Relatable

Freedom at long last

"This is it." Makoto stated, remote in hand, finger hovering over the button. "Any parting words?"He mused looking around at his peers only to see deadpan faces glue on the door in anticipation, even Hagekure who always wore a joyous expression seemed somewhat serious.

"Get it on with Naegi, we have places to be." Byakuya snapped in a somewhat annoyed manner, he too was eager to break free of the despair born place after being retained for so long.

Makoto neared the button in anticipation, ready to breach the barrier between society and this prison. "Three... Two... One" and the button was pressed, with an effect now in place as the doors slowly parted upon his action and the six were flooded with bright light, natural light, from the outside world.

Peering at the world they once left behind, they stared in awe at how in order the place was considering the information Junko fed them prior. it almost seemed fictional with how harmonious the mixture of birds chirping and cars driving by was. The trees they once saw burned to a crisp were in actuality thriving before their very eyes with their accompanied plants. As they took in the beautiful scenery, their admiration was interrupted by a sudden slapping sound.

*SLAP*

"Woah!" Hiro began "So this isn't all a dream, this... this is... the real world."He slowly began to prod around the front of hopes peak academy, outstanded by his views. "We made it, we survived!" He hopped up and down whilst also kissing the ground as he did so obviously thrilled to finally experience their long-awaited freedom.

"Uh..." Makoto began

"That is truly vile, you're ruining this moment." Byakuya also said, even further annoyed with Yasuhiro's actions.

"Y-yeah you p-p-pest, you d-dare ruin m-m-master's first experience of his freedom." She said sharply whilst also staying uncomfortably close to Byakuya

"Can you blame him, I mean come on we finally get our first breath of fresh air in God knows how long! Being cooped up in that place wasn't exactly pleasant either." Aoi spoke as she too strayed away from the academy and further from the front entrance, with evident tears in her eyes.

"Sigh, if you say so." Byakuya mumbled, Toko standing dangerously close to him

"But then... What were those photos Junko showed us before we left, were they just fakes or..." Kyoko uttered whilst she stood with her hand on her chin, "Everything she told us, was a lie?" She further began to ponder she stared around the entrance in wonder of what she was seeing. Makoto following her movements as he watched her go from confused to amazed, though the transmission of emotion was slight, he saw the slight wonder in her eyes. I've never seen her so curious before, not like this anyway.

"So what now then?" Byakuya spoke in an affirmative tone, "What do we do? Are we just going to go our separate ways from here? What's our plan?" He continued with intrusive questions as the gang got themselves together once again.

"My family..." Makoto started "I have to see if they're okay!" He said out of courage "I don't know if the videos they showed us were fake or not but, I still wanna check, just in case." He continued.

"Yeah!" Hiro chimed in "I need to go see if my sidekick is still okay, she seemed in quite bad shape in the video monokuma showed me." He scratched the back of his head with a light blush tinting his face.

"Sidekick?" They all collectively asked out of sheer curiosity. This makes Hiro blush further, this time from embarrassment.

"Y-yeah, what about it!?" He further stated. "Can't the ultimate clairvoyant have a sidekick?"

"Isn't that something you see in movies?" Aoi asked jokingly, but just as Hiro was about to open his mouth he was interrupted.

"How do we keep in touch then? Our phones were taken away so we can't just call or text each other." Kyoko added to the conversation. They all pondered for a while as to what the best course of action would be, leaving a silence amongst them all.

"Let's meet here tomorrow." Byakuya said, "At five in the afternoon, hopefully, we should get used to our surroundings, well, some of us." He stated the rest of the group were rather surprised by this intervention  to the conversation.

"Togami, I never thought that you would be the one to make a suggestion." Makoto began

"O-of course he wou-ld h-he c-cares."

"And why is that, Naegi." He responded, frustrated for some odd reason whist ignoring anything Fukawa had to say

"You just seemed like the person who would wanna part ways after everything, so this was kinda a suprise." Makoto laughed awkwardly with his hand behind his neck.

"Pft." Byakuya brushed it off and now looked the other way.

"5 tomorrow got it!" Yasuhiro quickly stated, he seemed rather jittery. "Can we go then?" He said, body halfway facing the exit whilst waiting for someone's response.

"I suppose, I mean, that's all we needed to discuss right now, r-" Makoto, however, was quickly interrupted

"See you guys tomorrow!" Yasuhiro shouted whilst making a dash for the entrance, almost tripping over his own feet, without so much as a wave goodbye. The rest of them just stared at the man as he quickly made his escape from the conversation and onto the bustling street. Byakuya sighed once again

"Since sonic the hedgehog has just left us I suppose it would be sensible for us to discuss this together tomorrow, not that he'd still be much help but anyway." Byakuya continued, Makoto smiled at his statement -So he really does care about this- he thought.

"Yeah, I suppose, but, do we all have places to stay? What if the videos were... You know." Aoi gripped her arm whist looking down on the floor, biting her lip whilst doing so, obviously distressed. This caused for Makoto to put a hand on her shoulder out of comfort whisky wearing a fitting smile.

"We'll work something out, don't worry about it." He said to further comfort his friend. Kyoko looked at him in admiration - He's so... Optimistic- she thought to herself whilst still staring at Naegi, he took a glance of her staring front eh corner of his eye and blushed ever so slightly at the attention he was receiving.

"I don't recall anybody objecting saying that the didn't have a place to stay, and since we're pretty much done speaking, then I'm leaving." Byakuya too made his way to the exit in search of his family, Toko following close behind begging for her 'Master' to slow down. "Stop calling me that!" Byakuya could be heard in the distance shouting.

"Well since everyone else is gone, I guess I should go too, I have someone to check up on." And with that Aoi also made her way to the exit and made herself scarce. Leaving only Kyoko and Makoto by themselves, Makoto scratched his head awkwardly and cleared his throat to try and get the girl's attention.

"So, what you gonna do now Kiri?" Makoto asked with a warm smile as she looked back at him.

"Well, I suppose that it's back to my house then, it's not like anyone's waiting for me anyway..." She said in a drab tone, figuring with her gloves as she did so.

Makoto looked at Kyoko, almost saddened with how much she had lost and how little she had to go back to, it really broke his heart to see someone so upset yet used to being alone when they were all just talking about going back to their lives ones.

"If you have nothing better to do, then... Why don't you come with me? I could use some support just incase... Well... You know." Makoto trailed off as his smile slowly faded into worry and his eyebrows furrowed. Till he felt the weight of a hand on his shoulder and looked back up to see a smiling Kyoko.

"I would like that." She stated as she made an attempt to slightly broaden her smile, causing for the flush on Makoto's cheeks to grow as he saw the care she held for him in her actions. It filled him with the courage to keep moving.

"Shall we?" Makoto, now regained his composure and was faced fully towards the exit whilst holding his hand out to the girl almost instinctively, it not like he was expecting her to take it but to his suprise, he felt her gloved hand in his.

The atmosphere growing warmer by the second causing for both of their faces to flush. "Let's." And the pair of them took to themselves to leave the school, hopefully once and for all.