What we saw…
That was the true face of despair.
I mean, if we can't call it that, what else could we call it?
"Wooohooo!" Monokuma cheered as he jumped up and down in excitement. "That was extreme! Man, my adrenaline is pumping right outta control!"
"Uwah…! Uwaaaaaahhh!" Screamed Yamada.
"Wh-Wh-What's going o-on!?" Panicked Fukawa.
"I-I can't take this anymore…!" Whimpered Chihiro. "Do we really have to keep doing this? I just can't take it!"
Monokuma spoke next. Saying something I hoped I would never hear again:
"Well hey, if you don't like it, all you gotta do is swear to cut ties with the outside world and accept living here forever! But that's only if every single one of you can get onboard with that. Upupupu…"
Monokuma began laughing manically. Mondo grunted in frustration.
"Man, fuck you…" He said. "Why the fuck are you doing all this evil shit to us?!"
"Evil!?" Exclaimed Monokuma. "You make it sound like I'm some dark, awful, secret society type of guy! Or in this case, a dark, awful, secret society type of BEAR!"
"Um, so why are you putting an upstanding citizen like me through such a grueling ordeal?" Asked Yamada.
"It seems like you're trying to use common sense to make sense of something that doesn't make sense!" Laughed Monokuma. "That's like trying to put a mile on a scale! I just don't think it's possible…"
"Hey, uh, I don't think what you're saying and white I'm saying quite fit together." Explained Yamada sheepishly.
"You piece of shit!" Mondo yelled at Monokuma. "I don't know who you are, but I'm gonna pound your ass into the ground!"
"Upupu. You must really hate me to get so angry, huh?" He asked with a short laugh. "But if you do that, you're barking waaay up the wrong tree. What happened, happened because more than one of you decided you wanted to get out, right? No matter how much time passes, you can't cut free of your regrets from the outside world. You're to blame!"
"Of course, we can't cut f-free of the outside world!" Exclaimed Fukawa. "Being trapped in this insane p-place…!"
"Hmmm… You're trapped, are you?" Began Monokuma. "Well, once you learn the all the mysteries of this school, your thinking will change for sure. You'll think, "Boy, isn't it so wonderful how we all get to live here forever?"!"
"What are you trying to say…?" Asked Ishimaru.
"I feel like there's some deeper meaning hidden in there…" Suggested Kirigiri before turning to Monokuma. "Monokuma, before Leon's execution, you said "The moment everyone's been waiting for". Who exactly are you talking about?"
"Sorry, I said everything I've got to say!" He chuckled. "I need to save some of the fun for later! Oh, I almost forgot! Since the class trial is over, I'll go ahead and dispose of all the corpses! It's okay, no need to thank me! Just seeing your delighted, smiling faces is thanks enough for me! After all, nobody wants to look at a rotting corpse every day! That can't be good for your health!"
After laughing, Monokuma dove behind his chair, and just like that, he was gone. He left us there, overwhelmed by a nightmare turned reality.
Even after he was gone, we stood there forever, unable to move. Actually, no… It wasn't that long, I think. Everyone just lost their sense of time. We were all too scared of many things…
Including being alone…
For a while, no one even tried to speak. Their faces were stone, their voices dead. But it was in that moment that Kirigiri waved me over.
"Naegi." She began. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
As soon as I was close enough, she whispered into my ear.
"Before we head back, there's something I want to talk to you about." She said.
"It's about Maizono, isn't it?" I sighed.
"I'm surprised you figured it out." She began. "I told you, before the class trial started, that you had to figure out the mystery of this case for yourself."
"You wanted me to realize how Maizono betrayed me by myself, didn't you?" I asked. "The thought never even crossed my mind. I feel like such a fool, becoming such an easy target like that…"
"Maizono meant to double-cross you. That's a fact that can never change." She explained. "But even till the very end, she wasn't sure of her decision. That's why, as she lay dying, she was thinking of you."
I gasped. "She was thinking of me?" I repeated in shock. Kirigiri nodded. "You can't just say something like that. I mean, there's no way you can know that. Only Maizono would know for sure, and we can't ask her now…"
"Even if you can't ask her, you can infer it, don't you think?" She asked suddenly. "Her final thought was how she could protect you."
"What…?" I gasped again.
"The fact that she used her last ounce of energy to leave her dying message proves it." She continued. "If she didn't care what happened to you, she never would've left that message."
"Well…" I began. Thinking that after framing me, she could care less. "Maybe she just wanted to get back at the person who killed her."
"That's certainly one possibility, but I don't think that's what it was." She added. "She was… Uncertain. She wasn't sure she could kill someone, or deceive you, which is why her plan failed. Her hesitation attracted failure."
She then chuckled slightly. "It's almost ironic when you think about it."
"Why are you telling me all this?" I asked skeptically.
Kirigiri was hesitant, but gave her answer. "Because you're the kind of person who can overcome this." She began. "Because you can move past the deaths of your friends, Maizono and Leon, and keep moving forward. Without someone like that, the others would never be able to break free of such a desperate situation."
"Move past their deaths?" I repeated. "That's… I could never do that."
Kirigiri looked at me in such a way that made me continue. "I'm going to carry them with me the rest of my life. How could I possibly "Move past" something like that? Leon… Maizono… I'll carry them with me forever. I'll carry their memories with me wherever I go!"
It was a while before Kirigiri spoke again. "So, instead of forgetting them, you're choosing the hard road. Well, I have high expectations for you."
As she said that, she revealed the smallest smile, but them she turned serious again.
"By the way, I have to admit, I'm curious…" She began. "How did you know I wanted to talk to you about Maizono?"
"Oh, well…" I began. Looking forward to her reaction. "I'm psychic."
"Huh…?" She gasped. I chuckled slightly.
"Kidding… I just have a pretty good intuition." I joked. Paying a tribute to my fallen friend.
"Hey, assholes!" Yelled Mondo. "Get on the damn elevator already!"
"Coming!" Called Kirigiri before turning her attention back to me. "Come on, it must be Nighttime by now."
After grabbing my hand, we walked towards the elevator to join up with the others.
When I got back up to my room, I gasped in shock at what I saw. Or rather…
What I didn't see.
My room was all of a sudden clean as a whistle. As if a murder had never happened. Panicked, I rushed to the bathroom and peaked in.
Maizono wasn't there.
She… She really is gone. It's almost like there was never anything to begin with. Every last sign of Maizono's existence had disappeared without a trace… Like Monokuma said.
I didn't even have time to mourn Maizono and Junko's deaths… I'm sure that's exactly why he did it.
It's a bad joke, a sickening dream, but I have to accept the reality of it all…
I headed back to the dining hall to meet up with the others.