IC Contact/Voicemail

[ardent]

[VOICE/TEXT/VIDEO; OPEN TO ALL]

"You've reached Kiyotaka Ishimaru; I seem to have missed you! My sincerest apologies for that - but if you leave your name and state your business, firmly and concisely, I'll return your contact as soon as I can!

Until then, I look forward to speaking to you; do what you can to make your day pleasant and productive, and be sure to keep your head up!"

[Please state in the subject line if OOC planning is preferred and we can handwave like the wind, but otherwise IC will be assumed!]

Comments

[ardent]

[Ishimaru pauses for a moment, though he doesn't seem unwilling to discuss it; it's been nearly a year and he's still not entirely used to people actually coming to him to discuss things. He'd offer sometimes, before Hope's Peak, if people were having difficulties, but it's different being approached, somehow.]

Of course not - you can tell me anything, Naegi-kun.

[superordinary]

[ Naegi stands up and paces along the bed as he talks; he doesn't seem restless or anything, he just wants to actually move his body because his muscles feel stiff. ]

We had to solve the school's mysteries or we'd all get executed. It's one thing to hear it from a classmate here in Johto, but finding out the truth during the trial was...horrible, and Enoshima definitely enjoyed rubbing it in.

[ ... ]

S-She showed us a movie. People wearing Monobear masks were rioting in the streets, and there was a Monobear head on the Eiffel Tower.

[ardent]

...Worldwide destruction - Kirigiri-kun told me something about that. That that's...why we shut ourselves in the school, because Super High School Level Despair had done something to the outside world.

It's entirely true, then...? Nothing she could have made up?

[superordinary]

We asked Genocider about the state of the world outside the school and she confirmed that the footage was of the incident. Since she doesn't share memories with Fukawa-san, she remembers what happened.

[ardent]

...I see...

[Ugh...]

What else happened? If you don't mind.

[superordinary]

Um, Enoshima started talking about the only reason our class survived the incident was so we would participate in the mutual killing.

[ He's fairly sure Ishimaru knows this already, but he decides to talk about it anyway. ]

She told us there are still pockets of resistance left in the world, and that's why she hijacked the TV signal. She wanted to show the world how we, the symbols of hope, killed each other... She used us.

[ardent]

[Ishimaru can feel himself tensing up as Naegi continues talking; no, he didn't know this, what...]

W-What are you talking about...? The TV signal...?

[No. No, no, he's misunderstanding this. He has to be misunderstanding this.]

[superordinary]

[ Gently caress, did nobody explain this? Naegi stops pacing, his hands tightening at his sides as he looks at Ishimaru. ]

...The entire killing game was aired live on national television.

[ardent]

[...oh, god...

While he may have very loudly had some sort of fit at that a few months ago, Ishimaru just goes completely silent; his body is still strangely rigid, and it takes him perhaps a bit too long to find words.]

...Then everyone saw you defeat her, too. It didn't...it didn't work, it's...she used us, but...

[He shakes his head a bit; words aren't going to happen right now, though he does gesture a bit, the motion fluttery and vague. Keep going, if you want to.]

[superordinary]

Do you remember when Hagakure-kun said he heard sounds coming from outside?

[ If he recalls correctly, it was shortly before Monobear handed out the second motive. He pauses for a second, wondering if he should keep talking, before continuing. ]

People who watched the broadcast tried to help us, but they were gunned down. That's...what Hagakure-kun heard.

[ardent]

...I remember, yes. We thought it was...construction of some sort, I think...

[This is difficult as hell to listen to, but it's...well, it explains things, at least, so he doesn't exactly regret it.]

[superordinary]

Anyway, I got really angry at her after a while. I just...couldn't accept what she said at all. I mean, she just kept going on and on and I hadn't seen the state of the world for myself. I mean, she could be lying... And even if she was telling the truth...there's no way I'd submit to someone like her.

[ He shakes his head a little and sits back down on the bed. ]

The voting was a little different this time. We had to choose between "Hope" - punishing Enoshima and being forced to leave the school, or "Despair" - punishing me and staying in the school for the rest of our lives.

[ardent]

[And that seems to hit him strangely. Not as roughly as the information about the broadcast, but he still doesn't like it.]

...From the way Kirigiri-kun made it sound, there was a good chance that you would be killed somehow if you left the school.

[superordinary]

That's what Enoshima told us. She said we wouldn't last more than a few seconds out there.

[ardent]

[...]

It's...fortunate, then, that I wasn't with you.

[superordinary]

W-What are you saying? Why?

[ardent]

...You would have still won with the majority vote, but I don't know how I would have voted if given that choice.

[superordinary]

The vote had to be unanimous this time. If a single person had voted for despair... [ He visibly shudders at the thought. ]

[ardent]

[...Shit.]

...I see.

[superordinary]

[ Naegi just looks at him, as though he wants to ask him if he really would have screwed over the final vote. But he ultimately decides not to. ]

Enoshima came close to winning, I think... I could see the look of despair on everyone's faces.

[ardent]

[Ishimaru doesn't miss that look; for once, he's content to willfully ignore it.]

But obviously they didn't vote against you...?

[superordinary]

I had to remind the others not to lose hope. Even if things are looking grim, even if the outside world is polluted with despair... As long as we have hope, we won't lose.

[ That would have been kind of poetic and cool if he had stopped talking right there. ]

...I ended up shouting at them a lot.

[ardent]

[...Naegi, if you were talking to anyone else that might have been anticlimactic. However, this is Ishimaru, so...]

Good for you - I've been telling you lately that you need to stand up for yourself like that, because you're able to do it when it matters! I know you're capable of it, and I'm glad that you could do it then!

[superordinary]

Like I said, there's no way I would yield to her. Not...Not after she killed my friends and putting all of us through hell.

[ardent]

...I know. And you did really well.

[...]

I guess she executed herself after the vote didn't work out in her favor...?