Archive of Our Own

It was strange, really; Waking up somewhere you don’t remember falling asleep. Especially someplace that is dark and dusty. Even stranger still is waking up in a body that doesn’t feel like your own, with memories that seem to belong to a different person entirely.

If it weren’t for her quiet friends, lying inanimate and lifeless in their glowing green chambers, she might never have believed any of it to be real at all. But there they all were, standing as constant reminders of the nightmarish acts they had committed in their dark pasts and where it had inevitably led them.

And yet fate, despite all their hellish deeds, had spared them a small kernel of mercy. Because Sonia, along with the four other survivors of their virtual killing school trip, had been allowed to awaken with their foggy memories intact.

All of them.

The love, the horror, the tragedy, the laughter, the fear, the comfort, the hope, and the despair.

It had been difficult for all of them at first to come to terms with what they had done. Sonia had spent so much time debating whether it was even worth continuing, but her wonderful, faithful friends had always been there to encourage and support her. And the words that he had spoken to them were her biggest driving force. Those words constantly rang through her mind during her moments of doubt.

After all, she couldn’t die when she still had people that depended on her assisting in saving them. Because her lost companions all remained unmoving and silent in their chambers, absent from the entire world, and it was up to her and the other survivors to work towards finding a way to bring them back.

And there had to be some way. Sonia refused to acknowledge any other possibility as she sat there that day beside one of the glowing green pods situated at the back of the dark room.

Her pale, slender arms draped and folded over the smooth, convex surface, providing a place to rest her cheek against. The cold glass that met her limbs had long since grown to a bearable temperature when exposed to her body heat. Her wheat blonde hair pooled next to her, a few strands suspended in front of her face as they escaped from her meticulously braided coiffure. The light of the pod cast an eerie green glow upon her complexion as she stared down into it at the obscured silhouette shrouded beneath the locked, tinted glass.

Their shape was foggy and veiled beneath the surface, but Sonia knew without a doubt who was concealed inside. After all, she had spent countless days seated next to this pod, allowing her ample time to trace the edges of the silhouette, locating his jawline, the shadows that made his deep-set eyes, his thin fingers, and his broad chest.

Even through the misty glass, she could make out the slight changes the boy underneath had gone through in the years since starting Hope’s Peak Academy. Of course, she could remember herself and her classmates maturing in her once-forgotten memories, but it was still a foreign and bizarre experience since her once-perceived most recent memories were filled with younger, fresher faces than those she was now faced with.

Her surviving friends had been enough evidence of the strange sense of disassociation when they had all first emerged from their own chambers. Everyone looked older and more mature, herself included.

Sonia had spent time sitting by all ten of the still-occupied pods, tracing the new details over the years since they had awoken on the island. After all, she wasn’t much help in the task of unraveling the puzzle of how to revive their friends along with their memories and selves, still intact. She wasn’t good with technology, like Kazuichi. She wasn’t particularly intelligent, like Fuyuhiko. And Hajime seemed to be exceptional at everything, thanks to his Ultimate Hope talent. Sonia couldn’t even help with hard labor and heavy lifting like Akane. No, all she could do was provide her quiet, comatose classmates with some fruitless company in the dark, musty hall their pods resided in.

But she was more than happy to do so.

She spent her days dividing her time between each glowing pod, offering quiet words of encouragement and soft-spoken promises. Even if her friends couldn’t hear her, it still served as somewhat of a comfort to Sonia as well. It made her feel as if she was doing something at least somewhat beneficial.

The princess liked to imagine what each of her friends would reply back with when she spoke to them. Like when she told them about whatever funny thing Akane had said that day, despite all their sadness.

Ibuki would laugh abrasively and make a seemingly unrelated comment.

Sonia would tell them what Kazuichi had told her about the progress they were making on bringing their friends back.

Nekomaru would give loud, thundering words of encouragement to Sonia and the mechanic, telling them not to give up and keep working towards their goal.

Maybe Peko would even let the softest of smiles slip onto her usually stern face as Sonia whispered to her in a quiet voice, telling of Fuyuhiko’s occasional visits to the eerily quiet hall. He would sit by one of the glowing green pods when he thought Sonia was away to grab a bite to eat or use the restroom.

He would lay there sometimes when he took a break from his work, napping with his arms resting on the cold tinted glass, similar to how the princess sat now. On rare occasions, Sonia heard him whispering quiet words to the figure in the chamber he leaned on as he slept, very likely dreaming of her in his restless naps.

No doubt he saw beautiful visions of her unwavering devotion, her piercing, enchanting crimson eyes, and her calm yet fierce demeanor, all made up by his grasping and desperate mind, reaching to find consolation in old memories.

Sonia found a somewhat bittersweet comfort in those moments when he sat there next to the sleeping swordswoman. Sonia knew Fuyuhiko would be cross with her if he ever caught her watching in a moment of “weakness”, but she couldn’t help sympathizing with the petite yakuza boy. After all, she shared in a kindred pain.

Sonia would be lying if she said she spread her time out evenly between all the pods whenever she provided her company. She did her best, but she always found herself drawn towards one particular pod fixed towards the back of the echoey hall.

On late nights, when she was too worn down or simply too despondent to deal with the unrelenting nightmares that haunted her in the late hours, she would creep into the large hall and rest her face against the lonely pod’s cool glass. She’d slowly find her voice and place of comfort as she’d lovingly whisper about the birds she had seen that day from the window in her room or the fish she had spotted when she’d walked along the ocean shore.

She spoke of it all with great joy, yet her voice dripped with inexhaustible grief and sorrow. Because she could almost see his small smile as she spoke to him. But he never replied back.

And she’d come close to crying.

The corners of her eyes dampened in those long intervals of silence when she couldn’t find anything else to ramble aimlessly on about; When the stillness and solitude truly set in. She didn’t want to cry, but she almost couldn’t help it. She missed him. She missed his crooked smirk and bold laughter. She missed his deep eyes and lonesome demeanor.

Because all she had to comfort herself was the ratty old scarf she had found along with all the other clothing in that large Tupperware box hidden in the storage room.

When the five original survivors had first awoken, they had taken only their clothing from the box and left the rest inside for safekeeping, but Sonia secretly held on to the old, magenta scarf she found buried at the bottom of the box, which she now carried with her everywhere she went. It kept her anxious hands constantly busy as she toyed with the soft material between her fingers.

It had still smelled like him when she first removed it from the box—strong incense, fresh vegetables, and the slightest hint of catnip. The smell alone brought back so many pleasant memories. She had fought not to cry when the smell had finally been washed away in the laundry with all the soap and dirt.

Sonia had heard the expression “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone” spoken in many different languages, but she knew that she had never truly understood its meaning until now as she sat by the glowing pod, the scarf resting in her lap.

Memories played like a movie in her head as she lay there beside him: meeting him for the first time, discussing occult magazines together, playing with his animals, him teaching her about the different varieties of hamsters, meeting him for the first time again on Jabberwock Island, the time they spent together there…

… and his sacrifice.

Sonia always knew the boy lying inside the chamber had a tender heart, even if he would never admit it himself. It was evident once you peeled away his reclusive exterior and took a closer look. The boy's compassion towards animals alone was enough to prove he had a gentle soul.

He was just like everyone else, with fears and interests. Despite his self-centered nature and over-the-top theatrical tendencies, he was just a lonely, shy young man who took comfort in nature since he felt he didn’t belong in normal society.

And yet someone like that had been willing to give up his own life to save the humans he claimed that he so despised.

In Sonia’s eyes, that was more than reason enough to fall for someone. And added to that was the fact that he was also sweet, compassionate, devoted, loyal, and hardworking.

Sonia had spent so much time in her earlier years watching romances bloom and develop in her favorite J-dramas, such as “I Will Arrest Your Eyes”, and “Light My Heart With Fire.” Before coming to Japan, she had often dreamed of finding herself in her own romantic J-drama scenario. However, now that it seemed she was, she wished she could take it all back. Sitting next to the comatose boy that she loved, unable to touch him or even fully see him, was agonizing; Heart-wrenching; Near unbearable.

She wanted to hug him, kiss him, and tell him how much she adored him, as she had never had the chance or courage to do before. But her heart screamed with agony at the thought that now, she might never be able to do so—that she had missed her chance. She would grow old and die before her friends ever found a way to safely open the chambers. Or maybe there would eventually be a malfunction in the machines, causing the students’ comatose bodies to depart along with their minds before they could save them.

Anxiety after anxiety raced through her brain like a tempest, attempting to drown the hope in her heart as she stared down at the obscured face behind the glass.

Like all the other nights she had stayed in that chamber, words began to fall like rain from Sonia’s lips as she sat by the comatose boy’s side that fateful evening.

“Why could I not have been born smarter?” She whispered to the shadowy figure, her voice as listless as a red leaf floating on the autumn wind. “If I had more common sense, maybe I would be able to save you… Or maybe I would have been wise enough to tell you of my adoration for you sooner. But I was too scared to tell you that I cared for you until it was too late,” Sonia whispered quietly as she moved her fingers down to grasp the soft fabric of the old, tattered magenta scarf in her lap. It did little to soothe her, as her voice caught in her throat.

“How would you respond if I spoke of these emotions I feel for you? Will I ever get to know?”

Her breath was warm against the cold glass, creating small circles of condensation against it. The princess traced a thin finger through the wetness, first drawing meaningless lines, then pictures of fluffy hamsters and zigzagging scars. They swiftly evaporated in the air of the room, almost as quickly as she could draw them.

“I have never truly fit in anywhere.” She whispered. “The common folk of my country were too fearful to interact with me. The rest of the royal family finds my interests strange. Here in Japan, I am but a ditzy foreigner, and now I am an outcast to the entire world… But you always accepted me.”

She remained there in the heavy silence for what felt like an eternity, waiting for a reply she knew would never come. The chamber the boy resided in only softly flickered back at her, still and quiet.

“You never thought I was strange. You encouraged me and praised me for being my truest self. And I always found my truest self at your side.”

The blonde girl closed her heavy eyelids, surrounding herself with the darkness and the quiet hum of the machines in the echoey room.

“I miss you, Gundham.”

Sonia could feel the tears beginning to form at the corners of her pale eyes, but she refused to let them fall. Because Gundham wouldn’t want her to cry.

She could almost hear him.

“Crying over the loss of a monster is unbefitting of a noblewoman such as yourself, Lady Sonia.”

So she didn’t. She merely wiped them away with a slender, trembling finger and inhaled deeply. The exhale that followed was full and long, dispelling a bit of her grief to make way for her fond memories of the boy with the dark demeanor.

“Will you be cross with me if we bring you back?” Sonia whispered. “And is it selfish that I wish you to return from the darkness for a few lifetimes longer?”

The silence engulfed the princess as her mind began drifting between the space of wakefulness and the unconscious. “But it was you yourself that said, ‘Giving up on life is an insult to life itself. Because what is the point in living if you are just waiting until you finally die?’ Do you remember that?” Her words were light and quiet. “Lying there, still in that chamber… I feel as if leaving you there is letting you wait for death. And I must not let that happen. So I promise… I promise I will find a way to save you from the depths of this hell you are trapped in, Gundham. Because allowing you to suffer here is not an end befitting of the Overlord of Ice and Supreme Ruler of the Underworld.”

And the young princess fell asleep there at the side of the glowing chamber, the magenta scarf clutched in her hands. She fell asleep there, waiting for the time to come when she would have the chance to be the knight in shining armor, saving her love from the coffin made of glass with a true love’s kiss.

“Miss Sonia!”

Sonia was so tangled within the dreams of the dark-eyed boy that came to her in her restless slumber that she barely felt the hands frantically shaking her awake later that evening. When her lashes did finally blink open, her bleary gaze was met with a pair of wide pink eyes staring down at her.

“Miss Sonia! You've gotta wake up!”

As Sonia’s conscience slowly came back into focus, she peered curiously up at the boy in the black beanie. His pink hair was even more of a mess than usual, and his wide eyes, which often shook like he had drunk far too many energy drinks, now had dark circles underneath them. He was very clearly lacking a good deal of sleep.

His yellow jumpsuit was crumpled and wrinkled in a way Sonia didn’t know a jumpsuit could even wrinkle. It hung a bit awkwardly where he had tied the sleeves together underneath his stomach, which was covered with a grease and oil-stained black tank top.

Overall, Kazuichi looked like more of a mess than he did most days, which was saying something as of recently.

The young man spent almost all his time the past few years fiddling with the machines that kept their friends trapped in the large facility they had awoken in. The stress had quickly started to catch up to him as he became more and more aware of the looming fact that the lives of their comatose friends were quite literally in his calloused, accident prone hands. If Kazuichi were to screw up or break a single little thing, it could spell the end for all the students still in their chambers.

The stressed-out boy had withdrawn into himself and the machines. He spent the majority of the two and a half years all alone, only occasionally emerging to discuss his progress, exchange ideas with Hajime and Fuyuhiko, or grab more food.

In the time they had spent trying to save their friends, Kazuichi had taken up stress eating as a coping mechanism. He hadn’t gained too much weight, but enough for it to be noticeable. Fuyuhiko, the once-spit-fire yakuza heir, had instead taken up the exact opposite outlet. He hardly touched his food anymore. Sonia was almost sure she hadn’t seen him consume anything but overly-sweetened coffee in the past few days.

It worried Sonia. She wanted so badly to be able to console her troubled friends.

A Fuyuhiko with no fire just didn’t seem to be Fuyuhiko at all. And Kazuichi may get on her nerves from time to time, but Sonia still cared for him, and it hurt to see the once lively young man pull away from the others.

“Miss Sonia!”

Sonia was pulled from her thoughts when Kazuichi called out to her once more. She carefully rubbed her eyes with the heel of one of her hands, the other still clutched around the magenta scarf, and peered back up at the boy looking down at her.

“Kazuichi,” Sonia's eyes widened slightly for a moment when her brain finally made the connection to who she was looking at. She put forth her best smile and most happy-go-lucky attitude as she spoke to the boy, hoping some of her positive attitude might rub off. “Good evening. It is quite lovely to see you out and about. Did you require my services for some matter?”

But her smile quickly weakened as she took in the boy’s almost startled countenance. His eyes were wider than saucers, and his calloused hands were shaking as he grabbed desperately onto Sonia’s shoulders. His grip was so tight that it was slightly painful.

“K-Kazuichi? What is the meaning of this?”

Sonia stared in shocked silence as the boy’s lips moved, forming shapes to produce sounds. But none of the sounds that left his lips seemed to fully reach Sonia’s mind. They were simply absorbed into her ears and lost in the space in between.

She could hear them, yes...

But understand them?

“We’ve done it.”

It was as if the world fell into a trance. It wobbled and swayed back and forth as Sonia’s brain melted to mush.

Was this real?

Was Kazuichi telling her the truth?

Or was this all just another one of her cruel dreams? A flash of hope that would be quickly snatched away as soon as her eyelids flickered open?

“I—Is this real?” Sonia whispered her thoughts aloud. She nearly found herself choking as Kazuichi simply nodded back at her—almost as if he were in just as much disbelief as her over the words he had just spoken.

The two students’ heads turned as three other figures quickly approached them from the front of the room. Hajime led the small group, his face unchanged from its usual resting appearance, but Sonia could tell from the twitch in his hand that he was rearing to go.

Akane and Fuyuhiko followed closely behind. The tall girl was nearly vibrating with excitement; her eyes burned with passion, and her grin was almost maniacal. But if Akane was simply excited, Fuyuhiko looked as if he were about ready to burst. His thin hands fidgeted with the tie around his slender, freckled neck, and his right shoulder bobbed up and down in an attempt to burn off his excess energy. The small boy’s paranoid remaining eye constantly flicked back and forth from Sonia and Kazuichi to one of the glowing chambers across the way.

“You—you figured it out? You truly figured it out?” Sonia practically leaped to her feet, adrenaline pumping through her body in a way it hadn’t done in ages. She stood up so quickly that the world danced with black spots—she nearly fell forward. Luckily, Kazuichi caught her in his arms.

“Now’s not the time for stereotypical princess drama, ‘your highness’.” Fuyuhiko mumbled as Kazuichi righted Sonia back on her feet. The shortest boy then turned to the group mechanic. His hands fidgeted impatiently. “Come on, gear head. They’ve been waiting a full two and a half years already; don’t make them wait any longer.”

“Hey.” Kazuichi’s brow furrowed as he removed his hands from Sonia’s arms and faced Fuyuhiko. “The least you can do is be a bit more polite.” He grumbled as he trudged his way over towards the center of the room. “We're all just as anxious as you are.”

The pink-haired boy then sighed deeply as he stared down at the glowing green liquid crystal screen embedded in the collection of big metal pipes at the center of the dim room. The other students quickly collected around him, peeking over his shoulders to try and catch a glimpse at what exactly he was doing.

“So, how does it work?” Akane raised an eyebrow as she looked over at the screen. “Do you put in a password or somethin’?”

“Nah, it’s not that simple. If it were that easy, I would have opened these dumb things ages ago.” Kazuichi shook his head and reached a shaking hand into one of the pockets of his dirty jumper.

The four other young adults watched intently with silent anticipation as he rummaged around for a moment before finally pulling something out. The others peered curiously at the item he had clutched in his hand, which turned out to be a small flash drive with a rubber casing around it shaped like a cute yellow shark.

“This bad boy right here is my secret weapon!”

The other students stared in silence for a moment.

“Fucking baby shark is the last hope we have at saving our friends?”

“Shut up, Fuyuhiko!” Kazuichi hissed back at the boy who was glaring over his shoulder. “It was the only flash drive I could find in this dump. So you’ll just have to suck it up and deal with it.”

“Hey, if it means getting our friends back,” Hajime sighed. “Then I’m just fine with the baby shark flash drive.”

“So,” Sonia looked back and forth from the flash drive and the screen, her brow furrowed. “Does the flash drive have some type of program on it that will wake everyone up?” She peered hopefully up at Kazuichi.

“That’s what I hope it will do.”

“That’s what you ‘hope’!?” Fuyuhiko nearly whacked Kazuichi over the head as his anxiety boiled over. “What do you mean, ‘you hope?’”

Kazuichi hugged the flash drive to his chest. “Listen, man! This is our best shot, okay? Whatever this big machine is, it contains all the data and memory of our time on Jabberwock Island. To get everyone to wake up, we have to get the proper memory data back into the proper places.” The pink-haired boy’s hands frantically twitched in front of him, forming shapes and lines as he used them to assist in his explanation. “We also need to upload the memory of everything the five of us went through to fight against despair. That way, we can help better combat everyone else’s despair. To do that, we first need to get into the system. Issue is that when Junko infiltrated the program, she downloaded some virus that can detect outside interference. In order to even access the system, we first have to override that virus without it detecting us, or else the whole thing will shut down.”

The students took a moment to process Kazuichi’s explanation before Akane finally spoke up. “And what happens if it shuts down?” Her voice was so low, she was nearly growling.

Kazuichi’s silence that persisted the question was answer enough for Sonia, but as another voice spoke up, a chill still shot through her body.

“The virus deletes the data, and they never wake up.”

Hajime’s words cut through the silence and echoed around the large room. The sentence settled over the students like thick, murky fog. It caught in their throats and stuck their tongues to the bottoms of their mouths, making it nearly impossible to speak. They just stood there, glancing from the screen, to the glowing pods, to each other, to the small yellow shark clutched in Kazuichi’s fist.

That goofy little, unassuming yellow shark held the fate of their friends in between its little rubber teeth. Could the lives of so many young individuals really be dependent on such a silly thing?

Sonia wondered that as she peered down at the little shark flash drive. It was so small—yet her entire world revolved around it at this moment because it spelled life or death for the boy in the chamber at the back of the room. And yet…

Her fingers clenched tighter around the material of the magenta scarf that she still held in her hands.

“We have no choice.”

The four other young adults turned to look at the princess.

“This flash drive could quite possibly deprive us of our friends forever, but it also holds the answer to returning them to us. We have spent so much time working towards this moment, so why throw away that chance?”

Her pale eyes were ablaze with a burning desire and unrivaled hope.

“Would you truly give in to despair when we have such clear hope before us? Was hope not the reason we left Jabberwock Island? We fought to leave so that we could battle against despair. Are we truly going to give in to it now?”

“N—no way!” Kazuichi’s fist clenched tighter around the flash drive. “Miss Sonia’s right! We’ve gotta take the risk!”

“Hell yeah!” Akane cheered and slapped Kazuichi so hard on the back, he almost fell over. “Shove that bad boy in there, big guy! We’ve got some catching up to do with old friends.”

Hajime and Fuyuhiko simply smiled as they watched the three rowdier members of their crew exchange words of excitement and encouragement.

“Well, I guess it’s now or never.” Kazuichi turned to look at Hajime when the excitement finally died down a bit, and the quiet quickly set back in. But the hush wasn’t quite as fearful as before. It only squirmed with slight anxiety and anticipation as Hajime walked over to Kazuichi’s side, and Fuyuhiko looked down at his watch—ready to count the time.

“Also—if this works—be sure to be extra careful with everyone when they wake up.” Hajime turned to face the others. “Their bodies and minds are probably still in a state of shock. Our first priority should be getting Mikan back up and running. She will be our best bet in monitoring everyone’s health.”

The others all nodded before Kazuichi motioned towards the panel.

“Then let’s get started, I guess. You have faster fingers than I do.” Kazuichi mumbled to Hajime as the mechanic squatted down and fiddled with a panel on the side of the screen. He went to work, removing the cover with a screwdriver as he spoke. “So once I pop this thing in… ” He pulled various tools from his pockets as he fiddled with wires and buttons in the exposed panel. “... You have about five seconds to break that baby down. And you can’t waste time overanalyzing every little thing like—”

“I know, I know, Kazuichi.” Hajime looked down at his friend with an amused—if slightly exasperated—smile. “We’ve already discussed this a billion times. I know what I’m doing.”

“Right. Of course you do.” The mechanic turned away, his face red with embarrassment as he scolded himself underneath his breath. “You’re the Ultimate Hope. Of course you know.” He fiddled with a few more wires before he once again pulled the flash drive from his pocket. Kazuichi then took a deep breath as he connected some sort of device with a flash drive port on it to the panel. With that, he turned to look at all of his friends with his tired, pink eyes. It was quiet again for a moment as he looked around at the others.

“So… do you guys wanna do a countdown or…”

“Just put the flash drive in, Kazuichi.” Hajime narrowed his eyes and the mechanic nodded sheepishly.

“Yeah. I should do that.” Kazuichi mumbled in return. “Welp, here it goes.”

Sonia’s whole world seemed to suddenly slow down as Kazuichi’s shaking hands guided the little yellow shark towards the port. He missed the first try, but on his second, the flash drive slipped in with a soft click.

And thus began the longest five seconds of Sonia’s life.

Her heart pounded so loudly in her chest that she wouldn’t have been surprised if everyone else in the room could hear it. Fuyuhiko stared down at his watch, Kazuichi’s fingers remained grasped around the flash drive, ready to pull it out as soon as five seconds hit, and Akane inched closer to Sonia’s trembling side.

As Hajime’s fingers glided across the touchpad, Sonia wrapped her own fingers in the magenta scarf and the warm comfort of one of Akane’s hands. The two girls just stood there, silently watching the glowing green screen and Hajime’s concentrated face. Akane’s grip was so tight, it was nearly crushing Sonia’s hand, but the princess didn’t care. The only thing she cared about at that moment was the glowing screen and the scarf wrapped in her other hand.

“Pull it out!”

Fuyuhiko’s voice crashed through Sonia’s mind like a tidal wave as time returned to normal speed. Hajime jumped away from the screen, and Kazuichi yanked so hard on the flash drive that he plopped backward onto his butt.

“...”

“Did… did you…” Kazuichi’s voice trembled as he looked up at Hajime.

The spiky-haired boy’s wide, glowing eyes blinked rapidly in shock as he turned away from the blinking screen to look at his four friends standing there with him.

“I-I did it.”

“Are you su—”

“I did it.”

...

Sonia expected to hear shouts of glee, whether they were from herself or the others. But there was no cheering—no celebratory trumpets or blasts of confetti. She even half expected all the chambers to just suddenly open. But no. There wasn’t even a sound from the liquid crystal screen or from one of the many pods surrounding the edges of the room. It was just dead quiet. The only sounds that occupied the room were the whirring of machines and everyone’s heavy breathing. They all just stood there in stunned silence for what felt like an eternity, staring at each other with wide eyes.

He had done it.

“N—now what do we do?” Fuyuhiko spoke as if he had to fight to get the words out. “Do they open all at once or do we have to… you know… wait?”

“I guess I… I guess Hajime and I need to take another look at the screen, maybe?” Kazuichi muttered from where he was still sprawled out on the floor. It took him a moment to collect himself, but eventually he returned to his feet with a grunt and peered over at the screen. Hajime quickly rejoined him.

“Well, I guess we could…”

“Maybe it’s that one…”

“No, that looks like it’s for…”

The two muttered quietly back and forth as the three other students could only watch with bated breath. Sonia took the moment to unwrap her aching fingers from Akane’s and scoot closer to the two boys.

As she did, a loud beeping sound—like a buzzer that sounds at the end of each quarter during a basketball game—echoed through the hall, making all the kids jump.

“What did you press?” Hajime hissed at Kazuichi, who hopped away from the screen in a panic.

“I—I don’t know! I think I accidentally tapped the button that said ‘VCC 13’, but it was an accident. I swea—”

Kazuichi was interrupted mid-sentence as a loud clicking sound echoed from one side of the room. All the anxious eyes turned just in time to watch as the tinted glass over one of the pods split vertically down the middle and slowly retracted down into the base of the machine. The constant glowing green light that they had all become so accustomed to then slowly faded from the chamber.

Sonia didn’t even have a moment to blink before Fuyuhiko sprinted past her side and over to the open pod.

Peko Pekoyama’s pod.

The others stood frozen stiff as Fuyuhiko stared down into it at the figure that had been revealed from behind the glass. His mouth opened and closed, but not a word left it for a few moments as he struggled to find his voice.

“P—Peko? Peko, c—can you... hear me?”

His shaking hands reached out towards the lifeless figure—only hesitating for a moment—as he placed them on her cold, pale skin. His touch had a gentleness one might think would be incapable of a yakuza as he ran his fingers over her cheek.

P—Peko… please. Say... Say something…” His lower lip trembled as he dropped to his knees beside the chamber, and his eye filled with tears. “Peko… Peko please—”

“...”

“Y-young mast—”

“D—don’t you dare c-call me that.” Fuyuhiko’s whole body seemed to melt into her touch as a white hand reached up from inside the chamber to wipe the tears from his face. “After all this, you think you can… that you can just… f-fucking hell.” The boy grasped the pale hand in between his own with a desperation akin to that of a starving man and pressed their intertwining fingers to his forehead. “... You’re alive, Peko.”

Sonia couldn’t see the sword woman's face from where she was standing, but Fuyuhiko’s euphoric expression alone was all the information she needed to understand the absolute and unmistakable love the two shared.

“F-Fuyuhiko. You look…” Peko’s voice was weak, but gradually gaining wakefulness.

“Hush. I’m fine.” The short boy by her side assured the girl lying in the pod. “I promise I’ll be fine... now that you're here.”

The two continued to softly speak to one another. They spoke too quietly for the others to hear. The bystanders just stood there watching from a distance for some time. They didn’t want to intrude on the once entirely tragic pair, now reunited by a miracle.

Akane, however—never one for emotions—quickly lost her patience after a few extended moments and rushed to Kazuichi’s side by the screen. She practically shook them all awake with her poor attempt at a whisper. “Quick! Do that thing you did again!” She begged, looking around at the other chambers. “Open more of them!”

Hajime and Kazuichi exchanged a glance before nodding and turning back to the screen. They both began clicking buttons in rapid succession, and the loud buzzer filled the hall.

Chamber upon chamber clicked and released, and the two momentarily stopped what they were doing to watch the glass panels split and open from the tops of each glowing green pod. Akane and Kazuichi quickly hopped from machine to machine, happily greeting the students they met inside.

Familiar voices began to fill the usually quiet hall as more and more of their classmates awoke from their death-like state. A few found the strength to sit up with Akane and Kazuichi’s help, and Sonia was pleasantly delighted to see all the faces that she recognized.

Most of the faces she saw looked somewhat different from how she remembered them, whether they looked just a little bit older or just weaker and more sickly. Nevertheless, they were all her treasured friends.

And they were alive.

Mikan was the first to fully rise from inside her chamber—though she immediately tripped. Thankfully, she seemed to be in adequately decent health, and her need to care for others overpowered her usual state of panic. After a quick recovery from her fall, she too joined Akane and Kazuichi as they bustled around the room. She quickly assessed those who were in the worst condition: Ibuki and Nagito. It was no surprise considering the two had suffered some of the most strenuous and drawn-out deaths in the Neo World Program. Though Sonia noticed when Mikan started panicking, it seemed Nagito himself was suffering from more than just the trauma from the program.

What exactly, Sonia wasn’t sure, but Ibuki and Nagito were quickly whisked out of the room before Sonia could catch any of the details.

The individuals that seemed to be in the healthiest condition were the ones who had suffered instant deaths: Mahiru, Nekomaru, and Teruteru fell into this group.

Slowly but surely, more and more students emerged from their chambers and began wandering around the room. All of them wore the same minimal white clothing the five survivors had awakened in as well: A simple, plain white dress for the girls and a white tank top with white shorts for the boys.

Some of the awakened students who were in better condition hugged and laughed, while others remained dazed in their chambers, likely still in a state of shock or too weak to stand. More than a few asked if this was the afterlife, but they were quickly reassured by the original survivors that this was indeed real life.

Sonia watched as Hajime, Kazuichi, and Akane carefully carried or led them all one by one out of the room and likely down the hall to the living quarters. Many would likely receive medical care or go to collect themselves and come to terms with the information flooding into their brains. Fuyuhiko left with Peko supported on his shoulder with the help of Nekomaru.

The hall slowly began to empty as more and more people continued to leave. Sonia greeted a few with heartfelt hugs, but her mind remained unsettled. Because as the room finally emptied, the one voice she listened for and the one face she searched for…

...She did not find.

“Sonia.”

The princess turned to face her companion and was met by Hajime, who was standing by the softly glowing screen at the center of the room. She could see a series of small elements displayed on the monitor, the majority of which were empty cylinder-like shapes with the letters “VCC” and a number ranging between one and fifteen.

Only one cylinder towards the bottom of the screen remained filled in darker green.

“VCC 11”.

“Gundham.” Hajime said with a slight smile as he looked over at the blonde princess. “Now that it’s quiet here, I figured…” His uniquely patterned eyes flicked towards the pod near the back. “...Maybe you would like to be the one to wake him up.”

Sonia glanced over at the boy she was proud to call her friend and gave him a soft smile. “I would like that very much.”

“I thought so.” Hajime returned her smile with a gentle blink. “I should probably warn you, though, that his condition most likely isn’t great. His punishment wasn’t the most forgiving.”

Sonia nodded. She had been aware of that possibility for a while now, but no matter his condition, she wanted to be the first one he saw when he woke up.

“I understand.” Sonia promised, and Hajime nodded before motioning his head towards the last glowing green pod and giving her a small thumbs up.

Her cold, pale fingers wrapped tighter around the magenta scarf in her arms as she slowly approached the futuristic, glass coffin-like machine.

He was waiting there for her, behind that glass. He was only a button press away.

After all this time, it was finally happening.

So why do I feel so scared?

The only sounds in the room were the ever-constant whirring of the machines and the clacking of her heels against the floor as she finally came to a stop at the side of the pod. She carefully lowered herself to her knees, her skirt folding over around her as she did.

And her eyes fixed on the shadows that formed the face of that silhouette behind the glass.

“Sonia? Are you ready?”

Sonia took a deep breath, inhaling through her nose and exhaling with a nervous sigh. She needed only to nod her head ever so slightly that it almost wasn’t even visible, and the loud buzzer echoed one last time through the hall. The sound of working machines that had always filled the room finally came to a permanent halt as the final chamber let out a loud click.

She could feel a slight release of air pressure expelled from the chamber as the mechanic lock of the glass shifted out of place so the tinted window could split and slide out of place and out of sight.

Sonia had lived nearly two and a half years of her life waiting for this moment, thinking of what she would say. Now, however, as the glass parted and the boy finally came into view, her mind was too filled with stars to remember a single word in any human language.

But it didn’t matter either way if she could remember how to speak because there were no words to describe the emotions that flooded through her as the boy’s eyes slowly fluttered open and turned to gaze directly into her own.

The two remained there for a few moments more, simply staring into each other's curious gaze.

It was a beautiful silence, like the moment of quiet after a kiss. They took that silence to drink in every tiny detail the other possessed.

Sonia marveled at how beautiful he looked with his usually styled hair instead hanging down around his face in messy, spiky strands of black and gray. The smooth locks decorated his calm countenance like a delicate fringe. The deep, pale scar that ran down his face and dipped into his deep-set, tired eyes was somewhat pink around the edges—a detail she had never noticed before. His well-toned body, which was usually hidden behind layers and layers of gaudy clothes, was instead on full display in his simple white tank top. Even that left arm of his that was always covered in copious amounts of bandages was now visible, with not a single cloth wrapping in sight.

She could see the hundreds of rough scars that crisscrossed up and down his arm as his hand trembled weakly, reaching towards her face to slowly brush her cheek with his thumb as he cupped it in his thin hand. His hazy eyes were still filled with mist as his brain fought against the fog.

“A sinner such as myself should have been hurled directly into the darkest pits of hell, and yet... it seems heaven’s most exquisite angel has been sent to wake me.”

His red and gray eyes blinked slowly as his fingers gently twisted in her hair, studying the familiar being before him, his mind still not entirely returned from the nothingness and pain he had been held captive to for so long.

“Gundham.” Sonia sniffled, tears beginning to form in her pale eyes. “I am afraid I couldn’t let you return to the underworld just yet, if that’s alright with you. After all, there is still business the Overlord of Ice must attend to here in the mortal realm.”

“Business, you say…” Gudham’s fingers paused for a moment in their curious examination of the girl kneeling beside him. His deep-set eyes took a moment longer to ponder her before they finally tore away to study the rest of the room he was in.

“What is this dank and dismal place? Is this the purgatory I am to suffer through for ages to come?” Sonia could almost see the gears turning in Gundham’s head, and he took in his surroundings.

“Remember, Gundham.” The princess whispered. “Take a moment to recall all that has transpired. You are safe now. Everything is going to be okay.”

The boy’s brow furrowed in thought as he wracked his mind. It took him a few moments to think before he finally turned back to face Sonia, his expression grim, conflicted, and then, all at once, filled with recognition as he gazed into her wide eyes.

“S—Lady Sonia. What in… I thought—” His thin lips pursed tightly together and his eyes went wide with horror. His arm weakly fell back to his side. “Don’t tell me… Not you as well…”

“No, Gundham. You are safe. We are all safe. Thanks to everyone’s courage and your bold sacrifice and noble words, we are safe.” Sonia’s smile softened, and she rested her pale hands on the boy’s warm fingers that were laying near her. She was sure to do so with the utmost gentleness. His body was surely still sore and wracked with phantom pains.

“Safe?”

“Yes, Gundham.” Sonia nodded. “We made it out. We defeated the great evil and left that cursed realm.”

The dark-haired young man lay there, staring at the ceiling above him for what felt like a countless number of moments. It seemed as if the boy who always had something to say was finally left speechless as his mind ran through all the memories currently rushing back into his brain. His face was etched with conflict and anger as he peered into the darkness above.

“T—these memories...” Gundham’s brow furrowed and his eyes clouded like a thunderstorm. “So I truly am a monster."

“What?”

The boy’s gentle heart showed on his sleeve as his mouth struggled to form the words. “If I was not destined for hell before, now I truly am.” He whispered. “All of us are.”

Sonia’s mouth hung open in shock as the boy spoke. Gundham boasted so much of his wicked deeds, how he existed as a demon ruler of the underworld, and other such tales. Yet now, as he was faced with his awful truth, his true colors showed. The horror was plain as day on his face.

He appeared as a normal, scared young man with fears and anxieties. And those anxieties were now consuming him.

This was not how Sonia had imagined their first conversation reunited would progress. She had pictured embraces and shared words of endearment, not moral dilemmas and shattered hopes. But here they were, the darkness quickly caving in around them.

“Y—you are still waking up, Gundham. Please, think reasonably.” Sonia softly begged.

“How are we safe if we ourselves are the infernal instruments we need saving from?” He muttered, ignoring the princess’ plea.

“Gundham—”

“What happens now?” The pale boy’s jaw clenched as he softly pulled away from Sonia, inhaling through his teeth in pain. “What of these awful memories? The evil still exists as long as we do.” His eyes no longer dared to face the blonde princess and flicked away in shame. His dark hair fell further in front of his face. “I made a sacrifice to save sinners and cowards. The only ending that awaits us is the most hellish torture the underworld has to deal out upon our sorry souls. Perhaps it would have been better—”

“Gundham!”

Sonia's voice was clear as snow as the words left her peachy lips and drew his gaze back to her like a moth to candlelight. Her pale eyes absorbed all the light in the dim room as he faced them. They glistened so brilliantly that it was like staring directly into the sun. They were filled to bursting with so many emotions that Gundham couldn’t quite place.

“D—do you not remember your own words?” The princess' gaze slowly fell to the floor, hiding her gorgeous eyes from Gundham’s sight almost as quickly as he had been drawn into them. “You said… You said we could not give up on l—life. You said it is pointless to live if you are just waiting to die… So…”

A few strands of her shiny, wheat-gold hair fell from their neatly held braid and into her face, further hiding it from view as her breath caught painfully in her throat. It almost felt as if she were choking on her own words as she struggled to push them past her trembling lips. “So I waited, Gundham. Because… because I realized that giving up on you meant I would give up on my own life as well. But I felt as if there was nothing I could do… even so… I told myself I would never s—stop smiling… a—and… I refused to ever c—cry.”

Gundham stared in shock as he noticed a plump, warm tear fall to the ground below, and the ever-present smile she had been wearing since the first pod opened began to tremble. The corners of her mouth twitched and quivered until they slowly melted, and the optimistic mask, the patient and gentle facade she had been hiding behind for the past two and a half years, finally crumbled.

“Forgive me. I just…” She sniffled, and her head lowered further, shielding her flushed face from his bewildered gaze. Her hands grasped around the white fabric of his sterile shirt and bunched it into her fists with a grip as strong as a diamond. Her knuckles turned white, and they trembled and shook. “I… It is just… You are here now. You are actually here.” The princess’ voice cracked with sharp breaths as she spoke. “And you are real. Not a dream. Though now that you are real, you say my waiting was fornot? I watched you die with my very own eyes, but… I spent so many sleepless nights waiting by your side, hoping for a m—miracle. Of course… one never came, and I feared I would never get to s—see you, talk with you again, or laugh with you again. And I almost…”

The princess’ head slowly lifted upwards, and her pale eyes glistened with sparkling tears; her face flushed red and streaked with wet tracks. There wasn’t the slightest hint of royal dignity in the snot running from her nose as she wept like a small child. “I a—almost gave up, Gundham. But I stayed strong for you. So please do not say you are unworthy of possessing the life your f—friends worked so hard to save. Because if you did not have a life, I would not either. I waited for you, Gundham. I didn’t give up. And now… here you are. And you j—just…” She slowly rested her forehead against his chest, burying her face in his shirt as her body continued to tremble like a leaf. “You are just so warm.”

Gundham’s eyes widened as he gawked at the princess, who was usually so composed and carefree, now a sobbing mess without the slightest care as to her appearance or reputation.

He was lost. Confused. Had his words really meant so much to her? Did his life mean so much to her?

Gundham had never been in a situation like this before. At least, he had never been in this kind of situation before and actually…

Cared.

His ice-cold heart twisted and writhed uncomfortably in his chest with each of the girl’s quiet sniffles. The quiet sniffles he was the cause of. Her tears burned like hellfire against his skin, and her sobs echoed through his skull like the agonizing wails of the damned.

No eternal punishment the great ruler of the underworld could bestow upon his sorry soul would ever compare to the torture that was the tears of this fair, tenderhearted princess as she let out heavy sobs of bittersweet sadness at his side.

This fair, tenderhearted princess that he had spent so much time with and cared deeply for—so much so, he was sure he wouldn’t know what to do with himself if she was no longer a constant in his tragic existence.

After all, she made his miserable life that much more bearable.

Maybe, she even made it all worth it.

Then Gundham’s furrowed brow softened ever so slightly as his mind finally cleared, and his frozen heart began to steadily thaw. Because suddenly, as if all at once, everything made sense.

Slowly, he raised his tired, thin hands to grasp one of the hands Sonia had clutched onto his sterile shirt. He separated it from the garment gently, carefully, as if he were handling a fragile snowflake. And he tenderly placed the back of that pale, snow-white hand to his lips.

Sonia’s heart skipped a beat in her rib cage as his soft lips brushed her smooth, and perfect ivory skin. His eyes blinked slowly, his fluffy lashes batting up and down along with them. But even as his eyelids repeatedly closed, those dark pupils never broke contact with Sonia’s own eyes. The dim light cast a great shadow along Gundham’s features, giving him a mysterious, menacing appearance, like the final villain of a medieval gothic action drama. Even though he was lying down, weak and tired, in a cold metal chamber, he looked so powerful in that dim light with her hand pressed to his lips.

And Sonia was absolutely mesmerized by him.

“I carry many doubts and regrets upon my back, Lady Sonia.” The boy muttered quietly as he moved the hand away from his thin lips, just enough so his words would be crisp and clear, but his warm breath still tickled Sonia’s hand as he spoke. “But I will never apologize for my wicked ways or the betrayal of the trust you gave me. Not even the monstrous deeds that I have committed in my past. After all, I am Gundham Tanaka, history's greatest monster. And that undeniable fact rings true now more than ever.” Slowly, weakly, the young man raised himself up on one of his tired arms, bringing himself to eye level with the princess. “I will never admit to the wrongs I have committed… But…”

His gray and red eyes met those crisp, pale ones across from him and held there as strong as a soldier. “I will for all eternity repent and beg forgiveness for the vile sin I have enacted of making you wait and causing you so much sorrow. I swear upon every demon in hell, Sonia, that I will never again consider my life worthless.”

The princess’ eyes widened as she looked at the man whom so many viewed as an outcast. She watched in stunned amazement as a single, salty tear traced down the edge of his dark lightning scar. Her lips pursed together in an attempt to hold back her own still-spilling tears, but as that small, warm trickle of water dropped from his chin and down to the cold floor, she could hold on no longer. Though she knew she should not, her arms flung around his broad shoulders, nearly knocking him down onto his back once more. And she held him there as she loudly sobbed, her face tucked into the crevice of his neck and shoulder.

Gundham’s arms hesitated around her smaller body for a brief moment, unsure of how to respond or even if he should accept such a forward act of tenderness. But as he looked down at the crying princess clutching desperately to his chest, the princess who had remained faithfully by his side for so long, his brow softened, and he finally allowed himself to sink into her comforting embrace.

The two young individuals, barely even old enough to have truly begun living their lives, lingered there in the cold silence and wept in one another’s embrace, simply feeling the other's body against their own and cherishing the honest, tangible contact they found there. The rest of the world merely melted away around them as all anxieties and concerns for tomorrow were forgotten as they just existed in each other’s arms. They had no place to be, no one else to see to, just time to relish in the company of the one they had been yearning for.

They did not even care to part as Sonia whispered softly in the boy’s ear. “Gundham, I was so lonely.”

The dark-haired boy smiled in return, allowing his eyes to gently close in the safety of her embrace. “There is no need for that now, Dark Lady. I will ensure you are never lonely again.”

There was a moment of hesitation before the princess responded, and she slowly moved to emerge from their embrace. “I—I have something I need to tell you, Gundham.”

It was hard for him to pull away. He wanted to remain there in her loving arms forever, but as she gently began to peel away from him, he had no choice. So instead, he chose to gaze into those beautiful, pale eyes of hers as she spoke.

“I’ve done a great deal of thinking while waiting for you to awaken.” The princess spoke clearly and warmly to the young man before her, but her voice was also hushed and reserved. “I realized I had so much I wanted to tell you that I never got the chance to before. I was too scared to, or figured I could just wait for some kind of ‘perfect moment’. But…” She took a deep breath. “Then you left, and I thought I would never again have the opportunity to tell you. I thought I had just let you die without ever getting to know how I truly felt. But now that I have you back…”

The princess’ crystal eyes gleamed like the light of the sun reflecting off freshly fallen snow. She had been waiting two and a half years for this moment, and she wouldn’t let it slip by now. Not this time.

“There is something of utmost importance that I must enlighten you to.”

Sonia grabbed the magenta scarf off the ground and carefully rose from where she was kneeling by the pod. Her dress fluttered around her, disturbed by the musty air of the large room. She quickly whipped the snot and tears from her face, attempting to gather up her remaining royal dignity as she stood. And as she rose to her full height, the princess pointed a bladed hand down towards the boy laying in the cold chamber; the other one rested in a fist on her hip. The scarf remained clutched in her grasp.

“I, Princess Sonia Nevermind of the great Kingdom of Novoselic, ask that you, Sir Gundham Tanaka of the Dark Realm and feared Overlord of Ice, hear my decree and acknowledge the fact that I, Princess Sonia, am deeply in love with you and wish to spend the rest of my life at your capable side!”

The boy and the girl stared at one another in the silence that followed, both their faces slowly turning various shades of red. But Sonia did not falter. She proudly held her ground as she waited with bated breath for the wide-eyed boy to make his reply.

Gundham sat there for a moment in shock, his mouth opening and closing like a confused goldfish. Love? She loved him?

This fair, beloved, bewitching beyond all words princess was in love with someone like him? Someone who feared human contact above all else and detached himself from the rest of the world with complicated words and a haunting appearance? They were so different, it didn’t even seem to make—”

But her unique way of speaking, indomitable personality, her love of the strange and unusual…

They weren’t all that different really.

After all, they had spent so much time together. He never felt alone when she was near. And she never pulled away from his touch.

In fact…

Gundham thought back to the moment he had first awoken: That angel above him that he had reached for…

He had reached for her.

He had hugged her.

He had kissed her hand.

He had willingly reached out to touch her three times now.

And he had thought nothing of it.

Gundham’s brain was flooded with questions and responses. All were filled with words of power or magic terms, but nothing he could think of saying seemed to be a competent or worthy response to her beautifully eloquent words. Not a single word in his wide vocabulary would ever seem appropriate at this moment. His mind was just incapable of producing even one response.

So instead, he allowed his heart to make the choice for him. And it chose eleven simple letters.

“I love you too.”

Those four words echoed through the room as if he had screamed them into a great canyon. They covered the two young adults and wrapped them in their sweet sounds as Sonia once again collapsed to her knees, her tears breaking through the floodgates for the second time that day. Only this time, the smile that followed them was genuine and filled to bursting with undeniable bliss.

Perfect happiness.

Gundham didn’t wait a second more to press the tips of his fingers to her cheeks and carefully draw her in.

Foreheads touched and the two blinked softly at one another before their lips slowly closed the remaining expanse between them.

The kiss was messy and chaotic, but neither cared because it was wholeheartedly and undeniably “them”. Together, they were chaotic and anarchic. Bold and carefree. Abnormal and unwavering. Mad and vexatious.

A king of evil and his dark queen. And together they could face any enemy sent their way. Even grief and despair.

In typical fairy tales, it is common knowledge that when a fair, beautiful princess is placed under a curse from a wicked villain, a ravishing prince or a knight in shining armor comes to rescue her and save her from the villain’s spell. Then the princess and the hero fall in love and live happily ever after.

But Sonia wasn’t a typical princess, and she definitely didn’t have a typical story.

Because this princess didn’t want a ravishing, brave prince or a gallant knight in shining armor to save her from the wicked, cunning villain. No, Sonia was much happier staying by the side of the dark, brooding sorcerer that had stolen her away with his magic words and villainous love. And there she would be happy to forever stay trapped under his wicked spell.

Together with her Overlord of Ice, happily ever after.