Komaru on Jabberwock Island

‘Komaru, I have a favour to ask.’

It was the Naegi siblings’ fortnightly video catch-up, and Komaru had been thinking of signing off. But apparently Makoto had been working up to something.

‘Sure,’ Komaru said. ‘What did you need?’

‘It’s about the Remnants of Despair,’ Makoto said, and he clicked his tongue. ‘We really need a better name for those guys.’ He looked to the side, as if now was the time to come up with an answer. Or he was just putting off his request.

‘Have you heard something?’

‘It’s not that. Just that we’re due to check-in with them – bring supplies, that sort of thing. Only it’s hard to get away at the moment. I don’t want to draw attention by leaving while things are as they are.’ Makoto and the others were still dealing with the aftermath of the Future Foundation’s internal implosion.

‘So when you say you want a favour …’

‘I was hoping you would go for me. And Fukawa-san, of course.’

Toko was sitting across the room, supposedly working on revisions for her latest novel. But now she was blatantly staring at Komaru.

‘You want us to leave Towa City?’ Komaru said.

‘It wouldn’t be for long,’ Makoto said. ‘The boat trip’s a three-day round trip; you could stay a week, get a feel for things …’

Komaru looked across the room. ‘What do you think, Toko-chan?’

‘I think it sounds like a big pain,’ Toko mumbled.

‘Toko-chan’s keen,’ Komaru told her brother. The microphone on her laptop wasn’t so good that it could pick up Toko’s voice from across the room.

‘Think of it like a tropical holiday,’ Makoto said.

‘If I go on holiday, I don’t want it to be like this …’

‘Why don’t you send me the details?’ Komaru said. ‘I’ll make sure everything’s in order here.’

‘You’re not even going to pretend to listen to my opinion!’

‘... did Fukawa-san say something?’

‘She’s just saying how much she’s looking forward to it,’ Komaru said, and dodged as Toko threw a cushion across the room at her.

‘I bet …’

‘How soon did you need us?’

---

Makoto gave them three days to get ready. Things were quieter in Towa City since Monaka had left, and Komaru found she was looking forward to a change.

She spent the night before they were due to leave reviewing profiles of the Remnants that Makoto had sent her. They were scanty, based mostly on hearsay and rumour – the last time her brother had been to the island, most of them hadn’t even been awake. There was one face, of course, that was more familiar to Komaru than the others. Komaeda Nagito. Komaru hadn’t known his name before.

Bringing her a cup of tea, Toko came to settle on the couch beside her.

‘Are you really okay seeing him again?’ Toko asked, looking at the screen before Komaru thought to flick away.

‘We see Kotoko-chan and the others all the time.’

‘That’s different,’ Toko said. ‘They were actually kids, even if they were messed up.’

It was different, but Komaru didn’t want to think about that too much. Instead she said lightly, ‘Toko-chan, don’t you believe in the Future Foundation’s ability to rehabilitate Despair?’

‘You think I’d believe in something like that?’ Toko said. ‘The Future Foundation wanted them dead.’ She hesitated. ‘Of course, I trust Byakuya-sama’s judgement. It’s probably safe.’

Toko’s eternal trust in Togami was reassuring in itself, although it made Komaru feel a little lonely sometimes.

‘I’m kind of curious,’ Komaru said, returning to their original topic, ‘if he were, you know, rehabilitated … what would that guy even be like?’

‘He’d probably still be terrible,’ Toko said. ‘Most people are. It doesn’t matter – if he does try anything, we can just offer him up to the part of the Future Foundation that thinks it was Despair that was responsible that time.’

‘That’s cruel …’

‘Well, you can’t do all the fun things yourself,’ Toko said, a glint in her eye like maybe it wasn’t just her everyday self saying it.

---

The boat trip was a novelty for Komaru, who enjoyed being on deck with the vast blue of the sea and sky around them, and a form of torture for Toko, who spent most of the time being seasick. After three days her sickness had begun to wear on Komaru too, and they were both relieved to arrive at the islands.

The plan was that the crew would help unload the supplies, and then come back in a week’s time. The crew didn’t know who the inhabitants of the islands were – ostensibly, Komaru and Toko were there to visit family. Komaru didn’t know if the crew bought that or not.

‘Maybe they’ve got the right idea,’ one of the crew members said, after they had disembarked. ‘Forget society; live somewhere no-one can get to.’

‘It certainly is quiet,’ Komaru said.

‘You’re sure there’s even anyone here to meet you?’

‘It’ll be a pretty boring week if there’s not.’

The guy looked out toward the coast, where the sea glittered invitingly. ‘That doesn’t sound so bad either. Maybe I should join you.’

Komaru laughed, and after the guy had moved away again, Toko muttered, ‘Why are you like that? That guy’s going to remember you now. Probably going to go back to his bunk and remember you –’

‘Don’t be like that, Toko-chan.’

‘Well, one of us has got to be suspicious. You’d walk straight into the lion’s den if I let you.’ Toko looked away from the sea, toward the abandoned town that lined the bay. The forest had begun to creep down from the hills and encroach upon the buildings; everywhere there were peeks of green.

What had happened to all the people who used to live here, Komaru wondered. Had the Tragedy claimed them all? Had they upped and left for their own reasons? It should have felt spooky, perhaps, seeing the town reclaimed by nature – but somehow the sight was comforting. 

Even if nature tried to kill you, it couldn’t do so with the malevolence of a town filled with robot bears and mind-controlled children.

The boat unloaded, Komaru reassured the crew that they would be okay, and their family knew they were coming – ‘island time, you know’. She probably could have talked the crew into staying till the others arrived – or changed her mind, got back on the boat and returned to the leavings of civilisation.

Instead, she waved the boat goodbye, and only once it was chugging out into the open sea did any of the island’s inhabitants reveal themselves.

‘Yo!’ said the young man that was Souda Kazuichi. He and a young woman came up to greet them.

‘Sorry to keep you waiting. You know we aren’t really meant to show ourselves in front of strangers.’ He smiled a too-toothsome smile. ‘You must be the little sister.’

It was an easy smile for Komaru to return.

‘I’m Naegi Komaru,’ she said. ‘Pleased to meet you.’

‘The pleasure’s mine,’ Souda said.

Komaru heard Toko make a rather unflattering sound.

‘Uh – who’s your friend?’ Souda said in a side-note. ‘I feel like she’s cursing me.’

‘This is Fukawa Toko. Toko-chan, don’t go cursing anyone already.’

‘Fukawa Toko-chan?’

‘Just Fukawa!’ Toko said in protest.

‘Is that everything?’ asked the woman. ‘I feel like they haven’t sent us enough food again.’

‘They sent us plenty of food! Plenty!’

‘Owari Akane,’ said the woman. ‘Nice to meetcha. I guess I better move some of this stuff inside, huh?’

‘By yourself?’ Toko asked.

‘It won’t take long,’ Owari said. ‘Can’t let a skinny girl like you do all the work.’

‘Did she … did she just call me scrawny?’

‘Don’t take it personally, Toko-chan,’ Komaru said. To Owari, she said, ‘We appreciate the help.’

‘Not like any of this stuff’s for you,’ Owari said. ‘We’re the ones should be grateful.’

‘Anyway,’ Souda said, ‘let’s get you to the others. I know they’re psyched you’re coming.’

‘Is it that exciting?’ Toko asked.

‘Sure is! We’ve got something special planned.’ Souda grinned. ‘That’s why the others couldn’t come meet you. Mioda made them help.’

‘Mioda-san?’ Komaru said. ‘You mean the Ultimate Musician? From that band?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Toko-chan, did you hear that?’

Before Toko could respond, Souda said, ‘I’ll warn you though, it won’t be what you expect.’ He laughed.

Souda explained the layout of the islands as they walked. The warmth of the day made it hard to move too quickly. Everyone was down at the beach on the first island, apparently – planning some sort of party. Komaru wasn’t sure that was what Makoto had expected when he sent her here – that they would be greeted so cheerfully.

When they got to the beach, though, things were a little more chaotic.

‘Kazu-chan, you gotta help!’ called out one young woman. ‘C’mere quick!’

There had been an attempt to set up some sort of stage, but something had gone wrong. The lighting bar was discarded on the stand, and one of the lights had smashed. There was blood on the glass, and on the sand.

‘What happened here?’ Souda said.

‘No need to yell,’ said another, startlingly blonde young woman. ‘There was only a small accident.’ The woman gestured, and that was when Komaru followed the trail of blood to see him again for the first time. The man who had determined the shape of her fight in Towa City – sitting there, having his head dressed.

‘We were trying to hang the lighting bar,’ the blonde woman said, ‘but it fell and knocked Komaeda-san on the head. Such bad luck.’

‘She says fell,’ another woman said, ‘but Tanaka-onii dropped it.’

‘Lies!’

‘Are they always this noisy?’ Toko asked, and Souda laughed awkwardly.

‘Pretty much.’

Toko eyed Komaru, who had angled herself sideways, as if she could slip out of Komaeda’s view. ‘He’s gonna see you anyway.’

‘Who’s that?’ Souda said, but he wasn’t really interested. ‘Hey everyone, our visitors are here!’

There had been the possibility, based off what Makoto had told her, that Komaeda might not remember her. But when everyone’s attention turned to her, and Komaru met Komaeda’s eyes across the sand – even before the two of them had spoken to one another, Komaru knew that he remembered her.

But before then, there was the rest of the group eager to be introduced. Komaru went through them all, and because Komaeda stayed seated, she could leave him until last.

He’d called himself only a servant, before. It wasn’t enough that Komaru could skip him. And no-one except Toko knew that history besides – it would stand out if she didn’t speak to him. Maybe Toko would have been happy to cut him altogether, but Komaru didn’t think that was right.

He watched her approach, eyes bright and alert as a bird’s.

‘Naegi Komaru-san,’ he said. ‘What a surprise that we meet again. You’re looking well.’

Komaru hesitated, and so Toko stepped in and said, ‘Can’t say the same for you. Came off the worse, did you?’

Komaeda laughed, and touched the bandage on his head. His injury had bled through the fabric. ‘I guess I did.’

‘Hang on,’ cut in one of the other guys – Hinata Hajime – ‘you three know each other?’

‘In a manner of speaking,’ Toko said.

‘They probably don’t want to admit me among their acquaintances,’ Komaeda said.

‘We met before,’ Komaru said, ‘in Towa City.’

Hinata looked sharply at Komaeda then. ‘You were in Towa City?’

‘Have you been, Hinata-kun? Or, no, that was the other one. Imagine if our paths had crossed then.’ He turned back to Komaru. ‘I suppose I don’t need to introduce myself now. You already know.’

‘Komaeda Nagito-san,’ she said. He nodded as if he were satisfied.

Komaru let out her breath. Maybe that was all that would happen. They would acknowledge one another, and then hopefully she could ignore him for the rest of the trip.

Hopefully. Komaru should know better than to rely on hope.

---

Tsumiki had ordered Komaeda onto bed rest, but somehow he hadn’t complained about missing the party – and Ibuki’s show. Komaru knew as soon as the music started why Komaeda had agreed so readily to miss out. But by the time Ibuki was halfway through the second song, Komaru had begun to find the noise hypnotic instead of offensive. Ibuki’s guitar was so fast, but Komaru could still find patterns in it … was this how the arts had been used to drag people into despair?

Toko, next to her, covered her own ears.

Afterwards, her head still ringing, Komaru told Ibuki, ‘That was really cool! I didn’t know people could play that fast.’

‘When Ibuki is on fire, no-one can catch up!’ Ibuki said proudly. ‘You gotta give it your all. Say, Komaru-chan, do you play anything?’

‘Me? No way. I could hardly keep up when we did music classes in school.’

‘Hmm.’ Ibuki looked at her seriously. ‘Sheet music and that?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Psh, that’s no way to learn music! Ibuki will teach you while you’re here.’

‘I don’t know if there will be time for that …’

‘Mioda,’ said Hinata, coming up to join them, ‘you can’t monopolise Komaru the whole time she’s here.’

‘Ooo, Hajime-chan, are you going to fight me? Are we gonna be rivals?’

‘That’s not what I meant.’

‘You should come to training too,’ Ibuki said. ‘You’re always skipping out on me.’

‘Because it’s exhausting,’ Hinata muttered.

‘Did you say “training”?’ Komaru asked.

‘Yeah. Of course we can’t expect you to get up early tomorrow morning, but maybe after lunch …’

‘Hinata-san, will you come too?’ Komaru asked. It wasn’t as if her brother had given her an itinerary to follow – he just wanted to get a sense of how the Remnants of Despair were doing here on Jabberwock. Which meant she had to try and get to know them.

‘Come on, Hajime-chan. I wanna play with a full band again.’

‘Alright,’ Hinata said. ‘I’ll do it.’

‘Hooray! A new rivalry is born!’

‘I said, it’s not like that.’

‘True,’ Ibuki said, ‘that would definitely interfere with the band’s cohesion. But then, don’t the best musical relationships have a little antagonism in them?’

‘I didn’t know I was joining a band,’ Komaru said. She wondered if she should back out – but she was only going to be here a week.

‘Well, we gotta see how well we fit together first,’ Ibuki said slyly. ‘I’m looking forward to it!’

It wasn’t the only activity Komaru was invited to over the coming days – Souda wanted to show her his workshop; Sonia wanted to talk about her experiences with ghosts … Komaru had the feeling it wouldn’t have mattered who she was – they were excited to see new faces. But she found herself more relaxed about the trip than she had been.

‘You’re getting along with everyone,’ Toko said, when they were walking back to their cabin in the small hours of the morning.

‘They don’t really seem like Despair, do they?’

‘That’s because we don’t know what they were like before,’ Toko said. ‘You wouldn’t say that about that Komaeda guy, would you?’

‘I guess not,’ Komaru said. ‘What about you, Toko-chan? Find anyone to get along with?’

‘I heard there’s a pretty good library here,’ Toko said. ‘It might turn out to all be trash, of course.’

‘I’m not sure my brother meant for you to hang out in the library here …’

‘Who cares? You can do all the chit-chat stuff. If I find any of your manga things, I’ll bring them back for you.’

‘Thanks, I think.’