The Perfection of Despair
Chapter 2: Zero.
o6109o
This time, I knew I couldn't really deviate from my assumed abilities too much.
No knocking out Oowada or taking a swing at En... Ikasuba. The mysterious girl impersonating Enoshima would get suspicious if I were too direct about confronting her. She'd think I myself was an imposter if I displayed any fighting skills whatsoever. However, I did have another option.
It's something I'd been thinking about since I'd discovered she was a fake. She'd fooled me even the first time with her excuse, but I'd still noticed something was off when it happened. It didn't blow my cover then to notice, not that I'd had cover to blow, so surely it wouldn't blow my cover now.
I'd just have to come to a different conclusion.
One which could possibly change things.
o6109o
My introduction to my fellow classmates went roughly the same as it always did when I reverted to being what I used to be, before this academy. Before every failure of mine led me back to my desk, to wake up on the first day once more. I'd gone through them so many times that I was able to mostly coast by on autopilot for them.
I stopped my mind from wandering only when I stepped over to introduce myself to Enoshima's imposter.
"Yo! My name's Junko Enoshima! Great to meet you!" Mukuro chirped, a broad grin splitting her face as she raised her hand and flashed a V with her fingers.
"Something about you looks a little different," I told her, forcing myself to sound confused. Looking for it now, for the first time since I'd done these introductions, I could see what the instincts I'd picked up from Kirigiri were now telling me: Just the act of noticing the difference was something which had made her distinctly uncomfortable.
"My magazine cover shots?" Junko asked, freckles showing through the thin layer of powder and blush on her cheek as she went a little pale. She covered it with the same broad grin she'd flashed me in the first place. "Isn't it natural? They were modified by the editors, of course!"
"Modified?" Normally at this point in the conversation, my tone was simply conversational. However this time, I injected a bit of doubt. Not much, but enough to throw her off a bit. There's those freckles again: If Mukuro were a gambler, Celes would eat her alive without even trying.
"Photoshopped, y'know? You've never heard of image editing?" Same chirpy voice, same smile. Normally in the conversation, this is where I back off and let her lead me down the path of the lie she'd crafted to steer it away, using the fact Maizuno was frequently photoshopped by her own photographers for her stills and album covers.
"That's not it," I concluded with a shake of my head. I gestured vaguely in Sayaka's direction. "Even if she's got slightly darker skin and slightly smaller eyes, everything else is the same. There's something else that's off about you."
More freckles appearing. Again: Celes would eat her alive without even trying.
"I'm sure it's not important," I brushed off, waving my hands.
From there, Monokuma made his announcement for us to assemble in the gym, and everyone began to disperse, with Enoshima's imposter Mukuro Ikasuba hanging back as well as Yamada, Sakura, Kirigiri, and Maizuno. After a few muttered comments, even we began to make our way to the gym.
It took a clever fake slip to put myself in a position to roll my ankle and fall flat onto my ass. It was actually unsurprising to me that Enoshima was the first one at my side: Maizuno wouldn't try and use me as she generally did until after the announcement, Kirigiri was ever aloof, and Yamada and Sakura were ahead of me.
Enoshima's false self had always displayed quite a lot of friendliness for a girl who was supposed to be a supermodel, especially one who should have been used to the attention of men. Perhaps it was just for me, but she always seemed to be helpful and kind.
"Sorry," I hissed, allowing her to pull me to my feet. I'd slipped in one of the camera deadzones in the academy, so whoever the person controlling Monkuma was, they couldn't hear me. I made a point of glancing at the camera far down the hall, too far to see us. "I don't think whoever is in charge can see or hear us here. I had to talk to you."
"I'm sorry, what?" Junko drawled, stepping back as I gingerly put a foot down.
"This whole situation is messed up," I explained, glancing up and down the hallway, shifting my weight a bit and testing the pain in my ankle. It wasn't too bad, but you can't really fake a tumble like that and have it look good. You have to just do it and hope it doesn't hurt too badly afterward. "There is obviously something very wrong here."
"Why tell me? I'm just a model. Why not tell someone like Sakura, who could probably do something about it?" Enoshima asked, frowning a bit at me.
"Sakura's not wearing a fake wig," I informed her, smiling a bit at the way her face went bone white. I shook my head. "That's what was bothering me. In her photos, Enoshima has natural hair. You have a very, very good wig on, but it's not natural. That, and your jaw is a little different and you carry yourself with a lot more confidence. You're not Junko Enoshima, you're an imposter."
Mukuro stared at me, wordless.
"I'm sure you have your reasons, and I'm sure whoever's in charge doesn't care about them. Maybe you're here to rescue us and I hope I haven't spoiled that," I offered, knowing that the statement was likely false but downplaying any suspicions I might have. "I'll keep this to myself. Let's just go to this meeting and discuss it later, alright?"
"We will," she informed me, her voice suddenly hard.
o6109o
For all that she was concerned about talking with me, we didn't. I coasted through the time between when she was due to die and when we'd spoken with little thought, allowing Maizuno to trick me into switching rooms with her. I stayed awake and waited until I heard the sound of Sayaka switching our nameplates, then waited ten long, agonizing minutes before I snuck into the hallway and switched them back.
When Leon came to my door, annoyed, I quickly searched for someone I could pin the blame on. With my ankle the way it was, I really didn't want him coming at me and deciding he could escape this place by murdering me. It might even turn Maizuno into a suspect herself, a dark part of me noted with an appreciation for the irony.
Yamada or Hakagure? That'd just wind up with them getting hurt. Neither was a fighter in the least.
Togami or Ishimaru? They'd never be caught dead playing a prank like putting a fake note under someone's door. Leon wouldn't buy it.
Oowada? Maybe, but I had a better patsy in mind.
"I think I saw Oogami hanging around outside your door," I informed Leon, frowning a bit. He froze at that, freezing before he could begin to talk. "Maybe she's waiting to see how you react to the note before confessing to you? She's always keeping her eyes on you when I was looking at her, you know?"
"T-t-t-t-t-the Ogre? Me?" Leon spat, and it took all of my willpower not to smirk at that. It occurred to me that he was familiar enough with Sakura to know her nickname, so that was a point in his favour. He'd done his research the same as I had before coming here.
"Maybe she has a thing for redheads?" I pondered to myself, Kuwata groaning as he wordlessly turned and walked away.
oOo
Monokuma made his morning roll call, though he sounded slightly annoyed when he did so. Perhaps he'd seen me foil the murder plan, because he called for an assembly as soon as we'd finished eating breakfast.
We moved to the gym, and Monokuma stood front and centre on the podium.
"Ma, you guys are boring! I told you that all you had to do was murder someone and you could be free of this place, and not one of you even managed to off one of your classmates last night!" The bear complained, waving a hand. "Perhaps it's for the best, then, that you didn't! I forgot to explain the supplementary rules!"
Here Monokuma began to explain the rules for the graduation. That we had to not only kill one of our fellow classmates, but we also had to do it without getting caught. Not only that, but that graduation by one of us would mean the death of the rest of us.
As our ElectroIDs beeped, notifying us of the change to the school rules, I made a change of my own.
"Hey, wait just a minute!" I snapped, stalking towards the bear. I stopped at the place where Junko's fake had been killed thousands of times before, ignoring Mukuro's growing panic as I stole her lines for my own. "What you're saying, it's all so demented!"
"Huh?" Monokuma's reaction wasn't necessarily different on the surface, but even through the animated toy bear's speakers and annoying voice, I thought I detected something else: Interest.
"Isn't it obvious? Why do we have to kill one another and then figure it out? Isn't it all messed up?" I demanded, my arm snapping to my side in apparent frustration. It wasn't an exact recreation of Mukuro's speech, but Leon hadn't killed Maizuno yet.
I had to adapt.
"So you're saying you won't cooperate?" Monokuma demanded, head tilting. "If that's the case, I'll have to penalize you!"
"A penalty?" I demanded, frowning.
"Maybe... I'll lock you up in a dark scary cell..." Monokuma was attempting to be threatening, but it wasn't long ago that I turned to find Genocider Syo sneaking up on me with her scissors and nobody around to hear me scream. After that, vague threats were a little low on my scale.
"Oh, just shut up," I growled, glancing away and at the ground. In my peripheral vision I could see Mukuro's face, bone white. "I don't care what you say! I'll never go along with something like this!"
"It's your body. Do as you please!" Monokuma told me.
"Shouldn't that be you?" I retored, glaring at the stuffed bear once more. "Telling us to kill each other... I won't have anything to do with it!"
"Seeing such overwhelming determination, it's truly exciting!" Monokuma praised, panting, before his eyes glowed dangerously. "Nevertheless... I will not bend the rules for your sake. I'm a bear of high principles, you know."
Claws burst from the fake fur of the bear's paws.
"If you try to sway me..." Monokuma began, charging forward, "I'll get you first!"
Even if I'd had just my ordinary reaction time from my original life, stomping the charging bear flat would have been no great challenge. I did so, eliciting a high-pitched grunt of pain from the robotic creature.
"Had enough?" I asked, frowning at him.
"I should ask you the same thing," Monokuma informed me, his eyes glowing an ominous red. "Violence against the headmaster is forbidden. It's against the school rules... I have no choice but to invoke my summoning magic! Save me! Gugnir the Spear!"
This would be critical. I'd already injured my ankle in preparation for this instant. As I stepped back, my ankle gave way once more and I fell back and to my right, without any control of my own. As my other foot came down to try to support me, the shoe I'd not tied properly this morning flew out from beneath me, and as the spears emerged from the floorboards and fell from the ceiling, I tumbled free from the killing zone, one spear lightly gashing my leg and a repeated strain on a repeatedly rolled ankle being my only injuries from the attempted murder.
The Monokuma bear suffered significantly more, and the blast from the self-destruct sequence launched a piece of the unit directly at me, knocking me unconscious.
As I slipped into unconsciousness, I realized I'd finally saved Mukuro's life. Finally, I'd found a way to avoid one of the deaths I'd thought unavoidable.
Perhaps this would be the time I could escape this place for good.
o6109o
Author's Notes:
So yeah, I'm a dirty liar. No updates for a long time? Pshaw!
I know I had to repeat a lot of dialogue, something I normally would try to avoid here, but it was necessary for the story and Naegi's development. Again though, do NOT expect this kind of update schedule. This is a free write project, mainly, so the quality of my work and the pacing of it may suffer as a result.
You've been warned.
