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Eva’s hands tremble violently as she pulls the tight-fitting helmet from her head. Her hair falls into her teary eyes as she bows her head in deference. Takumi’s memories of the things leading up to this moment (and the things following it) are inconsistent, but this one act remains very regular. Even the blood that’s streaked across Eva’s forehead is in the same spot as Takumi remembers it being.
What isn’t so familiar is Amemiya, chiming in quickly in a sort of lackadaisical voice: “Yeah, I dunno… Darumi thinks we need to kill her.”
Frowning, Takumi tries to remember what Amemiya said last time she was actually alive for this battle. It would have been in one of the branches where he killed Aotsuki, but thinking about it, Takumi’s not sure he can remember whether she had an opinion at all, let alone whether or not she voiced it… Still, Amemiya can be cynical (and had spent much of previous timelines doubting him simply for his choice to kill Aotsuki, not unfairly he supposes) so it isn’t the most surprising that she’s in favour of killing the commander despite her pleas for mercy.
“Definitely,” Yakushiji adds soon after, scratching at the side of his neck. This, Takumi is less receptive to; his head whips in Yakushiji’s direction and his eyes widen, and Yakushiji gives him a sort of lopsided, apologetic smile before he turns his gaze back to Eva. “I mean, there’s no telling what’ll happen if we keep her alive, right?”
“There isn’t a reason to spare an enemy soldier,” Kako supplies, hands lifting in balled fists, a spark in her eyes. “We should hurry up and make it quick, Sumino-senpai!”
“Make it quick?” Takumi echoes, trying to suppress his instinctual cringe at the fervor with which Kako delivers her opinion. It’s too close to how things had been back then, when Eva really was killed… but Kako has no idea about what happened that original timeline with her brother and would have no particular reason to be gung-ho about eliminating risks. Further, Takumi hasn’t voiced an opinion yet, and had been intending to advocate the opposite before they all cut him off. Someone with such a gentle personality as Kako’s has no reason to be that cut-throat right off the bat.
Oosuzuki brandishes a gloved hand. “What are we waiting for? Let’s kill her now!”
“Indeed! Sumino-senpai, say the word and I shall sever her head from her shoulders!” Magadori’s hand falls to the hilt of her sword. “The enemy must be dispatched immediately!”
“We,” Ginzaki starts. He lifts a hand and then lowers it, biting down hard on his lower lip and turning his head away, as if adamantly avoiding eye contact with the fallen commander. Takumi waits for Ginzaki to advocate for her wellbeing the way he has in previous timelines, but he doesn’t. Ashen-faced, Ginzaki takes a step back and retreats into the neck of his class armour.
It doesn’t make any sense. “Guys, you can’t be serious,” Takumi says, putting his hand up. “A-All of you already think that we should kill her…? Kirifuji, do you also…?”
When Takumi looks her way, Kirifuji’s already turned her back, a hand over her mouth. It’s as if she doesn’t want Takumi to hear her answer, like her mind was already made up and she doesn’t know how to break it to him. Takumi’s throat goes dry.
“Sumino, I’m sorry, it’s looking like—” Shizuhara begins, softly.
“No—come on.” An anxious laugh shakes out of Takumi’s throat. “We can’t kill someone who’s begging for her life. Ginzaki, you—you feel that way, I know you do. And Mojiro?”
“...We should really just make this quick,” is all Mojiro chooses to respond with—like Kirifuji, avoiding meeting Takumi’s gaze directly. She has a thin-lipped smile on her face.
“Even you?” Takumi asks. His voice comes out strained and breathy—actually, it’s getting harder to breathe. From where she is still kneeling on the ground, Eva has begun to cry harder than before, her fingers curled around the helmet that she removed as a sign of her goodwill, the helmet that Takumi remembers being told at one point or another that had been specially made for Eva by her daughter. He remembers, too, the lengths that Eva was willing to resort to for the sake of getting back to that daughter—the vengefulness that overtook her when she was previously received without compassion and the remorse she felt when she realised who she inflicted her ‘curse’ upon.
Takumi’s starting to find it hard to breathe. Omokage says something from where he’s standing by Kirifuji, looking bored, but Takumi can’t hear him—just looking at him brings up the memory of how his body had looked, suspended by a noose with all the blood drained out of him and pooling on the bathroom tiles. Head swivelling, Takumi can remember all of it in quick succession. Kirifuji chasing him with a scythe, Ima’s hands around his throat, Yakushiji punching Maruko clean through the stomach—he suddenly wants to throw up. He can hear his heart pounding in his ears interspersed with the heartbreaking sound of Eva’s sobs.
Then, several voices shouting together: “Surprise!”
…It’s at least jarring enough to snap Takumi over the layers of flashbacks he’d just entered, head whirling in a circle. Suddenly the decisive and stoic looks that had been on his friends’ faces are replaced with large, toothy grins; it’s Ima who chimes in first, but Takumi is still breathing so fast that he finds it hard to focus on the words themselves, taking only the broad gist of the explanation as his friends give it piece by piece. Of course, they’re all in favour of sparing Eva—of course they discussed beforehand what they would do if a commander happened to surrender. It’s Kawana who sheepishly, guiltily wishes Takumi a happy birthday before Magadori eagerly jumps in to explain that they’d wanted to surprise him, that it had been Shizuhara who gave them the information about what would serve as a real shock to Takumi’s system.
Yakushiji clears his throat into his fist. “I mean hell, I wasn’t sure, but you’ve been so distant lately, felt like we didn’t know how to reel you back in, y’know?”
“It was just a prank?” Takumi asks in a tiny voice.
Eva lets out a large exhale; her hand falls to her forehead. “Thank you,” she says, but the exasperation is clear in her posture, even if she does a decent job at keeping it out of her voice. Takumi imagines she must be in a difficult position considering that they have her at their mercy. If she lets on about how terrified she must have been to hear them cheerfully discussing her murder while she was pleading for her life, she risks angering them and being killed regardless. It couldn’t be a more tenuous spot.
At the end of the day though, Takumi knows the kind of person that Eva actually is. Kind and forgiving, even in the timelines where Takumi had made the decision to kill her… She only ever showed herself for real when it was for the sake of trying to protect them all. Suddenly Takumi can’t breathe all over again. He pulls in a strangled inhale through the lump in his throat and tries to find something to say, but his tongue is heavy and cotton-dry in his mouth. He can’t make it form shapes.
Kirifuji’s finally looking at him again. She’s squeezing her upper arm. “...Sumino-kun, we, um, have some cake for you in the cafeteria too—after we put Eva-san in the courtyard, we thought maybe…”
Takumi can tell that Kirifuji’s forcing the smile on her face. Mostly because her face is Karua’s. When Karua was stressed or guilty about something, her smile could never reach her eyes—it always looked more like she was in pain than truly happy, lashes shiny with moisture like she was on the brink of tears. It’s heartening, maybe, that she feels guilty—and Takumi is also relieved that they hadn’t meant it, that Eva isn’t going to die, even if his emotions and her emotions had been toyed with—but looking from one smiling face to the next, it occurs to Takumi that nobody here really could have known what this would be like for him. Because they don’t know him… not this time. They don’t even know that Takumi came back in time, because Takumi chose to lie to them—chose to give them the best possible chance of survival, and in doing so he created a wall between them and himself, gave off the illusion that he’d find something like this funny…
“Oh boy,” Mojiro mutters. She’s speaking in the tone of voice of somebody who just bet on the underdog in a sports game and lost bigtime. “I knew this was a bad idea.”
“Sumino?” Maruko’s leaned forward to peer into his face. “Say something, man, you’re freaking me ou—”
“Maruko-kun, move,” Omokage interjects sharply. His arm stretches across the field and he yanks Maruko back sharply by the cape, just in time for Takumi to double over, arms across his stomach, and throw up all over the ground in front of him.
There are hisses and exclamations. Takumi becomes less aware of their gazes on him when his knees start to buckle, his vision spotting. He’s prevent from tipping forward into his own stomach acid by Kawana, who cuts in abruptly with an arm around his lower back, her other hand thrusting the barf bag he’d made for her with the Gift-O-Matic in front of his face. It’s a nice gesture except that Takumi doesn’t actually have anything left to throw up. He starts to sob instead, barely able to breathe as hot tears pour down his face. He tugs at the front of his uniform where the fabric bunches around his throat, remembering the press of Eva’s (of his own) hands on his neck and suddenly unable to stop from shaking uncontrollably.
“Shit!” Yakushiji yelps. “We better get him inside…”
“That went impressively badly,” Ima notes.
“Oh, Sumino-senpai…” Kako sounds like she’s fretting. “Sh-Shizuhara-senpai, I thought you said he’d recovered…”
“I don’t think he’s physically sick, Kako-san,” Moko says quietly.
“Hooooow’s about we give Takumi some space?” Darumi’s tone is uncharacteristically subdued. “And we go inside instead?”
“S-Sumino-san, I’m sorry!” Ginzaki exclaims. “I-I should have tried to—even if it isn’t the place of garbage like me, to, Eva-san, are you—?”
“...I’m all right.”
Eva’s voice is so calm all of a sudden. It must be that and the resolve in her face that makes Kawana step away when she approaches, moving with the gingerly motions of someone who has sustained a great amount of damage but still putting an arm over Takumi’s trembling shoulders without a hint of hesitation. She was so kind to him back then, but it’s the first time in so many repeat timelines that Takumi’s ever been able to embrace Eva on her own terms, Eva as she is without her head being tinkered with… Takumi’s knees buckle all over again, but she supports him with a startling amount of strength, an arm draped over his shoulders.
“H-Hey, don’t think we’re gonna let you put your hands all over him just because you cried pretty!” Oosuzuki snaps. “Get back or we’ll—”
“Kurara-dono,” Magadori interrupts her quickly, before Takumi can start to panic again. Oosuzuki, at least, is quick to be reined in.
“...Right. Sorry, Sumino.”
Takumi hates how easy it is to pull himself together when he rests his forehead against Eva’s shoulder. It’s not even comfortable; she’s wearing full-body metal armour, and there are spikes right where his eyebrows are lying, but he can feel her heartbeat this close. It’s tactile confirmation that they haven’t left Kamyuhn an orphan or doomed all of them. That the Kirifuji watching him break down right now is still Kirifuji Nozomi, the person he came back in time to save… that everyone else he cares about is still alive and safe, even if he can’t bear to look at any of them right now.
He can’t just keep them standing like this forever though. Takumi picks his head up off Eva. Much of the team had gone inside as per Amemiya’s suggestion, with the only stragglers being Kawana, Kirifuji, and Mojiro, with Shizuhara also being present, albeit at a bit of a distance. Takumi can’t help but meet her gaze—her expression devoid of the smirk that’d been there earlier—and stare until she looks down at the ground. He didn’t miss it earlier when Magadori implied this all had been her idea.
Takumi doesn’t even know what he’s supposed to say about it all. He looks at Eva’s face again and sighs.
“...Thanks. We’re going to need to restrain you for now, is that okay?”
Eva closes her eyes with a small nod. “As long as you spare my life, I’m willing to do anything.”
Chest tight, Takumi takes a step back from her. The other girls accompany him to the courtyard, with the exception of Shizuhara, who parts with them in the entrance hall. Takumi doesn’t call after her, nor does he address the other three as they double check that Eva’s cage is locked, working in silence even though Takumi can feel the weight of their gazes on him. He mumbles a goodbye to Eva as he takes a step back, exhausted, but Kawana calls out to him before he can leave the courtyard altogether.
“Sumino, hey.” Kawana clears her throat but doesn’t speak again until he’s turned to look at her. “Sorry. I wasn’t okay with it either, I just… didn’t say anything. I should have.”
Takumi closes his eyes. He knows Kawana struggles with that kind of thing—that it’s not always even in her control whether she can speak up or not. He doesn’t blame her, and he could never be mad at Kirifuji, not for anything. But even still…
“Thanks,” Takumi mumbles. “I… I need to get some rest right now. We can talk about it later.”
From the glimpse Takumi gets of Kirifuji’s face as he turns to go, he can tell she’s absolutely stricken, but he doesn’t stop to comfort her the way he’s tempted to. Takumi killed her once, in another life, in another version of these hundred days. Unlike the rest of the killings, he was completely conscious for that one… he can still remember how it felt, the blood of his oldest childhood friend and most treasured person splashing across his face as she screamed and looked at him in betrayal.
It would be selfish of Takumi to be angry with any of them when he’s been the reason they died so many times. This is just the kind of thing that he deserves, really—he’s sure of that. But the hurt is still there, and the adrenaline hasn’t ebbed, and the fear that hasn’t abated fills Takumi’s cells and bloats like his very skin could expand and make him float off the grass like a hot air balloon. He exits the courtyard and lets his feet take him down the hall, although rather than to the roof, they take him in another familiar direction, to a different locked door, where he hesitates for a moment before his hand moves of its own volition and knocks.
Takumi speaks as he drops his arm to his side. “You’re not naked in there, are you?”
There’s some shuffling from inside, almost immediately, and then a hum. “Hi there, Takumi-kun! How was the battle?”
Takumi’s eyes well with tears. He doesn’t even know why he came over here, what he expects to get out of it… They were friends once, but that was a long time ago, far longer than Takumi even thought, than Aotsuki even knows. After a moment, Takumi sits without answering, and pulls his knees in toward his chest. He’s crying again, silently this time, but at least he can still breathe.
A pause, and then “Takumi-kun, are you okay?”
“Why are you even asking?” Takumi croaks. He hates how obvious it is from his voice that he’s crying, congested and hoarse. He sniffs and scrubs under his nose with his sleeve. He didn’t even dismiss his class armour… Still all covered in blood. Some of it is probably Eva’s. “It’s not like you care.”
“Who ever told you that?” There’s the sound of a muffled thud, like Aotsuki sat down on the other side of the door. “Do you want to tell me about it? I’ll listen, you know. It’s not like there’s even anything I can do about it, so I’m basically the perfect confidant.”
There are so many layers to it, it’s not even like talking to Aotsuki sounds like a bad idea, Takumi just knows that he couldn’t. He couldn’t tell someone who is already predisposed to hate them about something his friends did that hurt his feelings—couldn’t explain the different reasons why it hurt without giving Aotsuki dangerous intel, not just on Takumi himself and the situation at hand but on Shizuhara too. She’s trusted him with so much, he refuses to betray her, even if, even when he… doesn’t understand why she would do something like this.
Takumi hugs his knees and shrugs even though Aotsuki can’t see it. “I can’t.”
“Hmm…” Aotsuki trails off for a while, like he’s considering that. “Well, that’s all right. I can just talk to you instead, if you want.” There’s a small laugh. “You know, this works really nicely for me. Through this door, I can’t even see or smell your hideous rotting flesh… You could almost be normal!”
Not that Takumi really cares most of the time, but for some reason hearing Aotsuki say that right now just makes him laugh. It sounds like Aotsuki doesn’t know what to do with that either, because there’s another pause before he starts to speak again. He revisits topics that Takumi has already heard him discuss in previous timelines, his backstory, different books he’s read, world issues he finds fascinating… He talks for so long and in so much depth that Takumi gradually starts to relax despite himself. The tension leaves his shoulders. His heart rate slows to a more reasonable pace, which in turn makes him sleepy.
Curled into a ball with the side of his face squished against the door, Takumi falls asleep like that, amidst the sound of Aotsuki’s voice.
Omokage is crouching over Takumi when he opens his eyes again. Considering that Takumi had gone to sleep in the middle of the hallway, he supposes this is among the less weird things he could have woken up to, and doesn’t panic about it, merely blinking the sleep out of his eyes and shifting himself into a position that puts less weight on his neck.
“I thought as much already, but I went in and checked in the War Room just to be sure,” Omokage starts conversationally, his elbows propped on his knees. “Well, Tsubasa-chan checked for me, but it was my idea.”
Kawana huffs, which is how Takumi realises that she’s standing a fair distance away from them both on the other side of the hallway, her shoulders up to her ears. “Don’t be cryptic about it. Sumino, it isn’t your birthday.”
Takumi blinks, one eye, then the other. “No.”
“Damn it.” Kawana puts her hand on her forehead. “I thought it seemed seriously out of character for Shizuhara-san to do something like that for anyone, you know? And I was like, in the event that somebody surrendered, it felt really mean to them to try and joke around like that, and when everyone was talking I thought it was such a bad idea but I…” She stops, then presses her lips together into a thin line. “S-Sorry. You said we’d talk about it later, I didn’t mean to ambush you.”
It sort of is an ambush, but Takumi is too sleepy to mind. He yawns and muffles it against his hand, shifting to get his ass under himself and his back against the door. “It’s fine, I’m not mad.”
“Really? I would be mad,” Omokage points out. Takumi narrows his eyes.
“Can’t help remembering you didn’t say anything to stop the prank either.”
“Granted, but I also actually thought we should have killed Eva-chan,” Omokage admits, then yelps when Kawana kicks one of his shins. “Hey! I’m just being honest. We don’t really do prisoners of war in my business, you know that? At least not in the capacity that you all were probably thinking…”
Takumi remembers Omokage being on that side in pretty much every discussion about Eva in previous timelines. “Yeah, okay.”
“That being said, it was particularly cruel to do to her,” Omokage admits, “to say nothing of your reaction, which I really couldn’t have predicted, even knowing it probably wouldn’t go over the way Hiruko-chan suggested…”
“Um, yeah.” Kawana shuffles closer, then drops to sit on Takumi’s other side. “What was with that, is it okay if I ask? I—I don’t think pranks like that are okay in general, but you got like, really freaked out, beyond getting mad at someone being insensitive… Did something happen?”
Takumi wonders if Aotsuki’s still awake or listening in the room behind him. If they keep talking like this, he’ll probably eventually start listening in… Not that it really matters. Aotsuki knows more about the situation than anyone else on the team does, considering the lie that Takumi had chosen to tell and that he has to keep up now if he wants to have a chance of saving them from this. He hugs his knees against his chest. Even if he could talk about it, he feels reluctant to explain the reaction that he had, or to really spend much time around anyone on the team right now at all.
Does that mean what Yakushiji said was right? That he’s been keeping away and shouldn’t have been? That he needed something like that as a kick in the heiny? Maybe they do know better. Takumi doesn’t know anything about this sort of thing. He buries the lower half of his face against his knees.
“I don’t know what to say,” Takumi mumbles.
“That’s a yes, something did happen,” Omokage translates. “Likely to do with whatever it is you and Hiruko-chan have been sneaking around about for the past couple weeks.”
Takumi eyes him, opening his mouth to argue that he hasn’t been that obvious about it, then closing it because he knows that’s utter bullshit. He mumbles instead, “Just don’t ask about it, okay? You kind of owe me.”
“Tremendously,” Omokage admits. He shifts, then sits crosslegged, hands coming to rest against his knees. “I owe you so badly that I won’t even joke about letting you cut me open this time… as much as I’d really like that.” He shivers, a wobbly grin coming onto his face. “...Truthfully, Sumino-kun, I just wanted to say that you are entitled to your space, but at the very least, I know that the girls feel horribly about what happened. They’d like to make it up to you, but only when you feel absolutely ready for that.”
“It’s not just the girls,” Kawana says in exasperation. “Everyone feels bad.”
“I’m only speaking for the people I’ve talked to,” Omokage responds, closing his eye. “I’ve not quizzed Maruko-kun on his feelings and I have no intention of doing so.”
Kawana lets out a loud sigh. She looks away, covering her mouth with her hand. “...We were worried about you. Everyone was. You lead us so well, but aside from that, it feels like we don’t really know you, you know? I mean, you got sick, and none of us even realised until Shizuhara-san said something…” She fidgets with the jacket tired around her waist. “I felt bad. But what we should’ve done was just—talked to you, or something. Even if it was your birthday, that was a really awful way to surprise you…”
Takumi clears his throat. “Shizuhara was probably just trying to mess with me. You don’t have to feel that bad about it.”
“Yes I do!” Kawana snaps. Takumi winces at the volume, and she immediately deflates, cringing back too. “I-I just—I mean—Sumino, I just want you to know that it won’t happen again. Th-That if I get worried I’ll come talk to you, and if everyone tries to do something like this I, I won’t participate, and I’ll stop them, and… and you can talk to me, or to anybody, about anything. I’ll—I’ll give you your space too, if you still need time to be mad and stuff. You kind of… deserve anything you want right now.”
Omokage clears his throat. “And I’ve apologised to Eva-chan, as well. Nothing like Ginzaki-kun did, mind… He threw up crying too, after you did. It really looked like he was trying to copy you or something…”
“Omokage!” Takumi exclaims, a startled laugh shaking out of him. “Th-That’s a really mean thing to say!”
“It was adorable,” Omokage sighs, “he got all red and everything…”
“You’re so gross,” Kawana grumbles, having a good reason not to be endeared by this particular topic, shifting to make more space between herself and the assassin.
“Poor Eva,” Takumi says under his breath, unable to say anything else. He rubs at his temple, trying to sift through his thoughts, which are scattered, to piece together literally anything coherent whatsoever. His emotions, too, he fishes through for anger or a desire for retribution, righteousness or indignation or any of the ugly, the sort that’s warred inside of him every time he’s faced V’ehxness on the battlefield since she killed Kirifuji all those timelines ago. He can’t find anything though, not for these two and not for the rest. Not even for Shizuhara, who has suffered alone for so long… they’re his friends. Knowing that they feel guilty, all Takumi wants is to make that better, not to luxuriate in it… It stings still to think that they thought this was a way they could ‘help’ him, but isn’t it a good thing still to have people who want to help you?
Takumi clears his throat. There is only one real thing that he feels the need to say right now, and it is irrelevant to the point of absurdity, but he can’t help asking anyway.
“Did Kirifuji… really make cake?”
“Oh yes,” Omokage replies at once, with a knowing grin spreading across his face. “She hasn’t let anyone take a single slice of it either… I’m sure she’d rather throw the whole thing away than see someone else taste it before you get to.”
Takumi blushes. He can’t help it. “Well…”
“You want me to grab you a piece?” Kawana smiles at him.
“Nothing like cake from a pretty girl to soothe your feelings at the end of a bad day, eh bro?” Omokage nudges him. Takumi snorts and puts his elbows against the door, hauling himself upright. He feels weak and shaky; when he gets to standing, he wobbles, and Omokage has to catch him before he faceplants in the middle of the hallway. It feels alarmingly nice to have someone holding him again after earlier… Takumi grabs a fistful of his haori before Omokage can pull away, just to keep him close while the feeling gradually returns to his extremities.
Finally, Takumi kind of feels like he’s back in his own skin. He shakes his head. “I’ll go… serve myself. I kind of want to see her anyway…” He feels guilty about ignoring her earlier. Takumi would do anything for Kirifuji. He wants to see her and thank her, and if she wants it, then give her the chance to say sorry face-to-face too. “If she’d be okay with that…”
“If she’d be okay with that,” Kawana mumbles, getting to her feet too. “I’ll chase her down. You two can go on ahead.”
With that, she turns and jogs in the other direction. Takumi keeps a hold of Omokage’s clothes as they start for the cafeteria. It’s embarrassing, but it makes him feel tethered right now, and Omokage doesn’t seem to mind.
Once they’re alone, Omokage gives him an odd look, then blushes. He clears his throat and murmurs “I’m sorry too, by the way.”
“Didn’t you already say that?”
“No,” Omokage says, sounding slightly irritated that Takumi would even ask. “But I am. I should have intervened, when someone else didn’t.”
Takumi looks down at the floor. His face feels a little warm, too, even if it’s kind of funny that Omokage would get embarrassed over such a milquetoast expression of feelings considering the shit he’s always going on about. “...It’s fine. You don’t have to say sorry to me.”
Once upon a time, Omokage died implicated for crimes that Takumi himself had committed… All his friends thought that he hacked Mojiro to bits, even though he never would have laid a finger on them. Having Omokage say ‘sorry’ to him, for anything, sits cold like a heavy weight in Takumi’s stomach. He pulls the assassin just the slightest bit closer. It feels wrong to walk so far apart from one another.
Omokage breathes out. “For the love of murder… It isn’t actually that attractive, you know that? Being a complete doormat…?” Still, he avoids looking at Takumi and has flushed a shade darker, which makes Takumi thinks he might be being disingenuous. It’s with a smile on Takumi’s face that they finish walking to the cafeteria, where somehow, the girls have already beat them.
Kirifuji is quick to step forward and grasp both of Takumi’s hands. Her eyes are wide, but her face is completely stoic and sincere, without a trace of emotion. “Sumino-kun, I’m so sorry.”
Too many apologies in a short period, and also Kirifuji is touching him. Takumi blushes. “Okay.”
“Okay?!” Kawana exclaims. “All that arguing earlier when I tried to say sorry but Kirifuji-san just gets okay?”
Omokage giggles. “Sumino-kun is a simple man, Tsubasa-chan.”
“Simple is right!”
Takumi listens to them go back and forth, but only half. He’s busy searching Kirifuji’s eyes for a trace of guilt or self-flagellation, anything he’d need to chase out or hate himself for putting there. There is none though. When they were kids, Karua was always the type to cry for a very long time any time she hurt someone’s feelings. She was so sensitive that it was hard to be mad at her, because you could tell it hurt her worse than it could ever hurt you. It’s not like that looking at Kirifuji now though… She just squeezes Takumi’s hands, then smiles and lets go of him. Her hand settles on his shoulder, and it’s warm even through his… class… armour… oh.
“Oh,” Takumi says, aloud, and finally dismisses his class armour. He lets out a loud breath. “Man, I’m a mess.”
“Let’s get you that cake,” Kirifuji suggests, with a tiny curl of her lip. When she nudges at his shoulder, he follows, trailing after her like a lost duckling. He wonders what she would say to him if he told her the truth—not just that he’s been lying, but about the loop itself, about the fact that he remembers losing her, remembers killing her. The horrible things that have happened because he chose to turn back time and try to save her. The way she’s always there in his nightmares, vulnerable, ready to be hurt despite Takumi’s best intentions.
Maybe once the hundred days are over, and they’ve finally made it home. Kirifuji gushes over the kind of cake she chose to make him, strawberry shortcake with a whipped strawberry icing, and Takumi listens even though it’s a rant he’s heard before. He’d listen to Kirifuji talk about a wide variety of topics over and over again without ever getting bored. He’s pretty sure that’s the only way he knows to stay sane, considering the circumstances.
…Beats getting pranked, at the very least.