Coke In Resonance
The doors of the Great Hall swung open, both with enough force to hit the walls behind and crack them. They crumbled into little pieces, half the room collapsing in. Ayato stood between the open doors, his hair whipping about his face, seriousness to his gaze. Light smattered perfectly over Ayato’s angular, sickly face – he pulled one of his shirtsleeves up, revealing the medical band which stated the word DISCHARGED. His hair glimmered in blue streaks, bright enough to awaken the snoozing Kyoya, who had awoken from his ‘unconsciousness’ by the mere radiance of the blue-haired terrorist-cum-therapist. The man was barefoot, clearly having just left the hospital - he was far slimmer than when he’d left Oxbridge, his previously toned musculature turned gaunt and skinny, had he been starved? His sunken face, the slimness of his ribs, the way his entire ribcage visibly shifted with each breath would indicate so.
Shanks stared on in confusion. Was he simply seeing things again??? Just like how he saw Yuki, who was in the room with them right at that moment, had been for the whole time, sneering at Shanks from the crowd with his arm looped over Dazai’s shoulder? Shanks’ hands shook.
Little did he know that at the same time, Yuki, back in Knottingham Trent, was seeing Shanks. Learning of his university's loss to Oxbridge, having raised a measly £65 for charity, he had once again been sent down the inevitable spiral towards hysteria and mania. Oxbridge, his dear rivals, had beaten him off again. Yuki moaned, and at this point he wasn't sure if it was from pain or pleasure. The unblinking eyes of his imaginary Shanks watched him get beaten off, his red hair glimmering in the dusk. It was that face that kept him from the precipice of suicide, something Hannah Baker would never understand.
Back in the Great Hall, Victor blinked once, twice, again and again. Was this true, could this be real??? Could the one mans - the man who had understood him far better than he understood himself - could he be back? Was Ayato back?
Soma gripped his forearm to steady him and nodded through pursed lips. At that moment, Victor knew it was all true.
Sasuke looked on in disbelief.
One by one, all of the Oxbridge students expressed their disbelief, unmoving as they stared at Ayato as if the man were a spectacle.
Ayato barely noticed. His gaze flitted over the students and teachers before him, searching.
“Where is Yosano?” his voice was weak, it was the one person he had wanted to see, the one person who he had never seen in his time with Mario and Luigi - the person who he missed more than anything. He’d expected her to be there, waiting for him. He knew she’d been banned from visiting him, something Mario constantly rubbed in his face as he threw mushrooms at Ayato, just another form of mental torture in the hell he was living. His chest hurt, he simply wanted to see his lover once more.
Yosano dropped the noose she had been holding. She was standing up in the rafters of the Great Hall, tying the rope around the main wooden beam, determination etched onto her brow. She had planned to murder the wheezing animal and her fellow doctor, Chopper, to stage his death as a suicide. She had figured it allllll out a long time ago, a whole half a day ago, and she intended to get revenge for her beloved, her blood boiling. But now, Ranpo had done all the work for her, revealing that sick son-of-a-bitch’s plan to everyone.
“My love!” she cried, throwing herself from the rafters into his arms. Unfortunately he didn't know she’d be coming at him from above, his arms weren't out ready, and she landed solidly onto his head. She'd make up for it later by giving HIM head. A new head from her collection.
The students watched their reunion with tears in their eyes. Finally, they had Ayato back to them. The students all fell into a flurry of nods, the sounds of their necks snapping filling and echoing around the Great Hall. It took only twenty minutes for the nodding to die down, and another twenty for their spines to be replaced- the damage from all that nodding had done irreversible effects.
The doors of the Great Hall swung open, both with enough force to hit the walls behind and crack them. They crumbled into little pieces, half the room collapsing in. Nishijima stood between the open doors, his hair whipping about his face, seriousness to his gaze. His shoulder-length hair glimmered in brown streaks, bright enough to blind Kyoya, who was still struggling from his bout of ‘unconsciousness’, hand gripping his chest as his heart beated in overdrive. Nishijima looked exactly how the students had seen him, like, what, two hours ago? Waaaa, why had Ranpo called him, now they’d all have to go to jail again!
“I came to commit-” Nishijima stared right into Y/N’s eyes “A murder. I’m going to kill the soul of anyone who dares cross the law,” he winked sexily, licking his lips.
“Stop talking to Y/N!”
“Everybody, get down on the floor and await your arrest. You're all going away for a long time- a year, maybe longer if Lord Goo can remember to feed you.”
The crowds of students parted, revealing Ayato at the center. Nishijima’s eyes locked onto his orbs, gleaming, perring out behind strands of long hair.
“Yooooo, Ayato?” Nishijima cheered upon seeing the teacher. He had struggled to recognise him at first, what with his disgusting threads and skinniness, “My man.”
Ayato finger gunned the police officer back, “Bro, waaaasssssuuuuuppppp?!?!?!?!”
“Waaaa?” Tamaki whispered in question, turning to Dazai in confusion. Though Dazai had no answer to give.
“Haven’t seen you in the terrorist coffee mornings bro, where you been?” Nishijima continued to finger gun, adding in a couple ‘pew pews’ to make the shooting seem more realistic.
“Twas institutionalised my man. These young students were working tireless to free me. And now that my innocence has been proven, I am OUT.”
“Woah broooooo shoulda guessed, are these your students? These cocaine peddlers?” Nishijima looked offended at the thought of such disgusting criminals coming from the intelligent terroristic mind of Ayato.
Ayato gasped, “Cocaine peddlers?” He looked at the students surrounding him thin-lipped. Most were avoiding his gaze, Kunikida was looking to his feet, a feeling of guilt yeeting at their young and promising minds. “How could you! Kids, apologise to this hardworking government official!”
Nishijima held his hands up good-naturedly, glad for the opportunity to stop finger-gunning, “Well man, I couldn’t arrest them with good conscious, my girl Minene Uryuu would go all suicide bomber on my ass if I put her old terrorist pal Ayato in a spot of bother, and even though there’s like infinity of her in all the other dimensions that I could replace her with, you know what true love is like. So this is a warning from me, the entirety of the police department: cocaine is bad.”
“Yo man, I appreciate it, tell Minene I say good bombin’.”
Nishijima watched Yosano embrace Ayato. “What a nice woman. She cares so much for her terrorist boyfriend.” Nishijima’s thoughts turned to his own terrorist girlfriend from another dimension, and her doppelganger from this dimension who he was merciliecess hunting down in the name of justice for her heinous crimes.
“Well, time to get back to the precinct. I have hundreds of Knottingham Trent students to charge for attempting to buy illegal substances. Disgusting children, all of whom will be held accountable for their crimes, unless they are white males of course, or have Caitlyn Jenner’s lawyers to hand.”
“Goodbye!” the students waved him off, smiles on their faces.
Fukazawa saluted the man, “We will never be able to repay you for your service.”
Nishijima saluted back, “What kind of government would I be if I did not take repayment in terms of tax from my peoples.”
Fukazawa balked, “Ah yes. Taxes. Those. The - the thing I pay.” he cleared his throat.
“Glad to hear it, comrade.”
Sasuke kicked the squealing Chopper beneath him. “And what do we do with this thing?” he asked.
“Eat him?” Ace asked, grilling fork at the ready, abs twitching in anticipation. Chopper licked his lips. He wouldn’t mind getting eaten out if Ace was the one doing it.
“Dispose of him outside,” Fukazawa said dismissively, “He’s shedding on the mole skin carpets and I simply cannot stand his smell. Ace, how you ever managed to insert such a foul beast into your body confuses me endlessly.”
Ace’s abs twitched and readied themselves for a response, though when it came to it they realised there were no words to say.
“No,” Ayato took a step forward, his frail body quivering. “We do not speak to Chopper like that, this is why he is the way he is. Insecure, pathetic, using physical violence to get his way. No, no, this must end at once! If we make this a safe space for Chopper to tell us how he is feeling and resolve conflicts without him chopping off his limbs then perhaps Oxbridge will be…” Ayato looked at the repellent mound that was Chopper and winced at his ugliness, “Perhaps Oxbridge will be…less discriminatory. I accept that everyone in this room is exceedingly attractive - no, no Sakura, stop it, that’s disgusting, I wasn’t talking about you. What was I saying? We cannot discriminate against ugly students, it’s not fair. Chopper didn’t choose to be like this. But we get to choose the way we respond to his ugliness, all that...is on US.” Ayato looked around to his students, all of whom were enraptured by his speech. “Do you see what we have done?” Ayato’s voice quivered, “To this spineless little piece of trash? Just as you never tell a toddler it’s stupid...he was never to learn he was so abhorrent.”
Kunikida sobbed quietly, “Oh, how I would hate to be Chopper!”
Sasuke gulped, adam’s apple bobbing, “I would kill myself,” he said thickly.
Ace nodded, a sheen of despair in his gaze.
“Chopper,” Ayato turned to him, “I forgive you. I forgive you for separating me from my soulmate. I forgive you for sullying my name and ruining my reputation. I forgive you for pinning the loss of your legs on me, which resulted in an institutionalisation akin to torture. Some could say you were the one to torture me, Chopper. I may never return to my prior state of sanity. But still, I forgive you.” Ayato turned to the students.
“Will you?” he asked, facing them in turn, “Will you forgive Chopper?”
“If it's for you, Ayato-san, I would do anything for you dear therapist,” Tamaki cried, tears streaming down his face, moved by his speech.
The others began to nod, although slowly and cautiously, they couldn't injure their new spine replacements so quickly after all.
Soma cheered. “Well now that that's all behind us, let us move on to focus on our education. We don't have long now before graduation. I’m sure the next few months will be a wonderful time to remember!”