Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had only been a week since the games had ended, and Yanagi still couldn’t get over what happened. It should’ve hurt this much, he had only known them for a few days at best before the killings had started, and yet, they kept appearing in his mind like a nasty scar he could never be rid of. The faces of all the bodies that were in the freezer still haunt him, and sleeping is the worst part of the day.

Every time he’d close his eyes, he’d see her. Hayashi. Oh, Hayashi. He always wonders how different things could’ve ended up for them if they just had a little more time, a few days, hours, minutes, seconds. He wishes that she’d still be here, watching him perform like she used to back at the school. He doesn’t understand why she had to be the one to go, he’d gladly take her place if it meant she would be able to live on, with or without him. The world needs more good

The TV had been left on all night, the sound coming from it becoming nothing more than background noise for Yanagi, who had fallen asleep on the couch. He had just gone to the hospital a day ago to get his hand checked out by professionals, and as it turns out, the stab wound had gotten infected, most likely due to him always peeling off the bandages and never putting on new ones. Regardless, they had told him to take at least a few days away from anything that might require a lot of force, including Ice skating, which he was more than willing to do.

With that in mind, Yanagi has settled on doing nothing but rotting on a couch for the past few days. He was too tired to do anything and it all just felt too overwhelming. He was woken up a few hours ago due to the loud noise of a news channel's song. God, why did they always have to be so loud for no reason? He buried his head into the pillows and reached for the remote to change the channel.

”...Wada Masanari passed away due to suspected malnutrition..”

Yanagi stuck his head out to see the screen, a picture of Wada was on screen for all to see. Another friend lost, and just like all the countless times before, he couldn’t do anything to prevent it from happening. He expected sadness, anger, or maybe a few tears to make their way through, but nothing. He just felt tired of everything, tired of all the deaths that are happening around him, tired of waking up every single day with no motivation to do anything, tired of living entirely.

He just wants to go home already.

The sky looked unusually beautiful tonight.

The stars were more prominent than before, not that he could ever see them with how brightly the streets of … are at night. It’s one of the things he had never understood about Japan, how could people stay up all night partying and going out when they could be spending it all in the safety of their homes, with no one to bother them. The lights were always too bright, brighter than before. But now? They just looked like little dots.

The wind was blowing, causing his flowy shirt and soft hair to sway to the side. Yanagi was looking down at the streets for one last time, seeing the bright lights, the people who were walking around, those who would be soon witnessing the aftermath of his lonely life. He saw people going out with friends, couples, and elders, he was envious.

He should be able to go out at night with his friends, he should be able to go on dates with Hayashi, HE should be able to grow old with her.

But he can’t, and that’s okay. He’s going to fix that.

He takes a low, shaky breath, his trembling hands holding onto the railing like a life line. The wind picks up and a sudden burst of courage soars within him, and he hops onto the railing. He stands there for what feels like hours, and when the people from below start to take notice of what was going on the screaming begins. He can’t hear them from where he is.

He looks down for one last time, takes a deep breath, jumps, and it all goes black.

The concept of religion has always been foreign to Yanagi, having heard multiple stories from people all around him. Some of them talk about an all knowing God who watches over us and decides whether we deserve a paradise or a place to repeatedly repent for their sins. Others talk about reincarnation or rebirth, becoming an animal and living peacefully until you die and go back again as something else, like a dove or a swan or maybe even an arctic fox.

But none of these are things he sees when he opens his eyes.

Instead of being in front of pearly white gates up on clouds, instead of being reborn as a mystical creature, instead of becoming just another star in the sky, instead of being able to move on like he was supposed to, he awoke in one of the all to familiar rooms of the killing game.

A dimly lit dorm room.

The first thing he wants to do is scream, scream and scream and pray that this is all just a nightmare, that this isn’t real. That he’s not back. But after countless attempts of closing his eyes and opening them, pulling on his hair and kicking the ground, it becomes clear that this is real and everything that he sees is real, not a dream, and not his mind playing tricks.

It’s real, and he’s back in the games.

The first thing he does after calming himself down is finding the exit, which was a fairly easy task, seeing as the rooms looked smaller than the ones back at the school. He took note of how his work station and clothes were all still the same as before, even his reward from the first game was laying on his desk, untouched and polished.

He closes the door behind him and starts walking around, but the more he walks around, the more he realizes how different the structure was from before. None of the floors were unlocked, an elevator, and he couldn’t seem to find the auditorium room, which was one of the only places he actually took the time to memorize since they were forced to go there almost every day to play games.

He shivered just thinking about them.

The only room that was actually in the same place as he recalled was the kitchen and dining hall, which had five more seats that were added from the sixteen that were there before. The whole place was weird, but miscounting the number of students here seemed to be one of the weirdest parts of this whole thing, it’s the only thing that tells him that it truly is different than before, because the people in charge would have never miscounted. They certainly never did before.

He walked past the dining hall and into the familiar space of the kitchen, it looked almost exactly the same, except for the four people that were talking in the corner of the room.

He didn’t want to intrude, especially when he himself had no idea what was going on and how this was happening, he turned around back around, preparing to leave the kitchen when a voice stopped him dead in his tracks.

“Yanagi..?”

“Tamba?” He swiftly turned around, the only people he saw were the four in the corner. Squinting his eyes, he then saw that it was actually the other survivors.

Tamba was pointing at him, tears threatening to spill over as she covered her mouth in shock. Ojima and Hiroaki were beside her, holding hands and looking at him with equally shocked expressions. Then his eyes landed on Wada.

Wada was supposed to be dead, he saw it on the news, he shouldn’t be here right now, but he was here, sitting on the floor thinking of who knows what. He looked smaller than when Yanagi last saw him, still dressed in the same baggy clothes and haircut that Hiroaki had made specifically for him, but you could still tell that he wasn’t doing well with how sullen his cheeks were and his tired eyes.

Yanagi took hard, heavy, steps toward them, each one holding more weight than the other. Tamba opened her arms wide, granting him permission for a long awaited hug, and his pace quickened into a run. He leapt forward and crashed into her arms, resulting in her losing her balance and making them both fall onto the floor.

She buried her head in his shoulder and began to sob, real, messy crocodile tears. Hiroaki was the second one to crack, as he let go of Ojima’s hand and joined them on the floor, an arm wrapped around Yanagi’s neck as he cried onto his back. This was followed by Ojima, who had been the most composed a few seconds ago, dropped to his knees and also started to cry beside Tamba, leaning into her, (It was more of a sound crying instead of actual tears)

Wada, who was still sitting in front of them, watching the scene with the most disinterested and voided expression, let out the softest sniffle, who if you were anyone else you probably wouldn’t even be able to notice the sound, but they did. They always noticed. Wada slowly, and hesitantly, scooted over to Hiroaki and leaned over till his head rested on his back.

None of them had to say a single word to anyone, they already knew that they missed each other anyway.

A few minutes after they had their reunion and got off the disgustingly dirty floor they all made their way to the dining room to try and figure out what in the world was actually going on, since none of them had any clue on where they were or why.

The conversation was almost as awkward as the first meeting back in the games, none of them knew where to start. Wada was fiddling with the hem of his sleeves, Tamba was nervously glancing around, Ojima was.. Well he was probably out of it, Hiroaki simply didn’t want to say anything, and Yanagi was looking at his shoes under the table.

The awkward silence was then broken by Tamba, who spoke in a hesitant and hushed tone. “So.. anyone got any ideas on where we are, or…?”

The only response she got were three short ‘no’s and a head shake from Wada. She deflated in her seat and looked up at the ceiling.

“Well we’re doomed.”

“..We could try calling for Monomoko.. If they’re here too…” Wada spoke up, for probably the first time, looking around the table to get a look of their reactions.

Hiroaki was staring at him like he had just personally insulted his best piece of clothing, Ojima.. Well he wasn’t paying attention to anything, and Yanagi and Tamba shared the same worried expression.

“I…” Yanagi took a second to speak, hand stroking his chin. “don’t see why not..” This suggestion was promptly cut off by a loud groan. Hiroaki threw his head back and raised his hands, like he was reaching for a sign.

“Don’t see- That thing nearly killed us like fifteen bajillion times now! Why would it help us now?”

“Yeah, this is a really risky move guys.” Tamba chimed in. “We aren’t even sure if it’s here or not.”

“That’s why we have to do it, we need to try everything rather than sit here and try nothing.” Yanagi retorted, his tone becoming more agitated than ever. He’s forgotten how annoying those two could be in conversation.

Hiroaki snorted. “You sound like Sasaki right now.”

“...”

Sensing the tension in the room, Wada attempted to speak up again, frantically waving his hands around and trying to smile like everything was all right.

“Okay, let’s not argue about this guys. W-we could probably just figure out a different plan and-”

“Ugh, no! Let’s just do yours wada, it might be worth a shot anyway.”

Hiroaki, ever the optimist, shot back. “And I'm telling you it’s not!”

“Hiroaki, if you’re so against it why don’t you tell us any of your ideas!”

“Why don’t we just look around like normal people instead of relying on some inter dimensional creature that wants to KILL us!”

“I-..” Yanagi was taken aback by this suggestion, partly because it made sense, and partly because it came from Hiroaki of all people.

Tamba crossed her arms and looked away, unwilling to look at anyone, Wada, on the other hand, had given up on trying to deescalate the situation and was once again fiddling around with his sleeves.

Knowing this was a battle he couldn’t fight, Yanagi sighed reluctantly, his tone going soft. “Hiroaki, we’ll do your idea after we try and talk to the rabbit. Deal?”

“Deal.”

“Then it’s settled!” Tamba jumped up from her seat with a wide, determined grin on her face. “I’ll call the rabbit, and if it doesn’t come we go around and try to find an exit!” She was practically glowing as she talked, Hiroaki stared dumbfounded at her complete 180 personality switch up and Wada snorted.

“Well what are you waiting for? Do it already.”

“That’s what I'm about to do! Sheesh! Learn to relax!”

“I am completely relaxed right now!

“Sure you are.”

“Just call for it already!”

“I will, I will, just wait a minute!”

She took a deep breath before yelling out, “Monomoko!”

Chapter Text

It had just occurred to me that I need to do the motives and body discoveries and trials and stuff, so I just want everyone to know these things before I start posting chaoters more often

The motives will be kept the same as Tetro blue (I will be changing the cuff motive for it to be one trio while the rest are duos, if you want to give me some ideas feel free to go ahead, if not i’ll just use a wheel to decide)

There have been changes to the building layout so i’ll try and see if I could upload a picture at the end of the next chapter

There is no real main character in this story, but because I do have favorite characters and am kind of biased, sometimes a certain chapter will be more about a certain character. I will try not to do that often, but there is no promises :3

That’s all I had to say, talk soon <3