Chapter 1: Part 22

Tsumugi took several deep breaths as she tried to ignore all the judging eyes of her peers. She didn't want her last moments before the inevitable to be solely focused on how all those that considered her a friend showing her how much they wanted her to die. They would never say it obviously, but she knew all of their flaws more than they did. She kept her eyes shut. Just like getting a shot, Tsumugi felt that if she didn't see the chains coming then it wouldn't hurt as much. That technique failed as the chain collar shot out from the darkness and clamped around her neck. It was such a tight squeeze that it made her gag.

The chain tugged backwards, but Tsumugi was not ready yet. She grasped onto her podium with both of her hands, just barely managing to keep herself in place. The chain tugged on Tsumugi's neck again. If she kept holding on, she'd either die of asphyxiation or the chain could tug on her neck so hard it could actually decapitate her. She slowly let her right hand off the podium. She nearly fell back then and there, but she kept holding on. She slipped her hand into her jacket pocket and pulled out a notebook. Her grip was loosening on the podium. Her face was turning blue from lack of air. In a panic, she haphazardly tossed the notebook over to Rantaro. The green haired boy was able to catch it. He was confused why Tsumugi gave the book to him or what was even inside it, but he wouldn't have the time to ask those questions. With one final tug, Tsumugi was pulled away from her podium and disappearing into the darkness.

The screen behind Monokuma filled with static for a moment before it shifted to live footage of Tsumugi's then current predicament. The chain dragged her across the floor until it finally stopped in a dark room and strapped her down to a pole. Tsumugi looked around the room for a moment, curious as to where she is, but the lights in the room would turn on so suddenly it nearly blinded her. She squinted her eyes before they slowly adjusted to see where she was. She was strapped down to a pole in what appeared to be a changing room. There was a mirror with several lights surrounding it, clothes hangers filled with dozens upon dozens of different fashion styles and costumes, and there were several boxes of wigs and make-up utensils. A puzzled expression grew across her face, but before she could get an idea of what was instore for her, five new Monokumas entered the room. The first two were dressed like fashion models, one having a massive beehive wig and low-cut sparkly dress and the other with a scarf, glasses, and a hipster haircut. The other three where in suits and sat themselves down at a table off to the side.

The screen in the courtroom flashed a title card to the rest of the students.

"Walking the Runway! Execution for Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer!"

The two fashion model Monokumas dashed over to Tsumugi's sides and tear her clothes off until she's left in her underwear. They measure Tsumugi with a tape ruler before getting their tools ready. They grab several needles and sewing strings then immediately got to work. Instead of picking out any of the outfits from the hangers, the two Monokumas chose to outright sew a new outfit from scratch onto Tsumugi's body. While the Monokumas acted as if they were professional costume designers, they were quite sloppy. They would accidently sew the costume into Tsumugi's skin at several points like at her thigh or her shoulder. Once they were complete, Tsumugi was in a Erza Scarlet cosplay. The two Monokumas turned to face the judge Monokumas. The judges looked amongst themselves before turning around and giving the two fashion designers three thumbs down. The two designers frowned and tore the cosplay right off of Tsumugi, with the bits of clothing sewed into her skin being torn away as well.

Tsumugi's eyes widened. She knew what was to come for her.

The two designer Monokumas tried again, sewing the clothes into Tsumugi's skin again before presenting Tsumugi in an Edward Elric outfit. Again, the judges disapproved and again, the designers tore off the costume. Again and again, each time Tsumugi would feel sharp needles dig through her skin then feel them tear away. More and more of her flesh would become exposed to the air. Even her most of her muscle was torn away. Tears fell down her face as the mere act of breathing became painful. Again and again, her skin was torn away from her before the designer Monokumas seemed to finally be proud of a costume. They unstrapped Tsumugi from the pole and push her forward. Tsumugi could barely stand on her own feet. Her legs, no, her entire body had become nothing but a skeleton with blood and bits of flesh still sticking to her. The pain was unbearable. Even walking sent shockwaves of pain to through her. She felt her eyes get dry. She tried to shut them…Nothing happened. Her tried to blink and blink, but nothing happened. Tsumugi turned to the mirror in the room.

Even the skin on Tsumugi's face had been taken away from. Even her nose was gone. All of her flesh was gone. Only her hair remained. As for her outfit? It was a black button-up jacket, a white button-up, and a red skirt. She was dressed like Junko Enoshima. She looked back at the three judge Monokumas finally smiled and all gave thumbs up to the fashion designers. The two cheered and hugged each other. Tsumugi stumbled away from the rest of the Monokumas and, either from the blood loss or just the insurmountable pain she was experiencing, finally fell over and crashed into the ground with the sound of clattering bones and splatting blood. Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer, was dead.

"WHAM!" Monokuma cheered in his throne. "Talk about hardcore! You'd never be able to show that on television!"

Everyone else had the exact opposite react to Monokuma. For those that had faced execution first-hand, the footage of Tsumugi's skinless body served as painful reminders of their own executions. Leon, Mondo, Teruteru, Peko, Gonta, and Kaito's faces went pale, Kaede's arms shook, Kirumi wrapped her arms around herself, Chiaki frowned, and Gundham kept his arms crossed but his dark disciples knew they needed to snuggle close to his neck and face. For those that were never executed, but took part in the class trials, it made them reflect on what they had done. They had voted for Tsumugi to experience that. They chose her fate. To them, they were as responsible for Tsumugi's death as Monokuma. Ibuki, Hiyoko, Tenko, and Hifumi nearly puked at the site of Tsumugi's body, Chihiro began to cry, Taka gritted his teeth and balled up his fists, and Mahiru froze in horror.

As for those that never been in a class trial, it was a nightmare. Sayaka felt a mix of many of her compatriots' reactions. She went pale, she felt her throat tingle as if she was about to puke, she shook uncontrollably, but all while she remained frozen. Her eyes remained locked on the screen, staring at Tsumugi's lifeless body and kept staring as the screen went to static and eventually turned off. Sayaka just kept staring. Now, Sayaka had never really watched horror movies too often. She had seen few, but even the bloodiest moments in Friday the 13th couldn't even compare to what she had just witnessed. That's when something hit her. She turned to look at Leon. He was still too stunned to notice her, but she realized what she had truly done to him. Whatever execution he had must've been as horrific as Tsumugi. Then another thought came to mind.

'That could've been me,' Sayaka thought. 'If I had killed Leon, I would've…but he was…'

Sayaka's train of thought was interrupted when Monokuma spoke up. "Aww, what's with all the long faces?" the bear asked with a frown. "None of you are horses. And you all got what you want."

"Got what we want?" Chiaki repeated. "We never wanted this."

"Whaaaaaa?" Monokuma faked a gasp. "You guys didn't want the two people responsible for all your misery to die?"

Mukuro sighed and crossed her arms. As did Nagito.

Leon shrugged. "Well…I mean, we kinda did, but-"

"But nothing!" Monokuma interrupted again. "I know all of you are just hiding behind those stuck-up, morally sound masks. You wanted them dead. You just didn't have it in you to get your hands dirty…AGAIN!"

"N-no," Kaede broke herself out of her fear. "You're just playing mind games again. You can try to spin all these scenarios to make it seem like we're not so different, but you're wrong. If we really were as mad as you, we'd never even need the motives to kill. But you always needed them, you always had to think of ways to force us into killing."

Monokuma faked a yawn. "Jeez, you sure you never met the Naegis? Your hero speeches are just as obnoxious as theirs. Besides, you guys always seem to forget how much control you still have here. You can say all that stuff about you not being like me, but come on. Celeste lies, steals, and kills for money, Mukuro has killed thousands of Junko, most of you from Jabberwock Island were Ultimate Despairs, Kokichi is the leader of a villainous organization and Korekiyo has killed hundreds of girls. You all suck just as much as me."

With that, Kaede went quiet again.

"That's what I thought. Now, if you all don't mind, I got some cleaning up to do. Blood is so hard to get out of the carpet. And I have to figure out what to do with all that skin. You can expect the same old, same old tomorrow morning. Goodbye, my lovelies!"

Monokuma blew a kiss to his students as a tile in front of his throne opened up. Monokuma hopped off his chair and cannonballed into the whole before it closed behind him.

The students were left to wallow in their trauma. Everyone was dead silent for minutes, but the sheer amount of nervousness, paranoia, and shock there were experiencing made those minutes feel like as if they were hours. From the execution, to the fact Tsumugi of all people was the mastermind of the Ultimate Academy, the fact she said that all of their suffering was a part of a television show, Byakuya not even being Byakuya, it was all too much to process at once. One thing in particular was bothering Rantaro. He looked down at the notebook Tsumugi had tossed to him. Despite the fact they had all only been in this new killing game for a few days, she had already filled the notebook with writing, drawings, sticky notes, and diagrams.

Kaede had broken away from her shock to glance over at Rantaro. "Do you have any idea what's in it?"

That question, the sudden addition of a conversation to the silence, managed to catch everyone's attention. They all turned to Rantaro as well.

The green haired boy skimmed the first few pages of the notebook before shrugging. "I don't know. Perhaps an explain for what she said earlier," Rantaro said before looking to the rest of the group. "What I want to know is why she tossed it to me."

"Well…" Leon scratched the back of his head. "I mean…maybe she just tossed it. She was about to die."

"Perhaps in her final moments, she saw the light of Auta and wished for your forgiveness," Angie said as she spread her arms out.

"Or maybe you have some part in what she said earlier," Kirumi theorized. "If this truly is just a show, maybe you have something to do with it."

"B-but we aren't show," Gonta said meekly. "We all real, right?"

Everyone went silent once again. The students turned to each other once again with expressions of distrust not only for their peers but for themselves. This existential dilemma could've easily torn apart the group's morale if it weren't for a certain gamer.

"We are real," Chiaki spoke confidently. "Not only did Rantaro poke a hole in Tsumugi's statements earlier, but even still, I know we're all real."

Chiaki turned to the rest of the Hope's Peak students. "I know none of you remember, but I know everything from the three years involving all your lives. I know every second of everyday…You can erase and reform memories, but faking memories is impossible. Memories involve sights, sounds, smells, feelings, you can't fake those…I think."

Despite Chiaki's usual verbal quirk killing some confidence in her words, her speech did seem to actually cut through the doubt all her colleges were sharing. A few weak smiles formed and everyone had a shine in their eyes. Still, the only solved one of the problems the group was having. The violence they had just witnessed was still on their minds. Sensing this, Kaito waved Taka over. Kaito then turned to Byakuya, but before he could wave over the other team leader, Taka placed his hand on his shoulder and shook his head. Kaito would glance back at "Byakuya" with an apologetic look before looking back to Taka.

"I think we should all go ahead and get out of here," Kaito whispered to Taka. "I think everyone really needs to get their minds off this."

"I agree with you," Taka whispered back. "But don't you think we must discuss this as a class at lunch or dinner? We shouldn't break our schedule."

"Look, we shouldn't force anyone to do that right now. That was…that too much. Even from what I saw back at the Ultimate Academy…that was…We can't have a meeting now."

Taka sighed and nodded. "Very well." Taka turned back to the group. "It is time for us to depart," Taka announced. "While I'd like for us to continue eating together for lunch and dinner, I realize that all of you need time to recover. I wish you all to eat and rest well."

"Yeah," Kaito spoke up. "As much as it sucks, we do got a lot of stuff to do tomorrow if things go the same way as last time."

And with that, Kaito and Taka led the group out of the courtroom and back into the elevator. The Imposter Byakuya chose to stay at the back of the line. He couldn't help but have a frown across his face after Taka shunned him. He couldn't blame the Moral Compass for this. He had just been exposed as an imposter instead of the true Byakuya Togami.

'I never meant for it to be a secret forever' the imposter thought to himself. 'I just could never find the right time. I just…'

The imposter removed his glasses and stared down at them. One of the key pieces to his disguise. Looking at it…at that moment…enraged him. He crushed them in his hand and tossed the broken glass and bent frame onto the ground. With his mask disposed of, he stepped into the elevator with the rest of the group.

The rest of the group filed into the elevator. Once the doors shut and the metal box moved up, another period of silence was created. No one really wanted to talk. They all just wanted to think about what they had just experienced. Of course, that was a horrible idea as continuing to think of such dark and confusing topics would only make their moods worse. When the elevator reached the ground floor and opened up, everyone split off from each other and headed their own separate directions. Well, expect one person.

Mikan had been especially affected by this day. Her already overly-timid behavior was somehow made worse. She hadn't even noticed it, but she had been pulling on her hair for the past hour. Her breathing had become short and frantic. Tears had been pouring down her face. Some of her classmates and even herself would've just written it off as Mikan just being Mikan. She was always like that. Yet, someone noticed how horrible she was truly feeling. As Mikan grabbed onto her door's handle, she felt a light tap on her shoulder. Mikan yelped a bit before turning around and bowing her head.

"I-I-I'm sorry!" Mikan cried. "I didn't mean to ignore you!"

Mikan heard a polite laugh come from this person. When she lifted her head up, she saw it was Rantaro giving her a warm smile.

"There's no need to apologize, Mikan," Rantaro said. "I'm the one that snuck up on you after all."

Mikan relaxed herself as best she could. She was still tugging on her hair and breathing rapidly, but at least the tears stopped. "O-oh. Hello, Rantaro. Is everything ok? Are you sick?"

"No. I'm fine. I'm actually here to check on you."

Mikan raised an eyebrow. "R-r-really? Y-y-you wanted to check on m-me?"

"Of course. I did promise I'd do that from time to time." After Rantaro said that, his polite smile dropped to a frown. "Something I…didn't do the best job keeping."

Mikan looked up at Rantaro. "Th-that's not true. Y-y-you checked on me a lot."

"But I didn't even notice what Junko was doing to you."

The mere mention of Junko's name made Mikan turn her head away in shame from the green haired boy.

Rantaro crossed his arms and sighed. "You loved her, didn't you?"

Mikan kept her gaze away from Rantaro as she held her hands close to her chest. "She…she made me smile, made me feel pretty, she…she told me th-that everyone was mean to me. I-I believed her…S-she used me, didn't she?"

Rantaro nodded. "She knew how timid, no offense, you could be and she abused your need to feel appreciated."

"I-I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Rantaro placed his hand on Mikan's shoulder. "It's not wrong for you to want to be loved and appreciated. It's just unfortunate someone would want to abuse that for their own gain."

Mikan nodded lightly.

"Look, I want to make things right," Rantaro said as he looked into Mikan's eyes. "I swear I'll do a better job at helping you. If you need anything, I'll come to you as fast as I can. Ok?"

Mikan nodded again. "Th-thank you."

Rantaro smiled and pulled the nurse into a hug. A real hug. With no desires for sex or other manipulative tactics. Just a hug a brother would give their sister. Despite that, Mikan couldn't help but blush a deep shade of red. She could never truly get used to physical contact. Yet, she pushed herself into returning the hug for even the briefest moment before recoiling away from Rantaro.

"Th-thank you," Mikan mumbled out.

Rantaro smiled. "You're welcome."

Rantaro waved goodbye to Mikan before leaving the girl. Mikan kept up her smile as she finally entered her dorm room and shut the door behind her.

Rantaro meanwhile stopped in the middle of the hallway to look at the notebook one more time. 'Will explain what you meant earlier, Tsumugi?' he thought to himself.

Sayaka had locked herself in to her room, collapsed onto her bed, and stared up at the ceiling. She had been stuck in that position. Even when her stomach growled or even a sudden itch on her thigh or back, she would not budge. The idol instead chose to focus on her own thoughts.

'It's all my fault,' Sayaka thought to herself. 'If I never sent that letter, if I never tried to switch rooms with Makoto, no one would've died. No one would've gone through those executions.'

Sayaka ran both of her hands across her hair with ahoge poking out through her fingers. 'That execution…that was worse than if I had just killed Leon. I made everything worse. No one was planning a murder until me. Maybe…maybe we could've broken out. Then maybe none of the other killing games would've happened either.'

Sayaka sat up on her bed. Tsumugi's words echoed through her mind. 'A TV. We're all just characters in a TV show. Is that even true? I want to agree with Chiaki. Heck, Rantaro even made Tsumugi falter with his questions. So, she had to be lying, right? You can't fake memories. I know that my memories can't be fake. But…Junko admitted to erasing our memories. Was a TV show a part of those missing memories? Why? Is it just another one of Junko's sick tricks? Was Tsumugi in on it? What about what they said about the world being destroyed? The only way I'll get those answers is if I get out, if I-'

Sayaka shook her head. 'NO! I won't! I won't make that mistake again!'

A knock at the door derailed Sayaka's train of thought. Curious as to who it was, Sayaka rose from her bed and opened the door. "Hello?"

Honestly, Sayaka shouldn't have been so surprised to see Tenko standing in her doorway. Perhaps the negative thinking she had done earlier threw her off her game. Still, a friendly face was something Sayaka was pleased to see.

"Hey, Sayaka," Tenko said as she raised up a plate with a rather plain ham and cheese sandwich placed on it. "I…I noticed that you weren't at lunch or dinner, so I figured you'd might be hungry….Um…I made a sandwich without burning it."

"Wait, dinner?" Sayaka raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Tenko said. "It's past 8 o'clock."

Sayaka turned her head around to look at the clock in her room. 9:49 pm. Sayaka looked back at her friend. "Wow," she said with a fake laugh. "I guess I really lost track of time."

Tenko laughed. "Well, that's why I'm here with food."

Tenko handed the plate over to Sayaka and the idol politely bowed her head. "Thank you, Tenko. Do you want to come in?"

"Sure thing!" Tenko said loudly and entered the room.

The two girls walked over to Sayaka's bed and sat themselves down. While Sayaka went to scarf down her meal to make up for missing two meals, Tenko just watched. If it was anyone else, mainly Teruteru, Sayaka would've been uncomfortable being caught eating in such an unladylike manner. But Sayaka continued to eat this way until the sandwich was no more. She placed the plate down on her nightstand and turned back over to Tenko.

"Thank you, Tenko," Sayaka said with a bright smile.

"Of course!" Tenko responded. "I swore I'd do anything for you and I plan on keeping that promise."

Sayaka chuckled a bit. "R-right."

"So…are you feeling ok?"

Sayaka's smile shifted to a frown. She looked away from her friend and shook her head. "No. I…I didn't know it would…I didn't know executions would be so cruel."

Tenko scooted closer to Sayaka.

"I know that…I know that was the rules, but…I did that to Leon back at Hope's Peak. My message caused him to die like that. And if I did kill him…"

Tenko placed her hand Sayaka's. "Sayaka, stop. You…you got to focus on what you've done right. You helped us solve that case! I don't think anyone could've come to that conclusion! Even I doubted it. But you saved us. You're a hero, Sayaka. You're amazing."

Sayaka looked back over to her friend. "You really think so?"

"No. I know so," Tenko smiled.

"BING BING BING!" the school's intercom played out. "It is now 10 pm." Monokuma's standard nighttime announced played out. "As a result, all water has been shut off and the cafeteria will be closed until morning. I hope all of you have sweet dreams about poor Junko and Tsumugi. It just won't be the same without them."

As the intercom shut off, Sayaka frowned once again with images of Tsumugi's corpse filling her mind.

Tenko sighed and rose up from the bed. "Ugh, that degenerate just had to say it like that. Can't he have any decency?" Tenko turned in the hopes Sayaka would comment, but she saw the idol looked down again. "Are you going to be ok, Sayaka?"

Sayaka shook her head. "No. I think tonight is going to be…unpleasant."

For reasons she couldn't quite understand, Sayaka recalled her final night at Hope's Peak, and more specifically her final discussion with Makoto. 'Why don't you stay in my room tonight?' Perhaps that memory wanted to help her.

"Hey, Tenko?" Sayaka spoke up. "Do you think you could stay the night tonight? I just don't think I want to be alone with…those thoughts tonight."

Tenko stood still as she stared at Sayaka.

Sayaka found Tenko's pause unusual. "Uh, Tenko?"

Just then, Tenko's face turned beat red and she dropped to her knees. "I'M NOT WORTHY! I'M NOT WORTHY!"

"T-tenko!" Sayaka shot up to her feet. "Tenko, calm down. It isn't that big of a deal, is it? We're just doing this to avoid any nightmares. D-don't think of it as spending the night with a pop idol. Just think of me as Sayaka."

Tenko lifted her head up to her friend. "But I only ever think of you as Sayaka." While she still had a blush across her face, Tenko stood up on her feet. "B-but, if you need me to keep you safe tonight then I will!"

'Maybe I was a bit too quick to ask her this.' Sayaka thought to herself. Still, she smiled brightly to her friend. "Thank you, Tenko."

Tenko smiled brightly at Sayaka and immediately wrapped her arms around Sayaka. The idol was startled by Tenko's hug and fell back onto the bed, dragging Tenko onto it along with her. Sayaka was a bit uncomfortable, but she was eventually able to break out of Tenko's grip and more comfortably lay herself down. That didn't stop Tenko from cuddling close to Sayaka, but the girl certainly took the hint to at least not be so smothering. Tenko's job was to be there for her friend. That's all. Sayaka still couldn't truly get over the sights of Tsumugi's body, but the fact Tenko was with her soothed her just enough for her to close her eyes and drift off to sleep.

Chapter 1: Complete

Number of Students Remaining: 31

Got this done in just of the nick of time. I have a movie to see tonight, so I'm glad I got it done before the weekend was over. Still, maybe the final paragraph was a bit rushed. I did have plans for Sayaka and Tenko to talk about some more things before going to sleep. Oh well, they can do that when they wake up.

I'm very proud of how the execution turned out. Perhaps it was too repetitive at points but I'm still proud of how cruel it is with some light dark humor with the Monokumas. I definitely plan on having the executions to be as disturbing as Danganronpa Another lol.

I'm also proud to get some more character moments from Chiaki, Rantaro, Mikan and Byakuya. It feels like a bit since Chiaki, Byakuya and Mikan had chances to take the spotlight for a bit. Chiaki especially needed it. Plus, I will actually have to give Imposter Byakuya an actual name...I hope it doesn't annoy anyone.

Anyways, we're done with the first chapter finally. Kinda wish I got it done around July or August, but scheduling and work sucks ass. I am glad to have gotten this far and to have all you guys being so invested in it. It has given me a confidence boost as a writer and given me a lot to think about. I am trying to branch out to do other series. I'm trying to do a Mortal Kombat fanfic, maybe step back into RWBY. Who knows. I just wonder if there's even a percentage of you guys that love be Danganronpa AND Mortal Kombat like me.

Anyways, thank you for reading, everyone. I may take a 1 week break from this story to get things in order, but then we'll be back for Chapter 2, which I promise will get some gooooood shit there.