Work Text:
Utsumi Nariaki by all accounts had a normal, simple life.
Just working in a factory with many other people - sure, he felt a bit restless but who hadn’t? Everyone who did so much busywork as someone working from morning to evening at a factory felt unfulfilled.
That was normal.
Even his anger and annoyance was normal, when he saw the products he deemed subpar - Namba might not have been something big or groundbreaking but they did important work, so subpar results were simply not acceptable.
The others at his workplace teased him for being too serious about his job.
“There isn’t much pride in working for Namba,” They would sneer, and Nariaki’s breath would hitch in his throat. “Just take it easy, man.”
None of this was easy, but Nariaki could not explain why he pointed the cane at his coworker’s throat, and going on a long rant about the quality control has to get better because we will sully our company’s name.
It made no sense - he was just a tiny gear in this machine, the good name did not depend on him.
And yet, he could not stop putting his all into the work, even if he, just like his colleagues, always felt that something was missing.
Something was missing, something was broken, but—
His colleagues would say I am not supposed to be here, man. I am meant to be higher up, but Nariaki did not feel such. There was something else wrong.
Of course his colleagues would have called him conceited for this - after all, didn’t most people feel like something was off in their lives? Nariaki was not special, and all this attitude had given him, that he wasn’t even invited to after-hours outings with his colleagues.
…joke was on them, though.
Because unlike them, Nariaki did figure out what was wrong with him, when the memories came back one morning, and Nariaki woke up screaming.
He didn’t stop going to work, though - if anything, he kept working, and was even more diligent at quality control.
The name Namba meant something very different here in this New World, but that was the only thing he had, right? He’d look at the news, and Himuro Gentoku was there, patiently and eloquently giving interviews. He’d even see—
He could have reached out for Himuro Gentoku, his former fake-boss (because even though he worked for him, he was not, ever someone high on his priority list, because the priority list was one thing, one person, one company only). Sure, he could have.
Instead, he looked for someone else.
There were a few people.
He found the brothers first. Or rather, they found him, with Rai’s fist connecting to his face.
“What the hell happened?!”
“The world changed,” Nariaki laughed, as his eyes met with Fu also emerging behind his brother. “What have you two been up to?”
“Working on construction,” Fu said simply, eyes darting around on Nariaki’s outfit. “You don’t seem very fancy this time around.”
“We all downgraded from our previous jobs, hadn’t we?”
“Did we?” Fu tilted his head to the side.
“Namba is almost nothing in this world,” Nariaki muttered, eyes up to the sky. “Only lives in our memories. What else could we do but to live up to its memory? But with so little power—”
Rai grabbed Nariaki’s collar again, smashing him against the wall.
“Aren’t I correct?” Nariaki laughed. “All we had was Namba back there—”
“I am not like you, asshole,” Rai hissed. “I always had my brother.”
“Children shouldn’t fight each other.”
A new voice interrupted them, and when Nariaki saw who it was, he laughed.
“Oh you. How did you even find us?”
“It’s better you do not know,” Sawa smiled so sweetly, walking closer, crossing her arms in front of her chest. If someone hadn’t changed at all, that was Sawa, seemingly.
Lucky woman.
“Come on, you three. Let’s go grab some coffee. I know a nice place. The coffee is actually good this time - another upgrade over here in the New World.”
Nascita should have been more awkward, probably, but only customers were there, with Misora being the only one behind the counter, recognition in her eyes.
And she sighed, with obviously faked annoyance.
“Seriously? You know if Grease were to come here, he’d lose it.”
“Good thing he is busy now, isn’t it?” Sawa beamed. “And so are the rest of our boys. Please don’t throw coffee on them either.”
“You think I’m that easily palatable?” Misora wrinkled her nose, pouting. “What makes you think I won’t cause a fuss?”
Sawa leaned over the counter, tapping her finger on Misora’s chin.
“C’mon, Misora, darling. Just let us have a bit of a catching up. I’ll make it up for you~”
Misora’s ears immediately turned red as she turned away, mumbling under her breath, as Sawa walked back to their table.
“Nothing changed with you, did it?” Naruaki sneered, and Sawa slowly shook her head.
“I don’t think much has changed, no. After all - I remember everything, and that means it’ll always be a part of me.”
“They know, don’t they?” Fu asked suddenly, his eyes darting from Misora to Sawa. “They know the things that you have done.”
“Of course. I spied on them, after all. Almost let myself die for Namba, just as you all,” Sawa smiled a bit bitterly. “But they didn’t let me. They accepted me like this.”
“They let us die,” Rai pointed out, and Sawa shook her head.
“If you had asked, you would have been allowed to live. Just like me. Just like Kazumi let Sento live. Just like Gen— And all of that.”
“And now all of you are all close aren’t you?”
Nariaki didn’t intend to sound quite that bitter, and Sawa just tutted.
“This is a new world for all of us. Like look at you two - you two are also far away from Namba.”
The brothers actually exchanged a look.
“Our life wasn’t happy without Namba,” Fu said calmly. “It’s only luck that we found a boss who didn’t mind that we had a delinquent past here. Namba did give us… guidance.”
“And yet in this world, you found someone else to rely on,” Sawa leaned over the desk. “This new world is a new chance for all of us, and you took it.”
“Easy for you to say,” Nariaki hissed. “You are the one the most wrapped up in what you got in the old world.”
“I didn’t say we have to leave everything behind,” Sawa said softly. “Even what we got from Namba… I use it in my work every day. What we experienced still forms all of us. But we do have our choices here, and that also matters. Does it not?”
Meanwhile, Misora did bring them coffee.
And indeed, it didn’t taste half bad this time.
Back at Namba, loyalty was absolute. They would push you to the edges - not letting you sleep until you begged for help from Namba, and no one else, until you lied down, sobbing, and saying if Namba wished you dead, you were willing to accept it.
They didn’t let you sleep until you broke, until you were willing to never wake up.
So how could Utsumi Nariaki sleep now? He was lying there in his small, simple apartment, staring at the ceiling.
He would see Sawa more than he saw the brothers after - Sawa around those people, with Misora and their boys.
They would end up crossing paths again, but Nariaki never could quite shake the feeling that they didn’t want him around.
They were willing to have someone with Evolt’s DNA around. The Devil’s Scientist. An enemy soldier. Hiromu Gentoku.
None of this made sense, did it?
“You do not feel guilty for anything you have done,” Sawa pointed out, and Nariaki shook his head.
“There is nothing to feel guilty for. All my life was to make sure Namba—”
“Exactly,” Sawa interrupted him, before sighing. “Look, I’m not going to tell you that you have to make amends. It is up to you. But I can tell you that you should… find your own life. Not everyone gets to have a second chance the way we did.”
“You love them, don’t you?”
“Of course I do,” Sawa smiled, before raising two fingers in a victory pose. “Love and peace, after all. We fought for peace so now we found love.”
“...how corny of you to say that.”
“True. Although, not fully true. We found love right there, in the Old World,” Sawa sighed, looking at the sky with a smile, a skyline not blocked by the Sky Wall. How odd, still. “But we kept it. And I think— you should also look for your own peace.”
What did that even look like?
How foolish.
Namba Industries was… nonexistent, in this world, and yet, the Namba Children carried on its legacy.
And if none of the others wanted to do it—
…
Nariaki just had to find a way to still be able to do it, then.