Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kaede slowly opened her eyelids as a shake went through her body. The multicolored hard padded seat in front of her immediately reminded her of her current train travel. It must’ve been a track change that shook her awake.

The soft tunes of a piano slowly flowed through her ears, obliterating any thought that tried to voice itself and swirl a ballad instead. She hummed softly and turned towards the window on her right, of which she had pulled down the blinds to hide the storm they landed in earlier.

A quick peek proofed they finally found themselves in the sun again. She sighed out of relief and raised the blinds, taking her phone out and turning the music off.

The conductor’s voice immediately took over from the piano melody. “I repeat, station Ettenrūru. Station Ettenrūru.”

Kaede stretched her body out, raising her arms in the air. “Station Ettenrūru… That sounds awfully familiar. …… That’s my stop!”

At the speed of light she packed her things in her backpack and hurried down the hallway, nearly falling over as the train stopped and opened its doors. 

There was very little time to catch the change from the intercity to the local train. It didn’t exactly help that she had never been to this station before, the immense size of it overwhelming her senses as she ran across the platform.

A large dome protected the area from any intense weather that might occur, for now intensifying the heat of the summer sun instead. Large groups of people made their way around - from grabbing a quick coffee to making a sprint in the hopes of catching their train despite being late. The holidaymakers dragged their suitcases around and stared endlessly at the screens mounted to the large entrance hall walls. Their immense stature and old builders craft must’ve cost a fortune, only for anyone who enters not to even have the time to admire them.

Kaede’s eyes soared over the screen, looking for the train number she had carefully remembered. “Train 4… Train 4…” she recited, until she finally spotted it.

She had to go underground, and there were just a few minutes left before it would leave!

“Crap…!”

She quickly escaped the crowd and ran down the first descending stairs she saw, following the people down gray hallways which in no shape or form felt the need to assure she was going the right direction. It wasn’t until she arrived in a more open area that clues appeared as to where her train would be.

More screens to check, more train numbers to find. It was unnecessarily stressful.

“There, that’s the one…!” She sped to an escalator and flew her way down the left side of it, the echo of a departure announcement making its way up.

The announcement of train 4, of course.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait!” With large steps she launched herself towards the closing doors, only barely able to squeeze through before getting herself squished.

She let out a big puff of air, leaning on her knees to catch her breath. “Man…”

The train was already fully occupied with people chatting about or staring ahead of them, very few paying attention to how someone dumped themself in with such a panic. She gave the ones that did look a sheepish smile, immediately reverting their attention to whatever they were doing at first.

She wasn’t able to sit, so she'd sadly have to stand, but rather that than having to wait another 30 minutes.

Kaede had been traveling since the cold and dark morning, barely having caught enough to sleep to combat the long travel. The intercity gave her some to rest, but it hadn't been enough to erase the exhaustion.

With recently graduating she was finally free of the restraints of studying and ready to enter the real world. To do adult stuff like working, and well, more working. Even though she felt no desire to continue studying, Kaede didn’t feel mentally ready to work full time yet either. So instead she opted for traveling across the country, doing solo trips to places she had always wanted to visit but never did.

Her exploration started way up north a few weeks ago, planning to end her journey in the south. Right now she was in the middle, an area she didn’t intend on staying too long in as she had been around here before. The north and south held the secrets to uncover while the middle only held places she already knew, or places she never wished to be reminded of.

Visiting her old home town was a decision she had already made with a heavy heart. It both excited and terrified her to return after all this time; after moving away. It wouldn’t be strange if the thought of heading there right now had exhausted her rather than the weeks of traveling. 

But she had to remain positive. It would be fun to bring memories up and walk the streets she admittedly kind of terrorized - in a charming way, of course - as a child.

Let’s say Kaede had always been rather present with everyone knowing the blonde, be it for the better or the worse. She smiled at the memory. Maybe they would still recognize her after all this time.

Almost an hour later her destination finally entered her field of vision: The beautiful countryside with all its trees, bushes and widespread forests that were nowhere to be seen in the big city she had grown used to.

As soon as she got off the scent of nature in all its summer goodness overtook and lured her out of the small wooden station to introduce her to the upper view of her hometown. Even from this distance she was able to see the buildings clearly - old fashioned, with some overdue for a paint job. The architecture got stuck somewhere in the past and had never felt a need to change, just like its people.

After quickly dropping her bag off at the hotel, Kaede immediately went into town. Despite moving away in her teen years and it thus having been a long time since she walked these streets, the paths immediately returned to her. She paraded around town as though she had never left and owned the place just as much as anyone else.

The candy store she loved visit could still be found in its old small building, selling the same old savory goodness. Even the electronics store still had the same TVs in its shop window. She could tell by the faded black color.

She shook her head at it, smiling, wondering how such a place could still be in business. How strangely old fashioned anyway. TV shops kept the screens turned on to display quality, mostly showing the same video which had been specifically created to take advantage of the specs. However, in this shop the TVs display regular programs - the news. Free cable for the whole town.

She watched it for a bit, mentally imagining what might be said, just like she used to in the old days.

“Today’s big news, school is no longer needed because it’s stupid and instead it has been decided parents should be the ones returning to school! All kids are forced to have fun and eat as many sweets as they want, with no need to finish their plates either!” she promoted in her head, slightly giggling and continuing as soon as the program switched to show a black and white bear instead.

“Is that… the old flower shop?”

All her attention shifted when a simple shop popped up around the corner. The flowers outside colored the street, even more greenery rescinding behind the windows.

The inside smelled like an ocean of nature, all the distinct aromas mixing together. One might think it would be overwhelming, maybe even smell rather weird - and it probably was to some - but to Kaede it only proved that she had found herself at the right place.

Simple low flowers dressed the counter, behind them an old hunched lady staring down some kind of paper. Her small eyes focused intensely, not even having noticed Kaede's entrance. She was too far gone.

Kaede leaned on the desk, smiling as she tilted her head a bit. “Hello, do you happen to have any open positions for delivery girl?”

“Hmm?” The woman slowly looked up, eyes squinting in annoyance at being disturbed from her busy work. For a moment she appeared ready to shoo the other away, until her brow drew itself into deep thinking and then raised in surprise. “Kaede? Is that really you?”

“The one and only.”

She went silent again before bursting out in laughter and leaning over the counter as much as she could, squishing Kaede’s cheeks. “Look at you! You’ve grown so big!”

“Youwve gwown smwaller,” she sounded through popped out lips.

The elderly woman laughed again and let go. “Now that is simply rude!”

Kaede giggled in return. “Hana, I didn’t think the shop would still exist, much less you running it. Aren’t you supposed to be retired by now?”

“Retired?!” the other scoffed, shuffling from behind the counter. “Retiring is for the meek sheep who wish to rot away in their chairs! Not me, no sirree!”

Hana used to be her boss. It was Kaede’s very first job, one she opted for as working in the supermarket sounded anything but appealing. She wanted to do something more special than that, something that made her feel useful rather than just another run of the mill low wage employee. So the flower shop it became.

Her job position held the name of delivery girl, meaning Kaede made personal deliveries to customers. Be it at their home or as a nice surprise in the middle of a date so the guy could swoon his girl.

She loved it.

She especially loved speeding through the streets and competing with herself over new records. A few bouquets might have been ready for the trash because of it, but Hana always remained patient with the girl, more so insulting her as if they were grandchild and grandmother. They really were almost like that despite being unrelated by blood. And as time passed, Hana slowly taught her the art of making bouquets and keeping flowers in general.

That is, until Kaede moved away.

“Such a pretty girl,” Hana mused, circling around Kaede and picking at her clothes to fix the girl's appearance. “You must have all the boys on their knees for you. Where’s your boyfriend?”

“Oh geez, Hana…” Kaede’s cheeks turned a rosy red out of embarrassment. “I’m not really looking for a relationship.”

“Not? What’s with the youth these days?" She stared into the distance in disbelief, "When I was your age, I was already a mother.”

Kaede blinked, “At my age? When you were 23?”

“Yes!”

“... That sounds horrifying. I can barely take care of myself, much less a child,” she thought to herself. “Well, times have changed. Gotta keep up.”

Hana sighed, “It’s hard to do so. Technology goes so fast, everytime I think I’ve got it, they release some new kind of computer thingy… But I digress, it’s incredibly nice to see you! It’s been so very long. What has brought you here?”

“Ah,” she shrugged her shoulders, “just here for a visit.”

“Do you have a place to stay?”

“Mhm, staying at a hotel.”

“Will you be here for long?”

“Not sure. I’m doing a solo trip with no solid plans apart from certain places I want to see for sure, so I go where the wind takes me. If I feel like leaving, I leave. If I feel like staying," she leaned back against the counter, "I stay.”

“You haven’t changed much…” Hana softly smiled, reminiscing memories of when the other was just a young teenager and stood smaller than her. “I missed you. I’ve never been able to find another delivery girl like you.”

“Hm…” Kaede casted her eyes down. “I’m sorry that it was so sudden…”

“Oh, don’t you worry about that, dear," Hana soothed, putting her hand on the other's arm. "I understand. We all understand. Are you doing better now? You look better.”

She nodded a bit, quickly taking out a smile to plaster on her face. “I do.”

“Good. That’s important. Besides, I knew I would never get to keep you as my employee. It’s too simple of a job for a girl like you.”

“Simple?" she staggered, raising a brow. "It involved large amounts of planning and tactical movements.”

“You mean going as fast as you can?”

“Well… Yes, but, there is so much more to it…! That’s probably why you’ve never been able to find someone as good as me.”

“Nobody’s beaten your record, that’s for sure.” She shook her head a bit, “My current delivery boy calls in sick so often. He can’t help it, but I’m not made to deliver to so many people anymore. It’s been a bit tough.”

“Eh? He’s sick?” Kaede’s eyes soared over the bouquets behind the counter, stationed in the area she knew to be designated for deliveres. There were a dozen of them. “... Let me do it!”

Hana looked up to her with widened eyes. “... You?”

“Yeah, I’ll do it!" She moved to the flowers and quickly checked the addresses on the labels. "I’ll deliver the bouquets, so you won’t have to worry about them anymore.”

“Oh, you sweetheart… Are you sure? Don’t you have other things to do? How could I repay you?”

Kaede waved her hand. “No, no, don’t worry about it. I don’t need payment. I only have one request.”

“That is?”

She smiled, “I’d like to buy your most beautiful roses.”

“... Roses?” She frowned a bit, disaprovingly waving her finger at Kaede, “It’s the boys who should be giving you flowers, not the other way around! That’s the traditional way!”

She put her hands up, waving back, “Nonono, no relationships, I told you… I want them for something else.”

She stared for a while, calculating all the reasons flowers such as roses could otherwise be needed for. “... Oh. Oh… I see. You’re visiting them?”

“I can’t just not… It’s been a long time, so bringing flowers is the least I can do while I’m here...” Kaede’s voice cracked, vulnerability coming through and worrying the elderly woman. She instantly switched her mood up again, not wanting to linger on the subject, and especially not wanting Hana to dive deeper. “So, where’s my old bike?”

And so Kaede flew her way around town like a bird, delivering bouquet after bouquet to people who were all too familiar. Every chat went the same; why she was here, how she was doing. A curated conversation Kaede could recite with every person. They had a short and sweet talk, to which Kaede would then return to Hana and pick up the next bouquet.

The handels of the bike were old and broken at the soft parts, the rough texture melting in Kaede’s hands, welcoming her back. The turns in the streets went just as smoothly as they did back then with the timings of the traffic lights having remained the same. A call came from the alley shortcuts to cycle across its rough paths and cobbled streets, happy to have an old face return to appreciate its age. Everything's the same as it was.

At the end of the day, around closing time, all deliveries had been made with satisfied customers as a result. Kaede and Hana then put together a beautiful bouquet of red roses. It considered a careful curation of picking out the ones that would keep blooming for a long time and where at the stem to cut while not getting cut by the thorns. They kept the paper wrapping loose. The roses were meant to be spread upon arrival, not kept together. To shine on their own.

Dusk arrived. Hana insisted Kaede to keep the bike to move around town and meet again the next day. For as long as Kaede was here she would help with deliveries.

The people moved inside, the darkening streets slowly turning empty and cool. And before long, as Kaede grew closer to the outer borders, the sight of home lights disappeared. A sign she had now been taken in by nature and growing closer to her destination.

It was a long ride of crossing the mountains before she could vaguely detect the large trees she knew to be a part of the temple and its cemetery. Sakura trees loomed over the gray stones, some of which would be claimed by the forest with moss having grown over them.

She parked her bike by the entrance and lingered in front of it. This was a difficult moment. It had been a long time since her last visit. She used to come so frequently - practically everyday - and now she had been gone for many years. She had to leave at the time, there was nothing she could do about it. But it made the return all the more difficult. She wasn’t entirely sure why though. There were no eyes to judge, it being just her lonesome self.

Or maybe, that was exactly the problem.

The sound of a car stopping behind her and opening its door disturbed her deliberating. Just as she turned around out of sheer curiosity, her eyes were blocked and she was taken by her arms.

Engulfed by the darkness and trapped like a helpless animal, she screamed, her mouth quickly being covered as well. She nearly choked on her breath, the panic burning inside her chest. As soon as the doors shut again, the car drove off, leaving the beautiful roses to spread on the ground.

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BANG!

Kaede dropped to a cold hard floor, barely able to catch herself at impact. She shook her head and got up, caressing the back of her head as her sight healed from its fuzzy and dizzy state. It felt like she had woken up from a deep slumber her body was not quite ready to get out of.

As her senses regained, it became clear that she had found herself in a classroom. Or, what used to be a classroom.

Red barbed wire covered the windows and greenery overgrew on the ceilings. An abandoned place, perhaps? But at the same time the teacher’s desk, electronic blackboard and students' desks were still in place. That didn’t seem right.

What seemed even less right was how she had gotten here. She turned herself around to be met with 3 lockers, the middle one having its door open. Did she fall out of there? It was big enough to fit someone inside, but…

“How… did I end up in a locker?”

BANG!

Kaede jumped in the air as the two other lockers burst open, dropping two figures to the ground. She quickly backed off, unsure of who they were and what they could possibly do.

The first to get up was the woman who had fallen from the left. Her short ashy gray hair hid one of her emerald eyes, accompnaied by a strange looking outfit. It reminded Kaede of a maid of some sorts, but it wasn’t exactly that either. The spiderweb pattern didn't suit such a position. The woman dusted herself off with her black gloves and met eyes with Kaede’s, intense as they were, before they drifted to the third figure.

The man slowly looked up from his fallen position, his amber eyes in a haze. His black cap covered most of his equally black hair. In fact, with his outfit being the exact same color as well it caused him to look like a dark blob. It was only when he slowly crawled up that Kaede noticed the gray stripes flowing over the fabric. It looked like the outfit of a government official, but the man didn’t appear to have the attitude of one. He immediately backed off and spoke in a panicked voice.

“W-who are you…?!”

“Well, I’d like to know who you are as well…!” Kaede quickly countered. She started to remember now, she remembered being swept away. There was no way to know if he was one of the men who took her. Maybe they had even kidnapped the other girl. “What do you want from us…?!”

“Nothing, I want nothing from you…!” the boy quickly opposed.

They continued to banter in a panicked fruitless manner, until the other woman stepped in. “Let’s calm down, this isn’t getting us anywhere. I would like to ask one thing; what is the last thing the two of you remember?”

Kaede turned towards the woman, somewhat glad that she came between, but cautious all the while. “I… The last thing I remember is being swept away in a car. I got grabbed by some men… Maybe men like him over there!” she pointed at the boy, instantly making him squeak.

“I-I didn’t kidnap you…! I got taken away in a car as well…”

“How peculiar…” The woman pursed her lips. “I too remember being kidnapped.”

“Eh?” Any animosity Kaede felt instantly melted away at the revelation. “You too? That’s… strange... So all three of us were kidnapped and brought here?” She scanned the bewildered room again. Whyever would they be taken here and put in lockers? It would’ve made more sense to wake up being tied down. The nerves shook through her body.

“I am unsure… But there must be a way out of this. Are you two feeling good enough to move?”

“Wait, hang on…” the man voiced. “I’m okay, but… I don’t know who you are, not really…”

“... Ah, right, I apologize. My name is Kirumi Tojo,” she bowed slightly, “the Ultimate Maid.”

He smiled a bit, seemingly calmed now he had a name to associate with the stature woman. “My name is Shuichi Saihara. I’m… the Ultimate Detective.”

Kaede blinked rapidly, growing nervous when the two’s eyes moved towards her, urging her to continue the same. Ultimate Maid? Ultimate Detective? What did that-

“Oh, yeah… My name is Kaede Akamatsu. I’m the Ultimate Pianist.” The words left her mouth before she even realized.

Kirumi gave a small nod, her serious face enlightening with a soft smile. “Mhm, I had guessed something like that from your clothes.”

She raised her brow in confusion and looked herself over, quickly noticing the pink sweater and dark purplish skirt. The skirt had music notes on it, dancing around to replicate a music sheet. As her hand instinctively found itself on top of her head in confusion, she could feel clips adorning her hair. They too were shaped like music notes. It seemed so strange.

“... Ah, yeah! I like to wear the part,” she beamed in a smile. Any confusion she had disappeared, as if it never existed in her head in the first place. Except the confusion on why she was here, of course. “Kirumi and Shuichi… It’s nice to meet you. Let’s stick together and try to get out of here, asap!”

The trio slowly moved towards the door, peeking out to see if there would be anyone on guard.

Nobody. Just a school hallway area, also adopted by nature. So they continued moving, until they were actually met with someone. It startled them at first, but as the girl was deep in thought and wore some kind of school uniform, it didn’t seem dangerous to approach.

Just like them, the last thing she remembered was being kidnapped. And she wasn’t the only one.

The further the trio explored the abandoned school, crossing more people of about the same age as them and picking them up to come along, the weirder the situation became. All of them were kidnapped by a car, but there was one other thing they all had in common:

“Oh, my name is Tsumugi Shirogane. I’m the Ultimate Cosplayer.”

“My name is Rantaro Amami. Since you guys mention your Ultimate talents, I guess I should too… I’m the Ultimate Survivor.”

“Prepare to be amazed. Fall to your knees. I am Himiko Yumeno, the Ultimate Mage. … But… I’m officially called the Ultimate Magician.”

“I’m Tenko Chabashira! HAIYAH! The Ultimate Aikido Master!”

“I’m the gorgeous girl genius whose good looks and golden brain will go down in history! I’m the one, the only, the legendary Ultimate Inventor herself - Miu Iruma!”

“I am K1-B0, the Ultimate Robot! But please, address me as Keebo!”

“I’m Kokichi Oma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader!”

“Ryoma Hoshi, the man called the Ultimate Tennis Pro… no longer exists. I’m nothing more than his empty shell.”

“Maki Harukawa… Ultimate Child Caregiver…”

“My name is Korekiyo Shinguji… I am called the Ultimate Anthropologist.”

“I’m Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars! Even crying children adore the Ultimate Astronaut!”

“Ummm… Gonta’s name is Gonta Gokuhara. Gonta’s talent is Ultimate Entomologist. But, becoming true gentleman Gonta’s goal!”

“Ya-hah! My name is Angie Yonaga! I’m the Ultimate Artist!”

They were all Ultimates .

“This… can’t be a coincidence.” Kaede looked the entire group over as they stood in the courtyard.

The outside had caught her completely off guard. A glimmer of hope filled her heart as they found the school building's exit, but it only landed them in a garden where the sky was obliterated by a dome. It’s like they were on the inside of a snowglobe, caved in to display a school with a courtyard, dormitory, and lower courtyard - the courtyards containing some other strange buildings as well.

They were trapped. But how? And why?!

“Is this everyone? So we’re with 16?” Maki asked.

Kaito pumped his fist. “We’ve all been kidnapped by those weirdos… So where are they?! Where are our kidnappers?!”

The group had already checked pretty much every building they had access to, and all they found was maybe another student. That had ended now, and nobody else could be seen. It felt sickening and all the worse.

Himiko slowly raised a finger in the air, lazily waving it around, “Maybe they found out I can cast magic, and made a run for it… Heh, I’d be scared too if I were them…”

“Wow, you could defeat them with your magic, Himiko?! That’s amazing!” Tenko almost screamed.

“... I never said anything about defeating them…”

“Well, they’ve got to be somewhere,” Kokichi deduced. “Kidnapping 16 Ultimates to some strange place with not much memory but the moment of kidnapping… Something’s up. And it’s really bad.”

“I must agree,” Kirumi thoughtfully caressed her chin. “I fail to see the objective of the culprits. If they are holding us for ransom, a large facility such as this would be unnecessary. Furthermore, I gather they would rather care for us than hurt us. In light of this… I fail to see the true objective of the culprits responsible for kidnapping us.”

Korekiyo wrapped his arms around himself. “Kehehe, trapping 16 people together… It almost sounds like one of those human experiments, like the Stanford Prison Experiment. What happens to people when put under certain… circumstances…”

~Ding dong, bing bong!~

Kaede’s face scrunched at the sound filling the air. “Is that… a bell?”

The monitor which had been strangely placed near the school entrance lit up, showing a black and white bear. He was seated behind a desk, twirling a drink as he stared into the camera with a blank expression.

“Everyone, make your way to the gym, please. The opening ceremony can finally begin!”

Just as sudden as it had tuned on, the screen shut off again. Everyone continued to stare at it before glancing at one another. What were they supposed to do? Follow the strange puppet's command?

Kaede gulped before hyping herself up to take the lead. “Well, I guess we should be going to the gym.”

“Are you… sure about this?” Shuichi questioned. “I’m worried about what we’ll find there…”

“I’m very worried too, but… It’s not like we have anywhere else to go to…” She pumped herself up even further and gave everyone a confident look. “We’re 16 Ultimates! As long as we stick together, we will be fine! No fear!”

Everyone stuck closely together as they approached the gym, Kaede upfront in the position of leader she had pretty much doomed herself to be. It made her want to tremble on her feet, but the trust of the others kept her moving and overpowered the fear of what they could possibly encounter. Like she said, they were 16 incredibly talented people. Whatever was ahead, they could take it.

The gym hadn’t changed from their first visit; supplies tossed around and trees overgrowing the area. Only the stage had been kept neat and unscathed, an emblem covering the drapes on the wall. The school emblem, likely.

“Fucking hell!” Miu huffed, the nerves escaping her body. “That freaky teddy bear got us worried over nothin’! It’s empty! Nada! Nothing!”

“Hey! Can’t a bear grab himself a coffee?!”

She jumped a hole in the air, “Eeehhhhh?! Where did that come from?!”

The stage lit up and from behind the stand the same bear from before ascended from the sky, slowly fluttering down like a holy man with wings and losing them entirely once he landed. He looked like a simple stuffed teddy bear, yet spoke as if possessed.

“I am the God of this new world… and the headmaster of the Ultimate Academy! The one, the only… Monokuma! Nice to meetcha!”

Kaede stared at the bear in disbelief. Was it actually moving and talking on its own? That considered some crazy kind of technology. She could remember creepy robot toys from when she was a child, haunting her forever, but they were never this lifelike. Maybe it was just a facade. It had to be something like that. Trickery. But it didn’t clarify anything about the situation they had found themselves in.

“What’s… going on?”

“Hmm… There is despair and madness swirling around that cursed thing…” Korekiyo muttered.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Monokuma swung his paws up in a manner that made him look more cutesy than angry. “Show some respect! I’m the headmaster of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles!”

Maki’s brow furrowed. “Headmaster?”

Keebo peeked into the conversation as well, incredibly disturbed at having another great piece of technology walking around the premises. One that was likely evil, at that. “It appears to be some sort of autonomous robot with a built-in A.I., like me…”

“Oh, great,” Kokichi bit his thumb a bit. “So he’s your crazy cousin or something?”

"I am not related to that thing…!”

“An autonomous robot gathering a bunch of Ultimates in a dome...” Ryoma fixed his hat. “Jep. This is certainly turning into quite the story.”

Monokuma leaned on the stand with one arm, “Oh, and you haven’t even heard the best part yet… Puhu… puhuhuhuhuhu…”

Kirumi squinted her eyes, suspicion dripping off her tongue. “What is so amusing?”

“Oh, it’s just- I always get a bit nervous at this part… It’s just so exciting, you know! The start of a new killing game season!”

Kaede frowned, “Did he just say… killing game?”

“So here goes!" He threw his arms in the air, holding them there for a bit without as much as sighing a word. "... I want you students with your Ultimate-level talents to participate in a killing game. Are you excited to get started?”

“What?!” Gonta protectively stepped forward, raising his arm to keep everyone safely behind him. “O-of course not! Gentlemen not hurt people!”

He tilted his head left to right, “But if you’ve looked around the academy, then you already know, don’t you? The academy is surrounded by a huge wall. You can’t escape to the outside world… And as long as I have the Exisals, you can’t defy me.”

“The… Exisals?” Rantaro questioned.

“Puhuhu, round ‘em up, boys! Take a good look at them!” Monokuma pulled out a remote and pressed its big red button. Not too long after, 5 giant machines appeared from thin air, their intense size and armed guns immediately panicking the group and backing them up against each other like a flock of sheep. “Aren’t they pretty? In any case, as you can see… I hold the power of life and death over each and every one of you.”

Rantaro picked the ‘conversation’ he was having back up again, remaining surprisingly calm for Kaede’s taste. “So do what you say if we don’t want to die.”

“This is ridiculous!” Tenko took a battle position, ready to take the Exisals on if they were to attack, although it was hard to see what she could possibly do against the walking weapons. “Why would friends ever kill each other?!”

“Friends?” Monokuma tilted his head all the way to the side, nearly falling over his own weight. “You guys aren’t friends at all… You’re enemies out to kill each other. Out to kill each other in a refined, sophisticated experience! You see, here the killing game is punctuated by class trials."

Kaede’s heart throbbed in her throat, both from the Exisals still standing in their space and the bear's words. “What… exactly do you mean by that…?”

He leaned forward on the stand, pushing his cheeks up with this paws. “Well, if one of you kills someone, everyone has to take part in a class trial. This is where the blackened killer faces off against their spotless classmates. You will argue over who you think the blackened is! After that, it’s voting time. And if the majority of you vote correctly… only the blackened killer will receive punishment. After they are punished, the rest of you will just keep right on living together. Buuuut!" he wove his arm in the air. "If you vote for the wrong person during the class trial… The blackened gets off scot-free, and all the spotless students get punished instead! In a nutshell, it’s not simply enough to kill someone. You must survive the trial too… Puhu… puhuhuhu…”

“Sounds like the real world to me,” Ryoma spoke under his breath.

“I have a picture of what this aforementioned ‘punishment’ might be, but… What is it exactly?”

“Yes, excellent question, you there in the mask! Simply put, it’s an execution!”

“Execution…?!”

Monokuma struck his paw on his other, smashing a dust particle, “If you do a crime, you get punished for it… That’s, like, the most basic rule of society. But this is a killing game, so the punishment for murder is a bit more… permanent."

The floor fell from underneath Kaede. This coudn’t be real. It had to be a bad dream. Wake up, wake up, wake up!

“Alright, I’m all over this boring exposition." He streched his body out and patted his round belly, "Let’s get this heart-pounding killing school semester started already! You have free reign to murder however you like, too. Like bludgeoning! Or stabbing! Feeling cheap? Try strangulation! Feeling lazy? Try poisoning! Whether you shoot, burn, drown, blow up, crush, electrocute, or laugh your victim to death… You can use any method you like to kill anybody you like, any way you like! At the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, you will realize your murderous potential! Sixteen talented young adult prodigies, all competing for first place in a killing game… There’s no better setting for an event like this than the Ultimate Academy!”

“He’s…” Shuichi swallowed loudly. “He’s making it sound like a game…”

“It doesn’t sound like it’ll be boring, though,” Kokichi slyly commented.

“How are you fucktards so fucking calm, huh?!” Miu vibrated on her feet like a machine. “Nobody come near me! Stay the fuck away from me!”

“T-this has to be a lie…” Tsumugi tried to back off, only able to break through her paralysis with a single step.

It felt like fiction. The story of some cruel dystopian book or movie to break the charts. The scenario was so removed from reality that Kaede could hardly believe it actually happening. She still felt like it was a dream, somehow. Or better said, she hoped it was.

“I’m not participating in this…” Kirumi threw a glare at the bear. “I refuse to kill.”

“Well, isn’t that a problem.” One of the Exisals turned to point its gun in her face. “Cause the killing game is the only reason you are here. So go on, unleash your talents and have a happy, homicidal, horrific, hilarious killing game!”

“No…!” Kaede broke through the shock, pulling Kirumi by her arm to get her pale face out of the gun’s vision. “We will never participate in this! Whatever you have planned, I’m not gonna let you get away with it!”

Monokuma whistled in return, fully leaning his round body over the stand. “Oohhh… I welcome your resistance. A defiant spirit is important to the killing game. It’s always fun to watch the defiant ones eventually snap, and get their hands dirty… Brutality like that is a must in a death game! I especially love it! You’re my favorite one so far! Ahahahahaha!”

He continued laughing, leaving Kaede to stand there in dumbfounded silence, his squealing penetrating her ears and smashing her thoughts around to break apart.

This was beyond messed up. All these Ultimates trapped in an academy surrounded by a giant dome, with the sole goal for them to kill if they wish to get out - orchestrated by some stupid talking bear with access to killing machines. What had any of them ever done to be put in a situation like this? It was sadistic.

But whether she liked it or not, whether she truly wanted to believe it or not, truth is that she was here right now. A part of this story.

She looked around for a bit, at the other students whose faces ranged in varying degrees of horror. They were stuck together and purposefully rounded up to grow wary of each other. An energy Kaede could already sense. They weren’t sticking together the same as they did before. The only reason they were herded together was because of the Exisals. There was nothing but animosity further.

And that was dangerous.

They needed that trust from before back, it's the only way she could picture keeping everyone from committing a cruel act, or to fall victim to it.

So if it’s a game this bear wanted to play, then play she would.

“Hmm…” Shuichi carefully watched the large screen on the wall as he opened several window tabs. Reefs, mountains, valleys, beaches. It looked so incredibly stunning.

“What are you looking at?” a female voice approached from behind.

“You took a while,” he turned his seat to face Kirumi, who was fixing up her regular suit. None of the Ultimate Maid stuff, just in the clothes he had always known her: Black pants and a vest, a white blouse underneath along with a black tie. Very monochrome, as according to the brand. He looked much the same in his own black and white suit. Though he was glad to get rid of the cap so he could actually see her. “I thought we said we would meet up earlier.”

“I wanted to,” she sighed. “But apparently having a personal maid when put in a killing game is something people really enjoy making use of.”

He scoffed a bit, “You did that to yourself,” and turned to the screen again. “I’d be careful if I were you, they might start asking you to read them bedtime stories.”

“Do not bully me.” She leaned on the back of his seat, lighty knocking him on the head before swirling her naked fingers through his hair. “Now, what’s all this? It doesn’t look like work.”

“Because it isn’t. Internet access is very limited, most of what I have tried to search is blocked, but… look at this place. I was thinking that once we get out of here, we could move there. Doesn’t it look gorgeous?”

He skipped through the many beautiful displays of nature again, from the thriving sun to its pearly beaches. Kirumi grew enamored by the sights, evident from the slowed down pulls on Shuichi's hair. “Is this still in Japan?”

“No, Australia. I want us to get real far away… And this place seems nice.”

“Isn’t that the country with all the dangerous animals? Like the many snakes and big spiders?” she said with disgust.

“Your entire brand is a spider, I figured you’d like it.”

“There is a big difference between the cute thin and tiny, and the big black hairy poisonous ones created by the Devil himself,” she clacked.

He chuckled, “Don’t worry, if it's no fun over there we move to the next country until we have found the right place to settle down. Maybe we can do this as… our first holiday.”

“Hmm… That’s more like it…” She curled his antenna between her fingers, earning her a small hum, only for them to be disturbed by a pop-up and the stressful sound of a phone ringing.

Mr. Monokuma is calling you

“A-already…?” Shuichi straightened his back. “Get in place.”

Kirumi quickly moved to his right side, placing her hands behind her back after quickly fixing Shuichi's hair in shape.

He picked up the phone and was immediately met with a Monokuma head filling the screen. Unlike the bear Monokuma, this was an actual person who not so creatively went by the name of Mr. Monokuma. Shuichi preferred to call him sir for short. It rolled far more nicely off the tongue.

“Haha, there you are! Let me take a good look at you.” The older man leaned into the camera, the red eye nearly filling the entire screen. “Suited up again, I see.”

“Of course, sir,” Shuichi cleared his throat. “This is an official Danganronpa meeting.”

“Official is a big word.” He leaned back into this seat again. “This is just a little briefing call. The first episode is getting the final touches now before being released, so I don’t actually have much to comment yet. All I can say is that things are looking good so far. Good performance on the acting, staying in character…”

The duo straightened up a bit at the compliments.

“I’d say I’m impressed, but I’m not. I’ve always known you would do a good job. But this is only the prologue… That’s the easy part." His hands soared above the desk, pretending to have little puppets hanging from them, "It’s about curating the rest of the game, carefully playing your cards to obtain the best story.”

“Of course, sir,” they replied in unison.

“So how does it feel? Have you felt unstable yet?”

“Not at all,” Kirumi quickly said. “We have been trained well.”

“Hmmm…” Mr Monokuma stared into the camera for a bit. He couldn’t quite believe her. “... Aha, that’s true!" he bursted. "Only the best training is provided! If you weren’t ready for it, you wouldn’t be here yet.”

“Of course, sir.”

“I know you have learned the rules by heart, but I must repeat that the game automatically ends when there are 2 survivors left. So you have quite the work cut out for you if you wish that to be the two of you… And when you do win, wealth and prosperity will be waiting for you. Remember that. We’ll speak again at the next real meeting, my little songbirds.”

Mr. Monokuma’s face disappeared from the screen, returning the view of Australia. 

Shuichi slowly looked up to Kirumi, she already looking back at him with an infectious grin of mischief. One so infectious that he felt his own lips curl the same way. He shoved himself closer to the computer and ticked away on the keyboard, the many screens replacing themselves with views of the other students. One by one. Peacefully and unknowingly asleep in their dorms.

Kirumi sat on the armrest, throwing her legs over one of Shuichi’s and receiving the honor of activating the final camera on the big screen in the middle.

He put a hand on her thigh and leaned back, in such way that when Kirumi moved back as well, their heads lightly touched. They stared at the large screen together with careful intent.

A screen that showed Kaede restlessly sleeping in bed.

Chapter Text

~Ding dong, bing bong!~

Kaede violently awoke, her eyelids flashing open to the 8 a.m. announcement. The sheets were a mess and the several pillows which sat so neatly last night had fallen to the floor.

Her body felt much the same. Her muscles ached and her mouth was dry. Even though she slept all night, it felt as though she had been awake the entire time.

“Ugh…”

As she sat herself up, she took another look around the room. It was surprisingly homey, only the lack of windows making it feel like a prison. A nice seat, modern TV and study desk decorated the room. Last night she even found the bathroom to be incredibly clean and modern. The room's red color palette wasn’t one Kaede would go for personally, but it was hard to complain.

Aside from the fact they were still kidnapped and put in a killing game.

“Maybe if it wasn’t for this whole imprisonment thing, I would feel as if on holiday. Like a getaway… I can vaguely remember doing something like that before I got kidnapped… We’ve gotta get out. I’m not sleeping here another night.”

With full determination she raised from her bed, grabbed some new clothes from the closet which was filled with copies of her Ultimate outfit, and made her way towards the canteen. The academy was too big to immediately get the route right, though she wasn’t exactly planning on having a reason to remember. The scent of freshly baked croissants guided her nose forward to enter the kitchen.

Kirumi, who technically speaking was the very first person in this group Kaede came to know, stood behind the stove, cooking mirror eggs as the oven ran. The image seemed typical for an Ultimate Maid.

“Ah, morning, Kirumi,” Kaede greeted.

Kirumi looked up to her before swiftly reaching for the salt and pepper. “Good morning, Kaede. Were you able to sleep some?”

“About as well as one could, I suppose… How about you? You don’t look like you woke up just now.”

She put the seasoning down and turned around. “Breakfast is an important meal of the day. How is your pillow?”

“... My pillow?” Kaede replied in confusion of the sudden blunt question.

“Not too hard or too soft?”

“Um... It’s fine…”

“I will keep it in mind.”

Kaede stared a bit at the maid as she returned to her cooking like they had discussed the most common topic. She wasn’t sure why the other would need this kind of information, or what would bring one to ask after such a thing in the first place, but she didn’t feel like questioning it either way.

“When you’re done making your breakfast, can I have the pan? No need to clean it, I feel like going for a mirror egg as well.”

Kirumi turned towards her again, her brow furrowed in confusion, slightly hurt even. “Whyever would you do that?”

“Because I need to eat…?”

“But I am a maid. There is no need to prepare anything yourself.”

Kaede blinked, her eyes immediately soaring to the oven which upon closer inspection definitely held a lot more croissants than necessary for one person. Kirumi wasn’t making food for just herself or one other person, she was making breakfast for everyone.

“... Kirumi, that is so sweet of you,” she smiled. “You didn’t have to do that. Thank you.”

She put up her hand, “No need to thank me. It is as I said, I am a maid. You should not have to worry about these artificial things. It is important to me that all of you are well energized and rested.”

“Still…” Kaede supposed that is what maids do; make life easier. But considering the circumstances she was still thrown off by Kirumi’s commitment. She seemed so unbothered, focused. It was admirable, and merit to it too. Coming up with a plan to get out would be hard to do on an empty stomach.

“See this as my contribution. I will fulfill all your needs, and in return I expect you to give it your all finding a way out. That is under the assumption you have not given up.”

“Of course not!” she beamed. “I would’ve looked for a way out deep into the night if I could have! But now that we’ve all had some rest, everyone can give it their all.”

Kirumi smiled softly, seemingly pleased with the response and turning the stove off. “Where shall we start?”

“What about-... Um… The uh…” In all honesty, she had no clue.

“Good morning.” A new member entered the kitchen, the other person Kaede had started this nightmare with.

Compared to Kirumi’s staggering confidence, Shuichi was more of a stressed chicken. Though considering the circumstances it would be strange not to feel at least a little anxious. Besides, there actually seemed to be some confidence radiating off of him today.

Kaede turned to him, giving him a bright smile, “Morning, Shuichi!”

“Good morning,” Kirumi greeted just as swiftly. “Did you sleep well? Is your pillow okay?”

He froze into the same confusion Kaede had before being able to return the morning greeting. “... My pillow?”

“Yes.”

His head tilted a little, thinking. “... I normally sleep on a bit of a harder one, but it wasn’t bad or anything.”

Kirumi pursed her lips. “I see. I will take note of this.” She looked away and moved her fingers a bit in the air, as though quite literally saving the information in her memory.

Shuichi’s eyes slowly met with Kaede's, hoping for some explanation from her side on why Kirumi was interested in his pillow in particular. But Kaede’s shrug accompanied by a sheepish smile made him wave it off, especially since he had something much more important to focus on.

“Ah, erm, I was actually looking for you, Kaede… We talked about getting out, right?”

“Yeah?” With a small glinter in her eyes she excitedly approached the detective. “Did you find an exit?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but…” He pulled a black and white themed tablet from his pocket, turned it on and showed what almost looked like a map of the academy. “I was checking out the map on possible hidden paths.”

Kaede blinked, tilting her head a bit as she closed in. “Huh? Where did you get that tablet from?”

“It was in my pocket. It’s personalized." He momentarily returned to the start screen, revealing a blue-ish yet gray-ish theme. "I think we all have one.”

“Can confirm,” Kirumi quickly noted as she started taking out 15 plates.

Kaede shook her shoulders a bit, checking the weight of her backpack. She had figured there was something inside, but hadn't been bothered to confirm. It must be a tablet of her own.

“Anyway, behind the building there is this boiler room,” he zoomed in on the area, "and since we didn’t go there yesterday, I took a peek inside. There's not a lot going on, but… I did notice a manhole.”

“A manhole?" she looked up to him with curious eyes. "What would it do there?”

“My guess is that it will lead to a sewer system." He moved his finger across the screen, off the border, "And a sewer system leads-”

“Outside!” Kaede finished, clapping her hands together in glee. “Yes, that’s perfect! You really are an Ultimate Detective, huh?”

He quickly pulled his hand back and put it on the edge of his cap, hiding his flustered face. "Erm… Thanks…"

“What are we waiting for? Let’s gather the others and get going.” She grabbed him by his arm and paraded out of the room.

“Excuse me,” Kirumi spawned in front of them, blocking the entrance with a stern stance similar to that of a parental figure. “Breakfast should not be skipped. Let us eat first before heading there.”

“Everyone, watch your step. There’s a lot of roots on the floor.”

After everyone finished breakfast all 15 students hurried their way after Shuichi towards the boiler room. The mere idea of a way out made everyone jump right out of their depressed mood. Kirumi went as far as packing up food to take along, just in case. They all believed this would be the end of the nightmare they had been put in.

“So where’s this manhole of yours?” Ryoma asked, walking in further and looking the jungle-like room over. “This is not the time to be celebrating yet. If Monokuma catches us, it’s over.”

Rantaro gave a nod, caring a lot less about the decorations. “I agree, so where is it?”

“I’ll tell you where it is!” Miu shouted, pushing some people aside to force attention to her. “Right in his pants, ha-hahaha!”

“Um… Gonta not understand how manhole fit in pants…”

“That’s…” Shuichi cleared his throat in an attempt to get the room back on track. “It’s over there in the grass, but it’s heavy. I can’t lift it.”

“I’ll try!” Keebo stepped forward and attempted to pull it off, only to fail miserably.

“Eh?” Angie clasped her hands on her cheeks. “How heavy is it for a robot not to be able to lift it?”

“Ah, actually," he stood up again, caressing his back with an awkward smile, "my physical strength is approximate to that of a strong senior citizen.”

“Th-that’s fucking pathetic…!” Miu sputtered.

He looked away a bit, ticking his fingers together, “The professor did not want a repeat of the tragedy that occurred during trial production…”

“Ummm…” Tsumugi cocked her head. “Now I’m just plain curious about what happened during that trial…”

“No worry, Gonta can do!” He reached for the cover and unlike Keebo, lifted it like a handkerchief. “Upsy-daisy. What should do with cover now?”

“Please leave it somewhere else,” Kirumi answered, lightly putting up her hands. “Be careful not to hit anyone with it.”

Gonta opposed at first, claiming it was rude to litter, but with no real place to go with it, he begrudgingly laid it on the floor.

Kaede quickly peeked inside the hole. The dark obscured her view, but she could feel cold, moist air drifting up from below and hitting her face. There was no sense of wind anywhere else in the dome, this had to be a sign.

Once everyone got down and their eyes had adjusted to the darkness, the area turned out to be far more spacious than initially thought. It looked like an old industrial passageway, as if a factory had once stood here with only its underground remaining. And that underground contained an enormous pipe from which wind blessed everyone's hair.

A windy pipe which was also accompanied by a beautiful "Exit" sign.

“What a considerate sign,” Rantaro scoffed. “Apparently the exit is right at the end of this tunnel.”

The exit was right there, and yet everyone stood back. Anxiety posessed them, a fear of the unknown. There had to be something Kaede could do.

“No need to worry!” she assured them, stepping in front of the group and clasping her hands together. “It looks a bit dangerous, but we’re all Ultimates here! As long as we work together, everything will work out just fine!”

“That’s exactly what I was gonna say! We’re really on the same wavelength, Kaede!” Kaito encouraged. “Gimme a hug!”

She smiled blankly. “Um… No.”

“Ugh, typical degenerate behavior!" Tenko angrily pushed her pointer into the astronaut's face, "You were trying to trick her into pressing her boobs against you!”

Kaede stepped up to the pipe. The cold air hugged her body, sending a shiver down her spine. Everyone was counting on her to lead the way. She took a quick glance behind her, Shuichi and Kirumi being the first to stand with her.

“An underground passage that has not been in use for some time must be quite dangerous,” Kirumi murmured, squinting her eyes in attempt to see further ahead. “But… if you wish to proceed then I will do my best to support that decision.”

Shuichi nodded a bit, speaking out loud to himself. “And it’s as Kaede says, if we all work together… it’ll be okay. I’m sure of it.”

“Right!” Kaede fixed her backpack and paraded ahead. “It’ll probably be okay… The exit will be at the end, and once we reach that, we’ll be free. I get to go back to my travels, others will get to return to their family… We’re not going to give up.”

The hallway looked peaceful, nothing to be specifically wary of apart from the distant creaking of metal literring the air. It felt ghostly. Kaede tried to remind herself that creaking was a good sign. Much better than dead silence, that’s for sure.

“It still strikes me as weird that there was an actual exit sign, though… It feels so cartoony. ‘Go in here! Nothing to be afraid of!’ Only to then be filled with tra- AAAH!”

Next thing she knew she got soaked to the bone, her eyes and mouth immediately shutting to block out the water she was now trapped in. She struggled, unsure where to go, until hands grabbed onto her and pulled her to the surface.

Once she resurfaced with a loud gasp, Kirumi’s arms stretched out towards her from the water's edge. Kaede quickly burried her fingers in the white fabric before getting pulled up the wall and having everyone else help her get out.

She coughed out some water, crawling over the floor and taking a deep breath after. “Wh-what happened…?!”

“The ground fell,” Rantaro coughed, being pulled up next from the water. “It vanished from underneath your feet. A trap.”

“Wh-what…?" she quickly turned to him. "And you jumped after me? Thank you…”

“Don’t worry about it,” he shook his head dry like a dog and wove off any help from the others. “Clothes will dry. My main concern is that we’re dealing with a pretty big gap here.”

“Gap?” Kaede slicked her hair back and stood up to the edge. She saw it now.

A river of water which was definitely not there before.

The trapdoor had to be motion activated so she didn’t notice while deep in thought. Her eyes looked further to observe the gap. It was indeed big, but possibly jumpable.

“... I can manage this.” She took a few steps back, the friction of the wet socks in her shoes creating a squeaky sound. It felt incredibly uncomfortable, her body immediately wanting to change her mind. But Kaede’s mind was a stubborn one. She pushed herself off and jumped.

Everything went dark.

Next thing she knew she awoke on the floor, her clothes still wet, yet lightly dried. The silhouette of Kirumi's face hovered itself in Kaede’s field of vision, its defining features slowly coming in focus.

“Kaede?” she whispered, worried.

“Ah… Kirumi…?”

Kirumi let out a breath of relief. “You’re awake… Are you alright?”

“I-I’m fine…” She slowly sat up, caressing her head. “What about the others? Are we still in the pipe?”

Looking around, Kaede found they had returned at the beginning room. The others had joined her on the ground; some were wet, some were not. But they all sat there in stunned silence.

“Your jump didn’t reach the other side so you fell in the water again,” Kirumi explained, fixing Kaede's clothes a bit. “Rantaro went after you, but you were already out. He lost consciousness soon after, and the others wanted to try and make the jump as well. Most ended with failure, and those who did pass… got another trap blocking their way. Something about flamethrowers.”

“F-flamethrowers…?!” Kaede coughed.

“Puhuhu, helps you dry up, you know!” Out of thin air, Monokuma slid down the manhole's ladder. His cheery mood created an odd edge in the sadness filled air. “Man, what an absolute pity party you guys are throwing yourselves.”

“Monokuma?!” Kaede immediately jumped to her feet, almost wobbling over.

“Tch… So you have crawled out of your hole, huh?” Kaito gritted his teeth, also crawling up. “Guess you finally noticed what we were up to.”

He strudded further to the group, “Finally? I’ve known from the start.”

“If you knew all along, then this was just a trap,” Maki gritted, detangling the hairs in her pigtail.

“Then there is no exit!” Tenko sprung to her feet, switching from incredible defeat to anger. “You tricked us!”

He wove his paws in panic, “No, no! There is an exit. You may not succeed the first time, but… then you just have to keep going! Try as many times as you want until you accept reality!” With a maniacal laugh Monokuma left the room as quickly as he arrived, having managed to bring everyone to a state of uneasiness.

Himiko fixed her hat a bit, showing little desire to give up her seat by the wall. “Nyeeeh, so we can escape if we work hard enough..?”

“Fucking moron, of course we can’t!" Miu barked, kicking a stray can away. "He’d be freaking out if we could actually reach it!”

“That’s why he lets us, huh?” Ryoma shook his head a bit, curling more into his seated position. “He enjoys seeing us suffer, and wants us to learn that escape is impossible.”

“Leaving that little bit of hope…” Rantaro wrung the bottom of his shirt out. “He really wants us to be desperate to go home. Corner us mentally.”

“How rotten…” Tsumugi mumbled, cleaning her glasses.

The group sat around in defeat, collapsed through their spines and already having given up on escape when they had barely tried to proof otherwise. Kaede couldn't stand to look at the sight for even one second.

“We can’t give up,” Kaede announced, fixing her bag once again and ensuring everyone was looking at her before continuing her pep talk. “I mean, we’ve only failed once, you know. We can’t give up this early, right?”

“Didn’t you hear the bear?” Kokichi asked with a raised brow and cheek against his fist. “Escape is not going to be an easy task.”

“It won’t, indeed. It may take one more try or a lot more tries, but it’s not impossible." She hopped to the pipe and stood in the entrance, standing above everyone, "Forget Monokuma. It doesn’t matter what he says to us. I don’t want to lose to him! And I don’t want any of you to lose either! You’re going back to your homes, to your friends and families! I refuse to lose to someone who would do these terrible things to us!”

“Kaede…” A light smile crept on Shuichi’s face, and so it did on a few others’.

She pumped her fists in the air, “So let’s all work hard to escape this place together! And once we get out of here and make it to the outside world…" She smiled, "Let’s stay friends. After going through an experience like this, I think we’d all be best of friends. It’s not every day you get to meet Ultimates, so…”

“Huh.” Ryoma got up, a soft sense of joy painting his face. “That sounds like a pretty good idea.”

“Ah-ha! My body is ready!” Tenko kicked her foot in the air, nearly kicking Keebo’s head in. “You can just tell by how outta control my pit sweat is!”

“Hey, calm it!” Keebo stressed, taking a big step to the side. “You don’t have to kick me for it…!”

Kirumi rose to her feet as well, dusting her dress off. “Then we have all the more reason to get out.”

“But,” Keebo continued now in a safe zone away from Tenko, raising a finger as though needing the teacher's permission to speak, “isn’t it premature to say what we’ll do after we escape? Assumptions are all but useless.”

“Geez, you’re the one that’s useless,” Kokichi said, skipping towards Kaede. “Why am I not surprised that a robot can’t read the air?”

Keebo's antenna spurted in protest, “I won’t stand for this robophobic comment! Robots can read the air! Thanks to innovations in pollutant-detecting technology, I-”

“Doesn’t matter!” Kaito bumped his fists together, joining Kaede. “Monokuma says it’s impossible, but we’ll show him what we can do!”

“Yeah!” Kaede fully raised a fist in the air. “Let’s do this!”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine this time. A divine wind will blow through and lift us to victory,” Angie whistled, raising in a twirl.

Korekiyo watched the group one by one join Kaede by the pipe. “Humanity truly is wonderful. The way you all confront adversity is beautiful.”

With even more strength than before Kaede stepped back into the tunnel, the others following behind - closer this time. Rantaro mentioned the need for a plan of approach, to which the others who had made the jump filled in. Everyone tuned in with relevant knowledge they had either acquired through their talents or simply through life.

This was going to be it, the one. Kaede could just feel it. So when she sprinted forward to jump over the water again, she did so filled with hope.

But that hope turned out to be premature. The last thing she could vaguely remember feeling was an intense heat, although not hot enough to burn her skin. Pain soared through her entire body as she woke up in the main room again, along with all the others.

“Wh-what the-? And I was looking forward to a happy ending!” Miu nearly seemed ready to cry as Keebo helped her get up.

“I’m not giving up yet!” Kokichi exclaimed, returning to the tunnel. “New plan of approach! I’ll go in front!”

“R-right, this time…!” Kaede slowly got up, following him and doing everything she could to ignore her bones which were begging to stay down on the floor. “This time… we’re reaching the exit!”

So they tried again, changing the order of people. They got a bit further that way, Kokichi being able to figure the flamethrower pattern out before another batch of people would knock out from the intense blazes.

But it wasn’t enough.

Past the flamethrower other challenges hit them, like flying bombs that let out a gas at the lightest touch and knocked out the front runners. The group went back and forth, bringing people who went unconscious back to the main room and waiting for them to wake up again. Food breaks were held in between, hoping it would regain some energy.

Kaede kept encouraging everyone to try again, but had to watch them struggle getting up from resting and becoming out of breath after just a few steps. Even now she watched Shuichi clamping onto Kirumi’s shoulders as she dragged him back to the main area on her own shaking feet. She was one of the few still standing; Kaito, Gonta and Tenko trying to do the same. But they were weakened too. It wouldn’t be long before they’d cave in as well.

And when the next break was begged, that became all too clear.

“Failed again,” Gonta struggled to voice, dropping himself to his knees.

“This is becoming too much…” Tenko breathed, leaning against the wall and quickly dropping herself to her butt. “My muscles are giving in…”

“Wait, we can’t give up,” Kaede stressed, standing in front of the collapsed group as she tried not to collapse through her weak knees. “This time, we’ll-”

“Can you quit it already?”

She looked at Kokichi.

He sat in the middle of the circle, struggling to continue sitting upright, “You’re free to keep trying on your own, but don’t force us to join again. That is basically torture. Look at us.”

She blinked, “... Torture…?”

He pulled up his knees and hugged them, “Being denied the right to give up in an impossible situation is what actually hurts… You just keep riling us up to go on, like you have the moral high ground…" His brow drew into a glare, shooting right at her, "Doesn’t that sound like torture to you? When you say we can’t give up, you’re not inspiring us, you’re strong-arming us!”

Something got trapped in Kaede’s throat as Kokichi’s voice rose to a specific kind of tone she disliked hearing so very much. A tone that twisted her chest and swirled her head around in panic. “I-I didn’t mean it like that…”

“Hey, degenerate, don’t be so selfish!” Tenko yelled, lightly swinging her arm at him.

“I’m not being selfish… The others feel the same way too…” He stuck his nose to the side as others joined his view.

“My spirit… is nearly broken…” Korekiyo played with his pendant in comfort, looking up to the sky. “This hardship gnaws at me…”

“Given the circumstances… the most logical course of action would be to give up,” Keebo flatly commented, the light in his eyes dim as if his battery had ran to its final few percents.

Maki sighed, “I knew this was impossible from the start.”

“Kh… This bullshit is a waste of my precious time and energy. I wanna go to fucking bed!" Miu pulled Keebo towards her and checked his system for a clock, "What time is it by now, nighttime? Did we go all day?!”

“I don’t have enough MP left… My magic can’t help out anymore…” Himiko's eyes slowly moved to the ladder, enamored by the escape to a soft heaven it could provide.

Angie held her hands together in a prayer, closing her eyes, “I’m just relieved that no one was seriously injured. Praise be to Atua.”

Gonta tried to get up again, “P-please, wait! We… no can give up!”

“S-so what?” Kaito almost struggled to speak. “You guys are just okay with staying stuck here?”

“We shouldn’t have to push ourselves…” Kokichi commented. “We’re destroying ourselves this way. Let’s find another way out, okay?”

The sly smile that crept on his face didn’t go unnoticed by Rantaro. “... You’re talking about the killing game, aren’t you?”

“Well, that’s how you interpret it,” he smiled. “Don’t get yourself in a twist.”

“Think you’re so smart, huh?” Tenko moved forward with bolted fists. “Sounds like a degenerate wants to have his head smashed to the ground.”

“S-stop, guys, we shouldn’t be fighting…” Shuichi hesitantly spoke.

Fighting. Kaede’s chest stung at the mere mention. She didn’t want to fight these people, she didn’t want to be fighting anyone!

“Geez…” Ryoma pulled his hat down a bit and slowly walked towards the ladder to leave. “For a group that decided to be friends, we fell apart pretty quickly.”

“I’m sorry…” Kaede whispered, holding herself as she absorbed all the suffering she had caused. “This is my fault. I’m so sorry… I… I…”

“Hey, the hell are you apologizing for?!” Kaito questioned, diverting his attention from putting Kokichi in place to comforting Kaede. “It’s not your fault at all, you were just trying to help!”

“... Really? I think it is Kaede’s fault.”

Kaito turned towards Maki, “H-huh?! Why?!”

~Ding dong, bing bong!~

The nighttime announcement sounded. 10 p.m.

“Fuck me, we really have been at it all day… I’m done for. Climb faster, Santa’s elf! I’m getting the hell out of here!”

“We should get a fresh start tomorrow,” Rantaro lightly huffed, following. “Let’s get going.”

The room slowly emptied, every student one by one climbing up and leaving Kaede behind. Most of them were upset with her - for pushing them. Kaede didn’t want to go to bed knowing she was basically in an argument. She wanted to go after them and beg to talk about it, to at least make up so she wouldn’t have to sleep with this awful feeling. But she couldn’t bring herself to. She simply watched them leave.

“Are you coming up too, Kaede?” Kirumi asked, halfway on the ladder.

“... Yeah. Going in a bit.”

Once the maid left, Kaede was left alone with Kaito and Shuichi. Kaito didn’t wait to turn to her and question once again what she was apologizing for.

“Hey, it’s not like you wanted it to go this way. You tried to unite us. Don’t apologize for something that’s not your fault! It’ll just make you feel bad!”

“.....”

“They were getting frustrated and decided to direct it at you… I’ll give them a piece of my mind later. Let’s go to sleep. Night, guys.”

“.....”

“Um, Kaede…” Shuichi slowly followed Kaito on the ladder, waiting for a bit once he was out of view. “Just so you know… I don’t think you were pressuring us.”

“... Thanks, Shuichi,” she forced a smile on her face.

It wasn’t the most sincere response, but enough to have Shuichi move on. After wiping her eyes and taking a deep breath, Kaede too made her way up and shuffled towards the dormitory.

Another night she’d have to spend in that room she didn’t like, in this dome she didn’t like. And with people who didn’t like her. Not anymore, at least. She hoped the damage to be temporary. That, just as Kaito said, everyone was frustrated and simply aimed that frustration at her.

As she approached the dormitory, the only one who still appeared to be outside was Kirumi. She wasn’t planning on just entering either, her attention immediately diverting to Kaede's arrival. Even if Kaede felt she was hiding her own frustrations pretty well at this point, the other saw right through it.

“Is something the matter? Please rest and try to regain as much strength as you can,” she cood.

Kaede forced a smile on her face once again, more effortlessly than before. “I’ll be fine. Thanks, Kirumi.”

Kirumi pursed her lips a bit, not responding for a moment. “Escaping this place will prove to be quite difficult… Best not to fret over it.”

She didn’t quite believe Kaede, but luckily exhaustion dragged down her spirit, whether she wanted to admit it or not. They left to their rooms, Kaede immediately dropping her bag on the floor before collapsing on the bed.

It would probably have been a good idea to take a shower after swimming in that water contaminated with who knows what, along with all the sweating and struggling, but her body couldn't bring itself to get up again. It had been completely exhausted.

Even mentally it was a pain to stay awake, though Kaede couldn’t fall victim to a deep sleep just yet. She wanted to have some sort of plan for tomorrow first. Something that could rest her worries so she’d maybe sleep a bit better tonight.

Remembering Shuichi’s mention of a tablet, she reached for her bag and lifted it on the bed with pain in her arm. She dug inside, immediately met with her supposed personal tablet. It was still a bit wet from having been in the water. For a moment Kaede feared it to be broken, the soon beaming pink and yellow colours quickly proving otherwise.

Kaede Akamatsu’s e-Handbook

Her brow drew together as she skipped through the different tabs, a little surprised as well at the fact the effort had been made to include music notes in her theme. She quickly found an app that described itself as the rules and read it through.

1. Students must live at the Ultimate Academy for the remainder of their foreseeable future.
2. Once a murder takes place, all surviving students must participate in a class trial.
3. If the blackened is exposed during the class trial, they alone will be executed.
4. If the blackened is not exposed, all remaining students will be executed.
5. If the blackened survives the class trial, they will graduate and re-enter the outside world.
6. The killing game and class trials will continue until only two surviving students remain.
7. "Nighttime" is from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. The dining hall and gymnasium are off-limits at night.
8. Violence toward Monokuma, the headmaster of the Ultimate Academy, is strictly prohibited.
9. Monokuma will never directly commit a murder.
10. Your Monopads are very important items. Please do not damage them.
11. The "Body Discovery Announcement" will play when three or more students discover a body.
12. With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore the campus at your discretion.
13. Further, there may be new additions to the school rules according to the convenience of the headmaster.

“It’s just stuff about the killing game… Ugh, I don’t want to think about that…! I’m not doing it!” She quickly closed the app with as much aggression as one could put into it and opened the school map, zooming in and out all around the place searching for spots they could try tomorrow. Some proved to be of interest, although as far as Kaede's memory still functioned, those spots found themselves in closed off areas. The boiler room truly was their best chance, but…

She opened another app which held profiles of her classmates. Each of the Ultimates had a tab with some basic information on them. Their name, gender, talent, zodiac sign, height. It even included their basic likes and dislikes.

“Likes and dislikes…” she sighed, putting the tablet to her chest and staring at the ceiling. “If we can’t get out immediately, I at the very least need to make sure this killing game won’t happen… Which must not be that hard if we all get along, right…? So… Maybe I need to do that. I need to make up with people and befriend them. If we’re all friends, we won’t want to hurt one another. Yeah… That sounds like a plan.”

Relieved to at least have an idea on what to do tomorrow, Kaede put her tablet on the desk next to her bed and peeked further into her bag. There was an extra vest inside, which upon touching proved to be not so surprisingly soaked. She quickly threw it out and noted to put it in the wash tomorrow. There was nothing else inside, apart from a small blue item sitting huddled in the corner. She squinted her eyes and grabbed it.

“Is this… a tamagotchi?”

She held it a bit more in the light, the shell shape showing its definitions. It definitely looked like one.

“Did I have this on me when I was kidnapped? I… don’t remember owning one… Maybe it’s something freaky from Monokuma like that tablet- Ah, it’s broken…!”

Once the light hit right, the deep cracks became visible to Kaede’s exhausted eyes. They went straight from the housing through the glass, tearing the piece of technology up. Maybe she had broken it when she fell out of the locker? Not that it would matter. After those drops in the water it must be beyond saving. Whatever little animal resided inside must have long passed away by now.

Kaede sighed. She couldn’t even be of any help to this little fella. With false hope she pressed the button to activate it, and beyond all surprise…

Bleep!

A little ghost showed up on the screen, happily pixeling its way around.

“... Huh… Hey, little buddy…” She searched her way around the menu before finding the feeding option. It eagerly ate its pixilate cake. “Hungry? You’re a ghost, ghosts shouldn’t be eating… Mhm…"

Despite her exhaustion, Kaede played a few games with her new ghostly little friend. Little hearts floated off it as she rounded up their last game, warmth filling her chest.

“I have no clue what your name is, but… I guess we get along pretty well despite that… Thank you, for being my friend.”

She turned the device’s ‘lights’ off and put it down next to her, burying her face in her pillow.

“... I’ll befriend the others as well, and we’ll all be fine…”

Chapter Text

As Kaede headed to the canteen the next morning, everyone was ahead of her, most of the food already having been eaten. She hadn’t heard the morning announcement - probably because of how tired she was - so she already figured to be late.

“Ah, there is Kaede,” Korekiyo noted. “Kehehe, I’m glad… It appears as though there were no victims this time either.”

“You’re real late, Kaede,” Kokichi whistled, leaning back into his seat. “Are you okay?”

She glanced up to him. “... Huh? What do you mean?”

“Well… you looked really bummed out after everyone started blaming you yesterday.”

The somewhat happy air that hung around instantly plummeted, to which Tsumugi tried to get it back. “H-hey, what are you doing all of-”

“Seriously, you guys are so mean,” Kokichi shook his head in disappointment. “Poor girl… She tried her best to encourage everyone, and you sore losers got mad at her anyway.”

Keebo furrowed his brow and leaned over his incredibly obviously unused plate to look at Kokichi. “What’s the point of bringing that up again?”

“Besides,” Tenko cut in between, “didn’t you blame Kaede first?”

His eyes widened as his body turned into a tremble. A more obvious sight of crocodile tears didn't exist. “Eh? N-now it’s my fault? Why are you guys ganging up on me? WAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! You guys are terrible! So horrible, so mean!”

“You’re too noisy, cut it out,” Ryoma said, calmly sipping his coffee.

“But it’s true.” Kaito stood up from his seat. “Everyone blamed Kaede without taking any responsibility themselves!”

Rantaro, who was seated next to Kaito, put up his hands to try and get him to settle down again. “Hey, come on now. Everyone was probably just tired.”

“Shut it! That’s no excuse!”

“No, no, it’s okay!” Kaede quickly jumped between. “It doesn’t bother me! It’s just… I should’ve been more considerate of everyone’s feelings. I was too focused on the tunnel… So, I’m sorry…”

Kaito stared at her for a bit, processing her apology like all the others, and slowly settled down. “I see… Well, if you’re okay with it, then it’s fine.”

“Oh goodness, am I glad that’s settled!” Kokichi called again, the earlier bawling he did never even seeming to have happened in the first place.

“... But you did blame her first, didn’t you?” Keebo mumbled.

“Well, that was a lie." He wove his hand a bit in the air, "You know, one of those lies to make us more united or whatever. Fun fact, half my lies are actually told with good intentions.”

“Now that sounds like a lie,” Himiko commented, munching on a piece of cheese. She definitely seemed like the type who rather ate spread from the hand.

“Let’s just forget about it and discuss something else,” Kaede said as she headed for an empty seat and settled down. Her hands insticively drew together on the table to start business. “Like… Let’s think about ways to get out of here!”

“Already?” Maki fired a glare at her. “Don’t tell me you want to take that tunnel on again.”

“Wha-? I just-”

“Yeah, come on, Kaede!” Kokichi yelled. “Everyone is still upset about what you did yesterday!”

Kaede's body straightened, “B-but I didn’t meant it like that and I just apolo-”

Ryoma shook his head. “Well, if you immediately want to jump back to that tunnel I wonder how genuine you apology even was.”

“It was genuine, I-”

“I’m not taking that fucking passage on again, forget it!”

Maki took a final sip from her drink. “Quiet, we already know it’s impossible.”

Kaede slowly sunk into her seat, neatly moving her hands on her thighs and gripping her skirt. She didn’t have the underground passage in mind whatsoever - she only wanted to propose some bonding. But it appeared people were, despite her apology and a good night's sleep, still upset with her. She could try to push all she wanted regardless, but that wouldn’t do anything. It might only worsen things.

“... Sorry…” she uttered.

“Whatever, looks like we’re done here. Phew, what a relief.” Kokichi pushed his plate away, got up from his seat and stretched out, leaving the room.

The others left one by one as well, until Kaede remained to be seated alone at the table with whatever food was left. She continued staring into her lap with no thought spinning through her brain. And ever so slowly, the tears came to obscure her view.

“Would you like some tea?”

“... Huh?” She blinked them away and looked up to Kirumi, who was diligently standing next to her with some picked up dirty dishes.

“Would you like some tea with your breakfast?”

She sniffed a bit, a sound loud enough to make the other aware of the situation. Maybe a tea would fix it. “... That… would be nice…”

“I recommend Earl Grey tea. It has many benefits, among which lowering anxiety and reducing stress,” Kirumi recommend as though reading Kaede's mind, leaving without waiting for a nod of approval. She already knew Kaede would enjoy it.

To the very least Kaede wasn’t completely alone just yet, even if she could really use some alone time right now. Kirumi remaining by her side should be a sign that Kaede's reputation hadn't completely gone down the drain, but that felt like wishful thinking. She was a maid after all, so it was probably within her principles to remain in the canteen as long as someone hadn't finished.

But it didn't mean there could be a genuine feeling to it as well. She had been worried about Kaede last night too, and now she was standing here recommending a tea which fit her mood.

… Maybe…

Once Kirumi returned and put the tea down, Kaede thanked her with a smile and pulled on her arm as soon as she was about to step away.

“Is there something the matter, Kaede?” Kirumi politely asked.

“Ah, no." Her smile turned into an awkward one, one that hopefully fixed any of the rudeness her sudden hold held. "I just want you to settle down so we can hang out.”

She tilted her head, difficulty filling her face.

“You know, chat! Talk about stuff!”

Her face only grew increasingly more difficult, now also throwing confusion in the mix. You could almost see the error messages popping up in her eyes. “... Is there anything you wish for me to do?”

“No, no, I just want to talk!” Kaede pulled on her sleeve again to lead her to settle down, although the other did so rather reluctantly.

“But then why are you speaking to me?”

Kaede frowned a bit, wondering if she was somehow speaking another language, only to realize Kirumi must be thinking she has an actual request for her. She supposed it would make sense for her to interpret as such. “Oh, sorry, Kirumi, for giving you the wrong idea… I don’t have any sort of request.”

“Then I better continue. Please feel free to call when you need anything.” She stood up again, only for Kaede to pull her back down. Her face grew stern at it, and so did her voice. A maid has no time for playing games. “Kaede, do you require a request from me or not?”

The pianist bit her lip a bit. Didn’t she already explain she only wanted to yap? Maybe she didn’t hear it right. “I just want to have a chat with you. You know, without any of that Ultimate Maid stuff.”

“Have a chat… with me? Of course, I do not mind such requests.”

“It’s not a request, it’s- Ah… Nevermind. I don’t think I’ll get it through.”

“To be quite frank… I wished to speak to you as well.”

Kaede’s heart thumped and a smile crept on her face. Somehow that simple comment gave an incredible sense of relief. “Really? Cool! What did you want to talk about? Ask me anything!”

“Thank you. I have prepared some questions I would like you to answer.” From her pocket Kirumi whipped out a notebook along with a pen, skipped a few pages and ticked the tip of her pen on the paper. Kaede's name had been written down in a beautiful calligraphy, joined by a few notes underneath. “I am already aware of your pillow preferences, however, I still have questions concerning food. Do you have any food allergies I should be aware of?”

Kaede looked at the notebook with adoration, immediately feeling like some kind of celebrity. So much so that she didn't even stop to think about how Kirumi steered away from Kaede's initial goal. “Ummmmm… No, I don’t have any.”

Kirumi nodded and wrote some things down. “Are there specific foods that you detest?”

“I can’t think of any foods that I really like or really hate.”

She nodded again and wrote. “I see, most impressive. To come back to your bed, the pillow you have now is fine, but what about your preference of bedsheets? Are your current not too warm or too cold?”

“No, it’s fine…” Kaede watched Kirumi write down her findings once again. The grandeur of being important enough to be interviewed wore off, starting to feel like an interrogation instead. It's that the questions were innocent at their core or Kaede might have thought she was about to be accused of something. “What’s this for?”

She looked up a bit, afraid she overstepped a boundary. “Oh, my apologies. Are my questions causing you discomfort?”

“No, I mean, I did say you could ask me anything, but… I was expecting more girl talk." She looked Kirumi over a bit, taking in the fancy goth outfit which had caught her attention back at the lockers. "I suppose you and I are quite different, but there’s always the standard stuff of erm… Where did you get that mascara from? That perfume smells great, what is it? What do you think of the current state of the world and the effects it has on people’ mental health? That sort of stuff.”

A blank stare returned. “... I apologize, my intentions are different. Your comfort matters very much to me. Hence, my questions. With the information you have provided I can take care of you.”

“What?!” Kaede could feel her cheeks heat up despite the bluntness, or maybe exactly because of it. “You’d do all that for me?”

“I do it for everyone. I intend to present these questions to the others after we finish up.”

“Oh…" The flush slowly drained from her face, "I see… Just, be careful you don’t end up coddling everyone.”

“Coddling?”

“Yeah, you know, that people won’t start calling you mom all of a sudden,” she lightly laughed.

Kirumi clearly did not see the joke in it. She remained dead silent for a bit until her voice raised, anger and offense ringing through her attempt at remaining professional, “Excuse me, just because there are people who have children at my age that does not mean I am one of them. I have no children and do not wish to be called mom by any of you even more so, we are the same age!”

Kaede tried to ease the situation by giving her a soft smile. The last thing she wanted was to push the one person who stuck with her away. “Oh, no, of course, I get that. I just mean… I’m a bit afraid your true intent behind your desire to serve won’t get through to us. For example, in a piano recital…" She lifted her hands on the table again and ticked her fingers around, pretending to play for an audience. A bored one, at that. "No matter how earnestly I play, only the people who care to listen will hear me. It could be the same for you. Even if your intentions are earnest, that doesn’t mean those you serve will appreciate your help.”

Kirumi watched the movement, her body language hard to read. Kaede wasn’t quite sure what was going through her, growing afraid she had been too nosy and stuck her nose into something it had no reason to.

Eventually Kirumi looked up again with a polite smile on her face. “Thank you for your insight.”

“Don’t mention it,” she smiled back.

Kirumi then went on to slowly clean up while Kaede finished her food and tea. Although unusual their conversation filled her with determination to pick up last night's plan again and get along with everyone. This would surely not be the last time she gets to talk with Kirumi, and that made her incredibly happy.

With renewed hope Kaede stormed out of the canteen. A movement so blind she bumped into Shuichi.

“Ah, I'm sorry!” He immediately spurted his apologies around along with his body. “Are you okay?”

“It's just a bump in, don't worry about it,” she smiled.

“... Ah… You seem happier again.”

She blinked. “... Huh?”

“You looked really bumped out earlier… I…" He caressed his arm a bit, looking away, "I didn’t think your apology was dishonest, or that it was bad of you to bring escaping up again. Everybody's probably still tired… I'm sorry I didn’t say anything to defend you.”

Kaede's smile grew a bit wider. So it appears she hadn’t lost Shuichi's respect either. It relieved her to know he stood with her. “Thank you… Though it won't hurt to speak about what you're feeling in the moment.”

“What do you mean…?”

“Well, last night you also only said what you really thought once everyone left, and now again. I think it's important you speak your mind in the moment so you won't be pushed aside, know what I mean? So you won’t have any regrets.”

“... I get what you mean, it's just…”

“Just what?”

He swallowed nervously. “... Um, unrelated, but I wanted to talk to you. I've been thinking about other ways to get out.”

So she wasn't the only one looking for other ways to disrupt Monokuma's plans. Perhaps a detective like him had something better in mind. “Really? What have you got?”

“Well, all this is a pretty big operation. There has to be some kind of… mastermind. So I'm looking around the dome for any clues on where they could be.”

A mastermind, huh? Kaede hadn't even considered that option yet, despite being so obvious. If they just found the one orchestrating this entire thing and take them down, the entire theater act would automatically shut down with them.

“Oh, that's super smart actually… Have you found anything yet?”

He shook his head, embarassed despite Kaede's question being one of curiosity rather than expectation. “No, not yet… I just wanted to let you know I'm working on that, and of course I'll let you know when I find anything. But," his voice went to a whisper as though it would make a difference, "please don't tell anyone else about this…”

“Why not?” Kaede asked, automatically whispering back.

“I don't like the idea, but we have to take into consideration the mastermind could be one of us, so…”

“Ahhh…" Although the thought of the mastermind being someone in this group seemed ridiculous, Kaede supposed one could never be too sure. "You want to make sure they won't get word of it and get extra sneaky. I won't tell, don't worry.”

Her heart felt at ease. Here Shuichi stood entrusting her with the plan he was working on, a plan he didn’t want anyone else to know about. Surely if he entrusted her with it, that must mean a lot. It was probably safe to assume they were on a friendship level. 

He smiled a bit at her. “Great, thanks. I will tell Kirumi about it as well. Is she still in the canteen?”

“She is, but be careful! She has lotsss of questions to ask you!” she giggled a bit and patted the boy on the shoulder.

“W-what? W-why, what for…? Did I do something wrong...?”

“Go and find out!” Kaede left with a grin, gaining quite a bit of guilty pleasure from teasing Shuichi this way.

As she slowly walked down the hallways she tried to think of who to approach next. Talking to Kirumi and Shuichi went surprisingly smooth and greatly lifted her spirits. She wasn’t going to stop while on a good roll. Though she knew not to bet too high either.

Her mind drew up the picture of the earlier filled canteen, skipping through the dialogues in search of another reasonable person.

Perhaps someone like Rantaro would be good to talk to.

And speaking of the Devil, there he was, just entering the building and heading his way towards the basement.

“Ah, Rantaro, wait!” She ran up to him. “Just the guy I'm looking for!”

He turned to her, his brow raising in surprise. “Am I? Only good reasons I hope.”

“I was thinking last night that since it’s hard to escape, we should do everything we can to at least avoid this killing game from actually getting started… And if we all get along, surely nobody’s going to want to kill one another, so I’m going around befriending people.”

Rantaro laughed a bit, a short and low one of admiration. “Well, isn’t that a coincidence? I came to the same conclusion.”

“R-really?” Kaede’s eyes widened a bit. She had figured her plan had some good ground to it, but not so good that someone must’ve come to the same conclusion as her. Really it was a good thing he did though. That meant it must be a good idea for sure.

“Uh-huh. I just got back from a session," his head tilted to outside. "So who have you talked to so far? Or am I your first victim?”

“I talked to Kirumi and Shuichi just now.” She copied his movement and gave a quick nod behind her. “I think both of them must still be down in the canteen in case you want to talk to them.”

“Ah, no, thanks… I’m not concerned about them.”

Kaede furrowed her brow a bit. What was that supposed to mean? Maybe their plans were different after all.

Rantaro picked up on Kaede’s slight animosity, immediately lifting his hands and letting out a nervous chuckle. “Not that I don’t want to get to know them… I just thought it would be more useful to approach the troublemakers.”

“The… toublemakers?”

“The likes of Kokichi. Basically the ones that turned against you.”

“... Oh. So, you’ve talked to Kokichi then?”

“Yeah. Ryoma too. They were pretty peculiar conversations, let me tell you…”

She worried her lip. Rantaro really just went right into the fire by approaching the difficult people first: The people you could guess some kind of argument will start with or that they would not bother to listen to what you have to say.

“I can imagine… You’re not afraid of danger, huh?”

“Ha, please." His lips curled up in mischief, "I laugh in the face of danger.”

That’d make sense. He did say he was the Ultimate Survivor, after all. Kaede had already thought of some images to associate with his talent, what it could mean exactly. The first idea she had was that of some terrible accident, maybe like a natural disaster, to which Rantaro was the only person in his town to survive.

But the mere idea was far too depressing so she had quickly stopped trying to figure it out further. She didn’t want to pry either, but by the sounds of it, it didn’t consider anything truly traumatizing.

“This one time I was following the path up a mountain in Panama until I slipped and landed myself in the jungle. I broke my foot along the way and could barely move around. And of course no cellphone reception either…”

“W-what…?!" She looked up at him with big eyes, "That’s super dangerous! What about your guide? Could he get help quickly?”

“Guide? I went up on my own.”

“... You went up without a guide…?!”

“So there I was in the jungle," he aloofly continued. "I shut my phone off so I could preserve battery life that way. And I’d turn it on again on a few occasions to try and make calls, send messages etc. I used my camera flash to try and find my way around a bit in the dark and hopefully scare off some animals… The jungle sounds terrifying at night.”

“Oh my God… How long did it take for you to be rescued?”

“A week or something.”

“A week…?!”

“Then there was this other time I went cave exploring. The halls were big at first but the further you got in the more you had to start bending and eventually also crawl. It got so tight that I could just feel my body being squished like a sandwich. And as I was crawling-”

“Okay, that’s quite enough…!" She wove her hands in his face, shutting him up before his adventures would come to invade her dreams. "That is a terrifying thought, do not put that in my head…! Do you do this kind of stuff all the time…?”

He simply shrugged, “I originally held the title of Ultimate Adventurer, but since I got in so many dangerous situations at some point, Survivor became more fitting. It's got a pretty intense ring to it.”

“Geez… And your family was just okay with you doing all those things? Weren’t they concerned?”

“Oh, yeah, totally. I eventually called it quits because of how worried my sisters got. I'm their big brother so it’s kind of my job to mess with them, but I don't want to make them feel awful…”

She blinked in surprise. Rantaro certainly gave off the energy of someone who hung around with women all the time, but she had interpreted it as him being one of those guys. “You have sisters?”

“Yeah. 12 of them.”

“T-twelve…? Talk about being in a full house… Must be crazy being surrounded by girls all the time.”

Despite the expectation of a rant on how much they annoyed him, an incredibly genuine smile flashed his face instead, “It is, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. You get some useful skills with it too. If you ever need to spill some tea on a total bitch while getting your nails painted by someone who keeps repeating ‘oh no she didn’t!’ and ‘what happened then?’, I'm your guy.”

Kaede's heart warmed at the image. Rantaro's life sounded terrifying and stressful, but clearly he had his principles in the right place. And if Kaede did things right, he would never have to be in such life threatening situations again. She was going to make sure his sisters would have nothing to worry about.

“Good to know," she replied. "So I guess you could say you and I are friends now… That's another person down.”

His smile brightened. “Jup. That was a pleasant conversation. I'll continue my rodeo of talking to difficult people now. You probably want to do the same, right? I have some people in mind for you.”

She wasn't exactly looking for recommendations, especially not from someone with his work ethic. “Oh! … Ah, um-”

“What about… Miu?”

“... Miu? I don’t know, she seems… Well…”

“You can take Korekiyo too if you prefer.”

“Oh no. The way he laughs gives me the creeps-”

“Then Miu it is!” With a far too happy tone Rantaro encouragingly patted her on the shoulder, almost like he was seeing her off to war. “Best of luck!”

Despite how determined Kaede was to befriend everyone and remain positive, it'd be a lie to say she wasn’t nervous about talking to the people who didn’t like her all that much. The chances of another argument starting were pretty big, and it's not like they would not be in their right. But she couldn’t show that kind of weakness. That attitude would get her nowhere.

“Thanks, I'll succeed for sure!” Kaede happily yelled after him as he walked off, earning her a goodbye wave before he left for the basement again. “Alright, talking to Miu it is… I wonder where she could be hanging around.”

When she headed outside to the courtyard, a panicking Keebo quickly took her attention, running her way with sweat dripping down his face. Admittedly, she had no clue robots were able to sweat.

“Oh, hey, Keebo,” she smiled at him. She had no clue what he was so panicked about, and he was one of the people who had gotten tired of her the night before as well, but approaching with an open energy was important regardless of it.

“Ah, you didn’t see me!” he frenzied, not even allowing himself to greet her back and hiding behind her instead.

She quickly turned with him, looking at him again. “Huh? What’s wrong?”

“It-it’s Miu…”

Ah-ha, just the woman Kaede was looking for. “Where is she?”

“Her lab opened. She wanted to show me the place and went on a whole tangent on all the things she wants to do to me… It makes me nervous, so I ran off but I know she’s gonna come after me! So you didn’t see me, don’t tell her anything!”

The robot quickly escaped to the dormitory, leaving the pianist with many questions. First of all, what did he mean with her 'lab' opening? And secondly, what was she going to do to him?

Just as Keebo had predicted, it didn’t take long before Miu ran up the stairs and headed her way.

“Keebo?! Where the fuck did you go?! Hey, titless," she pointed her finger at her, accusingly approaching, "have you seen Keebo?”

“T-titless…? … I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that…” She took a breath in preparation of telling the lie Keebo had requested her to tell. Surely that would put her on good terms with the boy as well. 2 flies in one go! “No, I haven’t. Do you need him for anything?”

Miu sighed, “Monokuma opened my lab. I cannot handle the idea that Keebo only has average human strength, like, come on! He’s a robot, why would you do that?! Besides, I’ve got a whole lot of other ideas. Like, give his eyes the function to serve as a big ass flashlight, or a crying function! Apparently he doesn’t have one!”

So that’s what Keebo was talking about. She wanted to upgrade him to the fullest. She supposed that made sense. Miu was the Ultimate Inventor, it would only be a matter of time before she would jump on top of him. And admittedly, if she could do those things, that sounded incredibly impressive. Although that did leave the question on how she was planning on doing that with being stuck in this no good dome. Was that the aforementioned lab? Is there actually a place to build machinery? It seemed weird for Monokuma to give access to such a thing.

“I see… What do you mean exactly with your lab? I don’t remember seeing anything like a room where you could perform those operations on him.”

Miu grinned widely and dragged Kaede along to the lower courtyard, to the building she had noticed before. It kind of reminded Kaede of a garage from a mad scientist in some kind of cartoon. That probably wasn’t too far off either.

“Boom, baby!” Miu kicked the doors open, and turned on the lights to reveal the previously mysterious inside.

Kaede let out a loud yelp as her vision was almost immediately obscured by some kind of chainsaw dangling from the ceiling along with drills and other large, dangerous looking tools. A big light in the middle of the room focused itself on a sort of bed, probably meant to perform experiments on, but only reminding Kaede of being at the dentist. The left and right walls held tables with chemicals she hadn’t seen since high school, while the back had many large screens mounted to the wall. If you’d ask someone to picture an asylum operation room, this would be it.

Yet, there were many other details which proved the opposite. Pink padded chairs and seats provided a cutesy aesthetic, and despite the harsh operation light, the purple and black checkered floor produced a hue of comfort. Even the walls seemed to upon closer look hold actual curtains and butterfly wallpaper. It felt a little bit circus-ish almost, or like a strip club - not that Kaede knew what a strip club looked like, but this is the picture she usually held in her head - which made the combination with heavy machinery all the odder.

“Hee-hee, what a beautiful look on your face! It’s amazing, isn’t it?!” Miu paraded further with pride, not even glancing at the cables spread around the floor, yet managing not to nearly trip even once. It’s like she had known this room for months. “Apparently Monokuma was still preparing it so that’s why it was locked at first, but it’s open now.”

Her eyes soared around the heavily decorated room again. “... He made this for you? Why…?”

“I dunno, he was parroting some nonsense about it being tailored to hone and develop the talent of whatever Ultimate." She dropped herself in the chair by the desk deeper inside, rolling back a bit. "It’s like some kind of fucking representation of them, I guess.”

If this place was meant to be a reflection of Miu as a person, then… Well, then she maybe should’ve picked Korekiyo after all.

At the same time it made her wonder where other labs could be. Surely Miu wasn’t the only one who would get one. She could vaguely remember seeing some kind of door near the classroom she arrived in, one distinguishably decorated to look like piano keys. Maybe her lab hid inside? She had to check that out later.

“But it’s fucking awesome, isn’t it?! Anyway, I got lots of shit to do so you can leave now.” She turned to the table and grabbed a pencil.

“Ah, actually, I was looking for you.”

“What?" She turned around again, her lip raised in annoyance. "You better have a damn good reason for bugging this beautiful genius!”

“It’s nothing much, really…" She slowly walked over, looking more at the ground than ahead of her. "I just wanted to talk to you for a bit. You know, chat it up.”

“Huh? Chat? Why the fuck do I have to talk to you, dumpy tits?”

Miu looked incredibly irritated, clearly not open to making small talk, let alone the potential of friendship. But Kaede was a lot more bothered by the fact this was the second time in 10 minutes that Miu had felt the need to insult her. Kaede could feel her jaw clenching, but she told herself to just grin and bear it. She promised Rantaro to take Miu on. If they wanted to keep the dome safe, everyone had to get along. And that included Miu.

“Well…” Miu eventually continued upon receiving no response as she crossed her legs, “I am bored. How about you start talking about something that will interest me? If you besides that flat chest have nothing interesting to say, you’re just fucking hopeless!”

Kaede’s jaw clenched again.

“Ha-hahaha! Poor widdle Kaede and her sad dumpy tits!”

“Who the hell are you calling sad dumpy tits, huh?!”

The words flew out of her mouth before she even realized it. She immediately clamped her hand on her lips in an attempt to prevent anything else from coming out. Even if Miu had it coming, this was not going to be any good for getting along. And yet…

She nearly melted out of her seat, “Heeee?! W-what the- Don’t shout all of a sudden…”

It actually put her in her place. Her confidence faltered, to which Kaede blinked out of surprise. Maybe there was a chance after all?

Unfortunately, it didn’t last long before the inventor picked herself up again. Quite literally even by getting up. “Oh, but I get it now… You’re jealous of my fine sexy body! It’s okay, lots of girls are." She leaned forward a bit, "You can have a feel if you want so you’ll have some material to think of for tonight!”

“Hey!” Kaede pointed her finger, taking a step back. “My boobs are pretty big, you know! Don’t you have any eyes?!”

“I do, but until I get to see them for real I’m convinced they’re fakes." She not so subtely stared at Kaede's chest and picked her lip in concentration. "What’s the secret? Pads, stuffing, or silicon?”

Kaede quickly covered herself in embarassment, though she was mostly upset. “Miu, you can’t say that kind of stuff! People will get sick of you if this is the only thing you can talk about!”

“Fine by me,” Miu put her hands on her hips, poking her nose in the air. “A true genius is never understood in her time. Anyway, talk some more shit to me, will ya?” Her face beamed, actual pleasure plastering her face. “Hahahahaha! Come on, come on! Don’t leave me hanging!”

Kaede wanted to walk away, now understanding why Rantaro was so happy to let her take on Miu. He knew she was an unpleasant figure and let Kaede take one for the team. All that occurred was arguing. Promise or no promise, she was too fed up to try and remain nice. And somehow, Miu actually looked pretty happy. She didn’t want Kaede to talk to her earlier, and now she was almost begging her to continue - even if it felt more insultive. What was that about?

~Ding dong, bing bong!~

“Ayaa?!” Miu jumped a hole in the air as the screens at the back glitched and got obscured by Monokuma sitting behind his desk again.

“Everyone, make your way to the gym again please. I have a gift for you!”

The screens quickly returned to normal, but Kaede’s body didn’t. Two sentences, such simple ones said with a pleasant tone, and they made her shudder. What could Monokuma possibly have to give them? It could never be anything good, but she had trouble picturing what it would otherwise be either. Had someone been killed? Was that the surprise, a dead body?

“Wh-what are we gonna do…?” Miu nearly whispered, shaking on her knees.

They had no choice. Kaede took the girl by her hand and along to the gym. She squeezed Miu’s hand in an attempt to comfort both of them.

Once they finally arrived, everyone else appeared to be present already. They had become just as restless from this request as Kaede had. All while Monokuma was sitting up on his stand, bopping his head left to right while humming a tune.

“Oh, looks like the final two are here, that means we can get started!”

Kaede quickly counted the people in the room. They were still with 16. She let out a deep sigh of relief, glad to see everyone alive.

Monokuma clapped his paws together, “So, I’ve noticed you are getting friendly with each other despite your little failure of last night… And that’s boring! Grrr, how is a killing game supposed to happen if everyone becomes buddies?!”

She shortly eyed Rantaro, who gave her a victorious grin. 

“This is a big no-no! I mean, you barely know each other! Which is when I got an idea…”

That didn’t sound good.

“There is no reason for you to trust each other, you have no clue what the others are capable of!”

“I doubt any of us actually want to kill,” Rantaro commented.

“Yeah, get it out of your head already, Monokuma!” Tenko yelled, standing with Himiko, Angie and Gonta. It seemed they had already created a group together. “I trust my friends!”

“Puhuhu… But who’s to say one of your friends is not already a murderer?”

Everyone looked up to him.

“Maybe someone in this group is a serial killer, or a kidnapper, or someone who beats people up for the heck of it… So that’s why I want to aid your bonding by presenting some dark secrets! Yes, I am giving you… a video on one of your classmate’s worst committed crime.”

Bleep!

Kaede’s tablet sounded from within her backpack, the echo of bleeps from the other students joining right after. It wasn’t until now that she noticed she was still holding Miu’s hand, which pulled away to reach for her own tablet. Kaede decided to do the same, retrieving her tablet from her backpack and unlocking the screen.

Motive video it read, and just as the video was about to play, she locked the screen and turned to Monokuma. “W-worst committed crime…? What is that supposed to mean…?”

“Exactly as I say! Each of you now has a video on your tablet which shows the true nature of one of your classmates… The absolute worst thing they have ever done… Now you’ll see what kind of demon you are trying to befriend…”

She furrowed her brow at him. Was he insinuating that everyone here was some kind of terrible person? Someone to avoid at all cost? That was simply ridiculous. Sure, there were some strange caricatures around like Miu, but to call her a danger went way too far. These were just people, not demons as he so cruelly put it.

But not everybody shared that sentiment of doubt. People backed off from one another, activating their defenses and scanning the horde for what wolf could be hiding between them. Even if nobody had seen their video yet, they were on edge. And that’s exactly what Monokuma wanted.

“Why the long faces? You should be grateful. Because once the demon reveals itself, it’ll be too late. The only way you will survive is if you kill that person-" his grin grew- "before they kill you.”

Kaede threw herself on the bed with frustration. Monokuma’s words haunted her head: If you don’t want to be killed, you should kill that person first.

It sounded like a rather basic fear in a killing game, but the whole idea of everyone owning a video containing damaging information about another person raised the stakes. A million questions went through her head, but one was most prominent.

Should she watch her video?

As she stared at the video's start screen again, she thought over the best option. She didn’t trust Monokuma and with it admittedly assumed the video to be fake. After all, when she tried to imagine what kind of crime the video about her would be showing - to whoever that would even be - there was nothing she could think of.

What was the worst she had ever done? Steal lipstick, perhaps? That was something she realistically had done at least once during her rebellious teenage phase which immediately caused embarrassment just thinking of again. But that was nothing dangerous. It was nothing that could make a person go; "Oh, that Kaede, you’ve got to watch out for her. She’ll kill you". At worst they would make sure their make-up was more carefully stored.

It’d create a false image in their mind about her, and that is also what she feared watching the video she received. She was convinced it would not hold some kind of terrible crime like a murder, but instaed contain information on someone that would alter the way she looked at them. Maybe it wouldn’t even be relevant and consider something the other did years ago and had moved passed, like she had. Or maybe the crime had been committed for some greater good Monokuma would purposefully obscure.

She didn’t want to have opinions on someone this way. Especially not if it came from a weird murder bear that kidnapped them all.

But at the same time, maybe she should watch it.

Because what if it is some really horrible crime? What if there really is someone waltzing around, smiling about, while they are in fact a psychopath? The odds were certainly there for at least one incredibly dangerous person to be present. And in that case Kaede wanted to know. She had to know who to stay clear of and keep an eye on so she could keep the others safe. The group had to be warned if she knew something they couldn’t. 

That would be this video. This video nobody else has.

On the other hand, Monokuma wanted a killing game, and upon seeing nobody grew murderous, introduced the videos. It was meant to trigger people, to fear one another and start the game he so desperately wanted them to play. It was his intention for people to watch the videos, why else create them?

So then… don’t watch it?

“... Argh!” Kaede tossed the tablet aside and hid her face in her hands.

Her head hurt from all the thinking that had no ability to make the cycle stop. She didn’t know what to do. Both watching and not watching had its pros and cons, and both could work in Monokuma's favor.

She hated it.

And she hated even more how this meant her plan on befriending everyone could fall in the water. There would always be this lingering fear that the person you are trying to befriend is someone terrible. Trust could not be built upon that.

In that way she fully understood why Monokuma came up with this idea. It was a smart move to tear everyone apart like that, but she couldn’t quite wrap her head around the point of it either, for the same reasons she kept wondering how legitimate these videos even were.

What kind of weird motive was this?

Chapter Text

Just like the nights before Kaede slept uneasy, even more so due to the still lingering doubt on what to do with the video. Even throughout her entire morning routine of showering and dressing up her eyes kept returning to the damned tablet. She shook herself out of it, determined to stick to her resolve.

She had made her decision last night; she wouldn't watch it. It was part of Monokuma’s game, a hiccup in the journey. There was no use bothering on it, they would get past it soon enough.

Still, she was curious to know what the others had decided. Perhaps they should’ve discussed it as a group, although there was always room for that during breakfast. It could be an idea to bring it up in case nobody else was going to. In the back of her mind she did wonder if everyone would treat it the same as when she wanted to talk about escaping again. But this was different, right?

Some of the others left the dormitory at the same time she did. They walked to the canteen together, and Kaede silently checked for a sign of animosity, of someone had watched their video and now felt different being with the group. The air had changed for sure, that first started during the hand-out, but nobody was giving her - or anyone else for that matter - weird looks. Not that she noticed, at least. Maybe they had come to the same conclusion as her. If nobody watched their video, that would be a great middle finger to Monokuma.

A few people had already arrived at the canteen and had settled themselves down at whatever seat they claimed the first day, making it their unofficial property. Only Kirumi didn’t settle down, instead strolling around putting everything in place. Now that Kaede thought of it, she hadn’t seen her sit down even one single time with them so far. Did she eat afterward? Or before that? That would mean getting up extremely early. Being a maid sounded like a pain.

All the seats were quickly taken, apart from 4. Kaede raised her brow at the lack of plates and cutlery, wondering if Kirumi straight up forgot with how many they were. But she wasn’t the only one to have forgetten apparently, as everyone decided to dig in already despite the missing students. Since they were one group it would be best to make a habit out of eating together. And so, Kaede decided to speak up.

“Ah, hang on, let’s wait! Himiko, Tenko, Angie and Gonta aren’t here yet.”

“Actually, they will not be coming,” Kirumi commented, coming to stand by her side. “Himiko has requested for a separate eating time slot for every meal of the day. Gonta, Tenko and Angie are a part of these time slots as well. As such they will not be joining meals with you anymore."

“What?” Kaito furrowed his brow in disbelief, so offended he drew back the bun he was about the put in his mouth. “Why would she want such a thing?”

“She obviously got annoyed by you,” Kokichi grinned, twirling the rice around his chopsticks. “Who wouldn’t?”

“It’s more likely she watched her video,” Korekiyo said, softly stirring his tea. “Something must have scared her off, and now those 3 are the only ones she trusts… Kehehe, who knows what kind of dark secret she has uncovered…”

Kaede bit her lip a bit. It was definitely the only sensible explanation as to why Himiko would ask for such a thing, especially with the timing. She was fine eating along yesterday, so whatever she saw must’ve really thrown her off. Did that mean the videos actually showed a terrible crime?

“So Himiko watched her video…” Tsumugi stared down at her food. “… Does that mean everyone else here didn’t watch their video?”

“I did.” All eyes immediately went to Keebo, who grew nervous at being the center of attention and made himself smaller. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I think everybody wants to know what you saw, robot boy!” Kokichi whistled. “But since you’re a robot I guess you would not understand those kinds of cues.”

He immediately pointed a finger at him, “I will not stand for your constant robophobic comments…! Besides, it was nothing noteworthy whatsoever.”

Kaede tilted her head. “... No?”

“No. I do not understand the point of it being some kind of motive to push a murder. It wasn’t a reason to kill someone over, or even just fear them.”

“So who did you get?” Ryoma asked, drawing a sip from his coffee.

“I won’t say.”

“Why not?” Maki glared. “You said it wasn’t anything bad, so you might as well share. Or is the person sitting at this table?”

Keebo grew more nervous at Maki’s piercing eyes, tapping the tips of his index fingers together. “Umm… Their crime really doesn’t matter and I don’t want anybody to think differently of this person over such a thing…”

“Just sounds suspicious to me,” Ryoma sighed.

“N-no, I mean it…! All I’ll say is, hold on tight to your belongings… That’s it. That’s my hint.”

“So we have a thief at this table," Maki said. “Figures. I bet it's Miu. A pathetic crime for a pathetic person."

"What the fuck?!" Miu squeaked, nearly spilling the orange juice she just picked up, "I have a shit ton of money, I don’t need to steal jackshit! I pay my bills! N-not that I have money on me right now, s-so... no use trying to rob me!"

Kaede took a bite from her omelet. A thief, huh? Then Keebo must have gotten her video. Sure, someone could also once upon a time have stolen something, but it felt comforting to believe he had hers and didn’t judge her any different for it. She admittedly had no clue how his judging of others actions worked considering his nature. 

The title of Ultimate Robot made sense of course, she had never seen a robot like him. It was like Pinocchio, but then of metal. She lightly giggled at the idea of Keebo’s nose also growing if he'd lie, but that probably wasn’t a thing. She studied his face a bit further, which in all ways looked human. It looked like actual skin. Pale, but skin all the while. It was only in the eye area that her doubts arose. His eyes were very different from the others, shaped differently. It was very uncanny. And when she looked closer…

“He… doesn’t have any eyebrows…”

“Right, Kaede?”

“H-huh?”

“Do you agree with me?”

She blinked again at Keebo’s repeated question and smiled awkwardly. “I’m sorry, what were we talking about?”

“Pay some fucking attention, Kaediot!” Miu growled. “This is damn serious business. I'm even willing to bless you dumbasses with my input on the matter!”

“Well, everyone is free to know I watched my video as well,” Rantaro shrugged. “But it was so incredibly ridiculous that I do not believe one bit of it. Monokuma must’ve sucked it out of his thumb. And otherwise Shuichi has been doing an incredibly poor job.”

“Wh-what…?” Shuichi’s eyes widened and turned to look at Rantaro.

“Just messing around, don’t worry,” he grinned back.

“Well, for what it’s worth,” Ryoma said, “everyone’s allowed to know about my crime. I killed a lot of men.”

“We already fucking know,” Miu spat.

Kaede didn’t. Not really, at least. She had a vague memory of someone called Ryoma Hoshi taking a gang down using only a tennis racket and a metal ball. The reason she didn’t remember much else probably being the gorey side of it - she couldn’t stand gore at all. Ryoma was the Ultimate Tennis Pro, surely this was the same guy, it was a perfect match. Then again, was he not put on death row or something?

“So there’s no reason to trust me. Maybe that’s why Himiko left.”

“Don’t say such things!” Kaito immediately countered, worked up at Ryoma’s attitude. “You’re not a bad person, I know you’re not.”

He scoffed. “I understand that you want to believe in everyone, but... Idealistic thoughts like that won't save anyone. You might end up losing what you tried to save."

The astronaut grinded his teeth a bit. “Come on, man…”

“Whatever.” Maki pushed her plate back, signaling to be done eating. “I watched my video too, if anyone really needs to know. And it wasn’t worth my time. Considering the others this whole video business is just stupid.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Kokichi chirped before turning his face solemnly. “I watched mine too and, wow, guys… It was seriously intense.”

Rantaro raised a brow, a hint of disbelief in his voice, “Was it now?”

“Yes!” His eyes grew sly as he drew a finger to his lips. “I saw a very dangerous secret about someone… Something that could be bad for all of us…”

Panic rose to Kaede’s throat. “Wh-what was it…?”

“I’m not saying!” he smiled.

“Hey!” Kaito drew up his fist. “You can’t go scare people like that and then keep it to yourself! Spit it out!”

“Nee-heehee, don’t be impatient, Kaito.”

“You little…”

Maki sneered, “Don’t be a pain."

“Say it, fucker!” Miu’s hands were almost shaking as she cut a piece through her pancake. “Don’t edge me!"

“Yeah, come on…!” Kaede stressed. “If it’s dangerous, you need to tell people…!”

The crocodile tears flew to Kokichi’s eyes, loudly crying out: “WAAAAHHHH! I’m being bullied again! I want separate eating time slots as well!”

“That can be arranged,” Kirumi quickly replied, having manifested to his side out of nowhere.

His obnoxious cries immediately silenced as if nothing ever happened, smiling happily instead. “Aw, thank you, Kirumi. At least you care about little old me. I’ll see you later then, and I want lots of great snacks for lunch! Make it a worldwide buffet!”

Kirumi gave a nod as the other left.

“Man, this guy…” Kaito scratched the back of his neck.

Tsumugi fixed her glasses. “Well, when I asked my question this certainly wasn’t what I expected…”

Rantaro filled a cup with some tea and took a sip. “Don’t sweat it. I’m betting he never even watched his video and is just messing around- Oh, this tastes really good.”

Kaede frowned a bit. If he was just messing around about watching his video, that was really horrible. They were thrown in a killing game and the videos were distributed in an attempt to have murder start. This was nothing to joke about in any way, shape or form. Although, if Kokichi wasn’t joking, that wouldn’t be any the less worrisome. The others said their videos weren’t worth their time, but if the shorter’s words were true, that’d mean there was a difference in severity. Himiko surely didn’t want to eat separately over nothing either. Maybe some people committed silly crimes, while others should be on death row.

The only way to figure out if that theory rang true is if everyone obliged to watch all videos. Monokuma’s words of the day before danced around in her head to tempt her. Once the demon reveals itself, it’ll be too late.

“So I checked those spots, including the library, but nothing that could pinpoint the mastermind’s location…”

“That’s a shame…”

Shuichi and Kaede were hanging around in the kitchen as Kirumi prepared the upcoming meal for Himiko’s breakfast club as well as Kokichi's outrageous lunch needs. Since his research announcement yesterday, Shuichi had been checking for clues on where the mastermind could be, but without luck. He didn’t enjoy bringing bad news to the other two, but with the arrival of the videos he felt obligated to update them.

“I’m sorry…”

“Do not apologize,” Kirumi said, just putting a kettle on the fire. “There are many areas that are closed off. Clues might be there.”

“I guess… I’m just worried because of the videos. I don’t want to believe it would actually make a murder happen, but you never know… The sooner we’re out, the better.”

“Hm…” Kaede stared into the ground, leaning against the counter. There was indeed no knowing if the videos would cause anything. Monokuma didn't share them for nothing, he must know it could make someone take action. Anyone. She still wasn’t sure whether she had made the right decision by not watching her video. With every new conversation her heart grew more and more twisted about it. “... You two didn’t respond during breakfast, but did you watch your videos?"

“I did not.” Kirumi put a pan down and turned towards the two of them. “I admittedly wonder what the video could even show. I tried picturing what the video about me would display, but I cannot remember doing any illegal activities… That would look bad on my resume.”

“I was wondering the same,” Kaede agreed, lightly scratching her neck. “All I can think of is that I stole some make-up as a teen… Would that count as worst crime?”

“Perhaps… I did convert the mafia. I wonder if Monokuma would count that as cooperation and as such a crime.”

Both Shuichi and Kaede immediately looked at Kirumi with shock. “Y-you did what…?!”

“Ah, please, do not misunderstand." She lightly raised her hand in the air, "I served the owner of a conglomerate before. His daughter was kidnapped by the mafia. Using his daughter, the criminal organization asked for a ransom equaling the state budget. Although my master was willing to pay, I found the act of giving so much money to criminals unacceptable. We knew where their main base was located. I had my master prepare my weapons and went to fetch his daughter.”

Kaede’s eyes continued widening, the movie playing in her head of Kirumi infiltrating a large building and an army of armed men cornering her. With incredible skill she’d take the many men down, not a scratch of a bullet grazing her skin. The piano music swayed along in the intensity, only for the maid to end up at the final boss. An epic finale straight from a movie. Kirumi was incredible.

“So you took them out?" she asked breathlessly. "Like, you beat all those guys up in a massive battle…?”

“Not quite.”

Shuichi caressed his chin thoughtfully. “... You mentioned that you knew the main base, so… I imagine you could use that to your advantage, split the enemy and engage them.”

“Correct,” she smiled politely. “I secured his daughter and eventually reached the organization’s boss, but," her face turned more serious than usual, her eyes closing and her hands coming together by her lap, "I could not let them walk away just like that…”

“Did… Did she kill him…?”

Only to open her eyes again with a neutral look, “I persuaded the leader to start a business. There was some potential there. So I offered to become his maid and make him successful. He obliged, and we are currently maintaining a butler service industry.”

So Kirumi wasn’t just a typical maid in the sense of serving food, washing clothes and making you feel comfortable in general. She sounded almost terrifying this way. It’s a good thing she got along well with Kaede. Surely the last thing one would want is to make Kirumi their enemy.

“But that’s not a crime…!” Kaede pranced. “You basically dismembered the mafia and turned them good… You should be rewarded for that!”

“I suppose, but perhaps Monokuma leaves out details and all the video would entail is me cooperating with bad people.”

Shuichi nodded a bit. “That’s what I have been worried about as well…”

Kaede turned to look at him.

“I didn’t watch my video either, even though I’m not sure if that is the right choice - if there is any. The crime shown could be really bad, but with left out context. The truth may be twisted just to trick us. It’s… very dangerous.”

She nodded a bit at that. For a moment she considered putting the idea of everyone watching the videos together on the table, just to pulse the other two’s opinions on it, but this was a great point as to why not do so. As a detective Shuichi dealt with criminals all the time. Surely he knew exactly what a crime could entail, potentially even dealing with crimes which, when taking into account the full story, were not all that black and white. 

“That must be pretty tough about your job…" Kaede leaned against the counter again and twirled a hairlock, "I mean, if I was working in a supermarket and saw a woman stealing baby milk powder, I wouldn't get it over my heart to actually tell on them. It’s expensive, and who knows how badly they need it… I’d rather turn a blind eye, even if stealing is a crime.”

“That’s not usually the kind of crime I come across,” Shuichi awkwardly smiled. “But you are right… It’s difficult to arrest people like that…”

Kirumi pursed her lips lightly. “It sounds as though you are speaking of personal experience.”

“A little, I suppose…”

“Oh, can you share?” Kaede asked, propping herself up.

“You… You want to know?”

She confidently nodded back. “Absolutely. We already heard what kind of things Kirumi deals with. I’m curious to know what your work is like, even the hard parts of it.”

“Erm, um…” He nervously pulled down his cap, averting his eyes and shuffling his feet around. “It actually considers the criminal I caught that got me awarded the title of Ultimate Detective…” 

“Oh?” Kaede’s curiosity grew, with pleading eyes begging Shuichi to continue. Even if he probably could not see them thanks to his cap, he definitely must have felt them staring as he nervously continued.

“He… He wanted to take revenge on the guy who killed his family by killing him too. I-I had no clue until we actually caught him and he went off on a tangent about it, I… He looked at me with so much hatred, and I can still feel his hatred towards me for catching him, to not let him commit his crime… I’m still not sure if I did the right thing…”

Kaede’s previous enthusiasm deflated. She didn’t know what to answer. Murder was never okay, but in a case like that it did make the situation a lot more gray. If someone killed her family, she’d probably want to take some form of revenge as well.

“Hey… You were just doing your job,” Kaede put her hand on his shoulder, only for him to quickly pull away.

“That’s not-... I’ll… I’ll see you guys later…” Without even a glance he left the two women behind.

The pianist slowly pulled her hand back and balled it. Was that not the right response? Was the touch on the shoulder too much? Technically they didn't know each other all that well, after all.

“It’s nothing personal, Kaede.”

“Hm?” She looked at Kirumi who gave her a calming look.

“He likely needs some time to himself. It appears to be a very heavy subject to him. That has nothing to do with you.”

She sighed, “Yeah, I know… I guess I just want to make sure I’m not overstepping. But I don’t want him to feel bad about something like that either.”

“I do not believe you could do much wrong in his eyes. You are a nice person and he likes you. Surely he understands you were only trying to comfort him.”

“Yeah?" her antenna sprung in excitement. "You think he likes me?”

“I am confident,” she smiled at the motion. “Who could not? There’s something very alluring about you.”

“Ah geez,” Kaede awkwardly smiled back in a fluster. “You know just how to put things.”

“Which is also why I am sure under your leadership we will all be fine. Rantaro told me about you two’s plan of befriending people. Someone as extroverted as you is the perfect fit for such a job.”

She supposed out of all the people present she did have the easiest time stepping up to someone and striking a conversation. The plan was all the more important now because of the videos, and especially in reference to a certain set of people.

The day continued and Kaede did what she could trying to talk with people, some of them being easier than others. Gonta was a surprisingly nice person despite his terrifying stature, and talking with Tsumugi also proved to be a fun time - even though it was very awkward to have her fangirl tendencies show right through by calling Kaede a ‘main character’ and having ‘heroine aura’.

Just as Kirumi had mentioned, Himiko was nowhere to be seen around the meal times, nor were the people who joined her club. And as it turned out the next morning, other people appeared had gotten inspiration from that. When Kaede arrived to the canteen Maki was long done eating and had left, the same counting for the likes of Kokichi and Ryoma. Despite Kaede’s attempts people were splitting up more and more.

It concerned her deeply, and she didn't know how to tackle the issue either. In a way she wished she could just make everyone forget about the tablets’ existence, but that was of course an impossible plan. She was, however, always taught to tackle the problem at its core. If the videos' existence could not be denied, there was one other core she could dismantle: The one that started the trend of splitting up.

Kaede took many different walks through the building and the courtyard in search of her target. Himiko had to be somewhere. Gonta let loose that she kept in her room most of the time, but was definitely coming outside to meet up with Angie and Tenko. The chances were there to ‘coincidentally’ cross one another and talk. If Kaede just kept the walks up, surely they'd meet some time.

And there it finally was, the red glimmer of fate nervously moving around the courtyard to the terrace, likely to enter the canteen through the doors there and avoid bumping into anyone in the school itself. The time had come to approach!

Kaede ran up to her, yelling her name as she wove her hand in the air, “Himiko! Hey, Himiko!”

The other immediately jumped in a yelp, turned around, and put her hand up towards Kaede with a confident look on her face. Or well, at least an attempt at a confident look. Sweat drops almost immediately started rolling down her face, even slightly moving at the shaking knees which were trying to uphold Himiko’s body. 

“S-stay right there…!” she commanded. “I casted a magic spell… Everyone is to stand at least 2 meters away from me…”

Kaede stopped in her tracks and took another step back, assuming to now be at the required distance.

“And… another 3 for good measure…”

She had no clue what it was for, but the blonde obediently moved more steps back until she was at about a 5 meter distance from the magician. What was the point of standing so far away? Having a conversation would be difficult like this. Though that might have exactly been the point.

“What’s the distance for?” Kaede carefully asked.

“I’m not very fast, so this way I have a head start… A-and magic too, of course, I’ll shock you otherwise…!”

So in other words, keeping a physical distance was Himiko’s way of giving herself an advantage in case someone wanted to attack her. It pained Kaede’s heart to see her taking such extreme measures. She must be truly terrified.

“Right… Um, I wanted to talk to you about something…”

“Nyeh…?”

“It’s about your separation from the others. The whole food club thing you have going on.”

Himiko furrowed her brow a bit. “Kirumi didn’t tell you about when our time slots are, did she? I’m not letting new members in, even if you show up right as it starts…”

Her head shook, “I don’t want to join. I want you to join the others instead. I want all of us to eat together.”

“No way…” The girl pulled her hat down, looking at Kaede with great judgment. “That’s far too dangerous… I can’t trust any of you…”

“... So you watched your video, huh?”

“It’s not just about what I saw,” she mumbled. “It’s about not knowing what the other videos hold… Someone really bad could be walking around. You could be eating your cheese next to a murderer… I don’t want to risk anything…”

“But… you trust Gonta, Angie and Tenko, right?”

“They’re different. I was able to check their aura with my magic, they’re clean… But it doesn’t work on the others…”

So Himiko was using her magic to judge who was safe. Kaede didn’t understand what she truly meant by that. There was no way she actually knew how to cast magic, that's not what magicians did - plus, magic doesn't exist. Perhaps it was her way of saying she was simply judging on vibes.

“Listen, I know it’s scary, but…" her footing ever so faintly moved foward, "you have to remember Monokuma handed those videos out for a reason. He wants the killing game to get started, so there’s a lot of reasons why we can’t trust the videos… I didn’t watch mine because of that.”

Her hat raised again along with her brow, “... You didn’t?”

“No. It could be lies, misinterpretations… I don’t want to be fed lies, and I refuse to believe there are some truly terrible people walking around here. I mean, Himiko, what do you think the video about you would even show? For me, all I can think about is make-up I once stole as a teen. But that doesn’t make me dangerous, does it?”

The surprised expression didn't stick around, now having returned to its neutral tired position. “... Stealing make-up is pretty low.”

“It cost a lot of money which I didn’t have, and I admittedly was going through some thi-" She francitcally wove her hands, "Wait, that doesn’t matter…! It was a long time ago and not inherently dangerous… What would your video show?”

The other’s brow drew together, thinking deeply about the matter. Her lips pressed together, grazing on the words she was going to let out. And after a bit of time, those lips curled into a small smile. “In my early days of magic shows, I tried this one trick with a rabbit and someone from the audience… But the rabbit was kind of upset at being separated from his girlfriend, so he started attacking the person… The guest wanted to sue me for getting beaten up…”

“He… got attacked by the rabbit?”

“They get on their hinds and do this really hard tapping… Almost like boxing. It’s pretty intense. But it was also a little bit funny to see him get completely overpowered by a small animal… I guess that could be my crime.”

Kaede laughed a bit, her shoulders shaking, “That is hardly a crime. You didn’t control the rabbit. I think at worst you were keeping lovers apart.”

“Heh, I haven’t kept them apart since…” She went quiet for a bit, and spoke up again. “The others also said I should be more trusting… Maybe you’re right. I still prefer my time slots, but… I’ll take your words into consideration.”

“That already means the world to me.”

Kaede could barely contain her excitement, almost jumping up and down out of satisfaction. This had to be the best possible outcome, and she managed to do so with ease. If Himiko were convinced, so would Gonta, Angie and Tenko. And from there on the others would surely follow to return as well. They could be one big group again. Take that, Monokuma!

A light smile painted Himiko's face, “Maybe you should consider a separate time slot as well… You’ll have Kirumi all to yourself. It’s like being royalty.”

She giggled, “Okay, I’ll take your words into consideration too.”

Himiko gave a nod and continued her way to the canteen. And Kaede? She was on cloud nine.

Kaede rubbed her hands together as she stood in front of the door of her very own Research Lab. Even if they had been kidnapped and this room was created by a terrible murder hungry bear, she could not withhold the excitement of what awaited her. Simply looking at the piano motive thrilled her. After this constant rollercoaster of mixed emotions, she could really use a good jam session.

So she took a deep breath - hoping not to be disappointed - and entered the room. It was distinctly bright, big windows that reached nearly from the floor all the way up to the ceiling letting the sun rays in, which on their turn landed on the floor and reflected off piano sheets scattered about. Nearly every wall was occupied by cabinets filled with cd’s, lp’s and piano books. Hundreds upon hundreds of songs must have been gathered here to enjoy. The back wall held a blackboard and a stage which reminded Kaede of her music classes where the teacher would be standing on the stage to echo his talk through the entire room. The blackboard had already been put to use by having some notes drawn on them. She recognized them immediately. Those were the first notes of a simplified version of Claire de Lune.

And in the very middle of the room stood the showpiece surrounded by several music stands; a magnificent black grand piano.

She could not help but glee.

“No way! Is that what I think it is?!” She jumped towards it and nearly hugged the masterful woodwork.

Without a shadow of a doubt, this was a Blüthner, one of the oldest and most renowned piano builders in the world. Their pianos were used by some of the greatest artists such as Franz Liszt, Debussy and Rachmaninov. She knew the instruments were still being made by hand and are especially renowned for their special ‘Aliquot’ system. This system ensures the tones of the treble side produce an amazing sound by the means of an extra floating string per choir. People would often say these pianos had a Golden Tone.

And here she stood, one of these incredible pieces of manwork at her very fingertips. It was all hers. The tears of joy almost sprung to her eyes.

“What should I play first on this absolute beauty-”

Somewhere in the distance, a scream echoed, prompting Kaede up and focusing her ears.

It remained quiet.

“... I must have imagined… What was I doing again? Oh, right, a song! Let’s see…”

She skipped to the cabinets and took a look through the collection. Any classical piece Kaede had ever heard of was here, and so much more. She could probably fill an entire day just going through the whole thing. But it did make the selection on what to play first all the harder. It had to be something of importance, something truly beautiful to initiate the first session. She thought and thought, and as her eye fell back on the blackboard, it came to her.

“Claire de Lune! Of course!” 

She took the song's piano sheets, hurried back to the piano and sat herself down. A piano used by the great Debussy himself deserved to be initiated with a song by him. Translated, it was called “By the light of the moon” or “In the moonlight”. The rubato and very sense of freedom could be felt throughout her entire body whenever she played the piece. It was meant to make the listener truly feel and experience a deep moment of tranquility. One that for some felt as melancholy.

So she put her fingers at the ready and in her head repeated the advice of Debussy himself when wanting to play the piece; depress the two pedals before starting, so that the overtones vibrate immediately upon contact. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and-

~Ding dong, dong ding!~

“Wh-what?” Kaede was broken out of her concentration and instead guided to the mounted TV screen, on which Monokuma soon showed himself in his seat with a glass of champagne in his mechanical paw while many expensive dishes occupied his desk.

Even though he had a stagnant expression, Kaede could feel the grin he was bearing come right through the screen. “A body has been discovered! Everyone, please gather at the pink gate that connects the hallway leading to the gym to the hallway leading to the canteen!”

The screen shut itself off again.

“... A… body…?” Kaede's mind emptied itself as it tried to process what Monokuma had just said. Did he mean a murder just occurred? By the pink gate? Is that what this was? But then…

Who was killed? 

She quickly ran out of the room, her seat nearly dropping to the floor as she left. She flew down the stairs and made her turn. She wanted to be proven wrong, she wanted to be shown this was a cruel joke by Monokuma and nothing had actually happened. It couldn’t have been, everybody was starting to get along. She had made sure of that!

The other students were already gathered by the gate, arguing in panic and absolute horror on their faces. Kaede pushed through the crowd and looked down.

“... H… Himiko…?”

Chapter Text

Sweet little Himiko.

There she laid, on the other side of the neon pink gate, looking up to the ceiling with empty eyes. The very hat she wore to - aside from increasing her height probably - show she was a mage had fallen off. Kaede never believed she was really able to cast magic, there was no such thing, but there was to Himiko. It brought joy to her constant tired mood and slurred speech, it was the one thing that made her smile. Even when she had grown deadly afraid, shutting herself out, her love for magic pulled through. The love she held for her acts with little rabbits brought a smile to her face despite everything. Kaede appreciated their conversation. Little did either of them know that would be the very last one.

Because sweet little Himiko had been murdered.

“Ah… aah… AAAAHHHHH!” Tenko screamed loudly and, being the only one on the other side of the gate, threw herself on top of the girl. “Himiko?! Himiko!”

She shook the girl’s shoulders, unwilling to believe the earlier announcement. Shuichi broke out of his paralysis to demand Tenko to please stop. It was not going to do anything.

“So then… this is it.” Maki stared at the redhead’s body through the bars, “The killing game has started.”

“Yesss!” Monokuma made his way through the crowd, patting his belly with satisfaction. “I’m so glad. I’ll be honest, when I saw most of you didn’t watch your video or when you did were unimpressed, I got a bit worried… But it’s all good now!”

“No! Himiko, my very best friend is dea- Oh. No,” Kokichi corrected himself, “she has been… KIIIILLLLEEEDDDDD!!!”

“How ironic…” Ryoma pulled on the rim of his hat. “The girl who took measures to not get killed… got killed.”

“Can… somebody explain the meaning of all this?” Kirumi stood more confidently than the others, but her face was clearly disturbed.

“There is not much to explain!” Monokuma said. “It is now time to get started on what I told you at the very beginning. It's time for a class trial! Catch the culprit and only they will be punished. But if you get it wrong… puhu… everyone besides the culprit will be punished.”

“Everyone…” Kaede looked around at the others. Was this actually a reality? Was there really someone in this group who had killed Himiko, and with it, was also okay with having everyone else die if it meant their own escape?

“But before we start the trial you need to investigate first! If you don’t investigate the murder, you won’t be able to argue over who did it. A quality trial is important.”

Rantaro sighed, looking away from the crimescene. “So we need to do the investigation ourselves as well?”

“Duh! Put in some work if you want to live! It’s all a part of it, so investigate this crime and uncover the truth! You get limited time, so you better hurry. Oh, and I got one more thing for all of you.” From literally nowhere Monokuma pulled out a stack of 15 digital tablets, although compared to the regular tablets they looked more like e-books. “Dun dun dun! A notebook that will kill anyone whose name is written in it!”

Tsumugi gasped in aspiration. “Could it be?! The Death No-”

“Just kidding. It’s a Monokuma File. Let me explain…” Monokuma started his explanation as he handed them out one by one like a teacher assigning homework, “The Monokuma File is a detailed report that summarizes all the info about the dead body! But there’s no information that would point to the blackened, because that would ruin the trials. Since not everyone here is an experienced investigator it must be useful for a lot of you, you know?”

As soon as his explanation ended and the files were handed out, Monokuma left the scene, likely heading to prepare wherever this supposed class trial would be held.

“Alright!” With a disturbing amount of excitement Kokichi unlocked his file. “Let’s get going!”

Gonta clumsely held his file, both unsure how to unlock it as well as to start investigating in the first place, “W-wait, Gonta not… Wh-where start…?”

“Do not fret,” Kirumi assured. “Just imagine this as something out of a police drama or detective manga. Right, Shuichi?”

He only momentarily glanced back at her, “R-right…”

“Oh no, I am in a lot of trouble then…” Keebo stressed. “I have never watched or read those things. I have no data in my files about it!”

“There’s no need to think so hard,” Korekiyo said approaching the gate. “We need only converse with the corpse… A corpse is not simply a dead person. That is just an assumption made by the living. Yes! By coming face to face with the corpse, you will learn a great many things!”

“W-what are you excited for?!” Tenko threw herself over Himiko’s body in protection despite the gate still keeping the two of them separated from the rest. “You’re not into dead bodies, are you?! I’m not letting you anywhere near Himiko!”

“Is it really one of us, though?” Tsumugi breathed. “It’s hard to imagine any one of us would do this…”

“... Odds are one in 15,” Maki deducted. “Can’t be that hard to figure out.”

“That’s not the issue here!” Kaito yelled.

“Wh-who’s the fucking culprit, huh?!” Miu shakily backed away from everyone and pointed a finger at Tsumugi. “Is it you?!” And then at Korekiyo. “Or that creeper?! I don’t trust him for shits!”

“Eeny, meeny, miney, moe…” Angie tapped her finger in the air as if counting. “Who’s the killer? Only Atua knows…”

“Oh, yay!” Kokichi gleed. “Everyone’s getting all paranoid, not typical at all.”

“Wait, hang on…!” Shuichi tried to rise above the chaos. “We can’t go back and forth accusing each other! That won’t get us anywhere! For now… we need to trust each other and start a serious investigation.”

Kaede looked up to Shuichi.

“If we all lose our trust in one another because of this… it’ll be over for sure. We have to believe in each other and investigate this case.”

“Investigating is the same fucking thing as not trusting each other…”

“No, it’s completely different from what Monokuma wants us to do. He wants us to throw accusations at one another, and lose all trust in each other… And we… can’t let him get what he wants.” He furrowed his brow a bit. “We need to investigate this murder. Not because we don’t trust each other, but because we do. ”

Everyone stared at him in intense silence.

He gulped. “……… Did I say something wrong…?”

“No… No, that was perfect,” Kaede smiled. “You were so direct and assertive. I think your words just really got to us.”

“Heck yeah!” Kaito pumped his fist in the air. “This is just the kind of stuff I was going to say!”

Tenko let out a bit of a laugh and stood up, lifting the protective shield off her friend. “Males are degenerate creatures who betray others easily, but… I’ll trust you to do Himiko justice.”

“Gonta not smart. Not sure Gonta be much help… But Himiko friend, and Gonta do his best for everyone!”

“I will work hard with Atua’s guidance. I’m much happier alive than dead anyway.”

Keebo nodded. “As novice investigators, logic dictates that we work together rather than give in to paranoia. I might have no data files on investigating, but I’ll do what I can!”

“If this is what everyone desires… then I shall give this task my all.”

“Ah, I’ll find the culprit in no time!” Kokichi smiled. “Give me 5 minutes tops! No, wait, 3! 2! 1! 10 seconds!”

“That seems hardly realistic,” Maki sighed.

Kaede smiled sadly. She had much rather not have a dead body at all, but considering the circumstances, this was a good start. So she unlocked the Monokuma File with confidence, only for that confidence to immediately falter upon reading and freezing her in place.

It was like a dead announcement in the newspaper, just a lot more in the face. The top of the screen showed a picture of Himiko, both full body and headshot. An alive face, one with a large pink stamp of “DEAD” destroying the idea. Her full name was displayed with other basic information like her talent, height, weight and blood type. Essentially the same information one could find on everyone's regular tablet only now another tab with details on the murder had been added.

The almost mugshot-like pictures were replaced with a picture of Himiko’s dead body, accompanied by a description of the cause.

The victim’s body was discovered by the pink gate, on the side leading to the gym.

The estimated time of death is 17:00.

The victim was subjected to her neck breaking, resulting in immediate death.

A small headshot of Himiko painted the area at her throat in a pink circle, her cause of death.

“... Kaede…?” Shuichi entered Kaede’s field of vision with a worried look peeking from underneath his hat. “Are you okay…?”

She blinked a bit to look up at the boy. “... I…”

“... It’s okay. It’s not comfortable to read… It never is.”

“... Hm…”

He pressed his lips together, hurt to see her upbeat nature to have suddenly become so non-reactive. “Maybe… we can do the investigation together? We might get further with two.”

That wasn’t really the reason he asked. Shuichi was an experienced detective, surely a piano enthusiast would only slow him down. He wanted to make sure she would be okay, and Kaede appreciated that. So she gave a thankful nod and asked what they should do first. Shuichi suggested examing the body to cross-check the Monokuma File. He opened the gate, which creaked rather loudly, and walked towards Himiko’s body.

Kaede looked her over as well. She couldn’t quite believe Himiko was really dead. It was too weird. Maybe it was a joke, and she would get up any moment?

“The Monokuma file mentions her neck breaking was the cause of death… That appears to be right.” He pointed at her throat, crouching. “Look at those bruises. A lot of pressure was put on there.”

“I see it, yeah,” Kaede murmured, instictively pressing her fingertips against her own throat. “Did someone choke her…?”

“That would not match the cause of death. Admittedly… breaking someone’s neck is tricky.”

“In movies and stuff they do this twist thing, right?”

He looked up to her, “Yes, but twisting someone’s neck for an instant death is actually really hard to do… Breaking someone’s neck in general is very hard. You’d have to be very strong. And instead of twisting, impact is a much easier way to get it done…”

“It’s kind of freaky you know all of this… What kind of impact?”

“A punch or kick could be enough force, but only if the body is restrained somehow…” He checked her wrists and the floor around her. “But it doesn’t look like she was restrained.”

“So that’s not it then… probably, at least…” Kaede looked a bit closer at Himiko's face and furrowed her brow at it. It almost looked as if bruising started showing there as well in a very strange and precise way: Two identical bruises went over her face, up to down over her eye sockets. It looked very unnatural.

And Shuichi soon noticed that as well. “That is very strange…”

“Maybe she got hit with a weapon.”

“Maybe. Yet…” He shook his head a bit. “There’s no weapon around the body either. We’d have to check the area if the culprit disposed of it somewhere.”

“I didn’t see anything coming here,” Tenko interrupted, stepping up to the two. “Nothing weird that wasn’t already there, at least.”

“I think a lot of us came running without paying much attention to their surroundings,” Shuichi mentioned, getting up.

“No, no. That’s the thing. I didn’t come here because of the announcement. I think I uh… I triggered it or something.”

Kaede tilted her head. “Do you mean you found the body?”

She nodded back. “Yes. Himiko and I were supposed to meet up at the gym. I was going to teach her Neo-Aikido so she could defend herself if some kind of degenerate would attack her!" she jabbed a flat hand in the air. "When she didn’t arrive after 5 minutes I brushed it off as her being slow… But after 15 minutes I got worried… I realized I might have promised to pick her up from her room. Y’know, so she wouldn’t walk alone. So I left the gym and then… Then… I-I screamed once I realized she wasn’t-… That’s when some of the others came, and then that wretched bear started talking…”

Kaede remembered the screaming she had heard before. It must’ve been Tenko. It was no imagination. To think she had continued in her room in full bliss, unaware Himiko was already dead at that moment.

Shuichi attentively nodded his head, mentally noting everything Tenko had told. “So that’s why you were on this side of the gate… At what time were you supposed to meet?”

“At 5.”

“That’s the time of death… Did you see anyone else in the area when you headed to the gym?”

Tenko shook her head. “I went to the gym 30 minutes beforehand to set everything up. So I wasn’t around the halls at that time… Wait, I’ll show you I really did set it all up!” She guided the two of them to the gym, where the room had indeed been set up differently than Kaede remembered it looking before. It was more cleaned up, with different kinds of sports material having been taken out of storage.

“Just for your information, the stuff I brought out was already in the gym here, behind a curtain. I know there are things in the warehouse, but I didn’t get anything from there. But, yeah, Himiko and I were going to meet, and I came here earlier to get everything ready. When I came over I didn’t see anyone at that moment either.”

Shuichi looked around a bit. “I see… When did you last see Himiko?”

"During early dinner with the food club. Gonta, Angie and Kirumi were there as well.”

“Thank you, Tenko. I guess we should check in with them then.”

“You better find out whatever degenerate did this to her, Shuichi…" Her fists bolted, "I’ll beat them up! I’ll break their bones for hurting her!”

Shuichi walked back to the main area, to which Kaede and Tenko followed. Tenko decided not to come further along, instead remaining loyally by Himiko’s side. Kaede turned to look back at Tenko for a moment.

As soon as they left Tenko's anger toned down and she went to her knees to get closer to the mage, grabbing her hat and putting it back on. They were friends, good ones at that. It didn’t take a genius to see Tenko adored her. And now, out of nowhere, that friendship had been destroyed. Kaede could not imagine the pain Tenko must be feeling right now. It wrung her own heart.

“God fucking dammit, Keebo!” Miu shook him at the shoulders. “Now you’ve gotta let me work on you! There’s some fuck ass murderer walking around, I need to rewire you so you actually got some strength in those petty arms of yours to protect me!”

His eyes rolled back and forward dizzily, “T-this is hardly the time to talk about such a thing…”

“Hey, guys,” Shuichi greeted, a hint of professionalism in there. “Do you mind if we ask some questions? When’s the last time you saw Himiko?”

“You’re suspecting me, Sherlock Homo?!" She dropped Keebo from her grasp and planted both her hands on her hips, taking on a hostile posture. "Well, I haven’t seen the twerp since she started that stupid club and abandoned us!”

“I’m afraid the same counts for me,” Keebo added, dusting himself off a bit. “I haven't even seen her off in the distance walking around.”

“I’ve got a feeling a lot of people will have a similar answer…” Shuichi said.

Kaede bit her lip a bit.

“And where were you when the announcement sounded? Or did you arrive before the announcement?”

“After,” Miu said. “I was looking for Keebo to upgrade him, hee-hee!”

“And obviously, I was hiding from her… I was in my room when the announcement sounded.”

Kaede sighed lightly. So Keebo was still hiding from Miu. Well, at least that behavior checked out. Not a true alibi, she supposed, but it’s not like she herself had much of an alibi either.

“There, there, Gonta.” Angie was patting a sobbing Gonta on the back. “It’s okay.”

“No, Gonta feel awful…! Gonta’s fault!”

“Hey…” Kaede walked up to the two, her eyes on the man who earlier proclaimed he would try his best, though that clearly had not lasted. “It’s not your fault, Gonta…”

“Is…! Gonta gentleman… Should’ve stayed with Himiko, then could’ve protect…”

“Do not worry, Gonta,” Angie sounded again. “Atua is taking good care of Himiko!”

“R-really…?” he sniffled.

“Yes," she raised a hand to the sky as if to touch the kingdom of the beyond, "she can now do all the magic in the world without a single worry! Now she doesn’t need to be paranoid about the killing game anymore.”

“Paranoid…” Kaede recounted the distance Himiko wanted to keep during their conversation. “She didn’t trust a lot of people because of those videos, huh?”

Angie shook her head. “Nope! That’s why she made the food club. So she could be with the people she trusted. Oh, and Kirumi.”

“Gonta think Himiko trust Kirumi too… Her food very good.”

“Tenko mentioned the last time she saw her alive was during early dinner. What about you?”

“Same as Tenko,” Angie chirped, her tone coming across as rather strange to the pianist considering the situation. “Once we finished I stuck with Kirumi for a while. I left later to pray to Atua in my room. When the announcement interrupted my prayer, I came as fast as I could.”

“Gonta take Himiko to room after dinner, like gentleman. … Should’ve offered to stay around instead of looking for bugs… Gonta so sorry…!” The tears started streaming down his face again.

“Ow, big guy…” Kaede caressed his arm for a bit until the waterworks lessened, to which Angie took comforting him over again and Kaede could return to Shuichi, who had by now made his way to Kaito and Maki.

“Okay, so the two of you were down in the basement’s game room?” he repeated.

“Totally right!” Kaito smiled. “Maki and I were thinking about how to escape.”

“He forced me…” she said, playing with a pigtail. “He wanted to drag some more people down, but that’s when Monokuma said someone had died…”

“Then you two can vouch for each other’s alibi… That’s good.”

“Yeah!" Kaito beamed a bright grin at Maki, "Not so bad meeting with me after all, huh?”

She sighed deeply. “Just shut up already.”

Shuichi turned to Kaede once he noticed her. “So Kaito and Maki have alibis. They haven’t seen Himiko since she split up.”

Kaede noted the information in her head and shared her own findings. “Angie saw her last time during dinner. Angie then stuck around there with Kirumi for a bit before going to her room to pray. Gonta returned Himiko to her room after dinner and then went around the place looking for bugs…”

“Hm… We should verify that story with Kirumi.”

The two left for the canteen, where they suspected the maid to be hanging around consdering she was no longer present in the hallway. During that walk they investigated the room next to the warehouse, which aside from holding some kind of strange prize corner didn’t have anything of note. They heard some noise coming from the warehouse as well, where they found Rantaro to be the source, seemingly questioning Tsumugi, Korekiyo and Ryoma.

“So I don’t have an alibi,” Ryoma said, hands in his pockets. “All alone in my room… Guess that means you should be suspicious of me.”

Tsumugi fixed her glasses in return. “I believe a lot of people must be suspicious… Um, like, I was in the garden spacing out… I saw Angie walk to the dorms, and Keebo as well… Maybe they can confirm my alibi? I’m a bit worried about having been alone now…”

“Kehehe… A great many suspects… This will be quite the mystery.”

“You count yourself as suspicious?”

“Very much so, Ryoma. I was in the room next door. Should I call it the prize corner room?”

Rantaro raised a brow. “... Why did you not jump out as soon as Tenko screamed?”

“People scream all the time. I was far more invested in the items that can be obtained through the machine.”

Tsumugi stared at the anthropologist. “We're in a killing game… and you don't think screaming is concerning? Now that is suspicious…”

“So then all 3 of us are suspicious,” Ryoma concluded.

Rantaro leaned against the metal rack. “Make that 4. I was here on my own the whole time. I thought I heard some noise come from one of the areas, but then figured it to have come from the area with hardware, and I've noticed Miu likes snooping around there. I wasn’t exactly looking to talk to her, so I ignored it… But she wasn’t around for long. Even if she saw me, she wouldn’t be able to vouch for me. So here I was, close to the place of murder, all on my own… My situation isn’t exactly looking pretty either.”

Kaede immediately stepped forward. “I don’t suspect you, Rantaro…!”

He blinked, turning to her, “Hm? Kaede?”

“You wanted everyone to get along like I did… So I don’t think you’re suspicious.”

“That’s very kind of you, but I don’t think that will count in the trial… You doing okay again by the way? You looked pretty out of it earlier.”

She nodded a bit, crossing her arms, “Uh, yeah, Shuichi’s kind of taking me under his wing… We checked her body and are now gathering everyone’s alibi.”

Shuichi cleared his throat a bit, returning from looking at all the present gym items and taking this as his chance to join the conversation. “You said you were in the warehouse the whole time?”

“Yeah. I was trying to look for some stuff… Then I heard a yell, so I ran out. That’s when I bumped into Kirumi and Kokichi. I thought something might’ve happened in the kitchen, but they had heard it as well. We ran further down the hall and then we saw it. Monokuma started talking soon after.”

“I see… Good to know, thank you.”

He shrugged. "So, got any suspects yet?”

For all the confidence Shuichi had to help Kaede get through this, it quickly faltered at the most obvious question one could ask. “... Not yet… Do you know where Kirumi and Kokichi are? They’re the last ones we need to talk to.”

“They went to the canteen when the investigation started. They must still be there.”

Upon entering the two were indeed inside, the table having partially been put ready for one person to start eating. It appears dinner had already started, only for Kirumi to be cleaning it all up now. Considering Rantaro’s earlier note, that must’ve meant Kokichi had been present here for his own eating timeslot. Kaede could barely believe he still went through with it.

“Oh, look, it’s the detective and his little helper!” Kokichi smiled, standing by the table with no intention to help cleaning. “Too bad you can’t suspect us, our alibis are airtight.”

Shuichi’s eyes soared over the dining table as well. “... Were you eating?”

“Jep, I was just enjoying some great stuff when Tenko had to ruin it with her screaming!”

Kirumi hushed him lightly, collecting some of the items. The investigation didn't hold her tendences back. “We indeed heard Tenko scream and immediately exited the room. We ran into Rantaro during that.”

“He mentioned that, yeah,” Kaede said. “When’s the last time you saw Himiko?”

“During their dinner time slot,” Kirumi quickly answered. “Once it was done she and Gonta left through the terrace doors.”

“What about Angie and Tenko?”

“Tenko left through the main doors. Angie stuck around a bit longer… She spoke with me about Atua-”

“And that’s when I came to her rescue!” Kokichi quickly interrupted, literally jumping between. “She was going to convert Kirumi, but good thing I was absolutely starving and wanted to demand Kirumi to make me something! Angie left when I came.”

Kirumi shorty closed her eyes as if telling herself not to let the short man's behavior bother her and spoke up again, igorning his presence. “Yes, she left through the main entrance. I am unsure what time that must’ve been. Perhaps around 16:45? It might have been a bit earlier.”

“Hm, okay…" Kaede tapped her foot a bit, putting it on her alibi list which, when she quickly thought of it, hadn't shown much usefulness so far. "Kokichi, when did you last see Himiko?”

“When we received the videos. Now your turn, Kaede.”

“... H-huh?”

A sly expression painted his face. “You’re going around demanding everyone’s alibi… I would like to know yours. Just because you’re investigating with the detective doesn’t mean any suspicion is drawn away from you…”

She swallowed hard. It felt as though Kokichi knew she had seen Himiko earlier today, as though he knew she had no alibi. Kaede hadn’t killed her, obviously, but Kokichi wanted to tease her over the facts regardless. It’s like he knew something she didn’t want to think about.

“Um… Well…" She cleared her throat a bit, "I saw her earlier today actually. We talked…”

Kirumi and Shuichi turned to look at her.

“Oh? And what did you talk about, huh?” Kokichi's head tilted its way all to the side like a curious dog, awaiting its treat.

“I… I talked with her about the whole not trusting thing… I wanted her to trust others-”

“Oh great!” he threw his hands in the air. “You tell Himiko to trust others… and then she dies. What a coincidence!”

Kaede’s heart dropped to the floor.

“And what’s your alibi?”

“... I was up in my lab…”

Kokichi’s eyes further pierced into Kaede’s, making her more and more anxious. He didn’t even have to say it. He thought it was her fault.

Kirumi quickly stirred the conversation away. “I must agree that we have the right to know of the investigators’ alibis as well… Shuichi, if you would be so kind?”

“E-eh…?” Shuichi was taken off guard, widening his eyes at the girl. “Me?”

“Yes. No need to be nervous.”

“Ah, n-no, of course not… I guess I’m just not used to being the one questioned…” he smiled sheepishly at Kirumi before caressing his chin. “Um, I was in the bathroom when the announcement sounded… Like the majority, I haven't seen Himiko since she split.”

Kirumi clacked her tongue. “This proves to be a tricky case. I do hope we will find the killer through that trial. I would prefer not to perish.”

Kaede carefully drew her eyes away from Kokichi’s, which were still staring at her, and mulled over the trial that was about to come. She knew what a court room looked like, but admittedly had a hard time imagining how they were going to have to approach the situation. And even more of a hard time picturing herself arguing with everyone.

~Ding dong, bing bong!~

The canteen’s TV lit up, Monokuma’s voice clouding the air. “Alright! It’s time for what you’ve all been waiting for - the class trial! Please assemble in front of the Shrine of Judgement in the courtyard! Remember that red door surrounded by plants? It’s just on the other side. From there, you’ll be escorted to a delightful class trial! Puhuhuhu! See you all there!”

Kaede’s eyes widened at the black screen. “It’s already time…?! But...-!”

Kirumi’s face grew strict, her hands kneading together. “It seems we have no choice but to continue this discussion at the class trial.”

“Let’s roll, baby!” Kokichi walked off with a smile, to which the others followed in the instructions given by Monokuma.

Kaede had a vague memory of the place as they had found Angie here. The place looked rather pretty with its columns, pink and white roses and fountain along with a waterfall. The rose pattern continued around the waterfall, engraved in the walls in different kinds of shapes. It felt tranquil and joyous. But clearly that was not the kind of feeling Monokuma wanted you to experience, as it was ruined with a giant statue of himself with the body of a Greek God, lifting a vase in the air, while his head was still that of a bear. It looked so wrong in so many different ways.

“So this is called the Shrine of Judgment…” Kaito muttered, clearly disturbed by the ugly sttatue.

“Careful, everyone! If bad things happen, get behind Gonta!”

“Then gimme a piggy-back ride!” Angie smiled, already at the ready to climb his tree trunk back. “C’mon, carry me.”

“Oh my God, you’re so fucking annoying,” Miu grunted, running her nails down her face in annoyance. “So are we doing the class trial here or what?!”

Ryoma looked around the room for a bit. “Monokuma made it sound like we’d be guided somewhere from here. Though I’m not sure how that's supposed to work.”

“Monokuma isn’t even here,” Maki bit her thumb. “What’s going on?”

The ground started shuddering, awakening the Monokuma statue. He broke the cup he was holding with ease, pointed a finger at nobody in particular, and sank down into the water to be replaced with a bridge. The waterfall opened like a curtain, revealing to have been hiding a metal gate.

Kaede took a step back. “Is that… an elevator?”

“Does Monokuma want us to board it?” Keebo asked, peeking from behind the group.

Tsumugi fumbled her fingers. “I… really don’t want to get on it.”

Tenko bit her lip a bit. “I feel as though staying behind wouldn’t work out either…”

“However,” Kirumi suggested, “if everyone wishes to run away, I will cooperate as well.”

“There’s nowhere to run,” Ryoma responded. “As long as that wall exists we’re trapped like rats.”

Kaede stepped forward onto the bridge. “It’ll be fine… Let’s all work together.” She turned towards the group. “Remember our promise? We’re gonna escape this place and remain good friends afterward… So let’s do it! I’m sure we’ll be alright! Because… we make such an incredible team.”

“Heh,” Kaito grinned. “I wouldn’t be able to call myself a man if I was still scared after hearing a girl say that. Bring it!” He too jumped on the bridge, stomping his fists together. “I’ll show Monokuma how I, Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars, live!”

“Don’t you mean ‘die’?” Kokichi smiled.

“Don’t say something all ominous like that!”

“Let’s do it!” Tenko marched towards the elevator. “This one is for Himiko!”

Everyone stepped forward and one by one entered the floating cage with confidence, although Kaede could feel herself starting to shake though anxious dread. But, scared or not, she was going to fight regardless of it.

The elevator shook as it made its descent, so much so that Kaede was unable to tell if her shakes were because of that or her earlier nerves. She eyed the others for a bit. Many of them had not quite taken in what was going on, what had happened, and what was about to come. She wasn’t even sure if she truly understood herself.

Her eyes moved to Shuichi, the person almost everyone was probably placing their trust in considering his talent - Kaede sure did at least. He was biting his lip, fidgeting at the edge of his cap as if it would make the elevator stop from going down.

She got a bit closer to him, lightly touching his arm as she spoke with a low voice, “Are you okay…?”

He didn't respond, continuing his movement like he hadn't even heard her. “... It’s nerve-racking…”

“It is… But you’re a reliable detective, Shuichi. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

“All that detective knowledge has no use if there is no evidence…” He turned to look at her. “There was barely anything to be found on Himiko’s death circumstances, and all we further got were alibis; most of which are useless. I feel responsible to get everyone through it, but…" His eyes fell downwards, "I’ve already failed you all.”

Kaede wasn’t sure what to respond. She wanted to tell him it would be fine, that they’d figure it out. But she wasn’t sure how they were supposed to approach the trial this way either.

“I believe the answer to your concerns has been answered by yourself not that long ago,” Kirumi shuffled into the conversation to Kaede’s side, looking straight ahead of her, her eyes focused on the light that kept disappearing and reappearing through the elevator’s open areas.

“What do you mean..?” he asked.

“Before the investigation started you spoke of having to trust others and helping each other out. It will have to be the same for the trial. None of us can do this on our own, we will have to work together, even with the knowledge of a killer being among us.”

“... She’s right, Shuichi.” Kaede turned to look at him. “Maybe we won’t be able to get to the answer on our own, but… if we put our heads together we can do it. We can all give our input! I’ll help out the best I can! You can put your trust in me!”

“So will I.” Kirumi gave a nod. “Although the detective novels I enjoy are fiction, I will give it my all to be of service to everyone.”

He stared a bit at the two women before giving a small smile. He was still nervous, but less than before.

The elevator violently stopped, shocking everyone out of whatever emotion swirled in their body. The doors opened to an incredibly high blue room. The middle held 16 futuristic stands, floating in the air in a circle. They were surrounded by several levels of tribune without anyone sitting on theme. Stained glass decorated the walls, a rainbow of colors filling the air. It almost felt like being at church, with sins about to be confessed.

“Come in, come in!” From way up high Monokuma’s voice sounded. His TV seat had been exchanged for a large red with oak wood throne, overseeing the arena as self-pronounced ruler. “Everyone gets assigned seats! I don’t want people to play favorites! So go on, find your spot!”

The group gradually moved inside, looking for their place. Kaede found hers immediately, her face showing on the built-in screen. She carefully got on the stand, surprised by its stability, but feeling nervous all the while. Her view was unlucky; one wrong look upwards and her eyes were to meet with Monokuma’s. But straight ahead Shuichi and Kirumi had been assigned their places. It gave her comfort knowing that their support would be quick to find.

Gonta stood directly on her right, and right next to him stood Rantaro. His eyes quickly found hers, giving her a supportive nod. So that side was good as well.

It was only when she looked to her left that her stomach turned. The spot was empty, and all other stands had been taken. That meant only one thing.

From above a stand with Himiko’s picture on it lowered itself to the empty spot, a large X with magical sprinkles crossing her face.

“Ahem!” Monokuma cleared his throat. “Now then, let’s begin with a basic explanation of the class trial! During the trial you’ll present your arguments for who the culprit is, and vote for ‘whodunnit’. Vote correctly, and only the blackened will be punished. But if you pick the wrong person… I’ll punish everyone besides the blackened, and that person will graduate from this academy! Also, refusing to vote will result in your death, so you better vote for someone… Now," he threw his paws in the air, his screechy voice raising in excitement, "let’s get this crazy, awesome, crazy- awesome trial underway!”

Kokichi laughed a bit, ticking the screen in front of him. “Oh man, I haven’t been in a trial in, like, forever!”

Tsumugi raised her brow at him. “You’re experienced…?”

“Yeah, since I’m a leader of evil and stuff. I’ve done a looooot of bad things.”

Kaito scratched the back of his head, utterly confused by the strange set-up. “So… what are we supposed to do? Where do we even start?”

“Gonta never done trial before… Not sure where to begin…”

“How about the degenerate male who killed Himiko shows himself already, huh?!” Tenko punched the air. “I'll beat the confession out of you!”

Keebo, who was standing next to her, stepped away in a sweat. “The entire point is that we have a discussion. You know, with words…”

“We should not worry about our procedure.” Kirumi was lightly experimenting with her screen. “Especially since this is not a normal trial. Each of us will be serving as a potential culprit, lawyer, prosecutor, and jury member. Let us proceed with that in mind, shall we?”

That’s right. Anyone could be anything here. Which also meant anyone could’ve killed Himiko.

Kaede balled her fists, remembering Himiko’s promise to her. Someone broke her trust. No, not just Himiko’s, but everyone’s. And she was going to find out who that was.

CLASS TRIAL IN SESSION

Chapter Text

The trial's timer struck its first second. Himiko had died, and someone in this room was responsible. It was a terrible thought to think anyone here would be capable of such a thing. Monokuma only enjoyed that fact, sitting in his high seat watching this group of young adults fidgeting around, mulling over what to do. None of them had experience - at least not in this kind of format - and so all eyes went to the only person who did.

Shuichi nervously pulled at his cap, trying to avoid making eye contact with any of the 14 pairs of eyes that were staring him down. “Well… Normally it’s easiest to go down the alibis first, but we have more people with no alibi than those who do… So I don’t think that will help us much.”

Kokichi yawned. “Who cares about the alibis, Tenko is clearly the main suspect.”

She staggered, “What? Why???”

“Cause you were the only one on the same side of the gate as Himiko. Isn’t that suspicious?”

“I came from the gym looking for her, of course I was on that side, what else is over there?!”

“Getting worked up much? Classic sign of being the culprit!”

“I’m not the culprit…!”

“Well, maybe we can start with how Himiko died instead,” Shuichi said, taking the lead back. “Her murder circumstances are pretty peculiar. Out in the hallway, no weapons appear to have been used…”

“Her neck was broken directly, wasn’t it?” Maki said, pressing a finger on her screen, to which another large screen descended into the trial room to display the Monokuma File for everyone to see. “That’s pretty hard to do. You’d need a lot of strength to get that done.”

“Well, Cunt Fu is a fighter, right? So she’d have the muscles for it.”

“That doesn’t prove anything…!” Tenko sweated, pointing a finger at Miu. “Aikido is not a martial art for inflicting harm, it’s to improve yourself!”

“But how was her neck even broken exactly?” Ryoma asked, staring at the file with a furrowed borw. “Those bruises on her throat would suggest choking, not neck breaking. A twist of the neck can’t be the case either because of that.”

Kaede scrolled a bit through the evidence. She also thought the bruises on Himiko were strange. Shuichi had already explained that breaking someone’s neck is most easily done through impact. But choking is not a form of impact, so how did this work? Was she choked first, and then when she was weak enough her neck was broken through impact? Then again, it’s not like Himiko was all that strong in the first place. There would be no need to weaken her to get the job done. It just wasn’t a sensible course of action.

“What about… these bruises?” Kaede mirrored the proof of the strange bruises on Himiko’s face to the large screen. “They’re clearly not related to her cause of death, but they're definitely there.”

“How peculiar,” Kirumi commented. “Those appear to be symmetrical: Perfect copies.”

Rantaro leaned against the back of his stand. “Which would suggest both bruises were created at the same time, in the exact same way… Now how could one get that done, especially with no weapon around.”

It was peculiar to say the least. What could have possibly caused this? Since there was no weapon, was it something about the area? Did the place of murder matter? Because in that case, there was only one thing those bruises could have come from.

“... The gate’s bars could have caused that, right?” Kaede brought up a picture of the gate. “The bars are perfectly symmetrical, and pretty close together… If you hit your head against it just right, it could probably create the same kind of bruises Himiko has.”

Korekiyo played a bit with his pendant. “Then was she thrown against the bars? Throwing, choking, breaking her neck… A rather cruel display. So much violence, out in the open for everyone to see… and nobody noticed? Nobody heard her struggle?”

Tsumugi frowned at him. “You didn’t even come to the scene when you heard Tenko scream… Clearly it wouldn’t have called you over if she did make a lot of noise…”

Shuichi caressed his chin a bit. “Maybe it’s because… all these injuries were caused at the same time.”

The class raised their brows at Shuichi. Kaede didn’t quite get it at first either, but as she took another look at the gate, she understood what he was getting at.

“Her head hit the bars, and impact is needed to break someone’s neck… Himiko’s neck was broken by pulling her against the bars.”

Kaito gave Kaede a complicated look. “I’m gonna need a picture of this…”

“Oh, erm…” She searched around the menu for a bit, eventually finding a drawing app, and copied it to the screen. “I’m not much of an artist, but something like this…”

She drew a line in the middle of the screen to represent the gate, with Himiko on the right side, and a stick figure on the left. The stick figure’s arm extended to go right through the gate and put its hand around Himiko’s neck.

“The killer could have grabbed Himiko by the throat, which caused the bruises there, whiplashed her against the bars, causing the bruises on her face, while the impact of it all broke her neck. … You’d probably have to be strong to get it done, but… it’s possible, right?” She looked at Shuichi for confirmation, who gave her an agreeing nod back.

“Yeah, this is what I had in mind as well… Which would eliminate Tenko.”

“It-it would?” Tenko asked in disbelief.

“The culprit must have been on the other side of the gate," he reconfirmed. "The setup just doesn’t make sense in the case of the culprit having been on the same side of the gate as Himiko.”

“Ah… Yeah, of course!”

“So the culprit was on the other side of the gate,” Maki said. “That doesn’t exactly make the list of suspects much smaller.”

“Hmm…” Keebo thoughtfully looked at the screen. “I honestly find the place of murder still very strange… It’s so… public. Anyone could have caught the murderer as it happened. It’s like the culprit didn’t even try to hide it.”

“It does appear to be an action taken in the spur of the moment,” Kirumi agreed. “Not a planned murder.”

“Makes sense,” Ryoma scratched his cheek. “Himiko was barely to be seen. If you wanted to kill her, there really was no way to plan it out.”

“Which makes one wonder,” Korekiyo pondered, “why was Himiko the target? If the culprit killed to escape, would it not be easier to target anyone but the girl who’s never around?”

“That’s pretty fucking easy.” Miu put her hands on her hips, pushing her chest forward. “It had to be real fucking personal. And the only way that could have happened is through those videos Monokuma handed out. Maybe… Himiko had a secret about someone they really didn’t want to get out… so BAM! Murder!”

“Gonta not think that point… Himiko never say what saw on video.”

“That is true,” Angie said, leaning forward and resting her face in her hands. “She wasn’t trying to protect us from anyone in particular. Her concern was far more general.”

Kaede nodded a bit. “She mentioned that to me as well…”

“Then,” Kirumi thought out loud, “perhaps it wasn’t so much about what she saw, but rather what someone saw about her?”

“Then we should consider who watched their video,” Kaede replied, going through her notes. “Who was it again?”

“Nee-heehee…” Kokichi threw his arms behind his head. “You’re really stupid.”

She looked up to him, both confused and upset at his attitude. “... What?”

“That’s not how you are going to get your answer.”

“But there must be a connection between Himiko’s death and the videos, right?” Maki said.

“Yeahhh, probably… But if I were the killer, I would never tell anyone I watched my video. I mean, why would I? To get suspicion on me later? Obviously I would lie and say I never did. It’s not like anyone is be able to prove otherwise.”

“So…” Kaede bit her lip a bit. “We can’t do a process of elimination through who watched the videos either?”

“Nope!”

“Dammit…” Kaito balled his fist. “Then what are we supposed to do?”

“It’s pretty obvious!" Kokichi zoomed in on Kaede's poor drawing, "We all agree the culprit must have gotten real close to Himiko to even be able to grab her, right? But thanks to Kaede’s nosy behavior, we know that isn’t something just anyone was able to do.”

The class turned to Kaede, begging her to elaborate. She stumbled over her words at all the eyes, “Ah, yeah… I wanted to talk with Himiko about her split with everyone. Y’know, just trying to get her to trust everyone again… It went really well…! But she was very adamant about keeping me at a distance… She wanted me to stand 5 meters away from her.”

“So,” Kokichi continued, “Himiko would have never allowed anyone to get close to her, except for those she trusted… And that leaves us with Tenko, Angie, Gonta and probably the person who talked with her in the first place…”

Kaede swallowed hard.

“Hey!” Tenko yelled out, pointing a finger at the smaller man. “We literally just determined it could not have been me! What are you involving me for?!”

“Oh, right, totally forgot. Sorryyyy.”

“That doesn’t sound sincere at all,” Ryoma mumbled.

“Nyahaha, I would never kill Himiko!” Angie chirped. She swung a dissapporoving finger around, “Atua would not approve.”

“So if it wasn’t for your God you would?” Miu snarled.

“Angie did leave the canteen a little bit before Himiko’s time of death…” Kirumi said. “The timing could technically have worked.”

“Um, actually…” Tsumugi stuck her finger in the air to take her turn. “I might be able to vouch for Angie… I was spacing out in the courtyard. But Angie is very… present… So I noticed her entering the dorms. It was quite a bit before the announcement went off, so… I think that was before Himiko’s time of death.”

“Atua be praised," she clapped her hands together in the air and twirled in place, "he ensured Tsumugi kept an eye on me!”

“... Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean by present…”

Rantaro leaned forward to look Tsumugi in the eye, “But do you think you saw her before Himiko died, or do you know you saw her before Himiko died? That's a pretty important distinction."

“Ah… Well… I’m pretty sure… Because later I saw Keebo walk to the dorms as well, there was definitely some time between him and her…! And there was also some time between seeing Keebo and the announcement going off…”

“Then,” Shuichi began, “it sounds like it would’ve been pretty difficult for Angie to have killed Himiko due to timing… So let’s put her to the side for now.”

“Yippee! I’m off the hook! Now it’s your turn, Gonta.”

“G-Gonta’s turn…? But Gonta never would hurt Himiko…! Swear…! Gonta gentleman…!”

Gonta wove his hands a bit in the air hoping it would aid him, Korekiyo’s eyes carefully observing them. “... It appears Gonta can be eliminated due to sheer technicality. We have already determined Himiko was grabbed by the throat through the bars, correct? I doubt Gonta’s hand would fit.”

“Ha! That’s what she said!”

Ryoma glared at Miu. “Your mind disgusts me.”

“... Why would someone say that?” Keebo innocently asked.

Shuichi quickly took the attention back. “That’s a good point though… N-not Miu’s comment, but the part of his hand not fitting through the bars… I don’t think Gonta could have physically been capable of committing the crime.”

“So Gonta not suspicious?” He sighed out of relief. “Gonta glad…”

“Then there is just one person left!” Kokichi grinned at Kaede. “The person who told Himiko to trust others in the first place… What’s your alibi again?”

And just like that, the spotlight blinded her. “I… was up in my lab…”

“Close enough to the place of death to get it done,” Maki said. “And if you told her to trust others, it’d make sense for Himiko to be willing to get closer to you.”

“Wait, it wasn’t me…!”

“Perhaps anyone has heard music?” Korekiyo suggested. “I imagine you were there to play the piano.”

“Well… I-”

“You killed my best friend!” Kokichi yelled. “Hang her from the gambit!”

“She was not your best friend, you degenerate male!”

Kaede worried her lip as the whispers started. She had nothing to defend herself with. She could not blame any one of them deciding she was the culprit. She talked with Himiko earlier today, she had no alibi, she was close enough to have quickly fled upstairs where nobody else was. But those were only unfortunate circumstances. Kaede didn’t kill Himiko. If everyone was going to vote for her, it would be their death.

“Dammit, Kaede…!” she cursed at herself. “There has to be something I can do to set this straight… Come on, come on…! Think harder! There has to be a way out of thi-”

“I can back Kaede up.”

The students turned to look at Shuichi.

“I was on the first floor at first, checking some things out… I passed Kaede’s lab in the process, and heard music play. It was pretty faint. I imagine her lab is near sound proof to avoid disturbing others, so you can’t hear it from downstairs. As I headed down the stairs to go to the restroom the music vanished.”

Kokichi narrowed his eyes. “Oh?”

“I can back that up as well,” Kirumi said. “I have taken a look inside every room for a cleaning plan. I could tell the walls inside her lab are built differently. A previous master of mine had one of his rooms designed similarly.”

Kaede stared at the both of them with an unknowing look. She had no clue if the walls really were soundproofed that way, she certainly didn’t recognize any of the soundproofing she knew of. But nevermind that even, she never got to play the piano. Not a single sound had left the instrument. Shuichi was lying.

“So, Kaede does have an alibi?” Rantaro crossed his arms. “Hmm… That’s good for her, but that does bring us back to square one. Who else could Himiko have trusted?”

“Maybe her other club members know? You guys knew her the best,” Kaito said.

“Himiko did mention to me they tried to tell her to trust others as well…” Kaede uttered out, still in shock of the lie Shuichi had told to protect her.

“Well,” Tenko tapped her foot, “I of course told her it’s the degenerates she needs to watch out for! The women are safe territory!”

“Most of the women have alibis or the sorts,” Maki followed up. “Only Miu doesn’t.”

“Hey, what the fuck?!”

Angie brought her hands together in a prayer. “Nyahaha, I told Himiko Atua would surely protect her in any case!”

Ryoma scoffed lightly. “Well, that certainly worked out.”

“Gonta also kept general… Oh, and mention Keebo really good guy!”

Keebo gave him a blank stare. “... Me? But we have barely interacted.”

“Yes!” Gonta smiled. “Keebo very gentleman. Gonta know.”

“Oh… Well,” he smiled a bit, “that is very kind of you to say. Thank you. …” Only for that smile to quickl fall. “Actually, considering the circumstances, I don’t think I should be all too happy with such a compliment…”

Kaito scratched the back of his head with a sigh. “So then it’s between Miu and Keebo?”

Tenko tapped her fingers a bit together. “I know I told her she could trust any girl, but… I don’t think Himiko would have been up to talk with Miu.”

“Checks out,” Kokichi said.

“I wouldn’t either in her place…” Tsumugi added.

The rest of the class silently agreed, to which Miu growled and turned herself away from everyone. “Well, fuck you guys too!”

“You are aware this is a good thing, right, Miu?” Kirumi asked.

“Yeah, but I’m still fucking offended…!”

Rantaro leaned forward. “Then Keebo remains…”

Keebo blinked a bit at the eyes that were turning his way, not entirely aware of the situation until his stand shot forward, bringing him to the middle of the room. He quickly put his hands up in defense. “H-hey, hang on now…!”

“Ah, you can’t trust a robot, you know,” Kokichi whistled. “They have no emotions! That’s how you end up killing someone!”

“I-I have emotions…! Furthermore, I do not enjoy what you are insinuating…”

“Well, it’s easy,” Maki twirled a pigtail. “Give us a reason to believe you didn’t kill Himiko, or you’re out.”

Keebo’s eyes widened further, sweat appearing on his face. “I didn’t kill Himiko, I swear…!”

“Then prove it.”

“H-hang on!” Gonta got in between. “Why now think Keebo guilty? Gonta say Keebo good guy!”

Kaito turned to look at him. “That’s the exact problem. Himiko could’ve trusted him and allowed him to get closer and stuff so he could kill her.”

“No…! That no make sense…!”

“It makes perfect sense,” Ryoma responded.

“No…!” Gonta’s face grew more upset. “Why no believe Gonta when say?!”

“Why are you so keen on defending him anyway?” Korekiyo wondered. “Keebo mentioned you have barely interacted. What is in it for you?”

With a puzzled look Keebo turned to look at the closet-sized man. “Yeah, why do you defend me so much…? N-not that I mind, please do…!”

“Because Gonta know Keebo only hurt bad people, and Himiko no bad person! So not possible!”

“Keebo hurts… bad people?” Tsumugi slowly repeated.

“Yes!”

Rantaro raised a brow at Gonta. “Now what makes you say that?”

“Cause Gonta saw!”

The classmates shared some looks, Kirumi being the first to speak up again. “Do you mean to say you watched the video distributed to you by Monokuma?”

“Yes… Gonta watched video.”

“Oh my!” Angie clasped her hands on her cheeks. “You decided to watch it?”

“Gonta watched because want to protect everyone if bad person around… But Gonta got Keebo, and video was fine. Not bad at all.”

Tenko squinted her eyes, “That… makes no sense.”

“The videos are meant to show the person’s worst crime,” Shuichi continued. “But you mean to say that Keebo’s video… held no crime?”

“Yeah! That exactly what Gonta mean! Keebo punish bad guys. Bit aggressive… but not bad. Protect people.”

Kaede couldn't make much sense of the situation. Gonta had watched a worst crime video, yet somehow that video clearly showed him to be doing what sounded like a good deed. Was it some kind of joke?

Even Keebo did not undestand, staring at Gonta with a confused look and his mouth slightly agape, ready to say something, but unable to get the words out.

Kokichi, much like the others, was suspicious of Gonta’s claim. “Gonta barely has functioning brain cells… I say he needs to show the video so we can see for ourselves.”

“Gonta can do!” He took the tablet out of his pocket and started his search. Kaede watched him doing so, still overthrown by the man’s claim. He was so sure of himself, with no motive to lie. Was it possible for the video not to have shown a crime at all?

“Oh um… How should Gonta do?” He offered the tablet to Rantaro. “Pass around?”

He awkwardly chuckled at the tablet's presentation, “Ah, haha, that seems like a hassle… Maybe you can put it on the big screen instead. Then everyone can watch it at the same time.”

“Put on… big screen?” He looked up to the room’s giant TV, then his tablet, back up, and then down to his tablet again. “Gonta no think fits…”

“No, that’s- Here, let me try. There must be a way to mirror this thing.” Rantaro took the tablet over and started his search for a way to get Gonta’s video displayed on the big screen for everyone to see.

Kaede watched the clock’s timer go down. It almost seemed to go faster as they had to wait for Rantaro to figure out the technicalities. She feared what they were about to see. Not that she thought Gonta to be a liar, but his insisting on it not showing something bad is exactly what worried her. It just didn’t feel right. Something was very off about it all.

“Imagine if the software needed to download an hour-long update right now,” Kokichi laughed.

Kaede rolled her eyes at the inappropriately placed joke. “Not funny, Kokichi…”

“Aw, come on, it’s fine. Gonta said we had nothing to worry about after all, sooo.”

And just like that Rantaro whispered out an “ah-ha!”, to which the large screen changed its display. A small tune started playing. Kaede hadn’t watched her video, but she knew this was the opening to Keebo’s worst committed crime.

Everyone straightened up and turned towards the screen, Keebo in particular feeling uneasy. Monokuma’s digital voice beamed through.

“Welcome to another episode of ‘worst criminals’! Today, you are getting an exclusive look at one fellow student in particular who isn’t all they seem… You are getting a look at… Keebo!”

A full body picture of him along with a headshot appeared on the screen. It almost reminded Kaede of the shots in the Monokuma File. She didn't have much time to take it in though as the shot quickly got replaced with the image of dark streets and scary looking people staring into the camera.

“The world is a dark and cruel place, filled with awful selfish people. You can’t trust anybody anymore! Some criminals get caught, sure, but then what? They eventually get released and start all over again? The easiest way to make life safe is by permanently ridding the world of them.”

The view changed to show a group of people standing side by side.

“That’s why there’s special people who are specifically employed for that! They track down awful people and finish the job as quickly as they can. But they’re still people. They have these stupid human needs like days off, parental leave, pay raise demands in correction of inflation… Lame. So why not get along with the times and modernize by replacing humans with AI?”

The people were one by one replaced by robots which looked akin to Keebo.

“And that is where Keebo, or more officially K1-B0, comes in. His professor, Idabashi, is a master of robot creation and started working on special humanoid robots to do the job instead. His creations are just like humans. Just a silly little boy who can live his life doing human stuff! And all the while, he has a side that tracks down criminals and kills them.”

“Works out pretty good, you know? Quick and easy, no fingerprints, no restriction of the human body or mind. Simply execute order 66 and be done with it! There’s just one downside…”

The video started to display camera footage of Keebo in a shop, dressed far more human-like than here, while checking out items like a normal person.

“The professor thought it would be good for his robots to have a recognition function of criminal activity. If you have to wait on the police it’s gonna take forever! Take justice into your own hands! But the intricacies of criminal judgment… can be complicated, especially for a system that abides hard rules.”

Another person joined the aisle Keebo was in, quickly grabbing an item and stuffing it in their pocket. The shop owner didn’t notice, the lack of an anti-theft system allowing the man to exit the shop with ease. But there was one person who did see it: Keebo.

As soon as the man left without paying, something seemed to change in him. He spurted up and immediately followed the thief in a calm but direct manner. It’s like he was following a target and nothing else had the opportunity to be registered.

The angles kept changing, showing the crowded streets the thief was crossing, with Keebo stalking in the back. It continued for a little while this way, until the man went into an alley. Keebo followed swiftly. The thief quickly noticed he wasn’t alone, turning around and wanting to speak.

But he didn’t get to say anything. Keebo instantly reached for his face, clenching his jaws shut, squeezed tightly and lifted the man closer to the wall until-

Kaede quickly turned away, covering her eyes as an awful crack echoed through the trial room, followed by the yelps and shocked gasps of her classmates. She peeked slightly after a few seconds, to which the final moments of the video showed Keebo wiping off the blood from his hand, only to leave the alley as if nothing had happened.

“See, Keebo track bad guys!” Gonta announced, the only one in the room not shocked by the cruel display. “Is aggressive… But still.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Kaito exclaimed, his face filled with absolute horror. “He killed some dude who just stole something! What did they steal anyway, something with a net worth of 20 bucks?!”

“But person stole from small shop owner-”

“So he should be killed for that?” Maki exasperated, her usual poker face even showing a hint of disturbance.

“Well… No, but…”

“But what?” Kokichi chided, “You watched his video half assed and just let a total murderer walk around!”

“I-I’m not a murderer!” Keebo stressed, looking around at everyone in a panic, making himself smaller. “That is not me! I swear to the professor I would never do such a thing! I… I don’t even understand why the professor would-… I know my previous version malfunctioned! Maybe that’s what this is. A beta K1-B0… I just… I would never do such a thing.”

“It doesn’t have to be something you would do.” The class turned to Miu, the only person who right now gave Keebo a look of compassion, somewhat. It was hard to truly interpret. “You’re an AI. By the sounds of it there are two sides; your human side and that criminal buster side. That buster side must be activated by facial recognition, or crime recognition. But a robot cannot set wrong from right out of itself, it needs to be taught that. So if that dickwad of a professor of yours didn’t correctly code that there are different levels of crime that require different punishments, your system would put them all on equal level. Which according to the video translates to the equal punishment of… death.”

Not one singly breath left Keebo's body as Miu explained the workings of his body. “But… I have no memory of any of this…”

“No need to,” she shrugged. “Easy to install triggers. Like, if the ‘mission’ is done you return to base or some shit and the memory is wiped off your system, rebooting to your human side that’s unaware of it all.”

Kaede could feel some sweat drip down her face. All this talk about Keebo’s true nature made her nervous. She couldn’t - No, didn’t want to believe he would perform such cruel acts. “Ah, wait, but Miu, you wanted to do maintenance on him, right? Wouldn’t you be able to confirm if his system really has that weird split thing or not? Maybe the video is a lie and he doesn’t even have it.”

“I could have confirmed if he had actually let me do the damn stuff. He never let me get my hands on it, I have no fucking clue what’s really going on in there.”

“The work you wanted to do on me was deeply personal and intimate. I at least wanted to get to know you a bit better before taking such big steps… The least you could do was offer me an oil change first.”

Korekiyo played with his pendant, “I suppose I can find understanding in that, but right now that just means Miu cannot disprove the existence of that criminal busting system.”

There was no doubt about it. Everyone's stares at the robot spoke volumes.

“....... That’s… I-I remember what I was doing before I went to my room! I don’t have a gap in my memory where a system switch could have occurred!”

“... Keebo…”

“No, Miu, I swear I do! You see, I was hiding from you, right? So I went to the inventory room to hide there. As I sneaked into an aisle, I saw a bunch of hardware you’d surely like, so then I thought the place wasn't a safe hiding spot after all. That’s when I left.”

Rantaro nodded a bit. “So the sound I heard was you… That would check out.”

“Despite my attempt at changing things up, using my dorm again seemed the better option since I can lock it, so I wanted to return there. I couldn’t go through the canteen because it was occupied, and I wasn’t sure if you were in there. So I decided to take my chances by going through the hallway. As I walked back I remember hearing a sort of loud metal creak. I feared it was you and looked over at the pink gate, where the sound was coming from, and then I-... I…”

“You what?” Tenko grumbled. “What huh?!”

“... I… I don’t remember…”

Ryoma closed his eyes, shaking his head a bit, saddened. “Maybe that system thing Miu talked about activated. Go killer mode, then return to the base of the bedroom and forget about what you did.”

“He was walking rather peculiarly through the courtyard,” Tsumugi added. “He didn’t look like he was in a panic to hide from Miu, he was very calm and focused. Kind of like in that video…”

“No, wait…!” Keebo pointed a finger. “Even if that whole system thing were true, then why would I still kill Himiko?!”

“That’s… probably the easiest part,” Shuichi said. “When we talked about the videos in the canteen, you were the first to say you watched it. Yes, you said it wasn’t anything serious, but if this whole flawed system thing is true and you got Himiko… then… that wouldn’t matter…”

“...................”

Kirumi spoke up, cluthing her dress, “Well, there is only one way to end this all: Let us see your video, Keebo. If you don’t have Himiko’s video, that will be proof it wasn’t you.”

“... No…" He took a step back, "No, it was a worthless crime, I told you…! It’s not a reason to kill someone over, I would never…!” His hands gripped the stand. “I didn’t lie..!”

“He doesn’t have to show the video.”

Everyone looked at Kaede.

“Because… the proof is right here. Keebo said he watched his video, and considering his worst crime, that means he would kill whoever he saw. And here we are, in the trial room, all together… Yet, he has not even tried to attack anyone. That can only be the case if… you have already eliminated the star of your video.”

“I… She was only a swindler, she didn’t deserve this, I-I don’t understand why I would… If all this were true, why did I not kill Himiko immediately…?! Why would I wait so long?!”

“The facial recognition,” Miu said, crossing her arms now. “Your system must have subconsciously saved the information in your criminal database, but that stupid mage was nowhere to be seen. So only when you saw her by the gate… the system was triggered and went for it.”

“No…” Keebo uttered. “No, this is… wrong… I’m- I’m not a bad person…”

“I think I get what happened…” Kaede took a deep breath, and laid out the truth, “It all started when Monokuma handed out the videos which contain a classmate’s worst committed crime. It made everyone act differently upon it. Himiko, for example, became anxious about the true identity of her classmates and separated herself from everyone apart from a few trusted individuals; Tenko, Angie and Gonta. In the meantime some people decided to watch their video, including the culprit. They received Himiko’s video, which showed her to be a swindler. The culprit didn’t think of it as a dangerous crime, and as such didn’t share with anyone what they saw aside from the general fact of having watched the video. But our culprit wasn’t just a regular person either…”

“The culprit is actually a machine built to kill criminals, containing a human side and criminal busting side. The criminal busting system is activated by facial and crime recognition, but does not make a difference in severity; everything that is considered a crime is punished equally, by death. With that their worst crime is having killed people who didn’t deserve to be killed...”

“No…” Keebo shook his head a bit. “That’s not who I am… I don’t…”

“Because of Himiko’s separation from everyone, nobody sees her around, not even the culprit, until she leaves to the gym to meet up with Tenko. The culprit happened to be hiding from Miu in the area, and was alerted by the creaking sound produced by the pink gate. It is then that the culprit and Himiko finally see eye to eye for the first time since the video distribution. The culprit’s system has remembered Himiko’s crime, and so the elimination A.I. activated. The culprit approached Himiko, who was standing on the other side of the gate, to go in for the kill. Normally Himiko wouldn’t have allowed anyone to get close due to her fear, but since Gonta and I told her to trust others - to trust our culprit - she came closer to the gate to talk…”

“As soon as Himiko closed in, the culprit reached for her throat and whiplashed her head against the bars, causing her neck to break. Himiko is left on the floor to which bruises started showing on her throat along with 2 bruised lines on her face, caused by the hit against the bars.”

“Our culprit, with their mission completed, immediately retreated to the base of their bedroom. Along the way they are spotted by Tsumugi, but cause no suspicion thanks to their calm behavior that would later turn out not to match up with what the culprit was originally doing around Himiko’s time of death. Once in their room, the criminal system switched back to the regular human system, causing our culprit to have forgotten all about the murder they had just committed. They go about their time as usual, until the body discovery announcement plays and they arrive at the crime scene with the others. All with no clue they were the one who did it.”

“And that culprit is… Keebo.”

Kaede’s stomach turned as the screen changed to a celebratory tune once everyone finished their vote for Keebo. The story was true. He had killed Himiko.

Meanwhile the culprit could still not believe it. He was shaking his head at the screen and proceeded to crash himself to the ground to cover his ears. He didn’t want to know, he didn’t want it to be true.

She couldn’t help but feel bad for him. It’s not like he really meant to do this as Keebo . His original built-in purpose made him do this. Of course that didn’t excuse any of it, Himiko didn’t deserve to die, but he quite literally couldn’t help it. It was like a wrong move of the brain, in a sense. But he was going to have to pay for it regardless. He was going to be executed.

As the stands lowered and the screens shut off, the group went to surround Keebo. Some kept quiet, simply staring him down in disbelief, while others started yelling at him. Tenko in particular was towering over him, screaming at him with a murderous attitude.

“How could you have done this?!” she yelled. “You killed Himiko! You… You degenerate Pinocchio!”

“Robots have no souls and it shows!” Kokichi followed.

Keebo scrambled against his stand in an attempt to escape. He was so scared and confused. If he had the ability to cry, he probably would be by now.

More people started to surround him with a million questions, until Miu stormed in and pushed them to the side. “Get the fuck away from him!” she growled. “Give him some fucking space!”

“He killed Himiko…!” Tenko quickly growled back.

“So what, now you wanna fucking jump him over it? Is that gonna bring her back or something?” she protested, and lowered herself to Keebo’s height, putting her hands on his and slowly removing them from his head. “Keebs?”

He looked up a bit, fear still shaking through his entire body. “I-I don’t understand, Miu… I don’t… I liked Himiko, I really did. Magic doesn’t exist, and yet she was so confident about it, it admittedly fascinated me. I… would never wish hurt upon her… Why am I-... I’m just a creation of violence…”

Her brow furrowed a bit, mulling over her words before she spoke up. “Well, that professor of yours is a deadbeat motherfucker, you hear me? Cuz bringing someone like you to life is serious business. It’s a fucking big responsibility, not some silly toy. Instead of making you an emotionless killing machine, he has given you human emotions with hopes and desires and… that’s just fucking cruel. It’s not your fault. He did you dirty.”

His hands tightly held on to her. "... Miu, you... you can fix it, right...?"

"Of course I fucking can, I'm Miu fucking Iruma! Consider it done! I'll throw in an oil change while we're at it!"

"... “ He smiled a bit at her. “Thank you... If I didn’t have you-"

"Hey, whoa, we don't do any fixing around here!” Monokuma screeched. “He killed, got caught and therefore it is execution timeeeee!!!"

The class looked up to Monokuma with widened eyes. 

Kaede pointed a finger at him. “Hey, hang on, I don’t think that is fair either…! It’s like a programming thing, Miu can fix it!”

“I already told you, we don’t do second chances around here. It's not my fault his settings are all messy!”

"Well, when you really think about it, it is your fault, Monokuma!” Miu yelled at him, jumping to to her feet. “‘Cuz you fucking knew about this! This is bullshi-"

"Nananana! Execution! Now!"

A claw fell from the sky, picked Keebo up and lifted him in the air like a prize to be won. “W-Wait,” he exclaimed, “help! Miu!”

Miu jumped up and grabbed him by his legs, trying to pull him down but getting lifted along in the air. “He didn’t mean to, let him fucking go!!”

“Miu…!” Kaede jumped up as well to hold on to Miu, managing to make the claw struggle for a little bit, before it began to lift the monkey chain further in the air.

“Huh?! What’s all of this?!” Monokuma rose up from his seat, now showing he was controlling it all with a joystick. “Do you want to join him or something? 3 executions for the price of one?”

Another weight clamped itself to Kaede’s legs. When she looked down it was Kirumi who had managed to grab her by her feet, her waist on its turn being pulled down by Shuichi to try and prevent her from further lifting along in the air. The two of them tried to pull the trio back to the ground, their other classmates quickly joining.

The claw shook, Monokuma’s body joining in. “You stupid kids… You barely know each other!” He violently pushed the joystick to the side, the claw starting to swing through the air. As it swung from left to right, Miu’s grip on the shiny metal loosened. With one last violent swing she got thrown off Keebo and crashed her down with the others on a pile.

Gravity made the claw swing again, now losing grip on Keebo itself, to which the boy flew through the air and through a pair of doors, rolling over the floor until he landed in a strange kind of lab station.

The lights above the doors turned on as loud music began to play.

“K1-B0 beta-test.”

Keebo was pulled up to his feet, a cable shooting from behind and clicking itself in the back of his head. His eyes went blank, and the two large screens in the back lit up brightly with a great many faces changing by the millisecond, a large red uploading bar showing its progression.

COMPLETE

The cable retracted and Keebo’s eyes returned. He shook his head in dizziness while the main area in front of him changed up its environment to more of a city with benches, statues, greenery etc. It is then that someone else entered the scene, another robot judging by its body, but their face was that of a human.

As soon as Keebo spotted the company, his eyes went pink and he surged forward to attack the other, crashing them to the floor and busting their head open. The screen in the back showed the headshot of the robot’s face, although with the short time it took Keebo to kill them, the screen next to it quickly said ‘ELIMINATED’, making the picture disappear again.

More robots came in. As soon as Keebo had his target on them the screen in the back displayed their face only to be removed at their death. Crashing heads in, pulling off limbs, it was all easy enough. But the robots became more aggressive themselves, the difficulty upping, and fighting back. The benches broke, statues were thrown around, until one of the robots grabbed Keebo by the face and aggressively ripped it, before being thrown through the air and landing against the bars that held the space.

The other students had by now gotten up from their earlier fall, gathered around the barring that kept the execution area. The robot’s body flung towards them, making Kaede jump up as it landed in front of her with a large clang. Her eyes soared down to Keebo. His body quivered a bit before standing upright again and moving his way back to the fighting area, now showing the right side of his face had been ripped off. Metal plates with screws showed from underneath, the workings of his eye having become exposed. It was like looking at someone’s bones.

But he caught Kaede staring at him, evident by the screen in the back now showing Kaede’s face. She was his next target. He slowly approached, moving his hand forward, ready to grab her through the bars.

Sirens started to sound and Monokuma crashed down in front of Kaede, into the execution area, wearing a police uniform, along with a few other machines that were supposed to represent police. They took out their guns and started shooting Keebo down. The sparks created by the friction flew around, landing into the area’s woodwork and creating an ocean of fire which engulfed Keebo. It seemed he was finally stopped this way, until he emerged from the flames, any and all of his skin having molten off. All that had remained of his hair was the antenna, while the rest of his body was nothing but a terrifying endoskeleton.

He walked further, sounds of running machinery intertwining with the crackling fire. Monokuma stressed, loaded his final bullet and made his lucky shot. One of Keebo’s cables broke, allowing a hatch to open in his chest. The fire quickly found its way in there, burning him from inside out until his system had melted and crashed him to the floor. The air smelled of ashes, oil and lead.

Keebo was stripped from his humanity, with all that remained being the ugly truth.

The group was left in shock after the execution. None of them had ever witnessed a display so cruel, all as part of the grand conclusion to the murder of a classmate. The elevator ride was dead quiet. As soon as they arrived back up, Miu immediately left and locked herself in her lab. Gonta slowly started to stutter out his apologies, blaming Himiko’s death on his stupidity. The tension was high and nobody knew how to deal with it.

The only thing Kaede could do was what she always did; play music.

The notes of Claire de Lune echoed through her lab, mourning the loss. Kaede was upset with herself. She could’ve prevented this - somehow. The only reason Keebo could kill Himiko was because he was able to get close, and the only reason he was able to get close was because Himiko trusted Kaede. She had only taken their conversation to heart. If only Kaede had decided to just leave it be, to let Himiko do what she wanted to do, then all this could have been avoided.

She wouldn’t have wanted Keebo to get close, he wouldn’t have been able to grab her. A struggle would have occurred, others would have noticed and been able to intervene. Everything'd come to light then, and Miu could have fixed Keebo. And then all would have been fine. They could have all been eating together again, laughing and coming up with a plan to get out. Now there were 2 people less. The table would feel empty with friends gone.

The notes grew uncharacteristically more aggressive and Kaede lost herself in the anger she felt.

Why had she said those things to Himiko?

The song ended, a large breath escaping her chest as she kept her eyes shut and wallowed in the final echo. All went quiet, the pianist bathing herself in the momentary silence which was interrupted by soft clapping.

Kaede opened her eyes, blinking, and looked to the side. Shuichi and Kirumi had entered the room, softly clapping their hands in appreciation of her talent.

“It appears your lie was not all that much of a lie after all, Shuichi. The room is just as soundproof as you described.”

“Lucky guess… Did you really know it was soundproofed so well too?”

“Not at all. Although it would only make sense to be so, I have, in fact, never had a master with such a room.”

“... Then it appears your own lie wasn’t that much of a lie either.”

She giggled lightly. “Indeed not.”

Kaede stood up, smiling a little bit at their presence, and approached. “Hey, guys… What are you doing here?”

“We wanted to make sure you are okay,” Kirumi replied. “The entire situation is very… upsetting. It’s taking a toll on a lot of people.”

Shuichi nodded a bit. “Gonta has cried so much in his apologies to Tenko that he doesn’t have any tears left…”

“Thanks for your concern, but… I’m okay. I have my own ways of dealing with things, as you could hear.”

“It was very beautiful,” Kirumi mused. “I can tell you put your emotions into it.”

“If only it was for a good reason…” Shuichi murmured.

“Yeah…” Kaede stared into the ground, going over everything she had witnessed today. She couldn’t get the words out to actually talk about it, she didn’t want to be a bummer. Kirumi and Shuichi must be feeling awful too, adding her own concerns to it all would just worsen things. But there was one thing she had to address. “Back in the trial… You two were lying about me.”

“... Hm?”

“The whole me playing piano thing as an alibi. This is the first time I played, I didn’t have such an alibi at all. … Shuichi, were you even upstairs in the first place?”

He let out a short nervous laugh. “Erm, um… No… No, I wasn’t.”

“... You lied in a trial…”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know how else to help you…”

“But… I could have actually done it, you know…!" Her body started shaking, "What if I was the culprit? I mean, I wasn’t, but I could have been! There was nothing of actual solid proof not to point it on me… Why would you do that kind of thing?”

“Well… I guess you could say I just had a gut feeling…”

“A gut feeling? Seriously?”

He pulled down his cap, nervously looking away. “I know it’s not… the professional way to do it, but… I knew it wasn’t you. I trusted you. If everyone was going to vote for you, we would end up dead. I had to do something so we could catch the real culprit…”

Kirumi nodded a bit. “That's why I joined as well. I figured Shuichi must have been lying due to how long it took for him to bring the alibi up, but I went along with it because I believed in you too, Kaede.”

She grew quiet.

“Your comment definitely made me more believable…”

“That’s why I had to join, to avoid questions arising.”

“So… you just kind of got pulled along in this mess, huh?” Kaede looked at Kirumi with guilty eyes.

The maid sighed ever so lightly. “I am used to it… And I suppose it is the least I could do for your excellent work. Of course I’d expect an Ultimate Detective to perform well, but you did good as well, Kaede.”

Shuichi nodded a bit. “Your help was really appreciated, Kaede… The two of you were right, it looked pretty bad at first, but we figured it out together.”

“Ah-haha, thanks… I wish I didn’t have to be, but… Yeah, I guess we did pretty well together, huh?” The girl remained quiet for a bit, before beaming them a smile. “We’re a trio!”

“A trio?” Kirumi tilted her head.

“Yeah! Three friends with different capabilities and personalities that work off of each other. It’s like Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons! A separate song for each season, but forming 1 large piece together. Of course there’s 4 seasons and not 3, but that’s not the point right now…! We’re like a…” she wove her hand around, “a… mystery solving club!”

The other two stared at the girl, their eyes slightly widened as they shared a glance.

Kaede remained ecstatic, needing a moment to realize that considering everything, this wasn’t exactly a right place or time to act as if they had a play pretend group. What were they, pre-schoolers? Her smile turned into nervous embarrassed laughter. “I’m sorry, I- I can get a bit weird in situations like these… I don’t know how to deal with all that’s happening, so my mouth is just running things it shouldn’t. Just… forget about what I said…”

The dark dressed duo only remained quiet, making Kaede grow all the more nervous, until Kirumi shook her head a bit.

“Your wording might be poorly chosen, however… I do understand what you are trying to say.” She took a step forward to stand in the middle, took Kaede’s hand in hers, and joined her other free hand with Shuichi’s. “It is important to be able to rely on others, especially in our situation. I believe it is safe to say we can build upon each other.”

Shuichi blinked a bit at the gesture, holding his breath as he stared at her hand. “You… want to rely on me?”

“Well, I believe we already have, might as well make it official now.”

Kaede blinked a bit as well, thrown of yet quickly bringing her bright smile back to life. She took Shuichi’s other hand into hers, and squeezed both his and Kirumi's tightly.

“We started this thing together,” she said, “so let us stick together until the end.”

Chapter Text

“To a successful first chapter.”

The tea cups lightly rose in the air, the sweet aroma taking a hold of the mastermind room. Despite the area being meant as a kind of backroom reserved for work, a seating area had been installed for Shuichi and Kirumi to lay back when needed. The table held mini figurines of all cast members, including themselves, spread around on a checkerboard. Of course there was also a small kitchenette to make themselves a drink and some food. And now, after the first trial had been wrapped up, it was time to make proper use of it.

Kirumi stirred the liquid in her rose adorned cup with a silver spoon. “So Himiko was our first victim…”

Shuichi copied her movement in his matching set. “And Keebo our first culprit…”

“That was no surprise. His fate had been sealed as soon as he watched his video.”

He nodded a bit. “It was only a matter of time. I suppose it is a bit of a shame, though. He was rather fun.”

“Hmm, yes, he was fun to work on. But at the same time, if he had not watched the video, he would’ve become incredibly boring for the next chapters’ motives.”

Since they were both mastermind, that meant they shared many responsibilities in regards to the killing game’s creation. It was a combination of self-input and brainstorming. As close as they were, it mostly resulted in cooperation where thoughts aligned and their impeccable chemistry came into fruition. But they couldn’t quite ignore the benefits that came with the extra hands. It was a lot of work, and if they wanted their game to be the best, the extra man time they had available was going to be an important part in that. So they randomly split the cast where possible, each of them taking on half. With a few exceptions, of course.

“I think the 2nd chapter would have been fine, but you’re right… Himiko was a cute little thing too.”

She scoffed a bit. “You’re just saying that because she was yours.”

“No, not at all… It’s just maaaagic.”

“Oh, cut it out… I’m glad that it's over early. Although this did ruin the future dynamic with Tenko and Angie. The set-up was there.”

“I guess that is the thing, huh? You can prepare all these ideas, but that doesn’t mean it will ever come to use.”

“May new things come to flourish instead.” She took a sip. “Speaking of ideas, what are you even up to?”

“Hmm?”

Kirumi rubbed her fingers together near her forehead, as if playing with the rim of an invisible cap. “What’s all that about?”

“Don’t you like it?”

“If your goal is making me nervous, you have certainly achieved that.”

Shuichi laughed a bit. “It makes you nervous?”

“You’re constantly fidgeting. It’s distracting me.”

“Are you sure it isn’t because you think I’m cute?”

“The cuteness that gets completely covered up by that cap?” She pursed her lips. “I don’t think so.”

“I think it is…”

“I do not have X-ray eyes. And then all the rest... A detective that regrets catching a culprit. What kind of character have you even written for yourself?”

The one character each of them automatically received was that of their own. Although with the others they usually discussed parts such as dynamics or asked for general feedback, they had decided to be incredibly secretive about their own persona. All they knew of each other was what all the others knew as well; their talent.

“You’re complaining an awful lot, you know.” He gave a hurtful look, even though the fact she had been wondering so much about him made him smile inside. 

“I’m not complaining, I am only confused. Kaede thought you didn’t like her.”

“I am building character. If I laid it all out in one go, you wouldn’t get to explore me. Wasn’t the entire point of keeping our characters secret so we could get to know each other all over again?”

“I would not be surprised if you were so busy with other things that you didn’t work your character out and are now winging it all.”

“Pfft… Well, what about you, huh?”

“What about me?”

“Took down a maffia… Are you kidding me? Do you believe it yourself?”

“Kaede believed me,” she said with a proud smirk, taking another sip.

“She’ll believe anything… What’s next, you’re the prime minister?”

“What if I was…?”

“... Are you for real…?”

She giggled softly, simply shaking her head a bit in delight without further confirming or denying. “I am the Ultimate Maid, not a task I accept is too much for me. Everything is completed to perfection.”

Shuichi took a sip of his tea, a bit thrown off from the heat despite having let it cool on purpose, and squinted his eyes at her. “Hmm… I see, I see…”

“Real talk now.” She put down her cup and sat more upright. “Kaede.”

“Ah, yes, our new bestie.”

“She was affected by the murder and trial.”

“She didn’t say it, but her musical expression was clear as day. And that’s great news. It’d be troublesome if she had shrugged it off just like that.”

“I don’t think she’ll admit to it though. She’ll try to move forward.”

“Let her. A slow breakdown is much more satisfying.”

“And if that trial was anything… We’re going to have quite the job taking care of her. She almost got herself thrown into the execution room with Miu and Keebo.”

He furrowed his brow a bit. “What was that even about? Is she crazy? She has no clue who these people are.”

“Who knows what her deal is. Mr Monokuma took care of her character, remember?”

“Hm… Babysitting it is then.”

“Yes. However, I would say her already being so attached to us is good. It’s just that she is… quite the chatterbox…”

“She does talk a lot, yeah… But hey,” Shuichi grabbed the figurines of Himiko and Keebo, ”that’s not going to be an issue anymore soon enough, hm?” and tossed them in the trash.

14 people left alive

Chapter Text

Himiko’s dead eyes staring at the sky.

Keebo melting from the inside out.

The pictures kept flashing by Kaede's mind; everytime she managed to fall asleep, she was violently disturbed with the first thought jumping to them. From the very first night here she slept uneasy, but it was worse now. How could it not?

Her tired eyes stared at the tamagotchi, feeding the pixel art in an attempt to distract herself. But no matter what she did, her thoughts jumped back to Himiko and Keebo one way or another. And if she thought of them, her eyes also immediately soared to her bag; or more importantly, the tablet inside.

Even if there was no reason to trust Monokuma, even if there was no reason to trust the videos, the temptation had become too great. The whole debacle could’ve been avoided by having Keebo’s crime known. Miu could’ve fixed him. Nobody would’ve died, she-

…

She could no longer stand it. As soon as she woke up again from her next sleeping attempt, she jumped towards the bag.

“The video is what…?!”

The entire group sat at the dining table. Despite the amazingly prepared breakfast and the pains of yesterday, everyone’s attention was instead directed at Kaede. She barged in, panicky asking everyone if they had tried to watch their video.

And surely, everyone who did, experienced the same issue.

This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim

“This is bullshit…!” Kaito shouted, repeatedly tapping his own tablet as if it would change the situation.

Rantaro glared down at the device's useless thumbnail. “How does a video like that even get copyrighted in the first place?"

“It’s the intern’s fault!” Monokuma spawned in the room, making everyone jump from their seats before continuing. “That’s what happens when you don’t use royalty free music… Grrr, it seriously pisses me off!”

“What music even?” Maki spat. “This is ridiculous. Give us back the videos.”

“No way!" he wove his paw at her. "You got your chance to watch it, it’s not my fault the hosting site is being unreasonable! If I reupload I’ll just get a copyright strike again, and you know what happens when you reach 3 strikes…”

“I’ll strike you 3 times…!” Tenko yelled.

Even though a robot like him must held no worry over a kick, the thought of Tenko using him as a practice tool made him back down, “Hey, whoa, no violence against the headmaster…! I know just how to make it up to you. You survived your first trial, so you should be rewarded for good behavior.”

The bear jumped on the table and took out a total of 4 nonsensical items.

“Trash? That’s what we fucking get for being traumatized?”

Monokuma growled at Miu aloof appreciation. “It’s not just any trash! It is special trash that will grant you access to more of the academy!”

Despite Kaede’s own displeasure with the entire situation, her antenna immediately sprung up at the final words. Shuichi may not have been able to find clues on the mastermind, but if more areas became available, that might change.

“But you’re going to have to play nice and share, okay? So let’s see…" Monokuma thoughtfully tapped his chin. "The maid gets to play with the Dragon Gem first!” He rolled the red orb towards the end of the table, where Kirumi quickly caught the item and examined it.

“Then the Hexagonal Crank from some zombie game goes to… space guy!”

“Aw, sweet!” Like a kid given candy, Kaito took the item. Apparently gift giving made him forget all about his earlier woes.

“The Ocarina is for… Angie!”

“Yippee!” Angie happily took the item as well, though unlike with Kaito her cheeriness tended to be constant no matter what, or so Kaede had noticed. “Ah, it’s so well made.”

“Lastly, I have this Ancient Passport.”

Korekiyo straightened his back a bit, drawing his tea away. “Perhaps for me? I would very much like to examine it.”

“I actually wanted to give this to someone in particular, but… Hm… I guess I’ll give it to Kaede instead!”

“Eh?” Monokuma shoved the item into Kaede’s hands, to which she immediately looked it over. Nevermind the reason Monokuma decided to give it to her, she had no clue how this could open up new areas. She waited for him to share keys or the sorts, but instead Monokuma rounded things up and bid his goodbye.

“So… now what do?” Gonta asked.

Kokichi leaned back in his seat, taking a bite from his food. “Find new areas, duh.”

“How though?” Tenko wondered. “These are just weird items. How can it unlock a new area?”

“Maybe it’s like a puzzle or something,” Shuichi deduced. “Kind of like you would have in a video game.”

Ryoma sighed, both at the given task as well as his now grown cold coffee. “So even this way he’s toying around with us.”

“He’s made our survival a game,” Rantaro said, “so why not every other aspect as well, huh?”

After everyone finished their breakfast, the group decided to split up and search for places where the items might have to be used. Kaede pondered over her item for a long time. A passport is normally needed at the likes of an airport to get in or out of the country. She figured her best bet for that reason was to check the courtyard. She looked around, to which her eyes fell upon the strange walls just across the main building. It kind of looked like a fort, or the outer walls of a castle. Did you have to identify yourself when entering royal ground? Probably.

So she walked her way towards it, where Kaito appeared to have gotten a similar idea.

He turned to her, beaming, “Ah, Kaede! Found what you’re supposed to do with your passport yet?”

She shook her head in return “I was thinking of checking this place,” and wove her passport in the air a bit. "Y'know, because it's like entering a new place."

“Hate to be a bummer, but I think it’s meant for my item.” He pointed at a strange kind of hole to the right of the large wooden gate. “I’m thinking the crank has to go in here in order to draw back that bar keeping the gate closed.”

“That would make sense.” She smiled, “Give it a shot! I’m dying to know what’s inside.”

Kaito put the crank in and started turning. Loud creaky noises penetrated the air, followed by the bar slowly drawing into the wall. The gate could finally be opened, the two quickly entering to see what was inside. They were prepared for most anything, except for the actual truth.

Stairs led to a lower area where a path guided them to a large building surrounded by low water. Spotlights on the edge sent colorful rays into the sky, begging attention to be brought to the building which with bright large letters said ‘casino’.

Kaito and Kaede raised a brow at each other and went inside. The reception area was enormous with its many seating areas, bar, prize corner, and several exchange desks. The golden texture on the walls combined with the red carpet proved itself as the ultimate hangout for the rich. Stairs in the middle of the area lead downwards, likely to where the games stood.

“So… this is an actual casino…” Kaito murmured.

“So it seems… Isn’t this supposed to be a school? What is a casino doing he-”

“I love it!” he exclaimed and hurried to the prize corner. “So what have we got going on over here? Better be some worthwhile stuff compared to the one by the canteen.”

Kaede quickly followed. “W-wait, you’re actually interested?”

“Totally! I love playing casino games. As luminary of the stars, I always win!”

She frowned a bit. “Isn’t it extremely addictive?”

“Well… A bit… If you have no self-control, unlike me!”

Somehow, Kaede couldn’t quite believe that statement.

“Look at all the insane stuff you can trade your winnings with.” He pointed at the many shiny and expensive items sitting behind the glass. “Bracelets, ladybug brooch, some kind of device, art piece…”

“Huh… It looks like there is something interesting for each of us.”

“This one's freaky though… ‘Book of the Blackened’.” He squinted his eyes to read the description. “A book of criminal offenses that contains records of the cruelest, most atrocious murders committed by humans. Many of these cases weren’t released to the public.”

“Really freaky… I guess it’s targeted at Shuichi.”

“I don’t feel like he would want to waste his points on it, even if it’s dirt cheap.”

“See anything you want to get?”

“Well… I’m going for that.” He pointed at a tennis ball set.

“... Tennis balls? Do you play?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Ohh, then you can play with Ryoma!”

“That’s what I was thinking!” he smiled. “I actually started playing because of him, y’know… So it would be awesome getting to play with him.”

Kaede hummed at that, already looking forward to seeing a match between the two. She knew nothing of tennis, but with how low Ryoma always felt, it would be nice seeing him in his natural environment.

Kaito clearly thought the same, immediately heading downstairs. He invited Kaede to join too, and although she was curious to see if Kaito’s claims of gambling talent held true, she had to focus on the mission at hand. There weren’t any interesting items to save for anyway - an exclusive music sheet definitely would have convinced her - which she took as a blessing. Especially considering she could soon hear Kaito’s screams of victory turn into roars of desperation. 

She made her way back towards the academy itself, figuring the item might be related to something inside instead. In the corner of her eye she spotted Tenko and Angie standing by a stone at the side of the building, in front of a great load of vines which covered part of the structure. It didn’t harm to see how the Ocarina journey was going.

“Hmmm…” Angie tapped her lips with the item. “This stone has music notes on it… Atua’s telling me it’s no coincidence.”

“It’s obvious. Too obvious…” Tenko tapped her fingers together. “How would music open up a new area?”

“Nyahaha, music is a very powerful tool! Hey, Kaede," she turned towards the pianist who had by now joined them, "you can confirm, right?”

She immediately perked up. “Oh, yeah, absolutely. Music is a form of expression. It even affects our mood. For example, when people are sad they tend to listen to sad music which actually makes them feel worse… If you put on something cheery instead, you’ll feel better much sooner! Music was also used back in the very early days to share and pass down stories… But… I don’t know anything about opening physical areas,” she awkwardly smiled.

“Only one way to find out!” Angie brought the instrument to her lips and started playing. The girls waited in anticipation, their eyes quickly being brought to the vines. Once the song finished, they withered away like snow for the sun, revealing a new entrance with painted dolphins and the word ‘pool’.

“Eh?!” Tenko’s mouth went agape. “How is this possible?! A-are you able to perform magic too…?!”

Angie giggled a bit at the comment and went inside. Tenko quickly ran after, and so did Kaede. The beautiful pool area was accentuated by the light shining through the glass above. Several palm trees stood around, combined with the warmth giving a tropical feel. The pool was big enough to swim laps and even accommodated a three-level diving board. But for the less active there was enough to enjoy too; padded sunbathing chairs surrounded the pool and the back was occupied by a bar.

Tenko’s eyes immediately started shining, drooling at the sight. “Whoa, this is like a big celebrity pool! I’ve always wanted to swim at a place like this! Too bad I don’t know how to swim…”

“Maybe stick with sunbathing then…” Kaede eyed the deep pool, tempting her to come swim. She could really go for a quick splash.

“I can teach you,” Angie chirped. “This is nothing compared to the beaches of my island, buuut I think it would be nice to do a little pool party.”

“I-island beaches? Owww, I’m so jealous…!” Tenko’s drooling only worsened before she gleed. “But, yeah! We can ask Kirumi to make all kinds of drinks and snacks so we can have a total celebrity experience! Are you in too, Kaede?”

“That does sound like a fun activity… We should definitely do that some time. I don’t think I have swimwear in my dorm though. Maybe it’s in the changing rooms or inventory room here?”

“Ugh… That means the degenerate males can have a look at it…”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Are there any peeping holes here?”

“Umm, there’s the windows!” Angie pointed at the higher ends of the wall: One row with multiple windows which looked akin to the ones in the gym, and another regular window on the other side of the room. “Is that what you mean?”

“Yes!” Tenko jumped a hole in the air. “Owww! Those gym windows don’t worry me, but that one window over there can be used by anyone to peep through!”

Kaede looked a bit up to the window as well. “Would anyone actually do that…?”

“I heard degenerate males get more turned on by girls in swimsuits than by girls who are naked! What are we even supposed to do against the filthy desires of degenerate males?!”

“Atua could smite them!”

“I don’t think the guys here would do such a thing, but… Hm… I can’t think of a place the window belongs to… It might be in a new area. I still have to explore further. I’ll figure out where the window is. Maybe we can blacken it or something.”

“Great idea!” Tenko smiled. “That’d bring me a lot of comfort. Thanks, Kaede!”

The pianist continued her earlier journey to the main building. The sensible course of action was to head upstairs. Only Kaede’s room along with classrooms could be accessed there, but the outside clearly showed there were multiple floors. Perhaps secrets were there.

Kirumi stood by the dragon statue together with Shuichi, the both of them caressing their chins in deep thought. Kaede giggled lightly at the mirrored sight, and skipped towards them. “Hey, guys!”

“Ah, good day, Kaede.”

“Hey, Kaede,” Shuichi said. “Figured out what your passport is for yet?”

“Kaito has found an entire casino and Angie a pool, but my item is still a mystery… How is your journey going?”

“We were about to test a theory,” Kirumi replied. “The dragon is missing an eye, and considering how its still present one is red,” she took her orb out, “the orb likely belongs here.”

There was only one way to find out, and so Kirumi carefully placed the item in the hole. A bright light emitted, the socket slowly cracking until it spread over the entire statue and the wall behind it, before breaking apart entirely to reveal a new hallway.

The large amount of dust spread itself through the air, making the three cough for a bit. Kirumi’s face instantly scrunched at the dirt, and even more so when the stagnant air hit her nostrils.

“Ah, it’s a hallway!” Kaede exclaimed. “How cool… But also really weird…”

Shuichi nodded a bit in agreement. “It’d make more sense to just make a door instead of all this mess, but… maybe it means something important is ahead.”

“Alright!” Kaede hoisted her bag up and pranced forward. The new hallway wasn’t much different from the ones they already had access to. Only the greenery was missing, likely due to a lack of natural light. After turning a corner the cold walls were replaced by a beautiful black and dark purple patterned door. It had to be an Ultimate Research Lab.

The trio went inside, their eyes immediately having to adjust to the sudden burst of light coming from the large windows, chandelier and wall-mounted candles. The lights combined with the dark antique furnishing shone off warmth and wealth.

“Wow…” Kaede walked in further, looking around with widened eyes. “This is beautiful.”

Kirumi quickly observed the wooden chairs at the dining table, some of which were occupied by human sized dolls. “... These are Victorian.” She looked up. “These decorations adorned the British Empire at the peak of Queen Victoria's reign. This… must be my research lab.”

Kaede turned towards her. “Is it related to maids then?”

“During the Victorian era, employing a maid was considered a status symbol.”

“Jack the Ripper was from that time, correct?” Shuichi asked himself out loud.

Kirumi smiled a bit at him. “Ever the detective, I see.”

“A status symbol, huh? That doesn’t surprise me at all.” The blonde walked towards a door at the left wall. “There’s a door here, maybe it leads to another part of the academy?”

“I don’t think so. In the Victorian era, many servants lived beneath the manors in which they were employed. They were known as the 'downstairs people’, as a stark reminder of their lower status.”

A quick rumble of the fake door knob confirmed Kirumi’s suspicion. Although the thought that Kirumi would be living in what is essentially the basement if existing in that time period, bummed Kaede out more.

The big white closet door on the right side of the room, however, revealed an entire new room, filled with washing machines, vacuum cleaners, dryers, pressure washers and many other cleaning supplies. Kirumi immediately threw herself on them, carefully going through them with a kind of joy nobody should be getting from these.

She mused. “These appliances will prove most useful when I perform my cleaning.”

Shuichi gave a worried look. “Cleaning? You… don’t mean the school, do you? That’s not necessary.”

“I do not mind. To serve others is a maid’s duty. Selfless devotion is the principle by which I perform my responsibilities as a maid. I can cast aside my personal feelings for the sake of serving everyone. I will do anything you ask.”

Kaede blinked at the sudden statement. She was no stranger to intense commitment - how else could she have become as great a pianist as she was? - but from her point of view feelings were incredibly important as they were a reflection of your work. To cast all that aside…

Shuichi too admired the maid’s devotion, but couldn’t help but give a lightly concerned look at Kaede. The girl immediately picked up on it, and poked Kirumi's chest. “Okay, but, you better take care of yourself still! It’s a bit of a walk, but in a way we are neighbors with our labs being closest, so we’ve gotta look out for each other!”

The maid tilted her head a bit in confusion, before showing a polite smile of understanding. Although knowing Kirumi, she had interpreted the request differently.

With the passport still in her pocket, Kaede continued her journey through the halls. After a bit of walking, even passing the entrance’s open area, she found herself at another Ultimate Research Lab. Judging from the butterfly and bug silhouettes on the door, it could only belong to one person.

“It’s got to be Gonta’s… But…” A shiver went down her spine. “A lab like his just has to have a huge collection of alive and dead insects… I’m not going in there.” Her eyes soared over the area, ensuring this was the only thing of interest before taking the stairs up again, and met with a treasure chest standing not much further away.

She carefully approached, her first instinct telling to open it immediately, but a fear inside stopping her from doing so. Why was this here in the first place?

“Hey, pipsqueak." Rantaro came to stand by her side. “What have we got here?”

“Did he just call me pipsqueak? Maybe I heard it wrong…” She cleared her throat. “It’s some kind of chest. I’m not sure if we should open it.”

“Why not? What are the chances there’s venomous snakes inside, or black widow spiders?”

“Ahh!” She pushed him by the shoulder. “Don’t say that kind of stuff! Monokuma probably would, you know!”

He laughed a bit. “Come on, I’m just messing around.”

“Well,” she crossed her arms, “then why don’t you open it?”

“Me?”

“You’re the Ultimate Survivor. If something bad pops up you would probably be fine.”

“So I’m a sacrifice…” Rantaro held his heart in pain, even though a grin plastered his face. “That hurts my feelings. But alright, I’ll be a big guy and open it.”

At a painfully slow pace, he rolled his head and cracked his fingers before finally opening the chest. And when he did, his face went pale and he screamed at the top of his lungs, “Oh my God…!”

“W-what?! What is it?!”

“It’s… technology!” Rantaro pulled out a strange looking flashlight, much larger and sturdier than a regular one.

“Rantaro! You scared the hell out of me!”

“Well, it is very scary,” he smiled, only for it to turn into a frown. “Real talk though… This can’t just be any kind of light.”

Kaede agreed. The way it looked, how it was hidden in a chest, begging to be found. Monokuma clearly wanted them to do something with it, and that could never be good. “What should we do with it?”

“I’m not sure yet… I’ll take it with me. Maybe I can find something in the library about a light like this.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“Nah, no need to. You still have that passport, right? You should continue exploring. I’ll let you know once I’ve found something.”

Just as Kaede wanted to continue with Rantaro having left, Gonta opened the door from inside his lab, an ecstatic smile immediately beaming at Kaede. “Oh, Kaede! Gonta no hear you. How search?”

“So-so. I still have places to check.”

“Oh, well, not sure if Kaede guessed, but this Gonta’s lab!”

She had most definitely already guessed that, and as Gonta took a step aside, revealing a great many dead insects hanging on the wall for display along with a few dozen see-through boxes which without a doubt held all kinds of eggs to hatch, her earlier disgust only increased.

Meanwhile Gonta’s smile simply grew. He was incredibly excited to tell Kaede all about it. “Come in! Gonta wanna show!

She didn’t want to go in, at all. The mere sight of one wall was more than enough, let alone what the room could further hold. She had to handle this the best way she could. Delicately.

“Oh, wow, gee, Gonta, would you look at the time!” Kaede glanced at her imaginary watch. “I should really go so I’m afraid I can’t, bye…!” She quickly fled upstairs, finding escape in the first next Ultimate Research Lab she saw.

With the first step in Kaede nearly fell to the floor, setting her foot on a round object, barely able to catch herself. She quickly looked down at what could have possibly been left on the floor so carelessly: A tennis ball.

“... Ryoma?” She looked up and was met with a big indoor tennis court. Several practice machines stood around the place, actually functioning despite nobody making use of them. They must be the reason the dozens of balls were laying around.

“Sorry.” The lab owner picked up the ball Kaede had almost fallen over. “If it helps, Korekiyo nearly fell as well.”

She smiled back awkwardly. “At least I’m not alone then… Where is he?”

“Shower room. There’s a room in the back to freshen up that he wanted to check out.”

Just as he said that, Korekiyo returned and approached the two, careful as to not trip over a stray ball again. “If you must know, there’s nothing special there. There’s a window looking over some kind of pool however.”

“Oh! So that’s where the window is!”

“I take it you’ve been at the pool?”

“Yeah, it opened with the Ocarina. Actually,” she turned to Ryoma, “do you think there’s a way to block the window, or maybe blacken it or something? It’s a bit uneasy to have a window looking down at such a place. Not that I take you for the type to peep, but…”

Ryoma nibbled a bit on the candy in his mouth. “I get it. Besides, these places aren’t locked. Anyone could get in and make use of it. I didn’t like the idea of that thing being there in the first place. Like a cruel reminder of the outside world… I’ll blacken it.”

“Thanks! Your lab is really nice, by the way. Must be nice to have an entire tennis court.”

“Hmph, I don’t care. I have nothing to do with tennis anymore.”

Kaede furrowed her brow a bit. How could the Ultimate Tennis Pro have nothing to do with tennis? It’s why Kaito wanted to play with him in the first place.

“Hm…” Korekiyo ran a hand over his cheek. “Is it related to that crime of yours? Killing the mafia, correct?”

“Yeah… Thanks to that… even if I escape from here, I’ll just go straight to a different prison.” He stared at the tennis court, carefully watching the balls fly back and forth with sad eyes. “So it’d be meaningless for someone like me to play tennis now…”

Kaede wanted to argue otherwise, that looking towards the future was important, but Korekiyo put up a hand and whispered to her. “Everyone processes grief differently. Now is not the time.”

One new area was left on the floor. A large open area with benches suggested this used to be a hang-out place, now feeling empty. A castle-like gate was drawn on the wall with pixels, which unfortunately didn’t fit Kaede’s item either. Since all the other items were already used, it must be for whenever Monokuma would decide the group deserved another ‘reward’. A new area did mean 1 other thing; another Ultimate Research Lab.

Maki guarded her door like a dog, Miu and Kokichi clearly having been bugging her for a while.

“Come on, Maki!” Kokichi complained. “There’s no rule that says we can’t enter another lab. You’ve got to let us in!”

“Yeah, don’t be a bitch! Who even says it’s your lab, huh?!”

Maki’s expression darkened. “My tablet.”

“And what could possibly be so bad that we can’t see, hmm?” Kokichi slyly smiled.

“Um, what’s going on here?”

Miu turned towards Kaede. “The fucking babysitter isn’t letting us in!”

“Well… It is her lab. If she wants to keep it private she can.”

“See, even miss busybody understands.”

“You don’t have to call me like that…”

“But it’s true. You meddled with Himiko.”

“... What?”

“Do you really want me to spell it out further?” she lightly sighed. “But… you look better now. I thought you’d be affected by it for longer. Guess it didn’t bother you that much after all.”

“That’s… Maki, that’s not true.”

“Ouch, oh, ah!” Kokichi peeked from behind Maki, a hand on the doorknob. “Keep it up, this is entertaining!”

Maki immediately turned around, her face screaming murder. “How did you-?!”

But Kokichi was faster, with a large grin of victory entering the lab, followed by Maki who was prepared to do something awful to him.

Miu gleed, “He actually fucking did it! Ha-hahaha! My turn!” and went inside as well.

“Wait, guys, don’t hurt each other!” Kaede yelled after them, and quickly followed.

A rainbow of colors flashed her eyes with obnoxious music blaring her ears. The left side of the room held a series of tables with seats, a toy corner and table games like soccer and air hockey. Right across, on the right side, an enormous indoor playground had been installed with all kinds of twists and turns, obstacles, slides and a ball pit. There was another room in the back judging from the glass, but the entrance was closed off with maintenance and ‘entry forbidden’ signs.

“Now I get it,” Kokichi smiled. “You wanted to keep us away from a super fun place, didn’t you?”

Maki stared at the room, completely flabbergasted for a moment, before her expression went neutral again. 

“Reminds me of the local fast food chains,” Miu said. “Makes me want to act like a kid all over again.”

“As if you weren’t already.”

Kaede looked a bit around as well. She remembered going to places like this a lot as a kid, spending almost the entire day until her parents eventually picked her up at closing time. It became kind of a daycare to her, so no wonder the Ultimate Child Caregiver would be given a place children can entertain themselves all day. “Is this what you wanted nobody to see so badly?”

“... I hate it.”

“Eh? I think it’s fun! We have a lot of game areas already by now, but… this is a bit of inner-child healing.”

“If you want to heal your inner-child so badly, go for it. I’m not going to stick around and be your personal babysit- Hey!” Maki pointed a finger at Miu, who was entering the indoor playground still wearing her heels. “Didn’t you see the sign? Shoes off!”

“G-geez, okay, fine…!”

She then turned back to Kaede. “What was I saying? Right, I’m not going to stick around and be your personal babysitter to ‘hone my talent’.”

Kaede smiled a bit. “Yeah, okay.”

The caregiver left, deciding to distance herself from the place all together and leave it in the hands of whoever felt like taking it. Once she left her presence was replaced by Gonta. “Oh, what fun place!”

“Oh, hey, Gonta. Done with your bugs?”

“Yeah, figured Kaede right and must go see other things… Heard noise come from here, so Gonta scared it bad room, but… place looks fun. What is it?”

“This is Maki’s lab. It’s kind of like a daycare with an indoor playground. Kids love it.”

“Hey! Kaede, hey!” From higher up Miu was slapping her hand on a window in one of the playground’s many pipes. “Look at me!”

Kokichi’s face quickly popped up behind the window as well - whenever he had even entered the playground in the first place. “Miu’s fat ass is blocking the entire thing! Go get Maki and make her ban Miu!”

“You can’t ban me for having a fine body…! You’re just jealous!”

“Wow! How Miu and Kokichi get there?! Gonta wanna go too!” Gonta quickly went in as well, struggling immensely with his large body to get through all the pathways, but eventually reaching the pipe the other two were in and crawling inside. “Hello, Gonta join!”

“Gonta, no!” Kokichi yelled. “Now I’m trapped! The air is leaving, you guys are killing me…!”

Despite all the newly found areas and Ultimate Research Labs, Kaede was still stuck with her own item, and had admittedly met a dead end. She had searched the rest of the courtyard, but that was useless too. Outside and upstairs were out of the question. It had to be for an area they already knew of, something on the ground floor. Kaede knew of only one place where that could be, but…

She stared at the metal gate. Himiko’s body had been removed from the scene, likely by Monokuma, with no trace left behind. It’s as if nothing had happened.

“... Kaede?”

She turned around to look at Tsumugi, who was checking her with a worried look. “Is everything okay…?”

“Oh, um, yeah! I just,” she raised her passport in the air, “don’t know what to do with this thing. I know there’s a closed door in the hall past the gate, but…” She smiled a bit awkwardly. “It probably won’t open that door. I must be going the wrong way.”

“Hm… I don’t think you are.” The cosplayer took a closer look at the item, fixing her glasses. “I remember the wall just beyond this point being odd. It has two signs, which kind of look like your passport, but in the middle there is a plain hole.”

“Oh… Then I should check it!” Despite saying that with full enthusiasm, her feet remained nailed to the floor.

“... So, are you going now or…?”

“... Eh? Uh, of course!”

“... You’re still here…”

“Ahah… yeah…”

“... Let’s do it together.” Tsumugi took a deep breath and opened the gate. Although she clearly felt uncomfortable stepping over an area that was a crime scene not even 24 hours ago, her first step took Kaede out of her own paralysis, making her move forward and taking the cosplayer along.

Just as Tsumugi had said, there was indeed a strange opening, perfectly fitted for the passport. As soon as it was inserted, the wall shook and broke down, leaving another layer of mess Kirumi would surely show displeasure of. But the hall shown now felt much more ancient, like a dungeon. Instead of plain walls, they were made of different sized and shaped bricks. This probably wasn’t going to lead to an entire new floor as it did with the dragon statue, but it sure would lead somewhere.

And that somewhere was another lab door, one painted with magic circles. Of all the Ultimates here, there was only one person who could be associated with such a thing.

Kaede’s heart dropped to her stomach. What was she supposed to do? Enter? It wasn’t her space. Its owner wasn’t here anymore. It felt like intruding.

“We’re thinking the same thing, aren’t we…?” Tsumugi asked.

“... Would it be okay to enter? She’s not here, it’s- … It’s not ours.”

“It’s not, but… it might be good to enter anyway. Because let’s say another murder happens, n-not that I hope there will, but then we have to know of every place they could’ve taken something from… And it’s best to make sure there is no clue to escape in here.”

“... You’re right.” She took a deep breath and put her hand on the knob. “Let’s go.”

The inside was exactly what you would expect. Multiple contraptions of magic show tricks, shelves filled with potions, a brewing pot in the center and a cage with white doves at the side.

“... I think she would’ve liked this place,” Tsumugi softly said.

“Yeah… I think so too.” Kaede’s eyes drew towards the birds. “... Himiko told me she owned two rabbits. I wonder if anyone’s taking care of them now, and will continue to care for them… They meant a lot to her.”

“Someone must be… The same way someone must care about us…” She turned to look at the pianist. “It worries me, you know? We’re all Ultimates, surely there must be at least one person missing us, but nobody has found us yet…”

“Maybe we’re just… very well hidden. I mean, we’re surrounded by a dome. Who knows where we are. It might be a hard search. It hasn’t been that long.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right… I’m just afraid nobody will find us, and we’ll end up with even more people dead. Two is already too much…”

“... Don’t worry, Tsumugi. People are looking for us and will save us, I promise. And otherwise, we’ll just save ourselves.”

Rantaro knocked at the door, looking around for a bit before his eyes laid on the two. “Sorry, am I interrupting something?”

“Ah, no, Tsumugi and I were just talking. Do you have news about the light?”

“No… I wanted to meet with the entire group in the gym about it. You guys are the last ones I was looking for.”

“So what the fuck is this about?” Miu huffed. “Better be worth my damn time.”

“Honestly, it’s probably most up your alley.” Rantaro took out the flashlight and showed it to everyone. “Kaede and I found this in a chest on the second floor.”

Kaito curiously looked at it. “What of it?”

“Well, I tried to figure out what it is, since I sincerely doubt it’s a regular flashlight… But I can’t find it out for the life of me. So… I had to ask someone else.”

It is then that Monokuma dropped from the sky and onto the scene, once again making everyone jump away from him, something that didn’t bother him whatsoever. “If there is a problem, just let Monokuma take care of it!”

“Y-you asked Monokuma…?!” Kaede looked at Rantaro with widened eyes.

“We don’t have much choice,” he responded, turning towards the bear. “You wanted us to find this. So what’s it all about? A new motive?”

“Motive? Gosh, no! It’s too early for that. It’s a Flashback Light.”

“A… Flashback Light?” Korekiyo squinted his eyes.

“Flashback?” Angie threw her body to the side, “Light?” and back the other way.

Monokuma took the item from Rantaro’s hands, and turned towards everyone. “This flashlight doesn’t shed light on darkness, it sheds light on your lost memories.”

“Lost memories…?” Ryoma asked.

“You guys seemed concerned that you couldn’t remember how you came to this school… But if you use that Flashback Light, you can remember everything!”

Right! Kaede could indeed barely remember how she got here. Of course she remembered the kidnapping itself, but everything before and after that drew a blank. Where she even was at the time of kidnapping, what she was doing. Something that bothered her more and more the longer she cracked her brain at it. 

Shuichi was incredibly skeptical of Monokuma’s claim. “Returning memory with this light…?”

“So it’s your fault we don’t remember when we were kidnapped, huh?” Kaito drew a fist.

Kirumi pursed her lips. “What did you do to us, and how did you steal our memories away?”

“Hmm, maybe if you use the Flashback Light, you’ll be able to remember that too.”

Maki scoffed. “I don’t believe it for one bit. No way this flashlight will recover our memories.”

“I bet there were a lot of naysayers and skeptics when the telephone was invented too,” Monokuma countered. “For your information, the Flashback Light can treat various symptoms of memory loss. The light it emits stimulates the basal ganglia and hippocampus. Not just that, but physical…-” He sighed deeply. “Phew, I didn’t realize how boring it would be to explain. Basically, it works like that…” It was so boring even, that Monokuma decided to give up all together, give the light back to Rantaro and leave the gym.

“Hey, you can’t leave us hanging like that…!” Kaede yelled after him.

“... What should do?” Gonta asked.

“You mean, should we or should we not use the flashlight?” Tenko responded. “I say no way! I refuse! It reeks of fishiness!”

“I think I have already given my opinion clearly as well,” Maki added.

“Well,” Ryoma began, “why not ask someone who knows machines? We’ve got the Ultimate Inventor right here.”

The whole group turned towards Miu, who simply scoffed. “You’re all a bunch of Ultimate Dumbasses! No fucking way that thing can treat amnesia! Then again… these aren’t exactly normal circumstances…”

“So in such an uncanny environment as this, common sense has no place,” Korekiyo said.

Tsumugi stuck her finger a bit in the air. “Well, I mean, there are those neuralyzer things. The flashy things from Men in Black…”

“But this isn’t a movie,” Maki responded. “This is real life.”

“Y-you’re right… Sorry.”

“I… don’t think we should do it…” Kokichi bit his thumb a bit. “I’m scared it might cause some weird side effects…”

“Hmmm, I’m not sure about this either,” Angie added.

“... Has everyone spoken?” Kirumi asked. “If we’re in accord, I will consent as well. What about you, Shuichi? You have not said anything yet.”

“Oh, I-”

“Alright!” Kaito beamed up. “Let’s use it!”

“Huh? Who decided that?” Tenko asked. “We were all saying how dangerous it sounds…”

“Geez, you guys are way too cautious.” He walked towards Rantaro and took the light from him. “I mean, I understand why. We’re in such a weird situation, after all. But… we can’t win by just running away all the time! If you want to win, you’ve gotta be a little reckless sometimes.”

“I’m sure you said something similar before you went down the casino hole,” Kaede said. “But… I get what he means. If we can’t face this danger, there’s no way we’ll be able to defeat Monokuma.”

“At it, Kaede!”

“Kehehe… As if you have an idea how we’re supposed to win.”

“Well, I don’t,” Kaede said, “but still… If you want to win, you’ve got to make a stand somewhere or you’ll never move forward.”

“... What are you two even talking about?” Maki asked.

Kaito went to stand by Kaede’s side. “If you guys want to run away, then go ahead. I won’t stop you or blame you.”

“Okaaay, whatever,” Kokichi said. “Then we will all leave you two at it. … Huh? What’s wrong, everyone?”

“Hmmmm… Normally I wouldn’t listen to a degenerate, but with Kaede partaking, running away would just frustrate me!”

“Gonta also stay… is what true gentleman would probably do.”

“Well,” Rantaro raised his shoulders, “I guess if we don’t stand up at all we lose for sure, huh?”

“I will stay as well then,” Korekiyo said. “ I suspect I will be able to observe something most interesting…”

“If anything happens to me, you all better beg my fans, the world, and humanity for forgiveness!” Miu growled.

“And what about you, Shuichi?” Kaito slapped the boy on the shoulder.

He squeaked at the touch and nervously pulled at this cap. “I-I… I’ll stay too.”

“Oh well, who cares about weird side effects!” Kokichi smiled.

Kirumi looked around a bit. “It seems everyone agrees with Kaito… Very well, I shall follow suit.”

“Hmph.” Ryoma stuck his hands in his pockets. “Better hurry up now it’s decided before we change our mind.”

“Alright!” Kaito properly put the light in his hands. “Let’s see, the button is… here!”

At the moment Kaito flicked the light on, the world warped. A lightning bolt of information shattered Kaede’s consciousness, waves of sounds and shots flashing by her eyes at an intense speed. Only once her mind finally caught up, the scenery changed and the memory calmed down.

The TV screen jittered, dead pixels dancing around the screen and the silhouette of a woman glitching in and out. The screen struggled to show any of the colors that might be there, frames jumping back and forth from color to black and white.

The woman started speaking, or, preaching? Her voice was filled with knowledge and conviction. She knew exactly what she was saying even if her speech was unintelligible, another sort of language unknown. Maybe not that even. Not that it mattered. Her words still reached. It’s almost as if one could understand what she wanted regardless. And in all that, one term did spark recognition: “Ultimate Students”.

Just as the video was about to reach its end, everything glitched again and turned dark. A voice echoed somewhere in the distance, but not that of the woman. It was that of a little girl.

“Kaede? Are you there?”

As quick as it had appeared, it vanished and Kaede’s vision returned to the gym.

Apparently she was the last one to return from her vision, as all the others looked at each other in great shock.

“W-who was that woman…?!” Tenko yelled.

“Did everyone here get a woman preaching some kind of thing?” Rantaro asked. “I couldn’t understand what she was saying. Did someone else?”

“It appears we all experienced the same memory… I speak a few different languages, but her words didn’t sound familiar to me at all,” Kirumi responded.

“So we all got the same freaky memory?” Kaito asked, sweat dripping down his face.

“That would make sense…” Ryoma said. “Cuz I did hear her mention Ultimate Students.”

Miu nervously pulled on her clothes. “S-so was that bitch talking to us, or talking about us??? I can’t remember anything else!”

“Gonta not sure… Sounded as if wanted something to happen…”

Shuichi took a deep breath. “Whichever it is… Is it for good or… for bad?”

“What do you mean?” Maki asked.

Korekiyo pulled his hat a bit down in disturbance. “Judging from her tone, it was no invitation to a tea party… It has to be related to Monokuma… Perhaps she called for our kidnapping? For the killing game?”

“What a disappointing disappointment,” Angie sighed. “Nobody remembers anything else. Bummer!”

“We probably need more of these lights,” Rantaro said. “The one wasn’t enough to return everything.”

“I bet that fuck ass bear did that on purpose.”

“Whatever it is,” Kaito started, “let’s continue to work together. That’s how we will get out of he-”

Kokichi let out a loud snore. “I’m snooooring!”

Tsumugi lightly pulled him on his sleeve to shake him awake. “Hey, Kokichi… we’re having a serious conversation here.”

“So that means I have to take serious conversations seriously? You guys want to work together to escape, right?”

“So you weren’t sleeping at all, you degenerate!”

“You’re making this way too hard for yourselves. All you need to do is ask how to get out.”

“Monokuma will just say we need to kill each other,” Maki frowned.

“I wasn’t talking about Monokuma. I say we ask the mastermind among us.”

The entire class turned to look at him.

“Eh?! A-are you fucking mad? You saying the mastermind is one of the 14 of us?”

“I’m just trying to make you understand something,” Kokichi said, his voice turning low and a smirk growing on his face. “If you keep talking about all this working together and being friends… you can expect some retaliation, hm?”

“Okay, enough!” Kaito punched his fists together. “I’m gonna slug him!”

“Ah, he’s gonna get me! Time to leave!” Kokichi quickly sprinted out of the room, just escaping the other’s grasp.

“Man, he’s fast…” 

“What a strange guy,” Ryoma sighed. “He just provokes people and never says anything from the heart. He’s always messing around and making fun of those around him.”

“Hmph! How can he say such insensitive things when we’re trying so hard to survive! It’s in his favor too!” Tenko said.

“Maybe he doesn’t want to survive,” Ryoma responded. “Though, I guess in that sense I’m no different from him.” And just as Kokichi did, he left the room.

“Ryoma no plan to survive? What that mean?”

“He has mentioned that before…” Kirumi said. “That he has no reason to live.”

Tsumugi caressed her arm. “Poor guy. Seems he has a much more tragic backstory than we could imagine.”

“Yeah, but…’” Kaito looked off to the side in disappointment. “The Ultimate Tennis Pro shouldn’t be saying such cowardly stuff…”

“Perhaps we should rest over a meal,” Kirumi suggested. “That way we can let these new discoveries settle.”

“Huh?! You’re going to whip something up just like that?!” Tenko looked at her in shock. “You're like, the perfect mom…!”

As everyone agreed with the maid's idea, the group left for the canteen. Kaede continued to stand in place, staring ahead of her.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t make out any of the words the woman was saying, just those single 2. Why not? How hard could it be? It didn’t sit right with her, especially because everyone experienced the exact same memory. Or, well…

It didn’t sound as if anyone else had heard the voice of a little girl afterwards. Considering how she addressed Kaede personally that would make sense, but it felt creepy. Who was that girl even?

“Um… Kaede?” Shuichi stood in the entrance, looking at her with concern. “Are you coming as well?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, coming!”

Chapter Text

Kaede stood in front of Miu’s lab, mulling over whether to enter or not. The inventor seemed to be doing surprisingly fine yesterday despite instantly leaving the group behind after Keebo’s execution, even going as far as messing around in Maki’s lab. But that turned out to be short lived as she had locked herself in her lab by nighttime and had now not even bothered with breakfast. Kirumi grew concerned, so Kaede offered to do a delivery.

“She needs to eat, so… even if I get an attitude, I just need to push through that for now.” She gave the door a short knock and entered. Deep inside, Miu sat at her table, hunched over. Her incredible focus made it so she didn’t even notice the other approaching. Kaede looked over her work, existing out of many different kinds of technical papers, most of which had huge crosses through them. “... You’ve been busy…”

“AIYAH!!” Miu jumped up, her pencil flying through the air. “What the fuck?! What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Didn’t you hear me come in?”

“What does it look like, ya bitch?! You can’t sneak up on me like that!”

Kaede furrowed her brow a bit. “I wasn’t sneaking up, I knocked.”

“Psh, that’s not loud enough…" She aloofly dropped herself back in her seat, throwing one leg over the arm. "A genius like me can get really caught up in the flow!”

Her eyes connected with the papers again. “Evidently… Are you working on something?”

“Maybe. Not that your little pea brain would be able to understand. So, what are you bothering me for? You better haven’t given me a heart attack cuz you feel lonely.”

“I brought you food.” She put the package on the table. “You didn’t eat.”

Miu’s brow drew together in confusion. “Didn’t eat? What are you talking about, I ate with the whole lot of you?”

“... That was yesterday, Miu.”

“... Yesterday?”

“Yes.”

“... Well, I’ll be damned.” She spun her seat a bit, incredibly unbothered by the fact she hadn’t realized an entire night passed. 

“You… did sleep, right?”

“No.”

“What? Miu, you need to catch some rest…! Especially with everything that happened.”

“Eh.” She leaned back in her seat, crossing her legs now. “My body can handle a lot. I pull all-nighters all the time.”

Kaede grinded her teeth a bit. What could possibly be so important for Miu to ignore her body's needs? Maybe in the outside world she would have tight schedules to follow or just get caught up in an important project, but those circumstances did not exist here. The only option could be that Miu tried to work on something to get them all out. And in that case… That’d be quite amazing. But she definitely wasn’t working so intensely before. Were it the events that transpired this?

She remembered how upset Miu was with Monokuma, how protective she was over Keebo. Although Miu had the attitude of a typical girl bully in some corny TV show, she cared more for the walking tin man than his own creator did.

“... Are you bothered by what happened to Keebo?”

Miu’s body softened a bit, looking away. “... He didn’t deserve that. He was an amazing feat of technology, just to go down over something he couldn’t even help… I wanted to study him.”

“Ah, yeah, you were talking about upgrades, right?”

“Yeah, and," she wove her hand to her own chest, "learn a thing or two to apply to myself.”

“Apply to… yourself…?” Kaede stared at her in confusion, making the other grin.

“Being human is boring. One car accident and shit could be over for you!" She sat up and swiped up a small electronic item which, judging from its dents, had gone through quite some testings. And yet its lights turned on without trouble. "But robots are far more robust. You can install anything you set your mind to and be fucking immortal. Of course, I am already an absolute blessing of nature, but imagine how much better I could be as a robot.”

“... I… don’t think I’m following…”

She groaned, “The plan is to turn myself into a robot one day, titless, keep up!”

The error messages flashed in front of Kaede’s eyes. “... How would you even do that?”

“Take a wrench and disembowel myself for starters,” she said as she grabbed a screwdriver and started unscrewing her little prototype.

“... Wouldn’t you die before you can complete operations?”

Miu shrugged her shoulders a bit. “I haven’t figured out all the details yet.”

“But that’s a very important detail!”

“Hey, Blondie!” Rantaro waved at Kaede from a distance, sitting at one of the picnic tables near the dormitory, having tea.

Despite being thrown off by his call, she approached nonetheless. It could be important.

“Are you doing anything specific right now?” he asked as soon as she stood by the table.

“Not really. Why?”

“Ah, great. I wanted to hang out with you. Do you want to have some tea?”

Kaede accepted and sat down across from him, Rantaro pouring an extra cup as though knowing she would come. Although she normally had nothing against a simple hangout, especially as the two of them got along well, she couldn’t help but feel suspicious. Rather than using her name, he called out to her with a nickname; Blondie. The day before he also used a nickname - Pipsqueak. Both terms had a negative connotation, but he didn’t use them in a mean way. It sounded more adoring than anything.

Her eyes scanned the area. The terrace looked rather nice, being decorated with tables with benches, as well as a drinking fountain with a separate faucet on the back. It reminded her of a park - it would probably be ideal for everyone to meet and have a BBQ - which at least explained the faucet. In the summer kids would stand around it cleaning the dirt off their legs from playing in the sandboxes. The sitting area had a beamed ceiling, the blue sky shining through. Some vines ran through the work as well, beautiful pink flowers hanging from the sides. Wisteria, she knew. They represent longevity, but also love.

Kaede’s eyes connected with Rantaro’s. “... I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“Are you hitting on me?”

“Oh, whoa, going straight for it.”

“Well, are you?”

He shook his head, his hands raising as he smiled awkwardly. “No, I'm not, apologies for making it seem that way… Or is that not the answer you were hoping for?”

The relief sighed out of Kaede’s chest, her body sagging like an accordoeon. “Phew… No, I was worried you would.”

“Nah, I'm not interested in having a relationship. Don't think I ever have been." He took a sip from his tea, humming lightly. "Anyway, I just wanted to talk. As friends, to emphasize.”

“Okay, great,” she smiled, her body entering full relaxation mode and drawing her own cup of tea to her lips. “So, as friends, what’s up?”

“It’s just that, there’s a lot of strong personalities here. I like them, but it can be a bit overwhelming.”

“That’s definitely true. A lot of the Ultimates here are pretty unique. Shuichi seems pretty normal, though!”

“Maybe that’s just what he wants you to think,” Rantaro grinned. “He is a detective after all.”

“He was reliable during the trial, so that’s good, right?”

“Yeah, I just wish we didn’t have to…”

Kaede furrowed her brow a bit in confusion at first, but the air quickly dropped once the realization hit. Rantaro too noticed the instant mood change, trying to lighten it with an awkward laugh.

“Ah, forget about what I said… In your opinion, who’s the most unique person here?”

“What do you mean by unique exactly? Kirumi is absolutely amazing! More than a regular maid.”

“You know, ‘unique’...”

"Ohhh… Well, I would've said Keebo if he had still been around, but... now I must say Miu probably. Have you talked to her? She's... something"

"Ah, no, I sent you out for a reason."

"So it was on purpose...!"

He blissfully ignored Kaede’s comment, enjoying himself in her frustration, one she could laugh about as well. “Anyone besides Miu?”

"Hmm… Korekiyo seems rather odd too but I haven’t talked much with him yet."

"Probably best to keep it that way..."

"Right, you must’ve talked with him."

"... It's what you call a conversation."

"Should I be worried?"

"What's more worrying is the fact a murder occurred."

"You’re doing it again, Rantaro…”

“Sorry… It’s hard not to talk about the elephant in the room. I’m thinking that maybe we shouldn’t be ignoring it in the first place...”

She supposed he had a point. It felt strange to move on with everything as if Himiko and Keebo’s deaths were just an event that occured on the daily. It seemed respectless almost. Though at the same time, thinking about it brought an uncomfortableness to her chest that her brain all too happily tried to avoid.

“Especially with that Flashback Light coming in the mix now. I’m seriously wondering what the entire reason behind all this is.”

Kaede took a thoughtful sip from her tea, nodding a bit. The memory of a woman on TV, talking in some strange kind of unknown language - a memory somehow every one of them had - still made no sense to her. “Do you have any theories?”

“Not really… The Devil is probably in the details.”

“Shuichi must be able to help out."

“Yeah, but we probably shouldn’t put all the pressure on him solely. You didn’t happen to see any details the others haven’t mentioned, right?”

As far as she knew, no, she did not. The exact same image displayed itself to everyone, even down to the old TV quality and the singular term that could be made out.

There was the call from that young girl, of course, but there appeared to be no connection between the two. The monochrome woman’s voice was unclear and electronic; the girl’s, although sounding far away, was clear. Then the woman also preached to/about the very broad term of Ultimates, while the girl very specifically called out to Kaede. It’s almost like the two were from different time periods all together.

Rantaro’s eyes were digging into her. He noticed the hesitation. And he wasn’t wrong, she was unsure whether to mention the girl’s voice. Her brain told her not to though, desperately clamping to the knowledge in shame.

“Hmm… No, I try to replay it, but it remains the same.”

He sighed a bit. “I was afraid of that. Well, if you do, tell me, okay?”

“Of course, you should do the same. … You are very composed.”

“Where did that come from?”

“I’m not sure. It’s just so ‘Oh, no biggie, I’ll deal with it and solve this mystery’.”

“I guess I just want to put my best foot forward. It’s needed if we want to leave this place with all our friends.”

Her heart jumped a bit at the other’s simple usage of the word ‘friends’. He must’ve remembered her saying they should all be friends once escaping. Of course he did, he came with the idea for everyone to get along as well to avoid the killing game from happening. Even if it ended up failing.

“We shouldn't give up on that, y’know,” Rantaro said, as if he was reading her mind. “It’s probably even more important now than before.”

“You’re right.” She pumped her fists. “Let’s keep at it!”

Maki had been loud and clear, but Kaede was still disappointed to find she wasn’t in her lab.

Tenko remained ecstatic over the idea of having a celebrity pool party, one she happily invited Kaede to as well. The pianist offered to make it a large event for everyone, but the other insisted on the ‘no boys allowed!’ rule. But that didn’t mean no other girls were allowed, right?

So she went looking for the other girls and enquired with them to join. Miu threw the door in her face, and Tsumugi felt as though her plain nature would not be exciting enough to join such an event. And now Maki appeared to have vanished from the dome. Her door didn’t open and considering everything in the lab still looked the exact same - even down to the room in the back undergoing maintenance for who knows what reason - she hadn’t been here either. Knowing Maki, she was probably in her room all along and very purposefully didn’t open.

“It’s almost starting, so… I should probably slowly go back down again.”

She left the room and made her way back, passing Ryoma’s lab in the process. She had asked the man to blacken the window, and he promised he would. Did he already do it? It wouldn't hurt to check, just to be sure, and take action where needed. It'd be a bother to find out once at the pool and have to take another trip up again. She lightly opened the door and peeked inside to see if anyone was in. And there was.

Kaito smashed his racket against the ball flying his way, sending it back to the machine it came from.

“Good one,” Ryoma said, watching from the sidelines.

“You think so?” Kaito turned towards him, a smile plastering his face despite the exhaustion melting from his skin.

“You’ve got good technique.”

“Learned it from the best! Everyone in the tennis club knew of you. We would watch your matches and study your movements!”

He stared at the astronaut for a bit before letting out a scoff.

“Hey, uh… What about we play a match together? Just you and me going up against each other.”

His eyelids lowered. “I don’t play tennis anymore. Ryoma Hoshi, the Ultimate Tennis Pro, is d-”

“Dead. Yeah, right, I’ve heard you say that before. You seriously piss me off at times, dude…”

“You know very well why I don’t play anymore.”

“It’s not just that, it’s just… your whole attitude! You’re so negative! Why have you given up?”

“There’s no point to things anymore.”

“Of course there is, there always is…!”

Ryoma shook his head a bit. “If I won’t be killed here, I will be killed by the outside world. I don’t regret what I did, and I only have myself to blame for why I had to do it in the first place… But things will end for me soon.”

“So what, you just… decide to stop living already…?!” Kaito’s frustration grew, gripping the racket. “You’re not dead yet! Enjoy tennis while you still can, enjoy life while you still can!”

“Look… I appreciate your cheerleading, but it’s too late for me. It’d be better to put that energy into someone else.”

“... I used to look up to you. But now I… Fuck man…”

Silence fell.

“... You should wash up,” Ryoma said. “There’s a room in the back you can use.”

“No, it’s fine. See ya later.” Kaito replaced the racket with his coat and left the room.

Kaede stared him down, barely able to escape the paralysis she had landed in. Her eyes looked up at Kaito, big, yet feeling so small.

His face colored a bit in shame, afraid the other had overheard everything, and quickly closed the door to steer the conversation away. “Ey, Kaede, my soulmate in spirit! How’s it going?”

She remained frozen for a little longer, slowly getting the words through. “All good… Are you?”

“For sure! Feel anything for doing something together?”

“Oh, um, actually, I was just heading down for the pool party.”

“Pool party?” His eyes began to shine. “I had no clue that was going on! I’m in!”

“Oh, no, I’m sorry,” she put her hands up a bit. “Tenko was very clear in her instructions: Girls only.”

“Really? Man…” He scratched the back of his head. “That’s a shame. I’d love to do some swimming.”

“Do you like to swim then?”

“It’s part of astronaut training!” he proudly proclaimed. “Scuba diving then, to be exact. You also learn about medicine, aeronautical engineering, linguistics, survival training… You pretty much gotta master everything.”

She blinked in surprise. That was a whole lot of things. She supposed it made sense, being an astronaut sounded terrifying and you were essentially risking your life. But somehow it had just never occurred to her that someone like Kaito would be so educated. “Wait… What do you even have linguistics for?”

“Communication is very important, so I had to learn to speak other languages like English and Russian fluently. Not just that, but their cultures too.”

“Wow, that’s actually super impressive…! Then you know about Lajka, right? That dog they sent to space? I once learned about her story and it depresses me every time I think about it…”

“Ah, crap, don’t make me think about that poor thing… I wanna focus on what’s in the future. So I need to get back to training! If you girls are taking up the pool, I should look for some other solution… Do you know where Shuichi is?”

“... Shuichi? What do you need him for?”

“We can train together! He’s probably sniffing around in the library or something… I’m going to look for him. See ya later!”

The astronaut left with a clear goal in mind in which Shuichi would be a victim of. She couldn’t help but wonder if Kaito was moving on so quickly because of the earlier interaction. Upon peeking back inside Ryoma still stood where he had been standing from the start, not having moved an inch, alone. He was standing kind of… well, there. He sighed, seemingly disappointed in himself, in a way.

His eyes met with Kaede’s, the two staring at each other. Not a word was exchanged, yet everything became spoken. She closed the door.

“I thought there was a no boys policy.”

“There is!”

“Then why is Gonta setting up parasols?”

Kaede and Tenko had changed into the swimsuits they found and decided to claim for themselves. Tenko went for a light pink one, while Kaede settled on a light blue. In hindsight it would’ve made more sense for them to switch. Angie was present too, but since she essentially already wore a swimsuit on the daily, all she had to do was throw off her jacket. Now the three were gathered at the pool, ready to pamper themselves. Tenko had employed Kirumi to be their personal maid - even though she in practice already was - meaning she was the only one still in uniform. Along with Gonta who was further setting up the seats with towels and parasols.

“Gonta here to be gentleman!” he said in full excitement. “Gonta need to learn, so trying everything he can… Gonta told this would be very gentleman.”

“And it definitely is!” Angie chirped. “You’re such a good boy.”

Kaede awkwardly smiled. “I thought you hated men, Tenko?”

“I don’t trust men,” she spoke, “but this one isn’t brainwashed yet! He really just wants to be a gentleman, so we better teach him well.”

“Please tell Gonta when need anything! Wanna learn all about being gentleman!”

“Well…” Kaede’s eyes soared over the setup again. She honestly loved it. “... you’re already doing great, Gonta. Girls love this kind of stuff.”

He smiled brightly, “Gonta so glad.”

The three women went to lay down on their seats. The soft fabric released a big breath from Kaede’s mouth. An immense sense of relaxation washed over her that she didn’t know she needed.

Kirumi quickly came to serve each of them drinks. The tall mix was filled with red liquor, ice cubes and the top decorated with mint, a slice of strawberry and different small flowers in each of the girl’s cups. Kaede’s held a few daisies, the white petals standing out beautifully against the deep red.

She looked up at Kirumi with widened eyes. “Kirumi, that looks amazing…! Did you just whip up a cocktail out of nowhere?”

“Mocktail, to be correct,” she raised her finger a bit. “There is no alcohol around as far as I have found. I apologize, were you looking to have a cocktail?”

“Oh, no, no, this is perfect,” she grabbed the glass and took a sip, instantly letting out a loud hum. “This tastes amazing…!”

The maid smiled a bit at her amazement. “I also have sliced fruit in the refrigerator. Furthermore, if you start to feel cold, I have prepared warm meals which I can reheat over the stove. I have also prepared oil massages.”

Kaede nearly spit out her drink. “E-even an oil massage…?!”

“Celebrity experience!” Tenko excitedly shouted in the back. “I want to go first, Kirumi!”

And so the most fancy experience Kaede had only dared to dream about was brought to her on a silver platter. Tenko received the massage she always wanted, Angie drank away tropical beverage after tropical beverage with Gonta doing his best to serve them as beautiful as Kirumi had. Meanwhile Kaede bathed in the sunlight, pretending she was at the beach, or any other better place than this dome.

Once all three had received their massages and recovered from the goo they had been turned into by Kirumi’s hands, it was time for business: Angie teaching Tenko how to swim. The always great fighter waddled around with big inflatable armbands, struggling in the water like a child and clamping on to Angie in a panic as soon the slightest bit of water entered her mouth.

Kaede laughed a bit at the scene, joining in the pool to prove there truly was nothing to be afraid of. Ever so slowly Tenko grew more comfortable, swimming around like a dog, but swimming all the while. With time Angie’s lesson would bear its fruits, but this was more than enough to have fun for now.

“I’m going to do it!” Kaede yelled, climbing up the ladder to the highest diving board.

“Careful, Kaede!” Gonta called. “Look dangerous!”

“Nyahaha, don’t fall flat on your face and drown!”

“It’s fine!” She finally reached the top and looked around a bit. Despite being inside, the air felt much colder and sent an instant shiver down her spine. And the height… it didn’t look that high from below, but she could practically see through the windows of the gym and Ryoma’s lab.

Tenko cheered the pianist on. “Go, Kaede, go! You can do it!”

She contemplated going back, but going down a ladder that high didn’t excite her either. She carefully walked down the board, looking down at the water and almost immediately getting vertigo. Her feet were nailed to the floor, but by now she was at a point of no return. She couldn’t go back, she was too far in.

Her knees slowly bent up and down to gain momentum, but quickly got too excited and launched herself off instead. Kaede let out a loud yelp, flailing her arms in the air in the hopes she had magically grown wings, only to plummet down with lost balance, ending the fall with a big SPLAT.

“Owwww,” the room cringed in unison.

Kirumi quickly went to the border of the pool where Kaede slowly emerged from the water, pain scrunching her face. “Are you okay?”

“I uh… I think I landed on my lower back…”

“Wow, that was super cool!” Angie chirped. “Gonta should go next, maybe we’ll then get a suuuper big splash!"

Kaede was carefully guided to her seat by Kirumi, laying down on her stomach so the other could examine. The skin on her lower back was slowly turning red. 

Kirumi carefully pressed her fingers on there, “It’s already reddening… This will likely hurt for a few days.”

She hissed a bit at the touch. “I can feel that…”

“I’ll be right back.” After a bit of time the maid returned with a bag of ice, settled herself down on the bed next to Kaede, and slowly put the ice on the inflammation, “Careful, this will be cold.”

“Ah!” Kaede immediately jolted at the freezing touch. “Kirumi, that warning was much too late…!”

“My apologies. Does it help, however?”

“Yeah… Yeah, it does…” Her body slowly eased itself into the seat’s padding.

“You appeared to be losing your balance. Did you start to feel unwell?”

She turned to look at Kirumi a bit. “A little, but I think it was mostly nerves.”

“Was this your first time jumping from such a height?”

“Try going from a jumping board in the first place… I’ve jumped into water from the sides and stuff, but never from something like that.”

“... And you decided to go for the highest one rather than build it up?”

“I never said I was smart,” she awkwardly smiled.

“Well, at least you have learned your lesson.”

“For a bit, maybe,” Kaede thought. She knew of herself that she could be overconfident at times, and those were just the moments she was aware of, let alone the times she did so in blissful ignorance. She supposed it gave her personality, though. “You know, I was super scared, but at the same time… It was pretty exciting.”

“You looked like a baby bird kicked out of its nest.”

“But it was still fun…! I think I’ll try again sometime. But then maybe start out lower…”

“That seems like a wise choice.”

“Will you join?”

“... Me?”

“You’ve been pampering us all afternoon now… I’m super grateful, really. It was great. But it would be even nicer if you could join us in the fun instead of standing around waiting for a command.”

Kirumi tilted her head a bit in confusion. “That is what a maid does, Kaede.”

“I know, but you’re not always a maid, are you?”

The other’s face only grew more complicated.

“Let’s go sunbathe together next time! Or jump in the pool!” She giggled a bit, “Maybe we can jump off the jumping boards together, so we can hype each other up to do it right!”

“I cannot go swim. That would be leaving my position.”

“But-”

“Kirumi~!” Anige called out for her. “Can you bring us a swimming tube please? I am going to do a trick off the jumping board and land in it!”

“Y-you’re actually going to do it?!” Tenko said in surprise. 

“Coming.”

“Wait-!” Kaede reached for Kirumi’s arm to hold her down, but flinched, allowing her to leave instead.

That night Kaede slept the most uncomfortable she had slept up until now. Her back still hurt, meaning pretty much any position she took on, be it laying on her side or her back, hurt intensely. The only option she had was to lie face down, but it would only take a bit of time until it would hurt her chest instead.

She almost contemplated asking if Kirumi could give her another massage, she certainly almost fell asleep then, but to bother her at such a time felt inappropriate. No, asking her to do so even after this just so she could sleep better was inappropriate as well. She didn’t know why exactly, it just was.

It took a few days before the pain truly toned down, partly due to Kaede’s own stubbornness. She didn’t want to sit in bed all day and be left out, and pushed through to do activities with others. She didn’t want to miss it. She didn’t want to miss any key bonding, especially not one she could be a part of.

And eventually, once it was all gone, Kaede could return to her usual sleeping position; laying on her side curled up like a fetus and packed in multiple layers of blankets. She huddled herself in the smell of detergent and went off to dreamland all too soon. Finally, sleep without her body crying out something was wrong.

The door to Kaede’s bedroom creaked open, followed by the soft pitter patters of small feet. Monokuma’s ears stuck out above the bedside, twitching a bit to try and make out if the room owner had fallen asleep already.

A soft mumbling of nonsensical words confirmed his suspicion, and he crawled on top of the bed, his legs struggling in the air.

“Ugh, phew… What a workout..!” He complained to himself, making his way towards Kaede’s face. He stared for a little while, Kaede’s brow furrowing, making him think she noticed and was about to wake up. But apparently whatever emotion she was feeling right now was directed at her dream instead.

Monokuma grinned. “Puhuhu… Started to feel comfortable, miss chit-chat? We’ll see about that…”

Chapter Text

Sirens, lights, the crackles of walkie-talkies. These were the kind of flashes that kept revisiting Kaede every night since the Flashback Light was used. They meant nothing in the moment of experience, and they certainly meant even less as soon as her eyes opened.

Any context, any reason, would have already vanished from her memory. Whatever they were further connected to didn’t appear to be anything but an experience of that day. The night of the pool event the flashes came with some greater theme of water, yet on another night when Rantaro jumpscared her, it appeared with a theme of monsters. It was something different every night, just a few things being shared.

But again, as soon as she woke up those ideas vanished. Only intense fatigue would wash over her body. Even if she slept through the entire night, so much activity had taken place in her dreams that it felt as thought she had been awake the entire time. She felt a mess waking up, and she looked like one too.

Half her hair defying gravity, a dry mouth and teary eyes from the stinging feeling. She never was a morning person to begin with. The best thing to look forward to was the delicious breakfast Kirumi made every day, with food and drinks that would surely prickle her senses. Though not before washing up.

She slowly made her way to the bathroom, stretching out and cracking a few bones in the process. The still tired haze in her eyes had come to work enough to have her suspicions confirmed in the mirror. She started fixing her hair, clean her face with a washcloth, dress up and bring life to her face through the magic of make-up.

After the entire routine she looked presentable, ready to face whatever today would have to offer her. Who to hang out with? Perhaps sitting together with Shuichi and Kirumi again would be nice. Ever since Kaito’s proclamation of having to start training, he’s been dragging the detective around. It was good to see Shuichi start to get along with others though. It would be a shame for his timid nature to get in the way of that. Meanwhile Kirumi was always busy doing whatever kind of task for anyone, but that was an arbitrary problem.

“Looking cute as ever with the hairpins. Too bad that choker doesn’t match whatsoever.”

“... Wait, since when do I wear a choker?”

Kaede’s eyes squinted at the reflection of her throat. Her tired eyes took so long to function that she hadn’t even noticed she was wearing the accessory. It looked to be made of metal, silver shining in the light. Strange as may be, even stranger was the image on the front. Eight red rays sprung from the middle disc, a sort of rising sun - the sun in this case being Monokuma’s face.

There was no way in hell Kaede would ever wear such an item, let alone one with Monokuma on it. She knew for sure she didn't put it on last night either. Did someone get it from the prize corner and put it on her as some cruel joke? But the rooms were locked, nobody could have come in.

She slowly ran her hand over it, in disbelief and assuming it not to be real. “... What the he- ACK!”

As soon as her voice box let out the first words of the day, the choker tightened itself around her throat, blocking any and all air from entering or leaving.

Her hands immediately clawed at the item, pulling desperately to stop the choking. She tried to scream out for help, which only worsened the pressure on her windpipe.

She was getting lightheaded.

“No, no, no…! W-why is this happening?! Is it the talking?! Does it activate on talking?! I need to stop screaming before this thing will do it for me instead…!”

Going against any survival instincts she tried to quiet herself down and stop panicking, and surely, after a bit of silence, the choker’s grip loosened and went back to its resting position. She stared into the mirror, heavily breathing as the color slowly returned to her face. 

What in the fuck was this?!

Everyone thought the exact same thing. Not as though they would be able to express it, because everyone was wearing a matching choker themselves. Each and every student had the same terrible item around their throat. They all sat in the canteen in panicked silence.

Some had already learned there was no point in trying to talk, that they had to shut their yap. Smart ones like Korekiyo, Maki, Ryoma and Kokichi. Others could unfortunately not get used to this complete and utter unnatural state of being.

Kaito’s fist hit the table. “So are we going to get an-” The choker tightened on him. The first time Kaede had jumped to him in an attempt to calm him down, but this was already the fifth time so everyone knew he would get back from it. He only grew more upset once he was allowed to breathe again.

So much about this was wrong. Kaede loved making small talk in the morning, everyone did. Or at least tried to. It was always a chaotic time of day with Kokichi and Miu fighting over whatever last item there was of something. People making plans on what to do. Angie sharing whatever kind of creepy dream she had which scared the hell out of the likes of Tsumugi. But now all that could be heard was strained breathing, an occasional ruffle of clothing and whoever choked on their words next.

Only once Tenko tried to say something again, Monokuma showed his face. “Stop talking already…!” he yelled, waving his arms at the group in anger as he walked over the table. “Geez, I know this is a killing game, but don’t get yourself killed just like that. Imagine how boring the class trial would be!”

Monokuma. Of course, he had been the cause of all this. Kaede shot up from her chair and launched herself forward to the bear’s face to scream at him.

He put his paw against her mouth, just in time for the choker to tighten only a bit. Little enough to still allow her to breathe, at least. “Tuh-tuh-tuh… Keep quiet, missy.” He retracted it again and went to proudly stand in the middle. With a deep breath of air, he sighed in complete satisfaction. “Isn’t this great! Now this is what I call peace.”

Everyone simply glared at him.

“You must be confused. Allow me to explain. You kids have been talking it up with each other so much… Less chit-chat and more stabbing! So my glorious brain came up with a solution and so I present thee: The next killing motive!”

“I took the liberty of putting this beautiful piece of latest fashion on you last night. It is able to detect the vibrations sent by your voice box as soon as you start speaking, and will react by tightening up in such a way that it closes your windpipe! Only when you’re a good student and quiet down will it loosen. So don’t be stubborn for too long or it might be fatal…”

“Now, I hear you thinking. ‘Headmaster, what exactly is the point of this motive aside from the greatest benefit of not having to hear our annoying voices anymore?’ It’s simple! The motive is the beauty of silence. I am inviting you to murder someone in the most brutal way possible without their screams being able to reach anyone’s ears! Get creative, do what you want, go on a murder spree for all I care! Noise is no longer an issue! Of course you could also get creative and just hurt your victim an awful lot and let the choker do its work… Puhuhu… Any questions?”

Miu scoffed, “Ha! You think this will work on me?! I’m into this shi- ARGH!” She nearly fell over gripping the choker.

Kaede quickly caught her. Call it luck or not, but Miu had clearly choked herself enough times so far to know how to help herself out. But it was also evident from the rather intense wheezes she let out. All while Monokuma’s grin only grew.

The pianist glared at him, her anger so fiery she could burn him right then and there. This was straight up abuse. They were dogs on a leash so tight that just one step would pull them to the ground. Communication was an essential part of life. Isn’t that what made them human in the first place? To take their speech away, to take that freedom away… That was to reduce them down to nothing but walking skeletons.

All Monokuma had to say was that, although it was their body, he was the owner of the game, and so he decided how it would be played.

Kaede then realized the only thing she still held ownership over was her mind.

Needless to say, that day was incredibly long and awkward. Everyone headed to Miu’s lab first with the idea she could maybe get the chokers off. If anyone could, it would be her. But faith in that method quickly faded as the chainsaws and welders came into play. Nobody was stupid enough to let Miu have their way with them like that - aside from Gonta who seemed to want to give it a try but the group made sure not to let that happen.

Of course the first solution then was to have everyone carry around pen and paper and converse that way. Although not the most convenient, it was the best option available. Monokuma, however, had apparently long anticipated that option because although there was plenty of paper, not a pen was left in sight.

The last solution was sign language, one Kirumi came up with as she was the first to make movements with her hands. Unfortunately nobody knew how to read it, let alone use it themselves. So that was a hopeless effort as well.

The only one who appeared to speak the language fluently was Kokichi, who frantically responded by signing all kinds of things. Judging from Kirumi’s confused brow his understanding was either far more advanced than hers, or he was signing complete nonsense. Maybe it considered something in between since Kaito frequently got upset whenever he signed something. It’d make sense for Kaito to understand considering the background information Kaede learned about astronauts, but it also wouldn’t surprise her if he got upset as a precaution rather than actual understanding. Regardless, the issue remained that nobody saw this as a solution.

Not that there was much choice in employing some equivalent to that. It soon became clear that it wasn’t just casual talk that would disappear.

Kaede wanted to ask Tenko and Angie if they felt like having another pool party to get their minds off things, but how was she supposed to communicate any of that? Push them in the water? That would look like bullying. All she could do was try and articulate swimming using her arms. Something that made Tenko look at her like she was insane, while Angie had the time of her life trying to decipher the ‘cryptic’ message.

So there went the ability to hang out with others. It all fell apart. From big things like that to mundane things like wishing someone a good morning, everything was taken. Kaede’s body grew frustrated, fidgeting at her clothes and impatiently tapping her foot. She couldn’t talk, the only conversation partner she had being her own mind. Someone she under no circumstances wished to be left alone with for such an extended period of time. It felt stressful and terrifying. She didn’t like what it had to say at times.

She had to do something that would be far louder than the voice and be able to overtake it. Although Monokuma had disabled the obvious solution to this all, there was one still available to her.

Kaede sat in her Talent Lab for who knows how long, playing her way through all kinds of different songs. From a soft calm tone to intense harsh ones; she explored the entire spectrum. The instrument had become her new throat, the music notes making up her voice.

Once she finished Für Elise a break seemed to be in place. Something the maid in the building had long figured out she needed as well.

Kirumi stood in the entrance, holding a platter with tea and a snack. Kaede had no clue how long she’d been standing there. Maybe 5 songs, maybe just the final verse of Mozart’s piece. Whichever it was, based on her expression, it had been long enough to enjoy herself. Her eyelids were closed, lips pressed lightly, as if she was about to fall in a waltz with herself.

Once Kaede’s eyes fell onto her, the girl awoke from the dreamy escape and walked over, lightly lifting the items as if asking where to put them, to which Kaede simply pointed to one of the music stand chairs. Kirumi did as asked, completing her task and aiming to move on, her eyes lightly lingering on the piano.

The room owner was anything but blind when it came to this and gleed at the show of interest. Perhaps Kirumi held a fascination for the piano as well. It would not be a strange image.

She seemed like the kind of person who found herself in circles of people that would enjoy classical music - interpret that how you will. Pianos also made up an important part of Victiorian era households. In an essay Kaede had once read, she found they were a show of wealth but also made up a basic part of education for women. If a party were to be held, the women of the household would be playing songs, perhaps even singing. Something about talents like those being attractive for finding a male suitor, which was a lot less interesting to the pianist. It came down to domesticity at the end of the day, whilst also opening a world to a realm that stood outside their social duties. A world of art and desire.

Surely Kirumi held that kind of spark as well: To be something more outside the duty of being a maid, whether she had imposed it upon herself or it had been imposed by the hands of someone else. Maybe that’s why she looked at the piano. Maybe she secretly held a desire to explore such a world.

And who better to guide her than the Ultimate Pianist herself?

She wove her arms at the maid, an obvious sign to come over. She shoved to the side and padded the space next to her as an invitation to sit down. Kirumi did as demanded, although seeming somewhat confused about the end goal. Her dress swung forward, poofing up a bit. The ruffles at the edges tickled Kaede’s skin.

Kaede was about to open her mouth to ask if Kirumi had ever played, only to quickly close it again as her brain reminded her that choking was not in her best interest. Great. Handwork it is.

She played the first few verses of Für Elise, which were all the same anyway. Kirumi stared her fingers down, watching the glides and the sound a simple touch would produce. She only looked up again once Kaede stopped playing to cock her head at the keys.

Kirumi’s eyes widened a bit and she shook her head. She did not know how to play.

Kaede lightly moved her upper body, raising her shoulders a bit and widening her eyes in such a way as though asking if she wanted to learn.

The other’s body remained stiff, simply staring. It seemed as though she hadn’t understood the message, but her soul clearly pronounced it had.

So Kaede took Kirumi’s hands and put them in place: The right hand’s thumb rests on the C key, allowing the rest of your fingers to sit down exactly where they have to. It was the easiest note to recognize, if you knew where to look of course. The left hand could then settle right next to it. It is in that moment Kaede would always already fall into relaxation, like the simple placement was enough to be called home.

For Kirumi it was nothing like that. Her figure remained stiff with her arms and fingers forced into place. She looked incredibly confused, like a lost parrot about to let out a panicked squawk. It was an image that, admittedly, cracked Kaede up a bit. Luckily the choker didn’t react much to repressed laughter.

She urged Kirumi to play something from the soul. There was no need to play a refined song that would blow an audience away. It didn’t even have to be anything as simple as Grandfather’s Clock. If anything, Kaede preferred to hear Kirumi simply play to her heart’s content, to explore every tone and piece something together through her imagination.

But Kirumi was a maid. Her living was made upon the idea of selfless devotion. It was much too early to throw her in the deep and have such expectations of her. It would probably be best to show a simple piece and let her learn the pattern. So Kaede put her hands in place as well, deeply thinking over what to teach Kirumi.

The obvious choice was to do something really simple, but that didn’t feel right. If Kirumi had to know how to play one song, it would have to be one that fit her person. Something that matched who she was so it could be a form of self expression.

What song that would be was hard to say. Kaede didn’t know Kirumi long enough to be able to judge, and the means to express what song she perhaps liked best had been blocked off by Monokuma.

So a different approach had to be done. There was one thing she did know: How Kirumi made her feel. What was the feeling Kirumi radiated off of her? What would she sound like if she were a piano piece?

The first thing that came to mind was a beautiful concerto combined with violins of all kinds. The maid simply screamed fiddle all over her. The combination of that instrument with a piano always struck Kaede as powerful, capable of intensifying all kinds of emotions. As it stood, it would mostly be the fancy tones of a royal ball, one that amplified the simple beauty of all the hard work the maid put in with a dignified look.

But that was much too complicated for Kirumi to learn, and there wasn’t exactly a violin around either. Take a few steps back, Kaede.

Kirumi felt… graceful. Every step in her high heels was perfectly placed, a clacking echoing through the rooms. A very specific rhythm in her step expressed confidence, but without coming across as demanding. Her dress bounced along ever so lightly, as well did the swipe of hair that covered half her face. It was all so simple, and yet so gratifying. She was a sight to behold that almost felt forbidden to touch. Only to be enjoyed from afar, seated somewhere in the audience, watching you with intent and the only way you could grasp her was to play a song.

And so, Kaede started playing. It started out slow at first, careful about her message, slowly speeding up and adding notes to the same verse that kept repeating. It grew more powerful. Like wanting to say something badly, but having trouble saying it out loud, then growing confident and saying it with all your chest. Only to at the end slow down again, even slower than before. But not out of insecurity, rather, out of admiration.

As the last note eased out, she turned towards Kirumi in search of her approval. One that was answered by a small polite smile and an attempt at a rusty repetition of the tune. They carefully went through the ebb and flow together, the main challenge being how unnatural the finger movements were to Kirumi, but one she was committed to learning. Ever so slowly, Kaede played along with the other, forming the beginnings of a harmony.

The sun eventually set, the room glowing in a radiance that replicated that of a hot summer night at the beach. The tea had long turned cold, something Kaede didn’t mind in the slightest.

Kirumi bowed as a thank you for teaching. If they could speak, Kaede would have asked her if she wanted to come again, though she supposed that day would come regardless. Or, more so hoped.

She didn’t immediately leave, continuing to stand there, desperately wanting to ask something. The only thing Kaede could imagine was that she had a question about the song itself. Perhaps she wondered if Kaede had composed it? She had not, which at least meant there was a physical gift to give.

She stood up and searched the collection of music sheets in the hope of the song being among them. Luckily it was, and so she handed it over for Kirumi to have.

‘River flows in you’.

Not all hope of activities had been left in the dust. The newly founded training club was clearly still in session as well. Kaede randomly crossed them one night when she stayed up too late in her lab. Initially she assumed it to be guy time between Kaito and Shuichi, but apparently Maki turned out to be party of the gang as well.

Shuichi and Maki were doing push-ups, the latter absolutely obliterating the other in speed. Not a bead of sweat on her face, just pure concentration. Kaede had no clue why someone like her would be able to do such a thing, but rooted for her all the while. Meanwhile Shuichi did what he could, unlike Kaito.

He would do one push-up, then sit regularly and be pointing at the stars. Of course he couldn’t voice what he wanted to share, so instead he gave Shuichi a push that almost made him fall over, to which Maki would scowl.

From a distance, their little trio looked like a lot of fun.

Kaede approached and waved with a smile. Shuichi stopped his workout and got up to wave back. Kaito too stood up, throwing a big smile back.

“Ay, Kaede! How’s it hangin- ACK!”

And there he went choking again. Apparently the passed of time and the probably 100 warnings he had received so far did absolutely nothing for him. You could almost see it on his face: ‘Why did I speak? I know I’m not supposed to. I won’t fall for it again next time!’.

But he definitely would fall for it again.

Maki barely offered Kaede a glance. She carried on with the work given by the teacher and ignoring the class clowns.

Kaede’s brow furrowed a bit at that. She knew Maki wasn’t a big fan of her - or at least judging from what she had expressed when they explored the new areas. In hindsight it wasn’t as bad as it felt in the moment. The babysitter generally came across as blunt. Perhaps she had said it in a way she didn’t mean to. This barren willfulness to share eye contact might not have been born out of animosity either. Maybe she simply understood there was no physical opportunity to socialize in the first place, so what was the point of trying?

Maki was different than Kaede. Different than Kaito. Kaede had a much better connection with the astronaut in the sense two extroverts gain an automatic connection. They were both social butterflies, and with that both struggled to converse in some matter. She could tell Kaito wanted to tell or ask her something, but he didn’t know how to voice it, and Kaede didn’t know how to interpret it. A conversation that normally rolled so smoothly now got stuck at the first second.

Shuichi noticed the struggle all too well, caressing his chin thoughtfully in typical detective fashion. With some mulling the exclamation point above his head marked the solution. He pointed at Kaede, lowered to do a push-up, got up again and pointed at the girl. Simple, and yet so obvious.

Kaito glamored his friend’s cleverness, putting an arm around his shoulder and lifting him in the air with excitement. An embarrassed kind of pride that dripped from Shuichi’s face as well.

She smiled a bit at their communication victory, but then shook her head. She liked the idea of joining and getting some bonding in this way, but sports were not her forte. Especially not if it meant dead silence and all you could hear was the awkward grunting and breaths of air.

So she left for her dorm, finally waving goodbye after Kaito tried to make sure at least thrice if she really wouldn’t join. As she left, Maki appeared to finally give the blessing of a glance.

The soft ‘bleeps’ and ‘bloops’ from the tamagotchi echoed through the room. It almost sounded like speech. The lack of conversations Kaede’s head must have made her brain appreciate the bare minimum, but surely it wasn’t a bad thing.

I’m hungry, the ghost said.

I’ll get you something, she said.

Let’s play a game, it said.

I’d love to, she said.

Okay, perhaps a lightl level of sanity was necessary to see the pixels as an actual being. It wasn’t real, and it never could be. Just a creation powered by a battery. But what else were you supposed to do? Lay in bed and think over all the things you would’ve liked to have said? It’d just be a vicious cycle that contributed nothing but intensifying annoyance.

This motive didn’t feel like a motive for that reason, more so being Monokuma’s way of poking everyone with a stick, trying to be the best nuisance he could be. Maybe he really only wanted peace and quiet. It must be troubling for all these young adults to have meaningless conversations while you are trying to organize a killing game.

Did he truly believe someone will kill over this? Supposedly their voices would be returned once a murder occurs, but even Kaede wasn’t that desperate to get some words out. He intent it to work that way.

This wasn’t a con, this was a pro. Eliminating something that could complicate committing a successful murder. A violent one, specifically. Maybe it was supposed to play off the previous motive, with Monokuma winking at the plausible psychopath in the room and inviting them to go all out. But that was to assume there were bad people in the group, and Kaede didn’t believe that. Not anymore.

It had been long enough. A nutcase would’ve long taken someone’s life. She wasn’t sure what Monokuma expected from here. Did he play the long game? Or was he thumbling his fat bear paws, cursing himself for creating a motive that did nothing for him?

Kaede’s lips curled at the sight. His stupid angry face, arms in the air; a drifty toddler. She preferred to think of him that way. It made the circumstances feel less intimidating, a sort of relief that everything would be alright in the end. 

Do not let him take hold of your mind as well. It's better to zip your lips than to have blood spilled on the floor.

What a stupid motive.

Chapter Text

Another day without speaking.

Another day of silence.

Another awkward breakfast.

There was no way to get used to this despite the past days. The eating times were both the best and the worst. It was the best because it was the time of day everyone sat together. It was the worst because it emphasized what lacked.

A knife tried to get the most out of the jam jar which was definitely empty, a frantic shake of the salt flavored a boiled egg, and loud eaters munched away. That’s all that could be heard. It felt like an angry table of fighting parents which arose an instinct of leaving as fast as you could.

Some people were used to a table like that. They almost came across as more comfortable. Certainly the likes of Maki enjoyed the lack of words shared. Korekiyo got enjoyment out of observing everyone dealing with the situation, although he slowly grew bored of the scene as well. Nothing special really happened, and that pissed some people off.

Kaito’s fist suddenly hit the table, shaking the items atop and making everyone flinch. He stood up and shoved everyone’s stuff to the side to create a big open space. The cutlery soon disappeared out of everyone’s hands and made its way to the open space. Whatever the man was up to, the gathered items weren’t enough as he left for the kitchen and returned with what must’ve been the entire drawer.

The group slowly stood up from their seats to watch whatever Kaito was up to. Maybe this was his breaking point - he had gone insane.

He placed everything carefully. Horizontal. Vertical. 135 degrees. And slowly, they turned into letters. And those letters turned into words.

Party Maki’s lab tonight 8

Kaede squinted her eyes a bit. Did he mean to organize a party? She turned to look into his eyes for confirmation.

He returned a smile and gave a thumbs-up to the group. The excitement wasn’t exactly shining off of everyone; especially not Maki who clearly did not give permission for what was essentially her space being used. Luckily for Kaito there was no real way for her to retaliate.

Some glances of approval were shared. The others were in doubt about it all. How were you supposed to do a party with pure silence? Maybe he picked Maki’s lab because aside from all the games, the speakers played a song. Be it an annoying one, but a song all the while.

Worth a shot, no?

Kaede spent most of the day in her lab, especially hoping for Kirumi to pass by and join her in the melodic waltz once again. It took longer than she had hoped, her arrival being in the evening, an hour or two before the party was supposed to start. She probably had to help out to some extent and didn’t have time to come because of that. But she was here now.

Kirumi shook her head a bit at the other’s invitation to the seat. She twirled on her heel and left for the cabinets, searching through them. Papers were carefully examined and returned if not to her liking. Eventually her wish was fulfilled and she returned to Kaede to, curiously, be the one to make a request rather than answer to one.

Schumann’s Kinderszenen. A particular choice. Schumann was well-known for the fact he first composed and then sometimes haphazardly titled the piece, and Kinderszenen was no exception to that. It originated from a collection of 30 small piano works which he described as “little droll works”. Eventually 13 cheerful, gentle and melodic little tunes received the honors of selection. His wife sometimes accused him of being like a child, which might have been the reason he ended up calling the collection Kinderszenen: Child Scenes. Though some sources claimed they were written as notalgia for his happy childhood.

Kaede didn’t consider the collection to be something the common folk knew when it came to classic pieces. Yes, she considered it one of the best out there, but that was the piano nerd speaking. She raised her brow at the maid, curious to know if Kirumi actually knew the piece or became fascinated by its title. Unfortunately, her eyes could not answer that question.

The first notes filled the room, varying between games of chase, night-time terrors, bedtime stories and sleep. Once done, Kirumi hummed in satisfaction, took the paper and returned to the cabinet for her next request.

Several different pieces followed. Children’s Corner, Jeux d’eaux and Kaede’s personal favorite choice; Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker suite. At the start of the final piece Shuichi entered the room, finally joining the duo again now he wasn’t being dragged around by the astronaut, and watched Kaede play with great intent. He had yet to experience her talent outside Claire De Lune, creating a childlike wonder on his face.

Kaede only shortly noticed his slightly agape mouth. She had to focus on the work at hand, completely absorbing herself and replacing the air she was breathing with melodies.

Dotted. Staccato. Crotchet. Beamed. Minim. Rest. Slur. Sharp. Flat. Cresc poco a po- BLAM!

A jarring crash of several notes being hit by Kaito’s fist shook the room. Kaede immediately jolted with a loud gasp, jumping up to yell into his face.

He looked terrible. White as a ghost and sweating profusely. The neck accesory had choked him repeatedly, leaving the surrounding skin inflamed.

It’s like he had seen a dead body.

He sprinted out of the room as quickly as he had arrived. Kaede, Kirumi and Shuichi immediately ran after him. To the other side of the building, up the stairs, past Ryoma’s lab and eventually to Maki’s lab.

The place had been dressed up for a party, several snacks being placed on some table along with a few decorations. Kaito ran past it all and towards the backroom which had been blocked off before. Emphasis on before.

The maintenance and ‘entry forbidden’ signs had been removed and put to the side instead. It was finally open to the public.

The inside revealed a long rectangle room, a sort of hallway that went off to the right, with the window you could see from inside the lab being on the long side, while the other walls were brightly colored and decorated with different shapes. Silhouettes of people were painted on each end of the room. And the floor was painted with blood.

Three different patches of blood had gathered around the abdomen, left arm and right eye, created by the arrows stuck in the victim’s body. Broken glass accompanied the blood by the eye and the long green hair locks. The arrow broke their glasses.

Gonta’s glasses.

~Ding dong, dong ding!~

Kaede stumbled back, covering her mouth as fast as she could to stop herself from screaming it out.

“A body has been discovered!”

The open flesh wound boiled the acid to Kaede’s throat. The blood which stained his clothes had been exposed to air long enough to produce that distinctive awful metallic scent. It was a horrifying, disgusting sight.

“Everyone, please gather in Maki’s Research Lab!”

The entire rest of the class was there soon enough, probably having already been on their way due to the organized party. Unfortunately, there was nothing to celebrate.

Faces went from shock to repulsion. Tsumugi wanted to back out of the room to escape the sight, but couldn’t move. Ryoma stared in disbelief and Kokichi hovered over the man’s body with an empty look.

“Woohoo, that’s what I’m talking about!” Monokuma spawned with a look of satisfaction. “Blood and gore, you love to see it. Whichever one of you it was, you have my approval. If you manage to win the trial, I’ll give you a glitter sticker!”

Someone did this. Someone actually did this. No, that couldn’t be right.

“If these were the kind of parties you would throw all the time I’d like to be invited, puhuhu. Now the part comes where you play Cluedo and gather your evidence.”

He handed out the Monokuma Files one by one. Everyone eagerly awaited for the announcement they would be released from the chain around their throat. How else were they supposed to do the investigation, after all?

“And, last but not least, Kaede! That’s everything. Jep. Alright, you kids have fun and I’ll call you up again once it is trial time!” He took his leave.

“!” Kaede quickly grabbed him by his arm.

He turned around, glaring. “What?”

She scrunched his face at him.

“What? What do you want? Use your words!”

She hissed and pulled on her choker.

“Cat got your tongue? … Oh, no, Monokuma got your tongue!” He laughed viciously, greatly entertained by his own stupid joke. “Right, the choker. I guess you’re afraid you can’t do the investigation this way and want it off, don’t ya?”

She nodded heavily. It felt like pleading by now.

“Hmm… I dunno… Wouldn’t it be fascinating to see you navigate without a word being shared? Amp up the difficulty?”

She rapidly shook her head, and so did the others.

“Tsk, you’re all babies… But I wouldn’t want a useless trial either… Okay, what about I meet you halfway? Each of you gets a free, let’s say… 20 words! 20 words can be said by each person to their heart’s content without punishment! But as soon as you go over the limit, the choker will go back to its regular settings. You get some words, and I get to enjoy seeing you suffer. Deal?”

“No deal, stop messing around and remove these stupid things!” Kaede thought. But there was no way Monokuma would be willing to do such a thing. This is the best they were going to get. So the group slowly nodded, reluctantly.

He pulled out a tablet of his own and ticked away. “One more, just a little bit, getting close… There! All done! Now hurry with your search, you’re wasting precious time…”

As soon as he left the class stood in a circle around Gonta’s body. They glanced at each other. Who was the first idiot to test whether Monokuma spoke the truth?

“... Is it for real?” Miu asked. All eyes went to her, staring as they awaited the inevitable. It didn’t come, and Miu’s face gleed. “Fucking finally! I have a lot to catch up on. Kokichi, you stupid little abortion, I will fu- ACK!”

The choker activated again. Kaede’s eyes widened. She barely spoke and already reached the limit!

They were going to have to use their words wisely.

She unlocked the Monokuma File. The set-up was the same as before, only now the images were replaced by Gonta.

The victim’s body was discovered in the backroom of Maki Harukawa’s Research Lab.

The estimated time of death is 19:30.

The victim was subjected to arrow shots, resulting in bleeding to death.

Her eyes wandered to the clock in the upper right corner. It was 20:00 now. Gonta died just a little bit before they arrived.

Kaito’s body shuddered, tightening his grip on the tablet. He too realized what that meant.

The students who arrived last turned to those who were already there upon arrival, the cycle continuing until all eyes eventually landed on Kaito. He was the first to have found Gonta, his account was the most important. He had very little choice but to spend his 20 words on it.

“... Was setting up party. Then saw signs removed. Gonta on floor. I… thought we could be on time…” He hung his head and turned to the body. “... I’m sorry.”

Maybe, if they had been on time, they could have meant something. Although looking at the wounds, Kaede was unsure what could have been done to save him. Still, that didn’t erase the immense guilt.

She lowered herself and cross-checked the arrow wounds. He had been shot in 3 places. The one in the eye or in the abdomen must have been the deciding factor. But it begged the question, where did these arrows even come from?

It must be from archery. Her eyes went to Tenko, telepathically asking if she recognized them. She was the one to have set up the gym before after all. But she cluelessly looked back.

The warehouse also held gym items, but Kaede was confident there were no archery items there. None of the other Research Labs held anything like this either.

Maki joined Kaede. She wondered what the owner of this room must be thinking. The crime scene was in her own lab. Even though she had taken her distance from the place, it didn’t look pretty on her. Much like Kaede, she was curious about where the arrows could have come from. But unlike the pianist, she had a proactive approach to answering that question.

She lifted Gonta’s arm a bit, put her hand around the arrow and pushed it in further until it came out the other side. 

The chilling rip made the majority of people immediately leave the room in disgust.

“Don’t push the arrow deeper???” Kaede thought, nearly throwing up, and Shuichi clearly wasn’t a fan of disrupting the crime scene either, but as Maki very carefully looked at the arrowhead, they understood why she did that.

The bottom prodded out below like a barbed design. Poitier. Those were not the kind of arrows you would see people use in archery, but rather, in medieval battle. Specifically created to kill someone.

At that note, Maki left as well to do who knows what.

Kaede looked around the room. The playful designs on the walls created a stark contrast to the horror of a dead classmate. The happy playtime song that just kept blaring didn’t help out either. Maybe the room was supposed to be some kind of movie theater? Kaede remembered playgrounds having those at times. But there was no equipment to be seen that would suggest such a thing. A few seats would have been appreciated in such a case as well. Weird.

Kirumi was staring at the figure-filled wall by the entrance, closest to the body, even lightly running her fingers over it. Was she inspecting it for dust or dirt? This didn’t seem the right moment to do such a thing. She must be trying to distract herself.

Out of curiosity, Kaede joined her, tilting her head in concern.

The maid immediately put her finger on the wall again, pointing at a small hole.

Kaede furrowed her brow at that, and only grew more confused as Kirumi pointed out more of them. There were 5 in total, spread out unevenly. Some were a bit larger than the others, but the essence remained.

She checked the other end of the room to see if the same pattern occurred there. It didn’t. There were only square groves.

Gonta’s body was further investigated by Shuichi, Korekiyo and Rantaro. Korekiyo clearly recognized the arrow design. If it weren’t for the lack of word count ammo, he would’ve given an essay on the origins and its usage. For now he decided to save his words, perhaps keeping it for the trial instead.

Aside from the blood patches, there were several other drops of blood around Gonta's body - one of which was wiped spread - likely created by Gonta’s attempt to move. All they further found was that with his death, the choker could finally be removed. A large red ring had cemented into his skin. He tried to scream for help. He must’ve suffered so much, and for what?

Gonta was a kind soul. Too kind. He easily fell subject to being ordered around and didn’t catch up on things as fast as others did. Someone as sweet as him wouldn’t hurt a fly - not even literally. The idea someone murdered him was impossible to grasp.

Shuichi broke Kaede out of her thoughts with a tap on the shoulder. The others had left the room. His one arm guided to the exit, while the other pointed at a red plastic button mounted to the wall just by the entrance's side. “I want to test it out,” he said.

She understood. Considering how there was no hint whatsoever on the button's purpose, it was best to stay outside and watch from behind the safe glass.

Everyone peeked through the window, Shuichi being the only one reaching for the button through the entrance. He seemed hesitant to actually press it. What was awaiting them? A scoop, a disco party?

He eventually pressed it and everyone eagerly awaited the outcome. Some mechanical whirring could be heard, but nothing else happened. Only a broken announcement by Monokuma’s voice gave a bit of context.

“Please fill the compartment.”

Kaede’s eyes scanned the main room. She hadn’t investigated this part yet, even though there wasn’t much to note either way. The party items were there as she had already noticed before. She walked up to the table where Tenko and Angie were also standing.

There were bottles with plastic cups and small snacks, mostly ready-made things like candy rather than homemade. The placement of it all was a bit haphazardly done, but this wasn’t exactly meant to be a fancy dinner anyway.

Angie reached out for one of the fried snacks, to which Tenko immediately aikido’d it out of her hands. Angie’s face darkened, scaring Tenko. She allowed Angie to eat the next snack, although she clearly wasn’t happy about it.

Kaede giggled a bit at the sight and looked around further.

Tsumugi tapped Ryoma and Kaito on the shoulder to grab their attention, and opened her mouth to speak. But no words left, instead her confidence faltered and her fingers began counting the words she wanted to say. Again and again. That was going to go nowhere.

She wasn’t the only one trying to interact, Kokichi especially had his mind set on Maki. Except he didn’t try to talk. He wasn’t counting on his fingers to make sure the word limit would not be reached, not even moving his body in such a way to give a hint on what he wanted to discuss. He just kept circling around her, blocking her path and staring with a wicked look in his eyes.

Kaede quickly got between, blocking Kokichi from Maki. “Alibi?” she asked with her very first word.

He tilted his head a bit. “Alibis don’t matter. Everyone knew the party would start at 8.”

What? That made no sense. Of course alibis were important. If you were with someone when Gonta died, it couldn’t have been you, right? She herself was safe this time around for example, and so was Kirumi. Maybe he just said it because he didn’t have an alibi of his own.

But he did have a good point that everyone knew about the party. These were ideal circumstances for planning a murder. Someone would come eventually. Yet…

Kokichi then left to bother someone else. Kaede turned to Maki. She expected to receive a thank you for helping out, even if it were a silent nod of approval. But instead the caregiver glared immensely, “I don’t need your pity.” 

With a baffled face Kaede watched Maki walk away. “I was just trying to help, geez… What is her problem? I’ll just put it on the circumstances…” As Maki left her eyes wandered towards the indoor playground’s entrance. Miu’s shoes were there. Had she gone in? This wasn’t the right time to play around.

She went in as well, of course taking off her shoes to avoid angering Maki even more, and crawled her way through the brightly coloured maze. All the twists and turns were a lot harder to do than she could remember. Contraptions she would speed through as a child had now become an active challenge. Her bones weren’t used to all this climbing and tired her out.

“Miu, where the heck are you…?!” she eventually yelled out of frustration.

Miu had already wasted her words before and couldn’t answer because of that, but did have another tool at her disposal. A plastic ball hit the net near Kaede’s head, drawing her attention to the ball pit area where Miu was digging around. There was something else in her hand.

After some more crawling Kaede finally found the slide to the ball pit, slid down with a small yelp and landed in the sea of rainbow plastic.

Miu fished around, drawing herself to the corner in the upper left. As the pianist grew closer she finally saw what Miu was holding.

Her hand swung around, balls flying through the air and finally pulling up whatever she was looking for. She proudly pushed it in Kaede’s face along with the other items.

Arrows. She held a total of 5 arrows in her hands. They were the exact same as the ones sitting in Gonta’s flesh, but there was no sign of blood on them.

Monokuma’s voice sounded from afar. “Time’s up, kids, the class trial will start momentarily! Please assemble in front of the Shrine of Judgement in the courtyard!”

The two crawled out of the playground, Miu quickly showing her findings before everyone left. If only she still had the words left to give more context.

Kaede didn’t feel confident about the case, but not in the same way as last time. There was plenty of evidence and now they were actually prepared for what the trial would bring as well. Instead, she was bothered by how everyone approached the investigation. Even with the free 20 words, the group barely utilized the opportunity out of fear of going over it, creating a very dispersed search. Even if she watched others do things or got silently involved, it didn’t feel as though she gained much knowledge.

People didn’t share their personal insights on whatever they were faced with nor spared a lot of words on exchanging alibis. Things that are best discussed during the investigation in preparation were now left untouched. It meant there was a lot of catching up to do in the trial itself, and considering the time limit, that created an incredibly awful feeling. The last thing you'd want is to die over such a reason.

“Psst.”

Kaede turned to look where the sound came from. It was Ryoma, standing still by the entry to his own Research Lab. “Come here,” he said. “Quick, before Monokuma gets pissed.”

Throughout the investigation Ryoma had decided not to say anything, and now he used his ammo to call the girl over. It had to be important.

So she quickly ran back to him, upon which the two entered and moved to the backroom. This was the shower room. It looked dull and prison-like. Completely gray and lacking design, unless pure concrete suddenly got into fashion. The fact the window had been blackened and let out less light this way, only made the circumstances more depressing. Although thanks to it being slightly opened to let fresh air in, a slither of light came through.

But that wasn’t what Ryoma called her over for. He moved to the sinks and pointed.

The inside of the sink had turned a darker gray, probably because of water that had run through. She squinted her eyes and noticed a small piece of foreign material.

It felt sort of soggy, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it possibly was. Rubber? She looked at Ryoma for an answer, but all he said was “I haven’t used it”.

The elevator ride felt hollow. Even without the obvious, nobody would have said a word. How did they possibly end up here again? Last time was a mistake, a fate that had been sealed and could not be avoided. Now the killer robots surely were out of the room. There was no wrong wiring to blame anything on. This was a real person’s doing.

Kaede’s stand stood secluded. A dead portrait of Himiko on her left, and a dead portrait of Gonta on her right.

Monokuma cleared his throat. “Let’s begin with a basic explanation of the class trial again in case any of you have forgotten from last time. During the trial you’ll present your arguments for who the culprit is, and vote for ‘whodunnit’. Vote correctly, and only the blackened will be punished. But if you pick the wrong person… I’ll punish everyone besides the blackened, and that person will graduate from this academy! Also, refusing to vote will result in your death, so you better vote for someone… Now, be free from your shackles and destroy one another!”

He pressed a button on his screen and in an instant, the chokers released themselves to fall to the floor. Kaede’s hand instinctively caressed her throat with a big breath. There was so much she wanted to say! She wanted to laugh out loud without the worry of being choked, yell out nonsensical words and say all the things she wished she could have said in the past days to her friends!

“So who did it?” Kokichi immediately said. “Who killed Gonta?”

Chapter Text

“So who did it?” Kokichi immediately said. “Who killed Gonta?”

The room turned cold. Everyone’s capability to hold conversations again was finally restored, but it would have to be used for the worst scenario possible at this academy. The murder of a classmate. And a brutal one at that.

It was Kokichi who first acknowledged the situation. He was determined to jump right in with that sly look on his face. Kaede didn’t know how to read him. He seemed both amused and disturbed. The disturbance obviously must have come from the fact he and Gonta got along well, but the amusement… Well, it simply made no sense.

“I uh… I don't think anyone will admit to it just like that,” Tsumugi murmured.

“Worth a shot,” he grinned back, as if he was never serious to begin with.

Shuichi cleared his throat a bit. “There’s a lot of information we didn’t get because of the investigation limits… We shouldn’t waste any time.”

“Wanna go around asking for alibis?” Kaito asked.

“It would be a good start.”

“Erm, actually!” Kaede interrupted. She remembered Kokichi’s words from before. “Do they really matter?”

“Why the fuck woulnd’t they?” Miu asked.

“Well, because… everyone knew of the party. There could have been a set-up.”

“Ah, like a trap?” Rantaro crossed his arms. “Guess that is technically possible…”

“Let’s look at the murder first,” Korekiyo said. “We should be able to figure out if that was the case or not, and can always return to alibis if needed.”

Kaede gave a nod and brought her attention to the screen and its bullets of evidence. With a simple press of the button, she brought the Monokuma File to the main screen. “So his body was found in the backroom of Maki’s lab, and he passed away around 19:30.”

“And we immediately get an issue with that,” Ryoma said. “Why was Gonta there? The room was under maintenance.”

That indeed was the first issue to solve, to which only Kaito could help.

“It’s like I said, I saw the signs were removed while setting up. I went up and down a few times… I only noticed they were gone on my third time up, so I can’t say if they were already removed before that.”

So there was no way of knowing when the signs had been removed. None of the others who had come around recently had paid attention to the backroom either. It was probably best to assume the place opened earlier today but didn’t draw Kaito’s attention until after he was done with everything.

“Then there is the time he died,” Kirumi said. “Kaito mentioned how Gonta was still alive when he originally found him before immediately hurrying down to get Kaede, Shuichi and me. The attack must have been recent.”

“Not necessarily,” Maki commented. “Arrows are low velocity weapons. It will only cause immediate death if there's a direct shot to the heart or another vital organ.”

“An eye seems pretty fucking vital.”

“Not really. There’s cases of people being shot there with an arrow and surviving fine.”

“Wowwww!” Kokichi’s eyes sparkled. “That’s such cool information, Maki! I didn’t know babysitters knew that kind of stuff!”

She glared at him.

“I don’t think it is strange at all,” Korekiyo said. “I share Maki’s conclusion. Arrows are no machine guns, they were not meant to mow down armies of people. That is not to say they did not kill, but they were especially there to be a nuisance. If a soldier was shot in the leg and unable to fight, he would be dead as well.”

“Are you trying to say that…” Kaede slowly said, “he might have suffered for a long time…?”

“It is certainly possible the actual arrow shots were fired much earlier than 19:30.”

“Fuck man…” Kaito leaned against his stand. “I just don’t get it… How could this happen? Sure, I wasn’t there all the time, but… Argh…”

“Why was Gonta even there in the first place?” Angie asked. “The party wouldn’t start until 8.”

“Maybe he wanted to help?” Tenko replied. “He did enjoy serving around the pool… He’d do anything to become a gentleman. Helping set up a party would probably fit that.”

“Then he must’ve gone to Maki’s lab earlier to help Kaito out,” Shuichi said. “But he couldn’t find him, saw the backroom opened and went inside, and then… something went wrong.”

Kaede sighed. He just wanted to help and was then shot down by someone in that backroom. Were they sitting there, bow in hand and aimed at the entrance, patiently awaiting someone to enter? Maybe Gonta was never the target in the first place. Or maybe there was never a target to begin with. Simple useless slaughter. That sounded even worse.

“I don’t like how part of the murder weapon is missing…” Tsumugi noted. “We found plenty of arrows, but not the bow it was shot from. Where did the murder weapon come from and where could it be now? Was it disposed of in another room?”

“I checked my own lab,” Ryoma said, “but didn’t find anything there.”

“It couldn’t have come from the gym or warehouse,” Tenko said. “I have checked those plenty. Lots of different sports are available, but not archery.”

“And we all explored the school together when new areas opened up,” Rantaro added. “Surely we would’ve noticed if there had been a bow just lying around.”

Where did the murder weapon come from indeed? Kaede caressed her chin thoughtfully, staring at the picture of the arrow head Maki pushed out - it still made her skin crawl. She couldn’t figure out for the life of her where the weapon came from, let alone where the missing half of it could have gone after the murder.

It just didn’t make sense. Bows are large. It’s not something you could easily hide. If it had been in the ball pit Miu would have come across it, or even if it had been disposed of in the indoor playground, she herself would have come across it. 

In other words, if there had been a bow, they would have found it.

“Maybe… there was no bow involved?”

The class raised their brow at Kaede, Kaito in specific tilting his head in confusion. “But then how are you supposed to shoot someone with arrows?”

She shrugged a bit, “Maybe the culprit actually used them to stab?”

Tsumugi tumbled her thumbs. “Stabbing Gonta doesn’t seem like an easy thing to do… He must have been disabled beforehand.”

“Are you referring to poison?” Kirumi asked. “Perhaps it was put in one of the drinks.”

“All the present food and drinks were untouched, I saw it myself,” Tenko said.

“Or,” Maki butted in, “maybe he was stunned using the choker. There were a lot of marks on his neck.”

“Okay, but… Gonta was really good at staying quiet. He wouldn’t get himself choked so easily,” the other woman argued back again.

“Maybe he got hurt, automatically screamed and was stunned that way,” Ryoma said.

“But we just said to hurt him he must have been stunned, not the other fucking way around. Keep the fuck up, depresso espresso!”

“He must’ve been shot then,” Kaede said.

“Okay, but again, how do you do that without a bow?” Kaito questioned. “I get that we found plenty of other arrows, but no actual way to shoot them.”

The arrows had to have been shot. There was no other way. So then… Well, there was only one logical explanation.

“The contraption which shot the arrows… isn’t visible.”

The group looked up to her.

“During the investigation we noticed there were small holes in one wall, and creases in the other. These walls are right across from each other. I’m thinking the arrows might have been shot from inside the crease wall. It's probably why those holes are there, they're a result of arrows that got stuck in the wall.”

“Hmm…” Rantaro ticked his fingers on the stance. “That would make sense. It’s a weird long empty room." He smiled sheepishly, laughing a little, "If you strip away the colorful design it’s almost like a sort of shooting range.”

“So… there’s a shooting range in Maki’s lab?” Shuichi gave a disturbed but confused look.

“I mean… In kid's playgrounds you sometimes have these machines that can automatically shoot out balls,” Kaede explained. “That’s probably what it was originally meant for, but the arrows were put in the compartment instead.”

Ryoma nodded a bit. “So kind of like my tennis shooting machines, but just built in the wall. I’ll buy it.”

“If that’s the case, the arrows must have been shot using the red button. It made an empty compartment announcement, so it has to be related to shooting them out,” Shuichi said.

Kaede nodded contently. That’s one thing set in stone. The culprit pressed the red button to which arrows shot from the wall and hit Gonta!

“Isn’t it uh… Isn’t it possible Gonta got himself killed then?” Kaito carefully asked.

They turned to look at him.

“I mean, if he went to the lab, saw the backroom was open with nothing inside but a bright red button… Hell, I probably would have pressed it as well. He was ready to have some balls come at him, but instead he got himself shot.”

“Ha! You want balls in your face, Kaito?! I bet you do that with Sherlock Homo on your nights out!” Miu laughed, earning a loud groan from the people in her proximity.

Shuichi cleared his throat, ignoring the inventor’s comment. “That… is not that crazy of a story. But who does that make the culprit? Gonta, or the one who put the arrows there?”

“Well, why don’t we ask the professional?” Rantaro looked up. “Monokuma?”

“Hmm? What?”

“Say someone filled the compartment with arrows, but the shot is purposefully activated by the victim through a button… Is the one we have to point out as the culprit the one who put the arrows in, or the one who activated the shot?”

“Well, those are tricky circumstances… It depends. Say you put a nice hot pan on the fire, and some idiot passes by, trips and falls with their face in the pot, burning their skin. Who do you blame? The person who put the pan there, or the idiot that tripped?”

“That’s not a real answer,” he sighed, looking down again. “I guess in this situation it could mean Gonta is his own culprit… What do you guys think?”

Could that be it? Gonta ‘got himself killed’? A stupid situation where he was prepared to play a game, only to shoot himself down? Some voiced it as a conclusion they were satisfied with.

To Kaede, it didn’t feel right. She should be content with such an ‘easy’ conclusion, to have her initial worry of the timer negated as voting could be started, but as she stared at the gathered evidence, a sudden realization hit.

“... Wait, that’s not possible! Someone else is the culprit and they purposefully shot him!”

She mirrored the evidence of the holes in the wall as well as the arrows Miu found in the ball pit to the big screen. “The 5 arrows Miu found are the exact same as the ones that killed Gonta, you can see that from the arrowhead. And we already determined the holes in the wall were a result of arrows. If Gonta had activated the ‘game’, why were none of these arrows still stuck in the wall? They were removed by someone, and I doubt it was our dying victim…”

“But could that not be a result of the person who filled the compartment testing it out?” Tsumugi asked. “They shot the arrows to see if it actually worked, and then removed them which left holes.”

“No,” she shook her head, “that would not match the amount of arrows shot. There were 3 in Gonta’s body, and 5 holes in the wall. Why would the first time shoot out 5 arrows and the second only 3? Furthermore, would the culprit not have refilled the compartment rather than dispose of them in the ball pit of all places?”

“That is a good point…” Kirumi noted, caressing her chin in thought. “The behavior simply doesn’t check out. To the very least, the culprit must have been with Gonta when it happened, whether they were actively involved or not.”

“So then we need the alibis after all!” Kaito declared. “Who’s up first?"

“You should go,” Shuichi replied. “We’re going to need more information from you regarding the circumstances first.”

“Yeah, of course! Anything you need, bro!”

“We have to know when you were in the lab and when you were down exactly so we know which timeframes the alibis must apply to. Can you fill in?”

“Oh, uh…” He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. “That’s the one thing I can’t say for sure. The first time I went up must have been around 18:00 maybe… But I don’t remember when exactly I went down or how long I stayed away. I went down twice to get things, so when I was back up for the third time, I found him. That must have been not that long before 19:30, but everything in between is a mystery.”

“Surely Kirumi knows!” Angie chirped.

“... Me?”

“You helped Kaito with the party, didn’t you?”

“Not in that timeframe,” Kaede replied in her stead. “She was in my lab.”

“Yes, besides, I did not help with the event in any way. I was not involved in the preparations.”

Kaito smiled. “Yeah, I wanted to take care of it myself, so everything you saw in regards to snacks was made by me!”

Well, at least that explained why everything looked so simplistic. Something Tenko had noticed too. “I knew it! That food looked terrible compared to how it usually is!”

Kokichi let out an offended gasp: “Kaito was going to give us food poisoning?! Thank God the investigation saved our lives!”

“Well gee, thanks a lot, guys… I tried my best, y’know…”

“I thought it was good!” Angie remarked.

Ryoma blankly stared at her. “... You decided to eat when a classmate just died? Weren’t you friends with Gonta?”

“I can’t think on an empty stomach either. Now that it's been satisfied I can find the culprit with Atua's help.”

Maki raised her brow in disbelief. “Okay, so who does your God claim did it?”

“Hmm… They are certainly in this room.”

“No shit, of course they fucking are!” Miu growled.

“Atua says… the location is important.”

“Again, no shit!”

“Ohhh, I get it…” Kokichi leaned forward. “Atua means to say Maki is the culprit!”

She immediately looked up. “What?”

“It's your lab.”

“Wait, guys,” Kaede interrupted, “we were gonna go over the alibis, remem-”

“So? Anyone can get in.”

“That's not the issue. My issue is, why does a kiddie playground have murder weapons?”

“Guys, we have to stop jumping midway towards different subjec-”

“How should I know? The culprit must’ve gotten it from somewhere else.”

“Did the murder weapon really come from outside the lab, though?”

Kaede’s eyes widened. “... The arrows… came from within Maki's lab. We already determined they were shot from the wall. A long rectangular room with nothing but people painted on the wall… We joked about it being like a shooting range, but what if it’s like… an actual shooting range.”

Maki glared at her. “Don’t jump to conclusions like that. Someone put arrows in the compartment to create a trap. We got that far.”

“But that conclusion continues to not answer where the arrows came from. If we assume the arrows were in the compartment originally, it also eliminates the question of where the matching bow went. There was never meant to be a bow in the first place!”

Korekiyo played with his pendant. “Indeed… The origins of these arrows continue to be on my mind. They were used in medieval battles, The Hundred Year War between France and England especially being popular. Perhaps if my lab had opened it would have been present there, but that is not the case… There is no reason to own these weapons aside as artifacts. They have served their purpose in the past and been replaced with much more effective long distance weaponry. Unless one would insist on using them for their original purpose…”

“Would it be that weird though?” Ryoma questioned. “This is a killing game. Monokuma could have randomly dropped them somewhere.”

“But it’s like Kaede said,” Rantaro wove his hand a bit in the air, “then where is the original bow? He’s not going to airdrop arrows with no way to use them. Honestly, it makes more sense if the compartment was filled with arrows from the start and we got ourselves a not-so-kid-friendly rainbow shooting range.”

“However,” Kirumi cleared her throat, “the Research Labs are meant to be a showcase of our talent. My lab does not contain any dangerous killing traps. Does anyone else's?

Miu put her hands on her hips. “Aside from the obvious… Nah.”

“No, not that I have come across…” Kaede answered.

Ryoma ticked his candy cigarette against his lips. “Guess you could always do something with the practice machines… but there were just tennis balls in there.”

Kirumi’s brow grew strict. “So then, why does Maki's?”

Kokichi’s smile grew wide. “Nee-heehee… Yeah, Maki, why does your lab have a shooting range?”

The child caregiver remained dead quiet, ignoring him.

“Tell us! Hey, hey, tell us!”

Shuichi swallowed loudly, his eyes shakily peeking from underneath his cap. “Maki, is… is there something…?”

“....”

“If you’re not going to say it,” Kokichi commented, “then I will. I watched my worst crime video, remember…?”

Her eyes widened, screaming murder at the boy. Kaede would swear she almost leapt at him from her stand to shut him up, but instead the others’ growing eyes that came from Kokichi’s comment, put her in place. She squeezed the stand’s bar, grinding her teeth before eventually letting out a big sigh.

“It’s probably only in my lab, because… I need it.”

“Need it?” Angie cocked her head. “But you’re the Ultimate Child Caregiver! Do you teach kids archery?”

“No. … How am I supposed to explain any of this? I’m not… the Ultimate Child Caregiver…”

“Eh?”

“... I was afraid my lab would give away my true talent, but it didn’t so I let it out of my sight… But I guess Monokuma just played along in my own game.”

Kaede swallowed. She didn’t like how hesitant the woman was to lay out the truth. “Wh… What is your talent then…?”

“... I’m the Ultimate Assassin.”

“What..?!”

The entire class gasped in shock at the revelation. Angie, who stood next to Maki, clasped her cheeks and took a big step back towards Korekiyo. Even Ryoma appeared to grow uncomfortable standing next to her.

Kaito and Shuichi especially were overthrown by the news. They were friends with Maki, and not even they knew.

The astronaut stared at her in confusion. “That’s… Why wouldn’t you say that from the start?”

“Oh, yes, let me just introduce myself as an assassin to everyone I meet. I’m sure that will land well.” She played with one of her pigtails, “That's just asking for everyone to become afraid of you… Once Monokuma announced the killing game I was especially determined to keep my identity hidden. I knew people would jump on me as soon as murder occurs - nor would anyone trust me in the first place.” She sighed and let go of her hair again, “But I should have known Kokichi had my video and it would only be a matter of time…”

Kokichi grinned. “That’s a lie! I didn’t get yours. I just wanted to rile you up!”

“.... You little-”

Shuichi forced the edge of his cap down. He was shaking. “So then… that shooting range is there as a part of your true talent. The arrows were there all along. It all belongs to you. Are we… supposed to appoint you the culprit..?”

Her stand shot forward to the middle, a sign the end was nearing. She realized that too, her eyes widening. “No,” she breathed, “I didn’t kill him. I promise you I didn’t. There’s something else weird going on here.”

“And we’re supposed to fucking believe that?” Miu threw her hand in the air. “You’ve been lying your ass off about who you are, but now we’re supposed to trust it when you say you had jackshit to do with it?! I wanna bet you knew about the arrows all along and drew Gonta in!”

“It wasn’t me. If you vote for me, we’re all going to die.”

“Is that the truth, or just a manipulation tactic..?” Tsumugi whispered to Korekiyo.

The man thoughtfully ran a hand across his cheek. “Considering all the lies… It is hard to believe any other word she has to say.”

“... I believe her!” Kaito raised a fist in the air. “Maki is my friend, I know she wouldn’t do this! This isn’t like her!”

Kokichi tilted his head. “Is being the Ultimate Assassin like her?”

“Shut up! Nothing is set in stone yet… We’re going over the alibis, and now for real!”

Kaito’s determination was unbeatable. He wouldn’t allow anyone to vote for Maki. Not yet at least. For a bit hope arose. Kaede hoped as well, even if it would mean they still didn’t have anyone to vote for. They might not get along well, Maki getting angry with almost every step Kaede took, but to see her as someone this cruel didn’t cut it.

Unfortunately, things weren’t looking good for her. Maki had no alibi. Kirumi, Kaede and Shuichi could all vouch for each other. Tsumugi and Korekiyo were drinking tea. With every additional person who had someone to back them up, Maki’s cold demeanor broke down ever so slightly. She was nervous, even if she did everything she could not to show it.

“I was in my room,” Ryoma said. “That makes me the first person with no real alibi.”

“... Wait, I’m confused.”

He raised his eyebrow at Tenko. “Confused about what?”

“Angie and I were at the pool the whole time… But I saw someone open the window. You know, that blackened one with a view on the pool? I don’t know what time that was... Angie, do you remember?”

“Ermmm, not really. Definitely after 18:00, I remember looking at my tablet before we sat ourselves down. It wasn’t extremely long after. But Ryoma should know, right? It’s his lab!”

The tennis player’s eyebrow went down again to furrow. “I haven’t been to my lab since we still had the ability to talk. I didn’t open the window.”

“Then, who was in your lab?”

“... The culprit.” Kaede stuck her hand in her pocket and searched for the only physical evidence in this room. She really hoped she hadn’t lost it. “Before Ryoma and I went down, he showed me the bathroom… Someone used the faucet.”

“Probably wanted to clean off blood,” Ryoma added.

“Yes, and in that process… They lost somethin- Ah! Here it is!” She raised the small piece of foreign material in the air for everyone to see.

Although everyone simply squinted their eyes without any ability to make out what she was showcasing.

She quickly drew it down again at the realization the dramatic reveal held no weight. “It uh… It’s a piece of foreign material which was left in the faucet. I have no clue what it is… It’s kind of soggy…? Or, it was, I guess, since it dried up in my pocket… And it’s kind of like rubber… But-! I’m sure this is the deciding factor to capture our culprit! We just need to figure out who it belongs to.”

“How the hell are we supposed to decide who it belongs to if we don’t even know what it is?” Miu grumbled. “Anyone happen to have a microscope along with analysis equipment and maybe 2 weeks to spare for a result?”

Kirumi crossed her hands, laying them on her lap. “That will not be necessary. If this soggy material came off while cleaning off blood, the culprit must have cleaned their shoes. It is the only item on someone’s person it could have come from based on your description.”

“... Well, fuck me, I guess the maid is also a forensic analyst now!”

“I am only basing my conclusion off the description. It is no certainty. Kaede, may I take a closer look at it?”

“Yeah, of course!” Prepared to have the material travel the road of less people, she turned towards Kokichi, but his sly grin immediately made her back down from that decision. She didn’t trust him, especially not if on her right the much better Rantaro stood. So she handed it to him instead, passing it on until it eventually reached Kirumi.

She carefully received the item in her glove, picked it up and brought it close to her eyes as if they had the ability to zoom in. She squeezed it a few times, thoughtful hums leaving her mouth while everyone else kept their breath.

“... This material comes closest to the sole of bathroom slippers, or any other kind of slipper,” she eventually concluded. “They are of a softer material than the soles of regular walking shoes since they have a larger focus on comfortability rather than the travelling of long distances. And of cheaper quality… I recognize the material to be the same as the slippers some of my masters wear. I get a close look while cleaning their footwear.”

“... So… it’s from a slipper…?” Shuichi sweated.

“But we all wear regular shoes, right?” Tsumugi said. “Well, except for two of us…”

“And I have an alibi!” Tenko quickly said.

And just like that, Maki’s stand moved back to switch places with Kaito’s.

“What the-?!”

Shuichi quickly turned to Kirumi. “A-are you sure it’s from a slipper?”

“It is the only connection I can make… But this must be easy to disprove. All that must be done is check if there is a small piece of Kaito’s soles missing that would match the foreign material.”

“Hey, hang on…!” Kaito yelled, sweating profusely. “I walk around on these things all the time, there’s gonna be a little hole for sure just because of that…!”

Tsumugi poked her finger in the air. “Actually, wear and tear on such shoes really won’t easily get a piece off… Speaking from experience from a cosplay I once did.”

“But I’m not wearing any cosplay…!”

“It’s easy, Kaito!” Kokichi said encouragingly. “Just show us the bottom of your shoes!”

“Come on, man… You guys don’t actually think it was me, right…? Shuichi, bro? Maki Roll?”

Shuichi silently stared at his own shoes, while Maki unknowingly looked at him. “... Why are you having so much trouble?”

“Cuz I’m gonna get wrongly accused here! I’m the one who called for the party, why would I commit a murder there?! That’s like putting down a big ass sign saying ‘I’m the culprit’! That’d be stupid!”

“Stupid enough to be coming from you,” Kokichi mumbled.

“Shut up!”

Kaede’s eyes fell on Shuichi. He was shaking, avoiding any and all eye contact. He looked about as panicked as he did when he told the story of the criminal he caught who looked at him in hatred.

Shuichi knew the truth. He knew he was supposed to strike down his best friend as the culprit. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it. It was too much.

Someone else was going to have to do it, and although Kaede also had a hard time believing the case, she felt obligated to aid the detective.

“I think I’ve got it all figured out…” Kaede announced. “Ready?”

“N-not with me as the culprit, right…?!” Kaito stuttered.

“A bit ago Monokuma gave us access to new areas, including Maki’s Research Lab, which its owner was very keen on protecting. The inside turned out to be nothing but an indoor playground area, with a room in the back closed off with maintenance and ‘entry forbidden’ signs. The reason Maki was so concerned is because her talent as a Child Caregiver is a lie. She… is actually the Ultimate Assassin, and as such assumed her lab would be filled with related items. When this didn’t turn out to be the case, she after the discovery left the room unattended. Unfortunately, her assumption turned out to be false.”

“Monokuma played along in Maki’s secret. The closed off back room is in fact a shooting range with the ability to shoot arrows from within the wall. Thanks to the area being closed, nobody finds out until much later… And that much later would occur when our culprit decides to throw a party.”

“The culprit announced the party the same day in the morning during breakfast, using items to spell it out due to the inability to speak. Still, everyone is aware the party starts at 20:00. Our culprit eventually went up to the place around 18:00 to start setting up. They approach the backroom and remove the signs to enter. Since it looked like a game room, they turned it on using the red button to see what it was about. To their own surprise, 4 arrows shoot from the other side of the room and get stuck in the wall.”

“It is then that Gonta comes in, like a true gentleman not wanting our culprit to have to do everything on their own. It probably was never within our culprit’s party plan, but their new discovery sparked a great opportunity for a murder. They lured Gonta into the room and just as he stood prepared to play the game, our culprit pressed the red button, shooting another 4 arrows out: 3 hit Gonta in the eye, abdomen and arm, while the 4th arrow got stuck in the wall.”

“The culprit knows exactly what to do from here on. The victim is down on the ground, with no way to call out for help because of the choker and nobody else arriving until 20:00. The culprit has full control over covering their own tracks. All they had to do was remove the arrows in the wall and dispose of them where they wouldn’t be found - the ball pit - and then create an alibi of their own by going up and down to get party items. Since the Ultimate Maid’s help was not, nor could physically be, requested, they would easily be able to get away with grabbing quick serve items like ready-made candy, bottles and fried snacks. There was only one thing that required more effort.”

“The scene was bloody, and the culprit accidentally smeared some of the blood out with their slipper. They couldn’t go carrying a bloodied shoe around, especially not for their prepared scenario. So the culprit left for the nearest bathroom, the one in Ryoma’s lab. They opened a window for some air and proceeded to clean off the blood underneath the faucet. Unfortunately the blood wasn’t easy to remove, and the culprit had to scrub quite roughly, which resulted in a piece from their sole coming loose. An innocent small item that would eventually lead to the culprit’s demise.”

“When everything was said and done, Gonta passed away and our culprit got in the mood to pretend he had just found his body, going as far as to activate their choker to add believability to their own panic. They rushed down to get 3 people to the scene, an important part to getting everything just right as well, as the body discovery announcement only goes off when 3 people excluding our culprit have found the body. The culprit made themselves a victim in this story by making it as though he hoped to find someone to help Gonta. That combined with their pre-planned party and their personality… There was no reason for anyone to question them.”

“A simple spur in the moment but an ingenious plan… A plan that was made by Kaito Momota.”

Even though it all made sense, even though everything came together so nicely, Kaede had a hard time believing her own words. None of it fit Kaito’s persona. This wasn’t like him. She should know, they were essentially personality twins. She would never have it inside of her to do something so cruel, so surely neither would he. Maybe she was wrong?

Yet, as everyone began to vote and the celebrations sounded with Kaito’s picture on the screen, this awful truth was confirmed. He really was capable of murder after all.

Everyone’s eyes slowly moved from the screen to Kaito himself, baffled by the astronaut’s betrayal. Maki’s face twisted to different emotions - an amount Kaede hadn’t seen her express before. And Shuichi… Well, he still wouldn’t look up.

Kaito, of course, noticed that. He appeared to be disappointed in himself, though Kaede couldn’t tell if he was disappointed to have been caught, or for another reason.

She had to know why he did it. There was no digital excuse as there was last time, this was a conscious move done for… some God forsaken reason. There had to be an explanation, anything to clear the growing anxiety in her mind. Maybe Gonta was secretly a bad person. There had to be a good reason!

“The only issue I have is that… I don’t understand why. Why did you kill Gonta, Kaito? Was it something about the motive videos? I assumed you didn’t watch it.”

“I didn’t…”

“So then… what did Gonta ever do to you?”

“Nothing! He did absolutely nothing!”

“Then why did you kill him…?”

“It’s not like I wanted to…! I-... There’s something I need to correct in your story. You got everything right, except the part where I pressed the red button.”

“In truth… When I went upstairs to set everything up, I grew curious about the backroom. It was still closed off, but I was just itching to see what it was about! Could be good for the party! So I set all the blockings aside and went in. Nice red button… You just know I had to press it. So I did and…” He sweated some. “It almost shot me…! I thought it was just going to shoot balls, so I freaked out! It was a damn trap! There could be more stuff like that in the academy, I had to warn people.”

“I hurried down and ran into Gonta as he just left his lab. I couldn’t explain what happened, but he came along. We went to the backroom, but… I don’t think he understood. He must’ve thought I was excited to show him a game or something… He wanted to press the button to play.”

“... I wanted to try and make him understand, but I didn’t know how. He kept reaching out for it and he kept looking so confused no matter what I did... I got frustrated, so I just… yelled it out, but then…” He grew pale, lightly touching his bruised throat. “... The choker got me real good. I tripped and accidentally hit the button with my back. And before I knew it, he… Fuck, man…”

“It wasn’t deliberate, I swear it wasn’t! I need you to understand that… I’m not a bad guy…”

She knew it! Of course there was a logical explanation to all this! The only way Kaito would do such a thing is if he never meant to do it in the first place. It relieved her to know, but at the same time, sadness washed over her. Kaito wasn’t a bad person after all, but he was going to be punished as one. He was going to be executed. All he wanted was to gather everyone for a party, bring the group closer together… Now his life would have to come to an abrupt end.

“Boo-hoo, poor widdle Kaito with his poor widdle story,” Kokichi mockingly howled.

“... What? Don’t believe me? I’m not lying..!”

“Yeah, I guess I can’t disprove your little accident, but… everything you did after that was definitely deliberate.”

“Wh… What?”

“Or did you accidentally trip and dispose of all evidence which led to you? Tripped and went up and down a few more times to dress the room to make your story more believable? Tripped to Ryoma’s room and accidentally cleaned off your slipper?

Kaede tried to interrupt, “Kokichi, what are you-”

“You very intentionally made moves to get away with your crime. Admit it, you saw an opportunity to get out of here and took it. That still makes you a bad guy, Kaito. A good guy would’ve come clean rather than risk our lives.”

“Hey, I-... I panicked! I knew I was going to be seen as the culprit, but I’m not ready to die! I still haven’t been to space, and my grandparents need someone to take care of them-”

“What? You think we don’t have any hopes and dreams? But well, I guess our lives just aren’t as important as yours. So you simply left Gonta to die all alone so you could fix your mistake.”

“If I could turn back time I would’ve done it differently, but this is just how it went... Argh... I’m sorry, everyone... I'm sorry, Gonta... And...” He turned to his friends. "I'm sorry, Maki and Shuichi."

“Enough of all this chattery!” Monokuma said. “It is execution time!!! Ready for the ride of your life, Mr Momota?!”

Kaito clenched his fists. He had been found guilty, there was nowhere to escape to and no way to reset. He should know that too, he should know there was no way to survive what would come for him. All one could do is embrace it.

But Kaito wasn’t a quitter.

“... Say, if I survive my execution, do I get to go?”

“... Eh?"

“If I beat my execution, make it through the whole thing alive, do I get to go?”

“Like, let free? Hmmm… I have yet to see someone make it, buuut… If you do, I guess that is your reward!”

“Good!” He slammed his fists together. “I will take my stand! I will go toe to toe with whatever you throw at me! So try me, Monokuma! Just try to kill me!”

“Puhuhuhu, ohhh, I love it when they struggle! Let’s give it all we’ve got!”

Kaito was quickly swept to the execution doors once the sound of Monokuma’s squeaky toy hammer hit the button. The rest of the class was kept in the trial room, the giant screen used to share evidence now switching. The OLED quality deteriorated to CRT. It felt as though everything was being filmed with a cheap old home video recorder.

Kaito’s eyes fluttered open, quickly met with the seat he had been bound to. The space shuttle he had been placed in was nothing but a taped together junkyard, falling apart at a near breeze.

An operation room filled with dozens of Monokumas sitting behind box computers disturbed the image, one of them in particular standing up and raising its paw.

Go for launch

The engine ignites

3

2

1

Liftoff!

The shaky capsule shot away from the earth’s crust, penetrating the atmosphere as several pieces already unintendedly broke off.

Kaito’s breathing was racing, heart beating many times faster than normal. The heat intensified as an error message in regards to the airconditioning called for attention.

As soon as the ship ‘stabilized’, he managed to claw the belts off, immediately getting up and floating up and down to go over procedures he surely was familiar with. But the shuttle itself was not aware of such procedures. The majority of switches broke off as soon as they were touched, screens were nothing but pieces of paper decorated with colorful chalk, buttons got stuck in the plastic.

Things only got worse from there as more errors appeared. The ship displayed heating issues, systems going offline one after another. No amount of knowledge could fix what was begging to fall apart at any moment. Yet, Kaito continued. He got creative, interchanging parts between systems that could be ‘missed’ and those which could not. He was determined to make it to the end no matter the odds.

Just as the majority of issues seemed to be fixed, only the incredible heat still squeezing the sweat out of his body, the shuttle shook. It had been hit by a rock, and many more were to come as an asteroid belt approached.

He quickly took his place by the steering wheel, tightly grabbed onto it and made his course. He managed to avoid the many approaching rocks, only scratching the surface on a few occasions, earning him blaring alarm bells. But despite it, the end was near. The rain came to its end and he let out a ragged but victorious laugh.

It was time to set course back to earth.

And then, a chip. A paint flake no bigger than a few thousandths of a millimeter hit the low quality window, the chip slowly extending its cracks until…

BANG

The window broke, the pressure plunged and the air was stolen by space.

Kaito quickly reached back for an air container or some kind, holding out his hand as he turned blue.

30 seconds. That’s all it took to go from victory to death.

The capsule drifted off into the cold void. Further and further away, never to be seen again.

Kaede couldn’t sleep and decided to go for a stroll under the night sky, hoping it would calm her down at least a little bit after witnessing such a soul-crushing display. Kirumi came along, although not a word was exchanged between the two. Once they approached the dormitory again, Maki and Shuichi stood by the picnic tables.

Maki didn’t look happy.

“You’re kidding me, right?” she scowled.

“Why would I be kidding…?”

“Kaito’s dead. There’s no reason to continue training.”

“That… That’s not true…”

“Besides, do you really want to train with an assassin? I might backstab you just like he did.”

“Hey, what’s all the fuss about?” Kaede quickly approached.

“Great, now she is here too…”

Her brow furrowed. “All I said was hey…”

“This isn’t your conversation to have.”

She put her foot down. “Shuichi is my friend, so it in fact does matter. Why are you being so mean to him?”

“Kaito isn’t here anymore to force us together. He can stop pretending to like me now.”

“But I’m not pretendin-”

“All this getting along stuff, friendship meetups like it actually means something? It’s ridiculous. I lied to you, and Kaito did too.”

“You’re… You’re saying that as if he’s a bad person,” Kaede uttered.

“Because he is.”

“But he explained the whole thing! We had already voted for him, I don’t see why he would lie about it. He even went out to protect you when everyone got on your back…!”

“He still tried to cover it up.”

“... You’re not actually going with Kokichi, are you? He’s been doing nothing but riling people up, especially you.”

Maki sighed deeply. “I don’t take pleasure in actually agreeing with that toddler, but he’s right on this one. Anything nice Kaito has ever said or done… It’s just a facade. This is why you can’t trust happy, go lucky extroverted people.”

“Does that mean you don’t trust me either?”

“... I guess I don’t.” She left at that.

Kaede gritted her teeth. This was ridiculous.

“I don’t… even know what to think anymore…” Shuichi softly said. “Kaito committed a murder, and Maki is an assassin… I… How am I supposed to feel about any of this? Maybe she’s right, it was stupid to ask for training.”

Kaede shared a glance with Kirumi. Even though she wanted to tell Shuichi the opposite, it would be a lie to pretend she hadn’t been shocked to her own core. What were you supposed to think of it? Logically, Maki had now become a number 1 enemy, and Kaito… Well…

“I’m sorry you couldn’t rely on me during the trial,” he suddenly said. “My mind went blank once I realized it was him… Thank you for taking over.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kaede smiled back. “We said to stick together, didn’t we?”

“Don’t forget about the rest of the trial,” Kirumi said. “Compared to the previous, this one was rather messy… You made some good conclusions.”

That was true. There was a lot of jumping around and back and forwarding. It probably could have gone much smoother, but this clearly was a result of the less than usual investigation circumstances. Surely they wouldn’t ever have to investigate again, though. Third time’s the charm!

“Ahh, thank you… You were great too! The foreign material was a real breakthrough.”

Shuichi nodded a bit. “You could both be detectives yourselves… You’re better than I am.”

“Don’t say that,” the pianist pointed a finger in his face with a pout. “You just… need time to bloom! Besides, there’s nothing wrong with counting on others. That’s why we’re a trio! You don’t have to do it on your own.”

He mustered up a tiny forced smile. “Right. I guess I’ll… just go to bed now. There’s no point training out here on my own.”

“Hey, what about I join you instead?”

“... What?”

“I’m not much of a sports gal… I despise it, honestly. But as long as we take it easy I’d love to join! It’s about the experience together anyway. Kirumi, will you join too?”

She caressed her chin thoughtfully. “As a maid it is important to stay in shape… I have been meaning to exercise again. It would be nice to pick things up with the both of you.”

“Then it’s set! Oh, uh… Unless you of course would prefer not to, Shuichi.”

He stared for a bit, his big amber eyes peering from underneath the cap in a childlike surprise. Eventually, a smile joined in and his nervous demeanor turned welcoming. Like a dog that had been told they were going to go for a walk. “No, that sounds great. Thank you. It’s a bit late now, so maybe we can start training tomorrow. We always started after Monokuma’s nighttime announcement. I’ll pick the two of you up.”

Kaede returned a warm smile of her own. It brightened her to see him so happy. At this moment she was admittedly ready to bid her goodbyes - at least, she figured Shuichi would be tired out from all the life altering discoveries of today - but instead he specifically asked the two women to stay a bit longer. Not to train, but to lay in the grass, staring at the sky.

So they laid down in their little circle, the top of their heads near each other to make it all the more personal.

“He didn’t actually train all that much,” Shuichi whispered, the sad smile visible in his words. “Stargazing was his favorite thing to do.”

The sky looked immaculate. A deep dark blue ocean with millions of tiny lanterns. If you squint your eyes just right, stars looked like porcupines dipping their quills in the curtain, apologizing for all the unanswered wishes that have once been made upon. Instead wasted in the swirls of endless cosmic space, dust, nebulas, star clusters, galaxies and black holes.

She remembered how a teacher once explained everything you were looking at was not happening in real time. ‘A blast to the past’ is what he’d say. The stars you see had traveled years, decades or even millennia before getting to you in this moment, while its source had long died.

Despite how mind breaking the revelation felt to Kaede at the time, it now created a sense of comfort. So much time had passed, and these lights could still be remembered today. She hoped the same for Kaito. He died in the place he loved most, may the light he brought in their lives shine through from there.

“I hope you’re playing fetch with Lajka up there, Kaito.”

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Everyone had sat themselves down in the cafeteria to try and continue the routine. The intensity of the day before was hard to overwrite. Gonta died a brutal death, something his killer, Kaito, never intended on happening. All to lead to the execution of someone who - in all realness - hadn’t really done anything but make a wrong movement. Now, two people who gave a sense of comradery and encouragement were out of the room. It created a hollow feeling hard to fill.

Still, the both of them would want the group to continue and not linger on their deaths. So that’s what they tried, despite the two’s empty seats. As well as Maki’s.

Kaede stared at the girl’s unused seat. “... Has anyone seen Maki?”

Rantaro shook his head. “Haven’t seen her since the trial, honestly.”

“Vanished with the wind!” Angie exclaimed.

“I saw her last night,” Kaede added. “But I’m a bit worried over her not being here. Should we go get her?”

“Get her? Whyever would we do that?” Kokichi threw his feet on Gonta’s seat, earning a scolding from Kirumi to put his shoes back on the floor.

“She’s part of the group.”

“No, she’s the Ultimate Assassin. For our own safety, she should stay faaar away.”

“She’s fucking hiding! That’s what assassins do, they get all cautious and they can’t kill anyone!”

“I still can’t believe it…” Tenko stirred her food a bit with a fork, staring at it. “It’s so out there, you know?”

Korekiyo played with the pendant on his jacket. “I must say, as an assassin she has had ample opportunity to kill someone and get away with it. It would be easy, no? Only for none to have fallen by her hands.”

“It’s too easy, maybe…” Tsumugi whispered.

An assassin who doesn’t kill anyone. Kaede furrowed her brow mulling it over. The anthropologist made a great point. Someone like her could easily get out of here, why else be pronounced Ultimate over it? And yet, she hadn’t laid a finger on anyone, only killing someone with a cold glare. Something smelled fishy about the situation.

“Why don’t we just lock her up somewhere so she can’t kill anyone?” Miu questioned.

“Like where?” Rantaro asked.

“I don’t fucking know! We’ve got 2 unused labs, throw her in there or something!”

“Hey…!” Kaede pointed a finger at the group. “That’s way too far! She hasn’t tried to kill any of us-”

“Go for the sneak attack!” Tenko jumped from her seat, throwing a punch in the air. “Strike before she does and hit her from behind!”

“Just… let me talk to her. I’ll get through to her.”

“Um…” Shuichi turned to look at her. “Are you sure about that…?”

“Okiedoki!” Kokichi smiled. “Let’s leave everything to Kaede, she’ll make a perfect scapegoat when it goes wrong!”

“Hmph… I say we let her,” Ryoma said.

He gave the girl a thumbs-up, although she was unsure whether to interpret it as him encouraging her, or going with the other.

“Goooood morning!” Monokuma landed on the table as though fallen from the sky.

Tsumugi let out a yelp, joined in by everyone else doing the same whilst dropping any items they were holding.

“Ah, the sound of panic… It’s in my top 5 favorite sounds!”

“What’s at the top?” Angie asked, tilting her head, being one of the few not shocked by the bear’s sudden presence.

“Probably the sound of blood splashing on the floor,” Miu said with disgust dripping from her mouth.

“Actually, it’s the sound of a summer storm, believe it or not! Drip, drop, raindrops on the leaves…”

Rantaro let out a deep sigh. “Cut to the chase. What are you here for?”

“Ah, well, since you guys overcame another class trial, you deserve another prize!”

“Keys to new areas, perhaps?” Kirumi curiously asked.

“Yes! Go explore, my little scouts!” Monokuma handed out another set of strange items: a Golden Hammer, Magic Key and Ninja Scroll. More random junk nobody would know what to do with. He jumped from the table and took his leave, but not without one final announcement. “Oh, and uh… I hid another Flashback Light somewhere.”

Everyone’s hair stood upright. The revelations of the first light still caused great confusion, the context of it all remaining obscure, but the importance of it never leaving Kaede’s mind. The light didn’t exist for fun and games, especially not with another being hidden. It gave a clue, something she knew had to be related to why they were brought here. Maybe, it could even answer how to get everyone out without killing. They had to find the other one.

Like last time, everyone split up to search the grounds for new areas. Kaede, on the other hand, put her focus on finding the light, starting with the garden. She checked every bush and patch of grass, hoping to get her hands on the item she wanted most.

A deep sigh left her mouth as she returned to the lower courtyard empty-handed. She pulled a bit on her sweater, cursing herself for thinking the light would be hidden in the garden. Last time they found it in a chest in a new part of the academy. It simply made sense for the next one to be in such a place again. Searching the garden never was a good idea to begin with.

“Hey, why the long face, Kaede? Cheer up!” Tenko waved at her, standing by the only statue in the open area.

At the other’s words she brought a smile to her face and approached. “Ah, don’t mind it. Bad luck is all… So you took off with the Ninja Scroll?”

“Uh-huh! Cuz I know just what to do with it!” Her back turned to the pianist, instead focusing on the fox-like statue. The stone figure consisted of a ninja of some sort, wearing a plastic kitsune mask. Nothing else accompanied it, leaving its purpose unknown. A strange creative choice of Monokuma, Kaede had figured. But only now that Tenko tapped the scroll against the cylinder hole in its mouth did she realize its meaning

“Oh! You think the scroll is supposed to go there?”

“I am confident! I’ve had my eye on this thing for a while now. Hahah, and I even know what it will reveal…”

The way her voice lowered almost terrified Kaede. She slid the scroll inside and took a step back, bouncing through her knees awaiting her prize. It remained quiet for a little bit, until the statue’s eyes lit up and the entire area started shaking. The trees further ahead trembled in their roots, falling down one by one, to then be replaced by a building arising from the ground. A dojo, decorated with bright blue lights and an enormous ‘WELCOME!!!” sign.

Kaede's mouth stood agape. “... I was just there, where did an entire building pop up from…?!”

Tenko did not question any of the logic, simply letting out a loud glee and clapping her hands together. “I knew it! I knew it would give access to my talent lab!”

“Y-you knew…? How?”

“It’s simple really… That statue wears a kitsune mask. There’s different types of kitsune, and one of them is called a Tenko. And my name is Tenko! It’s a total match, see?!”

Scratching her head, Kaede stared at the statue. She had a hard time remembering any of that information. “Aren’t Tenko dangerous or something? I can vaguely remember that they would shape-shift into beautiful women to seduce men or cause mischief.”

“E-eh?!” The girls’ face twisted in offense, immediately breaking out in a cold sweat. “N-no way…! They can be benevolent and bring blessings too! They’ll protect those they care for!”

She went on to tell different stories of good Tenko and generally praised their abilities. Her speech reminded Kaede of a well put together school presentation; one created with actual preparation and passion, or otherwise at least a fear of receiving a fail. This entire song had been sung before, it definitely wasn’t her first time.

“Okay, I got you..!” Kaede interrupted, trying to end the conversation before they would continue standing here till nightfall.

“Ah, good… Hey, what about you come train some time?”

“Train?”

“Yeah, this killing game is dangerous… We’ve had a pretty bad strike of degenerate males attacking as well.”

“... Did Keebo even identify as such? And Kaito's was an accident.”

“... The point is, self-defense classes wouldn’t do any harm. I want to invite all the girls.”

Kaede’s eyes squinted in thought. She couldn’t reiterate how much sports didn’t fit her. On the other hand, Tenko did have a good point. Even though she didn’t want to distrust the others to feel the need to have such skills, she would be lying if she said the idea did not comfort her. Besides, just some girls' time, all laughing together at their own failures: It would be fun.

“Alright, let’s come together some time. Make me an Aikido Master like you!”

As Tenko immediately headed inside to excitedly check all available to her to work with, Kaede returned to the academy. Apparently that’s where all the others had remained, only Tenko having run off with the scroll. The only place to go would be upwards, and to go up, only one opening could be of note.

Just by Maki’s lab an empty area could be found, plainly decorated with a few benches and a strange 8-bit castle door. Now the area had become even less interesting with the artistic door being gone. A new stairway had shown itself instead, but something about the air around it rubbed Kaede the wrong way.

Not a single ray of sunlight came from above, instead leading into perpetual darkness. A deep primal instinct told her not to step any further if she wanted to stay alive.

An instinct that must have spoken to Tsumugi and Kirumi as well, the two of them standing by the stairway.

“The key opened the door and some of the others went up,” Kirumi said. “But we decided not to come along yet.”

“More so me,” Tsumugi awkwardly explained. “I’m afraid to go up, what if it’s dangerous? Kirumi has been kind enough to stick with me.”

“Well…” Kaede’s eyes wandered to the black abyss. “I can’t blame you for being afraid… Hey, I know! Let’s hold hands and go up together.”

Tsumugi gave a nod and laid her hand in hers. Clearly she and Kirumi had been standing here for a while, her palm being sweaty from the nerves.

Kirumi’s, after some initial confusion, also joined with hers. Kaede immediately noticed her firm hold, accompanied by the incredible softness of her glove. Silk? Maybe she used a special fabric softener that made it feel as cloudy as it did? Not that it should matter, of course.

She squeezed both women’s hands and took her step forward, leading them to the new floor.

The floorboard creaked loudly, the heavy air weighing down on the three. The new floor replaced the concrete from before with pure wood - old wood at that. A dark moldy color painted the walls, broken wood scattering the floor in a safety hazard. There were no windows to let in daylight, creating pathways that led to seemingly nowhere but the unknown. Although strange splatters on the wall akin to blood could still be seen.

Time stood still in Kaede’s head.

“W-what’s all this…?” Tsumugi let go and took a careful step forward. “Is this… even a school?”

“Well, we are still in the same building Monokuma claims to be a school,” Kirumi responded, her nose lightly scrunching at being met with the disarray. Her hand left Kaede’s to fidget over how the remainder of her day would be spent.

“No, I get that, I just mean…” Tsumugi’s eyes wandered across the dark still hallway. “The atmosphere is completely different. It feels as though a whole other building. An abandoned mansion or some sort? I wonder what the point of all this is.”

“Hmm… It is peculiar for such different architecture to suddenly appear. That combined with all the Research Labs… A lot of time and money must have been put into building this place.”

“All that work, to then build a rotten floor like this… And it’s just for us…? Was it ever meant to be for a killing game? Ahh… I don’t get it at all. My plain mind has hit its limit. Can you make any sense of it, Kaede?”

“...”

“... Kaede?”

“... H-huh?”

“... Are you okay?” Kirumi asked worriedly. “You look a bit pale.”

“Ah, yeah, I’m okay… It’s probably just the stale smell making me feel a bit sick. I didn’t hear everything you said, but this is Monokuma we’re talking about. It’s probably just staged to scare us! Like that bloody stain on the wall? I bet he painted it!”

“That is a good point.” Kirumi caressed her chin. “He would want to keep us on edge and as such resort to such methods. There is nothing to be afraid of.”

The cosplayer fixed her glasses, taking a deeper look at the hallway’s details. “Now that you mention it… This is very overdone. Like a classic set-up for a ‘a murder occured here’ story. It’s the same props I have seen used in a lot of horror manga… It makes it seem fake now.”

“Hmhm!” The pianist’s mood lifted, a smile returning to her face. It would be nonsensical to be afraid of this area. That’s only what Monokuma wanted. “I’ll explore further up ahead. You two coming as well?”

Kirumi’s eyes had locked with the stains on the wall, distracted by the eyesore this new floor brought. Her hands fidgeted again. “I must devise a plan to clean this place… Please continue without me for now.”

“If Kirumi’s staying I will as well… She stuck with me just now, so I should return the favor.”

“Hmm, okay… Don’t go crazy, Kirumi. Cleaning this place looks like a waste of time.”

Waste of time or not, Kirumi clearly didn’t hear her anymore. Her plans were set in stone.

The first door Kaede ran into immediately sprung out to her. The shoji sliding doors showed to be of a much higher quality than the rest, even if it still looked old. She slowly slid it open, somewhat fearful of possibly breaking it, and entered.

Light finally tickled her eyes, the window at the top of this 5 story tall Research Lab blessing her with it. Every deck contained items on display as though representing a museum. It looked like a range of man-made items, although the ones at the top were too far away to detail. The items on the ground floor, however, immediately give away who this place belonged to; paintings, historical items like swords and ritual items were displayed behind glass.

“Wow…” She stepped in further, curiously taking in all the details. Her own lab looked like a dove’s nest in comparison to this. “It’s so big… And so many items… This is amazing, if not a little eerie…”

“I find the eeriness compelling.”

A loud scream immediately left her mouth. She turned around to the unknown voice with a jump.

Korekiyo stared at her. “No need to be afraid, it is only I.”

“God, Korekiyo…!” She put her hand on her heart in an attempt to stop it from beating so fast. “Don’t ever approach a woman like that, are you mad…?!”

“I apologize. I thought you saw me when you entered.”

“Well, clearly not… Though I guess you being here makes sense since this lab does look to be yours.”

“Not even university labs are as well-stocked as this one… Though I despise Monokuma, I must admit he did a splendid job. He even sorted the floors by geographical area…”

That did appear to be true, but how could a bear like him even get his hands on all this? Did he steal it? Fakes? It didn’t make any sense, much like the rest of the academy.

“Does this place interest you, Kaede?” the man asked. “I would love to show you everything there is. Everything’s so… perfect! This gold-leaf katana for example, was used to defeat war generals and is worshiped as a God…! This book right here describes the history of the fabled Caged Dog Village, and better yet, the exact Caged Child ritual’s dog is right here behind glass, including its authentic cage…! Not to mention all other items from across the world. A thumbscrew, a chariot, a brazen bull, a copy of the capitoline wolf, fang masks, eye-blinding jewelry pieces from Colombia made of gold and gemstones…” 

She watched him quiver in place ranting about his beloved Research Lab. Is this the same kind of insanity people had to withstand when she talked about her music?

“Just do not touch anything… These are considered precious relics and are therefore extremely sensitive. Although I am sure a pianist knows how to proceed with a careful touch.”

“Ah, thanks for the offer, but I should probably explore further… Maybe some other time.” This conversation was becoming just a bit too much to her, though she did not lie saying that either.

“Well, please do so. Even if a place like this is not your taste, there is always an option to converse with the spirits of the dead…”

Her eyes went up to him.

“Would you like that? To talk to the dead? To talk to them ?”

A chance to speak to those who passed. The chance to express her regrets, to express how she missed them. To express how everyone would get out no matter what, that it would end with them.

No, she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t face them. And even if she could, speaking to the dead was impossible.

“... I don’t believe in the occult, Korekiyo. Please don’t ridicule their deaths like that.”

He backed off a bit. “Forgive me. You are correct. Calling on the dead out of mere curiosity would be ridiculing them, something I do not wish to do. Especially not to Kaito. The way he kept fighting… Beautiful! It was truly breathtaking! Such an attachment to life and determination to live that nothing kept him from going! That kind of spirit is what I love to see in a human. Only to have it all be thrown away by a tiny near-invisible particle…”

The last way she’d describe Kaito’s death would be like he did. It almost sounded as if he enjoyed it, in some strange way. Rantaro did mention to her before how he was a peculiar figure. Is this what he meant? Maybe Korekiyo simply meant to say that he thought the astronaut’s fight - his message to never give up - inspired him.

“Not everyone has the kind of spirit he does inside of them. Many are cowards - or if we want to go to our animalistic roots, many have a flight instinct. Fight or flight…” He took a step closer again, his eyes staring into her. “Which one are you, Kaede?”

She took a small step back. “Which one… am I?”

“You have a similar spirit to Kaito. Then again… Hmm… Perhaps, you are both?”

“... I have no clue what he’s trying to say.”

A whistle entered Kaede’s ears. “Would you look at this place?” Rantaro stepped in, joining the two in their conversation. “Let me guess, this is your lab, Kiyo?”

“Ahhh, Rantaro. It is good to see you. What do you think of my lab? Recognize anything from your travels?”

He let out a soft laugh. “Well, I’ve only been here for a second… But I might.”

“You simply must accompany me on a tour. It would be incredibly insightful to gather your experience.”

“Hey, I’m no anthropologist myself… But sure, I can share some stories people told me. Not sure if Kaede feels like coming along in that, though.”

There it was, a way out.

“Right, no, I still have to explore the rest of the floor.”

“Angie’s lab is down the hall, you should go see it.”

“I will. See you two later!”

Happy to have made her escape, she left for Angie’s lab. An artist like her must have received a gorgeous lab, an even better one than Korekiyo’s. Would it be filled with marble statues? Or maybe an art gallery? A bubbling work place filled with empty canvases begging to be blessed with creativity?

It turned out to be stale. An unfinished backroom of some kind of building in the making. White dominated the room, black accompanying it in stripes and paint splatters on the floor. Large yellow lights hanging from the ceiling added to the construction-work feel. The lack of actual art tools especially staggered Kaede. Various art and carving tools spread themselves over the floor and tables, but it still felt lacking. She had expected much more to fit the girl’s personality. It seemed Monokuma spent all his budget on Korekiyo with nothing left for Angie. Only an afterthought.

The actual owner, however, did not mind. She already sat at a drawing table, sorting through the supplies.

“Angie?”

She looked up and beamed. “Kaede, come in, come in! Atua spoke and proclaimed this classroom to be mine!”

“I see…” She walked further in. “Do you… like it? It’s pretty monochrome.”

“Are you surprised by how it looks in comparison to everyone else’s? I really have to focus on my art, so when I’m working I can’t have too many impressions. There’s even locks on my doors. That way I can best be one with the great Atua.”

“Ohhh… I see, that explains a lot. … That seems awfully personal, though… How did Monokuma know?”

“These are all my favorite art supplies and sculpting tools, too…”

“That’s pretty creepy…” Kaede nervously laughed. “I guess it is all tailored because of the Research Labs and all, but… I don’t get why.”

“Hmm, it’s a miraculous mystery that only Atua knows the answer to. It doesn’t matter, though. It’s comfortable, so I won’t complain. With how enriched our lives are becoming, we might as well keep living here. Provided nobody gets killed, of course.”

“... Stay? You want to stay?”

“Well, it’s not that bad, right? Think about it. We have everything we need. Food, drinks, amusement… So it’s pretty okay being here with everyone!”

“... That’s…”

“I do miss Gonta, though… Such an innocent person, only to go out like that. But it’s okay, I have prayed to Atua and he will take good care of his soul!”

She smiled saying that, a genuine form of relief on her face. Is this how the artist dealt with everything? Take it up with Atua to watch over everyone? Not that Kaede could be one to judge.

“Say, Angie, what kind of art do you actually specialize in? I don’t think I’ve ever asked.”

“I do all kinds of things. Wax sculptures, watercolor, charcoal… Atua does all the making though.”

“Can you make statues like those marble Greek ones? I have never seen them in person, but they look gorgeous… The clothes look like actual clothes…!”

“Oh, yes. I don’t generally create realism… I think asymmetry and partition functions are more beautiful. It’s not that I can’t, though. But marble in specific takes 2 to 3 years, so I won’t be working on one here.”

“2 to 3 years…?!”

“Piano music must take a long time to make as well, right?”

“It depends… Handel Telemann could write music as fast as he could write letters. Bach could improvise fugues… I know Beethoven struggled more though. And in the past composers had to manually write out their sheet music too. It’s easier now thanks to technology. I might be able to whip something up on the spot..? But I doubt if it would be good enough to qualify as art.”

“The time spent on it or the ‘objective’ quality does not define whether it is art or not… As long as it comes from a beating heart, it will always be art!”

The two smiled at each other. “That is true. Do you have any other art plans aside from not making a marble statue?”

“Uh-huh. My first point of focus would be to draw Tenko.”

… Like one of her French girls?

Kaede’s confusion did not go unnoticed, prompting Angie to explain. “Tenko has let loose that she doesn’t think she’s cute. Something about stubby limbs and her mouth taking up her whole face when she laughs.”

“Eh? Does she really think of herself like that? But she’s so charming.”

“I agree! Buuut, she doesn’t appear to do so. I love drawing people with unique features, not like that westernized standard copy paste thing… I hope I can make her see how pretty she is this way.”

“That’s so sweet… I wish someone would do something like that for me.”

“Atua says that if nobody does it for you, then maybe you should do it instead! Someone always has to take the first step.”

“Wisdoms of Atua… Anyway, I’ll leave you to your work then.”

There were only 3 rooms left to explore. They all sat next to each other in another hallway with a strange kind of mirror at the end. Unlike Angie and Korekiyo’s Research Labs, the doors had a plain built to them. They could never reveal anything too special. That turned out to be true, as the first door she opened led to a completely empty room. No windows, no furniture, only small candles on the wall illuminating the room lightly to expose Ryoma’s presence.

“Be careful walking in,” he said. “The floorboard is very unstable. There’s loose pieces all over the place.”

“Thanks for the warning… Have you seen the other 2 rooms?”

“Exact copies of this one. Empty rooms engulfed in darkness with nothing else of note.”

“That’s a let down. So, were you just heading out or did I interrupt something?”

“No, I was just standing here.”

“... Why?”

“It’s nice and dark here… Like space.”

The air immediately grew cold.

Ryoma turned his back towards Kaede, staring at the wall. “... I don’t understand why he fought as much as he did. That pile of trash of a ship should have been sign enough that he reached the end. And yet…”

She caressed her arm a bit, looking down. “... I think… he didn’t want to go out without trying everything he could.”

“But why put in all that effort if you could give in and just let it all end sooner? Now he only suffered for longer. Failure hurts more when you have hope.”

“Maybe, but… He actually achieved his dream thanks to it.”

“... Dream?” He turned towards her again.

“Before his execution… I remember Kaito saying he hadn’t been to space yet. He was still in training. But thanks to how well he held out, he was actually able to go there, so… although he knew he would die… he must have gone out at least happy he was able to do the very thing he always wanted to. That’s good… right?”

“... Hm.”

Chanting rang from outside, stealing both their attention. “... I’m going to check what the fuss is about. Are you coming too?”

“... Nah, I’ll stay here a bit longer. … Thanks, though.”

She gave him a soft smile. “Don’t mention it.”

The chants which lacked identity at first quickly got names associated with them. And of course those names were Miu and Kokichi. And… Shuichi?

“Fucking throw it!”

“Yeah, Shuichi, throw the hammer at the mirror already!”

“W-we must be able to break it another way… It’s going to spread glass shards everywhere…”

“Aren’t you supposed to be a detective?” Kokichi got up in his face. “The mirror is suspicious, so break it! We got no time to lose!”

“Yeah, you wuss! Go eat some cherries ‘cuz clearly you fucking lost yours!”

“Hey, cool it..!” Kaede quickly got between. “What’s all the yelling about?”

Shuichi pulled the rim of his cap down a bit. “That mirror over there on the wall seems strange… Possibly there’s more behind it.”

“And that’s what the Golden Hammer is for!” Kokichi exclaimed. “It’s to throw it at the mirror to break it!”

Kaede’s eyes went to the mirror hung at the end of the hall. It displayed something, but not their direct reflection. It reminded her of a mirror maze. “Throwing seems a bit aggressive, doesn’t it?”

“That’s what I’m saying…”

“What do you wanna do then, whisper sweet words?!” Miu stole the item from Shuichi's hands. “Bwah, I’ll do it already! Nothing ever gets done without my amazing involvement! And a 1, and a 2, and a 1 2 3!” Miu tossed the hammer, the glass immediately shattering at contact to - low and behold - reveal a new entrance.

“... So there actually was something there…” Shuichi murmured.

“Of course there was! And if you had any guts we could’ve wrapped up here already and gone down to eat! Let’s head in!”

The new passageway looked much different than the haunted house so far. More like a factory, with old TVs laying on the ground, tossed away. Kaede’s thoughts immediately jumped to the TV from the Flashback Light, as did Shuichi’s, but it soon became clear they weren’t the same type.

They continued on until they reached a room with above it a sign saying ‘computer room’. Not a new Research Lab by the sounds of it, but words that did sprung immediate excitement from the inventor. She went in without a second thought and screamed loudly.

“M-Miu..?!” Kaede quickly ran after, but her scream turned out to be from excitement.

A giant hyper modern machine stood in the middle of the room, multiple smaller computers surrounding it. The walls were covered with giant TVs and neon colors to add to the sci-fi vibes. It looked so futuristic in comparison to the previous halls. No, in comparison to the entire academy.

The strawberry blonde immediately threw herself on top of all the machinery, shivering at simply touching it and almost drooling. “Oh, yeah… This is the good stuff…”

Kokichi stared blankly. “Aww, why does Miu get all the fun stuff? Now she has 2 nerd rooms.”

“W-who are you calling a nerd, ya nerd…?! Besides, that’s probably because I am Miu Iruma! Heheh, Monokuma must know it takes a lot to satisfy my genius brain. I can just tell by the looks of it, this computer is so intense… I’m not going to be able to sleep…”

“... Please get your sleep,” Kaede said.

Shuichi got a bit closer to the computer screens, although careful not to touch anything out of fear of breaking it. “Do you mean to say you will fix it? It doesn’t look like everything’s running.”

“Duh! Imma fix this baby up and see what it is capable of! This is going to be amazing..!”

A grin plastered Kokichi’s face. “Wow, Miu is getting really excited… Maybe they need some private time.”

Kaede gave him a quick glare and looked around further. “... There’s no Flashback Light here either.”

“Flashback Light?” Shuichi turned to her.

“I wanted to look for it, but… I haven’t had any luck so far. I don’t get it, where could it even be?”

“Nee-heehee… Something tells me our guest has more information on that.”

“... Guest?” Kaede turned to the entryway.

Maki stood there.

“And so we’re all gathered again…” Rantaro said, his arms crossed.

The 12 students stood in the gym together. They were split in two; 11 vs 1. It didn’t take a genius to figure who stood where.

“And by Maki as well… Curious to see you show your face after vanishing,” Korekiyo added.

The assassin’s eyes were averted, not looking anyone in the eye. Despite that, her stance remained confident.

“Why did you gather us here?” Tenko put herself in front of the group, ready to take action where needed. “What do you want?”

She sighed. “It’s not that I want to be here with you all, but… I felt obligated to share something with you.” She pulled out another Flashback Light.

Everyone’s eyes widened.

“I found this while searching around… It wouldn’t be fair to leave you out. So… yeah.”

“How totally not suspicious,” Kokichi teased. “The professional killer happens to have found a new light… Do you have another twist to you of being the mastermind?”

“I’m not the mastermind.”

“It is kind of coincidental that you found it…” Tsumugi said.

“Look, do you want it or not? This isn’t me trying to reconcile. It’s a simple case of doing what's needed, and we can continue to avoid each other after this.”

“W-we didn’t say anything about that…” Kaede quickly stepped forward. This animosity towards the girl only harmed the situation, she had to take the lead. “It doesn’t matter who found it or where they found it… What matters is that we have it. This matters to all of us, got it?”

After a few mumbled complaints, the group came to an agreement. Maki’s presence was tolerated, for now at least.

“Yahoo, let’s use it already! Angie called. “We might be able to remember something new!”

“Perhaps we will gain more insight on the mysterious lady from before,” Kirumi said.

“Or at least get information in a language we understand,” Ryoma voiced. “Then we can better see if it has anything to do with why we are trapped here.”

“Get off that wishy-washy bullshit! Of course it’s got something to do with why we’re here!”

“Let’s just use it, okay..?” Shuichi said. “We can stand here for another hour discussing the purpose, but we’ll gain more insights by actually using it.”

“He’s right,” Rantaro agreed. “Let’s go for it.”

“Oh, I’m feeling plain nauseous…”

“Should I get a bowl?’

“Stop momming the other kids, that’s for me only!”

“Maki,” Kaede turned to the girl, “the honor is yours.”

She gave a nod, pointed the light, and flicked it on.

The world warped once again. Kaede’s consciousness shattered, opening pathways to new memories that used to be old ones, flashing by until they came to a standstill.

The same TV from before made its appearance, but this time without the presence of the lady, or the jittering pixels. Instead, the image displayed color stable. A man slowly came into view, though Kaede didn’t recognize him in any way. Judging by the room he stood in, along with his stance, he had to be a news reporter or some sort. It struck as modern, yet, his clothes and the set pieces were from a bygone time. He started speaking, though unintelligible. Unlike with the woman it was not because of a strange language used, but a faded echo instead.

The scene changed and another man came into view, another reporter. But instead he stood outside on a bridge, the scenery in the back looking ruined. The quality made the background come across as an uncanny valley. His mouth opened to speak.

“The Ultimates filmed themselves from this bridge. It all didn't even take that long, less than 15 minutes, but in that time the city did turn into one big chaos. People are in shock because the whole city was destroyed. Houses, shops, schools and offices. In the city center, everything is broken. Of some buildings, only a wall remains. A huge fire started which destroyed even more. I just spoke to some people who had fled the city, and they told me it is extremely hot because of the fires there. I also found these coins - take a look, they are completely melted together by the heat! There are also a lot of rumors. For instance, I just spoke to someone who said that lions from the zoo are now walking the streets. Whether that is true I don't know. One thing is certain though: The entire inner city has been destroyed. Some people are walking the streets crying. Everyone is wondering how this is going to continue.”

The image returned to the man in the newsroom.

“We now know that-”

“Kaede? Are you there?”

Everything immediately disappeared to have the girl's voice return. It echoed and spun through Kaede’s head.

“Kaede? Are you there?”

It continued to echo for a bit, not allowing her to return to reality just yet. Not before activating a new sense entirely: Touch. She felt something holding her - someone holding her. An embrace clamped around her neck, lightly dragging her forward, but never feeling painful or uncomfortable. Quite the opposite even. Someone put their arms around her in care, their warm body pressing into her chest.

Her own hands instinctively wanted to return the act, even if they were only reaching to pitch black, but before she could she was brought back to reality.

“At least they spoke an actual language,” Rantaro tried to laugh off.

“Who cares about that, who the hell were these two guys?! Where did the hottie go?!”

“Looked like news reporters,” Ryoma said. “I don’t think their actual identity matters. More so what they had to say.”

“And what they had to say was…” Kirumi’s lips pursed, unable to continue.

“This is horrible…!” Tsumugi shouted. “The city got destroyed! B-but why?! Who did it?!”

“Kehehe… They did start by saying Ultimates filmed themselves…”

Shuichi turned to him, eyes widened. “Did… Ultimates do it…?”

“Buuut, which Ultimates? They didn’t say.”

Tenko nervously pulled on her sleeves. “Well, it’s our memories… So… do you think..?”

“But we saw the report, not the actual event,” Kirumi countered.

“It has to be related to us in some way…” Korekiyo said. “We’re not remembering this over nothing.”

“I bet Maki knows!” Kokichi turned to her with a sly grin.

“... What?”

“You’re an assassin and the town got destroyed. Coincidence? I think not!”

“The entire point of an assassin is to not leave a trace behind. This has nothing to do with my work.”

“Load of bullshit!”

“If you’re starting like that, I’m just going to leave.”

“Yeah, I’d leave too if I were you!” Kokichi turned to the group once she had vanished. “Phew, close call.”

“But did we, or did we not, have something to do with what happened to the town?” Ryoma wondered.

“There’s a simple way to solve this,” Rantaro said. “Stick up your hand if you remember destroying a city.”

Nobody did.

“Then it’s solved, it wasn’t us.”

“You’re solving it just like that..?” Tsumugi stared at him in disbelief.

“Look, we’re not the only Ultimates on the planet. Besides, all the newscaster said is that Ultimates recorded something. He might mean to say footage they have was provided by Ultimates, rather than interpreting it as the worst case scenario.”

Angie tapped her cheek a bit with a brush. “Good point. There’s no use worrying we did something terrible if we don’t remember!”

“That destruction itself is still pretty damn terrible though… Was it recent? I can’t fucking tell…!”

Shuichi’s eyes casted downwards. “There has to be something more to this…”

“What a disappointment,” Kokichi sighed.

“... Disappointment? How can a new memory be disappointing?”

“I’m not talking about the memory, detective, I’m talking about you guys.”

Korekiyo glared at him. “What is it this time?”

“Oh, no, nothing! I’m just lying, so don’t worry about it.”

“Then why did yo- … No, I refuse to spend my precious energy on your antics.”

“Perhaps,” Kirumi interrupted, “we should sit down and have some food, yes? Let it all sink in like last time?”

While the others left for another delicious meal session, Kaede remained frozen in place. She had not taken in a single word discussed just now, remaining hung up on the flashlight’s revelations instead.

Not the revelation of the TV, though. No, the revelation of that second memory is what occupied her mind instead. That voice from before again, the senses that were tingled. She felt as though carried on clouds, only to now have crashed down again. Despite having been kicked out of the scenery, she could still feel the arms around her as though still there. It felt so real. Maybe she was actually dreaming, someone in the real world holding her like this.

An embrace so warm and loving… She could feel it imprinting on her skin, seeping right into her bones. Her own arms tried to replicate the feeling, but could not even come close.

Had she ever felt such delight before from a touch? She couldn’t remember. She couldn’t even remember who this loving hug belonged to. Why would the face not show itself? Why was it all so fuzzy? She wanted to know, she needed to know. Any explanation for the emotions stirring inside her stomach and chest, nearly taking away her breath.

It made her feel complete joy as well as utter devastation.

Chapter Text

The wind howled through the treetops of the dense forest. Kaede had been cycling the muddy roads for a while now, without a clear clue of her heading. Her path was pre-made. Her bike wouldn’t be able to handle the other terrain. And even if it did, she barely dared to look at it. The misty distant darkness terrified her.

As she continued, the mud dirtying her bike and shoes, she arrived at a T-split. The right obviously beckoned her to go that way. The air brightened up ahead, promising to bring her to her destination. The left side had been blocked off and held stormy clouds above. Despite the earth showing signs of bikes having gone down the road before, large stems of trees and bushes prevented one from continuing.

The growing greenery wasn’t natural. A squirrel burying its food there didn’t cause this strange set-up. A human must have done it, meaning there had to be some kind of reason as to why nobody could go there. Perhaps, danger awaited.

Despite the much more inviting right side and the clear request not to go left, Kaede stepped off her bike and peeked through the thin openings. Much further away, blue and red lights blinked through, interrupted by large dark shadows.

Despite the anxiety creeping in her chest, she slipped through the narrow pathways, holding on to the rough bark. It seemed to take forever to get closer, but her senses slowly detected sound. First sirens, joined by an increase of lights, and then digital crackles. She pushed herself forward to get a look at the scene, the wood slowly being replaced with hedges of thorns.

They ripped Kaede’s clothes and rubbed past her skin, cutting her and receiving drops of blood in return. It hurt. The closer she got, the deeper the cuts became, to a point they turned into hooks, trying to prevent her from going any further.

The sounds became clearer, and the large shadows from before slowly lost their undefined silhouettes. She reached her hand out as the thorns developed a mind of their own and wrapped around her ankles. She lost her balance and fell face down on a meadow of spikes.

“AHH!” Kaede hit the floor with a loud blop, having taken some of the bedding with her but not enough to protect her fall. She hissed and crawled up. 

Today was tiring. Aside from still having to process more awful deaths and exploring new parts of the academy, the Flashback Light was the last straw. But she had made a promise with Kirumi and Shuichi to go training every night just yesterday, so she couldn’t back out of it already. A short nap looked like a good solution, but now she felt even worse. “God… So much for a peaceful moment…”

~Ding dong!~

“H-huh? Is that the doorbell? Shuichi and Kirumi must be here… Well, at least I woke up on time.”

She opened the door and, as predicted, the goth duo awaited her.

Shuichi cast her a smile. That same excitement from the night before filled his body again. She was waiting for a tail to show up and wave from left to right.

“Hi, Kaede. Are you ready for training? We-” His smile dropped at seeing the girl’s bewildered state and glossy eyes. “Wow… Are you okay? You look horrible.”

Kirumi gave him a disapproving glare. “Do not say such blunt things to a woman.”

“S-sorry…”

“Pfft, aren’t you a charmer,” Kaede joked, quickly running a hand through her hair to fix her appearance. “But I’m okay. Let’s get to training already!”

“Are you sure?” Kirumi asked. “You do look tired. Today took a lot out of all of us. It is okay to rest. We can start tomorrow as well.”

“No, no, you know how those things go, right? You move the appointment to the next day, and then you move it again, and again, until it never happens! So we’re going for it.”

They moved to the courtyard by the picnic tables together, Shuichi taking off his jacket. He was ready to get down for business, but didn’t actually say anything on what step to take next.

A few awkward glances were shared.

“Sooo…” Kaede began. “What training do you do?”

“... Huh?”

“You’re the one who trained with Kaito and Maki, so I’m counting on you to lead the way.”

“M-me…? But… I’m not sure how you want to train.”

“Anything is fine,” Kirumi noted. “I trained for all-around muscles.”

Kaede’s eyes widened and turned to Kirumi. “You have muscles…?!”

“Lightly toned.”

“Geez… Okay, Kirumi and I are not on the same level. I just have my winter pouch and thunder thighs, ahah.”

Shuichi gave them an awkward smile. “Don’t worry about it. I fall in between. I gain and lose weight really easily, it fluctuates all the time.”

“Don’t you have to be trained as a detective?”

“Yeah, I do. But I have to keep it up consistently or I will lose progress.”

“Then… let’s all train like detectives!” Kaede announced. “I mean, we’re basically like a trio of mystery solvers of our own, so it fits, right?”

“Erm, um… Okay. Stamina is most important for a detective. You have to be able to run and hold it out.”

“For catching a criminal, correct?” Kirumi asked.

“Yes. One thing you must be able to do is the 15 meter multi-stage fitness test. It involves running up and down a 15-meter track. It’s timed against a series of audio beeps and participants must beat the bleep and complete the shuttle before it sounds.”

“Noooo…” Kaede howled, throwing her head back. “The beep test, I always hated that one in high school…! I can still hear the ‘kick’ announcement in my nightmares.”

Kirumi blinked, worry clouding her voice. “Was it that bad?”

“Haha, no,” she raised her head again. “But I did really dislike it. It’s fun at first, but the beeps get really fast at some point… The music they played was also just, so not from that time anymore.”

“Well, luckily for you, we don’t have music or beeps,” Shuichi sheepishly smiled. “Let’s just run up and down from here to the big doors that lead to the casino.”

After a few stretching exercises, the three took their position and made their way to the casino doors back and forth, going a bit faster with every shuttle. At first they were able to stick with each other, but as time passed Kaede started slacking behind. Her heart beat incredibly fast and her throat felt raspy from the rough breathing, while Kirumi and Shuichi continued running together without too much trouble. Even though she really wanted to, Kaede physically couldn’t keep up with them, leading to continuing on her own.

Eventually her legs gave in and she dropped herself in the grass. “Ahhh, my chest burns…”

The other two settled down next to her, panting and catching their breath as well.

“Proud of you, Kaede,” Shuichi said, swallowing. “For someone who doesn’t exercise, you did well.”

“I’m just glad I didn’t die,” she laughed and sat herself up. “And I’m going to need a shower after this.”

“Same for me,” Kirumi said. “It’s getting late. Perhaps we should call it a day.”

“Actually…” Shuichi fumbled with his hat, which surprisingly hadn’t flown off even once while running. “I wanted to talk with you two… About the Flashback Light.”

They turned to look at him.

“I’m still trying to find a way out of here, or at least a sign as to where the mastermind is hiding, but I've been unlucky so far… And the Flashback Lights are really starting to concern me. I don’t like what they are showing.”

Kirumi nodded a bit. “It is strange indeed. It didn’t seem directly related to the first light, but gave distressing news regardless.”

Kaede tried to bring the memory Monokuma wanted them to remember forward. She had been a bit too focused on the other one, making it hard to recall all the details. She mostly remembered the TV itself being the same, but the footage quality being very different compared to last time. No jittering or anything else that came across as something recovered from damage. The quality wasn’t that much lower than her phone’s camera, but the set was old-school. Everything about it came across as contradictory.

And then she hadn’t even spoken about the fact an entire city burned to the ground.

“Rantaro had a ‘special’ method of determining this, but I do think he is right in that we had nothing to do with the destruction… If we did, that would be a horrible crime. But we know Himiko and Keebo’s worst crime videos held different information. I’m pretty sure swindling is not as horrible a thing to do as this…”

Kaede nodded a bit. “Yeah, for sure. But then why are we remembering it? Were we watching the news together?”

“Logic dictates that the woman’s call to Ultimates from the first light and this terrible news are related…” Kirumi carefully caressed her chin. “But the two memories almost appear to be of a different time period. I also have a hard time imagining Ultimates were the cause of the city’s fall.”

Shuichi mimicked Kirumi’s movement. “We need another light… This isn’t enough to connect things properly.”

“Maybe we need to ask more people what they saw exactly,” Kaede mentioned. “It seems strange to me that we all have this exact same memory despite not knowing each other from before our kidnapping. There have to be off details, right? Like a different TV brand or another small difference?”

“Everything’s the same in large lines, we haven’t really talked about those details in specific, but it’s still suspicious that we all would be seated down at the exact same time to watch the exact same broadcasts.”

“Maki left before she could add anything to the discussion,” Kirumi mentioned. “Perhaps she experienced something different.”

“She didn’t seem to have anything interesting to say aside from what we all saw… Besides, she probably isn’t going to want to talk to any of us again now the necessary has been done.”

“That’s such crap.”

Kirumi and Shuichi looked at Kaede.

“She’s a part of our class… We shouldn’t be tearing the group apart like this.”

“I get what you mean, but… I considered her a friend and she doesn’t even want to talk to me anymore. Maybe Kaito could have gotten some sense in her…” He looked down into the ground.

“Then it’s time someone else tries!” Kaede shot up to her feet. “I will talk to her tomorrow.”

Kirumi looked up to her. “Even if you manage to find her, the conversation will likely not be pleasant. Are you sure you want to do this?”

She knew why Kirumi mentioned that, of course. At the start of this mess Kaede had her concerns over talking to ‘difficult’ people as she didn’t want to cause any fights or for anyone to be angry with her. Considering the opinion Maki held over the pianist, the chances of those nasty moments occurring were high. But someone had to take the first step, right?

“We could come with you…” Shuichi added.

“No, it’s okay. More people could just come across as more threatening. This is a solo mission.”

“Well, if any one of us has to do it, I place my trust in you,” Kirumi got up and bowed.

Shuichi stared up at them, still unsure about letting Kaede proceed, but it’s not like he could change the girl’s mind anyway. He gave a small encouraging smile. “Okay… I believe in you, Kaede.”

A knock at Maki’s door resulted in nothing. Kaede kept listening for a bit in order to confirm if she was purposefully being ignored. Of course, an assassin must be quiet as a mouse, making it impossible to find the true reason behind the dead silence. However, another option could be open as well.

Kaede moved to Maki’s lab instead. The playground held popularity at its early reveal, but with the latest murder investigation, its rating went to 0. With every table game and dive in the ballpit, the memory of blood and glass staining the floor would return. Nobody wanted to go inside anymore. It’s the perfect place to hide.

She opened the door carefully, peeking inside to verify her hunch. Maki stood by the air hockey table with her back turned. She moved the pusher around a bit. The digital scoreboard remained dark with no sound of a puck moving around the board. She wasn’t even playing.

The tiniest scrap of Kaede moving her foot immediately turned the other around with a murderous look. Kaede shut the door again out of surprise, letting out a squeak.

There was no going back, Maki knew she was here and her hiding place had been compromised. If Kaede wanted to talk, she had to do it now.

So she made a second attempt. Her eyes met with the backroom first thing. The smell of lead returned to her nostrils.

“What are you doing here?” Maki snapped, already moving away from the table game to the middle of the room.

“Ah…” She swallowed the sensation away, approaching, “I wanted to talk to you.”

“Why?”

“Just because.”

Maki’s brow drew together in suspicion. She didn’t believe her, but didn’t have the energy to start a discussion on it either, letting out a sigh instead. “You talk too much,” she said.

The blonde let out a short nervous laugh in return, “I’m making up for that choker time.”

“Whatever you want to chat about, I’m not interested. Please leave.”

“It’s just for a bit! I’ll be gone real soon.”

“You shouldn’t be talking to a bad person like me in the first place. Not even a ‘the weather is nice’ kind of small talk.”

“Maki, you’re not a bad person. I know you’re not.”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“I just know so.”

Her head shook. She thought the pianist was stupid.

“Come on now. I mean, look at your lab! It’s such a fun place, and Monokuma himself has said they are highly personalized! It’s supposed to be a reflection of your person.”

“Yes, with secret murder grounds. He perfectly encapsulated a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” She pulled on one of her pigtails. 

“Or, alternatively, you’re a softie.”

She didn’t like that comment.

“You must have picked a babysitter as a cover for a reason as well.”

 Her face further darkened. “Why I picked that is none of your concern.”

“So, I’m sure you’re actually a very nice gal- Ah!”

Maki grabbed her by her tie and pushed her against the door. Her face closened, a strange kind of threat emerging from her body. Her voice lowered to a hiss, “I have set my distance from everybody. I politely asked you to leave. What about that don’t you understand?”

With a rapidly beating heart, Kaede tried to utter a response, but couldn’t get much further than a shaky breath.

“You have to stop doing everything you can to be buddies with everyone. You don’t know who you’re trying to befriend.”

“N-no… No, that’s not true!” She set herself straight and put her own hands on Maki’s. “You have to believe these people are inherently good! That’s what we do, that’s how we survive! You have to believe there’s good in people!”

“... We are forced into a killing game, and nobody has come to save us yet. What good?” She put her back on the floor, releasing her hold on her.

“You’re not like whoever put us here…”

“I’m an assassin. What’s the difference?”

One couldn’t exactly talk being a hitman right, but there were some grounds to cover. It lied in the details.

“Assassins kill because they are requested to, right? Maybe you have killed bad people.”

“I really don’t remember, and even if I did, that would be confidential.”

“And… how many did you kill? Can you tell me that?”

Her face complicated itself, eyes moving to the side to recall. “... I don’t remember.”

“That many…?!”

“Not like that. I can’t remember in the sense that I… don’t remember ever killing someone.”

She was the Ultimate Assassin. This was her entire identity. If she didn’t remember then… 

“Then maybe you have never killed anyone in the first place!” Kaede happily concluded.

“How can you earn the title of Ultimate Assassin without having assassinated anyone?”

“Maybe you were super good at training! Or… Um, I’m not sure how you even get into that business… But something like that.”

Maki’s hand raised to caress her forehead. She had obviously become bothered, but partly in a beneficial way. She also came to realize the details not matching up made a strange case, leaving her irritated. “You’re just like him…”

“... Huh?”

“Look,” her eyes raised to meet Kaede’s again, “I get what you want to do. You want me back with the group. You’ve done a similar ballad before with Himiko.”

“.......”

“But even if I don’t remember killing anyone, I remember becoming an assassin. I remember the endless training, the sleepless nights…” Her face turned somber, returning to the unhappy memories. “It is the truth. And most people will not want to associate with me because of it. I don’t blame them, they have every right to.”

The change in expression didn’t go unnoticed by Kaede. Mostly because a look like that didn’t paint Maki before; it didn’t match her personality. Anyone else talked about their talent in pride, gracefully announcing it with their person like a PhD. Only Maki wouldn’t want to do such a thing. She had mentioned it a lot since its forced reveal, but never in a positive light.

“... How did you become one? I don’t get the feeling you like your talent.”

“It wasn’t my choice.”

“What do you mean?”

“I grew up in an orphanage. I can’t remember anything about my parents. I guess you’re right that I picked out the fake talent that I did for a reason. At the orphanage where I lived, the older kids took care of the younger ones. Since I never got adopted, I became one of those older ones. Kids like me for some reason… I’m not particularly fond of taking care of them. Someone just had to watch over them, so I did.”

The image of young children clamping to Maki like a precious teddy bear brought a smile to Kaede’s face. “I always felt there was something warm about you. It sounds like your fake talent actually suits you.”

“Suiting or not doesn’t matter. As I said, I didn’t have a choice.” Her fingers moved to a hairlock, pulling on the tips as she avoided eye contact. She paused for a bit, in doubt about whether to share something she had never shared before. “... I remember at some point more men coming in. They looked kind, but further never approached. I thought they might be looking to adopt, but as it turned out, they were just scouting the place for talent. And I guess I was one of the people of interest. I didn’t want to go - why would anyone want to kill people? But a huge sum of donations would be promised, providing the other kids with care. Even if it was officially voluntary… I felt like there was no choice.”

“... What happened next…?”

“I trained everyday. There’s some natural talent, but you have to work incredibly hard as well. If you couldn’t keep up, funds would no longer come in. It was difficult. I vomited every day, and cried every night. But eventually, there was nothing left to leave my body anymore. It became empty. I got used to it.”

Maki’s story heaved at Kaede’s chest. She couldn’t help but feel horrible in the brunette’s place.

“I do wonder, sometimes…” Her face softened. “I wonder what would have come of me if I had just been adopted.”

She understood now. The circumstances around Maki’s talent were always out of her control. They weren’t something that coincidentally happened one day as your young eyes meet with a marvelous piano and become mesmerized by its melodies. Instead, Maki had been forced on the seat and told that if she wanted her family to survive, she had to play. And better be good at it as well. It pained Kaede’s heart. Of course she has had her own days where playing the piano hurt, either because of how tired she was but having to push through for a coming concert, or because the notes she pressed hurt her soul too much. But any tear she had let out did come out of a place of love.

Your Ultimate Talent was supposed to be a gift, not something to destroy you from inside out.

Kaede reached her arms out to pull Maki in a tight hug, which was effortlessly avoided. She had her back turned again, but it wasn’t like before. One of the invisible walls had been removed. “Don’t even try.”

She let out a soft giggle. “Alright, that’s fair… Thank you for sharing though. It must be hard to carry that burden. I’m sure that if the others hear your story, they’d understand there’s nothing to fear about you.”

“... You really think that?”

“Yeah. While not the same, I’m sure everyone has at least once in their life had to do something they never wanted to.”

“... This is a shame. Now I can no longer claim your chatter to be useless.” Despite being an insult, the corners of her lips rose every so faintly.

“I’ll just take that as a compliment… Hey, Tenko is organizing a training event for all girls. With your skills I’m sure you would be able to teach us super useful tips to protect ourselves. You should join, it’ll be fun!”

“You’re a lucky girl, Kaede, but not that lucky.”

“Alright, ladies, attention! Attention!”

Tenko’s incredibly spacious dojo lab made the 6 women look like ants. Several platforms hung by chains to the ceiling, mimicking the stage of an old video game. A final boss area, maybe? Tenko probably could be one. Several automated-moving practice dummies lined up by the left and right, ready to be sparred with. The girls also stood lined up, Tenko standing before them with her arms behind her back, already having fully emerged herself in the role of teacher.

“Where’s the fucking food?” Miu complained. “You said there’d be food.”

Admittedly, Kaede was surprised by the turn-up. She had assumed Tsumugi to be blocking, but here she stood - be it that she looked astonishingly uncomfortable. Which might have also been due to Miu spitting her words right next to her. And Miu… Well, she always hung in her lab, she never appeared to have any interest in befriending others. By the sounds of it, Tenko used a special technique to get her in.

“You’ll get a protein bar after we’re done, Miu.”

“Protein bar?! I’m not gonna eat that cardboard shit! What the fuck did you bring me here for anyway? You’re wasting my goddamn time!”

“Right, I haven’t explained it to most of you yet.” Tenko cleared her throat, walking past the women like a commander. “Everyone should know some self-defense tricks against physical attacks. Normally I emphasize benefits for daily life, but we are in a killing game. It’s a high priority to defend yourself just in case you get attacked!”

Tsumugi carefully raised a finger in the air. “Question. Isn’t this important for the guys as well then…?”

“Yeah, but, violence against women continues to be a serious and widespread issue! By knowing how to defend yourself, we can convey we’re strong individuals capable of kicking ass! There’s no messing with us! But men will generally be physically stronger than us, so we gotta play the game differently. That’s why I will be teaching you Aikido today!”

“... So a gangbang with all these ladies? Fuck off!”

Angie turned to the inventor. “That’s not what Tenko said at all.”

“We’re getting sweaty while touching each other, same thing!”

Tenko’s lip twitched at having her talent insulted like that. She took a deep breath to control herself and avoid going for a kick in the woman’s face. She respected women greatly, so she had to keep that principle, even for the likes of Miu.

“No, it’s not,” she said, the shakiness of anger showing through. “This is very important stuff. Do you know what to do if you get attacked?”

“That would never happen to me.”

“But imagine it would.”

“It wouldn’t happen to me.”

Tsumugi stared at her. “You are actually impossible…”

“And even if it would, I’d kick ass! Nobody messes with the golden genius girl Miu Iruma!”

Tenko reached her hands to Miu’s arm, locked it in and flew her entire body through the air, slamming her to the floor.

Miu screamed it out, wincing.

Angie giggled, smiling in satisfaction. “You’re right, Miu, you kicked ass!”

“I-I wasn’t ready…!” She shakily countered. “That wasn’t fair! Let me get in the mood!”

Kaede watched the scene unfold as Miu got up and ‘loosened’ her limbs, hyping herself up to defeat a martial art master. She poked Kirumi with her elbow, leaning over to her. “This could never go well.”

Kirumi looked back at her. Confused almost. She only confirmed that would be the obvious outcome instead of going along in the whispering and firing a comment back.

“Come at me, then! You got nothing on me, Cunt Fu- AIYAH!”

As expected, Miu once again landed with her back on the floor. 

“Have I convinced you now?”

She whined, her eyes lightly watering from the pain. “Y-you’re mean… I’ll invent something that will protect me instead! I’ll beat you up some day with technology!” Despite the still existing resistance, Miu diligently got back in line.

“Now that’s settled…” Tenko took her position again. “I will be showing you a few techniques. Everyone, take your place by a wooden sparring doll.”

They all moved to their non-sentient partner, continuing their line from before. After a small warm-up, Tenko showed a move, wanting the others to replicate it.

Kaede stared at the faceless doll. Kicking wood sounded painful. She glanced to her sides. Tsumugi struggled with the same idea, giving a soft kick that wouldn’t even make a pillow falter. Kirumi, on the other hand, fully went for it. She perfectly replicated Tenko’s move, down to putting her foot back on the floor the same way. Even then, she didn’t appear fully satisfied. Her lips pursed, doing another kick and bending her leg slightly different once back on the floor.

“It can’t be that hard…” Kaede mumbled. She put herself in place and kicked the doll. Her aim was off, causing her to lose her balance and fall to the ground. She reached her arms out just in time to catch herself.

Except that, Kirumi reacted much faster. She had her arms wrapped around Kaede’s waist and pulled her back up. “Are you okay?” she asked, dusting the girl off.

Kaede blinked in surprise. “Uh, yeah… You’re fast.”

She smiled politely. “I was merely able to prepare myself for doing so due to how your kick started. I anticipated your fall.”

“Just take the compliment, Kirumi,” she smiled back. “It’s still impressive. Maybe even more with that explanation, honestly.”

With some additional instructions, the group eventually got the kick down. They went to the next moves, repeating the steps as long as needed. Kaede’s muscles slowly became heavier, stinging a bit as her body turned hot. They were simple moves, but took a lot of energy.

“Great work, everyone!” Tenko cheered. She was sweating as well, but clearly unbothered by it. Or otherwise, her excitement completely negated anything else she felt. “You guys are ready for practicing other moves, like the throw I did with Miu.”

“You don’t have to remind them of that…!”

“But a wooden doll would make that very difficult… Since we’re with 6, we can pair up in twos. Get yourself a partner.”

“Yahoo, teacher,” Angie mused, “I pick you!”

Miu nervously pulled on her skirt and turned to Kaede. “Hey, Kaediot, what abou-”

“Kirumi, let’s team up!” Kaede hooked her arm with the maid’s. “You caught me earlier so I might need you again.”

“As you wish.”

“Um…” Tsumugi’s eyes scanned the room. Only one choice in partner left. “... I suppose it’s you and me, Miu…”

“Glasses? I need to wrestle with the otaku?! No fucking way!” She planted her hands on her hips.

“It’ll be for just a bit.” Although Tsumugi said that as response, her words were more so meant for herself.

“Every second spent in your presence is already too much.”

“You think I want to work with someone with a foul mouth like yours…?”

“Foul?!”

Angie smiled with a dark aura, interrupting, “You two play nice, or your blood will be used for the next sacrifice to Atua.”

They immediately got in place and zipped their mouths. Angie had to be joking, but then again, maybe she wasn’t. Tenko took the stage and started her explanation, illustrating it with the artist’s help.

Kaede bumped Kirumi with her elbow again, whispering. “Hey.”

“Kaede, Tenko is explaining… Is this important?”

“Very…”

“What is it?”

“Tsumugi and Miu is an odd combo. Wonder how long they can put up with each other.”

“... We shall see.”

“Ahah, what if Miu manages to awaken a side in Tsumugi we didn’t know she had? Like, super assertive.”

“... We should be listening to Tenko’s class.”

“Come on, picture it. Tsumugi body slamming Miu. It’s a funny image.”

“... It would be a special sight.”

“Tsumugi’s glasses doing that weird shiny thing like in series. Destroyer of worlds.”

“And Miu throwing insults around as a defense mechanism...”

“Is that why she does it you think? A defense mechanism?”

“Considering how easily resistance has her back up, there is certainly something to it.”

“Huh… You might be making a good point. She insults me on the regular… Calls me cow tits.”

“That is rather cruel.”

“Yeah… I honestly think she likes it when you have a discussion with her. She gets excited.”

“I have noticed that as well… She insults me for my food, but is always the one to claim everything and ravage it.”

“Don’t think there’s anyone she doesn’t dislike, honestly. I guess she liked-”

Tenko and Angie ended the demonstration. “Okay, now your turn!”

“... What do we need to do?” Kaede asked Kirumi.

“I assume one of us has to defend and the other attacks, but I do not know the details. We should not have talked through the instructions…”

“Mwah, don’t worry so much about it. We’ll just do what feels right.”

They decided to have Kaede catch Kirumi first, the latter being the defender. Kaede took her position and jumped forward to attack the maid. The other quickly stepped aside, avoiding without any trouble. Kaede blinked and made another attempt, but once again missed. She tried different ways, even aiming for the legs, but Kirumi simply jumped over her as if playing hopscotch. Kirumi was far too good at getting away.

Kaede’s brow furrowed. This game felt familiar. She often reached out to the maid’s arm, and although she was always there to help, she simultaneously proved to be good at leaving once Kaede made attempts at escaping the zone of master and servant. Something always came in between.

“How is it that you always slip through my fingers, Kirumi?” she asked, taking a breath. “Don’t you want me to catch you?”

She stared. “... Catch me?”

That sounded terribly wrong. “A-ah, I mean… Um…”

“... I apologize. This practice is for how to escape when someone catches you. Continuously avoiding your grasp will make that difficult.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine, I meant to say-”

“Okay, switch!” Tenko announced.

“It appears our roles of defender and attacker must switch. With what kind of difficulty would you like me to proceed?”

“Difficulty?"

“Yes, we could start with us simply getting in the position of having been caught already, or we can simulate an attack as you did with me just now.”

Why hadn’t Kaede asked those questions to Kirumi at first either? Stupid.

“You know what, hit me with everything you got, Kirumi!” Kaede hyped herself up. “I’ve been able to see very well how you do this. I want to give it a shot as well.”

“Are you sure? You want me to go all out?”

“Yes!” She got in position. “Give me the hardest difficulty.”

The other giggled softly. “I feel as though I have seen this story unfold before at the pool… But as you wish. Allow me to start the countdown in preparation. 3… 2… 1.”

Kirumi launched herself forward, her arms and feet moving so fast that Kaede couldn’t even comprehend where they were going. One moment they stood across each other, the other Kaede succumbed through her legs and hit her back against the floor.

Kirumi sat on top of her, one hand having her wrists pinned above her head, the other pushing down between her collar bone, and her legs locking her knees. Her face was close, too close. For the first time, gravity revealed the normally hidden left eye. The light from above breathtakingly powdered this new face, but she also became harder to read because of it. Her blank stare perpetuated Kaede’s magenta eyes. 

A swan strangled by a snake. An antelope pounced by a jaguar. A salmon ripped from the rivers by a bear. Or a fly caught in a spider’s net. 

There was no way to escape. Kirumi had her trapped from inside out.

Just as sudden as the look had appeared, it vanished again. Kirumi blinked and her expression went to concern as she was faced with Kaede’s terrified one. “I’m sorry, did I go too hard on you? Are you okay?”

“I-I’m fine…” Her chest heaved as her cheeks turned a rosy red. She whispered to herself, “Wow… Sports…”

Chapter Text

Being around Kirumi changed from that moment in Tenko’s class on. The remainder of it went tame with another set of defense tactics to practice together. More excuses to touch an arm and feel a breath on your skin. It frustrated Kaede, in a way. She didn’t like how it gripped her chest, nor how it made the air in her throat heave. Yet, she enjoyed it all the while.

In the evening she could still feel it. Shuichi had heard about the training and asked how things were. They couldn’t share details - it was top secret information according to Tenko - although he could easily answer his own question anyway.

“We had a great time,” Kirumi said. “Didn’t we, Kaede?”

The image of her angelic terrifying face hovering over her own came back to her.

“... Kaede?”

“H-huh? Oh, yeah, it was great! Truly… something.”

A good night's sleep must help. Not that ‘good’ and ‘sleep’ was a successful combo for Kaede, but once she awoke things did feel normal again. Relieved she left for breakfast, only to discover every graceful step Kirumi took to bring food or tea blocked her throat again. She almost felt dizzy in the head just looking at her, or the thought of looking at her.

Maybe she hit her head too hard when Kirumi made her fall.

Focusing on other things today could be the fix. Maki wouldn’t join dining yet, but her face slowly showed itself more often in the halls. It didn’t try to hide itself anymore. Eventually it even came to interact with another, that being Ryoma. It wasn’t hard to imagine what subject brought them together; or more so who.

The issue surrounding Maki’s circumstances would slowly heal itself. Despite wanting to be there for the entire process, she also knew she’d be hissed away. She knew because she had of course tried and witnessed the consequence herself.

But while you’re on a roll, you might as well make an attempt at fixing the biggest issue of all: the imprisonment.

Kaede stood at the very edge of the dome, a much farther walk than initially expected. From here the academy became a miniature house created for a cabinet Christmas village. But instead of warmth and laughter, it radiated emptiness and a certain fear of the unknown. Abandoned and unloved. Strange considering how the Research Labs indicated this place being built just for them.

Even the dome walls were purposefully made. Her eyes soared over them; meters of metal plates stacked, from afar tricking the mind to be skyscrapers, eventually ended in a beautiful bright blue heaven. Only now Kaede realized how unchanging it was. Always the same few long clouds with that same shade of white. She couldn’t remember having seen a singly gray cloud so far, nor a single drop of rain hitting the glass above. Even the night sky she, Shuichi and Kirumi tended to look at during training always had its lights twinkle brightly. It felt… unnatural.

The longer she stared, the more the vertigo got to her. She shook her head and swallowed the nauseating feeling away. She had to think of her goal. There had to be a mastermind of some kind, and that person would be moving in and out of the dome. To get new food in, new drinks. Whatever a mastermind was even supposed to be doing. Or otherwise, all the items in this dome must have been brought in through another way than that death road. Moving boxes of furniture through an entire military obstacle parkour just couldn’t be right.

A secret entrance in the wall was the most obvious solution. Even if she didn’t have the keys or remote control to open it, she at least had to be capable of finding the creases. And once she found those… Well, she wasn’t sure how to proceed, but surely that would come to her.

She ran her hand over the cold smooth mineral, hoping to find that one irregularity.

“Damn, Kaegayday, isn’t fingering the piano enough yet?!”

Miu’s laugh shocked Kaede out of her concentration, turning around. “Oh, hey- Wait, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“I figured you were meeting with Kirumi in the bushes for some steaming outdoor time, but now I’m just confused.”

“Steaming outdoor time…?”

“Ha! Don’t think I didn’t see you tremble once that goth pinned you on the floor. You must’ve gotten real busy later… You guys meet up with Sherlock Homo at night, right? Did he watch while you were at it or what?”

“M-Miu!” Her cheeks turned hot in anger, but also in embarrassment. “That’s super inappropriate, God!”

“Oh, okay, got it. He joined instead.”

“No-! Argh, what are you here for? I’m busy, I don’t have time to entertain you…”

“I’m here cuz I saw you sneaking around. What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to find a way out.”

“You’re not even on the right fucking side of the dome, that manhole is at the back of the academy.”

“Not through there… I want to check for some secret entrance in the walls. I can’t fathom that road being the only way in and out. There has to be some other way, and I figured the dome walls could easily have one.”

The strawberry blonde’s eyes moved over the long seemingly never ending walls. She looked somewhat impressed, if not agreeing. “... Not a bad idea on paper, but fucking horrible execution!”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“You could stand here for a whole week running your hands over every little millimeter and still miss it. This doesn’t work for shits.”

“Well, what do you suggest?”

“Heheh…” A wide grin plastered her face. “Don’t fuzz your little pea brain over it. I, the gorgeous genius girl Miu Iruma, will take care of it! You’ll be on your knees praising me!”

Despite the typical vocabulary, she wasn’t messing around. Kaede could tell from the grin on her face. It held the mischief it always did, but also a childish knowing nature. A very loud ‘I know something you don’t!’ kind of energy.

“You… have a way to get us out? Really?!”

“I’m still working on it, but-” she threw her hair back- “just wait and see… I’ll get everyone out of the killing game.”

A huge bomb? Tiny bombs? A drill to break through the walls? A remote control that could control Monokuma? A sci-fi movie gadget that shows secret hallways? The possibilities were endless, and all of them shook Kaede to her core in excitement. Somewhere deep inside she knew trust could be put in the inventor. Even with all her sexual brash talk and being at the edge of maniacally laughing while thunder crashes in the background, something soft hid inside.

“Oh, Miu, you’re making me so happy!” She quickly grabbed her hands and squeezed them. “You really know how to get on my nerves, but… I knew I could count on you. I trust you to get us out. Heck, if you do, I’ll acknowledge you as uh… What is it you always say again? Gorgeous smart girl?”

The smirk from Miu’s face had fallen, replaced with a trembling lip and shaky eyes. She almost looked afraid. “G-genius…” she uttered. “It’s gorgeous genius girl…”

“Ah, right. I’ll be sure to remember it. … Are your hands always this sweaty?”

“If nobody does it for you, then maybe you should do it instead!”

Kaede hadn’t forgotten Angie’s words yet. They lingered in the back of her mind, awaiting a stroke of genius that would compel her to do such a thing. And now, seemingly out of nowhere, it hit her.

She was going to write her own piano piece.

Perhaps strange to think since an Ultimate Pianist surely must have written plenty of her own compositions, but no part of her mind held such a memory. She might have forgotten, just like a lot of other things, but she wanted to treat the new activity as though it was as special as the first time regardless.

She had sat herself down behind the piano, empty sheets in front of her and a pencil by her side. Unsure where to start, she put her fingers on the keys and simply soared around in different tunes, none of which satisfied her. They were too plain, or sounded too much like an already existing piece. She wanted something new, something… something…

The hours went by as she tried again and again to put her heart on her sleeve. Something blocked her from moving forward, and it wouldn't go away. Frustrated with herself, she ended up playing Beethoven’s Moonlight instead.

Her fingers moved at an eye blinding speed, hitting the third Presto agitato movement. The tempo of the song was much too fast for most people. Even Kaede herself tended to play it below the mark because of how insane a job it was to play 7+ minutes of unbroken whizz. But she had the hands for it, so if she really wanted to, she went for it.

And right about now, her body really wanted- No, needed it. From the deep to high notes, she raced through them, the mood ever changing. A few moments of slowing down to take your breath occurred, all while the stress continued in the background. In no part of this song could you escape what lurked in the shadows.

She ended at the heavy key slams, and let out a small breath of relief.

“Wow, you really do play beautifully.” Rantaro stood just inside, holding a tray with tea and a box hanging from his elbow. 

“Oh, Rantaro.” Her eyes fell on the items in the man’s hands. She recognized the flower cup as the one Kirumi always used for her, adorned with the habitual smell of Earl Grey Tea. Only the best part herself was missing.

He noticed how strange the image looked, and laughed awkwardly. “No, I’m not the new maid. I crossed Kirumi in the canteen making tea. She said it was meant for you as she knew you were playing again. But she was so occupied with other tasks that I offered to bring it instead.”

“Ah…” Admittedly, the change in scene disappointed her. She would’ve liked Kirumi to come in again. “What kind of tasks?”

“Dunno, I saw her gathering all the laundry and walking around with her cleaning supplies. Looks like she’s going for a deep clean on the new floor.”

She sighed deeply, tapping her arm. “I told her not to get too obsessed with that place… She’s tried cleaning it a few times now.”

“I’m pretty sure that every time she makes it shine, Monokuma comes in right after her and makes everything dirty again. But, she told me she was going to clean everyone’s bathrooms as well, so at least she won’t be up there all day.”

“The bathrooms? But she did those like… a few days ago. Do you really have to clean them that much, or have I always been so lazy?”

“Ahaha, no… Think that’s just Kirumi being the maid that she is.” He walked towards her.

“Maid or not, she should cool it…”

He simply shrugged a bit. “Hey, she does it out of free will, so. Anyway, here’s your tea. Oh, and I got a little gift.”

“Gift?” She sat up straight.

“I was messing around with that arcade thingy across the canteen. There’s a lot of crap in there. But I also got this.” He put the tray down, grabbed the box and opened it to reveal all kinds of nail polish. “Ta-da.”

“Ohhh…” She edged closer and took a look inside. A wide spectrum of colors filled the space to a brim. “There’s some really pretty ones in here.”

“Would you like to have it? My sisters already have plenty of them anyway.”

“I’d love to, thank you!” She took the box from him and held it close. “Ah, right, you mentioned something about painting nails before.”

“Mhm, I do it all the time for them. My nail art isn’t that great, though. I can only do simple shapes like small flowers. Unless you give me stamps, but that’s kind of cheating.”

“That’s better than me. I’ve never even done it. Long nails get in the way while playing, so I can only plainly paint them, but even that must have been…” She tried to think of the last time she colored her nails. Maybe early high school? She couldn’t quite remember owning any bottles, but surely she had painted them at least once. Maybe someone did them for her? But then who…

“Hey, what about I do your nails?”

“Huh?” She looked up at him in surprise. “You want to do that?”

“Sure. It’s basically my second profession, so.”

“Well… alright!” With a bright smile Kaede jumped from her seat and eagerly settled down on the podium’s edge instead.

He laughed a bit in return and settled down next to her. “You’re excited.”

“Sure, I’ve never had anyone do them before! Is there anything you recommend?”

“Hmm…” He took her hand and caressed his chin a bit, thinking. “Since you have to keep your nails short, I’d recommend a French slant.”

Her head tilted in confusion. “French… slant…?”

“It’s a kind of design,” he explained. “You paint your nails in two colors diagonally. It makes them look long and pretty. I don’t think there’s any rhinestones in the box, but those would really finish it off.”

The image of a guy talking about something as feminine as this amused Kaede greatly. His passion for the subject had a contagious effect. “You know a lot about this, huh?”

“Each of my sisters has their own thing they like, so I kind of got wrapped up in it all. Any colors that have your preference?”

“Definitely pink. And then maybe… orange!”

“Okay, alright.” He smiled a bit, knowingly. Or, nostalgia? “Let’s do a pastel pink and pastel orange. It’ll give a calm look.”

“I’ll trust you on it.” She watched him search for the right bottles. “So, what was that smile about?”

“Hm?”

“That smile. Have something against my color choice?”

“No, not at all. It’s a nice combo. It’s just… Well,” the edges of his lips curled into another smile, but one different than before, “my youngest sister always picks those too.”

She noticed the joy filling his voice mentioning her. He always spoke very laid back, a ‘just stepped out of bed’ energy radiating off him. So to hear him come to life, Kaede couldn’t help but dig further. “How old is she?”

“She’s 5.”

“5 and already thinking of painting nails?”

“She’s surrounded by an army of nail painters, so she’s just copying them.”

“Oh, right, you have 12 sisters… Mhm, it’s like that one fairytale, the 12 dancing princesses.”

He chuckled at that. “They’ve actually done that as dress-up for Halloween.”

“No way…!” she laughed a bit back, clapping her hands together. “Oh, I need to see a picture of that! You do have those, right?”

“Of course, nearly a full album and,” he raised his finger, “cherry on top, a video of them dancing.”

“Awww, so sweet… And you?”

“Well, I had to play prince, of course.”

“So you’re standing there, the only guy, surrounded by pink.”

“Jep.”

She giggled again. “That sounds amazing!”

“When we get out of here, I’ll send it to you first thing,” he smiled back.

“I can’t wait. You must miss them.”

“Yeah…” His smile fell, bringing his attention back to Kaede’s hand and beginning his work.

The sudden silence struck Kaede. This was unlike Rantaro as well, but instead of being enjoyable, it obviously had the opposite effect. Was it something she said? “Don’t worry, we’re going to get out of here,” she encouragingly whispered to him.

“That’s not the issue… I’m slowly remembering things. From what I was doing before we got kidnapped.”

She blinked. Was she not the only one to have other memories return to her?

“And… Ah, nevermind it.”

“No, no, tell me about it…! Please?”

He let out a deep sigh. “... I went out with Reishi. That’s my youngest sister’s name, by the way. I took her to a playground to get her out of the house and socialize a bit. It makes for some good bonding time as well since I’m away so often. When she got on the slide, I looked away for a bit. It was only for a little bit, but when I looked back she… had vanished.”

“... What?”

“I looked everywhere for her. The sandbox, the ice cream shop around the corner, the toy store. No matter where I looked, I couldn’t find her anywhere… I don’t remember how long I’ve been searching, but-” He clutched the nail brush, staring into it. “... I shouldn’t have let her out of my sight. Maybe she got hurt, maybe she followed something that caught her attention, maybe she…”

“Hey…” She put her hand on his, hoping to ease his heaving chest. “Maybe it happened when you got swooped away, and she’s safe at home by now.”

“Maybe… But it feels as though I’ve been looking for longer than that…”

Her head nodded a bit in understanding. “Every second feels like an hour in a situation like that…”

“Yeah… You’re right. I’m sure she’s sitting at home, complaining about where I went off exploring this time.” His relaxed surfer smile returned, waving off the previous worry as though he had never even spoken of it. He took her hand, dipped the brush in the nail polish and continued his work in full focus.

She asked him if he felt okay, if maybe, he wanted to stop. He did not. He insisted on continuing and that everything was fine. He didn’t want her to worry about him any longer.

But she could tell that, as he painted her nails, his hand trembled ever so lightly.

Despite the intense amount of okonomiyaki Kaede had eaten the night before, her stomach rumbled again in the morning. She wished she had eaten more, or that her stomach at least was capable of holding more. Kirumi’s food always hit in a way she had never experienced before. A taste that exceeded that of a 5 star restaurant. Unfortunately, her stomach could not magically turn into a black hole, so she had to hit the brakes and patiently await the next dining plan.

Breakfast probably was the best out of all three. A wide range of items covered the table, ensuring to fulfill whatever desire you held. Miso soup, eggs, freshly baked bakery items. Even if you somehow missed something, it would be with you within seconds. It’s the kind of fancy breakfast that made Kaede feel like royalty.

“What to go for today… Maybe a croissant with jam. And scrambled eggs with bacon, hmmm... That’s a total classic.”

She stuck her nose in the air and took a deep breath to relish her senses in the decision. Surprisingly, no scent came. She wasn’t late, was she?

When she entered the canteen, she found everyone standing around Maki. Maybe the time had finally come that she felt comfortable dining with everyone. But then again, the table wasn’t even set.

“I don’t get it,” Tsumugi said, nervously pulling on her fingers. “You were taking your distance because you know we don’t want to be around you, but now you’ve changed your mind…?”

Ryoma put his hands in his pockets. “Maybe you should give her a moment to explain first.”

“She’s a fucking assasin, what’s there to explain?!”

“Even Miu’s single remaining braincell understands there’s no room for Maki with us. She’s a killer,” Kokichi added, his face serious.

“I wanted to talk about that… Although I am the Ultimate Assassin, I don’t actually remember ever having killed anyone.”

“You really want us to believe that?”

“Hey, hang on now…” Rantaro held his hand up a bit to prevent the others from interrupting further. “What do you mean by that, Maki?”

Noticing her entrance, she shortly looked at Kaede, their eyes meeting. The quick thumbs-up with a nod that said ‘tell them already!’ urged her to explain, and so she revealed the truth to everyone. How this talent wasn’t her choice, what pain she was put through. And how maybe, she had been given this talent without having executed anyone.

“I really don’t want to kill anyone… I only became what I am because I had to save the orphanage. There’s nothing more to it.”

Tenko trembled on her feet, saddened by her story. “So you gave up your future for the other children… Argh, now I feel horrible talking about striking you…!”

“This is an upsetting story…” Korekiyo tipped his hat to her in respect. “Now that I think of it, you committing a murder would be anything but ideal right now. You’d be an immediate first suspect.”

“Ohhh, that’s true…” Angie tapped a brush against her cheek. “It’d be totally useless for her to get out by killing!”

“Unless she goes for a fucking mass murder…!”

Shuichi smiled ever so lightly. Although he didn’t appear quite ready to approach Maki, he most definitely felt proud, as well as insanely relieved at having an explanation to everything. “I don’t think she will…”

“I’ve done things I’m not proud of,” Ryoma mentioned, “and I’m seated at the table regardless of it. So I don’t see why you can’t join again either.”

“It’ll be a bit weird to get used to. I still have this pretty aggressive image of you in my head, but…” Tsumugi smiled a bit, fixing her glasses. “Yeah, come sit with us.”

“Kirumi’s been making this great banana bread lately, you’ve got to try it!” Tenko excitedly yelled, having become completely unbothered.

“Fuck, s-so we’re just letting her back in…? Whatever, just don’t sit near me…!”

Maki’s strict brow loosened a bit as everyone accepted her request to join again. Despite how much of a lone wolf she was, she must’ve missed the feeling of community. How could she not? Sometimes the group became a bunch of little children themselves.

Only Kokichi unknowingly looked around. His expression was hard to read, indifferent. However, as per usual, it didn’t stick around long enough to truly take in. He gave a wide smile and loudly said, “Ah, to heck with it! We’ve already forgiven 2 killers, why not add a 3rd one!”

“Speaking of breakfast…” Rantaro stepped forward to the empty table. “It looks like Maki’s announcement held Kirumi up.”

“Mom got lazy, I want food!”

“I didn’t hold her up at all,” Maki said. “She left when I came in.”

Kaede’s brow furrowed. She… had left? Now that she looked around, Kirumi wasn’t even in the room with them. She didn’t hear Maki’s speech.

She pulled on one of her pigtails, running her fingers through the strands. “I came in early as preparation. Of course, Kirumi was already here. I wanted to explain the situation to her first since I figured it would take a while before you guys arrive, and it’d be good practice… But she quickly left. She looked stressed. Didn’t even excuse herself.”

Shuichi’s fingers instinctively went to his cap, anxiously rubbing the edge in thought. “That… doesn’t sound like Kirumi at all…”

“You don’t know that, maybe Kirumi is a cruel murderer underneath her calm motherly facade.”

“I agree with Shuichi on the behavior thing,” Kaede said, throwing a quick glare at Kokichi’s unnecessary comment. “It’s not like her to leave like that, and especially not to show visible stress… Something’s probably wrong. We should look for her.”

“But I’m really hungry…” Angie complained. “Can’t we make it ourselves this once?”

“Or maybe she left food in the fridge,” Tenko said. “I noticed she put meals away for Maki. It had a little note and everything.”

“That’s true, she did do that for me.”

“Guys, come on…” Annoyed, Kaede crossed her arms. It was such a simple act to come with. “Kirumi does so much… She takes care of us 24/7, so we should take care of her as well.”

Korekiyo ran a hand over his cheek, squinting his eyes a bit at her. “She does not strike me as the type who wants to be comforted even if something is wrong. Best to give her some space.”

“You don’t know that…!” she quickly countered. “Maybe she does need it! Maybe she-”

The doors opened, and Kirumi entered. Everyone immediately turned to her. She, uncharacteristically, froze in place with a widened eye. She’d lost her straight posture and after the initial shock of seeing everyone, hurried for the kitchen.

Kaede immediately followed and watched as Kirumi opened a cabinet, stared for a few seconds, and closed it again to lean against the kitchenette with her head hung low. Her earlier conviction wasn’t unwarranted. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Kirumi’s head raised itself again, although her face remained averted to escape the others' as they slowly entered. “I apologize for not having any breakfast…”

Is that what worried her? Because she, probably for a human reason like feeling unwell, didn’t get to finish breakfast? She really was too hard on herself. Kaede approached and caressed her upper arm, giving a warm smile. “Don’t worry about it. Let’s make breakfast together. That’s more fun anyway.”

She shook her head. “You don’t understand.”

“Kirumi, you should be able to sit down and take it easy. You don’t always have to be the one to make food.”

“No, that’s not it,” she ran her hand through her hair, slightly pulling on the strands, and finally looked up to everyone. “It’s not possible to make breakfast.”

“It’s not… possible…?”

Confused, Kaede stared into her eyes. She couldn’t grasp what the emerald hue tried to make her understand, but…

When she opened the fridge, it was empty. Every bit of food vanished like snow for the sun. From a piece of fruit to the stick of butter. Even the drinks had vanished. “It’s… gone… The food is gone.”

“What…?!”

The group immediately gathered around to stare at the poorly lit emptiness.

“Where did the energy drinks go…?! O-or the coffee…?! I need that shit to be able to work, I can’t work without caffeine…!”

“When I arrived this morning,” Kirumi explained, wringing her hands, “everything had vanished. All the cabinets are empty as well, down to the spices and tea bags. I apologize for leaving so suddenly before, Maki, but I simply had to check the warehouse. Despite my thorough search, I can’t find anything there anymore either. Everything is… gone.”

This… is not good.

Despite Monokuma’s total lack of care for everyone’s safety, he did provide the basic necessities without trouble. Right from the start many different items filled the kitchen. Chocolate cookies to pasta, there was something for everyone. And of course enough for Kirumi to serve large meals with great ranges in cultural background. Even if someone got a food craving in the middle of the night, you’d have to eat yourself to sickness to finish even half of it. So for everything to be gone…

All eyes slowly went to Kokichi, who gave a confused smile back. “Hm? What are we thinking?”

“Did you take everything away?” Ryoma asked.

He let out a loud gasp of offense. “How dare you think such a thing about me?! I would never!”

“Sure you fucking would! You’re a goblin, those always want everything to themselves!”

“It’s not a funny joke to hide all the food…” Korekiyo muttered. “Did you hide everything in your room?”

“Nuh-uh! I didn’t touch anything, geez.”

“Come on, Kokichi.” Kaede put her hands on her hips, tapping her foot in impatience. “You’re not making yourself any more popular this way.”

“Hey,” he glared at her, “I am just as hungry as you guys and want mom’s breakfast. What am I going to get by holding that up?”

“Do not call me mom, please.”

“He's just lying, isn't he…?" Tsumugi asked.

“I… don’t think he is.” Shuichi stepped forward. With his detective senses activated, his eyes lingered from underneath the cap, observing everyone. “Kokichi didn’t do this.”

“Yayyy, at least the detective boy trusts me!”

“That’s… an overstatement…”

Angie threw her body left to right, pacing. “Then who did it? Atua isn’t happy.”

“Oh, oh, me! It’s me!”

Monokuma made his way through the crowd, proudly waving his paw in the air, claiming the act to be his work.

Of course Monokuma, when is it not? Did he think this was funny?

“Why the fuck would you do that?!” Miu immediately yelled at him. “Keep your greedy bear paws away from our stuff!”

“Okay, great joke, Monokuma,” Rantaro said, trying to ease the situation despite his own frustration. “You got us real good. You can return everything now.”

“Return? I can’t do that! The motive just started!”

Kaede’s heart stopped.

The animatronic’s smile seemingly widened, even if that wasn’t physically possible. “That’s right, the next motive is… starvation! I won’t return your food nor drinks until the next trial has occurred.”

“What?!” The entire class stepped back in shock, quickly making eye contact and chattering restlessly.

“You… you must be joking,” Kirumi uttered.

“What are we supposed to do with this…?!” Tenko balled her fists, having to contain herself from breaking the rule about hurting Monokuma. “We need food and drinks to survive! Especially drinks!”

“Hey, the tap water is of drinking water quality, don’t complain so much! I made sure to have it tested properly. Do you have any idea how much money that costs?! E. coli, enterococcus, metals, PAH, PCBs-”

“Shut your damn mouth! Plain water can’t keep us up!”

“As long as there is water humans can survive up to 3 weeks without food,” Shuichi said to himself, pinching his chin. “But that doesn’t mean your body won’t be affected much earlier… It will hurt all kinds of systems. From your central to endocrine. Someone might faint, or have a heart attack, or…”

Rantaro cast a dark look at Monokuma. “So how do you expect us to even be in the mood to kill someone?”

“If you’d let me continue talking for once instead of going straight to panicking every time again, you'd know…” He cleared his throat, taking the center stage back in paws. “There’s two side notes to the motive. First off, although there’s no food around for you to grab, at impulsive times I will provide you with food. Could be in a few hours, could be in 5 days. Could be breakfast time, could be at 2 in the morning… Who knows! It’s a surprise!”

“Side note number two: I didn't want to waste everything, so I also hid food around the academy. You’re free to look for it! And when you find some, you can either decide to share it with your classmates, or… take everything for yourself. After all, who knows when I will feed you? Or what I will even feed you… Puhu… Puhuhuhu…”

Kaede barely comprehended the words Monokuma spoke. She wished it had been a cruel joke from Kokichi after all. Food was a basic psychological need everyone required to survive; it held the same importance as breathing air. But now, he took that very thing away and put it in his control. He held a cruel promise in front of them that he would give them something someday, without information on when or what that would be. A false sense of hope for one to obsess on. And then the part of food being hidden. It could be anywhere, but she also understood the whereabouts of it weren’t what mattered. What mattered was the question you had to ask yourself once you did find it: Will you be selfish?

“Think I covered everything with that, so… Until feeding time!”

Her nerves shook, claiming her mind and body. Feeding time. He treated them like animals at a zoo.

“You can’t do this!” she screeched, blocking Monokuma’s leave in protest. “You can’t take away our source of survival! We can’t live without food! You’re making us starve to death! You, you… This motive is cruel…!”

He laughed her in the face, “Life is cruel, why should this game be any different?” and walked past her.

The air fell silent as reality set. The stressed brabbles from before had vanished as everyone stared at the pianist. They hoped for some sign that all of this was a nightmare and everything would be okay. She couldn’t give them that, however.

Her stomach rumbled under the pressure. She put her hand on it as she looked at Kirumi with pleading eyes. “Are you very sure there’s nothing left…?”

She nodded a bit and met her eyes. “There’s nothing left at all.”

Chapter Text

Without breakfast to have the class split up, each headed out to do their own thing. After all, what else could one do? Curse the sky? Curse the outside world for not having found them yet? It wouldn’t change anything. By the time lunch rolled around, everyone returned to the canteen out of routine. Kirumi even entered the kitchen, taking out the pots and pans, only when she wanted to grab the ingredients remembering that Monokuma had taken them. 

Kaede’s stomach grew emptier. She had gone through the morning alright by convincing her brain last night’s dinner was fulfilling enough, but by the afternoon it could no longer be tricked. It wanted a meal, as was custom. Monokuma had naturally teased the group; he might just be feeding them in 5 days, but surely that would not actually be the case. He must at least offer them 1 meal a day. If not to start out.

Around dinner time, everyone once again followed the routine of simply heading to the canteen. Kirumi repeated her mistake, while everyone else decided to sit down in the hopes Monokuma would show up with food. Any moment now.

Any minute.

Any second.

…

Maybe not.

The clock struck 8. Despite everyone being hungry, the lack of nutrients had plenty of people deciding to go to bed early. Not a bad move by any means. If you sleep you can’t notice your empty stomach growling for a bite, but they couldn’t resolve to a 24/7 nap either. If Monokuma wouldn’t give them even 1 meal a day, it really could take days. They needed better ways to survive.

So naturally, everyone turned towards Rantaro.

“What are we looking at?”

“You’re some fuckboy scout, aren’t you?” Miu grumbled. “So be fucking useful and tell us what to do!”

“... Ah. Right, I am,” he laughed a bit and leaned back into his seat. “To survive without food, let’s see…”

“You have to think about it…?” Shuichi questioned.

“I’m not too stressed about the whole ordeal, so I guess my wheels haven’t started turning yet.”

“Not stressed?! But we haven’t gotten any food all day!” Tenko hit her head on the table, Angie patting her back in comfort, “I’m so hungry…”

“I believe I understand where he’s coming from…” Korekiyo crossed his legs, peeling at his pendant. “Surely Monokuma will keep us alive, as the dead cannot murder. We might as well see this as a detox diet.”

“Detox diets aren’t even good for you,” Tsumugi sighed, leaning on her arms. “And I certainly don’t want to be forced to do one… Looking at it that way doesn’t help me at all.”

“Rantaro’s a very low stress person,” Kaede mentioned, curling a hairlock to distract her mind. “That’s good, right?”

“Until it comes to bite you, nee-heehee…”

“Okay,” he put his hands up, “you can quit your theories about me. First things first, drink lots of water. It’ll help in filling your stomach.”

“Should be easy enough,” Ryoma said. “It’s not like we have anything else anyway.”

“Nyahaha, standing in the shower with your mouth open sounds like an effective and fun way!”

“Then the best other advice I can give is to keep things cool. Don’t do anything that takes a lot of energy out of your body.” He eyed Tenko, who immediately pranced.

“You want me to stop Neo-Aikido?! Never!”

“It's just for now. Food is fuel, and your body needs fuel to do something like that. We have no clue when we can tank nor how much, so save as much of it as you can.”

“Owww… Damn that stupid bear…!”

“Piano is okay, right?” Kaede instantly asked. If she couldn’t do that, it would be the end of the world.

"I’m not sure how much energy you need for that… Maybe don’t play anything intense like you did before. The real best is if we all just sit down like a bunch of sloths. And that-” he snapped his fingers at Kirumi- “includes you.”

“... Me?”

“You’re always going around, cleaning and cooking and whatever else. Take a break from it.”

Her lips instantly pursed. Although she did not retaliate nor agreed with the statement, her constant strict brow throughout the evening proved her true opinion. Even by the time the trio met up again at night for their training - except now without the training and sitting in the grass instead - her face remained unchanged.

“I don’t need to rest,” she explained as Kaede asked after the matter. “I understand cooking is out of the question, but I do not see the harm in doing the wash or cleaning the place.”

“You’ll at least lessen it, right?” Shuichi nervously asked.

She blissfully ignored the question. “I will be fine. Do not worry about me.”

Kaede shook her head a bit. She didn’t know whether to admire or scold her moxie. If someone told her to drop the cleaning, she wouldn’t even question it. More so thank them.

“Besides, as Korekiyo said, Monokuma could never let us completely starve. It does not aid the killing game.”

“I wouldn’t underestimate it,” Shuichi said, shuffling his feet a bit. “We’ve thought before that the motives didn’t make much sense, but it all went somewhere.”

“It must be that hidden food,” Kaede laid back, looking up to the twinkling sky. “I don’t know if I should believe he really hid some around, but either way, it could start fights. And fights…” Well, those could go terribly wrong.

“Hmm, I had not considered that…” Kirumi sighed, hanging her head a bit, but quickly looking up again. “Perhaps we should look for it.”

“What, the food?”

“Yes. We can’t build on Monokuma’s fickle nature. If we find food we can make a plan of approach.” With an elaboration about to roll out, her fingers moved to her chin to caress in deep thought. “We can create an overview of some kind on when and what to eat, as well as who gets how much. Essentially spread everything out so nobody will resort to panic and eat everything in one go. That way we can survive for a long time.”

The sudden detailed idea didn’t surprise Kaede, she had already figured the maid was someone who would be incredibly good at planning and taking the lead. Although she would likely never do the latter due to her position, the great planning returned on a daily basis. With how much she managed to cramp in one day to perform household tasks and help other Ultimates out, her schedule must be incredibly tight and optimized. She’d be able to make a great food distribution plan.

“Except we haven’t come across any food yet,” Kaede said. “I haven’t exactly looked for it though… Maybe we should search together tomorrow!”

“Do you…” Shuichi swallowed. “Do you think someone would hide it if they did find some? Keep it for themselves?”

Although most everyone had befriended one another, it was hard to say how desperate one could be. Kaede trusted everyone here to share fair and square. They had already gone through so much together, both in health and sickness. Nobody wanted another person choked or shot. Nobody wanted to see another person be executed. That’s something anyone could agree on. And the best way to avoid such a scenario, would be to help each other survive. Everyone would definitely share what they’d find.

Except Kokichi. He was the type to mess around about it. Maybe Miu not either, but Kaede slowly put the pieces of her strange persona together and knew that if she did, she wouldn't have been able to control herself. It wouldn’t be purposeful in the same way the Supreme Leader would do it. Ironically, she still didn’t understand how Kokichi got his talent. And that’s to assume he didn’t lie about it.

“If I find something, I will definitely share,” Kaede said, sitting up again. “Even if it can barely be split, I’d do it. And you two are first in line to get what I find.”

They both looked up to the girl.

“Maybe that’s a little selfish in its own way, but… We’re a trio. I’ve got to prioritize my best friends.”

“Best… friends…?” Shuichi stared at her in disbelief. Of course they had said before they would stick together. They trained, hung out. However, somehow, it felt somewhat focused on the more serious mystery aspect. Perhaps because of Kaede’s own awkward club comment. Regardless, she broke the idea now, hitting Shuichi personally. Or maybe it simply struck his heart in memory of Kaito. He grinned a bit. “I would share with you two for sure as well…”

“As would I.” Kirumi, unlike Shuichi, wasn’t as crazed over Kaede’s official declaration of their friendship level. Her mind already knew. She did, however, let out a short charming giggle.

The air eased and Shuichi’s nervous reaction melted away, carefully indulging in the newly discovered dynamic. “If Monokuma does finally feed us, what do you think he’ll make? I can’t picture him in the kitchen.”

Kaede laughed a bit at the image of Monokuma cooking. The flour everywhere, food catching fire left and right while angrily blaming everything on ‘the meddling kids’. “That wouldn’t go well at all.”

“A cooking bear…” Kirumi grinned lightly at the idea. “What a world.”

“Maybe he comes in like a cat with a freshly caught rat…”

“Ewwww!” A shiver went down Kaede’s spine. She already saw the hairy stinky thing staring up from her plate with its glassy rotting eye. “Don’t put the picture in my head…!” she pushed him by his shoulder. “You’re lucky my stomach is empty… Ugh…”

He caught himself from falling over and let out a nervous snort. “Admittedly, I would not be surprised if he did.”

“Imagine actually having to eat that… I would never become that desperate.”

“Not even if you’re starving to death?”

“I’d rather die than lose myself like an animal, Shuichi.”

Kirumi fixed her dress a bit, ironing it over her legs. “No need to fret. Monokuma will likely make use of simple canned food for minimum effort.”

“Yeah… Whatever it is,” his eyes peeked from underneath his cap, smiling at Kirumi, “I’m afraid it could never match your cooking.”

She gave him a warm smile in return. “Charmer.”

All this talk about a maggot’s favorite meal made Kaede feel sick. “Okay, guys, other subject. I don’t wanna think about all that gross stuff too much.”

“Ah, right, sorry…” Shuichi cleared his throat, fixing his headwear back in place. “Well, it seems your plan to get Maki back worked out.”

“Yeah, yeah!” She pulled her legs up and hugged them. “It’s not like it worked immediately, but I’d like to think our conversation changed her mind.”

“I never could have imagined her background to be so… Well… But I’m glad we know now. I’m not sure how you did it, Kaede.”

Maki’s story was deeply personal and, admittedly, painful, for both speaker and listener. It took an immense amount of courage to express, and Kaede was happy to be the driving force.

Though… When she thought about it, it wasn’t because she had pushed the girl too much, right?

…

She smiled at them, pumping herself up. “That’s the Akamatsu brand for you!”

2 more days without food passed. Despite Kaede, Kirumi and Shuichi’s initial attempts, their search left them empty-handed. They gave up on the plan as their legs turned jelly and their brains foggy. 

No matter how much anyone in the class slept, the tiredness never truly left. As Rantaro suggested, they toned down their activities by sunbathing or staying in their room. Only a few figures attempted to challenge this new status quo.

Miu left for the fourth floor and wouldn’t pop up again until later in the day, seemingly not that affected by the hunger, aside from her growing complaints. But what’s new, right?

Kirumi also continued practicing her position as maid, just like she promised. She cleaned, collected the wash. It didn't last long, but she was able to keep herself busy for at least a bit. You could tell she was growing nervous, however. Without cooking empty slots appeared in her schedule, and with everyone toning down their favorite way to spend time, requests dialed back as well. Her schedule became emptier. She nervously paced the halls, looking for new ways to entertain herself.

Kaede tried to keep herself busy the same way. It’s not as though she was forbidden from playing the piano, so she could work on the song she’s been meaning to write. She sat patiently, hoping to have some stroke of genius to present to Kirumi. Music could calm one down, after all. But instead her mind clocked out and stared into the distance. The sun set before she even realized it.

She needed food. Her body begged her to, clamping to the reserves it had built up over time. Even burned food would be acceptable at this point, to the point a burning smell came to invade her dreams.

She went through the same routine of biking through the muddy forest, tempted by the left and trying to make her way through the tall rose bushes that time and time again forced her to give up. The red and white lights spinned past her eyes through the gaps.

A large shadow edged towards the end of the bushes, carrying the ashy smell. It stared at her with its penetrating white eyes. In its complete silhouette no brow or mouth gave any indications on its feelings regarding the girl’s struggle. Maybe it enjoyed seeing her suffer. Maybe it didn’t even notice her.

It murmured something. She didn’t know what, but the sentence repeated like a broken record. It commanded her. Something she knew she didn’t want to listen to.

It replayed its point as its face twisted. A sharp grin and a red dodged eye screamed: “Ding dong, bing bong~!”

The TV in Kaede’s room lit the dark space up, forcing all attention to the bear.

“Wakey, wakey!” Monokuma burst, planting his glass of wine on the richly filled dinner table. Turkey, salad, rice, potatoes, mango, cherries, ramen. “It is now 3 in the morning, and the Monokuma buffet opens! Everyone, head to the canteen before this limited offer runs out!”

“Buffet…?” Kaede’s shaky eyes stared at the variety of digital food and drinks, still hazy from her abrupt awakening. Would that be the food they get?

She hurled out of her room, not even thinking about changing out of her tank top and shorts pajama first. The others were the exact same. Still in their nightwear, the pack ran their way to the canteen.

This was the moment. Finally this hole in their stomach could be filled and tamed. 

12 plates decorated the table, Monokuma standing in the middle with his arms crossed, enjoying the scenery of cattle gathering.

They sat down, only Kirumi making an abrupt stop, her vintage nightgown swaying forward. She served, she wasn’t supposed to sit. There was no place for her here, no matter how desperate the situation.

Luckily for her, Kaede disagreed and with very little patience pulled her down on the seat next to her.

“Wow, barely a minute,” Monokuma said. “That’s got to be a new record.”

“Where’s the fucking food?!” Miu squakwed as her fists slammed the table, immediately getting to the point rather than allowing their kidnapper to mess around. “Give it now!”

“Calm, calm! No yelling at my restaurant or nobody gets anything!”

“Yeah, shut up, Miu!” Kokichi yelled.

“Don’t mess around, Monokuma,” Maki hissed. “We haven’t eaten in 3 days. Bring it in.”

“Sheesh, okay… What happened to manners? Where’s the ‘good morning’, the ‘how are you’, the ‘did you sleep well’? None of you guys even bothered to get dressed. What do you think this is, some once in a year pajama breakfast in primary school? Well, at least none of you sleep naked… That would make this a completely different story! … I’m not sure I’d be allowed to show that. There’s definitely kids watching, you know?”

Maki’s eyes screamed murder and Monokuma, actually intimidated by it, continued.

“Ta-da!” He presented a plate with 12 cooked eggs on it and placed it in the very middle. “Bon appetit!”

“... You’re kidding.” Ryoma stared up at him.

Korekiyo squinted his eyes in disgust. “This is all?”

“What’s wrong? Are you scared of PFAS?”

“Where’s the rest of the food?” Angie whined. “You were talking about a buffet.”

“This is the buffet.”

This had to be a joke. 72 long hours of Monokuma making entertainment out of holding control over 16 young adults’ diet, only to wake them up at an impossible time and destroy their hopes with a meager single egg.

Kaede’s hand clutched the knife she had already taken in hand. She could barely restrain her anger. “Monokuma…” she gritted. “Give us normal food… Now.”

“Huhhh?” His head tilted in innocent confusion. “Normal food?”

“You know what I mean…”

“I really don’t.”

She stabbed the knife in his airspace. “You can’t starve us and then pull up with a stupid egg...!”

“Hey, if you’re going to be ungrateful, I’ll just take it away instead! Is that what you want?! Nothing at all?!”

Everyone’s eyes widened. “No…!” they breathed in unison.

“I thought so… Enjoy! Until next time!”

In a confusing mix of pain and relief, everyone took their designated egg and started peeling.

“So this is it, huh…?” Tsumugi sighed.

“That stupid bear…!” Tenko grumbled. “Ohhh, if I could just…” Her hold on the egg tightened, breaking its shell. 

“Save the energy,” Maki said.

Kokichi, being the only one with a grin on his face, peeled his at a slow pace. “So, still not stressed, Rantaro?”

“Yeah, no… I’m starting to feel it a tiny bit now,” he sheepishly smiled, quickly taking a bite to satisfy his stomach at least a little.

“Monokuma has no regard to how many days we go without food, nor what ‘reward’ he’s willing to give… This is bad,” Shuichi said.

Kirumi neatly gathered everyone’s waste in a pile to throw away. “I fear Monokuma will simply give us another egg in 3 days and call it a success.”

Kaede stared at the white orb. In a way, she didn’t want to eat it. This was so much worse than having no food at all. Even if it nearly hurt, she knew that these three bites would activate her body into wanting more. It would create a nagging craving. Monokuma forced their hands to the very thing that could cause friction.

Find the hidden food.

“Has anyone come across Monokuma’s acclaimed hidden cuisine?” Kokekiyo zipped his mask shut again. “Or tried to search for it?”

“Kirumi, Shuichi and I looked for a bit,” Kaede mentioned. “But no luck…”

“Is that so?” Kokichi tilted his head at her. She didn’t like how it held the same energy Monokuma’s own not so innocent head tilts did. “You’ve got a detective and he can’t find anything?”

The man in question immediately sunk in his seat. “Erm… Well…”

“Can’t find the mastermind, can’t find food… Sheesh, you’re useless, aren’t you?”

Kaede furrowed her brow. “And what about you then? Did you find anything?”

“Hmmm, no.”

“Then don’t push it.”

“But it isn’t exactly my job, now is it?”

“You’re a leader, aren’t you? Then show it.”

“Huh?” He gave her a confused look, playing with his unused cutlery. “I thought you were the leader! We voted for it- Oh, no, wait, you just claimed it.”

“Stop your nasty ass princess bickering, I’m trying to enjoy a meal here!” Miu fussed with a mouthful.

“If we all look together,” Rantaro said, standing up, “we might be more lucky.”

“Right!” Tenko jumped from her seat. “Let’s head out!”

“One thing though…” Ryoma’s eyes scanned the room. “How are we gonna make sure nobody will take anything for themselves?”

Tsumugi fixed her glasses a bit. “Well… we all agree we should share, right?”

“Sure, but words are cheap.”

Ryoma had never been incredibly optimistic about anything in life, though in this moment he was simply being realistic. It couldn’t be guaranteed aside from a promise, but that wasn’t enough reason to not at least try.

So despite some of the doubts that arose, the group headed out, hopefully fulfilling the first step of a back-up plan. Everyone left with at least 1 additional person - and an entire squad of people made sure to babysit Kokichi - so even if someone, for some forsaken reason, wanted to break their promise, it would be hard not to get caught. Kaede supposed someone could technically start an alliance and lie about not finding anything that way. Only people who’d announce a succes story could be fully trusted.

Not that it was something they could ever confirm, as everyone claimed the same thing; they found nothing.

More days passed and the effects of no food further set in.

Drinking-wise everything had been fine. Never had it been so easy to reach the 1,5L minimum per day. Although, admittedly, its plain nature had come to bore Kaede. The things she would give to have a small sip of stone cold soda.

She could feel her body slowing down and craving to stay in bed. The silence engulfing her mind never sat right with her, so she tried to convince her body to make a move. Simply being in other people’s presence would be fine, she didn’t ask for it to run a marathon. But even if she managed to get out, that didn’t mean anyone else did. Less people left their room, and even if they did, they tended to stick around for only a bit before returning. They started living past each other, despite never intending to.

Even the people who had upkept their routine so far, started showing their signs. Miu didn't remain upstairs for as long as she usually did, and most concerning; her insults slowed down.

“I don’t wanna talk…” she complained as Kaede crossed her going to the bathroom and made an attempt at striking conversation. “Leave me alone, co-... Uhhh… Ugh… Whatever.”

She should be relieved not to be called cowtits for once, but it admittedly concerned her to see the girl like this.

Kirumi attempted to continue her work, though the eventual fate of a low point could not be avoided. The silliest of activities like washing the ceiling had been performed now as well. Despite how much she wanted to, there simply wasn’t anything to do anymore. Her schedule had been completely emptied.

Hitting the 3rd day, some of the people decided to sit at the canteen table in the hopes of Monokuma sticking to a routine. Nobody really talked. Shuichi stared into the table. Maki simply rested her head on her arms to rest. Kirumi stood ready by the side, fidgeting her skirt as she awaited a command that would not come. It’s like their brains had trouble simply existing.

Only Kokichi continued to have this sly look on his face, humming without a worry in the world. He wanted to provoke someone with it. Kaede didn’t understand where he got the pep from.

Eventually, he decided to talk instead. “Hey, Maki, tell us a story about your time as an assassin.”

She kept her eyes closed, not bothering to even glance at him. “No.”

“Awww, why not?”

“Because I don’t want to.”

“Come on, that’d make you useful!”

Kaede watched the interaction unfold. “Useful?”

“Yes!” he beamed at her. “Even if we can’t do much, we can still be useful! I, for example, keep the mood good. That’s very important.”

It’s what you’d call a good mood.

“Since Maki has this suuuuper angsty backstory, she can lay it all out in the open to entertain us.”

She opened her eyes a bit to glare at him. “My trauma is not there for your entertainment.”

“Ohhh, trauma… Now that’s juicy. Tell us, tell us!”

“Leave her alone, Kokichi,” Kaede reiterated tiredly.

“Oh, and you’re the leader, that’s even more important! How is anybody supposed to get through the day without Kaede telling them what to do?”

She really wanted to fire back, but frankly, her brain didn’t have the capacity to deal with his nonsense.

“That’s…” Shuichi softly attempted to join the conversation, using the little energy he held to come to Kaede’s support.

“And Shuichi is the meek sheep who follows you around. Every leader needs that one insecure disciple who’s basically a puppy and makes the leader feel all great and knowing. He can’t be missed.”

“... I don’t know whether to appreciate your comment…”

“And then there’s mom.” He turned to Kirumi, who tried her best to stand with a straightened back, ready to jump to a request. Nobody knew when exactly it started, but Kokichi had created a habit of calling the woman his mother. The reasoning made little sense with how close their ages were, and it’s not as if it was a cute little nickname Kirumi enjoyed being called. She despised it. The only reason she hadn’t lashed out about it was because of her position as maid. Perhaps, that’s exactly why he did it. “Mom is… Well… Oh… Oh, geez…”

“... Now what?” Kaede asked.

“Ah, you know… It’s just…”

“What, Kokichi?”

“Mom is honestly the only one here worthy of being called an Ultimate. Normally, she’s the most useful one! But now…” His face saddened. “It’s the opposite.”

“I’m still here to fulfill my role,” Kirumi quickly said.

“You can’t fill something that isn’t needed. When’s the last time you did something for anyone? Like, got an actual request?”

“....”

“Or cleaned? How’s that going? Do we make things dirty enough?”

“.......”

“I guess there’s always cooking. Nobody can beat- Oh, wait, we don’t have any food. Haha, I guess you might as well vanish! Nobody would care!”

“Hey!” Kaede instantly stood up from her chair and pointed a finger in his face. “Take that back!”

“So it has energy left after all,” he smiled.

“Can’t believe I’m saying this, but… Kokichi has a point.”

She turned to look at Maki.

Her face raised a bit. “No offense, but looking at Kirumi is like being reminded of all this great food we could have had. It’s making me sick.”

Kirumi froze. “... Would you prefer for me to leave?”

“Of course she would!” Kokichi shouted. “God, read a fucking room! We don’t want you here until you’re useful again!”

“... Understood. My apologies for the inconvenience.” She bowed and left the canteen.

“W-wait…” Shuichi tried to reach for her, but Kirumi’s big steps didn’t allow anyone to grab her.

Kaede’s own attempt failed for that same reason. “Kirumi, wait…! Argh…!” She turned to Kokichi. “Now look at what you’ve done!”

“You’re welcome,” he said, a seemingly actual well meaning grin on his face. “This makes things sooo much easier.”

Kirumi speed walked her way through the halls, heading upstairs to her lab. It’s the only place she could think of for her to escape to. As she reached the stairs she almost instantly clamped herself against the railing. Her chest heaved, the air becoming heavy and useless. She couldn’t focus. Instead her body focused all attention on her eyes and watered them. It was like an awful dissociation. Why did she react so heavily to that? Well, she knew why, but why ?

“Kirumi?”

Kaede called out, quickly catching up and joining her by the stairs. She immediately returned to her poised posture, signaling Kaede there was no need to get closer, and blinked the tears away. “Yes?”

She took a small step back, but remained close enough to ensure she could catch her if needed. “Are… you okay?”

“Of course.”

“Yeah? Cause that was really mean of him to say…”

“Customer service, Kaede,” Kirumi stated and turned a bit towards her. “These things happen.”

“So then he should just be able to say these things to you?”

“He’s having a bad day, he’s starving just as much as we are. My masters have had bad days as well. I am well aware this is nothing personal.”

Kaede squinted her eyes. Did she really pretend like she wasn’t hunched over just now? Clearly it did affect her. Even now her face was slightly scrunched, not as perfectly monotone as normal. She was just pretending, and Kaede was no stranger to that.

“That does not make it okay…” She took a step up the stairs, leveling with the maid. “I’m sorry, Kirumi. You shouldn’t be treated like that.”

“I need to go do-”

“Do what?” She crossed her arms. “You’re not going to do anything.”

“... Excuse me?”

“Everybody needs to save their energy because of a lack of food, the same counts for you. So, sit down.”

Kirumi had a strong stubborn nature if she so chose for it to apply, but she also realized Kaede could not be rid off. The action was almost a request: for a maid not to do anything. It didn’t make sense and caused several error messages to appear in Kirumi’s head. But a request was a request. Not that she never had the right to decline.

They both sat down on the steps, staring at the botanical floor. The grass thrived in this environment, along with all the other weed species. Most people despised weeds - that’s why they were called such in the first place. Anything unwanted was. In reality, weeds were incredibly useful. They were an indication of the environmental quality; nutrient richness, structure, moisture content. The mere fact it grew here was a great sign, and reason why other more appreciated plants like black-eyed susan and verbena could exist as well.

“... I don’t think you’re useless.”

She looked a bit at Kaede.

“You’re more than just an old-fashioned maid, I realized that long ago.”

“... No, he does have a point. At the moment I can mean very little. In that regard, I am failing everyone as a maid.”

“Have you ever considered that just being here is more than enough? Cause… you don’t have to be doing any crazy stuff for me to appreciate you. Like this? I really like just sitting here with you… None of that Ultimate Maid stuff… Just Kirumi.”

Her brow furrowed a bit. “I figured you would by now have checked your tablet enough to see that my listed dislike is ‘a day off’.”

“I have seen that, yeah. It confuses me. Who doesn’t like a day off to just chill?”

“Well, I don’t.”

“Hm…” Kaede rested her eyes on Kirumi's hands, which had begun to knead again. Perhaps serving was to Kirumi what playing the piano was to Kaede. A form of escapism and to focus one’s mind on. In that regard she understood what the girl meant.

“There’s no cooking to do, the wash is lackluster, nobody wants nor needs me to clean their things. There is no advice to be given because the only sound of power is everyone’s growling stomachs. This is most disgraceful for a maid. As it stands, my presence here is worthless-”

“Kirumi.” Kaede laid her hand on Kirumi’s opposing cheek and softly turned her face so she could look her in the eye. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

With that simple sentence Kirumi’s face instantly softened. Her strict brow finally let loose, her lips slightly parted, and her eyes filled with an almost child-like surprise to them. The words slowly sunk in; her eyes turned glassy and the muscles in her face lightly twitched in preparation for what was about to come. It was a peculiar kind of look, like her heart had been told the one thing it has eagerly been waiting to hear for centuries.

Only to be shrugged away. Kirumi’s face complicated itself and returned to its strict position. She didn't allow herself to truly revel in Kaede’s words, instead disappointing herself. And so her body decided to do what it always did: Walk away.

Kaede would not allow that. Not this time. She quickly took the maid’s gloved hand just before it would go of reach. Kirumi stopped in her journey upstairs, but did not turn around either. She remained in place.

Quietly, Kaede intertwined their fingers. And ever so slowly, Kirumi returned the act. Their fingers interlocked, the soft fabric brushing over Kaede’s skin and making her shiver. There was no other movement beyond that. Kaede remained seated on the step; Kirumi remained perfectly still standing with one foot up the stairs. Only when Kaede softly begged the girl to return, she obediently moved backwards and sat herself back down next to her, never once breaking their hold.

They sat in silence, in the comfort of each other’s hands, until a loud growl penetrated it.

“... Was that your stomach?”

Kaede blushed out of embarrassment. “I’m afraid it does really miss your cooking…”

Kirumi went silent again, and then it came. A giggle. A sweet beautiful kind of giggle Kaede had not heard leave her mouth up until now. Unlike the soft short giggles of satisfaction she would let out, this one turned itself into soft laughter. And that laughter guided Kirumi closer to Kaede’s body, their sides touching.

“Is that funny…?” she smiled.

“Mmm…” Kirumi rested her chin on the other’s shoulder, slightly leaning her head against hers. She squeezed Kaede’s hand. “Once this is over, I’ll make your favorite…”

“I thought I told you I don’t have any real favorite food…”

“Oh, you do… I know you do…”

“Well… I’m curious…” She gently bumped her head back. And for this bit of time, she forgot all about how hungry she was.

Chapter Text

Everything fell into place, strange enough as it may seem. Kirumi stood further away from the group than ever before. Nobody needed her, nobody wanted her. It’s as though she had turned into a meek little sheep. Yet, it is exactly that which brought her closer to Kaede. The latter could not be happier about it.

Since their heartfelt moment, Kirumi came knocking on Kaede’s door more often, specifically requesting to return to the piano. Without a second of doubt, completely disregarding her hunger, Kaede set all aside and did just that. They slowly went over the notes again and took things at their own pace. She couldn’t help but glee at watching the scene unfold.

Kirumi played surprisingly beautiful now the stiffness in her shoulders had, somehow, been released. The exact reason for this remained unknown. Maybe she needed the time to let things settle since their very first session together, or maybe it considered something else entirely. Regardless, she grew comfortable with the notes.

“How was that…?” she carefully asked, just finishing the final notes of Beethoven's Sonata Moonlight.

Kaede hummed softly after an initial reactionary delay. Monokuma had once again given the group just an egg earlier that day. The little regained energy she got from it slowly faded, although it might have also been caused by being lost in the music. “Good… You’re getting there, Kirumi.”

“Mhm, I’m glad.” Her fingers kneaded a bit on top of the piano, stretching them, before returning to lay them on her lap, a sign she was done for the day. “I do fear the effects of the new food will quickly wear off…”

She nodded a bit in return. With every passing day, Kaede could feel her own body slowly giving up on her, more and more. When she walked around her legs hurt, as though turned into thin sticks. Not to speak of the permanent fog in her brain. The world moved slowly. The only positive thing is that everybody felt this way, so at least they understood eachother.

“... Perhaps things will become too hard to continue playing the piano.”

“Ehh…? Don’t say such outrageous things, piano always comes first,” she pouted.

“I do not mean to. I suppose I simply... wish for you to be prepared. I understand how important it is to you.”

Clearly she wanted Kaede to understand the same thing could happen to her as did to herself. Kirumi lost what brought her comfort because of the circumstances. She had been lucky for Kaede to have introduced her to an alternative.

“... Maybe it’s your time to introduce me to something new.”

She turned to look at her.

“I introduced you to my version of your cleaning, so what’s your version of my piano?”

A blank stare returned. “... That would be cleaning…?”

“No, no,” Kaede giggled, putting her hand on the other’s upper arm. “Something else.”

“There is nothing else,” she replied again, now frowning.

“Of course there is… Go to your non-maid territory.”

Kirumi only frowned more at that. Kaede knew why, of course. She didn’t even like to consider having a life outside of being a maid, but unfortunately for her, her talent came with a cheat code.

“That is a request,” she added with a smirk. It only grew as Kirumi’s face gave its ‘I can’t believe you just did that’ look. Though, despite that, she didn't deny the request either, so it was hard to take her disapproval seriously. Kaede figured she secretly appreciated it.

Her fingers moved up to push a hairlock behind her ear, turning away a bit, ashamed of the exposure she had been tricked into showing. “Well… I do enjoy watching action movies.”

“... Action movies?”

A soft giggle escaped her lips, “Such refreshing movies with dramatic stories relieve my daily fatigue…”

The image of a refined Victorian woman sitting down on the couch and watching a bunch of people beat each other up, was one Kaede could not have ever come up with herself. She more so seemed like the type to relish watching sophisticated classy movies, if she even enjoyed such a form of entertainment in the first place. But no, nonsensical violence apparently did the trick.

“And otherwise… a good book.”

Now that made more sense.

“I enjoy detectives especially.”

Ah-ha. Books and movies. Well, wouldn’t you know the perfect places for that existed.

Kaede stumbled down the stairs to the basement, immediately regretting the very first step. It would take a good while of regenerating before she’d have the energy to go back up, but at the same time, considering her goal, she’d be here for some time anyway.

The AV room and library were her destinations. Since finding Ryoma and Maki at the very start of the killing game, she hadn’t been down and as such had no clue what truly could be found. It’s not as though she’s had any reason to check.

The film room looked… boring. The walls had no paint on them, surrounding the same gray shelves with concrete. A beamer, connected to different media readers, hung on the ceiling, pointing at the sorry excuse of a screen that more so turned the room into a classroom. The two plain uncomfortable looking couches didn’t help the situation. The only bit of color considered blue speakers. It’s as though she stood in a bunker.

She let out at a complaining sigh. “Ugh, this place is so sterile… Where’s the cozy feeling for a movie night? There’s not even a table to put your snacks and drinks on! Although… It’s not like that would be useful right now anyway.”

She was off to a bad start. Sitting here with Kirumi enjoying a movie would be hard to do with this depressing mood. She’d have to check the warehouse for anything like candles or little lights to hang up. But before that, she wanted to make sure Kirumi’s favorite movies were even present. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Monokuma stuffed the room with ones nobody here would enjoy.

Squatting in front of one of the shelves, her eyes roamed over the covers. None of the titles took her interest, or seemed to consider action movies. Documentary on athletes, documentary on insects - someone would’ve loved that very much -, documentary on novelists.

“What’s with all the educational stuff? Give me something better already…!”

Anime, comedy. Certainly an improvement, but still not what she was looking for. Until…

“Ohh! A superhero movie about that spider guy…” She slid the VHS tape out of the shelf. “So old fashioned… Haven’t held one of these since I was a kid.”

The ancient scent came right off, the cover being wavy from the passing time. The front showed the superhero with a girl in his arms; the second installment. Kaede had never watched the first, so she’d probably not understand what’s going on, but Kirumi might. The cobweb pattern on her dress immediately came to mind. It amused her a bit to see the familiarity. This movie would be a great candidate.

Now to make sure the tape was actually inside, just to cover all the ways Monokuma could piss one off. She opened it, and against all odds, it was in there, and even held the right label, confirming the VHS to be in the right box. But that was not all.

“... A sour mat…?”

Her mouth instantly watered at being confronted with the rainbow-colored strip of candy, so much so she had to wipe away the drool flowing out like a waterfall. The smell of sugar overtook all senses. Sweet, sweet sugar! She thought she’d never get to see it again! She wanted to engulf it, suck it up like a vacuum and relish in the explosion of luscious childhood.

But she couldn’t. Not yet. She had made a promise to share with everyone once finding something after all, one she intended on keeping. The strip was short, barely the size of a middle finger. Aside from how it doesn't fill at all, it would be hard to separate into smaller pieces for everyone to have a bite. 14 was just too much. But not 3. Kirumi and Shuichi had priority, so they would get a piece for sure.

She couldn’t wait to show them. They’d be so excited! Admittedly, she immediately wanted to search them out so they could eat straight away, but she had to finish her mission first. If she’d leave the basement now, she might not ever have the energy to return. She found her movie already anyway, only the search for a detective book being left. Libraries were super organized places, it could never take that long.

Except this library looked more like a storage room to toss everything in from a distance. Mountains of books littered the floor and even the tops of the bookshelves. It simply didn’t fit, and yet someone was determined to keep throwing more paper bundles in. She always disliked the library, and this didn’t help whatsoever.

“How much knowledge could you possibly need…?” she grumbled, quickly slapping her cheeks to shake herself out of the mood. “Focus, Kaede. It must be at least somewhat sorted… Just have to find the uh… mystery section…”

She grabbed the first book, a dystopia, and then the next one, poetry. The third one? Romance. Crap. None of this was sorted at all.

“Oh, come on…!” With the romance book still in hand, she angrily pointed it at one of the shelves. “Darn you stupid books…! How hard can it be to just, put the detectives with the detectives?! Where are they?!”

“On the right by the globe.”

“Eh?” She didn’t expect an actual answer. “Oh… Erm, thanks, random shelf…”

“... You’re losing it, aren’t you?” Maki walked from behind the bookcase in the back, revealing to have been the voice from before.

Kaede’s face flushed in embarrassment. “Ah… haha…” She caressed her forehead with her hand. “Sorry, I’ve never been a fan of libraries. All that studying… The combination with starvation doesn’t help.”

The other grew closer, walking not that different than she did before the motive. She had a bit of a haze in her eyes, but appeared to be functioning much better than anyone else. She looked Kaede up and down, lingering on her unstable movement and tingling skin.

“... Why are you here?” she eventually asked with a hint of disbelief.

“I erm…” Kaede snapped her fingers a bit in an attempt to focus her train of thought again. “Book… I’m looking for a detective book.”

“Yeah, I gathered. But why? I never took you as a reader.”

“I’m not,” she awkwardly smiled. “I’m just doing a thing with Kirumi. Planning to.”

She stared at her, observing her body language. It felt kind of unnerving. “... So we’re all just worrying about her, huh?” she said, her eyes moving away again.

Kaede returned to their moment by the stairs. Kirumi’s nervous movements, the way she talked about herself. Of course she was worried. “She’s not our personal punching bag,” she said. “We should consider her feelings.”

“Look, if you’re upset about what I said, I didn’t want her to leave. I was only being honest. I don’t actually mind her presence. Not like that at least.”

“... You don’t?”

“Of course not. It’s Kirumi. No need to get defensive about it."

“D-defensive…?”

She started pulling on her pigtail. “Guess that’s what happens when people get closer with someone.”

Kaede supposed that to be true. She of course knew Kokichi was the one pushing her out at the end of the day, it’s his stick. Some logical thinking would also bring one to Maki's blunt personality, which could easily be misinterpreted. There was no reason to call her out on it. But logic wasn’t a first priority to spend energy on. Besides, Kirumi meant a lot to her.

“Yeah… You’re right,” she smiled back. “Kirumi and I got very close. I just want to see her happy and-”

“I wasn’t talking about the two of you.”

“... Huh?”

“You’re not the only one growing close to her.”

She had no clue what that was supposed to mean.

“Earlier today Shuichi came down here as well,” Maki explained, nudging one of the stray books on the floor aside. “Said he was looking for a detective book. He was all fidgety over why he needed it, but he mentioned Kirumi between all the mumbling. That’s why I know where the detective novels are.”

So then, Kirumi had opened up about her non-maid likes to Shuichi as well. Kaede supposed it made sense. The three of them were friends, and he was in the canteen as well, he must have grown worried the same way. Yes, it made total sense. But she couldn’t help but almost feel a bit hurt. She thought Kirumi revealing the tidbits of herself to be an exclusive look inside meant for her only.

Her grip on the romance book tightened ever so lightly.

“Ah, really?” Kaede smiled. “That’s a coincidence. I guess Shuichi had an easier time finding something since he’s a detective himself, huh?”

“Yeah, he left pretty soon. But they’re similar, so it must be easy anyway."

“Similar? What makes you say that?”

“I don’t know,” she sighed, growing annoyed at having gotten herself in such an active conversation. “They’re like a matching set. Similar, yet not exactly the same. Don’t ask me.”

She looked down in thought, putting their images next to each other.

“They have that same look in their eyes,” Maki suddenly said, her voice growing almost strange.

Kaede looked up again. “What do you mean?”

“I know you don’t really see it often because of the cap, but Shuichi does have that detective look in his eyes. He knows what he’s doing. And Kirumi… I’m not surprised they’re both into detectives.”

“... Why would you say that?”

“She’s always watching. She always seems ready.”

“... Ready for what?”

She turned a bit towards the bookshelves where she came from. “... To handle things.”

“Pfftt!” Kaede spurted. “Of course she is! She’s a maid, they do nothing but handle stuff.”

Maki didn’t answer, still having her eyes on the shelf.

“The lack of food is getting to your head, y'know.”

“... Maybe,” she shook herself out of it and turned towards the pianist again, “but I can handle it fine. It was part of assassin training.”

“Ah geez… The more details you share, the worse I feel for you, Maki…”

“Don’t do that.”

“Okay, okay…” she gave her another smile, returning her attention to the books. “Anyway, I should continue my search now I still have the energy for it.”

She put the romance book on the nearest pile, her hand-eye coordination failing her and causing it to drop instead. She let out an ‘oops’, trying to laugh it off, and leaned against the shelves to continue her search.

Maki watched her slurry movement. She never showed much emotion, but her slightly parted lips confirmed it hurt to watch the other move the way she did. Her eyes quickly scanned the room for another lifeform, and she then reached her hand into the pocket of her skirt.

The sound of tin foil unwrapping scratched Kaede’s senses, and so did the smell of food.

A slice of egg was shoved into her hands. “Take it,” Maki demanded.

Kaede looked up to her with big eyes. She wanted nothing more than just that, of course she’d take it! Still, it felt like a mirage.

“I sliced my egg in smaller pieces,” Maki elaborated, trying to have Kaede understand where this treasure came from. “Then I can spread eating out. It’s better for your stomach. But you’re a total mess, you need something to eat.”

“You…” She forced herself to stand upright. “You’re giving this to me…?”

“Didn’t you hear me just now?”

“I-I did, it’s just…” It finally showed itself. That child caregiver side Maki had before so sworn considered a simple coincidence. Behind the strict facade, she held a warm heart. The children must miss her so very much. “You’re a good person, Maki.”

An actual mirage could be witnessed now; her lips twitched into the tiniest of delight. “Eat instead of bootlicking already.”

Kaede quickly swallowed the small piece, her body instantly thanking her for this blessing. Even if it would be far from enough to fill her stomach, the token gave hope and something to have her organs practice on. It tasted all the sweeter coming from an act of generosity.

As she had tried before, Kaede reached her arms out for a hug. Maki didn’t avoid this time, perhaps due to having slown down a bit herself, but instead grabbed her by the wrists, holding her back. “You’ve got a book to search,” she turned the other towards the shelf again. “Just don’t overdo it, okay? It’s not worth it.”

Maki left, and Kaede continued her search. Maybe she should follow her advice, it’d be better for her body. But unfortunately saying it wouldn’t be worth it, was a big lie. It’s more than worth it. Besides, it’s not as though she planned on taking hours to find just the right novel. She had to head to Kirumi soon to give her a piece of the sour mat after all.

But if she did that, she’d have to share with Shuichi as well.

…

Himiko furrowed her brow a bit. “Kirumi didn’t tell you about when our time slots are, did she? I’m not letting new members in, even if you show up right as it starts…”

Her blurry body manifested in front of Kaede. Undefined, silhouette-ish. Her face could be made out, but at the same time not. Even the academy itself appeared only half complete, some of its parts looking more like an old mansion than a school.

“I don’t want to join,” Kaede responded, acting as though none of the visual issues mattered. “I want you to join the others instead. I want all of us to eat together.”

“No way…” The girl pulled her hat down. Although her facial features were faded, her judgment came through as intense. “That’s far too dangerous… I can’t trust any of you…”

“Ey, Kaede, my soulmate in spirit!” Kaito suddenly popped up, putting his arm around the blonde and pulling her down a bit in a teasing manner.

She freed herself from the embrace to turn to Himiko again. She had vanished, Gonta having replaced her presence. Despite that, Kaede could tell the magician was still with her, somewhere around. If only her head could turn to look, but it simply wouldn’t budge. Gonta didn’t even say anything. He just stood there, staring.

“I liked Himiko. I really did.”

Her body automatically turned around. Keebo looked at her in the distance, burning.

“I’m not a bad person.”

He suddenly manifested right in front of her, moving his hand forward, and cracking Kaede’s head like an egg.

She let out a yelp, shooting up from her bed with a heavy breath. The sweat dripped from her forehead. It felt as though her body was burning.

With a loud swallow she whispered to herself, “It was just a dream. It was just a dream.”

If her moments of rest weren’t disturbed by flashing lights and crackles coming through thorny roses, they were haunted by the past instead. Sometimes her dreams consisted of nonsensical stuff she didn’t have to worry about. Lately, however, she felt a presence within. She could feel death waltzing around, even if far away. They haunted her.

They essentially always let her be and never spoke a word. As though taking a peaceful lost stroll. Only now did they interact with her, and all at the same time as well. They ganged up on her, and she didn’t know why. It consisted of nothing but repeats of words already spoken.

What if they were trying to tell her something?

She ran her hands up her hair, took a deep breath, and eased her heartbeat. The heat slowly faded and replaced itself with a rumble in her stomach.

With how tired she had become, she wanted to give power naps a try. Rantaro advised her on it once he noticed her wobbly statute. Unfortunately life still wasn’t on her side and left them useless. It only exhausted her more.

Bleep!

She slowly turned to the tamagotchi on her nightstand, took it and attentively ran her fingers over the cracks. At least it understood how she felt.

The pixel ghost cheered its little hands up and down with a smile, grateful for her care.

A smile tugged at her lips and she proceeded to feed him. “Aren’t you a lucky one…” she mumbled. “I bet the dead don’t haunt you… Also probably because you already are a ghost.”

It happily ate its little cake, munching.

“... Do ghosts… exist?”

To consider throwing that question out in the open proved her mind to be gone. Not only did she not propose the statement to an actual other living person - she was but alone -, but it also considered something she should already know the answer to: No, of course not. Only children believe in ghosts.

As well as Korekiyo.

He had offered it to her before, to converse with the dead. To converse with them. She still didn’t believe in the occult, but his confidence had planted a seed of curiosity inside of her, which now sprouted its first leaf. It sounded like he had done it before, a regular ol’ Saturday.

It wouldn’t hurt to try, would it? To find some explanation on why they came to her dreams, what they wanted from her? Or to at least otherwise ask them to please stop increasing the guilt she already felt.

The journey to the fourth floor was difficult. Every set of stairs meant another challenge to face. The sun set by the time she arrived at his lab.

She still couldn’t comprehend its size, or that it held so many ancient artifacts in the first place. She figured it had to be fakes, but Korekiyo would’ve been able to tell. He could name every item like child’s play.

If he offered to converse with the spirits, there had to be an item here allowing just that.

She slowly walked up to one of the display cabinets. The first best one to catch her eye held a book. The plaque read: Caged Dog Village.

Right, Korekiyo had shown this one to her. Something about a ritual with a dog. She eyed the statues behind the display cabinets mounted into the walls. She did see a dog there with some strange cage construction. That had to be the one.

“Ritual… Sounds like a ghost situation…” She set her hands on the glass and looked around to make sure nobody else was present. Ever so carefully, she raised it.

…

Her hands retreated. What was she even doing? Stealing someone’s belongings for some stupid death conversing because she got annoyed at how they popped up in her dreams? That thing made up by imagination?

“What’s wrong with me…?” she held her head.

“They say curiosity kills the cat, but who’s to say it is not Schrödinger’s cat?”

She jumped several meters in the air, turned around and pressed her back against the glass, nearly falling in the process.

Korekiyo stared at her.

“Kiyo, not this again…!”

“To be fair,” he stuck his finger in the air, “this time you intended on taking something from me.”

Okay, fair indeed. She couldn’t lie herself out of this one, he caught her redhanded. “I… I’m sorry…” she said, hushed.

“No need to apologize.” He approached her, his long hair waving side to side with every wobbly step. “The Caged Dog Village must have called to you. It does to me as well. I cannot blame you for it.”

To say a book called to her would be outrageous, but best to go along with it just to keep herself out of trouble.

“Are you perhaps… interested in talking to the spirits of the dead?” He turned to look at her. Unlike with Shuichi’s cap, Korekiyo’s eyes were clearly visible. And somehow, they were all the harder to interpret.

“... A bit, yes…” She didn’t want to elaborate why. Luckily he didn’t want her to either.

“Kehehe… I am very happy to hear you have changed your mind.” He put his hand on the glass, running over it with intent. “The Caged Child ritual describes just how to do it.”

“Oh…" At least she had the right idea. "That’s perfect. Can we do it now? I guess we just have to sit down and light some candles, right?”

His head shook, amazed by her simplistic mind. “We have to move the cage and dog statue to a dark room, and draw a graphic with purifying salt. Then we need a spirit medium - the person the spirit will be speaking from - and excluding the two of us, two more people to sing the seance song.”

So, they needed 3 extras. No way, she was not going to pull the others into this. She already regretted coming up in the first place. “That’s… quite a lot of work.”

“It’s not easy to connect with the dead, otherwise anyone could do it.”

“Hah, at that point you might as well resurrect the dead all together…" she lightheartedly replied. "How much harder is that?”

“What?” He furrowed her brow at her, offended.

“You know,” she wove her hand a bit, “bring their entire bodies back.”

He stared for a second, and then laughed at her the same way he laughed at everyone. It felt condescending. “What are you saying? The dead cannot be resurrected. The souls of the dead exist, yes, but they cannot be brought back to life…” He reached out to his pendant, seemingly examining it. “Dead flesh cannot be restored, just as broken glass cannot be mended.”

That made sense, just as much as ghosts not existing made sense. At the same time, if she tried to look at it from the crazed view of an anthropologist, it would seem stupid to say it is impossible. People talk about the dead all the time, there’s plenty of stories where people go on a journey to get their loved one back, so it could never be that absurd.

“But… people have tried to get loved ones back in stories as well, right?"

“Yes, and they all failed.”

It grew quiet.

“Kaede…” He gave her that strange look again, removing his hand from the glass. “I understand you are hurting and want to see the ones we have lost safe and sound, but people cannot be returned once gone. Himiko, Keebo, Gonta and Kaito. They are dead, that is a certainty.”

She knew that, she knew that so well and yet...

“So… not a single folklore thing has the dead return, huh…?”

“Actually…” He caressed his chin. Even with the mask, she could tell he began to grin. He guided her up to the next deck, passing a few items which meant nothing to Kaede, until they arrived at a print.

It showed two young children from the Middle Ages, tightly holding hands, walking through some kind of forest. A boy and a girl. Nothing too strange, except for their odd green tinted skin.

“I only recently learned about them… The Green Children of Woolpit.”

She could tell where the green part came from, but how this was related to the whole raising the dead thing didn’t click.

“These children supposedly came from the world of the dead to our world.”

Her ears fully focused, prompting the specialist to continue.

“It was harvest time in Woolpit England, the 12th century, when two strange children appeared in the village. Their clothing was unrecognizable and their language unknown. Most notably, their skin was of a sickly green color. In their starving state, the children were taken to the home of the town head to be fed. But, despite their near starvation state, they refused to consume any kind of food.”

“Potatoes, bread, cheese, meat. They wanted none of it. Only when they were presented with raw broad beans after several days of failed attempts, did their demeanor change and eagerly consumed the beans. The girl’s ailing state healed and she slowly lost her green color, but the younger boy turned more and more sick with each day. He could not be healed and eventually, he passed away.”

“The surviving girl continued to be raised by the town head, serving him, and with time learned to speak English. She explained the boy to be her brother, and that they came from a land where the sun never shone and the light was like twilight. They were ignorant of how they arrived in Woolpit; they had been herding their father’s cattle when one escaped and fled to a cave. They followed the animal, but instead of finding it, arose at the other end into the land of Woolpit.”

Kaede stared at the print as Korekiyo did his monologue. Even now finished, she couldn’t take her eyes off the siblings. “... But, it doesn’t sound like they were raised from the dead.”

“Caves are often seen as a passing from our world to another world, the land of the dead. The habitual food of the children, the beans, are in many cultures associated with the dead as well. Of course, many have tried to explain what really, if anything, happened. However, it has been considered useless. Most realistically the children were of Flemish immigrants, who around that time were persecuted. Other approaches are that it merely considers folklore, an imaginary encounter with the inhabitants of a 'fairy Otherworld'. Another study suggested some clear mystery to be behind the story; a story of drugging and kidnapping.”

“I… see…” Regardless of which explanations she wanted to believe in, she started feeling sick. She couldn’t look at them one moment longer.

“Kehehe, it’s a fascinating story, no matter which way you look at it… I suppose that also means there is at least one story where the dead make a successful return, be it accidental. Then again, the brother’s death is not a good omen… It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? If the girl regretted coming to this world when it meant losing him. She got to live a full life, while his was stolen. I wonder if... she ever felt guilty."

He turned to her, delighted. “Shall we return to the Caged Child ritual? You have plenty of friends. I’m sure we can gather the people needed to perform it. No need to worry, I have studied it thoroughly and know just what to do.”

“Um… Actually…” She took a few steps back, the floorboard creaking. “I think I’m good…”

“... You do not wish to perform it?” He didn’t quite believe her. How could he after she went as far as trying to steal the book?

“... No, I’m sorry.” She left as quickly as her body allowed her to.

He watched her every hurried move, until she had left to the third floor for sure, assuring she would not return. He turned towards the print again, putting his hands behind his back and taking the children in. He recounted the lines he had remembered.

“The sun does not rise upon our countrymen; our land is little cheered by its beams; we are contented with that twilight, which, among you, precedes the sun-rise, or follows the sunset.”

Chapter Text

4 days had passed since the group received their last ‘meal’, resulting in everyone being gathered at the canteen to await the moment Monokuma would finally show his face. Of course he might just be amping up the difficulty and wait another day, or multiple days, to distribute food, but that’s not an idea anyone wanted to entertain.

Nobody spoke a word as they all sat oozily around the table, watching the seconds tick by. Every one lasted a lifetime as they awaited the same thing. The conversation at the start had died down and people kept their thoughts to themselves. Staring into the table with a static mind, closing their eyes dozing off. Those were the two options. Except if you were Kokichi.

“So, who wants to play a game?” He shuffled the cards from a card game he had somehow acquired - the prize corner room or casino most likely - and set the different stacks up for handout despite not having received an answer yet. “It’s called Take 5. It’s a lot of fun! Come on, come on! Mom, you’re in, right?”

Kirumi pursed her lips at being referred to as mother again, but that’s not the only thing that bothered her.

“I’ll explain it! During each trick, everyone has to at the same time reveal the card they chose to play. The one with the lowest card gets to place it in the designated row first, then the second lowest etc. The layout on the table will grow, and if your card goes 6th in a row, you need to take the whole row! Beware the penalty points, nee-heehee…”

Kokichi’s excitement was bizarre. He acted the exact same as he did before the famine. The same mischievous tone, the same high energy body language. Nobody understood how he did it. There could be only one explanation.

“If we play that game, will you admit you found food and aren’t sharing?” Maki flatly asked.

He simply laughed and shoved a stack to her. “How can I admit to something I haven’t done?”

“But, but,” Angie responded, “you lie a lot, don’t you?”

“That’s also true,” he smiled back, and shoved a stack towards her.

“Just be real with us for once…” Rantaro nudged the stack Kokichi handed him back. “Did you find anything and didn’t tell us?”

He let out an offended gasp, which might have also been a reaction to Rantaro denying his game request. “I would absolutely tell you if I did! What kind of person do you take me for?”

“A nasty rat,” Miu scolded. “And rats always know where to find the food!”

“Okay, well, let’s say I did find something and ate it…” He leaned back into his seat and checked his cards. “Could you really blame me for not sharing?”

Kaede, by instinct, immediately reacted and put a card on the table. “I would share for sure, no matter the situation…!” That, of course, was a lie.

“Oh?” He peeked from behind his cards. “Would you really?”

“Yes!” She quickly took a card from her hand and put it down on the table.

Kokichi put his down as well, cocking his head to the side. She didn’t like the way he stared at her like some sort of interdimensional God that knew of a way to get inside her mindscape. Despite his young innocent look, it made him creepy.

The others, reluctantly, joined the game and put their cards down as well. They all switched their cards upward and one by one added it to the row they had to put it.

“So even if your body is about to shut down? Even if it is something that can barely be shared?” he probed.

“I’d find a way to make it work…” She put her next card down again. “We all need to look after each other… We’re all we have.”

“Haha, I thought the rhyme went ‘Me, me, me and everyone else may choke’.” After consideration, he put down a card, the others following and everyone adding to the increasing rows.

“If you’re egotistical, sure…” With a quick glance across the layout, Kaede once again laid her decision down first. “But you wouldn’t be like that, right?”

“Would you be like that?” He put his card down last, upon which everyone turned their cards again. “Ow, Kaede, would you look at that!”

The card Kaede revealed had to join the row with already 5 cards in it. Her card was 6th.

“Now you need to take the entire row!” Kokichi whistled. “That’s a bad play… Were you even thinking? That gives you… 9 penalty points. That’s not so bad, you can still recover from it.”

“... Hm.” She took the loss and accepted the cards. “It still doesn’t explain why you’re so cheery. Aren’t you starving?”

“My love for you guys keeps me going.”

Tenko’s eyes squinted. “There’s no way you mean that.”

“Besides, I’m not the only one with higher energy. What about Maki? Why aren’t we getting on her back?”

Maki, with attitude, put her card down. “Why are we suddenly making this about me?”

“I've seen you walk around quite a bit, being all active. You already lied about your identity, so what’s another lie, right? Or what about the detective…” He leaned over towards Shuichi, sneaking a look at him from below. “Aren’t detectives supposed to find things?”

“Leave him out of it,” she said. “Besides, I just changed tactics. Instead of eating the egg in one go I cut it up in slices and spread it out over the days. That’s all.”

“Okay, alright…” Being the only one not playing the card game, Rantaro’s referee side came in to ease the situation. “Let’s stop attacking each other personally and focus on the game… Also, that tactic is a good idea. I have tried to find some sort of solution as well by looking for edible plants in the dome.”

“Edible plants?” Ryoma raised his brow, carefully examining his cards. “Like berries? I haven’t seen any of those.” 

“No, not like that. There’s a lot of plants and flowers you can eat, actually. Like clovers, daisies, violets and roses. There’s plenty of roses growing in some areas, and I’ve found some other edibles as well.”

“You want us to eat grass?” Miu grumbled, throwing a card on the table with little care. “What do I look like, a fucking cow?!” Kokichi opened his mouth to speak, to which she quickly retaliated. “T-that was a rhetorical question, nobody answer that…!”

People showed little excitement for Rantaro’s solution, although they might change their mind soon enough. The game continued with every player one by one owning up penalty cards. Only Kokichi remained spared, largely thanks to his tactful plays. He somehow always managed to put down a card that would keep him safe, but caused the downfall of another.

With only one card left in hand, everyone revealed it at the same time, but just in that moment a white robot arm put down a card as well.

“Am I too late to join?” Monokuma asked. “I can still make a difference!”

Rather than questioning when he took a card from the deck, let alone when he entered the canteen, all attention from the game was diverted and everyone sat up. Monokuma being here meant there’d finally be food. Nothing else mattered.

The bear wanted to initiate some witty banter as he always enjoyed doing, but dropped the act once he realized the primal desire his mere presence had activated. There was no thought beyond anyone’s eyes aside from getting that egg. With sweaty palms he left the plate and made a quick escape before anyone would think to add him to the mix.

At this point in time nobody bothered with the cutlery or bringing in plates anymore. It had grown in a panicky moment of everyone grabbing their egg and immediately peeling it without even sitting down first. Several of them only half bothered with the peeling and accepted they might swallow small bits of it.

Kaede quickly took her bite as well. She wanted to try Maki’s tactic out and told herself not to eat too much, no matter how difficult it would be. With every grazing movement she savored the mild flavor of the white, and attempted to get as much out of the more sweet multi-tone flavor of the yolk. However, even with her slowed down pace, it only took a few seconds before it made its way down her throat. There goes the next best thing for the coming days.

“... Did someone not take their egg?” Tsumugi broke her silence as her eyes landed upon the singular egg which had been left on the plate.

The others soon followed, glances meeting to confirm if anyone had, for some reason, decided not to reach out.

“That makes no sense…” Shuichi said. “Monokuma has always given us one egg each. Did he give us one more this time…?”

“If it is to share, how does he expect us to do that?” Kirumi wondered. “Due to its texture it would be difficult to properly cut and provide everyone a fair share.” 

“Then…” Kaede began, “do we have to determine who gets the largest part?”

…

Several people jumped on top of the plate, yelling and screaming their arguments while pulling at each others’ bodies.

“I need it as a sacrifice for Atua!”

“It can’t go to a degenerate male, that’s for sure!”

“I already ate all the other hidden snacks so naturally I should have this one as well!”

“G-guys, stop it…!” Kaede tried to break up the fight, crawling her way through. With how hard everyone was pulling, the egg could end up destroyed, or worse, someone could get hurt. Her feeble attempt was interrupted by being dragged into the fight instead, the hair and arm pulling making her let out a yelp.

“Enough.”

Like a ghost, Maki spawned between them and one by one negated the fighting students, pushing them back to their seat and taking the egg for safekeeping. Luckily not everyone was as pushy to retaliate.

She raised the food in the air, guiding everyone to focus all attention to her. “You guys are becoming wild animals. This whole infighting is exactly what Monokuma wants.”

“But I’m hungryyy…” Angie complained.

“I get we shouldn’t be fighting,” Ryoma fixed his half fallen off hat which had left some of his ginger hair exposed, “but what are we supposed to do with that thing otherwise? It’s as Kirumi said, we can’t split it evenly when there's this many of us.”

He had a point. The egg was essentially useless this way. Either way someone would end up with the short end of the stick when cutting it. They couldn’t properly split it without causing some other kind of argument to occur. Giving the whole thing to just one person didn't cut it either. Everyone was starving equally, nobody held priority in that sense.

Maki realized that too as she lowered it for careful examination. She was thinking of something. “... Emergency egg.”

“... What?”

“We can make this an emergency egg. We keep it to the side for when someone suffers too much. Sooner or later one of us is going to collapse, and if we want to help them, we need something like this.”

Mumbles entered the air. It was the most sensible solution. Most hadn’t even considered they could reach a point where starvation will cause far more terrifying health effects. If that happens, they need to be ready to help their classmate. Yes, this was the best thing to do.

But not everybody agreed with that.

Miu swiped the egg from Maki’s hands, immediately returning the panicked atmosphere from before. They started yelling at her, for who she thought she was, and she screamed back louder.

“I deserve it!” she shrieked, getting up on the table. “I’m the one who should have it!”

“Miu, get down…!” Kaede hissed. This could never end well.

“And why you?” Rantaro questioned. “You’re no better than any one of us.”

“Yes, I fucking am!” she debated. “I am Miu fucking Iruma, you should be worshipping the ground I walk on…! I’m working on a way out of this prison, after all!”

“... Since when?” Tsumugi asked.

“A while…!”

“That’s the first time I hear about it,” Tenko doubted.

Kaede knew. Miu mentioned it back when she tried to find a way out of here again. It had been a while since then; nearly 2 weeks maybe? Although she had reassured Kaede not to worry about what she was working on exactly, it did make her wonder by now what could possibly be taking so long. The fact she hadn’t told anyone else only further proved she may not even be close to finishing it. Who’s to say she had a proper plan in the first place when she told Kaede? It might have just been said to comfort her.

“Just cuz you don’t know about it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist…!” Miu sneered back. 

Kirumi tilted her head in curiosity. “So what does your grande escape plan entail exactly?”

She nervously peeled at a hairlock. “It’s… It’s a surprise…”

“In other words, you haven’t even started yet,” Ryoma said.

“What the fuck?! That’s what you make out of it! I most certainly have…! It’s just…” Her cocky expression fell, her eyes averting any and all judgment as she dug her heel into the table. She looked ashamed. “With the lack of food… I haven’t been able to go upstairs as much as I used to, to like work on it… I-it’s hard focusing on something so big when your head is spinning, y’know…? Worker safety and all… So if I just have a bit of an extra hit of food, then I can work on it again and get us out of here…!” Just as soon as it had left, her usual mood returned again. “That’s why I deserve that egg! My genius brain needs it!”

The room went quiet as everyone took her words in. The air was unreadable.

“Get that egg!” someone eventually yelled. The same people from before grabbed her and pulled her down with a loud thump.

Kaede let out a loud gasp and ran up to the scene. Within a matter of seconds they were all on the floor tumbling around. She wanted to get in again, but was held back by Kirumi. It would only worsen things.

Then, something cracked.

“... Where’s the egg?” Tenko asked, having just gotten Miu locked on the floor.

They stood up and, wouldn’t you know it, the egg laid shattered on the floor, flattened into a messy mix of shell, egg white and yolk. It had been trampled with no point of recovery.

“Great job, Miu, your fat ass destroyed it,” Kokichi complained. “Now nobody gets it.”

“It wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t attacked me…!” she countered.

“No, it wouldn’t have happened if you had kept civil. All of you.” Rantaro ran his hands through his hair, pained by the view. A destroyed piece of food was always a waste, but all the more so when it was as precious as a diamond.

“What a shame…” Maki sighed.

“We should probably clean this up, right…?” Shuichi asked with pain in his heart.

“No way in hell!” Miu dropped to her knees, “We’re not throwing away shit, I don’t care if it’s destroyed…! I need something, anything …!” and started taking bites from the mangled mess.

Surely, others joined and a new fight started over who could get the tidbits of the cocktail.

It simply wouldn’t end, no matter what, not until every piece had been savored. The sight was so painfully depressing. People picking from the scraps trying to survive.

They were like animals. And they would be willing to slaughter each other like animals.

Kaede leaned against the wall, staring ahead of her. She had taken her position by the stairs heading down to the cellar, the spot she requested Kirumi to come to. Now that they finally got some food again, it seemed the appropriate time to do a movie night. She wanted to make sure they could actually enjoy themselves, hence the awaiting arrival of Monokuma’s ‘mercy’. Although, standing here, peering down the hallway, she realized it didn’t have the effect she wanted it to have.

Her body dragged and her head held little thoughts. She couldn’t remember the last time it was this quiet. It already required a lot of effort keeping upright, sitting down on the couch would probably worsen her condition.

She grumbled at herself, “Dammit… Stay awake, it’s for Kirumi…”

“Have you tried taking a cold shower?”

She blinked and turned to the ghostly voice next to her, being met with Rantaro’s lazy look. He wove his hand a bit in the air with that typical smile, despite the extra energy it took.

“... How long have you been standing here?”

“I dunno. How long have you been standing here?”

“... I don’t know.”

He let out a scoff. “Why are you doing this to yourself? You should get some rest. I’m sure Kirumi can wait, whatever the problem is.”

“There’s no problem…” She forced herself away from the wall, standing up straight. “I invited her for a movie night. So shoo, this is girls’ time.”

He frowned. “Movie night…? Shouldn’t you wait until food returns for that?”

“No, no… Who knows when that happens, besides…” She thought back to the other’s piano melodies, her small smiles, her laughter as the texture of her gloves imprinted itself in Kaede’s skin; her simple existence outside of maid duties. “Now is the perfect moment to get her in an activity like this.”

His eyes stared into her, until he let out another laugh. “Wow… You’ve got it bad…”

“Huh?”

“You did put on nice perfume, right? Just for that little extra hit when you get all close.”

She stared back at him just the same. Did he insinuate what she thought he was insinuating? Her cheeks reddened and she pushed him by the shoulder, “It’s nothing like that, you bully…!”

“Whoa, aggression…” He stumbled back a bit with being weakened, trampling some of the greenery. “That only proves my point.”

“Ugh, if you’re only here to mess around you can go,” she pouted.

“I would never intentionally hurt my favorite person here. Anyway…” He rumbled around in his pockets and handed a random set of flowers over. “Here.”

Her brow raised at being offered the crumbled and flattened entanglement. “... You might want to get an actual bouquet in the future…”

“These are some of those edible plants I mentioned before. A movie needs snacks, so take them.”

A deep sigh left her chest. It’s true a movie without snacks would simply be wrong. She had followed Maki’s example and kept a bit of the egg aside - however, unlike the assassin, she lacked the control and had already eaten most of it - but that would barely qualify for such an event. Even if she didn’t want to get down to such a low level, it would be quite easy to twist an offer of flower snacks into something charming. It’s better than nothing, after all.

“Thank you, Rantaro,” she gave him a smile and put them in her bag.

“You’re welcome. You know… I’m actually glad you haven’t given up on befriending others despite the situation. I really admire you for it.”

“You don’t really mean that…” Despite saying that, she bashfully looked to the side.

“No, no, I do. It’s impressive. Even though everyone is separated, I have noticed people getting closer. And not just you and Kirumi.”

Just late last night they were violently fighting over an egg. That didn’t seem like a sign of getting closer.

“Angie has mentioned she wouldn’t hold anything against living here forever. That’s a bit much in my opinion, but… I kind of see it. I like what’s going on.”

“You like people throwing themselves on top of each other…?”

“Not particularly, but think about it.” His eyes moved over the walls and across the ceiling, as though able to see through the concrete and watch the others, “We are kind of like a family, aren’t we? Everyone has their own little role. Hopefully this motive business will end soon so we can go back to making good memories. …” He looked down at her again, waving his hands apologetically, “Not trying to say someone should die, ahah, just to be clear…”

A family… She hadn’t looked at it that way before, but even with the idea planted she had a hard time picturing it. Partly because of the fights, partly because of the brain fog. Of course Rantaro didn’t mean it literally, rather figuratively. In the same way friend groups might joke that someone is the mom of the group, or that someone has a big sister personality.

“Kirumi is definitely the mom,” she eventually smiled. “Whether she likes it or not.”

“For sure… And Kokichi is that very annoying little brother.”

She giggled. “More than just annoying… Would Ryoma qualify as that uncle nobody sees for years because he was in jail, but he’s actually the chillest guy around?”

“Without a doubt. And Angie and Tenko are the weird aunts, but they’re rich and bestow gifts upon the others, so it’s fine.”

“Hmm… What about Korekiyo?”

“Him? No clue… Maybe like… that very odd family friend.”

“Okay, okay.” Her body jolted up at the new identities their classmates had received. It actually roared the engines to her brain up again. “What about me?”

He put his hands in his pockets, tilting his head left to right, checking her with incredible detail. It took him longer than expected considering his quick notes on the others. “I’m torn between big sister and mom 2.”

“Why’s that?”

“With the way you lead and help everyone, you could definitely pass as an additional mom of the class, but… I am the brother, obviously, and I do like the idea of having a big sister.”

Her eyes met with his.

“I’m the oldest, so I’ve never had a big sister before…” He let out an awkward laugh. “It almost feels weird to say.”

Admittedly, Rantaro always felt like the older one, even if she knew to be older than him. Something about his aura and the way he looked after her gave a sense of comfort. Although the idea of having a little brother amused her just the same.

“You know, if you’re the younger one, you should be listening to me and get out of here!” She didn’t mean that.

And he realized that as well, a contagious smile tugging at his lips. “Well, if you- Oh, look, there’s Kirumi!”

“Wh-where?!” She quickly looked down the hall and nervously wove her hands in Rantaro's face, “Get out of here already…!”

“Whomp,” he threw her hair over her head.

She let out a yelp and quickly made an attempt at fixing it. “You…!”

He quickly, and wisely, took large steps away, down the hall, “Good luck, Blondie! Remember, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” He took another big step as Kaede’s eyes screamed murder, when an odd sound filled the hall.

It sounded like a scream. But one with attempted wording. An unintelligible cry.

Kaede and Rantaro froze in their steps, and on cue left to where the sound came from.

They soon arrived at the parlor, where Kirumi appeared to have been held up for the exact same reason. She was looking up to the open ceiling, to the other floors.

“K-Kirumi?” Kaede panted. “Are you okay?”

She turned to look down at her. “Yes, I’m okay.”

“So I assume you’re not the one who made that sound,” Rantaro concluded. “Did you hear it as well? A sort of scream?”

“I did. I happened to be entering the building when I heard it…” She pointed up. “It appeared to be coming from upstairs, but I am unsure which floor or side.”

The two looked up as well, met with the square view of the next 2 decks. They focused their ears on a continuation that wouldn’t come. Kaede could feel the sweat gather on her forehead. Last time she heard an unintelligible scream it led to the beginning of terror.

“We need to check it out,” she said. “Someone might be in trouble.”

They were about to head out, gathering every ounce of energy to hurry things up, when their urgency was halted by the appearance of Miu, hanging over the balustrade of the third floor. With squinted eyes Kaede tried to make out the situation. Her face proved to be too far away to properly read.

“C-come to the fourth floor…!” she yelled. “Now…!” Just as quick as she had appeared, she left without any sort of elaboration.

The inventor clearly had been the source of screaming, but without an explanation it remained hard to determine the exact reason. She did make a whole fuss last night about working on an escape project, so perhaps she wanted to show that out of goodwill. Then the scream would have just been Miu being Miu. That would be a near heart attack over nothing.

Whether they had to take Miu’s antics seriously or not, they decided to follow her command. Along the way they picked Shuichi up on the second floor, who showed a large sense of worry over the scream he had heard. Although he wouldn’t voice it, his body already prepared him for the worst.

They stumbled up the steps to the fourth floor. Kaede’s head spun from all the climbing and many steps taken. Her body couldn’t hold it much longer. The odd smell that entered her nostrils didn’t help either. She couldn’t tell whether it came from the floor itself, or if it considered the acid from her own stomach about to boil up.

Miu was nowhere to be seen. The other three scrunched their noses at the odd smell. Apparently it was linked to the air, which made even less sense.

The door to Korekiyo’s lab violently shoved open, followed by a stumbling Ryoma. He fell over and held his hands over his mouth. It’s like he was about to hurl.

“Ryoma…!” Kaede hurried to his side. “What’s wrong? Have you seen Miu?”

He looked up a bit, a sickness in his eyes. “Inside,” he quivered. “It’s…” He couldn’t finish his sentence. For him to be thrown off like this…

Kaede ran into the lab, where the smell from before proved to be even stronger. Sulfur. Burned meat fallen in the charcoal of a barbecue. It was both delectable and disgusting. She eventually found Miu at the Ancient Greece section, wobbling by a bronze bull. The stench worsened.

The hatch on the bull’s side had been opened. Strange gray ash covered the floor. It was textured, for some reason, like parts stuck together. But more importantly, someone was laying in the ash.

Maki.

~Ding dong, dong ding!~

The stinking acid in the air caught up to Kaede’s stomach, making her gag. She fell to the floor the same way Ryoma had, attempting to retch even when there was nothing inside.

“A body has been discovered!” Monokuma’s own nauseous voice penetrated the air. “Everyone, please gather in Korekiyo’s lab!”

She tried to look up to Maki's body, through the tears that were forming. Her clothes’ reds had been muted by the ashes and her face covered by her pigtail. Kaede wished to hear her complain; that she only fell and to stop being dramatic. But it didn’t happen. Her body made no sound as her hand laid outstretched towards the pianist in a final cry for help.

Slowly, more people arrived at the scene, everyone giving the same reaction of shock and disgust. Nobody understood what they were looking at.

“What happened…?!” Tsumugi screamed through the hands covering her nose. “What is the meaning of this…?!”

“Murder, baby!” Monokuma jumped to the scene, his happy aura greatly contrasting that to everyone else’s. He wasn’t bothered by the smell at all. "Woohee! The assassin got assassinated… What a twist!”

Maki had been murdered, Monokuma’s appearance proved the matter, but none of it made sense. How could the most dangerous person in this group have been eliminated?

Shuichi lowered his cap as much as he could, avoiding any and all contact with the girl’s body. 

Kirumi took a step back in shock. “H-how…?” she whispered.

“Guess we gotta find out, huh?” Kokichi replied, his inappropriate tone sounding even less serious with keeping his nostrils closed.

“Exactly!” Monokuma pulled out 11 tablets and handed them out one by one. “About time, honestly, I was running out of eggs! Then you’d be completely dependent on finding some stuff and-... Huh? What’s this?” With one tablet left in hand, he looked around confused. “I have one left… Did I count incorrectly?”

“Nobody cares…!” Tenko grumbled, growing increasingly upset with the situation.

“But bears are really good at mathematics! I definitely grabbed 11… Someone hasn’t shown up! … Oh well.” He dropped it to the floor for someone to grab and left the scene, “See you at the trial!”

“I seriously jinxed this…” Rantaro reminisced, running his hands through his hair as he paced around the deck in an attempt to understand how they landed in their third murder case.

“Heyyy, what was that about someone missing?” Angie asked, tapping a paint brush against her cheek. “Are we not complete?”

“Maybe the dickwad who did this shit is hiding their guilty ass!” Miu said in a panic, still sweating profusely from before. She hadn’t calmed down whatsoever.

“Maybe…” Ryoma replied. He, in contrast, had calmed down, but the muscles in his face still showed difficulty. He was just as confused as Kaede about the victim in particular. “But who are we missing then?”

Kaede looked around, counting. She arrived here with Rantaro, Kirumi and Shuichi, and Miu and Ryoma were here before them. Then there were Tsumugi, Tenko, Angie, Kokichi…

“... Where’s Korekiyo?” she asked.

They all looked around. He was nowhere to be seen.

“That’s it, he’s the culprit!” Kokichi declared. “Mom always warned me for men like him!”

Kirumi frowned. “Are you somehow referring to me? I actually like him very much.”

“I never trusted that degenerate…” Tenko growled, ready to throw one of his displayed treasures to the ground. “Let’s find him and hand him in as the culprit right away!”

“Korekiyo is… definitely not the culprit.”

The group turned towards Shuichi, who was by now squatting by the strange clumpy ashes, carefully digging through holding the sleeve of his jacket.

“How do you know…?” Kaede softly asked, having to restrain herself from starting another pretend vomiting session thanks to the macabre aroma released by the stirring.

“Because of this…” He pulled out a pendant from the remains. The same pendant Korekiyo always played with.

Chapter Text

Even with the familiar tablets in hand, nobody could make sense of the situation. Maki had been murdered. And not just her, Korekiyo had vanished from sight, with his pendant left in ashy remains.

Kaede’s body wanted to give in more than ever before. These hits in the head were too much for her to handle. She forced herself to make a move on. Monokuma most likely wasn’t going to give them any food until afterwards; they had to make it through this entire investigation and trial first. Her body slumped even more at that thought. She had no clue to what extent she was capable of solving murder mysteries in this state.

Not that any of them had a choice.

Shuichi sat stunned in the chaos, paralyzed by the death of his other original training friend. First Kaito, now Maki. Kaede couldn’t begin to imagine how he must be feeling. She lowered herself to his height and put a hand on his shoulder. 

He squeaked at the touch, quickly looking her way with widened eyes.

“I’m sorry…” she whispered, squeezing. “We’re… We’re gonna find out who did this…”

His amber eyes stared into her, shaking. He might have been a small step away from having the waterfalls start working. He was upset, but without a clue on who to direct it.

Kirumi carefully joined the two, covering her mouth in disturbance. She always tried to remain level-headed in regards to her reaction to the deaths. Perhaps out of maturity, perhaps in the hopes of it calming others down. Only now, being faced with Maki’s cold body, did her facade struggle to contain itself.

Despite any of their feelings, the investigation had to start. Two cases in one. The best first step would be to move Maki aside and investigate her body separately from the ashes. Kirumi lifted her by the shoulders, Shuichi by the feet, and together they slowly moved her body further from the bull, carefully putting her down as though she was made of glass.

Her pigtail shifted off her face in the process, exposing her final facial expression. Her eyes stood creepily open, being stuck at watching her life flash by. A life of living in an orphanage and being forced to become something she never wanted to be. And that pained expression was decorated with a fading fern-like pattern.

The victim is the Ultimate Assassin, Maki Harukawa. 

The body was found in Korekiyo Shinguji’s Research Lab, inside the Brazen Bull. 

The estimated time of death is 01:45.

The victim was subjected to electrocution, causing a cardiac arrest.

“Electrocution…?” Kaede’s brow furrowed. She didn’t understand how or where such a thing could have possibly happened. The lab held nothing like that, unless changing a light bulb counts.

“It would explain the scarring…” Kirumi pointed at the fading fern-like pattern. A beautiful scarring of many thunders came from underneath her shirt and went up to her face, spreading across her cheek. “I’ve heard of this… It’s called… Erm…”

With her brain still shaky, Shuichi finished the sentence instead, “Lichtenberg scars… It’s a branching of electrical discharge that sometimes shows on the skin. Like a captivating tattoo.”

If only its cause originated from beauty as well. They followed the source of the pattern to find the discharge’s entrance. It came from her hand, but not the one which had reached out- her right hand held the origins. It was bolted, but not entirely closed either. It’s as though she was holding on to something imaginary, invisible to the eyes of the others.

The rest of her body showed nothing. No sign of a cut, a punch; of a fight. One would almost believe lightning had struck out of nowhere.

Kirumi let out a heavy breath. The lack of food took its toll on her. She wanted to get up and solve this mystery, but she couldn’t bring herself to. Her head spun.

Kaede grabbed Kirumi by the shoulders, holding her up. “Hey, calm down…”

“How can I calm down…?” she gritted. “Someone killed her… We have to go on trial for her… How is this even possible? She’s trained, she’s…”

“I know, but… that’s what we’re gonna have to figure out… Wait.” She opened her backpack and retrieved the greenery Rantaro had given her before. She offered some of them to Kirumi, “These are the edible plants Rantaro mentioned. I have no clue what they taste like, but I hope they help some. Ah, and-” she turned to Shuichi, handing him some as well, “for you too.”

He blinked at the notion, unsure whether to accept, but eventually doing so.

“I don’t know who did this to her,” Kaede said, plucking at the remaining edibles, “but we need to capture them. We need to solve this mystery. And…” She put a hand on each of their shoulders. “I need you guys for that. We figured out the culprit together before as well, so… let’s take care of it again.”

With new encouragement the both of them gave a nod of agreement, munching on the food that would give them renewed energy. Kaede did the same. She knew this to be the moment to use it. She needed to concentrate. For Maki, for Korekiyo, for-

She searched Maki’s pocket, and sure enough, a little package of tin foil met her fingers. It contained the egg slices Maki kept aside.

“... Here, take these as well.” She shared them with Kirumi and Shuichi, “Eat it quick before anyone sees.”

Miu, Ryoma and Tsumugi stood by the ashes and bull, their lack of energy not allowing them to physically show the panic they held inside.

“So Miu screamed, and then you went to her…?” Tsumugi questioned.

“Jep,” Ryoma answered. “I was already heading upstairs, actually, so I was at the scene rather quickly.”

“The hell were you gonna go up here for? Wanted to erase your tracks?”

“It’s none of your business, Miu. Besides, I wouldn’t be so confident if I were you… Weren’t you upstairs often because of that project of yours?”

“Y-you’re blaming me…?” she uttered. “I found them, don’t be such a bitch about it…!”

“Well… The first person was the culprit last time as well, so it’s not like it’s impossible…” Tsumugi reminisced.

“Fuck you…!” Miu spouted back. “If I hadn’t found them nobody would have!”

Kaede quickly came between, also to calm the inventor down. As the person to call everyone in, her information was vital. She couldn’t go knock-out because she spent all her energy insulting people. “What do you mean by that? How did you find them, Miu?”

Miu wasn’t all too impressed by the girl’s attempt to calm her down, scoffing at her cradling movement, but never pulling away either. “I was heading to my project,” she explained. “Then when I finally finished climbing those stupid stairs, I smelled something. It was like… ruined barbecue. So I thought, holy shit, that's fucking food…! I want it…! A nose like mine is pretty damn good at picking different smells up and all, even when it’s not that apparent.” 

She was weirdly proud of that last part, puffing her chest up, although it didn’t impress anyone. The smell was pungent, even more so with everyone’s empty stomachs. Kirumi urged her to continue.

“Don’t command me!” she growled, despite diligently continuing her story. “So I sniffed around and found it was that occult boner’s place where the smell came from. I entered, further following my wise nose! That’s when I landed at this… bull… thing…” she wove her hand a bit at the bronze animal. “Saw a little fake fire set-up underneath and everything, I hit the jackpot! Food’s hidden here! So I swung the hatch open! And then…” Her odd excitement fell as a shiver went down her spine. “Angsty teen tumbled out with all the ashy mess…”

So Maki’s body had been stuffed in the bull. The scene they were faced with when they arrived was caused by Miu opening the hatch and letting gravity do its work. But why put her body in there? 

"Hey, Kaediot..." Miu started. "Since Maki's dead and all... Ya think we uh... We can have a little bite?"

What. "No?! That's cannibalism...!"

"Come onnnn," she begged. "She's already dead anyway! Just a tiny lick! I feel like I'm gonna die next, I'm starving...!"

"Then starve! We're not going to do any of that...!" Kaede caressed her temple. "Let's get back to investigating. We need to know what the deal with this bull is..."

Korekiyo had explained a small part of the artifacts to Kaede, naturally exluding this one. However, since his lab essentially came down to a mini museum, she hoped to find the answer on a plaque. She knew the book downstairs only held a title, but with some luck…

“Ah, here…!” To the display’s side, a large plate stood. It held a few lines of information, which she decided to read out loud. “The Brazen Bull, also known as the Bronze Bull, was a brutal torture and execution device allegedly used in ancient Greece as a gruesome method of capital punishment. Victims were placed in the hollow brass statue before a fire was lit beneath it. The metal would become extremely hot, roasting the victim to death. It was specifically designed to amplify the screams of its victim as they burned alive. The acoustic apparatus transformed the screams to the deep bellowing of a bull.”

“Wowww, you must be totally deranged to kill someone like that!”

That condescending tone could belong to only one person.

Kokichi grinned at Kaede. “Isn’t it cruel? Poor Kiyo got cooked to death by a classmate! I wonder who did it…”

No, that couldn’t actually be it. This device had been specifically designed to enjoy cruelty, to cause a slow and truly agonizing death. The previous victims' deaths, despite looking cruel on the eye as well, were accidents. Their circumstances could be explained, but something like this could never. Someone standing here, doing nothing as Korekiyo’s screams would have bellowed through the air for who knows how long, cannot be an accident. It meant this kill had been made with complete consciousness, the culprit knowing all too well how much pain they were causing. Nobody could be that cruel.

“Maybe… Maybe these remains are just stage props…” Kaede told herself out loud.

Shuichi looked inside the bull, using his tablet as a light. “Well, there’s leftovers on the inside… And the smell in here is awful…” He quickly retreated with a scrunching nose. “This thing was definitely used to burn something … Only the wood underneath looks unused.”

“Then… Maybe he died another way first, and the culprit put him inside afterwards. So he didn’t actively suffer that way.”

“This should be easy to answer.” Kirumi grabbed her tablet and opened it. “Surely Monokuma updated the File.”

Of course, they should’ve checked first. The Monokuma File held important information like time of death, cause, and even confirmed the victim’s name just in case. It should easily be able to tell whether Kaede’s attempts to sush her mind were warranted.

The screen now showed a second tab above, reading case file #2. Kirumi clicked it.

Where letters normally stood, question marks had taken over. Nothing was filled in and pictures were missing. The information previously always given didn’t exist. Even Korekiyo’s name was nowhere to be seen.

Tsumugi let out a small gasp. “What if this isn’t Korekiyo at all… Maybe it’s all fake and he’s hiding somewhere…! A-and then nobody will vote for him in the trial because we think he’s dead! But he isn’t, and he killed Maki, and when we vote for the wrong person we-” Her thoughts ran afar, turning into nonsensical rambling as every terrible scenario occupied her plain mind.

“Calm down, Tsumugi,” Ryoma said, pulling on her skirt to get her back to reality.

Miu let out a laugh. “Bwahah, she’s totally freaking out!”

“Rightfully so!” Kokichi said. “Wouldn’t that be an amazing murder scheme? Pretending to be dead when you are the culprit so nobody votes for you? Genius!”

“T-there’s nothing genius about this…!” Kaede shuddered.

No matter the discussion, the fact remained that the second File was useless. They couldn’t take anything out of this. They had to work all the way from zero. Luckily their in-house detective didn’t mind doing the dirty job.

Shuichi went ahead and stirred around the ashes again, looking for proof. He put Korekiyo’s pendant to the side and instead focused on the harder and bigger pieces. The terrible smell immediately penetrated Kaede’s stomach, returning the gagging sensation. If she didn’t get out of here, she would land on the floor hurling again. She excused herself and left the deck, making her way down with heavy steps. There were other places to investigate and people to talk to. She could be useful that way.

Tenko and Angie searched the ground floor for clues. Although it wouldn’t surprise Kaede if they were about as focused as last time when Angie decided to eat snacks instead.

“Hey, can I ask you two for your alibis…?”

Angie chirped up from checking out the golden katana. Where she got this kind of energy from would be another mystery. “Sure, sure! Let’s see… I haven’t seen Kiyo in a while! And Maki last night!”

“Same for me…” Tenko stuck her nose in the air looking at all the strange items displayed.

Kaede sighed. “I was afraid of that… What have you two been up to since ‘dinner’?”

“Ah, not much. Relaxing, meditating to silence our growling tummies…”

“Which didn’t work at all,” Tenko complained sadly, walking towards the two. “Meditation is really hard…”

“You’ve gotta sit still!” Angie wove her body side to side. It was hard to believe she’d be any good at it either.  “But, an hour ago we went up to my lab. Jep, when the announcement went we were still in there!”

Kaede frowned lightly. So the two of them had come up here before Miu, yet were not the ones to have found the body. Did they ignore the smell, is Miu’s nose actually excellent, or was it not there yet to begin with? “And you didn’t smell the ashes?”

Angie tapped her pencil against her cheek. “Not that I remember… But we were in a hurry, so I really wouldn’t have noticed.” She looked at the other. “Did you smell anything?”

Tenko shook her head, tapping her index fingers together. “No, but even if I did, I don’t think I would have been tempted to check it out. This floor is creepy…”

Kaede couldn’t exactly blame them for that. The broken and lost to time hallways fit the macabre odor perfectly. Although a smell that pungent surely must have caught their attention to at least remember. Since both claimed the same, questioning their truthfulness wouldn’t do anything either.

“Wait, what were you guys in a hurry for?”

“Ahah, I had to show Tenko my drawing! I told you about that, right?”

“Eh?!” Tenko’s hair stood upright. “You told Kaede about it?!”

“Nyayaya, yes, I told her how I wanted to make a drawing of you as my very first project!”

“F-first…?”

So she really did it. Angie made a drawing - or perhaps multiple - of Tenko to show how pretty she truly was. Whatever the result looked like, it must have left quite an impact on Tenko considering her reaction.

“Do you want to see the drawing too, Kaede?”

“D-don’t show it to her…!” Tenko embarrassingly grumbled. “The girl you drew is much prettier than I am… It’s like photoshop but with pencil!”

“I told you, that’s just how I see you!”

The martial artist’s face blushed into a strawberry, steam nearly coming out of her ears. “B-but… My face gets all wrinkled every time I drink from a straw…! And- And when I wipe my face, my eyelids turn inside-out!”

Angie threw her hands in the air, smiling broadly. “It’s an artist’s dream!”

With her legs having turned jelly, all Tenko could do was return a mumble, “You’re such a weirdo…”

The artist turned back to Kaede, her energy still high. “How about you? Have you done anything yet?”

“Ah, erm…” She had made a start on a song, but just couldn’t find the right tune, no matter what. Other songs didn’t give inspiration, pressing random notes in the hopes it would be a masterpiece did nothing either. Something blocked her mindscape, not knowing how to fix it. What was she missing? Angie figured it out easily. 

Kaede’s eyes glanced to the upper deck, landing on Kirumi standing by the railing with Shuichi. He seemed to be showing the maid something, while she held onto the barrier to keep herself upright. “... I’m not quite there yet…” She shook her head, “No, wait, we need to investigate…! Did you find anything?”

Sadly, the duo had, aside from the natural weirdness, found nothing of note. It didn’t help that neither held any previous interest in entering Korekiyo’s lab, leaving them clueless on whether any changes occurred in the decor.

Kaede’s knowledge of the lab didn’t go much further than theirs either. What she knew of wouldn’t aid the investigation. No blood could be detected on the floor or the cabinets. Everything looked in perfect state, at least for the items’ ages. She only knew a bit about the book really, but it’s not like that could have any relation.

Although the casing was not as perfectly placed as she remembered it being. It stood slightly askew. Touched. Her senses tingled.

She carefully lifted the glass and put it to the side, reaching for the book. Despite denying the entire talking to the dead business, she got to hold it in her hands now after all. It felt heavy and sturdy, yet so vulnerable at the same time. Her fingertips rubbed the cover, taking in the rough texture. The sides were dented.

A quick skip through the pages gave lots and lots of text she didn’t want to bother reading. The lack of pictures was admittedly boring and plain. Nothing of note could be seen aside from the witchcraft vibes radiating. When she flipped the it over, the back held a large scratch. It had been damaged.

“Ohhh, freaky…” Angie whispered with a hint of excitement, creeping up from behind.

Tenko elbowed her side. “Ugh, this place is giving me the jeepers! Why did they have to die here of all places? I think I liked the playground better…”

Why here indeed. The situation with Korekiyo could have gone all kinds of ways, and this was his lab after all, but Maki? She had no real business being on this floor. Kokichi did mention yesterday that he had seen her walk around a lot. Kaede knew she was looking around in the library as well. Was she searching for something specific?

Even then, her mind lingered on Maki’s cause of death instead. Her brain simply couldn’t connect the dots on what had happened, and when she tried to push it, it only made her head thump. It hurt to think.

Kaede walked out of the lab with her now heavier backpack. What else to check? Had she spoken to everyone? She counted them all on her fingers, having to start over when her brain ran into a processing error.

“... Where’d Rantaro go?” She looked around the hall, searching for him. “Rantaro…?!” she called out, walking further.

“Over here…!” his voice sounded from the middle dark room. He stood in the center, the small candles on the wall only partly illuminating his features. He shone his tablet around in attempts to brighten the view.

Kaede slowly looked around as well. It was about as empty and useless as she remembered it being, though the engulfing darkness made it hard to confirm. The holes in the corner went into the dark abyss. “What are you doing here…?”

“Checking the rooms. Just to make sure nothing’s in here.”

She tilted her head at him as he continued shining his light around, focusing on the creases in the floor. “Do you think… the crime scene isn’t actually in the lab?”

“With the way they died, you can never be too sure. Better safe than sorry. Besides,” he redirected his light and gave her a small smile, “the moldy smell is a nice change from the burned meat.”

She walked towards him with a shaking head, the floorboard creaking heavily. “Too early.”

His smile dropped as he scratched the back of his neck. “You’re right… Apologies.”

“It’s okay, my brain isn’t working clearly either…” Her eyes lingered through the room again. “Have you found anything?”

He let out a deep sigh. “Not really…”

So nothing here either. This investigation wasn’t getting them anywhere. She ran her hands over her face. “You know… I’m worried, Rantaro… I’m tired, and hungry… My head hurts… I’m not sure how we are going to make it through the trial.”

“Hey…” He put a hand on her shoulder. “That’s why we have each other, right? If you clock out, another can clock in. It’s not all on you.”

“I know, I know… I have Shuichi and Kirumi, I just… Argh…” She didn’t know how to explain any of it, this sick feeling in her body that warned her of something terrible to come. The trials had always left her feeling uneasy and afraid of appointing the wrong culprit, leading to everyone’s deaths. Now she wasn’t even sure if she would be able to make it to that point.

His hand cradled her. “Just a little longer,” he said encouragingly. “You’re going to be just fine.”

His words eased the pain, but only a little bit. She forced herself to give a smile. They had better things to do but indulge in her melancholy. “Let’s try to check further… Did you do all 3 rooms yet?”

He let go of her and shook his head. “I did the room on the left first, and then went to this one.”

“Then I’ll do the right room. I’ve got a feeling Monokuma will call upon us soon.” She turned around too fast, the lightness in her head spinning her step. All her weight went into one foot, when the plank sprung up and hit her. She let out a yelp and fell through the floor with one leg, harshly landing on her butt.

“Kaede…!” Rantaro quickly came to her side, pulling her back up. “Are you okay?”

She let out a groan. “Yeah, I just scraped my skin, I think…” She looked back down at her leg to confirm she wasn’t bleeding. A bit of blood trickled from her knee, but the wound was barely large enough to worry about. The plank laid loose across the floor. “Ryoma said the flooring was loose, but this loose…?”

He picked it up, quickly examining it. “I’d expect a bit more sturdiness as well… But it is pretty beaten. Faulty nails maybe?”

Just as he was about to put it back, something caught Kaede’s eye. “Wait, wait!” She hastily wove her hands in his face and ripped the item from his hands.

“Hey…!”

“Look at this…” She pointed at the tip, some blood having stained the wood.

Rantaro took it back in hand for a moment, putting his tablet’s light on it. “Blood… That wasn’t here just now. Maybe it’s yours?”

“Hmm…” She got on her knees, hissing lightly at the ripping wound begging for aid. Her eyes squinted as something underneath the floorboard caught her eye.

“AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!”

Kaede and Rantaro immediately looked up. Another scream could never be good. It sounded the exact same as before.

“M-Miu…!” She threw the board back down and hurried down the hall. It came from the computer room. The already overloaded area had become an even greater mess. There were 14 seats, placed in a circle, with all kinds of wiring coming from them, snaking over the floor and to the main computer. By the side a jungle of even more wiring littered the floor, as well as Miu. Kaede quickly ran towards the girl and pulled her up, her heart beating rapidly at fearing the worst.

“Look at what happened…!” Miu shoved broken wires into the girl’s face. “The cables are broken! Someone ruined my project!”

All Kaede could do was stare blankly. “... This is why you screamed?”

“Yes…!”

She stared for a little longer, when all her frustrations boiled up. The nightmares, the starvation, Maki’s death, the Brazen Bull, her scraped knee. Everything. “Miu, for fuck’s sake…!” She pushed her to the side and got up. “I thought something actually happened to you!”

“But there did…!” Miu scrambled up, her body shaking and extreme pain claiming her face. It’s like she was about to cry. “Someone stabbed my mother’s heart by killing my baby…”

“It’s just a computer…!”

A large offended gasp left her mouth. “ Just a computer?! Listen here, you-”

“No, you listen…!” She continuously tapped her index finger into the inventor’s chest, pushing her into the corner, “Two people died! We need to figure out who did it so we can survive! We don’t have time for your stupid antics, okay?! Get off your high horse and actually be useful for a change…!”

Miu tripped over a wire, hitting her back against the computer and sliding down. She made herself smaller as the pianist hung over her. “B-but…-”

“No buts…! I’m so done with your attitude! Your stupid insults! And your… your…” Her heavy breathing slowed down as reality set in. Miu sat down curled, frozen, scared, and kept intense eye contact. A deer in headlights. Kaede’s eyes slowly left the interlocked state, noticing the rest of the class standing by the entrance, watching the scene unfold.

Fuck.

She took some steps back and ran her hands through her hair, avoiding contact with everyone.

Miu slowly got up from her place, a strange mixture of feelings whirling inside of her. She actually remained silent, for once. Only when she noticed all the others standing there as well, did her usual self make its return. “You… One of you assholes did this…!” she shrieked, approaching the group with big steps and an accusing finger. “One of you destroyed my computer…! Dicks! Bitches! Licked off sandwiches!” She stormed through and left the room.

They all watched her leave and directed their attention at Kaede again. She quickly fixed her hair in turn, unsure what to say.

Kokichi gave a friendly out of place smile. “Phew, intense! What was all the yelling for?”

Honestly, that was a great question. “Erm… Wiring here broke… Let’s get back to investigating, everyone, it can end any minute now.” She walked past the group, quickly heading back to the middle room before anyone could ask further questions.

She crouched down by the plank and bent over to look underneath. It appeared quite spacious, enough to come across as a basement. She might be able to crawl through the hole in the corner and investigate up close. Something told her to do so. But she didn’t have to. A clue laid beautifully presented to her: A knife.

She took it out and held it up in the light. A metal one, as is usual. It didn’t extend to the handle, being made of micarta instead. It felt odd, and it looked odd as well.

“That is not from the kitchen.”

Kaede looked behind her, Kirumi and Shuichi standing in the doorway. They carefully approached.

“Oh, hey…” She crawled up. “Did you get anything out of the bull scene?”

“It’s… a peculiar case,” Shuichi said, caressing his chin a bit. “Because everything burned to ashes it’s hard to determine its origins. I feel as though there’s a mixture of different materials in there… But I did find hard parts that I believe to be bone fragments.”

“Definitely a body then… Well, as for what I found-”

“When did you get hurt?” Kirumi blurted, worriedly pointing at the scrape on Kaede’s knee. “Did it happen with Miu?”

“Huh?” She glanced down at it as well, the blood by now having nearly dried. “Oh, no! This plank here was loose, and I fell through. That’s how that happened. I’m okay further.”

Shuichi peered from underneath his cap. “You just… fell through?”

“Yeah! Faulty nails maybe… But I found this knife underneath.”

His face complicated itself, unsatisfied with the answer. He felt something else was at play and bent down to look underneath, but unlike Kaede, he actually took out his tablet in order to see the room under the floorboard clearly. He held onto his hat in the process, making his position rather unstable. Both Kirumi and Kaede instinctively held his shoulders to keep him from falling in.

“Do you see anything?” Kaede asked.

“Um… There’s quite a mess down here…”

“Mess?” Kirumi’s lips immediately pursed at the reveal of even more space to clean.

“Yeah. Some broken wood, also a rather smooth block of wood… Dust… And erm… A roll of tape…? I see something shining as well but I can’t-”

~Ding-dong, bing-bong~

Monokuma’s voice echoed through the air like a ghost. “Ladies and gentlemen, step right up! The trial grounds will reveal a ghastly concoction of horror and terror! One’s whimsical desire might be brought to life… Solve this mystery and have your fleshly needs returned to you! Or, you know, not.”

“We should go…” Kirumi muttered.

“But, wait, what about the stuff underneath…? We should go under the floorboard!”

“I’m not willing to test Monokuma’s patience…”

“Don’t worry,” Shuichi stood up, “I’ve got it.”

Kaede gave him a baffled look. “A-are you sure?”

He looked back at her, and tipped the edge of his cap up. This must have been the first time he exposed so much face to her. His eyebrows raised along with the corners of his lips, radiating a friendly confidence. “Very sure.”

The elevator descended down deep, lights flashing by from the small window. Again and again, in a dizzying motion. Kaede shook her head a bit and moved her eyes away from it.

Korekiyo was nowhere to be seen. He wasn’t inside the elevator. The idea of him suddenly showing up proved fruitless. Perhaps he hid, but… No, that would be a ridiculous idea to enter the trial with. He died. He definitely did. And possibly, he died a cruel death where someone wanted to hear him suffer until the very end.

Miu usually entered last, standing in the back with her hands planted on her hips, and a pissed attitude of why someone insisted on wasting her precious time with a murder. Now she stood huddled in the corner, holding herself and casting glares all around. She must still be angry over someone having destroyed her computer. Kaede was admittedly still angry at her as well.

Fabric brushed against the back of Kaede’s hand. She looked down and saw Kirumi’s fingers running over hers, followed by her warm face coming into view. Even with all the troubles she held herself, she recognized Kaede’s need and set everything aside to comfort her. She was too good for her.

“Calm,” Kirumi whispered. “It won’t do anything for the trial.” She was right. Being angry costs too much energy. They had something much better to spend it on.

The images of Maki and Korekiyo returned to Kaede. Maki was a secret softy, starting out harsh and sharp. Her heart slowly opened up and made itself vulnerable. She had an instinct inside of her to look after others, even if it were in her own special ways. Korekiyo might have been a strange figure, but he didn’t judge Kaede differently even when she so obviously wanted to steal his belongings. He understood something else was at play. He wanted to help her.

“Yeah…” She pumped herself up, fixing her backpack in place. “Let’s get the culprit.”

Chapter Text

Kaede’s eyes scanned the room. Everyone fidgetted and leant against their stands, pinching themselves to focus. At worst, they would all be stuck here for the coming several hours. It wasn’t even so much about finding justice anymore, but more so about the reward given once done. It brought agitation, a feeling that only increased as Monokuma teasingly showed his privilege.

He hung in his far too large throne, his head against one armrest and legs thrown over the other. All the while he loudly munched on crisps. He did it on purpose. “I don’t need to explain what’s coming anymore, right?” he loudly said, spitting pieces out. “Vote correctly and only the blackened will be punished… And gather your reward of sweet and luscious food!”

She looked down at her screen, imprinted with Maki’s name and the question marks. Monokuma’s vagueness on the ashes had extended all the way to here. She still didn’t understand why.

“Where do we even begin…?” Tsumugi asked.

Although it considered the kind of question you’d always have to ask at the trial, it held a lot more ground this time. They were dealing with 2 victims, both having died under different circumstances, yet found at the exact same place. Who do you want to focus on first?

“Let us start with Maki,” Kirumi said with a hint of urgency. “Her case is complete.”

The others nodded at that. The brain cracker called ashes could lead to a dead end. If they solved Maki’s case first, it might help them furthering with Korekiyo’s.

Rantaro’s fingertip scrolled over the screen, reading through the Monokuma File. “So she died from electrocution… How does that even happen?”

“What do you mean by that?” Ryoma asked.

“I’ve had my fair share of accidents,” Rantaro shrugged, “but never did a shock kill me.”

“It must have been of a considerable voltage…” Shuichi brought the image of the Lichtenberg scars to the large screen. “It was bad enough to leave marks on her body. These usually show as a result from a lightning strike…”

“Okay, so… Where could that have happened?” Tenko impatiently tapped her heel, crossing her arms. “It’s not like actual lighting could have stuck her.”

Kaede wondered this as well. One doesn’t simply acquire a shock bad enough to cause a cardiac arrest. Korekiyo didn’t exactly have a large collection of unsafe electronics lying around either.

Miu’s fingers rubbed over the metal surface of her stand, the tips of her nails scratching into it. The sound alone was enough to make one nervous. “Maybe…” she uttered. “Maybe she was changing a fucking lightbulb or something…! It’s totally possible!”

“At 01:45 in the morning?” Kirumi stared at her.

“Duh, at night is when you need a light!”

Angie paced her body side to side. “And how did she end up in the bull then? Did she crawl in there to die?”

“Well, maybe she fucking did, who knows?! Like a final death wish or some shit.”

“Yeah… No.” Kaede focused on her screen again. It did bring up a few fascinating points. The lack of food may have broken several people’s daily routines, but Maki had no business walking around in the middle of the night, let alone all the way up in Korekiyo’s lab. Even if she died somewhere else by doing something wrong, the matter of how she landed inside the Brazen Bull remained. Someone must have put her there. Someone who was awake as well. “I’m guessing nobody else was up at that time, huh?”

They all shook their heads. Of course they weren’t, that’d be too easy. Only Kokichi cocked his head to the side, teasing his own answer. Although the mere fact he didn’t straight up reply could be considered an answer in and of itself.

“I think we should instead be asking ourselves what Maki was even doing upstairs,” he smiled. “She was everywhere and nowhere… Maybe she was the mastermind! Hooray, we’re free!”

“Do we fucking look free to you?!” Miu threw her arms in the air, highlighting their obvious trial condition.

“I feel relieved, that’s for sure.”

Kaede straightened a hairlock, remembering the moment she ran into Maki at the library. Although she stood with the books, she didn’t seem to be searching for anything specific. But she did confirm Kokichi’s own observation when he attacked her on having found food.

“Ermmm, isn’t it possible she knew of hidden food?” Angie contemplated, burying the tip of a pencil into her bottom lip. “It would explain why she was everywhere, cuz it’s all at different spots! And she had more energy than us, yeah?”

“I agree with Angie!” Tenko affirmed, aggressively punching her fist forward for whatever reason. “Maybe one of the food spots was near some dangerous machine or something.”

“I don’t see any reason to consider her death to be a mistake on her side.” Shuichi’s voice rose above the crowd. “She was found inside the Brazen Bull. There is no way she crawled in there while having a cardiac arrest, and none of us would have a reason to put her there, unless they had something to do with her death.”

“He is right,” Kirumi said. “Something happened to her. She must’ve ran into someone. If the food part is true then… Perhaps she got into a fight with someone over who wanted a bite.”

“That makes sense.” Tsumugi fixed her glasses and brought the bullet of the broken wiring in the computer room onto the large screen, “Also, I was just thinking… The computer got damaged. Wouldn’t something so big have enough voltage to cause a cardiac arrest?”

Kokichi clapped his hands together. “Then it’s solved! Miu was all pissy over not having any food, ran into Maki going for a stash, got into a fight, and killed the assassin using the computer!”

And that is exactly what brough Miu’s stand to the middle.

She squeaked in the abrupt movement, her facial muscles twitching like a stressed bunny’s nose. It was that same kind of look she gave when Kaede drove her into the corner, and just as then, it twisted into anger directed at the entire class. Only now Kaede realized that, aside from being angry at the destruction of her projection, she was also angry for another reason; she immediately made the connection between the broken wiring and Maki’s death.

“Leave me the fuck out of this, you little abortion!”

“Fact remains that something happened in the computer room,” Kirumi folded her hands. “And you clearly announced last night the mystery project to be all yours.”

“Ya think I don’t wanna know who did this either?! That computer was my child, I’d never get it broken…!”

“You do seem like a lousy mother figure,” Kokichi muttered.

“Shut up!”

With the computer room clearly being the place Maki got electrocuted, it made sense for all eyes to be on the one person having claimed it for her own. It fit together perfectly; the motivations added up. Only a nagging feeling occupied Kaede’s mind, something aside from her growling for nutrients. When she found Miu, she was truly upset. Although ridiculous, it was a genuine reaction to something that means a lot to a person.

Kaede cut through the yelling that had started, “Miu is not responsible for the broken wires, nor is she Maki’s culprit.”

“How do you know?” Rantaro looked up to her.

“Miu was very desperate for food, we all saw that… She’d grab anything she could, and jump anyone for it as well.”

Miu’s brow furrowed. “Are you still going to defend me or what?!”

“Maki explained she kept slices of egg with her to eat over time, and we just had dinner last night. She had new food under her belt, and yet, it was still on her dead body.”

“... It… It was…?” Miu nervously asked. “... I mean, yeah, of course!”

“The hidden food has no relation to Maki’s death. The egg slices prove it. While I do agree Maki must have died in the computer room, I don’t think Miu had anything to do with her death for that reason alone.”

Tsumugi looked a bit confused. “So… just because the egg slices weren’t gone it’s proof that Miu didn’t do it?”

“Also, what happened to that food then???” Tenko pointed an accusing finger. “Where did you go with it?!”

Although Miu’s stand set back to its original place, all attention quickly averted to the pianist. She broke into a cold sweat as the many eyes stared at her. “Oh… Erm… Well, you see…”

“You said you’d share,” Kokichi flatly said. “With everyone.”

“... I know that, it’s…” Her eyes shortly met with Kirumi and Shuichi’s, who, although wanting to jump to her aid, weren’t sure about the best course of action either. “... I guess the hunger caused Maki’s self-control to have lessened. There weren't that many slices. Kirumi and Shuichi were with me, so I shared with them.”

“Nooooo,” Angie whined. “I would have loved egg slices…!”

Ryoma let out a deep sigh. “Just my luck not standing with you guys…”

Rantaro cast his eyes down, focusing on the case rather than Kaede’s decision not to share anything with him either. “Alright, I guess that has some good ground… But then who else was with her?”

“Erm…” Kaede looked back at her screen again as well. “Maybe we first need to figure out how exactly she got electrocuted.”

“Alright!” With being off the list, Miu regained a new kind of confidence that made her jump to Kaede’s side. She must have appreciated the other’s efforts, even if she’d never directly express it. “Maki must have gotten electrocuted ruining my cables! That computer is really fucking intense… It needs a good buzz to get going! Just like me!”

“Then the question is how Maki got in contact with the electricity.” Kirumi scrolled through the evidence. “One doesn’t simply destroy cabling like that.”

“What about the knife Kaede found…?” Shuichi brought up the evidence of the knife under the loose plank. “The hand from which the electricity entered Maki’s body was bolted, like she was holding something. Something like a knife.”

“Buuut,” Angie interrupted, “knives don’t conduct electricity to your hand, y'know. Cuz of the handle.”

“Yeah, and Maki is a professional assassin!” Tenko followed. “I don’t doubt the knife belongs to her… But how would she make a mistake touching the metal while doing that?”

“We’re all tired from the lack of food,” Kaede replied, pinching her skin in an attempt not to succumb through her own legs. “Even Maki slowed down a bit. Her hand could have slipped while pushing through. And… one small touch is all it takes.”

Tsumugi restlessly curled a hairlock. “So Maki stabbed the wiring, and was electrocuted. I guess she got into a fight with someone then, right…? I don’t see any reason for her to destroy the computer…”

“Plus, someone hid the knife under the floorboard. The culprit definitely tried to clean up after themselves as much as possible,” Shuichi said.

“Well…” Kaede gave an awkward but confused smile. “It’s what you call cleaning up… That knife was very nicely presented just under the loose floorboard. Like a little present or something…” 

“Hey, hang on,” Ryoma quickly gathered the evidence on his screen, trying to catch up. “What do you mean loose floorboard?”

“When Kaede and I were checking the middle room, she fell through the floorboard,” Rantaro explained to him. “It’s probably faulty nails.”

“Where?”

“Middle of the room-ish.”

Not quite convinced, Ryoma’s brow drew together in suspicion. “That’s really strange… I have gone up there pretty regularly, but not once did I encounter a plank that loose.”

“Maybe Kaegayday simply knows just how to rub it! Ha-hahahhaha!”

She threw Miu a disgusted look.

“When was the last time you were there?” Shuichi questioned.

“Hmm… Few days ago.”

“Then… The loose plank is not natural. Someone made it so.”

“Huh?” Angie cocked her head to the side. “So the culprit loosened the plank just to hide the knife?”

“I highly doubt that. There are large holes in the corners, the culprit could have easily thrown the knife away through there. Although I’m not entirely set on the reason why the knife was laid down as such, it did prompt us to check underneath the floorboard.”

Rantaro’s face turned difficult. “You’re saying that as if there was actually something there.”

“It appears we found Korekiyo’s original crime scene.” Kirumi closed her eyes, pursing her lips in disgust.

“... What?”

“I only got a short peek underneath,” Shuichi explained, “but there were plenty of odd items underneath aside from broken wood. There was tape, a neatly cut block of wood and something shiny… Something I believe to be a saw from the warehouse.”

“Whyever would there be a saw under the floorboard?” Tenko asked, not quite seeing the road they were taking.

Kaede snapped her fingers, “The saw was used to create the loose plank! That square block must have been part of the supporting wood, and by sawing it away, the plank will flip!”

Shuichi’s lips curled into a small encouraging smile. “Exactly. And Maki clearly died in the computer room. There is no relation between her and the middle room, aside from that knife. We don’t know what happened to Korekiyo, but it’s safe to say the dark room had something to do with it.”

“Okay…” Miu stared at the evidence in confusion. “But what was the reason to making that plank loose? Did the culprit do it?”

“That does not seem logical,” Kirumi caressed her chin in deep thought. “As Shuichi has mentioned, there are holes in the corner, so they had no need to create an entrance to put the items in.”

Kaede mimicked the woman’s movement, thinking. If the culprit had no reason to loosen the floor, then the only person who could have done it was the victim. But Korekiyo had very little reason to do such a thing either. If he did, there may have been some project involved. A creepy room like that definitely fits whatever activities he might be up to. And the only thing he currently seemed interested in was The Caged Child ritual.

She spun her backpack forward and dug for the book she had taken from his lab, quickly skipping through it. “Korekiyo wanted to perform a ritual…” she said to herself, though loud enough for the others to understand what she was up to. “Maybe he did it as part of the set-up.”

“The Caged… Child?” Tsumugi’s brow lifted at the strange naming.

“I spoke with him some days ago in his lab when he explained. It’s a ritual to speak to the dead… Ah, here!” She put her finger on the page, skimming through the detailed text. “Let’s see… So you are supposed to draw a seance circle…  And in the center of the circle, the spirit medium must kneel, curl like a turtle and rest their forehead on a stone on the ground… Then the other four participants must put the iron cage over the spirit medium, and cover it with a white sheet. Finally, the Dog God must be placed on top of the cage. The participants then each go to stand in a corner and sing The Caged Child song. At the end one will ask “Is the caged child…?” inserting the ghost’s name, and they will then be able to speak to the dead through the spirit medium’s body…”

“That sounds creepy as fuck,” Miu commented.

She continued reading a bit further. “But the spirit medium’s placement matches with the loose plank... That can be no coincidence.”

Tenko pulled on her pigtails, trying to keep up and running. “But what does he need the loose plank for? It doesn’t sound like it had any use.”

Kaede couldn’t find any further details in the book about such a thing being needed either, although she supposed Korekiyo may have had his own reasons for doing so. The fact the placement added up proved enough. “The culprit must have attacked Korekiyo while he was working on it… The plank did have blood on one side’s corner. Maybe he was hit with it? And…” She flipped the book to its ripped side. “Maybe the book got damaged in that scuffle as well…”

Kokichi finally spoke up again. He had been surprisingly silent so far. It was like heaven on earth. “So what do we conclude out of this? Kiyo was doing some weird talking to the dead thing, the culprit attacked him and thennn… Maki walked in and the culprit killed her too?”

Her hands rubbed over the book’s cover. It was a sensible course of action. Korekiyo having been attacked, Maki walking in on it, and she and the culprit moving to the computer room. But the beautifully placed knife did not sit right with her.

The detective had his own concerns as well. “One specific thing is nagging at me… Since they were both found in the Brazen Bull I would not normally consider this, but usually murderers hold a pattern when there are multiple victims… Like a sort of signature. Maki and Korekiyo’s deaths, however, are completely different. Nothing but their placement matches. Their cases are connected, and yet so disconnected at the same time...”

“Wait, wait,” Kaede wove her hand a bit, “are you suggesting we… could be dealing with two culprits?”

The air fell silent. One person deciding to kill was insane enough, but to think they might be dealing with two people holding the exact same thought, considered a whole other kind of lunacy.

Tsumugi’s nervous voice broke the silence, something she tended to do despite her introverted personality and preference for no social contact. “That… That can’t be true… right…?”

“And if it is,” Ryoma looked up. “Who are we supposed to vote for?”

The group turned to him.

“Think about it. Monokuma says we need to find the culprit, and you get to vote for one person. So if Maki and Korekiyo were killed by different people, are we still meant to vote for only one? If yes, what happens to the other person? And, what determines who needs to go?”

The questions lingered in Kaede’s mind. Monokuma never spoke about multiple culprits, and the voting screen had so far only ever allowed for one vote to be casted. The likelihood of having to pick only one of the two culprits existed, and if that were the case, it meant the other killer was allowed to continue living with everyone else.

“Only one way to find out,” Rantaro said, spinning on his feet to face the game curator’s chair. He leant against his stand, lazily and uncaring, though his voice spoke business. “Monokuma, we have a question.”

“Hmmm?” The bear had long moved on from his bag of chips and instead slurped handfuls of honey out of a silly pot. The sweetness swirled in the air as he opened his mouth, “What do you want?”

“Say there’s two killers,” he lifted two fingers to amplify, “who are we supposed to appoint?”

Monokuma took a large lick from his hand, his smirk widening in pleasure. “Murders happen on a first come first serve basis! The culprit of whoever died first is the one you need to find! So honestly, you might as well not investigate whoever dies after that.”

“Well,” Kokichi threw his arms behind his neck, smiling just as badly as the news bringer, “that makes our job sooo much easier! We can just completely ignore one person’s death!”

“Hey, hang on…!” Tenko jumped in. “That’s not fair! Every victim deserves a proper investigation! They still got killed, y’know!”

“That is a very valid point,” Kirumi nodded. “However, the trial has a time limit. For our own safety, we should be solving the first death first.”

“Great and all, but who even is that?” Miu crossed her arms. “Cuz the mummy nutjob's file is filled with actual waste! We only know what time Maki died!”

Monokuma can say as much as he wants to pick whoever died first, but if the files don’t say who that is, it's useless. There had to be something else that could help them determine whether Maki or Korekiyo passed away first.

“... Hey, you guys remember that extra egg?” The group immediately looked at Kaede at the mention of food. “I’m just thinking… I don’t remember whether Korekiyo was there. What if the extra egg wasn’t an extra egg at all, but Korekiyo’s egg instead?”

“Yeah… Yeah, you’re right!” Kokichi exclaimed. “I didn’t make a stack for him in the game!”

“I don’t remember hearing that stupid laugh of his either,” Miu complained.

In that case, Korekiyo must have died before dinner even. He definitely would have been there to eat otherwise. So his culprit was the one to find, but the vague knowledge of having died before dinner didn’t provide much further use.

“Why is the File all jumbly in the first place…?” Tsumugi tilted her head, staring at the childish mess on her tablet.

“Monokuma doesn’t give away information that would reveal the culprit,” Shuichi thought out loud, caressing his chin.

Kaede held her arms, ticking. “So then… everything would point to the killer?”

“That doesn't make sense. Even Kiyo's name is obscured, that would never reveal a culprit,” Ryoma gave an annoyed look at his screen.

“We can theorize all we want, but only one person can answer us.” Rantaro locked eyes with Monokuma again, waving his hand in the air to grab attention. “Monokuma, could you tell us the reason for the question mark file?”

“Huh? Question mark file? Why would I ever do that?” He aloofly wiped off the remaining honey from his paw, and brought up a small screen of his own. He ticked a few things in. “Oh yeah… Yeah, I did do that!” he happily mused.

Kaede ran her hands over her face, groaning at the childish attitude. She really couldn’t use this.

Kirumi noticed her irritation, and took over. “So what exactly do you expect from us in this situation? The case must at least be solvable for this… game… to work out.”

“Hard agree on that, goth girl!” He threw the screen to the side and returned to his pot, sticking his nose in head first after saying, “That’s why I would normally never open a case like that.”

Everyone’s shoulders tensed up as they held their breath.

Monokuma looked up again, popping his mouth with the sticky yellow glue. “Cause like… If you had only found the ashes, no body discovery announcement would have been activated. You can’t have a body discovery without a body, after all! I only included it because you found Maki at the exact same spot.”

So that’s why Korekiyo’s case file held no information, glitching with empty coding instead. It never should have been a case file in the first place.

“And want to know something else?” He held the pot over his head, shaking it in an attempt to get the final tidbits out. “The culprit actually asked me after that.”

And the culprit knew of it. The culprit knew no investigation would be started if they eliminated any sign of Korekiyo’s body ever existing. But what was the point of this? Cover up an accident because they didn’t want to end up like Kaito? No, they already determined an attack to have occurred. Someone had the motive to kill, but not the motive to escape.

“So it was all carefully planned out, huh?” Ryoma put a fake cigarette in his mouth, nibbling on the disturbing reveal. “Something specific was at play here. I don’t like it one bit.”

“It sounds… personal…” Despite disliking men with every fiber of her being, Tenko showed intense remorse for Korekiyo’s situation, her eyes casted down and any of her high energy deflated. “We already knew this person was out to kill Korekiyo, but… this is proof the culprit did not have a motive to escape the dome. Their only goal was to… hurt him.”

Somebody held something against Korekiyo, so much so they found it necessary to murder him like they did in medieval ages. The image of a cruel and wicked silhouette appeared in Kaede’s mind. A large inhuman beast that took pleasure out of the bellowing of Korekiyo’s screams. Maybe they didn’t even smile, but watched in silence instead, disturbingly fascinated by their very own crime.

Korekiyo was a strange man, she could not lie about that. He popped up on her out of nowhere, silent as a mouse, and held an eerie aura around him. He didn’t fit in, living in his own world. But no matter how weird he might have been, none of it deserved a death like this. None of it was warranted. 

“So then Kaede is our main suspect?”

“Wh-what?” Her eyes shot up from absence, aiming for whoever associated her name with the culprit.

“Considering everything, the culprit must have been close to Korekiyo. And nobody really was but you. Apparently, then…” Tenko ticked her fingers together, not entirely convinced of her own claim.

“F-friends? We weren’t friends…!” she frowned. Sure, she wanted everyone to be friends, but for all of the people to put on her friend list, Korekiyo did not consider someone she’d award a high ranking. They were on normal terms. “We spoke properly, like twice…”

“Are you sure?” Ryoma asked with genuine doubt in his voice.

“Am I sure?” Kaede could feel herself becoming annoyed, her hair standing upright as her cheeks puffed up. “I think I’d know. I was there myself.”

Kirumi tilted her head at her. “Do you not come together rather regularly?”

Although the maid’s voice held an instant calming effect, Kaede remained confused on where these claims were coming from. “No… Where did you get that idea from?”

“I have seen him waiting for you. Or you were parting ways, I suppose.”

Ryoma agreed, “Yeah, so did I. This one time you went to the bathroom and Korekiyo was by the stairs looking at you. I figured you were going to do something together and he was waiting for you.”

“I’ve seen you enter your lab while Korekiyo watched you go in,” Shuichi added. “Like you guys just split up or you were going to grab something for him...”

“He ogled you on the regular,” Miu looked away, planting her hands on her hips. “I get that all the damn time with how smoking hot I am!”

None of this had happened. She decently talked with him twice - when his lab opened, and when she tried to steal his book - she was sure of it. Her classmates made claims about a life she had never lived, and it terrified her. She almost wanted to question her own sanity, but mostly so because the other option was far more terrifying.

An option of Korekiyo stalking her every movement without her knowledge. Watching her, staring at her from the shadows, for reasons unknown. Her heartbeat fastened as her mind raced away; who’s to say he hadn’t watched her more often than the times someone else noticed? Did he only ever watch her do certain things? Did he watch anything and everything? What did he want from her? She didn’t know, nor did she understand. The last conversation they had, up in his lab all alone, where he so badly wanted to perform The Caged Dog with her, shook her to her core. 

“So, we’ve all seen Kaede and Korekiyo being close,” Kokichi concluded, tapping his lower lip like a small curious child. “Then it’s obvious, right? Kaede got sick and tired of his anthropology and killed him. Since they’re close Kaede would have known about the Brazen Bull and its workings thanks to Kork’s rambling. She’s totally the culprit!”

Although nobody wanted to believe Kaede being capable of such a thing, the shared glances proved doubt to be arising. There was no other lead but her. She could feel her spirit leaving her body.

“You guys don’t actually believe him, do you?” Rantaro scoffed, shaking his head in disappointment. “It’s not Kaede.”

“Oh?” Kokichi looked at him curiously. “Is she not?”

“No.”

“And how would you know? Do you have proof?”

“I don’t need any.” He leaned against the back of his stand, foldings his arms. “Kaede is not the culprit, so get off of her.”

“But it’s totally making sense, right?” Kokichi looked at everyone again. “Kaede mentioned how she talked with him a few days ago about The Caged Dog ritual. Korekiyo wanted to perform it, and Kaede accepted. They go to the middle dark room to prepare everything, and Kaede takes the opportunity to kill him. Seeeee?”

“It went nothing like that…!” Kaede stressed, having pulled herself back to reality. “I-I went back to my room, the book didn’t even leave its casing…!”

“And we’re just supposed to believe that? Then there's Maki, sniffing around everywhere. Maybe she discovered your plan and so you decided she had to go as well.”

“Knock it off.” Rantaro properly stood up again, lowering his arms to his side.

“I think we’ve got our culprit… Let’s vote for Kaede!”

“Shut up.” Any of the laid back aura he always held, melted away. His face darkened as he leant over his stand towards him. “It’s not Kaede.”

Kokichi continued standing tall despite the near threat. His lips curled, eyes squinting in pleasure. This is exactly what he was looking for. He never suspected Kaede in the first place. “You’re very determined on it not being her, huh? Is it maybe because… you are the culprit?”

Time froze. Even Monokuma stopped his tracks to unload a big portion of popcorn.

The two kept staring at each other without moving an inch. Kokichi’s look of mischief versus Rantaro’s unreadable strict one. The clock ticked by as neither stood down. Eventually, it was Rantaro who ended the contest.

He let out a nonsensical scoff and ran a hand through his hair, turning back to his screen. “We should drop all this talk about Korekiyo honestly. Monokuma said the ashes don’t matter. Haha, we totally wasted our time talking about that guy…” he smiled gently.

“Wasted…?” Tsumugi’s brow drew together.

“Okay,” he scratched the back of his neck, “that’s weird wording… I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I think you do mean it.” Kokichi leant his elbows on the stand, resting his face in his hands as he continued staring the survivalist down. “You’re the one who held something against him and wanted to see him suffer.”

The other shook his head, denying it with a cool head. Only when he heard Kaede’s shivering voice did it become vulnerable. 

“Rantaro…” she softly said. “It’s not true… right…? Tell me it’s not true.”

His hands planted on the stand, leaning in as the hairlocks obscured his eyes from view. He kneaded his fingers, the rings rubbing against the surface, harder and harder. He eventually looked up a bit - at Kaede - meeting the big pleading magenta eyes which were still hoping for the best. He would never be able to lie to that face.

“Alright…” he let out a deep sigh, and put his hands up. “I killed Korekiyo.”

“What…?!” the group gasped in unison.

Kaede continued staring at him. This had to be a dream, she must not have heard him right. The lack of food, that’s it. She was hearing crazy things because of her starvation, not because those words actually left his mouth.

“A-are you for real…?!” Beads of sweat ran down Miu’s face. Her knees were shaking. “You don’t even sound like you care…!”

“Because I don’t.” That nonchalant attitude had returned, but it now felt weirdly disturbing. “I don’t have some sort of sob story about how I didn’t mean it, or how I regret it, etc.,” he wove his hand around. “I’m proud of it. I don’t regret it one bit.”

Being a detective, Shuichi had been faced with plenty of criminals, but even this sent a shiver down his spine. “You’re… proud of it…? Korekiyo died a gruesome death…”

“Jep.”

Tenko backed off in shock. “You sound like a total psychopath…!”

“Psychopath?” That word snapped something in Rantaro’s mind. “He was the fucking psychopath…!” The way his arms swung forward even made the stands shoot away from him. “Murdering him was a matter of safety for all of you! It was a matter of safety for Kaede! I-...” He ran his hands through his hair, trying to calm himself down. “I wanted to eliminate a danger, but no way in hell was I going to get executed for it… So I grilled him in the Brazen Bull. Alive. A more than deserving punishment, and I’d get rid of his body as well.”

“A… matter of safety…?” Kirumi carefully asked.

He tried to further calm down and explain his cruel act in detail, although the anger continued to linger in his body. “I received his worst crime video all the way back at the beginning… It said he was a serial killer; women and girls of all ages. Dozens of them, nearly 100. I thought it was fake, how had the police not caught a sick fuck like that? So I let it go… But I did notice he had a strange aura. Odd guy with odd behavior… Just to be sure I kept a bit of an eye on him.”

“Nothing changed much. But I did notice him watching others… I noticed him watching Kaede. And I also noticed how he wanted to talk to her. I didn’t like one bit of how he approached her. She was uncomfortable, and I grew uncomfortable as well. It reached its high point when he talked about The Caged Dog with her. He was pushy over performing it despite her having turned down already… Whether the video spoke the true or not, I had to step in.”

“It was 2 days ago, nighttime… I’d seen him go up with a saw from the warehouse. I found him in the middle dark room, sawing through the floor and the book by his side. I knew what that book was about: He had explained when I took Kaede’s place in getting a tour when his lab opened. He was making a seesaw contraption of some sort… That fully convinced me something was wrong with him.”

“I confronted him about how he was acting towards Kaede, how he was watching her. He denied it, of course. And then I told him about the video. He just… laughed. He laughed and completely moved away from the subject, bringing up my little sister instead… He knew of her disappearance… He figured I must be so concerned because of that reason. He just... entertained it all… And that’s when I knew. That asshole took my sister.”

“I grabbed the plank and attacked him. He was able to defend himself with the book first, but I quickly hit him in the head and knocked him out. It didn’t kill him, but I was determined to get him there. But that would lead to my execution, and I wanted to avoid that. It’s then that I figured… You can’t have a trial without an investigation. And you can’t have an investigation without a body, so if I could just… I wanted to check in with Monokuma about it first, so I temporarily hid Kiyo’s body under the floorboard, using rope to tie him up and tape to cover his mouth. If he'd wake up, he couldn’t escape or scream. I put the plank upside down to hide the blood, dumped the saw and wooden block and returned the book to its place.”

“Last night, after confirming my theory with Monokuma, I went back up. I took him to his lab and carried him to the very thing that would finalize this plan. The Brazen Bull. He told me all about it during the tour. Ironic, no? It would cook him to ashes, erasing his body. I could even throw the used wood inside and replace it with wood from underneath the floorboard. Nobody’d know it even got used. So that’s what I did. I put him inside, and cooked him alive. Any evidence would either burn with him, or be hidden under the floorboard where nobody looks. Everyone would be able to continue living their peaceful lives. The bellowing of that bull was like music to my ears.”

“But,” he wove his hand a bit in the air, finishing the monologue and returning to the regular role of the chill guy. His smile was just as kind as it had always been, “none of it matters either way! Thanks to the ashes there’s no actual case on him. Monokuma confirmed that to me. So you’re not supposed to appoint me culprit. I know this is all a lot, but let’s move on to finding out who killed Maki instead. I’ll answer any further questions you might have when we get out of here.”

Rantaro tried to move on from the whole situation, but the class remained stuck at every twist and turn of it. Aside from letting it sink in that Rantaro was the figure who did all this, they also had to comprehend the truth behind Korekiyo. The truth of a serial killer having been among them all along. Only Kokichi had long moved past that fact.

“I don’t think you properly listened to Monokuma, Rantaro. The ashes do count, allll thanks to Maki.”

He looked up to him. “... It was you, wasn’t it.” 

“Hmmm?”

“You… You killed Maki and put her there.”

“Oh my God!” Kokichi’s face lit up like a shocked cartoon character. “You suspect me of murder?!”

“Yes,” his brow furrowed.

“That is so not nice! I would never, but then I mean never ever- … Actually, I just realized I don’t have anybody to pin it on, so resisting would be pretty boring.” He threw his arms behind his neck. “Jep, I’m the one who killed Maki and put her in the Brazen Bull!”

The class let out another shocked gasp.

“There’s no fucking way…!” Miu spat, completely thrown off from all the reveals. “How does a cockroach like you kill a baddie like that?!”

“Yeah…” Ryoma’s face was stuck in a confused mess. “I really can’t see how this happened. Are you lying again?”

“Oh-oh, is this the moment I get to do a monologue? Awesome! So here goes!” The previous goofines completely vanished as his face turned dead serious. With the snap of a finger, he had turned into a completely different person. Even his voice, always jumping high in tone, had become flat. “When Miu mentioned she was working on a project to get us out, I wanted to see what she was talking about. So, when everybody was asleep at night, I went up to the computer room and started tinkering around. Maki showed up. I guess she was still fully convinced I had found food stashes because she jumped me about it. We had a civil discussion at first, but things eventually got nasty. She pulled out a knife and threatened me with it. That’s when she suddenly fell over, like one of those cables just moved itself to make her trip. She got electrocuted and then when she died, I hid her in the Brazen Bull.”

Rantaro stared at him through all of it, a fiery anger burning in his eyes. “And what… you just, decided to hide her exactly in there as well?”

“Of course not, you silly goose!” Kokichi’s playfulness returned for a short moment, although it was quickly replaced with utter gravity again. “I wanted to get help first, I really did. She was spasming, not dead, y’know. But I couldn’t touch her body to get her off the electricity. I needed Miu to turn everything off. But when I ran down the hall I heard the bellowing of a bull come from inside Korekiyo's lab. I went inside and saw you in front of the bull. Maki eventually died, and I decided to put her body where you had committed your crime, and put her knife under the loose plank so people could find your evidence. So… Yeah,” he smiled again. “If you think I did all of that just so you wouldn’t get away with it, you’re a winner!”

“... You bloody…” Rantaro’s hands reached for Kokichi, prompting him to quickly duck, even though another stand and Kaede stood between them.

“Oh my God, he’s trying to kill me, Kaede! Do something!” he stressed.

“This… is all plain hard to believe.” Tsumugi stared ahead of her, much like the others. They were still in shock, but not in the same way as with Rantaro’s story. This considered a genuine disbelief in Kokichi’s abilities.

“There’s absolutely no way a twig like you can kill Maki!” Tenko protested. “Your story stinks!”

“Hey, hey!” Kokichi stuck his head above the stand again. “It’s the computer that ‘killed’ her. It’s not like I did any of that on purpose! It was an accident!”

As if anyone would ever believe such a thing.

He knew that all too well, his face twisting and fussing. With a genuinely upset voice he spoke up, “What? So you believe Kaito not shooting Gonta on purpose, but when I say it’s an accident, you don’t believe it?”

“Well… Yeah.” Angie whipped back and forth on her feet.

“You and Kaito are nothing alike,” Ryoma clearly stated. “Don’t compare yourself to that situation.”

“Kokichi,” Kirumi put her hands on top of each other, “you have a great tendency to rile people up.”

“Even you, mom…?!”

She hissed a bit, “And do not call me that…”

“Okay, erm… I think we all get it now,” Shuichi interjected. “We’re now certain there’s two culprits, and those are Rantaro and Kokichi… But it sounds like Korekiyo and Maki died very close together, so… who do we have to vote for?”

“Rantaro! Vote for Rantaro!” Kokichi quickly appointed the man, who, unlike the smaller one, had laid down his weapons.

Rantaro leant his elbows on the stand, holding his hair in hands in defeat.

“It all depends on how far Rantaro was with his plan.” Miu stood up to the scene, having shaken herself out of her shock. “I know my first aid stuff, and a cardiac arrest can kill you up to maybe 10 minutes. But I’m guessing being cooked like a steak wouldn’t take that long to kill you either. With the gasses and all.”

“Kokichi did mention he heard the bellowing from the hallway…” Tenko murmured, ticking her fingers together again. “I know we can’t believe a word he says, but if that part is true, the burning must have been pretty far along for Korekiyo's screams to have been so loud that it could be heard out there.”

Angie focused her eyes on the other girl’s movement, seemingly hypnotized but adding to the conversation all the while. “It sounds like Maki’s death took longer then because the shock didn’t immediately kill her. So then… we have to vote for Rantaro.”

Kaede couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t believe Rantaro to be the dark animalistic figure she had pictured, the two were nothing alike. He had been kind and supportive right from the start, wanting everyone to get along so the killing game would never start in the first place.

He messed around with her, trying to lighten the situation. Pipsqueak, Blondie. They had an undeniable bond that time and time again resurfaced. She carefully caressed the beautiful pink and orange colors painted on her nails. Some of it had chipped off by now.

Not many people held the key to her heart that allowed them to know about her concerns. She was selective about it, but Rantaro had been one of the lucky. He comforted her during the investigation, cradling her arm in protection while telling her everything would be okay - she would be okay. He did all this for her, he killed Korekiyo for her. Everything he ever did was because he’s a brother.

“No, that’s wrong…!”

Everyone stopped in their tracks as everyone faced Kaede’s commanding finger, which was pointing at the group as a whole. Rantaro looked up a bit from his curled state.

“We’re not supposed to vote for Rantaro!” she asserted. “We’re supposed to vote for Kokichi!”

Tsumugi put her hands up a bit, “Kaede, I understand you are upset, but-”

“Why do you even believe him?!” She threw her hand at Kokichi. “He’s been a lying little pest the entire time! Why didn’t he get the help he claimed to want to get?! Why did he continue watching instead?! Why didn’t he tell anyone about what happened to Korekiyo, instead counting on us falling through the floor?! He made a game out of it, as he does time and time again!”

Kokichi blinked at her.

“Rantaro is unable to confirm at what moment Kokichi saw him, as is anyone else. Kokichi is free to write any story to benefit his position! Don’t you see?!”

“Are you… suggesting Kokichi’s personality to be proof?” Shuichi carefully asked, trying not to fuel the fire.

“Everything is proof!” Her face turned red in anger, all of the energy she had left in her body gathering together to do this one thing. “The Brazen Bull is a torture device, it’s not designed to do instant deaths! You are forgetting that the heat increased with time, and Korekiyo would have first gotten burned like when you touch a hot pan! Do you scream then?! You do, right?! So even if we believe Kokichi’s account, Rantaro may have only just lit up the fire!”

Rantaro raised further, uncertainty plastering his face as he witnessed all the rambling that left her mouth and forbade anyone else from speaking over.

“Dying in a fire alone can take up to 15 minutes of suffering! Did you know that?! And a cardiac arrest can kill you within seconds as well! Clearly, Kokichi is the culprit here!”

“Kaede…” Rantaro looked at her with pain in his eyes. He had long accepted his fate. “Stop it…”

She slammed her fists down as a final stand, “No! Good people should get to live, Rantaro! Good people shouldn't die…!”

The screens flashed in panic and Monokuma sat up straight, “Ahh, the timer! You’ve got to place your votes now, everyone! Come one, come on!”

Kaede did not have to think twice about her vote. She aggressively pushed her finger against the screen and threw a glare at Kokichi. He only looked back at her for a second, his face unreadable, as he calmly placed his own vote.

“Alright!” After a few seconds, Monokuma brought his own screen up to check the results. “Puhuhu… This is fascinating… We’ve got a split vote! 9 votes in total! One person wasn’t on time I suppose… 4 votes for one culprit, 5 for the other… Did the 5 pick correctly…? Let’s see… the true culprit is… Rantaro!”

“I was… wrong…?” Kaede’s heart dropped to her knees along with her body.

This could not be the truth. Rantaro was not the bad guy to be punished. He was the good guy. She was the good guy. Good guys are supposed to be right, they are supposed to be rewarded! She aggresively pulled on her hair, wanting to scream out.

A soft hand touched her shoulder, the hold itself strong. Protective. It could belong to only one person.

She jumped into Rantaro’s arms, holding back the dew obscuring her view and focusing on holding him as tight as possible instead. “You can’t go…!” she wailed. “You can’t leave me here…!”

He returned the hug, stabilizing the embrace so they wouldn’t fall over. He softly murmured against her hair. “You’re going to be just fine, Blondie… You’re going to be just fine…”

“N-no…” Her body violently shook, the world spinning.

“Promise me something…” he continued. “Make it out of here… Leave this place with a smile on your face.” He slowly pulled away, cupping her cheeks in his hands. “I did this for you too.”

Her hands firmly held onto his arms.

“And I don’t regret it one bit.” He winked at her, one he tried to do as positively as possible to comfort her, despite the solemn washing over his very own soul. He let go of her, and walked towards the gates of the execution area with his head held high.

The neons were replaced with a dark room, in the middle a stand with a map on top. He walked up to it and read the title of the treasure it would lead to.

“Reishi.”

He immediately looked up as the forest ahead of him lit up, guiding him along.

His body automatically started running, ignoring his classmates' pleading not to follow this path. The air became moist and hot, plants scraping past his skin, until he landed in an open area with a big ancient temple, covered in vines and a Monokuma head on top. It’s just as the map showed.

He entered, going down the darkening hallway filled with large thick cobwebs and stale air. Patches of light eventually shone through, touching the middle of the path. With his adventure senses tingling, he slid past the light circles, keeping himself in the dark. Only once having passed the final one did he turn around and carefully wove his hand through it.

Rows of spikes fired from the wall to the other side, another poor human that had attempted this path before having been impaled. Just as suspected, the temple was booby trapped.

He proceeded with caution, intently choosing his steps when he passed a hall with O-mouthed faces, and keeping his breath in as he crossed an unsteady bridge. But even the best of adventurers make mistakes. The second he entered a new hallway, he let out a deep breath, activating the security. A large rock launched right towards him.

His feet started running as fast as they could, all while the ball rolled up on him. The end of the hall was in sight, but not without a huge hole in the way. He had nothing to swing him over but an old vine coming from the ceiling. He confidently jumped towards it, swung over the spike-filled fall, and rolled into the next chamber. The very final one.

An enormous room presented itself, closed off from any and all sides but where he entered. Old greenery grew over the stoning that once held beautiful carvings - only 3 large Monokumas with spears had been left alone, although deactivated. What really caught Rantaro’s attention, however, was the treasure on the stand in the middle of it all.

A small 5-year old girl with shoulder length green hair, the most precious blue dress and pink with orange nails, sat on the stand, her eyes closed, waiting to be found. Rantaro instantly jumped forward, taking her into his arms and spinning her around. She awoke in his loving movement and hugged him back.

The ground shook and the guardian Monokumas awoke from place. They wouldn’t let him leave this place with her. Rantaro put his sister down and scooched her behind him. They’d have to take her from his cold dead body.

The first Monokuma attacked, and Rantaro fought back. He disarmed the bear from its spear and stabbed him with it, digging deep into his eye to a point the sparks flew off. The other Monokuma quickly threw its spear at Rantaro, slashing slashing by the shoulders. He let out a loud hiss before turning around and leaping at his attacker, slashing him back just the same. The metal creaked as the bear fell hard to the floor.

With only one Monokuma left, this one too threw its spear in an attempt to strike Rantaro in the heart. But unlike its brother, it missed miserably and met the same fate of being struck by Rantaro’s venereal revenge. It fell down on the floor with a thud, twitching, until its red light went out.

The temple activated its next defense system: Block the exit. A thick rock wall slowly descended to close the one and only mode of escape. Rantaro quickly turned around and reached for his sister’s hand to run away as fast as possible, but…

The last Monokuma hadn’t missed at all. It hit Reishi instead. The spearhead had buried its way up to the shaft in her chest. Her hands reached out to him, losing balance and falling forward. Rantaro managed to catch her, clutching onto her as though he was the one dying. His forehead buried into hers.

He did not try to save himself, he would not leave her behind. He lulled her in his arms, whispering sweet words until her final shaky breath.

The gate closed, and never opened again.

Like a pack of hungry hyenas everyone ran for the canteen, unable to starve another second. Any earlier revelation or cruelty had been deleted from their brains, replaced with the insatiable primal desire for food.

Kaede did not follow.

Her body spread on the bed sheets, the twisting pain in her stomach only causing a fraction of the despair she felt right now. She had failed everyone.

“It’s… my fault.”

“It’s my fault.”

“It’s my fault. It’s my fault. It’s my fault. It’s my fault. It’s my fault. It’s my fault. It’s my fault. It’s my fault. It’s my fault. It’s my fault. It’s my fault. It’s my fault. It’s my fault. It’s my fault. It’s my fau-”

There was a knock at the door. She didn’t want to answer.

The sound repeated. “Kaede? Are you there?”

It sounded poshed and polite: Kirumi.

“I’m coming in, alright?”

Vanilla aroma invaded the room, sweet enough to water one’s mouth and sit up properly. Kaede would have to put on an act for at least a little bit. 

Kirumi approached the bed with a cookie filled plate, all different shaped ones. They looked rather simplistic, lacking any kind of decoration or color. Her expression showed less simplicity, having found itself in a combination of worry and relief. “There you are. You did not come along to the canteen.”

Kaede mustered up a smile, clamping to the sheets. “I’ll come later. Please go eat.”

“I already have.”

She blinked. “Eh? That fast?”

The maid’s face grew more concerned. “... It’s been a few hours already.”

In no way had it been that long since the trial already. She’d laid down for maybe a minute only. Her eyes glanced the clock to check the time, although her mind couldn’t even register the large sized numbers in front of her.

Kirumi set foot to Kaede’s side, coming between her and the alarm clock, and sat down on the bed. “You need to eat. It’s been too long.”

“It’s fine,” she shook her head. The motion alone made her feel sick.

Kirumi’s face grew stern as she reiterated the sweets she had brought with her. “Kaede. Eat. I made these especially for you.”

Her brow rose as her eyes laid themselves down on them.

“Remember our conversation? You claimed not to have any favorite food, and I disagreed, promising it to be the first thing I would make you,” she offered the plate.

Kaede frowned. “... Cookies?”

“Shortbread, to be exact.’

She looked up again, greatly questioning the other’s theory. “You think shortbread will be my favorite?”

A small but confident smile plastered Kirumi’s face. “Only one way to find out.”

Kaede’s hand soared over the many different vanilla treats, opting to try the heart-shaped one. She shared a glance with Kirumi; these were children’s cookies. Not as though her stomach cared about that.

She took a bite. The texture was sandy, but also so sweet. Prepared at the perfect temperature, placed in the oven not a second too short or too long. It tasted like… 

Like… 

Home.

Overwhelmed by everything that had happened, large tears rolled down Kaede’s cheeks. She couldn’t even finish the delicacy as the cries started leaving her lips.

Kirumi’s eyes widened at the sight. “... Kaede…?”

Her cries grew louder and child-like, nostrils blocking and turning ugly. Her body instinctively threw itself into Kirumi’s arms, craving her comfort.

The other was barely able to get the platter of food out of the way on time to prevent it from dropping to the floor. Kirumi’s body froze at the contact, holding her breath. Kaede’s continuous waterfall of tears already dampened her shirt, mascara staining, and the tight hold of fingers on her arms wrinkled the silk.

Although unsure what to do at first, Kirumi’s arms instinctively found themselves wrapped around Kaede, holding her tight and rubbing her back. Kaede only bawled louder, hiding herself further into her friend’s body. Kirumi did not say anything, instead listening with pain in her face. She let Kaede do what she needed to.

The cries lessened with time, to a point the girl was finally able to blubber words out. “Rantaro… It’s- It’s my fault…”

“It’s not your fault, Kaede…” Kirumi whispered near her ear.

“He wanted to protect me…”

“To kill was his choice, not yours…”

“And then I… I brought you all in danger… I was just throwing shit against the wall…! If you had all believed me we would’ve been dead…!”

Kirumi shushed her, running her hand through the other’s hair. “But we didn’t die.”

“We could have…!” she reiterated, tightening her hold on Kirumi’s arms again. It must hurt at this point.

“But we didn’t. We’re okay."

Kaede let out a loud sniff, finally pulling away and wiping her messy face. “I’m sorry… I don’t-... I’m being an emotional mess, I don’t know where this is coming from...”

Kirumi lightly ran a thumb over her cheek, wiping a tear away. “I’d rather have you express your feelings than push them all away.” She looked down a bit at the stains on her maid outfit. She'd have to throw this in the wash.

Kaede’s eyes also landed on the stains. “Ow… I’m sorry about that too…”

“It can always be cleaned.” She looked up again and wiped the remaining tears still rolling over the other’s cheeks away, now more firmly. “Will you be alright?”

She sniffed a bit, eying her movement. “... Now that you’re here, I think I will...”

“Shall I stay for a bit, in that case?”

“That… would be nice…”

Kirumi gave a nod and pulled away. They sat in silence, next to each other on the bed. It wasn’t awkward, a peace actually forming in Kaede’s body despite the absolute mess her head found itself in. For this bit of time, things seemed right.

Her eyes slowly drifted towards Kirumi again, observing her. The chaos in her head had translated to Kirumi’s clothes. She wondered if the perfect maid too held an inner turmoil that nobody else knew of, putting up a facade like Kaede did. There was certainly something that gave a sense of connection despite their yin yang personas.

Her eyes lit in such an incredible emerald hue, her short hair lightly glimmering in the artificial light. Those soft features found themselves among sharper ones; her strict face but also her personality, squeezed Kaede’s lungs. A wrong move could cut you.

“... You’re so pretty.”

Kirumi blinked, immediately looking at her.

“Pretty like… a rose…”

That beautiful surprised face made its return; wide eyes, lips slightly parted. The only difference now being that Kaede could swear her perfect porcelain skin was turning slightly red. And unlike last time, she did not attempt to escape the feeling. She smiled a bit - genuinely -, a giddiness displaying itself which almost felt out of character, but looked so charming on her all the while. “And you,” she began, “are pretty like forget-me-nots.”

Kaede’s heart skipped a beat.

“Mhm… You’re red…”

“Ah-hahaha, am I…?”

“I do hope you won’t be running a fever… You should get a good night’s sleep.”

She scoffed a bit, leaning more into the mattress. “Good night’s sleep… I don’t think I’ve slept well for even one night since we got here. And I certainly won’t tonight either…”

Kirumi’s lips pursed a bit, thinking. “... Perhaps… I can stay with you?”

“... Eh?” she sat up straight again, her cowlick standing upright in surprise.

“You can wake me when you need me. For whatever it might be.”

“Are you sure…?”

“Very sure.”

Kirumi had left to the bathroom to change into one of the many copies of Kaede’s shirt and shorts, while Kaede herself changed into her pajamas in the main area, quickly crawling underneath the heavy covers. Kirumi joined soon enough in the bed which was far too small to hold two people. To the very least it meant their bodies were so close together that it barely took a second to get warm.

“This feels like a sleepover…” Kaede whispered, her eyes locked with Kirumi’s.

“I suppose it sort of is, isn’t it?” Kirumi whispered back.

“Simpler times those were…”

“... Who’s to say it cannot be done anymore?”

“What? Sleepovers?”

“As an example. I know I said you should rest, however… if it would bring you comfort to chat… That is what is done at a sleepover, correct?”

“You mean gossiping? Have you never done a sleepover?”

“Not exactly.”

“... I won’t be able to sleep knowing you have missed out on a key girlhood experience…!” She grabbed Kirumi’s hands and held them tightly, “Let’s gossip!”

Kirumi smiled at the contact. “Okay. What should we talk about?”

“Hm… Something not related to our whole situation… Ahh, what about…”

Whispers about all kinds of subjects filled the room, combined with giggles strong enough to prompt covering your mouth while your ribs get tough. It considered stupid things nobody cared about, but the simple fact Kaede could do this with Kirumi of all people, was significant enough.

OP: Surprise! I made a whole Mystery Ltd. PMV! You can watch it here:

Chapter Text

Shuichi’s heel impatiently tapped the floor, echoing through the underground, as he sat with the food he had prepared. It was a minute past 12 now, and Kirumi still hadn’t shown up. They were supposed to meet at midnight. It’s not that he didn’t know she could always be later due to her talent as maid - especially now that food returned after nearly 2 weeks -, but they had purposefully changed the meeting time for that reason. This wasn’t like her, and that worried Shuichi. Any sane person would consider this amount of concern over being 1 minute late some insane paranoia, but to them it came naturally. Unable to be with each other every second of the day, keeping an eye on one another, proved to be bad enough.

He became inclined to check the cameras for her presence, just to ease his mind that maybe someone had commanded her to make a midnight 7 course meal. However, he had made a promise to himself not to follow her every moment. The cameras kept an eye on the cast members, on the people they dragged into this killing game, and she did not consider one of them. She was his equal. Watching her over the cameras would negate that equality. He only watched her if someone else accompanied her who had to be properly taped. The option to-

“Hello!”

A loud whoop sounded from the computer corner, Shuichi immediately letting out a yelp of his own as his anxious train of thought got interrupted. It didn’t sound like Kirumi, so there was only one other person it could be.

Mr Monokuma’s face occupied the large middle screen, sat behind his oak desk in the usual red velvet seat. They didn’t have a meeting planned at this day and hour for obvious reasons - Shuichi hadn’t even picked up the call, did he always have the ability to snoop in whenever? 

“Did I jumpscare you? Sincerest apologies!” Of course, that apology wasn’t sincere at all.

Shuichi fixed his tie and walked over, trying his best not to make the extreme worry he held not even 10 seconds ago apparent. He didn’t want Mr Monokuma to know. He should never know about such things, just in case.

His superior wove his hand a bit in disregard, “You didn’t miss a meeting invite, don’t worry. I know this is the time you and Kirumi get all cozy celebrating another victory! Which is exactly why I’m calling.”

Shuichi raised a brow, slightly leaning on the back of his black desk chair. He didn't know whether to be intrigued or to prepare himself.

“Since she won’t be coming, I’m afraid.”

“Wh-what…?!” The attempt at keeping his woes hidden immediately faltered as the sweat sprung from his forehead. Whatever reason could there be for Kirumi not to come? There were only 2 options; either she was being killed, or already dead as they spoke.

Although Mr Monokuma’s face never changed, he clearly took pleasure in Shuichi’s intense reaction. “Don’t you know?”

His hold on the chair tightened. “What am I supposed to know…?! I don’t know of anything…!”

“Tsk, tsk… That’s like, the one job you have.” Mr Monokuma leaned back, spreading his arms in the air and looking around as if present in the academy, “You have all these cameras and you don’t even know how to make use of them. You should’ve already seen why she can’t come.”

“I'm not going to stalk her through there, that’s creepy…” he muttered, his eyes averting.

The older man audibly sighed, annoyed. “It’s not stalking if she’s with the one person you’re always watching.” As the younger squinted his eyes at that comment, Mr Monokuma ‘pushed’ himself to the top screen and changed the scenery of the middle one, “Here, what about I show you?”

The screen displayed Kaede’s bedroom, Shuichi recognized it all too well. His confusion only grew for that reason. “Why are you showing me Kaede? She’s probably having another nightmare, who cares.”

“Take a closer look…”

Shuichi rolled his chair to the side and leaned in, using the black and white mouse to zoom in on the bed. He could spot the room owner, her cowlick sprung out like a sore thumb. She was asleep in her bed, but she wasn’t alone.

“... Kirumi?”

Mr Monokuma brought his hands together, pushing them into his cheek like a lovesick teenager. “Kirumi and Kaede had a truly heartfelt moment. It was sooo touching. I ship it!”

“You what…?!” he looked up, his eyes widening.

“I mean, for the game’s story, you know.”

The pixels skimmed through the women's nightly interaction. The way Kaede threw herself into Kirumi’s arms, holding on to her as though the only thing left in this world. The way she eyed Kirumi’s gentle wiping of her tears. The way she compared Kirumi to the maid’s favorite flower. The way they snug into bed together, Kirumi giggling and softly slapping the other’s arm to please stop the playful pain in her chest - Kaede’s eyes lingering on the other’s face during those interactions proved everything.

“Is that fucker flirting with my girlfriend…?!”

“To be fair-” Mr Monokuma raised his finger- “Kaede doesn’t know Kirumi's your girlfriend. You’re not together in the game. Kirumi is single as far as she is aware. And Kirumi has to act accordingly.”

“Shut up…” His fingers dug into the desk, quivering his arms. “It won’t work anyway.”

“I don’t know. It looks very genuine from Kirumi’s side to me.”

Although not convinced of such, Shuichi’s head tilted slightly down, avoiding his boss’s face. He could really use that cap right now. “That’s because Kirumi is an amazing actress. You always gave her a 10/10 on assignments.”

“Well, yeah, but it could also be so convincing because it’s real…” He grabbed a paper from a stack in the corner, hastily signing it, “That’s the thing with great actors, right? You never truly know when they’re acting and when they mean it.”

His eyes moved all the way down, burying into the desk. “... I can hardly imagine she’s being genuine.”

“Don’t lie.” Mr Monokuma moved the paper away and leaned his cheek in his hand. “You and I both knew this could happen.”

“.......”

"And there's going to come a day where you will have to sacrifice her for your own survival."

He furrowed his brow, conviction overflowing his body, and pointed his finger at Mr Monokuma.“I’m not abandoning her, stop repeating that shit to me…! I don’t care if I’m making things more difficult for myself, we stick together!”

The other put up his hands. “Hey, I’m just trying to give some advice, because it looks like you could use some.”

“Well, I don’t want it.”

“Come on now,” the typical enthusiasm of a Monokuma robot filled his voice, the mood flipping as it often did. “I’m the big boss of the Danganronpa Mastermind Division itself! This is the 53rd game, you think I haven’t worked on enough of them to know how to help you?”

Shuichi growled a bit. The last thing he’d wish for was Mr Monokuma’s input on all of this. He had accepted his aid before, begged for it even, and that landed into a catastrophe. All of this could’ve been avoided in the first place.

“Usually I would ask you for a favor back, but hey, I’ll give you the family rate on this one! We have such a beautiful bond, you’re like the son I wish I had!”

“... What?”

“That’s how much I care for you at least. And I’ve been here from the start in your journey up until now.” He timely tapped his finger into the desk, emphasizing every coming point, “I’ve followed and helped you become a better version of yourself, taught you everything you know! You might as well call me dad.”

His neck retreated into his shoulders, deeply disgusted. “You are not my father.”

“As your dad,” Mr Monokuma continued, not paying any mind to Shuichi’s oppossement of such a title, “it’s all so obvious. What’s my most important rule?”

“Adapt or go in the backroom.”

“No, no, the other one! Not related to you disobeying me.”

“... A pen is mightier than a sword.”

“And do you remember why it is mightier?”

“Because-”

“Because it has no limitations! This game is all yours to write! So if you want to avoid Kaede taking what is yours, then mark your territory.”

Shuichi scowled at Mr Monokuma describing his partner like a lawn to be protected by a dog. 

“Take what’s yours, and while you do that… stick it to her face. Sure, let her be comfortable with the idea that maybe, just maybe, this beautiful maid actually cares for her as more than just a friend. And then when the time is right…” He smashed his hands together, “You break her heart!”

Although Shuichi was still hung up over Mr Monokuma proclaiming to be his father, and then spoke of Kirumi as just another tool on the board, he had to admit it was a good point. It’s not like his and Kirumi’s personas didn’t get along well. For a romance to be blossoming between them would be realistic. In all truth, he was having more and more trouble keeping his true feelings hidden until they were alone down under again. He just wanted to hold her hand.

And as a nice writer’s bonus, he got to stick it to Kaede.

“... Kaede’s become far too comfortable in this game.”

“Totally! Why is she rizzing up Kirumi?” Mr Monokuma caressed his chin, “If Kirumi gets in a position where she has to reciprocate, then what could that mean for your relationship? And then the audience…”

“Well, good news to that!” He pulled his seat back to place, sat down and unlocked another screen, typing away in a crazed manner. “Kaede’s a loser, old news and a coward! She’s not worth giving your time of day, and if she had been smart, she would’ve left the country all together!”

Mr Monokuma, despite already having a grin plastered on his face at all times, found himself smirking more and more at Shuichi's growing anger.

“Her thoughts on things are barely interesting anymore, we’re all tired of her face and don’t give a rat’s ass about what she’s been up to! Nobody cares about her story!”

So much so that he wanted to turn that flickering flame into a blaze, filling another screen with Kaede’s face to speak. It wasn’t the real Kaede of course, this was just a 3D model they used for advertising, and Shuichi knew that too, but he was so hung up on his emotions that he didn’t see much of a difference.

“Hi!” the Kaede model mused, waving her hands to amplify a charming quirky nature. “Feels good to be back in the spotlight. It’s been a while since we got some interesting stories for people to hear, so I’m sure everyone’s relieved now I’m in charge!”

Shuichi’s eyes jumped to the screen. “Oh, just shut up!”

She playfully tapped her bottom lip, planting her other hand on her hip, “Is Shuichi insecure? Trying to take on a role that doesn’t suit him?”

“At least I’m not being an ass about it!” he barked back.

“Is he really as good as he claims, or is he only trying to convince himself? He’d be hopeless without Kirumi.”

“That’s not true!”

“In fact…” She ‘dropped’ to the lower screen Shuichi was typing on, coming face to face with him, “it’s because of me you two got together!”

“W-wait…!”

She crossed her arms, pushing her face forward and filling the screen with her pouting cheeks, ”Where’s my thank you, Shuichi?”

His rage reached its boiling point, instantly shutting the screen off and turning to look at Mr Monokuma, a wretched kind of hatred filling his eyes as his hair sprung up like electricity. “You fucking jackass!”

“Uh-oh!” Mr Monokuma shook his camera, pretending the connection to be getting bad. “The signal is buffering! I think the network is experiencing some issues!”

“I’m going to ki-!”

He quit the call. “Whoops, the app stopped working.”

He shut his laptop. Warm colors painted the richly decorated office, as opposed to the typical black and whites of Danganronpa. He liked making things comfortable for himself. Much like his masterminds, he too held figurines of this season’s cast, be it miniatures to accommodate his desk better. Kaede, Kirumi and Shuichi of course held the most important spot, standing more forward so he could admire them at all times. A little confidence boost by indulging in your own genius never did any harm.

He grabbed Kaede, leaned fully back into his seat, and examined her in the chandelier’s light. “You know… Maybe I’m the one who should be thanking you.”

9 people left alive

Chapter Text

“Blondie.”

Rantaro's smile beamed at Kaede as her cheeks pouted. It only made him laugh more.

“Why do you have to call me that…” she mumbled.

“You are blonde, are you not?”

“Yeah, but… What's so special about that?”

“What? Did you dye it?” He gasped loudly, clutching his pearls, “Are you a fraud…?!”

“No…!” she quickly pushed him over, making him laugh once again. She knew he was just messing around. That’s what he always did. “I didn’t apply for the role of sister just to be bullied all the time…”

He continued laying on his back a bit, “Hey, that’s only half of what my brother package contains.” He slowly raised, covered in cobwebs and his skin boiling. “I’ll protect you, no matter what.”

The surface of his face bubbled like a jacuzzi. It looked like he could explode.

He reached for her, patting her head. The skin melted off his bones like a popsicle, his smile dripping into the void.

“Can’t do without you as leader, now can we…?”

Kaede's eyelids swung open, her chest gasping for air as the sweat sprung from her body. It was so incredibly hot, she could not breathe.

Even with the nightmare out of sight, she could still sense the molten candle wax on her head. She clawed her scalp, forcing her nerves to focus on anything else.

“F-fuck…” As the tears ran down her cheeks, wetting the sheets, the world slowly settled. It’s okay. It wasn’t real. At least, not entirely.

She raised her upper body a bit, leaning on her forearms, and hazily cocked her head to the alarm clock.

02:34

She dropped herself in bed again. She needed to go back to sleep, but she didn’t dare to. The fear she would see Rantaro again, die in front of her face over and over again, all while increasing her guilt, was greater than anything in this world.

Her heartbeat spiked and the tears once again sprung to her eyes.

“Make it stop… Please make it stop… ”

Soft fingers rubbed over her opposing arm, up to her shoulder. Their weak grip left the need to focus hard on the sensation. Although, when Kaede realized who they belonged to, that became easy.

Kirumi still laid in bed with her, on her side and facing Kaede. Her closed eyes gave sign that she was still asleep. Yet, in that slumber, she somehow knew of Kaede's sorrows. All the way from dreamland her soul reached to comfort Kaede. Even on the purest form of a break she took care of another.

Kaede's breath shuddered as she drew closer to Kirumi's body. Kirumi's arm draped around Kaede's shoulder, while Kaede consciously gave in to this pretend game. She wrapped her arm around the other's waist, pressing them closer together and burying her face against her chest. Kirumi's heart beat slow, at peace.

With her eyes slowly closing, Kaede let out a deep breath, concentrating on having her heartbeat the same. It aided in forgetting about the pain she felt.

She murmured the other’s name, drifting back to sleep while bathing in the perfume which lingered through her nostrils. Lavender, she knew.

By the next time Kaede's eyes opened, Kirumi had vanished. The alarm clock read 06:07. She must’ve gotten up to make breakfast. What a shame.

She rubbed her eyes, the crunch of the left on mascara combining with the stings of tear burns. “Crap… I didn’t clean my face… Ughh, my skin is going to hate me the next few days…”

Her stomach stabbed in protest. It turned and twisted, nearly making her fall back into the pillow again. The lack of food, no doubt. She’d better get dressed and head for the canteen before anyone else would devour the new stash. Although, knowing Kirumi, she would keep something apart just for her anyway.

She crawled out of bed, stuffed some of the cookies Kirumi had left - quivering in how delicious they still tasted - and trudged for the bathroom. The mirror showed a perfect reflection of the disarray she felt. Smeared mascara, crumbs at her lips, hair in knots, red eyes and puffy cheeks showing through the leftovers of her foundation. The sight wasn’t unusual, but painful all the same.

Her fingers rubbed at the tips of her blonde hair locks, prompting the memory of Rantaro’s words. They were words she would never get to hear again, merely left with the ability to replay until the day comes she can’t quite remember the exact pitch. Distorted, taped over, instead.

The tears escaped all on their own.

“Oh, Kaede…”

She sniffed loudly, wiping the them away with bolted fists. “I... I'm-... Wait, what?” She turned to the voice, her sadness replacing with surprise and curiosity.

Kirumi stood by her side, still in Kaede's basic short pajamas. The harsh light illuminated her short messy locks. The image didn’t fit such a refined figure, almost turning her into a different person instead. Although the white button-up shirt cradled in her arms confirmed otherwise.

Kaede quickly wiped away any remaining waterworks, putting on the mask as soon as possible. “Y-you’re still here…?”

“Yes.” Kirumi raised her button-up shirt, showing the spot which dirtied the night before. “I did a quick wash last night before we went to bed and dried it. It appears to have worked beautifully.”

“Wash?” She looked at her with big eyes. “How did you do that? There’s no washing machine here…!”

She giggled, tapping the spot. “I rubbed some powergel into it and washed it in the sink. It’s a little miracle for quick fixes. Although everyone’s bathroom items appear personalized, everyone has basics like these.”

“Really…?” She huffed, heaving through her knees and putting her hand against the cabinet, “Well, if I knew that I wouldn’t have thrown so much in the bin. Could’ve fixed it myself…”

“If you are referring to giving me additional work, I do not mind. Regardless, I was looking to return to my room and get dressed. I’m a morning shower person.”

Although Kaede nodded at first, she, once the gears of her brain began their day shift, quickly blocked Kirumi's track. “W-wait…!” she yelled, standing in the bathroom door frame. “You’re still in my pajamas…”

“That’s right…” she looked down at herself. “My apologies. I will do a quick change and then leave.”

Her voice hushed, “N-no… That won’t solve the issue…”

“Issue?” Kirumi gave her a confused look.

“You’re… You’re not wearing any make-up. And your hair is messy… Even if you wear your uniform, you won’t look as perfect as you always do.”

“I do not mind. It’s only for a little bit.”

She shook her head, pulling on the fabric of her shorts. “People will… get ideas…”

Kirumi continued staring as though watching water on fire, but eventually let out a soft ‘oh’.

“I know it’s early in the morning, but… Trust me, it’s in those moments suddenly everyone sees you. It’s possible, with the food and all. So… Maybe it’s better if you do your morning routine here. Then you can head straight out and if anyone asks, you can just say you came to visit me in the morning because you got worried!”

She nodded a little. “I see… Well, as long as I won’t be in the way.”

“Never,” she smiled. “You take the shower and everything, I’ll um… I’ll wet some washcloths and clean up in the living area. And then I’ll do my hair later in the sink. Not my first time!”

“But…” Kirumi’s face complicated itself again. She clearly held issue with being offered the comfortable way while the room's owner had to make things difficult for herself. “We can switch-”

“No, no, it’s totally okay!” Kaede quickly grabbed two washcloths and wet them, taking another dry one with her. “I insist. ”

She undressed in the living area, washing her body as fast as possible - the cold sent a shiver down her spine. She focused on the sound of the shower in the meantime, timing Kirumi. Even once the water turns off, she'd still have to give the other some time to get dressed. She folded the necktie to finish her outfit off; now just her hair and face left. 

The bathroom door opened a bit, some steam coming out. The ventilation system had never been particularly good.

Kaede took this as permission to share the bathroom again, especially as she heard the hairdryer turn on. But, when she further opened the door, the warmth of dew creeping up on her skin, Kirumi turned out to be far from finished.

She leaned with her hip bones against the sink, wearing nothing but her black and purple undergarments and pantyhose. With the hairdryer in one hand and a round brush in the other, she dried and styled her hair locks, ensuring perfection and volume in the right places. Just like the rest of her body.

Kaede immediately covered her eyes, though secretly peeping through the creases. “Kirumi, I thought you were finished…! You opened the door!”

“Hmm?” She looked at Kaede, not all that surprised to see her. She hadn’t heard the words with the noise of hot air blowing, but she understood all the same. “Oh, it’s quite alright. We’re both women, aren’t we?”

That’s exactly what made it so bad.

Once Kirumi finished her hairdo - which didn’t take all that long due to the thin texture, probably being why she had to dry it right away in the first place - she offered to wash Kaede’s hair. The pianist refused at first, hastily waving her hands that she would be fine. But this is Kirumi. Her aids are more of an announcement than something one could actually decide to accept or not. 

Defeated, Kaede got on her knees by the shower, curling over the tray so her head hung upside down. The tips of her hair dipped into the leftovers of Kirumi’s shower session, the sound of the water hitting the acrylic quickly dancing through her ears.

Kirumi carefully flowed the hot water over Kaede’s head, thoughtfully moving from the tips to her scalp. Her long fingers combed through Kaede’s hair, wetting it. She put the showerhead away and massaged the shampoo in. Kaede felt as though at the saloon, yet again proving the versatility of the maid, although the fact she hung upside down reminded her this was just another quick-hair-fix-without-having-to-shower situation. 

Maybe it was better this way. The entire interaction gave a deep sense of loving and admiration, a certain kind that flushed Kaede’s cheeks. She noticed how Kirumi, with her body so close to hers, no longer smelled of lavender, replaced with the scent of her own body wash instead; violets.

After washing the shampoo out, Kirumi proceeded to wrap her hair in a towel, twisting it to help dry as soon as possible, then tucking the end in at the back of Kaede’s head. From there both moved to the mirror for Kaede to start on her face, while Kirumi finished putting all her clothes on. 

First the button-up shirt, then the tie, then the slide into her pinafore. She fixed the medal of her school emblem in place and neatly tucked her diadem on her head. The heels and gloves would get their turn after the next step. A complicated process for a complicated person.

Kaede finished with taking the towel off, working on brushing her hair and making sure everything would fall in place. Only the cowlick received an exception as she gave up on controlling it a long time ago. Meanwhile Kirumi took over the make-up items. The shade didn’t match with her porcelain skin being much lighter than Kaede’s, although, it’s not like Kirumi needed it in the first place. 

She’d lift up the hair covering her left eye and do her mascara that way. It made Kaede sprout laughter, much to Kirumi’s confusion.

“It’s a joke, right?” Kaede sat on the counter of the kitchen as Kirumi walked around preparing a wider catalog of food than usual. She was determined to catch up on the time lost being a master chef. Kaede offered to help, but quickly found herself simply watching as she already consumed food. It’s what Kirumi wanted her to do.

“I fear it isn’t.” Kirumi filled one oven with buns and the other with croissants, setting the 4 and 8 minute timers. There weren't as many plates as there used to be. “I saw it with my own eyes: 2-in-1 shower gel.”

Kaede shook her head in disgust, nibbling on a slice of salami. “So the guys are seriously washing their hair with the very same thing they use to wash their body…? No, I can’t. I just can’t.”

She giggled, although disturbed just the same.

“What’s this about guys?” Shuichi entered the kitchen, almost floating in by the way his nose guided him to the sweet aroma. He missed her cooking just as much as anyone else, if not more perhaps.

“Shuichi!” Kaede jumped off and repeatedly stabbed her pointer into his chest. “Do you or do you not use 2-in-1 shampoo?”

Although his mouth opened to answer, the energy Kaede started the conversation with made him quickly close it again. “Oh… Erm, well… I-”

“You’re all the same…!” Kaede threw her hands in the air and leaned against the cabinet again.

Both she and Kirumi continued to snicker at their inside joke, while Shuichi watched them do so in confusion.

Before long the rest of the class entered - with the exception of Kokichi, but it’s not as though anyone cared about his lacking presence. They all sat at the table and stuffed whatever they could. Nobody thought about the events of the day before, the people they lost, the horrors they came to know.

Kaede did think about it. Despite the body's need and desire to energize itself, to survive, her mind thought otherwise. The empty seat across from her stung. 

Rantaro loved to start his day with tea. Her fingers tightly wrapped around the ear of her own cup.

“This is so great!” Angie hummed loudly, rocking left to right on her chair. “I missed Kirumi’s cooking so very much! Bless Atua for our safe keeping!”

Ryoma’s brow lifted, drawing the black coffee away from his lips. “While I agree it’s great to have the food back, I don’t think your God did much when it comes to keeping us safe.” His eyes wandered to Maki's empty seat. They always had a sort of connection.

“Arghh, there goes another girl…” Tenko complained to herself. “Maki just wanted to get food for everyone! Her death was such bullshit…”

“Seems to be a common theme…” Tsumugi commented, smearing strawberry jam on a bun.

Shuichi also stared at Maki's seat. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to. He already missed her.

“Honestly, fuck Monokuma,” Miu aggressively took a bite out of her croissant. “That bear has created nothing but shitty circumstances where people die for no real damn reason! All this shit that could have been avoided…”

Monokuma’s head propped up above the table, from Maki’s seat of all places. “Ohhh, are you guys talking about me? I love you too!”

The entire table instantly scowled.

“Hey, off Maki’s place…!” Kaede pranced, waving her hand at him like a hungry bothersome seagull. “Shoo!”

He whined sarcastically, “Awww, that hurts my feelings… And that while I came to bestow gifts, with you solving another great mystery and all! Only the sun rises for nothing, you know.”

His voice had always been inconsiderate, but somehow it stung all the more this time around. Everyone felt it, and so they all turned back to their food.

“Hey, hey!” With his feelings actually hurt this time, Monokuma crawled onto the table and swung his arms around. “Stop acting like you guys haven’t eaten in forever!”

“But we didn’t eat for a long time,” Tsumugi replied adamantly. “All we got were those eggs…”

“And weren’t they lovely?! Grrr…” He put his arms behind his back, softly kicking an already empty plate away. “Underappreciated is what I am… How very sad…” Although he quickly perked up again and revealed two items in his paws. “But like any good parental figure I’ll keep up a show and take care of you! Here they are, the legendary Levistone and a priceless Octobrush! Now who will be the lucky people this time?”

Although everyone continued ignoring him, Miu’s eyes fell onto the shiny stone like a magpie. She stared at it, halting her munching, before raising and swiping the item. “That thing’s mine! I deserve a fucking reward with all the bullshit you people put me through!”

Angie, too, became distracted, pushing her hands into her cheeks to puff. “Awww, I already got the ocarina at the start… The brush looks so very nice!”

“You’re to share fair and square, no doubles!” Monokuma reiterated, shaking his head and waving his right paw in a way that could only confirm he truly did see himself as headmaster at times. “Let’s see… You know what?” He walked to one end of the table and put the brush down. “The detective gets it. I’m sure he has plenty of things to write down!”

Shuichi choked on the slice of cheese he was consuming, coughing. “M-me…?”

Monokuma then, as always, left the scene. Eyes glanced at each other, the unspoken words exchanged to finish breakfast before exploring. They didn’t really talk about what they could potentially find, theorizing. It would probably take some time before anyone was able to let go of the inner worry of having food taken away any second, so they enjoyed it while they could.

Once everyone finished - almost creepily simultaneously - Miu sped away to who knows where, while Tenko and Angie quickly put Shuichi in charge of bringing the brush to good use. Tsumugi and Ryoma followed, while Kirumi stayed behind to do a quick clean-up. Normally Kaede would go straight after one or the other to explore along, but she had another option now.

“You needn’t have waited for me, Kaede.”

The both of them walked up the stairs of the academy. Of course, Kirumi would never actually allow the other to help clean. Even more so now that she could finally return to her regular routine of being a maid. It saddened Kaede, in a way, even if she clearly took great relief in the fact. She could only hope things wouldn’t go back to before they got closer.

“Oh, I don’t mind,” Kaede smiled, a light skip in her step. “It wouldn’t be nice for you to follow after the group all on your own, would it?”

She smiled a little back. “I suppose. So, up we go?”

“We’ve been going up consistently, so it’s a straightforward way to continue. With some luck Shuichi already figured out the hard part.”

The typical creaking floorboard of the 4th floor welcomed them. Kaede had never grown used to the off feeling the area gave her, this sense of a forbidden building she never should have gained access to in the first place. Deep inside, it nerved her. And now, as soon as she met the doors to Korekiyo’s lab, smoke took all the attention.

This disgusting vile smell of death made her gag all over again.

Kirumi quickly put a hand on her shoulder, standing in front of her. She didn’t say much beyond a soft ‘follow me’, to which she claimed both of Kaede’s shoulders and gently pulled her forward, walking backwards herself.

They shuffled forward like that, Kirumi’s conviction being all that Kaede could see. Whatever kind of magic it might have been, Kirumi knew what she was doing. They made it to the new floor without any actual throwing up occurring.

The dark horrors were replaced by stone columns, rib vaults and pointed arches. It was a giant gothic church, with a lack of praying benches and whatever other kind of artifacts would be at the altar. Monokuma had thought of a much more self-indulgent showing; by each side of the stairs, on big stone columns, stood Monokuma statues of the same material. They weren’t exactly like him though - nor a weird humanification like the statue at the Shrine of Judgement. 

The Monokuma on the left lacked its black side, instead completely overtaken by yang. The other one was the exact opposite, being fully dipped in its yin side with two jagged eyes. They had angel and devil wings on their backs respectively. The enormous lead glass in the back danced its light in such a way that their poses, proudly standing on all fours with one front leg slightly raised like a hyperware buck, held a certain holy eeriness to them.

“Wow…” Kaede slowly walked past the white Monokuma, looking left and right to take in every beautiful detail of craftsmanship. “This is nothing like the previous floors…”

Kirumi, too, followed in awe. “It’s beautiful...”

The both of them stood in front of the large window, observing the different patterns of rainbow and engulfing themselves in the rays.

“... What do you think is on this floor? The theming can’t be a coincidence, right?”

“Disappointingly, there’s practically nothing to see,” a deep male voice answered Kaede. Ryoma came to stand by their side, or perhaps he had been standing there all along. He was easy to overlook. “Up ahead there’s an empty hall and locked doors, next new area probably. Further it’s just 2 new labs.”

She frowned. “Weird… But another new area beyond then… How big is this academy even? I feel like this is the highest it can get.”

“You’d think so. That’s the point of churches, right? To be as high as possible to connect with God or whatever?” He looked at the glass as well. “Or maybe that’s expecting too much of Monokuma.”

“I would not be surprised if this is simply a way to boost his ego…” Kirumi’s lips pursed, looking back at the two giant sculptures by the entrance.

“Hah, yeah.” Kaede smiled a bit. Not because it actively amused her, but she enjoyed the mood lightening up. “Pretty sure Monokuma carved himself in the glass as well. There, that black side of him!”

Kirumi looked in front of her again, squinting her eyes at the image. “Black does not appear to be a used color.”

“Oh, no, like, the red jagged eye! It’s staring right at you!”

Ryoma backed off, trying to see what Kaede told them, but all he saw was a meaningless match of pretty colors. “I really don’t see it. Did you eat enough?”

She bit her lip, not understanding how she could see something they didn’t. She was a pusher, but she could also tell where the subject might otherwise be going, and that’s something she wished to avoid.

“Ahh, nevermind… Trick of the eye. So where are the others?”

“The girls went to Tsumugi’s lab,” Ryoma said, pointing to one side of the room, then flicking his finger to the opposite, “and Shuichi entered his.”

“Shuichi’s lab is open?” A wide grin plastered Kaede’s face and she hooked her arm in Kirumi’s. “I’m just dying to know if it’s like some old monochrome detective movie!”

And sure enough, it was. The rustic and old-fashioned atmosphere was defined by the messy wooden work desk, bookcases, cabinets, soft seats and a rocking chair. It felt more like a living room than a working space; warm. Although that might have also been the classic fireplace crackling its wood.

“This is so cute, Shuichi!” Kaede mused.

The lab owner stood in the middle of the room, looking at nothing in particular as he caressed his chin deep in thought. He looked like the one sensible person in an escape room thinking through how to proceed. The entrance of his best friends took him out of his trance, twitching up and offering a typical sheepish smile.

“Oh, thanks, I think…”

“It is very lovely,” Kirumi stepped forward, finding herself drawn to the warmth. “The labs are supposed to be a reflection of ourselves. So we are both into the old times, hmm?”

Shuichi’s smile turned more genuine at her words. “Seems like it.”

“Wait, wait!” Kaede had long found herself standing by the bookcase, roaming the spines of the rather thin books that went up to number 52, volume 15 missing. “So are all these like, personally yours?”

He walked over to her, thumbling his fingers a bit. “Not that I remember… But they might be real case overviews.”

The 45th volume had a gray note marker sticking out, prompting Kaede to slip it out. The content page detailed a dozen cases, although all were blackened. The victim’s names, possibly. Each victim only had 1 page of information, showing not much more than Monokuma himself always shared.

She quickly skipped to the very last page, which had the little note sticking out. “Oh, gross…” She turned towards Shuichi and Kirumi. “This woman was stabbed through the throat by a golden katana… I wonder why it’s marked.”

“A golden katana you say?” Kirumi joined in and looked at the page. She examined the gruesome picture, “That looks a lot like the one in Korekiyo’s lab… Is it possible this woman is one of Korekiyo’s victims? Rantaro mentioned him to be a serial killer, no?”

“Maybe that’s why it’s marked,” Shuichi added. “Like a hint on his true identity…”

A tiny sound left Kaede’s throat.

“... I’ve been meaning to ask…” Shuichi drew a bit closer to her. “How… are you holding up?”

She looked up from the case file. “... What?”

“Yesterday was…” He struggled thinking back of the events. They lost so many precious people. Rantaro, Maki. “... It was a lot. You were really upset about Rantaro…”

Kirumi turned towards her as well, that same sympathetic look on her face. It only made Kaede feel more and more watched.

She hesitated answering, cradling her arm. “... It was upsetting… You must be hurt too, Shuichi.”

“Me?”

“Because of Maki. I know with her whole Assassin reveal the two of you grew apart, but still.”

“...” Although his eyes drifted to the side, saddened, he quickly shook his head and strengthened his posture. “This isn’t about me right now. I was asking how you are doing, Kaede.”

It caught her off guard. “... I'm fine,” she said with a soft smile. Of course, that was a lie. It convinced neither him or Kirumi, nor herself for that matter. She quickly closed the book and put it back in place. “Things like these are never nice, huh? But we get up and move forward! Have you been to Tsumugi’s lab? I’m very curious to see what it’s like.” Her arm hooked with Kirumi’s again, dragging her along to the door.

“A-ah, wait!” Shuichi’s voice raised. It somehow sounded both hesitant and confident. “I… I need to talk with Kirumi about something.”

Both women blinked, shortly looking at each other before turning to him. “Oh, erm… Sure!” Kaede perked. “Hope it’s not that serious.”

They all stood there, nothing happening.

“... What is it, Shuichi?” Kirumi carefully asked.

He bit his lip. “... I need to talk with just Kirumi…”

Kaede’s face twisted. She didn’t understand. They were a trio, were they not? All friends together? Whatever he needed to say to Kirumi he could say to her as well. So what is it? What did he need her so badly for?

“Kaede…” Kirumi put her hand on Kaede’s arm, which was lightly tightening its hold on her. “You go ahead, I’ll catch up.”

“It won’t be long,” Shuichi quickly added.

Their voices sounded off, and she didn’t understand why. “... Ahah, geez, not so serious,” she scoffed, letting go of her friend. “And don't worry, no need to hurry or anything. Let's meet soon, okay? There's got to be another flashlight somewhere…” She quickly winked at Kirumi before turning to the door, “Maybe you can convince him to use proper shampoo while you're at it!”

Forget about Korekiyo's lab, Tsumugi got the real big facility. The only downside was that it lacked the feeling of being dressed as a consequence. At its bones the lab was a cement cage, with plain high walls and gray cold floors. Big lights illuminated the separate stage sets scattered across the room, along with camera lenses focusing on their content. 

All the way in the back stood the largest stage set with, judging from the metallic bars, a system to switch out different sceneries in the blink of an eye.

Right in front of it 2 permanent set stages had been placed. The one on the left held a small atelier by its side filled with whatever one might need to sew clothes, while the set it was attached to had dark colors and a couch. Judging from the sword and shield as well as paintings on the wall, it probably had to do with some kind of royalty. Gothic, for sure. Kirumi would like this.

The set on the right of the room came straight out of a bar, holding several purple group seats and red bar seats by the counter. A wide array of different drinks spread over the cabinets in the back. They ranged from basic to very fancy drinks - low percentage to high percentage. It made Kaede wonder if they were just props, or if Monokuma decided now was the time for everyone to have access to alcohol.

Apparently she wasn’t the only one who wondered that as Tsumugi, Angie and Tenko stood inside the set, chatting. Tenko seemed upset.

“Wow, Tsumugi!” Kaede approached, whistling. “This place feels more like a movie studio than something for a cosplayer… I thought all you did was make clothes.”

The girl perked up from the conversation she was in, enticed by the interest, but a little disappointed by Kaede’s basic understanding all the same. “There’s no use wearing cosplay if you never do anything with… I take pictures and little videos to post online. It also helps in selling the product, y’know?”

“So you’re a movie star as well? We’ve got an actress among us!” Angie chirped.

She chuckled at that, awkwardly. “Not really, but… I appreciate the compliment.”

“Still…” Kaede’s eyes roamed across the warehouse. “It’s a lot of space for just one person, isn’t it? Shouldn’t you at this point gather a whole group?”

“No, why did you have to say that?!” Tenko howled, arching her back. “Just when you got her distracted!”

“Huh? Distracted?”

Tsumugi looked confused for a bit, until she remembered, gleeing, “Oh yeah! I was just asking Angie and Tenko to try cosplaying with me! Will you join, Kaede?!”

“You want to dress me like a man…!” Tenko huffed. “Out of all the people in this school to ask such a thing…”

“But your hair is so beautiful! If we loosen it you can easily play one of those brooding mysterious tall guys with really long black hair… You won’t need a wig then!”

“Your compliment about my hair falls completely flat when you compare it to a man’s, y’know…! Especially when we just had our long-haired weirdo…”

“Oh, right…” Tsumugi’s enthusiasm fell, fixing her glasses in place. “I didn’t realize…”

“... Realize what?” Kaede asked.

“... Should we address the elephant in the room?” the cosplayer asked in return, although questioning the two other girls instead.

“We should leave it be,” Angie replied. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“It does matter,” Tenko countered, turning to Kaede. “Are you okay with everything that happened yesterday?”

“Not this again…” Kaede thought.

“It’s still hard to think Korekiyo was that kind of guy…” Tsumugi’s voice lowered to a whisper. “He was weird, but… watching you like that…”

“And he murdered Rantaro’s little sister, wanting to do the same to our piano gal!” Tenko shuddered in anger. “I mean, Rantaro might have been a male, but… he did something really heroic. I would've burned that creep’s ass too if I had been him!”

“Guys,” Kaede put her hands on the two worrying women’s shoulders. “I’m okay. Of course it was upsetting, but… we need to move on. Rantaro would want that too.”

Angie jumped to her side, slapping her hands together in the air, “I agree with Kaede! Everything will be a-okay! Rantaro killed the danger, and we've got food back. It can’t go down now, it’ll only be up from here!”

Tsumugi sighed. Her worry had only been partly comforted. “The serial killer might be gone, but we've got a new killer in the dome, remember…? Kokichi…”

Tenko crossed her arms. “Where did he even go? I don’t remember if he went eating with us yesterday. I was too focused on my own stuff…”

“Who cares where he is?” Kaede said, peeking behind the women for a distraction. “I’m sure he’ll show his annoying face at some point again… But, let’s talk about that there now!” She walked through them, behind the bar. “What kind of anime manga thingy is this from?”

“Oh, it’s not from anywhere specific!” Tsumugi joined. It was hard not to notice how her timid nature disappeared as soon as she took her place. “I used to work part-time at a cocktail bar before I was able to live off making cosplay. To get the funds and everything. It's probably here for that reason.”

“So then…” She grabbed the 70cl coconut rum bottle. It was filled to the brim. “There’s actual alcohol here…?!”

“We thought they were fakes at first, or non-alcoholic at least,” Tenko said, plopping down on one of the bar seats. “But after a quick whiff… Ugh, it smells!”

Angie giggled, sitting down next to her and poking the other’s cheek. “Your face wrinkled all up, it was so funny!”

“St-stop that…” Tenko blushed in embarrassment, but didn’t pull away either. “It’s bad to drink for Aikido masters, I’ve never tried it before, okay…?!”

Tsumugi turned to Kaede, who was still staring at the bottle. “What about I make you a cocktail sometime? They’re really good, I promise.”

Her fingers rubbed over the cold bottle. The emblem picturing Monokuma sitting alone on a tiny island, surrounded by coconuts while chucking down a copy of the bottle, taunted her. “... Oh… No, I… I don’t drink.” She put it back in place. “... Do any of you know where Miu went?”

“Miu?” Angie leaned on the counter, tapping her lip in thought. “I’m not sure… I think she left to the courtyard.”

“I think so too… She didn’t go upstairs, that’s for sure,” Tsumugi commented.

“Alright. Then I’ll go see what she’s up to.” Kaede hoisted her backpack, leaving. “No day drinking while I’m gone!”

“... Soooo, day drinking only when she’s around?” Angie asked.

“I’m pretty sure that was a joke…” Tsumugi answered.

Kaede went down the stairs, speculating where Miu could’ve run off to. She was very set on taking the shiny blue stone. Since it considered a key to a new area, she maybe knew where to use it? It was the only sensible explanation, although it didn’t exactly help in making the search area any smaller.

Except that, once she stepped outside, Kaede couldn’t help but notice how a giant planet-like ball had been plastered on top of Miu’s lab. A clearer sign than where to head cannot exist.

A small elevator brought her to a futuristic sci-fi mania. Bright cyan and yellow lights immediately blinded her, needing a few seconds before she was able to make anything else out. Holograms scattered the area, showing either a globe or some other unknown information. A sort of scanning machine stood by the left, somewhat similar to the operating bed Miu had in her lab, be this one a lot more high-tech and expensive. It even had a mechanical hand linger above it, coming from another machine. The middle of the room held another weird platform with a mechanical hand. The upper floor probably contained more crazy machinery.

Miu stood by the computer in the back, her hands softly running over the blue framings. The tips of her fingers - her nails - delicately absorbed the material. Even all the way from the other side of the room Kaede noticed how loving her fingerwork was. She didn’t think it to be something Miu ever was capable of.

She looked up, noticing Kaede, and her face turned sour. The complete opposite of the care she showed just now. “Ugh, you’re here?”

The attitude made Kaede bitter as well, although she couldn’t quite let go of what she just witnessed. “Well… Yes, we do need to explore.”

“Ughhhhhhhhhhh.”

“... What?”

She wove her away, “Why don’t you just run along with that squishy face of yours? This is all high IQ level stuff! No place for a little music girl with dumpy tits!” She returned to whatever she was checking out.

Well, at least Miu felt energetic enough to insult Kaede again. It should offend her, make her cowlick spring up in irritation, but that’s not what happened.

Her eyes soared around the room instead. They had only once before gained entrance to the lab of a person who already died. It was only a matter of time before it would happen again.

“... This is Keebo’s lab, isn't it?”

She froze.

In the grand scheme of things, Kaede always tried to remember how Miu treated Keebo at the end of the first trial. Nevermind how she immediately understood the workings of his system, it’s how she could place herself in Keebo. She understood the cruel duality of being built into a broken system one could not escape from, and even once help arrives, already being beyond saving.

Deep inside, that’s why Kaede was willing to still converse with her. Because clearly, beyond her foul mouth and constant narcissism, Miu did care. 

She simply cared for ‘unusual’ things. She cared for her inventions. She cared for the big computer upstairs. She cared for Keebo. So much so that she risked saving him.

“Look, I…” Kaede carefully walked up to her. “I’m sorry for jumping you when you found out the computer had been destroyed. My emotions were high, the deaths… I… didn’t realize how real your pain over it was.”

She remained still for a moment, only her chest softly rising and falling. Then, a scoff left her body, “Of course it fucking hurt, you have any idea how much time I put in trying to get you guys out of here?! And all I got were people being asses about it!”

Her head cocked side to side, eying the computer in front of them. “Hmm… But, if you fix it and show your plan, I’m sure they’ll turn around! I mean, you can fix it, right?”

“Nuh-uh.” She knocked her knuckles against the glass keyboard. “That computer was insanely powerful. Actual mad shit, y’know. A device like that needs very special wiring, and those exact wires aren’t available in my lab. Not even in Keebo’s. It’s over.”

Kaede let out a big sigh. There went their ticket out of here. But, it’s not like she ever held a grasp on what the ticket even held. “Say… What did that computer do exactly?”

Despite it all having been brought to ruins, Miu jumped up at the inquiry, a smirk painting her face. “A virtual world, baby!”

“... Huh?”

The inventor’s hands flared up, tumbling in the air with exaggerated movement. Her excitement grew, “You were able to put this device on your head, and then get connected to the computer. It uploaded your consciousness so you could go to a world created by a computer program. And said consciousness would be able to move around as if you’re in the real world. A fucking avatar! It’s genius!”

Even if Kaede didn’t expect anything in particular, she had always been under the assumption Miu was creating something to literally get them out. It would only make sense. A virtual world wasn’t the escape they needed out of here. That would be nothing but escapism.

“Miu… That’s…”

“It was some crazy weird killing game simulator with a huuuuge old mansion. Stained glass, big statues and hundreds of old fancy Monokuma paintings. Real creepy shit! But I made everything safe! I went through all the files so nothing could be used to kill someone. It would be totally safe for everyone to hang out!”

Kaede didn’t know what to say to any of this. Is this really what Miu was putting all her time and effort in?

She sensed that disbelief, her energy lowering and staring for a while. Her voice turned shaky, hurt, while her hairlock found itself being fumbled by her fingertips. “I… I was making things as comfortable as possible… Everyone would get a personalized avatar which would look just like them…  And much hotter at that…!”

Her head shook a bit in return. “It’s… not really us…”

“No, no, I made it accurate, really!” Miu’s foot stomped the floor, balling her hands. “I even included those corny hairpins of yours! 1 on the left, 4 on the right. What are they called again? Two beamed eighth note, quarter note and… eighth note or some shit.”

Kaede’s eyes lifted at hearing the jargon, faintly brushing her fingers over the clips. Miu was correct.

“And that skirt of yours,” she pointed at the clothing item with disgust, “Do you have any idea how much work it takes to accurately recreate those patterns when you’re not a musical nerd?! And worst of all,” her finger wiggled into Kaede’s face, “I simulated that song and it doesn’t even sound like anything I’ve heard! I expected an actual song! Do you take pleasure out of edging me???”

Admittedly, the pianist long stopped processing how attempts were being made at talking down her clothes and her talent. 

Miu must have watched her very carefully to name the notes so precisely, to remember their placement beyond the staff. She must have gone down to the library and educated herself in reading music to know the terms and even play the tune. All that to create an avatar Kaede would feel comfortable with.

She held the hand Miu tried to make her back off with. A gentle smile grew on her face as she saw Miu's body stop in time while a furious sweat came over her.

“Thank you, Miu. I’m sure you made me look lovely.”

Her body remained frozen in surprise. She looked so much more innocent with her brow raised like that.

A knock on the door disturbed their staring contest. Kirumi stood at the entrance. “I apologize for interrupting… But we found another Flashback Light.”

Kaede, Miu and Kirumi were the last to arrive at dining hall. With how small the group had gotten, they could make due with a smaller space than the gym. They all stood in a circle, Shuichi standing in the middle with the next strange light in hands.

“Ah, you're here,” his eyes peeked from below his cap. “Looks like we've got everyone now.”

“Not everyone,” Ryoma said, digging his hands in his pockets. “Kokichi's missing. Although I'm guessing none of you are jumping to find him anyway.”

“I have an important question about that,” Kirumi caressed her chin, watching the door in anticipation of a perfectly timed entrance. “What will we do once he shows face again?”

“I say we lock the little abortion up as soon as we see him!” Miu ordered. “That’s a goddamn criminal right there.”

Tsumugi tilted her head to the side. “You really like the idea of locking people up, don’t you? You suggested it with Maki as well.”

“You’re saying that like it’s some weird fucking reaction.”

“I actually agree with Miu,” Tenko interrupted. “We later found out about Maki’s story so we didn’t have to worry about her anymore, but we already know what happened with Kokichi. There’s no reason to doubt!”

“Okay…" Shuichi scratched his neck. He wanted to return the attention to why they were gathered in the first place. “We’ll leave him out of it for now. Everyone ready?”

“I dunno,” Angie softly whined. “Should we go ahead with it? Atua says all they show are upsetting things nobody knows what to do with.”

“It is, however, the only source of information we have,” Kirumi noted. “We all lost our memory and these lights are our only aid to understand why we might be here. Why… Monokuma makes us suffer.”

“Kirumi’s right.” Kaede stepped forward. She agreed that the mystery around the TV didn't do much for them, but what she really wanted was more information on the mysterious voice instead. She hadn't forgotten about the joyous miserable hug. “Besides, there’s no harm in checking it out, right? Just a quickie.”

“Hah!” Miu let out a laugh. “A quickie… You like doing quickies, Kaede?”

The artist let out a sigh, but eventually complied. “Okayyyy… Let’s make it quick, my stomach is craving Tojo cuisine again!”

Kirumi smiled gently. “I'll be sure to make something delicious.”

Despite everyone's agreement, the fear of what might be shown lingered. If it would be disturbing, if it would be painful. Still, they couldn’t just leave it either.

Shuichi’s thumb flicked the switch, and the world warped. Scenes flew by Kaede's consciousness, until it set on the familiar old TV.

It lit up, the pixels gathering the clear image of an old lady. She sat in a seat with a plain background, wearing casual clothing. A nicely woven vest and shawl fit her round friendly wrinkly face. Although nothing was asked of her, she spoke like someone had.

“I remember how… it all went so fast… My mother told my siblings and I to pack an extra pair of clothes and as much food and water as we could. We left the city by foot, along with many other people. I remember my friend’s family refusing to leave. I never saw them again.”

It was hard to concentrate on her story. Kaede had to force her brain to do so. It became even harder when the sweet mysterious voice she had been looking forward to echoed unintelligibly in the distance.

“I didn’t mind having to leave at first. All we thought was ‘yay, no school’!” The lady softly chuckled at the innocence she held in the past, the unawareness of the truth.

The distant echoes cleared up: “Kaede… Are you… Kaede… Kaede- ”

“They killed everyone. It didn’t matter whether you were guilty or innocent. It was just… useless slaughter. The deaths fixed nothing. Then later, we heard of this killing game-”

“Kaede, are you there?” Her concentration finally gave in and the old lady immediately vanished, flooded by the mysterious young voice. Only this time, did it gain a physical form.

A smoky shadow with the vague figure of a human approached Kaede, its big white eyes staring at her. Everything around them was dark, but not pitch black either. The distant sound of cobbling water lingered around her ears. She didn’t know where it came from. Still, Kaede felt no fear. She felt happy.

The ghost said something. Kaede knew because she already recognized its tone by now, but its words were hard to decipher. Like they were under water. She could feel her own lips move in response, but even that was drowned out.

The other then closed its eyes. She didn’t know why, but it made something thump in Kaede’s throat. She became nervous, but the good kind.

When the figure’s eyes opened again, it didn’t know what to do with whatever it was holding in its hands now. It was just as clueless as Kaede felt.

Still, Kaede deep inside did know what it was about. The words danced over her lips, spoken with all the love she felt; “Nothing is ever too much for you.”

The silhouette floated into her, wrapping their bodies together. Finally Kaede was able to return the hug, tightly wrapping her arms around what should be the being’s waist, never wanting to let go again.

She became warm. The room became warm. Life became warm.

It only lasted for a split second. The vision disappeared and the last thing Kaede saw was the ceiling as her body collapsed to the floor.

Chapter Text

“Ah, what do we do, what do we do???”

“Do not worry, if she died Atua will take good care of her soul!”

“She’s not dead.”

Kaede opened her eyes to a blurry beige. Many sounds surrounded her body, but not much of it came through. The image of Kirumi’s porcelain face closed in with worry. Just as Kaede felt her own facial muscles move, so did hers.

“She’s awake,” Kirumi sighed out of relief, seated by the pianist’s side on the canteen floor. She turned to look at Miu, who was sitting by Kaede’s feet and propped them up a bit in the air. “What next, Miu?”

“Yes, Miu, please what do we do?!” Tsumugi exclaimed, wringing her dress in a panic.

“First off, shut the fuck up!” she sneered, pointing a finger at the girl to order her away. “Just cuz I know my first aid doesn’t mean I can still do it when I have all this baby screaming in my ear!”

Kaede tried to push herself up, leaning on her forearms and lifting her head. It felt heavy. “Wha…”

“Secondly, loosen everything. Belts, tight clothing, that kind of shit.”

But her head was quickly - yet kindly - pushed back to the floor, Kirumi’s glove keeping its hold on her just in case. Kirumi's other hand quickly got to work to loosen the tie around her neck.

Kaede's body tensed and her eyes widened. “H-hey, what’s going on…?!”

“You fainted.” Shuichi took his place by her other side, squatting down with a glass. “Are you okay…?”

She didn’t remember any of it. The last thing she remembered was how hot it became. She still felt a bit warm, admittedly. And her head hurt. She slowly reached for it, caressing.

“It’s probably the lack of food,” Ryoma said. He stood further away from the crowd, giving the needed space. “Maki said it would only be a matter of time, and I don’t feel like Kaede ate all that much this morning. That combined with the stress of the flashlight sounds like a recipe for disaster.”

“You’ve gotta eat your food, Kaede…!” Tenko asserted, ready to jump to Kaede’s aid but being held back by Angie. There were already enough people around her. “It’s super important, especially now!”

“Would be realistic…” Miu murmured, getting up. “Hey, Sherlock Homo! Go to the kitchen and grab some sugary shit, will ya? When she gets up she should have that with her drink.”

“When I…? Guys, I’m okay,” she moved Kirumi’s hand away, raising herself a bit again. It didn’t feel quite right to do so, though. 

“Stay, Kaede.” Kirumi forced her down again.

“Don’t be fucking stubborn for once.” Miu crawled forward, taking Shuichi’s place who, despite the crude order, had obediently left for the kitchen. “Stay horizontal. And I’m not just saying that because I like to see you in this position, heheh… Now important stuff. What’s your name?”

Everyone standing around her in worry, hanging over her, keeping her on the floor. Kaede hated it all. They won't let this go the coming time if she doesn’t show to be okay. It annoyed her. “You’ve all said my name a lot by now…”

Kirumi’s fingers lightly brushed over her forehead, sliding to her bangs and pushing her locks backwards. She pleaded the pianist to cooperate.

Kaede always had a bad feeling that if the day would ever come for Kirumi to use the word ‘please’, she would give her anything she wanted.

“...” She took a deep breath. “Kaede. My name is Kaede Akamatsu.”

Miu nodded a bit. “And what’s your birthday?”

“March 26th. I’m 23, assuming you need that as well.”

“That checks out,” Kiurmi said, quickly looking at Miu for confirmation. “That means she’s okay, right?”

“Sure, it doesn't seem like she got hurt further. Just gotta keep it cool.”

Keeping it cool translated itself to Kaede being forced to spend time in her room and simply lay in bed. And she hated that even more.

Just when food was back in stock and everyone could return to their habits of being together, she’d have to stand by the sidelines. The fact this wasn’t her first time being clocked out only made matters worse. 

Truly, the only point of light in this situation was Kirumi having beeen so worried over Kaede’s state that she - somehow with complete ease - bridal carried her to her room. Where’s the list to sign up to faint every day?

Anyway, that moment was short lived and now she had spent the remainder of the day in her room. Just her and her thoughts. She very famously enjoyed doing that.

She didn’t want to think about anything that had happened the past days, but it was hard to convince her brain otherwise. She forced it to the Flashback Light instead, to that voice which had now gained a form. Whoever that girl was, she must have meant so very much to Kaede. There was no doubt about it.

So how is it she forgot?

She let out a deep sigh and pulled out her Tamagotchi, nibbling on a cookie as she layed in bed on her stomach. At least taking care of the ghost and playing games with it brought her some entertainment.

~Ding dong, bing bong!~

The 10 o'clock announcement sounded. This would normally be the time for Kaede to go outside with Kirumi and Shuichi and train, followed by a nice chat session. She always enjoyed doing this with them, and craved the interaction even more after this painstakingly long day.

~Ding dong!~

Shuichi opened the door to his room, halfway through undressing considering how he wasn’t wearing his jacket anymore and the shirt underneath hung a little messily out of his pants. He could’ve made sure to present himself a bit more decently before opening the door, but he was far more concerned to get his cap back on.

His brow raised in confusion. “Kaede?”

“The one and only!” she cheered. “Ready to go outside? Let’s pick Kirumi up.” She twirled to her right and jumped to Kirumi’s door, ringing the bell there.

Shuichi quickly stepped out of his room, going after her, “Y-you’re supposed to be resting…!”

Kirumi swiftly opened her door. Unlike the detective she was still dressed, ready to jump to a request. It made Kaede wonder what time she even goes to bed. Not that it mattered.

She too looked at Kaede in confusion. “Kaede, what are you doing?”

“Gathering the club,” she innocently smiled. “Come on, let’s go outside. We’ve already lost enough time.”

Shuichi and Kirumi shared a glance and unspokenly dragged the girl back to her room. They pushed her on her bed.

“Hey, what gives?!” she quickly propped herself up again.

“You are meant to rest,” Kirumi stated.

“I’ve been doing nothing but resting today,” she pouted. “I feel fine, guys. I’m good to go.”

“Still…” Shuichi fixed his shirt back in his pants. “You should sleep tonight first and see how it is tomorrow… You know, just in case.”

“Noooo,” she howled, clamping the sheets. “Don’t leave me alone!”

Although Kaede acted like nothing but a demanding child, there was something broken inside those final words. It shocked the duo, even if she didn’t intend to.

“... I… I apologize,” Kirumi breathed. “I have been so busy performing tasks again that I failed to consider your need for company. I should’ve stuck with you.”

Shuichi shook his head a bit. “No, you’re busy… I had all the time in the world. It should’ve been me at least.”

Kaede stared at the two, eying them with difficulty. She appreciated their compassion, but she didn’t mean to make them feel bad. She tried to laugh it off, “Pfft, don’t worry… But you guys do owe me one!”

“Hmm…” Kirumi looked at the seats placed in the area by the TV. For some reason Monokuma had held a desire to furnish every bedroom like a small studio. But the TV held no programming, making the living room area redundant. She took one of the seats and shoved it closer to the bed. “How about we have our nightly conversation here? Would that be satisfactory?”

She giggled a bit at the formal wording, replying with a bit of a royal tease. “That would be satisfactory.”

Kirumi grabbed a second seat for Shuichi, and so the trio sat in a circle by the bed.

“Well, if we’re here…” Shuichi started, “I guess we can talk about the obvious. Especially since we didn’t really get to discuss it in the group this morning.”

Right. The Flashback Light. That memory of an old woman seemingly being interviewed about the trauma she had experienced. She told everything with a straight back, but Kaede couldn’t help but think how once upon a time, telling her story must have made her want to burst in tears.

Shuichi caressed his chin in thought, staring at the flooring. "The elderly woman spoke about events that happened when she was young... Assuming the main subject never changes, that attack on the city we saw last time must have happened a long time ago. Then it's definitively proven we are not the Ultimates who did it."

Kirumi nodded a bit, although not entirely pleased with that conclusion. "I suppose, however... it does not explain why that newscast looked so modern."

Admittedly, that was something he couldn’t quite wrap his head around either.

“And another thing, she mentioned the killing game.”

Kaede immediately looked up. She didn’t remember that being discussed.

“She spoke of a killing game that happened back then,” Shuichi tried to ease. “It’s definitely not this one.”

“But that is exactly what worries me,” she retaliated. “Why is there another killing game happening what must be… perhaps, 60 years later?”

“That… is a good question.” He scrunched his face. “Maybe history repeated itself. As it always tends to do."

“But by who? The woman described the lady in charge of this entire murderous attack to have been the mastermind, but also that she died in the aftermath. There is simply no way she returned to try again.”

“I… I don’t know, Kirumi,” he looked away in defeat. “We have answers but at the same time… Everything is becoming more confusing.”

The memory of the mysterious girl must have overtaken what Kaede was meant to see. She had no clue what Shuichi and Kirumi were talking about.

A pillow flew its way across the room, straight into Shuichi's face. “Ah!” He scrambled to keep his hat on, quickly looking up to the source.

Kaede laughed at him.

“Wh-what was that for…?”

“I want you to tell a story! Like an old case!”

He frowned at her. “And you had to throw a pillow in my face for that because…?”

She took another pillow, now clamping it to her body. “Maybe you can tell about like… your very first case.”

“That’s not an answer to my question,” he awkwardly replied, a bead of sweat running down his face.

“I find that to be a great idea,” Kirumi mused. “I am very much interested in what started your story.”

“M-my story…? It really does not matter…” He attempted to wave the two women away, but considering how they both leaned further towards him, he wasn’t going to be able to get rid of them so easily. He let out a deep sigh, but mustered up a small smile. “My very first case… was a missing cat one. I mean, I wasn’t in the lead or anything… But I helped out here and there… It had a bit of a surprising ending, since there turned out to be a lot of cats that disappeared, and they were all related…”

He continued to tell his story of the very first crime he ever solved, one that made a lot of old people and cat ladies very happy. Kaede was shocked at the revelation of there being some gang behind the kidnappings, being even more surprised that Shuichi wasn’t immediately rewarded Ultimate Detective for that, while he had to keep explaining to her he didn’t do much and was just being dragged along.

But that of course led to Kirumi telling him how he shouldn’t talk himself down, and Kaede agreeing with her. They would never want him to feel worthless, no matter how many times they would have to repeat that.

Deep inside, that’s what he liked them so very much for. They were both determined and caring, with one being extroverted and the other calm. “Double trouble, kind of,” he laughed at them.

Kaede quickly corrected him with a ‘triple trouble’. She smiled at Shuichi shaking his head in disbelief, but enjoying it all the while. Kirumi reacted the same.

It was so very nice to be around them.

While it took a bit longer than she had hoped, Kaede was finally making her way to her lab with Kirumi by her side. As part of ‘making up’ Kaede requested her to play piano with her again, hoping to keep up the habit they created when Kirumi had been left without a compass. While it could be seen as a sort of punishment for poor service, neither recognized it as such. It was more so an excuse to be together.

“Hang on, hang on!” Kaede put a hand in the air, ordering Kirumi to stay behind her in the doorframe. Her eyes squinted. “... Something’s wrong.”

“... What is the matter?”

She walked further into the room. The air was different, like a specific part of the smell had been taken away. She strolled across the loose papers on the floor, scanning the area. She ended up at a shelf filled with cd’s.

There were several gaps.

“Ah-ha, that’s it!” Kaede exclaimed, making her friend jump up a bit in surprise. “My cd’s are gone! Someone took them!”

“That does not appear to be the only thing missing…” Kirumi walked to her side, looking at the stage instead. “Your cd player and boxes are missing as well.”

That definitely was a much easier way to figure out someone had entered her lab without permission.

“Monokuma, perhaps?”

She quickly skimmed through the plastic squares, dusting off the memory of how it looked in the past and determine what exactly had been taken. Pop music, mostly. Party music she’d heard at the club, or used to dance to when she was young. Anything that could get people together and have a good time.

“Yeah, no… I don’t think he’d have any interest in this.”

Kirumi caressed her chin. “But then, who would be inclined to steal from you?”

“Yahoo!” Angie scooted into the room, the widest smile on her face as she came at them with stretched arms. “I have been looking for you!”

Kaede raised herself. Although she’d never mind talking to Angie, she had an important mystery to solve right now. “Sorry, Angie, we’re kind of busy so-”

She took a U-turn behind the duo, locked their arms in hers, and dragged them out. “Here we go!”

“Wait, where are we going…?!” 

Both Kirumi and Kaede stumbled after the artist. She was surprisingly strong - private training with Tenko, no doubt. No matter how much they asked for clarification or tried to refuse, Angie didn’t bust and continued without concern, humming.

Their mysterious road trip led to Tsumugi’s lab, but aura had been changed. It no longer looked bleak and cold. Instead, the lights had been turned down with bright colors painting the walls in a calm but constant movement instead. Early party music played from the cd player and boxes stood in the back for optimal echo.

So that’s where Kaede's stuff went.

Angie dragged them further to the bar area, where Tsumugi was standing by the drinks while Shuichi and Ryoma accompanied her by sitting in the bar seats. Considering the two men’s complicated faces, they were none the wiser than Kirumi and Kaede over the meaning to all of this.

Kaede opened her mouth again, but didn’t get to speak.

“Not yet,” Angie chirped, letting the two women finally go and tapping her own cheek. She knew they were just dying to know what this was all about and anticipated the question Kaede intended on asking. “Once Tenko gets back we will explain!”

And just perfectly timed, Tenko burst in, carrying a flailing Miu on her shoulder. She came to the scene and quickly dumped the inventor on the couch.

Miu hissed loudly, like a possum, “Don’t fucking touch me, Cunt Fu!”

“Maybe if you did some more training you would have been able to deal with me,” she glared, but quickly eased her face once she looked at Angie. “Got everyone?”

“Righty-o!”

“Erm, sorry for interrupting…” Shuichi politely raised his hand in the air. “Will you now explain what exactly we are here for?”

“Nyahaha, it's very simple!” Angie put herself in the middle of the room, bringing her hands together and raising them in the air. “After all this sadness and tragedy we need some relaxation as a group!”

"Right!" Tenko jumped to her side, “And that’s when Angie and I thought, we should throw a surprise party! Like a night out!”

“Great!” Miu let out a loud scoff, having laid herself completely down on the couch, too lazy to get up beyond raising her arms in a pretend excitement. “Another murder party like with Gonta. Really looking forward to more bloodshed.”

“Not like that,” Tenko threw her another glare. “That’s why it was a surprise! No killer traps whatsoever!”

Kaede looked around the room a bit. A club would be a lot more fun than this big space filled with only 8 people, but she didn’t hate the idea either. It had more of the vibes of a home party, one where everyone would feast, drink, laugh and deep into the night have good conversation most would have forgotten about by the next day.

“Let me guess,” Ryoma said, “you picked Tsumugi’s lab because of the alcohol?”

“It would be a lie to say no… I will be your bar woman tonight!” Tsumugi announced, propping herself up from behind. “Order up, I can do most anything.”

“Alcohol?!” Miu slowly slid out of the seat, displeased with being dragged from work, but quickly jumping at the opportunity for a drink. She nearly pushed Shuichi and Ryoma off their place to be first in line. “Nobody told me you had the goods right in your lab! What fucking luck… Start me off with a Bloody Mary, will ya?! And don’t go easy on the vodka, pour it in nice and sweet.”

Although crude, Miu’s order got the party started. The music volume increased and the first round of drinks was served. Ryoma got himself a smoked whiskey, not planning on getting too much alcohol in his body and purposefully grabbing a drink that would take him a while. Angie and Tenko ordered tropical cocktails, both of them a different flavor in case Tenko’s first ever choice of booze wouldn’t go well. A good idea as it turned out, since they ended up exchanging drinks.

Then in comparison to these free-willed drinkers, there were Shuichi and Kirumi. Shuichi carefully scanned a small menu created by Tsumugi, who had anticipated the likes of them to be among the group. He kept doubting on what to get.

“Maybe a gin and tonic…? … No, wait, a regular beer is fine. … Hang on, apple cider, that’s better. … Do you have anything without alcohol…?”

“Don’t be a fucking wuss!” Miu exclaimed, well near the bottom of her drink already, and she snapped her fingers at Tsumugi. “Get him a good ol’ Jägerbomb. Let’s see if that will make his shy facade wither away.”

Kirumi had set herself a bit apart from the group. Although she must have served plenty of liquor to clients, she held little interest in drinking herself. Considering how she quickly moved to serving snacks, she looked to be planning on simply fulfilling her job.

Kaede let out a sigh, wanting to approach her, when the real reason Miu had left the maid be became clear. “Hey, Kaediot, are you a virgin?”

“... What?” She turned to the bar.

Miu was flattening the lemon left in her glass with the stamper, staring at Kaede with one cheek resting in her hand. “I mean like, you’re such a Miss Goody Two Shoes. I bet you’re no better than the sneaky detective and never had alcohol in your life.”

“Hah.” She sat down next to Miu. While she didn’t feel like showing off her unhealthy knowledge, her urge to prove the inventor wrong was far too great. “Says you… A Bloody Mary? How boring.”

That made her confidence immediately falter, sacking in like an accordion. With how much she enjoyed boasting, Miu was a sensitive soul at heart. “B-boring…? But… it’s a total classic…!”

“Hey, Tsumugi, give me the cheapest Ouzo you’ve got.”

The cosplayer blinked, surprised but obediently serving. “Here you go.”

Kaede grabbed the small glass, crossing her legs as she turned to her challenger. She took the drink to her lips and tanked it down her throat in one go. She ignored the disgusting penetrating stinge, planting the glass down. “There!”

Miu’s eyes widened. The act silenced her, though only for a little bit. A wide grin grew on her face as she laughed, “Holy shit, so you’re not a total snore fest!”

“Drinking doesn’t make you cool, you sound like a teenager!” Kaede quickly retaliated, raising a disapproving finger, although she quickly ordered herself another drink - a vodka shot - which she also dumped in her body with little issue. A warm, almost addictive, shiver hit her body. “Hey, Miu, what about this… Tsumugi, I’d like a Bone Dry Martini.”

Miu laughed again. She was greatly amused. “Alright, me too! Let’s go at it together!”

The barwoman was far less amused, frowning in concern. “Kaede, is that such a good idea…? You already chugged two heavy drinks, and that shortly after one another… You said you don’t drink.”

“Hmmm, did I? That’s not true… It’s just been a while is all. Don’t worry, I’ll be responsible!”

What started as social drinking eventually found itself in a drinking game, led by Kaede. It was only a matter of time with how quickly she got into party mode with Miu hyping her up. 

Angie happily joined in, encouraging Tenko to give it a try as well. The artist mentioned never having done a drinking game before. Kava was consumed traditionally on her island, so she mostly had experience with that. Though not alcohol it did mean she knew how to deal with similar after effects. Perhaps this drinking game functioned the same way her tradition might; to bring people together.

At that point so many people joined that it was hard for anyone else to refuse Kaede’s request, not even the bar woman. Only one person didn’t join out of their own.

Kaede dragged Kirumi in by her arms, ordering her to join the circle. “Come on, Kirumi,” she sung. “Join in. It’s a group bonding activity.”

Kirumi's eyes locked with the table, a great armada of cups filling the middle. Tsumugi poured a bit of a soda mix in each of them, only completely filling up the middle one. Another 2 cups were set apart. The presence of 2 ping pong balls increased the confusion, a feeling Shuichi shared as he took one of the balls and attempted to deduce how this would all come together.

“It’s called stress pong,” Kaede explained. “2 people will start with those cups by the side, drinking them down and then beginning their attempt at bouncing their ping pong in their own cup. If you get it in the first try, you shove the cup to whichever person in the circle you want. Otherwise you move it clockwise.”

“It sounds simple, but it gets very stressful real quick,” Ryoma added, pushing a seat to the table so he’d be at height with the others. “In case the person next to you is still ‘bouncing’, you place your cup in theirs. They then have to shove this ‘tower’ to the person to their left, grab one of the cups from the middle circle and drink it, and then use that gained cup to start bouncing once again. So before you know it, you’ll be taking a bunch of shots.”

“And at some point only one cup remains; the King's Cup. When you get that one you lose and have to chug the whole thing in one go!” Kaede concluded, she and Miu reaching for a starter cups as a ‘sacrifice’.

Kirumi’s face only complicated itself as she processed the rules. Whether it came from misunderstanding or not liking the game at its roots was hard to tell. Her eyes especially soared over the big circle of cups, calculating how poorly this could affect one’s liver.

Of course. Kaede had almost forgotten. Kirumi’s lips must have never touched the rim of a bottle before.

She took a step back, “Oh, I’m not sure I…”

“Try it out first.” Kaede added some more rum to the cup she had taken, further filling it with soda. She offered it to Kirumi. “There’s going to be a lot of chugging, so we’re doing a low percentage anyway.”

Kirumi accepted the drink, but didn’t take a sip. She stared at the bubbling mixture. She didn’t want this.

“Pleaaaseee,” Kaede begged, putting up her biggest puppy eyes and clapping her hands together. “You don’t have to join if you don’t want to, but at least try one sip! If you hate it you can put it down immediately.”

She appeared to be weak to that look. A soft sigh left her lips and she allowed her taste buds to experience alcohol for the very first time.

“And?” Kaede put her weight on her tiptoes in curiosity.

Her face muscles twitched a bit, lips pursing. “... This doesn’t taste much different than regular soda.” She took a bigger sip. “... Well, if you insist this is good for group bonding and we will be using this light drink… I see no harm in joining.”

That statement would quickly be challenged.

The drink tasted too much like soda. With all the tea Kirumi drank, her body must have secretly been craving sugar. She further emptied the cup at the same pace of a bottle of water, rather than taking into account the alcohol which had been poured in.

On top of that, people were also very interested in seeing the poised and fancy maid crumble. 

The game began, and the cup quickly found its way in Kirumi’s sight again. She was slow, taking her sweet time bouncing the ball in. Nobody near her right held a cup, so in a way she had every right to proceed with careful concentration. That is, if it weren't for the second cup arriving at Miu.

She one-shotted it, moving it to Kirumi’s neighbor Angie. The maid remained unfazed, keeping her head cool, but was thrown off balance when Angie put her cup in hers.

“Excuse me, I was working on this,” she said.

The table laughed a bit. “Nooo, Kirumi, you weren’t paying attention!” Kaede replied, tapping a cup in the middle. “The other cup caught up to you, so you need to chug.”

“Hell yeah!” Clearly Miu had planned this. “Drink up, maid! Keep up the game’s pace!”

“Oh… Right, I apologize.” She moved the tower to Shuichi - who immediately stressed under the pressure of possibly being next - and grabbed a new cup, chugging it.

Attempts to screw Kirumi over continued. Cup after cup emptied itself in her throat. The speed of the game only increased as the others either regained old habits or found a flow that worked for them, while her process of understanding slowed down.

It was then no surprise that the King's Cup would be all hers.

“That’s one heck of an unlucky round, Kirumi,” Tenko sighed, happy she remained spared for the majority.

Her shoulders slumped in disappointment - loosening. Kirumi could do anything with perfection, but clearly drinking games were not her forte. She reached for the fully filled cup. “So then I must ‘chug’ this, correct?”

“You don’t have to,” Shuichi quickly interrupted. He was sober enough to notice how his friend’s face already flashed in a stroke of heat. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”

“Boooo!” Miu howled. “She fucking joined the game, lost and has to pay the price like anyone else here would! Don’t be a party pooper!”

“Miu is correct… I did not correctly understand the circumstances I was playing under and caused my own downfall. That must be accepted.” She chugged the entire drink, her face showing disgust but also determination to complete the task, and harshly put it down. “Let us do another round. I would like to try again.”

But it did not get much better. True that Kirumi now understood what exactly was going, but her brain’s processor slowed down under the influence and she became giddy. Everyone did.

They laughed and screamed whenever a cup got close, scolding each other for mean moves with a wide smile on their faces. The screams especially reached their high point whenever a ping pong ball would fall on the floor and roll far away, leaving the unlucky vulnerable and running after it in a panic.

They had so much fun, it was as though all the death and suffering never happened.

The game eventually met its end when Tenko and Shuichi’s bodies reached their limits, unable to get any more liquor in. Ryoma, Tsumugi and Angie called for a truce as well. Even though Kaede, Miu and Kirumi wanted to continue playing, 4 people were needed to do so. They simply didn’t have that.

Although, that didn’t stop Kirumi from pouring herself a full cup of rum soda mix to take with her to the floor. “I’m thirsty,” she said.

…

After what must have been quite a while of being on the dance floor, Shuichi let himself fall on the chair by the bar. All these attempts at learning how to frolic made his stomach slosh side to side. He didn't enjoy it, admittedly, but what could he really do?

“Hey, Tsumugi?” He leaned over the wood, catching the girl’s attention who very wisely had decided not to dance in the first place. “Do you have anything like plain water…? My head’s spinning.”

“You know I do," she winked. "Coming right up.” 

He tried to rub away the tingling feeling in his cheeks. How could anyone enjoy this feeling of losing control over your body, even go as far as to seek it out deep into the night and waste money on. “Aren’t you going to drink anything?”

She took a water bottle from the mini-fridge invisible to others’ eyes. “Hmm? Oh, no. I mean, if I drink too much I tend to get a bit of a black-out, and well…” Her eyes moved to the dance floor, where Kaede tried to do a split, but fell on the floor instead. The other girls wanted to help her get up, but had little balancing skills of their own left, which just worsened the situation as they landed with their butts on the floor as well. They all screamed in panicked amusement, and Tsumugi giggled in return, “I don’t want to forget any of the crazy things people are doing tonight.”

He turned to look at the scene as well. Kirumi was the last one standing, but the laughter and fun was so loud that Kaede didn’t even try to get up anymore, pulling Kirumi down to join her with the others. She pulled her so very close.

Tsumugi shoved the glass towards him, giving him a snack as well. “You should eat some too. Build a layer in the stomach, you know?”

His lip raised a bit at seeing the sugar glazed cookie. “I don’t know if I’m up for it, but… thank you.”

“It's too late for that anyway,” Ryoma sighed, climbing up the chair next to Shuichi. “We should have done that before starting to drink.”

“Want anything, Ryoma?” Tsumugi asked, already grabbing the next glass.

He put up his hand and shook his head. “Nah, I’m good.”

“Ah, really…?” Shuichi looked at him in surprise. “Actually, you haven’t been drinking all that much in the first place… I’m a bit surprised.”

He leaned back, drawing a candy cigarette from his pocket and putting it in his mouth. “What, because I’m depressed?”

That silenced him. “... I… I didn’t mean…”

“It’s fine,” Ryoma quickly replied. “Guess it is something you do see in shows and all… But that’s not really what it is. From insomnia and appetite changes, to dropping things that used to bring you joy and rot your life away instead. Some start to abuse substances with the idea it will ease things, but in truth it just worsens everything. I'm not one of them.”

“I do have this feeling you are getting better, Ryoma,” Tsumugi quietly joined the conversation, leaning over to them. “I’ve seen you go to your lab… Are you trying to pick tennis up again?”

He scoffed. “You're so ‘plain’ you’re barely to be spotted, and yet you see so much.”

Shuichi’s eyes widened a bit. “Wait… Are you really?”

“I haven’t actually played…” he explained, defusing any pride someone could feel for him. Still, it meant a lot that he took that step in the first place. Even now he was here, at this party, joining in rather than drawing away from the group because 'there was no reason to really do so anyway'.

“... This party. You’re enjoying it,” Shuichi said.

“Maybe it’s the hit of alcohol, maybe not…” he looked at the sky in melancholy. “Who’s to say, hm?” 

…

At some point the party mood slowed down, most everyone having sat themselves down and entered the next classic part of the evening; shameless conversation.

Miu slouched deep into the couch by the bar area, her heels on the opposite seat for maximum comfort - although it would cause discomfort in her spine if it weren’t for the numbing effect of alcohol. Without Kirumi to scold her for the rude pose, she wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.

Kaede sat next to her, just having brought a new order of cocktails for the both of them. She also leaned in the soft seating, but more properly, lifting one leg on the couch instead.

“Having a good time, Miu?” she asked, giving Miu her drink.

“Fuck yeah!” Miu beamed, taking it. “This is the kind of shit I’ve been wanting! Lots of booze and people going crazy… The drinking game especially was fun.”

She nodded a bit. “It’s always fun when there’s people joining who have never played before.”

“Beer pong next,” she ordered, sticking her finger in the air. “Let’s party every night!”

“No, no…” Kaede buried the side of her face a bit into the couch. “I really shouldn’t-”

“Party, party, party!” she continued chanting.

Kaede couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. “Didn’t think the day would come you’d be so into an idea suggested by Angie and Tenko.”

“Pure luck!” she stuck her nose in the air. “I’m hard to please, y’know.”

“I’m sure you are.”

“Where did Cuckoo Clock and Miss Andry go anyway?”

She shrugged. “Dunno. Does it matter?”

Miu scanned the room, squinting her eyes in concentration. “I want to do some people watching…”

“You sound like an old grandpa complaining about kids on his lawn.”

“Aha, found them! They’re- Ughhh…”

“Ugh what?”

“They are sucking face on the other side of the room," she gritted.

They weren’t really kissing. Not yet, at least. They were seated on the couch in the Victorian set, Tenko sitting as far back to the side as she could while Angie crawled her way up to her face. Angie whispered something, being extremely comfortable with whatever she wanted to do in comparison to the Aikido Master, who just sat there completely frozen as the blood in her face boiled. 

Eventually, Angie softly pressed her lips against Tenko’s, nothing but a light peck really, but intense enough that Tenko’s hair and body sprung up like a cartoon character.

“Aw… They're real cute.”

“Get a fucking room!” Miu yelled from across. They were far too distracted to even hear her. “You don’t need to show off your perfect love life! Some of us aren’t that lucky…”

“Are you jealous? I thought men could only dream of landing a big-boobed hottie like you, with all that experience of yours?” Kaede stuck her tongue out to Miu, who just grew more defensive.

“Fuck you, don’t go delving in my private life…!”

She snorted and took a sip from her drink.

“Guess I don’t need to complain anyway, Miss Lightweight is about to fix it… Go, Kirumi, chop their heads off!”

Kirumi also stood in the Victorian room, entranced by all the items and completely oblivious to the action going on just beside her. She cocked her head at the sword and shield hung against the wall, and took the sword into her hands.

She swung it around a bit, getting a feel for the item, when she hit the couch with it and the top of the weapon broke off.

Her mouth immediately flopped open into a large O, her eyes widening as she kept the broken piece of foam in place. She stared at it, while also looking into nothingness. Either she held no thoughts in this moment, or her brain was taking several business days processing that the prop was never made of metal in the first place.

Miu scoffed at seeing her as such, whirling her drink in her hand. “The fancy maid… She’s going to throw up so hard tomorrow morning. She almost looks like she's tripping. We didn’t slip anything in her drink, right? I don’t remember having anything in my hands…”

Kaede shook her head. “She didn’t take any drugs, don’t be silly.”

“It would really help set her mind free and forget all about this killing game shit though… Fuck, I want a hit,” she murmured.

“Don’t do that.” Kaede’s voice became stern, propping herself up as clarity hit her. “We’re not going there.”

It made Miu raise her brow. “Bwah, becoming a bore again?”

She pointed a strict finger at the inventor. “That shit can land you in the ER… Especially when you combine it with drinking,” and took a deep sip from her Lipstick. “It’s bad… Really bad.”

Those words made Miu decide to drop the bratty attitude, watching Kaede scratch the skin around her collar bone. “... You know,” she began, “you and I have a lot in common. You’re just, further along than I am.”

She looked back at her. “What are you talking about?”

She shrugged a bit and looked at the dancefloor again. “Ha-hahahahaha! What the hell is she doing now?!”

Kirumi had found her way to the cd player, having exchanged the club music for an all female singer’s group. Which wouldn’t have made Miu laugh as much as it did if it weren't for the fact that the group aimed their music at young children. Although anyone could enjoy it - their beats were absolutely addictive - it didn’t take away from the fact that Kirumi insisted on listening to them out of all the choices she had.

She tried to dance to the music, coming up with moves in the moment which were so off-beat that it was almost painful to watch. Her thin heels made her have to catch herself on multiple occasions, forcing her to stand still with her arms and legs spread. Once she knew for sure to be safe, she carried on with a smile that reached from ear to ear.

She looked like a total mess.

But all Kaede saw was the most beautiful girl she’d ever laid eyes upon.

“Somebody fucking tape this! This is gonna be soooo good to show when she’s sober… Heheh, imagine all the service privileges we could get from her…”

“Don’t be mean,” Kaede said, leaning forward to get a better look. To feel just a little bit closer. “She’s enjoying herself… Let her forget about her duties for once.”

Miu rolled her eyes, huffing. “You’re so fucking sentimental over her… I think I’m gonna puke.”

“I think you have other reasons to puke.” She put her drink to the side and stood up, wobbling towards Kirumi.

“Kaede!” Kirumi's smile somehow turned even more lovely when their eyes met. “I'm rather sure I remember this song…!”

“Of course you do, what little girl didn’t grow up with it?” Kaede replied, smiling to herself. “Did you ever learn how to dance to it?”

Kaede fell in the steps she once learned when she was but a child. A rhythm she had performed so often that she could never forget the feeling. This idea of carelessness, of freedom, of no worry.

Kirumi slowly followed the steps. She watched Kaede carefully, copying her movement, until her memory caught up and she could trust her inner child to take over.

They softly started singing along to the song, recalling the lyrics they used to shout in their childhood bedrooms. And once they became confident enough, they went all out.

Kirumi set herself apart, taking on a shy lovestruck character, “You were cool and yet so normal, then you came up to me and said hello. It’s a night you wouldn’t dare to dream about, and my heart went-” she rhythmically hit her chest with her fist, “boom, boom, boom, boom!”

Kaede came up to her, her arms behind her back and circling Kirumi with big steps. As though she was, despite her confidence, a little shy herself. “I was young and a little naïve, you a bit older and yet you were so sweet.”

Kirumi watched her do so, her eyes softening, “No matter how your friends teased you, you stuck with me, and my heart went: boom, boom, boom, boom!”

They jumped to stand across from each other, performing the simple steps of waving arms and putting their feet forward, “I lost my heart right here at the discotheque, probably happened when I looked into your eyes!” Then leading to circling around one another with spins, “It’s of utmost importance that we get to speak, I lost my heart right here at the discotheque!”

Kirumi then grabbed Kaede by her shoulders, interrupting their movement, “And all of a sudden you vanished!”

She grabbed her upper arms back, gripping them tightly. “Did you flee with my heart?”

They sang in unison, dramatically parting from one another, “Come back, I can’t breathe!”

They continued the song like that, performing in their own little time machine nobody could steal from them. With the next song they did it all over again; dancing, singing, even pulling all the other Ultimates back on the floor when the lyrics demanded everyone to get together.

Angie and Tenko did have a hard time completely taking eyes off each other, but Tsumugi made her attempts at showing Shuichi and Ryoma how to move to music she too remembered deep inside. Even Miu, despite having judged it as ridiculous a bit ago, went along with it. Nothing beats the old days, after all.

Eventually a slower love song came on, one the initiators Kirumi and Kaede were less familiar with, but knew well enough to know how to continue dancing on.

Their hands met, holding on to one another as they fell into a ballroom dance. Kirumi’s hand on the shoulder, Kaede’s on the waist. They circled around the room like that, nearly stumbling and tightening their hold for a quick save.

Kirumi continued to smile through everything. With every near fall she’d let out sputtered laughter, making her nearly tumble again. The cycle kept her busy, and Kaede loved to watch.

The alcohol eventually settled down, Kirumi’s brow drawing together in embarrassment. She still smiled, but clearly a hint of reality had hit her. “I’m so very sorry…” she said. “This is very unbecoming of a maid… I should not be acting this way.”

“Don’t apologize.” Kaede closed in a bit, squeezing Kirumi’s hand. “It’s marvelous to see you like this.”

“What, like a total drunkard?”

“No.” Her feet stopped spinning, halting in the middle of the room.

Kirumi paused along, not realizing how close Kaede was getting. “A crazy person?”

“No… That not either.” She let go of her hand and softly brushed it upward, to the cheek Kirumi’s hair enjoyed hiding.

“Then wha-” She froze. Kaede’s touch was so tender. It drifted just above her skin, glazing over the short hairs and sending a shiver straight down her spine. She acted as though a wrong touch could break the maid.

The music kept booming, the lyrics drowning out as Kaede pushed Kirumi’s side part back and tucked it behind her ear. Both of her widened eyes were exposed now, glimmering in the rainbow changing lights. 

A very specific look occupied her eyes: Kirumi didn’t know what to do with this feeling inside her chest.

“What I enjoy seeing…” Kaede’s voice lowered to a near whisper, her other hand moving to the small of Kirumi’s back and pulling her forward so their bodies were pressed against each other, “is your happiness.”

Kirumi didn’t move a muscle, only the increasing heat in her cheeks giving away that she had heard Kaede’s words. Her eyes trembled, faintly moving up and down in anticipation of what she knew would come. 

Kaede’s fingers gently ran to her scalp, curling them in her soft hair, and pulled Kirumi’s lips closer to hers.

Their needy breaths tickled each other’s skin. Kirumi knew what to do now; she slowly closed her eyes, giving herself completely over to the pianist, and just as they were about to kiss…

The party lights and music shut down with a loud clap, the bright stage lights forcing the room to daylight.

They pulled away from one another with a loud gasp of their own, thrown off by the blinding headlights.

Kokichi stood by the entrance. He appeared startled himself, but didn’t bother lingering on the feeling.

He walked further in, looking around, “So you guys are having a party, and without me…? That’s so mean, I think I’m gonna cry- Eww… It reeks of alcohol, hormones and sweat in here. You should open a window,” he innocently smiled.

Of course it would be right up Kokichi’s alley to ruin this moment.

Kaede stepped forward, crossing her arms while the rest of the group gathered behind her. Any sign of drunkenness vanished like snow for the sun.

He threw his hands behind his neck, unaware of - or perhaps unwilling to acknowledge - the complete mood switch. “Real talk, I am a bit offended you didn’t invite me… I’m great at parties! People ask me all the time, ‘Kokichi, do you do weddings?’, nee-heehee.”

She hadn’t seen his face since the trial. A trial in which he confessed to having set Rantaro up by using Maki’s death. He had always been a pain in the ass, but this went so much further. He was a puppet master, no better than a mastermind. He posed a danger to the entire group.

After all, if it weren’t for him, Maki would have still been with them. Rantaro would have still been with them.

“Hey, Miu, you had this amazing idea, right?” Kaede asked, bobbing her head back.

“Huhhh?” Her hands planted themselves on her hips. “I have great ideas all the time, you’ve gotta be more specific.”

“That one about locking Kokichi up. Imprisoning him.”

Kokichi’s smile fell.

“Ohhh, yeah… Yeah! But I don’t know where though.”

Kaede snapped her fingers, ordering Tenko to grab the Ultimate Supreme Leader. She lifted him a bit in the air so he had no way to escape.

“Hey, let me go!” he fussed, kicking his feet.

“No worries," Kaede then said. "I know just the place to put a liar like him.” 

Tenko swooped him into the casino with ease, sliding him across the shiny floor. He scrambled up, but quickly stopped the action as the entire flock of Ultimates hung over him like an immense mountain shadow. It was 1 vs 8, he had nowhere to go.

“You guys aren’t actually serious, right?” he said, a hint of fear in his tone despite trying to keep himself big. “We all just like jokes now, right?”

“Was Maki’s death a joke?” Ryoma immediately fired back.

“Maki’s… Wait, is that what this is all about?” He stood up, actively upset now. “I told you, it was an accident . I didn’t do anything!”

“Sure.”

He pranced, “Come on, you can’t lock me in here! There’s no food!”

“How are we going to keep him in?” Tenko asked. “Doing guard shifts doesn’t sound very attractive.”

“Miu could build something to keep the casino doors shut,” Tsumugi suggested. “And for now we can use some chairs to block the door. That keeps him in as well, right?”

“My list of shit to build is just getting longer… I should start charging you guys,” Miu complained.

“Perfect!” Angie chirped. “Now let’s get back to fun times!” She took Tenko in one hand, and a chair in the other, and guided everyone outside.

“Kaede?”

She stopped in her tracks to look back at Kokichi.

He swallowed, in disbelief of the mess he got himself into. His half-baked smile showed concern. “We can talk about this, right? All be friends, just like you said.”

He tried to hit her with the sentiment she held at the beginning of this story. This idea they could all leave together and remain friends. But that could never be achieved again.

She left without a word.

“You’re just drunk…!” he yelled after her. “I know you’ll come crawling back to me tomorrow being all sorry! You’re gonna beg for my forgiveness!”

The door shut with a heavy clunk.

Chapter Text

Kaede’s eyes slowly opened, the world in a blur and struggling to clear itself, only this time for a different reason than before.

She smacked her lips a bit. It’s like the desert had moved into her mouth.

A loud groan left her sore throat. No nightmares. That was a great pro against the pounding headache that slowly made its entrance.

The kitchen was a mess. Miu laid atop the kitchen island, hugging a half empty bowl of ramen with one arm while her other arm and opposite leg hung over the edge. Ryoma and Shuichi had found themselves in a similar situation, be it on the floor instead. 

They were leaning against each other with empty bowls in their laps and chopsticks having disappeared to who knows where. Ryoma’s hat had slid half off, the short ginger hairs underneath exposing themselves. Shuichi’s cap hung over to the front, completely protecting his face from the daylight that tried to awaken them.

Tsumugi was the only one with a somewhat comfortable position, having taken satisfaction with a bar seat by the kitchen island and resting her head in her arms.

Only Angie and Tenko seemed to have made it to the dormitory.

“4 in the morning ramen… What a classic…”

Kaede raised herself from Kirumi’s lap, the other’s hand sliding off her head. She looked back at the maid.

Kirumi had found herself on the floor in the corner, half her body hanging against the kitchen cabinets with a puffed up cheek. She lost her diadem somewhere along the way, her hair having lost its shape and structure. Instead of a bowl of ramen in her lap, her spread out dress held Kaede’s pressed in silhouette.

Kaede didn’t remember how any of them ended up the way they did, but by the looks of it for good reasons only. How could they not, considering the small glimpses she did remember. The game, the dancing. Kirumi’s body against hers.

Her skin heated up. Would Kirumi remember what happened?

She carefully reached out to the maid, touching her shoulder and cradling it. “Kirumi…?”

A low grunt answered.

“Kirumiii…”

Her eyes fluttered open, a mist brewing inside of them. She raised up a bit, her cheek finally finding release from however long it had been unnaturally pushed up.

“Are you okay…?”

She seemed fine at first, until her body recalled how much alcohol it had consumed and twisted her muscles in pain, forcing her to lean against the cabinet again.

Kaede laughed a bit. “You’re having a rough one it seems…”

Her face scrunched. "Not so loud…”

She wasn’t loud at all. That confirmed everything Kaede had to know. She moved her hand to Kirumi’s hair in comfort, caressing. “Sorry,” she replied, now whispering. “I think you had a little bit too much.”

Miu raised up from her own uncomfortable sleeping position, groaning as she arched her back. “Goddamn…” Her eyes lingered across her fellow students that littered the kitchen floor. “So… How are we all feeling?”

Kirumi covered her eyes. “I’m getting vertigo…”

“I’m a Virgo…” Shuichi suddenly hazily said, having woken up from his slumber but clearly still being far too drowsy.

“No, you’re a virgin.” Miu tried to get on her feet, wobbling. Her body was a lot more capable in coping with the poison she had poured down her throat, but not to perfection either. “Hey, Kirumi, I'm hungry…!”

“Please be quiet…” she muttered back.

“Oh… Oh-hohohohohoho… You’re hungover! Ha! The fancy maid is fucking hungover!” 

Admittedly, Kirumi really did look terrible. She had raised her legs by now, hiding her face in her knees. Her hands moved to her mouth to cover.

Kaede crawled to her side, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “You can make fun of it later, Miu. This is her first time.”

“And probably the last,” she gniffled, slumping her way to the fridge. “Luckily you guys have me… Let me make Iruma’s Hangover Mixer Elixer! The best solution to a night filled with bad decisions!”

“You don’t have to say both mixer and elixir,” Kirumi hissed. “It’s the same thing…”

“Still a pedantic bitch, huh?” She took a cabbage and several cans of energy drink out, closed the door and dug into the chips compartment, “Then it can never be that bad.”

And then maybe, Kirumi did remember. 

Kaede got closer to her ear so she could lower her voice as low as possible without Kirumi being unable able to hear her. She didn't want to increase the intense headache Kirumi must be feeling. “Do you remember how much you drank?”

She raised her head a bit, shaking it, but quickly regretting the movement. She looked dizzy. 

“What about… anything else? Do you… - do you remember how close your lips were to mine - … Do you remember anything you did?”

She decided not to move her head this time around, keeping it still and looking back in Kaede’s growing curious eyes. “... No… I don’t remember anything… Ah… But, one thing is coming back to me, I think…”

“Yes…?"

“I really… need to throw up.” She instantly jumped to her feet and ran away.

“K-Kirumi…!” Shuichi pulled the edge of his cap up, although now it stood too far back, messily spreading his loose locks. He tried to get up and go after her, but fell forward instead and woke Ryoma in the process by making him fall on the floor behind him.

Miu shook her head in amusement, opening a bag of fried onion rings, “This is the best day of my life…”

“I’ve got it…!” Kaede raised to her own wobbly feet, going after her friend with the maximum speed she was able to take. The sound of the girls’ bathroom door near the stairs slamming shut guided her where to go.

Kirumi had slid to her knees, curling over the toilet to get everything out, yet resisting to do so. She didn’t want to give in to the sickness she felt. And she especially didn’t want to have such a disgraceful position be seen by somebody else.

“Go away, Kaede…!” She half wove her hand back, unable to look at the girl standing in the stall opening just in case she wouldn’t be able to hold it back.

“It’s okay.” She quickly got to her knees beside her, taking Kirumi’s hair - especially the longer locks at the front - and holding it back in a knot. “Let it out. It’ll make you feel better.”

After a rather long session of aiding Kirumi in emptying her entire stomach, as well as having to convince her cleaning the toilet straight after was not in her best interest, Kaede guided her to her chamber, having an arm wrapped around her in support.

“I don’t want this…”

“It’s not a matter of wanting, but needing.”

Kaede pulled back the incredibly straight sheets of her bed. Kirumi’s room was the exact same as Kaede’s with the same red colors and the same useless furniture. Only Kaede would swear everything stood just a little bit more perfect. Less lived in, if you will, like the rooms they have set up in depots. Even the sheets looked unused. Kirumi was a neat freak through and through.

She pulled the woman onto the bed and lowered herself, taking off her heels.

“I don’t need any rest… I am perfe-... perfectly fine…” She might be saying that, but her body wasn’t even able to resist itself against Kaede. She was exhausted.

“You realize you’re about as stubborn as I am, right?” Kaede stood up and left for the bathroom, returning with a bowl. “I’ll put this next to your bed, so if you have a sudden need to puke again you can do it in there.”

Kirumi squinted her eyes. “Stubborn…?”

“When I went knock-out you were upset when I pushed things too far, and you were also upset when I straight up didn’t listen and got out of my room. Now you’re the one who’s unwell and pushing things.” She put her hands on the other’s shoulders and guided her to lay down. “Little role reversal, hmm?”

Her lips pursed in disapproval. She knew her friend to be right. “Defeated by my own recommendations…”

“And even if you weren’t, I’d just pull out the request cheat code.” She pulled the sheets up, tucking her in.

“Requests… I’m a maid, I can’t go to bed… The toilet must be cleaned.”

“Kirumi, we flushed and sprayed some air freshener. It’s fine…”

“No, it is not…”

She let out a sigh. It wasn’t hard to predict how they could be going back and forth like this for a while. “... Alright, I’ll go back and clean it for you, okay? And I’ll do the kitchen as well.”

“Would you really…?”

Admittedly, Kaede didn’t want to. Or well, she’d gladly fix the mess in the kitchen she surely took part in, but the toilet seemed a little over the top. Especially to take care of immediately. It could wait. Kirumi’s obsession with having everything free of any germs truly was a bit too much at times.

But with how the tension in her body actually left, her face softening and fully resting in the pillow, when Kaede told her she’d take care of it… It was hard not to do it for that look alone.

“Yes, I would really,” she smiled at her. 

Kirumi smiled a bit in return, sleepily, and her eyes slowly shut.

Kaede stuck around for a little longer, softly rubbing Kirumi’s shoulder with her thumb and watching her chest rise and fall, until she was gone for sure. She knew Kirumi would dare to crawl out behind her back otherwise.

She then went to the bathroom as promised, digging through the cleaning supplies stored in their dedicated stall - and gosh there was a lot, she had to be careful not to ruin whatever set-up Kirumi had going on in here - until she found the toilet cleanser and got to work. In the grand scheme of things, it didn’t take all that long.

Once she returned to the canteen the rest of the gang had woken up enough to have moved to the big dining table. Tsumugi, Shuichi and Ryoma politely sat next to each other in a row, while Miu stood on the opposing side of the table with 3 green-filled bubbling glasses standing in the middle. It kind of looked as though the three caused trouble at school and were now to be lectured by Miu. The sight was incredibly unnatural.

“So this is what took you so long? That’s just radioactive waste,” Ryoma judged.

Tsumugi stared at the liquid in worry, the sight alone making her want to vomit. “Yeah… What did you put in it to make it look like that…?”

Miu perked on her feet, “I’m glad you asked!”

Shuichi groaned, “No, that’s not what-”

“80 years ago the then president, who was a well known drunk, commissioned a top secret scientific project to develop an elixir that would cure the common hangover. And what brilliant scientific golden brain took up this historic task?”

Shuichi ran his hands across his face, interrupting her, “Okay, our heads really hurt-”

“Ha! Your head hurts! Sounds like you need more practice…”

“And you’re clearly just boosting your own ego so… It was probably some kind of non-existing genius grandmother of yours like… Maiko Iruma…?”

“Heh, so the detective does know his stuff.” She put her hands on her hips, cocking her head in the air like a proud peacock. “She took on a task that would heal the entire nation! She did hit a few blocks in the road, though. The first batch exploded. Which sounded a little bit like this-” she threw her hands on the table- “BOOM!”

All 3 of them yelped and cringed, covering their ears.

She raised herself up, “Geez, let me finish… So then she made a second batch. But that one, sadly, also exploded-” only to throw her hands more forward and scream closer to their ears- “BOOOMMM!”

Again earning moans of pain.

“Your cockiness of being the only one without a hangover is sickening,” Ryoma grumbled.

She crossed her arms, ticking her left upper arm in frustration, “Do you want to hear the story of how my family created this recipe or not?”

Tsumugi caressed her head, her elbows on the table for support, “Absolutely not. Please, leave-”

“BOOOOOMMMM!” she shouted again with glee, now even louder as though she herself exploded.

“Y-you didn’t even say anything about the next batch…!” Shuichi stressed, his body squashing in pain.

“Yeah, I just wanted to mess with you that time.”

“Just give us the drinks already…” He reached for a glass, brought it to his mouth with an already raised lip in preparation of whatever kind of frankenstein taste would contaminate his mouth, but then a miracle occurred. “... I feel better.”

Ryoma and Tsumugi’s brows lifted, quickly reaching for the drink and taking a sip of their own. And low and behold, they hummed in agreement.

“See, you people need to put some more trust in me! The Iruma genius brain once again saves humanity, hahahaha!” She noticed Kaede now, who had simply been watching the scene unfold, and paraded back to the kitchen, “I’ll get you one too, Bakamatsu!”

Kaede slowly joined to the left, by Shuichi’s side. The smell coming off the drink was hideous. “Does it really work…? It looks… fermented or something…”

“Surprisingly,” he took another quick sip, “it actually does. … Where’s Kirumi?”

“In bed. I think she needs a little more than a hangover elixir to recover.”

Miu returned with another glass and put it down in front of Kaede. “There, served just for you! You better be grateful for taking maid shit upon me. Where is she at anyway?”

“I was just telling Shuichi that I put her in bed.”

“Pffft…" She scraped her bottom lip with her nail, "I seriously need to know what kind of shit happened last night that it got to this. Any of you idiots remember?”

Kaede shook her head a bit. “I only remember a few things from the start of the night…”

“Whatever it was, I must have broken the oath to myself and poured some more drinks in,” Ryoma sighed.

“And I’m afraid I followed Ryoma in that…” Shuichi admitted with a quiet voice.

“I remember…” Tsumugi said, staring into the distance and clamping her hands to her glass. “I’ve seen things I wish I didn’t…”

“That’s a little dramatic, don’t you think…?” Kaede responded, awkwardly smiling as she dared to take a sip. It tasted a lot better than it looked.

“I told you people to put shit on camera…!” Miu tapped her pointer into the table. “Maybe we summoned a demon or whatever! And now all the good memories are just gone, shablang, vanished with the air!”

Shuichi looked at her in difficulty. “You’d consider summoning a demon to be a… good memory…?”

“Hey, sometimes you’ve got to do things for the sake of the plot.”

“Actually…” Tsumugi shook herself out of whatever memory that was on her mind and turned to look at everyone. “We do have one little demon situation… What are we going to do with Kokichi?”

They all stared at her. Whatever did Kokichi have to do with any of this? He hadn’t even been invited.

“Don’t you guys remember…?” she sweated. “He came in and we locked him up in the casino. There’s no food there. I know he’s a criminal but we can’t just let him starve, right…?”

The computer error sounds could almost be heard playing in real time.

“... Oh, yeah, shit, we did lock him up!” Miu snapped her fingers, flopping herself on the table to sit. “I had completely forgotten about that. You guys probably requested my help to make some kind of lock, didn’t ya?”

“Well, I’m glad you remember, Tsumugi,” Shuichi sighed, leaning back. “We indeed can’t let him starve… That would just mean another body.”

“Imagine if we’d have to go on trial for that…” Ryoma took another sip from his drink. “Should probably create a shift schedule to bring him stuff, right? Anybody who wants to be the first sacrifice?”

Of course, nobody felt like being a volunteer.

“What about we make the two nut cases take the first round?” Miu suggested, ticking her nails on the wooden surface. “They aren’t here so they can’t resist either!”

Kaede twirled her glass around a bit, mixing the drink. Who knows where Angie and Tenko were, they couldn’t exactly count on them. They might be just as sick as Kirumi. The latter probably would have offered to do it, but without her presence… 

“I’ll do it,” Kaede informed. “I’ll whip something up for him later and take it to him.”

Ryoma smiled a bit. “Leave it to Kaede to take the lead on this.”

“Are you sure about that, Kaede…?” Shuichi carefully questioned, wiping away a bit of green foam from his lips. “Out of everyone you probably have the most beef with him.”

Indeed. At the beginning that would have scared her, but now it was exactly why she wanted to do it.

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s all freshen up first, okay? I can almost see the squiggly cartoon lines come right off us.”

Kaede’s eyes stalked the casino’s entrance area, holding onto the sandwich package she had made and awaiting the moment Kokichi’s voice would pollute the air and get under her skin. The seats were empty, the prize corner untouched. He wasn’t here.

Considering how the chair had still boarded the door, it was impossible for him to have escaped. More likely he had moved to the lower area of the structure - where the actual casino slots resided.

She walked to the stairs leading down and stared at the red with gold descending carpet. After the stunt Kokichi pulled she had to be careful with every move. It felt like a trap, forcing her to come downstairs where he could jump her at any moment. She took a deep breath and prepared herself for the worst. He would regret challenging a student of Tenko’s.

The basement was filled with the classic casino games you’d expect, the kinds that emit loud noise and bright lights to get your attention. She’d seen them often enough in shows and movies. But, the place wasn’t all stereotypical. 

There were plenty of regular games present as well, which you’d more so expect at the arcade. A big race car and a fishing game presented themselves to the right, the car especially standing out with its bright yellow paint job contrasting the blue neons from the lights above.

The door stood open, but without anyone inside. Kaede didn’t assume this to be the resting position of the game, instead interpreting that Kokichi had used it as a sleeping spot. That must mean he was near.

She walked in further, towards the arcade games, and quickly found Kokichi tinkering in the upper area around the corner.

He stood in front of a machine, continuously pressing the large buttons and drawing his brow together in concentration as his other hand moved the stick. The panels were painted with a cute white ghost, floating across, while the ground level showed a cartoon house. Considering the ghost took center stage while tiny people in the house screamed, the game must be all about scaring people. 

It wasn’t about surviving a haunted house, but rather about creating one.

Not that it’s something she could ever confirm as a large CLOSED sign hung on the top. Why was he even attempting to make it work?

She cleared her throat, prompting him to let out a loud hum and look at her.

“Well, well, well!” He twirled on his feet and drew a wide smile on his face. “Look who has returned to beg for my forgiveness!”

“You’d wish,” she deadpanned, raising the package a bit, “I brought you food, that’s all,” and threw it his way.

He swiftly caught it and raised it to his nose, failing to hide the hunger he held. He frowned a bit. “Mom didn’t make this.”

“Don’t call her that.”

“How drunk did you even get her?” He lifted himself on the seat next to the machine and unpacked his present. “Or everyone, I guess.”

His tone bothered her. This strange intonation on the word ‘get’, as if she made the group do something they didn’t want to do - as if she made Kirumi do something she didn’t want to do. Yes, she ended up drinking too much, but who hasn’t even once in their life?

“We were all just having a good time. Until you came around.”

He whistled at that. Or perhaps he whistled at the food, it’s not as though she could tell the difference. “Ohhh, little ol’ bad me…” He took a bite and leaned back a bit, at least as far as was possible.

“Here’s the deal.” Kaede crossed her arms, putting her weight on one foot. “You’re going to stay in this casino until we’ve found a way out of here-”

“A way out of here?” he munched, spinning his chair a bit from left to right. “Thought we gave up on that since the idiot detective can’t even find one hint.”

“And when we do find a way out of here, we’ll hand you over to the police along with whoever has done all this to us in the first place… We’ll bring you food and-”

“Hey, you can’t just skip over-”

“Can you not interrupt me?”

“Uh, no!” He shot up from his seat and put the sandwich away. He tilted his head at her, in a way that challenged her. “What do you mean, ‘we’ll hand you over to the police’?”

“You killed someone. If Monokuma won’t punish you, they will.”

He stared at her for a bit. “... Ha… Hahaha… Hahahahahha!”

He laughed her right in the face, but it wasn’t the strange childish laughter he’d let out that nobody could take seriously. No, this was something far more real. He wasn’t having fun. It felt sinister. She didn’t understand why, and it made her shiver.

“Wh-what are you laughing about?”

“Kaede Akamatsu…” His bouldering faded away, an aftermath of a smile being left. “You are a bad person.”

He stabbed her right in the heart.

“And I don’t mean it in a cool bad girl vibe kind of way… You’re genuinely down to your bones, a shitty person.”

She couldn’t respond to that. Her mouth was clamped shut. It took every ounce in her body to get through the cement growing in her chest. “How… how am I the shitty person…? You killed Maki…!”

His joy fell and was suddenly exchanged with a reddened anger, “How many more times do I need to repeat it to you, I didn’t kill her at all! She fell, I was around! Why is that so fucking hard to believe?!”

What was this, a competition for the stupidest questions one could ever ask? He was a liar, a pest, an infestation. There was no reason to believe anything he had to say. It made her let out a loud grunt.

He squinted his eyes. “Ah, you’re right… I already know the answer… It’s because you simply don’t like me.”

“How could I?!” she lashed. “You’re detestable!”

His mood switched once again, the anger melting like snow for the sun. Only now it changed to one without emotion. “You give everybody a chance but me.”

“Eh…?”

“Miu’s a walking crackwhore and you’re still willing to approach her time and time again. Kaito freaking covers up the crime of Gonta without any damn shame and you just believed him. Maki turns out to be a serial killer and you go ahead and invite her back in.”

“That’s not-”

He pinched his fingers, looking at them, “The difference is that you like these people, one way or another. You’re willing to look past their flaws and even their crimes because you have this picture in your head that you need to uphold.” His eyes locked with hers, “You don’t want to put that effort in me.”

His attempt to intimidate Kaede wouldn’t do anything. His words meant nothing to her. “So what if I do that? I know there’s good in Miu, and there was good in Maki as well.”

“And what about Kaito? What’s your excuse there?”

He was a good person too. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t known him for that long or that well. She felt an alikeness to him. She knew he meant the best in every way. She knew he meant the best when he confronted Ryoma on his behavior and when he wanted to throw a party. “He could never be capable of actually hurting someone, he just panicked.”

“Of course not,” he shrugged, “because if you do acknowledge that possibility, you will also have to acknowledge you are capable of the same.”

“................”

“Let’s play a game.” He twirled his tablet out of his pocket, spinning it in his hand as a means to further show-off the gold he carried around. “It’s called: Guess whose worst crime video I got!”

The tablet softly swung back and forth, teasing her like a dog treat. “You… You have no proof you got me!” she retaliated. “All I did was steal some things as a teen! If it really had been so bad you would’ve told everyone already! You’re just lying again…”

He turned it on and looked at the screen, swiping with his finger. The videos weren’t available anymore, so who knows what he was looking at. “I didn’t tell anyone about what I saw because I didn’t believe you would be capable of such a thing. I thought Monokuma was just bullshitting, trying to set us all up. So I continued to see good in you, until the latest trial.”

Kaede pinched the bridge of her nose, irritated, “Stealing has nothing to do with what happened there… I’m not going to play your games, Kokichi, I’m leaving.” She quickly turned around and walked away.

“Your friends died because of you.’

And immediately froze.

“They died because everybody always has to go by your narrative.”

“That’s… That’s not true, that’s-” She stormed back to him, “What even makes you think that?! You’re the one spinning stories!”

He continued to stand tall, showing how, despite her conviction, she was the one who stood at the bottom of the few stairs to his platform, afraid to close the distance. “You pushed everyone over the line at the beginning in an attempt to escape. We went all day.”

“Oh come on, Kokichi!” she swung her arms to the side, scoffing. “You wanted to escape just as much as I did! Everyone did!”

He pointed the tablet at her, emphasizing his point, “Then what about how you couldn’t deal with Himiko’s separation from the group - even though she barely knew us so who really cares what she does. This decision bothered you so much that you searched her around the academy and then confronted her, convincing her to instead of trusting her gut, trust you . And that trust is what made her allow Keebo to get close.”

She could feel it. Himiko’s ghost manifesting itself next to her, holding onto her arm and whispering those words that repeated themselves in nightmares. “... That’s not…”

“Then Maki also removed herself from the group when her true identity was revealed. And once again this breaks your little fairytale of everyone sticking together, so you decide to push her as well. You push her despite her wishes. She begins to care for the group, worries for our wellbeing. She could easily survive on her own, so the only real reason she had to find the food stashes was to take care of you. It led to her death.”

Maki did ask her to leave her alone. With a polite ‘please’ even. But that answer did not satisfy Kaede.“... You can’t fault me for their deaths, I’m not the one who murdered them!”

“Then in the trial you knew we were supposed to vote for Rantaro. Everyone knew it, and yet you spun an entire story to convince everyone to vote for me, because gosh darn you never liked me anyway. You nearly got everyone killed just because you couldn't accept Rantaro being the culprit!”

Everything burned at the time. She didn't even remember all the things she had spouted, she couldn't control her mouth or her mind. Now she knew to be wrong - to have done something cruel - but it was too late to take any of it back. The damage had been done.

“Your thoughtless leadership is a danger to all of us…! Even if you’re not directly killing anyone, your actions lead us there one by one!” He crossed his arms and his face darkened, looking down at her very existence. “So who will be next, Kaede?”

All the bodies dragged on her limbs, pulling her down to depths of despair that resided deep in the back of her mind. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t think. She didn’t want to.

She fled the grounds, every step feeling like she got sucked into the earth. She had to get rid of every thought, of every memory, of everything that ruined her life.

The doors to the Shrine of Judgement swung open, Kaede’s body doing the same as she stumbled inside. She tried to throw everything off of her, kick anything in her proximity away.

Her throat stung and burned, the only thing that could distract her from all the hands pressed on her soul. It was warm like liquor.

She cried. Loudly and ugly. Through the thick tears she could see the statue of Monokuma blocking the sun, the yellow glow around his round face and strong body attesting he was the God here. 

Your life was his.

Growls and grunts exchanged the tears, turning into a loud scream. She screamed at divinity for putting her through all this, “I hate you! I fucking hate you!”

With fumbling hands she took off her shoe, hopping on one foot, and threw it at the statue with all the might she had.

The rock did not batter. All that it left her with was a soaked shoe.

“...... No, wait!” She scrambled to the edge of the water, dropping herself to the floor and watching the item sink to the bottom. “For fuck’s…” She let out a heavy breath, digging her fingers in the concrete and lowering her forehead between.

It was cold. The water coddled.

A few drops of water fell onto Kaede’s hair, sending shivers down her spine. She looked up a bit, her breath lightly hitching as she watched her shoe magically float its way over her head.

Kirumi pulled the item towards her with the long garden scraper, grabbing it and shaking it upside down to get any remaining water out. “This will take a while to dry, I’m afraid.”

Kaede straightened her back, taking a deep breath, without getting off the ground. “You’re supposed to be resting.”

“I did. And now I’m better again.” She put the shoe on the edge of the fountain to dry and walked to the supply corner, returning the scraper to hang with the other garden tools.

It hadn’t even been a day. Truly, nothing could ever stop Kirumi from just getting a move on. Kaede smiled a bit as she returned to her. “And the first job you’ve got is fishing my shoe out of the fountain...”

“Would you believe me when I say it is not the first time?” She stopped in front of her, folding her hands and tilting her head in concern. “When I left for the canteen to make food I was told you would bring Kokichi a package.”

“And that translated to you knowing I’d bring footwear in trouble?”

“With the combination of what happened with Maki and Rantaro, us locking Kokichi up and his general personality... It is not hard to predict what trouble it could cause.” She decided to sit down with Kaede, instead on the edge of the fountain. She straightened her dress and then looked down at her friend. “Will you be okay?”

From this angle, looking right up to her, Kirumi also had a ring of light around her face. Only unlike the statue, it calmed Kaede.

It was similar to a summer day at the beach. The sun is setting, its orange colors painting the sky and the ocean water. The sand is still warm from the harsh sunlight that baked the earth during the day - but not too warm. The rough texture rubs every nerve-ending. You take a deep salty breath as the waves slowly roll in and change the ground into something soft and cold

Everything in the world feels right for a little while.

“I will as long as you’re here.”

Kirumi’s brow drew together in light confusion. It wasn’t the response she expected. It did make her giggle a bit, though. “You've said that before… But flattery won’t take away my concern over you.”

Kaede raised her legs and hugged them. “It was just… Kokichi stuff, you know? I shouldn't believe any of it. Like when he made a whole ordeal about you when there was no food.”

“Hm…” Kirumi remembered that moment. She could never forget how terrible it made her feel. How it activated an awful memory. But also how Kaede came straight after her. 

The air went quiet, neither saying a thing.

Kaede looked around a bit. She had noticed before how much rosary decorated the shrine. They embroidered the walls, a few red roses wrapping themselves around columns. She would almost be inclined to call it a rose garden instead, especially with the many patches of white and pink roses in the back. It was such a lovely sight.

“… You know… These roses are secretly very cruel…”

Kirumi looked at her. “How do you mean?”

“Do you know of flower language?”

“Well…” She looked a bit to the side. “Everyone knows red roses are for love.”

“Mm, that’s one thing. But yeah, each flower has its own meaning, and it can change depending on the color. The white rose represents purity and innocence, and the pink rose grace and appreciation.”

“That sounds lovely.”

She shook her head a bit. “When you combine the colors, they create a new meaning… White and pink roses together convey a message of joyful love, harmony and appreciation for someone special.” She looked up to Kirumi. “This place pretends to be a delight, when in truth, all it has done is open itself whenever a life has been and will be taken away. Don’t you think that is cruel?”

Kirumi parted her lips a bit, unsure how to respond. “... I thought you only knew about the piano. Where does this knowledge come from?”

She leaned her face further into her knees, staring at the ground as she dug the gravel out of the paving with a finger. “I have this very vague memory of working at a flower shop… It’s only slowly been coming back to me, but I think it was my first job. Before I made a career playing the piano.”

“... I see…”

“... Oh, before I forget.” Kaede grabbed her bag and dug inside it to reveal Kirumi’s missing diadem, “I found this while cleaning the kitchen.”

“Thank you.” Kirumi took it and neatly put it back in her hair. “Where was it?”

“The dishwasher, of all places.”

“... I don’t even want to know how that happened.”

Kaede let out a bit of laughter, sitting up again, but quickly returned to a frown. Kirumi held complete amnesia over the night’s events and ended up incredibly sick in bed. Sure, some people are total lightweights, but one must drink such a large amount to get to this stage. And that kind of behavior was out of character for her. She’d never initiate it herself.

“Hey, erm… Did I… push you…?”

Kirumi was looking into the water by now, using her reflection as a mirror to assure her hair was in perfect condition. “Push me in regards to what?”

“Drinking.”

“Oh.” She looked at her again. “Well… I don’t exactly remember. But, I’m sure you didn’t. Why are you asking?”

“I guess I just…” She clicked her heels together. “... You should know, I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

Kirumi watched her nervous movement. Somehow, despite the specifics missing, she knew exactly what Kaede was referring to. “... Then let it be a promise.” She softly brushed Kaede’s front hair locks, pushing them behind her ear, “You take care of me, and I will take care of you in return.”

Her breath shuddered at the touch, slowly leaning in and resting her head against Kirumi’s thigh. She couldn’t help but notice how the aroma of violets had vanished. “Maids take care of other people all the time, don’t they…?”

“Yes, but... you are a special case,” she whispered, threading her slender fingers through the bright blonde strands.

Kaede rubbed her forehead into the black fabric of Kirumi’s dress, pocketing the words and treasuring every second of affectionate touch.

She stroked her hair one final time - slowly and reluctant in ending the motion. Kaede couldn’t help but feel a certain emptiness inside when Kirumi stood up and left for the exit.

The feeling reached Kirumi. She turned to look back for a moment, a loving smile growing on her face in response to the other’s disappointment. “Come to the canteen in a bit. Chocolate chip cookies will make you forget all about what Kokichi said.”

The image burned itself in Kaede’s mind: Kirumi standing in a picture frame of columns adorned with red roses, carrying a smile that burst Kaede's chest with petals. 

And suddenly she heard it.

The song she's been wanting to compose so desperately.

Chapter Text

Grafite sketched into the paper, filling a music note. The piano made a few short sounds afterwards, repeating the tune. Faster, slower. It had to be slower.

Kaede sat in her lab, hunched over the keys and painting her passions down with most of it ending up discarded. Not for the same reason as before, but because she needed it to be perfect. Just like the one it was meant for.

A few days of rewriting had passed, occupying her lab most of the day and even throughout the night. She couldn’t pull herself away from it, not until all would be finished.

It did lead to one incredible problem; Kirumi. Since Kaede was hard at work and the other wanted to make sure she would still eat - God knows she could easily get caught up and forget about even such important things - the idea of room service had been thrown on the table. Tea, biscuits, a knock at the door that dinner was ready. It was incredibly thoughtful for Kirumi to do so, but for this once Kaede didn’t appreciate her care.

The risk was too great. She could hear a segment and be spoiled by the entire surprise. So Kaede blocked her efforts with pain in her heart. Kirumi asked her why in a tone that surpassed her professional word choice and revealed the hurt it caused. Sadly Kaede couldn’t fix the feeling for now, but it would all be worth it in the end.

A soft knock echoed through the room and Shuichi entered, carrying a platter with a cup of tea. “Room service,” he said.

You could block Kirumi physically, but you can’t block her need to make sure all would be okay. She offered the possibility of having someone else bring it instead, like Shuichi. Kaede supposed she had to meet her friend somewhere, and so she accepted.

“Ah, Shuichi!” she shortly looked up to him with a slightly tired smile. “You can put it down. Thanks a bunch.”

He walked up to her, eying the earlier dinner he brought in and stood untouched on the stage. With a soft sigh he put the next batch down. “You didn’t finish your food again…”

“Hmm?” Kaede had already hypnotized herself back to work again, biting the tip of her pencil.

“You really need to eat,” he stepped to her side. When she still didn’t answer, he ripped the paper from her hands.

“Hey!”

“I’m serious, Kaede. You’re worrying me…”

She opened a flat hand to him, demanding to return the paper. “I’m doing just fine. Please give it back, I’m really in the flow.”

“That’s what you’re always saying…” he looked at the paper, scanning the few lines with a frown. 

“But I really am in the flow!”

“That’s not what I meant.” He gave it back to her. “Listen, I just want to make sure you’re not hurting yourself… It’s not just me who’s worried. Kirumi is too. When you finish breakfast you go up here and don’t come down the whole day, not for meals, anyway.”

She took it, waving her hand across the edge to straighten the soft curls. “I don’t exactly get the opportunity. You show up with food before I can get to it.”

“Because you’re always late.” He took the empty papers that lay next to Kaede on the seat and put them aside, replacing them with himself.

She let out a scoff. “I’m only by a little bit! What, 15 minutes, 30 minutes? That’s not so bad, right?”

“It is to Kirumi.” He put a finger on a black key, running it down to the white. “You know how she is.”

Of course she did and yet here she sat putting her twist on it. “I do… Everything has to be spot-on, hmm?”

He nodded a little. “You should see the hallways and dormitory… It’s a battlefield out there.”

She drew her brow together and looked at him. How much had she even missed?

Her confusion was met with a simple nervous smile, “Kirumi has gone on a full cleaning attack. Vacuuming, scrubbing the floor, dusting every corner. I'd swear I have even seen her spraying water on every little plant. She’s really making up for all that lost time.”

Considering how set she had been on cleaning the toilet despite being sick, Kaede should've known this would happen. She shook her head. “She’s unbelievable. I have never, but then really never, met someone who actually enjoys cleaning to this degree and is so… so…”

“Obsessed?”

She put her hands up a bit, “Hey, your words, not mine.”

He softly tapped the white key, over and over again, the softest of noise echoing through. “It makes her happy…”

“Happy or not, she should take breaks.”

“Ah-ha!” He fully turned to her, eyes jumping from under his cap as he pointed a finger in her face. “Now I’ve got you!”

She squeaked, “H-huh?”

“Playing the piano brings you joy, you like doing it. I know. But that doesn’t mean you can’t take any breaks. You should, you have to even!”

She stared at the tip of his finger for a bit, her face twisting in difficulty. The circumstances didn’t warrant Shuichi to bring out such confidence - though in a way Kaede was proud to see the improvement from the shy nature when she first met him. It didn’t seem fair to compare Kirumi and Kaede’s talents. She wove the paper a bit in the air, turning away. “Oh come on, I take breaks…!”

“Kaede, it is nearly midnight.”

Her eyes looked at the tall windows. The only light out there came from the stars sprinkled in the night sky.

He watched her stare outside. Clearly, his current tactic wouldn't get him anywhere. He caressed his chin and thought. “... Okay, let me ask you this… Why are you so set on composing all the time? What makes it so you have to do it now instead of later?”

“I need to finish it as soon as possible,” she immediately responded. Her hands gripped the edge of the seat. “I don’t want to… risk anything…”

“... Oh…”

“... Will you leave now?” she asked. “I should continue.”

“... Don’t you want to stay on break a little longer?”

“Not really.”

“Not even if I tell you I have important progress on the whole getting out of here?"

“Wait,” her eyes widened and she perked up from place, shoving herself close to him. Maybe a bit too close even. “You have an update…?! Did you find a way out? Or- Or the mastermind?”

His body stiffened at the sudden interest. He bit his lip a bit, “Um, no…”

She moved back at that response, tilting her head a bit. “So… Then what?”

Any of the confidence that displayed itself mere minutes ago left the field. He looked away, hiding under his cap as always and wrung his hands. “I've been… feeling bad, about not being able to mean much, as a detective and all… I haven’t been able to get us a step forward. I don’t feel like I'm… of much use.”

Her heart ached at his self-deprecation, putting a hand on his shoulder in comfort, “Shuichi… Don’t say that. You're doing the best you can, I know you are.”

He shook his head. “It doesn’t take away how I feel… You're able to step up so much, so I… wanted to step up as well.” His eyes peered at her from underneath his disguise, “And to do that I might have told a little lie that I need you to cover.”

She raised a brow and sat up, curious for his story.

“I sniffed around Keebo's lab a bit. I don’t know much about technology, but even if he is gone, there must be something of use in there. Or at least, I'm sure there should be for, let’s say, an Ultimate Inventor. So I went down to Miu - nearly tripped over all the cables in her lab - and I asked if she could create something. She… proceeded to insult me, how she doesn’t take orders from ‘twinks’ and to get the hell out of her workspace before I'd infect it with my nerdiness. After she stomped my entire image to the floor, she ended it with a flat no.”

Kaede let out a soft scoff, “That sounds like Miu alright…”

“Yeah… But this is where the lie comes in.” His hand nervously plucked at the fabric of his sleeve. “I… casually dropped how I'd tell you - Kaede - the news then, since you were the one wondering about it. That I was just a messager's boy.”

“... And?”

“She grumbled a whole lot, cursing under her breath and went up to his lab.” He cast her a mischievous smile, “She didn’t say no.”

“Ahhh… Right.” She gave him a knowing smile in return, “So now if she brings it up, I need to act like I was indeed the one who came up with the idea. What a way to go about it.”

He shrugged a bit, nervously chuckling as he looked down to the ground again. “I just wanted to make sure everything would go the way it's supposed to go… And you're her weak spot. She likes you.”

She turned to look at the ground as well, “Likes me, huh?” 

It was a weird thing to say Miu liked Kaede. Their relationship went up and down like waves. She never knew how Miu would treat her if she approached - whether she’d insult her or turn into a sweaty mess at touch - but, admittedly, since their talk in Keebo’s lab, Kaede felt as though Miu acted less harsh towards her. Less than she used to, anyway.

“You haven’t noticed?”

“I have, but I didn’t think it would be powerful enough for you to get dirty lies through.”

He chuckled again. “Are you going to do anything with it?”

“With your lie? I guess I’ll let you off the hook this time and play along,” she smiled, lightly pushing her shoulder against his.

“Not that- Well, I mean, you have my gratitude, but I was referring to Miu.”

“Oh.” She put her music sheet on the stand. “No.”

“Why not? You’re both pink.”

“Wow, Shuichi,” she rolled her eyes sarcastically, laughing a bit, “you’re right, that’s totally why I should date her!”

“You’re so dramatic,” he said, leaning back. “I saw you guys having a lot of fun at the party… I guess I’m just trying to say that maybe you have more in common than you’d think.”

She held a vague memory of her time with Miu. Surely they had a lot of fun, they both enjoyed throwing a good party, but something else ticked in her mind. She couldn’t recall what it was exactly. Something Miu had said, something that had made her feel like there was some kind of mutual understanding between them.

No matter. The memory had probably gone down the drain, and likely for Miu as well. It might have as well never happened. “Alright, Cupido, why don’t you go ahead and shoot your arrows elsewhere?”

“Laugh at me all you want, but it looks like I succeeded pretty well.” 

She squinted her eyes at his proud smile. “... I fell for a forced break, didn’t I?”

“But you had fun, right? I hope you’ll consider that.”

The message had already been obvious enough, but… Yes, maybe she should take it slower. “Know what, let me clean up and I’ll go back to the dorms with you.” She grabbed the papers and stood up, gathering all her notes together.

He let out a sigh of relief. At last he got through. “I admittedly don’t even understand how you’re able to hold out playing that long… Won’t it hurt your muscles at some point?”

She laid the stack of unorganized papers down on a cabinet. “No worries, my fingers are very well practiced!”

“....” He snorted. “Don’t say that near Miu, with her dirty mind…”

She turned to him, pouting, “Hey, you’re the one bringing it up, so who has the dirty mind now, huh?!”

“W-wait, I didn’t-”

“Miu once told me she thinks you’re a pervert because of that hat. You’re not actually one, right? I totally defended you!”

He quickly shifted his feet, trying to ground himself among the panicky noise that left his lips, “N-no! Of course not, I-I would never dare to… That would be… E-erm… I-I…”

Kaede let out a wheeze, fading into a soft cackle. Her shoulders shook along with her head. “Come on, I’m just messing with you! Look at you, you’re not that kind of person at all!”

“... I don’t know if that should offend me in another way…”

“Also, I should correct you,” she critically wove her finger at him. “You and Kirumi might think I have locked myself in here, but I do go out to be active. I train with Tenko!”

He looked up to her in surprise. “Wait, really?”

She shrugged and leaned against the cabinet, “I need to blow off some steam, y’know, so it won’t distract me from the music.”

“And… how has that been going for you?”

BANG!

The wooden sparring doll fell to the floor, falling by a kick from the side by Kaede.

She swiftly put her foot back on the ground, remaining in balance and admittedly, a bit saddened by the fact her opponent already fell down.

The recent private training with Tenko proved to be effective. Back when they did it as a group, Kaede could barely keep her body upright after a simple tick, only to now stand strong as a building. She had by no means turned into an Aikido master, but her process was surprising. Something that made her teacher all the prouder.

“Alright!” Tenko smiled widely, hopping from the sidelines and raising the puppet back up. “Nice going, Kaede! I’m seriously impressed by how good you’ve gotten!”

“R-really?” She took a deep breath to recover from all the flailing and tightened the ponytail she had put in. Her technique might have improved, but her stamina remained an issue.

“Totally! But… you also worry me a bit.”

“Eh?”

Tenko turned towards her, ticking the tips of her pointer fingers together. Her eyes stared in a combination of worry and judgment. “I can tell when blows hold certain emotions. And yours are angry.”

Her eyes glanced at the puppet. This small annoying figure that just stood there. She clenched her fists a bit.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked. “It’s good to let your emotions out! I’m glad you’re venting your anger onto this, but the energy is still the same as the first time… Maybe you need to try another way.”

Aikido had indeed become an outlet for Kaede. Normally she’d turn to the piano for it - as she was used to - but she had to focus on composing a song that meant the exact opposite of anger and pain. She couldn’t use those feelings, so she had to go somewhere else with them.

Her throat had burned for a very specific solution, for something to choke on. But when Tenko at breakfast asked her if she’d be up for extra training - probably as a result of the circumstances with Korekiyo - a much healthier solution presented itself.

Still, it didn’t solve her issues. Every time they bubbled up again, they were as strong as the first time. She wasn’t entirely sure on how to solve it, but confessing all that haunted her certainly didn’t take a priority. A short and sweet version could never do any harm, however.

Kaede caressed her knuckles a bit. “Kokichi has just really been pressing my buttons. It’s a good thing we have a roulette going.”

And as hoped, she easily got away with that. Tenko’s entire body quivered, “Ugh, I hate that guy! Always opening his mouth unwanted… But I will say, since Miu installed that electric lock it’s become easier to deliver food. No potential oral jabs at poor chair placement and stuff, y’know? But, I totally get you!”

She nodded a bit. “I’m sure.” She could never actually understand Kaede, but whatever. Interrupting would just bring up more questions

Tenko put the puppet back in full position. “He frustrates me… I don’t know how he managed to take the likes of Maki down, but if he can do that, then…” Her foot raised in the air and hit the puppet with a swift but powerful back kick, slamming it to the floor. “... I need to keep an eye out to protect everyone,” she said, turning towards Kaede again.

To protect everyone. Kaede felt that responsibility as well. Not because she had the physical capabilities like Tenko did, but because she was the leader. They all looked up to her, she knew they did.

She gave Tenko a small teasing smile, “Protect Angie in particular probably, right?”

“E-eh…?!” Like a light switch her energy went from flat to a panicky spike. Her face flushed red and the sweat sprung from her skin as her facial muscles twisted in all kinds of ways.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Kaede walked to the sideline and grabbed her water bottle, “what’s the deal between you two exactly? Are you together?”

Although she couldn’t see the other’s face right now, Tenko’s nerves came painfully obvious through in her voice. “Do you… Do you think we should?”

“She’s cute. You two are cute.” Kaede walked back, taking a sip. “Can’t say I expected it right from the start, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work.”

A breath escaped the woman's lips. “Honestly, if you had told me at the start of this game that this would happen, I wouldn’t have believed it. She… kind of annoyed me.”

“Annoyed you?”

She crouched and raised the puppet again, dusting it off. “I guess we butted heads over Himiko. She was spouting all this Atua nonsense to her to not get worried and that everything would be fine etc.”

Admittedly, Kaede couldn’t remember much of the Atua talk, only that it had been mentioned at times. She didn't bother with religion - unable to find comfort in it like others -, but who was she to judge anyone who does?

“She still does honestly. I don’t understand one bit of it, but it seems to make her happy… Maybe a bit too happy. It’s freaky how cheerfully she passes through everything and knows everything will be alright, even when it so obviously isn’t.”

Kaede raised her brow. “I’m not hearing a lot of reasons as to why you like her.”

“She’s a strange menace, but…” she guiltily tapped her fingers together, “a cute one at that.”

She giggled a bit, smiling, and brought the water to her lips again. “Good cuteness factor cancels out weirdness. And a bit of strange behavior is endearing anyway.”

“Speaking of strange behavior,” Tenko leaned her arm on the wooden doll's shoulder, “how did you get the hots for Kirumi?”

And immediately choked on her drink. She coughed heavily, drawing a fist in front of her mouth, and looked up with teary eyes. “Wh-what…?”

“I mean, she’s super pretty! I totally get it in that sense!”

She swallowed heavily. “And… what makes you think I’m into her?”

She laughed a bit, “You were on my lab floor in a total panic when she had you pinned to the floor!”

“Okay, fair-”

“Plus, you’re always getting close to her.” Tenko leaned deep against the wooden doll, touching its shoulder. “Always trying to touch her,” then spun around it, “and becoming absolutely riled up and worried whenever the smallest proof that she might not be doing okay is presented. You chase her like a ghost.”

Kaede watched her movement, mentally replacing the doll with Kirumi's pleading emerald eyes. 

She never realized how ‘subtle’ her body acted before her mind had caught up.

“Geez…” Embarrassed, she scratched the back of her head. “Is it that obvious?”

She jumped from behind the puppet, “I’m just surprised you haven’t done anything about it! You’re Kaede! Taking things head-on is your thing, right? So,” she crossed her arms, “what’s the matter?”

Her hands wrung on the bottle’s label, watching as they created folds that would never vanish. She let out a deep sigh, “I suppose I am a bit… Well… Afraid. I don’t know if she’s-… If she likes…” she pinched the paper, “y’know…”

Acknowledging one had feelings for someone would always be a heavy loaded task. But to acknowledge such feelings existed in a way that went against the norm was absolutely terrifying. It felt sinful, somehow, even if Kaede had long known and accepted herself. Maybe it came from the idea that there was no way of knowing how Kirumi stood on the matter. If maybe, she saw it differently.

Tenko nodded softly, empathy in her eyes. “Well… I think you just need to do it and see where the wind blows. However it goes, Kirumi is a polite and sweet person. She’d never hate you for something you can’t even control.”

It was a fair point. Shaming someone did not reside in Kirumi's nature, but that didn’t sush Kaede's fears. The fear of being turned down - in whatever sense that could be - and nothing ever being the same again is what kept her heart in a tight hold.

Her trainer noticed how words of encouragement would not help in this moment, so she decided to skip to the next step. “So, do you have any plans on how to confess to her? You seem like the kind of person who wants to make things romantic.”

The question made Kaede perk up, putting her arms behind her back and rocking back and forth on her heels as she blushed. Talking about the piano was the best way to cheer Kaede up, after all.

“That’s true for sure… I’ve been meaning to compose my own piano piece for a while now. But I just couldn’t manage to put anything on the table. Nothing sounded right. I was stuck like that for a while, but then the day after the party Kirumi and I shared a moment. And suddenly… I had an epiphany.” She laughed a bit, nervously but giddy all the same. “Kirumi is my muse… So when it’s finished, I’ll play it for her and make her see just how strongly I feel about her.”

Tenko stared at her with big teary eyes, her entire body shaking and melting over a proclamation which wasn't even meant for her. “Uwaahhh… You artistic sapphics are too much for me to handle… That would totally steal Kirumi’s heart! Angie did a similar grand artistic gesture for me, y’know, and boom! I almost literally fell for her!”

The image wove in Kaede’s mind, one that made her heart nearly jump out of her chest. As she whirls the notes, played with the greatest passion and love, Kirumi sits across from her, the only audience member to make sure there would be no shadow of a doubt that the song is meant for her. The maid's shock is so great that the politeness of remaining quiet after the play is actually created by a heaving heart, like time is standing still. Kaede approaches and gets down like a beggar, whispering how among all this despair, she’s still so glad to be here because she got to meet Kirumi. Kirumi smiles and confesses back, and then… then… Well, all kinds of things could happen!

She felt lovesick simply thinking of all the endless possibilities.

“Hey, I know! When you and Kirumi get together, we should go on a double date! That’s fun, right?”

As Tenko offered her hand to shake Kaede giggled and took it. “It’s a deal.”

Kaede’s fingers pressed the piano keys, quickly rehearsing the finalized piece before heading to bed.

Even though she would have died to have a violin in the mix, she was incredibly satisfied with the results. Only a few more refinements left before everything would be ready to invite Kirumi. Her heart jumped to her throat thinking about it. She still felt fear, but at the same time, excitement controlled her body.

She was looking forward to that double date.

Her hand moved to the right keys, quickly tapping for a flow of high sensitive notes, followed by the heavy dark notes of the left side. Except that her other hand resided in the middle, so there would be no way for that sound to be produced.

Monokuma hung on the side of the piano, carefully pressing his paw on the keys. He hummed the tune she had been practicing.

“H-hey, what the hell?!” She quickly grabbed his wrist and plucked him off the wood, holding him in the air like a ragdoll. “I’m playing!”

“Yes, I noticed!” he responded, swinging his legs back and forth. “Very pretty! Much talent! Insert all kinds of other compliments!”

She growled. He definitely wasn’t here to adore her work and leave things at that. “What are you here for?”

“What am I here for?” His face turned red in anger, kicking harder and finally being released to the ground. “I should ask why you are here! I called like half an hour ago that everyone has to come to the dormitory, and who is not in the dormitory?! You!”

She gave him a confused look. Certainly she would have heard the monitor sound, right?

“So now here I am, doing a private pick-up…” He looked down to the ground, staring at a dust particle. “How embarrassing for you.”

In spite of Monokuma’s unserious aura, Kaede’s chest twisted in worry. She didn’t understand what everyone possibly had to gather for, especially the dormitory in specific.

She carefully probed for the reason, “Erm… Sorry… What’s wrong? Do I need to bring anything?”

“All you need to bring are good vibes!” he bubbled, heading to the door. “5 minutes, or the Exisals will pick you up instead!”

Once he left the room, her eyes fell on the handcrafted music sheets. This could never be good.

By the time Kaede arrived everyone else had already arrived, gathered in a way that just screamed cult.

In the middle of the spiral building a campfire was lit, flickering softly in the dark. It magically remained in bounds without activating a fire alarm, assuming Monokuma had at least installed such a thing.

The blue neon lights had been dimmed, instead providing a small light by each dorm room owner's 8-bit portrait. In any context outside the killing game this might have come across as cozy, but the soft ‘puhuhuhu’ coming from their kidnapper set the mood of a scenario doomed to go wrong. 

The group sat on the floor around the fire with Monokuma, from the bear's left to right Shuichi, Ryoma, Miu, Angie, Tenko, Tsumugi and Kirumi. None of them were any the wiser than Kaede as to why they had been called. They had been staring into the fire instead, hoping for the best. Only Angie held her hands together in a prayer. They might be needing it.

As all gazes met Kaede, she sat down at the only empty slot available - between Miu and Angie - giving her the unfortunate near direct view of Monokuma. The way he held onto his feet, playfully rocking back and forth, agitated her.

The bear had claimed his spot on several stacked pillows; velvet and gold. He sat much richer and more comfortable than anyone else here did. The fact he was seated with the common folk rather than standing on the gym’s stage or the trial’s throne, proved to be nothing but a poor attempt at buddying. 

“So now that the piano nerd has arrived, are you finally going to tell us what the hell we are holding a campfire inside the dormitory for?” Miu grunted, her legs crossed and cheek against her fist.

“It’s nice and cozy!” Monokuma mused, putting his paws forward to get some heat in his cold metallic body.

“But-but, campfires are for outside!” Angie responded.

“Those are lies made up by the government!”

“If we step out of the door we’re right outside… Didn’t it take more effort to get this in here than outside?” Ryoma questioned.

“Grrr, why are you so difficult!” The bear’s paws swung in the air. “Storytime night is done inside, the children stay inside, always !”

“That’s not-” Admittedly, arguing against him wouldn’t do anything. Kaede let out a deep sigh, frustrated by how she had been taken away from her work for this tomfoolery. If she pulled herself together and let the ship sail, she might be able to get back to her lab much quicker. So, she decided to play along and found an inner flat tone, “What do you mean by storytime night?”

“I’m so glad you asked!” His paws rubbed together in excitement. “Everybody knows about the classic; scouts sit around a campfire in the middle of the woods and tell super scary stories, right? And I thought, as your headmaster, I should organize such a thing too! Bring the whole class together!”

“But we’re still not complete…” Tsumugi didn't even take a second of her time checking the group. She didn’t need to count to know who was missing. “Are we supposed to get Kokichi for this?”

“What’s a Kokichi?”

Shuichi pulled at the hem of his pants in disbelief. “So we’re just… going to tell each other stories? That’s all this is?”

“Jep! So grab a marshmallow and cook that thing in the most unsanitary way by sticking it onto the random branches I picked up from the ground!”

Tenko’s brow raised at the situation. She didn’t trust it for one bit, as opposed to her go-lucky neighbor.

“Nyahaha, so divine!” Angie slapped her hands together and raised them above her head. “I have so many great stories to tell of bloody sacrifice and death by sin!”

“Wh-why are you saying that with a tone like it’s a children’s story…?!” Miu squawked getting closer to Kaede.

“Ohhh, somebody’s getting in the mood… But let’s give others a shot as well, alright?”

“Awww, what?”

“Like…” His eyes scanned the circle, left to right and right to left. It had the same energy of a teacher calling upon a random student to answer the question written on the whiteboard. “... Tojo!”

She blinked in surprise, looking at him.

“What kind of stories does the maid have to share? Tell us!”

She parted her lips a bit, only to close them again in a purse. It’s a movement she was well known for.

“Come on, don’t be shy,” he pushed. “Can be anything! Just a story you really like!”

Her eyes quickly observed the room for a bit. “Well… If I must…” She proceeded to clear her throat and laid her hands in her lap.

“Once upon a time, a King had six sons and a lovely daughter. But when the monarch remarried, this was nog longer meant to be. His new wife, jealous and vain, would hate the children. The King locked them in a castle, having no choice but to leave them there. The Queen discovered this and was bent on revenge. She conjured the brothers into swans, and the girl was given a task. ‘Six shirts you must knit to get your brothers back! Of forest asters instead of wool, healed in silence!’ The girl dedicates herself to her task, in all her solitude. She does not laugh and she does not speak a word, devoted out of love.”

Miu raised the corner of her lip, watching the flames burn her marshmallow. “The hell kind of story is that?”

“It is a fairytale.”

“Yeah, no shit, I figured that out when the typical evil step-mother came into play,” she rolled her eyes, waving her stick the same and nearly dripping the food off to join the crackling wood. “But this has got to be the lamest one I’ve ever heard.”

“Well, I enjoy it.”

Kaede smiled a bit. She had always placed her bets on Kirumi being a Cinderella lover, but a story about dedication and loyalty such as this fit the maid just as much. “That does not surprise me…”

“Can’t believe I have to say it, but I agree with Tigger over there.” Monokuma crossed his arms, complaining to himself like a drifty toddler. “I want scary stories, not ones about parental abuse! Give me something better!”

Tsumugi fidgeted with her stick, stuck on how Monokuma had pointed out how truly weird it was to just push food on random objects from nature. She held no plans on taking center stage, but their kidnapper’s anger made her change her mind. “Erm… I know some pretty scary stories from anime… Oh, I know of this total classic. It’s originally a video game but that doesn’t matter. It’s called Corpse Party and-”

He put up his paw, not even allowing her to continue speaking.

The group became more and more nervous as every offer someone made  disappointed Monokuma. They didn’t want to find out what would happen if they couldn’t fulfill this task.

At some point, Tenko couldn’t control her irritation and lashed out, “You keep slamming us down for not having any stories but completely ignore Angie when she says she has scary stories, so let her speak then!”

He blankly stared back at her. “...... No.”

She threw her fists to the floor, “But that’s what you wanted! You want scary stories and there you go! What’s your deal?!”

Shuichi pressed his lips in thought and spoke, “I think… he’s just looking for an excuse to tell his own scary story…”

Monokuma let out a loud offended gasp, clasping his cheeks. “How dare you think such a thing about me?! I am a Headmaster, everything I ever do is in your own best interest! Selfish? Nay, never!”

“But-”

“However, I do pride myself in my ability to bring forward great storytelling… So how about I show you what a real scary story sounds like?”

Kaede rolled her eyes. Shuichi was right after all. She put her hands on the floor, behind her, and leaned back, ready to mentally drift off. Whatever kind of story he so separately wanted to tell, it’d probably be terrible.

“My students, you know we are all living at the Ultimate Academy, but these are also the grounds of the sleeping ruins of a great rich mansion. A long, long time ago, when in times of storm and thunder the rivers flooded out of their banks, this mansion was inhabited by viscount Monokuma XV. He collected paintings and fairytales from all around the world. And, he practiced magic… He could make flowers sing and walls dance! There was but one plaque in his life… remnants of despair.”

“In the previous century, waves of violence flooded the countryside. Hordes of scrupulous hoodlums marched looting and setting fires through our peaceful land. They called themselves The Despair, bringing chaos to every town they found. For years, the gang pursued a warlike policy, but even after their demise, despite the viscount’s family's attempts at returning hope to the people, their remnants continued to float around. New individuals and groups emerged, seeking to destroy the viscount’s fairytales.”

“And one such individual went on to haunt his mind. She was known among locals. Even as a child she had been up to no good, always going against the reigns. One could see then that she would become a rascal. And on a certain wicked day, she disguised herself as a luscious beautiful young woman and went after the viscount’s most precious fairytale; his violin playing daughter, Ami. The gardener eventually caught the wench and she was condemned to the pyre. At the very last, she inflicted a curse where the viscount would forever be bound to search for his fallen daughter.”

“And everytime when the river breaks its bounds, guided by the howls and flashes from the sky, the woman's enchanted owl sounds the clock tower’s bell at 12. Then the body of the gardener who betrayed her hangs from the bell-rope, and the judges who convicted her roar from the attic. The viscount hurries through the pitch-black hallways, following his daughter’s music, without ever finding her.”

“As his daughter finds no peace, she hurls the notes from her violin, guiding the singing flowers and dancing walls in a haunting tune that will one day, hopefully, save what she could not. And this waltz will forever continue, until the flowers’ song has been sushed, the enchanted owl closes its eyes to sleep, and the curse has been lifted.”

Monokuma brought his paws together, as though praying, and looked down to the floor with closed eyes in melancholy.

The group stared at him in silence, processing his words.

“... That is your scary story?” Ryoma eventually asked. “It’s more… sad than anything.”

Miu cackled, “It’s hard to feel sad when you have to believe Monokuma being some noble inspiring daddy viscount! What a fucking joke!”

“Viscount Monokuma XV,” Kaede scoffed. “Do you also have a story of your grandma being eaten by the big bad wolf?”

They could all laugh about it, until in the very distant, a heavy bell sounded.

The academy had no bell tower.

“Puhuhu… I mentioned before how only the sun rises for nothing, but… That’s not all true.”

One of the tiny lights struggled. The one by Himiko’s door.

He jumped to his feet and laughed, “Welcome to the next motive!”

Himiko’s door suddenly slammed with a loud, heavy clunk, the light completely shutting off.

A loud gasp came from the group, instantly turning to the top floor with big eyes.

And on tune went the other doors, following the death order. Only after Rantaro's did all the lights, also of those who were still alive, shut down.

As they watched every door shut and every corner around them turned black, the group crawled closer to the light of the fire with their backs to each other, hoping for safety.

Kaede felt her breath hitch and her eyes fly around in a panic as every sense of safety was ripped away from her. With a heart that nearly beat out off her chest, a primal fear awoke inside of her.

“Monokuma, what is the meaning of thi-?!” When she turned to the fire, aiming at Monokuma’s seat through the red and yellow flames, he had vanished. He was nowhere to be seen.

The flames danced ferociously, struggling to stay awake in the sudden wind that had risen and could be felt by no one but the fire. 

A bright flash struck like lightning, and everything went dark.

Author note: Mystery Ltd. turned 1 year old on the 19th! Please have a quick drawing in celebration

Chapter Text

Simple and effective. That's how Shuichi would describe his murder of Maki Harukawa.

She’d grown too aware, too conscious. He had watched her closely over the cameras from the very beginning - even befriended her through Kaito - but as they arrived at the third chapter, he had to shift his full focus on her. Not because he had to tape her, but more so out of security. He didn’t think the memory erasure would work out this fast. Mr Monokuma probably didn’t either.

And even if she didn’t remember everything, her memories became specific enough to threaten his and Kirumi’s safety. Like a bloodhound she hunted the academy in search, unaware what her subconscious aimed for. She only knew to be looking for something . A sort of instinct similar to how one would always claw for the surface if they were to drown.

So when she confronted Kokichi with the signature knife Shuichi knew her for, he seized the opportunity. 

She had always been too passionate about passing equality. 

A simple movement of the jungle of wires was all it took to make her trip, fall face down and have her knife land just the wrong way. In reality, it took an intense amount of calculation from Shuichi’s side, but he didn’t feel like flaunting the memory. He wasn’t proud of it.

Again, he did it for their safety. That was very important to remember.

It took a moment for Kokichi to comprehend the situation, and when he did, he became deeply afraid. He panicked. Although he managed to pull through and made his attempts at saving Maki, it proved to be fruitless. 

Shuichi ensured to keep the electricity circling. When Kokichi grabbed her by the shoulders, trying to pull her out, he received a discharge of his own. Of course, he then tried to shut the computer off, fussing about, spouting nonsensical wording, assuring both himself and Maki he’d fix it. All that effort even though 5 minutes ago he teased to be better off without her.

Shuichi never understood his character. But then again, he belonged to Kirumi.

When that didn’t work, Kokichi promised Maki to find Miu and save her. Again this futile persistence to help a dying someone. He left the scene, honestly believing he could somehow alter her fate.

That was Shuichi’s cue to show his face on the screen. Perhaps risky business, but he had cameras all over the place. If Kokichi made an unexpected return, he’d be able to timely act on it. 

And Maki, well, she would die tonight. It didn’t matter if she noticed him. In fact, that was kind of the point.

He adjusted the electricity output to assure she wouldn’t immediately die. Korekiyo was still screaming his lungs dry in the Brazen Bull. Until his death, Maki couldn’t leave them yet. It would come to bite him in the ass at some point otherwise. 

To think he and Rantaro were watching their victim struggle and slowly die at the exact same time, twisted an off feeling in his stomach. The only difference being that Shuichi was no monster, or so he had convinced himself.

Maki, despite her situation, noticed the large screen turning on and lurking over her like an incoming storm. With twitching muscles and much strain her head slowly tilted to look at Shuichi. He couldn’t read her thoughts, whether she understood he was the cause, whether she understood why he did this.

He stared her down, a flat and stoic face. “... I hoped you would stick around longer. Up until the finale, maybe… But, you remember too much. The Flashback Light has side-effects it seems. I’m not sure if this has ever happened in the past. I might have to let Mr Monokuma know.”

“... I’m doing this for Kirumi, you understand that, right?” The pitch in his voice reminded him of Mr Monokuma’s, the melancholic way he spoke when justifying the hurt he caused Shuichi. It brought disgust to his tongue. “I… don’t want to lose,” he quickly added, a hint of vulnerability slipping through.

He eyed the screen by his side, the one showing Rantaro’s intense pleasure from the bellowing bull. It calmed down. Korekiyo’s screams had died, the moisture evaporating from his skin being all that caused the beastly sounds. This was Shuichi’s signal to take Maki out of her suffering.

His eyes returned to her, and as he did that, she reached out for him with her free hand. The spark must have reminded her who she truly was - who he truly was. And most painfully, the close friendship they had far before Kaito made his appearance. She must be thinking so very ugly of him now.

Without averting his eyes from her gaze, his fingers carefully reached for the power pad, slithering their way through the buttons controlling the dome's power and to the one of the computer. He pinched the, despite his many touches, cold metal tip of the flicker.

“You can go... Send my regards to the others. Goodbye, Maki. Thank you. I’m sorry. And… Thank you.”

The lightning struck Kaede’s heart with a rumble.

Her organs beat out of her chest, pressed against the floor in an attempt to keep everything inside. Between all the increasingly quickening breaths, noise buzzed in the back of her head: Screeches, male and female. Her classmates who panicked like chickens caught in a cage with a fox.

They couldn’t see anything. Kaede couldn’t see anything. All she could comprehend was the fear of an incoming storm. She crawled ahead, unfamiliar with where she was and where she would be going.

Charred hot wood dug itself in her hand, making her hiss loudly. 

She remembered now. Monokuma had gathered them all for a campfire in the dormitory and told a ‘scary’ story. The lights went out. 

The buzzing cleared.

“Wh-what’s happening…?!”

“Who’s touching me?! Get off of me!”

“Ack, my nose!”

“Someone turn the fucking light on already before we get killed…!”

Shoes and other items consistently scratched the floor as they all tried to escape the dark. They yelled nothing but nonsense at one another, the blind guiding the blind.

Kaede raised to her feet and yelled at the top of her lungs, “Everybody, shut up…!”

It fell silent. They all must have turned to her. She felt their eyes.

“It’s okay… Everything’s okay,” she comforted them, and also herself. “It’s just a little electricity outage. That’s all this is.”

“It’s not just any electricity outage, it’s an electricity outage in a killing game…!” Tsumugi whimpered. “I-I need to see what’s going on… What if someone is holding a knife over my head…?!”

“Atua will protect you!” Angie chirped.

“Unless your stupid God is also an electrician I say go to Hell with him!”

Kaede’s words didn’t help. The primal fear of the dark was far too powerful to overturn. The only thing that could bring a sense of calmth was a point of light. It didn’t have to be much, just anything that would show them the way.

She reached for her bag and took her tablet out, turning it on. Like flies the group gathered around, getting close and desperately clinging onto her. She still couldn’t see them beyond the floating body parts of hands that took to her screen.

“Turn the brightness up,” Kirumi said. “This is hardly enough.”

The screen was awfully dim, much dimmer than Kaede remembered it being. Perhaps it did so automatically much like phones could. Not that she had ever noticed before.

She pulled the bar down and looked at the brightness. She slid it all the way from the left to the right, but nothing changed.

She repeated the movement. Left, middle, left, right; quick, slow. The brightness would not change no matter how hard she tried.

“I-I can’t change it…” she gritted.

“Maybe your tablet is glitching…” Shuichi suggested, upon which the others brought out theirs, attempting to create the needed flashlight. Unfortunately, they had the exact same issue.

Without anyone having the ability to brighten the room, they moved to the profile app and brought their own portrait to the screen, holding it in front of them so everyone knew who stood where.

The group looked like a bunch of floating screens in which they had been trapped, with fingers pressed on the glass to make sure they could not escape. Despite the somewhat disturbing sight, it created a calmth.

“Well, fuck me,” Miu’s profile complained as the tips of her fingers dug into the material. “Monokuma screwed with the software.”

“But how did he manage to do that?” Tenko stressed. “This thing stayed in my pocket for sure!”

“Well, the tablets were given by him…” Shuichi said. Even in his profile the tight hold on his cap persisted. “Maybe he’s able to control them from afar?”

“He didn’t change just that either,” Ryoma said. Kaede had never noticed before how his picture showed him to be playing tennis, hitting a ball from across the screen. It must have been taken a long time ago. “My clock disappeared. Did it for any of you as well?”

Kaede turned the screen back towards her, her eyes immediately landing on the top right. “... It did for me too… But why would he do that?”

“He welcomed us to the new motive…” Kirumi recalled. “This must all be a part of it.”

The mention of the motive sent a shiver through the room. Just when things got safe again, a sense of normalcy finding a way in everyone’s lives, the world was turned upside down again. Or rather, taken from them. All that they knew, from stair steps to the tap handles in the bathroom, had been shrouded in black, never to be seen again. It might as well not exist anymore.

Kaede could feel that realization getting to the others by the way their tablets nervously went from left to right, attempting to find a path.

“No worries, everyone!” Angie’s solace came through again. She arguably had the brightest sprite of all. 

“Angie, I love you and all, but how can you possibly interpret this as not worrisome?” Tenko bumped her tablet against the artist’s.

“Because nothing is lost, right, Kaede?”

The 7 dim lights turned to her. Again those eyes upon her. With all the pictures it felt as though there were twice as many awaiting her command.

She worried her lip a bit, thinking over what to say. They needed encouragement, they needed a sign of hope. 

“... Yes, Angie is totally right! Listen, it was already nighttime when Monokuma gathered us. That’s why it’s so dark! It’s no different from turning off the light when you go to sleep. Monokuma can cut off electricity, but he can’t cut off daylight. So let’s observe the situation tomorrow morning when everything is light again.”

That plan brought satisfaction. They all carefully headed to their room, be it not without a few bump-ins and hits against the door - especially Angie and Tenko struggled not to trip on the stairs with their rooms being on the top floor.

Kaede put her hands in front of her, feeling the walls to guide herself forward. She cursed Monokuma under her breath. Even if all would be fine once the sun rises, she couldn’t help but feel annoyed by how difficult mundane things had been made now. The search for her pajamas, the search for the bathroom, the search for her bed.

“I’m going to put on Vivaldi’s Winter real loud tomorrow morning and hunt him down…” she grumbled, burying her face in the sheets. “Whatever… It’s fine.” She laid on her back and stared into the void, tossing her tamagotchi back and forth in the palm of her hand in comfort. “This isn’t like the other motives. It’s not permanent. It’s just… a nightly outage. Everything will be fine…”

The next morning the group gathered in the kitchen, standing in a circle around the furnace. While Monokuma drained the electricity - the lights in specific as the fridge seemed to be working just fine, luckily so, as another round of food punishment would make the group snap -, he had kept his dirty paws off the gas supply. They were still provided with warm water and the ability to cook on the gas.

Kirumi had placed a tea kettle on the largest pitch and a pan of water to cook eggs on the other. She further utilized as many pitches as possible, since it felt illegal and dangerous to turn them on without anything sitting on top.

After all, the blue flickering created a stark contrast from the intense darkness.

“Well,” Tenko sighed deeply, crossing her arms, “so much for this whole the sun will come up tomorrow morning business.”

Despite Kaede’s logical prediction, the sun had not risen. It was still dark out, not even a single twinkle of a star painting the sky. For a moment she had been convinced that perhaps she woke up too early again. Her terrible middle insomnia caused her to wake up at odd times often enough, and it’s not as though she could check a clock for the time. But when the others also rose, even ones who always got their recommended 8 hours of sleep, nature had not changed.

It’s like the sun had been stolen.

“This makes no sense to me…” Tsumugi wrung her dress, her eyes wandering past the group. Thanks to the fire pitches she was at least able to see everyone’s face and bodies properly now. It looked much the same as when they were left with nothing but the fire in the dormitory, but that, in a way, only increased her fear of whatever laid beyond their sight. “The sun can’t just… leave … r-right? We’re all just stressed and woke up too early, right…?”

“Mmm, don’t think so,” Angie sat herself on the counter and kicked her feet. “I’m a great sleeper! I am never disturbed, that’s a promise.”

“There has to be something to it,” Kaede said, staring into the floor with a frown. She could for the life of her not figure out the logistics of the situation. “Maybe we… Maybe we got drugged and it’s nighttime again?”

“Damn, that would be one heck of a drug!” Miu laughed. “Wish I had some of that from the beginning…”

Much like Kaede, Kirumi had been attempting to understand their situation. She caressed her chin, as she always tended to when in deep thought. “I’ve been thinking about everything Monokuma told us… There was a point where he mentioned something along the lines of lying about the sun.”

“Oh, yeah!” Tenko remembered, digging her heel into the floor as she leaned against the cabinets, “Something weird about how it’s not true that the sun rises for nothing… But that's stupid, we just circle around the thing, don’t we?!”

“What if… the next motive is perpetual darkness?”

All eyes went to Shuichi.

“Think about it. Everything went dark, all lights are out of service, anything that isn’t directly connected to a power outlet has their light heavily dimmed, the sky is nothing but a void, our sense of time has been taken away… Maybe he meant that the sun will only ‘rise’ when someone has been killed…”

Putting all the facts down like that, this did appear to be the situation they had been brought into. Nevermind how Monokuma managed to obscure the sun, the fact remained that he had done everything in his power to remove anything that radiated. They were stuck blind, casted down to the deep caves of Hell with only one way to get a ticket out of here.

Death.

“So… A sacrifice needs to be made to Atua to return the sun?” Angie pouted, her feet slightly ticking together.

“More like Monokuma is Atua now…” Tsumugi shivered. “I doubt your God would do something this cruel.”

Kirumi pursed her lips, “I am rather tired of Monokuma taking away our basic human needs and putting a price tag on them.”

Kirumi was right. One would think motives are to add something to a person’s motivation, some kind of new reveal. The threat that someone important to you will be killed, the reveal someone did something terrible; instillment of fear or anger - or otherwise something basic as receiving a large sum of money. Meanwhile Monokuma had for the past 2 motives taken something essential away and bet on the after effects. 

And now he did it again. He took away that which the entire planet abides by.

“It… It can’t be that bad,” Kaede said. “Whenever I, after a long string of rainy days, say I would kill for a sunny day I never mean it literally. Nobody does. … I hope.”

“We shouldn’t underestimate it,” Shuichi countered. “We’ve wrongly thought before that a motive wouldn’t cause much trouble… There’s more to this than we might think.”

“I agree with Shuichi.” Ryoma hadn’t spoken since their gathering. Not because he was visibly disturbed or afraid like the majority of them, but simply because he didn’t feel like it. He appeared quite at ease in this new environment. Perhaps his time in the dark room on the 4th floor had given him some practice. “Living in the dark is tough.”

“Y-you're all a bunch of pussies!” Miu sneered, throwing her hand in the air. She tried to make herself seem big, but in truth, she was afraid. “Hitting the wall with your head is annoying and painful, but- but it’s not going to be the end of us…! I spent my time cooped up in dark rooms all the fucking time and I turned out fine!”

“I don’t mean it in a stumping your toe kind of way.” He took a step forward, wanting to ensure everyone would hear him. “This will be like seasonal affective disorder but on steroids. Depression, agitation, sleeping pattern ruined. Without a clock or light our body’s going to lose track of what’s day and what’s night.”

“That doesn’t sound great…” Tenko admitted, carefully reaching her hand to Angie’s, who took it back. “But we’re in this together… We will keep each other in check!”

“There’s more…” his voice went low and hushed, a menacing kind of warning. He turned to the fire, staring into it. “Your mind’s going to tap out and see things that aren’t there. Geometric patterns, tunnels, carvings and decorations, symbols from traditions you don’t even know. It’s not just our internal clock that will betray us, but our vision will too. We won’t be able to trust ourselves anymore.”

“You uh… You sound awfully familiar with the subject,” Tsumugi swallowed.

“I gathered some experience lately…” So Kaede’s hunch was right.

“This is incredibly worrisome,” Kirumi put her hands together in her lap, clamping to her own consolation. “How should we best combat this? Stay together as a group in the kitchen as much as possible?”

“That might help keep our sanity in check, yeah.”

“S-sanity…?” Kaede sputtered, perking up. The word sent an uncomfortable shiver through her body.

“Mhm, sanity.”

“The suggestion that we will grow insane seems a little strong, doesn’t it…?” Shuichi felt just as uncomfortable with the notion as Kaede did, jumping to her side. She was glad to know he also felt like Ryoma was being overdramatic. It’s not as though Ryoma had ever been a particularly positive figure, after all.

“I’m just trying to share what I know,” he turned to the group again. And somehow, Kaede felt like he looked more at her than at the others. “Darkness is like a mirror. It will show you what you don’t want to see.”

Over the next few days - or what were presumed to be days - the group gathered in the kitchen and stayed there for the majority of the ‘day’ until the assumed bedtime. Despite the hitches they ran into of navigating other parts of the academy, the circle gathering by the fire became a sort of protective dome of its own.

The notion had grown that, as long as they all sat together, nothing could happen to them.

The passing of time proved to be the greatest challenge of all. Yes, they could keep an eye on each other and shake each other out of whatever illusion they might hear or believe to see in the shadows, but being in each other’s pockets all the time with nothing to do but sit also meant they quickly ran out of casual conversation.

Truly, they had no other choice but to get to know each other on a deeper level. So they each took a spot around the kitchen, holding a warm cup of tea in their hands and let each other speak - no interruptions or comments allowed. Nothing but one by one letting each other talk about their lives.

The air was tight. They had known each other for a long time now, and going through extreme trauma together certainly also made them care more for each other than one usually would. But it didn’t take away the amount of trust needed to lay sensitive information out on the table. 

Someone had to break the ice and lead the way, a job that Tenko bravely accepted.

She revealed that, to nobody's surprise, she had been rather hot-headed as a child. It worried her parents so much that they were afraid she would not be able to fit in society. So, without really knowing how to handle her, they sent her to live in a temple to discipline her mind. Eventually she was introduced to Neo-Aikido as a way to channel her high energy into. It worked, at least to an extent. 

Tenko also told about her master and the harsh training she endured. He had been the one to grow her distaste towards men, even going as far as telling her simply touching one would tap away her Aikido skills. It was a somewhat understandable way to scare a young girl away from bad decisions, but he probably never expected her to be gullible enough to still believe it as a grown adult.

Angie was the next person to happily open herself up. She arguably had the most diverse information to share, being from a completely different culture. She shared a lot about Atua - much to the annoyance of a certain inventor who would on her turn get chided by a certain Aikido master. 

Angie was seen as the oracle on her island and the people followed her word for that reason. Kaede could always sense this want for community coming from her. It grew in these circumstances as she decided to share stories which had been passed down for generations, and at some point even took papers and arts with her to illustrate the legends with great passion. It felt a bit like they were children being told a nighttime story to drift into good sleep, or at least, that’s how Kaede presumed it must feel like.

Miu grew jealous of the shown appreciation towards the two women and butted in, claiming that if the group thought those stories were interesting, they would be blown out of the water by hers. Admittedly, she went from everywhere to nowhere. She jumped from the many inventions she created which simply came down to ‘the ability to do X while being asleep’ to the apparent invention of eye-drop contacts. And then of course the story she so dramatically referred to as her origin lore. 

According to her own account, Miu used to be boring and unremarkable with not a grain of talent inside of her. Not until she got into a freak car accident and nearly died, ending in a coma. She barely survived the surgery, but since then her head had been full of ideas and inventions. An augmented human is what she called herself, which explained both a lot and nothing about her.

Tsumugi had already shared before how far her cosplay skills extended, as well as her barista history for gathering all the money needed - the amount of time, work and funds that went into cosplay was actually insane. With claiming everything else in her life to be ‘boring’, she had a lot more interest taking the opportunity to ramble about her favorite series and all the cosplays she would love to put the group in. Nobody recognized the characters she was talking about, so they all just nodded and smiled at her, entertaining the idea.

Kirumi shared her clientèle and the most challenging requests she had been given - although challenge was a bit of an odd word to use since she only viewed it in a positive light. From novelists to politicians, Kirumi had seen it all. Of course she at some point landed at the story of taking down a mafia. Although Kaede had heard it before, she remained incredibly impressed at Kirumi’s sheer broad ability and fearlessness. What a woman. Notably, she stayed away from whatever life she had before becoming a maid. It’s like she had erased it from her mind, or, otherwise, did not want to be reminded of it.

Shuichi was rather unsure of what kind of stories to share. It’s not like anyone wanted to hear about murder mysteries in these circumstances. And his personal life, well, that pained him to speak of. He mentioned his uncle, who he learned how to be a detective from, and not much else. His parents remained out of the question. He appeared to have trouble keeping a consistent adult figure around, which he understandably had trouble sharing with everyone. Whenever he grew too uncomfortable Kaede or Kirumi would take over and wave all eyes off him. He'd give them a soft smile in gratitude.

At least he wasn’t alone. Ryoma didn’t feel much for sharing his life either. Also because everyone already knew. They all knew he had provoked the mafia - a different one than Kirumi tackled, to be clear - and lost both his own blood family and girlfriend that way. In an act of revenge he annihilated the organization, landed on death row, and swore to never play tennis again. So, instead, he talked about the cute cat he owned. A Russian Blue which he described to be very gentle and affectionate while remaining independent. She wasn’t great with strangers, but would warm up and then happily sit next to them without leaving again. Quiet love, he called it. It made Kaede wonder if a pet and its owner often shared a personality.

Kaede also made her contribution. Piano, piano, piano. That’s all she could talk about.

“Great, you’re pianosexual, we already knew that,” Miu growled, incredibly uninterested by the shared information and watching the fresh soup Kirumi made bubble on the fire. “Don’t you have anything else to share?”

Kaede looked up to her from the floor, “What do you mean? Don’t you like my thesis on how playing Mozart’s music on the piano as it did in his time conveys a very different impression of the music than when playing it on a modern piano?”

“I believe what Miu means to say,” Kirumi interrupted, stirring the liquid, “is that we have yet to hear about the more personal details of your life. Like say… What attracted you to the piano in the first place?”

Admittedly, Kaede didn’t remember.

Everything continued to go alright for a bit like this, but the covered cracks slowly expanded. Their bodies began creating a new internal clock, unable to sync. Any accidental bump-ins or wrong wording had to deal with shortened fuses. 

Kaede managed to jump in whenever they got in a fight, which most of the time at least involved Miu, and bring everything to a calmth. As leader she felt it was her job to uphold the promise to keep each other in check. That’s how they would get through this.

And so, she continued to believe that the fear Ryoma had instilled was nothing but unreasonable. Until one night.

Kaede had experienced plenty of different nightmares over the course of the killing game, but one in particular always took the same course. 

She’d cycle through the woods, follow the blinking blue and red lights, climb through bark which slowly changed into hedges of thorn, get tangled up in them and then fall straight into the spikes. It always ended the same, and yet, she felt as though she got closer with every occasion.

She was barely a meter away from the edge now. The rose vines gripped into her, but they had weakened, withered with the season. They cracked as she forced her body forward, grinding her teeth and reaching for the light beyond. She was sick and tired of this game, sick and tired of the cuts in her body.

With a deep breath she let out a yell, threw her body forward and…

SNAP!

The vines broke and dropped her out of the dense forest. For the very first time, Kaede was not met with thorns stabbing her eye to provide a violent wake-up. Instead, simple mud mixed with grass painted her body.

The blue and red lights, now no longer obscured by greenery, blinked in the earth's reflection. The crackles she had heard before loudened, but still considered crackling. And the scent of ash now fully encapsulated her nose.

She slowly raised from the ground, crawling up. She had arrived in an open dark misty meadow, enormous cars which emitted the dual lighting from their sirens plaguing the area. Dozens of shadowy figures strut around. They stood several meters tall with nothing but a thick cylinder for a body and a big round head. They stalked the grounds, scanning everything like lighthouses. The crackling noise came from them.

Kaede held her breath as she watched them go in circles. Her chest became an ocean. No matter what, those shadows could not catch her.

She made her way to one of the police cars, hiding by the tire and awaiting the shadow figure to pass. She maneuvered the maze this way, continuously, without feeling any sort of process. Every car looked the same and so did every shadow. She felt drawn towards something, but had no clue how to get there.

She quickly slipped by the next shadow and sat by a car trunk, peeking from behind in search of any sort of destination, when she noticed not to be the only one sneaking around.

Further ahead sat a young girl by another car. She was too far away to make out exactly, but close enough for her silhouette to show she did not consider one of the shadow people. She was small, like an ant.

And just as their gazes met, she got up and sprinted the other way.

With being the only other normal human around, Kaede began the chase. The mysterious girl was quick on her feet, fearlessly gliding past the figures and moving forward. She did not waste any of her time.

Kaede tried to follow, but quickly went back into hiding when they arrived near high metal wire fencing. All the cars’ noses pointed towards it and the burning smell came from beyond. Whatever hid there was what all these shadows were here for.

She observed the fencing. It held electric wiring at the top and no matter how far she looked to the left or the right, there was no gate to be seen. Her eyes moved back to the girl and she whispered, hoping her words could somehow be heard, “How are we supposed to get in…?”

The girl did not answer, remaining perfectly still in place. Once the guarding shadow moved past them, she sprinted straight to the wiring and dove to the ground. She struggled, her head vanishing in the ground and reappearing on the other side. Someone had dug a hole under the wiring. Without bothering to wait up, she jumped to her feet and headed for the enormous rubble lying beyond.

“W-wait…!” Kaede tripped from behind the car and-

Something grabbed her by her collar. She spun around on her feet and was met with one of the large shadows, looming over her, curving its body down and staring into her soul with its singular large 180°C turned eye.

“Do you blame yourself?” it blatantly asked.

Kaede was hypnotized by the eye, staring right back at it, paralyzed. She didn’t hear the question.

“Do you blame yourself?” it repeated, leaning in further.

“Wh… What…?”

More shadows gathered around, watching them. Their eyes were everywhere.

“We often see that witnesses feel a kind of guilt. They’ll invent blame, causality...”

They crawled into her skin, into her bones, into her ghost. It’s as though she stood in front of the entire nation, testifying. Her voice raised an octave, “What are you talking about…?”

“The accident.”

The dream ended and Kaede’s eyes shot open to the perpetual dark of her bedroom. And yet, the shadow’s figure still lingered above her along with the eyes that burned into her. They were pixelated, unclear, made up of thousands of black and white particles.

Kaede watched them slowly disintegrate over the seconds, her throat closing.

Ryoma’s words wandered her mind.

She understood now.

Chapter Text

“So, as you know, we always make a selection of people for you to choose from. We take into account different aspects such as state needs, severity, but also your desires. Despite your inward nature, we have known you long enough to know what kind of themes fit you as a mastermind. I’m sure you’ll be able to make your selection rather quickly.”

Papers ruffled as the minutes passed by.

“Can I request something?”

“Sure, what is it, Maki?”

“I’d like to go off the list for one cast member.”

“Oh, of course, sure! Who do you have in mind? We can’t promise to be able to find them - if they are even still alive - but we will do our utmost best to bring justice.”

“I don’t think you’ll have any trouble finding them.”

“Who is it?”

“You.”

“... Excuse me?”

“I’m not stupid. You may have the entire orphanage and nation blindsighted in its corrupt state, but not me. You are no better than any of these people. So I don’t see why you wouldn’t be an eligible candidate either.”

“Is this one of your cruel jokes?”

“What do you think?”

“... Let’s continue this tomorrow. It’s getting late.”

Kaede’s fingers slithered over the keys of the piano, afraid to press them.

With her nightmares taking a new turn she needed a distraction to escape this awful feeling of being watched all the time. Sometimes she could even swear seeing the eye towers in the corner of her eyes, but whenever she’d actually turn to them, they vanished. It freaked her out.

So she latched on to playing the piano again. The piece for Kirumi still required a few finishing touches, so it occupied her enough in that sense. The newly found fear in her chest also simply made her want to depart the confession train. She had a bad feeling about this entire motive, and the thought that something would happen to Kirumi before she could-

The solution seemed all too simple. Round up the piece, pick Kirumi up from the kitchen, take her to the lab and play the song. After all, the good thing about music is that it only needs to be experienced through sound in order to reach. 

Except there was one major issue. The arrangement had, like everyone’s surroundings, turned dark.

The notes which were once so whimsical and loving had turned deep and creepy. Kaede felt as though having composed something for a horror movie. She didn’t understand how it happened though. The notes had deeply seated themselves in her heart, and it’s not like she needed to physically see the black and white keys in order to put her hands correctly. Closing her eyes when playing always helped enhance the needed emotions, so playing blind was her forte. The song nor Kaede were incorrect.

Perhaps it was this new dark world that affected the piano itself.

There was but one place of warmth left in the academy; the kitchen. But she could not bring her music there. The piano was much too heavy and she didn’t have a keyboard around either - not that she’d even be able to use it with all the electric sockets having become useless. 

The only true solution was to await the light’s return, meaning awaiting someone's death. That’s the last thing Kaede wanted to happen, but she couldn’t wait any longer with her confession either. So then what?

She let out a frustrated sigh, rubbing the palms of her hands on her thighs. She didn’t know how to fix the situation. She was stuck in limbo.

With pain in her heart she left the room and navigated her way to the kitchen, pointing her tablet down to the floor in the hopes it could save her from tripping. Sadly Kaede had been stuck in this dome long enough to have a bit of a feeling on when to take her turns, but she could never be too sure with all this distraction.

She should stop cursing herself over the situation. Monokuma was the one at fault here, always having things happen at the most inconvenient moments. She wondered if he was watching her right now and cackled over the despair she felt, taking pleasure out of her inability to obtain the one thing that could make her happy.

“Look, I’m sure that if I just reach the right people I can get all this sorted out.”

“There aren’t any right people. There’s just Monokuma, moving in mysterious ways and torturing us.”

Once Kaede descended the stairs voices came through. Angie and Tenko’s, she knew. The lack of sight had made her hearing even more sensitive than it already was. Sensitive enough to know they were in a fight.

Tenko had never been particularly inward about her emotions. She encouraged expressing oneself, so to interpret her tone was an easy tak. Only Angie’s was a different deal. It always had an upbeat rhythm to it, even now. She was convinced by her own words.

They stood just in front of the stairs, both of their profiles floating in the air. The group had made a rule to always have your tablet turned on and set at your profile. That way they had at least some semblance of being able to see each other.

Kaede quickly switched the tablet screen to her own and approached. The one positive about having to fix this fight is that it didn’t involve Miu for once. “Hey, girls,” she greeted.

Angie turned towards her, chirpy, “Hiya!”

Tenko jumped up a bit out of surprise, unlike the other, remaining in the feeling for a little while until she could respond. “Oh, hey, Kaede.”

“What are you two talking about?”

“It’s nothing,” Tenko diffused. She clearly didn’t want Kaede involved. “Are you going to the kitchen? Go up ahead, we’ll follow soon-”

“I am going to fix the motive!” Angie exclaimed.

“Angie, you- Ugh, you can’t restore the light!” Tenko’s frustration boiled up again. This definitely wasn’t ‘nothing’. 

“You’re going to fix the motive?” Kaede asked in disbelief, yet intrigued.

“Righty-o. Y’know, according to myth the Earth started out dark as well. The sky father and Earth mother loved each other so much that they refused to let go of each other, their embrace causing there to be no light on Earth. Their children eventually managed to separate them and so light came into the world.” She raised her tablet in the air as a replacement for her usual hand clap, “We can be the children this time! The darkness is clearly a curse, which means it can be lifted! So I’m going to sort everything out!”

“But you can’t!” Tenko interrupted. “First of all, it’s not a myth or a curse, it’s Monokuma being Monokuma. Secondly, the only way to ‘lift’ it is to have someone killed! I wouldn’t exactly call that a fix.”

“No, of course not,” Angie disapprovingly answered. She paced on her feet, going back and forth, “And that’s why I’m going to have a word with Atua, and then Atua will fix it.”

Ah. Kaede understood now. Angie was trying to find solace in her belief, hoping that reaching out to her God would do something for them. And Tenko, who had expressed before not believing in Atua, could not comprehend this way of thinking.

“But that won’t happen!” Tenko rebutted again. “Atua isn’t even real! You’re so clever, how can someone as clever as you be so stupid?!”

Angie’s tablet stopped moving.

“... I… I didn’t mean…”

It turned down and moved to the stairs. “I should connect with Atua… Who knows what time it is, he might be sleepy! Bye-onara, Kaede!”

“Wait, Angie, I’m sorry…!”

So much for fixing it.

“Crap… I’m sorry you had to see that, Kaede…”

“It’s okay,” she gave an automatic easing smile, even if the other couldn’t see it. “I have inserted myself in much worse the past few days. Although I can’t say I expected a fight to break out between the two of you.”

“It’s not really a fight, it’s just…” her fingers nervously rubbed the edges of her tablet. “Angie’s Atua spouting is increasing and she genuinely thinks a good prayer will somehow make this entire motive go away. But it just doesn’t work like that…! And even if it did, Atua isn’t real! It’s a waste of time and I got fed up hearing about it.”

It’s not like Kaede didn’t understand. Even if Angie had the best of intentions, it felt nothing but empty to Tenko. Like someone telling you when you’re depressed to simply ‘cheer up’.

“Maybe you need to look at it differently. Like a sort of… coping mechanism.” Kaede took a step closer. “When things get scary or uncomfortable people turn to something that eases their mind. Playing the piano, Aikido training. And for Angie that’s her belief in a higher being. If it helps her get through this, is that really so bad?”

“But… there are no higher beings…! Heck, if there were they sure let us down by allowing all this death and suffering to happen in the first place!”

“I don’t believe in God either, but we’re all just trying to cope in our own way.”

Their tablets stared at each other for a while, and eventually, Tenko moved hers up so her face became at least a little bit visible. It was filled with regret. “You’re right… I’ll visit Angie and apologize… But I’m going to let her cool down first. Things are way too tense now. I know she didn’t sound angry, but she definitely is…!”

Kaede scoffed softly at that. She was much the same herself.

“Speaking of tension, how’s the Kirumi quest going? Have you guys kissed yet?”

Her face set ablaze at the imagery. “Ah-hahaha, no… I haven’t gotten any further I’m afraid. I finished the song, but-”

“You did?! That’s great!” She quickly took Kaede by the shoulders, from behind, and pushed her forward, “Take her to your lab and go for it! I’m still waiting for the double date!”

Kaede instantly struggled, setting her feet into the ground like a stubborn donkey, “N-no, wait, you don’t understand…!” and turned back to Tenko, attempting to light their faces up to get the message across. “With all this dark atmosphere the song turned creepy… I can’t play it to her.”

She blinked, “Huh? Creepy…?”

Her brow drew together, “I guess it affects it somehow, or maybe Monokuma messed with the tuning, I don’t know… But it sounds uncomfortable. Kirumi won't interpret it as a romantic gesture this way. Although,” she let out a short laugh, “I originally wanted to incorporate a violin, but dropped it for practical reasons. If that had been in there, phew, it would’ve been a full blown Danse Macabre situation!”

Tenko spurted on her feet, having to hold herself back from throwing a kick in the air out of irritation. You never knew if it’d accidentally hit someone. “Arrghh, that stupid Monokuma! Now even getting in the way of lovers… I don’t know much about music, so I’ll trust your judgement. Though I could see the violin becoming a problem, with Monokuma’s story and all.”

“... Monokuma’s story?”

“Yeah, wasn’t there something about a violin in there…? Ah, no matter.” Her energy shifted to excitement, encouraging her friend, “But if you can’t play the song then confess to her another way! You can’t wait for the lights to turn back on! You and I both know that will only happen when someone dies, and the chances she becomes a victim are only increasing. And then… Well, then she will die not knowing how you feel about her! Aaahhh, just thinking about it makes me want to cry…!”

She knew Tenko to be right. She had already come to this conclusion on her own. It was time to put on her thinking hat and come up with a solution as soon as possible.

“Heck, why don’t you just confess straight up without any bells or whistles? You’re a smooth talker, you’ll be fine.”

“Nooo, I want it to be special… Like she is to me…”

“You’re so sappy, Kaede…” Tenko smiled. You could hear it in her voice.

“It’s both a blessing and a curse…”

In the distance stood the silhouette of a girl. That same girl from Kaede’s nightmare.

“... What are you-”

Her pixels backed away into the dark, vanishing.

“H-hey, wait!” Kaede quickly went after her, chasing her down the tunnels and lingering figures.

It became hot, too hot. She felt as though her body was being tossed around and pressed together, squeezing through a crowd. Everyone had broken out in a sweat as they jumped to the thumping beat in the distance. The floor felt sticky from all the dropped liquor.

The girl, being smaller than anyone else, slithered through with ease.

“Stop…! You’re not supposed to be at a place like this, you’re-”

A mirror appeared in front of Kaede. She saw herself, staring back and holding a hand out. 

Her hand drifted towards her reflection’s, their bodies pulling together and falling into each other. Glass crashed as she harshly hit a table and then the floor.

A short agonizing yelp left her throat. It felt far too real. She thought she was dreaming, but clearly she hadn’t been.

“W-who’s there…?!”

The light of a profile lit up in the distance. It was dark; lots of black with hints of white cautiously coming closer as a familiar flow of clicking heels echoed through the floor.

Kaede faintly smiled, struggling to turn over on her back, “Kirumi…”

“Kaede?” Her tablet closed in, hovering just above Kaede’s face as her hand carefully joined to touch her cheek. “Is that you?”

“It’s me alright…” she continued to smile, laying her fingers on Kirumi’s. It hurt. “I think I ran into something…”

“You’re in my lab,” Kirumi explained. “You must have hit the table and dropped the tableware… Did you get hurt?”

Kaede opened her hand a bit, bringing it into the light. Some blood dripped from the glass wound in her palm.

“... Let’s move to the kitchen.”

Kirumi helped Kaede raise to her feet and together they carefully moved down to the kitchen. Kaede had no clue how she managed to get all the way to Kirumi’s, and damned herself for getting her precious piano hand hurt, but it was hard to truly complain with Kirumi having her arm around her waist.

Once in the kitchen the typical set of boiling water could be seen on the fire. It had become Kirumi’s way of keeping the gas on without actually having to cook anything.

She guided Kaede near the fire and took out a pair of tweezers, holding the stabbed hand near the light and delicately removing the glass shard. “You need to be more careful maneuvering the dark.”

Kaede hissed as the piece was removed, “I didn’t mean for this to happen…”

“I’d hope so. Did you get hurt anywhere else?” She turned Kaede around a bit, examining her arms.

“Don’t think so… I seem to be very unlucky when it comes to my hand, which is definitely not great for a pianist. I also hurt it with the campfi- Ah!”

Kirumi got down to her knees, putting her hands on Kaede’s legs one by one, examining them.

Kaede clamped to the kitchen top’s edge, blushing, “K-Kirumi! Buy a girl a drink first, would you…?!”

She looked up, “... Are you thirsty? What can I get you?” and stood up, turning to the fridge.

“No, that’s… Ah,” she shook her head a bit, “nevermind…”

“In that case,” she turned to her again, “let’s clean that wound.”

Cold water streamed down Kaede’s hand as it was being held under the faucet. The liquid pinched the sensitive area, immediately making Kaede want to pull away, although Kirumi’s tight hold on her wrist ensured such a thing wouldn’t happen. The pain eventually eased.

Once satisfied, Kirumi took a clean tea towel and dabbed Kaede’s hand dry. It once again ached a bit. Despite the maid’s usual caring behavior, she didn’t hold back this time around.

“You can be pretty forceful, huh…?”

“Whatever do you mean?”

“A bit of a softer touch would be appreciated,” Kaede awkwardly smiled.

Kirumi held her hand still for a moment. “... It does need to dry properly… We don’t have disinfectant, I’m afraid.” Despite that, her dapping turned gentle.

Kaede held her open hand into the light, observing the wound. Luckily it didn’t stretch far in terms of length, however, it was rather deep and thick. She bit her lip at the sight.

“We need to bandage it,” Kirumi said, also looking at the cut. “It’s too risky to leave it open like this, especially since it considers your inner hand.”

She closed and opened her hand a few times, testing, “Do we even have bandages? I wouldn’t be surprised if Monokuma didn’t bother to provide us with any.”

“I have not checked for it before, but it might be in the warehouse.” She swiftly spun on her heels, turning towards the kitchen entrance, only to halt. She stared ahead of her.

Kaede raised a brow at the unusual sight. It’s possible she was seeing something that wasn’t there. She put her hand - the good one - on her upper arm, “Kirumi?”

She blinked, shaken out of whatever had imprisoned her, and turned her face at Kaede's. Despite that, her movement was lacking. Only her eyes showed a sign of life; moving from Kaede’s face to her hurt hand, to the dark and then back to her hand.

“... Earth to Kirumi?”

A sigh escaped her mouth and she bent down to her dress, ripping it.

“What the-?!”

She then took Kaede’s hand and tightly wrapped it with a long strip. It looked just like regular bandaging, except black.

Kaede’s mouth stood agape in the meantime. Kirumi had torn her precious beautiful dress instead of at least checking the warehouse for regular bandaging first. It’s not as though it considered an emergency which had to be handled immediately. They had all the time in the world. So whyever would she destroy her own clothing?

The only thing she could think of was a relation to the dark. The way her eyes darted ahead, staring like a deer in headlights, didn’t happen over nothing. 

Then again, Kaede hadn’t seen her display any strange behavior thus far. Like a hint that something was slowly happening to her. She acted much the same as she always did.

Even down to basically always being in the kitchen. If you needed her during these dark hours, that’s where you could count on her being, no matter what. The kitchen, the only place with ‘proper’ lighting.

“Erm, thanks for the bandage…"

"You're welcome," she said like the most normal thing on the world had just happened.

"... Say… what were you doing upstairs? You’ve only ever left the kitchen so far to go to bed.”

“I wanted to perform my task as a maid by trying to do a wash, but…” her words drifted off.

“... But what?”

“... I do not enjoy this darkness…” she whispered.

“You’re afraid of the dark?” Kaede whispered back.

“Not particularly. It’s just that… Being in the dark with no end in sight… I don’t like what it does to my body.”

So it did have to do with the dark. Kirumi didn’t like going out there, no matter how short it might be. In fact, she disliked it so much that she’d rather let her tasks wither. And if she did that, well, then you just knew something was terribly wrong.

Kaede wanted to help - especially with seeing her nervously look into the dark again - but didn’t know how to. Even if she wanted, she couldn’t take the burden in her stead. Nobody could. All she could do was try to distract her from it.

“... Hey, wanna do another story session?”

That seemed to work. Kirumi fully turned to Kaede as her regular expression made a return. “I’m rather confident I have told everything I could.”

“Mm, definitely not.”

A soft chuckle left her throat, “However would you know?”

“Because I haven’t heard anything about your non-maid life yet.”

“My… non-maid life?”

This wasn’t the first time Kaede tried to make Kirumi understand she sought a more personal connection. Sometimes it worked. She had managed to figure out her favorite movie and book genre for example, but those seemed like such basic things to know about someone that they might have as well been added to her profile overview.

“I just want to know more about you, Kirumi. Even small stupid things.”

“Hm… That is troublesome.” She looked away a bit, though not out of shame or anything along those lines. Admittedly, her expression looked incredibly blank. “There is no need for anyone to know more about their servant. I haven’t spoken about anything else because it simply does not matter.”

“But it matters to me…!” Kaede objected internally. If she’d say that out loud, it wouldn’t do anything. She knew Kirumi well enough for that. If she wanted to get through, she needed to try something else. “Well… If you’re going to say something like that.” She disapprovingly waved her finger in Kirumi’s face, like a disciplining mother, and got up close, “I won’t ask any requests of you anymore. I won’t rely on you anymore and I’ll take care of all your requests ahead of time. Then you’ll have no choice but to tell every excruciating detail, correct?”

Kirumi stared at her with trouble, overwhelmed by the intense determination. A small bead of sweat ran down her forehead. Even though not an intelligible word managed to leave her lips, Kaede got her answer. 

It had never been about whatever rules there were to being a maid. It was a simple disguise for the truth.

That truth being that she really did not want to talk about her non-maid life.

Kaede gave a small smirk and quickly backed off with pity laughter, trying to save the situation. “Just kidding! I won’t do that… Sorry for being mean.”

“... It’s alright.” She looked down to the floor, gripping her hands. Despite Kaede’s apology, she was still uncomfortable, but not for the same reason anymore.

Some people are simply private about their personal life, and though Kirumi came across as such a person, it wasn’t her actual reason. Right now she was internally fighting herself, desiring to open the door for a precious friend, but unable to turn the knob. It was far too heavy.

Perhaps Kirumi didn’t speak of her life because it had been no good. It hurt and all she wanted to do was drown herself in this maid persona.

“... I’ll make you happy, Kirumi.”

She looked up.

“I’m sure pianists have maids as well. You can be mine. And then… we can do fun things together.”

“.......” 

“I get way too caught up playing - you’ve seen it - so I do really need someone to pull me out of it and get me to relax… That’s a good reason to have a maid, right?” She lightly dug her foot in the floor, nervous.

Kirumi's voice hushed, barely able to overpower the bubbling water, “Kaede, I… I have already had such a great time with you here.”

“But there is so much more I want to do with you outside the killing game…!” her hands automatically aimed for Kirumi’s, breaking them out of their fidgeting and holding them tightly. “We can go to the movies, or a museum, or take walks in the park… Or what about a holiday? We can go on holiday together to a warm place. Even stupid simple things would be lovely! We can lay on the bedroom floor and listen to music, forgetting time and only realizing how long we’ve stayed up once the sun suddenly rises through the windows. That’s… That’s what I want to do with you.”

Kirumi held her breath, every word spoken further dilating her pupils. The emerald hue twinkled. Kaede had never seen her like this before.

All the things Kaede mentioned, Kirumi had never known. And if she had, it must have been so long ago. Such basic human experiences that she had been locked away from.

She was aching.

“Come here…” Kaede reached her arms around Kirumi, delicately placing them on her shoulders and pulling her in a tight hug.

Kirumi let out a short squeak at the touch, paralyzing. She did not move a muscle. Not until Kaede finally felt a forced and pained breath against her ear. 

She slowly returned the hug, her hands settling on the fabric of Kaede’s clothes with a faint clutch. They hovered over Kaede’s skin, desperately wanting to set themselves into her and never let go, yet afraid the earlier words were nothing but lies that she could not hold on to.

It felt as though Kirumi was about to cry. It made Kaede wonder when she was held like this for the last time.

Whatever things she went through before or even during her trophy-worthy achievements must have caused a pain she could not easily recover from. But knowing Kirumi, knowing how persistent she was in simply pushing things aside and refusing to feel, nobody had perhaps ever allowed her to grieve. 

Maybe, she had been doing nothing but surviving.

Maybe, she simply needed someone like Kaede telling her it didn’t have to be this way.

Kaede had to do it. She had to confess to Kirumi no matter what and make sure she would understand how much she really meant. But then again, how to do it?

She slowly pulled away from Kirumi, only lightly so their foreheads nearly bumped against each other, and looked her in the eyes again.

Such a sad and broken look in them. She looked so young all of a sudden.

Perhaps it was the flames, but Kirumi’s skin had turned warm, red pampering her porcelain cheeks. Red like a rose. What a fitting view. 

…

Rose…

…

A rose! That’s how Kaede had to confess!

Just as Kirumi closed the distance between them, Kaede messilly pulled away, nearly falling over. She balanced herself, broadly setting her feet and putting her hands up. “Don’t go anywhere! I’ll be right back!” and escaped the kitchen.

“Kaede, wait…!” Kirumi ran after her with held out hands, but made a full stop in the kitchen’s door frame, right before the darkness. She couldn’t move further than this, instead staring into the void Kaede dematerialized in. “... Don’t leave me…”

Kaede hurried to the Shrine of Judgement, running like the wind and not even thinking about the potential dangers of falling down the stairs or hitting a wall.

Due to how panicky she ran it only ended up taking longer to get there - she did in fact hit a few walls and nearly fell down the stairs - but finally she heard the coddling of the fountain.

She quickly turned, not even bothering to catch her breath, and rushed her tablet around in search of the red rose columns. Plenty of beautiful roses grew here, all of which were eligible candidates.

Kaede wanted to make use of a singular rose. Customers would often get them for a first date. Something that made perfect sense considering its meaning. Or well, one of its meanings.

It also meant she had to find the most perfect one of all. None of the ones in reach satisfied. No, it was one all the way up that grabbed her attention.

She searched for the garden supplies, thinking she could use the scraper to pull the vines down. But of course she could not find it. Where had Kirumi put the damn thing?

Handwork it is then.

She lowered through her knees and jumped as high as she could, gripping her good hand on the singular vine and plucking the rose off with all her weight.

The thorns cut her skin. There went her second hand.

“Crap, not again…!”

She quickly sucked the tiny drops of blood off, hoping it hadn’t stained the rose all too much, and made her way back to the academy.

When Kaede arrived at the canteen again, peeking around the kitchen corner, Kirumi was still there as requested. Although, she wasn’t alone anymore.

She had diverted her attention to cooking food. Miso soup by the smell from it. And by her side stood Shuichi, intently watching her with a watering mouth.

Kaede backed off a bit, stepping out of the flames’ light extensions. She couldn’t confess with Shuichi right there, that’d be extremely awkward. For once she didn’t want any eyes on her. 

Should she come back later?

No, she was done stalling. She’ll politely ask Shuichi to leave. It’s not like he wouldn’t listen to her. With all her confidence put on her belt she took a step forward - if it hadn’t been for the odd thing she then noticed.

Kirumi and Shuichi acted strangely around each other. He stood so very close to her, murmuring. His hand faintly moved to the small of her back.

“Please…?”

“We really shouldn’t.”

“Come on…” He looked at her with big puppy eyes, like his cap didn’t exist. He never exposed himself like that - looked anyone directly in the eye like that. And now, with Kirumi, he did it so effortlessly.

Kirumi glanced at his beggar face, trying to contain the amusement that threatened to show on her lips. The way her eyes crinkled and lit up. It was such a genuine expression of admiration. An expression that he held just as intensely. “Someone could see us.”

“I don’t really care if they do.” His hands went to her waist, pulling her close. His touch was so very tender.

She didn’t resist despite her earlier words. If anything, she appeared somewhat enamored by his resolve. “You’re lucky to have such a sweet face… Alright then, but only shortly.”

Her smile increased and her hands reached to his cap to take it off. As it turned out he had an antenna much like Kaede hidden underneath, springing up. She let out a soft giggle at the sight, retreating her hands to his shoulders. Their bodies pressed together.

They kissed.

Kaede stared at them, the image of the love they had for each other burning in her mind. She couldn’t look away. It was like watching a building catch fire.

The tainted rose slipped from her hand.

“She likes a boy,” her inner voice said. “And… I’m not a boy.”

It took a moment to escape her hypnotic state. To take her eyes off how Shuichi’s hands ran over Kirumi’s curves - just like Kaede had so desperately been craving to do ever since their bathroom encounter - deepening their kiss.

She walked out of the canteen, her steps at a calm and soft pace. Her right hand, pampered and cared for by Kirumi, took to the door and closed it behind her.

And then she cried.

The tears sprung from her eyes as soft wails left her mouth.

What an idiot she had been. All their interactions - from their cuddle on the stairs to the night they spent together, and their dance at the party to the promise by the fountain - had been platonic. Because of course Kirumi wasn’t into women. Of course she wasn’t into Kaede. She was into Shuichi. Stupid, insecure Shuichi.

When did he become so bold ? How did a guy that practically needed his hand held at every corner manage to land someone like Kirumi? She was way too good for him. Except if that poor sheep look is exactly what made Kirumi weak on her knees. Or it’s because she was into detective novels, and he was a detective.

When did any of this even happen? How had she not noticed before how much they’re into each other? It must have happened recently, like during the motive. 

It suddenly occured to her how she had left Kirumi behind in an incredibly emotionally vulnerable moment. Shuichi could have used that to pick up the pieces and take his final step into her heart. If only Kaede hadn’t had such a great desire to make a dramatic love confession.

She collapsed through her legs and harshly pressed her hands on her mouth, desperately trying to prevent her growing sobbing from being heard by anyone.

But then again, their touch didn’t reflect this theory. New love is awkward and unsure. They were anything but that. They knew how to feel each other, their bodies knew each other. Did they get together when they explored the fifth floor and Shuichi requested Kirumi to stay in his lab? 

Kaede knew she hated his request for a reason. She should’ve held onto Kirumi as tight as possible and never allowed her to slip through her fingers again. Perhaps all of this could then have been avoided.

However, a lot of time had passed since the exploration. So if this were the case, neither had bothered to tell her about their relationship. She had been cast out of the group. A group that she created.

Her body struggled containing itself as her sobs turned violent and hysteric. The eyes had returned, she could see them even when she tightly shut her own. They judged her for her decisions, for her emotions. How did she ever dare?

She had so much love for Kirumi, and Kirumi didn’t want it. She couldn’t give it to anyone else either because it wasn’t theirs. It’s Kirumi’s. All Kirumi’s, with nowhere else to put it. It was so very heavy with no way to get rid of.

She felt like tearing herself apart. She felt like screaming her lungs out of her body. She felt like exploding. She wished she could explode and have it all just end.

Everything became warm. Her soul was being pressed together again. She couldn’t breathe.

She needed alcohol-

“Fucking hell...!”

Metal clanged to the floor, an echo so loud that it silenced the voices in Kaede’s head and instantly evaporated the eye shadows. She froze.

“Stupid piece of shit items… Stupid weak ass motive…” 

The profile of the only person such language could belong to lit up. Miu lowered to the ground and moved the light around, gathering all the supplies she had taken from the warehouse: Special screws and other metal items Kaede had no understanding of.

Her eyes shakily focused on the simple movement.

“I can’t believe I actually listened… She’s lucky she’s so cute,” Miu complained. Her tablet moved up again and left. 

She hadn’t noticed Kaede.

Her hands slowly released the tight hold on her face. They were wet from all the tears. It stung.

“You're her weak spot. She likes you.”

Kaede wiped the tears off her face, crawled up, and followed Miu.

A bright light shone inside the inventor’s lab. Miu was welding pieces of metal together. It appears the machine worked on gas instead of electricity, the torch being connected to two heavy looking tanks.

Her steampunk goggles were down, the only real form of protection she had put on. It must be destructive and dangerous, but Miu didn’t care. She welded like she had been doing it this way for years. To be fair, she probably had.

The light turned off, only the aftermath of hot metal shining like a tiny star, until that too deafened.

The welder then turned on again, this time aiming at something completely different. A small wooden stick. Miu was creating a small torch of sorts, turning to her desk and tightening it in place between a few other items.

It admittedly did not give that much more light than the tablets did. The flickering was weak, like a simple breeze could extinguish it. Still, it worked a bit better in terms of giving her the ability to examine her blueprints.

Kaede quietly approached and looked the blue paper over. She had no clue what she was looking at.

Miu shoved her goggles back up, took a pencil and went over the lines, scratching something. She didn’t seem all too pleased with whatever she had put down.

“Argh, fuck… If only I could just test the damn thing. How is a girl supposed to-” she turned around, directly facing Kaede. 

After a second of progressing, Miu screamed loudly, jumped a hole in the air and landed all the way back in her chair, rolling off a bit. Her hands tightly held the arm rests, panting as her entire body stood tense like electricity had been pumped right through her.

“W-what the… Kaede?!” she scrambled up again. “Don’t scare me like that! What is your fucking problem?! And don’t come at me again with an ‘ooh, but I knocked’! I don’t hear that shit when I’m working, have you learned nothing?!”

She simply looked back at her, not responding.

“You should be nicer to me than this… Cuz despite all the freaking mental torture I’m doing my damn best working on that stupid project of yours! You know, that thing you sent Sherlock Homo for?!”

Right. The lie he had asked Kaede to play along with. They had such a nice conversation at the time. What would he have done if he she had told him the song was meant for Kirumi?

“You’re lucky I’m such an incredibly nice human being. I-...” Her peacock attitude suddenly exchanged with worry, “What’s wrong?”

“... What?”

“Your eyes,” she wove her hand at her, “they’re all… red and puppy-like and… The hell do you want from me this time?”

Kaede didn’t respond, again.

It made Miu draw her brow together in confusion. “... If you don’t have anything to say, then get out of here already! I need to concentrate and I can’t do that with your dumpy tits being around.” She returned to the blueprints, taking her pencil and chewing the tip.

Kaede knew by now Miu didn’t want her to go, she never did. She was only spouting nonsense as usual. If she hadn’t been clear about her feelings towards Kaede before, she definitely had been by Shuichi’s discovery.

“... I don’t think you actually want to be alone,” Kaede murmured.

“Eh?” Miu looked up from her project, her brow slightly furrowed.

“Not really, at least…”

“... Don’t start projecting your fucking issues on me, I’m no therapist. Go to your maid for that.”

A hot shiver went through Kaede’s body at the mention of Kirumi, the kitchen scene flashing by. They might be making out by now.

This was admittedly the moment she expected Miu to definitively scowl her away. But she didn’t. She just kept looking at her with that strange look on her face, her nails even starting to tick the desk in impatience.

Kaede was correct.

With a small breath she enclosed the space between the two of them, running her hand over the paper until her fingers met with Miu’s.

The inventor broke from whatever thoughtprocess she was going through and nearly jumped another hole in the air, her face turning into a tomato. She pulled her hand back in surprise, but Kaede held it down just in time. 

Even with the glovelettes on, Kaede could always tell how sweaty her hands became at a simple touch. Miu liked to act extreme, but she also melted at the simplest of gestures.

She carefully caressed Miu’s fingers with incredible care, running over the texture made from hard work. 

Miu’s face calmed bit by bit with every careful stroke, until a certain peace displayed itself which Kaede couldn’t recall having seen on her before. Her muscles were finally resting from all the glaring and scrunching. Perhaps this was the first time she felt relief. 

A feeling she wanted to return as her fingers slowly joined in with Kaede’s. 

It became increasingly warm, the heat from Miu’s hand beginning to spread to the rest of the pianist’s body; her face, her chest. 

It only became hotter as they kissed.

Chapter Text

Shuichi stared at the paperwork in front of him, his messy sketch of two Monokuma statues in particular. He needed something fancy to fill the grandiose room he and Kirumi planned on having in their killing game. Fancy statues were common for such places, so he’d figured this would be a good choice whilst also upholding the typical Monokuma self-absorbedness.

Although it did make him wonder if the sight, combined with the stairs and stained glass, would be too obvious. His memory regarding the inspiration was rather fuzzy - although it’s not like he completely minded that, be it for very different reasons. Maybe he should add a special function to the statues for differentiation? Kirumi should be able to tune in on this.

But sadly she was still in her acting exam. She was incredibly nervous in the morning; fussing, pursing her lips, switching between fidgeting her fingers on her onyx pants and kneading her hands together. All the typical signs.

It was never good if she worried like that.

Shuichi bit the tip of his pencil, leaning back in his chair and looking up. So much could be happening in that room. Her reputation ruined, the respect shattered, her chances fallen. “... I hope she’s okay…”

He closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath in an attempt to control his own growing anxiety, and opened his eyes.

An egg.

His brow drew together in confusion, but not because he wondered who was holding it above his head in the first place. “When did you sneak that out of the canteen?”

“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Maki stepped from behind him to the corner of the study desk and hid the item away in Shuichi’s folder.

Although he had long not needed this kind of extra care anymore, he could never bring it over his heart to tell Maki otherwise. It’s like she said after all, so he simply smiled. “You’re right… Thank you. You must’ve gone through quite the work to get that.”

“The most difficult part was getting it to you,” she said, sitting at the edge of the desk. “Didn’t think I would find you in the library at a moment like this.”

His eyes averted. “I only came here because they won’t allow me to stand in the hallway waiting anymore…”

Maki scoffed, turning his sketch paper towards herself and looking the statues over. “You know, when you curate the killing game you’ll have to be apart a lot more than this.”

“Yeah, I know… I guess it’s supposed to be practice, huh?” he sheepishly smiled, looking at her again.

Her head shook, “It’s Mr Monokuma. That’s definitely not the intention.”

“Hmm…” His pen automatically moved to the other papers’ top, a space reserved for putting the official game number on. It would look more professional to add it, but sadly he had no real clue which it would become, leaving him with an incomplete working title of Danganronpa 5 . “This year it has to be either us or you. We’re the eldest.”

“I know. It’s pretty nerve-wrecking.” Her hands instinctively curled in one of her long pigtails, pulling on it, as she tended to do. “If I don’t get to go first you two broods will have power over where we will live once we are out of here. That’s a nightmare.”

“ That is what you’re worried about? What place Kirumi and I would pick?”

“Sure. I want to go first so we don’t end up in the middle of nowhere.” Her eyes lingered to the high but very much incapable of opening windows. The sun was shining brightly. “I actually want to live out there, you know.”

He shook his head a bit, though still smiling. He didn’t take it as an offense. “So then I’m guessing you finished your designs already in hopes Mr Monokuma’s preference will go to you?”

Her eyes returned from glamoring in the light, “I’ve had my designs for a long time.”

“... Still the simple school aesthetic?”

“Hey, not everybody wants to be as dramatic as you two,” she took the Monokuma statues and wove them in his face, “with your overgrown abandoned mansion, creepy horror hallways and whole ass chapel.”

He quickly took the paper from her before it would get any folds, as well as avoiding it by any chance tickling him. “Says the girl who is going for the clean school aesthetic with dorms, library, gym and a game room… I still don’t get why you want a basic area like that.”

“Maybe I just want to see what it would have been like to live a normal life.”

Kirumi then arrived at the scene, looking down at the floor. Despite her attempts at hiding her feelings, both Shuichi and Maki instantly noticed something was wrong. And considering where she came from, it could be related to only one thing.

“... How did the exam go?” Shuichi carefully asked.

She let out a deep sigh. He knew what her next moves would be: Sitting on the desk, close enough to Shuichi’s chair to have her knee touch his own in comfort. But despite that action, along with a matching facial expression, she’d claim it was simply ‘fine’. And that is indeed what she did.

“Spill the tea,” Maki commanded. “You’re definitely not fine. Did he yell at you?”

Another sigh left Kirumi, though this time from her nose. “I suppose you will find out yourselves soon enough… I had a bad feeling this morning about the exam. I wasn’t sure why, but I suppose my body somehow knew what was ahead of me. The exam is… rather difficult.”

“Difficult meaning…?” Shuichi questioned.

Her lips pursed. She hated admitting the truth. “... I did not pass.”

“What?!” the other two instantly shouted, earning a ‘sshh!” from someone seated further away.

Maki threw a quick glare at them before returning to the conversation, her eyes slightly widened. “Y-you didn’t pass…? How?”

“I thought I was doing well, but Mr Monokuma completely dissected it. The character AI has been significantly improved.”

If the character AI was involved it could never be any good. Shuichi remembered the last exam where they had to go through an investigation with the fake cast created for the scenario. Easy enough, but the issue lied in the persona you were given, especially with all the little given details you were expected to perfectly fill in. It was a hassle to control an entire cast in a panic moment like that.

Maki stood up, biting the tip of her thumb, and wandered in a circle. Her growing nerves were so great that she didn’t even fix her suit's curled up vest back in the proper place. “Shit… There’s no way I’m going to pass. I barely did in the past, I can’t play anything but stoic characters.”

With that she meant she couldn’t play as anyone but herself.

Kirumi quickly reached to the other’s vest, pulling it down a bit for proper presentation. Even if the wearer couldn’t care less, she couldn’t stand looking at it. “Don’t say that…”

“But it’s true.” She halted in her tracks and turned towards her. “You’re the best student, especially in acting class… If you can’t make it, then it’s hopeless for the rest of us.”

Shuichi caressed his chin, “Let’s just think about this… Do you think there’s hope if with Kirumi’s information we can prepare ourselves by practicing together?”

Kirumi opened her mouth to remind him she could not share any more information about the exam without facing the consequences, but was quickly cut off by Maki.

“You know what can save us? Calling in sick and doing the retake. That would give us a few more days. … No, wait, that would mean I have to act sick. Dammit…!”

Suddenly, a giggle ran through the air. One that turned into soft laughter.

Kirumi leaned back into the desk, slapping her hands together in amusement as her smile continued to stand wide. “That is quite enough… I was merely joking! Do you truly think I would not pass with a perfect grade?”

Both Maki and Shuichi stared at her, their minds blank.

She crossed her legs and waved the invincible dust particles from her pants, aloofly. “It would be unbecoming of me to achieve otherwise.”

Shuichi too struggled with the revelation. “But… you were genuinely nervous this morning, while you never are…”

“Indeed.” She gave him a simple smile. “That was my warming up.”

“And then… just now…?” Maki could barely make up her sentence.

“Cooling down,” she replied with that same expression.

“... Alright, that’s it.” Maki put her hands up, reversing her way out of the library. “That is enough Shuichi and Kirumi shenanigans for today.”

Shuichi raised his brow at her. “What do I have to do with it?”

“Oh, come now, Maki,” Kirumi begged, although not too serious about it. She had seen this scene unfold plenty of times.

“No. The meter has shot across and I can therefore not see you for the rest of the day. Live with the consequences.” She pointed her finger at them, accusingly, and left the room. Although 3 seconds later the door opened again. “Were we going to meet in room 2.2 or 3.2 to work on our presentation for Danganronpa History?”

“3.2,” they replied in unison.

“Okay. See you in 30 minutes.”

Despite the tablet’s poor light, sitting at Miu’s bedroom desk and aiming to the ceiling, it gave enough information for Kaede to have found the tamagotchi among the pile of mixed up clothes. Only due to the item’s poor old-fashioned screen it sadly wasn’t enough for her to see what the ghost was doing at this moment.

But then again, she had stared at it so often that her mind filled in the picture.

“Mmm, you awake?” Miu lazily nudged her ear, pressing her naked body against the back of Kaede’s own. Her arms wrapped around Kaede’s middle, pulling her in even closer. She wanted to make sure the other felt every part of her.

Kaede couldn’t help but blush at the teasing whisper accompanied by the soft skin pressing into her shoulders, although her brain reminded her different arms would have been preferred. It created a conflicting feeling inside of her, resulting in no other reaction aside from a small confirmatory throat sound.

It didn’t bother Miu, at least, not considering how she squeezed and pressed a kiss below her ear. “Do you want to go again?”

“... Again?”

Her hands slowly drew upwards, to Kaede’s chest. “Still not sure if they’re so big because they are real or silicon… If you don’t like talking shit to me, then I guess the only other option is physical assessment.”

She pressed one of the buttons, sounding a bleep. “You used that excuse last time as well. And I distinctly remember you afterwards saying you were now most definitely convinced they were not fake.”

Her hands halted. “... M… Maybe I’ve forgotten again…”

Admittedly, the anxiety that creeped on the other’s tongue made Kaede chuckle a little. Only a little, though. “Just… not now, okay?”

She let out a sigh of disappointment, but didn’t fight the situation either, instead fully laying her face into Kaede’s neck to get a glance of what occupied her so much. “So, what are we looking at?”

“A tamagotchi.”

“Tamagotchi? When the hell did you get that from Monokuma? He didn’t give me one! ... Not as though someone like me even needs a kiddy toy…”

Kaede shook her head a bit, “It’s not Monokuma’s, it’s…”

“... Yours?” Miu finished.

“... I’m not so sure…”

She let out a cackle, “Maybe I did you too hard and your brain got all scrambled…”

That definitely wasn’t it. If only it had been that simple.

“How fucking unfair you got to keep a personal item while I didn’t get to keep jackshit though… What, was the bear sentimental because it’s also an electronic animal?” She swiped the item and laid on her back, holding it to her face for examination.

“Hey!” Kaede immediately jolted up and forced it out of her hands. “Don’t touch that…!”

“Eeeehhh!”

“Never touch that. You can touch whatever you want, but not that…!”

Miu trembled on the mattress. “W… Why…?”

“None of your business! Just keep your hands off of it!”

“W-why are you so upset about it anyway…? It’s broken…!”

“No, it’s not…!”

She raised up a bit, flipping the switch of fear to barking in Kaede’s face, “I’m a fucking professional, I know I felt cracks! On the housing, on the glass! What did you even do to get that done?!”

As if she had any clue of that. “What does it matter?” she grunted. “It works perfectly fine. I’ve been feeding and playing with the little ghost since we got here. I think I’d know if it’s really done for.”

“... It’s been a ghost this entire time?” She laid back down again. “Well, shit, it definitely is broken then.”

“What about that sounds broken to you?”

“Uhh, hello, the whole point of those things is to raise ‘em until they die and you start anew! You should've finished the cycle for a long time now. … N-not that I ever owned such a dumb thing to know all that…”

Kaede’s brow drew together, eying her little buddy. Was that really true?

“I’m guessing the time system broke and that’s why it never died,” she elaborated, only to let out a snort. “Kind of fitting, isn’t it? It’s a ghost and ghosts are basically sorta stuck in time, huh? It’s like it actually died!”

That really wasn’t all that funny.

“Listen," she put her hand on Kaede's thigh, patting it, "this is Miu fucking Iruma you’re talking to. There may be limited supply, but it's nothing my brain can’t work around. I can fix the timing system and maybe even change the screen. There aren’t exactly any tamagotchi housings around, but maybe I can fix that part in another way. Like with molten metal and sanding… Fuck like I know! I’ll figure it out along the way! A special service from me to you, eh?”

To give the tamagotchi over to Miu… No. She could never do such a thing.

“Thank you, Miu, but I’m good…” She laid herself down again, her back turned towards her.

“Huh? Why not?”

“Because… I guess I… feel a bit of a bond to it.”

“Ahh… Gotcha.” She put her hand on Kaede’s waist now. “I’ve got the same thing with my projects. Nobody’s getting their hands on my babies! They’d have to pry it out of my cold dead hands!”

Miu could compare the item to her own projects as much as she wanted, but it was nothing like that.

Without replying Kaede continued her game with the ghost, small bleeps echoing through the room. A signal which, for the rare occasion, was actually well-received by Miu.

She let go of the subject and returned to the position of wrapping herself around Kaede’s body and snuggling her face into her neck, watching the electronic system in an attempt to understand why Kaede cared as much as she did.

“So… what’s its name?”

“... I don’t know.”

Her eyes rolled, “Sheesh, you’re really starting to lose me here. Maybe it got mixed in with Monokuma’s crazy kidnapping shenanigans and it belongs to some rando.”

No, the tamagotchi wasn’t random. It wasn’t a silly little buddy that kept Kaede's sanity in check or just travelled along in her backpack because Monokuma made a mistake. Even if she had gained no new knowledge of its origins over all the passed weeks, she knew something to be going on with it. Something she couldn’t entrust anyone else with.

“Stay out of it, Miu… Can’t you entertain yourself until I’m finished?”

“You know what would entertain me-?”

“Aside from doing me.”

“You’re no fun… Then… Alcohol!”

“You have stock in your room? … Mmm… Can you grab a bottle for me too? Just a small one, though. If you took one. … Otherwise normal is okay.”

“... What? I don’t have any of that here.”

So much for that then.

“... I do want some though,” she eventually said again.

“... So you’re going to get it? Something with vodka in it for me. Like a mix.”

“What? No fucking way I’m leaving the sheets!!”

“You brought it up, you go get it. I won’t do it just because my clothes are less complex to put back on.”

“But I do want it…!”

Kaede let out a deep sigh, frustrated, “If you want it so bad, then you have to take a walk to Tsumugi’s. That’s how it works.”

“I’m not going up there!”

“For someone so adamant on getting it, you’re not very willing.”

“It's not like I haven’t tried! It’s just…” her face hid into the back of Kaede’s neck, in her hair. “there’s something creepy up there…”

Her sight left the screen, lightly moving to Miu instead. “... What do you mean?’

“I’ve tried to go up several times to recover some material from the computer room, as well as to get alcohol, but… as soon as I get to the creepy hallway floor everything becomes… stagnant. There were all these tiny sounds, like creaking that I in no way produced. But not a tablet in sight either…” She shivered, tightening her hold on Kaede in comfort, “I’d fucking swear I was being followed by someone, watching me… I-It freaked me out…”

Never before had Miu spoken this way; so vulnerable, not even about Keebo. Her voice was low and shaky, afraid merely speaking about the experience would invite it into her dorm room. And her body, digging itself deeper into her bed partner with no sense of carnal desire in sight, imprinted itself in Kaede’s soul.

“Almost half of us have died… I’m scared, Kaede…”

This was getting out of hand. Forget about people fighting each other over dumb subjects, people were descending into a state of terror. Kaede had no clue how much time had passed since the start of the motive, but surely too long. Maybe even longer than with the previous motive. 

Whatever the time frame, it had caused Kirumi to get a weird feeling in her body and fear the dark like a small child, while Miu grew so afraid of the 2 upper floors that she wouldn’t even cross it for electronics or booze. Heck, Kaede saw things she shouldn’t see as well.

This madness must be the exact point. To scare people and make them paranoid, perhaps leading into a murder. This display of behavior was risky, Kaede realized that all too well. She supposed Monokuma’s act of telling scary firecamp stories had been a hint all along.

And if that were a hint to what was to come, it could perhaps also contain a hint to the end.

She hadn’t remembered the story too well. Something about a haunting of a mansion. A curse that will continue until lifted.

Obviously the mood shifts on the upper floors had to be related to the story. Old hallways, a chapel. That sounded like things an ancient fancy mansion would hold.

Maybe, just maybe, she could find her answers there and lift the ‘curse’ of the darkness without anyone having to die. It was time to put on her detective hat and save her classmates. No fear!

Her right hand cradled the tamagotchi, into the wound Kirumi had tended to. Kaede should probably ask her two mystery solving friends to come with, shouldn’t she?

She put the toy away and quickly rolled over, pinning Miu to the mattress. 

She squeaked and shivered in return. Despite her explicit talk, she was a nervous wreck in bed. “W-what are you doing…?”

“You. One more time before I go.” She put a hand on Miu’s mouth and moved her lips to her ear, whispering, “And stay quiet, okay?”

Kaede carefully navigated her way to the upper floors - both afraid and unafraid. Unafraid to find a solution that would aid her classmates, but afraid of what she could run into.

She didn’t know whether to believe Miu in the sense of if the sounds she had heard were real or a figment of her imagination. It would be logical for it to be the latter, but you never knew. Especially if Monokuma's story held true.

Her foot hit some cement, signalling the stairs to be near. Once she climbed those, a creaking floorboard welcomed her. The fourth floor.

Last time she hung around here in search of the truth was for the investigation of Maki and Korekiyo's deaths. An investigation that landed on the awful conclusion that Rantaro had to leave forever.

She had tried not to think too much about him, hoping that ignoring his existence would aid her in forgetting the sorrow his death had caused. Although it became hard to continue so in the current circumstances.

Her hands moved her tablet forward, trying to see through the dark despite knowing it wouldn’t do anything for her. It had been uncomfortable to move through the school halls, but to be in old horror versions that looked like they could fall apart any moment brought a whole other energy to the table. Like she landed straight in a scary movie or video game.

She focused her thoughts on how happy her classmates would be if the light were to return, indulging in encouraging words from Rantaro which resided deep in her mind. It wouldn’t harm to think he would be looking after her, right?

Something creaked. Maybe Miu didn’t imagine things after all.

“...... It’s fine… Just the wind.” Her feet slowly shuffled forward. “Or maybe it’s you, trying to scare me on purpose like a true brother…” She let out a light scoff, though followed by gloom.

With a heaving chest she made it to the next set of stairs, carefully climbing them.

There was no use to investigating the 4th floor. The 5th floor was shiny and new, with statues and beautiful lead glass that fit right in with the aesthetic of old rich mansions. Even though they hadn’t found anything special at the time, something of use must be up there.

Not that it would be easy to find with so little eyesight.

“Alright… Think, Kaede. Where would a detective go…”

She mentally drew a map of the floor. There were Tsumugi and Shuichi’s labs which they had already checked. Then there was the cathedral-like room, which she stood in right now, and didn’t contain anything beyond the angel and devil statues. Ryoma had mentioned there to be a corridor up ahead with absolutely nothing to see beyond a locked door.

“Nothing to see, huh…?” she wiped her nose with a confident attitude. She had to make things at least a little fun in order to shove away the anxiety which made her tremble on her feet. “I smell a mystery.”

After several bump-ins and careful examination of the grey walls Kaede found her way to the hallway, or so she assumed considering the unfamiliar door she eventually ran into. Sadly, it still didn’t budge.

“Probably just stairs to another ‘reward’ for surviving the next trial… Not as though I will let another trial happen,” she muttered, turning around again and running her hand across the hall wall. 

There had to be something else she was missing. If only she was able to see. 

The tablet’s light shone even more closely against the stone. Maybe something had been written on the wall, or a secret button had been installed. Although trying to find a door like that would probably be the same kind of mission impossible she had attempted before with the dome walls.

Luckily for her, she was meant to find none of that, being met with the edge of a painting’s frame instead. A frame that, surely, Ryoma would have noticed if it had been there before.

Didn’t Monokuma say something about the viscount collecting paintings?

“Now we’re getting somewhere.”

She enlightened the canvas and reviewed the picture. It looked exactly like the Mona Lisa, except for the fact that her beautiful face had been replaced with Monokuma’s ugly muck. 

So much for the appreciation of art. At least it could never be the real one which has been tainted. Where is the original painting again? Somewhere in Europe, no? Probably France-

“Focus, Kaede…!’ she slapped her cheek. “Let’s see if there are any other paintings here…”

And so there were. All kinds of famous pieces hung around, ranging from “The Birth of Adam” to “The Scream” to “Fūjin Raijin-zu”. Just like the Mona Lisa they were all tainted with the bear’s desire to have every - whether real or fictional - species' head replaced with whatever kind of species he considered.

She stared at the Wind and Storm God. It reminded her how much she despised such extreme weather conditions. As well as how these paintings were getting her nowhere.

“Clearly there’s a lot of Monokuma ego going on at this floor, but however is that supposed to help me further?” She took her step to what she presumed to be the last few centimeters of the room, judging from her count of corners. “Maybe Angie is able to point out some hidden meanings which could be a hint? Although, that might be giving Monokuma too much credit… He did say the viscount was merely collecting them, so…”

The final painting was one she had already seen, but not because of how famous it was. No, it’s because she had received a very personal and extensive explanation of it not that long ago.

The Green Children of Woolpit running through the forest, hand-in-hand. Only now their expressions of childhood innocence had been replaced with Monokuma’s, the girl having received an all white head and the boy an all black head.

It made her angry.

“Oh, very fucking mature,” she growled, turning to the ceiling in the hopes of looking at one of the announcement screens. “Turning Rantaro into the ‘blackened’, huh? Why not turn it into a wallpaper and decorate the entire academy while you’re at it?!”

Not that it had any use to insult him over it. All it did was take precious energy away. She took a deep breath, slowly moving her hands up to down as though the movement would actually lower her blood pressure.

“Don’t fall for it, he must have done this on purpose… So, focus again. There’s paintings which are clearly supposed to be a show of that viscount’s collection. So from that we can deduce this floor is definitely supposed to be a recreation of that mansion. Meaning we are in the right place. It’s not like I hadn’t guessed that before, but proof is always good, I suppose…”

Perhaps instead of an aimless search she had to look at Monokuma’s story again. She recounted the story beats on her fingers, “So he gave background information about the viscount… Then about this sort of despair and a lady who wanted to destroy his little stories… And to do that she basically… killed his daughter, right?”

A tune sounded deep in the distance. A violin.

Her eyes moved up, “... His violin playing daughter…” and she slowly followed the music back to the main area. “The viscount follows her music to find her, but never does… While her waltz continues until the curse has been lifted…”

Then, shifting. Steps. Both heavy in the tremble Kaede could feel passing through her body as well as soft in its hushed sound.

She slowly looked left to right. No classmates' profile in sight. It was just her up here along with a hallucination she shouldn’t trust.

As she had done many times before she put her tablet more forward for a comforting glimpse. It lit up the black Monokuma a bit, still standing proud. The light barely reached further and yet, it seemed as though the angel Monokuma had vanished.

“... I’m going to pretend the statues are farther apart than I remember…”

The violin grew again. To the left.

Kaede turned that way and was met with a warm soft light coming through an entryway which definitely wasn’t open before. A clearer sign on where to go doesn’t exist.

She walked over and entered.

The light turned out to be coming from the comforting fireplace of Shuichi’s lab. Nobody was inside.

“Right… I completely forgot he has a fire…” With a twinkle in her eyes she closed in, shutting her tablet off and tucking it away in her backpack. Oh how much she had missed such a sight. It warmed her soul.

Though it’s surely not what the ghost would have wanted her to come all the way here for. She had to concentrate.

She twirled around a bit, observing the room. It had been explored before without anything strange having popped up. What could the ghost possibly be trying to tell her?

Her ears focused in hopes of finding the instrument again somewhere in the distance, but without any luck. It had gone quiet, only the slowly decaying wood keeping her alarmed.

“Dammit… Where did you go? What do you need me here for?”

Sadly, it didn’t answer her.

Her hands ran through her hair, a big sigh leaving her body. Maybe she had found herself on a fool’s mission. A ghostly violin guiding her around? Truly? Such things didn’t exist.

It was just a trap. Monokuma had probably hoped somebody would have the proper lack of brain cells to take his story seriously and come upstairs to solve a riddle that held no answer. He must be laughing himself senseless seeing Kaede take all the stupid props he hung up so seriously.

She should head back down again.

CLAP!

Kaede let out a loud gasp and jumped up, turning to the source in defense of the worst.

“... Oh… Oh thank God, a book just fell…”

She put her hand on her heart, which was thumping so heavily that she felt it burst through her clothes, took a deep breath and walked towards it. She recognized the bookcase. It was the one filled with strange case overviews.

The one which had fallen considered volume 14. She quickly skipped through it, met with very little information aside from gruesome black and white pictures. Deep inside she held a hope that this was the hint she was looking for, but clearly it held nothing of interest. So, she slid it back in place.

“... Where’s volume 15?”

The collection continued right to volume 16, completely ignoring the existence of the 15th. There wasn’t even a gap reserved for it. Maybe the order was wrong?

Her eyes roamed over the books, only to find all of them stood in perfect order without any misplacement. The entire collection was complete all the way up to 52, with the exception of that singular print.

“A long, long time ago, when in times of storm and thunder the rivers flooded out of their banks, this mansion was inhabited by viscount Monokuma XV.”

“Viscount Monokuma XV… XV is 15… Could it be…?” She turned to the sky, “Is this what you need me to find…? Do I need to find the 15th volume? Will that lift the curse?”

The violin played.

“What does it contain…!?” she pleaded, stepping forward. “Does it contain the body reports of the gardener, the judges, the woman who brought the curse to you?! Does… Does it contain your death, Ami-?!”

The fire went out.

“Ah!”

And everything became dead silent. No shifts of steps tinkering the air like before.

This was so much worse.

Her breath went out of control, tears watering her eyes. She was shaking. Something was extremely wrong. Her body felt it.

Death.

No, that’s not it. She felt… three sharp stabs plunge into her leg.

She screamed and fell to the floor.

Someone was trying to kill her.

Her survival instincts overcame any of the pain seeping through her nerve system as she thrashed around, hoping to hit her attacker. The blood was pumping so hard in her ears that she could barely comprehend her own screams.

Something kicked her down to the floor again, in the abdomen. Violent clicks sounded, followed by a quick swipe over her forehead. She yelped again, filling the air along with trinkets falling to the floor.

She didn’t know what to do with when someone grabbed her by the arm and hysterically forced her up, nearly throwing her down to the floor once again if it hadn't been for Kaede managing to catch herself. A fierce push in the back made her limp forward.

Not a single thought went through Kaede but how she felt the end was near. She was going to die right here, right now, unless she would defend herself.

With a loud yell she turned around and swung her fists through the air, one by one, until she instinctively launched a kick and tripped over her own feet, backwards, hitting a short wall with her shoulder blades. She hissed loudly.

The hands then grabbed onto her again, pulling her forward, to the side, back and forth. She spun as though trapped in a dance, everything moving with her. And every now and then, she could feel a blow of air - the stabbing weapon - nearly hit her.

Her body was being toyed with, puppeted. She had no control over it. It was so incredibly terrifying .

Until she was let go. This time she was unable to catch herself, the stabs in her leg finally setting through and making her fall face forward to the floor.

Her body tingled all over. From the short stone wall that scratched her side to the strange object below her. If she was still by the wall, that meant the stairs had to be near. If she reached those and hurried her way down, she could escape and call for help.

But as soon as she crawled up, putting all her might in her arms to lift her upper body, something squished the inside of her hands. It felt off. Like holding on to a muddy ground. Something she knew could never be the case with the chapel’s marble floor.

She scratched the surface a bit, wondering if she had somehow made it to the lower floors and fell into a patch of greenery. But it felt warm. And wet. And… meaty.

~Ding dong, dong ding!~

Monokuma’s voice swayed through the room, echoing, “A body has been discovered! Everyone, put on your eclipse glasses and head on over to the 5th floor!”

Wait. The 5th floor-? 

The lights went on with a loud whirring sound, dumping a ray so bright that it was like staring right into the exploding summer sun. Kaede let out a hiss, looking away and quickly covering her eyes. Despite how much she had been wanting the day to return, she had grown so used to the dark that it did nothing but blind now.

She rubbed her eyes a bit, furrowing her brow as the movement only caused more hurt. Something smelled of iron.

And as she slowly opened them, adjusting and clearing her view from the blur, she saw it.

Tenko’s destroyed face. She laid on the floor, turned to the ceiling with no features left to admire the celestial sphere. It was a big bloody torn apart mess. Some fresh blood dripped down from dug-in grooves.

Kaede slowly raised her hands into the rainbow blaze of the stained glass. She had never been digging into mud or plants. 

Her fingers were digging into Tenko’s open flesh, the blood painting her shaking hands in a twinkle.

“A-ah… aaahhh…… aaaaAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!”

Chapter Text

“Get it off, get it off, get it off…!!!”

Kaede’s fingers scraped all across the floor and walls, desperately trying to remove the blood from her hands. It wouldn’t get off, no matter how much she smeared across the marble or on her clothes. Her pleads to some kind of being that could alter the facts turned into unheard stuttered sobs.

Everything was spinning. Again. It wouldn’t stop.

Not until she got slapped across the face, at least.

She fell back against the short marble wall of the stairs, between the two Monokuma statues, letting out a hiss. When she slowly looked up, feeling the heat in her cheek increase and tingle, she was met with someone who should not be capable of being here.

Kokichi observed her state, staring. His eyes lingered from the wound on her forehead to the weak blood smears on her clothes, to her dirty hands - a view that made his eyes widen ever so slightly - and lastly to the stab wounds in her thigh.

They didn’t say a word to each other.

He then untied one of the loose wraps on his leg and tightly wrapped it around Kaede’s leg, onto the wounds and compressing it.

A yelp escaped her chest as she felt the veins in her body close transmission and prepare to burst like a bubble.

As soon as he finished, he raised up again and turned to Tenko’s battered body, forcing Kaede’s focus to do the same.

Her face which always bent itself into so many different moods had been torn to shreds. Nothing but mush covered the feeling of dread she must have experienced before her death.

Kaede’s whimpers grew loud and her breathing increased. “Tenko…” she cried. “Tenko…”

The others came to the scene, reacting the exact opposite of the collected Kokichi.

“What is going on-?! Eeee… eeehhhh!”

Miu looked at Kaede first, her body twisting to help out, but freezing as soon she met with the actual victim. 

Ryoma didn’t know how to deal with the sight either, stuck in limbo but shocked all the while.

Kaede turned away and fell to the floor, not daring to look any of them in the eye as the tears rolled down her cheeks. She kept whispering Tenko’s name, blocking out all words around her. 

More squawks entered the air, combined with incomprehensible arguments between two male voices. After the discussion, hands grabbed onto Kaede and dragged her away from the scene, to a different wall.

Shuichi took her by the shoulders and raised her up. “Kaede…?”

His marble orbs dug into her with incredible worry, twitching up and down in the hopes of receiving a sign of life.

She should be hating him at this moment, despising his baby skin for captivating Kirumi, but instead it took on a strange mixture of feelings. Because even if she hated his guts, he was still being such a good friend to her. It only made her feel even worse about herself than she already did.

“It’s okay…” he whispered.

To the very least she wasn’t the only one stuck in a conflicted state of mind. Shuichi, being ever the detective, had of course long noticed how the blood was quite literally on Kaede’s hands. His words of comfort were aimed as much at himself as at Kaede.

She would be considered the main suspect, wouldn't she?

Kirumi hurried towards them, evident from her heels echoing through the chapel, and slid to the floor by Kaede’s side. She wanted to pull Kaede into her arms, her body didn’t try to hide that fact, but was stopped by logic as she came to the same conclusion surely every student had.

Kaede didn’t care what Kirumi must be thinking of her now - whether she judged her a monster. All she wanted was to be in her arms again. She instinctively threw herself into Kirumi, clinging onto her and quietly sobbing into her neck as her entire body trembled.

And sure enough that introduced the only embrace that could calm Kaede down, cradling her ever so softly. Shuichi’s hand eventually joined and rubbed itself over her back. 

The slightest semblance of safety pumped through her muscles.

“Aww, you poor thing…” Monokuma sat by Kaede as well, by her feet, patting her ankle. “Having to witness such an awful death… Why, it’s just not fair towards you!”

Kaede immediately looked up and kicked him away, although extremely weakly and not without a pained grunt escaping her throat. The bear was lucky for her leg to be out of service.

He cackled softly at the sight. “Beaten down to the ground… What a sight. I did miss that fussy face of yours! How nice it is to have the light back again.”

“So… this is for real…?” Shuichi's voice raised an octave. “That body… It’s really Tenko?”

“Sure it is!” Monokuma swiped the Files from underneath his arm, presenting them spread in his paw like a deck of cards. “And now it’s time for you to figure out who created such a beautiful and brutal display! Gosh, I’m so excited that I think I could explode!”

He handed them out one by one, shoving a copy between Kirumi and Kaede and separating them with the headshot of a smiling Tenko covered by the typical “DEAD” stamp. “Come on, Kaede, don’t just sit there being lazy!”

She wiped her tears and took the electronic item, knowing the bear to be right.

“You don’t have to,” Kirumi said as soon as Monokuma left. “You are in no condition to investigate. Please stay seated.”

She weakly shook her head and unlocked the tablet, forcing herself to sit up. 

The victim is the Ultimate Aikido Master, Tenko Chabashira.

The body was found on the 5th floor, behind the Angel Monokuma statue.

The estimated time of death is 10:49.

The victim was subjected to penetrating trauma in the face, dying of shock.

“10:49…” Kaede mumbled. She eyed the tablet's corner for a clock, showing to be empty. Even though the light had been turned on again, there was still no knowing of when in this timeline they existed.

“Kirumi and I can do the investigation too,” Shuichi added.

Them? Alone?

“No,” Kaede bluntly answered. “Everything is perfectly fine.”

“Kaede sure looked perfectly fine when I found her!” Kokichi approached the trio along with the others. “Rubbing her bloody hands all over the place and then those stabbing wounds… Yeah, she definitely had nothing to do with it!”

Despite having given Kaede a quick fix, showing a speck of care in his personality, he quickly knew to use it against her. It would have been better if Monokuma hadn’t let him out of the casino for the investigation.

Though, seeing everyone give her those difficult looks - seeing Angie especially shift from behind with fear of how to interpret the death of her girlfriend, Kaede supposed she owed everyone an explanation.

“It’s… not what it looks like,” she struggled, begging Angie in specific.

“Then… what is it?” Ryoma gave a confused expression. He looked up to Kaede as much as anyone else in this room, recognizing her as the person responsible for lifting everyone up. The image of her having done something terrible struck his mind as illogical and impossible.

She took a deep breath. “I… I got attacked…”

“... What?”

“I was in Shuichi’s lab when the fire went out, and before I knew it something stabbed me…” She carefully reached for the make-shift band aid and loosened it a bit, pulling it up to show the 3 deep stab wounds in her skin. They formed a rather large triangle together, though the stabs themselves were barely large enough to dig your pinky in.

Everyone cringed at the sight.

“I got kicked to the floor,” she continued, tightening the strap again, reminded her stomach will probably turn blue and purple in a short while. She could feel her abdomen strain with every spinal movement. “And another scratch on my head…” She faintly touched the scrapes on her forehead, too afraid to get a true feel on how deep they were. “I got dragged along to the entrance area then, I think… I fell on Tenko’s body…”

“D-did you get your hands in her face…?” Miu shakily asked, pointing at her dirty inner hands.

Kaede looked at them for a bit. She hadn’t gotten everything off, but even if she had, there would still be the dirt under her nails. “... Yes, when I got up and felt my way around… Then the announcement went off.”

Shuichi drew his brow together. “Wait, my lab…? What were you doing there?”

“I erm… I wanted to find a fix for the darkness… Y’know, turn the light on again…”

“Well, looks like you succeeded,” Kokichi whispered under his breath, though still loud enough for people to hear.

“And you went on your own?” Kirumi asked. She sounded hurt over having been left behind.

Her head looked down in shame. She tried to tell herself she didn’t take Kirumi along because of the effect the dark had on the maid, though it considered a hard sell. “... Yeah…”

The other students let out sighs of relief, happy to hear there was a logical explanation to their favorite pianist’s state. Only Kokichi approached the story differently.

“So you plunged yourself into a totally super dangerous situation even though we clearly found ourselves in a horror movie? I’m surprised your survival instincts have kept you alive for as long as they have.”

“Argh, you fucking rat!” Miu grunted, flipping him off. “Only been back for 5 minutes and I’m already done with your bullshitting!”

“Your unwarranted comments aren’t helping anyone,” Ryoma agreed.

“As if Kaede is,” he argued back, pointing a flat hand to the messy scene behind them. “She tainted the entire crime scene with her hands. There’s no telling what belongs to Tenko.”

“... I’m sorry… I panicked…”

“You better be sorry! What if now we don’t find out who killed our friend and we all die?!”

“If it wasn’t for the fact you were locked up I would have immediately placed my bets on you…” Tsumugi whispered.

“Can’t we put him back in the casino until the trial starts?” Miu groaned. “He’s just gonna get in the fucking way.”

“Says who?” He frowned, “I’m gonna help figure out who killed Angie’s girlfriend! Isn’t that right, Angie? You trust me, right?”

Angie didn’t respond, nor did her body for that matter. It looked eerie.

The group slowly returned to Tenko’s body, reluctantly accepting Kokichi’s involvement.

Kaede gritted her teeth. She had to show up for duty and crawl up. Her leg stung, sending an electric shock to her brain to please stay seated. Though it’s not like Kaede had ever listened much to what her body had to say.

Her strained and sweaty struggle didn’t go unnoticed, Shuichi putting a hand on her shoulder. He didn’t want her to go to Tenko. “Hey, Kaede, if you are okay with talking about it, I would like to physically go through the timeline of events.”

Shuichi’s lab, once old school clean and homey, had been turned into a big mess. All the strange glass items that stood on the desk had been flipped over, the table having been moved significantly as for the small table and seating. One of the paintings of an unknown person had fallen to the floor.

“Seems you put up quite a fight, Kaede…” Kirumi murmured, having wrapped her left arm around her friend’s side and holding her up. Of course it was her to be the one aiding Kaede being a wounded animal. Her still ripped black dress served as a reminder that Kaede had gotten stabbed two times in a short while - maybe she had turned magnetic.

Kaede kept all her weight on her good leg, every few moments testing the water of using her left leg despite knowing it would only end with disappointment. Her eyes lingered over the scenery, the blood on the floor. A trail went from the bigger blood splat near the bookcase to outside, one clearly created by the stab wounds that bugged her so much.

Though she was somewhat happy to see that she had - apparently - done more damage to protect herself than she remembered. Then again, it all went so fast.

“There definitely was a fight here,” Shuichi confirmed to himself. He searched between a pile of fallen items and eventually returned to Kaede with a fancy black walking cane. “Here, it’ll help you get around.”

“Geez, Shuichi, are you an old man?” she smiled teasingly as she reached for the wooden support.

He returned a trace of a smile back, eager to stutter an anxiety riddled answer and uphold the interaction they usually held, but also understanding his witness was only stalling. His throat cleared, “So about that attack…”

“Erm… Right. So uh,” Kaede wobbled over to the the bookcase, using her newly collected cane for support and severely underestimating how difficult walking would still be, “I was standing over here when the fire went out and I got stabbed…”

“And then you fell and got kicked in the stomach?” Kirumi questioned.

“Yeah. I tried to fight, but that kick seriously hurt… Then this swipe went over my forehead before I got pulled up…”

“... So your attacker struck you down to the floor first, but then got you back on your feet?” Shuichi curiously caressed his chin.

“It’s what you call back on your feet… More like thrown to the side like a rag doll.”

Kirumi pursed her lips. “That is rather odd…”

“I wasn’t sure where I got pushed to, but I eventually hit a short wall…” Her eyes wandered to the blood trail outside and edged along.

Shuichi planted himself in front of the exit, not allowing her to leave just yet. “One more question… I know you said you wanted to fix the darkness, but why did you think to come here?”

Kaede blinked at the question, especially unfamiliar with the tone in Shuichi’s voice. She had no clue how to place it.

Kirumi came to stand with him, intently looking at her.

Whatever was Kaede supposed to tell them?

Say she thought Monokuma’s scary story held ground and brought her to the 5th floor? Say she found a bunch of paintings of which she could already guess they were not be around anymore? Say a spooky violin guided her to his lab and threw a book out of the bookcase?

Sure, if you have no fear of being declared a nutcase.

“It’s a detective’s office,” Kaede remarked. “I thought, if there’s a place that might have something, it has to be here.”

“... And did you find anything?”

She should have at least answered that question truthfully. It was such a simple answer after all. And yet, she was afraid to do so. “No, I didn’t find anything.”

Despite not seeming all too satisfied with the answer, she was let go and the trio moved back to the hallway. The blood trail continued to the short wall by the stairs, the splatters now being spread irregularly and in a strange pattern. Something that once again sparked intrigue with Kaede’s friends.

“I got pulled around a lot,” she said, trying to give a reason to why her blood loss had taken such a touristic trip. “I don’t know why…”

“... Kaede, I am rather concerned by the fact you are still functioning.”

“Huh?” she looked at Kirumi with big eyes.

“You were seriously attacked,” her voice went stern, but out of love. She put her left hand on Kaede’s upper arm, softly pulling on the bloodied fabric. “That stab wound especially could be detrimental. What if your muscle, blood vessels or nerves were slashed? You’d require surgery.”

“Considering I’m still standing, I’m sure it’s nothing therapy worthy,” she comforted. Her smile had lost its credibility.

“You need medical attention.”

“I have to agree with Kirumi…” Shuichi tried not to look at her thigh, avoiding the sickening sight from resurfacing in his mind. “You really shouldn’t be investigating.”

Unfortunately for them, such words only activated Kaede’s ‘I’ll decide that for myself’ attitude. She shook herself out of Kirumi’s hold and limped her way to the crime scene, following the blood trail.

“Ticket, please!” Now Kokichi was the one to stand in her way.

“What?” she scowled.

“A ticket is needed to enter!”

“What do you mean a ticket-”

“It is a show of not being the culprit! And let’s see…”

Kaede let out a groan, already knowing where this was headed. “I did not kill Tenko."

His eyes squinted, reading her appearance despite having observed it before. A loud gasp then left his mouth, turning into an O shape as he slapped both his hands on the side of his face; a silent scream of some kind. Though clearly it only served to add to his dramatic nature as he quickly dropped the act and returned a flat conclusion, “Yeah, no, you’re not getting an entry.”

“But I have to investigate…!”

“Uh, I think you did enough investigating already!” He glared at her hands.

He was so stuck on Kaede’s physical state, she didn’t understand why he bandaged her wound in the first place. “This means nothing. I told you how it happened.”

“And I’m supposed to believe that?”

“Yes…?!”

“I don’t know…” He gave a sly smile, bringing up a finger, “Maybe Tenko ended up next on your hit list, hm?”

Oh. Oh, she understood now. He was trailing back to their conversation at the casino and let her come face to face with her own hypocrisy - a taste of her own medicine.

“This is not the right time, Kokichi…!” she sneered. “Read the room!”

“Oh, that’s a great idea! Hey, friends,” he called Tsumugi and Miu over to join, “who here thinks it’s a good idea to have the person who has the victim’s blood on their hands stick their nose in the crime scene?”

They all might have believed Kaede earlier, but that faith had clearly been fragile. Nobody answered. Not Tsumugi, not Miu. Even Shuichi and Kirumi remained quiet. All they did was offer a sympathetic glance: I don’t want to suspect you but we need to be realistic.

And worst of all, Kaede couldn’t exactly blame them for it either.

“Hmm? Nobody has anything to say?” Kokichi playfully cocked his head. “Well, I guess that settles it… The room reads; get the hell out of here.”

“We’ll take care of it, Kaede,” Shuichi promised. “We’ll make sure everything’s checked out. I’ll let you know, okay?”

“Perhaps you can investigate something else in the meantime? " Kirumi offered. "We should have the entire floor checked… What about Tsumugi’s lab? It will give you the opportunity to clean up as well.”

Kaede eyed Kokichi again, feeling her lip twitch as soon as he gave her a smile. Why, of all people, could he not be the victim instead?

“Don’t worry, Kaede, I’m the Ultimate Supreme Leader! I’ll take your reign- uh, I mean, leadership , over.”

Defeated, she headed to Tsumugi’s lab. Not much special was to be seen. Only the same old thing she remembered since their clean-up after the party.

In an attempt to relish back in the worry-free time, she headed to the bar and went to take on the role of Tsumugi. She scanned the area, at least trying to be useful, but hardly being able to take her sight off the couch from the Victorian set. 

Tenko’s blood had been brought to boiling point as soon as her lips touched with that of a girl’s. Kaede knew that feeling; that wonderful softness which made time stand still.

She turned the faucet on, put some soap on her hands and started cleaning the blood off. It came off pretty easily, all things considered, but the same could not be said for her nails. Even with being cut so short the rim had colored nastily.

She took a black towel and dried her hands with it - dabbing her still somewhat fresh glass wound while hoping the entire shebang didn’t get it infected. Once done she carefully dabbed the cloth against her forehead. A loud hiss left her throat and she quickly pulled it back. The painful feeling alone should be proof of how bad it looks, but sadly - or perhaps in a way luckily - blood hardly shows on black.

“This way I won’t ever know if I’m getting any of it off…” With a sigh she left the comfort of the bar and headed to the atelier. There had to be a mirror there.

So that’s why Kirumi wanted her to clean up so badly.

What a sorry mess of a human being she looked like. Her musically purple skirt had been tainted by runs of vague blood, as had her pink sweater and white shirt underneath. The swipe on her forehead looked ugly with its 3 long horizontal stripes. And then the cane combined with the make-shift band aid from which long drips of blood drained down to her sock… It’s like she had stepped right out of a horror game.

But worst of all must have been the look on her face. She had gone pale and even her purple eyes appeared to have grown dimmer. 

None of this made up the appearance of the person everyone needed her to be right now. And clearly, being here all alone, cast aside, she didn’t function the role beyond her looks either.

She quickly brought the towel back to work and cleaned the blood from her face and leg as much as she could. As for her clothes, she opted to change into one of Tsumugi’s cosplays. It’d be okay for a little while.

But it turned out Tsumugi had with all the befallen events not gotten much done. The make-up laid in the ready, along with some black uncut fabric. Kaede didn’t care much for checking out the design book to see what the girl had in the works. Also because judging from some fake greenery along with the garden tools Kaede couldn’t find before, she assumed it had to do something with nature.

So that’s where the garden scraper had gone off to. Maybe if Tsumugi hadn’t taken it for her little project Kaede could’ve returned to the canteen earlier and-

With little other decent cosplay options to go for, she decided to present herself half decent. She took off her pink sweater and pulled out the clean one from her backpack.

“The scene is so foul, I can hardly stand looking at it…” Tsumugi trembled on her feet, avoiding eye contact with any of the blood around Tenko’s body. A difficult task to achieve.

Shuichi looked at the scene. They stood at the back of the stairs, the space between the stair’s wall and the lead glass. Tenko’s body laid behind the angelic Monokuma statue and Kaede had been found right between the two statues. The marble floor between those two spots had fingerprints and smears all over the place. Even on the angel statue itself.

“What a sight…” Kirumi pursed her lips, both in disgust and a desire to have the marble show reflection again.

“That Cunt Fu sure made a mess out of it…”

“We don’t know that.” Kokichi sounded surprisingly dry and serious. “Kaede was panicking all over the floor and on herself getting that blood off of her. Any of this could have as much been caused by Kaede as by Tenko.”

“You’ve said that a million fucking times already, we get it…” Miu turned towards Tsumugi’s lab.

“... Are you thinking of accompanying her?” Shuichi asked.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Kokichi spoke. “Does it sound like a good idea to be all alone in a room with the culprit?”

Miu looked back at him and frowned. Despite her offended face, she remained with the group.

“... Speaking of people being on their own, where is Ryoma?”

“Over here,” his voice answered Kokichi from a distance as he came headed over. “Sorry, I wanted to make sure there is no evidence in that long hallway. But it’s as empty as ever.”

“I guess that was to be expected,” Tsumugi sighed. “But always good to double check…”

“I suppose there is only one thing left to investigate then.” Shuichi turned to Tenko’s body, which was being completely obscured by Angie.

The girl had been hanging over the dead body ever since they parted from Kaede’s recount of events, trailing her fingers in Tenko’s hair as she nearly bumped their foreheads together. She was murmuring things in broken words. He didn’t have the heart to pull her away.

“Hey, cuckoo clock, get off the damn body!” Miu yelled.

“Miu!” Kirumi scolded.

“Wh-what?! Our lives depend on this shit, and we can’t check the body this way!”

“I’m not one to agree with Miu, but she does have a point,” Tsumugi nervously said as she traced the tips of her fingers onto her bottom lip. “We need to do this…”

“Yeah, grief is for later,” Kokichi added. “So get out of here, Angie! Geez!”

Ryoma handed out a couple of glares, “You guys are the worst. You have no clue what it’s like to lose someone you love.”

Shuichi let out an exasperated sigh. Even if they held right to their statement, it didn’t mean they had to be this insensitive about the situation. Or Kokichi and Miu, at least. He put a hand on the artist’s shoulder.

The touch sent a shock through her body as she looked up a bit.

“Angie, could you move?” Shuichi carefully asked.

She didn’t reply.

Kirumi came to stand by his side. “We’ll be respectful with our investigation.”

“...” She slowly stood up, running her thumb over the black strands of hair one final time, “I think I’ll be going downstairs then. Pray to Atua…” and left.

“Finally!” Miu complained. “What a fucking waste of time, we could have-” Her hands clasped over her mouth and nose as soon as she looked at the beaten misfigured open flesh wound that would be called Tenko’s face, ready to throw up. She quickly turned away.

“Oh, so now you don’t want to see it, huh?” Ryoma questioned, elbowing her a bit.

“It’s so vile…” Tsumugi's body wanted to throw up as much as Miu’s did.

“We definitely don’t have to doubt the Monokuma File…” Shuichi bowed down next to her, setting his feet in such a way that he wouldn’t get any blood on his shoes. Not that it would have mattered much for the scene.

“What about those groves in her face?” Kokichi asked, pointing.

“Hm?” He took a closer look at the messy surface. “You’re right… There’s some dug-in groves with fresh blood dripping out… Kaede said she fell with her hands in Tenko’s face. She might have created those in the process. …" He looked up to him. "I have to be honest, it’s hard to say anything about the circumstances with everything having been tainted with.”

Kokichi rolled his eyes, “Thank you very much, piano girl.”

“But she does have other bruises on her body,” Kirumi observed, blissfully ignoring Kokichi’s comment. “Without a doubt Tenko got into a struggle as well.”

“Makes you wonder if Kaede would have met a similar fate if the Body Announcement didn’t go off…”

Just as Miu got over her gag reflex and took a closer look at Tenko’s partly dried face, even going as far as lightly touching the somewhat cold skin of her neck, she cringed again. “Don’t put that fucking image in my head, Shackles…! What’s wrong with you?!”

Speaking of the Devil, Kaede returned to the scene, not too close in case Kokichi would get up in her face again, but close enough to notice Angie’s absence.

“... Where did Angie go?” she asked no one in particular.

Ryoma turned towards her. “She left to go downstairs.”

“Down where?”

“I’m not sure. Something about praying to Atua.”

Kaede felt horrible for Angie. She wanted to end the darkness just as much as Kaede did, praying to Atua as the only way she knew how to. And she got her wish at the end of the day. But at what cost?

Would she be angry with Atua? Curse him for charging such an expensive payment?

What would she do to the culprit?

Whatever the case, she should not be alone right now. Kaede had to talk to her, and she knew exactly where the prayer would be held.

She slowly made her way down the stairs - which was even more difficult than walking and resulted in a tactic of hopping down and hoping for your life not to fall - and headed inside Angie’s lab.

The lab had been beautifully transformed from the cold stonings to a lush forest. A collection of small and big paintings, all sketched to replicate a tropical jungle, stood around the room to create the illusion of being on a well-deserved holiday far away from this place.

And its creator sat in the middle, chanting words Kaede did not know the meaning of.

She carefully limped forward to Angie, though not too close to disturb whatever ritual was being held.

Eventually Angie opened her eyes and looked up to Kaede. “I was praying to Atua for Tenko,” she explained upon seeing the curiosity. “For a safe passage and good life in the land of the dead.”

When Kaede didn’t respond she forced a smile; an odd combination with her glassy blue eyes. She tried so hard to uphold her playful carefree nature. Something Kaede knew to be incredibly difficult.

“Are you here for my alibi? I’ve been praying in my lab since we parted downst-”

"Angie, I... I'm so sorry..."

"Hm?"

"It wasn’t me, I swear. I got attacked and then I fell on Tenko. I-I have no clue where she came from, it-"

She raised to her feet, leveling with her, "... Do you think I accuse you?"

"Well..." Kaede shifted to lean on her cane and glance at her open palms. Even with being cleaned off, she could still feel the blood that had sent shocks through everyone’s spines.

Her head cocked at the sight. Unlike the others, even those who had always stood by Kaede, Angie held no a hint of suspicion. "Mm... Kaede, I know it's not your fault. I believe you."

"Really...?" she blinked. Even though it was the truth and something that relieved Kaede to hear, it was difficult to take to heart.

"Atua knows the truth. And he knows it wasn’t you."

"... Thanks..."

"And don’t worry,” she put her hands on the other’s shoulders. “Atua will take good care of Tenko's soul, like he does with all our other dead classmates. Everything's okay. Let's just focus on finding the culprit.” She clapped her hands together and raised them in the air, “I'm sure you, Kirumi and Shuichi will figure it out as always!"

"... Us?"

"Yeah! You're a trio right? Doing everything together..."

“Ah… right…” The feeling of being left out struck her heart like she was right back at the canteen again. “All together…”

Angie simply mused. “I like seeing you guys hang out. You know, in art 3 is often considered a sign of unity. I most enjoy it as the synthesization of two opposites, creating a new entity in the process. … Though I suppose it could also be two uniting and excluding the third-”

“Did you see Tenko again after the fight?”

“... Huh?”

“Remember that discussion about Atua with Tenko? You wanted to fix the darkness by talking to Atua, and Tenko said some… things.”

“... Oh, that…”

“Did she visit you afterwards?”

She looked down a bit. “... No, that was the last time we spoke.”

Tenko never got to apologize. Their final conversation, the very last words Angie had of her to repeat in her head, was about her ‘stupidity’.

“She wanted to apologize.” Kaede didn’t care if their relationship was none of her business. She didn’t care whether these words were not hers to be spoken. All she wanted was to make sure that Angie would not have to live with the awful thought of not being loved. “It was difficult for her to understand how much Atua means to you… But she understood at the end.”

Her eyes turned up, a light glimmering in them. Though not spoken by Tenko herself, she interpreted the words as such. “Really…?”

“Really.”

A small smile painted her face again. Still sad and pretentious, but it also held appreciation. “I suppose I should be glad we didn’t lose you too, Kaede,” she moved to her work table and grabbed the tiniest brush along with a nearly equally small tin of pink paint.

Death had come so incredibly close that Kaede could still feel it whisper a ‘welcome back’ in her ear. A feeling that would probably challenge her emotionally disorganized nature.

Angie crouched down by Kaede's walking cane, carefully dipped the new brush in the pigment and aimed for the thicker handle’s side, creating thin lines that together wove an infinity-like symbol with the head of a bird, body of a man and tail of a fish.

“We call this Manaia,” Angie said. “It can freely move between the world of the living and the spirits. It looks after your spirit and guides you where you’re supposed to go when the time comes.”

Kaede bended a little, looking at the finished piece. She smiled a bit, "Thanks... I could use some extra protection."

~Dong… Dong…~

The light of the lab’s announcement screen reflected off of Angie’s white hair as an eerie tune - the tiniest hint of a violin playing along in the background - accompanied Monokuma.

Unlike the usual sight of a luscious buffet he now sat in the dark, surrounded by rented-by-spiders relics and paintings. The light barely illuminated his face and his red eye almost seemed to glow.

“That one accursed night in the forest. The sun stood low without sign of a village in the area. And suddenly, in the distance, a big mansion… When the sun had subsided and the rain drizzled the leaves, the waltz started. Enter the Shrine of Judgement with a pure soul and condemn the wicked, so my soul may find the peace it so earnestly desires.”

The next trial would begin. The fourth one already.

How did they end up here?

Everyone headed down, taken off guard by this strange version of the trial call, but even more so on what they had to face together.

Only Kirumi and Shuichi stayed behind, waiting by the stairs for Kaede. She slowly approached, grown a bit accustomed to her new pace, but careful all the while. “Did you find anything by Tenko’s body?” she asked.

Shuichi gave a small nod, “I’ll brief you all about it as we get you down.”

He put his arm around Kaede’s back, and so did Kirumi from the other side. Shuichi on her left, Kirumi on her right.

“E-eh…?” she squeaked at the unexpected touch. “Wh-what are you guys doing?”

“Do you think we would simply watch you struggle?” Kirumi questioned.

“It would take forever to get to the Shrine,” Shuichi assured, “and that surely won’t make Monokuma happy.”

“You’re… gonna carry me?”

“Kirumi could probably do it on her own, but…” he gave a sheepish smile, took Kaede’s cane in his free left hand and, with the same hand, pulled Kaede’s arm over his shoulder, “This is more of a teamwork, don’t you think?”

Kirumi did the same, though instead, her free hand held on much less tightly - faintly - to Kaede. And above that not by her arm, but by the girl’s cleansed hand.

She seemed afraid to be hurt by Kaede. To have her heart broken by the trial’s possible outcome.

Kaede tightly squeezed Kirumi’s hand to assure her she did not kill Tenko.

It only made Kirumi flinch.

Chapter Text

The return of the sun had been a farce.

The dome’s sky remained dark without a speck of a faraway star showing its head. Instead several construction lamps had been set around, leading the path to a place which, though literally filled with light, held just as much darkness as the motive did.

The curse wasn’t lifted. Nothing had been fixed. Not yet, at least.

With every class trial the amount of portraits tainted with pink crosses increased. It was a cruel reminder of who had left this world, but this time Kaede couldn’t help but notice how there were only 8 alive faces left.

Their original group had been cut in half. And after this trial the dead will be in the majority.

“We do have one pro.” Kokichi’s voice broke through Kaede’s frozen thoughts, his arms lifting to the sides as though showing off his now lonesome position. “There’s a 1 out of 8 chance we’ll catch the culprit!”

“I’d rather not leave it to chance,” Tsumugi shivered.

“Buuut… where do we start?” Angie asked. “Alibis? Murder weapon?”

“We wound up not finding the murder weapon…” Shuichi replied, scrolling through the grand yet useless amount of truth bullets. “And I’m afraid alibis won’t mean much.”

“Why not?” Kirumi asked. “Surely everyone remembers what they were doing before the announcement.”

“Sure, but that won’t do anything… One person's bedtime has become someone else's lunchtime.”

“Ah,” Ryoma sighed, “you mean to say most of us probably don’t even have someone to back up their supposed alibi.”

“Exactly. Unless anyone here is in a different position and does have an alibi?”

Nobody replied.

“And what about Kaede's alibi?” Kokichi questioned. “It's the most obvious thing to start with. In fact, I'd say we can close the case immediately thanks to her.”

Kaede raised her brow at him, struggling to keep herself upright with the cane. She already had trouble in the shaking elevator, followed by the step up her floating stand. The skin around her wound was burning - she felt it, yet couldn’t do anything about it for now. She clenched her jaw together and pushed through the pain, setting her mind to the discussion ahead. “We can?”

“Yeah. Because you're the killer.”

5 minutes. That's how long it took for Kokichi to spout this nonsense again. She supposed he held back by not yelling it across the room at the first second. “I can't believe this is the third time I'm being accused by you…”

“Nee-heehee, don't worry. You know what they say, right? Third time's the charm!”

“This time it doesn't even make any fucking sense!” Miu growled. “Kaede got attacked. Just cuz she isn’t dead doesn’t mean she's less of a victim than Miss Aldrin! What, you think she stabbed and scratched herself, rolling around in the blood like a pig in mud?”

“Thanks a lot for the comparison…”

“Well, maybe I do think that.”

Angie tilted her head at him. Despite the circumstances, she appeared to be calm. Not as enthusiastic as usual, but still calm. Though Kaede also knew appearances meant nothing for people like the two of them. “Why would anyone ever do that to themselves?”

“To use as a cover-up. It wouldn’t be the first time someone pretends to find the victim when they are in fact the culprit.”

“Hold on now,” Kirumi raised her hand in the air. “Are you suggesting Kaede wounded herself for the sake of creating a fake alibi?”

“I'm barely able to take a splinter out of my hands without cringing…!” Kaede pranced. “Much less go as far as to tear my own skin open!”

“That’s exactly what someone who'd create a plan like that would say!” Kokichi argued back. Or well, argued. His argument wasn't much of an argument, a smile painting his face.

Still, Kaede could feel the others’ eyes upon her. Those stares of blame. Her heart expanded to beat through her entire body. “Do you guys actually think I… killed Tenko?”

“It’d be pretty simple.” Kokichi decided to explain the circumstances he came up with, using a tone which came across as more of an attempt at being dramatic than serious. “Kaede killed Tenko, but to make sure she wouldn’t get fingers pointed at her, she decided to make herself look like a victim. She wounded herself, disturbed the crime scene, and when everyone arrived staged a freakout moment for extra drama class credits. But the blood remained on her hands…”

“I guess it wouldn’t be completely illogical…” Ryoma mulled. He had shown disbelief about Kaede’s involvement before, so if he even considered Kokichi’s story…

“But it’s as Miu said…!” Kaede defended, so caught up in the moment that she nearly fell through her leg by putting too much weight on it. “I’m the one who got attacked! Do these wounds really look like I would inflict them to myself?! Why go that far?!”

“Kaede has a good point.” Shuichi mirrored the several bullets of Kaede’s wounds to the big screen, along with the blood trail found all the way from his lab. “This is a very elaborate set-up for the sake of faking an alibi. There would be no reason for her to go this far to reach such a goal.”

Tsumugi twirled a hairlock from hand to hand, “But… technically speaking both points could be true at the same time, right?”

“What do you mean?” Angie asked, wobbling from left to right, though with little energy. More like a sort of distraction.

“I mean, could the scenario not also have been that Tenko was the one who attacked Kaede… But Kaede fought back and killed Tenko in the process?”

“F-fought?” Her hand gripped her cane tightly. “Tenko is a professional fighter…! And like, let’s be real.” She used her free hand to point at herself, “Do I look like I could outdo Tenko?”

“That is a fair point as well.” Kirumi caressed her chin, “Tenko would have the upper hand, no matter how you look at it. From skill to physique.”

Kokichi let out an offended scoff, rolling his eyes, “Oh, so when I don’t have the physique to kill a professional it’s not relevant, but with Kaede it is? Got it.”

A breath of relief left Kaede’s throat, but mostly to release the frustrations from her body. The idea of her being the culprit having laid on the table in the first place was ridiculous beyond belief. Truly, a waste of time.

“Actually… that does not have to be true.”

She assumed Kokichi wanted to steer the conversation back to his little doom scenario using whatever kind of ‘evidence’ he had now made up on the spot. But it wasn’t him who spoke. 

It was Angie.

“What doesn’t have to be true?” Ryoma asked.

“Kaede’s inability to beat Tenko. Tenko trained all the girls about self-defense.”

“That was a while ago, though,” Tsumugi noted. “I didn’t go again after that initial session, I have plain forgotten everything.”

“Yeah, but Kaede did go back. Actually, she and Tenko trained super recently. Like, just before the motive.”

Kaede’s eyes widened. “E-eh? How… How do you know of that?”

“Cuz Tenko told me!” A bright smile plastered her face, her energy elevating as her eyes looked up in joy of a precious memory, “Nyahaha, she told me everything! She was suuuuper excited about your progress. She also told me you kind of used it as an anger release, and about how you were composing a love song for Kiru-”

“I got it, I got it…!”

Tsumugi pinched her bottom lip a bit, “Well, if that’s true… Then it would be possible for Kaede to beat Tenko in a struggle. Maybe she learned about her weak spots that way…”

“That would certainly be plausible. However…” Kirumi’s final words drifted away.

Kaede struggled to breathe, “N-no, I didn’t do any of that…! You’re… You’re not actually accusing me of her death, right?” and turned to the artist. “Angie? You… You said you didn’t believe I had anything to do with it.”

“You and Tenko got along well! So I don’t want to suspect you… But… Now that Atua has this information and thinks it over again…”

So she hadn’t escaped the accusation after all. In a way she knew it couldn’t be that easy. If she had been the outsider and saw one of the others show up to the case like this, she would be wary of them as well, even if she wanted to believe otherwise. There’s a lot of things you can try to convince your mind of, but certain nagging feelings cannot be overthrown. And this would be one such feeling.

But in this scenaro Kaede wasn’t dependent on what someone else might be telling. She lived through it. There had to be something she could say, no?

“Alright, that’s enough bullshitting!” Miu slammed her hand on her screen. “While you guys wasted time yapping about assumptions, I decided to put my beautiful brain to action!” She gave Kaede a quick wink and exaggeratedly slid her found research to everyone’s screens.

Kaede stared at her for a bit before her eyes moved down to Tenko’s body.

“Do I have to remind you all that we still didn’t get our damn clock back? This whole scenario lives off the idea Tenko died shortly before the announcement, but we can’t say that for sure. It might have been hours ago- No, it was hours ago! Hey, beta boytoy!”

Shuichi looked up, quickly flinching at the fact he actually answered to the insulting nickname.

“Stop playing with yourself and confirm my findings, will you?” She cleared her throat and smirked. Whatever she had found, she was incredibly proud of it. Or maybe she was more so proud about what it would result in. “Tenko’s skin was already pretty cold to the touch. That means she’s been very dead for a few hours, no?”

Kaede understood now. Miu wanted to use Tenko’s state of decomposition as proof.

“Ah…” Shuichi caressed his chin a bit, looking away in thought. “Well, the cooling of the body depends on circumstances. It’ll take longer in the middle of the summer compared to when dumping a body in the snow for example… But it takes about 12 hours for a human body to be fully cold to the touch in ‘neutral conditions’.”

“Okay, and, if the skin is further, pretty normal? Not super tight?”

“Tight? … Do you mean rigor mortis?”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you wanna call it, just answer the question!”

“It’s an important distinct-”

“Answer the goddamn question!”

“Rigor mortis commences after 3 hours and lasts until 36 hou- …” He looked up, “Tenko must have died at least a bit ago.”

“Booyah!” Miu beamed. “And now when we look at Kaede’s wounds, those are super fresh! Aka, Tenko’s struggle and Kaede’s struggle could not have happened at the same time! Aka, Tenko is not Kaede’s attacker and Kaede is also not the culprit! Ha-hahaha, I’m so fucking smart! What would you guys do without me?!”

Although Miu had been a basic help in trials so far, she appeared a lot more willing this time around to crack her brain. You could tell in the way she so proudly presented her proof and threw a confident smirk Kaede’s way. Had Miu been investigating the body specifically to make sure she could defend Kaede?

“So… Kaede is not the culprit?” Angie let out a happy sigh, “Oh, Atua is so very glad to hear that. It would’ve been terrible if she had killed a friend!”

“... Didn’t you literally say Atua was the one who accused her?” Ryoma puzzled.

“He gets a bit confused at times.”

“Clearly…”

Tsumugi fixed her glasses in place. “I’m glad to hear this too, but… if Tenko wasn’t Kaede’s attacker, then who was?”

And now they arrived at the hard part of this mystery; who else was involved? Someone in this room must have killed Tenko and attacked Kaede later, but it was hard to determine the answer to that. Nobody had proper alibis and Kaede had seen nothing to help pinpoint someone. Heck, despite the mess in Shuichi’s lab, it didn’t look like anyone here but she had been in a struggle.

“Kaede… You need to remember.”

She looked up to Shuichi.

“Not just the attack in grand schemes. We need the tiniest of details.”

Kaede was the key to this case. Everything depended on her ability to recall every breath of air. It made her nervous. “Guys, I… It was pitch black, I don’t know…”

“You can do it, Kaede!” Angie mused. Her faith in the girl seemed to have lifted her spirits. “For Tenko! Maybe you spotted someone’s profile in the corner of your eyes?”

“You must have sensed something,” Kokichi said, looking at her with intense eyes. “Go through it. What did you feel, what did you hear? Anything peculiar?”

The last thing she wanted was to go through every second of her attack again, especially in a way that required her to linger. But it’s not like she had much choice.

She closed her eyes and replayed the memory. After the fire went out she felt plenty of things. The weapon plunging her leg, a kick to her stomach, hands on her body. General things which could have been caused by anyone.

And then what she had heard. There was the violin before the attack happened. That ghostly tune which had lured her inside the lab in the first place. Could that have mattered? Maybe someone stole one of her cd’s? However, anyone could have done that as well: Thanks to the party everyone knew she owned those.

She then recalled her own screams. A crying so desperate that it made her heart thump in panic again as though back in the moment. And then when the attacker made her shut up by flattening her organs, clicking soared through the air.

Clicking… Why clicking?

Kirumi carefully caressed her right slightly trembling hand.

There was only one clicking sound Kaede could recognize anywhere.

“What did you remember?” Miu instantly probed.

“... H-huh?”

“That look on your face. You just realized something, didn’t you?”

She didn’t want to say it, the words were blocked by her heart. But for everyone’s sake - for Tenko’s sake - she couldn’t keep it to herself. Her nails dug into the cane, “... I… I heard Kirumi…”

Kirumi froze, and so did all the others.

“… What do you mean, you heard her…?” Shuichi’s voice hitched.

“Her heels… They click… I heard them clicking…”

And just like that, the maid’s stand shot towards the middle, throwing her off balance and requiring her to catch herself with her hands. She hissed.

“... Mom attacked Kaede?” Kokichi raised his brow in disbelief.

“No, wait…!” Kirumi quickly looked up, tightly holding her right hand. “It’s a mistake. I never even traced the dark beyond my own lab.”

Kaede had seen with her own eyes how uncomfortable Kirumi was simply looking at the dark. So why would she ever go all the way upstairs? It didn’t make sense. Unless that odd feeling she described her body to be getting was a taste for blood.

“What’s with the hand?” Miu glared, prepared to shoot down the person who had nearly killed her bed partner. “It’s not from touching yourself too much, I know what that looks like!”

Kirumi’s lips pursed, pulling her hand out of sight in an attempt to hide the fact she knew what the inventor was talking about. 

Kirumi's hand barely held on to Kaede when she carried her down the stairs. Kaede had assumed it came from a fear of betrayal, but perhaps she feared a tight grip would expose her crime.

“I hurt myself while cooking. It’s nothing.”

“But you’re Miss Perfect,” Tsumugi pointed out. “There’s no way you’d get yourself hurt… You got it hurt while Kaede tried to protect herself, didn’t you?”

“No, that is-”

The bickering started. Without a shadow of a doubt Kaede had heard Kirumi upstairs, and now she also stood here with a mysterious shaking hand that refused to explain itself. The conclusion that Kirumi attacked Kaede and in the process got her hand hurt was all too easy to draw.

And yet, Kaede didn’t believe any of it. Yes, her refusal to be truthful was suspicious, but the thought of Kirumi killing Tenko, attempting to kill her … She couldn’t comprehend it. Or maybe she simply didn’t want to.

“Take off your glove, Kirumi. Please.”

Kaede knew that if Kirumi ever asked her anything with a ‘please’, she would immediately falter. But the thought had never struck that it might be the exact same the other way around.

With difficulty Kirumi stared down at the request, knowing all too well she had to do this. “... All right.” She took a deep breath and slowly pulled the glove off, “But I need all of you to listen to me. It’s not what it looks like.”

The black fabric slid off her slender fingers. In the different light it almost looked like there was a hole in the glove, one none of them had noticed before, but how could they if black fabric had been wrapped underneath around Kirumi’s hand?

Just like she had done for Kaede, she had ripped off part of her dress and wrapped it around her hand as a bandage. But no amount of bandage could treat the gaping hole which revealed itself to have dug in her inner hand.

The class flinched at their encounter with another flesh wound surrounded by red tingling skin and equally nasty blood. None of them wanted to know how deep the puncture went.

“Cover it back up…!” Miu demanded. “We get it, you’re the culprit, don’t show it off…!”

“No, please, let me explain…” she wrapped the wound up again, gritting. “I will admit, yes, I was upstairs. When Kaede got attacked… But I’m not the one who performed the attack.”

“So you were just running around?” Angie asked. She appeared to be the only one not too bothered by the sight, focusing on it instead in the hopes it would answer her biggest question.

“Not exactly… ” Her eyes lifted to meet with the artist. “I was just going upstairs when I heard Kaede scream. So I ran over and… came between. I got stabbed in my hand in the process. There’s another person beyond me involved in the attack.”

“... So you saved her life?” Ryoma raised a brow in suspicion.

“Yes, I… I suppose I did.”

“But we can’t be sure about that, right?” Kokichi looked the room over. “It could be a lie. Seems convenient that Kirumi was upstairs and able to fight off the culprit.”

“I don’t think she’s lying…” Kaede’s words were barely audible, her body focusing all its energy on Kirumi instead. “I was already on the ground when I heard Kirumi’s heels, so that could have been her running over...”

Shuichi looked from Kirumi to Kaede and back. “Why didn’t you tell us this immediately?”

Kirumi let out a soft sigh, “Because I knew you would consider this wound suspicious and paint me as the culprit. I figured it might be safer to leave myself out of the equation… I’m sorry.”

Kaede couldn’t believe it. The only reason her face didn’t join Tenko’s and instead suffered a simple scratch was thanks to Kirumi jumping in between. The odd sequence of Kaede being pulled up and pushed away had been Kirumi trying to get her out of there. It’s the maid who had commenced the strange dance of life and death.

She combatted her fear of the dark for Kaede, she threw herself in front of the murderer and caught a stab for Kaede, she risked everything for Kaede . Nevermind how she managed to do any of this despite being unable to see, the fact she had dared to put her life on the line brought tears to the pianist’s eyes.

Kirumi could have died in her desire to protect Kaede. Just like someone else had done before.

The maid, despite being back at the other side of the room with her stand returning to its usual position, could read Kaede like an open book. She knew what she was thinking - the associations to the previous trial - and with a peculiar drawn brow smiled; I don’t mind having gotten wounded, I did not die and won’t be going anywhere either.

Tsumubi observed their silent exchange. “... So the new timeline of events is that Tenko got killed, sometime later the culprit attacked Kaede, and Kirumi interfered with the attack?”

“By the sounds of it, that is how it went.” Ryoma pulled out a candy cigarette and nibbled on it, frustrated, “And that also brings us back to square one. We’re still no closer to the culprit’s identity.”

“Wait, but if Kirumi fought the culprit, then maybe she noticed something Kaede couldn’t?” Angie wondered.

Kirumi turned away in shame, closing her eyes, “I’m afraid I didn’t… I too was rather busy not dying. I lost track of Kaede when I had to release her. I looked for her and then the announcement went off. All I then thought about was to get away as to not get wrongly accused. The light turned on when I was already heading down. I didn’t see anyone.”

“The culprit probably wanted to get away just as much as you did,” Kaede pondered.

Miu let out a grunt, planting her hands on her hips, “So now what do we do?”

“There has to be something…” Shuichi nervously rubbed the rim of his cap. “We must be missing something.”

“Hmmm… I know!” Kokichi exclaimed with a wide smile. “Everyone needs to say if they have been upstairs since the motive started.”

“... Why since the motive started?”

His smile grew at Kaede’s confusion. “Monokuma has this rule that a body discovery announcement plays once 3 people other than the culprit have seen the body. Seeing a body would be pretty hard in the dark, so he must have made it count as soon as you unknowingly turn its way. We already know Kaede must have been 1 of the 3 needed activators, and we also know that the announcement didn’t immediately go off when Kaede fell into Tenko. Kirumi said she looked for Kaede when she lost track of her. Clearly, Kaede is activator number 2 and Kirumi activator number 3, the last one needed to trigger the announcement.”

Tsumugi leaned her cheek in her hand, “That sounds right… But why does it matter?”

“It matters because we need one more non-culprit to have been upstairs,” Shuichi stepped in before Kokichi could answer the question himself. “If we’re not able to pinpoint the culprit, we should do a process of elimination.”

“Took you long enough to get there, detective.”

Kaede looked from person to person. Only Tsumugi, Shuichi, Miu, Angie and Ryoma could have been the first person to have ‘seen’ Tenko’s body, whether aware or unaware. If they could cross one of them off there’d only be 4 suspects left. It was better than nothing, and it was an incredibly easy question to answer. Someone could get a free alibi.

Except nobody took it.

None of them raised their hand to claim the spot and get themselves in the clear.

 “Huh.” Kokichi tilted his head. “Isn’t that peculiar?”

“Why is nobody raising their hand?” Kirumi asked in concern. “One of you must have been upstairs, yes?”

“I didn’t go further than the 4th floor,” Angie explained. “So unless Tenko’s body was moved from that floor to the 5th it couldn’t have been me.”

“She definitely died on the 5th floor,” Shuichi argued. “Otherwise we would have seen a blood trail leading up.”

“I-I also only went to the 4th floor…!” Miu was shaking on her knees, fearing what any of this meant.

Kaede’s brow muscles ached from all the frowning. She knew Miu had attempted to go upstairs to get booze, but explained not succeeding because of how creepy it was. Maybe Miu lied about it? But then why would she not take the opportunity? Was she afraid it would only make her more suspicious?

“Don’t worry, everyone!” Kokichi cut through the confused murmurs, looking from Kaede to Kirumi in specific. “Clearly someone here is lying. And I know just how to make sure we don’t get stuck again.”

“Really?” Kaede turned to him with big eyes. “What is it?”

“I’ll tell you if you admit Kaito was a bad person.”

The air went cold.

“... What?”

“Say it, Kaede. Say Kaito was a bad person.”

She remained silent over the simple fact of hearing a name that had nothing to do with the case. He died long ago, she didn’t understand why- No, she did understand why Kokichi brought it up. 

He still wasn’t over their conversation at the casino and now attempted to pressure her by using the trial. It required an incredible amount of nerve to bring it up when one wrong vote could mean the end of all of them. Her anger boiled, “That was 2 trials ago! Stay on topic, Kokichi!”

“No, admit it first! Admit Kaito was a bad person!”

Ryoma came between, joining Kaede’s side, “Why do you even care so much? It’s in the past, it can’t be changed.”

“Oh, ahahah,” Kokichi’s face twisted, “I’m sorry that I’m not willing to disregard Gonta’s death for the sake of an- “ he put up a sad puppy face-, “oh shucks, I didn’t mean to kill him!” and quickly threw it to the side again. “He still hid all the evidence, he still tried to get away with killing my friend…!”

“Kokichi, this is not the time or place for this discussion,” Kirumi huffed. "Keep this for afterwards."

“All you have to do is admit it!” he countered. “What’s so hard about that?!”

Shuichi rarely lost his patience, but even this went too far for him. His upper lip twitched, “You are being hypocritical. You too claimed Maki’s death to be an accident and hid the evidence.”

“But I didn’t hide the evidence to cover my own tracks, I hid the evidence to catch a culprit…! To catch Rantaro!”

Tsumugi also took little pleasure out of Kokichi’s continuing outburst, glaring. “Rantaro probably had the most legitimate reason to kill. He should have been left off the hook.”

“Well, I didn’t exactly know that, did I?! All I saw was a classmate being brutally murdered and I wanted to make sure they would be brought to justice. And now someone got brutally killed again.” He proceeded to ignore the arising fussy faces and return to his main subject. “Kaede.”

“.......”

“Admit it and I will help you.”

“..............”

“But but…” Angie came to Kaede’s rescue. Despite her neutral face, she wanted to steer the conversation back to the actual reason for this trial. “Kokichi cannot be of any actual help, right?”

“Hm?” He looked up to her.

“Cuz he was trapped in the casino for the entirety of the motive. There’s nothing he can say on the case, right?”

The corners of his lips tugged upwards as he raised a limp finger in the air, creating the faux image of wanting to reach out for something. “Maybe I just got in touch with your God?”

There he went making such an odd pose again. Kokichi always had his set of movements one could link to a certain intonation, but this was different. He had never made such a movement before, and yet it showed intent. During the investigation he had a similar odd moment - when he slapped his hands on his cheeks to create an almost cartoonish O scream.

…

The Scream. He was recreating “The Scream”. And now he was recreating “The Birth of Adam”.

“... Kokichi was on the 5th floor during the motive.”

“Wait, what?” Ryoma’s eyes widened at Kaede in surprise. “But how is that possible? Did someone not lock the door?”

Kokichi let out a deep disappointed sigh. “Come on, you guys aren’t this stupid, right? What’s 1 + 1?”

“... Oh fuck.” Miu stared into the void. “I put an electric lock on the door… Monokuma must have turned it off with the motive.”

“So Kokichi has been roaming around free ever since the motive started…?!” Tsumugi shrieked.

“Good thing I did.” He bit his thumb in frustration. “The food stopped pretty quickly, I would have starved to death! Let me guess, it was Kaede’s turn to do a delivery?”

“Ermmm,” Angie bobbed her head to the side, “I think it actually was, yeah.”

“Figures.”

“What? I didn’t know I-” She heavily shook her head, “No, let’s get back on track… Kokichi, you were up there before. So then… you, me and Kirumi are the 3 people who ‘saw’ Tenko’s corpse.”

Kirumi had returned to cradling her hand. Every second it remained untreated was another second it could get infected. “I suppose that is good to know, but how exactly is this the big help Kokichi claimed he would be?”

He let out a sigh, deflating in defeat. Though he also ever so shortly looked at the countdown, “I guess there is no point in trying to earn something with this… Earlier I asked who has been up on the 5th floor, to which nobody replied despite the reward of being pronounced innocent. Now you know I am the 3rd innocent person, meaning one of the 5 people didn’t stick up their hand because they knew it would hurt them to do so… because they are the culprit.”

Kokichi tried to lure out the culprit by giving them the false opportunity to become spotless, and then catching them on it by revealing he was the actual 3rd spotless person. Admittedly, it was a pretty good trap, but sadly their culprit was too smart to fall for it.

Shuichi nodded a bit. “I see… But it's not exactly useful when it still leaves us with 5 suspects.”

“Not to try and save my own skin or anything,” Ryoma interrupted before Kokichi could open his mouth again, “but maybe we need to ask ourselves who even has business upstairs.”

“Define ‘business upstairs’,” Kirumi inquired. 

“I mean, the culprit had little time to get away. Kirumi went down the stairs, so it would have been risky for them to go the same way. They must have stayed on the 5th floor… And if they managed to hide the weapon so quickly and so cleanly, they must have known what they were doing. Something which is pretty easy when they have, let's say… their very own lab around the corner.”

If they looked at it this way, there were only 2 viable suspects left: Tsumugi and Shuichi.

They too realized that as their stands came more forward. They grew nervous.

Despite his anxiety, Shuichi quickly came to his own defense, “The attack happened in my lab… That’d be a very obvious link to draw to myself.”

“Maybe it being so obvious is exactly what would make it less obvious…” Tsumugi advised, kneading her hands. “But one of you must have seen when I came in, right? I-I didn’t come out of my lab…!”

Miu leaned over, “Shit, I went upstairs laser focused and all I then saw was Kaede. I didn’t look around to see what idiots I was surrounded by.”

It would be easy to figure out the culprit now, if it hadn’t been for the still complete lack of evidence. Accusing either Shuichi or Tsumugi was hard to do, as it was to defend them. They stood equally weak in the game.

Kaede bit her inner cheek as she looked the both of them over in search of an answer. Neither had it in them to kill, they’d likely barely be able to kill a tiny spider if they were asked to. Let alone create such a gruesome body horror.

“There has to be something to one of them… Something that links them to my attack… Honestly, it would be convenient if Shuichi would be the one to go. … Wait, what?”

“We should answer the most important question of all.” Kaede’s shock at her own thoughts was interrupted by Kokichi. “What is the murder weapon? For this entire trial we have been pointing fingers, but somehow we don’t have an answer to the second most important question.”

He had a point. For some reason no murder weapon could be found, even though judging from the three women’s wounds it surely must have been incredibly sharp and bloodied. Not to even get started again about the complete lack of time for the culprit to hide or clean it properly. It had to be around the 5th floor, under the guise of being part of the decor.

Kaede looked down at her leg, piercing her eyes through the white cloth into the perfect triangle of a wound.

“... Tsumugi?”

She turned to look at Kaede. “Yes…?”

“Were you going to do some garden related cosplay?”

“Really?” Miu raised her lip in disgust. “We’re going to ask after nerd stuff now?”

Despite her situation, Tsumugi’s face lit up. “Oh, did you see it? I still have quite some work left to do, but yeah! You should join the photoshoot!”

“Mmm… Sounds like you’re going to do an entire decor.”

“For sure. It has to look as real as possible.” She smiled a bit, “Which probably makes you wonder why I won’t just do it in the actual garden. But the truth is that a studio has better lighting.”

“Right. So you’re using real garden tools? Along with a garden scraper that, coincidentally, has 3 sharp points in the shape of a triangle?”

“Yeah, that’s-” Her smile dropped and her skin went pale.

Kaede looked up to her classmates. “The murder weapon is the garden scraper in Tsumugi’s lab.”

Everyone blinked, bewildered.

“While I was cleaning up in Tsumugi’s lab I noticed all the garden tools from The Shrine of Judgement had been moved to her atelier. Among them is a garden scraper; a cultivator in specific.” She brought up the image of the trident metal. “It’s sharp so you can stir up the ground, but it works perfectly as a stabbing weapon as well. It also explains why my wounds show in such a perfect triangle shape.”

“You found the murder weapon and didn’t tell us?” Angie gave a puzzled look.

“I didn’t realize at the time… There was no blood on it, nor was there anything bloodied around. But there was a black cloth… And you can’t see blood on black.”

“That is true,” Kirumi noted. “It’s why I bandaged my wound the way I did. Surely a cosplayer such as her would be aware of such a thing.”

“W-wait…” Tsumugi stuttered, shaking on her feet as her stand drew fully to the middle and Shuichi's retracted, all eyes on her. “That’s not… I didn’t do that…!”

Shuichi caressed his chin, “So Tsumugi fled into her lab and cleaned the blood off the garden scraper with a black cloth…”

“Finally, it’s all coming together,” Ryoma let out a sigh of both relief and pain.

“So, it’s you.” Angie stared at her, intensely. “You’re the one who killed Tenko.”

“N-no…!” She quickly backed into her stand in fear, “I’m being set up here! Anyone could have grabbed that weapon… Why… Why isn’t Angie a suspect?!”

“Suspecting the girlfriend to have done it?” Kokichi whistled, “Man, that’s low, Tsumugi!”

“But I’m serious…! She’s an artist, she knows her color theory too! And- And I’m pretty sure Angie was one of the last to join after the announcement! She could have sneaked in while everyone else was panicking!”

“Kirumi just said she too knows about the blood on black. My position as artist means nothing,” Angie swiftly countered. “As for my late join; I was praying to Atua. You can’t just hang up on him, y’know? It’s rude.”

All eyes returned to Tsumugi, and her soul left her body. “But… you were always together! Why didn’t you know where Tenko was…?! She probably went upstairs to visit you!”

“We had a fight…” she admitted with a defeated look. “Downstairs. Kaede was there too…”

“She probably did go up to visit Angie,” Kaede explained. “She told me she would go upstairs later to make up. But it was dark. In all realness, someone could have overheard the conversation without us knowing."

“And Tsumugi is pretty well known for seeing things without the person’s knowledge,” Ryoma added, recalling how Tsumugi had noticed his attempts at playing tennis again.

“Wait, guys,” Shuichi quickly interrupted before Tsumugi would send her next accusation. “There has to be an easy way to prove this. We all know a fight occurred… My lab’s a mess, Kaede fought back, Kirumi fought back… There’s no way our culprit got off scratch free.”

“Ohhh,” Kokichi’s eyes sparkled, “so we’re going to settle this by forcing both to strip and prove they have no wounds?”

“S-Strip…?!” Tsumugi’s eyes widened. “I have to undress for all of you…?”

“Hell yeah!” A wide grin painted Miu’s face as she chanted loudly, “Strip, strip, strip! I’m curious to see if it’s true otakus like you have one heck of a body hidden under all that plainess.”

Shuichi turned to Angie. “Angie, could you-”

He didn’t even have to finish his sentence. Without hesitation Angie took off her bright sunny coat and did a pirouette, showing her flawless skin to the camera.

The camera then turned to Tsumugi, displaying her ever shocked face on the big screen.

“It appears Angie has nothing to hide,” Kirumi concluded. “It is now your turn, Tsumugi.”

She slowly shook her head. “I’m not doing it… I’m not going to undress in the trial…!”

Ryoma ticked on his screen, moving to the voting module. “In other words, you have bruises which resulted from the attack.”

Angie, too, moved to the voting screen whilst putting her coat back on. “So what happened is… Tsumugi overheard my fight with Tenko and planned to attack her once she’d go up to apologize to me. She lured her to the 5th floor and attacked her using the garden scraper… Then later she attacked Kaede, but failed her killing attempt due to Kirumi’s interference. She fled to her own lab, cleaned the scraper and put it back with the other tools under the guise of cosplay items… And then she rejoined.”

So that was the story. Tsumugi killed Tenko and even attempted to kill Kaede.

Kaede stared at Tsumugi’s picture on the screen, its big ‘vote’ button tempting her to proceed. She should, right? So then why…

“No, wait…!” Tsumugi’s voice raised to a level nobody had ever heard before; desperation. “I have one final argument! My final reason why I did not kill Tenko! It’s because… because… they’re a rarepair…!”

“... What?”

“She and Angie had total rarepair vibes! I would never tear apart a ship like that. … Even if the angst coming from it would be really good…”

“... Well, I was expecting a much better climax than that,” Kokichi flatly commented. “If anything, that's more reason to vote for you.”

“No, you’re getting us all killed…!” She scratched her hands through her hair, gritting her teeth. “What do I do, what do I do…?”

Shuichi cleared his throat, “There’s no fighting it anymore, Tsumugi. Clearly, you’re the one responsible. You hid the evidence pretty well, but it still led to you.”

“Hidden evidence… Hidden evidence!” Suddenly, she swung her finger at the Ultimate Artist. “You’re wearing make-up…!”

Angie tilted her head at her. “Hm?”

“You never wear make-up… I know you don’t, I know the difference. You’re a natural girl! But now… You do have it on… Even on your body.”

Kaede drew her brow together in confusion, not understanding why this of all things mattered. She supposed Tsumugi would be able to tell when someone pampered their skin, but how any of that related to the case - much less even safe Tsumugi’s skin - was a mystery.

A mystery that Tsumugi understood all too well could not be solved by her peers. “This one time I was doing a pretty revealing cosplay, but I had hit my hip against the table. The bruise looked really bad, so I searched for tutorials on how to cover it with make-up… Using just the right colors you’re able to mask it by making it look like your regular skin tone. And surely an artist knows just what colors to combine… So, my question is… why is Angie wearing make-up on her body unless she’s trying to hide something?!”

Everyone retreated from their coming vote, their attention moving to Angie.

She simply stared back with an unknowing smile. “Make-up? Hmm… No, I’m not wearing any right now.”

“Yes, you are!” Tsumugi was glaring by now, a kind of expression that didn’t easily show itself on her. “There, just by your ribcage. If there’s nothing there I’m sure you don’t mind wiping your sleeve over it, do you? Do it just as easily as you took off your coat?”

Something about Tsumugi’s command felt desperate, like she came up with it for the sake of stalling. And yet Angie refused to wipe her skin.

She let out a laugh accompanied by a dark look, “Nyahahaha, silly girl… Atua says you’ve lost it. In what world would someone kill the one person who owns their heart?”

“That doesn’t matter right now.” Kaede leaned forward, tracing over the drawing Angie had made on the cane, unsure how to feel about it. “I… I want to believe you, Angie. So… just do what Tsumugi asks. That’s all you need to do.”

“Yahoo,” Angie wobbled from left to right. “We should really vote now…”

Kirumi looked to her side for a moment, drawing her brow together but quickly focusing back on Angie again. “You are steering away from the subject.”

“Atua says we need to vote for Tsumugi. That’s how everyone will be kept safe.”

Kokichi drew his finger to his lips, “But Atua is just an extension of yourself, isn’t he?”

“Why are you set on listening to Tsumu-” She let out a yelp as a leather sleeve forced its way across her lower ribcage.

Amidst the argument Ryoma had taken the opportunity to make his way over to Angie’s stand, climbing across Maki’s, and bringing a stop to the endless back and forwarding.

There was a nasty bruise on her. A bruise hidden by make-up, just as Tsumugi said.

Everyone’s hearts dropped, including Angie’s very own. She looked down at the spot, her eyes wide and shaking as though she had just been shot.

“... I know what happened…” Kaede’s broken voice filled the empty air. “I… I should put it out there, shouldn’t I? So there’s no more doubt…”

Ryoma quickly climbed his way back, somewhat fearful of what Angie might do. Though that something turned out to be nothing.

“Some time ago the culprit got in a fight with Tenko over the fixing of the endless darkness motive. They claimed an answer could be found with Atua, an idea that was quickly shot down by Tenko. They split up, the culprit going upstairs to their lab. Tenko felt bad and eventually went up as well to make amends. The culprit lured her to the 5th floor and murdered her using the cultivator garden scraper, one of the garden tools Tsumugi had brought upstairs for a planned cosplay. They used the weapon to scratch Tenko’s face off and left the body by the angel statue. A spot she had likely chosen because nobody had a reason to go upstairs, ensuring nobody would find her body or accidentally trigger the body discovery announcement.”

“It was a means of departure,” Angie suddenly looked up. “To be with the angel…”

“There’s no real way of telling how much time then passed… But it’s plausible our already careful culprit returned the murder weapon to Tsumugi’s lab and cleaned it off using a black cloth, just in case. If someone were to find Tenko's body, it would seem like the murder weapon vanished, while the remains of the blood would be near untraceable thanks to their bad exposure on black fabric. And best of all, if suspicion were to arise, the evidence would point towards Tsumugi. The culprit then returned to their own lab on the 4th floor and awaited the next person’s coming. Something which isn’t all too hard to do with their door viewing the hallway and the tablet profile rule. And the next profile that came upstairs was… mine.”

“Your luck showed.”

“The culprit followed me upstairs and retrieved the garden scraper, preparing for the perfect moment to strike. When all the lights went off in Shuichi’s lab, they attacked me. The trident plunged into my leg, leaving 3 deep punctures in the shape of a triangle behind, which would later create a blood trail from Shuichi’s lab to the 5th floor’s main area. For good measure, the culprit kicked me down to the floor for an easy kill. It is only when they went for the final blow, striking for my head at they did with Tenko, an unexpected person joined.”

“... She moved so fast… It was like an animal.”

“Kirumi disturbed the scene, her heels clicking through the room, and came between, causing the culprit’s strike to only leave 3 scratches on my forehead. The culprit and Kirumi got in a scuffle, even causing Kirumi to be stabbed in her hand when she stopped another stabbing attempt. Kirumi tried to get me out of the scene, forcing me up and to the stairs, although my own resistance made that difficult… The entire escape attempt ended when I fell to the floor by the angel statue, into Tenko.”

“Trying to find my footing, I dug my fingers in what turned out to be Tenko’s face. It created dug in grooves and left fresh blood on my hands. When Kirumi searched for me, Tenko came into her ‘field of vision’. The culprit probably didn’t expect our finding of Tenko’s body to be that much of an issue, since no body discovery announcement should be playing. Unfortunately for them, Kokichi was no longer stuck in the casino and had been upstairs before, completing the amount of people needed to trigger the announcement. The body discovery announcement went off and the lights returned. Realizing my situation, I panicked and tainted the entire crime scene with my bloodied hands.”

“Meanwhile both Kirumi and the culprit cleaned up after themselves. Kirumi headed down and temporarily fixed the stab wound in her hand by tearing a black piece from her dress as a makeshift bandage. Even though she did not commit the crime, she wanted to stay clear from any wrong assumptions being made. It’s also the reason why she arrived at the scene as the very last.”

“The culprit remained on the 5th floor, escaping to Tsumugi’s lab to hide the evidence as they did before. However, our culprit didn’t get out of the brawl unscathed. Something that could surely expose them. So they used Tsumugi’s make-up to cover up the skin that started bruising. Once all cleaned up, the culprit sneaked out of the room and joined the group. Everyone was in such a panic; focusing on Tenko, the scene, the blood on my body… Nobody even noticed where the culprit came from. Despite their plan falling through, they got 3 potential suspects to put the blame on: me, Kirumi and Tsumugi. And surely… nobody would ever believe Tenko to be killed by her own girlfriend…”

Kaede swiped the screen to exchange the picture of Tsumugi with that of Angie’s. This was the truth. The horrible, stomach turning truth.

“Wait.”

She looked up to Angie.

“Don’t vote yet.”

Miu growled, “What? You’re gonna try to convince us it wasn’t you after all?”

“No, but please allow me to explain myself before you set our fates in stone.”

It seemed like a strange request, to explain her motive instead of trying to demand 'not guilty'. The only reason Kaede could fathom being at play was Angie having a motive she believed would make everyone give up their lives. But what could possibly be going on that justifies killing your girlfriend, attacking a friend and expecting 7 others to forfeit their lives?

It was a curiosity the others craved an answer to as well. They needed to know why Angie, the cheerful worry-free girl, would succumb to something so despairful.

“When we got further into the darkness motive, I decided to contact Atua about how to fix our situation.”

“Uh-oh, here goes…” Kokichi rolled his eyes. “Who wants to bet her little cult went to her head and she killed Tenko as a sacrifice?”

“No. I killed because I care about all of you.”

“Atua bestowed the revelation that there is no way to fix the killing game. We won’t be able to escape, and nobody is coming to get us. The outside world does not care and Monokuma will only worsen our circumstances. Don’t you see? He took away our sense of security, our voice, our food, our daylight… He won’t stop until the rule of 2 survivors is reached. Are you really willing to see how much more trauma he can induce?”

Tsumugi swallowed loudly, “So you just… killed Tenko as part of some kind of mercy kill?”

“It wasn’t an easy decision… But I wanted to save everyone by ending the suffering, ending the anxiety, ending the trauma… I prayed very hard for Atua to take care of everyone’s souls in the afterlife and shouldered the responsibility of guiding you there. I killed Tenko because I wanted to free her first from the pain, and then chose Kaede because I liked her second best. But eventually, I would have set everyone free.”

A shiver went through the room. The way Angie translated her murder to some kind of virtue brought disturb to everyone’s souls.

“Dude…” Miu didn’t even know what facial expression to make. “You fucking destroyed your girlfriend’s face… You really think she appreciated that?! Thanking you in the afterlife?! Are you fucking mental…?!”

Somberness washed over her face, dew appearing in her ocean eyes. “... I didn’t mean for it to be that violent. I only didn’t want to… see the dead look in her eyes… But,” her face lifted, trying to convince the others of the same thing she had convinced herself, “she is in a better place now.”

“... So you came to the conclusion that death is the only way out and then decided to drag everyone with you? Deciding our fates?” Ryoma glared at her. “It’s not up to you to decide whether we want to keep fighting this game or not.”

Her brow raised, tilting her head a bit, “I’m surprised you of all people resists death.”

“That only goes to show how you’ve lost complete touch on what any of us want.”

“Mmm…” She shook his comment away. "This is your final chance at escaping the killing game; do not vote for me and find peace in the afterlife.”

“Angie…” Kaede stared at her picture on the voting screen, unable to look the real one in the eyes. “It… You didn’t have to resort to this. I know it’s been a long time, but… we can’t give up yet.”

She pressed her lips together in a line, “... If only you understood.”

For the first time in this trial, Monokuma raised his voice, blaring like an alarm. “Enough chit-chat! You have to vote now or you’re all going to die for sure!”

And so, the votes came in. 

Angie’s explanation had done nothing for her.

She looked up at the results with big eyes, disappointed in herself and her friends. “So… you all want to keep fighting?”

“We will never give up to survive,” Kirumi spoke. “To die… is to let Monokuma win.”

Angie shook her head a bit. She didn’t believe their determination would hold up much longer. “There will come a day you regret not taking my offer.”

Monokuma stretched himself out, cracking a few metallic bones in the progress. “Geez, what a long sitting…! I’m going to get a massage once this is all over. But first things first… Puhuhu… Execution time! Oh, I love it when I get to kill the pretentious goodies!”

The doors to the execution area opened, a bright heavenly light coming from beyond.

Angie brought her hands together in a prayer. She had tried everything she could, there was nothing left but to accept her fate. And to the very least, know this was the last time she’d have to sit through suffering.

Before she’d be dragged to her death, Kaede quickly ran up to her, hopping on her cane,  and took her by her arm, whispering, “Angie, I need to know one more thing before you go… Did you use the violin to lure me in?”

“... What violin-?” A metal hand reached from the skies, grabbed Angie by her other arm and swung her through the doors, rolling her into the soft snow.

Up ahead a large rocky mountain stood, covered in snow and barren dead trees. Its shadow loomed over the entire area, intimidating Angie, until a bird flew by with a basket in its beak, heading to the very top.

Angie’s eyes widened at the sight of the basket and she scrambled up, running after the bird and up the mountain. Whatever kind of precious cargo it might be holding for the girl to travel the unfamiliar season, it warranted hordes of nocturnal creatures to attack her; mosquitoes, sandflies, owls, bats. 

Despite nearly being driven to the mountain’s edge and falling off - screeches of animals demanding and warning her to turn back - Angie kept going. She forced herself through the scratching and biting, jumping from slippery rock to slippery rock until finally arriving at the top’s ledge. She pulled herself up with strain, the cold wind cutting her skin, but was filled with relief once her suspicions were confirmed.

The bird and its basket had settled down in the snow, among one other bird which held two more baskets. Three baskets in total - Angie quickly looked down the mountain, to her classmates who were watching - and she would take them all with her. 

She launched herself to the birds. They quickly flew off with the baskets, the bird which was already present struggling to carry two of them and dropping one just past the edge.

Angie hurried after, seeing the basket had fallen into a dead tree’s branch which hung off the mountain. A tight path led down to it, but she’d have to be quick. The tree’s branches struggled to withstand the howling wind.

She quickly descended, losing her grip and sliding down with the snow. She was barely able to hold on to a barren rock and stop herself from falling all the way down. The wind grew stronger as she made it to the tree and trailed its dry roots. She tried to reach for the basket, praying the branch would not break off. She struggled terribly, but wasn’t the only one.

Tenko was struggling on another equally dangerous looking tree, holding on for dear life.

The winter storm screamed and both trees let out a pained crack. They could not both be saved. Angie had to choose; take the basket or help Tenko.

Just as Tenko was about to fall, arms wrapped around her middle and pulled her up to the edge. Angie quickly pulled her close, curling over her in protection. A loud sob escaped her throat and with a smile she pulled Tenko’s face up to her own, relieved for her to be alive and well.

But she wasn’t. Her face was just as battered as it had been before - as Angie had made it to be - maggots by now having nestled themselves in her skin. Her barely visible facial features silently accused Angie for her deed, one she could not turn back from. She couldn’t have Tenko back.

The rockwork fell from underneath Angie, tumbling her down the mountain together with Tenko. The snow barely covered up the loud bone cracks created by every sharp rock they fell into. It seemed to take forever for them to finally slide down the final patch of snow and come to a full stop in front of Kaede.

Angie’s dead eyes stared up to the sky, up to Kaede, with the tiniest smile on her face. Because somehow, she and Tenko managed to end in each other’s embrace.

The snow storm stopped and the basket from before still hung at the top of the mountain. It continued to dangle, impossible to reach.

Shortly after the execution Kaede collapsed through her leg, unable to bite through the pain any longer. She had little realization of what happened next. The image of Angie’s dead smile wouldn’t get off her lens despite Kirumi’s attempts to break through. She said something about treating Kaede’s wound.