#what taaag do i use for them wth

[aroseandapen]

Gonta and Kokichi accompany Miu to her favorite place, where everything suddenly goes horribly wrong.

Junk and litter towered high above their heads, cobbled together in complicated structures that would collapse if the wrong piece was pulled out. These structures formed a sprawling web of a maze, made of walls that creaked ominously as they swam by. With smaller inhabitants occupying the space and hiding places the towers provided, it was quite literally a trash city. A trash-land, made up of the junk that humans had continuously dumped overboard for well over a millennia.

Kokichi kept himself glued to Gonta’s side, casting doubtful looks up at the junk towers.

“Geez, I don’t know what you see in a creepy place like this,” he said. A shiver ran down his spine. The structures flooded the entire area with shadow, the water around them cold with foreboding. Also with the lack of sunlight. His voice lowered to a grumble. “What a weirdo.”

Gonta abruptly stopped swimming, so suddenly that Kokichi hit the brakes as well. He angled his tail fin sharply down, so that the drag of the water took out his momentum. “That’s really mean. Miu likes this place.”

Kokichi pouted, crossing his arms. He flipped over, his tail providing some distance between the two of them. Gaze averted, he said, “I’m only joking, Miu knows that. Right, Miu?”

Miu hadn’t stopped, already quite a bit ahead of them. She now hovered over some trash that bulged from the base of one of the towers, tilting her head. Kokichi didn’t know what she saw in the mess of glass and jagged metal, but evidently she saw something promising there, because she failed to respond to Kokichi.

He huffed, annoyed at being ignored. “Hello? Isn’t that right, Miu?”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, don’t get your fins in a twist,” she said unsatisfactorily. Her gaze remained fixed on the pile. “Hm… oh! This is perfect!”

She snaked her arm down into a gap in the junk. Up to her elbow, she felt around for whatever she’d found. Then, finding it, she pushed back off the pile.

Or she tried to, at least. Halfway out, she jerked to a stop as she met resistance. Just as she did, Gonta jumped. He jerked his face up, his expression twisted with worry as he regarded the tower. Kokichi picked up on it, following Gonta’s gaze.

He saw nothing wrong, but a pit of dread formed in his gut.

Miu gave another tug, and Gonta’s shoulders hitched.

“Um, Miu?” he called out to her, letting himself drift forward on a flick of his tail. “I don’t think you should--.”

“Got it!” she exclaimed, and with one last tug yanked the object from the pile.

Finally, Kokichi heard what Gonta must have already picked up on. As the rusted part came free, a wailing groan reverberated in the current. He flinched; both his and Miu’s eyes shot up to the tilting tower. Motion further dislodged more junk from the heap and, like a house of cards, it caused even more to fall as the structure collapsed.

“Miu!” Kokichi exclaimed, reaching out a hand, but he flinched back as debris rained down. Eyes wide, it was as if all he could do was watch as Miu shrieked and covered her head, too much to swim away from. The towers bore down on her.

A sudden strong vortex of water slammed into him. He spun in place, head over fin in a dizzying tumble. When he regained control, he realized it had been Gonta who’d knocked him over, shooting straight past him with powerful beats of his tail. Kokichi gaped, calling out for Gonta as he lunged into danger. His arms wrapped around Miu, securing her against his chest.

And the towers came down around them.

“Gonta! Miu!”

Great clouds of sand rose into the water, disturbed by the falling trash. Kokichi couldn’t see the rubble where once the unstable structure stood; he could only imagine, with a constricted chest, the carnage that must remain. Terror spun his head, thoughts racing too fast for him to grab hold.

Miu, Gonta… Just like that, the two of them…

The sand began to settle; shadows shifted. Then, out of the dispersing cloud, Gonta swam out with Miu secure in his arms.

Relief gushed through him so powerfully that Kokichi sank to the ocean floor. It was an uncharacteristic display of emotion for him, he knew, but still he couldn’t stop trembling. They were ok. They were both ok.

Miu pressed her forehead hard into Gonta’s chest, gripping his shoulders so tightly that her knuckles were blanched white. Her shoulders shook, voice tremulous as she at last spoke, “Y-you just… h-have to jump at a chance to… h-h-hold me, huh?”

Where normally her tone would contain scorn, now there was none. Shaky and barely choking down a sob, Miu still hadn’t fully processed what had just happened.

“I am so glad you’re ok, Miu,” Gonta said, ignoring her chosen words to hug her close. Gentle for him, yet firm all the same; Kokichi knew from first-hand experience how much strength those thick, muscular arms possessed.

He’d felt it, too, when Gonta raced past him to get to Miu in time.

“D-dummies. You’re both, so dumb.” Tears, real ones, came to his eyes. He sobbed, clapping his hands over his mouth too late to stop it. “That should be… my line. G-geez!”

If that had really been the end, Kokichi didn’t know what he would do. No doubt his entire world would have shattered, like the tenuous pile of junk that had towered over the area. He couldn’t have handled it.

But that hadn’t happened. Thanks to Gonta’s quick action, they were both safe and alive. And, as the sand began to settle back over the previously-shadowed, chilling area, the sun began to filter through to shine on it once again.