"No everyone, it isn't me!"
Makoto Naegi desperately tried to keep his friends from voting on him, it was no use though, every single piece of evidence in the case they had discussed pointed right towards him.
No one except Kyoko had even bothered to discuss that there could be some evidence against him.
And she herself was currently sweating, trying to get them to vote Leon Kuwata.
But it was no use, Monokuma had shut down all debating, so she couldn't prove anything.
"Please, guys! I didn't kill her!"
The platitude was meaningless, everyone went to their e-pads, and touched a square on the voting part of it.
He looked at Leon, who was looking away from Makoto.
Did he, really do it…
Makoto thought this through, Kyoko seemed smart enough to find out the culprit, and she did say that this was a mystery for Makoto to find out himself.
The votes started going through as Makoto pressed down on Leon.
"I didn't do it! I didn't do it!"
Monokuma spoke up.
"The votes are up! Who will be chosen as the blackened? Will it be the right person or the wrong one!"
The votes tallied in as everyone looked at them.
Votes: Makoto Naegi: 11 votes, Aoi Asahina, Sakura Oogami, Byakuya Togami, Fuwaka Touko, Celestia Ludenberg, Leon Kuwata, Mondo Oowada, Chihiro Fujisaki, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, and Yasuhiro Hagakure
Leon Kuwata: 2 votes, Kyoko Kirigiri, Makoto Naegi.
Everyone else had a grim look on their face, 10 people because they thought they were going to watch a classmate die. 1 person because they were going to watch everyone else die, and 2 because they knew that Makoto had been wrongly voted for a framed case.
A slot machine appeared out of the ground, it cycled through everyone's name.
The sinking in Makotos stomach started to grow, he had failed his classmates multiple times, he hadn't been able to get Sayaka out of there, he hadn't prevented a motive video from inspiring murder, and he hadn't been able to lead his class to the right culprit, and now he was going to get everyone but the culprit punished for neglecting them.
The slot machine came to a stop, all the 3 heads on Makoto Naegi, underneath the slot machine, a word started to appear…
Not guilty
Gasps went throughout the room as people took in the information.
"Oops! Everyone was wrong, the blackened was not Makoto Naegi in this case, but it was actually…"
Leon looked down at his feet as if wishing he could disappear.
"Leon Kuwata! The Ultimate Baseball Star, congrats for graduating!"
Everyone looked at Leon in shock, they hadn't even mentioned the possibility of anyone else being a murderer, and now they would all get punished, everyone just had to blame it on poor Makoto.
"I didn't want to kill her."
Leon said hoarsely.
"She… she invited me to her room, I just wanted to see what she needed, but when I entered, the bitch tried to stab me with a knife, so naturally I retaliated with a golden sword on the bedstand, and then I hit her wrist to get the knife out of her hands, and she ran into the damn bathroom. I was mad, pretty damn mad, all of you guys could be in the same situation I'm in right now! So I got my toolkit, and used it to open her bathroom door, and accidentally killed her…"
He said, his head still down, not meeting any of their faces.
"BUT YOU STILL KILLED HER! YOU COULD HAVE GONE TO YOUR ROOM INSTEAD, AND TOLD US OF THE INCIDENT LATER, BUT YOU KILLED HER!"
Celestia said, snapping at Leon wildly. Her calm demeanor from before finally breaking to reveal a rather rage-induced Celestia.
"You… you're the reason these peasants and the heir to the Byakuya family are going to die now!"
Byakuya said, also finally snapping more than he ever had before.
"I'm so sorry Naegi! We shouldn't have voted you!"
Asahina said tearfully to Makoto, who had a dark look on his face, one of despair that he couldn't save all his friends.
Sakura glowered at Leon, Mondo himself was more livid than anyone had seen him be before. And Taka was just completely pale, his moral compass talent failing him.
Then, Monokuma made an announcement.
"Actually Byakuya, you gave me an idea, how about instead of everyone but Leon getting punished, we only give a brutal punishment to Makoto! So that we can continue the killing game for more fun and despair!"
Byakuya nodded. The tension on some people slackened as they knew that they weren't going to die, but they now knew they would have to watch Makoto die.
Leon finally lifted his head to look at Makoto one last time, guilt fresh in the baseball star's eyes. He had only known the teenager for a couple of days, and know he had as good as killed him along with the other girl. He looked at Makoto to see only determination and hope in his eyes. Makoto himself would be dying, but he would not fail his classmates again.
People murmured last-minute apologies, as Makoto said his final words.
"I may die here guys, but don't blame yourself, or Leon, this is all Monokumas fault! He forced us to kill each other, and without him, none of this would have happened! Please… don't lose hope."
Monokumas features twisted into disgust, seeing the hope in Makoto's eyes, but he quickly recuperated and made the execution announcement for Makoto.
"Now let's give it everything we got it, it's punishment time! And I have prepared a very special punishment for Makoto Naegi, the Ultimate Lucky student!"
He picked up a hammer and slammed the red button.
…
Makoto Naegi has been falsely accused of Leon's crime
Time for punishment!
The 8-bit sprite of Makoto got dragged away forcefully by Monokuma.
Leon also got dragged, but to a private room where he could witness Makoto's punishment.
100 Swords
Makoto is dragged by an iron collar, the walls shift apart as he gets dragged away to another room.
A barrel opens up with a rather cramped space as he is dropped in.
He looks around panicking, its sealed shut and airtight, he has no idea what might happen to him in the barrel and doesn't want to know.
Suddenly, a metal pipe pierces through the side of the barrel, it misses Makoto by pure luck, but he now has a pretty good idea of what is to come.
Another one comes, it also misses him by mere inches.
Then the process speeds up, more swords start entering at a frightening pace, one grazes his cheek, another pins his hoodie to the side of the barrel, they keep on attacking on.
Eventually, one stabs right through his hand as he screams in agony, the pain is unbearable, but he has to endure.
SHRIPP!
One stabs the side of his abdomen, missing vital organs, but still bringing him intense pain.
SHRIPP!
Another goes through his other hand, reminiscent of Jesus dying on the cross.
More and more come, 10, 20, 40, 70, 90, 95, 96, 97 98…
At this point, he's a bloody mess. Covered and choking in his own blood, both his hands and his sides were stabbed and shredded by "swords". The second to last one comes through.
SHRIPPPP!
It goes right through his stomach, the same place where Sayaka was stabbed by Leon presumably, his body goes rigid with heavy breathing, and he starts to fade out. He puts on a smile, the last one he would ever make, and closes his eyes.
I'm sorry Sayaka, Junko, and everyone else
Then the last sword comes.
Straight through his head.
…
The remaining students watched grimly from their point of view, on the jumbotron they saw the barrel Makoto was in spill out blood from the holes that the swords entered it. Immense feelings of horror and guilt from the gruesome sight are shared throughout the group as Toko faints. All the swords retract. And even though they don't want to see it, they still look at the screen as the barrel lid opens up to reveal what's left.
Makoto in an incomprehensible form tumbled out lifelessly. His signature green hoodie was torn to shreds by the thick swords, his hands with holes through them on the ground, the sides of his body ripped apart, pink blood dripping everywhere. His gut with a wound reminiscent of the girl whose murder he was unjustly executed for. And his head with an awful hole through it. The ghost of his last optimistic smile laying there in front of them.
It was a sight that no one could turn away from, people numbly cried, harder than they would for anyone else, it felt like they had known this boy for a long time before meeting him here, built incredibly beautiful friendships with him, but that was impossible.
Right?
…
Up in another room, a certain redhead sobbed more than all of them, even if he hadn't Makoto before this, he sure as hell thought of him as his best friend from another life, he's released from the chair sobbing, as the mastermind laughs behind him and gives him information that would induce even more despair.
"Upupupu! You know Leon, you didn't meet these people just today, you met them 2 years ago! So many good memories! Makoto was your best friend and wingman. Here let me show you."
The mastermind injected Leon with a serum as his eyes widened, he remembered everything.
Flashes appeared rapidly, meeting with Makoto and Sayaka on the first day of Hopes Peak, before the tragedy, hanging out with Makoto and convincing him to do stupid things that most of the time got Makoto in trouble or both of them, asking Sayaka for music advice, and explaining his dreams to her. How had he not remembered all of these experiences? He remembered building friendships with almost everyone else there, Hagakura, Chihiro, Aoi, and even the asshole Mondo. All of these memories flooded in at once like broken floodgates.
And also the final and just as important thing, his girlfriend who had allegedly died at Hope's Peak along with the entire 77th class during the tragedy.
As if reading his thoughts, the mastermind cackled.
"Oh, if you're thinking about your girlfriend… well I have some good news for ya, she's alive, just not the same way as you remember her now, after all, like you guys she had to watch her class rep die onscreen BECAUSE OF ME! Upupupu!"
Suddenly he heard a button pressed, and the floor dropped from under him as he fell through a chute system out of Hope's Peak.
He landed on the cold hard ground, even though he knew how the outside world looked, it was still despair-inducing to see the red bloody sky above him, and the wasteland before him outside of Hopes Peak.
He then looked up to see a helicopter landing, a man with blond hair and a fedora walked out with a grim pained look on his face.
It's Koichi… Koichi Kizakura.
The man walked up to Leon and gave him a hand.
"Look little guy, we both know what you did wasn't the best thing ever, but you're in the outside world now, and I can help you get to help. You with me?"
Leon nodded silently, and boarded the helicopter, his throat muttering unsaid apologies to his two friends and lovebirds that he had killed, Makoto Naegi, and Sayaka Maizono.
At least they could be together in the afterlife.
…
Makoto woke up, he was in his dorm room at Hopes Peak, except it was different, there was no damaged room, no golden sword, no cameras. And his bathroom door looked fine, He looked around hesitantly as he recalled his last memories, dying in a barrel, satisfied that his remaining friends were safe, even if one of them refused to verbally acknowledge them as a friend (cough *Byakuya* cough).
Memories.
Suddenly the door flung open and he recalled his memories.
Entering the school with the same thoughts and emotions he had had before getting thrust into the killing game.
Meeting his new classmates and future friends in the gym just before orientation.
Yasuhiro, Leon, Aoi, Sakura, Sayaka, Chihiro, Kiyotaka, Kyoko, Mondo, Taeko, Byakuya, Hifumi, Touko.
Mukuro Ikusuba, and Junko Enoshima.
The two twins that would later betray them.
Not that he had known it at the time.
He remembered the orientation led by Jin Kirigiri, his excitement at learning everything about Hopes Peak, the thrill of his first class, and getting to know everybody even more.
Over time, he made friends with everybody, even the more cold and reserved people, Byakuya wouldn't plainly admit it, but Makoto had become a valuable ally to him, Kyoko would admit it partially, but Makoto had broken through her iron mask, and become a great friend to her, he had helped Toko with her insecurities and been able to share some of their deeper secrets with each other.
He had helped more shy people out also, Chihiro, he was an insecure boy who pretended to be a girl so he would not be bullied as much, but with the help of Makoto and his friends Mondo and Kiyotaka, he was able to reveal his secret to them, and eventually the rest of the class.
Ah yes, Mondo and Kiyotaka, the two had initially clashed very frequently due to their talents crossing against each other, but one day after an endurance challenge in the sauna (with Makoto, unfortunately, having to become a witness that would pass out due to his lack of physical endurance) they became best of friends, brothers. And they credited Makoto to it, he became close friends with them too and got to learn more about their insecurities.
Hifumi and Yasuhiro were kind of oddballs, they said strange things that would cause them to be outcast socially in life a lot. However he managed to learn more about what they specialized in (albeit in an uncomfortable manner) and learned about their deep-rooted insecurities and helped them to fix them.
Taeko Yasuhiro, more commonly known as Celestia Ludenberg was also quite a case, she was a queen of liars, and a master gambler that grew interested in Makoto's luck and challenged him often, through these challenges, he was able to learn more about her, and even though it took a while, he even learned her true name (though she refused to tell it to anyone besides him and Hifumi). She might not always have been honest, but she still opened up the Makoto.
Aoi and Sakura were easy to become friends with, he became Aoi's friend almost immediately after meeting her, and became friends with Sakura over a common friend. While he wasn't as physically fit as they were, he still was content to watch them work out and brought donuts sometimes for them, securing friendship for sure through the power of food.
Mukuro and Junko. Those two had been enigmas for a lot of his school year, Mukuro had opened up to him slowly despite being cold at first, though it hadn't stopped her from kidnapping him, Junko had acted partially friendly to him, always teasing him and pranking her classmates, though her true nature was hidden the whole time.
Then there were his two best friends, Leon and Sayaka.
Leon had hit it off pretty well with Makoto from day one, even if Makoto felt that it was a bit off that a baseball star wanted to become a rockstar, he had supported Leon and his dream, hung out with him and other guys, done stupid things and generally had lots of fun, he even introduced him to a musician that would help him even more than Sayaka, the punk ultimate Mioda Ibuki, before she died of course.
Sayaka had also become great friends with Makoto from day one, she had remembered him from their old middle school Blackroot, and had known him for a particular incident involving him and a large crane that they laughed over. They had bonded throughout the first year and hung out a lot just like with Leon, he felt like the luckiest person in the world to be hanging out with a world-famous idol who his sister practically worshipped, he had even gotten a signed autograph from her on his birthday along with a signed poster for his sisters birthday, he was particularly thankful for that as his sister almost fainted after learning how he had become friends with the idol.
And just 9 days later, in a cheesy love movie style, they became much more than friends.
Whatever sanity was left in his sister crumbled after hearing that.
He progressed through the remaining year, watching the bro bond between Mondo, Taka, and Chihiro steadily grow, Kyoko eventually took his advice and had a long talk with her father which went surprisingly well. Aoi and Sakura revealed some secrets to them like Sakura's ill boyfriend Kenshiro, and Aoi's insecurities about femininity. Byakuya and Toko didn't do much but didn't insult Makoto anymore which he took as a good sign. Hifumi gave Makoto the "honor" of seeing samples of his work before they released (which Makoto could have done without) and Yasuhiro offered a discount on a fortune as an apology after attempting to sell Makoto's organs to the mafia (long story) which inadvertently revealed a bit of yandere from Sayaka, but the situation was smoothed up. Taeko had upgraded him to a C class which he supposed was an honor. Leon and Makoto became bros, wholesome like Mondo and Taka.
Mukuro and Junko kept disappearing for reasons unknown to everyone else and would stay in a very mysterious fashion for a long time.
And Sayaka had stayed with him diligently even after the tragedy, even if they had to hide their relationship from the public, their classmates supported them and they had plenty of time to themselves.
Speaking of which, she was right there in front of him, with a large smile and many tears flowing down her face. She had attempted to frame him for murder, it had failed and even gotten him killed which Sayaka had placed all upon herself.
But now, he was there with her, where they could stay together for eternity.
They hugged each other, one countlessly apologizing while the other just smiled. They shared a kiss, the first one they had had since slightly before Mukuro had kidnapped everyone.
As they ran out of oxygen, Makoto spotted a raven-haired girl guiltily looking down in the corner of the room.
He silently walked over to her as she flinched, not meeting his eyes, expecting harsh retaliation.
Instead, he patted her on the head,
"I know what you have done, and even though it isn't good, everyone deserves a second chance, so let's put this behind us"
Mukuro blinked slightly in surprise, before nodding as Sayaka took Makoto's hand, Mukuro trailing after them.
They were now in the afterlife theatre, even if they were dead, they could still watch over their classmates until they hopefully not for a long time came to join them.
...Wow uh I finished that, this story originally was supposed to be just about an au of Makoto actually dying instead of Leon and the classmates reactions to it. though I was scrolling through Tumblr today looking at Makoto Naegi stuff (my favorite character don't judge) and I found Naezono which is a controversial ship cuz you know she tried tried to frame him for murder, but I felt like there wasn't enough Naezono fanfiction compared to other ships, so I decided to implement it here. also quick shout out to Moiloru for the idea of waking up in a copy of your room after you're dead, great writer check out his story of afterlife reunions if you have the chance
um yeah that's about all, thanks for reading have a nice day - Pxertah
