Chapter 22,5
"Honami?"
Akito turned around inside his cell to see Ichika approaching Honami.
He had a faint idea that they were somewhat close, although he had no idea why he was paying attention to that or intention of knowing more.
"Shizuku, Minori and I are planning to stay together while we wait, you wanna come?"
Honami looked at Akito, conflicted, Akito really didn't understand, he didn't know what she wanted him to say.
No one ever asked him something like that. Ena would never be so conflicted. An, Toya and Kohane would never be so conflicted.
He… Would he ever be this conflicted?
"What are you going to do, Honami?"
Ichika asked, Honami turned to look at her and then at Shizuku, who was watching them from afar with Minori.
"I… I'm going…"
Ichika… Her best friend, childhood friend, the one who she hadn't talked to in at least a year… or Shiho… Es, Shinonome, Asahina, whoever?
Who was she happier with?
"No… No thank you, Ichika… I'll stay here for now."
Emu didn't walk out of her school's building yet, Nene waited for her outside the entrance for her.
"Kusanagi!"
Nene didn't recognize that voice, and she knew for a fact it sounded awfully familiar in some way.
It reminded her of someone.
She turned around to be met with Saki running towards her.
"Oh no…"
Before Nene could run home, tell Emu she had forgotten something in her classroom or whatever, Saki finally reached her.
"Kusanagi… Hi…"
She struggled to catch her breath, breathing quickly and with her face almost completely red.
"Tenma."
Nene didn't want to talk to her. She knew what she was going to ask.
Who she was going to ask about.
"This is going to sound very sudden but…
Can you tell me about… what happened that day…?"
They ended up in a diner, Nene had told Emu to wait for her at PxL, but first she had to deal with this.
"What… What do you want to know, Tenma."
Nene asked, fidgeting with her fingers and looking down.
"How… I guess… What was it like…?"
Nene looked at Saki, she looked visibly nervous, she looked tired.
"It- I don't think I've ever seen so much blood in my life before that day… At first it was gruesome already…"
Saki thought for a moment.
"At.. First?"
"Rui, Emu and I ran away after we found him and…"
She couldn't muster up anything for a bit.
"Rui… He practically sprinted back for Tsukasa. And when he didn't come back I ran after him. After them, maybe…"
Saki had a concerned look on her face.
"I was too late, there was some cliff in the way but I was too late, and I could just watch as my friends finished murdering a man."
Saki's eyes widened, as Emu walked into the diner and pulled Emu into a surprise hug.
"And then, they ran away. We haven't seen them since maybe a week after that."
"We've been managing to keep the shows up and running with just the two of us, but it's not the same without them."
Emu added, Saki quickly took a deep breath.
"I might be wrong but… There's one thing I know."
The two troupe members turned to look at her.
"Tsukasa and Kamishiro. They didn't run away."
He was at Milgram again.
Kotoko was walking away from his cell, he could see her silhouette just like last time.
Everything hurt, his eye especially.
He wanted to scream from the overwhelming pain, but he couldn't.
"Fuuta?"
That wasn't the voice of any prisoner… It wasn't Kotoko coming back to finish him, it wasn't Kazui again to save him, it wasn't Mikoto, and it wasn't Es or Shidou.
He hadn't heard that voice in years, yet he'd recognise it anywhere.
"Aki…"
"Shidou! He's here!"
Fuuta watched as the end of the first trial continued to repeat itself.
"Fuuta?"
Mikoto poked his forehead multiple times until he woke up.
"You're finally awake! Want some tissues?"
Mikoto held a box of tissues to Fuuta's face, Fuuta stared at him, trying to figure out what the hell just happened.
"That seemed intense, you okay, Fuuta?"
Kazui sat across the room.
"What seemed intense?"
"He doesn't have a fever, that's for sure."
Shidou said, leaning on the wall right next to the door.
"Answer the question!"
"You were having a nightmare, I believe."
Shidou replied, Mikoto nodded.
"I think you muttered your brother's name at some point. It's hard to say."
It was then that Fuuta realized his face wasn't exactly dry, just as Ena entered the room.
"Has he woken up yet?"
"You too, Ena!?"
Ena huffed and placed her phone on a nearby table.
"Hello to you too, Fuuta."
"Who told my sister where I live?"
Fuuta immediately turned to look at Mikoto, who took notice of that.
"WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME?"
Mikoto protested, Kazui answered the question for Fuuta.
"Well you're the one that broke literally every single one of Fuuta's windows so--"
"Alright, I get it. But it wasn't me!"
"It was another of your friends, I think her name was Koto-"
Ena began, Fuuta jumped slightly and immediately shushing Ena.
"How the fuck does Kotoko of all people know my address?!"
"I think Muu told her out of spite when you stole her last baguette."
Shidou said, Fuuta let out a "EHH?!"
"That was way back in the first trial! How the hell did she find out where I lived then?!"
Kazui chimed in.
"Didn't we all celebrate New Year's Eve here? Well, except Ko-"
"Don't say her name in my house!"
Ena sighed.
"What is she, Voldemort?"
Fuuta was quick to answer.
"Not quite, Voldemort is far less dangerous. I bet I would've gotten killed if I wasn't forgiven in the second trial."
Mikoto hummed.
"Mahiru was close to it, Kotoko- I mean, she was by far the strongest person in that prison."
Almost immediately after he said that, Kotoko hit the laminated glass and immediately climbing the outside of Fuuta's apartment building like Spiderman, startling Fuuta to the point where he fell out of his chair.
"...Was that her?"
Shidou asked in complete and utter disbelief.
"I think what's more important to ask is why on Earth was she climbing up the building, Kirisaki."
Fuuta stood up from the floor and walked to the door.
"I'm going to sleep, I can't deal with this right now."
Milgram wasn't anything new to him at this point, he knew it was a weird place, but he could never anticipate what he had woken up to.
His cell… it wasn't like the one he had fallen asleep in.
It was more full than his empty cell, and not to mention the air reeked of the smell of smoke.
There was no one to be seen, An wasn't there, Akiyama, Mochizuki, no one.
Until he heard footsteps rapidly approach, someone sprinted past him and into what was supposedly his cell.
He heard screaming, a familiar one, along with one he hadn't heard before, laughing as the familiar one continued to yell.
Maybe… This wasn't his Milgram.
Finally, the last hiss of pain rang through the prison's walls accompanied by a loud sound of metal hitting something hard, as he slowly stumbled closer and leaned on the wall, breathing heavily.
The unknown prisoner left the cell as quickly as she had entered it, the weapon still in her right hand and covered in blood that Akito hoped wasn't who he thought it was from.
He walked into view slowly but surely, noticing Fuuta's bloodied face looking up at him.
"Aki…"
"Fuuta?!"