Haunted

By Dixxy Mouri

Chapter Thirteen: Dream On

EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! Author's Announcements!

Hey guys, so although there are a number of things I want to fix with this story, one thing I REALLY want to fix is how I'm using names so for now please roll with me as I work out the naming conventions for everyone. Eventually I'll probably go back and edit to make things match up better but yeah, going between different translations and getting "used" to certain conventions messed a few things up for me along the way.

Somehow, the events surrounding Sakura's suicide had managed to get even worse.

Although she had been allowed to explain herself to Sayaka, Chihiro, Taka, and Mukuro, there was still an underlying discomfort amongst the four of them during her explanation. Having to witness her taking her own life must have been hard enough, but it also occurred to her that all of the gathered spirits had been victims of murder (or, at least she assumed Mukuro had been murdered – she still didn't have an explanation for the soldier's death yet) and here she was, having ended her own life, not at the hands of one of the other survivors.

And indeed, the gravity of what she had done had begun to weigh heavily on Sakura as well. It had seemed like, while perhaps not a "good idea at the time", but in some ways the only available option. She couldn't bring herself to kill any of the remaining six students, but she couldn't stomach the idea that Monokuma was going to do something to her family's dojo if she failed to act, either. And when it occurred to her that the bear had never said she couldn't kill herself, and that the tensions amongst the rest of the students were increasing with each murder, she felt that there wasn't anything else she could do. Everyone else was on edge and if it wasn't her, someone else was going to kill again and condemn not only their victim, but either themselves or the remaining survivors. Sakura couldn't bear the thought and realized there was no way out without a little more bloodshed.

But now she was questioning her decision. She'd thought she'd eliminated the possibility of witnesses, but she'd had four of them. She'd had no idea that the memories the mastermind had stolen from them were more than just a few days at most but closer to a whole two years. And she'd had no idea that Hina had been more than just a bubbly fellow classmate to her . . . more than just a close friend . . .

Back when they had really started classes at the academy, things between Class 78 had started off . . . less than ideal. Most of them were stand-offish with each other (with the occasional screaming match between Mondo and Kiyotaka or callously cruel comment from Byakuya, who just assumed he was better than everyone else) and most of friendships that formed were tenuous at best. Even Makoto, the only one who seemed to be able to get along at least a little bit with everyone, seemed to spend most of his time with Sayaka due to having gone to the same junior high.

Sakura could feel the eyes of her classmates on her from the very first day, with a mix of fear and disgust over who she was, what she was. It was nothing new – she'd been getting strange looks from her classmates since she started body building to become a stronger fighter – but it was something she wasn't quite sure she'd ever get used to. Never mind that she was a girl and girls weren't "supposed" to be as physically strong as she was, but she was one of the strongest people in the whole world – of course they were intimidated by her.

All except for Hina.

Sakura wasn't sure what it was that drew the swimmer to her, but there she was, having lunch with her on their first day – their first real day – at Hope's Peak, cheerfully building the foundation of their friendship. It was foreign but familiar – she hadn't been treated like this in a long time, and it was refreshing. People had a tendency to forget she was still a teenager with interests in girly things in addition to her love for the martial arts.

She smiled, and asked her if she wanted to work out after classes were done for the day.

And thus began their friendship. They helped each other with their homework, spent time together working out or reading girly magazines, and just doing general "girl stuff" together. Hina tried to teach her some of the finer points of competitive swimming, and Sakura began to teach her friend basic self-defense (which initially involved bribing Leon with food to be their "practice dummy" until he started spending more time with Sayaka, then they used Makoto).

And then something unexpected happened one day. Sakura didn't even remember the exact circumstances it had all been so surreal, but they had been running laps early one morning when Hina tripped and fell. When Sakura went to check on her their faces were . . . closer than she had planned on them being, and for a moment everything around them was frozen and silent like the first snow of winter.

Their eyes had locked and she could feel Hina's warm breath on her cheek, and Sakura felt her herself blush. She couldn't move, and despite being the world's strongest woman she was positive even someone like Chihiro could have gotten the drop on her. Their eyes locked, and Sakura realized Hina couldn't move either.

They kissed.
Sakura had never been attracted to another woman before. She'd been holding a torch for Kenshiro for some time now, and she'd had the normal teenage girl crushes on this boy band member or that actor off and on before, but never a woman. Idols like Sayaka or models like Junko had never registered with Sakura as objects of her desire before and it was . . . making a lot more sense than she realized. Maybe it was because the right woman hadn't come around before Hina, but Sakura was beginning to think that maybe she was attracted to women, too.

Hina and Sakura kept things as low key as they could, but found this was possibly backfiring. Someone asked if there was anything wrong between the two of them, which made them realize they'd been trying TOO hard to stay apart and it was causing more unwanted attention. So they tried to strike a balance between acting the way they had been behaving before with how they wanted to behave now. No one batted an eye if Hina leaned on Sakura's shoulder or the two were seen hugging, as everyone marked it up to just the two girls being friends and nothing more.

No one knew that when no one was looking they were holding hands or kissing or cuddling while watching movies on Hina's laptop. By the time a month or so had passed most of the tension in their class had completely dispelled and everyone was, more or less, on friendly terms. They let everyone stay preoccupied with Leon and Sayaka's budding romance, or the unexpected friendships of Mondo, Chihiro, and Kiyotaka or Hifumi and Celes.

At some point someone found them out. Someone took pictures of the two of them kissing after a very early morning jog and used the photos to make several fliers than were wallpapered around the school one Sunday morning. Horrible language describing them was emblazoned in bold, crimson letters – Hina fell to her knees and started crying when she saw them for the first time. Sakura felt angry and disgusted, her stomach twisting itself into knots – she remembered wanting to punch something or someone, but she didn't know who to be angry with.

Then she saw Makoto carrying a small stack of the fliers, a worried look on his face as he tore them down from the walls. He saw the two of them and hurried over, asking them if they were okay. When Sakura asked what he was doing, he told them that they were "taking care of it" and that they didn't need to worry. She and Hina didn't understand at first, but as the day progressed, they understood.

Makoto was far from the only classmate they saw tearing down fliers. At various points throughout the day they saw Hiro, Toko, Celes, Sayaka, Leon, Mukuro, and Junko carrying their own stacks of fliers they had collected while Hifumi was replacing them with fliers depicting rainbows and anime-style couples of varying orientations holding hands with little hearts floating around their heads. Chihiro was found in the library with Kyoko, an angry look on her face as she muttered insults under her breath and the detective encouraged her to keep looking for clues that might help her find the culprit. Mondo and Kiyotaka were suspiciously absent for most of the day, but the two returned well past sunset with a daunting amount of the horrid things that had been posted all over town – they'd spent the entire day scouring the city on Mondo's bike trying to find them all, and the biker informed them that he had "some of his guys" still combing the city for more.

Even Byakuya had offered his . . . "unique" brand of help with the situation by hiring someone to "take care of the problem" for them. At first Hina and Sakura didn't understand what he meant, and then it occurred to them that he'd hired an assassin. When confronted about it, Byakuya did say he hadn't hired an assassin . . . he'd hired three. The girls said they didn't want their tormentor to be killed, at which point Byakuya excused himself to "make a few phone calls" and, aside from a somewhat stoned off his rocker Hiro stumbling upon one of them hiding in the bushes and chatting them up for a few hours, that was the last anyone heard of the Togami heir's hired hitmen.

When the parties responsible were caught by Kyoko by the end of the day (she'd smirked, saying it had been "mere child's play" to find the culprits) and subsequently expelled, the rest of their class treated them to a fancy dinner and night out the following weekend (well . . . mostly Byakuya since he was the one paying for everyone) to celebrate. Mostly, Sakura and Hina were just glad to see that they were being accepted and protected by their classmates, all of whom had words of encouragement.

Even Kiyotaka cheerfully let them know that he was glad they had found love but reminded them that school rules forbid fornication between students regardless of gender. This resulted in eye rolling from most of the others (even Mondo and Chihiro, who exchanged an exasperated look) but Hina and Sakura nodded along with smiles on their faces – he'd meant well in his own way, even if they had already done what he'd told them not to do a few times since they'd been together. "He can never find out – especially not that time with the bubble wrap," Hina had whispered with a giggle. Sakura nodded and smirked in agreement before kissing her girlfriend's forehead.

And for the rest of their first year at Hope's Peak, things were great. She still hadn't been able to properly beat Kenshiro, but his sickness was actually starting to get better. She'd met Hina's family and they loved her and she met her family and while Hina was not able to keep up with anyone at the dojo, they loved her, too. Their classmates seemed to be doing all right for the most part as well, although there seemed to be some kind of trouble brewing between the twins most of time. Mukuro didn't smile much until the impromptu dance club started . . . but she didn't smile at all after Junko found out about her involvement in it. Junko smiled a lot, but something always felt . . . "off" about it, which the couple marked up to years of modeling affecting her ability to convey sincerity. It was wonderful to see the odd mix of people in their class make various relationships work, such as Leon and Sayaka's odd couple routine or the surrogate family that Mondo, Chihiro, and Kiyotaka had formed. It was so strange yet so wonderful to see Hifumi and Celes spending time together discussing everything from Lolita fashion to scripting the doujinshi artist's next volume, and Makoto and Kyoko taking turns avoiding the topic of their mutual attraction.

And then the World's Most Despair Inducing Event happened.

After the incident their homeroom had managed to survive, they found out one by one the fates of their loved ones outside of the school. Hina's family had been caught in the middle of a riot, and while they were technically classified as "missing", there were a lot of bodies left to be identified and she eventually heard that her parents had been positively identified and there was a body that they couldn't confirm belonged to her brother but seemed very likely to be her brother. She didn't eat for three days, even when offered donuts, and it wasn't until Sakura pleaded with her that she finally forced down a protein shake.

Sakura's family was all right for the moment. The dojo was inhabited by many skilled fighters and thus far they'd been able to fend off any and all attacks levied by the legions of despair swelling across the country and the world. She considered taking Hina with her back to the dojo for safety . . . something she now sorely, sorely wished she had done . . . but her family pleaded with her to stay within the walls of Hope's Peak Academy, thinking it would be safer for them there.

Sakura was glad that she had Hina during the year they were sheltered in the school – it was comforting to have someone she loved by her side. They unofficially moved in together (which no one questioned, not even Kiyotaka) to try and combat the despair. In a weird a way it helped some of the time, but Hina cried herself to sleep most nights and Sakura felt powerless to make her feel better. She suspected that Hina wasn't the only one who did this, but over time . . . most of them were starting to get numb.

All except for Makoto. Somehow, someway, he was keeping their spirits up, and he was able to keep them all going. Somehow, despite all of the terrible things that had happened and all of the horrors still going on outside, his positive attitude was infectious and before anyone had a chance to completely fall to despair, there he was to catch them and pull them back to safety. It was why their headmaster – their real headmaster – suggested changing his title to Super High School Level Hope.

Somehow that . . . helped. Sakura wasn't sure why, as it was an entirely symbolic gesture that even Makoto himself didn't seem sure about, but there were more smiles in the halls than there had been and everyone was, slowly, starting to get back to normal. They started talking about what they wanted to do once they were all back outside and the dreams they had. Kyoko and her father were spending a little more time together and mending their broken relationship. Even though they were outdated, Chihiro and Kiyotaka started looking at brochures for colleges and made plans with Mondo (who was planning on starting an apprenticeship in carpentry) to share an apartment. Celes was helping Hifumi with the long term plotting for his original manga. Sayaka was thinking about her career trajectory and Leon suggested she embark on a solo career. Sakura remembered thinking that, maybe if they really did get out of there, she'd have an important question to ask Hina.

But it seemed that hope wouldn't last, and now over half of them were dead.

Once she had relayed everything she knew to the gathered spirits, Sayaka, Kiyotaka, and Chihiro explained what was going on to the bewildered martial artist – Mukuro wouldn't look at her during the explanation and started hovering by the door when it was revealed the twins were behind everything and that it was Junko, the real one, who was currently pulling all the string. Sakura couldn't believe was she was hearing – certainly the fashionista wasn't what she would call a "nice" girl, having a sharp tongue and a mean streak to rival Byakuya's, but the idea that she was capable of something this evil was a shock none the less.

This explained a lot – why Mukuro was dead and why she was wearing the outfit "Junko" had been wearing when she died. When Sakura asked why the elder twin was dead, she shrugged and coolly said she didn't know. The martial artist watched her for a few more moments in melancholy thought. So that's what happened to Mukuro – she died right before our eyes and no one even knew who she was.

That was only the beginning of it. The more pressing issue for the deceased were the strange monsters roaming the halls and hunting them for what the pop idol and moral compass had described as "glowing red strings" – all they knew was that it was extremely painful to have them cut but no one knew exactly what they were. It seemed that Mondo and Leon had been recently captured and had their strings cut as well. It was a lot to take in, and she realized she'd stepped out of one kind of horror and into another she hadn't imagined possible.

"The only thing in our favor right now is that the trial is going to give us a chance to go get Celes and Hifumi," said Sayaka, absently running her finger along the felted edge of the pool table. She swallowed. "Provided whatever got Leon and Mondo didn't already." Kiyotaka's eyes darkened from his seat opposite Sakura's body, and Chihiro looked at him with concern, biting her bottom lip as she sat beside him and tried to put a hand on his shoulder. He slid away from her, and the programmer whimpered.

Though it seems Sayaka and Chihiro have come to an understanding with their killers, it does not appear that Kiyotaka has done the same, Sakura mused. She sighed. "We won't have a lot of time to find them – this will not be a long trial," she said. Everyone, including Mukuro, gave Sakura a questioning look. "The note I left Hina explains everything. There may not even be a trial at all once she shows them the note."

"More importantly, there won't be anyone for my sister to have executed," Mukuro said glumly from the door. "With a suicide note and a locked room it'd be open and shut case. That'll bore her and she might not even bother going through the motions of it – no risk, no despair, she'll hate it," she said. She sighed. "Looks like Hina got Makoto and Kyoko – here they come." The soldier stepped away from the door and their living classmates started pounding on the glass, yelling and screaming at Sakura's corpse.

But. . . I'm right here . . . I'm right here . . .

Sakura felt shaky and weak as Makoto broke the glass window to get the door open, and she nearly collapsed when the sound of the body discovery announcement – her body discovery announcement – played over the loudspeaker. All eyes, living and dead, turned to the monitor in the room as Monokuma gleefully gave the same canned response that had already been played four times before.

"But there isn't going to be a trial this time!" Sayaka cried. "There's a suicide note!"

"It's a pre-recorded message, Sayaka," said Mukuro. She was about to explain she wasn't sure what Junko's procedure here would be, she noticed something . . . off about Hina, and then her eyes widened in panic when she saw her pick up the bottle of poison from its place on the floor. "Why is Hina tampering with the crime scene?!"

Sakura's eyes widened as a despair-riddled Hina shakily announced she was going to get the others, the bottle of poison clutched in her hand. The martial artist felt herself go numb, her hands shaking as she watched her lover back out of the door to the rec room and bolt down the hall . . . away from the second floor stairwell. "Hina . . . what are you . . ."

Hifumi and Celes were paralyzed in fear near the bottom of the courthouse, hiding in confusion of the under construction execution group they'd found. They'd remained completely silent, holding each other in fear as they hoped the wolf monster and the other creatures wouldn't find them. They knew they needed to leave eventually to find the trial, but for the moment they were paralyzed in fear.

Celes' apology was echoing through Hifumi's head as they sat there. Celes was not the sincerest person he'd ever met, not by a long shot, but in her own way, in her own fear . . . he knew she meant it. And that gave him the courage to say something bold. Quietly, softly, so softly he wasn't sure she'd be able to hear him, Hifumi uttered his response to her. "I forgive you."

"What?" Celes asked, barely louder than he'd spoken.

Hifumi spoke a little louder. "I . . . I forgive you, Taeko-chan."

"I don't deserve your forgiveness for what I did to you and Kiyotaka," she said.

"Maybe not but you have it anyways," he said. "I forgive you. End of story."
"Idiot," she said, but there was a slight bemusement to her voice, and a slight smile on her face. She probably wasn't lying when she said she didn't think she deserved his forgiveness, and truth be told, maybe she didn't, but she did appreciate the gesture. Hifumi smiled back. After all, they were dead, and forever was a long time to not forgive someone you cared about.

"Pupupupupupu . . ."

The pair froze – they knew that laugh. It was not unlike the laugh that Monokuma used, but they knew better. In disbelief, Hifumi and Celes poked their heads over the edge of their hiding place and gasped in shock. There, standing in the middle of the construction site, was Junko Enoshima – the real Junko Enoshima, alive and well and definitely not skewered with spears. She was clutching something to her chest and has a devious grin on her face.

"What is she doing here?" asked Celes.

Hifumi didn't have an answer at first, until he recognized what she was holding and a feeling of dread and despair overtook him. No, no, no no no! This is bad! This is REALLY bad! He let out of a scream so loud and sudden it nearly knocked Celes off her feet. "ALTER EGO! THAT'S ALTER EGO'S LAPTOP! OUR PRINCESS IS NOT IN ANOTHER CASTLE!"

Sure enough, once Junko flipped open the laptop, the familiar sound of Alter Ego's cheerful voice could be heard. Alter Ego greeted Junko warmly before innocently asking her why she was alive (evidently Chihiro had told Alter Ego about "Junko") and how she'd survived. Junko looked at the laptop in bewilderment for a moment before laughing, bending over, and typing something into the laptop.

"There you go," she said, snickering to herself. She stood, brushed off her skirt, and headed back the way she came.

"What do we do!? Do we follow her!?" asked Celes.

"What, why!?" asked Hifumi.

"So we can see where she's been hiding this whole time!"

"What good is that going to do us!?"

"I . . . I don't know, but it's better than being here!"

"But what about the trial? The others are coming here, right?"

". . . do we really know that, Hifumi?" It took a moment for Hifumi to register what she meant. Sayaka and Chihiro had screamed after he, Mondo, and Leon were already on the elevator. The biker and the ball player had disappeared some time ago, probably captured or killed . . . re-killed . . . super killed . . . something bad had probably happened to them. No one had ever found Kiyotaka, and who knew what happened to Mukuro. There was no telling if their newly deceased classmate (or, heaven forbid, classmates, again) would think to go to the trial.

"But what if the killer get away with it again?" Hifumi asked. "What if someone like Byakuya killed someone? They might get away with it this time!" He watched Celes pale at the idea. "That means everyone else wouldn't make it. She'd kill the rest of them. Shouldn't someone be there for everyone else?"

"Then I'll follow Junko and you stay here," said Celes, getting to her feet. She started to walk towards Junko, not looking back at Hifumi's frazzled form. "You stay here with the others and, whoever dies, make sure they get back on that elevator. I'll follow Junko and . . . see what I can do from there, I guess."

"No, you can't do that! You can't go alone!" said Hifumi.

Celes stopped suddenly and spun on her heels, pointing a finger at Hifumi, tears streaming from her eyes. "This is the closest we've gotten to her since this whole mess started! I . . . I don't know what I can do but I need to do something!" she said. "I'm the only one who planned out my crime! Do you know how much worse that makes me than Leon and Mondo!?"

"I HELPED YOU!"

"NO YOU DIDN'T! THAT'S WHY I NEED TO DO THIS FOR YOU, TOO!"

"TAEKO-CHAN!"

"JUST LET ME DO THIS! AND DON'T YOU DARE FOLLOW ME!"

And with that, Celes ran after the retreating Junko. Hifumi started to run after her, but stopped in frustration. What good would he have really done if he'd followed her? What good would he be doing to whoever died next? As much as he hated to it admit it, she was right. They really didn't have any choice but to split up.

It didn't take Mukuro and the others long to figure out what had happened after following Hina all the way to the chemistry lab. She took out the letter she'd received, fought back tears, and continued to tamper with the evidence from the suicide. And once they got a look at the letter's contents and Sakura identified them as . . . not hers . . . the horror began to set in for all of them.

In short, Monokuma had switched out Sakura's suicide note with an . . . alternate . . . suicide note that, clearly, Hina didn't react well to and now she was fabricating evidence to make it look like a murder. Sayaka and the others didn't get it at first, but Mukuro suspected she knew what was going to happen if their classmates tried to pin this death on any of the six survivors.

"Sakura should be considered the blackened in this case . . . if someone else gets the blame, if they get it wrong, all of them will be executed," said Mukuro. She was shaking as she said it. "I knew Junko wasn't going to like the idea of an open and shut suicide case – no one to execute, no dragged out trial, no chance for everyone to get it wrong . . . she did this to amuse herself."

Sakura let out a massive bellow and punched the wall in anger. Everyone took a few steps away from her, but the punch did no damage to its target and all she'd managed to do was scare her current companions. The despair in her eyes was intense, and Mukuro felt a pit in her stomach. Even when someone had the strength to go against Monokuma, something like this happened. Junko wasn't playing fair. She never had been. Even with her own sister she'd lied about her intentions.

"I . . . didn't mean to startle the rest of you," Sakura said calmly.

"It, it's okay, Sakura – I think we're all on edge," said Chihiro. The rest of them hugged the martial artist, but Mukuro kept her distance. Sakura probably didn't want her comfort. She hadn't been very good at comforting Chihiro when she'd been crying in the wake of the third incident. Besides, she was partially to blame for what had happened anyways.

No, the only thing she had any right to do was defend them. Then once they figured out what they were going to do . . . hell, once they figured out if there ever was anything they could do . . . she would probably politely bow out and wander the afterlife alone. That was probably the best thing she could do, all things considered.

The group broke up their huddle. There wasn't anything they would be able to do until the trial, and they started heading towards the door. Mukuro waited until they were all out before motioning to pick up the rear, but one of them had stopped and was, apparently, waiting for her. Kiyotaka had his arms cross as he waited for her.

"Mukuro, you don't have to keep your distance from everyone."

"Kiyotaka, you're ALL dead because of me and my sister."

"So are you – remember our talk in the library? You said so yourself – she betrayed you from the start." Mukuro wanted to get mad but had to concede his point. He wasn't exactly wrong. "Let us help you."

Mukuro scowled and clenched her fists, staring into the prefect's eyes. Kiyotaka could be intense when he wanted to be, but here, he wasn't, and if anything that was making her even angrier. "And how do you think you can help me? Maybe Sakura can but if anyone is able to keeping you guys away from those things and getting Mondo and Leon back it's-"

Kiyotaka shook his head. "That isn't what I meant . . . but please help us with that, too," he said. He took a few steps closer to her and gently put his hands on her shoulders. "Maybe we can't fight the monsters, but we can all help each other emotionally. We're all hurting, and you're trying to make up for everything, and I think everyone is able to see that."

The soldier shut her eyes and focused on her breathing. Kiyotaka stayed put, giving her a moment to think about what she wanted to say. "I don't think there's anything I can ever do to make up for what I did to all of you," she said. "I didn't even try to talk her out of all this . . . I just wanted her to finally look at me like . . . like I meant something to her."

Wordlessly, Kiyotaka pulled her into a hug . . . which was unfortunately a mistake. Without thinking, Mukuro's instincts kicked in and before she could even think she had him face down on the ground, her knee in his back and a vice grip on his hair. She was about to reach for her knife when she realized what she was doing and scampered off him, staring at him in horror. Kiyotaka pushed himself up, looking a little bit dazed at he stared back at her in shock.

"I am so sorry about that, I'm not used to . . . that. I'm not used to that," she said.

"Uh . . . okay," Kiyotaka said, a little frazzled. "Um . . . what was that?"

Mukuro laughed nervously. "Instinct. Usually getting grabbed in my line of work is bad."

The prefect's eyes widened and he immediately lowered his head to the ground in apology. "No, no, I should be the one to apologize, I should have thought about that! Of course, you're the Super High School Level Soldier, your instincts must be incredibly sharpened and I'm sure you're on edge right now!" he moaned.

"No, no, I'm the one who should be apologizing – it's not your fault I can't tell the difference between someone trying to comfort me and someone trying to attack me," she said. She crawled over to him and put her arms around his shoulders perhaps a bit too forcefully before resting her head against his. Slowly, Kiyotaka returned the gesture, and for a few moments they sat there in silence.

It was a weird feeling. Part of her was uncomfortable, not used to being in this kind of contact with someone, but she felt . . . almost safer. She knew she probably wasn't safer, but she felt calmer and content, even with the chill of their dead spirits. She wondered what it would have been like if they had hugged while they were still alive . . . was he warm before?

Mukuro felt something wet and slick slide down her cheek.

"I . . . know it's not much but . . . thank you for protecting us."

"N, not a problem," she whispered. "I'll . . . I'll keep doing that until I figure out how to make it up to everyone. Even if it takes me forever . . . I'm going to find a way." Kiyotaka didn't say anything in response, but gave her a gentle squeeze. Mukuro sniffled into his shoulder, letting her guard down just enough to relax for a few more moments. It wouldn't be long before they had to rejoin the others and start preparing for the worst.

DING DANG DING DONG! Author's Announcements

This chapter had a theme, didn't it?

First things first: Yes, I'm well aware that things are taking a while. A lot of this is because I've had quite a bit going on this year, but something I've been helping with that IS getting a lot of regular updates is hunterofcomedy's Never Say Never, which I've been the beta on for a while. The premise? It's kind of like Danganronpa: IF in that everyone lives and Mukuro has a key role, but they go through all the events of the game and you get to see how people who should be dead affect later events.

Hey guys! While I think we're still a bit off from the final stretch per se I did want to pick your brains with a quick little review/comment survey.

1. What's your favorite scene so far?

2. How do you feel about how the characters are being written so far?

3. Any predictions for where this is going?

Song Choice: "Dream On" by Aerosmith (though the version I have is the Glee version – IN MY DEFENSE NEIL PATRICK HARRIS IS ON THE TRACK). I do need to get the Aerosmith version at some point. Sometimes I just don't have a lot I want to put into the author's notes about these songs, sometimes it's just like "yeah, this song nicely fits the theme of the chapter I'm working on, yup".

See you next chapter – hopefully there won't be as much of a massive break in between

Dixxy