"Aw, you didn't have to do this, Mikan-chan!"
They're sitting at a nice cafe. Tsumiki has just paid for coffee.
"Y-You d-deserve this, Mioda-san."
Mioda is smiling, smiling brighter than anyone ever should. It's almost unnerving but also endearing.
"Ibuki-chan's real hyped! You're so sweet."
And it was then and there that they both began to fall into despair.
-
It's so easy to kill her. So easy to take her by surprise, and strangle her till she has no more breath. Mioda is begging, begging for one last song, for her life.
But she doesn't get it, she never does. When is it that easy?
-
They hold hands as they walk, the sunlight bright.
"Say, who's that girl waving at us, Mikan-chan?"
A blonde girl with pigtails is beckoning for them, and Tsumiki wants to go, but she can't. She has to stay with Mioda but-
Mioda's already run off. Why does she love her?
It's too late, the devil is approaching, but did either of them know? No, they didn't.
-
They can't suspect her, she's too weak, too scared.
She stutters, she trips, she cries when people talk to her.
How could she kill? How could she do it twice?
Tsumiki did it, but they'll never know, they'll never catch her.
Or so she thinks, because it's never that easy. Despair is a complicated thing.
-
They burn down Mioda's old concert hall. Lighting a match, throwing it at the gasoline doused building.
It lights up, then burns away, and Mioda is giggling. It's so funny to her, the despair. It's almost not real for her.
Tsumiki offers a gentle smile, and wonders if she's the reason Mioda is so cheery. Maybe it's the other way around, maybe Mioda's easy going grin can keep one on her own face.
They can't stay to watch the hall burn, no matter how great it would be. No, they have to find Mioda's old band members, the ones that abandoned her. One of them is locked away in Hope's Peak, but she'll be dead soon, Tsumiki knows.
Wherever the rest are, she is willing to kill them.
Isn't it easy to fall until you are nothing but darkness? Isn't it easy to be despair?
Not really.
-
They catch her.
She made a mistake, she can admit to that.
But how did they piece it together, when they can't even remember?
She can only laugh as she walks away, grinning grinning.
"And if you forget, I'll always remember!"
-
It's dark, cold, and the world is falling down around them.
But Mioda still holds her hand, despite everything.
It's enough.
Enough to make her want to remember.