You're back, Mari
is an OMORI fanfic by otomerson focusing on Hero becoming unhealthily devoted to protecting Sunny in respect to Mari.
Ever since Mari died, Hero's been trying to supress any reminder of her absence, both to stay productive and to prevent himself from falling into the depressive funk he had been before college. When his first visit to Faraway Town in years turns sour as he follows along with Sunny's final days before moving, memories and feelings he's been trying to avoid start to come to the forefront. And once it seems like Sunny may be going the same way Mari did, there's no stopping that itching feeling in the back of his mind from becoming something more.
What begins as a retelling of the Faraway portion of the game from Hero's perspective becomes a story where Hero's self-doubts and guilt result in him seeing his own form of Something, floating flowers that he takes as a sign from Mari beyond the grave to do what she would have wanted. When the flowers begin to manifest around Sunny, Hero interprets it as Mari wanting him to stick to his promise of keeping Sunny safe before her death. This comes to a head when he prevents Sunny from committing suicide at the hospital at the end of the Sunny Route, instilling an unhealthy drive to protect the boy at all costs.
The fic has two endings, with the second, bad ending leading into I'll find him.
As this is a story primarily taking place during the aftermath of OMORI, spoilers from the game will be unmarked.
You're back, Mari provides examples of:
- Adaptational Jerkass: Sunny's mom became much more bitter and vindictive after Mari's death in this AU, compared to the well-meaning but neglectful parent she was in the game. Sunny has memories of her berating him, doing the bare minimum to keep him alive, and openly telling him that he should have died in Mari's place.
- Asshole Victim: While Sunny's mom is undeniably bad in this AU, Basil is reasonably distraught when he witnesses Hero push her into traffic.
- Cope by Pretending: When Mari died, Hero was so depressed that the only way he could even feign moving on was by pretending Mari never existed in the first place.
- Dream Emergency Exit: In order to escape one of his nightmares, Hero slits his dream self's throat with a mirror shard.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Despite the change in circumstances, what helps Sunny finally forgive himself and gain closure in the Good end is playing the violin music meant for his and Mari's recital. This time, it happens in the real world, and Hero accompanies him with the piano to get his own closure.
- The protagonist, who had been hiding the true circumstances behind their involvement in the death of one of Sunny's family members during a heated argument, makes peace with themself and prepares to come clean about it in the Good ending.
- Karmic Injury: Invoked by Basil. Hero catches Basil with a pair of garden shears in his bathroom. Basil confesses that he was going to take out his own eye in pennance for the eye he took from Sunny, justifying it as "matching".
- "Leave Your Quest" Test: Done by Hero and Sunny as both are on the verge of preparing for their recital. On the way back from picking up Sunny's repaired violin, Hero begins to spiral. He encounters Sunny, who decided to go out on his own to get snacks, in the middle of spiralling and laments that he doesn't believe he'll be able to truly work through his problems. He gives Sunny the offer to run away with him and start over somewhere else, so they don't have to live up to everyone's expectations and Hero can better protect him. In the Good ending, Sunny gets Hero to snap out of it and stay on track, while in the Bad ending, the pair fakes their deaths and runs away.
- Nervous Tics: Whenever Hero becomes anxious, he starts scratching his skin. This eventually becomes so bad that his arms have to be bandaged.
- Out of Focus: Aubrey. This is mostly due to her being the character the least involved with the drama and in-fighting within the group. She mostly comes across as the Audience Surrogate and the Only Sane Man because of this.
- Point of Divergence: Unlike in either of the Sunny Route ends, Sunny never finishes his final confrontation with Omori at the hospital. He instead is saved by Hero from committing suicide, and Basil is the one who tells the group the truth of Mari's death.
- Repression Never Ends Well: Several characters have something they're holding down: Hero repressed his memories of Mari and feelings of guilt when he felt he broke his promise, Kel downplays any negative emotions he has to keep everyone else happy, and Sunny routinely gives his feelings to Omori to process.
- Sanity Slippage: Hero gradually becomes more unhinged over the series, especially after he murders Sunny's mom. He gets better in the good ending, but it sticks into the bad ending and I'll Find Him.
- Slipping a Mickey: In the bad ending, Sunny realized that the reason he became so sleepy before Hero went to work was because he kept drugging his breakfast.
- Slow-Motion Drop: During a heated argument near the top of the stairs, Hero pushes Kel in a fit of anger. Kel experiences the fall in a slowed-down manner.
- Split Personality: After being rescued from suicide, Omori functions in a similar manner for Sunny. When Sunny can't deal with certain stressful situations, Omori will front for him until he is ready to come back out.
- Stalker with a Crush: Basil has an uncomfortable obsession with Sunny, even keeping a photo album entirely focused on Sunny. It's because of this that Basil initially protects what Hero did.
- Stalker without a Crush: Hero's growing obsession with Sunny is familial, but he is extremely watchful and overprotective of Sunny to the point where he is terrified of leaving him to his own devices. Taken to the extreme in the bad ending, where he successfully kidnaps Sunny.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: Hero constantly hallucinates flowers whenever he is reminded of Mari or thinks Sunny's in danger. In some cases, he even sees Mari herself, but with her eyes closed. He thinks they're a sign from Mari's spirit telling her to protect Sunny, but when Basil sees it, he recognises them as Hero's Something.
- Time Skip: The second story takes place several years after the first's bad ending.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 8 is where the whole series takes a drastic pivot, as it ends with Hero murdering Sunny's mom.
