A/N: Even I'm not entirely sure what happened with today's one-shot. The prompt was "Pregame/Postgame", and I went with "Postgame". This one-shot sort of... ended up doing it's own thing. I hope everyone else enjoys it regardless! This one-shot contains massive spoilers for Danganronpa V3. So without further ado, it's time for femslash!

Day 4: Afterwards

Sometimes, Maki couldn't help but wonder what Tenko would have made of everything.

Just as Tsumugi claimed, the world outside the "Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles" was peaceful. Even after Shuichi swayed the "outside world" to abandon Danganronpa, however, there were a select few that cried out for it's revival.

So it seemed that Maki was not fated to live a quiet life after all. Which was perhaps the cruelest irony of all- after spending so long tormented by her past as an assassin, hating herself, it turned out none of that was real in the first place.

In a sense, Maki was free to do whatever she wanted, be whoever she wanted. At the same time, that freedom did nothing for all the anguish that Maki had suffered as the "Ultimate Assassin".

The freedom of being in this "outside world" did nothing for the nightmares that Maki suffered, from all the deaths she'd witnessed. The deaths of every one of her classmates stuck with her, especially considering the possibility that Tsumugi invented all the motives for the murders.

The two deaths that stuck out the most to Maki, however, were Kaito's and Tenko's.

The noise of the city sometimes became too much for Maki. So after leaving her small apartment, Maki made her way to- somewhere. Anywhere that Maki could be alone with her thoughts. Eventually Maki spotted a small park, where the only people there were a mother and father playing with their daughter.

As Maki sat down on a bench, she subtly observed the parents play with their child.

From what Maki could "remember", she was an orphan. Regardless of if that past was real or not, Maki had no memories of her parents. No memory of if her family resembled the family in the park.

Maki forced her mind away from that train of thought, but her mind ended up lingering on them instead. On Kaito and Tenko, and on how they weren't here anymore.

When it came to Kaito, sometimes he could be the absolute worst. Always barreling forward without a second thought, dragging Maki or Shuichi (or both of them) along for whatever harebrained idea he'd come up with.

Kaito would come up with his training programs and then never do any training himself… although in hindsight, his illness was likely responsible for that. Kaito would make bold claims about the impossible being possible, then ducked out instead of backing his words up, like the time he and Maki assembled a crossbow together and he didn't want to disassemble it.

Yes, Kaito could be the worst… yet if he hadn't been so insistent of pushing Maki out of her shell, if he hadn't made the ultimate sacrifice to save her and beat the killing game, Maki wouldn't be here.

"If you were here, Kaito, you would tell me to just believe in you and everything would be fine," Maki muttered to herself. "Well, you're not here… but I am, and I plan to believe in myself now." Perhaps Kaito would be proud of his "sidekick".

Now Maki's mind wandered to Tenko. Maki didn't get a chance to know Tenko very well, and if anything that was even worse.

Because the first memory that stuck out to Maki about Tenko was after the trial surrounding Rantaro's murder. Maki was headed to the elevator, when she heard Tenko talk to Shuichi. Before now, Tenko made her intense dislike of men clear.

So it surprised Maki to hear Tenko reassuring Shuichi- telling him not to beat himself up for what happened. In that moment, Maki could see a kind heart shining from inside Tenko.

During Ryoma's case, more of Tenko's personality showed itself- Tenko fiercely defending Himiko from suspicion, doing her best to rally the rest of the class, and when Maki's alibi was questioned, Tenko loudly declaring that she believed in Maki.

Maki didn't dare get her hopes up- if her identity as an assassin was revealed, Tenko would turn on her like anyone else. And the morning after Kokichi exposed Maki's "true talent", Tenko was looking at Maki with suspicion just like everyone else, besides Kaito and Shuichi.

Maki thought she had Tenko figured out. Just when Maki was ready to write Tenko off, however…

Tenko approached Maki and Shuichi, bearing a serious expression Maki had never seen on her before. And Maki learned of a whole new side of Tenko: seeing the true depths of Tenko's sincerity in helping Himiko and stopping Angie's cult, learning of Tenko's firm morals.

Just that fact that Tenko was able to take the full brunt of Maki's glare while barely flinching was surprising enough. Hearing Tenko declare that killing was never justified was another matter altogether.

It wasn't that Maki disagreed. At the time, Maki believed the world wasn't so nice as to give people a choice, as Maki knew from experience. Still, Tenko's resolve left an impression on Maki.

When Tenko's initial attempt to appeal to Angie ended in her fighting with Himiko, Maki found herself worrying about Tenko. Maki found herself hoping that Tenko could work things out with Himiko.

When they met up again the next morning, Maki and Tenko greeted each other casually, as if they were already friends. Maki even found herself smiling. Maki allowed herself to consider Tenko someone she could trust…

Then it was all cruelly ripped away, when Tenko was killed. Murdered in a trap that preyed on her kindness. Even after her death, however, Tenko's heart lingered. Especially in Himiko, who carried Tenko's resolve with her through to the end of the killing game.

Maki's reminiscence was briefly broken by the sound of crying. Looking up, Maki saw that the girl had tripped and scraped her knee. Her mother was holding her daughter in her arms and reassuring her, while the dad attended to her wound.

"If you had a daughter, Tenko, would you have treated them like this?" Maki whispered to herself. Then Maki shook her head. "Is that why… I can't forget you? Because you deserve a life like this, and now you can never have it?"

Of course, Tenko's disdain in men was something that Maki knew well, as was Tenko's interest in girls. Even so, Tenko struck Maki as the sort that would want to start a family with a girl that she loved.

That was another irony- Maki was given the backstory of growing up in an orphanage and looking after small children, but Tenko was the one Maki could see really thriving in that role.

Of course, sometimes Tenko could let her emotions get the better of her. "At a time like that, maybe I could be the one to rein her in."

A part of her backstory was growing up with a best friend whose face and name Maki couldn't remember, perhaps because she never existed in the first place. So in Maki's mind, that faceless friend was being replaced by Tenko.

Maki found herself imagining growing up with Tenko, but not in the fake orphanage hiding an assassin cult- in an normal orphanage. Laughing with Tenko, crying with Tenko, working out with Tenko just for fun.

The times that Maki played house with her "best friend" were now times playing house with Tenko. Maki could see Tenko smiling brightly at her as the two of them watched over the rest of the children.

"Wait, what am I thinking? Something like this… could have never happened. And now, it will never happen."

That's what it came down to in the end, didn't it? Maki's time with Tenko was cut short, and now a part of her wished they could have had so much longer together.

It was then that Maki remembered Tenko's final words to Himiko: "Live your life facing forward!"

"That's what you would tell me too if you were here, wouldn't you, Tenko? To not be sad that you're gone, but to find the strength to keep going." Maki sat up from the bench, dusting herself off.

"Then I will. I will do my best to move forward. But I don't think I will ever forget you."

A/N: I think I've made myself sad with this one-shot. Honestly, I do wish Tenko survived, if only because she and Maki did seem like they were becoming friends, and I wanted to see more of that. Tomorrow's prompt is ripe for even more angst. So look forward to that? Until then, this has been Orion Fowl and thank you for visiting my Corner of Romance!