Trial 1-4: Turnabout Defeat
She looked defeated, her eyes showing nothing but sadness and fear.
"Ava...why did you do it?" Lucille asked desperately.
"Didn't I tell you already? I did this out of spite. My hatred is the reason that JJ Jackson is dead."
"Don't you at least regret anything?" asked Hideki.
"What's there to regret?"
Ava gritted her teeth. "Jackson, that ass, he accused me not just of Todd's murder, but of taking steroids. Said my victory had to have been a fluke. And I don't take that kind of thing lightly."
"What on Earth led him to that conclusion?" asked a taken-aback Hideki.
"Hell if I know. I tried asking him that night in the kitchen, but he decided it was better to make me angry." Her face turned even more sour, if that was remotely possible. "I didn't know what happened, but when I came to my senses, he was bleeding out on the floor. I lost control, and for that, I am so sorry,"
"So it was an impulse-kill?" Nico averted her eyes, "Oh man, now I feel horrible...I'm sorry we were so hard on you during the trial-"
"Don't be. I brought this upon myself."
Straightening herself up, Ava addressed us all, "This morning, I was planning on admitting that I killed Jackson outright, but...Rule #5."
Rule #5?
"A culprit who kills a fellow student and convinces the other students that they are not the culprit, successfully passing the Class Trial, will be accepted into Hope's Peak immediately." Monokuma lazily flicked some specks of honey off his paws.
"I...I just wanted to make my father proud. A Super High School Level title...it would have made him so happy..." she huffed with a shudder, "So I got selfish. I wanted to graduate, and here we are now. Again, I don't regret anything...except maybe I shouldn't have caused so many problems on my way out."
The mood whiplash was surreal. The tense atmosphere that we'd built up to by accusing each other not half an hour ago had completely evaporated in light of the truth.
"Aren't you...scared?" Nico was hesitant, but asked it anyways, "I mean, Monokuma's going to punish you..."
Ava smiled half-heartedly. "Of course I am. But at the same time, I knew what I was getting into. I took the risk, and I guess I failed, for the first time in my life. Ah well. Besides, what the hell can Monokuma possibly do to me?"
"Oh, you'll see. Alright then, it's voting time!"
Our Electro-IDs beeped in synchronization, as Monokuma appeared to fiddle around with something. When the sounds stopped, he looked back up and grinned ferally. "Guess what, ya bastards? I've uploaded the Vote application on your IDs, so give it a try!"
Tapping the menu screen on my own, it returned me back to the main menu, where the aforementioned choice had shown up.
[Home] [Rules] [Map] [Call Monokuma] [Camera] [Record] NEW! [Vote] NEW!
Opening it up, the screen now displayed sixteen square panels - a student's mugshot and their name under it in each. All were in colour, except for two.
Both JJ's and Todd's pictures were in monochrome, with a bloody cross and a question mark over their faces respectively.
"Tap once to vote on which of your classmates is the culprit, and tap again to confirm! The person with the most votes will be considered the accused party in this act!"
Reluctantly, I located Ava's smiling portrait, which had her putting on a confident smirk. It zoomed in, such that her picture filled up most of the screen. Along the bottom, a button appeared, with the word 'Vote' written on it.
I hesitated for a brief moment. She's right, right? What could Monokuma possibly do to her?
Making my selection, I flinched. For a split-second after I touched the 'Vote' button, Ava's portrait also turned black-and-white with a bloody cross superimposed onto it à la JJ, before returning to normal. The application logged itself out after that, before signalling with a beep that I had voted.
I looked up. The beeps sounded out throughout the room, before stopping.
Pause.
"What's...going on?" Matthew ventured uncertainly.
Monokuma was unresponsive.
Hideki looked around, before coming to a realization. "...Not all of us voted, right?"
BANG!
"Yep, now who's the cheese-eating surrender monkey here?"
The plexiglass door swung open, and out stepped another familiar face.
"You know who I'm directing that at, right?" Yukari snickered as she flicked her blonde twintails, "I'd hate to blame somebody who actually voted - then again, I got a plethora of insults for the rest of ya!"
"TA GUEULE!"
Jackie, who had also cussed in unison, looked at Lucille, who had been the louder of the two. "What ze-"
"Nishimiya," growled Sasha. "What are you doing here?"
"Just facilitating, since Ataru is busy operating the plane and the bear. Look, someone needs to vote, or I'll just punish everyone!"
"And who is it that hasn't voted?" asked Xiang slowly. "Actually, nevermind - I think I know."
From the other side of the room, one final beep rang out.
Lucille looked up, grief in her eyes. "Zhere, I did it."
"Excellent." Yukari reached into a jacket pocket, and took out a small ball, "I'll just kick start the proceedings with this Walmart-certified, Despair-approved roulette ball!"
"Wow, Nishimiya," said Sasha in a condescending tone, "I guess the wonders of capitalism even reach to forty thousand feet in the air. I guess I just never expected you to be such a sellout."
"Never you mind, Comrade, we get advertising fees." She snapped back.
Walking over, she touched the interface, upon which, the hologram shut off, and our trial table reformed back into an actual roulette. She placed the ball on a the dais of the roulette, before grabbing one side of it, and swinging it.
*whirr-rrrr-rrrr-rrrr*
The ball began spinning on the outside of the roulette, as Yukari stepped back with a satisfied smirk.
"My business is done here. Now, if you excuse me, I'm out. Ataru and I have some...pressing business to attend to."
And with that, she was back into the plexiglass door, and it swung shut behind her.
"Blech. Too much information," was all Tien could mutter out, before the ground beneath us began to rumble.
The contours of the sky room disappeared deeper into the bottom, as we rose back up into the familiar surroundings of the casino and bar. This time, however, JJ's statue was no longer facing the door, but...us.
The moment our courtroom stopped its ascent, the roulette began to slow in speed.
VOTE
*whirr*
*whirr*
*whirr*
*brrk-ding-ding-ding*
...
Ava Tremblay
...
Guilty!
"Hey hey! It looks like you've guessed correctly! The murderer of JJ Jackson was none other than Ava Tremblay, the Super High School Level Hockey Player!"
Monokuma paused, before tut-tutting, and waving a finger. "But it looks like it wasn't unanimous - nice try, DuCarde, but voting for yourself is only gonna get it invalidated!
"Ta bouche!" Lucille yelled, before breaking down into another sob.
"Well, we could get started, but since I'm a nice headmaster, I'm gonna give you a minute." Monokuma sniggered, "Got any last words, Hockey Player?"
"...Last words?"
Ava was shaking, but her voice stayed firm. "What do you mean, last words?"
"Oh, did I forget to mention?" Monokuma laughed, "This punishment be capital!"
...Capital?! You can't mean-
"Oh yes I do! You might wanna use those well, cause...fifty, forty-nine-"
"Lucille!"
Ava faced her directly. "I'm sorry for not reciprocating your feelings, and for making you have to worry about me. I just hope that you find love with someone better than me."
Turning towards me, she nodded. "I believe in you, Jung. You better ensure the rest of them don't screw up like I did. I'm sorry to you and to the rest of you, for disrupting our peace."
She closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, dad. I failed you this time. There...won't be a next time."
She paused.
"And if you guys ever find Todd, tell him I'm sorry I screwed him over so badly," she added, before turning to Monokuma, "Okay, my body is ready."
"Alright then! Hey Jackson, you're up! And no moonwalking!"
*whirrrrrrrrr-click*
"Huh?" was all we could manage out, before-
*clank*
…Myowa, ige?! I mean, what the-?!
With a heavy step, what I thought was a mere statue of JJ started to move!
"Say hello to the JJ-nator Mk. I! I had the other good kiddos build him from sketch, but that's not the main attraction now, is it? Show 'em!"
The hand that had been by the sword at its waist was raised up, before its wrist dislocated itself, dropping down and hanging by the hinge connecting it to the rest of its arm. From the hollow hole of his arm, a large chain shot out, before wrapping itself-
"Hck!"
-around Ava's neck. And judging by how her attempts to break it ended in failure, removing it was out of the question entirely.
"Hey, what the hell?!" she yelled, as she struck the chain again, in a futile attempt to snap it, "This can't be legal!"
"Get over here!" the statue appeared to yell, before the chain started to retract. Fast.
With a sharp tug, Ava was dragged from her stand towards the automaton.
"Ava!" Lucille cried out, jumping off her stand to help her, along with the others, but-
"Swoosh!"
With one heavy sweep of its scales, the statue blew the rest of us backwards, until those of us who had gone forward to save her fell on our backs. Rubbing my own posterior, I could only helplessly stare as the statue continued to choke her.
"Ava!" Lucille cried, reaching out for her in vain.
"Well, now that the murderer and the innocent ones have been separated... it's punishment time!"
With that, Monokuma proceeded to take out a small hammer, and with it, he slammed the big red button. The world went black right after.
GAME OVER
Ava Tremblay has been found guilty
Commencing Execution
Switching POV to 3rd accordingly
When Ava's bearings returned to her, she could tell she was lying on her back, but that was all she could see in the pitch-dark environment. Her arms and legs were restrained - as was her neck, and all three had bindings made of what felt like silk. Try as she might, she couldn't break any of the rope, so she instead tried figuring out what she was tied to. Giving the material behind her a quick knock, she felt it bounce slightly, with ripples. The sensation was familiar - eerily familiar, almost as if...
...Almost as if she had been strapped to a giant hockey puck.
The moment her mind came to the epiphany, her vision flared with white light. The sound of cheering exploded from all around her, but that did not stop her from feeling the chills.
Then again, that might've been the ice rink beneath her.
"Ava!"
She heard her name being called, and the banging of a person against glass - something she had heard every game. But this call was different, and she knew why. Turning her head to the side, she glimpsed Lucille and the others partitioned behind the glass divider at the edge of the rink, her fists doing nothing to weaken the barrier. All she could do was try.
Her view was short-lived, as a hyper-sized Monokuma, dressed ironically in the same Under Armour suit that she had been very well known for, skate to where she was. It wasn't just one, however. A whole squadron of them, numbering ten, gathered around her.
"It's sudden death, you bear-stards! First goal nets your victory!"
The sound of a whistle, produced by a referee Monokuma, signalled the start of overtime.
"Well, shit," she thought, as the first hockey stick swung down.
SUDDEN DEATH PENALTY SHOT
Super High-School Level Hockey Player Ava Tremblay's Punishment
"It's with Moe, it's with Moe, and he shoots! But oh, what's this, eh! He bounced it off the end-board but failed to get the rebound, eh! Kool has it now, and he's winding up for a shot-"
The commentator rambled on and on, but none of that mattered to Ava very much. She was preoccupied with trying to keep whiplash from killing her, as the hockey puck was shot at breakneck speeds around the rink. She could feel every impact, every shot onto a hard surface in all its entirety, and her body cried out in pain. But she wouldn't let herself scream.
Thwack!
The shock of yet another hockey stick impacting the side of her body made her flinch, but then she realized, instead of the vertigo she had experienced when the puck slid through the ice, the puck had come to a complete stop.
"Oh, what's this, eh?"
Ava looked up, to see a Monokuma dressed exactly in her likeness, long hair and all.
"It's a penalty shot! Ava Tremblay's going to take this golden opportunity to score!"
Giggling, Monokuma!Ava slid his- her- its hockey stick under the puck, and flipped it, and by proxy, Ava, into the air.
"Oh, fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-" With a scream, Ava realized where this scenario was going as she landed face-down-
THWACK!
For one moment, the puck appeared to be ethereal as the stick impacted with it - and the next, it had slammed into the goal net with such force that it created a larger hole in the back of the fabric.
"And it's a goal! The match goes to the Yukari Alliance!"
The assembled Monokuma's began to cheer amongst themselves, before skating off the rink into the changing rooms.
All that was left on the field was a long pink streak on the ice.
Ava Tremblay - the Super High School Level Hockey Player - has been executed.
Trial 1-4 FIN
13 Stud-
"MERDE!"
Wait, chapter's not over? Whoops, sorry!
"Salope! Nique ta mere!" Lucille cried, directing those hate-filled words at Monokuma, who laughed cruelly in return.
"How dare you! How…" she began to collapse, "dare...you. Ava..." The next thing we heard from her were sobs.
While the super-sized hockey rink must have been an illusion, the fact that she was no longer part of our thirteen-person group meant that Ava had indeed fallen foul of that...execution…
I think I'm going to be sick.
"Oh, merde," muttered Jackie as she fainted dead away. Matthew caught her, lowered her to the ground, and leaned against a wall, crying. The faint sounds he made sounded much like 'I want to go home'.
In stark contrast, Eric had a hand on his chest, and was hyperventilating. His other hand rested on the shoulder of an entirely emotionless Maya - who neglected for some reason to knock him to the floor. Perhaps she was just as shocked too.
"How dare you!" Hideki yelled, his eye practically radiating anger and hate. "This isn't right! This isn't fair!"
Sasha glared at the ground, looking frazzled, angry, and sad. "This can't be happening… I can't believe we let this happen…I can't believe I let this happen."
Xiang placed a hand on her shoulder. "None of us could have prevented this."
"T-that doesn't make it any less awful!"
Hideki composed himself slightly. "Not a single other person is going to die on my watch! I swear that much!"
Monokuma giggled. "Cool story, bro. But we'll see how much good that does you in the real world."
Tien stared blankly at the ground. "Thisisn'trealthisisn'trealthisisn'trealthisisn'treal-"
"H-How could you do that to A-Ava?! She-!" Nico broke down, and began to whimper, leaning against me for support. I didn't stop her - I needed the reassurance, before the tears escaped my own eyes.
This is no time to be strong for everyone else. Not when I'm falling apart too.
I'd voted for Ava...I'm partially responsible for sending her to her death.
Faen was shivering, and his knees were visibly shaking, "Ms. Tremblay may have been a murderer, but she certainly did not deserve that!"
"Ditto!" Johan roared, "The death penalty is completely unwarranted, and that execution was just- no, I mean, what the actual fuck?!"
"Seriously. Don't any of you people believe in a life for a life?"
"No," said Sasha. "I've never believed in the necessity of anyone, especially not someone in power, taking a life for a transgression. Or any reason, actually."
"Well, there would be no fun, and no justice, in a sentence of life without parole, right? I'm sure JJ, wherever he is, would agree with me!"
"Don't disrespect the dead by implying they would agree with you," growled Xiang.
"This isn't right...this isn't right!" repeated Hideki.
One by one, everyone finally gave up shouting at Monokuma, until the only thing that could be heard was the sound of Lucille's sobs.
That was the end of any hope of peace of happiness we would have had aboard that airship. From that day forward, everyone's thoughts and behaviors were no longer that of a student, but rather that of a survivor.
"Well, if you excuse me, my work here is done, you bastards! Now, go do whatever, the Casino and Bar will be closed for refurbishing today. Or, you know, you can keep on staying here and risk further punishment!"
We didn't need to be told twice, and left, Nico and I propping Lucille on our shoulders as we did so.
Nothing was ever going to be the same again.
Trial 1-4 FIN
13 Students Remaining
A/N:
…
…
In other news, Mile High Club is now the official ship name for Yukari/Ataru, and yes, it is canon.
All jokes aside though, sincerest apologies to LongTimeReader19 for having to kill off Ava. Believe us, it was not a choice made easily, but ultimately, everyone else just had something more major going for them, so she just drew the short straw. We hope we will not stand to lose you as a loyal reader…
Anyways, the poll winners were Ashley Jung vs. The World and JJ's execution. So that's going to be the other contents of next chapter. You guys can and should keep submitting questions for the Q&A if you haven't already - three per person, and they can be addressed to any character or one of us authors.
And for this week's poll, SD found a really cool image of the SDR2 girls with alternate hairstyles, and I'm going to have you guys vote for your favorites. It's for science.
A Dingus With Sweet Shades: Yep, Lucille is saved...for now...
Saiynt: Haha, all the options are great. I hope you like the options that got chosen. Now there's only a few things left to figure out. Who would be Knives? Who would be Stephen, Kim and Young Neil? I dunno but I gotta figure it out by next chapter.
We're trying our best to ensure each chapter is up to standard, although we will argue that Ava was less a surprise, and moreso a fitting first murderer. She was a good girl - she just had too much going for her role in the story. She will no doubt be missed, not only by the other characters, but by us as well. Requiscat in pace.
And btw, the Ava/Lucille ship name is French Canada. Do with that what you will.
Mile High Club is just adorable and cringe-y at the same time. If we ever write a sequel, they'll be sure to cameo, somehow.
Let'sTalkAboutMurder: Good for you, man. We weren't trying to make it unsolvable, so good on you for figuring it out. Also, questions received and acknowledged, thanks.
GinMerric: Phew. We thought this chapter was a bit anticlimactic, but I guess it could've gone worse. We weren't exactly sure how best to approach it, but I guess a neutral response is better than a bad one, and hey, no such thing as bad publicity.
Yeah, SD explained and C-P'd the PM over. I just felt like addressing it myself, nothing more, nothing less.
I would think Ava gave in more to her rage than to despair, but in any case, she knew what was coming, and faced her death with dignity, which is a lot more than most others would be able to.
Sekrin- Lord of Monsterds: I guess that's fair.
FireDusk: Thanks.
dashunterman: She clearly didn't take it very well.
Khronovision: There's your answer, she did it out of pride and prejudice.
Questions acknowledged and received with thanks.
Well, I think we did a bang-up job on executing Ava...hmm, I wonder if we can get some art for that.
Mile High Club is canon, kthx. #JusticeForLime has succeeded.
HeroinOfDarkness: Why? I think she explained her motivations quite well.
Yeah, Ava was one of my faves, but sadly it was her time. I wish she could have survived longer, but ah well.
Remember to vote in the poll and ask your questions! Ciao!