Chapter Text
After the killing game, all Shuichi does is sit in the capsule room talking to his classmates like they never died.
Like they were just friends who hadn’t seen each other in a while catching up, like the killing game never even happened.
“Hey, Kaito, do you know what happened yesterday? Me, Maki, and Himiko played Uno, and I almost won.” He chuckled a little too loudly wiping away his tears. “Yeah, I bet you’d be really happy with your sidekick. You always said I just needed more confidence in myself, guess you were right. Once you wake up, we can play it together like we used to, I can show you how good I’ve gotten.”
“Kaede, I finally listened to that song you told me to, Clair de Lune. It was beautiful… just like you said it was. Once you come back, maybe we can duet. I've been practicing just for you."
Himiko watches him from a small window outside the room, her face pressed against the glass. “He’s still talking to them like nothing has changed. It’s like—”
“Like they’re still alive.” Maki finishes, holding three cups of tea in her hand, handing off one to Himiko before slowly opening the door.
“Hey Shuichi, do you want to take a break? Go on a walk with me and Himiko.”
“Yeah, Shuichi, get some fresh air with us,” Himiko added.
“I can’t leave during our conversation.” Shuichi gestured to the pods “That would be rude.”
“Shuichi…” Maki reached out a hand to touch his shoulder. Shuichi pulled away.
“They’re still in there somewhere. I know they are. I saw Kaito breathe yesterday. His breath fogged up the glass.”
“Yes, but… they’re brain-dead, Shuichi. They’re hooked up to machines that are helping them live. They’re practically gone,” Maki said sternly.
Shuichi slammed his fist against Kaede’s capsule. “NO! They’re still here. I—I know they’re not dead; they’re not dead!”
“It’s been a year! It’s okay to let them go. They wouldn’t want you to be holding onto them like this.”
“I’m not holding onto them!”
“When’s the last time you ate or slept or, hell, left this room?”
“We played Uno yesterday; I just left the room yesterday…”
“Shuichi! That was a week ago. You haven’t left this room in a week. You’re rotting the same way the others are rotting in those capsules. I barely recognize you anymore.”
Shuichi finally looked up from the glass. Maki had her arm in front of herself defensively, while Himiko was hiding behind Maki, gripping her clothes desperately.
The sight hit him like a punch to the gut. They were scared of him— terrified, like a child who just saw a monster under their bed.
He turned to his reflection in the glass of the capsule. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair was frazzled, and his skin was pale. He was unrecognizable. He looked dead.
What had he done to himself?
He had his whole life ahead of him, and here he was wasting away, talking to dead people.
Maybe it was finally time to let them go. He was so focused on the dead he wasn’t paying attention to the living people in his life, the ones who were trying to help him while he just kept pushing them away.
He missed Himiko’s birthday. He missed Maki’s job promotion. He had thirty missed calls from both of them combined. He'd been stuck in this room, frozen, while time was still going on outside.
He took one last look at their faces, still images, a reflection of the people they once were, the people he once loved—no, the people Tsumugi wrote.
These aren’t the people he knew in the game. These were strangers. They were all just fictional shells. Rotting husks—he barely knew anything about.
Maybe he had made them up too. Kaede’s smile, Kaito’s hands on his shoulder all were just lines in script he’d been desperate to believe.
He thought he loved them, maybe he did, but maybe it was never them at all— just the idea of them, the words on a paper someone else had written.
He had people who cared about him, people who needed him, but he just settled for ghosts.
He thought that now they were here, frozen in time, he could be with them again; facing the reality that they were never his to hold onto in the first place felt so impossible. His chest ached at the thought of letting them go.
But he knew he needed to live in the future, instead of being stuck in the past.
“Okay… I think it’s time.” Shuichi whispered.
They exited the cold room hand in hand, the door locking shut behind them. The last thing Shuichi saw was the lights turning off as everyone’s capsules powered down. Their pods glorified graves.
Multiple flatlines rang throughout the facility; they were truly gone.
Shuichi buried his face into Maki's shoulder, his tears soaking through her shirt.
Gone
Gone.
Gone…
But everyone he needed was right there.
Maki holding his hands, making him tea, kissing his cheeks.
Himiko making him smile, keeping him entertained, and hugging him tight as he cried.
His two best friends.
Friends—no, that’s not the word to call them… his life partners, the people he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
For the first time in a long time, Shuichi let himself breathe.
The ghosts of his past would always be a part of him, but he didn’t have to live with them in a glass box.
He had people here, people who loved him for who he was now.
He squeezed Maki and Himiko’s hands and, for the first time in months, smiled.
The future wasn’t gone; it was waiting for him. And this time he was ready to live in it.