A/N: And so, the end of Act 2 is upon us! I hope you've enjoyed our fellow victims' journey through the second sector of the city, because just like last time it'll come to an abrupt end soon enough... that's nothing to be worried about now, though! We have some explaining and executing to do so without further ado...

ACT 2: No Hope Allowed

CHAPTER 10: Don't Let Her Die

TIME UNKNOWN

Location: Anghern Trial Grounds

"Frances baked a cupcake for each and every one of us... and there was no way she knew Shizuka was gone by then, so an extra pastry was made. That was the one inside Yuzuru's motel room... she probably brought it there to give it to her pal once we found him." I finished my explanation, and Blackjack's posture slumped, as I saw a myriad of virtual reality helmets floating back to the ceilings, suspended by its many wires.

My heart sunk, being clawed at by the deafening silence around us. I looked around and a few glares were thrown Frances's way, although most of us just looked everywhere but at each other. Blackjack stuttered something I couldn't quite comprehend, but everyone dismissed it as a last ditch effort to change our minds. Her words lacked meaning or conviction... it was official. She had succumbed to it as well. The belief that- "You... You did it, b-babe?"

The Tapdancer beside me clenched all around, and her every muscle was noticeably tense. The words coming out of her girlfriend's lips were harsh in meaning and implication, but soft in tone, making for a confusing contrast that made Frances all the more uncomfortable. She had remained quiet for a while... the sudden realization that she had taken a human life sunk in again.

"Y-Yes." She stuttered, and tears started forming a pool inside her eyelids, framing her eyes with glistening saltwater. "I... I..." she was unable to say those words aloud. As much as she had come to terms with her fate, saying it out loud for everyone else to hear just seemed cruel and disrespectful.

There was a heaviness tugging at my throat, and I couldn't speak. I just stared at the growing mess of a girl that stood beside me, with shaky knees and a runny nose, as she accepted the fact she would die in a matter of minutes. The incapacity to speak seemed to be contagious as even the heartless and filterless Kiyoshi managed to stay silent and let the poor Tapdancer cry her eyes out before her imminent execution.

Blackjack had no tears on her eyes, and no emotion radiated from her face. No sadness, nor anger, not frustration or confusion... she looked empty. "B-Babe. Why?" she asked simply, but her girlfriend didn't so much as budge. She sobbed her fear away and remained silent, immovable, like a hunk of cold stone.

No... that wasn't the Frances I knew... I met a kind, passionate Frances who was cheerful and liked helping others. What could make someone like her succumb to the dark, dark despair that started permeating the room? It was impossible, illogical, unlike anything I'd ever seen.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Monokuma's robotic shrieks woke us and turned our attention to him, as he cleared his throat, ignoring the clear tension that silenced us all. "Would you stop being so annoyingly quiet and vote!? I can't proceed to any of my beautifully crafted executions if you don't!"

The option stood before us once more. On the screen of my Electro-ID shone the bright grid-like menu that would inevitably be used to kill. Three names were dimmer than others, reminding me and the others that people had already died in this forsaken city. We had lost three lives already and still the walls take one more.

My finger hovered over the button as I hesitated for a second, but eventually clicked the name and respective portrait. Third row, leftmost column... Frances Baishou.

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

The votes were cast one by one, until only a certain suited individual clung at her sunglasses and gritted her teeth. She was the only one left.

"Do it already." Frances pushed her girlfriend towards the accusation and smiled sadly. "You know the truth... please, don't make this any harder."

And thus, one last shaking finger pressed against the cold steel of the handbook. I could feel Blackjack's heart ache from across the trial grounds, and I wasn't impervious to it. I could still feel the last bit of hope that maybe Frances hadn't done it. Maybe it was all a plot... a lie... a mistake, born from flawed logic.

The screen arose from behind Monokuma and read exactly what one would expect...

"Frances Baishou - Votes: 11"
"Blackjack 21? - Votes: 1"
Verifying...

Frances Baishou... but not by unanimous vote. All eyes were on Blackjack as she'd slumped, looking down in regret of her final verdict. A sacrifice she was willing to make in order to save her girlfriend. "B-Blackjack..." Chigusa stuttered, moved by the Information Broker's gesture.

"Y-You shouldn't have done that..." Kikyo felt sympathy for the lady-like teenager. Everyone did... from the burly but soft-hearted Riou to the tactless Kiyoshi... I believe even Yori, as a blind man, could see the look of utter misery on Blackjack's face as the votes went in.

Monokuma simply cackled. "Upupu, I see we have a rogue voter on our hands! How rebellious! How despairingly fun to know one of you would supposedly risk your own life and the lives of eleven other people in order to save the girl you believe to be the culprit... ah, the forces at work aboveground must be something special."

"Shut up." Riou demanded, and the bear maliciously complied.

The voting results crackled out of the screen, which quickly turned into static before resuming to the anonymous broadcast we saw last time. The same silhouette paced to the metal desk and sat down, dropping a veil of long hair behind them. The deck of cards was already in their hands, and was shuffled with inhumane speed. The silhouette's shadow-ish arms moved like a blur as the cards were moved and re-moved from the table's lid.

The broadcast changed once again, to a top-down view of the desk. From the shuffled deck, three cards were produced - three Aces of Spades. But instead of the spade in the middle of the card...

"That's... F-F-F..." Blackjack's final desires were at last, broken. Every last bit of hope she'd clung onto was long gone, and there was no turning back.

"Indeeeeed it is!" Monokuma announced proudly. "And we all know what that means, don't we!? You're all correct! Frances Baishou, the Super High School Level Tapdancer was indeed the blackened! She was the cold-blooded killer that poisoned that poor girl you guys know as Yuzuru Kanzaki, the Super High School Level Assassin... which means, you have made it through another Class Trial successfully, bastards! Bring on the confetti!"

"To hell with that!" Yatarou retorted with a furrowed brow. "N-No way we're gonna celebrate this!"

Kiyoshi yawned and slumped forward, elbows resting on the semi-circular wooden stand. "Can't we just be fucking happy that we found out who killed the bitch?" The Custodian waited in silence for Blackjack's usual response but was met with none. "Jokes, jokes..." he laughed awkwardly. "C-Confetti are fucking dumb as shit anyway. Such a pain in the ass to clean them up."

"That's hardly relevant." Akahana noted truthfully. "Let's get on to the execution."

"Oh, like hell we are!" Monokuma complained. "I have gone through the trouble of preparing a perfect murder setting and you are not even going to discuss the reason behind Frances's sudden urge to kill!? I'm offended! As your headmaster, I demand you speak of my motive!"

Frances was silent.

"Please, Herr Baishou..." Maruko pleaded. "Tell us why..."

"Y-Yeah, I want to know too..." I contributed. "I can't believe you would do this if you didn't have an amazing reason behind it... what happened?"

The young Tapdancer was at a loss for words, I take it, as were most of us present. "I... A murder was... was inevitable..." she managed to blurt out, although inbetween sobs and sniffles. "There was... there was going to be a... m-murder" she sobbed.

"What?" I ask, my throat knotting. A murder? "H-How can you be so sure?"

"Did someone recruit you as an accomplice!?" Yatarou theorized wildly, as he did. "And you went along with it...?"

"No... no..." she denied the Tour Guide's claim and fell silent again. "The traitor was out for blood." she sternly revealed.

Frances's statement was met by numerous confused glances and groans. She couldn't mean... "Yuzuru tried to kill you?" Blackjack sobbed, her heart clenching, and lungs begging for air. "I-I could've... p-protected y-you..." she continued, sure of her own partial guilt in the case at hand. "Wh-Why didn't y-you tell me!? O-Oh god... th-this is all my-"

"She never tried to kill me." Frances wiped the tears off her moistening cheeks and straightened her posture, not unlike Blackjack did usually. "I... I heard a conversation a couple days ago... between Yuzuru and Monokuma."

All eyes were on the robotic bear, and fierce, strong, deadly gazes were all he was being shot with. Even the frail Chigusa glared at him with an intense aura of hatred towards the mastermind behind that goddamn plush. "What? Can't I socialize anymore?" he snickered and left the Tapdancer to explain the rest.

"First of all... I want to explain something. Think back to the party... the one in the art gallery where Monokuma told us about the mole. If you think back enough... my girlfriend said she'd have news to share then, wouldn't she? She never did, however... everything happened at once, and we both forgot. I forgot about it... but I remembered it soon enough."

"When Monokuma and Yuzuru spoke, right?"

"Yes." Frances nodded. "Monokuma feared Blackjack for her information gathering skills... and was planning to use Yuzuru's role as a traitor to... kill her."

A round of gasps filled the room, and I looked at the Information Broker in a panic, as her eyes had been transformed from clear and stern, to red, puffy and wet. "M-Me...?" she managed to stutter, wiping the tears that came out of her eyes in quick succession, although they refused to let up. "Yuzuru was... going to kill me...?"

Frances gave an affirmative nod once more. "Yes, babe. For those of you who don't know... she found something in the library while looking for the traitor's identity the past few days. Namely, entrance admission papers from one Hope's Peak Academy. The 42nd Class, to be exact. Information on us, you guys, every single one of us. And more."

"M-More?" Yori asked curiously. "If they are truly entrance admission papers, what else is there aside from information about us?"

"That's something you'll be sure to hear from someone else... but for now, just know that there is information on us in that file. Blackjack managed to dig it up, and Monokuma didn't like it. That's why he told Yuzuru to kill her."

"That Blackjack chick is a real pain in the ass, you hear? Off her as soon as possible!"

"Wh-Why would I do that? Frances and her just started dating! I'm not breaking them up... no way!"

"Argh... do I need to remind you, you're my minion now!? If you refuse to kill her, I'll just out you to everyone!"

"...Anything but that."

"Then do something about it, bastard! We can't have information leaked too soon, dumbass, so get to it!"

"A-Alright... I'll see what I can do..."

"You what!? You're gonna kill her, no questions and no hesitation! What kind of mediocre assassin are you!?"

"Sh-Shut up... you know I don't like this."

"You took this role, so act like it! Kill the info broker or you're in for a world of pain, dumbass."

"Yes... I understand. I'll kill her."

"Blackjack was being targeted...?" I ask rethorically, but Frances nodded her confirmation with a frown.

"I... I had to protect her no matter what." the Tapdancer confessed and started sobbing once again. "I'm her girlfriend... I have to protect her, no matter what! And that's why I wanted her to kill Yuzuru for me... I baited her into poisoning the cupcake, but she didn't do it. She didn't know she'd kill someone but she didn't do it. She didn't put the goddamn chemicals in..."

"B-Babe...!" Blackjack sniffed and ran out her stand, running a circle around the grounds before reaching her girlfriend, who she proceeded to embrace tightly. "I'm so sorry I put you through that!"

"Wait a minute, I'm lost... why would you want Blackjack to be the blackened...?" Kikyo voiced her question with worry in her tone.

"I believe I can answer..." Eita proposed. "If Blackjack had commited the crime and Frances taken the blame, then the former would be free to go at the latter's expense. Frances planned on sacrificing herself for Blackjack."

"Spot on, Eita, as usual." the Tapdancer smiled sadly and cried into her girlfriend's shoulder.

Yatarou wasn't pleased yet, though. "I-It doesn't make sense... why would you go through with all of this, knowing either you or Blackjack would die...? Why did you try to cover up your crime, when everything went south for you? Did you give up on her?"

"Don't say that." she spat dryly, mocking Yatarou's claim's very essence. "I would never dare giving up on my girlfriend... I... I didn't do this because of you... you, Tsukushi."

"M-Me?"

She loosened her hug and faced me. "Yes, you. You wouldn't take a confession lying down... you'd question why I'd be sending myself to die, right away."

"I-I'd question it, yeah... but why would I not accept that as fact?"

Akahana was the one who pushed the idea forward. "You wouldn't... Frances would be executed if she confessed, so it wouldn't make sense, so the very basis of her confession would be questionable. The question is: why?"

"The only plausible reason would be to protect someone... and that'd leave you to pinpoint her as the killer, which would be the wrong choice." Frances completed her own reasoning, referring to Blackjack. "Wrong choice, I'd go free and Blackjack would perish with all of you... don't you see now? I wanted you to win this trial. I wanted to lose this trial and die, just to see my precious baby live on."

"Stop saying such asinine things, Frances, please... I... I!" the Information Broker cried and cried so hard she couldn't form a cohesive sentence.

"That is the entire truth of the matter." Frances concluded. "I heard Yuzuru planning to kill my girlfriend, and gave her a taste of her own medicine. And I made sure I was found guilty... the fake Yori ruse, as you call it, was a way of being caught without being too obvious. Same for placing the crossbow and wire in the motel... all this time, I wanted you to catch me. Th-Th..." she started sobbing. "Thank you."

...

...

"Is this second season of 'Lesbian Tears' done with? I was soooooo bored. Season finale, ahoy!" Monokuma hurried to the execution.

"If I may." Frances interjected, interrupting Monokuma's execution call. "I want to say something to you..." she turned to Blackjack, eyes red and puffy and took a deep breath. "I know you might hate me for doing this, but allow me to be selfish just this once."

Blackjack's face was puffed up and damp from the tears that streamed down her cheeks, leaving irregular trails. "Wh-What...?"

"I want to say, here, in front of everyone... one final time... I want everyone here to witness the moment... you're the miracle that I never thought would happen... and for that I say thank you... I love you, Sakurako Ohwatani. I love you with all of my heart, and I always will. Even after I am dead, even in my next life... let it be known that I, Frances Baishou, love you, Sakurako Ohwatani, and will love you forever."

The Information Broker couldn't hold herself and kissed Frances passionately, leaving a tearing audience around. The most emotional of us were swayed by the tear-jerking moment and cried ourselves, and I'd lie if I said I didn't feel the pain they felt being muffled by their own love. It was a touching sight to see. A truly moving sight... it almost made me forgot about the circumstances we'd been put in.

"Noooooooow... for the season finale!" Monokuma interrupted their kiss abruptly by chaining Frances to the ground, making Blackjack - or should I say, Sakurako - take a step back, only united to her girlfriend by the grip they shared, holding hands.

"NO!" Blackjack screamed. "PLEASE NO, DON'T LEAVE ME NOW!"

"Tsukushi." Frances called. "Please come here..."

Hesitantly, I paced forth. "Yes...?"

"I have a favor to ask... take it a dying wish of sorts." she smiled sadly. "Please... protect Sakurako for me. She is everything I've ever wanted... and I... I want her to leave this stupid fucking place already. Please, please... don't let her die."

Those last words shook me to my very core. With a stern nod, Frances thanked me one final time and plodded over next to Monokuma, the shackles in her ankles weighing her down. Blackjack's screams and tears made everything else inaudible, and her loud weeping made us all stiff. Her shrieks were powerful and full of anger, sadness and the darkest despair imaginable. Screams of hatred towards Monokuma and love towards Frances. A spiral of emotion took over her chords, but her legs refused to move.

Frances's shackled legs moved slowly and with much effort until her final destination was reached.

"Ah, now we're talking!" Monokuma clapped. "Tears, screams, sadness, anger, despair! This is what a thrilling season finale is like!"

"NO! PLEASE NO!"

"Now, for the second time...

"FRANCES, DON'T LEAVE ME HERE, PLEASE! DON'T DIE ON ME"

"It's..."

"NO! NO, NO, NO, NO, THIS CAN'T BE, FRANCES, PLEASE!"

"PUNISHMENT TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!"

"FRANCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!"

GAME OVER

FRANCES HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY
TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!

Sakurako's final scream made everyone around her get goosebumps, as we all watched Frances's final moments. The shackles around her ankles tightened to a painful extent and squeezed her just enough not to crush them. She was then carried away to the same tunnel Asuyo went into the previous trial, and the door locked behind her. The TV screen staticed back to life, and that familiar scene unfolded once again. Frances was being dragged forcefully out of the trial grounds, ugly scrapes and cuts appearing all over her arms and legs as she tried to flail out of her suffering.

The light at the end of the tunnel slowly but surely started to appear as the Tapdancer was quickly pulled towards it by the metal chains. As the camera followed her out of the dimly lit hallway, the harsh sunlight of the outside world suddenly filtered in, rendering the camera footage completely blinding. Soon enough, the TV screen adjusted to the new brightness to reveal a new realm where the sun was much stronger and no clouds plagued the blue sky. It seemed like a never-ending summer paradise, as it were.

Soon enough, Frances was dropped into one of the buildings in that area, a jet-black building with two neon spirals swirling in the front entrance. The sign read 'BOOB BONANZA - OPEN AT NIGHT', a joke I could do well-off without. The inside of the edifice where Frances had been forced into contrasted the outside immensely, be it for the colors, the overall atmosphere or even the lack of natural lighting.

The building - which seemed to be a nightclub of sorts - had an outlandish interior. Neon lights, lasers, a disco floor and others, although the trip through the main room was a brief one. Frances didn't stop until she slammed into a door located at the far back of the main stage, opening it with a thud and falling down on a hard floor, tiled with four arrows. The Tapdancer's shackles let loose and went to the darker parts of the room, their final whereabouts unknown, and she weakly stood up and stepped on one of the symbols on the floor, waiting for a response.

In reaction to Frances's light tap, the lights in the room flashed and a plethora of different colored beams of light started traversing through the room. The arrows lit up and a giant screen turned on by itself, boasting what seemed to be a title screen for some kind of game. The yellow on the background matched the color of the arrows below Frances, and somehow, knowing retro games and Frances's talent as a tapdancer, I had a distinct feeling I knew what was going on. The game title gave it away.

DANCE DANCE EXECUTION
SHSL TAPDANCER FRANCES BAISHOU'S EXECUTION: EXECUTED

The game onscreen started by itself and automatically chose the easiest difficulty, leaving Frances with an easy sequence of arrows to step on at an incredibly serene pace, if I may say so. I would be so bold as to say anyone with any kind of dexterity and leg-eye coordination could clear the 30-second long level with little to no effort, much like the Tapdancer had just done. After a typical congraulations screen, the game immediately dropped Frances into the next level, which was noticeably faster paced than the previous one.

Level after level, Frances's tapdancing skills made it not as difficult to clear the increasingly hard levels that the game presented, but come the final stage, which we'd assume would be the hardest and the Tapdancer's legs had tuckered out under the quick succession of movements they were forced to do. Frances had yet to miss a beat until the unforgiving last level began, and she missed the timing on an arrow press.

A loud scream echoed rang in our ears and Sakurako fell to the ground along with the stunned Frances, yelling for the manslaughter to stop. The cause of the scream became obvious once we'd noticed the electrical current flowing below the arrow mat, and the sudden jolts of energy and spasms Frances suffered were becoming more and more violent. Screams became more and more intense until Frances lost consciousness and fell on her stomach, being repeatedly electrified in her unconsciousness.

No matter how much Sakurako screamed, Frances just kept on being shocked, her skin reddenning and charring slightly, before becoming morbidly burnt. I looked away, unable to keep digesting that massacre, until the final song came to a halt, and I hesitantly looked back at the screen... the only background sound behind the image before me was a girl's desperate screams, trying to bring another girl back to life.

Frances's skin was blackened all over, like she'd been cooked alive and badly burnt. I knelt down and hugged Blackjack, turning her neck away from the horrors unfolding on screen, her deafeningly loud screams clawing at my eardrums. I looked back at the screen and found myself being the center of attention - although everyone was probably looking at the deathly pale former-Blackjack 21. The truth had become clear...

Frances Baishou, the Super High School Level Tapdancer, was electrocuted to death as punishment for her sins.

As that thought crossed my mind, I felt dead weight on me. I lifted Blackjack a tad and looked at her face. "Sh-She passed out..." I announce, intensifying the tense atmosphere.

"I... I can't believe th-this happened..." Kikyo stuttered, her sense of justice wavering. A single tear rolled down her face, but she quickly wiped it away.

I looked around to see everyone's reaction, and was unmistakeably reminded of last time. Chigusa was a stuttering, shivering mess, sobbing on the floor in fetal position, with Maruko right beside her. Eita looked at Monokuma intensely - with an expression that could almost be called scary, if the Estimator hadn't such a emotionless mask over his face at all times. Akahana and Yatarou looked away from the screen, in silence, while Yori shared their quietness. He hadn't witnessed the horror we all had, but I believed it was enough to hear the bloodcurdling screams of both Sakurako and Frances, along with the zaps and shocks to understand what had been happening. Kiyoshi was biting his lip, with his cap in front of his face.

"Th-That... That was fucking brutal..." Kiyoshi interjected, voicing what was on everyone's minds.

"You..." Riou roared. "You fucking son of a bitch! How dare you kill the dancer pipsqueak like that!? She... She didn't deserve to-"

"die?" Monokuma completed the Boxer's sentence and sighed. "Why is everyone soooooo confusing during my executions!? Before they all get this spectacular finale to their miserable lives, you - and I repeat, YOU - are the ones who tried them and convicted them! If you don't want them to die, then stop convicting your so-called friends, bastards!"

I gritted my teeth and lifted Sakurako up alongside me, her resting on my shoulder. "We would die if we didn't execute her, Monokuma, stop fucking with us!"

"Ooooh, I see the defense attorney finally showed his claws! Finally, a protagonist with backbone!" he cackled. "Well, if you're not willing to give your lives up, stop complaining! Your heartbeats are currency in this game, you see? No money, no funny."

"Lives aren't money!" Yori snapped. "You can't simply treat us all like pawns, Monokuma, this is inhumane!"

"Good thing I'm a bear and have noooothing to worry about, then!" the bear cackled and shook his head. "You really should head back up."

Silence ensued before a new voice arose. "You really think so?" Eita questioned. "After witnessing this shocking scene, you expect us to return aboveground and move on?"

"Shocking, you say?" Monokuma took advantage of Eita's slip-up and made the Estimator grit his teeth. "That was bad taste, you asshole, really bad taste! That being said... what do you say we have roasted tapdancer for dinner tonight?"

"Shut the fuck up, bear!" Riou demanded with a loud roar. "We're not going to play this stupid little word game with you! You're fucking sick, you disgust me!"

"We're going back to the motel an-" Yatarou was interrupted before he could even finish a thought.

Akahana? "We are not returning to the motel, I'd wager... a new sector of Anghern awaits us."

"Sounds like one of the lawyers has it together!" Monokuma noted. "Yeah, you'll be up there in a jiffy, and you'll be in a new sector altogether! You might find it a bit... familiar, so to speak, but please make yourselves at home! Until the next murder inevitably happens, that will be your entire world!"

Monokuma's cheeriness contrasted the group's mood immensely, so much so that it almost confused me. I had chills and flashbacks running through my head of the last trial and my resolve to bring Monokuma's puppetmaster to justice and I stand by that. I know I'm not alone either... Riou is with me. Kikyo and Yatarou too... we'll be out of here before we know it, I'm sure of it! And we're going to bring Sakurako along with us.

"OH!" the ursine announced as we finally began thinking about walking towards the elevator. "You might be wondering where the hell a certain someone is... be sure to greet him when you get back up there, bastards!"

Sh-Shizuka?

ACT 2: NO HOPE ALLOWED - COMPLETE!

Students Remaining: 12/16

A/N: And so, the end of Act 2 is upon us! First of all, I want to thank Frances's creator SatokoHojo immensely, for letting me use such a nice OC which I had a lot of fun writing, although I must confess she wasn't one of my favourites in the beggining. I want to think I did her justice as a character, but please tell me if I'm wrong!

Act 3, which will be taking place in a whole-new section of Anghern is going to start soon-ish, and as such I'll be sure to make a new poll so you can vote for who Tsukushi will be forced to spend time with in the new to-be-discovered sector of the city. I hope everyone looks forward to it!

QOTC: What are your thoughts on the execution?

Do you have any last comments on this case, the motive, Frances's story, Verdant Views as a setting or anything else? Include everything in your review, I love reading them! This is it for now, though, so until next chapter... Yamazaki out!