肆

Sank to her knees between them both and embraced them. She pulled Takumi's head against her chest. Eito, the less overwhelming contact of wrapping her arm around his and interlacing their hands.

"You big crybabies..." But there was no admonishment or judgment in her words. "There there, or whatever I'm supposed to say...? Big sis is here."

"Ahaha...The real thing is way cuter than that creep they put in my head." A soft laughter fell out as she drew both of them more tightly into her grip. She felt safer without Eito able to run off so easily.

"Eito...People aren't made to stop caring once they get started. I mean, that's why I act super annoying and stuff, so no one has to feel anything for me! And I mean, Takumi's cared about you for like, almost a year. But I guess that goes for me too...I didn't think it'd bother him so much if something happened to me."

She turned her gaze to the boy in question and cringed a bit. "Don't look at me like that! It would be fine if you didn't! That's...what I wanted. But I guess I messed that up, you'd both really hate it if I kicked the bucket..." Her hand squeezed around Eito's as she turned to him again. "And we would both be like in a whole spiral if you died!"

"Every martyr orientation just leads to an edgy group suicide, so there's not much point, right? We can just kill Sirei! Bad End CG postponed!"

Takumi's cheeks felt warmer being this close to Darumi. Close contact, physical contact, wasn't something he was used to. Even if his false memories, it wasn't something that happened too often. He always felt too shy to hug Karua once they got older. And even when he wanted to, he felt like there was SOMETHING stopping him. Maybe he was subconsciously aware he couldn't touch Nozomi.

He can admit that it is comforting. Being held like this, by Darumi of all people. Takumi was fairly certain he had never been hugged in his entire life considering how short it actually was. His own memories of the TRC felt so distant sometimes. He didn't even realize how much he needed it.

It was true that Takumi cared about Darumi. He didn't understand her and she seemed like she loved making him uncomfortable. But even so, he still never found it in himself to dislike her. She fought by his side. He wanted to protect her. And Eito... Where could he even begin there? Eito had been someone that he cared so much about. Eito had ripped out his heart and... Even then, seeing Eito now... Takumi didn't hate him anymore. THIS version of him never killed anyone. Even his supposed murders in the TRC were fake. His hands were less bloody than Takumi's own...

He tried to stop crying, but it was hard. Tears still welled up, even if it was more controlled than before. He hadn't even considered that crying might hurt Eito...

"W-wait. Does it hurt? It probably burns..." Takumi blinked away his own tears, even if Eito couldn't see them. He was good at making promises that he had no real way of keeping, wasn't he? But right now, he promised himself he wouldn't let anything bad happen to Eito or Darumi. They deserved to be happy.

"We need a plan, right? Amemiya is right... We'll probably... I might be able to convince him but..." Probably not. "We just need a plan."

Takumi forced a flimsy smile as if it would help either of them. Eito who couldn't see and Darumi who probably knew he was faking it. But it was all he could think of to do.

"I'd feel way safer with you helping us, Aotsuki. After all... You're really smart." He and Darumi weren't exactly the smartest of their unit. Maybe that would sway him ever so slightly.

"And as for your condition... We don't have to be enemies. I want to understand you. I meant what I said back then... When Sirei wanted me to kill you."

Darumi's words and actions, Takumi's desperate, not-so-subtle appeal to him to persuade him, they came together to create a cocoon of illusions he never thought could have been outside of the lies in his head. Even if it all stemmed from unfounded empathy, or a sense of obligation…he found himself wanting to cling to the words so badly that it felt like it tore him inside out.

"…We should be safe if we go together. I secretly broke the detonation transmitters in the War Room, back when you still hadn't made your decision...just in case Sirei would try to exterminate you." He turned away, strangely nostalgic over the same gamble he'd staked everything on Day 2, coming back once more to risk his one and only chance left at life. "Not much time has passed since then. I...don't think he'll be able to do anything if he's surrounded."

"But…I can't be like any of you. I'll never know the humanity you fight for as anything less than the bug they put in me. Even now, I can't truly…feel your warmth as I should." The words brought a bitter laugh, followed with a flinch back in suffocation and anguish alike. It's not fair. Not fair at all. Why him? Why only him? Why couldn't he be like them? Why did it have to be this way? He wanted to shout it at them, at the world, like a small child again even as he finally knew the answer. Some things really did never change. What was there to understand about him, beyond that? It's not like he'd truly have the opportunity to change it anymore, just living in stasis within the walls of the academy. He knew Takumi was simply all too soft for his own good. But just what did Darumi see in him to go this far? It was all so unfamiliar...

"I  heard  you  were  in  the  hospital  a  lot.  I  have  some  experience  with  that."  Even  if  Eito  was  vastly  different  from  her,  she  wanted  to  at  least  try  to  be  empathetic  to  him.

Especially those who claimed to understand him.

A hand to his chin, tilting his head to the side- as if Nozomi was the one captured through the bars; being scanned in a microscope. “Pray tell, Nozomi-san, just what did you hear? Did our hideous little time traveler go gossiping, perhaps?” No, he hadn't mentioned anything to him at all other than the 'illness' he claimed to have on their first day, but that didn't matter now, did it? The beast surely knew enough to lock him up like this. It really did remind him of home.

The world is beautiful,

If you have the eyes to see it.