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?

14. Chapter 6: Beyond the Edge - Part 3

"Jean?" Lily took a step back. "W-why him?"

Robin stroked his chin. "I just told you, didn't I? He had a fake execution, after all. Everything in that execution wasn't designed to kill. All the books were light, and so were the shelves. Jean knew this, and would have acted like it was all real."

"But this is Jean we are talking about." I pointed out. "We've seen how he's been before."

Jack crossed his arms. "I'm inclined to agree with Riley here. Nothing he has done would be of any indication that he is evil, or the mastermind…" He paused briefly, looking away. "Then again, there's the case with Enima."

The tactician shook his head. "You don't have to believe me. I'm just stating the facts."

"But he was hung in front of us!" I countered. "The expressions on his face were genuine."

Caren nodded her head. "Exactly. We all saw it. How could any of that be fake."

"Jean is dead." I told him. "And nothing is going to change that."

Robin had a smirk on his face. "You're right. He's dead."

Huh? He backed down that easily? "Well that's not where I'm going to end. There's still Enima's words to take into consideration...

.

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.

.

"And Jean isn't on her kill list." I told them, pulling out said list.

"You have an actual list?" Lily looked over at me. "I need to see it."

I looked over at her, shaking her head. "No, let's not worry about that right now. If Jean isn't on her kill list, then that means that he can't be the mastermind."

Stephan hummed in thought. "Yes, but remember, she said she lied about two things."

Well, I found one of the lies, but I don't think both lies would be about the kill list. "I don't think this is one of them. Why would she want the mastermind to lose, if she didn't want them dead?"

Robin let out a chuckle. "Alright, you're right. Jean isn't who we're after right now."

I let out a sigh of relief. I've gotten to know him really well, so I wouldn't want to le-

"But what does that mean?" The tactician asked, looking right at me.

I blinked a few times. "W-what?"

He started stroking his chin. "A fake execution for someone that isn't the mastermind? That sounds rather odd…"

"What are you getting at?" I asked him, growing a little angrier with my voice.

"What was it that Enima said?" He smirked slightly.

.

She turned to Monokuma. "Oh, and one final thing for you…" A wicked grin appeared on her face. "How does it feel to be alone now? Are you crying? They are never coming back."

The bear didn't move a muscle for a long time. Whatever she said really got to the Mastermind.

But then, the bear slammed down on the execution button.

.

"They are probably talking about Jean, after all. Enima didn't get a fake execution, and she was part of the Ultimate Apocalypse." Robin brought up. "Seems rather suspicious…"

I shook my head again. "W-well then how do you suppose they all fit in this city?"

The tactician looked over at me. "Isn't this obvious? They are Flame-X."

Flame-X… "But they are dead!" I said.

Caren nodded her head. "It's all over the new-"

The tactician slammed his hands on his podium, growing a more serious expression. I hadn't ever seen him like that. "The people who died couldn't have been Flame-X. They were eighteen? Yet they had to be the same age as the son of Paradise, who seemingly was fourteen when he left the city. Remember what he said?"

.

"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."

.

Robin smirked to himself. "And remember what else Enima said?"

.

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."

.

"Flame-X, revived from the dead? If this is truly Flame-X, do you know what this means…?"

I blinked a few times, thinking. That, coupled with Enima's words about losing someone. "There's… There's two masterminds?!"

"Two!?" Lily yelled out. "This game was rigged from the start. First Enima, now two masterminds. How many people are actually against us?"

I shook my head. "I still refuse to believe that…" I paused, frowning slightly. And then I remembered something…

.

Cameron was placing tiles on the ground, as well as some small character pieces of different colours. "If you've noticed, I've given all of you a colour on your character sheet." I looked at mine, and sure enough, I was green. Interesting, since that's my favourite colour. I glanced around and at everyone's paper to see what colour they had. Daniella had purple, Robin had black, Cameron had orange, Jack had yellow, and Jean had red. And my lord. "God Jean, your writing is hard to read. It's not easy on the eyes."

He looked down at his writing, frowning slightly. "Well that's not very nice."

"He can read, but apparently can't write." Robin smirked to himself.

.

"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.

.

I didn't think about it till now, but it was actually the same handwriting… It took so long to recognize it because I never took note of what he actually wrote on his character sheet. But then that means… "I found a note… And I think it belongs to Jean… It talked a lot about regret… and to forgive someone… Saying they didn't know what they were doing…" What did this all mean?

"What building was it in?" Stephan looked over at.

"The same building that Enima apparently had an Ultimate Lab in. It was a boarded up building." I explained.

"When would he have time to write that?" Caren looked over at me. "This was in the last area, after all."

I had a pretty good idea about when he wrote this…

.

My attention turned back to Jean and Bella. Maybe I should talk to them, ask how they are doing in more detail. "What was it like?"

He shook the back of his head. "We were just trapped in a building for the most part. I mean, there was pen and paper, but not that much. And I didn't use it." He looked at the ground. "It was nothing but boring, honestly. We didn't even have food." He looked over to Bella. "If anything, I had to keep her occupied since she wouldn't stop whining."

.

"It's when he was kidnapped…" I brought up. "That must have been when he wrote that. The building also matched up with what Bella said shortly after…"

.

She thought for a bit before shaking her head. "I don't actually remember how I was taken. I think I was sleeping or something, but Jean woke me up sometime late at night. There was a small barred window, and we couldn't see the sun or the moon."

.

Stephan looked at the ground. "Jean could have been taken first so he'd be away from everyone else…" He looked up at me. "Him and the other mastermind would get to talk without anyone walking in…"

"Sneaky… sneaky…" Jack shook his head. "Didn't think Jean had it in him…"

"But… that leaves us with one question…" Caren looked around. "Who's currently running this entire operation?"

Monokuma let out a low laugh. "Oh? That is the question indeed. Who's the one controlling everything? Controlling every aspect of your lives!"

Robin shook his head. "Ignoring him for now… We need to figure out who Jean was teamed up with. Someone he was close to."

"We can probably start by eliminating anyone who isn't on Enima's kill list." I took out the paper she had. "We can eliminate Bella, Lily, Stephan, Serena, Ca-" I almost said Caren, but quickly managed to change it. I didn't know why Enima lied like she did, but there had to be a reason, right? "-meron…"

"That's a fair amount of people…" Jack hummed in thought. Is everyone else on the kill list?" He looked over at me.

"Mostly everyone else is ambiguous. Meaning she won't tell us a thing…" I put the note away.

"There goes my theory that Cameron was the other mastermind, and he had a dispute with Jean since he killed Daniella. Hence Enima saying they wouldn't come back." Robin mumbled

I covered my mouth slightly. "Thinking about it, who does that leave us with as suspects…?"

Stephan glanced away. "It would seem that leaves us with Marcus, Volvo, Josef, Daniella, Historia, Robin, Jack, Caren, and yourself."

"Well, I don't think it's Historia. Not because I spent a lot of time with her, but Enima has already shown how much she hates the mastermind. If Historia was the mastermind, it wouldn't make any sense…"

"And we can also eliminate the likes of Marcus and Josef." Robin said. "Remember, Enima claims there was only one fake execution. Which means any and all execution we saw after that point was real."

"Which leaves us with a final suspect list of Volvo, Daniella, Robin, Jack, Caren, and myself." I can already take three out of there. Caren's not on the list, I know I'm innocent. "And Robin can't be it either. He's helped out way too much to turn around and be the mastermind. Without him, we would have been going down the wrong track."

Jack nodded his head. "Excellent point. I would have led us all to doom, it seems…"

"Say, Riley." Caren looked at me. "We should consider what happened to Serena…"

I nodded. "Right, she died fighting the mastermind after all. You, Robin, and Jack were all in the area nearby." I covered my mouth. But was it really any of them?

"Oh mysterious figure, where hast thou been seen before?" Robin asked, dramatically.

Stephan looked over at him. "I've seen a mysterious figure several times, actually. Riley saw it today with me. They were on the rooftops, and when I started going after them, they ran. I couldn't catch them, because something hit my face."

Lily hummed in thought. "Lower your face mask!" She ordered with a smile.

"W-what?" The ninja asked, before complying and lowering it. He seemed to have a scratch on his cheek.

"Ha-ah!" She called out excitedly. "You were attacked by a bird!"

He seemed rather embarrassed by that. "A bird? That took me out?"

"I think this makes it not the mastermind." I told them. "Remember, Serena had a bird, which we agreed had to attack her attacker. Whoever this was had to be someone else with a bird…"

"But who would have a bird…" Caren mumbled.

"I think the answer is pretty clear." Lily called out. "Whoever is staying at the campsite I found. They seemed to be pretty attuned with nature, after all. They might even have a pet bird."

I thought for a few moments. "Does anyone find it odd that Serena just got a bird? Like a random bird came down and stuck to her."

"What are you implying?" Jack glanced over to me.

I put my hand on my hip. "What I'm trying to say is that it was never her bird to begin. Whoever this mysterious person is, that's their bird."

"But then why would it head over to her?" Caren mumbled.

I glanced away. "I think it has to do with who she was. She was a huntress, who probably used birds in hunting. Maybe the bird found she was easier to approach… Or whoever the owner of the bird is, sent it to her. Remember, there were lots of times we've seen her without the bird.

.

"They went over to the gym because of all the room there is there." She told me. Her eyes drifted upwards and in a few seconds, her bird landed on her shoulder. "Back at last?"

"Oh, yeah, I noticed you didn't have your bird yesterday." I mentioned.

Serena nodded her head, petting the bird's cheek. "Yeah, he tends to fly off a lot. He lands on me when he wants a break from flying."

I looked at the bird a little more and smiled. "Aww, it has a little pouch. How cute."

"Huh?" She glanced at its leg. "Oh right, it came with that."

I tried to open it but the bird moved over to the huntress' other shoulder. "Was there anything in it?"

She shook her head. "There's never been anything in it. I check every so often."

.

"Then what if there were notes in the pouch?" Robin suggested.

"You're probably right. Which would explain why Monokuma would act like he did that one time." I continued to say.

.

"Of course! A promise is a promise after all. The entire city is free from those animals and vines!" His attention shifted towards Serena. "All except for one!" He seemed ready to attack her bird.

"Fly." She said to it as he flew off, leaving out an open window.

This seemed to only anger Monokuma. "No pets allowed!"

.

"If it was giving her information, it's only natural that he would want her bird to go away." I finished my thought.

"And why would they want Serena dead…" Robin brought up. "Serena collected all of your notes, right? The day she died?"

"She did!" I realized. "The mastermind must have realized she was collecting way too much information. And had to eliminate her."

"How amazingly for them, that she ended up offing herself…" Jack said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Well, now that we've cleared that up…" Caren looked over at me. "Then the figure Stephan was chasing couldn't have been the mastermind…"

"There is one more instance that I can think of, however…" My expression grew a little serious. "When we saw Jean die."

.

A loud sound could be heard, like a mechanism turning on to move stuff. Quickly looking up, I saw the ceiling of the gym opening up. I saw two things. One person who basically looked like a shadow jumping back so they were out of view, and the second person… Who had a rope tied around their neck.

.

"After discussing it in the trial, we figured it wouldn't make sense since everyone but Stephan had an alibi, and it wasn't Stephan who was up there, despite being a ninja…" I paused briefly. "Because we thought whoever that was, was the killer…"

Robin had a small smirk on his face. "I get what you're saying." He looked over at everyone else. "The shadowy figure wasn't trying to kill Jean. They were trying to save him."

"With that, we can eliminate Jack and Caren from our list of suspects… Because they had alibis at that time." Our list is getting even narrower.

"Speaking of which, didn't Serena leave a dying message?" Robin brought up. "Stant, was it not?"

.

I thought that was all, but I saw something written under her, but barely. I decided I should move her body. It was surprisingly easy to move. However, what was written under her didn't help me much at the moment. The letters. "Stant" Was written there, and the rest was covered in blood from her. What was she even trying to write?

.

I nodded my head. "Yes, it was exactly that. But we never found out the meaning behind all of that…" I let out a small sigh.

The tactician shook his head. "Well, of course not. That had to only be part of the word, right?"

"Yeah.. but…" I didn't know what the rest of it was.

Jack shook his head. "Jean, the devil, what kind of person would he team up with."

Devil…? Devil… Devil devil devil- That's right. I saw the word devil pop up somewhere else before. Today to be exact...

.

There is no freedom out there. There never was any to begin with. So if this horrible city is ever uncovered, and you find this note. I give you but only one warning beware the devil, and his a_.

.

"The note I found from the prisoner warned us to beware the Devil and his whatever… but most of it is covered in blood. What are the odds they are the same words?" I asked, looking around.

Robin had another smirk on his face. "I don't know, Ultimate Lucky Student/Mathematician, you tell me, what are the odds…"

"Hey, leave me alone… But if we assume they are the same word, then the first letter is A… and the last letters are stant… But what word does that give us?"

"He, if you say them rather quickly, they sound like assistant." Jack brought up.

"Astant." I said quickly. "Yeah, it kinda do-" Wait a minute. Assistant? "Actually, I think that's the word we need. Beware the Devil and his assistant… That must have been what Serena tried to write…"

"Why would she write that instead of the name?" Lily blinked a few times.

Caren shook her head. "A name would be what the mastermind is looking for. Something like that would be missed."

Assistant… assistant… "Who do you think would be considered an assistant…?"

The room went a little silent. The only sound I heard was what sounded like something clacking against the ground. I'm not sure if the others heard it.

"Well…" Jack trailed off. "I can only think of one person… D-" He never got to finish his sentence as the doors in the back swung over.

We all froze and slowly looked over at who opened them.

Daniella was standing there, looking at a pocket watch. "Wow, the exact time, I'm really good."

"Oh man, I was going to say Jack was the perfect assistant." Robin said, not phased by any of this.

The critic simply sighed.

"Daniella!?" I stayed frozen for a bit. I watched as she slowly walked over to the chair Monokuma was sitting in, picked him up and then sat down in his place. She held him close to her. "Yes, of course. Why wouldn't it be me?" She didn't seem fazed that she was caught.

"Y-you…?" Lily was a little confused. "Why would you-"

She simply shrugged. "Why would I what? Do all of this? Why not?" She didn't really seem to care.

"Innocent people are dead because of you!" I called out.

She kept up her smile. "Last I checked, four of them were murderers…"

"You made them like that!" I called out.

Daniella tilted her head slightly. "True, but that doesn't really matter."

"Are you… really Flame-X?" Caren asked, a little worried.

The assistant nodded her head. "The one and only. Although, it's been years since I've heard that name refer directly to me. Jean was the one who started it, after all. To get back at the society that had damned us."

"But…" The babysitter looked away before quickly looking back at her. "You're supposed to be dead."

There was a long silence. "Yes, in a perfect world, we would be dead right now. But life isn't that generous. We had planned to die that night, making our story a tragic one. But fate had a different answer. Someone showed up to ruin our little death party, switching our bodies with some other people."

"Someone switched your bodies?!" I took a step back before realizing something. "Was it UA?"

"Acute observation, someone has been taking notes, haven't they?" Daniella's voice started to piss me off a little. "Back then though, there were only four people. They heard of our story, and said we deserved to make the world pay. More than a simple city collapsing."

"You agreed to this…?" I narrowed my eyes. "And what about Jean?"

She tilted her head to the side. "He protested it at first, but eventually saw the way, and joined me."

I highly doubt he agreed to that…

"So…" Robin smirked to himself. "Your plan to get out of the game to work the background, was to have Jean fake kill you, and then he would get a fake execution?"

She had a slight pained expression on her face, but it was gone in a second. "Yes, that's how it was supposed to work out. But not everything works out to plan…"

"I have a question…" Lily mumbled. "What… What did we ever do to you?"

"Oh, none of you did anything wrong." Daniella said with a smile. "Most of you are innocent honestly, and don't deserve this."

"Then why!" I yelled out. "Why us!?"

She gave Monokuma a small hug. "Well, we weren't going to leave any class that was connected alone. So of course yours would be targeted as well. Jean and I were just the ones chosen for the job. It's nothing personal. Just business."

"Our lives aren't business!" I got even angrier, hearing her say that.

She frowned slightly, but it soon disappeared. "No need to get so angry, it will all be over soon, and none of this will matter."

"What makes you so sure about that?" Stephan crossed his arms.

She shook her head. "Let's not concern yourselves about that right now. I'm free to talk about anything you want."

"What did this city do to you…?" I asked her. I needed to know. "Why would you try so hard to bring it down? Why would you lose your mind?"

She didn't seem to understand that last part. "Lost my mind? But I'm still sane. Trust me, an insane person wouldn't be able to do what I did."

I simply narrowed my eyes at her.

"But very well, you at least deserve that first answer. This city did not treat the lower class that well. And if you were poor, or homeless, you were even worse off. I might not look like it, being a diligent lady myself, but as a kid, I was homeless." She grew slightly serious for a few seconds.

"You, homeless?" Robin asked, a small smile appearing on his face. "You wouldn't even be able to tell."

"I had to attempt to steal my food, but most of the time, all I ended up meeting was the cold pavement of the sidewalk as I was caught. I spent most days in that city starving. As for Jean…" She trailed off slightly, her face was sad for a fraction of a second before she went back to smiling. "He had it worse than me, I think. His parents were killed right in front of him, and despite being a witness to the murder, his testimony was all but ignored in court because the man who did it was part of Paradise." I saw her hand clenching slightly. She didn't show much emotions but her neutral one. "We met one day as I was running away from a store owner with some food I had nabbed. Honestly, I probably should have dropped it and saved myself, but it had been days since I had eaten anything, and I was desperate. If Jean wasn't there, I probably would have had another bloody face… He grabbed my arm and pulled me into an alleyway, and thanks to him, I managed to escape." She looked away. "I never had a friend before, but I knew from that moment that I could trust him. And then… you know the rest based on the notes I let you find."

I paused slightly. "The notes… you let me find…?"

Daniella nodded her head. "Yup, Jack was rather close when he mentioned that the odds of finding them were low. I was trying to get you to find them. What's the point of a game if the playing field isn't even? And just like I knew you would, you found them. Well, you and Historia both. There was no reason to favor one over the other since you both would show the other."

I frowned slightly. "And what if I never showed Historia that first time?"

Daniella let out a small laugh. "Oh, of course you'd go to her first. That's how predictable you are."

"Predictable…?" What did she mean by that?

"I knew you would go to Historia, and she would be able to date the journal for you. That's how you'd get your five year answer. And I knew you two would keep it between yourselves until much later. So I didn't need to worry myself with others. Admittedly… Serena getting a hold of them was not part of my plan."

"Plan… how detailed is this plan?" Jack crossed his arms.

"As detailed as I could get it." Daniella said.

"So just gene-" Caren started to say.

"I knew enough to know who would die, when, how, and who would do it. I had all the executions prepared beforehand, after all."

"W-..." I didn't know what to say.

"WHAT?!" Lily yelled out, putting my thoughts into words. "How would you manage that! That's a lie!"

Daniella looked over at her. "At least appreciate my hard work. If you don't believe it, don't you find it odd that everyone got to see their Ultimate Lab."

That's right… every single one of us got to see our Ultimate Lab.

"There's no way to know how we'd act." Lily yelled out. "We aren't predictable."

The assistant let out an annoyed sigh, taking out a book. "I have the entire story written here, after all. Every detail I could."

Robin thought for a moment before smiling. "Ah, so those cameras weren't tracking our movement, were they? You just happened to know where we would walk next."

"Exactly. Made it much easier instead of having to track you individually…" She smiled. "I could let the cameras do all of the work."

"How much do you have written there?" Stephan asked, his hand went to his hip.

Daniella lifted the book up to her face and opened it, hiding her face from us. "Well, I have stuff even after right now. Like for example, Stephan throws a ninja star at me." She said that while bowing her head, letting the ninja star hit the back of the throne.

To my horror, she was right about it all.

The ninja frowned, having realized that it didn't work.

"Tha-"

""-t's impossible!" Lily calls out, taking a step back realizing I knew what she'd say." Daniella was just going on a roll here.

The florist did indeed step back, not knowing how to even react.

The mastermind put down the book. "Every action you took, every step, every sound you made. Every thought you've had. I've known since the beginning. It's been four years since we've all met. That's an ample enough time to get to know you all well enough to do this."

I… I couldn't believe this… How could this b-

"-itch know what we'd do?" Daniella tilted her head slightly. "I told you, I even know how you think. I took steps to prevent people from acting in a certain way. Like hiding the book I 'found' in my Ultimate Lab."

.

"What are you doing?" A voice called out, which made me jump slightly. I looked up and noticed Daniella walking towards me.

"H-huh… nothing!" I quickly said, standing up from the chair.

She looked at me for a few seconds before a smirk appeared on her face. "You don't have to hide anything from me. I can tell you were trying to get the book." She sat down on the desk. "I'm keeping it there for good reason." She told me, with a small tilt of the head. "It's best not to have a certain person read it, if you catch my drift."

I did not. "Y-yeah, I understand." I don't know why I said that. I would love to get a better explanation, but whatever.

"Cameron tried to get a read too. But you know how talkative he can be, so I found it best not to show him." The secretary continued on.

I looked at her, a small frown forming on her face. "Are you not going to let anyone read it?"

A smile formed on her face. "Not true." She took out the key, swinging it around a bit. "Alright, let's say I were to ever die. You could come to my room and get my key. How about that?"

I had a deadpanned look on her face. "You just think you're gonna live till the end, aren't you?"

Daniella quickly put her key away, glancing off to the side. "Who's to say?"

I narrowed my eyes slightly. "And what if I were to die first?"

She still had a smile on her face. "Then you simply wouldn't get to read it. Not like you'd be likely to die over other people." She hopped off the table. "But in the event that you did…" She tilted her head slightly, looking back at me. "I'd probably keep the key with me, till I too perished."

.

"I only hid the book because if I didn't, Enima would remember too soon that she was actually a psychotic murderer. And having that happen during the trial I was supposed to be dead for wouldn't have worked well for me. She doesn't really like me, after all." She glanced away.

Being able to predict everything… that's… "Still, you couldn't have possibly predicted everything…"

Daniella shrugged. "You're right, but if something happens not like I intended it to, I fix it." She said with a serious voice. "Very smart of Serena to write down assistant, since I wasn't even looking for it. Not that it helped you till now. Which is fine."

"We were supposed to figure out it was you, right?" Jack mumbled.

The secretary nodded her head. "Of course, it wouldn't be fun if you didn't know it was me. Monokuma is fun and all, but talking person to person is much more preferable…"

"I- I still don't believe it…" I mumbled.

She frowned slightly, opening her eyes. She had mostly kept it closed for the most part. "This is real life, Riley."

"Exactly!" I called out. "Real life! Reading us like books-"

She closed her eyes and let out a small laugh. "Jean reads books, I read people. As simple as that."

I shook my head. I… I couldn't believe her… There had to be something I could use against her… Then it hit me. "Oh yeah, but there was one person you failed to predict more than the others…"

"Oh?" She put her hand in front of her mouth. "Do tell."

It's hard to tell, since she's playing it off, but I bet this isn't part of her script. "You've never been successfully able to predict Cameron, have you?"

She paused briefly. "That was only once and-"

"It happened more than once…" I grinned slightly.

.

"Probably after Monokuma's wish is complete." Daniella said. Didn't have to say it like that. "But I don't think the building matters right now, so we should probably just break in."

Cameron grabbed something off the floor, using his free hand to roll a dice. It landed on a 20, and he threw the object, which was now obviously a rock. It hit the glass pane, which shattered into a convenient doorway shaped entrance.

"Jesus!" The secretary called out, being caught off guard briefly before going back to her calm expression. Seems she could lose composure too.

.

Daniella smirked and reached over to grab Jean's character sheet.

"H-hey, what are you-?" He started to ask.

But he didn't even get time to finish as she pulled out a lighter and lit the page on fire. "Your character is dead, and thus, so goes your sheet."

"Tsh." The librarian crossed his arms, looking away.

Cameron was glancing around the room. "Well, like I always say, if your character dies, you are free to make a new one, which Jean can make between sessions. It gives me time to work on some set stuff!"

Daniella froze slightly, slowly looking over at him. "What? He can make another one?" She seemed rather disappointed to hear that.

.

She paused slightly, hearing me give off examples.

"You never could understand what he was doing…" I told her.

Her expression grew slightly more serious, but soon reverted to her smiling face. "Well, I do admit that I didn't always predict what he would do, but that was mostly because I didn't care much about him. But bringing up that scene reminds me of something. For our plan to work, Jean said I would probably need me to give him a reason to be pissed off at me. So naturally, I figured killing his character in the game he loves so dearly would surely piss him off. And I was right." She smiled, like it was something to be proud of.

Jack shook his head. "Despicable… Using that to further a plan… to think I ever teamed up with you in that game." That's your takeaway here?

"I also had to improvise for Serena, unfortunately. Which is why it was sloppy…" Daniella admitted. "Even so, the job was done, and I walked away with nothing more than a few scratches and an arrow hole…" She paused slightly. "The bitch." She said coldly.

"Hey!" Lily yelled out. "The only bitch here is you!"

The secretary remained silent for a few seconds. "I may be a bitch, but at least I'm efficient."

"Don't you feel any pain when you do this?" Caren frowned slightly. "You said you knew us for four years? Isn't that enough to make connections?"

She paused for a few seconds. "No, not really. Back in Hope's Peak, I mostly stuck to myself. Jean was supposed to but…" She gripped Monokuma tightly. "Cameron wouldn't stop annoying him. Pestering him every day!" She seemed to be getting a little mad. "Thanks to him, Jean grew soft. He started hanging out with Jack, and the likes. Even you!"

"Even… me?" I mean, we got along really well here, but…

"Cameron is a bastard who taught Jean something he never needed in the first place!" She took a deep breath to calm herself down.

"Compassion?" Caren asked her.

Her grip loosened up on the bear. "He never cared about others. He didn't even really care about anyone in UA. The only thing that was on his mind was me before then."

"You hated Cameron for being a good person?" Lily asked. "That's a stupid reason."

"Oh, he might have not been on Enima's to kill list, but he was still a creep that wouldn't stop flirting with me. No matter how many times I turned him down. If there's one death I'm glad about in this entire game, it's his. The fucker."

"This implies you aren't glad about the other people dying." I brought up.

She simply shrugged. "I didn't really feel anything when they died. I didn't hate them, but I didn't like them. They were just a necessity."

"A real scummy way of thinking about that." Caren said.

Daniella tilted her head. "Weren't you on Enima's list? If so, you've lost the right to talk."

The babysitter looked hurt and glanced away.

"Yeah, but so are you." I told her.

She simply shrugged. "I'd be surprised if I wasn't on her list. Nice to see Jean wasn't, though."

Speaking of which, despite being one of the masterminds of this game, Jean wasn't on her list. Was it because of how he was at school? "How much control did Jean have over this game?"

She simply shrugged. "None whatsoever. I was in charge of the whole thing. He said I'd be better at it anyways. Although at first he thought I wouldn't be able to plan everything so specific. So I did the only logical thing. I kidnapped him as the first motive to prove a point. Not only did he not die, but I proved my point again by kidnapping Marcus before he was done with his trap. And just like I predicted, Josef avoided the trap, and Volvo walked right into it. I'm really good at this, after all."'

"You must feel so proud of yourself…" Stephan shook his head. "You're awful."

"Cute coming from you Stephan, you've killed people long before I ever joined the killing. In fact, Jean has never actually killed anyone."

"He… hasn't…?" I mumbled.

She shook her head. "Nope. Said that people didn't deserve to die. He was really against this killing game, but I managed to convince him that it was a good idea."

"No." I told her upfront. "He never wanted to do this. Even before he died… he never wanted to do any of this…"

She had a slightly shocked expression. "Then why would he agre-"

"He only agreed to it because he didn't want to leave you alone. He wanted to be by your side. He even told you not to do this."

Daniella quickly shook his head. "Nonsense. He just needed a little convincing."

Nothing was going to get through to her. She can predict what I'm going to do… how do I…

.

She shrugged. "Can't go into details for that, but know that it's the truth. I've only lied about two things in my confession, and one was to protect someone I care about." She turned to Monokuma. "Oh, and one final thing for you…" A wicked grin appeared on her face. "How does it feel to be alone now? Are you crying? They are never coming back."

The bear didn't move a muscle for a long time. Whatever she said really got to the Mastermind.

But then, the bear slammed down on the execution button.

.

"It's your fault he's dead, you know…" I told her up front.

She made a facial expression I hadn't seen her make yet. It seemed really painful. "W-what? N-no."

"It was your plan to get Jean to fake kill you. Had that never happened, Jean would still be alive now, wouldn't he?" I never wanted to use someone's death to hurt someone else, but it seems like I have to.

"N-no! It's Cameron's fault! N-not mine!" She tried to defend herself. "Everything was perfect until he came along and ruined it! And then Enima betrayed us too!"

"Sounds to me like you have a hard time keeping your plan on track." Stephan pointed out.
She pointed to the ninja. "You are going to die soon, so shut up. I am perfect at making plans. I'm good at following orders!"

"Sure, you're good at predicting most of us. But the more you have to improvise, the more you fail. Same with Serena. You probably weren't planning on getting hurt, but she still managed to do some damage. And you hastily left the scene without erasing some evid-"

"Well yes, but it didn't matter." She was already back at being her old self. D-did none of this work? "You must have thought you've gotten me? But honestly, I don't have much emotions."

"No one just has no emotions. You just had emotions right now!" Lily called out.

Danielled rolled her eyes, looking away. "Yes, but I've long been told my emotions don't matter."

"Was it Jean that told you that?" Jack crossed his arms.

She quickly glanced away. "W-what… no, he would ne- It doesn't matter."

"Who told you this." I glared at her.

She remained silent for a few seconds. "The person I serve right now, of course. I'd do anything for them. They saved me from a certain death."

"And you won't tell us who that is, I presume…?" Jack crossed his arms.

Daniella shook her head. "I have no reason to tell you anything about them. Just know I'll serve them loyally till the day I die."

"So, today?" Robin asked her with a smirk.

She let out a small laugh. "I don't intend on dying here today."

I need to find some sort of weakness. Emotional abuse seemed to work for a bit, but she's putting on an act. I know she's hurting on the inside. But I should probably find something else to attack.

"You want to know what I found interesting…" Robin said, stroking his chin. "It's something Enima said before she perished."

.

She nodded her head. "Pretty much. This game has been rigged from the start, but you have to figure that out yourself… However… I will tell you this. One person who should be alive is dead, and one person who should be dead is alive."

.

That's right… I looked over at Daniella. "Who did you fail to kill?"

She was looking through her book, with a faint panicked expression on her face. Good, she didn't have any of this writing down. We need to go down a path she can't see.

"Everyone who needed to die, died…" Daniella said.

I hummed in thought. "I think you did fail to kill someone… And it's obvious who it is…" I grinned. I had to take Enima's words to heart. She said so much, and only two of them were lies. I found one, and if I started worrying about what the other lie was, I'd never get anything done. "When you fought her in my Ultimate Lab, you couldn't finish her off."

"Bullshit." The secretary said. "You don't really have any proof that-"

Lily lifted up her hand. "I think I know where she is, if she's still alive. She was at the campsite. There was evidence of two people there, after all."

The assistant got rather silent for a few seconds before letting out a small laugh. "Is that all you've got? Please, don't waste my time on theories that hold no ground."

The florist held her hands together, looking away.

Caren put an arm in front of Lily. "Hey, don't let her get to you. Is there anything else?"

She had a more determined look on her face. "Yes, there is something else. There was a bloody sleeping bag."

Then, something clued in. "Ah, that makes sense. That's what was used to drag her body out, wasn't it? There was also a small blood trail you forgot to clean up."

Daniella gripped the book tightly. "Please, if someone had dragged her out, I would have caught it on the cameras."

Robin shook his head. "No. There was no camera following the mysterious man. Thus, you wouldn't have seen anything. Besides, you were probably focused on the trial, weren't you? Monokuma seemed to be rather active that trial, after all."

"So yes…" I smirked to myself. "You failed to kill Serena. She's alive, and out there somewhere."

Daniella stood up. "She is dead, and nothing is going to change that."

Caren put a hand on her hip. "Keep telling yourself that."

I tilted my head slightly. "You seem to fail more whenever you have to improvise. Or if you are under pressure. Serena was going to get those notes to her outside help, so you had to act quickly. And like you said, you were sloppy. You didn't even bother checking if she was dead since you were so dead set on her fate."

Daniella had a smile again. Why was she always so calm about these things? She was losing! "Well, even if she is alive. She will soon meet her demise anyways."

I frowned slightly. Nothing was working. "Just like Jean met his demise?" I just had to keep hitting her where it hurts.

She held the book tightly. "He… wasn't supposed to."

"Daniella." Stephan glanced at her. "Let me ask you something. How much of you is fake?"

"W-what?" She was taken aback by that.

The ninja crossed his arms. "All I can see is that you wear a mask. None of this is your true emotions."

Caren looked at her. "You seem scared."

Daniella heard this and took it as an opportunity to strike back. "Oh? Look who's talking. Last I checked, you were paranoid. So paranoid you almost got everyone else killed. How would that make you feel, to know everyone almost died because of you."

The babysitter took a step back, holding her arm. "I… I"

"Hey!" Lily yelled out. "Leave her alone!"

The secretary turned her attention back to Stephan. "Just like I said, my emotions don't matter."

"But they matter to Jean, didn't they? They matter to you? They only don't matter to the person you work for." The ninja countered.

Daniella looked away. "What game are you playing?"

"The same one as you, dear." He glared at her. "You played with our lives and emotions, so now it's my turn to play with yours."

I better get on the train with him. I needed some sort of ammo to take her down.

.

They don't know what they are doing. They think what they are doing is right. I know it's wrong,

,

"You think what you're doing is right, don't you." I asked her.

She took her focus off Stephan and glanced at me. "If what they did to me was right, then what I'm doing should also be right. Don't you think so?"

"That's wrong!" Lily called out. "Everything is wrong. What they did to you, and what you did to us."

The secretary looked away. "N-no. This was the only way."

"The only way for what?" Jack glanced over at her. "Was there a whole other reason to do this?"

She remained silent for a bit, seemingly trying to decide if she should speak or not. "Jean and I… We made a promise. That if we were to die, it would be together. As life without the other would be worse than any hell we would go too."

"That's why you both planned on dying in that heist gone wrong." I asked.

"Yes, of course. That was the plan from the get go. We saw no reason to further prolong our lives as Flame-X." Daniella said with a smile, but it soon turned to a frown. "But… But I wasn't ready to die just yet. But I was going to do it for Jean's sake."

"Of course, UA had other plans, and saved you from the fire." Jack brought up. "I'm guessing they gave you two choices, huh?"

Daniella shook her head. "It wasn't much of a choice. A way to change the world that didn't involve being Flame-X? I was fine with it. But Jean didn't really seem up to it. But he decided to do it anyway."

"The only reason he even did it was so that you wouldn't be alone." I told her. "And you took advantage of that."

"N-no, I would never take advantage of Jean…" She mumbled sadly.

I pointed at her. "You never stopped to think about what he wanted. You just kept considering what you wanted. You wanted to live, so you joined up with UA. You wanted to do more work. But did Jean ever do that? According to his own words, he tried to stop you several times. But UA always prevented him. You're nothing but a puppet to them."

Daniella stood up, a little angry. "I'm not a puppet! I can act and think for myself."

"Oh? Didn't you tell me once before?" I tilted my head slightly.

.

I blinked a few times. "It's like you only live to serve…" I mumbled.

"Exactly, I only wish to do the best job for the person I'm working for." She told me.

I shook my head. "But that's no way to live." But I'm not one to talk, I just go along with whatever anyone says. "I don't think I've seen you once break emotion." Alright, maybe that one time when Cameron threw a rock at the greenhouse, but that was it.

"Is there a problem with that?" She kept her smile, but I could tell it was kind of a sad one.

"W-well, not exactly, but maybe showing more emotion would help people better understand you. You don't seem to get along with many people." Despite being part of the nerd gang.

.

"You say you think for yourself. But this whole thing. You're doing it for someone else. You did it for whoever you're working for." I glared at her. "Which is why you haven't joined Jean yet. You are going to see this through till the end. But then what? What are you going to do next?"

"What am I… going to do next?" It's clear she hadn't even considered any of that.

"Just a tool, it seems." Jack had his arms crossed. "Once you lost Jean, you've been struggling this entire time."

"You almost got caught by us when trying to save him." Caren brought up.

"Then… you couldn't even kill Serena that one time…" Robin smirked to himself.

"And finally, you let Enima walk all over you. You might want to play it off like it was part of your plan. But she really screwed you over, didn't she?" I told her, a smile appearing on my face.

Daniella glanced away. "No, it was all part of my pla-"

"No. I can tell when Monokuma is being deliberate. But everything during that trial seemed like he had no control whatsoever. Enima had the entire deck of cards in her hands, and you had nothing." I think I have finally started to gain some ground. "You're struggling to pick up the pieces. Jean was right; you can't live without him."

"I. Am doing. Fine." She tried to reassure herself.

"Seems you can't handle the loss of a loved one." Caren said. Seems she had the similar plan as me.

But for some reason, everytime Caren tries to attack her, she gets countered right away. "Oh? And how are you dealing with the loss of Bella? Of Historia, of everyone else that you tried your best to protect. You didn't make it apparent, but you tried to be protective of everyone. Must be your motherly instincts, huh? You're afraid too, of losing more people. If Lily were to die, you probably wouldn't be able to live on."

Caren held her hands, looking away.

"Honestly, you are just projecting." Stephan told her. "This is how you feel about Jean dying. You can't live with yourself. You've always been safe with him, right? So how are you going to live with yourself? You're scared too."

Daniella turned away. "I-I'm not scared."

"Want me to tell you something. How much Jean hated this entire killing game." I frowned at her.

.

"Y-you didn't have to be rude…" I mumbled sadly, looking away.

He paused for a second. "Look… I'm sorry. I'm just frustrated…"

I turned my head back towards him. "How come?"

He had a tear going down his face. "I always wanted to be an Ultimate, but if I knew it was going to turn out like this, I would have never tried to do so."

"Are you… crying…?" I tilted my head slightly. What's… what's with him. This is unlike him. "Is… everything, alright."

He wiped away his tear. "N-nothing…" He put his hands in his pockets. "But I always wanted to be something special, but isn't that why we're here? Because someone has a bone to pick with Ultimates?"

I had a small frown. "Did you care a lot about Bella?"

"H-huh?" This caught him off guard, he glanced off to the side. "Of course not, we've only known each other for a little over a week."

I thought a bit before realizing something. "Wait, you spent a whole day with just her. You do care-"

"Don't you need to investigate?" He asked me, a frown appearing back on his face.

.

"I don't think he was lying about any of that. That was being genuine. But you didn't get to see that because you weren't checking the cameras, right?" I told her.

Daniella glanced away. "Is that how he truly…" She mumbled to herself.

"That's not all." I lifted up my finger. "I didn't think about it till now, but when I saw him falling, he had an unknown expression on his face. I couldn't tell what it was, because it didn't make sense. It wasn't fear, it wasn't dread. He looked relieved. Relieved that he would die. He's wanted to die all this time, but he stuck around because you wanted to stay. He was trying his best to honour the promise you two made."

"Stop it now!" Daniella yelled out. "I don't want to hear another word from anyone!"

Stephan rolled his eyes, glancing away. "Oh please, I don't want to hear anything from you either."

Then, that's when it happened. My powers kicked in, and I looked quickly over at Daniella, and my eyes went wide with horror. Where did she get a gun? Either way, she had one pulled out, and she had aimed it at Lily. The only people seeing this were Lily, Caren, Jack, and myself. Stephan was currently looking away, and Robin was too busy thinking of whatever the fuck Robin's think of. But Daniella was so silent, I hadn't even realized she did this. She made no indication verbally either.

The gun went off and I looked over at Lily, who had taken a step back. A tear going out of her eyes.

She's going to di- Wait. No, the angle doesn't add up. The angle would only hit her upper shoulder. This should be fine-

Then I saw what she was going for. Stephan had heard the gunshot and looked over at the secretary. In a fraction of a second, he assessed the situation, and started heading towards Lily to save her. The problem is, he was as far away as he could be, and she was behind a podium. He wouldn't have enough time to push her out of the way. And based on the angle of it all, if he did so, he would get shot in the heart.

"Stephan! Don't!" I yelled out, but by that time, it was too late. The bullet wouldn't stop. Nor would Stephan. He was going to die.

And then, impact.

I had closed my eyes, I couldn't watch someone else die in front of me. I had seen it too many times before to do it again.

Then, a scream.

It was Lily's, but it felt off a little.

I opened my eyes to find that Stephan was fine. Did he not make it- No, Lily was fine too. Then what…

"I… I won't let anyone else die…" Caren mumbled. "I'm a good person, right? I'm not a bad guy. I don't deserve to be on a list...?"

Enima… you bitch… Was all I could think about at that moment…

.

Everyone had left except for Caren, who was just holding her arm, looking away. "Aren't you joining us?" I walked over to her.

She glanced at me, a little sadness in her eyes. "Do you… think I'm a bad person?"

I was slightly taken aback by this. "W-what? N-no, of course not.

Caren kept holding onto her arm. "I'm just thinking about what Enima said earlier… What did I do to get put on her kill list? I understand Jack, but…"

Thinking about it wouldn't do us much good. "How about we worry about that after we get out of here…" I turned to walk away. "Now come on, I'm not leaving without you." I offered my hand to her.

She didn't take it, but she did start following me back to the hotel.

.

This is why you lied?

Caren fell back, and Lily managed to catch her before she fell to the ground.

Stephan caught on to what was happening and decided he wasn't just going to stand still. He bolted towards Daniella.

"W-what!? T-that wasn't supposed to-" She quickly tried to get the gun ready, but the ninja had closed the gap between the two of them in mere seconds. And with a swift motion, he did a front flip, landing his foot on top of her head, sending her tumbling down the chair, over to the podiums.

She quickly got up, but Stephan managed to knock the gun out of her hand, which went flying away. He went to hit her again, but she quickly pulled out a knife and stuck it into his hand, and the podium, trapping him there.

He tried to break free, but she quickly axe kicked the knife even deeper into the podium. The ninja let out a small muffled scream of pain.

Daniella turned around to start running towards the gun, and time started to slow down. I was pretty close to the gun, but for some reason, my legs were frozen.

But then, I heard a voice call out in my head.

.

"But… but you didn't have to kill! I'm sure everything would have worked out-" I started to say.

"No…" Marcus said coldly, turning his attention to me. "This isn't a place where things will simply just work out." He tipped his hat down. "Bad stuff is always going to happen…"

"Let's give it everything we've got!" The bear continued.

He tipped his hat upwards, a small smile forming on his face. "Riley, you might have thought this to be the worst action to take. But sometimes, the worst action to take is no action at all."

Not taking any action could be the worst action… That's never worked like that for me. Doing nothing as always worked out for me...

.

But,.. But it's Daniella. She's going to know what I'll do. She already has my fate planned…

Then, another voice.

.

Cameron let out another sigh. "And also, please, don't let others force you what to do. You are in charge of your own destiny. If someone gets you to do something you don't want to do, say no. Don't just agree to appease them. I know it looks like the dice defines my destiny, but it just shows me the best course of action. It's never been wrong before. So stand up and think for yourself from now on."

"O-OK…" I mumbled lowly.

.

That's right! I'm in charge of my own destiny! And before I realized it, I had started running for the gun.

I was much closer to it than Daniella was, and when she saw me reaching out for it, she started to slow down. She knew she wasn't going to make it in time, so she had to try and get away from me.

But it was too late for that. I had the gun and I pointed it at her. I was momentarily lost since I had never used a gun before. But it's Daniella's, everything is already set. All I have to do is pull the trigger.

I shot her right above the heart, but it didn't seem like that would be enough. She stumbled back and realized I was a poor shot, and she was worrying about nothing. She made a run for me, until Stephan came sliding in, knocking her down with his weird gauge thing. He seriously needs a name for that.

"Thanks for handling it." The ninja mumbled to me.

Then, there was light. The rope thing he had caught on fire, and when we looked over, Daniella had pulled out a lighter.

The fire traveled quickly up to him. "Why is it so flammable!?" I called out.

"Style." Stephan jumped back trying to put it out.

I was distracted, and Daniella managed to nab the gun out of my hand. But instead of shooting us, she just ran. Why didn't she want to continue? Then, I realized why. There were only six bullets in that gun. She's not confident enough to take us all on, it seems.

She was heading for the doors when someone came smashing through the window, landing on the ground. He was dark skinned, and wore a greenish suit of sorts. His hair was rather short, but that's all I could make out. He moved too quickly. As soon as he landed on the ground, he jumped towards her, swinging his leg.

She managed to avoid it and ran out the doors. She was trying to escape.

Stephan and Robin quickly dashed after her, as did the boy who just appeared. But he was stopped by a voice.

"Young master." A rich looking blonde boy was leaning against the outside of the window. "Why use violence when your words will suffice?" He appeared to be some type of butler.

The boy looked really annoyed as he ran off.

I turned to look at Jack. "You should help too."

He simply frowned. "And what help would I be? I can't fight, I can't do anything." He walked over to Lily and Caren. "I'll carry her to somewhere safe."

The butler jumped into the building. "We'll get her some medical help."

The florist was hugging her, while also checking for a pulse. "Hurry up, she's still alive."

Jack and the butler lifted up Caren. The critic took a few steps before turning to look at me. "You are better suited for this kind of stuff." He was referring to going after Daniella. "You actually took action, while all I did was stand there." He frowned slightly. "Go out there and make a difference…"

I nodded my head and ran out the door.
"Try and keep her alive!" The butler called out. "We do need information after all!"

.

.

.

Daniella was running through the city, a few tears rolling down her cheeks. "Jean… Jean… I need you." She admitted. She seemed to be scared. She turned around and noticed that Stephan and Robin were catching up to her, as well as the third person. She moved her hair away from her ear, revealing a device. She pressed a button on the side. "Hello! Hello! Can anyone hear me! This is urgent. The plan failed!" But there was nothing but silence. She waited a few seconds before trying again. "Hello! Can any-" She quickly moved to the side to avoid a ninja star that was thrown at her. She wasn't going to get anywhere just running in the streets, she turned towards the closest building to her and ran inside.

"Oh, I don't think so…" Stephan mumbled as he followed quickly behind her.

Inside, she was running around the ground floor. Hearing the door open, she quickly turned around and shot the gun.

Unfortunately for her, Stephan figured that would happen and was already out of the way.

"Dammit!" She yelled out, turning around. She quickly headed up the stairs, with Stephan right on her tail.

When she made it to the next floor, she shut the door behind her, locking it, before she continued running. After a few seconds, she paused to take a breather. But she probably shouldn't have, because Stephan unlocked that door quicker than she had anticipated. And Robin and the new boy were right behind him.

"Leave me alone!" She yelled out. She couldn't handle this many people at once. She was pretty much cracking under the pressure it seems.

The boy seemed to be a little faster than Stephan, since he closed the gap between him and Daniella rather quickly. He went to punch her in the face, but she managed to block the hit.

And, with the opening, she aimed the gun at his face. Unfortunately for her, he still had a free hand, which he used to pull her arm down. So, she only managed to hit the ground.

A little enraged, she kicked him in the stomach, which connected.

She reached the next staircase and started running upstairs.

"Come on, you guys don't have it covered yet?" Riley poked fun as she caught up with everyone else.

"To be honest, I'm not really trying." Robin smirked, having done nothing.

"Of course you aren't." She let out a small sigh.

The group of four managed to make it to the next floor. Seems she didn't waste time locking the door.

"Here's me trying." The tactician smirked to himself as he dashed towards Daniella, closing the gap in an instance.

She turned around to try and block whatever was going to happen. But froze upon seeing it was Robin. She almost had a little fear in her eyes.

Robin charged a punch for a fraction of a second. And then, it was over in a blink of an eye. The hit connected with Daniella, and sent her on her back.

"I feel cheated out." Stephan noted.

This didn't stop the secretary that much, since she quickly got up. However, she did seem to have a bleeding nose.

"Hey, you broke her nose. Thanks for contributing." Riley looked over at the tactician.
"I can do more." He went in for another attack.

But she was quicker to act this time, and pulled the gun on him.

Except this is Robin we're talking about, so of course it didn't work. He grabbed her hand and stole the gun away from her. He smacked her with it before tossing it back to her.

"Why would you throw it back at her!?" Riley yelled out.

He hummed in thought. "Because it would be funny."

She rolled her eyes and decided it was her time to actually do something. Although she wasn't sure what exactly she could do. She wasn't good at fighting.

Daniella had the gun back in her hand and aimed it at Riley.

Time slowed down for her as she considered her option. She saw that she was next to a fridge with a rather thick looking door. She quickly opened it just as the secretary shot the gun, which caused the bullet to be deflected.

"Dammit!" Daniella yelled out, turning around to run away again.

The mathematician grabbed a plate since it was there, and tossed it at the mastermind like a frisbee. What else was she going to do?

Daniella, of course, dodged this. But she did hit a window! So that's nice.

Although, a few seconds later, a bird flew into the building, going straight for the secretary. It started clawing at her. "I thought I killed you!" She yelled out angrily.

"What the…" Riley mumbled, looking out the window.

On a nearby rooftop, there was a figure standing with a cloak over him. He had his hand in the air, and around him. Several dozen birds were flying around him in a circle. He lowered his arm, and then they all flew towards the building.

They were all heading for Daniella, who was trying to shoo them away. This wasn't her day.

Then, a Ding sound could be heard as the elevator slowly opened up. Daniella looked horrified seeing whoever was in it.
The rest of the group had no idea who it was until an arrow came flying out of the door and hit her in the shoulder. "Dammit, dammit, dammit." She mumbled to herself, running towards the next staircase.

Riley quickly ran over to check the elevator. And yup, Serena was there.

"S-Serena!?" She called out.

The huntress seemed to be in a little bit of pain, since she was only sitting in the elevator. "H-hey…" She mumbled. "Heh, I missed…" She grunted. "Farah is going to yell at me. He told me to stay behind and here I am."

Riley put her hand on her shoulder. "Just stay here, we'll take care of Daniella."

The huntress nodded her head. "Not like I'd be of much use anyways."

.

Daniella burst through the doors leading to the rooftop. Although she had to stop running when she reached near the edge. "Dammit…" She said to herself, looking down in horror. They were rather high up. She had always gone as high as she could with each staircase. So they were on what appeared to be the seventh floor. When the sound of the door opening was heard, she turned to look at the four that had entered.

"You can stop trying to run…" Stephan warned her. "We won't kill you. We just need to ask you questions."

"Who are you working for?" Riley asked her.

Daniella took a step back. "You're going to torture me for information, aren't you? You're going to make me regret living."

The boy shook his head quickly, extending an arm out.

The secretary looked at his hand with disdain. "No." She pulled out her pistol and aimed at them. She considered her options, as well as how many bullets she had left. And then, she switched plans.

She was now aiming the gun at her own head. "You won't take me in for questioning. Everyone, get back or I'll kill myself."

The dark skinned boy took a step back, a worried expression on his face.

"You don't have to do this-" Stephan started to say.

"You need me alive, right? What use am I to you, dead? You will live in darkness, not knowing what's to co-" She stopped talking when she saw something.

Robin had started to walk towards her. "I don't really care if you shoot yourself. Go on, pull the trigger."

Daniella didn't know how to react to that. But she was going to keep to her words. And she pulled the trigger.

But nothing. No bullets.

"W-what?" She pulled the gun away from her head. "It was only shot five times."

"Are you looking for this?" The tactician pulled out a bullet. "When I took the gun, I made sure to take out one bullet."

This really pissed her off. "Robin, you of-" She stopped talking when she took another step back, and almost fell off the ledge.

The tactician noticed this, and turned to walk over to Stephan. He whispered something to him before heading back down the stairs.

Riley held her hands together. "Please, we are just trying to make sure no one else dies…"

Daniella shook her head. "We both know it's much too late for that. The damage has been done, and it won't stop anytime soon." The sound of a helicopter could be heard, and she had a hopeful expression on her face. That was until she saw who was actually piloting it.

There were two girls inside the helicopter itself, with another one hanging upside down by her feet from the legs. The one outside had long black hair with a tint of blue. She was wearing what appeared to be a purple skin tight suit. "There they are." She called out.

Inside the helicopter, the two girls seemed to be having some sort of disagreement. "Do you even know how to fly this thing?" The one with pink hair asked.

"Don't act like you know how to fly it either." The redhead replied, seemingly annoyed. "I don't give you ice skating advice. So don't give me helicopter advice."

"That's because I know how to skate, while you don't know how to pilot." The pink haired girl replied.

Daniella saw that it wasn't who she thought it was, and realization struck her. She wasn't going to be saved by the people she's working for. She was going to die here… And with that, she extended her arms out. "I'm coming, Jean." She said rather sadly before letting herself fall off the building.

The boy in green freaked out, but there's not much he could do if she just chucked herself off a building.

The person to act this time was Stephan, who ran to the edge, and jumped off.

"Stephan!?" Riley yelled out. "What are you doing!?"

He turned towards the building as he was following and chucked the hook through a window.

Robin was waiting on the other side, and he caught it, holding onto it tightly.

Then, Stephan started plummeting. He didn't have to worry about dying, since the cord acted like a bungee rope. He reached his hand out to try and grab Daniella's.

But, she made no effort to reach out. At that moment, she didn't fear death. At that moment, she was fine with dying. Her face remained neutral, but soon a small smile formed. "I'm sorry, Jean…" She mumbled seconds before her head hit the pavement.

Stephan closed his eyes before he could see it. The cord started to slow his fall, before having him go back up.

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Robin was holding the hook, looking around the room. "Alright, now, where should I tie this?" Then, he noticed that the rope was starting to leave the room. "Whoops." Then it pulled him with it. He placed his feet on the wall beside the window, and held onto it tightly. He made some painful grunts, as the rope that was wrapped around his arm started to dig into his clothes.

Soon, Stephan made it back into the building beside Robin, almost collapsing on the ground. "I… I couldn't do it…" He mumbled, letting out a cough.

"I figured as much. But it would have been cool." The tactician smirked.

.

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Hours later…

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The six of them, Jack, Lily, Riley, Robin, Serena, and Stephan, were standing inside a building. Most of them seemed tired.

A woman wearing a suit started to approach them. She had orange pinkish hair. She was reading off a clipboard. "Thank god we actually managed to find you. Nadia helped point us in the right direction, since she knew where Paradise was. Even with Farah on the scene, he had been on mission for months, so we didn't know his exact location…"

"Where's Caren…" Lily mumbled sadly.

The woman frowned slightly. "She's currently on the second floor medical station. Her condition isn't looking grea-"

The florist didn't care and ran off.

The woman let out a small sigh. "I guess I can dismiss you and let you get some rest. You haven't slept since yesterday morning. After all…"

Jack crossed his arms. "To think you'd be here, Victoria." He smirked.

She blinked a few times. "You… know me? I'm sorry, I don't think I've ever had the pleasure of meeting you…"

"I'm just some critic, but I know pretty much most actors and voice actresses." He told her.

She frowned slightly. "Well, now's no longer the time for talents like that." She turned around to walk away. "Everyone, you can head to the third floor. That's your sleeping quarters… Riley, could I talk to you for a bit?"

She blinked a few times, but followed Victoria. "Yes, what do you want?"

She let out a long sigh. "Running things like this is… stressful."

"Are you basically what's keeping the world from falling apart…?" She asked her.

Victoria took a bit of time. "The world's already fallen apart. I'm just here to pick up the broken pieces… But I'm here to ask, would you like to lead?"

"M-me!?" Riley took a step back. "Why me? I'm nothing special."

"Neither am I, but here I was anyways…." She said, leaning against the wall. "You don't have to, it's just an offer after all."

The mathematician pondered this choice for a bit before smiling. "Yeah, I'll get that weight off your shoulders, at least for now. If someone better comes up though, they'll be getting the job."

Victoria smiled sweetly. "Thank you." Then she walked away without saying much else.

Riley stood there for a bit, letting out a sigh.

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Lily stood outside of a room, holding her hands together. Beside her was the butler, who wasn't saying much. He glanced over at her. "Things… aren't looking good, are they."

The florist looked like she was trying to hold back some tears. "N-no… They aren't…"

Then, the door opened, and the doctor walked out. He looked at the two of them before shaking. "I… The bullet is lodged in her heart. We took it out, but I don't think she's going to make it."

"No!" The florist ran in. "You've gotta save her." More tears rolling down her cheek.

Her heartbeat was really low, and it was clear there wasn't much time left.

"Caren…" She mumbled, sitting down on the chair next to her. "You… You didn't have to do that…"

Caren weakley opened her eyes. "Lily…?" She mumbled softly.

"Caren!" She yelled out, reaching out for her hand.

"I'm… not a bad person… right?" She said, looking at her.

Lily shook her head. "O-of course not... Thanks to you… Stephan was able to attack Daniella and win…" She grabbed onto her hand. "You can rest easily now… Everyone else made it out alive… Thank you…"

"Good… good…" She mumbled. "Hey… will you live on for me?"

The florist nodded. "Of course… Of course… I will live on for you…"

Then the sound of beeping could be heard as the last of her left.

The butler frowned slightly, standing in the doorway. He didn't seem to say anything.

Lily gripped her hand tightly. "Caren…" She said through more tears.

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Serena was sitting in her room. She was looking at her mirror. She lifted the bottom of her shirt to see the injury in her stomach. She was bandaged, and there was a red mark in the center. She coughed a few times. "I need to get this fixed…"

A knock came at the open door, and she would turn to see who we could only assume was Farah. "Hey, I told you not to go on the scene. You could have gotten some rest."

"Tsk… what kind of huntress would I be if I didn't do my job." She sat down on her bed. "Plus… I've survived worse…" She coughed a few more times. "I should be back to full health in a month."

The man shook his head. "You're lucky I found you when I did. You had almost died. Most people would have died." He turned around to walk away. "Remember that, and don't push yourself for the time being…" He then left.

Serena plopped down onto her back, looking at the ceiling, reaching her arm out. "I refuse to die… not with you still out there, Nila. I'm going to find you, and make sure you don't go through the hell I went through…

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Robin opened a door that seemed to be the evidence part of the building. When he opened the door, the giant computer screen would light up, revealing the face of a girl with light blue hair. "Yes, hello. Welcome. How may I help you?" She seemed to be an AI of sorts.

The tactician looked at her for a few seconds. "Yeah, I'm just looking for the evidence we accumulated for this killing game."

"Oh, hello Hugo!" She greeted.

He paused for a second. "Hugo…?"

She had a nervous expression now. "T-that's what your name is, right?"

Robin shook his head. "That might have been my old name, but I have new memories with a new name. You can call me Robin."

The AI was silent for a few seconds before loading up a bunch of files. "Consider your name changed." She smiled brightly. "But yes, evidence from this killing game is on the right." She pointed to that side of the room. "Well, I'm going to go back to what I was doing. Have a wonderful evening!" She made a heart shape with her hands, which made a red one flash out. Then the screen turned off.

The tactician looked at the screen for a few seconds before walking over to the evidence. The bullet that had hit Caren was now there, since they managed to get it out after her passing. "Oh?" He took a look at it and noticed that a name was engraved into it. It was Stephan's name. "I guess it didn't work out like you wanted it to, huh?" He put the bullet he stole with the rest of them. That bullet seemed to be blank.

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Stephan was walking through the facility. He was mumbling something to himself before finally stopping where he needed to. "You son of a bitch…" He had a small smirk on his face. He opened the door to see who was there. There was a girl working on some stuff.

"There you are…" He frowned slightly.

She glanced up at the ninja. "Y-yes? How may I help you?" She smiled.

He remained silent for a few seconds before walking over to the table. "Didn't think you'd be here. I just have some questions to ask you."

"I'd be happy to answer anything!" She said excitedly.

"Good, then we can start with this." He said, dropping down something in front of him.

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Jack was looking through some papers, a small frown on his face. They seemed to be some Hope's Peak book, but the more he read, the more he frowned. "There's so much information missing. How does one expect to learn anything from the past?"

The person who was putting books away sighed. He had some messy spiky blue hair. "Look, you should count yourself lucky that any of us remember anything. If not, the past would forever be forgotten. We had to write down a lot of things based on memory."

The critic sighed too. "I'm just… trying to find some information on someone."

The boy crossed his arms. "Well, say a name and I can tell you what I know."

"Well, it's not even her real name, but Enima." He looked at him.

He hummed in thought before shaking his head. "Can't say I've got anything. She was the one that infiltrated your class in the killing game? She was a reserved course, wasn't she? I don't even know who she replaced…" He turned around. "Well, hopefully you find something…"

Jack frowned some more and went back to reading.

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Some time had passed, and it was seemingly a year later.
Riley was walking towards a building, with debris everywhere. "Alright, the signals are coming from here. This is the fake school, after all."

Someone was walking beside her. It was a girl with blue hair. She almost fell down. "Tell me why I'm here again?"

"Well, we don't have many people who are good at medicine… And…" Riley thought back a bit to Caren. "I don't want a repeat of last time, when we were too late to save someone…"

With them, was also a person in a white lab coat of sorts. "Yes, it was most regrettable that I couldn't do the procedure safely. But too much time had passed…" He was much better at keeping his footing.

"Farah is also pretty good at providing first aid, but you know him…" Riley sighed a little. "Always off on his own…"

The doctor nodded "Serena took after him too, didn't she? She's always off on missions…" He glanced up. "The door seems to be open now."

Riley frowned, shaking her head. "We appeared at the last possible moment, didn't we? If only we arrived sooner. But it was hard even getting here in the first place." She started to pick up the pace with a light sprint.

"It's no surprise, though." The doctor said, following her speed. "We hadn't been able to track the signal till now. And we had assumed it was the real school. But all that awaited us was a trap from-"

Riley stopped running, seeing one of the people pull out a katana. "I'm ready to kill them." He said without any hesitation in his voice.

"Wait!" The mathematician called out, lifting up her hands slightly. "We mean no harm! We are here to help you!" She turned to look at her group. "I'll go up to talk to them. But they could still be dangerous, and not trust us…"

"Send me over if things get bad. I can hopefully talk them down." The girl with the blue hair said.

Riley nodded her head before heading over to the group of survivors. "We've been watching the broadcast for some time, but we couldn't do anything. This place was too fortified." Or more so heavily guarded. She frowned seeing the boy with black hair bleeding from his eyes. She turned to look at her group. "Hey! We have an injured here! He's hurt his eye!"

The girl with the blue hair ran down towards the man, grabbing his arm. "This way…" She mumbled softly to him as she helped him towards their group.

The girl with the twin tails, who appeared to maybe be the leader of this group, narrowed her eyes at Riley. "W-who are you people?" She appeared to be a little mad, which was fair after what just happened.

The mathematician paused for a second. "Who are we? It's simple. We are The Seekers."

The girl took a moment to catch her breath, staring at her intensely. "The Seekers of what?"

Riley now had a smile on her face. "The Seekers of Fate."

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Serena was at what appeared to be a target range of sorts. She was practicing her aim, which was still pretty much on point. Only a few missed shots here and there.

"Hey, other Silver." A girl with ginger hair called out. Watching her from a distance.

The huntress stopped, looking over at who it was. But of course, with calling her Silver, it had to be- "Hey Nadia…" She replied dryly before going back to doing archery.

She felt a little insulted that it was all she got. She walked over to the bench, sitting down. "Don't just ignore me. I've come to talk."

"Then talk." She took another shot, getting a bullseye.

She didn't quite know how to say it. "I'm just here to say we are trying your best to find your sister… But they are getting much better at hiding their locations."

Serena remained silent as she kept shooting. But she was still listening.

"Trust me. She's one of the rare friends I've made at school. Everyone else is either dead, or my brother." Nadia said.

Still, the huntress said nothing.

The girl stood up. "At least say something."

Serena lowered her bow. "I'm trying to concentrate on shooting right now. Come back later."

"Unbelievable." Nadia said as she started to walk away.

She then went back to shooting, but a small frown had appeared on her face.

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Robin was sitting down inside a room that looked like a lab.

"For the life of me, I can't tell what's wrong with you." The man had a sort of suit on, and his hair was black, grey, and white.

The tactician blinked a few times. "I'm not asking what's wrong with me. I just want to know if you can do a mental scan on me or something. I have no memories, even before attending the school. All I remember is what happened inside the killing game, and after it."

The boy remained silent for a few seconds, a small grin appearing on his face. "Oh, your face just looked really wrong, so I thought you came for that."

Robin let out a small chuckle. "Ah, finally. My people."

The man in the suit reached out for a notebook. On the back was written Xi Loung. Seems that was his name. "Well, in your case, you seem to be trying to forget something that happened to you."

"Forget?" The tactician asked.

Xi nodded. "Yes, something must have happened to you that your brain is desperately trying to remove from your head. Something traumatic, perhaps?" He closed his notebook. "For some reason, I can't get a good reading on you, so that's the best I can provide for now."

"Maybe I should ask someone who still has memories of their school days… maybe something happened on the day they call the tragedy."

"Ah, there are many tragedies. My class faced such a tragedy… But you're right. Something probably happened the day the school went down." He turned around. "Well, I have other stuff to do. Come see me again if you think of anything."

Robin remained silent, looking at the ground.

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Lily was currently working in a lab. Her hair seemed a little longer, and a little more curly now. Seems she was trying out different hairstyles. She was testing out various things from plants.

"Hey, Lily…" A girl who also had pink hair was at the door. Except hers was way shorter.

Seeing this girl, the florist eyes lit up. "Rosa!" She ran over to hug her.

"I am not a child-" She pleaded, which obviously didn't work, so she just accepted it. "How's the research going?"

"Oh!" Lily stopped hugging her and turned back towards the counter. "It's going along nicely. Making a decent amount of medicines… And…" She glanced over to a trash can that had a symbol on it. "A decent amount of toxic stuff. I don't want poison…"

Rosa looked at the trash for a few seconds before turning her attention to the florist. "You know, poison wouldn't be so bad. Sure, you don't want to be the cause of anyone's death, but we might one day ne-"

"I refuse." Lily said coldly.

The girl sighed. "I figured as much. But, reconsider… It's a kill or be killed world out there, after all…" She said as she left the room. "Please consider that."

Lily let out a small sigh.

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Stephan was walking around what appeared to look like the middle of nowhere. Almost a desert-like location. He was walking around with a guy who had ginger hair. They were approaching what appeared to be a cliffside.

"They said it should be around here. We checked the amusement park, and they were gone."

The ninja remained silent, but he was a little uncomfortable. "God… why is it so hot? I miss being up North…"

The boy smiled, looking up at the sun. "Sure it's hot, but it's not that bad. You're just dressed up with too much."

Stephan looked at his own outfit. "Yeah… I gues-"

Then came the sound of an explosion.

The two boys quickly figured out where it came from, and spotted a building on the side of the cliff start to topple over.

"Found it." Stephan deadpanned.

Although it was really far away, the ninja managed to notice someone standing on the edge of, walking away. Then, someone who had jumped out of the building, grabbed their foot.

"Crap…" He mumbled as he ran off.

"Stephan!" The boy he was with called out.

He didn't care much. Instead, he only ran. He rolled on the ground to avoid the rubble that was falling down. And he dodged out of the way at the last moment the building fell down. He looked up when he heard the faint sound of a shotgun go off. He saw both people begin to plummet towards the ground. "Dammit… dammit…" He mumbled over and over to himself. He finally reached the cliffside and jumped up, using some momentum to keep running up the wall. Then, with a precise jump, he propelled himself off the wall just in time to catch the girl that was falling. He rolled when he got back onto the ground, making sure she was protected from any injuries.

The boy he was with finally managed to catch up. "Is she… dead?"

He placed two fingers on her neck, waiting a few seconds. "She's got a pulse at least. We need to get her medical assistance right away…"

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Jack was walking down in a hallway. He appeared to be two years older than the last time he was seen. Then, he walked into a room where a girl with blonde hair, and a black and green hoodie sat down. She seemed somewhat nervous. He took out the clipboard he was holding. "Veronica Terk." He read off. "Ultimate Technician…" He glanced over at her. "Is that correct?"

She didn't answer for a few seconds before nodding her head. "Yes… Did I do something wrong?" She looked up.

There was a long silence before Jack pulled out a gun and aimed it at her. It seemed to be rather futuristic.

This seemed to have activated her fight or flight response, but she still didn't move.

He then slammed the gun down on the table. "You manufactured this, correct?"

Veronica took the time to realize that yes, she did make this. "Where did you get that…?"

"These had been sold off to the black market." He continued. "Apparently, that was your sisters doing. But I don't really care who did it. The fact of the matter is that an organization we are fighting currently has their hands on a lot of these…" He looked down at her. "So, the question remains… Can you make more?"

"More?" She blinked a few times. She thought she was going to get in trouble.

Jack nodded, adjusting his glasses. "Yes, more." He crossed his arms. "We don't stand a chance without these."

Veronica looked back at her weapon, considering her choices. She grabbed it tightly. "I'll do it."

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Enima bowed down. "I bid adieu to the only person who would care about me." She glanced up into a corner of the courtroom. "If they're watching, that is."

Monokuma seemed rather mad. "Well then, let's get this execution on the run! Goodbye you good for nothing sad excuse of a person!" He really was pissed! "I've prepared a very special punishment for Enima Palapeli, the Ultimate Backstabber!" The bear said with glee.

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This was being watched on a TV screen. The person watching it frowned slightly before turning it off. They couldn't watch this, after all. They stood up and turned towards the exit of the building. They stepped out, putting on their hat. They looked out into the city, and heard nothing but gunshot and screaming. They let out a small sigh before making their way down the street…

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There was silence, but soon, a phone rang.

The person dressed in a police officer suit answered the phone. "Yeah?" He greeted, a little annoyed to have been interrupted with whatever they were doing.

The other voice on the line was quiet for a long time, before they spoke. However, when they spoke, it seemed to be encrypted. "Hello Jared, how has your day been?"

The police officer remained quiet for a few seconds. "What do you want? I heard Daniella was a failure. Should have known better to trust thieves."

"Aww, don't be like that." The voice said. "We'll wait a bit before having Christopher run his. Although I have no hope for him either."

This got a laugh out of Jared. "Of course not. Me neither."

"Then, after that…" The voice said. "Is your class. This one has the highest chance of succeeding after all. So why not save it for last?"

The officer frowned slightly. "And what about your class?"

The voice was silent for much longer this time. But it still spoke eventually. "The goal is to avoid that, but if circumstances force our hand, then I too, will have it happen to my class."

Jared didn't really like that answer. "Well, if that's all you want to talk about. Then I'm going to hang up now." Which he did as soon as he finished his sentence.

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To be continued…