Chapter Three-All for One…
TRIAL
-Naoya's POV-
Shiori's stand, Kotoko, Narutoya's stand, myself, Hiro's stand, Taka's stand, Maria, Ryoji, Akira, Honoka, Aya, Ryuu, Kojiro's stand, Sho, Kicho's stand, and Michi's stand. Half of us had been eliminated by now in this horrific game pitting us against each other; a game so effective I had nearly lost hope several times over.
As he had before, Monokuma began recanting a speech quite familiar to us all, "Now then, let's begin with a simple explanation of the class trial!"
"Skip it this time, you damn bear! Maria, what the fuck did you just do out there?" Akira's angry shout quieted the bear who sadly slumped in his chair at having been silenced.
Monokuma's grumbling continued nonetheless, "This is my show, dangit! I demand attention!"
Maria, still holding Kojiro's gun in her right hand, opened the chamber, removed each remaining round, tossed the gun at Honoka. After a short pause, she then threw the rounds, placed back in a box, "Just business."
"Was he telling the truth!? Did you kill Kicho!?"
Maria's eyes widened, "Was he spoutin' that shit again!?"
I interjected for the sake of clearing the air, "The jig's up, Maria."
"What are you talking about?" Ryuu's curiosity had been piqued.
"Maria killed Kicho. The kid… Naoya called me out to do 'something' against Kicho but Maria found us before I decided on an action." I tried to gauge the faces of my friends lest this tear us apart. "When Kicho spouted her lunacy even then, Maria grabbed the saw from the table and went to work." I shouldn't have hidden this for so long. I'd be paying for that mistake dearly in this trial.
All things considered, maybe the killer planned on that.
Ryoji pointed at Maria, "So why did you kill Narutoya!? Did he learn you killed Hiro, too!?"
"Suck a dick, ruin boy," Maria's dismissive attitude defied logic, "I was worryin' that he was goin' mad and… Well, since he's an Ultimate Manipulator too… I figured it'd be a good insurance policy."
Aya's response horrified me with its tenacity, "You're nothing but absolute scum!"
Maria faced her accuser, "Yeah, so's most of us."
"Even among monsters, you're exceptional. Killing for self-satisfaction is what made you an orphan, remember?" Now that hit its mark.
"The same could be said for you. How was it, watchin' yer parents scratch their own throats 'til they bled when that poison seeped in? Maybe do some research on the schools yer competin' against next time, all-star."
Aya bristled at every word, "The world was nearly at its end! What could I have done!?"
Maria folded her arms, "Like me or hate me; I don't give a shit. I'm about survival; yer feelings don't matter. That's what a class trial is. We're all killin' someone tonight. Question is; who?"
"I wish it was you," Aya started to grow angrier; "You could be cruel enough. You could definitely be the type to hurt Hiro like that!"
"Stop it already!" Sho spoke up with an uncharacteristically loud voice, "We will never solve this case without discussing evidence. Getting mad can come later."
Akira silently drunk from her flask before conveying an unexpected remark, "Maria, I'm ashamed."
"What?" Maria's eyes widened.
"When I killed Genji, he was attacking me. When Shiori killed that punk, he was on her. You executed Narutoya in cold fucking blood. Don't pretend to my god damned face it was anything but." Akira's aura emanated death itself, "I know this game has been wearing us down and I know how it's affected you. That was too far… I want her tied up from now on."
Maria's eyes darted across each of our faces, "That'll just get me killed and ya know it, Akira! Making me a prime target for what? Putting down a lying scumbag who twisted his own lover into whatever Kicho was!?"
Akira's face remained emotionless, "You brazenly lied to me about killing her. I knew Naoya wouldn't have the stones for that."
"Like ya told me about Genji?"
"Is that what this is about!?" Akira shouted to the heavens, "You set us up and it ended and now you think you're obligated to protect us!? I didn't ask for that concern! We have to make it together as a team and you've never understood that! You're so god damn pigheaded it's a miracle you're still in this game!"
Maria's voice cracked in her reply, "Ya didn't think I'd make it…?"
Akira took another swig and scoffed, "Someone like you trying to piss everyone off? Can't imagine wanting to kill someone like that. At least Tenebris sobered up when he took charge."
"I tried, dammit! Harder than ya ever did!"
"I'm sorry; I can't see that with your hands stained red."
Maria flipped Akira off, "Well, fuck ya then! I don't need talk from a woman who had some stranger save her kid!"
The flask Akira always had nearly broke in two from the immense force applied to it; the metal bending and creaking, "I shoulda left ya in the streets where I found ya…. Ya ungrateful bitch! Even yer talent is thanks to me! Yer no Ultimate… Just a broken kid with a loud mouth aching for a beatin'!"
Ryoji whispered to the rest of us, "I was wondering if she talked like that too."
Akira and Maria simultaneously answered him with a "Piss off!" before settling back into the scariest stare down I'd yet seen in a trial.
"For people who owe the other their lives, calm the hell down!" I shouted, finally having enough of this diversion, "Akira, you know her mouth runs when she's being cornered. Maria… God, why say that? Really? You murdered Narutoya. You straight up ended him. Stop acting like it's not your fault. Be productive or shut the fuck up."
"I don't…" Maria stopped herself, "I know ya won't agree! I'm willin' to be the villain for that! Do any of ya know how scary it is to be manipulated into thinkin' someone's good!?" As tears traced her cheeks, she added, "Genji was enough for a lifetime."
"Maria… It's not your fault." Akira tried to regain herself as she started easing out the dents in her flask, "Narutoya wasn't like Genji. The poor bastard was a grief-stricken fool, but he wasn't a killer."
Maria's voice cracked as she slumped down onto her podium, "Ya sure about that? Did Shiori or Kojiro ever strike ya as one? Did ya ever think when ya met me I'd fall this far…?" For a moment I noticed something strange about Maria; only for a split second. Was it paranoia? Were Aya's concerns getting to me after all?
Sho shook his head, "We have so little to work on at this point in time. We only have half the sins and half of us are gone. The question we have to answer right now is whether we intend to play correctly or to play safely."
"What do you mean, Sho?" Aya tilted her head, "We should do both, right?"
"Normally, yes, but the motive this time around changes things."
Honoka clicked her tongue, "You did this last time too; argued on the sake of the motive. Any reason for that?"
Sho laughed at her suspicious gaze, "Come on, it's only right to consider this. We can't understand the murderer's intentions without discussing the motives. Most murderers aren't suspected due to sheer luck or happenstance. Officers look for motive; probable cause. If we discuss the motive, we can sympathize with the killer and, more importantly, decide our own values."
"Sagely advice for a failed leader like yourself," Monokuma chimed in, "Where was this attitude when everything went to hell?"
"What's your game?" Sho turned his gaze on the bear.
Monokuma's trademark red eye glowed brighter than it had before. "Pardon?"
Sho crossed his arms and turned toward the bear, "Are you runnin' on Junko's files for your personality? Is the mastermind outside the game writing your lines? Or is it the one of us out for blood?"
"That's what you're asking? Does it matter?" Monokuma seemed completely surprised by his line of questioning.
"You're prodding us in some pretty specific ways. Perhaps you're hoping for the right reactions. You don't have some crazy analyst bitch with powers beyond the realm of believability behind you anymore. So where are you getting these personal jabs from? The cameras and our records? The reports from the traitor?" Sho continued grilling his headmaster, "Are you here to spice up the game or rig it?"
Monokuma paused for a moment and answered cryptically, "The mastermind outside the game has no use for any of you. You're just a diversion at best. They already got what they wanted. Now they just have to wait."
"The hell's that mean?" Ryoji finally chimed in, "Wanna clue us in already!?"
"Only the so-called traitor here cares about any of you. Maybe that's why it hurts them so much to do this… Regardless of the reasons, they know you're all deserving of this." Monokuma's cold voice dropped my heart. "They have no doubts in their mind your end is warranted."
Aya put her hand over her mouth, "But we haven't done our sins yet, right?"
Monokuma's chuckle washed over us, "Everyone's a sinner in this corrupted world! No one is free from the taints of man!"
"Why are they that sure?" Sho pressed, "Is it for retribution? Sadistic reasons?"
"Reformation," Monokuma's answer was the word we least expected, "Reformation is their goal. Sadly for you kids, some people just don't want to change. How many of you have repeated the sins you bore witness to in those tapes? Who among you has learned and who among you returns to your base instincts? Even with the threat of death, your answer to the problems presented remains the same."
Sho sighed, "That's how it is, then. I'll leave it there then."
"We finally get him to talk and you're backing down!?" Honoka's exclamation was joined by a few nods, "What gives? You want to know more, right?"
"This knowledge is irrelevant if we don't continue the game. That's his thinking." I reminded everyone of his first topic, "The choice to kill an innocent or pursue the truth and continue our journey through hell is first and foremost."
Sho gave me a sympathetic nod, "Right, Boss." He adjusted his collar before speaking, "We can kill an innocent person and all walk free. It's an easy win but we'll be staining our hands far more irreparably than before. Whereas with the victims we were merely choosing survival, we would now be taking an easy way out."
Ryuu removed his glasses and wiped them off, "If we choose the hard road, we take down a Blackened that may have risked everything to save us and push further into the mastermind's webbings."
"So where do we stand?" Kotoko glanced around at us, hoping to open the room for discussion.
Akira stepped up to the plate first, "Maybe we should dig a little first. Now the trial's begun, even if we know who actually did it, we can still choose the easy option. Right, Monokuma?"
Monokuma nodded, "Yep, that's right! Discover the frame job and the killer and, if you want, stab the innocent person from the front for once! Deliciously despair-inducing to think about, being thrown to the wolves for the good of the whole!"
"I'd rather decide now, honestly…" Ryoji made his own case, "Wouldn't it be worse to decide last minute in front of the person?"
I nodded, "We'll have to at least dig somewhat into the evidence to even find the frame job. We don't know how far this goes just yet." I shared a worried glance with Honoka and we both glanced at Ryoji.
"I know I talked a big game last time…" Ryuu began, "Maybe what I was doing wasn't always right. After all those people died, I figured putting in the work was the only way to pay them back. What would giving up my dreams do?"
"To be honest, I sat back and thought about it, too." I gave him a serious look over, "I just don't understand one thing."
Ryuu raised his head, "What would that be?"
I glanced down at my hands, "You, Honoka, too. What's it like… Doing something people were hurt for? How can you program games knowing what you two did? Shiori and Hayato's victims both suffered for the cause of your careers. If it was anybody else, wouldn't you want what they made torn down?"
"Look, it's not easy. If I just threw it all away, what would anyone gain?" Ryuu took off his glasses and held them in his now shaking hands, "The nightmares keep me in check. I know I'm in the wrong. I know what was at stake now. But they're already dead… And I can try to make it right."
"I tried to make up for it with Lorraine," Honoka answered in kind, "My work can't help people. My vengeance, my drive for justice, could."
"Then why not Ryuu? Michi said it a long time ago. Letting personal feelings come into play when justice is on the line is what she wanted to fight!" I didn't understand her for so long. "Then again… Kotoko did unspeakable things to my father and set me on a dark path herself... Is this the power of love at work?"
"L-Love!?" Maria stuttered, "What do ya mean!?"
My face turned red, "I meant Naoya… Different feelings, remember? We all have wildly different values. The question to ask now is whether we want to kill an innocent or a martyr. A saint or a sinner."
"Let's just go over the case," Aya finally stepped up, "We can worry about our morals later."
Sho nodded, having strangely quieted himself until now, "Much as I'm curious where we all stand, we should start with our alibis, right?"
"Or lack thereof." Kotoko decided to take the lead, "Ryuu, Honoka, Naoya, Sho, and I stayed the night together."
"Wha… Why?" Ryoji's face was awash in confusion.
Sho grinned, "The Boss is hella smart. He suspected a last minute murder and got as many of us together as he could. Only I left the room, but it was just around 3. Not enough time to kill our boy Hiro."
Aya glanced around, "If that's true that narrows it down considerably."
"If we're lucky, the killer was aiming for one of us," Honoka smirked, "No way they could frame us now. That leaves Aya, Ryoji, Maria, and Akira."
I paused, "Narutoya and Hiro are their own exceptions, which leads me to the first clue I have to dive into thoroughly. Narutoya sent me some data on his suspicions for the sins. Said he was working on them all night. Even if you don't believe him, he certainly didn't do it."
"How can you be sure?" Akira prodded me at once.
"The room Hiro was killed in requires two handbooks from live people. Narutoya only has one." I thought it was a simple enough question.
Aya asked in turn, "Couldn't he have used Hiro's if he was still alive?"
I frowned, "Not really. The handbook must belong to a live person. Hiro would have had to be alive."
"But what if they… No, they couldn't use both. The stations are too far. Unless they made a pulley system with fishing line." Ryoji pondered.
"The door shuts automatically after a short period. They couldn't have removed it afterwards." Ryuu's excellent follow up shut that argument down.
"In conclusion, Narutoya could not have completed the task alone. Ryoji and Aya were together, as were Akira and Maria. Therefore… Unless you're both in on it, it's over for suspecting Narutoya."
Maria shouted out, "I didn't kill him to silence him either! I wouldn't gain from that except makin' me look guilty."
Aya returned with her own theory, "Unless you're the frame job."
Akira snickered, "Maria's not willin' to die so easily. Ya think she'd let that bastard execute her?"
"I know my parents quite well, actually." Monokuma's inane response went unchecked.
"Makes sense. I doubt Akira'd be willing to sacrifice Maria's life anyways." Sho concluded to himself.
I shook my head. "Technically, Maria could be the cooperator."
"The hell'd ya say?" Maria eyed me up the second those words left my mouth.
Aya folded her arms, "So you did do it!"
"Naoya, what are you talking about?" Ryuu raised an eyebrow.
"Maria told me she left for the café around two and was making drinks until 3. Isn't that right?" I raised an eyebrow, curious to how she'd react.
Maria bristled at my words but kept her tongue in check, "I told ya that to be truthful, asshole. You said it yourself, I couldn't have done it without Narutoya and he'd have never worked with me."
"Likely not. Do we have any proof to ensure our safety?" Sho chimed in to cover our bases.
"The lack of a frame job for Narutoya is the most evident. No evidence pointed to him. Unless Maria is framing herself with him and killed him to incriminate herself, it's not the person I'd openly suspect." My response seemed to dishearten Aya.
Ryoji held his hand over his chin before speaking up, "Could Akira have snuck out and done it, then?"
Akira sat her flask down on her podium, "I didn't frame him either. Besides, what mother would gamble her life or her kid's to save a group like ours?"
"That's…" Ryoji's eyes fell and he clammed up.
Kotoko's uncertain voice echoed the thoughts I'd long come to, "Ryoji and Aya are the only options without those two. Are we sure we want to rule them out so early?"
"Well, it's like that, huh?" Aya shrugged, "If you're wanting to swing at us, we can take it. Right, Ryoji?"
I raised a hand, "This is the difficult part. We need to pace out the murder first. Once we do that, you'll all know why it likely isn't Maria or Akira."
"Pace it out? The hell are you talking about?" Akira grumbled openly, "If we say we didn't do it and you don't have proof, you have to take us off the list."
"Everyone was so quick to rule out Kojiro and Shiori before just by the opening parts of the trial. Thorough review is necessary. Narutoya would want that." Sho's words quickly raised ire in another.
"He only cared for himself in the end! No better than the mastermind, just refusin' to let things go because of his ego!" Maria's words sparked anger in the one person we least expected.
Monokuma's prickly voice had no sarcasm in it; no quick-witted comebacks. What noises came from him were hollow and wholly lacking in any of his usual routine ribbing. "Projecting like that is how you'll die. A scared lonely little girl who became no more than a bully… and a disappointment."
Maria reared on Monokuma, "Shut your mouth, ya sick fuck! Ya decided to rip off some fashion bitch's pet game just to 'reform' us!? Why don't ya come on out and try that shit!?"
"I don't play with people I know are weaker than me. You're not worth my time, Cartographer." Monokuma returned to his usual position, leaving us all deeply uneasy.
Sho spoke up first, "I've never seen that happen before… Guess when the mastermind actually gives a shit, he's got somethin' worth saying."
"Worth saying!? They're just a crazy fuck in the end!" Maria's harsh tone continued to rub most of us the wrong way.
"For all I've done, even I have to say how pathetic you are."
Maria's voice fell as she turned to curse at the one who had rekindled the conversation. Kotoko just stared her down.
Kotoko gave a noncommittal shrug before continuing, "Look at me. I killed so many people, tortured more, all because of what the adults of the old world did to me. It's understandable… but it was misguided of me to assume. Causing pain for others because of pain done to you is the most natural thing for humans, isn't it?"
"Would ya shut up already!? No one wants you here!"
"You become so enraptured in the displays of power. You think how joyous you are to be the strong one. You deliver pain now. You think you can't be hurt anymore. But then reality comes crashing in. You get knocked down a peg and then you just fall. Fall into the hole you made for yourself."
Maria slammed her fist onto the podium, "I said shut up! You're the monster! No better than our warden here!"
Kotoko's dull eyes gave no sign of acknowledgement to her words. "You realize you just made more. More of you. Every action you took only bred more discontent. Now you're left alone. You finally escaped the dark pits of despair… You finally had a choice to choose differently… And instead you chose to spread the hate you built."
"I said… Shut up…" Tears began cascading down Maria's face, "What do you know about me!?"
"Now people resent you still… You see it in their eyes, their word. The people who chose to stand by you will eventually leave one by one, each one giving up in the person you were supposed to be… Because of the person you allowed yourself to devolve into. Your loneliness can no longer be blamed on your tormentors… It's a cage you made for yourself."
The rest of us stood in awe as Kotoko spoke, her words hitting each of us in their own way. Half of us had died and those remaining were all broken, forged by experiences of pain and heartbreak.
"Each day you wake up, you cry. You cry because you hate what you've done. You cry because you fear what you've become. You cry because you lost those who loved you. You cry because you realize that love was true. You cry because you know your growth was stunted. You cry because you lost what you wanted. You cry and cry and cry… and wait for the day you finally die."
Maria practically crumbled at those words and fell to her knees, covering her face, "I… I'm not crying! I don't… I did what I…"
Kotoko's eyes returned to normal as she drew herself from the dark place she went to, "I live my life trying to even begin paying back what I took in my wrathful youth. I'm a monster; I deserve everything done to me and more. Every time I find myself smiling, I remember I don't deserve it and break a little more inside. I wanted to be the one who died for us to leave… Not Hiro."
"I won't allow that!" Hearing my inner self resonate with me, I paused at my own words, "I don't want to lose anyone else!"
"Even with what I've done, people forgave me. How do I repay them?" Kotoko glanced over at Ryuu and Honoka, "We have all, to varying degrees, caused this to happen. If we can't overcome our weakness, we'll all die here! Would you kill Akira because you're upset!? Because it's hard!?"
Maria continued bawling into her own sleeves, bending over to the floor in a broken mess.
Kotoko stopped herself before ending her drawn-out rebuff, "The mastermind put us in this game because, no matter how right they are in the head, they're in pain. Sho is right; we need to understand that pain if we want to make it right. Even if they're a monster, if this really is our fault… We owe it to them to try."
"You've been saving that one," Ryuu replied after a moment's rest, "Naoya's willing to put his differences with me aside to solve this. I'm reluctant to trust him entirely, but we have no reason to distrust him yet."
I adjusted my shirt, "As I said, it can still be Maria or Akira without looking more deeply. I want to start with the easy facts. Because of the store's lock, we know two living people left. The pairs we have are thus: Narutoya and Akira, Narutoya and Maria, Maria and Akira, Aya and Ryoji."
"Couldn't Aya or Ryoji be working separately of the other?" Sho interjected.
"They said they were together. Since I have no reason to believe that's not true, let's move forward with that assumption. The first hurdle is the accomplice the killers had." Why did this happen, Hiro? Didn't you want us ALL to make it out!?
Ryuu paused and looked over his evidence, "According to the autopsy, the wounds were all pretty deep except for the last one. Someone considerably stronger had to do them."
I nodded. I already knew who, but that had to wait. "My dream told me nothing. I felt the stab, the final blow that finished me off. However, I saw nothing."
"What, you go blind for dreams now?" Akira joked.
Sho hummed to himself for a moment, "Hiro's eyes were unharmed. What gives?"
"The bastard closed them on purpose." My answer was sharp and concise.
It was also unwanted. "Why would Hiro do that!?" Aya exclaimed, "If he knows about your power, he'd want the killer caught!"
Honoka rejected her response coldly, "He wanted the killer to get away with it. Did you see the blood spots? He was stabbed several times and didn't even run. There was no fighting; not a one of us are injured."
"What if his injuries were acting up!?" Aya quickly followed up, "Didn't the wounds he have rupture during the attack!?"
"I've stabbed a lot of people, kid. I can tell you this much. The angle of the blade wounds suggests they were self-inflicted." Honoka ignored the few of us that shouted out in surprise, "The wounds were so deep; only a powerful person could have done them in one swift jab. Naoya, myself, Hiro, Kojiro, possibly Akira or Maria… From what I've seen, Ryoji is too weak to drive a blade that deep and Aya's strengths are her feet."
"Hiro had a lot of self-doubt after he attacked Kotoko. Maybe he thought he'd throw his life away." Sho stared down at the floor.
Aya shrilly answered, "You mean waste his own life!? You're just accepting this!?"
I held out my hand to her, "It's not a doubt he chose to die on his terms. It wasn't a waste, though. It was his last attempt at running his own life. He wanted to go out on his terms; not the terms of our unruly mastermind."
"Hiro wasn't… He… cared about us so much…" Aya fell to her own podium and felt her face turn red as she tried to hide it, her soft cries muffled by her arm.
Ryoji felt the part of his stomach Hiro had hit that night, "He sure lost it once or twice but… I never thought I'd see him die."
"He would have that night…" I remembered how terrified my other half had been, "If Kicho had her way… That's the motivator, I think. He was being used by more than just the mastermind and he rejected it all. Dying his way is just like him…" As I saw the tears fall, I realized I was crying too.
"We have to make a vow here and now. That no matter what happens, if any of us die... We gotta die with a smile on our face, understand?"
Ryoji asked, "Why?"
"Because it'll show Monokuma we won't die in Despair. No matter what; if we go down, we won't give him the satisfaction. You got it?!" He glared at all of us.
Hiro's smiling face ran through my mind once more and I nearly wavered in determination in my own cloud of emotions.
Honoka glanced around at us with a sad smile on her face, "Well, he died for us. That's better than dying because of us, right?"
"Is it much different?" Ryuu's reply cut deep, "If he felt indebted to the point he'd kill himself for us… even if we know why, it'll still be our fault in our hearts."
"Ryuu…"
Ryuu faced her, "I know that feeling. I never raised a blade to kill, but I can see the blood covering my every action. I know rationally I didn't do it myself… But even a rational man can feel irrationally."
Collecting myself, I wiped my face clean and continued my explanation, "Hiro hid his killers by closing his eyes. The blade had fingerprints on it, his included. He wielded that knife and stabbed himself. Afterwards, he slumped himself against the wall. After that, the actual killer finished the work."
"Monokuma said he wouldn't accept suicide, right?" Ryoji spoke through his tears.
"Hiro called two others to enact his plan. They may not have even expected it. But if Hiro started stabbing himself and pressuring them, some of us may have caved." After explaining my thought process, I resumed our hunt, "Because Hiro trusted his killers, which makes this easier. I have to rule out Maria and Narutoya. He didn't necessarily dislike them… However, he would never put his life on the line unless he knew that his death would be upheld."
Aya lifted her head up, "That's it, then? You're choosing us because of that?"
I thought over our many times together. "Hiro was a brash, violent man. He was also a lonely one. He may have acted like he hated you, Aya… but…"
"Naoya…"
"I saw his excited face when he asked me to get you for a challenge. I saw the confident smirk when you started the match. And I saw how, every time he lost, every time he yelled out in anger… He'd calm down and tell you how good you were… He wanted, needed to beat you… But he learned he didn't need hate to do it."
Aya refused to meet my eyes and spoke softly, "You know…" She glanced up, "He really should have."
"What?" Ryoji glanced over with a concerned look.
Aya shook her head, "I ruined his life by taking sponsors. He mentioned it, right? Granted, I had a hand in it. My spokesperson set up a smear campaign… and I okayed it."
My eyes widened. I felt my throat grow tight as my mouth began to dry.
"He had anger issues in and out of the ring and… Well, I needed the money so… I didn't think it'd hurt him. I didn't… know he needed the fame, too. People were so quick to compare us and… I legitimately thought when I met him that he'd hate me…"
"He never even talked about it once…" Ryoji spoke absentmindedly, "Why didn't I get told!?"
Aya replied softly, "It wasn't your place. We had to resolve it… in the end… I hope he forgave me."
"So which one of ya two did it!?" Maria had finally regained her senses and her puffy eyes were locked onto the suspects, "Who killed yer own friend to save the day, huh!?"
"That's not important." Ryoji's strong response threw me off. "Just vote for the one who killed him and continue the fight."
Every one of us turned to him.
Ryoji spat onto the floor, "I killed Hiro… But I can't fucking do it! I can't let Aya die for us!"
"Ryoji!" Aya's desperate cry failed to sway him.
"No! I am not going to watch you die!" Ryoji's desperate cry silenced her, "Hiro was enough… This game… My sister… I've lost enough already. Just let me die in peace…" As he collapsed to his knees before us, I knew.
I had to kill his girlfriend.
*CLASS TRIAL INTERMISSION*
*CLASS TRIAL IN SESSION*
Aya immediately tried to quell her boyfriend's breakdown, "Ryoji… Look, just calm down."
"So it was you two." Sho jumped on what he saw the most opportune time to interrupt. "Hiro brought you there to commit this murder then? Did you two know?"
"Look, that's not it!" Aya bit back. "Let me talk to him!"
Akira raised her voice, "So you can figure out your story now you've been found out!?"
Aya's eyes widened as she bared her teeth like fangs, "We didn't want to be there!"
"Bullshit! You went along with his plan, didn't ya!?" Maria's rambunctious nature reared its head the second she wasn't under fire for it. "Three's company here went to make a murder pact!"
"I didn't want to watch him die you fucking bitch!" Ryoji's rage had finally triggered. "I'm sorry I'm not some cold-blooded dumb cunt like you who kills for the others only when it can't come back to haunt me! Why didn't you kill Narutoya when YOUR life was on the line!? Drop fuckin' dead!"
Sho snidely agreed, "True facts. Like the bitch with the gun can talk… You make me sick."
Maria bristled even further, "If I had just shot him, how the fuck would I have framed someone!?"
"Guess that was too much thinking for you."
Monokuma leaned in and raised an eyebrow in anticipation.
Rearing on Sho, Maria held her tongue. "Your whore girlfriend started the whole sin parade. Shut the fuck up, you ginger bitch!"
"She was in the god damn right!" Sho's shout had most of us reeling. "Maybe the mastermind has a point! You're real scum killing Narutoya and Kicho! That bastard Taka poisoned a bunch of innocents after cheating and condemning others to the same fate his bitch friend got! Where am I supposed to feel sympathy when my crime was reporting a fucking criminal!? When my sin was being entrusted with likely illegal information and venting to someone else!?"
I raised a hand. "Sho, calm down please."
Sho's frenzied look caught me completely off guard. He was practically foaming at the mouth. "It makes me so god damn sick. Doesn't it? Naoya? Akira? All the people we've watched die… Shiori was a saint compared to most of the people standing here."
"You're being awfully suspicious right now." Ryuu found himself beginning to suspect Sho's motives further.
"I dedicated my life to bettering the poor, the broken and the downtrodden. You hid a serial killer for personal gain. One of us has the moral capacity to be a murderous mastermind. The other has a fuckin' conscious." Reeling on the others, Sho sneered. "Need I remind you that your partner murdered Ryoji's family? How does he feel knowing you made money while his sister's organs got pulled out of her chest cavity!?"
"Stop!" Ryoji shouted at Sho with tears in his eyes. "No more!"
Sho opened his mouth to say more but stopped for a moment. "You're weak. You let people run all over you. The first time you talk big is to Naoya? When the accomplice to your sister's murder- no, fuck that- The man who ruined your entire life from the start and led you here, to this game, to getting Taka's entire school wiped the fuck off a map with a few extra innocents can all be traced to that bastard! Make a stand!"
Akira stopped drinking from her never-ending flask to add an "Amen" to that.
"We're not here to talk about that…" Ryoji was sweating profusely, being pressured so thoroughly.
"You just confessed, didn't you?" Sho's tone changed at the end. "That means you're about to die. Don't you wanna face death with some closure? You deserve that… Taking on this sacrifice for us… I almost would have myself but… Michi wouldn't have wanted me to kill."
Ryuu tried to change the subject for the moment. "You sure about that?"
I smiled despite myself. Sho was smart; too smart. "Ryoji; your fingerprints were on the knife. Honoka confirmed it. But I have a few doubts…"
"What doubts could be left?" Honoka glanced at me with a look of fear.
"First and foremost; you told Honoka about the fingerprinting kit. Now, I know the kits ain't perfect but the chances of two of us having the same fingerprints would be a twist only for the most bullheaded of mystery authors. If that's so, you knew that going into this trial. So why confess if we'll get to you?" That was the moment I felt the first pangs of fear.
Ryoji's answer predictably made it worse. "I just had to make it clear. Aya c-could have… She kicked the knife! She kicked it afterwards to add the grass on her shoes to it! She was trying to frame herself so… So I thought I'd make it clear."
Fair play, Ryoji. "You didn't confess until we got this far. Buyer's remorse?"
"Honestly, you didn't get too far with all the arguing."
Monokuma's response would have killed me if his execution of it (and possibly us) hadn't. "How else do we pad the trial out!? Pointless banter and bickering carries the run time!"
"I'm guilty. No matter how you view this, I've committed a terrible crime."
"Yeah. Perjury." Ryoji's glare returned at a much higher intensity. "I don't want to do this, Ryoji. I don't… But I'll for now leave it at this. Aya killed Hiro."
Akira set her hands down on the stand. "How do you know that?"
I avoided her gaze. "I'll deal with that when it comes. We have to decide our morals here."
"You mean how we vote? It's impossible to know." Ryuu looked between Ryoji and Aya. "We don't have definitive evidence this time either. I guess that's life."
Honoka thought back on all the evidence. "Well… Do we want this game to end?"
That's when Sho laughed. "Oh, Ryoji, you dumbass. You should have shut it. If you're tellin' the truth, all we have to do is kill Aya anyway and we get out!"
Ryoji's eyes bulged out of his head. "I… I, you…"
"If we kill Aya, we're free from this hell." Kotoko's downcast expression fell on her stand. "But are we willing to kill a friend for that?"
"We killed Shiori and Kojiro to get this far. Where's our moral high ground at this point?" Akira argued on her own end. "My kid almost died because… Because I didn't hold the people Monokuma used against us to the degree they deserved. I almost became a grievin' mother…"
Sho's next statement unsettled everyone who didn't yet know what I did. "That makes knowing more important. If Ryoji didn't do it, we're stuck here. Naoya… What did you figure out?"
"I don't want to admit to what I know." I meant that with all of my heart. "Killing a friend is one thing but what we would be required to do is too much." Motioning to Ryuu, I asked. "Would you be willing to ruin the future of an innocent?"
"What kind of question is that? We already have."
Grabbing my handbook from my pocket, I threw it to Ryuu. He caught it and I recited exactly where I tabbed it down. "Blackmail section. Part seven."
"B-blackmail!?" Aya shouted aloud. "What obscene things do you have on us!?"
Honoka blushed hard. "I'd also like to know."
"Look, that ceiling fan came on to ME, okay!? Don't twist the facts!" Sho was being absurd again.
Ryuu's expression fell and his words died on his lips. He dropped the handbook and it clattered to the floor. Monokuma smiled a little wider and that's when I knew the mastermind was getting off on this.
Akira set her flask down. "Come on, how bad could it be?"
Instead of responding, Ryuu approached Ryoji and smacked him in the face. "What the fuck are you doing!?"
"Ah! What did I do!?"
Another smack came down. "You know exactly what I mean! How do you think I feel about this!?"
"What's going on!? Stop hitting him!" Aya yelled, making a move for Ryoji.
"You better tell me why you thought involving her in this murder was a good idea, asshole!" Ryuu raised his fist again but Sho pulled him back. "No, he owes me this! That bastard is killing for his pregnant girlfriend!"
Maria's eyes widened in horror. "What the fuck did you say!?" Grabbing my handbook, Maria's eyes inevitably wandered to the right section.
The secret that had been updated that had to me ensured a murder was this. "Just yesterday I got a notification from the two of them. Whether they marked it down or the handbooks just consider 'that' to be relevant information, it was made clear to me they could do it. Once Hiro was proven to have brought them in, I knew."
"That's…" Ryoji tried to speak through his bruised cheeks and mouth.
"In the sin videos, Aya forced you and Hiro to promise not to kill. I bet you begged her to do it. You'd be framed and die so she and your child could live. Am I right?"
Sho stepped away from the podium. "This is SO fucked! Mastermind, what are you DOING to me here!?"
Ryoji shook his head. "You have it all wrong. I killed Hiro! I was going to….but I couldn't!"
"You expect me to believe even you would be stupid enough to risk her life like that?" Akira shot him down. "Aya killed Hiro to save us all and your futures. You're just hoping to confuse us by making this case so close."
Shaking my head, I disagreed. "I think Hiro chose them for exactly that reason. We can't definitively prove anything. But… I know it's Aya."
"You don't KNOW that! STOP IT!" Ryoji screamed at the top of his lungs. "YOU HAVE NO PROOF!"
"I HAVE FAITH!" My voice bellowed in the room as all eyes focused on us. "You… I know you. I have spent so much time… We were friends, damn you! In that life and this, I TRUST IN YOU!"
Ryoji hesitated as he slumped away from his podium. "Naoya?"
"There is NO NAOYA! It's just me! And… From the day I came back to consciousness, I knew… I knew you would never ever risk her life for anything!" Pointing at Aya, I felt my vocal cords hit their limit. "You're not capable of killing her for others! You're not LIKE US!"
"Woah, slow the hell down." Sho's anger was clear in his voice though his face remained inexpressive. "I won't kill her. I'll be happy giving Ryoji what he wants."
Akira looked between the two. "If we kill Ryoji, we kill an innocent man wanting to die for our sake. Do we honor his sacrifice at the cost of learning the truth?"
"Fuck the truth! We can just fuckin' leave!" Maria took the stage. "I want out!"
Aya shook her head as tears begin to run down her face. "This isn't what we wanted… I just…"
Monokuma interrupted in his typical cheery inflections. "Well, now the question is how the votes will go! Unlike before, this time you'll all vote publicly! Let's drag this gravy train down the road!"
"You can't do that." Kotoko spoke up for the first time in a long while. "That's basically giving us another motive if it gets too heated."
"I don't care about motives right now. I want you to see each other for who you really are when put against the wall." Monokuma's evil and cold presence unnerved all of us. "Start the vote or I'll just execute the lot of you. You'll either learn what pain you cause or die."
Sho slammed his fist on his podium. "Ryoji all the way. I won't kill Aya for some truth. If we keep going, more of us will die! How many!? How many must we kill for the truth!? Ryoji at least wants to go out this way!"
"That's what the mastermind wants." Ryuu thankfully was holding the neutral ground. "What if we fail their test by doing this?"
"Then I die doing what's right. That bastard won't tear me down. I know where I stand in the eyes of this universe. Whatever God is out there knows my path is true!" Sho's stand remains unperturbed.
"And the rest of us?" Ryuu looked around. "Honoka, Aya, Ryoji, Akira, Maria, Naoya, Kotoko, and myself?"
Ryoji looked over at Aya and smiled despite himself. "If it's a girl… Aya, could you… My sister deserves to be remembered." Aya nearly collapsed into her stand as Ryoji laid his vote down on himself. "I choose to die by my own hand, Monokuma. The mastermind can have me, but he will never have what I take pride in. My legacy will live long beyond whatever petty revenge you have in store."
Honoka ran a hand through her hair. "Look, I've killed plenty in my time. That feeling you get when you kill is… inhuman. I have had a lot of time to come to terms with what is right or wrong… I have been shown a path to live which is right. I have a man I adore and want to survive this. If I were a smart girl, I would vote with you two."
"But what?!" Sho challenged her. "Why aren't you!?"
"The mastermind loathes us on a deep level; a level not unlike why I committed my crimes. If I turn back on them, I turn back on myself. Even they can find forgiveness."
"They're killing us! Doesn't that matter in the slightest to you at all!?" Sho's demeanor had fallen apart completely by now.
Honoka's entire aura changed. As if a dark red mist began to leak from every pour, her entire body slowly started to faintly glow. "Michi's parents died by my hand. Did you know that?"
"What?"
"Her parents were involved in covering up sex crimes Kojiro tried to uncover. I gutted them and poor Michi found them. However, this was chalked up to a random murder because in this one instance, I had a different modus operandi. Want to know why?"
Sho's hands gripped so tight the veins in them nearly burst out of the tight white skin. "You set her on that path!?"
Honoka nodded. "I wanted their murder to be unrelated to my killings because I found them particularly distasteful. How can you cover up crimes inflicted on girls your own daughter's age? They were glory hounds so in the end, I gave them the most unceremonious of deaths. Unfortunately, Michi saw through the cracks. She suspected her parents were complicit in the cover ups and because she allowed her feelings to not control her, she and only she tracked Kojiro down."
Sweat profusely running down his face, Sho practically ground his teeth to dust. "You… You fucked the entire class of universe 1! If you just never came, we'd be fine!"
"Michi was right. You're a weak man choosing the coward's way out."
"What!?"
Honoka's voice oozed disgust. "You'd send an innocent to their death to protect a person you care about!? You're no hero or Samaritan of good faith. For all your moral grandstanding, you're another cog in the machine that grinds up people like Shiori and Kotoko. That's the machine I hope to break!" Staring at Ryoji, Honoka calls to him. "Ryoji!"
"Y-yes…?" Ryoji recoiled slightly.
"You trusted me when few would. Your greatest sin was trusting in Aya and today… Today you prove to be a man of great caliber. I could never live with myself if I killed an innocent person for the sake of running from a monster. If the mastermind can be saved, so be it. I will try. But I cannot allow him to go free and especially not at the cost of you. I vote Aya."
Ryoji felt his heart beating furiously to the point he placed a hand on his chest. "That's not what I want. Please… kill me."
Honoka merely glanced downward and held her tongue.
"Ryoji." Akira spoke a single word before elaborating slightly. "I won't kill anyone who's planning to sacrifice everything for the sake of others. She's willing to go it alone with Ryoji's blood. How could I damn her!? How could any of us!?" Uncharacteristically for her, she had burst into tears. "Ryoji… I am proud to have known you."
Ryoji nodded. "Th-thanks… Take care of her for me."
"Well, I hate to be that person but…" Kotoko glanced around at everyone else. "If we end this game prematurely, we might save ourselves. However, that means they're free to commit other atrocities. I want to finish them with my own efforts here and now."
Sho turned on her immediately. "You said you reformed but here you are killing again! You just WANT this game to go on!"
Kotoko shot him down without any love in her voice. "You just want it over. Constantly you go for the motive. It's like you want us all dead or gone."
"I don't want innocent blood on my hands! That's why I voted how I did last round!"
"Yet you stomp on that belief right now?" Kotoko tilted her head. "Sure thing. Totally not hypocritical. I have to vote Aya for the sake of stopping this at its heart. Even if I die, I have to know why we were subjected to this. The mastermind must be punished."
Sho's scowl chilled my blood with the pure disgust lain across his face. "I can't believe Naoya wastes any belief in you."
Honoka counted aloud. "Sho, Ryoji, and Akira for Ryoji. Kotoko and I for Aya…"
"Personally, it's an easy decision." I knew what had to be done. "Even if it comes down to which friend I'm sentencing to their death, I won't scapegoat someone for myself. I already loathed the last motive, but in that situation most of them were near death and stuck in beds. I'm not letting Hiro kill himself and put that on my conscious that I killed his best damn friend too! I vote Aya!"
Maria shrugged. "Then I guess I am too. I ain't got no reason not to trust ya."
Akira sneered at Maria while Kotoko in turn gave her a mysterious look; she seemed to be analyzing the girl, perhaps criticizing her decisions.
Aya pointed to Ryoji. "He wants me to vote for him and… Well, whatever happens I'll respect that wish. I vote Ryoji."
"So it comes down to me?" Ryuu asked. "Terrible decision, really. We all know I don't trust the mastermind to just let us walk."
"Think about what you're doing! Would you kill a mom!? Could you!?" Sho's voice cracked. "You're not that evil!"
Ryuu sighed. "It's not about evil or good. If I killed Ryoji, that's just another life I'd be trampling over for myself. If I did that, Naoya would just as well kill me. And I'd deserve it by that point."
"Why are we just calling Tenebris Naoya at this point?" Honoka noticed it too, huh?
"The other Naoya just hasn't shown up anymore. But that's a topic for later. I'm voting Aya. Let's end this trial already. It's gone on… long enough." Ryuu finalized the results in a 5-4 vote.
Monokuma rose from his seat. "Wow, this is a route I didn't foresee being chosen! You guys must be such sadists to do this!"
Aya shook her head. "I expected this could happen. It's better me than Ryoji anyways."
"That's bullshit! Monokuma, please just kill me instead!" Ryoji was panicking now.
"Ah, ah, ah! We play by the rules here. What uncivilized bear do you think I am to renege on a deal!?"
"Ryoji… We lost. They chose what they wanted." Aya tried to console him.
Sho screamed in anger. "They chose wrong! They always chose wrong! None of YOU deserve to live!"
"Hey, that's not fair." Honoka sounded hurt.
"A serial killer, a guy who let a sick monster get away with crimes, the genocidal Fighter of the Warriors of Hope, an awful killing bitch and a violent dreamer walk into a bar and KILL THE UNBORN! I hope you're murdered next! Every last goddamn one of you!"
Slamming a small gavel on the red button before him, a horde of Monokumas grabbed the students in place as one dragged Aya away.
Sho and Ryoji kicked and screamed in agony in an attempt to break free of their grasp.
The next time I could see without being inhibited, the eight of us were ringside to a raised platform. The Ultimate Football Player's Last Play exploded in bright white letters across the many screens showing off different areas of the expanded soccer field.
Aya stood at one end away from an entire team's worth of bulkier Monokuma models each with a large metal soccer ball before them.
"The rules are simple, Aya-chan! If you can block all of their shots, I'll be courteous enough to let you live!" Monokuma's cursed voice came over the loudspeakers.
"That's it?" As the first ball was shot her way, Aya kicked it high and launched it back, severing the head of the first Monokuma.
A second ball whizzed by her head, forcing her to catch it. Her right hand bent backwards from the force, cracking loud enough for us to hear. As she screamed in pain and her arm fell limply to her side, Ryoji threw a punch so hard at the Monokuma gripping onto him it exploded. Jumping forward, Ryoji hopped the gate in no time flat and sprinted into the field.
Three balls were shot at Ryoji. He pulled a magnifying glass from his back pocket and swatted at the first, knocking it back somehow. The second whizzed by his head and the third barely scraped his arm.
Aya, distracted by his arrival, still managed to deflect two balls with her legs before a third cracked on her left knee. Utterly destroyed, she struggled to stand at all. "You…"
The last two Monokumas grinned as one flung the ball with such force aimed directly at her stomach. As tears ran down Aya's face, she collapsed to her feet as Ryoji jumped in the way, taking the hit to his stomach.
As blood came out of his mouth and he fell onto Aya's lap, she calmly wiped his hair out of his eyes. "Ryoji… You came."
"Of course I did…" Ryoji smiled through the pain. "Living without you isn't… an option."
Seeing the distraction as my time, I quickly elbowed the nearest Monokuma into pieces and jumped the fence; sprinting for the two friends I risked losing.
Aya noticed the last Monokuma taking his shot and me sprinting to her. She looked back down, kissed Ryoji on the forehead and sat up. "I love you, Ryoji-san."
The world slowed as the last metal ball collided with Aya's head. I could tell her skull caved in as she fell back into a pool of blood.
I finally reached them and fell to my knees. I saw one thing that chilled my blood as I felt unconsciousness take me from the stress.
Aya had a smile on her lips. Just like we promised. That gentle smile she always showed to try and calm us down was etched into her lips as a last defiant response to Monokuma.
Ryoji tried to get his body up, screaming in pain and agony as he attempted the move.
…
I came to in the center of the trial room. Kotoko was knelt down beside me. Ryoji was gripping Aya's blood-covered jersey and crying softly. Honoka and Ryuu were whispering to each other in the corner. Maria was standing against a wall and Akira was drinking heavily at her podium.
"I… Where's…Sho?" I stumbled through my words.
Kotoko patted my head. "He left… He says he'll do anything to end this game and pay us back."
"Why…? Doesn't he know we didn't want this!?"
Akira sighed. "If you really wanted to avoid this you would have shut the fuck up and let us vote Ryoji. If we had voted ignorantly and gotten out, we'd at least not have to worry."
I curled my lips into a sneer. "That bastard Sho pushed me to be honest in the first place. It's his fault, not mine!"
"You can play politics all you want but you killed Ryoji's everything tonight." Akira shot back, uncharacteristically angry.
"That's better than getting Yusuke killed by half-assing this whole game!" My retort was immediate.
Dropping her flask, Akira steadily approached me. "What the fuck did you just say!?"
"You had no qualms killing the people close to us to survive! If it wasn't for me, you would have killed your OWN SON! Fuck RIGHT OFF!"
Her slap came quick and it floored me. I tasted blood in my mouth as I collapsed to the floor and glanced up at her. "Don't you fucking dare!"
I couldn't stop at this point. "Guess killing his dad wasn't enough."
Maria's eyes widened and she rushed over just as Akira pulled a switchblade out of her pocket. Gripping her arms, she pulled hard. "Calm down, Akira! Don't get yourself executed! What about Yusuke!?"
Turning on her, Akira threw Maria to the ground. "So you agree with him!? You think I can't take care of him!?"
"Do you know how young you are!?" I brought everyone's attention down on me. "You're struggling alone to do everything! My dad had a head start and couldn't… You sacrifice everything to be a parent and I respect that… But you don't respect others! That selfish-minded thought process of yours nearly killed him… Yet you show no signs of changing!"
"I WAS TRYING! That's why I voted Ryoji, god damn you all! I wanted to do what was right by someone else! They wanted to win!" Pointing to Ryoji, she screamed to the heavens. "This is what you won tonight! Your close friend is grieving, we're still stuck in this game, and now a motive has made itself! Sho could snap any minute and it's all because you mouth breathers bought inta Monokuma's bullshite!"
"Akira…" Maria stopped herself.
Grabbing her flask from the floor, Akira walked to the door. "What's the fuckin' point in changin' if you get told you're wrong for trying?"
"If I killed Ryoji tonight, I'd have ended my own life." The words hurt to say. "If I had to add him to the list of people that were dead because I didn't do everything in my power… I'd never have survived."
"Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing." Akira coldly replied as she left the room.
Ryuu and Honoka headed for the door in silence. Neither said a word as they headed back to their rooms. I felt like they were going together for protection at this point.
"If any of you decide to kill… Please… let it be me." Ryoji's hollow voice shattered my heart as he slowly exited the room clutching his damaged stomach and wiping the last of his blood off of his chin.
Maria kicked the wall and cursed to herself before storming out of the room.
With just Kotoko and I left, I looked her in the eyes and began to cry. She came closer and wrapped her arms around me.
I began to feel such debt that could never be repaid and wondered if this was how she felt every day of her life.
The thought only made me weep harder.
A notification on my handbook drew my attention. As I opened it, a final message came in.
I expected a message from Aya and was proven wrong.
From Hiro's handbook a delayed message had been sent.
"If you're reading this, you either killed Ryoji or won the trial. In the case of the former, I'm sorry. I put on you and Aya an impossible burden. I just want you to understand that we both agreed to this and died for it. You shouldn't kill yourself over it. I know how you are, Naoya.
I also know the truth of you. The others don't see it yet but… But I do.
I think I know who the mastermind is but… If I was wrong, it would get you killed. So let's put it this way. You must look within yourselves to know.
If, on the other hand, Aya is gone and you have chosen to pursue the mastermind directly, I don't blame you. I was desperate and looking for a way out. If I at least left a positive mark on your life, that much will make this all worth it. Remember our promise and…
Protect Ryoji for us both. If anything happens to him or you after ALL of this… Well, that would be the worst outcome.
…I think I'm dead, Naoya. If we're repeating sins from the first universe and Kicho nearly drove me to kill Kotoko… Then I think I'm dead in both universes.
I guess that means it's over for me.
I wonder who ended up doing me in? Shinji? Kotoko herself… You?
Nevertheless… These are just the musings of someone on their deathbed. If you take any one thing from this message, let it be this.
I loved you all."
