Family Reunion

[Riki]

When Fiyori talking about making a prayer, she was being facetious. She did not expect Alba to make a prayer, even though it was not that much of an oddity. Regardless, she waited for her ally to finish whatever she had to finish.

That prayer... no, even everything else: Alba's mention of feeling 'guilty', her gratitude towards Fiyori - all of that could only be met by Fiyori's bemused smile. She had nothing else to offer.

Nothing but that, and the patience to wait for a friend.

Again, she gazed over to the nearest camera. It's lens has shifted to watch Alba this time.

"...whenever you are ready."

[Laurels]

Alba breathed in and out as she ran her prayer through her mind.

"Dear Lord," she thought to herself, "please look over these five and all the other students who have died on this island. Please forgive them for their actions and accept them into your kingdom. Please help their families who are mourning their lost children. Please look after us as we go through this game. Please forgive me for my sins and cleanse my heart of all my wrongdoings. Please look after my family and ensure they're able to move on if I don't come home.

In your name, Amen."

Alba made the signs of the cross, then looked back up at Fiyori.

"Okay. We should get going. Let's make it to tomorrow night."

Alba adjusted her bags, stretched her back, and made her way to the exit of the Art Therapy Room. It was going to be a long journey to make it to the next evening, but Alba was starting to feel better. Maybe she would make it there after all.

((Alba Reyes continued elsewhere))

[Riki]

So Alba muttered her prayer. In another time, Fiyori would have belittled her for this action. She always thought a lot about herself, and the world at large. It wasn't like Fiyori thought she was the smartest cookie in the jar, or the world's next Immanuel Kant. All she had were her idle thoughts, coated in dark impulses and clouded by a fear of being alive.

Yet even though Fiyori would've never called herself special, she always felt special for thinking one specific thought - to have found the one answer to the great question: that god was dead, that he had never existed in the first place. And that all who worshiped him were deluded and foolish.

Fiyori watched Alba finish her prayer.

Whether Fiyori had the same belief or not didn't matter anymore. In the end, it was an answer to a question that could have been left unasked and none would've been the wiser. All Fiyori knew now - and the one thing that made her feel special - was this fraternal love she felt towards Alba. This friendship of mutualism and circumstances. And no matter what happened, Fiyori could only hold Alba dear.

Fiyori prayed, that this would Alba's last night.

[[Fiyori Senay, continued elsewhere]]