adsum | npc contact.1

[ He laughs, and kisses the top of Rika's head. ]

I'm not giving you any hints.

[ It gets to be a surprise! ]

[ He stares at the blank page for a moment, then looks up at the board and tries to memorize an equation before looking back down.

What does he do? Nothing as grand as """helping hope""" ]

I am collecting
7. Are you happy?

[ There is no surprise on her face— she grimaces, yes, eyebrows knitting together when Komaeda's words and implications sink in, but she does not seem horrified in the way one would when listening to a delusional man glorify murder. It's sadness, it's quiet acceptance, it's patience as she lets Komaeda talk while keeping her full attention on him. ]

...So you took the initiative. Why tell me now?

( oh!! she is so sweet! amami's gonna crouch down to pet her, which will include actual petting for sure, but also include holding her so that she can't run off while he does so. with a glance to rika — )

Kawai-san, you can go ahead. I'll catch up.

( and then he'll gesture over to komaeda. come get your daughter... )

I cannot share reasons I do not know, only observations of what I have seen.

[ But the guess is probably a correct one, or at least he can neither corroborate nor contest it. ]

This place... You may keep trying as you wish. There is freedom in that regard.

Yes.

[ She does not explain further. Eat your veggies, Komaeda. ]

Took the initiative? I did no such thing, it was her death that was the start... She was the beginning piece, whereas scum like me... is nothing.

( which is true, he doesn't think of himself as the important piece. rather, he's only here to enable a few things because everyone else is afraid of doing so. he his hands rest in his lap, smiling gently as he watches her, and he thinks about why is he telling anything right now. he's here because... he turns his head to look at saihara, analyzing him like he's trying to figure out what the perfect response would be.

he could say a lot of things, but he decides not to, and instead he places his focus on the vice principal. )

You counted on a bunch of mere students to figure it out... to reward them with a set amount of points, even the culprit rewarded.

( he says this like a fact, but let's be real, he would know considering he's the one who played a hand in this. )

There was no hope in that at all... instead, it was in that young girl's sacrifice that allowed them to achieve greater heights.

( Some freedom.

...but does that mean that the dead can come back? Keep trying until you graduate, until your soul is unbound... Nao's corpse-like existence back in the case, and yet she's alive and -

he will not say she's well! But She Is Alive. Sometimes that's all you can be. )

And YOU, Kazuki-san? How long have you been HERE?

I have been here a very long time. Decades. Centuries. So long, I have lost count of the years.

[ He's a gardener, unbound by school years and unconcerned about the passage of time. He takes a step back, tilting his head up to look at the canopy of wisteria reaching for the sky. ]

I have been here as long as it has. We are old friends.

( natsume looks at the wisteria too, and he can believe it. how large it is, how tall. )

Has the school been here that long as WELL? Which came FIRST, and... ( the freedom to try again, until... ) ...do you recognize any faces among the stuDENTS, or is that something you don't concern yourself WITH?

The building has changed much over the years.

[ But it existed, in some capacity: a building, its students, a gardener, his tree. ]

Faces are fleeting... I have seen too many to count. Most do not engage with me, and I them.

( NO... SHE'S BABY... BUT SHE CANNOT HAVE THE RAT!!!! )

Wilbur Jr. is not food, 'kay? We'll find you better snacks!! ( she promises, when lily may mews up at her, dashing down the hallway as soon as amami comes to pet her.

lily shouldn't be eating diseased rats anyway? 'this rat was just born' rats are born diseased

anyway.

she goes on ahead and runs into the home ec room, searching for milk. once she finds it, she carefully pours it into a pot and starts to warm it up, just a little bit. it's okay lil rat... daddy #3 will be here with the dropper soon... where tf is daddy #2 to boil the water though??? )

( how dare he be cute while saying this?? she huffs, her cheek pressed tight against his chest, still clinging to him like a particularly needy koala. )

Whaaat? That's not faaaaair! ( she told him?? ) Anyway, it better not be anything that makes my corpse ugly!! I want people to see me dead and mourn the fact someone as cute as me died so young.

Given how few people either can see spirits or decide to stay at school past SIX, I can't say I'm surPRISED...

( ...though, that begs the question— )

Have there been cases like I and a handful of my acquaintances - people who do not or cannot leave the school GROUNDS? Provided you remember seeing any wandering figures by the windows past closing prior to this YEAR.

[ The culprit was rewarded...? What does that mean? Well, Saihara has enough of a brain cell to speculate at least, even on short notice like this, but that's news to him. Not that he can ask Komaeda for more details while in the Vice Principal's office, but... he'll let the surprise show on his face, if only for a minute.

After all, the less it looks like he knows, the better in this situation. It's supposed to be Komaeda confessing and not Saihara turning him in. ]

...Whether there was any hope in it or not... he's right. I don't know if that was by your initiative or not, but the school did offer 300 merit points for discovering that specific culprit. Why... is that? Did something make that murder special?

[ There were other killings, and it never happened for those. ]

( Quietly places this sometime like theeee 23rd or 24th maybe, just whenever she's in the music room—

because he'll be hanging by the door to listen to her, quiet as she plays. He isn't nervous to talk to her, he doesn't get nervous — but he gets it. Gets her hesitance to talk to Nao, even if "(probably) being party to the murder of your friend" and "(definitely) accidentally crossing a line" are two very different crimes. Give me a Deemo song Ori I know you want to...

He'll lightly clap when she's done anyway, a heartbeat between she finishes and before he starts. )

Your playing makes me reconsider my opinion on piano muSIC, Little Wolf. ( Sweet words, but it's nice to see her in her natural habitat rather than ... harassing her where she has to put on a mask, maybe. ) Have you considered what you're doing after graduaTION?

[ Today is the 23rd and Natsume gets to listen to Maya play an uncharacteristically lighthearted piece as opposed to the angry Entrance she was playing when Shuichi walked in on her.

There's still a frown when she hears Natsume's voice and sees his face, but it's after a beat, as if taking that moment to pull herself away from a daydream and root herself back in reality. Ugh, reality. ]

...Of course. It has nothing to do with you, though. What do you want?

[ Since they're both like this, she just shoves small talk out of the way, what Transaction is he seeking today ]

( he can't even act like he's hurt, he knows how they both are and he knows how most of the conversations have gone, but that isn't the point of today's. )

Just YOU.

( he takes a few steps in, but there's still a good distance, and he's still between her and the door. not that that would stop her, he knows. )

Care to join me for something LIGHT? I've found myself with a surplus of food while I was perfecting making boxed lunch for some friends of MINE.

( ... )

You can take some of it to share with Hiro-kun if you'd preFER. And before you ask why I can't just share it with those friends of MINE, they're supposed to be a surPRISE, and I don't want to ruin IT.

Yes, of course.

[ It's a statement tinged with confusion, as if Natsume is asking him if he's ever seen the moon or the stars before. ]

I would not know their reasons, but students remaining inside the school is not a rare occurrence.

[ It's initiative because the president didn't just fall dead on her own accord?? Or if she did, there's no reason for Komaeda and Shuichi to be here bringing up that death again. ]

...Hers was the first, and she was the president.

[ From the very start, she stood out, and was special. Even so, there was no apparent effort from the school side to investigate anything, no policemen, no student interviews, just a reward for the culprit, awarded long before anybody admitted to their crimes. ]

[ She glances past him at the wall on the clock, counting the hours before she and Hiro would get home and sit down for dinner, and it's enough hours that she can't plausibly excuse herself for not wanting to spoil dinner. ]

Some of your friends could stand to eat more.

[ She's thinking mostly Komaeda and Kokichi but are they Natsume's friends? Does Natsume have friends?? She refuses to pay enough attention to him to know. She doesn't even care to join him, would rather sit here and play the piano, but there's only so long she can let her mind wander while waiting for her brother to finish his sessions so they can get out of here, and as annoying as Natsume can be, he's at least something else to focus on. So despite knowing better!!! she closes the lid to the piano and slides off the piano bench. ]

Next time, only use however much ingredients as you need, to avoid a surplus.

( and how long has that been them... well, it doesn't super matter right now. )

Kudo-chan - a friend of mine - seemed quite surprised to learn I'd been staying oVER, though she was under the impression it was at the dormitoRIES, rather than the school itSELF. ( hence why he asked, that's all. ) How many of them have you given seeds to beFORE?

( oh, she agreed - he seems surprised for a moment, but it's pleasant and... he had been hoping she would, considering his preemptive defense against any rebuttals. he'll offer her his arm of course, he's a gentleman after all!! )

Yes, mommy dearEST. ( haha, ) And for the reCORD, none of my friends could stand to do THAT. All of them are able to take care of themselVES... Whoever you're thinking I keep the company of isn't who I enjoy spending time with, I'm SURE.

( whether she takes his arm or not they're gonna go downstairs to... the auditorium, where he already has a little lunch set up on the wine-red blanket nene made for him. it has stars and stuff on it in purple and gold i think it was? i'm mobile bound don't make me check. it's like a little picnic... rice balls, roasted vegetables, fried shrim, karaage maybe, things like that. no hope meat though.

but

it's like

he lied to get her to come have lunch with him which is 100% the truth not sorry. there are multiple boxes since he liberally decided to reuse the ones nanami used for the bentos She made him so there's plenty to eat :) )

[ Chiaki somewhere in the distance going !!! at somebody calling her a friend ]

This doesn't seem to be a place people would stay by choice. [ You gotta take tests and stuff. It doesn't seem like a place he wants to be for very long either, at least not inside. ]

Do you have interest in gardening, lad?

Yes, I DO. I'm part of the gardening club here, in FACT... I was delighted to see we were given an equal share of herbs and flower SEEDS, not to mention some exTRAS, since I mainly deal with those at HOME.

( gonna make nene some sick-ass perfume one day )

The little lamb mentioned you gave her some SEEDS, so that's why I thought to ASK... Foxglove and pheasant's eye are interesting CHOICES.

npc contact.1

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