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The first thing he noticed was the off-white ceiling and plain walls. It didn't occur to him that there was anything weird about that for a minute or so, instead he sat up, glancing around at the unfamiliar room. The bed he was lying in wasn't particularly hard or soft - not as comfy as the one at Hope's Peak, but it wasn't uncomfortable either - and there was a desk beside the bed with a set of clothes, a note, and two red-and-white balls. Mondo reached for one of the balls without thinking, only stopping himself when his memories of the previous days came flooding back like a tidal wave.

Fujisaki. How could he forget, even for a moment? Fujisaki had come to him, seeking help, expressing a desire to become stronger, and what had he done? He'd blacked out. No, that wasn't right - he'd blacked out and killed the kid. Mondo's fists clenched and he drew his hand back. That's right, then there had been a trial, just like the first time someone was found murdered in Hope's Peak Academy. Monobear had called them all down there and they had gone over the evidence. Well, if by "they" he meant Naegi, Kirigiri, and that jackass Togami. First they had outed Fukawa as Genocider Syo, then they'd blamed Togami for altering the crime scene, and then...

...And then the truth had come out. If he hadn't been so careless with what he was saying, Fujisaki's secret would have been safe and he wouldn't have hurt Ishimaru, his aniki. Of course he had noticed the way Ishimaru reacted - the screaming, the denial, the tears, the desperation - and Ishimaru had voted for someone else. Even when he had acknowledged his defeat, Ishimaru hadn't. Ishimaru had believed in him until the very end - but he shouldn't have. He had betrayed not only Fujisaki's trust, but Ishimaru's as well.

It was a good thing he hadn't gotten away with murder though. Mondo doubted he could have lived with himself if he had. Even the execution wasn't that bad - from what little he remembered of it. It could have been worse; he could have been chained to a signpost and bludgeoned to death by millions of baseballs. He still had nightmares about Leon's death. He didn't even know Leon all that well. No, Mondo's death had been relatively quick and he'd gotten to ride a motorcycle one last time. There was something freeing about that, something he doubted he could ever really put into words. His last action had been his favorite. Maybe that was suiting.

So why was he here? Why was he waking up? He was dead, he was sure of that. He was equally sure that this wasn't Hope's Peak. There weren't any windows in the room, which meant that he could be underground, but he doubted Monobear would have let him live after the murder. He hadn't gotten away with it; he hadn't "graduated." So where was he?

Mondo finally got up, snatching the note off the top of the clothes folded on the desk. There was a large, red "R" on the shirt front, but Mondo ignored that for the time being to scan the note. Apparently he was now working for an organization known as "Team Rocket." That title meant nothing to him and he set the note aside, picking up the clothes next. It was a very standard uniform that looked like it would be way too tight-fitting for his taste and Mondo set that aside as well. Finally, he picked up the red-and-white balls, turning them in his hands curiously. He wasn't a Super High-School Level Baseball Player, but he might be able to use them as weapons if he needed to. He tucked those in his pocket and turned to the door. He expected it to be locked. It wasn't.

The hallway was just as nondescript as the room, though the ceilings were a bit low for his liking. Mondo picked a direction at random and started down the hallway, absently wondering if he could find some way back outside. It felt like it had been a long time since he had seen the sun.

He was stopped on his way by a shorter, scrawny man wearing that uniform (yeah, it definitely looked like it would have been too tight on him). The man frowned at him and pointed one gloved finger down the opposite hallway. "You should be heading to your first day of training! Why aren't you in uniform?"

"Fuck off," Mondo replied, shoving the smaller man out of his way. The guy definitely looked older, so he could assume that this wasn't the school. No one else was in the school after all, right? Just the fifteen of them - well, eleven of them now (did he even count anymore?) - and the person controlling Monobear. Mondo brushed that thought aside; this wasn't the school. That was what he would focus on.

He didn't find his way out. His sense of direction had always been good, but that was on the roads, in the open air. He had always gotten turned around in Hope's Peak as well, but never like this. He couldn't believe he'd managed to wander in a circle, finding himself back in front of the room he'd woken up in. Maybe this was some kind of trick; he couldn't move on until he'd gone to his first day of "training" or whatever.

The man in the Rocket uniform came walking down that hallway at just that moment. "Gotten yourself lost, huh?" He sneered. "Just follow this hallway and hook a left. The training facility's there. You'll meet the other new recruits and get started on your two weeks of training."

Two weeks? Like hell he was going to hang around for that long. Mondo rolled his eyes and followed the man's directions, ignoring the shout for him to get back and change his clothes.

The training facility was more decorated than the hallways or the room, and well-lit at that. There were several other young men (wearing that hideous uniform), all gathered in the center of the room, talking quietly. It looked like the instructor hadn't shown up yet. Mondo was tempted to leave, but this might be his best chance to get information on this place. He frowned for a moment, before walking up to join the others. He stood at least a head taller than them, which made him stick out even worse than the clothes he was wearing. Not that he cared.

"What's this "training" gonna consist of anyway?"

None of the other men seemed to know, and Mondo began to wonder just how badly things were going to go. It wasn't like it could be any worse than Enoshima being stabbed through by spears in the gym, right?

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Ishimaru just laughed at that. "Just keep in mind that you said it, not me!"

However, there was another issue that presented itself immediately upon entering the corridors down on the lower floors; it was the sort of oversight that Ishimaru normally would have gone into theatrics over, had he spent a bit less time here, but...

"A-Ah, aniki...? Did you ever...show me where your room was to begin with...?"

No, he was going to do that when they came back in earlier, wasn't he? But they returned at different times, and Mondo hadn't been down here since...

"...Hopefully you remember where that was..."

...Winners. Clearly. Both of them.

"Yeah, yeah, fuck off!"

But then the topic shifted to the subject of the room and... well. That did pose a new problem, didn't it?

"Nah, I didn't show you where it was. Well, it's not like this place is that big, right? I'm sure I'll find it eventually!"

...He was totally underestimating the size of this place, wasn't he?

"You're going to be wandering in circles for days."

As always, Ishimaru possessed about all the subtlety of a blunt axe; he still didn't seem annoyed, however. "I can verify it with security in the morning; for now you can either stay with me or I can see if I can get someone to let you into one of the unused ones for the night."

"Ouch," But Mondo was grinning, he knew the remark was probably true. "I think I'll stick with you. I don't wanna get lost in here again."

Of course, that meant sharing a room with Ishimaru, which wouldn't be a problem if it was only for a night. Trying to live in the same room as him would probably be horrible - he could only imagine how neat and tidy things were in Ishimaru's room and how he'd freak out if he tracked dirt in or something like that - but it wasn't like he'd need to stay there forever. One night should be fine.

"All right, then!"

It was odd, but the thought brought with it a small burst of excitement; he had heard of people spending the night with one another, as something one did while spending time with friends, but it had never been anything that he had done himself. There was always work of some sort to be done - when he was finished with his schoolwork, there were always extra credit assignments to figure for, and if he was left with free time at the end of the day, then studying on his own terms was generally how he chose to spend it - and this left little time for simply spending time with others. In fact, Naegi and Mondo were the only people he'd had anything approaching idle conversations with, at least that he could remember; while he knew that this current situation was seriously just a matter of convenience and it would likely literally consist of happening to fall asleep in the same room, he couldn't help but think of it as experiencing something that he had missed out on for quite some time.

While he didn't regret anything about how he had chosen to spend his time, and he was entirely aware of how important it was to keep focused and continue doing his best in his studies, it was often stupid, simple things like this that made him wonder how much else he had missed out on.

But that wasn't anything to worry about now; there were more things to consider, and the veritable bouncing off the walls would have to wait.

"Of course, I'm going to absolutely insist that you take the bed, and I won't hear arguments otherwise!"

...Clearly, he was going to be considering those other things in the same way he considered everything else - by bossing people around - but one can't have everything.

"Ah, hey, I can take the floor. It's no big deal." Mondo protested, but he already knew there was probably no sense in fighting with Ishimaru on this. His friend could be just as stubborn as he could, and if they kept it up, they'd both be sleeping on the floor. There wasn't any reason to fight against such hospitality, right? It might even offend Ishimaru, which wasn't something he wanted to do.

"Is your room bigger? I mean, you helped those guys take over this organization, so surely you got some kinda sweet rewards from it. Was a room upgrade one of them?" So as usual, Mondo switched the topic to avoid the awkwardness.

"It's larger than the ones usually given out to the new recruits, yes! Though I don't know exactly how much so..." He trailed off for a moment, thinking. "You did see it earlier, but we were both in something of a hurry, I think - it's nothing spectacular, aniki, I don't have too much in there."

He didn't seem too bothered by it, however, nor was he even going to bother addressing the issue of who was taking the bed - as far as he was concerned, there was no further argument, regardless of what Mondo seemed to think on the matter. "I'm not planning on staying here forever, though - it's easier for work, but I..."

He hesitated for a moment before trying to shrug it off. "I think I would prefer having somewhere of my own eventually, that's all!" It was avoiding the actual reason, but he was fairly sure no one needed to voice that directly - while it was fine for now just because he had been keeping himself busy getting acquainted with this world, staying down here with no windows was eventually going to do his head in.

Thinking back on it, Mondo could see where it was larger than the room he had woken up it. It hadn't even occurred to him while they were in Ishimaru's room. "Yeah, I noticed. At least your room isn't as cramped."

His friend's hesitation earned a side-long glance, but Ishimaru was quick to finish that statement with something that Mondo wasn't expecting. "What, you're gonna buy a house or something?" Well, probably not a house, but maybe an apartment? That wasn't the sort of thing they should be thinking about; they were still high schoolers, it wasn't like they were out on their own yet and had to worry about such things!

...Except this wasn't home, and if talking with Ishimaru was any indication, there wasn't any sort of classes here for them to take. Not that Mondo was complaining about that, but the idea of having to find their own places to live was mind-boggling.

"Huh. Well, you'll have to invite me over some time after you get the place!"

Ishimaru just laughed at that. "It'll probably be an apartment, because I don't know what I would do with all the space otherwise - but brother, you'll be the first to see it!"

For now, however, the room at the base would have to do; the door was easily unlocked, the lights flicked on immediately, and Ishimaru was quick to busy himself with something in the closet - he'd shown up in very early spring, after all, when the edge from the cold still hadn't quite come off, and while this place was warmer than some others, some of the nights had been less than pleasant. As a result, he had blankets in here somewhere, surely, under what was quite possibly more sets of clothing than he'd had reason to own in his entire life prior to this.

...yeah, while the room may have been organized to the point of sterility, the closet most definitely was not.

"What about you, aniki? You wanted to see the region, right?"

Mondo really couldn't help but look over at the closet when Ishimaru opened it. He was curious about his friend's actions, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't interested in seeing what was in that closet. He expected it to be just as fastidiously clean as the rest of the room.

He was wrong. He was really wrong.

Thankfully, Mondo knew when to keep his mouth shut, and he promptly busied himself with dumping the two Pokéballs and the 'Gear on the nightstand. That would at least give him something to do that wasn't "stare awkwardly at Ishimaru's closet."

"Yeah, I definitely want to travel. Get out, see the world, you know? I can't really imagine myself settling down anywhere or anything like that, but it'd be nice to have some place to return to."

Preferably not this base though; the lack of windows was really starting to bother him.

Ishimaru remained gleefully oblivious to the fact that apparently Mondo had found himself completely unprepared for his closet; his words were brightened by a vaguely triumphant tone upon finally locating the blankets. Somehow.

"I understand, yes. I've been to many places in this region, though I haven't seen all of them myself - but I'll have to point you toward some of the cities I think you'll like!"

The blankets could go on the floor for now, as that was where they were going to end up anyway; he set about setting his own 'Gear, trainer case and Pokéballs on the desk against the wall. "It really is good to have you here, aniki; I think you'll like it!"

"Are they as impressive as this one? I can't really imagine a city bigger than this." Mondo removed his coat, throwing it over the back of the chair at the desk. He didn't give a shit about any of his other clothes, but that coat was special and it was the one thing that wouldn't be thrown on the floor. Well, not tonight, obviously.

"You sure you don't want the bed?" He already knew what Ishimaru would say though.

"Of course I'm sure!" It was just a matter of fixing the blankets so they were halfway comfortable, which was something that could be done in short order, really; he was already kneeling down on the floor to do so by the time the question came at him.

"As for the cities - this seems to be the largest in Johto, but they're all very diverse, very different to one another. Ecruteak City is to the north of here, and it couldn't be any more different to this place! It's very interesting, as is the history of the region; I've been reading up on it in my spare time."

Well, if he was going to insist... Mondo kicked off his shoes and removed his belt, flopping on the bed and folding his arms up behind his head. "Yeah? Is it anything like home? I guess the... 'mons here would have had more to do with this place's history though. I can't really say I'm surprised though; you don't even have a reason to study all this and you're still doing it!"

But he was grinning though, clearly pleased with that. It was good to see that some things really hadn't changed any. "I bet you've studied up on all the 'mons too, huh? So you probably know which are the best ones and where to find them and how to train them and everything?"

For a moment Ishimaru looked more than slightly lost, blatant confusion making itself plain in his expression. "Of course I'm still studying, aniki; what else am I supposed to do?"

He tried to shake it off after a moment, though the uncertainty was still rather present across his features; he'd never been good at keeping his thoughts off his face. "I know a lot about the 'mons, though, yes. Not as much as some in the organization, but I can get you information on whatever you want in the morning, if you'd like."

What else was he supposed to do? Mondo rolled onto his side, propping himself up on an elbow. "There's no real need to study everything, you know. You can have fun here. Yeah, I know that you want to bring the others here before even thinking about that sort of thing, but you've gotta remember, this is a break for you too. It's not like you can work all the time or anything! Surely you've got some time to yourself."

He had figured that Ishimaru wasn't the sort to actually have fun, but hearing it was something else. It wasn't something Mondo knew how to explain. "You probably like studying anyway, but there are other things to do here!" ...Probably! "Tell you what, next time you have a break, we'll explore the city! I'm sure we can find something to do!" Hopefully there were bars around here, though Mondo didn't have a fake ID anymore and he doubted he could get Ishimaru to set foot in a place like that. Exploring the city in general would be fun though, especially with a good friend.

It was rather plainly another one of those moments where Ishimaru's brain was providing him with nothing but static. "I...see..." he managed eventually, in a tone that fully implied that he didn't. "Studying is never an obligation, it's just what I do. It's a way to pass the time without wasting it; I don't see the point in remaining idle or doing things without some sort of purpose behind them. I've always been like that. Everything has a deeper purpose. Studying comes before everything else, as it is the best way to improve myself. I've never done things any other way. I don't...know how. It's a failure on my part. I-Ironic, right?"

He laughed a bit then, though the sound was forced and unnatural, clearly nervous; he kept his gaze downcast as he continued to straighten the blankets further, smoothing out wrinkles that had ceased to exist a long time ago. "I-It's all right if you don't like that or think it's strange; I'm...I'm used to that, and if you want to...find someone here that you have an easier time talking to, that...well, that's all right, I-I'm used to that also...I'll still spend time with you, of course! If you want to see the city then I will go with you, but if you..."

He fell silent for a moment, his fists tightening all of a sudden, bunching the fabric in his fingers before he forced himself to relax. His next words were sharp, loud, the usual commanding tone back in his voice, as though this wouldn't bother him if he ordered it firmly enough not to; this probably would have worked a little better if somewhere along the line, he hadn't started openly crying again. "As we are no longer in Hope's Peak Academy and circumstances are no longer requiring us to have contact with one another, I will not blame you if you find someone else eventually that you're better able to relate to! It would be the result of my own shortcomings, and I completely understand!"

What in the world...? Mondo stared blankly for a moment, trying to figure out what the hell had happened in Ishimaru's head that led him to that conclusion. After a moment of thought, Mondo got up off the bed and joined Ishimaru on the floor, sitting beside him and immediately throwing an arm around his shoulder. He ruffled Ishimaru's hair again and grinned.

"Hey, don't give me that shit. Out of all our classmates, I picked you to be my best friend, right? Why the fuck would that change now? We've got our fair share of differences, sure, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna ditch you. I already told you, I won't sell out my brother, and I sure as fuck won't leave you behind either."

It wasn't just that Ishimaru was the only person he knew here. No, Ishimaru was important to Mondo. They were brothers. That wasn't a phrase he would use lightly; even if Daiya hadn't died, he would still take that bond very seriously. Friends were important too, but a bond of brotherhood like this was vitally important to him. He would never leave Ishimaru.

He wasn't offended that Ishimaru would think that, if only because of what his friend had said. Ishimaru had made it plain that he thought it was his own shortcomings that would lead to Mondo leaving. "I don't mind you studying. I'm not mad about it or anything. If that's what you wanna do, then go for it! But you can do other things too, you know. I'll show you; there's bound to be plenty of shit to do here!"

Ishimaru twitched a bit at that hair-ruffling, but he didn't try to pull away from it at all; it was comforting, in its own way, and at the very least it went a decent way toward getting the tears to stop.

"I...I would like that! Your friendship is very important to me, and you're very important to me as well! As such, I will do what I can to not disappoint you!"

...Unless you're particularly disappointed by him continuing to scream downward in the general direction of the blankets, that is, because apparently that was how he was going to address this, but...

"Hey, don't worry about it, alright? I'm not gonna leave you. That would make me a pretty shitty friend if I did that, right? I like to think I'm pretty good at keeping friendships." Mondo wasn't bothered by Ishimaru's refusal to look at him - he figured this was something Ishimaru found embarrassing or something. He certainly knew how that went, though he usually got mad when he was embarrassed.

"You're important to me too, aniki. I wouldn't call you that if you weren't!" It didn't really express just how important that term was to him, but it was the closest he could get. Maybe someday Ishimaru would understand.

"I..."

Well, that last part certainly got him to look up, at the very least; the general sense of confusion was back, though at the very least he had managed to not start crying again. "Y-You're too good to me, aniki." He shook his head a bit once that was out there. "But I've never...you're the first friend that I've had, so I..."

...really obviously had no idea what to do with this, um.

The... first friend? That wasn't possible, was it? Surely he'd had other friends when he was a kid? He seemed a bit distant from their classmates, sure, but that was now. It wasn't possible that he was Ishimaru's first friend, was it?

But the more he thought about it, the more he realized it could be possible. Ishimaru wouldn't lie to him - and what could be gained from a lie like this anyway? No, he really was Ishimaru's first friend.

So after a moment, Mondo ruffled his friend's hair again, back to grinning widely.

"Well! I'm honored! You're one of the best friends I've had in a long time." It was true that they hadn't known each other for very long, but there were some connections that could be forged instantly. This was one of them. "And don't say that; I'm not too good to you." Though he deflected it with a laugh, he really did believe that. If he had been a better person, he wouldn't have caused Ishimaru to suffer through that trial, even if he didn't remember it now. That wasn't something he wanted to think about though, and Mondo brushed the thought aside for the time being.

He ducked away from the hair-ruffling a bit that time, though it was more to preserve his pride than anything, and it wasn't far enough of a flinch to prevent it from happening anyway. "I wouldn't say it if it weren't true!" His voice was light, however, and he was clearly unaware of whatever Mondo was thinking in regards to the truthfulness of the statement. "But I would like to explore the city with you - maybe tomorrow, I can find time."

"Great! I'm sure there are all sorts of fucking awesome things to see around here!" Mondo was perfectly content to move on from that topic of conversation. "It'll be great!"

"And I'll talk to those in charge about transportation - it's possible you may have your motorcycle eventually!"

...

"Although I'm not going to get on it with you, if you don't mind!"

LOCKED TO ardent

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