❝ ᴇɴᴅ ᴡᴀʟʟ ❞

Warmth.

The first thing that embraced him as he slowly came to his senses was warmth. It was an overwhelming, alienating prickling on his skin. A tremendous contrast to the ice-cold tremors rushing through his body in waves and the sharp breath he inhaled as his eyes shot open.

Kokichi felt the air streaming into his lungs as his eyes grew wide due to shock and disorientation. His instinct told him to move,move away as fast as possible. Anywhere, somewhere. But his limbs were struck by crippling paralysis as he blinked the upcoming tears away. Panic rose in his chest like a storm and he struggled to move, but he simply couldn’t. His body was frozen and stuck in place. It took an overwhelming amount of bravery, reason and strength to convince himself to calm down. Stop panicking. Panicking won’t lead anywhere.

His eyes wandered around in the dimly lit room. A soft, thick blanket was pulled over his resting body, the mattress below him was firm under his back. Carefully, he managed to turn his head on the snow-white pillow. At least that, he could do.

Wherever he was, this was… definitely supposed to be a bedroom. He could spot another bed next to his, pushed against the wooden wall. The weak, yellow light of two lamps on the walls hardly enlightened everything – the light itself was bright, but the rays barely reached the room’s corners so that you could somewhat navigate between the islands of furniture. As he looked up, he was welcomed by a sea of stars – tiny specks of glowing white that adorned the ceiling like a night sky.

“You finally woke up, huh… geez, I was waiting so long. Can’t even hurry up for yourself, hm?

Kokichi sat up without thinking, examining his surroundings to find the strange voice’s owner. Only then he realised that his body must be able to move again. It would have calmed him down, if the situation wasn’t so outlandish.

In the corner of the room, he spotted the other presence. The stranger’s gaze rested on his knees as he sat uncomfortably on the wooden chair and ran his hands over his arms, as if to chase away the cold in his limbs. There was a tad of shivering nervousness to the gesture.

“Silly you…”

Evenly purple eyes locked contact and Kokichi found himself staring into an abyss that he was never supposed to look at.

“N-nice to meet you, Kokichi Ouma.”

“….”

The scenario was preposterous. Kokichi blinked as he stared into supposedly his own eyes. Dark violet hair framed the pale figure’s face, a lost strand was draped over his slim nose. A tired spark gleamed in his eyes as he started nervously fiddling with his fingers. His clothes were the most ordinary, boring thing Kokichi had ever seen in his entire life. A black, classical school uniform. The world stopped making sense all of a sudden, but he told himself that it had done so a while ago.

“W…what the hell!?”

His own voice sounded different from whoever he was talking to and he found himself struggling to accept that it had to be him indeed. He furiously shook his head, but found himself paralysed yet another time, as a violent tremor rushed through his body. For a split second, the invisible grasp around his heart tightened and squeezed. It tore a hole in his steady breathing and left him a coughing mess. Hot, stinging tears burned in his eyes as the memories flooded his mind – Momota. Poison, the press. A grey mass of metal slowly approaching him. Steadily, relentless. His finishing line.