Chapter 1: Part 5

"Ring-A-Ding-Ding!" Monokuma spoke through the intercoms in every room. "It's 7 AM, meaning it's officially morning time! All water has been returned and the kitchen has been opened back up! I hope you all have a B-E-A-UTIFUL day!"

Sayaka cracked her eyes open and sat up in her bed. Sleep didn't improve her mood at all. She couldn't shake off the memory of her death. The imagine of the knife going into her chest kept replaying in her dreams over and over and over. She shook her head. She needed to clean herself up. Wash away the memories, the pain.

She rolled out of her bed and entered the bathroom. It looked exactly how the bathrooms at Hope's Peak did. Another memory came back to her. The last minutes of her life, spent hiding in a dark room waiting for her murderer to burst into the room. She shut her eyes and pulled on her hair.

'I won't let this get to me,' she thought to herself. 'I can't! I can't be scared just to clean myself!'

Sayaka took some deep breaths through her nose and stomach, a technique she would use to sike herself up for concerts, and then entered her shower.

Byakuya had just finished flossing and brushing his teeth and began to dress himself in his usual white suit. After adjusting his tie to the right length and putting on his glasses, he stepped out of his room. He immediately came face to face with Taka right outside his door.

"May I ask what you are doing outside of my room, Ishimaru?" Byakuya asked with annoyed groan.

Taka lowered his hand and stood in attention. "I was going to knock on your door to summon you. I figured it would be best if the two of us were the first to arrive at the cafeteria."

Byakuya nodded. "A fair idea," he said. "However, I feel we should include Momota in this as well."

Taka nodded and the two of them walked to Kaito's room. Lucky for them, Kaito's room was only three rooms to the right of Byakuya's. After a short walk the two made it and Taka knocked on his door. However, Kaito didn't come out. Taka knocked on the door again. Again, Kaito didn't emerge. Taka was about to knock once more when Byakuya stopped Taka and simply rang on the doorbell by the side of the door.

The two of them waited for a moment, but eventually Kaito did stump out of his room, still dressed in his pajamas and yawning heavily.

"Hey," Kaito said, his voice a bit scratchy as if he has to stretch his vocal cords. "What's up?"

"Ishimaru wished for me to accompany him to the cafeteria first, and I decided that you should accompany us as well," Byakuya said. "I have something to say to the both of you anyway."

"Oh, yeah, ok," Kaito said in attempt to get his brain to wake up properly. "Let me get dressed real quick. I'll be right back."

Kaito closed his door and left the two men waiting.

Sayaka had exited her shower and was drying herself off with a towel. Her breathing technique helped her to calm heart rate down and ignore the familiar environment. She scrubbed her face with the towel a bit before putting it down and headed towards the closet.

Compared to Hope's Peak, Sayaka was actually glad that Monokuma bothered to give Sayaka more outfits to wear other than just copies of her blue school uniform. It still wasn't much. Three sets of pink pajamas, four more school uniforms, two school bathing suits, a bathing suit from one of her old photo shoots, and her old stage costume. Seeing her old idol outfit almost drove her to tears. The rest she was in this mess to begin with was because she wanted to get back to her idol life. Instead, a fraction of it was brought to her.

'No, I can't start this day off so emotional,' Sayaka thought to herself. 'Then again, considering what our topic during breakfast will be…'

Sayaka shook her head. She needed to focus. She took out one of the school uniforms and got dressed before returning to the bathroom to do some cleaning up. She put on her usual deodorant and perfume and was about to start flossing her teeth when she noticed something odd. Her hair. At the very top, a single strand poked upward. Sure, she had just taken a shower, rubbed it with a towel, and put on a new shirt, but something was odd about it. She grabbed her comb and tried to brush it down, yet it popped back up.

Sayaka turned the water on in her sink and doused her comb in water before she brushed the ahoge back down again. It popped up again. She tossed the comb to the side, let the water pour onto her palms, and then attempted to press the hair down. She lifted her hands up to see that the ahoge finally went down…only to pop back up.

Sayaka groaned a bit. If it wasn't going to go down, she'd have to have her hair styled to compliment. Sure, Kaede could pull off the long hair with ahoge point, but Sayaka felt she couldn't. She grabbed a hair tie, rolled her the length of her hair into a bun shape at the back, and wrapped it up with the hair tie. To complete her new look, she rolled up her sleeves above her elbows.

"Hmmm, not too bad," Sayaka commented a loud as she checked herself out in the mirror and chuckled. "I guess I'm ahoge buddies with Kaede now." She gave a determined nod to her reflection before returning to flossing her teeth.

Kaito finally emerged from his room, dressed in his usual purple garb. "Sorry for the wait," he said to Togami and Taka. "Now, what is it that you needed to tell me?"

Byakuya crossed his arms and adjusted his glasses. "I have noticed the two of you have taken the opportunities to act as leaders for your classes. While I'll confess that I find the two of you are far too short sighted, I do admire your drives and I believe your collective knowledge is useful for discussions. So, I will ask you this; watch out for your fellow classmates and report anything suspicious to me. I, of course, will report anything of importance to the two of you as well."

Taka rested his fist against his chin. "An excellent idea, Togami, but the way you explained it, you make it sound as if we will be doing this in secret."

"We will," Byakuya answered. "We can all agree that there are less than savory individuals in this school. It will be for the best to discuss options if anything goes wrong."

"Sounds fine to me," Kaito said. "I know that with guys Kokichi and Kiyo around, we got to take some precautions."

"By Kiyo, you mean Korekiyo, correct?" Taka asked.

"Of course," Kaito said. "Oh, right. You're a Kiyo too. That might get confusing."

"Don't worry about that now," Byakuya said. "We should be heading to the cafeteria now. Our breakfast meeting will begin soon."

Kaito and Taka nodded before they followed Byakuya to the cafeteria.

Sayaka stepped out of her room and stood in the hallway. She looked over to Mukuro's door. She knew she had to confront the soldier, but she didn't know how to approach her. Sure, she seemed quiet and reserved enough to approach, but her status of a soldier—No, ULTIMATE SOLDIER. The fact she was the ultimate soldier, a title she most likely earned by doing less than peaceful means, meant that if things went wrong she wouldn't be able to fight back.

From behind, the sound of a door creaking open and slamming shut could be heard. Sayaka turned around to see Tenko, dressed exactly how she did the previous day and already facing the day with a bright smile. The aikido master turned her head slightly and locked eyes with idol. She smiled brightly and dashed over.

"SAYAKA!" Tenko shouted before throwing her arms around the bluenette.

Sayaka blushed and struggled to maintain her balance since Tenko almost tackled her to the ground.

"Good morning, Sayaka!" Tenko said with a smile. "Oh, hey. You changed your hairstyle?"

"Um, yeah," Sayaka said as she slid one of her arms out from Tenko's grip to tung on her ahoge. "This strand of hair wouldn't go down no matter how hard I tried to comb it down. So, I just decided to have the rest match it a bit. What do you think? Think I'll be hair buddies with Kaede now?"

Tenko giggled a bit. "Well, I like it! I mean, your old hair style was good too, but it's still good now."

"Thank you," Sayaka said. "Hey, Tenko? Can I ask you something?"

"Of course!" Tenko released Sayaka her hug before holding her hands. "What is it?"

"Well, we're going to be talking about how we died today, and…my death was…traumatizing…"

"Because of Leon, right?"

"Well, yes, but…it's more complicated than that." Sayaka looked at Tenko who was concerned yet confused by the statement. Yet, she still held onto Sayaka, trying to empathize with her friend's plight. Sayaka sighed a bit. "Tenko, I just want you to promise me that you'll try and understand me…I don't exactly come across…that great."

"Sayaka, you are great!" Tenko said with a stern look on her face. "Sure, I may have only known you for a day, but you've already shown to be smart, funny, caring for other people, even caring about degenerate males! I know you're scared, but that nothing to be ashamed of!"

Sayaka hung her head down. 'She doesn't get it,' she thought to herself. 'She won't. She'll hate me, won't she?'

"Look, why don't I make you breakfast today?" Tenko asked. "It's only fair after you made me dinner last night."

Sayaka lifted her head back up to be greeted by Tenko's smiling face. Tenko was so sincere, it gave Sayaka hope that her new friend would be there for her through it all. Sayaka smiled and nodded before she walked with Tenko to the cafeteria.

Byakuya, Taka, and Kaito had sat themselves down at the main table. Byakuya crossed his arms and Taka sat up straight as they waited patiently for everyone to arrive. Kaito on the other hand wasn't as patient. He kept tapping his foot against the hard tile floor as he slapped his hands against the table like drums. Byakuya's eye twitched with each tap Kaito made. He was about to shout at him but was cut off by Kaede entering the room.

"Hey, guys," Kaede smiled and waved at the three men. "Am I the first person here?"

"Yes you are, Miss Akamatsu!" Taka said loudly. "I must thank you for being an example of a model student for being here on time!"

"Oh, thanks." Kaede was flattered as she took a seat.

"Hey, don't be too hard on everyone else," Kaito said. "We are asking them to wake up pretty early."

"Nonsense!" Taka said. "It's a student's, nay, an individual's personal responsibility to be punctual! To always be late is a poor habit to carry on into adulthood!"

"Right…" Kaede said with a sigh.

Soon after Kaede entered the room other students began to file in. Mahiru entered the room with Hiyoko, Peko was followed by an extra chipper Ibuki, Chihiro entered with Sakura entering behind her, then finally entered Tenko and Sayaka.

Ibuki was talking to Peko before she caught a glimpse of Sayaka. She shot up from her chair and pointed at the idol. "Oooooh, trying out something new, Sayaka?" she asked. "With a few more hair spikes and hair dye, you'd totally pull off a punk look!"

Sayaka forced out a giggle. "I don't know if I could go that far. Still, I just felt that I should change things up."

"Well, I think it looks good, Sayaka," Chihiro said with a weak smile.

"Yeah!" Kaede chimed in. "You look great!"

"Of course you'd say that!" Ibuki said. "You two are matching!"

"What are you foolish mortals blathering about?" Gundham said as he entered the room.

"Oh, Gundham," Mahiru said with some hesitation. "I honestly wasn't expecting to see you show up so early."

"Yeah, you're totally the kind of guy that writes emo poetry about he hates the sun," Hiyoko snickered out.

"Hiyoko, stop that," Mahiru said with a frown.

"I care not for what opinions you hold of me, summoner!" Gundham snapped. "My reason for being here early is far beyond your comprehension!"

As Gundham rambled on, Sayaka could see a small kitten pop its head out from Gundham's scarf. That was unusual enough, but soon a blue jay and a cardinal popped out of the scarf as well while a snake slithered down his arm.

"Um, Gundham?" Sayaka pointed to his scarf. "You have some…animals around your neck…"

Gundham smirked a bit. "So, you've finally noticed them, siren?" he asked. "Yes, these creatures have come to me as they understand that our destinies have aligned in our pursuit of chaos." Gundham then posed like he was a dark wizard, holding his hands out as if power was pouring out of them, but instead it was just his new animals fully revealing themselves to the group. "THESE ARE MY NEW DARK DISCIPLES! PHOENIX, RAIJIN, KHAN, AND MEPHISTO! TOGETHER, WE SHALL VANQUISH MONOKUMA AND RULE THIS WORLD!"

"Um, right…" Kaede said.

"Now then, fetch me a bowl of water so my disciples can properly drink with their master!"

'Oh, he wants to feed them,' Sayaka thought. 'That's…really sweet actually.'

"We'll eat once everyone arrives," Byakuya said. "Your pets can wait."

"Pets?" Gundham gasped. "You insult their very beings, Togami." Yet, Gundham decided to wait with them. Although he did cross his arms to make his annoyance clear to everyone else.

Yet, it didn't take long for everyone else to enter the room. Some, like Mukuro, Kiyo, Kirumi, Nagito, and Rantaro entered the room early enough. Some like Chiaki, Mikan, Gonta, Tsumugi, and Mondo entered the room after with only some minor excuses like getting dressed, or in Chiaki's cause, passing out on the way there. Then came in the super late students like Nekomaru, Teruteru, Leon, Hifumi, Miu, and Ryoma. Nekomaru claimed that he was trying to wake up Leon and Ryoma who had overslept, Teruteru did the same for Miu, while Hifumi said he was talking care of "personal matters." Finally came those that honestly didn't seem to care about the meeting. Junko, Celeste, Kokichi, and Angie all arrived and sat themselves down.

Byakuya stood up from his seat to make his announcements. "I'm sure you all remember what we agreed today's meeting would be about."

Everyone nodded, yet none of them seemed ready to do so.

That was when Kaito stood up to speak. "Look, why don't you all go ahead and have some breakfast? Just so we don't start completely down in the dumps."

Byakuya sighed. "I'd normally disagree, but…that would be for the best if we all got to eat. So, prepare yourselves a nice meal and eat, then we'll begin our discussion."

The moment Byakuya said that, Teruteru immediately ran into the kitchen to cook breakfast for everyone. Tenko cringed a bit as she followed after him. Being in close proximity of a male was bad enough for her, but to be near a degenerate pervert like Teruteru made goosebumps grow all over her body. She made sure to keep her distance from the cook as she worked on Sayaka's breakfast.

It took around eight minutes, but Teruteru was able to prepare pancakes, waffles, bacon, eggs (scrambled and sunny side), cut-up fruits and vegetables for everyone. Teruteru also once again brought Celeste a specially made cup of milk tea.

"I once again must thank you for your excellent brewing," Celeste said.

"But of course," Teruteru bowed his head a bit. "And feel free to ask for anything else. I'll be delighted to provide anything else." Teruteru then returned to his seat to eat.

Sayaka sighed at Teruteru's self-imposed servitude but she then saw Tenko approach her with a plate of toast. Sayaka smiled at her friend, but Tenko seemed a bit nervous.

"H-hey, Sayaka," Tenko said. "Um…I-I tried to make you some toast but I kind of burnt it."

"Don't worry about it," Sayaka said while she took the plate. She looked down at the plate and, yep, the toast was burnt. Not as terribly as Sayaka thought it would be. She was thinking the bread would have become a pure black chunk of something resembling coal. Instead, it was just a normal piece of toast. It was mostly the normal shade of brown most toast would look like, however the crust of the bread was burnt. Sayaka simply tore the crust off the toast and ate it. There was still some bitterness to it. It didn't help that there was no butter on the toast like she normally liked, but it was still a decent piece of toast. Not too stiff and just the right amount of chewy.

Sayaka took a sip of milk to wash it down. "It's not bad. Just maybe take the toast out a few seconds earlier, Tenko."

"Ok, I'll keep that in mind," Tenko smiled a bit before sitting down next to the idol.

"Can I have some more pancakes?" Ibuki asked.

"I-Ibuki, y-you already have five pancakes o-on your plate," Mikan pointed.

"Yeah, and Ibuki wants more syrupy goodness!" Ibuki smiled brightly before slamming her hands against the table. "Give Ibuki pancakes!"

Gonta picked up another plate, gently placed two pancakes on it, then handed it Ibuki. "Did Gonta give right number?"

"Yep!" Ibuki snatched the plate away and began to scarf down the food.

"How does she eat like that and still have so much energy?" Kirumi asked.

Peko sighed. "Ibuki is like no one else on this planet."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Sakura smiled a bit. "I know someone whose choice in meals doesn't hamper her energy or health."

"You mean Miss Asahina, right?" Hifumi asked.

Sakura nodded. "Her energy and positivity are something the world needs more of."

"I wouldn't say that," Celeste said after she sipped on her tea. "Sure, she was positive, but she rarely thought through her situation with any intelligence."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at Celeste. "I will take her honesty over your "intelligence," Celeste."

"I think the two of you are being too narrow-minded," Nagito said with a smile. "Honesty and intelligence aren't exclusive from each other. In fact, it's best to have both in situations like this to bring about hope."

"What is your deal with hope anyway?" Ryoma asked. "You always go on about it."

Nagito looked over at Ryoma. "Hope…makes the impossible possible," he explained. "There are people that are born with talents and there's the rest of the world. Those with talents are destined for greatness and can change the world, but with some hope, even the most insignificant of people can overcome the greatest of despair."

Taka fought every fiber of his being to not shoot up from his chair and give Nagito a loud lecture about how important hard work was, but he withheld himself. They needed to be free from lectures for a while. They needed to be themselves before they had to confession their crimes. He kept himself seated. He could talk Nagito about his beliefs later.

"Ugh, that was so sappy," Junko said. "Just how many hope speeches does this guy have lined up?"

"Too many," Gundham said as he let his pets nibble on some bits of strawberry.

"If I had a I dime for every time he talked about hope, I'd be richer than Mr. Ham Hands," Hiyoko said.

Byakuya actually let out a laugh. "That's a laugh," he said.

A few minutes later, everyone got a chance to finish their breakfast and put up their plates. They cleaned up slowly. The idea of confessing what happened was something no one was particularly thrilled by. And while Kaito's idea them all eating to sooth their spirits was nice, it was obviously flawed since, well, they'll still have to talk about it. Yet, the inevitable was the inevitable, and there was no point in attempting to deny it.

The moment everyone returned to their seats was when Byakuya stood up. "Now, we shall begin," he announced. "I understand that this will be difficult for you all but putting this off any longer will only make solving our predicament more difficult. I think it will be best if we at least confirm who was the last to die in each killing game. Then we'll have the order laid out before we begin our discussion."

Taka soon stood up from his seat. "I'd also like to remind everyone of my previous request," he spoke up. "While I can't say this for everyone, I do know that the motives for these…acts can be complicated. So, let us all reserve our judgments. Afterall, this is meant to be a second chance."

Byakuya nodded at Taka before facing the rest of the group. "Now, let's begin," he said. "Who was the latest to…pass in the Hope's Peak killing game?"

"I was," Sakura said.

"Very well. Now tell me the order of the deaths and what happened."

Sakura sighed before looking at Byakuya. "The first to die was Sayaka. She had planned on escaping the school by killing someone, but she was killed by Leon instead. Then Junko was killed when she tried to defy Monokuma. Then began the class trial that resulted in the execution of Leon. Next was the death of Chihiro by the hands of Mondo-"

"What?!" Tenko gasped as she turned towards the biker. "How could you kill someone as small and innocent as Chihiro?! You act all chivalrous, but you're just a degenerate-"

"Tenko, that's enough!" Byakuya shouted. "We just made clear that you are to reserve your judgments. Interrupting to scold Mondo does nothing but delay our investigations."

"But he-"

"I said enough!"

Tenko sat back down and crossed her arms with a pout. Mondo had been silent during the whole ordeal. He wouldn't have tried to stop Tenko if Byakuya didn't speak up. After all, she wasn't wrong about him.

Sakura cleared her throat before she continued. "Mondo was then executed upon discovery. After that, Celeste devised a plan to escape using the AI Chihiro created as leverage."

Chihiro perked up when her AI was mentioned. They had found it? Did it help them? She had so many questions, yet she had to wait before she could ask them.

"She convinced Hifumi to kill Taka, before slaying Hifumi herself," Sakura continued. "Celeste was then discovered as the culprit and executed. Then came my death…I will confess, I acted as a spy for Monokuma since the first trial. I would inform him of anything we had discovered…He had my family, my dojo."

"They were at his mercy. Despite all of my honor, principles, and what my family stood for, I gave into my fear and betrayed those I considered my friends. Once I was revealed as a traitor, I realized what I had done. Despite the efforts of Makoto, Kyoko, and Hina, I had turned my friends paranoid. They would never make progress and defeat Monokuma. So, I took my own life. Partly to make amends for my sins, but also to remind them all of what their goal was; to defeat Monokuma. A goal I hope they accomplished…yet, from the looks of things," she looked at Byakuya, "that may have failed."

"Well, we'll change that soon," Kaito said with a smirk.

"Thank you for the information, Sakura," Byakuya said. "We'll have the victims and culprits explain themselves soon enough, but first we must continue to layout our order. Now, who was the last to parish on Jabberwock Island?"

Chiaki raised her hand.

"Very well, Nanami," Byakuya said. "Care to explain the order of deaths?"

Chiaki nodded before she explained. "First, you were killed by Teruteru on accident and then he was executed. Then Peko killed Mahiru. Then Mikan was infected by a disease that her go crazy and kill both Ibuki and Hyoko. After that, we got trapped in a building and Gundham killed Nekomaru. Finally, Nagito tricked me into killing him."

Mukuro raised an eyebrow at Chiaki. "Wait, how did he trick you into doing that?"

Chiaki grabbed a hold of her other arm and frowned. "It's…complicated."
"We'll get to it when we return to her," Byakuya said. "Now, who was the last to die in the Ultimate Academy?"

"I-it was me," Tsumugi said as she raised her hand.

"Very well, can you layout the order of events?"

"I can, yeah," Tsumugi responded. "The first death happened when Kaede tried to kill the mastermind and end the killing game, but she unfortunately killed Rantaro instead. She was then…horribly executed by Monokuma." Tears began to form from Tsumugi's eyes, but she wiped them away. "Then Ryoma allowed Kirumi to kill him, but she was executed as well. Then came the third trial when Kiyo killed Angie and Tenko-"

"WHAT?!" Tenko shouted as she shot up from her seat. "He did?! You degen-"

Sayaka grabbed a hold of Tenko's hand. Tenko stopped her shouting and looked towards her friend. Sayaka's eyes motioned towards Tenko's seat. Tenko opened her mouth to retourt, but she shut it and sat back down.

Tsumugi cleared her throat and returned to her speech. "Then the fourth murder, which was…in a virtual world, was Gonta killing Miu. It was…complicated. Then came the fifth murder which Kokichi tried to make as confusing as possible where we couldn't tell if it was Kaito or Kokichi that died. It turned out to be Kokichi and Kaito willingly allowed himself to die. Then there's me. To be honest, I don't even know what happened. I think someone snuck up behind me…It's still hard to believe this is happening…"

"Yeah, it's been pretty crazy, huh?" Kaito scratched the back of his head.

"We at least have the order of the killings down," Byakuya said. "I understand this will be a lot to take in and accept, but we must. Now, it would be wise for to go over these deaths in more detail. More specifically, we should hear from those that committed and attempted the murders."

"R-right now?" Mikan asked.

"Of course," Byakuya responded. "Like I said, delaying this any further is foolish."

"So, we start with Sayaka, right?" Leon asked.

"Hey!" Tenko shouted at Leon. "Don't lump Sayaka in with the rest of the killers!"

"What?" Leon groaned. "She started it."

"No way! Sayaka would never do something like that!"

Sayaka once again grabbed a hold of Tenko's hand. The martial artist looked back at the idol who had a solemn look on her face. "Tenko," she said softly, "don't try to defend me. I…I'll handle it."

"S-sayaka," Tenko said with a frown. She wanted to object. Defending girls, defending a friend was something she's always been compelled to do, yet another thing she's always compelled to do was to listen to a girl's feelings. She sat back down and watched her friend.

Sayaka took a deep breath and stood up before everyone. She never wanted her sin to be exposed, yet it was out of her control. She may not have formed bonds with everyone yet, but she had been doing her best to be her usual idol self. Cute, innocent, sweet, caring. All of that would go out the window. Sayaka could feel all the eyes on her. She hated it. It felt just like when she was in public going from airport to airport. Sayaka avoided eye contacted with everyone as she began to talk.

"I know that most of us would never have done these things under normal circumstances. I mean, Leon probably wouldn't be here if it weren't for me." Sayaka could feel her throat tighten up and her lip quiver. This would be difficult for her. "It had been a few days since we were kidnapped and we had not made any progress. I had become accustomed to being there. I mean, the food was good, I had a friend in Makoto, and no one was actually trying to kill each other. But then Monokuma gave us videos of our loved ones in trouble."

"I saw my bandmates lying on the ground in pain on a dark stage," Sayaka's throat became dry. She knew the tears would come soon. "Outside of my father, they were the only family I ever had. They were with me as I was living my dream. A-and seeing them like that, not knowing if they were alive or dead, that it was somehow my fault, that me being gone meant all of my efforts were for nothing, I-I couldn't help it. I-I snapped."

Sayaka felt her heart beating faster. Her lip was quivering even more. She knew the end of this tale would break her, and worse, turn everyone against her. "I knew I had to escape and after all those days just wandering around aimlessly, I…I knew the only I could get out was to kill someone without getting caught." Sayaka could feel some tears slowly trailing down her cheeks. "So…I tricked Makoto to trade rooms with me, so when the body would be discovered he would get in trouble instead of me…When we swapped rooms, I called over Leon to kill him, but I couldn't overpower him. He overpowered me then…It was all over."

Sayaka knew she was about to break down. She couldn't face everyone anymore, so she kept her head hung down and sat back in her chair. She could only imagine what Tenko thought about her. She was the one she was closest to during this whole ordeal. 'She must feel betrayed,' she thought to herself. 'She must think I've been tricking her.'

"So, you thought you could get away with stabbing your friend in the back and get into a fight with a professional athlete way stronger than you?" Kokichi asked. "Woah, I guess you really aren't that smart after all."

"For God's sake, Kokichi!" Kaito shouted. "Can you not try to start a fight?!"

"What?" Kokichi shrugged. "She tried to kill someone. She can claim to regret it all she wants, but she can't deny what she's truly like. She would murder someone and throw away the lives of everyone else around her for her dreams."

"I would like to remind you that Monokuma had not told us about the class trial until after Sayaka's body was found," Sakura explained.

"So, if she had known about it, she may not have gone to that extreme," Peko said.

"Eh, that's a bit hard to say for certain," Junko said.

"Yeah," Kokichi chimed back in. "She admitted to backstabbing someone. Pretty common behavior for idols. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if she would have killed someone even after learning about the class trials."

"Tch, I knew cutesy girls like her were totally two-faced," Hiyoko said.

Mahiru grabbed a hold of Hiyoko's wrist. "Hiyoko!" she scolded.

"Why are you getting on her case?" Miu asked Mahiru. "It's not like she's wrong. All idols are backstage bitch-whores that'll do anything to get to the top."

Sayaka refused to speak up. She had heard all of those things about idols before, but it was Kokichi's comment that stuck with her. 'Was he right?' she thought. 'Would I have still done it if I had known about the class trials? I…I honestly don't know.'

"Shut up!"

Sayaka lifted her head up to see Tenko, up from her seat with her hands balled up into fists.

"Stop saying these things about Sayaka!" Tenko shouted. "We can't judge her for what she 'could' have done or 'might' have done! We're talking about what she did and we agreed that this is our second chance, and I'm letting her have it!"

"Oh, please," Celeste said with a soft smile. "Don't you think you're being biased? After all, you were ready to do the same for Mondo and Kiyo."

"But they knew about the class trial and how it could kill us if they won!" Tenko retorted.

"Enough!" Byakuya shouted again. He pitched the bridge of his nose. "This is going to be a mess, isn't it?"

"It would probably be better if we just let it be," Ryoma said.

"No," Rantaro said. "This is a conversation we need to have. I for one think that Sayaka owning up to what she had done was very brave and can go a long way to start healing many wounds. Anyone else agree with me?"

"Y-yeah," Kaede said. She glanced over at Sayaka. Perhaps they we had more similarities than just being female musicians.

"Absolutely," Nagito spoke up.

"Well, why don't we move on then?" Taka asked. "Leon? Do you care to explain yourself?"

Leon rolled his eyes. 'Man, this sucks,' he thought to himself. 'They so aren't going to be as generous with me, are they?'

As Leon began his side of the events, Sayaka zoned out. It was partly out of not wanting to give Leon the time of day, but it was mostly about Tenko. Even after her doubts, Tenko stood up for him. She looked at her friend as she sat down, just in disbelief that after she still wanted to be associated with her. Was it just Tenko's female bias?

Tenko looked over at Sayaka. She gave her a kind smile and held her hand. "Don't worry about them," she whispered. "Kokichi wants to turn them all against you, but I won't let that happen.

Sayaka, still with tears in her eyes, smiled back at her. 'Maybe you just have a good heart, Tenko,' she thought to herself.

This was a lot longer than I planned. I was hoping to have all the characters give their reasons for killing in this chapter, but it was getting so long I had to cut it off. I just can't help myself. I'm trying to give everyone chances to shine and talk. I hope I'm doing exposition well. A lot of wordy recaps can suck, I just hope mine didn't.

Another reason I'm upset I have to do another chapter of characters explaining their deaths is because I have a fairly big surprised lined up for an upcoming chapter. It will have to wait though.

Also, Sayaka has an ahoge. It's just Danganronpa tradition, isn't it? It's also nice to start forming connections between her and Kaede. I'm surprised I haven't gotten too much of that yet. Tenko just can't help but stick around lol

Also, I have to do more of Kokichi being a little shit. I think I did the whole Celeste counters Kokichi a bit too early. I am going to keep that a thing, but it needs to be special when it happens. I do have to get more Chihiro, Chiaki, and Nagito soon. They're too important and fun to leave in the dust.

How am I handling the character balance? Has my grammar and spelling improved? My version of Word sucks.

Anyways, thank you for reading, keep posting those reviews, and just keep on living.