[Day 12, Erika and Akira]

[very_good_end]

[If he'd come along, Erika would invite Akira to a private talk.]

Ah, Kurusu-san. Sorry to hear about those injuries you've taken. You seem to have had quite a rough night. Of course, for a man like yourself, they can leave you down, but not out, as they say...

[She'll hold open the door for him until he wheels himself inside the spare closet on the ground floor... since he wasn't getting upstairs to the dorm in his state.]

Comments

[purrtagonist]

[yep, good call, Erika. this is also the second closet conversation he's had today, SO. . .]

Just because you trip during a marathon doesn't mean you should quit the race.

[very_good_end]

[Once she gets the door shut behind him and locked, she immediately bursts into tears.]

Help me! Please help me!!

[She'll toss herself on the floor in front of him for good measure.]

Kurusu-san, I don't know what to do... for maybe the first time in my life I don't know what to do!

1/2

[purrtagonist]

[holy]

[shit]

[for a moment? he's stunned completely and utterly speechless]

[purrtagonist]

-- Erika? What's wrong?

[very_good_end]

Y-Y-You're the only one I can come to!

[she bawls her eyes out for a few more seconds... it's a full-face cry too, and more than that, it's clear from how much she's shaking it's not a cry because of sadness...

it's fear...]

Please, just... say you'll help me, please...!

[purrtagonist]

[. . . he'd lean down to place a hand on her shoulder if he could, but bending over like that with his back all stitched up is just asking for trouble]

Okay.

[he's quick to agree]

What do you need help with, Erika?

[very_good_end]

[she'll take a moment to hyper-ventilate before finally nodding and looking up at him.]

There...

There... has... to be a murder tonight!

[purrtagonist]

[NOTE TO SELF: ALWAYS CHECK THE TERMS OF YOUR CONTRACT BEFORE SIGNING]

. . . why?

[he, uh. can't help her there. but he is asking first, before launching into being defensive]

[very_good_end]

Because... [sputters] T-there has to be one! Where the detective goes, a crime follows... if there's no crime, there's obviously no detective...!

...and if this goes on much longer, a fate worse than death is coming for me!

[purrtagonist]

[evenly]

What is this "fate worse than death?"

[very_good_end]

[Bites back another sob as she calms herself enough to speak, monotonely.]

...Imagine being thrown into a featureless ocean, for forever.

You can't imagine it, because it's on a scale that's beyond your comprehension. The ocean is only finitely big. There would be things living in it. Furthermore, you would run out of strength to stay afloat and drown eventually.

This ocean exists on a separate reality from anything you could feasibly imagine as real. There is nothing in it. Furthermore, there is no death. Or life. Just endless space of nothing. And the time you spend there is forever, alone, until you are also nothing.

[pause]

That's what's waiting for me... that... endless sea of... oblivion...

[She cracks into tears and panic again.]

I can't go back... don't send me back... please, Kurusu-san...

[purrtagonist]

Erika. . .

[. . .]

Stand up, Erika.

[very_good_end]

You don't believe me!

[No, she isn't making it that easy, she stays put right in front of him.]

Well, you asked! And you're my only option to avoid that...

...I'm not asking you to help me kill someone, but hear me out... I have another idea...

[purrtagonist]

I never said I didn't believe you. I do-- and that's the truth.

But that look, and those tears? They don't suit you.

So stand up, and let's talk face-to-face. Stand up, and tell me what your idea is.

[very_good_end]

...

[She does, tentatively, stand up.]

...All right, Kurusu-san. It's simple.

It's a fate worse than death awaiting me if another night passes without a murder. ...Kurusu-san is popular isn't he? I could try begging him to egg one of his friends on into committing murder, but that's not very likely to happen, is it? No, even if it did, it wouldn't become a proper mystery. It'd simply be some farce.

Therefore, I must rely on an alternate plan.

All you need to do is kill me.

[purrtagonist]

[. . . for a moment? he's quiet, studying her carefully, expression even. is he considering it? is he weighing his options, thinking back to his own murder stick, contemplating taking her up on her offer]

[he finally breaks the silence]

. . . how did you become the Great Detective, Erika? And why, if no murder occurs tonight, will you be sent back into oblivion?

[very_good_end]

[Silence.]

If I tell you, you'll think I'm crazy. You'll just write it off as delusion.

[purrtagonist]

Try me.

[very_good_end]

I don't want to, because you're my only possible ally, and I can't afford to lose you.

...

[sighs]

Kurusu-san... you get along pretty easily with people, don't you? You seem to have... connections, with a lot of persons. Somehow this even included I, Great Detective, Furudo Erika... is that correct?

[purrtagonist]

. . . you aren't the first person to point that out to me today, oddly enough.

[and honestly, he's not quite used to being "popular," as someone put it]

But I do. Not everyone, but-- well. You could say that forming contracts and connections with people is sort of my. . . thing.

[very_good_end]

[nods]

Of course, you are also a flesh-and-blood mortal human person. It stands to reason that eventually you'll die. Either from some outside force, or at least old age.

...But the world doesn't end when you die, does it? Of course not. It keeps going on, unconcerned about you. Time marches on, children become adults, that sort of thing.

Suppose you had some legacy left over, though, Kurusu-san. You were known throughout your life as a charming person who could make friends with anyone, these future people might begin to think. They might even concoct stories, about how Kurusu-san met a deadly bear while on a hike, but he was so charming in his personality, they settled down to have coffee together and forgot their animosity. --It's ridiculous, but it's not like you're around to object, is it? Those future-people with all their audacity could ascribe whatever traits they wanted to you.

...Now suppose you weren't Kurusu Akira. You were some lonely girl who had her feelings trampled on when her intellect outran her capacity for trust. A girl who died under mysterious circumstances from what could have very well have been a suicide, if her parents hadn't objected to that being attributed to her death and the police agreed for lack of evidence. And let's say some future-person heard that story, noted there was never a body found, and thought 'Who's to say she didn't live, go on, and have interesting adventures? What an interesting person to make as a sort of detective. Not just a detective, but a Great Detective...'

--that'd be fine, for that future-person at least, wouldn't it? It wouldn't change reality, per se, but it might give you, that girl, a new chance at 'life'... so to speak.

[smiles]

... It's an interesting thought experiment of hypothetical reasoning, isn't it?

[purrtagonist]

[. . . Erika has no idea how much this resonates with him]

The world is a product of cognition. Hypothetically speaking, it stands to reason that the cognition of a particularly powerful individual could rewrite this girl's future to give her life and adventure.

[the way he says "hypothetically" makes it obvious that he isn't. . . speaking hypothetically, actually]

[very_good_end]

Let's not go crazy, Kurusu-san. There's only one reality, after all, and in this reality, any human you could look up named Furudo Erika would be long dead. ...But, her life sucked, so who cares about that?

[sighs]

From this powerful individual's perspective, as long as Great Detective Furudo Erika is having interesting adventures, they'll keep putting her in new adventures. ...But if not...

[Pause.]

Like I said: fate worse than death.

[purrtagonist]

[a hum]

You might be surprised about how much of reality can be created from the perceptions of an individual.

[. . .]

Hypothetically speaking, say this Great Detective stopped being a Great Detective and started being something of her own creation. What would happen then?

[very_good_end]

[silence]

...You seem to be under the impression that the Great Detective Furudo Erika does not like being the Great Detective Furudo Erika. I assure you: that is not the case.

Furthermore, that's akin to blasphemy, isn't it? This hypothetical powerful individual, it could be said they would have crafted this Great Detective in their own image... for their creation to rebel against them would be like man rebelling against God himself. Or gods. Whichever.

And unlike, say, the rebellion of Prometheus, which at least had some motive to it, there wouldn't even be a point to this sort of rebellion. Not to mention there'd be no escaping the punishment that would surely be visited upon them for such actions... and if avoiding that wasn't the point, I'd have just let what happens tomorrow happen without reaching out, wouldn't I?