Chapter 3: The Manipulator's Malice Part 8 (Deadly Life)

Remaining Citizens: 12

Emma's POV

"I kinda wanted to say something cool like that too, y'know?" Gold said as he scratched his cheek.

"I've heard better." Gee, thanks Ishigami, even after we helped prove your innocence too…

"Now then, Emma, before you try to see if I had any involvement, maybe you should look into other factors of this case. Like, how Sucy ended up in the gym in the first place, perhaps?" Aoba rolled his eyes at me.

"That's an easy one! It's thanks to this."

Truth Bullet Selected: Two Handwritten Notes

"Oh yeah, there's the note I received, and Sucy got the same one too. W-Wait, was I supposed to be the victim then?" Ishigami shuddered with fear.

"That's a possibility, I'm curious though, Ishigami knew what he was getting into due to his genre savviness. However, Sucy fell for it, and I don't think she's dumb enough to believe it." Killua pondered.

True, why did she follow the note anyways? She did seem like the type who would have thought this through, what caused her to go straight into the trap? We should think about this…

Non-Stop Debate

"Man, I don't think she'd WILLINGLY go straight to the gym. I mean… that's like suicide." Miles spoke first.

"Yeah… who wouldn't be suspicious if they received a notice like that?" Bernadetta's eyes were just looking down.

"I can think of a few people…" Alice smirked.

"Uh… why is she staring at us?" Gold asked.

"Beats me, dude." Ryuji answered, and I tried to hold in my giggle.

"Maybe she was just desperate for a way out that she threw out logic just for that moment?" Espio suggested.

"That could be it. Sucy just fell for it, I guess." Ishigami nodded his head a little.

Wait, Miles just said something VERY important. I didn't think it would be a possibility, but now that I'm thinking about it… it could make sense!

"That's wrong!" I shouted towards Ishigami.

COUNTER

BREAK!

Memorized Truth Bullet Used: Suicide

"Ouch, you didn't have to yell, I'm literally on your left." He blocked his ears.

"S-sorry about that ha ha… it's just fun to say that for some reason." I apologized.

"Somehow I agree." Ai smiled at that.

"Dang it, I need to try that one of these days!" Gold gritted his teeth.

"Only if you're smart enough to look over the evidence and listen to everyone's statements to find a contradiction in them. I don't think I'll live to see that day, hee hee." Alice teased Gold which annoyed him.

"Can we please get a move on?!" Trunks raised his voice and we all went silent, "Uh, sorry."

"No no, it's no big deal. You said something back there, Miles, and I didn't even think it was a possibility until now." I turned to him.

"And what was that?" Miles looked a bit confused.

"It's suicide, isn't it?" Killua asked and I solemnly nodded.

"WHAT?!" Almost everyone else shouted at once.

"I thought that it could happen one day, in this kind of situation. With the amount of death occurring often, that could push someone into killing themselves… Sucy knew what was going to happen, but she went to the gym anyways. She gave up on escaping." Ai's voice got softer until she finished her statement.

"God damn it…" Ryuji banged his fist on his seating area.

"Hey! You break it, you fix it!" Monokuma shouted at him.

"Be quiet, bear, this is… a lot to take in." Espio lowered his head in grief.

"(sighs) Now's not the time to grieve, you have plenty of time after the trial, since someone is going to get executed as well. Save your tears until then." Aoba turned away from us as Gold and Ryuji tried to stop themselves from hitting him.

"You shut up too. Sadly, he's right, we need to solve everything to do with the case first before we start to lose motivation. However, a few things have been bothering me since you've brought it up, the romance novel you saw Aoba with. How did it get there in the first place, and why was it so close to Sucy's body?" Trunks posed some new questions for us, and man it feels weird that we have to listen to Aoba.

"I suspect that it caused this." Killua brought up his e-Handbook to show us.

Truth Bullet Selected: Sucy's Head Bump

"That's all I could think of. Once she got hit in the head by the book, she'd easily be stunned before she could try to dodge the spears. If she could try to dodge them anyways."

"I don't think Little Miss Witch was much of a speedy type." Gold said before he yawned.

"Man, she got off lucky being hit by a romance novel. I think I got hit by something made of metal." Ishigami rubbed his own bump.

Wait a second… he remembers that?

I better say something about it, "Excuse me? You got knocked out by what exactly?"

"Huh? Oh, I don't know what it was exactly, but it wasn't too big. It just felt metallic, and it really hurt when it hit me… I need a bag of ice later." He answered.

What could be in the gym that might have knocked him out?

Hm…. I took the time to form the word in my head, even if I only heard about it once…

M I C R O P H O N E

"I've figured it out!"

"The culprit used the microphone in the gym to knock out Ishigami!" I exclaimed.

"Ouch man, if that caused a bump that big, it must have been some critical hit. I would be out like a light too if I got decked by it!" Ryuji rubbed his own head, like he felt it.

"Ah, I see, but I'm not sure why it's gone though…" Killua pondered.

"The microphone's gone missing? What other reason could the culprit have taken it if they already used it? They could have just returned it to the podium." Miles raised an eyebrow.

Maybe…. no… could it be?

"Emma… are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I heard Ai ask me from her side.

"I think I've got the same idea too, so let's corner our culprit." Killua encouraged me as well.

I gulped and took a deep breath before I scrolled through the evidence once more.

Non-Stop Debate

"A missing microphone…" Espio began to think to himself out loud.

"Couldn't be that more important, it's just something to make someone sound louder!" Gold shouted.

"As if you would need something like that with how often you raise that voice of yours…" Aoba pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

"I agree with him though, a simple microphone shouldn't be focused on just because it hit the Emo Boy's head." Alice raised a finger before making her point.

"Y'know at this point in a game there would be two victims, but it looks like I'm just a victim of circumstance." Ishigami snarked.

Gold is right, but not on the microphone not being important.

"You've got that right!"

CONSENT

BREAK!

Truth Bullet Used: Ryuji's Account

"You're right on one thing Gold, a microphone is used to make a person sound louder. Maybe so loud that you could hear it all the way from the dining hall! Right, Ryuji?"

"Oh yeah! I heard a certain someone scream from that far away! As soon as I heard it, I bolted towards the gym. Wait a minute…" Ryuji's starting to see it too.

"Hold on, is there something I'm not getting here? Ai? Emma? Why do you guys have that look on your face?" Poor Gold's getting left out of the loop ha ha.

"You know who it is, right? Then let's finish it." Ai said confidently.

"Yeah!" I responded before making my choice.

"There you are." I thought in my head as I found my target.

"Whose scream did you hear from the dining hall, Ryuji?" I'll let him call them out.

"Unless Aoba's got one hell of a girly scream, you're the one who used the microphone… Alice!" He pointed straight at her face.

"My my, now I am the prime suspect, correct?" She's being so calm about this…

"It looks like it, heh." Aoba smirks.

"Don't think you're out of the woods yet either buddy, you were the one who had the book that knocked her out. Also, we have the evidence you gave us earlier." Killua confronted Aoba.

He's right, we have that.

Truth Bullet Selected: Body Discovery Announcement

"When I was about to enter the gym, the Body Discovery Announcement went off. I walked in and saw four people in the gym, Ishigami, Aoba, Alice, and Ryuji. We've already proven Ishigami is innocent, and for Ryuji, were you the last one to see the body before the announcement?" I asked the blonde.

"As a matter of fact, I was, and I saw those two in there before me! Oh, and Ishigami too I guess." I haven't seen Ryuji smile like this before, that is one toothy grin.

"Thanks, jerk." Ishigami called him out before we continued.

"Tch, you think you have me backed into a corner, but you don't have any more evidence you could use. How could you all vote for me when there's one big flaw that will make your claims fall apart, unless you can disprove it." Alice was starting to lose composure.

"And what might that be?" Ai put forth the question on all of our minds.

"Yes, you could maybe see it as a case of me & Aoba collaborating, yet how can you tell which one of us activated the Spears of Gungnir? Only one of us could be blackened after all, correct, Mayor Monokuma?" Alice regained the smug smile we know her for.

"Yup! Yup! You could work together all you want, but only one of you gets the chance to leave!" Monokuma reminded us of the rule.

"What a pity that you all forgot about it, and now it looks like it'll be your downfall." Aoba gave a little laugh.

Rule #9: If the guilty party is not exposed, they alone will move away, and all remaining citizens will be executed.

Dang it! She's right, we've got a 50-50 shot of getting it right or wrong here, if we chose poorly...

Non-Stop Debate

"H-how about majority rules! Whichever one of them gets the most votes is chosen!" Gold suggests and all of us reject it.

"That is not a good idea!" Bernie pouts at him.

"Freaking idiot, we can't leave our lives to chance like that!" Killua yelled at him as well.

Gold blocked his ears, "Yeah yeah, I get it! I'm a dummy."

"We're doomed." Ishigami began to sulk.

I heard Aoba chuckle and Alice giggle as I struggled to find out what to say.

And then… it came to me.

"Well then, I suppose this is checkmate…"

"You've got that wrong!"

COUNTER

BREAK!

Truth Bullet Used: Ai's Parcel

"Should I take it out now, Ai?" I turned to her to see if this was the right time and she nodded, "Right."

"What is that? That evidence wasn't listed in our handbooks, is this allowed?" Alice turned to Monokuma who just shrugged.

I opened it up and then there I saw something that I remembered from last trial…

"M-My ingredient for the party?" Alice was shocked.

"There's no rule about using previous evidence, so I took the time to look over the two notes sent to Ishigami and Sucy. The handwriting for one of the notes was hard to pin down, but as for the other one, it matches up with Alice's perfectly." Ai explained as sweat fell from Alice's face.

"Care to elaborate on this evidence, Alice? Or like you said… is this checkmate?" I pointed my finger towards her.

"I… ugh, there's no point in arguing. I'll allow you to sum it all up, Emma. Well done." She just accepted it, victory is within reach.

Closing Argument

(Insert Song SUPER DANGANRONPA 2 Re: Climax Return)

"Alright. The killer had managed to find the instructions for the Spears of Gungnir trap in Toko's room, they along with Aoba formulated a plan to catch either Ishigami or Sucy. The latter, having felt that she could not stomach the killing game for much longer, chose to enter the gym while knowing it was a trap. Ishigami, knowing what was about to go down, stayed in his room and typed his computer message. Sucy was then struck from behind the head with the romance novel, before being stabbed repeatedly by the spears. She left a small message using her blood after seeing the name of the author. As Ishigami entered the gym, he saw the body before being struck by the microphone and knocked out and placed near Sucy. After using the microphone to have their screams be heard from across the school, as a signal to all of us to come running. Alice Nakiri, you're the blackened!" I was out of breath after that, Killua had to pat my back as I started taking deep breaths.

COMPLETE!

"I give you props for being able to say all that in one breath. I shouldn't have been so careless with this case. I could have come up with better tactics... ON MY OWN." As Alice said those last three words, she poked Aoba in the chest three times.

"Tch, you were the one who accepted my offer, you should have calculated your chances of success beforehand." He just scoffed at her.

"What a trial! Even though you got sidetracked a couple of times and that got boring, I was invested through the entire thing! Puhuhu~, it's time to cast your votes! Will you make the right choice? Or the dreadfully wrong one…" Monokuma cheered as we all pressed our buttons for Alice.

The pictures lined up and we were correct, Alice did do it.

TRIAL END

ALL RISE!

"Let's just get right to the punishment. I have accepted my defeat." Alice calmly says to Monokuma.

"Hold on…" Ai stopped her by grabbing her arm, "What was your reasoning behind everything? Why did you plan a murder, much less ask Aoba for help?"

"Well number one, being trapped inside that school would have driven me crazy if I stayed longer. Number two, those instructions were tempting and I felt like I could pull it off if I did everything right. Finally number three, Aoba is sadistic and intelligent enough to help in his own way. Seeing how the other two murders played out made me want to try harder to make mine work, and it almost did… until you decided to think outside the box, Ai. Heh, reminds me of someone else I lost against."

I then walked up to her next, "I thought I could maybe consider you a friend, and… I somehow still think so. You were scared, weren't you? Being trapped in a situation that may lead to a painful demise? Like… you were cattle being prepped for a slaughter. I unfortunately am not okay with you deciding to take the easy way out, instead of learning to survive with the rest of us. However, I am sorry that you succumbed to this killing game, and I promise you, we'll prove that there was another way out of this city."

She blinked for a few seconds before she walked closer to me and shook my hand, smiling. Alice then just walked up to Monokuma, "No need to pull out that chain of yours, I'll just walk over to the execution myself."

"Hey, suit yourself, toots! Now then, I've prepared a VERY special punishment for Alice Nakiri, the Ultimate Gastronomist!" Monokuma began, as I shuddered in anticipation.

"Farewell everyone, you showed me plenty of good times and made this experience much more bearable than it could have been. Thank you, I was happy to have been able to serve you all my meals, tee-hee. You all better live up to that promise, although you need to remember Shantae's as well. Don't lose hope like I did." Alice waves, as Ai, Ryuji, Ishigami, & I reciprocate it.

"Let's give it everything we've got! It's...PUNISHMENT TIIIME!" Monokuma cried out as he hit his button.

And so we say a painful goodbye, to both Sucy and Alice.

GAME OVER

ALICE HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY. TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!

Alice walks up and into a room, and sees a one large kitchen with two cooking and prep areas. Monokuma (with an apron and chef's hat) stands on one side as Alice, still having a confident smile on her face, moves to hers. Three Monokuma judges are in the back. The other citizens sat in the bottom row of the crowd.

Execution: Shokugeki Sacrifice/Food War Fatality

Monokuma and Alice get to work on crafting their dishes, the theme they were given was centered around a bento box. Without much hesitation, Alice chose to do a spin on her own Temari Bento.

The two styles between the two chefs were quite different, with Alice being calm and collected while slicing her seafood for the sushi. Meanwhile Monokuma went nuts with his knives, cutting his ingredients messily. The judges were getting impatient and were about to hit the button to end the timer instantly. As soon as Alice finished pouring the liquid nitrogen to allow the sushi to stay cold, time was up.

Alice presented her bento and the judges were ecstatic when they took a bite. Their clothes even suddenly bursted off, as the flavor took hold of them and almost didn't let go.

Alice laughs as Monokuma's bento reveals a selection of foods that look so terrible that they had to be censored. However, after just a single lick of the food, they gave the win over to Monokuma without hesitation!

Alice, highly confused over what just transpired, walked over to Monokuma, who just simply handed her a sample on a fork. Alice slowly stared at it before she took a little nibble of Monokuma's dish… and suddenly her face slowly started to turn purple.

She clenched her stomach, hoping the pain would go away, but it just increased by the second. Monokuma had inserted a special ingredient into his creation, fugu, a fish that if prepared incorrectly, can be highly toxic to one who consumes it.

The bear laughs as Alice began to crumble to her knees, angering the Gastronomist. She then whipped out the knife she used to craft her bento and threw it with all her might at Monokuma.

The bear dodges, and the knife is soaring right into the crowd. Bernadetta is frozen with fear, unable to move…

The poor girl closes her eyes, expecting the worse…

And when she opens them, blood is on her shirt, but it's not hers…

It was Ryuji's.

After exhausting all her energy with that throw, Alice gives her last breath as she falls.

Death by asphyxiation.

"Ryuji!" I yelled as I saw him struggling to stay standing.

"You, idiot… why did you…" Gold berates his friend, while he just smiled in response.

"Yo… Bernie… you, alright?" He asked Bernadetta who was shaken up.

"D-don't worry about me right now! You're really really hurt! Someone please help!" She pleads.

"You, bear!" Trunk shouts at Monokuma, "There's a hospital in this city, right? If it isn't open yet, open it up and let me take him there!"

"Fiiiiiine, I'll open it up and take care of him there. Dr. Killgood needs to get paid anyways." Monokuma opened up the roof of the trial room.

Trunks picked up Ryuji, as his blood dripped on the floor, and soared off with blinding speed.

"I guess that's what he gets for trying to protect such a weak individual. (sighs) Humans are such stupid creatures…" Aoba then began to head to the elevator but then something thwiped onto his back.

"No no no no, you ain't going nowhere after pulling this again." Miles said as he covered up Aoba in his web thing.

"LET. ME. OUT." He demanded before a web covered his mouth, muffling his words.

"Good idea, let's just leave him tied up in his room so he won't pull anything for a while." Gold smiled sinisterly.

"Hold on, I agree he's too dangerous to be left alone, but this is…" Ai tried to talk them out of it.

I should do the same, "It's a bit much, don't you think?"

"Oh this webbing dissolves after an hour, so he'll be out in no time, someone has to keep an eye out on him though." Miles explained.

"Then… I'll do it. I didn't get the chance to investigate much, so I better do something important, as one of the more responsible people here." Ai sighed as she dragged Aoba up the elevator.

Oh man… I need to sleep after this. This whole day has taken a lot out of me, I'm ready to take it easy for now.

Sucy and Alice… we won't let you down.

"…. I needed to talk to someone about what I saw. I'm in the process of trying to formulate a plan for how to end this stupid game, but I need help with it." Killua lowered his eyebrows.

"I assume letting the others in on this would put the whole thing in jeopardy, and we're already treading that line by sending messages to that Gundham Tanaka. Tell me then, what did you find in that classroom?" Trunks asked.

"I was lucky to even get into it without detection. Destroying security cameras may be against the rules, but temporarily disabling them? Needed to be extra careful not to be seen by them before shutting them down. So from what was inside, it was much less a classroom, and more like a creepy laboratory. And it was much larger than expected too, took more than twenty minutes to look at everything. It was worth it though, as what I found in there was…."

Killua discussed the entirety of what he found within that room, as Trunks's eyes widened and his fists were clenched. By the time Killua was finished, Trunks's hair began to glow gold.

"Whoa, calm down, no need to go super, pal. We just need to come up with something or else we and our worlds are doomed. I have something in mind, but you need to pay close attention…" Killua began to try calling him down.

Unbeknownst to the two of them however, an onlooker had heard the entire thing, and was making his way towards the school building.

"Pibu… are you ready?" Gold asked his electric mouse, who gave a resounding "Chu!" back at him, "I'm coming… partners."

Back to Ai's POV

"Tell me something, why do you hate humans so much?" I asked Aoba.

We were sitting down in his room, it was almost time for me to leave and turn in for the night. Aoba was still tied up in Miles's web.

"To put it simply, my brother was far from a nice person to me. Abusive, due to the way my parents favored me over him. It was to the point where I thought to get back at him, one instance had his room up in flames." He said which irked me so much.

"That's not much of a good reason, and after what you have done, I'm not willing to give you any pity." I told him.

"I never asked for you to give me any. Regardless, his actions pushed me into what you see here today. Chessmaster of easily manipulated individuals, and the former leader of a gang called the Blue Squares. Heh heh... " I've had about enough of this guy.

"Hm, on your way out, how about turning on the tv? I want to catch a movie I've been wanting to see." I sighed before I turned the screen on.

"I am the one who decides my fate." I heard a man on it say… wait.

That voice is… somehow familiar.

"Curious, aren't you? It feels like it's been forever since we have seen him, although… doesn't he seem off to you?" Aoba smirked at me as I faced what was in front of me.

Seto Kaiba… but seeing him here, he seems more confident, much smarter than he looked. I saw him summon a large titan of a monster, as I just stared silently.

I can't believe what I was seeing, this wasn't the same man who killed Misato. So… who was that?

Remaining Citizens: 11

To Be Continued…

I can't believe I finished this chapter so soon after the previous one. Hope you all enjoyed what you've gotten so far. May you enjoy what I have planned in development. Ideas are buzzing in my head. Leave comments/reviews if you feel like it! I would love to see if you share predictions, theories, or things that you enjoyed about the chapter! Thank you so much, for sticking around.