Danganronpa MV 3: At Destiny's Edge

by Otterplay

Sixteen Ultimate Students wake up in the remnants of a long abandoned city only to find out they are going to be forced into a killing game. What choices will they end up making. And will it even matter, or is there something bigger at play here?

13. Chapter 6: Beyond the Edge - Part 2

What am I doing with my life… I sighed to myself as I was walking the streets of this city. Ever since Bella died, I've been slowly going into a downward spiral. Enima was right… I think I deserve to be on her kill list…

Here I am, pondering about all of this, doing absolutely no investigation. Was I the most useless person of the group? What have I ever contributed to them? Just another soul lost in this world. I looked around and realized that I had approached the prison. "What a sad place…" I never really liked prisons. So why did I walk over here on my own? Is it because I needed to do something here? Was there some evidence I was supposed to get? "Well… No question like that is answered by standing still…" I made my way inside the prison. The place looked as horrible as it did when I last came here.

Then, I started hearing a voice in the distance.

"Hello!?" It called out.

It sounded like Riley. I decided I should go see what her problem was right now. Well it didn't take me long to realize what was wrong. When I turned the corner, I saw her hands sticking out of a jail cell. I quickly ran over. "Riley! What happened?"

"Someone locked me in here!" She said. She had a relieved expression on her face. "There! The keys are on the ground!" She pointed to a few feet away from the cell.

I reached over and picked them up, before unlocking the cell door. "Why would they leave the keys here? You'd think they'd take them with them."

"I don't really care why. But clearly someone was trying to trap me here. Thanks Caren." She smiled at me.

I looked at her for a few seconds, a neutral expression on my face. Then, my eyes trailed down and saw her holding something. "What's that?"

Riley looked down. "Oh, this is just another page of the journal Historia and I were collecting… I guess we can read it now."

I took a glance at what was written on the paper.

.

Day ?

.

How many days has it been? I forgot to even write. They won. Flame-X had won. They had brought corruption down. But they brought it down with the rest of the city too. The mayor's head was on a stake near town hall. Once again, I don't think they killed him, but it didn't matter. They set him up for death as soon as they put the bounty on his head. Everything they did was calculated. The police, or anyone, were always twenty steps back. There was nothing we could do. The first time they made their move, they already had everything figured out. Other things of note that happened… The temple people started going against each other. Saying that Satan is who they should worship, while the others think God is still who they should worship. But don't they know? God abandoned us a long time ago. The people in the bank should be dead in a few days. Even the building at the center, I didn't know about it until a few days ago. But rich people gathered there. They even ruined that place. How does a duo single handedly bring down such a place? Our numbers have been dwindling down even more. I ran out of food again, so I'll need to steal some more. Maybe I should just hang myself soon? That would be the easy way out. Well, if you ever happen across this town, and there's nothing else on this page. Or you find my body, then you'll know the answer to that.

.

I blinked a few times, trying to register the name I had just read.

"Flame-X?" Riley tilted her head. "I mean, it sounds familiar, I guess…" She hummed in thought, before looking at me. "What do you think?"

I was still staring at the page. Finally, something I could recognize. "Can I… borrow the paper?" I looked over at her.

She seemed slightly taken aback by it. "T-take the paper? I mean, I don't see why not but…"

I didn't even let her finish before I took the paper. "Trust me, this will be very useful." And then I ran off. I knew a little bit about Flame-X. It was a big story on the news a few months before. And by big, I mean the largest. Even people who didn't keep up to date should have at least heard about them.

It took a couple minutes to run where I was going. I had to confirm that what I saw was right. I remember seeing something the other day while walking around.

Soon, I arrived at the mayor's office. Luckily I kept myself in shape, or I'd be tired right now.

Taking a look around the building, I eventually found what I was looking for. "They were here… this is the town they originated in." On the side of the building, was the storch mark of an X although… something felt a little off about it. But according to the young reporter I watched, this was their mark… But they originated from this town? "And are these the people behind everything?" I shook my head. "No, they died in their last heist. They were shot in a police shootout." I reassured myself. "This has to be someone else's doing…" I put the note away. "I'm sure of it…" I walked away. I was still a little unsure about the mark that was left. I would need to check elsewhere.

.

Well, there goes the evidence I found… I let out a small sigh. "Thanks Caren." I mumbled, despite her being long gone. "At least I'm free." I picked up the keys. "Why would they leave this behind? Anyone who came here would be able to unlock me…" Was their goal not to lock me up forever? I shook my head. "Now's not the time to worry about that. I need to finish looking around…"

Although, there weren't many places left to look in this area. There was the police station. "Well, I better head over there…" I told myself as I headed off.

However, on my walk there I felt a strange feeling that made me stop walking. Then, I slowly turned to look at a building. I've stopped to look at this building before. It was boarded up, and blocked off, but I felt like it was calling to me. Without putting any more thought into this, I started walking towards the entrance. It was hard to break open, but soon, I managed to get the boards off. My hands stung a little bit from all the force I was using, but it would be fine.

Stepping inside the building, I found something odd. "It's rather clean…" Well, there was still dust, but not as much as some other buildings. Has someone been here recently? I walked further into the building. Even the ground didn't creak. On the outside, it looked like a run down place, but it was in reality, a different story.

Doing a quick scan of the first floor yielded me nothing of interest. However, I did eventually find something on the second floor.

There was a door that was locked, although not from the inside. I could see every single lock on it. Was someone trying to keep something trapped inside? In total, I counted about seven locks. "Someone is paranoid…" I mumbled to myself. I reached over to open the locks, and didn't feel like I was doing anything wrong, so I continued with it. Once all the locks were open, I slowly slid the door open to find… Nothing.

Yup, nothing. "Why have so many locks?" Not even a decaying body? I even took a peek into the closet. But still, someone had been here recently. And why? Then, something caught my attention. I glanced down at the ground and found a piece of paper. "I'm starting to see a pattern…" I mumbled to myself as I picked it up to read.

"God, what the heck. This writing is horrible." I mumbled. But then again, they could have been dying while writing this. It took a bit, but I finally was starting to understand what each letter was.

.

Where do I even begin with this one? There's just so much I need to say, and not enough time to say it. Well, I have a lot of time. At least a day to write this. But do I have time to think about what to write? No. Like I said, there's just so much to say. All I can say is sorry. I never wanted things to turn out like this. I wanted change, but not like this. Learning to care about people can be valuable, but then learning that you'll have to watch them perish. It just didn't sit right with me, like, at all. But…. I can't abandon them. I spent my whole life with them, and they seemed very eager for this idea. So I tagged along. I kinda wish I hadn't done so, however. Maybe I wouldn't have to worry about seeing any of this.

But… I couldn't just leave them alone. They wouldn't be able to survive without me. Then again, the reverse is true too. I wouldn't be able to survive without them. If the moment ever comes that I die, and they live. Please, don't go rough on them. They've had so many rough patches in their life. Please give them a break. They don't know what they are doing. They think what they are doing is right. I know it's wrong, and I should have stopped them. But… They stopped me. The bastards. They stood in my way and stopped me from doing anything. They claim to have "saved" us. But the bastards should have let us burn in hell. That would have been a much more fitting fate than this.

Pfft, saved. I was only saved twice in my life. The first time was when I found them. Without them, I would have been forever lost, but thanks to me helping them, they helped me. And we lived perfectly well one our own for a while. Soon, we started growing riskier and stealing things. I guess that was my idea, so I corrupted them. They were a very impressionable kid, after all.

As for the second time. The second time was meeting a couple of people. They quickly grew to become friends with me, and maybe that's what I had been missing my entire life. Close friends. From that moment, I've started to regret more and more. But it was too late, our lives were already heading down a downward spiral. By the time anyone reads this, it'll probably be too late and many people will be dead. I'll try my best to stop this… but no guarantees.

.

I just kept staring at the paper. "This…?" I didn't know what to make of it, but I knew it had to be important. Everything in my body was telling me so. I placed the paper away with all the other stuff I had. Then I heard a familiar ringing.

.

Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Ding!

.

Oddly enough, I hadn't realized, but there was even a monitor in this room here. "Ahem! Ahem! I think that's a sufficient amount of time, don't you think? Please, everyone gather around in the courtroom."

"What?" I took a step back. "How can it already be done!? I haven't even explored everywhere yet." Well, it seems like I'm not going to have all the answers this time. But… Monokuma doesn't seem to start the trial until we have everything. "That's weird… Does he want us to have everything for this trial, or is he making sure we are missing some information…" I thought about it for a bit before heading down the stairs.

But then I stopped. "No, something still feels off about this place." I told myself, turning around to look around the area. "I don't care what Monokuma says, I still want to investigate. And anything I find out, will not be something Monokuma wants me to find.

Heading further into the abandoned complex, I stumbled upon what seemed like a poorly hidden door. Or maybe it used to be hidden, but now it isn't. I pushed it open, and I realized what I had stumbled upon. If everyone for sure had an Ultimate Lab, then this would have to be Enima's. The wall had a blood red colour to them. Or maybe it was just red velvet. Either way, there seemed to be actual blood on some knives she stored in here. Around the walls were several pictures of people with a bloodied X across them. "This is the people she killed, right…?" I walked around the room before stumbling upon a picture of someone. Or at least it was probably a person. Their portrait was filled with too much blood, and even their name was drenched in blood. I tried to scrub it off, but I could only make out that one of the letters was an O. "There's like twenty pictures in here…" She really did kill a lot of people. But did she truly document every single one of them…

Then something caught my attention, in the center of the room, was a small box. I opened it up to find a note. It had a girly handwriting, and I assumed it was Enima's. Despite her having more of a tomboy feel to her.

The title was called "Kill list for the 74th class." I think that's our class.

.

This is written a few days before I kill Historia or Jack, so take it with a grain of salt. But here's my stance about everyone. There are three categories. Would definitely not kill. Would kill, and ambiguous. That last one basically means I won't tell you, so they can lean towards either or.

.

Riley Destiny: Ambiguous

Jean Libri: Would not kill.

Cameron Parker: Would not kill.

Historia Lenz: Would kill.

Jack Bunda: Would kill.

Stephan Dellanotte: Ambiguous

Volvo Hiuk: Ambiguous

Lily Shizen: Would not kill.

Daniella Rubia: Ambiguous

Robin: Ambiguous.

Bella Fiore: Would not kill.

Caren Niños: Would not kill.

Marcus Avventura: Ambiguous

Josef Osapuoli: Would kill.

Serena Darabond: Would not kill.

.

Wait… One of them doesn't make sense. She wouldn't kill Caren? But she just… I wrapped the paper and put it away. "I should keep this info to myself. I don't know what Enima's game plan is, but I can't ruin it if it will help us." Now, I should leave this place.

I quickly left this creepy building and made my way towards the courthouse.

After a short walk, I would eventually arrive at the courthouse. The only other person there right now seemed to be Jack.

"Oh, guess you're here." He said, looking over at me.

Odd that Caren wasn't here. Given that she was in the area. Or Robin, since he was the closest. Oh well, I'm sure they will turn up eventually. "Should we head inside?" I asked him.

He nodded his head. "Yes. No point in waiting outside when it's highly likely that most of us will end up taking the elevator."

"Right. Like Stephan, I guess." Since he was in the area with the hotel. "Well then, let's head in."

The two of us entered the elevator. All the pictures were gone, which gave off an eerie feeling. "Monokuma isn't even here yet." I noted as I took my place at my podium.

We waited for a few minutes before the elevator door opened, allowing Caren, Lily, and Stephan to walk out. Robin still wasn't here it seems.

Caren and Stephan went to their regular spots, but Lily opted to stand next to Caren. "Well, there's no pictures anymore, so we can stand where we want, right?" She justified herself.

I wasn't going to judge. Now we are just waiting for Robin-

Suddenly.

Bear.

"Puhuhuhuhu!" He was sitting down on the judge's chair. "Is everyone ready to get this trial started?"

"Hey…" Stephan crossed his arms. "We are still missing someone here. Where's Robin?"

The bear covered his mouth. "Did I ever tell you the story of Icarus? It's about an angel that flew too close to the sun, and had his wings burn up. And died."

"That doesn't answer the question." Caren glared at him.

The bear went silent for a few seconds. "He's either dead, or alive. That's all up to you to determine."

I couldn't do this trial without knowing if he was safe.

"It's going to be fine." Stephan frowned. "I don't like the circumstances, but there's nothing we can do about it."

I looked at him for a couple more seconds before looking at the ground. "Right… We should probably get this trial started, after all…"

.

Several pictures appeared.

One of Jean leaning back to the side, reading a book.

One of Lily holding a bouquet of flowers, picking one of the petals off.

One of Marcus, tipping his hat down, with a small smirk on his face

One of Serena, loading her bow with an arrow.

One of Stephan, with a more serious expression, with a finger covering his mouth slightly.

This is it, the moment of truth.

One of Historia, with her arms crossed, unhappy.

One of Bella, holding her hands together, with a small frown.

One of Enima grinning to herself, her eyes, conveying a hint of sadness.

One of Josef holding his cane against his forehead.

One of Cameron, throwing his dice at the camera.

The moment we finally figured out what the hell is going on

?One of Robin, cloaking himself in his robe.?

One of Caren running her hands through her hair, a more annoyed look on her face.

One of Jack, adjusting his glasses, looking off to the side.

One of Riley, looking determined.

One of Daniella smirking with her eyes closed.

But more importantly, who the hell is behind all of this!

.

.

.

Class Trial!

Commence!

.

I looked around the room. "Where do we even start a trial like this?"

"Well, I think it's best if we learn the entire history of this city." Jack fixed his glasses. "It would give us a good starting point at least."

"Although, it's not exactly easy finding a starting point…" Lily pointed out. "How did all of this even start?"

I hummed to myself. "Well, while I don't know the exact reasoning, what started this was a duo of kids who were pissed at how the city was being run. Apparently it wasn't really a just system…"

Stephan nodded his head. "Something about corruption and what not."

I nodded my head. "From what I've read. They only started by attacking stores that weren't being run right. Low wages, mistreatment of staff." Well, I didn't exactly read about the exact details. But that sounded like a possibility, after all.

"Before that, I'd like to know who we are dealing with, per say." Jack crossed his arms.

"Flame-X." Caren answered. "A duo of thieves who would burn down the establishment once they were done with it." She put a hand on her hip. "They're nothing but arsons and murderers."

I nodded my head. "Exactly, and that has nothing to do with us. Whoever they were probably caused this town to go to hell. But they can't be who's behind us right now."

"Then…" Stephan had his arms crossed. "It's someone related to this city who's doing this."

Someone related to this city. Yeah, even if it's not Flame-X, there were a ton of people who lived here. "We don't know what we did in our missing memory gap."

"I doubt it was anything horrible." Jack glared at me.

Caren hummed in thought. "Well, according to Enima, you were kind of a douche."

"Tsh." The critic looked away.

"Hey hey." Lily clenched her fists. "We won't get anywhere if we start doing this, this early."

The babysitter held her arm. "Right…"

I shook my head with a small smile. "While I think Flame-X isn't the people we are after. We need to take note of everything they caused." I took out all of the pieces of paper. "These are the papers Historia and I had been collecting. She dated them back to about five years ago." I explained. I started reading the first one. "The first page is just kind of an introductory one." I looked at it some more. "Although, one thing to note is that apparently no one died at the start."

Stephan nodded his head. "If they attacked at night, which is most likely the case, then yeah, The stores would have been empty."

"It's a large city. There were bound to be some places that were open…" Jack pointed out.

Lily hummed in thought. "Well, maybe they made sure to avoid those ones…?"

The critic shook his head. "They wouldn't really have a good idea to do that."

"Maybe to avoid actually killing anyone. They were rather young after all." I suggested.

He gripped onto his shirt sleeve. "That is a fair point, but still. We are dealing with people like that, there's no telling what they'd do."

I shook my head. "On the same page, the very next day, they apparently broke open a vault to steal some money. There were no casualties at all. Nor was anyone injured according to the author…"

Lily tilted her head slightly. "Are they trying to protect the people?"

"They apparently bunkered up in the bank, and refused to come out. Even with the mayor basically telling them to leave." I glanced off to the side. Onto the second page… They did eventually leave, And the money was later distributed to the city. They apparently didn't need the money for themselves…"

Stephan hummed for a brief second. "Modern day Robin Hoods?"

"That's Robin's last name!" Lily quickly said.

Caren shook her head. "That's not even his real name. That's just the name someone gave him."

"Yeah, Jean to be precise. He was naming him after a video game character." I told them.

Jack smirked to himself. "Are you going to deny being a nerd now? How would you know about him being a video game character? I don't suppose he told you."

"Huh. Well. Look, that's not important right now." It's a good series, leave me alone. "What is important is that they still gave the money away. Sure, they kept some of the money, but that wasn't the point."

"The point.." Stephan trailed off, looking around. "Was the message they conveyed?"

I nodded my head. "Exactly. "They wanted to convey a message, and they did. They attacked nothing but corrupt business, after all."

"According to the journal, the person writing it even saw what the two kids looked like. Unfortunately… They never described them." Maybe that would have been helpful, I thought to myself. "But whatever, let's keep going. The mayor raised the reward for the capture. And as expected, no one would want to do that."

Caren shook her head. "I don't blame them. If someone started destroying corrupt businesses and then giving the money back to the people, they would be seen as heroes."

I smiled slightly. "Exactly. And it could have stayed like that, but then again…" I frowned slightly. "It never does…" I went back to reading. "And this is the start of the downfall. The police started enforcing curfews." I looked around. "And once you've reached that stage, it's too late. You've already lost to the people."

Jack gripped his shirt. "Why yes, at that point, you've made the people despise you."

I looked over at him before looking back at the note. "And then it did get worse. The duo came back, apparently worse than ever. They torched down the mayor's office. With the intention to kill… According to the journal."

"But if they were avoiding killing or injuring anyone before, why would that change now?" Lily mumbled.

I shook my head. "I… don't know the answer to that. But until we find any other sources, we gotta take what's written at face value."

"Actually…" Caren jumped in to say something. "After I read the note, I went to check out the mayor's office first. And there was the mark they left… However… Something bothered me. I used to watch the news a lot, so I heard a lot about them, including their insignia. But it was slightly off."

I tilted my head. "Are you saying they didn't do it?"

The babysitter shook her head. "They could have still done it, but there's also the possibility that someone else wanted to blame them."

Jack nodded his head, adjusting his glasses. "Someone taking advantage of such a situation doesn't seem far-fetched at all. The attention was off them, after all."

Yeah, but I'm not really sure who would do that… "Let's just continue on, shall we?" I went back to looking at the note. "The next thing that happened was the people starting to riot. Because of course they would, why wouldn't they? With all the curfews and stuff, who wouldn't want to?"

Stephan crossed his arms. "Oppressing people is never a good idea."

"Then… is when things really got worse… They broke open a hole inside the prison…" I said with a darkened expression. "And if they deemed the prisoner wrongfully accused, they let them go."

Caren nodded her head. "A lot of cells were left open when I went there the first time. But further into the prison, many were left shut. Those were the worst criminals."

"Any further and this place would fall into anarchy…" Jack mumbled.

"Which is probably what they were aiming for." I told him. "They wanted to remove the mayor from office… In a rather interesting way. They wanted someone to bring them his head."

"His head?" Lily let out a small gasp. "Isn't that going too far?" She mumbled.

Jack shook his head. "With people like this, nothing is ever too far…"

"Around this time, another note was written. This one was by a prisoner…" I pulled out that one next. "The prisoner was one of the people who was allowed to go free. But he didn't want to. He knew he was guilty, and chose to stay. He warned whoever would be reading, to beware the Devil, and his a-..." I paused slightly. "I don't know what the last part was, it was covered in blood…" I mumbled, a little sadly.

"So, they didn't just release innocent people…" Caren seemed a little ticked off.

I shook my head. "No, they probably released actual criminals… killers even. And the riots only got worse from there. To the point that… the military had to intervene…"

Jack nodded his head. "Yes, the military seemed to have cut off the city from the rest of the world. Having even built a wall."

"Yeah, and that's not the only thing that happened that day… This is the day the politicians locked themselves up in the bank…"

Lily shook her head, trembling slightly. "Don't remind me of that awful sight…"

"Hey, Riley, did you ever find what you were looking for there?" Caren looked at me.

I nodded, before frowning. "Yeah, but it wasn't a good read… According to the first journal, they were locked in on the first day they did this. But according to the journal inside… they didn't realize that until the third day…"

"How long did they survive…?" Stephan crossed his arms.

I paused briefly to look away. "Two months is how long the writer wrote…"

"Two months?" Caren took a step back. "How much food did they have…?"

Stephan shook his head. "I already know where this is going… they ate themselves, didn't they…?"

I paused for another second. "Yes… they ate each other…"

"That's horrible!" Lily yelled out. "Why would they do that!?"

"Survival…" The ninja said coldly. "They needed food, and it was there. I'm not justifying their actions, but they tried to survive with no escape. It's a bank vault. It's not exactly easy to break in or out of…"

"Then…" Caren looked at the ground. "That goes against one thing we found…"

"What's that?" How would that contradict anything…?"

She put a hand on her hip. "The vault was easily opened…"

I paused for a second. "Right, when we found the bank, it was not shut like that…"

"Well then, that can only mean one thing…" Jack smirked to himself.

"They were never locked in?" Lily tilted her head.

The critic gripped his shirt tightly. "... That can only mean two things. One of them being the fact that someone must have come back to open up the vault…"

Someone came back. "But who would do that…?"

"Someone wanted them all dead, yes?" Jack tilted his head back. "Then of course they would come back to check!"

"Then was it Flame-X?" The florist asked.

I shook my head. "No, now that I think about it, I think I know who the culprit could be in this situation…" That's right… "The military itself."

Jack raised his glasses up slightly. "The… military?"

I pulled out the USB drive I had in my pocket. "Yes. And while I can't play it now, I need you all to trust me when I say that this was a conversation between the person leading the military division, as well as the owner of Paradise." Or at least I assumed it was the owner of the place.

"The… owner…?" The critic hummed. "Let me think about this for a moment, shall I?"

Does he know any information? Ah, whatever, I need to keep talking about this. "Yes, and at one point, after the whole Flame-X stuff started happening." I trailed off slightly. "They were ordered to close down the entire city. Cut off the Wifi and cell service. Anything."

"Why would they…" Lily started to say.

Caren crossed her arms. "Their image. They didn't want the beautiful city that Paradise was from to be tainted by mere thieves and arsons."

I nodded my head. "The owner of Paradise paid a large sum of money to have that happen."

"How much is a large sum?" Stephan looked over at me.

Jack slammed down some papers onto his podium. "Well, they've made several transactions over the years, but they've all been in the 100 millions."

"A HUNDRED MILLION?" Lily let out a small shriek. "That's… that's so much. For what?! Keeping people stuck in the city!?"

The critic remained silent for a few seconds. "Detestable, isn't it? But it's a large sum of money. Who could say no to that much?"

A lot of people would say yes to that money, no matter what they had to do. "Anyways, I think one of the ways they kept people shut was…"

Caren realized what I was trying to say. "You don't mean to say they locked them in the vault…"

"They would have the tools to do so, and the tools to open the vault back up like nothing happened." I explained. "I'm sure it was done…"

"The more we talk, the more Flame-X seems to be uninvolved with half the things that happened. Were they even there anymore?" The florist mumbled.

"No, they still had to be in the town by that point." I explained. "I'll have to use my memory, but...

.

"We managed to surround the entire city. No one is getting in, or out without our permission." The rough man said.

The soft spoken man chuckled. "Good, we don't want word getting out, after all. This is going to be a place where the top of the world gathers together. We don't want such an event to tarnish our image, after all." There was a pause. "Although, I do want to send someone out of the city. My son."

.

"His son…" Jack mumbled to himself, turning around to face away. He was acting rather weird.

"So anyways, I don't think they'd even let Flame-X out…" I told everyone.

"Then…" Caren hummed in thought. "How would they leave…"

I blinked a few times. "I mean, they wouldn't have been able to leave then. The military eventually left this town to die. Everyone inside was dead…"

Stephan shook his head. "Everyone but Flame-X, yes?"

Caren nodded her head. "Yeah, they turned up in a different city. A city I know is still standing." She gripped her fist. "It has to still be standing… right?"

I… I don't know. "We have to assume civilization is fine outside…"

"Oh?" Monokuma tilted his body slightly. "Oh really? Then you'd think that someone would have found you by now."

Someone would have found us by now…? "But someone has found us. Or at least someone else is living in this city!"

"Oh yeah!" The bear stood up, pointing his paw at me. "Do you know who!?"

My stance weakened slightly. "W-well… no… But…"

Monokuma let out a laugh. "Then who's to say that it isn't simply me?"

"There were two people there…" Lily admitted.

This caused the bear to stop laughing and raise up his paw, sticking its claws out. "Two?" His eyes gleamed red.

"EEP!" The florist took a step back. "Yes!" She clenched her fist, taking a step back to her podium. "There was evidence of two people."

He remained silent for a few seconds. "There should only be one- I mean…" He covered his mouth. "Puhuhuhuhu! You'll never get a hint out of me!"

There's only supposed to be one person at the campsite? So he knows someone is there… But two people, huh? I glanced away.

Stephan shook his head. "Anyways, can we get back on track with finishing the initial journal? It's still our best bet after all."

I nodded my head. "Right, can't let Monokuma distract us." Something felt off, though… He didn't seem to accidentally let that slip. It might appear that way, but it seemed a little too intentional. At least after spending weeks here. "The next page of the journal…" I look at it, frowning slightly. "This one talks about the temple, and the cult that started there."

"Two cults to be precise…" Stephan mentioned. "One that worshiped God, and the other who thought God had abandoned them, and instead worshiped Satan…"

"They are the people who placed the traps after all…" I tilted my body to the side a bit. "Or more so, they just had to replace the fake traps with real ones…"

The ninja coughed a few times. "They did a number of unspeakable things… They used a young girl in a ritual, in order to become a vessel…" He pulled out a book I had never seen.

I blinked a few times. "When did you…"

Stephan opened it, reading through the pages. "I guess some of you would call it sleight of hand…" He glanced up at me. "This is the journal of the young girl. She was fifteen when the awful rituals were done to her…" He tossed me the book.

I caught it and opened it up. "Oh, the name is blocked off. I guess she did that-"

The ninja shook his head. "No, I did that myself…"

"Why would you block out the name?" Caren asked, slightly rudely.

Stephan crossed his arms. "For personal reasons. Besides that, does it really matter in the long scheme of things?"

"Alright…" I opened up the book to check out what was written. The writing was actually really cute…

.

The town I'm from recently had terrible things happen to it, so we decided to take cover inside this temple-like area. It was rough getting this far in, but we managed. I'm with a bunch of people I've never talked to before, but they are from church, so it should be fine.

.

The text went on to describe normal things, so I would just skip over to when more information was being given.

.

Oh, the people have an idea on how to solve all of this. And they think I can help them. They said it might hurt a little bit, but that's fine. I trust my parents.

.

I don't like where any of this is heading. "I'm not sure if I want to read any more of this…
" I mumbled.

Stephan shook his head. "You have to read, so do it…"

With a little more hesitation, I went back to reading. Although, there were a lot of blank pages with nothing but marks.

.

Help me… I'm in pain… I'm writing in this book because I don't trust these people anymore. My parents… they agreed to awful things… I'm… I'm going to the other side… the other side won't hurt me, right? … Right? I think I hear voices in my head, they are trying to make me do things…

.

I shook my head. "This poor girl…" I mumbled.

Stephan nodded his head. "They did rituals on her. First, the side of God tried to infuse her soul with a Holy Spirit, but all they did was cause her pain. So she attempted to flee to the other side of the temple, where a different group waited… That group was just as bad, and tried doing a similar thing."

The writing had started to change now.

,

The voices have gotten worse. The other side wasn't nice. They aren't my friends; no one is. Something is fighting for control of my body… Why does this have to happen to me? I just want a happy life.

What was even more haunting was the pages upon pages after this of one single word.

.

Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Killkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkill...

.

"Did… she turn crazy…?" I held the book, with a little horror in my voice. Not only were those words written, but there was a lot of blood on it, tears and scratches. It looked more like a book you'd see in a horror movie.

Stephan shook his head. "I would say she had the spirit of the Messiah, and the Antichrist. Two different spirits living inside of her."

"Which one won…" Lily mumbled, covering her mouth slightly.

The ninja was silent for a bit. "If she had both, all it came down to was whichever one she chose. Should humanity be forsaken, or forgiven."

"Based on that, she must have chosen to forsaken…" Caren mumbled. "So are you saying she's behind that…?"

"What connection does this person even have with us!?" I called out.

Stephan shook his head. "Look, I know who this is, and let's leave it as they aren't involved in our current situation."

"You know them?" Lily mumbled. "How do you know them?"

The ninja put a finger in front of his mouth. "My clan dealt with occult stuff all the time, it's only natural I'd learn about something like this. Why do you suppose I took an interest in it? The thing that started was the Church of the Shattered God." He explained. "A real nuisance, honestly…" He glanced away. "It was hard to do anything with them…"

"That's one of the groups that caused the city to be what it is now. The other one is the Insurgence." Time to reveal that information.

Jack nodded his head. "Yes, the insurgence. A group of the military that broke off and started doing their own things."

"Yes, but I think it was a little different than that. They were more so a private military hired by Paradise. It was in order to keep this city in check, or at least, that was the goal after Flame-X took over. Originally-"

"They provided tech." Jack cut me off. "This is my subject, let me talk about it, at least. Scouting the military floor, there seemed to be several weapons. Most of which I've never even seen before."

"So, they were making new technology…" Caren mumbled.

The critic shook his head with a smirk. "No, I'd say the truth is much different than that… In fact, they didn't even make a single one. Checking their purchase logs, they had one marked down for weapons, and they spent a lot of money… On the black market."

"The black market?" Lily blinked a few times. "If they were a military, you'd think they'd get their weapons elsewhere."

He nodded his head. "You'd think, but this wasn't exactly part of the military. And they didn't do well in the legal department. The seller was unknown, but it was tech I had never seen, so they must have been a genius."

"The black market! Such a wonderful place!" Monokuma said excitedly. "Although… I heard the seller met an unfortunate fate…" He said sadly. "It's a shame, they would have made a great Ultimate. A great killer, even."

"We don't want to hear you talking." Caren said coldly. "So this military was a very corrupt place…"

"A corrupt military for a corrupt city…" I mumbled, a little ticked off. "This whole city sucks. Killed people, enforced curfew. Blocked out any help. The leader of it even killed the owner of Paradise." I told them.

Jack paused for a second. "They… killed the owner of Paradise? How do you know this?"

"It was in the audio file. The two people were talking, and it sounded like the military man pulled out a gun and shot the owner."

The critic paused, thinking. "You said you had a USB key with audio files, right?"

I quickly took it out. "Y-yeah. Why?"

"Toss it here." He ordered me.

He sounded so assertive that I just listened to him, and chucked the thing over to him. "T-there we go."

He pulled out his E-Handbook. "You knew this would happen, right Monokuma?"

The bear tilted his head. "Knew what?"

Jack showed the USB port on the E-Handbook. "I always found it odd that it had one of these. There was no use for it until now. Did you always plan on us using it here?" He inserted the key into it. "Give me a moment…" He tapped around at his screen. "Which one is it?" He looked up at me.

"The fifth one." I replied.

He played the audio file and everyone listened to it in silence.

"This…" Jack gripped the tablet a little tightly.

I blinked a few times. "W-what's wrong?"

He looked over at me. "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell me this was the man."

"The… man? You're going to need to be more specific than that."

Jack pulled out the cellphone he had on him. "The man we called. "The man that refused to help."

Then, it all made sense to me. "That… was… He's the leader of this military group."

"Ever since I found the cellphone, I've been spending a lot of time on that floor and the wall. Basically dedicating my time to figuring out what the hell was going on. While you girls were off doing your little spa thing, I was doing real work."

Lily frowned slightly. "That was to increase morale."

The critic remained silent before looking down. "Alright, you got me there. I will say morale is an acceptable reason to do that." He gave up on that so easily? "I investigated the force field keeping us in. They would need one, especially since someone like Stephan could easily climb the wall… Not like that was an issue anyways; You can reach the top from the inside."

"And if you were to go beyond the wall…" Lily mumbled.

Jack tapped his arm a few times. "Then it's reasonable you could escape. Unless the force field went beyond that…"

The florist seemed a little guilty. "I found a place beyond the wall we could access. That's where the campsite I found was. Someone was staying on the extremities of the city. But… I'm not sure if they can actually get out that way…"

Stephan shook his head. "Monokuma is thorough, I doubt he'd actually leave a way out."

I looked over at the bear, but all he did was cover his mouth and laugh.

"So what's our next lead…" Caren crossed her arms. "We don't seem to have much to go off."

"I think we should talk about Flame-X a little more. They did bring the city down into ruin."

Jack let out a sigh. "Alright, what did they do next?"

Way to sound thrilled… "Well, the next thing to happen was that someone actually killed the mayor, as per their request. Their head was found on a stake outside the office."

"Sounds to me they technically killed him." The critic pointed out. "They might not have directly done it, but their actions led to his death. No other way around it."

I nodded my head. "Yes, they might have not been directly involved, but it's still their fault. Anyways, the next thing that happened was the fall of Paradise…" I mentioned. "And according to the one writing the journal, they didn't even know it existed until the final entry. Seems like the owner was doing it all in secret. But it boggles me how you keep something like that a secret."

Stephan crossed his arm. "Well, I think regular people were still allowed in the building. After all, some floors didn't require a key card. People must have just thought it was some commercial building of sorts."

"Granted, we didn't find the true nature of the building till later." Jack crossed his arms. "And we had no one stopping us from exploring."

"Paradise, the richest of the rich…" Lily mumbled. "Is the person we're after part of that place…?"

I shook my head. "No, let's keep going with Flame-X. Soon, the military left this city, and anyone who survived the initial onslaught was probably free to leave."

"But wouldn't they talk about what happened?" Lily tilted her head slightly.

That's a good point. "But we know a group for sure got out. Enima said it herself."

.

"Don't worry." She smiled. "They aren't on our side either. Honestly, it's a six way war out there. The people who want to help you, vs UA, vs the Insurgence…" She paused to look at Stephan for the next one. "There's the Church of the Shattered God. And also a rather influential family. They were set to be a family that was allowed to join Paradise, but they turned down the offer, saying they had no place being there." She hummed in thought. "I guess I said six groups, but I don't know anything about the last one."

.

"We know for a fact that the Church of the Shattered God escaped this city. And we know they originate from this place too."

Stephan nodded his head. "Not to mention the girl who wrote that journal is probably out there. Unless she died over the years we don't have memories of."

"Why they haven't spoken of what happens beats me." I shook my head. "But Flame-X would have easily been able to leave too."

"What about the guy who wrote the journal you're reading?" Lily asked.

I glanced away. "I think he hung himself…"

She went wide-eyed. "Is that… Is that the body we found way early on?"

I had forgotten about that, but there was a body in that one building. "I think so, I found the first page in that building, a few floors up." To think that body might have actually been the author of this journal. "He… He did say he was probably going to hang himself…" I realized.

The florist covered her mouth slightly. "But if they would have waited a little longer, they would have been able to leave…"

Jack shook his head. "There was no way to know that. People were dying left and right in the city, and the military was making a mess of things. Couldn't even contact the outside world. Which is why the only thing to do was write down what was happening."

I nodded my head. "That's why there were so many journals and such. It was the only way to convey information to anyone who would happen across the city."

"And it proved effective… We found a bunch…" The ninja noted.

The critic hummed in thought. "Isn't that odd, though? How did we manage to find so many? Especially in a city this large? Sure, you found one in the bank, and one in the temple. That was easy. But what about the ones from this journal." He pointed to the pages I had. "You said you found the first one in an empty room, what about the others?"

"Well, the second one I found, Stephan and I were going back to get food for the temple, it was on the rooftop. The third one Historia found in the museum. The fourth one fluttered in front of us. The fifth one Enima found and used it as a trap, as for the last one, I found it in a prison cell…"

Jack adjusted his glasses. "Then isn't it odd? They were everywhere around the city, and yet you found them all."

"What… are you getting at?" I mumbled, narrowing my eyes slightly.

He had a serious expression on his face. "I think someone wanted you to find those notes."

"Who would want me to find them?" I didn't believe what I was hearing.

Jack had a cocky smirk on his face, but it soon went away as he turned to look at Monokuma. "You did this, didn't you?"

The bear covered his mouth, laughing slightly. "Maybe I did!"

I started to clench my fist. "What…?"

"Maybe I even gave Enima a note to help her murder!" Monokuma shouted out. "What are you going to do about it!?"

I pointed at the damn bear. "You! Why would you even give us those notes? Are they fake!?"

The bear shook his head. "Nope, they are real. I just thought you would all need a helping hand.

"Didn't you get locked up in a cell as soon as you got the last one?" Caren asked, also glaring at Monokuma.

"Y-yes!" I realized what she was getting at. "You put that in there to lock me up!"

"You got locked up?" Lily tilted her head.

"I was exploring the prison." I started to explore. "When I found an open cell with the final page in it. Me being me, obviously I went for it. As soon as I did though, the cell door locked right behind me. Thankfully Caren was nearby, since she unlocked it."

"Isn't that too convenient?" Jack crossed his arms. "Caren just happened to be nearby."

"What are you saying…?" I looked over at the babysitter. "You aren't saying it's her, right?"

He shook his head. "I think I've gotten a good idea of her character, and I don't think that's her. What I want to get at is this: The mastermind supposedly locked you up, and not long after, Caren stopped by. Almost intentional, if you think about it."

I took a step back. "How is that intentional?"

Jack hummed in thought. "Well, think of it this way. As the mastermind, wouldn't you know where everyone was before making a move? Clearly they had to if they managed to avoid Caren seeing them."

"... Continue…" I was really curious where he was going with this.

"I'm saying they only wanted you to be locked up until Caren came along. I don't know why they'd want to do that, though…" He adjusted his glasses.

I put my hand on my hip. "But what's the use of that?"

Caren grabbed her arm. "They wanted me to look around town for Flame-X, didn't they?"

I looked over at her. "What do you mean…?"

"After I read the last part of the journal, I went around looking for any evidence of Flame-X. I wouldn't have done that, had you not been locked up, right?"

I guess… that's right, now that I think about it. "But…" I couldn't even think of a good question except. "Why?"

"Then obviously they want to mislead us…" Stephan proposed. "Put all the focus on Flame-X. Make us think about how terrible they are. And then all suspicion is off of them. That's one possibility."

"So is that not who we are after!?" I thought all evidence pointed to them, honestly.

Caren shook her head. "Like I stated before, they died in a police shootout. They were robbing a store they had assumed was empty. But the shopkeeper was still there, having expected such an outcome. Because of that, they were forced to start burning the building down prematurely. Then, the police showed up, and instead of trying to escape the store. They stood their ground and got riddled with bullets." She glanced away. "Their bodies were collected, and their identities were posted. The people who are Flame-X are not anyone we should have met. They were a couple who were eighteen."

Wait a second. "That can't be right… The duo of Flame-X are just kids. They couldn't possibly be eighteen by then."

"Remember who that is coming from." Jack crossed his arms. "The claim that they are mere children is coming from an adult. Anyone who is still a teenager is considered a kid to them. Besides, how young do you think they could be if they brought down an entire city."

I held my arm. "I guess you have a point…" I mumbled.

The critic turned around, tapping away at his tablet. "Anyways, keep yourselves occupied. I'm going to be doing some more research for the time being."

"But that doesn't leave us with many options…" Caren mumbled. "Who would even be connected to our school, and this city?"

I looked over at Stephan. "Are you sure the girl is uninvolved in all of this?"

The ninja nodded his head. "Yes, you can leave her out of this. I know terrible things happened to her, but I don't think she's a terrible person. She's like me."

"What do you mean by that?" Lily asked him.

He tilted his head away. "We only kill if we have to…"

The florist froze slightly. "You've killed before!?"

He looked at her. "Several times. But it's something I'd much rather not do. It's not something I take pride in."

Well, there goes that option anyways. "But then, what does that leave us with? Is all of this pointless? Is it no one that was mentioned throughout the journals? It can't be the military guy, since he was off somewhere else. Flame-X is dead… The owner of Paradise is dead…" I tilted my head to the side. "Everyone inside the bank was dead. I think most of the military killed the prisoners…"

There was a long silence, which was finally broken by the sound of Jack's tablet. "Ah…" He smirked to himself.

The audio that was playing was from the fourth audio file. Specifically this part.

.

The soft spoken man chuckled. "Good, we don't want word getting out, after all. This is going to be a place where the top of the world gathers together. We don't want such an event to tarnish our image, after all." There was a pause. "Although, I do want to send someone out of the city. My son."

"W-what?" The boy said, getting up, based on the sound of a chair moving. "I put as much effort into this city as some people here. I deserve to sta-"

"No." His father raised his voice with an intimidating voice.

There was silence before his son could speak. "But I could take them on myself. They couldn't possibly be older than me. They have to be fourteen too."

"Enough." His father got louder, slamming his hand on the table. "You are going somewhere prestigious, so don't worry about it."

.

"And thus, it's all coming together." The critic smirked to himself.

"Did you figure it out?" I asked.

He looked back over at me. "Yes, I did, actually." He put away his tablet. "Say, what school did you think he got sent to?"

I blinked a few times, trying to figure out what he meant. "Huh…"

Caren instead was the one to jump into the conversation. "He went to Hope's Peak, didn't he?"

Jack snapped his fingers. "Yes. The son of Paradise went to Hope's Peak. It's the only logical thing, right?"

The son? "Are you certain…?"

The critic nodded his head, his smile gone. "Yes, I'm serious about this. Besides, he's our last lead to this city. He's one of four individuals who made it out, if we ignore the Church of the Shattered God."

That's right, he did technically come out of the city. "So it has to be him, right?"

"There's even more evidence if you recall a long time ago." Jack said, crossing his arms. "Think back to the phone call we had with the very nice man."

I thought for a few seconds, when something quickly came to mind.

.

More silence. "You didn't answer my questions… who are you?"

"We are students from Hope's Peak. We are being held captive in some city." He yelled out again. "Any help would be appreciated!"

There was a low annoyed grunt. "And I fail to see how this is my problem. How did you even get this phone?"

Jack remained silent. "I… I found it in some building."

"Who's keeping you hostage?" The voice asked.

"A black and white bear! We don't know who's controlling him!" I quickly told him.

He simply started laughing. "Well then, I'd say it's only a matter of time you are dead. I'm not going to help some Hope's Peak students. They've caused me enough problems."

.

"Oh my god… you're right…" I realized.

The critic looked away from everyone. "It's my belief that once the son realized who had killed his father. He went on a revenge mission. Remember, someone like him is an insanely wealthy individual, after all. He could make people do his biddings without a problem. It's no surprise that he would be a big thorn in the military's man side."

Everything was starting to make more and more sense. "This would explain why he didn't help us at all. He must have thought we were the son, right?"

Jack shook his head. "Maybe not the son, but he definitely thought we must have been with him."

.

Suddenly, the sound of someone answering the call could be heard.

… "Hello?" A voice said.

We both had a shocked face, hearing another voice that wasn't from this place.

"Yes! Hello!" Jack yelled out. "You can hear us?"

The voice was silent for a few seconds. "How did you get this number? Who are you?"

.

Stephan nodded his head. "So since almost everyone in this city was dead, the only way one of us would be able to get the cellphone…"

"Was if we knew about this place. Which the mastermind does."

Jack smirked to himself. "Exactly. And he wouldn't come here. This smells like an ambush after all. Two kids just so happen to call your phone telling you to come to this city. A city you know no one should ever stumble upon."

"But still… we could have been saved by now…" Lily mumbled sadly.

"Even if he came, he probably would have just killed us himself." Caren put a hand on her hip. "I don't trust him one bit, after all…"

"But now, we've finally figured it all out." The critic smirked to himself. "The one who's causing all of this. The one who has the connection to Hope's Peak Academy. It's none other than the son of the owner of Paradise." He said in a dramatic voice. "The school he was heading to was most likely Hope's Peak, after all. And he was sent out of the city to be able to attend it right? That's the only way someone could be both connected to this city, and the school. I don't know what we did, but someone must have pissed him off at school."

Caren glanced away. "But piss off enough that he's forcing us to do all of this?"

"And the other question is… who's the son?" I mumbled.

Jack shook his head. "Well, there's eight guys in total, so I guess one of them… Or…"

Caren glanced over at someone. "You have something else in mind?"

"Remember what Enima said yesterday?" He brought up.

.

"What…?" The ninja shook his head. "I don't know what kind of ideas you have in your hea-"

She rolled her eyes. "Sorry, but your princess is in another killing game." She tilted her head back slightly.

"Other killing game?" Caren mumbled, looking at her. "So there are others."

The mysterious girl nodded. "Of course, after this one, there are two more planned."

"Which one is this?" I asked her.

Enima held up one finger. "It's only the first one. And, if things go to plan, there should only be two more."

.

"There are more killing games, right? Who's to say that the mastermind is any of us, after all…" He covered his mouth slightly. "No, if he's the culprit, it's more likely that he might be a different grade than us, and is having everyone kill each other…"

I gripped my fist. "So, after this one, he's planning on having us go through even more killing games?"

Jack nodded his head. "If I had to take a guess, he would be in the class above us. According to the files you gave, he would have left around the year before we joined."

"You know what, this would make sense with what else Enima said…" I gripped my fist tightly.

.

Monokuma stood up. "Well, I think it's time we get to the exec-

A laugh came out of Enima. "Oh please, this is my time in the spotlight. Don't ruin it. You should remember. I know who you are, and you are on my kill list."

"Wait, the mastermind is on your kill list? Then why are you working for them?" Lily asked.

She shrugged. "Well, I believe in their ideals for the most part. Their methods… are just not something I can get behind. And also, they've gone downhill since five years ago. Before they had actual goals, now, not so much. They are nothing but a remnant of their former selves. An idea revived from the dead to serve a purpose."

.

"Exactly. The son of the owner of Paradise." Caren mumbled. "That would definitely be someone on her list."

Jack nodded. "If I was on her list, and someone like Caren could be on it too, then it's a correct assumption that he too would be."

Oh my God, I just remembered what I found in Enima's room. "Ac-"

Stephan crossed his arms. "So what, are we just supposed to call them out? I don't know about you, but I don't quite know who they are. They are out of my jurisdiction…"

Jack let out a small chuckle. "Don't worry about that. I have everything covered. It would do me great pleasure to call out the scum behind all of this." He looked over at Monokuma. "You hear that? I know who you are now."

The bear remained silent for a few seconds before covering his face. "Do you?"

That sounded like it was making fun of us. "Are we sure that-"

The critic seemed to take this as a challenge. "Of course I know who you are!" He let out a laugh. "I've read up on a lot of stuff involving the rich in my spare time. So I happened across your name at one point. Son of Paradise, your name is -"

"Hold it!" A voice rang out as the doors slammed open. "We interrupt this class trial to bring you Ace Attorney." It was Robin.

I've never been so happy to see someone in my life. "Robin!" I shouted out. "Where were you?"

"Getting executed." He said casually. It's like he never left, already doing stuff like this again.

"Yeah, alright. But seriously. Where were you?" I had a small smile on my face.

The tactician made it to his podium. "Getting executed. Didn't you just hear?" He turned to look at Jack. "The person everyone here is accusing, is long dead."

"He's dead?" Lily blinked a few times. "But… But I thought we actually had a lead…"

Robin nodded slightly. "You did have a lead. Unfortunately that lead died at the hands of Enima."

Then I remembered something.

.

Another grin appeared on her face. "Well, my old boyfriend was an Ultimate. After I killed him, I took his place."

Lily took a step back. "Y-you killed him? I know you said he was a bad person… b-but still."

"He was more than just a bad person." Enima's face got serious again. "I started doing some digging into Paradise and found some things I shouldn't have found. Just some illegal things."

.

"So the son…" I mumbled to myself. "That was Enima's boyfriend?"

Jack placed a hand on his forehead. "I knew she was hot-" He stopped himself, realising what he was going to say. "Who knew she could score someone like him…" He paused again, frowning. "Who knew I became friends with scum like that."

"At least you're owning up to it!" Monokuma said with a laugh.

The critic gripped his fist, turning to look at the bear. "Will you ever be silent?"

The bear covered its mouth. "Nope!"

Robin looked at everyone. "So, it couldn't possibly be him… which means it's someone else… Might I suggest Flame-X again?"

Caren narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the tactician. "You seem to have a lot of knowledge on what we were talking about."

He let out a small laugh. "I listened in for several minutes before entering. Had to make my entrance perfect after all."

The babysitter rolled her eyes. "Alright then, what do you have in mind?"

"I think I know who one of the people of Flame-X is." He said so casually.

"W-what?" I took a step back. "How could you know that!?"

Robin let out a small chuckle. "Please, do you really underestimate how much information I can gather?"

"Then tell us already." Caren seemed rather impatient, but I don't blame her.

The tactician stroked his chin. "It all started with when I was execut-"

I rolled my eyes. "Not this again. Clearly you weren't executed if-"

"Shh…" Stephan was glaring at me. "At least let him finish before you say anything."

Alright, I guess I can give him the benefit of the doubt…

.

I stopped when I noticed some doors on the wall. There were five of them, and four of them seemed to be named. "Temple of Dread… The Show Must Go On, the Wrath of Tiamat, and Bewitched…" I mumbled to myself. Oddly enough, the middle one was left blank. "Oh, is this something we haven't seen yet?" I went to open the door, but it was locked with a keypad. Apparently there was room for five letters. "That's a problem…" I thought for a bit before a smirk appeared on my face. "What are the odds?" I entered the five letter word and was shocked to find out it worked. And by shock, I mean my facial expression didn't change, and I went. "Oh."

The doors swung open, and I stepped inside. "What is this place anyways?" A red flashing caught my attention, causing me to turn my head and look at it. The display showed. "Execution in process." I froze up slightly, turning towards the door. "Wait!" Probably the most emotion I've shown on my face since I've come here. I tried to get out, but the doors shut before I could.

Then, there was silence. "Hello?" I called out before the ground below gave way and I started sliding down.
I would be dropped from what appeared to be a ceiling and landed on a wooden floor. "What the…" I looked around, and realized that this was nowhere near the ground. In fact, I could have kept falling if I wanted it. In a brief second, I considered it. "What have I stumbled upon?" An execution, huh? This should be fun. The ground I was standing on started to shake, and I found out why.

I was on some sort of large shelf, and some objects were coming out of it. The first thing that flew at me was a book that opened up to squish me. Luckily I managed to avoid it.

Unluckily the top of the shelf gave way and I started to slide down the side.

I managed to land on another book, and it was just a challenge to get to the ground. "Easy as can be."

Then, a deafening sound came from the far side of the room. It was a loud "SHHH!"

I looked over at the direction and saw a large Monokuma sitting at a faintly lit desk, several books were now flying towards me, with the intent of killing.

I slide down onto a lower bookshelf, managing to dodge the books with rather ease.

"This is a little too easy…"

Then again, the same deafening "SHHH!" Could be heard throughout the place. Am I not allowed to make a sound? Find, I'll play your games.'

The books made their way over to me again, and I got ready to dodge, but instead, they shot out letters at me. A bunch of C's acted like staples, and kept me up against the wall.

I silently struggled, and managed to get my leg free, since it didn't really cling that well.

I looked around for anything to help me, and I noticed that there was a torch right beside where I was. With a quick nudge, it came off the wall and lit the letters on fire.

I went plummeting to the ground, and managed to break the fall by rolling as soon as I could. That works, right? Now, to get out of this damn place. I was running along the floor, but there didn't seem to be an exit.

"Damn, it is an extensive collection." I noted, looking at all the books.

Then I heard it again, the deafening sound of "SHHH!"

And this time, I knew fate wouldn't be so kind. The rumbling started to happen across the entire room and books were starting to fall down. I tried to roll out of the way of one of the books, but I was too slow, and it landed on my arm, crushing it-

Wait… the book was rather light, and it didn't even hurt. Seems luck is on my side, after all. I kept running, but the shelves themselves were falling down now. One of them landed in a way that sent a book flying towards my stomach. I braced for impact, but it barely even hurt me. Is something… wrong with this execution?

Unfortunately, due to my slight confusion, I didn't have time to react to a shelf falling on me, bringing all of its contents onto me. I didn't survive, and died a horrible death.

.

"But you're standing right in front of us…" Caren pointed out, a little annoyed.

Robin blinked for a few seconds. "Yeah, I guess I am…"

.

Just kidding, none of the shelves or books actually hurt. They were made from a very light material. As for how I got out? The ground was rather weak and I came crashing through it into the gym.

.

"No…" I mumbled… It couldn't be, right? "That can't be what happened."

He looked over at me. "You're right, here's what really happened."

.

I started sliding down the slide, expecting to die, but instead, I plopped down in a chair at the table. I hastily looked around, but all I saw was the people who died before us. Only now they were alive. I looked over at Cameron, who waved me a smile.

"Glad you could join us-"

.

"Alright! Alright! I get it! The first one really happened." I yelled out.

Robin smirked slightly, "Oh, then back to what I was saying about the execution then. Doesn't this sound familiar to something we heard before?" He stroked his chin, a smile appearing on his face.

.

But then, she let out a little laugh. "Although, my fate was decided long before I said anything. If I was always going to die, then it will remain the same. Just like how I wasn't able to kill anyone else, it means I was never supposed to." She put a hand on her hip. "If I had to take a guess, they are going to kill me soon."

"And why's that?" I asked, glaring at her.

A grin appeared on her face. "Because, it's simple. I don't think they'd make two fake executions."

I blinked a few times, trying to figure out what I just heard. "W-wait! Back up! What?"

"You heard me." Enima said coldly. "Now, I could be lying, but I might as well put everything on the table, right?"

.

I quickly shook my head. "It can't be-"

The tactician hummed in thought. "The last clue to who it is lies in what the passcode is…" He thought for a few seconds. "What code would the person you suspect use, that'd I also know."

"I don't know…" I mumbled.

There was silence. "The code was my name; I entered it as a joke, and it worked. That means there's only one person this could be…"

The mastermind behind all of this… is "Jean…" I mumbled out.