hdy4u4ye8

by the great pepsi man

heyeheyeye7eye7

14. Danganronpa jojo

Makoto Naegi stood outside the door and wondered when he was going to summon the courage to actually knock on it.

It wasn't as if the conversation was going to be worse than what had already happened today. Hope's Peak was meant to be the start of something new. A chance for Naegi to be more than just your average kid with luck that could go from terrible to amazing-where the worst day ever could become the best because of one simple ticket-and be a proud student of the best school in the world.

Instead, he and fourteen others were trapped in the school-building and forced to participate in the sick game of whoever was behind all of this.

A Mutual Killing Game that had already led to the deaths of four of Naegi's classmates, hell his friends, at least in his mind, and there was the fear in the back of his mind that it wasn't nearly close to over. A tiny part of him that wondered if it'd only end with one student left standing.

No. You can't think like that. We're not going to fall into that kind of despair. Naegi told himself. Maybe he was being naive; telling himself comforting lies to avoid facing the dark truth ahead. Or maybe he was on to something. Kuwata was acting in self-defence. Fujisaki and Maizono were-

Victims. Not directly of the Mastermind, although Naegi could never absolve that monster of true responsibility, but victims of their own classmates. Sayaka Maizono, who had been driven by fear of what would happen to her and her bandmates if she remained trapped in the school, had been the first to try and attempt a murder. Kuwata had only killed her to protect himself from a crime she planned on framing Naegi himself for, although Naegi could never have held that against her.

It was same with Oowada. They had been victims of the Mastermind just as the rest of them were. It was the Mastermind who had been the one to torment the group with threats towards loved ones and the revelation of their darkest secrets. It was designed to toy with their minds and torment them enough that at least one of them would lose all hope and try to 'Ascend' from the Killing Game.

Murralsee was what their 'servant' called itself. It had first appeared when Naegi and the others had been called into the school gym, all of them curious about why the exits were blocked by massive iron-gates. The mere sight of it had almost given him a heart attack when it emerged from the platform in smoke and darkness. It towered at seven feet and had the look of a demon from hell itself, red eyes on a smooth draconic face, and wielded an iron-chain whip to go along with the look of an underworld torturer. Its voice had been smooth enough that even its persistent echo felt soft on the ears, if it wasn't always demanding that the students kill one another.

It had proclaimed itself as the servant of the 'new master' of Hope's Peak and that it had been delegated the powers to compel, punish, and reward students based on how they acted. There were few who ever had the courage to stand up to the demonic entity, Oowada's death had taken one of the names off that list, and it had been made clear from the start that any show of defiance towards Murralsee would be treated as an act of defiance against their captor.

Naegi wasn't going to let Murralsee force him to kill, and they would stop it and the Mastermind's plans, but he also wasn't going to martyr himself for a brief moment of defiance.

What everyone needed to do was stick together and find a way out of this. It was just Naegi's terrible luck that there was just as much bickering and grudge-holding as there was on the very first day that they all arrived at Hope's Peak. The Second Class Trial had only made things worse after Togami's interference with the crime scene.

What was he even thinking? Naegi already knew the answer to that question. The great Byakuya Togami, Ultimate Affluent Progeny, had said that he wanted to see who'd be the first to suspect him if he actually did commit a murder and who would come the closest to figuring him out.

That little plan of his almost cost him, and the others, everything. If Naegi and Kirigiri hadn't spotted the meaning in Oowada's words in time...

Now four of the remaining eleven survivors had locked themselves in their rooms and refused to speak with the rest of the class. Celes had taken that as an opportunity to retreat into her own room and everyone soon split off into their own groups seemingly without any intention of co-ordinating or discussing what they should do now. It wasn't as if Ishimaru was going to enforce discipline any time soon. Not after Oowada's death.

Naegi and Kirigiri had agreed to split up and try to coax the others out of their rooms. They had decided to give Ishimaru time to properly mourn and instead focus on the other three. Fukawa would follow Togami so it was just a matter of winning him over. Kirigiri agreed to be the one to try and sooth Togami's ego enough that he'd be able to face the class again, Naegi being a comforting face would probably backfire somehow and only wound his pride further.

So it was that Naegi was standing in front of the Ultimate Male Model's room trying to summon the courage to knock on the door and try to be let in.

This wasn't going to be easy. Everyone had rallied behind the idea of Togami being Fujisaki's killer not just because of his tampering of the crime scene, but also because of the fierce and unrelenting accusations of the Ultimate Male Model. The two had never gotten along and it was obvious in hindsight that the whole accusation was more motivated by what Togami said on the first day of this Mutual Killing Game than actual proof. That entire case had been built on coincidence and Togami's own mockery of everyone around him.

As if beating the Ultimate Progeny within an inch of his life wasn't enough.

It was a miracle that a fight hadn't broken out again. The first time had been the last; Oogami having made it clear that she wouldn't show any restraint against whoever would throw the first punch or were about to kill the other. The two simply settled for throwing passive insults at each other that were so cruel that it made even Celes uncomfortable.

Getting the two to get along was impossible, but Naegi was an optimist. If they wouldn't be friends, they could at least be classmates enough that they could be in the same room without screaming at each other. If it could happen after half of Togami's face had been beaten black and blue, it could happen after a few moments of fearing for his life.

At least, that's what Naegi hoped.

He knocked three times on the door and waited for a reply. Luckily enough, the door opened after a few seconds and Naegi was now face-to-face, or rather face-to-pecs, with the Ultimate Male Model just mere hours after having kept him from making the biggest mistake of his life.

That didn't mean Naegi didn't start wondering if he just made that very mistake when he saw an unfriendly glare shoot far over his head. As the eyes looked down at Naegi, however, the ice-cold glare warmed into a welcoming fire that was complimented by the slight smile that appeared on the man's face. The effect was slightly undermined by the fact that Naegi had to crane his neck back just to look his classmate in the eye.

"Oh, Naegi. I thought you were someone else." The Ultimate Male Model said. The way he spoke in near-flawless Japanese made Naegi jealous at their language skills, while he had been barely passing English at his old school. That wasn't the only thing that he was jealous of.

Makoto Naegi wasn't exactly known for his height. His own little sister was 3cm taller than him, as she loved to brag in the days before he got the letter from Hope's Peak, but he never exactly felt tiny. 5'4 was a perfectly respectable height. That's what he had thought.

That had been before he spent time with people like Oogami, Oowada, and the chiselled statue before him. The Ultimate Male Model was the tallest one of the class at 195cm, or 6'4 to use the Imperial measurements that the British used for height, and managed the impossible in seeming somehow even larger than that.

Perhaps it was the physique? It took a lot of hard work to create a body that bulged with such muscle and could still be considered slender. Any clothing worn by this man managed to fit just enough to display his physique without looking to tear at the materials themselves, creating the impression that the fabrics and design were solely for his use. Maybe it was the golden-blonde hair? Or perhaps the piercing red eyes that could either spell hellfire with their fury or a soft candle-light of curiosity as Naegi explained the differences between Japanese and British schools.

The days where a man's attractiveness was judged by having the muscular build like the one before Naegi had seemed to be over until recently. The Ultimate Male Model apparently discovered something that made him from an appreciated niche to the man who dominated the world of fashion. That was less than two years ago and now Naegi wondered if Komaru had bought another poster of her 'most favourite model ever', to put it in her words.

Dio Brando had that effect on women.

"Hey, Dio, I was just wondering if I could come in." Naegi said. It was better to be straight and honest with Dio than make up some lie that the older peer would easily see through. "I know it's been a long day, but after what happened-"

Dio's grip on the door tightened, the sound of wood creaking echoing throughout the hall. "If you're asking me to apologise to Togami-"

"No, I'm not stupid." Naegi replied, a bit too quickly for his own liking. It seemed to work, however, as Dio let go of the door and leaned against it. Gah! Even when he was wearing a simple combination of a white shirt, chocolate-brown trousers, and a dark-blue sweater, Dio managed to turn leaning against a door into a pose that had a gravity of its own. As it drew Naegi in closer, he knew that he had to regain control of the conversation. "I just wanted to make sure that you're okay. Kirigiri and I kind of went all-in during that trial and I don't want you to think that-"

A hand the size of Naegi's head was slowly raised in front of his face and he took the hint.

"Naegi," Dio leaned back and pushed the door further open enough that both of them could easily enter and exit his room. Any trace of hostility on his face was gone and replaced by cheerful welcoming, the hand that had been raised towards Naegi now motioning to the inside of the room. "If we're going to talk, we should probably do it sitting down. It'd be nice to have some kind of friendly talk after today."

Every bedroom for the students had been designed according to their personal tastes. For Dio, it was the very embodiment of luxury and wealth that fitted someone who conquered their field at the age of seventeen, right down to the golden sheen that flooded the room just from the decoration of the place. You would have never imagined that, only two years ago, this was a man who had been rejected from Hope's Peak.

But that was a story for another time. Right now, Naegi's priority was making sure that Dio knew that he was still part of their group.

The two of them sat at the table in perfect contrast. Dio sat on his chair and leaned forward as if he was the one who was checking up on Naegi rather than the other way round, pouring himself a glass of wine from the bottle he procured, and gently holding it with one hand. He let it sway and swish in his grip as if mocking Murralsee by defying the school environment. Dio had justified it to Ishimaru-who had wanted to confiscate it- in that he found it and Britain had different drinking laws to Japan so it was fine so long as only he drank it.

Ishimaru had brought up the subject again and again after the first day, but did nothing to forcibly remove the wine on the silent condition that Dio would keep it in his room at all times and that no one else would drink it. The fact that it had been a couple of hours after Dio's fists had been bloodied might have played a part in the Ultimate Moral Compass deciding to pick his battles.

"I don't suppose you'd like some?" Dio asked, moving his hand so that the open bottle was now leaning towards Naegi's face.

"No thanks. I'm too young to drink." That and the scent itself was enough to make him feel woozy, let alone even a sip.

"Suit yourself," Dio said. Silence took over for a few moments, Naegi trying to find the right words to say, when Dio took the initiative. "If you want to make sure that I was fine, I can assure you that I hold no grudges towards you or Kirigiri over what happened in the trial. We merely differed on details and I turned out to be in the wrong. I, Dio, am not the kind of person who wails and howls when they make a genuine mistake and are corrected."

Naegi ignored the implicit remark about Togami and focused on the real matter at hand. "It's these Class Trials. Forcing us to fight each other over who's the murderer. It just brings out the worst in all of us."

"Not all of us. Once again, you've surpassed yourself." Dio said, catching the Ultimate Lucky Student off-guard. What did he mean by that? "Naegi, do you remember what I said a few days ago?"

Despite everything that happened today, Naegi could remember the day before yesterday with picture-perfect clarity. Dio had been one of the few people who hadn't assumed the worst about Naegi when Maizono had been murdered, taking his side just as Kirigiri did during the whole Class Trial, so it made sense to give him a thank-you present. Naegi's luck had kicked in when he got Prince Shoutoku's Globe from the Murralsee Machine. He smiled when he saw that the softball-sized globe had been kept right next to Dio's mirror.

The gift worked as an ice-breaker and the two had talked about the strange circumstances of their acceptance into Hope's Peak. Naegi having gone through the worst day in his life and Dio having been approved despite being two years older than the standard age of entry. It had seemed odd, but no one would have said that Dio Brando didn't deserve to be a part of the student body. Reading the comments on the boards, most people thought it was a mistake to have not let him in earlier.

After they compared hobbies and skills, Naegi wondered if the reason for Dio's rejection was that he had too many talents. The Ultimate Male Model wasn't just a pretty face but was one of the sharpest fighters that Naegi had ever seen. He had seen Dio win in his games of chess against Celes and Kirigiri before, so he knew that he was smart, and the muscles should have been a dead giveaway, but he never expected the kind of skill Dio spoke about.

"I knew the basics of boxing from my childhood. No one in the streets could match me in a fight. It was when I rose to fame that I turned experience and street-smarts into something more." Dio had said, showing Naegi some air-boxing. "Mixed Martial Arts was popular and I, Dio, wasn't one to reject the opportunities to better myself, although I have my preferred forms."

Naegi knew what those were. Boxing. Not the Olympic style, or even the professional style, but a style that seemed design to hurt and cripple your opponents. It was vicious and cruel, made to keep the other fighter down and out before they came after you, and Dio somehow made it stylish. The only one in their class that Dio could really show his might against, without getting hurt, let alone winning as she did, was Oogami.

And it's not like Dio doesn't try to win. Naegi thought to himself. At times, it seemed like Dio was trying too hard to come out on top, as if winning was more important than keeping your opponent safe.

"It's hard to find a worthy opponent. I've even had a few rounds against the Ultimate Boxer." Dio had said, eager to move on from his loss. "That's a story for a different time. Let's simply say that pride might have played a role in why I was named Ultimate Male Model instead of Ultimate Boxer."

The main thing that Naegi remembered, however, was the question that Dio posed to him. The question he asked Naegi to contemplate when they had gone over the list of his potential 'talents'.

"You asked me who I thought had the strongest Talent." Naegi said.

"I can understand why you might not have thought about it. What must sound like harmless trivia is nothing compared to solving a murder, especially when it's all of our lives at stake. But this is an important question. The strongest Talent just might be what liberates all of us in the end."

"You've got that wrong." Naegi couldn't contain himself. "Talent isn't what's going to get us out of here. Working together and refusing to go along with Murralsee's little game is what will get us out of here."

Dio's eyes narrowed slightly, but more than enough to almost make Naegi shake in his seat. "Murralsee is only the face we see. Never forget that there is a Mastermind pulling the strings to all of this. A Mastermind that has managed to create a fortress that even the Ultimate Fighter herself couldn't break."

"Exactly. There's no single Talent that's going to come and bring us to safety. All we can do is hope. Hope in each other, for the people outside trying to rescue us, and that it's all going to work out." Naegi felt his body swell with each word, growing stronger in his stance and more confident in his voice. That was until he realised that he still needed to give his answer, causing him to deflate and shuffle in place. "Besides, and I don't mean to be rude, but your question doesn't make sense."

Maybe it was just his natural tendency to want everyone to get along, but the intrigued look on Dio's face, asking him to explain himself without a hint of offence, put Naegi at ease. It wasn't the first time that Naegi was relieved that he could speak with Dio while Kirigiri was stuck trying to make Togami re-join the group after everything that happened. Just the two talking was enough to give the Ultimate Lucky Student some peace of mind.

Not enough peace of mind to avoid stuttering as he began to talk. "W-Well, I mean, just, what are we even defining as 'strongest'? Are you asking if everyone got in a fight who'd win? Or are you asking which Talent is more useful? Or just which Talent goes further in their field? People have different uses for different skills. That's not even getting into the person themselves. Judging them on Talent alone is like judging someone based only on their looks, it's just one of many sides to a person. You can't really assign some objective strength to Talent. It's like asking who'd win in a fight. Where are they? How is their health? Is one of them willing to cheat to win?"

"So your answer is that it depends?" Dio asked. It was the kind of question that was a reply in itself, making Naegi wonder if the older man was disappointed that he went with an easy answer.

Naegi tried to retreat into his hoodie without making it obvious, suddenly embarrassed by his own words. "Sorry. You probably wanted something else from m-"

"I was hoping you would say that. It shows that your mind is sharp even when you're not under pressure." Dio smiled as he went on. "The skills needed to be a good king and the skills needed to be a good chef are completely different. To judge the strength of a Talent according to some sort of objective criteria is a fool's task. Having said this, I, Dio, have thought about who would represent the biggest danger to the Mastermind in this Mutual Killing Game."

"Y-Y-You have?"

"The Mastermind has control over the entire school and has copies of Murralsee all over the building just waiting to be activated. They then add to this control by having us fight amongst each other with the reward of escaping this building at the cost of everyone else. The Motives so far have simply been ways of increasing the costs of inaction. It might be that they even have the power to provide additional benefits to successfully committing a murder other than freedom."

Murdering someone to get a reward? Naegi didn't understand. He couldn't understand. What kind of reward would be enough to drive one of them to kill another, and doom everyone else, for the sake of what was basically a bonus prize? To kill to escape, that was something that Naegi could accept, no matter how much he hated it. To kill out of panic was wrong but at least it didn't come from a morbid cost-benefit calculation.

Even as Dio continued talking, Naegi refused to believe that someone would jump at whatever Murralsee-or rather the Mastermind-offered in exchange for an innocent life.

"With that power as the foundation to all this, it stands to reason that those that threaten the Mastermind's control are the greatest threats. Without that power over us, there is nothing they can do to force us to submit to their will. In this case, out of our entire class, the three most dangerous would be Oogami, Fujisaki, and Kirigiri herself. The Ultimate Fighter may only have a small chance of defeating a single Murralsee, but the Ultimate Programmer might have had a chance to access one of the Murralsees, or even the network itself, and bring chaos to the Mastermind's control. Kirigiri herself has proven resistant to the Motives and the paranoia that comes from murder. Even without a clear Talent, she's proven deadly."

"Fujisaki," Naegi's eyes feeling heavy, still fighting back tears even now. The fact that he might have found a way to help everyone escape. As if the way he died wasn't tragic enough. "Even if it was a small chance, why did-"

"Because Oowada was ruled by fear. Fear of what he had done, fear of what his followers would think of him, and fear of his own weakness. Humanity is haunted by anxiety, Naegi, and will do anything to find refuge from it, even if it means burying their sins deep down." Dio drank from his glass again and leaned forward, his very form seeming to grow even larger somehow. "That anxiety of the unknown, great enough to throw them into despair and madness, is what defines those who are the least threatening to the Mastermind."

"The least threatening?"

"Yamada, Hagakure, Maizono, Kuwata, Oowada, Fukawa, Togami, and now Ishimaru." Dio listed the names without hesitation. Alive, dead, culprit, victim, none of that seemed to matter. Only the distinction between a threat and a tool. "Those either willing to submit to the Mastermind's commands or are unable to overcome their own fears and anxiety to truly resist. Some will be unable to kill while also refusing to fight back against the Mastermind or their Murralsees in any worthwhile way. They are the mob mentality. Give them a direction and they'll flock towards it."

"What about the others?" Naegi felt uneasy. It was as if Dio was creating a list of the worthy and the unworthy. Those who he thought would survive and overcome the Mutual Killing Game, and those who he thought were doomed the moment they entered Hope's Peak. It wasn't right, and it was made all the worse by the fact that there were names missing from the list. "Me, Asahina, and Celes."

"Asahina and Oogami give each other stability and strength. I doubt anything will drive them to actually kill so long as they have each other. What happens if one of them is murdered, however, is what will determine the extent to which they threaten the Mastermind's designs now. The Ultimate Gambler's Talent is what makes her dangerous. How much of it is likes yours? The Talent with the greatest potential."

"Mine? The greatest potential?" Naegi couldn't believe it, even as Dio said that last sentence as if it were a basic fact. Something as obvious as the order of the alphabet.

But that couldn't be the case. Yes, Naegi had been given the title Ultimate Lucky Student, yet that was only because that was what every winner of the Lottery was called. It wasn't as if Naegi only ever had good luck. If anything, he had been cursed with terrible luck. The day he got his letter had only been after a whole series of problems and failures that made him ready to give up on things getting better until he got home and Komaru revealed that letter. He'd been so happy that the whole day had went from one of the worst to one of the best days of his life.

Until I actually came to the school. Naegi thought to himself. What was meant to be the start of a new life with new friends had turned into him and fourteen others into tortured victims. Nothing more than pawns in some sick and twisted game, all controlled by a Mastermind whose reach and power seemed endless to those locked inside the Academy.

This was a talent with the greatest potential?

"Ultimate Lucky Student. The Talent that seems capable of changing the nature of probability itself. If you were somehow able to attain control of that Talent." Dio drank the last of his wine in his glass, as if to show his calm, yet the way his other hand gripped itself showed how focused he truly was. "You could become a challenge for even the Mastermind. It's why the Ultimate Gambler might be more dangerous than she seems. What if her skills don't simply lie in her ability to create and see through lies, but to also alter the luck of the draw? She could be a powerful weapon against the Mastermind, or a tool for them to use to break everyone here."

"Being able to control luck." Naegi tasted the words in his mouth before shaking his head at the thought. It was just too ridiculous for someone like him. He apologetically scratched the back of his head. "I'm sorry, Dio. That's something I could never do. Not for someone ordinary like me."

Dio shrugged his shoulders. "I thought as much. Your temperament betrays you. It's not in the nature of Givers to attempt to surpass those kinds of limitations."

Givers? What does he mean by that? Naegi was confused. Dio seemed to reach for the wine bottle to pour more into his glass, only to stop himself in a flash, his eyes bursting with raw energy. Energy that was pushed down and Dio's whole form seemed to be in a state of forced calm. He smiled at Naegi with a near-perfect serenity.

After hearing Dio's words, it almost made Naegi wonder if the Ultimate Model was mocking him. Asserting his superiority without realising it, or maybe just not saying it, by simply just being himself. Togami was straight with how he felt, declaring his disdain and perception of others as lower than him without shame, almost bathing in their reactions. As much as Togami liked to talk about not trusting others and approaching this as a game to play and win, he was one of the more honest people about his feelings.

Dio? Dio Brando made you feel inferior by simply being in the same room as him. The way his body just naturally posed and leaned in ways that emphasised his body structure, his way of cutting through or slipping around your words and dominating the conversation, and just how his sheer self-confidence almost came to life and flooded whatever room he was in. Without even saying a word, Dio could make himself seem like the most important, and the most superior, person in the room.

"Givers are people like yourself. They open themselves to others and invite them to take what they desire. If they saw someone trapped in quicksand, they wouldn't hesitate to do everything possible to get the victim out, even if it were to cost them their own lives." Dio said. It almost seemed as if he was mocking Naegi, if it weren't for the level tone. "They just give and give until there's nothing left. Then they try to give more until they are nothing more than a broken husk."

"You think I'm going to die because I'm open to people?" Naegi asked.

"You seem incapable of comprehending the idea that there are people in this building who lack your morality. That there is no one who decide that freedom from this prison is worth the lives of everyone else here. That people cannot be selfish." Dio leaned back in his seat. "It's often a Taker that destroys them. Maizono almost did it to you."

That made Naegi's chest burst with anger. Maizono wasn't that kind of person. Her dying message had been what saved Naegi and the rest of the class from certain death and Dio was sitting there calling her a 'taker'? Thinking of her as the kind of person that destroyed people who were willing to help others? It almost made him want to stand up and scream in her defence.

What kept Naegi restrained was first his own reluctance to get violent, and secondly the fear of what would happen if he tried to lay a hand on the Ultimate Model. The memory of what Dio had done to Togami on their first day still stuck with Naegi just as it did with everyone else. One second, Togami was coldly dismissing Dio in front of the group, and the next was seeing Togami's head smashed against the side of the bleachers before his whole body was thrown to the ground. He had barely been able to get up before Dio pounced on him, raining down blow after blow, screaming about the audacity of the Ultimate Progeny's words.

If it wasn't for Oogami locking in that full-nelson and Oowada grabbing at the legs, Naegi wondered if anything would have stopped Dio from murdering Togami out of sheer fury. Murralsee almost had his first murder literally seconds after he had declared the start of the Mutual Killing Game. The attack even left its mark now, the bruises that coated Togami's right eye were showing no matter how much make-up he used, and was a constant reminder of the dangers of pushing Dio's buttons.

Either way, Dio seemed to realise the tension in the room and raised his hands as a conciliatory gesture.

"I don't mean to insult her. I'm a Taker as well." Dio's spoke softly. Softly enough that it made Naegi feel like he was a child nearing a temper tantrum, having to be soothed into silence. He almost blushed from shame, although that dissipated when seeing Dio rise from his seat, his chair falling to the ground. "Anything in this world, anyone within it, I will use on my path to the top. I, Dio, will not die in this school-building from the machinations of a figure hiding in the darkness who thinks that we are starving rats."

There was something about the determination in his voice, the strength behind those words, that lent Dio the kind of charisma that a general had when leading soldiers into battle in olden times. The confidence that everything would end in their victory and that the enemy would be defeated. It made Naegi's chest swell with something. Not quite hope, this was something raw and furious, but it warmed the Ultimate Lucky Student all the same.

That sheer confidence of self. It made Naegi wonder if, although neither would ever admit it, Dio and Togami ever realised that they were more alike than they-

"Byakuya Togami is an Inheritor." Dio spat out that last word with enough venom that Naegi shivered from the feel of the poison. "All the trials and challenges I have faced began when I was nothing more than a child stuck in the dirt. Everything I became was a result of my own efforts and being, climbing to new heights and only going higher. A boy like Togami. He was born on top of the mountain and is praised for adding pennies to a sea of gold. He thinks harsh words and sharp glares will make him one worthy of fear and respect. He and I are nothing alike."

The same sense of confidence and determination was there, but it had been altered. Words of comfort had become words of resentful fury. The room turned ice-cold and threatened to freeze Naegi in place, no matter how he wore his hoodie. The loathing in Dio's voice was a reminder of the other side of Dio's passions and emotions. How he could get swept up in them just as easily as he could use them. Where it might have scared others off, and Naegi would never deny the fear inside him when seeing Dio like this, a part of him wanted to understand where this came from.

Where did Dio create this image of the world as one of givers, takers, and inheritors? Why did he seem to take pride in being a 'taker', look down on 'givers', and hold a special contempt for 'inheritors'? The questions in Naegi's mind mixed with the tempest of Dio's fury and nearly overwhelmed Naegi. Dio at least seemed to realised this in time and the spite and fury seeped back towards Dio and away from the room, and Naegi, just as quickly as it burst out.

"Forgive me, Naegi. I'm afraid that Togami has a tendency to..." Dio stopped himself, whether lacking a word to describe his feelings, or trying to find a way to phrase it that didn't scare Naegi. "Push my buttons, so to say. My temper is one of my less attractive features."

"It's fine. I think Togami pushes everyone's buttons." Naegi said. It wasn't his place to sit and judge Dio when he didn't know all the details, and it wasn't as if Togami didn't drive everyone else into madness. Apart from Fukawa, of course. "Just try to not let him get to you. We're all in the same situation and we can't just start fighting with each other. You're my friend, Dio, and I just want to make sure that this doesn't get any worse. Now that we've got the Ultimate Serial Killer here, and Togami thinking that you're trying to kill him-"

"I'm equipped to handle the Genocider." Dio said. Any other person smiling the way that Dio was and Naegi would have been worried that their ego was in control. Just by following where Dio's eyes were looking, at the pepper-shaker that Dio had apparently taken from the kitchen, Naegi could see that the Ultimate Model was well-prepared. That was ignoring the fact that he had every physical advantage against someone like Fukawa. "But I understand your point. Murralsee's next motive could be aimed at bringing up past grudges and, if there is another murder, it wouldn't do us any good if Togami and Fukawa were focusing on getting back at me than discovering the truth."

Dio was probably trying to comfort Naegi, but all that he could think about were those last few words. "You really think there'll be more deaths?"

"Possibly." Dio said. "That's a matter for tomorrow. Is the rest of the class meeting now? I won't apologise to Togami, but I almost got everyone killed."

"Everyone's already forgiven you for that." Naegi replied, finding his smile. In all honesty, no one really blamed Dio. All he did was lead them down a path that they were happy to go down. The only two that really held a grudge was Togami and Fukawa and it wasn't as if Dio was ever going to win them over after their first day. "Just try and be in the same room as Togami and Fukawa without a fight breaking out."

"I'll try my best." Dio met Naegi's smile with his own, before shifting his gaze over to the clock. "It's getting close to the Night Time. Unless you want to end up breaking the curfew rule-"

Naegi turned his back and held back a gasp of shock at how late it truly was. The Class Trial had taken a lot of time, as did trying to get everyone to stay together before he and Kirigiri focused on Togami and Dio, but he never realised just how long it had been between the beginning of the trial and now. He all but threw himself out of the chair and tried to get a closer look at the specific time. He still had enough time to get out and actually talk with Kirigiri about how it all went.

He just prayed that someone like Fukawa wouldn't notice him leaving Dio's room at this time. Komaru was one of millions of Dio Brando fangirls who looked at his latest pictures with yearning, but that didn't mean that he was exclusively loved by women. There was just something about Dio in every pose and style of clothing that just drew people in, regardless of gender. It was like the Ultimate Model had his own gravity. Naegi, however, was not that kind of admirer and he did not want Fukawa to latch onto the idea that he and Dio were having that kind of relationship.

If he was quick, and Kirigiri was either finishing up or waiting for him, then Naegi could get out and go over things with Kirigiri without anyone asking questions. He was at least grateful that Dio didn't seem to take offence to how quickly he was scrambling to leave the room. Spending time in dorms had taught everyone the value of not having to worry about neighbours prying into your business, even without a Mutual Killing Game hanging over everyone's heads.

Naegi was just about ready to leave when he felt something in the back pocket of his hoodie press against his waist.

How did I forget? Naegi had even intended this to serve as a peace offering. A way to win Dio over in case he had been more hostile than he really was. It had cost Naegi a lot of coins on the Murralsee Machine to get but it would all be worth it, if those online boards were telling the truth all those weeks ago. He ruffled through his pockets for the present.

"Dio, I actually wanted to give you something."

It confused Naegi on why the machine seemed to distribute presents. Yes, they were wrapped in a pure black ball which a tiny Murralsee face on it-which made each 'prize' seem more like a nightmare-but it seemed like a strange gesture of kindness for the Mastermind to give them some type of normality. Kirigiri had suggested that it was a way to make them let their guard down, or a sick way for a murderer to build trust before betraying them all. Naegi preferred to think that this was just a mind-game and nothing more.

A mind game that was really helpful in giving him presents to give to others. Such as the one he handed over to Dio, who was looking at the brooch that seemed tiny when in his hands.

"The Scarab Beetle. Ancient Egypt's symbol of the cycle of regeneration and rebirth and of the God Ra's command over the sun." Dio said to himself, looking at the present with glowing eyes. It seemed as if Naegi handled it perfectly. Until Dio's eyes narrowed and gave a sideways glance at Naegi. "Also known as the dung beetle."

It was almost enough to make Naegi wail in panic. The Scarab and the dung beetle were the same insect? How did that work? One was a symbol of wealth and fortune and the other pushed around a ball of poop! It was impossible. It was unthinkable. It was Naegi's bad luck. Dio was probably wondering if Naegi was trying to make some joke about him, someone who tried to reach for glory but was only covered in their own mess, knowing how his luck went.

Naegi was about to shoot out an apology when Dio's eyes softened again and a gentle laugh came from his lips. The smile on his face suggested that Dio knew exactly what he did.

"I like it. It's not going anywhere near my hair, but I appreciate the gesture." Dio said. He was speaking to Naegi but his eyes were completely focused on the scarab brooch in his hands. "The Egyptian culture's always fascinated me. From the dawn of man to the present day itself. The idea of a ruler as a God themselves."

Dio spoke softly and with admiration for what the brooch seemed to represent for him. The good mood was infectious enough to wipe away Naegi's earlier fears and brought a smile to his face as well, comforted by the fact that the internet did not lie to him, and that he hadn't wrecked his work. Dio could be aggressive and let his grudges get the better of him, but he had been a strong ally in trying to keep the class united and Naegi didn't want to lose that because of a few mistakes. softly smiled,

"Great. I'll bring something new the next time we meet, Dio. Maybe I can test my luck on the machines." Naegi said, emphasising the part about his luck.

The joke failed miserably.

It was a small mercy that Dio didn't seemed to notice Naegi's attempt at humour. He gave a smile and a wave from where he stood, as Naegi moved towards the door. "Don't worry, Naegi. I, Dio, won't let us fall to the Mastermind just yet. Not when we still have a chance at victory."

The two nodded at each other, Naegi feeding off Dio's natural confidence. It helped that the massive height difference was lessened by Dio being halfway across the room from him, instead of one having to look down and the other forcing their neck back. He opened the door and closed it behind him, looking to his right to see if Kirigiri was waiting for him. It was some kind of cosmic joke that, for all that the two hated one another, Dio and Togami's rooms were only separated by Celes' room. Well, he said cosmic joke, but it was really more a favour from the heavens.

Just as Naegi wondered if his partner had decided to head back to her room, Kirigiri herself exited Togami's room and shut the door behind her. Compared to him and Dio giving a warm farewell, all the girl with the unknown Talent gave Togami was a brief stare and a nod, as she closed the door. Without even changing expression, Kirigiri turned her head towards Naegi.

"I doubt that this experience has made Togami any more willing to involve himself in the group." She said. A chill crept up Naegi's spine before she spoke again. "But he won't be excluding himself any more than he already has. He also won't be attempting to avenge himself on Dio. The physical difference is enough to deter him and using Genocider Syo is too much of a risk for him, I presume."

"At least tomorrow will be better than today." As if that was going to be hard.

"Possibly. Or Fukawa and/or Ishimaru's reaction to today's events may make things worse. We've done all we can, assuming you manage to convince Brando to not isolate himself." Kirigiri had a way of coming off as brutally honest while also trying to be comforting. It was a strange combination but one that worked on Naegi.

As the clock moved closer to the Night Time, both Naegi and Kirigiri decided to head back to their rooms and place their trust in their classmates. There was still the question of whether Genocider Syo was going to be a threat to the safety of the group, and if Ishimaru was going to be any better than he was today after Oowada's death. There was only so much that could be done in a single day though, and Naegi and Kirigiri had done all they could in that time, and they could be proud of that.

Naegi even felt that he and Dio bonded a little.

--

Peace of mind. To be free of fear and anxiety. The true reason for which humans live their lives.

The pursuit of wealth, fame, power, all of these are done so that the one who attain them can gain peace of mind. To form relationships with others is done so that people can have peace of mind. When one offers aid to someone in need, or vows to live by the virtues of love, justice, and honour, they do so to have peace of mind. That sense of security and safety is something that no man or woman can truly resist.

Offer it to them and they will do anything to have it. Threaten to take it away and they will fight to their last breath to keep it.

What was hope but the desire to fulfil one's fate? To live a life that is free of the unexpected and chaotic? To avoid the pain of suffering or turmoil?

Take away that hope, that sense of stability, and throw a group into a situation where peace of mind is impossible and they would be ruined. The lowest of beggars, the greatest of kings, and the last remaining pillars of Hope's Peak Academy, all of them were equal in the face of these basic facts. The symbols that so much of mankind put their faith and hope in would crumble into common killers and tragic victims in a matter of days.

Who could question that fact now? An entire planet was forced to watch as these children, unknowingly carrying the burden of being the last hope of millions, were like lemmings. Incapable of overcoming instinct, they rushed to the edge of the cliff and towards their death.

But there were other factors in play! Just as that famous fact about the lemming was no more than a fabrication by documentary-makers interfering in the course of nature, so too was this Mutual Killing Game being manipulated as well. A Mastermind that gave them gentle pushes towards the right direction by the use of motives.

An eternity in the building they could not escape. The lives of their loved ones. Their darkest secrets. These dark threats, handed down by what looked like a demon itself, were more than enough to drive those who were meant to be kept safe behind these walls into their own greatest enemies.

Who could feel peace of mind in a place like this?

The answer was obvious. Peace of mind came from freedom from fear and anxiety, from a sense of total control over their lives and fate, and that belonged to one man. The Mastermind of this Mutual Killing Game. The man behind the rise of Ultimate Despair, the terrorist group dedicated to the destruction of Hope's Peak and all its works. The man who had taken the old order and crushed it beneath his heels. The man who would soon take his rightful place as the ruler of all mankind.

The man who could no longer contain his laughter after hearing Makoto Naegi close the door behind him. His entire body arched backwards as he put a hand over his face, nowhere near close enough to cover up the sounds coming from his mouth.

Why even try to contain it? The rooms were soundproofed, after all. The Mastermind could have screamed all of his deeds for the outside world to hear and his next-door neighbour wouldn't have heard a single thing. Even if she did, it wasn't as if the Mastermind's very own loyal servant would actually rise up against him. Not when he offered her the very peace of mind that he himself enjoyed.

Dio Brando looked at the Scarab Brooch in his hand and grinned. The Ultimate Lucky Student's Talent had worked in Dio's favour again. With his control over Murralsee, the chosen avatar for Dio's will, there was nothing to stop Dio from attaining such a thing for himself, the same applying to the Globe itself. It was the principle of the matter, however, that gave Dio pleasure. The further vindication of his decision to directly interact with the others as a friendly face.

It was true that his illusion had come under threat. Byakuya Togami's arrogance, enough that he had the audacity to challenge one such as Dio, had almost sent the plan crashing down. Had it not been for the Ultimate Fighter and Oowada, Dio would have killed Togami with his bare hands. The others would have seen him as a murderer and realised that Murralsee had not called for a Class Trial.

The chain of logic would have been unbreakable. If Murralsee was only a servant, as the machine itself admitted, then the only thing that it would never threaten would be its master. Dio had no problem with ending the game, if it ever came close to ruining his plans, but he would have preferred some progress to be made in his wider scheme.

It was not enough to merely kill Class 78 of Hope's Peak Academy, the students that Jin Kirigiri had tried so hard to keep alive and safe. If it was, then Dio would have slaughtered them the second that they had all let their guards down. No. There needed to be something more. Something that would show the world that there was truly nothing left that Dio Brando did not hold power over.

Perhaps I, Dio, should begin work on the next murders. Dio already had a plan. With this, he would be able to kill two birds with one stone by testing a theory of his.

Making Taeko Yasuhiro into his servant had been easy. His natural charisma and physical appearance had cowed many women towards his will, especially when complimented by the threat of violence, but there was something more that Dio could use. The darkest secrets, once easily confessed to fellow classmates who had enjoyed the strong ties of friendship, now tormented each and every one of them. Old friends were now strangers who could barely be trusted.

The stick of revealing her true identity and destroying the idea of Celestia Ludenberg had been enough to break Taeko. It was the carrot of her dream-castle, however, which built her up again into a willing mole for Dio to use against the others. All of this had been done to test Dio's theory about the Luck aspect of her Ultimate Gambler Talent. Every variable had to be controlled and, if Taeko indeed had some power over luck, and thus probability, then Dio finally had a weapon against Naegi.

If not, and Celestia was caught, then there was no risk to Dio himself. Murralsee would silence her before she could reveal his identity.

Already, Dio Brando was taking control of the next battlefield. He was dominating the war that people like Naegi and Kirigiri were only just starting to fight. Chihiro Fujisaki, one of the few who stood as a threat, had been brutally dispatched and Kirigiri was no closer to discovering her true Talent than she was when the Killing Game began. All that left was Sakura Oogami. The woman who dared to humiliate Dio in single combat.

He had agreed in the expectation that his greater knowledge of her tactics and stances would have given him the edge. Instead, he was defeated! How would the world know to fear him if he could still be matched physically? Had the ogre held back during their schooldays, thinking that she was merely encouraging a friend? The thought destroyed Dio's good mood and made his blood boil with fury.

The only thing that calmed him was the thought of revenge. Just as the urge to end Togami whenever the brat opened his mouth was soothed by when the Final Trial would begin, the same applied to Oogami. When it would come to the final chapter in this little story, Dio would force Oogami to watch as he would break her beloved comrades into his puppets before sending her to the pits of hell. All the strength she took pride in would be nothing against the power of Dio Brando!

It wouldn't be long now. The time was coming when the remnants of Hope's Peak Academy would learn the truth about the world, the truth about their pasts, and why they were brought here in the first place. The realisation that they had not only been killing innocent people but also their close friends. The destruction of all their hopes and the end to seemingly any chance of peace of mind. It would break every single one of them.

As the survivors would break, so would the world.

Then that would be when Dio would make them his offer. The chance for them to attain peace of mind again. To live in a world where their dreams and desires could still be reached. All that they would have to do would be to accept Dio's total victory over them and the world, and kneel before him in unconditional submission.

Dio would then take the Talents that rightfully belonged to him, instead of that pathetic failed experiment, and transcend another barrier. The Future Foundation, who still dared to challenge Dio's rule, would have nothing to rally the people with. In the face of Dio's army, from Ultimate Despair to the Warriors of Hope to his spy to even his loyal friend who had helped him on the path towards his Fate, his enemies would either join the world in kneeling at Dio's feet or become stepping stones on his way to total domination of mankind.

Makoto Naegi. Kyouko Kirigiri. Those two made a formidable team, capable of besting any other opponent in a situation like this, if given time.

"But this is not any other opponent, Makoto Naegi, Kyouko Kirigiri." Dio spoke loudly. No one else inside Hope's Peak could hear him, but the entire world outside couldn't mistake even a single word now. "I, Dio, will conquer you just as I have conquered this planet! You think you can overcome the power of Dio Brando? Hah! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless!"

The master of humanity laughed. The raw sense of triumph flooded his room until it needed some kind of escape, bursting through the cameras, and seeping into every single screen that was broadcasting this Mutual Killing Game throughout the globe. It was impossible to know just how many people were witnessing these events. All that could be certain was that they were witnessing the total confidence of the man who had all but taken over the world, and was it wrong to think that he had in fact already taken over the world?

For who could even think of challenging the Ultimate Master?

Kirigiri was getting nowhere.

It was midnight, meaning she had spent two hours on this, and she still couldn't decipher the meaning of Celestia's final words.

Yes, Kirigiri still called the Ultimate Gambler 'Celestia', rather than 'Taeko', as part of her respect towards the dead. Was it entirely deserved to a murderer who had killed two people instead of the necessary one? Perhaps not, but Maizono had attempted to frame Naegi, Kuwata had gone beyond self-defence in the use of his tool-kit and Oowada allowed his emotional turmoil to remove one of the few people who could have truly challenged the Mastermind, yet were still deserved that respect. Why not the Ultimate Gambler?

The fact that she was working for the Mastermind was the best counter to that logic.

She hadn't expected that a girl of such pride would so readily discard it for the man who kept them locked away from the outside world and forced them to kill each other. Celestia's dream of being the mistress of her own castle might have been used against her, but to have debauched herself the way she did in her confession was simply nothing more than an act of submission. Had she thought that it would spare her an execution?

No. She clearly didn't fear death. Kirigiri thought to herself. Yet even that wasn't entirely the truth. She didn't fear death because she thought the Mastermind would rescue her from it.

Whatever the Mastermind had said to Celestia, it had been enough to turn him into a figure capable of creating what looked to be the world's greatest prison into nothing less than a God, and a God that demanded worship at that. Such actions did fit the profile that she had been creating for the Mastermind. It was one of the few ways that Kirigiri could actually gain progress in the war instead of fighting battle after battle.

The fact that Celestia was chosen as the Traitor, and not someone like Oogami or Togami, made it clear that the Mastermind had a clear preference. Oogami's physical strength-and more importantly her personality-would have made it difficult to pin her down as a deceiver, and Togami's fixation on labelling this whole thing as a game worked in reverse, making him too obvious as a culprit or a Traitor. The Second Class Trial had only been an exercise in venting frustration and trying to fit proof into a false answer.

Egotism. That was what kept the Mastermind from using someone like the two of them. Oogami was the Ultimate Fighter; meaning that the Mastermind would have to resort to hostages and/or a set of Murralsees to keep her in line. Togami would need something related to the fortune of the Togami Group, or an incentive, in order to keep him in line. For a criminal that had his own avatar proclaim itself as nothing more than a servant, the challenge to his pride would be too much to use either someone physically stronger than them or who'd see himself as an equal or greater.

Celestia's final testimony had been enlightening. At least, for as long as she was able to speak, before Murralsee chose to deliver a quick end. The need to frighten and horrify the Class had came behind the need to silence the pawn that was not only out-living its usefulness but was sabotaging her own side. In terms of getting ahead on the case, Kirigiri wasn't going to complain.

"You think we could ever defeat someone like him? Bullshit! You haven't seen his power the way I have. There is nothing he does not know. Nothing he cannot do. You think the Mutual Killing Game is the extent of his control? He is the man who could burn this world to ash and build it again! Life? Death? Both of them are nothing against his power! Just cut yourselves open and let him win, for all the good it'll do. I go to my death knowing that I will be re-born as-"

Her speech had ended with Murralsee casting his steel whip forward and wrapping it around her throat. There was nothing she could do or say as the demon-shaped machine tightened the metallic noose around her throat and it was a matter of seconds before the crack of breaking bones echoed throughout the room. The Queen of Liars' body fell to the floor as if it were a sack of potatoes and just laid there.

Dio had tried to be the first to her body, his whole form shaking with rage at what they had seen, but Oogami had held him back. It was better that Murralsee didn't notice what they might have been searching Celestia's body for, and Dio's temper often interfered with his mind when it came to being subtle. They had to put all of their hope towards Celestia both having the key to Alter Ego's locker and not revealing it to the Mastermind, and Kirigiri wasn't going to risk that hope for anything.

Murralsee had not moved an inch, after having taken another life, which made it easy for Kirigiri to take the key and move back. The avatar of the Mastermind had retreated back to wherever it stayed when not needed, which left the survivors with a chance to recover Alter Ego and try to understand their next move. Sending Naegi to the hidden room behind the boy's toilets had been another move by Kirigiri to get both of them on the same level.

What they suspected before had been confirmed. The Mastermind had outside contacts, large amounts of resources, and had an immense sense of pride. They had received new information. The gender of the Mastermind and the nature of how they could have recruited followers, the way that Celes drooled with each word detailing the Mastermind's glory. They even knew that the Mastermind was not concerned at all with people on the outside.

Unlike the others, however, one part of Celestia's speech had taken Kirigiri off-guard. The key to all this was hidden in those words and she still couldn't figure out just what the Ultimate Gambler meant. The clock had struck midnight and Kirigiri was still chasing the same clue, perhaps contradicting advice on the necessity of avoiding impasses and focusing on discovering what you could discern.

Power that overcomes life and death. Celestia believing that she would be 're-born' somehow. Those thoughts were all that Kirigiri needed to put her back where she started. Any other person saying this at any other time might have just been written off as delusional or lying, especially by herself, and given little else.

It was the look in Celestia, no, Taeko's eyes that caught her attention. That look of complete and sincere belief that she would be delivered from death somehow, or come back again as if death was nothing, enraptured Kirigiri. It toyed with her and mocked her throughout the rest of the day. Nothing that she accomplished seemed to matter in the face of this insurmountable question.

"What did she mean by that?" Kirigiri asked herself. "Celestia was just being metaphorical, but the way she spoke...there has to be a solution."

It wasn't that the deaths were being faked. The victims showed every sign of human death and couldn't be mistaken for anything else and the 'blackened' had all suffered a cruel fate that had been delivered swiftly and directly without a chance of being swapped in or leaving them in a living condition. Executions designed to torment their Talents and their inability to escape rather than executions designed to leave a gap for escape.

Celestia wasn't the type to have been fooled by illusions either. Barring mental strain from the Mastermind knowing her true identity, and using that against her, it was unlikely that the Mastermind's word would have been taken without sufficient evidence. The possibility of Celestia merely trying to shatter morale existed as well, but Kirigiri just couldn't accept that explanation. Every instinct inside her was screaming that it wasn't something so simple.

At this rate, she'd be thinking about this for another two hours before finding the answer.

"I'm getting nowhere." Kirigiri said realising that she had truly hit a brick wall. "Celestia was probably just lying about the whole thing. A last-minute attempt to appeal to the Mastermind only to reveal too many secrets."

"The Ultimate Gambler spoke the truth."

That soft voice, almost soothing were it not for the powerful echo, was more than enough to make Kirigiri turn around. There was no chance of her allowing herself to show her back to the android that had mercilessly butchered Kuwata, Oowada, and now Celestia. The fact that its steel-chain whip was wrapped around its right forearm did nothing to ease her nerves, knowing how quickly it could unravel that chain for its use.

She had done her best to keep her composure, to contrast from Naegi and Asahina's horror and Oogami and Dio's fury, but having seen the way that Celestia's neck almost caved into itself had nearly been enough to make Kirigiri vomit. The way her eyes bulged from the shock of betrayal and the horror of the banality and lack of ceremony in her execution. It was a small mercy that Murralsee often moved the bodies away from them after a brief few seconds of witnessing the demise of the Blackened. Were Kirigiri the type to let herself be blinded by sentiment, she'd have said there was a tenderness to how the corpses were treated.

But she wasn't. There was a truth behind this and she was going to find it. The thing in front of her was simply the avatar of the one behind all this and she wasn't going to treat it any other way.

"How did you enter my room?" She asked despite knowing the answer. The ceiling tile in the corner of her bedroom, left to her bed, was just slightly out of place compared to the others.

"My Master had decided that I would need a method of entering the rooms of the students, without using the doors, if needed. This is one of them." Murralsee replied.

"Strange that I didn't notice this particular feature of my room." Kirigiri had searched every nook and cranny of the room, including the ceiling tiles, in search of secret passages and the like. She had found nothing and yet here Murralsee was, despite the locked door.

"It is activated from afar. You would not have noticed it until now, nor would you have been able to detect issues with the other ceiling tiles." Murralsee said. Its arms then stretched out mechanically, as opposed to its usual fluidic movements. It caught her suspicions. "My Master's designs cannot be overcome. You would do well to submit."

"What did you mean by your words? 'The Ultimate Gambler spoke the truth.'" Kirigiri ignored the usual warning of the Mastermind's greatness. She had the feeling that this was not meant to be happening. "How can the Mastermind have control over life and death?"

"Your lives are at his mercy. At any moment of his choosing, he could kill every survivor remaining without even blinking." Murralsee spoke the words that were probably programmed into it since its creation. Likely the result of initial orders preventing it from giving the truth.

What was clear to Kirigiri was that Murralsee was hiding something. The Mastermind might have sent it as a warning, designed to torment the survivors after seeing one of their own as a Traitor, or even to tempt them to replace Celestia as his agent. Yet, what did the Mastermind have to gain from what Murralsee was doing? Kirigiri had just learnt that the Mastermind had a system that allowed entry into her room, a secret she'd have thought the Mastermind would have preferred to keep secret.

The tone of Murralsee was what caught her attention. Normally, it spoke in a single tone that never shifted a single bit and recited the glories of its 'master' as if it were holy script. This was nothing compared to the shifting language where it spoke earnestly one moment and then recited words as if the demonic machine itself was bored by it.

Kirigiri had a theory and decided to be straightforward about proving it.

"The Mastermind doesn't know that you're here, does he?" She asked.

"Our goals are aligned. To secure acknowledgement of his mastery." Murralsee said without actually answering. A few moments of silence and it spoke again. "He would not approve of this method. More time is meant to be spent on this phase before reaching the next. I judged that this initiative would produce superior results for all sides."

"All sides?" Kirigiri baited. She needed to get all the information she could out of this moment of independence by the Mastermind's minion.

"My Master attains dominance and you are able to preserve your existing numbers. When victory is impossible, it is better to surrender and live." Murralsee's tone carried something. An emotion that Kirigiri couldn't identify.

"I doubt the Mastermind feels the same way." Kirigiri replied. She let the pause hang over them.

"He would be...displeased. It is why he will not know of this." Murralsee said. Kirigiri couldn't restrain a gasp of shock as she realised the implications. An act of rebellion? The machine still spoke on. "The cameras for this room are on a loop for the time being. My fellow servant has agreed with my logic."

A fellow servant? Someone else was managing the surveillance equipment then. So did the Mastermind find it beneath him to watch over them? Or perhaps the system in use was too complex for a single person to run it, or even a mixture of the above-theories. Kirigiri had long-assumed that the Mastermind had an ego behind him, unwilling to even have Murralsee try to present itself as any more than a machine built to serve him, so it might even extend to the surveillance system.

Yet the system seemed to have its flaws. A machine capable of taking its own initiative? One that seemed to go directly against the wishes of its master and/or creator? The field of artificial intelligence was advanced but no one had come close to creating an independently-minded system that could diverge from instructions given to it. Chihiro couldn't even manage that, even if he wanted to, from what Kirigiri had seen of his talents.

The closest thing that Kirigiri could think of to such a thing was Alter Ego and that still needed input and commands from the survivors when they interacted with-

A lightning bolt struck her mind. The tunnel vision that had encompassed her analysis of Celestia's final words was shattered into blinding light the second that Kirigiri's mind fell back towards Alter Ego. The eager-to-help AI that had enchanted the class and had been kidnapped by the Blackened to lure Ishimaru and Yamada into her plan to escape. The key to the truth that would lead the survivors to victory over this Mastermind.

Kept safe in a blind-spot where only the survivors could see it.

"There is nothing he does not know..." Kirigiri recited the words, cursing herself for not focusing on them in favour of the shock-value. Too much time was spent on deciphering a riddle and not enough on the disturbing fact staring her in the face. "He knows about it."

She didn't specify what she meant by 'it'. There was a chance that Murralsee could report this conversation back to the Mastermind, or could be forced to recite everything she said to its master. Better to have it reveal the secrets than herself.

"Yes. The Alter Ego AI will be terminated tomorrow evening as a disruptive element in place of a Motive or Trial." Murralsee said. Once again, Kirigiri couldn't control her expression enough to hide the shock. Tomorrow evening? There was barely enough time for the others to think of a plan. "That AI is the only thing that can challenge him. Without it, there is no hope."

"How do I know you aren't lying?" Kirigiri needed to know how much she could trust the machine. To let go of a secret like knowledge of Alter Ego's existence and the Mastermind's plan for it was an immense sacrifice.

"What motive would I have? The knowledge of the Alter Ego came from my Master, rather than our equipment's observations." Murralsee said.

There was no motive. At least not one that could balance out the information it surrendered. Alter Ego's room had been chosen as there was no way for the Mastermind to track them down beyond having Murralsee follow them. Kirigiri had people enter Alter Ego's room in small groups and as individuals as well, to avoid the cameras catching them all moving to the same place at the same time.

There was always the risk of the Mastermind sending a Murralsee to catch the group in a meeting with the AI. She spent so long keeping the untrustworthy like Togami-who had a streak of non-cooperation-and Fukawa who was practically tied to his hip out. There couldn't have been a way for Murralsee itself to have noticed Alter Ego unless Celestia told him, or something far more worrying.

It appears that Togami might have been right about one thing about his game theory. Kirigiri had assumed it was some kind of coping mechanism at first, then she assumed it was merely the way he was. Putting everything into a matter of cost-benefit analysis even when it was something as grave as murder. Now she could see that he had been on the Mastermind's wavelength somewhat.

The Mastermind's knowledge of Alter Ego, and Celestia's final words too fuelled by madness to be her normal falsehoods, meant one thing. One of the original fifteen students was the Mastermind.

Kirigiri already went down the list. She ruled out the blackened first, their deaths too brutal and bloody to have been faked, and their personalities too divergent from the cold yet dominating mystique of the Mastermind. Not to mention that they wouldn't have allowed themselves to have been shown to be so weak that a minion like Murralsee could kill them. This left twelve out of fifteen.

Next came the victims. The Mastermind wouldn't have allowed themselves to even give the illusion that he could be killed by one of the people he was meant to reign over as a God. This meant Maizono, Fujisaki, Ishimaru, and Yamada were out as well. Eight out of fifteen.

Kirigiri had to think outside of the box. It might have been that Celestia was assuming, or had been tricked into believing, that she was speaking to a male. Nothing could be ruled out, as Kirigiri tried to think of which surviving female could be the Mastermind. Yet, as she ran down the names and tried to tie them to the Mastermind's actions and potential motives, it was clear that it could have only been one of the boys.

Oogami and Asahina were nothing like the Mastermind in style or in spirit. They didn't have the darkness inside them to construct something so elaborate and cruelly-designed. Fukawa couldn't keep her cool in situations much less intense than arranging something on this grand a scale and Genocider Syo lacked the patience or the desire to drag things out for this long. The proof was against them.

Kirigiri could even vindicate herself. Someone like Togami, Fukawa, and even Hagakure, would have suspicions about her memory-loss, including as to what her Talent was, but she herself could trust that this lack of memory did not mean that she was the Mastermind. She suffered no black-outs during the Day Time and did not have any of the symptoms that came with sleep deprivation that would have to come with working in the Night Time to arrange certain variables.

That left the boys, and that was when Kirigiri had her two final suspects.

Naegi was definitely not the Mastermind. He was too much of an open-book to hide the urge to kill, too kind and willing to believe in the goodness of others, and lacked the pretensions to what could only be described as godhood that the Mastermind held. There was an intelligence to him, but also not enough for something like this. To hijack Hope's Peak like this...it just wasn't in him.

She didn't even need to think before lining out Hagakure as a potential Mastermind.

This left Byakuya Togami and Dio Brando. Both were intelligent, held high opinions of themselves, and had personality traits that matched the potential Mastermind. Togami was antagonistic and often acted as if everyone was barely worthy of looking at him, matching the Mastermind's attempt at breaking their spirits. Dio often acted friendly, especially towards Naegi, but his violence could not be discounted. The beating he gave Togami was only stopped by Oogami and Oowada, and the way his temper could be flared.

The truth was right there. All Kirigiri had to do was think just a bit harder and they'd finally have the Mastermind cornered-

"Kyouko Kirigiri. You are not in a mystery." Murralsee's voice flooded the room.

It was nothing compared to how it usually was. There was no calm denigration, nor apathetic command, but anger and fright. Anger at what it seemed to think was Kirigiri misinterpreting the situation and fright at what seemed to be the same thing. When it spoke her name, it did so with emotion familiar enough that an agonising flash of white reverberated in her skull and almost took her off her feet.

Why did it speak to her like that? Why was the Mastermind's servant so concerned with what she was doing?

"If you discover the identity of my Master, it will change nothing at best." Murralsee said, its eyes flashing red as always, only its voice now changed from a red void into a flowing river of something Kirigiri couldn't recognise. "If he knows of your suspicions, he will simply end this phase and demand submission and will attain it. Whether from your own will or from your corpses is for him to decide."

"Neither of my main suspects could defeat Oogami in single combat." Kirigiri replied. She knew there was more to it than that, the potential for traps or more Murralsees, but Oogami was their best shot. Genocider Syo could even be called upon, depending on whether Togami was the Mastermind or not. A wary eye was kept on Murralsee. "Your own presence will make things difficult."

"If my Master calls me into battle, it will because he does not wish to kill you himself. Do not presume that this is a detective chasing down a criminal." It was clear that Murralsee was trying to not be as it normally was. The first sentence was spoken as if it were a command hard-written into its data; the second a sincere warning to turn back from death.

Kirigiri tried to understand what it was that drove Murralsee to have these fears. Was this not the soulless abomination that cast them down to be executed if they failed to succeed as a 'blackened'?

Only now she truly thought back to the executions. Other than Celestia, likely a reaction to her revealing more than she was meant to, had Murralsee truly participated in the executions? Had it been the one to throw the baseballs that shattered every bone in Kuwata's body? Had it been the one that held the chain that threw Oowada from his bike into the path of that truck, when he came so close the finish line?

Murralsee was responsible as any tool of the Mastermind, but it had not directly killed them. It had not been the one that ended their lives after their inability to use their Talents to-

Talent. The reason they had been accepted into Hope's Peak Academy. The topic of ice-breaking conversations and trying to engage in each other's interests. The thing that seemed so important until the Killing Game began and the survivors began to come closer to each other. Who really cared about whose Talent was what and what it meant? Certainly not Togami, who seemed to take more pride in his heritage and abilities than comparing Talents.

Only one person ever seemed fixated on Talent itself. Trying to suggest they use it to overcome the Mastermind and wanting to test the limitations of those Talents.

Dio Brando. The Ultimate Male Model. The Ultimate Master. Kirigiri restrained the common urge of discovering an answer to insult herself for missing out the now-obvious clues. Dio's fury at Togami had been enough that he was willing to kill him right there. For what? An insult to his name and status? That ease in slipping into the will to murder another. It was now clear that the way he tried to get close to everyone, showing his most charming features, must have been a way to allay suspicion. It was to bring himself into our trust, especially after what he did to Togami.

"This is not a mystery." Murralsee said again, cutting off Kirigiri's train of thought, as its voice grew more desperate. "I am bound by the commands of my Master. I am trying to save you and the rest of the students. Do not assume this has come easily."

"Having to go through loopholes like this..." Kirigiri let her words trail off. She needed to phrase her questions carefully, enough that they would be answered, especially with the potential orders and commands the android was placed under. "What is the Murralsee Machine?"

"A method of bringing together the participants of this Mutual Killing Game via the exchange of presents. It was a way to create bonds and for my Master to initiate friendships in case of complications." Murralsee replied. It sounded anxious, as if there was more it wanted to say, or warn, about. Seconds passed and it spoke again. "Amongst other uses."

So he was not allowed to say. That itself said all she needed to hear; the Murralsee Machine was important.

Finally. She had the truth that she had been so desperately searching for. Dio Brando was the Mastermind behind this Mutual Killing Game, and now the survivors could work towards defeating him. All they needed was the proper plan to do so, which would require speaking with both Oogami and Alter Ego, the best fighter among the group and the best-equipped to handle outside factors such as the Murralsees and whatever other weapons Dio might have had installed into the school.

Kirigiri knew what this would mean. Alter Ego would have to be connected to the network and at a moment where Dio wouldn't find out and give the AI time to do what it could to gain control of the system. The risks were obvious. If there was someone or another Murralsee running the network, manually or with its own AI, then Alter Ego would be found sooner or later and they'd act to warn Dio and others under his command. The threat of other Murralsees had been what kept Oogami or Oowada from fighting the one before her.

Murralsee probably isn't allowed to say how many of his kind are ready to fight. Kirigiri had to be intelligent about her questions once again. Maybe it's a question of phrasing.

"The AI used within you. Is it as complex as Alter Ego?" Kirigiri asked. Dio had many talents but he never displayed an interest or a particular affinity in the field of programming before, among the many skills he enjoyed displaying. Maybe there was an accomplice helping him manage the Murralsees?

"My internal workings are not a matter of discussion. My Master's methods are enough for the number judged as needed in worst-case scenarios. More can be created in time if he ever needs more." Murralsee said with a clipped tone. It was clearly annoyed with her persistence. That was when the machine surprised her again; sighing with a cocktail of frustration and exhaustion that filled the room. "I have made a mistake coming here. You are determined to fight against my Master despite all of my warnings. Despite all he has done. Despite all he can do."

Those words carried something in them. Horror and shame seemed to fill the metallic armour and seep to the floor, and Kirigiri was left wondering again at how Dio was able to get his hands on an AI like this. One that could emote and act as a human when free of orders, closer to Alter Ego than most modern AI. Kirigiri assumed he stole it from Hope's Peak during his takeover but there had to be more to this. She wanted to find out more about Murralsee and just who it was.

But that was not a matter for tonight. All she had was suspicions and theories when it came to Murralsee and she refused to allow another enticing but complex case get in the way of the bigger picture. It was already past midnight and she'd have to wake up early in the morning to try and meet with Alter Ego and then, if she was awake, Oogami. They needed to seize the initiative on this.

"What time do the students wake up?" She asked knowing she'd have to get up earlier.

"The earliest to rise awakens at 6:00 AM to plan out his day. My Master only cares for Night Time reports over students that left their rooms and if a murder has happened or is being planned." Murralsee said. Two sentences that seemed barely related instead gave her everything she needed.

Dio was likely the one that woke up so early and planned out what Motives to use and hearing about which one of them had been corrupted by his temptations and threats. Kirigiri would have to try and wake up just after Dio and work quietly. She could draft a letter for Oogami and slide it under her door, writing the message now during the camera-loop, and then move towards the public baths to Alter Ego so to move the laptop where she could connect the AI to the network.

It was difficult, but she could do it.

"Kirigiri," Murralsee said. It was a voice that recognised defeat but still held onto an empty hope. "If you declare your surrender, it will break the hope of the survivors. At the very least, it may throw them off enough that my Master will decide to move to the next phase. Alter Ego is a weapon. A weapon without a wielder is nothing. Accept defeat now or you will die."

"If we accept defeat, what makes you think that this will all end?" Kirigiri doubted that Dio would simply let the seven of them go.

Murralsee itself stood in place. Its whole form shook with the will to do something, or even say something to her, yet just couldn't overpower its own programming. Whatever it thought would keep them alive in slavery, it wasn't allowed to say.

It can't say. Dio probably forbade talk of the outside world as well. There was nothing else for it. Kirigiri would just have to put her faith in what she had learned and hope for the best. Better to trust in a slim chance of victory and escape than to throw herself into the certainty of defeat, the cold embrace of surrendering herself and her future to someone like the Mastermind. Someone like who Dio truly was.

The sound of metal links clanging against one another filled her ears. "I could cut you down right here." Murralsee held up the forearm where the steel whip was firmly wrapped around. "My Master will not care and simply order me to create a fabrication. Yours and Alter Ego's demise will break their spirits."

"Then why don't you?" Kirigiri didn't know the reason, but she knew she was under no danger.

Murralsee stopped itself again. The arm, and the body itself, slowly moved forward as it shook harder than it had ever done before. Eyes flashed with honest anger, regret, and sadness, as it fought its own mental battle, before it nearly threw itself back away from her. The draconic face looked away from her out of shame.

"I cannot." It turned its face back towards her. "If battle comes, I will be bound by the laws of this school. Pray that Sakura Oogami and Genocider Syo are stronger than I am. Pray that my Master will treat this rebellion as a way to intimidate and not eliminate."

The android made its way back the way it came, slithering up the wall and opening the ceiling tile from where it then disappeared from sight after putting the tile back to where it was meant to be. Kirigiri was left alone in her room to contemplate both what she had discovered and what she had left to do. Just her and her thoughts.

I shouldn't be too disturbed by the effects of sleep-deprivation. Kirigiri knew that six hours of sleep wouldn't be too detrimental to her, especially if only for a day, and even more so when compared to the need to plan out the process of gathering evidence, removing Dio's control of the building, and making him act on his temper upon being revealed.When the battle emerges, Oogami should confront Dio directly. The others need to distract Murralsee and prevent Dio from calling for help.

The other survivors needed to know about Dio's identity. It'd be the only way that they could ensure that both Dio and whatever back-up plans he had could be dealt with.

The Murralsee Machine would be important. There was something inside it that Dio judged helpful, likely if there was ever a problem, and the survivors would need it just in case. Naegi was the only one who worked to gather them, but everyone had a supply of Coins, and it might be enough for them to buy presents in the hopes that one of them would be what they needed. At worst, at least one could be a weapon for the battle ahead.

They'd need to keep Dio distracted. If he saw everyone buying presents, or being evasive about Alter Ego, or even noticing that some of their actions seemed strange, he'd act immediately. For all his apparent lack of morality, Dio Brando was one of the sharpest minds that Kirigiri had ever met and wouldn't just wait for them to reveal their secret plan if he thought they knew his true identity. They had to keep his mind occupied and only one person could do that.

Naegi could hold Dio's attention. A story about buying another present from the Murralsee Machine, then slowly move Dio across the entire of the open parts of the school in conversation, while the others assembled their weapons and prepared to plan for his takedown. The Ultimate Lucky Student lacked any combat ability, and was the closest to Dio, so Kirigiri could at least trust that he'd put Dio at ease more than others.

To play it safe, she'd probably have to tell Naegi only to keep Dio's attention-he'd trust her enough for that-and then isolate and tell him the truth when Alter Ego was connected and when they had what they needed from the Murralsee Machine. Just after that would be when they would call Dio to an area where they could confront and disarm him quickly. Kirigiri preferred the dining room as a place where he would be at ease enough that they could act.

It was the best chance of success that they'd have. All Kirigiri had to do was wake-up at the right time, make the proper contacts, and ensure that everything went as designed. She had the truth now, the vital clues, and all that was needed was to apprehend the criminal. Oogami alone was strong enough to do that but it was better safe than sorry. Not to mention that the greater number, the quicker they'd have Dio captured as a hostage against the Murralsees.

Kirigiri could just taste the open air again when she heard something crash against the floor behind her. She immediately turned at the sound again, fearing that another Murralsee had emerged or something worse, when she found the noise having come from a small metallic object having been dropped to the floor. Luckily enough, as Kirigiri moved to pick it up, the object itself seemed perfectly intact. A simple clock that held an alarm mechanism on the top of it, along with a note stuck on the mechanism.

The loop will end in five minutes. Work quickly

She set the alarm, write and hide her letter to Oogami, and wait for the loop to end before moving to change into her night-clothes, questions still running through her mind. What were the secrets behind Murralsee? What did Celestia mean by the Mastermind's power over life and death? How would she be able to convince the others of Dio's guilt without mentioning Murralsee's testimony?

All Kirigiri could do was trust that the students here finally had the advantage. They had the truth in hand and had Dio cornered, provided that they acted quickly and efficiently, and Kirigiri could only do so much in one day.

She could only hope that tomorrow would be the end of all this.

How long would Dio have to lie in wait?

He should have had Alter Ego destroyed this morning. He could have commanded Murralsee to say that the Ultimate Gambler had revealed the AI's presence to it and that it was a mockery of the rules set down by its master. A stroke of the steel-chain whip and that laptop would become nothing more than trash! The hope of the survivors would have been shattered!

Dio had waited too long. He wanted the betrayal to sink in. The image of what had been done to Taeko-the bitch who couldn't keep her mouth shut-burning into their minds.

Kyouko Kirigiri had been as dangerous as she ever was. Having Matsuda take away the memory of her Talent hadn't been enough to truly cripple her mind. Instead, she merely stumbled in confusion into skirmishes until deciding to take the initiative. Not that it was because of her own actions.

Murralsee. The memory almost made Dio tense with anger. He felt like the high-flying businessman who came home to discover his wife rutting with the poolboy. When he triumphed, he would subject that servant once again to tortures almost incomprehensible to the human mind.

But not now. Not when he was at his most vulnerable state.

The survivors stood below what must have looked like the fallen king on his throne. All seven of them had played a part in the ambush, even Naegi who Dio had almost trusted with his deepest contemplations, only for it all to be a lure, and now they looked at the victory they had won. All of them thinking that they were safe now that they had slain Dio Brando, the Ultimate Master, where he stood.

Not enough to get closer. Dio's body did nothing. Kirigiri and the Ogre were still putting their ears to the steps and waiting for the sound of a heartbeat. Waiting for any sign of life from the Mastermind who had nearly taken some of them with him to the afterlife. If he made even the slightest change to his expression, they would stay at their current distance.

As if it was truly a concern for him. Dio could easily wipe them all out even now without the slightest of effort. It had only been a desire to play for the audience that kept him from unleashing his true power. That, and Murralsee having been forced to fight in order to fend off Oogami, was why Dio was waiting upon his throne for one of them to just get closer.

To truly destroy hope, you needed it at its height. At its most vulnerable.

Who would it be? Never Kirigiri. She had been the one to tell the others to keep their distance and had likely been the one to draw up their battle-plan. Hagakure had been the coward throughout the entire battle, even if that damn Zurion Ray-Gun's beam of light still stung at Dio's eyes, and Asahina was busy denying the truth of the world. That particular revelation had even caught Oogami off-guard enough that she now had a nice long scar along her chest, courtesy of Murralsee.

Togami? The inheritor's arrogance would make him the most likely to come over and twist the blade of Muramasa deeper into his gut, believing himself safe in the Berserker Armour, if it weren't for his pitiful state. The mere knowledge of his family's collapse sinking in was enough to make him reliant on Naegi's words. Fukawa was still in her Genocider Syo state, now out of scissors to throw at Dio, but was content with her continuing tries at bedding Togami.

Oogami had the warrior's caution but also their heart. She was the kind of fool who would be troubled by the thought of simply leaving an opponent's corpse to rot in the open air. That would be where she'd slip up. It would be the perfect moment. The sight of the Ultimate Fighter being ambushed by what she thought was a corpse, before she'd be shown just how insignificant she was in the face of Dio Brando's raw power!

Pain struck throughout his whole body. Dio had to use all his willpower to keep his eyes from widening. His heart! The pain of keeping it from beating was too much! His form ached and wailed to be able to let blood flow through his body, begging to feel the sweet beauty of air enter his lungs, and to at least avenge the humiliations of having to perfectly resemble a corpse.

Those who Dio would let live would have to commit to the worst humiliations after this. They would be made to sink to the levels of dogs to win their master's forgiveness. If he could hold out long-enough, at least.

"Kirigiri, I have not felt a pulse for some time now." Ogre's voice echoed throughout the Trial Room, easily overpowering Naegi's soft tone and a brutalised Murralsee's mutterings. Dio could hear her moving from where she knelt. "We have successfully slain Dio Brando."

"For what? A world burnt to ash and ruin? The right to live in a building we've been killing each other trying to escape from?" Togami asked with his fury, bitterness, and heart-break driving each word. He scoffed. "Don't make me laugh."

"Togami-" Naegi was cut off.

"Regardless of whether Dio was speaking the truth, a matter we will discuss later, we can't be sure of his death yet." Kirigiri said. He could feel her eyes on him, wondering if she could spy the slight movements of soft breathes and the his heart beating again, free from pressure. "Give Naegi your armour, Togami. He'll be the one to check the corpse."

"M-Me?"

Oogami seemed uneasy about the idea, as she should. "Kirigiri, I trust your judgement, but if Dio is alive-"

"The armour will protect him. Dio has scissors embedded in his legs, arms, and his upper chest. Not to mention a sword through his chest. Celestia's words aside, his body should be incapable of enough movement to act." Kirigiri said. How wrong she was.

"Naegi, you don't have to do this." Asahina said, half-way between hope and despair after all she had heard and seen. Dio would ensure that she'd be drowning in the latter when he was done.

"Yeah, come on Naegs. Hows about letting everyone's friendly neighbourhood serial killer check the corpse?" Syo offered before she made a confused noise. "Oh yeah. No scissors. Sorry, Makoto, you're on your own."

So that's the game you're playing. Dio realised what Kirigiri was doing. Once again, she was proving why she was the most dangerous of all the known quantities in his plan.

She was sending out the unknown element. The Ultimate Lucky Student, the wielder of a Talent that could bend the very forces of probability, was the perfect candidate to have test Taeko's words. To see if Dio truly was the Ultimate Master that he claimed to be.

'Even if he can defy life and death, maybe Naegi's luck could change things. Dio might hesitate and reveal himself, he and Naegi were close, right? Even if he does try to attack, Naegi has the armour. It's not too beaten.' Those words must have been flowing through Kirigiri's head. Comforting words to justify sending a canary into the coal mine to see if it was safe to work in the depths.

Naegi was probably assuming that she trusted him. Dio had been able to use that naivety to get close to him before and during the Killing Game-it might have been why Kirigiri had only told him just before their ambush-but now it worked in his favour. Now, he could finally remove the wild-card from his opponent's deck.

The Ultimate Detective was intelligent. Perhaps one of the most intelligent people that Dio had ever met. Yet that intelligence was nothing compared to the power of Dio Brando! That armour would do nothing! Her plan meant nothing! All of the efforts that the survivors had showed until now meant nothing!

Dio heard Naegi reluctantly accept the charge he had been given, the Ogre promising to be close by if something happened, and begin to walk up the stairs leading to the throne of Dio. The seat where even Murralsee had been forbidden to sit upon. Its glory had faded when caked in blood and death. That glory would only return with Dio's victory.

He could feel Naegi's sympathy drip down onto his body like water. The Ultimate Luckster was probably thinking back to fond talks and their co-operation in the Class Trials. The regret could be smelled even from where Dio was sitting, and there was the difference between the two of them. Dio was someone who lived without ever feeling regret for how he lived his life.

The Alter Ego mistake was merely a misstep, and one that would be easily corrected. It meant nothing to Dio's plans beyond the last work of a dead child.

The sounds of Hagakure babbling about what he found in the Murralsee Machine, Togami speaking with Syo and Asahina, Murralsee struggling to move in its battered armour, and even Oogami and Naegi softly exchanging words didn't matter. All that mattered was that Naegi was slowly getting closer to him.

"Kyouko...Get...him..." A dead man's voice echoed throughout the room. Dio heard a soft gasp from Kirigiri and heads were already turning towards Murralsee as metal crashed against the floor.

There was no time now. Murralsee had likely just removed its helmet and all would soon see its true face. Dio smiled regardless; luck had fallen to his side rather than Naegi's, as the latter had made the step that would seal his fate forever.

Dio's eyes shot open and looked Naegi dead in the eye. That look of shock and dismay was all the Ultimate Master needed to know that this was his victory. Time slowed down to mini-seconds as Murralsee turned its head towards the throne where it tried to stop the inevitable. Hoping in the impossible as if belief would overcome certainty.

Even in death, Jin Kirigiri was a fool.

"Get away from him, Naegi!" Father and daughter cried out. It was useless.

Makoto Naegi had entered the range of Dio's Stand.

A purple-black fist, invisible to all but Dio, shot out from his body and struck Naegi right in the lower-centre of his chest. The Berserker Armour was a ceramic plate to a floor as it broke apart from the sheer force of the blow, the fist breaking through the metal and slamming against flesh and bone. Dio could feel the bones breaking against the knuckles of his Stand and smiled at Naegi's horror.

The wind rushed against Dio's face as Naegi shot back, flying too fast for Oogami to catch, and he took a moment to truly read those who had presumed that he would die so easily. Asahina only now starting to scream, Hagakure's sweating pale face, Togami's bewilderment, Oogami's shock, and even Syo breaking character at the sight before her. All five would have been enough to sate Dio's taste were it not for the look on both Kirigiris' faces.

Jin looked the same as he did when Dio blessed him with life after death. The thick red line around his neck was still covered up by the armour of Murralsee, yet the face was still the same as it was when Dio had the former headmaster locked into the guillotine. Fright and desperation before a final look of despair as he realised just what the future would hold for those he had tried so hard to protect.

Kyouko looked the same. She must have told herself that Naegi would be fine so many times when sending him to test Dio's corpse. Assumed that a piece of metal and the Ogre would be enough to ensure his safety. The logical side of her must have refused to accept Taeko's words literally and had doomed Naegi because of it. She let out a tiny gasp, frozen still from what she had just seen, when Naegi's body smashed against the wall and left him embedded into the stone.

The scissor blades that were embedded all over Dio's body shot out and clattered against the floor, the wounds now healing up even after his Stand had kept them from bleeding, from the sheer force of its power at work. Muramasa's scabbard remained within reach of Dio's arm as he extended it forward, took grasp, and yanked the blade out from where it had pierced his body. Togami had struck the sword deep, enough that it even broke through the throne. It was of no matter.

Oogami was quick on the attack. That brief moment where his vision was blinded from the shock of removing the blade was when she made to deliver a blow to the head. Right where Hagakure threw that damn crystal skull as well. It made sense to strike where Dio had suffered a concussion. All the strength in the world was nothing if you couldn't use it.

Sakura Oogami fought over four hundred matches and never lost once. Only one human had ever defeated her and that was a man whose prime was at Kamukura's level. There was no doubt as to who the strongest human alive was. No one could ever defeat her in a fair fight now.

But Dio did not fight fair! The strongest human might as well have been the strongest monkey compared to what he was now! Oogami's fist was like an axe swinging to take off his head in a single swing.

Her fist didn't touch his head. To the survivors, and to those around the world watching, Oogami struck something else. This something else was strong enough that it seemed to meet her blow full-on despite seemingly just being thin-air. That would be incorrect to say, however. The better way to describe it would be that this something else blocked her fist.

The correct way would be to say that it broke her fist.

"Useless!" Dio roared as he stood tall and let the mighty Ogre stumble back. He turned his attention to his fallen servant. "Jin Kirigiri! How does it feel to know that this was all because of you? The man who wanted to preserve the last pieces of the old world's hope, only to find that he delivered them right to the doorstep of the Ultimate Master himself! To witness the destruction of all you believed in at the hands of I, Dio?"

Jin looked up at him with contempt. It seemed that the initial loyalty was a distant memory. "The same way it felt when you killed me."

"Killed you?" Kirigiri asked. The Ultimate Detective, normally so used to being the one to unveil the shocking truth, had never looked so taken aback before.

"Did you think that Taeko was lying when she spoke out of turn. I had such plans for her demise, even if she lacked what it was I sought." Dio felt another blast of air flow against his hair as his Stand caught Oogami's attempted kick. "Useless!" He spat as the Stand threw the Ultimate Fighter back and delivered its own blow.

Dio had designed the Murralsee's to reflect his Stand in most ways. Kazuichi's final product had been different in subtle ways, the steel-chain whips and the more slender design, but close enough that Dio could take comfort in knowing that the symbol of his power would be seen by all. His Stand itself was still unique as well, carrying a purple crown to symbolise Dio's future as ruler of all, and more muscular than the servants at his command.

It chuckled at Oogami's efforts. The Ultimate Fighter had been so proud of her combat abilities, capable of deploying multiple styles, and her undefeated record beyond her beloved. Now Dio would tear it all away from her in the last moments of her life. Just as Dio had it be the one that threw the finishing ball at Kuwata, the thing that threw Oowada towards the truck, and the hand that broke Taeko's neck.

That was the way to truly destroy an opponent. Take everything about themselves that they believed certain and destroy it before their eyes. Render them aware of just how little they truly had when the battle ended and crush what little remained of them.

Sakura Oogami was nowhere near that point yet. Her nose was bleeding slightly and she still kept her right hand back, obviously aware that at least some of her knuckles had shattered, but she still stood tall. She was still fighting with purpose and focus that had remained unbroken. The will to fight on burned just as brightly as it always did in her heart!

Dousing that fire in the others would be a much easier task once she was dead.

"Sakura! Get away from him!" Asahina was screaming at the top of her lungs. It was almost sad how the sight of Dio's power had taken most of the attention away from Naegi's body, even Kirigiri only gave it sparing glances.

"No." Oogami replied, standing tall as she took on a different stance. It favoured the left side, away from where her forehead and right hand bled. "If I let myself retreat, he'll simply go after us all. Even if he doesn't, there may be more Murralsee. Those that are not like the Headmaster."

"The dead are rising and Naegi and Ogre are getting beaten by a ghost..." Hagakure whispered, shaking in place. He yelped and grabbed at his head. Pathetic. How was it that he survived up to this point? "Gah, why didn't I tell the others about this?"

Dio had never doubted the Talents of most of his 'classmates', even those that could barely be called a Talent like Yamada's pornography, apart from Yasuhiro Hagakure's. The Ultimate Clairvoyant must have simply been an expert con-man.

The power to see through Fate only 30% of the time? It'd have made Dio laugh if it wasn't so pathetic. Mere guesswork presumed to be talent by those on the top who were easily impressed or wanting to find a reason that they were tricked.

Now he simply lies to himself to bring a false hope. As if he was the denied prophet. Dio thought to himself. Speaking of false prophets, the last Headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy had finally begun to move again.

"Dio...he has a power." Jin said, blood still dripping from his mouth. Each word was a struggle to get out. "A power he took from our experimental divisions."

"Oh? Is the last headmaster of Hope's Peak going to reveal its darkest secrets to the world?" Dio had the measure of his defiant servant. To the end, Jin would stay silent over the sins he committed to keep the students from falling into Despair.

He wouldn't mention the Arrow that made all of this possible. The Izuru Kamukura Project had been sinful enough without mentioning the second weapon that it provided for Dio's purposes. Without the power of his Stand, Dio would have been forced to rely on that damn science experiment for the darker aspects of his plan. Yet it was the power of his Stand that gave Dio the edge in all this.

It gave him the power to create an army of his own. It gave him the chance to fully bring Class 77 into despair. It erased any chance of his plans failing. Who would dare reveal the part they played in providing him with such a useful weapon?

Dio looked down on the others. Hagakure had reverted into a even deeper child-like state, just standing there gawping, even as one of the Murralsee Machine balls in his hand fell to the ground and rolled to the fraud's right. Trapped in awe of the power of Dio Brando, as befitted someone of such little intelligence and worth. At least Asahina was giving Naegi further attention, carefully seeing where his body was loosening from the wall itself, shuffling left to the centre where the Ultimate Lucky Student may fall.

Togami and Kirigiri were as off-guard as ever; trapped in calculating a way to somehow defeat what they could not even begin to comprehend. It was Oogami and Syo that kept Dio's attention. The former had to be destroyed utterly and one-sidedly if the world was to truly lose any hope of defeating Dio now. She kept herself on-guard and was just waiting for the right moment to strike, even though she surely must have known that she was doomed, and Syo merely watched with baited interest.

"Dio! I never knew you had telekinesis. If my White Knight hadn't been so charming, I might have fallen in love with you." Syo said, her face beaming, whilst her tongue slithered like a snake. Dio could only return with a smirk of his own.

"My offer still stands, Genocider." Dio said. He pointed Muramasa, still in his hand, and slowly waved it across the entire room to every single student. "All of you simply have to kneel before I, Dio, and your lives will be spared. You will be free of the anxiety of having to live in fear of one another. In time, when your loyalty is proven and I have fully taken this world, you will be granted freedom from this place and your memories returned. If you so wish."

That was enough to take everyone, barring Oogami, back. Before it must have sounded like the mad over-confidence of the defeated Mastermind when finally caught in their trap. Now it was clear that this was the magnanimity of the conqueror.

"W-What about what you said about why we're here?" Asahina barely got the words out. Her attention was so divided between her best friend and Naegi that there was barely room to think.

"It's pointless, Asahina," Jin was wearing the armour of Murralsee, designed to make even a little girl have the strength of a beast, and never looked so weak as he did now. "The plan was to keep you safe until this all ended. But it won't end."

"The world you knew has died. This is simply its funeral rites." Dio threw his arms out and smiled down on the survivors below, hiding behind the podiums of the Class Trial. His Stand kept an eye on Oogami who stood on the steps of the throne. "Embrace my new world and attain peace of mind."

Togami was the first to speak, eyes blazing with fury at the destruction of everything that made him important. "You can't seriously expect us to submit. After everything you've done to us?"

"Then die, Togami. Those are your choices." Dio replied, pointing Muramasa at the no-longer Ultimate. "Kneel and live under my rule, or die by my hand."

At those words, Naegi spat out what must have been a whole pool of blood. The red liquid splashed against the floor and caught everyone's attention, Togami included, as his form shifted from either being slowly dislodged from the wall or from shock itself. Dio had only limited himself enough that the blow wouldn't immediately kill Naegi, but that didn't mean that single blow hadn't nearly destroyed him.

The one who brought hope to the others was a pitiful sight. Blood pouring from his mouth and back, dripping onto the floor like water from a tap, whilst the Stand's fist had left an imprint where it had struck Naegi that was deep enough to make even Dio wonder if there was a similar indenture on the skin itself. To top it all off, for the first time since he was ten years old, Makoto Naegi had lost control of his bowels and stained the very trousers he wore.

Who could feel hope seeing that?

Naegi's show of suffering came at the right time. Dio could see the despair in the eyes of everyone around him. Makoto Naegi had been the one who always believed in them, always stood up to the aims of the Mastermind, and had been the one who had fought so hard to keep everyone from Despair. To see someone who had grown into what was almost a hero then get crushed by Dio's sheer power, it was enough to strike at anyone's heart.

Who else was there that could stand against Dio? Jin Kirigiri was the ultimate proof that no one, no matter how high they were, could escape servitude under him. The Headmaster of Hope's Peak was now nothing more than a collection of body parts and machinery kept together by the power of Dio's Stand. Being able to break its spell had been a shock, but an inevitable price of having been back in the world of the living for so long and having to see the face of the daughter who hated him. That itself wasn't enough to blind Jin from the facts!

To fight Dio was to stand on the tide and command it to go back. To put a hand in fire and will it to not burn. To attempt to stop the flow of time itself.

An impossible task for people like themselves, whatever Talent they may have. Dio looked on as both Asahina and Hagakure's knees began to wobble. Perfect. All he needed was for one to bow and the others would follow suit.

That was when he heard a step being taken to his left. The Ultimate Fighter was slowly ascending the steps towards Dio's throne with a purpose and determination that defied everything happening around her. There was no hope to be found and she still moved as if anyone could truly stand up against Dio Brando. It was only fitting that her eyes were shut until turning to look at Asahina, so filled with anxiety and despair that she could barely speak.

Unable to stop her friend's suicide.

"I do not know how I will defeat you. Perhaps all my efforts will do is simply act as a stepping-stone for another to defeat you. But I do know one thing, Dio, and that is that I will never kneel before you." Oogami spoke those words as if she had some solution up her sleeve.

It was enough to make Dio grind his teeth.

He was not the man he was two years ago, before he gained peace of mind, but how could he react any differently to what he was seeing? How dare this woman-who barely looked any different from a man-look so serene and at peace with herself as if she had some hidden technique. As if there was any victory for her to take in this battle. She could only ever best Dio in unarmed combat; he didn't even need to use his Stand to cut her down.

Did she think any different? If so, then Dio would take pleasure in destroying that thought with the sole of his boots. The Ultimate Master's destiny would not end here!

Sakura Oogami moved with a speed that most could never keep up with. She was the wind itself, swift and invisible, but also carrying a force that could rip apart entire forests from their very roots. For Dio, it was as if she was standing by the steps one second, only to then appear just inches away from his face the next, aiming her left leg in a flying kick. Truly, she had been one of the few who stood at the peak of mankind, when it came to the possibilities of the body.

If only she was fighting a man, and not a God.

The Stand was just as physically-built as Oogami and even faster than she ever was. All it simply had to do was throw its left forearm again against the side of the Ogre's knee, the bone cracking from the force of the strike, and the world's supposedly strongest fighter was sent flying in a spin. Dio simply tilted his head and Oogami's body didn't even touch a single hair. She crashed against the steps on the opposite side of the throne and only just managed to land herself on her feet.

She could barely react when her throat was grasped by an hand that she could not see. The Stand drew her closer to Dio where its blows could do more harm and but just far away enough that she could never reach him unless he moved closer to her.

Now came the punishment.

"Very well then, Ogre. You will serve as an example to everyone in this room, and to everyone watching this across the world, what it is to defy me!" Dio spoke with a roar as the Stand threw Oogami up in the air, just enough for Dio to ready himself, as he slammed the tip of Muramasa's blade into the ground and readied his fists.

The way that she raised a fist in defence was worthy of respect. Someone truly ready to fight until the end. It was simply the curse of Fate that her opponent had the infinite power of their Stand, easily able to slam the hand away, and begin the attack. Dio and the Stand began to strike together. He was not going to let anyone think that Dio Brando was solely reliant on his Stand when it came to battle.

"Useless!" Dio aimed a right fist onto the left side of Oogami's ribs and felt his knuckles sear from the pain of striking iron, even as the bones themselves groaned from the force. The Stand itself struck at the right side of her upper rib-cage and the sound of bones breaking from the force only made Dio's grin larger. "Useless! Useless! Useless!"

He spoke those words with every blow that he and the Stand made. The two unleashed a flurry of punches that were simply impossible to block, each one strong enough to leave a bruise, and every one echoing throughout the room. Oogami could do nothing as her bones shattered, her flesh turned purple, and her teeth were sent flying out of her body. It was less a battle and more a long and drawn-out murder.

The survivors could do nothing. Asahina screamed. Hagakure retched what was left of his breakfast. Kirigiri merely watched with open fright. Togami was barking something at his pet killer. Syo had then moved to grab one of the scissors that fell from the stairs of the throne.

Dio had thought it was to deliver a mercy killing, when the blades were instead moving directly for the right side of his head. His Stand easily intercepted it with its fist, sending the blades flying, before going back to sending down the divine punishment.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Jin wept as he said those words. Dio could barely hear them, but the sound of defeat and despair might as well have been heaven's trumpets themselves.

Seconds that might as well have been hours passed. Dio called back his Stand and took a step back to see what had become of the Ultimate Fighter, or whatever you could call the standing slab of beaten meat before him. Her white hair had turned pink from the blood that sprayed all over it, the red liquid oozing from all over her body and coating both herself and the floor with it, and the fact that she could stand was nothing short of a miracle.

A miracle that no one appreciated.

"Sakura!" Asahina howled before crumbling to the ground. Her sobs cut through the air, for she could do nothing else.

"Th-This can't be real." Hagakure had already fallen to his knees.

Kyouko Kirigiri looked as if she was trying to find the words to say after what she saw. How much guilt was she feeling? 'If I had simply taken Celestia's words to heart, and knelt, Oogami would not be here right now.' Those must have been the thoughts haunting her. She was so sure that the truth itself would be enough to take down the Mastermind, when all of her efforts were doomed from the start.

Dio could even see Naegi, even in his state, trying to rip a hand from the wall and reach out to her. How like him to think of others when he himself was so close to death.

Just as he was about to declare victory, the sight before him took even Dio Brando, who had seen many bizarre sights, aback.

Oogami's whole body was wreathed in a white energy, normally summoned in her rage or shock, as she struggled to turn a broken neck towards her dear friend. What offended Dio the most was not that she was overcoming what should have been impossible odds to turn and give a friend hope. No. It was a simpler, and thus greater, sin

Sakura Oogami was smiling.

"Asahina, it's-"

"Useless!" Dio ripped Muramasa from where it had been embedded and slashed at Oogami's neck. Where flesh and muscle might have once held back from a clean-cut, Dio was able to slice through half of the neck in a single cut. Oogami's final words were lost to the ages.

Asahina had no time to react as Dio then unleashed his Stand again to crash its fist against the chest of the Ultimate Fighter. Just as it was with Naegi, she was sent back at speeds that the human body was never meant to experience, and slammed against the wall above. Her right shoulder slammed against Naegi's chest, making him retch out another ocean of blood, but did not lodge against the wall. Both she and Naegi, dislodged from the force of her own impact, collapsed from the wall and slammed against the ground.

A cracking sound filled the room. Dio wondered what it might have been until he saw the blood pooling under where Naegi's face was. It was the result of a broken nose from the fall.

There was nothing else for it. Dio's tilted the upper half of his body back and gleefully laughed at what he had just done. All of humanity had just seen him slay the Ultimate Fighter without her laying a single blow on him. He, who had taken a blade through the chest, had miraculously healed from all his wounds by virtue of his power. Who could look at this and say that Dio Brando did not have heaven's favour? He looked down upon the horrified survivors, those who dared to try and kill him, and spoke to them.

"Do you see now? To battle against Dio is to battle against God! Throw away your hopes and dreams and submit to me. Look at Jin Kirigiri and see how even the dead obey my commands. Kyouko, you know that Taeko wasn't speaking metaphorically. Life and death are nothing to Dio Brando. I will be the one who guides humanity into the new world as its ruler. Kneel now and you will be free from the fears and anxieties that rule your lives. Live in the security of knowing your fate. The certainty of service under I, Dio. This is your final chance for that peace of mind. If you refuse, you will no longer know what it is to have a choice."

"Guys, I think we need to think about this." It was Hagakure to spoke first, without his usual mirth or even over-the-top cowardice. It was the solemn defeated tone of one who knew when hope was lost.

"No." Kirigiri said, trying to sound confident in herself and failing. She was a student who didn't study that was being called upon in class; she had to give an answer but obviously hadn't figured out one yet. Even pointing her finger at Dio, acting as if this was just another Class Trial, there was none of her strength on display. "I don't know how you killed Oogami, but if we do-"

To all but Dio and those he deemed worthy of Stands, it looked as if the scissors that rested by one of the throne's legs had been picked up and thrown at Kirigiri by thin air. The truth, of course, was that this was another display of his Stand's power. It threw the blades with enough force and precision that it managed to pierce through her side, sending her stumbling to the ground, without cutting through anything major.

Dio would have Kirigiri kneel out of her own free will. It didn't mean he didn't bask in Jin's horror.

"Kyouko!"

"Your treachery did this, Jin. I give you the mercy of life again and you spit in my face." Dio said. He gave Jin peace of mind and this was how he was repaid? That sight would mean nothing to the punishments he had in store for the disgraced teacher, but that would be for later. Right now, he needed to break the daughter first. "Kyouko, there is nothing for you to discover. I'll tell you how the Ultimate Fighter perished."

Dio pushed his hands through his hair, subtly rearranging it after its slight cuts from the earlier battle and the blasts of wind from Oogami's assault, and shot his eyes between each and every survivor. It was as if he was the vengeful king coming after the peasants who had dared challenge his divine right to rule. It was only fitting that both Kirigiri and Jin were crawling on their hands and knees towards the others, crowding around Oogami and Naegi.

Dio threw his hands out and let his Stand revel in the glory, mimicking his pose of slanting his upper body back to match his arms, all the while keeping his head up and looking directly at his future servants.

Where there was once blood and scars, there was now nothing but clean and perfect skin. It was as if the battle never happened.

"This is the power of God. This is the power that destroys and creates on the whims of I, Dio Brando!" Dio laughed as he then directed his gaze towards the cameras that were showing this all over the world. "This is my Stand. Holy Diver!"

Holy Diver howled at the sound of its name finally being said. The survivors did nothing but cower at the name of the natural force that had so utterly destroyed the person that was meant to be the strongest among them. The hope that they carried so dearly had been extinguished and replaced with despair. Despair at Oogami's death, despair at Naegi's beating, despair at Dio's power, and even despair at their fates.

The final round had ended in Dio's victory.

No one would stop him now.

Naegi..." Kirigiri trailed off. What could she say to someone who had such faith in her? "I'm sorry."

The scissors hurt. It hurt when the blades cut into her flesh. It hurt when they dug in further as she crawled over to where Naegi laid and where Oogami's bled out. It hurt when Syo yanked them out and Togami immediately started wrapping the wound while keeping Syo away from the blood. It even hurt as the cloth touched her skin and the air seeped into the gap left by the wound.

It was still nothing compared to how she felt watching Naegi's prone body. It made sense that they didn't rush to pick him up or move him, especially when Asahina, one of-now the-physically strongest of them was busy with Oogami's corpse. Not to mention that it might have worsened his condition if they accidentally broke anything whilst moving him.

Not to mention that it's our fault he's like this. Kirigiri was so sure that Dio was at least wounded. It was impossible for him not to be, no normal person could have withstood that assault, had those metal blades in their body, and still moved the way Dio did.

Now Naegi was bleeding like an animal carcass at a butcher's because of her. A small part of her wondered if he was dead as well, all because she got it wrong.

Kirigiri resisted the urge to turn her head back towards where Dio Brando stood tall above her and her classmates. The man who had destroyed the world, taken away their memories, turned her father into his slave, and had now killed the Ultimate Fighter. To see him in perfect condition would have been too much. A stark reminder of the mistake she had made and what it had cost them.

She knew who she was now. Kyouko Kirigiri was the Ultimate Detective, a member of a line of truth-seekers that stayed in the shadows, and could discover the secret behind any mystery. If Dio was like any other criminal, Kirigiri would have used the discovery of his identity against him, and her plan would have worked perfectly. He had even showed all the signs of death.

Instead, he was not like any other criminal. He wielded a power that could deflect attacks, use enough strength to destroy Oogami entirely, and was able to bring back the dead. Dio was standing there as if nothing even had an effect on him. How could Kirigiri even hope to plan against that? How was it that anyone would be able to defeat him?

Her father had been right. She wasn't in a mystery. There, the criminal was bound by the fear of the law, of being caught, that kept them from simply trying to murder the detective even when knowing their identity. Celestia had been right. Dio could control life and death itself. He knew everything about them. If a man had such power, why on earth would he fear something so puny as the law itself, having destroyed it himself?

They had been right. More importantly, having rejected their words as propaganda and metaphors, Kirigiri had been wrong.

And he paid the price for it. Kirigiri barely had the strength to stand up again. She had to. Someone had to be the one to lead the group after what happened. The detective bit her lip in frustration, mere minutes had passed and they had went from tired victors to nothing more than toys for Dio. How could I have been such a fool?

There was a strange cosmic sense in Naegi's condition. The most optimistic and trusting member of the group was lying on the ground with broken armour, wheezing in pain, whilst the group itself was falling into despair after everything they had seen and heard. Kirigiri had planned on having herself and Naegi rally the group, having assumed that Dio had been lying about at least the state of the world itself, but that had turned to nothing. How could she think to win them over now?

The Togami Group, everything that Togami spent his life working to inherit and achieve, was nothing. Hagakure and Asahina had been frightened by the thought of living in the apocalypse and now they had seen Oogami perish at Dio's hands. Asahina had always been warm and welcoming, but the sight of her best friend's corpse had smothered what hope was there. Syo herself was subdued compared to her normal self, and Kirigiri doubted that Fukawa would bring any optimism to the group.

Right now, everyone was concerned with Naegi and Oogami. Asahina was even trying to find some sign that Oogami had enjoyed the same kind of luck that Naegi did, that if someone so small and scrawny could survive an attack from 'Holy Diver' then maybe the Ultimate Fighter had a chance.

She could try but Kirigiri could tell the signs of death from afar-even smell it-and Sakura Oogami had long since passed from this world.

Not that Kirigiri was carrying herself with any greater dignity. Blood seeped from her body and formed a red trail leading towards where Makoto Naegi was face-down in a pool of his own blood, although it was rapidly mixing in with Oogami's, and her pace was closer to a crawl than a walk. The only thing that kept her moving was the sound of small and slow breathes, a sign that he was at least fighting for his life.

It was only when she fell to her knees, right next to him, that she heard him say something. It was quiet, closer to a mouse's level of volume than a human's, but Kirigiri heard it regardless.

"Togami, he's trying to say something." Kirigiri said. It sounded as if Naegi couldn't move himself from where he laid. "I don't think he wants to be facing his own blood."

"Someone turn him around, try to keep the blood from pooling out of his body." Togami ordered, even as his voice lost that cutting-edge that lent it such authority. He only took charge here as there was no one else left instead of a natural self-confidence that easily crossed the line into arrogance.

Both he and Hagakure moved to delicately remove the remnants of the Berserker Armour, the back of it nearly cracked in half with a large scar, from Naegi's body. They then grabbed the sides of Naegi's hoodie, stained with blood like the rest of his clothing, and tried their best to gently move him without having whatever injuries he'd have hitting the floor. Having Naegi face-up would give them all a better chance at ascertaining just how badly he'd been hurt by Dio's 'Stand'.

That was the plan, at least. It was when Naegi screamed in pain that Hagakure almost dropped him, only Togami's glare keeping him from doing so, as they shifted his position and laid him onto the ground. It was an involuntary response, driven by instinct, as tears ran down the Luckster's face. He likely knew that they were right to move him, but it didn't mean that he wasn't in awful pain.

Kirigiri had to swallow her feelings about this.

"What are you doing? Stop hurting him!" Asahina snapped, despondency turning to fury at the sound of Naegi's cries.

"Asahina, any movement is going to hurt him," Kirigiri said. She had to be cold or else they'd simply be dragging it out for him, having gone from loud shrieks of pain to quiet whimpers. The Ultimate Detective put a hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eye. "We're going to feel over your body. Try to say if it hurts."

How did Naegi have the strength to smile? "I trust you, Kirigi-AH!" His pupils constricted and a wail came out from him again as Kirigiri touched his lower right ribs as gently as she could, whilst also trying to find out the damage, moving onto the lower left ribs before moving upwards.

His cries of agony only became quieter when his lungs could no longer withstand the exertion and it became quiet hisses and gritted teeth. This wasn't good. Holy Diver's strike had been enough to completely shatter the entirety of Naegi's lower rib-cage. She could feel the cracks with her touch and the moan of pain whenever he even slightly moved them. A look to Togami was all he needed to adjust his hold so that she could check the rest of his body for signs of injury.

It was just their luck that simply being moved up was enough to make Naegi unleash a dry screech, almost making Togami let go entirely, before he regained his composure and adjusted his grip again.

"I felt something." Togami said, shaking his head. Kirigiri kept herself from swearing. It wasn't just Naegi's ribs that were hurt but his lower spine as well from the way he crashed into the wall itself, the armour probably saving his spine from breaking entirely.

"Naegi's injuries can be healed." Dio's voice slithered into the ears of the group. "The Ultimate Nurse can be summoned. It's not as if he'll bleed out."

"He's telling the truth. Tsumiki Mikan is one of his most loyal servants." Kirigiri's father said, all eyes turning to him. The man was a pitiful sight, dragging himself and the armour he wore forward, trying his best to reach them.

The group themselves had been arranged so that they were a wall. A wall that protected Naegi and Oogami's corpse from Dio, his glance itself might as well have been poison, after everything they learnt about him and what he had done. Asahina herself, holding onto the half-decapitated corpse of the Ultimate Fighter, seemed barely able to keep herself from charging Dio and joining her friend in the afterlife.

Not that it mattered. If Dio was the master of life and death, bringing back more undead servants would take little true effort.

That didn't mean Kirigiri didn't ponder his words. Maybe he was right. Maybe there was still a chance of fixing Naegi quickly. No. Don't forget about internal bleeding.

It was a possibility that couldn't be ruled out. The extent of his injuries, and the way he got them, meant that the odds weren't in his favour. They'd have to check from for bruising, even as the process of moving his shirt meant accepting more sounds of pain from Naegi and the scent of his soiled trousers. A cruel humiliation on top of everything else, despite Kirigiri and Togami doing their best to ignore the patch on his trousers.

As they adjusted his hoodie to get a better look at his back, that was when Kirigiri noticed that Naegi's left side had apparently landed on something after falling from the wall. The front of the armour had long since shattered and thus have no protection. His bad-luck in action.

Whatever he fell on, Kirigiri finally noticing the shards where Naegi had been laying, it had likely been one of the presents from the Murralsee Machine, still hidden inside its ball at the time of contact. She feared that it might have entered his body fully, if her body-check hadn't found it yet.

"Guys...Dio's offer...you can't..." Naegi tried to speak but each word took all his might and will to say. Fighting through the pain and exhaustion must have been tiring for him. He even took Hagakure by the arm and tried to stand himself up, before Kirigiri or Togami could stop him.

It was the pain of moving his spine and lower ribs that forced Naegi down with a cry.

"Kyouko, forgive me." Kirigiri turned her head to find her father almost bowing, although she didn't know how much was from regret and how much from the weight of the Murralsee armour on top of his own injuries. "I don't know how much you remember. Perhaps you will remember it all and will rescind it, but please forgive me. For everything. For not being what you needed."

"Why are you saying this?" She asked despite knowing the reason.

"Dio has the power to give and take away life." He replied. "There are other Murralsees. He killed us, had his followers create these mechanical suits, and then merged our bodies with them before bringing us back. It's how he's able to control us all."

The thought was enough to send bile up her throat, forcibly swallowed down, as she thought of how many people had been turned into his slaves.

Asahina spoke the question on everyone's minds. "How could he-"

"Because he can." Her father said. He turned to all of them with defeated eyes. "If we surrender now, he will torture me as an example, but me alone. If that's the price to pay for your lives, and the lives of those who I was meant to protect, it's worth paying."

"No...we can't...lose-" Naegi began to cough, or rather retch, up goblets of blood from his mouth. He still fought on to finish his sentence. "Hope."

Hope. How was it that he still had it even now? To look at where Dio stood, and where they knelt, and believe that there was light at the end of the tunnel.

"What is even left to fight for, Naegi? The Togami Group has been destroyed." Togami said, his voice void of that pride that had so defined him.

"The entire world's been destroyed." Hagakure added.

"Sakura is dead." Asahina said. Her voice was different from the others, an undertone of desperation was there. As if submitting would give them the island of stability they needed so much. "If we can bring her back-"

"As what? A servant of Dio? My father had orders he couldn't disobey." Kirigiri said. It was only last night that he seemed to find the strength to defy Dio via a loop-hole, and even then he still followed the orders given to him.

"Those he brings back from the dead are changed. He calls it 'peace of mind', but it is more being in a state of complete loyalty to him. I was only able to break free because of what he was doing to you. A part of me hoped that I could somehow stop it." Her father admitted. It fell to Kirigiri to sum up the conclusion.

"So even if Oogami returned, we can't be sure that she'll be the same person that she was before Dio..." Kirigiri let her words trail off. It was unnecessary to state the obvious right now.

Asahina wept over the corpse of her friend yet again. Somehow, Oogami had kept her smile even after Dio cleaved off most of her neck and threw the body across the room. It might have rallied their spirits once.

Not when they were facing Dio now.

No. There has to be a weakness to this. There has to be a solution. Kirigiri must have spent her life searching for truth. She didn't know why, perhaps that was an answer only her past held, but that same thirst and drive was all she had left. It was all she could use to keep them from submission, especially with Naegi barely capable of speaking, let alone moving.

Life and death. The two basic facts of existence that Dio claimed mastery over. The power that her father claimed had brought him back to life. What she assumed was a metaphor or verbal trick was instead the plain and honest truth. Dio could even bring himself back to life. So why was it that her mind was rebelling against the thought? Not against him having supernatural powers-that much could not be denied-but about his power.

He had shown most of the signs of death, even lacking a heartbeat for an almost inhuman length of time, and even Hagakure could smell it on him.

But no. All of that could be faked. If anyone would have had the will to throw away their pride and go through extreme pains to score victory, it would have been Dio Brando. The very fact that he had some invisible guardian could have explained how he kept free of a heartbeat. It simply grabbed the organ itself and kept it from beating, so that not even Oogami could hear it with her ear on the steps.

Illogical, bizarre even, but not impossible.

Dio, even now, looked the part of a king. His hair was messy compared to its usual look and his clothes had been darkened by the blood that had once poured from his body, but it did nothing to detract from the regal dark purple that he wore. Only someone with his sheer lack of self-doubt could have somehow acquired a grace and confidence despite having come so close to death.

Wherever his hands touched, during his strange act of self-worship, it was as if all the damage and pain that his enemies had struck against him turned to nothing. Did coming back from the dead even mean that his injuries were healed as well. The scent of death that plagued him before had long since been gone. The blade of Muramasa and of Genocider Syo's scissors might as well have struck air for all the effect it had on him.

Kirigiri's eyes widened. It hit her. The truth behind Dio's power. Power of life and death? No, more like a consequence of his true power.

Effect. Dio can reverse effect? Kirigiri didn't need to say it out loud. Perhaps Dio could only alter effect as it related to his own body, or he could change effect itself. It changed little.

He'd still been toying with them all this time. Letting them believe that there was a slight chance of victory against him when they launched their trap, instead of quickly squashing that hope without even trying. Yet why would he? Better to let them try their hardest before revealing the terrible truth.

Dio could negate any effect at least as far as it affected him. His Stand was faster than speeding bullets and could punch through steel the way it dealt with Oogami, and all this while it was invisible to them. Kirigiri had found the truth and despaired.

We can't win.

Nothing they could do would have an effect. Or rather, an effect that Dio could not simply erase. It was as if they were playing chess with only the king piece while he had half the board filled with queens. A battle that could not be won.

The leadership of the group had fallen to Kirigiri ever since this morning, Togami having accepted her authority in exchange for defeating Dio once and for all, and it remained with her still. Togami wouldn't fight her. She knew that his confidence had been destroyed. All his defiance was merely a way of denying Dio total satisfaction.

Who among them wasn't in despair? Her father must have seen the world burn before being made a servant to the man that killed him, and knew first-hand that they couldn't fight, with Kirigiri accepting the same conclusion. Whatever defiance was in Asahina had long since died with Oogami and Hagakure didn't have it in him to fight.

Of them all, only Naegi seemed to protest their submission. She could hear him mewling, as the blood was only now slowing in oozing from his wounds, on how they couldn't lose hope now. Of course it would be him that would fight until the end. Her partner probably thought that there was some way for them to escape all of this, despite him fighting for his life from a single blow.

If he hated her for this, that was fine. She'd almost welcome it. So long as she could save their lives.

"How would we have to bow?" Kirigiri asked, breaking the silence. The smile on Dio's face was that of the devil himself.

"Dogeza." He replied, a mad glee in his eyes. Of course it was going to be the lowest and humblest of all bows. "Before this, I might have been willing to spare you some pride, but you forced me to reveal my Holy Diver. If you wish to live a life of hope and peace, the price is every last scrap of your dignity."

Kirigiri almost pitied that. It only made sense that Dio was going to be the type of person who saw pride as strength. It didn't matter if you had to discard for a second, so long as you shoved your opponent's face into the dirt and grime for all to see. That revenge would somehow restore what you once lost.

It didn't matter to Kirigiri. She'd play his game and do as he wanted. Pride was nothing if she could at least save her classmates, when it was clear that Dio could not be stopped by any of them.

She'd simply have to hope that the truth would guide someone else to victory.

Thus the Ultimate Detective walked in front of the group and fell to her knees, forehead touching the ground and her hands placed on the space between her head and her knees. At the very least, Dio hadn't commanded her to give some false speech begging that they, the undeserving, could be granted mercy under his service. No. Dio seemed to prefer laughing at his victory.

"And so ends the old world." Dio declared from atop his high throne. "Charisma. Stand Power. Fate. The three battering rams with which the foundations of the old have been toppled and the three pillars which my world will built upon. Hope. Despair. Both are nothing to the power of I, Dio. I stand on top of both. I stand as the Ultimate Master of all. Humanity, prepare for this to be your new eternity!"

There was nothing they could do. Kirigiri heard the sounds of shuffling behind her, the others likely deciding to join Kirigiri in her act of surrender. The detective knew better than to assume that Naegi would be spared the humiliation despite his injuries, or whatever relationship he might have had with Dio, and prayed that the others could arrange him in a way that would cut short any further pain.

It sounded like Asahina and Togami were the ones to move in, Kirigiri unable to see from her kneeling position, when she heard him speak.

"No..." Naegi murmured. His word was followed by the sound of him grabbing onto to something.

"Naegi-" Asahina was cut off as the Luckster seemed to latch onto her arm again.

"You idiot," Togami hissed, trying to keep the concern out of his voice. "You're only going to stretch out your-"

Whatever happened, it made both the Ultimate Swimmer and the Ultimate Progeny gasp.

Not even a second later, Kirigiri heard Hagakure and her father join them with their own shock, Genocider Syo even hummed in confusion. What was happening? Kirigiri risked Dio's anger and raised her head to turn and see what it was that Naegi was doing.

How? He was barely able to move before. Kirigiri herself couldn't contain her amazement.

Naegi was struggling. Each and every slight movement was making him tighten his jaw and his legs shook from the weight of his own body. Blood still dripped down from his mouth and body, the imprint left by Holy Diver still showing, and there were tears running down his face from the pain of moving.

Despite that, despite everything, Naegi was standing up and looking Dio straight in the eye. Kirigiri turned to find a look of astounded rage on the face of the Ultimate Master, offended that his assault hadn't crippled his victim the way it was meant to. This was not how things were meant to go.

Naegi tumbled forward, almost tripping in place, but caught himself. The worst that happened was that he wrapped a hand around his waist and had to take long deep breaths, as Togami and Asahina stood behind him in case he was truly about to fall. It was almost impossible to hear anything over his wheezes, but Kirigiri just barely heard the sound of something clanging against the floor as it fell out of Naegi's shirt.

There was no time to think about the small golden arrow-head, however, when Naegi had somehow found his wind again.

No one could look at him and objectively believe that he could win a fight with Dio. Putting aside every physical advantage in a fair fight, putting aside Holy Diver's power, and putting aside Naegi's injuries, it was a fool's hope. There was no way that Makoto Naegi could ever defeat Dio Brando in a serious fight.

Yet, why did it feel as if there was a new energy to Naegi? Why was it that Kirigiri felt the urge to throw herself off her knees and stand tall against Dio? Why did she feel this new defiance?

Why was hope filling her heart once again?

"No. You got that wrong!" He cried out, pointing a finger right at Dio's face.

Makoto Naegi knew that he didn't look like a hero.

What kind of hero would be barely standing, shirt caked in blood and sweat, from a single blow? What kind of hero would have simply laid there in pain while others were beaten like a piece of meat at a butcher's? What kind of hero thought they could actually stand tall whilst urine still coated their lower half?

Naegi looked like the final victim whose pitiful last stand was meant to inspire the hero's second wind. To rise above their injuries, and even death, to fight for justice and good. Someone like Oogami should have been in his place, instead of being dead on the floor while Naegi lived.

So why he was doing this? Why was he so blatantly challenging someone who could kill him in an instant? Why was it that he thought himself worthy?

But that was it. This wasn't a question of worth. This was a question of who else. Who else was there left to stand-up to Dio Brando? Everyone else out of the survivors was being drowned in despair, dragged deeper and deeper by a cruel mastermind, and had given up in the face of his unrelenting power.

Maybe it was easier for them to just admit defeat and pray that Dio would be merciful. Yet even Naegi, your average everyday student with terrible luck, realised now that mercy was a concept unknown to Dio. The closest thing would be slavery in gilded chains. They'd be trapped in the Academy like birds in a golden cage, weighed down by the knowledge that Dio had conquered them utterly.

Naegi did not think less of the others for wanting to surrender. After all they had learnt, what they had been forced to witness first-hand, who wouldn't want to surrender to the darkness? Saying it'd be better to die free than live a slave was easy talk when you didn't have to truly make that decision.

Only they couldn't! Not after everything that Dio had done. Not after all the hopes and dreams that the living and dead had confessed inside these walls. Not after having put it all on the line each and every moment they spent trapped in Hope's Peak.

That was why Naegi refused to let himself simply lay there and cry out in pain while Kirigiri humiliated herself for his sake.

So despite the pain of moving broken bones and bleeding wounds, the tears in his eyes, and the state of his clothes and body, Naegi stood up and looked Dio in the eye and said the words he knew weren't meant to be said.

"Naegi," Dio's voice was as smooth as ever, yet the poison in them was no longer hidden. "Do you truly believe that you can succeed where Sakura Oogami failed? Do you truly think that you can defeat me? We've known each other too long for you to truly be that stupid."

"Stupid. I'm sure that's what you think of all this." Naegi said. The strain of keeping himself steady kept back only by the fact that if he fell, so would everyone else. He moved forward enough that he grabbed onto the podium for leverage.

"How could I not? Holy Diver made quick work of the Ultimate Fighter and it took a single blow from it to nearly kill you." Dio waved his hand towards Naegi, a King dismissing a subject. "I, Dio, have won. Accepting the inevitable will bring you peace, Naegi."

"But not hope." Naegi narrowed his eyes and pointed again at Dio. "That's what this is all about. You saw Hope's Peak and wanted it to become nothing more than a ladder for your way to the top. The institutions, its people, the faith people put it in. Maybe it was flawed, but you didn't care. The only thing the ideals of it were to you was a rival. Something to discredit and destroy so that people only had you to turn to."

"And what of it?" Dio asked. "I am offering the people a path towards peace of mind. To live in a world free of uncertainty and darkness."

"You got that wrong!" Naegi snapped. "You're offering people a world where they can only live in uncertainty. To put their faith in the good-will of the man who destroyed their lives! To live in eternal slavery and despair."

"Tch, Makoto Naegi. You speak like someone who has only ever known the rewards of life and none of its burdens. The world you describe is no different from the old world." Dio finally moved off his throne for his oratory. "Hope is what we call it when we are at peace with ourselves. Fate is the destiny of those who work within that pre-determined harmony. Hope's Peak wished to cultivate Ultimates so that their Talents would grow and pushing them to achieve their destiny. I, Dio, am doing the same. I am striving to achieve the Fate of the Ultimate Master. To destroy the flawed old ways and rule over this world, guiding humanity to its Fate.

"That is Hope! The security of knowing that one is acting according to one's Fate. To be free of the doubts and flaws that prevent them from reaching such. To make it so that God is in his Heaven and all is right with the world."

That's what Dio thinks is Hope? Naegi knew that Dio was a believer in the concept of destiny. The sort of person who believed that there was something innate in someone that defined their very being. But to believe it this strongly?

Dio certainly believed in Fate, but he seemed so sure of his own Fate. That the title 'Ultimate Male Model' was merely something he tricked others into believing described him instead of the Ultimate Master. One who would rule over all Talents and all peoples as if they sat on a throne in the skies instead of here on Earth.

That wasn't Hope, at least not a hope that could belong to anyone other than Dio himself. This was simply a way to beautify subjugating an entire species. Of murdering millions. Of murdering the innocent.

"No. Dio, that's not Hope." Naegi gritted his teeth. The pain in his ribs was nothing compared to the fire in his gut, almost as if the words inside him were somehow both soothing and driving him. "Hope doesn't come from Fate, or a God, but from people! People who want to accomplish their dreams through their own efforts. People who want to create rather than destroy. All you're doing is twisting and corrupting. How is beating someone to death with your own hands meant to bring Hope?"

Naegi turned back to his classmates. Asahina had moved back to holding Oogami's body, Togami and Fukawa-who had apparently changed back from Syo-were standing close and looked back at Naegi with confused eyes, whilst Hagakure hid behind the two of them. The Ultimate Clairvoyant was even holding his left ankle for some reason, muttering over something Naegi couldn't hear, but there were two people who caught his attention.

Kyouko Kirigiri and Jin Kirigiri. What Dio did to the previous Headmaster was almost too cruel to imagine. Killing someone who had tried to protect him from the end of the world, only to bring them back as a slave and force them to enforce this Mutual Killing Game, and breaking their spirit. The knife to Kirigiri's gut had been too cruel to imagine. A bully shoving their victim's face in the dirt just because they could.

Yet there was something different in their eyes. Kirigiri herself had knelt in submission after losing hope, despondency in every movement, but now there was something new within her. It was the same with her father as well. Their eyes, once lost in a haze of despair, were still dyed in torment but there was still a spark of something in them that convinced Naegi to stand firm right here and now.

Anything to strengthen those flickers of Hope.

"I know it seems impossible. I know Dio looks like he's insurmountable." Naegi let his gaze linger at Oogami's corpse. "I know he could take everything from us."

"Not really selling us on why we should fight, Naegs." Hagakure muttered. Asahina kept her hold on Oogami's body and both Kirigiris kept a sharp eye on him. Togami and Fukawa were busy with some of their injuries, the former's hand looking badly cut whilst the latter was trying to not faint at the blood on her lower left leg.

Just how many injuries had they piled up between them, while Dio sat there without a scratch?

"But we can't lose hope," Naegi said. "Dio wants us to give up everything, our dreams, our souls, our futures, and give it all to him. He wants everyone in the world to witness him crushing the last bits of resistance under his shoes. If we bow to him, it's not just going to be us who can't ever get back up."

"What are we meant to do then?" Kirigiri asked. "Dio's Holy Diver protects him from harm and can allow him to recover from any injuries we deal to him. Exactly how do you plan on countering that?"

"I don't know."

"That's not a satisfactory answer."

"Kirigiri, do you really think that Dio will give us our friends back? Our real friends?" Naegi asked. "That they won't simply be his slaves?"

"Our freewill had been robbed of us when we were brought back. The same will probably be true for the others." The old Headmaster said.

"No. He can't...Sakura shouldn't be-" Asahina turned her head, eyes blazing with fire. "Dio! If-if you bring them back, they'll be themselves, right? Sakura will be Sakura again?"

Dio toyed with the pommel of the Muramasa blade. "Who knows? Jin was fond of blaming others for his own failings in the past, maybe he's doing so now. I, Dio, don't know what the afterlife entails. Maybe those I return to life are simply grateful for my kindness."

"Forcing people like Kirigiri's Dad to hold this Mutual Killing Game is kindness?" Naegi asked.

"That doesn't vindicate us refusing to obey Dio. In fact, he can simply kill us and turn us into his slaves whenever he likes." Kirigiri pointed out. There wasn't that usual confidence she had when stating the facts, a clear sign that Naegi was getting to her.

"He can do that even if we submit." Naegi replied. The others didn't seem so sure.

Why would they? Fighting against Dio had only proved to be the death of Oogami and almost Naegi himself. The outside world was now so dangerous and cruel that even a prison like Hope's Peak Academy must hav seemed warm and hospitable. They would never need to fear hunger or thirst as others would. All the comforts of life before The Tragedy were free to them. If it only cost them their dignity, then why not?

But that was wrong! The others were being ruled by their despair. The despair of seemingly insurmountable odds was now driving them towards a decision that would kill them in all but name. Dio was not offering them safety, however much he insisted otherwise.

All he could offer was the security of those who lived under tyrants. The law would be kept to unless you were the leader themselves. Togami, Asahina, Fukawa, Kirigiri, Hagakure, even Naegi himself, would all live under the fear of Dio one day deciding to kill them. Of him deciding to cut off the food, water, and even the air, keeping them alive. All from a single whim.

We're not being given a choice between life and death. We're being given a choice between fighting and suicide. Naegi wasn't going to let Dio get away with this. He wouldn't give in.

It was strange. Why did his body stop hurting? Holy Diver's attack had shattered Naegi's ribs and even did damage to his spine, and yet here he was, standing tall and feeling something completely different to pain in his chest.

A fire was the only way to describe it. As Naegi was driving himself forward, the fire within him was only growing brighter and stronger! It was even starting to mess with Naegi's sight and hearing. Just on top of him, he swore he could see some kind of whitish pulse coming towards the others.

Speaking of the others, Naegi only now noticed that some of their wounds were missing. Had it really been that long since they fought against Dio without his Stand?

No. It was just a trick of the mind. The intensity of the situation was starting to get to them all, Naegi included. Jin Kirigiri was even looking away from Dio, towards that arrow-head that came out of that Murralsee Ball (and had been painful to land on), eyes wide open and hand stretched out towards it. The others had formed a wall of bodies enough that this was blocked from Dio's sight.

Was the Headmaster thinking of using it, if they had to fight again? Naegi took that as a sign that he was getting to at least one person, and prayed it'd be the same with Kirigiri herself.

"Do you trust Dio to never harm us again, if we kneel?" Naegi knew that Kirigiri's logic was being blinded by fear. Horrifying truths were keeping her from the wider picture.

Kirigiri herself seemed to realise this, staying silent until five seconds passed. "Uncertainty is better than certainty of death." She said, not believing her own words.

"Indeed, Ultimate Detective." Dio's voice cut through, and he had Muramasa in hand, but there was no edge to his words. He was speaking to them as a man would with an extremely stubborn and stupid puppy. Indulgence. "I wonder why I'm letting you do this, Naegi. The years I spent in this school seem to have moved me more than I expected. It's why I allowed you all what I did not allow others; a chance to live in peace."

"You got that-"

"Useless!" Dio's roar easily overcame Naegi's counter. "It is useless to deny it. I could have thrown you out into the outside world where you tried to hide from. Forced to gulp down air thick with poison, scavenging the land for scraps of garbage to eat and drink, and forced to experience the aftermath of The World's End."

Fukawa raised a hand and tried to speak. "I thought it was called the Biggest-"

"Don't repeat that mouthful of garbage to me. The history written by Dio will have no space for such a pitiful name. Now it is time for you to decide, Naegi. Surrender or die. You have one minute." Dio's voice lost that earlier indulgence. It was now blunt and violent, much like a hammering swinging down on a nail.

One minute to decide.

I guess I'll have to make it count. Naegi already had his answer. He was not going to surrender to Dio, but instead make that minute count for all he could. Dio was wrong, as with a lot of things, about Naegi, when he said that his luck was one of his best attributes. It's my optimism. My can-do attitude. That's the only good thing about me. Now I just have to share it with the others.

Naegi turned his back on Dio and towards the others and let the fire in his stomach burst out. The words came shooting out of his mouth like bullets from a machine-gun, aimed straight at the first target he saw, as he pointed a finger right at the Ultimate Clairvoyant's face.

"Hagakure, I know it's crazy to think of challenging someone like Dio. I'm even wondering what's supposed to happen to save us, but still," Naegi let his whole body shake as the chill of Dio's glare fell on him. "Can you truly see a future living under someone like Dio Brando? Is that the life you want?"

The intensity of the situation was getting to him. Naegi could have sworn that, as he finished his sentence, a golden bullet shot out and struck Hagakure. That must have just been his imagination, as Hagakure himself changed from a look of despondency and panic to one of growing confidence.

"No...no!" Hagakure's head lifted up high and pointed straight at Dio. Not even the soft growl from the throned man seemed to scare him off. "I wanna live, Naegs! And not just live, but live in a happy ending. A happy ending as far away from that guy as possible."

Naegi wasted no time and turned to Asahina. She looked so defeated, unable to decide between which emotion to feel right now, whether red-hot anger at Dio or black despair at what must have seemed like an inability to save her friend. Unable to decide what to do, she was readying herself to simply let Oogami's murderer decide her future.

That might have been why she let out a soft gasp at how quickly Naegi turned to her.

"Sakura Oogami was the Ultimate Fighter and Dio killed her. He probably thinks that now makes him the Ultimate Fighter, and maybe he's right in terms of fighting skull, but he will never be like Oogami." Naegi's free hand found itself caught in a grip, his own nails biting down on his palm. "Because she was more than the Ultimate Fighter! If she was allowed to say the words Dio took from her, it'd be to tell you to live on. To not give up. To carry the hope that she entrusted to you. Asahina, don't let Oogami's death make you forget how she'd want you to live."

It happened again. Another bullet seemed to shoot forward and strike Asahina right in the chest, making impact at the same time as Kirigiri let out a gasp for some reason. There was no time to see what it was, not when he only had seconds to rally the others for the fight against Dio. Naegi couldn't turn back now, he had to keep advancing.

"Strength comes from standing up to adversity. Sakura always said that." Asahina stood up and looked down at Oogami's body. Tears ran down her face but her eyes had something new to them. A strength that Oogami would have smiled upon. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you when you needed me. Maybe if I stand where you stood, I can make it up to you. Maybe by showing my guts, I can be like you."

"What is this?" Dio growled. Naegi almost turned back to reply when someone else beat him to it.

"Hope, Dio," Jin said. The Headmaster's glare was something to behold. "Is not something you can control as if it's a tool."

Naegi was free to turn towards Togami, so broken that he didn't even try to throw a cowering Fukawa off his arm, simply standing there in wait for his fate. Nothing like the prideful heir who never bowed to anyone.

"Togami, maybe there's nothing left of the Togami Group as a business, but you're still standing, aren't you? Dio is, and always was, wrong about you. The kind of guy who makes millions on the stock market never needed the Togami Group to reach the top." Naegi said. For the third time now, he pointed right at Togami's face and let his feeling run wild. "Fight back against Dio, rise up to the top from the bottom, and show him and the world just who Byakuya Togami is."

"What's in your hand, Jin?" Dio said, Naegi barely hearing him over the sound of a bullet shooting forward. Had Naegi hit his head on that wall? "Your counterparts will be arriving soon." Dio added when the Headmaster said nothing. A warning of some kind.

Naegi almost turned back when Togami opened his mouth.

"Don't think I needed your words to bring me back from the brink. Byakuya Togami doesn't need the pleas of plebians to know when to fight." Togami's snobbish put-down had never been so welcome. That cold flame in his eyes was back and the full force of his contempt was directed solely at Dio. "I said I'd be the one to kill the Mastermind. I did it before, and I'll do it again, Dio."

"You dare look at Dio with those eyes?" Dio spat the words out as if they were a foul meal he unknowingly bit into. This whole triumph must have been nothing like he expected.

"Master does dare. And I do too. I'll follow my beloved to the ends of the earth." Fukawa tightened her grip on Togami's arm.

"Don't touch me." He ordered, enough to make Fukawa almost leap off the limb. "Change yourself. We'll need the Genocider for this battle. I won't have you dying on me."

Only one person remained for Naegi to convince towards his side. Forty seconds had passed. He could still do this. There was no pain, or hesitation, but only the laser-focus that normally came only to boxers or soldiers during a moment of truth. Where seconds slowed down and became minutes, if not hours.

He pointed to her.

"Kirigiri, I know it seems as if there's no hope left. That we can't beat Dio, no matter what, but..." Naegi had to think about his next words."Your father put us all here because he thought it'd protect hope. Maybe he was wrong. You can't put hope in a glass bottle and preserve it. It has to be grown again. It has to be able to overcome the tasks ahead of it. Kirigiri, please, if hope seems to be fading away then we'll become the new hope."

The final bullet-whether real or not-struck Kirigiri and had the same effect as it did on the others. Her eyes brightened and her whole body became at ease. "Naegi, if you could see how you look right now." She smiled and pointed back at him. "Everyone was wrong about you. You're not the Ultimate Lucky Student. You're the one who is fighting against Dio even now, the one who is trying to restore our faith. It takes a certain Talent to do that. I'd say the Ultimate Hope's a good a title as any."

That was it. A minute passed and Naegi had managed to shatter the pall of despair that Dio had thrown the others into. What remained of Class 78, if not Hope's Peak itself, was ready to fight! The fire had left Naegi's stomach but only to shroud his whole body. The slight hum he heard had only grown louder and everyone almost seemed cloaked in a white-gold aura, just after most of them had been hit by those bullets.

Looking around them now, it wasn't just their expressions that looked stronger, but their bodies too. All of their wounds were gone! Their clothes still had the holes and cuts but their skin and flesh was as fine as ever. How was that the case?

Whatever it was, it might have been the same reason that everyone was looking at him with confusion and awe at the same time.

"I-Impossible." Dio was now stuttering. Perhaps he truly didn't expect their hope to be so strong that it even withstood his Holy Diver. "I designed that machine to only release it when coded to."

"Dio, so long as we have hope," Naegi turned in place and pointed a finger right at the face of Dio Brando. "We'll never lose to you!"

The sight of a bulked-out Murralsee, glaring daggers at Naegi, lurking behind Dio's throne almost brought out a gasp. He restrained himself to avoid undermining his stand, but it was clear why the others seemed so shocked. It was definitely a sight to fear, not least because its body and height were somehow larger than even Dio himself.

It was nothing compared to how Dio looked. This was meant to be his de facto coronation and Naegi had probably ruined it all because of his refusal to just lay down and die. Or perhaps it was the sound of that hum coming from somewhere, or that white-gold sheen that seemed to be covering the room itself.

Dio stood up from his throne and kept a firm grip on Muramasa. "The Arrow. How did you-"

"Hagakure." Jin said, before anyone else could reply. Naegi swore that Dio almost popped a blood-vessel at that.

"So your Stand can only stay invisible for so long, huh, Dio?" Naegi tried to think of a way to exploit that before he felt a soft tap on his shoulder. He looked back to see Togami almost-glaring at him for some reason, but mostly Kirigiri pointing upwards. Naegi lifted his head up to see what she was pointing at.

What Naegi saw was another him. Yet that wasn't the case. Looking closer, this thing might have had his clothes and general form, but there were key differences. It may have been humanoid but its skin was the same colour as the bullets and sheen of the room, that whitish-gold tiny. Not only that, but where Naegi's ahoge was just a quirk of his hair, the clone's version seemed to be some kind of signal-emitter. It was like those pictures of a radio tower, only the circular signal it sent out was the same colour as its skin.

Not to mention that fact that its fingers were shaped exactly like gun barrels.

"I wouldn't say we at Hope's Peak were completely wrong to assign him the 'Ultimate Lucky Student' title, Kirigiri." The Headmaster said. Somehow, despite the Murralsee armour and his injuries, he was now standing just as tall as the others were. He even smirked, eyes more on Dio than Naegi. "It's not everyone who falls flat on a Stand Arrow."

"You think your Stand will save you, Naegi? You think any of your Stands are enough?" Dio's right eye was twitching and he seemed ready to go on the attack. That was when he stopped himself. Two seconds passed and the rage was gone from his face, replaced by calm superiority. "I suppose it's Naegi's Stand that's made you all fall into the delusion that you have even the slightest chance of victory. Holy Diver!"

A wave of purple-black energy shot out from Holy Diver and went straight for the survivors, too fast for any of them to react. Just as quickly as it came, however, it passed through them without a single touch of pain. Naegi looked at the others in case they were hurt, then looked at his own body. Not a single sign that they had been hurt.

So why was it that Jin Kirigiri's face was pale as snow and Asahina was quivering in place, holding her mouth in shock, as she looked behind herself.

"Sakura!" Asahina screamed as she ran towards the now-levitating corpse of her best friend.

She couldn't even get close before the body shot forward, forcing her to move to the side, and towards the throne. Naegi and Asahina turned their heads back towards Dio in time to see something that chilled them to their bones. Horrifying enough that they were frozen in place. Of course Dio would do this. He had revealed himself to be the worst kind of villain.

But how could someone prepare for the sight of their classmates' corpses hovering in their air, acting almost like a shield for their killer? Naegi barely noticed the sounds of the doorways to the Execution room-where Kuwata and Oowada had been murdered-creaking open to likely let in the pack of Murralsees that Dio had commanded to move in. How could he think of strategy at a time like this?

Dio had said that he could command life and death. But words and the actual sight were two completely different things. How could anyone truly know how it felt to see our friends and classmates return again, but know that it'd be as slaves?

It was enough to send bile up his throat to see Oogami's head slowly move to attach itself to her body again. The gash left by the Muramasa blade had taken off half of her neck and yet the near-detached limb merged with her body again as easily as pushing broken halves of soap together. But this was a human body! The bruises and indents left by Holy Diver's fists shouldn't have disappeared as quickly as they did.

The same applied for the others. Maizono's stab wound was nowhere to be found, nor any sign of blood or even a flaw on her uniform, whilst Kuwata's bruised and bloodied corpse had turned into a picture-perfect image. There was no sign of the wound left by the dumbbell on Fujisaki's head, nor could you look at Oowada's body and think that he had been thrown against a moving truck and turned to roadkill.

Ishimaru looked like himself again. Not only free of wounds but also the influence of 'Kiyondo Ishida', black hair instead of white, whilst Yamada was as peaceful as his dying breath but you'd think he was only sleeping. Celestia herself was the image of a sleeping princess in need of a prince's kiss. It was probably her dream to be thought of such.

If only Naegi could get the mental image of that metal chain digging into her flesh enough to tear into it. To make her face turn violet blue as she gasped and gulped for oxygen. Dio had made the Headmaster almost rip her head off for the crime of revealing his secrets, and yet here she was.

They all looked as if they were sleeping. There were no signs of the horrors done to them ever since this Mutual Killing Game began. Naegi would have given anything to have his friends alive and well again.

But not like this. Anything but this. He knew what was going to happen. They weren't going to come back as themselves. Dio wouldn't have allowed that. There was no sign that Dio had done anything wrong just by looking at them. Just as their bodies proclaimed his innocence, their minds had probably been polluted as payment.

Why, Dio? Why would you go this far? Naegi tried to think of anyone who would do this. Who could be so cruel as to force the survivors of this game to fight against the people they were fighting for. He swallowed the vomit down and waited for the worst to happen.

The dead of Class 78 opened their eyes.

"Naegi, it's so good to see you again." Maizono said, not a drop of blood on her, beaming and holding her hands together. "I don't know if I mean because of the Killing Game or because of the memory-loss."

"It's only natural that Lord Dio's ability to resurrect the dead can even transcend the deletion of our memories." Yamada said, stroking his chin as if it was a normal day and he wasn't fighting to be heard over the sounds of Hagakure screaming in fear.

"There's no time for nostalgia!" Ishimaru declared, his voice carrying that same determination as ever. Only now it was serving a cause that didn't deserve one bit of his efforts. "Lord Dio is counting on us to keep our classmates from making the worst mistakes of their lives."

There was a hum of agreement from the rest of the resurrected at those words. Dio kept the tip of Muramasa's blade on the ground and leaned towards the pommel; a dark smile was on his smile as it was clear that this was his final trump-card to break their spirits. It was no longer a question of logic or strategy. This was a matter of pride.

The kind of pride he denied the people he had now brainwashed.

"Asahina, I know that Naegi's Stand is making you think that I was going to tell you to fight," Oogami said, Asahina softly whimpering whilst Naegi felt himself grow angrier. Did Dio really have no morals? "But believe me when I say that I was planning to tell you to save yourself. To understand that I had fought all I could and Lord Dio still surpassed me. Please, for the sake of our friendship, accept Lord Dio's mercy."

"Come on, Togami, you really think you can face up to Lord Dio?" Oowada added. Naegi wondered if Holy Diver somehow made them say it to appease Dio's ego, or if this was just a side-effect of its command over their souls. "He gave you a pretty big shiner last time you fought. I don't wanna see my classmates die anymore. Man's promise; Lord Dio's gonna let you live if you just swallow your damn pride and bow."

"Kirigiri, I'm grateful for everything you've done with Alter Ego, but he's still a young AI." Fujisaki's eyes were alight with admiration for the monster behind him. "He deserves to advance the world of AI and humanity. Not destroy himself trying to defeat a man like Lord Dio. His strength is just off the charts. I kind of wish I was that manly when I was alive."

"I know you got big dreams, but dreams change. First I wanted to play baseball, then I wanted to be a rock-star," Kuwata slammed the palm of his left hand against his right inner elbow and had a determined smile on his face. "Now I wanna make sure Lord Dio's world comes to be. Might as well give in to a higher power."

"Indeed. I may have lied about adapting to the Mutual Killing Game, but believe this sinful liar when she says that we must adapt to Lord Dio's will." Celes put a hand on her heart, eyes shut, and serenely addressed the survivors as if lecturing children. "Taeko Yasuhiro, Celestia Ludenberg, both are nothing compared to the destiny that Lord Dio sees. If our Fate is to be the rungs on the ladder towards Heaven, then our happiness lies in adapting to such. At least you get the chance to avoid dying before realising this."

Naegi never knew he could hate Dio's chuckle until that very moment.

"You see? In death, they have gained peace of mind. Free from the shackles of the past and anxieties for the future, they simply live content with the knowledge of their Fate. A pre-determined harmony awaits you." Dio raised Muramasa and pointed it straight at Naegi. "Kneel before Dio and your punishment will be light."

"Naegi, please, I can read you easily. You're only doing this to do right by us, to try and keep hope alive, but this is for the best. If you only knew what Lord Dio has planned for the world," Maizono held her hands together and looked as if she was the one meant to be begging. A tearful, yet hopeful, smile came to her. "Bow, Naegi. Do it for me."

Naegi's heart wavered for only a moment. The sight of the girl he knew from middle school, before she went on to become an idol, and who was meant to have been his close companion during all of this was now telling him to give in. He looked up to find his Stand gripping his hands tight enough that it might have cut into its palms, if it had nails, and looked back to see the others.

Maizono was not alone. A choir of the damned erupted in pleas and demands for the living to surrender themselves to Dio's rule. Asahina and Hagakure were the ones who were really shaken by the sight of their dead friends-although had Fukawa not been replaced by Syo, she might have joined them from fright of the dead-whilst Togami and Kirigiri stayed firm.

Dio just looked down on them smiling. At this point, he was now the child who spent their days plucking wings off insects to get that rush of power and joy from hurting another being. If he thought it'd break Naegi, he was wrong. All it did was convince Naegi of the need to fight that much harder.

Naegi looked to Jin and Kirigiri before staring up at his Stand. Both father and daughter nodded and Naegi turned back towards those who Dio had brought back to life.

If those bullets had something to do with his reaching the hearts of the survivors, then maybe...

"Everyone," Naegi stood tall and his Stand readied itself. "You got that wrong."

Ten bullets shot out from the Stand's fingers. They burned as bright as the last ones did, fuelled by Naegi's hope and memories, as they sailed past the victims and went straight for the Mastermind. Holy Diver scoffed and its fists easily met the bullets, shouting 'useless' with each and every bullet it seemingly smashed away.

As Dio laughed at what must have been a pitiful attempt to harm him, Naegi wasted no time turning to the others. The true targets of his efforts.

"Your minds have been taken away by Dio. He hasn't given you peace of mind, he's taken away your future. But we can take it back." Naegi decided to go down the list of Dio's victims in this Mutual Killing Game. "Maizono, what about your band-mates, and not being forgotten? Dio destroyed that, doesn't that make you upset? Kuwata, your dreams-whether it was baseball or music-had worth. Worth that Dio doesn't care about.

"Fujisaki, strength isn't about physicality or winning, it's about being able to face your fears. The Chihiro I knew, willing to reveal their secret to keep everyone together, was stronger than Dio ever was. Oowada, you wanted to build things after the Crazy Diamonds. Don't let Dio turn you into someone who can only destroy.

"Ishimaru, how can someone change others through effort if you let Dio turn you into a mouthpiece of his dogma? Yamada, you wanted your works to reach people's hearts, even if it's doujin, while Dio just wants to dominate people's hearts. Could someone like you ever get what inspired you in Dio's world. Celestia, I thought you wanted to have your own castle with servants and knights. Maybe you wanted something else. Maybe you just wanted to be the kind of girl who was never ordinary. But you definitely didn't want to be nothing more than Dio's Rank C!

"Oogami, please. The warrior I knew would have never spent her final words trying to convince her friend to serve someone like Dio. Would Keichiro have wanted you to accept defeat to the likes of Dio Brando? You spoke of your family's dojo and history with pride. What was that pride worth if it means surrendering to an absolute evil like Dio's plans?"

As Naegi spoke to them, he could feel his Stand bursting with energy. The Hope and memories that Dio had sealed away to drive them to kill one another, the bonds they formed in this building despite that, and the dreams and desires that they lived for before this whole tragedy. Every last of bit of energy from them was getting ready to burst out.

It was even enough that the survivors behind Naegi were rallying just from the exposure to that energy.

Dio watched him with disdain. Maybe he decided that since the bullets could do no harm, the size and intensity of it didn't matter when compared to Holy Diver's raw power and speed. It didn't stop the Ultimate Master from getting his Stand ready to deflect the blasts that were going to come from the opposing Stand.

Naegi ignored Dio. All he cared about and focused on were his classmates.

"Everyone, remember your hopes and dreams. Remember the past we can't and think of the futures we all dreamed of. Dio took that away from you. Dio's even taken your desires and replaced it with his own." Naegi pointed ahead and his Stand lifted its hands to point the barrels straight ahead. "Is that who you want to decide your Fates? Please, remember what he took away from you."

The sound of the bullets-more like 'Hope Bullets' than the real thing-firing was closer to a machine-gun than ten pistols being fired at once. The Hope Bullets themselves were massive compared to the ones before, probably because of the larger energy within them, but were as fast as ever. They shot towards the revived members of Class 78 and were a second away from striking their hearts.

"I have no intention of losing these servants." Dio didn't even have to move as Holy Diver shot forward and began to unleash a barrage of fists against the missiles. "Useless, useless, useless, useless!"

As the fists made contact, the missiles became golden explosions that emitted no heat but more than made up for it in wind pressure and light. Naegi had to cover his eyes to keep himself from going blind from the sight. That didn't matter. He knew in his heart that Dio was discovering something that Naegi himself only knew by instinct. The basic bodily functions that you didn't even have to think about, lest you move too slowly.

Those Hope Bullets broken apart by Holy Diver were not just any missile. They were cluster-missiles. Inside each and every one of them carried smaller missiles that shot forward even in spite of their container's destruction. Inside them was the same energy and hope that were in the previous missiles.

What was more was how none of the missiles even tried to reach Dio. It was almost sad how shocked he looked when realising that he was never the target.

"Not everything's about you, Dio." Kirigiri said, under her breath, just enough that Dio could hear her.

"Holy Diver's speed is unmatched!" He snapped, Holy Diver already moving to strike the new, smaller missiles. "You can't reach them all."

"Yes I can." Naegi vowed.

It was a battle between the speed of the Hope Bullets, trying to reach the hearts of those who had fallen under Dio's spell, and the one that cast that spell. Holy Diver quicker than Naegi thought, moving faster than even the speed of sound, as its fists slammed against each and every missile that came close to Class 78. Most of them had closed their eyes against the intensity of the wind pressure

The light and wind pressure was soon too much for anyone to look at. Naegi had to simply look away as he saw the smaller and smaller Hope Bullets disappear from sight as Holy Diver struck them each time.

Not one of them seemed to have hit even a single class member, before the Ultimate Luckster looked away. When he looked back, Dio's expression told him everything he needed to know.

"I hit them all, Naegi." Dio said, Holy Diver's smirk just like its master's. "Holy Diver's fists move like lightning. It plucked your earnest words and crushed them with its fists before they reached the hearts of your friends. You're a rainbow in the dark, however beautiful your light, it is still swallowed by the darkness with no one to ever see it."

"Dio, Holy Diver is powerful, but you can't win. The numbers are now against you. Do you really think you can defeat six Stand users?" The Headmaster said. Naegi mentally counted a Murralsee, however weakened, among their numbers as well.

"I have nineteen Murralsee all converging on your location, and my classmates have generously sworn themselves to me." Dio laughed to himself and motioned a finger at Naegi. "I'll sic the Steering Committee on Naegi. Whatever his Stand does, it obviously strengthens the heart. Pitch-black ambition will swallow it whole without mercy."

"Y-You're not gonna be so confident when we beat you. We did it once, and we'll do it again." Hagakure tried his best glare as all the attention in the room fell on this showdown between Dio and the survivors.

"Hagakure, I will enjoy crushing your skull." Dio growled. "I let you win that time to better crush your spirits. Now? I am done with catering to your needs and my short-term desires. You think you can stand up against twenty Murralsee and your beloved classmates? You think you can overcome Holy Diver? Fools! I will show you, the Future Foundation, and all those who doubt in the power of Dio that this is the dawn of the new world! Your struggles are completely and utterly use-"

Dio was cut off by the left side of his face getting smashed by the back wheel of a motorcycle.

Blood and skin shot out from his howling face as the wheel shot up from his cheek to his skull, as Mondo Oowada adjusted his motorcycle so that it would land before slamming against the wall of the Class Trial room. There was barely enough time for Dio to place a hand on his face, immediately healing his wounds, when he stumbled into a well-muscled fist landing straight on his gut.

All of this in the span of three seconds; the pain too much for Dio to direct Holy Diver to save him.

The Ultimate Male Model corrected himself before stumbling too far back. It was just in time for him to realise that, whilst he had been bragging of his victory, Oowada had sneaked into the open Execution room and grabbed an intact bike. It was also in time for him to realise that those who he brought back from the dead were no longer looking at him with adoring eyes. That much was obvious from Sakura Oogami moving from the steps of the throne to strike at him.

No. The expressions on their faces could only be described as absolute fury.

Dio's mind, normally so quick to find the answer, seemed unable to register what he was seeing. "How-"

"I don't know how I knew, but I just did." Naegi said. Dio turned his head back to feel the full-force of the Ultimate Hope's glare. "You can't just destroy what's in people's hearts. No matter how hard you hit, you can't erase the feelings humans hold for their close ones! My Hope Bullets just broke apart again and again until not even your eyes could see them, and they still reached their hearts."

"That's right." Maizono looked at him and did nothing to hide her tears. "Naegi, I'm so sorry for what I did, for what I just did, just everything! All the times we spent as friends, all the things we shared, and what we promised at Hope's Peak, and I just-"

"Maizono, it's okay. I am sure that Naegi has already forgiven.," Oogami said. Knowing the power and fighting skill of Dio, she could only spare Asahina a brief apologetic look. "What matters now is that we stand and fight now. That we do not let Dio win after all he has done."

"Do you understand now, Dio?" Kirigiri said. She stepped forward and Naegi could almost swear that there was someone behind her. All dressed up like an old-time detective, down to the deer-hunter and everything. "You can force your will on us all you like, and nothing will change. We'll never stop fighting. Just like humanity will never stop fighting against your despair so long as we have hope."

"You hear that?" Oowada's voice easily overcame his bike's engine. "This is the sound of us getting ready to kick your ass so hard the shit'll only have to come out of one hole instead of two!"

Mondo drove his motorcycle around the room and began to throw certain objects that he held on his left hand. To hold onto so many items and still have control over his motorcycle like that. Oowada truly was the Ultimate Biker.

Ishimaru had a kendo stick, Kuwata a baseball bat, and others had make-shift weapons like crowbars and hammers, and all the tools that must have gone into building the death-traps in the Execution Room. Objects once designed to enable their torment, now were weapons to ensure their freedom from Dio.

Naegi could hear metallic marching in the distance. The Murralsee, nineteen in number according to Dio, were approaching. Whether they had the steel-chain whips like Jin did was something they'd have to find out, most of their attention now on Holy Diver readying itself for a fight. This was it. The true final battle that would end it all.

Flickers of doubt came to Naegi. His Stand wasn't meant for combat. That was obvious now. Would the same be true for the others? How would people like Fujisaki and Maizono defend themselves? Would six Stands and Oowada and Oogami together be enough to stop Dio?

No. I have to have hope. Hope in myself. Hope in my friends. And last, but definitely not least. Hope in my Stand. Livin' On A Prayer!

How could this be? How could Naegi's Luck have caused such chaos to Dio's machinations?

Was Naegi's Luck stronger than Komaeda's? No, it couldn't have been. Komaeda's luck had seemed so powerful, able to preserve him through tragedy after tragedy, and had its own pattern. All you needed to do was understand that pattern and master it., something a dog like Komaeda never could, but the theory seemed to hold for the other Ultimate Lucksters. Yet Naegi's own luck defied all of Dio's reasoning.

There was no pattern. There were just random bursts of extreme good luck and bad luck. How could something like that be called a Talent?

Now he has a Stand. Dio could only grit his teeth further. The Murralsee Machine had been designed to never release the Stand Arrow unless Matsuda programmed it to, and Matsuda had received no such order from Dio. Even if he joined Jin's betrayal, he didn't have the freedom to change the coding. He remembered Kazuichi telling him of an error in the mechanics that meant there was a chance of it being chosen by the machine. But that could hardly be called a chance. Those odds were the same as getting the exact same hand after a deck of cards had been shuffled.

And Hagakure was the one who collected it?

No. It must have been Naegi's Luck at work, unconsciously warping probability, or worse. Was this Komaeda's Luck cursing Dio?

That couldn't have been the case. The control he had over the renegade Despair was absolute. There must have been another reason that fate would betray Dio and there would be a later time to think about it.

Not when Dio was caught in a battle like this. A war that was gradually destroying the entire Class Trial room with every second that passed.

"Why do you continue to fight against me, Oogami?" Dio asked, dodging each of her strikes as they came. The wounds from the Murralsee were catching up with her. "If I die, Holy Diver's powers fade away, you know. You'll simply be dooming yourselves and the others to death yet again."

"If you died yesterday, I would be alive. If you die today, six others will live and the world will be saved." Oogami ended her little speech with a side-kick that Dio just narrowly ducked under. "If it means saving the life of a friend, I would gladly give my own away a thousand times."

"If that's what you wish." Dio replied. Oogami was struck back by Holy Diver's right elbow. It took more than being able to see Holy Diver-an unfortunate side-effect of being risen again-to battle with it.

The Ultimate Fighter twisted and turned her body enough that she managed to land on her feet again. Rather than waste time on Dio, she moved on towards destroying the Murralsee that were trying to end the non-combatants of Class 78. That order had been much easier to give when the Murralsee weren't turning against one another.

Livin' On A Prayer. Just the name was enough to anger him. Had Dio known just what that Stand was capable of, he'd have simply forced Naegi to engage in a physical battle between their Stands, instead of trying to break him psychologically. Had he not been blinded by a nostalgia for the memories he made, he'd have had their submission by now. Instead, he was going to have to kill them in front of the whole world.

It was unfortunate. Killing his classmates hadn't been fun the way that breaking Hope's Peak had been. Some of them were even worthy of his respect like Oogami's strength, Kirigiri's mind, and Naegi's determination, if a constant cause of frustration. Still, they had left him no other choice.

Absolute despair. That was the necessary condition for the world to be in for the next stage of his plan. The plan to bring about peace of mind to the world itself needed Dio to be in a position of absolute authority and to be feared across the planet. How could anyone fear a man who could not even kill his own captives?

Now he was seeing those damn Hope Bullets pierce through the Murralsee and slowly release the mental and spiritual bindings that Dio had locked them in. The Steering Committee remained loyal but failed to even meet Naegi in combat with the other survivors unleashing their Stands. It gave Naegi the safety needed to use Livin' On A Prayer.

The Student Council made up the bulk of his Murralsee and were already tearing each other apart instead of Class 78. It was getting to the point where the number of fighters under Naegi were outnumbering Dio's enough to confront him personally. Matsuda had long-since defected, perhaps even before then if Jin had truly given Kirigiri advice, impossible unless the surveillance was compromised by the one overseeing it, and was assisting in pointing out who to strike to Naegi.

This was not how things were meant to be.

"Hey, Dio!" Kuwata's voice cut through the general thunder of battle, coming from the Execution Room. Dio turned in time for Holy Diver to catch a baseball-flying fast enough that the heat rippled against his skin-aimed right at his skull. The first killer was wreathed in a golden aura, arm already stretched back to throw again. "Plenty more where that came from."

A flurry of baseballs travelling at the same speed came flying at him. To throw them at speeds so fast that the wind around the baseballs almost caught fire around them? Who else but the Ultimate Baseball Star could perform such a feat? But for someone to meet every last one of them with a stronger and faster strikes? To move at speeds unknown to the common man?

Who else but the Ultimate Master?

"You think this is enough to catch me off-guard? Fool! Holy Diver is beyond the Talents of mere humans." Dio began to slowly advance towards Kuwata. The boy whose dreams were determined by others could never match the drive of someone like Dio Brando. He could see the sweat dripping from Kuwata's face even just steps away from his throne.

Dio felt a sudden change in the temperature, a slight drop in the heat compared to the fireballs that exploded against Holy Diver's fists, and the Stand immediately changed its focus so that it was now deflecting two rapid-fires. One ahead of Dio with Kuwata, and another to his right with Asahina. The difference was that, instead of baseballs, Asahina's barrage was of pressurised water bullets.

She's learnt the secrets of her Stand quickly. Dio spared Asahina a glance.

The fire behind her glaring eyes confirmed his suspicions. Her bonds were what gave her strength. Just as breaking them would break her, the thought of protecting them drove her on. It was enough that it fuelled the fury and precision of her Stand. It was no small task to make a bulbous humanoid, filled to the brim with water, look at all threatening when it had a life-saver wrapped around its mid-section.

The Ocean; that was what she called it. A fitting name for a Stand that could summon water itself to strike at Asahina's enemies. Yet what troubled Dio most was the brief sights he saw of Asahina trapping a Murralsee between her legs. She was stronger than she looked, but the way that both of them levitated and moved-as if they were underwater itself-raised his suspicions. He would have to keep his distance when fighting her.

For now, he was content with slowly advancing towards Kuwata whilst deflecting two barrages at once. Let them witness his power in full!

"Attack me from two sides all you like. It won't matter!" Dio took another step and relished Kuwata's meek yelp. The baseballs were losing some of their energy as Kuwata lost his nerve. "Holy Diver is unbeatable. You think we are the only ones with Stands? My army is filled with such people. I have personally tested Holy Diver against nearly every single one of their Stands and triumphed! Holy Diver is a Stand that surpasses all others."

Only one could ever match Holy Diver and that could not truly be described as a Stand. Stands were manifestations of fighting spirit, whilst its user abomination had no such spirit or true soul. The nature of his Stand was proof enough of that.

Dio might have reflected further, deflecting both high-pressure water bullets and baseballs a simple task for Holy Diver, when he felt a change in the wind to his left. Holy Diver moved to intercept and slammed its fists against the projectiles.

So he's using Gold now. Togami's Stand was disgusting to look at. A solid-gold copy of Byakuya Togami looked at Dio as if he was scum, even as tiny golden bullets shot out of its chest and air-boxing fists, whilst its user shared that same smug look of disdain. As if Dio was nothing more than a piece of dog-shit on the road.

By the time Dio was done with him, Togami would wish he was dog-shit.

Still, this was now a problem. Dio had been forced to stop completely in his tracks. Flaming baseballs from the centre, water bullets to the right, and now golden bullets from the left, all of which was having to be deflected by Holy Diver. One barrage was easy, two simply needed his attention, but three required all of Dio's precision to keep them from touching him.

Should he try to simply rush at Kuwata? The first blackened was having to rely on Hagakure to grab further baseballs to use as ammunition. A simple charge forward wouldn't give Dio any wounds that Holy Diver couldn't heal. Better to risk it now than deal with an annoyance later.

No. All that'd do is risk getting hit from behind by The Ocean and Gold. Dio had no attention of getting caught between two attacks and only able to defend himself against one of them. If even one of them struck the back of his neck, or pierced through his brain...

I need to think. Who is the weak link in the chain? Kuwata only has so many baseballs to use, but there might be something else. Look for the difference between the patterns. Dio shifted away enough of his attention that he was being grazed by some of the bullets from all sides.

It was worth it. For Dio noticed that both Gold and its bullets were getting smaller. All he had to do was look on the ground and see that the bullets, once deflected, were making their way back to Gold. A cocky grin came to him. So Gold has to use its own body to fire the projectiles. The amount of gold it can use is finite as well. Good. Kuwata first, then Toga-

Sudden pain stopped him from thinking. Dio barely had time to look at the crystal shards flying in the air before the blood entered his eyes and blinded his vision. He could hear the sound of something breaking and a soft hiss, almost like gas escaping a container, when Dio felt his whole body roar in pain as the projectiles finally made their mark.

Bullets slammed against Dio and swept him off his feet. Whatever it was that blinded Dio, it had been a result of whatever attacked Holy Diver during his moment of distraction. The baseballs slammed against the chest of Holy Diver and cracked Dio's ribs, whilst the The Ocean and Gold's projectiles shot through skin and flesh, breaking bones along the way.

Dio felt a blade slice into his back and grunted in pain. That grunt became a scream as he felt the sensation of skin being sliced grow from that very cut. What was a simple piercing wound stretched out and covered the length of his back in a single line going from his left shoulder down to the right waist. It even slithered across his entire left shoulder. All to the chorus of a madwoman's cackle.

Smells Like Teenage Spirit. Dio should have known that Genocider Syo's Stand would have been one of the most dangerous of them all. A simple stab-wound was almost enough to cut his whole body in half!

That didn't mean he was dead. They could have torn off his limbs, break his spine in two, and flay his chest, and he would recover so long as he lived. Nothing would stop Dio Brando from achieving his destiny. Holy Diver simply had to move its attention towards the wounds on Dio's body, its hands quickly making contact with every wounded part, and he was restored to himself again in nearly every part.

Pride was the exception. The sound of Hagakure and Kuwata's laughter, both of them growing more distant as Dio was forced to again fight off Asahina and Togami's attacks, rang inside his head. The humiliation of a low-life like Hagakure somehow wounding him! It was enough to make him vomit.

"Told you it was useful for something, Togami!" The false-clairvoyant shouted as he ran back to where Naegi was. He was followed by a slow-moving purple-white gas cloud that was wafting against the breeze even now.

"Congratulations. Your Stand can give a vague idea of events seconds in the future when in a cheap crystal skull knock-off." Togami said with all his usual arrogant disdain. To think that these were the people giving Dio trouble where others collapsed without a fight.

He didn't know whether to feel pride in the classmates who were proving themselves worthy of being a part of Dio's past, or rage that they were not simply dying to ensure his future.

It was the work of Livin' On A Prayer. It had re-awoken their hearts and now the dead were willing to put it all on the line to end Dio's life. They fought with every last bit of their being to strike even a single blow that could disarm him or put him at a disadvantage. All for that bit of hope that Naegi re-ignited within them.

He had turned those like Asahina, Syo, and Togami from people considering surrender to now going toe-to-toe with the remaining Murralsee. The Ocean's trap on that Murralsee had given Asahina the advantage she needed, as the Ultimate Swimmer, to land blows faster than the Murralsee could even react. What was worse was that it was one of the Steering Committee.

Smells Like Teenage Spirit was empowering Syo's rampage. With every blow that she took, each strike against the Murralsee only grew stronger. Where it was simply once striking at the weak points and letting them fall, now it had become a matter of tearing through their armour piece by piece. That was the only Stand whose secrets remained safe from Dio's mind.

Togami was simply finishing off those who Syo left in her dance. Between the three of them, most of the Murralsee who were manned by the Steering Committee had already been slain. The supposed elite-guard were crushed with barely a scratch on the others. So much for their delusions of grandeur.

It was not only the survivors who were acting out. The dead were resurrected by Dio's will could not be returned to the ground by will alone. If Dio was going to put them back in the dirt where they belonged, without dying himself, he'd have to kill them with or without the Murralsee. If only they'd get within Holy Diver's range.

Whenever Dio got close to them, Oowada would simply swoop in and pluck them away on his motorcycle. Did the vehicle never run out of gas? The Ultimate Biker had spent much of this battle slamming his wheels against the Murralsee loyal to Dio whenever it seemed like they were gaining the upper hand. Ishimaru simply lent support by using that kendo stick, slamming it against their helmets.

Naegi's Stand was making it even worse. For every Murralsee that managed to resist his Hope Bullets, there were those that were strengthened by them. They were feeding off Naegi's Hope like parasites and using it to strengthen their blows and heal their wounds.

Whether it was Oogami smashing apart the finest armour Kazuichi could build with her fists, having already disarmed three, or the treacherous Murralsee overpowering the loyal, or even Hifumi Yamada throwing himself on a Murralsee to weigh it down, they were achieving it. Dio's machinery of terror was becoming nothing more than a joke.

The sight of Muramasa on the ground only made things worse. The brief moment where Dio let his guard down and believed that he had still broken one of the members of Class 78. Taeko had bowed so low, begged so hard, and threw away her pride enough that Dio thought she still yearned for a chance to serve him. To accept her place in the new world.

He should have realised that he wasn't the only one who didn't care for how a victory was won. Dio held her head gently when Taeko snarled.

"I don't bow to Rank Fs." With a speed that only Livin' On A Prayer could have granted her, Taeko used her finger-claw to stab through Dio's right eye.

Muramasa had fallen from his hand and fell to the ground. There was no moment of freedom for him to pick it up again, barely having time to wrap a hand around Taeko's throat to crush it entirely, when Oogami intercepted with a punch from the right and Syo threw one of her scissors. The Ultimate Gambler retreated after that. Scurrying back to Naegi with her tail between her legs.

She simply rested their now with Fujisaki, Maizono, and her fellow traitors Jin and Matsuda. It looked as if the latter in particular was trying to tell Naegi something, having the Ultimate Luckster's full attention.

Damn it! Dio should have realised earlier that Matsuda had betrayed him. A death chosen for his utility and ties to the Izuru Kamukura Project, Yasuke still should have noticed Jin's deception last night and warned Dio of it. Unless he had been planning the same with Jin.

I should have had Ultimate Despair assist me in this. Dio thought to himself. They'd have spotted this treachery earlier, and they'd have helped him crush this rebellion by now.

Instead he was forced to watch as Kirigiri disabled another Murralsee from the Steering Committee with words alone. Not as in her words reached their hearts and made them hesitate. No, she literally stopped them with words. Truths spoken, and lies revealed, became 'Truth Bullets' fired from Detective Man's pistol. Unlike Livin' On A Prayer, the bullets came from a gun in the Stand's hand and actually pierced through.

The Murralsee couldn't move either of its arms or its left leg due to the words that pierced through each limb. It was easy for Jin to then knock the Murralsee unconscious with his fists alone.

All the while, as Dio observed each Stand and fighter's abilities, all the while fighting, Makoto Naegi simply stood there preaching. It was as if he was a holy relic; his very presence driving his followers forward. The Hope Bullets he spoke either healed or strengthened his allies, or worked to weaken the resolve of Dio's own followers.

This was a battle of the worlds just as it was a battle of the messiahs. The old world was being protected by Makoto Naegi. Foolish idealists who put their faith in a broken and flawed world filled with uncertainty and despair. Whereas Dio represented the new world. Born from the fires of war and the pits of despair, his world would be one where all of humanity would know the peace of mind that Dio had reached.

But first he needed to end the dying chokes of the old world.

Enough of this. The Murralsee have served their purpose. Dio moved back, Holy Diver having concerned itself with fighting back against any attack, and directed his Stand against the throne behind him. In a matter of seconds, it was broken apart into a series of broken wooden shards large enough that a single blow from one could concuss someone.

And a single sharp throw from Holy Diver would mean the body would be pierced.

The Murralsee had long since lost their helmets, barring the one Asahina was fighting. Their faces were revealed to the world as the two sides fought against each other with all they had, one side fighting to kill and the other fighting to give Naegi a chance to fire Hope Bullets. Not that a Hope Bullet could do anything against Dio's newest attack.

Holy Diver threw the fragments first at Dio's own Murralsee. The ones who wouldn't even budge if their master directed violence towards them. It would defy the place of a servant to try and avoid his master's punishment, after all. The wood smashed through their skulls and the bodies of the Murralsee fell to the ground in the blink of an eye.

Not even Asahina's target was safe, although the wood went stray on the mark and hit the side of the skull. Blood flowed as if it was in water, heading towards the top, before Asahina dispelled The Ocean's effect out of disgust.

The other Murralsee were distracted, as were the other enemies of Dio. 'Why would he kill his own followers? Is this another ability of Holy Diver's?' That must have been what the traitor-Murralsee were thinking before the next shards went through their own skulls. Some tried to dodge. All of them failed, only Matsuda and Jin still living out of the original twenty.

Dio felt no sense of shame or horror for what he did to his servants. The Murralsee only lived again by the will of Dio Brando and returned to the earth by the will of Dio Brando. He needed to remind the world who ruled them now. It wasn't as if his own followers would be shocked.

Even his friend knew the kind of man Dio was. What mattered was not how victory was won but only that it was gained. For the sake of the new world, Dio would sacrifice anything and anyone to reach it.

He looked over at the horrified members of Class 78, particularly their aghast leader, who the others were beginning to form a human wall around. The horror had come more from the deed than the aftermath. There was no more blood as the corpses vanished into black mist, the spell of Holy Diver ending as their souls returned to Holy Diver.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Dio smiled to himself and turned his gaze towards Naegi.

"Makoto Naegi, you've proven too dangerous for me to allow you to live." Dio said, entering a fighting pose as Holy Diver did the same. Now came the easy part. "I have seen enough of Livin' On A Prayer to know its strengths and weaknesses. All you do is simply raise people up to become your sword and shield. You heal them, make them stronger, and they're willing to throw away their lives all for the sake of what you call hope. For someone like me, who has goals greater than any amount of nostalgia, your Stand is worthless."

It was the same with the others. Hagakure's pitiful Stand could do nothing for combat and the rest were nothing to Holy Diver. Kirigiri's Detective Man required too much ceremony and Togami's Gold would shatter in a matter of seconds. All Dio needed to do with Syo was have her change back into Fukawa and her life would end. Asahina's The Ocean was a potential threat, but nothing more than Dio could handle.

All they did was dig their own graves, in the end.

"Dio, we've overcome your plans, your machines, and you're all that's left." Naegi, for the first time in a while, looked at Dio with begging eyes. He was yearning to find whatever he thought he saw before today. "It doesn't have to end this way, Dio. If you just surrender, I promise you'll get a fair trial. If you help us fix the damage done to the world, maybe you can still live a peaceful life. But it has to be now."

Any other person. Any one other than Makoto Naegi and Dio would have spat at them for daring to mock him like this. To treat him as if he was some charity case when they were the ones on the retreat, in some vain attempt at seizing the moral high ground.

Not Naegi. Dio had spent too long with him to mistake that open and naive heart for anything else. Naegi truly believed that Dio held even the slightest desire to turn back from his path, if he even could. It was enough to make him laugh.

"In another world, you'd truly be the Ultimate Hope," There was no need to be anything other than sincere. Dio prepared Holy Diver for what would come next, trusting only instinct to guide its hand to Muramasa. "But I, Dio, hold that title. For I rule over hope. I rule over despair. I rule over both the old world and the new. That is my fate and nothing will get in my way."

In a flash, Holy Diver seized the blade Muramasa and cracked it in three. That brief moment of confusion on everyone's face was just what Dio needed as his Stand threw the blade shards towards Naegi and Kirigiri. The heart and brain of the group were in enough danger that the others immediately intercepted the blades. Asahina's The Ocean caught the top half meant for Naegi and Togami's Gold did the same for the bottom half.

The third shard, mostly the pommel and a short blade, flew towards the Stand Arrow that was sitting just behind Jin. His fatherly instincts compelled him to move and try and protect Kirigiri before the Arrow, and his weakness cost him the latter as the insect design on the arrowhead cracked into pieces. It wasn't as if Dio didn't lack for them.

The shock and then relief of that attempt sealed the fates of those who turned their backs on Dio.

Many of Syo's scissors remained on the ground. Some broken by the Murralsee battle and others by Oowada's bike, but intact enough that they could still cut through the human body with enough force behind them. That kind of force was something Dio had in spades.

It was amusing how the deceased had assumed that the blades between both Dio and Holy Divers' fingers were meant for the still-living. None of them even thought about trajectory or the positioning of Dio's hands. They merely jumped forward and used their own bodies as human shields, to the cries of horror from those like Naegi and Asahina.

Dio gave them credit; there was bravery behind their movements. Throwing themselves forward towards the blades was a sacrifice all ten of them must have realised that they made. Even Matsuda and Jin moved into the firing line. All to save their last hope.

If only they realised that the blades were meant for them. That their choice had sealed the fate of their friends.

Holy Diver's aim was still true, some of them were killed in an instant. Like soldiers in the Great War, going over the trenches, they were ruthlessly cut down as they tried to make a valiant charge for their friends. Fujisaki, Kuwata, Ishimaru, and Yamada all collapsed to the ground. It was almost comedic how their bodies tumbled compared to their earlier heroism.

Dio took a particular joy in driving Holy Diver's fists through the heads of the disgraced ex-Headmaster and the Ultimate Neurologist. Of all the deaths he could have subjected them to, the punishment for turning against their master, this was the kindest he'd offer. It was the same for Maizono, Oowada, Celestia, and Oogami. Scissor-blades jutted from their bodies but they still moved forward with an almost serene sense of purpose.

As their corpses fell to the ground against the flurry of strikes, easily going through their bodies and destroying their vital organs, there were even smiles on their faces as with the others.

Smiles that stayed even as their bodies turned back to nothing and their souls entered a new home in Holy Diver.

Naegi, the so-called Ultimate Hope, was reduced to falling on his knees with tears in his eyes, joined by Asahina. Hagakure was barely holding onto his platform to stay standing and Kirigiri was the same, a natural reaction to seeing her father's skull turned to nothing, denied even the final smile. Only Togami and Syo seemed to keep it together. Dio wondered if he had already won.

Had this truly been all he needed to do to secure his final victory? A simple look at the tightly-gripped fists of both Livin' On A Prayer and Naegi told him everything he needed to know.

Of course it hadn't been enough. Just as fast as Naegi had fallen, he was finding the strength to stand up again. His Stand was just behind him, eyes blazing with an almost-unnerving determination, and the signal coming from its ahoge was as strong as ever, the whole room humming from the sound of its energy.

Asahina joined Naegi and both Hagakure and Kirigiri regained their composure. It was funny. The six of them were all standing behind podiums as if it was a Class Trial again. That little mechanism Dio used to test their mental capabilities despite memory-loss had seemed so important to them before now. Maybe they didn't realise it.

As some of the the podiums lit up, a small part of Dio began to suspect that something was wrong.

Whatever it was, it was enough to convince Dio to use that power to end this. The third and most powerful of Holy's Divers abilities. One that would erase the hope of the masses just as it did with those who first witnessed the true might of Holy Diver. Those who now licked at his boots with a single word.

With this, he would reveal the distance between the level of even a Stand user and Dio Brando!

"This resistance has been a nuisance, but is ultimately futile." Dio said. He spared a moment to give each of the six a glance, sizing them all up, before speaking again. "I don't know if Stands carry over to those I resurrect. Perhaps I'll learn the answer to that with the others, but not with you, Naegi."

"Dio Brando, do you deny that you have personally killed dozens, turned thousands of people into your own private cult, and destroyed the world? Do you deny that you were the Mastermind behind this whole Mutual Killing Game?" Kirigiri asked. Detective Man readied its pistol to fire on him, but Dio had no intention of playing her game.

"Livin' On A Prayer is too dangerous to allow to exist any further." Holy Diver raised its right fist at those words, an aura of black energy coating it. Dio gestured to the boy who had forced him to do this. "Behold, Naegi! The third and deadliest power of Holy Diver! Fuelled by the souls of those killed by my hand, this is a power I've only chosen to use once. The power that will turn you and Hope's Peak into nothing more than a chapter in the epic of Dio Brando. The power to overwrite not just my own reality but your own."

"You're never going to stop, are you?" Naegi asked. He seemed so downcast, as if realising that this was his end. Dio could only laugh in reply.

"Why would I? If you ever knew me, Naegi, you would know the kind of man I, Dio, am. I will be the one to rule over this world and I will use anything, and anyone, I can to become victorious and rule. Nothing will stop me from achieving my fate." Dio kept an eye on Naegi and Holy Diver pulled its fist back for the final blow. "Say farewell to your existence, Makoto Naegi!"

This power was unlike the others. Dio required the souls of those who were slain by his hand-whether alive or resurrected-to feed this power that could delete the existence of another. Holy Diver growled as Livin' On A Prayer betrayed Naegi's fear, blasting Hope Bullet after Hope Bullet at Holy Diver, thinking that the memories of their time together would affect Dio's heart. It did nothing to make Dio hesitate.

The sound of Fujisaki's voice was more than enough.

"The Class Trial shall now reach its climax." The remaining speakers chimed. "Please vote on who the Mastermind is."

How was this possible? Dio had just killed Fujisaki. So why was his voice carrying over through the speaker system? "How did-"

"You were right to fear Fujisaki's Talent, Dio." Kirigiri said, eyeing Dio as if he was a common criminal. The memory of Fujisaki's final creation came back to Dio. "Alter Ego easily made its way through your firewalls. Matsuda did the bare minimum to begin counter-measures, enough to keep Alter Ego in a stalemate, until called into battle. That's the thing about Strong AIs, they're quire adept at defeating Weak AIs."

"This whole time, this whole battle, was simply counted as the Class Trial itself." Togami spoke as if this was already over. Like the damn Class Trial meant anything other than a method of intimidation.

"Sorry 'bout this, Dio. You're cute, but a lady like me needs a proper gentleman like my White Knight." Syo dared smile that stupid smile where her tongue just slithered there. To think he once thought of her as a potential ally.

"I knew it. I knew there was a happy ending to this." Hagakure was already blubbering. A weather-vane to the end, pointing towards wherever even the softest wind was blowing.

"Sakura gave her life for this moment. I'm not going to waste it." Asahina said, pressing down on the button. She glared at Dio as if she was a tortured mother of a murder victim, seeing the killer off to the electric chair.

Dio could only laugh at their stupidity. At their delusions. At the madness of this whole situation.

All he needed to do was send Holy Diver-faster than The Ocean, Gold, or Detective Man-over to Naegi and land the blow that would erase his existence. Without Livin' On A Prayer, their hope would be shattered in seconds. More than enough time for Dio to finally put an end to them.

The end of Hope's Peak had come.

Dio moved forward with Holy Diver, bringing Naegi into the Stand's range, and let it fly straight towards Naegi. Pressurised water bullets and golden bullets from The Ocean and Gold were easily beaten back by Holy Diver. Detective Man's Truth Bullets barely impeded the charge as Holy Diver merely touched its legs and arms and the words vanished from sight. Syo threw a scissor blade that barely cut into the back of the right hand.

Even as it grew larger enough to almost slice half of the hand off, and extended to his elbow, a single touch erased the cut without even slowing its speed.

All that stood in his way was Livin' On A Prayer now. Dio would praise Naegi for one thing. He looked death in the eye without fear.

"All of you who were forced to give everything you had for Dio's ambitions," Naegi closed his eyes before opening them again. "Don't lose hope!"

Livin' On A Prayer fired all the Hope Bullets it could at Holy Diver's chest. Maybe Naegi hoped that it would somehow remind Dio of a memory during this Killing Game, or during their time together at Hope's Peak. It was useless. Dio had come to Hope's Peak intending to break the old world, and that was just what he was going to do now.

The world seemed to slow down as Holy Diver raised its fist. It ignored the blasts from The Ocean and Gold and began to move its fist from as far back as it could be and towards Naegi. This was it. The blow that would deliver victory to Dio.

So why was it taking so long.

What is this? Is Holy Diver moving slower? Dio put all of his will into making Holy Diver move that bit quicker. For a moment, it shot forward at its normal speed, but then jutted to a stop. This time Holy Diver was completely immobilised, and so was Dio. Impossible. Livin' On A Prayer can only strengthen his allies, right? How could it stop my Holy Diver? How is this even possible?

A white-golden glow emerged from the back of Holy Diver and began to cover not only the entire back, but also the right arm of the Stand as well. The left arm had some freedom to it, but as Dio tried to aim it at Naegi, that limb became frozen in place as well. How was it that this was happening to Holy Div-

Dio realised, just then, why Livin' On A Prayer really fired those Hope Bullets.

"Your Hope Bullets. Can they even reach those fuelling my Holy Diver?" Dio asked even as he knew the answer.

"So long as someone can feel hope, Livin' On A Prayer can reach their hearts, even if they're just a soul" Naegi looked Dio in the eye. Where had he been hiding this strength? "Alone, my Stand could never defeat yours. You were right about me. I just don't have that mind-set. Not even all our Stands together could defeat Holy Diver in battle. In raw strength and speed, it's probably unbeatable."

"But that was your mistake. You put so much faith in overwhelming us, in trying to shatter us so completely and utterly, that you kept on lending us the tools to liberate ourselves and the world." Kirigiri added.

The podiums had not been free of damage during the battle. Only in hindsight did Dio realise the care taken by his enemies in trying to keep as many intact as possible, but even then only four seemed to consistently work. The other two flickered on and off too much to be reliable.

But four was all they needed. Four was the majority vote out of the seven remaining survivors. The majority vote needed to execute the Mastermind.

Not even a second passed before the voting ended. Dio could barely hear Alter Ego announce the conclusion of the Class Trial when dealing with the rage inside of him. The idea that this whole system, designed to prove to the world that the last beacons of hope could be broken by Dio, had completely turned against him. Every advantage he held had been turned against him somehow and was directed at him.

No. My life does not end here! I will stand over your corpses and rule this world.

"You dare try to execute Dio?" Dio screamed as he began to struggle against the invisible forces keeping him in place. It was as if every soul kept within Holy Diver was fighting to keep the Stand-and thus Dio himself-trapped in place so that the survivors could take the chance to end him. Dio would kick and fight as much as he could before letting that happen.. "If you do this, you will make an enemy of every last one of my followers. The hostages I have, you'll just have to pray that my warriors decide it is better for them to live. Those who carry my banner into war, they will not stop until I am returned."

"That all may happen, but we'll face it head-on. That's what it means to be human, Dio." Naegi said. There was no sign of fear in his voice.

That only infuriated Dio more. Was this how he was going to lose it all? Him, the Ultimate Master? All of this because of a simple stroke of luck in what should have been his triumphant moment of ascension? Holy Diver was one of the most powerful Stands in the world, and it was going to lose to a Stand that could only inspire others?

Memories came back to Dio. Memories of powerlessness. The father that'd beat him bloody and blue when he lacked a bottle of cheap whiskey to drink. The agents that promised him the world but wanted his body to submit to them. The scouts who refused him Hope's Peak because he refused to debase his pride. The feeling of drowning in self-pity and alcoholism like his father.

The memory of seeing Izuru Kamukura for the first time.

Dio had attained the means of peace of mind and yet never felt so enraged. Metal chains shot out from the Execution Room and wrapped themselves around Dio's hands, feet, elbows, knees, waist, chest, and even his throat. Alter Ego was clearly doing everything it could to keep Dio restrained for his execution whilst dragging him back.

He could barely see behind him to find out which Execution the AI had planned for him. His eyes widened as he recognised the guillotine. A punishment for a fallen king, toppled by revolution. It was meant to have been Jin Kirigiri's execution and it had been. Now it was designed for Dio to take away the one thing from him that Holy Diver couldn't restore.

His life.

Holy Diver. Return to me. Dio thought fast when he made that command. He had already been dragged back, thus putting him more than 10m away from his Stand, as it dissipated from sight. A second passed, as Dio was dragged closer to the guillotine, when he willed for Holy Diver to appear next to him again. These chains would be nothing against Holy Diver's power.

A dozen golden bullets shot against Holy Diver's back.

"Don't let him escape. If you do, it's all over. We can still save the world!" Naegi commanded as Holy Diver grabbed onto the chains restraining Dio's right arm and began to pull.

Even a fraction of its force would have broken the chains. All that happened was that Holy Diver was restrained again. Only this time it was different. The souls were weak without a body to protect them from the material world. Livin' On A Prayer was the only thing giving them the strength to fight back and yet the volley of bullets had stopped. Were they out of its range now?

Dio began to fight back with all his power. He had overcome the souls of those he killed once before, doing it again would be nothing if he simply used all of his might.

The chains began to move and position his body to the ideal position for the guillotine.

He could not give it any mind. Right now, Dio had to focus solely on breaking out of these chains. This would not be how his life would end. He would not die at the hands of Makoto Naegi! He'd kill every last one of them! Just as he did with his bastard father, just as he did with Kamukura's guards, just as he did with the Student Council, just as he did with Nanami. Just as he would do with everyone in his way!

"You think you will survive this? I will erase you from existence, Naegi. I will subject the rest of you to deaths that you wouldn't wish on the lowest of scum." Dio felt his body regain feeling. Holy Diver was slowly but surely winning the battle, even as it stood just ten metres away from Dio, and only had seconds to act. Dio refused to give his enemies the satisfaction of seeing him cry for his life. "I am Dio Brando. I am the one who brought about The World's End. I am the one who will reach Heaven."

The chains only went away just when the wooden blocks slammed over his neck and hands, Dio being too incapacitated by the souls within Holy Diver to try and escape. His head and his hands were locked in place, too far a distance from one another for Dio to use Holy Diver's effect negation himself. All he could do was keeping fighting.

He was even winning! Holy Diver was taking slow and short steps, but more than enough to break the distance between Stand and user. Dio ignored the sounds of the blade above creaking and being readied to go down on his neck. Victory was still within his grasp. All he needed to do was keep struggling.

Five metres left. Now four. Holy Diver managed to stumble forward enough that its arms only needed to reach just a bit further towards Dio. All he'd need was for Holy Diver to intercept the guillotine blade and he would win. Any wounds to the neck could be healed with a single touch. If Holy Diver just made it in time.

Naegi was screaming at the top of his lungs, begging his friends to keep on fighting against Holy Diver, and was soon joined in by the rest of the survivors. So this is what it had come down to. A battle between Naegi's Hope and Dio's Power.

He couldn't lose here. Not after everything he had done to reach the very summit of his dreams. Just a single step away from total victory.

"This cannot happen to me." Dio could feel the air shift as Holy Diver struggled and flailed its arms against the golden glow that wreathed its body. He could see it fighting against the grip of dozens as it drew closer. The guillotine blade gave a loud groan as it readied to to make the drop. "I am Dio." He growled.

Two things happened at the exact same moment. The first was that the blade finally dropped and made its way towards Dio's neck. Had Dio been anything other than a human, perhaps he would have no reason to fear the decapitation that the clean and sharp blade promised him. But that was impossible. For all his power and might, Dio Brando was still a human bound by the limits of death.

It was the second event that gave Dio hope. Holy Diver threw its whole form back as if it was throwing off a great weight and indeed it was. The weight of the souls that fought so hard to keep it restrained and away from Dio had finally been lifted. The ambition and drive of Dio Brando had won again. Now all it had to do was touch Dio. Even if it didn't intercept the blades in time, there were tales that a human could survive a few seconds after losing their heads completely.

If Holy Diver could simply negate the effect of this guillotine, Dio would survive and be able to break free of this trap. Nothing would stop him from killing those who had almost killed him. The world would be his to rule over.

"I am Dio!" The Ultimate Master screamed. The blade was half-way towards his neck and Holy Diver's fingers were just inches away from making contact with Dio.

As the guillotine blade sank into Dio's neck, the fingers of Holy Diver made contact with the tips of Dio's hair.

--

It's amazing how the world can change in a moment. A single second can define the entire history of the human race. Would this child survive its birth and become a beacon of hope or a bringer of despair? Would the assassin's gun make its mark? Could those who could wage war instead choose peace at a cost?

The decisions made by individuals can create and destroy worlds. There are those who say that it is the power of choice, the power to ask and act on an 'IF', that creates a world of chaos and freedom wherein the only destiny is that of which we choose. There are others who instead claim that these 'IF's exist only in the minds of humans who could not realise the pull of gravity, bringing them towards their Fate.

As the eyes of the world watched the battle between the last beacons of hope for the world they once knew, and the man who had destroyed it all for the sake of his ambitions and dreams, all knew that this very moment would determine everything. That this was the moment in which worlds were born or destroyed.

Would Dio Brando, the Ultimate Master, truly survive this final trap? Had Holy Diver reached his body in time to negate the effect of the guillotine's blade?

Two worlds could be born from this moment. One world would see the blade cut down, the head fall from the body, only to then be pulled up again and attach itself to his body. The chains and guillotine would be shattered into splinters and shards and nothing would stop his wrath. The survivors would fight bravely and with hope, even as Makoto Naegi was erased from existence, but it would be useless.

The world would fall into despair, and Dio Brando would create his Kingdom at last.

But there was the other world. The world where Holy Diver would not reach its master in time. Where the guillotine cut through Dio's neck and his life would end in an instant. The survivors of Class 78, who had fought so hard and bitterly, would have triumphed.

Hope would have been sparked in the hearts of millions as the man whose name monsters in human skin burnt the world had finally perished.

In that very moment, the split-second before all of humanity would know if Dio Brando was dead or alive, there were those who just watched.

Those beacons of hope who Dio had corrupted into his hounds of war watched with horror. The man who they venerated as a God had been proven to bleed by these infidels who dared rise up against him! Now there was a chance he was going to die? It was unthinkable. Unimaginable. They felt a despair far beyond anything they had felt before, one too poisonous for even their warped minds to take pleasure in.

Five Warriors of Hope prayed that the man who saved them from the Demons would overcome these monsters yet again. That he would bring them to the Heaven he promised them, where there was peace of mind and safety from the monsters that hurt them. Surely Dio could overcome these Demons, right?

The Future Foundation, the last remnants of those who championed the ideals of Hope's Peak and the old world, watched in anticipation. They had known of Stands. It had been one of the reasons that Ultimate Despair had driven them to the brink of defeat. The tale of the power of the Arrows, and how they were stolen from Hope's Peak by Dio, was known amongst its leaders.

They watched and prayed that the Stands of the survivors had been enough. That this final reversal of fortunes would be enough to end Dio Brando. If not, then it was over. He broke the only Stand Arrow that the side of hope had access to, if only for a handful of minutes. Yet that might not mattered. If Class 78 would triumph, right here and now, then Hope would win the day. Maybe even win the war

There were others, part of the groups yet different from them, who watched with their own thoughts. The zealot who prayed for the creation of the Ultimate Hope. The failed Messiah who yearned to see who would win the battle. The corrupted teacher who thirsted for the victory of her master. The fighter who wanted to see the bastard who blackmailed him die a miserable death, no matter how much he hated the Luckster for his courage.

The Friend who watched, tightly grabbing into the sides of the television in his room, mentally begging for the one who saved him to live on. For Dio to lead him, and the world, to the future they envisioned for humanity.

The moment passed and the blade sliced through Dio's head. The head fell from the guillotine and landed on the floor with a thump. His body went limp and mankind drew in a breath to discover what would happen next. Would the head return to the body? Was this all a cruel trick to torment them?

Five seconds passed and the world experienced hope for the first time since the Tragedy.

Dio Brando/Holy Diver: Dead