network, during the family meeting

[contrarily]

this is your cute idol, rika-chan, reporting from jail!!
SOMEONE COME BREAK ME OUT
IM BORED AND I MISS BEING FREE
it's been so long since i've seen the sky... or breathed fresh air... please... i'm fading...

Comments

[commences]

I've told you before, haven't I? ( as he speaks, his words come out slow, and his voice as breathy as ever while beginning to get his thoughts in order. even if the other looks away from him, komaeda stares at the wall across from them both like he's searching for an answer. he doesn't need to when he already knows, but this is to give noah time to prepare. ) Every person you've lost, every person you will lose... they're just a stepping stone towards your greatness.

( it's fact to him, there's nothing else it could be. as much as he wants to properly console noah, he's unable, that's because of komaeda's own background that his mind doesn't add things together as he should. he should feel bad for saying lives are used to make someone stronger, but he doesn't feel a thing. his empathy on the matter has always lacked, and that's why he can't understand anyone's feelings, including his own. though, he's been told to be able to understand others better than themselves. )

They feed the soil you walk across... allowing that never-ending road of hope to guide you down a specific path. That's my purpose too... to enable your endeavors so you can shine bright with everyone else...

( he leans forward, holding up a hand as he extends his pointer finger at noah, making sure he knows that komaeda is directing these words at him, and only him. ) As long as your hope doesn't waver, and you don't give up... you'll be able to overcome every death you come across. ( it sounds sad, the fact that lives are just literally feed to everyone's lives, that they're nothing more but pebbles casually thrown into the water to be long forgotten about. )

...And if there's lives at risk, your past experiences will only breed a stronger hope! Your will to save everyone else around you...!

( he pauses, laughing softly, and it's easy to tell he's amused. even after, he sighs in understanding of his own explanation. )

That's why you care about them as well... ( the newfound companions he made, the fact he can give so many emotions to people he's never met in his life until this school. ) You'd kill to protect them... and if that excels your hope along with theirs, then there's nothing wrong with that.

[silentabyss]

[To anyone else, Noah wouldn't nod and go along with "killing to protect" just because in the classroom not too far down the hall, everyone's probably talking about the murders presently. To say that he'd kill to protect would implicate him somehow, and if others suddenly start to suspect him of something, he's not sure how he'd defend himself. He's already likely known as a punchy kid, someone with the power to kill; why would he risk confirming people's beliefs about him in such a bad situation?

But to Komaeda, who sees past all of that, all he can manage is a nod. They can go back and forth on their understanding of one another ad infinitum, but Komaeda is the weird hopeful nihilist to his hopeless idealist. That's a point they can connect on, somehow — sometimes Noah needs the reminder that not everything can be sunshine and rainbows even though he wishes it would be.

Maybe Noah's just paranoid. Maybe they're all weird here, maybe he's not the only one that would absolutely shank someone to ensure the safety of another. Maybe they're all guilty at the end of the day.]

Yeah, I... I guess. It's just the... "overcoming" their deaths that's difficult.

[Who's going to honour their memories if he doesn't?]

The stronger I get, the more people I can protect. That's why... that's why I can't give up. There are people depending on me.