DAY TWO ; 5:01 A.M.
Nagito Komaeda threw himself into his hiding spot as soon as the door creaked open, bit down on his hand to keep himself from shrieking, and pulled a tarp up over him. Part of him hoped it was Hinata. If not Hinata, then someone unobservant or nice. Perhaps both. Perhaps Makoto Naegi.
"Woahh!" whoever it was shrieked. Komaeda frowned. That voice was faintly familiar, but he couldn't exactly place it. Something about it seemed… off. Like he should know it, but it wasn't quite the voice that he knew. "Someone's here alright!"
Komaeda bit down harder on his hand and peered out from his hiding spot as best as he could. One hand held the gun he'd taken from the Imposter.
"Hm, hm, hm," the visitor said, humming a little. "If they aren't already gone, it would be super cool to shake their hand on this stunning presentation! It's almost worthy of my handiwork?"
Komaeda strained his eyes and saw shoes and legs that looked strangely like Touko Fukawa's. Touko Fukawa? That didn't make any sense. He frowned and inched closer, gritting his teeth as his leg throbbed and sent pain racing through his body.
"Oh, well," the visitor said. She sighed. "I guess there's nothing for me here, though. Whatever."
Komaeda flattened himself against the ground, lying as still as he could as whoever it was walked straight past his hiding place and headed out the back door. Once she was gone, he let out a deep breath. That had been close.
But it was definitely Touko Fukawa. Had she snapped under the game's pressure? She had always been fragile, but maybe…
Almost as soon as Fukawa had left, the front door opened again. He only heard one set of footsteps, which was good; he wasn't sure if he'd be able to deal with two people. He wasn't even really sure if he would be able to deal with this one even if he (or she, though the steps sounded decidedly masculine) were to fall into Komaeda's trap.
Thankfully, the next thing Komaeda heard was an undignified yell. Komaeda dragged himself out of his hiding spot by his fingernails and pulled his way into the open, so that he could get a good look at who it was.
Byakuya Togami.
Byakuya Togami, the real Byakuya Togami, upside-down and fuming, caught in his little old trap. Komaeda couldn't help but grin. There was a gun on the floor, too. On the floor. He'd dropped it.
"Hello, Togami-kun!" Komaeda said. He lifted the gun, arms shaking a little. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you with this gun instead of going up with a knife. I'm not sure how good my aim is."
"Where is she?" Togami asked. Komaeda tilted his head to the side.
"Fukawa-san? I saw her leave through the back," he said. "She didn't see me. Thank God for small mercies, huh? She sounded a little weird. She probably would have killed me."
Togami ignored him, like this wasn't bothering him in the slightest. Komaeda shrugged and readied to shoot, and then he noticed something moving in the background. A black blur, slipping just out of his field of vision. Had they entered while he was focused on Togami? Was it Fukawa again?
The door at the back of the warehouse creaked open and Komaeda turned to see Fukawa slip back into the warehouse, tongue lolling out of her mouth and scissors glinting at the ends of her fingers. Not Fukawa. Then was it-
Cold metal pressed against his neck and he dropped the gun.
"Don't threaten Byakuya-sama," Fukawa said. The scissors dug deeper into Komaeda's neck and he felt sweat run down his face. He shook unintentionally. He should feel good, to die for two amazing symbols of hope such as this, but for some reason he wasn't.
"I-"
A pair of scissors jabbed into his back, tearing through skin and scraping against his spine, and Komaeda screamed. Fukawa giggled and pulled out the scissors. She took a few steps back, and Komaeda fell back.
He just managed to catch himself on his elbows. Fukawa stood with one foot on either side of his chest and put a pair of scissors under his chin, smearing his skin with his own blood. Komaeda shook.
The scissors trailed down his neck and under the collar of his shirt, teasing it open and scraping along his collarbone. A weak keening sound escaped Komaeda's lips, and then Fukawa jabbed the other pair of scissors into his ribcage. It forced its way between ribs and sunk deep into a lung. Searing pain ripped through his chest, and he tried to take a breath, to try and calm himself down, but his heart was beating like crazy and he couldn't breathe right.
"What did I say, Koma-koma?" Fukawa asked, tilting her said to the side and grinning.
"Don't…" Komaeda wheezed, blood and tears and everything else soaking into the concrete beneath him. "Threaten… Togami…kun…"
"That's right," Fukawa said. She ripped the scissor out of his chest and grabbed him under the shoulders, dragged him across the floor, and tossed him onto the ropes. Three traps snapped him up at once – his left arm, his left foot, and around his stomach, and he was hoisted into the air. He collided with the Imposter's body on the way up and choked, either on his own blood or the fact he was pressed against a dead body. "I could finish it."
Komaeda tried to pay attention to what she was saying. He hoped she would finish it, God he hoped she would finish it, if he had any luck at all-
"But I won't!"
17 STUDENTS REMAINING
My explanation for how Komaeda's rope trap works is 'Komaeda.'