Chapter 1: Part 20

Descending down the elevator shaft, the students were left in complete darkness with only the sounds of the gears shifting breaking the silence. None of the students spoke to each other, none of them made a stray comment, none of them sneezed or coughed. They were dead silent. The suspense, or possibly the paranoia they were all clearly feeling was keeping them quiet. It didn't help that they were all bumping against in the dark, not sure of who was next to them. It could've been the killer after all. No one kept track of how long they had been in the elevator. They knew it was long, but without clear visibility or a clock, minutes felt like hours. Eventually, the elevator came to a stop and shutters opened up.

The bright lights of the room ahead took some time to adjust to, but when everyone's vision returned they were greeted by Monokuma's courtroom. It was…certainly something. For those familiar for the trials, it was nothing new. The center of the room was a circle of podiums facing each other, just enough for each of the students to stand behind. One of them even had a hung portrait of Tsumugi, greyed out with a giant X across it. For Sayaka, Byakuya, and Rantaro, they saw how overly extravagant Monokuma decorated the area. He had red carpets lining the path to each podium, as if this was part of a major event like an award show. The tiles of the floor were checker patterned, the wood of the podiums were of the highest quality with a slight red tint to it, and just behind the circle of podiums was a giant, golden throne with red cushions.

Monokuma sat upon the throne and held his hands out wide. "Welcome, welcome!" Monokuma cheered to all his students. "Welcome to Monokuma's Courtroom of Despair!"

"Do you really have to name everything after that stupid word?" Miu asked as she stepped out of the elevator.

"Hey, when you make your own school you can name it whatever you want," Monokuma protested back.

"I wish for you to clarify something, Monokuma!" Taka shouted. "Are these podiums assigned to specific students?"

"Nope," Monokuma smirked with a wink. "You all can stand where-ever you want."

Everyone spread and took their spots in the podiums. As all the spots began to fill out, Sayaka noticed that she was standing right next the portrait of Tsumugi. She turned to Monokuma to ask, "Why is this portrait here?"

"Why?" Monokuma tilted his head to the side. "Why not? I mean, just because one of your friends died doesn't mean they can't be with you in spirit."

"Are you just want to mock us over our failure to save her," Chiaki said sternly.

Monokuma placed his hand over his stuffed heart and groaned in agony. Obviously acting, but he continued to whine. "Ouch! Can't you believe that I'd just want to be nice for once?"

Sayaka glanced over at the portrait. Seeing a similar looking blue haired girl in a funeral portrait got her thinking. 'So, that was all that was left of me when I died?'

Mondo ran his hand across the wooden stand in front of him and gave it a few knocks. "Pretty sturdy stuff. What is this? Mahogany?"

"Actually, it is not, Owada," Korekiyo said with a wag of his finger. "This kind of wood is called Bossé. It is a hardwood most commonly found in parts of Africa which is often used for furniture, flooring, and boatbuilding."

Mondo gave the podium another firm knock. "Huh, pretty cool."

"Oh, yes," Mahiru said as she sarcastically rolled her eyes. "Let's admire the bear's interior decorating. Seriously, can't you guys focus on anything important for a second?"

"Sorry, sorry," Mondo said. "I guess I'm still tryna put this off."

"Yeah," Kaito scratched the back of his head. "These get pretty intense, Mahiru."

"Mahiru already knows that, idiot!" Hiyoko hissed out. "Everyone here already knows that."

"I haven't," Rantaro said. "I know Monokuma has explained the class trials, but I myself have never been in one."

Sayaka finally looked away from the cosplayer's portrait to face the rest of the group. "I haven't either. I still don't really know how we're even supposed to do this."

"Why, I'm glad you brought that up, Sayaka!" Monokuma said cheerfully. "As a refresher, let me explain. You all are tasked with discussing all possibilities on who is innocent and who is the blackened. All of your answers will be put to a vote. If you vote correctly, only the blackened will be punished. But if you pick wrong? Upupupupup, I got plenty of machines in the back that would love to rip out the spines off all you wrong, wrong, WRONG children."

Ibuki gasped and covered her mouth. "You're going to remove our spines!?"

"Well, that or some of the other stuff in the back," Monokuma said. "But never mind that! It's either you all live or the blackened gets to go free!"

"Ok, so how do we start?" Sayaka asked.

"If you're looking for structure in this hell, you can forget it," Gundham growled as Kahn curled up on his shoulder. "All discussions here are settle with whose aura is the strongest!"

Sayaka was completely thrown off by Gundham's comment. She turned to his classmates, hoping they'd be able to translate.

"He means we simply discuss amongst ourselves," Peko said calmly. "Most of the time, we argue over each other until someone points us all in the right direction."

"And boy can that become a disaster," Kokichi chimed in. "And with over thirty people here? Nehehe, this will be quite the show."

"Don't you try to start anything, Kokichi!" Tenko shouted as she held her fists up. "You do anything funny, I'll throw you across the room!"

"Aww, but everything I do is funny," Kokichi frowned.

"Enough!" Byakuya shouted. "We need to focus on the task at hand. Let's go over all the facts first. I hate to say it, but I can imagine some of you didn't look at the case file."

Chihiro frowned a bit. "S-sorry. I just…I didn't want to do this again."

"Trust me, kid," Mondo said. "No one does."

"Very well!" Taka spoke up. "We should probably start with the basic information first then look over the rest of the evidence."

"Ok," Leon pulled out his monopod and opened up the case file. "So, the person that was killed was Tsumugi."

Hifumi gripped tightly onto his podium, tears and snort just barely peaking out.

"She died at 8:40 and her body was found five minutes later," Peko said as she checked the casefile as well. "She was killed by multiple stab wounds all over her body."

"And if I remember right, the flash bang went off at 8:35," Kaede spoke up.

"That leaves a five minute gap in between each of the major events," Gundham commented as he petted Raijin's head. "This killer certainly precise and calculated with their actions."

"What was the murder weapon?" Rantaro asked. "Was it a knife from the kitchen?"

"It has to be!" Taka shouted. "If you all recall, I personally led a group to the storage room to retrieve any and all sharp objects that could prove harmful to our safety! Clearly, I should have taken the extra step to take all kitchen utensils as well."

"Excuse me?!" Teruteru shouted back. "You honestly expect me to just let you take away cooking tools, our way of eating? This is an insult to the culinary arts!"

"Guys, focus," Kaede said. "We're talking about a murder here."

"Yeah, and besides I can't be too sure that a kitchen knife was the murder weapon," Kaito said.

"It wasn't?" Sakura asked. "It would be the most obvious tool for the job."

"It would be, but Sayaka actually noticed something weird about it," Kaito explained. He then turned to the idol. "Want to explain it?"

Sayaka was caught off guard by the sudden shift in attention. Of course, she was used to being the center of attention on stage, but for a murder trial? It gave her some goosebumps. "Well, when I was investigating Tsumugi's stab wounds I looked at the knife handle…which was sticking out of her…"

She and most of the other students in the room felt the need to gulp down some of their spit. Just so it could be a barrier for any puke that may come up.

Sayaka continued, "When I looked at it, I thought the handle for the knife was off. You know how most kitchen knives have smooth, wooden handles?"

"Of course," Teruteru said. "And the ones here are just like that."

"Well, the handle for this knife was rubber and it seemed to have small grooves for your fingers to easily wrap around it comfortably."

Mukuro raised an eyebrow. "A rubber handle and grooved hilt? That sounds like a hunting knife."

"Yeah, we thought so too," Kaito said. "Although, none of us were really willing to pull it out and check."

"Gonta don't understand," Gonta said with a hapless expression across his face. "Kitchen knife still cut person. Why use hunting knife?"

"While a kitchen knife can still be used to hurt people, a hunting knife is a better choice of weapon," Mukuro explained.

"H-hunting knives can c-c-cut through bones and muscle easier because th-they were made with animals in mind," Mikan explained as she fiddled with her fingers.

"Th-they wanted to kill her like she was some sort of animal?" Hifumi balled his hands up in anger. "H-how could they be so cruel?"

"But that kind of brings up another concern about the knife," Sayaka spoke up again. "Yesterday when we went to the cafeteria after Junko was revealed to be the mastermind, I went to the kitchen to make myself something. Yet, when I went to the knife box, two of them were missing from it. I saw that Teruteru was using one of them, but there was no sign of the other."

"Wait, both of you went to the knife box, saw there was a knife missing, and neither of you said anything?!" Hiyoko said before scowling at both of them. "Both of you really are stupid!"

"Hey, don't call Sayaka stupid!" Tenko slammed her hands against her podium. "She's doing her best and she's bringing up good information!"

"Ok, but can she actually tell us where the kitchen knife went?" Hiyoko asked as condescending as she could.

"That is an important question," Angie chimed in. "All of us would feel much safer if we know the location of the missing kitchen knife."

"I can answer that," Byakuya spoke. He pulled the burnt backpack out, unzipped it, and pulled out the kitchen knife. "It was in this backpack."

'So, I was right in pointing that out,' Sayaka thought to herself. 'But why was that knife taken anyway? I still don't know if I'm doing this right.'

"Wait, where did you find that backpack?" Nagito asked.

"It was in the furnace," Byakuya said. "Leon was able to turn it off before it could be completely disintegrated."

Mondo, Celeste, and Sakura looked over at Leon. Leon rolled his eyes. He was not in the mood to go through that conversation again.

Celeste chuckled a bit before turning back to the rest of the group. "The backpack also had two pieces of along with the knife. All of them remained intact inside the backpack as the furnace burned the backpack."

"But what's the story about the knife and cloth?" Ibuki asked. "We already know that a hunting knife killed Tsumugi, so are these even important?"

"It's too suspicious that the kitchen knife went missing and was found in such an unusual spot," Peko commented. "It must have played some factor into this."

"What if the murderer used both knives and only threw one of them away?" Taka asked.

Chiaki shook her head. "No," she said. "If they used both knives and went to the trash room, they would have had the chance to throw both of them away."

"Perhaps we will find the answer to that after we discuss the two other aspects to this case," Rantaro spoke up. "We haven't even talked about the flash bang grenade that went off."

"Oh yeah," Kaito said. "We should talk about that!"

"Ok, let's go over what happened before the flash bang went off," Kaede chimed in.

"Why the fuck do we need to do that?" Miu hissed. "We all saw what happened! Junko went full psycho bitch and went to stab Tsumugi in front of everyone! Then the flash bang went off and blinded us to shit!"

"Psycho bitch?" Junko tilted her head to the side. "Seriously? That's the best you could come up, Miu? I thought you would be able to come up with a better insult than that."

"Oh, oh!" Kokichi chimed in. "I got one! How about silicon chested, psycho whore?"

Junko chuckled and pointed to Kokichi. "See? Now that's an insult."

"That will be enough discussion from the two of you," Byakuya said sternly.

Junko pouted her lips. "Party pooper."

"C-can we go back to talking about that flash bang?" Chihiro asked.

"Yes, I believe we should try and deduce who was one who threw the grenade," Kiyo said.

"Well, wouldn't it just be the murderer?" Leon asked.

"No, it wouldn't," Mukuro said.

Leon looked over to the soldier. "Why not?"

"Because I'm the one that threw the flash bang grenade," Mukuro said.

Everyone in the room who didn't stay in the cafeteria turned to Mukuro and expressed various different levels of shock and confusion.

"What?!" Hiyoko gasped.

"Seriously?!" Mondo shouted.

"Why would you do such a thing?" Chihiro asked, almost at the verge of tears.

Mukuro crossed her arms and glared at Junko. "Because I wanted to kill Junko." She turned back to the rest of the class and pulled Junko's letter. "She wrote this letter to me last night, basically taunting for ever going along with her plans…I…I guess I finally had enough of her."

Everyone turned towards each other and discussed amongst themselves before finally facing Mukuro again.

"So, you were the one that killed Ms. Shirogane?" Hifumi asked.

"I just said I wasn't," Mukuro said. "Tsumugi wasn't even a target."

"But you could have done it on accident!" Hifumi said, still wishing to accuse the girl.

"Hifumi, calm down," Rantaro said.

"No I won't! She killed my friend!" Hifumi had gone red in his face.

"She couldn't have killed Tsumugi," Rantaro interrupted again. "Mukuro was still in the cafeteria when Tsumugi's body was discovered."

"She…" Hifumi took a deep breath and all the red heat from his face drained away. "Wait, what?"

"When the flash bang went off Tsumugi wasn't in the cafeteria, Mukuro was. Mukuro couldn't have had the time to kill Tsumugi somewhere else then return to the cafeteria without any blood on her."

"Yeah, yeah!" Ibuki spoke up. "She even confessed this to Ibuki, Peko, and Rantaro!"

"I…well," Hifumi stumbled over his words before finally huffing and crossing his arms. "It seems…I was wrong."

"While we are on the subject of Mukuro being in the cafeteria and Tsumugi's body being somewhere else, can I ask something?" Mahiru raised her hand.

"What is it?" Kaito asked.

"Was anyone missing from the cafeteria when we all came to?" Mahiru asked. "Outside of Tsumugi."

"That actually leads into the second thing we needed to discuss," Byakuya spoke up. "Junko, Nagito, and Kokichi were unaccounted for during the aftermath of the flashbang. Until we can confirm what they were doing, they will be our primary suspects."

Tenko immediately turned her head to Kokichi and scowled at him. "So, what were you up to, Kokichi? Finally committing a murder?!"

"Me? Murder someone?" Kokichi frowned as tears poured down his cheeks. "How could even accuse me of something like that?!" Kokichi screamed at the top of his lungs as wept. "YOU'RE SO MEAN!"

Kirumi blew some air through her nose before speaking up. "Kokichi, enough."

Kokichi immediately stopped his crocodile tears and returned to a neutral expression. "Ugh, fine. Way to ruin my fun, mom."

Celeste smiled and gave a polite nod to the maid. "Thank you, Kirumi." She then turned back to Kokichi. "Now, Kokichi, please explain to us what you were doing while you were missing. And please don't lie. I'll know it."

Kokichi groaned again. "You know, I haven't been able to have as much fun since I met you."

"Good, no one of us are interested in your games," Chiaki said sternly.

Kokichi rolled his eyes. "Well, if you guys really need me to tell the truth then I'll do it. I actually got a letter last night."

Kokichi pulled the letter out of his pocket and held it up to the rest of the group. "I was basically asked to go out into the hallway and stop anyone from going towards the end."

Mukuro raised an eyebrow. 'You got a letter too?'

"And that's when bro went out after him," Mondo spoke up. "When bro got back there to drag everyone back, the little sh-"

Taka gave a stern look over to his friend.

Mondo cleared his throat. "The kid snuck behind him and knocked him. He then tied him and threw into a locker."

"Then he played dead with fake blood on the floor," Kaede added. "That's when we told us everything."

"Since Mondo and Kaede backed up his story, we can assume he's telling the truth," Ryoma. "Yet, there's something odd you just mentioned, Kaede."

Kaede raised an eyebrow. "Huh? What is it?"

Ryoma leaned forward towards the piano player and his dead eyes gave her an intense stare. "How do you know it's fake?"

"I…well he wasn't bleeding, he was playing dead," Kaede explained. "So, it has to be fake, right?"

"What if it's Tsumugi's blood?"

"Wh-what?!" Kaede gasped.

"Oh!" Kokichi giggled. "That's quite the interesting theory, Ryoma. I wonder if anyone can disprove it."

"You're saying that it isn't her blood?" Ryoma asked as he took his candy cigar out of his mouth. "Even if it isn't, you still got to explain where that blood came from."

"Who knows?" Kokichi shrugged before putting his hands in his pockets. "I could have tripped and busted my head open."

"Which is a lie," Celeste commented.

"True, but that still doesn't change my point. I could have gotten it anywhere." Kokichi turned his attention over to Sayaka and smirked. "Since you're the biggest newbie out of all the newbies, why don't we test you, Sayaka? Do you think it's Tsumugi's blood?"

Sayaka raised an eyebrow. 'He's really singling me out?' she thought to herself. 'If he's turning this trial into some sort of game, there has to be more to this, right?'

Before Sayaka could speak up, Tenko decided to rush to her friend's add. As she grinded her teeth, she shouted towards the small boy. "Kokichi, don't you dare mess with Sayaka!"

"I'm only asking a question. Besides, I'm sure she'll welcome the chance to try and help us solve this mystery."

Sayaka placed her finger on her chin as she thought. "Well, judging from the crime scene and Tsumugi's body, there more signs of a struggle. But…you don't seem to have those signs of a struggle like cuts on you. You were also several rooms away from Tsumugi's body. So…I don't think that blood is Tsumugi's."

Kokichi had a blank expression across his face. He stared right into Sayaka's eyes before smirking and clapping his hands. "That's correct! Bravo, Maizono!"

Ryoma looked over to Celeste for confirmation of whether it was a lie or not. Celeste looked back at the short man and nodded. Ryoma sighed and put his candy cigar in his mouth.

"Very well," Byakuya said as he crossed his arms. "You may not have Tsumugi's blood on you, but that still doesn't explain whose blood that is."

Kokichi pulled his hands out of his pockets to shrug once again, although a plastic bag with some blood drops inside was in one of his hands. "Who's to say?"

Mikan's eyes immediately honed in on the bag. "Wh-where did you get that bag?"

"Hmmm?" Kokichi hummed before looking at the bag. "Oh, this? I stole this blood bag from the nurse's office."

"You're hiding evidence that proves you didn't do it?" Mahiru asked.

"The hell, kid?" Mondo asked. "Do you get off on wasting everyone's time?"

"You could say that," Kokichi said with a smile.

"So, that proves Kokichi didn't kill Tsumugi, but he definitely did prevent Taka from seeing the murder take place," Kaito said. "I guess now we got to answer where Nagito was."

Everyone turned to face Nagito. Chiaki was particularly curious as to Nagito's whereabouts. She had a disappoint frown across her face as she looked at the lucky student.

Nagito gave everyone a polite smile. "I could tell you guys, but I'm not sure if any of you would even believe me."

"We'll have Celeste judge your story," Byakuya said. "So, just tell us what it is."

Nagito took a deep breath and began his story. "I will admit, I actually wanted to kill Junko."

"Jesus, this chick pissed everyone off," Miu commented.

"It's almost like I destroyed the world or something," Junko said with a snicker.

"SHUT UP!" Nagito shouted.

The sudden shift in Nagito's tone took everyone by surprise. Nagito even noticed how off putting that was and regained his composure. "I'm sorry, everyone. But I stand by my decision to try and kill Junko. For all the evil she's caused, the suffering, the despair, I couldn't allow her to keep living. I'm sorry I failed."

"How would have even attempted to kill her?" Peko asked. "The only knife that was missing was in a furnace and Taka had a group to gather all the sharp items from the storage room."

"Well, as they were leaving, I bumped into them and I managed to sneak a pocket knife out of one of their crates," Nagito said as he pulled said pocket knife out of his pocket.

Taka gasped. "What?! Y-you tricked me?"

"I'm sorry, Ishimaru, but I knew I had to take action eventually…That was until the flash bang went off."

"S-so you attacked Miss Shirogane by mistake?" Hifumi asked.

"But he doesn't have any blood on him," Sayaka said. "If he had attacked her in the way Tsumugi was died, he'd be covered in her blood."

"Maybe he washed it off," Hifumi said.

"Well, why don't we just ask what Nagito was up to?" Kiyo asked. "Care to tell us, Nagito?"

Nagito nodded. "Well, after the flash bang went off, I was blinded for a while. I was trying to find my way around the halls, but I still couldn't see anything. My sight only came back around a few minutes after the body discovery announcement."

Everyone looked at Nagito for a moment.

"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Miu said. "You expect us to believe is that shit?!"

"I do," Chiaki said.

Miu turned her attention to Chiaki. "Fucking what?! I know gamers are stupid, but you got to be the stupidest if you believe that shit!"

"Yeah, no offense, Chiaki," Tenko spoke up, "but him going blind just as he was about to kill someone then still being blind this whole time sounds silly. I mean, we don't even need Celeste to check him, right?"

Tenko turned her attention the gambler for confirmation of his claim, yet she saw Celeste she had a look of absolute confusion across her face. Celeste couldn't even use her poker face as she stared right at Nagito. Her mouth was even hung open.

"Um," Tenko raised an eyebrow. "Celeste?"

Celeste ignored Tenko as she kept looking at Nagito. "What are you?"

"What do you mean?" Nagito asked.

"You can't possibly be telling the truth," Celeste almost let some anger slip into her voice. "It's the most moronic thing I've heard this whole trial, and yet…you aren't lying."

"Wait, he's telling the truth?" Chihiro asked.

Tenko's eyes bugged out as she gasped. "For real?! But how?!"

Chiaki just sighed and shook her head. "Nagito's luck works in mysterious ways."

Kaede "So, with Mukuro, Nagito, and Kokichi off the suspects list, then that means the only suspect is-"

"DING, DING, DING!" Junko clapped her hands together. "It's me, me, me!"

"Of course," Byakuya said sternly as he sneered at Junko. "You were the one who started all of this."

"Of course!" Hifumi slammed his fists against the podium. "She probably wrote both of those letters to stop us from finding out!"

"So, it was all just to drag this shit out, huh?" Miu asked. "Fuck you, you despair loving bitch!"

Junko held a confident smirk up and shrugged. "What can I say? I love spreading misery and confusion."

"And yet, Auta was there to lead us to the truth," Angie said with a bright smile. "Praise be to Auta!"

Hiyoko suddenly held her hands together. "Praise be to Auta."

Mahiru frowned as she watched Hiyoko give into the cultist's madness. She sighed and looked back at the rest of the group. "Can we just get this over with?" she asked. "I'm sure none of us have any reservations about getting her executed."

"Aw, don't say that, Mahiru," Junko said with a frown. "Mikan still cares about me."

Mikan blushed. "Wh-what?! N-no. Y-you tricked me. You u-used me."
"But how can you say that after all the great times we had?" Junko said. "I'm your beloved after all."

Mikan blushed more. All the memories of the past few days came to her mind. She especially remembered their moments together at night. "I…I…"

"Don't listen to her, Tsumiki!" Taka said to the nurse. "She is just trying to trick you again!"

"Ugh!" Junko groaned and rolled her eyes. "Fine. Just go ahead and vote me guilty already."

"Wait," Sayaka spoke up. "You're…just giving up?"

"Yeah?" Junko said. "Why wouldn't I? All of it points to me. Might as well get this over with."

"Aren't you…too calm for this?" Sayaka asked. "You're…you're going to die."

"So? I enjoy being in despair just as much as I like putting other's through despair."

"But what about the backpack in the furnace?" Kaede asked. "What about that kitchen knife and pieces of cloth?"

"Who cares?" Junko said. "I…tossed it in a while ago to dispose of evidence. So, let's hurry this up. Let's get the voting started!"

Sayaka looked around her and saw there was a split in the group. One half, Kaito, Leon, Hifumi, Angie, Hiyoko, Tenko, Gonta, Taka, Mahiru, Nagito, and Mikan seemed to believe Junko's words. They nodded towards each other and looked down at their podiums waiting for the voting screen to appear. The other half, Kaede, Chiaki, Celeste, Sakura, Peko, Rantaro, and Gundham all had hesitant faces. Just like Sayaka, they weren't in a rush to get the voting started.

"This has to be some sort of trick," Chiaki said. "Junko may love despair, but she wouldn't give up on a chance to make us suffer."

"But it has to be her," Kaito said. "She jumped Tsumugi at the table and she was found with Tsumugi's body later covered in blood and cuts. That has to be from the struggle."

"But why did she get Mukuro and Kokichi to stall this?" Peko asked.

"It has to be to distract us," Leon said. "She threw us off her trail and got us to suspect others."

'Something has to be up,' Sayaka thought to herself. 'There's too many unanswered questions. Why would Junko hide if she was willing to give up? What was with the backpack with the kitchen knife if the hunting knife was the actual murder weapon? What were the pieces of cloth about? There's so much we need to discuss…But I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I'm not a detective. I'm not like…'

Sayaka grabbed her head as a sudden rush of pain flashed through. But just as quickly as it came, it faded away. Sayaka was left just to return to her thoughts. 'I'm not a detective. I'm just a pop idol. I never done any investigating. I'm a singer. A dancer. I'm good at interviews, singing, changing outfits quickly, signing autographs, posing for photos, and…'

Sayaka stopped her train of thought. 'Wait…Wait…That…That might be it.'

Sayaka looked to the rest of the group. "Wait! I think I might have a theory!"

I'm going to be honest with you guys. I'm not really proud of this chapter. I hate I didn't really get to use all of the Danganronpa trial traditions like dramatic pointing. Maybe next chapter. I also think I finally hit the wall of dealing with all these characters at once. Trying to balance this cast all at once was a bit of a nightmare. I at least hope somehow this was still an engaging mystery.

That's probably why this chapter took so long. It was kind of draining to deal with. I do still hope to get the trial and the whole 1st part of the story done before the end of the month. October will be busy for me. Not too many chapters will happen during that time. At least it will give me a chance to focus on family, friends, games, and my other writing projects.

I can also get back to posting this story to tumblr, deviant art, and AO3. Maybe I'll finally fix all my bad grammar.

Anyways, thank you all for your patience, thank you for all of your support, and keep up the reviews.