Day 7: Nightmares/Fear/Betrayal

Summary: Villains. It's true that a lot of them had defined backstories, some becoming more sympathetic because of it, but at the end of the day, many villains in video games are just that: simple obstacles meant to be cleared by the heroes to beat the game. But, what if while destroying the villains, you end up becoming one yourself?

What happens if someone who wanted to be a hero becomes a villain by the end of the game? What happens, then?

In which after changes of events, a once naive gamer has a realization against both hope and despair.

She doesn't remember much after, maybe escaping from that building if it's right; she's not so sure what she did. She can't even recall her name.

The only clues she had on her were two things she found in the pocket of the ragged hoodie she wore: a flash drive and two pictures, one with the picture of a boy who had a streak of hair standing upright, and another with sixteen people or so. She may not have a single idea on who these people are, but an instinct tells her that whoever they were, these people are important.

Pocketing the two items once again, a single resolve resonated within her: she'll find these people and her memories, no matter what.

She'd wandered aimlessly for maybe six days now; it's a bit hard to tell the time without the proper means to do it. She was starting to wonder if her quest for finding the people in those pictures was becoming pointless. Maybe she's searching for something that isn't even there anymore.

Even though she got out of that building with no prior memories of her life, when she saw the red skies of the world outside, somehow she knew within that those colors weren't right. The sight of so many people dying on the streets while the living ones caused all sorts of disgusting acts, it wasn't right.

Nothing in this world was right.

Once, she had an encounter with a woman in a suit and black glasses that hid her eyes. After she saw the woman's more reasonable state compared to everyone else outside, she tried to ask for the woman's help. She never thought that the woman would step back, then rear up and attack her, even though she's sure she did nothing before that.

Whatever the case is, she'd been forced to defend herself. She'd been forced to pin the woman down, and then smack the woman's head on the floor repeatedly until the woman stopped moving.

Since then, she kept out of sight and never talked to anyone to make sure it doesn't happen again.

She didn't like how satisfying it felt to feel the woman's life fade from her hands.

Nothing changed for the next four days. She hid from other people's sight, took food and clothes as needed, and slept in isolated places. All the while, she came nowhere near close to her goal.

Despite that, her resolve to find the truth behind these people and the flash drive still grew.

She thought that her chances grew when she happened to spot someone with black hair and red eyes on the streets one day. His looks are very different from the lone boy in the picture, but she knew within her that he's the same one she's looking for.

"Hey!" She called for his attention. That was a big mistake she made. As soon as she made her presence known to him, he vanished.

To have your goal so close and yet still so far, it's kind of irritating to say the least. She followed after him, searching for his tracks with aim. "Wait, please! I just want to talk to you for a moment."

She didn't see him again until two days passed.

Within the remains of an old computer shop, among the broken glasses and missing computers, she found one computer that still worked. The flash drive was carefully inserted in the dusty CPU.

Two files are inside.

Without hesitation, she clicked on one.

(Oh, how she wished she never did that.)

It popped up as a video.

It all came back...

Pierced all over her chest and abdomen. Left to die only to be revived as a pawn.

A girl in pigtails with blue eyes, laughing.

Junko Enoshima...

Chiaki screamed.

Everything that happened to this world...

What happened to everyone...

What happened to Ms. Yukizome...

What happened to Hajime...

What happened to her...

"I...I remember everything."

At the end of the video, she saw her reflection on the screen. Instead of warm pink, her eyes are red.

If only everything was a nightmare. Maybe if she tries hard enough, this horrible reality will disappear, and then she'll wake up back on her desk inside the classroom. Then, she'll see her classmates and teachers and play games with them again to forget about the awful nightmare she had while she dozed off in class again.

It's too bad it can't be a nightmare if it happened in the waking world.

It all feels so unreal. To think that the world will be toppled with despair, starting the unjust conditions at their former school. A school that was supposed to be the foundation of hope and the country's youth. Instead, it became the stepping stone for a madwoman's scheme to paint the world in her image, in her cravings for despair. She didn't have a reason to do so, aside from the fact she simply wanted to.

...

*SMACK*

...just having the image of that madwoman's face in her mind is enough to send her blood boiling. The warmth of her blood trickling down her pained knuckle cracking the computer's screen is nothing compared to what that wretch had done.

Taunted, tortured, and then dangled to an inch of her life so painfully, all in order to force her friends to partake in horrible things they'd never agree to do in the first place. Just as when she thought it's over, Junko Enoshima still saw some use for her, and instead of giving her mercy, decided to abruptly pull the girl she tortured extensively inches away from death.

Her body had been given time to recover, but the same can't be said for her mind. For an unknown amount of time, she laid there, strapped to a bed as the brainwashing video was shoved to her face every moment she was conscious.

If Enoshima had succeeded, she would've been another mindless pawn in her army. A general to command the rest, but still a pawn all the same.

Chiaki had no idea if it was a good thing or not, for the brainwashing video to be rendered defective when it came to her. She isn't sure if it's because the video made her relive her torture again and again. Instead of mindless destructive urges and loyalty to the false goddess, it only caused her hatred towards Junko Enoshima to grow even more.

"So you've discovered the truth at last." A voice interrupted her seething thoughts. Turning towards the source, Chiaki narrowed her eyes as she saw the fifth last person she wanted to see her like this. "As I've thought, the plan to erase your memories was a failure."

"Shut up, I'm not in the mood for you." She snapped, facing away from him and returning her attention to her still bleeding hand.

"I knew you'd react badly, but I didn't think it'll be to this level." He ignored her biting remark, glancing at the monitor's broken screen then back to her continuously bleeding injury. "Allow me to take a look at your hand."

Chiaki stubbornly refused to do so at first, but eventually relented when her hand began to numb down. When she presented her injury and allowed Izuru to treat her hand, he could easily compare her to that of a child with their wound treated.

"Despite the damage you caused to the screen, not a single glass was lodged within the wound." He surmised, taking a strip of bandage he prepared from his pocket and wrapping it around the wound. "The damage isn't as bad as it appears; your hand will recover."

"Glad to know, I guess." She muttered, still looking away from him.

"What shall your next course of action be, I wonder?"

Izuru asked her that when he brought her to an abandoned apartment room. After making sure she'll be comfortable inside, he left her for who knows how long until he comes back.

After everything that happened, Chiaki didn't have an idea. She left that question unanswered for the rest of the day, opting to lay down on the couch and recollect her thoughts.

Junko Enoshima...it took all of her willpower to not break something again just by thinking of that woman.

Hope's Peak Academy...the school she was once proud to be a student of now left bitter feelings within her. She can no longer feel the same admiration for the school, not after it failed her classmates and especially not after what it did to Hajime.

Hajime...

'Hajime, will you be disappointed if you saw me now?' Chiaki stared at the ceiling as she pondered what to do next. It'll be a lot easier if this were a video game. At least she'd have some choices to choose from, and if she didn't like the outcome, then she can always reload a previous save file.

Her eyes closed. "Well, if she wants me be a destroyer, then I guess I'll give her exactly what she wanted." Yes. The path to heroism and good endings is forever locked on this route. There's only a few options she has left. Her friends would've been disgusted at what she's planning to do, and she'll completely agree with them.

But, it's not like there are any other choices left for someone like her, right?

It's evening by the time Izuru return to the apartment. He curiously watched her eye the flash drive and two pictures she kept with her, appearing to think a few things over. "I take it you've decided your plans?"

She shrugged. "You can say that. I'm thinking about ending the conflict between hope and despair, but I won't join either of them.

"You'll participate in this war as a third party?" His brow rose.

"Not yet." She eyed the flash drive, which contained the defective brainwashing video, on her palm. "I need to get everyone back first. Who knows, if things go well by that time, maybe both Future Foundation and Ultimate Despair crippled themselves to point it'll be too easy for us to wipe them out."

"Do you expect me to join you in your crusade as well?"

"Not really. If you do, then good for you and if not, then it's fine. With or without you, my mind is made up."

"You do realize," Izuru stared at the pictures on the side of the couch. "If you continue this, you won't be so different from the one you despise so much."

She growled at the comparison. "I don't care. Junko Enoshima's despair may have destroyed the world, but it's because of what people did in the name of hope that gave her the means to do it. I now know both sides are equally corrupt. I'll destroy them both, no matter what it takes."

Chiaki picked the pictures up and pocketed it alongside the flash drive, her resolve growing ever stronger for it.

"Even if I become the villain of another hero's story for it, then so be it."

A/N: I'll admit that I might have been listening to the songs of Starset's Vessels (and Rightfully by Mili) a bit too much, which is why this one's a whole lot angstier compared to the rest of my entries. That, and I really wanted to explore this idea more. I haven't really tapped into the tragic part of Despair!Chiaki's Tragic Villain up until now.

In hindsight, I think calling her Despair!Chiaki is becoming kind of a misnomer since this incarnation doesn't actively work for Junko nor does she enjoy despair in the slightest.