Everyone was silent, some with their mouths agape. They tried to process what they had just witnessed. Leon Kuwata, someone who they considered their friend, was executed in front of them in one of the most brutal ways possible. It was highly sickening.
TK looked down at his vest, where Leon clutched onto him for dear life. He could still hear Leon begging him to save him, but there was nothing he could've done. He remembers the despair on Leon's face when he was dragged away to his death. He remembers Leon giving everyone one last pleading look when he was chained to the pole.
TK knew he should be mad at Leon for what he did, and was, but he didn't deserve to be executed. Maybe he was acting in self-defense or it was all one big accident, he'll never know. The only people who truly knew what happened that night were Sayaka, Leon, and Monokuma.
Speaking of the bear, he was squirming around on his throne filled with excitement. He was the only one who found any enjoyment in watching someone being murdered. Not being able to hold it in anymore, Monokuma let out a childish cheer that contradicted what everyone else was feeling.
"Extreeeeeeemmmmmeee!" Monokuma cheered, causing of few of the others to flinch. They didn't expect such a loud reaction from anyone. "Man, my adrenaline is pumping right outta control!"
That set a few of them off. Some started to cry while others screamed out in terror. TK saw a few of them shaking, whether out of fear or anger. He heard people praying to be freed from this makeshift hell which he knew wouldn't happen, not as long as Monokuma is in charge.
"Well hey, if you don't like it all you gotta do is swear to cut all ties with the outside world and accept living here forever! But that's only if every single one of you can get on board with that. Puhuhuhu…" Monokuma let out a blood-curdling laugh that shut everyone up.
"Man, fuck you!" Mondo said, being the first person to find his voice. "Why the fuck are you doing all this evil shit to us!?"
"Evil!? 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!" Monokuma joked which irked Mondo, but before he could do anything Hifumi nervously spoke up.
"Um, so why are you putting an upstanding young citizen like me through such a grueling ordeal?"
"It seems like you're trying to use common sense to make sense of something that doesn't make sense! That's like trying to put a mile on a scale! I just don't think it's possible…" Monokuma said, which confused almost everyone in the room.
"Hey, uh, I don't think what you're saying and what I'm saying quite fit together," Hifumi quietly commented.
"You piece of shit! I don't know who you are but I'm gonna pound your ass into the ground!" Mondo growled out his promise. Monokuma chuckled to not only show he wasn't bothered by Mondo's threat but to also get under the biker's skin.
"You must really hate me to get so angry, huh? But if you do that, you're barking waaay up the wrong tree," Monokuma continued to laugh. "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! Being trapped in this insane p-place…!" Toko seethed.
"Hmmm… You're trapped, are you? Well, I'm sure once you learn 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!?'" Monokuma told everyone, which raised some questions.
"What are you trying to say…?" Taka nervously asked.
"I feel like there's some deeper meaning hidden in there. Just like before, right before the execution…" Kyoko glared at Monokuma but his grin didn't waver. "When you say 'everyone'… who exactly are you referring to?"
"Sorry, I said everything I've got to say! I need to save some of the fun for later!" Monokuma lightly chuckled while jokingly covering his mouth. He started to leave before stopping abruptly.
"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!" Monokuma sang. "After all, nobody wants to look at a rotting corpse every day! That can't be good for your health…"
Monokuma then let out an evil laugh and left the room.
Everyone stood silently for what felt like an eternity. It was actually way less than that, but no one could blame them for losing their sense of time. After what they just witnessed they were scared. Scared of being trapped and scared of what could happen if they proceed with Monokuma's wishes.
Everyone heard a ding and they saw the elevator open. Taking this as a sign, everyone got on and hoped to never see the trial room again.
After a short elevator ride, everyone agreed to meet up in the dining hall. TK told he needed a few minutes to himself and after what happened, no one objected. Everyone left him alone in the hallway and headed for the dining hall, except for Kyoko.
"Takeru. Can I talk to you for a second? There's something I want to talk to you about," she said when she saw they were alone.
"It's about Sayaka, right?" TK said. Kyoko was silent but her reaction was all TK needed to know he hit the nail on the head.
"I told you, you had to figure out the mystery of this case yourself," Kyoko reminded him back before the trial.
"You wanted me to figure out that Sayaka betrayed me, right?" Kyoko nodded and TK almost laughed. It was so obvious that it was almost funny. He should've known that Sayaka tried to betray him when he found his bedroom door unlocked that morning. He was too much of an idiot to figure it out earlier.
"Sayaka meant to double-cross you. That's a fact that you can never change," Kyoko said, which inadvertently made TK feel worse. "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."
TK didn't react. He knew that Kyoko was trying to make him feel better but she was just grasping at straws at the moment. Based on what evidence could she infer that Sayaka was thinking of him before she died?
"I know there isn't enough evidence to support my claim but you can infer that her final thought was how she could protect you," Kyoko said which did get a small reaction from TK. "The fact that she used her last ounce of energy to leave her dying message proves it. If she didn't care what happened to you, she never would have left that message."
TK sighed and turned to leave. Maybe Sayaka did think about how to protect him and maybe that's part of the reason why she wrote Leon's name on the wall, but he couldn't fully believe that's why she did it. She probably did it to get back at Leon and didn't even think of him once.
"Listen, I appreciate what you're trying to do but I just want to be alone right now," TK told her, but before he could leave he felt Kyoko grab his arm.
"Before you go I want you to know, you're the kind of person who can overcome this. Because you can move past the deaths of your friends and keep moving forward. Without someone like that, the others would never be able to break free of such a desperate situation," Kyoko told him before moving to catch up with the others.
TK stood in the hallway for a few seconds before moving to where he wanted to go after stepping off of the elevator. After a quick walk, he made it to his destination, his room. He stood before his door dreading what was behind it. He didn't know what was waiting for him but he needed to know if Monokuma was telling the truth.
He took a deep breath and opened his door.
Outside of his pictures and posters, his room looked exactly the same as it did on the first day. There were no scratches, the bed was neatly made, and even the katana was gone. He was a little glad his room was cleaned up but there was one place he had to check. The bathroom.
He slowly opened his bathroom door and saw nothing. His bathroom was spotless as if it had never been used.
"She's gone…" TK quietly muttered to himself. He slowly moved to his bed and lay down while running his hands through his hair. If Sayaka's corpse is gone then that would also mean that Junko's body is also gone. "We never even got a chance to mourn their deaths."
He knew that it was all planned out by Monokuma. He wanted them to suffer, and if TK was being honest he was doing a good job at it.
He looked back to where Sayaka's body had been and started to think about his video.
"I can't be mad at her, I was freaked out about my video too. I even thought about killing someone," TK said out loud. He knew he should be mad at her but he couldn't. He shared the feelings she had but he didn't act on them the way she did with hers.
He then thought about what would've happened if he did act on his emotions. Would he have ended up like Sayaka or Leon? What if he was able to get away with it? He wouldn't have been able to live with himself if he sent everyone to their deaths for a crime he committed.
"I know my friends wouldn't have wanted me to kill either," TK said before thinking about what Kyoko told him. He knows he won't be able to move past Sayaka's, Junko's, or Leon's deaths, especially with how they died. It will be something that he'll live with for the rest of his life and he's fine with it.
"Even though Sayaka tried to betray me and Leon accused me of murder, I will keep their memories close to my heart and the same goes for Junko," he promised himself as he stood up with a new resolve. "And I promise to save everyone else too!"