Chapter Text
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bring myself to press my finger to the screen and sentence Wakamo to death. This trial wasn’t over, it wasn’t. I had too many questions to answer, too many truths to uncover, too many knots to unwind. Yet one after another, I heard my students lock in their votes, each more reluctant than the last. When Aris – or maybe it was Kei – made her selection, the cheery chiptune that played was worse than nails on a chalkboard.
What if I simply didn’t vote? Or pulled an Ibuki and voted for myself? I wouldn’t be complicit in sending my student to her death in that case, but is that what a proper teacher does? Leaves his students high and dry so that he can feel good about himself? And who’s to say that others didn’t have the same thought process. It was obvious that Monokuma had decided Wakamo was guilty, but if our votes didn’t reflect that… who knows what he’d do.
“We’re waiting, Sensei~”
That voice… That awful, childish, horrific voice. I just knew that it would haunt me for the rest of my days. I didn’t need to look to know that he was glaring at me with that endless void of a black eye and the virulent glowing red eye. They cast an unbearable weight on my shoulders, forcing my hand to the screen.
My finger hovered over Wakamo's pixelated portrait. I wanted to look up, wanted to see her real face, but I knew if I did, it would be shrouded by the darkness that overtook her, hiding her features better than her mask ever could. I felt the smooth screen meet my skin and realized that I’d voted for her without thinking, as though my mind couldn’t bear the conscious thought necessary to do so.
"Thank you for voting! Don't take so long next time, asshole!"
“Whew! Thought we were going to be here all night. I like suspense, but it’s gotta break at some point!” Monokuma hopped up, taking his sweet time to walk to the edge of his throne. “Now then, let’s see what the results are! Did you all vote correctly, or will the Blackened go free?”
The act of lights plunging us into darkness was getting a bit old at this point, if there was one truth in this place, it was that Monokuma loved to be dramatic. A pinpoint spotlight appeared in the center of our podiums. Ever so slowly, its radius grew bigger and bigger, reminding me of old slapstick cartoons where someone is in the shadow of a falling boulder. As the light grew bigger, it moved off-center. Bit by bit, it crept towards Wakamo’s podium until…
CRASH!
Wakamo launched herself backwards to avoid the spotlight crash-landing right where she’d been standing. The impact completely obliterated the podium, sending wood splinters and glass scattering over the ground.
“Wow! The spotlight loves you, kid! But you have to watch out for those adoring fans, they can get a bit… obsessive. Ahahaha! Congrats, idiots, you got another one right! The Blackened who killed Sorasaki Hina was none other than the Ultimate Demolitions Expert, Kosaka Wakamo!”
“H-hey! You nearly crushed her!” Yuuka said and jabbed her finger at the bear.
“I’ve been meaning to fix that light,” Monokuma said. He scratched his head with his paw, somehow managing to look both confused and completely unapologetic at the same time.
“Serves her right,” Kei said. “She did the same to Hina…”
Did she? Did she really? Or was this all another sick game Monokuma was playing? My gut feelings about these things had been honed to a razor’s edge and it was screaming at me that something was wrong, but all I could do now was hope that my students remembered their promise to keep Wakamo safe. I bunched my pant leg in my palm. Why couldn’t I protect my students, damn it?!
“Wakamo… Why? Hina didn’t do anything to you…” Ibuki said, wiping her face, though her tears almost instantly replaced themselves.
“It should have been me…” Mika said. “Hina didn’t deserve this, but I did…”
“NO!” Izuna cried and crossed her arms in the shape of an “X.” “It should have been no one! No one deserves to die! Especially not in a game like this, nin!”
“I agree. Party kills are unacceptable no matter what game you are playing,” Aris said.
Mutsuki, on the other hand, brushed her hair over her shoulder. She tried to smirk, but it came out strained and awkward. “Are you sure? What’s to stop Mika from losing it again and going after one of us? She might get jealous that we’re all cuter than her now. Being a killer ages you quickly.”
I shot the prankster a stern look. “Mutsuki that’s–”
“Haha…”
All of our arguing came to an immediate halt when Wakamo’s shoulders began to shake.
“Hahahaha…”
Inching away from the demolitionist, Yuuka pulled Mutsuki a bit closer to her. “She’s laughing. Why is she laughing?”
“Hahahaha… HAHAHAHAHA!”
Wakamo whipped her head back, sending her mask flying from her face and unraveling the ribbon decorating her tail “I should have known… I should have known that Sensei would be too smart for me! I could never have gotten away with this even if my plan had gone flawlessly. He’s simply too incredible. But a girl has to try!”
Her compliments did nothing but make me feel queasy. There was a madness in her eyes that I hadn’t seen in a very long time. One that was caused not by a person accidentally stumbling into insanity, but by them jumping headfirst into it.
“W-woah! C-calm down! Wakamo looks absolutely crazy!” Izuna said.
“You’re really just figuring out now that she has a few screws loose?” Kei said through gritted teeth.
“Don’t talk like that about her. It’s not nice…” Ibuki countered, but there was no force behind it.
Without Aris to stop me, I forced myself to my feet, clinging to the podium to keep myself upright. “Wakamo… explain yourself. Why did you kill Hina?”
The blush that crossed the demolitionist’s face was borderline disturbing, as if my forceful tone was something she craved. “Making me explain myself even after you all figured it out? You’re so cruel, Sensei! This must be what they mean by girls loving bad boys.”
“We don’t want to hear about your fetishes,” Mutuski shouted from behind Yuuka. “Just tell us what your real reason is already.”
“Heeheehee~ It’s quite simple, really… I wanted my reward!” Wakamo tapped her ID and I instantly understood what she meant.
“You… you wanted to graduate and take me with you?” I said.
The fox spiraled into a giggling fit, kicking her feet and pulling at her hair. “Yes! I told you… I told you so many, many times… You’re not safe here. Someone as precious as you needs to be protected. The world’s most priceless gems could shatter for all I care, so long as you’re safe. With this motive, all I had to do was take out one of the many threats to your health and then we’d be able to leave and live together forever and ever. Happily ever after, just like in the stories!”
So that was it… The very obsession that I was hoping would keep her in check eventually pushed her over the edge. Her need to have me all to herself, her overbearing idea of what was good for me, the fact that I’d gotten hurt, it was all enough to make her tenuous grasp on reality disappear completely. This… this was my fault, then. I should have done more. I should have shut her down harder, nipped in the bud right when I figured out what was happening. I just… never believed she’d truly go through with it.
“You’re delusional,” Kei snapped. “Sensei may be a weirdo, but there’s no way he’d go along with something like that.”
Suddenly, Wakamo’s expression darkened, her manic smile collapsing into a disgusting, twisted scowl. “Be quiet, you useless program. You’ve had nothing good to say about Sensei since he rescued you from the scrap heap. Acting all high and mighty when you’ve been no help whatsoever. You act as if because you were in Monokuma’s system, that makes you somehow uniquely helpful. It doesn’t… It makes you a threat. How do we know you’re not infected with some sort of virus?”
“V-virus?!” Kei sputtered indignantly.
“Monokuma could snap his fingers and you could be reprogrammed before our very eyes. If you hurt Sensei because your programming is so fragile… I’d dismantle you wire by wire, screw by screw.”
“That is enough! You will not speak to Kei in that manner. She and I have ensured that our operating system is completely clean!” Aris said as she stepped forward to defend her sister.
Wakamo, however, took the challenge head on. “You… You’re lucky that Sensei found you first. How dare you take so much of his attention. How DARE you put him at risk by making him save you!”
“She didn’t make me do anything, Wakamo. I’d have done the same thing for all of my students, you included,” I said.
“Oh Sensei~” Her expression softened back into one of pure adoration. How quickly she morphed from one to another was frightening. “You’re so pure, so innocent… But that’s exactly why you need to be swathed away and protected. You’d jump to save any of these ungrateful girls even though they don’t deserve your love… So silly! You’ll get yourself even more hurt doing that. It’s best for you to simply be in my care so you never have to do that again!”
“That’s not happening,” Yuuka said. “Sensei’s not yours to lock away.”
“Would you prefer he die by your insufficient inventions?” Wakamo tore off a shield projector pinned to her lapel, threw it to the ground, and stomped it beneath her foot. “Did you think I wasn’t wise to your plan? Did you think I couldn’t see how you were going to make us trust your shields and your weapons and your devices only to use them to kill us when you got the chance?”
“What are you talking about?! I made them to protect everyone!”
“Heehee and I’m sure they’d work wonderfully. A shield that hardly lasts, what? Fifteen to twenty-five seconds? How useful! Just enough time for us to be riddled with bullets or torn apart by a Terror!” If it hadn’t been for Yuuka’s halo, I’m sure Wakamo would have gotten right up in the mathematician’s face, but that wasn’t a fight she could win. “You’re nothing but a hack. Stick to balancing budgets and die with your nose in a math book.”
“What’s gotten into you?” Ibuki cried. She ran forward, fists balled beneath her sleeves, her tears replaced by a look of determination. “You’re saying such mean things! Ibuki knows you don’t really mean it, so stop being so cruel!”
Wakamo tucked her hands beneath her chin as though she was trying to look cutesy. “Aww! If it isn’t our darling little cinnamon roll! So pure! So innocent! Pfeh… Just trying to get us to lower our guard. Wakamo sees you for what you are, demon… Most succubus use their wiles and charm to seduce their prey, but you use cute gestures and cloying sweetness as your weapons. You’ve never been able to fool Wakamo. You’re as morally repugnant as everyone else here.”
“Wh-what? N-no! Ibuki’s a good– Ibuki’s…” She trailed off, shrinking back so small that I was worried she was going to be swallowed up by her own coat.
“Oh! Me next, me next!” Mutsuki said, waving her hand. “You seem to have prepared grievances against us all, so let’s get mine out of the way. Let me guess~ My pranks will one day get out of hand and I’ll hurt Sensei by mistake! Did I get it right?”
A foul grin spread across Wakamo’s face. “It wasn’t that, no, but that’s a good point. At least you’re self aware of one of your many flaws. No… Wakamo knew you were a problem because you were friends with that awful girl, Aru. That murderer deserved what she got and I hope you get the same soon enough.”
“Don’t… don’t bring her up…” Mutsuki tried to spit, but it was undermined by the quivering of her voice.
“Wakamo, stop this at once,” I said, grabbing my crutch. I didn’t care what state of mind she was in, I wasn’t going to allow her to keep hurting others like this. Trying to get to her was a challenge. The painkiller was beginning to wear off, so I grimaced with each step. “If you have anything to say, say it to me.”
“Ah Sensei… putting so much effort to come close to me. You truly know how to make a girl swoon! But you must rest. We’ll talk plenty soon enough, I promise!”
Monokuma giggled as he kicked back, apparently content to watch the show up to this point. “I doubt that, but do go on! Oh! Do ninja girl next! I bet she’s got lots of insecurities.”
“E-eh! Aha! N-no thank you! Izuna already went through her feel-bad arc!” The ninja held up her hands innocently and shook her head with every word.
“Hmph, your tools were going to be useful to me. I intended to drop an entire load of explosives and rubble onto the insufferable Princess’s head with your net, but that’s the only good thing I can say about you,” Wakamo said, stalking closer to Izuna and moving out of my reach just as I got to her. “I heard about what happened in the dojo… how you gave your weapons to a child and it nearly resulted in Sensei’s death… What kind of ninja gives her tools away so freely? You’re undeserving of them. To think you could be entrusted with Sensei’s safety is laughable. I’m the only one who can ensure he will never be harmed again.”
“It was an a-accident!” Izuna cried.
“Wakamo! I said enough!” My makeshift cast got tangled up in my crutch as I tried to pick up the pace and reach her once again, but she was a woman on a mission and she was rapidly approaching her target.
Mika had sequestered herself against the far wall, trying very hard to act like she wasn’t there. Unfortunately, the second she made eye contact with Wakamo, the fox pounced.
Faster than I could see, Wakamo slipped behind Mika and wrapped her arm around the princess’s neck. Of course, Mika didn’t take that lying down, getting ready to leverage her immense strength to free herself.
“Don’t move,” Wakamo ordered, throwing off her decorative furisode, leaving only the dark school uniform underneath… as well as revealing an intricate set of explosives all primed to explode.
“Wh-what is this?!” Mika shouted.
“Wakamo! What are you doing?! That wasn’t…” Ibuki shut her mouth when Wakamo held a finger over a very dangerous looking red button.
“Heeheehee… Wakamo knew from the time Hina died that I wasn’t getting out of here alive… Sensei would figure me out, so I made sure to have one extra plan.” She caressed the wiring along one of her bombs. “This suit is rigged to detonate at the slightest touch from me. Haaah… it’s one of my most beautiful babies. Once it blows… even your halos won’t be enough to protect you.”
I froze in place as I tried to process what was happening. Even though Mika was immeasurably strong, she was held completely hostage by Wakamo’s threat. One wrong move and I fully believed that the demolitionist would follow through on her promise.
“This is too much…” Yuuka said breathlessly. “L-let her go… I know what she did was bad, but she shouldn’t–”
“SHOULDN’T WHAT?!” Wakamo howled. “Shouldn’t be punished for her crimes?! Did you all forget she murdered Seia?! She tried to kill me! She hurt Sensei… If I have to die anyway… then I’m going to take her with me.”
“Get off of me!” Mika took a chance at freeing herself, but Wakamo’s hand flew to the detonator and ended that attempt before it truly began.
“We need to get her away from Mika…” Kei mumbled.
“Is there any way to distract her?” Aris said. It sounded more like the two were having a conversation between themselves.
“H-hold on,” Mutsuki said. “If there’s enough firepower to take out a halo… what’s it going to do to the rest of the courtroom?”
“Heehee…HAHAHAHA! It’ll probably be destroyed, too! A fitting end to this nightmarish place!”
That got Monokuma’s attention and the bear perked up instantly. “Hey! Hey! Hey! Damaging Hope’s Archive property is explicitly against the rules! You know what’ll happen if you break them~”
After a moment of letting the threat hang in the air, Izuna spoke up. “Isn’t… she getting punished anyway? What does she have to lose?”
After a moment of pondering that point, Monokuma spoke up. “Sensei! You’ve got to stop her!”
Oh so now he cares. How typical. Unfortunately, he was right, I had to get Wakamo away from Mika. The princess looked at me with big, pleading eyes while her captor cackled away like a madwoman. At this point Wakamo was completely apathetic to any sort of threat. She’d thrown her life away, so there was nothing for her to care about. Nothing… except me, that is.
“You know, Wakamo… If you detonate your bombs and collapse the courtroom, what do you think will happen to me?” I asked, inching closer to where she was holding Mika.
The fox stopped laughing long enough to stare at me with bloodshot eyes. “Hahaha… You’ll be fine, Sensei… You’ll be completely fine. One of the others will protect you, I bet. They’ll let themselves be squashed to make sure you’re okay.”
“Is that so? Weren’t you just saying how we can’t protect Sensei? Now you’re relying on us to save him so you can get your revenge?” Yuuka said.
Wakamo hesitated. “He’ll… He’ll be fine. He’s Sensei. Nothing can keep my beloved Sensei down for long!”
There it was… her armor was beginning to crack. Yuuka had pointed out a flaw in her logic, and as long as I could keep the conversation pointed towards me, I may just be able to maneuver her out of this situation. “I’m only a man, Wakamo. Even if one of the others did manage to cover me, I might end up crushed beneath them anyway. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”
“Ooh la la~ I bet we’d all pile on top of Sensei to protect him,” Mutsuki taunted. “What a way to go! Smothered by the bodies of your students.”
While that wasn’t a mental image I wanted in my head, it did serve its purpose as Wakamo loosened her grip ever so slightly to lash out at the prankster. “Don’t say such crude things!”
“Hey! Hey! Wakamo! Focus on me, I’m right here.” I’d reached her. I was so close that I could smell the priming powder and see the individual colored wires that held her contraption together. Gently, I reached forward as if I was going to pet her hair. “Even if we all survive this, what if someone gets hurt? That’ll make me really sad. Do you want that to be my last memory of you? As someone who made me miserable?”
“Taking such an action would not advance this romance path forward,” Aris added with a confident nod.
Mika opened her mouth to talk, but I shot her a subtle glance to tell her to keep quiet. Anything she said was more likely to set Wakamo off. “Let her go… You don’t have to do this.”
“But Sensei… she… she hurt… she hurt you!”
“I know she did. But seeing her die would hurt me, too. I don’t want any of my students to die. That includes you. Don’t you remember? I promised I’d keep you all safe no matter who was guilty.” Finally, I touched her head, gently rubbing between her ears. Her hair was soft. Even to the end, she kept impeccable care of it. “If you stay near me, Monokuma can’t get to you without hurting me, too. So that means…”
“You should stay near Sensei at all times!” Ibuki finished.
I could tell that it was taking all of Wakamo’s willpower not to abandon her plan and leap into my arms. “I… I have to…”
“It’s okay, Wakamo… We know you’re angry at us but… We’ll do better,” Izuna said. “I promise not to let any more ninja accidents happen!”
“And if you’re always with Sensei, none of us can enact any plans to hurt him,” Kei pointed out.
She was crumbling, her resolve was weakening, all I had to do was reel her in. I stretched my arms wide, letting my crutches fall to the floor. “Come here, Wakamo.”
“Sensei…” Tears began to well in Wakamo’s eyes. She looked between me and Mika for a moment before shoving the princess aside and leaping towards me with her arms outstretched. “Sensei!”
And that was when Monokuma made his move.
“Upupu! I don’t think so~ I invoke the mighty summon spell! To me, godly spear Gungnir!”
Time seemed to slow. Slots in the ground beneath our feet opened. Razor sharp metal rods shot from the floor with blinding speed. At that moment, a choice was made: to save me or to save herself.
Wakamo chose to save me.
I fell backwards, my vision filling with countless spears piercing through my student’s limps. Or at least… that’s what I thought I saw. Somehow, some way, Wakamo managed to twist her body and dodge the vile trap, mostly. She was trapped in an iron prison, scratched and bleeding, but alive.
“Wakamo!” I shouted as a metal clamp attached to a chain hurtled through the air, slamming shut around the demolitionist’s throat.
“What a touching moment. It breaks your heart to have to interrupt it. Unfortunately, not only did you fail to get away with your murder, but you also threatened to blow up my court room! Such crimes are unforgiveable!” Monokuma stamped his foot and the chain retracted slightly, causing Wakamo to grunt in pain as she was pulled against the metal rods.
“Get her out of there!” I screamed at my students. Their strength should be more than enough to snap the rods before Wakamo was taken.
“R-right! Heroes to the g-gah!” Aris was interrupted by having to clutch her head and she wasn’t the only one.
“No! Not this again!” Yuuka fell to one knee.
“Izuna’s head! It feels like it’s gonna explode!”
Ibuki tried to power through the pain, but it was in vain. “Gotta save Wakamo… for Sensei!”
Even Mika, despite having been held hostage just a minute ago, was crawling towards Wakamo, dragging herself across the floor. “You’re such… a cheater!” she cried.
The only one unaffected was Mutsuki, who looked around with a panicked expression. “This isn’t funny! You’re m-messing with their hormones again, aren’t you?!”
“Who? Me? I would never do something like that! Teenage hormones are so unpredictable sometimes ahahahaha!” Monokuma howled with delight as he hopped onto the back of his throne, addressing us all like he was a king addressing his subjects.
“Your resistance was cute. Your rescue effort was even a bit impressive! All your speeches and reassurances, they truly warmed my crusty old heart. But there’s something you all just don’t get. You can’t beat despair! No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, it will always fester and grow until it can’t be contained any more. Hatred, resentment, anxiety, paranoia… They feast on your innards like maggots until they hatch into beautiful flies to swarm around you and devour your whole being!”
“Be quiet!” I shouted, nearly falling over as I struggled to my feet. I hobbled over to Wakamo and grabbed the metal bars holding her in place, pulling on them with all of my might, fueled only by adrenaline and desperation.
Mutsuki tried to join me, but another set of spears shot up in front and behind her, creating yet another cage. “Let me out of here! I have to help Sensei!”
“Ahahaha! Fight all you want, it won’t make a difference. You may have gotten away the last time, but that just means you owe me the mother of all executions!”
My blood ran cold. “No! NOOOO! STOP! PLEASE!”
“No can do, buckaroo! When you have dangerous beasts like her roaming around, the only thing you can do is put them down!”
This couldn’t be happening. My students were surrounding me, either trapped or writing in agony. I was barely able to hold myself up. My foot was probably shattering even more by the second, but I refused to let go, refused to stop trying to get Wakamo out of there. My heartbeat pounded in my ears and my muscles burned. I couldn’t… I couldn’t lose another…
“Sensei.”
Wakamo’s voice. Her real voice. Peaceful and calm.
I looked at her and she returned the gesture, a smile on her face. All traces of her insanity were gone, as though they had never existed in the first place.
“Sensei… you have such a big heart. I arrogantly used to think that I could fill it all by myself, that if I loved you hard enough, you would be satisfied and I could have you. Me and only me. It wasn't the kind of love other girls dream of. It was obsessive and self-centered. I wanted to be the only one to exist in your heart. Some part of me still wishes for that, still holds out hope that you'll somehow save me and whisk me away to live our lives together, just the two of us. For all my fearsome reputation... I'm just a silly lovestruck girl, aren't I? And silly lovestruck girls don't tend to make it out alive.”
“Wakamo… No… Don’t say stuff like that! It sounds like you… It sounds like you’re going to die! You’re not going to die! I’m going to get you out of there.” I redoubled my efforts, trying my best to yank every single metal rod to see if one would give.
“Now, I’ve prepared a very special punishment for Kosaka Wakamo, the Ultimate Demolitions Expert!”
When I grabbed hold of a rod near Wakamo’s hand, she suddenly reached out and intertwined her fingers with mine as best she could. “But I see now… I see that you have so much more to give to this world. There are so many more students whose hearts you haven’t touched yet. To think I could cage such a beautiful, loving heart like yours… It was foolish.” She tightened her grip. “Even if it happened because of this awful game, meeting you was the best thing to happen to me. My world… has never been so colorful before. When I first saw you, the world was grayscale and you were more vibrant than even the most widespread destruction. Yet now... when I wake up and I look out over the others eating breakfast, I find myself transfixed by how bright and beautiful they all are.”
“Let’s give it everything we’ve got!”
The demolitionist closed her eyes, humming slightly to herself. “I’m sorry for putting you through this… I can see it on your face. You're confused and in pain. I'm... the cause of that pain even though I swore that I'd never hurt you. But it will all be worth it because Wakamo is going to be the last. This will be the last murder, the last trial. It will all be over soon, so endure it for just a bit longer, okay?" She opened her eyes. "I know I’ve hurt you a lot today, but… can I make one final selfish request?”
I wanted to scream at her. I wanted to insist that she wasn’t going to die. I wanted to yell at each for all the hurtful things she said to the other girls. I wanted to tell her no she couldn’t have anything from me because she’d tried to take everything from me.
Instead, I said, “Of course… Anything you ask.”
“In that case…” She tugged me close enough that she could lay her hand on my chest. “When you and everyone else escape, wherever you go, whoever you talk to… Please, carry a bit of Wakamo with you. Remember me not as the Fox of Calamity… but simply as your student.”
“It’s…… PUNISHMENT TIME!!!”
"Sensei... I'll love you until the very end."
The spears suddenly lowered and Wakamo was wrenched from my grasp and all I could do was shout, “I PROMISE!”
[GAME OVER]
Kosaka Wakamo has been found guilty.
Time for the punishment!
Beep.
“Attention all units, we have the suspect surrounded. Engage with extreme lethality!”
In an unnamed cityscape, fires of destruction tear through buildings like a ravenous hound. Skyscrapers fall, bridges collapse, and roads crumble underfoot. The Monokuma police unit is out in full force, hunting down the terrorist known as the Fox of Calamity.
The masked fox’s footsteps are drowned by the symphony of chaos surrounding her as she sprints through the streets. Sirens wail behind her, promising retribution for all that she has done.
“TAMAMO-NO-MORE
Ultimate Demolitions Expert Kosaka Wakamo’s Execution: Executed”
Beep beep.
A helicopter thumps overhead, shining its spotlight on the wanted criminal. A team of grunts litters the ground in front of her with gunfire, forcing Wakamo to turn sharply into an alleyway.
Though she seems trapped, the adroit demolitionist scales the wall effortlessly, dodging gunfire, grenades, and all manner of miscellaneous items tossed at her during her climb.
When she reaches the top of the building, her eyes blaze hotter than the flames surrounding her. As soon as the helicopter gets near, she makes a mad leap and slams onto the landing skids!
Beep beep beep!
The helicopter careens out of control with the added weight, sending the Monokuma officers inside tumbling out. Without a pilot, the copter careens towards a fuel station.
Wakamo doesn’t flinch in the slightest. She simply rides the wayward copter towards the inevitable collision with a crazed smile beneath her mask. This is what she lives for!
The officers on the ground watch in shock when the helicopter finally crashes.
KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!
A truly massive explosion shakes the whole city, and countless vehicles and Monokuma officers are flung backwards from the sheer heat and force. Surely no one could survive something like that.
Beep beep beep beep beeeeeeeeeeep!
As the remaining police crowd around the crash site, they all look on in shock when a singular figure emerges from the wreckage, her eyes glowing with malice, ready to take on the world.
She lets out a laugh that pierces the mayhem. Monokuma can throw whatever he wants at her. She will survive. She will thrive! She will–
Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!
It finally dawns on her what that incessant beeping is. She reaches to her neck and realizes that though the chain deposited her in this place, the metal collar remains. A flashing red light that Wakamo knows all too well signals this is the end.
With a solemn nod, the infamous Fox of Calamity removes her mask, then looks off in the distance as though she can see her beloved Sensei.
She gives a gentle, loving smile and then…
Boom!
Her head is blown from her body.
Looking back, I used to wish to go numb whenever I experienced pain. Feeling nothing was preferable to being in agony, I reasoned. But now? Now I would rake myself over a field of knives to be able to feel anything at all. My body refused to cooperate as I slumped against the wall. One moment, Wakamo was looking through the screen, a smile on her face. The next, her head was simply gone, reduced to a splattered stain on the ground that her lifeless body collapsed onto. Seeing a brilliant wildfire like her extinguished… I never thought I’d see the day. I clutched my hand over my chest, the promise I made ringing in my ears. I'd never allow her memory to escape from my heart.
“S-Sensei!” Mutsuki ran up to me, shaking me furiously. Tears streamed down her face and her ponytail had come undone, leaving her hair free to clump and tangle.
Instinctively, I drew her close to me, then looked around to see the rest of my students picking themselves up from the floor, albeit not without their own miserable expressions.
“W-Wakamo! Gwaaaaaahhhh! Ibuki’s so so sorry!” The cinnamon roll wailed loudly and without shame, her face a complete mess.
“Princess! Are you alright? Have you recovered?! Are you okay? Am I okay? What’s going on? What are these feelings? Why is our chest so tight? Are we malfunctioning?!” Kei’s rapid fire questions prevented Aris from actually answering, but when the gamer finally managed to get a word in, she sounded utterly defeated.
“Why was I given a revive when I could not prevent others from needing them?”
Yuuka was helping Izuna to her feet, and it was clear she was trying to keep her own emotions in check. “Again… he did it to us again… We can’t do anything while he’s in our heads like this. We have to… We have to find a way to fix this.”
“Izuna thought Wakamo was… Izuna thought she was going to make it out… Like Shiroko. But she fell… she fell just like Saori.” Despite Yuuka’s attempts to get Izuna up, the ninja sat back down, hugged her legs to her chest and began rocking back and forth.
Finally, Mika stumbled over to where Mutsuki and I were standing, her wings low and, if it were possible, her head even lower. “I… I don’t know… I tried to help and–”
“This is all your fault!” Mutsuki shouted, throwing herself at the princess and grabbing her by her sleeveless top. “If you hadn’t tried to kill Wakamo, she wouldn’t have gone crazy! You did this to us! At least Aru had a reason! But you… you killed Seia and now Wakamo. Why? WHY?! What is wrong with you?!”
There was no ceremony this time. There was a simple bright light, a flare, and a halo manifested above Mutsuki’s head, letting her shake Mika even more intensely. Of course, I knew what that meant. None of my students were immune to Monokuma’s machinations now. They all were incredibly powerful… and even more vulnerable.
“Ahahahaha! Oh yes! This is what I’m talking about, baby!” Monokuma popped up from nowhere, appearing right in the middle of our group like he was the guest of honor. “You have no idea how much I needed that. I’m not like the queen bee herself, I can’t get too much despair from my plans failing. So after you all were so mean and stopped my last execution, getting to watch your despair is like getting to let out a massive fart you’ve been holding in all day!”
“That’s disgusting…” Yuuka said, wrinkling her nose, then she turned her attention to Mutsuki. “Hey… let go of her. She’s not worth getting executed over.”
Though the prankster looked as though she was about to pull out the bombs Monokuma gave her, all it took was a hand on her shoulder from me to get her to shove Mika away. “Don’t even look at me anymore…”
For her part, Mika simply nodded and gave a sad bow. “I… I understand…”
“WAAAAAAAAAAH!” Ibuki hadn’t stopped crying this whole time, so I tried to walk over to her, only to end up stumbling and nearly falling until Mutsuki caught me.
“Careful, Teach! You might break the other leg. And we’re not wheelchair accessible here!”
“Here, Sensei,” Aris said as she handed me my crutches. “Please take it slowly.”
“Thank you, Aris. You too, Mutsuki.” Trying to move felt like I was trying to free Wakamo all over again. My limbs were uncoordinated and heavy. Each step made me a bit more winded than the last, but I managed to get to where Ibuki was sitting. “Hey, hey, it’ll be okay.”
“No it won’t!” Monokuma chimed, gleefully spinning in place. “Well, it won’t be okay for you all. I’m having an absolutely fantastic day! Not only is that stupid detective lookalike dead, but I got to execute one of your best fighters before she could get her halo back. And lookie! I have all the toys I want to play with since everyone has their halos. Oh and Pinky is still around to cause more problems as she rides the crazy train? Today just keeps getting better and better!”
“Nin! No! Izuna won’t let it happen again!” Sounding surprisingly strong, Izuna rose from the ground and dashed over to where Ibuki was. In one swift motion, she scooped up the younger girl by the armpits and deposited her on her feet.
Ibuki blinked in surprise. “Iz… Izuna?”
“Sorry for being out of it for a second everyone, but… Izuna isn’t going to give up! A splendid ninja doesn’t stop until the mission to defeat all evil is done. Even if we had a big setback now, that only means we’ll be even more prepared for the final battle to come!”
“So the motivational speech is ninja-themed this time. How creative!” Monokuma said.
“We have not failed our mission,” Aris said, then a bit louder she continued, “Which means that we must strive to complete it with as high of a score as possible.”
“Okay, okay, the metaphors are getting a bit strained here.” Monokuma tried to insert himself between us once again, but Yuuka gave him a light shove and sent him tumbling away.
“Hmph… We’ll find a way past this. We always do. It’s just a matter of finding the right formula.”
“You just had to make it about math, didn’t you~” Mutsuki said with the phantom of a smirk. “But I’ve tried sitting around crying and it just made me dehydrated, so I guess licking our wounds optimistically will do for now.”
“Your friends are dead! You have a killer in your midst! No matter what you do I’ll find a way to make you kill each other!” With each statement, Monokuma bounced as high as he could, but my students turned away each time.
Kei crossed her arms. “I think if we’re going to be targeted anyway, exploring the back areas of the school is our best bet. I’ll see if anything in our memory banks survived the transfer and we can go from there.”
Next to me, probably the only safe spot, Mika leaned her head against my arm. She didn’t say anything, but her pinched expression told me that she was deep in thought. She kept scratching at her thigh until I took her hand and gently rubbed the back of it.
With just about everyone having said their piece, we all turned to Ibuki, who had managed to stem her crying enough to clean up a bit. She opened her mouth to speak, but instead of sunny words of encouragement, the only thing that came out was a strained, “Sorry…”
It was as if all the wind disappeared from our sands. If the ever-optimistic Ibuki couldn’t manage to hype herself up, then everything we had done before felt like posturing. I saw Monokuma out of the corner of my eye looking as if he wanted to take advantage, but I beat him to the punch.
“Listen… We took a heavy blow here. We’re all hurting and… It’s going to hurt for a while. But if we give up then we’re not just losing the game, we’re giving up on everything that this class stands for. I won’t allow that.” I adjusted my shirt, smoothing it out as best I could and straightened my back. Though I wanted to bury my head in the sand until I suffocated, I put on my best teacher voice and said, “Tonight, we’re going to have a sleepover in my room. All of us. Yes, that includes Mika. In the morning, when we’ve all gotten some sleep and are in a better headspace, we’ll make a plan to move forward.”
My students looked back at me with a mixture of complicated expressions. However, no one protested my plan. Mutsuki even managed to slip in a comment about me really looking forward to a sleepover with a bunch of young girls. I simply let it slide off of me. If she was joking, she was going to be okay.
“Good thing I keep adding pillows to your room, huh?” Monokuma said as we turned around to head to the elevator.
“What are you still doing here?” Yuuka demanded. “Don’t you usually disappear with some threat by now?”
“Usually, yeah! But I’m in such a good mood, I want to lead the sadness procession myself!” He pulled a whistle from who knows where and blew it. “All in line! About face! Aaaaaand march!”
Like a conductor leading a band, Monokuma led us single file to the elevator, the whole time he sang to himself. “I am the best! Better than the rest! I am so smart! S-M-RT! I mean– S-M-ART!”
“I do hope that this does not become our theme music,” Aris said.
Fortunately, Monokuma had enough mercy to be quiet until the elevator came to a screeching halt. “Last one in is a rotten corpse!”
I rolled my eyes at his comment, then stepped aside to let my students enter the elevator first. Yuuka, then Kei and Aris, then Mutsuki, then Izuna. I looked over to see Mika and Ibuki hesitating. The former had her skirts bunched in her hands, while the latter clung tightly to her hat.
“Come on, you two. I’ll let you do my hair before bed, Mika. And we’ll get some pudding from the kitchen before we go to my room, Ibuki.”
Despite my urging, the two of them remained still.
“Man could you all go any slower?” Monokuma whined. “I have evening announcements to make!”
Finally, Mika made the first move. She nudged Ibuki. The smaller girl looked up at her and the two shared a nod.
“She didn’t do it…” Mika was so quiet that I almost couldn't hear her. "Wakamo didn't do it," she said, more clearly this time.
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Yuuka asked, “What are you talking about now?”
“Izuna would really like to go to bed…” the ninja said, swinging her tail around to hold it in her arms.
I turned to face the duo fully. “Listen, whatever it is, we can talk about it in my room, so–”
“No… It has to be here,” Mika said. “Because… the trial isn’t over.”
“Don’t tell me she’s losing it now?” Kei said with a groan. “In case you didn’t notice, we voted and watched Wakamo get executed. Or do you need a refresher?”
The rest of the girls echoed the sentiment, although they were a bit more tactful about it. Surprisingly, the one person I expected to make a smart ass comment remained silent. Monokuma stared straight forward, completely still.
Ibuki stepped forward. She reached into her pocket. The Monocoins jingled and clinked together inside.
“Wakamo didn’t kill Hina.” Ibuki’s voice was clear and confident.
Before anyone could respond, she pulled her hand out of her pocket. When she did, my blood turned to ice. My world turned upside down. My heart stopped beating. It was as if the entire universe was collapsing on this one single point.
In Ibuki’s hand… was a plastic baggie with a bloody scalpel inside.
“Wakamo didn’t kill Hina,” she repeated. “Because…”
“Ibuki did.”