pokebox | LOCKED TO blazingspirit

LOCKED TO blazingspirit

[He doesn't remember much about his execution.

Oh sure, he remembers the lead-up to it; he remembers how the others looked on as he was led away and sure, he remembers Ishimaru's screams. He doesn't remember the death cage nor does he remember the sudden pain before it was all over.

It made waking up here incredibly confusing.

"Here" must be some sort of afterlife, but Mondo hasn't been able to figure out what it is, exactly. It's obviously not heaven (he's killed two people, he doesn't belong in heaven), but it doesn't seem to be hell either. Things are monotonous, yes, but they're not bad.

That leaves the option of purgatory, which Mondo is more or less fine with. It's better than spending an eternity suffering. It's probably not right for him to stay here instead of moving on to hell, but he doesn't know how or when that will happen. He's content to leave it at that for the time being.

This place is a rather large city - half of it is full of native English speakers, whom Mondo tends to avoid (his English is atrocious, after all), the other half is full of Japanese speakers. The city itself doesn't seem to be anywhere Mondo has ever seen, but it's large and spread out, with plenty to explore and do. Mondo hasn't seen everything there is to see though; he's only been here for a few weeks, and he knew if he wanted to make ends meet, he'd need a job first. Exploring could wait.

It's convenient that there's a carpenter's shop just down the road from the apartment Mondo woke up in. It might not technically be his, but he's been staying there until he can afford to properly rent it out. No one has complained so far, so he figures it's fine for the time being. The carpenter works him to the bone and he's never been so exhausted in his life when he comes home, but it's a good kind of exhaustion that means he's doing something productive. He can't make up for what he's done in the past, but he can help out here.

He's off work for the day, lounging around in what serves as the living room of his apartment, flipping through the newspaper. The dates here are all screwed up - it's almost winter here and he knows he'll have to put some money away toward buying proper winter clothes. That's only a minor concern though, because he has much bigger things to worry about.

In a city this large, it's possible that he's just missed seeing the others. He hasn't been looking very hard, admittedly. He's not sure what to say to them when he does see them. "Sorry" simply won't cut it for Fujisaki. He doesn't really want to see Kuwata, Enoshima, or Maizono either. He's sure it's only a matter of time before one of them finds him, or before someone else shows up here.

All he can do is hope that it won't be Ishimaru.]

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[While it takes Ishida a moment to physically show up, it's quickly obvious that someone's here and upstairs; he's never exactly had a light tread, and he's audible well before he shows up at the top of the stairs.

He's not sure what to make of that weird quality to Mondo's voice, though; he takes a couple of steps down before he stops, hand clutching the handrail, head tipped to the side a little before he realizes what he's doing and corrects it.]

Hey, kyoudai - you okay?

[Mondo breathes out a sigh of relief, the tension leaving him all at once.]

Shit, you had me worried! You didn't show up for work today; why the hell not?

[He approaches Ishida, but stops at the bottom of the stairs, as if he can't decide whether he wants to do anything or not.]

[He fidgets a bit at that, making himself move down the stairs a bit more; he's clearly trying to settle himself, but it's not working very well.]

Uh...yeah, about that - I need to talk to you about some shit, do you have a while?

[Uh oh, that doesn't sound good. Mondo tips his head a bit at the way Ishida's fidgeting, but he quickly nods once that question is out there.]

Yeah, 'course. You wanna talk down here?

[Well, he's already making his way over to the couch...]

Yeah, that'd be good.

[He's already moving to join Mondo by the time that little bit of verification is out there, so it seems they're on the same wavelength, at least.

He'll just sort of flop down next to Mondo, then, if that's fine with everyone (and let's be honest with ourselves, even if it's not fine with everyone he'll just do it anyway).]

Look, I...think I need to tell you some things, about the shit that happened in the school after you...yeah.

[He twitches again.]

But before that, I wanna verify something - what you told me yesterday, about how you...feel. And stuff. You really meant all that?

[Oh no, something about the school? That doesn't sound good. Maybe Ishida's finally going to tell him what happened? The question throws him though and Mondo ends up staring at Ishida blankly for a few moments, trying to figure out where that even came from.]

'Course I did. I wouldn't lie to you, 'specially not about that. What does that have to do with the fucking school though?

I'm getting to that, just wait a minute!

[...that's way more snappish than it should have been, and he flinches and backs off immediately.]

What do you...what would you want done? About...about that. The thing from last night.

[Mondo doesn't react to how snappish Ishida's words were, he instead lets Ishida continue and leaves it alone.]

Uh...

[Well...]

I guess ideally speaking we'd date or something? I dunno. I didn't really think that far ahead.

...okay.

[So much twitching, Mondo.]

Because I've been thinking about it a lot today, and I...look, I...

[...fuck it.]

I love you, you asshole!!

Yeah, I know, you don't need to get so worked... up... about...

[...Waaaaaait. He doesn't mean it like that, does he?]

You mean like...? Like you're interested? Really!?

[He'll just perk right up at that, grinning widely.]

Holy shit! I-I mean, I wasn't expecting that!

Yeah! Y-Yeah, that's what I mean!!

[Oh god orz]

But before we do anything about it, I think you should probably know about what...happened. That's why the school came up.

[Mondo settles, still looking incredibly pleased.]

Ah, yeah? Alright. Tell me what happened.

[He knows he's not going to like it, but it's about time they finally discussed this.]

...I'll start, I guess, by saying that the execution was really fucked up. Not just the part you remember - I mean, that was obviously fucked up, too, but it wasn't like Kuwata's execution, where Monobear just left the body there in front of us.

He...desecrated it. Really bad.

[...]

What was...left of it. I don't know what did it, whether it was the force or the electricity or both or what. But it wrecked most of your body and whatever was left was collected through the bottom of the cage and...

[He hesitates for a moment before forcing himself to continue.]

Butter, it was like butter. And he ate it in front of us. Put it on pancakes and ate it.

I-- What?

[Surely he misheard that. There's no way he could have possibly heard that right. Mondo shakes his head.]

Butter. Are you fucking serious?

[Of course Ishida is serious. That's a rhetorical question.]

I can't... He fucking-- Butter!?

[Well, at least now he sounds mad as opposed to disbelieving?]

Fuck that fucking bear and whoever was fucking controlling it!! What makes 'em think they can do shit like that to people!?

[Ishida flinches a bit at that initial outburst; it hadn't even occurred to him that he might not be believed when it came to some of the weirder stuff that had happened. He's almost relieved when the disbelief turns to anger; it riles him a little, yeah, but at least Mondo doesn't think he's bullshitting this somehow.]

Yeah, butter. That's why I can't handle eating it here; i-it makes me feel fucking sick just thinking about it.

[He cringes a little at that falter, but he pushes himself to keep continuing anyway, clearly trying to just power through it.]

It was really fucking brutal. Ishimaru just kept screaming and crying until he physically couldn't anymore. Then everyone went back upstairs, I guess; he doesn't remember it too well. Either way, he stopped talking to people. He didn't eat. Sleeping just caused a fuckload of nightmares, so after a while he stopped doing that, too. He stayed like that for...fuck if I know. Three days? Four? Something like that. We got another motive while he was like that; there was the usual screaming bullshit about how we'd never kill anyone for it, obviously that didn't last too fuckin' long.

And then Asahina said something at some point about how she'd seen a ghost. They didn't think Ishimaru was listening or anything, but he was; she said she'd seen Fujisaki's fuckin' ghost. I guess after a while he decided to do something about it; he went to talk to Naegi, so he could talk to Fujisaki.

And while he was doing that, that's when he talked to you.

...Can't say I blame you.

[He's going to throw out the butter as soon as they're done with this conversation.]

Shit, I'm so sorry. I'm... I'm so sorry...

[He wishes he could do more than apologize. There isn't anything he can do though, and that frustrates him. Ishimaru must have been in so much pain...]

You spoke to my ghost then?

[He's not sure how that's possible, since ghosts don't exist, but if that's what Ishida says happened...]

...I...sorta. There was a computer that let us talk to you. I don't know if it was...really you, or just something Fujisaki programmed the damn thing to do, but it looked and sounded just like you. Fujisaki, too - there was something that looked like Fujisaki. Ishimaru asked if he hated you. Then he asked if Fujisaki hated him, for not being able to stop you.

That's when it let him talk to you. It...you...

[...hang on, he's confused himself - ]

The thing told him that there'd be some time where he'd be hurting and he could take his time for regrets and shit, but he'd have to keep going - that he was the only one who could keep himself living, that he needed to make sure he did that. That people were made so that they could keep moving forward, no matter what.

And that's...that's why I'm here. But you don't remember any of that.

[Despite his wording, that last part is more of a question than anything.]

No I... I don't remember any of that.

[It certainly does sound like something he would say though, and that's kind of creepy. How did Fujisaki know him well enough to program something like that in there? Was that even possible? He frowns, not entirely sure.]

I guess that does explain where you came from. Sorta. What happened after that?

[He hesitates for a moment, clearly bothered by that confirmation - Mondo had said he didn't remember any of that before, but there really isn't any other explanation for it, is there? Fujisaki can't have known any of that shit, right?]

...Yamada kept fucking with the computer. He wanted to keep the fucking thing, he was using it as some sort of weird relationship simulation or something, fuck if I know.

[He bristles at that.]

I didn't want him to have it - I didn't want him anywhere near it! It was all I had left of you, and I didn't need him taking that away, too! So we got in a fucking fight over it. A couple of fights, really - and then someone stole the goddamn thing.

[...]

He kept accusing me of taking it, but I didn't - I was told to leave it the hell alone, and I did!

...That's just fucking creepy...

[Ugh, Yamada why. Mondo nods after Ishida's finished speaking though; he obviously believes him.]

So I guess he didn't take it either, if he was accusing you of having it. Why would someone else take it though? I get why you wouldn't want him to have though.

Then what?

...I got really fucking pissed off; we yelled at each other for a while and then I went off to be by myself for a while, because I didn't want to be around the rest of them. I'd already fucking cried in front of them over it, I didn't want to be around them anymore. And besides, it was getting late.

Someone left me a note soon after, though. Telling me to go to one of the rooms upstairs, early in the morning; they said they thought they found a way out. Or at least somewhere you could see the outside. We'd been using notes to communicate without Monobear finding out about it, so it wasn't too weird at the time - I thought everyone got one.

So I showed up, only I was the only one there. I thought that maybe they were late or something - it was really fuckin' early - so I thought I'd wait around for ten minutes before giving up and going back to the room and then maybe bitching at everyone to find out why they were fucking with me like that.

That's when I got attacked, like I said when I first showed up here.

[He hesitates again. Makes himself keep going.]

I got hit in the head with something heavy - not hard enough to kill, but it got me all disoriented. I guess it broke skin, because there was blood all over; I was able to fight back for a while, but my fucking wrist broke somehow, I guess a good hit got in somehow, and I couldn't defend myself. I got hit in the head again and then I passed out. Then I woke up here.

[...]

It was fuckin' Yamada who did it. I should have seen it coming and I get that now, but...

[Mondo is silent through all of that, though he winces while Ishida explains what happened.]

Shit. If that fucking bastard shows up here, we'll fucking rearrange his face.

[He wouldn't kill Yamada, but he'd land him in the hospital for awhile.]

I'm so fucking sorry. That never should've happened to you. That fucking bastard...

It's okay, kyoudai. I get to be with you again.

[...]

All right, yeah, no, we're going to fuck his shit up so bad.

[ANYWAY...]

But look, I...I wanted to tell you all that shit so you know where the fuck I'm coming from, and why I'm...like this, I guess. I'm not...

[He shakes his head; he doesn't understand why words are getting so difficult, but the fact is that they are and it's frustrating him.]

I'm not like Genocider Syo.

[...okay that isn't quite what he meant, but it's what he has for now. orz]

[Mondo tips his head at that, a bit confused by the sudden assertion. Yes, he knows Ishida isn't like Genocider Syo, where is he going with this?]

Yeah, I know. You're not gonna go back to being Ishimaru. And you're not... some sort of other personality or something. You're Ishida.

[That's really all that needs to be said. He's Ishida. That's it.]

And you're okay with that? With me...not going back to how I was before.

LOCKED TO blazingspirit

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