PC - Nozomi

[maladied]

Comments

[rescuebullet]

[ She does not meet his eyes. Yugamu was the one who made the drugs, but this Yugamu can't be the same. ]

Takumi took some sort of drug that made everyone else obsessed with him.

...

Everyone at the school beat me to death because I asked him to stop taking it.

[vivisexual]

[Unfortunately, while Yugamu is a freak, he's a very smart freak. So it only takes him a moment of thought to deduce there's only two people who could be responsible for making such a thing, Sirei or himself. Given how Nozomi is acting... Well, it could just be because he is obviously part of the "everyone" that killed her. But... Well, Sirei also probably wouldn't want to make Takumi that powerful as a leader.

Obviously, he doesn't remember doing this. But he's spent a lot of time thinking about how Nozomi is here and seemingly uninfected the way he remembers her being. One theory was her being an impostor, which had prompted his caution. But another... If Takumi could travel back in time to redo the 100 days, and the choices he made in that "redo" made things play out differently... Couldn't there be multiple ways that "redo" played out? Obviously the multiverse is real given the variety of people here.

After a long pause where he turns all of this over in his head;]

No wonder you didn't want to confront me. I'm the one who's most directly responsible for your death, aren't I?

[rescuebullet]

[ Sirei seemed perfectly happy to take advantage of the situation when it was presented before him... Up to the point he was killed, that is. ]

... I don't know if you can say "most", exactly. [ Eito was there too, and he was extremely desperate to make sure Takumi stayed the way he was. She wasn't there for the whole conversation between him and Yugamu about undoing the drug. ]

None of you were in your right minds.

[ Yet, there is the extremely human fear response to one of the reasons you've died. Unsure of how to relate to Yugamu, how different this Yugamu might be. ]

I... I still want us to be friends. [ She just wanted everybody to be themselves again, for them to be friends. ]

[vivisexual]

[Listen we can't just blame everything bad on Eito even if it's usually true.]

But we wouldn't have been in that situation if I hadn't made the drug. [He pauses, thinks.] And I probably had to talk Takumi into taking it in the first place.

[That said, he looks at Nozomi for a long moment.]

I'm not the version of Yugamu Omokage that did those things, I know you can understand that on an objective level. [Nozomi is smart enough to get that. He knows.] But do you really want to just treat your own death as water under the bridge?

[He knows Nozomi. He knows the answer. He wishes it was different.]

[rescuebullet]

[ 75%-85% of their problems are probably Eito related, a majority, but not the entirety. ]

I don't mind.

[ Because it's not like her death matters now, right? She's alive, and this isn't the same Yugamu Omokage.

This is one who called her his friend. He didn't kill her.

What would dwelling on it possibly hope to achieve? Bitterness when she's grateful to see a friend at all? ]

[vivisexual]

[Yeah that's what he thought you'd say. Yugamu sighs.]

You're allowed to be upset. Actually, no. I want you to be upset. I'm upset that a different version of me and our friends did that to you, but I didn't experience it, so I can't be mad about it properly.

[Can he reverse psychology Nozomi into being less self sacrificing.]

So I want you to tell me how you really feel, even if you think it will hurt my feelings. Then we can be friends again. Deal?

[rescuebullet]

But... that is how I really feel.

[Good luck, Yugamu. The self-sacrificing is buried deep in her core.]

[vivisexual]

[Goddamn but also he isn't that surprised. But also... This just further confirms it's really her and not some evil force trying to lower his guard until it has a chance to attack, because that would have been a perfect excuse to attack.]

Alright. I'll just have to have Lobelia torture me a little later.
[Yugamu.]

I'm sorry for keeping you in the dark for so long. I'm sure you must've suspected it was me for a while, I'm not a very subtle person.

[rescuebullet]

You don't have to be tortured.

[But if he's into that, she really shouldn't get in the way.

She nods.]

I... didn't know how to approach you. I'm sorry we didn't get to talk earlier. How long have you been here?

[vivisexual]

No no, I insist.
[He's just looking for an excuse... Anyway.]

I think we sort of lost track of time. A couple weeks? Maybe a month? Just long enough to perfectly throw us off when you all showed up, I suppose. I didn't really know how to approach you either. There were a lot of other things to be preoccupied with for us both, too.

[rescuebullet]

[She really should've expected that.]

I can understand that. [Between the research and the business.] There's a lot to be busy with.

This disease... what do you mean the version of me you know got infected? What about everyone else?

[vivisexual]

[Ah jeez. Yugamu goes stonefaced.]

It's... It spread so quickly, and then by the time I fully understood what was happening, some of the others were already dead.

[He takes a deep breath and admits;]

And it was all my fault. When you got sick too... I knew it would break Takumi if you died, and I didn't think our group could hold it together without him. So when I was offered a way to find a cure, I jumped at it without a second thought.

[rescuebullet]

How could it have been your fault...?

[It's not like they knew everything about the planet they were on.

But... she supposes that is true. The group does not hold together without Takumi.]

Who made the offer to find a cure?

[vivisexual]

I can't.... really remember. I just know I was offered the chance and agreed. Then I was here.

[Yugamu doesn't answer the first question. Hm.]

[rescuebullet]

[ There are plenty of things she hasn't told him, so she can't blame him for not saying more. ]

Missing memories like that seems a little strange. Is there anything else you can't remember?

[vivisexual]

Just that. In a way it's not completely different from how all of you came here, is it?

[It is what it is.]

Anyway... Have you been doing alright here, Nozomi? Is there any way I can help? Anyone in the group that's been bothering you and could use some gentle persuasion?

[rescuebullet]

I didn't remember agreeing to anything.

[She was dead, so maybe she just got swept in.]

I've been okay, and everybody's been treating me kindly. I promise everything is fine. [Please do not employ "gentle" "persuasion".]

[vivisexual]

[He doesn't want to ask what she does remember because it probably involves mostly being killed by their friends. So.]

You're sure? No one's been taking advantage of your kind and permissive nature? I won't leave any lasting marks.

[rescuebullet]

[ There's a few other reveals, but the murder is definitely on her mind. ]

I'm sure. There's nothing to worry about, okay?

[vivisexual]

[Well, he won't press further. He'll just have to keep an eye on her.]

Okaaaay.

[He thinks for a moment, and a thought occurs to him;]

You weren't affected by the drug? The one the other me gave Takumi.

[rescuebullet]

No, I wasn't.

Sirei and Nigou weren't under its effects either.

[Those two are robots, so of course it wouldn't.]

[vivisexual]

[Hmmmmmmm]

It must have harnessed the power of hemonanima in some way.
[Irrelevant to anything, he's just curious.]

Seems a bit like a monkeys paw since you're the one he's actually sweet on.

[rescuebullet]

Mine is weaker than everyone else's. So that would make sense.

[ The second thing she doesn't know how to comment on, so she doesn't say anything about it! ]

[vivisexual]

[Seems about right in his experience.]

Nozomi... If you could have one wish, what would you wish for?

[rescuebullet]

I thought we were trying to avoid that word.

[ ...

Since he asked, ]

I want humanity to be able to live on Earth again. The real Earth, not Futurum.