exequte | 15strangers week 3 tuesday

[He sits on his bed.]

Where do I start... [Kaito sighs.] Alright, so in the killing game before, I had three close confidants. There was Kaede Akamatsu, the Ultimate Pianist. She was sweet and gentle, but she didn't always say what she thought. She inspired other people. You'd probably like her. She died first. That wasn't her in the picture.

Then there was Shuichi Saihara, the Ultimate Detective. He was my best friend--my sidekick. He was smart, and kind, and put others before himself...but he always wanted to find the truth of any situation. He...I don't know what happened to him. He was alive when I bit it. Wasn't him, either.

Then...I forgot this one, and I feel terrible about it. Her name was Maki Harukawa. She told us that she was the Ultimate Child Caregiver. She was rough around the edges. Blunt, like a sword. She thought it was dumb she got the title she got, since she didn't like kids, or even people in general, that much. That was 'cause she was hiding another title. She was the Ultimate Assassin...she obviously wasn't used to socializing that much, since she was treated like a weapon. She was in the picture. That was her.

[He sighs, running a hand through his hair.] I was the first person to reach out to her. Maybe--maybe ever. She didn't know what to do with it. But she started hanging out with Shuichi and I. She started being more open with her perspectives, more empathic, and she--

[...] She became a really close friend of mine. I think she really grew attached to me, but, uh, I kinda just saw her as like, maybe a sister or somethin'...anyway. She grew strong enough, emotionally, to resist the lure of the motives, to trust people, and to survive.

...

Zero left a note on that picture saying she survived the whole game. And just because I'm here, just because I'm alive right now...she could be brought into another game. And I don't know how she'd take that. I don't know what would happen. And it could be all my fault. I can't DO that to her, not again--...

[He's panicking.]

[She takes his hand in hers again, firmly.]

You wouldn't be. No matter what happens.

What...what do you mean....?

[She sits delicately next to him, knees touching his, looking up, his hand still in hers.]

Have you ever heard of the Trolley Problem?

...The one where it's the no-win scenario?

One person tied to the tracks, then the other side with multiple people tied to the tracks?

[he kind of anticipates where she's going with this, but doesn't like it]

What--what about it...?

[She gives him a tiny little smile for that, though the emotion behind it is hard to name, some mixture of compassion and sorrow and something indefinable and adamant, and something in her eyes seems like it stretches back a thousand years.]

Yes.

It's an ethical and psychological dilemma that was first introduced in 1967 by a woman named Philippa Foot. The most common version has a bystander next to a railway switch, watching a runaway trolley race towards five people who are tied on the track. They can pull the switch and save those five people, but if they do, then the choice to change tracks will kill one person tied to the other tracks, who would otherwise be safe. It's a question of if it's more ethical to sacrifice one person to save a greater number, or to abstain from taking a life, even if a greater number would suffer because of that lack of action.

But....

When you think about it, who would really be responsible for those deaths, no matter which choice is taken? Is it the bystander, who is at the switch and forced to choose if they will decide between to act or do nothing? Or is it the maniac who tied all those people to the railroad tracks?

....

[He sighs, but he does understand what she's getting at.]

It's just--that, that's what frustrates some part of me deep down. I'm stuck as a bystander. I can't defeat the maniac, I can't save everyone--I'm just the bystander who can't lift the train off of the tracks and save the conductor, the hostages, or...or even the maniac.

I don't want people to die. Not again. Not my friends. Not my enemies. Not...anyone.

People don't have to die. They don't...

[She looks down, and after a moment begins weaving her fingers through his.]

I know.

[Her voice is soft.]

But... but for our purposes here, even if it's made to look like a trolley problem, it really isn't, is it?

...well. Kind of.

There's one person - Maki - on the top track. Then everyone else - everyone here - on the bottom track.

But I...

[He sighs, gently squeezing her hand.]

I couldn't do that. You know me. I just...don't want Maki to be hurt...

I know. But that's not quite what I meant.

Maki, and the everybody else's precious people, are on one track, and one person from here, any of us, is on the other. But what about after the lever is pulled? After that, either the bystander or else the other 14 people die too.

[She looks up at him, then, her eyes wet.]

It's terrible. But... but it's not what Delta is trying to make it look like either.

...Ah. Yeah. I get it now.

[He gently reaches his other hand out, wiping tears away from her eyes.]

He's--he knew, what would get to me. This was similar to one back in the first killing game I was in, too.

[A beat.]

I lost Grampa and Gramma then. Still wasn't as bad as the guy who had no one to lose, I guess.

[She turns her head into his hand, raising hers to cover his, holding it gently against her cheek.]

It's not your fault, though. You didn't start this.

I know.

Thank you. For everything.

[He gently caresses her cheek.]

...I'm so lucky. No matter what anything else happens, I'm...I'm really lucky, for once.

[Because he has her.]

[She smiles at him, finally, and then presses up close and wraps her arms around him in a lingering hug, only pulling back eventually, slightly red, now, and suddenly shy.]

So... is there another reason you wanted to bring me back to your... empty... bedroom?

[...His face heats up. Well. There are not many ways to take that.]

...I'll be honest, like, um.

Did you want there to be?

[which isn't, like, the most smooth guy thing to ask, but he's a gentleman first and foremost with this]

[She watches as he flushes and turns rigid and uncomfortable and earnest and honest and willing and painfully transparent and trusting and still respectful of her through it all and is hit by a sudden wave of almost unbearable fondness that pulls her body up and to his until she kisses him, arms coming up to rest around his neck.

The kiss is soft and gentle and chaste and full of all the fondness in her, as sweet as honey. When she finally pulls back, gently, and lets it break, she is truly blushing, but she's also smiling, though it seems shy.]

Um... it might be nice, if you wanted to hold me for a while....

[And...it's perfect. Kaito's face continues to burn bright red - a mercy, considering all the cold - but he gently kisses her in return, and it's chaste, and gentle, and it feels so nice and so right that he'd be shocked to find out that despite them obviously coming from very different places...they had to be made for each other. They just had to be.

Once it breaks, his entire very being is warm. It's perfect. He has nothing in this entire world he could complain about.]

Of course. I'd love to.

[And so he does, gently holding her close.]

...Cuddling is almost necessary in this temperature, anyway. Heh.

[That makes her giggle, and pull him down with her onto his bed before she curls up in his arms, up against him, pressing gently against the warmth of him as she snuggles close.]

I'm pretty lucky too, I think.

[He's tugged down with her, and he ends up laughing as well, holding her close.]

You think? There's plenty of--...no, no, wait, yeah, you are. I'm Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars! I'm better than any other guy because that's so!

[A beat.]

That's what a cool guy would say, right~? I'm right. It's true.

[He's obviously joking.]

[She looks up at him with bright eyes, still smiling, still blushing, pressed close against his warmth. Her eyes are almost sparkling at his words, and she giggles.]

Hmm... when you say it like that, I guess I'll have to say you're not cool at all.

[But then her expression softens into something like pleasure as she tucks herself a little better into his arms.]

You're better than that. You're warm. And I'm glad. I'm so glad.

I'm--I'm not?

[she's right, but she was still so upfront about it...he's not cool...]

[oh...oh wait. He gets it, and immediately smiles, softening again.]

Well...yeah, I guess the last thing we need is more coolness right now. Yeesh. Though you're pretty warm, too...guess y'should be, considerin' the jacket...

[That's as much hers as is it his now.]

...You deserve to be happy, though. Always.

I am happy. I'm happy right now.

15strangers week 3 tuesday

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