Chapter Text
Blinking the sleep from his eyes, Makoto scanned the room. Metal plates on the windows, security camera hanging menacingly from the ceiling, nonsense on the blackboard with a comically large drawing of Monokuma, all things he's seen every day for the last few weeks. Guess we never killed the mastermind after all, huh, he thought. His eyes then landed on a head of long blue hair rising from one of the desks across the classroom. Wait. Makoto had definitely seen that hair somewhere before. The girl made a small noise as she stretched, also just waking up. He couldn't see her face from this angle, but he could recognise that voice anywhere. This must be a dream, then. This girl was dead, after all. It couldn't hurt to indulge in his dreams this once, right?
"Sayaka?" he called to her. The girl turned in surprise, her cheeks slightly flushing when she recognised the face.
"Makoto? Hey!" she smiled. Makoto felt a wave of nostalgia at her expression. He missed Sayaka a lot, if only I could've done something to save her life, he thought. Noticing his sour expression, Sayaka's smile faltered. She walked over and sat down at the desk next to Makoto.
"Are you feeling alright?" her charming smile was now twisted into a look of worry. "I take it from your expression you also don't know how you ended up here? I'm glad I'm not the only one, I was on my way to orientation for my first day at Hope's Peak Academy, do you think that's where we are? I didn't realise you were also attending here, Makoto! I'm so glad to see a friendly face, though I do wonder how we ended up in this classroom..." she put a finger to her chin and looked off to the side in thought, then looked back at Makoto with a mischievous grin on her face "Hehe, maybe we ran head first into each other on the way in and passed out, and they put us into the nearest room to rest!" Makoto's cheeks went hot, She makes it sound like a cheesy romance anime meet-cute!
"Those weird plates over the windows kinda ruin the cheesy romance anime meet-cute vibe, huh..." Sayaka looked at the offending objects in question, obviously making a joke, but after seeing her in such a state of distress as he previously had, Makoto could see the carefully masked worry and confusion on her face. It reminded him of what had actually happened to her, rendering him unable to feign surprise at her usual psychic trick. She felt so real. If he focused, he could smell her signature perfume, it was honestly a surprise his memory could create something so detailed.
"Sayaka..." he started, not knowing how to talk to her even in his own memory. It seemed so fragile, she looked exactly as she did in real life, down to the tiny quirk in her eyebrow indicating she was intently listening to him speak. Usually, Makoto's dreams about Sayaka were vague, like his mind was trying to protect him from the harmful memories. He wanted to savour this but he also couldn't waste the opportunity he had to try and heal his own brain's relationship with her. "...I've missed you." he decided on.
Sayaka smiled at that. "Awh, Makoto! You saw me a few months ago at junior high graduation, no? I don't really remember talking to you much, but at least now we get to spend high school together and make up for it! I always thought you seemed interesting, hehe." she sounded a little confused by his confession but seemingly took it into her stride like a true idol.
She must have had her fair share of weird fan comments during her career, Makoto supposed, his face darkening when he realised he now looked like one of Sayaka's creepy fans. He almost wanted to defend himself but decided against it since this was only his own fantasy anyway.
Just as Makoto opened his mouth to reply, an incredible crash was heard from the other side of the wall. Makoto and Sayaka shared a look of surprise and ran out the classroom to search for the source of the noise.
They reached the hall, hearing shouting coming from the classroom adjacent to the one they had just exited. They both paused for a moment, before Makoto stepped forward and slowly opened the sliding door.
Inside was Mondo sat in a heap on the floor shouting profanities at a worried Kiyotaka who knelt at his side, as well as Kyoko stood silently at the back of the room.
"Woah, what's going on here!?" Makoto exclaimed. Both boys looked up at the new arrivals, with very different reactions. Kiyotaka looked relieved to see them both, while Mondo was glaring at them like he had no idea who they were and why they were speaking to him.
"Makoto! Sayaka! Are you both alright?" Kiyotaka asked them. This is odd, Makoto thought. This was definitely not like any dream he's had before. Sceptical, Makoto decided to look at Kyoko for help, who curtly nodded her head at him as a silent instruction. Although, before Makoto could get a word in,
"I'm sorry, have we met before?" Sayaka asked Kiyotaka, genuinely confused. Kiyotaka's face falls, his initial look of relief morphing back into one of confused worry.
"You too?" He said anxiously, subconsciously reaching for Mondo next to him who immediately moved away from him in disgust. Kiyotaka's face crumbled further, tears pricking his eyes.
"Taka, what happened in here?" Makoto made a point of letting Kiyotaka know he remembered him. Kiyotaka lit back up instantly.
"You remember me! Thank God at least one person does, it seems these two, now three i suppose, might have some mysterious bout of amnesia. I did not realise this when I awoke, and attempted to speak to Mondo and Kyoko as usual, to which Mondo flipped out and Kyoko outright ignored." he explained sullenly.
"How come Mondo's on the floor?" Makoto asked.
"OI! Stop talking about me like I'm not here! Who the fuck even are you?! Why are the both of you fuckfaces acting like we know each other?!" Mondo shouted, cracking his knuckles.
"Mondo please, don't move too quickly! You might be injured!" Kiyotaka warned, and Mondo stared at him like he had just cursed him out in French. He didn't reply immediately, instead opting to stare so intensely at Kiyotaka that Makoto worried he was trying to explode his head with his mind. But Kiyotaka didn't back down, staring back with the same amount of fire in his eyes.
"Hey, Makoto..." Sayaka tapped Makoto's shoulder, and he turned away from whatever was going on the floor to turn his attention towards her. "How do you know that guy... Taka, I think you called him, right?" she asked innocently. He didn't know how to respond to that, so he flicked his eyes behind Sayaka to look at Kyoko again, but she had disappeared. She must've gone to investigate other rooms, Makoto assumed.
Turning back to Sayaka, he decided to postpone his answer until he could hash the situation out with Kyoko to make sure they were both on the same page, because there was clearly something off here. It was far too realistic to be a dream, and it wasn't ending, but it was too bonkers to be reality. Just in case, he didn't want to do anything he couldn't take back for fear of messing up the fabric of time or... something.
"I'll explain later, okay? It's a long story, and I'm a little worried about other things right now." Makoto reasoned, hoping to placate Sayaka for now. She gave him a sceptical look, clearly able to tell he was hiding something, but she let it go, shrugging her shoulders with a blank expression.
"Alright, that's fair enough. I was kind of wondering about the building too, it's all boarded up." Sayaka changed the subject much to Makoto's relief.
"Yeah, it's a little creepy." Makoto agreed.
"I'm guessing this is Hopes Peak, right?" Sayaka looked around the room with a finger to her chin. Her words sparked the attention of the boys on the floor, both heads turning to look at her.
"You go to Hopes Peak too?" Mondo moved to stand, sounding a lot less hostile now that his attention was diverted from Kiyotaka, who shoved his hands under his thighs to stop from reaching out at his sudden movement.
"Well, kinda, yeah. It's my first day, I was on my way to orientation when I passed out and then I-"
"Woke up here?" Mondo finished for her.
"Yes! Did the same thing happen to you?" Sayaka asked.
"Yeah! Thank fuck at least one of you ain't crazy." Mondo smiled at her in relief.
All of a sudden, a familiar sound assaulted Makoto's ears, and he instinctively looked over at the monitor to see it lighting up with- oh. Not quite Monokuma, instead the face of some pink rabbit rip off version. Weird.
DING DONG BING BONG.
Hello! Can you hear me? I sure hope so, I have an announcement for those scattered around the interior of Hopes Peak Academy. Please gather in the gym! To those of you dealing with PTSD right now, do not fear, I am not Monokuma! I will introduce myself to you all in person, so please make your way to the gym as soon as possible. Thank you!
The sparkly rabbit waved goodbye and the monitor switched off again. Not Monokuma? What the hell was happening?