Flesh & Bone (OMORI AU)

Chapter 30: Who is he?

Just a warning for this chapter... it has themes of transphobia, grooming and childhood trauma. I am basing it on my own experiences as well as referring to my personal OMORI headcanons. If you are sensitive to these topics, avoid this chapter. I will go over it as a summary in the next chapter and simplify it the best I can. Thank you for understanding.

As Ayaka, Basil and Aubrey entered the old warehouse, Kel began biting his nails. He wished he had gone after Sunny instead. Aubrey tapped her bat gently on the tiles, moving it from its place slightly.

"This is some pretty cool shit."

"I'm... not fond of it." Basil shuddered as he gripped his shears tightly.

"If I remember correctly, Francine is probably working on the top floor." Ayaka stared down the hallway, tapping her foot slightly.

"What makes you say that?" Basil tilted his head.

"The only room that has power here is on the top floor. We managed to get its generator working, but it never supplied power to the rest of the building. So we decided to do the more mechanical things there... knowing Francine, Mari might be there.."

"Then let's go! I wanna kick some ass!" Aubrey growled, about to pass Kel when she saw his expression.

Normally, she would have made fun of him for being upset, but in that moment she knew that Kel was going through a lot. And now that Sunny had ran off to do whatever, it only made him feel worse.

"Kel... it's going to be okay. Everyone will get out safe. Trust me.." Aubrey had a lot of empathy in her eyes as she spoke, something Kel hadn't seen from her before. He stifled a sad laugh.

"When we're done with this, we should really have another picnic.."

"Agreed." Basil smiled warmly, watching Aubrey nod.

"We need to hurry... in case Francine does anything stupid." Ayaka sighed, ushering the others to follow her down the hallway in search of one of their friends.

Hero and Sunny had been running for a while, and considering Hero had poor stamina and Sunny was frail, they both were losing their breaths. The warehouse was bigger than they had imagined. Hero gasped as he saw a door down the hallway, rushing toward it with Sunny.

"This is the way up to the top floor. Cmon." Hero whispered as he pushed the door open.

Sunny scrambled to the stairs, nearly slipping. He was so anxious. He felt terrible... he felt like none of this would have happened if he hadn't reached out to Francine in the first place. All he wanted was his sister back. But now his own sister was suffering. Hero reached the top of the steps before Sunny, pushing the door open. It was stiff and took some effort to open, but he managed to get through, Sunny closing the door behind them to the best of his ability.

The room was bigger than Sunny had imagined. Multiple lamps illuminated the room, the skylights above revealing a crescent moon, partially covered by darkened clouds. Papers were littered across the room, and various strange machinery and materials were placed in shelves or on the ground. In the corner was a large curtain that separated part of the room. The two of them could see the shadow of a person, and long purple hair dragging on the floor out of the curtains... but something wasn't right.

If this was Mari... why was her hair so long? Why was her shadow so large and abnormal in appearance? Even Hero was lost, despite having been in the room the day prior. Sunny slowly stepped toward the curtain, and reached one of the corners, carefully opening it. There laid Mari. It had seemed like nothing was wrong after all. She looked normal. Mari seemed half awake, and had a few bruises on her collarbone. Her eyes fluttered weakly as she stared up at Sunny, a smile crawling across her face.