Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews! Here's the second chapter! (And please bear with the OOC-ness of my Mukuro... it's hard to get her right when you've only been in the fandom for a short time and is only following the anime ^^")

~ Postmortem ~

End of Episode 5

Forgive, forget, and smile.

Mukuro tells us her secret on the second day. She was helping her sister Junko, the real Junko Enoshima, who is actually Super High School Level Despair. Junko has been planning all this for the sole reason of seeing people despair, which she takes pleasure in. Mukuro was supposed to dress as her and pretend to play along in that game of life and death. However, Junko as Monobear had attacked and killed her, which Mukuro was sure wasn't in the original plan.

My secret is also out by the second day. I remember what Mukuro told me yesterday – that nothing matters anymore here. After all, we're all dead.

Everyone is surprised when they hear that I'm not a girl.

"For real?" Mukuro's and Kuwata's eyes are wide. Maizono puts her hand in front of her mouth.

"Yeah..." I admit, looking down. "I know... I-I'm very weak, aren't I?"

"No you're not, Fujisaki-san," Maizono speaks up, putting an arm around me. "In fact, it's quite the opposite – I think you're so brave to finally decide to tell us a secret you've kept for so long. I... I'm proud of you."

"Oi, accepting your weaknesses takes courage, you know," Kuwata said. "So I agree with Maizono."

"And I agree with the both of them," said Mukuro. "You're brave despite your cute looks, Chihiro. That's some kind of awesome."

"Really?" I beam at them. "Wow... thanks!" I look down again, debating whether or not I should tell them about him, since thinking about him certainly "lets me down", like how Mukuro had put it.

N-nothing matters anymore, right?

I fiddle with my fingers. "Th-there's actually something else I want to tell you. It's about wh-why I'm here."

I tell them.

That's how they know what he did so that I ended up here. Their eyes stare at me as I look down at my lap, looks of dismay on their faces after knowing that who did it was someone I'd really looked up to.

I spend the day programming. Yes, there are computers here. At least it's something I can do to distract myself.

Then, sometime at night, Mukuro runs in through the door that leads back into the dark tunnel. "Hey, someone else's coming!" she shouts.

Our expressions become those of dismay. That means someone else is dead.

"Oh, no! I wonder who it is," Maizono groans.

Mukuro glances somewhat uncomfortably in my direction. "Oh, you'll see who it is soon enough." She clears her throat.

...I wonder what's going on.

I find out when the door opens, and that's when I see him.

Oowada Mondo-kun, the person who killed me.

Maizono, Kuwata, and Mukuro all greet him rather enthusiastically, welcoming him to the Dead Students Society. However, I stay where I am, my head down in front of my computer screen. It's when I notice water on the screen that I realize that I'm crying.

He's dead, obviously after the Class Trial for my murder. He'd obviously been voted guilty.

He's dead. This is my fault.

"Hey kid."

At that exact moment, Maizono strategically pulls Mukuro and Kuwata out of the room. Now it's just me and Mondo-kun. He's walking towards my corner of the classroom, where I'm sitting in front of my computer. However, I don't respond and keep typing away.

He finally reaches my table, and although I don't turn to look at him, he starts speaking.

"Chihiro... I..."

There's a pause.

"I'm sorry. Ya don't know how fuckin' sorry I am for... doing that. I'm really really sorry."

Tap, tap, tap goes my keyboard.

He sighs. "I understand if ya hate me now. I understand if ya don't and won't forgive me - if that's the case then I'll just have to carry this burden of knowing that I've lost someone I hold dear. I'm perfectly fine if ya don't forgive me, I'll never forgive myself for having hurt ya, Chihiro. Damn, I was supposed to protect ya, and I failed with flying colors at it. So I'm sorry, I really am."

Another pause, filled with only the monotonous tapping of the keyboard.

Mondo brings a hand up to his head, rubbing his trademark pompadour. "Well, I guess that's all. I just want ya to know that I know I'm a jerk who deserves what he got, but know that whatever happens, I'll still love ya like a little bro." Then he starts to walk away.

"Oh yeah... Chihiro." He stops but doesn't turn around.

I stop typing to swipe at the tears gathering at the corner of my eyes and stare ahead.

"There's another thing I want ya to know. Your secret's still safe with me, kid."

"What secret?" I finally say something.

"The secret ya told me that night."

"Oh. You mean that I'm a b-b-boy. Was." I begin to type again, furiously.

"Yeah, that one. I just want to tell ya that up to the last moments of my life, I didn't tell it to anyone else. I was the only soul in that damned school to know it, except maybe that fucker Monobear. That was why I swapped the crime scene."

My hands freeze above the keyboard. "You wh-what?"

"I swapped the crime scene," he says. "It happened in the boys' changing room, remember. But I thought that if the others found ya there, they'd ask questions such as how a girl could have entered the boys' changing room, and guys like Togami and Kirigiri were sure to come up with near-truth theories. So I rolled up the poster on the wall and the carpet, and switched them with the ones in the girls' changing room."

"Wait. H-how did you g-get into the girls' changing room anyway?!"

"I borrowed Maizono's student ID, which was in the main entrance foyer," he replies. "I went into the girls' changing room and set everything up. Then I went back and carried ya into the girls' room. So if the others found ya, there'd be no weird questions asked."

I'm silent.

"...And to get rid of further evidence, I took your student ID and destroyed it in the sauna so the others won't know your real gender. If I got found out, I would at least bring your secret to the grave. If they did find out in the end, and to my fuckin' agony they really did, it wouldn't be because I broke my promise. That's it. I just want ya to know that I never broke my promise, I never told any other soul about your secret. Heck, I'll die before I'll ever break any promises made between men."

Then he starts to walk away.

I take my hands off my keyboard so I can use them to wipe my tears freely. By now I'm crying pathetically, tears running down my face in streams. So much for wanting to be strong.

I'm only half aware of an arm suddenly circling around me and drawing me to warmth. Someone is hugging me and keeping me close, protecting me in their arms, giving me warmth. That someone strokes my hair and tells me soothing words. Then something wet falls onto my cheek... but it isn't one of my own tears. That someone is crying.

And that someone is Mondo-kun.

I put my arms around him and sob into his shirt. "M-m-mondo-kun, I'm s-s-sorry!" I wail, my stammer getting worse. "I'm sorry for g-getting you executed! This is all m-m-my fault!"

"Hey, hey," he says gently, still stroking my hair, still crying. "D-don't apologize, kid. None of this is your fault, okay? I'm the jerk who's sorry."

"You're n-n-not a j-j-jerk...!"

"Whatever I am, I'm sorry, okay? Please forgive me Chihiro. You're one of the best comrades I've ever had."

I sniffle and smile at him. "And y-y-you are too. Mondo-kun, I forgive you, because I l-l-love you like a big brother." I give him a watery chuckle. "H-hey, you're crying...!"

He laughs and swipes at his eyes. "Well, yeah, kid, even gang leaders need a good cry once in a while."