Wow, the end of Chapter One. I can't believe that it's already here! Thank you so much to everyone for sticking with me so far. I really do appreciate it. Also, this is going to be a blanket reply since I think basically all of the reviews mentioned it: Yeah, Itami's execution was very brutal. People should not let me create executions. I... take it a step far.

TheRoseShadow21: I'm really glad that everything made sense! That was honestly one of my big worries - that the solution would just feel super random. Glad you liked the first case!

TheUbermenschWriter: I told you Tsuyoshi would get justice. Even if it did end up being an accident in the end. Thanks for the feedback on the trial format. I'll play around with it a bit more in the future.

Crimson Spider Lily: Shoma's section was probably my favorite part to write. (After the execution. What? Me? Weird? Nah.) I've really enjoyed hearing theories on just what is going on with him. And yes, I love confetti too. Figured there should be some kind of celebration marking the end of the trial. Better than glitter explosions!

liammarklh88: I'M SORRY! Someone had to be the first killer! It just happened to be Itami. And hey, at least you've gone through the experience of losing an OC. You're welcome for that. I can understand if reading is a bit harder now, but I still appreciate the effort to try and stick with it!

Abitat Eco: Hello! Thank you for reviewing! (Seriously, I wasn't kidding when I said that it made me cry.) I loved reading all of your thoughts on everything that's happened so far. And I'm so glad that you're enjoying the way that I'm writing Kat! He's been challenging my pun-making abilities, but he's a lot of fun to write. Thanks again! :)

EagleWar07: Thanks for sending her! I'm really glad that you're enjoying everything so far!


In school, the teachers used to talk about Despair. How it made people do awful things. How it pushed them far beyond the bounds of normal humanity. How it twisted them and corrupted them into something subhuman, something that needed to be stopped at any cost. But these were still clinical descriptions. It's hard to take them seriously when you're ten or eleven or twelve. It's hard to know. To actually know and feel Despair curling in your gut and infecting your heat and scrambling your mind.

Back then, when Misa would half-listen to the listens and count down the seconds until she could finally leave, she laughed at the idea of a force so powerful that it could rip apart the fabric of society as easily as she tore through a tissue. It was ridiculous. Exaggerated stories meant to keep kids in line, complacent and obedient.

She was wrong. She was very, very wrong.

Her entire body felt numb, like her insides had been scooped out with a shovel. Or, you know, torn out by a surgeon. She forced bile back down again and finally tore her eyes away from the blood-soaked scene and onto the teddy bear that had fallen from Itami's hands. Misa slowly drifted over to it and picked it up, rubbing the worn fur of its ears.

Sumire and Zettai had almost identical reactions: stiff and stone-faced. But Sumire was obviously forcing herself to look unemotional and unconcerned, which people only did in the face of intense, overpowering emotions. Zettai's reaction almost looked natural, if not for the faint tremble running through his body.

Everyone else was in various stages of shock, horror and nausea. Rudolph had gotten sick, and Ryo looked like he was right behind him. That was enough to shake Hoshina out of her stupor, her need to care for others overriding whatever else she might be feeling. Kotoko had joined Shoma by the elevators. They both tried again and again to call the elevator down, to finally leave this awful place, but the doors never opened. Satsuki simply looked numb, like things simply weren't processing correctly. Still, she mechanically rubbed an arm up and down a sobbing Fujiko's back.

"How horrific…" was the only reaction Shouko could muster up. Her German accent still remained firmly in place.

Kat… had emotionally and mentally shut down. There was really no other way to describe it. He had somehow found his way onto the ground, his knees pulled up tightly to his chest with his arms wrapped around them. He squeezed his eyes shut and muttered to himself under his breath. A prayer or an apology or both… Misa couldn't really make out the words.

And behind all of this, Monokuma's deranged laughter. It echoed throughout the room, seemingly for hours before he finally stopped.

"Ah, that's the stuff. Do you think Momma Junko would be proud of me, Shoma? I did try my best to live up to execution expectations! You were right. This is my favorite part of the game!"

Shoma covered his ears with his hands and shook his head.

"Aw, is that a 'no'? I guess I'll just have to try harder next time!"

"There won't be a next time," Miyu said. She was shaking as tears streaked down her cheeks, taking her makeup with it. "There won't. We won't do this again."

Monokuma bent at the waist so that his chest was parallel to the ground. "Huh? You know… I think I've heard that one before."

"What's the point?" Misa asked. Her voice sounded hollow, even to her ears.

"Whaddaya mean?" Monokuma asked.

"There's always a point, right? So why now? Why us? Why are you making us do this?"

"Oh, wow. Those are some heavy hitting questions there!" he said, springing back into an upright position. He placed his paws over his mouth. "Am I even allowed to answer those yet? I don't know, those might be six body questions!"

"Just tell us!" Sumire demanded.

"Hm." That stupid, awful, horrific bear slowly looked at each Ultimate, his eyes finally falling and lingering on Misa. "I want to destroy false perfection. All you Ultimates, with your talents and your blessings. As if none of you have any… secrets. I'm gonna drag you all through the mud and blood and show this Ship that you're no different anyone else." He giggled. "And what better way to do that than through despair?"

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," Zettai said without an ounce of emotion in his voice.

"Upupupupup! That's me! Your favorite ridiculous bear!" He paused mid-twirl, cocking his head to the side as if listening to a voice that only he could hear. "Oops. Guess I gave away a bit too much too fast. Whelp. That's what they get for leaving me alone!" He completed his twirl with a flourish.

"They?" Misa repeated.

Monokuma froze. "Wha? Huh? Oh, they. Singular they or plural? Who can tell? Who can tell? Not me. Buh-bye!"

He leapt into the air and disappeared behind his throne. No one bothered to check to see where he actually went. It definitely wasn't a hurried retreat. Anyone who said that would have been swiftly punished.

Shoma and Kotoko immediately left once the elevator doors opened and let them in.

"Well. That was fun," Ryuu said. His tone was no different than what someone would use to talk about a mildly diverting board game. Out of everyone, he actually did genuinely look unaffected. A little green around the gills, maybe, but emotionally? Mentally? He looked good.

Fuck that.

"Oh, just shut up," Misa growled.

"Relax, kid. We won. 'Sides, better him than us."

Miyu rounded on him, outraged. Misa beat her to it. "It was your fault!"

"Da fuck you talking about? I didn't do nothing," he insisted, taking a threatening step closer to her. Oh, is that how he wanted to play it? Fine. She strode right up to him and shoved a finger in his face.

"You heard Itami. You hadn't run your stupid fucking mouth – "

"You talkin' about my airing your dirty laundry? That was just the truth, kid."

"I am not a murderer!" Misa screamed. She swallowed thickly and repeated herself, quieter this time. "I am not a murderer. But you made Itami scared. You took Monokuma's motive and cranked it up to eleven."

"That's not my fault, kid," Ryuu said with a shake of his head.

"You deliberately made the situation worse!" Misa insisted. In the back of her mind, she could feel everyone watching them. Well, everyone who was still present enough to pay attention to their surroundings. "You deliberately spread fear and suspicion for some reason that I'm sure is complete bullshit!"

"Hey! I was – "

"Take responsibility for your words, Ryuu," she interrupted. "Own up to it."

"Nothing to own up to, kid."

"She's right," Fujiko said quietly. "You just made things worse. Right, Satsuki?"

Satsuki looked distinctly displeased to be put on the spot, but she still nodded. "People started jumping at shadows. Not everyone. But the people already scared were terrified once they heard."

"Yeah, 'cuz it's Misa," Fujiko said, her voice growing stronger. "If someone like her could be a murderer then we're screwed."

"Fucking hell. You're all crazy," Ryuu said. "Not my fucking fault!"

"Yeah, well it wasn't Itami's either!" Miyu snapped. "It was an accident, remember? Monokuma still didn't care."

"I'm not just gonna let you fucking blame me!" Ryuu yelled. He looked around, eyes landing on an impassive Sumire. He scoffed when she said nothing. "Nice. Appreciate the help here."

"I'm still trying to figure out if I agree with them or not," Sumire said. "If Itami was less on edge, would he have reacted like that?"

"Who fucking knows?" Ryuu demanded.

"Indeed," she said.

Misa looked around the room. In any other situation, she would have grinned. It was just a tiny change in the air, but people needed some place to direct their fear, their anger. It wasn't entirely intentional, but Misa just gave them a place to put it. She slowly slipped away as Fujiko stepped forward, her tears melting away to rage as she started yelling at Ryuu for, among other things, being an "unfeeling psychopath who can't tell right from wrong."

No one noticed when she stepped onto the elevator and let the doors close behind her. She slumped against the wall, turning the teddy bear over in her hands. Now that she was alone, it felt like she could finally breathe deeply. She could finally feel the tangled ball of hurt and fear in her chest unravel itself.

Misa closed her eyes and shoved that ball far away, deeper into her core where it wouldn't do anything or bother her or hurt anyone. She could deal with it later, once she got out of here, once she found Tetsu. Just his name made her chest ache. Was he even still alive? Did they just kill him whenever they kidnapped her? That would have been the simplest solution. It wasn't like he would just let them take her.

Not like she would just let them take her either.

Ugh, what had actually happened then? If she just knew something, she would…

The elevator doors opened, dropping Misa off in an empty hallway. Still, she paused that train of thought and filed it away for later. Much later. She let herself into her room and carefully placed the teddy bear on the desk. After a moment, she spun it around so that the eyes wouldn't follow her everywhere.

It would be so easy to just sit here and do nothing. That's honestly what Misa wanted to do. Just take the rest of the day and do nothing but wallow in emotions that she had no business feeling. But she knew herself. One day would turn into two, would turn into a week, would turn into an endless cycle that renewed itself every time someone died.

(Would someone else turn killer? Of course they would. How could she even question that?)

She needed to move. She needed to sleep, but not too much, because that could be dangerous. Despite her lack of appetite, she still needed to eat something. Hell, just getting some calories in her would probably be more than enough to ease the pounding headache at the base of her skull. Misa looked over her shoulder one last time at Itami's teddy bear and slipped out into the hall. She took the long way around in order to avoid walking past the trial room. But that brought her directly past Itami's room, and Miyu, who stood in front of it. Misa almost backtracked – this seemed like a pretty private moment – but she was already spotted.

"I tried to get in, but I couldn't. I… He didn't even like me," Miyu said as soon as she was close enough. "We spent so much time together, and he thought that I just wanted to use him."

Oh, the urge to say that she kinda did really want to use him. But that would hardly be appropriate right now, so instead Misa just awkwardly stepped closer. "I think he had a lot of issues trusting people."

"He was still my friend. Even after…" She swallowed thickly, fighting back tears. "Why did it have to be them? If it was literally anyone else, I would be okay right now."

"No, you wouldn't," Misa told her.

"Yes, I would!" Miyu insisted.

"No. You're actually a good person," Misa said. "Yeah, they were your friends, but you'd get upset no matter who it was." She hesitated. "That's a really good thing." Miyu sniffed and roughly wiped away a tear that threatened to escape.

"It doesn't feel like one."

"Trust me. It's a lot better than the alternative." She bumped her shoulder against the other girl's. Miyu half-heartedly repeated the gesture. Eh, it was still something. Good enough. "Have you eaten yet?"

"I'm really not hungry," Miyu said.

"You still need to eat."

"I will as soon as my mind decides to stop looping Itami having… I mean, Itami's death."

Misa bit her tongue. That almost certainly wouldn't be for a very long time. Maybe she could talk to Hoshina about creating some kind of mass food delivery system. Even if it was just for today. It harder to say 'no' to food when it's placed directly in front of you.

Misa bumped Miyu's shoulder one more time in goodbye and continued on her way to the kitchen. The dining room was surprisingly empty; she would have thought that there would be at least one person drinking tea. She looked up at the clock and frowned. What a stupid thing that was changed for a stupid reason. Looking around, she grabbed one of the chairs and dragged it over to the wall before climbing on it. Ignoring the small wave of vertigo that she always got whenever her feet left solid ground, she felt around the edges of the clock for some way to change the time.

Nothing. She couldn't even find a way to take it off the wall. How the hell did Monokuma change it then? "Why can't you just work?" Misa asked, her voice creeping up into yell-territory for the last word. She leaned forward to rest her head against the wall, but misjudged the distance and ended up slamming against it instead. "Ow." Great. Now she had two headaches.

"Are you okay?"

Misa turned her head to see Hoshina hovering near the kitchen door. She grunted. "Peachy."

"I see," Hoshina said just as a timer went off in the kitchen. "Oh, excuse me."

Misa sighed and followed her inside, leaving the chair against the wall. The psychologist had just finished setting a steaming bowl of soup onto the counter. Misa leaned over to peek at it. It was warm, rich and creamy. The perfect kind of soup to curl up with when the environmental controls stopped working for the fourth day in a row.

"Yeah, no one's gonna eat that," she said, even as she dug around for a spoon. Hoshina's smile faltered.

"They're not? But it's my favorite soup for when I'm not feeling well."

"Emotionally maybe. But physically? Their bodies won't be able to handle it. It's too rich. They'll just feel sick." Spoon now in hand, she scooped the bowl off the counter and took a big bite. Her stomach rolled a bit, but not nearly to the extent that she was expecting. Good. This was actually one of her favorite soups too. Hoshina's brows knitted together as she watched her. Misa shrugged with one arm. "What can I say? I like feeling just a bit sick."

"Oh, that's a lot to unpack there," she said.

"What? Moi?" she asked, her tone probably a bit more mocking than it should be. "I'm the perfect picture of mental health and sanity."

"It's okay if you need to process things too," Hoshina said gently. "No one would fault you for that." Nah, Misa already did her ten minutes of processing. That was more than enough time. Instead, she wandered over to the food dispensers and called up some toast with just a bit of jam. The machine hummed as it got to work.

"That should work for right now. People can be more adventurous later tonight for dinner. If they, you know, eat dinner or whatever."

"I will trust the expert's opinion then," Hoshina said. Misa suppressed a wince.

"Hm. Oh, speaking of expert's opinion… Shoma."

Hoshina's posture immediately turned defensive. "There's really not much that I can say. Even if I did have the time and space to full examine him, those results would still be protected by client confidentiality."

"Yeah, except for when those results might lead to him hurting one of us." Misa paused. Oh this was going to be a low blow. "Or himself."

Hoshina's smile was completely gone now. Misa kept waiting for it to reappear and smooth over the intense expression on her face, but it never did. Interesting.

"If it ever gets to that point, then I will reassess. At the moment, though, what he needs is trust and his boundaries respected."

"No offense, but if you actually trust him right now, you're probably an idiot."

That was enough to make the smile reappear. Very interesting. "That's not the first time I've been told that," Hoshina said. The timer dinged once the first batch of toast finished. Misa returned to her soup as Hoshina setup the second batch. "I'm afraid that I must ask you to keep the colors of Shoma's room to yourself," she said without looking at her. "That would only breed more distrust. And we've already seen what happens once that gets out of control."

"Yeah, because keeping it a secret from everyone will really endear them to us once they inevitably find out."

"Please, Misa?" she asked, her eye widening as she looked at her beseechingly. "Please."

Already, she could feel her resolve weakening. Shit. "Ugh, fine. At least until something else happens. I make no promises if the situation changes." Hoshina's smile grew, positively lighting up her face.

"Thank you. I really do appreciate it. This is the best choice for everyone, I promise."

"Whatever. You're the expert."

She stayed for a few minutes longer to finish most of her soup. Thankfully, the conversation moved to different topics. Apparently, a lot of people were still kinda just standing in the trial room, staring blankly ahead as they tried to process everything that happened. Hoshina didn't name names, but Misa could guess. This was probably the first personal brush with violence most of them had ever experienced, and it wasn't a gentle one either. She would be a bit more concerned if more people were simply okay with what had happened.

Finally, she said goodbye to Hoshina and disappeared back into her room. Her skin felt sticky and gross, almost tacky with sweat. She made it two steps into the shower room before stopping cold in her tracks.

Tsuyoshi's body was gone. Someone must have taken it away during the trial. But it was more than that. Granted, it wasn't a very involved or messy crime scene, but there was still no indication that a murder had even taken place. Every trace of Tsuyoshi, of Itami, of what had happened here, was gone. Physically at least. The air still felt heavy, like a hand was pressing down on her chest. Like there was still someone there, watching her, even though she couldn't see them.

"No. Nope! Not doing this."

She retreated back into her room and firmly closed the door behind her. Man, that was gonna suck moving forward. How could she just take a shower somewhere she need someone had died? No wonder realtors had trouble selling former crime scenes.

She back further away from the door and curled up into a ball in the center of her bed. Her eyes didn't leave the door, though. It was stupid and ridiculous, but it felt like the second that she did look away, someone would come through. The only way to avoid that would be to watch. And to wait. And to stare, unblinking and unmoving.

It wasn't all that long before there was a knock on Misa's door. She blinked rapidly to bring her gaze back into focus, and slowly rolled off the bed. Whoever was at the door knocked again. She rolled her eyes at their impatience and opened the door a crack. Zettai stood there, one side of his mouth lifted up in a smirk.

"Good, you're here," he said. "May I come in?"

"Sure," Misa said, stepping back a few paces to let him through. She closed the door behind him and sat in the middle of her bed. Zettai perched on the corner of her desk. He picked up Itami's teddy bear and looked almost concerned.

"Collecting trophies? How serial killer of you."

"It's not a trophy," she said. Apparently her voice was a bit harsher than he had expected, before Zettai immediately put the bear down. "It's a memorial. I was going to bring it back to his room, but the doors are barred." She shook her head. "Sumire and Miyu coming too, or is this a private meeting?"

"Oh, I'm sure that Sumire will call another meeting of the minds once she actually gets her act together, but the two of us have things that we need to discuss."

"Really? How exciting."

"Control your snark. This is neither the time nor place."

"You do realize that that just makes me want to be even more of a sarcastic bitch, right?" Zettai closed his eyes, looking like he was trying with all of his might to hold back a sigh. Misa grinned. "Oh, don't look like that, BB. You knew what you were getting into. I've never pretended to be anyone else."

"Unlike our resident gamer," Zettai said, opening his eyes again. Misa immediately sobered. She leaned forward and pulled her legs closer to her. If Hoshina wouldn't let her in and help, then maybe she and Zettai could figure things out. As much as she somewhat hated to admit it, the guy was brilliant. He would have some theories. He had to.

"Yeah, that was… let's just go with weird. He turned into someone completely different. It was creepy."

"You were the one who said that there was something special about him," he pointed out.

She shook her head. "Yeah, but I wasn't expecting that."

"Well, now we know that Shoma is far more observant than he appears to be," Zettai said, almost as if he was thinking out loud. "If he every bothered to apply himself, he might just be an intellectual challenge. A minor one, naturally, but a diverting one."

"Naturally," Misa echoed, raising her eyebrows in response to the flat look she got in response. "I'm a bit more worried about the personality change."

"Was it a change, or merely his true self finally peeking through?"

"Are you kidding me?" she asked. "Did you see the look in his eyes? Shoma was fucking terrified. If that is who he really is then…" she trailed off before shrugging and muttering. "I guess his room makes sense now." Two colors, two very distinct sides of him. Ryuu was right; it was kinda like Jekyll and Hyde. It had been a while she since she had read it, but she was fairly certain that that story ended badly for everyone involved. Well, technically they were already in a situation like that. At least that meant that it couldn't get worse, right?

Zettai frowned. "What's so special about his room?" Crap. Had she said that out loud? She had literally just promised Hoshina that she wouldn't say anything. Wait, maybe that was an easy out.

"Ask the shrink." Misa took a breath. "I mean, ask Hoshina. She'd be able to explain the psychology stuff way better than me. Honestly, a lot of it just kinda went zip right over my head."

"Right. Because your partner is the smart one," Zettai said with a look that made it clear he wasn't buying a word she said.

"Yep. And I just stand there and look pretty," Misa told him with a grin.

"Yes, I remember," he said, reaching a hand into his jacket pocket. "And while I will follow up with Hoshina later, this actually segues nicely into what I actually wanted to talk about."

"Oh, yeah?"

"I'm the one who orchestrated Itami's murder."

He said it so casually that the words didn't quite sink in until after a few seconds. Misa very carefully kept her posture relaxed, even if every cell in her screamed at her to jump up and wring Zettai's stupid neck until he told her what exactly he was playing at. He watched her reaction carefully, a smirk playing at his lips. The hell was this? She took a moment to make sure that her voice was steady, almost flippant.

"I'm sorry. Run that by me one more time?"

"You heard me the first time, Misa, and I do hate to repeat myself."

"Oh, shut up. Wait, you said Itami. But he wasn't… Monokuma punished him. Unless you're implying that you're Monokuma here, which, for the record, would be a really, really stupid thing to do."

Zettai rolled his eyes. "No, I am not Monokuma. I simply used his rules to our advantage."

Misa inclined her head, prompting him to continue. Not that he really needed much prompting. The pride resonating throughout the room was impossible to ignore. How could he not want to educate her on his brilliance? She consciously reminded herself to keep her hands loose, to not curl them into fists.

"Someone was going to commit a murder; you said so yourself. It was inevitable. So why not control who did it, why not kill two birds with one stone? Metaphorically speaking, although two people did… end up dead."

"So what? You forced Itami to kill Tsuyoshi?"

"Oh, no. Itami was the one who chose to do the deed, accident or not. I simply helped him get into the right frame of mind. He was already scared due to Ryuu's attack on you, and his argument with Tsuyoshi made him paranoid and distrustful. All it took was one conversation to prime him to react violently to any surprises."

"He was on the important list, Zettai," Misa reminded him, fighting to keep her heart from racing. "He was supposed to be protected."

"Yes, well, he was on your list. I had different plans." Rage welled up in her chest, hot and potent. It must have shown on her face because Zettai sighed and shook his head. "Come on, it wasn't like he was actually going to cure anything. And even if he did, it would never see the light of day. There's only money in treatment."

And as much as she wanted to, she couldn't really argue with that. How many of her jobs had involved medicine or other pharmaceuticals? Those would all dry up. And a lot of people would be angry about that. "Yeah, but still. Did fucking nobody stick to the plan that we made? Seriously! Not to quote Ryuu, but fucking hell!"

"Calm down, Misa. Really, you should be thanking me. I only chose him so that we could bring your favorite admirer into the fold. Now, there's no reason for Miyu to support Sumire in anything. After all, her plan couldn't keep any of her friends safe. In fact, it was Sumire's plan that put you directly in the firing line. She's the one who sicced her bounty hunter on you once he oh so helpfully remembered some of your crimes. She figured that directing all of the fear onto one person would help us band together, give us a common enemy."

"So much for me being important," Misa muttered. "But yeah, I already knew that. Ryuu implied as much."

"Technically," Zettai said, drawing the word out until she looked at him, "the words and decision were hers. The idea was mine. Granted, I didn't expect you to totally –" he broke off when Misa bolted to her feet, finally unable to stay still for a moment longer. He watched her warily, as if expecting her to throw a punch. Honestly, she was considering it.

"No more beating around the bush. Tell me what you did. Simply, quickly and without insulting me, or I swear to God you will not like the condition that you leave this room in," she told him. Her voice was quiet, cold. A sharp contrast to the fire and heat roaring in her ears, turning the edges of her vision as red as the walls of her room.

Zettai's was equally as quiet when he spoke. "There's the hardened criminal. I wondered when she would come out."

"Now."

"Fine. Everyone here may be an Ultimate, but most of them are naïve idiots who think with their hearts instead of their heads. They don't like me, so they refuse to acknowledge that I'm who might actually be able to get them out of here. I needed a leader. Someone else for them to rally behind that could then listen to me and follow my instructions… advice. I chose you."

"Why me?" she asked.

"You were the natural choice. Half the people here have already cast you as a Robin Hood-like figure, and don't think I haven't noticed how you flit around from person to person. You're the only one here who can be welcomed into any of the social groups here. People want to follow you. I just needed to give them a reason to." He smiled, although it didn't reach his eyes. "And I can actually talk to you without feeling like I'm losing brain cells."

"I'm not a leader. I don't want to be one," Misa protested. "Trust me, I'm shit at it."

"Really? You led everyone through the trial just fine," Zettai said, bracing one hand against the desk so that he could lean back. She shook her head.

"That's different." It wasn't. She knew that it wasn't. But it still felt good to say it. Zettai turned his gaze upwards, as if asking for patience.

"Regardless, I just gave you the perfect redemption narrative, and you capped it off beautifully by completely destroying any credibility that Ryuu had." He paused. "Okay, maybe it was a bit too rushed to be considered perfect. But it suited our needs."

"Two birds with one stone," Misa repeated. "If making me into some stupid leader was one of them, what was the other?"

"To neutralize our greatest threat outside of Monokuma," he said. She looked at him for a moment before realization dawned on her face.

"You just completely neutralized Sumire," she said, grudging respect slowly creeping into her voice as her fire slowly started to dim. Ryuu was isolated and disliked by basically everyone, which kinda made him useless for basically anything that required trust. If Zettai was right, then Miyu would quickly turn against her too. Did she have any other allies? Or social connections to begin with? She wracked her brain, but couldn't come up with any.

"A chess grandmaster is nothing without her pieces," he said, like he could read her thoughts. "Of course, it helped that she was convinced of her own intellectual superiority."

"Well, if you go by that chess game…" Misa trailed off. Zettai's sudden grin made her stomach drop. "Please tell me you didn't deliberately throw the game."

Zettai shrugged. "Does it really matter if I did or not?" he asked. "The result was the same." He looked Misa up and down and must have been satisfied with what he saw because he finally took his hand out of his pocket and placed a black chess piece on her desk. "The rook is the second most valuable chess piece. I would have gone with the most valuable, the queen, but apparently that has connotations."

"Aww, does that mean I don't get to be the sassy underling you fall in love with?" Misa teased, on reflex more than anything.

"I don't mix business with pleasure," Zettai said. Because, you know, that totally wasn't something a cold and sadistic otome character would say. "Besides, if I wanted an underling, I would have simply continued to manipulate things from the shadows. The only reason why I'm telling you this is so that we can be partners moving forward. No more lies or hidden manipulations."

That was enough to startle a laugh out of Misa as she sat back down on the edge of her bed. She looked at him for a long moment before grinning. "I already got a partner. Don't need a new one. Especially not one that backstabs me and tries to force me to be a leader."

"We can do great things together, Misa," he told her. She didn't buy his earnest tone for a second. When she didn't respond, he frowned. "The only thing I want is to get out of this hellhole. I'm giving you the opportunity to not only help make that happen, but to do so in a way that saves as many lives as possible."

"Bull. Shit."

"Fine," Zettai said as he stood. "I'm leaving myself in a very vulnerable position right now, giving you a lot of trust, Misa. Sleep on my offer. I'll take your final decision tomorrow."

"It's not gonna change," she said.

He waited until he was at her door to say, "I think that it will." Zettai was gone before she could tell him to fuck off.


CHAPTER ONE: SHIP OF THE DAMNED

[END]

14 ULTIMATES ALIVE


TROPHY ACQUIRED: WORN TEDDY BEAR


START CHAPTER TWO?

[YES] NO


And that's Chapter One! I'm going to be outlining Chapter Two this week, which means that I need to know what FTEs I'm writing. The poll is up on my profile. Check it out and let me know who you want Misa to bond with more!

Until next time!