Ken's arrival (bis repetita)

[the_ken]

Okay. Well. Ken had to admit that, when he went to bed last night, he did not expect to wake up in a blue room and be welcomed by a long-nosed man. He would have thought that it was a dream, but he's been in enough of them to know it's nothing of the sort. This place had a dinstinct, strong feeling, not quite reality, but much firmer than a dream.

He wasn't certain he could trust Igor-san yet, if he was perfectly honest. But in the case that he was not lying... it was actually great news. The real world was rough, currently, with Yuki-san being...

...

Well, a pause to make new friends couldn't hurt. Especially since he was learning again, learning to be alive, learning to live for himself, like Aragaki-san had asked him to. He couldn't let him down, not in a million years.

Malicious or not, Igor-san was right. He needed bonds. And he would make them.

Someone may meet this Ken...

1) while reading the information board. Even if being here seemed to overall be a good thing, that did not mean throwing caution out of the window. He needed information, and the kind soul having put together this compilation would save him a lot of time.

2) in Iwatodai, Ken being curious to see if the dorm SEES stayed at was still a thing in this strange place.

Comments

[fruitknife]

Well, that still answers his question. "Easy, kid, you're gonna hurt yourself like that. You hungry?"

Koromaru comes over for a sniff. Definitely a different Ken, even though Shinji already worked that out. This one just smells like Ken, not Ryoji.

[the_ken]

Ken tried to calm down, he really did, but it was hard.

Rationally... there was this whole different world and timeline business. So the Aragaki-san in front of him was likely not the Aragaki-san he knew. The dead didn't come back to life.

But still... seeing him again... he didn't know how to feel.

He reflexively started to pet Koromaru to try to relax.

"I'm sorry for the question, but... who are you exactly? I mean, you look like Aragaki-san, but I don't want to assume."

[fruitknife]

"Nah, you're right. We're probably not from the same timeline, though. You work with Minako or the blue-haired kid?"

Even if he hadn't already known how things usually seem to go, he startled the hell out of Makoto, too.

[the_ken]

"Well, I don't know anyone named Minako, and Yuki-san has blue hair, so... the latter, I suppose?"

An awkward silence.

"Err, Aragaki-san..." this name tasted so weird in his mouth. "How... how much do you know?"

[fruitknife]

"Guess so."

Shinji sighs. "I'm sorry, kid. What happened to your mom was an accident, but I'm still the one who caused it." That's not exactly an answer to the question, but it's been a damned long time coming.

"As for the rest, I was fucking lucky and I know it. Wasn't hard to figure out how it usually goes."

[the_ken]

"I see..."

He sighed.

"I suppose you can guess how it happened where I came from, huh? I... I'm sorry, Aragaki-san. I was so consumed, I..."

...

"I'll be honest, it's hard seeing you again. But I'm doing my best heeding my Aragaki-san's last words to me... I'm trying to live for myself. Even if it's hard sometimes."

[fruitknife]

"You don't have anything to apologise for. Nothing you could've done to me that was worse than what I was doin' to myself, anyway." 'Maybe you don't have to beat yourself up over it' still sounds fake, sometimes.

"I get it. All anyone could ask you to do is try."

It's all any of them can do, really.

"You gonna crash here, or find somewhere else?"

[the_ken]

"Well, if you don't mind me, I think here would be best, honestly. Having some familiarity in this unknown place would definitely help... thank you."

That was really nice of Aragaki-san, but by now Ken knew that was just the kind of person he was.

However, now that the initial shock had passed, a question popped up in his mind.

"Err, speaking about what you just said... are you still going to...?"

He hadn't been filled in on what exactly the suppressants did, but in his world, Aragaki-san was about to die from them... and this one seemed to imply he also was unkind to himself.

[fruitknife]

"Ain't like there's not plenty of room. Besides, you got as much right to be here as I do."

Maybe more, since Shinji walked away from everything for so long.

"Oh, the suppressant shit? Nah, got that cleared out, last place I was stuck."

[the_ken]

"Oh, you found a solution to it? That's really cool!" he exclaimed, sounding relieved.

If only his own Aragaki-san could have been so lucky...

...

"...wait. 'Last place you were stuck'? What do you mean?"

[fruitknife]

"Exactly what I said. This ain't my first time being yanked away from home."

Koromaru barks. Shinji brought him there too! It was fun! Except for the times he was really bored.

[the_ken]

"Oh, I see. And don't worry, Koromaru, of course we're not forgetting you here. I'm sure you had adventures too."

He plopped down on the couch, looking tired.

"Wew... that's a lot to take in at once. But... I'll admit it's nice to see familiar faces in this strange new land."

[fruitknife]

"It is, kinda. Even if it's mostly kids your age from Tokyo who got their own round of bullshit, few years down the road from us."

That's the part that gets to Shinji the most. He's still trying to figure out where the hell Mitsuru was for the Phantom Thieves debacle. (Signs point to 'the asshole at the top of the human conspiracy had enough pull to block her out,' which is a different kind of upsetting.)

[the_ken]

"I've only learned a little about that, but I'm far from having a complete picture yet. All I know is that, considering how harrowing our own operation was, it can't have been much better for anyone else."

That touched upon a question to which Ken didn't yet have the answer. Did he regret having gotten this power? He got to help everyone, but at a steep price, and he certainly misused it at first, focused on the wrong goal.