Fanfiction: Reconnect (Danganronpa Another Episode)

[rionaleonhart]

I THREATENED TO WRITE NAEGI-SIBLING HUGGING FIC, AND HERE IT IS. Although Fukawa, entirely without my approval, made the whole thing slightly uncomfortable by making inappropriate comments. Thanks, Fukawa.

It's probably logical to refer to Makoto Naegi as 'Makoto' in the presence of another Naegi, but I'm afraid I haven't done the logical thing. I can't call him 'Makoto'. It's just too weird.


Title: Reconnect
Fandom: Dangan Ronpa (specifically Another Episode)
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 2,200
Summary: Makoto Naegi pays his sister and Fukawa a visit.
Warnings: Spoilers for the entirety of Another Episode.



How long has it been since they last saw each other? Three years? It simultaneously feels shorter – he doesn’t remember most of it, after all – and far, far longer; they’ve both been through so much since then. She holds herself differently. He’s probably changed as well, even if he still feels he’s only playing at adulthood when he wears his Future Foundation suit.

He threw on casual clothes to come down here; he thought it’d feel strange to wear a suit in front of his little sister. And this isn’t official Future Foundation business, after all.

He thinks she might be taller than him now. For some reason, it makes him smile.

“Komaru?”

She whips around in an instant, raising her hacking gun – and then she freezes. “Big bro?”

Naegi waves, awkwardly. “Sorry. I’d have warned you I was coming, but this was a little last-minute.” It’s still hard to get in touch with the city; Komaru and Fukawa can leave it to contact them, but they can’t really get messages through the other way around.

“Still, you didn’t have to creep up behind us like that! I almost shot you!” She hands the gun over to Fukawa, who looks at it as if it’s about to grow teeth and bite her.

“It just shoots code, doesn’t it?” he asks, laughing. “It wouldn’t have—” and then he yelps and has to fight to keep his balance when Komaru throws herself into his arms.

After a moment, he tightens his arms around her. “I didn’t know what had happened to you, for a while,” he murmurs. “They showed me a video when we were locked in the school, of you and... of our house. It looked like something had torn it apart.” He hesitates. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

She presses her face into his neck.

“W-well, isn’t this a touching family scene?”

Naegi raises his head. He isn’t ready to let go of Komaru yet. “Ah, Fukawa-san, sorry; I didn’t say hello, did I?”

“Don’t mind me,” Fukawa mutters. “I’m not going to intrude when Komaru’s finally getting to live out her brother-complex dream.”

Did he mishear that?

Komaru pulls away from him, looking alarmed. “I don’t have a brother complex!”

Of course he didn’t mishear; it’s Fukawa. “It’s all right, Komaru,” he says, with a laugh.

“Oh?” Fukawa smirks. “Komaru, he accepts your feelings. So long as you don’t do anything in our bed, I’ll look the other way.”

Naegi flushes. “That’s not – I don’t mean—” He looks helplessly at Komaru. “I mean I know you don’t have a – Fukawa-san, don’t say things like that!”

-
They go up to Komaru and Fukawa’s hotel room to talk, so they don’t have to keep watch for the Monokuma still roaming the streets.

“I thought it’d be over once you got the Monokuma control device,” Naegi says. “Even if you didn’t break it, I thought you’d be able to, well, control them. But I suppose it’s not that easy.”

Fukawa laughs humourlessly. “There’s no simple ‘benevolence’ switch, if that’s what you mean. I expect that... lunatic girl didn’t have any plans to stop them rampaging.”

“And they target anyone who’s not a child?”

Komaru looks away. “They, um, they target anyone who isn’t wearing a Monokuma helmet.”

There’s a waver in her voice. He decides not to ask how she found that out.

“We think those Warriors of Hope brats carried some kind of electronic device that put out the same signal,” Fukawa says.

“We should have guessed it earlier,” Komaru mutters. “I mean, how would the Monokuma know the difference between children and adults?”

She’s shaking, Naegi realises. She flinches when he touches her hand.

“You don’t have to do this yourself, you know,” he says. “You could come back with me. The Foundation can send out a team to find the rest of the children.”

Komaru shakes her head fiercely. “No,” she says. “I need to do this. We know what we’re doing now.”

Naegi nods, watching her carefully. “Okay. Are there any more we need to pick up?”

He immediately regrets going any further on the topic; Komaru still looks on the verge of tears, but she draws breath to answer.

Fukawa cuts in. “There aren’t any right now. W-we think we’ve found most of them. There don’t seem to be many still around.”

Komaru sends her a grateful glance. She’s beginning to look a little steadier.

“That’s good news,” Naegi says. He’s been wondering whether Komaru will ever really consider her job done – how can they ever be sure they’ve rescued all the children in this town? – but it’s probably best to change the subject. “It’s getting late, isn’t it?”

“F-fine,” Fukawa says. “I’ll give up my place. I’ll just sleep on the street or something.”

“What?” Naegi asks, taken aback. He looks at Komaru, just in case he did somehow kick Fukawa out of her own room without realising it, but Komaru just gives him a bemused shrug. “I wouldn’t ask you to do that! There are a lot of other hotel rooms, aren’t there?”

Fukawa smiles bitterly. “Of course there are. So you don’t have to feel any, any qualms about getting rid of me. I wouldn’t want to see what you’re planning to get up to, anyway.”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying! I mean – I’m saying I can sleep in one of the other rooms!”

“N-no, please, by all means, sleep with your sister,” Fukawa mutters, not looking at either of them. “I wouldn’t presume to stand in your way.”

She stalks out of the room before he can say anything. Somehow, the sense of resentment she always leaves in the air seems even denser than usual.

Is she... jealous?

Naegi is starting to feel a little uneasy. It’s not like he’d be an obstacle, but if Fukawa actually believes in the strange things she says about them...

Fukawa isn’t... in love with his sister, right? Genocider Syo isn’t going to see her as a target, right? Syo said herself that she only killed boys; he can take that as a promise that Komaru is safe. Right?

Is there some way he can delicately bring this up with Fukawa?

Hey, are you in love with my sister? Because there isn’t actually anything weird about our relationship, but I really don’t want your serial-killer personality to cut her up with scissors.

Maybe not.

Komaru stares at the door for a moment, then looks at him. “Um, do you want to stay here?” she asks, and then, “Not – not in a weird way! I mean, I don’t like being on my own – there are Monokuma, and ghosts, and – and if Touko-chan’s not staying here tonight—”

“I know what you mean,” Naegi says. Fukawa has made this a very awkward reunion. “I guess I’ll make up some blankets on the floor.”

There’s a pause.

“Did you say there were ghosts?”

“Don’t laugh at me! Ghosts are real!”

Naegi tries to fight down his smile. He glances at the door, thinking of Fukawa storming into the apparently ghost-filled corridors of the hotel, and hesitates. “Hey, do you think Fukawa-san’s... acting a little strange?”

She bites her lip. “You noticed, too? I wasn’t sure – I mean, you know, she’s always kind of strange – but if you’re seeing it as well...”

It’s probably just that he’s here. She’s not as comfortable around him as she is around Komaru; he can see that easily enough.

Still. “Hey, you know about her, um... her other...”

“Genocider-chan?” she asks.

He’s glad she knows already; that would have been a very difficult thing to explain. But... “Um. Genocider-chan?”

She crosses her arms, defensively. “Well, I don’t know what I should call her!”

“Are you afraid of her?”

Komaru hesitates. “W-well, um, a little. But we’re still friends, I think. She’s saved my life more than once.”

He doesn’t really understand anything about Syo, but he decides to take that as reassurance. Maybe he should trust Fukawa. Komaru doesn’t feel she’s in danger, as far as he can tell, and she seems to have been right so far.

-
“Hey,” Komaru says, suddenly, when he’s on the verge of drifting off. “I never asked – why’d you make this last-minute decision to come down here? I mean, it’s really good to see you, but... did something happen?”

Naegi forces a laugh. “It’s late, you know. Can’t we talk about this in the morning?”

-
There’s a sound in the night, and Naegi snaps awake, and his first thought is someone’s moving around during Night Time, and then wait, our rooms are soundproof – someone’s in my room – and he sits up so sharply he almost wrenches his back.

He’s not in Hope’s Peak. He’s in the hotel room, and Komaru is snoring softly. He’s safe.

He lies back down, feeling weak with relief. Some day he’s going to stop thinking he’s back there, he tells himself. He’s been telling himself that for a while.

He tries to get back to sleep, but he’s aware, now, of all the noises around him, and there’s something behind the rasp of Komaru’s breathing. A door. Footsteps.

Definitely not a ghost.

Naegi crosses to the door and opens it, softly. Fukawa is making her way towards the stairs.

“Fukawa-san?” he asks, as quietly as possible, so he doesn’t wake Komaru.

Fukawa shrieks, and Komaru’s snoring is cut off behind him with a startled yelp.

“Sorry!” Naegi whispers, mortified. “Sorry!”

“What’s going on?” Komaru asks, sounding bewildered. She pads on bare feet over to Naegi, switches on the light, moves to look out of the door. “Touko-chan?”

“What are you doing?” Naegi asks. “Are you going out? It’s not safe on your own, is it?”

Fukawa glares at him. “I-isn’t it obvious? I’m going back to Byakuya-sama.”

“What?” Komaru exclaims, taking a step back. “Why?”

“W-well, you don’t need me any more, do you? There’s someone here who’s... who’s easier to get along with.” She looks away. “It’s fine. I, I always knew I was only your friend because there was nobody else around. So I was prepared for this.”

“Touko-chan,” Komaru says, her eyes wide, “do you really believe that?”

“Well, am I wrong?” Fukawa growls.

Komaru spreads her hands in disbelief. “Yes!”

“Fukawa-san,” Naegi says, hesitantly, “you know that people can want to spend time with more than one person, don’t you? I mean... what about you? If Togami-kun came here, would you just forget about Komaru?”

There is a pause.

“O-oh,” Fukawa mutters.

Naegi tries to hide his sigh of relief. He wasn’t sure she wouldn’t have forgotten about Komaru. It’s not just his sister who’s grown from their time in this city; Fukawa’s grown as well, hasn’t she?

“I can’t just stay here, anyway,” he says. “I have work to do with the Future Foundation. We think we might have found some other Hope’s Peak survivors.”

Fukawa looks sharply at him.

He’s been trying to avoid this, but he can’t put it off forever. “That’s... actually kind of the reason I came here,” he says, scratching his cheek. “They’re talking about putting them in our care – the care of the survivors from the school life of mutual killing, I mean. Apart from Fukawa-san, of course. Someone else will probably be put in charge of communications from this city.” He takes in a breath. “I... I don’t know when I’ll be able to speak to you again. So, um, I’ll need you to look after my sister for a little longer, Fukawa-san.”

“Hey, we both look after each other!” Komaru protests, before becoming more serious. “So... you’ll be pretty busy, right?”

Naegi tries to smile. “Sorry. I wanted to see you in person, while I had the chance.”

“It’s okay,” Komaru says. “I mean, it’s amazing that you found more Hope’s Peak survivors!”

It’s true; Naegi will be sad to be pulled off the Towa City project, finding homes for the orphaned children, but he’s felt a fluttering excitement in his chest ever since he learnt about the survivors. He’s looking forward to meeting them. Maybe someone will recognise him from their days at the school? He still wants to know more about his missing years.

“So I’ll be okay,” Komaru says. “It’s not like we haven’t been separated before. And this time I’ll have Touko-chan with me.” She looks over at Fukawa. “Right?”

There’s a too-long silence.

“Oh, I suppose so,” Fukawa mutters, rolling her eyes. “If – if you really can’t survive without me.”

-
He gives Komaru one last hug in front of the Future Foundation helicopter. It’s been too short a visit, but there are things they both have to do. Still, Fukawa said they thought there weren’t many children left to find. Maybe it won’t be another three years before they see each other again.

“Hey, big bro,” Komaru whispers, when he’s about to let her go.

“Huh?” Naegi pulls back a little and sees the mischievous expression on her face, and suddenly he’s transported back to the days when they were a normal family. She’d give him that look just before trying to sneak their dad’s food off his plate. Sometimes Naegi would conspire with her and try to distract Dad. They always got caught.

Komaru’s eyes flicker towards Fukawa, and Naegi catches on.

They turn towards her at the same time, holding out an arm each, inviting her in.

Fukawa shrinks back. “I’m not having anything to do with your... your filthy incestuous threesome fantasies.”

Naegi laughs. “Maybe next time.”