for people, I do think that she would keep trying, and that she probably would have been one of the best people (next to Hajime) to help Peko get past her mental blocks.

Peko doesn’t understand. She’d only been practicing with Hinata for a couple days, and his comedic timing leaves much to be desired. “Is that…?”

“It sure is.” Koizumi’s smile is proud and eager. “Here, see for yourself.”

She slides the photo across the table, and Peko draws it toward herself with the tip of her finger, careful not to smudge.

It’s a picture of her from earlier that morning. Her, and the young master.

“What do you know, right? I was so worried he was going to ruin it.” Koizumi sets her chin in both hands, and Peko can see the way her smile flattens out sardonically. “But it turns out even Kuzuryuu can take a nice picture every now and then.”

It is a nice picture. The angle is high, and neither she nor the young master have noticed the camera; Koizumi must have taken it from the restaurant stairs. She vaguely remembers the moment: she’d passed him on her way out of the hotel, and had only paused to say good morning. She remembers him, half turned towards her with his hands in his pockets, his shoulders and his smile relaxed. In Koizumi’s photo, she smiles back.

His singular order from the very first day had been to maintain the illusion that they were only classmates. They look it, in this picture. He’d be satisfied with it, she thinks.

Not sure how obvious this is, but the picture described here is intended to be the one Fuyuhiko mentions during chapter 5, if you talk to him in the hotel restaurant before going to the ruins with Sonia.

FUYUHIKO: It's the first time... I've seen a photo of Peko and me where we look like equals... FUYUHIKO: Tch, Mahiru... When the hell did she even take this photo?

“Sorry,” Koizumi says, after a moment. Her voice is gentler, and when Peko looks up her brows have drawn together, concerned. Oh. She’d misinterpreted Peko’s silence as offense. “I didn’t mean to— just be careful, Peko-chan, okay? I know you’re trying to help him and all, but that guy is bad news. You shouldn’t get involved with him.”

I figure that if anyone would have picked up on the fact that Peko is the one constantly "bumping into" Fuyuhiko and ferrying information back and forth to him, it would be Mahiru.

“He is… abrasive,” Peko allows. (She has rehearsed this answer in her head many times.) Koizumi’s brows disappear behind her bangs. “We shouldn’t let our guard down. But I think with time he might be open to cooperation.”

“Peko-chan.” Koizumi’s voice is still gentle, but has dropped low enough to not quite be called a whisper; it borderlines on conspiratorial. She chooses every word with careful deliberation. “This is the only picture I’ve been able to take of you smiling, even a little bit. Ever. Okay?”

Peko wills herself not to react, even as she feels her face and fingertips go cold. If she has in any way compromised—

“I’m not going to pretend I get it. Because I swear to every god there is, I don’t.” Her smile turns lopsided and embarrassed, and all at once Peko understands the sort of assumption she’s made. Her cold cheeks suddenly flush warm. “Seriously. That guy? Really?”

She has not rehearsed an answer for this.

Something in her expression must balk, because Koizumi holds both hands up, defensive. “No, it’s okay. I’m not going to ask, just—” She bites her lip, and Peko sees the way she rehearses her words in her head. “A guy like that, the kind of world he comes from? He’s not ever going to change. He’s too wrapped up in himself and his image to bother. Maybe he’s not dangerous yet, but he’s definitely not worth your time. Or anybody else’s, for that matter.”

Combine the above with how aggressively Mahiru and Fuyuhiko butt heads right out of the gate, and I ended up with this conversation. Mahiru wants Peko to be happy, but she also doesn't want her getting caught up with someone she sees as unreliable, self-absorbed, and dangerous. The friction that comes from that in Peko and Mahiru's friendship is inevitable, in my opinion, especially since Mahiru doesn't have all the context.

“We are in a dire situation,” Peko hears herself say. “Our only hope of success is through cooperation.”

Koizumi’s expression twists. “No, no. I know. You’re right.” She turns the photo on the table back toward her, and looks at that instead of at Peko. “But you have to admit, he’s not exactly falling over himself to cooperate with us, either.”

The young master wouldn’t disagree. Peko only shakes her head.

“I’m just saying, as a friend? You don’t need to bend over backwards to help someone who obviously doesn’t want it.” Koizumi picks the photo up by the corner, and is careful not to bend it when she puts it back in her bag. She zips the pocket closed with more force than she needs to. “Let him deal with his own problems.”

And a little dramatic irony, for flavor.

She is wrong, in more ways than she’ll ever understand.

*

That morning, the young master knocks on her door first.

Not pictured: me grappling with the timeline of chapter 2 to make any of this work, after I realized just how short it is between Fuyuhiko playing Twilight Syndrome and Mahiru's death. Say what you want about his yakuza talents, my boy can crank out a revenge plot like it's a frickin' office memo.

The photos must have been taken in the heat of the moment, but their composition is still stark and harshly beautiful. The framing of Natsumi-sama’s blood-spattered corpse makes excellent use of the rule of thirds.

Peko says, “Koizumi,” before the young master has had a chance to say anything at all.

When he throws the open envelope across the length of her cottage, the rest of the photos spill and scatter across her floor like fallen leaves.

*

Peko offers to be the one to deliver the message, but the young master insists he do it himself. She watches the mailbox instead, to ensure his message is heard and understood.

By noon, the mailbox is empty.

Koizumi doesn’t respond immediately. It’s understandable; if the young master doesn’t remember the incident, it’s unlikely she does, either. Peko watches for her anyway, and late in the afternoon, Koizumi sits on the deck of her cottage with the largest of her photo albums in her lap.

Peko knows it to be the one with the final prints of her photos, after she’s had time to crop and color balance them. Her face is lined with concentration and stress, less like reminiscing and more like personal critique, but Peko has made enough threats in her lifetime to see the fear around every edge, in the shakiness of Koizumi’s muscles and the tightness of her mouth.

If you've read some of my other stuff, you might have seen that I like to write in very, very close third person. That makes communicating the arcs of characters who aren't the POV character (through the filter of the POV character) a fun challenge for me, and this is a good example of me trying to do that with Mahiru. I wanted to highlight the point after Mahiru has seen the pictures but before she's played Twilight Syndrome, when she must have recognized the pictures as hers but been shocked and afraid by the contents. Peko interprets it a little differently.

The message has both been heard and understood.

That confirmed, there is no reason for Peko to interact with her any further, now that she’s been identified as an enemy of the Kuzuryuu Clan. Clearly, Peko has made a grave error in underestimating her as a potential threat; any further mistakes would only exacerbate the damage.

However, since arriving on the island the young master has had only one, singular request.

This is intended to be the first conflict between Peko's duty as a "tool" and the new friendships she's been making -- she uses her duty as an excuse to keep hanging out with Mahiru, right after she points out to herself that she shouldn't.

Peko holds out her hand to get Koizumi’s attention.

“I wasn’t back in time for lunch today,” she explains. “Could I look at your photos with you now instead?”

Koizumi still smiles, even if it’s thin. “Yeah. Here, come sit with me.”

Ordinarily, Koizumi is happy enough to talk through her photographs while Peko observes, the whens and whats more than the hows and whys. (“My work needs to speak for itself,” Koizumi had said, the one time Peko had asked, “If I have to explain it, then I didn’t do my job right.”) Today they sit in silence while she pages through the album, one by one.

Many of these final prints are ones that Peko has yet to see. Owari and Nidai, bloodied and grinning, grasping each other’s forearms. Saionji with two packets of gummy bears flared out in front of her face like twin fans. Souda with a screwdriver in one hand and Nanami’s Gamegirl in the other, and Nanami sitting beside him, reaching for it with both hands. Hanamura in the hotel kitchen, flipping flapjacks in a pan while Mioda cheers in the background.

You might have noticed by now that I had a lot of fun coming up with different scenarios for Mahiru's photos in this fic. I was always a little sad we didn't get to see more of them!

(There is exactly one picture of Koizumi herself, where she isn’t in a group. The photo isn’t candid, but she doesn’t look prepared, and the framing is sloppy. When Koizumi reaches it in the album, she’s quick to turn the page.)

This is intended to be the picture Hajime takes of her in her final FTE:

MAHIRU: So... I was thinking about taking at least one shot of myself while I'm on this island. MAHIRU: The me... who's here like this...

“I know that it’s not the most groundbreaking subject matter ever,” Koizumi says eventually, “but that’s fine. People don’t need their lives to be groundbreaking, or dramatic, or- or tragic for there to be beauty in them. You know?”

She turns the page, and her fingers land on a photograph of Hinata caught mid-sentence, his mouth open too wide and his eyes halfway through blinking. It makes her smile, a real one that isn’t pained or forced. For that moment, the lines of stress and fear on her face smooth out into nothing.

And again, this is intended to be the photo Mahiru takes of Hajime in her first FTE:

MAHIRU: Well, I guess this is good enough. Yep, that sure is a dumb-looking face.

“Yes,” Peko answers. “I think so.”

*

Koizumi’s allotted time runs out. The young master is not inclined to give her more.

More evidence of me playing fast and loose with said unreal ch 2 timeline.

This whole section actually wasn't in the original draft of this story, and I waffled a lot on whether or not I should include it; I wanted Fuyuhiko's influence to be felt, but I didn't actually want to include him in the story itself too much. In the end I decided I needed it to bridge the arc I wanted for Peko in the story, which I'll get into in a minute.

“I’ll go with you,” Peko tells him, when they’re alone.

“No.” He’s bent over his desk, which is neat and nearly empty now that Koizumi has the photographs. All that’s left are the letters he’s just written, folded and stacked and ready to set a plan in motion. He won’t look at her. “No. Your plans aren’t changing, okay? Go- go do your thing with the girls. I’ll be done before then anyway.”

That is not an option. She can’t agree, so she doesn’t.

“I’m going to talk to her,” he goes on. His voice trembles under the weight of all his anger and anxiety. “And if that bitch has something to answer for, she’ll fucking answer for it. That’s the only thing I can do, right? That’s what Natsumi deserves.”

Peko hears it, the way his resolve doesn’t shore up the way he wants it to. There are fractures in his certainty of what he’s been taught, and every day they get a little wider; his heart is too big and beats too strongly for them not to. He struggles with it, but there is strength in struggle, not shame.

One of the remaining blank sheets of paper crumples under his left hand. He hears the fractures too, but they sound different to him than they do to her.

There is so much weighing him down.

She wants to take it away from him, or at least help him shoulder the burden. But Koizumi’s philosophies, Hinata’s advice and encouragement— all of it fails her in the moment, when it matters the most. She remembers when they were small and cold and lost in the mountains, how his face had pinched with fear and tears, how she’d failed him then, too.

Like I mentioned earlier, I was interested in Peko and Mahiru's FTEs, especially in the larger context of the main plot. If you WERE to finish Peko's FTEs before the, uh, cutoff point, for example, her later ones would necessarily need to fall around/during all the behind-the-scenes fuckery happening in chapter 2. So, with that in mind, here's this from her fourth FTE:

PEKO: Mahiru showed me her photos the other day. They were filled with images of smiling faces. PEKO: I don't know how else to say this, but... they were very nice photos. I learned that smiles give people power. [ ... ] PEKO: If I had been able to smile and tell him that everything was going to be okay, even if it was a lie... PEKO: I might've been able to take away his fear.

The other piece of this is the fact that Peko wants to protect Fuyuhiko, but she doesn't do it by stopping him from killing Mahiru, which would protect everyone. In this story, I wanted to open the door to the possibility that Peko may have wanted to try and convince him away from it, through her interactions with Mahiru and Hajime and the others, but struggled with it because of the nature of her "role." In my mind, this is the point where that door shuts again, and she falls back on what she knows.

She says, “Young master—” but he’s already standing.

“Don’t call me that. Just- go, all right? I don’t have a lot of time.” He tucks the letters into the inside pocket of his jacket. “We’ll talk when it’s done.”

"I don't have a lot of time" was an inside joke with myself about how dumb the timeline of ch 2 is. That shit really got to me, y'all.

*

Koizumi is pale that morning. It makes her concealer too dark against her skin, and when she lowers her head shadows still steal into the bags under her eyes. Her hands shake when she waves at Peko from across the pool.

“Morning, Peko-chan.” Koizumi breathes in deeply, for no reason Peko can see except to steady her voice. “You’re still going to the beach with everyone today, right?”

Peko nods.

“That’s good.” Koizumi nods, too. She keeps nodding, and looks down at her hands. “I’m glad. It sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun.”

Mahiru is in a pretty dark place at this point, but her priority (like it is with Mikan and Ibuki) is still that her friends are happy and have fun. There's always tomorrow, right?

“You won’t be coming with us?”

Peko knows the answer. She asks the question anyway, because she must. Because as much as she feels for Koizumi’s position, the young master’s safety comes first, and his will comes second. There is no choice to be made.

Again: she wants to protect him, but going against his wishes to do that isn't an option. The rest of this is intended to be Peko turning to fully embrace the "tool" mentality she thinks she's supposed to have after slipping from it.

“No. I’m sorry, I wish I could.” She is hugging her arms close to herself. Her fingers tighten around her elbows until the skin under her nails turns white. “I just... I have something I need to take care of. But you should go have fun, okay?”

“You’ll be missed,” Peko tells her. It isn’t a lie, except by omission, but she still feels like something has been wedged deep beneath her sternum. “We’ll take photos. For your record.”

Peko's not talking about the beach trip. In case anybody wasn't sure.

“I’d like that. Thanks.” Even now, even with all this, Koizumi is still able to smile. For all her practicing, Peko is sure she’s learned nothing at all. “Have you seen Ibuki-chan anywhere?”

*

In the end, Koizumi never sees her approach. It’s a stroke of luck Peko doesn’t deserve, but the outcome would not have changed regardless. She will protect who she must protect. Kill who she must kill. If she can do nothing else, she can do that.

The young master reaches for his weapon, and she is there.

There was originally a transitive verb in the second clause of this sentence (I forget exactly how I phrased it) that didn't get changed to what it is now ("she is there") until the final edit. Ultimately I changed it because I wanted to emphasize Peko's attempt to take agency away from herself, especially in the context of the narrative she pushes in the trial later.

#this was actually quicker to do than i expected #so i think i'll also do one for shelf sea #since that got requested too #it feels a little like drawing back the curtain to show you guys the patchwork mess underneath tho #nerve wracking!! #i hope this is sort of what you were looking for anon! #dvd commentaries #meta thoughts #not a fic