-This is made by Starrshard on Ao3 and Wattpad, please check them out. I have been given permission to upload this to, as they do not have an account on this website-
How can one death change this school so much?
Mashirao sat on the half-wall in the cafeteria, quietly sharing a double-strawed bubble tea between him and Hitoshi. His eyes scanned over the room, over the other people huddled around the tables. Denki was sitting next to Mashirao, his eyes blank as he stared at the floor. Mashirao had nothing to say to him; he didn't know what to say. How was one supposed to speak to someone who just lost their girlfriend, and all of the hope that came with it?
At a table across the room, Yaomomo was sitting with her head in her arms, her gaze vacant. Tsuyu was sitting next to her. They were conversing in hushed tones, Yaomomo grieving over her best friend and her revelation over Fumikage.
The only spark in the room was Mei and Tooru. The two girls were sitting on a counter, side by side, talking in hushed tones as courtesy to the sad students. Apparently Mei had finished her device that would supposedly help them escape, and the two had made ice cream sundaes to celebrate the small achievement. It was a small step in the class' long term healing, but it was a step nonetheless.
Mashirao had noticed that Mezou and Eijirou had vanished over the past few days. He was pretty sure Mezou had retreated to the gym in solitude once more, and Eijirou probably locked himself in his room, after the loss of Katsuki. On the other hand, he'd also seen Shouto and Izuku coming down earlier to get food. They'd taken it promptly back to one of their rooms. Izuku's eyes had been dull and his feet unsteady- Mashirao wasn't sure why. However, he'd smiled, and his laughter rang like music.
Even through sickness, he's happy... Shouto really has given him all the joy he's ever needed.
Suddenly, there was the loud ringing of a bell overhead. Mashirao glanced up at the monitor. What do they want now..?
Monokuma's face flashed onto the screen. He was wearing a nurse's cap, which was balanced elegantly atop his fuzzy head. "Ahem! This is a school announcement! Everybody, please go down to the auditorium ASAP! We'll be waiting... Upupupu... Upupupupupu!"
"The auditorium, huh?" Mashirao muttered. He shook the bubble tea bottle between him and his boyfriend. "Looks like there's just ice left, huh..."
"You can throw it out," Hitoshi offered. He hopped down from the half-wall and brushed himself off. "Come along now."
Mashirao hurried over to the trash can and threw out the empty bottle before meeting with Hitoshi, who was waiting by the door. Denki trailed after them with a fazed expression. The loose trio made their way down to the auditorium. Mezou was already there, huddling in a shadow. Neither party made any attempt to talk to each other.
Once the rest of the group arrived and assembled before the stage, a small black and white rodent bounced up from behind the podium. "Heeeeeee-llo everyone!" he crowed.
"Cut to the chase," Mezou said coldly. He had not joined the majority group, instead opting to stay to the wall.
"Aww, so rude!" Monokuma pouted. "Ah, well... anyway, it's time for a new motive!"
"Motive?" Mei asked softly. "Another one, so soon after Kyouka, Katsuki, and Fumikage..?"
"Why does it matter anyway?" Yaomomo asked, her voice monotonous. Tsuyu was at her shoulder, her eyes troubled and heavy as she gazed up at her friend.
"Why does it matter?!" Eijirou wailed. "Katsuki was just killed! Your best friend was murdered too, and Fumikage! How could you act so indifferent?"
Yaomomo was silent, her silver eyes glazed over as she stared back into Eijirou's teary crimson gaze. Tsuyu shook her head at the Bodybuilder. "Leave her alone for now, please," she said.
"Ahem! I'm right here! Listen up!" Monokuma barked. Everyone's chatter died down, their attention immediately fixated on the rodent. "The new motive is... Despair Sickness!" He spoke the phrase with relish, as if it were the best thing in the world.
"Despair... Sickness?" Mirio echoed, confused. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You'll see if you don't act soon!" Monokuma grinned his shark-toothed grin. "In two days, I will inflict one random student with Despair Sickness! For every day after that where no murder occurs, I will inflict another student with the maladie, until everybody is infected. If a murder occurs, I will immediately cure every student of all illness, and everyone will be in tip-top shape again!" He grinned. "My own Monokuma antidote! I'm so clever, aren't I?!"
"And what if nobody kills at all?" Mezou inquired?
"Well, if it really does get to that point, I'll just execute someone random to keep the ball going! Upupupu... puhuhu! See ya later!" With that ominous laugh, Monokuma vanished, leaping down from his podium, casting the auditorium into shocked, confused silence.
"I don't get it," Nejire muttered, breaking the silence. "What is the Sickness, exactly? How does it work? Like, symptoms and fatality rate."
"We won't know until it happens. That's what Monokuma wants," Shouto said. "We don't know what the Sickness will do, which may drive us to murder out of the anxiety of the illness being fatal.
"However, this part of the motive is rather useless. We can assume he won't kill any of us with an illness, since it wouldn't cause despair -which he wants- and isn't gory and brutal -which he and the villains enjoy. Since we're at their disposal, they wouldn't let us go without blood being drawn," Shouto concluded.
"So there's no need to worry?" Tooru asked hesitantly.
"No, we shouldn't have to worry about the sickness. It'll be fine, I'm sure," Izuku piped up. Mashirao noticed how he had his arm looped around Shouto's and how he was leaning on the taller Theorist, putting half of his weight on him. I wonder what's going on over there.
"Yeah, it'll be fine," Mashirao reaffirmed, echoing Izuku. "We'll be alright."
Until the Sickness falls... we'll be okay.
I hope.
"HELP! EVERYBODY, GET UP! SOMETHING HAPPENED! HEEEEEELLLLP!"
Nejire awoke with a start at the sound of somebody screaming outside her door. Clearly, she would've preferred an alarm clock to... whatever happened that was violent enough for Mei to run up and down the dorms yelling at the top of her lungs.
She tumbled out of bed, slipped into her bath slippers -which she'd resorted to wearing in favor of the glittery high heels, since they were making her feet hurt-, and rushed for the door. As she stepped into the hallway, she could see that Mei's efforts in waking up the entire class was paying off. Mirio, Mashirao, Tooru, Shouto, Tsuyu, Hitoshi, and Tamaki were already up and trying to calm down the Inventor, who was practically going off-the-rails insane in her hysterics.
"Mei- Mei, calm down- Just, um, take a deep breath-" Tooru was desperately trying to console her writhing friend, but to no avail.
"MY BABY! MY BEAUTIFUL BABY! SHE'S GONE!" Mei sobbed.
"Baby?" Hitoshi asked aloud, visibly confused and stunned.
"She means her machine," Mashirao quickly explained. "The device that she was making for our escape."
"Well, if it's broken, let's go see it!" Mirio insisted.
The group rushed down the stairs, with Mei leading the way. They all entered the Lab. Just as she had reported, there was a heap of broken pieces of metal, circuits, wires, and shattered glass screens all over the large work table in the center of the room.
Mei sobbed again. "My baby! I'd just finished it, and now it's broken! Somebody broke it!"
"Somebody broke it?" Tooru asked aloud. "Oh, Mei, I don't believe anybody here would do that! Who wouldn't want to escape? Your device was gonna help us get out, so it makes no sense for one of us to break it."
"Th-Then Monokuma did it! Or some other villain!" Mei insisted. "Somebody broke it, I know! It wouldn't just fall apart and blow up like this on its own, I know it! My babies don't do that!"
"Hey hey! But I didn't do anything!" Monokuma suddenly ran through the door, waving his arms.
"Yeah, like we're going to believe that," Mei snapped at him. "You or one of the villains must've broken it! Who else would?!"
"Puhuhu... one of your fellow students, perhaps?" Monokuma grinned maliciously, his robotic eye glinting in the light of the pale ceiling lights.
"We've already ruled that possibility out!" Tooru retorted. "Nobody has any reason to!"
"Hmm... suit yourself. But beware... just know that the villains and I never interfere with the killing game directly, other than our motives. Your device is not of our concern, miss Inventor. Upupupu!" With an ominous laugh, Monokuma ran away.
Mei huddled over the broken remains of her machine, wailing. Tooru rushed to comfort her while the others pondered what Monokuma's words could've meant.
"Monokuma said that the device was not of his concern... what is that supposed to mean?" Shouto mused.
"It must mean the device wouldn't have posed a threat to the... the game. So it wouldn't have been any help in a hypothetical escape," Tamaki concluded. He turned to the devastated Inventor. "Mei. What was your device designed to do?"
"It... It was designed to-" Mei began to speak, but was suddenly, rudely interrupted.
"Hey, hey! Don't be giving these dumbnuts any bright ideas, squid girl!" Monokuma yelped in alarm, running into the room again. "Say a word, and I'll- I'll have you executed, just like your buddy Tenya, okay?!" He vanished again with that parting threat.
"That was... strange," Hitoshi said slowly.
"What he just said was blatantly contradictory," Mashirao muttered. "First, Monokuma says he doesn't care about the device. If he truly cares that little, why would he be so desperate to keep how the device works a secret?"
"Maybe how it works or what it was supposed to do was a vital escape clue... but the actual machine wasn't actually working properly?" Nejire suggested. "No offense to Mei, but her machines sometimes... malfunction," she said slowly.
"Perhaps that's it," Tsuyu stated, before Mei interrupted.
"Nooo! I was sure they worked! I even had a test run and it worked perfectly!" Mei claimed loudly, her voice making Nejire's ears ring, which was unusual, considering how loud she herself was.
"If the device was to help us escape, is there any possibility the test run may aid us?" Shouto asked.
"Possibly. There's a chance it might, but consecutive use would've been more effective," Mei said glumly.
A murmur spread through the group. "I guess that's another escape plan gone to dust," Tsuyu murmured sadly, shuffling away. People slowly began trickling out after her upon giving their consolation to Mei, who was still being soothed by Tooru at the table.
Nejire left last after giving Mei a hug. "It'll be okay," she murmured subduedly. "Now that you know how to make the device, you can remake it, right?"
"Yeah," Mei muttered. "I'll... I'll try my best! I'll even sleep with the device in this lab this time!"
Nejire paused, but opted not to speak. I feel as if that would only put you in danger. If someone was truly out to ruin their escape, for whatever wicked reason, she was sure they wouldn't hesitate to kill.
"Well... good luck," was all she said instead.