luckybreaks | cerealia ic inbox;

[ She's relieved he answers the door so quickly, as the darkness of the hallway wasn't comforting. Kyouko walks in immediately, glad he's turned on the lights. The dark doesn't typically bother her—after all, she did a lot of snooping around at Hope's Peak in the dark. However, with all the glitches, monsters, and just generally strange occurrences over the past few days... She could do without the dark for a while.

It's easy to see how tired Naegi is, and he looks just as awake as her. After several restless days, Kyouko had finally managed to fall asleep, but her sleep was interrupted tonight as well by that strange nightmare. She doesn't return his smile, nodding instead. Even if she wanted to, a smile wasn't something she could get herself to do right now.

Having been here before, Kyouko makes her way to Naegi's couch, settling in. ]

...Thank you. [ Tea would be nice right now.

She doesn't say anything more, though, opting to stare at the pictures he has around the apartment. She doesn't know where to begin. ]

[ Is there honestly a good place to begin when one of the pictures scattered around involves the entire class sans Kirigiri dressed up as cat people, though. Why the hell did Naegi frame that and display it...? The answer is, of course, that he's a sucker for anything involving his friends. He may or may not also own keychains of some of his classmates from the dumb con event.

...Which is to say of course he purchased keychains of them, since he wasn't allowed to leave until he bought something anyway. But he feels awkward about those at least, so they're shoved in a drawer somewhere. ]

Do you have a preference to what sort of tea, when the water's done...? I have a lot of different types. [ Mostly because he tries to accommodate other people. Naegi himself prefers pretty simplistic things, and just has green tea usually. He notices, finally, that she's staring at the pictures, and laughs a little nervously. ] Ah...I found frames for all of them, finally.

[ Kyouko is extremely thankful she's not in that cat cafe picture. She turns away from that one when she hears Naegi's voice. ]

Green tea is fine.

[ When he mentions the pictures, she turns back toward them. ] They look nice. [ Because they do, and while Kyouko isn't as gung-ho about friendship as Naegi, looking at the pictures is nice. It's nice to know that there were peaceful times with everyone, despite how it all ended up. ]

[ Honestly, who wouldn't be grateful for that. ...Aside from Naegi, who is used to being dragged into embarrassing shit for his classmates. ]

That's my favorite, too. [ Not that she said it was her favorite...but whatever, he seems pleased enough to have any indication of liking something from Kirigiri. ]

I'm not sure I'll ever remember those times - well, aside from that - [ He gestures to the family photo, because he does remember taking that one ] - but I like having them around. Maybe I should get a camera, and start taking other photos...though there's only the three of us. Ah, and the others, of course.

[ The other class. He does like all the students he's met from it; it's just a different sort of like. They're not his classmates, even if he wants to be friends with them, and considers a few to be friends. He hasn't been through the same things with them. ]

It's nice having them, at least. Even if we never remember. [ And she thinks they never will recover them, and maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it's better to not remember, because it might make everything that happened even more painful. ]

...That is a good idea, Naegi-kun. [ There may only be three of them right now, but they can still take pictures. ] We have the other class, and any other friends we have here as well. [ Why just keep it to Hope's Peak students anyway? ]

All of them, yes. [ He doesn't know all of Kirigiri or Leon's friends, but he's...well, pretty happy they're making them.

Does that make me sound like a parent...?

The pictures are a distraction, even if he hadn't intended to distract. Just to talk. ]

About everything that happened tonight...

[ It was too easy to get distracted by the pictures, especially since Kyouko really wanted to think about anything but what happened. Even though she'd experienced some fairly odd things so far... That was the most terrifying thing that had happened here.

Still, they need to talk about it so she tears her eyes away from the photos. ]

Yes. I assume you heard the screaming as well?

...Yeah. [ Which she'd already known, pretty much, and which is why they're both frazzled - although Kirigiri's poker face is so much better than Naegi's. It's kind of comforting, even if he's pretty sure she is frazzled.

As frazzled as Kirigiri gets, anyway. No - that's not quite true. She'd been more overset a few times at school...

The school times that had linked screaming to death, always. ]

And then that woman... [ One hand reaches up to his neck, rubbing the back of it as he remembers. ]

...Yes. [ For a dream, it had been all too real. That robot not breaking eye contact, smiling as the life drained out of that woman... She hadn't experienced anything like that before, not even at Hope's Peak—that she remembers, anyway.

She clenches her fists, trying her best to keep her expression neutral. It's important to stay calm in situations like these. ]

I have to wonder if it was real, but... I've never experienced a dream like that before. [ Not to mention they both saw it. ]

I haven't, either. ...And with both of us experiencing it, it's not really likely that it was just a dream, right? Neither of us has that sort of ability...

[ Psychic stuff. Or magic stuff. So it was definitely a thing that happened. ]

That's what I'm wondering. Unless CERES can somehow control our dreams...

[ But she's leaning towards it being real for now. ]

...I'm hoping that's not the real option. But...if it's a matter of being "Real", it might have been something ViViD induced, right? If they just sort of, I don't know, pulled us all in at the same time and then dropped us back out?

[ he's not fujisaki, he has no idea how this works. ]

[ Kyouko shrugs. She knows a little about ViViD, but not enough to understand how it works. ]

It's certainly possible. For now, I believe we should treat it as real.

I don't disagree. [ Though he never really sore wa chigau yo's kirigiri that often...SHE'S NORMALLY RIGHT... ]

Which means they really wanted us to see that for some reason.

Yes. It's either some sort of message, or a threat.

[ And she definitely sees it as a threat. ]

I wonder if that woman was a rebel or something?

[ That would make more sense, if so. ]

I believe it's likely. That would explain why they got to her before any of us could, and made sure we knew what happened to her.

The fact that there are rebels in their organization is kind of interesting, isn't it...? That is, not all of them are on the same page.

Yes. It means there may be more of them. We just have to find them.

I'll definitely be keeping an eye out. ...Maybe I'll just look through the network for now, actually...I doubt I'll be getting back to sleep.

[ after THAT DREAM ]

That is a good idea.

[ She lets out a small sigh. ] I probably will not be sleeping for a while myself.

If you want to, you can stay over and we can look through things together...er, we don't have to talk or anything, unless you want to. That is...

[ Naegi can be awkward sometimes, but what he's trying to say is: ]

Well, you're kind of my best friend, you know...? [ Or maybe she doesn't know, since it's not like they've ever discussed it. There's no one in Cerealia he trusts more, though. ] I feel better when you're around, Kirigiri-san.

[ The world never seems quite so bad when she's there. ]

[ Congratulations, Naegi. She's speechless.

There's a few moments of silence, where she's caught off guard and looking at Naegi, her eyebrows raised in surprise. She's never had someone think of her that way, not for a long time at least. But she finally smiles. ]

...You're so foolishly honest, Naegi-kun. [ And there's a fondness to the way she says it. ] I consider you my best friend as well. You've taught me a lot.

[ Kirigiri's smiles are a precious commodity. ...Well, maybe he shouldn't go that far, but...Naegi smiles back without any hesitation, relaxing a little at the confirmation. He'd sort of figured he was at least a good friend in her estimation - hadn't she helped him out throughout the game...? ]

Maybe...but isn't being foolishly honest one of my strengths? At least, it worked out that way. And if it's ever the wrong move to make, I know you'll be there to tell me so, or help me out. Well, not that I'll be trying to get into trouble... [ Was there a point to this tangent, Naegi? ]

You've taught me a lot, too. I...definitely never would have made it through that game without your help. [ Without the help of all of his friends, but Kirigiri especially had dragged him out of the fire more than once. Even if she had also thrown him into it a few times, because of course she had. ]

[ And she does regret throwing him in to the fire those times, but at the time she had seen it as something that she needed to do. Of course, now she knows that looking at other alternatives might have been better but... There's no changing the past. ]

None of us would have made it out without your help either. You need to give yourself the credit you deserve as well. [ Because really. He convinced everyone to leave the school, and that might not have happened if he weren't there. It definitely wouldn't have happened. ]

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