Chapter Text
The long corridor stretches all the way forward. It’s seemingly endless — Sara isn’t sure of how much time they’ve been walking already, but none of them have stopped, because they know it does have an end. None of them can stop. It’s the last hope they have left.
“Big sis Sara…” Gin tugs at her sleeve. “Do you think the exit will be open this time, meow?”
“It’s gotta be. They said that’d be the last main game… So we should be able to escape now…”
“I’d hope so…”
Sara turns around to look at the owner of that downcast voice. Sou has fallen behind the group — it seems like a struggle for him to even take a single step. Without really thinking it over, Sara undoes her last set of steps and grabs his wrist.
“H… Hey, what do you think you’re doing?!”
“We’re not leaving you behind,” Sara says. “We’re a team now… Aren’t we?”
“We’ve just been working together for a bit… I’ve done too many horrible things,” he laughs. “Let me stay here. I… With enough time, I could fix his AI. It’s the least I ought to—”
“That doesn’t matter anymore,” Sara keeps on pressing. “I may not… Forgive everything yet, but there’s no way you can stay. We’re all alive and we’re getting out of here.”
“Exactly, woof!”
“...” Sou readjusts his scarf. “I… Guess…”
“We’re not leaving them behind. We’ll remember them… All of them,” Sara says, taking another stride forward. “I won’t forget anybody again.”
“...Well said,” Sou allows himself to give the tiniest of smiles. “Alright then… Let’s go, Sara.”
They keep walking.
Sara doesn’t remember the staircase being this long. She falters for a second, but both Gin and Sou take her hands and make her keep going. She can’t be grateful enough for it.
The door’s almost there. Just… A few more steps…
And then, Gin’s grip weakens, and he collapses to the ground with a loud thud.
Sara doesn’t have time to scream or worry — soon, her senses come to a halt, and she follows suit.
Data transfer complete.
Sara wakes up in a classroom.
Her head is dizzy… There’s a faint moonlight gleam leaking through the windows, so it must be late nighttime.
How did she get here? Where are Sou and the others…? What happened to her? The last thing she can remember is being close to freedom, and then...
There’s no escape.
Dread fills her when she takes a look around and realises, much to her confusion, that this is… Her school. This is her homeroom, and this is the seat she’s had since the beginning of the year. Second to last in the third row, next to… Joe’s.
Ah. That’s probably what this is… Sara pushes herself up, vacantly ambulating towards the hallway. Her dreams and nightmares have never happened during the night, but she supposes it’s possible. There’s always a first time for everything.
A cold spring breeze graces her when she gets out of the building. This scene that she’s seen so many times feels like nothing more than a mirage landscape. The lights of the janitor’s room still turned on, the big lake pound in the middle of the playground, with coins for good luck accumulating on the bottom, the…
The silhouette of a person… Waiting at the exit door…?
Her pulse speeds up, even if she tries to keep herself steady as she walks towards the figure. This is exactly like that day.
“Oh, hey! Whatcha doing, Sara?”
...How cruel. He looks just like Joe. His voice is kind and sweet and he’s not covered by blood like in all her nightmares. It must be her own mind, deciding to play a new trick on her, see how much she can take before she completely breaks. Any moment now, Joe will become an ugly monster and tell her to die with him… That has to be it.
But he stays real while they’re walking home, jokingly telling her about his outrageous progress on his date with Ryoko (and why that sends a flash of pain that makes her chest ache, she doesn’t want to know).
He stays real while she finds her mom collapsed on the floor (Kai told her to not go home, but where else could she go?).
He stays real while they solve the First Trial puzzle. Sara barely manages to instruct him what to do this time around — ignore the numbers, insert the key on the lock, use the sandpaper to clean it.
It feels less and less of a nightmare the more time she waits. She still can’t let her guard down, she doesn’t want to get hurt, and it’s not like travelling back in time is even doable. This can’t be Joe. It can’t, it can’t.
And yet, when they fall, all she wants to do is reach out for him and don’t let go.
She’s still there, the next time she opens her eyes.
And they’re back to being a group of 11. Mishima’s awkwardly holding a conversation with Nao, Kai and Q-Taro are next to Kanna, as if watching over her trembling figure, and Joe…
Joe is talking to Keiji.
It doesn’t take long for the introductions to roll by. Sara finds herself nodding at all they say, barely asking any questions and letting others talk for her, this time. It’s Nao who finds out about Reko’s missing bongos, and she doesn’t bother asking for Q-Taro’s dialect, because Kai’s curiosity gets to it first.
She involuntarily freezes when she hears Joe clear his throat, though.
It sounds so much like the ugly grunt the hallucination would always do before torturing her, with words of hatred and fingers clawing at her throat. All the gestures were accompanied with Joe’s bright smile — that sweet, easygoing grin that she’s always loved — turning into a distorted, toothy nightmare.
It scares her, how much of her best friend has she truly forgotten. How much of it she may never… Fully be able to get back.
She barely can pay attention to the way her fists are trembling. Joe talks about how they’d ended up here; at the mention of the stalker, her eyes automatically dart to Kai, but she says nothing.
“Huh… Interesting. So, you two are friends?” Keiji asks, when the boy’s finished talking.
Friends. That’s right. Joe and Sara are friends, no matter how much of that she’s missing out. Even if the other Joe, the one with the splatters of blood and the one that wants her to give up and go with him on death, is the one that feels more familiar, it doesn’t mean anything, right? Because this Joe, this Joe’s still...
He’s...
I love ya, Sara!
Her breathing hitches. Not now, not now. Not yet.
The room is turning dark. She can see a window glass, and the pool of crimson liquid is raising well past over her shoes, and he’s there. It’s all dirty. He’s there and she should be, too.
“Huh…?” Joe, is that Joe?, scratches the back of his neck. “Uh, yeah, we are… She’s my —”
You’re my best friend!
This isn’t a dream.
Sara’s body moves on its own. Her mind’s too frightened, too far gone to act, but it still doesn’t stop her from sprinting across the room, desperately wrapping herself around Joe’s back and pulling the boy as close to her as she can, uncaring of how he freezes in her hold.
Whatever conversation Joe and Keiji were having is now forgotten; the room has fallen into a thick silence, only broken when Sara chokes her first sob against her best friend’s clothes, tightening her hug on him just a bit.
The painful and unfamiliar cry sends something right through Joe’s heart. Finally, he seems able to react to the unexpected situation, for he slowly returns the gesture, hesitant arms embracing the girl’s waist.
“Sara… Sara, what’s wrong?” he tries. She can only manage to wail and shake her head, burying it deeper in his chest.
...He's warm, he’s real. While it's not as if they haven't hugged before, somehow, this feels like the real first time. He's comforting, in a way that Gin's childish nuzzles and Keiji's pats on her back couldn't be, and he gives her the will to find courage to speak up.
"I — I'm scared," Sara truthfully answers, hoping that her voice doesn't sound as weak and shaky as she feels. "I'm so scared, Joe… You're my best friend too. If… If something happened to you, I couldn't…"
She can't do this. She's not ready to lose him again. Why does the world hate her so much?
"...Hey, it's okay, Sara," Joe softly whispers, lifting one of his hands to pet her hair, fingers combing through the strands. "I'm here and I'm gonna keep both of us safe, alright?"
No…
She'll be the one who protects him, this time. As long as she can keep the Sacrifice card away from him… It'll work out…
Sara nods to herself.
"Heehee… You both made it out of the First Trial," Sou speaks, tone sweet and thoughtful. "So you should give your friend some more credit, Miss Sara. He'll be fine."
Joe stares at him for a few moments, eventually replying to those words with a grin of his own. "Yeah, this guy gets it! You can trust me,"
The girl nods again, slowly separating herself from the hug. She remains close to Joe, though, so the boy takes a hold of her hand and squeezes it tightly for reassurance.
"Coincidentally," Keiji mumbles, "I don't believe you've introduced yourself, right? Good moment to talk."
“Ahaha… Well, I’m Sou Hiyori, and I’m a job-hopper,” the Beanie Man, who has now introduced himself to everyone as Sou, gives a cheeky smile in Sara’s direction, which does not go unnoticed by the girl.
“Is that so…?” she mumbles to herself, eyebrows already furrowed. “And why wouldn’t you introduce yourself at first?”
Was he wary like Joe, too…?
“Ah… You know, I’m kind of shy,” the boy admits rather sheepishly, hand tugging on his scarf. “I guess it’s not the best situation to act all awkward, but… I wanted to let everyone talk first… Plus, saying that I don’t have a stable job is kind of embarrassing, isn’t it?”
“You could have made up some lie,” Sara still insists, already feeling wary of his words.
Sou stays silent for a second before slowly shaking his head. When he stares into her eyes, light blue glinting with untold sorrow and pain, something clicks.
“Hey now, Miss Sara… You can’t trust people like that, right?” he smiles softly. “I don’t want to lie to anyone.”
“But you’re…”
She bites down the words. He’s lying, he’s already lying to all of them from the moment he introduced himself. That’s not him. That’s not his name. Sou Hiyori is dead.
Suddenly, his gaze turns cold. “Is there something the matter?”
“...No,” she finally breathes out. “Nothing’s wrong… Sou. Sorry.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for, Miss Sara… I’d hope this won’t hinder our future partnership,” Sou chirps, without a worry in the world, and with that, the wave of tension is gone from his face.
What the hell was that? Had nobody else seen it?
And why was he… Assuming they’d work together…?
“Well, well, now that introductions are settled down,” Keiji meddles in, “Let’s all discuss what we found, yeah?”
“Wait, Lemon Hair!” Gin cries, sticking out his paw. “We didn’t ask if he remembers anything before getting abducted, woof!”
“...Lemon… Hair, huh,” Keiji slowly deadpans, and someone in the room stifles back a laugh. It’s probably Joe.
“If any of us are thirsty, I guess we can ask Keiji for a citrus-flavored treat,” Sou actually has the gall to giggle out loud. “Kai, you got anything to do a drink with hair? Would a mixer work?”
Kai looks absolutely lost and stupefied, but he raises his hand to his chin and thinks out a reply nevertheless. “I do not think so, Sou… But if you’d like a limey drink, I’d be more than happy to make one for you once we get out,”
“Can we move on, you dumbasses?” Reko snarls. “This ain’t the time. We got more important things to deal with, like, you know, literally anything else!”
The girl is right… Sara shoots Kanna a worried look. She’s still trembling, face pale and covered in sweat. She wants to help her. But if she tries talking, she’ll only make it worse…
To Sara's surprise, Sou takes the initiative and approaches her. Wordlessly, he starts rubbing circles on her back, and that makes Kanna look just a bit less terrified, though she's still very much unstable.
Kanna and Sou did form a friendship. But it hadn't happened right away… Why was Sou being kind already?
"Can you speak?" Sou asks.
"...H… Uou…"
"...Guess not," he sweatdrops. "Tell us your name, at least?"
"...I'm… Kanna Kizuchi," is all she says.
This hadn't happened the first time around, Sara was sure of that much. In fact, Sou had been acting weird… Just like her.
Keiji brings back the conversation to the topic of sharing their information, so nobody gets to question Kanna about her First Trial, thankfully. After they open Q-Taro's box and find instructions, all of them agree to split up and begin their search.
It's the perfect time to go talk to Sou…
"Um, Sara," Joe mumbles, "Do you want to go with me or…?"
Ah… He'd gone with Keiji right away, if she remembered correctly. But her outburst had definitely worried him, and that's why he was offering to be together now.
"I'll be fine… Sorry," she breathes out. "You can go with whoever you want… Keiji, right?"
A small, embarrassed blush comes to Joe's cheeks. "How did you know?"
"Best friend intuition, you could say," she tries to joke around a bit.
"Well, you got me," he admits, laughing back. "I kinda wanna see how a cop investigates."
"That is your reason…?"
"Don't stare at me like that," he lowers his head in shame. "...But I'd kinda feel bad leaving you alone… Do you wanna come with us?"
"Sorry, but miss Sara's coming with me," Sou barges in the conversation.
"And why's that?" Joe growls back, preemptively pushing Sara behind him.
Sou shoves his hands on his pockets. "Let's see… She's nice, and I think I can trust her."
"...That's all?"
"I told you, I don't like lying.”
“Ugh… I can’t make my mind up about this guy…”
“I’ll go with him, Joe, don’t worry,” Sara says. “He looks kind of feeble, doesn’t he? I’ll keep him in check.”
“I come to make you an offer with all my kindness and you pay me back like this…”
“Well… Your arms look scrawny,” she continues, glaring directly at him. “I doubt you could even open a cupboard.”
She notices it again, the way his face tenses up just the slightest bit. She’s hitting all the right spots… He must know something, too.
“I… Suppose not, if it’s too heavy…” he half-heartedly agrees.
“Well, fine! I’ll trust you with Sara,” Joe makes up his mind, patting Sou’s shoulder. “But you two be careful, okay?”
“Reko and I will be staying with Kanna here,” Nao then says, patting the little girl’s head. “If something looks fishy, come back here!”
“Right, will do. Thank you, Nao,” Sara smiles at the girl. It’s refreshing to see her with so much energy… She’ll make sure to keep it that way.
Every small group or pair scatters around, footsteps getting lost in the three open corridors — until it’s only the two of them left.
“Well then… Miss Sara.” Sou smiles, offering his hand. “We should get moving too, hm?”
“...We should,” she nods, but doesn’t take it. “There’s something I want to talk out with you.”
“What a coincidence,” he smirks. “I have something I want to talk to you about too.”
“Let’s go to… That room.”
Sara’s suspicions are confirmed when, wordlessly, he takes the hallway that’ll lead them to the restaurant and, therefore, the hidden room.
...They’ll have a lot of talking to do, indeed.