Work Text:
In the end, all it took to stop Mondo was the pile of dumbbells falling.
That was it. One dumbbell slipping out of place, causing a landslide that made the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader slip and fall in an almost cartoonish fashion, was what stopped Chiriho Fujisaki’s untimely death.
Mondo sat where he fell, completely still. He didn’t lift the dumbbell again. He didn’t shout about how much stronger he was. He didn’t lunge for the kill. He just sat there, on the dirty locker room floor, free hand holding his head. He started laughing. That strained, painful sort of laugh that came with tears lodged in the back of your throat.
Chiriro was still frozen in place, caught like a deer in the headlights. He managed to hold his shaking arms up as some sort of shield, ducking his head behind his trembling fists. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I won’t bother you again. Just please don’t tell anyone. Please.” His words all came out in a rush, fast and panicked and laden with Chihiro’s own tears that were starting to trail down his face.
“Please.” He insisted one last time, when Mondo didn’t respond. When he started to worry that Mondo might actually kill him after all.
But Mondo didn’t bother lifting up the dumbbell again. He dropped it with a loud thud, and stared at the floor. “Quit apologizin’”
“Huh?” Chihiro blinked.
“You’ve got nothin’ to be ashamed of.” Mondo said, standing up, dusting his uniform off. “I was the asshole tryin’ to kill you.” He grimaced at that, turning away from Chihiro. “You’re probably better off without a fuckin’ moron like me as your personal trainer. I’d just slow you down…” A pause. A long, harsh breath. “A guy like you is already a stronger man than I could ever hope to be.”
Chihiro was left speechless, arms still held up in defense. Mondo was ignoring him, bending over and picking up the dumbbells.
“I won’t tell anyone about this.” Mondo said, looking at Chihiro this time, making sure he knew exactly what he meant. “And if anyone else finds out and starts giving you shit over it, just let me know and I’ll rough ‘em up.” He paused, before adding, a faint crack in his voice at the end, “That’s a promise as a man.”
Chihiro still didn’t know how to respond. He watched Mondo slowly put the dumbbells away, his back turned. He looked so small now, hunched over like that. Small and sad, and Chihiro found himself lowering his guard without even realizing it. Still, his heart was racing in and out of his chest just watching the dumbbells pile up, remembering how just a moment earlier one had been high above his head.
“Th-Thank you.” Chihiro stammered out, his voice louder yet still quivering. He side-stepped out the door, eyes still trained on Mondo.
Mondo never looked back.
In spite of everything that had occurred the night before, Chihiro was still determined to get stronger. Monokuma had been pretty coy about whether or not he’d made good on his threat to leak their secrets (“Maybe I did, and maybe I didn’t. But it doesn’t matter. Because everyone already knows! Puhuhuhu!”)
But that wasn’t going to stop Chihiro. He was tired of using grip strengtheners in his room. He wanted to be strong. He wanted to be accepted like all the other boys were. Nothing was going to stop him. Even without Mondo’s guidance. Even after… everything from the night before.
It was still weighing pretty heavily on his mind. Mondo hadn’t said a word to him all day, but he occasionally caught him glancing in his direction. No one else seemed to notice it. No one besides Kiyotaka, that is, who seemed to think his bro was spacing out.
Mondo was just keeping his promise, Chihiro told himself, as he prepped for his workout in the boy’s locker room. The promise of a man, like he’d said before. And Mondo was a nice guy who didn’t break any of his promises.
So… whatever happened before, when Chihiro told him he wasn’t actually a girl, that he was a boy, and he wanted to become stronger… it must’ve been something else. Chihiro could faintly remember Mondo’s words, something about a brother, but it was all a blur in his head. All he could think about at the time was the looming dread of death quite literally hanging over his head.
Chihiro shook his head as he got up, as if it would clear his thoughts, and walked out the gym doors. It was late enough that no one else would be working out, and most of the other students were locked up in their rooms anyway. He paused briefly, looking over his workout outfit. It felt so off to see himself in full men’s clothes. But it wasn’t as bad as business suits and school uniforms he’d tried on in the past. Those would take more getting used to, he supposed.
Admittedly, Chihiro didn’t know the first thing about exercising. He glanced around the empty gym, large intimidating equipment towering over his tiny frail body. He rushed towards a foam mat against one of the walls instead, and tried to focus on basic stuff like push-ups and planks.
It was so much harder than it looked. How did all those other guys make this stuff look so easy? He could barely lower himself for one push-up without his knees and legs shaking, and he collapsed two seconds into his first plank. But he had to keep going. He’d never wanted to do anything else more than he wanted this right now.
Five reps. Collapsed three times. It’s okay, just get back up.
Five more reps. Only collapsed two times. He could go down a little further.
Three more planks. He could hold it for twenty seconds now.
Five more reps. Getting down even further now. It was starting to burn.
Three more planks. Still having trouble holding it, but managed to hold the last one for 25 seconds!
Five more reps. This was actually really fun! His legs were aching but his heart was racing. It felt like he could do anything in the whole world!
Three more planks!
Five more reps!
Three more planks!
Five more reps!
Three more planks!
Five more reps-
“Gah!”
Chihiro collapsed on the mat sideways, groaning in sudden pain. His legs burned and his wrists ached. He hadn’t even been working out for that long, How had he failed so fast? He tried getting up, but his legs hurt too much to move, and there was an awful pain in his ankle that made him cry out suddenly.
Behind him, across the gym, Chihiro could hear the sound of shoes skidding on the waxed floor, running directly towards him.
He frantically tried to lift himself up before they got there, but his arms, which had felt like fire-forged steel before, now just felt like flame-boiled meat that flopped uselessly and ached with every movement. He tried his legs again, but the pain only increased, and it felt like someone was stabbing his ankle with sharp knives. and he shut his eyes, gritting his teeth. One slip-up, and he’d gone from a total heat streak to a whimpering, simmering mess.
Someone was coming to kill him, and he’s worn his body out so much that he’d become an easy target. He shut his eyes, silently begging, “Please don’t let this be how everyone finds out who I am.”
Huge, heavily-muscled arms reached under his exhausted body, lifting him off the ground with ease. Rough tokkō-fuku sleeves brushed against his skin.
Chihiro didn’t need to open his eyes to know who it was.
He opened them anyway.
Mondo rushed him out of the gym with all the franticness of a parent carrying their sick child to the hospital. He ran through the empty hallways, taking the stairs almost three steps at a time. He only stopped when the faint sound of Makoto and Byakuya’s voices could be heard from just below the first landing. With one hand holding Chihiro up, he quickly tucked the younger boy into his jacket, concealing him.
Once Makoto and Byakuya were out of earshot. Mondo started running again, down the 2nd floor hallway, all the way until they reached the boy’s locker room. Mondo didn’t even give himself time to catch his breath once they got in. He found a bench and carefully layed Chihiro down, before he started talking.
“You okay, dude?” He asked, eyes frantically scanning up and down Chihiro’s sore and red limbs. “Didn’t pull anything?”
“Um…” Chihiro lifted his leg an inch or so, before wincing as he dropped it back down. “I don’t think so. It hurts all over.” His foot hit the floor with a painful thump I-I think I did something to my ankle.”
Mondo bent over, briefly examining it, but he didn’t seem too concerned. “You probably just rolled it. It’s gonna hurt like hell for a while, but just keep some ice on it and you’ll be good.” He continued staring at it for a moment, taking a long breath. “Wouldn’t wanna go to the kitchen this late… Here, I’ll get you some water.” He hurried out and returned moments later with a paper cup full of water he probably got from the bathroom sink.
Chihiro managed to sit up, still aching and sore, but too grateful to care. “Thanks.” He took the cup and hurriedly started gulping it down.
“Hey, watch it!” Mondo snapped, louder than he meant to, as he winced when Chihiro flinched back. “Sorry. You just gotta pace yourself, alright. Like with your workout back there.”
That made Chihiro wilt a little. “Oh… you saw all of that?”
Mondo tensed, gripping his knees. “I saw you settin’ up in there, and I just figured you wouldn’t want anyone else to see what was happenin’. Mostly just shadowed you from the doorway.” He paused again, staring down at the ground with a smirk on his lips. “I gotta say, you’re a pretty tough dude.”
Chihiro flushed with embarrassment, and a bit of pride. “Oh! Th-Thank you!”
“But you still pushed yourself too hard.” Mondo shook his head. “I get it - getting pumped can make you get all excited and shit, but you can’t just keep going that hard for that long, especially when you’re just starting out. You’re lucky you didn’t seriously hurt yourself.”
“Oh. Um… Thanks.” Chihiro repeated. It was all he could think to say really. He took another sip of water.
“You’re probably gonna be sore as shit tomorrow, so rest up and don’t over-exert yourself or anything.” Mondo continued. “No one would find it suspicious if you just stayed in your room all day. I mean, that’s what everyone else has been doing. Except like, Makoto and Byakuya. And Aoi. But they’re all hangin’ out around Toko’s room for the most part.
“Once you’re all healed up, you can get right back to working out. But pace yourself. This shit takes time. You’re not gonna get ripped overnight.” He paused, before adding on again, “And I can keep shadowing you if you want. Keep the others out until you’re ready to tell ‘em the truth.”
Chihiro didn’t know what to say. He cleared his throat, setting his empty paper cup down. “That…that sounds good. I think I’d like that.” Mondo was still safe after all. He promised to be safe. He had a better track record of being safe than not being safe at this point.
“Um…actually.” Chihiro continued. Or at least tried to, remembering the other things Mondo had said the night before, ignoring the bad parts of it. He clutched his elbow, squeezing his eyes shut and sucking in deep breaths, before finally saying it. “I really do think you’re strong, Mondo.”
Mondo flinched. Chihiro braced himself. “I-I know,” he began, trying to backpedal before things turned for the worse, “that you… that things didn’t go well when I said that last time. But I really mean it.”
Mondo hadn’t done anything to try and kill him yet. He hadn’t even so much as twitched an eyebrow or glared down at him. He was just frozen, like a statue. So Chihiro continued. “Y-You said, when you were telling me to leave, that I was stronger than you ever would be. But… I think you’re strong right now. You protected me, you kept all of this a secret so no one would make fun of me…” Chihiro felt his eyes watering a little bit. He brushed them away. “And you gave me all that advice on how to work out without hurting myself again. I don’t think I could be as strong as I am without you.”
“Don’t-” Mondo started, before cutting himself short. He looked like he was at a loss for words. He could only stare back at Chihiro, eyes wide, gaping. Mondo gritted his teeth, but when Chihiro flinched involuntarily, he quickly closed his mouth.
“‘m really not that great of a guy, y’know.” Mondo finally said, staring at the ground. His voice sounded softer than Chihiro had ever heard it. He was silent for a long time, long enough that Chihiro wondered if he was ending the conversation there, before Mondo suddenly sat down on the floor across from him. They locked eyes with each other, and Mondo spoke again.
“You already told me your secret, right? The one that Monokuma’s probably already told the entire world by now?”
Chihiro nodded.
“Guess it’s only fair that I tell you mine.”
That was the last thing Chihiro had been expecting. He startled a little in his seat, the empty water cup tipping over, the last few drops rolling onto the floor. Mondo picked it up before anything could spill.
“O-Okay then!” Chihiro sat with his back up straight, trying not to look and sound as nervous as he felt.
Mondo frowned, taking in a deep breath. “It’s not a happy secret, y’know. There’s a fuckin’ reason Monokuma chose it.”
Chihiro tensed, remembering the dumbbell, Mondo’s words still ringing in his ears.
He dug his nails deeper into his shorts. “I can handle it.” Whatever Mondo had said before must have had something to do with his secret. And if he was willing to kill over it…
Mondo seemed to sense whatever fear was building up inside Chihiro again, and he scanned the room for anything dangerous, before he started removing it. Pull-up bars shoved to the corners, punching bag removed from its hook and rolled over against the wall, the pile of dumbbells kicked over once again. He lifted up one of the dumbbells - a small one, one that looked like it was as light as a feather in his hands. He walked over and handed it to Chihiro before sitting back down.
“Hit me with that.”
“What?” Chihiro gasped.
“Hit me with it.” Mondo repeated. “Anytime you want. Whenever I start to sound like an irredeemable scumbag, just hit me with it as hard as you want.”
Chihiro stared at the dumbbell in his hands. It weighed a lot more than Mondo had made it seem, but he could lift it. Still, he really, really didn’t want to hurt Mondo.
“You ready?” Mondo asked.
Chihiro took a deep breath, letting his hands relax around the dumbbell. “Ready.”
Mondo opened his mouth as if he were about to speak, but made no sound. He swallowed loudly, coughing a little, like he was struggling to get the words out. Chihiro was about to ask if he needed some water too, before he finally started.
“I already told you that my brother died, right?” He said it more like a statement than a question, but Chihiro nodded anyway. “Right. Yeah. My big bro… he was actually the one that started our gang, not me. He’s the one who got us popular and shit too. I was just his kid brother tagging along for the ride.
“Took me a long time to get even close to as good as my bro. But it’s not like anyone treated me any differently. …Even before he retired from the gang, when I was gonna take over for him, the other dudes wouldn’t stop whispering about how there was no way I was fit to be their leader, not after Daiya started the whole thing with his bare hands…” He trailed off for a moment, shaking his head. “It wasn’t just them. I believed it too. I felt like no one was gonna take me seriously if I didn’t beat my brother once. Just once, I needed to be stronger…”
Mondo went silent again. He stared at the dumbbell in Chihiro’s hands. Chihiro wasn’t sure if he was waiting to be beaten with it or not. But Mondo continued.
“I challenged him to a street race. The night of his retirement.” His lips curled into a grimace. “And, of course, he accepted, ‘cuz it’s not like we’d never done it before. But this time… this time I was being a fuckin’ dumbass. I just wanted to win. I wasn’t paying attention to the roads or how fast I was goin’ when-”
Mondo’s voice snapped suddenly. He swallowed and coughed again. He took a deep breath…
“I swerved onto the wrong side of the road. Right in front of a semi. Daiya knocked me out of the way before I could get hit, but he just ended up taking the blow for me.”
Chihiro let out a small gasp. The dumbbell in his shaking hands nearly clattered to his feet. Mondo didn’t even flinch when he saw it. He waved off Chihiro’s hurried apologies for interrupting him.
“Um…” Chihiro gnawed on his lip. “I’m really sorry about your brother. And it wasn’t your faul-”
“Hang on.” Mondo abruptly cut him off. “Secret ain’t over yet. Haven’t even gotten to the part Monokuma was blackmailin’ me with.”
He continued. “Before Daiya died, he made a promise with me. To keep the gang together no matter what. …So, when the rest of the gang rode up, I lied to them. I told ‘em my brother was a sore loser who got reckless during our last lap and got himself killed. And every single one of ‘em believed it. They all believed it, and I became their new leader. The new strongest member of the team. It was like Daiya never existed…”
Chihiro didn’t know what to say. His mouth opened, but no sound came out of it.
Mondo sighed. “So there you go. The secret Monokuma was holdin’ over my head yesterday. ‘Mondo Owada killed his brother and lied about it.’ Now that the deadline’s up, I’m sure the whole gang knows what a fuckin’ piece of shit I really am now. So much for keeping my brother’s promise.”
Chihiro couldn’t think about that. Different puzzle pieces were clicking into place inside his mind.
“That’s why you tried to do it.” He said.
Mondo tensed. His jaw clenched.
“I said I wanted to become stronger, and overcome my weaknesses, and it just reminded you of all of the things you couldn’t overcome. Your brother, and your gang, and the lies and promises you had to keep.” Chihiro turned the dumbbell over in his hands. “Plus with all the pressure to kill that Monokuma kept putting on us…”
“Hey, cut it with that shit!” Mondo suddenly yelled, making Chihiro yelp in surprise. He deflated immediately. “Sorry, just… stop tryin’ to justify it. I don’t deserve any sympathy for any of the shit I’ve done.”
Chihiro frowned. His hands clenched around the dumbbell.
BONK!
“Ow- What-” Mondo rubbed the top of his head, right where Chihiro had smacked him with the dumbbell.
“Mondo!” Chihiro yelled, faltering a little, realizing he wasn’t sure what to say next. “I don’t…I think you’re being too hard on yourself!”
Mondo looked at him like he was crazy. “You don’t get it-”
BONK!
Chihiro hit Mondo again. “No, you don’t get it! I’m not trying to justify what you did. I just… I felt like I understood you better, after what you said. It made everything that happened make sense. Not just last night, but today too. When you were watching out for me during the day, and protecting me when I was working out, even when I pushed myself too hard. It was all because of that, right?”
Mondo’s eyes fell downcast. “Yeah. Guess I’ve just been looking out for you ‘cuz I don’t have anything else left for me outside of this school. And ‘cuz I owe you for almost killing you yesterday.”
BONK!
Chihiro hit Mondo a third time, this time hard enough to make him cry out loudly. “Shit! Are you actually trying to kill me?”
Chihiro shook his head, standing up and dropping the dumbbell at his side. “I’m not going to kill you. And that’s not the reason you’ve been doing all this.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“It’s your promise to your brother.”
“...What?”
“You made a promise as a man to your brother.” Chihiro explained. “You said those promises are special, that they can never be broken. And you made that promise to me twice. Once when you promised not to act so intimidating anymore, and once when you promised not to reveal my secret.”
“Yeah, but that’s not-”
“It’s just like the promise you made before, right before your brother died. To keep your gang together. Because even though your gang isn’t here… it almost feels like you’re treating me like I’m a part of your gang.”
Mondo was taken aback. He stumbled trying to get off the floor. “H-Hey wait a sec! You have no idea what it’s like to be part of a gang in the first place!”
“But you’re bossing me around and looking out for me just like a leader would.” Chihiro said with a proud smirk.
Mondo flushed bright red. “Dammit… I’m not… I mean…” He was at a total loss for words. He just stood there, towering over Chihiro yet somehow looking so confused, hands twitching and nervously sweating as though he were actually in a fight. Chihiro just stood there, smiling innocently, though his heart was racing in his chest.
“Yeah. Maybe you’re right about all that.” Mondo said. His voice was surprisingly calm. “But that doesn’t change anything. Sure, I’m treating you nice. Doesn’t change what I’ve done.”
Chihiro screwed up his face as stern as it could possibly be. “It doesn’t change the past, but it does prove that you’re not a bad person. At least, not as bad as you think you are.”
“Are you serious?” Mondo shouted. “I almost killed you! I would’ve if I hadn’t tripped. Good people don’t fuckin’ kill people.”
Chihiro shook his head. “Bad people don’t stop when they mess up.”
Mondo was about to object, but Chihiro cut him off again.
“Bad people don’t try and make things right.”
The room went quiet. Mondo stared at Chihiro, his expression dumbfounded. Then he turned away, and slowly, he melted back to that sad and small look he had the night before. He opened his mouth once or twice, like he was trying to say something again, but the words died before they could even leave his lips. Watching him like this, all crumpled and broken, only made the spark of determination in Chihiro’s chest burn brighter.
“Hey!” He yelled, louder than he meant to, enough to make Mondo’s shoulder’s jump. Chihiro quickly backpedaled in a slightly softer voice. “Hey. You need to snap out of it. I know you don’t think you’re a good person anymore, or that you never were, or whatever, but…” Chihiro clenched his hands into fists, “but I don’t! You’re… you’re the first real friend I’ve ever had. I’ve never had any friends who I felt comfortable enough to tell them all of this. And yeah it didn’t go well at first, but now that you explained everything, I understand, and it just proves to me that-”
He sniffled. He tried to stop himself from crying, but the tears came out on their own. “It just proves that you really do care about me. That you really do want to help me. That you’re my friend. And I- I can’t remember the last friend I met who actually cared about me like that.”
Chihiro was sobbing now. He tried to compose himself, but the tears just wouldn’t stop. He expected Mondo to say something; maybe try and prove him wrong again, or insist he didn’t need sympathy.
Instead, Mondo picked up a towel, and handed it to Chihiro.
“Here.” He said. His voice was so quiet.
“Th-Thanks.” Chihiro wiped his face into the towel. When he finally felt composed enough to speak, he hugged it to his chest. “I just… I want to move past this. I want to forget that it ever happened, because I… I want us to be friends.” He let the words hang in the air for a moment before continuing. “And I still want you to help me train. W-We can train together, if you want. We can both get stronger.”
Chihiro looked up at Mondo. Mondo was staring back at him. He didn’t look angry or sad anymore, at least. Just…confused.
“I-I really mean it.” Chihiro continued. “I know you probably think I’m crazy or trying to sympathize with a killer, but you’re not a killer. And you’re still the strongest person I know, and I just want you to forget everything and-”
“I’m not the strongest person.” Mondo said, interrupting Chihiro’s speech.
Chihiro blinked in surprise, caught off-guard mid-sentence. “N-No, you’re-”
“I’m not.” Mondo insisted. Chihiro looked up at him. He was smiling. “Not until I start training with you.”
Chihiro didn’t know how to respond, but Mondo filled in the empty space for him.
“You’ve got some balls of steel, dude. I know I said you don’t know shit about being a gang member, but you’ve got more guts than most guys I’ve met. And more brains, too.” He smirked. “But I guess it’s better to say we’re friends, right. No inter-gang conflicts to worry about?”
“I-” Chihiro didn’t know what to say. He just smiled. “Yeah. Yeah we’re friends.”
“You’re still the stronger man between us.” Mondo said, pointing directly at Chihiro. “Don’t ever forget that.”
Chihiro nodded unsteadily, still unsure.
Mondo nodded. “Then you keep on training, so you’re just as strong on the outside as you are inside. As for me…I’ll just try and keep up.”
Chihiro felt his heart soar. He reached forward and grabbed the edges of Mondo’s jacket with both hands. “You promise then? You promise you’ll train with me.”
Mondo almost laughed. “You think I’d say all that shit just to lie about it?”
Chihiro smirked, pulling away. “That’s a promise then. …A promise between friends.”