Reason #48234872 Kiibo Should've Lived: So Maki Can Have Someone To Recreate A Normal Human Adolescence

A cover for a comic called “Our first winter in the real world,” showing a doodle of Maki Harukawa and K1-B0 talking in winter clothes. The caption says “Some kind of comic thing. By Toby Isavé. Tags: Aimless Harukiibo fluff; postcanon (with 1 obvious alteration).” Then there’s a bubble reading “Is it romantic? Is it platonic? Probably the first one but feel free to squint??” The art is in a black and white inkbrush style.

1: Maki zips up Kiibo’s puffer jacket while he blushes and looks down. Maki says “You really haven’t used a lot of zippers, huh?” Kiibo replies “S-sorry…” and she continues “You’ll get the hang of it.” Maki calls to someone offscreen, “Kiibo and I are heading out.” Kiibo holds up ice skates and says “Oh, but I also got extra skates if you guys would like to– Ah…” He cuts himself off upon seeing Shuichi and Himiko buried in blankets; Shuichi has fallen asleep with a novel while Himiko glares out from a blanket near the heater and hisses.

2: Kiibo and Maki are now at the ice rink.
K: “You haven’t been to a rink before, have you, Maki?”
M: “Not to skate.”
K: “Really? Oh finally!”
M: “Finally what?”
K: “Finally I can be the one… to teach you something!”
M: “What are you on about…”
K: “Check out this!” Kiibo pushes off from the wall with a sequence of drawings showing him intensely concentrating on keeping his balance and footing while he skates. Finally, he grabs onto the wall triumphantly with the caption “Safe!” and leans to catch his breath, saying, “How… how about that?” In a wider shot it’s revealed that he only skated about 6 feet.

3: Maki snickers behind her hand and Kiibo says “H-hey, don’t laugh! I don’t think you understand how advanced this is for someth– for someone like me!”
M: “Heh, sorry.”
K: “S-see, it’s harder than it looks, right?”
M: “I dunno Kiibo, you made it look pretty hard.” Kiibo pulls up the collar of his jacket to hide his face, and says, “Um… is that a joke? Or does– eh?!” He cuts off as Maki’s pigtails rush by him. The rest of the page is an illustration of her skating in a smooth arc, her hair flowing behind her, until she suddenly snaps up as Kiibo offscreen calls out “M-maki?!”

4: Maki looks back at Kiibo, who’s shyly clinging to the wall some distance away. She says “Huh? Yes it was a joke.” She starts moving back towards him and he says, “Oh, not that… Um, apologies for interrupting, I was just surprised.” When she gets to him he looks up at her with a flustered expression and says “Because you are so… ummmm…. Graceful. And talented.” Maki makes a flustered, almost offended face while he continues “And talented. To be honest, I am a little jealous on both counts…” Suddenly Maki looks into the distance with a strange smile and a shadow over her eyes: “Hmph, I guess that makes sense… This wouldn’t be my first time working with a pair of blades, after all…” Kiibo interjects “N-no, I don’t think that’s it!” Then with a neutral expression Maki explains “That was also a joke.”
K: “Really? But that face…”
M: “What face?”
K: “Um… nevermind.”

5: Elsewhere, Kiibo is sitting on the floor while Maki sits on a bench and unties her skates. M: “Thanks for showing me around.”
K: “Of course! I’m very glad you came. In fact, I feel as though we discovered a new Ultimate today.”
M: “What.”
K: “A new ultimate. Like this!” There’s an illustration of a character introduction reading “Maki Harukawa: super university-level ice skater.” In the picture Maki has a giant snowflake on her head and her hair is in one big braid.
Maki responds to this image with “................”
Kiibo leans over to help Maki take off her skates, now untied. He says, “Um, I say this because your old talent was profoundly unethical. This is preferable, right?”
M: “...You’re too easily impressed, Kiibo. Besides, our talents are just made up anyway…”
Kiibo pulls off her skates by the blades, the metal clinking against his hands. Maki continues “Well, except yours, I guess.” Kiibo makes a melancholy face and replies “Y-yes. I guess that much will never change…”

6: The first few panels show abstract inkbrush drawings of an ice skating lobby. Over this is dialogue: K: “So, um.. What now?”
M: “You’re the expert Kiibo. What else do people normally do here?”
K: “Oh, that’s…. I have no idea.”
M: “Me neither.”
They then stare at each other in awkward silence while strangers move around them. Suddenly Kiibo perks up, “Then let us gather data on the teenage experience together! It’s never too late to learn!” He extends his elbow to Maki and says “Um, here!”
M: “Your arm…?”
K: “Oh, I just…” Kiibo turns around and hides his face in his hands, blushing with cartoon steam. “S-sorry! I-I-I sensed that I should offer you my hand just now, but I imagine mine are rather cold at the moment, so I, um…” Suddenly he opens his eyes and says “Huh?” Maki is blushing and looking annoyed. K: “Oh… you’re actually quite easily flustered, aren’t you, Maki?”
K: “I really don’t want to hear that from you…”

7: In a wider shot Kiibo and Maki stand in a crowd in the lobby. Visible breath is coming out of everyone’s mouths, except Kiibo’s. M: “Anyway, maybe not… I’m not a huge fan of crowds. Or ice, for that matter. It’s basically the ugliest form of water…”
K: “Oh? Um, forgive me, but… In that case, it was somewhat illogical for you to accept my invitation in the first place, no?”
M: “Excuse me?”
K: “Oh, please don’t misunderstand! I know that logic is not the only… um…. *consideration* that goes into human decisions. So…”
Maki makes a flustered offended face again as Kiibo finishes “I appreciate you coming in spite of it, Maki…”

8: Maki turns and looks angrily at the ground. Kiibo rambles on “But um anyway! Why don’t we just go home now? Truthfully, this cold is not great for my battery eith- Eep?!” He cuts off as Maki slides her hand in to hold his arm. In the next panel she says “Okay, let’s go.” Her head is lowered with a sweaty intense face. Where her hand is clutching onto Kiibo’s arm, there is a big lacy heart and the text “Death grip” in cursive font. Kiibo says “M-maki? I-I-I actually need to ask you something…….” M: “What.” K: “Um, it’s nothing really…” M: “Then why did you even ask-” Kiibo shuts his eyes and puts a hand to his mouth, blushing nervously. “But, well… Now that we’re really doing this… *Deep breath* D-do you think we could…”

9: Kiibo covers his face with one hand and pushes his other hand out towards Maki in a ‘stop’ signal. “Do you think we could just walk like normal actually??” he shouts, with more blushing and cartoon steam. “This is TOO MUCH!!!” Maki looks surprised and flustered. “What?! You suggested it!” With the small text “Stop screwing around…!” Kiibo has his back to her, hiding his face. “I know, I know, but it’s just too much…!” Then is a shot of them standing awkwardly facing away from each other, separated by a panel border, with the tops of their faces cut off by the panel. Maki is blushing and puffing her cheek, saying “Ugh. Let’s just go already… Weirdo…” Kiibo has one hand in his pocket and the other clutching his chest, saying “O-oh, um… Yes!” Last is a cropped panel of their legs; Maki is in the lead facing backwards while Kiibo’s boots trample her snow footprints to catch up. Coming from Kiibo is a single speech bubble reading “Let’s.” The comic ends.

Reason #48234872 Kiibo should've lived: so Maki can have someone to recreate a normal human adolescence with while Himiko and Shuichi go into a state of depressed hibernation for the next half decade...

Honestly I never even thought of this pairing until I started drawing this months ago, but I think they would have an interesting dynamic postcanon. It's hard for them to relate to each other at first — Maki has seen way too much and Kiibo has seen like 0 things in his life ever — but they've both been dehumanized, made to believe they're dangerous,* and barred from participating in "the real world" for most of their lives. And because of that they just want something that is, to use Maki's words, "as vanilla as possible."

Also, they're both autistic straight men and I want to see the hijinks that ensue when you put two of those in the same room.

*Obviously we see Maki being viewed as dangerous by herself and others; I can't even tell anymore if it's obvious that Kiibo shares that experience to some degree or if I'm just too deep in my own Kiibo lore... But here's 2 thoughts on why I think that's something they canonically share:

They both hurt someone close to them in their backstories, and that weighs on them enough that both of their Harmonious Heart events are about wondering if that person would hold it against them. Also for reasons I won't elaborate on here, I'm pretty sure Kiibo at least subconsciously views himself as a danger to others due to the environment he grew up in after Iidabashi was injured. I mean imagine having an emergency stop button permanently installed on your body "just in case."

Despite everyone's backstories being fictional, Kiibo and Maki have still killed one real person each --- Kiibo killed Tsumugi (and endangered everyone else), and Maki effectively killed Kokichi/Kaito ('effectively' just as in it could create the kind of "I killed a guy" guilt that is relevant to this discussion. I'm not going to even comment on the actual causality of that entire situation). Even if you don't count that, Kiibo being the only person with a body count is an interesting reversal given he's a pacifist and seems to have the most rigid moral code of the cast (something I also think was a precaution of sorts).

(+ Credit: Background of page 6 is traced from this random photo of an ice rink lobby. I made up the background of page 7 and that's why you can't tell what the hell anything actually is.)

Reason #48234872 Kiibo Should've Lived: So Maki Can Have Someone To Recreate A Normal Human Adolescence

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