Everyone was silent, some with their mouths agape. They tried to process what they had just witnessed. Leon Kuwata, someone who they considered their friend, was executed in front of them in one of the most brutal ways possible. It was highly sickening.
TK looked down at his vest, where Leon clutched onto him for dear life. He could still hear Leon begging him to save him, but there was nothing he could've done. He remembers the despair on Leon's face when he was dragged away to his death. He remembers Leon giving everyone one last pleading look when he was chained to the pole.
TK knew he should be mad at Leon for what he did, and was, but he didn't deserve to be executed. Maybe he was acting in self-defense or it was all one big accident, he'll never know. The only people who truly knew what happened that night were Sayaka, Leon, and Monokuma.
Speaking of the bear, he was squirming around on his throne filled with excitement. He was the only one who found any enjoyment in watching someone being murdered. Not being able to hold it in anymore, Monokuma let out a childish cheer that contradicted what everyone else was feeling.
"Extreeeeeeemmmmmeee!" Monokuma cheered, causing of few of the others to flinch. They didn't expect such a loud reaction from anyone. "Man, my adrenaline is pumping right outta control!"
That set a few of them off. Some started to cry while others screamed out in terror. TK saw a few of them shaking, whether out of fear or anger. He heard people praying to be freed from this makeshift hell which he knew wouldn't happen, not as long as Monokuma is in charge.
"Well hey, if you don't like it all you gotta do is swear to cut all ties with the outside world and accept living here forever! But that's only if every single one of you can get on board with that. Puhuhuhu…" Monokuma let out a blood-curdling laugh that shut everyone up.
"Man, fuck you!" Mondo said, being the first person to find his voice. "Why the fuck are you doing all this evil shit to us!?"
"Evil!? You make it sound like I'm some dark, awful, secret society type of guy! Or in this case, a dark, awful, secret society type of BEAR!" Monokuma joked which irked Mondo, but before he could do anything Hifumi nervously spoke up.
"Um, so why are you putting an upstanding young citizen like me through such a grueling ordeal?"
"It seems like you're trying to use common sense to make sense of something that doesn't make sense! That's like trying to put a mile on a scale! I just don't think it's possible…" Monokuma said, which confused almost everyone in the room.
"Hey, uh, I don't think what you're saying and what I'm saying quite fit together," Hifumi quietly commented.
"You piece of shit! I don't know who you are but I'm gonna pound your ass into the ground!" Mondo growled out his promise. Monokuma chuckled to not only show he wasn't bothered by Mondo's threat but to also get under the biker's skin.
"You must really hate me to get so angry, huh? But if you do that, you're barking waaay up the wrong tree," Monokuma continued to laugh. "What happened, happened because more than one of you decided you wanted to get out, right? No matter how much time passes, you can't cut free of your regrets from the outside world. You're to blame!"
"Of course we can't cut f-free of the outside world! Being trapped in this insane p-place…!" Toko seethed.
"Hmmm… You're trapped, are you? Well, I'm sure once you learn all the mysteries of this school, your thinking will change for sure. You'll think, 'Boy, isn't it so wonderful how we all get to live here forever!?'" Monokuma told everyone, which raised some questions.
"What are you trying to say…?" Taka nervously asked.
"I feel like there's some deeper meaning hidden in there. Just like before, right before the execution…" Kyoko glared at Monokuma but his grin didn't waver. "When you say 'everyone'… who exactly are you referring to?"
"Sorry, I said everything I've got to say! I need to save some of the fun for later!" Monokuma lightly chuckled while jokingly covering his mouth. He started to leave before stopping abruptly.
"Oh, I almost forgot! Since the class trial is over, I'll go ahead and dispose of all the corpses! It's okay, no need to thank me! Just seeing your delighted, smiling faces is thanks enough for me!" Monokuma sang. "After all, nobody wants to look at a rotting corpse every day! That can't be good for your health…"
Monokuma then let out an evil laugh and left the room.
Everyone stood silently for what felt like an eternity. It was actually way less than that, but no one could blame them for losing their sense of time. After what they just witnessed they were scared. Scared of being trapped and scared of what could happen if they proceed with Monokuma's wishes.
Everyone heard a ding and they saw the elevator open. Taking this as a sign, everyone got on and hoped to never see the trial room again.
After a short elevator ride, everyone agreed to meet up in the dining hall. TK told he needed a few minutes to himself and after what happened, no one objected. Everyone left him alone in the hallway and headed for the dining hall, except for Kyoko.
"Takeru. Can I talk to you for a second? There's something I want to talk to you about," she said when she saw they were alone.
"It's about Sayaka, right?" TK said. Kyoko was silent but her reaction was all TK needed to know he hit the nail on the head.
"I told you, you had to figure out the mystery of this case yourself," Kyoko reminded him back before the trial.
"You wanted me to figure out that Sayaka betrayed me, right?" Kyoko nodded and TK almost laughed. It was so obvious that it was almost funny. He should've known that Sayaka tried to betray him when he found his bedroom door unlocked that morning. He was too much of an idiot to figure it out earlier.
"Sayaka meant to double-cross you. That's a fact that you can never change," Kyoko said, which inadvertently made TK feel worse. "But even till the very end, she wasn't sure of her decision. That's why… as she lay dying, she was thinking of you."
TK didn't react. He knew that Kyoko was trying to make him feel better but she was just grasping at straws at the moment. Based on what evidence could she infer that Sayaka was thinking of him before she died?
"I know there isn't enough evidence to support my claim but you can infer that her final thought was how she could protect you," Kyoko said which did get a small reaction from TK. "The fact that she used her last ounce of energy to leave her dying message proves it. If she didn't care what happened to you, she never would have left that message."
TK sighed and turned to leave. Maybe Sayaka did think about how to protect him and maybe that's part of the reason why she wrote Leon's name on the wall, but he couldn't fully believe that's why she did it. She probably did it to get back at Leon and didn't even think of him once.
"Listen, I appreciate what you're trying to do but I just want to be alone right now," TK told her, but before he could leave he felt Kyoko grab his arm.
"Before you go I want you to know, you're the kind of person who can overcome this. Because you can move past the deaths of your friends and keep moving forward. Without someone like that, the others would never be able to break free of such a desperate situation," Kyoko told him before moving to catch up with the others.
TK stood in the hallway for a few seconds before moving to where he wanted to go after stepping off of the elevator. After a quick walk, he made it to his destination, his room. He stood before his door dreading what was behind it. He didn't know what was waiting for him but he needed to know if Monokuma was telling the truth.
He took a deep breath and opened his door.
Outside of his pictures and posters, his room looked exactly the same as it did on the first day. There were no scratches, the bed was neatly made, and even the katana was gone. He was a little glad his room was cleaned up but there was one place he had to check. The bathroom.
He slowly opened his bathroom door and saw nothing. His bathroom was spotless as if it had never been used.
"She's gone…" TK quietly muttered to himself. He slowly moved to his bed and lay down while running his hands through his hair. If Sayaka's corpse is gone then that would also mean that Junko's body is also gone. "We never even got a chance to mourn their deaths."
He knew that it was all planned out by Monokuma. He wanted them to suffer, and if TK was being honest he was doing a good job at it.
He looked back to where Sayaka's body had been and started to think about his video.
"I can't be mad at her, I was freaked out about my video too. I even thought about killing someone," TK said out loud. He knew he should be mad at her but he couldn't. He shared the feelings she had but he didn't act on them the way she did with hers.
He then thought about what would've happened if he did act on his emotions. Would he have ended up like Sayaka or Leon? What if he was able to get away with it? He wouldn't have been able to live with himself if he sent everyone to their deaths for a crime he committed.
"I know my friends wouldn't have wanted me to kill either," TK said before thinking about what Kyoko told him. He knows he won't be able to move past Sayaka's, Junko's, or Leon's deaths, especially with how they died. It will be something that he'll live with for the rest of his life and he's fine with it.
"Even though Sayaka tried to betray me and Leon accused me of murder, I will keep their memories close to my heart and the same goes for Junko," he promised himself as he stood up with a new resolve. "And I promise to save everyone else too!"
After taking a few extra minutes to collect himself, TK made it to the dining hall. He saw everyone spread out around the room keeping to themselves. He could see how hopeless everyone looked and couldn't blame them after what they just went through. No one noticed him walk into the room except for Hina.
"Hey… are you okay, TK?" Hina asked while giving him a concerned look. Her words alerted everyone in the room, some giving him their own concerned looks, while the rest just went back into their own worlds when they saw him.
TK gave them the best smile he could muster to show that he was fine. He wasn't completely fine but he didn't want them to worry about him during the whole meeting.
"You sure took your sweet time! I was just about to go get you and drag you back here!" Taka scolded the blond.
"Sorry…?" TK said while confusingly scratching his head.
"So? What happened? Was your room fixed up like he said? I imagine it would be pretty hard to sleep with a rotting corpse in your bathroom!" Taka did his best attempt at making a joke to brighten up the mood but it had the opposite effect.
"Jesus, that's fucked up, man. Why would you say something like that?" Mondo muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.
"My room was fixed up. It's as if the whole thing never happened," TK said in a monotone voice. He then quickly shook his head to get rid of any negative thoughts. Now was not the time to be thinking like that.
"It must be tough staying there, knowing what happened. Why don't you just stay in Sayaka's room?" Sakura suggested and TK shook his head.
"Being in her room would just remind me of her. Plus, I need to face her death head-on," TK said with determination.
"TK…" Hina said lightly. She then gripped her fists and smiled brightly. "Hey, cheer up! Getting depressed isn't gonna help anything, right? If we all work together, I'm sure we'll find a way out of here! So everyone just… try and cheer up and get back on track!"
TK could see Hina's words were having an effect on everyone. It's as if the mood in the room took a full 180. He could see everyone start to brighten up and believe they can escape from this hell hole.
"Is that honestly supposed to make us feel better?"
Well, almost everyone. Everyone's eyes instantly shot to the other blond in the room who had a disinterested look on his face.
"Huh?" Hina said, slightly taken aback.
"We were already 'working together' and yet someone was still murdered. Anyone could betray us at this point," Byakuya said with a cynical grin. "Now that it's happened once, it's a question of when, not if, the next takes place."
"Yeah, because S-Sayaka made the first move…" An angry Toko quickly agreed with the progeny.
"B-But… if we work together against the mastermind, nobody'll have any reason to do something like that!" Hina argued with the boy.
"Keep telling yourself that. I'll be over here in the real world. Working together, fighting a common enemy. Like it or not, it's not that simple," Byakuya coldly scoffed.
"...What do you mean?" Hifumi courageously asked.
"The mastermind seems to be much more powerful than we ever suspected. They took over Hope's Peak, which was supposed to be well-defended, then modified it to fit their desire. They created Momokuma, which seems to be incredibly advanced, and they're providing for our every need. And the cherry on top is the execution we witnessed. Everything has been planned down to the last excruciating detail," Celeste grimly pointed out. "This is not the work of your everyday psychopath. Defying them may be too great of a risk…"
Everyone appeared to mull over what Celeste said. They were clearly dealing with a genius, someone who was able to strategize a way to keep them alive but knew to push the right buttons to get them to kill. Then there was the execution. It was too closely related to Leon's talent to pass it off as a coincidence, it had to have been specifically designed for Leon.
Does that also mean they all have their own executions?
"Then… what are we supposed to do?" Sakura spoke up, and everyone was thankful for the distraction.
"Anyone who truly does want to escape… will just have to follow the rules. In which case, the only option is to deceive those around you, and win the game," Byakuya answered bluntly.
Mondo growled and it took both Sakura and Taka to hold him back. He wasn't the only one upset with the blond because the majority of the class was voicing their displeasure with what he said. Byakuya took it all in stride with a cynical grin.
"N-No…" A voice broke through the commotion. Everyone turned to see Chihiro who was on the verge of tears.
"No what?" Byakuya said harshly.
"I don't want to live… if it means killing someone else to do it. I don't want to kill anyone else…!" Chihiro answered tearfully.
"Anyone… else? What do you mean?" Hiro asked while scratching his head.
"Leon died because we all voted for him, right? It's no different from us killing him ourselves!" Chihiro exclaimed.
"B-But…" Hiro managed to say, clearly failing to the right words.
"If we hadn't voted for him, then we all woulda died instead, right? That isn't what you wanted, is it…?" Hina asked the programmer. Chihiro didn't respond, but the tears on her face were enough. She still believed that they killed Leon but she didn't want them to be executed either.
"She's right. If you heap that kind of blame on yourself, you'll turn into a full-fledged masochist," Hifumi said, causing most to cringe in disgust.
"Listen, you aren't to blame for this. Neither Leon nor Sayaka is to blame. Whoever set this whole thing up is responsible!" TK not only told Chihiro but everyone in the room. "Monokuma was the one who killed Leon, not us! He forced us to vote and if you're angry or upset with yourself or anyone in this room then direct it at the mastermind!"
TK didn't know how much effect his words had on Chihiro or anyone, but he did see Chihiro wipe away her tears.
*Ding dong, bing bong*
Everyone heard the monitor turn on but no one turned to watch the screen. They knew it was just going to be the routine nighttime announcement, so there was no point listening. Plus, they were tired of the bear's face after what they went through today.
"Mm, ahem, this is a school announcement. It is now 10 p.m. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Oh, and one other thing…" This got everyone's attention. They looked at the monitor to see Monokuma devilishly swirling his drink around before downing it in one gulp.
"It was totally obvious before that you were trying to make yourselves feel better and justify what you did. See you, see you, don't see you, see you! That's about how much I can see you, even when you try to hide! Now pay attention and remember this well! The burden of judging others is a heavy one to bear. So be well aware of your actions! Order and stability rely on the sacrifice and responsibility of everyone!" Monokuma sternly said before doing his annoying chuckle. "Okay then… sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite…"
They knew what he was trying to do. He was trying to make them paranoid and guilty for what happened, and sadly, it worked.
"What w-was that about just n-now…?" Toko yelled while grabbing her head.
"Was he saying it's our fault what happened? That's pretty cruel, man…" Hiro said dejectedly.
"That piece of shit! Who does he think he is!?" Mondo growled while cracking his knuckles.
TK couldn't say anything. He knew that it wouldn't matter if he did with how everyone was acting. It's probably for the best if they all went to their rooms and regrouped in the morning. So after a few agonizing minutes of trying to calm everyone down, they all went to their rooms.
