sixth investigation

[airlockedmods]

[It's Friday again but as of today it has been a full two weeks since someone has lost their life. The mansion is quiet, almost peaceful.

But we all know peace can only last so long in the Fantasy Sweet.]

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[serrata]

[ She shakes her head quickly, makes her smile just a little brighter. ]

You don't have to thank me. It wouldn't have felt right leaving you and Ardyn-san to do that by yourselves when I was right there.

[ She looks at him -- really looks at him for a long moment and then she opens up her arms, makes that same beckoning gesture she did in the garden all those weeks ago. ]

... come here, okay?

[misanthropicprinciple]

[He sighs like coming home and steps into the hug, wrapping his arms around her as well. Two children in a storm.]

We'll get through this. I know it. But it's still...

[serrata]

[ She hugs him as tight as she can, her hand rubbing slow circles across his back. ]

It doesn't make it any easier when we're actually in the "getting through it" part, does it?

... I'm sorry you had to be the one who found him. I know you and Nishitani-san... [ She hesitates, casting around for the right word before settling on: ] You were friends.

[misanthropicprinciple]

He was...

[He laughs weakly and buries his nose in her hair.]

He was sort of... the first person here I felt I could trust. Not because he was good or kind or honest, but because--because he wasn't those things. Because I knew exactly what kind of person he was, the kind of criminal assholes I'd been working with for the past year.

Yes. Yes, we were friends. I keep... we all keep losing friends.

[serrata]

... There's still some of us here. I know... it doesn't make up for what's lost, but...

[ The hand rubbing circles across his back skims up so she can cradle his head against her. ]

I'm here. Church, Ardyn-san, Arianna-chan, Nari-- all of us. We'll be with you all the way through this. All the way to the end and beyond.

[misanthropicprinciple]

I know. That's why I can keep moving.

[He holds her, and he holds her up against him. They are neither of them going to fall. They're none of them going to fall.]

This is the last one, Yuuri. We can't lose more than this. This is where it stops.

[Nine doors. Nine hours. Nine persons.

The one they lose beyond the patio doors today will be the last.]

[serrata]

... Just one more. I can handle just one more.

[ One more execution. One more death. One more friend forever beyond their reach. ]

And then once it's done, we make all this stop. I don't know how yet. But I know we can do it.

[ If she'd been saying it to herself then it would've sounded full of false bravado. But when she's saying it in tandem with Junpei then it feels solid. Real. Like a promise she has no intention of breaking. ]

We've made it this far, haven't we? I know we can make it the rest of the way. Right to the end.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Right through the end. All the way to the other side.

[He pulls back just enough to see her face. To look her in the eyes, his odd red to her stunning olive, and to imagine for a moment...]

When you get out... and you see the sun again, for the first time in your life...

[Resolve sharpens his eyes. His heart beats, and he knows he can't give up. Not while he and Yuuri--not while each of them are of the same mind.

And if they aren't there yet, together, they can make the impossible happen.]

I want to be there when you see it. What's on the other side of that last locked door.

[serrata]

[ It's almost instinctive now for her to reach up and touch his face -- without even having to think about it, she carefully cups his face in her hand, brushing her thumb over his cheek in a gesture so familiar it feels almost like muscle memory by now. She's tired -- both of them are so tired. But she gives him a smile and there's a tiny spark in her eyes. Not a flame quite yet. But eventually. ]

I wouldn't want it any other way. I want to walk through it with you.