Death Prophecy

*cries* Don’t you dare forget! You five are my dear baby idols who are leaving my nest!

I’ll go see your concert…!! Show me what it means to be a true idol…

To all the wardens, thank you for everything!

Kodamacchi was literally crying SO much! Oh, the island’s, like, getting so far away. Kinda weird.

We’re actually on parole now. It still doesn’t feel real.

Chief, Nayuki. Kinari, Chihiro, Tao, and Kuguri, you too. I have something I’d like to say to you all.

What’s uuuup? Raitin, you’re being so leaderific right now.

I’ve come up with our unit name for the time being. I wanted to announce it.

Huh? Already?! That was fast!

Life is short. My motto is “make swift decisions.”

Our unit name… This whole idol thing is really starting to sink in.

Chief, what do you think of “Ev3ns”?

Ev3ns…

Although I’m the leader, all of our members are on equal footing. We’re even. That’s where the name came from.

Ah! That’s a wonderful meaning!

…Equal footing? Hypocrite.

?!

(I feel like I just heard Nayuki-kun say something kinda concerning just now…)

That’s a relief. I’m glad to hear you like it. How about everyone else?

It’s SO good! Raitin, your naming sense is, like, totes magotes.

Totes what…? I think it’s good too.

New unit name registered.

I suppose I’ll go along with you on this, at the very least.

Then it’s decided! Let’s do this, Ev3ns!

Bee-tee-dubs, this whole prisoner-turned-idol thing is, like…so super fresh and new.

(You said it…)

There’s a bunch of man-eating sharks around here, so maybe we should be called, like, Eat3ns instead. Just kidding! L-O-L.

Those sharks freak me out… I really hope I don’t fall in the water.

Ah…!

(The hat I got from Kafka fell into the ocean!)

Cheer up, Chiefy! At least it was just your hat.

Hold on. I’ll get it for you.

What…?!

HUH?! R-Raito-san, what are you doing?!

I got your hat! I’ll bring it back to you!

R-Raito-san! What about the man-eating sharks we were just talking about?!

…Goddammit, not again!

No data found on shark sightings in these waters. Probability of sharks being a falsehood spread by wardens to threaten inmates is 91.7%.

Wait, really? B-But it’s still dangerous…

This is why I didn’t want to do this. It doesn’t matter if there are sharks or not. This bastard…

Nayuki-kun…? What’s wrong?

We’ll regret choosing him. He has a death wish, and he doesn’t value his own life. He’ll just end up involving everyone else in his mess.

Huh…? What do you mean by that?

I mean exactly what I said. He doesn’t think anything of dying. He leads a fake life, and he’ll eventually die that way too.

He should’ve died locked up on that island, if you ask me.

…Let’s stop the ferry here for a bit.

(…Things must be complicated between those two. Maybe it’s better for me to ask Raito-san about this instead.)

Phew, here you go, Chief. It’s soaked, but I got your hat.

Raitin, you’re super-duper brave. Like, literally jumping into the ocean? Taotao was about to cry.

Huh?! No, I… Well, I’m just glad you didn’t get hurt.

Ahaha! Did I worry you? I’m sorry about that.

Um, you should change, Raito-san. I can take you to the cabin so you can get some towels!

I haven’t worn anything outside of my prison uniform for a while. It’s surprisingly refreshing. This is a great new experience for me.

Um… Raito-san, I’m really grateful that you got my hat for me, but…why did you jump into the water? You knew about the sharks, I assume…

Hm? I didn’t really consider that to be a problem.

You’re Nayuki-kun’s brother, right? He was…kind of mad about it.

He said that you have a death wish, and that you don’t really value your life.

Ah, is that so? I assume you also heard about my life expectancy from him then.

(His life expectancy…?!)

I should tell you myself as well, since we’ll be working together from now on.

As you know, I’m going to die at 28.

Huh…?! Wait, what?! W-What do you mean by that?!

What do I mean? It’s exactly as I said.

Since I’ll be dying at 28, I’ve decided to enjoy everything life throws at me. Life is short, after all.

Nayuki isn’t very fond of this stance of mine.

I think I’ve made him despise me by indulging in life… But I’d like to be on good terms with him.

Uh, when you say that you’re dying at 28… Did you…decide on that yourself?

Huh? Oh, no, not at all! Ahaha! I’m not crazy enough to kill myself!

It’s just my destiny. But I didn’t believe it at first, so I did try to commit suicide at one point…

What?!

But I haven’t died since then, so my destiny remains unchanged. Nothing happened when I jumped into the water, right?

Uh… I’m sorry, this is all just a little hard for me to believe.

I don’t blame you. That’s understandable. My death is a prophecy given to me from a fortune-teller who has never been wrong.

When he told me about it, I saw myself dying. I saw my corpse lying in the darkness.

……

But even though I was dead, I was smiling. That’s why I was able to accept it.

I knew that I would be happy when I died.

(Is that…really true? I…can’t seem to wrap my head around it.)

But I digress. Once we land, I’d like to eat some iekei ramen, if that’s alright. It’s my favorite, and it’s been a while since I’ve had it.

(He just talked about his own death like it was nothing…)

(I think I understand why Nayuki-kun’s mad at him now. There’s something dangerous lying within Raito-san.)