Wake Up Call: An Akanidai Story

Untitled Part 1

A final blow rang through the beach of Jabberwock Island. Everything went white as she collided with something. It sent her back with it. Something big and burly.

Nekomaru.

He was there, right in front of her. Bleeding. Battered. Bruised. All because of her. The idiot took a literal bazooka to the chest just for her. Just about a foot away from her he lay, writhing in pain yet looking all so strong.

"N-Nekomaru...Why did you s-save..?" Akane managed to get out, trying to stop herself from either throwing up or crying. So much of her strength was taken to even say those words.

His eyes closed and his gritted, painful growling came to a halt, a smile overtaking his face as he registered the gymnast speaking to him. "Ha...Isn't it obvious..?" He grunted, quivering before deciding to continue with his statement. "Supporting their athletes...is...a manager's duty..." He was losing grip on consciousness. He needed to stop- "W-what a shame...for someone like NEKOMARU NIDAI...to..."

She grabbed his arm, her hand immediately being soaked in the crimson liquid that stained his jacket. Her lip was quivering. She was shaking. Even on the verge of death, he showed stone-hard tenacity. If only she could do the same.

"It was just a little shot from a bazooka...I really am the worst...Heh." He started to laugh. How could you laugh while you're physically fucking dying?

"G-get a hold of yourself! Nekomaru!" She said, being careful yet ever so rough to try to shake him out of this. 'Try to be strong. Death was nothing new to you,' She repeated to herself, yet she couldn't. Tears started coming down in hot streaks and puddling on her cheeks.

"Akane..." He addressed, finally opening his eyes to look at her. He was in so much pain, she could tell, yet he held it all in. "The time I've spent with you...i-it...it wasn't so bad..." There was a pause before he finished his sentence. His eyes shut again and tears were finally visible on his face. "Don't...die...Akane."

It took everything in her not to vomit all over him. Hold it together hold it together hold it together- "N-Nekomaruuuuu~!" She let it out, immediately falling forward in a tearful lump on his chest. The same chest she punched during training. The same chest she cried into after TeruTeru bit the dust. The same chest which he let her lay on during the first storm on Jabberwock Island. Her safe place.

The damned bear who did it said something unintelligible as everyone else's, mostly Kazuichi's, screams flooded her blacked out hearing. She focused on him. Him, him, him, him, him. He couldn't go. She felt it. She heard it. Always trust your gut, Akane.

And she heard it: a faint heartbeat.

"HEY! H-hold on!" She screamed, weakly pushing herself up from his chest and pointing down to it. "I-it's faint...b-but his heart is still beating...!" This immediately alerted the attention of Mikan and Monomi. Good. "He's not dead yet!"

"You gotta hurry and treat him!" "You can do something about this, right?!?" "Save Nekomaru like you saved me!"

She had to be pried off of him by Fuyuhiko and Sonia as Monokuma's ambulance took him away. She took to holding onto Sonia and sobbed as hard as she could. Hiyoko and Mikan started fighting, an occasional interject from Sonia coming in here and there. "Hiyoko, blaming Akane will not help solve anything." She chided, still keeping her calm even though she had a shaking, sobbing idiot attached to her.

Akane let out a few more tears, not even facing the group as she spoke. "We don't...hafta worry about coach Nekomaru..." She managed, earning quizzical reactions from her peers. "There's no need to worry about worryin'!" Her hope was overtaking her sadness now. "I know Coach Nekomaru is a monstrous guy. There's no way he's gonna die for somethin' like that...There's no doubt! Nekomaru is definitely gonna come back!" By this point, she had let go of Sonia and was able to stand on her own now. "S-so when that happens...I'll make sure...I apologize to him. 'Cause I was too weak and I caused him trouble..."

She didn't get a wink of sleep until he came back- metallic and shiny, not the coach she knew.

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Akane jolted up from the cold slumber that overtook her body. She hit her head on something glass...or plastic...she didn't care. Something was pounding at it. Was she in a dream where she was a zoo animal? No, that couldn't be right, because it was the pink-haired motherfucker and Sonia banging on the glass. Wait, all of that was real?

The pod popped open and Sonia helped her out of the chamber. It took one glance around the room, Hajime, Sonia, Kaz, Fuyuhiko, Byakuya, and a few more people that helped them defeat that bitch named Jules or June or something. She looked at Sonia, taking in a shaky breath. "Is he really dead?"

"We addressed this in the simulation, it may take a while for them to wake up, naturally, but everyone who died as a blackened or victim will join your team shortly." Byakuya said, earning a weird stare from the gymnast herself. "No, I was not in the simulation. That identity belongs to the Ultimate Imposter. You shall learn more from them when they awake."

Okay, so Coach wasn't gonna be awake yet, there are about six more people that she didn't know here, and there's two Byakuyas? Damn, so she wasn't tripping.

Fuyuhiko stood over Peko's assumed pod, Kazuichi took place with Sonia over Gundham's, and Hajime, now with red eyes like that of that guy, glared down at Nagito's with a confused look on his face. Oh, so they were doing that. She stalked over cautiously to where she knew he would be. Her eyes stayed trained on all of the people she passed: Ibuki, Hiyoko, Mahiru, TeruTeru. She made a mental note to chastise him when he woke up for abandoning her with Hajime's shitty cooking. Finally, the gymnast felt her eyes fall upon a certain man's pod.

He was safe. Nekomaru was safe.