tw: depiction of violence.
okay, fine, something villainous is about to happen, and most of the fandom will probably hate me for this, but what if, instead of executing riko, ichirou gives him a chance to redeem himself? 🤔
the ravens are still losing, andrew is still breaking riko’s arm, and ichirou is still faking suicide, but this time, his uncle is the victim. the logic is quite simple: it was tetsuji who controlled the ravens, breaking them and molding them to fit the nest’s system. riko is just as much a victim of the cult as the rest.
getting back to the topic of his rehabilitation, it won’t be easy. if it’s even possible at all (for a skilled professional working with him, this would be a tremendous learning experience in the field of psychiatry). riko is, first and foremost, a sadist with an inflated sense of self-importance. he takes pleasure in the suffering of others. the other side of the coin is that he’s a child who has spent his entire life desperately seeking recognition.
his upbringing at the nest played a major role in shaping his personality. realizing that violence was an effective method, he adopted it from the very person who had bullied him. well, and from there, things just snowballed... a sense of entitlement, power...
basically, with a broken arm and a tarnished reputation, he has no business being at the nest, so ichirou will most likely take him away from there. of course, it’s unlikely that riko would voluntarily, in his right mind and with a clear memory, agree to leave evermore. the nest’s rules have become firmly ingrained in his mind.
however, ichirou will still take him out of evermore. yes, it will be done without riko’s consent. yes, they’ll most likely drug him so they can get him out of evermore without causing a fuss. but he’ll undoubtedly be better off outside these walls.
the first thing ichirou does is set up his brother with a therapist. at first, it’s a mess, screaming, attempts to ignore the whole thing because “i don’t need a shrink!”, but later, after the news breaks that the nest is closing down, they gradually start discussing their problems.
do you feel like you were abandoned? yes.
do you think your uncle did the right thing? yes.
do you feel guilty about what you did to your teammates? no.
until the very end, riko doesn't even understand why he needs therapy. the best way to forget about his shitty life is to step onto the court. ichirou forbids him from even thinking about exy, calling it an unhealthy obsession. well, maybe he’s right, but riko has never had anything but exy, so ichirou has no right to take that away from him. exy is the only thing that’s always been there for riko.
when the topic turns to family, riko refuses to even talk to the psychiatrist. what could he possibly say about people who discarded him like trash from the moment he was born? he withdraws into himself and cuts himself off from the world. he still doesn’t understand what he did wrong. he can’t comprehend where his innocent desire to be important to his family led him.
hatred mixed with anger tears at riko’s chest. it feels to him as if the whole world has turned against him. and moriyama blames everyone he can remember: kengo, ichirou, kevin, jean, nathaniel, fucking minyard... but never himself.
how do you feel when you think about the nest? (fear, pain, agony, hatred, panic, anxiety, longing, despair, anger) nothing.
do the ravens’ methods seem too cruel to you? no.
do you think you deserve all the punishments your coach subjected you to? yes.
over time, riko grows tired of avoiding his brother. ichirou didn’t kill him, though sometimes it seems to him that a bullet to the head would be better than dealing with his own numerous mental health issues. the emotional wounds that have been laid bare bleed more profusely than those of the people he tortured in an attempt to drown out his own pain with the suffering of others.
are you willing to admit that you were a victim of a cult? i wasn’t.
what do you think you lacked as a child? (love, understanding, communication, acceptance, praise, attention) i don’t want to talk about that.
okay, that’s your right. how do you feel right now, after everything that’s happened? (emptiness, an all-consuming, endless nothingness) nothing.
do you feel guilty about losing? what does that feel like? yes, i do. it’s like… (shattered bones, flashes of light-colored hair, blue eyes) a nightmare that’s become reality.
he feels uneasy at the memory of the violence in the nest. if tetsuji isn’t there, then riko must be there. he revels in others’ pain, issuing disgusting orders, and then slinks away to lick his own wounds. in the deathly silence of the dark room (the cage he shares with kevin), he is shaken by panic attack.
months later, the first thought crosses his mind that perhaps he shouldn't have tormented others. riko quickly dismisses it, but the persistent thought won't go away. he begins to have nightmares worse than before.
in his nightmares, kevin waves his broken arm in front of his face, grinning smugly as he grabs riko by the bones that have barely healed. and he breaks them again, and again, and again.
in his nightmares, jean breaks his fingers, beating him half to death. and, laughing hysterically, he orders riko to beg for mercy, in that damn french that riko doesn’t understand. he also lets monstrous silhouettes take turns raping him until moriyama starts choking on blood, saliva, tears, and semen.
in his nightmares, nathaniel, glowing with an icy blue light eyes, chops off his limbs, gouges out his eyes, and flays him alive, revealing the tattooed roman “I.” as if to say, “you don’t deserve such an honor.”
in his nightmares, ichirou actually points a gun at him, and from riko's perspective, he sees his own corpse with its brains blown out.
riko goes to his next therapy session on his own, without needing to be reminded.
