Two Birds

One More Or Less

   Saihara jerks awake suddenly, head pounding.  

   He lets out a strangled gasp, pulling the collar of his shirt as he bolts right up on the bed.

   "Shuichi? Shuichi!"

   The ravenet turns his head towards the blonde, who is desperately trying to calm him down. "Despair!" He gasps, "Killing game! A-And I met a Remnant of Despair and. . .and. . .Oma! And!"

   "Hey! Hey!" She takes him firmly by the shoulders, "Calm. Down. It's going to be alright."

   He hunches over, taking a few deep breaths and trying to ground himself. Akamatsu sits close, rubbing his back soothingly.

   "How are you not. . .freaking out right now?!"

   She shrugs. "I actually woke up an hour ago, so I've calmed down a little bit already," She explains, "What happened to my face was a mugging-gone-wrong, by the way. Isn't that strange? That's not what I was expecting, at least. I was at least expecting a car accident or something. Say, Shuichi, what's your favourite colour?"

   The ravenet gasps, heart pounding fast as he tries to hold himself together. "What?! Ugh, blue, why?"

   "Blue, huh? I like yellow. Do you think the air conditioner in this resort is too cool? How old do you think it is? Do you think it'll break soon?"

   "What?! No, I'm sorry, Kaede, but I don't really care right now."

   "Just answer the question, Shu." She responds calmly.

   Saihara is about to curse her out before he realizes something; Akamatsu is trying to distract him and, through such, calm him down. Internally, he's grateful, but he can't display it at the moment.

   "I don't know. . .It depends how old this place is and how state of the art it is or whatever?"

   "Do you want to talk about it?"

   "What do you mean? About the memories returned to me?"

   "Mhm! Do you remember me? Because I remembered you." She continues.

   "Yeah," Saihara responds breathlessly, calming down a little more by the minute, "We were friends or something, right?"

   "Yeah! Classmates too. And all that stuff Shirogane told you in the last trial. . .it was false! We were changed, yes but we were in fact kidnapped by an organization that still supported Enoshima Junko," She marvels, "That Tragedy and those Despairs. . .what do you think the world looks like now?"

   "It looked back to normal in my memories. . .and apparently I met someone from the Jabberwock Killing Game? So that means-"

   "You met a former Remnant of Despair."

   "Yes. . ."

   Saihara frowns, debating whether or not he should tell Akamatsu about his relations with Oma if she doesn't already know. He thinks about it for a good moment or two before finally deciding against it. Besides, it wouldn't even be fair before even discussing it with Oma, right?

   Suddenly a voice comes on over the P.A. system. "Hello everyone, this is Sano. We can see everyone is awake and starting to calm down from their memories as well as the truth behind how they got put into the killing game, so we'd like everyone to gather in the cafeteria for a class-wide discussion of everything-as, well as some information Bushida and I would like to give to you all now. Er, except for you, Tsumigi-san, you go to the usual place. We'll reintroduce you to your class soon. See you all in five minutes." And then they signed off.