Elizabeth and Joel being one of us when Enver gets online, praising his healthy plants, Elizabeth reading the episode description, and Zach revealing there’s a twist.
“I don't see what’s so exciting. This is just a routine patrol.”
Sayaka pats Kyoko’s shoulder affectionately, smiling. “Come on! It’s interesting, all right? I like getting to help people.” Her smile softens, turns at the edges. “And I haven’t been able to in so long.”
It’s been a year since the killing game they’d been forced to participate in- where they were compelled to fight to stay alive, all for the sake of despair. Kyoko and Sayaka had both made it out.
Ten of their classmates hadn’t.
So now the rest of them, alongside the Future Foundation, fought for a better world. Makoto was the hope behind them all- with him, they’d already captured 6 of the 14 feared Remnants of Despair. Toko was stationed in Towa City alongside her “not-girlfriend” Komaru Naegi. Yasuhiro didn’t do much, but he tried- he and Asahina were on damage control. Kyoko was on the front lines, fighting with all she had to stop the legacy of Junko.
And that left Sayaka.
Everyone tried to convince her she was helping, that she was an inspiration, her survival from the game and presence as a star were bringing hope to everyone, but Sayaka certainly didn’t feel that way. So when Juzo reluctantly admitted he’d broken his arm and couldn’t patrol, Sayaka jumped at the opportunity. There was very little she hated more than being helpless. And she was really, really helpless right now.
Kyoko squares her shoulders and adjusts the heavy gun on her back. Her long lavender hair is especially striking against the brick-red sky. “There’s a very low chance that anything will happen. We’ll just walk around for a few hours then head back.”
Sayaka giggles. “I wouldn’t be upset to walk with you for a while.”
The detective smiles, slipping her gloved hands into Sayaka’s small, smooth ones. “Oh? I thought you were so excited to go out and fight?”
“I’m happy as long as I’m with you, Kiri.”
Kyoko softens at the pet name and opens up her mouth to say something when she tenses abruptly.
“Kiri?”
Kyoko looks deep into Sayaka’s wide, innocent eyes. Places a single finger over the singer’s lips. Sayaka gets the message- shush, because something is coming.
And if Kyoko looks this spooked, it certainly won’t be good.
A sudden, grating wail of a guitar suddenly ripples through the polluted air, so loud it makes Sayaka’s ears tingle. Kyoko goes pale, grabbing Sayaka’s hand, and runs.
“Kyoko!” Sayaka stumbles behind her, blue strands of hair tangling in her mouth. She spits them out. “Kyoko, what’s going on?”
Kyoko stops and whips around so suddenly Sayaka almost runs into her. One word: "Remnants. Should be able to outrun them. Just please, please hurry.” And so they’re running, along the dark roads, past the crumbling buildings. Kyoko never lets go of Sayaka’s hand, lips pursed and eyes dark. Worried. They've been running for a long time, and Sayaka isn't sure where Kyoko is headed, and apparently neither is Kyoko. They had run themselves into a corner, nowhere to go but towards the guitar.
Kyoko inhales. It’s shaky and terrifyingly unstable. “We should be fine. I can hold my ground against just one.”
À high, nervous giggle rings out from the shadows ahead. “Ehehe. I thought the Foundation was smart enough to know that we never move alone.”
The sound of that laugh sends shivers down Sayaka’s spine, stopping her in her tracks. Kyoko looks at her, panic clearly in her expression, but Sayaka just shakes her head weakly.
A woman steps out of the dark alleyway, soaked in blood and holding what looked like- no, Sayaka didn’t want to think about what that could have been. Her hair was a mess, her feet bare, large cuts all over her body, but what scared Sayaka most was the empty look in her eyes.
Another guitar riff. This time, closer.
Kyoko has gone deathly still, eyes moving only slightly to assess the situation. Looking for a way out, any way out, please, if there’s any kind of God, just let her and Sayaka escape, please, please, please.
A distant scream, triumphant and tinged with a metallic sort of malice.
There would be no avoiding some kind of fight now. Kyoko looked at her, urgency in her eyes. “There’s two. Tsumiki and Mioda. Let me handle this, please.” Sayaka wants to protest, she could help, but her throat seems to have closed suddenly. She nods.
The woman in the corner- Tsumiki, she thought, looked at Kyoko with a dreamy, unfocused kind of glare. “You think you can save your pretty little girlfriend?” She twirls a large scalpel idly in her bloodstained hands. “That’s sweet.”
A sudden scream cuts through the dusk as a small, shadowy figure skips up to Tsumiki, guitar in tow. “Wow wow wooooow! Did you hear, ‘Miki? That was 4 o’s, maybe 5!!! Ibuki’s too excited to keep track!”
For a Remnant of Despair, harbinger of chaos and pain, she sure is bubbly.
Kyoko spreads out her arms, protecting Sayaka. “Don't come any closer. We have the means to apprehend you.” She sounds confident and aloof, but Sayaka hears the telltale shake in her voice that betrays her fear.
Tsumiki giggled feverishly. “A couple of lovebirds? In times like these?”
“Love love love!!!” crowed Mioda. “Love love love, love love love!!! Here’s to love!!!” She rolls about, babbling for a minute or two- then suddenly pounces on Kyoko. Sayaka stands, frozen to the spot as Mioda rolls on the dark, dusty street with Kyoko firmly gripped in her spindly arms.
“KYOKO!” Sayaka screams, but then Tsumiki’s head perks up and Sayaka falls silent again, too terrified to even whimper. Kyoko opens her mouth to say something, but Mioda is on top of her again and she can’t lose focus for a second. Sayaka is so terrified for Kyoko she doesn’t even notice Tsumiki approaching until she’s pinned against the wall.
“You’re a pretty little thing, aren’t you?” Tsumiki whines, tracing her knife down the side of Sayaka’s face. “Makes me want to rip your skin off.”
Kyoko struggles under Mioda’s iron grip, desperately trying to reach out for Sayaka. “Please, leave her alone! She hasn’t done anything to-” oh, and then Mioda’s fingers are reaching down her throat, gagging her.
Kyoko makes a horrible gurgling noise and goes terrifyingly still. Sayaka tries not to sob, but it’s hard with Tsumiki pressing her against the wall, surgical knife hovering right above her eyes.
“You’ve got a very protective girl, haven’t you?” the Remnant murmurs, so close to Sayaka’s ear she can feel the heat of Tsumiki’s breath on her cheek. “Almost makes me jealous.” The knife dances across Sayaka’s cheek, leaving a series of shallow cuts behind it. “Now, what’s your special little talent again?” More movement from the knife. “Ultimate Popstar, or something sugary like that?” There’s nothing but venom behind Tsumiki’s words.
“Please,” Sayaka chokes out, “please, just let me go. I can’t- I can’t even do anything to s-stop you,”
Tsumiki laughs. “Oh, but isn’t that what makes it so fun?” Her knife is lowered, just for a minute, before cruel inspiration flashes in her eyes. “You can’t even prevent me from stealing your talent.”
Sayaka tries to scream, but then she realizes what she’s doing and clamps her mouth shut, but then Tsumiki is prying her mouth open and there are tears and blood and god knows what else flowing into her mouth but she can’t stop crying, and now Tsumiki has her knife, and her eyes are glistening, black and white and terrifyingly empty, as she begins to saw at the back of her throat and Sayaka screams, but it’s gurgled and muffled and she can’t even breathe, but through the tears in her eyes she can see Kyoko starting to regain consciousness, but Mioda’s still got her pinned down and it sinks in that no one is coming to save her. There are awful sounds coming from her mouth that she didn’t even think she was making, and if she wasn't crying before she definitely is now. Mioda, through all of this, is simply humming a little song while she plays with Kyoko’s hair, and maybe that’s the worst part, is that they’re fucking VIOLATING her and they don't even care.
It seems like an eternity before Tsumiki steps back, holding- she’s holding up Sayaka’s tongue like a trophy, are they even human anymore, and now she’s really going to be sick, but there’s already so much blood filling up her mouth, and it won’t stop coming, and she’s close to throwing up when it suddenly hits her that she’ll never sing for anyone ever again.
So she screams.
@badthingshappenbingo (am i supposed to @ you??? i have no idea skljdflksj
