Mended Branch (DR3 x OC)

Chapter 13: Gratitude

The weather was sullen along with the colour of the sky. Katsumi kept up a run for as long as she could, feeling the first cold raindrops fall onto her skin before it soon transformed into a moderate shower, the pattering sounds of the rain drowning out a lot of the other noises around her.

"Rain, huh..." she muttered under her breath.

Not only that, moderate fog obscured the place as well, as if the atmosphere couldn't get any gloomier. Being off the coast of the sea couldn't make up for any of it, especially with the situation at hand. Gathered from their current intel, they only had around 15 minutes left before Mitarai Ryota's video would reach the entire world. And by that point, that would spell undeniable doom.

Katsumi lifted her head to stare at the tall building in the distance: the broadcasting tower. That was her current objective, in order to reach him with the rest of her class. At a running pace without any interruptions, she estimated they would probably take a little more than five minutes to reach there. At least it was assured that she would arrive in time, but they were still cutting it close.

Katsumi's thoughts were interrupted by the sudden noise of rapid gunfire. She picked up her pace, then noticed the people nearby, below the small, rough cliff she was standing on. It was where the proper trail of the bridge was, along with a platoon of armed men: the brainwashed Future Foundation soldiers.

She could just barely make out the side of the people the platoon was attempting to fire at, around twenty or so metres away. But, no doubt, the short-statured young man with light brown hair, looking slightly scuffed with dirt and grime, was none other than Naegi Makoto, accompanied by a large handful of armed Future Foundation troops that she assumed to be under the command of Togami Byakuya. They must have been fresh out of the most recent killing game, according to the intel Katsumi had received.

Makoto and his group were in the middle of taking cover behind the flat but wide cylindrical stone structure in the middle of the bridge, just tall enough to cover them while they were in a crouching position. The smattering rain of bullets zipped past with no hint of settling down.

"Tch..." Katsumi clicked her tongue, immediately reaching for her bag upon proper evaluation of the situation, only for the sound of an obscured, moving figure in front of her on the same cliff to stop her from taking action.

She ran up closer to the end of the cliff to catch a glimpse of them. While walking forward, the shoe of said person struck a pebble just a little smaller than the palm of a hand. The hit pebble collided with a pebble around three times its size, then that pebble hit another five times larger, then that one hit one seven times larger. Rinse and repeat, it was safe to say this was essentially a domino effect. One... two... three, four, five, six times, until the next "pebble" was more boulder-sized, successfully toppling the rest of the loose rubble of the cliff that all came crashing down in a mini landslide straight below. It was followed by the cries of the enemies down below, the dust and dirt settling soon after.

Makoto stood up, appearing completely bewildered, though for good reason. Nagito stood on top of the rumble, his jacket billowing in the wind. With a mechanical whir, he raised his left prosthetic hand as a greeting. "I'm back."

After all this time... It really was a feat that Hajime had managed to bring them all back in the first place.

"Komaeda-kun, stop running off like that." Katsumi put a palm to her forehead with a light scowl while walking up to him at the edge of the cliff. "Do you really think I need to add heart attacks to my list of problems?"

"Ah, sorry," Nagito rubbed his neck, "but I didn't notice I lost you until later."

In the corner of Katsumi's eye, she saw Makoto understandably gawking at them. Once she properly made eye contact, she raised a hand to greet him. "Good to see you again, Naegi-kun."