The last thing Kaito expected after dying in the fifth trial, was to wake up. Really, he didn't expect to expect anything. He had hoped that if he woke up at all, he would be standing outside the pearly gates, or whatever else came after death, but this… didn't seem like any afterlife scenario he'd ever heard of. He blinked a few times, his senses slowly coming back to him. He felt… good? Maybe he was in the afterlife, all traces of his disease were… gone. Kaito took a few experimental breaths, eyes widening at how easily the air flowed through his lungs. He could have jumped, he was so happy, except he couldn't really move. Kaito tried to stretch his arms, but found his movement pretty constricted. If he could guess, he was in some sort of metal box. Why the hell was there a locker in the afterlife? And why was he inside it? Was the afterlife an eternity of school life? How shitty would that be.
Kaito tried to move, and to his surprise, the wall in front of him, which he now supposed must have been a door, swung open easily revealing an empty classroom. Unfortunately, kaito hadn't really expected the door to open so easily, and instead of stepping out like the boss he knew he was, he fell tremendously with a thunk.
"Ouch!" Kaito yelped.
"Uh. Are you okay?"
Kaito's blood ran cold. That voice… it couldn't be… could it?
Kaito slowly turned towards the voice, face paling as his eyes laid on
"Ryoma!?"
Said man (Boy? It was hard for Kaito to believe the tennis player was as young as the rest of the students in the school, despite his… lacking height) looked surprised when Kaito shouted his name. "How do you know my name?"
Huh? Did Ryoma not remember him? How was he even here? Was this really the afterlife? What were the chances they ended up together in the afterlife? It was disturbingly similar to… shit. The beginning of the killing game. When he had first woken up, he found himself in a locker, falling into a classroom with only him and Ryoma. Just what was this? Some sick joke?
"You don't remember me? Come on man, we talked a few times before Kirumi killed you. Geez, I didn't think I was that forgettable" Kaito laughed loudly, trying to hide his confusion.
"Killed me? What the hell are you talking about? I think I would know if I was dead." Ryoma rolled his eyes, but the tone behind his voice was pretty uncaring.
Kaito blinked in confusion, trying to figure out what was going on. "You really don't remember?"
Ryoma shook his head. "I have no idea what you're yapping about." Ryoma had started giving Kaito a really odd look, and now he was moving away, towards the door in the corner of the classroom. "If you're done, I'm going to see if I can figure out where we are."
With that, Ryoma left, Kaito still sitting on the floor, confused beyond belief.
What the hell?
Kaito quickly stood up, thinking hard. What's going on? Why didn't Ryoma remember the killing game? Why was Ryoma even here? Was this really the afterlife? It had to be, what else would it be? But what kind of afterlife is this? Why was this happening?
Kaito decided he should probably get moving. Explore like Ryoma is, find out more about… wherever they are, and why it looks and feels so much like the school Monokuma had them trapped in. Kaito moved to the door, and opened it, like Ryoma had moments before.
As He stepped into the hall, he felt dread pooling into the pit of his stomach. The hallway also looked like one of the halls in the school the killing game took place in. As he kept walking, he found it a bit difficult to breathe, though this time not because of his disease. Everything, everywhere he looked, looked exactly like it had at the beginning of the killing game. Why? He couldn't… be back could he? No, no way! That was impossible! Kaito turned a corner, and froze in horror, before backing up behind the corner, just to peek his head around the corner, being as sneaky as he could.
There, standing in the hallway chit chatting, were Kaede, Tsumugi, and Shuchi…. How was this possible? If this was the afterlife, Kaede would make sense, but… Tsumugi and Shuichi weren't dead! Where they? They couldn't be!
Kaito couldn't make out what they were saying, but no one seemed very concerned. I mean, they looked a little confused, but not near as terrified as Kaito was currently feeling. Also… Shuichi was wearing his hat. Hadn't he stopped wearing that as a sign of him trying to be braver? Why would he have put it back on? Was it because Kaede was back? BUt that didn't make any sense! What was going o-
"Is there someone back there?" Kaito's train of thought was derailed at the sound of Tsumugi's call, making him jump.
"Haha, yeah sorry! I guess I was kind of spying." Kaito laughed sheepishly, and rounded the corner properly this time. "I was just… surprised to see you, I guess."
Tsumugi nodded thoughtfully "Yes, I wonder how many people their are here. I mean, I've just been standing here in thought this whole time, and I've plainly been talked to by three people already."
"Well, we definitely know over half of us are here at least! I was just surprised to see Shuichi and you, Tsumugi, here already! You died fast, which uh, I guess isn't a very good thing, but at least we can hang out together again! No more class trials, right?" Kaito tried to find the bright side of things, as usual, but it was definitely harder to come up with good reasons to be dead. The confused expressions from the three students in front of him weren't helping. Kaito knew he often didn't make much sense, but this was the first time anyone had looked so blatantly confused while staring at him, and it was making him nervous. "Uh, guys? Do I have somethin' on my face, or-?"
"What do you mean dead? And what class trials?" Kaede stepped towards him. "Do you know something we don't?"
"Huh?" Did they really not remember either? What's going on here?
Kaede wasn't looking very happy. "What did you mean? When you said Shuichi and Tsumugi died fast?"
"I plainly just don't feel very dead." Tsumugi said.
Shuichi adjusted his hat before agreeing. "I can't say I know what feeling… dead feels like, but I feel pretty normal."
Kaito laughed nervously, but on the inside he was panicking. What was he supposed to say? Should he tell them they're all dead? That they were forced to participate in a killing game in their past lives, and now they're apparently doomed to roam this school for the rest of eternity? Or are they not supposed to know? Is he even supposed to know? Maybe something went wrong in the whole dying system, that made him…not forget his memories? Was it because he died of his illness instead of being murdered or executed? How would that even change anything? Dying is still dying, it doesn't matter how you die, nothing about the afterlife should change depending on how you die, right?
Kaito must have been quiet for to long, because Kaede steps forward again, and speaks up. "Hey! Are you gonna tell us or what? Do you know where we are?"
"Are you… with the people who kidnapped us?" Shuichi's eyes widened, and Tsumugi paled at his words.
"K-kidnapped?! Did you kidnap us?! Is this a farm? Are you going to sell us to demons for them to eat?!" Tsumugi sounded oddly excited the more she talked.
"Uh- no. I have no idea who… kidnapped… us." Kaito decided to be quiet about the whole being dead thing. "And no, I don't believe in monsters, so I'm not planning on selling you as demon food."
"Oh good. I fear my brain would have just been too plain for them."
"You're brain?"
"Ah, sorry. I'm rambling again, sorry about that." Tsumugi smiled sheepishly.
Kaede seemed rather annoyed by now, as she turned back to Kaito. "Are you sure you don't know anything about where we are?"
"Of course I'm sure! The luminary of the stars, Kaito Momota would never lie to the innocent!" Kaito lied, bashing his fists together.
"Luminary of the stars? What does that mean?" Kaede asked.
"It means I'm awesome, of course!"
"...right."
Shuichi cleared his throat. "Kaede. We should probably continue looking around. Maybe we'll find more people, and ah… some clues as to getting out."
Kaede quickly nodded, a familiar smile, spreading across her face "Oh yeah! Let's go Shuichi! See you later Tsumugi… and Kaito." Kaede gave Kaito one more suspicious glance before walking off with Shuichi.
"Well that was odd, they sure left in a hurry." Tsumugi hummed.
"Yeah, I guess they did, but they were right! We should keep looking for people. I'll go this way." Kaito points to the left, the opposite direction of where Shuichi and Kaede went. "Do you want to come with? Who knows who we'll find!" Kaito had a pretty good idea of who they'd find, even if it made his stomach churn.
"Hm. No, I think I'd rather plainly just stand here." Tsumugi said, stepping back towards the wall behind her. "I was just in the middle of creating a fanfiction about Atsushi and Dazai in my head when I was quite rudely interrupted by Shuichi and Kaede."
"...oh."
"Oh! Not a ship, don't worry!"
"I didn't think you were talking about a boat?"
"...nevermind. I'll stay here, you go find more people. If they like anime, send them my way! Goodbye for now Kaito!"
Kaito was a bit confused, but decided to leave the odd girl to her fantasies and boats. He left her, quickly walking down the hall, searching for anyone, and hopefully someone who knew why they were here again. He had only made it a few hallways, before he heard footsteps and yelling. He honestly wasn't surprised at all when he rounded another corner and saw an angry Keebo chasing a laughing Kokichi, while yelling something about reporting Kokichi to the robophobia police.
That is until he realized that meant Keebo was dead too. How did a robot even get to the afterlife? And how had Shuichi, Tsumugi, and Keebo died so quick after him? Or had he just been… out for a while? Everyone else seemed to have just started exploring, so was no one able to pass on until the killing game was over for some reason? Did that mean the two survivors were Maki and Himiko?
Kaito was once again snapped out of his thoughts as Kokichi ran to hide behind him.
"Heeeelp! The mean old sentient junk heap is trying to eat meee!" Kokichi wailed.
"I am not trying to eat you! I am attempting to educate you on how robots are people too!" Keebo tried to explain.
"If you were a person then you'd be human, not a robot!" Kokichi stuck his tongue out at Keebo.
"That's not-!"
"Hey hey hey! Shut up, both of you! Kokichi, what did you do this time?" Kaito tried to deescalate the situation, he decided he didn't want to find out if someone could die twice by letting Keebo and Kokichi continue to go at it.
There was an odd moment of silence, which Kaito was about to break, when Kokichi spoke deadly seriously, still from behind him. "How the fuck do you know my name?"
Shit
"Uh-"
"WAH, THERE'S A STALKER, AND A ROBOT! IF THEY TEAM UP, WE'RE ALL SCREWED!" Kokichi screamed, and started running away from Kaito and Keebo, disappearing around the corner Kaito just rounded, probably on his way to tell everyone about the creepy stalker and robot. Just great, Kaito's hopes to find someone who knows what's going on were plummeting more and more, with every person he stumbled upon. Kaito barely noticed Keebo chasing after Kokichi, until he was gone too. Kaito sighed, and decided to keep walking, hoping to have better luck, when he heard a voice behind him.
"I just don't see how you remember so much. I'm quite sure I wiped your memories along with the rest."
Kaito whirled around to find Tsumugi. "Ts-Tsumugi? What are you-"
"Would you mind telling me what I did wrong? The ratings are plummeting already, and we're so early on in the show."
"I don't know what you're-"
"You know about the class trials, you seem oddly familiar with the layout of this school, and just now you even knew Kokichi's name. The only thing I plainly just don't understand was all that babbling about being dead." She shrugged. "Oh well, I suppose I don't care that much either way, though it does suck I have to get rid of you so early on, but I can't have you spoiling the plot more than you have already." Tsumugi sighs. "You were one of my favorite characters too, I had the most spectacular execution planned for you. Oh well. I need to figure out how to fram this to look like it happened after the actual killing game announcement, so I have a lot of work ahead of me. It's time for you to go. Goodbye Kaito."
Kaito knew he should have been running, screaming, anything, but…he couldn't. Tsumugi? Tsumugi is the mastermind? The sweet innocent girl who no one in their right mind would have suspected? Why? Why would she do this?
Unfortunately, Kaito didn't get a chance to ask any of his questions, before Tsumugi pulled a knife out of her pocket and lunged. Kaito couldn't even think to move, before cold metal pressed too hard against his neck, hot blood erupting from his neck, his vision almost immediately went black. He felt himself falling, and then-.