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“Makoto! It’s so good to see you!” Komaru delightfully gleamed. She smiled wide as she delivered the final blow to the child squirming under her feet. A spray of blood sprinkled, catching on her already stained sailor uniform. She clumsily wiped the splatter from her face, chuckling. “I’ve been waiting for you brother! You took forever!”
Makoto gulped, taking in the scene around them. Fires, riots, and dead bodies, large and small, piled all around them. Many no longer had any shaped to their skulls, but rather were decimated into flattened blobs of oozing red. Towa City was falling into shambles, and as he looked deep into the swirls of hope in Komaru’s eyes, Makoto knew who had done it.
“Aren’t you proud of me?!” Komaru happily mused, raising her arms as if she were displaying the chaos around her. “I did this big brother! Now the adults and children are no longer fighting! No more despair! I did this! All of it! I really am like you now!” She began chuckling, but it quickly escalated into a fit of spasmodic and wild cackling. She moved her hands to her face as she continued her laughing episode.
“Komaru… I’m so sorry…” Makoto meekly responded, gripping his hands into fists.
Suddenly the laughing stopped.
“Why are you sorry big brother? I’ve done it. I got rid of the despair in this city. Without despair there could only be hope!” Komaru excitedly spoke. As she did, the endless swirls in her eyes grew deeper and deeper. Makoto noticed her growing instability, and knew he needed to do something quick. He took one step forward before he heard footsteps behind him. He turned and watched as Togami, Touko, and an array of Future Foundation soldiers appeared before him. He heard Touko gasp, who upon seeing Komaru, instantly ran towards her. However, she was stopped by Togami.
“Don’t. She seems hostile,” Togami explained. Touko took a closer look at Komaru, and knew exactly what he meant. The Komaru standing before them was not the same. She was not the cheerful, overly-enthusiastic, caring, embarrassingly silly, strong girl that Touko spent countless months with. No, the Komaru she was witnessing was a brainwashed, hope filled zombie.
Around the time Ryouta successfully broadcasted his hope video, both Komaru and Touko fell victim to watching it. However, Touko suddenly sneezed during the middle of it, switching to her other personality and effectively dodging the full effects of the brainwashing. Komaru however was not as lucky, and she fell completely under its control. As soon as she did, her eyes turned a bright white and as if being controlled she went on a rampage all across Towa City. Once the city’s peacekeeper, she turned herself into it’s source of violence, killing both children and adults. Killing so that there would no longer be any conflict. Touko tried to help her but was quickly intercepted by the chaos and the two were separated.
“She just needs to wake up from this. That’s all,” Touko confidently exulted.
“No,” Makoto whispered.
“What the hell do you mean no?!” Touko questioned, raising her hands into the air. “We just need to subdue her and snap her out of it! Whatever made her like this, we can fix-”
“NO!” Makoto roared loudly, so much that Touko flinched. “We can’t fix this Fukawa. When we tried to override the Despairs in the program, it failed. That was our only option. There’s no way to come back… from this.”
“From what? I feel just fine Big Bro!” Komaru smirked. She gave a sly smile and shrugged, then suddenly she jerked back into her killing instinct and erratically shot at the group. Makoto ducked as an arbitrary Future Foundation member took the blow. That quickly sparked a wave of members to charge at the young girl, who only readied in return, as she dropped their bodies one by one.
However, the numbers stacked against her as more skilled members began taking the field. Komaru aggressively fought back, but was eventually beaten and held down by former SHSL students dressed in military gear. Eyes wide, she took in the scene and still heartily laughed.
“You know what must be done don’t you Naegi?” Togami asked.
“Yes,” Makoto whispered.
“Do you wish for me to do it?”
“Wait do what? What are you guys talking about?” Touko interjected, but was ignored.
“No. I will. Only I can.”
Makoto took a few deep breaths before approaching his bounded younger sister. He picked up her trademark megaphone, turned the dials until reaching the appropriate one. He then lifted it and aimed directly at Komaru.
“Komaru… I’m so sorry,” Makoto quietly spoke. “I never wanted this for you. You should have been safe and sound but I couldn’t stop him in time. That will always be my biggest regret, that I didn’t come back in time… I’m so sorry…”
That’s when it hit her; Touko finally realized it. He was going to kill her. Makoto was going to kill Komaru. A rush of sheer panic jolted throughout Touko’s body. The realization hit her like a rock. She began shaking as her mouth went dry. She could feel waves of nausea turn in the deep pit of her stomach, as her chest suddenly tightened. The thought of losing Komaru was almost too much.
“I won’t let you!! Makoto!” Touko yelled vociferously. She gritted her teeth and seeped out a threatening snarl as she quickly whipped out her taser. She expertly switched it on and instantly, the erratically whimsical Genocider Syo appeared. Except this time, she wasn’t her over the top self. No clever introductions, no comedically timed yet graceful movements. No, instead Genocider, with scissors already in hand, charged at Makoto, intense outrage written across her face.
Something deep inside her was evoked the second he raised Komaru’s own megaphone at her. Something Touko nor Genocider had never felt before. Protectiveness? Blind rage? No matter because all they could think about was taking down Makoto and even possibly skewering him for even attempting such an act. She was going to stop him no matter what it took.
Letting out a cry of attack, Genocider leaped into the air. Her speed and agility were bounds ahead than that of Makoto’s. She knew the first strike would be hers. She readied her attack as she descended on the older Naegi, who simply stood. As if he were waiting. He suddenly turned around just in time to lock eyes with Genocider, who was close to unleashing a flurry of attacks. However, just as they made eye contact, something in her froze. She froze because the person she was about to lay waste into a pile of shredded flesh wasn’t Makoto. It was Komaru.
For that split second, the way Makoto held her megaphone, the way his brown hair reflected the light, to even the way he stood confidently, it all reminded her of Komaru. Although in reality Makoto glared at the airborne serial killer, Genocider saw differently. In Makoto’s place where he stood, she instead saw Komaru smiling, holding her megaphone while her other hand was reaching out, of course to her. Always to her.
“K-Komaru...?” Genocider softly thought. Her eyes grew wide and her guard dropped mid-air, so much that she let go of her bladed scissors. Makoto quickly took advantage of this and promptly raised the megaphone, aiming straight between her eyes. He pulled the trigger.
A loud, sharp bang echoed. As if she were suddenly being pulled from behind, Touko’s body twisted backwards. Her glasses flew off from her face as she bluntly crashed onto the floor. She landed with a disturbing thud, flat on her back.
She felt no pain. Not from the blow, nor from the landing. Her body felt nothing. But inside, she was suffocating. Drowning in her own pool of inadequacy and weakness. Her failure as a friend and protector wrapped its merciless claws around her heart, squeezing it as if it were a water balloon so easily able to pop, but unready. Her throat hitched as blood from her head rolled down in streaks. Paralyzed she simply looked up, eyelids half closed, jaw unhinged.
For some reason she began to recount a memory, of them watching the brainwashing video. Of how she felt a familiar stroke subtly brush against her nose. It was faint and quick but she felt it. At the time Touko couldn’t recall what happened after. But as she layed on the cold floor bleeding, it clicked. The only one besides herself that could have done that. Tears started to well up. And all one could hear were her chilling screams, following the sounds of the ever so familiar megaphone blasts in the distance.