16 Take That Mask Off

"I see" Peko had been listening to Maki's thought for about thirty minutes now. Maki finally had the courage to let someone know about her feelings, she felt as if a huge load was taken off her shoulders. It was the first time she experienced something like this, and she was amazed at how good it felt. Peko then interrupted her inner thoughts, "Now I'm certain that we are really similar".

Maki wanted to know more about what Peko meant by this, she said something like this before she started talking about her morning, her friends, and Kaito, but instead of feeling identified and relieved to finally find "Someone like her" she started to think, that no one in this island could be like her. A killer, an assassin. Of course, she knew that Peko killed people when she was brainwashed and was known as one member of the Remnants of Despair, but she had not killed people out of her free volition. Out of necessity.

"You'll never be like me…" Maki's eyes had darkened as she looked out the window staring at the tropical scenery outside of the beach house. "I've never felt that I belong somewhere, people just hire me to do their dirty jobs and dispose of me. Well, that's to be expected from the Ultimate Assassin" Maki added trying to refute what Peko had previously said. "I am just- "

"A tool" Before Maki could finish her sentence Peko interrupted her abruptly, surprising her with her answer. "That's how I used to think of myself until a few years ago" Peko started to reminiscence about her past, long before she was part of the Remnants of Despair or even a student at Hope Peaks Academy.

"I used to serve a Yakuza clan, and I was appointed to be the sword of the boss, we were around the same age and he had always used me as a weapon of sorts, and I felt perfectly fine with that, I killed in his name to make him a powerful leader. I thought that the only purpose my life had, was to be her tool, nothing more." Peko's face started to look more serious as she recounted her past. "But my boss, he was different, he didn't saw me as a tool, maybe he was the only one who saw me as a human, and just as much as I wanted to be by his side, he wanted to be in mine, that gave me a reason to start considering my feelings more. I had stored my feelings so much within me that it was difficult to differentiate between love, hate, sadness, excitement, but he always helped me, even until now." Maki's eyes were wide open as she listened to Peko's story, she felt that she had no place to pity herself when someone like Peko had overcome greater ordeals than she ever did.

"Pekoyama-senpai, I am sorry I didn't know you had such a life " Peko shook her head to expressing understanding, easing Maki's feelings.

"Don't worry I understand, but this is where you need to understand as well" Maki was a little surprised by the change of tone in Peko's voice, making it sound like a scolding or even as if she was being lectured.

"Back then I bottled up all of my feelings and it led me down some paths that no human has to experience, if you keep letting that happen to you, God knows where you will end up, don't think you don't have a place where you belong, make that place with your own hands, with your friends, I am sure that right now they are worried about how to apologize with you, and I know that deep inside you want to hear them out and forgive them." Peko stroke right in the mark, Maki was taken aback at how much she knew her, almost as if Maki was a book that Peko already read hundreds of times.

"Back in the simulator, Kaito told me that he wanted to take off "a mask" and I think that even everything we've been together I still have that mask on." Maki reminisced.

"And what are you waiting to take it off?" Peko quickly answered.

"Huh?" Maki was puzzled by Peko's question

"You still have it on, because you want to, because you do not want to share with your friends the real you, the one I'm talking with right now." Peko was gazing into Maki's soul, she wasn't holding any comments, her concern for Maki was real.

"But, how am I supposed to do that?" Maki said, uneasy of her feelings and her approach.

"Well if you don't know how to do it by yourself, I will have to give you a little push" Peko stood up and stared down at Maki. "Today before nighttime you will talk to Kaito and tell him everything you just told me right now" Peko's face shifted to a worrisome one, trying to excuse herself from performing such a task.

"Wait! What!? Me? I can't do that! It's just! NO! I won't do it!" Maki panicked in a way that she felt before. Every single situation helped her discover a new feeling within her.

"The more time you take to express your feelings the harder it will get in the future, so you're better off doing it as soon as possible" Maki looked as if she was in agony not knowing what to do. "A good advice I can give you is to think about Kaito's feeling" Maki was taken by surprise as Peko told her this. "Imagine how bad he must be feeling, not knowing what he did to get you this mad at him, are you going to keep this up even further? Grow up!" Maki was stunned by how Peko delivered her scolding. "Believe me, by tomorrow you will definitely thank me. Oh! Look at the time" Two hours had already passed since the tutoring started it was almost noon and lunchtime. "I think we can stop for the day, and Maki I want to hear your results tomorrow, got it?" Peko told Maki as she left the beach house, leaving Maki inside of it.

"I have to do this… I already came this far to back out of it…" Maki whispered to herself with determination. Every new sensation she's been experiencing up until now had a different effect on her. When originally her only goal was to take action and think nothing more of it, she now knew her approach to the world was wrong from the beginning. Maki couldn't back down, she was so close to achieving a life she could truly enjoy, a life she could call hers and hers alone.

She stood up and exited the beach house, heading towards Kaito's cabin.

Each of her steps felt heavier than the previous.