-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-
"...she once stole sushi from the table, actually," Mashirao said to Hitoshi.
The violette chuckled in return. "That's cute. Does she know any tricks?"
The entire class -even Mezou, since Mirio managed to convince him to come- had gathered in the dining hall the following morning to have breakfast. They were finished eating by now; some people left, but most stayed to chat and socialize. Mashirao was telling Hitoshi about his cat, Yuki. Around them, the light chatter of the other students was like idle background ambience.
"Hmm... a few," the tailed ex-hero replied. "She can give a high five, she can meow on command, she can sit, leap through a hoop... I was going to teach her how to give me her paw, and then shake it, but we had to move to the dorms, then."
Hitoshi was about to respond when a beep from the monitor above caught his attention. The entire cafeteria hushed as everyone turned to look up at the screen.
Monokuma's face appeared on the monitor. "Ahem! Everyone, please gather in the auditorium immediately! If you don't go, well... I'll just drag you there, so don't bother resisting! See you soon! Upupupu..." It then flickered to black.
Hitoshi considered the bear's words for a moment. What does he want now? A new motive announcement? Or some other thing, like a new rule?
"I guess we'll have to go," Tamaki muttered. He was already getting up.
"Yeah." The students got up and filed out of the room and down the stairs. They entered the auditorium on the ground floor, as instructed. Mezou was already there, as usual. A few moments after the cafeteria group arrived, Mei and Tooru walked through the door, completing the roster of students.
"So, what did Monokuma want, getting us all down here?" Nejire asked to nobody in particular.
"Your attention, of course!" As if on cue, the black and white rodent leaped up behind the podium, bouncing atop the wooden block with a skip in his step. "Hello, dear students!"
"Yeah, like you care about us that much," Denki muttered.
"Aww, how rude... I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that!" Monokuma giggled, his red eye flashing.
"Cut to the chase. Why did you gather us?" Mirio demanded.
"Okay, okay, already! I gathered you all to tell you something..." Monokuma grinned, his pearly white teeth reflecting the lights of the auditorium.
"There is a traitor among you!"
Silence followed his words. Hitoshi felt his breath catch in his throat. A traitor? A villain, secretly hiding in our ranks?
"A... traitor? What's that supposed to mean?!" Tooru's voice snapped the tension in the room.
"It means, one of you is a spy from the League of Villains!" Monokuma declared. "And they could very well be plotting a murder, right this second!"
A ripple of unease spread through the students. No... no, it's probably just a lie, and Monokuma's trying to trick us into killing each other again... right?
Hitoshi didn't have any more time to ponder over it, though, because a sudden CRASH! reverberated through the room. A small plume of dust fell from the ceiling. When Hitoshi looked up at the stage, Monokuma was looking left and right, ears pinned to his skull, as if panicked.
Then, Hitoshi thought he heard... someone's voice outside?
"Spread out, search the building!"
"Did I just hear what I think I did?" Denki whispered, excitement creeping into his voice.
"Y-Yeah! I told you guys, the heroes are here! They must've come to rescue us!" Mei yelped, delighted. She raised her voice and turned up towards the door. "HEY! GUYS! WE'RE IN HERE!"
Silence fell outside, presumably because the heroes heard Mei's scream, and were already on high-alert. Maybe they're silently approaching the aud right this moment, ready to burst in and save us..!
"Aughh! I knew this would happen!" Hitoshi jumped and looked to the stage. Monokuma seemed irritated, but not panicked. It wasn't exactly the expression one would expect a villain to have when their plot was moments away from being spoiled. "Alright, time to set the emergency procedure into action..."
Before any student could do anything, Monokuma pulled out what looked like a small glass orb. It was filled with some sort of translucent pink liquid. He chucked it, as hard as he could, at the students below. It hit the floor right by Mashirao's feet, and immediately shattered. Glass shards slid across the floor, pittering down the stairs. The pink liquid splashed across the floor. "Wh-What is this?!" Denki yelped, lifting his foot from the puddle.
An odd sort of fog began to rise from the spilled liquid, thick and rapidly ascending. Nejire, who was standing on one of the lowest steps, took a small whiff of it and jumped back, stumbling into Mirio.
"G-Guys! There's something wrong with this stuff! I feel... fuzzy..." With that, her eyelids drooped and she collapsed on the floor.
"Nejire!" Tsuyu rushed over to her friend and crouched down beside her, only to find herself engulfed in the fog. "Ahh!" She tried to hold her breath, but it was too late. She crumpled as well.
"I think this is some sort of anesthesia!" Tooru cried, rushing up the steps. Suddenly, one of Kurogiri's portals appeared right in front of her, and Toga leaped out, barreling into her and sending her falling back down the steps. The villain pinned her down right next to Mei to prevent the Artist from tumbling into everyone else.
"Eek! Now the villains are here, too!" Mei yelped. She looked up at the auditorium doors, yellow eyes wide with panic. "HURRY UP! PLEASE, HURRY UP!"
"HELP!" Denki screamed, his eyes widening then rolling back as he was overtaken by the fog.
One by one, the students were swiftly all dropping like flies. This anesthesia stuff... sure is strong... Hitoshi was trying his best to stay awake, holding his breath and covering his mouth and nose with a hand. His eyelids drooped dangerously, just barely kept at bay with his willpower. Beside him, Mashirao had already succumbed and was unconscious on the floor. Even Toga's eyes had drooped shut, and she was asleep beside Tooru, a knife handle wrapped by her loose fingers.
"You! Psychic!" Hitoshi whirled around to see Monokuma glaring at him. "Why aren't you unconscious yet?!"
Hitoshi met Monokuma's hostile stare as best as he could with the drowsiness he was battling constantly increasing. Just then, a sudden BANG! from behind him cut his concentration in half, causing him to accidentally inhale. His eyes widened and he whirled around, desperate to see what the sound was before he inevitably would collapse.
The last thing Hitoshi saw before he lost consciousness was five heroes led by a robot barging into the room.
A... robot?
For some reason, that was Hitoshi's first thought when he came back to consciousness. Of all the odd things that had happened in his final moments of wakefulness, the robot was probably the least concerning thing. Regardless, Hitoshi groaned and opened his hazy violet eyes. He was met with nothing but darkness.
Why can't I see?! All sleepiness vanished from his system, replaced with horror and panic instead. Am I blind?! Did that gas take away my vision? Or am I locked up in some dark box? Why can't I see?!
"H-hey..? Hitoshi? Are you awake?" Hitoshi heard a hushed voice from his right. Mashirao.
"Yeah, I'm awake..." he replied shakily. "Where are we?"
"I dunno... it's pitch black in here. We're the only two up right now," Mashirao replied softly. Hitoshi turned to the direction of his voice and awkwardly shuffled forward, hoping nobody was laying between him and the tailed boy. Thankfully, he didn't run into any sleeping classmates, but he did hit something with his hand. He tentatively reached out and brushed his finger over the floor in front of him. Carpet. Realizing he'd just hit a rug, he relaxed and managed to scoot over to his boyfriend.
"The others should get up soon," Hitoshi whispered. "Should we just wake them up?"
"...I'd prefer not to. Might scare them." The violette murmured an agreement to the blonde's words, before sitting down, leaning against him and placing his head on Mashirao's shoulder. Mashirao gave a small "hm?" of surprise, but accepted the rare show of affection nonetheless.
The two sat there in silence together until the rustling of clothes made it clear that other people were rousing from their slumber. Hitoshi pulled back, but kept close enough to Mashirao that their fingers brushed when he placed his hand on the ground.
"Guys..? Hello? Where are we?" Denki's lost-sounding voice cut into the silence like a spear plunging into water.
"How are we supposed to know? It's pitch dark in here," Mezou scoffed.
"Loosen up on him, won't you?" Hitoshi called back.
"Seriously, though, where do you guys think we are?" Tamaki asked. "And where are you gu- ah!"
"Sorry, Tamaki! I didn't mean to scare you!" That would be Nejire. "We should all do a head count and make sure nobody's missing!"
"There's... twelve of us, right? Add yourself to the number of people while we count. I'll start." Tsuyu's voice rose from some corner of the room. "I'm Tsuyu. One."
"I'm Nejire, and Tamaki's right next to me. Three," The Beauty Pageant Star said.
"This is Mirio! Four!"
"Yaomomo speaking. Five."
"I'm Mashirao, and Hitoshi's with me. Seven," the tailed boy continued. Hitoshi gave a small sigh, in a 'You didn't have to say my own name for me but I'm fine with it' sort of way.
A heartbeat of silence followed, as if the remaining five were musing who should go first without running over each other. A light thump could be heard against the floor, as if someone moved on a carpeted floor.
"I'm present. Shouto. Eight." The heterochronous Theorist started the count back up.
"I'm Denki. Nine."
"This is Tooru! Ten!"
"Mezou. Eleven."
"And finally, me, Mei. Twelve."
"So nobody is missing. That's the first priority solved," Mirio commented. "Now we should figure out where we are."
"There's no need to figure it out!" A new voice, obnoxiously loud and robotic, suddenly cut into the student's discussion. Hitoshi jumped and covered his eyes with his hand, squinting, as the lights from above suddenly burst to life.
When he finally got his eyes adjusted to the bright lights, Hitoshi promptly realized that they were in the trial room. The chandelier high over his head, the red rug he and Mashirao were sitting on, the black and white floor tiles... it felt so familiar, yet so wrong, all at once.
"Well, that answers the question," Mezou grumbled, blinking rapidly in the blinding glare of the chandelier.
Hitoshi glanced around. Sure enough, all eleven of his classmates were scattered throughout the room. He and Mashirao were sitting by a podium. Over to their right, around the ring, Denki was laying on the small stairs surrounding the throne. Tamaki and Nejire were by the elevator on the opposite side. Monokuma was standing in the red velvet throne. Denki jumped and crawled away from the throne when he saw the bear. The bear snarled at him.
"Hey, hey! No need to look so scared! I'm not some demon or something!" The monochrome robot returned his attention to the rest of the class. "Anyway, the emergency has been resolved! The elevator is unlocked now and will function properly. Please make your way upstairs!"
The students looked at each other, considering Monokuma's sudden announcement. "Hurry up, now!" At his urging, Hitoshi and a few other people stood up and began to make their way over to the elevator. The rest of the class followed suit.
"Ah! Another thing!" Just as Yaomomo was about to press the 'Open' button on the elevator's control panel, Monokuma spoke up again. "Just to let you guys know, there has been some damage to the school building. We are working hard on rebuilding! It shouldn't be too long before the holes are patched up. However... if you try to sneak outta there or do something off-color, I'll let you know there are multiple villains situated at every repair area! So don't even think about it!" Hitoshi blinked, considering Monokuma's words. Damage..? That must be what that crashing noise was, in addition to whatever the heroes' battle with the villains must've done.
The heroes...
"Anyway, you guys are dismissed now. See ya!" When Hitoshi turned around, Monokuma was already gone.
Yaomomo opened the elevator wordlessly and the class filed in. As the box began to ascend towards the ground floor, Mei decided to speak up.
"Hey, guys... about what happened before we all passed out..." she began slowly, awkwardly filling the quiet in the elevator.
"You mean the rescue team, right?" Tamaki asked.
"Yeah! So, you all remember my device, right? The one that got broken?" Mei took the silence that followed her question as a cue to continue. "Well, I ran a few test runs on it, and it worked perfectly. I didn't get too far with it... but what I did give should've been enough to summon that rescue party!"
"So you're crediting yourself with getting the rescue party to show up?" Mezou scoffed. "The more likely reason is probably just they discovered the League was imprisoning us in here, and finally actually made it into the building. There's no doubt the League has guards outside."
"Well, that's possible... but my idea is also possible!" Mei retorted.
"It doesn't matter now, because the villains kicked them out again anyway," Denki said softly.
Silence fell in the elevator again, following Denki's words. The box clicked to a stop as it hit the ground floor, and the bronze doors slid open, iron gates unfolding.
The class stepped out and filed into the lobby. Immediately, Hitoshi spotted the damage beside the door.
There was a large hole in the wall. A heap of debris -rock, cement, metal plates, some wood- lay on the ground inside. Outside, the sky was overcast, covered in gray clouds. But the cool breeze was certainly there, billowing in and surrounding Hitoshi's senses with fresh air, its crisp scent polluted only the smell of smoke and the presence of Spinner and Dabi by the hole. They were evidently standing guard. And outside the hole...
All for One.
A chill ran down Hitoshi's spine, causing him to step backwards into Mashirao. By then, most of the students had seen him and were having similar reactions of fear and shock.
Why is he here?
Then Hitoshi saw who was crouched below the villainous mastermind. It was Cementoss, the calm, block-headed teacher who formerly worked for U.A. before the Killing Game began.
"Hey! Cementoss!" Mei called out. He didn't respond; his eyes were blank, his hands placed on the ground, quirk activated. Spinner and Dabi glared at her, and she swiftly shut her mouth. All for One was silent, focusing on staring at Cementoss and his work.
"It seems my suspicions were correct," Mirio murmured fearfully, gazing at him. The block-headed man was creating a wall of cement to patch up the hole, the gray stone rising in waves.
"Wh-What is that supposed to mean?" Tamaki asked, eyes fixed on the hole repair job.
"Our dorms. The wall splitting the classrooms in half to create two bedrooms, I mean," Mirio explained. "On our first day here, before everything happened, when I first entered my dorm, I noticed the ridge at the base of the wall. It was like the ridges Cementoss's quirk created when he made walls. I thought, maybe the villains captured the U.A. teachers and are forcing them to do this stuff."
"You're right... and the anesthesia, the one Monokuma just used to knock us out when the rescue team showed up. It was liquid, sure, but it evaporated quickly. Its color and effect resemble Midnight's quirk," Shouto added.
Hitoshi looked back to Cementoss, who was still building the wall. The cement was still rising, now nearly complete. From what he could see, amidst the rumbling rock, his eyes were still blank and cloudy. As if... he were brainwashed.
Of course. All for One must've snatched a brainwashing quirk off of someone, and he was now using it to control his captives. From getting Midnight to secrete some of her pink anesthetic gas to forcing Cementoss to build walls, it made sense.
But who did he steal it from?
Me? It resembles my lost quirk, clearly.
But when would he have the chance to..?
Shaking off his suspicion and unease, Hitoshi turned back to his classmates. "Well, what should we do about this?"
"We can't exactly do anything, per say," Tsuyu murmured. "Spinner and Dabi are standing guard, so we can't approach the hole to investigate or anything."
"Maybe we should check the rest of the school for any more damage," Nejire suggested.
"Yeah... good idea," Mei murmured. "Should we split up? We could cover more ground that way, and faster. We can meet up afterwards down here."
And so the class split up into pairs, with each duo searching one floor. Hitoshi obviously paired with Mashirao. The two went up to the third floor, where the cafeteria and kitchen were. As soon as they crested the landing, Hitoshi spotted the hole in the wall straight ahead. Fortunately, the damage didn't reach the kitchen, and the rubble appeared to have been hastily cleaned away.
Standing guard at the hole were Mr. Compress and a sleepy-looking Toga. She had a knife in each hand, though, so it appeared she was as deadly as ever.
Toga's clouded eyes swiveled and fixed on Hitoshi and Mashirao. "Heeeey," she mumbled. "I have kniiiiiives."
"We can see that, you have knives, yes," Mashirao spluttered out quickly, before backing away to leave, making a beeline for the staircase. Mr. Compress ignored them and allowed them to leave, and Hitoshi heard Toga yawn.
That night, Mei flopped down in the chair by her worktable. Ever since the time her machine had been broken, she had fallen into the routine of sleeping in the lab, sometimes on the worktable, the boxy contraption in her arms. This way, nobody can break it again.
Today, she picked up the device from the workspace and turned it, admiring the simple design. It's done. Pride washed through her, joy at her project finally being completed. My baby's finally complete again.
She sat down on the floor, her pillow and blanket under the table. She lay down on the ground, the box-shaped machine in her arms. As she shut her eyes, she began to think about the events that transpired that day.
The hero rescue mission. Mei was so sure it was her device that summoned the rescue team. Why else would they wait until now, precisely, to send a mission that successfully infiltrated the school? There's no doubt they would've deduced the school was where we were held within days of the attack. The villains must've held off the previous raids... and today they finally broke in.
Maybe Yuga told them something? Or perhaps my message gave them the full severity of how much worse our situation had gotten since Yuga escaped.
But no matter what... they know we're here now. And that there's only twelve of us left.
Aside from that...
...who is the traitor Monokuma mentioned, if there even is one?
And are they really planning a murder?