teaserving | ⏪ INBOX

[For a moment, Abbacchio stands there confused. He's standing there, holding out his hand like he'd been carrying a glass of wine, but it's gone right now. Instead, he's here, wherever the hell it is. A room he certainly doesn't know.

But that's Kirigiri... right? Despite how her hair is fashioned, it's her for sure. What is she doing?]

Hey, kid. Where the hell are we?

[She blinks, looking startled, and lifts her head in abrupt surprise. It's almost as though she was expecting someone else, if she was waiting for someone at all; it takes a second before her eyes seem to focus on Abbacchio, and recognition dawns.]

What are you doing here?

[Oh, right. He asked her a question; answering it with one of her own isn't helpful.]

This is the headmaster's private room at Hope's Peak Academy. The school I went to before you found me in the crater.

Uh. I have no idea.

[Headmaster's room, Hope's Peak Academy. There are only a couple of reasons why he'd be here. Is it an illusion? He's trying to think.]

Moody Blues.

[He tries to call upon his Stand, but there's not even a crackle or hint of him. Abbacchio is on his own to figure out this one... but not being about to summon his Stand is at least a clue in itself.

Still, he looks confused.]

What were you doing before you got here? I mean literally.

I was...

[Hmm. It's actually a little hard to remember, in that way that dream logic doesn't always play nice with factual reality, but she thinks it over carefully. Or tries to, anyway.]

I was getting a coffee. I sat down to drink it outside. Then I was here...

Okay. So it could be that either we're here in reality, or it's an illusion. Or something similar.

So I'm here in a memory of yours. Or close to it. That's my guess until we have more facts.

[He shoves his hands into his pockets.]

Your hair's different, though. When did you wear it like that?

That's probably likely. I remember being here before; I just don't know why I would be returned here now — it's not the exact place I was before I left.

[She frowns a little, though, and brings her hand to one of her pigtails, like she's surprised to find it that way.]

...Not since I was thirteen. It's a little immature, isn't it? No one would take me seriously, wearing my hair like this.

[Not the exact place. The Headmaster's room, her hair... Abbacchio goes to the Headmaster's desk and leans on it, thinking.]

You even looked younger when I showed up here, in a way. The way you were holding yourself.

Is this room significant to you?

[She falls quiet at that, staring at her knees. He's right, isn't he? There's something about this room that's...oppressive, somehow. That weighs heavy on her shoulders, and makes her want to curl in on herself and be small and quiet. She knows why, too; it's just that saying it is hard. It's because if she stays perfectly still and quiet, then she won't have to move, and if she doesn't have to move, she won't have to go over and investigate the gap in the wall, and everything that lies behind it.]

Yes. It's significant.

[Her fingers tighten around the hem of her skirt.]

The headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy was my father. This is his office.

[She tilts her head in the direction of the computer.]

There's a picture of him on the desk, with me. It wasn't there before, but it is now. Because I've said something about it.

[It's something a bit more than a memory, then. Something that's reflective on her psychosis, her experience and emotions. Abbacchio keeps working it out in his head, but he does look at the desk properly now.

As she said, there's a picture Kirigiri and her father. Abbacchio picks it up and examines the photo.

She's a cute kid, he thinks. A sweet innocent laugh captured in time, unaware of the future waiting for her. That can be the cruelty of the past.]

You feel small in here.

[It's said as an observation. It might be why she'd been sitting like that a moment ago, keeping to herself, a little girl knowing to mind her hands in a professional setting.]

Something happened in this place. And not just the academy. This room, specifically.

I-- hey. Do you want me to stop? This is your memory, and if it's gonna fuck you up, I can back off.

Yes. That's right.

[She ducks her head, pressing her lips together. It's strange, the way she knows things without knowing how she knows them. How she feels trapped when rationally she knows she isn't. It's a little like being a puppet in a showcase, she eventually decides; she can move, but only in pre-approved ways, because this environment is hers and she is a part of it.

Abbacchio is the only thing that doesn't belong. He's the differing, deciding factor. So if this isn't something that she can escape from alone, then she must need to help him break it open, instead. That seems to make sense.]

I think it's a puzzle. A memory that needs to be solved like a mystery. You're the detective, and I'm...

[She considers, briefly.]

I suppose I'm "the dame in the red dress". I can provide you with information, but this won't end until it plays out to its natural conclusion.

[He snorts softly at the descriptions she makes, but he understands what she means. Whatever this is, they have to play it out in some way. Abbacchio has to crack this open, and... well. Maybe that'll be enough to let them go.]

All right. Tell me to quit it and I will, though.

[He sets the photo down. Despite everything, Kirigiri's father still loved her, didn't he? Even if he was kind of a fuck up, at least in Abbacchio's opinion. Love doesn't make a good parent.

Anyway.]

So the thing that happened in here. Was that while you were solving the murders, or before?

During. I came in here a number of times, but...the only time that mattered was during our final investigation. Leaving no mystery unsolved.

[She kicks her feet a little where she sits, tapping the heels of her boots against the carpet. A girlish action, while she sits and idles on the couch.]

There's a secret door into another room. That picture...isn't supposed to be out here. It belongs in the other room, but I don't want to go into that one.

[Even as she says it, the walls seem to ripple and crack, before returning to their otherwise unassuming state.]

The way in was impossible for someone like me to find, anyway.

The final one, huh.

[So something happened during the final investigation. Something that left a lasting impression on Kirigiri. She does well to put up a facade, but like this he can see her as she must feel. Vulnerable.

The walls. Something is up with the walls?]

So there's another room attached to this one. But not just through a normal door, huh?

Why was it impossible for you?

I couldn't guess the sort of password he would use.

[Now, instead of clutching the hem of her skirt, she resorts to hugging herself. It's unusual; normally, she'd be on her feet by now, wandering around, accompanying Abbacchio as he moves through the environment himself. As it is, she's confined to her seat like any other piece of furniture placed where it belongs.]

I didn't know him well enough.

Password...

[Looking at her, he can see how much this is affecting her. There's a part of him that wants to stop, but he knows what their mission needs to be. Afterward, he can spend time making it up to her. And he will.

For now, he can look at the wall behind the desk. The wall looks a bit out of place, but it's not that simple to open, so:]

The computer?

[So he goes to tend to that. There's a program here, waiting for a password.

She couldn't guess the password. She was certain how little her father loved her, but... if there was proof of anything, it's that photograph. No matter how much he fucked up on being a parent, there was that one fact still obvious to Abbacchio.

So he gives it a try, typing in her name.]

[The door opens, of course, just as it did when this memory was first made. It's the same reason that she's known all along what the password was — she must have, for the dream to "know" it, too — but that didn't mean she'd been capable of accepting it. She could no more type in her own name to the computer in this dream than she could've in reality. She'd been incapable then; it's left her incapable now.

But when the door opens, her invisible shackles seem to release; she gets up from the couch and moves stiffly over to Abbacchio, using her first few seconds of freedom to walk directly into his side and wrap her arms around him.]

You knew what it was.

[The password, she means.]

Why was I the only one who didn't know...?

[There's a pause at the embrace, and carefully Abbacchio places an arm around Kirigiri's shoulders, encouraging her to be as close as she needs to be.]

Because as far as you knew, he fucked off without a care about you.

Listen. [He gives her hair a little ruffle.] He messed up with you. He did leave you behind, and that makes him an idiot. Despite all that, he loved you.

That doesn't absolve him of shit, but he was still thinking about you. All evidence you had proved he wasn't. I would've guessed that too, until you revealed that photograph to me.

[As she leans into Abbacchio, something strange begins to happen to the wood of the surrounding walls; everywhere that isn't the panel where the hidden door just opened from, the surroundings start to grow darker and darker, narrowing down until they've faded out into silhouettes — still visible, still discernible, but leaving Abbacchio and Kirigiri standing in what almost resembles a halo of light, like a film noir moment beneath a streetlamp.

Then, with an industrial-sounding clatter, light pours in again — this time, from somewhere behind the surrounding walls, backlighting the shapes of machinery and gears in oppressive hues of yellows and reds.

Nothing else happens to the room, not yet; the metal simply grinds and clangs, menacing from afar but without any overt malice.]

He made mistakes, you mean.

[She keeps her face buried in his side, not wanting to look. She already knows what she'll see.]

And someone he cared about paid the price for them.

[It's almost like dream logic, how things appear or fade. So it's not quite an illusion, he thinks to himself -- it's literally Kirigiri's dream they're in, forming and changing, haunting her.

He rests his hand on the top of her head.]

Yeah, I guess so.

[Abbacchio's voice is softer than usual, determined to stand strong and be here for her. Because no matter how much of a fuck up he himself is, he does care about her. At least he's willing to do something with that.]

...I know what that's like.

I know you do. I'm sorry.

[The way she says it, it's less of an I'm sorry for what happened and more of an I'm sorry for reminding you. One is a sentiment that, while considerate, is sort of useless; the other is considerably more immediate, and practical.]

You're going to have to look in the other room, I think. I'm sorry about that, too.

Hey, it's all right. Just... know that I can relate. Don't worry about me.

[The old promise is still there. That he won't abandon her, and that's true right now. Though he lets her go, he's reaching for her hand to take.]

Do you need me to wait?

No. I think —

[But the thought gets cut off as, abruptly, something metallic slams loudly against the ground like a heavy weight falling, and a moment later the floor jerks underneath them, like a rickety conveyor belt ratcheting a foot forward before stopping again. A moment later, it continues to lurch — drawing them closer and closer to the door.]

...!

Shit--

[No matter what, they're getting dragged over there. Like it's a punishment waiting to be unraveled.

Well, fuck that. They agreed that's where they need to go, and it's of his own volition that they will be.]

Sorry about this.

[Without missing a beat, Abbacchio is sweeping Kirigiri into his arms protectively before he makes his way to the door, kicking it open so he can march right in with Kirigiri.]

...Huh?

[A little startled, she goes rigid for an instant before realizing what he's just done — and then she sags, holding onto him while he carries her over to the hidden door and takes them inside.

Strangely enough, the walk through the door seems to take considerably longer than it should; they pass through, and there's a way forward, but it's featureless. It's like a corridor of nothingness, gray and bland, but still with a distinct feeling of there and here.

Eventually, though, they arrive — for a given value of the word "arrive". It's more that one step of Abbacchio's is taken in the gray expanse, and the next is taken in the doorway of a new environment industrial walls and sparse furniture, with a floor that's either made entirely of glass...or just altogether nonexistent.

The furniture, however, seems to be perfectly sturdy, even amid the nothingness. Normal wood, sturdy but plain, a desk and a table and a chest of drawers.

The gift-wrapped box waiting for them, however, looks just as out of place in this dream as it did in reality.]

[It's surreal, how the distance seems to stretch on when it shouldn't be so far in, but that's how it is on a scape like this, he supposes. Eventually, they do manage to get inside, leaving the most obvious thing in the room.

In his arms, he's still carrying Kirigiri, and he's loath to put her down, but he needs his hands free.]

Here, back on your feet, kid.

[Gently, he eases her down.]

I'm still here. Not going anywhere.

[Reluctantly, he approaches the brightly wrapped package. It's begging to be opened, taunting, a clear mockery even before he knows its contents.

A sick game, he bets.]

⏪ INBOX | NOCTIUM

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