Fairy Tale Ending

Even as a child, Kokichi had never really been a fan of fairy tales. No matter what kind of fantastical tales they told, about people that were transformed into animals, mystical creatures, normal objects being turned into gold, young women and their evil stepmothers, you name it. He just couldn't get into them. They were either unnecessarily barbaric in their original form or overly cheesy as a modern retelling, unrealistic in both cases and most of them sent an overall lazy message: poor, ordinary people who had no luck in life and suffered from constant oppression only had to believe in magic and the good nature of others and everything would work out eventually. As long as you were obedient and held back your resentment, even if it would be completely justified, someone or something would surely save you. Yeah right. As if things were really that easy.

In the real world, there were no fairy godmothers or noble princes swooping in to save the day. There were no magical objects to solve all your problems in the blink of an eye; no talking animals to help you perform an impossible task. If you were in deep shit, you had to grab a shovel and dig yourself free, even if you got your hands dirty in the process. That was just how it worked. If you blindly believed in fairy tales and waited for some outside influence to fix your life for you, you were an idiot.

Even so, he couldn't bring himself to outright dislike them either. While he didn't enjoy most of the defining characteristics of the genre, he had to admit that if there was anything saving these stories in his mind, it was the ending. Yes, the ending was often just as unrealistic as the rest, but a majority of fairy tales had a good outcome for the heroes of the story. And what was so wrong about wishing for everyone to live happily ever after? The world was a bad enough place as it was, so why not at least give fictional stories a happy ending? Who would want to hear a story where everyone was miserable at the end?

Kokichi sighed and looked over to the hydraulic press, which couldn't be further from anything that could be found in a fairy tale. It was just a huge hunk of machinery. Cold and merciless. Real. And definitely not magical.

He wondered what the people watching this would classify their killing game as. Not as a fairy tale, that much was obvious, but what did you call a form of entertainment where the people involved had to kill each other? He would probably call it horror, but if the audience was as horrified by it as he was, they had to be pretty sick for still watching it happen instead of stopping it. Maybe they saw it as more of a mystery or suspense thing.

What did it even matter, really? Calling it a form of 'entertainment' in the first place was an insult to all things entertaining. Personally, he'd much prefer reading a thousand fairy tales if it meant he didn't have to watch this game of utter misery unfold. Sure, even in those stories, some of the good guys died, but at least the protagonists wouldn't be killing each other in most cases. It was a good versus evil thing, not dog eat dog.

If they had been thrust into a fairy tale instead of a killing game, they could have still entertained the audience. Of course, they would have to shift their roles a little, but that would be doable. Even now it could still work. Kokichi would imagine Kaito to be the knight in shining armor. Surely, he would like that idea. With his personality, he would feel perfectly at home in a land of make-believe and good faith. It also fit his hero image quite well, didn't it?

They even had a talking animal, so that fit, too. Monokuma wasn't exactly one of the helpful kind, but that wasn't a problem. He could be the big bad wolf in bear's clothing. Not that he made a secret out of it. He would have tried tricking them, but the good fairy… who would that be? Himiko? Now, that was a funny image. Anyway, the unenthusiastic and half-asleep good fairy would have worked some sort of spell and fixed everything before banishing the bear and going back to bed herself. Or she would have filled his stomach with stones and made him drown by throwing him into his own dumb fountain. All that happy fairy tale stuff.

…

What he wouldn't give for a fairy tale ending right now.

Well, it probably wouldn't change much for him. Even in a fairy tale, he would most likely take the role of an antagonistic figure. Maybe not the true big bad, but… the dragon guarding the castle of the imprisoned princess, perhaps? He wasn't trying to kill the heroes out of any personal dislike for them, but his very nature and existence led him to put obstacles in their way. Even if he didn't mean what he did in an evil way, he came across as an enemy. So, it was only logical for him to die so the rest of them could have a happy ending.

When he put it that way, dying almost became meaningful again.

Now, the only question was, which one of the remaining survivors was the princess? Tsumugi, Maki or Shuichi?

"What're you smiling about now?" Kaito asked him warily.

He turned to Kaito, his amused smile growing just a bit wider. "Oh, nothing. Nothing at all." Well, if Kaito did his job right, he really would be the hero saving them from the big bad bear. So, maybe the comparison wasn't as ridiculous as it sounded. Kokichi would have liked to see it for himself, but alas, his part in this story ended here. All he could do now, in true fairy tale fashion, would be to believe that it all worked out in the end. "Come on, let's get this over with."

It was time for the knight to slay the dragon.