Class Trial Section 13

Naegi laughed. Not a laugh like the small, weak, neutral smiles that he had given everyone until now, but laughter hard enough that he was almost doubled over and gasping for breath.

"This is so fantastic! You've really shown me!"

Naegi collapsed onto his knees. "Is this what you call 'the despair of death'? This is the best I've felt in my long, dull life!"

"Naegi... You don't have to do this," Kirigiri said.

His expression soured immediately and he turned to glared at her. "Were you even listening, Kirigiri? Don't even try to keep me from my wonderfully special and hopeless death."

The look melted from his face back into his usual watery smile. "Sorry, that was a bit strange," He paused for a moment. "Even if I could have succeeded and helped you all, I wouldn't trade this feeling for the world."

As if on cue, a red button rose up from the floor, the same button that had condemned so many of their friends. Naegi slammed it down hard with the palm of his hand and it made a satisfying THUNK.

"Now, look forward to the special and heart-pounding execution of the mastermind, Naegi Makoto! It's punishment time!"

Naegi Makoto has been found guilty

Commencing execution

Naegi's execution was a whirl of different colors and punishments.

As soon as he pressed the button, a door opened and collar closed around his neck.

He tugged on it quizzically and felt that it was metal. Naegi looked back up at the survivors and spoke.

"Well, I'll see you guys again some time!"

As soon as he had finished talking, the chain was yanked back and he was dragged into the batter's cage. He was cuffed in there firmly, just as Leon had been. There was no room to struggle, and Naegi wasn't trying. A machine that made a whirring sound rose from the floor and begun to pelt him with baseballs. There must have been more then two hundred in the short stretch of time that the barrage lasted.

As soon as the machine ran out of baseballs, the clamps released and Naegi fell to the ground. They could see from here that he had several large and obvious bruises on the parts of his body that were uncovered, what may have been a broken arm, and he then spat something out. A tooth?

He got up, though, and walked from the batter's cage to a larger more circular cage. Kirigiri couldn't really tell what happened after that, since after he got in the cage, things sped up to where he was little more then a blur. The cage spat him back out afterwords, revealing a large burn up the side of his face. He winced slightly when he felt it before shivering with... fear? Pain? Pleasure? His face bore an expression that Kirigiri couldn't begin to read.

Next was Celes's former execution. Unlike Celes, instead of his arms being bound together, one was tied to each side of the pole. The flames were lapping at his feet when the roaring of the fire engine came and a terrible crash was heard. This one did even worse damage to him then the punishments before. One of his legs stuck out slightly at an awkward angle and Kirigiri could see that the other was bleeding and had something, probably a wooden stake, sticking out of it.

In the next execution, Naegi was sat underneath construction equipment, as it lowered down at an impossible speed and made terrible sounds when it connected.

But somehow, even though these executions had killed all of the people who had endured them before, he didn't die, even though he was crumpled and couldn't stand up without help by the end. For any other person this would be miraculous. Four executions. And then...

THE LUCKY STUDENT'S ULTIMATE ROPE TRICK

Two faceless beings with Monokuma masks grabbed Naegi by the arms and shoved him into a standing position. They half-walked half-carried him onto a wooden gallows. Naegi was smiling wider and with more wonder then any of them had ever seen in their school life even though he had lost some teeth.

Although it was definitely a gallows, with noose and everything, it was dressed up like a stage, with ribbons and glitter strung up everywhere.

A crowd was gathered in front of the 'stage'. Most of them were writhing and tearing out their hair, but others were laughing and pointing at the boy. They were yelling at him as they jeered, but in the sheer number of people talking, the meaning of any one voice was lost.

Naegi loosed his unbroken arm from the guard's grip and waved towards the survivors and the crowd. Although Kirigiri couldn't hear what from this distance, Naegi said something to the crowd and grinned nervously.

The closer he got to the scaffold, the less the crowd seemed to cry and the more it laughed and cheered at him.

The guards put the noose around his neck and let go of his arms. He wobbled in place and struggled to keep upright. A drum roll played as Naegi fiddled with his pin.

Kirigiri felt like her hands were sweating, even though she had very little feeling left in them, let alone skin.

She turned around to look at the others, and saw they wore looks of shock, or fear, or being resigned. At least one person was averting their eyes.

The bottom finally dropped out of the gallows. A terrible cracking noise resounded, and everything was terribly silent. A few minutes later, a great cheer resounded from the crowd and bouquets of flowers were thrown at the hanging corpse.

After that, even the previously noisy crowd dispersed and the show was packed up. The Monokuma stagehands pulled the body out.

It felt like an eternity, but as soon as the gates released, Kirigiri and the others walked up to the gallows.

The corpse had been rolled into a tarp and carried away by the guards. The only thing left of the scene was a pin, dropped carelessly on the floor by the assistants. Naegi's pin, the one he had fixed to his jacket when he announced the truth of the mastermind. There hadn't been any big flashy display, no smoke or laser lights. He just pulled the pin out of his pocket and clipped it on.

The pin had a bloodstain on it, probably attained in one of the earlier executions. It was slight, but definitely there. Kirigiri looked around. The others were up on the stage, examining it. She wiped the pin off on the ground and slipped it into her pocket.

How convenient was it that there was anything left at all? How... incredibly lucky.