-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-

Of all the ways one could be awoken in a Killing Game, a disturbingly vague note in the middle of the cafeteria was actually pretty okay for Nejire.

Well, it was okay until Tamaki showed up. He'd been the last of her classmates to emerge from their rooms when Yaomomo called them. It was to be expected, of course; Mirio's death had hit everyone pretty hard, but Tamaki was suffering the loss of his lover.

That had to hurt.

Nejire had never known true love before. She didn't know what it felt like; from what she'd read in those teenage romance novels, it was warm and sweet. Comforting on the darkest night.

She wished she had love in this place.

Actually, no, she didn't want that. That'd only give her more to lose.

As if she didn't have enough to fail already. She had enough people to let down over and over, enough people to kill in the end.

Nejire "loved" her classmates, her friends, the heroes. She wished the best for them, cared for them, wanted them to be happy, wanted to be happy with them.

Despite that, nobody could possibly be happy in this wreck.

Nobody but those who had true love, who had a piece of hope, however small, to hold onto; a beacon to reach for, run for, fight for, cry for, die for.

When Mirio died, the last of that perished with him, plummeted to hell with him.

There was no love left in this place.

"H-Hey, Tamaki." Nejire offered her best attempt at a greeting as the dark-haired boy shuffled into the room. "How are… you..?"

"Mmh." Tamaki grumbled something incoherent and trudged over to the table where everyone was gathered. It was as if bricks were in his shoes. Tsuyu, who'd gone to get him, slipped into the room after him, silent as a ghost.

Maybe she is a ghost. I wouldn't be surprised, honestly.

"Everyone's here, huh..?" Yaomomo murmured, silver eyes sweeping the ragged assembled. The unspoken words that hung on her tongue dangled over Nejire's head.

There's so few of us left…

"Let's read this thing." The Detective shook it off and reached for the little folded piece of paper with slender, pale fingers. She'd awoken earlier to find it lying suspiciously in the middle of the cafeteria table, just waiting to be found. Ever the thoughtful person, she called everyone down to open it together.

She unfolded the note. Nejire leaned in closer, cheek brushing against her bony shoulder. The handwriting was a mess; the ink was smudged and letters shaky. Tears appeared to blotch some of the words, but it was disturbingly readable.

"'Mei's device. SoS. Escape route.'" Yaomomo read the short message's contents swiftly. "What do you guys think it means?"

"Mei's device is clear. It has something to do with that girl's machine's purpose," Shouto decided. "SoS means communicating with the outside world and requesting help. Remember when Mei was still alive, and was confident that that failed rescue operation had been her device's doing?"

"Yeah," Denki murmured. "Y-Yeah, that's gotta be it! The device communicates with the heroes and asks for help. Th-That's the only logical connection between her device and SoS..!"

Shouto offered the boy a rare shadow of a smile. "You're right. Escape route makes sense, now. Using the device and sending out cries for help is our best bet of escape at this point."

"B-but… why do the heroes need intel?" Tsuyu inquired softly.

"Because without intel… they're fighting without leads," Nejire deduced gently. "They don't know which villains are present, which heroes to have help them fight, which new faces have appeared and what new quirks have shown up… It's incredibly inefficient… I guess."

"If that's the case, we better get that device," Hitoshi suggested.

"Wasn't it destroyed, though..?" Tsuyu piped up again.

"If it was destroyed, why would we receive this note?" Shouto argued. "And… more importantly… who wrote the note?"

"He has a good point," Yaomomo murmured.

"Hey, hey…" Nejire easily snagged everyone's attention. "As for who wrote the note, would it too hopeful to think that we have an ally on the villain team?"

"I'm sorry to say that that's unlikely," Tamaki suddenly cut in. "If we had a secret ally, they should've spoken up by now. Seventeen have died already."

"B-But…" Nejire faltered and was swiftly interrupted.

"Shut up. Even if there was someone from our side in the League, they're useless if they haven't jumped in already to try and stop all the killings," the Florist hissed. "I'm leaving. This is pointless."

And then he was gone, dragging himself out of the cafeteria on heavy feet.

The pit in Nejire's stomach opened up again; tears sprung to her eyes as she felt her gut twist.

Worthless. Useless. Pathetic. Look at what you've done to him. Look at what he's become. You're supposed to protect him, right? That's what Mirio told you. So why aren't you moving? Why are you standing still? Move! Move to him. Follow him. Go help him in his time of need, you useless piece of shit excuse for an ex-hero, her mind wailed at her. Her ears rang; she didn't realize liquid was trailing down her face until Tsuyu tugged on her hand.

"Nejire. Why are you crying?" she murmured. The others were locked in a conversation about the author of the note; they ignored her.

"I'm… I'm okay. It's fine. Don't worry about me," Nejire said, fighting to keep her voice from hitching as she swiped the back of her hand across her cerulean eyes. "Come on, let's listen to what the others are saying."

"...probably Mei's friend, I'd suppose," Hitoshi was saying as Nejire struggled to tune her attention back in on the matter at hand.

"But who would that be? Out of the group of us, Mei had only ever communicated with Tooru. And, well… Tooru's dead," Yaomomo shrugged. "It doesn't make sense. Who would know what Mei's device did? She never told anyone… except Tooru."

"Umm… Umm…" Tsuyu seemed like she desperately wanted to be of use and contribute to the conversation but was drawing a blank. "Oh! I know!"

"W-Well? What is it?" Denki inquired softly.

"Remember when Mei's machine was broken? Back when Izuku and Eijirou were still alive?" Tsuyu prompted. From next to her, Nejire noticed Shouto flinch. "Whoever broke it must've known the use!"

"But wouldn't it make the most sense to say Tooru broke it?" Yaomomo refuted. "She was the traitor. She didn't want us to escape."

"Then who wrote this note?" Shouto interjected. "Tooru's not dumb. She would send someone in her stead to do her dirty work. That way, if they were caught, Tooru would not be held accountable. Nobody would listen to the account of someone caught in the act over a "scared" girl."

Silence fell over the room. "A-And… if the note just appeared, and was written by this person…" Denki whispered in a hushed tone. "Then that means… th-they're still alive here?"

"Yeah." Yaomomo offered him the traces of a smile. "Maybe we really do have some sliver of hope left."

"Then we have to find the device," Hitoshi stated. Is that the light of hope, of wishing, in his eyes? "Tooru… Tooru must've hid the thing somewhere."

"Let's go investigate, then," Shouto decided. "Yaomomo, Denki, and Hitoshi will take the ground, first, second, and third floors. Nejire, Tsu, and I can take the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors."

Upon taking instructions, the assigned groups dispersed. Shouto led the way upstairs; Nejire kept to his side while Tsuyu trailed along behind her, one slender, pale hand captured in Nejire's own cold fingers.

"Hey, Shouto…" The boy of bi-colored hair glanced over his shoulder, slowing his pace to match Nejire's weak gait. "What sorta places do you think Tooru would hide this… device in..?"

"Mmh." Shouto seemed to contemplate the question for a moment. "If I were her… I'd go either somewhere so obvious we wouldn't bother to check it or somewhere so random and obsolete that nobody would care to search that far. Meaning we should check everywhere. Don't leave any idea out, no matter how weird you may believe it is."

"Hm." Not the most useful answer. But I guess the point is we have to search every nook and cranny, no exceptions.

An obvious place, hm..?

"What if she put it near one of the bodies?" Tsuyu suggested. "Just to tease us."

"Perhaps that would be true," Shouto mused. "Come on. Let's head to the laundry room first."

Nejire and her company dug through the room in about fifteen minutes. There was no sign of anything vaguely resembling an SoS device. Even the camera was gone, no matter how closely Tsuyu inspected those wall tiles.

"Looks like the laundry room reveals nothing," Shouto concluded. "I think the next most logical place would be Mei's lab itself."

"Ah… that sounds about right," Nejire murmured as they began to walk. "The device must've been in Mei's lab, and Tooru must've taken it to hide it after Mei… died. It's likely that Tooru was in such a hurry after that that she just hid it in the lab."

"I agree with her," Tsuyu added helpfully.

Well, you always do.

I'm not sure why, exactly…

The trio reached the lab and began to scan through the room again. Nejire was in the middle of digging through some boxes -didn't a group of three people literally do this exact task during investigation?- when Shouto let out a gasp.

"Guys! Look! I think I found something!" the Theorist exclaimed, delight creeping into his words.

Nejire looked up to see the taller male standing on a few boxes on top of Mei's table, his head stuck into the ceiling through the hole of a displaced tile. "Umm… what are you doing up there?"

"Well, I figured she hadn't hidden it somewhere we'd already investigated," he reasoned while obviously straining to reach for something, his entire upper body completely above the room as he strained on his tiptoes. "We'd already investigated the room itself, so thinking out of the box was our best bet."

"Ah. Huh." Tsuyu's voice was slightly annoyed; Nejire could guess why. Why would he have us searching down here for no reason?

"I think… I think I got it!" Shouto seemed to have gotten leverage on some item hidden in the ceiling. He was wriggling back out of the hole; first came his head, then his shoulders, his arms, and finally his hands.

There was a dusty -but whole- device in his hands. Mei's device. The SoS device.

"I've found it," Shouto murmured, as if awed by his own discovery. "It's… really unbroken, hm?"

Oh, how useless I was… maybe next time, I'll try a little harder and come up with something helpful.

Better luck next time, I guess…

"Tsu and I'll get the others," the bluette offered to save herself from any embarrassment, in case Shouto decided to call out on her and her friend's failures. "C-Come on, Tsu."

The two of them trekked downstairs hand-in-hand. They swiftly ran into Hitoshi and Denki and invited them upstairs before heading further onwards to Yaomomo. The ragged group of six soon found themselves huddled around the lab table, staring at the device.

"Well, one of us is missing," Tsuyu mumbled.

"Mmh?" Denki blinked before he seemed to remember. "Ah! W-We should get… Tamaki…"

"He's in his room right now, though," Yaomomo murmured. "Do we really want to bother him?"

"This is important news," Shouto insisted. "Come on, everyone has to be present. This could be our key to escape. Tamaki is our classmate and should be present." He turned to Nejire. "I hate to ask you of another favor, but could you possibly run up and grab him? You're the one closest to him."

A stab wound to her heart.

Closest to him, huh..? Nejire thought bitterly to herself. In the end, you still ruined his plan.

Why do you ruin everything, Nejire? Why are you so fucking useless?

First Ochako… then Mina… then Mirio and Tamaki.

Everyone hates you.

There's no reason they shouldn't.

"Uhh… sure!" The reply came out louder than she'd intended, a little too forced. "I'll just… run up and grab him… give me a minute!"

With that she was out the door, hurrying along with her heartbeat rising with every passing second. I don't even know why. It's just Tamaki, right? I've known him for three years… three years… it's okay, you're his friend.

Right?

Why do I feel so nervous?

Why do I dread this encounter?

She found herself standing before Tamaki's door, his name carved into the enamel plate in front of her face. Her hand was clasped to her chest; she could feel the jackrabbit ramming against her ribcage at full force. Her legs were fueled with twitchy, nervous energy. She shuffled her feet back and forth, wondering how this confrontation would go.

Okay. He'll answer the door, and either stay silent or ask me why I'm here, right? No matter what, I just have to give him some optimistic greeting- don't ask 'how are you', because the answer is obvious- and then I have to say I'm here to summon him to Mei's lab because we investigated and found something. I can do this. I can't do this. I can.

Can I?

She blinked and softly exhaled, clearing her hectic mind of all the cluttering thoughts. Calm down, Nejire, she soothed herself. Her heart only beat faster as she reached out to knock. Calm… down…

Three knocks. The first one confident, the second a little softer as she thought the first was too violent, and the third uncertain.

She could hear shuffling inside. She stepped back, fingers frantically twirling pale blue tresses.

Tamaki opened the door a crack. She could see his narrowed, violet eye gleaming in the light of the lobby. Behind him, his room was dim. "Nejire." His voice was monotonous yet strained all the same. "What do you want? I thought you of all people would know to leave me alone."

"Uh, um, well, we investigated for a while and found something interesting, so they had me come down to grab you," Nejire began to explain, stumbling over her words. "Um, it's Mei's device, it's supposed to send out SoS messages, an-"

"Well then, tell them I'm not coming."

"Huh? W-Wait-!" Nejire reached out and grabbed the doorknob, yanking it towards her -the doors opened outwards- and forcing Tamaki to stay by the vestibule. "P-please… Tamaki, come on, just do this for us… do it for me, please..?"

Tamaki stared at her with a blank gaze. "Do it for you? Are you kidding me? After… everything… I don't even want to see your face..!"

Nejire winced and jumped back a centimeter as she noticed the tears slipping down her friend -friend?-'s face. "I- I'm sorry…" she managed to whimper. His words had been a lance to her chest; her throat constricted and she could feel her lip beginning to quiver. She swiftly wiped away the tears in her own eyes. "I'm so… s-sorry…"

"..." Tamaki silently closed the door in her face, Nejire's hand now hovering uselessly in front of her with a grasp on nothing. She couldn't help but sink to her knees and cry into her arms as her mind toiled over Tamaki's words.

"After everything… I don't even want to see your face..!"

There go the tears.

"I… a-always feared this… d-didn't I?" she murmured in a whisper of a breeze. Her breath hitched. "S-So now… that it's actually happening… wh-why do I still feel..?"

Why do I still feel so hurt?

I'm just pathetic. Useless. Absolutely useless.

"What is taking her so long?" Hitoshi murmured.

"Maybe… something went wrong…" Tsuyu's voice shuddered. "We should go check on her right now!"

"I'll go," Yaomomo immediately jumped to offer. She herself was also a little worried about Nejire; the girl wasn't all that emotionally stable, and sending her off alone to Tamaki of all people may have been a poor choice.

"No, you stay," Shouto retorted. "Start the device up without us; we can't keep waiting. Monokuma might try to stop us," he reasoned. "Besides, if something bad happened, we can't risk you getting hurt. You're our detective, right?"

A pause. Yaomomo could feel heat brush her ears; Shouto took her silence and turned away, swiftly striding out the door and quickening his pace as he hit the hallway.

"Hey! Don't go without meeee!" In a flash of green, Tsuyu was suddenly racing out of the room after the Theorist. Hitoshi made a move to grab her but she squirmed away, leaving the rest to only wonder how Shouto would deal with her.

"Umm… Sh-Shouto said to start without him, right?" Denki piped up, snagging Yaomomo's attention to the matter at hand immediately. "Let's… try to boot it up."

"Mmh." Yaomomo reached out and turned the boxy contraption around. Finding a green button with a power button, she pressed it, only for absolutely nothing to happen. The other two Ultimates stared at it, appearing just as confused as her at the inactivity.

"Wait… look here." Hitoshi leaned over the table and pointed at something on the back of the cube. Yaomomo flipped it over to see a plastic plate, one held down with screws. It was a battery compartment. "Reckon it's out of battery?"

"Maybe. Denki, find me a screwdriver," Yaomomo requested. "Please."

The electric blonde swiftly darted to the other side of the room where a set of tools were hanging from a rack on the wall. He snatched a small screwdriver and handed it off to the Detective, who uttered a polite thanks. She made quick work of the two silver screws and pried off the plastic cover to see that the battery compartment was indeed empty.

"Let's try to find the batteries," Yaomomo said, already walking away from the table. "There's got to be something in here."

"B-but… do SS batteries even e-exist?" Denki cut in. Yaomomo turned to see what he was talking about. "Uh, look here. It says SS b-battery."

Yaomomo returned to the device to see that Denki was correct. "An SS battery, huh..?"

An idea suddenly popped into her head, as if the metaphorical lightbulb in her brain had gone off. "Ah… wait here, you two. I just thought of something."

Without further ado, the girl ran out of the room and upstairs, making a beeline for her own room. She'd heard crying on the fifth floor, coming from near Tamaki's room, but made nothing of it. He probably yelled at Nejire, or something. If it were more serious, Shouto would've ran to grab everyone.

Yaomomo snatched something from her desk before racing to return to Mei's lab. Denki and Hitoshi watched curiously as she placed the Ziploc bag down on the table and reached in to remove its contents.

"Two… batteries?" Denki murmured. "Wh-Where..?"

"I pocketed them during investigation of Mei's body." Yaomomo spoke as she easily slipped the orange batteries into the compartments before pressing the green button again. This time, the LED screen on the front lit up, brought back to life with Mei's custom batteries. "Ah. Bingo."

"It… worked." Hitoshi stared at the glowing device as Yaomomo quickly screwed the battery cover back on. "The device really works, huh..?"

"No guarantee until we try it," Yaomomo replied dully. "Come on. Let's try this out."

The device vaguely resembled a handheld video game console. Maybe Mei was into that kind of stuff when she was younger. I can't imagine our classmate doing anything in her spare time out of the lab. There were a few buttons on the right-hand side of the surface- X and Y buttons, a small joystick, and an enter button were all painted in various colors. Meanwhile, on the screen, two options appeared.

'Inbox' and 'Send Message', huh? Yaomomo decided to test her luck and go to the Inbox. There was nothing in there.

"I-I'd guess... the inbox displays any messages the outside world sends us," Denki murmured.

"That sounds about right." Yaomomo toggled the joystick to the back arrow onscreen and returned to the menu. She went to Send Message instead. This opened up yet another set of two options.

"'View sent messages'... and 'Send new message,' hm?" Hitoshi mused. "Check the old sent messages first."

Yaomomo hopped into that menu to find one message sent. It was labeled with a date several weeks back. She clicked into it to find a simple message pop up onscreen.

"'Fourteen left. Despair sickness motive. Act fast. SoS. No intel on villain ranks.'" Yaomomo read the message aloud. "She must've sent this before Eijirou and Izuku died. The successful rescue operation happened after they died."

"So much on being fast," Hitoshi grumbled. "But that's progress. We know it was received by the heroes."

"So we send another one. A new update." Yaomomo backed out of the sent messages column and went to send a new one. An onscreen keyboard popped up. "Ah. This is like the old 3DS I used to play on…"

"Y-You used to play video games?" Denki commented, perking up a little. "I never would've imagined… n-not in a bad way, I just mean-" He appeared flustered as Yaomomo turned to him with a blank, gray stare. Hitoshi eyed him with amusement. "You were such a good student, I can't fathom it."

"It's fine. But yeah, I used to play video games in junior high. I wasn't the best at the mechanics, but strategy games were right up my alley," Yaomomo explained, turning back to the device. She began slowly typing out a message, muttering it aloud as she went.

"Seven… left. How is Yuga?" She paused. "Mei is... dead. Tooru was traitor from League but was executed anyway." As she tried to continue, she realized the message had hit the maximum character count. She hit send; after a few seconds, a new message popped up. "Message sent."

Excited by the successful sending of the first, Yaomomo opened up a new message to type. "I am Yaoyorozu. Denki, Hitoshi, Nejire, Tsu, Tamaki, and Shouto are alive." Sent off again. New message. "Uhh… how many villains are there?" she asked her friends, fingers hovering over the buttons.

"Umm... B-Based on the trials... there's Shigaraki, Kurogiri, T-Toga, Dabi, Spinner, and Twice. And Overhaul," Denki murmured. "C-Compress too, probably. I assume... we're under high guard."

"That makes… eight. Eight strong villains, and probably some Nomu and other league members," Hitoshi added. Yaomomo nodded and turned back to the screen.

"Eight villain heads... Likely Nomu... and many lackeys. Likely no AFO? Be prepared... Act fast." Yaomomo hit send for the third time. "And done. We can only hope for help."

And we can only hope help'll come before another death occurs.

…

If only her fruitless wish came true.