Naegiri/Kirigiri/Naegi Drabbles

The Sins of the Father

Kyoko Kirigiri's dream starts as blank nothingness--a white canvass almost. The scene quickly changes to a more than familiar location--Hope's Peak Academy. Specifically this time, though, is when she and Makoto Naegi were in the Headmaster's Room on the second floor.

After Makoto enters in the Headmaster's password that opens the secret office, and after he and Kyoko discover the box with Jin Kirigiri's bones inside, Makoto lets out a blood-curdling scream, and a long conversation ensues between the Ultimate Detective and the Ultimate Lucky Student about the bones in the box and who those bones had originally belonged to.

Makoto then spies an old photograph on the Headmaster's dresser. The photo shows a happier time, with a man's back to the camera and the man's arms holding a young, laughing child up off of the ground. The photo is faded, but the subject of the photo is easy for Makoto to discern--it's a much younger Kyoko. The Kyoko standing next to Makoto in the present, however, has a much different reaction to the photo.

'...!'

Kyoko's purple eyes expand as she places a gloved hand over her mouth. She then immediately switches to a look of... anger? Disgust?

'Well. This is certainly annoying,' Kyoko quietly had said. 'I came here to cut myself free of the past, and yet... to find something like this...' She trails off momentarily, then asks a question that confuses Makoto at first. 'So what do you expect me to do now?'

Makoto is stunned into silence at first, until Kyoko breaks that silence.

'Why? What... ? I wanted to face him and tell him myself, to cut him out of my life for abandoning me. That's the whole reason I came to the Academy, and now he's abandoned me again--this time, stealing the only opportunity that I had to move on. Has there ever been a worse father?'

Makoto can only silently sympathize with a more emotional Kyoko than he's ever seen, as he carefully moves to eventually discover the emergency e-Handbook within the Headmaster's desk. Kyoko absently dismisses Makoto giving the handbook to her, telling him to keep it for his part of the investigation instead.

Kyoko then speaks up once again. 'Listen, Makoto... ?'

'Huh?'

'May I ask for a favor?'

'Of course, Kyoko, what is it?'

'I know that it's completely unreasonable of me to ask you this, and I know that it'll only inconvenience you that much more. However... could you please... leave?'

'Huh?'

'It's... just for a little while. I just... need to be alone for a bit.'

'Kyoko... '

'Don't worry, I'm fine. I just need to calm down a little so I can... get my emotions in order.'

'You know, Kyoko... you told me before about the relationship that you had with your father. You know, how you're only connected by blood and not by heart or soul. But... '

'Maybe that photograph motivated him. Maybe he'd hoped to see me again someday. Is that... what you were going to say? If so, that's just a theory, and this isn't an issue that can be settled with theories. That photo... doesn't change the facts of what happened, or what I went through. That's a problem that cannot be solved so easily.'

'Kyoko... you're right, I'm sorry.'

'Once I've gotten myself under control, I'll return to the investigation immediately. So please, Makoto? May I have some time to myself?'

'Okay, I understand. Then... I'll see you later, Kyoko.'

Makoto sighs softly as he sees Kyoko turn her back, then he leaves the secret room.