Chapter 28: Dreams of Long Forgotten Animation- Lost Aura
Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama or Danganronpa
I have changed Anne Maria's execution in chapter 8 as it ended up being too similar to this.
Class Trial Start!
Dawn held her breath, as a thick silence enveloped the class trial room. No one was willing to speak up and no one was willing to move. Even Monokuma, who was normally bouncing all over the place, stayed still and quiet as if he was switched off.
Finally, it was Noah who broke the silence. "L-let's just get this over with," he stammered, flinching at how loud his voice was in comparison to everyone else's.
"Bro… Where do we start?" Geoff scratched his head. "It's not like we never even knew the guy."
"Plus the body is missing," Gwen pointed out. "I don't think anyone's seen it, right?" A round of shaking heads confirmed Gwen's theory. Satisfied, she leaned back. "See?"
"That doesn't mean we should give up," Jo grumbled, a bit awkwardly. "There's got be something we could discuss!"
Gwen frowned. "Like what?"
"Like the…" Jo tried to think of something. "Like how this Cameron guy died! We've got to know that much."
"He died from the fire," Brick pointed out. "We all saw the body together. And the screaming over the intercom proves that he was alive before the fire, doesn't it?"
Jo faltered. "Well yeah, but…" She brightened as if she had gotten a sudden idea. "How did he get inside?"
Non-Stop Debate
"How the body got inside…" Gwen repeated. "Is it possible that he just walked over there?"
"And then was trapped by the murderer!" Brick agreed, with a nod of his head.
"But then why would he even go there?" Noah pointed out. "We're missing something."
"Noah has a good point," Geoff said scratching his head. "Maybe the killer brought the dude over there?"
"Hell." Jo shrugged. "Maybe he was ambushed!"
"I concur!" Dawn suddenly cut off Jo.
Consent! Verbal Bullet Used: Puddle of Blood
"Jo is right," Dawn reasoned. "Maybe this Cameron guy was ambushed. Specifically ambushed in the garden."
"Right." Noah nodded. "It would explain the puddle of blood there. There's no other explanation for it unless one of us is hiding an injury." He narrowed his eyes. "No one is… right?"
Geoff scratched his head. "Nah. At the very least I'm not." The others quickly chimed in, agreeing with Geoff that they weren't hurt in any way.
"We even know what weapon was probably used to knock the person in question out," Dawn said, with a smile and nod. "The bat in the batting cage. It had some blood on it."
Brick nodded. "Saw the same thing, ma'am!" he said. "I guess that means that the murderer knocked out the victim and hid the bat back in the batting cage, huh?" He suddenly frowned. "But wait, they had to move the body, right?"
Jo nodded. "Didn't see anything that somebody could've used at the scene of the crime. Meaning it has to be something else."
Noah gave the others an incredulous look, something that made Dawn flinch. "Seriously?" he asked, his voice almost a grumble at this point. "You guys didn't see the dolly in the Studio when we first found the body?" he asked. When everyone just gave him a blank look, he groaned. "Before we left the Studio, I saw the dolly in the Studio. When we went back it was gone."
Geoff frowned. "I didn't see it."
"Neither did I," Jo agreed, narrowing her eyes. "Are you sure you saw this dolly, Noah? Maybe you could be lying."
Noah rolled his eyes, looking somewhat exhausted to Dawn. "Believe what you want," he replied. "But I know what I saw." He shrugged. "Plus, the dolly from the tool shed is missing. My answer is good as any for the reason as to why its missing."
Dawn noticed that Jo was opening her mouth to say something, so she quickly changed the subject. "But if what Noah says is true," she said. "Then it would make some sort of sense of how the body was transported into the Studio."
"But a metal bat could kill someone," Gwen decided to pipe up. "Why just use it to knock Cameron out and kill them in a completely different way?" She folded her arms. "That guy was alive just before he burned to a crisp from what I can remember."
"To hide that they did it?" Lindsay suggested nervously.
"Then they did a wonderful job." Gwen scowled. "Left the guy to scream into the microphone. Genius."
"No, Lindsay's got a point," Brick reasoned. "Maybe the murderer left them there to hide that he had killed someone. But this Cameron just so happened to wake up in the middle of the fire and warn us."
"He warned us rather than escape," Noah snorted. "Way to go."
"Why did he do it, though?" Geoff asked. "Was there even a reason to warn us? We put out the fire easily, didn't we? It wasn't even that bad with the school's weird door system."
"True," Dawn said. "The fire didn't affect anything outside of the recording room." She let out a sigh. "Maybe we should be focusing on something else," she said after a small silence had passed between the seven of them. "We know that this person was killed in the Recording Room in the Studio."
"And we know that he had been knocked out in the Garden, given the blood stain that we had found on the ground there," Gwen agreed. "And if Noah is right, then the killer had moved him using the dolly that."
"That mysteriously disappeared," Jo muttered, eyeing Noah's suspiciously.
"Oooooh!" Monokuma covered his mouth and chuckled ominously. "Very suspicious."
"Oh, shut up," Noah muttered, but it was hard for Dawn to tell whether he was addressing Jo or Monokuma.
"Ugh!" Geoff scratched his head, furiously. "What are we even doing here? We're having a trial for some guy we don't even know about! What's the point of this?!"
"The point," Monokuma hissed, suddenly looking pissed off. "Is to figure out the killer. That's what you lot have been doing this entire time!" His red slash glowed. "Or am I incorrect?"
"N-no," Lindsay said nervously. "You're right…"
"…Of course, I am!" Monokuma said. "I am Monokuma, after all."
"Please shut up," Noah muttered again, his voice still betraying a small amount of exhaustion within itself.
"N-Noah…?" Lindsay said, still sounding nervous.
"What," Noah snapped, sharply.
Lindsay flinched. "Are you alright?" she managed to ask.
"I'm fine." He gritted his teeth. "I'm fine."
"What do we talk about now?" Gwen asked. "Again, we know that this guy was moved from the Garden to the Recording Room while he was still alive. And then he burned to death." She nodded. "That's pretty much all isn't it? We've still haven't even got a suspect."
"Oh, fuck we don't," Jo grumbled.
Dawn frowned. "What do you mean?" she asked, carefully, fearing where that Jo was going.
"You really want me to say it huh?" Jo grinned.
Non-Stop Debate
"The suspect…?" Brick blinked. "We've already got one?"
"Yes, yes, we do," Jo answered, with a grin.
"…" Noah looked away. "Who do you think it is then?"
"Who else?!" Jo pointed at him and Dawn. "I think that one of you two are the most likely!"
"Of come on," Noah snorted. "None of us even know the guy. What's our motive for even killing this guy? None. We had none."
"Oh please," Jo said. "You forget. We don't know you. Either of you. You two are complete strangers to us, outside of this school."
"No." Noah shook his head. "Neither of us had the time to kill him anyway-!"
"No, that's wrong!" Dawn suddenly cut in.
Contradiction! Break! Verbal Bullet Used: Noah and Dawn's Alibi
"I'm sorry Noah." Dawn let out a sigh. "You know that's completely wrong."
"…" Noah stayed silent.
"At the time I had slept in Noah's room up until 9:50," Dawn insisted. "Which is when I found the rest of you taking apart Monokuma. Noah came to the gym at 10:20 mere minutes before Cameron had started to use the broadcast system in order to warn us." She sighed, slightly regretting speaking up. "However, in that time of 30 minutes, Noah could've knocked out Cameron and move him into the recording room."
Jo smirked. "See," she said with a wave of her hand. "So, what were you even doing in that room, Noah?"
"Sleeping," he answered simply.
"I guess that settles it," Jo said, confidently.
"However," Dawn continued, making Jo's smirk drop. "At the same time, none of you are innocent either."
"Actually, that's just not true," Brick piped up.
"What do you mean?" Noah asked.
"Remember that all of us were together from 6 AM," Brick explained. "None of us could've done anything anywhere else while we were together."
"But two of you did leave," Dawn tried to argue. "Gwen and Geoff."
"We checked the Garden, dudette," Geoff said, with a sad shake of his head. "Neither of us saw anything that could be important. Heck, we only noticed the blood after the guy was murdered."
"That's true," Gwen said with a nod. "I didn't see anything strange about the Garden until after Cameron was killed because..." She shrugged. "Well, you know."
"Ha!" Jo guffawed, clearly cheerful. "There ya go. I guess that settles it. Now let's begin the vote-!"
"What are you doing, Jenna?!" Lindsay suddenly cried.
Jo looked surprised. "What do you mean?" she asked, slowly and awkwardly. Clearly, she hadn't expected Lindsay of all people to start to contradict her.
"It's just…" Lindsay said slowly. "Didn't we all promise that we would take down Monokuma together? Didn't we all say that we would work together to escape?! So why…" She shook her head. "Why are still suspecting each other?!"
Silence.
Dawn swallowed and opened her mouth, but to her surprise, Jo was the first one to speak. "Yeah, you're right," she said, looking somewhat sheepish. "We did say that didn't we?" She looked at Noah and Dawn. "I'm sorry," she said sincerely.
Brick's mouth fell open. "What… what just happened?" he asked weakly.
"What the fuck do you mean asshole?" Jo asked, cracking her knuckles while smiling threateningly. "It's pretty obvious what happened isn't it?"
Brick gulped. "Nothing ma'am! Didn't hear nothing!"
Gwen, however, was a lot less fearless. "You just… apologized."
"Yeah, what of it?!" Jo scowled. "I can apologize if I want to you."
Gwen just shrugged.
Lindsay beamed. "Thank you, Julie!" she said, cheerfully, clapping her hand together.
"It's Jo," Jo grumbled, under her breath, shaking her head.
"So, can we continue the discussion?" Noah said, interrupting.
"Don't get me wrong," Jo growled. "I still think that you and moon girl are the most likely suspects. But…" She shook her head. "I refuse to let Monokuma play with us anymore." She growled. "So instead let's talk about who the fuck this 'Cameron' actually fucking is!"
Non-Stop Debate
"I've never heard of him." Brick frowned.
"Me neither," Geoff agreed.
"I've got nothing," Gwen said.
"=…=" Noah said nothing.
"Um… who?" Lindsay asked.
"You're kidding me?!" Jo cried, slamming her fist onto the wood of her stand. "Nobody knows who the fuck this guy is-!"
"No, that's wrong!" Dawn interrupted.
Contradiction! Break! Verbal Bullet Used: =…=
"Noah…" Dawn said, carefully. "You definitely know who Cameron is, don't you?" She could tell by how silent he got every so often whenever someone mentioned Cameron's name. He knew something about this mysterious character and it was imperative to this case.
After a couple of seconds, Noah let out a sigh. "Yes," he admitted. "I do know Cameron. Not in a personal way, though. I know him through watching Revenge of the Island."
"So, you are a fan," Brick said with a nod. "Still I don't remember a Cameron on that season."
"An early out then," Jo chuckled, doing her best to hold back a laugh.
"That's the problem," Noah said. "He's wasn't an early out. He was a finalist with Lightning of all people. He was even prolific in All-Stars if you want further proof."
"Y-You're kidding!" Jo spat back. "I-I don't remember this! And I was in both of those seasons! The finalist of Revenge of the Island was Zoey and Lightning. This Cameron person wasn't anywhere near the final of that season!"
"Fine," Noah said. "I couldn't do this with myself or Dawn," he said. "None of you seemed to recognize or remember us," he said. "And I can't jog your memory on that no matter what I try. But…" He took a deep breath. "Brick. Gwen. Jo. Are you really saying that you can't remember that Cameron?! He was a finalist in Revenge of the Island for crying out loud."
"I don't remember," Brick insisted.
"Same here," Gwen said, turning her head away.
"He was a friend of you two!" Noah shouted as both Brick and Gwen cringed.
"Noah!" Dawn cried. "Calm down!"
"I can't." He shook his head. "This is my one chance. This is my only chance to figure out what's going on here! I was forgotten! You were forgotten, Dawn! You even lost your memories. These past few weeks, we're the ones who deserve to know what's going on!"
"B-But…" Dawn stammered, placing a hand on her head, a headache slowly growing under her temples.
"We've been ignoring this issue long enough!" Noah shouted in frustration, slamming his hand onto the stand. "There's something strange-!"
"Hey, HEY!" Monokuma suddenly shouted. "We're getting off track! You're supposed to be discussing who killed Cameron! Not who the dumb guy was!" He made a shooing motion with his paws. "So, get on with it you, freaks or I'll execute every one of you, right away!"
"Tch!" Noah made a noise out of the corner of his mouth and looked away.
However, Dawn suddenly narrowed in on Monokuma. "Monokuma," she said slowly.
It took a couple of seconds for the bear to answer. "Yyyyyyes?" The bear asked.
"This entire case is strange. Too strange," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"What do I mean…" Dawn wondered to herself.
Logic Dive
Where was Monokuma when they first found the body?
….
…
…
…
No one knew!
What happened when Monokuma had come back?
…
…
…
…
…
The body disappeared!
I got it!
Dive End!
"I understand," Dawn said softly. "Monokuma where is Cameron's body?"
"Upupu…" Monokuma chuckled. "What do you mean, Dawn?"
"The body had disappeared after we had found it and left to investigate that room," Dawn explained, narrowing her eyes at Monokuma. "This happened after the body discovery announcement. With the other murders, you didn't move the body after that announcement went off and they stayed in place for us to investigate." She pointed at the bear. "So why did you move the body?!"
"Huh?" Monokuma seemed confused. "What makes you think that I was the one who moved it?"
"Everyone one of us was together when we left the body in the recording room," Dawn pointed out. "And only after you had returned was when the body had disappeared. You can't tell me that's a coincidence."
"Of course, you're a part of this," Gwen grumbled. "But if that's the case then you would've been the one to kill him." She glanced at the bear. "Or am I wrong, Monokuma?"
Monokuma was quiet.
"But wait," Brick suddenly piped. "Wouldn't that mean this entire class trial doesn't count? After all, I thought Monokuma wouldn't kill someone?"
"It means he lied to us," Geoff growled. "But on the bright side, by his rules that means we can execute him."
Monokuma was still quiet.
"We… We can escape?" Lindsay asked carefully.
"Finally!" Jo said, excitedly. "Let's execute this bear and get out of here already!"
"Wait, wait!" Monokuma suddenly said. "Aren't you assuming a lot of things? After all, I may have moved the body, sure. But did I really kill the sad poor boy named Cameron?"
Non-Stop Debate
"Oh, shut up!" Jo shouted at Monokuma. "We all know that you were the one who did it! You were the only one who could've!"
"Could I?" Monokuma asked.
"Why wouldn't you?" Geoff angrily shouted. "You've been pulling us this entire time!"
"Would I?" Monokuma asked.
"S-stop it!" Lindsay cried, holding her head.
"Should I?" Monokuma asked.
"Just admit it already!" Brick yelled. "You killed Cameron!"
Monokuma tilted his head. "Are you sure? After all, I had no way to kill Cameron-!"
"I agree with that statement!" Dawn cut in.
Consent! Verbal Bullet Used: Sequence of Events.
"He's right," Dawn said, hesitating slightly. "There was no way that Monokuma could've killed Cameron. Remember that he was being taken apart by all of you just before we found Cameron in the Recording Room!"
"T-That's true," stammered Gwen. "But there's still the chance that he could've killed Cameron before we found him motionless."
"No," Noah said. "That's not possible. Cameron was still alive since we heard him on the intercom. He died from burning in the fire."
"But…" Dawn said slowly. "That doesn't mean that Monokuma didn't have a part to play in this murder. We know that he moved the body after the fact. Now what we have to find out is who moved the body into the recording room before the fire."
"Um… In case you haven't noticed, ma'am…" Brick said. "But the only two suspects we have on that front are you and Noah. Are you sure you want us to suspect you? We just said that we would work together on this."
"No!" Lindsay cried. "We can't let that happen!"
"It's…" Dawn said slowly. "It's probably for the best. Maybe we can learn the truth and Monokuma's motivations." She swallowed. "At the very least."
Everyone fell silent for a few seconds, as they glanced at both her and Noah suspiciously, before looking at each other. Dawn frowned. They would need to end this trial quickly before all the progress they had made together were broken apart. If that meant that she had to put herself up as a suspect, just so the others would work together…
So be it.
"Let's move forward on the assumption that I was the one to move the body," she supplied, as everyone else looked surprised. She looked over at Noah who stayed tightlipped.
"But we can't!" Lindsay cried. "What if Monokuma executes you?!"
"That won't happen," Dawn assured Lindsay. "We'll find out what really happened together!"
Non-Stop Debate
"Alright fine," Jo said with a halfhearted shrug. "I can assume that." She frowned took a second to think. "Since Dawn was the one to move the body, then that also means that she started the fire."
"We don't know when the fire started," Brick continued.
"We know someone was inside of it," Lindsay nervously said.
Gwen nodded. "And we know that Cameron was the one that died."
Geoff raised a hand. "And we know that one of Monokuma's bombs was what caused the fire-!"
"No, that's wrong!" Dawn interjected.
Contradiction! Break! Verbal Bullet Used: Sequence of Events
"Actually, there's something strange about it," Dawn said. "If it was actually the bomb that caused the fire, then there are some things that don't make sense."
Lindsay scratched her head. "Like what?"
"We were all around for the blast at the beginning of this whole messed up situation," Noah explained. "A bomb like that wouldn't have just started a fire it would've blown the entire room apart."
Brick nodded. "You're right," he said. "The one we were Investigating inside the gym was dangerous enough to probably kill us if Monokuma wasn't defused."
"What?!" Lindsay yelped.
"Dude, I was playing with that!" Geoff complained.
"But the fragments were there," Gwen pointed out.
"And?" Dawn said. "The killer could've planted them to throw us off. Like a red herring."
"Hmmm…" Jo hummed thoughtfully. "Now that I think about it we did hear Cameron's voice during the fire. So that must mean he was still alive during that whole thing."
"Exactly." Dawn nodded.
Lindsay frowned. "I'm confused. What does this prove?"
Geoff snapped his fingers. "I think it proves that it doesn't matter who moved the body to the recording room. We still don't know how the fire was set inside. The bomb wasn't what started it… so how?"
Dawn stole a look over at Noah who was eerily silent. The look on his face was distant as if he wasn't even thinking about what was going on in the trial. To her, he almost looked scared and was impatiently tapping the wood of his stand.
"Fuck!" Jo scowled. "If only those stupid doors didn't close in our faces. We could've probably saved this Cameron guy!"
Dawn blinked. "The doors…" she said slowly, noticing out of the corner of her eye Noah stiffen.
"Yeah?" Gwen raised an eyebrow. "What about them?"
"There's something about them that doesn't line up," Dawn explained. "After the sprinklers put out the fire like they were supposed to, they still didn't open."
Brick nodded. "They said something about… contamination in the air?" He repeated with a hint of confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Dawn frowned. "Noah and I read something in the Emergency Room," she said. "Hope's Peak Academy is outfitted with a bunch of high-tech safety features. Things like…" she swallowed. "Weapons."
"Weapons?" Jo repeated in disbelief. "You're kidding me."
Dawn shook her head. "No," she said hesitating a little. "But it said that the building had protection against things like fires and poison." She frowned and folded her arms, staring at the floor. "It said that if there was some poison gas in a room than the doors would shut, and the vents would begin filtering in clean air."
"Poison?" Geoff asked. "But the room was on fire. There wasn't any reason to close the doors."
"Exactly." Dawn nodded. "So that must mean there was some poison in the room-!"
"Listen!" Noah suddenly shouted, bringing everyone to a halt. Dawn gave him a bewildered look. "We shouldn't be talking about this," he said desperately, sweating slightly. "We have to figure out who moved the body. Not anything else." He gritted his teeth. "We're focusing on the wrong things here."
Dawn frowned. This was getting out of character for Noah. It wasn't like him to be so nervous.
Non-Stop Debate
"We need to focus on who actually moved the body," Noah said.
"Dawn said to assume that it was her…" Lindsay said nervously.
Noah shook his head. "We know its Monokuma. It has to be. And that's got to mean that he was the one who killed Cameron."
"But we were taking him apart before we found the body!" Geoff argued back.
"You were taking me apart?!" Monokuma gasped. "Is this some sexual euphuism that all of you kids are into these days?!"
Gwen looked disgusted. "God no."
Noah gritted his teeth. "We're focusing on the wrong things," he said again, almost shouting this time. "Monokuma is the one who killed Cameron! The doors don't matter! The fire doesn't matter! The extinguisher doesn't matter-!"
"No that's wrong!" Dawn contradicted.
Contradiction! Break! Verbal Bullet Used: Fire Extinguisher
Noah froze, as Dawn began to speak. "No Noah," she said. "There was something wrong with the fire extinguisher. You remember what it was, don't you?"
Noah looked at her and she almost gave up right there. It wasn't a face that she thought Noah would ever make. His eyes were pleading with her asking her to stop. But she couldn't. The pieces were finally fitting together, and the results horrified Dawn. She may not have wanted to continue, but she also knew that it was the only way to end the trial.
She clamped her hands together and closed her eyes. "Please forgive me," she whispered softly, before looking at the six others with a defiant look. "The extinguisher…" she continued. "What came out of it was green in color."
"Is that not what its supposed to look like?" Lindsay asked.
"No, you dolt," Jo snapped. "It's supposed to be white foam!" Lindsay shied away from Jo and clamped her mouth shut to not make the jock any angrier.
"I'm guessing…" Geoff said slowly. "You think it was poison?"
Dawn nodded. "Exactly."
Brick shook his head. "Wait a minute," he said. "Where did this poison even come from?"
Gwen narrowed her eyes. "From the plant," she realized. "I remember reading about it. It has some sort of green acid inside of it." She frowned. "Maybe the killer put it in the can before we used it on the fire. That way the acid would go into the recording room."
"That would explain the poison that the room said it detected," Brick agreed.
"Then the killer has to be the one who put the acid inside the extinguisher!" Lindsay said, beaming.
"Upupu…" Monokuma laughed, covering his mouth.
Geoff gave the bear a strange look. "What's with you, man?"
"Oh, nothing…" Monokuma said innocently.
Dawn blinked as she realized something. "But if the fire extinguisher released the poison into the room, then does that mean Cameron died of poison? He was talking through the intercoms up until we used it." She paled and turned to look at Noah. "No…"
Both Gwen and Brick blinked as realization dawned on their faces. "No way," Brick said, turning to look at Noah.
Geoff, Lindsay, and Jo just looked confused. "What? What?" Jo demanded to know. "What's going on?"
Noah sighed. "I was the one who used the fire extinguisher. If it was the poison that killed Cameron, then I was the one who the operated the weapon who killed him." He looked down. "That's what happened."
Monokuma gasped. "Oh my god! Is that what happened?"
"Oh, shut up." Noah groaned.
"Then you were the killer!" Brick accused. "You sabotaged the poison inside the extinguisher!"
"Wait a minute, dude," Geoff interjected. "We don't know that." He glanced at Dawn. "I mean Dawn was also assigned to take the extinguisher by the contact sheet. It was only bad luck that Noah was the one to take it."
"In that case…" Brick said, taking a second to calm down. "Noah might've been tricked by the real killer! It could be like what Mike did to me in the previous trial!"
"It wouldn't matter," Noah muttered, looking slightly irritated. Clearly, he hadn't liked the recent turn of events. "If we are going off the 'Extinguisher was poison' theory then I was the one who still used it." He frowned. "Unless…" he mumbled to himself.
"But…" Lindsay said slowly, not hearing Noah. "Then can't we just argue what we did to save Gwen during the last trial?" she suggested.
Gwen blinked. "That's actually a really clever idea," she admitted. "In that case, we only need to figure out who actually filled the can with acid." She looked at the others. "Is there anything that might tell us that?"
Dawn closed her eyes and thought about it for a few seconds. "The Emergency Contacts," she said.
"What about them?" Jo asked.
"The rule on them stated only a specific person or persons were allowed to take the extinguisher at any time of day," Dawn explained. "Today it was Noah and my turn. Yesterday's…" She took a deep breath. "It was Monokuma's turn."
Everyone turned their head towards the bear, who tried to look innocent and failed. "Well, Monokuma?" Jo said. "Have anything to say?"
"Hmmm…" Monokuma rubbed his belly thoughtfully. "How do you Noah didn't put the poison in the extinguisher?"
"I didn't," Noah said sharply.
"Have any proof?" Monokuma countered.
Noah hesitated.
Non-Stop Debate
"You have no proof!" Monokuma said. "You can =no longer argue semantics=!"
"…" Noah was silent.
"We trust Noah!" Lindsay cried. "He would never kill someone like that!"
"Oh? How can you trust someone you have no memories of?" Monokuma countered.
"…" Lindsay fell quiet.
"You're asking us to turn our backs on a soldier who's helped us during this entire thing!" Brick snapped.
"How do you know it wasn't because he knew everything and wasn't the mastermind?!" Monokuma said.
"…" Brick looked away, clenching his fists.
"You were the ones who tampered without memories!" Geoff accused.
"So why is only Noah's memory intact?" Monokuma pointed out.
"…" Geoff didn't answer.
"You're the only one who could've placed the plant's acid inside the fire extinguisher!" Jo growled.
"Noah could've done that too, just while Dawn left him alone, this morning!" Monokuma said back.
"…" Jo didn't know what to say.
Gwen frowned. "But you were the one who moved the body after we had discovered it!"
"So?" Monokuma asked. "That doesn't make me the one who killed him!"
"…" Gwen looked away and clenched her teeth.
Monokuma seemed pleased. "I guess that settles it. With that confession, Noah is the one who killed-!"
"No that's wrong!" Dawn said. "Even if Noah used the weapon it doesn't mean that he intended to kill-!
"No, that's wrong!" Monokuma interjected, interrupting Dawn in the middle of her own interjection, with a sinister look on his face.
Contradiction! Break! Verbal Bullet Used: =no longer argue semantics=
Dawn froze, as Monokuma leaned back in his chair pleased with how the debate had turned out. Everyone had fallen silently unable to argue in Noah's defense anymore and even Noah himself stood at his stand, drained completely of life. His eyes were staring blankly at the ground, his hands clenched at his sides. Dawn knew it and she knew Monokuma knew it too.
Noah had lost hope.
"Well, in that case, let's finally begin the execution!" Monokuma announced, pulling out his large mallet. "Oh boy, I've been waiting for this!"
"W-what?!" Lindsay stammered. "No vote?!"
"With that confession who needs a vote?" Monokuma asked.
"You never did that with all the other killers!" Jo snapped.
"This was a beautiful confession, Noah." Monokuma sniffed and pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. "I can only hope your execution is more beautiful…"
Noah glared at Monokuma. "You're breaking your own rules," he pointed out. "I thought that you hated doing that." He couldn't help but smirk, Dawn noticed. His eyes still were alight with hope, she could tell just from looking at him.
Monokuma paused for a moment, which made Dawn look at the bear hopefully. Her stomach fell when he gave Noah an evil grin. The light in Noah's eyes dropped and his smirk fell.
"I think I'll make an exception for you," Monokuma said, as he slammed his mallet onto the red button in front of him.
Xxx
Noah blinked and looked around, finding himself in a large hole, where he was tied to a large wooden cross that stood in the center of the hole. If he looked up he could see a large green television attached to one of the hole's walls and if he squinted, he could see his friends looking down at him from the very edge.
He began to struggle, trying to wrench his arms out of his bindings, but stopped when, in a quick second, saw something fall in front of his vision. He looked down to see that a book, that Noah recognized, had been tossed onto the ground below. He looked up to see the screen displaying the book's name, "Moby Dick," and above him, Monokuma was in a hot air balloon wearing a tie and glasses holding another book and a match.
Execution: The Great Book Burning of Hope's Peak
Monokuma began to throw books into the hole, slowly filling it with paper and cardboard, as the screen began to flash with various names of books, as each one fell into the hole. Slowly the hole began to fill up until they reached Noah's knees. Throughout all this Noah continued to struggle to no avail.
Finally, the book stopped falling and Noah looked up to see what Monokuma was doing. Above him, Monokuma held up a large Sherlock Holmes book and a lighter. With a laugh, he lit the book on fire and chucked it into the hold with Noah.
The fire instantly blazed to life and the books began to burn away at a rapid pace around Noah. Noah coughed as he accidentally breathed in some of the smoke from the fire. His eyes began to tear up and he began to sweat. He couldn't help but hear Monokuma laughing above him.
Suddenly panels on the walls of the pit slid open and several hoses extended out from them. They began to spray water onto the fire, putting it out and drenching Noah in the process.
The television's screen suddenly turned to static before being replaced with the face of Alter Gwen. She smiled before she disappeared leaving the screen blank. At the same time, the bottom fell out and all the books began to spill down into a long tunnel below that led somewhere. Monokuma could only watch as Noah fell and disappeared into the darkness.
Executed: No One
Xxx
The six of them were silent for a while, just staring at the hole that Noah had disappeared into. Meanwhile, Monokuma was raging in the sidelines. "Who the fuck was that?!" the bear cried. "What just happened? How did his happen?!" He turned to them. "What did you bastards do?" he hissed.
Dawn couldn't help but smile. "Alter Gwen," she whispered.
"Dammit Cody." Gwen couldn't help but smile. "I think you just saved us all."
Monokuma gnashed his teeth together. "What are you talking about?! What was this thing?!"
Dawn looked Monokuma squarely in the eye and the bear backed away nervously. "Alter Gwen," she repeated. "She saved Noah from your execution. That means there's still hope."
Don't expect the next chapter to suddenly be released tomorrow. It's planned to be longer than this chapter, but hey. If you want me to cut that chapter in half to get it out sooner tell me through reviews, I don't mind.
-Heroi Oscura
P.S(Edit 7/18/2018): Remember to look at my profile for updates on the next chapter and how far I am into it.
