AN: I'm not dead. Just struggling with school. Still working on this just a lot more slowly. So sorry about the wait. Please review.
Day 30, 1250 Hours, Trial Room
John was slightly surprised by the look of the trial room. It was a plain uniform white, even done to the stands. It hardly looked as if it actually paid any homage to Billy's talent like all the other trial rooms, with their obvious homage to the respective victim of the murder. His surprise went from slight to full blown as the room light up a dull purple color as everyone took their places.
"What the hell?" Chloe said; she was loudest person to emote their surprise at the change in color.
As she said this, her podium took on a redder color, giving John a suspicion of what Monokuma was doing.
"I rigged the room to change color with your emotions, I figured it was a good way to emulate his talent since emotions are the main factor in determining anyone's behavior!" Monokuma said brightly, "But that's not important, what is important is that this is a trial to yadda, yadda, blackened, yadda, yadda, everyone, yadda, yadda, executed etc. You know the routine by now and if you don't then you're one brain dead bastard."
Monokuma reclined into his throne as he finished, John noticing that as he did it reverted to the color it normally was, possibly to signify that Monokuma was above them all. He ignored this fact and instead looked at the new portraits of the deceased. Louise's was decorated with severed limbs to form the red x, and Billy's had the signature painted on red x of a victim. Then as there had been from the first trial was Amelia's; and then Adam's, Wilbur's, Perdita's, and Finally Rowland's. Seven out of sixteen dead; which would mean half of the group would be dead at the end of the day.
He shook himself from his ponderings as Alexander opened the trial.
"Alright, in the formula we followed for the last few trials we open with a recount the events that happened, namely Billy was shoved onto a piece of rebar, breaking his spine and piercing his heart," Alexander said, his podium turning a somber gray color.
"I was with John and Chloe when the m-murder occurred," Paris said, before deciding to add, "By the dormitory area." Her podium had changed to a sickly green color.
"Atsuko and I were in the library," Ferris said, his podium turned a nondescript off-white color, which drew a lot of attention from the other students, which caused the majority of their podiums to turn an orangeish color, along with the rest of the room, showing that it changed along with the majority feeling of the room.
"Anyways, I was in the Central Hall when the temperature dropped and I reached Billy's body at about the same time Barry did," Alexander said his podium returning to a more purple color.
"I came from the Rec Room," Barry said, his tone lazy as always, his podium the same slightly blue color it had been from the beginning of the trial.
"I was heading towards the pool to try and open it again when the temp dropped and then I ran for the central hall and saw someone going down the North Wing hall so I followed," Mary said, her podium changing to a dull green.
"That was probably me," Jane said, her podium a bright yellow, "I was moving towards the body from where I had hidden after I saw Barry come through into the North Wing, before Billy's death, I think he was with someone."
"Nah, I've been alone this entire time," Barry said, "Up until you and Alexander joined me at the stiff."
Jane scowled but said nothing, her and Barry's podium not changing colors at all.
"Anyway," Ferris said, "Someone found something useful in solving this case right?"
There was silence, in which Monokuma leaned forward, expectantly.
"Has anyone seen Shi-ru today?" John asked suddenly, trying to think of something to stall for time.
There was a chorus of negatives, Ferris even adding, "He wasn't in the store today either, just a Monokuma that was quite rude."
"Hey I was perfectly nice!" Monokuma said, standing up his throne turning red.
"You made fun of me and made me use a weird gumball machine thing, which just gave me random objects. And I needed to use some freaky Mono-currency or some other bullshit."
Monokuma sat back down, muttering about Mono-coins, but subsided giving John time to keep this topic of conversation moving, buying more time to actually come up with something relevant.
"Maybe Shi-ru's disappearance has something to do with the trial, like he openly witnessed it and Monokuma isn't allowing him access because he's worried that he'll spoil the trial," John theorized, his podium turning a brighter white color, different from Ferris's almost grey white.
"Oh, I'm just going to tell you this has no relevance to the trial, for this moment," Monokuma said, straightening up, "So actually talk about something with a point or start voting."
Silence fell, before Alexander began speaking quickly, "It was not John. Paris, Chloe, Ferris, Atsuko, nor is it likely that it is Mary or Jane. That leaves Barry."
"And you," Ferris said with a toothy grin.
Before Alexander could speak Barry said, "Nah, he didn't do it."
There was an estranged silence as everyone looked at the musician.
"Are you, confessing?" Paris said, her podium draining of color, matching her face.
"I suppose so," Barry said, shrugging slightly, his podium changing to a brighter green.
"Is that supposed to be happy? Are you fucking happy?" Chloe said to the musician.
"Heh, I guess I am. I've only ever done what was best for me. I abandoned my family, even if they were horrible people, well, not all of them but anyways, I simply existed to live. I think I've finally done something that gives my life meaning. Even if it is only admitting to having made one last mistake," Barry said with a laugh, his voice taking on a more alive and feeling tone as he went on.
"…You killed Billy," Mary said, flatly.
"I never said it balanced itself out I just said it was the right thing to do," Barry said, taking on a melancholier tone.
"Vote."
Monokuma's deadly tone of voice cut off all further conversation, as everyone turned to look at the bear. He was standing up straight, his red eye glowing dully. The throne had turned black and it was slowly spreading to the rest of the room, giving John the mind to compare it to a disease as it began to consume all the others colors, slowly plunging the room towards a colorless void.
Looking down at his podium, John noticed a marked difference from every other time he had used the voting system. The only face done in color was Barry's and it had several arrows pointing at it, encouraging John to vote for the musician. John looked around at everyone else, and saw the majority of people doing the same thing. Only two people were stationary.
Barry had closed his eyes and was standing up straight; his posture at the best John had seen it. He had a faint smile, which seemed genuine compared to his usually facial expressions. It was obvious that he had accepted his fate and had made peace with it the moment he had decided to admit his crimes. The other was Ferris who was drawing circles on his podium with his finger.
"Billy spoke to me before he died," Barry said suddenly, looking around at everyone when he realized that people were taking too long to vote for him, "he said that he didn't except me to kill, but he believed I would do the right thing, don't make me doing the right thing be pointless."
John took a deep breath, then touched Barry's picture on the podium. There, he had just convicted a self-confessed murderer to death. It didn't feel right. There was a moment as everyone else voted, some hesitant about sending another fellow to death, some suspicious of a trap. By the time they had finished voting the only other color in the room was the clothes on their back and the white and red of Monokuma's body.
The roulette wheel rose, and that too had been modified for this time. Monokuma was really upset about Barry confessing when there was plenty of confusion on who had actually committed the crime. The roulette wheel was smooth except for the one slot in front of Barry. The ball stopped in front of him without the usual fanfare.
"…You were so close," Monokuma stated, looking directly at Barry, "Why? You could have had freedom, money, and safety. Why?"
"Because I could have done that, and there would have been no hope for me or them," Barry said, looking up at the ceiling before back down at Monokuma, "I wouldn't have been able to live with myself."
"But you would have lived," Monokuma stated, before repeating himself again angrier, "YOU WOULD HAVE LIVED! Now instead you get this extra special execution for your murder of Billy Blake the Ultimate Behavioral Analyst."
Monokuma brought his gavel up and down onto the button, triggering a new animation of instead of one Monokuma but a mob carried the sprite version of Barry off the screen.
Five chains shot out from behind Barry grabbing his limbs and his neck. The violent jerk probably shattered bones and caused internal damage as he was jerked into the air, back from his podium. They had to run to keep up with the rapidly vanishing musician. They finally reached the execution room to see Barry strung up in the air over a strange machine.
Instrumental
As soon as everyone was present, the chains that had been suspending Barry, keeping his limbs splayed out at odd angles, suddenly pulled apart ripping Barry's head and limbs from his body, letting the dismembered parts fall into the machine below, spraying blood across the enclosed room. The machine began whirring as a group of Monokuma's dressed in punk clothes approached the machine. Finally, there was a ding and a conveyer belt leading out of the machine revved to life.
Out of the machine came instruments, made out of Barry's dismembered body. A drum set of human skin drawn taut, a spine guitar as well as others. As soon as they got their hands on them they began playing a loud song, removing the other students' ability to hear for a moment.
After the Monokuma band finished, a regular Monokuma jumped up and said, "Who's ready for an encore?"
There was a strong no to his question that he ignored and said, "Well here it is, for divulging knowledge and resisting the authority of the principal, here to be executed, is Shi-ru! Oh, and to make sure the stupid bird doesn't try and retreat to his central unit," the bear then produced a remote and pressed a button resulting in a loud explosion that could be heard around the school.
One of Us
A screen dropped down, showing Shi-ru standing in a room surrounded by inactive Shi-ru drones. Suddenly, the drones' eyes turned red as they activated. They slowly began moving towards Shi-ru, who seemed to sigh. They reached him and began to tear into him. They piled on top of him as they all began to rip apart the robotic penguin.
"As you can see, the entity known as Shi-ru has been executed, but he will live on in the form of mindless menial labor drones!" Monokuma said brightly, satisfied at the looks of horror on the students faces.
John turned and left before anything else could happen, others joined him but he didn't notice them. Half of them dead, the kindlier captor, no, their ally dead as well. Things were slowly spiraling to despair. This was his final thought before he fell asleep.