GRAVEYARD

[foundationmods]

[On the instant of your death, you're suddenly outside of your body - probably staring down at the remains it's become.

Yet, you're not alone. For all of you (except Szayel), a young man appears from behind you, his face set into a firm, yet sad, scowl. His shaggy strawberry blonde hair is pretty eye-catching, along with the black and white Shihakusho he wears and the large sword on his back, even as he gently tries to lead you back into the lobby and away from what was once your body. You can still clearly hear and see the living, if you want to try - but they can't see or hear you.

'Welcome to the world of the dead in this Resort,' he says, quietly. 'Looks like you're stuck here with the rest of us.'

He hands you a tablet, just like the one you had before. "You'll need this if you want to keep talking to them,' he explains, looking sad.

It looks like you've passed on, and yet...You still feel like you have a role to play in all of this.]

Comments

[moonlightbeast]

Getting rid of me would be easier too. Saturday night would not have happened if I had just said 'I'm a monster, kill me' at the start of the game.

Would you have agreed to let me just die then?

[justonezero]

[He goes quiet for a while. But then:]

Atsushi... the reason I helped them isn't because they tricked me, or because I didn't know what was happening to the things I tracked.

Until they killed Mikado, I didn't care enough to think about it.

[moonlightbeast]

And you think I didn't know what I was being used for either? You think I didn't understand what Dazai-san meant when he said 'the tiger is a powerful foe, perhaps he could scare our enemies'? Or what the Foundation meant when they purposefully sent me out on missions during the full moon?

If you don't hate me for knowingly using a dark side of myself to benefit myself and other people, then you can't hate yourself for doing something similar.

[justonezero]

[He freezes up. Because this is so contrary to his mentality, because all of this is, really.

It feels like everything he knew is shattering into a million pieces.]

I'm just garbage. [Whether or not he worked for the foundation, whether or not he really helped anyone, that was the truth. That was a constant.] That's why I hate myself.

Everyone else can be amazing in their own ways. I really believe that...

But I was never like that.

[moonlightbeast]

[He just. Wants to grab Yoshi's shoulders and shake him.]

You can't keep hating yourself, Yoshi-kun! Even if you did bad things in the past, even if you make mistakes and do bad things now, you can't hate yourself! Because you're an amazing person, just like everyone else here.

Even if you can't see that now, I'll see it for you, until you can see it too.

[justonezero]

Mikado- no, my future self--

We both made the same mistakes, didn't we?

[Because this is another thing confusing him, another thing threatening to break everything he knows.]

Mikado... I thought he was an amazing genius, but it turns out, we were still the same.

[But is that really what he's afraid of?

Or is it the knowledge that Mikado - that he, himself - could be considered anything amazing, too...?]

[moonlightbeast]

It's normal for you two to make the same mistakes. You lived the same lives, and you have the same faults. But maybe, if you can see those mistakes he made, you can keep from making them yourself? Your future is not set in stone.

[justonezero]

[He falls silent. There's so much he needs to think about now, so much he doesn't really want to, but...]

...I think I need to talk to Szayel.

[moonlightbeast]

[Atsushi nods, and he lets go of Yoshi.]

Whatever you need, do it. Because you're my friend, and I want to see you smile for real.

[justonezero]

[Yoshi keeps his head down even as he's released.]

...I don't even know why it was killing him. I get tired sometimes, but it doesn't usually hurt.

If... people really want me to live, I need to find out why.

[moonlightbeast]

You do, yes. Because I don't want you to die young.

[...wait.]

...um. I don't want you to die young again.

[justonezero]

Mikado was eight years older than me. So... he would have been twenty-two.

[...That's not how he wanted to see Mikado, ever. The whole future self thing is just adding layers of complications on top of it.]

[moonlightbeast]

[Twenty-two. The same age Dazai was when he...

...]

And I want you to live to be much older than that too.

[justonezero]

I'll have to live again first, though.

[Probably.]

[moonlightbeast]

Kurosaki said there's a solution to that problem, so you will definitely live again.

[justonezero]

Mm.

Let's... try to get the living out first, though.

[He'll figure out what to do with himself once he knows more.]