Luca stopped at the doorway, both wanting and not wanting to go on.

"Feeling squeamish?" Kagura asked from behind him. "I don't blame you."

Luca turned to Kagura, whose smile was strained but nonetheless there. Behind her, Ae-ra hovered, spare cleaning rags draped over her arms.

"No, it is the…"

Luca sighed and shook his head.

"Never mind," Luca said. "I must go down there."

He pushed open the door and headed down the stairs tentatively. When he got there, he stood, the items he'd gathered in his hands, as he stared at the scene before him. Ena had taken Fukue's body from the 'punishment zone' and had laid…. it, or her, Luca wondered? What is the right word to be using here? Whichever language he thought in, he couldn't figure it out.

Fukue. Just, Fukue, he eventually decided. Ena had laid Fukue out carefully, attempting to clean around her wounds with the few, already stained, cloths that had been left there for that purpose. Fukue had kept her eyes closed while it had all been happening, not exactly calm, but still far too still for someone who was still alive. Luca hadn't wanted her to be so still, he'd wanted her to rail against it, the way Chiara had cried and screamed. Because no matter how difficult and drawn out it had made things, at least it'd meant that she'd been around on this earth for just a little bit longer.

"Fontana-kun."

Luca startled, and then hurried over.

"I have bought you some things." He said.

He held them out-a small bucket of water, a hand-soap dispenser, a different set of clothes. Behind him, Kagura then called out:

"We've got other stuff! But, uh, I'm not sure I can stomach going down there."

"I'll do it." Ae-ra offered tentatively.

"No, no, I can come over."

Ena got up, but Ae-ra had already started making her way down the stairs. In the end, they met halfway, and Ena took the extra cleaning rags from her, before Ae-ra then turned to Kagura to retrieve the bucket filled with the other cleaning supplies they had gathered. The three girls continued talking, but Luca didn't pay attention to what they talked about. Instead, he sat himself down next to Fukue, and he looked at her. He stretched out his hand, thinking about stroking her hair, but then he stopped himself.

Did he have the right to do something so tender, as if he had been her boyfriend or something? He wasn't sure he'd wanted to be before, at least not straight away. He knew perfectly well that Clio hoped that he and Fukue would fall in love, but he'd tried his best to pretend not to know while also humouring her, glad enough for the time spent with both of them. And perhaps he had found himself looking at Fukue a little differently, a little longer each time, but even then. Even then he hadn't thought much of it. There was time for all that later, he'd thought.

And now, there was no later.

There was no later, and it was his fault.

He was vaguely aware of Kagura and Ae-ra leaving, the door closing, Ena coming back down the stairs. She came to sit down before him, kneeling prettily and he looked at her tiredly. She regarded him for a moment, and then gently asked:

"Did you want to clean her?"

Luca was about to say no, and then stopped. He opened his mouth again to say yes, but found himself saying:

"It was my fault, you know."

"Oh, Fontana-kun," Ena said. "There isn't anything you could have done."

Luca shook his head at that:

"I could've stopped her in the first place."

I could have kept my thoughts to myself, he thought as he looked at Fukue's body . I could have just not said anything. Then, she would not have felt like she'd needed to kill. But how could he voice that to Ena? When everyone else had asked Fukue for explanations, she'd refused to give any. She'd kept his shame secret, taken it on as her own instead. But she shouldn't have had to.

Luca was aware that Ena was still watching him, waiting. He met her eyes, and told her:

"Please don't tell me that it wasn't my fault. No point in it."

Ena nodded contemplatively, and then handed him a rag and the soap. Luca just stared at it, and then tentatively took them. Ena smiled softly.

"I think being able to do something for her will help you. Of course, I'm not forcing you. If it's too difficult for you, then I can carry on."

"Like you did with Chiara." Luca said thickly.

"Yes, that's right."

"I should have come to help with her, as well."

Ena shook her head.

"Don't worry about it," she said. "I was here. This is what I do."

Luca sighed, but did not know what to say. Ena watched him for a few more moments, and then said.

"I'll leave you to have some time with her, but I'll clean the rest of the room. If you need me, just call out, okay?"

"Mhm."

Luca waited until Ena had settled herself down to start cleaning bloodstains off of the floor, before he turned to Fukue. He was about to start cleaning her, when he remembered the spare clothes. Putting down what he was already holding, he then reached for her top, and once again paused. It felt like something else he didn't have the right to do.

But I have to, he thought. This is the closest thing she's getting to a funeral.

He gritted his teeth, and though it was difficult, he eased off her top, and then cleaned her upper body, including around the wounds, before then putting on the new top that he'd chosen for her. He then took off her skirt, her socks, her shoes, and did the same thing with her legs, before putting on the new skirt, the new socks. He realised he'd forgotten shoes, but then examined her old ones, and realised that they did not have blood on them, and so he carefully slipped them back on her feet.

Then, her face. Eyes shut, glasses still almost perfectly in place. If he were to only look at her face and ignored the blood streaked across it, if he forgot the depth of the wounds across the rest of her body then she could have just been sleeping. Sleeping, the way she'd left him to go and kill, right after he had said…

"Maybe I should…"

"Should what, sempai?"

"Maybe I should kill myself, so that nobody else has to become a killer."

"…don't be silly, Luca-sempai. It's the sickness talking."

"Yes, yes, this is right, I think. Alright, I'll sleep now."

"Good night."

And it really had been the sickness talking. His headaches, the resulting exhaustion of them-he had not been thinking straight. Of course killing himself wouldn't have been a solution. Yet Fukue must have been scared that he would have followed through with his tired ramblings, otherwise she would have never…never…

As he wiped the blood off of her cheeks, he felt tears soak his own, but even when his vision blurred, he didn't stop. He took off her glasses, cleaned those too, before putting them back on. When he realised he had not thought of a comb to neaten her hair, he simply did the best he could with his fingers. And then, when he was done, rather than move away, he stroked her hair. Perhaps he didn't have the right, one way or another. But there was very little else he could do now. Not when there would never be a later again.

"Fukue, mia cara," he murmured, still stroking her hair, tears still coursing down his own face. " Mi dispiace."

At that moment, he heard Monokuma announce:

"Alrighty, time's up! That's enough cleaning and crying for now, so get yourselves back up there!"

Luca didn't look up at the bear. He couldn't face the leering of the stupid animated design. But he couldn't move, either, not until Ena came to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up at her, and she handed him a tissue before saying.

"Let's gather everything up and go-"

"Oh, forget that!" Monokuma shrieked. "I won't steal your precious supplies. In fact, I'll even make sure you get them back!"

Luca wanted to dig his heels in, to say no. But then he remembered Dax and Naruhito both suggesting that somebody just hide in here and wait for the person behind Monokuma, this 'Creator' to come so that they could see who it was. Only for Monokuma to say that they'd simply seal up the room and wait for the 'unwelcome guest' to die of starvation, before then coming along to collect both the bodies.

So he did not dig his heels in. He did not say no. Instead, he picked up Fukue's old, stained clothes and gathered them up in his arms (a poor substitute for Fukue, but what else could he do). Then, he followed Ena back up the stairs, to re-join those who still lived.