I do not own Dangan Ronpa. Please enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 8: To Survive Despair
*DING DONG BING BONG!*
"Good morning, everyone! It is now seven a.m. and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to have a beee-yutiful day!" The morning announcement rang out in Sayaka's room as the young hopeful boy who currently residing there awoke with a tired yawn. Rubbing the remaining sleep out of his eyes, the Ultimate Hope got out of bed before heading to the bathroom to take a quick shower before breakfast. Once he was clean, Makoto felt surprisingly refreshed and relaxed despite the previous day's events. The pain and worry that he felt was still there, but to a lesser degree now and the boy concluded that the sleep he had really relieved some of the burden that was the gilded cage that he was currently in with his friends. Speaking of which, he suddenly remembered that he promised to have breakfast with everyone else that morning. "I better get going." He mumbled to himself as he put on his shoes before leaving Sayaka's room.
In a short amount of time Makoto made his way towards the dining hall before entering inside to see a few people were already gathered there. Hina, Sakura, and Chihiro were sitting together at one table next to the window that showed what little plant life existed in the isolated academy while Taka, Sora, Ibuki, and Mahiru were sitting at a table near the kitchen. Drake and Hajime were also sitting together at another nearby table and talking to each other before noticing their hopeful friend. They were about to call him over to their table, but Taka stood up and went over to greet him first.
"Hello Makoto, and good morning!" He said a cheerfully loud voice. "Can you believe it? I was the very first one here this morning!"
"Good morning to you, Makoto." Mahiru said politely before taking a photo of his semi-tired expression.
"Mornin'!" Hina said with a smile.
"I suppose I'm early…" Sakura also said with a smile, which Makoto thought it looked strange on her face, but was not unpleasant.
"It is pleasure to see you up so early Makoto." Sora praised the Ultimate Hope. "Now if the others were up as early as everyone else in this room then I am sure everyone would feel a bit better in their efforts to find a way out of here."
"Ehehe… good morning." Chihiro also said as she noticed the hopeful boy.
"Good Nom-Nom-Nomming!" Ibuki said in her usual excited and sing song voice.
"N-Nomming?" Makoto asked in confusion to which the Ultimate Musician gave him a cheerful smile.
"Yep~! You see I combined the words nom and morning together so it sounds cooler when you are getting ready to eat breakfast in the morning!" As she said the last part, her stomach growled loudly to which she blushed a little in embarrassment. "Speaking of which… I wonder when Leon is going to be here. He said that he was going to make Ibuki her breakfast today!"
"I'm sure that he is probably feeling a little tired from… what we been through yesterday, but I am also sure that he will be here to make you breakfast Ibuki." Drake said comfortingly as he quickly skimmed past the touchy subject that was yesterday's events before anyone felt hurt by the previous day's events. He then turned towards Makoto before and beckoned his hopeful friend to join him and Hajime. "Good morning Makoto. Let's talk for a bit before the others arrive and then we can all have breakfast together."
Nodding at the offer, Makoto went over and sat beside Drake and Hajime before the scholar decided to kick off the conversation with, "So Makoto… Did you get a good night's sleep?"
"Actually, I did." He replied with an honest and hopeful smile. "I was rather surprised to be honest. I was half expecting to have nightmares and not getting sleep at all, but that never happened and when I woke up this morning I was surprisingly refreshed."
"Heh, you had better luck than me then." Drake said as both of his friends gave him questioning looks. "Oh I didn't have any nightmares you understand. Rather I stayed up for a while and kept thinking of what we saw yesterday and how we might try to dissuade people from listening to that motive." He gave a somewhat tired sigh before continuing on with his explanation. "Sadly, I couldn't think anything that would effectively work unless we all just talked about our videos together so we can move pass those awful things. Yet with how everyone react yesterday I don't think anyone is going to be really willing enough to talk about what was on their videos anytime soon. Even when I went to comfort Celeste and Mikan yesterday, they both were too emotional about it. Well Mikan anyway was too emotional to the point where she couldn't stop crying when I comforted her while Celeste wouldn't answer me when I knocked on her dorm door. I guess she is trying to deal with what she saw in her own way."
"It does take time for everyone to move on from something as awful as that." Makoto agreed with his eyes cast down for a moment after remembering his own video for a moment, but he quickly looked up and gave his friends a hopeful smile. "Though I am very hopefully we can move past this motive very soon."
"Very true. It's just a matter of time before everyone will talk about it, but we must also try to talk to them whenever we can so that they can open up more about it." Hajime suggested thoughtfully to which his friends both nodded their heads in agreement.
As the three friends finished talking together, they all waited patiently as their remaining classmates came into the dining hall one by one. Some of the students didn't take long coming into the dining hall in a relax manner, like Junko, Hifumi, Mondo, Chiaki, Peko, and Hiyoko, Makoto noticed that they all could be classified in a more relaxed to wake up for breakfast. The last group that came in was everyone else that kept everyone waiting and Makoto once again noticed that these people looked rather tired, bored, or seemed indifferent to when they should arrive for anything. As they all started to form their little groups at different tables again and Teruteru started to head for the kitchen, the young hopeful Ultimate noticed something was off in the room. Like something or someone was missing.
"Wait, aren't we missing some people?" Taka asked in with concerned and irritated expression on his face.
"Hey now that you mentioned it…. we do seem like we are short a couple people." Leon commented in curiosity while Ibuki clung to his side and asked him when he was going to make her breakfast.
"Yeah, Sayaka and Byakuya aren't here yet." The Ultimate Swimmer Pro said with shrug.
"Hmm, if they aren't here then I shouldn't start making the morning dishes until they arrive." Teruteru said thoughtfully which in turned caused everyone to groan someone. "Well it would seem impolite to make food and have it grow cold while everyone else eats their share."
"Indeed, so we'll just wait a little longer till they arrive and if they don't come here soon I will personally go grab them myself." Sora proclaimed as everyone muttered a bit irritably about not receiving their morning meal just yet. While everyone else complained quietly about not getting their breakfast yet, Makoto's expression became thoughtful as he didn't know why Sayaka wasn't here already. Unlike Byakuya, who seemed to be totally indifferent to everyone's feelings and any sense of timing, she was more like a model high school student so it was totally unlike her for being this late. Suddenly he was pulled out his thoughts by a smug and naturally arrogant voice that came from the doorway of the dining hall.
"…What's going on?" Byakuya asked everyone in a condescending and curious tone. "Did something happen?"
"Hey man!" Mondo said in his usual crude manner towards Byakuya. "Have you seen Sayaka?"
"Why would I have? I just came straight from my room to here." His tone made everyone a bit irritated and annoyed, but they all suddenly realized that even Byakuya hadn't seen the missing pop singer.
"Did she forget about our breakfast promise…?" Hifumi asked with concern written all of his face.
"I got the sense that she always has her stuff together…" Kyoko said thoughtfully as she placed a finger to her chin while the room suddenly got silent for a moment and then everyone started to talk between themselves as to why Sayaka was late. As they all talked among themselves, a small dark speck suddenly popped inside of Makoto's head and started to grow steadily as time seemed to drag on for hours, but merely it was just a couple of minutes.
"Makoto," Hajime's voice pulled the Ultimate Hope out of his dark thoughts for a moment as he turned towards his friend. "Is everything alright? Your expression is becoming a little bleak."
"I-I…. I need to go…" Makoto said suddenly as he got up from his seat. "I need to go check on her!" As he finished his sudden declaration that made a lot of his fellow classmates jump in startlement, Makoto ran towards the door before rushing out of it and quickly headed to his room where hopefully Sayaka still was inside.
"What was that all… about…?" Drake asked out loud before a dark and terrible thought quickly grew inside of his head. "Oh god…. Please let me be wrong!" He shouted out loud as he quickly ran after his friend with Hajime close behind as he too suspected what might happen to the beautiful pop singer.
As his friends followed after him, Makoto shoved his dorm room door open and was surprised to find that it was unlocked before entering inside. Yet after he made his first step into the room, Makoto stopped as he stared in horror as his room was completely trashed and cut up like in some slasher movie. Things were knocked over, tables were turned over or knocked down, slash marks were on the walls like ugly scars, and the gilded golden sword that he brought for his own safety was unsheathed and on the floor. More slash marks surrounded the sword and the terrified and now panicking boy knew that there was a desperate struggle in the room. A room where Sayaka was supposed to be and yet she was nowhere to be found.
"Oh my god…." A voice said behind Makoto and he turned, for a brief moment, to see both Drake and Hajime looking with the exactly same looks of horror that was engraved on his own face. Yet before they could say anything else Makoto started to look everywhere for Sayaka.
"W-What the hell!?" He yelled out in frustration as he looked over his torn apart bed before check his closet, but still Sayaka was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly his eyes turned to see his bathroom door opened up and for a split second his heart stopped as both his friends started to walk further into his destroyed room. Without a word he rushed towards the bathroom before entering inside. What lay he saw next dug its way through his eyes and buried itself deep within his brain to the point where he would never forget the horror, that top every horror that he would witness for the rest of his life, that lay before him.
The sweet and kind Sayaka, who everyone loved and adored, laid crumbled against Makoto's shower wall as a knife stuck out her stomach and her face was pale and lifeless. Her blood was splattered everywhere and it seeped all over the once clean and pretty clothes she wore before pooling in a small puddle on the cold floor. Sayaka, The Ultimate Pop Sensation, was dead.
Makoto didn't know that he was screaming until the second his knees hit the floor in absolute terror and horror. He screamed out in pure agony and of lost so deep that he felt his heart ache so horribly that it became a trial to even breathe. Yet despite the horror and the lost that he felt, Makoto felt despair at the sight of his crush, the woman he would admit that he was falling in love with, laid dead before him. He continued to scream until his mind couldn't take any more of the sight and decided to grant the poor the sweet blissful escape of blacking out and falling unconscious on the floor. Leaving the awful nightmare behind while his friends came in to check on him after they heard his screams.
As they heard their friend's screams, both Hajime and Drake rushed further into the room before heading in the bathroom where Makoto lay unconscious and the bloody corpse of Sayaka laid against the shower wall. At first they couldn't believe what they were seeing as their minds tried to process in horror of Sayaka's death. They both screamed out in horror and terror at the loss of their friend, but after a moment, when they screams died as their voices started to get a little hoarse, both Ultimates could only stare at the sight before them.
"No…Not Sayaka..." Hajime finally said in both pain and disbelief as he tried to find the words for what just happened. Drake couldn't even say a word as he stared at the bright pink blood that splattered and pooled onto the floor.
"Wait a moment… pink?" Drake thought to himself quietly as snapped out of his shocked and stared at all of the blood that covered the pop idol's body. For some reason as he stared at the pink blood the Ultimate Lawyer thought there was something odd about it. Like there was something about it that should be right despite the fact that he was staring right at the moment. Suddenly felt a small headache come on and he place a hand on the side of his head as it got a little worse. His thoughts became a little jumbled for a moment, but just as it suddenly appeared, the headache left him and his process was back to normal. The young noble briefly wondered why he did a sudden headache like that come on, but he quickly shrugged it off as a side effect from the shock after seeing Sayaka's bright pink blood. Speaking of which, he didn't know why he was making such a big deal about the blood anyway. It was naturally pink, right?
"Hey! What the hell happened in here!?" A loud and shocked voice said from inside of the dorm and Drake and Hajime turned to see that their fellow classmates had followed after them. Whether it was concern after Makoto and Drake sudden declaration or the screams the boys gave off after seeing the body of their friend, Hajime and Drake didn't not know. However it didn't matter as their fellow classmates quickly surrounded the bathroom doorway and peeked inside before gasping out in complete horror and agony.
"Sayaka…..NOOOOOOOOO!" Sonia said in terror and horror as she started to cry for her deceased friend.
"Ahhhhhhh!" Hifumi screamed out in shock.
"She can't be dead…..Not Sayaka…." Mahiru muttered out as her eyes started to water out in painful loss for her friend. Yet as many more classmates screamed, muttered in horror, or just started in mute astonishment and terror at the sight of their murdered friend, they were all interrupted by something unexpected.
*BING BONG DING DONG!*
"A body has been discovered!" Monokuma's voice rang out from the now turned T.V. in the bedroom. "Since this is the first murder of our communal school life, please report to the gymnasium for further instructions on how to handle the current situation. This meeting is mandatory by the way so don't get any ideas on missing out!" With that said, the video ended and the students of Hope's Peak Academy could only stare at the T.V. before looking at one another in confusion and fear.
"Let's get going…." Kyoko said with a somewhat depressed look on her face, slightly anyway before an emotionless mask took form on her face. "I know it's painful to leave her body like that this point, but whatever Monokuma has to say right now is too important to ignore at the moment. Considering the fact that whatever he has to say is probably more rules on how to handle this murder." Her fellow students at first looked reluctant to leave Sayaka's body, but they all eventually nodded in agreement at her explanation. They all started to leave the room one at a time, though some people like Byakuya and Fuyuhiko already left before Kyoko finished talking, and headed towards the gymnasium quickly.
"Wait Mondo." Hajime called out to big intimidating biker who looked at him with a questioning stare. "Could you help me and Drake carry Makoto to the Gym? He fainted after seeing… Sayaka's dead body."
The Ultimate Biker Gang Leader gave them sympathic look, which looked a little strange on his face, but nodded at their request. "….I can't blame the poor guy for fainting like that after seeing that…" He said compassionately before lifting Makoto's unconscious body over shoulder and made his way towards the gymnasium with both Drake and Hajime following close behind.
"….think he is coming around…" A distant yet familiar voice pulled Makoto away from his unconsciousness before returning him back to reality. Blinking his eyes a bit tiredly, The Ultimate Hope looked up from where he lay on the cold floor to see the familiar faces of his friends and fellow classmates surrounding him.
"Ah! You're awake!" Hina said in relief before carefully examining him for any wrong with him. "Finally! Are you okay?"
"Now's no time for sleeping." Mondo said as he unceremonially lifted him up off the ground and onto his feet. "Get your ass up!"
"C-Careful!" Mikan said as she fretted over the hopeful boy with a concerned look on her face. "Fainting onto the floor like that can be rather shocking to him and his mind could still be rather sensitive from shock!"
"Huh?" Makoto asked in confusion.
"You were unconscious, my friend." Drake told him. "We had to carry you away from the dorms and into the gymnasium."
"It's no surprise, considering what just happened." Sakura observed thoughtfully while Makoto gave everyone an even more confused look.
"What…happened?" He asked, but before they could even say a word he suddenly remembered Sayaka's dead body in his shower room. His expression became one of absolute horror once more and he screamed out in pain and suffering.
"H-Hey, are you okay?" Mahiru asked in concern.
"Makoto, calmed down!" Hajime said as he stepped forward to shake his friend out of his shock and horror over Sayaka's death. "You're going to pass out again or worse if you don't calm down!"
After the Ultimate Scholar shook him around for a moment, Makoto stopped screaming and took a deep breath to help calm his nerves. "So… It wasn't a dream?" He asked in a pained voice. "What I saw…. It was real…?" Hajime looked at his friend and tried to say something, but he just couldn't find the right words to comfort his friend. He merely looked away as Makoto continued to look at him for answer to whether everything that just happened was just a nightmare.
"That's right. It really happened." Byakuya said brutally blunt which didn't in any way to comfort the pain Makoto felt after hearing his worst fears coming true. "Sayaka… is dead."
A sudden despair took hold of Makoto as it built inside of him for a moment before exploding of him like a tidal wave. He got up and was about to make a mad dash back towards his room to confirm his fears, but he was stopped by Akane and Sora who both grabbed him before he could take a single step.
"Whoa there, Makoto." The tanned skinned gymnast said as she pulled him back to where he once stood. "Where do think you're going?"
"I have to see for myself! I have to see if Sayaka is—! If Sayaka is…" Makoto couldn't even finish his sentence as two great big tears started to fill his eyes and the thought of Sayaka actually being dead filling his mind was just unthinkable to him.
"You can check one, twice, a thousand times. Sayaka is completely and irrevocably dead." Byakuya said this time a bit harshly and irritably as he didn't seem in the mood to deal with Makoto's emotional breakdown.
"No! I have to go see for myself!" Makoto said stubbornly and a bit of panic lacing his voice, but he couldn't move as Akane and Sora and now Sakura held him back from running away.
"Listen to us, man!" Mondo roared at him which in turn snapped him out of his emotional shock. "Whaddya think's is going to happen if you go out there?"
"Well what good is it gonna do just sitting around here!?" Makoto bit back as tears started to slowly spill down his cheeks. "I mean, why are we all hanging out in gym at a time like this!? Our… friend….Sayaka…she's… She's dead!" With that last sentence, the Ultimate Hope now truly acknowledged the issue that he dreaded and denied so much. Sayaka was dead and that fact hit him harder than any physical blow he ever received.
"Makoto… It's not like we had a choice coming here." Drake explained as gently as he didn't want cause his friend any more agony on the issue. "In fact the bloody bear insisted that we come or else we would probably be punished."
"I'm the one who convinced them to come." Kyoko told him a bit gently despite the mask she wore on her face. "Right now, we need to do whatever he says. We're his prisoners, right? It's not a good idea to defy him without reason." She then stepped forward and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder while looking directly into his eyes. "We don't need to make any more sacrifices than we already have…"
Makoto looked a bit stunned by what he just heard, but he couldn't really find any fault with their reasoning. They couldn't defy Monokuma at the moment and they all knew it. "… Why should we listen to anything he has to say?" The brown haired boy finally said after a moment of silence. "It's obvious he is the one who killed Sayaka!"
"I would never do that!" Monokuma declared in his usual obnoxious voice as he suddenly sprung up from the floor which in turned startled everyone. "If you believe anything, you can believe that!"
"He's here again…" Leon growled out angrily as his face started to turn red with rage at the very sight of Monokuma.
"Unless someone violates a school regulation, I absolutely will not interfere." Monokuma said a bit irrated at the accusation of being Sayaka's killer. "I can promise you, I won't do anything that goes against the purpose of your school life here. I'm famous at safari parks throughout the world for following the "Bear-Times-One" rule!"
"Ok we get it already! Can you please stop with the bear jokes!?" Kazuichi demanded angrily as he couldn't stand the bear's mockery any longer.
"Anyway… If you didn't do it, then who did it?" Chihiro asked a bit softly as she sounded like she couldn't believe that anyone of her fellow classmates and friends murdered the kind and sweet Sayaka. "Who killed her?"
"You already know the answer!" Monokuma said like the answer was completely obvious. "The one who killed her is…one of you!" This caused everyone in the room to become completely silent as the evil teddy bear allowed his words sink into their brains. "Hmm? What's the matter? You guys all look like you're about to see a dove get shot with a Gatling gun! Don't you all remember what I told you when this all began? One of you decided to kill Sayaka so that you could graduate. Someone's just following the rules. There's nothing wrong with that!"
"Y-You're lying… right?" The fat Fanfic creator said in disbelief.
"Of course he's lying!" The hopeful brown haired boy shouted at Hifumi though despite the obvious anger in his voice, it more directed at Monokuma rather than the fat Ultimate. "I'm telling you, he killed her!"
"This is just a dream! An awful dream that I don't believe in." Teruteru declared out loud, but those who looked at him saw his expression and knew that despite how he was denying everything he was slowly starting to believe it as well.
"Nope, sorry." Monokuma said truthfully. "This is happening and one of you is now a bona fide killer. If they wanted to, the one who did it could testify to that little fact."
"What…?" Makoto said in disbelief before turning his head around to look at everyone. They all had the same look on their faces. Everyone looked at each other with a combination of fear, suspicion, and confusion. Well most of them anyway as people like Drake and Hajime could only express the same disbelief that one of their classmates—one of their friends—killed Sayaka.
"A-Are you serious…?" Chihiro said with tears start to form in her eyes as she couldn't seem to believe or couldn't accept what was going on at the moment.
"Someone…. Someone killed someone!" Taka also voiced his disbelief and horror as the reality set in for not only him, but to those who still had doubts about what was going on.
"Waaaah!" Kazuichi screamed out in horror. "T-There's a murderer among us…. The fuck!?"
"It is amazing what some people are capable of." Celeste observed calmly as she ignored her fellow students outbursts.
"Not really…" Fuyuhiko said with a bit of annoyance in voice as he listened to his fellow classmates, mainly Hifumi, Kazuichi, and Toko, start to panic. "I saw people in my family's business willing to do just about anything to survive."
"Hey, hold on!" Mondo yelled out in both anger and fear. "Don't assume he's telling the truth!"
"That's enough." Byakuya commanded with finality in his voice. "Before we do anything else, I'd like to confirm something with the stuffed animal here. If one of us really did kill her, that person gets to graduate from the school, right?"
"…Huh?" Monokuma said a bit confused though everyone in the room he was just acting like an idiot intentionally.
"You said that if some kills another person they are allowed to 'graduate', Monokuma." Drake said a bit angrily as he didn't want to play Monokuma's act of playing dumb at the moment. "As much as I hate to admit it, Sayaka is dead so does that mean whoever killed her gets to go free? Or… does that mean there are new rules like I thought there were going to be as soon as you mentioned the graduation clause?"
For a moment, Monokuma remained silent as the seconds dragged own, but he then started to giggle madly before going into flown blown insane laughter which chilled everyone to the bone. "Puhuhuhu, HAHAHAHAHA! Trust the Ultimate Lawyer to catch that little sneaky detail even when it wasn't even in the regulations!" He laughed out gleefully and mockingly as the young noble waited for him, with great effort to remain calm, to answer his question. "Honestly, I thought you were going to be naïve like everyone else here, even the killer I might add, and think that it was going to be that easy. I mean just kill someone and then waltz out of here, that kind of easy. But you have proven me wrong so far, so I will be a nice headmaster and tell you the second part of the graduation regulations!"
He suddenly jumped onto the stage before looking with a smug evil smile at his students and started to explain his remaining rules. "Just like I explained before, you must kill someone if you want to leave. However… even if you do that, there's still one more part to the agreement you have to uphold, remember?"
"You're referencing to rule number six of the school regulations…" Celeste answered. "If you are the "blackened" that committed, you can't be found out by the students. That is what you and Drake are talking about, is it not?"
"Bingo! It's not enough to just kill someone. You have to actually get away from it! Which naturally means you have you need to a system in place to whether or not it's been gotten away with!"
"Wait a second…. That sounds an awful like…" Drake started to say in shock as he realized what Monokuma was planning.
"That's right~! It's your favorite pass time, lawyer boy!" Monokuma said excitedly as he got more and more gleeful by the minute about revealing his twistedly insane idea to everyone. "After a certain amount of time after the murder has taken place, a class trial will begin!"
"C-Class Trial?" Hajime asked out in confusion and dread at what the trial could possibly have in store for all of them.
"Yup! It'll being in a few hours after the murder! Everyone will gather together, including the blackened who committed the murder. And they and the spotless students will all engage in one big debate showdown! During the trial, you'll have to present your arguments about who YOU think the blackened is. And once everything comes to an end, the outcome will be decided by popular vote! If the answer you give is correct… only the one that disturbed your peace will be punished. The rest may continue their communal life. However… if you choose poorly…then the one who got away from murder will survive, and the rest of you will receive your… punishment. Which of course means your school life will come to an end! As far as class trial rules go…that's all there is to it!"
"So, um…what is exactly is this "punishment" you keep talking about…?" Hifumi asked nervously to which everyone all nodded their heads in agreement at the right to know what their supposed punishment would be if either they failed or the killer failed.
"Oh! Well, to put it simply…" Monokuma started to say calmly before stopping suddenly. He was quiet for a split second and he looked down for a moment at the floor while his body started to tremble in what everyone thought was sadistic excitement. He then snapped his head back up and looked at all of them with his smile now more evil and twisted than ever before. "It's execution!"
For a moment, there was no sound from anyone. They all stared in shock and horror as their evil tormentor revealed the most dreadful punishment of them all.
Execution.
"Oh I see, well that settles that… WAIT!? WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?" Kazuichi started to say with a calm smile before his expression became one of absolute terror and overwhelming despair as he screamed out in fear.
"E-EXCUTION!?" Hifumi screamed out in dismay as he fell onto his back in shock.
"T-This… This overwhelming sensation… is this despair?" Nagito asked out in horror as he couldn't believe what he just heard.
"And by execution… you mean…" Chihiro choked out of her now teary eyed face as she couldn't even finished her sentence as she became more and more upset by the very idea of someone actually getting executed.
"Execution is… execution. Ex-e-cution!" Monokuma sang menacingly as the others started to step back in horror as the evil teddy bear's voice got even more twisted and deranged. "Electric chair, bzzt bzzt! Poison gas, cough cough! Torn apart like a paper plane in a hurricane!"
"Y-You… You bastard! How dare you make a mockery of justice trial with such an insane rule and not only that, but also force people into a lose-lose situation!" Drake roared out furious despite his effort to keep his calm. Just hearing these rules were offensive to the young noble's very profession as a lawyer which in turn made him lose his calm composure.
"I don't see what you are so angry about, sir lawyer boy~!" Monokuma said mockingly which made Drake grind his teeth in frustration. "You should be happy I am giving everyone, including the blackened, a fair chance to defend themselves with something that you are really good at. It just like your famous trials back in the United States…. Only with consequences a lot more dangerous, punishing, and exciting!" Just listening to him explain his reasoning only made the young lawyer even angrier. Yet he knew that he if let himself get consumed by his rage and attack Monokuma, which he realized that's what the evil teddy bear wanted, he would get killed. Taking a deep, Drake swallowed his anger and calmed himself much to Monokuma's amusement.
"S-So, to make sure I understand…" Taka started to say with a voice that barely seemed to come out of his mouth as he turned to face the white haired lawyer. "If we get the culprit right, only they die. But if we get it wrong… all the rest of us… get executed?"
"….Basically, yes." Drake begrudgingly admitted. "If what the stuffed animal said is true, then someone is going to be executed in the end… whether it be the blackened, or everyone else."
"Puhuhu, exactly sir lawyer boy." Monokuma laughed out mockingly. "It's basically what the outside world is called a "lay judge" system, or if we go way back to my bear ancestor's era, it's an inquisition type of thing! Which means you'll be deciding who you think the killer is. But judge carefully, because all your lives are on the line! Okay, let me just add the rule I just described to your handbook. Make sure to keep it in mind!"
"W-Wait, hold on a second!" Junko said with a furious expression on her face. "You're freaking insane, you know that!?" As she yelled at the stuffed evil abomination, Makoto noticed something strange about her. After spending a lot of time with Junko and getting to know her better, the hopeful young boy noticed that Junko was acting way more angry than usual. Of course, he had seen her angry before at Monokuma, and to her other classmates as well, but for reason her anger seemed be different somehow. Like it was the kind of anger that one would make after learning that something drastically unexpected happened to their life.
"Hmm?" Monokuma asked out curiously after staring at the towering fury that was Junko's rage.
"A class trial? What the hell is that!?" Junko continued to fume out angrily. "I don't want anything to do with it!"
"Why not?"
"Whaddya mean, why not!? Why do I have to waste my time trying to figure out who murdered someone!?
"What!? Are you saying you're not gonna participate in the class trial!? Only punishment awaits such blasphemy!" Monokuma now totally red with anger at Junko's refusal to cooperate to the evil teddy bear's twisted game of death, much to her friends' admiration.
"What? Punishment!?" The Ultimate Fashionista sounded shocked by the threat from the evil teddy bear. For brief moment, this confused Makoto as while the rules never said they participating in finding the killer was mandatory, but it was obvious that if anyone defied Monokuma they would die. So why then would see sound like this was the first time she heard of Monokuma's threats?
"I might… I dunno, throw you in a deep dark scary prison or something!" The black and white teddy bear suggested casually which in turn only made Junko even more pissed off.
"Shut the hell up! Say whatever you want, I'm not gonna be part of this!"
"Don't be selfish!" Monokuma warned again with sharp growl.
"You're the one being selfish! Kill whoever you want, it's got nothing to do with me!"
"The evil standing before me... I'm trembling with fear…!" Monokuma now panted out with a red face, but it only made him look perverted and disgusting in the eyes of his "students". "But I won't give in to such evil! It's my style to stick out and resist till the very end…! If you really wanna get out of here…you'll have to get through me first!"
As he said that, the little demented teddy bear jumped off the stage before charging at Junko. Although it was more of a waddle considering how small and stubby his legs were. It would have been comical to most people, and it certainly was to those like Ibuki, Hiyoko, Hifumi, Hiro, and Leon as they snickered and laughed at the sight, but Makoto, Drake, and Hajime didn't laugh. The reason for this was because they were actually starting to panic as Junko got increasingly angry and did the unthinkable in their situation.
She stomped her boot onto Monokuma's face before slamming him into the floor with it.
The teddy bear gasped out in pain as Junko continued to twist her heel onto to her tormentor's face as she vented her frustrations. "Are you enjoying yourself now?" Junko asked sarcastically as she stopped her actions for a moment to wait for Monokuma's response while he squirmed under her foot still.
Suddenly the teddy bear stopped moving under her foot and instead his red eye glowed intensely. "Are you?" He said perfectly calm and composed, but the way he spoke those simple words made Drake, Makoto and Hajime feel their blood go completely cold.
"JUNKO!" Makoto yelled out in fear and panic as he realized what was going to happen to next. "It's a trap!"
"Huh?" Junko asked in confusion before her eyes started to widen in realization.
"Violence against Headmaster Monokuma is not allowed." The evil headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy stated simply and also in a matter of fact tone as he suddenly smiled with evil glee. "You've violated a school regulation… I invoke the mighty summon spell! Help! To me, godly spear Gungnir!"
Before anything could happen, Makoto started to rush forward towards to save her from whatever Monokuma was planning to do to her. He didn't know what was going happen, but from what the Ultimate Hope could tell from the evil teddy bear's speech, he was going to kill her for her violation of the rules. The pain and agony of losing Sayaka was still fresh in his mind and with Monokuma about to attempt murder on Junko now, the second girl to confess feelings for him, Makoto swore he would save her. Yet it seemed like he wasn't the only one who knew what was going to happen to Junko as he saw Yami out of the corner of his right eye rushing forward from alongside him trying to save the most beautiful girl in the world.
Suddenly there was a blinding flash the engulfed the entire room, which made everyone cover their eyes, followed by a loud screeching noise that sounded like metal sliding up from somewhere. What came next made Makoto's heart catch in his throat as heard someone gasp painfully as his eyes were stilled blinded by the light. After the light had faded, Makoto opened his eyes up, blinking a few times in the process, before looking fearfully to where Junko was. His eyes widen in complete agonizing horror as he saw Junko's body impaled by a couple dozen spears and spikes that stuck out of the floor. Bright pink blood was splattered all over the floor around the beautiful blonde and also on the spears themselves. Her eyes were widened in shock and confusion as if she couldn't believe she was dying like this.
"Wh….? H-Huh?" She wheezed in bewilderment as looked down in surprise at the spears in her body. "This wasn't…supposed to... Why… me…?" Suddenly, right at the end, her eyes shot wide open and Makoto, who now was only a few feet away in front of her after he was stopped by the blinding light, saw the life drain from her eyes. The last expression she ever made was a sad and lonely expression that made Makoto's heart ache in pain and anguish as she released her last breathe and fell to the ground dead.
Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Fashionista, was no more.
"Wh-What the…?" Hina muttered out in shocked horror as she stared at the bloody corpse that was her deceased friend.
"I don't…" Chihiro whimpered out, but couldn't complete he sentences as tears filled to the brim in her eyes.
"…Oh my… god…." Sora said in stunned horror.
"T-This can't be… happening…. WAAAAAAAAAH!" Mikan broke down as she crumbled to the floor and cried in agony and terror after watching her friend die before her eyes.
"Th-This can't be real!" Leon yelled out in shock as sweat ran started to form on his head as a result of the horror and fear he experienced from watching Junko die.
"NO WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" Hifumi screamed out in absolute horror as he fell backwards from the shock of Junko's demise.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Kazuichi also screamed out in panicked horror as tears fell from his eyes even though he pulled down his hat to hide his vison from the horrible sight of Junko's dead body.
"Now I am painfully aware of the great power and meaning of a promise…" Monokuma said menacingly as he ignored, his student's tears and screams of despair. "I really wanted to keep a corpse from popping up for no good reason, ya know? But I guess you all needed to be taught a lesson, after all. Ahh, what an amazing promise! But now you guys understand, right?" He stopped his evil little speech for a moment before turning to directly face everyone who in turn faced him with dread and terror clearly written all over their faces. "Now you see just how serious I am… Defy me and you get shot full of holes, exploded, buried alive, disintegrated…etcetera. So if you all don't want that to happen to you, you'd best obey those school regulations!"
After he said that, Monokuma gave his students an insane and truly evil laugh that sent shivers and fear down their spines. Yet Makoto didn't pay too much to what Monokuma said as he was too focused kneeling down besides Junko's body. "I'm so sorry…" He whispered out to her with tears standing his eyes. "If only I reacted quicker… you would have been here and alive… I'm sorry for failing you…" He wanted to cry out in rage and anguish, but he found that he couldn't and instead stared numbly at Junko's still impaled body. While most of the spears had receded into the floor, some got stuck in her corpse and it seemed they were detached so there wouldn't mess up whatever trap that was beneath the floor. As the Ultimate Hope tearfully mourned his friend, who he might have also had feelings for, as weird as that sounds considering that he also had feelings for Sayaka as well, he stared deeply in the pool of blood that formed around her body.
Her wounds and death blows caused an unimaginable amount of bright pink blood that Makoto wondered how the hell she had so much in her in the first place, but then something suddenly popped in his head as he continued to stare at the blood. For some odd reason an image of red popped into his head for the faintest of moments and he barely even caught a glimpse of what it was before it disappeared to an almost painful and aching headache that appeared out of nowhere. Makoto clutched his head in slight pain as the headache continued, he felt someone pull him away from Junko's body.
"Don't stare at it too long…." Yami said comfortingly as his eyes were teary and his voice filled lose. "If you stare her dead body for too long, your headache will only get worse… believe me… I just experienced the same thing just now…" Makoto looked the Ultimate Chess Player for a moment before giving him a grateful nod even though his heart still mourned the loss of Junko's life.
"It's not really all that shocking." Monokuma said with an amused smile on his face as he popped next to the boys, who merely stepped back in startlement. "She just died, that's all. Just went and died. It's no more remarkable than the inevitable demise of the entire human race. It's just natural as the eventual end of the world itself. This isn't some superhero comic. So it's not like when you die, you *really* didn't die. This is reality!"
"Enough you little bastard!" Yami fumed out angrily. "I don't want here you so called 'philosophy' after you just butchered Junko, our friend, who you goaded into breaking your rules!"
"Eh? No I didn't." Monokuma said with an evil looking smile splitting down his face. "All I did was just played around with her and if she was patient enough I would have stopped right in front of her and just simply yelled at her some more. And then I would have locked up her up like a good and proper headmaster would~!"
"You son of a bitch!" The chess player yelled out angrily and he started to walk towards the evil stuffed bear with intent in his eyes. Yet before he could take his second step, a gloved hand appeared in front of his face and stopped his progress while another pair of hands pushed him back.
"Don't do it, Yami." Chiaki said calmly as she the chess player back from the teddy bear whose red eye was starting to glow menacingly. "Enough people have already died recently and we don't need see another one of our friends fall for another one of Monokuma's traps."
"Oh ho!" Monokuma chuckled out in amusement. "I didn't think you two would be so calm after seeing your friend's death to do anything, but clearly I was wrong."
"…Why did you have to kill her?" Kyoko said calmly, almost coldly, as she looked at the bear with a small furrow of her brow to show her contempt towards him. "Didn't you say you put her in prison or something?"
"I changed my mind." The stuffed animal said as he turned his back towards her for a moment.
"No, you've been wanting to kill this entire time."
"Kill this entire time…?" Monokuma said in confusion as he turned to face Kyoko. "Don't be silly, you can't kill time! Or are you being metaphorical? Are you saying I wanted to waste time this whole time? Come on, what do you take me for? I'm Monokuma!" Despite his attempt at humor and change the subject, Kyoko continued to glare coldly at the evil teddy bear that her fellow students thought she was trying to freeze him solid with just her stare. The Ultimate Hope looked at Kyoko in awe at how calm she was despite how Monokuma was trying everything to make her react to him and shift the blame for Junko's death off his hands.
"Anyway, none of that matters right now." Monokuma said as he changed the subject once more. "I have something I'd like to give you to help you in your search for the blackened!" Suddenly he pulled some black looking tablets from out of nowhere and started to hand them out to each and every one of his students. Once they were all passed out he continued to with his explanation. "This little file is has all the information I've gathered about the death in question. I like to call it…The Monokuma File! I mean, naturally you guys aren't experts at this kind of thing, expect for Drake of course since he lawyer, kind of his weird thing, so you can only do so much with a corpse. So instead, I gathered up everything I know about the circumstances and cause of death. What's that? How do I know the cause of death, you ask? Cuz the surveillance cameras picked up the whole thing! I got to see it all go down!"
"Wait, so then… you know who killed Sayaka?" Kyoko asked suspiciously.
"Of course I do!" Monokuma said gleefully. "If I didn't, I couldn't possibly pass a fair and accurate judgment during the trial, now could I?"
"That's a good point." Kyoko conceded calmly. "The judge has to be able to make the proper decision. That's… somehow comforting."
"Not really…" Drake spoke up as he eyed the teddy bear evilly. "If he knows who the blackened is already then it's likely he will try to cover for him at times. Isn't that right, Monokuma?"
"Nope~!" The evil stuff animal headmaster said mockingly as he now turned to face the Ultimate Lawyer. "As judge of the class trial, I can't interfere with the trial unless someone breaks the rules, I have pass judgment for those who failed to convict the blackened or the pass judgment on the blackened him or herself. Although….. If the trial starts to get boring… then maybe I will try to spice it up from time to time!" While Drake didn't like the answer he got, he was sort of relieved that Monokuma was at least playing fair in regards for the trial. At least he claimed he would until he got bored anyway.
"So Monokuma…." Nagito said with a slightly sick voice as he continued to eye Junko's dead body with a mournful look on his. "I know you said you wouldn't interfere with the trial, but since you already know you the blackened is, won't you help him or her hide any evidence we find? What I mean is, who side are you really on anyway?"
"Oh dear, apparently you still don't understand anything if you are all asking similar questions like that." Monokuma said in disappointment as he turned to look at each and every one of his student's faces. "I will say this only once, so clean out the wax in your ears and listen well. I don't side with either party. Sure I will help equally to both sides from time to time, but that is very rare and it's boring if I get too involved in these cases. It more fun to watch you all run around looking for the answers and the truth for these trials, but most of all… I only care about despair. The more I watch you guys do your own thing, the more despair I get to watch as the trial begins and ends with the final verdict! And that makes me so darn excited!"
"Now then, please your full effort behind your investigation! After all, you don't have any choice but to give it your best shot! Seriously, you don't have a choice! Okay, so we'll meet up for the class trial… in a little while!" Giving his students one last demented laugh, Monokuma left them to their own thoughts. Silence reigned in the room as the stunned and confused students stared at one another in a totally loss state. Yet their expressions started change slowly as some of them started to look with clear suspicion on their face at everyone who wasn't themselves as they were the one who killed Sayaka. Although for Makoto, Hajime, and Drake they couldn't believe that someone, one of their own friends and classmates, murdered Sayaka. It was unthinkable, but they knew that they couldn't deny the truth of the matter and that was beautiful singer was dead and now Junko was. If they didn't find the culprit soon they so would they join their friends in the cold embrace of death.
"Now's not the time to wallow in your own depression." Kyoko said suddenly which snapped everyone out of their thoughts. "The worst thing we can do right now is lose faith in each other. That would lead having *total* faith in everyone else."
"Huh?" Leon asked in out confusion and frustration.
"Cooperation is absolutely key at this point." The mystery girl explained calmly. "Who you decide to trust or not to trust is, of course, completely up to you."
"Yep," Chiaki agreed with a calm expression, if a little tired, expression on her face. "While it is disappointing that we can no longer have *total* faith in everyone, we must cooperate with each other so that we may survive here. This may be difficult for some, but please put aside your suspicions at the moment and let us work together to find the culprit."
"Continuing to think about and talk about the deceased certainly isn't going to help anything." Celeste also stated out calmly with the same emotionless mask on her face.
"S-Saying stuff like that is just—!" Hina started to say angrily, but was suddenly cut off by Drake.
"Celeste didn't mean we just forget about Sayaka and Junko's murders like they never happen." The young lawyer defended the gambler and explained to the Ultimate swimmer before she exploded with anger. "What she meant was that we must put aside their deaths for the moment, for now anyway, so that we can focus on catching the murderer. As much as I pains me myself, if we are too grief stricken to find evidence that points to the true killer then we could all get killed. Not to mention we don't know when Monokuma is going to call us for the trial and we must use this time to start searching as soon as possible."
"I don't think could said it better myself, Drake." Celeste dropped her mask for tiny moment to give him an appreciative smile before returning to her emotionless expression. "Like I said before, we must adapt to our situation or we will die. It's as simple as that and if that happens you have only yourself to blame."
"Y-Yeah… but… but it's still a terrible thing to say." Hina said a bit weakly as she seemed to understand and concede to Drake and Celeste's logical explanation.
"Right now, exposing the killer is the most important thing." Kyoko cut into the conversation before it could get out of hand. "Because if we don't, we all are going to die here."
"...She's right." The Ultimate Affluent Progeny said with a superior smile that made a lot of his peers' quirk their eye brows in both curiosity and irritation at the action. "We need to begin our search right away."
"…You seem to be enjoying this situation a little too much, rich boy." Fuyuhiko commented out sarcastically which Byakuya only gave him an indifferent smile.
"Not at all. It's just that while this situation, as horrible as it is irritating, is an opportunity to see how Monokuma is going to mess with us and also to see how the final result will proceed." This immediately made everyone in the room give him angry stares and muttered how much of an asshole he was, but didn't go further than that.
"Either way," Sakura cut in before the tension got any worse in the room, "we can't run away from the situation, so we have no choice but to move forward."
"We hafta do it, I guess…" Hina finally conceded angrily. "What other choice do we have?"
"Agreed, we must focus on finding out who killed our friend and bring him or her to their crimes to light…. As much as it pains me to anyway." Sora stated as well although as she said the last part there was a little regret in voice that which was understandable considering the result if they punish the murderer.
"No way in hell am I letting someone kill me…!" Leon growled out angrily as he seemed to be getting pumped up for the search. "Alright, dammit! Let's do this!"
"Hell yeah! Let's go find out who murdered Sayaka already!" Nekomaru yelled out in his naturally loud voice followed by Akane who repeated his sentiments.
"Even though I really don't want to do this, as this will only lead to the death of one my friends, I will also do whatever I can to find the truth!" Sonia said passionately despite a small tear in her eye as she still seemed to be mourning the loss of her friends.
As everyone agreed with each other and decided work together, Kyoko started to speak up once again. "Before we start searching for Sayaka's killer, we need to decide what to do about securing the crime scene."
"What do you mean?" Hajime asked the purple haired girl.
"You're thinking about someone on guard duty so nobody can disturb the area, aren't you?" Byakuya asked in his usual superior tone. "After all, if the culprit decides to destroy the evidence, we're pretty much screwed."
"That's seems to be a logical decision to do." Drake commented thoughtfully. "Whenever I had a case, there is always policemen who were guarding the crime scenes to prevent the destruction of vital evidence and also to preserve the scene of the crime."
"In that case, I don't mind doing it." Mondo offered out loud as he scratched the back of his head. "I don't like havin' to think, anyway. I will let you guys figure out who killed the chick."
"Okay, then we can let Mondo and Yami look after the scene." Hina said as she was ready about to settle the matter and get on with the investigation.
"Well, no...we can't leave him there alone." Byakuya said with his trade mark smug smile.
"What? Why the hell not!?" Mondo demanded in anger and irritation at the rich boy's attitude.
"Isn't it obvious? If you were the culprit, what's the first thing you would do? By volunteering for guard duty, you're in a position to destroy all evidence you want."
"I see… A very clever and diabolical ruse if one were the true murderer and used such a tactic." Gundam said in a dark and almost admiring tone.
"Wh—! Fuck you!" Mondo roared at Byakuya who once again didn't even bat an eye at the Ultimate Biker's outburst.
"Fine, then I'll stay there on guard as well." Sakura said as she cut in between the two of them before they came to blows. "That way there's no problem."
"I will also like to volunteer as well for guard duty." Yami said solemnly. "That way we have three people looking over the crime scene and there would be no way for anyone to destroy anything. And… after failing to save Junko, I feel like I should do this as penance for my mistake."
"3-player co-op base defense with the three of them…" Hifumi commented thoughtfully as he pushed his glasses back professionally while Chiaki instantly turned her head, with great interest and excitement in her eyes, towards him as soon as he starting speaking in videogame terms. "With their stats, they're totally OP!"
"Since we won't be able to help investigate, we're putting our faith in the rest of you." Sakura told everyone with an intense expression on her face.
"I-I'm still pretty freaked out, but… I'll try." Hina said hesitantly before her expression became one of determination.
"Heh, as if I will let some cowardly jackass get away with this." Akane commented with a predatory smile crossing her face. "I won't rest till the murderer is caught!"
"Ibuki will give this case one-hundred percent of her effort!" The Ultimate Musician yelled out energetically before hooking her arms around Leon's neck, who in turn looked startled by the action.
"A-As much it makes me rather sick to my s-stomach… I can help try to examine the crime scene with my medical knowledge… but I am not sure if that is going to help all too much considering that it's probably already in the M-Monokuma file." Mikan said with a few tears streaming down her eyes as she clung to Drake's arm who in turn patted her head soothingly.
"No, I am sure you will be a great help, Mikan." The young noble said comfortingly as he took out his own Monokuma file and started to look over it. His eyes widen in surprise and confusion as he read something he didn't expect to see on one of the pages of the tablet.
"Hmm?" Celeste said as she noticed the lawyer's surprised expression. "Heh heh… so you noticed as well."
"Hmm? Noticed what?" Leon asked in both annoyance and in curiosity.
"I was looking through the Monokuma File we received. And I noticed something very obvious, and very unusual."
"Huh? What are you talking about…?" Chihiro asked nervously as she seemed confused at what the Ultimate Gambler could have found on that file.
"Speak quickly, red eyed woman." Gundam spoke impatiently as he pulled his scarf a little higher up his face. "We have only a select amount of time at the moment and we must be on our way to find the demonically hidden information on the culprit."
"Go ahead, take a look." Celeste gesture to the Monokuma file in her hand and by extension everyone else's. "Notice something interesting about where Sayaka died? She died in Makoto's room." This revelation caused everyone to go rigid and silent as they let that information set in. Suddenly, as if they were one being, they all turned to Makoto who looked at them in both confusion and a foreboding dread as he could guess what conclusion their minds were already jumping to.
"Wh—? She's right!" Hina exclaimed as she tore her eyes away from Makoto for a moment to look at her Monokuma file to find that it indeed say that Sayaka died in his room.
"Then, could it be…!?" Hifumi said in a nervous and frightened tone as he stared the Ultimate Hope with wide accusing eyes.
"H-Hold on a second!" Makoto instantly waved his hands up to stop his fellow classmates from jumping the gun and start accusing him of murdering one the most important people he met in his life. "You've got it all wrong! F-For one night, I…I traded rooms with her. I did it because she was… afraid."
"Liar!" Kazuichi instantly pointed his finger accusingly at Makoto as if he was the actual murderer. "I don't buy any that crap! She died you YOUR room so that means you're the prime suspect for killing her!"
"Y-You expect us to b-believe that?" Toko also jumped on the accusation band wagon as she stared with meanful eyes at him. "Just tell us the t-truth!
"It does seem like Makoto is the one who killed her." Peko said thoughtfully before giving the messy brown haired boy an almost apologetic look. "I'm sorry, but your own explanation there doesn't necessarily help your case."
"Tch, didn't think some who looked like he didn't have the balls for murder would kill his own girlfriend." Fuyuhiko said somewhat scornfully as he also seemed believe that Makoto was the true killer.
"Just fess up and tell the truth, Makoto!" Hiyoko cried out both childishly and also meanfully. "There is no sense for you try to drag us down with you after killing the one girl who seemed to care for you in this living hell."
"What the hell, Makoto!?" Nekomaru roared out angrily before marching over to the young panicking boy who was clearly frightened and scared by not only the accusations pointed at him, but also the intimidating gym coach who looked about ready to crush him. "How could you do such a thing!? She trusted you and now you paid her back with mu—!"
"ENOUGH!" Drake roared out as everyone suddenly turned to see a very angry lawyer giving all of them both disappointed and furious glares. This was rather surprising as while they all seen the young noble get angry before at Monokuma for justiciable reasons, but not like this and certainly not at them. "Look at all of you! You don't even know that Makoto actually killed Sayaka and yet you're accusing him like he was the true culprit all along after seeing one minor detail."
"But the Monokuma file says—," Kazuichi started to protest but was quickly silence by the young lawyer's intense and angry stare.
"I know what it said and I have to say that doesn't proof a thing that Makoto did kill Sayaka!" Drake continued to say angrily before taking a moment to take a deep breathe to calm himself down somewhat. "Look there are different types of evidences when you investigate a crime and the fact that Sayaka died in Makoto's dorm room is circumstantial evidence. Meaning that it isn't concrete proof that Makoto did it. If we want to find the true culprit, then we need to stop pointing fingers and start looking for some more substantial evidence that at least points at the right direction of who killed Sayaka."
Everyone was rather stunned by both Drake's outburst and explanation, but their expressions all turned a bit guilty as they realized that they did jump the gun too early. Finally after a moment of silence, Kyoko broke it once again as addressed them all. "It is as Drake said, we need to stop pointing fingers at the moment to work together right now before time runs out. Otherwise we'll… well I think I don't need explain right, do I?"
"I rather you didn't…." Hifumi said a bit depressed as he looked down at the floor.
"Sh-She's really dead…" A voice suddenly said as everyone turned to see Hiro kneeling next to the Junko's corpse. "H-Huh…? Hold on…. H-H-H-Hold on! J-Just w-wait a second! Sh-She really is…dead!? Then that means…!? That means everything that's happened so far is real!? It's not a joke or whatever!? It's really real!? Hell no! S-Someone save me! Let me outta here! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" Silence reigned the room as everyone gave him a dead pan expression. They didn't know if they should pity him for taking this long to realize that everything that happened was indeed real or just wonder how the hell his brain even functioned properly.
"You're j-just accepting that…?" Toko asked in disbelief and in anger at the Ultimate Clairvoyant's incompetence.
"…Wow, I thought you dumb idiot before, but I was wrong." The Ultimate Traditional Dancer said in a dark voice. "You are not only really stupid, but what I would call the Ultimate Dumbass!"
"At any rate… We must get a move on now." Kyoko said as she got prepared to leave. "Everyone pray for good luck and I hope your searches all go well…" With that she gave everyone a small nod before heading out of the gym doors.
"I'll be going to." Byakuya said simply before following after Kyoko and left everyone in the gym.
"Oh yeah, I'm on guard duty, huh?" Mondo said. "I better head to the scene of the crime!"
"Ah, that's right!" Sakura also said as she got ready to leave with Yami close behind her.
"We better moving then, shall we?" The Ultimate Chess Player asked his classmates as they nodded in agreement.
"If whatever son of a bitch did this is here right now, and they're thinking of destroying that evidence…" Mondo started to say as his eyebrow twitched angrily. "They'd better not let me find 'em! I'll skip the trial and cave their goddamn skull in myself! I'm serious! I'll fuck them up!" Letting his deadly words hang in there, he, Sakura, and Yami ran off to the crime scene.
"Hmph. Such a brazen attitude, but he does have one thing right…" The Ultimate Gangster said dangerously as he cracked the knuckles in one of his hands playfully. "Whoever the fuckin' shithead who murdered the poor girl is going to be sleeping ten feet under when I get my hands on them! No way I hell am I going to die here just because someone decided they wanted to leave here!" With that he left the room to start his own investigation.
"But… I mean, we're not detectives or anything, y'know?" Hina asked thoughtfully. "And we're gonna investigate a murder? How do we even do something like that?"
"It's really not too difficult actually." Drake explained professionally to everyone. "The main goal to finding the truth of any case is to find evidence that you suspect is related to the crime or anything that you find is out of place after a crime has been committed. Once you do find evidence, make a note it in your e-handbooks and remember it for the trial. Though I will expect this might happen, but please try not to take any sort of evidence that you find. Unless you have a very good reason, you can use one of the many features of your handbooks to take a picture of the evidence you find for use of the trial."
"While the e-handbooks have decent cameras, leave the picture taking to me!" Mahiru said a profession and determine smile. "With my Ultimate skill with my first grade camera I am sure that I can document most the evidence that we come across."
"We don't r-really have to do anything in particular." The Ultimate Writer said nervously. "W-We already know who killed Sayaka…"
"What are you implying…?" Makoto asked in a little irritation as didn't like how some of his classmates still believed that he did kill Sayaka.
"It was y-you."
"Stop that, Toko." Hajime cut in this time before Drake could do so. "We can't be fighting and accusing each like this right now when we only have a short amount of time before the trial starts."
"I-I'm sorry, but I can't simply let go of that assumption after finding that simple fact!" Toko argued back. "I get what you are trying to say, b-but from he said and the fact that Sayaka died in HIS room is a little too convenient of a coincidence."
"W-Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to give investigating a shot." Hina said. "It's not for sure that Makoto's guilty yet."
"Exactly." Nagito also said with small, almost hopeful, smile starting to form on his face. "We must continue to have hope that Makoto is telling the truth while we continue our investigation."
"That's true." Hifumi agreed a bit reluctantly. "We may as well at least check just to check."
"Even if I w-wanted to, I couldn't help inv-vestigate…" Toko said finally after a moment of silence.
"Wait, why not?" Leon asked curiously.
"I'm not g-good with…b-b-blood." She confessed as she bit the nail on her right thumb. "All it takes is o-one glimpse and I b-black out."
"T-That's understandable…" Mikan said nervously as she still clung to Drake's side. "I seen some people faint at the sight of their own blood being drawn when they are donating it. Though I h-h-have to deal with it regularly since I-I'm the Ultimate Nurse after all."
"Well whatever." Leon said as he rubbed his head in irritation at Toko's explanation. "I don't think anyone was expecting much from you, anyway." With that said he got ready to leave and he turned to face everyone else. "Alright, I guess I better get going." Without another word, the left the gym behind.
"Ah! Wait for me, Leon!" Ibuki called out to him as she ran after her boyfriend.
"Well then… We should all start our own investigations then." Sora said as she also got ready to leave. "As soon as Monokuma calls us in for the trial, let's go over what we learned so we may be ready for the end result."
"Hell yeah! Let's get going then and catch us the real culprit!" Nekomaru roared out loud before storming out the room.
"Hey, wait up coach!" Akane called after the intimidating manager with a predatory grin on her face. "If anyone is going to catch this prick, it's going to be me!" One by one, the students of Hope's Peak Academy started to leave the gym and went off to do their own private investigations or within small groups. The only people who remained in the gym were, Makoto, Drake, Hajime, Celeste, and Mikan.
"Hey… Thank you guys for sticking up for me." Makoto finally said to Drake and Hajime after a long moment of silence between the five of them.
"Isn't that what friends are for?" Hajime asked with a small smile.
"It's alright, I have faith that you're not the killer." The young noble also said with a small smile on his face to his friend. "Besides, I didn't like how everyone was jumping on your case as soon as one little detail was revealed in the Monokuma File."
"I'm actually surprised you didn't suspect him too, Drake." Celeste said which caused the young lawyer turn towards her. "As part of your Ultimate talent, isn't it your job to question everyone if they were the culprit? Even if they were friends?"
"Not really." Drake said without any hesitation in his voice which surprised everyone who remained in the gym. "While it is wise to have a little bit of doubt in people after seeing some interesting evidence, I like to have faith in my friends just as much. I want to believe that their innocent and I will look for evidence to clear their names. This doesn't mean it will affect my work however. Whenever I investigate or in court, I always try to find the path that leads me to the truth. No matter if that path leads to believe that my friends actually were the guilty party or not, I will continue this path till the day I die. Until then however, I will continue to have faith in my friends!"
"Exactly!" Hajime also threw in his two cents. "You aren't Sayaka's murderer just because she died in your room. Though it really is odd that she died there, I am sure there is a good explanation to this. However we'll figure out this whole mess soon enough and prove your innocence in no time!"
Makoto felt really touched that both of his friends had such faith in him and he was glad that they would whatever they can to find the true killer. "Thank you guys…" He said gratefully to both his friends.
"…Hmm, while I still have my doubts as to whether or not you are innocence, considering the amazing circumstances, but if Drake has strong faith in you at the moment then so will I." Celeste finally after a moment of silence. However she gave the hopeful boy a very intense and almost scary expression as she walked over and got up in his face. "However… if you betray Drake's trust or mine own, I will make sure that you would be beginning for Mondo and Fuyuhiko's punishments when I done with you." This caused Makoto to instantly step back from the now scary Lolita girl whose expression transformed from scary to smiling almost harmlessly. Makoto made a brief mental note not to ever make her mad and he also saw out of the corner his eye Drake giving him a look of apology as it appeared that the young noble knew about Celeste's well hidden temper.
"U-Um well…why don't we all get going already?" Mikan asked nervously as she sadly eyed Junko's corpse. "I-I-I'm sorry, but I don't want to look at Junko's bloody body at the moment…. It pains me so much to see one of my friends dead like this…" She seemed to be on the verge of tears again, but she gave startled look as she felt Drake patting her head comfortingly again.
"You're right…" The young lawyer said solemnly before giving Junko's body one last sad look and then turning to face the rest of his friends. "We better get a move and start own investigation. I am sure that's what Sayaka and Junko would have wanted us to do." They gave him nods of agreement before starting to head out of the gym to start their search for the true killer. Makoto turned his head back once just as he was about to leave the gym and he stared sadly at the super model's body before giving a great sigh. He swore that he would make sure that she and Sayaka would have their justice at Monokuma for him ruining their lives and finally taking them with his sick game. With a strong resolve, the Ultimate Hope left the room finally and headed towards the dormitories with his friends in tow to find the true killer before the despair Monokuma's sick game consumed them all.
Author Note: And here it is! The despair of hell on earth has arrived! Well mostly for Makoto anyway and it sucks that his two girlfriends just kicked the bucket like that. Also while this isn't the main investigation chapter, which will be the next chapter i promise, I think I did a good job doing this chapter justice. We got the despair, the deaths of hell, the trial explanations, and more interactions of our cast! Also I want to thank my fans and reviewers again that you are have been sticking with me thus far and i am proud to provide all of you this story that i love writing. Also i would like to say as a question from the review section, the partner ships are already been written down and won't be changed or be told just yet. Well besides the ones you already saw in the chapters already out. Also, as always i post around the end of every month as an answer to another question directed at me. So I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I will be posted another chapter at the end of January.
See you all again soon and a Happy New Year to you all from Alaska!