Chapter 1: Part 15
"BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEP!" Monokuma's voice shrieked through the school's intercom. "Hey, hey, hey! Rise and shine! This is Headmaster Monokuma waking you all up at 7 am! Why don't you all greet the day with full gusto!"
Chiaki mumbled a bit as she slowly regained consciousness. She rubbed her eyes and she regained her vision. When she did, she noticed that she wasn't in her bed. She wasn't even laying down. She was sat on the carpeted floor of her Ultimate Lab with a controller in her hand. Right on the screen in front of her was Frogger: the Great Quest. It wasn't a good game. In fact, it a terrible game. But was what Chiaki needed. Whenever she played a bad game, her critical mind starts to work. And that's how she spent her night. Trying to think of what Junko could be planning. She hated how she had done nothing to prepare for Junko's madness.
'If I wasn't so distracted, I could have stopped those letters from getting out,' Chiaki thought to herself. 'I still can't tell anyone what I am, but that doesn't mean I can just sit back and let Junko do what she wants.'
Chiaki turned off the console and rose up to her feet. She had to get ready for the day. She couldn't help but be a bit curious about the "secrets" that would be revealed at the meeting. She obviously knew what Mukuro was hiding from everyone. She did wonder why Mukuro was still content to cover for Junko after she betrayed her. Perhaps their sisterly bond was stronger than logical sense. Kirumi was a mystery to her. Not surprising since she was around for the maid's killing game. Chiaki put her thoughts to the side as she got ready for the day.
After finishing up, Sayaka stepped out of her room. She looked to her side and, to her surprise, Tenko was not there waiting for her. Sayaka took a deep breath. Some personal space is nice every once and a while.
'I'll say this though,' Sayaka thought, 'Tenko certainly takes me back to my idol days.'
Sayaka giggled a bit before suddenly stopping herself. 'What's wrong with me? She's been nothing but supportive to me and yet I keep putting her down. Just like…'
Sayaka shook her head. Can't keep going back to that. This was her second chance and she had all the time in the world to make up for that. The sound of a door creaking open broke Sayaka's train of thought. She turned her head to the left and saw Mukuro step out into the hall. Mukuro briefly made eye contact with the idol before looking away.
Before Mukuro could walk off, Sayaka approached her.
"Hello, Mukuro," Sayaka said. Although this time, she was speaking in her usual, bubbly, idol voice. She spoke in a stern tone. "Can we talk for a moment?"
"Probably not for long," Mukuro responded. "We got to go to the morning meeting."
"I know, I know," Sayaka said. "But still, there was something I wanted to talk to you about."
"What is it?"
"Are you sure we've never met before?" Sayaka asked. 'Finally got to follow through on this.'
Mukuro paused for a moment.
"I guess we'll find out at the meeting." With that, Mukuro walked away from Sayaka.
Sayaka frowned as she watched the soldier walk away. 'What is that supposed to mean? Does that mean we have met?'
Sayaka could feel herself getting angry. She wanted to punch Mukuro in face for acting "oh so mysterious," but that didn't get to happen. Almost immediately after Mukuro walked off, Tenko ran up from behind and hugged Sayaka tightly.
"Hey, Sayaka!" Tenko said cheerfully.
Sayaka grunted a bit before looking back at her friend. Tenko's smiling face actually warmed Sayaka's heart. 'You know, seeing Tenko all the time is a pretty good thing. It certainly is better than talking to Mukuro.'
"H-hey, Tenko," Sayaka said. "Can you let me go real quick?"
"Oh, sorry," Tenko said before releasing the idol. "I just get really excited whenever I see you."
"Aww, that's really sweet of you to say," Sayaka giggled a bit. "You know, you really cheer me up every time we hang out."
Tenko blushed at Sayaka's response. "W-well, yeah! I-I mean, it's just what friends are for, right?"
"Yeah," Sayaka smiled back at Tenko. "So…are you ready for this?"
Tenko frowned and crossed her arms. "Of course not. That creep Kiyo killed me and Angie for…I don't even get why he did it! He says it was for his sister? It's just some creepy degenerate fantasy!"
"Y-yeah," Sayaka tapped her chin. "Kiyo is probably the scariest person here."
"Well, what about you?"
Sayaka paused for a moment. Her skin went pale and she hugged herself. "N-no. Not at all."
Tenko gave a sympathetic frown to her friend. "I'm sorry."
"Look, why don't we stop standing around and head to the cafeteria?"
"O-of course!" Tenko said loudly before following her friend.
When the two of them entered the cafeteria, they saw that the three class leaders were already in the room with Mukuro and Chiaki seated at the table and Teruteru working in the kitchen. Sayaka and Tenko sat themselves down and they could just feel the tension coming from Taka, Byakuya, and Kaito. It took a while, but one by one, everyone entered the cafeteria and sat themselves down. Teruteru soon finished cooking everyone's meals and passed them all out to the students. However, this wasn't another cheery breakfast with everyone talking amongst each other. The tension from the three leaders spread to the rest of the group.
No one wanted to talk to their killers or their victims. Most of them would rather hear what Kirumi and Mukuro had been hiding. Partly because they were curious of what answers it may have for their predicament, but also would take time away from their own problems. Yet, Byakuya had no interest in wasting anymore time. As soon as everyone had finished their meal, Byakuya rose from his seat.
"So, who wants to start?" he asked.
The room went silent. Everyone looked towards one another, yet no one wished to speak up. Realizing this, Kirumi rose from her seat and looked at everyone.
"I believe I've long since owed you all an explanation for my actions," the maid spoke.
"It's fine, Kirumi," Kaito said with a smile. "Things have been complicated the past few days."
Everyone leaned in to listen to Kirumi. Celeste especially was interested as she gently rested her chin on her folded hands.
"Before I arrived in the Ultimate Academy, I was assigned to work for a high-profile client," Kirumi explained. "They were having health problems that began to interfere with their job. They asked me to work as his shadow, to do his work while he kept up appearances."
Leon raised an eyebrow. "So, who was this guy you were helping?"
Kirumi took a deep breath. "It was-"
"RING, RING, RING!" Monokuma's voice blasted through the intercom. "Attention all students, your presence is required in the school's gymnasium immediately!"
Everyone went silent. This kind of announcement had been made far too many times in their killing games and they knew exactly what it meant. No one wanted to move. They all stayed frozen. And yet, they all knew they had to go. Slowly but surely, they all rose from their seats and left the cafeteria. They moved as slowly as they could, desperate to put off the chaos for as long as they possibly could, but eventually the moment of truth had to be faced. They opened the door to the gymnasium and stepped inside.
The moment everyone filed into the room, Monokuma launched from a floorboard on the stage and landed right onto the podium.
"It's wonderful to see everyone here," Monokuma said with glee in his voice.
"What do you want now, bear?" Gundham asked with a hiss in his tone.
"Ouch!" Monokuma placed his hand over his heart, faking pain. "Can't a beloved bear headmaster just be happy to see his students for once?"
"I say your timing is awfully suspicious," Kiyo spoke up. "Just as we were in the middle of discussing something important, you coincidently called for us all to be here. Are you trying to hide something from us?"
"Hide something from you?" Monokuma tilted his head. "Oh, come on, Korekiyo. Don't you think that's a silly accusation? The timing just happened to line up that way. Who doubts that?"
Everyone raised their hands.
"Oh, come on!" Monokuma hissed. "Can't a bear get any respect?"
"Just spit it out already, bear," Byakuya said.
"Yeah, we all know what you're planning," Kaito said. "So just tell us already."
"Hmmm, you're all in such a hurry to hear a motive?" Monokuma tilted his head to the other side. "My, my, you've all really changed. You all used to dread motives, but now you're just itching for one? You guys must really want to get to murdering each other!"
"Of course we aren't!" Kaede said. "We just want to get this over with."
"And we won't be playing your game anymore," Chiaki said.
"Funny coming from two murderers," Monokuma snickered.
"Hey!" Tenko shouted. "You know Kaede didn't actually kill anyone and Chiaki's was an accident!"
"Accident, schmaccident!" Monokuma replied. "Now, how about we stop delaying the inevitable?"
"Get on with it you stupid bear!" Hiyoko hissed out.
"Fine, fine, fine!" Monokuma hopped down from the podium. "This motive is just a simple announcement you'd all probably love to hear. You see, the masterminds of your killing games are among you!"
Everyone paused for a moment.
"Wait, what?" Mahiru asked.
"Are you serious?" Peko asked.
"Yeppers!" Monokuma said. "All of the masterminds behind your killing games are here!"
"Are you going to tell us who they are or are you leaving that a mystery to create paranoia?" Kokichi asked.
"That's actually not a bad idea," Monokuma said. "But no. I feel like being nice today. You see, I actually got this idea yesterday when-"
"Can you shut up and just get on with it?" Miu asked.
"Ugh! Fine!" Monokuma huffed out. "I'll be gracious and tell you at least one of the mastermind's names."
` "Well, who is it?" Sayaka asked.
"Why don't we ask her herself?" Monokuma asked. He turned his head and locked eyes with the mastermind. "Well, does this fill you with despair, Junko Enoshima?"
Everyone turned towards the fashionista in confusion. Some of the students murmured to each other while looking at the model, yet Junko just stood there. Her face was stone cold.
"Wait, Miss Enoshima is the mastermind?" Hifumi gasped.
"She doesn't seem like the mastermind type," Angie commented.
"J-Junko…is this true?" Sayaka asked.
Junko continued to stand still. She scanned the room. All the accusatory eyes were all on her. She could feel the confuse slowly turn into anger and fear. All of that, all the possibilities that could happen, what they could do to her, it all came to her at once. Junko finally cracked her stone exterior. She smiled.
"Hehehe…Hehehehe…Hahahaha. Hahahahaha! Ahahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA AH AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ahah ah..up…Upupupu. Upupup! UPUPUPUPUPUPUPUPUPUP! UPUPUPUPUPUPUPUPUPUPUPUPUPUPUPUPUPUP!"
Junko's laughter echoed through the gymnasium and sent chills up everyone's spines. Even the bravest of souls like Mondo, Sakura, Peko, Gundham, and Kiyo were taken aback by it. Sayaka noticed how inhuman Junko looked as she laughed. Her jaw seemed to open up far too wide and her smile was twisted as if it spiralled at the cheeks. But her eyes. Junko's eyes were no longer the bright blue they always were. They had turned into spiraling pits of blackness and hatred. It was hard to say how long Junko laughed for. She laughed and laughed and only stopped when she had to gasp for air.
"Phew," Junko wiped away some sweat from her forehead and took several deep breaths. "You guys have no idea how much I needed that. I've been holding back that laugh for like a week now."
"Wait…so, you actually are the mastermind?" Kaito asked.
"Yep," Junko said with an unnervingly nonchalant smile. "I'm the Ultimate Fucking Despair, Junko Fucking Enoshima!"
Junko Enoshima: Ultimate Despair
"And I was the mastermind for both the Hope's Peak Academy and Jabberwock Island games. Had to make an AI two years in advance for that one, but that's another story."
"H-hold on a moment!" Taka shouted. "This makes sense! How can it be possible for Enoshima to be the mastermind?"
"Y-yeah," Hifumi spoke up as well. "I mean, we all saw Miss Enoshima get killed by all those spears."
"My dear, dear Hifumi," Junko shook her head and chuckled. "You fell for the classic soap opera twist. I had a twin sister. I got to thank my sweet little sister, Mukuro, for that one."
"Wait, what?!" Leon turned to look Mukuro. "She's your sister?"
Sayaka looked over at the Ultimate Soldier. She thought back to her time in the killing game and remembered something. The "Junko" in the game had freckles and smaller assets while the real Junko didn't. 'So, that's why she looked familiar,' she thought. 'I can't believe I fell for her photoshop excuse.'
Mukuro just gritted her teeth and looked away from everyone.
Junko blew a kiss to her sister. "Love you too sis. Thanks for letting me kill you."
"If you two are sisters, why do you have different last names?" Teruteru asked.
"UGH!" Junko rolled her eyes. "Do you have any idea how annoying that question is? Seriously, all the time. I had to hear that dumb question all of the time!"
"We're getting off track here," Byakuya interrupted. "We demand an explanation."
"That's right!" Taka added out before clenching his fist. "Why? Why did you kidnap us? Why did you force us into these killing games?"
"Yeah, and did you really get rid of our memories too?" Ibuki asked.
Junko sighed. "Why. That's another question I got all the time." Junko put her hands behind her back and began to talk in a more contemplative tone. "You know, people used to just walk through their lives. Day in and day out, they'd make all sorts of terrible decisions. And it seemed that those with the most and the least power made the worst decisions. Robbing, drug addiction, assault of various kinds. It seemed that as long as they never killed anyone, they could still go to bed at night thinking they were good people. But I knew the truth. Hell, we all knew the truth. We're all such vile people and we make the world such a terrible place. So, I decided to just pull the vail."
Junko turned back to the group and shrugged. "So, my sister and I brainwashed Class 77, which is you guys," Junko pointed to Byakuya and his class. "Then I caused the destruction of the world, got my class locked up in Hope's Peak, erased their memories of the past two years, then got the killing game going."
"You caused all of that, got all of us killed, just to prove a point?" Mondo shouted.
Junko snickered. "That, and to just fill the world with that wonderful despair!"
This pushed Mondo to a breaking point. He stormed over to Junko and grabbed her by the throat.
"Bro, wait!" Taka shouted.
"You bitch!" Mondo ignored his friend's pleas. "I'll fucking-"
"Kill me?" Junko asked with a shit eating grin.
Mondo loosened his grip on Junko. "N-no…"
"Oh, don't lie like that, Mondo. I broke you once. I can do it again."
Mondo released his hold on Junko. He could only grit his teeth and look away in shame.
"So," Leon cleared his throat before finishing his sentence, "you were the last to die, right?"
"Yes, I was," Junko said.
"So, you do know what happened to everyone?" Leon asked. "And how the hell did you even do the game on the island?"
"Yeah, and why would you even try to get the guys who were working for you killed?" Kaito asked.
"And how come we don't even remember we were…Ultimate Despair?" Peko asked.
"Ibuki knows she wouldn't be a bad guy!" Ibuki protested.
"Wow, wow, wow, one question at a time, okay?" Junko held her hands up. "Seriously, I could go on for days and still not explain everything."
"Just do it!" Sayaka shouted. The sudden shift in her attitude took several of her classmates off guard.
Junko sighed. "Fine, fine. So, yes, I was the last person to die in the Hope's Peak killing game. Kyoko put up an interesting wager for one last trial with all their lives on the line. I of course changed the wager for them to stay in the safety of school, away from the ruined world, in exchange for Makoto's life. And since I'm here, you can guess what they picked. Little Makoto had to encourage them all with his stupid hope and I just had to off myself at that point. Seriously, there's only so many hope speeches a lady can bear to listen to before doing so."
"So, they all escaped the school?" Sakura asked. "Even Hina?"
"Ugh, that's what I just said," Junko groaned. "Yes, Hina's alive, Sakura. Yes, Makoto is alive, Sayaka."
Tenko looked over at Sayaka. "At least we know that now," she said.
"Ok, but how did you do the Jabberwock Island killing game?" Kiyo asked. "Afterall, you admitted that you killed yourself."
"Come on, you really think I didn't plan ahead in case I lost?" Junko laughed. "I copied some of Chihiro's AI technology and made some copies of my consciousness, and thanks to some of my follower's those Ais managed to sneak into them into the Future Foundation's computers."
"The Future Foundation?" Kaede raised an eyebrow.
"Don't interrupt me!" Junko snapped. "So, turns out, Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes Naegi decided he wanted to unbrain wash my Ultimate Despair by putting them in a virtual world."
"Wait, what?" Mahiru gasped. "A virtual world?"
"It was…a rehabilitation program?" Nagito asked.
"I said don't interrupt me!" Junko shouted louder before immediately shifting to a neutral expression. She approached Chiaki and stared daggers into the gamer. "And since you're here, I imagine that means you broke through to Hajime and got him to be all hopeful, right?"
Chiaki nodded. "Yep. No matter how hard you tried, you could never truly break him."
"Wait, Chiaki, did you know about this?" Rantaro asked.
"You dumb, sleepy bitch," Hiyoko shouted. "You could have told us this whole time?!"
Chiaki frowned a bit and held her arm. "I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you, but I knew that none of you would believe me."
"Don't give us that, bullshit," Miu hissed out. "You knew important shit and you sat on it like a dick!"
"I am willing to defend Nanami on this," Kiyo said. "We would most likely have written her off as a lunatic if she were to explain this to us."
"Y-yeah," Chihiro spoke up. "I mean, a virtual world sounds unrealistic…"
"And what is important is that their group is safe too," Angie said cheerfully. "Truly, Atua is watching over these souls."
"So, that's it then?" Sayaka asked. "You erased our memories, forced us to kill each other, killed your sister, and destroyed the world?"
"Yeppers," Junko smiled.
Sayaka glared right into Junko. "You truly don't care about anything, do you?"
Junko groaned. "Sayaka, you don't understand. That's the wonderful thing about despair. You can feel the joy of tearing everything down, but still feel the pain of killing those you truly cherish." A blush flashed across her face and her hands started to twitch. "It felt so good and so bad to watch all my close friends kill each other 3"
"Oh, so this was just a fetish thing?" Miu grimaced a bit. "You freaky bitch!"
"You're one to talk, Miu," Junko smirked. "But now that you're talking, I just remembered something that's been bothering me this whole time."
"What is it?" Kaito asked.
Junko immediately turned and pointed to Kaito and his group. "I don't know who the fuck any of you people are!"
Gonta frowned as he covered his ears. "Why you scream at us?" he asked.
"Wait, you don't know us?" Kaede asked.
"Nope, not a single clue," Junko said. "And I'm the Ultimate Analyst so most things don't take me by surprise."
"You're the Ultimate Analyst too?" Leon asked.
"Of course I am," Junko said. "I had to be if I wanted to do all that stuff. You know, that's probably what pissed me off about Hope's Peak so much. The idea that a person is born to be good at one thing alone-"
"Get back on topic," Byakuya ordered her.
"Oh, right," Junko said. "Anyways, yeah. I don't know you guys and I've never heard of the Ultimate Academy."
"Well, why should we trust you?" Kokichi asked.
Everyone looked at the purple haired boy with a mix of surprise, horror, and confusion. When Kokichi is asking someone if they're lying, things truly have gone bonkers.
"Celeste, is she telling the truth?" Kaito asked.
Celeste could only frown and cross her arms. "I apologize. I can't read her."
Junko smirked. "Well, I guess you're just going to have to take my word for it."
"No, we won't," Peko said with a stern tone. "We won't lower ourselves to work with the likes of you."
"Pfff, please, Peko," Junko laughed. "I got you to work for me before. But sure. I don't really need you guys on this one. I can handle this on my own."
"H-handle what?" Tsumugi asked.
"Taking on the mastermind," Junko answered. "I mean, someone's been ripping me off. Both at that Ultimate Academy and here. Then they shove me into a killing game, mess with my friends and sister, my hobby by the way, take my beloved Monokuma, and they out me as the mastermind?"
Junko turned to glare at the monochrome bear, who had been there the whole time. Junko looked like she was ready to tear the stuffed bear apart…but then she smiled and pointed some finger guns at him. "I gotta say, you got some style for a copycat."
"Aw shucks," Monokuma bashfully scratched the back of his head. "You really know how to make a bear feel special."
"So, I guess I got to do some planning," Junko said.
"Hold it!" Byakuya said before grabbing her arm. "You're not going to be doing anything."
"That's right!" Taka chimed in. "We can't allow you to run free anymore!"
Junko looked at Byakuya's hand gripping onto her arm tightly. She smirked and looked up at the portly man. "You know, you made such a big deal about everyone sharing their secrets, but not once did you consider telling yours. Am I wrong, Twogami?"
Byakuya gritted his teeth as Junko poked through his façade. "You're going to be under 24 hour supervision from now on."
"And who's going to do that?" Junko asked. "Hate to break it to you, but all you guys from Jabberwock can't guard me. Well, except Chiaki."
"Why's that?" Gundhum asked.
"Watch this," Junko said before turning to Mikan. "Hey, Mikan! Miyuki Ishikawa, 1948."
Mikan's eyes immediately rolled back and she collapsed to the floor.
"Mikan!" Nekomaru shouted before rushing to her side. "Are you ok?"
Mikan opened her eyes, but they didn't look right. They were a dark shade of yellow. They looked sickly. Mikan immediately rose back up to her feet and began to giggle uncontrollably.
"Wh-what happened to Pigbarf?" Hiyoko asked.
Mikan's giggles immediately stopped and she looked dead straight into the small girl's eyes. "Call me that again and I'll carve your throat out," she said coldly.
"Wh-what?!" Hiyoko's skin went pale and she went to hide behind Angie.
"Jesus Christ, what the hell was that?!" Leon shrieked.
"I-it's just like the despair disease!" Gundham pointed out.
"I got a bunch of sleeper agent phrases to trigger you guys," Junko said. "Soooo, choose wisely on who you want to watch me."
Byakuya let go of the fashion model. He motioned for Kaito and Taka to huddle with him. The three of them whispered back and forth with each other for around a minute before returning to the rest of the group.
"It has been decided that we will have multiple people assigned to watch Junko and Mikan for now on," Byakuya said. "For Junko, Chiaki will be the first to watch her but we will have Tsumugi to watch her after lunch, then after dinner, Taka will look after her. As for Mikan, we'll have Rantaro watch her until lunch, which then he'll swap with Leon, then finally he'll swap out with Kaede."
Mukuro raised her hand. "Who will look after me?"
"Oh, right," Kaito said before scanning the room. "Ok, so the people that will keep an eye on you will be Sakura, Gonta, and Tenko. Does that work?"
"I believe so," Byakuya said.
There was moment of silence following Byakuya's statement and everyone just felt awkward. Just being in the same room as the person responsible for their suffering was overwhelming. Eventually, Chiaki, Rantaro, and Sakura dragged Junko, Mikan, and Mukuro away. Chiaki even took the extra step to cover Junko's mouth to prevent any other triggers. Eventually though, everyone else broke off and made their ways back to their room. Even Tenko decided to take a break from Sayaka to be by herself for a moment.
Now that she was alone, Sayaka thought for a moment. 'So, she did it. She took me from my friends and dad. She tricked me into attacking Leon. She made me trick Makoto. She got me killed…She took everything from me. She took everything from me!'
Sayaka paused just outside of her room. She didn't budge. She stood as still as a statue as her mind kept spiralling in rage. 'I'm going to fucking kill her.'
That took a bit. Take a shot every time I end a part saying that. I originally planned to have gotten to this part before June, but that obviously didn't happen. I think I remember hearing a story about how the author of My Hero Academy was told by the creator of Naruto to always expect his story lines to go on longer than planned.
Anyways, I'm fairly proud of this part. I like to imagine this scene being similar to Light being discovered in Death Note, or more related, Nagito revealing his craziness to the group in DR2. This was always going to be the first motive. I remember everyone posting how unlikely it would be for Monokuma to come up with a good new motive since no one would comply. OH BOY did you guys not predict this!
Although, I do hate that this became a GIANT exposition dump. Those are hard to give some personality to. I think I did ok at keeping Junko in character though. Also not too happy about how quick I ended the chapter, but whatever.
What do you think? As always, I love your reviews, so keep posting them, keep sharing this story, and have a good day.