"I- I- I- I'm not scared!" Noa insisted as she and Towa led the way down the darkened hall.
"Well, I'm even less scared than you!" Towa pouted up at the taller girl, but she made no move to open the classroom door at which they stood.
Not to be outdone, Noa scoffed down her nose at Towa. "You were literally the last one to start exploring after we got here!"
"Says the girl who's standing right beside me!" Towa scoffed as well. Noa wasn't making any more effort to open the door than she was.
It wasn't until another group of students walked by, triggering the hallway lights overhead, that Noa and Towa realized they'd been arguing for so long that they were no longer leading the charge in the investigation for the Implememor-Es.
"Oh. Right." Towa and Noa looked embarrassedly at one another, clearing their throats awkwardly before nearly running into each other as they both reached for the doorhandle at the exact same time. They searched the little language arts class for about five minutes before Ibuki sent them a text.
Noa saw it first. "OMGSAKIFOUNDSOMETHING!" She was out of the room before Towa could even process what she said, but even after she did, she made no effort to call Noa back. For one, she knew better than anybody that it was a useless endeavor. For another, the moment Noa saw her text, Towa saw her Implememor-E. There was an apple on the teacher's desk, de-cored, the Implememor-E slipped inside instead.
Weird hiding spot for a—Towa didn't get to finish the thought before Noa squealed and went running from the room. Towa sighed and shook her head with a dry smirk before turning back to her Implememor-E. Half a minute later, she scampered out of the room, silently thanking her lucky stars that Noa hadn't seen her with her Implememor-E after all. Now the tiny device was hidden in Towa's sock, and there it would stay.
Saki and Ibuki were in a science classroom on the other end of the hall. They found Saki's Implememor-E behind a solar system poster after noticing the Earth icon slightly protruded from the wall. They didn't even need to read the name on the back to know it was Saki's. She looked at Ibuki and after Ibuki nodded, smiling. Saki solemnly raised the device to her eye and pulled back the trigger.
"So, Saki, what did you see? What did you see?!" Noa demanded excitedly, all but body-slamming the door open half a minute later.
"I saw… a boy… named… Kaito Mamota…" Their personalities were sun and moon, opposite and complementary. Saki loved Kaito like a big brother, and he was more than happy to call her his lil sis and sidekick. They spent hours discussing astrophysics and theories about the universe. Some people only saw Kaito as a dumb jock, and Saki an ice queen, but they knew the truth.
"Your head's in the clouds and your heart's in the stars," he once said. "There's no better place to be! No better way to live!"
It was the happiest Saki ever felt, because it was the most understood and validated she ever felt.
There were other flashes of memory, but Saki wasn't willing to share. "Did any of you find anything?" she instead asked, voice soft, eyes downcast.
"Gee, thanks a lot for waiting, Noa!" Towa finally appeared in the doorway, huffing and puffing. Her pouty face turned rueful as she turned her green gaze on Saki. Even though she came just in time to miss Saki's entire story about Kaito, she didn't miss Saki's subsequent inquiry. "Unfortunately, we didn't find anything, since this one here ran away from me so fast!" Towa jerked a thumb at Noa, expression disdainful.
"Hey, if your fatass ate less crepes and did even a fraction more exercise—!" Noa crossed her arms, frowned, and shook her head.
"Oh, not this again!" Towa interrupted, throwing up her hands with a sigh as she rolled her eyes.
Ibuki watched with a tired face, but said nothing, while Saki gasped to herself. It was far fainter than in a class trial, but Towa's words were golden…
But because Towa wasn't the only one with secrets, Saki didn't call her out. In the days after the first class trial, Saki's Synesthesia, and its use in the trial, had greatly bolstered her confidence and desire to be the class' hero. She was in for a rude awakening when her unit-mates only expressed surprise and confusion by this sudden boldness, this sudden character development. They didn't remember her Synesthesia.
As Saki grew increasingly bold and desperate in the coming days, she grew increasingly bold in the hints she dropped about Synesthesia, and yet still her unit-mates never reacted, or seemed to understand what she was trying to get at. It was a blow that hurt worse than Saki thought it would, but it made sense, after all. To suddenly have such a large part of herself forgotten by her own unit… It felt like starting over, and that had been a lonely, awkward time, even though Photon had been so lovely that Saki did eventually integrate with them.
At last, she whispered, "It appears as though we have found everything here… Shall we head back to the others?" She followed her unit-mates out, but as soon as she was sure she could sneak away, she flew to the stairwell at the very end of the hall. She didn't stop running until she was face to face with a keypad locking the sixth floor door. She typed in the code thoughtlessly, barely remembering to shut the door behind her.
Most of the rooms on the floor were locked and dark, boarded up, the way most of the school looked on their very first day in. The main, largest, and centermost room was the principal's office, but it was wide open, literally, door and frame ripped out of the wall. What Saki saw was a large, dark room lined and filled with computers and screens. It was a security camera room, the place Yuka hoped to find in the last Stage. Now Saki was there, weaving swiftly and silently through the labyrinth of technology.
One computer near the back had a tangle of cords snaking out of it, all attached to Implememor-Es. Saki threw herself in the seat in front of the computer and immediately opened up the files and video app. Her silver eyes widened in horror as she became the first one to see a memory that wasn't utopic. On the contrary, what Saki saw was an apocalypse. The sky was dark red, gray smog billowing into it, a city skyline on fire.
Towa City! The name dragged itself up from the deepest recesses of Saki's memory. There was no part of the city untouched by destruction, death, or Despair. An army of robot cats and bears rampaged all over the city, fighting with and against an army of humans wearing helmets that looked like the cats and bears. Their corpses lined every street. For a second time, an answer flashed in Saki's head. Monokubz and Monokitz…
The first human without a mask that Saki saw was a little girl with short, dark green hair. Saki felt her heart wrench in helplessness as several robot cats and bears caught her stumbling confusedly through the streets, lost and alone. When she heard their metal feet chasing after her, she gave a terrified scream and did her best to flee, but it was obvious that—
"MMMMEEEERRRRMMMM4IIIIDDDD!"
Saki's hands fell from her eyes, and she gasped as she found herself staring down the end of a big yellow megaphone that had just unleashed a gnarly sonic attack, shattering the internal components of the Monokubz and kitz. Saori Hidaka?!
"Come along, little one," Saori murmured, slipping the megaphone back into her holster as she knelt beside the crying child. "I have friends at a place called the Future Foundation. They can clean you up and give you something to eat and a place to stay…" The purple-haired DJ looked over her shoulder Saki saw her unit's logo shining high in the air, the white and cyan light piercing through the smoggy sky.
Barely a second later, the screen went dark. Saki's wide eyes immediately narrowed and she growled in frustration. Powerless to do anything else, though, all she could do was jump to the next Implememor-E. This time, it was Nagisa's. Like Saori, she was also battling the robot cats and bears in Towa City. Unlike Saori, of course, the Ultimate Guitarist was using her ultimate guitar, Calendula. But that wasn't all. Stationed atop a large pile of wreckage behind Nagisa was Aoi and a mini, mobile set of turntables.
"Prepare! For our duet will rock and wreck your world!" Nagisa played a cord that blasted away the first wave of attackers. At the same time, behind her, Aoi blared the airhorns from her turntables and blasted back a few more. But just like before, the memory did not last long before the screen suddenly and randomly went dark, and Saki was forced to jump to the next Implememor-E. The third was Marika's.
"Mukuro, please! She's not good for you!" Marika cried, wringing her hands with a wounded and worried expression on her face.
"That's not what Rika seems to think…" The dark-haired girl standing across from her crossed her arms and scowled guardedly. Her voice was low, almost threatening, and Saki saw a sickly green color rise out of it. Envy.
"She's not good for Rika either!" Marika continued, pleading. "That's why I'm here, Mukuro! I want your help to separate them, to get her away from Rika!" Purple eyes met black ones, wide and almost tearful.
Mukuro's guard lowered by a fraction of a margin of an inch. That was an answer she wasn't expecting. "… I'm listening…" So was someone else.
"RULEBREAKER! RULEBREAKER! SAKI IZUMO, YOU ARE BREAKING THE RULES!"
Saki didn't even have time to scream before Monochio broke through the door, charging at her, execution music rumbling in its chest.
"ENTERING LOCKED ROOMS IS AGAINST THE RULES! AS IS UNLOCKING THEM YOURSELF!"
"SAKI!" The class cried out when Monochio raced past, dragging Saki with it. They joined the chase, but it was a lost cause even before they began. Monochio quickly outpaced them, leaving the second floor and the academy entirely. The moment the students reached the front door, it slammed cruelly in their faces, and they were forced to watch from the windows as Monochio kept dragging Saki along, down the stone steps of the school, and across the courtyard, to a large, stone fountain at the center. Stone scraped on stone as the fountain slowly moved aside, a literal rocket rising from beneath it. The doors opened like an iron maiden and Monochio flung Saki in. She cried out as she slammed into the control panel.
Oh, God… Why…? Why did I do that? Why did I do that? Why did I do that? As Saki managed to crawl to her bloody, bruised hands and knees, the rocket door snapping shut again, the Ultimate Astronomer could only lament her impulsivity. I should've waited, I should've waited! I should've told someone, and not tried to handle this all on my own… It was too late now. Saki could hear Noa in her head.
"And that, dear Saki, is the nature of Tragedy!" She was using her best Shakespearian voice, expressive and flaring. "Even when the Hero recognizes the hamartia—the fatal flaw—they pursue it, nonetheless, powerless to do anything but yield to the Hand of Fate!" Even when the audience at home would demand why the protagonist had been so stupid, they would still innately know there would be no story otherwise.
But why ME? Saki thought self-piteously. Silly girl. That was just how the world worked. No one said it was fair. But everyone said it was Despair. And maybe that was it. After all, nothing was more Despairful than the death of the Hero, or Sacrificial Lamb. Saki took upon the mantle of the students' champion after the first class trial. Monochio was merely responding in kind and giving her a worthy villain. And unlike in the stupid, happy stories with cliché, happy endings, the villain could win in this one.
The azure sky suddenly flickered like the world's largest flatscreen, and Monochio's massive maw appeared across the whole sky. Saki saw it from the tiny, circular window on her rocket's front door, and her stomach flipped. So, what I saw in Saori and Nagisa's memories… Was it real…?
"Attention all academy attendees! One among you has broken a rule! I think it high time I make an example out of one such young upstart, for all the rest of you to see! No more clemency, just justice! You ungrateful students will at last be held accountable! Perhaps that will impress upon you the severity of the consequences of your decision to break the rules!
"You should never have taken advantage of my kindness, but that is my mistake for thinking you deserved it! Now, Ms. Izumo shall serve as my newest TA, so pay attention well!" It sneered. A title card flashed across the sky, replacing Monochio's giant face: D4V4 BLASTOFF!
As it would explain, the "Blastoff" portion of the execution title was obvious. The V4 was because it was the fourth time the execution had been used. And the D4 was for the four powerful thrusters, "D" standing for "Dangan", which meant "Bullet".
As Monochio finished introducing the execution, the ground began to rumble, and the last thing Saki saw from the tiny window in her rocket was Monochio waving at her before the white smoke from the thrusters obscured her vision.
Come on, go, reach for the stars! Reach so high…! Through the rocket's speaker system, Saki heard Monochio's execution music remixing with Photon's melodies. Fire roared from the bottom of the rocket, thundering like a machinegun, then the rocket blasted off!
Before abruptly smashing right back into the ground, the tip of the ship turning into a drill that burrowed through the entire planet. Saki was rattled and jostled violently as the rocket ripped through the Earth's molten core, somehow withstanding the inferno and pressure. Then the rocket came back out of the other side of the planet and shot through the atmosphere, towards outer space, this time for real.
"Oh…!" Saki couldn't help but gasp in amazement at the view from the rocket's window. Even though it was but a tiny slice of the impossibly wide cosmos, it was still a view she couldn't have gotten anywhere else. Her aching, broken, bloody body floated up from the pink-stained ground and brought her closer to the window. "K-K-Kai…to… wherever you are… Are you somewhere… out there?"
Her silver gaze reflected starlight. The final memory in her Implememor-E was the haziest of all, but somehow, she knew something terrible had happened to Kaito and his class. Alas, it was too late for her to help him, or anyone else. She could only hope and pray that her friends back on Earth would succeed where she failed. She was already past the event horizon now. As scared and lonely as she felt, though, flying through the void of space towards an unknown final destination, there was still something breathtakingly beautiful about it, in a Lovecraftian and eldritch sort of way.
Slowly but surely, the largest inferno and the brightest light Saki had ever seen came into view of the tiny window, quickly filling it entirely. She knew what it was. The sun. And as the intense heat began to fry internal components of the ship, causing Monochio's execution remix to glitch, one last smile spread across Saki's bloody lips. A rainbow of colors danced at the corners of her visions, even though the sun was all-encompassing.
I hear a sound no one has ever heard; it is the birth of a distant star… Just like Kaito said, Saki's head may have been in the clouds, but her heart was with the stars, and she was certain that she was witnessing a nova, a supernova, even as the seconds on her own life counted down.
Oh, Kaito, would you be proud of me? I know I made a lot of bad decisions in the past, but I wanted to be brave! I tried to be the hero that saved everyone, just like you, before I even realized it… Oh, I'm so sorry I forgot about you, and that I didn't get to see you at least one more time bef—
A solar flare suddenly ejected from the sun, enveloping Saki's entire ship and vaporizing it in an instant. It seemed that for the birth of every distant star, an equally bright human had to be sacrificed.
Punishment D4V4 BLASTOFF! was complete. Saki Izumo was dead forever, eternally.
AN: I imagine the execution music to be a mashup of Kaito's theme, and Photon's "4 Challenges"
Like this: watch?v=0io6O6wCRAA
DR-D4Challenges (DanganDJ D4Ronpa Music Video)