pokebox | LOCKED TO ardent

LOCKED TO ardent

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?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ishimaru could feel himself freeze up when Mondo grabbed him - something he knew really wasn't assisting his point, but still; he didn't lighten up any even after Mondo had let go of him, his eyes wide.

"O-Of course I'll be careful, aniki..." He shook his head a bit as though trying to clear it. "I have ways to stop you without getting physically involved myself, remember? I have lines of defense here that I wouldn't have had back in Hope's Peak! I'll be fine!"

"...Right, right, yeah," Mondo replied absently, still staring out the window. The idea of those creatures messing with his head was almost as disturbing as the thought that he could lose control completely when he blacked out. But if those creatures could stop him from hurting anyone... wouldn't that be worth it?

"Promise me those things won't mess around with my head any more than they have to, alright?" He finally mumbled, sounding resigned. "And only do it if you've got no other choice, alright?"

The pause after that was uncomfortable; he wasn't quite sure he'd like the answer to the question that brought up, but...

"Do you think I would do otherwise?"

"What? No. No, I don't think you would. But there's no telling what they'd do. And there's no way to really know either, right? I mean, the stuff in Hope's Peak you could just ask me about, but what about anything else? There's no way to know if they just... I dunno, got rid of shit or something." Mondo said, clenching his hands on the rail. "I just don't like the idea. I get that it might be the only way to stop me and I'm fine with that, but..." He trailed off, not really wanting to continue this discussion.

...Oh. Was that all? Ishimaru probably shouldn't have been so relieved at that, but he seemed to relax almost immediately.

"No, no! It's not like that at all - they only do what I tell them to do!" He pushed away from the railing, standing up properly again; he was more than a bit twitchy for a moment, as though working some of the kinks out of his back, but he was quick to settle back into his usual confident stance. "It's not something they do naturally, they have to be taught how - Sayuri only does exactly what I've trained her into doing, it isn't something she does on her own! She takes orders from me directly; like I said, she has psychic powers, I don't need to say anything for her to hear me! So no, everything is under control, don't worry!"

"Don't you find that weird though? That she can read your mind? What if she finds out things you don't want her to know?" There were plenty of things Mondo would want to keep from a creature like that, wasn't Ishimaru the same way? "But if you say you can control her... I trust you, aniki." He just hoped this wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass.

Ishimaru laughed a bit at that, actually. "She doesn't really worry me; I don't have many secrets to keep! Even if there are a few things that I don't want spread around to others, I'm sure that Sayuri won't tell them - but even so, I'm certain that I can control her perfectly well! Relax, aniki. I'm not going to have her pry into your head; I know that if there was something that I needed to know that badly, you would tell me!"

"Yeah, of course I would." The fact that Ishimaru could use Sayuri to spy on him hadn't even occurred to him. He trusted Ishimaru, after all. "It just seems really unnatural to me, but I guess I'll get used to it." Not that he would be training any of those creatures if he had his way. "Thanks though. It's good to know that you'll have my back if... if anything like that happens again." He couldn't say for certain that it wouldn't, but he certainly hoped nothing would come up like that.

"Just as the hope behind the forming rules is to not have to force others to follow them so that order can be kept, the hope behind establishing precautions is that they won't have to be used! I don't think it will be necessary, my brother, but should it come to that, I'll do my best for you - you won't be let down!"

"Ah, that's...! That's a good point, aniki!" Mondo nodded to himself. "Not all rules can be followed all the time, but that does make sense!" Not that he was going to change his ways, of course. "Thank you! I owe you one!"

"The rules aren't that hard to follow, you know!" Again, however, that was accompanied by a bit of a playful nudge. "Though you don't owe me anything - it is what I'm here for, after all!"

"Yeah, but they're no fun to follow!" Mondo replied, returning that nudge. "I appreciate it, aniki. I really do." Everything had seemingly gone back to normal again. Mondo felt he should have been more surprised by that, but it was just the way things worked between them. Frankly, he was glad. He wouldn't want to be so worked up all the time, after all.

He shifted a bit awkwardly at that last bit before folding his arms again, having no idea what to do with his hands otherwise.

"Ah, you don't have to thank me for it! It's what brothers do for each other, isn't it?"

"Yeah, of course." Though he got the feeling that Daiya would have been very disappointed in him if he'd ever found this out. "Still, it really means a lot to me that you'd help me out with this shit." It might not have seemed like a lot to Ishimaru, but having someone stand in the way of another horrific incident like the one with Fujisaki was very important to Mondo. He could trust Ishimaru to make sure to stop him, but not do anything that would harm him in the long run. "I'm really glad to have a brother like you." He added with a smile.

While Ishimaru was definitely very pleased with that, that didn't change the fact that he could feel his face burn at the compliment. "Y-You don't have to say such things, I..."

...he had been doing so well when it came to not tearing up, Mondo, look what you did.

"I consider it an honor, aniki!"

"Ah, hey! There's no need to cry, aniki!" Well, you tried it, Ishimaru... "C'mon, I don't even have any tissues on me." He teased, reaching out to ruffle Ishimaru's hair again. "And I consider it an honor too, okay? There's no need to cry about it though!"

He really did...

He let Mondo ruffle his hair, however, even leaning into his touch a bit this time around; the tears were doing an amazing job at not stopping themselves, but at the very least he didn't seem bothered by them any. "I-It's not something I can...really help..."

"Well, yeah, I figured as much..." Mondo laughed, though it sounded awkward. He moved to pull Ishimaru into a one-armed (and totally manly) hug. "Don't worry about it, alright?"

Ishimaru was quick to wipe some of those tears away at least by the time Mondo pulled him over, if for no better reason than he would really prefer to not saturate Mondo's jacket. He could feel himself relaxing into that...manliest of hugs there, however, and he was smiling again before too long.

"Ah, I'm not worried, aniki - I've never seen a reason to hide such things, anyway!"

Mondo really wouldn't have minded Ishimaru getting his jacket wet, it wasn't like he couldn't wash it or anything! "I'm glad to hear that! Last thing we need is you worrying yourself to death!"

"If I don't worry about things, then who will?" The smirk was more than enough to give that away as teasing. "You're reckless enough for the both of us, anyway!"

"Aww, c'mon, there's no need for you to be reckless! And no one needs to worry about things anyway!" But Mondo was laughing; he knew the likelihood of Ishimaru changing was about as high as the likelihood of him changing.

In other words, not at all unless there's some sort of accidentally traumatic event that causes a temporary blackout and drastic shift in demeanor, followed by somebody getting smacked on the head by something heavy?

...sounds legit, actually...

"I wouldn't expect you to understand it, aniki - but that sort of mindset is exactly why I worry about things!"

Ouch, that was cold...

"What do you mean? What's wrong with my mindset?"

Was that tactless? He suspects that was probably tactless.

...Ah, well.

"I don't see how you can be so...unconcerned about everything, I suppose! Imagine if everyone were like that! Not so much anything wrong as it is a difference in thinking, but it's an important distinction to make!"

LOCKED TO ardent

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject