#Sunny would 100% be dead if it wasn't for Kel

[omori-aus-archive]

The Real Me

Heyo. This is a mini-fic based on the Reigen Confession scene from Mob Psycho 100. This is basically an alternate take on the Good and Bad Endings.

Special thanks to @some-mari-thoughts/@ksenya-and-the-artistic-cucumber and @sapgoon for giving me the confidence to do this thing. Enjoy.

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Mari sat at the edge of Sunny's hospital bed, giving her brother a sad expression, before letting out a shaky sigh.

How did things come to this....? WHY did they turn out like this....?

She tried her damnedest to help her brother and Basil overcome what happened to her, but.... They ended up fighting....! They could have killed themselves or each other!

The dead girl felt like she was failing her brother and their friends.... Again. Just like she almost did when Sunny nearly drowned. Just like she did when she failed to notice that Sunny simply wanted to spend time with her.

Mari let out a quiet sob, whispering apology after apology.

As far as she was concerned, she had no excuses for letting her perfectionism taking control in those days.

God, she hated what she was like back then....

She turned towards Sunny, before holding his hand as she slept beside him.

She tried her damnedest to help her brother. And now....all she could do was wait.

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Eventually, Mari woke up, only to notice that her brother was missing from the hospital room. Quickly, she got to her feet and rushed out of the room.

In hopes that Sunny decided to tell the truth, she went to Basil's room.... Only to find that the blonde was still unconscious....with only Hero, Aubrey, and Kel by his side.

The dead girl then went back into the hallway in confusion, before turning at the sound of the loud creek of a door.

There, to her shock, she would find Sunny going through a door that lead towards the rooftop.

Shock turned into worry, which then turned to fear as she followed the boy. Mari knew exactly what the boy was planning to do.

And she had strong suspicions that Sunny was not in control.

....

....

Eventually, the dead girl caught up with her brother, witnessing him slowly head towards the edge of the roof.

Mari quickly looked around, before noticing supplies that she assumed were left by the window cleaners.

She immediately took a hold of a squeegee, before standing in front her brother and using it to keep him from going forward.

Judging by the blank look in his eyes, Mari was certain that Omori was in the pilot's seat right now, meaning her attempts to help Sunny would prove to be very challenging.

"Sunny!" Mari called out. "Little brother, please don't do this! Basil and Mom still need you! Our friends need you!"

Much to her surprise, Omori responded, "They won't forgive him. He, his mother, and your friends loved you. And he killed you."

"YOU loved him and he killed you." He said with a steely gaze, slowly pushing the squeegee back. "He should just die."

....

....

Those four words were like a knife stabbing Mari directly in the heart.

The boy pushed again, bringing up memories of the accident....and the argument that she dreaded and regretted for four long years....

An argument that she could have prevented if she didn't let her perfectionism take control that day....or that month. Or year.

Then an idea popped in the dead girl's mind.

It was risky, but there was one last thing she COULD do to save her brother.

"The truth then...." She whispered, catching Omori's attention. He stepped back, before asking, "Truth....?"

Mari nodded, "Please hear me, Sunny.... The truth is....I.... I wasn't...." A lump formed in the throat, which she forced down with a swallow.

Finally with tears forming in her eyes, she desperately shouted, "I am NOT perfect! I wasn't and NEVER will be!"

There was silence as the boy's lone working eye widened in shock, before he froze, arms going limp. Mari dropped the squeegee, before giving a shaky sigh.

Sunny and Omori had been split once more. Unable to control the body as they just looked at Mari and listened.

"I'm not perfect. I was never perfect. Right from the start...." She said, a few tears running down her face.

All she received was a silent stare. Obviously, both Sunny and Omori were not expecting the dead girl to say this.

Mari eventually settled down enough to continue speaking, "You remember what Dad was like. Strict. Demanding. Probably a believer of the tough love shit...."

"He treated me like I was some sort of golden child...." The dead girl explained quietly. "Pressuring you and I to be perfect. For our "own good"...."

She then sighed, "I guess that's how I got my perfectionist attitude when we were younger." "Since then, until I....died....I was trying to be perfect, believing that it'd be for our benefit." She added.

She then lowered her head with a sad expression, "But the truth is....all that attitude has done is cause more harm than good, without me realizing it."

Her brother's expression saddened as well, remembering every rare moment that Mari's perfectionism showed its ugly mug.

"And....that's the real me...." Mari stated, looking up at Sunny in the eye as she gave an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry I had the gull to call myself your sister.... And the gull to make everything perfect...."

She then held her brother's shoulders, "But please listen to me a little longer." "What you're going through doesn't make you different, Sunny. We ALL have another side." The dead girl explained.

The dead girl gave a sad smile, "It'd....be too much to ask you not to worry, but it's natural to be concerned. Everyone feels that way."

"I know it's obvious, but just our secret....I HATE the side of me that desired perfection." She explained.

She then sighed, "Basically, what I'm trying to get at is.... Well...." "You and I are fine. Just as we are." Mari said with an honest smile, gently rubbing the boy's shoulder in reassurance.

"You don't need me or anyone else to help you with accepting yourself, the truth, or anything else." She said with confidence. "You got this! All it takes is the courage to do so. You have that in spades."

"I know you can handle this easily." Mari said, her smile brimming with hope and confidence. "You're my little brother, Sunny. You're the one who helped me in my darkest times."

....

....

In the darkest parts of his mind, Sunny called out to Omori, "You heard what she said.... Are you ready?" "Are you actually going to accept this? This truth?" His doppelganger asked, receiving a hum in return.

"Yeah. But it's....more than just that. I want you and I to accept each other too." The boy explained hesitantly, choosing his words cautiously. "We're....two halves of a whole, essentially. I think it's time....to go back to how we were before."

Omori shook his head in concern, "No.... No! W-We don't know how everything will turn out....!" "You're right. But I have faith that the others will understand...." Sunny said, before giving a sad sigh.

"Even if it takes months or years...." He added somberly.

The black nothingness around the lookalikes slowly transitioned to white as Sunny stood in front of Omori, before holding out his hand. He then gave a hopeful smile, "Let's try it. For Mari."

Omori took a heavy swallow, before reluctantly taking Sunny's hand.

....

....

Mari stared at her brother anxiously. It had been a few minutes now.

Did she screw up again? By being honest with her views on herself?

The boy then blinked, catching the dead girl's attention. "Sunny....?" She whispered, watching the boy look up at her.

Tears formed in Sunny's good eye, before whispering, "I'm sorry...." "I'm so sorry...." He whispered, before Mari hugged him. Well, as best she could as a ghost anyway....

"You know....that I have forgiven you from the get-go, right....?" She asked, receiving a small nod. "Please be honest. Do you forgive me....?"

The boy nodded again, taking deep breaths to calm his tears. He honestly didn't think he should be forgiven.... Though a part of him felt like Mari felt the same about herself.

....

....

A part of him felt like she believed herself to not deserve forgiveness.

Some time passed by quietly as Mari just whispered words of forgiveness and unconditional love to her brother.

Eventually, the boy settled down enough to speak again, wiping his tears with a sniffle. "I missed you...." He whispered. Mari attempted to hug her brother again with a sad expression, "I missed you too, sunshine."

She then pulled back, attempting to hold her brother's hand, "Are you ready? To tell them the truth?" "No." The boy admitted, taking a heavy sigh. "But I....don't have a choice...."

Mari gave a remorseful nod, attempting to give a reassuring smile. "Whatever happens....I'll be by your side. Okay?" Sunny gave a small nod, before asking, "Will you be there for me....? When I tell them?"

"I'll always be here for you." The dead girl whispered with a firm nod.

A few moments of silence passed, before Sunny took a deep breath as he walked back down into the building. Mari guided him to Basil's room, before going into the room.

The blonde was still unconscious, while Hero, Kel, and Aubrey looked at Sunny in shock and concern.

Mari wrapped her arms around her brother, "I'm not going anywhere." The boy gave a shaky breath, before looking at the trio and saying with a sad tone.

"I have something to tell you...."

[sunnysviolin]

Do you ever consider the implications of Sunny helping all the side characters with their day to day life problems and the exact problems he's helping? Preventing a divorce because of an accident? Helping a father connect to his son who's different while he's putting pressure on his daughter? Helping another father learn how to connect with his son at all? Trying to help someone who's constantly trying to fix something that eventually gets fixed by having someone come and help?

Pt 2: Like maybe I might be digging too big into symbolism but if you dig _really_ deep down into it you can find bits of symbolism in almost every single thing Sunny does in headspace to help others, almost like it's mirroring a lot of the issues he personally dealt with himself. I just think it's neat!

So the entirety of dream world is Sunny’s subconscious. It’s not just the Black Space (Although that is the *deep* subconscious right there...wooof) so I definitely think that some of the side quests are him working out how to solve his own problems. This is actually something all of us do in our dreams, some of us more than others- Hello to my personal hell of knowing I’ve been somewhere in a dream before even though I’ve never been there in person. It happens constantly -_- Ask anyone who knows me occasionally when I go somewhere brand new I’ll have Jason Bourne-esque flashbacks to a dream I had years ago in full color HD. It’s freaky but that’s how it be

N E WAYS

For Sunny specifically, I think the side quests are targeted more towards issues he’s dealt with for a long period in his life. I’ve talked about this in another meta, but I think Sunny had his dreamworld long before what happened to Mari. It’s a series of lovingly crafted daydreams that he used to escape his life or when things got too hard being ‘Sunny’ It was only the trauma of killing Mari that caused all of his dreams to be mashed together in an effort to quash down the black space. 

Going back to his dream world though, the side quests he solves are usually family related or small things. Find lost toys, make friends happy, things he probably did a lot in his normal day to day life. The family related ones, well they’re all related to bringing families closer together. Sunny is a very perceptive person, and we can assume at the very least his father was hard to be around for him. I think specifically of the Whereabouts of Duckie Jr. quest. A dreamy boy who gets lost in his head a lot and a father who is affectionatly frustrated by this? Yeah that’s very much Sunny 

Long story short I don’t think your digging into symbolism at all!! This is a great short paper on Jungian Dream Theory and this is how I view Omori. Everything has a symbolism but it’s specific symbolism to Sunny. That’s why Pluto looks like Kel’s real life pet rock, but why Dream Kel’s pet rock is named after his actual pet Hector. It’s the reason that his blackjack game in real life has a shark mascot and Mr. Jawsum is a shark in the Last Resort. Symbolism goes from the lightest layers to the darkest depths (Re: why I think the strangers take the form of Basil specifically) 

It’s also why Sunny’s dream world so quickly begins to deteriorate after he goes out for the first time in four years. His subconcious can add new context to everything, Sunny is reshaping the narrative to include what he now knows to be true. Someone pointed out that after Day one, Aubrey and Kel’s follow up move makes them both enraged. That’s directly linked to the fact that Sunny knows his friends loathe each other because of what he did. He can’t escape it anymore, he’s seen it with his own eyes. It’s why the scarecrow says all of those mean things to Hero (Sunny realizing that Hero has become broken by Mari’s death- Hero who was strong and perfect to him) Sunny was saved because he could no longer escape, because he had the strength to get out of his house and face the world that he had shaped through his actions- the real one not his dreams 

But more than anything Sunny was saved because Kel never stopped reaching out for him.