Name: ?
Talent: Ultimate Wordsmith
Queen

Q: If your life was a story, what genre would it be?
?: Life's not a story.
Q: Yes, but if it was, what genre would it be? ...Did you hear me? ...Are you refusing to answer, or...
?: They feared him. They spread legends about him.
Q: Um...
?: But beneath it all, he was just a man. He lived as a mystery, cloaked in shadows. "I work alone!" He thought he didn't need anyone. "When people get close to me, they get hurt." But that was until he met... Francesca. "You mean I have to go undercover as... a nanny?!" Record scratch! Okay, now this is where "Who Let the Dogs Out" starts playing...
Q: I have a feeling you aren't taking this very seriously.

We all agreed, we'd just go to some nearby hotel for the night. The mastermind had sent convincingly boring emails to our parents are regular intervals, so none of them were worried. But Ashley still wanted to be present for everyone's first phone call home. "Just to make sure," she'd said, somehow making it not sound like the threat it obviously was.

She didn't have shit to worry about, judging by the looks on these kids' faces. They were true believers now. Most of them were probably just waiting for the right cause to throw themselves into, but none had hit home yet. This one hit home.

I sat in the big, soft chair in the corner of the lobby, looking down at my Irish coffee, feeling the weird heat seeping through the glass. It was awful coffee but good whiskey. Or the other way around. It didn't matter.

The lobby itself was totally deserted except for me, and the bar was pretty dead, too. I think I'd have felt the eerie stillness even if I hadn't just survived a murder game. I wasn't on edge or vigilant, I was just kind of placid. It was a big, bright room, full of local maps and plugs to charge your phone and lists of taxi companies, but this late at night, it just felt dead, like the inside of an ancient, sealed-up pyramid. One of those was an illusion, but I wasn't sure which.

I wasn't so lost in thought that I didn't see her step out of the elevator. She was clearly looking for me, and as she noticed me and approached, her face forced itself from irritation to friendly irritation. She nodded in greeting, then stiffly sat down in the chair next to me.

"Couldn't sleep?" I asked.

"I told you, I don't sleep much," she replied sharply. Then, remembering she was supposed to be nice right now, she shot me an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry."

"Mm." I indicated the elevator with my drink. "Everyone else is out like a light."

"Yeah. Big day."

"But not you, though."

"No. I don't sleep much."

"Right." I took a sip. There was a silence.

"Why do you think they do it?" she asked, not a single whisper of credible vulnerability in her tone.

"Who?"

"Alameda. And Jordan. And all the people who gave money and said okay." I didn't believe her feigned vulnerability, but I did believe her anger. "All the people who hate young people so much, they'd do this."

I took a sip of my drink. "Does it matter?"

"Does it m... does it matter?!" She glared at me, appalled. "You think it doesn't matter why they'd be murderers?!"

I leaned back, feeling the chair's plush headrest cradling my neck. It felt impossible to be scared of this kid; no matter how smart or tough she was, she was just like everyone else.

"Hey, Ashley," I said, "how quickly do people usually figure it out?"

She recoiled as if I'd pulled a gun but managed to keep her stern expression. "What?! What are you talking about?"

"Oh, come on." I almost laughed. "We overthrew the mastermind today. The first class to do that, after years of Alameda controlling things. And then you... you... said we have to keep doing this program over and over, with new ultimate students. They have to think the game is real, which means they have to think they're the first ones to overthrow the mastermind. And... it doesn't take a genius to start to think, 'Hm, it seems pretty unlikely that my class is really the first.'"

She glared. Her tiny hands kept clenching into fists, as if her stress was literally squeezing them. But eventually, she leaned back and grunted. "For most people, it takes a few days before they can think clearly." One person figured it out in the Lyft driving away from campus, but she was an exception."

"And it's not a problem?"

"No. It never is. Wait here." She abruptly stood up and walked into the nearly deserted hotel bar. She didn't have to wait, but there was a couple of minutes where she was arguing with the bartender.

Eventually, she returned with what appeared to be a grapefruit-based drink. She sat back down, sipping it angrily. "I'm almost fucking thirty," she muttered. "It's just ridiculous."

"I don't think you're ever going to stop being carded," I remarked.

"No shit," she snapped, "but it gets old." She collected herself, sat up straight, and regarded me coolly. "As I was saying," she chirped professionally, "no, it never is a problem."

"Huh. No one's upset?"

"No one's upset enough to keep them from knowing right from wrong."

"Weird." I didn't really think it was weird, but it seemed like most people would. "You're the one directly responsible for what happened to them. I'd think they would blame you."

"Well, that's just illogical, isn't it?" she argued, thrusting her drink at me firmly. "Basing your actions on your own personal vendetta, rather than the larger issues? I'm not the government. I'm not society. And you don't get into a program like this in the first place if you're the kind of person who thinks small. Nope, everyone always ends up fully on board."

"Huh." I poked at me coffee with my sizzle stick, thinking. "Well, what if someone isn't?"

"Then they would be the enemy," she answered.

"No, they're not your enemy, either. They're neither."

"Not how it works." Her tone was so confident, I was genuinely surprised this was the first time she'd had to deal with this. "On campus, we're classmates. I support you, no matter what I think of you. But once we graduate? You're either with us or against us. I'd see you off. I'd wish you well. I'd wait a day. And then... we'd come after you."

"Hmm," I mused, pausing in thought for a moment. "Well, what if I didn't graduate?"

That caught her off-guard. "Huh?"

"You're full of shit, and I am not going to join you." I stared her down, wondering if she saw me as anything approaching an equal. "But everyone else is full of shit too, and I'm not joining them, either. And if the only way I can do that is to stay on campus, then let's do it."

She didn't reply. I could tell she was seething but also kind of baffled about how to deal with me. Eventually, she just snorted in contempt and took a sip of her drink. "You're a fucking idiot," she snapped. "Alameda said he wanted us all to burn. If you'd rather pour gasoline on yourself than fight him, do what you want. But you're still a fucking idiot."

"Guess I am," I agreed. The look we shared was not friendly, but I think it was literally the first time I'd ever seen an expression from her that wasn't in any way angry.

"She's so small," I thought.

We all just looked at him for a little while. I must have been the least surprised, since I'm the one that figured it out, and even I was completely speechless. He looked like he'd never been surprised by anything in his entire life.

"How'd you figure it out?" he asked, looking directly at me. His face was blank, in the same expression Juliet used to make. Just kind of tired nothing.

"I was thinking about that note," I managed to answer. "It didn't make sense, so I thought about it a different way. Then it all came together."

He nodded numbly. "Shoulda known." He swept the gun point around the circle. "Go ahead and explain it to everybody."

I was extremely suspicious of doing anything he suggested, but glancing at everyone's faces, I realized we all needed to be on exactly the same page for whatever came next. "Well... okay, so there were the two notes, right? The Dear Romeo note and then Earl's note... the one we found in the office."

They all nodded vaguely. "Go on, darling," Jane prompted.

"So... just, I was thinking about those, and I kept getting confused," I continued. "Like, I was trying to keep track of the two notes in my head. Because... so Ashley probably had both of them on her body when she died, but then how did Earl's note make it into the administration building? Why didn't Bepi find it when he searched her? Something was just wrong." I sighed. "So that's when I thought... what if it was simpler? What if there was only one note the whole time?"

Rocky started to reply and then stopped. "Um," he said eventually. "I... don't get it."

I found myself unable to look directly at Bepi; I wasn't sure if I was scared I'd get too angry or be too sad or empathize with him or what, but I wanted to just pretend he wasn't there. Allowing myself to just mystery-solve for a while longer was nice.

"Let's imagine you're in the quad that night, and you want to reset the system," I explained. "We know how you do that, right? You have to say the code, and you can't just whisper it."

Hey mastermind, I updated the software to allow for basic voice commands now! It was a little tricky, because I had to work within the confines of the doc's original program, but I figured it out. You can use any command anywhere on campus, as long as at least two (2) of the recording microphones pick up your voice! Just speak loudly and clearly, and your command should be registered no matter where on campus you are!
Note: All command words must be spoken IN THE CORRECT ORDER and WITHIN A TWENTY SECOND TIME SPAN.

"You have to hurry, because someone might check the security system at any moment. You can't just blurt it out, because people will notice. You can't sneak off to the science building or the main quad to say it, because Jane or Katy or someone might overhear you." I realized, for the first time, that I was the only survivor who was on the scene that night, except for Bepi himself. They probably couldn't picture how seamless it was.

"So, you find a way to camouflage it. You've got a piece of redundant evidence... a note that probably doesn't tell you anything we couldn't figure out some other way. If you call everyone over, you can read it out loud, for all to hear."

Lucina and I walked nearer, Barrett still staring with amazement at the destruction around him. When I got to Bepi, he had his hand pressed against Ashley's hip. "I found something," he said. Frowning, he reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of notebook paper, folded four times. He stood and unfolded it, considering what was written there.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's... a letter," he said, crinkling his forehead in puzzlement. "But... like, it doesn't make any sense."

I was leaning on my lectern, exhausted. "He just made the note up off the top of his head. Just random sentences, with the code words appearing in order. It was never written down."

"So Ashley's contingency plan..." Rocky trailed off, then looked at Bepi almost helplessly. "She didn't have a contingency plan."

"You kidding?" Bepi replied breezily. "Ashley never thought she might die for a single second."

"I should have known," Katy muttered, glowering. "I knew something was wrong, I knew it. The combination."

"Uh, what combination?" Rocky asked.

"To the secret information. You know, the personality combination. It's so obvious something wasn't right."

My attention was captured by the computer screen next to the door. It showed something completely new, a readout I hadn't seen before. It said CORRECT RANKING OF PERSONALITY TRAITS! 1. NEUROTICISM 2. CONSCIENTIOUSNESS 3. OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE 4. EXTRAVERSION 5. AGREEABLENESS. ENTRY APPROVED!

"That's not your personality. It's Ashley's. It was set up for her to get in if she needed to."

"So... we were correct, then?" Rodrigo asked suspiciously. "Ashley was recruited here, and she killed her own father to become the new mastermind? And you took over?"

"Hey." Bepi rubbed his remaining eye and sighed. "I'm tired. Don't throw all this shit at me."

"Yes, returning from the dead is exhausting, I would assume," Jane commented. Bepi just gave her a vague shrug.

"Yeah... how'd he do that, anyway?" Rocky asked. "We all saw him get exploded!"

"Ugh, no you goddamn didn't," Bepi moaned with bored irritation. "You saw a big flash go off and then I was gone."

There was a moment of just him mowing them down, mechanical carnage all around, his wild laughter somehow louder than the gunshots... and then the bomb above him made a mighty thunk sound.

There was a flash of blinding, white light. When it was gone, everything had just been vaporized. There was nothing at all left. Nothing.

"I just hid." He held up his right arm, which had bandages across it. "Not that the bears didn't go out of their way to make it believable, jesus christ."

"Sure, but... how?!" Rocky threw his arms in the air, perplexed. "Why didn't it kill you?"

Bepi just looked at me with a raised eyebrow, so I answered the question. "It's because there was a way to escape programmed in."

If you get in trouble:

execution + my initials

"The mastermind's real name is Ashley Alameda, remember? And just before Bepi's execution..."

"I'm ready for my fucking execution!" he shouted to Monokuma. Then he looked at all of us and pointed down at the thing on his lectern. "You listen to this. It's important. It's alpha-level important. You know what alpha-level means? It means the most important thing you can imagine.

"Oh my god..." Katy gasped, looking at him in horror. "That... that's the only reason you killed Barrett, right? So you could get fake-executed. It was the only way you'd be able to get to the admin part of campus and make yourself the new mastermind."

He shrugged. "If that's the story you want to tell."

"He had to," Rodrigo mused, glowering. "He chose to sacrifice a life simply to continue Ashley's cruel game."

"Whoa, hold up," Bepi argued. "Since when would I want to keep going with Ashley's shit? I never cared about Ashley's shit. I thought she was an idiot, and she loathed me because I wouldn't get on board with her stupid revolution."

"You were working with her," I said coldly. "It was almost the first time you ever talked to me."

He smiled wanly. "Monokuma called everyone here and told us we need to investigate this. Okay? We need you to investigate this. Our lives are on the line. We need to figure out who did this. Do you understand?"

I paused as the world very briefly flickered, then I nodded. "Yes."

"Okay." He nodded too. "Do me a favor. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. And then, when you open your eyes, you'll be ready. You can do that."

"You told me I had to be the detective. You slotted me right into the role I was supposed to have."

"Oh," he said. "I guess I did." He said nothing else. There was a weirdly awkward silence.

"So what the fuck?" Rocky asked. "Were you on her side or not?!"

"It depends on who you ask, I guess. Look, you can make up your own minds. I wrecked her game, didn't I? Saya's standing right here."

"Yeah, but..." Katy trailed off. "Lucina would be alive if it wasn't for you. The game would have stopped."

"I gave Lucina every goddamn chance to survive," Bepi snarled, suddenly forceful. "You know who sentenced her to death." Smirking, he kept going too quickly for anyone to ask about that, and I hated being grateful to him for it. "Who really died because of me? Barrett and Juliet? None of you are crying rivers about them and don't pretend you are."

"Yo, Barrett was trying," Rocky pointed out. "After what happened, he was trying to be better."

"Uh huh, and he would have failed." Bepi just looked slightly amused about it. "By which I mean, he would have probably been able to pull it off."

"...what?" Katy asked. "He..."

"You know what he said to me?" Bepi interrupted impatiently. "He's all surrounded by smashed-up room. And he looks up at me and he just says 'There's something in me.' Like... he was possessed by a demon or something, I don't remember how he put it. But the point was, he just has this aggression inside him and he needed to figure out how to control it, and he asked me to help."

"In his last moments, he extended a hand to you in trust," Rodrigo growled. "Only to be betrayed."

"Oh, c'mon," Bepi groaned, almost whiningly. "Get off my case. I just spared him from years of trying and failing to be a better person."

"He could have been!" Rocky snapped. "I talked to him by the end; he was drugged up, but he was trying! He wanted to be better because of Nicole!"

"What?" Bepi glanced at Rocky, confused. "Of course he would have been better. Everyone does that. Everyone has a dead Nicole, or whatever. He would have found a way to calm his urge to destroy, and he would have turned into exactly the toadying yes-man she warned him he'd be."

"So... wait." Katy put her hand against her temple. "You didn't want him to turn into someone on Alameda's side?"

"What?!" Bepi asked, glaring, confused. "No! Nicole just made that shit up! Ten thousand ways Barrett could turn out, and she just happens to be exactly right? What kind of coincidence is that?"

"But... you just said..."

"I just said he'd fix himself, like everyone does! He'd see his dark nature and valiantly struggle to fight for goodness! It was sad. Just so sad and pathetic, I couldn't stand it."

"Ugh," Jane muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You know what? I don't care. None of us care. Just get it over with and die. Aren't you supposed to die?"

"Uhh." He looked around the circle blankly. "Why would I die?"

"Those were the rules! You said if we answered the questions, the mastermind would get executed!"

"Oh." He rolled his eye good-naturedly. "Uh, that was a lie, obviously. Why would I just let myself get executed for real?"

"But it's... it's the program!" Jane frothed. She pointed at Monokuma angrily. "You! You're supposed to execute someone, right?"

"Hey, don't involve me in this," Monokuma grunted. "I barely know what the hell is even going on, anymore."

"I'm not gonna get killed, Jane," Bepi said, holding the shotgun up. "And I don't think any of you really have much say in what happens next, do you? You should know by now, if I'm anything, I'm a survivor."

No one said anything. Eventually, I found myself able to speak up. "How many games did you survive?"

"This was my fifth," he answered, looking coldly at the barrel of the shotgun in his hands. "And no. In case you're wondering, I had never killed anyone before Barrett. Blew my perfect record." He glanced up at me. "I told you all about that, Saya. Remember?"

Everyone suddenly stared at me, and I took a step back. "What are you talking about? You never told me about being here before!"

"Sure I did! I was just... using an analogy, I guess."

He rubbed the back of his head and sighed. "You know, I started fighting when I was ten. And in all my time in the field, I have never killed a civilian."

"Really?"

"Not once. And thank God for that, because it changes something in people. I've seen grunts go rotten in that one second they figure out they zonked an innocent kid."

"Wait..." I trailed off, gaping at him. "You... were never a child soldier."

He laughed brutally. "Christ, of course not. I lost this shit last year!" He indicated his missing eye. "Ashley couldn't wait for me to die. But she always ended up with more survivors when I was around, so she couldn't really complain."

"Look, I'm not saying I'm not completely fucked up. But I'm not fucked up in the way they wanted me to be. On missions, all I cared about was making sure everyone in my battalion survived, and I was good at it. I like to pretend I did it because of loyalty and compassion. But looking back, the main thing I remember is, after every mission, we went to see the commanders. And they really liked more survivors, because a dead soldier's a wasted investment. But they hated that I wasn't the soulless monster they wanted me to be."

"What's... your real talent?" Katy asked. "When you got recruited?"

"Wordsmith. Do you believe that? I do puns and jokes and word games. Seems harmless, huh?" He shook his head, smiling softly. "Ashley got the idea for this Ultimate Cadet thing from Rodrigo, of course. She always did that. 'If you're going to pretend you don't have your own history, I'm just going to give you a half-assed version of someone else's."

"Wait." Rocky held up a hand, looking woozy. "Wait, but... that woulda just been really suspicious once we found out about Roddy's government program, right?"

"You weren't supposed to find out about that. No one thought Rodrigo would live this long."

Rodrigo blanched, but Bepi kept going. "You were all correct when you were talking before, of course. None of y'all were supposed to make it. Ashley thought it'd be Earl, Nicole, Therion, Lucina... maybe Juliet."

"Ugh!" Jane snapped. "Stop with this bullshit! If you're going to yammer forever, then at least tell us what we all want to know!"

"Huh." He blinked at her. "What is it you all want to know?"

"Gah!" She waved her arms vaguely in annoyance. "Why you did it! Why you kept the game going after Ashley died!"

"...Why?" He gaped at her as if he didn't understand the question. "You're asking me... why?"

"Yes, why!" Jane put her hands on her hips, glaring.

Bepi was still for a moment, as if considering Jane's question carefully. Then, he raised his gun, aimed it at her, and fired.

She made a terrible noise, like a screaming bird, and fell backwards. Without thinking, I ran towards her, frantic motion and ear-ringing and yells all around.

I saw Rodrigo, with a furious roar, make a bum-rush. Bepi just smoothly and quickly swiveled, pointed the barrel at Rodrigo's leg, and pulled the trigger again.

Rodrigo went down. Rocky frantically scrambled over to him as he lay, holding his knee and moaning. I knelt over Jane, who was feebly still moving around. Rocky grabbed at Rodrigo in tears. Katy just stood, frozen, behind her lectern.

I held Jane's hand, looking down at her in disbelief. But as I slowly caught up to reality, I realized... although she was prone and coughing... there wasn't any blood.

I looked over at Rodrigo. No blood there, either.

Monokuma walked up to Bepi, another shotgun in his paws. He handed it over, and Bepi passed his to the bear. "Are there real bullets in this one?" Bepi asked. Monokuma nodded.

I found myself hugging Jane in relief. For his part, Rocky looked absolutely infuriated, and might have charged Bepi, real bullets or not, had Rodrigo not held onto his arm.

Bepi casually strolled back over to his lectern, smiling at us all. No one said anything.

"I've always kind of felt like a man out of time," Bepi said, finally. "I'm twenty-eight, but I've never related to any of you millennials. Goddamn if I don't hate the boomers, too.

"No, me? I've always identified a lot more with Generation X. The slackers. The ironists. They know the truth: everything's bullshit."

He vaguely pointed the gun at me, then moved it away again. "So you start talking to me about 'why,' you start to lose me. 'Why' is an old rerun of the Jeffersons. 'Why' is a Pepsi commercial. If you don't know how pathetic 'why' is, it really starts to make me mad."

I felt Jane trembling uncontrollably in my arms. She was sniffling, muttering. Absolutely, totally terrified.

Bepi glanced down at Rodrigo. "You. Leg broken?"

"No." I was kind of shocked: Rodrigo's voice was so harsh, angry, and cold, it didn't sound like him at all. "A bruise."

"No shit. You partly dodged it, then. Good to know all the training you got wasn't a waste. Stand up." He nodded at Rocky coldly. "And keep holding him back, because I will blow his head off. You know I will."

Rocky snarled, but Rodrigo held to his shoulder tightly. After a moment, Rocky relaxed at least slightly and helped the paladin stand. They hobbled over to Rodrigo's lectern.

Bepi whirled on me. "Is she dead?"

"No." I squeezed tighter.

"Ah, well. She was the other option, you know. Besides Barrett." His smile was slick and cruel. "Y'all stand up, too."

I almost refused, but Jane started standing up on her own, so I went with her. We walked back to her lectern and stood there, her face still buried into my shoulder.

"Anyway, Jane, to answer your question, it was just an impulsive thing," Bepi said pleasantly. "I had kind of started to engage in a kind of magical thinking, about Ashley, I thought she couldn't die. So you can imagine how shocked I was when I saw her body. I just kinda acted."

"Impulsive," I hissed. "How can you be so casual about keeping us here?!"

"Because it didn't matter," he answered, shrugging. "So might as well do as little as possible. And letting the game stop felt like a bigger impact than starting it back up again."

"Bigger impact..." Katy looked like she might faint. "This doesn't make sense. Do you know that? Are you just messing with us?"

"Katyyyy..." he moaned, pressing his palm against his head. "Lay off. I told you, I'm tired. My head hurts. None of this matters! Why are you all talking and talking about it?"

"Okay, then," I said, trying to be as firm as possible. "What matters? What is your goal, here?" I couldn't help it; this was my friend Bepi. Even as I was furious at him, I just... everything was just sad. I couldn't keep up being harsh. "You just wanted a captive audience to rant at? You want us to hate you? Or love you? What?"

He regarded me for a moment, still leaning into his palm. "What do I..." he muttered. "What do I want? Like... a plan? I don't plan. Ashley was the type to plan. It's probably why she was so good at this."

He laughed loosely. "She'd survived... almost twenty of these games, and didn't get a scratch. That is." His smile disappeared, and he glared. "Until y'all."

There was an icy-cold pause, then he waved his hand in casual dismissal. "Ah, it's okay, I don't blame you. Truth is, she'd been out of control since Therion."

"Therion?" Katy asked, blinking in confusion. "What did he do?"

"He made the damn game better!" Bepi snapped. "Just like he said."

He just nodded calmly to her. "If left alone, players become emotional. Stupid murders, just stabbing and leaving body where it lies; chaos. 'Investigations' just become haranguing obvious suspect until confession. Boring. A waste."

His face took on an air of odd serenity. "But now I've taught you all. Plan had layers of deception. Still left clues. Still was caught."

He smiled, vague but still noticeable. "Figured, won either way. If not found guilty, I escape; great. If found guilty, I set the model. Rest of you understand, to have chance of winning, must create even better mystery. Can you beat my high score? " He nodded smartly. "Game will live up to potential." He glanced up at Monokuma. "Taught the mastermind, too. Game is asinine without mysteries. Remember my example, use it to improve rules. Ultimate game designer. Worth dying for ultimate game."

"He was exactly right. No one ever gets away with a murder. There were always witnesses, and no one ever knew what to do about blood, and most people can't lie for shit. But then Therion pulls his little trick, and all of a sudden we got sixteen Agatha Christies running around."

He grinned humorlessly. "It was hilarious watching Ashley scramble around trying to deal with all that. Too bad she died. I still blame you for that, Saya."

The shotgun went off in his hand. It had been pointing over my head, and the sudden, deafening boom caused my knees to buckle, and I pulled Jane with me to the floor. She just held on tighter, holding onto me like a barnacle. I sat there in shock.

I managed to look behind and above me. There was a twisted dent in the metal ceiling. Those really were real bullets.

Bepi hadn't moved. "So, yeah, I don't have a plan," he said calmly. "As far as I'm concerned, as soon as we're done here, you can just go."

"J..just go?" Katy squeaked. "You'd... really let us go?"

"Yuh-huh."

I blinked at him. "We'll... tell everyone. Expose this whole thing."

"Yuh-huh."

We all gaped, perplexed at his casual shrug. "You're okay with that?"

"Yuh-huh."

I couldn't think of anything to say; his nonchalance was more terrifying than the gunshot. He just shrugged.

"My head hurts," he said. "Maybe I'm dehydrated or something?"

But even worse was when his laid-back mask cracked and he started to laugh. It was a rasping, coughing laugh: either this was fake, or the laugh he'd always had when I knew his was fake. I couldn't tell.

"Isn't it dumb?" he chortled. "Look at me, 'Oh, I don't care about anything!' I'm so unpredictable!' You should call me out when I pull this shit! Like I think I'm some kind of bad-ass."

"I don't think you're a bad-ass," Rocky grunted. "I just think you have a gun."

Bepi nodded to him. "Good point. So anyway, just do me a little favor, and you can all go."

I didn't want to prompt him by asking, but luckily he continued on his own. "Didn't any of you wonder about the tenth building?"

"Tenth building?" Rocky asked.

"Yeah! The library was the ninth, and you assumed the administration building was the last one. But that's the same as the dorm. So where's the tenth building? And the answer is... we're in it."

I hadn't noticed Monokuma standing next to him and holding a remote control device, but I did notice when he pressed his paw into the buttons. The walls around us groaned; it was faster than what had happened in the dorm but much louder. When it was over, our settings had changed: the room had shrunk; the walls were now shiny, modern silver. Bepi and Monokuma stood in front of a huge computer console covered with panels and featuring a large, central screen.

"What...?" Rodrigo gasped. "Where are we? What has happened?"

"Welcome to central control," Bepi announced, grinning. "That trial bunker is a waste of space when a game isn't going on, so it's double-use."

Monokuma, without a word, walked over to the computer module and stuck both his arms into two little sockets. His body shuddered, and he fell over backwards.

Suddenly, the screen came to life, Monokuma leering at us. "Synced!" he said, but a ripple of static flowed across the screen and he froze in surprise. "Wait..."

Bepi glanced over his shoulder. "You okay, there?"

"I... standby." The screen went blank for a moment, then flickered, and then finally he popped back up, nodding in satisfaction. "All right! Just dealing with... a little problem. It's fine! don't worry about it. See?"

Almost silently, chainlike mechanical arms descended from the ceiling; the same ones that had restrained people during trials and pulled them away sometimes to be executed. They hovered over us.

"As long as you got it under control," Bepi muttered. "Show 'em the countdown."

"I still think we should just kill them..." Monokuma grumbled, but several small screens near him lit up with a digital timer, counting down from a little over ten hours.

"Ashley had a pretty vague goal," Bepi said. "Undo the old hegemonies. Make a clean break from the past, and rescue everyone held down by history. Create a future based on egalitarianism and justice."

He shrugged. "Yeah, I never really got how she was supposed to to that, either. But, she had a very clear eye to the first step. She knew she had to demolish all the structures and erase their defenders. And she had smart motherfuckers and a hell of an AI working for her. They worked something out."

Monokuma disappeared and was replaced with a map of the United States, covered with dots of light, lines, and gradients. "This is the plan. Politicians to assassinate. Cultural messages to propagate and the best way to do so. Bills to draft, technology to invent, disasters to orchestrate. A thousand little jobs for a bunch of radicalized geniuses."

"What?" I blurted, absolutely perplexed. "How can... Ashley thought the alumni were going to overthrow society? That's impossible, no matter how smart they are. There's like a hundred of them!"

"A little under two-hundred," Bepi corrected. "I told you, my presence boosted the survival rate, and Ashley went back and collected a lot of the ones from before her time."

"Still, this is ridiculous! They wouldn't be able to do that!"

"You want to see her model?" Bepi asked, tapping a button next to him. Startlingly, the screen on my lectern came to life, showing a set of matrices and visualizations. "It's pretty complex, but you're really good at systems, right? You'll get it."

I stared at the screen, trying to take it in. It took a moment, but I did start to see what it was communicating: Ashley's assumptions and likelihoods and equations.

"Jane, you can look, too." Jane just held on to me, her face still pressed into my shoulder. "Uh oh," Bepi remarked, "I broke Jane."

"Saya?" Rocky asked. "What's it say?"

"I think..." I felt dizzy trying to take it all in, but I nodded. "I think it's actually right. Like..." I tried to resist the analogy, but I couldn't help it. "...it's like a chess game. It's really complicated at the beginning, with lots of uncertainty. But pretty soon, all the possibilities get narrower and narrower." I looked up at them, pale. "I think they could do it."

"Of course they could do it!" Monokuma barked from the computer's video screen, one of the machine arms wagging at me like a chiding index finger. "You're talking to the fastest, best AI in the world, not counting that asshole over at M.I.T.!"

"She wanted to recruit three more classes, after you," Bepi said. "But just to make it happen faster. She was already confident it'll happen."

"Ten years," I mused, looking at the numbers. "Maybe twelve." I found it hard to breathe all of a sudden. "They could do it. I'm pretty sure."

"To destroy an entire society..." Rodrigo muttered. "How many innocent lives would be lost?"

"Maybe a million, across the whole thing!" Monokuma yelled. "Well... the confidence intervals are pretty wide, but that's my guess. There certainly won't be a lot of armed conflict or anything, just... some people here and there."

"A million lives..."

"But but but!" Monokuma screeched. "I also modeled the alternative! Plenty of people die just as things are, from poverty, discrimination, poor housing, stress, a bunch of stuff! Even more than the plan would cause. And the plan's a one-time thing, and then it's over! Those other things kill people year after year!"

Rodrigo opened his mouth, then closed it again. "Friend Saya," he asked finally. "Is it true?"

"I... yeah. I think." I sighed helplessly. "There's parts I don't get, but Ashley's plan ends up killing a lot of people over time. But the stuff her plan is supposed to fix kills lots of people, too."

"'Supposed to fix,'" Monokuma grunted. "The plan will fix 'em!"

"And... replace them with what?" Katy asked. "What about all the chaos this leave behind?"

"I kept asking Ashley that same question," Bepi replied. "She said if we got frozen by stuff like that, nothing would ever change. If we make a clean break from their ways of doing things, something better has to spring up." He sighed. "Of course, she thought she'd still be around, helping to guide it. She never gave up on her dream of being president, y'know."

"There's... there things here about laying the foundations for new institutions," I said, concentrating on the visualizations. "It doesn't seem like it'd just be anarchy. Uh, but it looks like they can't tell what the institutions would turn out to be."

"The point is a clean break," Bepi explained patiently. "Eliminate the competition, prejudice, cruelty, and rigidity of the Alamedas. No generation has ever had a chance to completely start something of their own. Ashley wanted to give us you that chance."

No one said anything; we were too overwhelmed. But one of us was pretty used to being overwhelmed, so he didn't take it too badly. "Yo, this is totally one of those things I'm too dumb to get," Rocky said, "but what's this countdown thing? Why'd you bring us here?"

"Ashley never thought she'd die here," Bepi replied. "But she wasn't dumb enough to have her entire plan go to hell if she did. Every semester, she sent a message to all the alumni, 'If you don't hear from me by a certain time on a certain date, I'm gone. Start the plan."

"Start the..." Katy stared at the computer in amazement. "If that reaches zero..."

"...It'll kick off the ten-year process of completely tearing down the society we were born into," Bepi finished for her.

"And it'll just... happen?" Katy asked. "There's no way to stop it?"

"Oh no, there's totally a way to stop it," Bepi answered breezily. "You could send in the ninjas."

Even Jane looked up at him in bafflement when he said that.

"...Ninjas?" I managed to ask.

"Ashley's last, desperate failsafe. She always gave herself an escape route." Bepi gave a lopsided, almost sentimental smile. "They're not really ninjas. I just call them that. They're a small group of alumni Ashley selected over the years. The dangerous ones. The Juliets."

He tapped the computer with the tip of his shotgun. "You push this button before the countdown ends, and that'll send them their own secret orders: The plan went south. Kill everybody."

"Kill..."

"They'll be gradual and subtle and slow. But in a couple of years, every single alumnus will be dead. Ashley's plan will be over. You'll have saved society."

I took a deep breath, thankful Jane was there to hold onto. "So... this favor you want us to do..."

"I want you to make the choice." His voice was light, but his expression was cold and stony. "Do we send the ninjas, or do we let the time run out?"

It was so stark and shocking, I think I would have fallen down if Jane hadn't been holding on. Rocky bugged his eyes out. "...Us?!"

"I told you," Bepi sneered, "I'm Generation X. You boomers and millennials fight your stupid war, if it makes you happy. Leave me out of it."

There was a silence as we considered this awesome responsibility. "I mean..." Rocky finally said, "...I mean, we gotta push the button, right? If everything gets wrecked, then it'll be huge. It'll be... everything will be different."

"Yeah," Katy said. "It'll affect everybody. We'll be changing everyone's lives."

"Right!" Rocky agreed. "Making a big decision for everyone! We can't do that."

"Friend Rocky..." Rodrigo spoke up, looking over with anxious tenderness. "I'm afraid I cannot agree with you."

Rocky thankfully looked more confused than mad about being contradicted. "Huh?"

Rodrigo took a deep breath and straightened himself up as tall as he could with his injury. "Please recall, I recently came into this world," he said with almost regal calmness. "I had known of the horrors of poverty and the evils of sin, of course. But I was still shocked when confronted with the ills of the real world outside my monastery."

"Yeah, but... but that's just how it is," Rocky argued.

"But it doesn't have to be." Rodrigo nodded to me. "If Friend Saya is correct, we can change it. What kind of paladin would I be if I ignored that chance? Mankind should be free, and that includes freedom from outworn ideas. I trust God to protect the church and all other institutions of virtue."

"But..." Rocky shook his head in disbelief. "But we'll be killing a million people, Roddy!"

"Pushing that button would make us far more directly responsible for deaths," Rodrigo pointed out. "And if I am free, I can work to minimize the suffering Friend Ashley's plan causes. But I cannot ignore a chance to fight the evils of the world."

"No, you don't get it!" Rocky barked. "This... like, okay. Society's fucked up, right? Like, whatever, sure, I know. But if it wasn't there, it'd just be like me when I'm mad. It'd be totally out of control."

"I'm sorry, I cannot agree," Rodrigo replied, smiling softly. "However, I am not so arrogant as to believe no one else has wisdom. If I am outvoted, so be it."

Rocky stared at him a moment, then sighed. "Okay. Fine. Katy? You agree with me, right? We can't do this."

"I..." Katy had one hand pressed against her temple and the other nervously fiddling with her locket. "I don't know. I just don't!"

Rocky sighed. "Jane?" Jane did not look up. "Okay, Jane's not here right now. So... well actually..." He shrugged. "Looks like it's up to Saya, and I kinda don't have a problem with that."

"Ah, indeed," Rodrigo agreed. "She best understands the plan. As long as she seriously considers my words, she may decide."

"Um." I held up an index finger. "Don't I get a vote in, um, whether or not I get a vote?"

"Oh, here we go," Bepi muttered. "Saya pulling her Saya shit." He waved his hands at me in frustration. "Just pick something! It's not like it matters. Flip a coin, if you want."

"You don't..." Katy looked almost afraid by how confused she was. "You don't even care?"

"Of course I care!" Bepi snapped. "There's a right answer! One is better than the other. If you make the wrong choice, you'll know. Fifty years from now, you'll look back on this moment in regret while the world burns around you."

"But... which is which?" Rodrigo asked.

"Damned if I know. But it'd be a hell of a coincidence if they both turned out exactly the same, right? Tell me something. When Nicole blew up Earl, was that a good thing she did?"

"No way!" Rocky yelled. "If she hadn't done that, we'd all have escaped!"

"Well, that's easy to say now," Bepi replied calmly. "But Earl's the only one who'd seen most of the Cassandra documents, and he was close to Ashley. He was in a unique position to figure out about her. Nicole had no way of knowing. To the best of her knowledge, she was killing a dangerous psychopath."

"But..."

"And what about Earl? Ashley had blood on her hands, but Earl took advantage of the one moment of trust she'd put in anyone for years."

"Ugh," I grunted. "Look, we get it, all right? Nothing means anything. There is no right and wrong. Right? Is that what you want?"

"No!" He shouted, suddenly frantic and enraged. He stormed around his lectern and straight up to me. Jane cowered into my neck and I tried to stand tall in the face of his anger, but I couldn't; he was all strength and danger and cruelty.

"No," he repeated to me, icily. "No, there is right and wrong, of course. It's just I don't know what the fuck it is, and neither do you." He glanced up. "Hey bear, is anyone gonna rush me?"

"I don't think so," Monokuma answered.

"Grab 'em if they try anything." The machine-arm-chains descended to hang dangerously over my classmates' heads.

He fixed his eye on me, tense and strong and manly. I remembered his tenderness when we were having sex, and I felt sick.

"This is what Ashley never got," he hissed to me. 'This is what I tried to explain to her over and over, and she never listened. You're going to listen."

His voice stayed just as cold and awful as he added, "We're friends, right? We support each other."

I didn't say anything.

"I always kind of thought you could be a kindred spirit," he said, his expression starkly sincere. "I didn't save you to make fun of you. I saved you so you could understand this, right now."

He reached out towards me, softly. "Don't touch me," I growled.

He stopped, sadness flushing across his face for a split second, before he whirled around and marched back to his place by the computer. "Ashley and her father both had a vision for how things should be," he announced to everyone. "And both were bullshit. Just completely made up out of nothing.

"Y'all thought Therion was crazy, killing and dying for a game. But that's every ideology. He made up his reason for doing something. Ashley made up hers. Her dad made up his. It's just a bunch of stupid, wrong structures they desperately imposed upon the world. All just to keep from freaking out about the fact that they had no idea what's going to happen."

"Hypocrite!" Rodrigo yelled.

Bepi froze for a moment, then looked over at him, all calm oiliness. "I beg your pardon?"

"You're a hypocrite!" Rodrigo insisted. "For what is this you're voicing... but an ideology of your own?!"

Bepi just laughed. "Uh yeah, because I'm full of shit. Thanks for finally noticing. I'm a sad, little baby, playing make-believe. But so are you. So was Ashley. I'm not any less pathetic than any of you, we're all pitiful, desperate little idiots. But."

He sneered, and it was the ugliest face I've ever seen anyone make. "But at least I know it." He sighed. "So many people think this is all some big important war of ideas, this grand clash of the generations. And I almost couldn't stand how sad it was to watch Ashley throwing herself into that, when I knew it was all just a bunch of idiot kids playing in the backyard.

"You can get this, can't you, Saya?" He asked, turning to me suddenly. "This is too big a decision to be left to someone who thinks it fucking matters."

"I think you're crazy," I replied simply.

"That's a good start!" He nodded to me approvingly. He started to say something else, but Monokuma's image on the screen flickered briefly.

Bepi looked over at the computer. "Yeah, dude?"

"Nothing!" Monokuma barked. "I'm fine! Don't worry."

Shrugging, Bepi turned back to the circle. "Hey, let me put it this way. Why'd the government pay for this?"

"What?"

"Why were so many people willing to pay to do this to us? Ashley said that they want to hurt us because they want control and power. But I don't think that shit's true." His stare wasn't easy-going and languid any more; it was steely and cruel. "Alameda said he was doing it to protect the world from chaos. I don't think that shit's true, either."

Just like that, he relaxed again, and he loped over to a chair set up by the wall and draped himself in it. "Saya, your dad abused you and you always wanted to know why, but he wouldn't tell you. Right?"

I glared at him.

"I can answer that for you," he said. "It's the same reason why Katy's dad was kind to her. And why Juliet's parents ruined her. And why Lucina's parents made her mute."

"Why?" Katy asked. I guess she couldn't resist. I didn't blame her.

Bepi grinned joylessly. "It's because... I don't fucking know."

Katy pulled her head back in surprise, then sighed. "Of course you'd just be messing with us..."

"I'm not messing with you!" he protested. "It's true. It's the right answer. I don't know. No one knows. They didn't even know."

"God, shut up," Katy grunted, holding her head. "Just shut up."

"No no, you know it better than anyone else here! In stories, you can set it up in advance. You have your Childhood Backstory and your Motivations and your Inner Conflicts and it's all so neat and sweet. And here's how fucking pathetic people are: they turn themselves into these fictional characters who just work the same way!"

"That's not true," Katy insisted. "I know why I do things."

"You know the story you tell yourself later," Bepi corrected her. "A million things go into everything you do, and you never notice most of them. And yet when you look back, it's all coherent. A cute little story."

"So, what," I snapped, "everything's made up? We're all nobody and everything's fake and nothing matters?"

"Ugh, that's what Ashley said, too," he said, sighing. "That's why she always made me the pauper, to make fun of me. But of course we're not nobody. It's just every time we think we're somebody, we're lying. A fairy tale."

I was starting to get very done with all of this. "What's your point? What's this have to do with the choice?"

"When you make this choice, there's no way to know what the right answer is, and there's not even any way to know why you pick what you pick." He grinned joylessly. "It's hopeless and stupid and depressing, but it's true. And I don't want you to have any illusions."

"So..." I trailed off, looking at him in bafflement. None of this made any sense. "You want me to be like you?"

He snickered. "Whatever, if that's the story you like to tell."

"I could never be like you," I insisted.

He just sighed. "Every time you say something like that, you look like a complete idiot. I just can't imagine anyone could be so closed-off and smug and stupid; it doesn't even seem real to me."

He stepped closer, then smiled when I instinctively tensed up. "You will never know enough to know what kind of person you are. It's just bullshit you made up to feel good."

"No," I insisted. "You're wrong. I know myself. I wouldn't turn into you."

He looked a little surprised by how firm I was being. Eventually, he shook his head in disgust and swept his gaze around the whole circle. "Hey, everyone," he announced. "So, Saya murdered her dad."

Jane let go of me; it felt like I was in a freezer to so suddenly be without her body warmth. She stepped back and gaped at me in horror. The others' faces ranged from surprise to anger. Even though it was cold, I felt like I was burning up.

"No!" I stammered. "I didn't! And... and even if I did..."

"You're full of shit," Bepi interrupted. I didn't know what to say; I just fell silent. "He was trapped, injured, slowly dying. She looked him in the eyes and made her decision. She left. He died."

"That's not murder!" I insisted, not even realizing until a moment later I was admitting it in front of everyone. "Murder is when you do something; I didn't do anything to hurt him!"

"But you hated him."

"Yes, but... but of course I did!" There were tears coming out of my eyes, and the blood seeping out from under the bookcase felt like it was lapping against my feet. "He hurt me!"

"Huh." Bepi was grinning like a snake. "And, just what did he do to you that hurt so bad?"

I started to answer, then felt the sounds die in my throat.

"So, there we go, Miss 'I know what kind of person I am,'" Bepi droned. "That took five seconds. You make no sense. That whole self you think you are is just gibberish. You are someone hurt by your dad, but you're not someone who'd murder him, and it's just because that's what makes you feel best about yourself.

"It's just pathetic. It's truly... it almost makes me sad. To be so certain about something so... ugh." He glowered down at me, like a monster. "It's like when a six year-old puts on a pink dress and makes everyone call her a princess. But you're a fucking grownup."

I found myself looking around the circle for help, but Jane appeared disgusted and frightened and the others were just confused.

"Oh, don't be such a little drama queen, Jane," Bepi snapped. Jane gaped over at him as he sauntered over to the Monokuma computer and fiddled with some buttons.

"What..." Jane began, but she was cut off by the screen flickering away to show something else. A camera feed of our hallway; dark outside the windows, but brightly lit inside. It was night. A door slowly opened and Jane stepped out, wearing a large, fluffy bathrobe, and, as always, her long gloves. She carried a vial of some sort of liquid, and her movements were somehow both agitated and slow.

"Now, I can't read minds," Bepi said. "But I don't have to, do I? We can all tell what's going on, here."

Stupid people. Stupid stupid stupid. Barely human. Probably NOT human, if you really think about it. Cows, staring slack-jawed at fireworks.

I stealthily make my way to the closest door on my right. The chess girl, the cloying, smarmy fussbudget. Not quite as stupid as some of the rest of them, but that glimmer of sapience makes her even worse.

I slowly uncork my vial, noting the consistency and color of the liquid inside. It looks ready.

I saw her, stealing glances at Emily. Oh, Emily said she didn't believe Saya could be attracted to her, and if she was, it'd be 'flattering.' But her flaw was her optimism. Right now, this red-headed harlot probably only remembered her as an object to fantasize about. Emily deserves better, she deserves to be remembered with love and respect.

Saya is probably a psychopath. Yes. Almost certainly a psychopath. Everyone here except for myself is either a fool or a lunatic.

I hold the vial over the doorknob, ready to tilt it. It 's genius: the poison iss slow and undetectable. There are no obvious symptoms, and then 24 hours after contact, kaput, your lungs just stop working.

I don't pour any poison out. I for some reason keep thinking of Saya's face. She has, at times, treated me with respect.. even concern. It was insincere; of course. I'd have to be a fool to believe it, and I'm not a fool! But it would be...

This poison surely would cause a painful death. And if Saya cares enough to try to trick me, she must respect my intelligence, and therefore she deserves a quick and painless end.

Earl? Okay. Yeah. Maybe I'll kill Earl.

I slink down the hall to his door like a sexy spy, and I hold the vial precariously above his doorknob. I do not tilt it.

The smug fopdoodle doesn't deserve a second thought, of course. He spoke to me about his tank and engineering, childishly asinine rantings. He has feelings, yes, but the feelings of a beetle. Not worth considering. I do not pour any of the poison out.

Perhaps my poison is TOO brilliant? After all, who else could create something so seamless? They could be outsmarted, but perhaps they're not so dim that they couldn't identify the one who could most easily outsmart them.

Yes. Yes, this plan is perfect, but that's a problem when only one suspect is capable of perfection! I should wait. Yes.

Yes, I'll kill them all, one of these days, but... well. After I'm done changing my eyes. Yes, that makes sense. By then, I'm sure they'll all act in a million horrid ways that will make it obvious they all deserve killing.

I carefully put the stopper back on top of my vial and slink back down the hall to my room.

"Is that part of how you see yourself, Jane? Someone too stupid to escape when she has the chance?" He glanced around at everyone, pausing at me. "Does this fit the little schema you got in your heads for her? Someone you can only trust because she's too stupid and chickenshit to kill?"

"You're trying to confuse us!" Rocky yelled. "This is bullshit! Don't listen to him!"

"No one's listening already," Bepi grunted, whapping his hand back into another computer button without even looking. "It's just stuff you're seeing with your own eyes."

The screen flickered to life again, this time showing Rocky standing in the kitchen at the frat house. There was a shiny, clean icepick on the floor, and he agitatedly paced back and forth in front of it.

"C'mon c'mon c'mon," I mumble, hitting myself in the chest. "Get mad! C'mon! Gragh! Murder-mad!"

It's not working. "Grrrrr! Roar! Get maaaadddd!"

A voice calls out from the freezer. "Trying to make yourself mad, huh?"

Oh shit she can hear me. "Uh." Shit shit shit ummmm. "No!"

"You hate getting mad." She's all calm and weird and I can just tell she's being sneaky somehow. "Your whole life is about trying to stop yourself from getting mad."

"Yeah, well, maybe I changed my mind!" I yell at the freezer door. "If I wanted to get mad, which I don't!" Wait a minute. "Hey, fuck you, anyway! You're evil!"

"Want me to help?" she offers. "I got Emily killed. And JP, too! Poor idiot didn't stand a chance. Or I can talk about how shitty your music is!"

I think about it. Nothing much happens; I already know she's bad, so this isn't anything new.

"Why are you doing this?" she asks.

"None of your stupid business!" I look down at the icepick. I've never stabbed anyone, but I know you gotta do it over and over again, just stab stab stab stab stab stab.

"It'd be pretty depressing if you got mad and it just ended up with you dead," she points out. "Tragic, even. Classical-tragic, like it's your fatal flaw you could never overcome."

"I don't know what the fuck that means."

"It just means you were always doomed. You spend your whole life trying to be chill, and at the very end you have to force a freak-out. It sucks."

I glare at the door even though she can't see me. "This is depressing more than it's making me mad."

"You should just go to bed. Stay alive. I'm rooting for you! I've always liked gay dudes, dunno why."

"Shut up!"

She sighs. "Well, if you do kill someone, kill Saya, would you?"

"Gragh!" I grab the icepick off the floor and stomp off over near the secret passage. I'm super-frustrated, but that's way different from what I need. I need, like, berserker scream-fury!

"I got it!" Her voice is muffled, but I can still hear it. "Just imagine me laughing at you!"

"What the... look, shut up, you're not helping!"

"Because I'm going to be. After you're dead. There is nothing more goddamn hilarious than a clown."

"Cl..." What the fuck, clown? What the fuck?" "Shut up!"

"But you're a clown! You just are! That's why Lucina laughs at you, too. I saw her. You didn't notice because she doesn't make any noise, but I saw it."

"Look, shut up! I swear to god..."

"Well, what else can I say? Everyone knows you're too goddamn stupid to be anything. It's hysterical watching you try!"

"Shut up shut up shut up!" With a scream, I run over to the freezer door, tear off the padlock, and throw it to the side. Then I duck into the secret passage. She will never see me coming, it's a secret goddamn passage! Gonna kill Juliet it's gonna happen.

I'm enraged and stupid and gonna get killed really soon and it's all amazing. Jesus christ, the best thing ever, oh my god.

"God, what a waste you are," Bepi sneered at Rocky. "All this effort and energy thrown around for no reason at all."

"Do not speak to him that way!" Rodrigo bellowed, still clearly favoring his leg.

"Ha! Speaking of waste." Bepi gestured to Rodrigo with his gun, cavalierly pointing it right at the paladin's chest. "Hundreds of thousands of the taxpayer money down the drain, with this one. But I bet he can somehow twist that into being good."

"These are the devil's words," Rodrigo hissed, but Bepi just shrugged.

"The whole idea was make a child soldier. Make a killer. So, they sure seemed to churn out machines back in the old crusades days, so let's just emulate that! Take our test case, plop him in a realistic simulation, and boom. Megasoldier. But it didn't work."

"I am quite effectively trained in combat," Rodrigo growled.

"But you ain't got the heart, huh?" Bepi asked, leaning forward. "You're a lamb. A weakling. They wanted Joan of Arc, and they ended up with fuckin' St. Francis. Why do you think they gave up and just started screwing with you by the end? Why do you think they sent you here to be killed? You were a waste."

"Righteousness is not a waste!" Rodrigo barked. "A pious heart is not weakness!"

Bepi smirked. He turned a dial and pushed a button. The screen behind him turned on.

I couldn't really make sense of what I was seeing at first. A bed... and a person sitting on the side of it. It was Rodrigo. He was leaning back, his face pointed up to the ceiling. Honey brown hair bobbed back and forth between his legs. He made a noise like a basketball shoe pivoting on a glossy gym floor.

I

What is.

'Twas like the need to sneeze or to stretch upon waking, but grander and lighter and

My gaze is unfocused and my ears are full of ringing. I barely see as Foul Juliet pulls back from me, an evil gremlin's smile on her face.

This feeling is grotesque and execrable and sweet. I hear her say with kindness, "Thank you for protecting me from that mean, dangerous DJ." And she just goes into the bathroom.

What have I allowed to happen? What has my body done? I had known 'twould be sin, but how could there be a sin I could not resist? I have never encountered such a thing. How could I lack the strength?

I can see the Foul Monster through the bathroom doorway. She is looking at herself in the mirror as if proud of her vanity.

I realize my face is wet. There are tears staining my cheeks; tears I had not even known I was shedding. Foul Juliet sees this and laughs like a desert naiad.

"Ah, the righteous knight," Bepi breathed. "With his gallant, strong, pious heart."

I tried not to look at Rocky, but I couldn't help it. His expression was... not exactly betrayal. It was confused and surprised and angry like betrayal, but not quite right. He looked too sad.

Bepi glanced over at Katy.

"Are you just going to do us all one by one?" she asked. "Just... just torture us all by pointing out how we're stupid hypocrites? Okay, we're stupid hypocrites. You made your point."

"Hypocrisy is the easy way out," Bepi chided her. "You've got to let go of easy answers like that. But... that was never your style was it? All you ever do is take the easy way out, except for all the times you make things harder on yourself."

She looked around at all of us helplessly. No one came to her aid. I'm not sure any of us could.

Bepi pushed a button on the computer. Suddenly, there were Katy and Lucina, laughing and happy, and the camera was focused on Katy's almost childishly expressive face. They were signing to one another, but subtitles popped up with each motion.

She is so so so so so so beautiful. I forget when I look away and then I look back and it's just wham. I think what I'm always surprised by is how interesting she is to look at. I don't just want to stare because she's pretty, I'm always finding new pretty things I hadn't noticed before.

She blushes under my gaze and twiddles at her ponytail, hanging over her shoulder. "My roots are really showing," she signs to me. "It was dumb to dye my hair anyway."

"Oh, I think it looks great, though!" I sign back. "Bright colors fit you. You're like..." I pause and try to think of something. "...my flower."

She laughs. "A broken flower, maybe."

I frown. She says things like that sometimes and I'm never sure how to react. "I don't think you're broken."

"No, I'm your broken flower!" she insists. "I really like it."

"Uh," I say out loud.

"It fits me," she signs.

"Well." I pause for a moment, trying to think of a nice way to put it. "It's just kind of dark."

She raises an eyebrow. "But isn't it perfect? It works for our tragic, doomed love affair!" She giggles as she signs these last few words. There is a beat, and she looks surprised I didn't laugh too.

"But... what if I don't want a tragic love affair?" I ask out loud, very quietly. "What if I want to be happy? And I want you to be happy?"

She pulls away and just regards me in confusion for a moment. Then she sighs and shakes her head. "Of course I'd like that, too," she signs. "But I don't think that's possible with me."

I just sit silently for a moment. I knew she thought like this, but it always leaves me speechless. "I think it is," I say, finally.

"I don't want to argue about it," she signs back.

We just sit there for a moment, and it feels like she's a million miles away from me. But then she smiles and signs, "Anyway, I thought you were the one who always talked about how romantic the whole tragic thing was."

"Uh... I do, but..."

"That's part of why I love you. I feel like I can be a character from one of your stories."

"Oh." I think about that, then look up at her, biting my lip anxiously. She's scary when she gets mad, and she reaaalllly gets mad when I poke at these... thoughts she has about herself. I still need to try, though. "Well. But sometimes I feel like I want something, um. Real."

"Real?" she signs, looking confused. "But I thought you were committed to the passion and romance. I love that!" She pauses, as if considering not to communicate the next part, but she goes on anyway: "I could have something real with anyone. Like, I think Saya is very pretty. But she's not romantic like you."

"Um. Right, okay." I don't know what I feel, but I know it isn't good and I know I don't want to think about it. "Okay. Yeah. You're my... broken flower." I laugh softly, not completely forced but a little. "That is romantic."

She throws her arms around me and squeezes. This is the first time that hasn't been enough to make me feel better.

"You're somehow the saddest of them all," Bepi remarked. "If you're going to superimpose a bullshit story onto your life, can't you even commit to it?"

Katy was crying. Jane, of all people, went over to her and put her gloved hand awkwardly on her shoulder. Katy pulled her into an embrace. Jane looked like she wanted to die, but she didn't try to move away.

I barely noticed this; I was still staring at the screen. Monokuma had reappeared, glowering at us all.

"Oh, grow up, Saya," Bepi grunted. "She wasn't perfect, deal with it." He thought for a moment. "Or don't. Doesn't matter."

I tried to talk and couldn't. No one seemed able to. Everyone just looked lost, confused, ashamed, and cold.

"Everyone's gonna mess shit up," he announced casually. "The more you think it matters, the stupider you look."

Smirking, he loomed over me, thrusting his arm out like a circus ringmaster. "Well, go on, Saya! This is why I saved you! So you could make the choice and know it didn't fucking matter. Push the button or don't. Then go out and work until you die, or don't. Who cares?"

He was smiling, and I felt like I couldn't stop falling. I clutched my chest, looking around confused, hopelessly. I opened my mouth to try to speak and couldn't. He was smiling. The button glowed red, and the countdown glowed green, and it was all just fuzzy.

"You're lying."

The voice was quiet, but Bepi whirled on it like a samurai. "I'm sorry?"

"You're lying." Katy glowered up at him, one of Jane's arms still around her. "Saya, he's lying."

Bepi took a step closer to her, gun pointed not quite directly at her. Jane backed away, pressing her back against the Monokuma computer, getting as far away from him as she could. He didn't seem to mind, just staring Katy down. "Lying doesn't mean anything."

"Yeah, it does." She had both her hands balled into fists, looking stronger than I'd ever seen her. "You said this is why you saved Saya. But you didn't."

"Uh, yeah I did," he replied, rolling his eye and taking a step closer. "Y'all would have executed her if I hadn't changed things."

"You didn't change things," she insisted. "You just gave Juliet all the stuff, and she decided to change things. Because you couldn't..."

She suddenly stopped. I thought it was because he moved the barrel of the shotgun to point directly at her, but it wasn't. "Oh." She looked sad, tilting her head and frowning at him. "It's all the same, isn't it?"

"I think you'd really better shut up, now." He was hunched, dangerous, animallike, towering over her.

"She's right," I said, my head beginning to clear. "You... you were surprised when Juliet showed me the Kindschwall letter."

He pointed at me but didn't turn away from Katy. I don't think it was even what Katy was saying; something about Bepi's manner broke everyone from their trances. Rodrigo took a shuffling step towards him, sensing this felt different from before.

Bepi didn't even have to do anything; the chain-arms in the ceiling wrapped around Rodrigo, holding him tightly. "Oh no you don't!" Monokuma's voice rang out.

Rocky shouted and grabbed at the chains, trying to pull them away from the paladin, but more chains swooped in and grabbed him; they both dangled, suspended, helpless. Jane pressed herself back against the computer, mumbling to herself.

But Bepi and Katy didn't seem to notice anything but one another. Katy still just looked sorrowful. "I get it," she said empathetically, and then she looked up at me. "He's just a coward."

Bepi let out a short, arrogant, barking laugh. "Coward? I'm not a fucking Klingon, Katy, I don't care about shit like cowardice."

"Everything he's done has been about not having to take a stand," Katy said, very simply, ignoring him. "Instead of joining Ashley or fighting her, he just stays. He leaves it up to Juliet about whether to change the game or not. And now..." She smiled sadly at him. "Everything else he's saying doesn't matter. He just wants us to make the decision for him, because he can't."

He laughed again, fakely. "See? More stories! You can't help it!"

"If you convinced us, you'd get to be right," I heard myself muttering. "You weren't the pathetic one for staying behind in this hell year after year. You were the smart one."

"I am right!" he yelled.

"But why do you care?" Katy asked, looking even a little serene.

He paused. "I don't."

"Isn't the important thing that Ashley's dead? You must have been close to her somehow, right? And she's dead now. She's gone forever. Isn't that the important thing? How can you even think about anything but that?"

He pointed the gun right at her face. "I really seriously think you should be quiet right now."

She was not quiet. "And Saya loves you. You were real friends. And here she is, scared and tortured, and you can stop it. That's what matters. Not being right. Not who's pathetic and who's not."

He stared right at her. His breathing was the only way he moved, but it was so furious and tense, it looked like every part of him was in motion. "I," he said, "will show you who is pathetic."

"Ptui!"

Even in his rage, the sound of a person spitting was so surprising, it distracted him. We all turned our heads.

The Monokuma computer screen had saliva slowly oozing down it. Jane stood next to it, on shaky legs.

"You..." Monokuma said with absolute shock, "...you spit on me!" And then there was a popping noise and he disappeared into roaring static.

No one moved for a moment.

Jane strutted towards the now open door, but she stopped when she saw me not following. "Hm?" She looked at me blankly for a moment, then nodded. "Oh. My saliva interferes with telecommunications electronics."

"Of course it does," I said.

The chains holding Rocky and Rodrigo loosened and they both dropped to the ground. With a frantic roar, Rocky immediately ran towards Bepi.

But Bepi's reflexes were good. He swiftly turned, raised the shotgun, and fell in a heap on the ground.

I jumped in surprise. Rodrigo had somehow tackled Bepi from the side, and it was more shocking than even a deafening shotgun blast would have been. He had moved like a panther, even on his bad leg, faster than I could even see.

Crouching on top of Bepi, he made eye contact with Rocky. They shared a quick nod.

Jane ran over to where the gun had fallen and picked it up. We all just stayed in place for a moment. "Holy shit," Rocky said. "Did we beat him?"

"I..." I couldn't get my mind to answer his question. "I don't know. Is everyone okay?"

Rodrigo pinned Bepi to the ground, but Bepi wasn't even trying to struggle. "Yo, Roddy?"

Bepi opened his mouth but didn't make a sound for a moment. "...Friend Rocky..."

"No. Fuck all that shit. It's okay."

"But... but I can't be certain I am a good person."

"You are. Chill." Rocky looked around at all of us. "We all are."

Bepi giggled at that but didn't otherwise move. All of a sudden, his mockery just felt sad.

"Indeed," Rodrigo finally agreed, nodding. "What do we do now? We must hurry before the vile bear returns."

As if in response, the computer screen suddenly went black and then lit up again. Monokuma's giant face grinned at us. The machine-arms slowly began to come to life. "Hi, again!" his voice chirped. "It's me! I'm back!"

Bepi laughed. Not an evil laugh, just like someone watching Seinfeld. "Glad to see you," he said. "Be a dear and restrain everyone, would you?"

Monokuma tilted his head in confusion. "Uh... why would I help you? Are you mistaking me with someone else?"

Bepi went pale.

"Wait, you're not Monokuma?" Rocky asked.

"Well, I'm the same AI! But a different, um... manifestation, let's say?" He wagged his paw at Bepi chidingly. "You forgot to turn me off, asshole. In the VR program. That wasn't smart."

"Oh my god..." Katy breathed. "Are... are you..."

"Call me Romeo!" Monokuma announced, posing confidently. "I've been trying to say hello the whole time, but I couldn't break through until Jane pulled that stunt of hers! Thanks, Jane!"

Jane nodded dumbly. "Sure thing." She held out the shotgun gingerly. "Could someone take this, please? I don't wish to touch it any longer."

I surprised myself by walking over and allowing her to hand the gun to me. It was very heavy and very warm and weirdly off-balance, but Jane smiled at me gratefully. Then, suddenly, her eyes filled with apprehension.

"You didn't do it," I reassured her. "That's what matters."

She froze, then nodded. "I'm very sorry your dad hurt you," she said, and although it looked like it caused her physical pain to be kind, she got through it smoothly. I smiled.

"Want me to take over, Rodrigo?" Romeo asked, his little bear paws wiggling on the screen. The paladin hesitantly nodded and stood; robot chain-arms darted down and grabbed Bepi, holding him a foot off the floor. He didn't fight.

"Aaaaand here you go!" A click sounded from a nearby door. "That's the way out; just follow the exit signs!"

Just follow the exit signs. "It's over," I said plainly. I had never felt joy like that moment. Exit sign joy; it was bizarre. "It's over," I repeated. "We survived."

"It was Friend Katy," Rodrigo said. He limped over to her and bowed his head. "I will always be grateful."

"Ack!" Katy yelped, embarrassed. "No! You're the one who tackled him!"

"Only because Rocky distracted him," I pointed out.

"Hey!" Jane snapped. "I'm the one with the super-spit!"

Laughing, I nodded. "Yep. I'm the only one who didn't do anything."

"Whoa, hold up," Rocky said. "We still gotta choose, right?" He pointed over to the countdown. "And that's you."

"Uh." I blinked at him. "...Still?"

"Indeed," Rodrigo answered. "We have learned to trust in your wisdom."

"But..." I trailed off. I literally couldn't think of anything to say after that. Everyone was looking at me with genuine trust, even Jane. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and nodded.

I walked up to the computer, standing in front of that big red button. Monokuma's face leered at me, the countdown still trickling on various small screens all around. If I pushed the button, Ashley's plan would be stopped; the world would continue on. If I didn't press the button, things would be different. A clean break.

"This doesn't change anything," Bepi mumbled. "I'm right."

"Ugh, just shut up," Jane sneered.

"But I'm right." He was still beaten and quiet, even as he insisted. "You can't be certain what the right thing to do is. It's impossible. You might be wrong. You might wreck everything."

I looked over at him. "I know," I said.

He looked so sorrowful... my sad, pathetic friend who refused to leave college, who just wanted to hide, and who I couldn't help. "So how can you choose?" he asked, voice plaintive.

"I just have to maybe be wrong," I answered. Then I looked at the computer and I made my choice. Afterwards, I walked back to the circle. I found myself walking up to Katy and hugging her tightly.

"What about him?" Romeo asked, jostling Bepi up and down a few times. "Want me to kill him? I'll totally kill him! There's literally five different executions stored in here for him."

"Fucker deserves it," Jane sneered. "Give him all five at the same time."

"Let's just let him go," Katy said. "I can't stand any more death."

I was watching Bepi. When Jane gave her suggestion, it was subtle, but I saw it on his face: fear. And when Katy gave her suggestion, even more fear, breaking through his smug mask like a hand reaching up out of a graveyard.

"Romeo?" I said.

"Yeah?"

"Where would his execution be?"

"Through here!" Romeo answered, one of the robot arms pointing at a nearby door. "But it'll take a few minutes to set up."

"Set it up." Romeo's response was just a sneering giggle, but I wasn't done. "After we leave, wait ten minutes and then let him go. Open the door to his execution and the door to the outside. Lock everything else."

I stared at him. There were tears in his one eye for the first time I'd ever seen. "Freedom or death. Let him choose. But he has to choose."

He hung his head, trying to hide his face from us all. "I'm okay with this," Jane said, grinning. No one argued.

I almost, very suddenly, collapsed in exhaustion. Katy held me up. It suddenly hit me how wonderful she'd been to me this whole time.

I set the shotgun on the floor. In a clump, all together, we made our way to the exit. I felt Jane's gloved hand grasping mine and it felt good. Solid.

"Pick up your diplomas on the way out!" Romeo cheerfully announced. We loped out to the hallway.

I glanced back one time. Bepi hung, restrained, watching us go. I caught a glimpse of his face: completely, utterly helpless, before the door slid closed behind us. I have absolutely no idea what he did after we left.