WEEK 2

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 2

[A week has passed. There's been no body, no investigation, no trial. No deaths. Congratulations!

Now the question is, will it last? At the moment, the Commander seems content with forcing people to do petty and mean-spirited errands in return for a mere shower. On the one hand, it's just for showers. On the other hand, what if the demands start to get more extreme? Would caving in encourage her? Is anyone willing to try and find out?

Honesty, with all the strange dates and information floating around from what's been uncovered, the only one in this place who's probably not worried as the time slips into its next movement is Sir Riprazor McRockfang. That's right, he's a sir. A grumpy sir, yes, but still a sir. No one's going to mess with him, regardless of what his true origins may be. And if they do, beware - he bites. Omnom. Good luck, everyone.


There are fifteen strangers - and one alligator - in this place.]

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

Comments

[theserpentsmiles]

[They're being goaded and coerced into killing one another here, and he's already watched one companion die before so much as arriving. Nagisa is doing his best not to crumple the picture - for all he knows, the few physical mementos Class E has will be the only things left of her at all. If even that. He wouldn't be that surprised if the government tried to confiscate everything thanks to her connection to it all...

It's several long, long minutes later when, at least for the moment, he runs out of tears. It's cathartic... All of them, even Karma, had cried after killing Korosensei, but the effect was mitigated when Nagisa woke up here instead of in the classroom. And he didn't get anything from Marie that told him whether or not his surviving classmates were safe...but he also doesn't know how she could have known about Kayano, if they are.]

It happened so fast... I should have been able to do something.

[backuphero]

That's the kind of thinking that makes ghosts out of regrets. Literally.

[Wind would be better at this, probably, if he were here. He'd been somewhere around fifty when he died, he probably knew how to reassure people and soothe fresh grief. Jonathan sighs again, and looks over at Nagisa.]

I'm sorry. That was too harsh. And I don't mean you can't wish you'd been able to save her, I definitely don't. But... the worst part of being human is that we don't have the power to put right the past. I wish we did.

[He pauses, looking down at the picture, trying to find some way to bring up happier memories than a violent death.]

She was someone really, really special, wasn't she... stupid question, they wouldn't have done this if she wasn't. You okay enough to tell me about her?

[theserpentsmiles]

[If anyone could have.... Sensei.... But he's gone now, too. Any future miracles in his life, Nagisa will have to make happen himself. And he knows, he knows that's what sensei wanted for them - for the whole class to be able to move forward on their own with the tools to tackle any problem, so they'd never be crushed like they were when he came to the class ever again. To lay down their weapons, but never forget how to fight.

She died fighting. Fully human at that point, but almost - almost - able to keep up at that speed, even for just a moment... She really was always full of surprises. Nagisa nods.]

Kayano-chan... Kaede Kayano. That was a false name, a whole false identity she kept up for a year... She sat next to me in class, and she was the shortest girl like I'm the shortest boy. ...She was a brilliant actress, and could tell you everything in the world about pudding. She put my hair up like this. ....She....finally gave up on revenge, it's not fair that she was the only one who... [Why her? Why only her?]

[backuphero]

[Jonathan can't guess anymore what kind of world it was that Nagisa left behind. A kid having to live under a false identity to seek revenge, that's... it's almost too cruel to imagine, the kind of thing that'd happen to drive somebody to pull that off so young. And she'd seemingly stayed a kid through it, much like how until now Nagisa had kept on smiling....]

It's never fair. It never, ever is, especially when it's sudden. And she sounds like she was a great friend....

[He's trying to be comforting but this is so not something he's confident in. He can, at least, manage not to sound so uncertain as he feels.]

[theserpentsmiles]

[Just wait til you learn the story behind that revenge, and the details of Class E...]

She stuck to the background a lot, like me. But she was probably one of the most calculating....and she just seemed normal, despite everything. ....she and Kashihara-chan sometimes dragged me out on their shopping trips.

[backuphero]

I'm sure she was glad to have friends like you two, through everything. It sounds like you at least had a little bit of a normal life....

[theserpentsmiles]

I want to think so. And...yeah, we did. We all had our problems, you don't reach Class E without trouble, but for most of us they were the kinds of problems anyone might have.

[backuphero]

So you were all sent there to... get better, or...? Sorry, if that's too much, you don't need to tell me.

[theserpentsmiles]

[...He looks a little surprised - not very, because how could an outsider know? But a little, because that's so optimistic it hurts.]

No. They call it the "E as in end" class, because once you're in Class E, it's almost impossible to get out. It's where all the dropouts and delinquents go - all the people who have no shot at a bright future.

[backuphero]

[Something furious flashes in his eyes for a moment - but only a moment. Sometimes, he can rein it in, when there's someone else to worry about.]

That's... it's not right to do that to people.

[theserpentsmiles]

[It gets worse.]

It's not even about us.... It's more that we aren't allowed to succeed, because that would break Asano-san's perfect system. The worse things are for Class E, the harder the rest of the school will work to avoid joining Class E.

[backuphero]

That's... that's barbaric, not "perfect". I mean, it sounds like you all banded together anyway, but...

[Who would look at this kid and say he wasn't allowed to succeed? What the hell kind of bastard would do that?

But those are questions it's not appropriate to ask somebody grieving, so they stay unspoken.]

[theserpentsmiles]

That's why we've been rebelling. The systematic discrimination against Class E breaks down if we succeed anyway. That's what sensei taught us.

[Once you get a taste for fighting back against the chains that bind you, you don't stop until you've forced the world to recognize you.]

[backuphero]

That's why you said what you did about... [he pauses just for a moment, trying to remember exact words and settling on paraphrasing] a coup not stopping, isn't it? He taught you that, and you really learned it. You, and your friends.

[theserpentsmiles]

Right. [Class E has been throwing their own coup for a year now.... They have to push through and finish it. Because they'll be fighting an uphill battle for their entire lives, they can't ever afford to let up.]

When sensei came to the class, we were all so used to bring crushed underfoot that we didn't even imagine things could be different. Sensei made us change by force. If he hadn't...

[Nagisa doesn't like that particular thought.]

[backuphero]

So he saved you, huh?

[The other options for why that sentence trails off as it does are too depressing to contemplate.

He does squeeze Nagisa's shoulder gently, now, making a go at extending the offer of "you can lean on me if it'd help" without saying so in words.]

Well. Most of you. Sorry, that was... that was really thoughtless of me, more than usual even.

[theserpentsmiles]

[He accepts it this time, letting himself be small and weak. They all knew the end had to come, but... The mountain isn't their home anymore, graduation means setting out into the wider world. No teachers to guide them anymore. Somehow that part didn't fully sink in until the end.]

He saved her too - that was when she gave up on revenge. A few months ago.

[backuphero]

So she had a few months without that hanging over her head, with you, and with her other friends. It'd never be enough, but....

[It's better to live free for a little while than to die bound by hate, he doesn't say, because saying it would make him a total hypocrite... and there's no un-cruel way to phrase that, besides.]

[theserpentsmiles]

[He nods.]

She was probably the most amazing of us. Not a prodigy like Karma-kun, but... We never seemed to know everything she was capable of.