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[Happerry]

Misa shifts with discomfort at how this conversation is going. "Everyone here is here because we want to help, yes? We shouldn't pick unneeded fights with each other."

[IamanElfCollaborator]

Sakurajima Team
Akihiko just stares at Mori.
"..."
"Too many damn people here care too much about appearances."

He sighs and crouches next to Mori.
"That right there, that's why. You're obsessed with keeping appearances. You wanna set yourself up as a puppetmaster who can control everyone you want, whenever you want. You have this idea I'm some kinda hero fighting a corrupt system. You wish everything I said was true. You lie to yourself enough, you start believing it. You start thinking your lie's reality. That's the difference between you and me; you look for secrets, I look for the truth. Those two aren't the same thing."
"I'm going to be blunt. You're not a puppetmaster. I'm not a hero. You're a kid, in charge of the Theatre Club. I'm a kid who picked the wrong fight and paid for it. You're not some irredeemable, dark, manipulative villain. You're a kid who said something dumb. Congratulations. We all say some dumb things, some more than others. Great. Apologise. If you're sincere, people can tell you are. And I don't think you're lying about thinking you hurt them or wanting to make it up to them. Give it time, of course. You bailed me out after Sasanuma, you had my back in battle. I wouldn't believe it either."
"I won't claim to know what your Kaijin did. Mine reminded me what was important. I knew myself. Ibaraki knew that. I don't know jack about how Inner Demons work; that's why you had to figure out if Kazami-senpai was Gawain. But I do know this; when you're backed against the wall, you can either cower down and wait for the blows to land on you, or you can raise your fists. Your actions don't reflect what you say, Sawatari. If you were the villain you thought you were, you wouldn't be crying because you said the wrong thing. Maybe that's what he's doing; he's goading you, trying to get you to flinch first, testing you. You can raise your fists and prove he's wrong and fight every inch of that until he backs down. That's what I'd do. You chase your target until the dogged end."
"Or you can ignore what I said, continue thinking you're the villain and act like you've got nothing you can do to stop him. Your call. I'm not your keeper."
Tadano/Miyazono Team
"You too, Demura? It's a turn of phrase. Besides, what could I possibly want? Your friend here is right. We're all here to help."
"What did you mean about Sakurajima?"
"Ah, well. I heard some....rumours. Rumours our friends here might be interested in."
"Eh? Rumours?"

[Unlurking Sentinel]

Masaru now thought he understood what Honda meant by "sleazy" in reference to this man. Sugiura had touched a nerve that had developed into an ideology.


"I fail to see the relevance, but regardless, we must decline. We wouldn't want to work off of false or imperfect information, and the transfer of rumours is never lossless."


"And at the same time, assuming your information is fully accurate, it is unbecoming to breech a fellow student's privacy. If information is not publicly known, it is best practices to assume it is so for a reason."


"If all you have is rumours, then I suggest you bring them to Sakurajima before anyone else. Both to confirm their veracity, and to secure permission to share them. Lest you sow further chaos into the student body."

[SeriousConcentrate]

Mildred had taken Demura shrugging her off with surprisingly good grace, seeming more bemused by the first-year than anything.

"The kid's right. We got no reason to believe anything you say is the truth, especially when you can't even claim it as anything other than a rumor."

[IamanElfCollaborator]

Sugiura lifts an eyebrow.
"What about a newspaper article?"

He slaps down a newspaper on the table, turned to a page near the front, but not a headline. The Kaname Enquirer, not as reputable as a national paper but reputable enough, especially after the Mishima takeover.

The newspaper article he's pointed to mentions Youth Pianist Collapses On Stage: Rushed to Hospital.
"Before you ask, I was gonna ask about that. You know people are gonna come after Miyazono here."

[Unlurking Sentinel]

"Let me see that." Masaru snatched the newspaper and swiftly absorbed the article's contents. The headline seemed immediately irrelevant to the current situation; was there something else?

[IamanElfCollaborator]

The article explains that, while on stage for the Eastern Japan Duet Tournament, Kanna fainted on stage and was rushed to hospital. Otoya went there with her, and neither the Sakurajima family nor Otoya's families were available for comment afterwards.

[Unlurking Sentinel]

Masaru laid the paper back onto the table.


"Well, it appears you are either mistaken, or are a careless reader. If you meant to bring this to the Helper's Club, they and I are pursuing a situation relevant to not Sakurajima, but Tadano Riku, secretary of the Student Council, who Miyazono is well-acquainted with. If you meant to bring this to Miyazono, there is nothing in here that he would not already know, on account of having been there."


"Do you have any other factual and public contributions?"

[SeriousConcentrate]

Mildred blinked.

"Wow. You didn't even read it beforehand?"

"Pfff! Go on, get outta here."

She made a 'shoo' motion with the back of her hand at Sugiura.

[IamanElfCollaborator]

"Jeez, you two are blind. You got any idea how badly people are gonna want information about this? How badly they'll mob him? And you call yourselves the Helper's Club. Come on. Miyazono, help me out here."
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Look. You know how brutal the rumour mill around here is. I know how badly they wrecked Kasuga. Friend of yours, right? I could help you. Spread the word that it wasn't serious. Not even asking for anything in return."
"What help are you even offering?"

[SeriousConcentrate]

"Yeah, I know all about that. I also know we have a fixer for that kind of thing. Sawatari's kind of scummy too but he's at least capable of doing the right thing, and I don't believe for a second you don't want anything. Not right now, maybe, but in a few days it'll be 'remember when...?'"

Wish Kasuga was here. I know he'd get the exact same vibe I'm getting, he'd just know how to be more diplomatic about it. I just want to break this smug asshole's nose.

[Smoke Mirrors]

"F-f-f-fight back?" Mori asked with an exaggerated fake stutter, before his voice took on a more venomous tone, "Golly gee, why didn't I think of that?"

The air around him shifted again, this time it was buzzing, venomous, hostile.


"Fuck, why did I think you'd be any help with this?" He scoffed, "I've tried to fight back against Fantomas. On my third night of nightmares, I went to bed with the plan to remind him that, at least for now, I was in charge. When I saw him there, standing over me, watching me like some roman emperor watching a gladiator fight for his life, I tried to yell at him, to scream that he couldn't control me."


"The moment I opened my mouth, I was underwater. Saltwater flowed into my mouth, filling my lungs, as shadowy black hands dragged me down. I could see... something, some kind of light above my head, and I knew that whatever that was, that was my way out. If I could just get up there, then I would win. Then he would have to stop. If I got up to that light, he couldn't control me anymore. So I forced those black hands off me, and I swam. My lungs were burning, my vision was fading, all I could focus on was that light. I had to get there. Then I could breathe. Then I could see, Then I could think. Everything could wait until I was there. I just swam, even though my vision was completely blacked out. I swam until I couldn't anymore. Then finally, when I was too tired to so much as move, my hand hit something. My vision finally cleared, and I realized I was starring down, deep into an ocean trench. I turned my head, just barely craning my neck enough to see what was behind me, and I saw the light, so much dimmer and farther than before. The whole time, I'd been swimming away from it, deeper and deeper into the trench. I tried, desperately, to turn around, to push myself back towards the light, but I was just so exhausted. My body wouldn't move. Then the hands came back, and this time I didn't have the energy to fight them off."

Mori's tone throughout the whole speech was a mix of annoyance and exhaustion, as if this was something he'd gone over hundreds of times in his own mind.


"I've tried fighting back, resisting, not doing what he wants," Mori replied, "When I fight back in my nightmares, he turns whatever I did against me. When I avoid looking at my reflection, the monsters appear in windows, on computer screens, staring back at me from anything that reflects an image. If I don't answer my phone, it vibrates until I feel like I'm in the middle of an earthquake all alone, and when finally look, my arm and eyes are frozen, unable to look away until he's done. Even when I do look away, the words echo in my head. And when I try leaving my phone in my room, I can hear him speaking to me as if he's standing over my shoulder, whispering the words into my ears."


"You want to talk about how all my problems come from my categorizing myself as the villain? Mori asked "I think the reason you can't help is that that's how you categorized me. Not as the villain, but as the guy who causes all his own issues because he thinks he is.


"I am well aware that my view of myself as the villain has caused a lot of issues in my life. It's why I have only one friend, it's why I hang out with a bunch of assholes I constantly have to fight off the desire to explain in detail how their petty thoughts are a festering infection on the world around them. But this isn't a story where everyone has one issue that binds and defines all their psychological problems. There isn't one string you can pull, and people get better. My issues don't just come from my own self-definition, just like how not all of your issues can be solved by working through the situation with Sasanuma. I had issues before I realized I would have to become the villain to achieve my goals, and if I will be so fortunate as to have a time in the future where I have achieved them, and can finally stop carefully considering how action I take causes my web to shake, and I can be myself again, if such a person truly exists anymore, I will still have problems then too."

[IamanElfCollaborator]

"Me? What I think of you? Moron. I've never thought of you as a villain. That's what I'm trying to get into your damn head. You aren't one. I'm not the one I need to convince of that. You and me both know that."
"And clearly, it must be a hell of a lot more important to you than you're claiming if your inner demon manifested as a guy who keeps trying to convince you you are one and keeps ACTING like one. Might not be all of your issues, but it's definitely pretty damn important to 'em. Otherwise, why would the manifestation of your very psyche hit you with that one over and over again? Even if it isn't your only one, it's got to be the one that's pretty critical to it all. Unless there's something you're not saying, Sawatari."
"...that does get me thinking. Fantomas is you. I don't know how Inner Demons work -hopefully Kazami says something, that is if he's even Gawain- but I gotta figure Fantomas knows how you usually work. Everything you've tried so far, he can beat you with because it's out of your playbook. Maybe try a different playbook. Don't think of it as a string you can just pull to make it all go away. I know these things take time. True, he might see it coming and it probably won't work, but....you got any better ideas?"
Sugiura rolls his eyes.
"You've wanted to beat me with that tray since I got here, and Demura looks like he wants to do the same thing. Are you seriously suggesting I'd actually go back and ask you for a favour?"

[SeriousConcentrate]

"I meant Miyazono here, when he doesn't have people looking out for him. Obviously I'd toss you into a dumpster the second I could, but you're lucky I'm not trying to cause trouble in school right now."

"Doesn't mean I won't beat your slimy ass from one side of the cafeteria to the other if I need to, though."

[IamanElfCollaborator]

"Uh huh. You know me so well, think about it. What exactly could I ask from him? Or would I even ask from him? I'm not exactly into classical music, so it's not like I'll be asking him for a backstage pass. All I'm asking to do is help, sheesh."