Chapter 5: Dawning of the Dead Part 5 (Deadly Life)

Remaining Citizens: 7

Ai Mizuno (Zombie Land Saga): Ultimate (Zombie) Idol

Aoba Kuronuma (Durarara!): Ultimate Manipulator

Ryuji Sakamoto (Persona 5): Ultimate Track Star

Emma (The Promised Neverland): Ultimate Moral Compass

Gold (Pokémon Adventures/Pokémon Special): Ultimate Hatcher

Miles Morales (Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse): Ultimate Successor

Yu Ishigami (Kaguya-sama: Love Is War): Ultimate Pessimist

Ai's POV

….. Silence.

Nothing but pure silence.

It's been almost five minutes, and we're still left horrified by what happened to two of our friends.

Espio, the quiet ninja who truly cared for us. Believing in whatever plan Trunks and Killua had set up for themselves, and putting his trust in me to help find the mastermind… He wished he was able to do more in helping us, but I am happy to have just known a man, or chameleon like him.

Bernadetta… the scared recluse that tried her best to hold onto hope. I feel a deep regret for not being able to reconcile with her, since the reveal of my zombified form had pushed her away. I always looked out for her from the start, helping her open up to the others and be willing to step outside her room once in a while… Seeing her and Espio like this is…

"Agh!" I cry out in pain, clutching my heart as tears run down my eyes.

I crumple to the ground knees first as my emotions take hold of me and won't let go.

"Aoba, you son of a bitch… WHY THEM?!" Ryuji screamed as he punched the ground repeatedly.

Both Emma and Ishigami were dejected, no tears on their end, but the look on their faces were filled with dread and despair. Miles looked away, although I can tell that he was in just as much pain as the rest of us. Gold… after kneeling by their bodies for a while, stood back up and began to walk away.

"Where are you going?" I asked him calmly, even though there were still tears left in my eyes.

"... Investigation."

"Huh?" I responded as he took a breath in.

"What do you mean investigation? Is there even a point anymore when we know who did it, like last time? Aoba's got a guaranteed chance of getting out of here, and we don't even know if there's gonna be a tri—"

"Wait… there has to be a trial!" Miles then spoke up suddenly, interrupting Ishigami.

"What?!" The student council treasurer was taken aback by this.

"Yep. Aoba's expecting that win, but we can still take it away. The dude's tired of this stupid game like the rest of us, yet he wouldn't want it to end TOO fast." Gold began to explain.

Miles stood next to him to elaborate, "Basically, Aoba's a bad enough dude to have there be a trial anyways. He doesn't want to leave until he SEES us lose. He thinks victory is in sight, but if we can find something, even the smallest thing that can override the plan he made…"

My eyes widened as I ended up standing up as well, "Then all his hard work will become moot! He could end up executed, regardless of the "Get Out of Trial Free" card!"

"... How are you so sure that it's gonna work?" Ryuji dejectedly asked, still staring at the body of the girl he protected from a knife.

"Even if we can find a small chance at winning, who's to say that Aoba didn't plan for that? How can we even know if we can take him down?" Ishigami looked at Gold and Miles, both of them not phased by those questions.

They stayed silent for a moment before nodding at each other.

"We can't know. It's just… a leap of faith."

Miles and Gold left. The rest of us sat down for a moment, to take in what the former said.

Can we really risk our lives, for a leap of faith?

I stand there by the statue with the others, contemplating on whether or not it would be worth it to go all in. The blood of our two friends hasn't fully dried yet, and looking at their cold dead faces just hurt the longer we stared. Knowing them, as well as the ones who fell before, they would want us to get to investigating quickly. They wouldn't want their killer to get away with this, and yet...

I needed a bit of time before I could go investigate, just so I can mourn for a little while longer.

I told this to everyone else, and they understood. Ryuji decided to go follow Gold and Miles, but Emma and Ishigami stayed with me. I'm glad that I wasn't alone in feeling like this.

There's already the bodies and a few other things we can look at over here by the statue, so once we're finished we can already get to a good start.

"Fight on, until you've won, succumbing to this game would make our deaths meaningless." Trunks's words replay in my head as his face, as well as the others who have died appear in my mind.

I looked into Bernie's empty eyes once more and spoke silently, "We'll do our best, everyone."

Miles's POV

Investigation

Insert Song: Ekoroshia (Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair)

"Okay, where should we start?" Gold asks as I see Ryuji running up to us.

The guy can run, no wonder he's the Ultimate Track Star.

"Yo!" He greets us as we just stroll throughout the area.

"'Sup?" I responded, "Three people should make it easier, glad I can count on y'all to help out!"

Gold pumped his fists, "Yeah! We're gonna bring Aoba down! Wait… hold on, we didn't get a Monokuma File!"

Oh shoot, I forgot we didn't get one!

"Tch, I don't think we're getting one anyways. The bear's busted." Ryuji stated.

"Busted, you mean Robo Teddiursa's broken?" Gold asked, his eyes wide.

"Yeah, I checked on him before catching up with you guys and he's gone limp. Staring up at the statue, and he looked shocked for some reason?"

"Hm… that's weird, maybe we should keep that in mind." I suggested.

"If you say so dude, darn this trial is gonna suuuuck without a file." Gold complained.

"Catatonic Monokuma" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

"Well at least we got something for our first piece of evidence. Hm… I think I have an idea on where to go next, but you guys need to grab on." I told them as I got my web shooters ready.

"Eh?" Gold tilted his head.

"I-I'm good man, that swing over to the statue took a lot out of me. I need to stretch my legs more too since I've been out of the hospit—AAAAAAALLL!"

Nah, this will be quicker. I grabbed both of them, as we swung over to where we needed to go next.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Ow, they sure can scream. I'm actually struggling to keep my grip on them because of their noise. It's like if I accidentally turned up the volume too high while I'm listening to music, my ears end up blasted!

I mean, I love my music, but someone's crazy if they want to listen to it with destroyed eardrums! Thankfully we made it to the boat after just a few blocks.

"T-The yacht?" Ryuji asked, trying not to throw up into the sea.

"Yeah, since both the bodies were in this area, they had to have gotten here with it. So there could be some stuff lying around here, or even in the water." I explained.

"Makes sense, but whatever was thrown in the water's probably sunk by now." Gold began to stand back up straight.

"Well, someone's gotta go swimming for it. Any volunteers?" I turned to the two of them.

"1, 2, 3, not it!" Both of them speak at once.

Dang it, I'm the one diving. Why am I stuck with the goof-off troublemaking guys? I rolled my eyes after seeing them fist bump, before jumping straight into the water. I didn't argue about it since I gotta do it for Espio and Bernie, can't let Aoba get away with it so easily. Also I wouldn't want anything being left behind if one of them searches underwater.

Hooo man, the water's FREEZING, I should have gotten my suit a heater. Just gotta endure it until I—ACK!

There's… Monokuma colored mines here, just one wrong move and I get blown out! Spidey-Sense saved me there, almost kissed one! Hm? There's something there shining behind all of it, it definitely looks important…. Maybe I'll try grabbing it with a web.

Thwip!

The web just slowly slowly floated upwards towards the surface, guess we're doing this the hard way. Time to be a water spider.

One after another I dodge the mines, really need to keep working on dodging perfectly. I also have to think about not being able to hold my breath for too long. I barely managed to get to the shiny thing unscathed, and I was right about it being important: it's Espio's kunai!

There's something right beneath it, and I grab it too as I finally reamerge and breathe in fresh air at last. I swim over to shore to join the others and it looks like they finished searching too.

"So what I'm thinking of trying next is an electric catapult move with Pibu and A—Oh! You finished, Miles?" Gold waves as I wring out my clothes.

"Uh-huh, you too?"

"Yeah-ha! Found this, and these bad boys!" Ryuji takes out another, more dry, piece of paper and Gold holds out ninja stars!

Great, we managed to gather a few pieces of evidence! Wait, what were they talking about? Eh, knowing Gold, it could be nothing.

"Just to be sure…" I took out the piece of paper I got and held it next to Ryuji's and… nope not a match from any angle. Also the paper I got couldn't even be read either, dang it.

Gold began reading off the page they had collected, "'I've got…come alone to…' Wait, did he take something from one of them?"

"And probably lured one of them to this island to get murdered, or both of them. Don't think Espio would have fallen for this, or… could he?"

That's right, we don't know who he had killed or planned to kill first. There's also the possibility that he only killed one of them too…

"Ripped Page #1" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

"Ripped Page #2" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

"Unless Aoba's some secret ninja fanboy, these are obviously Espio's weapons too, right?" Ryuji pointed at the kunai and ninja stars.

"Definitely. Ow!" Gold pricked his finger on the edge of a star and put it in his mouth.

"The kunai was probably thrown in the water to get rid of the blood, make us think it wasn't a murder weapon. It could be something else, but we can't count it out." I looked over it carefully.

"No blood on this, but there are some scratches. Too bad we can't scan for fingerprints, huh?" Ryuji sighed.

"Yep… but Espio wears gloves so he couldn't leave a print anyways." I said in response.

"Have you guys ever seen him without those gloves?" Gold asked.

"Nah." I replied.

"Nope, I don't even know if he takes them off. If he keeps those on all the time, I'd hate to see what his hands look like…" Ryuji shakes his head.

"Ugh… I don't want to think about that, man." I shudder a bit.

"Espio's Kunai" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

"Espio's Ninja Stars" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

Okay, we've got a good amount of evidence, let's go share what we have with the others.

Ai's POV

"Alright, that's enough for now. We can mourn more once the trial is finished." I told Emma and Ishigami as I stood back up.

I looked to Ishigami, whose face was still in fear and disbelief, "Hey, we're gonna need your help here. No slacking off alright? This is for Bernie." I patted him on the back to get his attention.

"Yeah, for Bernie." Emma clenched her fists.

She and I held our hands out to him, patiently waiting for him to grab them.

"... If I have to. For Bernie." He tries to respond in his usual manner, but his voice is still shaky.

Emma and I smile as we get him on his feet, let's get started.

"Monokuma, the file!" I called out to the bear, but he didn't respond.

Hm? Is he ignoring us or…?

I walk over to him and all he has is a shocked face, plus he's not moving.

"Did it malfunction? If so, why isn't there a clone popping up to replace him?" Ishigami waved his hand in front of the robot bear's face.

"Hm…" Emma goes over to him next, stopping right by his side.

She checks his face, but then looks up at the statue.

"I see, I see… There's blood on the statue!" She points towards the spot, the statue's left hand.

"Good eye, but what does that have to do with Monokuma going limp?" Ishigami asked as he lifted the bear's arm up and it just fell down.

"Hm… well, at least we have that piece of evidence. Since we can't get a Monokuma file, it's up to us to find out when, where, and how our friends were killed. Those blood stains on the statue give me a bit of an idea, but let's check the bodies next to get more details."

Ishigami loudly sighed at my explanation, "Well that's just great, we have to do the work the bear does for us. Whoop-de-freakin-do."

"Stop complaining and look over the corpses with me." I bluntly told him.

"Blood on Statue" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

"Ugh… this is something I definitely did not want to do in my life." Ishigami was looking closely at Bernadetta, while I had Espio.

Two stab wounds in the chameleon's right hand and chest. It's giving me flashbacks to when Misato was killed, except it was the ninja that got slain by his own weapon. I could tell that the chest wound was the deepest, so it was that wound that killed him. What about the second one on his hand? Perhaps it was a way of weakening Espio…

"Espio's Stab Wounds" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

"Eh?" I then heard Ishigami let out.

"You got something?" Emma asked.

"It's weird… Bernadetta's covered in blood… but the only wound she has is on her forehead."

"Huh?!" Emma let out in surprise.

I was shocked as well, "Wait, she doesn't have anything else that has been bleeding?"

"Nope, it's only Espio's blood all over her." He revealed.

"Oh my god… then it was blunt force trauma?!" Emma held her hand to her mouth.

"Maybe… or maybe we should go up there to see otherwise." I suggested.

"Up? Up where?" Ishigami asked and I just pointed up at the statue, "Of course…"

There is one more thing I am curious about before we leave the bodies, why are they positioned like that? Espio clutching Bernadetta, it's almost like... he failed to save her.

"Bernadetta's Head Wound" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

"Body Positioning" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook. (please don't take that Truth Bullet out of context)

Okay, first things first, happy late birthday to Gold! Secondly, I've decided that I shall rewrite the first chapter for Fictional Epicenter and adjust everything once Nexus has concluded. Hope no one minds the new additions to the cast. If anyone's curious as to who the new characters are, just let me know. Also, this upcoming trial isn't about WHOdunnit, it's HOW, I think it's fitting for someone like Aoba personally. See you all next time! Sorry for being so late with this by the way.