A/N: This is the final chapter for Act 1! There's an execution as well, but I didn't make it overly bloody this time. Kind of a slightly shorter chapter this time around, but I felt like it'd be better than just padding out with unimportant dialogue. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this act finale, if you will! Be sure to leave me a review telling me what you thought of it!

ACT 1: Adjusting to Anghern

CHAPTER 7: Crushed by the Past

TIME UNKNOWN

Location: Anghern Trial Grounds

A weight was noticeably lifted from our shoulders - both physically and metaphorically - as aside from discovering who killed Yuki, the VR helmets were automatically taken off and floated up to the ceiling where they were in the beggining. All eyes were on an emotionless mask that had been placed upon Asuyo's face. Her eyes were wide and scared, but at the same time she felt empty. Her chocolate brown locks were drooped down and her lips partly open, letting the heavy puffs of air she was breathing travel in and out of her mouth.

It was the person I least expected to break the silence that did just that. "A-Asuyo... Wh-Why did you d-do it?" Chigusa stuttered, standing against the wooden frame of our stand, with tears framing her eyes. Her knees were trembling and she was biting her lip so hard that it might turn to mush in a few seconds.

"Because she's an evil bitch, that's why." Kiyoshi rolled his eyes. "Yuki did nothing but love and support us, he helped us and did everything he could. And she had to snuff him out. Asuyo's just an asshole, no two ways about it."

"Shut the hell up, Kiyoshi." Kikyo voiced, with a broken, cracked tone filled with anger, regret and sadness. "She... She must have a... a good reason..."

Yuzuru's brows furrowed. "Like hell she does! She's a filthy, selfish criminal!"

"Who are you to talk, dude?" Kiyoshi gave the Assassin a side-eye and scoffed at the rest of us. "You're a SHSL Assassin, you kill people for a living. So shut the fuck up."

After listening to Kiyoshi's words, everyone could tell Yuzuru was giving her best not to go over to him and punch him in the gut, but somehow she managed to fight back her violent instincts. "Miss Uemura... please. Tell us we have made a mistake." Blackjack interjected.

Riou interrupted, banging his hands on the top of the stand. "Screw that! She tried to get us all killed, we can't feel sorry for her, now!"

"That's not true!" Kikyo scratched her arm and looked everywhere but our eyes. "We... We won't get executed! Just like she won't... it's all a ruse. It all must be a joke, I'm sure!"

"Don't you remember? Asuyo made a good point... death means nothing to Monokuma." Shizuka eyed Kikyo and then turned to the mastermind - the bear who put this awful trial into motion. "Just like Yuki met his end, you would kill us."

Monokuma's eye flashed with a red light twice in quick succession as a robotic, high-pitched voice came from within him. "That's right! I would execute every single one of you if you fingered-" he paused at his subtle joke and threw us a big grin before resuming. "-the culprit wrongly! It's all in the rules, and I have to follow them as much as you all do!"

"That also means... Asuyo is going to..."

"Is she? Time for you to cast your votes!" Monokuma announced. "Get your Electro-IDs in hand and click the person you want to send to the slammer! Will it be the right person? Or oh soooo veeeery wrooooong person!? Upupupu!" he started giggling maniacally while we all shared confused, scared and angry looks between the fifteen remaining. One emotion was clearly thickening between us.

Distrust.

The despair of it all was driving me nuts. Hesitantly, I grabbed my handbook and was met with a 4x4 grid of names, making for sixteen in total - although one of them was already greyed out. Yuki Batora, obviously enough. I could hear a few touches, clicks, followed by a robotic voice message. "Your vote has been cast. Waiting..."

My finger hovered over the names as all of my friends' faces flashed on my mind, but I eventually stopped at the first one. Top row, first column... Asuyo Uemura. And I clicked it.

"Your vote has been cast. Waiting..."

A few seconds later, Monokuma rose a screen from the ground behind him, showing the results of the voting. It read:

"Asuyo Uemura - Votes: 15"
Verifying...

And with that, a metal desk showed itself on the monitor, with a metal chair behind it. Suddenly, a human figure appeared - although it was barely recognizable, and more of a silhouette than anything else. The silhouette sat down, making it so their face was hidden by the lack of viewing range of the monitor, and produced a deck of cards out of a drawer in the desk. The camera shifted to a top down view of the table, where we were able to see a card trick being performed as the cards were randomly shuffled. The cards were swapped with extraordinary speed and three of them were speedily thrown onto the table, facedown.

One by one, the cards were turned, revealing three Queens of Hearts. Except...

"That queen of hearts... it's Asuyo." I mumble audibly, although I thought I was keeping silent.

"That it is! And you know what that means!" Monokuma cut off the transmission and stored the TV monitor behind and under his seat where it was before. "You are allllll correct! Asuyo Uemura, the Super High School Level Landlord, is the culprit who killed Yuki Batora, the Super High School Level Butler! Congratulations on making it past your first class trial, everyone!" Monokuma praised us, with a certain mockery applied to his tone which drove my insides mad. "Well... not everyone... upupu!"

Frances crossed her arms and tapped her side repeatedly with her pointer finger, in tune with her foot. "No, no, no, Monokuma, you can't execute her! I mean, right, guys? Asuyo regrets this! We can... We can all forgive her... right?"

"Miss Baishou, listen to yourself. You are defending and forgiving a murderer?" Blackjack gave Frances a worried look. "Please reconsider. Miss Uemura is dangerous."

"I won't ever forgive her." Yuzuru scoffed as she looked at the Landlord, completely disgusted. "She... She killed our friend."

Akahana bit her bright red lip and looked elsewhere for comfort. "Yuzuru is... right. We mustn't forgive this."

"I don't think Akahana can be unbiased at this point, but I have to agree with her, Frances." I ultimately declare. "Asuyo is our friend, but we can't let her go unpunished. She has to atone for what she did, or else she won't learn."

"For fuck's sake, just get on with the execution." Kiyoshi yawned. "I'm sleepy, and I want to get back to the resort."

Monokuma laughed lowly, successfully getting our attention. "Well, get that idea off your head. You're not getting the resort any time soon!"

"What do you mean!?" the Custodian complained in a grumbly manner, as per usual. "I want to nap as soon as I get back, though! I'm pooped after this stupid fucking trial, so don't you dare get in the way of me and my bed, hear me, shithead!?"

"Kiyoshi, do you actually think that's important right now?" Yatarou asked rethorically. "I'm more interested in the outcome of this. What do we do with Asuyo?"

"R-Rules... are rules..." Asuyo's face was hidden behind her now messy brown hair, but her cracking voice gave away her expressions. "I have to die..."

Yatarou flinched for a second. "But there's more to this..." I stated. "There's some piece of the puzzle that's still missing. I don't know why... but I feel it. So please, Asuyo, tell us. Are we completely right?"

"I sense a missing piece as well." Akahana agreed with my statement, and we all looked at Asuyo waiting for a response.

She lifted her head up ever so slightly, so her eyes were puffy, swollen and red from all the tears, and her lip was trembling. Her cheeks were pink and wet, and she looked downright awful. "I..." she gave a final, defeated sigh. "Nothing gets past you two... Ultimate Lawyers..." she managed to say in between hiccups. "Yuzuru said... I was a selfish killer... I killed Yuki to leave the city... but... I didn't! It never even crossed my mind to leave... but the money... it could help so many of my friends... The moment I left the kitchen, I was regretful. I didn't know what came over me... why would I do such a thing? I ended someone's life... to save my own, and a few others... I killed someone... That's when I thought of coming clean. I wanted to tell you guys I did it... I was praying you'd give me a second chance. But then Monokuma appeared."

"M-Monokuma? What did he do!?"

"He... He told me about the executions... He told me I would die... if I didn't make this a perfect crime... that's when I started to plant evidence... and frame Akahana... I was scared for my life, I... I'm so sorry... I never thought it'd come to this... but what... I'm trying to say is... the eight-minute gap you guys found. I didn't hide and make it... myself. I was actually standing there, filled with regrets. I... I couldn't believe what I'd done... It took eight minutes to give you guys... my friends... up, and fight for my own life. So I could save them..."

"A-Asuyo..." Chigusa's heart wavered for a second as she spoke.

Riou gritted his teeth and flexed his entire body without knowing. "You know what!? This is all your goddamn fault!" he roared, pointing an accusatory finger at Monokuma while he simply enjoyed the show unfolding in front of him. "If it wasn't for you, this would have never happened!"

"I'm no perpetrator, captain steroids! Asuyo stabbed that butler, not me. So you can't pin anything on me!" Monokuma argued, with kind of a good point.

No matter the setting, the weapons, the motive... it doesn't change the fact that Yuki was killed voluntarily. His life ended because someone took a knife to his back and killed him. And Monokuma might have given us all the tools to kill, but it was Asuyo's free will that set this all into motion. Even if it is for something as noble as-

"Saving them?" Shizuka scoffed at the Landlord, who had her face wiped clean by her tears. "Don't make me laugh. Who'd you save by killing someone else!? Not only that, you'd be killing all of us here! The motive Monokuma gave us had nothing to do with hostages so tell me... who the hell were you saving!?"

"Shizuka, please calm down..." Yori tried to maintain what little order could be attained in this hellhole, but was quickly brushed off as nothing more than a bug. Frances gave the Magician a look and frowned upon seeing his distraught face when he'd been ignored.

The Street Magician had his eyes set on Asuyo. "There is nothing I despise in this world more than criminals." he mirrored Yuzuru's thoughts perfectly. "And you killed a person. A living, breathing person. And attempted to murder fourteen other people to escape this city. There's no excuse for what you did, Uemura-san. You get what you deserve."

"Please don't be so mean to her..." Yatarou worried. "She's our friend as well... If she did what she did, she must have had a reason!"

"Like hell she had!" Yuzuru and Shizuka responded angrily and in perfect unison.

"Please... guys, calm down..." Chigusa voiced, worried. Some of us looked at each other with disdain, for defending a murderer and others for being so harsh on a friend. I stand divided. Asuyo killed Yuki, and there's no two ways about that. She murdered our friend and tried to kill us all. But it's not like she was selfish and knew, from the begginning, that she would end us all... If she did know, she wouldn't do it.

And she didn't do it for herself either... she's trying to... "save your tenants..." I thought out loud, giving attention to me. "Your tenants back home. You did this for them, right?"

Akahana looked at me fiercely and placed her chin in between her thumb and index finger. "Helping her tenants. That is also what you used as the final argument in Monokuma's 'Panic Talk Action' Trial Activity, correct? Whatever do you mean by it? Who are these tenants?"

"As you might know... Asuyo is a SHSL Landlord, and as such she has a bit of an apartment complex back home, where she's the caretaker of the building. That same building houses various people - some of them that were previously homeless - because Asuyo took them in and cared for them. She takes care of all of them, but... there's only so much she can do. That's why she needed the money so bad. Isn't it?"

The Landlord looked at me with a sad smile and red eyes, still framed by her tears. "Y-You're right..." she started, and we readied ourselves for her hiccuped speech. "I want to help them all. I can't have them go through all the things that I, too, have been through. My life has been too hard on me, and I didn't deserve it... And I don't want anyone to have to live with lives and injustices they don't deserve! Yuki's death was... collateral damage to my cause. As much as I hate to admit I did this, there's no turning back now. I don't want to treat a human life as 'collateral damage', but that's what I made it out to be when I buried that knife in his back. And you all were about to become more collateral damage because I was selfish and cared only for my own friends, without thinking of you... All your friends and family would be mad, worrying about you and not knowing you'd be dead. I can't live with this burden on me. In fact... after thinking stuff through in the investigation... I was actually thinking of taking my own life after helping my friends out. Just so I wouldn't carry the burden of having to kill people, just so this despair inside me would stop messing with my brain... Maybe that'd selfish of me, but I see it as just. I'd meet the same end as you..." she paused before resuming. "This entire trial, I've been on the border between coming clean and saving you, or going through with this and saving them. While I was planting evidence to frame Akahana... even then I wanted to stop. But I didn't. I deserve this. With this, I feel like I deserve to die. I feel like I deserve everything that's happened to me in the past. Which is why... I'm ready." And she then turned to Monokuma with the same sad smile she had when she spoke, and nodded.

"Oh? This low-budget soap opera has reached its finale? Dear God, thank you. I was getting so bored, I thought I might die myself! The last words have been spoken! I have a veeeeeeery special punishment for Asuyo Uemura, the Super High School Level Landlord!"

"N-NO!" Someone cried out, but I couldn't make out who. I was stuck in place, unable to move or speak. Asuyo's speech had stopped time for me. I was about to see my friend get executed for the murder of my other friend... high schoolers shouldn't be expected to do this. Kill and watch people die... this is something that should only happen in cop shows on TV... not in real life.

"Let's give it everything we've got! It's our very first... PUNISHMENT TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!"

GAME OVER

ASUYO HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY
TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!

The entire room went silent once those words loomed inside us, and we all looked at what we guessed would be Asuyo in her final moments. In no time, she'd be taking the death penalty - poisoned and destined to rot away in this twisted room for all eternity. What could be worse than that? Dying in front of all your friends without so much as a goodbye. Asuyo stood there, emotionless waiting for the ever-nearing fate, but a few seconds passed, and she was still on her feet.

That's when Monokuma's throne moved to the side, revealing a hidden passage. What could be interpreted as a hopeful escape out of this awful city, was not nearly as good an outcome as we were - although not expecting it - hoping for. A metal collar attached to a chain sprung out of the dark hallway and wrapped itself around both of Asuyo's ankles, making her tumblr on her knees to the ground. The chain tightened just enough so she'd feel every bit of it, and she screamed in pain. Then, in a second, she was whisked away from right in front of us and dragged into the hallway. We tried to follow suit but the door closed on us, and in front of it, the TV screen where the voting results were announced rose up once again, showing a live feed of Asuyo's position.

She was being dragged through the harsh floor, bloody scrapes appearing on her knees, face and hands as she tried to battle her way out of being skinned alive. In the distance, a light could be seen and Asuyo was being quickly flung into it. The more we waited, the more she approached the light and that's when new edifices made themselves visible. One of them was a wooden building reading 'Liternature' atop the front door, and although we couldn't pinpoint anything worthwhile in the others, the look on Asuyo's face made it very clear that she knew one of the buildings - the one she was being pulled towards... was it... a replica of her own apartment complex?

Asuyo was slammed into the front door of the grey cement building that had been noticeably renovated on the outdoors, making a big human-shaped hole in the wooden gate. The chain wrapped around her feet loosened and was dragged away into another room, but Asuyo refused to follow. She looked around her to find a destroyed interior, that we could only assume brought back memories. Her eyes were wide-open and lips quivering as she visibly mouthed one word questions, like 'why' and 'how', but no voice came out her throat. And there was no time for it.

The room went dark for a second, but not because of dim interior lighting or busted light fixtures... the windows were barred by something. The TV turned on by itself and Asuyo went over to it, waiting for an explanation. It seemed like a movie was playing... the title card appeared on screen in gory letters.

HEARTACHE AND DEMOLITION
SHSL LANDLORD ASUYO UEMURA'S EXECUTION: EXECUTED

The monitor displayed a video of a young pale baby who looked to be around three and two parents. The baby was a cheerful little girl, and was smiling like a little ball of sunshine, but the parents looked at her like she was a monster. A fight broke out between both parents, and the baby started crying and pushing her parents off of each other, only to make the parents snap and kick her onto a corner. Afterwards, the parents started yelling at her and she could not respond. I shut my eyes at the repeated physical aggression and only opened it back when the video had shifted. This time, a slightly older child ran away from home and cried in the back alleys.

Asuyo was bawling her eyes out and that's when our conversation yesterday hit me. This was her... or at least, someone acting out her childhood. The abuse, running away and all that. And if what she told me was true... this is the part when hope is born. When things actually took a turn for the better... she met more children and made a gang, and went on to be their landlord in the apartments... so it's not all bad, right? She told me herself she's not a victim of her circumstances... And so it was. More children came around to help her, and a montage of them growing up ensued. But that happiness would last more than half a minute, if it got to be that long.

That's when a huge explosion threw Asuyo onto the ground. She looked out the window to find a giant at her side. In fact, there were quite a few of them, and all of them were familiar... they were giant versions of Asuyo's friends. Asuyo's tenants. Their numbers grew until there were about a dozen of them, giant men and women with red, angry yet emotionless eyes. The Landlord was shaking uncontrollably and screaming and pounding against the window. But her pleading was useless. One of the people outside lifted her foot and kicked the building Asuyo was in, resulting in another explosion-like sound and the ceiling crumbling atop her. Swiftly, she dodged the incoming rubble and ran for the door, that had been replaced by metal bars.

More kicks resulted in the building becoming more and more like ancient ruins. Asuyo's eyes were filled to the brim with one thing... despair. The ceiling over her was shaking and about to collapse, and she was surrounded by rubble. She couldn't move. And that's when one of the giants threw a punch and knocked the ceiling clean off the building, making Asuyo breathe a sigh of relief as her life was no longer in danger. Blood came from the scrapes and cuts on her body, and the adrenaline rush had it pouring out of her. She made a make-shift band-aid using only her hand to stop the bleeding and limped over to somewhere a bit safer. But she was too late.

One of the giants - a girl in a graduation cap and thick rimmed black glasses - stood over the ruined building and spat down at it, making a huge, disgusting pool form near her. Asuyo's eyes widened even more and she started screaming 'YUI! YUI! PLEASE STOP!' over and over again. Was 'Yui' the girl's name? And who was she to Asuyo? But her pleading, once again, made nothing to stop the giants. Yui lifted her foot and stomped what remained of the apartment complex, and everyone around me flinched. The sounds of groans, tears and vomit could be heard all around me as Asuyo's screamed became imcomprehnsible and quickly stopped.

Yui lifted her foot up, and a great red stain - that, on her huge foot, looked about insect-sized - appeared on her foot, and the gooey substance was dripping from the sole. That was when we all knew. I fell to my knees and gripped my chest.

Asuyo Uemura, the Super High School Level Landlord, had been executed right in front of my eyes.

I looked around to see everyone and was met by a myriad of different reactions. Yuzuru was kneeling on the floor, holding her stomach, huffing and puffing with a pool of vomit in front of her. Kiyoshi and Blackjack were covering their eyes with their cap and sunglasses respectively, probably to hide the fact they were so affected. Yori was biting his lip and simply silent, given the fact that he couldn't see the horror that we'd bore witness to. Kikyo was trying her best not to cry, as she wanted to keep a brave front. Maybe she wanted people to believe she thought Asuyo deserved it, and maybe she did... but no one deserves to die like this.

While Eita scowled at Monokuma, Yatarou and Frances were visibly shocked into being mute, and Maruko was beside Chigusa, who was curled up sobbing on the floor, probably trying to cheer her up. But is that even possible? Can we go back to being the same happy-go-lucky people we were? Won't we be scarred for life because of this...? My eyes turned to Shizuka who managed to keep almost a straight face, while Akahana was simply looking away. Silence filled the room, were it not for Riou's loud intervention.

"Wh-What... the fuck, was THAT!?" Riou roared at Monokuma who was sitting behind us with a bag of popcorn in hand, stuffing himself away.

"Upupupu, that was the first execution for the Mutual Killing Game! Exciting stuff, huh? The Assassin there confuses me though. She probably saw looooooads of people die at her own hands, but she's throwing up because someone died? I mean, you're the one who made her die! You all voted for her, guys!"

"D-Don't you dare pin this on us! I never dreamed she'd die like this!" I scream at Monokuma. "Asuyo deserved to go out peacefully! She had a good reason-"

"To kill?" Shizuka interrupted me. We all turned to him, as he silently eyed me head to toe. "Do you really believe that? As a defense attorney, I thought you of all people here would be an ally of justice. Asuyo got what she deserved, did she not?"

Yuzuru wiped her mouth and stood up, knees shaking. "H-He's right... She deserved it..."

"I get what you're saying..." Kikyo chimed in with a sad, low tone to her voice. "But no one deserves to go out like that..."

"Well, it's a bummer you can't choose how the blackened goes out! That privilige goes to only me, so buzz off!" Monokuma laughed evilly and watched us all as we looked at him with varying amounts of hatred. This is all his fault.

I took a step towards Monokuma, and then another and then another, until I stopped right in front of him. "Whoever is controlling this stupid bear... I'm going to stop you and bring you to justice, can you hear me? I promise, as a defense attorney, I won't ever let you make it through this ordeal unscathed. You'll get what you deserve, and I'll make it ten times more gruesome than Asuyo's execution if need be! I swear it on my honor as defense attorney that I will bring you to justice."

"Upupupu, is that so?" Monokuma glared at me with his glowing red eye. "That'd be a first! You're welcome to try, though!" he mocked. "But for now, that protagonist talk is kind of uncalled for, huh? You need to go back to the surface and get on with the killing game! I'll see you all tomorrow! Oh, and be sure to say goodbye to your sweet little resort! You'll be moving to a new sector of Anghern first thing in the morning."

And before we could ask anything else, he vanished as he usually does. And we were left to go back the elevator, and go up to the central plaza... with one less person by our side.

ACT 1: ADAPTING TO ANGHERN - COMPLETE!

Students Remaining: 14/16

A/N: Aaaaaaand that marks the end of Act 1 for this story! I want to thank TheRoseShadow21 for making such an amazing character as Asuyo was, I really enjoyed her character, and it actually pains me for her to be the first culprit, but them's the breaks! I do hope you keep up with the story even after your OC's death!

Act 2's first chapter will be coming eventually, so I hope you all look forward to it! Don't forget to leave me a review telling me what you liked the least and the most about the chapter (the pacing, the motive, the case in general, how I handled Asuyo's backstory, and anything else you want to comment on!) and answer the QOTC if you feel like it!

QOTC: What did you think of our first execution?

I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far, and if you could be so kind, please be sure to check my other DR fic - it's a school life story and we're still on the introductions phase, but I'd love to see more opinions there! That's all for now, so... until the next chapter, Yamazaki... out!