The AU Where the Weenie Lives

by MrAwesomeMatty

Summary:

Okay, a searing pain in his right side was not how Leon wanted to wake up this morning.
As he came to, he realized he was in a room he hadn't ever seen before; some kind of a medical office or something.
When he tried to sit up, he finally realized how badly the pain was: his hands, his right sleeve, and the entirety of his right pant leg and shoe were covered in his blood.
What in the hell-
!... O-Oh... Oh, that's right. Sayaka tried to kill him last night.

======

A Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc AU where Leon Kuwata, the Ultimate Baseball Star's life does not end as him being a killer; instead, he ends up living past the events of Chapter 1 and becomes friends with Hina and Sakura along the way as he tries to survive through this killing game... and his injury that's driving him nuts.

Chapter 1: Prologue 1

Notes:

Where the weenie gets accepted into Hope's Peak Academy.

PROLOGUE: START

================

By the time he actually got to his bedroom door, it was like he could hear the mattress just calling his name and beckoning him to draw nearer.

And once inside, he just let momentum take him into it face first, causing his body to bounce slightly while burying his face into the huge, fluffy pillow. It muffled the low, frustrated groan as his throbbing brain currently suffering from a headache tried to ignore the fatigue and soreness of his muscles.

Gawd….. damn.

The young man ended up laying that way on his bed for quite some time. Today had been a massive dumpster fire from the get-go. Actually, this whole week had been a total disaster, and he was not feeling it. But today specifically sucked hard. Like the biggest suckage that ever could’ve sucked.

Just total mega suckage.

Why, you might ask? Well… let’s go back and try to elaborate.

You see, Leon Kuwata, a high school student from LL Academy, had made quite a name for himself. This young man was exceptionally gifted in the sport of baseball. Even going back to a young age, his skill in the sport always made him the center of attention. He was an exceptional batter, almost every time being able to knock it out of the park for a home run or get some type of hit. Honestly, he couldn’t remember the last time he struck out… or if he did at all. And it wasn’t just batting he excelled in. On the mound, his pitching could not be beaten. With godlike throwing power mixed with a great aim into his arm, any kind of pitch was just plain unfair to face against. Whether it be his tricky curveball, his unreadable slowball, or his infamous pitch that no batter has ever been able to hit: his fastball, it didn’t matter. As far as he was concerned, no one can touch him.

So… yeah, about that?

There was just one little problem.

He. Hates. Baseball.

We’re not talking like ‘Oh, just a mild annoyance’ or ‘nah, would rather do something else.’

We’re talking like ‘I’m gonna deck you in the face if you try to make me do this again’ levels of hatred.

Dating as far back as he can possibly remember, he was outside on a pitcher’s mound under a hot baking sun throwing a stupid tiny ball to a clearly weaker sports-playing kid who less than ten percent of the time would be able to hit the damn thing. Or he’d be sitting in a dugout with wet, sweat-drenched kids pressing against either side of him as his nose was assaulted by multiple human bodies not having the concept of putting on appropriate deodorant or body spray and thus reeking. Ugh, even as a kid, he hated hot weather and body odor. I mean, who doesn't?

Whenever he wasn’t playing baseball games, whether it was school or something else, his dad, despite being a single parent and having a busy work life, would regularly set up a time to have Leon practice his arm with an old-time game of catch. The fiery teenager wouldn’t deny that there were times where his younger self… and perhaps occasionally his present self, would groan and complain about this. His dad wouldn’t buy the truth of how he didn’t need to practice; his baseball skills were already superb and untouchable as they were. But now at the age of seventeen, he would realize it was a way for him to hang out with his son, and he could at least respect that.

That doesn’t mean he’s happy to do things related to baseball, but… Leon isn’t that heartless. He can sacrifice a few minutes of his time to throw a ball around with his old man to make him happy.

But despite this fact, the game of baseball was becoming a major waste of time-

Actually, no; metal shackles weighing him down would be more of the right thing to describe this shit.

He especially regretted his dad choosing LL Academy as where he went to school, too.

The older he got, it’s like his teammates, the coaching staff, the teachers- hell, everybody seemed to take an issue with how Leon looked like or what he wanted to do. Baseball was already grating on his nerves enough, but now, he was seriously getting annoyed to hell and beyond.

Always had to show up to practice, or faced getting haggled by his team and coaches. The said coaches being even more strict than the previous ones he had. Always ending up covered in dirt and guck, and feeling disgusting as sweat dripped off of his face. The mandatory team meetings on his days off from school while he could be doing other things.

You know… like having fun and crap?

But the biggest thing that really got under his skin the most was the fact that he was forced-

Not asked!

He was forced to shave his entire head and face, just because it’s ‘tradition’.

Son... of a bitch.

Leon wanted to die, having to spend those school days walking around with his hair looking like a dyed q-tip for all the students to see. Maybe this whacked-out, awful-looking, overdone buzzcut look was someone’s style, but gawddamn it, it was not his!!

It was like everyone around him in LL Academy was trying to condition him to go onto a path that led his life to the major leagues of baseball. Like it was the only thing he was allowed to do in school and once graduated from school. Sure, he was really talented at the damn sport, but that doesn’t mean he wants to do that for the rest of his life. That’s dumb and stupid! He had a choice, damn it! The only things that kept him from going nutzoid and being miserable were his father, despite playing games of catch, and his cousin, Kanon Nakajima, who not only was more of a little sister to him, but had managed to become the team manager and do her best to make it less unbearable whenever she could. Those two deserve medals and stuff.

Well, a few months ago, it was a Saturday. And while his hair was still short enough to please the team, Leon decided to get it styled somewhat, so he didn’t look like a total bozo. So, getting a major break on a weekend where there was no scheduled meeting, the star player decided to wander through the city for a reasonably affordable, but good quality hair salon. And he lucked out and found one, a few blocks from his school.

And whoa….. That girl.

One of the girls who were working there…. HOT DAMN.

Okay, her face was kinda good, and that blond hair and green eyes really helped it out, but THOSE CURVES, MAN… Holy shit, she was smokin’ with that bod!!

He could feel his world just stop as he found himself lowkey smiling.

All right, all right, all right.. Play it cool, dude. Be natural. Be yourself…

Leon strolled right up to her and asked if she could help him style the disaster of his hair. Just his luck, she said she could! And it was like chemistry, you know? He played it cool and the two had a great back-and-forth conversation, sharing a few laughs and generally hitting it off, as far as he was concerned. And man, was she good at this shit. The q-tip looked much better, as she had gotten his hair to somewhat flow backwards and spike that way. It wasn’t bad; he loved it!

But the one thing she did… it changed his life completely. All with one question.

“So, like.. What kinda girls are you into?”

“Huh? Oh, uh…”

Well, in truth, outside of baseball, he had dated quite a few girls at the current time, but… now that the question had been asked…

He really loved pure-hearted girls the most, but… it’d be totally uncool for him to say that, yeah? So, time to improvise.

“I’m not sure. I’ve only dated a few people, so I can’t really say who my soulmate is, y’know?” he answered, looking to her via the mirror’s reflection, “What about you?”

The girl grinned confidently, adjusting her grip on her comb and scissors.

“Oh, I totally know who I want. It’s gotta be a musician, for sure! The leader of a band is the hottest guy, who has an incredible voice and good taste in fashion.”

Leon raised his eyebrows at that, slowly starting to smile as he replied, “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah, totally!” the girl said, going back to finishing up the touches to his hair, “A person who can make awesome music that gets me going, is hot and funny, has awesome clothes… it’s like every girl’s dream guy!”

“Yeah… You’re right…”

Only a little while later did she finished, and Leon felt more comfortable with how he looked to people. He proceeded to pay the girl for styling his hair and left. But after closing the door to the hair salon, the young man stopped a few steps outside of the hair salon and really thought about it.

Yeah… yeah, that was it!

That was totally it!

Being a musician! That’s what he wanted to do with his life!

After all, one of Leon’s biggest passions was music. The world wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t for great artists making awesome songs to jam to and brighten up your day. And specifically for him, the genre of punk was a great style. The Damned, the Clash, the Sex Pistols, Blink-182, and some of Relient K’s earlier songs were some of his favorites, and he loved how awesome it sounded.

So why not be like them?

No, be even better?

Looking down at his hand, he could feel his brand new drive and excitement overtake him as he nearly was bouncing with each step, a newly found spring in it.

Without any hesitation, he marched to both Kanon and his father and stated he was done with baseball. The look of shock on their faces was apparent, but thank God or whatever was watching out over him he had an understanding parent and cousin. Kanon was slightly saddened about this, but with the promise of still playing catch every now and then offered, as well as spending more time with her, she smiled and was willing to let him decide to leave baseball. After being explained to about what this could mean and the possible repercussions of quitting, both Leon and his father made a visit to the sports department of LL Academy.

Being sadistic was never a defining trait in his nature, but even the baseball star couldn’t deny that the look of absolute bewilderment turned to horror was slightly satisfying when his old man backed him up. There’s no way they’d be so pushy and demanding like they had been with his dad right there in the room.

Word spread around LL Academy fast the next day; after another successful, nearly undefeated season of baseball, Leon Kuwata wanted no part of it anymore. And man, did the begging and the persistent desperation of the coaches and teachers get worse. But, nothing was changing his mind! He was finally free, and now he knew what his dream was gonna be!

And if that dream is to become a musician, it was time to look the part.

Over the next few months, Leon Kuwata would undergo a massive overall transformation.

Finally able to grow his hair out, the young man was diligent in keeping it up in tip-top shape. Tons of hair spray, combing, and various other things slowly managed to give him this awesome spiky look that flowed backwards and down. It looked badass, but… with his current natural hair color, it seemed not as good as it could be. That is… until he went back to the hair salon (luckily when that girl wasn’t there, so he wouldn’t look desperate or anything) and asked for some advice. One of the other workers there offered a hair dye, which turned his color into this blazing reddish-orange.

Now that looked awesome!!

The same salon also helped style his facial hair, giving this cool length to him and even offering this silver, metal-looking bead to funnel the new goatee through and keep it straight. It was so sick to be allowed to grow some facial hair after so long!

With his hair done and dying his goatee and eyebrows the same color, the next step was some piercings.

And the hair salon came to the rescue again. They gave him the directions to a really good place that did piercings. And man, was the guy there good! Even gave him a slight discount when Leon told him where he heard about him.

Now… the piercings hurt like hell. So much to where his shoulders scrunched up in shock at first, and ended up making the guy have to pause for a second to stop laughing his head off. Damn, dude, just mega embarrassing. But it was a success! He first got a labret one, which wasn’t as bad as he thought it’d look. Over the course of the next few weeks, he worked on getting up to six earrings onto his right ear, before going for the big one; a metal one on his tongue.

Of course, he had to avoid talking for a long time, so he didn’t sound like a total idiot from the swollen tongue, but it was worth it!!

Okay, time for step three: Clothing!

He’d never rat out the person, but let’s just say Leon had a buddy of his help take one of his LL Academy blazer jackets and give it this awesome punk rock-styled popped collar, with a studded top to it at that. Sporting his new item of clothing, he ventured to the local mall and browsed for anything worth his interest. A local jewelry store had a sale on some silver rings, so of course he had to get them. Swinging by a nearby ‘edgy’ clothes store, he fell in love with this freakin’ badass white shirt that had this red grunge design of a skull being punctured and stuff!

He wondered if maybe he could contact the designer in the future to use this for his future band’s official image…

By the end of the day, he had not only those, but a brand new pair of dark blackish-blue jeans, several studded belts, this big safety pin, and a padlocked chain necklace. That wasn’t even counting the custom-ordered platform sneakers that he found online that were going to come within a few days!

Now all he needed to do was save up for a guitar, get some lessons, find some people to be a band, more people to write some music, and his dream was totally comin’ to life!!

With all this explained, you might be asking then:

Why is the new punk rocker-looking Leon Kuwata currently facedown in his pillow and feeling like this week sucked hardcore, to the point where he was debating taking a nap?

Ahh, yes.

Well, that’d be not only because his patience was wearing thin from the pleading he was still getting from everyone at school to go back to baseball, and their inability to take no for an answer…

...But some of his former teammates actually confronted him today.

Leon was just minding his own business in the local mall, sporting all of his newly bought clothes (though still was waiting for his platform shoes) while checking if there was any new CDs in the punk and rock section he hadn’t heard of, when he noticed a group of guys approaching out of the corner of his eyes. Tilting his head to get a better view, he instantly felt a giant pit of dread hit in the bottom of his stomach and a cold sweat run down his face.

There was Sosuke, Kenta, Shojei, and Hideki walking towards him, all having serious or angry looks on their faces.

Gawddamn it. Why did Kenta, the team captain of all people, specifically have to be there? This wasn’t going to be pretty…

And it wasn’t. Immediately before Leon could have any kind of chance to greet them or diffuse the situation with a potentially different topic opener, all four boys ganged up on him verbally. Spewing all kinds of questions like ‘When the hell are you gonna drop this and come back to baseball?’, ‘You think this is funny or something?’, and ‘Seriously? You’re just gonna abandon us, after everything we’ve done?’, and not listening to anything he tried to say in response. It got to the point where Leon’s initial nervousness turned to anger as he started to feel himself get pissed off whenever one of them cut him off.

Apparently, the altercation was that loud, that a tiny group of onlookers formed outside and began watching the incoming storm that was brewing. Luckily, the store clerk saw what was happening and quietly had summoned the nearby security guard to settle things out. Before he could arrive, however…

Leon gritted his teeth, clenching his fists, and finally raised his voice high enough to shut the four boys up long enough to speak.

“That’s it! I’m, like, so done with all of you! If I don’t want to play baseball anymore, I don’t have to freakin’ play the gawddamn sport!! I’m finally choosing what I wanna do, and none of you shit-for-brains are gonna stop me! Now piss off!!”

By the time Shojei registered what he said and started to take a furious step towards him, the security guard had firmly gotten in between the baseball star and the other boys.

Aaaaannnd that’s his cue to get the hell outta there.

Before the guard or his former teammates (and friends, most likely) could react, a grumpy, nearly on the verge of fuming Leon stomped away, out of the mall, and made his way back to his house. While still hot for the first few blocks, the fiery teenager had managed to simmer down a bit and huff out a breath of regret and disappointment by the time he was close to home. Just… damn, man. Why did this have to happen?

Did those guys seriously feel like he had no say in the matter of what he does with his life? That they could pressure him back into baseball?

Is it really that big of a crime to do what you want to do, not what others want you to be?

And that led to him lying on his bed now, seriously feeling awful for what just happened. Like… he wasn’t huge friends with all of them, but like… Shojei and Kenta were teammates he had several times before LL Academy, and with that…

He felt like he just lost some friends over this stupid crap.

Hence, why he was debating a nap at the moment.

Pulling a bit out of his pillow, Leon adjusted his position enough to dig into his pockets and pulled out his phone to look at some of his notifications really quickly, when suddenly…

“Leon!!”

Ohhh, why did she have to yell? That really hurts his head, that with his brain throbbing at the moment…

Briefly turning to get a better view as she came in, he watched as Kanon hurried into his bedroom, nearly stumbling over her own feet as she stopped right at his bed. Her body hunched over as her breathless form tried to suck oxygen in, her blond hair obscured any vision of her face before she straightened herself out.

“H-Hey, take it easy, Kanon… you’re gonna keel over if you’re not careful, y’know?” Leon warned gently, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed to sit up.

His cousin instantly waved her hands around, trying to signal that she needed him to listen while desperately trying to catch her breath. It was during this that he finally realized she was holding some kind of a big yellow envelope in her hand.

“I-I’m fine… f-for the most part, but that’s not important!” she said urgently, a wild sense of excitement dancing within her eyes as she held out the item towards him, “You gotta read this! Like right now!”

Blinking silently for a second, his eyes lowered to the envelope that was being offered to him before his mind subconsciously brought up the altercation with his former teammates. The guilt bubbled up again. With a bit of a frown coming up to his face, Leon forced his eyes to look away as he carefully rubbed at the back of his head, as to not mess up his hair.

“Sorry, but… could we hold off on doing this? I really had a bit of a bad day, and-”

“Leon! Trust me on this!”

Groaning out a questioning noise, the teenager looked back to see Konan have this very determined look on her face. Blinking at how straightforward she was being about this, he decided to humor her and looked back down at the envelope. This time, she was pointing to a specific corner of-

!!!!!

No way.

No fuckin’ way!

That’s… that’s the Hope’s Peak Academy symbol in the corner.

Leon’s eyes could’ve bulged out of his sockets with how wide they went. The moment his brain registered what this symbol stood for, he froze comically and stayed staring at the thing for a few moments before he gathered enough mental fortitude to look up at Kanon. She nodded excitedly, motioning with her arm again for him to take the envelope and see what was inside.

Gently taking the object out of her grasp, Leon frantically began tearing open the top of it and proceeded to flip it upside down, dumping all of the contents onto his bed. Before he could pick up the white, folded piece of paper, his eyes caught the small, thin book and what the cover showed:

‘2014 Hope’s Peak Orientation Guide’ above a picture of the front of the school and its symbol.

His mouth wide open with excitement and his eyes even wider, a giant gasp was inhaled and his hands opened up the folded paper. He only had to read the top line to confirm it:

“Dear Mr. Leon Kuwata, it is with great pleasure and pride that we have chosen you to become part of the newest class of Hope’s Peak Academy--”

“OH MY GAWD!! HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!”

Being careful not to kick his cousin as he shot off the bed, Leon jumped like five feet into the air and began to run around his room, screaming his head off with a giant grin. Kanon must’ve caught on quick, because she screamed and began jumping up and down from where she stood. Turning to her, Leon scooped her up into a hug.

“I DON’T FUCKING BELIEVE IT!! I’M IN HOPE’S PEAK ACADEMY!!” He shouted in joy, only causing Kanon to laugh at his utter delightment.

He let go of her to set her down and looked her in the eyes with a sudden realization.

“We gotta tell dad!!”

With her nodding and following behind him, Leon tore out of his room and rushed downstairs, screaming for his dad to come take a look at the letter in his hands.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Hope’s Peak Academy.

The biggest school in the nation, located in the heart of the city with a building that towers over any other nearby. A government-funded institution of privilege… only high schoolers who are at the top of whatever they do are allowed to come here.

And here he was, standing proud and tall at the main gates of the giant school building.

Well, more like his right leg’s kinda bouncing a bit, due to how excited he is.

The moment he opened that envelope and saw the acceptance letter, Leon knew he was destined for greatness. This was going to be a stepping stone for him to get into the music industry and kill it with his amazing songs and talent.

Though, it sucked that it was for his baseball talent that he got into this school in the first place. That ended up putting a temporary, annoyed frown on his face after he, Kanon, and his dad sat down to read everything Hope’s Peak sent him. But hey, if that was how he was getting in, so be it. But he totally was going for music, no doubt about it. In fact, that was his new plan. He was going to show the people in charge here that he wanted to change his talent; no longer the Ultimate Baseball Star, but the Ultimate Musician! After all, according to the school, if you managed to graduate from here, you were pretty much set for life! That oughta really boost up his music career for sure!

And here he was… standing in front of the place that would finally kickstart his dream into becoming a reality.

And just in time, too! These new platform shoes are amazing!

If any random bystander could take a look at Leon’s face right now, he’d be beaming like an idiot from ear to ear. Clearly, his excitement couldn’t be contained. So unable to be contained, in fact, that he actually woke up super early to get here way before the orientation even began. And that’s, like, a massive ordeal, because Leon loves his sleep and would rather sleep in late than wake up early.

It totally doesn’t have any connections to the fact that he was so pumped up for today, that he didn’t really get that much sleep, and was a bit exhausted right now.

But screw that noise!

He had his excitement fueling him. He had all of his punk-styled clothing on, he had some of his new blueberry perfume on him to smell perfect, and he had been practicing some greetings and what to say in conversations to make the coolest first impression. He’s got this in the bag.

“All right… today’s the day! Where my dream finally comes true, and I will make punk music the top of the global charts!! ...Hell yeah, this is so freakin’ cool!” Leon talked to himself, nodding during his attempt to pump himself up before clutching his fists tightly in front of him.

“LET’S DO IT!!”

With that verbal declaration, Leon made his way through the main gate, up the steps, and pushed open the doors.

Upon entering the school building, he was greeted with the main hall. Gawd, this place was huge. A massively giant area, the young man began scanning the room for a clock. Would be a total disaster if he made a bad first impression, so he wanted to get everything down perfect. Upon looking at it, it was seven twenty. And thanks to Kanon and his dad constantly reminding him, the orientation begins at eight. So he had about forty minutes to kill before then, right?

Nodding to himself in accepting this, Leon decided to wait it out in the main hall until someone came to get him or another student came in and he could tag along with them. After all, he’d eventually get a tour of the school by the staff during orientation, so there wasn’t a need to knock himself out. Resigning himself to this plan, he found himself asking so many questions in his head.

Would the school be okay with him changing talents?

How many cute girls would there be here?

Would this school be super strict, or relatively chill?

Could he have his piercings and jewelry on during the day?

How much homework would the teachers here assign?

…….W-Why is the room-

“W-What the crap-??”

Leon jerked his head back slightly when his vision suddenly became warped, almost twisted-like. The entire room was melting and then spinning and mixing into a weird delusion that his eyes couldn’t focus properly on. It was making him feel sick and his head started to hurt. Spinning, mixing, melting, then spinning away…

...until before Leon knew it or could do anything else, everything went black.

And that would be the end of the normal life he would have.

Because everything from here on else would drastically change all he thought he knew.

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better.

Chapter 2: Prologue 2

Notes:

Where the weenie wakes up and meets some people.

At first, there was nothing but darkness.

It was comfortable and warm. Almost restfully so.

But now there came a really bright light shining down on his face, to the point where it sucks and was wrestling him away from the comforting darkness.

It spurred him enough to move his arm to cover his eyes enough for them to squint and slowly peek open.

“...Ggh?”

It took Leon a few seconds to realize after trying to open his eyes, his vision was really blurry. The kind of blurry vision that makes you uncomfortable continuing to try and see with it.

It only took him the action of trying to rub his eyes enough in order to eliminate said blurriness that not only is the right side of his face resting on a surface…

...but he’s also slouched forward on it, so he’s not able to easily rub his eyes.

The groan escaping his body clawed its way out of the back of his throat. The young man pushed off the surface he was resting on in order to fix his eyes. He was careful to make sure the rings on his fingers didn’t scratch and cause any kind of irritation, while a yawn escaped out of his mouth. Finally finishing, he managed to finally open his eyes at the exact same time he realized-

His cheek was wet.

Grunting a bit, he glanced back towards where he originally laid and saw a small pool of drool on the-

Aww, man! Seriously? Totally not cool!

Now he’s got drool dripping down his face and just… ugh.

“Ehh-ahhhh…”

Huffing in disgust, Leon took the back of his left hand and began to wipe the chilled saliva off his cheek. He really didn’t want to ruin the sleeve of his jacket, but touching something disgusting with his bare hands wasn’t more his preference. With the few successful wipes, he swiftly rubbed that part of his sleeve on his pants, grimacing as he had to smudge it down a bit further to make his mouth juice not as visible. A thought then popped into his head. He can feel the rest of his face is clean, but…

Gawd fuckin’, not the goatee…!

His body shivering as if he just noticed the grossest bug on him, he delicately took his facial hair into his hands and cautiously stroked through it. A sweeping feeling of relief flowed through him once his fingers felt that it was dry. He closed his eyes and let out a tension-free sigh, dropping his arms into his lap.

Seriously, if the drool on the desk had gotten into his goatee, that would’ve-

...Wait.

...Desk?

Leon’s eyes shot open the moment he realized what he had been laying on. With the movement of jerking his head upward in realization, he turned to confirm it.

Sure enough, he was sitting in front of a nicely made, wooden desk. At this point, it also dawned on him that he’s sitting in the chair for the desk. And that’s when it came across his mind to look around, further realizing that not only are there more of them scattered across the room…

...but he was in a classroom-

Wait, what? Hold the phone here; why was he here…? In a classroom he’s never seen before? Wasn’t he at the…

“W… What the crap…?”

Holy balls, there was a classroom with blue camouflage designed walls?

Any random observer would’ve gotten the impression Leon thought his chair was lava with how fast he shot to his feet. His head scanning the room to take in his environments, more oddities were starting to come under his attention. The first being the teacher’s podium in front of the chalkboard that had a certain logo on a gold circle in front:

Hope’s Peak Academy’s logo.

Okay, so… wait; does that mean he was still inside Hope’s Peak Academy?

But he was…

All right, hold on a second. Let’s just… stop for a moment.

A scowl formed onto Leon’s mouth. His arms folded across his chest, with his right index and middle fingers gently tapping against his left sleeve. Cocking his head slightly to the side, one of his eyes closed while the other looked up towards the ceiling in order for him to better concentrate on recalling the series of events.

He remembered getting to Hope’s Peak Academy, excitedly walking into the main hall, looking at the clock, deciding to wait there until he saw someone else…

….And then, he blacked out.

Which, in its own sense, was a scattered mess of confusion. He wasn’t a health nut, but Leon would like to think he was physically healthy; no medical conditions or nothing. Sure, there were times where during one of those God-forbidden searing hot weather baseball games where he was on the mound that he felt like he was gonna collapse unless he got some water. But he was in the entrance hall, not outside for extended periods of time.

Then there was the fact he was now in this classroom. It wasn’t just the mystery that had him doing a mental double-take; it was a possible reason in his head for why he was here. And that reason was that somebody found him unconscious, transported him to this place, and then dumped him into one of the chairs. Ignoring the fact that it’d be mega embarrassing that he could’ve been carried like a baby, as a future superstar can’t have that blemish on his image, what the crap? What dumb idiot sees a person out cold and thinks to just leave them in a classroom? After all, if this was really Hope’s Peak Academy, then… shouldn’t there be a nurse’s office or something?

And finally, the classroom itself. Like, for real; one hell of a crazy design for the walls, even if it is a top school in the nation. The TV monitors, he kind of understood. LL Academy had something similar, where if there was an important announcement, the principal would come on screen to let everyone know about something. But the security cameras? Why the hell were they in a classroom?

But of course, the biggest thing was…

“You gotta be kiddin’ me…”

Leon breathed that out in a low tone as he gaped at the giant metal plates located on the left wall of the room. Those things were massive! Not the plates, but the screws holding them in! Holy crap, some of them were bigger than his hands! Moving to them with his jaw slightly open, the young man was overcome with awe after knocking on it briefly and hearing a solid, metallic sound reply back to him in response. Damn, that thing was thick. And there ain’t no way he was gonna be able to move this.

But like… this was where the windows should be, right? How the hell did the school (he’s assuming, because who else could it be) screw giant metal plates over the windows like this?

...Actually, more importantly, why the hell would they do that??

Ugh, this was starting to make his head hurt.

Sighing one of those kinds of ‘welp, whatever’ sighs and shaking his head, Leon turned from the metal plate and began to look over the room one more time for anything he didn’t necessarily catch the first time around. And that’s when his eyes caught it. Back at the desk where he woke up, there was some kind of paper on the right side where his head faced away from. Blinking for a second, he made his way over to it and picked it up from the desk-

...Okay, what in the frig is this thing?

What he had in his hands was like some kind of crappy pamphlet that literally had an abysmal drawing of a building on it with words scribbled in crayon next to it. Like, we’re talking some small kid’s arts and crafts project that they probably spent five minutes tops on.

Apparently from what he’s witnessed so far, Hope’s Peak thinks it’s okay to dump unconscious people in classrooms, bolt their windows with metal plates, and hire kindergarten children to do their new orientation pamphlets.

Someone has gotta be shitting him right now.

Leon’s incredulous eyes stared at the paper with pursed lips for a solid ten seconds before he decided to try (keyword being try) to read what the words on this was.

“Hey there, new kid! The next semester is about to start. Starting today, this school will be your entire world.”

….Ehh?

Scrunching his face up at reading that last part… he guessed it was true that thanks to the school, he was getting a chance at pursuing his dream for real, but he wouldn’t exactly say that…

Actually, hold up a sec.

If this really was Hope’s Peak, and it was seven twenty when he got into the entrance hall…

Shoot, is there a clock here?

Looking around the room real quick, he soon noticed and proceeded to focus on the newly found clock on the wall and its time: seven fifty. Holy crap, he had been out cold for a half an hour?

All right, he can try to deal with everything going on later. Right now, he had to get a move on!

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“Dude…”

It wasn’t even longer than a second when Leon opened the classroom door that he stopped dead in his tracks. After all, it wasn’t every day you’d go out into a hallway illuminated by purple lights. Yeah, not gonna lie; this was kinda sick having the hallways with colored lights like this!

These people at the school have got weird tastes, you know what he means? But hey, he’s cool with it!

Venturing into the purple atmosphere once his eyes adjusted to it, the young man shut the door behind him and looked around. Okay, to his left, there seemed to be another classroom and a hallway with a small blackboard sign that read “Despair Hotel”. All righty, that’s probably not where he wants to go. Right it is!

And there’s a giant red door with double handles that looks like an infected splinter with how its color and design is bulging out of the walls. Leon blinked at it with a confused look, before making his way over to it, initially ignoring the hallway to his right. That’s… odd; he can’t remember there being a bright red door when he first got here, but who knows? Maybe it was the way to the entrance hall-

RATTLE RATTLE.

“Oh…”

Guess not. Hope nobody saw that…

He took a step back and shrugged his shoulders. Whatever, right? If it’s locked, then he’s not meant to go there. Going back a few steps and looking around the corner to the new hallway, the visual experience he was seeing now was now transforming into a bright green set of lights. No way! Each section of a hallway had a different colored light? What, is the whole freakin’ rainbow going to be used like this? Still, the green was awesome looking, and it enticed him enough to venture down it.

Passing a few doors leading to other rooms, Leon eventually got to this giant square-like section with a door all the way on the left that was open. The symbol above it had a tiny stick figure entering a cartoon door. Now, he’s not a betting man, but that’s gotta be the entrance hall, right? And if it’s open, maybe there’s someone there!

Being extra careful to not let his footsteps give him away, Leon quietly crept towards the left door, putting his back towards it as he shuffled to the side. He curved his head to take a secretive peek and… there was!! He could see a small group of probably six people inside.

Okay, man. Breathe in, breathe out. Be cool; you got this.

After a quick mental pep talk, his tongue gave his fingers a lick in order to run them through his hair and make it look as badass as possible. A quick breath check, adjusting his jacket near the collar, and stuffing his hands into his pockets, and the excited grin that flashed upon his face disappeared as soon as it had first appeared. Careful to make his footsteps the right volume and his posture to give him the coolest vibe he could have, Leon walked around the door to make his grand stage-like arrival.

“Yo!”

Keeping it short and sweet, his reaction was enough to have all six turn their attention to his newly-added presence.

“Ahh! Another new face in which I shall share my educational crusade with!”

The loud, booming voice of a young man came charging right at Leon’s eardrums about a second after his greeting. Geez, if he wasn’t awake already, then he was now. His advancing steps came to a halt as said young man, dressed in some white military looking outfit with these giant black boots and these fierce, red eyes that seemed to pierce into his soul, moved towards him. And ...g-gawd, those eyebrows! They’re so big, like unnaturally-so…!

“A pleasure to meet a fellow student who also shows appreciation to a school by arriving earlier than the mandatory time. I can sense the potential of an excellent student who cares about his academic future in you!” the young man cheerfully praised him, nodding to himself in agreement as he smiled with his arms out.

...Yeah… because that’s why Leon showed up. Sure, let’s go with that.

If it wasn’t for how intense this guy came off as and how it was majorly throwing him off, the baseball star probably would’ve had a giant smirk overtake his face and put some effort into not bursting out laughing. Oh boy, if this guy only had known how many close calls or tardies he had chalked up over the years…

Instead, he opted on staring at him while an awkward expression came onto his facial features.

“Ohh, uhhh… Thanks, I guess?” he said, trying to give an appreciative smile.

The moment he finished, the young man’s smile dropped and he brought a hand to rest under his bottom lip, while the other arm supported it below the elbow.

“However, I’m not exactly sure that those piercings or that necklace are within acceptable items allowed by the dress code.”

Now, that- that shook Leon out of his uncomfortable stupor, jerking his head back as he pointed at his labret and ear piercings.

“Wh- Come on, man. I paid a good amount of money to get these, y’know!”

“That is not the issue! As new students of Hope’s Peak Academy, it is our obligation to look like outstanding people, both through diligence in our studies and our appearance! Therefore, things like piercings or over-the-top jewelry aren’t acceptable for a male student!” the guy actually shouted louder, clutching his fists tightly.

His eyes narrowing and keeping their focus on the nerve of this guy, Leon bent forward and felt himself develop a look of incredulousness on his face. The kind of look when its goal is to make the other person feel dumb for something they said.

For gawd’s sake, if he wanted to get grilled on what he looked like, he would’ve stayed in the hellhole that was his old school…

“The hell? So what? Girls wear things like earrings and jewelry all the time! You seriously tryin’ to tell me girls can have piercings and stuff, but guys can’t?” he fired back, his tone challenging for the other to make any kind of response.

The military-looking guy began to open his mouth when a female voice cut in.

“Hey, can you guys push this conversation to the backburner for now? We’ve got more important things to deal with.”

Leon’s gaze turned away towards a girl with freckles and strawberry blonde hair in giant pigtails held by a bow and bunny hair clips. She had this pretty black cardigan, loose designer tie, red pleated miniskirt, and mid-sized boots combo going on.

Oooh, she even had long red nails…

Okay, not gonna lie; this girl was pretty cute; her body, on the other hand, was smokin’!

...Oi, don’t judge him; he has a thing for blondes, okay?

Taking in her appearance caused him to step away from the guy he was arguing with and straighten up. It seemed like it stopped whatever verbal spat they were about to engage in, as the girl folded her arms with a sense of success and continued speaking.

“Like, how weird and creepy this place is in general,” she remarked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah! It’s totally weird. What kind of place puts giant metal plate things on the windows?”

The criticizing, curious voice came from a girl with tanned skin and a curved brown ponytail hairstyle. Sporting a red track suit jacket over a shirt, blue athletic shorts, and long white socks over green sneakers with her right leg having a red knee brace looking thing on, the girl was much shorter, but seemed to be on the same conversational track with the blonde.

“And the hallways are like different colors and stuff. What’s up with that?”

“That’s what I was wondering, too!”

...W-Well, he thought it was kinda cool, but…

“Hmmm… come to think of it, if we’re talking about this...”

Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t the still booming, loud voice that made him realize the military guy was addressing him; it was the inability to ignore those red eyes staring into his soul. Despite all this, he managed to play it cool and look over to him as he folded his arms over his chest.

“You there! When you entered the entrance hall, you ended up blacking out without any possible reason why, right?”

The baseball star’s eyes widening revealed how shocked he was.

“Wh- Wait, so it wasn’t just me?”

“It happened to all of us, apparently.”

A new voice entering the fray caused him and the others to look over to two individuals. One was a tall blond guy with blue eyes and glasses, in this fancy looking black suit and shoes kind of outfit with a white dress shirt and green cross tie. He had his arms folded over his chest as well, but had them like that since Leon had walked into the room. The other was a shorter girl with long lilac hair, with part of it on the left in a single braid with a black ribbon, and purple eyes. She wore a dark purple jacket, white blouse with an orange tie, black skirt, purple knee-high boots, and these awesome, black studded gloves.

The guy with the glasses was the one who spoke up, evidently by the fact he continued.

“As soon as each of us entered here, we all lost consciousness,” he explained, “And none of us appear to remember anything after that.”

S-So, six other people just blacked out like him? That’s just… Something’s definitely not right with that, right? Like, totally messed up-

“And just to be sure as well,” the lilac-haired girl spoke up before anyone could reply, “did you happen to wake up in a different room?”

He was still thrown for a loop, but something about this girl’s eyes focusing onto him snapped him into attention. With a hand on his hip, he turned his upper body a bit to get a better view of them.

“Uhh, yeah. It was this weird classroom a couple halls down, in the hallway with the purple lights back there,” he answered, jabbing a thumb backwards behind him.

The answer seemed to satisfy the girl, as her eyes cast downwards away from him while bringing an index finger under her bottom lip. Her seemingly beginning to think to herself, the glasses guy focused his attention elsewhere.

“Hmm. Interesting…”

“E-Excuse me… is this the entrance hall?”

The group turned to see a very short girl with light brown layered hair come through the door, hesitant to take a few steps in. Sporting a dark green jacket, brown skirt, black knee high socks, and white shoes, her fingers intertwined together in front of her stomach.

Aww, she was pretty adorable. She was a small thing, for sure, but still…!

“Ahh, yes it is! Come on in, don’t be shy!” the military guy greeted (a lot more kinder than Leon got, that’s for sure) as he walked over to her.

With the blonde also walking over to the new arrival, the brown ponytail girl standing in place yet watching them, and those other two not caring in the slightest, Leon pursed his lips when his eyes glanced upwards at the ceiling. Ehh, that wasn’t exactly how he wanted his introduction to go. It wasn’t a total bomb in any regard, but… just didn’t have that badass pizzazz he was hoping to dazzle them with.

Ehh, screw it. He’d obviously get another chance to-

-suddenly notice the giant metal security-like door that was supposed to be where the front-

Okay, what the fuck!?

Gawd, this thing was huge! Forget the window plate things; this was something out of those weird action movies or superhero things and stuff! With glowing blue lights, over twenty buttons that does who knows what when pressed, a giant red alarm button on the right of the damn thing, and-

…

Guns.

Actual. Guns.

With weird security cameras attached to it.

Mounted to the ceiling and pointing directly at whomever stood in front of the door.

Leon remembered joking (half-meaning it) to some of his former classmates about how school was a prison, but… this was taking it a step- no, a mile way too far!

Every cautious step he took towards it made it look so intimidating, he could feel the beads of sweat forming on his brow with how uncomfortable it made him. His mouth opened, but he just couldn’t find the words to speak, let alone get his voice to work in the first place. Just… what the hell was this place?

“It’s certainly unnerving, isn’t it?”

This strangely deep voice suddenly making its presence known to his left ripped Leon out of his nervous stupor. He turned to look over and see…

...Holy crap.

This person was massive! Like, he was facing the door with his arms folded, but that didn’t mean that his height wasn’t towering over him. What’s worse is that he had shoulders like boulders, man! Giant bulging muscles with veins clearly visible, long white hair, dark reddish skin, scars down the face and on the right shoulder…

Forget the door; whoever the heck this was had Leon uncomfortable just by being around them! This person was one of the original six that were here before he was; how the hell did he not notice someone with an appearance like that?

“When I first entered the school, I don’t recall something like this being in the room. It’s highly unusual for a school to have something like this put in.”

The figure turned to look at him, giving Leon a better glimpse of the scar across his face and the intense pale blue eyes glancing down on him. Only to make him feel that much more anxious. G-Geesus…

As the massive guy turned around, he got to see a better view of what he was wearing. He obviously had giant bandages wrapped around his calves and forearms and had these white and red shoes on. But what was really weird had to be that he was wearing a traditional seifuku uniform that was white (that had the sleeves ripped off, because how the hell would those arms fit in a normal shirt), with a blue sailor collar, red tie, and blue ski-

Wait… skirt?

He’s wearing a-

-!! W-Wait, was this person a girl!?

Holy fuckin’ shit, it’s a girl!!

Leon’s eyes nearly shrank into dots. He could feel the icy shivers suddenly crawl up both his back and his spine when he came to the realization he just mistook a girl for a guy. Thanking every possible god who may exist that he didn’t end up blurting out anything to give his misconception about her away, he kinda ended up gawking for a few seconds at her. Damn, he didn’t think girls could be that big; how the hell did she end up like this??

It’s after he realizes that she’s looking expectantly at him waiting for a response that his muscles slightly tense and Leon is reeling both physically and mentally in order to get a grip on himself and try not to come off as if he’s currently intimidated as all hell by her.

“U-Uh… Y-yeah, I know, right?” he replied, stammering a bit at the beginning as he felt a nervous smile overtake his face.

Oh gawd. Please don’t notice how uncomfortable he is. Please don’t get pissed off. Please don’t cave his face in-

Like an answer to his prayers, the muscular girl didn’t seem to register the semi-obvious meltdown he was internally having and turned away to face the door once more.

“Though, if I recall, Hope’s Peak Academy is funded by the government…”

“Huh? So… does that mean they’re the ones who put this here?”

The baseball star turned to see that the brown ponytail girl had moved closer to them and joined their conversation.

“I mean, I guess they could probably afford this…” she said, scratching her face.

Leon felt that awkward smile still tugging at the corner of his mouth as he looked back and forth at both girls.

“But… we’re just high school students. Sure, the school’s a big deal, but… it’s still just a high school, y’know?”

The girl seemed to get what he meant and joined his side, her glancing to the other girl, “Yeah, now that you mention it, this is getting a whole lot weirder. Do they seriously think we really need that much protection?”

The muscular girl looked over her shoulder to them, her arms still folded, and gently replied, “I don’t know. I’m not sure if it was the government or school responsible for this; I’m just offering the only logical solution I can think of at the moment.”

She turned to face them, a soft expression on her face.

“We still have some time before eight o’clock. We’ll most likely get answers then, but for now, we should wait and see if anyone else shows up,” she said.

“Yeah, you’re right…” the other girl agreed, willing to agree to wait.

Ehh, he couldn’t really argue with that logic. Plus, he’d rather not argue against the person who probably could flatten him in a heartbeat.

Nodding in acceptance, Leon moved his arm back to rub the back of his neck carefully as to not mess up his hair.

“Right.”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

And sure enough, she had been right. One by one, more people began to show up, increasing the amount of people waiting in the entrance hall. In order, they were:

A big guy with a dark brown punch perm pompadour hairstyle, wearing a giant black long overcoat with the words “Crazy Diamonds” on the back. Just from his eyes alone gave Leon the go-to knowledge to stay away from him for now.

A girl with dark purple hair in braids, wearing glasses and was in a normal purple girl uniform. Not only was she on edge the entire time, but looked like she wanted to die having to be around that many people with how her eyes kept darting around.

A weird guy with this strange hamster face and hairstyle, glasses, wearing a grey cardigan and also had a backpack on. The dude’s body looked like one of those cartoon scenarios where you stick an air pump in the mouth, and then you pump it, turning him into a balloon. (How the hell do you get that big??)

A guy who not only had the ability to apparently wear his dark green jacket on his shoulders without it falling off (seriously, how he is doing that!?), but looked like he had a brown sea urchin latch onto his head and die, then mutate to become his hair. He also seemed to be kinda older than most of the others here, but… ehh, whatever.

A girl with very pale skin, red eyes, and black hair in large two twin-drill pigtails. Her entire lolita-like outfit and accessories reminded Leon of one of those antique, porcelain dolls where the outfits were really fancy-like; maybe she was rich or something?

A-

!!!

Wait a second…

Wait a fuckin’ moment…

That girl that just walked in. Holy-

Long blue hair, dark blue eyes. Wearing a Seifuku uniform with a pink bow and blue skirt.

No…. Fuckin’ way!!

That’s Sayaka Maizono!

One of the hottest and most amazing singers in music today! Sure, it was the pop genre, but she was still awesome! If anyone was wondering by that point, the answer is yes; he’s a closet Sayaker, or whatever they call fans of her, despite the fact that it’s kind of a dumb name. But no one needed to know. Point is! She was so damn cool!!

And she’s actually a classmate of his here!?

Leon felt his jaw drop as an excited gasp entered his lungs and that grin kept getting bigger and wider! This was like a dream come true; how many guys could brag about THE Sayaka being in their class? That’s right; none!! (Aside from the other guys in the entrance hall, but that was beyond the point, yo!) This was gonna be perfect. With a person so talented at music this close to him, maybe he could ask for her help in getting into the industry! And she’s just his type, so perhaps, if he’s lucky--!!

Wait a second there! Cool it, man… You’re getting way too worked up right now. Let’s tone it down and be natural. First impressions are so key right now, especially in the same room as her…

Leon shook his head a bit, erasing the grin to a smaller smile. He adjusted his jacket a bit before stuffing his hands into his pockets. Despite how he was able to calm himself, that didn’t stop the frequent glances at and from Sayaka from happening.

With everyone in the entrance hall, it came to light real quick that something was definitely wrong. It wasn’t just Leon and the original six anymore; Sayaka and the others also had the same thing happen to them. Entering the entrance hall, suddenly blacking out for no reason, and then waking up in a different room of the school. Not only that, but any room that had windows were also bolted up with that gigantic metal plates. So now, fourteen people were-

Oh, wait. Scratch that; some kid with brown hair that had an ahoge, a green hoodie under a black school uniform jacket, and red converse sneakers slowly walked into the door.

So, make that fifteen students. Gotcha.

“Um… How’s it going? My name is Makoto Naegi,” he was embarrassed to start with, but ended up introducing himself, “Sorry I’m late. A bunch of stuff happened, and then all of a sudden, I was just… asleep.”

And that also makes fifteen people where they just blacked out. Leon folded his arms and slightly scowled as the others talked a bit. What the hell is going on here? Everything about this entire mess made no sense whatsoever. And now he’s in a room with a bunch of people just as clueless as he is-

Aaaand military guy was now yelling at Makoto for being late.

Welp, at least it’s not him this time. And the blonde over there started telling him to give him a break.

Something was giving Leon a feeling military guy and him ain’t gonna get along too great.

“Everybody, calm down! Listen, why don’t we all go around and introduce ourselves?” the girl with the brown ponytail offered up.

Which honestly was a great idea. Even though he was the seventh person in the room, Leon hadn’t actually gotten anybody’s name yet and could only go off their appearance. Initially, it was met with some resistance by the pompadour guy, but the lolita girl made a good argument of ‘how are we even supposed to talk to each other without knowing each other’s names’.

“Okay, so let’s get introductions out of the way, then we can move on to whatever else. Sound good?” Sayaka offered up, looking around at everyone.

“Yup, sounds good!” Leon piped up and gave a thumbs-up to her, because of course Sayaka had the right idea; Duh!

All right… Round two at first impressions.

Leon took a breath and readied to try again.

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better.

Chapter 3: Prologue 3

Notes:

A very quick note, everybody. I'd just like to take a moment to thank a good friend of mine who's helping me edit the story. They are Eviora on Discord; not only are they an awesome Danganronpa fan, but are amazing at writing stories and is currently in the process of writing their own novel! I just want to say that my story would not be as ANYWHERE as good as it is without them proof reading it and letting me know what to keep and what to change. So, big shoutout to Eviora; I appreciate your help so much!

With that, on to the regular Weenie update.

======

Where the weenie learns some names and gets denied nap time.

“Hi, I’m Sayaka Maizono. I look forward to getting to know you!”

Gawd, she was even more adorable in real life. So much more adorable in fact, he nearly sputtered out his name incorrectly.

Leon couldn’t help it. His heart was pounding hard at a million miles per hour in his chest when his turn for introductions with Sayaka, the Ultimate Pop Sensation came up. He knew it was coming, but how on earth do you prepare for introductions like that when someone like her is one of the first people you do them with? He just needed something really cool to say to her-

“You don’t need to try to force yourself like that. Just be yourself, okay?”

The young man tensed when his eyes blinked.

“Huh? How did you know what I was-”

“I’m psychic,” Sayaka responded, having a serious face all of a sudden.

“W-Wha-”

“Just kidding!” she then giggled, her face going back into that adorable smile, “I just have really good intuition.”

Oho, she got him good!

Leon ended up relaxing, letting out a laugh as he brought a hand to the back of his head. This girl is super cool!!

“Hahaha! Nice one; totally got me there!” he admitted, closing his eyes as she giggled again, “Yeah, sorry; I’m just really excited to meet you, y’know?”

“Oh?” Sayaka blinked, curious enough to let him continue.

Okay, here we go. This is it; just keep it natural and don’t come off too eagerly.

“Yeah, totally! I’m actually a pretty big fan of your stuff; you and your group have some great songs,” he explained, winking with a small grin.

That really seemed to hit the right chord; the girl’s cheerfulness increased.

“Aww, thank you! It really means a lot to hear that. The five of us work really hard to make music that everyone can love and be uplifted by; I’m so glad that includes you, Leon!”

She’s so glad it included him…

Leon could feel himself nearly drifting into cloud nine.

Actually, wait a minute; since they’re talking right now... maybe, just maybe, he could tell her about his plans to get into music and ask for her help! Not getting into the whole thing (because dumping all of that stuff on her like that wouldn’t be cool), but enough to let her know he’d totally value her guidance.

With a tinge of hope rising in his chest, he subtly took a shaky breath in.

“Not a problem. ...Hey, listen, I was wondering if you’d help me out,” he explained, “You see, the thing is I-”

“Hey!”

...Oh, this motherFUCKER!!!

A certain booming voice once again destroyed his ear drums as he and Sayaka whirled around to see a certain person march up to them. And that already had the baseball star narrowing his eyes in mild frustration at who it was.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru, or how he preferred to be called by Taka, was the first person Leon had the… ahem, pleasure of meeting. Now, he doesn’t want to be an asshole entirely like that; he was sure that his family and whatever social circle he’s apart of loves him. But, man, just… ugh, this guy had ‘hall monitor’ written all over his forehead. What else would you expect from a dude whose talent is the Ultimate Moral Compass?

Now why, one may ask, was Leon not exactly liking Taka that much after only doing introductions with him?

Oho, that.

Well, after they exchanged names, the guy brings up his freakin’ piercings and necklace again and about how they’re not ‘acceptable dress code’. Not only that, he starts getting on Leon’s case for the skull design on his shirt and the fact his jacket’s collar and belts were studded! Pretty sure if he moved his feet, he’d get scolded for having platform shoes somehow…

There were so many snappy retorts swimming in his mind during this, but he drowned them all with a deep breath and exhale out his nostrils, finishing with a, “Sure, whatever; nice to meet you…” before moving on.

And yet after all of that, this guy had the balls to come up and interrupt him talking with Sayaka.

Son of a...

“How long are you planning to waste time introducing yourselves to other people? Pointless chit-chat can wait until a later time!” Taka clenched his fists, scolding them.

...Which is kinda the point of introducing yourselves, you stupid idiot. You tell people about yourselves, so they get a better general idea about who you are other than your name.

At least, that’s what Leon would’ve argued and clapped back at Taka with. But with Sayaka standing right in front of him, now wasn’t the time to let his anger get in the way. First impressions were key, and he especially needed to nail this one out of the park. And yes, he specifically used a baseball pun despite his hatred, so this was super serious!

“Whatever, man…” he groaned, before giving an apologetic smile to the girl, “Yo, sorry about that…”

“No, it’s fine…” Sayaka said, looking a bit uncomfortable, but trying to keep a smile up.

“Well, hey; maybe we can talk more later on when it’s a better time?” Leon quickly tried to offer up, hoping she’d accept.

And his spirits were lifted as she nodded with a cheerful expression, “Of course. I’ll make sure to do that; it’s nice to meet you, Leon!”

“Sure thing! Same here!”

Once she finished speaking, the pop idol moved onto the next person. Despite the buzz from THE Sayaka Maizono saying his name, Leon made it a point to glare at Taka, mutter “asshole” to his face, and then turn away before the guy could say anything.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“You? Seriously!?”

Well, that wasn’t a reaction he was expecting. One minute, he’s introducing himself to Makoto Naegi, the Ultimate Lucky Student. The next, the guy suddenly shouts that. Seriously, what the crap was that all about…?

Leon folded his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow.

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing, I’m just… surprised. I figured with you being the Ultimate Baseball Star and all…” Makoto answered, his voice slightly trailing off.

Leon made his eyelids incredulously lower at that remark.

“What? Were you expecting a kid with a shaved head?”

“Shaved head…?” Makoto started, then realized what he meant and continued, “No, I was expecting more of a… you know, sporty-looking traditional baseball type. I mean, when I found that article and picture of you online-”

Leon didn’t register the rest of what he said, because at that time, he felt his skin go cold and eyes go wide.

No… No no no no no, don’t tell him that he found-

It was a major killjoy enough for him to see that Hope’s Peak Academy used that picture of him slugging the game winning home run in last year’s championship game in his acceptance package! With that dumb, God-forsaken haircut! But if other people saw it-!!

“What!? Aw man, you found that picture of me playing baseball? Seriously!? I hate that picture!”

“H-Huh? What’s wrong?”

Much to the other boy’s confusion, Leon buried his face into his hands and shook his head slowly. A muffled groan escaped his lips.

Truth be told, he should’ve expected this. Despite the fact he didn’t exactly get a chance to look at it (seriously, why of all times does the internet not work and become unable to load the specific website?), the Hope’s Peak Academy forum board had details and info about some of the newest students that were selected into the next year. And judging from the fact of what Makoto’s been saying, they obviously put some stuff about him on there.

But that picture… why the hell did it have to be THAT one?

The same one where a few of his former teammates, especially Shojei, made fun of the face he made in it.

Just kill him now.

“This is not cool. This is SO not cool… Seriously, I’m like, mega embarrassed right now…” he sighed in annoyance, his voice still muffled.

He removed his hands from his face by dragging them down briefly and took a breath, folding his arms over his chest.

“Look, I didn’t have a choice, okay?” he explained, “Shaving your head like that is part of the national championship regulations. And those guys are, like, super strict about that stuff.”

He leaned forward a bit, pointing towards his hair.

“But now, I refuse to cut my hair. And I’m not gonna dye it back to normal, either!”

Makoto blinked a bit, then scratched his cheek a bit nervously.

“O-Oh… well, it’s not like I’m gonna say you shouldn’t or anything,” he assured, “So you don’t have to worry…”

That comment made Leon nod confidently. Good on the kid; at least he gets it!

After letting Makoto know that he was changing his talent, as far as he was concerned, it seemed like the guy was cool with it. As they exchanged a momentary ‘good-bye’ with each other and moved on to the next person, Leon couldn’t help shrugging with a smile. Finally, a dude other than his dad who doesn’t judge or rag on him for not playing baseball anymore…

He’ll definitely remember Makoto.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“Hmm…. Hmmmm, hmmmm…”

Huh… okay, so… this girl… the one with the brown ponytail and the red jacket.

Aoi Asahina, or as she said her friends call her Hina, the Ultimate Swimming Pro.

Not gonna lie; she definitely scored with some stuff in the looks department. As in, she had a cute face, and… let’s just say her proportions are very nice!

Of course, that's not everything he was concerned about; Leon wasn't that shallow.

It wasn’t just her looks; her personality was bubbly and welcoming. Out of some of the other people here, she was one of the few who cheerfully greeted him with a smile and gave him the feeling like he could carry out a bit of a conversation with easily.

...At least, that very last part is what he thought.

The moment Leon said his name, Hina had suddenly said some remark about ‘hammering it into her brain’ or something. Next thing he knew, she was suddenly humming to herself for like the past thirty seconds and using her finger to trace over her palm over and over. No, seriously, like… for thirty, long seconds straight. Not even acknowledging the whole ‘introduction thing’ anymore or the fact that he was right in front of her.

...Okay, color him curious. He’d bite.

“...Um. What are you doing?”

Hina’s head came up to look at him.

“Huh? Oh, don’t you know?” she said, jabbing her index finger into her palm a few times, “If you wanna remember someone’s name, you gotta write it on your palm three times!”

Leon blinked.

“That’s a thing…?”

“Yeah, totally a thing!” she insisted, nodding before looking back down at her hands.

Huh…

Well, he’s never heard anything like that before. But it’s not like he wanted to anger a girl and piss her off by calling her out like that. These are first impressions, after all. And besides... why would she be lying about something trivial like that anyways…?

After he shrugged it off, Hina paused during writing on her palm, and looked up in thought.

“....Hey, you said your last name was Kuwata, right?” she asked.

“Yeah?”

“How do you spell that? With a K, or a Q?”

That seemed to catch Leon off guard as he stuttered upon hearing that question.

“Wha- I-It’s a K! Just how many Japanese surnames do you know of that begin with a Q?” he honestly fired back, as he had no clue as to why she’d think that.

Hina let out a chuckle, giving a slightly sheepish smile while rubbing the back of her head.

“I dunno; I just wasn’t too sure, so I thought I’d ask you! Hahaha…. I probably will write it down later on to make sure I don’t forget.”

With that, her smile gained confidence as she nodded.

“Still, it’s great to meet you, Leon! Hope you and I can become friends!”

Leon felt a cheerful grin come across his face. The girl was kinda bit easygoing, but was totally bursting with energy. He liked people who had just the right amount of spunk between being utterly boring and too wound up tight.

Sounds like he and Hina aren’t going to have any problems becoming friends to him, no sir.

“Same here; cool to meet ya, Hina!”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

…………

It was like… when she wasn’t standing in front of the metal door over there, she was bigger than he realized…

The entire massive existence of such a person with gigantic muscles looking down at him in a one-on-one scenario…

Something was just not right about that, and that nervousness of being around her hadn’t completely gone away at all. The beads of sweat just kept forming again on his brow once one of them rolled down his face. Hell, Leon wasn’t entirely sure this was a girl still. Y-Yeah, he got the fact that this person had a skirt and uniform on that mainly were worn by girls, but…

But come on!! H-How the hell…

Oh, right.

Apparently, her name was Sakura Ogami and she was the Ultimate Fighter….

Because of course, she was… She probably could beat the crap out of any opponent she had with one strike and not even be the slightest bit tired or winded.

“Hey, you.”

“Y-Yeah? What?” Leon stammered out so uncool-like as he straightened up, and mentally beat himself up for how gawd-awful that must’ve sounded.

“Pardon me for doing this briefly,” Sakura apologized.

“H-Huh? What are you-”

And just like his voice dying abruptly, Leon’s heart nearly stopped functioning from what started to happen. Before his body could even flinch in surprise, the giant hands this girl had suddenly had a solid grip on his biceps. Aaaand his mind just pictured her easily tearing off his arms like one of those gore-filled fighter video games. He really hated his brain sometimes; now his heart is spiking with how fast it’s beating. He went absolutely rigid while she then gave a gentle squeeze to his arms… as if she was…

Wait, was she feeling his muscles?

Uhh… T-This was supposed to be a good thing, when girls wanna feel how strong a guy’s bicep was, right..? Leon knew he wasn’t exactly the biggest muscular specimen when it came to guys, but he’d like to believe, despite how he maintained his figure, that he packed a bit when it came to physique. After all, it goes great with the punk look and the hair…

But… this girl of all people… did this mean… how the…

Leon was so lost right now.

As she let go of him, it was like a thousand question marks could be seen flashing randomly over his head with how utterly dumbfounded he became over the whole thing. His posture wasn’t rigid anymore, but that didn’t stop him from being a statue as she continued to poke and prod at his body for a few more moments.

Eventually, she stopped and stood in front of him again, eyes closed and arms folded over her chest.

“...I see. Despite how your appearance says the contrary, your muscle quality and quantity are both stronger than the average person of your size,” Sakura explained, opening an eye at the end of her words, “I’m impressed.”

……….O-Oh. Oh! Wait a second, she was complimenting him?

W-Well.. Uh, heck yeah!

“H-Heh, well, y’know; I am the Ultimate Baseball Star and all,” he tried to pass it off with a chuckle, shrugging as he rubbed the back of his neck…

...And then proceeded to mentally facepalm at what he just said.

He WAS the Ultimate Baseball Star!? Yeah, he knew it was technically true, but it’s supposed to be ‘he USED TO BE the Ultimate Baseball Star’!

Gawddamn it, this girl was seriously messing him up so much right now, he can’t even concentrate enough to speak right…!

“Hm,” Sakura’s voice took his focus back into the conversation, “Perhaps you could be my training partner…”

Leon’s entire skin went cold as ice. Oh, fu-

“Erm, training partner?”

“Yes. Not as in fighting or sparring, if that’s what you’re worried about,” she tried to elaborate a bit more specifically, “As in working out, like doing stretches and exercising. That sort of training.”

Oh… Oh, thank God. Leon’s body felt the ocean of relief wash over him. Because he was just about to die from the implication of actually stepping into a ring with her…

But still… exercising and doing stretches… he really didn’t like getting sweaty and gross, but…

If it makes the giant, muscular girl happy, then…

“Uhhh, maybe? Like, if I’m not too busy, I could, possibly…” Leon tried to regain his outward composure and be cool about it, stuffing a hand into his pants’ pocket.

And that seemed to seal the deal and work, because Sakura nodded from that.

“Very well. Other than that, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said, Leon nodding to her as she moved on to the next person to meet.

...And with her not focused on him anymore, the baseball star’s body hunched over and let out a strained sigh that he had apparently been holding for quite some time. His eyes staring at the floor, his mind tried to reboot and get back to his senses before meeting this girl and what just happened.

Sakura… He’s gonna have to be cautious around her…

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

From that point on, the introductions? Totally nailed it! They went really great as far as he was concerned. Just like he did with the five people previously, Leon actually tried to make sure and mention when he could that his talent would soon be changing from baseball to music. Not too forceful, but enough to make his point that he wanted to go after his dream and pursue something different. Unfortunately, he didn't really get a chance to do so, much to his chagrin; everyone seemed to have their own agenda when introducing themselves that around the ninth or tenth person he met, he just gave up trying to do so. And he wasn’t exactly able to learn so much about his supposed classmates other than names and talents. Maybe it was just due to almost everyone wanting to do the same as him lowkey and be the center of attention? Who knew? But Leon wasn't about to jinx it trying to be the aggressive one in the conversation or make it too long. Even the tiny bits of small talk had this underlying feeling that it would be pushing it, or else he knew Taka would once again be shrieking in his ear about it...

Luckily, he was able to learn the names of everyone else:

Yasuhiro Hagakure, or Hiro, the Ultimate Clairvoyant.

Byakuya Togami, the Ultimate Affluent Progeny.

Hifumi Yamada, the Ultimate Fanfic Creator.

Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Fashionista.

Mondo Owada, the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader.

Kyoko Kirigiri, who wouldn’t say what her talent was, but he wasn’t gonna, like, force her to.

Chihiro Fujisaki, the Ultimate Programmer.

Toko Fukawa, the Ultimate Writing Prodigy.

Celestia Lu- uh… Hrm, Lud- uhh, Luch… Ludenberch- err, Ludenberg-

Yeah, he was probably gonna try to get into situations where he didn’t have to say that girl’s last name…

Anyways, Celestia, or Celeste, the Ultimate Gambler.

And with that, he at least knew who everyone was now.

“Okay, time to get down to business,” Byakuya spoke up, keeping his arms crossed over his chest, “This is no time to stand around making friends like a bunch of dull-eyed baboons.”

...Geez, that was… kinda harsh, wasn’t it?

“Oh, that’s true. I think someone was saying something about a bigger problem or… something?” Makoto asked, glancing around at anybody for help, “What was that all about again?”

Sayaka brought her left hand close to her face and started to explain, “Well, you see… Makoto, you said a bunch of stuff happened and then you were ‘just asleep’, right?”

When he nodded, she took a moment to temporarily glance at everyone else before continuing.

“Well… the same is true for all of us.”

“W-What? Seriously!?”

Damn… poor guy. He looked completely thrown for a loop… Hmm, maybe he can help Sayaka out and explain this better.

Taking a hand to carefully scratch at the top of his head without ruining his hair, he began, “It seems like… just as each of us got to the main hall, we lost consciousness. And when we came to, we were dumped in another room of the school.”

Finishing his sentence, he shot a glance to Sayaka and locked eyes with her briefly. She then nodded in agreement at what he said; damn straight! He felt slightly proud of the assist there.

“That’s what happened to you, too, right?” he asked, glancing back at Makoto.

...Guessin’ from the fact the boy looked in more disbelief and stunned horror, that would be a ‘yes’.

“B-But that’s just... weird! That every one of us would get knocked out like that…”

“Exactly!” Mondo suddenly roared and made Makoto slightly jump in shock, seemingly exasperated that it took him that long to catch on, “That’s why we’re all freakin’ out!!”

That’s when Taka joined by adding, “And that’s not the only thing. You saw where all the windows in the classes and hallways were, right? But instead of normal glass windows, it was a bunch of big metal plates! What’s that all about!?”

Junko seemed to take this as a chance to say, “Plus, all my stuff’s missing! Even my cellphone..”

At that point, Leon’s eyes instantly stared into particularly nowhere upon hearing that word before his arms quickly dug into the inside of his jacket. It had pockets inside near the ribs, and that’s where he’d keep his cellphone, but…

Empty. So was the pocket where his wallet would be.

What the freakin’ crap!? So, he not only gets dumped in a room by someone, but they pickpocket his phone and wallet??

His dad was gonna kill him bigtime for this…

And apparently as he patted down his pants’ pocket in a last ditch effort of hoping he misplaced his stuff (which was a futile lost cause, because he never carried things in those pockets), it wasn’t just him again. Almost the entire class began flusteredly digging into their pockets, with various expressions of frustration or bewilderment in finding out they also didn’t have their stuff.

“Yeah, you’re right. I haven’t seen my pda, either…” Chihiro said, holding her hands close to her chest.

“And then there’s this main hall here,” Taka once again spoke up, bringing a hand to rest under his bottom lip, “The front exit is completely blocked off by some giant metal hatch-like door. But there wasn’t anything like that when I first got here…!”

Suddenly, his voice raised again, much to the displeasure of Leon’s and most likely everyone else’s eardrums.

“What the heck!? What’s it doing there!?” he demanded to know.

Junko’s face seemed to become really disturbed as she asked, “Maybe we got caught up in some kinda, like, you know… crime or something?”

W-Wait, what? Hold up a second…

As in…

Leon felt his face shift into an unstable smile, due to how uncomfortable that suggestion was. He tried to let out a chuckle to somewhat calm his nerves, but the shakiness in its quality failed him on that.

“What, like… a kidnapping?” he asked her as she turned to meet his eyes, “You think maybe someone grabbed us and hauled us off, and we’re not actually at school?”

He knew that it was kind of stupid to hope so, but a small part of him inside was banking on the fact that she was just joking or something. But the fact her distraught image hadn’t disappeared really was starting to make him wonder if they had gotten all kidnapped. Like… there was no way, right? Fifteen students gettin’ hauled off like that…

Okay, the girl was hot, but… she really shouldn’t say that kind of stuff…

“Hey, come on. Don’t think like that. Cheer up!”

The laidback voice of Hiro caught everyone’s attention when he continued, “I bet this is all part of the school’s orientation procedure. I’m sure that’s all that there is to it! So I’m just gonna take it easy for a bit.”

“Oh… So you think they wanted to do something to surprise us?” Chihiro exhaled in relief, a smile overtaking her face.

...That… was completely stupid.

Now, he’d prefer that over the possibility of being kidnapped. But, for real? Why the hell would a school bolt giant metal plates to the windows, guns to the ceiling, and some action-movie-esque metal hatch door to block off the way out of their building? So what if that Sakura girl reminded him that this was a government-funded building; this was just… way too fucked up to be true.

Granted, this ain’t counting the whole dumped in a classroom while he’s unconscious or crayon-drawn orientation pamphlets, but…

Leon probably would’ve kept mentally picking apart how nothing Hiro just said made made a lick of sense to him, but at that time, he felt that sudden wave of fatigue washing over him. The fact he didn’t get a lot of sleep last night finally started to rear its ugly head on his body.

“Huh. Well, if that’s all it is, it’s nap time for me,” he yawned slightly, bursting into a huge grin as he itched at the back of his head carefully, “I was up waaaay too late last night, so I could use a little shut-eye, y’know?”

Due to how he was starting to feel tired, the oblivious teenager had no clue that an outraged-looking Taka made a sound as if a gasp died a violent, painful death in his throat. Most certainly, he was going to object loudly on how that wasn’t acceptable.

That was… until it happened.

Ding Dong, Bing Bong….

“Eh?”

The baseball star’s grin was split into half its size as he and everyone else began looking around at the sudden school bell noise that went off. Their confusion was soon answered as a security monitor, a model just like the one in the classroom Leon woke up inside, came to life with the screen displaying a weird green static on the wall. He must’ve failed noticing it at first, due to focusing on other people and the door, but the annoying, ear-grating white noise suddenly being broadcasted everywhere totally got his attention.

And on the screen was… some kind of shape of a small… animal? What the crap was that…?

“Ahem! Ahem! Testing, testing! Mic check, one two! This is a test of the school broadcast system!”

...Who the hell was that speaking? Because that voice sounded like something that’d be on a cartoon show or somethin’. How exaggerated and playful the tone was; this person was apparently some kind of staff member here…?

“Am I on? Can everyone hear me? Well, okay then…! Ahh, to all incoming students: I would like to begin the entrance ceremony at… right now! Please make your way to the gymnasium at your earliest convenience. ...That’s all. I’ll be waiting!”

The monitor clicked off, sound and screen, once the announcement was finished. Oh, for gawd’s sake, dude; just like school to take away anytime he has to get some extra winks in. It’s like an uncanny ability for them to just sense when he needed to snooze…

By the time he finished shaking his head and glaring at the ceiling, Byakuya had walked past him towards the exit and he only just started to realize Hiro was in the middle of saying something along the lines of how he was glad the whole thing was just a joke.

“Alright, I guess I’ll head out, too. Wonder what they got planned for us next…” he thought out loud, placing his hands behind his massive hair (...somehow) and making his way out the door.

Leon’s spine curved forward in a voluntary slouch, lowkey pissed as he rubbed at his face with a huff.

“Damn it, I was totally lookin’ forward to that nap, too. Why’d they have to go and kill the mood?” he grumbled as he began to move towards the exit.

As he made his leave, he could hear several voices talking behind him, but he didn’t bother to pay attention to what they said. All he knew was whoever the hell that person was telling him to get to the gym just robbed him of a nap. And nobody robbed Leon of a nap unless it was a damn good reason.

Whatever this entrance ceremony was, it’d better be worth it.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

When he left the entrance hall, Leon made his best effort to try and keep up with Byakuya and Hiro as they led the way in front of him. And yet, at the same time, he tried to make note of anything new he hadn’t seen before. From the direction they were going, it appeared a new hallway, lit with yet another new color of the rainbow; this time, it was yellow. Going down through it, Leon’s eyes took note of bright set of pink doors with heart decals on them that were being nearly covered in yellow ‘keep out’ tape. And the sign said-

Wait, this is the nurse’s office? Oh… So it’s out of order? Is that why he was put in a classroom when he blacked out…?

...But even with this fact that the nurse’s office was off limits for the time being, that’s still a shit reason to dump unconscious people in different rooms like that, right??

Oi, whatever.

Shrugging as he walked past the door, the teenager made note of the bathrooms along the same wall before really focusing his attention onto the fact that both Hiro and Byakuya stopped for a moment. The reason why wasn’t too hard to figure out when it was literally right in front of them.

Hope’s Peak Academy obviously had more than just one floor. But the fact the stairs were blocked off with a metal gate was… um….

“What the crap…?” Leon muttered, frowning as he got close to it.

“O-Oh… are we not supposed to go up there?”

The voice of Chihiro had all three young men turn to see her, Celeste, and Toko making their way behind them to catch up. They too had become intrigued by the gate.

“Perhaps it’s until the school year officially starts?” Celeste offered up, bringing a hand up to her lips.

That seemed to strike a chord with Hiro, as he laughed and nodded, pointing at her.

“Yeah, you’re totally right. They’ll probably just open the thing up for us once the ceremony thing is done. Then they’ll show us around the building, like a grand tour!” he folded his arms, utterly confident in that belief.

“Ehh… I guess you’re right,” Leon admitted, putting a hand in his pocket.

His attention was then grabbed by Byakuya, who had just left all of them in his dust and moved towards the door at the turn on the right.

That guy was very antisocial, wasn’t he…?

The five soon followed after him to be greeted with a small hallway that had many glass cases with trophies filled to the brim with them. And frankly, was that really a surprise? With Hope’s Peak having various talented students being accepted every year, it was a no brainer than the school would have a shit ton of awards to show off to anyone coming into the building.

Across the red carpet line was a set of double doors. And entering through them after Byakuya did was…

Whoa, this gym was massive!! Like, he didn’t play basketball or anything, but just from taking one step into this area, Leon knew some of the team from LL Academy would’ve killed to get a chance to play in this gym. It made him honestly feel small; the massive space between the walls and the ceiling, the seemingly never-ending amount of bleacher rows… it was honestly the biggest gym he’s ever stepped foot on. Of course, he also saw the metal-like walls covering what he guessed was the windows of the gym, so… even this area had stuff blocked off, too. Huh…

In front of the six showed the red carpet ended with a bunch of chairs in front of a stage. On said stage was a podium that had a microphone and a cup of water on the top and adorned with a red cloth on the front that had the Hope’s Peak’s symbol on it, a Hope’s Peak black flag on one side, and a smaller stand that had some kind of a potted plant on the other. Huh… they actually set up a decent entrance ceremony. After all, when one gets orientation things made by crayon, they tend to lowkey have not so high hopes for other things coming soon.

At least it had a red carpet, though! That kinda makes him feel like a star already, with him getting that kind of treatment…!

His legs venturing him further into the gym to get a closer look, that’s about the time that the others finally came into the gym.

The first of the charge being Mondo nearly kicking the doors off their hinges and raising his voice for him to yell out, “Whoever the hell called us here, get out here already, gawddamn it!”

This led to Taka, right on his heels, lecturing him on not running in the halls and his use of profanity.

Well, at least it wasn’t him this time…

But the conversation that he really kinda clued into once everyone was settling around the gym and waiting for this ceremony to kick off was the one Sayaka was apart of. She was currently talking with Makoto and Junko, her arms close to her chest and seemingly worried.

Being as subtle as he could, Leon shuffled a few steps closer without drawing their attention of his eavesdropping to hear Sayaka say, “I’m telling you; that’s really strange, isn’t it? Where are all the other students? Why are we the only ones here?”

...Actually, hold up. That’s… a really damn good question.

Everything about this situation for now was pretty messed up. But… now that she brought it up, that’s even more crazy. How come he, Sayaka, and thirteen other people were the only ones so far that seemed to be in the building? Sure, there’s the guy with the cartoon-like voice who just told them to come here, but like… no teachers, no upperclassmen, no other staff members of the school. Unless it’s like some weird welcoming thing like that Hiro guy said for just the new students, and then everyone else comes back on a later date…

Ugh, he wished this would start making sense…

And this is one of the reasons why he doesn’t like school.

“Oh… It really does look like a normal entrance ceremony,” he turned his head behind him to see Makoto say, the kid taken aback at how apparently ‘anticlimactic’ it was.

Hiro shrugged and cupped his chin in his hand.

“See? Told ya! It’s totally normal entrance ceremony stuff,” he reassured.

Leon grunted in a ‘whatever’ tone, letting himself be taken over from fatigue enough to yawn once more. Fine, then. Whether it’s normal or not, he’d really love a nap at the moment, so if whomever could please hurry the frig up-

“Hey there, howdy, hello! Is everyone here? Good! Then let’s get things rooolling!”

That same playful, cartoony voice from the broadcast system shot out of nowhere, actually caused Leon’s eyes to shoot open wide for a moment in shock; the fact the person was actually in the room managed to knock some of the drowsiness out of his head. A sigh scraped out of his lungs during his movement to face the stage-

...Wait, where’s the dude who just talked? Like, it was obviously he was in the same room and he just talked. So where the hell is he?

His eyes started to scan the room for any signs of where this person was supposed to be. Even going so far as to turn around an-

Several audible gasps and cries from a few of his future classmates and the fact that a blur of white and black caught his eyes to have him face back to the stage to find that on the podium was now a…

...a black and white bear. With half of his mouth in a toothy grin, a weird distorted, logo-ish red eye on the black side instead of the simply black dot one on the white side, and an outie belly button.

Um...

“Huh? A teddy bear?” Chihiro’s voice asked.

Uhhh… if that’s really what it is, that’s the creepiest teddy bear he’s even seen. Looking like some demented, 1950s-styled Winnie the Pooh-

W-Wait, why is it mov-

“I’m not a teddy bear! I… am… Monokuma! And I am this school’s headmaster! Nice to meet you all!”

……….. WAIT, WHAT.

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better.

Chapter 4: Prologue END

Notes:

Where the weenie meets a bear.

In his life up to this point, there were many things that Leon didn’t get. Not in the case of feeling slightly confused. No no no no; as in, being floored to the point where his brain stops functioning altogether and he was caught gawking with his eyes shrinking in size and his mouth either gaping wide open or gritting his teeth hard to where it was almost grinding. And he’d admit that there were those times:

When he was in math class and had one of those tests where none of the problems looked like anything he tried so hard to study for.

When a kid managed to hit one of his curveballs during a season game a few years back and he turned around, watching it almost become a home run, before he was washed over with relief when one of the outfielders caught it right as it went over the fence.

When he first looked into a mirror after getting that gawd-forsaken q-tip haircut his coaches forced him to get.

When he first saw that Sakura girl just a few minutes ago and just her existence in general, to an extent.

And when THE Sayaka Maizono walked into the entrance hall a few minutes later, signaling she was one of his classmates.

But nothing compared to the fact that directly in front of him, something that shouldn’t even be possible and would only exist in some weird kid’s movie was currently causing Leon to have one of those malfunctioning scenarios again.

A small bear which was previously described, who couldn’t have been taller than his thighs, suddenly appeared on the podium on stage.

It suddenly stood up by itself.

It then could speak; not only greeting everyone, but also apparently have the cognitive recognition to understand what Chihiro said and respond back in a normal conversation’s pace.

It proceeded to announce that it was the headmaster of the school they were in.

And it finished by jumping off the stage, somehow performing ten midair flips, and sticking the landing like it was trying to win the freakin’ gold medal at the Olympics or something.

And that’s when Leon’s entire brain shut down while disbelief colored the tone of his eyes. Because whatever the hell was going on, it was, like, too much for him to handle. Like, seriously!

It’s when he hears that Hifumi guy shriek like a banshee about the teddy bear actually spoke that he jerked his head back; albeit still shocked, but at least able to close his mouth and get back to his senses. Looking over, Taka was right next to him, bringing a finger to his mouth.

“Calm down!” he said with a hushing tone, nervously glancing back to the bear, “I’m sure there’s just a speaker inside of it.”

“Hey, come on now… I already told you; I’m not a teddy bear!” the bear suddenly jumped up and down, its face gaining a slight shade of angry red, “I am Monokuma, and I am your headmaster!!”

And cue to Hifumi screaming again.

“WAAAAHH!! IT MOVED!!”

Leon’s nose scrunched up as he glared at him. Really? You’re gonna freak out about it moving now? Where were you when it just did ten friggin’ flips off the stage-

“Seriously man, calm down!” Mondo called out from a few feet behind him and Taka, “It’s prolly just a remote control toy or somethin’.

This ‘Monokuma’ thing seemed to deflate after that, lowering its head with a whine.

“How dare you compare me to a child’s plaything… You’ve cut me deep. Deeper than the Mariana Trench…” it said, before suddenly puffing its chest out and placing its hands on… its hips (If you can call them that?), “My remote control system is sooooo complex, not even the schmucks at NASA can recreate or even come close to comprehending it! Ah, but don’t make me go on and say things that might destroy their dreams; I just couldn’t ‘BEAR’ that!”

“...‘Bear that’? Really?” Celeste seemed like she wanted to sigh, but looked away with an emotionless expression, “My, you are… unfortunate.”

“Now then, moving on! We really oughta get started, after all…”

Junko’s eyes squinted with incredulous annoyance at the bear’s words, “Wha- Giving up already? No more stupid bear puns?”

“Quiet down, everyone! Ah, okay, so…!”

“He has abandoned the gag…” Sakura sighed, her eyes closing and shaking her head to how the bear seemed to steamroll through any comments of its behavior.

Ugh, he just… had no idea what the hell was going on. Like, Leon still was kinda nervous that some kind of… bear toy, robot thingie was functioning like a human would. Now he was starting to get annoyed to hell and beyond. Just a hint of that. Because what kind of school allows this… creepy-lookin’ teddy thing to be the headmaster of the most prestigious school in the world? How does that even fly in the mind of a sane person?

Leon’s head turned to look at his other classmates so fast, he could feel his goatee swinging a bit from his chin. While his main goal was to see how Sayaka and the others were taking this in, a small part of him was hoping, no matter how crazy it was, that he was just imagining this whole thing and that none of this was happening. But sure enough, all eyes were locked onto the bear. Displays of emotions ranged from some still being freaked the crap out, to simply being confused and not understanding what was going on, to being like Leon himself and burning through the initial fear with a new layer of annoyed frustration, and finishing with a couple of them, like Byakuya, shooting daggers from their eyes at how done they were about the whole stupid thing.

It only took a few seconds to briefly scout through the entire group and gauge a general consensus of how they were reacting to their so-called headmaster. He straightened himself and stuffed a hand into his pocket, a huff of air leaving his nose at the same time this Monokuma… whatever it was began to greet the students and tell them to stand and bow, like the beginning of every class day would go. That resulted in Taka suddenly shouting “Good morning!!!” at the top of his lungs and bowing, which resulted in that Toko girl muttering something at him.

Of course, Taka would do that.

Leon rolled his eyes; seriously, not even an hour of knowing him, and this guy was so mega uncool.

“Now then, let us commence with a most noteworthy and memorable entrance ceremony!” Monokuma locked its hands behind its back and began rocking back and forth while speaking, “First, let’s talk about what your school life will be like. Now, ah, make no mistake; you few students, so full of potential, represent the hope of the world. And to protect such splendid hope, you’ll all live a communal life together solely within the confines of this school. Everyone will live in harmony, as well as adhering to the rules and regulations that the school has made.”

...Huh? Wait a minute, did that mean that he and everyone else would actually live in the school building? As in, have his own room and stuff like if he was going to college? Immediately, Leon’s mind brought back the image of when he left that classroom and that sign that read ‘Hotel Despair’ on the left hallway he didn’t go into. The name was kind of a stretch (and pretty dumb, if you asked him), but… if this place was going to have a dorm room for him to sleep in, that probably was where it was, yeah?

Ehhh…

Leon made a face at that thought. Like, he could see the chance of freedom so many people his age would love to get out of their house, and it’s not like it didn’t tempt him a bit. But frankly, with everything that’s happened up to this point, he was opting to just stay at home; his bedroom was just fine, thanks.

“Ah, now then… regarding the end date of this communal life… There ain’t one!”

…...Ummmm, what in the hell did it just-

Leon’s face froze when those words registered in his brain. His breath caught in his throat as the bear continued on.

“In other words, you’ll all be here until the day you die! Such is the school life you’ve been assigned,” Monokuma declared.

Toko’s voice rose up throughout the growing murmurs of disbelief and outrage, “Wh-What did he just say? Until the day we d-die…?”

Monokuma rubbed the back of its head bashfully, steamrolling once again through comments and reassured, “Yyyup! Oh, but fear not! Our budget is like super abundant, so you don’t have to worry your pretty little heads about lacking common conveniences!”

“That’s the least of our worries right now!” Sayaka objected, her hands curling inward towards her collarbone.

“Yeah, what the hell?” Junko chimed in, her eyes squinted with disgusted nervousness, “You’re saying I have to live here forever? You’re screwing with us, right?”

Ouch, not a great response; that seemed to stab the bear in the heart with great offense to where the little arms began flailing up and down. Okay, could we like… not piss off the strange bear, girl…?

“How rude! I’m not screwing with you! I’m no liar; that you can be one hundred percent sure of!” it hmphed, before rubbing its face and calming down enough to explain, “Oh, by the way! You’re completely cut off from the outside world, just so you know. So you don’t have to worry about that dirty, dirty land beyond the walls ever again! After all, who would want that disturbing your lovely school life, right?”

…...Oh, hell no.

“W-Wait, so… all those metal plates all over the school…”

In just a few seconds, everything around Leon, along with Makoto’s voice, drowned out into incoherent muffles. Trying to tear his eyes away from the bear after hearing the direction this ceremony was traveling down actually felt like it took a significant amount of focus and effort. And yet… his eyes dragged themselves slowly to land on the vision of the metal shutters that covered the windows above the bleachers on his left. Taking it all in, his mind brought him back images of the metal plates in that classroom and the giant metal hatch door in the entrance hall. So… t-those things were… they were to force everyone to stay inside this school building?

Then, like… this was for real? This Monokuma was honestly being dead serious about keeping all fifteen of them here for the rest of their lives?

…..N-No…. No, no no no, hell to the fuckin’ no-

F-Fuck that… seriously, no; fuck that...

He had his dream of being the greatest punk rock god there was, all brand new and shit. Like he’d be able to achieve that and sell double-platinum records and packed concerts by being stuck in a building for his entire life. And in a school one, no less. What the actual crap? And like… Kanon and his dad, right? Like, never being able to see them again and cutting off ties completely with them? There was just no way…

There was… H-He was just a teenager, for crying out loud… T-This can’t…

Leon’s breath hitched; his chest became tight with a seed of anxiety and dread being planted inside of him. Turning back, his eyes landed on the bear in the process of it talking. Unconsciously, his head began to shake repeatedly.

...Just… This was…

As his eyes remained glued to the thing claiming to be the headmaster of this place, Leon felt himself begin to smile awkwardly to the point of it nearly morphing into a grin, the right corner of his mouth stretching a bit further and twitching.

Ahh, damn it; he was that worked up…. He hated when he did that.

Unfortunately, that was a fact about himself he had to accept. Whenever Leon felt himself become nervous or intimidated, he had a tendency to smile like that. Some people were like that, where it was some kind of defense mechanism or some way that they could cope from stress or what not. Pfft, felt like utter bullshit, since it didn’t make him feel better in any kind of way. Not only did he look like a total idiot when it happened, but it took his dad a few years to finally realize that, hey, when your son gets into trouble, he’s not smiling, because he finds the whole thing funny or that he’s laughing at you.

But here? Here was totally justified.

His senses were able to turn on again and register Monokuma holding his hands over his stomach and saying, “...Help will not come. So with all of that in mind, feel free to live your life here with reckless abandon!!”

...Heh.

Actually using the word ‘free’ when talking about how they were going to be forced to live here forever.

T-That’s just…

Leon ended up breathing out a humorless chuckle. One that even surprised himself with how hollow and freaked out it sounded.

“Come on, what the hell is this?” he spoke up for the first time since coming into the gym, continuing to shake his head, “I don’t care if the school or whoever else is behind it all; this is just a really bad joke.”

Frankly, he didn’t even know himself whether or not he was talking to Monokuma or just voicing his thoughts to everyone else about how this was going too far, as if Hiro’s suggestion that the school was behind it all could have some kind of merit.

He was over this already.

Apparently, Mondo agreed with his sentiment and shouted, “Yeah, the guy’s right! Cut this shit out! It isn’t funny anymore!”

Initially growling in frustration, Monokuma ended up raising its hands to its weirdly-shaped mouth as if it found the whole thing hilarious.

“You keep saying that this is a lie, or a joke. Bah, bunch of skepty-skeptics, all of you! But I guess you can’t help it, huh? You all grew up in an age where you’re taught to doubt your neighbor… Well, you’ll have plenty of time to find out whether I’m telling the truth or one big massive fib. And when that time comes, you’ll see with your own eyeballs that I speak the undeniable truth.”

“Most unfortunate. Having to live here forever would be… quite the problem,” Celeste sighed, looking down at the ground with a crestfallen expression.

It seemed that everyone had their mood soured, because Monokuma tilted its head confusedly.

“Come, now. What’s the matter with all of you? You decided to attend Hope’s Peak Academy of your own free will, didn’t you? And now before I can even finish the entrance ceremony, you wanna go home?”

Screw off, ya dumb cartoon mascot wannabe. Leon wanted to attend the actual Hope’s Peak Academy, not whatever prison this was shaping up to be-

“But, you know, all of you are just so impatient, like your parents never taught you patience is a virtue. Tsk tsk, I’m trying my ‘beary’ hardest to get through this ceremony professionally to make this as memorable as possible,” it chuckled, ignoring some of the groans and faces it got from the students from bringing the bear pun gimmick back, “Now, if you wonderful students will let me, I can explain that there is one way to escape the school…”

Leon’s eyes blinked and widened, straightening up with curiosity as Toko’s voice behind him seemed hopeful, “R-Really?”

“Mhm, mhm, mmmhmmm! As headmaster, I’ve crafted a special clause for any of you who want to leave! And I call it the Graduation Clause!” the bear explained, very content with how the students quieted down instantly and listened, “Now, lemme tell you about this fun, little rule. As I mentioned earlier, in order to maintain an environment of harmony here, we rely on a communal lifestyle. However, if someone were to disrupt that harmony, they and they alone would be allowed to leave the school. That, my precious students, is the Graduation Clause!”

Byakuya’s arms dropped to his side as his icy gaze pierced into the talkative bear.

“What do you mean by ‘disrupt the harmony’?” he commanded him to answer.

Monokuma paused for a second. And then… despite being what it was… there was this evil sparkle in its eyes that made the baseball star’s chest feel tight again. Even more so when the toothy grin part on the black side of its body seemed to get bigger while it started to chuckle.

“Puhu… Puhuhuhu… Well, you know… If one person were to murder another.”

!!

“M-Murder!?” Makoto’s voice shot out in shock, being the charge of multiple gasps, incoherent mumblings of fear, and several people looking amongst each other.

Leon gritted his teeth, jerking his head backwards enough to take a step back. He felt cold sweat forming on his brow as the bear began to describe it in much unneeded detail.

“Stabbing, strangling, bludgeoning, crushing, hacking, drowning, igniting; how you do it doesn’t really matter to me. You must kill someone if you want to leave; it can’t get any simpler than that. The rest is up to you. Give it your all to achieve the best outcome in the worst way possible,” Monokuma explained, its face darkening with sickened glee.

Okay, for fuck’s sake… what the hell was all this shit!?

Leon was beyond trying to maintain his image, so he wouldn’t come off as uncool or what not. This was just way too much! Way beyond what he could deal with. His eyes growing smaller in size, he ended up bringing both hands and holding the back of his head, breathing elevating to a faster pace. Everything in his power was trying so freakin’ hard not to start panicking, but, come the fuck on!

How the hell do you react to something like that!?

Like, damn straight, he wanted to get the hell out of here and away from this bear that had the nerve to trap him in this god-forsaken building. But… Murder? Hell no! He wasn’t a murderer; he’d never do that to someone! H-His family and his dream; those things were WAY too important to blow on some bogus attempt out of this place and ruin his entire life like that! He’d never be able to live with himself if that happened…!

And yet, this… this stupid abomination of a toy, or doll, or whatever the others called Monokuma, was presenting it like it’s the only way to get out, and taking pleasure in doing so-

It giggled again.

He only heard that giggle a few times now, and already it made him sick to his stomach.

“Puhuhu! I bet that got the creative juices flowing in your brains! Beats the heck out of a human catching a salmon, huh?” it excitedly bounced up and down with another bear reference, “Like I said before, you guys are the hope of the world. But, you know… Taking that hope and seeing it get murdered causes a darkened shadow of despair.”

Suddenly, it roared, the mouth and teeth actually opening and making several students back away.

“And I just find that so… DARN… EXCITING!!”

W-What? Hope? Despair? What does that have to do-

Actually, no; you know what? Screw it; he didn’t give a flying fuck about that! What was more important was the fact of this ‘Graduation Clause’ and how stupid it was!

Leon found his voice and the strength behind it again as he yelled, “What the hell are you talking about!? To kill each other is… It’s…!”

Horrible. Insane. Impossible.

So many words floated into his mind to finish that sentence, but the tension and nervousness caught his voice in his throat and locked it into place, resulting in him stammering in the end, like stumbling at the finish line after a strong finish.

Due to his outburst, Monokuma actually turned to look at him. It didn’t matter that it tilted its head and innocently brought a hand, or paw, up to its face (while also... blushing; how the hell was that possible?), as if to be the cutest thing ever. But the fact that those eyes… one being a dot, and the other a red variation of what he just realized was part of the design of Hope’s Peak Academy logo…

That it was looking at him with those eyes…

He hated it. Creeped him the hell out to where it was hard maintaining eye contact.

“To kill each other is to kill each other,” Monokuma sounded confused, “I’m pretty sure there’s a dictionary lying around here somewhere if you need it, because I’m not sure how to explain that better than that…”

Oh, fuck you.

Leon felt himself gain a modicum of courage to glare angrily back at the bear at that. Maintaining eye contact wasn’t too hard now.

“We know what it means; that’s not the problem! Why do we have to kill each other!?” Hina’s voice piped up, ripping the bear’s attention away from him.

“Yeah! Stop blabbering on with all this nonsense!” Hifumi suddenly found the courage to join in, jabbing a finger towards it, “Just let us go home already!”

“...Blabbering…?”

The low tone and soft volume made him lose all of his fire, his arm hovering in the air before moving to his chest in nervousness. The reason probably had to do with the fact that Monokuma’s red eye started glowing out of nowhere. Add that to the fact it was visibly shaking, and… boy, it looked pissed.

“Blabbering, blabbering! What do you mean ‘blabbering’!? Stop blabbering on about blabbering on!!” it shrieked, causing a good majority of the students to back up.

And that alone drove Leon nuts in a way! Like, just judging from this distance, the dumb, stupid plush reject probably, once again, wasn’t even taller than his freakin' thighs! And yet, with… well, EVERYTHING ABOUT ITS EXISTENCE-

It just being real, claiming that it’s forcing everyone to live here forever, just everything! It somehow managed to still intimidate the crap outta him!

He probably could take a full-blown running start and then punt the thing up onto the stage with how small it was compared to him, and yet...!

“Do you guys not get it, or are you purposely trying to mess with me? ‘Let us go, let us go’! You keep on saying the same thing over and over and over and over, like a cd track locked on repeat, because some kiddie lacking in the mental department hit the repeat button, and can’t figure out why the heck it’s happening!” the bear started scratching at its head viciously, before clutching its paws into fists and apparently trying one last time to reiterate the situation, “Listen. From this moment on, this school is now your home, your life, and your world. Got it? And you can kill as much as you wanna kill! So go ahead; go on a kill-kill-killing spree!! I’m trying so hard to be patient for you, because you’re my beloved students, but this shit is seriously-”

Surprisingly, its rant was cut off by a calm chuckle.

Leon made a face that scrunched up on the baffled levels of why anyone would laugh at a time like this, and looked past Byakuya to see the one responsible. He and everyone ended up laying their eyes on Hiro, who shook his head and rubbed underneath his nose. Oddly enough, this guy was not even sweating whatsoever; like, he actually looked to be… amused?

“Alright, come on… How long you gonna keep this up?” he snorted, raising an eyebrow and having a smirk sketch its way onto his face.

“Eh?”

Monokuma had stopped dead in its tracks and tilted its head at the young man. Now, it very well may have been a misreading of its face, because honestly, it was kinda hard for Leon (and probably everyone else) to really get a good idea of what it was thinking. But based on what his thought process had currently, it seemed like the bear legit lost the wind in its sails and trying to comprehend what that guy just said.

“You got us, okay?” Hiro shook his hands a bit, chuckling again as he folded his arms over his chest, “You scared the hell out of us; a bit extreme, but not a bad prank. So you can go ahead and reveal the trick now.”

T-The freakin’... Did this guy seriously believe, after everything that had gone down up ‘til now, that this whole thing was still some kind of orientation schtick the school was doing? The hell was wrong with him? Like, even in the smallest percentage of this actually being a prank gone too far, the extreme lengths and bullshit of it all was still not friggin’ okay…!!

“Reveal the trick...?” Monokuma asked, legit curious as to what he meant.

Hiro’s smile seemed to finally drop in size, confused as to why it was seemingly uncertain of what he knew it was doing. He cupped his chin in one of his hands and closed an eye.

“Yeah, ‘cuz I mean… You know, this is all some kinda trick and all, yeah? I’m right, right? So uh, like-”

“Rrrgh. Dude, move.”

Leon turned his body to get a glimpse of Mondo walking forward and pushing Hiro out of the way. And by push, he meant looking so incredibly pissed off, he didn’t take any consideration of how strong his arm was. Just simply walking past and extending his right arm into his shoulder had enough power to knock the guy over. We’re talking like Hiro’s left leg going straight up in the air, a loud “WHOA!” being yelped out, and his arms flailing like a fish out of water before catching himself just in the nick of time to not end up collapsing into an ungraceful heap on the floor. Several students watched him to make sure he was okay, with even Makoto quietly asking if he was, to which he shakily laughed it off and nodded while picking up his jacket that had fallen off his shoulders during his fall.

Leon’s eyes moved his head back to watching the guy responsible march right up to Monokuma and crouch to its level.

Ooookay, mental note; don’t piss off the pompadour dude if you wanna live.

“Listen up, asshole!” Mondo’s voice rumbled like lightning, “This shit’s gone way too far! What the hell kinda joke IS this!?”

Monokuma paused for a second, before jabbing a paw towards the dude’s head.

“Joke? What, you mean like your hair?” it innocently asked.

The fact that Mondo somehow went absolutely still, yet even from the distance between them, could tell his shoulders started to shake…

Leon decided it was a good idea to take a step back… or three.

“The… hell… did you just…”

Despite the eerie low volume of Mondo's voice clearly struggling to contain himself, the bear acted utterly casual and scratched its head.

“I mean, what’s the name of that American snack? Bugles or something? You look like you love them so much, you decided to have your hair look like a giant one was glued to your head-”

Oh fu-

“FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-!”

Despite being started from a crouched position, the Crazy Diamonds leader managed to make a swift, powerful lunge towards the smartass bear. With a powerful hand, he was able to grip it by the neck, nearly palming it like a basketball. A “Gyahh!” came out of Monokuma as his stubby arms and legs begin to wave and kick around in the air.

A feeling of satisfaction swept over Leon as he couldn’t contain a bit of a smirk, despite feeling anxious about what would happen. Not just for the audacity it had to force them to stay here, but for that hairstyle comment.

Ya don’t mess with a guy’s do, alright? Guys can put a lot of effort into it, too, y’know.

“Gotcha, you little piece of shit! I dunno if you’re a toy or a stuffed animal, or whatever the hell else, but I don’t give a damn! I’m gonna fuckin’ tear you to shreds!!” Mondo roared, his teeth baring out like a predator.

“Waah! Violence against the headmaster is in violation of school regulations!” Monokuma protested, its dot eye clamping shut.

“Shut the fuck up! Lemme outta here, or I swear to Christ…” the biker growled, shaking it a few times…

...only for the bear to go entirely limp, and a loud beeping sound repeating at a slow pace.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

“What, no smartass comeback this time!?” Mondo snapped, tilting his head while his other first clenched so hard, he could hear his knuckles somehow crack.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

The shrill, high-pitched noise that was evolving into an unwanted grating on the ears seemed to push the guy over the edge again. Just a guess, considering the shouting.

“Stop that gawddamn beeping AND SAY SOMETHING-”

“Watch out! Get rid of it!”

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP-

Mondo’s rage died into pure frustration as he and everyone looked to see Kyoko, who had been silent the entire time, speak up with an urgent expression.

“H-Huh…?”

“Hurry up and throw it!”

Damn, that girl had spunk; just from her voice commanding him to do exactly what she said, the guy instantly obeyed. Massive force fueling his body, Mondo whirled around and reared his left arm back. A massive grunt came from him hurling the limp Monokuma into the air far from the whole group. The height of his throw was almost like his arm was a catapult-

BOOOOOOM!!!!

The bear suddenly exploded, a gigantic flash of orange and yellow alongside the bellowing noise shook the entirety of the gym!!

“UUUUWAAAAAAHHH!!!”

HOLY ASS, WHAT-

NO-

NO NO NO NO-

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

Unleashing a scream alongside everyone else that under normal circumstances would’ve mega embarrassed the hell outta him, Leon’s platform shoes assisted him in making a beeline straight to the bleachers after he could’ve sworn he jumped ten feet in the air. He leapt to about three rows of bleachers before slowing to a step, turning around, and crouching in utter disbelief and fear, both hands latched onto his head. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who decided to get the hell out of there. Several others, like Hiro, Toko, and Hifumi had slightly jumped onto the bleachers and were shaken up, while some others like Makoto and Sayaka were nearby, but had definitely taken some distance from it.

The goateed jaw could’ve fallen to the ground if this had been a cartoon. The smell of gunpowder was evident, the black smoke still somewhat visible in the air before fading out of existence.

Metal plated windows. Crayon colored pamphlets. Action movie metal hatch doors. A talking bear who told them they either live forever here or kill each other to leave.

And now that same bear was a gawddamn bomb.

Leon closed his eyes, the beginnings of a headache looming over him.

Shit, he really wished he could take a nap right now. Hopefully to wake up out of this nightmare. Even if that meant that meeting Sayaka Maizono wasn’t real.

“T-The hell…”

He ignored both the pleas from his brain and eyes and opened his eyelids to see Mondo freaked out. He wasn’t scared shitless, but he definitely was in utter shock.

“T-That sure as shit wasn’t a joke. It blew the hell up…”

His words seemed to spur the other thirteen students into coming back, now that the danger had passed. Seeing everyone moving forward, the baseball star jerked, taking that as his cue, and did his best to shake off however horrified he was. He carefully moved down the bleachers and hesitantly regrouped with everyone near Mondo.

“I-Is… Is everyone okay?” Makoto asked, looking around.

With all heads looking around and no one disagreeing, Sayaka nodded, “Y-Yeah, I think we’re all fine…”

“T-To think it could do something like that… How truly bizarre!” Taka gasped in awe, his body visibly tense and teeth clenched.

“B-But… you know…” Chihiro’s timid voice spoke up, fidgeting with her hands, “This means that the teddy bear’s been destroyed, right?”

“Oi!! I told you already, I'm not a teddy bear! I’m Monokuma!!”

Before the girl’s statement could even be registered in everyone’s head and spark a glimmer of hope, a similar shape suddenly jumped out from behind the podium on stage and moved off, walking towards them-

A quick gasp followed by an audible grunt of terror, Leon’s arms flailed in front of himself for a second before his fight or flight instincts positioned himself ready.

“GAWD- There’s another one…!?” he yelled, everyone else as well shocked at this occurrence.

“You son of a bitch!” Mondo suddenly tensed up, gritting his teeth, but his face clearly spooked out, “You seriously tried to kill me just now!”

The bear’s red eye glowed even brighter as-

….Oh, gawd-

The bear actually had claws!?

“Well, no shit, sherlock! You grabbed me by the neck and threatened to rip me to shreds! So, yeah. I was seriously trying to kill you; you violated one of the school regulations, after all. ...Ahh, I’ll let you off with a warning this time, but you’d better be careful; you’re on thin ice, as far as I’m concerned,” it seethed, trying to reel its temper back with a huff and looking towards the entire group while its claws disappeared back into its paw, “That goes for all of you, capiche? Any naughty girl or boy isn’t just gonna get off with a tiny swat to the butt if you violate any of my rules.”

As Mondo scowled and did his best to regain his composure, a very nervous Junko carefully wiped whatever sweat was on her face before asking, “H-Hey… so does this mean that there’s like, a bunch more of you around somewhere?”

“Monokumas have been placed all throughout the school, yes. Plus, don’t forget the surveillance cameras installed everywhere. And if you’re caught breaking any rules… well, you just saw what happened, since none of you kiddies are blind, right?” the bear said, before giving a sadistic, sickening giggle again, “Puhu… And that’s not even taking in the fact that I won’t be so forgiving with punishments next time. So don’t let it happen again!”

“T-That’s… you can’t even call that a punishment. That’s just… wrong…” Hina was nearly unable to breath out.

She was right; no matter who you were… no one deserved to get blown up like that…

“Now then, lastly… To commemorate your joyous entry into our school-”

Joyous entry.

FREAKIN’ REALLY!?

Actually, also, you’re just gonna pretend like that whole thing didn’t just happen-

Screw this bear. Screw him. So. Hard.

“-I have a little something for you!”

The bear’s puffy body whirled around and ran up onto the stage, leaving fifteen teenagers in its dust. It quickly ducked behind the podium, making a few strained grunting noises before rushing back; in its arms, a giant pile of what appeared to be…

Whoa… what the? Some kind of electronic device?

“You all get an official student handbook! Neat, huh?” Monokuma beamed happily, waddling up to Makoto.

The boy seemed uneasy, but blinked with confusion as the bear lifted the pile up to him.

“Here, pass this out to your fellow classmates for me, will ya?” it asked, “While you’re doing that, I’ll explain what the handbooks do. They have removable stickers on the back of them that will show the names of who they belong to, so don’t worry about giving the wrong one to the wrong person!”

He had no godly clue why the kid listened to it, but Leon watched as Makoto actually obeyed it and took the stack of devices into his arms. Monokuma ended up skipping away and back towards where it initially stood.

And Leon’s handbook was apparently the top of said pile, because the boy turned to look at him and handed it to him with an uneasy expression. The baseball star pursed his lips, nodding a thank you to him, and took the item out of his hands. As this allowed Makoto to continue distributing the other handbooks out, Leon began to glance over the item a bit, while few of the others who stood near him observed the item until they got their own.

It was a super thin, shiny blue rectangular device that had the Hope’s Peak Academy logo on the back near the sticker that said his name. Sort of like a super small version of a tablet computer or something.

“Now, as you get yours, you’ll be able to tell that it’s fully digital. So naturally, we call it the e-Handbook!” it proudly explained, watching as slowly but surely, all of the fifteen students got one, “Now, please take super special note of this! Your handbooks are absolutely vital to a healthy school life, so don’t lose them! When it boots up, it always will display your name; make sure you have the right one on you at all times. That’s also why I put stickers on the back which you can remove if you so wish; just in case you’re doubtful if being able to tell whose e-Handbook is which.”

Crossing its arms over its chest, it continued, “Now, this ain’t your everyday notebook. It has so many more uses than that! Also, totally waterproof; splash it, wash it, or drown it, It’ll still keep tickin’! And with its space age design, it can withstand up to an impact of ten tons; very resistant! It’ll contain every school regulations, so make sure you review them thoroughly!”

Okay, so this thing is important. Good thing some of the inner pockets in his jacket are big enough for this…

“Now… Ahem.”

Leon looked up to see Monokuma huffing seriously.

“You’ll hear me say this a lot, but violations of school regulations won’t be tolerated at all. Rules restrict, yes, but they also protect. Society, for example, would be utter chaos without them,” it spoke, pounding its chest, “The same thing applies here! Which is why strict punishments are crucial for violators. And I won’t be hearing any pleas or begging for simple warnings, either.”

It turned its head to Mondo and flashed a… rather cruel grin.

“You can thank ‘Pompadour Man’ for giving you all your only warning.”

Mondo cursed under his breath.

“Okay, well! That brings our official entrance ceremony to a close!” Monokuma clapped, “Please enjoy your abundantly dreary school life! And… See ya!”

Before anyone could react, the bear crouched down and somehow managed to do ten backflips in midair, going above the podium, and landing behind it…

...to somehow disappearing, leaving the fifteen students all confused and in shock.

After several seconds of silence, confirming that the bear was indeed gone, everyone began to look around at each other.

“So, guys…” Taka’s voice cut through firstly, “How would you define what we just experienced?”

Wh… Define?

How the hell could you define that? Just… How…? Why…?

“Yo, can you even define something that nuts?” Leon shook his head, “I don’t understand any of this…”

“W-We have to live here f-forever…? Or… k-kill?” Toko’s voice desperately seeked answers, “Wh-What…? What just happened!?”

“Everyone, we need to calm down,” Kyoko cut through before anything got further out of control, having everyone look towards her eyes shifting downwards towards the floor in thought, “First, let’s take a second to summarize everything we heard. Based on what Monokuma said, we have two choices. Choice number one being that we each stay here, living a ‘communal life’ together until the day we die. And choice number two…”

“If we want to get out alive, we must kill someone. Right?” Celeste answered, hands calmly held in front of her stomach.

Chihiro’s eyes started to water, shaking her head as her hands trembled over the bow near her neck, “B-But… killing someone… T-That’s…”

“We were abducted out of nowhere and stuffed into this place meant to look like a school. And now we’re supposed to start killing each other?” Hifumi tried to stay calm, but ended up freaking out the more he talked, “T-This is… Gurk…! This is just…!! What IS this!?”

Leon felt his eyes glare into this giant sphere-like shape that just so happened to be a human being. G-Gawddamn, dude, shut the hell up! You don’t need to go freakin’ out and making other people just as freaked out…!

“Ridiculous! A lie, is what it is,” Taka said as he shook his head, attempting to try to convince Hifumi… and maybe himself, about how this situation wasn’t real, “All these ridiculous things we’ve heard… This all has to be fake!”

And at that moment…

A single noise.

One that wasn’t by all means loud, but it commanded the entirety of the room to pay attention.

“Hmph.”

Everyone turned to see Byakuya, who despite the entirety of the situation, had his arms folded calmly over his chest again and appeared to be aloof with his eyes wishing to stare at the wall instead of anyone else. His head shook disapprovingly before his mouth opened again.

And frankly… his words was all that was needed to really understand.

Understand the seriousness of what was now happening.

“Right now, it doesn’t really matter if it’s real or fake. What really matters is…”

His head slowly turned back, his eyes piercing into everyone as his arms dropped down to his sides.

“Is there anyone here who’s seriously considering all this…?”

…

…

...Seriously… considering…?

You mean… considering… to…

...murder someone…?

Something… something in Leon’s chest ended up stopping or… or something. Because everything… everything got really cold or it felt like it was hard to breath for a split moment.

T-That… That was just…

Leon felt himself staring at the blonde from behind him when he said that. Like… why would he say that? How could he say that? What in his mind brought him to the conclusion that this was the right thing to say…?

It was just… ridiculous.

R-Ridiculous, like Taka said.

So ridiculous… it was funny.

And it made him laugh.

A laugh that sounded frustrated, yet in disbelief.

To the point where Byakuya turned around to glance at him.

And the way that his eyes stared back at him, almost as if to challenge him to object to what he said…

Again, so ridiculous, right?

“H-hey, come on, man!” Leon finally found his voice after his laugh died abruptly, “The hell’s up with that? Don’t say such stupid crap like that; I mean, for real. There’s no way anyone here would actually... kill each other…”

The amount of effort it took to tear his eyes off of Byakuya after saying that was unbelievable…

And yet… when he finally did, he really wished he hadn’t.

Because no one…

No one seemed to agree confidently that it was an impossibility like he said.

“...Right…?”

He finished the end of his question in a voice that was on the verge of being hushed. Due to the fact that he was alone…

They all were staring at one another, trying to gauge each other’s thoughts. It was like he could taste the hostility. He may not have always been the smartest person, but… even Leon now could realize the horror that had been weaved into the rules Monokuma laid out.

“You must kill someone in order to leave.”

That sentence kept ringing over and over in his head. No matter how he tried to block it out, it was front and center stage, continuously looping with no end in sight. And now, it was making him feel like an utter moron for actually saying what he said before.

But more importantly, it really had him take a strained, deep breath in. Because, like… there’s no way he’d murder someone. He’d never…

It wasn’t the question of ‘who could I kill’.

It was actually the question of ‘who could kill me’.

Eventually, his eyes started to dart around, glancing at everyone. He tried to look at everyone’s face without them noticing, and he felt his skin crawl whenever a pair of eyes glanced in his direction. And gawddamn it, why the hell did Sakura of all people have to be right behind him?

His right arm raising up to his head, he pursed his lips and closed his eyes for a short while. So he could control the pace of his breathing.

Fourteen people. He was trapped with fourteen people, who any of them, for all he knew or cared, could try to pull something and kill him or someone else here, betraying the group in order to have a selfish escape out of this place.

...Well, one thing he did know?

He officially hates bears. Like, a lot.

================

PROLOGUE: END

REMAINING STUDENTS: 15

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better.

Chapter 5: Ch 1: Daily Life 1

Notes:

In where the weenie goes over the rules and watches a knockout happen.

CHAPTER 1: TO SURVIVE

Daily Life: START

================

“So? What are you going to do now?”

The sharp voice cutting through the tense silence that Leon had closed his eyes and tried to calm himself against had them reopen again. Taking a second to blink and recognize what was said, he turned around with everyone else to see who spoke.

Kyoko.

Somehow, regardless of hearing the choices of life imprisonment or attempting to murder another person, her body stood firm. Arms folded over her chest, and her face… showing no fear. An expression that was strong, unrattled… possibly even going so far as to be… calm? In a situation like this…? H-How-

Her eyes came back from looking away to the side and glanced around at everyone.

“Just stand around glaring at each other?” her voice spoke to everyone in the room.

The inquiry of what the entire group’s next action was going to be had apparently melted the tensioned fear that claimed them. In a matter of seconds, people were starting to look around casually and their postures reverting to normal before the ceremony started. Even he could feel his chest take a breath and all of the anxiety built around simmering down into a pile of ashes.

W-Whoa… In a matter of seconds, this girl had destroyed the toxic, unhealthy atmosphere and calmed everyone back to their senses.

Hey, it’s not like he was complainin’ or anything.

“Nnrgk! R-Right… She’s right! Sometimes, even if you’re nervous or afraid, you just have to step forward and face the situation!” Taka clutched his fists passionately, though a shade of shame washed over his features, “To forget such a simple fact… How utterly humiliating to do an unforgivable mistake! Please, someone hit me! I have to be punished! Somebody hit me!!”

….Dude, you got major issues.

Leon’s eyes might as well have been tiny dots with how annoyed and incredulous he stared at him and how stupid he was acting. He ‘had to be punished’...? Just… Don’t even know where to begin with that one…

On the other hand, if he was really wanting someone to smack him-

“Jesus, dude,” Mondo’s voice shook him out of that thought, shaking his head with a grumble at Taka, “If you have energy to yell about it, how about doing something about it?”

“Perhaps, but… what is the mission, exactly?” Hifumi chewed at his nails while asking.

...Was he dumb?

Like… was he??

Maybe it was the fact that Taka being a moron and saying stuff that a normal person would realize is a very stupid and cringy thing to say, or that initially, the introductions with Hifumi in the entrance hall may not have been exactly something he wanted to remember due to how the guy rubbed him the wrong way. Hell, probably the whole entrance ceremony had taken a toll on his current behavior. But the fact this freakin’ guy had the nerve to ask that… Like it’s so obvious, you-

“Idiot! To find a way outta here! Duh!!” He hardened his stare, hunching forward as he spit out those words at him.

The harshness of his stare’s purpose most likely to make him feel stupid for even saying that; it worked, considering how Hifumi kinda fidgeted and looked away while scratching his head. And Leon made sure not to stop until a few more seconds, his body straightening up with a huff and shaking his head.

“And we totally need to find whoever was controlling that stupid bear and beat the hell out of ‘em,” Junko added on, her makeup being complimented by a nice shade of angry red.

He totally seconded that motion right there. Ugh, he wasn’t even afraid anymore. Now he was just annoyed as all hell.

Speaking of beating up whoever was behind the bear…

Where exactly did it disappear to?

Pale blue eyes swept from the other fourteen students and towards the stage, locking onto the podium where Monokuma somehow defied physics and backflipped behind. And yet, it straight up was gone. He wasn’t going to attack it out right, because like hell he was about to see if that bear would explode in his face or worse as a ‘punishment’ and keep its word about being strict. But finding where it went off to or how it pulled that stunt was a start.

Passing by Byakuya and Hiro, Leon started to make his way towards the stage. Many of the group began to notice and pay attention to him while he moved towards the stairs on the left side.

“Hey, just a moment! Where do you think you’re going?” Taka’s booming shout felt as if it echoed and rebounded against the gym’s walls and ceiling extra hard.

The baseball star stopped right at the bottom of the steps to turn and see the guy actually pointing at him, making everyone focus on the two of them. Geez, with how his body looked tense as hell, he’d probably start marching over to him if he didn’t answer fast enough.

A sigh came out of his mouth and he frowned at him.

“Yo, isn’t it obvious? I’m going to see where the hell that Monokuma thing went…” he said, jabbing a thumb towards the stage and returning to making his way up the stairs.

The fact that he heard a “Ah, I see! That’s a good idea!” almost immediately from Taka getting off his back nearly made his eyes glare aggravatingly at the ceiling.

That is… if he hadn’t noticed someone else beating him to the stage area.

A suddenly moving color of lilac caught Leon’s eyes to see that Kyoko was approaching the podium from the opposite stairs-

Wait a sec… wasn’t she at the back of the group? And yet, she somehow got up the stage steps before he did?

Leon blinked.

Huh... girl’s quick.

Well, whatever; he’ll take the help in searching the stage for that stupid bear.

Eventually, he and Kyoko ended up meeting towards the podium and began looking it over. And also-

A solid SMACK against the stage echoed as both looked to see Mondo slamming both hands onto it. Using his strength, he managed to lift the rest of his body to get up onto the stage.

“Mondo! Don’t do that! There are stairs for a reason!” Taka chastised him while the biker pushed off the ground and to his feet.

Mondo sent a glare in response for a second, before turning back to the podium and saying, “Piss off. Now’s not the time to worry about that…”

It didn’t seem like Taka entirely agreed, but how he huffed out of his nostrils suggested he was willing to put aside the issue for now. While he began to make his way towards the right stairs in order to join the three on stage, Makoto, Sayaka, and Junko had approached from the gym floor to spectate anything the four would find. Not wanting to be uncool and get in Kyoko’s way when she started to get to a knee and inspect the bottom of the podium, Leon opted to use his height advantage to peer over her as best as he could when needed, while maintaining an appropriate distance away from Mondo in order not to piss him off. Because seriously, that temper. No thank you.

And yet, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary with it. It was a fairly normal wooden podium that still had that microphone and untouched glass of water on it. There didn’t seem to be an opening, switch, or something that stuck out like a sore thumb to show a clue as to where Monokuma went.

What the hell? How can that be…?

“How’s it going? Are you guys able to find anything?” Makoto asked, taking a step forward as if he was about to jump up onto the stage as well to help (and suffer Taka’s scolding wrath).

“Uhhh… so far, nothin’, really…” Leon hated to admit, but mumbled loud enough for him to be heard.

His mind was running out of ideas on how that thing disappeared. Despite how it clearly landed behind the podium, his curious frustration would give a slight hit to his common sense when he just decided to peer underneath the red cloth on the front of the podium. Bending over, he did his best to try and lift the cloth with both hands for him to try and get a glimpse of it. Kyoko seemed to come up beside him and attempted to get closer to look-

“Tch. Fuckin’ shit.”

BAM.

Mondo swearing under his breath in a growl-like fashion was followed by him giving a swift kick to the wood, causing it to shake and take everyone off guard. Jerking his head back with a grimace, Leon immediately let go of the cloth to back up with Kyoko and the others down below. His eyes landed on Mondo who was staring out of the corner of his eyes in a miffed like fashion.

Just… geesume…

“Hey! Don’t just kick it like that; you’ll damage the podium!” Taka scolded, his eyes burning passionately at the guy.

The biker whirled around to face him.

“What, you seriously on my case about something as stupid as that? You think I care?” he argued, “We have some freak of nature tryin’ hold us hostage in this place! Is some stupid hunk of wood really that big of an issue to get pissed at me for?”

Taka took a deep breath, probably to control himself, before folding his arms and standing his ground.

“No. However! I don’t think I need to remind you of what almost happened to you a few moments ago,” he explained, the anger in Mondo’s face being wiped away with comprehension of where he was going with this, “Monokuma stated it will be enforcing whatever rules it’s placed very strictly. And I would think that damaging school property would be something it’d be against us doing.”

“He’s right. While we haven’t checked out the rules on our handbooks yet, it’s certainly plausible to think that for now,” Kyoko added, gathering the attention of the small group.

Mondo must’ve realized how silly the whole thing was, because he hmphed and stuffed his hands into his coat’s pockets.

“Tsk. Fine, fine, I won’t go kickin’ the stupid thing. Happy?”

Yeah, Leon was.

Please, God, don’t tell him this dude would have a meltdown every time he wasn’t happy…

“Yeah, so, anyways…” Junko shook her head and then pointed at the podium, “If there isn’t any kind of special switch or doohickey on that thing, maybe there’s like… I dunno, something underneath it where that bear slipped into?”

“Hmm, a possibility. Good observation! Let’s check it out,” Taka piped up, moving to the podium and getting the baseball star’s attention, “Excuse me, Leon? Could you remove the microphone and glass of water off this? That way, Mondo and I can move this, in order for us to examine the stage floor.”

He wouldn’t lie that he didn’t know if he should be annoyed at being told what to do by Taka of all people or that feeling like it would be a complete, uncool overreaction. But hey, the dude didn’t bark at him like it was an order, so… whatever.

“Ehh, sure thing,” he shrugged.

Carefully lifting the microphone (which thankfully wasn’t on, or else he’d risk embarrassing himself by causing an ear-wrenching feedback screech to attack everyone’s eardrums) and the glass of water (which was almost full to the brim, so he had to really watch himself), Leon’s tongue poked out of his mouth and pressed tightly against his upper lip. The face he made and how slow his steps were emphasized just how careful he was trying to be. Because like hell he was about to spill the glass and dump water all over himself and/or someone else right in front of Sayaka.

Eventually, he managed to back away far enough and set the two things down, while Mondo helped Taka lift the wooden structure up and move it a few feet away. The moment they did, Kyoko crouched down and traced her hands along the stage floor, examining it while the three below moved closer to see if they could spot anything. When the others on stage gathered around, the lilac-haired girl stood up and folded his arms, bringing a gloved index finger to rest near her lips.

“Hmmm… There doesn’t seem to be an uneven surface or anything of the sort to suggest there’s an opening or secret passage to move into,” she concluded for the others.

Taka was flabbergasted at hearing that and shook his head, “W-What? Then… Monokuma just straight up disappeared? T-That’s not possible!”

Offering up a solution, Makoto pointed behind them.

“Maybe he ended up running behind the stage and is hiding there?”

“Nah, man. I was over to the far right, and didn’t see it do that,” Mondo objected, shaking his head.

“Yeah, same here,” Junko added, her frown staying solid as she began to twirl the end of one of her pigtails, “If that bear tried to run further back, we would’ve been able to see the little bastard...”

“...What the crap…?” Leon heard those words come muttering out of his mouth before he realized it as he stared at the floor.

Sayaka pressed a hand near her collarbone and turned to look at Makoto.

“B-But then… how did it do that?”

The boy appeared as if he wished he could give her an answer right away, but was hesitant to admit that he had no idea and teetered on the verge of shrugging and shaking his head. Hell, Leon wouldn’t blame him in this case. Because for real, man. If the podium wasn’t suspicious, there wasn’t a secret exit in the floor, and running behind the stage wasn’t possible…

How the heck did that thing just-

BOOOOOOOM.

Now, one would think that the massive sound of a huge impact meeting a hard surface amplified by a hundred had commanded the attention of everyone in the gym. Well, that may have very well been a reason. But THE reason? A sudden, gust-like wind sweeping through the entire area, with such force and power that it made eyes clamp shut and arms raised to shield their faces. Even some of the students let out a small cry of shock. A few seconds after it passed, all turned their eyes upward to one of the bleachers…

Within the top of the seating area, near the blue handrails, stood Sakura and Hina, with the larger girl’s right arm against the metal shutters with a perfect strike form. And if… Leon’s eyes wasn’t playing tricks on him… t-there was a faint line of smoke coming from where her fist would be…

“Did…. did she just try to punch her way through that…?” Sayaka barely was able to ask, her eyes widening in awe.

Junko squinted in disbelief, her mouth in a grimace.

“I totally wanna say no, but like… I think she did.”

A grunt came out of Mondo’s throat as he rubbed at his neck, “You tellin’ me that girl punched that thing, and that’s what happened? Christ, she’s gotta be strong as hell…”

“A-Amazing…” Leon could hear Makoto barely being able to breathe out.

Amazing isn’t exactly the word he’d use.

Terrifying? Yeah, that- that would be the word right there.

After a moment, both Hina and Sakura began to make their way down the bleachers to rejoin the others in the middle. That seemed to be a cue for them to follow suit, as all seven at the stage made their way off it (though Taka was irked at how Leon and Mondo just hopped off the stage instead of using the stairs) and regrouped as well.

“Well? Any luck?” Celeste inquired, tilting her head slightly.

Hina frowned, stuffing her hands into her jacket’s pockets, “Nope, no dice. Those metal shutters aren’t going anywhere.”

“It appears my strength isn’t sufficient enough to break through,” Sakura closed her eyes, folding her arms, “My apologies.”

W-Well… C-Can anyone, even someone like her, really break through solid metal with just their own strength? Yet, the look on her face was… did she really think she could do it?

Shaking his head at that, Leon recollected himself and scratched at the back of his head carefully as he spoke up, “And no luck over on the stage. Somehow, that bear managed to give us the slip, but we couldn’t find out how it got away.”

“Whoa, for real? That’s insane…” Hiro gawked at that, eyes widely blinking.

Dude didn’t need to tell him that twice.

“T-Then… how do we proceed with our mission…?” Hifumi began to ask…

...until a soft, gentle voice peeked into the conversation with a trembling, nervous arm.

“...U-Um… Excuse me…?”

Fourteen heads turned to look at the smallest form. Chihiro appeared to have barely gotten the courage to speak up, but now that everyone was looking at her, she seemed to falter for a split second while glancing around at everyone looking at her. Leon couldn’t help but feel a bit concerned for her; maybe she didn’t think anyone would actually hear her. But after taking a few seconds, she took a shaky breath and somewhat regained her composure.

“S-Sorry, but… Maybe we should take a look at the handbook. Monokuma said that the regulations we need to follow are all listed there, so it’s probably best if we check them out, right?” she offered.

Celeste gave a smile, nodding to her.

“True. If we stumble around with no clue what the rules are, something like that may happen again,” she agreed, her eyes briefly darting towards the biker gang leader.

With Mondo once again cursing under his breath, Junko let out a huff as she pulled out her handbook, “Fine, let’s hurry up and check out what these stupid rules are, already.”

Taking a moment to dig out his own from one of his inner pockets he previously had stashed his there, Leon pressed the small power button on the side and turned his handbook on. The moment the screen lit up, it showed a blackish-blue tinted color with the Hope’s Peak Academy logo in the background. On the top right, it read ‘Hope’s Peak Academy e-Handbook’ near a smaller logo of the school’s insignia, and a small white arrow pointing left in the bottom left. After a few seconds, it made a small jingle tune and showed cased his full name in white letters before a small menu on the left appeared with three choices: Report Cards, Regulations, and Map. When he pressed the name for regulations, the screen turned to a blackish-purple color scheme as the rules were listed on the screen and could be scrolled up and down.

The following rules were:

1. Students may only reside within the school. Leaving campus is an unacceptable use of time.

2. ‘Nighttime’ is from 10 PM to 7 AM. Some areas are off-limits at night, so please exercise caution.

3. Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory will be seen as sleeping in class and will be punished accordingly.

4. With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore Hope’s Peak at your own discretion.

5. Violence against Headmaster Monokuma is strictly prohibited, as is destruction of surveillance cameras.

6. Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes ‘blackened’ will graduate, unless they are discovered.

7. Additional school regulations may be added as necessary.

So these were the rules that he needed to follow, or else he’d get blown up or worse by Monokuma…

Great. Flippin’ fantastic.

Already off to a horrible start, that first rule could go to hell. Because that was just dumb as dumb could be. The second and third rules, he’d have no problem with. He may have those nights where he loved to stay up late and hang out with his friends, but he was the kind of guy who really valued his sleep. Like, tons of it; he might love sleeping so much, he could have dreams of taking naps.

Having to be put under these regulations by that bear thing wasn’t exactly something he was looking forward to. And yet…

It was that seventh rule that really kept his attention focused.

Monokuma could add rules as the time of being forced to live in this place went on. And that really bothered him. Who knows what kind of messed up stuff it would try to implement on everyone? That was way too dangerous of a rule; one that gives the person holding them all hostage here too much of an advantage. And mixed with number five, that meant no fighting back, which was bullcrap. Leon’s expression seemed to emphasize that much, as his face was stuck between a disappointed frown and a glare that spoke volumes of annoyance.

Welp, he checked out the rules. What about these other options-

Ooookay, the map one said ‘Unavailable at the moment. Please check back in later,’ so that’s not working right now.

But probably, it would unlock sometime later? And was it like a map of the school itself, or…?

Whatever. How about the report cards?

The moment he pressed it, the screen turned to a darkish-orange color scheme and a list of everyone’s names were brought up in numerical order. He caught his name as number five in the list, and when he pressed it, it brought up a small picture of him that he remembered taking for his student registration for Hope’s Peak Academy (His dad was kinda ticked that he tilted his head in the picture, but personally, he thought it was pretty cool looking). Near it, was a list of all his information: Name, Height, Weight, Chest, and his Ultimate Talent-

Gah, it even says Baseball Star on this, and now everyone will see it…

Hitting the back button in the bottom corner, he scrolled down to Sayaka’s name and when he pressed it, it did the same for her info.

So the report cards gave a general description on everybody here. Alright, good to know. So, that’s all the e-handbook had at this point.

By the time he hit the power button, sending his handbook to snooze like he assumed it’d do, and stashed it back in his jacket, Leon realized that a conversation involving Junko and Mondo was happening and he pretty much missed out on whatever the heck the group listened to them talk about.

“None of that made much sense to me, but you are saying you will follow the regulations, yes?” Celeste seemed interested, twirling her hair with closed eyes as she asked.

“Huh? Oh, well… Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Mondo nodded, rubbing the back of his neck.

Oops. Well, uh… hopefully the guy doesn’t find out he completely ignored him…

“Hey, um…”

Leon turned to watch Sayaka start to speak up, “I have a question. For regulation number six… what do you think it means exactly?”

The rule about murdering someone and becoming a ‘blackened’... whatever that means.

“Oh, you mean about the second half, right? ‘Unless they are discovered’?” Makoto asked, and continued when she nodded to him, “Yeah, I was kind of wondering what that meant, too.”

“It shouldn’t even need explaining. But I suppose if you’re really having that much trouble…” Byakuya shook his head, but continued to elaborate without making eye contact, “It’s saying that if you want to graduate, you need to kill someone without anyone finding out it was you.”

“B-But why…? W-Why do we h-have to do that…?” Toko shook her head, questioning it.

The blond decided to glance over towards her and give her an answer, “I don’t see any reason to worry about it. Just worry about following the rules as they’ve been explained to us. Frankly, I don’t want to hear anything from someone who waits for others to decide what to do for them.”

Ouch. Like a sucker-punch of a low blow right there, damn…

Despite the fact that last sentence was really aimed at her, Toko seemed to have a bit of a blush come across her face with a smirk.

“D-Don’t jab at me…” she muttered back at him, her fingers fidgeting.

More like a full-on stab…

The girl looked over at his direction and shot him a nasty look-

Oh, wait; did he say that out loud?

“Okay, well, for now, let’s forget all about that silly junk of murders of whatever,” Hina waved her hands around, before fixing the collar of her jacket and getting a look of determination, “Now that we know the rules, let’s start exploring the school!”

Taka was on the same page with this notion as he agreed, “True. We need to find out where exactly we are. Is there a way out? What about food and supplies? There are questions that need answers!”

The two of them really seemed to invigorate a sense of working hard to find a way out of here, as everyone seemed to nod and regain some energy in their posture. And hell, that was enough to pump Leon up. Yeah, they were totally finding a way outta here! No problem!

“Damn straight!” he said, his serious excitement lighting up his face with an intense look as he clutched his fists out in front of him, “Let’s get started already and find a way to bust outta here!”

“...I’ll be going alone.”

“Eh…?”

Almost like a balloon being squished harshly, Leon’s bravado suddenly fizzled at what he heard. When he turned to look around, most of the group had gasps and grunts of shock as Byakuya spoke up with his head turned away, focusing on the gymnasium exit.

“What!? Why?” Junko folded her arms and raised an eyebrow, making no attempt to hide how dumb she thought he was being, “That’s a pretty stupid idea, don’t you think?”

Without even regarding her via eye contact, he replied, “Someone here might already have started thinking about murdering one of us. Are you saying we should stand around with them in our midst and make it much easier for them?”

The fashionista lost her fire and joined a few who had their expressions soften up with worry or concern.

Sayaka took a step towards him and urgently pleaded, trying to muster up some bravery against that horrible possibility, “W-Wait, hold on a second! You can’t say that; that would never-”

And within a millisecond, Byakuya’s arms uncrossed and he sharply turned to face her, catching her off guard and silencing her voice almost immediately. His eyes turned cold as a stone, yet sharp as a sword the moment they locked onto her.

“Don’t bother saying it couldn’t happen,” he nearly snapped at her as if it were a command, before his face only relaxed ever-so-slightly into a serious, aloof shade of emotion, “You can’t deny the possibility. That’s why you all seized up with fear the moment the graduation clause was explained to you. Am I wrong?”

And just like that, Sayaka frowned and nearly curled inwards, showing a deep insecurity and embarrassment to being shut down like that. The sight of that made Leon’s eyes move towards the prodigy and borderline leer at the guy. Dude, the hell was his problem? Like, he could get why Byakuya felt the way he did. It’s not that. But like… he didn’t have to treat Sayaka like that. She deserved better than getting a shit-like response.

With no rebuttal given back, Byakuya turned to walk towards the door.

“I’m simply acting in accordance with what I think is best for me. Surely, all of you can understand that much,” he scoffed, getting at least halfway to leaving the gym…

...only for Mondo to suddenly come rushing over and standing directly in front of his path.

“Hold on! Like hell I’m gonna let you just run off and do whatever you want,” he yelled, his teeth snarling at his target.

And whoa, okay; give credit to Byakuya, all right? The guy had balls, man. Wasn’t even flinching with that kind of a guy in his face-

“Out of my way, plankton.”

….Oh…. No.

“Wh-!? The fuck did you say??” Mondo dared him to actually say it again.

And Byakuya matched his dare with an unaffected air of superiority.

“One tiny bit of plankton, drifting across the sea. So minuscule, so insignificant, they couldn't possibly have any kind of influence on the boundless ocean.”

“Ohhhh, your paranoia is about to be right on, ‘cause I’m gonna kick your ass!” the vein in Mondo’s forehead visibly bulged and made its form present, as the biker menacingly cracked his knuckles and stared the other male down.

C-Come on, dude, not again-

Byakuya hardened his intense glare back at him, “You dare to insinuate that I’m afraid of you?”

“W-Wait!”

Before Leon could register it, Makoto went rushing past him towards the two, causing a small gasp from Sayaka. He stopped at their side, gaining their attention, and looked back and forth between them.

“The last thing we need is to start fighting each other,” he tried to reason, “We shouldn’t be-”

“Huh!? Who do you think you are, talkin’ to me like that!?” his pleading for them to stop was abruptly cut by Mondo slowly turning to face him with rage coursing through his bloodstream, “You some kinda goody-goody little bitch? You think you’re my dad or somethin’, tryin’ to teach me a lesson!?”

At that point, Makoto must’ve realized that perhaps stepping in between an anger-fueled guy who towered over him wasn’t thoroughly reviewed over in his head as a good plan. Because the kid tried to backpedal so hard out of that slippery slope and took a step backwards, waving his hands frantically all over the place.

“N-No!! I-I wasn’t-”

“FUCK YOU!!!”

Before the sole of Makoto’s foot that was retreating could even properly plant itself onto the floor, Mondo had taken a leaping step forward, planted it with a solid thud, and cocked his arm back as far as it could go. From that, his right fist formed into a powerful, yet extraordinarily swift straight punch that a professional boxer would be impressed with. It seemed like the smaller boy had some reaction, since his body tried to lower to duck. But all that did was make his forehead the new target instead of his face. The fist smashed into his head so hard, the poor guy actually went flying!!

Leon’s jaw dropped as Makoto legit went backwards a good five or six feet. His body sailed through the air, before suddenly…

Gravity’s such a bitch, right?

WHAM.

The back of his head and his shoulders were the first thing to smash into the floor, making a sickening noise that wasn’t anything like a crack of a broken bone, but sounded just as disturbing. His body actually skidded on his shoulders a few more inches, before momentum took over and brought his lower half down to the floor as well, ending with his feet bouncing slightly.

Several of the girls gasped and cried out in shock; hell, some of the guys did, too. A few of them even backed up (actually, let's be honest; more like darted backwards) at the terror of what just happened. Leon personally felt his voice leave him while his still-dropped jaw stayed wide open. His eyes took in the fact that not only was Makoto not moving at all, but hadn’t made any kind of noise during the initial punch. So, like…

He slowly turned to look at the person who caused it, and… it looked like even Mondo didn’t expect his victim to go that far back. Don’t get it mistaken; guy was still pissed. But more like a ‘Wait, that just happened?’ look came across his face. Really hammered in with the fact that he blinked a bit before straightening up.

And that’s when he realized someone was standing in front of him.

“Control yourself. Immediately.”

The guy looked up to see the only person who could tower over him.

Sakura.

She had spoken those words with a neutral face and calm voice; nothing that would send danger flags. And yet… hah… it was like the aura around her, man… it got so….

Yikes. Even being some amount of feet away from her had Leon on guard.

But for Mondo? It was right up in his face, and had him calmed. Like almost instantly.

His mouth closed into a thin line as he took a deep breath, let out a very scratchy sigh, and nodded a few times while bringing a hand up to his neck to rub it.

“Right… Got ya,” he said, avoiding eye contact with a look that could be conceived as regretful.

O-Of course, the one person who can control this dude who flies off the handle at any moment is the bigger, muscular person who has the confidence that she can punch through metal.

Freakin’... Hahaha…

“Did… Did you not just nearly get blown up by Monokuma for losing your temper several minutes ago!?” Taka’s voice started in a whisper, before he marched over to stand to Sakura’s side and scold Mondo further, “You cannot keep flying off the handle like this! If you don’t attempt to stop your temper from going out of control, you might actually kill…!”

His voice abruptly stopped, suddenly realizing the implication of what he was going to say. His paused moment caused Sakura and Mondo to look at him, with sudden realization dawning over their faces. That went for everyone as the three began to turn around towards the downed body of Makoto, who still hadn’t made any kind of movement since being socked in the forehead. Soon enough, everyone’s attention was focusing on him.

“Um… the dude’s not actually dead... is he?” Hiro’s voice broke through the tense silence, a slightly worried and uncomfortable frown apparent.

That question seemed to have a horrified, almost inaudible gasp come out of Sayaka, as she covered her mouth with both hands. Leon turned to look at her and realized how much she looked on the verge of being heartbrokenly shattered by Hiro’s words. Hmm, so… does that mean she and Makoto are close or something? If that’s the case, then…

He instantly looked back to send a glare towards the clairvoyant.

“Yo, come on, man! ‘Course he isn’t,” he argued, turning his head to Sayaka with a sympathetic smile and waved his hands towards that notion, “He just got knocked out from that punch; he’ll be fine, y’know?”

“I agree.”

The voice of Kyoko brought everyone’s attention to her, already crouched towards the unconscious boy, “He’s still breathing, and his pulse is normal. No other visible signs of any injury.”

That seemed to seal the deal for Sayaka, as the girl took a relieved breath and closed her eyes; she still was frowning, but hey, it’s progress. Leon felt a smile take over his face as he felt satisfied she was feeling better.

“I-I say, that was a rather intense blow! Almost like he was ejected out of battle from an attack that forced you to switch party members…!” Hifumi commented while fixing his glasses, going on about something stupid.

“Yeah… I can’t tell if he got knocked out from the punch, or the way he landed on the floor; did you see how his head and shoulders skidded…?” Hina grimaced, taking a few steps closer to where Makoto was laying down.

Glancing back at Sayaka frowning, Leon felt himself nearly roll his eyes. Okay, guys, it was awful; don’t keep going on and on about it and make her feel worse about the guy…

“Uhhh… guys?” Hiro suddenly began looking around, his hair moving back and forth rapidly catching everyone’s attention, “I think that Byakuya dude left…”

All of a sudden, the entire student body began to look around. Sure enough, Byakuya, the one who had riled up Mondo in the first place and made him extract his wrath onto poor Makoto, was no longer in the gym.

“Hey, you’re right. W-Where did he go?” Chihiro gasped, her eyes still searching for him.

“H-He slipped out the door,” Toko’s voice answered, her hands fidgeting again near her neck, “W-When you all were staring a-at that kid on the ground…”

“What!? Why the hell didn’t you say anything, then?” Mondo snapped at her, causing the girl to flinch, but have her mouth contort into a snarl.

“I-I have no o-obligation to keep tabs o-on people! I-It’s not my responsibility to d-do that!” she snapped back with, her eyes darting away from him when she finished.

Giving an exasperated sigh, Junko shook her head as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“So now, we also have an unconscious person on the floor we gotta take care of, and another who’s roaming this place alone and is God knows where,” she huffed annoyed, her mood being officially done with all of this, “Looks like trying to stop that guy was totally pointless and only caused more bogus crap for us to deal with…”

The atmosphere threatened to sour again with silence.

“Hey, come on! Let’s not get down in the dumps just yet,” Hina tried to pump everyone, having a confident smile come onto her face, “For now, let’s just focus on our original plan! We start searching the school, okay?”

“W-Wait a minute!” Sayaka’s voice called out, looking distressed, “But what about Makoto? We can’t just leave him here on the floor like this…!”

“She’s right. Especially because one of the regulations specifically say that sleeping anywhere other than one’s dormitory is a punishable offense,” Celeste noted, glancing towards the unconscious boy, “I’m not quite sure if being knocked unconscious is considered sleeping. But if this Monokuma will go as far as labeling an explosion as an acceptable punishment, then it’d be best to do something, yes?”

The pop idol nodded frantically, moving towards Makoto quickly.

“Exactly! So, we can’t just let him lay here only for Monokuma to come back and… and…!”

At this point, Sayaka seemed to be really working herself into a massive panic. It was as if her form wanted to be frozen and didn’t dare to touch Makoto in risk of doing something wrong, yet her knees were threatening to bend down and attempt to pick him up. Taking a note of this, Leon frowned and began to scan around the room and… seriously? Not one person is gonna take the cue to help her? For real?

All righty, looks like it’s time to save the day!

“Hey, come on; who said we were gonna just ditch him here?” he spoke up, making his way over to her and saw her turn to him, “I’ll carry him; I got this.”

Seeing Sayaka’s face light up with hope made his heart flutter, not gonna lie. But it was so worth her smile coming back onto her face.

“Really? You will?”

“Yeah, totally! No prob, y’know?” Leon gave a thumbs up, winking at her before looking towards the others, “Yo, can somebody gimme a hand and help me get him onto my back?”

“Ahh, yes, of course,” Taka nodded, making his way over quickly.

Within a few seconds, he, Sakura (Oh gawd...), and Kyoko had carefully lifted Makoto off the ground and the trio helped Leon position him onto his back in the famous piggy-back-ride carry. Scooping his arms under his legs, the baseball star prayed to every god in existence to not make him look uncool by being unable to carry him or drop him by accident. Not in front of Sayaka-

-Oh…. Geez, this kid’s light as a feather. No wonder he went flying after being punched…

Nevertheless, he was able to get Makoto into an unfailing, reliable grip and carry him with ease. He could feel the back of his hair and the collar of his jacket being slightly messed up with the kid’s head resting on the back of his neck, which was slightly annoying. But, hey, this is for Sayaka, y’know? He can fix these things later; right now, this is mega important!

Drooling on his jacket, however, might be a bigger offense, but let’s not, like, dare for the worst possible outcome, y'know?

“Alrighty! I guess my next stop is taking him to his dorm room, yeah?” Leon grunting initially before asking and glancing around for some kind of confirmation.

“I believe so. But… where would that exactly be?” Hifumi brought a hand to his chin.

“It’s on the other side of where the entrance hall would be, past the purple-lighted hallway. The one that contained the classroom where you stated you woke up,” Kyoko spoke up, addressing Leon, “The area in which I woke up in was a dining hall, and near it is a red-lighted hallway with nameplates that show whose dorm room is which.”

Upon hearing that, Leon’s mind recalled the sign he saw after exiting the classroom: ‘Hotel Despair’. Ohhh, so that’s what that place was. Gotcha. Seemed fair enough!

“Okay, then…” Junko nodded, taking a breath before managing a smile on her face and putting her hands on her hips, “We put Makoto in his room, then focus on searching the school. It’s only been a few minutes, so that Byakuya guy couldn’t have gotten far.”

“Very well… Shall we begin?” Sakura said and began to walk towards the door.

With that, the group began to make their way towards the gymnasium exit. Leon waited for a few of them to go in front of them; hopefully one of them remembers what he’s doing, and can hold the freakin’-

“Excuse me? Your name was Leon, right?”

Pale blue eyes blinked before turning to their right and noticing the face Sayaka had taken a few steps towards him-

W-Whoa, haha… she stepped really close to him, didn’t she-

“H-Huh? Oh, yeah? What’s up?”

She quickly did a small bow towards him before standing up straight again and giving one of those beautiful smiles she did.

“Thank you so much. For helping Makoto out like this,” she said, “It really means a lot to me.”

It meant a lot to her…

Dude... SCORE!! Hell to the freakin’ yeah!!

Leon’s cheeks got a nice, but small shade of red come over them as he chuckled and grinned back at her.

“Hey, like I said, no prob! A-Anytime, y’know?” he struggled not to stammer, but couldn’t help how his excitement was shooting through the roof, almost like his heart was going to burst through his chest.

Sayaka gave a small giggle before turning away and saying, “I’ll get the door for you.”

When her back turned, the dude was beaming from ear to ear. We’re talking like full-on, ‘you just made all the right moves’ kinda grin. And a pure-joyful laugh threatened to bubble up in the back of his throat. And yet… he managed to play it cool and contain it just as she turned around while holding the door open, allowing him to carry Makoto out of the gym no problem and make his way towards the dorms.

================

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better.

Chapter 6: Ch 1: Daily Life 2

Notes:

Apologies for the short chapter this time. I'm working nonstop from today until Thanksgiving (even work the holiday), so I wanted to get this out before I really had to focus on the holiday rush at my job. Gotta love being a cashier at the only grocery store in the city, right?

Hope you guys enjoy.

======

Where the weenie gets to see what his dorm room looks like.

“All right… There we go.”

A bit of careful positioning was required, but within a few seconds… Leon was able to back up towards the edge of the soft, neatly-made bed and sit down gently, leaning his body towards the left where the pillows were. With that, Sayaka helped him remove Makoto from off his back and shoulders, resting the boy on his back and head on said pillows. Doing this allowed the young man to stand back up and swing his legs over to lay on the mattress.

There we are! That oughta do it!

Well… y-y’know… besides the fact Makoto’s sneakers are still on, and he kinda has a big pet peeve of someone wearing their shoes while on a bed, even if it’s their own…

But it’d be even weirder to just go taking off his sneakers in a scenario like this, especially in front of Sayaka. First impressions were still ongoing here, and crucial for him to maintain in a positive light. So he was gonna have to let this one go.

And before this goes any further, a little bit of a recap.

The moment they had left the gymnasium, the remaining students had split up, deciding to cover as much as they could. It appeared that several people decided to follow him up towards the dorm areas. Aside from Sayaka, the group that followed him was Taka, Junko, Hiro, and Chihiro. They all had moved across this giant square intersection that was well lit and had a few entrances for rooms on each side, before a…

Wow, that hallway was creepy as all hell.

The purple, green, and yellow lighted themes were kinda cool, but this dark, yet bold red color scheme really wasn’t. Something about it being in the dorm room space was like… y’know, right? He couldn’t really describe it, but it was just unsettling. One of those feelings where it can’t be explained in words, but hopefully, the feeling was mutual. Fortunately, he didn’t have to carry the person on his back for much longer. Not that it was becoming an issue, as mentioned before, Makoto was surprisingly light. But even then, his jacket was a prized possession and something that made him look badass when he wore it. He didn’t need it wrinkled or something because of it. And wouldn’t you know it; the room that belonged to the kid ended up being the second on the right. That worked out even better.

“Hopefully, the doors are unlocked, so we can get into his room,” Sayaka hoped for out loud, as she approached the door to Makoto’s room.

“Well, they better be,” Junko sighed, putting her hands on her hips with a frown, “Otherwise, we’re gonna have to figure out what to do with Makoto...”

Hiro let out of a bit of a snort, his arms gently folding over his chest as he took a step back to chuckle.

“Hah, yeah! Man, imagine that, dude,” he said, glancing over at Leon before both eyes closed cheerfully, “You possibly havin’ to lug the poor guy all over the place while we investigate; that’d suck!”

Outwardly, Leon turned his body to give a chuckle that was sprinkled with a hint of acceptance at the fact he might have to keep doing it. Inwardly? It was a giant scowl which hoped to wipe that goofy grin off his face. Seriously? Mega uncool, dude! Even if Makoto was light-weight, he wasn’t up for carrying someone for hours over and over-

The sound of a doorknob twisting and the noise of a door opening gently rang in his ears, causing him to turn back and see Taka gently pushing it open to look around.

“Hm, it appears Sayaka was right; the door was unlocked after all!” he said, turning back to the group to announce.

Leon was careful to let his relieved sigh be subtle and unnoticed by the others.

“That’s a relief; I was worried it’d be locked, considering the door looks like it has a lock on it,” the pop idol brought a hand to her chest and smiled cheerfully at the hall monitor.

“I know I’m just guessing, but… I think Monokuma has all the dorm doors unlocked, so everyone is able to get into their room for the first time,” Chihiro suggested, looking away in thought, “Maybe we all have room keys somewhere inside?”

The fashionista’s shoulders raised up in a shrug with pursed lips, before looking up at one of the red ceiling lights.

“Who knows? Honestly, I wouldn’t put it behind that little bastard bear to give us dorm rooms, make that rule about only sleeping in them, and then lock us out, just to mess with us hardcore…” she griped, her forehead having a small tint of red from how annoyed she was slowly becoming.

Taka shook his head at the thought.

“Let’s try to avoid disparaging thoughts for now; first off, getting Makoto to his room. Leon, if you would, please?” he said, Leon unable to ignore the still intense red eyes locking onto him.

“Gotcha.”

And that’s where the recap ended when he and Sayaka entered the room. Now with Makoto on his bed and resting, he was able to readjust his jacket over his shoulders and fix the collar a bit, so it felt right again. A little hard to do without a mirror, but… hopefully, it looked killer, still.

“Ahh, I feel so relieved. Hopefully he’ll wake up soon…” Sayaka admitted, a touch of solemn sadness threatening to overtake her mood.

Leon glanced over to her, as he took a step closer.

“Yo, he’s gonna be alright, y’know?” he gave a reassuring smile, “Just needs a few hours and he’ll be up and walkin’ like nothing happened.”

He swore that cute smile of hers… when she smiled, it was like the whole area lit up more than usual… She should totally smile more often.

“Right; we just need to give him some time,” she said, turning towards him and holding her hands behind her back casually, “I know I said this already… but thank you so much, Leon.”

Having someone like her talking to him and giving appreciation for what he did still got the reaction of his heart fluttering. But at least this time, he could see it coming, so he didn’t have to worry about a giant goofy grin coming over his face. Instead, he flashed a wink and gave her a relaxed thumbs-up on response.

“Haha, no problem. Like I said, anytime,” he grinned, giving a nod to her before glancing back at the unconscious person on the bed, “Though, I gotta say… I’m kinda jealous of him…”

Sayaka’s eyebrows raised in confusion as her body slightly tilted to a side.

“Huh? Why are you jealous?”

“Well, uh… He took a pretty nasty punch to the forehead, and yet, I don’t see any kind of bruise or nothin’,” he said, shrugging with a nervous smile as he was now committed to trying to lighten her mood, “Seriously, I bruise easily, yet this guy got slugged by someone like that Mondo guy and not even a mark on him? I gotta know his secret…”

It finally seemed to dawn on her what Leon was talking about, as she let out a small laugh, glancing towards Makoto before looking back at him.

“Hmhmhm… Well, maybe when he wakes up and we have some time, you can try to pry those beauty secrets out of Makoto,” she joked.

Leon flashed an even bigger grin as he dug his hands into his pockets.

“Totally.”

“Whoa, check out this room…”

Both turned to see Hiro sort of stumble in awe through the door. His comment seemed to have it click in Leon’s mind that although he was in the room longer than him, he hadn’t exactly gotten the chance to take in what the dorm room actually looked like. And when he did…

...Um…

...He honestly couldn’t tell if the guy was meaning at how seriously cool he thought the design was, or how waaaay out of place it looked compared to what the hallway looked outside the door.

For one thing, the walls were something else. A weird, bold-like red with some kind of fancy pattern that wasn’t really his taste, it really clashed with the multicolored floor tiles that had a variety of blue shades throughout it and the pitch black ceiling that was invaded by multiple white borders. And of course, how could he not notice the whole giant metal plates on the walls where Makoto’s dorm room would have his windows at? It somehow was, like, hurting his eyes taking it all in; pretty sure if Kanon saw something like this, she’d go into a rant about how stupid and awful the room was designed like. She wasn’t an expert at interior design, but trust him on this; he knew his cousin well enough to know this would throw her into a slight conniption.

Making a face at it as he gently bit the inside of his cheek, he tried to focus on what the fashion disaster of a dorm room contained instead.

Behind the bed and under the bolted windows was a rather high quality wooden desk with multiple drawers on either side; it had a wooden chair and what looked like a pad of paper on top of the desk. Glancing towards the right, there was a door near the corner past where Sayaka was standing, where a small television-like screen was attached to the wall, similar to the one that was in the entrance hall. If he had to guess, that door probably led to a bathroom or something, because like… that’d be super dumb if they didn’t have bathrooms in the dorms, right?

...Or, uh… is he being too… spoiled in a way?

M-Moving on…

Frowning at that thought, he tried to look past Hiro still glancing around the area as if he was a toddler in some world famous candy shop who was told he could have anything he wanted to see the other bits of furniture. It seemed all that was left was a shelving unit that had some kind of a lint roller resting atop of it and a round table that probably was as high as his waist, with both of them being just as high quality as the previously mentioned desk.

And on that table seemed to be…

“Ehh…? Oh, hey, check this out.”

Hiro noticed it too, for he walked over to the table and picked it up, dangling it by the little chain.

“It’s some kind of a key,” he said, showing it to the other two in the room for a few more seconds before bringing it closer and looking it over.

“Just a minute there!” Taka’s voice called out from the doorway, causing him to look up as if some wild deer was hit with headlights from a car, “What do you think you’re doing? Don’t just go through Makoto’s things without his permission!”

The way Hiro blinked and then slowly turned to stare at the key was like… the guy’s brain was still having the gears turn on whether or not this wasn’t exactly a cool thing to do. Y’know… going through an unconscious person’s things? Good gawd…

“Yeah, I think that’s the key to Makoto’s dorm,” Sayaka agreed with the hall monitor, moving past Leon and reaching her hand out for the key.

Seeing her politely motioning for him to give it towards her, Hiro’s head tilted in curiosity as he plopped it into her palm. As she adjusted her grip on it, Leon walked over from behind her to see her lift up part of the key for both of them to see. Attached to the key was a larger keychain that was grey and had the name ‘M. Naegi’ on it.

“See? It even has his name on it,” she confirmed.

“Ahhh, yeah, I guess that makes sense,” Hiro nodded with a smile, folding his arms.

Leon placed a hand on his hip and began to speak, turning to Sayaka when she looked back at him, “It’s probably best we leave the key on the table then, so when he wakes up, he can find it.”

The pop idol gave an agreeing smile and nod (gawddamn, it’s still so freakin’ cute!) before turning to return the key to its original place.

“All right, I believe that’s enough time dawdling around! Let’s leave Makoto to rest already and begin our search of this school!” Taka called out to them, motioning for them to leave at once, but trying his hardest to not trespass into the room without permission himself.

All right, all right, they’re coming already! What an impatient ass…

Once the trio had left the room, Taka closed the door without slamming it, but in a way where the sound it made shutting was a declaration of nobody being allowed to go back inside without the owner’s say-so. He turned and clutched his fists tightly.

“So, it appears Chihiro’s earlier assumption was right after all! There is a dorm key inside of each room,” Taka proudly announced.

The girl mentioned seemed to have a small, relieved smile come across her face as Junko nodded slightly at this, putting her hands on her hips again before glancing towards the hall monitor.

“Hey, if that’s the case… You mind if all of us go grab our dorm keys before we officially start being explorers around this hellhole?” she asked, “I’d feel a lot better if I could make sure I had mine on me, you know?”

For a few seconds, the young man seemed to consider this suggestion, burying his chin into the top of his hand before standing in a neutral position (Well…. more like military attention pose, let’s be real...).

“Hmmm… I can agree with that. Very well, let’s have everybody go grab their dorm keys and then return here!” he decided the next plan of action for the group, getting everybody on the same page before he tried to locate his own dorm.

From there, the group began to split up, looking over the multiple doors to find their own room. The longer that he began to try and locate his room walking further into the eerie, dark red hall, the smaller the group following him became. Eventually, as he came towards the end of the hallway which rounded the corner towards the left, it was only him and Hiro walking to make the turn due to four noises behind him opening up. Upon glancing to the left, the hallway down offered three more doors towards the right hand side before its lightened area went back to the normal bright settings like the giant area before the dorms. And the second door down had a nameplate of an 8-bit version of him with his name underneath.

Okay. Other than the fact that there’s another hallway down that side where they’ll probably check it out… Of course, y’know? Of course, he ends up being in the creepier part of the dorms, where he’s near the end and God forbid someone could come around the corner and blindside him-

Leon grunted, shaking his head slightly to shake those kind of thoughts out; the last thing he needs right now is to have some kind of a panic attack. Look, it’s not like he would’ve preferred to be in the initial hallway where his dorms are surrounded by other people and in front of him. But at least with that hallway, he’d have a bit of relief as to be able to see a good majority of the rooms and space around him, whereas here-

“! Oh, ya gotta be kiddin’ me…”

Leon muttered as he realized that the first door that was smack dab in the corner, right next to his… was Sakura’s room.

For real?? It’s weird enough knowing she wanted him to be a training partner. More bizzarre… and he’d admit, kinda freaky how she could attempt to punch through metal. And now…

The biggest and strongest person, who is forced to live here with him and everyone, and who he had no idea on how to defend himself against, should she think of murdering someone.. was his next-door neighbor.

Come on, cut him some slack!

It was when Hiro had walked past him and located his room, on the other side of Leon’s, did he realize he had zoned out staring at her nameplate. Attempting to save face should the clairvoyant notice if anything was wrong, his hand casually moved towards his doorknob and began to enter what was supposedly his room…

“...! Dude…”

...Okay, not gonna lie; he was majorly conflicted. We’re talkin’ like… he didn’t know if he should be creeped out… or friggin’ impressed with how whoever had them all trapped here put godlike effort into designing his room.

Because, holy crap, this room was tailored not to his talent, but what he wanted his talent to be like!

The first thing that caught his eye was the awesome poster of a black skull on a grey background. There was like a weird red flower design on the skull, and the thing was even framed. It even said his name in the bottom left corner! Yo, what was this…? He was tempted to say he liked it, but that’d imply giving credit to his captor, so… he was really confused.

And that was only the start of everything! There was a good quality electric guitar and amp sitting near the floor with that other door would be, which really caught his eye. That is, until he suddenly widened both of them to see further into the room near the blue comforter covered bed was a stand and a microphone; just like one you’d see on the stage where rock guys would grab onto it with both hands and scream into it! And speaking of the bed, there was a pair of headphones and a portable cd player resting on it. And behind it near the wall and bolted windows? A giant boombox on the desk with a big shelving unit full of cds.

Aside from the fact of the stuff here, his dorm looked exactly like Makoto’s, both design and structure-wise. Nevermind that kid got the short end of the bargain when it came to what he had in his room…

Just… HOLY CRAP!

He gets this kind of stuff in his dorm? And it’s HIS!?

If it weren’t for the fact he’s being forced to play some survival murder game, Leon would’ve been hootin’ and jumpin’ with joy at how cool this stuff was. Seriously, he was trying to earn money to buy a guitar in the first place, and now there’s a damn good one sitting on a stand in his room! And all those cds, like, better have really good bands he loves! All that, with the amp, and the microphone, and…

His brain was overloaded with awe and confusion. Really makin’ it hard to decide if he should be creeped out or friggin’ impressed-

Just then, he tensed for a second with a small grunt, for his mind remembered what he originally came into the room to do.

“Right…”

Yeah, he can check out his things later.

With a sigh, Leon glanced over at the table to find that there was his room key. He walked over and picked it up, seeing the keychain read ‘L. Kuwata’ on it, just like Makoto’s did for him. He tucked it into his pocket before glancing around the room… Hmm… maybe it’s not a bad idea to have a look around. After all, if this is where he’s expected to sleep until they found a way out, it’d be nice to actually look through his stuff and see where everything was. And yeah, he knew he was supposed to meet up with everyone once he got his key, but this wouldn’t take long.

It wasn’t like he had any other alterior motives for doing this, like making Taka wait as a petty revenge for interrupting his introduction with Sayaka. Nope, not at all.

For the first check, Leon decided to check out if the door he suspected led to a bathroom was in fact just that. He backtracked a bit and opened the door in to be greeted with a sleek, grey tiled bathroom with the walls and ceiling the same color. And standing in front of him was this weird set of glass panels that divided the small area into bits. The main area was the shower which had a removable hose that you can move to get your body at any angles. To the right of that was a small glass door that led to the toilet, and before all of these glass panels was a sink and grey countertop with stuff like a toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, body spray, hairbrush, and-

! W-What the…

Leon nearly did a triple take at the other things sitting on his sink counter. Primarily, the same kind of hair dye and hair gel he used! Like, the same brand and color even, too! And picking it up to glance at it, he nearly dropped the dye bottle with surprise at how brand new and full it was!

Ummm, so whoever was controlling Monokuma knows him down to even his hair dye and gel products… Now it’s leaning to creepy.

Setting the bottle down, Leon closed the bathroom door behind him and looked around his room to decide where his next area to look would be. And frankly, while the cd shelf was tempting (because he’d like to see which ones he could pocket when they escaped this dump), he decided to check out the desk behind his bed and see if there was anything in the drawers. Checking the left side first!

In the drawers, he found a notepad, some pens, and pencils to use. But in the bottom drawer was the more eye-catching of them all; an orange toolkit, still in the shrinkwrap packaging to signal it was never used yet, with small yellow handle-covered tools, such as a hammer or a screwdriver. And… like, freakin’ why? What the hell was he gonna need this thing for? He ain’t some repairman or whatever…

Closing those drawers and moving to the right, he opened the top one to find a white piece of fabric folded neatly. Upon pulling it out, it was a jacket with…

With… with a studded popped collar and…

Wait a second, was this-??

Shaking the piece of clothing until he became unfolded led him staring in disbelief when it was revealed that it was an exact replica of his blazer jacket!! It had the same studded collar as mentioned before, as well as the insignia of LL Academy on the chest protector-

…….No… No way….

Without a peep, Leon ripped off the jacket he was currently wearing that had his e-handbook and key in the pockets, throwing it onto the bed. With a fast walk of purpose, he nearly ran his face full force into the bathroom door, had he not opened it on time like he did. The door swung open and smashed into the wall; so much to the point where one could’ve sworn the baseball star kicked it in. A disturbed grimace on his face, he faced the bathroom mirror over the sink and began to put the replica on to find-

“..........”

It fit perfectly.

Leon stared silently with his eyes nearly bulging out, as his reflection showcased to him that the replica was a perfect fit.

Wha- you gotta be- HOW IN THE FUCK WAS THIS POSSIBLE!!?

His jacket wasn’t something you could just PICK out of the store and buy. This was a blazer jacket you could only get if you were a student at his old school! And and AND…! As mentioned before, he had one of his buddies help modify it. So how in gawddamn hell did whoever the fuck was forcing him to live here recreate his jacket?

And furthermore, how did they do it multiple times?

Huh? What was that about multiple times?

Oh, that’s simple, because THERE WERE MORE OF THEM IN THAT SAME DRAWER.

Skipping past the process of taking off the replica and putting on his original jacket, Leon had investigated that in fact, there were at least all together: Four replicas of his jacket, four extra pairs of the pants he was wearing, five of his t-shirt underneath, three of his custom platform sneakers, multiple pairs of boxer briefs and socks, and then on the top drawer was a jewelry box that had more of all the accessories he was wearing.

Even the giant safety pins for his jacket. THE FREAKIN’ SAFETY PINS!!

Okay! Yeah! It’s official! He’s no longer impressed; this was downright creepy moving onto disturbing levels of nope. Not just his hair products, but his clothing… and u-underwear…

Leon had never shut a drawer so fast and so loud in his life.

As he backed away, he decided just for a quick peek and then he was outta here, to look at the shelving area near the table and microphone-

“...Oh, fuck off.”

Leon’s building paranoia soon rebirthed itself into a big fat pile of grumpiness as he saw the only things in the stupid shelves: a baseball, a metal bat like one of those American Louisville sluggers, and a few good-quality baseball gloves. Because of course! Why only freak him out when you can annoy the piss outta him too?

Oh, there’s a black trashcan right there, near the corner of the room?

Welp, he knows where that shit’s being filled up with.

Leon didn’t even care that the sudden weight of the bat and gloves ended up making it tip over and fall out in a messy pile. As long as it stayed there and he could get rid of it later, he didn’t give a damn. Sighing, he looked to turn and head to the exit… before seeing a piece of paper taped to the wall just before the hallway to the door.

Oh, he swears to God, if this is another shitty crayon pamplet…

Taking it off the wall, he was subtly pleased it was just a letter with stuff written on it. He started to read:

“Announcement from Headmaster Monokuma: To all my beautiful students, I have some things you’ll need to know about your dorm rooms! Each room's lock has been designed to completely protect against tampering or lock-picking. Remaking an individual room key is quite troublesome, so please make sure not to lose yours.”

Reading that first part caused Leon to breathe out some relief. So, once he’s inside his room and locks the door, he’s pretty much in the safest part of this place he can be; no one can be able to get inside- ...W-Well… not if Sakura or Mondo decide to break through his door… and he sincerely hoped nothing would ever make it come to that…

Shaking his head at that, he kept reading.

“Your room comes furnished with a shower, but please note that the water is turned off at nighttime. Also, the bathrooms in the girls' rooms include a lock of their own.”

Okay, wait… nighttime was ten at night to seven in the morning, according to the regulations. So, that means he wouldn’t be able to shower, use the toilet, or get water from the sink during this time period? Um… that’s gonna suck if he gets sick or needs to go in the middle of the night…

“Finally, we've prepared a small gift for each of you. For the girls, a sewing kit. And for the boys, a toolkit. The sewing kit includes a map of the body's vital organs. One stab will do the job, girls! For the boys, we believe a strong blow to the head with any of the tools should be ample. Don't think! Just feel! And let's all enjoy ourselves!"

Leon crumpled the paper into a ball the moment he saw that last word and threw it to the corner with the rest of the trash before leaving outside of his door.

As he left, he saw Taka and the girls coming around the corner on the left, probably to check on him and Hiro. And speaking of the guy, the door to his right opened up and out came him.

“Ahh, Leon, Hiro! We were about to come get you; you’ve retrieved your room keys?” Taka asked, folding his arms.

Both of them nodded.

“So, like… is anyone gonna mention how super messed up our dorms are?” Junko said, her face displaying uneasiness, “Like… mine’s got fashion stuff and things I like in there…”

“Mine as well,” Taka admitted, a small, teeth-gritting frown becoming more evident, “They have things I would normally bring to my dorm.”

“M-Me too…” Chihiro admitted in agreement as well, her hands fidgeting near her neck.

Leon tried to be chill, but at this point, any attempt to cover how nervous he sounded or felt was being broken through easily.

“Yo, they got, like… the exact brand of hair products I use,” he admitted, using both hands to point to his hair as everyone looked at him, “And that’s not even countin’ the multiple pairs of the clothes I’m wearing right now.”

Everyone’s eyes widened. Looks like he’s not the only one who was getting massively creeped out at that fact.

“Yeah, that’s… kinda strange, right? How they managed to get us more of our clothes and stuff?” Hiro rubbed his neck, uncomfortably grimacing as he spoke, “They even have the kind of underwear I prefer…”

Leon could see not only Taka do a double take at that, but the girls nearly cringe at the fact he just let that slip out of his mouth. And the dude’s not even paying attention to the fact that maybe he shouldn’t have said that. Ugh…

“...Ignoring the fact that that’s borderline T.M.I,” Junko squinted with disgust at him before sighing and resting the tips of two fingers on her forehead, “He’s totally right. This is downright messed up, for real! How in the nine levels of hell does the person who’s controlling Monokuma know our measurements!?”

It seems that question really disturbed Sayaka to a great extent, as her forehead went slightly blue and she started to move her arms as if to hug herself.

“I… I’d rather not… know the answer to that,” her voice nearly so quiet, it could’ve died into a whisper at any moment.

Yeah, Leon was with her one hundred percent. He didn’t want to know that one either…

“It really looks like whoever has us trapped here is planning on everyone living here for a while,” Chihiro pondered aloud while looking towards the other girls, “It’d make sense why they would give us things like extra clothes or stuff in our dorms for us to pass the time…”

“All right! It appears we’ve made some ground on exploring the school,” Taka’s (broken volume knob stuck on too loud) voice came outta nowhere, forcing Leon to fight against giving a nasty glare at him for that, “We’ll let everyone else know in due time about our discoveries here, but this is far from over. Let’s continue checking the dorms, just in case!”

“Sounds like a plan; it’s not like I can think of anything else,” Junko admitted, shrugging as some of the others nodded.

“Um… actually…”

The group looked to Sayaka, who had calmed herself and held both of her hands together near her stomach.

“If it’s alright with you, I was going to go check out the dining hall area,” she offered, “I’d like to see where we’d be getting our food from and stuff like that.”

Leon whirled his head to look at her in shock. Was she meaning…?

“Wait, you mean like going alone, by yourself?” he said, facing her with a worried look, “I could come with ya to help.”

Much to his shock, the girl shook her head with a determined expression and declined, “No, it’s all right. I’m pretty sure I can handle checking out a dining hall by myself.”

Oh, shit, shit! He wasn’t trying to imply she was incompetent or anything…! Backtrack backtrack backtrack-

“O-Oh, I didn’t mean to say you couldn’t,” he urgently waved both hands, feeling himself not only a few beads of sweat forming on his forehead, but his butt figuratively hovering over a potential hotseat, “I was just worried since that’s kinda… dangerous, y’know?”

And the gods above once again heard his prayer, as Chihiro of all people nodded in agreement, causing Sayaka to look at her.

“Yeah, Leon’s right. I feel like you should have someone go with you if you’re going to a new area we haven’t seen before yet…” she pleaded, frowning slightly as if to worry that this would make the other girl mad.

Yeah, Sayaka. Especially because your friend was currently knocked out because another person tried to do just that and got the walking timebomb pissed off...

Luckily for Chihiro, the pop idol didn’t become angry; instead, she smiled sympathetically and nodded, looking up to the ceiling for a brief moment.

“Hmmm... How about this? If I need help or I’m in danger, I’ll scream as loud as possible and come running if I can,” she promised, looking back to the programmer, “Would that be okay with you?”

It seemed like the smaller girl was heavily conflicted on what answer to give. But with the pressure on and looking down to her feet, she finally conceded.

“O-Okay…”

When she gave her answer, Leon felt Sayaka’s eyes focus their gaze onto him. It wasn’t like she was a cruel person, hell no!! He couldn’t possibly ever see her being manipulative to get her way. But those eyes had this fierce motivation behind them, as if she was daring him to object still. It was the look of someone who wanted to give their all to help find a way out of here, even if that meant going into a potentially dangerous situation alone.

And… like, dude, it’s Sayaka Maizono. How the hell could he get into an argument with her and piss her off within the first twenty four hours of her knowing him?

NOT.

GONNA.

HAPPEN.

With a sigh, Leon felt a defeated smile come across his face while placing a hand in his pockets.

“Yeah, sounds cool with me,” he said, watching the girl become pleased that all of this worked out.

“All right; I’m heading out then,” she said, getting nods from everyone else.

“Very well! Good luck, Sayaka!” Taka emphatically encouraged, giving her an intense sendoff.

And with that, the pop idol made a small farewell bow before turning around and walking past the corner to go back to that plaza. The moment she disappeared from view, Leon felt a giant frown (let’s be real here, more like a total scowl) take that smile of his and break it over its knee. Damn, that was a major bummer. Like, he didn’t want to make her feel like he thought she couldn’t be by herself or what not, but… Honestly, with the situation at hand? It’s dumb and risky as all hell to go wandering around this place by yourself. It’s like asking for trouble to come find you, y’know?

On the verge of moping, Leon flinched when an arm wrapped around his shoulder. Looking to his right, it was Hiro giving a smirk to him.

“Man… Girls can be so stubborn sometimes, huh?” he whispered for only the two of them to hear.

Leon scoffed, “Yeah… Geez, I hope she’ll be okay.”

“She’ll be totally fine; this whole situation is gonna blow over as well!” Hiro replied with, being utterly cheerful, “Just relax and let nature take its course, my man…”

The baseball star’s goatee swung back and forth with how fast he turned to stare at the guy. Was… Wait, why was he...

“All right; enough chit-chat!” Taka called out to them, “There are still-”

And that was all that Leon could hear the guy saying. Because when he started talking, Hiro turned his head to look at him. And when he did that, one of the massive dreads coming from this guy’s hair ended up jabbing him in the right eye.

“!! Ngh!”

It wasn’t a super painful ‘I just lost my eyeball, help me!!!’ kind of painful, but the type where it stops you right in your tracks and you’re unable to do a damn thing about it. Hiro had let go over his shoulders anyway to face whatever conversation was going on anyways, so that allowed the young punk to bend down, clutching at his right eye. It would take multiple attempts for him to try and open it, only for the uncomfortable agony to cause him to grunt and groan under his breath.

Gawddamn it, that hurt! Geez, he knew he compared the guy’s hair to a sea urchin, but did it have to be nearly as sharp as one and blind him for life? Nobody’s gonna like a punk legend who looks like a pirate, for God’s sake!

“Come on, cassanova,” Junko’s voice called out to him, probably labeling him as such after showing concern for Sayaka.

Attempting to look up with his good eye, Leon say Junko motioning him into Hiro’s room, where the others had just walked into.

He grumbled before finally getting enough of the pain to go away. Blinking multiple times for a few seconds, he finally was able to walk.

“Alright, alright, I’m comin’...”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better.

Chapter 7: Ch 1: Daily Life 3

Notes:

Where the weenie realizes the clairvoyant is dumb and manages to cover his own ass splendidly.

For real, he knew he shouldn’t have gotten his hopes up about it. With the so-called headmaster laying the law down and everything he’s come to know up to this point, it was a stupid move to believe there was a slight chance where someone in the entire group of fifteen high school students could find a way to escape. But still… he just had to go and have his hopes raised to the ceiling, only for it to smash into it and flop back down to rock bottom.

Can’t believe they spent the whole day searching this floor, every damn inch of it, and just… nothing! Nothing to show for it...

Leon groaned barely as his eyes had to squint to get used from walking in the dark purple-light hallway to the brightly-lit plaza near the dining hall and dorm rooms. And his feet made a beeline right towards the dining area to grab something to eat. Seriously, since waking up at seven fifty in that classroom and it close to it approaching seven at night, that meant it was getting closer and closer to not having a single thing to eat or drink for nearly twelve hours. He was dying of hunger and thirst.

Today had been one hell of a day. Specific emphasis on the hell part.

Going back when he just recovered from his eye nearly being gouged out by Hiro’s sea urchin hair, all of them had gathered in Hiro’s room, which had things on the walls from stuff like palmistry and Buddha, and a bright purple tablecloth on his table that kept grabbing his attention whenever his eyes glanced near that area. The reason? Taka had an experiment he wanted to try for the dorm rooms, to test if they were soundproof. So, he had himself and Junko stay in the room, while Leon was told to go into his room and Chihiro and Hiro stand outside in the hallway.

What they found out was that the rooms were incredibly soundproof; both the two had been screaming and shouting as loud as they could (and from the look of it afterwards, Junko seemed very happy to get some frustration out of her system), yet none of them, whether they were near the door or in the next room, could hear them. But the real test came when the group found that Leon had a guitar and amp in his room and he agreed to use it. With everyone going back to their places, he turned on the amp, plugged it into the guitar, cranked it all the way it could… and clamped his eyes shut as hard as he could when he strummed a cord-

Gawddamn, what a stupid idea! Screw that! Why did he agree to doing this!?

He tried to somehow shut his ears off as the blaring, unforgiving noise shattered the welcoming silence like broken glass. Eventually, the piercing loudness began to die, and Leon didn’t have to try and cover his ears anymore. And yet… he and the others were surprised that no one else could hear that. This proved to the group that the dorms were utterly soundproof; when that door was shut, no one could hear in the hallway or in the next room. This would be useful information to relay to the other students.

Taka was extremely pleased with this, but of course, it wasn’t enough. Hell, Leon actually agreed with him at this point. This wasn’t gonna help them find a way outta this place. But the fact he ordered, not asked, but ordered him and Hiro to go check out any other rooms for a way out was where that agreement had broken its grip in a firm handshake. Who the hell did this guy think he was?

Not even a full day had passed and Taka was officially his least favorite person in this place. Damn straight.

And that lead to Leon finding himself stuffing his hands into his pockets, walking down the purple-lighted hallway with the taller clairvoyant to his right side. Exactly what were they supposed to be looking for? Like, duh, a way out; he wasn’t Hifumi, turning his brain off and blurting something like that out. But at the same time, what was Taka expecting them to find? Some kind of secret entrance or…?

He wanted to get out of here, of course he freakin’ did! But the more he stressed and thought about what he was supposed to be looking for or where to start, he felt his patience crumpling up into a ball. Similar to what he did to that note Monokuma left in his dorm.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Turns out he wasn’t the only one confused.

“Hey, so, uh… You got any idea on where we’re supposed to be startin’, or…?” Hiro’s voice made both of their feet slow to a stop, right outside the classroom where the baseball star woke up this morning.

Contrary to the optimistic display he had created to Sayaka and the others in the gym, Leon felt his face be overtaken in irritation when the ceiling became the target of his glare.

“Tch… No idea, dude. Frankly, I’m so over this already,” he admitted, huffing before the fiery eyes gave the ceiling a break and decided it was the floor’s turn.

“Hey, come on, man. No need to get all bent outta shape, you know?” Hiro tried to encourage him, “This whole thing will be sorted out before you know it. Just take a breath and chill, like I’m doing.”

Normally, he could see and appreciate when someone was trying to be kind while he was in one of his moods. Lord knows when he got grumpy or annoyed beyond his limits, he was a handful if prevented to have a nap to get out of it, and Kanon and his dad deserved brownie points for having to put up with it so much. But the way this guy talked… something about it had him curious and skeptical at the same time.

“Do you really think this is the time to tell someone to be chill? This is literally day one of us supposedly having to live here forever, y’know,” he reminded, raising an eyebrow.

What he wasn’t expecting was for the guy to actually shoot him a look as if he was the one being ridiculous while glancing away out of the corner of his eye.

“What, for real? Come on. Don’t tell me you’re actually being roped into this prank the school’s doing…”

Leon felt his brain momentarily shut off as his eyes widened.

“W-Wha-”

“I mean, to be fair to you, I’ll admit that the school staff and this Monokuma thing are kinda milking this thing a bit farther than I expected,” Hiro folded his arms over his chest, actually laughing a bit with his shoulders shaking, “I gotta say, that’s some real dedication to this whole idea of theirs. The people here at Hope’s Peak Academy sure are something else!”

You…. You can’t possibly be for real right now…

“...Are you… Are you high right now??” Leon took a step towards the guy and felt his voice shout louder without any semblance of control.

Normally, depending on the circumstances and people involved, his actions could’ve been interpreted as threatening and caused Hiro to become uneasy. And yet, the taller guy simply tilted his head in confusion, his arms slowly unfolding in front of him.

“Uhh… No? I mean, I do grab some brewskis from time to time, but those don’t make-”

Leon suddenly waving his hand in a violent speed to cut him off signalized he wasn’t following. Ignoring what the guy just said, as that raised more questions, Leon frustratedly snapped out his next words.

“Du-No! No No! What you just said.”

“Huh…?”

“About this whole thing being a prank!”

“...Yeah, what about it…?”

Leon felt the bottom of his eyelids twitching at Hiro simply blinking at him casually.

“...You still think this ‘killing game’ thing we’re being told to do is a prank?”

“Uhh… Yeah?”

His jaw nearly dropped even further when him leaning forward in disbelief didn’t give the guy a hint at how utterly asinine this whole thing was. With the words that previously came out of his mouth were. How he wasn’t picking up on the baseball star giving him a chance to take back what he said and play it off as a joke (which he wouldn’t find funny, but it’s better than being serious about this whole thing being a prank). That mind-blowing way he was staring at him like he was the one being crazy and weird!

“...After everything you’ve seen.”

“...Yeah?”

Leon jerked his head back for a second, unsure if this was the real life or just some kind of fantasy he suddenly got plopped into. Before long, he looked back at Hiro and began wildly gesturing with his arms.

“After everything you’ve seen! With the giant metal plates, the machine guns mounted in the entrance hall, the fuckin’ walking, talking BEAR!” he paused for dramatic effect, before continuing his shell-shocked rant, “The same one who tells us we’re living here forever or to kill in order to leave, and THEN BLEW THE FRIG UP as an explosion which I saw you freakin’ run from with me to the bleachers!! You’ve seen all of that! And you’re telling me you think this is still some orientation joke crap Hope’s Peak is pulling on us??”

And yet… despite every recounting of indisputable facts of how messed up this whole thing was…

Why is this freaking idiot casually putting his hands behind his head (and again, HOW WITH THAT HAIR!?) and not being freaked out!?

“I mean… as compared to if it’s real and not a prank…?” he said, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

“Uh, yeah, dude!! As if it is real, because it-”

“H-Hey, just hold on, man… You’re so freaked out about this, you’re not even taking a step back to see how ridiculous this all is, you know?”

Despite him feeling as if he’d fly off the handle, Leon suddenly skidded dead in his tracks and blinked.

“Wait, what?”

Hiro took the chance the explain while he had the chance, giving a shrug, “Yeah, ‘cuz I mean… This whole thing is borderline ridiculous. Like, there’s no way anybody could actually imprison us somewhere without the police or military or someone not noticing, right? Especially not in a fancy schmancy school that the entire country, or for that matter the whole world, knows about. Not gonna lie with you, man… I kinda am gettin’ this weird feeling I’m the only one really seeing the bigger picture here; everyone’s so freaked out, they’re not even considering how bonkers this all is.”

………………………..

You know…

Leon should be still gawking at him for being an utter brainless moron. In the past twenty seconds, this dude has single-handedly proved to him that he was a dumbass who was completely oblivious to the situation he was in.

...But… crap, he was right in a sense. Or at least, starting to make sense.

Because for real, that was a good point. Hope’s Peak Academy was such a big deal in Japan; it produced the bright talents to carry the hope of the future or whatever it was all about. The news and stuff would specifically make a massively big deal about it, because it was. Hell, when word got out that he was accepted into Hope’s Peak, he got double the pestering of the students, teachers, and coaches of his old school about going back to baseball or how it was important for him to represent LL Academy and whatever shit they wanted from him. So the idea of someone actually imprisoning them in Hope’s Peak Academy’s school building was… really dumb. Because surely their families, like his dad, would notice and get the police involved.

Yeah, actually, that’s right. This whole thing is really mega dumb now. Monokuma or whoever the hell makes it work or whatever was able to capitalize on freaking everyone out, thus convincing them this is real…

That was okay to think, right? Yeah, it totally was. For real.

Leon felt his body relax as he rubbed at the back of his neck, carefully to not press against the back of his hair near it.

“Huh… So that’s it. I mean, I guess it kinda makes sense to think that way,” he admitted, agreeing with the clairvoyant.

Still was slightly off-putting that the guy could laugh about it, though. Especially because he let out a small one with a nod and closed his eyes cheerfully.

“Yeah, see? I’m right about this! Like I said earlier, about these guys here at the school being super dedicated to this prank? They’re probably just gonna keep this charade up for maybe a few days to a week, and then drop the whole thing, we’ll laugh about it, and then start our school year like nothin’ ever happened! Heck, knowing how boring school can be, this is gonna be the most exciting thing that’ll happen our first year.”

Ehhhh, he wasn’t entirely sure that anyone in their class was going to laugh about it. And a few days to a week…? Uhhh, he sure hoped not; considering this potential joke wasn’t funny to begin with, dragging it on that long wasn’t gonna miraculously make it hilarious…

“Besides… I’ve actually predicted that this is a prank.” Hiro proudly said, nodding with the uttermost confidence in his sly smirk.

“Huh?”

“That’s right; it’s already been foretold by yours truly! Check this out!”

With a sudden movement, the clairvoyant had dug into his jacket behind him and pulled out something with his left hand. Posing in an intense way, he held it out for Leon to be able to focus on what it was-

“What the… A crystal ball?”

That seemed to spark a confident hmph out of Hiro as he grinned at him.

“Maybe, to a normal pair of eyes, it’s just a crystal ball. But in fact, this bad boy is empowered with energy from our timeless Mother Earth!”

“Huh? Wait, are you for real?” Leon’s face scrunched up slightly upon hearing this, sparing a quick glance at him before looking back to the ball when the other boy continued to explain.

“I totally am for real right now! Because what you’re about to hear is the God’s honest truth about this one-of-a-kind artifact,” he said, his grin growing ever-so-slowly as the baseball star had been hooked into it, “This was found in the ruins of Atlantis! Now out of the ocean floor, this precious beauty of unfathomable mystery grants enormous power to anyone who holds it, bringing prosperity and peace of mind. This ball is so valued, it’s even known the fingertips of some of history’s greatest icons: Napoleon, George Washington, even Genghis Khan!”

Leon made a face, suspiciously looking the ball over. This was beginning to sound like some kind of infomercial now… Was, like… Hiro trying to sell him the crystal ball or just talk about it? Because his tone of voice and prideful boasting could’ve gone either way. Oh, and of course, that’s not even taking in the fact of how completely unbelievable everything that came out of his mouth-

“And lemme tell you, I’m so proud to be the chosen owner of this thing! It’s helped me give predict everything my clients have ever needed to know,” he grinned, folding his arms over his chest in pure satisfaction, “I gotta say, that one hundred million yen was a bit close to dippin’ into my life savings, but-”

“!!!”

A wheezy exhale stopped him once again to see Leon double freaked out this time. The spiky-haired punk was nearly doubled over in absolute bewilderment borderlining on complete stupefaction, with his jaw opened even wider than before. The size of Leon’s eyes could’ve been mistaken for pencil dots had it not been for their pale blue color.

“Y-You...You paid one hundred million yen for that thing in your hand??” his voice gradually increased, taking a step back from the other person and his possession, as if the stupidity of the whole thing was contagious and could lunge and infect him at any second.

“Well, yeah, man. Like I said, it’s a priceless artifact with such legendary history and all,” Hiro began to explain, seemingly becoming more distracted by the repetition of “Dude…” coming out of the seriously distressed teenager in front of him, “And I just had to make sure… Okay, for real, man. What are you freakin’ out about now?”

“...W-What am I freaking out- Okay, here. Look. You see all this?”

Leon stopped to take both index fingers to point all around his appearance. It was only until Hiro slowly started to nod and make eye contact with a raised eyebrow did he start.

“I paid, like, a lot of money to make me look this kickass, alright? The hair, the piercings-”

Which, by the way? Screw you and your dress code, Taka.

“-the outfit, and all the accessories. I kissed a lot of my allowance good-bye to get this stuff. Especially these,” he admitted, standing on his left foot to lift his right one up enough to showcase his shoe, “I had to custom order these platform sole sneakers online, and there weren’t cheap in the damn slightest, y’know? And what you’re seeing in front of you is how I’m gonna kill it when my future band and I come smashing the music industry when we release our soon to be double platinum debut album!”

He felt the itch of his nervous grin come back to his face as he stood again on both feet, shaking his head at him with dumbfounded awe, because really… what in the actual hell?

“A-And yet… there’s-”

Another wheeze of disbelief, this time accompanied by a split-second chuckle.

“Gh… T-There’s no way in hell that I’d pay a million yen for any of my stuff, let alone one hundred million…!”

And somehow, this comment was the straw that broke the camel’s back, as Hiro’s forehead got a nice new shade of angry red as he jabbed a finger at Leon.

“Well, I don’t know how you’re going to make it in the music industry when you’re apparently deaf!” the clairvoyant snapped out, his comments probably would’ve actually pissed off the other boy if he hadn’t continued, “Didn’t ya hear anything I just said!? About this ball’s history and junk!? A rare gem of such power and legend is a must-have for someone in the fortune telling business! In fact, it’s helped soar my correct prediction rate up to thirty percent!”

………….

Leon blinked and pursed his lips, unknown if it was the shock of his brain hearing too many stupid things at once or how tired he was becoming giving him a lack of a proper reaction.

“...You have only a thirty percent chance of being correct?”

“Yeah! And I already know what you’re thinkin’, so you can just shove it, okay? At least I’m honest about it!”

The shoulders of the taller guy went up and back down with a heavy sigh, his face nearly pouting with how the conversation had turned into a ‘let’s all bash on the clairvoyant dude’ while calming down to rub his neck. His eyes glanced away as he continued with a frown.

“Most people in the fortune telling business don’t even give customers a percentage of how right they could be, so that people can decide if they want their services. But I do, you know? I put it out there, so my clients can trust me with how honest I’m willing to be for them. Plus, there’s so much more to it than that, like how I base numerology and other things into it…”

The way that Hiro had become dejected sucked. Because, come on! What the actual crap? Nearly everything he said was ridiculous! The prank thing… At least he explained it in a way where it kinda made sense to him, so it wasn’t as egregiously stupid or anything. But everything about his crystal ball, how much he paid for it which had to have the sucker in debt up to his eyeballs, and the fact he was less than half right was just…. Gawddamn!

And yet… he just came off like he was trash-talking the guy and stomping on everything he does. And that made him feel slightly guilty, because Hiro started off this conversation trying to cheer him up! Just…. Good gawd...

Even then… as unbelievable as he still thought some of the stuff he heard was… Maybe he just doesn’t get it. After all, he wasn’t the Ultimate Clairvoyant. Maybe it’s just something he doesn’t understand because he’s not a fortune teller…

Still, he could realize when he was pushing it too close to being a dickhead.

Leon took a few seconds to take his facial expression in, before taking a deep breath and trying to calm down.

“Right. Yo, man, my bad, alright? I’m just… stressed about this whole thing and I wasn’t thinking, y’know?” he placed a hand on his hip and offered an apology, successfully retrieving Hiro’s attention to try and patch it up with a good comment about his crystal ball, “I’m just… honestly floored at how much dedication you have to your talent that you’d be willing to pay that much money to get something like this.”

Which was actually the truth, because… if he had to buy a guitar that was close to that price range in order to be a punk rock legend? He’d hope that the world could wait for a while for him to get the finances to afford it.

As for changing the topic and cheering up Hiro?

Mission accomplished, boys and girls! Just as he hoped could happen, the corners of the other male’s mouth went upward and his normal relaxed smile came back. He nodded, quickly going to stuff the ball back into his jacket pocket.

“Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to make a living, right?” Hiro light-heartedly chuckled, shrugging as he gave a thumbs-up in response, “And it’s not just how much money I’ve put into it. It’s also the amount of care I gotta keep up to make sure it stays with me forever. ‘Cuz it’s the only crystal ball I’ve got here!”

Leon’s eyebrows raised up.

“Wait, you mean in general, or…?”

“Oh, no way; I’ve got more back in my bedroom at home,” the taller male closed an eye and responded, putting his hands on his hips before having a distressed sigh come out of his lungs, “But for some reason, that crystal ball is the only one I’ve got in this place! There weren’t anymore in my dorm room, which is why I gotta double the TLC to this bad boy. And that’s adding onto the existing double that’s already there because it’s such a rare artifact, so that’s like…. Four times the amount of carefulness I need to have with it daily!”

Geez, this was starting to become exhausting talking about this thing for that long…

“Right… well, good luck with that, man,” Leon said, unsure of how to go on as he shrugged and looked away.

“Thanks, buddy! Now, uh… we probably oughta get searching or whatever, right?” his attention was grabbed pretty quickly as he watched the guy bend forward near him to try and take a peek near the dorm area, “If Taka happens to come by and see us just talking, he’s gonna probably chew us out.”

Oh, hell no, don’t tell him that the dude was coming-

Oh… okay, phew. Bending over to take a look as well, Leon was relieved to find the coast was clear. But still, the guy had a point…

“Yeah, sounds about right…” he groaned, scowling at the thought of it happening.

“Okay then! Let’s start by checking out this classroom!” The optimistic energy coming from Hiro’s voice seemed to give an extra spark of fuel to his actions of straightening up, turning around, and walking towards the classroom door…

But not before on his way to turn around, one of his dreads caught Leon in the eye again.

“!!! Aag- …Mother of… s-shit…”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Aside from the irritation of being poked in the eye twice, which had properly built the very foundation of a giant mental note of ‘don’t stand right next to Hiro’ into his subconscious, Leon found himself following the other young man around into different rooms. Still having no clue on what to really find, he simply walked towards the metal plates and gave it a good look over. Yep, this thing was thick as all hell. No way was anyone gonna be able to break through it. But maybe…

Maybe they could unscrew it?

Leon’s eyes moved towards the massive screws that nailed the plates in. Some of them were way bigger than the others; like… how some of them were bigger than his hands, he had no freakin’ clue. He didn’t realize they actually existed. And frankly, he didn’t want to know how they got put on there in the first place. But the smaller ones were his target, and that one in the bottom right corner seemed ripe for the pickings. It was small enough for his hands to somewhat get a grip, so…

“Urhh… Gggh…”

Leon gritted his teeth and tried to twist his wrists to the left in order to unscrew it. But there were a good set of three reasons why this was difficult. One, he was trying really hard not to scratch up the rings on his right fingers and leave marks on them. May seem petty, he could understand why, but these were brand new and he didn’t want them to get ruined from doing something stupid. Two, it was hurting his hands; he’d like to think he was pretty strong for someone his size, but… that would be the third reason.

These things… were NOT moving any time soon.

And it’s not like he was being a weakling on purpose, because he didn’t want to have to try some physical effort into finding an escape. Sure, he may hate baseball and detest whenever he sweats, but he wasn’t one of those people who’d complain that they can’t do something, just to get out of doing it. He totally wanted to help find a way out of this place, alright? Damn straight!

But these screws? Like, they had to be bolted in, not just screwed. And frig, did he mention that hurt?

His legs walking backwards while rubbing his stinging palms just above his belts on his hips to numb the pain a bit, Leon most likely didn’t realize his head was shaking with defeat.

There was no way he was getting through that. And in extension, any of the other fourteen people. Not even if Sakura tried to punch through it or Mondo bashed it with a chair or something.

And due to that, his brain couldn’t think of any other way for an escape. He guessed it was a risk to do so in his attempt to remove the metal plates, but destruction of property wasn’t listed as part of the regulations, and yet… the previously mentioned biker gang leader had used their ‘only warning’ so to speak when he attacked Monokuma. With no more warnings from a strict ‘headmaster’, Leon wasn’t exactly gearing to go in being ballsy and seeing what the bear would do if he tried to start breaking through a wall or destroying crap in protest.

As such, all he could do was run a hand carefully through his hair with a sigh as Hiro came waddling over to say he didn’t have any luck either.

And it continued to the next classroom, where they ended up skidding to a dead end with no way to progress.

By the time they had gotten to the double red doors, which the baseball star instantly noted was still locked for some reason (which means obviously, whatever’s behind the door’s gotta be important, right?), Junko and Chihiro had shown up, walking towards them in the hallway. Apparently, Taka ‘instructed’ them to come join the duo, since he was able to finish up around the dorm area. And as such, two had become four.

Unfortunately, they had to backtrack to the previous classrooms, because Junko wasn’t satisfied in hearing they came up with squat and wanted to take a look at the plates herself. Which, like… why, girl? No offense to girls or nothin’, but like… there’s no way some fashionista is gonna be able to move this thing, especially if some ex sports star can’t, right?

He wasn’t a dumb fuck, though, and about to voice how there was no point in doing this. Not when the blonde’s face was gorgeously pissed to all hell. After all, when a girl is mad, you go into automatic damage control, alright? You might not be able to save or salvage everything, but at least any chaos is minimal. So keeping your trap shut can save your life.

And he was able to, as they left the classrooms, checked out what appeared to be an AV room, located a stocked, but crowded school store area, left the entrance hall to the trio of Hina, Sakura, and Mondo who just made their way towards it, noted the taped up pink doors, and even gave a good search of the public bathrooms.

But after checking the small trophies and awards area before the gym…

“...There’s no way we’re breaking out of here this way…”

Even his fiery passion of declaring for the group to find a way out this morning was gone as he found him and the others standing at the top of the bleachers, looking at one of the metal shutters. In fact, it was the very same one Sakura tried to punch through, because if his eyes weren’t messed up, he could see a slight difference on the surface’s appearance in a certain spot. And while he hated the thought of bringing down the mood and depressing the rest of them, the potential looming headache that was threatening to eat away at the front of his brain had made him lose the ability to keep quiet any longer.

After all, it was close to seven at night. Meaning, they had been at this searching thing for over ten hours now.

And now his stomach was rumbling, because he was hungry as hell, and while he didn’t want to stay a night here, that bed in his dorm room seemed pretty fine right about now.

Aaagh… This whole thing freakin’ sucked. Like, hardcore mega suckage.

“H-Hey, what’s the deal with saying something like that? You can’t tell me you’re giving up already!” Junko’s upper half whirled around to face him, eyes narrowing as her mouth nearly carved into a disappointed, yet frustrated snarl.

Now, Leon’s not the kind of person who takes too kindly to someone getting in his face and yelling at him. But fatigue and hunger were starting to creep up behind him, and this was turning into a potential argument where there was no winning in sight.

But the biggest thing of all, first impressions are key, right? He didn’t want to be some kind of a jerkbag to a girl, who would then tell all the other girls, especially Sayaka of all people.

Not that Junko was nothin’ to sneeze at, because she was damn pretty and cute as well. Did he also mention he’s got a thing for blondes?

Managing to play it cool, Leon rubbed at the left side of his face and looked at her with his other eye as he cleared his throat.

“No, ‘course I’m not. I wanna get outta this hellhole just as much as you, y’know? But like, you saw that Sakura girl try to punch through this earlier today, right? If she can’t do it, what makes you think we’re gonna be able to?” he said, eventually digging both hands into his pockets, “I’m just saying I don’t think the four of us are gonna be able to do anything to brute force our way outta here.”

Luck just must be something he’s got in droves, or maybe there really is some god above who blesses him massively. That answer appeased Junko, as she straightened up, folding her arms and sighed, her face relaxing into an understanding expression.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m not exactly eager to go breaking a nail or the heels of my boots trying to attack the shutter to get out,” she agreed, her lips nearly breaking making a duck lips face with how she was slightly pouting (not gonna lie, that was pretty cute as well!), “Man, this whole thing just sucks.”

Hiro nodded, folding his arms with a slight frown, “It’s like I was sayin’ earlier. The amount of effort they’ve put into this is… just wow, you know?”

Junko, regardless of her grumpiness to admitting it, gave a shrug and a raise of her eyebrows in response. Uhhh… it’s a good thing the guy didn’t allude to the fact that he was meaning that as in this whole thing was just a prank from the student body, because he’s not really sure how she’d take that…

Far be it from well, but… y’know what he means.

A small whimper directed their attention to Chihiro, whose head was starting to lower in sad spirits and her eyes threatened to water.

“I really hope the others have had some luck in finding a way out of here. I feel really bad we haven’t been able to find anything…” she admitted, taking a shaky breath to try and pull it together.

Leon had join the nearly collective murmur of tired and sad agreement before he had realized it. And that was like the sourest grapes he’s ever had to swallow right there. Just…

Okay, he was really hungry now. His stomach had gurgled to the point where it was slightly painful. His eyes staring out into the open space of the basketball court, his objective had changed now.

New mission: get food!

Specific objective: excuse yourself in a way where you don’t look like a loser or someone who completely gave up on searching.

And just like the genius he was, the glorious excuse that wouldn’t and couldn’t fail dawned on him, nearly threatening to break his mouth into a clever grin. But with his skills and having to resist fixing his collar, Leon cleared his throat casually, causing the group to look at him.

“Well… I don’t mean to just bail on you guys like this, but if you don’t mind, I’m gonna head out to the dorms,” he said, looking away.

“Huh? You’re going back there?” Chihiro asked, her head tilting in confusion.

Junko squinted incredulously at him with a hint of suspicion on her voice, “You know Taka will get pissed if he catches you, especially after he confidently declared ‘he’s got the dorm area under control’. Plus, why do you even need to go back there?”

Sching!

Ya hear that? That’s the sound of the trap closing and his plan going off without a hitch!

Pale blue eyes glanced back over to her while his voice answered, “I’m gonna go check up on Makoto. See if he’s alright, y’know?”

The group seemed to realize what he was meaning now as Hiro nodded with a smile and folded his arms.

“Oh, yeah! The little guy’s been asleep this whole time; he’s gotta be awake by now, right?”

“If that’s the case, it’d be best to let him know everything that’s happened, so he’s not entirely left in the dark,” Chihiro nodded, giving a cheerful smile of her own, “That sounds like a good idea, Leon!”

Hehehe… Of course it is!

Junko gave a bit of a sigh, but flashed a peace sign and gave a grin of her own, “Alright, alright. I guess we can let you go to see if he’s okay. We’ll keep looking around and let you know if we find anything.”

With the other two nodding in agreement, Leon gave a quick “Gotcha! See ya!” before turning around and hurrying down the bleacher steps to stroll out of the gym.

And cue to where he was now.

Squinting as his eyes were trying to adjust to a brighter area while making a quick pitstop for nourishment before actually going through with his plan and checking on the kid.

Well… that was the plan. Because when he actually started to make progress in getting closer to the dining hall’s doorway-

“Huh? Leon?”

The punk’s body flinched subtly to jerk him to a stop. Blocking him from going any further was Sayaka, raising an eyebrow and being equally as surprised to see him suddenly here. The sight of the girl caused him to give a chill smile as he easily slid into his neutral posture.

“Oh, hey, Sayaka. What’s up?” he cheerfully greeted, giving a friendly wink to her as well.

The pop idol slightly tilted her head.

“I’m fine, thank you, but… why are you here? I thought you were searching with the others.”

...Well, crap. Of all the possibilities for his genius quick-thinking to get busted and flushed down the toilet, it’s right at the finish line by the Sayaka Maizono. It’s like he could hear the potential sandwich or whatever else he could most likely find in the dining hall begging him to find a way to get past her. But like… gawd, the struggle! His stomach wasn’t about to prioritize over a girl like this, but…. Man…!!

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I am, but, uh, y’know… I was just checking around this area and-”

Suddenly, it’s like his spine grew very cold. His voice trailing out into dead silence, he understood completely in a second why. He looked at Sayaka’s face slowly molding in a serious, disappointed frown. Her body straightening up and her hands locking in front of her waist, everything was screaming total red flags to him.

“You didn’t come back to check on me, did you?” her voice was polite, but to an expert person that could pick up things, there was a subtle accusatory tone to it, “I told you that I could handle it by myself. Do you think I can’t do it?”

Oh shit shit shit fuck fuck fuck!!

Leon’s eyes widened and shrank to three times its normal size. Well, of course, NOW the excuse of ditching his group to get food is the better option to bail out of this incoming disaster! It’s better than her thinking that he thought she was incapable of doing things by herself and upsetting her!!

“What? H-Hey, no, not at all! I-I wasn’t thinking that about you!” he stammered, going into damage control move while waving his hands and failing to force himself into making eye contact with her, “Uh, the reason why I came here was… um, y’know…!”

…!!!

Wait… wait a second! Calm down, you moron! You have a perfect reason already, and it’ll cover up everything!

Just take a breath and play it double cool, man…

“To… To see if you wanted to come with me to check on Makoto!”

Sayaka’s face quickly morphed into a surprised shade of emotion.

“Huh? Makoto?” she was immediately glued onto what he said when he mentioned the boy’s name.

While his heart was still racing, Leon acted like nothing was wrong as he went to rub at the back of his neck. The shrug he did before that may or may not have been kind of exaggerated, due to how freaked out he was over a potential conversation gone bad with one of his music idols.

“W-Well, yeah! I mean, like… he’s been out since this morning, y’know? So, I thought it’d be right to check out if he’s okay and all,” he found the confidence pouring back into his voice, and his eyes finally were able to meet her blue ones, “And judging from everything in this gym, I’m guessing the two of you are close. So, I came by to see if you wanted to come with me to make sure everything’s cool.”

Sayaka slowly had a smile come onto her face as she seemed eager.

“Ohh, I understand now! Of course I’ll come with you; I’ve been really worried about him all day, considering I don’t think he’s come out of his room yet,” she said, walking over the doorway and giving a small bow, “Thank you so much, Leon; I’m sorry for doubting you.”

Dude, he’s gotten her to say thank you like more than three times to him; his relationship with her has gotta be way high up now, compared to most of the others, yeah??

With a grin, he waved it off.

“Hey, like I’ve been sayin’, it’s not a prob!”

A small nod from Sayaka was his response, and the two ended up making their way towards the dorms.

“I do have to ask, if you don’t mind… how did things go for the others after I left?”

Leon closed his eyes briefly while recounting the tale, “Well… we checked out the dorm areas for a while until Taka eventually sent all of us away; the dude said he could handle the rest. From there, we kinda just went all over the school to look over all the metal plates barricading the windows and such…”

She frowned, “No luck?”

He felt his eyes glance up in defeat at the ceiling, “Nope, no dice. Those things ain’t gettin’ removed any time soon.”

He noticed out of the corner of his eye the blue haired girl looked away when she responded, “I was able to do a really thorough search of not only the dining hall, but the laundry room to your left over there.”

When his head lowered back down to see her hand pointing across him in that direction, he looked to see a small room located with green and white doors with a blue and purple awning over it with a yellow word that said ‘Laundry’.

“It seems like that’s where we can wash our clothes,” Sayaka continued, glancing over to Leon when he turned to look at her again, “Toko, Hifumi, and Celeste were in there the last time I went inside, so I’m not sure if they’re still there or not. There’s more to the dining hall area, too, but… it’s probably best to wait and let everyone else know what I found when we gather together.”

A simple nod from the punk was all that could be given before the two realized they had made it into the red hallway and stood in front of the dorm room they were in earlier that morning. Now the hope was that Makoto had already woken up and was checking out the place to, with someone else maybe bumping into him and giving a quick recap along the way. But if he was still in there… Well, uh… here’s hoping he’s okay and just unconscious and not… eegh…

“Alright, time for the moment of truth, huh?” Leon tried to smile and say, only to blink as he saw Sayaka rubbing at her arm.

“...I really do hope he’s okay… What happened this morning must’ve really hurt,” she confessed, looking down near her feet after sneaking a glance at the door.

Giving her a sympathetic smile, he started to make steps towards the door.

“Yeah, that was pretty messed up. But he’s gonna be o-”

Suddenly, something came out of the corner of his eye right at him and he looked-

WHAM!!

“!!! A-AAUGH… G-GAWD…!!”

His head had flown backwards, causing him to stumble and place a hand on the wall nearby. When he bent down, that’s when a flaring pain surged within his forehead and had him cringing with his jaw hanging open.

Fuckin’... what the crap was that!?

It took him a few tense breaths, sucking in air between his teeth before he was able to open his eyes and…

!!! Whoa!!

On the floor, Sayaka had been knocked onto her back with Makoto suddenly on top of her, both looking absolutely stunned as to what just happened. And behind them was Makoto’s dorm room door, slowly skidding to a halt to where it was half open now…

....You’ve… That freakin’....

Did that kid just seriously swing the door into his head and also tackle Sayaka to the ground?? What the hell!?

As he stared with utter dumbfounded aggravation, both the figures on the floor started to get up. When they looked each other in the face, both went red as the young boy scrambled to get off her, back up at least a few inches, and while remaning in his knees, immediately bow.

“S-Sayaka! O-Oh my gawd, I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” he apologized, his hands nearly reaching up to his head with how distressed and scared he looked.

Just then, another searing burst of pain came through where the door hit him and he closed his eyes, groaning out.

“Oww… G-Gawddamn it, man,” he cursed out, suddenly catching the off-guard Makoto into staring at him, “Did Mondo punch you so hard that you’re STILL dizzy or somethin’??”

“H-Huh? Leon? Are you okay; what happened?”

“What happe- You flung the door into my face, dude!!”

“What!? I-I did!?”

“Uh, yeah! Just now, when you came barreling out like a bat outta hell-”

“O-Oh crap, man, I’m really sorry! I didn’t mean to-”

“Heheh… Hahahahaha!!”

The sudden giggling caused both males to stop dead in their tracks. What they looked over at was Sayaka almost entering a full laughing fit as she was trying and failing to cover her mouth with a hand. She was able to contain herself somewhat as she looked over to Leon.

“Maybe now you can ask Makoto for his beauty secrets on how he doesn’t bruise easily!” she struggled to say.

Leon’s eyebrows and nose scrunched up. Wait, what? Why would…

……..Ohhhhhhh.

Suddenly, he felt himself scoff out a laugh as he bent over, rubbing at his head.

“Hah…. You’re totally right.”

That led to Sayaka having more difficulty in preventing herself from laughing, while poor Makoto kept looking back and forth between them without a clue as to what on earth was going on.

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better.

Chapter 8: Ch 1: Daily Life 4

Notes:

Where the weenie finally tells the pop idol about his dream and the seeds to a potential friendship are planted.

Ding Dong, Bing Bong…

“!!!”

Since when has his alarm clock ever made that freaking sound!?

Leon felt his soul nearly part with his body as his senses went into overdrive, being raised to high alert before his body, or the main machine, could even register it was ‘turned on’. His legs violently shoving the comforter up into the air, as if they were a predator pinning him down and he was kicking for freedom, the coordination with the upper half was lacking a bit as two arms went flailing through the air with no direction. His legs freed and both eyes able to somehow communicate to his brain that he was dangerously teetering off the edge of what he was on, the teenage boy was finally able to get a good grip on the soft mattress, push off, and sit up on the edge.

What… the actual crap.

If it wasn’t for whatever the hell that noise was, the facts of his feet resting on a floor with the temperature of ice, his fight or flight instincts causing his heart to race, and how hard he was gripping the edge of the mattress would have compiled enough of a reason for him to get royally annoyed and spit out a few curse words.

His body jerked in surprise when he heard a loud static noise coming from across him, up where that monitor was hanging off his wall near the bathroom.

The screen instantly lit up with a figure sitting in a chair with a wine glass in its hand-

Monokuma.

“Good morning, everyone!” its cheerful, clearly wide awake voice was like if it was a cheese grater rubbing against his eardrums, “It is now 7 AM and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready for another bee-yutiful day!!”

The screen fizzling until it turned off left Leon’s eyes still glued to it. Several seconds felt like several minutes as every part of his mind and body tried to catch up. Dragging them off the monitor, he slowly looked around…

A red designed wall… blue tiled floor… wooden furniture… and a pile of baseball items barely stuffed into a knocked over trash can…

...No…

This… this really was real, wasn’t it?

His heart dropping in his chest, he leaned forward and buried his entire face into his hands. The fingertips rubbing at his forehead and temples, the muffled exhale that blew his warm breath back onto his skin finally gave him his complete wake-up call. What a load of bullcrap this all was. He really was imprisoned in this place with the Sayaka Maizono and thirteen other people by a crazy-looking bear. When he went to bed last night… as much as it would’ve sucked to know that he never really met Sayaka, he prayed for the first time in his life to please let this be some messed up dream he was having. That he’d wake up in his bedroom at his house.

But no… this was real. Holy crap, this was…

...Wait a minute, did that stupid thing actually make a bear pun at the end of its message?

Okay, now he was officially starting the day, being irked.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

With a shower finished, his clothes on, and doing everything he needs to keep his health in check, Leon carefully ran his hair gel covered fingers through his hair to finish the touches of his hairdo staying badass and in place. Satisfied enough, he quickly washed his hands before putting on his jewelry. But it was during the last one of funneling his goatee through the silver bead to rest it on his chin that he paused for a second. Not to take a good look at himself to make sure everything looked cool-

Er… Okay, kind’ve a little bit for that reason. But mainly… to take a second to think about what the hell he was gonna do today.

His lips pursing into a side scowl on the left side led to a small sigh coming out his nostrils.

Man, yesterday was just a clusterfuck. Nearly blinded by Hiro’s hair twice on the same eye and a door being slammed into his forehead by Makoto. Major blow to his pride and his nervous system. More of a total suckage when the latter ends up getting Sayaka, the one person in this place he adores and looks up to as a fellow person in the music industry, laughing uncontrollably at him.

Dammit.

Shaking his head to exit the bathroom, his mind briefly recalled what happened after.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

After helping Makoto and Sayaka off the floor and more urgent apologies, Leon felt the throbbing pain in his forehead plummet once the pop idol let the other boy know it was him who brought him to his room. Not gonna lie, it felt nice to get recognition for doing something good, especially from Sayaka! When Makoto thanked him and he assured it wasn’t any trouble with a grin, the three made their way towards the dining hall.

Now… Leon would absolutely let you know that he’s not trivial or petty when it comes to being the center of attention. While his goal to be a punk legend, he wasn’t gonna be one of those celebrities who demanded the full spotlight be on his good side every aching hour of his life. But somewhere during the conversation when they got into the dining hall, he blinked and realized the discussion had subtly bopped him out of the picture and it was solely between the other two. Essentially, this thing had become the two talking and him eavesdropping on their conversation.

Uhhh… d-does he still stay near them or… like, move away... ?

He had no clue… but, like, it wasn’t anything too private, really.

Mostly small talk, but apparently, both Makoto and Sayaka went to the same school together and she witnessed him saving a bird? Out of a fountain or somethin’? Like, uh… is the kid some kind of bird expert or…?

Well, there wasn’t really much time for him to really process it.

No, really, he didn’t get a chance.

‘Cause, you know… Taka.

Jerk said something about how he was impressed that they all finished and arrived before him, and that he was apparently ashamed that they did, so he needed to do better next time? Then the guy noticed he was there to begin with and started to march over in order to give him an earful about why was he even here and that ‘abandoning his group’ isn’t good and geezume, underneath his eye began to twitch. FOR REAL!?

But like a gorgeous angel from heaven above, Sayaka came to his aid and told Taka he left to go check on Makoto’s condition, with even the little guy confirming it. It was enough to get him off the hook and distract the now cheerful hall monitor (strict dumbass fit better for him right now) with praising him and Sayaka for caring about a fellow classmate and then asking Makoto if he was okay. Gave Leon enough time to roll his eyes up the ceiling and stuff his hands into his pockets grumpily.

Point is… Makoto and Sayaka are super cool in his book now. Might think about giving them some discounts for his future concert tours!

With that trainwreck prevented? One by one, the others started to arrive, until the whole group of classmates gathered at a table in the middle.

Ahhh…. Hm.

Actually, scratch that, okay?

Two things wrong with it.

One? Byakuya opted to sit at a table nearby instead of with everyone, with Toko kinda standing somewhat behind him a few feet away. He guessed they just don’t like people…?

And two?

Not everyone was here.

“Yeah, uhh, that silver-ish, lilac-haired girl. Kyoko was her name, I think?” Junko brought up with a frown, interrupting Taka who had attempted to officially start their meeting, “She’s not here.”

The guy seemed to be in shock, as everyone glanced around the room to see that in fact, she was not present.

“W-Wha… Darn it Kyoko! You're really going to be late like this on the first day of school!? Not only is she late, she didn't tell anyone she would be late! A most unbecoming personality trait…” he sighed with clenched fists.

...You’re seriously calling being supposedly imprisoned for the rest of your lives in this building the first day of school, man...?

Well, like he said before… school IS kind of a prison….

Junko blinked in disbelief.

“You’re being a real jackass right now, you know that?”

Woman after his own heart, right there!

“I can’t believe she’d just not show up like that, though,” Hina spoke up with a worried look.

“Then… It’s really true? Nobody’s seen her?”

Chihiro’s question had the entire group shaking their heads and looking at each other doing the same.

“You…” all pairs of eyes turned to look at the end of the table to see Hifumi start to look scared, nearly beginning to nibble at his fingers, “Y-You guys don’t think… maybe someone…”

The entire atmosphere grew tense and frightening. Surely, it didn’t need to be said what was being implied. A sense of cold-sweat inducing dread had befallen everyone…

…..Uhhhh, well…. To be honest?

It would’ve, and Leon probably could’ve been one of the most freaked out about it… if it wasn’t the fact it was him that quickly squashed that fear. You see, what happened was in a split second, some of that boldness that had him respond to Byakuya in the gymnasium earlier had resurfaced onto a figurative art canvas and had been mixed with grumpiness. Mainly distributed to being tired from this whole ordeal and searching with nothing to show for it… but partly due to how he still hasn’t eaten anything.

“Gimme a break,” he groaned, rubbing at his face as several of the others were surprised at his skepticism, “You seriously think one of us is gonna try to kill someone on the first day of us being here?”

“I do have to agree with him.”

He and the others turned to see Byakuya with a leg crossed over the other, yet his arms still folded dominantly over his chest.

“Although I could be wrong, but... I would like to think none of us would be stupid enough to commit murder without a plan. Especially when thirteen other people are wandering around who could catch them in the act,” he spoke as-a-matter-of-factly, yet not making eye contact with anyone.

Makoto readjusted himself in his seat before saying, “That’s implying that one of us would actually think about murdering someone in the first place…”

That seemed to get Byakuya to look at him, his eyes swirling with an unimpressed, forceful refusal to back down from that.

“I remember hearing something similar in the gym this morning, and I addressed it accordingly,” he spoke with such authority, referencing what he said to Sayaka, “Don’t make me repeat myself; I hate doing that to people who should be able to listen the first time around.”

Ouch, Leon could feel the sting on that one. And he wasn’t the person being spoken to… if you can call that simply speaking. Poor Makoto just hesitated before awkwardly looking away and rubbing at the back of his head.

Eventually, the group decided to let Kyoko know about what they discussed after they found her and it led to everyone giving out what they did:

Taka repeated what they had found in the dorms and reminded them to grab their room keys of the tables. He had also said that there was a trash room on the other hall near the dorms.

Byakuya had tried to find the mastermind controlling Monokuma, but came up short.

Celeste, Hifumi, and Toko actually had the gall to admit that they didn’t even try to do shit! They just hung out in the gym for awhile before moving to the laundry room where they stayed. The frig, man!? Didn’t they wanna get outta here? Bastards…! It led to this weird back and forth between Junko and Toko, where the latter called the former a slut (which was the cue for Leon to completely disengage and not even try to enter a potential catfight), to where Hiro said something about how all the arguing would damage their complexion? And then… Sayaka said they were fighting like sisters or something…

It’s hard to pay attention to what’s said when you’re trying to stay out of something that involves pissed off girls and could end badly if you jumped in like a moron.

Next was his group, and they went over the fact that none of the metal plates or shutters were coming off.

Hina, Sakura, and Mondo decided to try and find a way through the entrance hall’s main door, but with no effort. They had also found near the gym (which was the one he and several others also came across) and apparently close to the dorms stairs leading to a higher floor, but were both blocked off by a metal gate. That’s gotta mean there’s a second floor to this place, but at the current time, it was off limits. Also, near the gate of the dorm stairs, was a door that was locked, leading to another place that was unknown.

And, uh… ahem… while they were on the subject of this… HOW THE HELL WAS SAKURA NEXT TO HIM YET AGAIN!?

When they had all came over to sit at the table, Leon nearly jolted out of his seat when he realized she had come from his left and sat next to him. Took his entire mental, physical, and, let’s be damn honest and might as well assume, spiritual strength to not spit out some shocked foul language and suddenly jerk in response, thus putting him in the most awkward position ever. Yeah, smooth move that’d be, right? Probably have her offended and then flatten him into a pancake. But, come on. Like, for the love of gawd, how did he keep finding himself in positions where he was next to the most intimidating and strongest person in this group? First walking up next to him in the entrance hall, then behind him in the gymnasium, then they’re next door neighbors in the dorms, and now this!

He swears he’s gonna get a heart attack from this woman, and he hasn’t even seen how ominous she could be when angry.

Lord help him.

Eventually, it got to Sayaka revealing that the laundry room was free and could be used repeatedly to wash their clothes. The dining hall also led to the kitchen, which had tons of food for them to eat. Apparently, Monokuma had shown up to tell her about this and that it somehow would replenish the food when it began to run out, which really had Leon secretly upset and feeling that maybe he really should’ve gone with her.

“But you’re okay, right? That bear didn’t try to eat you, did it?” Hina asked, frowning in concern.

Suddenly, Hifumi flinched and lowered his head, a creepy shadow residing on his face.

“E-Eat her… Um, uh… when you say ‘eat’, what do you mean? What kind of ‘eating’ are you referring to…?” he struggled to say, his finger nearly going inside of his drooling… smile….

Okay, that’s fucking disgusting!!

“What the hell, fatty!?” Leon didn’t even hide how appalled he was, leaning over the table to get a better look at what kind of sick psycho would say something like that, “You’re acting like some kind of sleazy drunk dude!”

He got what he wanted in making Hifumi recoil from embarrassment and (hopefully) realizing he was being an idiot, but that was short lived, thanks to a reaction from across the table.

“Uhhhm… You’re sayin’ that like there’s a good kind of drunk dude,” Hiro made a face, tilting his head.

Leon’s eyebrows went up and lost his anger almost immediately. Wait, was he off? Then again, Hiro did say something to him earlier about drinking brewskis or whatever…

Thankfully before it turned into another unorganized rambling, Kyoko had shown up and, while ignoring Taka’s inquiries of where she went, laid out a piece of paper for all to see. It seemed to be a floorplan of where they all were, thus cementing the fact that this was indeed Hope’s Peak Academy. Questions and mysteries had started to arise, before everyone’s e-handbook suddenly made a noise. When Leon took his out, a notification came up saying that the ‘Map’ section was now available and pressing on it gave him a layout of anywhere he could go. Huh, so it’s unlocked now. Good to know… Eventually, Celeste proposed an idea based on the concept of ‘those who can adapt to anything can survive’. She suggested that at nighttime, they make their own unique rule that no one leaves their room, to somewhat prevent the measure of growing mistrust. Not long after it seemed like there was pretty much agreed to by everyone, she treated that as a mic drop as she left to depart for the night. And that’s pretty much when everyone went their separate ways for the night.

THANK GOD, because it was time for a sandwich!! And man, Sayaka wasn’t kidding; this kitchen was decked out with all kinds of food and ingredients. At least the damn bear has a modicum of decency to have some soda on hand. He’ll just be pocketing a few pepsi cans, alright? Now with his glorious sandwich and pepsi cans, he quickly took his food, said a prayer of thanks to the gods above that Taka wasn’t there (because okay, he’s not trying to rag on the guy, but if the dude is willing to get after him for his piercings and clothes, who knows if he’ll blow a gasket for eating in his room… despite how that’s none of his business), and made his way to his room.

And a few hours later, he’d nearly have a heart attack from the first ‘nighttime announcement’ when Monokuma appeared on his screen. Glad no one saw that embarrassing shit…

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Finally finished with the morning stuff! Locking his room behind him and his handbook and keys in the pockets, Leon had moseyed down to the dining hall. Walking that far of a distance gave him enough time to go over a quick adjustment of his jacket and hair. A sigh of dreaded anticipation for the day’s coming events of another round of searching. As he entered the room, several people took notice of him and bid him good morning and he gave a cool-styled wave of his own. A yawn overtook him as he managed to make his way into the kitchen.

Now, he was looking for something quick to make, so he could be in and out fast. But, uh… mainly the reason why he was doing a sandwich again was probably because he… um, wasn’t all that huge of a culinary creator. Like, if you count sandwiches and instant ramen, then maybe he could be classified as one kinda…? But, um… aside from that and maybe snacking on fruit and veggies, Leon wasn’t an expert on how to make food.

And he didn’t feel too keen about asking someone for cooking advice, because what kind of awesome music legend would admit to being unable to cook? That’s a total blemish on what should be a perfect career for him, if he didn’t die from embarrassment.

Another sandwich it was again.

Putting everything away and getting ready to get some kind of a plate for it, Leon’s eyes suddenly caught a small glint out of the corner of his eyes. Pausing, he looked up to find several kitchen knives hanging on a shelving unit attached to the wall across the room. The glint came off one of the bigger knives from the room’s lights. He blinked a few times, not breaking away eye contact from it.

“You must kill someone in order to leave.”

“!!”

That same dreaded sentence suddenly floated up back into the forefront of his mind, sending a tense shiver down his spine. Creeped out, he had no desire to look there anymore. And yet, he could feel the knives’ presence as unignorable as possible, almost like the sharp inanimate objects laughed and beckoned him to draw nearer. What Monokuma said… about all the ways that you can kill someone, and stabbing was one of them…

Those knives would be…

...No. No no no, the hell was he even doing?

Come on, he’s obviously freaking out over nothing.

There’s no way someone’s already tempted enough to try and kill someone…

...And that sentence was stated with just as much confidence as when he said it out loud to everyone in the gym yesterday.

And that amount was barely.

Shaking his head with a near inaudible growl, Leon quickly grabbed his sandwich and a drink, fast-walking to get away from the kitchen knives as fast as possible.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It wasn’t long before Leon had finished his breakfast and ended up strolling out into the halls by himself. The desire to search everywhere over one more time with everyone to find a way out fueled him to finish quickly-

Well, that, and uh… there wasn’t really anybody he felt close enough towards to have small talk with. Makoto and Sayaka weren’t there, so they had to be asleep. Junko and Chihiro, while not having that much interactions, he felt comfortable with, but they were chatting with other people. And it was way too early to try and deal with another type of conversation Hiro would bring up, and he’s only had one from him!

So, quick meal and he was off, walking through the halls. Problem was now that he was, he had no clue on how to proceed. And this had him wandering the halls, trying not to look like an utter idiot to those who passed by him. Because during him roaming the area, he came to a very troubling realization.

This place was a borefest. Like, oh my gawd. There was nothing to do here. We’re talkin’ ultra boring as shit levels that could and would drive him up a wall.

Because aside from a gym that didn’t seem to have any kind of balls or equipment in it to use, an AV room that lacked any kind of dvds or videos to watch, and a school store that pretty much had nothing catching his eyes, there was nothing to do here that was fun! Like, okay, sure, he’ll grant the argument of his cd collection in his room, and also that he had a guitar that he could practice whenever he wanted. And, by some absolutely strange occurrence that he goes temporarily insane in this gawddamn place and decides to entertain the idea of using the baseball crap he’s thrown away, maybe someone would be willing to throw a ball around with him for a tiny bit.

But that’s like… what; a few hours to maybe a couple days worth of time being occupied? And he’s apparently supposed to live here for the rest of his life… Yeah, that shit’s not gonna fly with him. Damn straight! Because Leon’s forms of entertainment were watching tv, watching videos online, and hanging out at the mall in the city. And that ain’t gonna be happening anytime soon thanks to that stupid bear and whoever’s controlling it.

His train of thought was prematurely derailed off the tracks and crashed horrifically when some kind of pounding sound echoed from the entrance hall. Just… what the hell…?

Briefly poking his head in, he was treated with a wonderful sight of Mondo balancing on one leg while rearing the other one as far back as he could before kicking at the metal door with all his might. Every landed kick did nothing, except for a new profanity to be spewed from his mouth.

...Dare he?

Oh good gawd…

Against his better judgement, Leon took a deep breath in and entered the entrance hall towards the biker gang leader.

“Yo, man. What’s happenin’?”

Mondo turned around, back on both feet.

“Oh, hey. Just trying to find a way out. I thought I might as well give this door another shot,” he said, turning to, what the baseball star could suspect, glare at the door in question, “I know that Hina, Sakura, and I already tried to bust this thing down yesterday, but… you know. Can’t give up, right?”

Leon nodded uncomfortably, already cautious of the guy being in not so great of a mood. Therefore, he needed to tread the waters of this conversation very carefully...

“Yeah, I get ya, but like… I don’t think anyone’s gonna be able to bust through this thing,” he said, giving a quick glance at the door before looking back at him, “I mean, if Sakura couldn’t break through the metal shutters in the gym, what makes you think you’re gonna have better luck with this?”

A huff came out of Mondo’s nostrils as he turned to look at him with an annoyed, yet understanding look. It still put Leon on alert as the biker answered.

“Tch, hell if I know. But I’m no good at thinkin’ stuff up; I’m better off leaving that to the rest of you to figure out, and then waiting for the cue to do what’s gotta be done to bust out of this dump,” he said, cracking his neck a bit, “Besides, I’m stoppin’ anyways. Fuckin’ thing is solid as shit…”

Leon quietly sucked air through his teeth; it was like this conversation was taking place above a frozen body of water that was starting to crack and if he said the wrong thing, it’d all shatter around him. Plus, despite how he sounds like it, he couldn’t really tell if Mondo’s actually pissed or not.

“Well, that’s true, but I was kinda thinking along the lines of that you shouldn’t?” he tried to explain, his nervousness making him mentally curse himself for phrasing that like a question.

Mondo squinted at him.

“Eh? The hell you talkin’ about?”

“Uhhh, I’m talking about the guns, dude.”

“The what?”

In a strange sense of déjà vu, thanks to a very complicated and unneeded experience with Hiro yesterday, his natural response was to gawk at how blatantly unaware he was of his surroundings and the potentially dangerous implications. Like-

Okay, side note, were all the guys but him not mentally there, or jerks, or creepy, or whatever? Like, seriously…

Regardless, he fought that response, due to this was Mondo he was talking to and just pointed up at where the giant guns mounted above the door and menacingly aiming down at them were located, getting him to look up at it.

“Those, man. Like… what happens if you keep kicking the door and it activates some protocol thing? That gun’ll probably start shootin’ at ya and rip you to shreds…”

……...And… And him, too.

...Somebody remind him why he thought it was a good idea to walk in here again?

Ignoring the hated feeling of anxiety bubbling at his chest over imagining himself being ripped apart by bullets, he noticed Mondo went silent as he kept looking at it. Eventually, the biker looked back at him and had this expression on his face that was… uhhh, well, it was kinda calm, but like… he doesn’t know the guy super well, so maybe he was about to get rage at him. That thought suddenly sent Leon into full damage control, as he raised his arms up waving.

“G-Guh- uhhh…! N-Not that I’m, uh, tryin’ to be your dad or, um… teach you a lesson! Or how you said it to Makoto, before you…” he tried to reassure with a nervous grin, his voice dying out as his eyes flashed with fear upon the other guy turning towards him.

Oh, please, dear gawd, just not in the face; that’s his money maker…!!

Mondo scowled… took a deep breath in…

...and threw Leon off guard as he sighed dejectedly, rubbing the back of his neck.

...Um… Okay, he wasn’t thinking it was that easy, but… he’ll take that over being punched in the face, alright?

“...Leon, was it?” the young man asked, his eyes not even opening to look at him.

The punk felt his spine and shoulders straighten into a more military-esque posture.

“Y-Yeah?”

“Listen. Do me a favor and don’t rag on me about that, ‘kay?” Mondo sighed with a greater volume, eyes now opening to glance away with a guilty look, “I… really feel like shit about that. I know I got a problem with my temper and all, and I wasn’t thinking right when I clocked Makoto like that…”

Leon paused for a moment before giving a sympathetic look and nodding, “Yeah, totally, man.”

Mondo scoffed slightly, glancing back at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Being honest with ya? I’m surprised I actually managed to send him flying like that. I’ve gotten into fights with kids smaller than him, but they never went sailing that far back before…”

That makes two of them. Seriously, he thought something like that only existed in fighting games or anime, but apparently, you can shoryuken someone for real…

“So, anyways, uh… Yeah. I probably should apologize to the guy, right?” Mondo asked, scratching under his chin awkwardly.

Leon did slightly deadpan at this, but recovered and frowned, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

“Dude, you knocked him unconscious for more than ten hours yesterday. So, yeah; I think you should try to, the next time you bump into him…”

The biker nodded, folding his arms.

“Right. I’ll make sure to do that, for sure,” he committed to it and promised, prompting a nod from the other male.

And, right on cue, as if it was some kind of tv show or video game, two people strolled into the entrance hall. Both looked over to see who it was, and the identities of the two lit Leon’s face up with a smile.

“Hey! Makoto, Sayaka! ‘Sup?” he grinned, waving while his other hand placed cooly on his hip.

Both smiled and waved back, coming towards them.

“Good morning, guys,” Makoto gave a hopeful smile to them, “I hope you were able to sleep somewhat good last night.”

“Yeah, I totally did. I’m just not used to those kind of announcements as my alarm clock. I’m gonna have to get used to that…” Leon grumbled, his smile faltering slightly.

It got a sympathetic smile out of Makoto and a slight giggle out of Sayaka, so there was that going for him at least. He chuckled too, feeling a bit cheered up by it.

“You’re right. It’s slightly unsettling to have that and the cameras in our room while we sleep,” the pop idol agreed, trying to give some encouragement, “But all we have to do is to deal with it a little longer until we can find a way out of this place.”

“Yeah, she’s right; we’ll get out of here. I’m sure of it!” Makoto did his best to make the atmosphere a pleasant tone, sharing a smile with her.

Yeah… yeah, that’s right. They’d definitely find a way outta this place. There’s no reason to freak out about this…

Seeing as the two were looking at each other, this gave Leon the chance to subtly elbow the biker gently in his right arm. When he looked over, the punk motioned with his eyes to Makoto a few times. Once his face lit up with realization, Mondo’s face dropped slightly, but nodded and turned to look at the smaller boy.

“Yo, uh… Makoto?”

“Huh? Yeah, what’s up?”

“Listen… about yesterday…” he started, looking uncomfortable as he rubbed the back of his neck, “I was pissed off about this whole shitty thing and I… I know you were only tryin’ to help. Sorry, man…”

Makoto waved it off with a smile, “No, it’s okay, Mondo. I get that everything up until now is really stressful and all. I promise there’s no hard feelings.”

This brought a small grin to Mondo’s face.

“Heh, I owe ya, kid. Thanks a lot.”

Leon and Sayaka shared a small quick glance to each other, her nodding with a smile and him giving a grinning wink. Well, that was one problem over and done…

And with that out of the way…

“Yo, so… what brings the two of you over here?” he asked, directing the conversation into a new topic.

The moment the words left his mouth, both newcomers to the entrance hall seemed to get slightly serious, with the boy being a bit worried.

“Oh, um… Well, we were actually looking for something to use for self-defense,” Makoto admitted, rubbing at his left arm near the elbow.

Leon’s eyebrows went up.

“Self-defense?”

Mondo cursed with a half grimace, half scowl, “Shit, so you’re takin’ it seriously, with this ‘game’ we’re playing and all, huh…?”

Similarly to what he did to him yesterday, Makoto brought his arms up in a surrender fashion and waved them, but less frantically.

“I-It’s not like that…! I want to believe no one’s actually going to attempt murder and we can all get out of here together, but…”

“It’s just better to be safe than sorry,” Sayaka finished for him as his voice trailed off into slightly ashamed silence, nodding to Mondo, “I’m the one who suggested we ought to find something to protect ourselves with. Just in case, right?”

The biker shrugged with a nod of his own, “Yeah, makes sense.”

“How about you guys?” Makoto managed to bounce back somewhat and relax, “What are you doing here?”

“Ehhh, was tryin’ to find a way out again. Tried my luck with the door one more time, but… nah, this thing ain’t goin’ nowhere,” Mondo answered first, jabbing his thumb at it, “We’re gonna need to find another way outta here…”

“And the fact that there’s basically nothing to do here? Gonna die of friggin’ boredom, y’know?” Leon rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, slightly groaning as he shook his head, “And being stuck here is keepin’ me from racing toward my dream, too…”

“Your dream…?”

Leon looked back down to see Sayaka looking at him with curiosity at how he phrased that-

Wait… wait a second! This is perfect! By coincidental genius, he managed to find a way to bring up maybe asking for her help! And best of all, no annoying hall monitor in sight!

Okay, game time, man. Let’s do this, nice and slow…

“Oh, right; I tried to tell you during introductions yesterday, but we got cut off before I could. Y’know, the thing I wanted to talk with you about?” Leon’s face instantly warmed up with an excited grin, causing Sayaka to nod and signal she remembered, “Well, the thing is I’m actually getting done with baseball and am looking to get into music.”

Besides the biker looking shocked, the girl’s attention had risen to one hundred percent as she turned to face him with a pleasantly surprised look, “Really? What genre of music are you wanting to do?”

“Oh, punk music, obviously! I mean, you can sense my rockstar aura, right?” he chuckled, bashfully rubbing the back of his head, “The strongest vocals of the century right here!”

Of course, by this point, the other two boys, once Mondo had overcome said shock, were now into the conversation as well. Makoto brought a curious finger to rest under his bottom lip.

“Actually, yeah, you talked about that a little with me yesterday. I was meaning to ask you; how close are you to getting a band? Or are you planning to go solo?”

The question rocked Leon ever so roughly out of cloud nine and brought him back to his senses. Hoping to God above that the blush on his cheeks that he thought he felt wouldn’t be noticed, he internally struggled to smooth himself out and play it cool.

“Oh, that? I’ve got a few people who are willing to be in a band with me,” he admitted, his grin only downsizing to a smile, “I just need a couple more, then a songwriter and manager, and we’re all set!”

...Which was kinda utter bollocks, since all he had was just himself, but they didn’t need to know that yet. After all, how lame and uncool would he be to talk about his dream and then tell a national celebrity that he’s got nothing to show for it…? So it’s a little white lie; it’s not gonna hurt anyone...

“That’s wonderful to hear, Leon! Does that mean you sing and play an instrument, too?” Sayaka asked.

Leon’s face lit up again and he winked, “Yup! I’m gonna be the lead singer, and I’m already pretty good at the guitar; I even got one and a microphone in my dorm room to practice with, to make sure I’m still rockin’ it by the time we can blow this hellhole wide open! But that’s what I was gonna ask with your help for, Sayaka.”

“Huh?”

“I know you don’t do punk music, but, like… if we get a chance for free time, I’d love any tips or pointers you could give me to help me improve, y’know? If it’s coming from you, it’s gotta be great advice!”

Sayaka blinked, then had a very touched and appreciated smile come across her face as she brought her hands towards her chest.

“Oh… Of course! When I have some free time, I’d be happy to help you. I look forward to working with you when I can.”

He rested both his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. Oh, Lord, prepare his place, because he might just be in Heaven. Not only getting on the Sayaka Maizono’s good list, but now he gets to have her help him with his music and stuff!

Yeah, Kenta and the rest of the baseball team can suck it! Good luck getting him back now, bitches, because he’s now shooting faster to his dream and by the looks of it, there’s no catching him now!

Leon was so in pure bliss, he didn’t notice Sayaka looked away with a thoughtful expression.

“...Dreams…”

Makoto turned to look at her.

“Huh? Did you say something, Sayaka?”

“Oh, no, sorry; it’s nothing,” she said, shaking her head, and then looking towards the others, “Well, I think we’re going to keep searching for something that we can use for self-defense.”

Leon was finally broken out of his trance and opened his eyes with a nod when Mondo’s gruff voice snapped him out of it.

“Alright then, you two take care of yourselves, then.”

“Right; see ya, guys!”

With Makoto’s farewell, the group shared a wave between each other as the smaller duo left. By the time they were out of sight, Leon’s grin could’ve nearly doubled in size as he rocked back and forth.

“Gawd, man, I feel so cool gettin’ to say that in front of a national celebrity!” he admitted, his voice going higher in tone from just how happy he was.

After a moment of incredulous deadpanning, Mondo shook his head.

“Dude… you’re kind of a dork…”

At this point? Leon couldn’t even bring himself to be mad at someone insulting his undeniable cool appeal. He’s got one of the greatest voices in the music industry helping him, and his dream was getting a massive step closer to becoming a reality! With how happy he was, there might have been a bit of a spring in his step as he shrugged to Mondo and strolled out of the entrance hall.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Well, yeah, he was happy and all… but that lasted about a few hours until the hype wore off.

He was back to being bored out of his mind. And that was after listening to some of the cds he had in his dorm room and playing around a bit with his guitar.

Now Leon found himself standing in a corner by himself, arms folded over his chest as he leaned against a wall. For a situation that apparently had him an eternal prisoner in some kind of a sick game that demanded he kill someone to escape or become someone’s victim, this was really a massive let down. ...N-Not that he wanted this thing to be real and all, but…

Sure enough, he was massively bored out of his friggin’ mind. And when Leon Kuwata is in that state, his mind tends to wander. And with the circumstances he was in, this wandering session had led to questions that he desperately wanted answers to:

Would he and everyone else get out of here somehow? As in, no one succumbing to being a murderer and all working together?

Could he even trust the others? Sayaka was totally a given, so there was no need to doubt her. And some of the others, like Makoto, Chihiro, and Hina, seemed legit, good people, but… can he really put his faith into them?

...Did Kanon and his dad…?

That last question had his eyes become crestfallen shaded, his head losing a bit of strength and getting a better view of the floor.

It had only been a day, but… for real, he had to know if they could tell if something was wrong and such. Kanon was a bit of a helicopter cousin, but… she knew when to back off... Or, er... sometimes, she did, anyways. And his dad always was laid back. But… surely… hopefully, they could tell something was off and get help, like the police or something, yeah…?

...Honestly… he just hoped they were okay…

...Frig, man, this just-

“Leon?”

A voice calling out his name jerked his head up to look in front of him.

About five feet from him stood the massive size of Sakura behind a smaller Hina, who had called his name. Being spurred by both the facts of trying to maintain his image and gigantic muscled body Sakura was close to him again, he casually pushed off the wall and force a hand into his pocket.

“Oh, hey! What’s happenin’?” he said, flashing a smile.

That didn’t seem to work, as the girl tilted her head with a concerned look.

“Oh, nothing really, but… you okay? Sakura and I were walking past, and we couldn’t help but notice you looked really depressed.”

! Crap, was he that obvious?

The rising movement of his eyebrows let on that he was caught off guard. He quickly attempted to reel himself back in with a chuckle and scratching at his face with his free hand.

“Oh, hah, that? Nah, I’m just deep in thought, y’know?” he reassured falsely, “There’s really nothin’ to do in this place, so I’m trying to rack my brain on things I can do, so I don’t die from boredom.”

“Is that so…?”

He glanced over to Sakura, who not only had those massive arms folded, but had just opened one of her eyes to glance over towards him.

U-uhh… S-Something about the way that gaze... that gentle, yet fierce eye just pierced into him; did she know, or at least assume, he was telling a lie?

Gawd, she makes him so uncomfortable, man…

“Oh, you’re just bored? Well, hey, I’ve got an easy fix for that,” Hina’s aura burst with energy, giving a confident smile as she motioned behind them, “Sakura and I were just about to go to the dining hall to hang out and find something quick to eat before going back to searching this place.”

The larger girl opened her other eye and added, “We tried inviting Toko and Hifumi, but they seemed uninterested.”

“Yeah, so, you wanna come with us?”

…...

The thing is… Leon was very close to just giving a shrug and accepting. After all, he didn’t have anything better to do.

It seemed like a genuine invitation, but…

Before the words could roll off his tongue… that sentence came back.

“You must kill someone in order to leave.”

Leon hesitated, becoming stone still before glancing up at the two girls.

Two people.

Two people who are inviting him to another location.

Two people who are, like he used to be, physically active.

One of them he knows in the bottom of his heart there’d be no way he could fight back against.

...This isn’t… No, they’re not…

Leon felt his face twist into a nervous smile.

“You’re not… trying to get me alone, so you guys can kill me, are ya…?”

Before he even finished, both girls seemed taken aback, with Hina even gasping before her horrified expression turned into a serious one.

“H-Huh? Wha- no! Of course not; we’d never do that!” she protested loudly.

Pale blue eyes swept from her towards Sakura; while the face seemed calm, it seemed like the jaw was tense. But other than that, no signs of offended anger or overreacting.

...So they were really just being genuine and nice to him?

W-Well… shit. But just to be sure-!!

He slightly puffed out his chest and grinded his heels further into the floor.

“Well, hey, I’m just saying that my fans will go all psycho on anybody who tries to; I’m as popular as any international superstar, y’know?”

And just as quickly as that bravado appeared, it deflated as he turned it into a bit of a smirking grin. He gave a teasing wink to the girls as he attempted to pass it off like a joke.

“But, hey; if you’re not gonna murder me, then yeah, let’s totally hang out, for sure! ‘Cause I…”

...Huh, that’s…. That’s weird.

The words he was going to say... something about his future musical career or related to it, just… poofed. Like, damn straight left his mind and had him go blank in a millisecond. He seemed to freeze in time, before the facade he had put up slowly collapsed, and Hina and Sakura blinked in response.

Before they or even he knew it, Leon’s smile had vanished into a frown as he glanced away, scratching awkwardly at the back of his head. And that had brought back a sentence he could use in his mind.

“...I… don’t really wanna be alone, anyway…”

...Huh, that’s… that’s even weirder.

Why did he just admit to that? And in front of two people he hadn’t talked to since before the introductions?

Ehh, who cares. He really didn’t at this point.

The girls seemed to share a brief look between each other before focusing their attention back onto Leon. Hina gave a reassuring nod, catching his attention out of the corner of his eyes.

“Hey, it’s okay; I totally get it. This place is pretty messed up, I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone felt like that,” she said, her mouth once again finding its smile, “Looks like you can do with some people to hang out with!”

The baseball star turned back to her and sighed, finding a real smile on his face, albeit a bit calm and tired.

“Sure thing; I’ll come with you.”

The swimmer clapped her hands together, motioning for him to follow them. Despite not smiling like her, the nod coming from Sakura seemed to suggest that she was pleased in him being willing to join them. The three then turned to move into the dining hall.

“All right! First order of business is to check out the kitchen; there’s gotta be some kind of stash of amazing food in there that’s not seen initially! And f.y.i, if there’s donuts, they belong to me, unless you’re willing to throw down for them.”

Leon did a double take at that statement and shot her a puzzled look. Wha… she’s just joking, right? Then again, if his ears weren’t playing tricks on him, he might of heard a snort coming out of the fighter. Either way…

This was about to get interesting...

Notes:

So... being a couple chapters in, I'd like to make something clear quickly.
I get that there have been quite a few potshots at Taka during the narration bits of the story. I want people to know I DO NOT HATE TAKA; I'm only writing this in the perspective of Leon, who, when you compare the two of them, have such contrasting/clashing personalities, that you can't help but believe the two of them would struggle to get along.
I just wanted to make that clear, because I'd hate for people to get the assumption this is a "Taka hate" story/writer. Thank you for the time.

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better.

Chapter 9: Ch 1: Daily Life 5

Notes:

Where the weenie gets his real first free time event with the swimmer and the fighter, and he realizes the appreciation of sleeping.

Not that he was one to brag and all, but Leon prided himself in knowing how to talk to girls. Whether it was to flirting to gauge their interests, putting out all the stops to show them he could commit, or just a casual talk while displaying his charm and finesse in words… As long as the girl was up for it and as far as he could tell she was cool, he had no problem with it. And even now, when one of the girls happens to be the one sole person in this place that constantly has him fumbling at his game, he felt a part of him hold firm in being confident enough to have this in the bag.

So when they entered the dining hall and sat down at one of the tables, and Sakura came back with a few glasses of water, he felt his mind mentally pump himself up with ‘It’s go time!’ screaming in the background and quietly stretched his neck.

“Thanks, Sakura!” Hina took her glass from her with a gracious expression of satisfaction before turning back to Leon, “It totally feels great to take a break after working so hard this whole morning.”

Leon shrugged at that comment in passing.

“Well, true, but… can ya really say it’s hard work when we haven’t found anything yet?”

“We may have not come up with results yet, but that doesn’t invalidate our efforts thus far,” Sakura shook her head, passing him his glass of water as she sat down, “As long as we don’t falter, we will eventually find a way to escape this place.”

“Yeah, I guess so…” he admitted, nodding a thank you to her.

They both looked over to the other girl who advanced the conversation further by waving her hand around a bit, “But even then, this place is gigantically massive, you know? Like, if this really is Hope’s Peak Academy, they really went all out designing how huge it is. And this is only the first floor!”

And really, the implication of how big this place really is had risen up into the forefront of his mind. If this was the first floor, who knew how many floors there were or how massive those were. After all, when he had arrived outside of the building before this whole kidnapped game crap began, Hope’s Peak Academy was a pretty freakin’ huge building…

“But you know… despite that? I might be able to take advantage of it!” the swimmer continued, confidently explaining as he adjusted the collar of her jacket, “With how wide it is, I can use it as a killer makeshift running course!”

Leon raised an eyebrow in curiosity, “Running course?”

Sakura hummed.

“You mean how fast you can run from one side of this place to the other and back.”

Hina excitedly nodded which made her ponytail bob back and forth, “Yup, totally! From my dorm room to the top of one of the bleachers in the gym and back! It’ll really help keep me in shape and improve how fast I can go!”

...He guessed that was one way to keep in shape here. Like, as long as she didn’t trample anyone along the way and gave him a heads-up, so he didn’t get a heart attack from her shooting through the halls out of nowhere…

Oh, yeah. And also…

“As long as you don’t get caught by the hall monitor asshole, you’ll be fine…” he muttered, reaching for his drink to take a sip-

Both girls suddenly looked at him with shocked expressions. Like a deer in the headlights, Leon found himself widening his eyes in response and looking between both of them for a few seconds.

Oh. They heard him.

Yiiiikes, probably could’ve said that quieter-

“Hall monitor… asshole?” Hina repeated, frowning with a concerned squint.

Despite his hair being a fiery color, the forehead and spine of Leon just went icy cold.

Shit. Good going, you moron. No use trying to cover things up now; you’ve committed too far. Throw the sucker back into reverse and save your butt before things get potentially ugly!

“A-Ahh, oh… Sorry, wasn’t thinking; my bad,” he apologized, quickly drowning his mouth into the water to prevent himself from saying anything stupider to tack onto that gem while cursing himself for letting it happen in the first place.

And wouldn’t you know it. The gods that have been giving him luck up to this point decided they needed a fifteen minute break from their shift, because neither girl seemed to let it go. In fact, it just became the new topic at the table between the three of them.

For gawd’s sake, man…

“...I’m assuming you’re referring to Taka, correct?” Sakura asked, folding her arms.

As he looked over to her, Leon contemplated trying to pass it off as him feeling upset and to reassure he really didn’t mean it like that. And frankly, yeah; he didn’t hate or loathe him like it may seem. It should’ve been so easy to do that. Just… really easy. And yet… something just didn’t click like it oughta. The whole image Leon tried to build up was still there, make no mistake. But in that moment? A part of him took over. The part that said that maybe he could talk to other people about something and not worry about the repercussions of how he looked or sounded, y’know? It was like...

It was like he didn’t need to try so hard.

“...Yeah, I totally mean that guy,” he sighed, putting his glass down and scowling.

Hina scratched at her forehead awkwardly.

“Ouch… Only our second day here, and you already feel that amount of dislike towards him?” she asked, only to get treated to Leon throwing his hands up in the air part way and rolling his eyes before sitting up temporarily.

“Yo, he got on my case yesterday like five times, over stupid crap like what I was wearing or doing at the time. Hate to break it to Mr. Perfect,” he explained, before leaning back in his chair and looking away annoyed, “but he’s not exactly my favorite person in this place at the moment because of that…”

The two girls shared a look between themselves without him noticing.

“I see…” Sakura started, “...Well, while we’re on this topic, perhaps this could be a good transition into asking this question.”

“Huh? What is it?” Hina asked, both her and Leon looking at her.

“What are your first impressions about everyone here?” the fighter inquired, “I’m honestly interested in what you two think in general.”

Hmm… everyone in general, huh…

That question had him pause briefly to look up to the ceiling and think about this earnestly. Aside from a few people, he didn’t exactly have a fully formed opinion on everyone here. But for the ones he’s spent more than five minutes with or have had multiple interactions with, he felt like he could confidently state a few thoughts about them.

Hina beat him to it, however, as she folded her arms and had a deep in thought expression plastered on her face.

“Hmmm… Well, I know for sure that Chihiro seems super nice. I’ve talked with her a couple times now. She’s really shy, but I don’t think she has a bad bone in her body whatsoever,” her head nodded to confirm it, looking back at them, “Same with Makoto and Sayaka, though I’ve only gotten a chance to chat with them once.”

Leon’s face lit up; of course Sayaka’s great! She’s awesome; damn straight!

“Yeah, they’re both pretty cool, right?” he agreed, chuckling a bit, “Sayaka especially, y’know? I’ve gotten the chance to talk to her a couple times now, and she’s, like, so nice and friendly.”

That satisfied the girl across from him more than he had anticipated.

“Phew, that’s a relief! ‘Cause her music’s great; I tend to listen to it a lot, whether I’m training or relaxing in my room,” Hina admitted, a sheepish smile forming as she closed her eyes, “I was afraid she’d be one of those celebrities who puts on an act and seems all amazing, but is really nasty behind the scenes or something. I’m glad to hear that’s not true about her.”

Leon shook his head and waved one of his hands at that remark, “Nah, trust me; she’s the real deal. She’s just as awesome as she is on television or those interviews she does, I’m telling you!”

Now, it may have been a good thing for Leon that Sakura politely cut into the discussion and caused him to regain his emotional footing back on the ground before he ended up floating into the clouds. He was on the verge of potentially fanboying over the pop idol.

But, um… whether or not he was able to recognize this at the time was another question that may not have a concrete answer…

“And you said Makoto was nice as well?”

Leon folded his arms after his hand finished waving to solidify his point about Sayaka.

“Yeah, the kid seems okay,” he answered, deciding not to tell them about the embarrassing moment that happened with his dorm door, “He’s got a good heart in him; already patched things up with Mondo over what happened yesterday.”

The muscular girl nodded with Hina letting out a sigh, “That’s good to hear. The less infighting we have, the better. Especially because we need to work together to get out of here.”

Leon nodded before continuing.

“Actually, when I think about it, Makoto’s kinda the only normal guy here, y’know?”

The two girls seemed to be confused.

“The most normal…?” Sakura prompted him to explain it better, one of her eyebrows rising in response.

“Well, yeah, because I’m not tryin’ to brag about myself or nothin’, but I think I’m a good person at least,” he made an attempt to shrug, sitting up on his chair and resting his arms on the table, “But besides me and Makoto, the other guys are… just kinda out there. You know what I mean? Like… I’ve already told you what I feel about Taka, but… Byakuya’s super harsh and anti-social, Mondo’s a walking timebomb, Hifumi’s clueless and says really stupid and gross stuff, and Hiro…”

For a brief moment, the constant flow of words halted in his throat, as if his voice was a pipe and someone turned the valve to shut it off. Just… what was the best way to describe him?

...There really was only one way. And it had to be…

“...is kind of an idiot,” he finished, rubbing at the back of his head with a conflicted frown while looking away.

Hina responded to that with a grimace, not in huge size, but one that came possibly faster than a second.

“Uhhh… Does that mean Hiro’s number two on your ‘not my favorite people list’?” she dared to asked, seeming uncomfortable partially.

Her negative feelings were washed away with a fresh coat of interested curiosity when the baseball star shook his head, still with his eyes distracted towards the side.

“Surprisingly? No; I don’t hate the guy. It’s just… talking to him is so exhausting. Half the stuff he says makes no sense. And then there’s the fact he still thinks this is all some kind of prank that the school’s-”

“!! Whoa whoa whoa, hold the phone there!”

Suddenly being interrupted by a loud voice yelling so close to him and two hands slamming onto the table while the legs of a chair scrape painstakingly across a floor and makes your skin crawl (the same kind of God-forbidden noise like nails across a chalkboard, which sucks ultra bad and makes you cringe just thinking about it) would make anyone jump and give their undivided attention to the noisemaker. And that’s exactly what happened to him, upon seeing Hina suddenly standing up and leaning over the table. And top of this freaked out surprise sundae with a cherry on top, the expression the swimmer had was of disbelief and annoyance mixed into one. If Leon had to describe it, his go-to choice would have been ‘pissed’, but there didn’t seem to be enough anger for that.

“What did you- You’re serious! He actually thinks that?” she blurted out, her jaw remaining open as her eyes demanded he respond as quickly as possible.

Still taken aback by this, Leon stammered with his shoulders in the process of starting to hunch, “Wh-uhhh, y-yeah? He thinks that this whole thing is still some kind of orientation joke the school’s pulling on us. He even claimed he predicted it’s true and it’s only gonna last a week before they finally stop…”

Hina gawked in silence for about a millisecond before-

“Oh my gawd, he is an idiot!” she clutched her fists tightly, straightening her posture while exploding into a rant, “Forget the ‘kind of’ part! Who the hell thinks that something like this, where walking, talking bears can explode and try to make us kill each other, is a joke!? Like, for crying out loud! What the-”

Just as impacting as this possible outburst of the ages started, it died instantly like a furious insect being stepped on and having its soul fly into the afterlife as the girl lost all semblance of her anger and blanked. It was like a computer crashed and tried to reboot in how her facial expression swiftly did a 180 degree turn and she looked out of the corner of her eyes, deep in thought as her hands relaxed and one stopped right in front of her. Like her mind was fact checking to make sure what she thought was right or not.

“...I mean, not that I-”

She started to speak, but cut herself off with a freaked out grunt.

Why, you might ask?

Well, when she stood up initially, she had consequently pushed her chair out slightly. And without fixing it, one will find that attempting to sit down on nothing but air will cause you to lose your center of gravity. Catching herself in mid descent, her red jacket-covered arms slightly flailed before she was able to pivot with one of her feet and get a good positioning onto the butt of the chair to stop her from further collapsing.

...Now… Leon strove to be the kind of guy that no girl would ever think could do something rude or anything. He never would mean to laugh at a girl to hurt her feelings.

But what just happened… the fact he nearly watched a person freak out, suddenly crash mentally, and then fall to the floor in five seconds?

Not even licking his lips or biting at one of his lips could prevent the giant grin or the bubbling urge to giggle threatening to come into existence. And considering that Sakura, the girl who he assumes has become close friends with her, as stoic as she came off as… was barely containing a ghost of a smile as well?

Gawddamn, man.

“Uhh, haha, uh… You okay there?” Leon asked, a giggle sneaking in initially.

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine, but like, what I was trying to say!” Hina hurriedly answer, firmly planting herself in the chair and scooting back to her original position, unaware of how the other two were reacting, “Like… as stupid as that is, saying this whole thing is a prank and all… I’d rather have that, right? The whole ‘killing game’ and ‘living here for the rest of your lives’ stuff. It’d still be messed up and way too cruel to do that to us high school students, but I’d be less upset than knowing someone actually expects us to do all that stuff for real…”

Sakura nodded the moment her friend looked up for reassurance.

“Yes, I would prefer if this was an unfunny joke gone too far. It’s still unacceptable, but nevertheless… it’s better than this being real.”

Leon took a breath, rubbing at the back of his neck as the discussion came back to the topic at hand and regaining his composure, “Yeah, same here...”

“But like, still… wow. I haven’t even had a conversation with Hiro outside of the introductions yesterday morning, and already I’m totally getting a vibe of what you’re talking about with him,” Hina shook her head, folding her arms with an uneasy look.

“Oh, no. Trust me on this; you haven’t experienced what it’s really like until you spend five minutes talking to him,” Leon found himself staring at the ceiling, “That’s when you end up being, like, mentally exhausted…”

“We’ll have to take your word on that, because I don’t think we’ll be able to speak to him anytime soon…”

Sakura’s words brought his vision down to her in no time flat.

“Huh? Why not?”

Her eyes closed when her head lowered ever so slightly.

“Hiro isn’t the best at being discreet in his actions. During our introductions, his body was very tense and his hands were visibly shaking. Ever since then, if I come within a certain distance of him, he keeps looking out of the corner of his eyes to maintain awareness of where I am.”

Leon blinked a bit, a faint trace of his nervous smile appearing on his lips.

“So, wait; you’re sayin’ he’s afraid of you?”

“I don’t like to make assumptions about others like that, but it’s very likely. I’m used to it, considering how I know that my appearance can be unsettling to others.”

“Which is so stupid, because he doesn’t know anything about you,” Hina scoffed, her folded arms hugging a bit closer to her body as her face contorted into an incredulous duckface, “Whatever he thinks you are is wrong, no buts!”

The comment was enough to bring a thankful smile to Sakura’s face.

“Thank you, Hina, but it’s fine, really. I understand the potential outcomes of what would happen to me when I began my path in training. I’m quite all right.”

“Okay, but only if you say so…”

Briefly taking a moment to think while the girls spoke among themselves, a form of dread couldn’t help but form in Leon’s mind. Like, okay, so she could tell when someone was uncomfortable around her. Now, the difference between him and the clairvoyant had to be vastly different, or at least, he hoped and crossed his fingers that it was the case. After all, Hiro was one of those guys that came off like an open book; you could easily read him. But with Leon? He wasn’t one of those ‘actors dealing in secrets’ who hid his personality, but strongly believed he could mask when he was freaking out or scared.

And yet… that dread kept repeating that thought.

Could… could Sakura tell when he was uncomfortable or nervous around her? If so, why wasn’t she saying anything? To prevent an argument with Hina for him…?

Hrrm….

Maybe there was more to this girl than he originally thought.

And maybe he needs to tighten his shit up, so that she can’t easily see through him.

“Anyways, I think I’m gonna take your word on the rest of the boys. The only guy I’ve really interacted with other than you and Makoto is Mondo, and he seems okay. I mean, when he’s not angry…” Hina admitted, taking control of where the discussion would lead to, “How about the rest of the girls? Any thoughts?”

For a few seconds before formulating his response, Leon gently bit on the inside of his cheek. This led to him scrunching up his nose and tilting his head to the side.

“Uhhh, I really don’t know. I mean besides Sayaka and you two? The only girls I’ve gotten the chance to spend time with are Chihiro, who I agree one hundred percent with you on; she’s really nervous and quiet, but looks like she’s alright. And then Junko, who’s pretty cool, but can get a bit pissy herself at times. Like the female, discount version of Mondo; nowhere as violent and furious. Other than them, I don’t know anything about the other girls.”

Now understanding that was the limit of his knowledge of the others, Hina took over.

“Hmmm… For one thing, Toko’s really anti-social. And kinda skittish. But really, really rude, right?” she began listing off, as if she was tearing down the girl’s negative traits one by one, “I mean, she straight up called Junko a slut to her face last night!”

A grimace overtook the boy’s face in response.

“Yeah, she’s got some issues. I don’t know what she’s been through, but… geesus…”

“And then there’s Celeste. I mean, she seems nice enough, but the whole thing she talked about ‘adapting’... It really makes me uncomfortable; how can someone adapt to a so-called killing game…?” she moved on, rubbing at the side of her head with an uneasy, puzzled frown.

“I believe there’s some truth in that statement,” Sakura admitted to with closed eyes, “While I don’t particularly enjoy having to spend time in this place, wasting energy in overexerting yourself, whether it be in fear or whatever else, is harmful in the long run. Abiding our time while adapting to the rules placed on us until we find a way out of here is a wise thing to do.”

She opened her eyes, glancing at Leon with a nod before doing the same to Hina.

“Perhaps Celeste sees it that way due to her talent of being a gambler? Being smart and choosing moves carefully…”

“Just like we oughta do to avoid any situations where someone might be tempted to kill someone,” Leon frowned at the nod he received, but was able to follow along and understand what she meant.

“Yeah, I guess… A lot of us have been freaking out about being trapped like this, so it’s probably a good thing we have people like her who can keep a calm head in this,” Hina started to smile.

“And speaking of calm, that would bring us to the final person here, wouldn’t it?” Sakura stated.

Oh yeah… right…

Her.

“Kyoko, right?”

Sakura hummed in agreement to him.

“Yes. In truth, I have to admit I’m quite interested about her. It’s clear to me she has the qualities of a leader; she demonstrated that much yesterday.”

“Oh! You mean after Monokuma vanished and we were in the gym?” Hina asked.

/\/\/\/\/\

“So? What are you going to do now?”

The sharp voice cutting through the tense silence that Leon had closed his eyes and tried to calm himself against had them reopen again. Taking a second to blink and recognize what was said, he turned around with everyone else to see who spoke.

Kyoko.

Somehow, regardless of hearing the choices of life imprisonment or attempting to murder another person, her body stood firm. Arms folded over her chest, and her face… showing no fear. An expression that was strong, unrattled… possibly even going so far as to be… calm? In a situation like this…? H-How-

Her eyes came back from looking away to the side and glanced around at everyone.

“Just stand around glaring at each other?” her voice spoke to everyone in the room.

The inquiry of what the entire group’s next action was going to be had apparently melted the tensioned fear that claimed them. In a matter of seconds, people were starting to look around casually and their postures reverting to normal before the ceremony started. Even he could feel his chest take a breath and all of the anxiety built around simmering down into a pile of ashes.

/\/\/\/\/\

As his memory played that flashback in his head, it dawned on Leon at the time just how well she took control of the situation and brought everyone back to their senses. But now, it was all his mind focused on.

“Yeah… And the fact she’s been a major help, like finding that map of this place, which in turn unlocked the map feature of our handbooks,” he chimed in.

“I want to think she’s a good person, but it’s really hard to talk to her; after all, it was kind of awkward when she wouldn’t tell me what her talent was…” Hina frowned, fixing the collar of her jacket once more.

This caused the eyebrows of a certain punk to go up in surprise.

“Wait a sec, so she did the same to you?”

“Huh? You too?”

“Yeah, she didn’t wanna tell me, either. And I wasn’t, like, gonna force her or whatever…”

“Not only is that the case for me as well,” Sakura added on, “but in the report card section of our handbooks, it doesn’t list what her talent is.”

Wait, what-

Okay, that definitely got his freakin’ attention!

“Wh- you serious?” he asked on the verge of being straight-up flabbergasted, reaching into his jacket to verify it.

Once a solid grip was on his handbook, Leon sat up and brought it over the table for himself and the girls to get a better view. Once the screen lit up, he hit the report card tab, scrolled all the way down to Kyoko’s name, and looked into the details-

…

N… No way...

“...What the crap…?”

‘Ultimate ???’.

Leon was nearly in stupefied awe at what he was seeing.

Her talent, according to this thing, was the Ultimate ???.

He wasn’t the only person confused as hell about this.

“W-How the… Um, i-is this like some kind of a glitch?” Hina had to force herself to tear her eyes away from the screen to look at her friend.

Sakura shook her head, “No. I tried restarting my handbook to check, and when I went back to her report card, it still said the same thing.”

The swimmer’s head moved back to stare at the screen for several more seconds before biting her lip nervously and looking between the other two.

“...S-So not only does she not wanna tell us what her talent is, but even the handbooks Monokuma gives us won’t reveal it. What’s up with that…?”

An uncomfortable silence, despite having the absence of noise, felt like it grew with a ringing sensation with every passing second. And that really got under his skin. Both in annoyance and anxiety, to the point where when after he put his handbook back into his jacket and he folded his arms and looked up, his right index and middle fingers began to tap with ever-increasing rhythm on his left arm.

“...It can’t be a coincidence, can it?” he shook his head, stating his belief in the form of a question he already knew the answer to, “Like, it’s way too easy to think that way…”

Sakura looked away, deep in thought with a touch of worry in her eyes.

“I just don’t get that, though. For real, why would someone not want anybody to know what their talent is? Like that’s the thing that gets you into Hope’s Peak Academy,” Hina racked her brain while voicing her thoughts aloud, “You’d think every student who was accepted would be proud of what they do; I know I am when it comes to swimming!”

………… Eh, haha…

Ha.

Um… maybe now’s not the best time for him to explain why that wouldn’t be accurate. Don’t get the wrong picture; he’d love to tell people why he’s ditching baseball, but now when it could derail what they’re talking about…?

Probably not…

“Maybe she doesn’t trust any of us right now? I mean, we’ve only just met yesterday,” Leon offered up, “And with this killing game bullshit, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s thinking twice about getting close to any of us…”

“Yeah, that could be it…. Or….”

Hina’s voice trailed off before getting a very serious, disturbed expression. She shifted slightly in her chair.

“Or…?” Sakura prompted her to continue.

The swimmer winced inaudibly before doing what she wanted.

“Or, maybe… she’s working with Monokuma?”

While the fighter’s face turned into horrified shock, Leon’s head jerked back and unconsciously felt his jaw drop at that. W-Whoa, for real? S-She’s saying…

“Wh… You seriously think that Kyoko is like some kind of double agent or somethin’?” he sputtered out, jaw still hanging open even after finishing.

That… that’d be insane as all hell! Someone willingly putting themselves in this thing as some kind of a mole for the mastermind? And that person is Kyoko. Ehhh… Like, okay. He gets it; it would kind of make sense, with the concealing talent thing, because if her talent was something that’d be hella suspicious…

Y-Y’know, not that he wants to doubt a girl like that...

…

…

...Hmmm…

The gears that started to turn in his head prompted his mouth to finally close and contort the lips into a frown. His nose wrinkled while he glanced up towards the ceiling.

“...Actually, wait a minute; that doesn’t make sense…” he said, looking back towards the one who proposed the possibility, “Why would someone working for the person holding us here actively go out of their way to try and help us?”

To his surprise, Hina came prepared for that question and offered back, “But that’s the point of a double agent, isn’t it? You pretend to be trapped and work together with everyone. So Kyoko could’ve just pretended to search. I mean, she ended up going off by herself when we searched yesterday, didn’t she? She also came back super late compared to everyone else. And she wouldn’t answer Taka on where she was or where she found the map.”

Uhhh, well, she wasn’t wrong. One thing he did forget to remember going over yesterday’s events was that when Kyoko did come back, the hall monitor somewhat demanded to know these things; he ultimately got brushed off by her or Junko steamrolled over his concerns to hurry up to the topic about the map. When you thought about it, she got really lucky not having to talk about that. So he totally gets where Hina’s coming from…

...But…

“Yeah, but… didn’t she bring back that map for us? If she was really pretending to help, why would she go out of her way to bring somethin’ that helps the group?” he countered with, unconsciously starting to fiddle a bit with his goatee, “Wouldn’t it make more sense to say you searched, but couldn’t find anything?”

“Ummm, hmmm…”

“Hina. Leon.”

The two broke their mini-debate to look over to Sakura, who finally decided to reenter the discussion.

“Pardon me if I’m being too blunt, but I think we should cease this line of thinking. It’s not fair to assume that Kyoko is our enemy based on only a day’s worth of actions. That kind of mentality is bound to create enemies out of trivial matters,” she said, glancing between the two of them occasionally, “For all we know, Kyoko being tight-lipped, reserved, and a loner is just her personality. As for the unknown talent part, there could be another reason besides her being a mole for the person behind all this.”

Apparently, that was the biggest revelation to the other girl ever as Leon could’ve sworn she did a double-take within half a second and had the expression of someone whose brain malfunctioned. Like if an angel came down and took a shit directly in front of her.

He didn’t know why that metaphor came to mind, but… Ehh, his mind was a strange place at times.

“H-Huh? Like what?”

“For example, have you considered perhaps that Monokuma or the person controlling him had confronted Kyoko and told her not to reveal her talent to the rest of us?”

While his case wasn’t as egregiously visible when it came to being shocked, the punk did have the look of someone who probably got biffed in the face with a solid jab and still hadn’t registered it.

But, hey; this has enough to color him mega curious. No joke.

“...Gonna hafta expand on that, because that’s too good of a theory to just give no explanation to,” he waved his right hand in a circular motion for her to continue as he and Hina leaned in closer towards her.

The muscular female acknowledged his prompt and continued calmly, “Very well. Think of this possibility: Kyoko is the first person to wake up out of the fifteen of us. When she does, Monokuma appears before her and tells her under no circumstances can she reveal what her talent is. If she does, then she will be punished.”

A brief silence arose into the conversation as he and Hina looked towards each other, awaiting a potential rebuttal from the other…

One that never came.

W-Wow, that’s… that’s actually not a bad theory. It fits perfectly with everything about Kyoko; the unknown talent, her behavior, how calm she was… maybe Sakura’s guess was more along the lines of it…

“...Yeah,” Leon agreed, making a disturbed frown, “And we’ve seen firsthand what the bear thinks is an acceptable ‘punishment’...”

Hina nodded, sitting back in her chair with an equally uncomfortable face.

“Not only that,” Sakura stated, unfolding her arms to take another sip from her drink once she was done speaking, “but when I arrived in the entrance hall yesterday morning, I was the fourth. Kyoko was one of the first three there, the other two being Taka and Junko. I never did ask who arrived first, but if my theory would be right… perhaps Kyoko arrived first because of what I theorized.”

Hmmm… that was a good…

Hmmmm…. Hrrrrrmm…..

….Y’know…

“Yeah… or….”

The two girls looked over to him as he trailed off.

“Or…?” Hina asked, now having him be the one who was prompted to continue.

The boy felt a surge throughout his cheeks as they slightly lit up red. A sweatdrop rolling down the side of his temple, he awkwardly glanced away and shrugged, a sheepish and crooked smile being ever so small that they could barely see his teeth.

“Or… Maybe we’re just jumpin’ the gun and overanalyzing this crap way too much,” he suggested, a snort almost lodging itself inside of his nose, “After all, it’s only, like, day two of us being here, heh…”

A satisfied ghost of a smile appeared on Sakura’s lips.

“Exactly my point. We can spend all day theorizing about specific people, but with very little information to go on, it would be pointless as we’d be making no progress. But most importantly,” she spoke gently before having an unshaken tone of seriousness laced within her voice, “we need to do our best to trust each other, so we can work towards the goal of escaping this place alive. Doubting your allies… is an ugly thing to do.”

...So that’s why she came up with that theory. To segue into this.

Damn, this girl really is clever in a way. Totally set him and Hina up for them to eventually understand what they were doing wasn’t the best thing. It’s like his body realized it before his mind fully got it; no wonder his face blushed and he felt slightly embarrassed.

And he wasn’t the only one, as Hina giggled uncomfortably and rubbed the back of her head with a nice shade of red overtaking her face.

“R-Right… Sorry, Sakura…”

“It’s quite all right, Hina. If anything, this ‘killing game’ situation we’re in seems to prompt this kind of reaction from us,” the fighter pardoned her friend.

Leon felt himself let go of any embarrassment from earlier and turn back to them, “Yeah, this whole thing is totally dumb… But, y’know…”

He could feel a grin form onto his face as he scratched the back of his head, “It does feel kinda nice to just talk things out like this. Like, not thinking everyone is out to get you and crap. I mean, I don’t know if it makes a lotta sense, but… I feel like talkin’ to you two helped me keep my mind off stuff that had me bummed, y’know?”

Both of the girls across the table smiled at that response, especially Hina, who cheerfully nodded and folded her arms confidently.

“Well, it’s not exactly how I imagined the talk would go, but I’m glad to hear that! Like I said, sometimes you just need to hang out and talk with people, and that’ll cheer you right up.”

Leon nodded, feeling his spirits being a bit higher than when he woke up this morning. Like, this wasn’t a perfect day in any situation, and he had that freakin’ sweet moment where he finally got Sayaka to know about his dream and possibly help him in the future. But, this conversation? It was a different kind of good feeling. Like, mega deep good. It felt nice to be able to just….

Talk. As in normal talk. Like normal teenagers.

Huh… He didn’t realize that until now.

Also didn’t realize that he just had a normal conversation with the one person who made him uneasy whenever she was around him and he’s not even bothered with it anymore. Whoa, when did that happen? Was it because someone else, in this situation being Hina, was with them, so it eased the tension…?

He was drawn out of his thoughts when he noticed the swimmer’s facial features switch to a… uh-ha-hum… very comical duckface-esque look.

“Still kinda ticked off that there weren’t any doughnuts in the kitchen, though…”

That raised a stifled giggle out of the depths of his lungs that he didn’t know was there. An amused smile had also come over the other girl’s face as she faced her.

“My apologies, Hina. I searched all over that room, but I promise you I couldn’t find a single donut there.”

“Oh, no, I’m not calling you a liar or anything, Sakura. But I swear to God!” Hina reassured, slamming a hand on the table at the exclamation before folding her arms again and showing just how fed up she was, “If Sayaka’s telling the truth and Monokuma really does restock the kitchen with food, then the next time it does it, there better be some donuts in there, or we’re gonna have a BIG problem.”

For a split moment, both Leon and Sakura made eye contact. And the moment they did, both looked away, with the boy snickering and the girl having a smile grow larger on her face. With better control of herself to prevent any laughter from seeping out, she spoke next.

“I hate to cut this short, but I believe this has been a long enough break for us,” she called for the end, starting to stand up and pick up her glass, “We should probably resume searching the school.”

Hearing that, the other two nodded, preparing to also put away their dirty dishes.

“Yeah, good point. Besides, if Taka walks in and sees us just takin’ it easy, he’ll snap at us for sure,” Leon spit out under his breath, going to chug the rest of his water.

Hina raised an eyebrow, “I thought you said you weren’t going to rag on the guy…”

Just in time for her to finish that, because Leon finished his drink and took a breath before responded.

“Look, just trust the guy who’s been on the receiving end of his lectures, alright? Just trying to save us from being in front of his warpath…”

It didn’t seem like it was a convincing argument, but the girl let it go with a shrug before all three of them moved to the kitchen to take care of the glasses.

And from there, the day went by uneventful. Unfortunately, no luck on finding anything else, as Leon and the other fourteen students were forced to accept failure for two days in a row, grab some dinner, and then ready for bed...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK-

WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK!?

For the second time in a row, Leon was abruptly ripped out of his sleep. Only this time, he wasn’t completely thrown for a loop and nearly on the verge of his soul traveling into the afterlife from a heart attack. Oho, no. Not this time.

No, this time was the unforgiving case of morning rage.

Because the morning announcement already woke him… like, what, a few minutes ago? So, he thought, you know what; I’m gonna get a few more hours of shut-eye, and then get something to eat and start the day.

And just as his body takes in the soothing warmth of his blanket and bed, someone starts knocking-

Oh, who was he kidding?

Someone starts pounding like a freakin’ madman on his door, completely alerting him of his surroundings and breaks the peaceful tranquility of being able to sleep in this forsaken place.

And the diamond in the pile of dog shit of all this?

The person wasn’t stopping; they kept going and going and going and-

This person is about to sign their death warrant, right about now-

FUCKING STOP WITH THE GAWDDAMN KNOCKING-

With about as much grace and precision as a wrecking ball to a skyscraper, the limbs shocked the covers into an ungraceful heap to the side of the mattress. With a looming, figureative pitch black thunderstorm beginning to grind to its climax over his head, Leon threw one of his undershirts on real quick and fast-walked towards the door with righteous stomps that could even make Godzilla jealous. As he reached for his doorknob after unlocking it, he noticed that all he had were his boxer briefs on underneath, so that thankfully stopped him from just ripping the door wide open to whoever was on the outside…

And…

FUCK.

“Ahh, good to finally see that you decided to open your door, Leon! It’s incredibly rude to keep someone waiting when they’ve knocked,” the gigantic red eyes and eyebrows of Taka bore into him immediately, almost like his words the second he cracked his door open.

……………….

Leon blinked silently, his eyes squinting afterwards.

“...Dude, it’s near seven in the morning.”

Taka nodded.

“I am aware of that, yes.”

………………..

Leon’s eyebrows lowered, eyes narrowing.

“...Lemme rephrase that; why the hell are you waking me near seven in the morning?”

Completely unfazed by his aggressive chance of tone and glare, the other boy answered, “Simple! I’m having all of us gather together in the mornings; from now on, after the announcements, everyone should have breakfast together! And now is the beginning of that fateful day!”

…………………

“...You’re fucking with me.”

“W-Wha!?” Taka took a step back, horrified, “L-Leon, at no point in this exhange have I even attempted to engage in sexual-”

“I’m not talking about that shit!” Leon finally had enough, snapping at him, “You seriously woke me up, so I can eat with everyone at the same time? Dude, I could be- y’know what? No. I’m not doin’ this. I’m goin’ back to bed, because I do not have the-”

“Oh, hell no!!”

Leon’s rage evaporated into horror the moment he saw a flash of strawberry-blonde come into his vision. Junko (Wait, what the fuck; when did she get here-), with a vein bulging out of her beautiful forehead, suddenly grabbed Taka by the shoulder and shoved him out of the way, gaining a gasping exclaim of shock from him as he went out of view. Now faced with the realization that a door was the only thing shielding his boxer brief form from a pissed off girl, the baseball star suddenly felt really small…

“If I had to get dragged outta my room for whatever the hell ‘breakfast club’ thing Taka wants us to do, then you are too! No ifs, ands, or buts! So, you better get your ass in gear!” Junko fired back with, her eyes twitching from the pure insanity of it all.

……………. Gawddamn it.

A sigh of defeat signaled her to calm down in a grumpy frown as he glared up at the ceiling.

“All right, all right, just… gimme five minutes to get ready.”

A nod from the fashionista agreeing to the deal, she closed the door surprisingly gently for someone who just took his head off. That allowed Leon to fume and scream a few obscenities (thank you, ultra sound proof walls), quickly put on his clothes and accessories, fix his hair (which now made him twice as mad, because that meant Taka and Junko saw how mega uncool his hair was before), and stuffed his handbook and room key into his pockets before finally heading out the door.

When he got outside and locked his door, he was greeted by a cheerful Taka, a very still grumpy Junko… and a tired, barely awake Makoto who just got done yawning. The hall monitor then nodding approvingly to him.

“Excellent; I’m glad to see you agreed to come have breakfast, Leon. For that, I will overlook your choice of foul language this time!”

Fuck you. Fuck you with something hard and sandpapery.

“Now then, please make your way to the dining hall at your earliest convenience, please! The rest of the students and I shall be waiting for you there!” he assaulted Leon’s eardrums again for the umpteenth time as he did that military walk away from them and around the corner.

“...That’s the sixth time he’s pissed me off in a little over two days,” Leon muttered, face darkening as he looked away.

“Like, seriously!? Does he not have a fuckin’ clue!?” Junko’s dam of patience finally broke, her hands being thrown up in the air, “My mascara’s clumpy as all hell! I don’t want anyone to see me this way, but that guy banged on my door and woke me up. What a dick!”

Leon nearly shouted ‘amen’ at that, but was cut off by the girl continuing.

“Ugh! Seriously need to reapply, but I don’t have any time…”

“...Maybe you can ask one of the other girls if they can hook you up with some of their makeup?” he offered.

It seemed she was going to argue, but paused and eventually sighed.

“...You know what? Yeah, that sounds like my best option. Maybe I’ll try Celeste or Sayaka; they seem to be the two that use makeup the most out of the girls besides me…” she mumbled, not even giving a good-bye while making her way towards the corner, “This better be freakin’ worth it…”

With her gone…

Leon glanced over towards Makoto.

“...He woke you up, too?”

The kid rubbed his face with a frown.

“I was the first person he woke up. He then had me help wake the others, and… I seemed to get the ones that don’t like waking up early in the morning…”

Leon shrugged before huffing.

“It’s seriously annoying… Oh well. Can’t be helped. See ya.”

“Huh? Where are you going?”

“Back to bed. I’m not hungry and I wanna sleep some more. Screw the ‘breakfast club’ or whatever that’s all about.”

Just as his hand took the doorknob into its grasp to unlock the door, Makoto took a step closer and tried to be the voice of reason, “I… don’t think that’s a good idea. Taka will just come back and start banging on your door to bug you again, or Junko will come back to tear you a new one for trying to pull a fast one like that…”

…………………

Leon groaned, his forehead making a solid ‘thunk’ on the door.

Dammit, he’s prolly right. And that depressing part was that wasn’t even a good either/or choice. An angry Taka or an angry Junko. Neither option had some kind of desirable reward behind it. It’d be like getting asked how would you rather die: getting your skull bashed in with a giant hammer or being skewered by something like a spear.

Either way, lose lose.

“...Fine. I’ll go to the little pow pow, and then I’m going back to bed. I don’t care if this messes me up for the day; I’m makin’ a point by doing it, dammit.”

Makoto tried to give a sympathetic smile as the two boys made their way to the dining hall to begin the day.

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better. (especially for this chapter, because I REALLY am going to start working on the Leon/Hina/Sakura friendship from this point on!)

Chapter 10: Ch 1: Daily Life 6

Notes:

Where the weenie... wishes he never got out of bed.

“Everyone, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to come together.”

That line brought out the darkest of shadowed glares Leon could make. That led to the scoff filled with such malice and disturbed grumpiness making itself known to the entire dining hall occupants.

“I didn’t make time for shit. You dragged me here…” he challenged the notion of coming willingly, his gaze glancing past Sakura and Hifumi at the end of the table where he was seated.

That comment didn’t go unnoticed by Taka, who immediately turned to send a displeased look his way, but the storm cloud raging over Leon’s head was too great for him to be perturbed by the unusually intense red eyes like he would be. But frankly, the fiery young man wasn’t alone in this notion. A good portion of people, now that everyone had been collected and brought to the dining hall, were in agreement. Especially Junko, who silently chuckled and caught his attention, both sharing a small smirk with each other.

Nevertheless, the hall monitor pulled himself together with a quick effort to clear his throat.

“Ahem… moving on. I know I already mentioned this earlier, but… In order to get out of here, it is essential that we all cooperate with each other,” he said, ceasing his actions of leaning across the table and straightening his form while continuing to stand, “And the first step is this breakfast meeting, to allow us to become friends and build trust! So from now on, let’s all meet here in the dining hall every morning after the morning announcement!”

“Are you fuckin’ with me? That’s why you went outta your way to drag us out of our rooms so early?” Mondo’s stare hardened, visage of a disgusted sneer forming.

Looking back at them briefly out of the corner of his eye, it seemed like Taka had shot back a just-as-strong fierce look at him. Considering how the two butted heads on the first day (which made him note that probably when it came to the guy’s friendship chart, if he had any among everyone here, Mondo was second most likely after him) and since he had no clue what interactions they might’ve had yesterday, it was sort of a twisted joy to have someone else take the focus of the annoying jerk off of him.

“I mean, I get where you’re comin’ from to help build morale, but couldn’t you have asked us if we would be willing to do this beforehand, instead of at the crack of dawn?” Hiro asked, grimacing as he buried his face into his hands to rub it into a more awake state.

“B-Besides, you w-want me to eat b-breakfast with other people? I’ve never done that b-before. I-I’m not sure…” Toko admitted, a twitchy smile being shaded with red as she fidgeted with her fingers.

Leon found himself nodding, rubbing the back of his head carefully, “Yeah, it’s been a while for me, too....”

And for other people, by the looks of how some agreed by nodding or how their expressions shifted uncomfortably.

“But still, it’s not a bad idea, right?” Makoto suggested, garnering everyone’s attention, “Doing this will help us grow closer to each other to where we might even become friends. If that’s the case, there’d be no temptation to murder anyone.”

“Yeah, he’s right; teamwork makes the dream work, as they say!” Hina chimed in, nodding in approval.

“With that said, I know it’s going to be hard,” Sayaka nodded, giving a bright smile to everyone at the table, “but let’s do our best to stay united and work together, all right, everyone?”

……..Oh, come on; even as tired and grumpy as he was at the moment, not even that could stop him from smiling and nodding in agreement with, as far as he could tell (despite being tired), everyone else.

And that just sent sparkles or tears or whatever into Taka’s eyes, who appeared to seem proud.

“Wonderful! Only the first breakfast meeting we’ve had, and already I can feel a change for the better for us to overcome this challenging time! Truly splendid!” he praised them openly, finally sitting down triumphantly next to Makoto.

Leon could’ve sworn he heard Byakuya behind him at the other table mutter about how ‘this was all idiotic drivel’ or something, but his giant yawn that he attempted to hide behind his arm beat out his focus.

“Okay, that’s nice and all, really…”

He wiped the small tears out of his eyes in time to look towards his right to see Junko begin speaking.

“...But, for real. Has anyone yet happen to come up with clues?”

A hallowing silence echoed throughout the whole dining hall. Pairs of eyes began to glance around at each other, waiting for someone to shatter the apparent, incoming, and hopeless failure of any leads, but in the end…

“...Seriously? Nothing at all!?” the fashionista’s voice spiked higher, the frustrations of being a prisoner in this place being fuel to the bonfire of her already grumpy mood as she kept fixing her gaze to other people rapidly, “Like, anything! It can be about anything: finding a way out, a clue to who’s responsible for this whole thing, even something that we hadn’t found initially in our initial searches! Nobody’s got anything, for crying out lo-”

“You are going to die.”

...What the actual crap?

Leon’s eyes narrowed in utter disbelief across the table at Celeste, who had slightly leaned forward and directed that harrowing sentence at the girl next to him. Nearly on the verge of gawking at her, his deeply, uneasy expression and concentration directed at her prevented him from hearing the gasps and shocked mutters of others around the table.

Why the hell would someone be compelled to say that to someone. Just… friggin’ why.

Of course, none were more taken aback than Junko, who sputtered like an engine without gasoline as her horrified face whipped over towards the lolita girl.

“W-What did you...”

“If you cannot stop showing weakness in front of others… you will die,” Celeste made no attempt to hide her stance, leaning back into a proper position when she finished.

The strawberry blonde grunted while shaking her head to snap her out of her stupor, being fueled with anger now.

“H-Hey, no! The hell’s up with you? Don’t even freaking joke about that!”

To much of the table’s surprise, Celeste merely giggled and rested her chin against the back of her intertwined fingers, an innocent smile plastered on as if nothing had just happened along the lines of telling someone they will die.

“I am not joking. For your benefit, I will repeat myself. Adaptability is survivability,” she calmly elaborated, “If you can do that, you will have a greater chance of making it out alive. So you’d better hurry up and adapt to your new life.”

“A-Are you mad? Adapt to this kind of life? Do you even hear yourself??” Junko fumed, the underside of her left eye twitching.

“Tch, yeah; sounds like the chick wants to live here. And hell, more power to her,” Mondo scoffed, shaking his head with a growl, “But shit, that’s not flying with me! I’m getting out of this place; I don’t give a fuck!”

Celeste unlocked her fingers, attempting to cover an amused smile with one of her hands.

“Hmhmhm… Sure, feel free, then.”

...

...You know what? No. Just…

This was dumb. So stupid.

“...Oh, screw this,” Leon grumbled, pushing off the table to help scoot his seat back enough to stand up.

The scraping noise of his chair legs and the movement that created him to be the tallest on out of everyone in the present moment created him to be the center of attention. As he inwardly fought his need to let out a groan or spew a curse word or something to ease just how not great he was feeling-

“Just a minute! Where do you think you’re going?”

Of course, his ‘favorite’ person needs to shout every word-

...Actually… No. Just… No, you know? No.

Turning slightly to glance over at Taka and ignore the other eyes below and around his looking up at him, Leon was in fact tempted to say something really assholish and snarky. But of course, all the girls, especially Sayaka being there? As great as he was, he really had to dig deep. Not just deep, he meant DEEP. The kind of deep that we’ve all had to, to be kind to even the biggest of annoyances. Deep inside to somehow keep his image intact, but drive his point across. Groggy, tired eyes struggled to stay open and focus as he sighed and dug his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

Subtle, deep breath in.

“...Man, look. As much as it sucks for me, because I’m not a morning person and I like to eat by myself, I get why you’re doing this whole ‘everyone eats together’ thing. And I will eventually be cool with it.”

He closed his eyes, enjoying the nice darkness on his vision and how it already tempted him to go back into his room and get a few more winks. But not yet. With the opening laid out, he began to figuratively tread a bit more carefully, or at least, what he could manage at his current state.

“But hearing someone tell another person that they’re going to die? Dude, it’s way too early in the morning for that, and I don’t have the patience.”

With that, he cleared his throat and turned away, making his way to the kitchen and finally having his tired scowl become visible with his back turned to everyone.

“I’m going to grab something to eat, alright? I think I should be able to do that without being drilled with questions…”

It seemed like either that response satisfied Taka enough to let it go or (which was the most likely) the response wasn’t something that the hall monitor was prepared for, and as such, he fell quiet with uncertainty on how he should proceed. And no one else seemed to have the desire, effort, or (for all he knew) care to pick up the slack on that front. Add to the fact that no visible angry aura or vibes coming off Sayaka or the girls, and it seemed like it was mission accomplished.

Thank God.

The feeling of being victorious covered by a blanket of wanting to go the hell back to sleep, Leon attempted not to drag his feet as he made his way into the kitchen. Before fully disappearing into the other room, he could pick up the fact that the group had bounced back from his tiny speech and began discussing something else.

Except his eyes caught something.

Both Hina and Sakura were looking at him for a short while, before sharing a glance with each other.

It wasn’t really a surprise to him, considering their talk yesterday afternoon and sharing his feelings about Taka. Knowing that, he wouldn’t doubt if their initial thoughts for the reason of his actions was to get away from the guy.

But in reality, he just wanted to go back to bed. And he actually was hungry now.

A sigh coming out of his lungs, he finally went inside the kitchen.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A short banana break later…

He didn’t feel particularly better in any regard, but at least he could say he had breakfast. One thing’s for sure, though. After this ‘breakfast club’ crap, he was going back to bed. Damn straight. Anyone who had a problem with it could kiss his ass.

...Possible exception for Sayaka. And that’s a real maybe on that one.

Before coming out of the kitchen, Leon took care of his garbage and let out one last yawn before readjusting his jacket’s collar and attempting to slap his cheeks slightly to wake him up for just a tiny bit longer before the sweet nap that would be coming in his immediate future. He turned the corner and made his way towards the table just in time to catch and comprehend the words of the most recent person to speak.

“But like I said, I can’t be certain,” Chihiro said, shrugging timidly as she rubbed the back of her right hand which rested on her chest, “I don’t have any evidence or anything. It’s just a thought, sadly…”

Welp, he missed something important while eating, didn’t he?

Whatever. He can afford to care later…

Once he got close enough, he caught the eyes of several of the people at the table, specifically Sakura and Junko. Recognizing he was returning to the same seat, the two girls adjusted their position on their chairs slightly to make him room. He gave a nod of appreciation to the both of them before squeezing in without making contact with them and plopped into his seat. He stuffed his hands back into his pockets as they returned to their original positions in their chairs at the same time for the next person’s voice to begin.

“Hey, It’s okay! Everything’s absolutely, positively, one hundred percent without a doubt going to be okay!” Hina confidently declared, flashing a reassuring smile to the smaller girl, “‘Cuz help’s gonna be here soon; I’m sure of it!”

Toko gasped from behind him.

“H-Huh…? Help?”

The swimmer nodded.

“We’ve been stuck here for a few days already, right? Nobody’s been able to contact us, so I’m sure they’re getting worried. I mean, they gotta have called the police by now!”

Yeah, if he could remember somewhat, that was a point that Hiro made during his reasoning on why this was an elaborate prank on the class by the school. And he wasn’t knockin’ it at all; both he and Hina were right. They had gone pretty much two days without any contact from their friends and family. However, personally for him? He… well…. Kanon, uh, would be freaking out after going over twenty-four hours without talking to him, due to how close she remained to him, so it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for her to go into one of her fits looking for him. His dad on the other hand was more chill. Not that he didn’t love him as much as his cousin did or whatever, but one thing Leon absolutely gave his old man credit for was knowing when to not helicopter parent around him and give him privacy. So if he went to a friend’s house for a couple days and forgot to call home to let him know what was up, his dad would be chill and wait a while longer before wondering if something had gone awry.

Personally, he hoped his dad would start worrying and try to call the police-

“AAAHHH-HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAAAAA!!!”

The sudden roar of laughter ripped him out of the comforts of his mind as his head whirled to the right-

Holy gawddamn piss, when did Monokuma show up!?

In almost perfect unison, nearly everyone had shot out of their seats with a few of the girls crying out in fear as everyone backed away from the end of the table where Kyoko and Taka had been sitting. The bear had somehow snuck into a seat without anyone noticing initially and started laughing- no, actually hysterically guffawing at the suggestion Hina made. It even milked it to where he pounded on the table a few times before taking a stabilizing breath.

Leon mentally cursed the bear, but more of the situation and how while he was ready to bolt out the door if needed, he felt his body grow a shiver of cold from fatigue growing more. For gawd’s sake, he just sat down…

“The police? You are actually putting your faith in the police to be your knights in shining armor?” Monokuma struggled to speak through giggles, leaning back in its chair while patting its belly a few times, “Ohh, how adorably silly and stupid you are, my wonderful students…”

It sighed out a calming breath, finally regaining its composure before continuing.

“Do you understand what role the police exist to fill? All they're good for is being a foil, playing against a villain or anti-hero or evil organization. The bad guys come along and destroy them, and that shows just how badass they really are. Like one of these anime shows where a super strong ninja or warrior comes in and wipes out a hundred of them by himself! And you wanna rely on such an unreliable group of losers?”

The grin on the left side of its face somehow appeared to grow. As strange as that seemed… well, ehhh, y-y’know, for a… walking, talking bear...

“I mean, come on! I’ve already given you the option of how you can escape outta here, you know,” it reminded them, waving its left paw in the air, “If you really, REALLY wanna get out of here, all you gotta do is kill one of your pretty little buddies that are standing near you. It’s that easy!”

The tense atmosphere caused all the students to lose their ability to speak. A few looked around at each other to carefully gauge what the others were thinking, while others stared back at the bear with a fierce determination, as if to spit in the face of the stupidity it was spewing from its cartoonish, deformed mouth-

Well, the tense atmosphere was there at one point. It all kinda came crashing down when everyone noticed Hiro laughing somewhat. His arms folded across his chest, he was shaking his head and had that same smug look on his face. The same one when he had the same reaction at the morning orientation on the first day…

...There’s no way he’s...

Regardless, Leon still glared at him, somewhat throwing his arms up in the air.

“Why the hell are you laughing!?”

“Ah, sorry, dude,” the clairvoyant chuckled, “I’m just impressed at the total commitment to this act. Still going strong, you know?”

Almost everyone turned to look at him with various levels of bewilderment, incredulousness, or anger.

...Yup, he’s still thinking that way.

Good move, you dick.

Ignoring Junko nearly snarling in disbelief and saying something along the lines of ‘You seriously still think this is a fucking prank!?”, Mondo had gritted his teeth and menacingly smashed his fist into the palm of his other hand, “So, Mr. Serial Killer Psycho Freak Bastard… What the hell do you want!?”

...Wait, what?

“Mr. Serialkillerpsychofreakbastard, huh? Geez, is that supposed to be my last name?” the bear replied with, trying to hide its amusement, “Monokuma Serialkillerpsychofreakbastard. Is it German, maybe?”

The biker wasn’t deterred as he shouted over his last words, “We know who you really are!”

...Wait, they do!? Damn, what conversation did he miss by going into the kitchen?

The shout actually seemed to make Monokuma flinch, as its dot eye closed and it slowly turned around, so he had its back on the pumped up man.

“...Maybe if I ignore him and don’t give him the attention he craves, he’ll go away…” it whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, its little tail giving a small wiggle.

Well, that’s A-class trolling, ain’t it? Like, not even showing a single ounce of intimidation to a guy like him. And yeah, he knows the bear’s just a bomb that somehow can function like a human being, and that plays into a major key part of it. But when you have a guy like Mondo in your face, even the toughest and the baddest aren’t so full of themselves one hundred percent, right…?

Speaking of Mondo, that seemed to give a few veins in his neck and forehead the power to bulge out at the rising annoyance that was building inside of him.

“Hey! Don’t ignore me, asshole!!”

A scoff came out of Monokuma before it turned around in defeat.

“Geez, it’s freakin’ hard not to…” it muttered before standing up on the seat of the chair and getting down to business, “Okay, okay, enough fooling around. Allow me to get to the crux of the matter as to why your headmaster has decided to grace your presence today. Your life here has already begun and a couple days have gone by, and nobody’s killing anyone!”

It paused to hold its hands gently behind its back while swaying back and forth.

“It might be bad for me to admit this, but… I gotta say that I’m impressed by the lot of you,” it said, earning a few surprised looks from the students, “I thought all you kids were lazy and selfish, but here you are, not giving into your own personal desires and actually working together to find a way out of your new communal life! As a result, it’s made me kinda bored…”

Makoto took that statement as a sign that their ‘headmaster’ was admitting to being frustrated by its expectations failing and took a step forward in courage.

“That’s right, Monokuma. There’s nothing that you can say that’ll make us start killing each other. We-”

The boy immediately took a step back in regret when the small animal-like thing suddenly jerked its head up and began jumping up and down… almost… almost as if it was…

..overcome with pure joy…?

Gawd, Leon hates bears so much now.

“Wait, waitwaitwaitwaitHOOOOOOOLLLD YOUR HORSES! Ding ding ding; I think I figured it out!”

It stopped jumping to lean on the table, holding its face up with its arms while its legs happily went up and down.

“Silly me! How on earth could I completely zone out like that and not realize what was missing? Shame on me~,” it said, pushing off the table to spin around the chair like a ballerina, “All the mystery ingredients are here: the right people, the right place, and the right conditions. So why hasn’t anyone attempted to awaken their urge to kill? I couldn’t fathom a reason why at first, but now, it’s crystal clear! I was missing the biggest, crucial ingredient of them all; like the special sauce on a patty that’s so necessary and juicy, that’d make the rival of your food chain go out of their way to try and steal it!”

“H-Huh? What are you trying to…?”

Before Makoto could ask for an explanation, the God-forbidden bear stopped doing the meanest, continuous pirouette and beat him to it.

“It’s simple! A motive! Puhuhuhu…” it giggled, folding its arms before it nodded confidently in its belief, “In order to really get this party started, I need to present you all a motive!”

“Motive? What the fuck are you talking about!?” Mondo roared, his legs twitching to get full permission to march the rest of his body over towards the bear for a more intense interrogation.

“Oh, quite simple, really! And it all has to do with something that I wanna show you all,” Monokuma said, placing its hands on its hips, “You see, I have a little video I’d like everyone to see.”

“A video…?” Chihiro repeated, face slightly tinted with worry.

“Oh, but don’t worry. It’s not some pervy adult video I’m gonna trick you into watching or anything. Seriously, I’m not into disgusting, erotic stuff like some of you may be~” Monokuma nodded, teasing with its paw waving at them, “It happens to be a special video for each of you showing what’s going on outside the school.”

Ignoring the subtle comment about him being into disgusting shit (well… partially ignoring it, because that’s totally not cool, jest or not), Leon could feel a sense of anxious curiosity building inside of his chest when he glanced away and focused on the table in front of him. A special video displaying something outside of this school individually for him? Hell no, that can’t be good in the least bit…

“Outside the school…? What are you talking about?” Makoto’s voice snapped his attention back to the right.

Monokuma simply giggled again in response.

Only two days he’s known its existence, and his feelings for that sound it makes when it giggles has gone from hatred to full-on despisement.

“Ohoho, Master Naegi’s so uncharacteristically impatient today! Why don’t ya just go watch it for yourself if you wanna know what I’m saying?” it countered, causing the boy to frown in disappointment at being blocked from an appropriate answer, “I’ve already prepared the room where you can watch the videos; all you gotta do is go down there and do so.”

“Good.”

Leon blinked as he and everyone else turned to Kyoko closing her eyes with a small nod, folding her arms in a professional manner over her chest.

“Then we can go see the video right now. But before we do, I’d like to know…”

Her eyes opened, the somehow still intact stoicism being able to compliment a fierce, daring courage shading them, as she proceeded to continue.

“What are you? What do you hope to gain from doing something like this? What do you want from us?”

Unfazed by the girl’s demanding inquiries, Monokuma cutely tilted its head, blinking its dot eye a few times before replying in a high, adorable tone, “That’s a lot of questions, you know, missy! And I don’t wanna waste any time answering all of them when you could be watching the videos I’ve prepared for all of you. But what I want from you…? I believe I can answer that little nugget of info quickly. If you must absolutely, positively, unbearably must know…”

Several gasps and shocked grunts seemed to drown out of Leon’s hearing as he felt his forehead grow cold and his hands clammy. Out of instinct, he tried to take a step behind Junko and Mondo’s frames as if to shield himself out of view. For what he saw… it was like straight out of a horror film, man… Monokuma’s body had jerked into this really gawddamn creepy posture as its head limply tilted to the other side when it did that, the red eye glowed with a brightness that couldn’t be ignored.

And the tone of its voice, with how monotone and dead it went from a tone full of life…

Gave him the friggin’ chills.

“Despair. That’s all.”

….W-Wh-

Despair? It wants… despair from him? Like…

What the hell does that mean?

Now, it wasn’t like he was entirely clueless, however. With his mind racing at a million miles an hour, it was able to remind him of the orientation ceremony two days ago and while it blabbered on about how they were trapped here forever, Monokuma had said something about despair. Something about how they were hope and murdering it would bring a giant shadow of despair in its place.

...Not that he, urm, knew exactly what that really meant. Monokuma wanted despair from him? What did that actually mean, exactly? Like… him being scared and freaked out? Or that feeling he got when he blew a major test and got a super sucky grade that he knew his dad would be pissed about? Or was it… something he’s never experienced before…?

Actually, wait. That’s not the most important question to be asking himself.

The one that really should take the cake is WHY HIM!?

Who cares about being ‘the hope of the world’ or whatever crap the bear labeled him and the others as? He just wanted to get a band and make some smashing hits to be loved and remembered for all eternity! Why would someone want despair from a person who only wants that?

His mental rant was cut short when Monokuma ditched the horror-esque personality it adapted and bounced back into its normal, playful (dumbass) attitude.

Piece of crap, it was.

“Anyhoooooo… If you absolutely gotta know about more than that, you’ll have to figure it out for yourselves. Do whatever you need to uncover the mystery hidden within the school; I won’t try to stop you! ‘Cuz to be honest…”

It grinned wider, placing its hands on its belly as if it were laughing like a cartoon character and continued, “It’s entertaining as heck watching you guys desperately search for an answer! Why bother for video games or tv when I can just watch you guys for amusement? Now… Toodaloo!”

Without giving anyone time to react or response, Monokuma once again defied the laws of physics and jump off the chair, doing five perfect backflips behind it a few feet away. Its feet firmly planting onto the ground allowed it to sprint out of the dining hall and out of sight.

A moment passed in silence before the group made any attempt to break it.

“It appears to have disappeared again… How it’s able to move like that is something I cannot understand for the life of me,” Taka folded his arms, a deeply troubling frown on his face.

“Yeah… And once again, it left before we could find out anything useful,” Sayaka’s eyes lingered on the exit to the dining hall for a bit longer.

“Really? I think we learned something very useful.”

“Huh?”

The pop idol turned to look at Kyoko, who was avoiding eye contact as she continued.

“It has no intention on standing in the way of our pursuit of the truth.”

Makoto raised an eyebrow, “You mean like if we find reasons to why we’re being trapped here or who’s behind this?”

The girl simply closed her eyes to that, “I can’t say for sure, but it’s most likely. Interesting…”

“Perhaps, but what were the videos it mentioned?” Sakura’s voice cut in, “I’m very curious to see what’s on them.”

Hifumi’s hands were halfway towards his face, as if he was conflicted on whether he should start chewing on his fingernails. After all, his expression showed really bad and building nervousness increasing.

“E-Errm, I am, too… But… where would we even see them? Like, I know it talked about there being a room here that we can watch them, but…”

A room where you could watch videos, huh?

Hmmm…

Oh, wait! Maybe…

“...I think it was referring to that A/V room?” Leon offered up with only a fraction of a percentage of certainty.

Welp, it seemed like that was a good enough answer for the group as all of them looked towards his way once Junko snapped her fingers and pointed at him.

“Oh yeah, you’re right! We, Hiro, and Chihiro found that room near the entrance hall in that green-lit hallway,” she agreed, turning to look at everyone else, “That place looks like it can play videos and stuff, so it’s totally gotta be there, yeah?”

“All right, sooooo…”

The voice of Mondo caused him to look over and see that he was scanning around the room and glancing at everyone. However, when he got to Makoto, he stopped and jabbed a finger to him.

“Yo, Makoto! Check this out for us, would ya?”

The boy recoiled briefly as his body subconsciously snapped to full alertness. For real, totally wouldn’t blame the guy, after getting decked so hard, he spent nearly an entire day unconscious on a bed.

“Huh? Why me!?”

“Because you’re the closest to the door! That’s the rule, right?”

“R-Rule…?”

Yeah, he was sharing Makoto’s confusion to that. Since when was it a rule that the person closest to a doorway has to do stuff for a group? Geez, what kind of friend circle did that guy have?

A-And besides, Taka and Kyoko were closer...

“Hey, hey…. Hey hey hey hey hey! HEEEEEY!!”

Mondo’s forehead suddenly had a bold shade of frustrated red come across it as he cracked his knuckles, causing the ahoge-haired boy to straighten up completely like a tree.

“Oi, can’t you see how I’m passionately begging you to go!? What’s the big deal!? Just hurry up and check it out already!” he nearly shouted, his mouth twitching into a snarl.

Makoto’s eyes shrank as his face went pale with sweat.

Dude, just… just do it. You just kissed and made up yesterday with him. Don’t be an idiot and provoke him to where your relationship with him is in pieces on only the third day here-

Leon wasn’t sure he had telepathic powers, but his pleas for the other guy to listen seemed to reach him. Makoto had raised his arms up, waving them defensively (almost like he did right before he was sent flying by a straight punch) as his (very scared) smile tried to reassure the biker that he could calm down.

“O-Okay, okay… I’ll be going then…”

Faster than one could blink, Mondo’s apparent rage disappeared with a grateful smile as he gave a massive thumbs-up.

“Thanks! I owe ya big time for doing this.”

“...If that’s the case, then I’m going with him.”

Everyone turned to see Sayaka made her way around the end of the table to stand behind Makoto.

“Huh? Are you sure, Sayaka…?” the boy himself asked.

“Yes, I’m positively sure,” she giggled, giving a reassuring nod, “After all, it’s not safe to walk around this place alone.”

...Wh…

Then why were you so adamant in searching the dining hall alone on the first day when Chihiro and I pretty much said the same thing to you…?

At least, that’s the question that popped into Leon’s head the moment she said that. God only knows how much internal strength it took to prevent him from letting that flail out of his mouth and into the open, starting something unnecessary. But like, seriously! What the heck would compel her to-

And that’s when the dawning of realization hit him.

Ohhh, right. That’s why. That conversation they were having at the evening of the first day. Once again to repeat, Leon didn’t hear the full specifics, because he didn’t want to be a complete eavesdropper and give a bad impression to Sayaka and Makoto. But apparently they knew each other from before, and Makoto saved a bird or something. And… and actually, now that he really took it into perspective, they’ve been attached to the hip somewhat throughout the last two days. They stood next to each other during the orientation ceremony, Sayaka was the first to get worried for Makoto’s wellbeing when he was unconscious, and then they started searching for stuff for self-defense together the next day.

H-Huh… He guessed the two of them were really close, then…

Damn. If the relationship chart for Sayaka could be visibly seen like a graph, that meant Makoto was at the top and (if he kept playing his cards right) Leon was a close second.

So that was the main reason why when the two were given the okay by Mondo and started to head out the door to the A/V room, Leon chose to stay quiet instead of offering to come with them.

...What? He wasn’t the kind of guy to try and steal someone’s girl from them (even though the two of them weren’t dating, but that doesn’t derail his point). ‘Sides, he’s already gotten Sayaka’s promise to help him with his music career; no reason for him to get greedy and push his luck.

The other reason?

He was tired again. That bear sucked, man. Thanks to freaking him out, the adrenaline rush he got for being alert as all hell was gone now, and with everyone back to sitting down and trying to go back to an attempted casual atmosphere, he didn’t try to hide himself resting his head on the table to rest his eyes for a moment.

Seriously, just hurry up to check out the videos and then (as much as he didn’t want to) watch this video. Then he could finally go back to sweet, pureful slumber-

“Pardon me, Junko, but may I ask you something?”

The voice of Sakura to his left caused him to lift his head slightly to rest on his arms to pay attention. He could hear the fashionista to his right make movement.

“Huh? What’s up?”

“Well… Forgive me if I come off as insulting, but… I find that you’re looking different today,” the fighter admitted.

It was like a giant bug had landed on Junko’s face when she heard that, as she cringed visibly and let out a frustrated groan.

“Urrrgh, dammit…! Is my mascara really that bad?” her lungs let out a sigh, not waiting for an answer to the question she just asked as she rested her face in one of her hands depressingly, “Look, I didn’t really get a chance to fix my face up like I wanted to, being dragged out of my room and all. And Sayaka and Celeste didn’t bring any makeup on them, so my luck just bombed hard…”

“No, it’s not that. It’s mainly… that I never realized you had freckles before,” Sakura explained, getting the strawberry blonde to blink and pay attention.

“Yeah, that’s right. E-Er, not meaning to be rude, Miss Enoshima, but… now that I think about it, you look slightly different than all those magazine covers you’re on,” Hifumi adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose, nodding as he seemed to squint at her.

A few seconds of silence passed before realizing relief washed upon Junko’s face.

“....! Ohhhhhhhh, THAT’s what you guys mean. Haha, not gonna lie with you; nearly gave your girl a heart attack there with how confused I was!” she nodded with a smile growing, sitting up in an attempt to help her clear up the situation a bit, “But yeah, I totally get what you’re trying to say now. Makoto actually brought this same thing up to me when we met each other in the entrance hall and I explained it to him.”

“Then… what is the explanation?” Sakura asked.

“It’s photoshopped.”

The answer did surprise several of the people in the conversation, but none were more flabbergasted than Hifumi, who actually flinched violently back and brought both arms up in utter horror.

“P-Photoshop!?”

“You mean, like… with computers and stuff?” Hiro asked, tilting his head as Junko nodded.

“Yup. I mean, not gonna lie; it does kinda suck that they edit my pictures to make me look ‘better’, but it’s just something that happens in the fashion industry a lot, you know? Totally normal stuff. They make the eyes and junk super big, and tweak the skin, so it comes off looking like it’s ceramic or porcelain,” she explained.

It seemed that the inside-tip on the fashionista’s cover secrets either soured the mood or disappointed the people in the conversation.

“Hmmm…. I see.”

“Huh… Never thought that they’d do something like that…”

“A lot of young men are going to have their dreams crushed by what Miss Enoshima just revealed…”

The poor girl scowled.

“H-Hey, don’t act so surprised and down in the dumps. You’re gonna make me all depressed…”

Well… that was an interesting fact, to say the least, right…? ...Okay, to be frank, he didn’t even notice the difference at all, because he really didn’t read those kind of magazines, but…

Still, that was kind of a bummer. After all, she looked cute with the freckles, so why try to cover them up?

“H-Huh!?”

Leon turned to look at Junko, who was staring in shock at him with widened eyes-

...Oh frig, did he say that out loud!?

Gawd, he needs to tighten his shit up-

“Oh, you’re such a tease!” Junko suddenly grinned, gently swatting him on the shoulder playfully, “Keep saying those nice things, and I might just fall for you!”

...Well, it’s not like he’d say no to a gorgeous blonde…

“Heh, no prob,” he sheepishly said, smiling awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his head carefully.

“...But seriously, thank you,” Junko truly showed her appreciation, a true smile taking over, “I don’t often hear someone actually tell me that my freckles look good on my face. So… Yeah.”

Really? That’s a damn shame…

Before he or anyone else could say anything, the blue-haired pop idol reappeared at the door.

“Hey, everyone! We found the videos for us to watch,” she called out, getting the other students to stand up and make their way to the doorway, “They’re in the A/V room, just like we thought.”

“Very well!” Taka replied, making himself the first of the group to get closest to her, “Then let’s hurry up and-”

“GAWDDAMMIT!!”

A shrill scream echoed from the halls and into the dining room, causing a dead silence to replant itself within the student body. W-What the hell was that!?

Wait… t-that voice…. Wasn’t that…

“M-Makoto?” Sayaka gasped, turning around and looking towards the hallway that would lead towards their current destination.

It was only when she took off and Kyoko, Hina, and Sakura had somehow slipped past everyone else that Leon’s brain finally kicked in and he went after them, causing him to be fifth in the group. As they got out of the plaza and into the purple-lit hallway-

“I… I have to get out of here! Right now, dammit! I have to make sure they’re safe!!”

Makoto’s shouting, now filled with more fear, confusion, and anger mixed into one, became louder and louder as everyone soon rounded the corner and approached the open door of the A/V room. When they started to pile inside…

There was Makoto, angry yet scared, clutching at the front of his hoodie’s collar. He was shaking, teeth visibly clenched and his eyes closed as he had somehow barricaded himself in the corner of the room near the entryway.

W-What the crap…? He didn’t take the kid as someone who’d panic so easily… So what happened?

“Makoto…? H-Hey, what happened?” Sayaka asked, approaching a little closer to him carefully, “Make sure who’s safe?”

“U-Uhh, what’s going on?” Hina asked, confused as all hell.

Kyoko took a step forward, snapping him somewhat out of his internal anguish at the sound of her footstep.

"Makoto. What was it you saw?"

It only was then did the boy open his eyes, realizing everyone was there. Without a word and his arm still shaking with the rest of his body, he began to point to something across the room…

...to a small cardboard box resting on one of the rows of small screens.

“...Is that what Monokuma was talkin’ about?” Leon asked, approaching the box.

Well, he didn’t get too far, because everyone apparently forgot their freakin’ manners and all crowded around him to get at the box first. For the love of all that is holy, stop crushing him and messing up the jacket! Somehow, within this impolite bundle of chaos, a dvd got shoved into his chest and he grabbed it with both hands, peering down to look at it-

“Leon Kuwata’s DVD.”

Welp… guess this was his…

Grunting at the physical contact he was forced to make with a few people, Leon nearly tumbled headfirst into a rolling motion onto the ground before getting enough distance from everyone else to gather his bearings. Once he did, he picked the closest screen (the back row’s far end on the other side of the room) and sat down. Next to the screen and where you could insert a dvd into it were a pair of headphones already plugged in.

Inserting the dvd into the machine after taking it out, placing the headphones near his ears (as to not mess up his hair), and waiting for the stupid thing to start felt like an eternity…

Until…

The screen flickered to life.

And on it was…

“Big brother Leon! Hiiii!!”

The voice of his cousin, Kanon, instantly filled his ear drums as the video showed her in her school uniform and dazzling black bow on her hair sitting next to his dad in a t-shirt and jeans in the living room. The two of them were on the couch, facing whatever was recording this thing.

He didn’t know why this was a thing, but… seeing the two of them and hearing her voice started to calm him down and give him the ability to smile.

“Hey, kiddo. We know that you’re just starting to get into Hope’s Peak Academy and all, but… I thought I should remind you of how proud I am of how much you’ve grown. I know it may be hard, but I believe that you’ll do amazing things in that school, son,” his dad said, grinning proudly.

“Well, of course he’s gonna be amazing; he’s Leon, after all!” Kanon giggled at his dad, then faced the screen, “Hey, big brother Leon! You better let me know everything that goes on in Hope’s Peak; there’s gotta be really juicy stories and cool stuff that you’re gonna do there, you know? Oh, and don’t worry about Kenta, Shojei, or the others on your baseball team; I know that deep down, even though they’re not saying it, they want you to be successful there!”

Leon scoffed at that; he really doubted that part.

“All right; I think that’s good. Good luck, son. We love you,” his dad concluded, bowing his head slightly.

“Bye, big brother Leon! You can do it!” Kanon finished it off with a grin, making a giant thumbs-up that radiated belief in her cousin.

Leon’s smile was now a full-on grin, hearing his family giving him support.

Really, it just… it felt great to hear and see them again after two days of hell on earth-

...Hm?

Wait, did the screen just flicker with static-

“...!!!”

……………

W…..

…..W-What……

WHAT THE HELL!?

Leon’s grin had suddenly disappeared to a horrified, devastated look as his eyes shrank. What he was looking at was the same camera angle of his living room, but… but now, it was…

Everything was… destroyed…! The walls torn off, shit broken, the couch torn into two….

When the hell did…

N-No, wait… wh-where were Kanon and his dad!?

Come on, you can’t just show a man his house demolished and his family missing, and not-

The voice of Monokuma coming out of the headphones snapped him into an even deader silence.

“Leon Kuwata, happily accepted into Hope’s Peak Academy. And his family, regardless of knowing the talent he excelled in, are supporting his dream to change the future of his path that he seemed destined to follow. But… oh goodness… It appears something awful has happened back at home. Oh boy, this is bad! What could’ve possibly happened to Leon’s wonderful dad and cousin!?”

The screen then faded into black with an orange font that said:

“LOOK FOR THE ANSWER AFTER GRADUATION.”

………

………

………

There… there was a cold sensation building in his chest as he backed his head away from the monitor and set the headphones down with an unusual-like slowness.

A pit of something being planted inside of his chest.

Was it… was it despair? The thing that Monokuma had said it wanted back a few minutes ago?

No…. No, that couldn’t be it.

Because this cold sensation felt recognizable. Almost familiarly so.

….Oh. Oh, yeah. Now he remembers.

He’s felt this before.

This feeling…

...Rage.

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better...

 

....Puhuhuhuhuhu.....

Chapter 11: Ch 1: Dai-[ERROR ERROR]

Notes:

Where the wEeN-[ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR]

~~Warning: Chapter contains graphic imagery and excessive foul language~~

It wasn’t until his hearing decided to kick in that he realized that nearly the entire room had been thrown into fearful disarray, many people standing up and trying to speak out of terror. As if they were trying to grasp any possible way this scenario made sense or wasn’t real, but kept coming up empty.

Oh, but don’t get the wrong impression.

It wasn’t like when he realized he could hear the other people freaking out that he calmed down.

Oho. Ho, no. Not in the least bit.

The rage was there, and it was still burning heavily in his chest.

But it was that rage where it tricks people. Not the straight up front kind of rage like Mondo where you’re given the warning signs instantly. Or the unsettling, quiet rage that a person has a blank or emotionless look on their face to start, and then they slowly begin to let it consume them.

No, Leon’s was the amusement rage. The one where you can’t help it, but the utter absurdity of whatever it is that’s sent you off the deep end has given you a smile that can’t be wiped away or a set of giggles that’s contagious and uncontained.

And watching that video… his home torn to shreds and his family’s fate being teased like some fuckin’ cliffhanger to a movie?

It got him to smile.

A smile that had no joy or good intentions.

A smile that twisted to the right, baring his upper teeth more visibly.

A smile which darkened, like how his eyes did.

A smile that eventually caused his chest and shoulders to jiggle back and forth with how he started to chuckle angrily, but quietly when he heard one of his classmates (one of the girls, prolly) go, “T-There’s no way this is real, right? I-It can’t be…”

He inhaled through his teeth before chuckling a tad bit louder.

“Yeah, heh… No way that’s real. Haha… No way…”

His head shook as the smile maintained its size and form, but the dark noise in his throat died out and he continued to stare at the screen.

You see, however… rage is infamously known to blind your critical thinking or awareness of your surroundings. So when Leon had gotten through this and went silent, he was unaware that both Hina and Sakura, who had sat in the two seats in front of him in the corner, had turned around and witnessed him on the verge of snapping.

The three of them and the others finally began to pay attention when somehow through several people panicking, Kyoko had managed to break through and somehow...

Still being calm…

The conversation that he, Hina, and Sakura had about her being a double agent flashed briefly through his head for a split moment before it vanished and he listened to her.

“I see… So this is what Monokuma meant by a motive,” her voice being able to deduce the situation now, she calmly rested one of her hands under her bottom lip and looked down at the floor, “It wants to fuel our desire to leave, so that we’re more likely to start killing each other.”

“Ahh, so the classic ‘prisoner’s dilemma’, is it?” Celeste nodded thoughtfully.

Hifumi, standing near her, tilted his body to get a better view of her while clutching the straps of his backpack.

“H-Huh? Prisoner’s… dilemma?”

“Let me use an example to better explain it,” the lolita answered, gently holding her hands near her waistline, “Imagine two countries are on the brink of war. But both countries want peace, and each commits to scaling back their forces as a sign of good faith. But there's a chance that one country may betray the other, so each country fears lowering their guard. The result is that neither scales back their forces and they both end up betraying each other. In other words… the fear of invisible treachery becomes the greatest enemy of stability.”

“H-Heh… J-Just like us…”

Everyone turned to see Toko near the front of the room, a dark, yet nervous smirk on her face as she nearly caved in on herself when so many eyes landed on her, but continued.

“W-What? It’s the truth. I-It sounds a lot like us just now… Everyone says t-they’ll work together, but in our hearts, w-we’re all a-afraid that someone might betray us…”

Afraid, huh…?

No, not right now. Leon was pissed off beyond any reasonable measure.

Pissed off so badly-

“Don’t put those awful thoughts into our heads!” Taka shook his head, voice loudly objecting from across the room, “That’s exactly what they want us to do!”

…………

His eyes slowly looked over to the military-looking uniform-wearing young man and…

Just… gawd, that…

His mind has just come to the realization.

Of how much he’s truly sick of this guy.

His annoying voice and how he can’t control its volume. His perfect, model student personality. Him just making decisions for everyone like he has the authority to do so. Him getting on his fuckin’ case for stupid shit that’s none of his gawddamn business-

The corners of his mouth twitched to form a smirk.

It brought another chuckle out of the depths of his rage. But this time, it was louder. A small laugh that was able to reach the ears of everyone else in the room to hear him and see just how he was taking this whole thing.

“Yeah, sure, buddy…” he snickered before his previous false expression began to shatter and a snarl came across his face, his head tilting alongside his eyes darkening and his words threatening to be overcome by a growl, “...But maybe you’re thinkin’ once everyone drops their guard, you can just-”

“W-What!?”

Taka’s mortified expression on how he could suggest such a thing didn’t distract him on the fact he just interrupted him with him nearly screaming-

For gawd’s sake, does this asshole NOT HAVE A GAWDDAMN VOLUME BUTTON-

“Enough.”

A quieter, but more fierce voice broke his glare and caused him to look over to Sakura, who was looking towards him with a disturbed frown.

“This is exactly what Monokuma, or whoever’s behind this, wants. They want us to fight amongst ourselves and cause distrust. Don’t you see?” she said, turning from him and looking towards everyone else.

“Y-Yeah, she’s right. W-We need to calm down...” Chihiro weakly pleaded, evidently wondering if she should close her teary eyes as to not deal with how upset the students appeared to be.

...Calm down…?

Are you actually serious?

How the hell could he calm down after seeing something like that?

And on top of that, fuck off with implying he was fighting with someone. There’s a damn difference between fighting and then either being tired of someone’s shit or just being pissed.

Nevertheless, Leon sucked it all in with an angry frown and shook his head, glancing away from anyone who may have still been looking at him. This is all so stupid. So stupid, stupid, stupid…

“Okay, well, um… Maybe we could all start by… I dunno, talking?” Junko took a breath and proposed, playing with one of the ends of her pigtails to calm herself, “Maybe if we all just talk about what we saw, that’ll help get everything out of our system. Besides…”

She looked up to glance around at everyone.

“I think we’re all super curious, right?”

Leon’s head whirled back to look at her.

Talk about what he saw… as in….

No, he’s officially had it. Now it’s really past his limit.

“Hell no! No way!!”

He wasn’t even fazed when everyone looked at him with degreeing emotions, from disbelief to curiosity to analyzing. He didn’t care. He was officially done with all of this shit.

“I’m not tellin’ any of you what was on my video! So you can just forget it!” he shouted, waving an arm to the side to officially declare this case closed.

A few shocked gasps came from some of the student body at his outright refusal. But the person who had actually tried to use their voice was Makoto, who had a concerned, nervous look.

“H-Hey, hold on! We’re not trying to force anyone to share what’s on their video or anything,” he desperately reassured, trying to reach him in a sense of logic, “Junko was just saying that sharing what our videos had could help us work together better. If we-”

“And what? You sayin’ I wasn’t willing to work together before?” Leon cut him off hastily, scrunching up his face, but being able to maintain his angry visage.

“N-No, that’s not what I…”

Seeing the kid’s voice die out as his face turned more unsure on what to do seemed to only set him off further. Not in the way where the rage gets stronger, but that it stays consistent, convincing a stubborn-willed person they’re even more right.

“Just listen to me, alright? I’m willing to cooperate with everyone here and all that, so that somebody doesn’t act fuckin’ stupid and attempt to murder. But I’m not about to tell people I’ve only known for, like, two days know about my personal shit!” he yelled, motioning to himself before clutching his fists tightly in front of him as an extra emphasis, “Ya got me? It’s nobody’s gawddamn business what was on my dvd, just like it’s not mine to know what’s on all of yours!”

Daring anyone to try to argue against him, the pair of pale blue eyes swept around the room as it to challenge and see if anyone dared to step up to the plate and try to take a swing at the truth he was slamming down on them. But no one seemed to have the guts to take him on.

Not even Makoto, whose willingness to try and argue the positives of sharing their videos seemed to die out.

Not even Hina and Sakura, who were looking at him with concern before sharing a glance between themselves.

Not even Sayaka, who near Makoto, was hugging herself quietly and seemed extremely uncomfortable, but… with her, he felt a tiny shred of guilt begin to place its way into the rage, lessening it a tad. What was happening was still unacceptable in any regard, but… Crap, if he had made her feel bad…

Maybe he did need to take a breather and not let-

“H-Hey, it’s cool, man. Just try to take it down a notch and not go flying off the deep end, okay?”

Hiro’s hesitant voice became closer to where it was pretty much impossible to ignore his presence. He couldn’t remember where exactly the clairvoyant sat, but now he was right next to him…

And when he looked over to his right-

“!!!”

That little, tiny, insignificant, singular dread of his… The one that just poked him in the eye?

The one that he didn’t know or give a damn whether that was the same one that did the previous times, but was associated with the hairstyle that nearly blinded him for the third time in a little over two days?

That was the one.

The one that broke the fucking dam that was cracking and leaking his rage out like a waterfall trying to be contained by a concrete wall-

Yup, he snapped.

“GA- FUCKIN’, YOU FU- WHY IS YOUR HAIR LIKE- OH MY GAWD, IT’S ACTUALLY PISSING ME OFF!!!” Leon’s voice spiraled out into an unholy screech as his hands suddenly shot forward and grabbed two fistfuls of the other man’s hair.

Interestingly enough, it wasn’t when Hiro let out a blood-curdling, yet girly to the max scream and started flailing his arms due to being in panic mode that Leon realized that he was going too far. It was when out of the corners of his eyes, he saw multiple hands (his rage preventing him from recognizing who they belonged to) reaching in and trying to get a grip on his arms to pull him off of his target that a small part of his brain took a figurative megaphone out and managed to shout out “Oi, what the hell are you doing!?”

But even knowing that he needed to stop, his fury wasn’t leaving in the least bit. Now that he had several hands grabbing him and he could hear several people now yelling near his ears.

He needed to go. He needed to get out of here and away from people. Right now.

With a growl, he shoved Hiro’s head away from him once his white-knuckled grip was released, and he swung his arms away from the sea of hands and arms threatening to overtake him. Taking a pivot step, he turned past several figures originally in his path and began stomping his way towards the door. He could hear voices calling after him, probably trying to catch him or ask where he was going, but it was past the point of no return. The cool air that swept over his skin did nothing to simmer down the burning red that had consumed his entire being, as well as the red that probably was appearing in the corners of his eyes.

That…. Little…. Bitch…

That motherfucker…

It’s bad enough that whoever’s controlling Monokuma somehow is apparently some twisted kind of mastermind who was somehow able to pull this crap off in the first place.

It’s shitty enough that they’re a class-a pervert who somehow knows him down to the exact details of how his clothing fits and what hair products he uses.

It’s horrible enough knowing that his dream, one of the only two things that really matter to him, is now apparently been put on permanent hiatus and now he has to live in one of his least favorite places.

It’s mega suckage enough to know that apparently he has to worry about a whole group of teenagers that at any moment, they could decide that they want out of here and by some twisted, unlucky chance, he’s the one they choose.

All of this… gawddamn, ridiculous garbage could be enough that sent him over the deep end.

But that…. That bastard…!

How the hell did they get to Kanon and his dad!?

His freakin’ home, dude!! Everything gone, and he doesn’t know if they’re alive o-or… OR…!

Leon’s body jerked at realizing that something had gotten in his way. Glancing up from his blind wandering, he looked up to see…

...the giant metal security door. He had ended up marching into the entrance hall without realizing it.

That door… that stupid, stupid, stupid-

That fuckin’- It’s-It’s just a door! A door!! It’s a gawddamn door that literally is the only piece of shit thing standing in front of him and the way outta here!! All he needs is to just to get past this thing and he’s home free-

Oh wait, he doesn’t have a fuckin’ home anymore and maybe not even a family anymore, because whoever the failed abortion that has actually kidnapped him against his will is making him play a game where someone’s life has got to end-

Leon’s left eye began to twitch as his head started shaking.

“This… This is stupid… It’s so stupid… Stupid…. Stupid, stupid stupid-”

His legs started to make him pace back and forth, his breath elevating to a fast pace of seething pants.

“-stupid stupid stupid STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID-”

His arms nearly vibrating as they began to shakingly reach for his head, any sanity that Leon had remaining was being tested. Like a weak line of thread being pulled at both ends with a strong force to measure how long it could endure before some part in the middle gave out.

“STUPID STUPID STU-”

At least, it would’ve, had he not realized that footsteps had made their presence known from behind him, silencing his repetitive vocal loop.

He tensed up before whirling around. That better not be...

“Ggh, I swear TO GOD, IF YOU’RE WHO I THINK YOU ARE-”

They weren’t.

Instead, Leon blinked in surprise. Standing in front of him was Sakura, who had her arms crossed over her chest and unfazed, and Hina, who made no attempt to hide how concerned she was over what they just stumbled across.

“-!! … O-Oh… uh, ahem, mmgh… Sorry,” his throat itched to be cleared, as he did so and apologized, looking away as the fury had drained a good portion of itself from his body.

“...It’s quite alright, but the more pressing issue here is making sure if you’re okay,” Sakura shook her head initially and subtly inquired, “Considering how intense of a reaction it’s created from you…”

The baseball star sighed, rubbing his palm against the side of his face for a split second.

“...Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You’re seriously not thinking we’re gonna buy that, are you?”

Whoa, wait a minute-

Leon did a double take before glancing over to a skeptical Hina, who had an eyebrow raised.

“Wh-Huh?”

“I mean, come on; you essentially pulled a Mondo on us and stomped out of the room,” she folded her arms, continuing to mutter and look at him as if she was a disappointed big sister or something, “Not to mention, you literally attacked someone’s hair…”

“!! Y-Yo, gimme a break; his freakin’ hair is ridiculous,” the punk tried to defend his honor the moment he came under attack, leaning forward desperately and pointing to his eyes, “It’s nearly gouged my eyes out, like, three times in two days. For real, man!”

“Nevertheless, is it truly a reason to get into a physical confrontation with someone over?”

“Well, I…”

The words tried to roll of his tongue in response to Sakura’s question, but it halted and died in the back of his throat when he noticed the girls giving him the same look of ‘are you really gonna argue this’ that, hilariously ironic enough, Kanon would sometimes pull out to break his stubborn will.

Freaking…

“....No,” he huffed submissively, rubbing his head as he glared up at the ceiling.

With him backing down, the girls relaxed their expressions.

“Please don’t misunderstand. We’re not trying to say you can’t be angry, especially what was on those dvds,” the fighter explained, “But letting your anger consume you to where you start to attack another person is something you have to prevent from happening.”

...Yeah, now that he was finally starting to calm down… he didn’t need to be told twice. Welp, fuck; there goes a huge possible chance that now everyone, especially Sayaka, saw him as another walking timebomb like Mondo after that…

Oh, gawd, does everything think that now? Even Mondo himself?

Fuck his life.

“However, I don’t believe anyone will really hold this against you; I’m sure that the whole group is probably reeling from what they’ve learned after watching the videos,” Sakura attempted to reassure, looking away.

“Yeah… That was really hard to take in,” Hina admitted, eyes dropping to the floor.

Leon nodded, glancing down at the ground as well in silence.

This whole thing just… just sucked…

“It’s just… Gawd, I don’t know what pissed me off more about it, y’know?” he admitted, feeling subconsciously pressured by the quiet seconds after she had stopped talking, “The fact that somehow whoever the bastard behind this somehow got my-”

He was about to say cousin and dad, but he caught himself, pausing for a split second to reconsider how to say it while ignoring both girls looking at him after catching that.

“-erm, the people in my video, or how I’m not gonna be able to figure out what happened to them any time soon.”

Hina blinked.

“Not gonna figure it out…?”

“Yeah, because the only way to do that right now is to murder someone to escape this dump, and I’m not gonna fuckin’ do that!” Leon’s face started to contort into a frustrated semi-snarl before letting out a heavy sigh and waving his hands a bit to emphasize his point, “Ugh, just… Look, the people in my video and my dream are way too damn important for me to blow it on some messed up murder attempt. No way am I that desperate and falling for that shit, ya got me?”

Damn straight. He’s going to become a music legend for eternity; there’s no way he’s destroying that dream by taking someone’s life. You couldn’t even classify that as a blemish on his career; no no no, dude, that’s an automatic game over. Plus, Kanon and his dad would prolly never look at him the same way ever again if he-

His bravado halted when he realized the girls shared a look with each other and then had smiles appear on their faces.

“? Hey, why are ya-”

“Oh, s-sorry, haha! We’re not, like, laughing at you or anything, we promise. It’s just…” Hina waved her hands a bit before digging them into her jacket’s pockets with a sense of optimism and relief, “It’s nice to hear someone else besides Sakura say to me that they won’t kill anyone. I mean, I know Makoto and Taka and others have said it, but… to hear it when it’s a normal conversation and not in front of a giant group? I guess it just feels more genuine to me, I dunno. Heh heh...”

...Now, legit. That was seriously cool to hear. Like no joke. Slightly lifted his spirits as he nodded to her and finally calmed down almost completely.

“Oh, ah… Well, I’m not sayin’ it just ‘cuz, y’know. I mean it. For real.”

“Of course. But... if I may, Leon?”

He turned to the taller girl when she closed her eyes.

“I understand that you’ve made it clear that you don’t wish to reveal what was on your video, so what I’m about to say isn’t a secret attempt to get you to tell us. However…”

She opened her eyes to look at Hina, who nodded in agreement to her future words, before directing her attention back at him.

“We promise you that if you ever do decide to do so, if it can find some kind of meaning to you… You can trust both of us. We haven’t revealed anything of what we talked about yesterday in the dining hall with anyone else, so you can be assured we won’t for this topic as well.”

The swimmer brought one of her hands out of her pockets to help her motion between her and her friend when she added on, “Yeah, totally! And to prove it, we’re willing to tell you who was on our videos! That way, you don’t feel like you’re getting nothing out of it, okay?”

W-Whoa…. They… Wow, they were willing to do that for him…? Dude…

Normally, that would’ve and frankly should’ve let some kind of a ‘touching my heart’ moment where he could begin to have some faith in other people. That’s what it should’ve been, but… this was making him have a sick feeling in his chest. The stinging poison that was something he hated feeling.

Guilt.

Because they’re willing to be so nice to him. But even with that…

“...I… Tch…”

He groaned out a huff out of his nostrils, wincing as if he was in pain as he looked away from them and onto a specific part of the entrance hall’s wall where it joined ended on the floor. Just anything to look at in that exact moment besides them.

“I… I want to… I want to talk about it, but I…”

I don’t trust you.

The cruel reason that flashed across his mind as to why he couldn’t tell them about Kanon and his dad made him feel horrible. Like… Did that make him a bad person? In this situation, it’s normal to want to protect yourself and feel hesitant to place trust in someone, right? Of course it was, yeah? It’s just making sure to cover your butt right.

He knew this…

So then… Why did he feel like an awful person for feeling this way?

Trying to distract himself from this, he raised an arm up towards his right ear to scratch behind it.

“...I, uh… Like I said back there, it’s only been just two days, and… Y-Y’know…” he tried to repeat his strong defense from before, yet he found a difficulty he hadn’t realized had been raised more than expected.

“It’s alright; you don’t need to try and rationalize how you feel. We understand,” the baseball star glanced back to the fighter’s sympathetic disposition, “The offer will still stand regardless, if you decide to take it.”

He nodded, taking a stabilizing breath.

“So, um…” Hina’s stance relaxed while rubbing the back of her head near her ponytail with a curious frown, “Now that you’re no longer raging and stuff, what are you gonna do? I mean I’m kinda curious. Despite this giant bombshell Monokuma dropped on us, it’s only been… like, what; an hour? Our day’s still only starting…”

E-Ehh, he wasn’t exactly sure that it’s been an hour since he was dragged out of his room by Taka and Junko, but… Counting him being dragged out of his room at (what was to him) the crack of dawn, being told he’s doing that daily for the foreseeable future, learning that the one behind it all has taken his family and destroyed his home, everything that happened in the A/V room, and now this? And this was only the third day of what was already building on the pile of crap he’s gone through before today? Oh yeah, and add that the rage disappeared without a trace, and now had resulted in him being back to dead, running on fumes tired again, and frankly, it was an easy answer. Didn’t even need a second to think about it.

“...I’m seriously entertaining the idea of going back to bed,” Leon sighed, his shoulders slumping a bit when a yawn halted him from speaking for a bit, “Early mornings ain’t my thing. And I wasn’t exaggerating when I said at the ‘morning club meeting’ or whatever that I was dragged out of my room to go there. If I stay up now after everything that’s happened, I know I’m gonna be in a piss poor mood the rest of the day…”

And the Lord knows that he doesn’t need to ruin his image and cause anyone else to be suspicious of him anymore than he’s prolly done already…

“Okay… That sounds like the best, if that’s really gonna help you,” Hina said, giving a small courteous nod.

“Then let’s head back, shall we?” Sakura asked, turning towards the door.

Yes, like gawddamn. Let him go back to bed and try to forget this gigantic pile of crap that someone attempted to start a bonfire with and now it’s spiraled into a forest fire. He swallowed back any groan or snarky remark that he could’ve fired off the top of his head in an agreeing response. Mentally begging his drained and complaining muscles to just work for a bit longer, Leon followed both of the girls out of the entrance hall and back to the dorms…

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

At least he would’ve, before the trio realized nearly everyone forming a group towards the blocked off staircase right before the dorms hallway. When they had gotten closer, Makoto had revealed that Taka had found the door near it that Hina, Sakura, and Mondo had previously reported on the first day as locked was no longer as such.

...Okay, fine. If it’s something that’s gonna help them get outta there, a few seconds of his time can be sacrificed.

The door opened, and the group was greeted with some kind of a warehouse-type room. Several cardboard boxes were scattered along the floor as the walls and right front and center were metal shelving units hosting several varieties of items. From things like canned food, candy, and powdered mixes for drinks, to others like laundry detergent and cleaners, these things were packed to the brim with various things that they could use in the future.

Uuuhhh…. It was nice to know about this stuff, but like… Can he go to sleep now?

Luckily for him, both Hina and Sakura had been in the back of the group near the door, so it was easy for him to gently wave his hand a bit to catch their attention. He motioned that he was going to go, both giving an acknowledging nod, and that was his free ticket out of here.

He didn’t even care if this was an incoming baseball pun; with how crappy this day had started, he stole for home, quickly turning around and fast-walking towards his dorm.

And that’s where Leon Kuwata spent the next four or five hours. After kicking his shoes off and throwing his shirt, jacket, and pants on the floor, it was about getting that glorious, heavenly rest that had been ripped away from him before. He hated to admit it, but this bed was really nice. A hell of a lot better than what he had in his room… or, what he used to have…

He sighed out of his nose while looking up at the ceiling before falling into slumber.

...He really hoped they were okay… No way those two could be dead… right?

Tch… F-Forget it. Just focus on doing what you gotta do, man.

Eventually, he woke up refreshed. Hallelujah, it was like his body and mind giving him praise of how amazing he was to give them just five more minutes multipled by whatever the amount is for several hours. His mouth widening for a yawn that felt so good, it was time to start the day the right way. The shower he was unable to get before gathering with everyone in the dining hall felt so good. Thank you for hot water, whoever was responsible for making that; you are a legend in his eyes.

All dressed and badass again, Leon honestly debated on what to do for the day. Not that he wasn’t worried or was still worried about what the others thought of him after his mental breakdown at Hiro, but it was more of the fact of how after everything this morning? He wasn’t exactly feeling so social and talkative today. Frankly, he felt like it wasn’t a bad idea to just spend the rest of the day in his dorm room. After all, there were a few cds in the shelf that he hasn’t listened to fully. And with the guitar, maybe that’s just the kind of inspiration he needs to create his first double-platinum single!

And that is pretty much how the rest of his day went. The only times he really left his room was to quickly sneak in and grab some food from the kitchen…

...and that time. About ten minutes before ten at night where he found himself sitting at the table in the laundry room. It had been a few days and one of the last things he wanted to happen was walk around smelling like ass, so he had grabbed the clothes he had worn on the first two days to wash. It was nearly done with the drying as he yawned and rubbed his right eyelid with the back of his palm. Man, he couldn’t wait to go to be-

“! O-Oh, crap…”

A new voice’s introduction to the only sound of the drying machine going jerked Leon’s head to glance towards the doorway and see none other than Hiro, with a comically terrified expression. The taller man had just jumped out the door and hugged the frame of it with one hand, peering in cautiously at the baseball star sitting in the middle. He knew this is what happened, because the coat hanging off his shoulders had swing back into view as if he moved quickly and it was at risk of sliding off.

Leon’s eyelids lowered incredulously.

“...You gonna come in?”

“T-That depends. Are you goin’ to try and rip my head off again?”

...Touché.

Shaking his head, he replied with, “As long as you don’t stand within four inches of me to where your hair tries to blind me again, we won’t have any problems…”

The clairvoyant took that as a grace given to him by the gods to enter the room. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t on guard while he came in, nor was he careful to disguise it in any way, shape, or form when his back literally hugged the wall behind him and he shuffled in side steps towards the washing machine. He constantly was eyeing Leon as if he would pounce from his seat and grab at his hair yet again, and even the way he hugged his crystal ball to his chest with one arm was almost like he clung to it for dear life. That, or treated it like his baby that the punk would attack.

Man, Sakura wasn’t kidding about him sucking at being discreet.

“...Yo, you can relax, dude…” Leon rolled his eyes.

“T-That’s easy for you to say; you’re not the one who was assaulted, you know!” Hiro snapped back with, before muttering timidly, “You got one heck of a grip with those mitts of yours…”

The punk snorted.

“If you say so. So, what’s up? You doing some late night laundry like me?”

“Nah, I, uh, did that earlier today. I was coming in here to get somethin’, because I thought nobody would be doin’ laundry this late…” Hiro admitted, a frown threatening to turn into a scowl.

“Huh? What exactly do you need from a laundry room if you’re not doing laundry?”

“Oh, this here.”

Setting his crystal ball down on the table near him, the taller man with lethal hair turned and picked up the big container of detergent by the handle and raised it, signaling it was the item he was after.

“...You’re taking the bottle of detergent?”

“Yeah, back to my room. I kinda need it.”

“What the- Why the hell do you need detergent if you’re not doing laundry?”

“Oh, it’s not for laundry; it’s for my hair.”

………………

After everything he knows about this guy and the conversation he’s had with him, one would think that there wouldn’t be any more surprises. Like a magician who’d run out of tricks up his sleeve. But somehow, someway, this guy finds new ways to throw him off guard completely. Leon had done a few sets of double takes, each one more dynamic and sudden than the one before it until he leaned back in his chair with a disgusted look.

“You use detergent to wash your hair!?” he felt sick even saying that, but not as more so as when the guy nodded, “Dude, that’s nasty, bro! Do you not know what shampoo is??”

Shockingly enough, Hiro actually challenged him on that point.

“Hey, do you not see this?” he gestured to the giant spiky death of eyeballs that was his hairstyle, “Ya really think a bottle of shampoo is gonna contain this beast? Trust me, I’ve tried. But it doesn’t work. Detergent on the other hand? Gets the job done while also makin’ it smell clean.”

Gawd, this guy is like a walking headache…! All you have to do is just interact with it and it makes your brain hurt…

“Besides, it’s not like I’m gonna being taking so much detergent all the time. Considering it’s time for my seasonal wash…”

Leon’s face went blank for a second before the eyes grew smaller and his skin went pale. Oh no… Oh ho no friggin’ way did he mean…

“Seasonal…?”

“Yeah. Like every season? All I need is a good wash once during that time, and I’m all good,” Hiro shrugged.

Yo… Yo yo yo- this guy cannot actually exist, right? Like, this isn’t a real person he’s actually talking to right now?! How the hell can you live your life while only washing your hair FOUR TIMES A YEAR!? Is he mad? W-Well, he’s gotta be, considering he thinks that fortune ball he carries around with him was held by a president of the United States and was in a city apparently swallowed by the ocea-

!!!!!!!!

OH GAWD, HE JUST REALIZED HE TOUCHED THAT FREAKING HAIR WITH BOTH HANDS. AND RIGHT BEFORE HIS SEASONAL WASH.

Leon stared down at both of his hands in his lap; just what kind of ungodly horrors and germs were now crawling and infesting his body right now- Holy crap, that damn dryer better freakin’ hurry up drying his clothes, so he can jump into the shower before nighttime. He’s gonna need a LOT of soap for this one.

Due to his shock and dusgust, he wasn’t exactly able to voice out what initially came to his mind. Instead, and also to avoid another fight, it took an insane amount of willpower to respond differently.

“I-I… Y-Wha… I-I-Okay, Okay, fine… Whatever, you do you. But, l-like, do you have to take the whole friggin’ bottle?” he exasperately was able to talk, using his hands to motion out of the doorway, “I mean, me and thirteen other people need to use that! Why can’t you just grab one of those extra ones from the warehouse thing that opened up this morning?”

“Because it’s up on the top shelf of the middle thing near the ceiling!” Hiro argued back, his voice matching the volume and tone the baseball star fired his way, “Plus, there’s no ladder to use to get it, and I’m not about to try climbin’ it and risk falling and breakin’ my neck to get something that I could just grab here…”

As opposed to making one of us climb the stupid shelf ourselves to-

Aw, fuck it, this wasn’t worth the energy…

Leon groaned, shaking his head before burying it in his hands.

“Gh… Y’know what? I don’t care. Just take the thing, if it’s that necessary for you, alright?”

“Thank you, I will!” Hiro said, heading to the door, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta rush back before nighttime in order to use this stuff!”

He was almost out of the room before the baseball star felt a twinge of guilt come over him. He looked up, hoping to catch him.

“...Yo, Hiro?”

The man hesitantly stopped, looking over his shoulder.

“H-Huh? What is it now…?”

Leon sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, doing his best to maintain eye contact.

“...Look… Sorry about today… I went too far; my bad…”

The clairvoyant’s expression softened a bit, as a sigh exited out of his mouth and a normal smile came across his lips.

“Hey, no prob, dude… But like… work on the temper, okay…?”

Leon snorted.

“Right. Sure thing.”

With that, Hiro raised the bottle of detergent up as a friendly gesture of farewell towards Leon raising an hand up to do the same. The other man left the room, causing him to once again be alone in the laundry room.

...Yeah, there’s no mistake. Hiro is a total moron-

EEEEEEEEEEE.

Oh thank gawd the drying machine’s done-

Quickly snapping to his feet, Leon didn’t even bother to try and fold his clothes. Sure, there would be wrinkles in the jackets and stuff he’d have to take care of later, but that wasn’t a burden on his shoulders at the moment; the sooner he could get to his bathroom to wash his hands and body after learning about that horrifying piece of trivia, the better. He hastily kicked the door to the machine closed once all of his clothes were hugged tight within his arms and made a beeline towards the exit-

Whoa, what?

Out of the corner of Leon’s eye, a small sparkle caused him to skid in his tracks and look back. Somehow, that conversation Hiro had with him had made him completely forget that he left his crystal ball on the table. Right where he placed it before grabbing the detergent.

U-Uhm, er… T-That was kind of a bad thing, right? Considering the guy said it was his only one, so he had to do four times the tender loving care or something to it?

Oh, whatever. The guy’s a moron, anyways. If the stupid thing’s so important to him, he can realize he goofed and come back to get it himself.

Rolling his eyes, Leon continued his speedwalk back to his room.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Well, now that he was (hopefully) saved by whatever sickening manifestations were on him thanks to Hiro’s death weapon of hair, the plan was to get into bed, try to ignore the horrible things that had taken place today, and get some sleep in order to be ready for that morning meeting stuff he realizes is going to be a part of his life now.

....Well, the plan was that.

Problem is that it’s been over three hours since that stupid bear did his announcement and had the gall to wish everyone a good night. Not that he was trying to stay up late, but more along the fact of he couldn’t fall asleep. Hours of just staying on his back on his bed staring up at the ceiling as his ears tormented him by ringing at the dead of silence. Partially, it was thanks to him taking a giant nap that had him waking up at lunch. He didn’t care, though; he needed it badly.

But mainly… he was left holding more questions than the ones he previously had on the first day.

The safety of Kanon and his dad was the one that kept repeating the most in his mind. It’s only been two days and he misses them so much.

And it drove him nuts inside. Because he meant it. He’s no murderer, and he’s not gonna stoop to that unforgivable action in order to take someone’s life and then abandon thirteen other people in he-

……….Hmmm…. Wait….

Leon blinked, staring forward instead of at the ceiling.

H-Hold up… Actually, now that he was thinking about it… In a hypothetical case, God forbid it ever came to that...

...What… exactly would happen after someone murdered someone successfully? Did it even say it in the school regulations everyone had to follow…?

The curious surge of desire to learn of this knowledge prompted the boy to sit up in the darkness and move towards his desk behind the bed, where he made it the resting place of his e-handbook. He had to squint at the bright lights affecting his vision for a second, but eventually opened up the school regulations menu and scrolled down to the rule about murder.

His eyes finally caught it:

6. Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes ‘blackened’ will graduate, unless they are discovered.

Huh… No. No, it didn’t. Not one word on what would happen if someone actually does kill another person. All it says was they became a ‘blackened’ or something… But… What does that actually mean? And for that matter… ‘Unless they are discovered’? Like, someone figures out that they did it? Then what? Do they get stuck in here with a “Oops, ya got caught; better luck next time!” from Monokuma, to where the other students have to live with that fact one of them has killed? A-And let’s say they get away with it; what happens to everyone else? Do they just stay trapped here while the murderer just leaves? Wouldn’t that… then totally lead to full out murder attempts to get out of here?

Leon groaned tiredly as he rubbed his eyes before glancing back at the sixth rule silently.

If this whole school communal life Monokuma is forcing them to live in is a killing game in disguise, why the hell is the rule about actual murder so vague in explaining what happens? Just… what the crap…?

He wondered if anyone else really thought about-

Knock knock knock.

!!

Leon’s entire body went stiff as a board when he suddenly heard someone gently tapping his door. Stiff is a kind way of putting it, because his heart nearly stopped and he almost shat his boxer briefs and his bed when he heard that in pitch black darkness.

W-What the… who the hell is knocking at his door…

...No… No way… Someone couldn’t actually be…

A lump in his throat appeared, causing him to gulp as he gripped his handbook tighter and used it for a tiny source of light. He didn’t go straight for the door; he wasn’t a moron to just open up and basically accept his death. Instead, he moved towards the door slowly, shining the light from the device towards it.

But as he got to the door, he noticed something.

A small piece of notebook paper on his floor near the door.

What the- Did the person who just knocked slip that under it?

Blinking before bending over to pick it up, Leon flipped the piece of paper over and used his handbook as a flashlight to better read it.

And what it said written in pen was:

“There’s something I want to talk to you about, just us two. In five minutes, come see me in my room. Check the nameplates to make sure you don’t get the wrong room, okay? Thanks!”

And it was signed… Sayaka.

Leon’s eyes nearly bulged out of his skull upon seeing who wrote this. He stumbled around towards the light switch, flicking it on, flinging his handbook onto his bed, and grasping the note with both hands. As if to make sure he wasn’t dreaming and so his room lights could make sure he wasn’t mistaken on what this said. But no, this was real. Sayaka Maizono wanted him in her room to talk about something!

Holy crap, she wants to talk to him alone! A-About what though? Maybe music? Or perhaps a plan for them to work together in this place? His mind started racing excitedly, having a grin start to overtake his face. This was freakin’ stupendous, man! Like hella lit! This is the best thing that’s happened to him all day today, and technically it was tomorrow-

...But wait… why this late? He really didn’t think of her being the kind of girl who stayed up to ridiculous times at night… Maybe she was having troubles sleeping like he was? But even then… Surely, she remembered the self-proposed nighttime rule that Celeste offered up, where everyone would stay in their rooms until then, right? Or maybe she forgot…?

Aaaagh, who the hell cares!? Sayaka wants to see him privately! So many guys would dream of getting that opportunity, and he’s not about to let it slip past his fingers. And hey; he’s not technically breaking that rule if he’s not caught, yeah? Judging that he just wasted a minute and a half either staring at the note or pumping himself up with utter anticipation, he figured three and a half minutes were left for him to get ready, get his butt over there, and go knock on Sayaka’s door, who had probably left after slipping the note under his door.

Frig, and of course, the water in his bathroom has to be off during nighttime…!

Time to do a quick improv sprucing up!

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

If there’s one good thing about these dorms in this hellhole, it was the superior soundproof installation they had when whoever made them. Because of that, Leon didn’t need to undergo his best ‘shit, I came home super late last night, and my dad is gonna kill me if I don’t become a secret agent and quietly maneuver my way to my room’ tactics. Only taking his key with him, Leon locked his door and simply strolled around the corner towards his destination. He was a bit worried about his hair not having the perfect spikes and form he wanted, due to no water being available. But with a fresh change of clothes, his blueberry perfume reapplied, and adjusting his jacket and goatee bead, he felt confident enough that he was rocking the look well enough that Sayaka wouldn’t notice if anything was lacking.

Now, if his heart could stop pounding in his chest to where his nerves were going haywire, that’d be even better.

He couldn’t help it, though. This was a once in a lifetime situation being offered to him. How many guys can say the Sayaka Maizono wanted to speak to them in private, y’know? This was massive, and he couldn’t afford to make a single fuck-up here. Everything had to be perfect. That’s why when he got to the door, he did a few checks around her person to make sure everything looked, smelled, and felt good. He wasn’t really able to calm his beating heart; it looked like he’s gonna have to rely on the good ol’ fashioned way and wing it!

Everything in place now, he went ahead and knocked on her door, stuffing his hands into his pockets and taking a step back to not be in Sayaka’s face when she opened the door.

Eventually, the door opened and…

“Oh, Leon; you came,” the cute form of the now visible and fully dressed Sayaka said, peering around the door with a smile as she opened it for him, “I was worried that you were fast asleep and probably wouldn’t hear me knocking.”

He chuckled, flashing a wink, “Nah, I wouldn’t leave you hangin’ high and dry like that.”

This managed to get a giggle out of the girl as she backed up.

“Come on in.”

Giving her a thumbs up and grin, Leon carefully moved past her and entered her room. Casually taking a glance around the left side of her room near her bed from where he stood, he was… pretty surprised at how lackluster her room was. Like, in his, he had a microphone, cds, a guitar: y’know, stuff that complimented his dream. And… okay, okay, the baseball stuff for what his talent currently was. But still; his room was tailored to his tastes. But Sayaka’s…? It was a pretty normal and basic room, to him at least. He wasn’t exactly sure on what a pop star’s bedroom should look like, but… shouldn’t be a bit more sparkly, like with cute stage dresses or something?

Of course, that’s not implying he dictates what a pop idol should have as her tastes or anything, geez…

His attention was captured by said cute girl, who closed the door and walked around him near the bed.

“I really appreciate you coming over, Leon,” she thanked him, giving a small bow while holding her hands in front of her, “I had given this some thought and felt like I really should discuss something with you. I’m sorry about… how late it is, though.”

He closed his eyes, waving it off like it was nothing.

“Hey, it’s cool. Don’t worry about it,” he assured her, before his smile faltered a tad and he sighed, “I… don’t think I would’ve gotten any sleep, anyway… With the videos and all that…”

It appeared the feeling was mutual.

“Yeah, that’s kind of… why I was up late, too. Hence why I thought that maybe to kill.. uh, waste some time that’s gonna be spent on me not sleeping,” Sayaka seemed a bit uncomfortable, hesitating mid-sentence as she shrugged and nodded in agreement.

“Oh, yeah, totally cool; I get ya. Urhm, s-speakin’ of which, about those videos and this morning?”

“Hm? What about it?”

“I’m, like, so mega sorry about me being all pissed and stuff…!” Leon grimaced, awkwardly rubbing at his forehead before shifting in place while avoiding eye contact, “I-I mean, I feel like I have a reason to be angry, but I should’ve kept my cool and, uh, y’know, not explode in front of you and everyone else. I-I swear, I’m not usually like that-”

“Hey, it’s okay…”

He turned back to look at her just in time for her to sigh slightly and rub at her arm while looking towards the floor.

“Those videos were horrible, and no one should… should judge someone based on how they reacted to that…”

He nodded, totally feeling her reasoning was correct. But his mind couldn’t help but flashback to when he noticed her in the A/V room while ranting. She seemed clearly distressed, hugging herself silently. Looking back in retrospect, he felt guilty. He should’ve calmed down and checked on her, asked if she was okay… that kind of thing. After all, it wasn’t just him who had someone precious taken hostage by that damn bear…

A few seconds of silence passed before he decided to try and break the ice.

“So, uhh… what’s up? What’s the reason you called me over to your room?”

That question caused the expression of the girl’s face to lighten up with a small smile.

“Well… You said your dream was to get into the music industry and you wanted me help, right?”

Leon instantly lit up with an excited grin, nodding rapidly.

“Okay, then! I was thinking maybe you and I could set up a few times in the coming days where we could practice doing some vocal warm-ups, as well as seeing how you are right now with your guitar,” she explained, raising an index finger up to help her point, “By doing that, we can judge where you currently are in terms of your musical talent and what we need to improve on. Sounds good?”

Oh hell yeah! Fuck yes! Dude, he didn’t care if he was a zombie tomorrow morning; this was awesome!!

“O-Oh, o-of course!! That sounds like an epic idea, y’know? Good thinkin’, Sayaka!” He beamed more from ear to ear, rocking back and forth on the heels of his shoes.

Sayaka giggled at his excitement.

“That’s good! I’m happy to hear. But, uh… before we do…”

To Leon’s surprise and curiosity, she quietly walked over to her desk and opened one of the drawers. After pulling something out of it, she made her way back over to him and gave him a chance to see what it was. In both hands was a somewhat taller, plastic container that had a multitude of small red polka-dot wrapper-covered candies in them.

“Huh…? Whatcha got there; candies?”

“Yup! When we searched the warehouse, there were several types of food on the shelves, like snacks and candy. And this one happens to be my favorite, believe it or not; they’re the chewy kind,” she softly laughed, giving a sheepish smile, “I can’t tell you how hard it is not to just dive into the whole thing, you know? They’re really good.”

With that, her smile turned normal and she reached her hand in, picking out a few pieces before holding them out to the baseball star.

“Do you wanna try some? I’m willing to share with you before we get started.”

Awwwww, how sweet! This girl is just more amazing by the second, and cute as well; admitting that she has a sugar addiction! Yo, this was like inside scoops about her that he was getting, and he loved every minute of it.

However…

“Aww, thanks for the offer, Sayaka, but I’m gonna pass on that,” he thanked her and shook his head with a smile.

The girl blinked in surprise, looking a bit worried.

“O-Oh, uh… are you sure? I promise they’re not bad; they even help me stay peppy when it comes to long practice sessions back when I’m getting ready for concerts.”

“Oh, I’m not doubtin’ ya; It’s just I gotta be careful about eating so much sugar,” he chuckled, giving her a wink and rubbing the back of his head carefully not to ruin the hair, “Guys like me gotta keep an eye on their figure, y’know!”

And… that was really the truth. God knows how many times Kanon would get on him about how he looked or what he was eating. That girl ended up beating a second-guess philosophy into his brain when it came to just picking foods without considering what impact they would have on your body…

Nevertheless, he felt like he did a good job of politely declining the candy from Sayaka.

Then again, maybe not, considering how saddened she looked all of a sudden…

“O-Oh… Okay…”

Yikes… D-Damage control damage control damage control-

“B-But, uh… I might have some later in one of our future music sessions together! Just not at one thirty in the morning or whatever time it is right now… Okay?” he nervously chuckled.

Sayaka didn’t say a word. Instead, she silently nodded and turned back to the desk to put the candy on top instead of the drawer where she initially got it…...Shit. Way to go, you dumbass. You offended her (somehow, like, he didn’t get how he did it, but obviously her behavior now is so telling of it) when she took the time out of when she could be sleeping to invite you over and talk about helping your career. Gonna need to pull out all the stops for this one.

Trying to think of something in order to smooth out the sugary rejection, Leon turned around briefly and ran a hand through his hair delicately.

“S-Sorry… I’m just… really excited about this, y’know? I’ve been forced to play baseball for so long… not being able to really chase after my dream of going into music due to the people around me and all that. But now?”

He smiled, briefly glancing up at the ceiling.

“Despite the suckage that’s being trapped in here, not only am I making progress to making my dream a reality, but I’m getting your help in order for me to get further than I could even go by myself! Like, for real; you have no idea how much this means to me. So… uh, yeah, haha! I really appreciate this, Sayaka!”

Hrrm, n-not the best he’s done, but cut him some slack; it’s super early in the morning and he had to work on the fly, okay?

He turned around to face her with a cheerful smile.

“So! When’s our first-”

….

….

….

…….Huh…?

Wait…

What’s wrong with Sayaka…?

Why is she shaking…?

And what is she…

Leon blinked, his happy expression still painted across his face, but a raised eyebrow showing how he didn’t understand why she was…

“? Sayaka…?”

He blinked, looking at her. Her head lowered, her bangs covering her eyes, and her hands super close to her chest-

Wait, she’s got something in her hands-

Something shi-

…….

……..

H-Huh…? Is that…

Is that a… knife?

A… a kitchen knife?

What the… why would Sayaka-

That’s when his mind brought up a familiar sentence:

“You must kill someone in order to leave.”

THUMP THUMP...

………

His heartbeat became more noticeable and louder.

His arm was caught in midair, his eyes slowly losing size every passing second.

The room got colder somehow, yet he felt sweat drops on his brow.

His smile caused his lips to part, the teeth becoming more and more visible.

...No...

THUMP THUMP…

“....H… Hey… S-Sayaka…”

His arm lowered further, hand now on chest level.

The right corner of his mouth began to twitch out of his control.

Her body seemed to shake more after he called out her name weakly.

...N-No… No no...

His chest was aching.

His eyes shrank even more.

THUMP THUMP… THUMP THUMP…

“Wh… W-wh… What’s…. W-what’s with the k-knife…?”

She took a step forward-

No no no n-no no no nono no-

He slid a sharp step back, increasing his smile.

The cold beads of sweat that began to multiple and run down his face made the room even more frigid.

This can’t be… No, this isn’t…

THUMP THUMP, THUMP THUMP, THUMP THUMP, THUMP THUMP-

F-Fuck, why was h-his heart...

No, man; i-it’s it’s it’s i-i-i-i-it’s S-Sayaka, man…! T-There’s no way she’d…

“C-Come on, y-you’re creepin’ me out here, hahaha...ha-aahhh…”

His eyes slowly tried to look behind him towards the door without turning his head-

“I’m sorry…”

………..It was then he realized it all.

She invited him into her room. She invited him when everyone else is asleep. She invited him into a place where no one would hear him scream for help. She invited him in where she had a dangerous weapon, the same one he got nervous about on the second day- SHE IS NOW RIGHT IN HIS FUCKING FACE-

!!!

A scared “S-SHIT!!” escaped Leon’s mouth as he barely dodge the knife thrusted to the right of where his body just was. He staggered away and whirled around to face Sayaka, who stumbled a few steps forward and turned around to face him, her face completely morphed into a terrifying form of complete desperation and shock-

Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh-

Oh my gawd, she actually thought she was gonna get him with that- SHE’S SWINGING IT AGAIN, OH FU-

“H-HEY!! S-SAYAKA!!”

He barely managed to duck out of the way of her charging again, her teeth gritting together viciously as her eyes raced to lock onto him, almost cursing at him ‘HOW DARE YOU’ for dodging her attempt to stab him.

T-This… this wasn’t happening!! S-She was actually going to kill him!! What the fuck!?

He’s gotta get outta here-

FUCK, WHERE DID SHE COME FROM-

His adrenaline finally kicking in, Leon found himself pinned against the wall near the bathroom door before having to literally do a front roll out of the way of her slashing at it!

No fuckin’ way, this can’t-

Unfortunately, he didn’t get a proper footing to try and turn around and this girl was hot on his heels!! Somehow finding his way to not get the fatal wound, with the last one inches from his stomach, he was desparate to get some distance and catch his breath.

“F-FUCK, STOP!! SAYAKA, WHAT THE-”

He didn’t get to finish that statement, because the pop idol took a swipe that was right near his neck and he had to bend over way back to avoid it. That normally would’ve been a great thing, except he suddenly smashed into something hard-

“GGHH!! F-FUCK-”

Before he could even process it, Leon found himself falling backwards, his shoulders smashing into the floor and something landing sideways on his left-

A table-

Nonononononono-

SHIT!! She backed him into the table on purpose-

GAWDDAMNIT, SHE’S RIGHT ON TOP-

“RRRRRAAAGH!!”

“Y-YO, YO YO YOOOO!!”

He screamed out in terror, initially holding a hand up in front of him for a weak makeshift self-defense attempt before rolling away to the right just as she brought the knife down onto the floor where he used to be-

F-Fuck, he’s getting further and further away from the door-

Okay okay okay okay okay okay, he needs a plan!! He needs a plan fast a-

He let out a wince, the spot where he just back-tackled the table double sore now from ramming into something hard. But this time, it was solid. Glancing behind him-

WHAT TH- A SWORD!? SHE HAS A GOLDEN SWORD IN HER ROOM!? WHY THE HELL-

Hearing a frustrated cry come from his attacker led him no choice. Fuck it, he was desperate-

In a quick move, Leon didn’t even have to time to unsheath the sword; he grabbed it from the stand it was on and held out in front of his face, stopping the swing of the knife from hitting him as it bounced off the sheath. This act seemed to heavily startle Sayaka, as if it was something she was not prepared for-

Wait, she’s off guard- FUCKING GO FOR IT!!

Pulling off the most badass parkour move he could, Leon hopped over the shelving unit where the sword initially rested on and tried to make a break for the door-

“N-NO!!”

F-For fuck’s sake, how is she that fast!??

He wasn’t even able to land on his feet and take a step towards his freedom before a flash of blue came out of the corner of his eye and he was forced to raise the sheathed golden sword up to defend from another strike from Sayaka’s kitchen knife. She pressed against it, forcing him to do some stupid samurai katana shit that he’d seen in movies just to stop her from hurting him.

“Y-You can’t- I have to get out of here! I have to find out what happened to my bandmates!!” She shrieked, tears down her face as she focused on him instead of her uncontrollable sobs, “That awful bear took them; I need to know that they’re not dead!!

W-What the hell…. JUST WHAT THE HELL…

Then he comprehended what she said, past all the fuckin’ adrenaline and fear. And he actually felt himself becoming heated.

This gawddamn, selfish-!!!

“WH-SO!?” he shouted back, glaring at her, “My fuckin’ dad and cousin were kidnapped by that thing, too!! Why do you get to fuckin’ choose if I die!? What, you gonna say that my family’s lives aren’t as important as your band!?”

His muscles flaring up before his mind even comprehended it, he shoved her off of him, causing her to gasp and back up, still holding the kitchen knife in both hands. She was panting hard, almost to the point where he could’ve thought it was her hyperventilating.

“I… I have to get out… My band… My band is so important to me…” she sniffled, tears flowing down her cheeks, “W-Without them, I’m n-nothing… I’ll become nothing without them! T-That’s why I have to get out of here!!”

Leon felt his sweat sting in his eyes, but was too scared to raise an arm to wipe at them. Any sudden movement could cause her to decide to go after him again…!

This… this was so fuckin’ stupid!! The-The door’s right there on his right! All he needs to do is to just bolt through the hallway, evade whatever attack she’ll throw at him, go out of the door, and he’s homefree! L-Like, there’s no way she’d chase him through the halls if he could just bang on someone’s door to wake them up, right!?

M-Maybe if he talks to her, he can distract her-

“Y-Yo, you’re talkin’ like your band in your group are the only ones that you care about! W-What about... “

Makoto…. Makoto!!

“...M-Makoto?”

Sayaka’s eyes widened farther than he thought was possible on the once sweet face of the pop idol. For the first time, he could see the sweat on her face past her makeup now-

“M-Makoto…?” she breathed out, sounding fearful about the kid’s name of all things being brought out now.

“Y-Yeah, him! Like, f-fuck, aren’t the two of you close or something? Don’t you care about him??” he tried to reason, subtly sliding to the right while keeping his eyes on her and his sword ready like he was some friggin’ anime swordsman, noticing her clench her teeth more and more with angered guilt, “H-How do you think he’s gonna feel when he finds out you murdered someone in cold blood to get out of here? Are you seriously gonna abandon the guy and everyone else behind after you escape this place!?"

“S-Shut up… SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!”

The sudden shriek of terror was like a battle cry as she lunged at him again! She brought the knife upward, which had him jerk his arms above his head with the sword at the ready-

W-Wait, why did she suddenly bend slightly-

O-Oh, FUCK, SHE’S GOING FOR HIS RI- H-HE’S NOT GONNA MAKE-

“!!!!”

A sharp gasp came out of him as he felt something extremely painful cut into his right side. His body had contorted to the left in an effort to dodge, but a stinging, burning sensation suddenly lit up his entire torso area. He staggered back once the pain started to explode throughout his nervous system… S-Shit…

S-Shit, she… she got him… H-Holy piss… O-Oh, no no… no…

He bent over, taking a few breaths to try and regain control of his senses… f-fuck… fuck, this hurt….

He looked over at her… the beautiful, cute face now contorted into a menacing snarl of a grin, proud of its accomplishment.

Until she made eye contact with him, and it began to die into the realization of what she just did.

….She….

His vision began to turn red. A gasp escaped her mouth. His labored pants beginning to turn into seething growls. She froze, shoulders scrunching up in horror. He could feel himself shaking as he white-knuckle gripped the handle of the sheathed sword.

How…. dare she….

“......Y-You….”

The moment he saw her legs jerk backwards to try and gain some distance, Leon had taken a massive step in to close the gap. That swift action wasn’t something Sayaka had readied for, jerking her hands up in reaction as she stumbled back. Taking the handle with both hands, Leon readied a swing as if he was going for a home run in a baseball game-

“YOU BITCH!!!”

Leon’s vocal cords strained with how loud and violent they roared to life when he gave an impromptu battle cry. Not giving her any time to react, the full powered, nothing held back swing that was feared on the mound slashed through the air and towards her-

CRACK!!

“AIIIIIEEEEE!!!!”

The moment his swing completed the full motion, he knew he hit his mark.

The sheath had connected into Sayaka’s right wrist; it was the same arm in which she held the kitchen knife. The would-be murder weapon went spinning out of her grasp, somehow having enough propulsion to go sailing towards the bed, but hitting the mattress at an angle where it bounced off and went clattering near the girl’s feet. As for the sheath of the sword, it went flying off, sailed past where it initially lay on its stand, and landed ungracefully near the knocked over table.

That left Leon now with a golden, shiny sword out, now gripped in his left fist, and Sayaka, who had let out a blood-curdling, painful cry as she staggered back and leaned against the wall near the bathroom door. Her right hand went limp during her louder sobs, her body shaking when she clutched just above her right wrist with her other hand.

She… she actually just tried to…. This motherfuckin’...

He took a step forward, causing her to jerk her head up to look at him. Her eyes were like prey staring down its predator as it approached.

“...Y-You…. H-How dare you…” Leon’s eye twitched, his teeth gritting so hard that they could’ve shattered with how much force his jaw was using at the moment.

“!!”

Before he could even react, Sayaka suddenly made a beeline towards her left and opened the bathroom door. By the time he screamed an “OI!!”, she was already inside and the door slammed shut.

……..This….. Y-Y….. She….

This…. This fuckin’....

Leon’s eyes became extremely dark.

THIS… FUCKIN’ BITCH. H-HOW DARE SHE…

SHE TRIES TO LURE HIM INTO HIS OWN DEATH, AND THE MOMENT SHE’S CORNERED, SHE RUNS AWAY FROM HIM?

NO…. NO NO NO NO NO… S-SHE… SHE DOESN’T GET TO DO THAT… OH, NO…

SHE….. wait…. W-wet…?

Leon had angrily taken a step to the door when suddenly he had felt something that made no sense… h-his body… his body suddenly was… was wet…?

Wet… o-oh gawd, please don’t tell him he pissed himself dur-

!!!!!!

L-Looking down… Leon saw nothing but… but b-blood…. B-blood…

B-blood on the fl-floor… p-pouring down his side… o-out of a really… f-fuckin’ big wound-

O-Oh… ohhhh oh oh…. O-Oh g-gawd… Oh no, h-how badly did she get him with that…

The edges of his vision suddenly went black-

He dropped the sword and tried to shake his head, but they were still th-

…..Oh fuck…. OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH-

H-He’s d-dying…. O-Oh gawd, he’s dying!!!

“Oh gawd…. OH GAWD!!!”

O-Out- Out out out, he needs out!!!

Leon grunted in full blown panic mode, sprinting out the door the moment he realized he needed to go badly. Tearing out of the doorway, he tried to round the corner, but ended up slipping down to the underside of his shoe being went from his blood and collapsed against the wall outside the door-

“!! A-AAGH… NNah…. Aaag…”

H-Holy….. Fuckin’... T-That…. That hurt so much…. Oh gawd, it hurts so much….

Leon started gasping for air like a fish out of water. W-why the fuck did he have to land on where she got him with the knife and shit!? F-fuck his life, dude-

His skin growing colder and the sweat beading up on his forehead, he widened his eyes-

Y-Yo, if she comes out of the bathroom, where there’s both a knife and sword in there-

HELL NO, FUCKIN’ GET UP!!!

His right rib felt like it was on fire as he pushed off the ground. Oh, g-gawd, oh gawd, his right sleeve of his fuckin’ badass jacket is now stained in blood-

He felt it was getting harder to move as he moved along the wall for support while fast-limping towards his door. The adrenaline was started to wear off, and everything was becoming more painful, more harder to breath, more harder to see with the black dots in his vision-

O-okay, okay, he’s at the door. He’s at the door. The door. Open-

S-Shit, right, he locked it!! The key, the key, where’s the-

FUCK, WHERE’S HIS KEY!?

Leon’s panic began to bubble in his throat as not only was his pant leg becoming more of a darker, disgusting color, but his right hand wouldn’t stop shaking. Not only that, but it was getting harder to move and he can’t find his damn key-

WHERE THE HELL IS IT!? HE KNOWS HE BROUGHT IT WITH HIM WHEN-

!!! No….. nooooooooooo….

“Y-You’re fuckin’ kiddin’ me, man…”

He choked out a protest as he whirled back towards what could’ve been his crime scene-

Did… Did he drop the key in that room when he fell-

OH, FUCK THAT!! NO WAY IN HELL WAS HE GONNA GO BACK IN THERE TO GET IT WHEN SHE’S-

H-He’s a sitting duck. He’s a sitting, bleeding, DYING duck out here unless he comes up with a plan-

Wait… WAIT WAIT WAIT-

SAKURA!

S-She might not be a doctor, but out of everyone, surely she knows how to treat wounds. A-And bandages; she’s gotta have bandages-

Rushing to the first door he saw, Leon started wailing on it with his good arm, begging her to wake up inside. He kept throwing cautionary glances down the hall, just in case God forbid that crazy bitch comes out of the bathroom, mentally snapped completely, and starts chasing after him with a knife…!

“C-come on, come on.. P-Please, man…!”

He kept banging, glancing back-

!!

Wait- t-the nameplate-

Hina’s room…??

Jerking back, his breathing elevated even more when he glanced to the left and realized Sakura’s door was-

OH, YOU FUCKIN’ MORON!! YOU BANGED ON THE WRONG DOOR!! YOU EVEN FUCKIN’ FREAKED OUT ABOUT HER BEING NEXT TO YOU WHEN YOU FIRST FOUND THIS DAMN PLACE!! HOW THE HELL COULD YOU FORGET-

HE-HE’S GONNA DIE.. HE’S GONNA DIE BECAUSE HE’S A MORON…

Leon’s lips trembled as he hesitated turning his back towards the open door of Sayaka’s dorm to start pounding hard on-

A flash of movement caught the corner of his right eye. Hina’s door just opened, oh f-

“!!! W-What…??”

Leon turned to look and his mind… his mind went blank. Standing in the doorway of the newly opened dorm was Sakura, in a tight red athletic training type tanktop and black athletic shorts that went to her thighs, staring in alert disbelief-

W-Wait, w-why was Sakura in Hina’s room-

“S-Sakura… w-what is-!! O-OH MY GAWD!!”

A noise from behind Sakura caused him to glance at the room’s owner as she came into view. Hina, with her hair let down and only in a white tanktop and underwear, had covered her mouth and stared at him with near pencil dot eyes.

What… why are…

F-Fuck… j-just fuck it, he doesn’t know anymore… I-It just hurts… he doesn’t want to…

He didn’t care if something wet came from his eyes and down his cheeks means he’s crying in front of them; he doesn’t wanna die…!!

“H…. He… HE-HELP…!!”

Leon finally found his voice, screaming as his voice cracked and his closed eyes filled with tears, “H-HELP ME!! PLEASE, HELP ME!!!”

His knees threatened to buckle on him for a moment, but feeling a pair of hands reach out to him gave him a bit of strength to move forward into the room where he was being pulled.

“W-Well, don’t just stand there then! Get in here!!” Hina’s voice commanded him to hop to it.

Leon’s legs shakily tried to, but now he was feeling really tired and the knees were wobbly and giving out more than he’d like them to when he bent them. Sakura apparently could tell, because her hands tightened their grip onto his shoulders and kept him from plummeting face first into the floor. Gently propping his body up against the wall, she turned and shut the door, preventing anyone from coming inside once she locked it.

W-Well, it’s the thought that counts, right? Her propping him up against the wall, yeah?

H-Hahah... hahaha…!

Didn’t do worth shit as he felt a wave of weakness overtake him and he skidding down to sitting on his ass. F-Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck-

Instantly, he saw Sakura crouch on a knee towards his injured side. Hina looked like she wanted to approach to help, but was too mortified with the growing color of his blood beginning to become more apparent on Leon’s person and around him where he sat.

“O-Oh gawd… T-There’s so much blood…” she whimpered, her mouth being covered by her hands.

Something sarcastic prolly would’ve flown out of his mouth or played in his mind, but he was too scared and too much in agony to even attempt it. All that was left was another sob as he felt tears rolling down his nose.

“Hina, grab your first aid kit. Now.”

He managed to catch Sakura placing a hand on his right arm, which currently was pressed hard against his wound. He tensed harshly, only to wince from how shit that made him feel.

“Leon? Can you hear me properly?” she asked, trying to get into his range of sight.

The punk nodded frantically.

“I need you to talk to me. What happened?” she urgently pleaded, turning her head back to see how the swimmer was rushing over to her desk to grab a giant white first aid kit box.

“I-It, aag… I-It was Sayaka!!”

Fuck, he didn’t mean to shout, but literally, he’s gawddamn bleeding out and he’s so cold and in pain, and tired, and scared-

The fighter whirled back around with a shocked visage. The same with Hina, who finished coming back and gave the kit to Sakura on the floor beside her.

“Sayaka? She did this to you?” the swimmer looked utterly taken aback, as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Y-Yeah! S-She fuckin’... sl-slipped a note under my door telling me to come to her room, and I went over-”

“Wait, you went over to her room?” Hina cut him off, bending down into a crouching position to look at his face better.

Leon grimaced first, then frowned like a child who was caught being naughty…

“Y-Yeah…”

“I thought we all agreed to uphold the rule Celeste proposed to us,” Sakura commented on it before giving him a calm look, digging through the first aid kit while pulling out bandages and rubbing alcohol, “We’re not supposed to leave our rooms during the nighttime like this.”

“I-I know, I know, but s-she wanted to talk about something important and shit, a-and…”

“Leon, keep your head up and eyes open,” Sakura interrupted him, getting him to obey, “Continue.”

“Aggh… A-And, so we were just talkin’ and shit about how she’s gonna help with my music c-career and f-fuck… I… h-haah… I-I swear to gawd I just turned around for like five seconds and the next thing I know she’s swinging a damn knife at me and…” he tried to explain, but the pain and fear had lifted his head up and his words began slurring into a crying mess as his eyes clamped shut.

“A knife… !!!”

Hina’s eyes shrank as she whirled to look at the other girl.

“S-Sakura… You don’t think… When we were in the dining hall then, that-”

“Hina, now’s not the time! I need you to go get your sewing kit!”

“H-Huh? Why do you need-”

“Just trust me on this!”

“O-Okay, got it!”

The moment his eyes opened and more tears flowed out, Hina was halfway across the room-

“Leon, eyes open. You need to stay awake,” Sakura urged him, causing him to glance over confusedly.

W-Wait… was he closing his eyes? H-He didn’t feel like- OH, CRAP, his vision just blurred a lot and black spots are appearing in where it isn’t-

He gasped, attempting to push up from the ground in order to sit up better, but that took the pressure of his gaping slash wound and he became more wet-

O-Okay, fuck, don’t do that-

“Here, Sakura!”

A loud clanking noise was made when the swimmer had come back into the area and set down a smaller container nearby. Leon started to open his eyes when the plastic wrapping was ripped open by Sakura and she proceeded to open it and take a needle out. She then grabbed what looked like some kind of a thread out of the first aid kit-

W-Wait, what is she-

“Leon, I need you to move your right arm and hold still.”

“W-Wha-”

H-Holy shit, why is she moving the needle towards his- !!! WAIT!!

He used both hands to try and halt Sakura’s wrist, gritting his teeth as she glanced up at him-

“W-Wait! What are you doing!? What are you doing!?”

“Leon-”

“I SAID, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU D-”

“LEON. LISTEN TO ME.”

The booming sharp voice of Sakura silenced him; it didn’t stop him from shaking or grimacing, but from what he could see of his blurry, black-dotted vision, she was pretty much commanding him to stop.

“You’ve lost a lot of blood, and I don’t know how deep your wound is, but it’s very wide. We need to sew your wound shut.”

S-Sew the wound..? W-While he’s gawddamn awake-

He and Hina gasped as she continued.

“I’m sorry, but there’s no alternative at this point; if you don’t let me do this, you will die.”

D-Die…. Die…..

That word seemed to really hammer the fact in of how fucked he was. His skin was cold and his ability to breath right was really screwing up now. H-He can’t…. H-He can’t die… H-He wasn’t going to die t-to that bitch’s hands i-in a place like this… H-His family… H-His dream…

Muttering “Fuck” under his breath, Leon let go of her wrist, probably having his blood on it now, g-gawddammit-

“Thank you, Leon. You’re going to want to brace yourself. I’m sorry, but… this is going to hurt.”

Y-Yeah, he coul-

!!!!

“AAAAAAAAH!!!”

His head flew back hard against the wall, letting out a shriek of agony as he felt his skin stretch over the chasm of his wound. Holy shit! HOLY SHIT! HOLY FUCKIN’ SHIT-

T-This was so painful. Oh gawd, he can’t believe he’s being turned into a sewing project in order to save his life. He would’ve screamed that out, had it not been for him being too occupied with screaming-

!! W-Whoa, wh-

“...! T-The f-”

He felt himself nearly just swoon to the side and fall over. He tensed, the pain somehow not as bad as before-

“LEON! A…..OKAY!?”

“Hrgn… nn…”

W-What… What did Hina s….

“Le…eep your ey….I need y…”

S-Shit… W-Was he… was he fading…. N-No…

H-He can’t die… H-He can’t go out like this… N-Not like…

“Sak…e do? H…”

“Go….I wi…”

Please… G-God no… Not like this….

Kanon… Dad… Please… Not like…

N...ot...L….ike…..

…….

……………

………………………

………………………………….

================

Daily Li-[ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR]

DeAdLy LiFe: StArT

ReMaInInG sTuDeNtS: ??

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better...

 

....Puhuhuhuhuhu.....

Chapter 12: Ch 1: DeAdLy LiFe 1

Notes:

Upupupupupupupupupupupupupu....

…

………

…………..W… W-Wha…

…………..What w-was...

….W-What the… L-Light…?

W-when… when did it get so br-

….pain….

Pain… pain pain pain-

Pain pain pain pain PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PA-

“!!!”

The eyelids were spurred to light when the sharp, searing agony ripped throughout his body-

G-Gah-

Bad idea, as his eyes were not adjusted to the lights wh-

P-Pain, PAIN PAIN-

O-OH G-

HOLY FUCKING PISS, THIS HURTS-

“A-Aaau-AAAAA-”

His screams died miserably in his throat, mouth gaping wide open regardless of silence coming from the inside. His eyes clamping as tightly as he could, his body jerked dead in his tracks when an attempt to frantically gasp for air went horribly awry. The pain made him shiver in protest. During the initial scream, he had tried forcing him to push off whatever he was on with his forearms, but slid back down almost entirely-

“NNGH…. F-Fuuuuu-”

A groan escaped through the miniscule spaces in his teeth and gums as his body attempted to roll onto the left side. The seething breaths quickened at a tripled pace was the first clue that he couldn’t do it. He was frozen in place, going through excruciating torment that was driving him gawddamn crazy.

Muttering another vitriolic curse under his breath when taking in air, he finally dared to open his eyes and take a look-

…….A…. A plant?

In the- in the corner of the ro-

Waaaaait a sec…. D-did Hina have a plant in her-

!! Wait, the walls weren’t red anymore?? They were… some ugly kind of silver- !? W-What the, the floors aren’t blue-

His eyes widened as he felt his heart racing…! T-This isn’t Hina’s room; where the crap is he right now…!?

Oh… oh no… oh no oh no OOOOHHHH no…

It was very lucky that no one seemingly inhabited whatever unknown dimension that he was in at the time, for they would’ve been treated to the strangest face of him trying to become the stealthiest ninja in moving off of whatever he was on while simultaneously puffing his cheeks out to hold any yelps or curses of the searing pain tearing throughout his torso. Geesume, he never realized how heavy his legs were-

Okay… Breathe in, breathe out… One… two… three…!

!!! M-Mother of gawd- how the hell was his body able to swing that sword, fall on top of his massive injury, then get up and keep running?? Just fuckin’ impossible to even stand right now-!!

His right arm gently hugging around his torso, the injured Leon Kuwata finally attempted to glance around the room to find where he was. His eyes were treated to many things he had never seen in this place before. Weird looking machines, cabinets and shelves that seemed to contain medical supplies, a desk in the corner with x-ray pictures on the wall in front of it, a small minifridge, and several small beds of which one of them he had just gotten off of…

...Not to make an blind assumption or anything, but… this was a nurse’s office or some kind of medical place, yeah? So then…

He’s not dead.

Leon closed his eyes and let out a pained, shaky sigh of partial relief.

…...At least, he didn’t think he was dead. Because if you’re dead, that’s sort of, y’know, the deal with the afterlife thing where you rest in peace and don’t worry about pain and shit, and he didn’t think that heaven had need for nurse’s offices…

His eyes shrank with a comical frown.

Unless he was in he-

No no no no no no no no no, you stupid brain, stop wandering about and making him freak out-

Okay… take it easy… Let’s try to walk and-

H-Holy mother of piss-!!!

He grunted harshly, his left arm extended as quickly as possible to grab the metal footrest frame of the bed he once laid upon to use as a support for him. There was no way in hell that he could walk by himself right now, n-not when his side was on fire this badly…!

Okay, that was not a good idea. This was ultra, mega bad in every gawddamn definition of the word. Especially since he got off the bed on the left side of it near the corner, so in order to use his left arm as support, he had to twist his body for said arm to get a proper grip on the bed frame, and that twisting motion sent even more pain throughout his body- Twisting- T-Twist- twisting was such a horrible idea!! Such a God-forsaken, terrible thing to do after you’ve been attacked with a knife-

“U-Urr-”

A strangled noise gargled in his throat as the pain had become greater than he could bare at the moment. Momentum carried his center of gravity downward. Before he realized it, the initial twisting motion had Leon sliding onto his knees while facing the bed frame directly, his left hands still clutching it now above his head and it being the only thing stopping him from face planting into the floor. The surge of weakness flowing through his muscles made him shiver more along the agony of his injury.

“A-augh… G.. Gawd… fuckin’... guuuugh…”

Now, one would think that a sound would not affect a person’s temperature. But he swore the moment he heard the door opening behind him? Suddenly, he felt very cold. His teeth clenched together tightly, the punk slowly turned his head to look at the door-

“!! L-Leon!”

Without realizing it, Leon had let go of the tense, terrified breath he was holding in when he saw Makoto of all people. The kid had paused, his jaw almost dropping to the floor upon seeing him in such a state. He remained frozen in the doorway bef-

“H-hey, don’t freaking block the door like that!”

A familiar female voice scolded him from behind and before either male could realize it, a pair of hands had made contact onto his shoulder and given him a significant enough of a push for him to stagger out of the way and make a frightful, mumbled noise while he tried to regain his balance. Entering the doorway stood the culprit: Hina, fully dressed and hair back to normal. She gasped once she laid eyes on him. Behind her was Sakura, also dressed in her normal clothes, widening her eyes at the injured teenager essentially on the ground.

Geezume crow, he wondered what kind of exercises and training stuff those two girls did, because it was like… h-he swore he just blinked once, and in that short millisecond timespan, the two girls were suddenly by his side, trying to help him up. Damn, are girls just biologically quicker or something…?

“What the heck do you think you’re doing? G-Geez, are you trying to collapse and hurt yourself more?” Hina huffed a bit, but with utter concern as she and Sakura carefully wrapped their arms around him to help get him to his feet.

A grunt was the only thing he could muster out of his mouth at the moment.

“Apologies if this hurts, Leon, but we need to get you off the floor,” Sakura offered an apology as she and Hina were able to get him onto his feet and turned him to sit onto the mattress.

Y-yeah, uh, ya really didn’t need to apologize. ‘Cuz, y’know… At this point?

EVERY SECOND FUCKIN’ HURTS!!!

And no, you stop right there, he wasn’t about to hear some shit about how ‘well, wouldn’t it hurt more if it pressed against his wound’ or something stupid. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in agony or in ten times the agony; it’s still agony that drives you nuts and completely ruins your freaking day, because you can’t focus on anything else but the horrible, uncomfortable throbbing-

Still, he was uber thankful upon sitting back onto a soft surface and making it somewhat easier to take a breath in. Didn’t stop him from wincing as he lightly hunched over, right arm still defensively guarding his extra tender spot.

“Urck… T-... T-Thanks…”

The girls nodded as he glanced up at them, a subtle panting rhythm now laced into the background of his breathing.

“Oh, thank God you’re awake. Everyone was so worried we lost you…” Makoto did his best to give a reassuring smile, moving a bit closer to the left past Sakura for him to see him.

Eeeeh… He knew that the kid was trying to be nice and genuine there, but… he really didn’t be reminded about how he almost came close to knocking on the grim reaper’s door and having it open it to see him with a giant figurative sign that said “TAKE ME NOW” on it. For once in his life, the feeling of relief washed down the bubbling sensation of increasing fear when he swallowed and nodded.

“Right…. Um… w-where am I right now? This i-isn’t where I-”

“You’re in the nurse’s office.”

Leon blinked, eyebrows going up when he saw another person suddenly behind Makoto:

Kyoko…

When the heck did she come into the room? Granted, yeah; he was kinda dealing with something at the time and had his eyes closed, but he swore he never heard her come in…

“H-Huh? The wha…?”

“Remember the pink double doors that were previously taped off across from the entrance hall?” Makoto tried to jog his memory, “They’re unlocked now, and that’s where you’ve been resting for a few hours.”

Wait a sec, hold on; a few hours? So he’s been out for a while? And if it was taped off to begin with, how did the nurse’s office get magically unlocked and…

“Uhhhhhhhh…”

The sheer confusion on his face, where one could probably see a giant billboard of a question mark lit up over his head, gave no mistake to the other four in the room that they had officially lost him.

“Perhaps we should start over from the beginning, to get Leon up to speed on recent events…” Sakura offered, receiving a nod from the others when she shared glances with them.

“I think that would be best.”

Hearing Kyoko’s voice, Leon turned to look at her and felt… this weird kind of nonverbal pressure. L-Like… the way her posture was, arms folded over her chest, the quietly calm yet piercing, analyzing tone of her eyes… It was, no joke, only three seconds of maintaining eye contact with her and somehow she had already won the battle of dominance. Every fraction of a second during that and after… It was like…

She was studying him for some reason. Wanting to see if she could find something…

But… But what…?

His attempt to figure out what her deal was immediately derailed when she spoke.

“Leon, what was the last thing you remember before you lost consciousness?”

Stammering a bit from the sudden tense pressure to answer her inquiry, the punk tried to clear his throat subtly before his lips twisted into a frown.

“Like, before I passed out…? Uh… I-It was Sakura…” he grimaced halfway through the answer, remembering the cringing details, “She, er… was stitching my wound shut… and I kinda, just… keeled over during that…”

...Ohhhhh, come on… H-He really did that. Oh my gawd...

Gawd, that’s… that’s really embarrassing now that he thought about it… Bleeding all over the place, crying and freaking out like a psychopath to be saved, and then just fainting on her and Hina as they did. As far as he was concerned, nothing was gonna make that incident come off as less of a shitshow, even if he tried to cover it up…

Fuck his life. For real this time. He was actually tempted to bury his face of shame away from everyone to somehow hide. ...Or open an interdimensional portal to another galaxy to escape. Either one could work for him right now.

“Okay…”

He looked back at the muscular girl as she nodded at him.

“After you had passed out, I was able to finish closing your wound. Hina and I then applied some disinfectant and bandages,” Sakura began to recount.

“Yeah… that took us about, uh, what; ten or fifteen minutes, kind of?” Hina, while a deep in thought expression came across her face, folded her arms and proposed the time frame estimate, glancing over at the fighter near the end.

“I would say that’s correct, yes.”

“And after all of that was done, we went around to wake everyone up. Some of them were, uhh… it kinda took a while, since they weren’t exactly all too happy about it…” the swimmer continued, a very, comically pained and regretful ‘sorry not sorry’ grin appearing as she shrugged during the action of her hands going into her jacket’s pockets, “But once they saw all the blood outside in the hall and you unconscious on my dorm floor, they stopped complaining, or at least being in a miserable mood.”

“That’s when Monokuma suddenly showed up,” Makoto took over, earning a surprised look from Leon upon mentioning that detail, “It gave us the announcement that it would be unlocking the nurse’s office so we could bring you inside to rest or help you, in case something else happened to you.”

Honestly, after hearing that, he didn’t know if he should feel thankful or suspicious towards the bear’s motive for unlocking this place.

“Wait, so then… everyone else is awake now...?” he asked, looking between all of them for who can answer him, “Then where are they?”

“In the gymnasium,” Kyoko spoke first, “Monokuma told us to gather there for the time being while it ‘prepared something’. It also said it was to give some time to determine if you would wake up or not.”

Yeah, leaning towards suspicious now. What Kyoko just said pretty much translated to ‘give it some time to see if the guy croaks or not while I’m cooking up something shittastic for all of you’. Friggin’ stupid bear-

“Hello, hello! I hear my wonderful name being called~!”

Before anyone could recognize the new voice that had entered the room, a flash of white and black came spinning seemingly out of nowhere and bounced off the floor onto the bed behind Hina and Sakura. The deceivingly cute, falsely innocent form of Monokuma posed before placing its hands onto its hips (again, if you can even call them hips).

Now… he’s seen this thing do this a few times already. But…

But this time… after nearly being murdered and seeing his own blood pouring out of his body? Now add to how Hina slightly freaked out and scrambled alongside Makoto to get distance from Monokuma, essentially leaving him wide open to it? Fu-

“!!!!”

It sent him into a silent panic. His shoulders scrunching up, the unbearable, sharp pain wasn’t enough to stop him from reaching behind him to drag his tender torso away from the bear across the bed he sat at. His widened, pencil dot-sized eyes stared in terror as he started to shake. N-No no no, stay the fuck away from-

The movement of Sakura slightly moving to her right to shield him from the vision of this evil toy caught him off guard, causing him to look at her with disbelief. W-Whoa, what? She… She was protecting him…?

“Oh, hey hey hey! And what’s this? My precious baseball star student is alive and awake! That’s wonderful to see,” the bear tilted its head to the side to peer around the fighter’s body to get a bit of a better look at Leon, who snapped his fearful gaze back at it, “I was also worried that you weren’t gonna make it, you know? After all, the way everybody found you unconscious in that dorm room was sooooo boring, it would’ve been lackluster if you faded away after that. Almost as boring as the biggest box office flop in cinema history!”

If it weren’t for how vulnerable and shaky he was, Leon probably would’ve been mentally (and quite possibly verbally) cursing him for not only that passive-aggressive low blow, but referring to him in a manner like he was still into baseball. Which he totally wasn't-

“What the heck are you doing here!?” Hina spat out aggressively, disgust seeping out a triple the amount when saying the word ‘you’.

The bear turned to her and flailed its arms rapidly.

“How rude! That’s no way to speak to your headmaster at all. And when I was being so nice to check up on your fellow classmate who’s badly injured,” it protested, finally pouting as it lowered its head before it rebounded back and regained its normal disposition, “But now? The reason is that Leon is awake now, which means we can officially start!”

Makoto blinked confusedly, “O-Officially start…?”

“Yup yup yup! Everything will be explained once you all head over to the gymnasium, so I expect all your butts to be over there real soon. You hear me? No detours, either; after all, everyone else has been waiting a super long time already. I wouldn’t make them any more grumpier than they already are if I were youuuu~.”

With a giggle, it jumped off the bed and ran out of the door. But the way it faked them out as it did a backflip, but had leaned forward at first as if to jump right past Sakura and onto Leon’s left directly on the mattress. As a result, it caused Leon to jerk his right arm up in response-

-...!

...Y-Yo…. Yoooo….

Leon’s jaw started to open without him realizing it as he stared in pure bewilderment at what he was seeing-

H-Holy crap…. Holy gawddamn shit…

Nearly his… his entire right sleeve was stained a sickening, oozy color of dry blood. Only a few spots of it had retained its clean, original white color. Taking it all in, the horrible curiosity began to take control over him as he glanced down at the rest of his body-

R-Really wished he hadn’t done that.

His lower half was even… so much worse. Oh, hell no, it was so much worse. His t-shirt underneath his ruined jacket had a massive tear from where he had been slashed with the knife, the fabric having a noticeably wide, straight cut and having its frayed edges nearly holding on for dear life. Under it, past the stained bandage on his skin, was an extremely wide line of stained blood going downward. So much and so wide that now… now his entire pant leg on the right side, as well as the right side of his studded belt and his custom, awesome platform sneaker on the same side were utterly drenched and beyond salvaging.

G-Good…. Good gawd… t-there was so much bl-

He jerked upon realizing that not only did his clothes have it, but his skin as well. All it took was one glance down at his hands after taking in how badly he looked to realize that his hands, more the right one than the left, were nearly covered like paint on a canvas. And that was just the back of his hands. Slowly turning them to expose the palms to his eyes, it wasn’t as bad, but… there were gold sparkles there, moreso on his left hand. But yeah… s-still blood…

G-Geesus… Just…

H-How truly close to death’s door was he…? When he passed out back in Hina’s room, just how many moments away was he, leaving this world and…

She… she really was close to killing him...

“Leon…? Hey, are you okay?”

Makoto’s voice snapped him out of his trembling stupor and caused him to look over to the other boy. It was a few seconds before he registered what he had asked…

Okay? Okay?? You freakin’ for real, man!?

“N-No, I am not okay! Nothing about this is okay, dude!!” his voice sparked to life, shouting at the utter ridiculousness of him asking that, “I- T-This is so messed up! Seriously, like, mega fucked up…!”

The response he got from the punk seemed to make Makoto frown and nod, somewhat concerned and regretful for asking what was most likely a stupid question. He, Hina, and Sakura shared a look amongst themselves-

“It is, but we’re left with no choice at the moment,” Kyoko said, folding her arms and glancing away before everyone turned their attention to her, “We should hurry to the gym.”

H-Huh? As it… As in go right now??

“Ghh- W-Wait a second…!”

The calm eyes turned to his, undeterred from his loud outburst.

“What is it?”

“I can’t go to the gym lookin’ like this!!” Leon protested worriedly, feeling sweat forming on his brow.

“Why not?”

He couldn’t lie; he was floored with how quick and cool she challenged his objection that there was a short, several second pause before he was able to shake his head to clear the cobwebs out and reply immediately.

“Wha-I- Y-Yo, do you not see what I look like right now!?” he loudly argued, trying to ignore how it seemed to cause his injury to hurt more and cause difficulty in taking air into his lungs, “I’ve literally got blood splattered all over me! I can’t let everybody see me like-”

“Everyone has already seen you like this when you were unconscious; Hina said so when we were recapping what happened,” Kyoko cut him off, causing his voice to die in his throat from surprise, “So what difference does it make if they see you in this condition while you’re awake?”

!! Ga-uhhhh… W-Well… Urm… L-Look, he didn’t know, all right? He didn’t know! But it just felt wrong, and it was wrong. He didn’t have a real answer for her, but it was just plain damn wrong. And he wasn’t in the least bit comfortable, going around in disgusting, bloody clothes like this around other people-

But despite his inability to come up with a rebuttal, it appeared that someone came to his aid.

“You have a point, Kyoko, but... does he really have to go walking around with blood all over him...?” Makoto hesitantly asked once the girl’s eyes focused on him, sheepishly smiling while rubbing the back of his neck, “I mean, can’t we make a quick trip to his room for him to change into some clean clothes? I’m sure Monokuma wouldn’t-”

The kid stopped dead in his tracks when Kyoko turned to him, shaking her head, “It just told us that we were to go to where it wants us immediately. I understand your concern for Leon, but right now, we should do what it wants to avoid angering it.”

“Yes, I agree,” Sakura nodded her head, glancing sympathetically to Leon, “I’m sorry, Leon, but it’d be best if we don’t test the patience of whoever is keeping us here and risk finding out the consequences of doing so.”

Gah, he just couldn’t win, could he? Shaking his head with a sigh, Leon looked downwards and tried to ignore the blood-stained leg of his. Of course he didn’t want to find out what happens when you piss off Monokuma. So, there’s that, but… there was also the matter of an important, crucial detail: he didn’t have his room key. From what he remembered last night, he had lost it sometime after going into that room and before rushing out to get away from… from her. So even if they agreed to let him go back, there’s no way he could get into his room without finding it first. And frankly, at this point, he wasn’t sure if he should mention that he lost the key, which would lead to him having to explain why…

“Tch… O-Okay, fine. But you all better keep Sayaka the hell away from me.”

Unbeknownst to him, Makoto visibly flinched hard and grimaced.

“S-Sayaka…?”

Leon raised his head and lowered his eyebrows, helping enforce his angry face to make a point, “Yeah, her! The farther I’m away from that crazy psycho, the better!”

!! Urgh…

He clamped his eyes shut as his right arm hugging around his side flinched ever so slightly.

O-Okay… Okay… P-Prolly should refrain from shouting anymore; his injury really doesn’t like that and it makes it difficult to brea-

Opening his eyes, he noticed that everyone had suddenly become eerily silent upon hearing his demand. Not only that, but they all were sharing a look with each other, as if… as if something was up, but… it started to grow a seed of nervousness in the pit of his stomach as his eyes darted between the four of them.

“...Wh… What’s with the looks?” a part of him really didn’t want to know, but the words slipped out of his mouth before his brain could shut his lips closed and voice box off.

There wasn’t exactly a definite, verbal answer to his question, but whatever it was… it was bad. Kyoko had simply looked away, almost pursing her lips to formulate a response. Hina and Sakura shared a saddened look, with the fighter closing her eyes and the swimmer holding her hands near her waist and looking down. But the most telling… the one that really had him feeling something really big happened was Makoto. The kid had glanced away downward to his right, his hands unable to decide if they wanted to clutch into a pair of fists, while his eyelids almost closed his heartbroken eyes.

...Something had happened.

And he had a feeling he would find out very soon, and that he would wish he never had found out.

Eventually, the silence and the sullen atmosphere cracked enough into pieces to go back to normal when Kyoko’s voice spoke.

“It’s probably best if we explain in the gymnasium. We’ve wasted enough time here,” her voice seemed to call everyone else into agreement.

“Yeah, you’re right. So!”

Hina shook off her previous mood and tried to pep herself up as she moved back past Sakura in order to stand in front of the baseball star.

“Leon, do you need to be carried or anything?”

W-Wait, wh- CARRIED!?

A small blush flashed onto Leon’s face as he snapped, “Wh-The hell are you saying?? I’m not being picked up and c-carried like a baby or some crap like that!”

“W-Well, I didn’t know! I was just offering, geez!” Hina clapped back with at first, before frowning and rubbing her neck, “I mean, after all, when we came in, you fell on your knees in front of the bed. So I didn’t know if you could walk or whatever…”

Understanding her reasoning a bit better now helped the embarrassment flush out of his body and give a nod to signal he got what she meant. But that was really a good question. Like… could he even walk without help? Granted, he twisted his body in a way where he just couldn’t take the pain, but… it was only a few steps going around the bed before that happened. Could he even handle long distances…?

“...I think… I think I can walk, but… It’s gonna take me awhile… This fuckin’ injury is driving me nuts…” he winced.

“That’s understandable,” Sakura nodded, offering something to him, “Would you like me to stay by your side while we go, just in case you need to stop or can’t go on?”

As in… pick him up and carry him there…?

Ggguh, from cryin’ out loud…

He really couldn’t stomach everyone seeing him being carried by Sakura as they hypothetically come into the gym; just the thought of how humiliating and uncool that would look like was a hard mental pill to swallow. But, at the same time, he just previously wondered if he could even make it by himself…

O-Oh, yeah, there’s also the fact he piggyback carried Makoto to his room on the first day, so like…

Uggh, CRAP.

Ever since last night, he’s been all screwed up and he hates it so much.

Nevertheless, he eventually nodded and accepted her and Hina’s attempts to help him up. A sharp inhale had him massively pursing his lips and pushing the air inside of his mouth against his cheeks. Once up, the agony had shifted into a stabbing feeling (yeah, frickin’ ironic, he knew) and he spent a few seconds trying to adjust to it. Still was nearly borderline impossible to stand, but his somewhat still existing and intact sense of pride wouldn't fold so easily yet.

“There we go… Just… try to take it slow and easy, okay?” Hina gently advised, going to move out of his way.

“R-right… Umm, ngh… Before we head out, can I, uh… have some p-pain killers or some kind of medication?” he grunted before asking urgently, since he was dying over there… and who knew if it was actually quite literally.

“Unfortunately,” Kyoko closed her eyes, “There’s none at the moment.”

“Wha-? Are you fuckin’ kiddin’ me?” the punk was officially done with this shit, nearly cutting her off before she finished.

“S-Sorry, Leon, but… Monokuma said it wasn’t expecting a reason to open the nurse’s office so soon. Because of that, it didn’t stock it with ‘a proper amount of pain medication’...” Makoto cringed somewhat, his hand scratching at his face while his eyes desperately tried to avoid the disbelief in the pale blue pair now staring at him.

Bears suck. They mega suck. They ultra, mega suck huge di-

“...It’s a fuckin’ nurse’s office, for gawd’s sake…”

His mouth unable to stop the avalanche of curses coming out of his mouth, the dark figurative thunderstorm cloud raging over his head increased its width and created a gloomy, yet ticked off persona around him as Makoto and Kyoko went to open the doors.

Oh, good Lord, help him now.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

M-Man, he never realized how far it was from the place outside the entrance hall to the gym.

Or how not only were the lights he once thought looked sick were creepy, but somehow caused him to become nauseous with how they were affecting his eyes.

Or how friggin’ hard these floors were every time he placed a shuffling foot down, h-holy crap…

But, mad respect for Sakura and Hina. Seriously, bless them. Those two girls were with him every step of the way, matching their pace with his and scooting a few inches closer whenever his struggling grunts were too loud or he looked like he was gonna fall forward. Which… er, happened a hell of a lot more than he wanted to admit. But eventually the green overall color of everything around him changed into yellow, signaling they were close to the gym. With Makoto and Kyoko still opening the doors, he continued to journey his tortoise-speeding way to the last set of doors that led to their destination.

He halted his approach when a small surge of the agony caused him to stop. Which, believe it or not, he was kinda thankful for.

Because… he really was worried about what would happen once he entered. Like, sure, Kyoko’s already laid out the whole ‘they’ve seen you like this’ already thing, but that wasn’t what was filling him with anxiety and dread.

Everyone was going to be in the gym, right…?

Then… Then she was going to be there.

That fuckin’ bitch who only hours ago tried to kill him. He knew it was gonna be hard to avoid the eyes of everyone once he came in, but hers would be the hardest to feel. Which was why he was gonna stay close to Hina and Sakura. Just in case, God forbid she tries something.

His hearing caught the doors opening, so he quickly resumed his shuffling, injured walk to prevent any of them from noticing he stopped for a short while. As the floor changed into the clean and shiny wooden basketball court, he kept his head down to start building his tolerance to the judgmental eyes that surely had turned around now to view him. Even from the long distance he was, he could hear gasps and muffled talks. At least he was in the gym now. For gawd’s sake, this was really getting hard now… r-really hard…

As Kyoko walked forward normally, Makoto and the other girls had stayed with him, with him and Hina asking quietly if he was okay. He grunted and gave a lying nod, just to appease their concern (because fuck no, he was not okay; like someone’s gonna be okay in a matter of minutes after being slashed by a knife), before he could see the legs of other people coming into his view of the ground. That’s when he looked up and saw several people had cautiously advanced to him.

“O-Oh… T-Thank goodness you’re still alive,” Chihiro wiped at her teary eyes, giving a small, relieved smile.

“Jesus, you look absolutely fucked up…” the gruff voice of Mondo in what felt like a mix between a sneer and a grimace, rubbing at the back of his head while looking Leon over.

A scoff came out of the fashionista standing next to him as she rolled her eyes with a scowl.

“Yeah, gee, thanks for stating the obvious there,” she shook her head before softening her facial features and placing her hands on her hips before addressing the baseball star, “But for real, it’s good to see you on your feet and walking around.”

He gave a nod, though in all honesty, he really wished he wasn’t walking around-

“And you four, thank you for going to retrieve him,” Taka said, giving an approving nod towards the other new visitors to the gym.

“I guess, then… All that’s left is to wait for Monokuma to show up to start this thing…?” Hiro asked unsurely, glancing around at everyone for any kind of confirmation that what he said was actually the game plan.

...Oh, yeah… that’s right. That bear had everyone gather in the gym specifically. So… what was this all about, now that it was official that he wasn’t dead?

When he thought that, he had looked up to locate Hiro, who was one of the furthest away and closest to the stage, near Byakuya and Celeste. But upon doing that, Leon’s curiosity got the better of him and his head began to scan the entire area for any signs of a certain blue haired girl…

...only to find she wasn’t there…? Wait, huh?

Though it really friggin’ killed like a bitch to do, he turned his body back and forth to search the far sides of the gigantic, athletic room, the stage all the way to the back, and even behind him from whence they came, but…

Hina was the first to catch him looking behind him stiffly.

“Leon? What’s wrong?”

His body complained loudly from torturous pain. It was like his lungs commanded him to take a breath before he could even respond. And when he did…

“...Where… Where’s Sayaka…?”

...And there it was again. That uncomfortable, ominous silence that drifted over everyone as they either shared a look with someone, glanced away, dropped their eyes to the floor…

“...You mean you don’t know? You better not be joking,” Junko squinted with a pained expression, and then shot a glare to the four who helped him here after he shook his head no, “Seriously!? You guys brought him here, yet you didn’t even tell him what the hell’s going on?”

It wasn’t as soon as he would’ve liked, but… when he glanced over to the small group, none of them seemed to have an answer to that…

“...T-Tell me what…?” he hesitantly asked-

“Idiots, the lot of you.”

The harsh, scathing ad hominem from Byakuya signaled him coming closer with a cold tone in his eyes. His arms seemingly folded over his chest in a permanent form, he shook his head.

“Since this entire gaggle of buffoons want to waste precious time and not simply get to the crux of the matter, I suppose it’s up to me to tell you, so we all can be done with this asinine banter.”

His superior eyes glanced down at Leon, his nose lifting upwards while showing no hesitance.

“Sayaka Maizono is dead.”

“................ Wh…”

He… He never…

He never realized how cold his breath was against his lips and tongue, or how when his entire body dropped to the same kind of temperature, the pain from his wound disappeared. All that remained now… was a chilling feeling. It spread into the pit of his chest and throughout his shoulders, traveling up and down the spine…

“...W-What are…”

Leon’s eyes were shrinking by the time he found his jaw hanging open from his head shaking in disbelief.

“What the hell do you mean she’s dead…??”

“As in she’s completely and irrevocably dead,” Byakuya wasn’t swayed, “You can go back to where her body is to check one, two, even a thousand times. But she is forever gone.”

He… He wasn’t hearing this right, was he…?

S-Sayaka…. THE Sayaka Maizono… The biggest pop idol of Japan… and the same person who tried to murder him… is dead??

“Y-You… T-There’s no way…”

“...H-He’s right.”

The defeated tone of Makoto captured Leon’s attention as the boy appeared to be in such emotional pain. The same kind of expression and posture he had in the nurse’s office.

“After Sakura and Hina showed everyone that you were in Hina’s room, we realized Sayaka wasn’t there. So, we went to her room and… and…” he hesitated, closing his eyes with a great sadness overtaking his face, “...She was in the bathroom, with a knife in her stomach…”

N-No…. Fucking… way…!!

This… this wasn’t happening-

“Y-Yo… This can’t be real, dude…” Leon breathed out desperately, his head still shaking.

“T-Tch. W-Why are you a-acting like you’re surprised t-to find out about this?”

The group looked over to see Toko, shaking horribly. While she was addressing the punk, her arms seemed to be blocking her eyes from looking over at him. Most likely, he guessed due to him being covered in blood on one side of his body, but like… what the hell did she-

“Y-you’re the one that did it!!”

Leon’s eyes widened even more as he gasped. Even more so when he glanced around at everyone, and they all were… were looking at him like...

“W-What…?” he felt that irritating nervous twitch in the corner of his mouth starting up again, his voice threatening to bubble in an intimidated fit of laughter, “You… You c-can't seriously think that… I did it...?”

“H-Hmph. I-Isn’t it obvious? T-the idiot swimmer girl and t-that giant muscle person both told us e-everything you told them!” Toko continued her accusation while keeping her face covered from him, ignoring the “Idiot swimmer girl!?” from Hina, “S-Suspicious how y-you come out of Sayaka’s room a-and later she’s f-found d-dead! Y-You obviously are the one that k-killed her! I-It’s not that hard to figure out!”

A-Are you fucking shitting his nuts right now? He nearly gets killed and now this!?

“H-Hey, can you gawddamn wait a minute! I-I didn’t kill her; hell, she’s the one who did this to me…!” Leon felt his breath elevate, motioning to his injured side.

Apparently, that was a bombshell to many of the group, as there were gasps and surprised looks galore to what he implied had happened.

“...Are you insinuating that Sayaka had attempted to murder you in her room, and yet you’ve survived and she’s the one who’s no longer with us?” Celeste’s red eyes bore into him as her lips hid behind one of her hands.

“Indeed! Surely even you can see how inconceivable that scenario is, Mr. Kuwata,” Hifumi agreed, adjusting his glasses with a skeptical look.

Leon could feel himself losing control of not only the situation, but his ability to breathe properly while glancing around at everyone.

W-Wh- Are you serious- T-This can’t-

For fuck’s sake, he nearly gets killed by that psychotic girl and now he’s getting accused for her murder!? Something he didn’t even know until ten seconds ago!?

ARE YOU TAKING THE PISS!?

“D-Dude, do you not see this!?” the sweatdrops multiplied on his brow and face as his eyes darted around the other thirteen people, “You think I would do this to myself!? That I’d cut myself open with a knife and nearly bleed out in order to-”

“Wowee, things have already got ‘beary’ exciting!”

...Oh, of course, that little prick shows up now...

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better...

 

....Puhuhuhuhuhu.....

Chapter 13: Ch 1: DeAdLy LiFe 2

Notes:

Upupupupupupupupupupupupupu....

~~Warning: Chapter contains graphic imagery~~

The new, unwelcomed voice that rang out and echoed in the gymnasium attracted the attention of the now smaller body of fourteen students. They all turned to see that Monokuma had appeared just like it had on the first day’s orientation by jumping onto the podium. But it didn’t stay stationary for long, as it happily flipped off it and began doing various bounces and jumps around the stage.

“And lemme tell ya! I’m completely hyped as all heck, baby!! Hahahahaaa!” it cackled, doing a dance briefly before running around in ecstatic circles, “I knew that a motive was the key ingredient needed to kick things off! I swear, your headmaster is an absolute genius, if you didn’t know! But by golly…”

It skidded to a stop and leapt off the stage, setting everyone to high alert as it landed perfectly in front of them.

“...One of you bastards frickin’ did it! And I am so proud of you for finally giving into your creative juices sloshing around up in that brain of yours and getting this whole sch-bang started!!”

Never had anyone seen an instance where joy and laughter were majorly despised greater than this situation.

No one dared to make a sound as it roared in slight laughter. The bear shook from pure delight before taking a breath to calm itself. How in the hell it sounds worse when it giggled than when it was hysterically laughing its head off was beyond Leon at this point, as his disdained-filled eyes did their best to glare at him from his somewhat slumped posture.

“Oh, boy! Nothing like a good ol’ fashioned murder to start the day of a high note; brings me back to my days in the wild…” the bear sighed reminiscently, before getting down to business, “Well, anyways, now that everyone is here, I can officially start this off and tell you guys what you need to do!”

“... Why…?”

The group all looked towards Makoto, who had his fists shaking and locked his narrowing eyes onto the small headmaster in front of them.

“Huh? Why what?” Monokuma asked, tilting its head.

“...Why should we?” the boy’s features hardened while his voice increased in volume, “Why should we even listen to anything you have to say? You’ve gotta be the one that killed Sayaka!”

The bear jerked back, mimicking a great display of absolute shock as it clutched at its ears, “!! W-WHA-WHA-WHA-WHA-WHAAAA!? You’re really gonna accuse me of doing this!?”

But that lasted about a few measly seconds before it lowered its head and dangled its arms in the arm while shaking its head and groaning in the fashion of a complaint.

“Aww, c’mon. Don’t drag me down and ruin this. I’ve been waiting very patiently for one of you to finally snap. And now that it’s happened, I’ve been in such high spirits ever since I woke up this morning,” it said to Makoto… before its grin widened almost like a mocking sneer, “...Kinda like how Sayaka’s spirit rose up high out of her body and into the afterlife after she died. Puhuhu…”

The boy initially flinched from the shock, but he soon regained his anger.

“You…!”

“Besides, I never would do that! If you can believe anything, you can believe that!” Monokuma reminded, waving a paw in the air with the top part pointed upward, “I do remember telling you this already, but just for the sake of jogging your memory, I shall say it again! Unless one of you violates the school regulations, I absolutely will not interfere. I promise you, honest and true, that I won’t do anything that goes against the purpose of your school life here. After all, I’m famous at safari parks worldwide for following the ‘Bear-Times-One’ rule!”

“T-Then… who did it? Who killed Sayaka…?” the shaky, incredibly fearful voice of Chihiro barely squeaked out, as she seemed to curl up almost into a ball and have tears threatening to fall down her face.

“Huh? Who killed her? Come on, weren’t you listening to me when I was jumping for joy just a few seconds ago? Then again, I don’t blame you, considering my mere presence is dazzling enough, you were so amazed by me that you didn’t pay attention,” Monokuma covered its mouth with a cheeky smile, “But, really, you should already know the answer! The one who killed her… is one of you!”

That was something that only just now that Leon realized as he winced from another random surge of pain coming from his right side.

Already, it was unbelievable enough to just hear that Sayaka Maizono was dead. After all, it was just only a few hours ago that she invited him into her room and then attempted to murder him. And considering he was most likely the only one here that hadn’t seen her body yet, it was more of a reason to be in complete shock and partial denial.

But hearing from Monokuma and several of the others’ mouths, it really sunk in.

Now it was an even harder pill to swallow, because of that unwanted truth that was wrapped around it: someone here killed her. Meaning that after he ran out of that room and rushed to get help, someone had to have gone into the room and attacked Sayaka.

And now he was in the hot seat, due to those circumstances thus far and the fact he’s walking around as if he’s in a horror film and just escaped the serial killer. Great.

Which meant someone here… one of the other thirteen remaining students was the bloodthirsty, dangerous one who willingly-

….Actually, yo, hold up.

No no no, that’s not right.

He really should just be suspicious of only eleven, right? Because…

Because he could totally trust Hina and Sakura, right? Like, after all, those two helped him; they saved his life and everything; why would they do that and then go kill Sayaka, when they could’ve just let him bleed out o-or finish the job while he was unconscious-

Ehhh, he probably shouldn’t have said it like that.

B-But still… he could trust them. Unlike what he had originally thought the previous day, they proved to him that he could really trust them. They were good people…. Right?

During his pending mental decision of who he could place his trust in, Leon had tried to be subtle and discreet in glancing over at the both of them. However, it’s hard to not catch someone’s attention when you have a bright reddish-orange hair color with it spiked in a dynamically punk fashion. So when his head moved, Sakura must’ve ended up catching it out of the corner of her eye, for she turned to look at him and then crouched to get better to his level. When she did that, Hina’s focus was also drawn over to him.

“Leon, are you doing okay?” the fighter softly spoke, moving her head to the side to a partial extent to get a better view of his face.

As the swimmer bent over and placed her hands on her knees to get relatively around their range, Leon scrunched his face up when taking a breath in before trying to speak, “Haah.. W-Well, I’m not passing out, but… f-fuck, this sucks mega hard…”

Hina frowned at that.

“H-Hey, do you need to, like, sit down or something?”

He glanced over to her, shaking his head, “I mean, I’d rather be sitting than standing, b-but... really… augh, don’t think taking a seat on a hard floor is gonna make me feel better...”

“Yeah, y-you’re right… Just try to hang in there, okay?” she replied with a hushed tone, “We’ll find a place for you to rest after all of this. Sound good to you?”

A stiff nod came from Leon as he attempted to straighten himself out after the girls did so. This wound was still killing him like a son of a bitch, but the promise of getting a break in the foreseeable future had spurred in him an extra boost of energy to somehow deal with his torment. When the trio’s little pow-wow had finished, they realized the majority of the group had descended into a panic. Most likely thanks to the now even more gleeful Monokuma, who reiterated the grizzly fact that one of them had killed Sayaka. By the time they had tuned their attention back in, they caught Makoto helplessly glancing around at everyone once his accusation of the bear being the murderer was shot down and Celeste scoffing, shaking her head.

“It’s amazing what some people can be capable of,” her tone of disapproval rang out, glancing away while twirling part of her hair into her fingers.

“Hey, hold on a damn minute!” Mondo gritted his teeth, “Don’t just assume that fucker is telling-”

“That’s enough.”

Everyone’s attention was called towards Byakuya’s command, in which after he interrupted the biker, had made his way through the group and fearlessly advanced towards Monokuma, stopping when he was only about a few feet away from him. His hands out to his sides and not his usual method of arms folded uninterestedly over his chest, the boy’s calculating eyes stayed locked on the bear.

“Before we do anything else, I’d like to confirm something with the stuffed animal here,” he referred to the class behind him, before raising his nose at Monokuma, “If one of us here has truly killed Sayaka like you claim, that person gets to graduate from the school, right?”

The bear innocently tilted its head and brought a paw underneath its mouth.

“...Huh?”

That simple, one word noise was enough to make Byakuya harden his features into a more angry expression.

“Don’t play dumb and waste my time. That’s what you said, isn’t it? When you explained the graduation clause to us on our first day here,” he snapped, nearly bringing a clenched fist upward, “you made that quite clear. If you kill someone, you get to leave! If that’s true, then is this person going to be given the right to leave this place now?”

A small section of silence echoed after Byakuya’s words with the bear unmoving.

And then its shoulders started to shake.

“......Pffft… Puhuhu…. Puhuhuhuhu! Pohohohohohoho!! BWAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAHAAA!!!”

The class were treated with the bear once again roaring in uncontrollable laughter, but… but this kind… this kind was more sinister. No longer was the so-called ‘innocent headmaster’ standing in front of them, but a being revealing his true colors that it’s been waiting so long to display. And really… really, he knew. He knew how evil this thing was only from the few days of interaction, and how he was wanting someone so badly to commit murder, and yet…

And yet, Leon found himself shouting out, “W-why the hell are you laughing!?”

Monokuma covered its face with both paws, shaking its head while trying to stop itself.

“Upupup… Puheh… heh… It’s ‘cuz… naive. You’re all…”

It suddenly lowered its arms to show its condescending expression as it began to taunt them.

“You’re all so naive! Stupidly naive! Devilishly naive!! HELLISHLY NAIVE!! Oh my gawd, you really think it’s that easy, do you?? That once one of you murders one of your little classmates, that I’m just gonna let you stroll up all proud of yourself and expect me to just open the door to let you waltz on outta here??”

A small giggling scoff came out of his mouth before it relaxed and placed both paws behind its head.

“No no no, the real part of the graduation clause has just begun.”

………..Damn it.

Damn it all…

So, he was right.

Last night, before everything with Sayaka and crap… when he was in his room and that thought had plopped into his mind, going over the regulation talking about murder and realizing how vague it was. He had been completely right with his curiosity of how there was more than the rule was really telling. Rather ironic how he was trying to figure that out in order to see just how dangerous this situation was, and then he like a blind fool marched on over to the murder attempt on his life.

...Maybe… Maybe during that fight, if he had brought that up instead of Makoto’s name, Sayaka would’ve stopped and listened…

“All right, listen up, ladies and buckeroos!!” Monokuma’s loud voice grabbed his attention back, “Now, about the second part of the graduation clause? The first part I’ve already explained to you: you must kill someone in order to leave. However, even if you pass the first test and get your hands dirty by unleashing your hidden urge to kill, there’s still one more part of the agreement that you have to uphold before I let you leave.”

“You are referring to rule number six of the school regulations…” Celeste piped up, an interested expression laced within her calm eyes, “If you are, as the rule labels you as, the ‘blackened’ that committed the murder, you mustn’t be found out by the other students. I believe that is what you mean, is it not?”

“Bingo! It’s not enough to just commit the first part and kill someone. You have to actually get away with it! Which naturally means you need a system in place to assess whether or not it’s actually been gotten away with! And that is why…” The bear quickly did a little spinning motion before spreading its arms out wide in a ‘ta-dah’ fashion while continuing its explanation, “After some time has passed after a murder takes place, a class trial will begin!”

Class… trial?

The student body seemed to have fallen silent from what this potential thing could be. And that was enough of a signal for Monokuma to continue.

“So, a class trial begins a few hours after the murder! Everyone will gather together, including the blackened who committed the murder. And they and the spotless students will all engage in one big debate showdown! One that I will be overseeing, of course~!” it explained excitedly, “During the trial, you'll have to present your clues, ideas, and arguments about who you think the blackened is and how they executed their crime. And once everything comes to an end, the outcome will be decided by popular vote! If the answer you've arrived at is correct, only the one that disturbed your peace will be punished. The rest may continue their communal life in peace and enjoy the rebuilt harmony amongst themselves. However… if you choose poorly… then the one who got away with murder will survive, and the rest of you will receive your punishment. Which, ahem, by the way, means your school life will come to an end! As far as class trial rules go, that's pretty much all there is to it!”

“So… then, what exactly is this ‘punishment’ you keep talking about…?” Hifumi once again demonstrated his nervous habit of biting his fingernails, asking a question that nobody truly wanted to know… but were going to eventually.

“Oh! Well, to put it simply…”

Monokuma’s face darkened, the grin on the black side of its head curving the corner closer to its eye.

“It’s execution!”

The student body’s reactions all came to life with gasps, stammers, and a burst of energy within panicked movements and heads whirling around to look at each other overtook almost everyone there.

But to Leon… everything muffled into near silence, like it had during the first day when learning he would be imprisoned here for his future. And he had begun to shiver and grow cold, similar to how he felt a drop in his body temperature when he realized Sayaka had a knife in her hands. That eerie, lonesome feeling… of how close to death he was again…

E-execution…? As in… he dies…?

Coincidentally enough, a certain person’s voice was the one that snapped him out of his trembling trance.

“S-So, to make sure I understand the class trial properly…” Taka’s voice wavered, gulping to try and recompose himself, “If we get the culprit right, then only they die. But if we get it wrong, then… all the rest of us get… executed?”

“What a smart little chimpanzee you are! And ‘eeyyyy, I see what you did there; implying you didn't do it without actually saying it. You cute little booger, you,” Monokuma did finger guns as best as it could with its paws at the hall monitor, who squawked and sputtered at the passive aggressive misrepresentation of his question, “But anyways, it's basically what the outside world calls a ‘lay judge’ system, or an inquisition type thing! Which means you'll be deciding who you think the killer is.”

It leaned in, raising an arm to its face as if it was whispering something in a cartoon fashion.

“But word for the wise, judge carefully, because you only get one shot and all of your lives are on the line!”

Wh… What freakin’ garbage was this? Like, for crying out loud, they weren’t detectives with experience in solving murder cases! Sure, they were ‘Ultimates’ and that was a very prestigious title to hold, but come on; they were still teenagers! Minors, man!

Piece of crap!

Screwed. Mega screwed! They were just all effectively screwed, yeah? Pretty much, because a good portion of the class apparently thinks he killed Sayaka, even though he’s the gawddamn victim of this whole shitfest mountain that just got dumped on him a few minutes ago. It’s not his fault that his attacker ends up dead while he was unconscious! H-He’s gonna get killed because they’ll vote for him and prove how stupid they are-

Leon’s left hand rose up to the collar of his shirt, clutching at the fabric unknowingly while inwardly having a mental breakdown at the realization that he could… he could very well…

The girls standing next to him noticed, starting to move in order to intervene and check on him, but Monokuma stopped them in their actions when it resumed speaking.

“Okey-dokey, I’m gonna just add the new rules I just described to your handbooks, so-”

“W-Wait, hold on a damn second!”

The punk’s deteriorating state of increasing fear shattered like glass when Junko had cut off the demented bear and had everyone laid eyes on her. The beautiful body and arms shook a bit as a furious red shade took over her forehead, her pigtails swaying back and forth from her shaking her head.

“Y-You’re… You’re freakin’ insane, you know that!?”

“Hmm?”

“A class trial? What the hell kind of worthless trash is that!? I don’t want anything to do with it!”

The small, oddly colored animal simply tilted its head curiously.

“Why not?”

The fashionista seemed wildly offended by that, for her anger spiked up even more when she replied.

“Wh- Whaddaya mean why not!? Why do I have to waste my time trying to figure out who murdered someone!? This is ridiculously stupid!!”

The constant refusal seemed to finally grate on the mysterious limits of Monokuma’s patience. The bear bristled for a moment before clenching its paws into fists.

“What!? Are you saying you’re not gonna participate in the mandatory class trial!? Only punishments await such blasphemy!” it yelled, hmphing before it crossed its arms over its chest.

The gym was filled with several grunts and gasps at this new revelation.

“W-Wha… Punishments?” Junko seemed to fizzle out for a brief moment when her left foot took a step back.

“Y-You mean you c-can get p-p-punished for not taking part in t-the trials?” Toko brought her thumb up to her mouth, chewing on the nail slightly.

Monokuma nodded proudly, closing its normal eye.

“Mhm! So, you better be good little boys and girls and follow the rules that have been set into place!”

“B-But… what is the punishment for not doing the trials with everyone? Is it execution?” Chihiro hesitantly asked, already starting to curl inward into herself with her arms against her chest.

For a brief moment? The bear actually opened its mouth and paused, before looking away to the ground. W-Wait, was it not expecting that question…?

“Uhhhhhhhmmm… I dunno… I might throw you into a deep, dark, scary prison or something!”

“Shut the hell up!” Junko had found her resolve again, her right fist shaking rather noticeably before waving the bear off, “Say whatever you want; I’m not gonna be a part of this!!”

Leon could feel his eyes widening as he realized that the blonde’s temper was too much in control, that she wasn’t thinking. In reality, he was getting flashbacks to yesterday morning. Was this… was this how he came off to everybody after watching the videos…? He wasn’t this bad, uh… right…?

“M-Miss Enoshima, please try to calm yourself…” Hifumi pleaded with her, a sense of worry within his expression.

“He’s right,” Makoto tried to reason with her to help further the hall monitor’s pleading, “Like Kyoko said, we shouldn’t try to-”

Junko’s head whirled around to glare at the two boys, who stopped in their tracks and became silent and still like deers in a car’s headlights. Oho, boy, this girl was almost near the deep end’s edge-

“No- You know what? Fuck this!! I am so done with all of this shit in this hellhole! It’s horrible enough that we’re all stuck here forever by this cartoon reject and no one can find a damn clue on how to get out of here! But now I gotta play ‘crime detective’ in order to solve which one of you selfish assholes murdered Sayaka in cold blood to get out of here!?” she hissed and spat at everyone before a resentful, cold scowl hardened on her features, “I seriously hope whoever did it suffers a horrible, painful eternity in hell when they die, because fuck you for actually killing someone and willing to sacrifice all of us for your own escape!”

That last sentence seemed to send Mondo into a bit of an angry fit himself, as he bared his fangs slightly at her while leaning forward slightly, “Oi, why are you acting so fuckin’ high and mighty? For all we gawddamn know, you could’ve offed her!”

A second of silence passed before the eyes of the fashionista darkened immediately with her frown complimenting her shaking arms and shoulders.

“You… did not just say that-”

“AHEM! HULLOOOO!?”

The potential shouting match came to an abrupt cancelation before it could even start as the group turned back to a very annoyed bear. It was tapping a foot on the floor impatiently.

“Look, you all can go accusing and blaming each other when the class trial starts, but not here, ya got it!?” it demanded they obey, before turning to a certain girl and jabbing its paw in her direction, “And you! Don’t be so selfish!”

“You’re the one that’s being selfish!” Junko pulled a ‘no, you’ card on the bear, gritting her teeth in the fashion of a growl while looking away defiantly, “Kill whoever you want; it’s got nothing to do with me. Because I’m. Not. Doing. This. Trial. Crap.”

…..Ohhhh, boy…

Yeah, Leon could feel shivers crawling up his spine as he found himself unable to look away from Monokuma. The bear had begun to shake and… was somehow drenched in sweat, yet only visible on the white side of its body. Nevertheless, it looked pissed… So pissed, in fact, that he instinctively took a step back, wincing hard at how the pain throbbed even harder than before.

“The… the evil standing before me… I’m trembling with fear…!” the headmaster soon straightened its form out, brought forth its claws on both paws, and had its red eye glow so brightly that from the angle the baseball star was slightly hunched over, it might as well have been a red-colored flashlight, “But I will never give in to such evil! It’s my style to stick it out and resist to the very end! So, if you really wanna try to disobey the rules of this communal life...!”

It flailed its arms widely, causing everyone to be alert.

“You’ll have to go through me first!!”

With a loud “RRAAWWWWRRR!!!”, Monokuma suddenly charged towards everyone, specifically at Junko, with its claw readied paws in front of its tiny body. The second everyone’s brains realized it was in the process of attacking, the gym was filled with sounds of shouts and shrieks as they retreated to try and prevent its approach from gaining ground. However, the feet of Leon had become firmly glued to the floor from sudden shock. It was like Monokuma was approaching in slow motion, with how panic took control of his senses.

He nearly jumped ten feet in the air and screamed at a higher tone that he would’ve liked to let out when several hands grabbed onto his shoulders and arms. Before having a chance to glance at those responsible, Hina and Sakura quickly hurried and pulled him back with them in a pace that got him a good distance away from danger, but not jerking him to where it would aggravate the wound any worse than it already was feeling.

But due to his being forced backwards…

“GYUMEH!!”

He didn’t see how Junko had shot her right leg straight out, connecting the heel of her boot to the face of this pint-sized monstrosity at such power, her foot nearly made a cartoonish dent into its form as if it were made of rubber. When everyone had stopped moving to watch, the fashionista had her boot firmly planted on top of its eyes and was glaring down at the trapped bear, whose little arms and stubby legs flailed around with frustrated grunts.

“Heh… Are you enjoying yourself now?” Junko seemed to have a pleased smirk form, a hand smugly resting on her hip.

...It was at that moment that Monokuma went instantly still.

“...Are you?”

“Huh…?”

Junko blinked at the retort, straightening herself when-

“Violence against Headmaster Monokuma is forbidden. You’ve violated a school regulation…”

Suddenly, Monokuma’s right arm shot up in the air with a mighty thrust!

“I invoke the mighty summon spell! Help! To me, godly spear Gungnir!!”

“W-Wha- What the hell are you blab-”

…!!!!!

...It… It happened so fast… so fast, that he wasn’t even sure it was happening…

One second… the girl’s screaming at the bear for saying one of the dorkiest things he’s ever heard…

And then next… several things are shooting into the edges of his vision straight at her-

The sounds of something sharp running through a wet, soggy clump of meat was all he could describe that horrific sound as. Like one of those horror movies he had seen in the theaters before where a character gets stabbed with a knife. But it wasn’t… it wasn’t a knife…

It was… it was a set of spears… at least more than ten or so… all of them…

They had pierced Junko’s body in various different angles.

At first, she hadn’t given any kind of reaction. H-Hell, nobody made any kind of reaction. A-After all, one doesn’t normally watch someone get obliterated with weapons like that in front of them…

But eventually… s-she…

“...Wh… H-Huh?”

The moment her voice attempted to speak, a small splatter of blood came out of her mouth and landed near her neck where her outfit exposed it. Trickles of her bodily fluid ran past her bottom lip and hugged around her chin as her head shakingly began to take in multiple black, sleek spears that had lodged themselves fatally into her torso. Unbeknownst to her, she had staggered backwards, giving enough space for Monokuma to finally get up and watch her quietly, the grin on its face seemingly widening…

“W… W-Wait… H-How…”

The once gorgeous hands with beautiful red nails were now drenched in a wet, darker color of her blood as she shakily brought them closer to her face to inspect, ignoring how the parts of the spears that impaled her were now growing more in the same color. Everyone watched as her face seemed to gather colors of pale white and nauseous blue. She slowly turned towards the rest of them, shaking as a delusional smile of denial started to crack into her shock…

“This wasn’t… supposed to…”

She looked up, her eyes beginning to widen.

“...Why… me…?”

OH FUCK… F-FUCK, NO…

NONONONONONONONONONONONONONO-

As her eyes roll up into her skull and the momentum of her head going backwards sends her body splatting to the floor, Leon’s mind takes him back to being in that hallway, slipping over his own blood as he frantically claws out the floor to get away.

G-Get away… A-Away from-

O-Oh gawd, all HE CAN SEE IS BLOOD-

N-No, PLEASE… H-He can’t BE HERE… H-HE can’t DO THIS NOW-

S-SHUT UP, EVERYONE NEEDS TO STOP YELLING AND SCREAMING-

HE DOESN’T GIVE A SHIT IF SOMEONE JUST WAS KILLED IN FRONT OF THEM ALL-

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO FUCK FUCK-

“Leon!”

NO, PLEASE, HE CAN’T DIE LIKE THIS; HE CAN’T DIE LIKE HER! NOT LIKE HER!! NOT-

“Leon, look at my eyes. Can you do that for me?”

“W-W-WHA-”

It’s only when someone’s right in his face does Leon take in a whole lot of information he hadn’t realized had passed:

One, from the uncomfortableness he can feel, somehow he’s found himself sitting on the floor.

Two, Sakura’s right in his face, blocking the view of what he just saw and trying to get him to listen to her.

Three, people are NOT SHUTTING THE FUCK UP LIKE HE NEEDS and are making him panic probably more than he’d FUCKING LIKE TO at this point-

And four, it’s not just Sakura who’s right there with him. Hina’s also there, a heavily concerned expression visible and most likely torn between if she should move down to crouch next to him like her friend did or not… and Kyoko as well, who just came into the corner of his vision to stand next to Hina and watch…?

“Can you look into my eyes for me?” Sakura repeatedly calmly, avoiding any physical contact with him to prevent freaking him out.

T-The sentiment was nice, really… but it was too late; Leon had gone past freaked out and he was shaking hard now-

He felt his eyes blur with something wet.

“F-Fuckin’… T-That… that could’ve been me…”

Sakura blinked as Hina repeated what he said as a question, “Could’ve been you…?”

H-He nearly got killed by someone a few hours ago, and now had to witness someone else being murdered in cold blood in front of him. Leon had no chance to try and hide how terrified he was with his violent shaking (thanks to both fear and the pain coming back hard) and his helpless stammering.

“L-Last night… S-Sayaka!! The knife…. H-holy f-fucking gawd, that could’ve been me…! That could’ve been…!!”

His voice squealed off into a sob, as he felt the tears threatening to build and overflow again. He clamped his eyes shut and brought his left hand up towards his forehead to shield away his shame from the girls. While Kyoko frowned and closed her eyes in response, the other two girls shared a look before returning back to him.

“H-Hey, let’s try to calm down, okay?” the swimmer cautiously offered a solution to help him, kneeling down next to Sakura, “I want you to take a deep breath in through your nose and out your mouth.”

This got Leon to bring his hand down to stare quizzically at her with teary eyes.

“Wha…?”

“Trust me on this, okay? It helps calm you down; it works for me, too!” Hina gave a gentle wink and smile, motioning him to try it with her, “Just do what I do, alright? Deep breath in…”

Leon’s eyes partially darted away in uncomfortable confusion, almost questioning if he was really going to go through with this. But upon seeing Hina motion with her hands to follow along, he took a deep breath in through his nostrils a bit faster than normal to keep up with her. A few seconds of following along with her…

...and Leon no longer felt like he was drowning in a figurative ocean and his body was no longer shaking.

Huh… t-that trick really worked after all.

“There we go! You’re looking better already,” the girl gave a smile of the sympathetic kind now, or at least as best as she could with everything that was happening at the moment.

“A-Ah… uhh… Thanks,” he panted, nodding as he glanced away towards the floor near his left leg and rubbed the back of his neck, “S-Sorry ‘bout freaking out there; that was… totally uncool of me-”

“There is no apology necessary in this situation, Leon,” Sakura shook her head and interrupted him.

“Y-Yeah… after seeing… ehh,” Hina trailed off, remembering the brutality of the scene in front of them just a few seconds ago, but shook her head to regain focus, “A-Anyways! Can you get up? Or do you need help?”

“Uhh… Y-Yeah, I could use a hand…”

Receiving some nods, the young man was gently helped back up to his feet, blocking out the tight pulling of his wound under the bandages. Once upon his feet, he managed to look both of them in the eyes and give a nod of gratitude before lowering his head to take a breather. All the while not noticing that Kyoko was glancing at him with the same analyzing tone in her eyes that she did in the nurse’s office...

“Alrighty, we’re all good, I think!” Hina gave a nod to the muscular fighter, who in turn motioned that she agreed and turned to Leon.

“It may not be much, but… would you like me to stand in front of you, so that you don’t see all the blood?”

“Y-Yeah… Thanks…”

More like yes fuckin’ please. Anything to prevent him from the nightmare that was only a few feet in front of him. Because there was no way in hell she survived that, right? L-Like… holy piss.

Both Sayaka and Junko are dead… That’s two people within the span of a few hours.

A loud sigh made him utterly freeze stiff in his movements, yet send his heart into a racing pace. Solely because he knew who had made it.

“Now I am painfully aware of the great power and the meaning of a promise… I really wanted to keep a corpse from popping up for no good reason, ya know?” Monokuma started off peeved, but relaxed in its tone as it continued, “After all, if people end up dead, I want it to be like the gorgeous national pop idol, where one of you try for graduation; not like miss magazine cover on the floor here, who violates the school regulations. Especially since I remember for damn certain that I gave you all your only warning for violence against me! If only you hadn’t wasted it, maybe she could’ve gotten off with it…”

That despised giggle came from it before its voice came back.

“Right, pompadour man?”

Leon could hear a loud growl that had followed a stammer before Mondo’s voice raged throughout the gym, “What the fuck!? Don’t go blaming me for her death, you fucking asshole!!”

“I don’t remember ever saying I did, but… now that I think about it, I suppose you guys needed a lesson, right? And ahh, what an amazing promise, don’tcha think? Because I feel like you guys finally understand, right?” the bear’s voice deflected what he said before addressing all of them, “Now you see just how serious I am... Defy me and you get shot full of holes, exploded, buried alive, disintegrated, yadda yadda yadda, et cetera. So if you don't want that to happen to you, you'd best obey those school regulations!”

No one appeared to try and argue against him. But frankly, this was...

Leon could still hear Hina’s words in his mind, all the way from the morning orientation on the first day. About how you couldn’t even call this a punishment. It was just wrong. Man, he didn’t think he could agree more with someone over something…

Strangely enough, it was Makoto’s voice this time that had him listening intently behind the three girls near him, specifically Sakura’s towering form.

“She… She really is dead…”

It was followed by an amused scoff.

“I don’t know why you even bothered to check for a pulse,” Byakuya commented, giving the baseball star the info that the kid must’ve bent down to Junko’s body to confirm what was unfortunately an undeniable fact, “After those injuries, and losing that much blood… Frankly, I’d be more shocked and disturbed if she did survive something like that.”

“H-Huh…? Hold on… H-H-Hold on! J-Just wait a minute! S-She’s dead!?” Hiro’s completely hysterical voice began to increase volume, “T-Then that means…! That means all this crud that’s happenin’ is real!? It’s not some orientation joke or whatever!? Y-You gotta be kiddin’ me!! Hell no! S-Someone save me!! Lemme outta here!! SOMEBODY HELP ME-”

“Y-You’re just now a-accepting that this is real!?” Toko’s disbelieving voice was somehow discernable within the clairvoyant’s shrieks of realization.

“H-Hiro, control yourself immediately!” Taka instantly shouted to him, with a few other voices trying to get him to shut up as well.

But everyone was silenced by Monokuma, who decided to interject itself as the main speaker once more.

“Ehhh… I gotta be real with you boys and girls. I’m not really understanding why you guys are freaking out so bad about seeing someone die. It’s really not all that shocking, you know. She just died. That’s all. Just went and died. Completely natural like life taking its course. It’s no more remarkable than the end of the human race, or the entire universe, or last tuesday’s thrilling conclusion to the hottest soap opera in television history!” it gloated proudly, “This isn’t some kind of superhero comic, where when you die, you didn’t really die! This is reality-”

“Why did you do it?”

Several gasps entered Leon’s ear drums as he and everyone turned to Kyoko, her arms no longer folded across her chest, facing the bear with a skeptical look.

“Wh-Huh…?”

“Why did you have to kill Junko? Didn’t you say earlier the punishment for not participating in a class trial was being thrown in a prison or something?”

Now Leon wasn’t an expert at seeing through people, but judging from how different the voice’s volume sounded, it wasn’t an absolutely terrible guess at assuming that Monokuma had turned around.

“Hmph. I changed my mind.”

“No… You’ve been wanting to kill this entire time. You wanted to make a statement about defying you, so you used her as an example,” she said, finally bringing her arms up to cross over her chest, “Why else would you charge at her if not to goad her into committing physical violence against you?”

“Kill this entire time…? Don't be silly; you can't kill time! Or are you being metaphorical? Are you saying I wanted to waste time this whole time?” Monokuma argued, its volume seeming to suggest that it turned back around, “Come on, what do you take me for? I'm Monokuma!”

F-Frigging dumbass. Just completely ignored the accusation against it and continued to spew the idiotic, innocent cartoon shit that was way too late to even try now. It knew Kyoko was right on the money. There’s no way someone or something could be that deluded.

The lilac-haired girl sighed and shook her head.

Looks like he isn’t the only one who felt that way.

“Anyhoo, none of that really matters now. In order to aid your quest on finding the blackened, I have an important thing to give you! And that is… the Monokuma File!”

When the bear continued, Leon could see around the edge of Sakura’s waist that it had jumped back onto the stage and rushed behind the podium to grab something. In a few seconds, it moved around to jump off, but not before apparently having a stack of something that looked like another set of the e-handbooks. He was mainly given that impression because Monokuma started to walk over here holy crap why is it coming towards them-

The bear ended its little waddle by stopping in front of Kyoko. But not before it stopped to peer around Sakura and Hina at him.

F-Frig-!!

“Ummm… Ya know, I can still see you, right? Not saying it isn’t a bad hiding spot, but.. There really is no point in cowering behind the gigantic, muscular tank,” Monokuma tilted its head and commented.

Any fighting chance to be angry or annoyed had diminished with his current state. All he could do was silently feel his voice sputtering in failure to work in his throat and stare back helplessly, feeling a tad of gratitude to Sakura shifting herself to face the bear more and wedge her frame between them more.

“Well, whatever. I guess I got off topic for a second. So, ah, ahem! You, miss ‘curiosity killed the cat’,” it addressed Kyoko, standing on the very tippy-toes of its feet to hand over what he had in its paws, “Since you got all nosy with me a few seconds ago, I’m appointing you the person that gives these all out while I’m explaining. And make it snappy!”

Without a word, the silent girl took them out of its paw. As it waddled back towards the middle of the gymnasium, she began by handing out one to Hina and two to Sakura, but skipped over him as she moved out of his sight to the others. The second one probably was his, but she and the fighter were nice enough to non-verbally communicate the choice for her to hold it for him.

“All right, listen up! The Monokuma File has all the information I've gathered about the death in question. I mean, naturally you guys aren't experts at this kind of thing, so you can only do so much with a corpse. So instead, I've gathered up everything I know about the circumstances and cause of death,” the bear explained during Kyoko handing out the files to everyone, “And I can hear your little brains asking, ‘How do I know the cause of death and everything?’ Well, that’s ‘cuz of the surveillance cameras that are located all around the school! They picked up the whole thing and I was able to watch it go down! And not trying to give away juicy spoilers, but… puhuhu! It was one hell of an entire situation that happened!”

W-Wait, what the fuck- This little shitstain, wherever the hell it was last night, just sat back and watched him nearly become a victim to Sayaka losing her mind and going all psycho killer on him!! Sonuva-

Okay, Leon’s rediscovered the ability to get angry again-

“Wait… so then, you know who killed Sayaka?” Kyoko’s semi-surprised voice asked.

“Of course I do!” Monokuma happily bragged, like a little kid proud of doing something really bad, “If I didn’t, I couldn’t possibly pass a fair and accurate judgement during the trial, now could I?”

The girl hummed for a second.

“That’s a good point. A judge has to be able to make the proper decision. That’s… somehow comforting.”

E-Err... Comforting isn’t the word he’d use, Kyoko…

“Now then, please put your full effort behind your investigation! After all, you don't have any choice but to give it your best shot! Seriously, you don't have a choice! Okay, so we'll meet up for the class trial...in a little while! Good luck~!”

And from what he could see from his angle, Monokuma once again darted back onto the stage and disappeared behind the podium…

Only to leave the smaller class in silence and uncertainty.

It left them stunned and confused, at a total loss for words.

It left the dead body of Junko Enoshima, growing colder at every passing second in a pool of her own blood.

It left Leon shaking his head while staring at the floor.

It left him frustrated at how shit this all was.

It left him miserable with how his knife wound was still killing him and felt no better than it did when he woke up in the nurse’s office.

It left him with the feeling of helplessness, because how he was gonna be able to do any kind of proper investigation when he has no idea how to start was beyond him.

It left him with the knowledge that the two girls he found the most attractive in this place are now dead.

And it left him with the burning desire to find the answer to this question:

If he had left her alone after she went into the bathroom and he bolted out of her dorm room in order to get help…

...Then… who the hell killed Sayaka…?

================

INVESTIGATION TIME: START!!

ReMaInInG sTuDeNtS: 13

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better...

 

....Puhuhuhuhuhu.....

Chapter 14: Ch 1: DeAdLy LiFe 3

Notes:

Upupupupupupupupupupupupupu....

~~Warning: Chapter contains graphic imagery~~

“Now’s no time to wallow in your depression.”

H-Huh…?

Leon found himself pulled once again out of his thoughts by Kyoko, who began speaking. While he still wanted not to see the dead corpse of Junko that was near the floor and make Sakura’s willingness to shield him from it pointless, he did want to at least see the others as an effort to somehow help his ears follow along. He turned slightly to peer over the left of the taller girl to see at least the majority of the class on that side, but stopped when the corner of his vision caught the fashionista’s blond hair on the floor, prompting him that it’d be best to not go further. He looked to see that once she had passed out all the Monokuma Files, the girl with the unknown talent had stood the closest to him, Sakura, and Hina.

“The worst thing we can do right now is to lose all faith in each other. Just as how it’d be the same disastrous result to have total faith in each other,” she continued, glancing around at everyone while taking control of the situation, “Cooperation is absolutely key at this point. Of course, who you decided to trust or not trust is up to you as well.”

Celeste looked away out of the corner of her eyes with a nod.

“Continuing to talk about and think about the deceased certainly isn’t going to help anything…”

...Damn, that was…

Apparently, Leon wasn’t the only one who thought that was kind of harsh.

“Celeste! How can you say such a thing?” Taka gasped, before pointing at her and demanding an answer.

The baseball star heard Hina’s voice come from behind him, “Y-Yeah! Saying stuff like that is just-!”

The gambler closed her eyes calmly before folding her arms, yet placing her hands underneath her elbows.

“Please don’t misinterpret my words. I derive no pleasure or satisfaction from this situation that even I can understand appears to be me saying ‘I told you so’. And yet, you can’t deny that I’ve told you all many times, have I not? Especially her,” she spoke, glancing down to the floor where the fashionista’s corpse lay, “Anyone who doesn’t adapt or cannot prevent their weaknesses from showing… will die. Death is the only thing awaiting those who are unable or unwilling to adapt. If that happens… you only have yourself to blame.”

“S-Still, what an awful thing to say! Especially after everything that’s happened!” Hina continued her vocal disagreement.

“Right now, exposing the killer is the most important thing,” Kyoko looked towards them and looked away just as quickly, “Because if we don’t, we’re all going to die here.”

Byakuya closed his eyes with… with an amused smirk (W-Wait, what?) and agreed, “...Hm. She’s right; we need to begin our search right away.”

“Either way, we can’t run away from this situation,” Sakura spoke up in front of him, “so we have no choice but to move forward.”

“We… We hafta do it, I guess; what other choice do we have?” the voice of Hina pumped herself up, focusing her attention now on the task at hand.

We have to do this… everybody seemed to get themselves pumped up about this by repeating variations of that phrase. It was like a mantra that gave them strength through the start of this investigation period that would determine whether they lived or died together. But you see… that was the thing. Leon wasn’t thinking of this phrase.

Instead, his mind was going ballistic.

Like, for fuck’s sake, this was so stupid! He didn’t just survive through Sayaka’s murder attempt on him last night just to die the following morning, because everyone else can’t figure out that HEY, HE’S A VICTIM IN THIS THING, NOT THE MURDERER-

No way in hell was he letting someone kill him…!

B-But…

“! Urck, s-shit…”

He frowned, clamping his eyes briefly from that bad inhale that caused his wound to flare up in pain again.

Opening his eyes, he resumed his thoughts on how despite how he wasn’t about to die, like… what could he even do? He wasn’t some kind of fancy detective who could figure things out; he was just a future music hall of fame entrant and a former baseball player. That’s not exactly something that can help with figuring out who killed someone…

And frankly, that caused a thought to almost make him humorlessly chuckle at the irony of it.

That being of course… his best plan of action would be to place his trust in everyone else to figure it out. You know… after pretty much saying to everyone he didn’t trust them enough to reveal what was on his dvd in the A/V room.

And yet… could he really place his trust in them? They could find who did this and prove him innocent, yeah…?

With twelve people combined, there’s no way they could screw it up…

...Right?

The fact he had to question that made Leon slightly nauseous from anxiety alone.

“Before we go searching for Sayaka’s killer,” Kyoko’s voice once again caught his attention as he and everyone else looked to her, “we need to decide what to do about securing the crime scene.”

“What do you mean by that…?” Makoto came off as confused, before Byakuya’s voice from behind him indirectly commanded him to turn around and face him.

“I believe she’s implying that we ought to put someone on guard duty, so no one disturbs the area, yes?” he said, glancing to the lilac-haired girl for confirmation, then looked away and continued as if to address the whole group, “After all, if the culprit manages to destroy crucial evidence, we’re pretty much screwed.”

“In that case…”

Everyone turned to Mondo, raising an arm in the air before rubbing the back of his neck with the same hand.

“I don’t mind doing it. Thinking isn't really my thing, so I’ll leave it up to the rest of you to figure out who killed that chick,” he volunteered, his mouth in a willing, but not thrilled sneer-scowl combination.

“O-Okay, cool,” Hiro nodded in a still somewhat terrified manner, trying (and failing) to keep his composure while his eyes constantly glanced back at the bloody, impaled corpse on the floor only a few feet away from him, “T-Then, uh, we can leave Mondo to stay at the scene-”

His fearful stutterings were cut off by another amused scoff by Byakuya, “Well, no… We can’t just leave him alone.”

The simple comment, whose size was small and the insult power of it was barely even there, still had enough of a remarkable impact to make Mondo whirl around to face him.

“What? Why the hell not!?”

Before he replied, the blonde seemed to lift his nose up and his eyes began to condemn the biker for his inability to grasp what was apparently obvious to him. Within an instant, Leon was hit with a sense of déjà vu from the first day where it eventually led to him carrying Makoto to his room…

“Isn’t it obvious? If you were the culprit, what’s the first thing you would do?” he explained in a tone that seemed to take a potshot at the other young man’s intellect, “By volunteering for guard duty, you’re in a position to destroy all the evidence you want.”

“Wh-!? FUCK YOU-”

Oh, please for the love of all that is holy… Don’t tell him Makoto or someone else is gonna get the lights punched out-

“Mondo, calm yourself!” Taka stepped in front of him, halting the biker enough to successfully diffuse the situation enough for him to just be grumpy instead of a full-on, uncontainable rage, “Ignoring your foul language for now, I believe Byakuya means that we should have at least two people to guard the crime scene; there should be no problem with you about this, correct?”

The biker sent a fully formed sneer towards the progeny, who simply closed his eyes uninterested at that, before growling out an exhale that signaled he calmed down.

“Rrgh… Yeah, of course.”

“Very well, then…”

Leon looked up to Sakura from behind her while the rest glanced her way. She had brought a hand up in a similar manner to what Mondo had earlier done.

“I’ll stay there on guard duty as well. That way, there’s no problem,” she offered, sharing a cooperative nod with the biker on the matter.

“Two player co-op base defense with the two of them… With their stats combined, they’re practically OP!” Hifumi nodded, spouting off some video game mumbo jumbo that surprisingly, Leon understood the meaning of… and more surprisingly agreed with.

“Yeah... I feel more relieved knowing that those two will be taking care of the crime scene,” Chihiro gave a relieved, microscopic smile, still pretty badly shaken up from everything.

“Heh… We got this; don’t worry ‘bout it,” Mondo gave a thumbs up and grin, causing the smile on the small girl’s face to increase just a bit.

While that was going on, the muscular girl turned back to Leon and Hina for a swift quickie of a ‘team huddle’.

“My apologies for offering myself up like that without consulting you two like this, but… I don’t exactly feel my ability at solving mysteries is particularly strong.”

“No, it’s totally okay, Sakura,” Hina waved it off with a smile, giving an understanding nod to her friend, “But are you sure? I mean, you’re gonna be close to… you know, uhh… another dead body and stuff…”

Despite the severity of the situation, that remark caused a small smile to come onto the fighter’s face.

“I promise I’ll be fine, Hina; Mondo and I will make sure no one tampers with the scene at all,” she reassured her, glancing briefly at Leon before speaking once more, “For now, I’m leaving Leon in your hands. Until this investigation period and class trial are finished, you’ll be alone in this endeavor.”

“Hey, do you know who you’re talking to?” Hina flashed a grin and wink to her, before looking at the baseball star, “Don’t you worry; I’ll make sure he’s okay and nothing happens to him.”

O-Okay, this was really damn ironic now.

The one person he was really the most on guard around when this whole thing started is now the one person he’s worried about not being by his side to help him. But it wasn’t like Hina was a major downgrade; of course freakin’ not! He was grateful she was staying by his side, because right now, he really didn’t want to be alone. Probably couldn’t handle it, in all honesty…

“...T-Thanks,” he managed to breathe out towards her.

“Good. Then let me give you his Monokuma File,” Sakura said, handing Leon’s into her possession now.

With that finished, they turned back to the rest of the group to tune into their conversation.

“I… I guess we should start the investigation, then…” Makoto seemed hesitant, but found the strength in his voice to continue his words.

“But… I mean, we're not detectives or anything, you know?” Hina had doubts similar to Leon’s creeping up into her previously determined declaration of finding out who did it, “Like, don’t get me wrong; I want us to figure out who killed Sayaka, but… investigating a murder? How do we even do something like that?”

A disgusted scoff came from across the gym out of the slightly shaking Toko, who had turned her back to prevent her from seeing the area where Junko’s body was on the floor.

“T-There’s no reason for d-do anything in particular. W-We already know w-who killed Sayaka,” she struggled to say, though her eyes darted cautiously towards Sakura’s direction for the person who was lurking behind her.

Because of freakin’ course, the person who strongly accused him before would immediately jump at the chance to do it again.

Son of a-

“You mean Leon, right?” Hiro brought a hand to rest under his bottom lip after folding his arms and curiously glanced over along with everyone else, “...Yeah, ‘cuz it’s like Hina was telling us about everything. He was in Sayaka’s room last night before she died!”

“E-Exactly! H-How else can it be a-anyone but him? L-Look at him!” she bared her teeth as if a cornered animal towards the accused’s direction, a shaky finger adding more condemnation, “H-He’s hiding behind that muscular g-giant, b-because he knows he’s g-guilty-”

“Uhhh, no; I’m hiding, so I don’t have to see the fuckin’ body of Junko and her blood all over the floor!” a slightly nervous (...okay, really nervous) Leon clapped back with, sucking a pained inhale through his teeth from his constant brain fart of forgetting that yelling wasn’t a good thing for his injury, “Y’know, like you are, turning your back towards it??”

The moment he cut her off, it was like the bravado she had just crumbled to a billion pieces. And it wasn’t like she could play it off subtly; like, the recoil she made was… DAMN. That’s the only way he could really explain it. Can dish it out, but can’t take it kind of ordeal. But he didn’t feel sorry for her; for crying out loud, she’s accusing him of a murder he didn’t even knew took place before a couple minutes ago. And now she’s got everybody staring suspiciously in his direction-

“Well, can you really blame us, Mr. Kuwata?” the higher-pitched voice of Hifumi took his attention, seeing the big boy adjusting his glasses with no secret that he was heavily judging him with suspicion, “It’s not like you can exactly refute anything that we already know about you being in Miss Maizono’s room. It’s only natural for us to see that you’re the most suspicious person here.”

!!! F-FUCK YOU, FATTY-

“Hmhmhm… Hmhmhmhmhmhm…”

Leon’s increasing paranoia over being accused had halted like water being poured into a cup when a sudden amused, giggling noise came out of one of the most unexpected people there:

Celeste.

Her eyes closed at the moment, her right fingertips barely covered the petite smile on her lips.

Everyone looked towards her when Hifumi spared the baseball star his speech and faltered in his confidence.

“M-Miss Ludenberg…?”

“Ah, pardon moi,” the gambler finished before opening her red eyes, “I was just thinking… While he may be the most suspicious, are we really sure that Leon is our only main suspect in this?”

His pale blue eyes widened- W-Wait, she knows someone who may have done it??

“Ohh? And what exactly would possess you to make such a bold statement?” Byakuya immediately challenged, his eyes narrowing its strong gaze at her.

To her credit, Celeste didn’t back down; instead, she lowered her hand from her mouth and raised the other that held her Monokuma File up to help emphasize what she was about to reveal.

“The Monokuma File, of course. While all of you made such noise, I decided to take a look through the details of this case,” she said, sweetly smiling while she put her hands together in front of her waist with the file in between them, “And I noticed something very obvious, and very unusual.”

“H-Huh? What was so unusual about it…?” Chihiro asked, checking her own file to see if she could catch the detail as well.

As others began to follow, the lolita seemed to have her eyes drift towards a specific student…

“That despite the fact Leon might be the most suspicious in the fact that we know now he interacted with Sayaka before her death, the unusual detail of the case is the location. It took place… in Makoto’s dorm room.”

!!??

W-WH-

Leon’s eyes shrank to shocked dots.

H-He- H-Hold-

T-the hell was-

Makoto’s room!?

His head unconsciously repeatedly began to shake no-

But… But the letter…!

The letter Sayaka wrote said-

Why was she in Makoto’s-

The boy’s name somehow gave a cognitive function in Leon’s brain to stop being stuck on repeat and turn to look at the mentioned boy. Makoto, the person, to whom he convinced himself previously to be the closest person to that deceitful, lying bitch, had now grown remarkably pale with sweat once everyone had realized that Celeste spoke the truth. With everyone’s eyes on him, he began to worriedly glance around at everyone before bringing his hands up and waving, urging people to wait and that he could explain. But before Leon could hear it-

“H-Hey, Leon?”

The sudden movement out of the right corners of his eyes and his name being mentioned brought him to turn back to Hina. She and Sakura had turned to face him, with her bending slightly and the fighter crouching, just like they did before earlier to get to his face level better. As he took a step to turn and the three began to quietly talk, no one seemed to notice Kyoko a few feet away take notice and focus on them…

“Like, what gives? I thought you said you went to Sayaka’s room,” Hina said confusedly, her nose slightly scrunched up.

“Gu-I-I did…!”

“But the file says Makoto’s room-”

“Ye-I know it says that! That’s why I’m k-kinda freakin’ out here,” Leon interrupted with a hushed frantic wave of his left hand.

“...Leon, be honest with us. Is there any chance you could’ve made a mistake?” Sakura first got his attention, then calmly asked.

“N-No; like no way! She wrote a letter telling me specifically where to go,” he shook his head, revealing something that surprised the two girls.

“S-She did??”

“And where is this letter?”

“In my room where I left it, probably on my bed,” Leon said, frowning a bit at realizing the unfortunate thing about this, “But the major problem is… uhh...”

“...That you don’t have your room key on you, and you’re unable to get in to retrieve it, yes?”

The punk and swimmer whipped their heads towards Sakura’s direction over her ability to deduce what happened.

“I figured as much from the fact that you chose to bang on Hina’s door. If you had your key, why wake someone up when you could’ve locked yourself in your own dorm to prevent Sayaka from coming after you, should she have tried to chase you in the hallway?”

Leon admitted to her assumption with a stiff shrug.

“Well, yeah, but… It was also ‘cause I needed help really bad. And out of everyone here, you’re kinda the closest thing to a doctor we have? O-Or at least I thought at the time…”

The fighter nodded as Hina agreed with a smile so soft and miniscule, it’d be hard to see it from far away, “Yeah, you totally made the right decision. She was able to close up your wound perfectly and stuff.”

Yeah… Yeah, seriously. He realized that he really owed her big time.

“Anyways,” Sakura spoke up, “I want to make this clear. I don’t want to break any trust the others have placed in me, should I find your room key at the crime scene. After all, anyone could see me taking it as removing evidence or disturbing the scene that I’ve promised to prevent happening.”

“!! H-”

“Not that I’m saying that I suspect you; I’m simply stating how the others may view my actions if I do that,” she cut him off as a fearful protest threatened to bubble up, causing the baseball star to remain silent with a frown, “But I promise that if I do see it there, I will absolutely let you know.”

...It’s not that he wasn’t thankful. He showed it by giving her a nod of appreciation. But…

At the same time, that put a sense of uneasiness into his chest that became too hard to ignore. And it was due to the implication that Sakura had just made; if she takes the key, then everyone will become suspicious. Now granted, it was because she’s one of the people in charge of preventing anyone from destroying evidence, but… doesn’t that mean the same for him, especially since a good chunk of everybody thinks he did it? Would they, specifically Mondo, even allow him to take his key if he found it?

Maybe… just maybe they’d allow him if he could get that letter Sayaka wrote to him as evidence?

He sure friggin’ hoped so...

“...Are we all done talking now?”

Everyone looked towards Kyoko; the girl had a leadership-like determination in her eyes as she glanced around once catching everybody’s attention.

“We need to begin our investigation soon. At this point, it’s best if all of us split up. We need to get to the bottom of this and find out who killed Sayaka. We'll have to collect clues to form a foundation, then construct an argument to come to a final decision. If we get this wrong…”

She paused, closing her eyes while turning her head away.

“...Well, do I really need to say it?”

Hifumi completely slouched over, almost defeatedly so with a depressed and ill-looking expression on his pudgy features, “I’d rather you didn’t, no…”

Without hearing anyone else’s input, the girl turned sharply around to face the door. Her hair swaying behind her before going still, the aura of her seriousness could be felt even with her back turned to the group. The heels of her boots clacked against the floor as she walked towards the doors.

“Everyone pray for good luck.”

And with that, Kyoko had departed…

...and with Byakuya right on her heels.

“I’ll be going, too,” he said, not bothering to wait and exiting the gym as well.

Spurred by several people now gone, Mondo cracked his knuckles and looked towards Sakura, “Oh yeah, we better head out now, since we’re on guard duty.”

“Very well.”

The fighter turned to Leon and Hina with a departing nod.

“Good luck, you two. Stay safe.”

As they bid her goodbye and Hina gave her a thumbs up, Sakura joined Mondo in walking towards the door as he gave a grizzly warning, “...Lemme just say this right now! If whatever son of a bitch did this is here right now, and they're thinking of destroying that evidence, they'd better not let me find 'em! I'll skip the trial and cave their goddamn skull in myself! I'm serious! I will fuck them up!!”

If that wasn’t intimidating enough, the fact that the biker slammed the doors behind him shut and that loud noise echoed through the gymnasium had to have done the trick. And thus, that declaration of promised pain left the remaining students in the gym, more unsure of how to proceed.

In Leon’s case, however…?

He… maybe he...

The red jacket coming from the right corners of his eyes didn’t even faze him out of his thoughts. Instead, Hina had to lean forward directly into his vision for him to finally notice her.

“Okay, so… I’m, uh, not exactly sure where to take you, in all honesty,” her voice shook with a slightly embarrassed chuckle, glancing away from him briefly, “I mean, I know you probably wanna find a place to sit down and rest, but… is there anywhere specifically you wanna go?”

You mean anywhere but the gym? Because right now, that’s the last place Leon wanted to be.

Not just cause Junko’s temperature-dropping corpse was about to start the process of decaying at any moment, but mainly that even with his back turned, he could still feel eyes constantly staring at him from the others; he could obviously tell which specific people it was, and he was not about to give them the satisfaction of knowing that he acknowledged them judging him as a murderer.

But… like mentioned before, in his case for what to do?

He knew.

“...I kinda, urgh… wanna go to the crime scene and see if Sakura found my key,” he struggled to say the words, managing to get coherent language out after hissing through his teeth.

Hina’s face lit up with hope as she straightened up, smashing her fist into her other palm in a revelation moment, “Oh yeah! If we’re able to get your key, we can get into your dorm for you to change out of your bloody clothes!”

….Well, that’s true; he really didn’t wanna be in blood-stained clothes anymore than needed, but…

“Well, that, but… I actually was meanin’ the letter Sayaka wrote me,” he corrected her, watching her go “Ohhhh” at realizing what he actually was talking about, “If we can get into my room, I’d be able to show it as evidence to help me… y’know, somehow.”

“Still, that’ll really help if we can get that letter. Let’s go over towards the crime scene for now, okay?”

“Yeah… I just hope Mondo or anyone else will let us take the key if we find it…”

“Oh, totally! If it’ll help us figure out who the killer is, then they gotta let us have your key, right?” Hina waved off his concern like nothing before turning around towards the gym doors, “All right, this is just like when you walked out of the nurse’s office; it’s a bit longer of a walk, but just take it easy and go at your own pace, ‘kay? I’ll be right beside you.”

“Y-Yeah…”

And as the swimmer went to open up the door, that’s when Leon took a breath in that held for a few seconds before exhaling, mentally and (barely able to) physically prepare himself for attempting to do something that like literally the easiest thing to do before any of this crapfest went down: walking.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Ohhhhhh, thank the heavens above he finally made it to the room. Sadly, he couldn’t really pass this off as an exaggeration when he felt like there were a few times that his knees were going to buckle and give out on him and he’d embarrass himself, writhing on the floor before Hina rushed to help him up. Because now the agony was becoming way too hard to ignore and it had given his hands a nice consistent trembling that wouldn’t go away; like the kind you’d see for older people where they can’t control their bodies to be still. And that was really messing him up, since he was kinda using his free arm to shield his eyes.

Yeah, shielding his eyes from his own dried up blood that had splattered all throughout that hallway and stopping at the doors leading to his, Sakura’s, and Hina’s dorms. Geezume, his heart sunk into his chest and fell into the pits of his gut when he and Hina had come closer and noticed just how majorly messed up he truly was last night. Even more so when the swimmer gasped and stopped briefly to look away, as if to try and gather the determination to keep going with him.

W-Well, that, and he just noticed he stepped into what used to be a rather big pool of it, causing him to flinch. That one was probably when he slipped and fell after running out of the room.

And now, here he was. The crime scene. Going back into the place that could’ve… could’ve been his…

“...Okay, we’re here,” Hina walked to his right side, stopping in front of the opened doorway, “So, um… you ready to go inside?”

No. Of course damn not. But what choice did he have? For real, did he even have one?

With a silent nod, Hina moved into the room first, turning to him to watch his movements carefully as he winced painfully and dragged his feet into the room-

“...Oi, the hell’s he doing here?”

Can a guy not get into a room first before he gets that kind of a welcome? For crying out loud, he knew that he wanted to be famous and have people know about him, but not like that…

But that kind of a greeting had no weight if the person speaking it didn’t advance towards their intended target. And when the baseball star lifted his head, he saw Mondo approaching with his hands into his pockets, an eyebrow raised with a scowl that made no attempt to disguise how suspicious of Leon he was. If Hina hadn’t stayed by his side and Sakura hadn’t walked over as well, he may have been shitting bricks with how small the other man would’ve made him feel.

...A-Actually, uh, that was one of two reasons why he wasn’t shivering in his shoes.

The other was that when his attention was drawn to Mondo walking towards him, he noticed another person was in the room: Kyoko. She was currently examining the floor, but glanced over the moment the biker spoke, watching from a distance.

Damn, how fast was this girl? She’s got the speed to move around like crazy…

“We came by to see if we could find his room key,” Hina answered for him, causing Mondo to lean his head forward with an expression that could only be described as a mix of a squint of confusion and disbelief.

“Ehh? The hell would his key be in this dorm room?”

“Because from what Sakura and Hina relayed to us, if Leon is indeed telling the truth…”

The group looked over to see Kyoko stand up, apparently finishing her examination of the area she was in and face them.

“The reason he was unable to return to his own dorm and thus went to Hina’s dorm to seek help was because he had lost his key sometime during the events of last night.”

“Correct, and Hina and I also searched the hallway when we had woke everybody up; there was nothing there,” Sakura agreed, nodding to her.

“...So that means his key’s somewhere here then, huh? Tch, makes sense, I guess,” Mondo relented for a moment with a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck before blinking as if having an epiphany, “...Wait, hold the damn phone; can we even let him get his key? Like, isn’t that evidence that he’d be taking out of the crime scene? You know…”

He turned to glare at the punk, who flinched slightly at his angry eyes locking onto him.

“...the thing that Sakura and I are supposed to NOT let happen?”

Oh for gawd’s sake-

“Hey, come on; give him a break already!”

Wait, wha-

The group was surprised to see Hina, her fists tightly clenched and a sudden visage of compassion and determination on her face, suddenly snap at Mondo, who seemed more stunned on how to react more than anything. The girl didn’t seem to back down as she pointed at Leon, whose jaw could’ve dropped onto the floor had it not been properly attached to his skull.

“I get it, okay? I get that he’s suspicious, because of what he’s told me and Sakura and how he’s involved in this. But look at him! He literally is struggling just to stand, let alone walk! The least we can do is let him change into some clean clothes and not walk around looking like that! Can’t he have that??”

...For a split second there, Leon couldn’t do anything but stare at her. Like… he knew that she and Sakura were the people out of the entire group that wouldn’t backfire in his face if he trusted them, but… just…

It was nice.

Y’know, nice to finally hear someone say it. Even… kinda touching, in a way…

“Hina…”

The word Sakura breathed out alerted him that even she was surprised at her friend’s boldness. Looks like he wasn’t the only one…

“‘E-Ey, chill, chill!” Mondo brought his hands up in a motion for her to calm down, a surprised look on his face before a subtle tone of disgruntlement mixed itself in, “I’m not saying the dude should walk around miserable with shit all over him; I’m just trying to do what I’m supposed to do. And that’s not letting people mess up the crime scene!”

Surprisingly, Hina did not back down and instead stood her ground, “Well, we’re not only going to get him clean clothes; it’s also getting a piece of evidence that’ll help prove Leon innocent!”

“Huh!?”

Leon watched as Mondo jerked his head back in surprise… and uh… haha… I-It’s not like Hina was wrong; hopefully, the letter would prove him innocent, but… a tad sense of embarrassment of how she said that out loud had himself slightly smiling sheepishly and directing his gaze to the floor to hide somewhat from meeting eye contact.

H-Hahaha... hah… oh, man…

But because he wasn’t paying attention at face level anymore, he didn’t realize Kyoko had walked over and joined the four, her curiosity now into full effect. At least, not until she spoke.

“What evidence?”

Undeterred by someone else joining, the confidence of Hina was still burning in its full glory as she made the baseball star raise his head by gently patting his left shoulder. When he looked up, she was pointing at him while looking at the other girl.

“The letter that Sayaka wrote him last night! Isn’t that right, Leon?” she nodded, glancing over to him as if to give him the floor from there on out.

“A letter? What the hell are you talking about?” Mondo glanced between the two of them and demanded to know.

G-Geez, uh… putting him on the hot seat a bit, aren’t ya…?

Suppressing a nervous chuckle, Leon shifted his weight slightly to be able to lean against the wall for support and looked towards the inquirers of this new information. A quick breather and…

“T-The letter she wrote me, like Hina said… The whole reason I was even here was because Sayaka slipped it under my door; it said that she wanted to talk to me and to come here…”

With the biker being stunned silent from this coming to light, Kyoko’s eyes remained seriously focused on him. Bringing a gloved hand to rest under her bottom lip was the only change in movement upon hearing him speak.

“Where’s the letter now?” she asked.

“It’s in my dorm, like, on my bed, I think? L-Look, if we find my key and get into my room, I’ll let you take the letter if you want. But it’s there; I totally swear!”

Oddly enough, there seemed to be no resistance to him explaining that, nor any desire to accept his offer of giving the evidence to her directly. Instead, the lilac-haired girl simply nodded and looked back towards the desk in the room.

"Hmm… Interesting…"

"Look, I get what you’re trying to say; I’m not that fuckin’ heartless, alright?" Mondo relented, nodding as he began to see their viewpoint, “But, tch- cut me a gawddamn break here! Like I said, the point of me being-”

“Okay, then how about this?”

The man took a step back, off guard entirely as Hina took a step towards him and looked him dead in the eye.

“When we find Leon’s key, I’ll hold onto it; when we’re done going into his room to get that letter, I will personally make sure that I come back here and hand you the key myself. That way, we get what we need, but bring it back here and also show that Leon’s not just trying to get rid of evidence. That sound good to you?”

Mondo’s shoulders slightly scrunched up, before letting out a growl that had no anger behind it; it was mostly annoyance, but one couldn’t help but feel that he might’ve been the slightest bit impressed with her dedication to getting that key.

“Grrrr, all right, all right! Fuck, you’re damn stubborn, ya know that?” his eyes glanced away from the girl smiling in victory and the baseball star staring in awe at how the walking timebomb got dismantled like that, “But fine, I’m holding you to that. As long as Sakura doesn't mind it, since she’s on guard duty with me.”

“Of course; I trust Hina to keep her word,” Sakura nodded, giving the full permission needed.

Well… that was a relief, getting that out of the way. Now if his injury would STOP HURTING-

Leon was able to purse his lips enough to prevent the urge of letting another wince or curse word to claw its way out of his mouth, but really, it didn’t help much. When your entire existence is going through utter turmoil with every breath and movement from an injury that could’ve killed you, every second practically begs you to pull out an inhuman amount of strength to keep going. Because apparently the mastermind who’s so damn clever to set all this crap up is too incompetent to stock the medicine cabiniets of the nurse’s office for situations like this and he’s not even sure if it’s intentional or not, and yeah, if you couldn’t tell, Leon’s still not exactly over that stupidity just yet-

It’s at that moment his vision glances downward and… he realizes just how bad it was.

Multiple scratches of surface damage to the floor (which amazed the hell outta him, because he didn’t remember within that horrific several minutes how Sayaka was that fast when he dodged her attacks), the bed slightly messed up, the table in the middle of the room still knocked over from when he got backed up into it and fell over (which was where he thought would be where his key was somewhere)... the place looked like a mini warzone. And to think… he could’ve been the one in this crime scene…

Speaking of that…

“...She was in the bathroom, with a knife in her stomach…”

Recalling Makoto’s words, Leon ended up turning to look towards the bathroom door. Trying to ignore the multiple scratches on the walls where he remembered trying to avoid multiple stab attempts, he saw the door that would grant entry into where supposedly the body was… slightly ajar…

“...Leon? Are you all right?” Sakura’s voice called out to him, drawing the group’s attention to him.

“She’s in there, right…?”

There may have been some noises made by the others in the room when he said that, but being too focused onto the door had prevented him from noticing.

“Sayaka… She’s in the bathroom?”

“Wait, you’re not saying… you want to see her body, are you?” Hina widened her eyes, taken aback at how the boy created no objection to that, yet unable to see how Leon’s teeth grinded against each other slightly behind his closed mouth.

“Yeah, I want to see it.”

“Okay, can everyone just fucking slow your asses down?? Seriously, that’s gotta be where the ones on guard duty draw the line, right?” Mondo threw his arms up and trailed off, officially done with this ordeal testing his patience before rubbing his face with a frustrated pace, “It’s letting a lot slide by letting you guys take the key if you find it, but now…”

“What’s the point of it?”

Kyoko drew their attention as she faced Leon with a studying gaze, though a ghost of a frown on her lips.

“Pushing aside how you are undoubtedly one of the main suspects as of now wanting to get closer to the body of the victim, is there anything to gain from doing so?” she stated, watching as Leon closed his eyes and lowered his head slightly, “After all, not only have others like Byakuya and Makoto confirmed Sayaka’s death, but Monokuma is making us solve it. What other further proof that she’s died do you need?”

…………

It wasn’t rage or anger that seemed to finally draw his eyes away from the door and match Kyoko’s. It’s not like he was challenging her or anything. It was time that he finally stood his ground. And with that resolve, that just made it easier to narrow his pupils at her.

“...Look, just listen to me, alright? You see everything in this room? That, t-that-”

-fucking bitch-

“-tch, Sayaka did all this,” closing his eyes and shaking his head with a scoff, he corrected himself swiftly before opening his eyes and soldiering on to gesture to his torn shirt and bandage underneath it, “She did it when she attacked me with that knife, and she did this to me. When I got the hell outta here, I thought I was gonna bleed out on Hina’s floor and that was it.”

Mid rant, he tore his gaze off of her and began to glance around the entire room.

“And now I wake up a few hours ago, with no fuckin’ painkiller to take, to where it’s so stupid and shit just trying to stand and move and being able to breathe, gawddammit,” the intensity and volume was something he wasn’t able to control, wincing hard during his inhale as he tried to ignore the pain for the thousandth time and tensed his right arm muscles over the injury more, “and all of you are telling me that she’s dead, with a good portion of you thinkin’ I did it when I’m a victim here?? I wanna see it myself!!”

Speaking of inhaling, damn, that one hurt… Okay, gotta remember to not raise your voice, man…

But he refused to let them see it as he failed, but did his best to ignore and stop the shaking in his face and left arm while turning back to look at the bathroom doorway.

“Nngh… B-Because as far as I know, when she locked herself in that bathroom after I got the knife away from her and I ran out of here, she was alive…” he finished with, teeth clenching hard behind his lips once again.

Honestly? He had no clue whatsoever if any of them were gonna buy that or not. And with no real answer to how he was gonna be able to get in there if they denied him the right, he was drawing blanks. But he needed to see her. He needed to.

He needed to know-

“...If that’s what you want to do, then fine.”

W-Wait, really-

Leon turned his head over to Kyoko, who glanced away but had backed off from questioning his actions. Wow, uh…

H-Hah, truth be told? He wasn’t expecting it to be this easy…

“W-What the-! You gotta be fucking with me…” Mondo couldn’t believe what he heard, staring with his jaw nearly hanging open at the girl.

Looks like he wasn’t the only guy thrown off by her.

“If he can’t accept the truth of Sayaka’s murder, he’s not going to be able to move on,” Kyoko explained right after his retort and folded her arms, “So if seeing the body for himself is what it’ll take, then let him.”

“...You know what? I don’t care; do whatever the hell you think is best. But don’t go blaming me when the others start getting on our asses for letting all of this slide, you got that!?”

Not waiting around long enough to hear or see any kind of response, the biker sharply turned around and with no attempt to hide the growling mutters under his breath, eventually found his spot against the wall and stuffing his hands back into his pockets once more. Once it was clear he wouldn’t move from that spot, Kyoko turned back to them.

“If he’s going in there, I assume the two of you are joining him?”

“Of course,” Sakura answered while Hina nodded silently.

“Very well. I’ll leave you to that.”

Kyoko then turned without any kind of farewell and walked into the middle of the room, near the knocked over table and crouched down near it.

And with that… that just left…

“Leon…?”

He paused, turning towards Hina and Sakura with the swimmer being the one speaking and scratching her face with an index finger, “Are you sure you really… you know… wanna see it?”

He frowned at that, feeling his tongue piercing pressing against the roof of his mouth.

“Don’t tell me you’re gonna try and stop me…”

“No, we’re not. It’s just that we witnessed you having a panic attack after you saw Junko’s execution,” Sakura took a few steps to end up being on his left side, looking at him while phrasing her concerns carefully, “Surely you can understand why we’re concerned about you seeing it.”

...I-It’s not like that wasn’t true, but…

“...I-I know, but… I need to see this,” Leon tried to plead one last time, a slight shiver in remembering the fashionista’s demise before reaching deep down and gathering the strength to do this.

Because he needed to. He…

Both girls shared a look before nodding.

“Okay… but the moment you start feeling like you can’t anymore, you tell us, okay?” Hina said, making him promise them first.

Once he nodded, the girls let him slowly make his way along the wall towards the door. With the fighter on his left and the swimmer on his right, Leon eventually took a breath as deep as he could without causing pain to himself and readied himself. He watched as Sakura opened the door and flipped on the switch. He took a step inside…

“Hi, I’m Sayaka Maizono. I look forward to getting to know you!”

...Y-Yo… Yo, what was he looking at…?

In front of him, slouched against the wall in a pool of her own blood… was Sayaka… the same person he idolized… the one who tried to kill him…

...Dead.

N-Nothing but a… lifeless husk.

“Aww, thank you! It really means a lot to hear that. The five of us work really hard to make music that everyone can love and be uplifted by; I’m so glad that includes you, Leon!”

A-and it wasn’t just a pool of blood, as his eyes traveled downward on her… like… the blood had smeared way up into the wall, and it… it was all in her lap, nearly covering her skirt and several streaks were on her socks…

Leon could feel himself now working against himself; on one hand, he was trying to remain calm like he promised. But on the other, his breathing elevated to a faster pace, and that felt like it was calming him down, but that also was starting to hurt by doing that.

“Thank you so much. For helping Makoto like this. It really means a lot to me.”

His eyes darted back to the blood on her lap to see it. That thing he hates.

The kitchen knife… deep in her stomach, sticking out of her body… the same one that was in her hands prior to that…

H-How… How did it turn out this way?

Just as he’s thinking that, the movement of shuffling his feet to readjust his posture and take some pressure of his injured side hears a cracking noise sounds like…

...Broken glass…?

And that’s when he realizes it. Just how messed up this crime scene is.

“...! H-Holy…”

“Heheh… Hahahahaha!! Maybe now you can ask Makoto for his beauty secrets on how he doesn’t bruise easily!”

The whole bathroom is… is just so fucked up. Like… he should’ve seen it by now, but the shock of seeing her dead on the floor prevented that from being so easy…

There’s broken glass everywhere in front of her body. And it’s not too hard to see where it came from. The mirror above the sink is completely destroyed, and while it’s not wrecked in its entirety, the shower glass is somehow missing a massive, uneven chunk out of it. Bits and pieces of the sharp debris on the floor surround her…

W-what the crap…

“Oh… Of course! When I have some free time, I’d be happy to help you. I look forward to working with you when I can.”

This is s-so messed up… S-Seriously, this is… just what in the hell happened last night after he escaped?

A-and of course, his mind is replaying those precious moments he had with her… the ones he adored before he realized what kind of a person she could be a few hours ago…

How laughably ironic… She’s the one who made this weak ass murder plan to kill him, and yet he’s the one alive and standing; a bit of a superhuman act to do right now, but he’s standing.

His eyes squint at her corpse with a mixture of pain and anger and betrayal and sadness and-

“I… I have to get out… My band… My band is so important to me…W-Without them, I’m n-nothing… I’ll become nothing without them! T-That’s why I have to get out of here!!”

“Leon?”

He blinked upon hearing his name and turned to see Hina.

“Are you okay?”

He shrugged, pursing his lips.

“Yeah… Just…”

His voice just halts within his throat, unable to find the words to say. And really, he doesn’t know what to say. Because… well, what is he supposed to say? And for that matter, how should he feel? Should he be feeling sorry and grieving for her being gone permanently? Angry on how she ends up dead and screwing him over? Maybe… maybe even sadistically enjoying that she blew it so gawd awfully hard like it’s some twisted karma coming back to bite her?

How was he supposed to feel?

How… damn it.

His left hand rubs his forehead and left eye gently, the motions prompting a grumpy sigh and the soft motion of him shaking his head at everything.

“...I’m good,” his voice tiredly says.

Sakura nods, turning around to keep the door open for him and Hina to walk through.

“All right, when you’re ready…”

Nodding, he watched as Hina turned around, giving him a sympathetic glance out of the corner of her eyes before walking out behind him. Leon turned to follow, before taking a moment to glance back at the body of one of his… former musical idols and… who he thought was a friend.

They could’ve made some awesome, legendary music together...

“...”

He sneered at the last second before working his way out of the door with Sakura behind him.

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better...

 

....Puhuhuhuhuhu.....

Chapter 15: Ch 1: DeAdLy LiFe 4

Notes:

Quick note: Thank you to all of you who were patient to work with me while I struggled to get back into a writing mood. I hope I can still do this story justice.

Upupupupupupupupupupupupupu....

Leaving the bathroom, the three returned into the main part of the dorm room with Sakura somewhat moving the bathroom door closed to prevent any vision of the corpse being seen so easily to anyone else in the room. When she finished that action, she moved around to face the other two.

“Now that seeing Sayaka’s body is done, I’m afraid I have some bad news, unfortunately,” she spoke softly, a displeased sigh exiting her stoic face, “I’ve done the best search that I could of the room for it, but… I was unable to find your room key, Leon.”

…!!

Leon found himself aggravating his wound again due to the sharp, sudden movement of turning to the side to look at her.

“WHA-uurck…!! Sh-Shit…” he clamped an eye shut alongside him flinching hard, before letting his frustration over her revelation, “H-Hahh… Are you- Y-You gotta be friggin’ kiddin’ me…?"

“No, I am not. My apologies,” Sakura shook her head, offering an apology.

...Aww, crap…

Dammit, h-he didn’t mean to take her head off like that. It’s just… y’know, everything going on right now is complete and utter crap (more like shit, really) and when he’s overloaded with so many things like that, he gets hella grumpy like you wouldn’t believe.

...But still…

“E-Erm, no, it’s cool, really… L-Look, sorry ‘bout that,” he backpedaled instantly and looked away to avoid eye contact, “I’m just kinda dying over here and I can’t catch a friggin’ break in this-”

His awkward apology was cut off with Sakura gently reassuring him, “Leon. It’s alright. I know you’re not meaning to snap at me, especially with everything you’re going through.”

...Well, he was forgiven and everything, but that really didn’t stop him from feeling like the king of douchebag jerks to her for only trying to help him. As such, the choice for his eyes to not glance over at her was completely intentional. Instead, he gave a hasty nod before attempting to try and move towards the middle of the room.

“R-Right…”

“Okay! Then let’s just get to it and try finding your key,” Hina carefully sidestepped around him moving forward to the table, walking past the bed and Mondo, who was simply leaning against the dorm wall nearby.

Yeah, here’s hoping, but if Sakura gave this place a look and couldn’t find it, what chances did they-

“By the way, regarding your key…”

The moment he was able to get near the foot of the bed, Kyoko had come towards him, making her presence known before he realized she was talking to him.

“Is there a certain area of the room where you might’ve dropped it?” she asked.

A certain area of the room… Hmmm…

Despite how Leon took a second to pause in thought (and frankly not flinch from how that last step really sucked like a motherfucker), it… it had to be there, right…?

“...I think maybe the table…?”

The two glanced over to the knocked over table, on its circular edge and one of the legs, which rested near the sheath of the golden sword that laid on the floor near the door.

“Huh? You think it’s near here?” Hina asked, glancing over to him for a short while before crouching down and sweeping the floor with her eyes for any signs of it.

Kyoko looked back in his direction.

“Why there specifically?”

“Because when Sayaka was, y’know, t-tryin’ to kill me, I ended up backing up into the table and knocked it over when I fell. I think the key must’ve slipped outta my pocket when I was on my back or something…”

“So you’re saying the reason the table’s knocked over is because you tripped over it…”

If it weren’t for… well, EVERYTHING at this point happening, Leon’s face would’ve had a larger blush on his cheeks than he had now. But with a pained, yet flustered attempt to regain his dignity, his voice sputtered to start.

“! W-Wha- Oi, y-you don’t have to phrase it where I sound like I’m clumsy; the girl backed me up into it and I lost my footing because I didn’t even know it was there-”

At least, that’s how he started to defend himself.

But his protesting defense of the man he was just kind of crashed and burned in a heartbeat when he realized that the girl he was speaking to was no longer facing him. In fact, the girl with an unknown talent had brought a gloved index finger to her lips and looked away; her eyes reflected the fact she had dived deep into thought. As if she was… piecing something together in her head?

“Hey, so, umm…”

Hina’s voice came from behind Kyoko as Leon was able to look around her. He was too busy to notice that while he took offense to the lilac-haired girl’s comment, the swimmer had briefly made a quick sweep of the rest of the room after checking around the table area. She was in the process of walking back, and judging by her slightly gloomy expression and how she rubbed the back of her neck, it wasn’t going to be any good news.

“I checked around the table, as well as this half of the room, but…” she sighed, glancing down in defeat, “I’m sorry, Leon. I couldn’t find it.”

Before he could even react in a shocked manner, Sakura had walked up from behind him and added onto it, “And I researched the floor on this half, yet there is nothing here.”

...What the crap? That can’t-

“No way… It’s gotta be here; it has to be here! ‘Cause you two already said it’s not in the hallway or Hina’s room, so like…”

Like, for fuckin’ real? His key just no longer exists?? Where the hell did all his luck go; can the gods above get off their lunch break and cut him some slack already!?

This can’t be happening right now...

Grasping at nothing, Leon was left trailing into silence as he buried his face into his left hand. His patience was starting to wear thin at this point, and with how hurt and tired he was getting every second, this was starting to get really stupid, really fast. He still had the mental sense to know that snapping at people wasn’t going to get him anywhere, but probably that wouldn’t last much longer either.

His hand dragged down his face, resting over his mouth for a second before Hina piped up, a sense of a possible idea dawning when she gently hit her fist into her palm.

“Oh, I know! Maybe Sayaka took the key sometime after you left and before she was killed?”

“No, she didn’t,” Kyoko brought herself back into the conversation, shaking her head, “I’ve examined her body already; Leon’s key isn’t there.”

So much for that dwindling candlelight of hope she just doused…

His hand finally dropping to his side, Leon found himself staring at the floor near his feet while his goatee swung back and forth due to him tiredly shaking his head.

“Then where the hell is it…?”

Sakura spoke up from behind him, offering up an answer that he somehow both wanted and didn’t want.

“As much as I’d hate for this to be true, could there not be a possibility that someone has taken your key?”

The moment his brain registered what she’d said, the young man carefully pivoted, taking leverage of the nearby shelving unit that once rested the gold sword on top of it to help lessen any discomfort from turning, to look at her better.

“W-Wha… What are you saying? That someone… Why the hell would someone just swipe my key? There’s no point for them taking it…!”

The fighter glanced away before replying.

“For a reason why… I am unable to think of one at the moment…”

“Yeah, exactly! ‘Cause it doesn’t make sense, y’know? Like-”

“But you can’t really deny the possibility, can you?”

H-Huh...?

Sweeping his eyes back to the person who cut him off, Leon found himself nearly with his mouth left gaping wide open as Kyoko made eye contact with no hesitation. She moved to face him properly, arms folded across her chest.

“After all, there was a window of opportunity for it to happen,” she explained, continuing before he could stammer any kind of protest, “While you were unconscious in Hina’s room, we all at one point had come in here upon discovering Sayaka’s body.”

He wanted to argue that. To say that it didn’t make sense, but… Leon couldn’t find himself trying to disprove it. Because maybe, deep in his head, it actually did make sense. That explanation had also made something click in Hina’s head, as she jerked her head up a tad more and calmly pounded her fist into the other hand’s palm in a gentle manner.

“Oh, yeah! That’s right! When we first realized Sayaka was missing, Makoto went to check on her. He then let out this massive scream, which had us all come running in here.”

“Tch, scream? More like shrieking like a gawddamn banshee,” Mondo scoffed from his area, calling out a bit louder so they could hear him, “When we all got in here, the guy was passed out on the floor near the bathroom door. That prompted us to look inside and find the chick in there dead.”

Not being able to hear the biker continue on to mumble something about “Then I had to carry his ass to the gym”, Kyoko nodded to the recap being correct and stated, “Which means that all of us, even Junko before she was executed, were in here together. I’m not going to claim to know the reason for doing so, but… Sakura could be right. It’s a possibility that while all of us were distracted, someone might’ve seen your key on the floor and took it.”

...Then… Then is that what happened?

The arm cradling his wound slightly pressing against it more, Leon frustratedly lowering his head and glancing towards the floor near his feet. His tired mind raced as hard and fast as it could to try and think of an answer to this puzzling mystery. If Sakura and Kyoko were right, then… then who took it? And why? Like, sure, finding his key on the floor was suspicious, but in terms of the letter Sayaka wrote and going in to get it, nobody even knew it existed until during Monokuma talking about the class trial, and that was only Hina and Sakura he had told at that point…

...So, then… if it’s missing and not even Sayaka had it on her when she died, is someone really walking around with his key in their pocket? Is it the killer, trying to cover their tracks and plant the blame on him? Or maybe someone else who didn’t know better-

“...Leon.”

His head jerked back up and glanced towards Kyoko, who after giving a small space of silence, decided to speak to him for some reason. After he turned to face her, the girl took a breath and continued with closed eyes.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that you have a lot of the answers as to what happened in this room a few hours ago. Especially because you’ve admitted to being in the room and have claimed that Sayaka is responsible for your current condition. With that, I feel a lot of the mysteries that may have plagued this case will be easily solved.”

A twinge of hope sparkled in his heart as Leon softly gasped and widened his eyes.

“...Y-You mean you believe me? That I’m totally innocent, right?”

The inquiry about her trust led her to open her eyes to look towards the side, resting a gloved index finger under her bottom lip.

“I’m not going to state whether I think you’re guilty or innocent. What I’m saying is that your testimony is going to be crucial; after all the evidence is gathered, it will be able to determine if your account is false or not, and by extension, your guilt or innocence.”

Leon pursed his lips, feeling a bead of sweat roll down the side of his face. Of course. He shouldn’t have expected it to be that easy-

“And while I would like to hear your testimony right now, as it would help lead my investigation in the right direction…” Kyoko continued, looking back to him, “I’m also aware of your injury and the severity of it, as you’ve said that standing, moving, and even breathing is difficult for you. And that concerns me. What you know will play a key part in solving who Sayaka’s killer is; if we lose you because you end up passing out or worse, I doubt Monokuma will give us mercy. It may very well destroy our ability to find the truth. And if that happens, it’s over for all of us.”

...I-It’s not like he needed to be reminded to take it easy. But… that part… ‘or worse’...

He didn’t need the extra shivering feeling of freezing nervousness threatening to cool the temperature of his blood running throughout his body. Or at least trying to and not escaping the stitched injury on his right side.

Ignoring how his face could be showing how extremely bothered he was to Kyoko’s implication (or at least his eyes, because right now he can feel them legitimately shrinking in size as he stared at her), his voice was able to ask, “R-Right… then what do you want me to do?”

“For now, I think it’s best if you find a place to rest, as you discussed doing earlier,” the girl answered, “Other than knowing that we’ll discuss Sayaka’s murder, we have no idea how the class trial is going to be played out. As such, the best option for you is to take it easy and regain your strength as much as you can.”

Okay, fair enough. But…

“...Right. Except I don’t know where to go,” Leon agreed, yet the snarlish huff from his pain and fatigue led him to scratch his head while glaring up at the ceiling, “The plan was to get back into my room not only for that letter, so I can rest on my bed, y’know? Urgh... But now that my key’s friggin’ gone…”

“...Oh, I know!” Hina took advantage of the baseball star trailing off in his complaint to squeeze in to offer a place, capturing the group’s attention with the exception of Kyoko who seemed to glance back towards the desk behind the bed again, “How about the laundry room?”

“Ahhh, good idea. Not only is there a place for Leon to sit down there,” Sakura nodded in seeing the benefits of that room, “but you could attempt to wash some of the blood off his clothes.”

A simple fold-up chair with a regular fold-up table… It wasn’t a super comfy bed where he felt his energy would truly recharge, but that probably was the second best place out of everywhere. Plus, it would be nice to not have blood completely splattered over him anymore…

“...All right, sounds good to me,” Leon agreed, sighing as he accepted this as his next move and began to turn to go to the door.

“But before you do…”

He stopped, looking back at Kyoko, who took a step forward.

“May I briefly examine your hands for just a moment?”

Huh…? His hands…?

“Uhh… S-Sure, I guess?”

With that, as much as it hurt, he took his right arm off of his wound and lifted both hands up for her. With no hesitation from the amount of stained blood on him (Which is, like, seriously; what the actual crap- how are you not even disturbed in the slightest?), the girl calmly took each hand into her grasp and looked over it with analyzing eyes. She flipped the hand over from his palm to the backside of his hand for both of them. He had no clue what she was looking for, but after a few seconds, she let go of his hands and nodded to him.

“Thank you for that. I appreciate your cooperation.”

“Oh, uh, no prob… I’m gonna go rest up in the laundry room now, then?”

“Good. I’ll be continuing my investigation, then,” Kyoko bid farewell, walking to the desk she had glanced at previously.

All righty then… one more push, then some well-deserved and damn needed rest…!

With Hina quickly sharing a small conversation with Sakura that was most likely a good-bye and good luck, Leon decided to make his way towards the door as best as he possibly could. Literal emphasis on that last part, because the wound was really acting up at this point and the one more push that he was trying to power through was starting to explode in his face. So much to where as he got to the tiny hallway towards the exit, he began to lean against the left side and use his free arm to help steady himself as he’d reach for the doorknob-

W-Whoa, uh, hello, the doorknob is moving on its own-

“H-Huh? Leon?”

Taken off guard with the door opening in his face so suddenly had halted Leon’s movements to the point where the person coming in stopped right in the middle, blocking him from leaving. And that person was…

Makoto.

The person who had been the closest to Sayaka through this whole killing game so far.

The same person whose dorm room was apparently the scene of the crime.

The other main suspect the rest of everybody probably thought was guilty just like him.

…

The moment eye contact was maintained for more than five seconds, Leon frowned deeply and found himself unable to swallow a large lump in his throat.

“Ah… Uh, hey, man…”

His awkward, semi-crestfallen greeting also seemed to make Makoto a tad uncomfortable and unsure on how to proceed, as he glanced away with a frown of his own before looking back with a hand rubbing at his neck and asking, “U-Um, hi… Sorry, I just didn’t expect you being in my room of all places…”

...Didn’t expect him to be at the scene of the crime is what he meant, right? ...Does that mean…

His frown hardened deeper into his facial features.

...Does Makoto suspect him of being Sayaka’s killer, too…?

“If you don’t mind me asking… what were you doing here?” Makoto seemed to get a hold of himself and be brave, inquiring of the punk’s actions.

C-Come on, man… He doesn’t want to deal with this. Not after…

“...I was trying to find something, but it’s not there. Just… don’t worry ‘bout it, dude,” Leon pushed aside his question, not looking at Makoto who slightly frowned in confusion.

“Okay, sorry! Just had to say- Oh, hey, Makoto!”

Ohh, thank God, his unintentional savior was here! Now the other boy had his attention off him, which made him somewhat relieved, and yet it didn’t make him any less uncomfortable than he was in being near him. He could feel the desire to just push past him to start making his way to the laundry room create itself into more of a temptation, but he wasn’t that rude…

...Well, that, and uh… he didn’t think he had the energy or mobility to pull that off right now…

“Oh, Hina! You’re in here too?”

“Yeah, but I’m leaving now. I’m gonna help Leon to the laundry room so we can try to wash some of the blood off his clothes and for him to rest. Speaking of that, you ready to go, Leon?”

His name being mentioned alongside Hina entering the corner of his vision prompted him to ready his focus on moving past the other boy, whom he wanted to get away from right now, and nod his head to her.

“Y-Yeah…”

“All right, then. Remember to take it easy and go at your own pace, okay? You gotta take what Kyoko said to you seriously,” the girl reminded, moving out towards the hallway.

Yeah, uh, Hina?

That was fine and nice to give a small little reminder for his benefit and all, but now you made Makoto stare in confusion between him and you and now he could just feel the curious eyes that were begging for an elaboration baring down into his being. Ignoring someone is hard to do when they’ve not only made you the center of their attention, but it feels like it’s doubled…

In a hurried rush to get the hell outta cringe town, Leon purposely grunted in an overdone, loud tone to signal to Makoto that he was moving. And finally, some damn luck coming his way, for crying out loud! The kid picked up on his cue and moved to the side, allowing both him and Hina to come into the hallway-

A-Aahh… O-Okay, maybe NOT look at the bloodstains he left behind on the floor-

“Okay, we’re heading out; talk to you later, Makoto,” Hina bid him farewell as she waited for Leon to make his way out to her.

“Right. See you later.”

Hearing Makoto’s voice return that good-bye and the sound of his hand taking a hold of the doorknob prompted the worn down young man to spare a glance as best he could over his shoulder. At that point, the brown-haired boy had walked into the room too far to notice him, but…

...Makoto… Damn, what was he feeling right now…? Sayaka was the closest to him, right…?

………………

“Leon?”

Hina calling out to him had him face forward again and begin walking alongside her as best as he could.

“S-Sorry. Let’s go.”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Ohhhhhh, thank the gods above these chairs in the laundry room had some kind of cushioning in the seats! They might not be as desirable as the freakin’ awesome leather chair that was in his living room that he and his dad would constantly fight for control of when they watched tv, but having a near fatal wound teaches one to not be too picky. And at the moment, standing wasn’t something he wanted to do anymore right now...

But if you could only realize the amount of godly effort and strength he had to pull from deep within himself to not scream out in agony when Hina pulled out one of the chairs for him to sit on and he moved to bend over in order to sit…!

With him plopping ungracefully into the chair, he let out a giant pained exhaling groan, grimacing as his left arm shakingly rested on the table’s surface for the time being. Being focused on trying to calm his breathing to a normal pace once the pain started to shift to a lower level of discomfort distracted him from noticing Hina walking around the table towards the washing machines.

“There… that better?” she asked, pausing for a moment to look back at him.

“Ngh… I-It’s an improvement,” he shrugged, a pained, dark chuckle coming out of a tired ghost of a smile as he nodded to her.

“Hey, I’ll take that,” Hina smiled back, making her way again to the washing machines, “Okay, lemme just… wait, wha…”

Leon blinked at her suddenly trailing off to see her walking up and down the line of machines, looking for something confusedly before stopping at the one closest to the door, scratching her head.

“What the heck? Where’d that bottle of detergent go? I swear there was one right here on top of this one yesterday…” she muttered aloud enough for him to hear.

Wait, a bottle of…

...Oh.

Ohhhh…. Right, it’s because…

“O-Oh yeah… Last night I was doing a load of laundry, and uh… Hiro came in and took it,” Leon answered, shrugging at the swimmer whirling around to stare at him with a dumbfounded look.

“...Why?? Why would he take an entire bottle of detergent??”

In that brief moment, a shiver of dread crawled over his skin, creating massive goosebumps that were impossible to ignore. T-Those dreads…

If only you knew, Hina.

“...It’s, uh… kind of a long story, y’know? Ahaha...” Leon sheepishly chuckled out, looking away from her eyes while wondering why in the world he was covering for Hiro; maybe because that story was way too much of an effort to make sure the guy didn’t come off as utterly strange and he wasn’t really up for doing that.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to try.

“...You know what? Never mind; I probably don’t wanna know. That guy just keeps getting weirder and weirder…” Hina sighed, muttering that last part before giving him an apologetic shrug, “Looks like I’m gonna have to dip out of the room for a second and go get another bottle. You gonna be okay while I’m gone?”

“Y-Yeah. But before you go, can I see my Monokuma File?”

“Oh, um, sure. But why?”

“I just wanna look it over; make sure I’m not completely lost by the time the class trial thing happens, y’know?”

The answer seemed to satisfy her as she nodded and dug into her pocket to hand him his file.

“Fair enough. All right, I’ll be right back.”

Leon giving her a nod signaled the green light for her to turn and leave the room, closing the door with a click and leaving him alone to direct his attention to the Monokuma File. It didn’t feel good at all in the damn slightest, as the pain throbbed less when an arm was pressed against it, but slowly and carefully bringing his right arm off it to hold the file helped since it was very difficult to work it with one hand. The same one that happened to be his non-dominant hand.

Looking the thing over, it was sleek and small; immediately, his thoughts compared it to a mini version of the E-Handbooks they had gotten. But instead of it being a fancy electronic device, it was like a laminated, two sided display with information about the case with the title ‘Monokuma File 1’ plastered at the top. On one side, it had a picture of Sayaka’s body at the crime scene, with things about her height and weight underneath.

Seeing that scene again made Leon scowl hard and flip the thing over so fast that he nearly flew it out of his grip and through the air to his right.

The other side is what he wanted (well, not really; more like needed) to see; the general details of the case:

“The victim was Sayaka Maizono. The time of death is estimated to be around 1:35 am.”

What the- ‘estimated’? That stupid bear already stated that it watched the whole thing go down; why would it word the time of death like it was giving a time frame? Shouldn’t it know exactly when it went down…?

...Or was this Monokuma giving the killer a fair chance and making them try to figure out the truth?

Great. Just great, dude.

“The body was discovered in Makoto Naegi’s room, in the dormitory.”

And right there… there was another thing that Leon was mentally beating himself up about. The fact that when he was invited in… like… how did he not notice how the room looked off? Now to be fair, you could make the argument he kinda did, but... he never put two and two together on why Sayaka's room didn't look like it belonged to a pop idol. And the more he dwelled on that, the angrier he got at himself. Seriously, he actually made such a blatant, unobservant fuck-up this outrageous?? For crying out loud, he pointed out how bland Makoto’s room was compared to his own! And he had even been in the room before, when he carried the kid after he had been knocked out by Mondo.

Just… how did he not notice this? He wasn’t stupid or unobservant like this… How did he not piece together that something seemed off...? Was it… was he really so infatuated by Sayaka that it clouded his awareness to that detail?

…

…Did…

Did she count on that…? Was Sayaka aware of how excited he was about being around her that she used that to lure him in…?

How long had she planned…

…………….

Only when his molars began to ache did he realize that his teeth were clenching so hard and his eyes had clamped shut in a mix of anger and shame. Scoffing slightly, he cleared his throat to try and shake it off before continuing.

“All evidence suggests that the death took place in the bathroom. The cause of death was a stab wound to the abdomen. There also were small pieces of glass located both around and inside the wound.”

Okay, so… then when Sayaka locked herself in the bathroom and he escaped to Hina’s dorm to get help… that’s when she died. She stayed in the bathroom until her death, right? That sorta makes sense, but…

There were bits of glass near where she was stabbed…? Granted, he didn’t try to spent a lot of time looking her body over, but that really seemed to be something that really popped out when it came to the details of the murder. After all, it was really hard to ignore the fact that the crime scene had a broken mirror and shower glass destroyed into pieces all around the room. But how the glass was described to be on her wound… and… Gawddamn, it’s painful and shiver inducing just thinking about it, but also inside it as well is what had him frowning in confusion.

So, like... when the killer entered the bathroom, was there a struggle there between them and Sayaka? And was that the reason why the bathroom got so fucked up? And if there was glass near and in the wound, does that mean broken pieces of glass got on the knife, and by extension, did it touch the killer and injure them-

Leon widened his eyes and looked up from the file, staring into space in thought.

Of course, he might be way off in this, but…

If that’s what happened and the killer got scratched up by broken glass… shouldn’t that mean there’s someone walking around with a cut or scrapes on their hands or arms? If it was the latter, the majority of the group here would be able to hide it easily due to wearing long sleeves.

...A-Again, that’s if this is the truth and he’s not way off…

Gawd, figuring out a murder sucks.

Leon sighed and kept reading to the end of the details.

“There was also an injury to her right wrist; specifically, the wrist appears to have suffered a fracture.”

………...Oh fu-

A sheepish, pained groan vibrated in his throat, letting the file drop with a clunk on the table with pursed lips barely preventing a nervous smile from breaking out. Uhummm… H-He didn’t think he hit her that hard with that sword… T-Then again, he was completely enraged at that point and swung at her with the force of a grand slam home run, so…

Crap.

Dragging his left hand over his face, he let out a huge puffy sigh of exasperation over realizing that this was something he was gonna have to admit to… and that was really gonna make him look shitty and violent to people. For crying out loud, he was doing so well with his image of being a super cool dude that he is before this whole murder mess that she caused started…

But now, at least the details of how Sayaka died were a bit more clearer now to him. And that was a step better than him being utterly horrified and left stammering about how she couldn’t be dead.

And this was just the easy part.

Leon winced, leaning back into his chair as his right hand tenderly wrapped itself around his side again. Now being somewhat comfortable, his tired mind began to try and dig the truth out from the mysteries surrounding what happened, to figure out the sequence of events that took place and who might even be the killer.

Okay… let’s see… Sayaka locked herself in the bathroom and he ran out of there to get help. Sakura opened the door to Hina’s room after he banged on it and both girls pulled him in. Once they started stitching and bandaging him up, he ended up passing out, so he can only go by what others told him, but if he remembers right...

Both Sakura and Hina said that it took about ten to fifteen minutes to stitch him up. After they were done, they said they went to everyone’s dorms to wake them up to alert them of his condition. When the group realized Sayaka wasn’t there, Makoto went to go get her. Upon finding her dead body, Hina and Mondo said he shrieked and passed out, having everyone run to the dorm room to find him unconscious on the floor and the body in the bathroom.

Leon closed an eye, frowning as his other up looked up to the ceiling in deep thought.

So if that’s how everything went down… that would mean that from during Sakura and Hina stitching up his wound to them waking everyone up was when Sayaka had been killed… That’s only ten to fifteen minutes for someone to have killed her.

What the- damn, really? Come on, even quick work has limits, doesn’t it? And yet… that’s the only possible time she could’ve been killed…

Okay...

Now the question was… who was the killer?

Yeah, like that was going to be easy out of a pool of eleven suspects. Because it wasn’t fourteen. Y’know, because HELLO!? He was on the verge of death for the love of God after running away from Sayaka when she was still alive, so it’s completely obvious he didn’t do it. And since they were in the process of saving his life, both Hina and Sakura were out as choices, too.

Then who was the most suspicious out of-

“...!”

…

Huh… Why would…

Leon’s face shifted into a conflicted, yet intrigued expression as he glanced down at the table in deep thought. Because what just happened was that the first name that popped into his head was… Sayaka. The victim herself.

But… Why… That’s stu...

……

Huh… Actually… Now that he was past the point of being shocked from his own mind thinking that… it… it may not be so impossible as he initially tried to push it as.

After all, Sayaka had totally gone bonkers back in that room when she tried to kill him, and even more so had she dropped into a fully hysterical state when he managed to grab the golden sword and tried to bring up Makoto’s name in an attempt to make her stop. So maybe… after he managed to break her wrist and make his escape… Sayaka had snapped over the fact that her murder attempt would be exposed and her going insane resulted in her destroying the bathroom and killing herself… Could that have been what happened…?

…...No. No, it… it couldn’t be the reason.

Because Sayaka said the reason was to know if her band was safe, and if she was willing to try and off him over whatever the hell was shown on her DVD, then… her band was super precious to her. Just like Kanon and his dad were to him. And he highly doubts that even in the face of a murder attempt failure and her being in a super stressful situation where her wrist was broken… not even Sayaka would’ve attempted to commit suicide and throw the chance of seeing the ones she loved most away like that…

Plus, his room key was also missing, and it wasn’t her who took it from what Kyoko confirmed after searching her body.

So, like, that meant someone else had to have been the murderer, right…?

And that led to the next name that came up in his head: Makoto.

The person who was the closest person to the victim besides him. The same one whose room was the crime scene, and when seeing him come out of said crime scene, seemed suspicious of him and asked what he was doing in there. Could that have been because he was worried about being found out? And for that matter, he was alone for a short time going to get Sayaka when everyone was woken up by Hina and Sakura. Maybe… he had already killed her and went into the room to hide some evidence, noticed his room key, took it, and then let out a fake scream and only pretended to pass out, so nobody would suspect him…?

...Then again, this kid got annihilated by a single punch-

-And of course, he’s IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM trying to compare the fighting ability of a biker gang leader to a pop idol-

-but the fact of the matter is that Sayaka was surprisingly fast and shit when she was trying to stab him. Was Makoto even capable of fighting, let alone committing a murder? No offense to the kid, but… he was the least imposing guy out of all the boys…

The more he thought about it, the more he began to convince himself that it was kind of silly to think Makoto was the killer.

Letting out an impatient huff from his nostrils, his exhausted mind tried to process a logical reason of a prime murder suspect. But really… that was the question of the freakin’ century, y’know? Like, who else could it be?

Maybe it was Hifumi or Toko? After all, those two seemed to be the ones so gung-ho about blaming him for Sayaka’s death and crap. Or maybe it was the late Junko, because she got really pissy and confrontational when Monokuma explained the whole deal about the class trial thing, and she could be the killer who expected to just be let out after killing Sayaka.

Or maybe-

“Oookay, I’m back! Geez, you’d think Monokuma would’ve put some kind of a ladder in that warehouse room, so I wouldn’t have to climb the shelving unit to get something that’s kinda heavy…”

The subpar mental detective agency of Leon Kuwata was immediately closed for business when he moved his head over to see Hina push the door open with a winded rant of the same reason Hiro used to take the previous bottle from last night. And despite how athletic she came off to be… judging from her body movements and that exasperated face of disbelief, it was no easy feat climbing up that shelving unity.

“But anyway! I got some detergent, so that’s good,” she let the weight of the bottle slam into the top of the machine, having a mechanical echo grace his eardrums as she turned to him with an attempt to change her facial expression to a more upbeat one, “Now all that’s left is to try and wash out as much as the blood as we can.”

Yeah, he hoped so. He was tired of seeing blood nearly everywhere he looked. Plus, it was going to be a major bummer to throw this outfit away. Yeah, he knew that the creepy person behind it all got him several replicas, but to have to throw this awesomeness away… it just mega sucked, dude.

“Yeah… I guess, but…”

“Huh? But what?”

“...I’m only gonna be able to do my jacket, my belt, and maybe my right shoe in the wash, right?”

“Why only those? I mean, your undershirt and pants are stained in blood, too…”

Leon made an extremely subtle grimace, a small hint of a blush showing up on his face.

“Well, for one thing? This shirt is just gonna go in the trash, because when Sayaka freakin’ got me with the knife, it slashed a good hole in it, so it might as well just be thrown away…”

Hina frowned at that, but shrugged.

“Okay, but the pants? I mean, they’re not physically damaged, so what’s the harm in doing those? You can take those off and I can wash them, right?”

The blush that tinted his cheeks slightly grew as he scowled and looked away, ignoring a flare of pain from his injury just then.

“Urgh… Y-You’re really gonna make me say it aloud?”

“Huh?”

For real, Hina- oh my gawd-

“Like, seriously!” Leon turned back to look at her, his left eyelid slightly twitching and his face now a good shade of red as he glared with embarrassment and desperation, “You’re asking me to strip into my underwear in front of you? I’m not about to do that with a girl in the same room; t-that’s just wrong, man!”

It was only when a few seconds passed after his reasoning being explained that the gears began to turn into Hina’s mind and she understood the implication of what it meant. Within a millisecond, her face also blushed and the movements of her arms flinched before planting her hands firmly on her hips and trying to keep her voice from stammering.

“I-I’m just trying to help; I’m not trying to d-do sneaky stuff that is lewd or anything to purposely embarrass you, g-geez!”

“It’s not that I think you’d do that; it’s just my original plan was finding my key, so I could get a change of clean clothes. But now that that’s out of the freakin’ window, I don’t exactly feel comfortable taking off my only pants that I got right now… even if they are disgusting and ruined…”

The swimmer frowned.

“I-If it makes you feel better, I can just stand outside, wait for you to take off whatever you want to wash, and then come back in with my back turned to you to put them in the washing machine-”

“But if I do that, either one of two things will happen. Either A: you’d have to stand guard of the laundry room for an hour or so while I stayed in here to wash and dry them, and I don’t really trust some of the other people not to be assholes and try to push past you to get to me for whatever they want. Or B: I’d have to go to that public bathroom near the dormitories, strip my clothes off, pass them to you out of the door, and then stay in one of the bathroom stalls, so no one sees me,” Leon swiftly countered while taking a sharp, tense inhale of air; he shook his head and bore his irritated gaze into the wall, trying to power through another throb from his wound, “And I dunno how much longer we got with this ‘investigation time’ period before the class trial, but I’d rather not be sitting on a toilet for what could be my possible last hour of m-”

“Don’t say that!!”

Now, you’d believe that someone suddenly shouting would be enough to snap you to attention or send that heart of yours rapidly beating faster in a blink of an eye. And you’d be right, but in this case, it was not only the fact that Hina had suddenly cut him off with a shout, but also slammed her hands down on the table with such force that it was impossible for him not to notice how loud of an impact it was. He froze in his posture, staring at her with widened eyes as her gritted teeth and fierce gaze bore into him.

“What-”

“Don’t say things like that, like we’re gonna die! It’s seriously not cool! Because…”

She took a small breath in as her expression softened into a worried, conflicted frown.

“...You’re not the only one who’s scared of this whole thing and dying, you know?”

……...Shit.

She’s right. Totally right.

Despite the fact that he could argue that he had a damn good reason for being selfish after nearly being murdered himself, this whole time… he only ever considered what would happen to him. But really… it wasn’t just his life; everybody’s lives were on the line with this whole class trial thing. Meaning if they didn’t find who killed Sayaka, the other innocent people besides him would be executed. And he hadn’t even stopped to think how they all felt. Especially Hina and Sakura, who he knew were innocent for sure.

Gawd, he hates when he’s a douchebag to people.

A wave of shame washed over his face as he closed his eyes.

“...R-Right… I’m sorry, I-”

“No, no, don’t apologize for that,” his eyes snapped open when he was abruptly silenced again but with a calmer tone; he saw Hina waving her hands and moving across the corner of the table closer to him with a softened frown, “Look, I know you’re… in a bad place right now, with… everything, really; surviving Sayaka trying to kill you, the pain, and other stuff. I get it. But… you’re not alone in this ‘having to figure out the killer’ thing. Just… try to remember that, okay?”

...Right… just…

Girls, feelings, and killing games are so darn confusing, man…

But that didn’t stop an understanding nod from making his head shake back and forth, causing the girl to straighten her posture a bit and move to being slightly behind him.

“Good… That being said, if you don’t wanna take off all of your bloody clothing, do you wanna just do just your jacket or something?” she asked, pointing towards the once soon-to-be-legendary wardrobe of his ruined in his own bodily fluid.

Leon let his head go up and down again briefly before voicing his thoughts aloud.

“That, and maybe my shoe at least?”

“Okay, sounds good to me. Let’s start with that.”

As she bent down near his side and gently started to untie the laces of the right sneaker, a sudden burst of dread filled his mind and he grimaced enough to squint his eyes.

“Ugh… I hope my sock didn’t get drenched in blood, too…”

Eventually, Hina was able to get his shoe off. A few seconds passed before she looked up and gave him a beaming smile.

“Nope! It’s totally clean; not an ounce of blood on it,” she confirmed to his relief, then proceeded to place the show on the table for a split second before moving towards his left side, “Now time to take your jacket off. Just go as slow as you need to, alright?”

Leon nodded as he lifted his left arm and Hina took a hold of the left sleeve’s cuff, pulling on it as the baseball star moved his arm in towards his torso to get it out. What was kind of the sucky part of it was that this was the easy part. Now came Hina walking around with half of the jacket in her possession and the only way she was going to get the rest of it off him is if he raises the arm on his injured side high enough to her to do so. And up until now, Leon hasn’t raised his right arm that high. Even when he collapsed to his knees in the nurse’s office, grabbing the bed frame didn’t make that arm go that high.

This was going to ultra suck on all kinds of levels.

Hesitantly, Leon began to move that right arm gradually higher until his wound began to stretch from the movement and his eyes clamped shut, his teeth gritting visibly in response-

FuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckFUCKFUCKFORTHELOVEOFGODPLEASETELLHIMSHECANGETTHEJACKETANDHEDOESN'THAVETORAISEHISARMHIGHER-

“Tgghh… C-Can you get it?” he groaned through his teeth.

“Yeah, just… there we go!”

FINALLY, FOR FUCK'S SAKE...

Thank Heavens. Thank all of them. There was NO way he was gonna lift that arm up any more at that point.

And this was only day one of having this injury. He hoped to every god in existence that Monokuma stocked the nurse's office with pain medication. Because this better not suck so much ass on all kinds of painful levels once he gets some into his hands and this starts healing.

Bringing that arm down immediately felt like a twisted, painful sweet release as he placed it around his wound once more. His bare forearms felt a cooler breeze while trying to relax and collect himself during the time the pain was dying down. He was so preoccupied with this that he didn’t notice the washing machine’s loud continuous noise begin to stir. At least, not until Hina pulled up a chair to his left and sat down next to him.

And that’s how they stayed for several moments. A silence that could only be described as a nervous, looming omen of what would happen in a few hours.

Until…

“...It’s kind of messed up, isn’t it?”

Leon glanced over to Hina, giving a sympathetic, unsure smile.

“Like… it was only the day before yesterday that we were talking in the dining hall with Sakura about what we thought of everyone…”

“...Yeah,” Leon scoffed, shaking his head, “And to think I put Sayaka so high in my ‘cool people list’; I… still can’t believe this all happened.”

“Yeah… I mean, I really hoped no one would attempt a murder in the first place, right? But like…” the girl answered, looking down at her fidgeting hands, “Out of all the ones I thought could possibly snap and try to murder… she wasn’t one of them…”

Yeah, he seconded that motion instantly.

“...I just… it’s insane how much crap she’s making me go through here. First, she tries to murder me and even fucks me up royally; now I’m in the hot seat, being blamed for her murder, for all of this shit that she created! I-”

A wince ceased his increasing shouts of frustration enough for him to look up, shaking his head with a newfound, depressed sigh while the swimmer looked over to him.

“...I don’t even know if anyone even believes me or trusts me, y’know? Like, Toko and that freaking fatty Hifumi are dead set on blaming me, Makoto looks at me like I’m totally suspicious... even Kyoko, who seems to be taking the whole investigation time super seriously, won’t even tell me if she thinks I’m guilty or not,” he sighed, shaking his head once more and lowering it to stare at the table, “...I wouldn’t be surprised really if no one here thinks I’m innocent.”

“...That’s not true.”

Huh?

Leon raised his head with a blink before looking over to a serious, but sincere Hina.

“I believe you, Leon. And I know Sakura does too, because she told me so as well.”

.........W-Wait...

...She… they both…?

“...For real...? You… You both believe me?”

“Well, are you lying?”

“Wh- No, of course not, but you two are really believing me without a doubt? No questions or suspicions about me? L-Like, I'm not saying I did it, but for all you know, I could be lying, right? And-”

“Then why don’t we put it to the test?”

Before Leon could question what she meant, Hina had carefully swung her legs over to the right to face him directly. She leaned forward, her face getting closer with his and causing his shoulders to slightly tense up, a ghost of a blush appearing on the top of his cheeks. W-what was she-

“Leon Kuwata… did you murder Sayaka Maizono last night?” she asked, her eyes gazing deep into his own.

Hearing the question, the boy’s expression grew more serious as he stared back into her eyes.

“No. I didn’t kill her.”

A few seconds passed before Hina softly giggled, returning a cheerful smile to him.

“And that’s that. I can tell just by looking at your eyes. There's no way you could've done it.”

She raised a hand and rested it on his left shoulder, relaxing his features into more of a surprised look.

“So you can relax a bit more, okay, Leon? Sakura and I trust you; after this whole class trial thing, we’ll try to help you rest up and deal with this whole injury thing until you’re healed up to one hundred percent. And then we'll work together again to focus on finding a way out of here. You can count on it!”

...They trusted him…

...After everything he did… after not trusting them initially…

...Wow…

These feelings…

Relief and hope…

Leon suddenly felt a small chunk of weight lifted off his shoulders as he smiled back at her with a nod. It was highly reassuring to know that someone believed him like that. For sure now, he knew that he could trust Hina and Sakura, right?

He knew-

Suddenly, the door opened, causing the two to look to-

“Oh, Makoto!”

The boy who initially passed by them to get to his room had opened the door, giving a small wave to them as he stood in the doorway.

“Hey, Hina,” he greeted her with a smile, before it slightly shrunk when looking towards him, “Hey, Leon.”

The baseball player gave a short nod, choosing to glance away after the fact.

“Sorry to barge in here like this if you guys were talking, but… Hina, could I borrow your time for a second?”

“Huh? Why?”

“I wanted to ask you some questions about yesterday, if I could.”

“Oh, uh… sure thing!” Hina agreed, turning back to Leon as she rose from her seat, “Sorry, but I’ll be right back, okay?”

“...Sure thing. No prob with me.”

And in a matter of seconds, Leon was left alone in the laundry room, listening to the washing machine working its damn best to try and salvage what was left of his jacket and shoe from a bloody fate. In all honesty, he was pretty curious as to why Makoto suddenly wanted to talk to Hina, but his mind was exhausted at this point and like Kyoko suggested, it was best to get some rest as much as he possibly could.

For that reason, Leon leaned forward and rested his head on his left forearm, closing his eyes…

…

…

…

...Wait..

Slowly, his head lifted up, a puzzled expression coating his features as he glanced around the room past the empty surface of the table.

...He didn’t know why, but…

...Why…

Why did he have this feeling that something was missing from this room…?

...And if so…

...Then what…?

…

…

…

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

…

…

…

Ding Dong, Bing Bong...

“Erm, so, ah... I'm getting tired of waiting, and waiting I shall do no longer! What say we just get started, hm? It's time for the long-awaited Class Trial! Now then, allow me to appoint a proper location for the proceedings. Please go through the red doors on the 1st floor of the school! Puhuhu. See you soon!”

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better...

 

....Puhuhuhuhuhu.....

Chapter 16: Ch 1: DeAdLy LiFe 5

Notes:

Upupupupupupupupupupupupupu....

Monokuma hadn’t even gotten close to a fourth of the way through its announcement for everyone to gather for the class trial when Leon unleashed the nastiest and grumpiest of all groans. Like, son of a bitch, dude! He knew there were times where he wanted to smash the crap outta his alarm clock when it woke him up early for school, but with everything going on? Having to no longer rest and open his eyes, thus moving again in pure agony?

Leon probably could’ve scared the likes of some demon or monster from the look that carved itself into his face when his head lifted off the comfortable forearm pillow. After all, Hina did a startled double take at him when she got up and looked at him.

Seriously, whoever took his key that prevented him from resting on his amazing bed… ooooohohohoahaha…. They were really gettin’ an earful from him later on.

Anyways...

The only silver lining about the whole thing was that his jacket and shoe had finished washing and drying, and they were ready to put on before the time limit ended, so he wouldn’t have to be humiliated more walking around with a damaged t-shirt and only one shoe. Unfortunately, this was a bittersweet victory; the blood didn’t entirely come out of both items. So while he appreciated that it was no longer a dark, oozily sickening color that made him more uncomfortable, you could clearly tell the sleeve and almost every part of the shoe that was white had a distinct shade of blood’s color added to it.

Damn it… Sure, he had extras, but it’s never cool to watch something you like to wear have to go in the trash like that, because that’s where they were going after whatever the class trial was…

Taking a gruff deep breath in, the former athlete forced himself to his feet, clamping his eyes shut to withstand the burning pain that once again gripped his nervous system. With her being as careful as she could, Hina helped him slip back on his shoe and funnel his arms through the jacket’s sleeves; she tried her best, he knew, but GAWD, THIS STILL FU-

O-Okay, MEGA IMPORTANT note to self; do not lift right arm above chest level. Maybe ribs, just to be safe.

His lungs pushed out a somewhat relieved sigh as he could feel the pain somewhat waning back to the levels of discomfort instead of pure suffering. All he did was to focus on his breathing and try to mentally prepare himself to move again while Hina took his Monokuma File and swiftly walked to the door of the room.

Her head turned around once she opened it and kept her voice to a quieter volume which prompted him to open his eyes, “...You ready to go?”

“....No,” he groaned out, scowling at the idea of being ready for anything that stupid bear had in mind, but made his way to exit the laundry room regardless.

As she stepped out of the way to let him go first, movement out of the corner of Leon’s eyes prompted him to focus his attention to the left. Approaching him was Kyoko, Mondo, and Sakura, who had left the crime scene and had just exited into the main plaza of the dorm area. By the time they noticed him and got closer, Hina finally closed the door and joined as well.

“Hina. I assume everything went okay for the most part?” Sakura greeted before asking and moving a bit closer to the two of them.

“Mhm, totally! I told you I got it,” Hina flashed a small grin to her before directing it to Leon, “We had a bit of a pep talk and now we’re all ready to go.”

Technically, he was when he knew he still had time to rest in the laundry room. Now that this Class Trial thingie was about to go down, his nerves only fueled the speed of how his heart raced.

“Good. Because we’re going to need you when the time comes,” Kyoko directed his attention off the swimmer to her, turning her head away the moment he looked at her to focus on moving forward towards the location of their destination, “Now let’s get going.”

With her passing and a grumbling Mondo following behind her after he shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants, Sakura moved around behind the injured ex-sports athlete to stand on his left side, meeting his eyes with a soft gaze.

“All right, we should begin to make our way over there. However, go at your own pace; even though you rested for a while, you can’t be too careful.”

He nodded, preparing himself mentally for the walk that would once again aggravate the fresh, tender slash wound.

“Ready when you are,” Hina gave an encouraging smile and nod, both girls turning around to walk alongside him.

Ehh, the thought was nice, but the PAIN…

Eventually, with slow but steady (and shaky) steps and sheer willpower, Leon’s feet were able to carry his feeble state of a body through the main plaza and back to the purple hallway with the two girls on either side of him being cautious of the possibility of him needing help. As much as this sucked hardcore, there seemed to be a bit of a comforting knowledge that it had gotten a tiny bit easier to walk; resting seemed to give a great deal of endurance to both his stamina and tolerance level.

But within time… he was there.

The three stopped in front of the double red doors, which lay at the end of the hallway where the light turned into a dull grey tone. The same double doors he tried to open before finding his way to the entrance hall on the very first day.

Who knew that the same doors he would be curious to check out alone… would be the same ones he doesn’t want to go anywhere near now. Especially since what was going to be behind the doors.

But… there was no turning back now.

He focused on catching his breath as Sakura moved forward and pulled open the doors. As she did that, upon his head rising up for his eyes to look, he was able to catch a glimpse of what was inside…

It was a grey-brick walled room with a black ceiling and, if he had to guess, old-fashioned looking white and gold lights hanging from it. This room also had a security camera and monitor where Monokuma would appear whenever it wanted to talk to everyone, but what really caught his eyes was something really out of place. At the opposite wall was a really super old-fashioned elevator with a metal gate. If he had to guess… they all were going to board it and either go down or up to the trial room.

Speaking of everyone, the other ten students were inside the room and had turned to look at the three entering.

“There you all are! I was beginning to worry about you being late,” Taka stepped forward, a relieved smile coming onto his face while placing his hands on his hips, “It’s good to see that even though he’s injured, Leon’s able to make his way here on his own.”

Before any kind of remark about how that comment rubbed him the wrong way could escape Leon’s mouth, a rather nervous, but smugly-confident giggle came out of Toko, who while not looking anywhere near his direction, sneered while hiding in the corner.

“H-Hmph. I bet you w-were afraid of being discovered for the m-murderer you are…”

Shut the fuck up, you asshole.

Those were the words that immediately popped into Leon’s mind and not gonna lie, they looked really enticing to say. But he held his breath. Not because he was still vainly trying to keep his cool guy image going even after everything that’s gone down, but because he was one of the two main suspects at the time, and that kind of huge defensive, angry outburst would only paint him in an even worse light. ...Well, that, and Toko instantly shrunk away with a terrified expression as he stared at her, which told him his expression alone and how intense it must’ve looked was able to shut her up, as if she could feel it like an aura of some kind. Friggin’ good. Because that smugness was actually legit pissing him off-

“Hold on… you can’t say he’s the murderer like that!”

Leon blinked, being overcome with surprise as he turned to look and hear Makoto of all people coming to his defense.

“We don’t know what happened yet; heck, we haven’t even started the class trial yet. This isn’t right…” the boy said to Toko, shaking his head and frowning.

A confused frown etched its way onto Hiro’s mouth as he tilted his head, “Well, I guess, but… why are you defending Leon? Like, you remember that you are the other main suspect besides him, yeah?”

The question seemed to create some kind of inner conflict within the kid, because his face lowered to the floor. What really hammered it in was the fact that it came off as difficult for him to reply back.

“Well, y-yeah… but…”

Leon glanced over at him. That response... Was the inability to refute what Hiro just said over the fact that he didn’t know the specifics of Sayaka’s murder and thus couldn’t yet? Or…

...or was it because deep down, Makoto really did suspect that Leon was her killer?

“Right now, we shouldn’t be pointing fingers and throwing blame at each other. As Makoto just stated, we haven’t begun the class trial yet,” Kyoko’s voice commanded the attention of the group, “We should wait for Monokuma’s instructions and when it tells us to begin discussing the case.”

“Well, now… I guess that’s my cue to show up and get things started off with a bang!”

Before anyone could even register the sudden introduction of Monokuma’s unwelcomed, cartoon voice, the bear had suddenly appeared within a split second in one of the corners of the room near the elevator where Chihiro and Hiro were standing. The moment the poor girl cried out in fear and backed up and the clairvoyant shrieked and flailed his arms wildly to escape, the entire room was filled with loud gasps and exclamations as they backed up, giving the small headmaster a bit of space.

“...What? I don’t smell, do I?” it blinked, before lifting an arm and smelling under its armpit.

“W-What- h-how did you get in here?!” Toko fearfully asked as it looked like she was trying to phase through the wall to escape.

Monokuma tilted its head, once again putting on a cutie-pie like expression.

“Oh, come now; that’s not really important at this time, is it? Is it a human thing to ask such pointless, unimportant questions during crucial situations? Because if so, then, ugh, glad I’m not one of you teenage creatures, engulfed in hormones and complex feelings. ...Bleh, I almost just threw up in my mouth saying that,” the bear seemed to retch near the end of its reply and cover its mouth, as if it was capable of vomiting, the little shit.

…It can’t actually vomit… can it…?

...Gawd. Leon clamped his eyes shut briefly with a disappointed look; he was actually questioning if robot bears can vomit. Man, he was doing a lot more worse than he thought-

“U-Umm, so, er…” Hifumi’s purely nervous tone dared to question while simultaneously shoving his fat fingers into his mouth in order to trim the nails down, “W-Why are you here exactly?”

The bear turned towards him and contently placed its little paws on its belly.

“Ahh, getting down to business, huh? I see, I see! You must be eager to get ready for the class trial; I know I sure am!”

Pretty sure NO ONE is but you, you stu-

...! H-Huh? What the… Is that... a plastic bag behind Monokuma-

“Well, ah, anyhoo…”

Briefly turning around, Leon’s suspicions were confirmed as when it turned around, the arms scooped up the handles of what was a white, non-logo plastic bag that definitely had something in it. With whatever the hell it came with now in its possession, the entire group became more alert when it started walking straight forward from the corner.

“I’m here specifically to discuss something kinda important before we start the trial.”

In a split second, the ex-baseball star’s mind suddenly brought up that biblical story where the guy split a sea in half, which let a large group of people cross it. Why, you might ask? Oh, because when Monokuma started getting closer, people began backing up on both sides and creating a path for it, making it look like it was dividing a sea of people right down the middle.

Okay… truth be told. If this had been any other kind of scenario, maybe… just maybe… he would’ve laughed and found it hysterical. But not like this. Not after everything that’s happened up to this point.

And not when the bear is making a beeline right towards him.

He wasn’t completely overtaken by it, but the same kind of panicking dread that made his entire being go cold that he experienced when Monokuma suddenly appeared close to him in the nurse’s office resurfaced and his jaw clamped shut, the lips trying desperately to put on a brave scowl. The situation capturing his full attention and staring as the small headmaster stopped a few feet from him made him oblivious to how on both sides of him, Hina and Sakura stepped a bit closer.

“And it’s about you, Mr. Baseball Boy.”

Not even any kind of distaste for being associated with that gawd awful sport came across his mind. Not when it was staring at him… Bruh, how the hell is a small dot of an eye so terrifying up close?

“Now, ah, ahem… the entire situation revolving around you is kind of a pickle, to be honest,” it confessed, scratching at its face while still keeping the bag in its grasp, “Because you see… even though you are injured, I’m afraid I cannot let you sit out of the class trial. Unless you were either dead or unconscious, you must participate.”

Of course he had to… Like, he was expecting to be forced to participate, so it wasn’t a case of being so utterly shocked or outraged, like he’d maybe feel when one of his teachers would suddenly throw out a pop quiz on him, but… it was still major crap that he had to-

“B-But…”

A weak, hesitant whimper of an objection made its presence known in the entire room, creating a multitude of eyes to cast their focus onto a timid Chihiro. Suddenly being put under a major spotlight made the poor girl hesitate greatly, her fingers fidgeting around her collarbone while glancing downwards. But despite the minor setback, she slowly regained the footing in her confidence to try again.

“Leon’s… he’s really hurt, and... You’re really gonna make him do this class trial?” she pleaded, her eyes shooting towards the one making them do this, “I-Isn’t there anything you can do to help him? Because...”

During her pause, Hifumi adjusted his glasses with a desire to understand as he faced her.

“M-Miss Fujisaki, for all we know, Mr. Kuwata could be Miss Maizono’s killer. Even if we did something to help his wound, once his crime is exposed… he’ll be executed, making it rather meaningless.”

Due to the situation at hand, it’s probably a good thing that the fanfic creator didn’t notice the ugly, threatening glare that caused Leon’s head to turn halfway through his words and direct its hateful anger towards him. Seriously, screw you, you fucking fat-

“S-Still…”

“Hold on there, little missy!”

Everyone glanced back towards Monokuma, who waved its paw towards Chihiro, “Before this gets way too out of control and off the rails, let me steer this back to what I need to take care of. After all, you didn’t let me finish.”

With that, the bear spinned back around to face the punk, bringing a little paw up to its mouth briefly.

“Ahem, now… back to what I was saying… Unfortunately, I can’t let you sit out from the trial. However…” it explained, gently swaying the bag to and fro while doing so, “Despite that, I’ve been watching you during the investigation time, Mr. Kuwata, and I’ve seen first hand how severe your condition has become. Knowing that, I am the headmaster of this school and regardless of whether there’s a murder or not, it’s my obligation as such to make sure that all of you have the necessities to continue living your communal lives here at peace. So, because I now have in my paws a student who’s badly hurt, it’s my duty to make sure that I can help you in any way I can!”

Yeah, right. It was probably because it didn’t want a death that didn’t have a mystery behind it, like Junko’s to where it got mad about…

It was only when it dug its paw into the white bag that Leon truly became curious as to what assistance the bear would give him. If it was being for real… at this point, despite everything, he’d take it. He was desperate.

“With that being said, I’ve got two things to help you to make the class trial more accommodating for you. And in this bag is the first!”

Leon blinked with an unsure, but hopeful frown, leaning a bit forward in curiosity while the bear seemingly rummaged through the bag. Like, what was the hold up for? If it’s just one thing, then-

!!!

“Ahh, wha-”

He was already suffering with how his right side was killing him, but a small, throbbing pain on the bridge of his nose that quickly turned numb caught him off guard completely. His eyes shutting for a brief minute while his left hand rubbed at the soreness, it was only when a small noise of something clattering to the ground that he opened them up and glanced down near his feet.

...And… Is that…

You’ve gotta be kidding him; did it really…

“...Did… Did you just throw a pill bottle at my face?” he managed to ask despite still recovering from the initial shock, glaring towards the bear.

Monokuma’s permanent smile had seemingly grown bigger, while raising a paw to poorly try to hide that fact. And now it was laughing.

“Yes. Upupupupu…”

…Oh, you son of a bitch…

...Judging from the fact that the amusement within the grin seemed to grow after that mental curse crossed his mind, either the look on his face was enough to convey how totally uncool that was or like he did multiple times already, he blurted out what he thought unconsciously. And y’know what? Good! Hopefully that little shit does get to hear how much of a massive pint-size, jerkwad pain in the ass it was; he didn’t care in this moment!

The mega annoyed fire in his eyes had simmered down and left Monokuma when out of the corner of his eye, Sakura moved to kneel down and pick up the bottle off the floor. He and the others watched her inspect the label of it closely.

“...This is pain medication; a rather high dosage specifically made for severe pain,” she read aloud, turning the bottle around and handing it to Kyoko, who had made her way over to look at it herself.

“Oh, that’s great, Leon! That should really help you big time!” Hina happily said, giving a smile of relief towards the baseball star.

Oh, it better do more than just help big time. But Leon wasn’t about to waste an opportunity like this. With a humorless chuckle of “Yeah, for real” mixed in with a disgusted scoff, he took a step closer towards the lilac-haired girl and began to stretch out his arm in order to ask for the bottle when Mondo’s growl of a voice paused his movements.

“Yo, are you even sure that’s even safe? I mean, you got that stuff from the damn bear; for all we know, it poisoned the shit out of those pills in order to kill you as another example, like how it murdered that blond chick back in the gym!”

………….

Leon’s mouth instantly downgraded into a betrayed scowl of frustration as his hand slowly lowered back to his side. Come on, was some gawddamn relief from this agony really gonna run away from him again-

“No, I don’t think we have to worry about that,” Kyoko shook her head.

“Ehh? Why not?”

“Because the bottle is factory sealed,” She presented the bottle, revealing that she had taken the cap off, and showed that like she said, the opening was sealed with an aluminum covering, “I highly doubt this bottle has been tampered with.”

That reasoning and the fact that only a frail aluminum seal stood between his way and those pills seemed to spur a moment of reckless abandon and desperation inside Leon. Without thinking about the consequences and being fueled by physical anguish, his left hand politely took hold of the bottle and non-violently ripped it out of Kyoko’s grip.

“Okay, awesome, can I actually get some so I don’t keel over and die already? Fucking hell…” he ranted in a hiss, smashing his left index finger into the seal two or three times before breaking through it.

Makoto gasped, stammering on his words as he took a step closer, “H-Hold on, Leon; you don’t even know how much of that you’re supposed to-”

Leon cut him off when he shook three pills out of the bottle and into his palm, shaking his head rapidly, “Dude, I don’t care; at this point, I’m in so much pain, I don’t even need water to swallow these.”

No one could react fast enough as his head went back, the goatee slightly brushing against his neck, as the left hand shoved the fat, but medium-sized white pills into his mouth and swallowed them in one dry gulp. The taste of nasty chalk-like flavor caused him to make a face as he lowered his head, hoping that soon these pills would kick in and help.

The moment he swallowed them, however, many of the group gasped in shock.

“Leon! W-What the heck?” Hina’s loud voice made its presence known in his left ear drum as it made it ring constantly, her grabbing his shoulder as she circled around him to face him.

Wow, she was not happy-

“What?”

“Don’t just go stuffing them in your mouth without reading the label!” she scolded him, placing her hands on her hips as she leaned closer to his face and made him do a double take, “You don’t even know how much you should be taking in the first place!”

“She’s absolutely right!” Taka joined, marching over to them and folding his arms while staring disapprovingly at the punk, “The last thing all of us need to worry about is a fellow student who is already injured having even medical problems by overdosing on medication!”

G-Gaah, he’s being double-teamed over this? And one of them is Mr. Perfect, no less; like, come the frig on already!

“Y-Yo, gimme a break; I’m legit in friggin’ agony, man! This is the first time I’m getting the help I need,” Leon loudly protested, not trying to show the pain his volume increase caused while glaring up at the ceiling after he turned his head away, “I mean, it’s not like I swallowed the whole damn bottle, anyway…”

Speaking of said bottle, the grip of his fingers on it vanished when Kyoko moved forward and gently took it from him. He and others watched as she inspected the back of it for briefly before addressing him.

“This medication says to only take one to two pills every eight hours, depending on the level of pain or discomfort. Taking three pills shouldn’t do anything truly harmful to your health… but considering this is a higher dosage of medication, I’d recommend not to take more than what it prescribes.”

“Exactly. In which case…”

Leon turned to watch Sakura be given the pill bottle from Kyoko. The muscular fighter turned to face him and continue where she paused.

“Perhaps it would be best if I held onto this for you. That way, you’re not tempted again to take more than two and put yourself in potential medical danger.”

U-Uhhh… o-oh, wow… t-those eyes…

Uhm… i-it’s really hard to argue when those serious, strong eyes stared down into your very soul and dared you to challenge them. Especially with the tone of that voice. Despite his desperate, stubborn reasons he used to defend himself with a few seconds ago, Leon’s iconic nervous smile overtook his face. He nodded while a subtle cold sweat broke out on his brow from the whole thing-

“Ohhh, boy, you guys started talking about overdoses and I got excited there for a moment!” Monokuma’s voice cut through, causing everyone to turn back to him, swaying back and forth in a daydreamy like fashion while both paws were on its cheeks, “Geez, you shouldn’t tease a bear with a good time like that~!”

Hate bears. Like, for real; hate them so gawddamn much-

“Anyways… Now you at least have something to help with your injury, so I better not ever hear you complain or whine about how I never did anything for you,” it said, pointing at Leon before turning to address everyone else, “Not only that, but get a load of how awesomely amazing your headmaster is! If all of you are able to find the blackened and survive the class trial, thus returning to your communal life here at the school, I’ll personally make sure that the nurse’s office is officially stocked with all the medicines, bandages, and first aid supplies that all of your hearts desire and bodies need, as well as replenish anything that runs out like I’m doing with the food in the kitchen! From then on out, the nurse’s office will be open and ready for whatever ails ya!”

Now, not being executed was the main motivation behind solving the murder of Sayaka, obviously. But hearing that the nurse’s office would be stocked and thus have more medication and bandages to help with his wound was like the thing that sweetened the pot of this whole ordeal. Leon sighed with temporary relief from the declaration as there were murmurs among the students over it all.

“Okay, so… if Leon getting some medication was the first thing you’re doing to help him, what’s the second thing?” Makoto asked, curiously frowning.

Monokuma began to crunch up the white bag he held into a small little ball while tilting its head at the lucky student, “Oh, it’s down in the class trial room, in which it’ll be very self-explanatory. Besides, I do believe I’ve taken enough of your remaining time! So with being said, my beloved students, the class trial will be starting very soon, so please sit tight while I skedaddle down to the trial room to greet you. Buh-bye for now!”

Within a flash, the pint-sized authority figure zoomed past anyone who stood in its way towards the double doors, somehow managed to jump and pull on the door handle to open them, and then rushed out of sight before both of them closed with a locking thud that rang out through the room. No one had enough time to either register it or glance at each other in confusion before the monitor near the elevator came to life with a blaring static noise. Soon, everyone watched the screen show the bear who had just left come on the screen.

“Puhuhu... Is everyone still here? Okay then... Please board the elevator in front of you, which will transport you to the courtroom… where all your fates will be decided. Puhu. I'll meet you all down there. I'll be waiting…”

Its grizzly instruction ended as soon as the monitor turned off. As soon as it did, Leon and a good portion of the group nearly jumped in shock when the metal gate in front of the elevator clunked and rattled, opening the entrance towards the elevator beyond it.

...T-This… This was it. This was really happening now…

The class trial… where people’s lives were going to be decided…

The realization stopped him in his tracks, leading him to stare at the elevator with such intensity. Honestly, if he wasn’t sweating profusely, then he was impressed by how his body was able to even fool him. And yet, despite this unwanted and unneeded hype that surged through his veins over what was about to happen, he made no advancements towards where he was supposed to go. Even when more than half of the group started to get on the elevator, he didn’t move. And that was when Hina and Sakura entered his vision, causing him to blink a few times before noticing them for real.

“...You ready?” the swimmer said quietly, her hands buried deep into her jacket’s pockets.

Just like he did when she asked him nearly the same thing in the laundry room, he wanted to give the answer of no, groaning it out like a complaint. But this time… this time, he had that kind of anxiety he occasionally had to fight. The kind that drove him nuts with how it took away his ability to speak. And Leon hated when he got so sca- err, nervous that he wasn’t able to function properly.

Yeah, because nervous is what he meant to say. I-It wasn’t that bad…

Pursing his lips to hide the fact that his teeth partially bit his bottom one, he nodded shortly and grunted through his nose to move his injured state towards the elevator. With him starting to go, the two girls slowly walked in front of them, the trio passing by Kyoko, who turned around to briefly say something to Makoto. A few pained, shuffled steps later, Leon had finally got onto the stupid thing, making himself content in one of the back corners with Sakura and Hina nearby. With the lilac-haired girl making her way onto it as well, all they waited for was-

“In Sayaka’s honor, I swear I’ll find out who the killer is!”

Makoto’s voice proclaimed a promise as the sound of footsteps signaled his approach and gave Leon enough time to turn his head away, so the kid wouldn’t see his expression full of guilt. He was only gonna be getting a heaping load of heartbreak once he learned the truth…

The moment he walked a few steps away from the gate and made his way into the middle of the room, the gate of the elevator closed with a clang, locking them into the point of no return. Within seconds, the contraption jiggled slightly and mechanical noises echoed throughout the space before the walls surrounding them all began to upward, letting everyone know that they had begun their descent into the depths of where the trial room was set up.

The entire time… no one dared to make a sound. Only the noise of their transportation descending made its presence known. No one could find the words to say…

That is until…

“I… I wonder if this is how a death row inmate feels when his time finally comes,” Makoto, despite his previous bold declaration, weakly admitted his curiosity as the sea of heads turned to glance over at him.

Yeah, because that’s the thing he really needs to let his mind consume him with. Thanks, Makoto…

“I would’ve said it is more like a defendant waiting to receive his judgement, but I can see what you mean,” Celeste replied, not being deterred from everyone staring at where she stood in one of the corners, “Especially with how cruel the outcome of this class trial will be. And I most certainly hope everyone is prepared for that.”

Mondo jerked his head up to that, raising an eyebrow, “Ehh? The hell are you talking about?”

Showing no signs of being disturbed from the harsh outburst, the lolita continued, “It’s quite simple, really. Based on the explanation that Monokuma has given us, there are two results that can take place; either we are able to reveal the blackened and they alone will be executed, or they manage to get away with the crime and everyone else is executed while they get to leave, correct?”

“Yeah, so?”

“Are you prepared for the outcome of the trial?”

The biker squinted his eyes alongside his confused sneer, shaking his head after a several second pause.

“Wha- the hell kinda bullshit question is that? Of course I am, because I ain’t dying in this God-forsaken place!”

“...Even though it will result in someone’s death…?”

The question instantly took a hold of the growing, raging determination in the larger teenager as the bravade he attempted to show sputtered out and he stared into calm red eyes.

“Huh…?”

“...Even in the best case scenario where we solve the murder and thus survive, the person who is the blackened will still be executed,” Celeste explained, her face resting on the back of fingers once they weaved together and gave her chin a place to sit, “But have you really considered the reality of what that means?”

Despite the clacking and clanging of the elevator, the absence of noise from everyone as she paused was… overwhelming. Leon never realized how silence could be so jarring and disturbing before this, and being real for a moment? He wished he didn’t have to realize that.

“Granted, whomever is the blackened did indeed murder someone…”

Now, as he stated previously, whenever Taka’s piercing red eyes stared into his direction, Leon was slightly disturbed; because come on, those intense pupils bearing down on him was like totally a mood killer and made him massively uncomfortable. And that’s just his eyes, man.

But when Celeste said that sentence and her red eyes slowly turned to give him a subtle glance… that was like a whole different kind of disturbing, y’know?

I-It’s not like she was royally pissed off or about to blow a gasket; he’s seen the eyes of people who look like that, like Kanon on one of her really really really bad days, and it’s not the same. But this girl’s eyes… it was so casual and calm, and yet… like an utterly dirty, accusatory look of complete distrust. How a face can be so neutral, yet the eyes so dark and scary was something he couldn’t, yet didn’t want to fathom. It made the skin on the back of his neck shiver and the pit of his gut drop, making him feel guilty when he damn well knew he was not the one who committed a crime.

It was clear as crystal she didn’t trust him.

...U-Ugh, where’d this lump in his throat come from?

“...And, if one wanted to argue the technicality, they also indirectly caused the death of another person…”

The gambler moved her eyes towards Makoto with the same brief glance and probably the same hidden malice-like suspicion. Really, he couldn’t say, but given the fact the kid’s shoulders tensed up ever-so-slightly and he let out a strained breath of timidness out his nostrils…?

He might not be far off with that assumption.

“...But despite their actions and the dire, horrid situation they’re forcing us to partake in, the blackened is someone here that we’ve spent a few days with already.”

Celeste’s words seemed to cause a ripple effect where everyone slowly began to look around at each other.

“I’m not sure if anyone can say they’ve already bonded enough with someone else to where they consider themselves to be friends, for I don’t know. But what I can say for sure is that we’re not total strangers to each other.”

“Of course,” Kyoko seemed to catch on to where the other girl was getting at, “We’ve gotten well acquainted with each other and have spent several days searching the school together.”

Celeste nodded, lowering her hands to hold them in front of her waist delicately.

“Exactly. For all any of you know, the blackened that we must find could be the person you searched with on the first day in order to find a way out of here. They could be the person you last had a conversation with. They very well may be the one person you feel like you can trust the most out of everyone,” she explained, glancing around the inhabitants of the elevator that still was in the process of descending, “So when I said that I hoped that everyone is prepared, that’s what I meant. Are you prepared for the fact that someone that you know here, that you’ve interacted with, or maybe even consider to be close to you… could be the one that murdered Sayaka?”

The troubled eyes of Leon dropped down to the floor, attempting to ignore the traces of the blood that was somewhat washed from his shoe and the pain that was still killing him. Pushing past the hope that the pills will work soon, the whole point that Celeste was trying to make loomed over his skull before being sucked into his brain and put on a looping repeat. Of freakin’ course he knew that someone was gonna die. Ever since Monokuma explained it, as much as he didn’t want to think about it, it was a horrible reality that would happen because like hell his life was gonna end like that. But… thinking back on it… on all the interactions he had so far… that someone here that he had talked to or did stuff with was a murderer that would be…

He shook his head, his head only realizing now that he was somehow sympathizing with someone who murdered Sayaka. Even though she had tried to kill him, but… Just...

Gawd, this whole thing... It sucks. It fuckin’ sucks.

“...She’s right.”

Huh…?

He looked up to see the rest of the group alongside him glanced at Kyoko nodding and folding her arms.

“It’s a cruel realization to know that someone here that we’ve spent time with is a killer. But we can’t show hesitation; we have to focus on finding out who that person is,” she said calmly, closing her eyes, “It’s the only way we can survive by following the rules of the class trial.”

“I see. Similar to what Celeste has said about how adaptability is survivability, yes?” Sakura pointed out, turning to the lolita who had given a brief smile.

“Precisely. Because the unfortunate truth is that by the end of this, someone here on this elevator is not getting back on,” she explained, her lips returning to a thin, unreadable line, “Whether it is the blackened or everyone else besides them… will be determined in this class trial.”

The horrendous reality and looming threat of death hung over the atmosphere of everyone aboard. The noises their transportation made echoed out…

...until it stopped.

“...!!”

Everyone’s heads immediately snapped to attention once the walls stopped moving and the way that they came in had its entrance slowly begin to open-

...O-ohhh, man…

Leon clamped his eyes shut as he began to hear the footsteps of the ones closer to the door move. A detestable sort of adrenaline, a familiar feeling to the one that surged through his body during the failed murder attempt on his life, lit his chest up in a cold fire upon knowing that this was it and he had to go into wherever this thing took him. With the majority of the group already out, it left him, Hina, and Sakura to be the last three to enter whatever the class trial room would look like. Despite his initial desire to put off the inevitable, the baseball star didn’t waste time to where the girls would have to quickly check on him again. He urged his tired and worn down body to move one last time as the trio exited the elevator…

...and stood with the group in a room that was nowhere near his expectations of how the place that would determine their fates would look- wait, what?

“...The hell…?”

The room looked somewhat luxurious, with its fancy walls designed in a rich shade of blue, orange and yellow columns that supported the design, expensive looking candlestick holders protruding out of the walls, and multiple openings throughout that were shielded by both a red and an orange curtain. The latter instantly made him cautious and gave him no desire to know what was behind it due to the circumstances of the fact someone would be executed by the end of this. The floor was checkered bright white and darkening black. Starting from underneath the curtains laid multiple red carpets that lead to the middle of the room and to something that captured his full attention.

A circle of wooden podiums connected to each other with a design that he could only think reminded him of a murder mystery video game he once saw one of his old friends back at LL Academy rave about and show him. The majority of these podiums were empty… but three had something in their position. Two of them on the left side seemed to have a stand with a picture frame standing where one would be able to, separated only by a single empty seat. And on the right a few spots away, there was a vacant chair. And lastly, on the opposite side of the room, lay this interesting golden-brown chair with red cushioning that had several small steps underneath it for someone to be able to climb up and sit in it. If Leon had to take a guess, it probably was like a judge’s seat, but a part of him couldn’t help but feel it acted like more of a throne than anything else.

And sitting in that specific, large throne-like chair was…

“Noyohoho! You’ve finally arrived! Good timing, too, because I was starting to worry if the elevator got stuck with you all inside and that’s a whole can of worms I’d rather not have to deal with right now, especially when we have this exciting class trial to do!” Monokuma thrusted its body forward with momentum, allowing its little legs to stand on the cushioned seat and wave them all of them from across the room, “So what do you think, huh? Doesn’t it have the atmosphere of a real courtroom? Almost like a Hollywood movie set type of deal, right!?”

Like an unstoppable twenty-foot boulder rolling down a figurative hill towards a house, the grumpy snarly of Mondo smashed through the bear’s proud excitement to show off its handiwork.

“Not even close. It’s total shit.”

Leon would’ve started to snicker if not for everything going on right now.

But the biker seemed to at least rain on Monokuma’s parade enough for the bear to drop its arm and slouch.

“G-Gah… Of course, Pompadour Man has to ruin all my fun again; someone clearly doesn’t love his headmaster, regardless of all I’ve done for him and everyone else… Oh well. Anyways, Mr. Kuwata, if you please!”

The abrupt chance of disposition when the bear immediately stood up caught him off guard so fast, he didn’t register at first that the bear had specifically called him out. A few seconds is all it took for him to catch on to it pointing towards the middle where all the podiums were. It didn’t take long to also connect the dots that it was referring to the vacant chair.

“There’s the second thing I told you about; now you can sit and rest to your heart’s desire while you and everyone else attempt to find out the truth behind this murder case!” Monokuma said, before suddenly clapping repeatedly in an impatient manner, “Okay okay, all the boring crap is done! Now hurry and move your buttocks to your designated seats! I refuse to wait any longer now!!”

The loud, booming command spurred the group to life as they cautiously moved closer to the circle of podiums and began to check which empty spot was theirs. Leon grimaced, hating the fact that he had to move again, but with his chance at sweet relief being only several feet away, he managed to press on for just a little while longer before finally reaching the seat. Only when his butt plopped into it and his arms were able to rest on the podium above the small gold plaque that said “L. Kuwata” on it did he realize how… um… how not exactly comforting this whole thing was.

And it boiled down to four things mainly.

One: the seat was a normal wooden chair that had no soft cushioning or padding; even the chair in the laundry room was more comfortable than this. N-Not that he was complainin’ or anything, but… damn, his ass is gonna be feeling this if he has to sit here for a long time.

Two: upon sitting down and watching everyone get to their spots, he realized how it was set up so that everyone could see everyone else. Which also meant it'd be easy for anyone to transfer their tension and unease onto anyone else. There’d be no way to hide any nervous or frustrated expressions when everyone could look at you. The air seemed to grow heavy as everyone got to their designated areas.

Three: ...why the hell did he have to be so unlucky with his placement in the circle?

Like for God’s sake, the moment he sat down, he automatically hated where he was positioned. Why? Because upon resting in his seat and watching everyone else, the two people on his immediate sides had him on high alert. On his right was Celeste, who while standing elegantly and her eyes closed and expression emotionless like an antique doll, had clearly made her feelings known back in the elevator with that glare. And if that tension wasn’t bad enough, the skittish, trembling form of Toko took the spot on his immediate left with her back completely turned to him. And on her other side, was the undeniable large balloon-esque body of Hifumi that fidgeted with his glasses.

For real, of ALL the places he could’ve been, he gets stuck on the part where he’s essentially in the middle of his three “biggest fans”. Almost like a small animal of prey being shoved into a den of lions. It didn’t even make him remotely relieved that he could at least see both Hina and Sakura, because they were on the other side of this stupid abomination from whatever demonic carpenter made this.

But for the fourth reason… that was the one that really made him super uneasy.

Upon sitting down, Leon realized that he was able to see what exactly were on the portraits. And the sight was enough to make him gasp under his breath.

There in the frames were head shot pictures of both Sayaka and Junko. The color had been removed, leaving each to be a dull representation with multiple shades of grey filling it in. A distinct red, messy ‘X’ was slashed through their faces, ending at each corner of the portrait.

...It was horrible enough to sit in this class trial where they had to figure out who killed the girl that tried to kill him first and now here he was, an actual suspect in something that wasn’t his fault in the first place. But now he’s got that picture facing him where it’s like her eyes are baring into his soul... judging and blaming him for… what happened to her…

“I’m psychic. Just kidding! I just have really good intuition.”

“Oh, you’re such a tease! Keep saying those nice things, and I might just fall for you!”

……………

Leon shook his head and tried to push out the voices of the two deceased students echoing in his mind. His left hand rubbed at his eyes before doing his best to ignore the gaze from the pictures.

It was at that time everyone had finally gotten to their seats. Starting from him and going clockwise around the podiums went the following: Toko, Hifumi, Makoto, the portrait of Sayaka, Taka, the portrait of Junko, Sakura, Kyoko, Mondo, Hina, an empty seat, Hiro, Chihiro, Byakuya, and Celeste.

And with that, Monokuma cleared his throat.

“Okey-dokey! Let’s begin with a basic explanation of the class trial. So, your votes will determine the results,” it said, continuing as the group of students glance amongst themselves with a tense sense of admittance to the fact that there was no turning back now, “If you can figure out ‘whodunnit’, then only they will receive punishment and the rest of you will go back to living your peaceful communal lives. But if you pick the wrong person… I’ll punish everyone besides the blackened, and that person will earn the right to graduate and leave the school!”

“And the killer…”

Leon glanced over to Makoto’s, whose voice was filled with pain for a brief second as he was glancing at the picture of Sayaka. His visage rebuilt itself within a millisecond as he glanced back towards the amused bear with a serious look.

“...The killer really is one of us, right?”

“Of course~!”

“Very well then!”

Taka’s booming voice captured everyone’s attention, as he folded his arms tightly to his chest in a confident manner.

“Everyone close your eyes, and whoever did it, raise your hand!”

………………………………………………………………….What?

As if to look into the Heavens and ask why on earth he had to get stuck with the hall monitor-esque guy, Mondo shook his head while rolling his eyes at the ceiling before lurching forward to glance at him across the two girls.

“Don’t be a gawddamn idiot,” he snapped at Taka, his hands pressing against the podium for support, “The killer’s gonna die if we figure out who they are, so why the hell would they raise their hand?”

The way Taka turned his head to meet his eyes, it seemed that another quarrel between them like Leon had seen them do on the first day was about to burst when…

“Before we move on and start the trial…”

The two broke eye contact when Kyoko interrupted, relaxing their postures as she continued, “There’s two things that I would like to address, if that’s okay?”

Hiro blinked, “Huh? What are they?”

“Well, the first is actually a question for Monokuma.”

“Ohhh?” the bear perked up, placing its paws on its cheeks, “You have a question for little ol’ me?”

“Yes. Specifically…”

The girl with the unknown talent trailed over when she raised a gloved hand to point at the portraits, something that Leon chose to avoid looking at once he realized it.

“What’s going on with… those pictures?” she asked, her eyes moving her head back towards the bear for an explanation.

Monokuma placed a paw on its chest.

“Oh, that’s easy to explain. I’d feel so awful if Sayaka and Junko were left out of the class trial just because they died. Because for me, I personally believe that friendship penetrates even death’s barrier!”

Hifumi’s voice came from Leon’s left with a huge amount of hesitation and an emotion that he really didn’t want to describe.

“F-Friendship… penetrates?”

Oh, come on, dude…!

Seriously, that guy’s not only getting on his nerves, but he’s so fuckin’ disgusting-

“Ahh, Kyoko, if I may briefly for just a second, please?”

Celeste’s voice disrupted his thoughts as he looked up to see the lolita ask for a pardon; with Kyoko nodding, the girl slightly bowed her head as a ‘thank you’ and turned her attention towards the bear.

“Okay, but if that is the case, then what about that other empty seat?” her words grasped the group to turn now to the vacant space in between Hiro and Hina, “There were only fifteen of us to begin with, so why are there sixteen seats?”

“Oh, no specific reason,” Monokuma answered, waving a paw to signal that it was no big deal, “It’s just that our little courtroom can technically fit up to sixteen people. There’s no need to look into it that much.”

With the inquiry answered, Taka turned to look at Kyoko, “All right, that was the first thing you had; what is the second?”

“Actually, before she gets to that,” the voice of Byakuya, who had not spoken since leaving the gym to investigate, commanded the full focus of everybody as he glanced away with an aloof gaze, “I have a question of my own that I’d like to ask Monokuma.”

The guy didn’t even bother to check whether or not it was okay to figuratively cut in line when he turned his waist ever so slightly to get a better view of where the small figure sat.

“You’ve explained the details of both results of a class trial clearly enough, but… what happens if the blackened is dead before the trial starts?”

H-Huh...??

“Unfortunately, that means that there’s no blackened to punish! A shame, that, since you all won’t get to witness an execution by yours truly. However, you all will still face execution if you get it wrong, which means that everyone will have died, and thus the communal life of Hope’s Peak Academy will come to an... unfortunate close,” the bear explained, it sounding like it had the widest grin on its face at the end of its words.

“Byakuya… what do you mean by ‘if the blackened is dead’?” Makoto asked, leaning over his podium slightly out of curiosity.

“Exactly what it means,” the blond-haired boy retorted with, raising his nose at him, “I’m simply making sure what the outcome would be if the person we’re looking for happens to be dead by the time of the trial, with the most current example being Junko.”

Leon widened his eyes, looking past Celeste at him. Then… does that mean…

“Are you saying… you think Junko did it?” Chihiro breathed out surprisedly, finishing Leon’s thought.

Hifumi jerked back violently, gaping in utter horror at the progeny, “M-Miss Enoshima?? But she was killed by Monokuma for violating the school regulations-”

Byakuya cut him off with an icy look of utter disgust.

“And? Yes, we all saw it. However, she was alive after Sayaka had been murdered; for all we know, she could’ve been the one behind her death and her angry refusal to participate in the trial could be due to not wanting her crime exposed,” he said, before turning to give Chihiro a glance that was about only as long as a half-a-second and addressing her question, “And no, I’m not stating what I personally feel. All I’m doing is getting clarification on something I want to know and explaining a possibility on who it could be.”

There was a silence that lasted several seconds from everyone processing what he had said and taking it in. Not even Leon could really deny how that seemed to be plausible. After all, he could understand being pissed on having to participate in something like this. But the way Junko got so angry like that… taking Byakuya’s words into consideration? It did seem to make a lot of sense…

Before any significant time had passed, everyone heard Hina speak.

“Okay, so, uh… Kyoko, what was your second thing?”

Pairs of eyes went back towards the lilac-haired girl, who had patiently waited to continue with her arms folded. Once the control had been given back to her, she nodded and began to address everyone.

“...I understand that as of right now, there appears to be a lot of evidence that points to two specific people: Makoto and Leon. And I also am aware that many of you have made your opinions known on whether or not you trust either of them,” Kyoko explained, “But the fact of the matter is that we only get one shot at figuring out this case and we need to be logical here. If we go into this trial refusing to believe that someone other than Makoto or Leon is the killer, and it turns out that it’s someone else when all is said and done, it’s over for all of us. After all, like Byakuya just stated... there could be other possibilities.”

The group seemed to glance around at each other, uneasy about how their preconceived beliefs of both of the two main suspects could be wrong with so much evidence pointing at them. But none seemed to really argue against the truth she said.

“...Alright then, what exactly do ya want us to do, then?” Mondo asked, rubbing the back of his neck as he offered to cooperate.

“I want all of us to go into this trial from a neutral stance for this case; instead of focusing and seizing on one viewpoint, the truth will be uncovered by analyzing things from every angle,” Kyoko replied, “I also think it’d be beneficial to refrain from throwing baseless accusations at both Makoto and Leon… but mainly towards Leon as his case is different.”

Ignoring the small gasps and murmurs from the other students who were just as surprised, the punk raised his head and widened his eyes at her. She happened to notice and gave him a short glance before looking away.

“Kyoko…?” Makoto raised an eyebrow, looking towards her with his head slightly tilted as she explained.

“Like I said to him back at the crime scene, based on what he’s admitted to so far, I believe Leon will have many of the answers we need to figure out this mystery. But even though he’s been able to take some medication, he’s still in a very weakened state. We can’t afford to lose what information he has about Sayaka if he pushes himself too hard and passes out on us. It could be the very thing we need to solve this case.”

Hiro placed his hands on his hips, a surprised look overtaking his face.

“You really believe that?”

Kyoko gave a short nod.

“...If that’s the case…”

For the moment, Leon didn’t care about everyone staring at him as he leaned forward, grunting a bit from the discomfort of his wound. His left arm rested on the podium with his face slowly pressing against it like a makeshift pillow.

“...I’m gonna just rest a bit more and stuff, y’know? Just… tell me when you need me to give my testimony or whatever, so I can prove I’m innocent,” he groaned, glancing up briefly to look around the room.

When he made eye contact with Hina and Sakura, each girl gave him a small nod. With that, he closed his eyes and tried to get comfortable with what he could make do with-

“Very well! Everyone, listen up! Please refrain from disturbing Leon until we absolutely need him to participate in this trial!” Taka’s booming declaration made him flinch, his voice groaning hard against the back of his throat.

Now if he could find the mute button on that guy…

“Okay! I think that about does it for the preamble; get ready to get started,” Monokuma excitedly cheered from what he could hear, its voice trying to stay composed yet clearly showing how happy the anticipated event was finally under way, “First up is the case summary. Now, let the class trial… begin!”

==================

DeAdLy LiFe: EnD

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better...

 

....Puhuhuhuhuhu.....

Chapter 17: Ch 1: CLASS TRIAL 1

Notes:

Upupupupupupupupupupupupupu....

CLASS TRIAL: START

====================

Not gonna bullshit here; he honestly was disturbed at how scarily similar this felt when he tried to take a nap during class or detention. Just constantly hearing voices insistently going on and on at such an aggravatingly loud tone while simultaneously having to make sure he was awake and ready to open his eyes and lift his head up should the attention be brought up to him and the teacher or detention overseer noticed his subtle attempt to rest. Gawd, even the freakin’ chair and podium-like thing felt just as comfortable as the desks back at his old school. And by that, he meant not much.

Of course, when in either class or detention, he wasn’t suffering from the fact that a beloved national celebrity whose music he loved betrayed his trust and attempted to do him in, or how said celebrity managed to cut through the right side of his torso to where someone had to turn him into a living sewing project as if he was a cross-stitched human pillow in order to keep him alive, or especially how while waiting for high dosage medication to kick in to save him from this hellish nightmare, he now had to deal with who knows how many people of everyone he’s trapped with in a killing game condemning him as the celebrity’s murderer.

At least school and detention don’t really have that kind of extra baggage, right?

Tch…

And now here he was, slouched in the most uncomfortable chair to where his ass is practically sitting on the very tip of the seat in order to rest against the podium, because the chair legs were too wide to scoot up closer. Speaking of which, it was kind of a stretch to say he was resting in the first place.

Why, you may ask?

Because first off, he’s only able to rest his face on one arm, due to the fact that he has to keep the right arm against his injury and constantly maintain the tense muscles within the balance from pressing too hard or not pressing into it enough. This leaves just his left arm to rest his face in, which ultra sucks, due to how uncomfortable it is and how he has to constantly adjust how he’s resting his face on it, as it’s crushing both his arm and nose. And of course, with everyone randomly talking or shouting all at once or one after another… just…

My gawd, this was the worst attempt at trying to nap he’s ever attempted.

And he can’t even really nap in the first place, because he has to somewhat pay attention in order to follow along-

“Okay, wait, hold on.”

At that completely random moment, his hearing decided to fully turn on and force him to register the words of Makoto as clear as daylight. Groaning towards the realization that it would be highly difficult to go back to resting, the punk lifted his head, squinting his eyes at how bright this wacked-out excuse for a courtroom suddenly felt, and glanced over towards the kid, who was motioning everyone to stop.

“I didn’t take the knife from the kitchen,” he said firmly, shaking his head slightly to affirm his point.

What came next sounded like the most disgusted scoff that somehow swirled into the nastiest attempt to clear out a throat with a shitload of phlegm in it, resulting in an abomination of a noise that even would cause the most hellish creatures to have their skin crawl. And of course, it came from Toko, whose back was still fully turned to him. But frankly, he was thankful, because he wasn’t even sure he wanted to see the face that made that disgusting audible nightmare.

“Next y-you’re gonna say you’re not the k-killer and L-Leon is, right?” she spat out venomously at him, “Go ahead and say all y-you want…!”

“Well, what if I have a witness that can prove I’m telling the truth?” Makoto revealing his backup against the accusation had various hushed mutters and gasps from within the circle appear, including a confused grunt from Leon himself, as he turned his attention to the person he was referring to, “After all, you can back me up on this, right, Hina?”

Hina…?

His brow furrowed, Leon joined everyone else and brought their attention over towards the swimmer, who blinked in shock and pointed at herself.

“H-Huh? Me?”

“Yeah. Remember what you talked about with me outside of the laundry room?” Makoto confirmed, trying to apparently jog her memory.

...Well, that explained why he asked if she could come outside for a second back then…

…

...No. Not just that.

His exhausted mind was able to recall back to when he woke both her and Sakura up and was able to get out of the hallway. When he was telling them what happened between him and Sayaka as Sakura was getting ready to stitch his wound shut, that’s when Hina…

/\/\/\/\/\

“A knife… !!!”

Hina’s eyes shrank and she whirled to look at the other girl.

“S-Sakura… You don’t think… When we were in the dining hall then, that-”

/\/\/\/\/\

Even though she was interrupted by Sakura at that moment, Hina had already confirmed a huge fact: sometime when both girls were in the dining hall, Sayaka had come in and taken the kitchen knife that she’d attempt to use to kill him with. And going by the fact that yesterday was when those videos were given out, he didn’t think it was too bad of an assumption to believe this happened yesterday at some point before nighttime. Which means that she was able to slip out a murder weapon under both their noses, and so easily at that. Which… that was really friggin’ disturbing, man. Just how easy that was…

“Just to be perfectly clear, the knife disappeared while you were in the dining hall, correct?” Makoto’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts, signaling that he had missed a recap of what he was guessing happened.

But Hina nodded, confirming his assumption.

“Y-Yeah, that’s right…”

“And at any point while you were there,” the young man asked, his voice almost sounding like a lawyer cross-examining a witness, which really was ironic to Leon to be like that in this courtroom and yet so weird to hear this from a teenage kid, “did you ever see me come into the dining hall?”

The girl hesitantly started to shake her head with a frown.

“Um… No, I don’t think so…”

“You don’t ‘think’ so?”

She flinched at the harshly judgemental echo of her statement by Byakuya, who sneered at her for using those choice of words. Like… geesume, dude, no need to be a dick about it-

But soon enough, Hina overcame her initial reaction and hardened her features into a serious expression. Her head shaking no with more confidence, her hands adjusted the collar of her jacket.

“...No, I’m positive. He definitely wasn’t there!”

“The knife disappeared while Hina was in the dining hall. But I wasn’t there the entire time,” Makoto continued after her verification, bringing a determined hand towards his chest to gesture at himself as he looked around at everyone, “In other words, there’s no way I could’ve taken the knife!”

Leon let his eyes wander in his direction for a split moment before making sure he didn’t catch him doing so. It wasn’t at all surprising to him. In fact, he’s pretty sure besides Hina and maybe Sakura, he’s the only one that statement doesn’t catch off guard. Because after all, if the entire thing is Sayaka’s fault (and it is, make no damn doubt about it)... then she’s the one who got the knife-

“Oh, and while we’re on that, Leon also is innocent like Makoto is!” Hina piped up almost instantaneously, surprising a good majority of the students in the circle.

Especially Makoto, who suddenly had his steadfast fire burn out of his eyes and falter. He looked back towards her with curious shock.

“H-Huh? Really?”

“And why might that be true, Miss Asahina…?” Hifumi adjusted his glasses, leaning over his podium to the point where his extra rotund figure could’ve engulfed it with how it seemed to nearly swallow the wooden frame in front of him.

Okay, mental note; try not to look at that dude’s body if he can help it. Leon might actually just gag at the thought of what he just witnessed and how disgusting it was.

“Because he didn’t show up to the dining hall while I was there, either,” the swimmer confidently defended him, looking over at him with a nod and subtle, reassuring smile on her lips, “Which means he couldn’t have taken the knife out of the kitchen.”

The feeling of someone having his back during this whole thing was hella appreciated, he wasn’t gonna bullshit. That simple gesture brought the urge of a smile of his own to come out, its existence tugging at the corners of his mouth-

“Tch… A-And we’re supposed to just b-believe you like that?”

And in a flash, it was replaced with a hesitant, but fed up scowl as he glared at the back of the one who instantly clashed with Hina’s testimony. Of course, it was probably the biggest person against him besides the giant balloon man; miss nervousness herself. And seeing as her head was turned to the left, she wasn’t even able to bring herself to look her in the eye while arguing against her words. For someone who was willing to throw accusations out so strongly, she couldn’t take function with people potentially arguing with her, could she?

Then again, she always looked like she would die any moment if someone even got within less than a foot near her from the very beginning, so…

“H-Huh?” Hina jerked a bit at the sudden remark.

“F-For all we know, y-you could be lying about everything just now…!” Toko hissed, shakily moving her head back towards the circle for what Leon guessed was to glare daggers at Hina.

Surprisingly, it was Chihiro of all people to question her aggressiveness.

“But… is there any reason for Hina to lie to us…?” she asked, seemingly like she was mentally debating whether or not she could look at the shaking girl while asking that.

Toko glanced away to the left away from the circle again.

“Well, h-have you considered this possibility? What if the i-idiot swimmer girl is i-in on it with either Makoto or Leon, a-and she’s lying with one of them to protect each other? Or even m-maybe the three of them are working tog-”

BAM.

Honestly, he expected Toko to try and argue against the notion that he was innocent whenever she had the chance. He could literally feel how much she detested Kyoko telling them all to go into this with a neutral view when she was so dead set on blaming him or Makoto for it. And yet, when he started hearing Toko propose the idea that he, Makoto, and Hina were all in on it, he started to lift his head up and turn to her, ready to tear her a new one.

That was… until Hina slammed both hands down violently against her podium, not only causing everyone’s attention to be brought back to her, but to shut up Toko and have her flinch so visibly hard to where she scrunched her shoulders up to where they could’ve risen higher than her head.

“Seriously! Stop calling me ‘idiot swimmer girl’!! Gosh!” she shouted, leaning over her podium as her eyes bore deep into the other girl, causing her to violently shake in fear even more.

The tense silence made the seconds seem like minutes as Hina slowly straightened her posture while maintaining her offended glare. Well, that was the case, until the gears in her brain must’ve registered the other part of what Toko said, because she blinked and it was like the dawning of realization washed over her face there.

“...Oh, and more importantly,” she said just as loud, clenching a hand into a fist as she nearly leaned again over the podium, “Why would I get involved in something like that!?”

“Speaking of which…”

Everyone glanced over to Byakuya, who was already looking towards Monokuma with his arms still over his chest.

“Since this has been brought up, I’d like to ask the bear… If there is an accomplice in the murder, do they also become ‘blackened’?”

“So you ask, and so I shall answer!” Monokuma happily obliged, sitting up eagerly as it got itself invested into the conversation, “Each murder is allowed to have accomplices, but only the one who does the killing will get to graduate.”

“So, in other words,” Kyoko spoke aloud, resting a gloved index finger under her bottom lip, “Two or more people can work together, but only one of them has a chance of profiting from it...”

Shifting uncomfortably from being unsure, Mondo stuffed his hands into his pockets and glanced at her from the corners of his eyes.

“Then there’s no way anyone would work together, right…?”

“But… What if they did work together, and just didn’t know about the rule?” Chihiro frowned and proposed a potential possibility.

“If that’s the case, shouldn’t the accomplice be speaking up by now?” Taka answered before briefly looking around the circle at everyone else, “After all, if there’s no benefit to helping the killer commit their crime, then-”

“Uuuuuuugh, good grief!!”

A long shrill of an overexaggerated groan was enough to silence the entire courtroom as the once overly-excited Headmaster sitting in its custom throne-looking chair instantly popped to its feet with great annoyance. Everyone turned to look at it violently raking its paws up and down its head.

“What’s the point of asking me a freakin’ question if you’re just gonna doubt me and start debating over it!? Just enough already!! No, okay!? There are no accomplices in this case!!”

……...

It was like one could hear a pin drop with how the entire classroom just went dead silent after any chance of an echo from how loudly their tormentor roared had faded into nonexistence.

“...W-Well, uh… I guess we can say for certain that there’s no accomplice whatsoever in this case then…” Hifumi spoke as if he was treading on thin ice, adjusting his glasses while gripping the strap of the backpack he wore.

The small dot of an eye on Monokuma’s face blinked before it dramatically flinched in such a motion that its tiny head and body made contact against the back of its throne. The resounding bang that it caused forced the entire classroom to halt any attempt the fanfic creator had for pushing the conversation along as all eyes remained on the small creature slowly sliding down onto its rear and groaning.

“Oops… Did I say that out loud...?” it tried to laugh it off playfully, but the barely audible follow-up wincing of “S-Shit, that hurt” gave it away.

Again, if it had not been for current circumstances, Leon would’ve been on the floor laughing his ass off most likely.

Especially since he swore to God that he heard Mondo across the room growl under his breath something along the lines of “Fuckin’ dumbass; I hope that fried its circuits or something.”

“Anyway…”

The entire courtroom turned back to Makoto as he raised his voice subtly.

“I didn’t go to the dining hall, and I didn’t take the knife,” he restated his defense, moving his hand towards himself to emphasize his point, “So I’m not the killer!”

Upon hearing that statement, it’s not to say that he necessarily felt a wave of fear or dread overtake him to hear the other main suspect of Sayaka’s murder successfully explain his innocence. It would be more of an accurate thing to say that he wanted to avoid anybody (more specifically Hifumi or Toko) to immediately turn their attention to him and ignore Kyoko’s request by pointing the finger to him. With that, he slowly raised his left arm, catching everybody’s attention with his movement.

“Yeah, uh… If that’s the case, then I’m also not the killer either, alright? Because the same goes for me, y’know.”

“Ahh, Leon! I see that you are still awake and with us! Splendid to know!” Taka gave a cheerful smile, nodding with approval as those giant red eyes once again bore into him.

G-gawd, even when he was across the room from him, if he looked at those eyes and eyebrows of his…

“Well, I mean, I gotta be awake, don’t I? For my testimony and all that, so I can’t fall asleep...”

“But are those pills working? Like, are you feeling any better?” Hina asked with a concerned expression.

Well… um, he didn’t… know…?

Like, yeah, he was still in pain, so it’s not like the magical, instant release of the agony ebbing away from his body had now commenced and he was ready to just jump out of his chair and help find who the killer was. And considering he was dealing with it for a while now, that meant quite possibly that his body somehow, someway was building a tolerance to the extremely tender and fresh wound. However, he didn’t think that was necessarily true, because how in the hell does someone build a tolerance to a gruesome injury that they get from a failed murder attempt-

Leon pursed his lips before furrowing his eyebrows.

“...Uh, I can’t really tell right now? I only took that stuff a short while ago...”

His shoulders gave the safest shrug he could as to not agitate his condition. The answer didn’t seem to make Hina seem any more relieved, but what was he supposed to say? Lie to her while he’s somewhat dying over on the other side of this giant podium circle structure?

“Yeah… that’s understandable.”

He blinked when he realized that out of everyone, it was Makoto addressing him in a concerned manner. Turning his head towards his direction allowed him to see the boy attempting a small ghost of a smile while nodding to him.

“But even so, let’s hope that the medication kicks in soon, so you’re not hurting so much.”

And that left Leon only becoming even more confused than he was initially hearing him speak.

See, that… what the kid did would be normally seen as a very thoughtful gesture. Would be. But ignoring the fact that he was the other main murder suspect besides himself, Leon found himself unable to find some kind of response or acknowledgement to that. Like, dude, you seemed to act so suspicious of him back at your room, or at least, you came off like it. Not to mention your mood even dipped down when addressing him compared to Hina when he saw them in the laundry room. Now you’re trying to be all ‘get better soon’ on him and legit be worried for his sake, like, huh? So which was it? Was he really worried about him, or was this some kind of ruse to get him to drop his guard and ‘expose some lie’ he could find in order to find out who killed Sayaka?

It… I-It’s not like he wanted to blame the kid or think badly of him, especially since he really thought he was cool based on their first introductions… but…

Luckily, Leon didn’t have to think about it any further or come up with some kind of reply to him.

“All right! Enough idle chit-chat! We can’t afford to get sidetracked for too long,” Taka enunciated loudly and clutched his first tightly in front of him, “Let’s refocus back to the discussion of the murder weapon. We’ve established that neither Makoto or Leon could’ve possibly taken it from the kitchen.”

“Okay, so… who did take the knife, then?” Chihiro meekly asked.

The movement of Celeste leaning forward brought everyone’s focus on her focusing her gaze on a specific someone.

“Surely Hina would be the next obvious candidate, yes?” she singled the swimmer out and didn’t break eye contact with her, even when she visibly flinched, “After all, she just admitted she was in the dining hall…”

Wait, what?

With a hint of worry, Leon instantly glanced up at Celeste before turning his head to look at Hina, who began shaking her head. No no, she wasn’t the one they were looking for; the conversation was starting to go in the wrong direction!

“N-No, no way! I swear it wasn’t me!” the swimmer pleaded, becoming distressed as she broke eye contact with the gambler and looked around at everyone to hopefully convince them of her innocence.

A smug scoff came from Leon’s left side, and his face soured knowing who it was.

“Sure… but can you or anyone else actually prove that?” Hifumi cockily asked, pointing an amused, accusatory finger at her.

Seriously, this motherfucker is starting to annoy the piss out of him to an extent where he may be comparable to Taka-

“I can.”

And just like that, all that overconfident bravado had been shattered into pieces as Hifumi heard Sakura answer. He wasn’t entirely able to see him, but he could only picture the kind of defeated and embarrassed face he had as the arm slowly lowered back down. Heh, serves him right, you friggin’ hamster-faced walking balloon-

“That’s right! Sakura was with me the entire time in the dining hall while I was drinking my tea,” Hina said, sighing briefly before regaining her composure.

“Uuumm…”

Everybody turned to look at a very anxious Hiro rubbing at his right wrist.

“I, uh… I don’t wanna be that guy or anything, but, uh… J-Just to be sure... W-When you say ‘Sakura’, you mean…”

“Me,” the muscular girl in question answered with a nod.

And… damn, dude! He knew that Sakura had talked about him being really uncomfortable when she was near him and sucking at being discreet before, but talk about being so blatantly obvious, man!

Hiro couldn’t even seem to handle her looking in his general direction. Like, we’re talking given the way he brought his hands up instantly in mock surrender, the beads of visible sweat, and his eyes darting all over the place to look at anywhere but her? A total vibe of how he wanted to cower under his podium to avoid her sight. Leon secretly hoped he wasn’t that bad when he initially was disturbed being near Sakura…

“R-Right… B-But, uh… couldn’t e-either one of them had grabbed the knife if t-that’s true?” he stuttered awfully, closing his eyes fearfully while giving Toko a run for her money at struggling to talk.

“Actually, no,” Hina said, confident at first, but seemed to be hesitant, “Because… um… well…”

Her eyes darted to Sakura for a brief second before landing on Leon for a split second, drawing a bit of confusion out of him. Wait, was she nervous to tell them about-

“Just spit out already!” Mondo snapped irritatedly, turning his body to face her.

The moment the baseball star registered what happened, he felt a small tinge of annoyance at the biker for what he just did. Honestly, he didn’t know if this was Mondo being bitter over her challenging him back at Makoto’s room about finding his room key or if he was just on edge over this whole killing game class trial thing and couldn’t handle his emotions well like he did when he clocked Makoto good. But him snapping at one of the people who were responsible for saving his freakin’ life to the point where she was kinda standing there a bit stunned, just after being temporarily put in the hot seat by Celeste?

Nah nah nah, man, he ain’t letting that slide, y’know?

“Sakura slept over in Hina’s room last night,” he answered for her.

All eyes instantly were on him in a heartbeat. Just... He knew that it was going to happen the moment he spoke up. But a part of him deep down inside that wouldn’t say it aloud would admit that it was still very damn intimidating…

“Wait, h-how would you know that?” Toko asked with her back still turned from him, not even attempting to hide the disdain and suspicious sneer in the tone of her voice towards him.

“Because you all found me unconscious in Hina’s room, remember? I was there, so I can say for certain Sakura was there, too,” he answered without any hesitation before vocally waving off the question, “Besides, it’s part of my testimony which we’ll get to later. So, yeah, Hina’s telling the truth.”

His answer didn’t seem to really quell the suspicion or uneasy looks he was getting; in fact, some of them only doubled down on staring at him, such as Makoto’s expression of curiosity or Byakuya’s narrowing gaze. And again, really hard to just ignore or endure so many people looking at you. But upon seeing Hina giving him a subtle, but very much appreciated and relieved smile and nod combo, as well as Sakura nodding a thank you as well, that gave him all the belief he needed to know he did the right thing.

After pulling herself together, Hina began to further explain herself, one-by-one prying everyone’s attention off Leon and back to her.

“Anyway… I got so scared thanks to those creepy videos. I wasn’t really thinking; I just asked her to stay over,” she turned her head to look at Sakura, who nodded as she spoke.

Taking it as a signal for her to take over, the muscular fighter added further details to that, “She had approached me with the question when we were in the dining hall as she was making tea for the both of us. Despite her making it very clear that it was alright for me to decline if I felt uncomfortable with it, I accepted and stayed over in her room that night.”

“E-Even in the midst of this killing game, you willingly chose to stay over and put yourself at risk like that?” Hifumi’s voice was unable to mask his complete disbelief over what he just heard.

Apparently, that wasn’t so unbelievable to Mondo, who scoffed and sneered at him from across the circle.

“You fucking kidding me? Have you not seen what Sakura looks like?” he shook his head, rubbing his neck as his eyes shot away irritatedly, “Even in this shitty situation we’re in, you really think one of us would be dumb enough to even think about trying to target and kill someone whose talent is the Ultimate Fighter? That’s a form of suicide, man...”

Yeah, like for real, man. Leon was pretty sure that out of everybody here, Sakura would’ve been the LAST person on anyone’s ‘list of potential victims’ for this so-called killing game. It wasn’t a matter of determining if anybody who would consider it was in the classic line of ‘either brave or stupid’, because it wasn’t up for debate. Just no fuckin’ way anybody would dare to fight somebody who looked like they could flatten you into a permanent, bloody pancake with a swift karate chop onto the top of your skull.

All the more reason why Leon was beginning to view Hifumi more and more like an idiot.

Despite the very valid reasoning Mondo brought up in her defense, it was Sakura herself who responded to it, “That may very well be true. However, Hina and I have spent since the first day of our imprisonment here in each other’s company to where both of us can safely say that we trust each other.”

“Y-You already trust each other that much to sleep over in her room? Even though it’s only been a couple of days?” Hiro blinked and unashamedly gawked at her, repeating what she had just said in utter disbelief.

“Oh, my. I know I had said back in the elevator that I wasn’t sure if anyone had bonded enough to consider themselves friends,” Celeste brought a surprised hand just at her lips to cover them with her fingertips, “But to think the two of you are that close already…”

Yeah, taking a step back to really look at it, having someone you could trust so much to that level in a killing game was insane. In fact, when he briefly ran his mind back to think about it, both Hina and Sakura were, like, almost always conjoined at the hip in a figurative sense. Aside from the few times everybody gathered together in the dining hall, the two were everywhere together; when Sakura tried to punch a hole through the metal shutters in the gym, Hina was there. Both also were together with Mondo during the initial day one searches. And when they noticed him in the plaza outside the dining hall and going to check up on him after storming out of the A/V room… man, they really were inseparable, huh?

It must be super awesome to have someone like that in this killing game, where you know they’d always have your back… Maybe once upon a time before yesterday, he would’ve said that person was Sayaka, but… after everything up ‘til now… Even then, he wasn’t able to be with her all the time like the swimmer and fighter…

Hopefully, it doesn’t happen to either of them. Y’know, what happened to him. Where one of them backstabs the other like that. But… he wanted to believe that they wouldn’t do that. After all, Hina said so: they both believe in him that he wasn’t the murderer. So… it wasn’t a bad idea, right?

He could place his trust in them and not have it smashed repeatedly over and over against the wall into tiny, microscopic pieces… just like how… how Sayaka…

...Never mind.

"Yup! That was the main reason behind why we were in the dining hall last night. I was showing Sakura one of the homemade teas my family make that helps the body relax after a long workout; considering she told me she trains a lot, I thought she’d love to try it,” Hina nodded to Celeste without any hesitation before giving a grin and placing her hands firmly on her hips, “Which means, both of us have air-tight alibis!”

“W-Wait… Y-You…”

Her confidence fizzled out briefly as everyone's attention was turned to Toko, who had turned her attention to Sakura.

“Y-You stayed over..?” she asked, turning her head away skittishly, “Doesn’t that v-violate one of the school r-regulations of sleeping in t-the dorms-”

“No… I don’t think that’s true.”

...Whoa.

Of all the people Leon expected to cut Toko off, he didn’t expect Chihiro to be the one to do it. And yet, he turned to look and see the small programmer shaking her head and bringing a pondering index finger towards the bottom of her lip.

Immediately in response, Toko somewhat sneered and cringed, doing her best to keep her back turned on Leon for some reason, but to get a better view of the other girl.

“W-Why are you s-saying I’m wrong? I-Is it because you think I’m u-ugly!?” she accused.

W-What the ffff...

That accusation, in both its hostile tone and baseless assumption, created a horrified expression on the other girl’s poor face. It seemed to crumple into instant regret of speaking up in the first place as tears threatened to pop up in her eyes.

“W-What…? N-No, that’s not what I meant…!” she barely managed to get out before her voice trembled and she began to inwardly curl into herself with her arms close to her neck.

And that led to Leon bringing his eyes back onto the girl responsible for doing that to Chihiro.

Speaking of that, time out for a second. A real quick side note, if he may.

This girl. Toko. Yeah, her.

What the hell happened to this girl to make her be this way?

Now, initially, it was made clear way back when everyone was going around introducing themselves in the entrance hall at the very beginning that Leon had stated that he totally nailed all of them.

But in all actuality, one hundred percent true, no bullcrap...?

Yeeeah, that, uh… that might not have been the entire case with a small portion of them. Some, he had to lower his pride and admit, were not as smooth and cool as he wanted them to turn out. Not on his part, mind you; he did everything right! It was mainly how the other person reacted, or did something that either he wasn’t expecting or made the conversation totally awkward. And man, was that majorly true for Miss Literature Stutter herself. When she had first come into the dining hall, he had made an observation in his mind how she seemed as if she wanted to die being within a crowd of people.

And damn, no freakin’ wonder! Her social skills suck ass, dude…!

When it came to the two of them introducing each other, she started off by saying she knows that he doesn’t want to know what her name was before telling him. Then she just awkwardly avoids eye contact and barely acknowledges when he says his name or tries to be friendly to her. And to top everything off, as he knows the conversation has essentially bombed with no way to keep it up without it coming off as cringy and unnatural-like and thus attempt to end it peacefully and say it was nice to meet her, he’s able to catch her muttering some kind of insult about him secretly hating her and just… what!?

Honestly, with the exception of Taka completely going off on him about his clothes and accessories again and maybe Byakuya only stating his name and then walking off before any small talk could be made, Toko might’ve been the worst introduction he had among everybody. Which in retrospect, he probably didn’t make matters better for him when unconsciously blurted out that ‘full-on stab’ comment right before they began to investigate the school on day one.

So, yeah, it wasn’t really that surprising that she’s one of the three major people who think he’s the killer-

“Hey, Chihiro, it’s okay.”

Makoto’s voice was the thing that shook him out of his in-depth thoughts on Toko as he looked up to see the kid having a soft, concerned look that seemed to somewhat calm the small programmer down.

“We know you have a reason as to why you disagreed. Could you explain why you think so?”

Giving a meek nod, Chihiro blinked away any remaining tears she had after wiping her eyes with her right hand and pulled out her e-handbook.

“W-Well… my reasoning is the third rule about sleeping itself,” she answered as she pulled up the regulations, with several of the others pulling out their own handbooks to do the same, “It says we’re not allowed to sleep anywhere but the dorms… but it doesn’t say we have to stay in our assigned room.”

“That’s a good point,” Kyoko agreed, being one of the students who didn’t pull out their handbook as her arms stayed folded firmly across her chest, “And we’ve seen that Monokuma enforces the school regulations to a strict degree. Not only that, but when the rules were broken in both instances of Mondo and Junko doing it, it enforced the punishment for breaking them almost immediately.”

The aforementioned biker muttered, shaking his head.

“...Shit, don’t remind me…”

“Yup yup! If a school rule has been broken, I will instantly be there in a flash to deal the acceptable punishment for its offense to the mis-’bee-hive’-ing student!” Monokuma piped up briefly, causing the students to question its definition of ‘acceptable’ and even getting a few annoyed looks for the resurfacing of it using more bear puns.

“If that’s the case, then sleeping in another person’s room is acceptable. Otherwise, both Sakura and Leon would’ve been punished before we gathered in the gym for being asleep and unconscious respectively in Hina’s room,” Byakuya pointed out, resting his index finger on the side of his glasses.

A small uncomfortable look passed across the baseball star’s face as he heard that he could’ve been executed while unconscious. Holy crap, he could’ve been that close again to...

“And for me and Sayaka too, since we had traded rooms for the night before her murder occured...” Makoto also added onto confirming the truth of the statement, frowning because, most likely, remembering when the mentioned victim was still alive.

Leon raised an eyebrow at that new statement. He knew that back in the gym when Celeste revealed the crime happened in his room, Makoto was saying he could explain, but that’s when Hina and Sakura brought the punk into a quick little team pow-wow before he could hear it. So was that the reason why? He and Sayaka apparently switched rooms for the night...

With so many people now in agreement with her point, the small frame of Chihiro had a ghost of a reassured smile flash across her lips before nodding and putting her handbook away.

“Yeah… So that’s why I don’t think it’s a problem.”

“It IS a problem!!”

The group’s attention turned to Taka disturbingly clutching his fists and glancing around at everyone like... they were insane?

“A boy and a girl spending the night together!? It’s… it’s… unwholesome!!”

……...Oh my gawd, this guy-

“But… I’m a girl,” Sakura corrected, her face remaining calm and stoic.

It only took Taka about a few seconds before his eyes shrank into small red dots. His skin firing up multiple sweat drops from the sheer embarrassment and his facial skin slowly becoming a color more akin to his eyes, the guy violently flinched and raised his arms around head level when he jumped back.

“Wh--!? Y-... Y-You are!?”

At this point, Leon couldn’t take anymore. Like, sure, he mistook Sakura for a guy, but even he corrected himself when he saw what she was wearing! Yet, this dumb son of a- no, y’know what? That’s such a stupid mistake that it cannot go unpunished-

He caught Taka off guard as he motioned at Sakura with his left hand, “Dude, like, come on; she’s wearing a fuckin’ skirt. How the hell did you NOT notice that when we were doing introductions back on the first day of being here?”

The hall monitor’s face had only deepened in its red shade upon calling him out on such a blatant error on his part. However, even unexpected for both him and Leon, Mondo was about to bring the power play on to further drive it home.

“Not only that, but her name’s Sakura, and the swimmer chick’s been referring to Sakura as ‘her’ and ‘she’. That’s how you usually talk to girls, you gawddamn idiot,” the biker growled at him.

Unbeknownst to both of them, Chihiro subtly flinched at that remark.

“All right, e-enough!! I understand I’ve made an egregious mistake on my part! T-There’s no need to constantly go on about it and make matters worse!” Taka managed to shout out louder, ignoring Leon’s incredulous roll of the eyes and Mondo glaring at him for shouting back, before trying to compose himself (and failing horribly), “I-If you’ll just allow me a few seconds to rectify this error…”

With his visibly shaking frame and extremely ashamed, blushing face, he turned ever-so-slightly towards the muscular girl and instantly bowed in apology, but so much to the point no one could see him falling apart.

“I have made such an unforgivable assumption on my part about you! I understand if you do not wish to accept this and forgive me, but please know that I am so sorry!”

“...It’s alright. I’m not angry with you; please be at peace,” Sakura accepted it, nodding as she made subtle eye contact with Leon and something about her eyes told him to drop the issue.

Leon quietly huffed, making a face as he irritated his wound a bit by doing it a bit too forcefully. As the fighter looked towards Mondo and Hina’s way to give them the same non-verbal cue, Taka straightened his posture once again, still struggling to regain his composure as he avoided looking anyone in the eyes.

“However, going back to the discussion of the murder weapon, we’re presented with a problem, are we not?” Celeste refocused the group back into figuring out that question, looking towards Hina’s direction before looking upwards in thought, “Because if it wasn’t either of you two, nor Leon or Makoto who took the knife from the kitchen… then what other possibility is there?”

“Actually… there is one other possibility,” Sakura’s deep voice cut through the potential looming anxiety that could’ve threatened the circle with no answer to give to that question as she glanced over to the swimmer, “Right, Hina?”

As everyone looked over to her, the new person placed into the spotlight had realization dawn on her face as she nodded quickly, “Oh yeah, that’s true! One other person did come to the dining hall while we were there!”

And that’s when Byakuya, who had his arms folded the entire time since getting into his seat amongst the podium circle, lowered his arms to his side and proceeded to narrow his gaze at her for a second time.

“And you didn’t say so in the first place and eliminate any chance for all of this useless banter from happening why?”

“W-Well, because… they’re not here anymore…”

The sentence alone got a few gasps out of the entire group.

“Someone who’s not here…? Are you talkin’ about Junko?” Hiro tilted his head with a confused expression.

“No, not her. Sayaka,” Hina corrected with a sad frown, “She’s the one who came into the dining hall, and then later… she wound up dead...”

Yeah. That’s what it ultimately came down to, just like Leon thought earlier. It could only have been her. He scowled at the truth, but even more so at how Makoto seemed dumbfounded initially at hearing that.

“Then… Sayaka’s the one who took the knife?” the kid asked with a worried look of confusion as his eyes kept looking between her and the fighter. And eventually, they stayed on Sakura as she nodded.

“That’s the only possibility. And thinking back on it now after what’s happened, she was acting highly unusual. When she came into the dining hall, she didn’t even notice when we waved to her or tried to talk to her. She just went straight into the kitchen. It was only after she came out a short while after did she realize we were there and came over to greet us.”

“Yeah, that’s right. She apologized for ignoring us and explained the reason why was because she wasn’t really feeling okay, due to those videos we watched that morning. And, to be honest, I didn’t blame her for that. I still don’t, even now,” Hina agreed, eventually looking down with a dispirited visage, “Those videos were… awful. It was hard enough seeing what was on mine. I can’t imagine what was on hers and how she felt…”

Well, obviously, she felt so awful that she needed to try and kill him to get out of here…

But… but even then, even after all of this... Leon could understand what Hina meant. After all, he completely went into the edge of the deep end himself after seeing Kanon and his dad were affected by whatever Monokuma supposedly did to them.

Sakura took control of the explanation from her friend and continued, “As she left, she explained she went to the kitchen for a drink of water and wished us a good night. But most likely…”

“Then the person who took the knife was the victim herself!” a fully regained composure Taka rejoined the discussion, nodding in acceptance, yet having a surprised expression nevertheless.

“I… I’m sure…”

Everybody turned to look at Makoto, who looked like he was choking on the words he was trying to get out as he began to look a bit distressed at the knowledge of Sayaka was the one who took her own murder weapon.

“...I-I’m sure she just took it for self defense…” he managed to get out, his eyes darting around the room towards everyone else to try and convey his belief in her.

And it would make sense, considering that day he and Mondo were in the entrance hall, both Makoto and Sayaka were searching for things they could use for protection in case of emergencies. So… it made perfect sense why he’d think that way.

But that’s not what happened. Not even close.

Leon couldn’t even look at him anymore. Oh man, Makoto, your heart is gonna shatter into a million pieces when you’ll eventually find out what happened-

“So… if I understand this correctly…” the voice of Byakuya made his eyes lock onto him as the progeny continued, “You’re saying that the knife she took… was then taken from her, and then she was killed with it?”

...It was at that moment that Leon got a horrible feeling in the pit of his gut. A reaction that caused him to tense and hug his right arm over his wound even more as he watched the blonde haired boy partially glance over at him with a cold, judgemental gaze before fixing it onto Makoto. Oh, no, something’s telling him he’s not gonna like this next part...

“...You realize that you have just destroyed the little defense that both you and Leon had, right?”

W-What-

“What…?”

Makoto slightly flinched, frowning even more as his eyes slightly shrank at the implication that was just made.

W-Wait, what do you mean his defense was gone-

Leon whirled his head to look his was as he struggled to form a coherent sentence-

“W-Wha- How-”

The progeny cut through his attempt at words.

“Both your and Makoto’s defense rest on the basis that since it was impossible for either of you to get the knife from the kitchen while Hina and Sakura were there, then that means it’s impossible for either of you to be the culprit. However, now it’s been established that Sayaka was the one who took the knife.”

And in that moment, Leon once again felt cold and shivers went down his spine, somehow overpowering the pain he was in. All he could do was watch in growing horror as Byakuya raised his nose at him and figuratively stabbed both him and Makoto with the truth, twisting it deeply.

“In that case, neither of you may have taken the knife from the kitchen, but either of you still could’ve killed her with it.”

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better...

 

....Puhuhuhuhuhu.....

Chapter 18: Ch 1: CLASS TRIAL 2

Notes:

Hey everybody! I'm back~ Little bit of an Author's Note at the end. Thank you~

/\/\/\/\/\

Upupupupupupupupupupupupupu....

“What!?”

Not even the Makoto’s horrified squawk of disbelief that sounded so breathless was enough to get him to break his helpless, terrified look from the progeny’s unaffected eyes staring back from the challenge to the defense he had been clinging to.

“S-See!? It was o-one of them, after all!!” Toko declared with a confidence that didn’t falter from her normal stuttering.

That managed to make him break eye contact.

Upon hearing that, Leon’s head whirled around the other way in shock, his goatee violently swinging from his chin. Originally moving to stare at the writer from behind, his eyes were unable to ignore Makoto’s terrified visage. Because it’s impossible to ignore the kid sweating bullets now and his arms jerking to the level of his chest-

“No, wait, hold on a second!!” his voice became bold and louder as he stared in horror at Toko.

“So that’s your true motive… to twist the argument to your advantage and send us all off in the wrong direction!?” Hifumi seethed, clutching his fists as he looked disgusted to glance at Makoto, “Hm-hmm… It appears that you secretly possess a most terrifying talent…”

The complete and total amount of dumbfounded dread that Leon had plastered on his face in regards to the scene playing out in front of him had figuratively smacked him across the face; one second he and Makoto were cleared of suspicion, and then he just blinked, and they’re already back in the hot seat? Like, what?? The sheer stupidity of this completely rendered him speechless.

...Until he realized what Toko had said and he suddenly found his voice just spilling out of his mouth before his wisdom could catch up.

“Wh- Oi, hold up! The hell do you mean ‘one of them’!? Makoto made that defense, not me! Don’t go dragging me into this!” he blurted out in a highly defensive frustration.

Not catching that Makoto had visibly to wince and have a pained look at that remark, his attention was ripped away to the other side of him.

“Ah, but you still were perfectly willing to accept Makoto’s defense as your own, were you not?” Celeste asked, her face feigning surprise, while those red eyes bore into his deeply.

D-Damn… Her gaze wasn’t as bad as in the elevator. That’s what he wanted to tell himself in a small ditch effort to calm himself. And yet, the way the eyes just begged him to dare argue back caused his attempt to stop panicking to falter as he shook his head for a millisecond and raised his voice upon registering her words.

“B-Because it would apply to me too, duh! I didn’t go to the dining hall at all, just like him!”

“And like I just said, that defense is no longer able to prove either of you aren’t the killer,” Byakuya’s serious expression seemed annoyed at having to repeat himself, “Maybe instead of relying on someone else’s explanation, you could prove your innocence on your own.”

Before his mind could race to find some kind of a response, somehow Hiro of all people had completely beat him to it as he glanced over with an uncertain, but disturbed frown, “Yeah, ‘cuz… you’re gettin’ really super defensive about this.”

“Because I’m getting ganged up on here, that’s why!!”

Like, seriously, what in the fuck? The hell is going on right now? How the hell did this suddenly just blow up in his face this gawd-awfully bad?? His ears had to be fucking up or something right now, yeah? His ears, and eyes, and whole friggin’ being of existence- Y-Yo, this is messed up! He was just stating the fact that Makoto was the one who made that argument and it applies to him too, and now that suddenly makes him the most suspicious out of the two and now everyone is piling up on him-

“Or m-maybe it’s b-because you l-lied, and you r-really did kill Sayaka, a-and now you’re panicking t-that will find out the t-truth!”

Nothing like Toko’s struggling, yet seething accusatory statement had never made him snap his head towards the left so fast in his life. Of course, even with her back still turned to him, she’d-

“Mmm, yes, quite correct! In fact, just a very small, precise glance at him tells the whole story!” the smug, rotund form of Hifumi proudly proclaimed as he adjusted his glasses and pointed a finger towards him, “All that’s left is for him to admit his heinous crime, and this trial-”

In that split second, the all familiar shade of red in the corner of his eyes turned all of his panicking dread into a white-hot rage that had engulfed his whole body. This led to a furious scream, one that rivaled the one he made when he counterattacked Sayaka with the sword after she had gotten him with the knife, that cut off the other boy’s words and shut him up completely.

“THERE’S NOTHING FOR ME TO FUCKIN’ ADM- OH MY GAWD, I’M SO DONE WITH BOTH OF YOU!!!” he seethed, glaring at the podium he used as support and shooting up to his feet in a matter of a second, not even acknowledging that Toko had begun to shiver violently and hunch into herself as Hifumi retracted both arms towards his chest with an utter look of horror on his face, “EVER SINCE I WOKE UP, YOU TWO HAVE-”

And that’s about all that he was able to get out of his mouth before he realized that something wasn’t right.

When he turned to look at the two, everything had become uncomfortably blurry and began to sway-

“-...!! W… W-Whoa-”

WHAM.

W-Wait, wha-

What was that noise? A-And why is the room spinning-

Before Leon’s mind had created the process to start asking these questions in a confused state, there were tons of noises. Stuff that made his head hurt more than it already was somehow. Loud. Muffled. Constant. Never-ending. Unintelligible. And p-pain, pain pain PAIN-

He gasped silently as he felt the agony of his wound throb, and… wait, his arm? H-His arm was hurting, too? When did his arm-

That’s when he realized all the noise had suddenly quieted. All but one, that kept repeating over and over, until finally-

His brain allowed him to actually hear.

“Leon…!”

Wait, that’s his name-

SNAP SNAP-

“...!!”

He jerked upright with a gasp, staring into nowhere as his breathing stayed at a somewhat quicker pace. W-what was-

“Mondo, please refrain from doing that in his face!”

-A-Augh, he recognizes that loud voice-

“Well, what the fuck do you want from me? The guy completely shut down on us!”

“Guys, stop yelling for a second…! Geez… Leon? Can you hear us?”

Blinking at the words being spoken in front of him, the baseball star finally lifted his head up to see… what was a very confusing sight.

Both Sakura and Hina were crouched down in front of him, with Makoto behind the swimmer, Mondo behind the fighter, and Taka and Kyoko in the far back. Somehow, his chair had been slightly turned so that he was facing forward in the direction of Toko’s back and as such, he was able to look at all of them from the left as they all looked back with varying levels of concern and curiosity.

And already, that sent him further into the depths of confusion, wondering how the hell he went from facing forward towards the inner circle of the podium to this position.

“Leon?”

The voice, now being recognized as Hina’s, grabbed Leon’s eyes and locked them on her.

“...Huh…?”

“H-Hey…” she gave a concerned smile, “You can hear me, right?”

He blinked with a perplexed frown, but nodded, “Uh, yeah…”

As he answered her, he awkwardly turned his head away to look around. Aside from Toko, anyone who hadn’t suddenly appeared in front of him was still standing in their respective seats and looking on in silence as he was apparently being attended to for some reason.

“Leon, can you look at me for a moment?” Sakura called out to him, continuing as he blinked and turned to her, “Thank you. Are you okay?”

He blinked before tilting his head at the question. He was about to answer when suddenly, he felt the return of agonizing pain reform itself into his wound’s location… and… a throbbing pain around his right elbow? He winced, gritting his teeth as he not only pressed his right arm against the wound again to lessen the torment, but now was tenderly cradling his elbow with his other arm. The others must have seen it, due to some gasps and grunts in response.

“Leon? What’s wrong?” Hina asked, worry laced deeply in her tone.

“Ngh, the f… why is my arm hurting now?”

“Seriously, dude…?” Hiro’s disturbed voice and expression caused him to turn somewhat and look over his shoulder, the clairvoyant scowling, “It just happened, and you don’t even remember?”

The lack of response and only more confusion pouring into the squint Leon was giving him seemed to make clear what his response was to that. Makoto beat him to speaking, causing him to turn back and look to his left towards him as he explained.

“When you shot up to your feet as you were yelling, you suddenly wobbled for a second, and then… collapsed back into your seat.”

…

W-Whoa…

It was if he could feel his eyes shrinking as they widened.

“I… collapsed?”

“Yeah,” the kid nodded, appearing to dislike how he had to reveal this to him, “You mumbled something, and then fell backwards, slamming your arm into the podium in the process before slightly hunching over.”

Holy crap…

Welp, he knows why his arm is hurting now, but… to think he actually…

“And then ya totally zoned out on us, until I snapped my fingers in your face,” Mondo added on, shoving a hand in his pocket, but even the sneer he was putting up on his face couldn’t mask how he seemed worried as well.

“That’s why we need you to talk to us, Leon,” Sakura took over, trying to get him to interact more, “Can you tell us what happened?”

He made a face, looking downward as he shook his head and tried to ignore the metallic-like taste of his tongue piercing against the roof of his mouth that his brain suddenly decided to lock on. Racking his brain as to what happened… what did just happen…?

“...When I stood up… it was like everything got really blurry and was spinning everywhere? I couldn’t, like, process the shit I was seeing and just… got confused…” he started to convey, but even seemed unsure as he started to hesitate in his explanation.

“Blurry and spinning… So, wait; you mean you got really dizzy?” Hina asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Sakura, may I see the pill bottle for a minute?”

The reintroduction of Kyoko’s calm voice captured everyone’s attention as they looked to see Sakura in the process of handing her back the bottle of pain medication that would be Leon’s (hopefully soon; like, for real, any minute now) savior from his injury. Taking it into her gloved hands, she turned the bottle around and seemed to focus on a certain part of the label, studying it. After a few, quiet seconds, she nodded with what seemed to be understanding in her expression.

“...I see. Now it makes sense,” she explained, handing the bottle back to the muscular girl, “Some of the side effects of the medication lists dizziness and light-headedness. So when you rose to your feet so abruptly, you must’ve become light-headed due to that.”

Sakura nodded in agreement as she put the bottle away again, “Indeed. Add that to Leon taking more than the appropriate dosage, his weakened condition, his lack of rest, and how he hasn’t had anything to eat or drink in a while, and what just happened all makes sense.”

Ahh… So that’s what happened. Damn, he needed to be more careful then. Like, he was grateful that it wasn’t some other kind of problem on top of all the crap he’s currently going through now that he would have to worry about, but… that was… terrifying. How everything just-

“Well, it’s not his fault that SOME people started to gang up on him!”

The sudden emphasis that was spewed out with such angered volume caused him to jerk out of his thoughts and look up to see Hina glaring over towards the direction of Byakuya, Celeste, and Hiro. Not with such intensity that one would say it was ‘glaring daggers’, but obviously with visible disappointment and upset tone in the eyes. But even then, from what he could tell looking over his shoulder, Hiro was the only one who made a sort of grimaced reaction; both Byakuya and Celeste seemed stoic and unapologetic in their stone-faced receptions of her accusation.

As the swimmer directed her glare in the direction of Toko and Hifumi, forcing out a recoiling reaction from them as their expressions nearly mimicked the clairvoyant’s, Taka’s arm instantly stretched out to point towards the initial three.

“Yeah, that’s right! Did you not hear Kyoko make a request of all of us to let Leon rest? His testimony could be vital in solving Sayaka’s murder!”

And despite even a guy like that calling them out, neither of the closest two on the right side of his podium seemed the slightest bit perturbed. In fact, Celeste seemed to reject it by closing her eyes and taking a small bit of her hair, as she began to twirl it without a care in the world.

“That’s under the assumption that holds true. Even if it does, surely you can admit that Leon’s extreme reaction just now to everyone’s scrutiny clearly did not help him,” she replied as-a-matter-of-factly, as if to wave off any responsibility.

...W-Well… Okay, maybe, but-

“Hmph.”

The incredulous, aloof scoff directed Leon to look alongside everyone at Byakuya, who at that same time, had directed his attention towards him. Their eyes locked and… honestly, within an instant, the baseball star felt his mood sour, as well as the need to glare back. The way the blonde-haired boy’s aura just gave off this vibe like… he was talking to him as if he was a piece of trash that he’d crush under his shoe. And this wasn’t the first time this guy acted like this since they’ve been here, but…

This was the first time it was truly directed at him, and the seeds of realization of why Mondo wanted to punch his lights out was starting to bloom.

“I fail to see how it’s my fault that a person being suspected of a murder can’t argue for himself,” Byakuya stated, not even attempting to completely hide his disgust in his tone, “Especially when said person then decides to act like a raging, uncontrollable bull…”

As he listened to him, his left hand slowly began to clench into a fist. All the confusion suddenly cleared in his head as the foggy unawareness was replaced with an increasing shade of anger. When the other male finished speaking, Leon grit his teeth and tilted his head in a dirty glare.

“...You-!”

Any potential rebuttal had been silenced by a sharp, ear-piercing whistle that diffused the potential argument that brewed. The majority of the class flinched or jerked in surprise as all turned around to see Monokuma with one of its paws clasped in front of its mouth bent over dramatically before standing back up straight in a flash.

“All righty, break it up, break it up! Sheesh, you tell a bunch of kiddies to do a class trial that determines the fates of their lives, and in return, they go off the freakin’ rails and crash into a crowd of unfortunate, figurative souls with all this infighting. Then again, what do you expect from humans…”

Before anyone could respond to his backhanded commentary, the bear straightened up and somehow was able to smack its paws together in order to make a loud clapping sound to keep the group quiet.

“Ahem, now… this isn’t me exactly adding more regulations or whatever, but since you, my dear, sweet, beloved students, can’t stay on track and are at risk at ruining a good and proper class trial, I suppose I need to step in for a moment and make an announcement!” it said, waving one of its paws as it continued, “It’s okay with me if you guys fight. But I won’t allow a burly brawl or any kind of altercation which results in someone actually being physically hurt. Especially if said person is the same guy that I, your caring and kind-hearted headmaster, just spent time on helping get some medication and a seat, so he may be able to join you all. So just keep that in mind.”

Upon finishing, Hiro, Toko, and Hifumi seemed to become uncomfortable, clearly showing it in their body languages as it seemed the trio squirmed. Even Byakuya and Celeste seemed to give more of a reaction, as the two simply looked away from Monokuma after he finished addressing them. And with that, Leon sighed quietly to himself. Finally, all this stupid attention could be taken off him-

“Now, with that being said… if I may, Leon?”

Of course, he speaks too friggin’ soon-

With an uncertain scowl of sorts, he slowly turned as best as he could to look at the bear, who now was holding both paws behind his back and swaying back and forth.

“I would also personally advise you to not go overboard and do something that will cause you to end up keeling over and losing consciousness. Because if you do… Sorry to tell you, but that’s all she wrote for your participation in the class trial! I’ll be forced to bring you up to the nurse’s office, where you’ll have to trust your fellow students to be able to solve Sayaka’s murder without you or your testimony. Oh, but don’t worry…”

Leon already felt his spine shiver over the whole ‘keeling over’ part. Seriously, so many times referring to him almost dying had seemed to make his body drop in temperature. But as the bear paused…

That red eye it had… was it just him, or… did it seem to be glowing a bit…?

He found himself unable to look away as he stared in silent nervousness.

“...If it just so happens that the blackened manages to win the game, I’ll be sure to hold the punishments just long enough in order for me to bring you back down to take part in the fun. Upupupu…”

…Gawddamn it.

He was able to look away, but not without a grimace that had been mixed with frustration and anxiety.

“Well now, well now, well now! All of you girlies and buckaroos get back to your seats! We got a class trial to get back to, all right!? Let’s get on with it, already!!”

Upon that declaration from Monokuma, who then plopped its behind back down on its throne-like chair, the quiet shuffling near Leon signaled to him that the group that had come over behind him had begun to walk back around the circle to get to their designated seats. He sighed again, trying to deal with his pain as certain movement ended up catching the corner of his eye. Looking towards the left of him was Sakura, who had leaned down slightly towards him.

“Leon, do you need any help turning your chair back around?” she whispered.

...It’s just… he knew he was really hurt, but… man, it’s really kinda embarrassing that at this specific time, he can’t even really do that on his own. Especially now that he just fucked up his elbow of the same arm trying to hug his knife injury…

Okay, who the hell is he kiddin’, here; let’s be honest. ‘Kinda embarrassing’ isn’t the right description. ‘Absolutely losing all dignity’ would be more of a correct term to use.

Seriously, he’s said it before, but this time he means it. Fuck his life.

Nevertheless, the baseball star closed his eyes and nodded during him taking a massive inhale through his nostrils, ignoring the major protest of his exhausted, injured body when he gripped the podium with his other arm and stood up briefly. This allowed Sakura to quickly maneuver the chair around into the proper position. Giving him a small tap on the left shoulder, Leon knew that it was okay to let gravity reclaim him. He plopped back into his seat with a pained snarl, taking a long exhale while turning around and giving a nod of appreciation her way. The fighter nodded, turning to go back towards her own seat. But before he was able to fully turn around, Hina quickly popped into his view, placing a hand on his shoulder and giving a small nod of encouragement, with a small smile sprinkled on top. Returning the favor to her (minus the smile part, because really, physically, it just wasn’t possible at the moment), the swimmer returned to her seat as well and he faced forward.

And thus… everyone, minus Leon, were back standing in their designated spots. But a hush of uncomfortable silence fell upon them. After all, if someone just collapses in front of you, you don’t just automatically ‘get right down to business’ or casually just open up a conversation where you ignore what just took place in front of you. And yet, somehow, this silence had to be shattered soon, in order to find out the truth.

In order to figure out who in this circle killed Sayaka.

And just like that…

“Well… Uh… That was kinda awkward, wasn’t it?” Hiro dared to speak out, a shaky attempt at a grin crossing his face as he rubbed at his forehead.

Leon could actually hear how deadpanned his face turned as he glanced out of the corner of his eyes at him. He didn’t know how that was possible, but considering this was the guy who nearly blinded him for life and also uses detergent as shampoo, why he was wondering how Hiro of all people could baffle him so was really impossible to describe.

“Yeah, perhaps…” Makoto conceded, bringing a hand to his chest as he seemed relieved, “But at least we were able to calm down a bit and refocus before this became too chaotic for us to control…”

“Indeed…”

Everyone’s attention was brought to Kyoko, whose eyes were closed and her face slightly turned to the left.

“I know that I said that we ought to start from a neutral stance when going into this case. But it’s clear to me that there’s too much distrust right now, with clearly many of us sincerely believing either Makoto or Leon is the killer. As such, perhaps it would be better to change the direction of how we discuss the case.”

“Very well! Then what do you propose, Kyoko?” Taka approved, folding his arms.

“Instead of setting them aside for now, in order to appease the certain ones in the group who strongly believe that one of them did it, I suggest we go through each possibility that either Makoto or Leon is the killer. As such, we may be able to test whether they’re truly guilty or innocent,” the girl explained, opening her eyes as she folded her arms over her chest, “And by doing so, we may find clues that can lead to the killer’s identity.”

“You phrase that as if you believe that both of them aren’t the killer,” Byakuya calmly responded with.

That caused Leon to blink and turn his attention back to the lilac-haired girl. Wait, was that for real? She wouldn’t tell him back in Makoto’s room whether or not she believed he was innocent, but… does this mean she really does think he’s not the killer?

“I’m simply saying that despite the approach being modified, my stance on the matter is the same. As I said before, instead of focusing and seizing on one viewpoint, the truth will be uncovered by analyzing things from every angle. After all,” Kyoko didn’t look away, seemingly matching the blonde’s fierce gaze, “I think it’s reasonable to believe it’s still too early to decide conclusively that either Makoto or Leon is the killer, wouldn’t you say?”

With a ‘hmph’, Byakuya looked away displeased, but didn’t argue. As for Leon, he pursed his lips at that response. Still not being clear on what she personally believed...

“...Very well. If that is how it must be, then so be it,” Celeste piped up, smiling as she tilted her head ever so slightly, “Then who will be the first out of the two we go over?”

Oh, please be him, please, let it be him. Just so that people can get off his back already.

“If no one has a problem with it, I feel we should start with Makoto.”

…Ffffffff-

Dammit.

As he tiredly sunk a bit into his podium after repeating his earlier position of resting his left arm on top of it and then his head on top of said arm, he failed to notice Makoto blinking in surprise.

“Why do you want to start with Makoto?” Hina asked genuinely.

“Because out of the two of them, I feel being able to prove whether he’s guilty or innocent will be the easiest to check. Also, with what just happened a few moments ago, with him collapsing in his chair, I’d like for Leon to get a bit more rest, so we can have his testimony when we need it,” Kyoko explained, giving a short glance Leon’s way, “After all, I still hold to what I believe; Leon may have many potential answers that we will need to solve this case.”

A nod coming from him, Leon took a deep breath, let it out, and proceeded to go back to resting (or, more like attempting to rest) his head back onto his arm.

“Right… you got it,” he said.

With him being taken care of, he could feel the group refocusing their attention back to Kyoko, who was currently leading the charge. Unfortunately, with his face currently buried this time in the middle of his elbow, he was limited to only the audible part of the discussion.

“So, uh… how exactly are we to start on determining whether Mr. Naegi is Miss Maizono’s killer or not?” Hifumi asked.

“If you’re unsure on how we should start, perhaps we should first address a potential inconsistency that would exist if you believe Makoto did it,” Kyoko replied with.

“A potential inconsistency?” Chihiro asked, confusion laced within her tone.

“Precisely. Because you see, if the room Sayaka was killed in did belong to the killer, then that means they did something most bewildering,” the lilac-hair girled explained calmly, “And until we unravel that little mystery, you simply can’t declare he’s the killer.”

Several of the group seemed to gasp and make puzzled noises upon hearing that, as well as Leon briefly looking up to glance up at the girl who claimed such a thing.

“Bewildering? The hell are you talking about?” Mondo seemed to read his mind and fired back with a raised eyebrow and scowl.

“Something was missing from the scene of the crime that by all rights should have been there,” Kyoko explained, before turning her attention to the right and focusing on someone in that direction, “You know what I’m talking about, don’t you, Makoto?”

Huh…?

Blinking a bit with a scowl, Leon ended up joining the eventual increasing number of people looking towards Makoto, though his head lowered a bit back down into his arm. At first, the kid seemed stunned and unsure of what to do once Kyoko had abruptly passed control of the discussion to him. But after lowering his eyes downard to the floor and bringing a hand towards his chin, a few seconds passed before…

“Something missing… ...Ah!” he widened his eyes, his eyes shooting back to her, “You’re talking about the lack of hair in my room, aren’t you?”

...Say what now?

“What do you mean?” Sakura seemed perplexed just as much as Leon was when she asked for an explanation to that.

“During the investigation period, I decided to check out the crime scene for any potential clues I could find. And while I was searching for anything with Kyoko, we found something of note in my room. The lint roller that was in my room, something I haven't touched yet, had clearly been used. And as a result,” Makoto expanded on his answer, looking towards everyone with a newly founded determination, “There wasn’t a single hair on the floor. Which means someone had completely wiped my floor clean with the lint roller.”

Chihiro softly gasped, “So, then the culprit removed some evidence?”

“Yes. And if I were the culprit, why would I need to get rid of all of the hair in my room?” the boy nodded, leaning forward to grip the podium somewhat as he continued, “It wouldn’t be unusual at all to find my hair at the crime scene, if the crime scene is in my room.”

A contemplative hum was heard over towards Leon’s immediate right. Although he didn’t raise his head up, he could already tell it came from Celeste as a response to Makoto’s defense.

“The reason all the hair was gone… was to remove any trace that Sayaka had ever been there. That makes sense, does it not?”

“No,” Kyoko disagreed, shaking her head, “If that were the case, then they would have had to do something about the body itself, not just her hair.”

"Ah-ha-ha, yes… Very true, very true," Hifumi seemed to concede with a laugh that clearly stated he was starting to lose the confident belief that he had previously of Makoto being guilty.

“Okay, so then… why wasn’t there any hair on the ground?” Hina asked the lilac-haired girl in response, sounding puzzled.

“The killer got rid of all of it, of course. To remove any trace that they had ever been there.”

Mondo seemed to jerk his head up with a surprised look on his face.

“Wait, then that means…!”

“Precisely,” Kyoko answered him, continuing despite several gasps and shocked audible noises were made as she spoke, “I think it’s simply beyond reason to believe that the room’s owner and the killer are one in the same.”

“Then… Makoto really isn’t the one who killed Sayaka?” Chihiro asked.

But before confirmation could be given, a loud voice had jumped into the verbal frey. And… really, is it at all a mystery on who it could’ve been at this point?

“But are you sure that we can decide something truly important and crucial like that, based solely on the absence of some hair!?” Taka challenged, Leon already seeing the mental picture of him most likely pointing right at her.

And despite the guy nearly on the verge of screaming at her, the girl somehow managed to reply calmly, “No. There are other reasons that prove Makoto couldn’t have done it.”

Sakura hummed in response.

“I would like to hear these reasons...”

And you know what? Frankly, Leon wanted to hear them, too. Especially because it meant that the other main suspect, who happened to be the other person that Sayaka had been super close to, wasn’t the killer and shit.

But… for real, that was kinda becoming impossible at the moment.

One reason was that ever since Kyoko had answered Celeste, Leon had found himself burying his face more and more ever so slightly into his left arm sleeve. Not that it was by any means fully comfortable, especially with all of the crap he was dealing with being a constant factor, but he had finally managed to position his face in a way where he wouldn’t have to readjust it.

But the second reason?

Yeah, he had a suspicion that the pills were finally kicking in. He didn’t know what the entire possible side effects were for that medication, and again, he’s not a betting man, but… the fact that over the course of this missing hair clue, his body began to feel sluggish and relaxed to the point where he was having trouble keeping his eyes open like he would in every math class ever? It wasn’t too bad of a guess to say that he finally was having his patience rewarded and getting much needed relief from his meds. Hopefully this meant the agony would finally start to go the hell away and he could stop giving himself a one armed hug on a constant basis.

Because... y’know, man, he was just so tired. Physically and mentally, just worn down. And that really hadn’t been so damn crystal clear until now as him in this exact moment. Nearly sitting on the edge of a wooden chair in an almost slumped position on his podium, burying his face into his left arm while not only was his right still cradling his knife wound, but it was still throbbing from when he fell and smacked it against said podium. Add to the exhaustion that not only he was dealing with from only getting who knows how little minutes to hours of sleep from passing out from nearly bleeding out from said knife wound he got from nearly being killed, but the other exhaustion amount he had added after the adrenaline rush of him panicking and raging over getting ganged up on from accusations, as well as new exhaustion from the pills he took?

Not even the fatigue at being in school and wanting to take a nap in class had made him keeping his eyelids open feel like such a superhuman feat.

It didn’t help that his mind was totally aching and just wanted everything to stop. And yet, despite this, he couldn’t help but think about how abysmal this all was. How it all went wrong. How it all just… sucked ass.

How… did it have to come to this…?

...How would he be able to face them after he gets out of here now that Sayaka’s dead?

Leon’s tired mind drifted towards Kanon and his dad, and... seriously, he hoped they were okay. He hoped whatever that DVD showed didn't hurt or (God forbid) kill them. He really hoped so... And yet, he started to acknowledge the depressing realization of that although he hadn’t murdered her, he was still involved with it and that’s something that would be with him for the rest of his life seemed to really sink in. But even more so when he thought of his family, because how… how would he even begin to tell them? How could he bring himself to tell the man who raised him on his own and the cousin whose whole world just revolved around him that the Sayaka Maizono is dead and that he was a part of it? Make no mistake; it wasn’t his fault at all… but-

“Leon.”

Eh…?

If his name being called by a familiar voice hadn’t brought him out of his inner thoughts, the fact a hand gently placed itself on his left shoulder and shook him softly did the trick.

Raising his head to allow his eyes to open and adjust to the light again, Leon looked behind him to find Hina, no longer at her seat across the circle and who now was smiling in a relieved way as she withdrew her hand from him.

“Oh, good. You’re awake,” she sighed, standing up straight, “We all got worried you fell asleep on us for a second there.”

Wait, what…?

Blinking at that remark, the baseball star slowly turned back to look at everyone else. And it was only then did he realize just how out of it he must’ve been. Not only had the discussion completely stopped, but when his eyes moved from person to person, he had become the main focus for everyone’s attention. Not that he was usually bothered by being the center of attention, but in this specific moment, a rather comical frown formed on his lips.

“Um… What’d I miss?”

Due to not being entirely alert at the moment, he missed the slight scoffs coming out of Mondo and Byakuya. But mainly, it was due to Kyoko looking him in the eyes and catching his attention.

“It’s not really a case of what you missed. It’s more of the fact that I believe it’s time for us to go whether or not you’re the killer. And that means that it’s time for your testimony.”

“…!!”

Oh. Oh, shit. Holy fucking shit!

Welp, he was wide awake now more than ever when his eyes widened.

“O-Oh, err, right…! Yeah, for sure! L-Lemme just…”

Feeling a sense of panic as if he needed to hurry up, Leon’s left arm instinctively went towards his podium for support alongside the action of him sliding to the edge of his chair in order to stand up. While he did this, several members of the class, especially Hina and Sakura, jerked in response from concern.

“H-Hey, take it easy and go slow, okay? You don’t wanna fall like you did earlier and hurt yourself more…” Hina reminded him, only a few inches away with her arms ready to catch him.

Leon blinked with a blank look before remembering how he messed up his shoulder.

Oh.

“...U-Uh… Yeah, right.”

With a nod and a quick deep breath in, the young man closed his eyes and prepared once against to brace for pain. He leaned forward, pushed off the podium, and…

….and…

...Huh? N-No way…

“Huh? Leon, what’s wrong?” Makoto asked.

Blinking a few times, the baseball star took a few seconds of silence to realize that…

“...N-No, I’m fine. It’s just that… I’m… not in so much pain anymore,” he blinked again, earning a few surprised murmurs from the group.

It wasn’t like he just shot up to his feet in a flash, but… considering other times he was sitting since being injured like in the laundry room, this time it was… a bit faster and didn’t cause him extreme discomfort. It also felt like he could breathe so much easier and certain movements that would agitate his wound weren’t as badly affecting him now.

For real… he wasn’t just healed within seconds, but… this was a massive (and frankly, much appreciated) improvement ever since he woke up in the nurse’s office.

“Really? So you’re okay now?” Chihiro gasped, her eyes wide.

“I mean… it still hurts if I press my arm against it too hard, but like… It’s to a point where I can actually deal with it and not be miserable, y’know?” Leon explained, somewhat in disbelief over how much better it was, causing a grateful smile to come onto the small girl’s face.

“Good. It appears that means the pills are finally starting to work and give you some much needed relief,” Sakura pointed out with a nod, “Even then, you should still be careful with your movements, so you don’t risk overdoing it and misjudging how much you can do.”

“But still, that’s great, Leon,” Makoto said smiling, causing him to look over towards him, “Hopefully this medication will help you until you’re back to proper health.”

...Once again, the genuine concern and support that the kid was giving him should’ve been something that would have made him happy. But as the other main suspect at the beginning of the trial and with how he seemed suspicious of Leon himself, the injured future superstar couldn’t help but feel awkward and wonder if there was any kind of hidden meaning to the kindness. As a result, all he could manage was an unevenly small, sheepish smile and cross his fingers and pray that Makoto didn’t see how nervous it came off as.

“Right… thanks. So, um,” he tore his eyes off of him and began to address the main group again, coughing slightly to clear his throat, “Testimony time, right? So, like… how do you want me to do this? Go over what went down in the room?”

“Actually, I think it’d be best if you started from the beginning,” Kyoko corrected him, her purple eyes seemingly becoming bolder from the anticipation of finally hearing his testimony, not being distracted by Hina starting to walk back to her seat, “Exactly where you were and why you ended up going to Sayaka’s room. Please go ahead whenever you’re ready.”

Leon’s breath hitched a bit in his throat as he nodded and looked down. The anxiety began to build in his chest as he realized that this was it. This was what it all came down to: describing his fight with Sayaka. All he had to do was tell the truth, and surely, everything would be okay. They’d find who the real killer is and it’d show he was just another victim in this...

Though… even he couldn’t deny it. A part of him felt a small sense of dread. What if, even after he tells the truth, no one believes him? What if-

“Leon.”

A soft voice caught his pale blue eyes and jerked his head back up to see Hina. Her concerned, but supportive smile had come into his vision from across the circle as she nodded to him.

“It’s okay. Just tell them what happened. You got this, okay?”

With that, she flashed a quick, but sincere thumbs up to him. Blinking at the action, Leon’s face slowly began to form with determination. His glance wandering over towards the left slightly, he locked eyes with Sakura. Despite her stoic expression, she also gave a mute nod of encouragement his way.

...They’re right. He can do this.

And it’ll all be okay once the truth comes out.

“...Right.”

With a deep breath in and out, Leon looked up, nodding to Kyoko that he was ready.

He’s got this.

Notes:

Yoooo, sorry for the three months being away! The pandemic is nuts, but I'm not through! I'm finally getting back to Leon and his story, which means I really can use your help. Especially with this chapter, as I feel it's not my strongest, so I really do want some critique. Is it just as good, or can I improve this, everybody? Please lemme know what you think; after all, after so many kudos, bookmarks, and comments... I'm so honored you guys like this, and want to keep it going strong. After all... this is just one story out of a series! Thanks so much, and please stay safe and positive!

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What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better...

 

....Puhuhuhuhuhu.....

Chapter 19: Ch 1: CLASS TRIAL 3

Notes:

FINALLY, I HAVE RETURNED, AND DAMN, IT FEELS SO GOOD TO GET BACK TO WRITING THIS!

Thank you to Beta_Kokichi_Oma, spammingmusubi, JK801333, harmfulmyths, I_Write_Shit, Momoxheinie, and everyone else for your love, thoughts, support, and comments while I struggled with Covid-19 and trudged to get back into the writing mood. I'm happy to feel so much better, and I am getting my last vaccine shot on Saturday. I'm honestly so blessed to have you all giving me the chance to give Leon Kuwata a story, and I appreciate all you've done.

And now, back to the feature presentation~

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Upupupupupupupupupupupupupu....

...Or, at least he’d like to think he’s got this. Your heart pounding inside your chest so hard and rapidly to where you swear you can feel it in your ears can really completely rattle your confidence.

Of course, he wasn’t gonna show that in front of everyone.

...Or, at least try not to.

Taking a deep breath in through his nose, Leon let the upper row of his teeth slowly scrape upwards on his bottom lip before exhaling out of his mouth and nodding again as a sigh to himself to start.

“All right, so… I, uh, guess where I start is from my room, really,” he took a breath, a bit unsure as to who in the circle of eyes staring back at him he should look at while speaking, “After the… bullshit DVDs we watched yesterday morning, I was just kinda done with everything.”

At that point, he thought he heard an almost quiet, whining mutter from his right along the lines of “you don’t have to remind me.” Trying to subtly look out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Hiro in a dejected posture, raising a hand to rub at a certain part of his head. If the punk had to guess, the spot he was reaching at may have been the area he grabbed at after being jabbed in the eye again by the deathtrap that was supposed to be Hiro’s hair.

He briefly made a face at that, but looked back and tried to just keep going as to not draw attention to it.

“Because of that, I mostly stayed in my room for the whole day. The only times I ever left was to get something to eat or when I did some laundry before nighttime, which Hiro can back me up on, since he-”

-stole a bottle of detergent for shampoo-

“-chatted with me for a bit while I was waiting in the laundry room,” Leon explained, nodding to Hiro, who nodded with a bit of a pressured smile after everybody had glanced in his direction.

“If that’s the case, then… What made you leave your room to go to where Sayaka was staying? And so late at night?” Taka asked, his confused expression baring into him as his mouth hid behind his fist that was propped up from folding an arm across his chest.

“Last night, I wasn’t really able to fall asleep. I just couldn’t stop thinking about the people that were being shown on my video and stuff, y’know?”

And of course, there was also examining how vague that regulation about killing was, but… a part of Leon felt like it’d be a major bad move to bring that up. Not only he wanted to give people like Hifumi and Toko more “suspicious behavior” that would give them more concrete beliefs that he was the killer. So, he opted to leave that part out.

He got a few nods from the class as he continued.

“So as a result, I was wide awake when I heard a knock on my door,” he revealed, “When I turned on the lights, I found a note was slid under my door, and… it was from Sayaka.”

“What…?”

A disbelieving, breathless noise came out of Makoto as Leon glanced over at him. The kid looked absolutely shocked, as if hearing that had turned his whole world upside down for some reason. And truth be told, a good portion of the circle also had alarmed or surprised looks on their faces. The only ones who didn’t were Byakuya, who seemed to sharpen his serious gaze at him, and Hina, Sakura, Kyoko, and Mondo, who already knew about this from him revealing it during the investigation.

But just… something about Makoto’s reaction really hit him hard in the gut. Because of how close he and Sayaka were, and…

The thought of it just sucked, man.

“So, Sayaka was the one who wanted you to go over to her room?” Chihiro’s voice ripped him out of his thoughts, causing him to look over and nod.

“And what did the note say?” Celeste asked, only a raised eyebrow being the notable difference in her porcelain expression.

For a split second, Leon frowned; he couldn’t actually remember the exact wording of the note, but… hopefully, that would be an issue?

“It basically said she wanted to talk to me privately in her room about something important, and asked me to come over in a few minutes.”

“And you just went over there without a second thought?” Byakuya’s harsh tone tore into him before he finished answered Celeste, “Not even stopping to think about how suspicious it was of her asking you to meet alone with her when no one else was awake?”

Okay, holy shit, this dude is starting to get on his damn nerves. Like, he may have addressed it before, but even if he has or not, like he’s REALLY starting to.

Granted, Byakuya wasn’t exactly wrong with his line of inquiry; Leon himself could admit even he realized how blind he was to it back in the laundry room while going over the Monokuma File. But, uh… Yeah. Verbally broadcasting his fuck-up in a tone that just slapped an imaginary lit-up billboard that said “I’m a moron” on his forehead wasn’t exactly the way Leon wanted a mistake of his to be addressed like. The accusational questions were enough to get him defensive and ready to verbally throw down, but, like… gawd, the way he speaks-

“Yo, it was THE Sayaka Maizono, dude! Like, for real, getting an invitation from her really meant something-”

And it was here that Leon actually started to cringe inwardly at, well, frankly how idiotic and blind he was sounding. Really? The fact it was Sayaka? For crying out loud, Byakuya doesn’t have to try to make him sound stupid as fuck; he’s doing a wonderful job of it well on his own! With a subtle flinch upon this realization, the young man started to go into a bit of quick thinking damage control by changing the direction of his sentence into something better that the others could relate to somehow.

“-b-because, I mean, ever since the first day of us being here, she was the person I was probably closest to-”

He tore his eyes off of the progeny to glance around at everyone else while speaking, and… holy crap, he really wishes he hadn’t now. Because when his view had shifted towards the left, the intense eyes of Makoto had locked onto him. Not that the kid was absolutely furious, or, er… if he was, then man, he does a friggin’ amazing job at hiding it, but… the fact he had both hands on his podium and his pursed lips are coinciding with this intense glare directed at him was really getting to him badly. Because, of course, Makoto was closer to her than he was-

And on top of that, he kinda feels like a jerk saying that, especially after everything Hina and Sakura have done for him. His explanation pausing, his eyes shot towards each of them for a second; whether it be out of desperation or a split moment of being confused of how to keep going, he wasn’t able to know for sure. But Hina blinking with a concerned face and Sakura raising her eyebrows ever so slightly didn’t help.

He awkwardly rubbed at the back of his neck with his left hand as he continued, “-s-so, like, I totally trusted her. ‘Cause we had been on cool terms with each other, y’know?”

...Damn, he felt so scummy just finishing that sentence, not gonna lie…

Hiro grinned, folding his arms across his chest with a nod as his eyes closed, “Well… I dunno about the rest of you guys, but being one hundred percent honest, I can totally agree why someone would accept a special invitation like that from Sayaka.”

….W…. Wha-

“If you were to get a special invitation like that from the Ultimate Pop Sensation, what young man could resist?” the creepily shaky voice of Hifumi made Leon rip his attention away and morph his expression into horror at the implication he was hearing, only to see the giant ball of a human being suddenly pose honorably with his hands on his hips, “Of course, I’m only into 2D, so it wouldn’t have any effect on me!”

Oh, fuck off, and fuck you!

Leon felt his entire skin crawl as his face demolished into a squinting grimace. No no no, he did not just have these two freakin’ pervy idiots insinuate that something sexual was within that invitation or that he was gonna take advantage of Sayaka. For gawd’s sake, the last thing he needs besides dying or people believing he’s a killer is for this group to think he’s now like these two and some kind of a disgusting asshole.

...L-Like, sure, he has found girls to be hot (same with Sayaka, not gonna argue), but he knew his limits and wasn’t focused on sex and shit…

...Also, hold up, what was that about 2D-

“Completely asinine. There’s truly no hope for you, it seems,” Byakuya sneered at the other two males, narrowing his eyes while raising his nose again to Leon, who turned back and felt his annoyance return to the same level as before, “To think you would be so oblivious as to walk into your own potential death trap and then expect me to feel any amount of sympathy for you after doing so is absolutely absurd.”

“Hey, leave him alone!”

Their ensuing stare-off was canceled as they and everyone turned to Hina focusing her outburst at the progeny, “Didn’t Monokuma just tell you to stop ganging up on him? Sheesh, if you stop cutting in, he can tell you what happened!”

Byakuya wasn’t the slightest bit fazed at her outburst. Instead, his gaze seemed to harden even further until he chose to look away with an aloof manner. Satisfied in the fact that this was apparently him backing off, the swimmer immediately brightened with a smile as she nodded towards Leon.

“Okay, Leon. Go ahead and keep going.”

“Ah, pardon moi. Just a second, if you please…”

Both Leon and Hina blinked and turned to Celeste, who began to glance over at the punk’s way with those red eyes of hers.

“There’s something about Leon’s initial answer to my question that I find… quite odd.”

Leon blinked.

“Huh?”

“You started off your answer with, and I quote, ‘it basically said’,” she repeated his words, her body turning more to him with a chillingly serious expression as her head tilted ever so slightly, “To me, that wording is rather off putting. ‘Basically’? You don’t remember what the note actually said?”

“U-Uh, I mean, it’s not like it was something I thought I’d have to remember word for word, like a test or whatever, y’know?” Leon felt that uncomfortable smile start to scribble its way onto his mouth as the red eyes of Celeste became harder to ignore as her eyebrows rose upon hearing his answer.

“Is that so…? Then surely, if you truly did receive a note from Sayaka, you would’ve brought it with you for us to see in this trial, yes? Since this note would obviously help in proving your innocence,” the lolita girl leaned slightly forward and pressed him further.

M-Man… how the hell was this girl so good at putting him in the hot seat, while simultaneously making his entire being feel cold as ice...?

“...W-Well, haah… You see-”

As he fumbled to try and give a solid answer, an unexpected savior in the form of Mondo piped up.

“Nah, the note’s apparently in his room still. And the reason is because the dude lost his room key.”

Now, Leon wouldn’t deny that there was a massive wave of relief washing over him when Celeste’s stare faltered, she blinked, and then joined everyone else to look towards the biker, who was scratching the back of his head.

“He lost his room key?” the gambler repeated, slightly covering her mouth with an interested look.

“What in the world!? You can’t just reveal something of such importance so casually! Explain what you mean immediately!” Taka demanded, pointing at him.

A small vein became slightly visible around Mondo’s temples as he snarled back.

“Hold your goddamn horses; I’m getting to that! Fuck… Anyways, while I was doing my job of guarding the crime scene, Leon came by with Hina to look for his room key. Speaking of that, this chick right here? She’s damn feisty when she wants to be,” Mondo explained, before jabbing a thumb over to the girl to his left, who seemed to give a sheepish, embarrassed smile and rub the back of her neck from the sudden remark about her, “After Leon told me, Kyoko, and Sakura about the note he had in his room, Hina struck a deal with me; if they found his key, they’d get the note and bring the key back.”

“But unfortunately, our search for the room key was fruitless; Hina, Kyoko, and I searched all over, even in the hallway, and we couldn’t find it,” Sakura added on, her eyes closed as she recounted what happened.

Hiro brought his hand up to rest his chin in it as he seemed to be piecing this all together in his head.

“Hmmm…. So what you’re saying is… what exactly?”

...Then again, maybe not.

Leon couldn’t stop himself from shooting the guy an annoyed squint as Kyoko answered his question, “What we’re saying is that it appears someone here may have pocketed Leon’s room key. After all, everyone here had been in Makoto’s room at least once ever since we all woke up to find the body. So someone would have noticed the key while everyone was distracted, took it, and now have it in their possession.”

“W-While I must admit that does make sense, for what reason would they take Mr. Kuwata’s key?” Hifumi asked, a troubled grimace on his face as he rubbed his chin (or… what was supposed to be his chin?) and voiced his confusion.

At that moment, Kyoko… seemed to pause for a brief moment, before her eyes closed.

“...I’m not sure of that yet,” she admitted, opening her eyes to look at him as she folded her arms across her chest, “Nevertheless, the possibility still exists, does it not?”

The small section of silence that followed her proposal spoke for the group as a collective that this theory of why Leon’s key was missing couldn’t be immediately dismissed. And the reason it was described as a small section was because not too long after, Hina broke said silence by leaning forward on her podium and directed a challenging glare towards Toko.

“...Unless YOU would like to once again accuse Leon of having accomplices and say that me, Sakura, Kyoko, and Mondo are all working together with him?” she called out, the tone not being furious, but just daring her to try and say it.

That resulted in this quiet but sick, cringe-worthy hiss coming out of the girl to the baseball star’s left, which caused him to give a rather disturbed look towards her back. Welp, guess that answer was a big fat no… if that even could be classified as an answer, to just hiss at someone like a feral cat or something…

“...Yeah, I thought so,” she huffed, before giving a sympathetic smile his way, “Go ahead and keep going, Leon.”

Taking a quiet, stabilizing breath through his teeth from the small gap in his lips, he nodded.

“So, yeah… After reading the note, I got dressed and decided to head over to see what was up. I knocked on the door and she let me in. Once I was-”

“W-Wait…”

Frankly, if this was any other person? Not even Leon, as good as he usually could be in hiding or faking his annoyance, would be able to perfectly control his dwindling patience at this point. But the fact the breathless voice cutting through his words was… him of all people… Leon felt like he was helpless to resist as he looked over with a worried expression alongside everyone else as Makoto’s eyes somehow locked into him even more. His posture had straightened out now, relaxing his grip on his podium while his lips struggled to form the words that eventually came out.

“She… Sayaka just… just let you in? Just like that?” he asked, his voice reassembling itself to be stronger.

Without moving his head, the punk’s eyes drifted to both the two girls who had been his biggest allies for a split second each before rematching its gaze with the other boy’s.

“...Uh...Yeah?”

Makoto’s head began to shake, “...No… No, that can’t be right. It doesn’t make sense.”

Chihiro’s worried voice took care of verbal inquiring, leaving him to let his face fall into more of a confused state as she asked, “What do you mean it doesn’t make sense?”

“Because she was scared; that’s why she asked me to switch rooms.”

Nearly the entire circle filled with shocked gasps and even more taken aback expressions.

“Eh? The hell are you talkin’ about?” Mondo sneered in a way that showed he always was confused; probably the same expression Leon had on his face, but more aggressive in an unintentional way.

“Well… I tried to explain back at the gym, but… I’ll repeat it for anyone who didn’t hear me,” Makoto took a shaky breath.

This gave the baseball star the knowledge that after his room had been revealed at the crime scene, he had attempted to explain what he would be saying now, but nobody would listen to him. Granted, he was in the midst of an impromptu pow-wow, but still…

“Last night, Sayaka actually approached me before nighttime. She told me that somebody had tried to force their way into her room,” the kid revealed, causing some of the class to look amongst themselves with suspicion (with Leon absolutely certain he got quite a few himself), “We talked about it, and for her safety… I offered to let her switch rooms with me for the night. And she promised me that no matter who it was, she wouldn’t open the door for anyone. Knowing what she’d been through and that promise to me…”

His mid-sentence pause while turning his head towards Leon once again caused his target to tense up, subtly flinching at his wound partially throbbing from accidentally brushing his right arm up against it suddenly.

“...I just can’t imagine that she’d just open the door to anyone like that…” Makoto expressed, only for his previous fear of nobody believing him to try and resurface from the back of his mind.

“S-So you’re saying t-that Leon is l-lying…?” Toko asked, her arms starting to fidget a bit.

“Hold on. Before we pick apart what he says to verify if it’s true or false, we should allow Leon to at least finish his testimony of what happened,” Kyoko verbally wrestled the boy’s control of the conversation out of his hands, becoming Leon’s savior in that moment as everyone looked towards her, “After all, we need to hear him go over what happened after he was invited into the room.”

Makoto hesitated, his eyes darting over towards him before looking away with uncertainty.

“Right. My bad…”

Before Leon could react or feel any kind of emotion to how distressed the other boy was becoming, a disappointed sigh coming from his immediate right made him defensive of Celeste’s response.

“While it is… rather upsetting that my proposed nighttime rule was ignored so easily,” she commented, the boy absolutely noticing the quick potshot she shoved in that was directed his way, “I suppose we should proceed with hearing Leon’s testimony.”

The resounding voice of Taka had captured his attention then with an emphatic clutching of both fists while addressing him, “All right, with that taken care of, please continue, Leon!”

With a nod while suppressing the annoyance of the guy’s loud volume again, the future hall of fame musician began to take a breath in order to continue. But out of the corner of his eye, the portrait to the hall monitor’s left became an object that he in that moment couldn’t ignore. For some reason, despite it being there all this time, Sayaka’s… death portrait… it, uh… it was like…

He gulped unconsciously, his eyes narrowing out of nervousness.

It was like the eyes of that picture of Sayaka had suddenly become the most prominent feature of that picture, but it had become near impossible to ignore them anymore. As if the picture was judging him-

Which in of itself almost had Leon’s face scrunch up in a split second when his worry and anxiety were nearly consumed by the hunger of anger and disgust within a heartbeat, because like hell Sayaka, whether it be just a portrait or her ghost doing something to it that made him super focus on it, had any right to judge him after what she did.

And yet…

He was starting to realize the gravity of what part of his testimony was going to make him do. As in he was going to need to go over how…

...she tried to…

Like, fuck, man. This was supposed to be easy, yeah? Like he felt previously, all he had to do was just tell everybody what happened, and hopefully, it’d clear up all the stupid shit he was being made to go through and people would see he was innocent. And yet… his teeth began to grind against each other while once again glancing back at the portrait.

Because this wasn’t the previous doubt he had. The one about even after explaining everything, no one besides Hina and Sakura would believe him. No, this was different.

This was the scarier one. The one he had back in the nurse’s office after taking in how much blood his clothes were stained with.

It was about how close he came to death back in Makoto’s room.

How if he had done even the slightest thing different, whether he chose to have dodged one of her attacks in a different way, if he hadn’t gotten out to the hallway as fast as he did, or whatever else it may have been… he could’ve been dead. He could’ve been laying in that dorm room after being stabbed, collapsed in the hallway, or bled out in Hina’s room before she and Sakura could’ve saved him.

And now he had to relive it. It hadn’t even been a day yet. Hell, he wasn’t even sure how many hours it actually had been, since a lot of things had been more important than to look at a friggin’ clock to get what time it was. And yet, he was gonna have to go through that whole thing again. Maybe even in detail to certain parts. And the realization of that made those eyes of Sayaka’s portrait stand out just a little more, making it nearly an impossibility to just ignore it.

With a subtle shudder and a quick mental wish that he hadn’t paused for too long to let anyone see and suspect something was up, he ran his left hand through his hair carefully, but briefly before nodding and opening his mouth to speak.

“Right, uh… So, y’know… when I got there and she let me in, she didn’t, like, try to kill me outright. We actually started chatting for a bit,” he struggled to maintain a strong voice that didn’t wave, as well as keeping his eyes away from the portrait, “She told me the reason she called me over was to help me out.”

“Help you out? With what?” Hiro asked, rubbing his chin.

“She was gonna help me out with my dream to go into the music industry instead of baseball.”

The majority of the circle once against filled with gasps and surprised looks; even though this was a class trial dedicated to solving a murder, he couldn’t even bring himself to be startled by their reactions or feel sheepish. After all, he had his entire old school do the same thing to him when they found out he wasn’t gonna go through with the career path that seemed so obvious and natural for him. Only difference being that for LL Academy, it was more mixed in with anger and negative reactions as well.

“Wait, so… you’re quitting the sport that your Ultimate Talent is based on?”

And yet, in that moment, Hina’s confused, yet curious expression seemed to make him pause, his left thumb fiddling around ever so slightly with the opening of his pants pocket. Briefly looking a few spaces to the left, he saw that even Sakura seemed somewhat surprised at this. He remembered back during their water break discussion in the dining hall a few days back, Hina had gone on about ‘you’d think every student who got accepted into Hope’s Peak would be proud of what they do’, and he didn’t make an attempt to correct her. For a fraction of a second, he wondered what both she and Sakura, who considered him to be a training partner due to his physique when they first met, thought now.

“Yeah. Shocking, right?” he nodded, scoffing a bit as annoyed memories of defending his choice to everybody resurfaced, looking away with a ghost of a sneer, “I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve gotten people looking at me like I’m crazy, or even tellin’ me I can’t do that. I know I got the talent for baseball, but I don’t wanna do that my whole life, y’know? I’m tired of the sport and the stupid bullshit that comes with it. Besides, music’s more my passion, anyways.”

Hifumi leaned over his podium, peering past the jittery Toko to look at him.

“And so… Miss Maizono was going to help you get into music instead of baseball?”

Refusing to look in his direction, Leon purposely raised his left hand to rub at the back of his head, blocking the fanfic writer’s view of him. He wouldn’t lie that he felt a small sadistic bit of satisfaction at doing that.

“Yeah. I had managed to tell her a few days ago that I planned on getting into the music industry. And considering she was the Ultimate Pop Sensation, I’d appreciate any help she could give me.”

“Yeah, both me and Makoto can say he’s telling the truth,” Mondo piped up, jabbing a thumb over to the other boy, “We were all in the entrance hall when he asked for the chick’s help.”

Makoto, on the other hand, still seemed distraught and wasn’t focusing on that.

Leon pretended he didn’t notice him or the portrait and nodded, continuing on.

“So, yeah, she told me that was the reason she called me over; she wanted to plan with me in the future some meetups, so she could help me get better at singing and playing an instrument. I was totally ecstatic about that; it just meant I was gettin’ closer to my dream, y’know?” he explained, taking a breath to recall what standworthy moment happened next, “She then offered me some candy she had on the desk behind the bed.”

“Candy…?” Makoto was able to somewhat regain his barings and breathe out in a confused inquiry.

“Yeah, she had this tall plastic thing full of candy in one of the drawers. She said she got it from the warehouse when it had opened up yesterday morning, and then offered me some, to which I declined…” Leon answered him, and tightened his jawline a bit too tight for his liking as he realized he was coming to the hard part, “So, she put it back on the desk… and while I was thanking her for helping me… that’s when she… pulled out the knife…”

An extremely serious atmosphere seemed to descend into the room, everyone’s gazes becoming critical and judgemental once they looked towards him. Possibly to gauge if he was lying, if his body movements betrayed his testimony, or whatever else. All he knew in that moment was it took, like, more than one hundred percent of his soul to not flinch at this. Especially Celeste’s red eyes that seemed to drill into his right side.

Even more so when Byakuya spoke and caused him to look over her at him, “So, you’re making the claim that Sayaka was the one who held the knife. Is that correct?”

“Yeah,” he nodded with pursed lips, “She had it from the start. I never touched it…”

“And that’s when she started attacking you, right?” Kyoko asked, getting a nod from him when he looked across towards her, “Can you describe a bit what happened during it?”

“Uh… You mean… go into detail? Uhh…”

Seriously, of all times now? He has to start doing his nervous smile thing of all times now? And the more he thought of it and tried to stop doing it, it just grew more. A shaky huff pushing through his teeth, he suddenly felt like he couldn’t swallow whatever was in his throat.

“I mean… the state of the room speaks for itself, doesn’t it…?” he tried weakly.

“Unfortunately, no. We need you to go into specifics where you can and as much as you can. It’s the only way we can verify whether your claim of Sayaka being the attacker in the situation is true or not,” Kyoko shook her head, although her eyes seemed to soften a bit.

Of course it wouldn’t.

For fuck’s sake, this was supposed to be easy. It was gonna be easy. So why now when he needs to go over the attempted murder attempt, he-

“Leon.”

It’s when his name is called that he realized he was staring at the uncovered, checkered floor in the middle of the circle up towards the lilac haired girl, whose expression also now softened like her eyes.

“I know it may be hard for you to relive what went down between you and Sayaka, and I’m sorry for making you do it. But it’s crucial for you to do so. All of our lives depend on it.”

He… he knew that. He just…

His eyes glanced at the seat to the left of her where Sakura stood, who gave a nod to him while keeping a stoic look. Quickly darting his vision towards Hina, who tried to give a reassuring smile and nod of her own, he licked his lips in an attempt to calm his nerves. The smile creeping onto his lips had become less of his nervous impulse and more of a sad acceptance of the truth.

“Yeah, I know… I just...”

He began, looking down as in that moment, his knife wound throbbed ever so slightly to make his right arm tense and to be weary. It was like everything had come to his attention. The fact he was going relive his almost murder. The fact that although the meds were doing what he wanted, he could still feel the pain from it like what happened just now. The fact that he realized he could count how many sweat drops had formed on his brow.

“S-Sorry… I, uh… don’t really remember much about the start of it, because at the time, it was such a massive blur, y’know? When she… started trying to stab me and shit…? Because it took like everything I had to just dodge whatever she tried. ‘Cuz, like…”

He let out a bitter chuckle.

“...Despite how she looked… she was really fuckin’ fast, y’know…?”

He may not have said it, but… he really was thankful that no one spoke up after he said that. That they let him just… do his thing. At least everyone could give him that much, right…?

“So… yeah… From there, she basically started attacking me with the knife. Anywhere there was some kind of mark from a weapon is where I kept trying to get the hell away from her…” he began to try and explain, trying very hard to ignore the portrait now, “Eventually… she ended up backing me into the table.”

“So the reason the table was knocked over was because you backed up into it?” Taka asked, bringing a hand up to rest his chin on.

“Yeah... I ended up losing my balance and fell backwards with it. I think I also lost my room key during that as well, because it was in my jacket pocket,” Leon said, his left hand unconsciously motioning to the same pocket, “And when I ran out of the room, it wasn’t there.”

“What happened next?” Kyoko asked.

“Well.. she kinda ended up backing me into the shelf thing where there was this golden sword sitting on top of it. Shocked the hell out of me, because I didn’t expect to see a sword in the room-”

“Yo, wait up. Sorry for interrupting ya,” Mondo raised a hand up to catch his attention, before it found its way to the back of his neck, “but what’s the deal with that sword? I’ve kinda been wonderin’ why it was there to begin with…”

“Mondo.”

Leon was somewhat curious that Makoto had been the one to answer the biker’s question; the kid looked up, placing a hand on his chest to refer to himself.

“Do you remember when Sayaka and I chatted with you and Leon? The same thing you referenced a while ago?” he asked and continued once Mondo nodded briefly, “That day, if you remember, we were looking for things we could use for self-defense. We found that sword in one of the glass cases in the entryway to the gym; Sayaka suggested I take it back to my room.”

So that’s when the sword was put in Makoto’s room and why. Leon licked his lips and continued once it appeared the biker was satisfied with the answer by giving a nod to him and looking back at the baseball star.

“Yeah, uh… Anyways… I grabbed it to defend myself. I don’t think that Sayaka was prepared for that? To me, she was caught off guard that I was able to do that,” he admitted.

“So… what? You grabbed the sword and then… fought her? Like some kind of duel or somethin’?” Hiro folded his arms, frowning.

A brief panic rose in Leon’s chest as he turned to look at him, trying his best to ignore it altogether, “Wha- no, I didn’t try to attack her, dude. I actually tried my fuckin’ best to get my ass outta there. Like, when I blocked her attack with the sword, I tried bolting for the door. But, again, Sayaka was, like, super fast and intercepted me. When that happened, I tried to talk her out of it. Y’know, like get her to calm down and stuff by-”

...by bringing up Makoto’s name.

Well, that was the truth, but… that nearly just shot out of his mouth before he could stop himself for a pause. For real, man. Was that kid gonna get a break? Briefly sneaking a glance over at him, Makoto looked like his entire world was imploding. It was supposed to be a relief that he was able to talk when he addressed Mondo a while ago, but nope. Not even close. A grimacing expression while the eyes avoided meeting anyone else’s and gluing their view to the floor, the baseball star fought the urge to bite the inside of his cheek in frustration. The fact that he was wary of Makoto before this trial began and now here he was a tad worried about him was…

Gawd, why does this have to be so complicated and crap?

Recovering from his pause in a hopefully stellar way that didn’t make anyone notice it, he tried waving his left hand in a movement of ‘you know what I mean’ and kept going, “-...Y’know? To get her to stop and stuff. But she was, like, way off the deep end, goin’ crazy and crap. And she lunged at me in a way that I couldn’t block or move out of the way in time…”

“And that’s when she had successfully injured you with the kitchen knife...” Sakura finished his statement, getting him to nod in confirmation.

“Yeah… She faked me out by bringing the knife up, and then ducking down low when I brought my arms up with the sword to block it. I couldn’t stop it or get out of the way in time, and what’s when she got me with it. And...”

...Aw, crap.

“...And, uh…”

“Leon? What’s wrong?” Hina asked, a concerned frown appearing as she tilted her head with a furrowed brow.

This was it. This was the part he really didn’t want to admit to, but…

...It wouldn’t be wise to lie now.

“...I, uh… I think… I might have been the one to break Sayaka’s wrist…”

Oho, hot damn, if anybody hadn’t been really invested into his explanation, they were now. The moment he said the words ‘been the one to break’, every pair of eyes either widened to the size of dinner plates or narrowed in further suspicion (honestly, it may be better to label it distrust at this point). For fuck’s sake, when he wanted to stand out and be the center of attention, this was not what he meant, like, for real. The worst pairs of eyes he tried to ignore where Makoto, who God only knows probably hates his guts from everything, and Hina and Sakura, who he doesn’t even wanna know if, in that moment, they still trust him like the swimmer said or if they have rescinded that effective immediately. But the one that was impossible to ignore? Kyoko. Her eyes were the first one to land and lock onto him as he admitted to breaking Sayaka’s wrist, and now it was like they were carefully analyzing him-

“Y-You broke her w-wrist? Y-You just said y-you didn’t a-attack her!” Toko spit out, her body shaking.

“I didn’t attack her! Come on, didn’t you just hear what I said? She had slashed me with the knife!” Leon glared at her back, gritting his teeth, “At that point, I-”

-became filled with an uncontrollable rage OH FUCK do NOT say that right now-

“-was fuckin’ panicking; I thought I was gonna die! So I just swung the sword at her to get her away from me!”

Thank you, brain, for listening to him for once-

“You swung the sword at her?” Kyoko unfolded her arms, her face morphing into a serious mask, “I’m assuming you did so like you would with a baseball bat?”

“Yeah, just like if I was going for a grand slam, y’know?” Leon said, slowly mimicking the movement to not agitate his wound, “I wasn’t purposely trying to aim to kill or whatever! I just wanted her to get the fuck away from me, so I took a swing and it happened to get her wrist…!”

“A swing from that sword would do some considerate damage to someone… but a swing from that sword being held by the Ultimate Baseball Star? It wouldn’t surprise me if Miss Maizono’s wrist wasn’t shattered completely…” Hifumi deduced with a leer towards his direction, adjusting his glasses in the process.

Oh, fuck off; he already feels like shit about all of this. He didn’t need your commentary, you fat-

“I see… that is most unfortunate,” Celeste looked away, her tone sending chills up Leon’s spine, “Even if you turned out not to be Sayaka’s killer, the fact that you were responsible for another injury that she sustained is troubling.”

“But it was for self-defense!”

He widened his eyes as he glanced over at Hina piping up with a determined visage and leaning forward on her podium, “Yeah, it’s horrible that he had to break her wrist, but Leon’s allowed to defend himself when Sayaka’s attacking him first!”

“If that’s what happened and he’s telling the truth, then yes, his use of the sword in that manner would be self-defense,” Byakuya conceded before challenging back, “But that isn’t where this ends, is it? We need to hear what happened next.”

“Agreed. Continue, Leon,” Kyoko nodded, looking back towards the baseball star, who had recovered with a nod.

“Right, so… After I hit her with the sword, she dropped the knife on the ground and then, seeing me still with the sword in my hand, ran into the bathroom.”

“A-And then… t-that’s when you picked up t-the knife and broke into t-the bathroom to stab h-her, right?” Toko sneered accusingly, not turning to look at him still, and yet her head turning to somewhat address him.

Now that he was mostly over recapping Sayaka going all stabby on him, Leon wasn’t as shakily hesitant anymore and his annoyance and short-patience mixed with crabbiness had returned in his facial features.

“No, I didn’t. Gawd, could ya stop accusing me over and over already?” he groaned out with an impatient huff, not even bothering to see Toko’s reaction to snapping back, “I didn’t touch the knife at all, and I didn’t go into the bathroom. I actually bolted out of the room once Sayaka backed off, because once I realized I was bleeding really bad, I started having spots come into my vision; that made me drop the sword, because I was freaking the hell out that I was gonna die. So I just took off. I, uh… kinda lost my footing and slipped in the hallway for a brief moment; that killed like a son of a gun. Like, for real...”

“That would explain the weird bloodstain outside of Makoto’s room. The way it appeared as if something had slid into the wall… I can absolutely see that being how it came to be from how you said it!” Taka agreed, folding his arms with a satisfied agreement.

During this time, Kyoko had begun to fold her arms, glancing away as if to think things through… or perhaps, putting pieces together.

“Right? So then, I ran to get back into my room, because, y’know, God forbid Sayaka came out of the room with the knife and started chasing me down the hall to finish me off or whatever,” the punk continued, feeling a bit more confident from Taka’s remark, “But when I got there, I realized my key was gone and I wasn’t about to try and go back to the room when she and the knife were still there. So… I turned to the next option that came to mind, and that was to get Sakura’s help.”

Finishing his explanation, he looked quickly towards the fighter herself, who gave him an acknowledging nod. This seemed to pique Celeste’s curiosity, as she hid her lips behind her hand and raised an eyebrow at him.

“Why Sakura specifically?”

“I know it sounds dumb, but like… out of all of us, she’s kinda the closest thing to a doctor that we have, right? Being a fighter and all, she’d know about injuries and how to treat them, or at least, that’s what I thought. Plus, she has bandages wrapped around her arms and legs right now, so I figured she must’ve had some that could help me with my knife wound, y’know?” Leon replied in a sheepish manner at first, but slowly gained more confidence and resolve.

That answer seemed to satisfy the lolita and the majority of the class. Even Byakuya, out of the corner of his eye behind her, seemed to give a slight nod at that being a logical thought process. Yes, yes yes… Please tell him this meant people were starting to believe him-

“But… if you were wanting Sakura’s help, how come you ended up in Hina’s room?” Chihiro asked.

Not gonna lie; he almost accidentally unloaded on the poor girl with a panicked explanation before reeling himself back in at the last second by taking a sharp inhale in and ignoring the metallic taste of his tongue piercing against the roof of his mouth.

“Because I was panicking like all hell. I was bleeding all over myself, I thought I was gonna die, I couldn’t find my room key, and I was freakin’ out about Sayaka potentially coming out of the room after me. Hina’s door was legit the first thing I saw during it, so I ended up banging on it,” he explained, giving a nervous smile as he glanced back over at Sakura, “But, I mean… I ended up being real lucky and all. Because like it was mentioned before, Sakura had ended up sleeping over with Hina in her room… and she ended up opening the door…”

With that, the muscular giant gave him a look to relax and that she would take it from there as she spoke up, “And from there, the testimony that Hina and I gave you before Monokuma had everyone gather in the gymnasium comes into play. Of how the two of us pulled him into the room and used Hina’s sewing kit to try and save him.”

“Yup! That’s exactly what happened!” Hina exclaimed, clutching at the collar of her jacket with such pumped up fervor, “And you all know the rest of finding Sayaka’s body and everything that came after.”

Finding himself clutching his hands tightly with a fiery passion that he hadn’t felt in a long time, Leon raised his left fist in front of his chest and proclaimed, “Totally! And that’s the truth! I did not kill Sayaka! I swear to God I’m not the ‘blackened’ you’re all lookin’ for!”

A brief silence had come across the entire room upon realizing the fact that Leon had finished his testimony and now it was time to determine if what he said was the truth. And of course, it was the truth! But the problem with this class trial was that you had to convince people to realize you were innocent and telling the truth. And despite Leon feeling such an adrenaline boost in his veins to where his physical pain was almost non-existent in these moments, he hated his odds right now.

With two dead and excluding himself, there were twelve potential votes that could determine whether he and everyone died from getting the culprit wrong. The extra, sucky bullshit part was that during the class trial, five people were already critical and didn’t trust him: Hifumi, Toko, Celeste, Byakuya, and Hiro.

Already, that’s five people, which is half of the voting pool. If he got one or two more people disbelieving him, it was game over, and he and everyone else besides the killer were dead men and women.

And that’s why a part of him was extra worried about Makoto, because with how wrecked he looks and what kind of stuff he had to reveal that went down between him and Sayaka…

He couldn’t even bring himself to look in the kid’s direction; instead, he took a deep breath and only hardened his passionate scowl.

“So… that’s what happened between you and Sayaka...?” Hiro asked with a frown, folding his arms with a worried look on his face once Leon glanced over and nodded.

“I mean… I suppose it does sound plausible for Mr. Kuwata’s story to be true… but I’m not sure…” Hifumi admitted to his indecisiveness, much to the other boy’s dismay and annoyance.

“Damn… It sounds like it could be true, though,” Mondo grumbled, a frustrated snarl being unintentionally sent towards Leon’s direction before cursing under his breath and glancing away.

Come on. Please. You gotta believe him. Please, if you don’t, everyone was gonna get killed…

“...Kyoko?”

His steeled visage being broken by widening his eyes in surprise, Leon joined everyone glancing over at Makoto. Even in the middle of his world being turned upside down, the kid seemed to gather enough willpower to break free from his stunned state and get the girl to look over to him.

“I… I want to hear what you have to say,” he asked, the action of pursing his lips briefly and glancing back up to her looking like a superhuman effort, “You were the one who said Leon’s testimony would be crucial to finding out the truth. That’s why… I want to know. What do you think now after what he’s told us?”

All eyes turned towards the lilac haired girl, who was not in the least bit fazed from being put in the spotlight. Her arms remaining folded across her chest, she let her eyes drift away to the side, as if to think of what her response was. Leon could feel his teeth clench under his lips as he only tightened his fists. The entire investigation period, that girl wouldn’t tell him whether she viewed him as guilty or innocent. But now that he had told them everything, it was time to hear what her judgement was. And for some reason, the weight of what she thought felt like it was doubled what everyone else would think…

Eventually, Kyoko looked back and directly at him. The suspense was killing him, despite it only being a few seconds.

“Very well. After hearing everything he’s told us, looking back over everything thus far, and from what I’ve found and heard during the investigation…”

Oh, gawd, here it is. Oh gawd, oh gawd oh gawd oh gawd.

Leon’s eyes darted to both Hina and Sakura within milliseconds of each other before the two girls could even realize it, but upon seeing that they were also looking at Kyoko, he found himself closing his eyes. The chills crawling over his skin and his nerves acting up, the boy clamped the eyelids shut as tight as he could as all he could do… was wait and listen.

And then, she spoke.

…

…

…

“...There’s no doubt in my mind. Leon is telling the truth; he is not Sayaka’s killer.”

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better...

 

....Puhuhuhuhuhu.....

Chapter 20: Ch 1: CLASS TRIAL 4

Notes:

I swear, if someone is able to screenshot when the story hits 11037 views/hits, I'd LOVE to get my hands on it; just in case I'm working when it happens. XD Okay, on to the story~

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Upupupupupupupupupupupupupu....

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……

………

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...Wow…

It… It was… hah…

It was like… it was like for the first time… the first time ever since he turned around to see Sayaka holding the kitchen knife in her hands?

He could… breathe.

Breathe without being consumed by emotions of fear, nervousness, anger, or suspicion. Without feeling a sense of agony throbbing throughout his whole being.

Breathe… with absolute… relief.

He didn’t even have to hear the rest of the words that came out of Kyoko’s mouth. With how much he was running on a rush of anxiety, all he needed to hear was ‘is telling the’ to have the relief and joy rush through his body and begin to create a whirlpool of itself, joy, and… hope in his chest, which helped him breathe.

His eyes had initially shot open wide, but the comprehension of his innocence being announced relaxed his facial muscles and began to make his mind understand.

Normally, Leon is the kind of guy who was a major dynamic celebrater. The kind of guy who shouts “I told you so” at the top of his lungs, hoots and hollers to pump up the people around him, and even some ecstatic fists pumps and clapping as well had been seen coming from him on his past days on the mound during games. And yet… in this moment...

This was the first time his heart started doing backflips of pure happiness and he simply took it in a quietly stunned, but quite possibly humble stride.

His reaction was to look towards Sakura right to the side of Kyoko. While her posture hadn’t changed, there was a warm, small smile on her face, letting her head nod to him. He then dragged his eyes over towards Hina, who already was smiling excitedly, confidently placing her hands on her hips while giving him an encouraging set of nods herself.

And when he saw their reactions… he felt a gasp come out of his lungs, which tugged at the corners of his mouth to form into a smile. And another gasp which led to the same results. And again and again, until Leon was nearly grinning from ear to ear. He found himself slightly collapsing back into his chair in a cautious and careful plop, not even feeling the pain if there was some from his injury as he lowered his head and began to giggle from how fuckin’ awesome it was to know that it could be proven that he was innocent.

Meanwhile, outside of his head… the courtroom was in chaos.

“SAY WHAAAAAAAAT!?” Hifumi shrieked, which caused the chain reaction of panicked yelling to start.

“N-No way! Leon isn’t the one who killed Sayaka!?” Hiro shouted in disbelief, his hands clutching at some of his dreads as his posture slouched dramatically.

“Holy fuckin’ shit! So the dude’s innocent for real?” Mondo’s jaw dropped, staring right at the girl to his right.

“H-How!? A-After everything we’ve s-seen, h-he has to be the k-killer!” Toko shouted, her shaking nearly increasing tenfold while still refusing to budge for her suspicion towards the punk.

“EVERYONE, CEASE AND DESIST AT ONCE!!!”

With a mighty, yet disciplined shout that bellowed from the very depths of his soul, Taka was able to silence everyone into a quiet, stunned state, minus the few exceptions of annoyed murmurs from people like Mondo and Toko. Seeing the result he wanted, he closed his eyes and reassembled his perfect posture.

“...My apologies for such an ungraceful outburst, everyone, but now is the least appropriate time to fall into a mass panic,” he offered a quick apology before glancing over at the girl with the unknown talent, “Kyoko, if you please? I would like to hear exactly what vindicates Leon from being the culprit.”

“Thank you, Taka. As for what exactly proves Leon innocent, there’s actually multiple reasons to go into on why his testimony is truthful.”

“Is that so? Then what is the first thing that clears him of suspicion?” Celeste asked.

“Well, there is really no specific order we need to abide by in going over everything, but… I suppose we could start with the blood splatter on the floors of Makoto’s dorm and outside in the hallway,” Kyoko pointed out.

...Wait… The blood splatter? Not to look a gift horse in the mouth (after all, it’s something that’s helping clear his name, for God’s sake), but… even Leon was curious about that one. He raised his head up just in time to see the lilac-haired girl look towards him.

“Now, he’s currently sitting down, but I’m sure that all of you have managed to get a good look at the state of Leon’s physical condition. To which I’m referring to how much blood has stained his clothes, despite the few bits of clothing that he and Hina seemed to try and wash before the trial,” she said, glancing over at Hina nodding at her, and back to him as the class continued to listen, “According to his testimony, Sayaka had managed to wound him with the knife. I’m not claiming to be a medical expert of any kind, so I don’t know how badly or deep the injury may be. But from what we can see, the injury was wide enough to cause a lot of bleeding to stain that much of Leon’s clothes. Even if he tried to cover the wound with an arm, it appears it would’ve bled enough to still leave traces on the floor.”

“Okay, but… how does this prove he didn’t do it?” Mondo asked, his face tilting in a clueless grimace.

“Because the blood splatter proves exactly where Leon’s movements were,” Kyoko swiftly replied with, causing several surprised noises to come from the class, “The larger area of blood in the main area of Makoto’s dorm tells us exactly where Leon was standing when he was injured by Sayaka’s attack. It then leads out of the room and into the hallway, which is exactly how Leon claimed to run away after Sayaka had retreated into the bathroom. And the certain splatter of blood outside of the door in the hallway is exactly how Taka described it.”

“Exactly! Just like how Leon described himself slipping and colliding into the wall!” Said hall monitor piped up, pleased to see his observation was noted.

“And how some blood was found leading to outside Leon’s door, showing he tried to escape, or how it led to mine with some on my door, also showing he tried to get help and eventually Sakura and I pulled him inside,” Hina added, having Kyoko give a subtle nod.

“Precisely. However… we also can surmise that Sayaka was killed in the bathroom. If Leon is really the killer, there should’ve been some evidence of blood starting from the area where he was attacked and leading towards the bathroom as well as any on the bathroom door as similar to the hallway and Hina’s door. And yet, there’s not,” she explained before steering the conversation into its next point, “Furthermore, the lint roller also pertains to the blood splatter.”

“H-Huh? How so…?” Chihiro hesitantly asked.

“Well, we’ve already gone over the fact that it was the killer who used the lint roller in order to remove their own hair from the room as a means of removing any trace that they had ever been there. And yet… not only is there no trace of blood on the other half of the room near the table that was knocked over or towards the lint roller, but the lint roller itself is spotless. That alone proves Leon couldn’t have been the one to use it to remove any trace of hair,” Kyoko explained, one of her gloved hands raising up and rotating a bit during her explanation, “After all, Leon testified he was backed into the table and fell, so his hair would’ve gotten on the floor.”

“And yet… because Leon would’ve been bleeding and left behind traces of blood, and there was none in those places… he couldn’t have been him?” Hiro asked with a struggling frown, tugging at one of his dreads in a confused manner whilst raising an eyebrow towards the nodding Kyoko.

“Exactly,” she answered, creating more of a much needed relief to grow in Leon’s chest as his hopeful smile increased in size, “Next, I’d like to move on to the next subject that proves Leon’s innocence: the replica sword. This will be a bit longer to cover, because there are two parts to this: the gold coating and the sheath.”

“Hmm? I could understand how a part of the sword could be used in order to prove someone’s innocence, but the actual color and design? How does that prove anything?” Celeste’s eyes widened for a millisecond before hiding her mouth behind a curious hand.

“...I think… I think I know how.”

Everyone once again turned to Makoto as he, despite having the same inner conflict-like face, dared to give an answer, “When Sayaka and I found the sword, despite her being the one to suggest taking it back, she was the one to carry it towards my room while I carried the stand for it. After we placed it in my room, we found a bunch of the gold coating of it had gotten onto her hands.”

“So then… the gold coating comes off?” Chihiro asks, fidgeting with her fingers.

“Yeah. You barely have to touch that stuff and it’ll stick right to you,” Makoto nodded, “I let Sayaka use my bathroom in order to wash it off; it comes off with water, but it takes a while…”

“And because the gold coating comes off so easily, it paints a clear picture as to whom made what kind of contact with the sword,” Kyoko continued, having many of the group follow her line of vision as she glanced back to the one whose name she was helping to clear, “Especially because Leon himself allowed me to examine his hands.”

Y-Yo…

It was like a lightbulb suddenly went off over his head as he glanced down at his lap and moved his left hand into view. So that’s why she asked him to look at his hands back at the crime scene…?

“Many of you probably haven’t been able to notice it. But besides any dried blood, Leon also has some sparkling gold coating on the palms and fingers of his hands,” the girl from across the circle continued, a cross section of the attention either being on her or the young man in question looking over said part of his body, “The way it’s on his hands supports his testimony of not only him being the one who had the sword, but how he held it like when he used self-defense against Sayaka. Furthermore, I was able to examine Sayaka’s body; there’s also a small bit of the same gold coating on the side of her broken wrist.”

“Ah! Just like Leon saying he hit her wrist in self-defense!” Hina chimed in, her fist hitting down onto her palm as an emphasis for her sudden epiphany.

Finishing up his own self-examination of his left hand, the boy brought his head up, and, um… if Kyoko had looked in his direction, she would’ve seen Leon staring at her with his eyes colored in both grateful awe and stunned disbelief. For real, like… Not only the fact he has some of the gold on his hands, but how it’s positioned on his hands? Just how many steps was this girl thinking ahead…?

“...Y-You don’t know that for sure, d-do you?”

He and everyone turned towards Leon’s greatest skeptic, Toko, as while she was heavily struggling, her eyes attempted to steel themselves and prepared to argue against the building momentum of Leon’s innocence being proven. While his face appeared annoyed, the baseball star felt his chest somewhat tighten with a fear that Kyoko’s reasoning would easily be flawed and he’d be shoved back into the hot seat.

“T-The gold coating d-doesn’t necessarily p-prove that! After all, Sayaka w-was killed in the b-bathroom, r-right?” the girl sneered, attempting to keep an extended arm with an index finger pointed towards the lilac-haired girl from shaking, “F-For all you know, she c-could’ve easily washed all of it off her h-hands and m-missed the s-small bit on her wrist! S-See? That c-could prove your w-whole-”

“No, it wouldn’t.”

...Well, hot damn! He was happy to hear someone interrupt her, but… Byakuya of all people? No one had a wider pair of eyes than Leon himself as everyone turned to look at the progeny, who rested his index finger on the side of his glasses once more.

“If you remember the notes Monokuma left for us to find upon entering our dorm rooms, then you’ll realize that what you just said isn’t possible,” he said, glancing with a look that seemed to scream how annoying and tiresome this topic of discussion was.

“...You’re talking about the water being shut off, right?” Makoto was able to beat Leon to asking what Byakuya meant, looking for confirmation on the other’s part.

While he got nothing but a disinterested pair of eyes glancing in the other direction, Toko seemed stunned while she raised a thumb towards her lips, “W-What are you saying…?”

“According to the Monokuma File, Sayaka’s death was estimated to be around 1:35 am. In other words, at nighttime,” the boy explained, his facial muscles wanting, yet struggling to strengthen into a more determined visage, “And based on what the notes in our rooms said, the water in our dorm bathrooms shuts off during nighttime. Which means Sayaka... wouldn’t have been able to wash her hands in my bathroom during all this…”

Upon hearing this, for the first time throughout this whole thing, the girl had lowered her hands from her chest towards the waistline of her uniform, but kept the shaky fingers intertwined.

“O-Oh… I didn’t know that. Actually…” she admitted, grimacing as she glanced towards the direction of the elevator that brought them all down to this hellhole’s basement thing, “I haven’t taken a s-shower here yet…”

………...Yeah, like he needed to know that. What the dribbling shit-

It’s been several days since they’ve been here, and she hasn’t even bathed yet?? Why would you even admit to-

And especially of all times here when they’re trying to figure out a murder-

Gawddamn-

And he’s friggin’ sat next to her when she-

The fact this girl is one of the people who were so hell bent on accusing him of being Sayaka’s-

HE. CANNOT. DEAL.

He didn’t think that anyone could nearly bewilder him so much (well, aside from Sakura being the biggest juggernaut he’s ever laid eyes on, Mondo going all Street Fighter on Makoto’s ass, Hiro basically treating the eye remover on his head like laundry, and these are not even counting Sayaka going psycho on him-), but apparently, Toko was able to do that with how she made him stare at the floor in utter denial. Being careful to not push his luck and agitate his wound, Leon carefully pressed the right arm against his side, so his hand could also join the left and rest the tips of his index and middle fingers onto his temples. Like, in an attempt to try and process the shit he just heard.

And hey, it wasn’t just him. For real, Leon could legit feel the disgust of some of the others just radiating off them once she admitted that, especially the immediate two on his right.

“Oh my…” Hifumi muttered loud enough in a somewhat disturbed tone.

For once? He actually agreed with the guy-

Toko’s hands raised back into a defensive, twitchy ‘guard’ near her chest as she snapped back with snarling teeth, “Y-You’re no d-different! You s-smell like a big, f-fat, ugly donkey!!”

What even is this right now??

His face repulsing into a look that seemed to question anything and everything, he looked towards the two girls across the circle as this chaos began to crumble apart. Hina seemed just as disturbed and lost as he was, while Sakura clearly was not amused. Yeah, he couldn’t blame her-

“Hmm? I’m not sure whether I’m supposed to take that as an insult or a compliment!”

COME ON, DUDE-

“An insult! Obviously!” Leon exasperatedly shouted before his brain could register his actions, glaring in disbelief at the shocked human beach ball.

“AHEM.”

A ominous, thundering sound of someone clearing their throat halted the recent talking trio in their verbal tracks and sent the most frostbite of chills up their spines as they looked up to see Sakura giving them a look that quite matter-of-factly that they were to cease immediately. While Leon could tell that the severity of her glance was at least a degree lighter in his regard, as well as her being a really cool person to him right now, that girl could seriously be scary when she wanted to be. Feeling himself shrink back into his chair as he embarrassingly looked away like both Toko and Hifumi did, he did his best to not bring attention as he tried to dislodge the lump in his throat so hard that he almost gagged upon tricking himself into feeling that he nearly swallowed his tongue piercing.

Satisfied that all three stopped with the unnecessary tangent, Sakura’s expression returned to normal upon looking at the girl to her left.

“Focusing back on the sword… you’ve explained the gold coating part. And the sheathe?”

Kyoko nodded in acknowledgement, “According to Leon’s testimony, he made it clear he never touched the kitchen knife and that he was the one to use the sword. Knowing this, the condition of the sheathe is easily explained.."

"Erm, okay… I don’t really get what you mean, here…” Hiro admitted, his mouth deforming into a confused sneer-like frown, “Like… did somethin’ happen to it?”

“Yes, something did happen to it; specifically, the sheathe had been scratched,” Makoto once again piped up, “When I investigated, I found that it had some damage on it.”

“Ah, pardon moi. I know that this is a rather late time to address this, but… Is there a possibility that we could see said damage towards the sheathe...? This isn’t me trying to call you out; I would honestly like to see proof of these statements being true,” Celeste requested.

“Yeah. I managed to take a picture of it.”

Wha-!! Wait, hold on a damn minute!!

Before he could even offer it to the lolita who asked politely, Leon felt himself sputtering out in an attempt to speak; however, Hina was able to beat him to it.

“Wait, what?? How did you manage to take a picture? Wasn’t all our stuff confiscated by Monokuma before this killing game started?”

Everybody seemed to clue in on the fact that the ability to take a picture would normally be achieved by an electronic device and such, and alongside what Hina just said, all eyes instantly locked onto him as Leon finally found his voice.

“Y-Yeah, like, how’d ya manage to pull that off? Did you find a cellphone or something?”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” Makoto shook his head, not meaning to crush any relief to those hopeful that he found something valuable like that, “I was able to take a picture with my E-Handbook.”

“Wait, you can take pictures with the E-Handbook?” Hiro gawked, slouching like a statue until he was shaken out of his stupor via him stopping his jacket from sliding off his shoulders.

“Yeah! I was never told about this feature! How are you able to accomplish taking pictures on this device?” Taka shouted, instantly pulling out his own and inspecting it while some of the other students reached for theirs.

“W-Well… you can’t. At least… not right now, anyways,” the ahoge haired boy hesitated before pulling his E-Handbook out, booting up the main menu, and then pointing to the bottom left corner underneath the menu choices to an icon that looked like a picture frame, “According to Monokuma, during the investigation period only, there will be a small camera icon in this corner. If you press it, it’ll allow you to take pictures of things you might want to keep a record of.”

“Yup yup!”

Leon nearly flinched at the high-pitched, cartoonish voice of Monokuma suddenly reestablishing its presence and causing everyone to look over at it. The bear was currently slouching on one of the armrests as it kept its head propped up by resting its face into its left paw.

“I feel like it’d be unfair for you beloved students of mine to not be able to share evidence you may find with your fellow boys and gals, but I also know that you can’t exactly tamper with it by bringing it along with you and ruining the crime scene or whatever else you may find… unless you’re the blackened, of course~! So I designed a function on your handbooks that is only available for a limited time! Whenever a murder occurs, you will be able to use a camera to take all kinds of pictures to your heart’s content. When the investigation transitions into the class trial, the camera mode turns into gallery mode; that way, you’ll be able to share what you find in the class trial with your classmates! But I would like to point out; the camera mode is only available during the investigation period; after all, it’d be ‘beary’ bad if you tried to use it for other purposes. Like trying to break the first regulation, for example…”

Ignoring the very poor bear pun, everyone seemed to glare at the bear with either total seriousness or contained anger at it reminding them that they were stuck here for the rest of their lives. And that’s when Hina placed both hands on her hips and glowered at it.

“And you only told Makoto about the camera until just now why?”

The bear puffed out its chest in a huff and turned its head away, as if it was trying to pout, “Because only he noticed it and came to ask me about it! It’s not my fault none of you want to talk to your headmaster; maybe if you did, I would’ve been able to tell you about it!”

Hina threw her arms out at the gall this bear had, “Oh my gawd, it’s the worst liar in the world!”

“But, ah, with that said,” Monokuma ignored her outburst and sat up properly, capturing everybody’s attention and getting them to stay silent as it signaled for them to listen, “I would like to make another quick little announcement regarding this camera and gallery function. If you kiddies manage to solve this case and go back into your daily communal life, I will update all of your handbooks. That way, if another murder hopefully does happen, the gallery mode will also allow you to share pictures to each other via your devices, like a image sharing function.”

If another murder hopefully does happen…

Leon’s face soured within a millisecond as he scoffed and glared up at the ceiling, “Gee, how thoughtful of you. We get a new function on our handbooks, but only if we survive and someone else dies…”

You know… sometimes, he really wishes he could stop himself from his mouth and anger just taking over his brain and making him say either some of the dumbest crap or just stuff that, while he strongly believes, should just remain in his head. And frankly, this was one of those moments. The moment he heard a sickly, amused hum coming from the bear, his first thought was quite literally ‘shiiiiit’.

“...I hope that backtalk wasn’t directed at me, Mr. Kuwata. Especially since it seems like you’re mocking my generosity. Or are you saying that I’m being too generous and that I should take back the two things I’ve given you…?”

Crap crap crap crap crap, no, please, he needs those pills; the chair is nice right now, but the pills-

Not wanting to even say anything that the twisted captor could use in order to take away what had been a huge physical relief for him in this time of awful agony, Leon pursed his lips and tried to ignore the chills crawling up his spine as he looked down at the podium. As much as he hated hearing it, he tried to not give a reaction to the smug ‘heh’ he heard.

“...That’s what I thought. Now… with that and my announcement out of the way, let’s get back to the sheath of the sword,” Monokuma said, glancing towards the farther person from it, “Since the update I’ll do on the handbooks won’t happen until after the trial, I’m afraid you’ll have to pass around your own device to show everyone the picture, Makoto.”

The boy nodded and quickly tapped the corner of his device, pulling up said picture of the damaged sheath. Once he did, he loaded up said picture and handed it to Hifumi as the start of passing it around the circle.

“Just to let everyone know, I also took pictures of other things, like the lint roller, places where the blood was, and… Sayaka’s… body,” he hesitated towards the end, but recovered after taking a breath, looking towards Celeste, “So if anyone wants to see pictures of what we’ve already discussed, I can pull them up and show you.”

A pleased nod came from the girl to his right, but Leon was more focused on Kyoko glancing over to the kid with what appeared to be a somewhat impressed look.

“I see… so that’s why you kept pulling out your handbook when you were examining the crime scene.”

“Yeah…”

“Very well. Continue.”

“Right. So… as you all look at the picture, you’ll see that the the sheath was scratched, like I said,” Makoto nodded and looked around the circle as Hifumi passed the device towards Leon’s direction, since Toko refused to touch it, “There’s a few gashes in it, like someone cut into it with something sharp.”

Immediately passing it to Celeste, as he didn’t need to see the picture to know he wasn’t a murderer, he watched Chihiro bring a finger to rest under her bottom lip, “Something sharp… You mean, like the kitchen knife? That was the only sharp thing that was found at the scene…”

WHAM.

Her thought process trailed off as she, Hiro, and Toko flinched at the sudden arm of Mondo slamming into the front of his podium in order for him to get everybody to the discussion to stop, apparently. Geez, can this guy stop beating the crap out of wooden objects?

“Stop jumpin’ around; you’ve lost me with this conversation going all over the place about cameras, galleries, and dumb shit! Slow down and explain it, so that I get what the hell’s going on!”

“It’s easy to explain, actually,” Kyoko answered, not even flinching as she met his frustrated eyes, “The damage of the sheath indicates that whoever was holding the sword wasn’t the one to attack, but defend. After all, if you wanted to attack someone with the sword, you’d want to take it out of its sheath first, correct?”

And like that, the leader of the Crazy Diamonds’ annoyance evaporated as he nodded in understanding, rubbing at the back of his neck with a satisfied grunt, “That’s true. With the sheath on, it’d be heavy and bulky and useless as shit.”

While Taka, who mind you had made a point earlier in the trial about not getting sidetracked, chastised him with a very loud “Language!” and the two began to hold an impromptu glaring contest, Hifumi asked with a disturbed face, “Okay, so how did the sheath get damaged?”

“If we accept that Leon’s testimony is the truth and that Sayaka tried to kill him, then the damage is quite easily explained,” Byakuya replied, passing the handbook towards the smaller girl to his right without looking at her, “Using the sword to defend against attempts of being stabbed would cause that kind of damage to the sheath. And with the gold coating supporting the narrative that Leon was the one in possession of the sword, that would mean Sayaka was the one using the knife and thus, she is responsible for the damage.”

“Which would also prove that she was the one who attacked first, and that Leon was using the sword to defend himself,” Chihiro said, nearly gasping at the realization and as Hiro also grabbed onto the handbook.

He wasn’t sure if his ears were playing tricks on him, but at that statement, he heard what sounded like a choking wince coming from the left. A part of him had a feeling of who it came from, but still, he turned his head to look and… man, he felt his heart sink into his gut. Makoto, man; dude just looked like his family got run over by a dump truck right in front of him (and that wasn’t even taking into account that his family could’ve been the ones on his DVD thing; he didn’t know). The pain and betrayal that was in his stunned face and heartbroken eyes was… like, for real… really hard to look at. Like, for now, erase all the doubts and suspicions he had about Makoto; he really felt bad for him. With him being closer to Sayaka and now getting to find out what her true plan was? He might’ve thought earlier that he couldn’t imagine how he must be feeling, but that was now amplified by like a million.

He wish he could say or do something to help, but…

Out of the corner of his eyes, he looked across the circle to see Kyoko also looking at him. He blinked, because… he wasn’t sure, but it looked like there was a tint of sympathy in her eyes…

“B-But hold on a second!” Hiro shouted out, leaning over his podium to look at Makoto’s handbook while the petite programmer next to him flinched at his volume and was trapped in mid process of handing it to him, “According to this picture, the sheath was over near the knocked out table on the opposite side of the room, not near the sword where Leon claimed he dropped it. Like, that doesn’t make sense! If he didn’t go anywhere near that area, how do you-”

“Okay, first! Would you-”

An impatient huff came out of Hina, as she had left her seat and slightly stomped her way into the empty spot to the right of him; apparently, the guy had been co-holding the handbook for a bit too long in her eyes and had forgotten the ‘passing’ part of passing it along, while also trapping poor Chihiro in holding it with him. In her attempt to reach out for it, only then did the guy realize there was a person within a few inches of his face. That action caused a tiny “GAH!” out him, as he violently jerked back, causing not only both girls to be startled, but for him to rip it out of the smaller girl’s hands and actually somewhat fling it in mid-air. He couldn’t speak for everyone, but Leon nearly did a double take that turned into an incredulous stare as Hina, after fumbling the device around in her hands like a game of hot potato, finally managed to grab it after it came down and deadpan at him. Seemingly satisfied with Hiro shriveling up in embarrassment, she sighed and walked back to her seat before addressing him again.

“Geez… Okay, and second, did you totally forget about how Leon used the sword in self-defense? He swung it like a baseball bat!”

“And a swing from someone whose talent is, at this time, the Ultimate Baseball Star would have produced enough force for the sheath to come off,” Sakura added on (Leon noticing and appreciating the specific note about his talent), looking towards Kyoko’s nod.

“Add that to the sheath making physical contact with Sayaka’s wrist, and that gives a logical explanation as to why the sheath was in a different area of the room, wouldn’t you say?” the girl confidently concluded the three part rebuttal to Hiro’s remark.

Truth be told here, he wasn’t sure if this was a side effect of the medication happening or if it was just the tension of everything lessening even more now, but Leon could feel himself drifting into the fatigue where one’s shoulders feel heavy. It did kinda suck, though. Because every time he breathed out, the wound did kinda make itself known now with a small, but sharp pain. Still, it was better than constant torture or being entirely on edge or a total shitshow combo of both. He tried to sit up as he heard one of his biggest doubters… finally start to come around.

“...I see. It would appear… that Leon truly is not the killer we seek for Sayaka’s murder,” Celeste closed her eyes and admitted, giving a grateful, yet confident expression boost to his goatee-adorned face.

“Yes. And that’s not even taking the other clues into consideration.”

While many others in the circle were shocked, none were more than Hiro himself, who after shaking himself free from Hina’s disappointment glare, reeled back in total disbelief as he raised his hands towards his head and gawked at Kyoko.

“There’s more!?”

“Oh, absolutely. For example, the fact that Sayaka was killed in the bathroom with the broken glass everywhere; one would think that perhaps, the killer had gotten a few pieces of glass on their person or perhaps could’ve been scratched by them. And yet,” Kyoko replied, looking once more in Leon’s direction, “I’ve gotten multiple chances to get close to Leon and examine him, even before and during Monokuma explaining what the class trial was. And there was no glass anywhere, not even on his hands when he let me examine him.”

Pale blue eyes blinked in realization. Wait, so that’s what she was doing? Like, back in the nurse’s office and in the gym; she was already… in a way, kinda investigating him to determine if he did it? It’s not like he could blame her; at the time before Makoto’s room made him a suspect, he was the most suspected dude…

“Or the note that Leon claims Sayaka wrote him. You see, I found a notepad on top of Makoto’s desk in his room and had a hunch. And the result, I believe, will make Celeste very happy.”

The lolita blinked, her eyebrows being the only difference in her facial features.

“What do you mean?”

“Earlier, you wanted Leon to show you what the note said, and…”

With that, Kyoko reached within her jacket and pulled out a piece of paper.

“I believe I can satisfy your desire to verify what he said is truthful.”

Wait a minute… is that-

Trading Mondo the piece of paper for Makoto’s handbook, Kyoko passed it along clockwise towards Celeste. It didn’t take as long traveling across the circle as the handbook, but it still felt like a mini-eternity as Leon stared at the incoming sheet as if it were a decapitated head. Was that the note Sayaka wrote him that he left in his room? Did Kyoko manage to get in? And more importantly, how…?

Eventually, it was in the gambler’s hands. At first, however, she frowned ever so slightly with a look of confusion.

“Hmm… Was this stuff in the background of the note necessary?”

Okay, what? Background… there was nothing in the background of the note…

That was enough to prompt Leon to stand up slowly and glance carefully at what she was holding. Upon getting a good look at it…

“W-What the…”

This wasn’t the note at all; what he was looking at was a piece of paper with a bunch of pencil scraping that caused the middle part to become an uneven mess of grey and black with white words barely within it.

“I know it seems very odd, but… if you read the note, I believe you’ll find this is a copy of the same note Leon has talked about.”

With no hesitation or acknowledgement to the class’ surprise, Celeste held the note up and began reading the words that the baseball star began to remember.

“Very well… It says, ‘There’s something I want to talk to you about, just us two. In five minutes, come see me in my room. Check the nameplates to make sure you don’t get the wrong room, okay? Thanks!’ ...Signed, Sayaka Maizono,” she read, glancing back up towards Kyoko’s nod.

“Y-Yeah! That’s it; that’s exactly how the note went!” Leon piped up, jabbing a finger at the note while directing his view across the circle as well, “But how’d you…”

“When you had revealed Sayaka had written a note to you back at the crime scene and I found the notepad on the desk, I had an idea to check if that same notepad was used to make it. So I shaded in the top sheet with a pencil. And these are the words that appeared,” she revealed, not initially noticing the sudden excitement blossom onto Hina’s face when she suddenly began bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“Oh, oh yeah! I've actually seen people do that on detective shows! When you write, it can leave an imprint; sketch over the next sheet of paper, and you can see the words!” she explained energetically, looking around at everyone as she recounted with a child-like excitement that nearly caused Leon and Sakura to smirk with amusement, “When I saw that, I was like, ‘Holy crap! I better make sure I rip out the paper before I use it from now on!’”

Even Kyoko must’ve found it a tad amusing, as she closed her eyes and a ghost of a smile appeared on her face.

“It’s a pretty old-fashioned technique, but even the classics can be surprisingly useful sometimes,” she recovered, opening her eyes and folding her arms over her chest once more, “With this, not only does this prove that the notepad in Makoto’s room had been used, but that only someone who had been in the room prior to the incident could’ve written this.”

“And it obviously would be Sayaka, since she not only stayed the night, but she signed her name on the note,” Byakuya noted, immediately eliminating the other possibility of it being Makoto.

As the note was passed around back towards Kyoko, the mention of his name caused Leon to make his eyes briefly go incognito and travel towards his direction. Damn, the kid didn’t really look any better than he had been since the last time. The only difference now was he was slightly clenching his teeth together and supporting his body up with both hands on his podium. He really wasn’t taking this well. Would it even be a good idea to let him see this note at this point…? Like, this wouldn’t break him and make him go totally nuts, right…?

“...Though, I suppose instead of doing that, I could’ve gone and retrieved the actual note…”

…….Wait, what did she-

“...Considering… that I have this.”

Concluding that last statement, Kyoko had reached into her jacket once more and pulled out a smaller item. From what it looked like between her gloved fingers, it seemed to be a shiny object that…

that had…

………………….had a keychain that said ‘L. Kuwata’-

“...!?! WH- YOOOOOO!!!”

The absolute, sheer bellowing that came out of the depths of his diaphragm couldn’t even begin to believe the bullshit he was seeing. In the girl’s gawddamn hands was his motherfuckin’ room key that had disappeared into thin air! Oho, no, this girl friggin’ didn’t! S-She…

“What..? K-Kyoko, you-” Sakura stuttered out, blinking in shock as gasps and startled looks of realization began to dawn on the class.

“M-Miss Kirigiri… you were the one in possession of Mr. Kuwata’s key!?” Hifumi shouted that question, him doing it being ironic for him earlier asking her why someone would take the key.

“...THE CRAP!??”

It wasn’t until he blinked did Leon realize that the follow-up shriek of pure astoundment to the greatest ‘check yourself’ version of ‘yo’ came out of his lungs. Thanks to her, Leon’s form had basically collapsed as if his spine suddenly gave way or if it was one of those slinky toys. He slouched, ignoring whatever discomfort he was in, as he glared in utter disbelief at the gall this girl had.

“Y-You… You had it this whole time!? And you just pretended to search for it with Hina and Sakura- I-I- what the actual hell!?” his whole visage starting to morph from shock to anger, “I could’ve rested on my bed, just… WHY??”

And yet… despite everyone staring at her for her deception on the matter, the girl didn’t look even the slightest bit rattled. Even with Leon somewhat glaring daggers at her for having the figurative balls to lie about his room key and hold onto it. It was the lack of a reaction initially that seemed to calm the fiery temper everyone had seen yesterday and cause him to blink with a disturbed scowl.

After a few seconds, Kyoko’s expression softened.

“...I understand that you’re angry with me and you have every right to feel that way, and to that, I’m sorry, Leon. But I hope you can understand my point of view,” she explained, “Even before the class trial had been explained, it was evident you had a major role in what happened to Sayaka. Even though you were under the pretense that she was alive in the nurse’s office… as you being a main suspect, I didn’t want to take any chances. Just in case you were her killer. So when we discovered her body for the first time and I ended up seeing your key on the floor, I held onto it and focused part of my investigation on examining you. I hope you can at least understand my reasons, despite your anger being justified.”

...Upon hearing her explanation?

Yeah, he wouldn’t lie, he was still majorly miffed on her doing what she did, but… really, this wasn’t just about him, was it? This was about everybody. And despite that, damn straight, he had every right to be… he found himself to be only that: miffed. Not angry.

With a huff, Leon glared up at the ceiling for a moment before rubbing at his head and closing his eyes, “I mean, yeah… but like, it’s really not a good look for me to get all angry at the person who’s helping prove my innocence, is it? So, whatever…”

It seemed that Kyoko appreciated this, as a ghost of a smile appeared on her lips. As he opened his eyes and saw this, he also watched the girl handing his room key to Sakura, who was already in possession of his pain medication. A small series of understanding nods between the trio made it clear they were all okay with this exchange.

“...And lastly, if somehow there’s still any doubt to all of what’s been discussed so far…” Kyoko folded her arms, “The final piece of evidence that clears Leon’s name… would be the testimony given by Hina and Sakura.”

“In regards to Leon’s condition… correct?” Taka asked, posture gaining more confidence once the muscular girl nodded.

“Yes. I’m not sure he remembers this, but after we brought him into Hina’s room and we started to treat his injury, Leon began to have difficulty staying awake,” Sakura answered, locking eyes with the former main suspect, “His head kept drooping and I had to tell him multiple times to keep his eyes open.”

Y-Yeah, that sounded familiar. Leon frowned to a degree as he remembered at least twice or something that she told him to stay awake…

“And as such, while I’m not a doctor of any kind… I firmly believe that Leon isn’t the killer,” she confidently stated as Hina nodded; if she saw the grateful expression on his face, she didn’t show it, “He wasn’t in a kind of stable condition where he could’ve disposed of evidence in a proper way without risking himself bleeding out.”

With that… the courtroom was filled with a silence that seemed to soak in all the evidence and really come to the realization that the second of the two main suspects was, in fact, innocent. And frankly, Leon found himself glancing around at everybody. While some were more initially dead set on believing it was him than others, it appeared that any of the suspicion… any hostility that was directed towards him ever since the first accusation had been thrown his way… had been lifted. Instead, any eyes that glance at him were uneasy or trusting.

“...S-So it’s true…?” Toko’s shaky whisper barely broke through the silence, “Leon… r-really isn’t the killer…?”

The fact that no one tried to argue or even make a noise signaled that, deep down, the collective came to the agreement that he was also innocent.

Finally… Thank God...

“...Y-Yeah, see? I’m not the one who did it. I’m a victim here, too, y’know?” Leon gulped through his anxiety and said, glancing around the circle, “I tried to tell you guys…”

At that moment, his vision locked on to the two immediately to his left and a part of him just flared up in annoyance at remembering what kind of role they had in this whole thing.

“Especially you two! Like, you, fatty! Freakin’ judging me every time you looked at me, when you didn’t know the whole story!” he snapped at Hifumi, who seemed to recoil back with a comical grimace at the sudden harshness, before directing his glare towards the shivering girl, “And you, too!”

Toko scrunched her shoulders hard and froze.

“M-M-Me…?”

“Yeah, you! You’ve spent this entire time, accusing and condemning me as a damn murderer! The least you could do is not have your back turned to me and actually look me in the face if you’re gonna claim I’m a damn murderer!”

“N-No, I-I can’t do that… Not when you’re… l-like that.”

That sudden comment made Leon’s face scrunch up with frustrated confusion.

“Wha- the hell does that mean?”

“O-Oh, yeah, that’s right,” Hina’s voice suddenly relaxed his facial muscles and tear his vision away from the writer’s back towards her, “You were unconscious when this happened, but… Toko actually can't look at you, because you have blood on your clothes. She has really bad bloodophobia.”

“...Bloodowha-?”

“Actually, the correct term is hemophobia,” Taka perked up, correcting the swimmer who didn’t seem to care, “But Hina is correct; Toko suffers from the fear of blood. We found that out nearly the hard way when she came out of her room after being awoken; she saw the blood splatters in the hallway and then proceeded to nearly pass out on the floor.”

“D-Don’t go s-speaking on my b-behavior l-like I’m not h-here…” the writer tried to scold, but simply fizzled out in a nervous rambling and glanced away.

W-Wait… so his main accuser faints at the sight of blood? Well, that makes sense now, why the girl wouldn’t directly look at him back in the gym and elevator and how she had her back to him this whole trial. Leon glanced over at her again and blinked. Huh… how ironic that the girl with this fear of blood is made to stand next to the guy with blood-stained clothing…

“And with that… I think it’s become quite clear, hasn’t it?”

Everybody glanced back towards Kyoko, who unfolded her arms and looked around at everyone.

“Not only do I believe this proves that Leon isn’t the culprit… but this also proves that Sayaka wasn’t a blameless victim in all this.”

With her stating this, Makoto seemed to jerk his head up with a reeling, pained look. As if he knew this was coming, and yet… he didn’t want to acknowledge it. Leon felt himself growing a pit of awfulness in his gut. While he was thankful that people were seeing the truth… Makoto...

“No, far from it; she was planning a murder of her own,” Byakuya amusedly scoffed, before his face hardened to a serious look at the deceased portrait of the victim, “She took the knife from the kitchen and then invited Leon into the room she was staying in. And since it’s true that she was in possession of the knife and attacked him without provocation…”

“Indeed,” Sakura closed her eyes, “These are all the actions of an assailant.”

“Which brings up another point…” Celeste rested her index finger under her bottom lip, before lowering her hands and looking towards a certain someone, “...Makoto?”

The struggling boy blinked and looked over to her; only then did she continue.

“Sayaka was the one to suggest that you two switch rooms, correct?” she asked, proceeding with her thought process before he could answer, “Maybe the reason she wanted to switch rooms… was so that she could pin the crime on you. That is a possibility, is it not?”

Leon’s eyes widened at that. Before he knew it, he was looking over into the other boy’s direction. It was like the poor guy, after everything else and with his entire world coming down, had the wind knocked out of him with that statement from the gambler. He couldn’t even get his voice to stay strong. His eyes shrunk even further.

“Sayaka wanted to… on me…” he gasped out, nearly collapsing to his knees had he suddenly not death-gripped the podium in the way he did.

Leon gritted his teeth and looked away; shit, he couldn’t look at him like this… He…

Unbeknownst to him, Kyoko closed her eyes and seemed to have an unreadable expression on her face…

But the gambler wasn’t done, “That would also explain why she would switch the nameplates. She wanted her target to come to Makoto's room, where she was staying... And by committing the murder there, instead of her room, that would implicate Makoto. But for that to work, the target had to be lured out while still keeping the room swap a secret. Now…”

Suddenly, those red eyes remade their unsettling appearance as she peered down at him with a porcelain face of judgement, already making him tense up with a defensive, tense face.

“...While it’s evident that he disregarded the rule I proposed for staying in our rooms at nighttime and foolishly went over towards her room without a second thought… I would like to remain somewhat hopeful and believe that if Leon had found out Sayaka had swapped rooms, he would have become at least suspicious and be hesitant on going over,” she sprinkled a backhanded jab at his blunder.

Ouch, man… It's like girls have a natural gift that makes their insults and statements have an extra sting compared to guys, because damn, he felt the entirety of that one. But unlike with Byakuya, he couldn’t find it in himself to argue, or even try to nod and agree with her. One, because despite everything, Celeste was still a girl and he wasn’t gonna open an unnecessary can of worms by trying to start shit pointlessly with her. Two, same reason, but because it was Celeste, and something gave him a bad feeling that he would regret it if he did.

But lastly and most importantly?

He already accepted the fact he wasn’t thinking and that Sayaka had potentially used that to her advantage.

But yeah… that was her plan, wasn’t it?

The reality was that she was gonna play both of them like that? She’d trick him to coming to Makoto’s room, even apparently going to the point of switching those nameplates outside to lure him there, murder him, get Makoto to take the blame, and then try to escape with everyone not suspecting it was her?

………

...Actually… wait a minute…

If that’s true… then that would make sense why Sayaka got so angry when he tried to bring up Makoto’s name in an effort to calm her down. He was essentially rubbing it in her face that she would be screwing over someone she cared about without him even realizing it.

…Fuck. This just keeps getting worse and worse…

“So all that’s why she switched the nameplates?” Mondo asked, blinking in honest curiosity.

“But doesn’t that plan seem a bit too risky?”

Leon blinked, looking over with everyone else at Hifumi who had cupped whatever area was supposed to be his chin in one of his hands and was glancing at the floor in thought. Chihiro tilted her head with a slight frown.

“Risky? What do you mean?”

“Well, I mean... let’s hypothetically say that her plan worked. Mr. Kuwata is deceased,” Hifumi answered, giving a side glance to the injured, former main suspect before glancing at the closest portrait, "and Miss Maizono is alive with us here. Wouldn’t her entire plan come crashing down in an instant over the simple fact of Mr. Naegi simply admitting they switched rooms?”

“I don’t know,” Byakuya answered, not even bother glancing at the boy in question, “From what I’ve seen in these past few days, I’m not sure our softhearted Makoto is capable of that kind of cutthroat behavior. I’m sure Sayaka realized the same thing, which is why out of all of us, she asked him to switch with her.”

No kind of reaction came from the lucky student; in fact, he seemed to remain in place with the same heartbroken and horrified expression…

“P-Plus, she was the Ultimate Pop Sensation…” Leon barely contained his surprise at Toko of all people joining in agreement, “A t-totally forgettable kid, or a n-national superstar… Who are you m-more likely to believe?”

“W-Wait, then… you’re all sayin’ she had this all planned out?” Hiro’s eyeballs nearly bulged out of his sockets as his hands went towards his deathtrap of hair in his own attempt to process the truth.

The circle descended into shocked noises and murmurs, with Mondo’s “Holy shit!” being the loudest as they all glanced amongst themselves or towards Sayaka’s deceased portrait.

“But in the end, her plan backfired,” Celeste explained, the red eyes closed as she explained the events of the idol’s downfall, “She launched her attack against Leon with the knife, but then found herself under attack in turn when he used self-defense. That caused her wrist to be broken, and she was forced to drop the knife.”

Sakura nodded, “The tables were suddenly turned on her, and as a result, she fled into the bathroom, while her intended prey, Leon, was able to escape and get help from Hina and myself.”

“And while that was happening…”

The whole room looked towards Byakuya as he unfolded his arms and narrowed his eyes towards the group as a whole… before glancing over at Leon.

“...One of us managed to slip inside Makoto’s room, get into the bathroom, kill Sayaka, and then return to their dorm before everyone was woken up by Hina and Sakura.”

And yeah, that was the truth and all, but… Leon felt a sense of needing to defend himself with the way the progeny’s eyes kept lingering on him without any hint of faltering. With a bit of an annoyed sneer, his fangs almost were bared when he glared back.

“Yeah… so then why the hell are you lookin’ at me like that?”

The fact that Byakuya didn’t seem to be fazed by his willingness to challenge him, “If you’re trying to intimidate me, then don’t waste my time. I’d rather not have another person threatening to get in my face and try to fight me with such pathetic bravado.”

Leon felt his eye twitch.

“If you don’t want me ‘wasting your time’, then how’s about you stop wasting mine and tell me-”

“You left the door open.”

…

……

………

Those five words.

That’s all it took. Those five words.

It stopped him completely in his tracks. At first, it was a look of ‘what the hell are you talking about’. A state he wanted to go back to. But when the realization dawned on him… he had no ability to stop the horror on his face at what the guy was implying…

“Because of the blood splatter in the hallway and it coming from the open entryway of someone’s dorm room, it would only be natural for someone’s curiosity to have them venture inside to find out what was going on, wouldn’t it?” the progeny continued, raising his nose slightly at him, “After all, with this… killing game under way and with no one around… wouldn’t that be a perfect opportunity to take advantage of?”

That’s…

Because he had run out of the room and didn’t shut the door… Sayaka…

...N-No. No way. No fucking way-

“...Y-Y… I…. I was fuckin’ bleeding out, dude! I legit thought I was gonna die and had to get away from her!! You really think I’m gonna pay attention to whether or not I shut a damn door??”

“Yeah! Anybody would be panicking and not think to do that kind of thing!” Hina instantly jumped in, attempting to defend him, “You can’t blame Leon for Sayaka being killed!”

A scoff came from Byakuya as he uninterestedly looked away, “I’m not blaming him for Sayaka being killed; I’m simply stating that because he left the door open, that is how the killer got inside….”

Leon’s face soured as his glare darkened at him. If that was the case, that’s not what that look in your eye said-

“Okay, well, all of this info on how it happened is fucking dandy and all!” Mondo roared, “But we still have a big ass problem, don’t we!? If both our two main suspects, Makoto and Leon, ain’t the killer… then who did do it!?”

“I-I’m sorry, but I give up! Quit without saving!” the shrill voice of Hifumi cried out, his head shaking rapidly with his hands in a prayer-like motion; yeah, because that’s what Leon really needed to calm down at this sudden panic-like atmosphere of the situation.

“B-But… if we can’t figure out who did this…” Chihiro’s weak voice trailed off, tears threatening to spill from the corner of her eyes.

“W-Well then! How about we take a vote right now? Majority rules!” Taka, a face showing contained distress, offered out.

That remark along was enough to rip Leon out of his glare at Byakuya and gawk at the absurdity of that proposal, “Wh- Majority rules? Do you really think that’s a good idea…?”

“Yeah! Our necks are on the line here!” Hiro was on the verge of apparent panic, wringing his wrists in a tight, nervous grip, “Someone seriously needs to do something. For serious…!”

A grunt of disapproval at the group somewhat spiraling out of control, Celeste folded her arms to her chest and pursed her lips before glancing across the circle.

“Hmmm… Maybe… Sakura? Hina?” she calmly called out to them, getting their attention, “When you had told us in your testimony about you attempting to save Leon, how long did you say you spent sewing the wound and trying to keep him in a stable condition before waking the rest of us up again?”

“Uhhh… If I remember right, Sakura said it was ten to fifteen minutes, right? Around that range,” Hina answered, her voice gaining more certainty once the fighter nodded.

“So the culprit left their room, went into Makoto’s room, killed the chick, and then bounced back to their room before we all got into the hall?” Mondo grit his teeth with a growl, waving his hand around in frustration, “Come on, even quick work has limits, don’t it?”

“Not necessarily,” Kyoko shook her head, “All they had to do after murdering Sayaka was to use the lint roller, make sure that they got rid of the hair in any area of the room they were in, and then rush back to their room. That alone could be done around that time limit.”

“...Ah, and now that I think about it… Kyoko had talked about examining Leon to see if there were any pieces of glass on him or his clothes, because the culprit and Sayaka were in the bathroom with broken glass, right?” Chihiro blinked away her potential tears and offered, “Maybe the culprit hurried back to their room to change out of clothes that had broken glass on it?”

“Or… perhaps some of Sayaka’s blood got onto their clothes when she was stabbed, and they had to change quickly, to avoid being seen with blood-stained clothes, since the water was out,” Sakura added onto this theory, getting a few widened eyes at that.

“So… there could be a possibility that the culprit is hiding clothes that could have glass or blood on them in their room?” Hifumi perked up with some hope in his voice.

“Oh, I know! How about we go check everybody’s room? If we find something in any of the dorms, that’d prove it!” Hina excitedly proposed.

Hiro flinched, nearly gawking at her, “W-Wait, as in… leave right now and search everybody’s room just like that??”

“Now, hold on, hold on! Time out a second, young lady!”

Unfortunately, the bear suddenly remade its appearance by sitting up and forming its arms into an ‘X’.

“I’m afraid I can’t allow that! I’m not gonna just let you check every dorm room like that; it’d make the trial super boring and that’s just not something I’m a fan of! So sorry!”

“Oh, come the fuck on, you piece of shit!!”

“Hey, it’s not my fault you kiddies didn’t think to investigate in areas you just thought of until now. If you want to make sure you don’t die from convicting the wrong person in the trial, you oughta do a more precise job at it. I mean, what’s the fun in checking all the rooms like that? Besides…” it said, leaning back into its chair and waving a paw dismissively at the biker’s outburst before amusedly covering its permanent grin, “You're being super boring right now! Come on, hurry up and decide who did it! Wouldn’t it be awful if I had to punish you all just because of that?”

The whole class felt the looming pressure staring down on them as all of them began to look around at each other. They still had to figure out which of them did it, but…

“Makoto.”

Kyoko’s voice caught Leon’s attention as she was glancing up at the boy who had become the quietest figure amongst them all. While she looked somewhat sympathetic, her serious glance was still strong and she didn’t back down when Makoto broke off the brief eye contact he made with her.

“Right now, you just need to concentrate on figuring out the answer to this mystery. If we can’t uncover who murdered Sayaka, it’s over for all of us.”

Upon her finishing that, he glanced over to the kid. While he seemed to understand that, the poor guy was still in that emotionally and mentally crushed state. Shaking his head and ignoring the wince he had from his right arm moving just a tad to agitate his wound, Leon found himself shaking his head. This was becoming more and more of a problem that wasn’t going away, and he hated how he could feel that dread bubbling back up in his throat.

“It’s easy just to say, ‘hey, decide who did it!’ But… there just aren’t any more clues… right?” he felt the words spilling out before he could stop himself.

Because… as far as he knew… there weren’t any more, right…?

“Very well! Let’s take a look at all the clues we’ve reviewed thus far and see if perhaps there’s something that we’ve overlooked!” Taka offered, trying to be hopeful.

However, that was shot down by Celeste glancing downward, “Do we really have time for all that, though…?”

S-Shit…

“D-Die… Die…!”

Leon flinched at the sudden movement of Toko’s hands clutching at her head and violently scratching it continuously.

“I-If we don’t do something… w-we’re all gonna d-die…!” she shrieked out, causing several of the class to choke back gasps and poor Chihiro to tear up again.

F-Fuck! J-Just shut up…!

N-No… This can’t…

This seriously can’t be… He didn’t just go through all of this shit, to have his name cleared… only to not have anything that could point to who killed Sayaka… No, there had to be something…!

There had to be…! He couldn’t die here!!

He couldn’t-

“I AGREE WITH THAT!!”

!!!!

Suddenly, a roar came from the left of him as he straight up jumped in his seat and whirled his head over to look. And when his eyes landed on who had spoken… it was almost unbelievable. Like… holy crap.

Makoto, who only a second ago seemed utterly destroyed, was standing straight up pointing towards Taka. And his hazel eyes… the same calm, kind eyes possessed a kind of fire that he hadn’t even seen and thought he was capable of. And a voice he hadn’t thought he was capable of as well, like, holy shit! The kid just commanded the whole room into silence just like that within a blink of an eye in a way that left everyone stunned.

Like… did the kid just snap or something, or…?

“W-Wait… You agree t-that we’re gonna d-die…?” Toko stuttered out with utter disgusted disbelief.

“Jesus, dude, that’s fucked up…” Mondo muttered, frowning at that being what he meant.

Realizing that he was being misunderstood, Makoto blinked before faltering in his determined, fiery gaze and swiftly turned to them, waving his arms to signal that they were wrong. Welp, s-so much for that…

“Wha? N-No, that’s not what I meant! I mean that I’m agreeing with Taka,” he replied, the hall monitor standing taller with a proud smile that seemed to be happy in finding something, “I think we’ve made a major mistake here. By that, I mean we’ve overlooked something that we need to address.”

“Overlooked something…? What do you mean?” Leon frowned, raising an eyebrow.

And as the kid looked him in the eye, a feeling that they were going to be approaching the answer of who was the culprit was only an explanation away as he answered, “Yeah. It took me a bit, and I probably could’ve caught it sooner, but… looking back on one of the clues we’ve gone over? We haven’t fully expanded on it yet, and once we do… I think we’ll identify who murdered Sayaka.”

Notes:

Welp... this chapter was a major pain and hassle to write, but... the culprit will be revealed the next chapter! Would love to see who people think it is~

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better...

 

....Puhuhuhuhuhu.....

Chapter 21: Ch 1: CLASS TRIAL FINAL

Notes:

Upupupupupupupupupupupupupu....

“Huh!? You just shot past the clue part and right on to who did it!”

Even as Hina blurted that out in shock and various shocked reactions came from the circle, the words that came out of Makoto’s mouth were enough to make Leon’s breath halt and catch in his throat. The fact that one of these clues they’ve had all this time apparently held the identity of who it was… The suspenseful anticipation was killing him more than his injury right now as he felt said trapped breath escape slowly thanks to the heartbeat pounding in his throat and pushing it through.

This… This really was it; Sayaka’s killer… was gonna be revealed soon…

“T-Then what is it? W-What’s the clue we overlooked, a-and who does it p-point to?” Toko barely was able to get the questions out.

Makoto looked over to her with a serious face.

“The specific clue that will help solve this mystery… is the lint roller from my room,” he continued to explain, being spurred on in doing so by the curious or totally lost looks he received, “We’ve talked about how it was used by the killer to remove evidence and how it was relevant in proving Leon’s innocence so far. But in actuality, there is a piece of evidence that proves the lint roller was used. I… wasn’t in the best mental state to remember it, but now that I do… this one piece of evidence reveals not only its use, but the killer’s identity.”

“And what exactly is this piece of evidence?” Celeste inquired.

Makoto turned his attention towards her.

“It’s a used strip that was from the lint roller; I found it in the trash can in my room.”

“What!? Are you saying the culprit made such an egregious mistake by disposing of the evidence at the crime scene itself!?” Hifumi gawked with such a sudden jerk, his hands flew up to his face to prevent his glasses from falling off.

“This very well may be just an assumption… but it’s a possibility that the culprit panicked when attempting to dispose of the evidence,” Kyoko responded with, “Despite the fact that we know they had at least ten to fifteen minutes to work with before Hina and Sakura began to wake all of us up, they at the time didn’t know that.”

“So you’re saying that it’s possible they panicked so greatly that they made this error unintentionally,” Sakura remarked, causing the girl next to her to nod.

Byakuya scoffed with utter distaste, “Regardless, it’s such an asinine blunder. It’s as if they’ve signed their death warrant by committing this idiotic error.”

BAM.

The progeny scrunched his nose with disgust as he leered over at the impatient biker, who once again slammed his palms onto the podium and glared at the lucky student.

“Enough talking about pointless shit! Makoto, just tell us what the damn lint strip thing is supposed to show already!!”

“R-Right, sorry,” the kid offered a sheepish apology before getting to it, “What this used strip shows is the hair colors of people who have been in my room.”

“Hair colors?”

“Yeah. Now, I’m pretty sure you’ve all noticed by now that everybody’s hair has a distinct color to it. Even the people here who have similar colors have different shades of it to stand out,” Makoto answered Hina and continued, not slowing down as the majority of the circle began to look around at each other, “The reason I bring this up… is that the used strip has four distinct colors of hair found on it. And one of them belongs to the killer.”

Leon clenched his jaw somewhat tightly behind the wall of his lips as he tried to ignore a random throb of pain that escaped behind his medication.

“Then… what are the hair colors, man?” he asked.

Makoto licked his lips for a second before revealing the truth.

“Well… the first is a light brown, which isn’t a surprise. It's definitely my hair, since the crime scene was my room and I’ve been in there the longest. The next two are obvious as well. A blue color, which belongs to the victim, Sayaka… and a reddish-orange, which of course is Leon’s. But the fourth…”

During his pause, the kid began to look up and across the circle… as if to look at someone…

“...is a dark brown color.”

Dark… brown?

Leon blinked, realizing Makoto was looking across from himself and…

…

………

……………………………………………………..No…

….No, you cannot… be serious… There’s no way it’s...

It was as if the more his head turned to the right, the smaller his eyes shrunk and the wider his mouth opened. The absolute shock and absurdity of it all…

And yet… Leon joined the entire circle and focused their attention…

“Eh…? What’s everyone looking at me? Do I got somethin’ on my face?”

...to one Yasuhiro Hagakure, who only blinked with that stupid, clueless look on his face before he began to look around at everyone.

No way… no fuckin’ way…

“A person… with dark brown hair…” Sakura voiced aloud, speaking for the collective as their suspicions began to foster more growth and caution.

Upon hearing this and blinking once more, it took a solid ten seconds of silence for the utterly lost Hiro’s face to fix itself from its scrunched confusion to a mortified dawning of realization. The moment it hit, his jaw nearly disconnected from his face and dropped to the floor with horror at comprehending what was going on. His body jerked violently back as his hands instinctively rose at his chest level.

“W-Wait, wh- You’re sayin’ I did it!?”

Leon could only stare as the guy started teetering on the verge of a mental breakdown and tried to process everything while losing the color in his face.

This guy… the same guy who believed this entire killing game was an orientation prank. The same guy who paid one hundred million yen for a crystal ball that was supposedly found in Atlantis and used by people like George Washington. The very same guy who attempted to gouge his eyes out multiple times with his hair that he treated like laundry for only four times a year (who for all he knows has given him God knows what kind of infested bacteria in his eyes).

This guy… is the one who killed Sayaka Maizono??

The baseball player could only keep gawking at the massively distressed clairvoyant.

“H-Hold o-o-w-wait a second! T-Timeout here! For serious!!” Hiro made the motion for a timeout and shrieked upon locking his gaze on the boy who had accused him, “How- Y-You’re not really serious, are ya? Like, this is a joke, right??”

Makoto’s face devolved into a regretful and pained grimace, his being having to fight to not look away.

“Unfortunately, Hiro… It’s not. I wish I could say it was an awful joke, but… This is real.”

“I-I…”

Hiro’s epidermis had apparently decided to turn on the water works, as his face was evidently more and more covered in sweat while shaking his head in response to Makoto’s words, “...I can’t believe what I’m hearin’...! Y-You’re really serious about me… It’s just not right, man!”

“How about instead of having the meltdown of the century, you actually use your brain and attempt to defend yourself against his accusation?” Byakuya’s cold, biting words made the young man flinch even harder, “After all, showing such a panicked reaction certainly doesn’t help your case.”

“H-Hey, I’m panicking because you got it all wrong!” Hiro shook his head and frantically waved his hands before directing his fearful look back to Makoto, “I-I mean, come on! Me as the killer??”

“I… I must agree with this sentiment, Makoto.”

The group looked over to Taka, whose face seemed to be in a mental struggle as he addressed the person who made the accusation, “Please don’t get me wrong here. I want to be open and explore all possibilities to find the truth. However, I must admit that Hiro being the culprit is… somewhat hard to believe.”

“Y-Yeah. Especially since up to before Junko… was executed, he really believed that this whole thing was some kind of orientation thing set up by Hope’s Peak Academy,” Chihiro agreed on the doubt, causing the clairvoyant to start nodding his head with a relieved state of optimism that made him point to her with a growing grin.

“Yeah, the guy’s kinda ditzy. Really can’t picture him being a murderer, let alone the guy who did Sayaka in…” Mondo’s expression was evident of skepticism, grumbling in the motion of rubbing his neck in an annoyed fashion.

That rather backhanded comment was enough to make the happiness of Hiro’s face wash off from the pride-wounding sting and for his shoulders to slouch to a degree.

“Hey now… You don’t gotta be so mean about it…”

Despite all this, Makoto remained steadfast and narrowed his eyes ever-so-slightly at him.

“But the used strip from the lint roller clearly shows several pieces of hair that are dark brown, Hiro. Similar to your hair color. How can you argue against this fact?”

Hiro seemed to hunch in on himself as his right hand began to shake enough for it to be noticeable.

“H-Huh? W-Well, uh… That’s, er…”

Locking his facial muscles into a desperate, confused state of nervousness, the fact his voice trailed off and his mouth hung open had Leon feeling as if he had been put into checkmate and he had no kind of rebuttal for this argument. But then again, he never was able to really understand how this guy functioned. Instead of being put into checkmate, it was as if Hiro figuratively took the table that had the chess board on it and flipped it over; he suddenly had his expression morph into anger when he pointed a finger straight back at Makoto.

“Oh yeah! I was in your room! You got a problem with that!?”

....W-Wait, wha-

It seemed not only Leon was suffering from the instant whiplash. Many had only focused their glances more despite the puzzled or incredulous undertones in it. Makoto seemed taken aback, as the serious look he had directed towards the accused had transformed into having no clue what the heck was going on. And frankly, he couldn’t blame the kid.

“Wh- Straight up admitting to it??” Hina’s confused voice betrayed her face, raising an eyebrow and hardened her gaze.

“W-Why the s-sudden hostility...?” Toko questioned, bringing the nail of her thumb close to her mouth.

And just like that, Hiro’s bravado had suddenly done a complete u-turn. His body comically shifted downward dramatically as he clapped his hands into a praying fashion and grimaced.

“But I was in that room before all of this happened! You gotta believe me!!” he pleaded to the point of shouting, his eyes desperate for earning everyone’s trust.

...

Now… while ‘comically’ was a perfect word to describe the erratic movements this guy was doing, Leon started to make a pained frown at watching him… There wasn’t anything comical about this. The sight of it was actually starting to be… really freakin’ hard to take in. Because it was at the point that it started to dawn on him in the back of his mind, slowly creeping towards the forefront in his metaphorical eyes the unwanted truth of the situation. Enough to make him mutter out a vitriolic curse under his breath through a muttered grimace.

Hiro was… begging for his life.

Of course, this was still just the accusatory phase of this and they had yet to actually go over whether or not Hiro was Sayaka’s killer. But unlike for himself (and maybe Makoto; granted, he was kinda out of commission for a good part of the trial and missed some stuff), where not did he know there was the evidence that could prove the truth in his favor, but he at least had a few people in his corner that believed in him and helped prove him innocent… Hiro had none of those things as far as he knew. This was legit one person against an entire circle of people waiting for him to dispel their suspicions about him.

And honestly? Leon was beginning to see this from the other perspective. The unsettling part of being on the opposite of the blackened… the ‘unblackened’ side? I-If that made sense…? Was this how everyone else felt towards him and Makoto? The desire to declare someone guilty, but being too cautious, stressed, and… and scared to lock in your answer due to it being wrong and only getting one shot?

Was this… supposed to be how this class trial worked?

It was the pleas coming out of Hiro that snapped him out of his thoughts as his defense started to come out, “A-After all, Leon, Taka, and Chihiro can back me up! Right, guys!? Remember?? When we were with Sayaka and Junko before they died??”

Uhum… Say what now?

Leon felt his eyebrows scrunch in utter confusion as the guy began jabbing fingers at the confused programmer, the off guard hall monitor, and him with frantic nods that totally screamed ‘you remember, yeah!?’ at them.

Uhh…

Umm…

Someone was gonna have to explain this to him-

And the biggest surprise to who was able to figure what the heck Hiro was talking about goes to-

“...Oh, yeah, that’s right! When we were bringing Makoto back to his room on the first day!” Chihiro’s face suddenly lit up with realization as the guy to her right did a mini silent celebration.

Wait… on the first-

…! Ohh, wait, now he got it. So they were talking about that time with him and Sayaka…

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It finally seemed to dawn on her what Leon was talking about, as she let out a small laugh, glancing towards Makoto before looking back at him.

“Hmhmhm… Well, maybe when he wakes up and we have some time, you can try to pry his beauty secrets out of Makoto,” she joked.

Leon flashed an even bigger grin as he dug his hands into his pockets.

“Totally.”

“Whoa, check out this room…”

Both turned to see Hiro sort of stumble in awe through the door.

========

And on that table seemed to be...

“Ehh…? Oh, hey, check this out.”

Hiro noticed it too, for he walked over to the table and picked it up, dangling it by the little chain.

“It’s some kind of a key,” he said, showing it to the other two in the room for a few more seconds before bringing it closer and looking it over.

“Just a minute there!” Taka’s voice called out from the doorway, causing him to look up as if some wild deer was hit with headlights from a car, “What do you think you’re doing? Don’t just go through Makoto’s things without his permission!”

The way Hiro blinked and then slowly turned to stare at the key was like… the guy’s brain was still having the gears turn on whether or not this wasn’t exactly a cool thing to do. Y’know… going through an unconscious person’s things? Good gawd…

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“Ahh, I remember now as well!” Taka nodded emphatically, folding his arms, “It was before we began our first search of the school. Leon and Sayaka had just finished putting Makoto on his bed to rest, and then Hiro went inside after them!”

“In fact, he was the one who discovered Makoto’s room key on the table, which also led us to find that everybody’s key was on the table in their dorms,” Chihiro added with a polite nod.

The entire time the two were talking, Hiro only had more of a relieved grin plastered onto his face; the more he nodded confidently, the bigger it grew. That seemingly gave him the courage to stand back up straight and jab his index finger across the circle to the one who had put him in the hot seat, eager to throw back his submitted defense towards him.

“Yeah! See? I was in your room before all of this went down! So there’s a reason for my hair color to be on it!” he yelled out, gritting his teeth before letting out a massively drawn out sigh of disappointment, “Geez... And to think you actually accused me of murder…!”

“So, then… Mr. Hagakure has an alibi, it would seem…” Hifumi murmured loud enough for everyone to hear, as he nervously adjusted his glasses.

“My, that was rather quickly disproved,” Celested commented on, directing her red eyes towards Makoto’s direction upon her analysis being done.

Yeah… color Leon surprised; just like that, all the suspicious feelings he had towards him were gone. Poof, in an instant. He couldn’t help but blink and shrug with acknowledgement at that-

“No, that’s not it.”

Leon blinked at the sudden tone that remained steadfast against the objection. He glanced over to Makoto, who while being taken back at first, had regained his determined fire. While he wasn’t looming over his podium as if to stare into the clairvoyant’s soul, the wood was solidly gripped by both hands while he locked his gaze on him.

“...Eh? But I just proved that it wasn’t me! Because I was in your room before…!”

“Just because you were in my room before the murder, it doesn’t mean you’re no longer a suspect. Besides…” Makoto asked, relaxing his posture, “Your hair color is still the only one that was found on the used lint roller strip besides Sayaka’s, Leon’s, and mine. How do you explain that?”

Hiro jerked a bit with a stressed look.

“How do I… I-I dunno, man! Maybe they just didn’t move around so much that their hair fell out? W-Why are you asking me this? I don’t know anything! I’m tellin’ you I’m innocent here!”

“I see… So you’re still maintaining your innocence.”

Leon’s eyes shifted over to Kyoko. While her words were towards Hiro, her eyes were looking down to the floor in thought as a gloved index finger rested under her bottom lip. It was as if… she was thinking something through.

“Hiro, I know this might sound strange, but would you mind going over what you were doing last night? It might be useful, so we can determine your innocence like we did with Makoto and Leon,” she finally asked, glancing over to him.

Apparently, the answer wouldn’t be that easy, as Hiro’s face was crushed into an uncertain frown, “Uhh… I dunno how that’s gonna happen. Because, like… I was asleep for a long time before the whole ‘finding Sayaka’ thing went down, you know?”

The moment he said the word ‘asleep’, one of Hina’s eyebrows rose with a curious emotion before folding her arms and humming loudly.

“Hmmm… But wait a second… Hiro, you were the first person I went to wake up after Sakura and I had finished sewing Leon’s wound shut,” she began to comment, turning to face him once her eyes stopped glancing at the ceiling in recollection to make eye contact, “I swear after I knocked on your door, you answered in no more than five seconds tops. So you had to have been awake at that point.”

“If that’s the case, Hiro, what were you doing awake in your room that late at night?” Makoto pressed with a determined face.

At this point, considering how he had acted in the past few minutes to being accused of murder, it was the suspected expectation that the clairvoyant would once again crash into a mass panic of stuttering words while trying to build up an argument in his favor. Such an expectation is the reason why Leon and a few members of the class were surprised when all he did was blink and casually fold his arms across his chest.

“Well… that’s kind of easy to explain.”

“It is?” Hina blinked as she and Makoto were surprised to say the least.

A sigh came from Hiro as he glanced away with a dejected look on his face.

“Just lemme explain, okay? I know I’ve been going on under the belief that this whole killing game thing was a joke played by the school to spook us and all that. But… even before Sayaka and Junko died, I started having major doubts about it. Especially after the videos we all watched yesterday, and… I saw who was on mine,” he explained, getting several in the class to have understanding nods sent his way as Leon had gotten as well, “So, I did get a few hours of sleep last night. But sometime during then, I woke up and couldn’t fall back to sleep. I just was too bothered by my video. So… I decided to try and do something about it.”

“And what exactly did you try to do?” Taka asked.

“Well, seeing as I’m the Ultimate Clairvoyant, I decided to put my talent to work,” Hiro nodded a bit pridefully alongside his expression brightening up with a smile, “I decided to do my own fortune telling in order to see if I could find out some answers about why we were all here. So I set up everything I need: my crystal ball, my cards, the whole schbang, right?”

Mondo squinted with a look that screamed ‘I’m totally lost’ while tilting his head up with a raised eyebrow.

“So, what… you like… talk to ghosts and stuff?”

“...What!?”

Welp, apparently that was the wrong thing to say. Although he wouldn’t admit it, Leon joined Mondo and a few others who jerked back in response to the older man having his face almost instantaneously consumed by near pure rage. His eyes locked on to the biker and caused him to flinch and ready his alertness from the pure visual outrage that was being sent his way. And considering Mondo was basically a walking timebomb of anger himself, this was another instance where if it wasn’t a killing game or the fact he’s hurt and there’s two people dead, Leon would be laughing at this.

“You take that back right now! Don't compare my clairvoyance to some occult bullcrap! I hate the occult! It’s… It’s totally bullcrap!” Hiro seethingly shouted, jabbing a finger at him.

Mondo raised his hands up close to his chest in reaction, his uncomfortable expression hoping the guy would calm down.

"Fuckin' chill, man. I don't know much about whatever the hell it is you do with fortune telling; for all I know, you talk to ghosts or the dead and stuff-"

"I don't talk to ghosts! Since when have you ever heard of a fortune telling business that uses ghosts to do that? I'll answer that for you myself; it's none of them!" Hiro further argued, though he looked more creeped out as he did so; whether it was from talking about ghosts, Mondo beginning to show signs of irritation from being yelled at, or both could be debated, "E-Especially since the occult is bullcrap, like I said, and ghosts don't-"

"Enough."

The ramblings of an offended Hiro were stomped out by a vicious declaration from Byakuya, as everyone turned their attention to him. While he wasn't enraged or screaming, the nice shade of red on his brow mixed with the vein on it slightly bulging out made it quite clear he wasn't in the mood for this. Nor did his clenched fist that one could only tell was shaking if they took the time to really focus on it.

At least the guy wasn't directing his distaste at Leon this time…

"Stop wasting my time defending your pride and get back to the real matter at hand. Regardless of how you classify the supernatural idiocy you believe in," Byakuya said, folding his arms once more and calming down to his natural stern look, "I'm going to assume your attempt ended in failure. Am I correct in stating this?"

It looked like it took a few seconds for Hiro to comprehend everything he heard, before he let out a disappointed sigh and looked down.

"...Yeah, that's right. Despite how hard I tried and how long I attempted, I came up with squat. Nothing, man. No answers as to why we're really stuck here or whose idea this all was," his shoulders shrugged off their slouched position before he raised his head and spoke to everyone, "So after that, I just decided to give up and try to get some sleep, you know? I was in the process of putting my fortune telling stuff away when Hina banged on my door. And, well… you all know the rest, right?"

"Is that really what happened, Hiro?" Makoto asked, pursed lips mixed with his eyes piercing into the clairvoyant.

"Uh, yeah, I just told you what happened."

"So you just happened to be awake in your room late at night, around the same time Sayaka had been murdered and the culprit would've rushed back to their room. Is that what you're saying?"

Sakura turned her head towards the accused, "Combined with what we know and the clues like the used lint roller strip… Hiro, even you must realize that this all seems a little too perfect to be simply labeled a coincidence, don't you think?"

Once again faced with the giant, towering human that he seemed to fear locking her eyes onto him once more, Hiro's face broke out into a nervous sweat again. His hands twitched, raising defensively towards his neck and chest out of instinct, causing Leon and Hina to have their eyes tint ever-so-briefly with unimpressed incredulousness.

"U-Uh, I would b-beg to argue the timing is more awful than perfect. C-Considering I really didn't kill Sayaka and now I'm being accused for her murder…"

"You say this confidently… but is there anything that can be done to discredit his defense, Makoto?"

"Huh?" Makoto appeared to be caught off guard from Celeste speaking up and directing her attention towards him via a side glance; knowing how… well, freakin' intimidating those red eyes could be, the punk wouldn't blame the kid for his reaction.

The lolita elaborated further, her hands softly resting underneath her elbows, "Although I will agree with you that his alibi and the timing of it can be seen as suspicious… you would need to prove it, would you not? After all, that is how you and Leon were cleared of suspicion, yes?"

"W-Well… yeah, of course," Makoto relented hesitantly, but nodded in all fairness.

"But… would there even be a way to prove Hiro’s telling the truth or not…?" Chihiro asked, her eyes desperately glancing around for someone to have an answer.

“I dunno… I mean… I also feel it’s kinda suspicious sounding, but… it does sound like it could be really what happened,” Hina admitted, scratching her face while glancing at the clairvoyant nervously, who pleaded in return.

“I-It is what happened!! I’m telling you I’m not the killer!”

“...So it comes down to this, does it?” Byakuya said, making Leon’s gut slightly twist uncomfortable with how his tone had a tint of amusement in it, “Whether we choose to condemn Hiro based on only his testimony. But are all of you ready to take such a gamble, when we only have one chance and the result of failure is our deaths?”

“Rgggh… I-If only someone was able to verify if Hiro was out of his dorm room or not, that’d be one thing, but…” Taka frustratedly grimaced, clutching his fists tightly, “Byakuya’s right. Unless we have some kind of evidence that can prove him to be lying, we’re just guessing on if he’s telling the truth or not!”

Leon found himself gritting his teeth to the point where his molars had been grinding and distorting his anxious scowl into something more visually drastic. Again, it was like they had gotten something new, a brand new lead that they could go into, only for it to then turn into a dead end wall that they smashed into. And since it was only a few minutes ago that Monokuma had talked about time runs out if he gets bored…

Damn it, this was it, huh?

This was where it was going to. Where… where it ends…?

He found his heartbeat picking up speed as he tried to drown out the once again panicked outcries of his classmates; he was failing so hard at keeping calm. His right hand tensing and pressing more into his wound unintentionally, he was coming to grips with what this presented.

There was no way Hiro could be proven wrong. It all came down to ‘this side said, that side said’.

There wasn’t anything that…

Anything…

…

…

…

...Wait...

And that’s when Leon’s eyes went wide.

“S-So t-then… w-we’re back to s-square one? A-After all this time!?” Toko shook like her body was within the midst of an earthquake.

Wait…

“No, s-surely not! We must be close somehow to the killer’s identity!” Taka gasped, gritting his teeth harder.

Wait.

“Please, somebody do something! I don’t wanna die!!” Hifumi’s shriek wasn’t as loud as his previous ones, but it threatened to become that with how he looked close to having a panic attack.

Wait.

“Well then stop your fucking screaming and think already! Jesus Christ, you’re all gonna just let the killer get away if you keep getting all spooked to hell and shit!!” Mondo snarled out, though even he couldn’t mask how distressed he was becoming.

“Wait.”

“Oh? I feel like that’s quite bold of you to say,” Celeste said, a small petite smile coming across her face, “Because it just dawned on me that the hair around your neck is a dark brown color. The same color on the lint roller, yes?”

“Wait.”

“What are y- YOU IMPLYING I KILLED- A MAN DOESN’T LAY HIS HANDS ON A WOMAN-”

“WAIT!!”

Mondo’s roar of outrage was cut off by another roar. A roar that seemed to silence the entire classroom and bring everyone’s eyes to its creator. And that creator…

...was Leon.

Who not only was surprised at how he bellowed that out and didn’t realize he could out yell Mondo (because let’s be real; he said he was the vocals of the century and punk music has a lot of screaming in it, but Mondo was on another level entirely when he was pissed)... but was winded and surprised with how out of breath he was in that split second. Apparently, despite the saving grace that were those pills, pushing against his wound like he just did ten seconds ago doesn’t mean it’s not gonna hurt or affect him.

But right then and there, that was no longer important.

“Leon??”

“H-Hey, are you okay?”

“Is there something the-”

“Wait, okay?”

“But you look like you’re in-”

“Geez, why’d you-”

“Leon, I would advise-”

“JUST…. WAIT.”

Leon raised his voice a notch under his prior scream and paced it with enough dramatic effect (and also because he desperately needed to catch that breath that was a step ahead of him) to silence the voices, who at the moment, he couldn't tell who said what.

Because this was way too important to not address immediately, or to care what anyone’s reactions were to him silencing them.

Ignoring the all-too familiar throb of sharp pain and bringing his eyes over to Hiro, Leon pursed his lips while giving the most intensely serious glare he’s probably given someone in his entire life.

“...Yo, Hiro? I’m gonna need you to run by me what you said earlier again.”

Scrunching up his shoulders and glancing around at everyone else was the reaction Leon got from Hiro before he addressed him.

“Uhh… You’re gonna have to be more specific there, ‘cuz I’ve said a lot of stuff in the past five minutes.”

Leon licked his lips with a nod.

“What you said about doing your fortune telling thing. About setting up everything you need.”

“Yeah? What about it?”

“You said one of the things you need was your crystal ball… right?”

Hiro raised a cautious eyebrow while tilting his head.

“Uh… yeah? Like, it’s one of the most important things I need to be able to do my sessions… W-Why are you lookin’ at me so intensely…?”

The moment those words left his mouth…

...Leon felt something in his chest drop as he swallowed the lump in his throat before replying.

“...That’s impossible, Hiro. Because… you left your crystal ball in the laundry room last night.”

The absolute absence of noise that followed could allow one to hear a potato seed hitting the floor with even a echo to it. That was until-

“SAY WHAAAAAAAAA-!?” Hifumi finally lived up to his vintage shrieks, as he let out a mad one.

“W-What…???”

The entirety of the group had automatically locked their attention onto Hiro, who had his eyes shrink in size and his head began moving erratically to match everyone’s gaze, whether it was suspicion or shock weaved into their eyes. Trying to grasp for some kind of control back, his once again sweating nervousness directed itself towards Leon.

“H-Hold on a second! W-What are you saying??”

“Leon, can you explain what you mean?” Sakura frowned and asked in a more calm manner.

“Yeah, I can… It’s just I’ve been so focused and everything with the trial and clearing my name, that I didn’t realize it until thinking back on it now. But I totally can say for sure now that Hiro left his crystal ball in the laundry room last night,” he said, addressing the muscular girl before looking towards the stressed out Hiro, “Hiro, remember that talk I mentioned we had while I was doing laundry before nighttime? During that conversation? You placed the ball on the table while talking to me.”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“If you say so. So, what’s up? You doing some late night laundry like me?”

“Nah, I, uh, did that earlier today. I was coming in here to get somethin’, because I thought nobody would be doin’ laundry this late…” Hiro admitted, a frown threatening to turn into a scowl.

“Huh? What exactly do you need from a laundry room if you’re not doing laundry?”

“Oh, this here.”

Setting his crystal ball down on the table near him, the taller man with lethal hair turned and picked up the big container of detergent by the handle and raised it, signaling it was the item he was after.

“...You’re taking the bottle of detergent?”

“Yeah, back to my room. I kinda need it.”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“And after wrapping up our conversation, you left the room with the ball still there,” Leon explained, “Which means you couldn’t have had it in your room.”

With the explanation presented, he watched as Hiro only could seem to stare in utter horror. The skin color of his face only paled with each worsening second, as the condensation of sweat did nothing to improve his visage. Despite the size of his eyes being utter pencil dots at this point, they somehow became more unsettling than Celeste and Taka’s red eyes or Sakura’s fierce pair.

“Leon.”

Kyoko’s voice may have caught his attention, but that didn’t stop him feeling Hiro’s eyes to his right. While turning to address her, both her and Makoto’s eyes became more looks that he could feel piercing into him.

She gently took hold of the top of her podium with one gloved hand, “I need you to be honest with me. Are you one hundred percent sure he left the crystal ball behind?”

With no hesitation, Leon nodded and answered while looking away and rubbing the back of his head carefully, “Yeah, I’m positive. I know, because when we were all searching on the first day of being here? We actually searched the classrooms together and we ended up talking about his crystal ball and how expensive it was and stuff. And so when he left it there, I figured if it’s so precious like he said, he’d come back and get the damn thing himself…”

“Huh? But wait… when I helped Leon to the laundry room during the investigation period for him to rest and wash some of the blood out of his clothes…” Hina’s eyes glanced upward in thought, before widening and pointing with astounded agreeal at Leon, “Ah! That’s right! The crystal ball wasn’t there; I’m sure of it!”

“So then… Mr. Hagakure actually left his crystal ball in the laundry room?” Hifumi adjusted his glasses, glancing between Leon and Kyoko for some kind of confirmation.

“Which would mean that in order for him to have the crystal ball in his room to do his fortune telling like he claims in his alibi,” Celeste commented, her calm eyes making the accused pale even further, “Hiro would’ve had to leave his dorm room to retrieve it.”

“Well, Hiro? When did you go back to get it!?” a flash of white signaled Taka fiercely pointing at him, demanding an answer.

Oh, man, dude, the friggin’ guy looked like he was about to pass out from everything being thrown his way. His mouth moved, unsuccessfully getting the words out before stammering loudly and then finally remembering how to speak.

“S-Slow down; I-I can’t keep up with all of this when you go full force with all these questions! B-Besides, you’re all focusing on the wrong part!! Why does it matter when I went to get my ball back?” he slowly began showing signs of anger as he gritted his teeth, “All you gotta know is that I have my crystal ball in my room! Just like I said when I set up-”

“But, Hiro… that’s actually a legitimate problem,” Makoto interrupted with a frown, slightly clutching at the front of his hoodie, “In fact, that makes you even more suspicious, if not the prime suspect.”

Hiro’s jaw dropped open as he clutched at some of his dreads.

“G-Gyaah?? H-How-”

“You just stated that you went back to get your crystal ball, which means you’re confirming that Leon’s telling the truth that you left it in the laundry room. So in order for your alibi to be true, you would’ve had to go retrieve it before Hina knocked on your door,” the ahoge haired boy explained.

“Y-Yeah, so?? What’s wrong with that??”

“What’s wrong is that it could implicate you as the blackened,” Byakuya cut in, raising his nose at his terrified target, “Try to use whatever rattling in that skull of yours is being masqueraded as a brain and think about the position you just have placed yourself in. In order for your alibi to work, it means that the timeframe of when you went to retrieve the ball would have to be from when you left the laundry room before nighttime began and after the murder occured and Hina went to wake everybody up. Which means that there is a possibility…”

The progeny lowered his head and glared controlled daggers into him.

“...That you went to retrieve it during the time Sayaka was killed.”

“In other words, Hiro… There’s a possibility that you went to the laundry room, got your crystal ball, saw the blood splatters on the hallway and my open dorm room door, went inside…” Makoto explained, pausing with a subtle sigh before continuing, “...and killed Sayaka. Then you rushed back to your room before Hina knocked on your door. That’s why it makes you more of the prime suspect. Because of that very real possibility.”

"GUHH-!!"

Leon found himself turning to look at Hiro during the explanation, even before his outburst. The more and more he heard, the more apparent a sickening shade of disturbed blue seemed to color his forehead. And this, paired with the discussion up to this point, slowly started to sway the baseball star into believing that the one who killed Sayaka was him. Especially because since meeting him on the first day, Hiro had been one of the more laid back students that he talked to; even so far as to be amused and impressed by the supposed ‘charade’ this killing game was. But now here he was, absolutely paranoid and on edge with his voice no longer being able to talk in his usual calm speech patterns.

What Celeste had talked about in the elevator on the way down flashed across his mind. How one side, at the end of this trial, wasn’t going to be getting back on: either the blackened or everyone else.

So then… was Hiro the blackened that wasn’t going to…?

“H-Hey, c-come on! That’s absolutely stupid!!” said suspected young man with sea urchin hair suddenly found the strength to try and take back the offensive, his face baring down into an angry expression, “F-From when I left the laundry room to when Hina knocked on my door was a few hours, not just those ten minutes when Sayaka was getting killed! I went to get it way before it even happened! And even then, that has nothing to do with all that!!”

“Really? I don’t think that’s true at all.”

Hiro flinched rather violently as his bewildered eyes followed everyone else’s to Kyoko, whose eyes bore down on him with a piercing gaze.

“Hu- Why not!?”

“Simple. Because if we follow Makoto’s thought process and that you had gone back to retrieve your crystal ball around the same time Sayaka was murdered,” she said, pointing a finger at him, “then it could very well easily explain the condition of the crime scene, as well as be a factor in proving you’re the culprit.”

A series of gasps and startled noises flooded the courtroom.

“W-What do you m-mean?” Toko asked.

“I think Kyoko’s talking about how the bathroom looked, right?” Makoto widened his eyes in realization, getting a nod from the lilac haired girl upon asking.

Hina tilted her head and folded her arms over her chest, “How the bathroom looked...? What about it?”

“Well, since we acknowledge Leon’s testimony as fact, we know that the murder weapon had to be have been brought into the bathroom once the killer was able to get inside. Now, we don’t know if Sayaka was able to put up some kind of a fight or not before she was stabbed. But if you think about it, doesn’t it seem a bit out of place with how destroyed the bathroom looked? There was broken glass nearly everywhere on the floor around her body, as the mirror and shower glass had taken a lot of damage.”

Leon blinked in response to Makoto’s words and tried to recall the state of the bathroom. Getting past the initial morbid shock of seeing her corpse just there, he did remember seeing the mirror above the sink and a good chunk out of the shower glass…

...Wait a minute, that…!!

“...Oh, yeah, yeah! I think I totally see where you’re comin’ from!” he spoke up, snapping his fingers before pointing at the kid, “Even if Sayaka struggled against the killer, it doesn’t really feel like just trying to stop someone from stabbing you would cause that much damage to the mirror and shower glass, yeah?”

“Yeah, I believe so,” Makoto nodded, pursing his lips, “I think that you’d need a lot of strength and force to be able to cause that much of the glass to shatter like that; simply bumping into it due to struggling with someone over control of the kitchen knife wouldn’t be enough.”

“The only ones who would be the most capable of doing that would most likely be Mr. Owada or Miss Ogami… but it seems highly unlikely they were involved at all,” Hifumi commented.

“Furthermore, I investigated Sayaka’s body; aside from her fatal stab wound and her broken wrist, no other visible signs of injury were located anywhere on her,” Kyoko added on, “So the possibility of the killer slamming her into the glass and causing it to shatter that way is not a viable option either.”

Mondo sneered impatiently while rubbing the back of his neck yet again.

“Okay, then why was the bathroom so fucked up?”

“And how the heck does it make you think that I’m the culprit!?” Hiro shouted offendedly, clutching at the top of his podium with a near vice grip.

Not affected by his frustration, Kyoko replied with a serious expression, “In order to help you better understand, let’s follow what Makoto has proposed. For now, let’s accept the hypothetical thought process that Hiro is the killer-”

“Y-Y- ‘Accept the-’ But I’m not the killer!!”

“-and follow it step by step. He wakes up late at night before the murder occurs as remembers that he forgot his crystal ball in the laundry room. But instead of going down the hall where most of the dorm rooms are, he goes down the right hand side where the public restrooms and the trash room are, as it’s closer towards his dorm,” she continued, essentially overruling Hiro’s attempted objection, “As he finishes retrieving his crystal ball and he’s coming out of the laundry room…”

“...There’s a high chance he would’ve seen the blood splatters in the hallway,” Sakura finished her purposely trailed out thought, causing the girl to nod.

“Not only that, from that same angle, he would definitely see that the door to Makoto’s room was open,” Byakuya tacked on, his eyes already at the same conclusion that Kyoko was bringing the class closer to.

“Exactly. Then, for whatever reason, perhaps it be a morbid curiosity to know what happened or something even more sinister, he ventures into the room. From there, he manages to get past the bathroom door and then a struggle ensues between him and Sayaka over control of the kitchen knife. Now, keep in mind that the reason Hiro left his dorm to begin with was to retrieve his crystal ball. If he had brought it with him into the bathroom and had a struggle with Sayaka…”

Leon found his eyes widening with realization and his mouth starting to open. Wait, is she implying…?

“Ah, I see. You’re saying that Hiro ended up dropping his ball on the bathroom floor and it shattered, correct?” Celeste asked, her face intrigued with the potential truth being revealed.

Taka looked floored and glanced back and forth between Kyoko and the accused, “So then you’re saying Hiro’s crystal ball is part of the shattered glass at the crime scene!?”

“Now wait just a freakin’ minute! T-There’s no way in this universe I’d drop my treasured crystal ball! I paid one hundred million yen for it, so I take, like, ultra good care of it! And it’s actually crystal!! It wouldn’t just shatter like some glass would!” Hiro became even more incensed, not noticing multiple giving stunned looks that Leon remembered giving him about the astronomically ridiculous price range or how Byakuya muttered something about him being ‘an utter moron not worth his time’, “Besides, even if I play along with this total bogus theory of me being the killer, you got no proof of that being even remotely true!!”

“...Actually, Hiro, we do.”

“WH-HUH!?”

While maybe not with as much desperation and fear that Hiro spoke it out with, Leon shared with the exclamation. Sure, the theory made sense with everything, but… there was actually something that could prove it? He joined everyone to look at Makoto’s determined visage as he stared down Hiro once more.

“In fact… I would go so far as to say it’s Sayaka’s dying message.”

Leon blinked a few times.

“Dining- wait, no- dying-dying message…? Sayaka left a dying message in the bathroom?”

“But where? I don’t recall ever seeing any message near her…” Sakura said with a frown.

“It’s understandable you didn’t see it, considering it’s not something that has words,” Makoto replied, quickly bringing out his handbook and pressing at the screen, “It’s actually something she had on her. Despite all the broken glass around her, Sayaka actually had a small chunk of glass in her left hand.”

“I see. Her right wrist was broken, so she would’ve used her good arm to do so,” Taka added, with the boy giving her a nod of confirmation.

“Exactly. However, the piece of glass in her hand was a different color. Specifically, it was a light pale white with a slight blue tint. Considering the darker color and tint of the glass on both the shower and mirror, it clearly proves something else made of some kind of glass was dropped and shattered, mixed in to hide it. And that’s why it’s Sayaka’s dying message; it clearly shows something that the killer tried to hide away!” Makoto explained, glancing up and across the circle, “And I’ve taken a picture of it with my handbook, so if anybody wants to see it, they absolutely will be able to find it’s true!”

Hiro made a choking noise as he clutched at some of his dreads.

“And there’s even more that can prove it, and it’s located within the Monokuma File for the case,” the kid kept going, putting his handbook away and pulling out his file, which others also did to follow along, “According to its details, there was pieces of glass both around and inside Sayaka’s wound. Since we’ve ruled out that it would take more force than simply bumping or being shoved into the glass to hit it and we know Sayaka had no other injuries… the obvious question is why bits of glass are near her stab wound.”

Kyoko took control from there by nodding and speaking up, “From there, if we continue with the theory that Hiro’s the culprit and Sayaka’s dying message proves that he dropped his crystal ball on the floor, then it would mean he’s the one who destroyed the glass trying to conceal the crystal ball’s shattered remains. And with the bits of glass both inside and near the fatal wound, I believe we can surmise what he used to do it with.”

Chihiro let out a soft, horrified gasp as her hands curled in under her bottom lip.

“Y-You mean… the kitchen knife!”

Amongst the surprised grunts and noises, Hifumi clapped both hands on his face and gawked at the girl with the unknown talent.

“So Mr. Hagakure used the murder weapon to cause all the damage that was in the bathroom!?”

“I know it sounds crazy… but wouldn’t it make sense if we believe that?” Makoto explained, “With something sturdy that doesn’t bend like the kitchen knife, if used as a weapon to attack the glass, it would cause it to shatter into pieces, wouldn’t it? Then it would be just a matter of breaking the pieces into smaller bits, so that we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”

“On top of that, it would also explain how glass was in Sayaka’s wound,” Byakuya added, “There would be blood already on it from the initial fatal stab. So any pieces of glass would very well be stuck on it. And thus, by putting the knife back where he stabbed her, it would explain the Monokuma File’s description of it.”

Hina gasped, paling as she covered her mouth in terror.

“H-He… put the knife covered in broken glass back inside of her wound like that?”

“Jesus fuckin’ Christ!” Mondo roared, a snarl directed at the panicking clairvoyant, who was just staring at Makoto in utter silence, “What kind of a sadistic fuck are you, man!?”

“And with that, the obvious truth comes out. Wouldn’t you say, Makoto?” Kyoko said, glancing towards the boy, who nodded in response.

“Yeah. The reason why the bathroom was so damaged was to camouflage the fact that the killer had dropped something that shattered on the floor. That item would automatically lead to their identity if we were able to see it from a first glance, because it was a crystal ball. And there’s only one person in this school who owns one.”

Suddenly, Makoto’s right hand shot out, pointing an accusatory finger across the circle in a way that made Leon shocked at how this somewhat clumsy, small kid became such a fierce presence.

“And that person is you, Hiro!”

The older man recoiled heavily, a startled yelp coming out of him as he jerked back from the accusation, but slipped out of one of his sandals in the process and nearly lost his balance. The water works had come into full swing, as this dude was absolutely drenched with panicked sweat on nearly every visible part of his skin.

“B-But… you’re t-talking about him breaking g-glass. W-Wouldn’t it have made noise t-that would’ve w-woken us up…?” Toko unintentionally gave him a defense, as her brow scrunched with confusion and she bit more into the tip of her thumb.

That saving grace caused Hiro to exasperatedly nod and have a semi-delusional, relieved smile come across his stubbled jaw.

“Y-Yeah! She’s totally right! It would’ve!”

“Would it have made noise? Absolutely. But would it have woken us up? I don’t think so,” Makoto intervened almost instantly, causing the smile to be wiped clean, “Because our dorm rooms have superior sound insulation.”

Hiro began to sputter.

“W-Wha- W-Wa- Wait… W-What do you mean by…?”

“Hiro... do you not remember this? You were part of the group that found this out on our first day of being here,” Taka reminded him, his face beginning to realize that his fellow classmate might be the culprit, “We had you and Chihiro stand out in the hallway. Junko and I screamed as loud as we could in your room, and Leon used his guitar and turned it up all the way on the amp in his room. And our results showed that even as loud as we could be, as long as the door was shut, no one can hear from both outside the hallway or in the next room over.”

“Which means you definitely could’ve broken the shower glass and mirror without anyone hearing it… Not even me… who was just in the next room over,” Makoto reemphasized, regretfully trailing off with his words as he glanced down with a pained look that he had been showing throughout the trial.

Damn it.

Even after all of this, Leon was amazed. How this kid was able to keep on going. Even knowing that Sayaka wasn’t as innocent as she claimed herself to be. Learning he wasn’t the person who did her in, but what looked to be Hiro.

This kid…

“...I…. Y-You…. T-That… ...That’s the most ridiculous load of crap I’ve ever heard!!”

Leon and everyone turned to see Hiro, reborn with fury and rage in his eyes as he proceeded jab a finger right back at the one who did so to him earlier.

“I’m not the killer, man! You’re absolutely wrong about everything! And this is me talkin’, so you know it’s true!!”

“You still won’t admit it? Okay then…” Kyoko closed her eyes briefly before glancing over to the ahoge-haired boy, “Makoto, go ahead and review the incident one more time to make his crime perfectly clear. And with that, we can end this…”

“W-Would ya just stop and listen to me for a second!? What the heck do you mean ‘end this’!?” Hiro shouted desperately, waving his hands around violently.

“Say what you want, Hiro. But all the questions have been answered, and the truth has been revealed,” Makoto said, raising his voice to address the group, causing Leon to take a deep breath in and slightly readjust his arm over his injury, “Everyone, here’s what happened!”

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

ACT 1:

“I think we’d better take one more look over the case from the beginning… Through what we've uncovered, the murder actually doesn’t involve the killer from the start.
After switching rooms with me for the night, Sayaka happened to get into contact with someone by slipping a note under their door, telling them to come to the room she was staying in. In other words, my room.
That person was Leon. From what we now know, Sayaka invited him over with the intention of killing him.
After a small conversation that, I believe, was to lower his guard, she attacked him with the knife that she had managed to sneak out of the kitchen earlier.
But then something happened that she wasn’t prepared for. Leon had managed to grab the replica sword in my room that Sayaka and I had placed there to use for self-defense, and fought back.
During the struggle, two crucial things happened; a slash from the kitchen knife caused Leon to start bleeding on his right side, and a strike from the sword broke Sayaka’s right wrist. That very same strike from the sword is what caused her to lose her grip on the knife.”

ACT 2:

“Finding herself cornered, Sayaka panicked and ran into the bathroom.
Seeing this as his chance to escape, Leon dropped the sword and ran out of my room in order to find help. That is the reason why there was a massive trail of blood leading from my room out into the hall.
As Leon made his escape and rushed to find help, his immediate choice was Sakura, who he himself said was the closest thing to a doctor out of all of us, and who would’ve had bandages to help stop his bleeding.
But in his panicked state, he ended up banging on the wrong door: Hina’s door. And yet, that would prove to be the thing that most likely saved his life. Because Sakura herself ended up answering the door.
You see, she was actually staying over in Hina’s room for the night, because she was asked to. And as such, both of them were woken up and able to pull Leon into the room. With the use of Hina’s sewing kit and some of Sakura’s bandages, they managed to save Leon from bleeding out.
However… that is not where this ends.”

ACT 3:

“While that all was happening, someone had just come out of their dorm room. That person was the killer, the true culprit of this case. The reason why is because they remembered that they had left their crystal ball in the laundry room.
They most likely used the back hallway, as it was closer to their room. But as they came out of the laundry room after obtaining their ball… they most definitely would’ve seen my open dorm room and the blood splatters left behind by Leon.
Whether it was due to a sinister realization to capitalize on someone being hurt, morbid curiosity, or something else we’re not sure. But what we do know is that the killer then went inside of my room, managed to get the kitchen knife… and somehow was able to force their way into the bathroom where Sayaka was hiding.
I presume that during this, there was a struggle for control of the knife. As a result, the killer accidentally dropped their crystal ball, which shattered to pieces on the floor.
And eventually, Sayaka… would be stabbed in the stomach.”

ACT 4:

“After stabbing Sayaka, the killer probably started to panic due to their destroyed crystal ball; if anyone was able to figure out what it was, it’d immediately lead them right to their identity. So to disguise it, the killer took the knife out of Sayaka, and began destroying the mirror and shower glass, purposely making the pieces smaller to make it even harder to determine it.
However, with what remaining strength she had, Sayaka managed to grab a piece of the broken crystal ball with her good hand, to show that something other than the mirror and shower glass had been broken…
...And with that, all her strength was gone.
With Sayaka dead and the glass destroyed, the killer put the knife back into her wound and went about trying to destroy any other evidence in the room.
First, they took off their shirt, which was most likely covered in the victim’s blood. Then they took the lint roller in my room and proceeded to clean the entire area. Their goal was to remove any trace that they had even been there.
After disposing of the used strip in my trash, the killer then rushed back to their room and, what I would think, changed out of their bloody clothes.
As they did that, Hina and Sakura had just finished patching Leon’s wound up. With that, both started to wake everybody up to alert them of what happened between him and Sayaka. So when Hina knocked on the killer’s door… they were already awake, going on to use a story that they had been awake for some time and doing a fortune-telling session.”

“What made this case tricky was the fact that the culprit was able to unintentionally use the fact that two other people were considered the main suspects of Sayaka’s murder: Leon, due to his involvement and the injury he sustained to be perceived as Sayaka defending herself against him, and myself, because the crime scene was in my room. But now that we’ve all gone over all the details, the truth has come out with indisputable evidence.”

“Isn’t that right, Yasuhiro Hagakure!?”

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

The entire classroom had gone silent after the absolutely clusterfuck of events that had led up to Sayaka’s death. All eyes had gone from Makoto explaining… to the shaking, on the verge of hyperventilating Hiro. His lips curled into a dreadful grimace and exposing his top row of teeth grinding down on the bottom, a more bold, yet sickening shade of ill blue covered his forehead. His eyes, almost non-existent, darted around from person to person and refusing to keep them locked onto the distrusting and knowing glances.

...It really was him, wasn’t it?

Leon let his head drop with a defeated huff of air; like… he oughta be upset with him. For hiding and putting him through all of this, being content with letting him die like this as he or Makoto would be falsely condemned… but… he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

This… sucked. Like… so much.

He was just… so tired at this point.

“...Hiro.”

Speaking of him…

Leon joined everyone looking towards Makoto, who had just given what was essentially his closing argument. The boy had a softer expression, of what looked like pity and compassion… which honestly had the punk surprised as all heck that even after everything, he’d be willing to feel that towards Hiro.

“...I don’t want to blame you… I… don’t want to believe you’re the killer. I don’t want to believe anybody is. I want to believe this is all some sort of dream where I’m going to wake up any second and Sayaka will be alive. But… the fact of the matter is that she is dead, and one of us here is responsible,” he explained, giving an apologetic, but firm look to him, “And after going over everything, the only possible killer… is you. There’s no getting around that.”

The clairvoyant’s jaw dropped only slightly, but appeared to make no effort in responding.

“...So, Hiro. Do you object to anything that has been said?” Kyoko asked, her eyes looking to see if he would try to argue.

“................ Do…………….. Do I...… object…….?”

…Hm?

Wait… did he say-

“...Do I…. object? Do I object? Do I object!?”

With a sudden blur, Hiro’s right fist raised high into the air and slammed with raw force into his podium, causing multiple people to jump from the booming noise and his violent motions. The second he looked up, any signs of who Yasuhiro Hagakure was were gone and replaced with a person too far gone in rage. The blue shade occupying his forehead had burned into a crimson red rage as he snarled.

“HELL YEAH, I DO!! THIS WHOLE THING I OBJECT TO!! ALL OF IT IS OCCULT-TYPE BULLSHIT!!” he roared out, “THIS WHOLE STUPID THING IS JUST ONE BIG THEORY!! YOU’RE JUST MAKING THE ASSUMPTION THAT I WENT OUT AND GOT MY CRYSTAL BALL AT THE EXACT MOMENT SAYAKA HAPPENED TO GET KILLED AND TREATING IT LIKE FACT THAT I DID IT!! YOU’VE GOT NO FREAKIN’ PROOF I DID THIS, AND AS FAR AS I’M CONVINCED, ALL OF YOU ARE JUST OUT TO GET ME!!!”

He grit his teeth like an animal backed into the corner and venomously spat at Makoto while jabbing a finger at him.

“MY CRYSTAL BALL IS IN MY ROOM RIGHT NOW, BECAUSE I’M NOT THE KILLER; I WAS DOING ONE OF MY FREAKIN’ SESSIONS!! AND YOU CAN’T PROVE OTHERWISE!!”

“....”

He felt the back of his throat tighten at that last remark.

No… that’s wrong.

For the first time, Leon Kuwata found himself having stage fright and being hesitant to speak up.

But…

He had to; he knew it.

Even if…

“.........You’re right.”

Many startled noises and surprised looks were, as to be expected, locked onto him the moment those words left his mouth. None more so than Hiro, who had turned completely into a deer in the headlights with how quickly he shut up and directed his half furious, half confused glare his way.

And yet, unlike the whole trial… he wasn’t fazed this time.

“Makoto wouldn’t be able to prove that…” he said, hoping that the slow, deep breath through his nose can help alleviate the pounding in his chest, “...but I think I might be able to.”

It was there. The answer was right there. Right on the tip of his tongue. Right there. And yet… with Hiro’s shrinking pupils shakily focused on him…

The rules of the class trial were either everyone would die to failure of solving the murder, or the killer… the ‘blackened’... would die to being exposed.

It was either the group or them….

...It was either them or him.

That’s the reason why Leon was hesitating.

It was essentially the fact that made his gut drop even further and how, despite how he had no idea why he was feeling it, his guilt in what he was about to do grow.

It was one realization that made him hesitate:

‘The moment I explain how I can prove this, Hiro’s as good as dead.’

…

…

…

Ignoring the sea of eyes on him, Leon’s eyes drifted to the two people who had been sort of a rock that he could use as stable ground. Hina blinked a few times once she realized he locked eyes with her, but with a regretful yet readied expression, nodded to him. And once his eyes went to Sakura, while her stoic expression was more calm, she did the same.

...Okay. It was… time to get this over with.

He took another slow, deep breath and licked his lips, focusing on the floor in the middle of the room.

“...On the first day of us being here, as all of you know… Hiro and I were part of the same group that not only put Makoto in his room to rest, but to search around the dorms. However, for a brief part, the group split up, and Hiro and I went to search the classrooms before being joined by Chihiro and Junko.”

He slowly looked towards Hiro, who began to look more and more like a terrified child.

“...I talked about it before, but... Hiro and I ended up talking about his crystal ball during our search. But there was something that he said that I think can prove whether he’s lying or not.”

“Wh… What…”

F-Fuck, man… Hiro, why do you have to look at him like that-

“...W-What did… I say…?” he barely got out, the blue coloring of fear starting to return to his forehead.

Leon grimaced before taking a breath and cradling his side a bit more.

“You said this…”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to make a living, right?” Hiro light-heartedly chuckled, shrugging as he gave a thumbs-up in response, “And it’s not just how much money I’ve put into it. It’s also the amount of care I gotta keep up to make sure it stays with me forever. ‘Cuz it’s the only crystal ball I’ve got here!”

Leon’s eyebrows raised up.

“Wait, you mean in general, or…?”

“Oh, no way; I’ve got more back in my bedroom at home,” the taller male closed an eye and responded, putting his hands on his hips before having a distressed sigh come out of his lungs, “But for some reason, that crystal ball is the only one I’ve got in this place! There weren’t anymore in my dorm room, which is why I gotta double the TLC to this bad boy. And that’s adding onto the existing double that’s already there because it’s such a rare artifact, so that’s like…. Four times the amount of carefulness I need to have with it daily!”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“...That is what you said… right, Hiro?”

No response is what he got; only silent, scared gawking that screamed... ‘why would you betray me’.

...Fuck.

“So in other words, the crystal ball in question is the only one that Mr. Hagakure has in this school,” Hifumi commented, raising an eyebrow at him.

“And if it were to break… then he wouldn’t have another one to use,” Sakura added, glancing over to Leon who seemed unknowing and still looked bothered from the reaction he got from the accused.

“So if there was a crystal ball found in his dorm, then it would prove his innocence and that the broken glass in the bathroom near Sayaka’s body has nothing to do with him, right?” Taka asked aloud.

The petite form of Celeste hummed in response.

“So then that means the way to verify if Hiro is the killer or not… it would seem that a trip to his dorm room and having a look inside would be our next course of action, would it not?”

That seemed to get a response out of Hiro, as he massively flinched and wasn’t able to tear his eyes away due to being in silent fear at the lolita.

“B-But wait… Monokuma said we couldn't search the rooms, because it’d make the trial boring for it…” Chihiro frowned, glancing around once she reminded everyone of what happened earlier.

Byakuya didn’t seem to be stopped at this.

“If I recall correctly, it wouldn’t let us search all of the rooms due to making the trial boring. It specifically put emphasis on ‘all’. However,” he said, his stern looking glancing towards the one they were referring to, “I wonder if the bear would permit us to search a single room based on confirming this matter.”

In response, all but Hiro turned to look at Monokuma, who seemed to perk up upon realizing it was being mentioned. Its pudgy form pretended to be deep in thought as it leaned up against the back of its chair and hummed.

“Hmm, hmm! Interesting! Very interesting indeed! A chilling, but unique way to bring this trial to a close! Puhuhuh… Very well, I’ll allow it~!” it permitted in a sing-song tone of voice, “But just to let you kiddies know; I’ll only be allowing you to search one room! Understand? So if it turns out that the spiky-haired porcupine boy isn’t the right choice, no amount of begging is going to convince me to let you search another room!”

“...That’s fine with me. I think we know that it’s the right room,” Makoto commented, bringing his attention back to the clairvoyant and having his expression softening up again, “...Well, Hiro? Will you allow us to go back up to the dorms and search your room? If you have nothing to hide and you really aren’t Sayaka’s killer, then there should not only be a crystal ball in your room, but there will be a lack of bloody clothing stashed somewhere.”

“And if by some chance, you’re going to suddenly claim that your crystal ball isn’t in your room, you’re going to have to explain where it is, when you left it there, and why you lied about having it in your room in the first place,” Byakuya tacked on, raising his nose up at the accused.

“And let me say this right now,” Kyoko nailed in the final coffin of this pressure, “‘I lost it’ or ‘I can’t remember’ are not valid excuses at this point.”

“......................................................................”

No verbal peep was made out of Hiro…

...but, oh man, did he begin to shake.

His body began to visibly shake, as if his body temperature had just dropped below freezing.

Slowly… but surely… his hands began to lift upward… higher and higher…

...until they connected, forming a praying gesture above his head.

“...Oh…. Oh…”

His voice shakily began to pray with his volume eventually…

Shrieking.

“Oh…. God… Jesus… Buddha. Allah. Jehovah! Elohim! HU!! MIGHTY CTHULHU!!! NAPOLEON, GEORGE WASHINGTON, SOMEONE!!!!”

With a violent motion, Hiro clutched at his hair, tears openly streaming down his face.

“SAAAAAAAAAAVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!”

Seemingly overwhelmed with everything, the clairvoyant’s legs buckled from it all and his body lurched forward, causing his jacket to slide off his shoulders and onto the floor behind him. The elbows connected HARD with a sickening crack against the wood of his podium; his new position was him hunched over his seat while the shadows covered his broken face and hid it from view. Aside from his hands and fingers frequently twitching and shaking, there was no movement that came out of him, and not a peep to be heard.

Once the echoes of his voice had faded from existence, the class stood in at least twenty seconds of silence, watching the person who they all were searching for give no attempt at a rebuttal.

Then Byakuya closed his eyes.

“I believe we can treat that outburst as a confession.”

Out of the corner of Leon’s eyes, he witnessed Celeste glance away, twirling her fingers in the left side of her hair.

“Then it would seem… we are finished here,” she said.

Yeah… it was over, wasn’t it?

Leon mentally cursed the whole thing to hell, as he winced for the millionth time at his injury attempting to fight the pain medication.

He sighed, closing his eyes shut with a scowl at the bittersweet notion that they had won. They figured out who the blackened was, but... in a few moments…

They were going to be executed.

And that person, who was responsible for killing Sayaka Maizono…

...was Yasuhiro Hagakure.

==================

CLASS TRIAL: END

Notes:

And the identity of Sayaka's killer is revealed! Like... wow, I've been at this story for two years now, and we're just getting into Chapter 2! I'm looking forward to going into the next part; hope you all do, too!

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better...

 

....Puhuhuhuhuhu.....

Chapter 22: Ch 1: aftermath

Notes:

So... Wow.... It's been... near a half a year.

I want to apologize. This chapter was SUPPOSED to come out in October of 2021, but... a lot of stuff happened, including me getting into Pokemon Go, losing my drive, and... a best friend of mine just dying unexpectedly, which had killed my passion for this story... UNTIL NOW.

Like I said, I am NOT giving up in this story! As long as I can write, I wanna give Leon a story he deserves! As such, I'm not entirely satisfied with this chapter, so I would love thoughts on how I did, if you all could.

Thank you all for being so patient as I get back into this.

Let's see Chapter 1 end properly...

“Puhuhuhu…”

Seriously, he hates that laugh so much.

As much as he didn’t want to (and trust him; he REALLY didn’t want to), Leon joined all but the recently discovered blackened in directing their attention towards Monokuma. The bear, making it clear that it would wait no longer, had already hopped to its feet and the movements it made came off as jittery excitement.

“Well now, well now, well now! Looks like my beloved students have finally reached a verdict! That means it’s my cue to start the voting time!”

As if on cue, the moment Monokuma announced the transition into everybody voting, Leon’s left ear picked up on a noise that was coming from the podium in front of him. Whirling his head back to look on high alert, he widened his eyes at what he saw.

After all, you often don’t see part of a wooden podium suddenly have the surface facing you on top retract and move back, revealing some kind of a wide screen. You also don’t often see the right side of the top of the same podium then have a pull lever with a red circular handle that looks like something you’d find on a slot machine in a casino or something slowly rising out of it.

...Again, if it wasn’t for… everything, Leon would’ve found this to be super cool.

“!! AAGH!!”

!! G-Geesus-

A loud yelp was heard coming out of Hiro that caused him to flinch and look. The guy, still within the midst of his breakdown, had shot up straight and backed away quite far away from his podium (causing several others to be startled, especially Hina and Chihiro, who were the closest to him). Considering he had essentially collapsed against it, the structure morphing into whatever it was now would’ve most likely given him the scare of his life.

...Of his life… which was going to…

He couldn’t bring himself to finish that thought.

“..Ahem! Alrighty! May I please direct your attention to your podiums?” Monokuma ‘cleared its throat’ before it started to explain, “So, at the end of the class trial, once you believe you have decided on ‘whodunnit’, you will proceed onto the voting phase. And this is how you will lock in your votes.”

At that moment, a flash on the screen caught Leon’s attention as it came to life. On the screen was a background of Monokuma’s face with the text of ‘Voting Time’ near the top. In the middle was a little tiny 8-bit, full body sprite of Makoto with his name underneath it. And finally at the bottom left was a timer that was set on thirty seconds.

“What you see before you is a touch screen. This will be how you select who you’re voting for,” the bear continued, “In order to change your selection, simply swipe either left or right to cycle through the student selection. The order of who comes on screen when you swipe is the same as how you’re seated here in the trial room. Once your screen highlights who you wish to vote for, please use the lever that’s located to your right to lock in your answer. As you also can see on the screen, there is a small time limit you have to cast your vote. And you see this is important, because…”

With a small, intentional pause, its head lowered to where the shadows made the red eye glow menacingly.

“...Refusing to vote will also result in your death, so you better make triple sure you vote for someone. You wouldn’t want to get punished for something so minor, would you?”

Leon grimaced as he glanced back at the screen. That damn bear isn’t making this any easier…

“Now, then… The timer shall begin! Please cast your votes, so that we may come to the conclusion of the class trial! Good luck!”

With Monokuma’s cheerful send-off to the explanation of how to vote, the baseball star’s eyes were attracted to the timer suddenly changing from the perfect thirty into twenty nine point fifty one seconds. The sight of the loss of a few seconds already caused him to feel his chest tighten to a degree.

This… This was it…

Hesitating only for a millisecond, Leon’s left index finger moved up to the screen and began to swipe right, moving the sprite representation of Makoto to the next person on his right. Not too long after swiping through the selection (though, he had to admit that he slightly paused upon seeing his 8-bit sprite; not because he found it uncool or anything, but the way it looked was… look, it was enough to stop him in his tracks for a moment, alright??), the sprite selection eventually highlighted Hiro’s sprite.

…………

Leon couldn’t help but give one last glance at him. Hiro was visibly shaking still, a combined effort of not only having his crime exposed and having the shit scared out of him from the podium morphing into a voting device. With a near vice grip that had taken the side of the podium firmly into his left hand, he had leaned a bit closer to his podium’s screen and used his right hand to make his selection before whimpering and reaching for his lever.

...He had no idea who the guy was voting for, but… even he had to know who was going to…

………...

When Leon paused and glanced over at the clairvoyant, a good portion of the class had begun to pull at their levers and cast their votes. He supposed he shouldn’t waste any more time and risk a punishment. With a tired, unpleasant sigh, he carefully twisted his body to not and aggravate his injury any more than he had to. If just lifting his right arm to get his jacket off caused so much pain, like hell he was about to see if lifting his arm to pull a lever would do the same. Despite the awkward grip, his left arm was able to pull down on the lever and lock in his vote of Hiro, causing the timer to stop. The screen then darkened ever so slightly to which a bright red rectangular shape with the font of ‘Please Wait’ covered it all.

After a few more seconds with the last of the group casting their votes, Leon couldn’t even begin to figure out how the hell those small little stubs Monokuma called paws or hands or whatever managed to make a clapping noise, but it did.

“Okay, my beloved students; this is officially do or die time! Everyone has cast their votes; let’s see who voted for who~!”

As if on cue, everyone’s attention was caught by a large silver tv-like monitor slowly lowering down from the ceiling until it was at an appropriate range for everyone to view it. The thing was massive! Like, way way WAAAAAAY bigger than a fifty-two inch flat screen tv or whatever size the largest one came in!

Soon, the screen fizzled to life with a red font of ‘Results’ briefly flashing onto the screen before being followed…

...by two portraits showing up on screen.

  12

  1

“...!!”

The gasp that coincided with the flinch that came from seeing a vote for him on the screen made him let out a subtle, yet pained and strangled grunt as he took a swift, secondly sharp inhale in. F-Frig, he really needs to stop tensing his right arm when he’s shocked… that was actually the worst throb his side’s given him since he popped the pills into his mouth.

But still… seeing him on the voting screen like that was… damn, how just freakin’ wrong and messed up it made him feel. Like, he knew that everyone knew that he was innocent, but the fact that if they hadn’t been so lucky… if they hadn’t had the evidence that would’ve proved him to not be the killer… that could’ve been him with the majority vote, and everyone including him would’ve died. Hell, just having one vote in general sent shivers up his spine as he grimaced, taking a very deep breath to center himself as the agony started to wane.

Though, with everything considered, it should’ve been pretty friggin’ obvious who the person was who voted for him. Whether it was out of spite, denial, or whatever the crap it was didn’t really matter at this point, but…

Hearing a choked sob on his right made him grind his teeth and beg his eyes to just not look down at who he knew made that sound.

“Okay! It seems that all my beloved students have locked in their answers! And now it comes down to this, so let’s get excited!” Monokuma fistpumped (or… pawpumped…?) its left arm into the air as it addressed everyone, “Who will be chosen as the blackened? Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one?”

It… It was obvious, wasn’t it? The majority vote was the right answer. It was Hiro… right?

“What’s it gonna be? What’s it gonna beeee!?”

With one last attempt at simultaneously hyping and scaring the class, Monokuma proved to have its timing down to a capital ‘T’ as the screen above it suddenly flashed and showed what looked to be a cinematic picture of a tiny version of it in a suit that had the words ‘WHO IS FOUND GUILTY?’ above it. It transitioned the camera to go lower and revealed it to be a type of slot machine that was in the process of showing the results of the vote. Despite the fast speed, Leon was able to see that the pictures on the slot machine were smaller, headshot pictures of everyone in the circle.

And as the slot machine’s spin started to slow, all three pictures revealed to be none other than Hiro. The screen flashed to life with tiny red letters spelling ‘Guilty’ below it. The slot machine started to spit out a flood of coins with Monokuma’s face on them, while sound effects of cheering and applause filled the courtroom and bouquets and confetti added to the congratulatory screen of supposed victory.

...Holy crap, man. Talk about the most screwed up time for a celebration.

The entire circle had no life to it. It was like all the determination or tense anxiety was sucked out of everybody and all that was left of this was just some kind of defeated atmosphere that was depressing as all hell. Sure, they found Sayaka’s killer and they wouldn’t be executed, but… that wasn’t going to bring her or Junko back.

And Hiro was going to… join them.

He hated how he couldn’t control himself glancing over at the portraits. Especially at the focus he had directed at Sayaka’s eyes. The feeling of her staring back at him started to come back…

That only lasted for a few minutes, however, as the screen showing the results cut to black and proceeded to recede back up into the ceiling. Seemingly overjoyed at what it had seen, Monokuma happily bounced up and down.

“Uh-oh! It looks like you all got it right on the money! Congratulations; you exposed who the killer is!” it gave an excited thumbs-up, before giving a small pirouette and motioning both paws to the person who won the majority vote, “The blackened in this case, the one who murdered Sayaka Maizono… was none other than Yasuhiro Hagakure!”

All eyes fell back onto the clairvoyant, who only began to lift his shaky head up from his lowered position. His grips on the left edge of the podium and lever were to the point where it seemed even the slightly exhale from someone could blow his hands completely away from it. The lips twitched as the voicebox tried to work.

“...I… ah… uh… I-It…”

“...It’s really true… isn’t it, Hiro…?”

Everyone glanced back at Makoto, who struggled to maintain eye contact with his close friend’s killer though a disappointed, heartbroken face. Leon remembered the words he said after doing a quick recap of the events that occurred during the murder. About how he didn’t want to believe anybody killed Sayaka. And yet, this is what the truth led to and there was no looking away. And now that the trial was officially over, despite being on the winning side…

The kid’s shoulders were slumped in defeat.

“You… You really did kill Sayaka…” his voice reaffirmed regretfully, glancing away at the floor near where the base of Sayaka’s portrait was in the seat next to him.

Hiro could only gawk in utter terror as it appeared tears threatened to form in the corner of his eyes.

“Oh, no…. Hiro…”

Leon looked towards Hina after she spoke. She seemed horrified with how both of her hands clasped around her mouth; and yet, there was obvious concern weaved into her eyes. Hell, despite all of what he’s gone through so far and how probably a good deal of it ended up being Hiro’s fault to a degree, even he felt bad for the guy. Especially with what was going to happen to him.

“Gh… Son of a bitch...!” Mondo roared, slamming his hands down on the podium as he leaned forward with an expression that was less rage-filled and more along the lines of disturbed curiosity, “What the hell is wrong with you!? After all that shit about this all being some dumbass orientation prank, you of all people… Why’d you fucking do it, dude!?”

The sheer bewilderment and increasing panic on Hiro’s face seemed to suggest he didn’t even hear the biker’s demand. All he did was slowly bring his hands up to long enough dreads that were protruding on the sides of his forehead and eventually latch an iron grip to them as he seemed to inner monologue with himself.

“....I…. N-ngh… No way… No way this is real. ...T-That’s right, haha… I-It’s just like… just like he said. Like Makoto just said,” he coached aloud to himself, loud enough for everyone else to hear as he started to shake more noticeably, “This is just some dream. An awful dream. I-I’m… I’m gonna wake up back in my room after I’ve done my fortune telling session, find out it’s morning, a-and then… everyone will be in the dining hall… E-Even Sayaka… S-She…”

“It would appear that he’s completely lost it,” Byakuya commented in an uninterested manner, not even gracing the blackened with his glare, “Unable to comprehend the fact that he has been caught.”

“T-This… this wasn’t… This wasn’t supposed to happen… I-I was only just…”

“...Hiro, to think you were capable of such an atrocity…!” Taka gritted his teeth, closing his eyes.

Hifumi anxiously adjusted his glasses as he scanned around the room for approval, “Then… it’s really over, right? We’ve finished with the class trial?”

“Perhaps… but there is still something that troubles me.”

Sakura’s voice made Leon look over to her in confusion. Despite the fact that they had managed to solve who it was and even had Monokuma confirm they got it right, there was still something left?

“Huh? What is it?”

“I understand that the trial is over, and that we’ve essentially solved nearly the entirety of what happened. And yet…” she replied to his question, glancing over at the broken culprit, “What I still don’t understand is how Hiro was able to get into the bathroom where Sayaka was.”

...Huh?

“...Actually, that’s a good point,” his eyes were captured by Makoto, whose face had that realization dawn on him as he brought a hand to rest under his chin, “We were able to use all the clues we found to show that he was in the bathroom, but we never really established how he was able to get inside.”

“W-What does it m-matter? W-We know who the k-killer is. I-Isn’t that enough…?” Toko attempted to dismiss the potential of discussing it.

“I understand we’ve solved the mystery behind Sayaka’s death, but I’m also curious as to how he did it,” Kyoko swiftly countered, folding her arms, “After all, the door showed no visible signs of damage. And the toolkit that was in Makoto’s room hadn’t been used, so that’s not how he got in either.”

“So then… how was he able to get inside?” Taka asked, his and other students’ curiosities now engaged enough to want to know.

Realizing that one last question remained, Makoto turned back to look at his friend’s murderer.

“...Hiro?”

The hesitation that came from his voice could’ve been multiple factors. The fact Hiro seemed to be in a losing battle against denial and his crippling mental state, the fact that Makoto was still somewhat reeling over Sayaka’s betrayal perhaps, him not wanting to push Hiro further… maybe a combination of some or all.. Who knows. All that was known is that the convicted clairvoyant slowly lifted his head and started to recognize that he was being talked to.

“...H-Huh? W-What?”

“Can you tell us about how you got into the bathroom?”

“H-How I… got into the bathroom… How I got into the…”

The way he slowly looked down towards his feet with the same facial brokenness seemed to hint that while still reeling from the fact he had been voted guilty for his crime, even the older man had to take time to recall the events of what happened.

And that’s when Leon suddenly felt a shiver from how Hiro lifted his head up slowly to look back at Makoto.

“...Oh… Oh, that’s right… Sayaka… told me how to get in…”

...Um, excuse you, the fuck did you say!?

The baseball star nearly had his eyes bulge out of his skull as he joined the entirety of everyone completely locking their focus onto the convicted man that had just released the biggest verbal bombshells which had shaken the courtroom more than him being revealed as the murderer.

“What…?” Makoto breathed out, leaning forward on his podium.

“The victim… let you inside!?” Taka exclaimed with disbelief painting his tone.

“Uh, yeah, now you’re abso-fucking-lutely gonna have the explain that shit! The hell do you mean the chick you murdered just let you inside??” Mondo demanded, snarling at him over what he believed to be a lie.

The clairvoyant flinched heavily at first from the demand, but eventually grimaced and folded his arms across his chest shakily.

“P-Please… just lemme explain, okay?” he pleaded, beginning the reveal of the truth, “When I went back to get my crystal ball… it’s just like you guys said, right? I ended up seeing all the… the blood… in the hallway when I came out of the laundry room...”

“So we were right then,” Kyoko noted aloud, momentarily closing her eyes, “You were able to see the blood splatter from there.”

“But then… why? Why did you go into the room? Surely with all the blood around it, you would’ve… no, you should’ve been hesitant to go inside…!” Taka shook his head, correcting himself.

“I-I… I don’t know what came over me… I just… I felt like something was wrong and I…”

Hiro’s shoulders slumped as he looked away, grimacing while his eyes darted around in an attempt to locate the words he wanted and needed to say.

“...I don’t know; I just… wanted to make sure that someone was okay…”

…

The answer to that made Leon’s gut twist in a more uncomfortable pain than the worst his injury had thrown at him. So then… it was just…

“Just to make sure someone was okay? Even though the massive amounts of blood would potentially speak otherwise?” Celeste asked skeptically, an eyebrow being the only thing that moved in her porcelain-like mask.

“I-I know, but… I heard her, okay? I heard crying coming from the room and I got concerned…!” Hiro shook his head in a desperate attempt to make his stance clear.

Hina blinked in surprise.

“You could hear her crying from outside the dorm room? Even though she was in the bathroom?”

“While it’s been established that our dorm rooms have superior sound insulation, that only works if the door is closed,” Kyoko pointed out, “Remember, when Leon escaped in order to get help from Sakura, he left the door open.”

“Which means that if we accept Hiro’s word as the truth and also follow alongside the notion that the bathrooms in our dorms don’t have the same sound insulation, it means a person could hear someone while standing outside their opened dorm room,” Byakuya tacked on.

And now the whole point that this dude made about him leaving the door open seeped back into the forefront of Leon’s mind, causing him to scowl at it. Still can’t believe he didn’t-but-totally implied it was partially his fault for leaving the door open when he was fuckin’ running for his life-

“...So then what… what happened next?” Hifumi hesitated to ask.

“Well, I called out into the room. I asked if whoever was crying was alright… T-There was a gasp, now that I remember… but eventually, Sayaka… she went silent, but when I asked again, I heard her sort of… hesitate? …B-But then, she said that she wasn’t… she was hurt and in the bathroom,” Hiro revealed, his eyes unable to come back up to anyone’s face level.

“A-And that’s when you p-picked up the knife, right?” Toko shivered a bit before sneering at him, “Y-You took advantage of Sayaka when she w-was hurt, and t-then you-!”

Hiro flinched and closed his eyes.

“...! N-No, I didn’t! When I went into the room, the knife wasn’t there!”

Multiple gasps were given from many in the circle.

“What? The knife was gone!?” Taka exclaimed.

“But that doesn’t make any fuckin’ sense!” Mondo roared, countering that statement, “The knife was the murder weapon that this asshole used to do the chick in! How the hell could it be goddamn gone!?”

“Simple. You’re forgetting that there’s one possibility still remaining.”

The biker’s rage simmered significantly with a confused snarl, as he and everyone glanced back over to a certain girl.

“Kyoko?” Makoto spoke her name, indirectly asking for further elaboration.

“Think about it. From the time Leon ran out of the room seeking help to Hiro entering the room after seeing the blood splatters, there remained one person in Makoto’s dorm.”

Chihiro’s eyes widened with realization as she brought a small hand to her mouth, “You mean… Sayaka?”

“You’re saying the victim reclaimed possession of the knife after running into the bathroom?” Sakura’s gaze locked onto the lilac haired girl, who rested a gloved index finger near her lips in thought.

“It’s a very likely possibility, wouldn’t you say? After all, if we go along with the notion Byakuya stated not too long ago and agree that the bathroom doesn’t have sound insulation like the main dorm room, it would mean Sayaka would’ve been able to hear Leon running out of the room,” Kyoko presented her theory, bringing her eyes up to look at everyone, “And after a few seconds of debating it, she decides to take a chance. She opens the bathroom door, sees no one is there, quickly snatches the kitchen knife, and proceeds to shut herself back into the bathroom. That would explain why Hiro found no knife when he went inside the dorm room.”

“B-But… Y-You can’t prove that, can you?”

The group looked back at Toko, her face starting to gain whatever sliver of confidence she ever had as she tried to challenge Kyoko’s eyes, “Y-You’re just making an a-assumption based on what H-Hiro said. Y-You don’t even k-know that he’s telling the truth! For all you know, h-he’s lying again, j-just like how he tried to lie to us a-about killing Sayaka and letting us all d-d-die-!!”

“And he would gain what exactly?”

It was like all the confidence that she had barely managed to muster had just been smacked clean off her face with the way Toko had just gone stiff. She blinked once, her fidgeting hands locking up near her collarbone.

“Huh…?”

“The trial’s over. He’s been officially voted for and proven as the killer. And he’s essentially confessed to it, as he’s now revealing what happened last night,” Kyoko explained, closing her eyes, “Aside from the potential argument that it’d make him look more sympathetic to us, there’s no true benefit to him fabricating any of the details now. After all… It won’t change the result of this case.”

The complexion of the clairvoyant’s forehead sickened into a horrible shade of ill blue upon hearing those words. Far greater than anything he had looked like during the trial, and just looking at him made Leon’s gut wrench from it. Yeah, the result… the result would be… coming up pretty soon.

“I-I see…” Taka nodded, looking to refocus Hiro in order to continue hearing his recounting as Toko grimaced and fell into silence by looking away, “...So after Sayaka revealed she was in the bathroom, Hiro, what transpired next?”

Some of the color in the culprit’s face returned as he looked over to the hall monitor.

“What happened… I… I remember I got kinda freaked out… I mean… all the blood and stuff, but… I asked if she wanted my help, and she said yes,” he tried to straighten his posture, his right hand somewhat clutching at the bracelet on his left wrist, “So I tried getting in, but… the door wouldn’t open.”

“It wouldn’t open? That seems rather… odd, considering we’ve established that it was Makoto’s room, and his bathroom wouldn’t have had a lock,” Celeste made note of, directing her gaze towards the lucky student.

Leon followed suit in looking at the kid to realize that he didn’t seem fazed at all. In fact… he seemed to already understand how.

“You’re right. But there’s another reason why my bathroom door wouldn’t be open. Because it was stuck.”

“It was… stuck?” Chihiro looked confused, inadvertently asking him to continue.

“My bathroom door doesn’t fit in the frame quite right,” Makoto explained, getting several surprised looks, “Monokuma told me about it back on the first day. In order to open my door, you have to twist the doorknob, lift upwards, then push in. Other than myself, Sayaka is the only other person who would’ve known, because I told her about it after we had switched rooms.”

The bear seemed to puff out its chest at everyone looking back at it for confirmation.

“Yup, that’s correct! But you know, Makoto… You’re supposed to be the Ultimate Lucky Student, right? But for you to get the dorm room with such a cruddy door…” it taunted, finding amusement in how the boy’s face narrowed the eyes, yet showed signs of being bothered by its figurative finger pointing out the irony of his bathroom door, “Puhuhuhuhu! That’s not lucky at all!”

An annoyed glare was shot towards Monokuma’s direction by Hina once she turned around to face him and stomped her foot.

“You stay quiet! We didn’t ask for your extra commentary!”

A smirk threatened to overtake Leon’s face upon noticing her face. Despite everything, it was kind of a reassuring feeling to see somebody be willing to give that stupid bear some talk back. Even if it seemed amused and simply waved off Hina’s snapping before laying back in his chair, it was still a small part of joy after all the crap they were going through here.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last long, as the urge to smirk was wiped clean from him upon hearing someone speak.

“Hiro…” Makoto, looking pained and saddened, managed to recapture everyone’s attention while he looked at the culprit, “Sayaka… She told you how to open the door, didn’t she…?”

Hiro’s face nearly deteriorated into a sob, but he clenched his jaw tightly and folded his arms tightly into his body.

“Y-Yeah… She said to open it exactly how you said it. And as I opened the door…”

As he watched him retell what went down there, Leon felt a lump in his throat begin to form. The kind that was impossible to swallow away and kept making its presence known. All because Hiro’s face contorted into a horrible expression, where his mouth was open and he looked so desperately to get the words out, but it wasn’t working. And of course he isn’t trying to make it about his damn self, but Leon can’t help but wonder if that’s how he looked during the trial when he tried to tell everyone what actually happened and how he wasn’t the killer. How he was scared… no, more like freaked the fuck out about having to remember just how stupidly close the knife came towards his face and chest so many times-

“....S-She…. She was rushing at me… I-I… I wasn’t… I didn’t expect- she just came at me, and I got startled!” Hiro managed to pull him out of his thoughts and begin to yell in fearful recollection, “I ended up losing my grip on my crystal ball and it started to fall to the floor in front of me! I… I wasn’t thinking, I…! Out of reaction, I shot my arms out in front of me to catch it, and… and…”

…Ohh, no… no fuckin’ way…

If his arms weren’t shaking already, a sharp whimper only made it more apparent when one of his hands desperately went up to his mouth in a failed attempt to wipe his lips and calm down.

“W-We collided into each other, and s-she gasped loudly. My crystal ball… it s-shattered on the floor… and w-when I looked up…. S-She…. She had a knife in her… in her… and s-she looked at me, s-saying something about how ‘I-I wasn’t him’, and… and… oh gawd, t-there was so much blood…!!”

His mental state teetering on the verge of a mental and emotional breakdown had only intensified nearly falling off the edge upon hearing the shocked and strained noises coming from the rest of the class. He covered his entire face with one hand, his posture slowly slumping downwards to hide that fact.

“S-She had the knife in her?? Does that mean that when she rushed you… she was planning to kill you??” Taka asked, stunned by the knowledge.

“But why? Why would she do that?” Hina shook her head with a disturbed face, “I get that she was scared after what had happened, but…”

“Actually, I think her being scared is exactly why this happened the way it did.”

The group turned to look at Kyoko once more, who seemed to slightly frown at a potential realization that she came to from hearing Hiro’s testimony.

“What do you mean?” Chihiro asked, her fingers somewhat clutching tighter into fists near her chest once more.

“From everything we’ve gone over and all the facts we know now, I believe there’s a reason why Sayaka attacked Hiro the moment he opened the door. Wouldn’t you agree, Makoto?”

Her looking over to the ahoge haired boy, caused everyone to turn their attention to him. And when his eyes looked at him, a dark sense of hesitant curiosity hit him harder from the frown the kid had on his face. He reluctantly nodded, looking to the ground where the portrait of Sayaka’s base stood.

“Yeah, I do. I think the reason why… was because Sayaka thought Hiro was Leon.”

……What…?

“...Ahhh, I see. You’re saying that Sayaka thought that Leon had come back into the room to take revenge on her,” Celeste pointed out calmly.

“What…!?”

Like, excuse the fuck outta you, the hell do you mean!??

Leon had whirled his head around to the right so sudden to look at her that his goatee nearly had enough momentum to whack his cheek. The red unperturbed simply glanced down at him unaffected from his sudden outburst, giving him no kind of answer he was demanding. His next choice was the girl who started it, which is why his upset glare was directed towards Kyoko, who was also unaffected and, in fact, took this as the cue to explain herself.

“Exactly. Look at this from Sayaka’s perspective; only her and Leon were awake at the time. Her murder attempt fails where he escapes, she suffers a broken wrist, and is forced to retreat to the bathroom, where she’s essentially backed into a corner. Already, this is enough to push somebody into an elevated panicked state,” she continued, looking at a stunned ex-baseball player briefly, “But then, she hears somebody’s voice calling out to her, asking if she’s okay. By this logic, Sayaka might have believed that it was Leon coming back into the room. And with her already panicking, she might’ve assumed the worst in that he was coming back in to act in retaliation for her attempt of killing him.”

He… He couldn’t believe what he was hearing! H-How in the fuck…!!! Why the fuck…!!!

“Furthermore, while they’re not exactly identical, Leon and Hiro do have similar tones in their voices when they speak. So Sayaka might’ve mistaken the two of them. After all, when you’re panicking, you don’t pay attention to details as well as you would normally. And it would explain why Sayaka said what she did to Hiro,” Kyoko finished with.

“You mean about how Mr. Hagakure ‘wasn’t him’?” Hifumi repeated for confirmation, only to be interrupted by Leon’s loud objection.

“T-That is… Yo, that’s so stupid!!!” he roared out, grinding his teeth hard while he started to shake his head in denial, “I wasn’t gonna do that! Like, hello, knife wound! I was trying to get the hell away from her! A-A-And even if I hadn’t gotten hurt, I never would’ve gone back to try and kill-”

“Leon, that doesn’t matter.”

“Y-Huh?”

He could only stammer and figuratively fall face first upon hearing and seeing Makoto’s pained, understanding frown, “It doesn’t matter whether or not you were planning to go back into the room. What matters is what Sayaka probably thought. And there’s a very high chance that with everything, she was so scared into believing it was you coming back into the room…”

“....”

He… She… Sayaka really believed that? That he was gonna come back and try to… kill her…?

Like, no… He… Like, s-sure, he’d admit that he was absolutely enraged when he swung that bat at her, and… and… before he noticed he was bleeding, he still was in that mental state, but… He would never…

He wouldn’t have…

He…

Utterly lost without any kind of rebuttal, his eyes pleadingly directed themselves towards the two who had been sort of his main supporters throughout this whole thing. And yet, both seemed rather… at a loss for words from this proposed theory themselves. Both returned eye contact with him and while Hina was the only one out of the two who made a noticeable motion of frowning, each of their eyes were filled with concern. And somehow that made him feel even worse, because… frig, Hina said back in the laundry room that they believed in him; they trusted that he wasn’t the killer and stuff. But now this whole conversation just makes him feel… he didn’t know, just that it felt like total crap…!

“B-But wait… if that’s true, a-and Hiro’s r-really telling the truth…” Toko spoke up, her eyes slightly widening.

“As he opened the door, Sayaka rushing him caused him to fumble with the crystal ball,” Byakuya restated, his eyes seeming to already acknowledge what was being implied, “As it fell, he suddenly reached forward to grab it.”

…….Wait.

“And judging from her rushing at him, it’d be safe to assume that Sayaka was attemping to stab him,” Celeste added, closing her eyes.

“And due to her being in front of him… as she attacked him with the knife, Hiro’s arms moving forward so suddenly caused the motion of her swing to go backwards,” Sakura continued the statement, slowly unfolding her arms as she and everyone began to come towards an unsettling realiation, “And that’s how Sayaka was stabbed.”

“Wait… wait a goddamn minute!” Mondo’s eyes nearly bulged out of his skull in shock, slowly moving his head to look towards a certain clairvoyant, “If all that shit’s true… if that’s how it all played out… then that means this whole thing-”

“-was an accident…”

To be perfectly honest, he didn’t even realize that the words had spilled out of his mouth until then or that he had lowered his head, his eyes clamping shut at the truth. But…

Man, he… he didn’t think he could feel any worse about this whole thing, and yet somehow, this case just kept finding ways to go past rock bottom.

This whole case… Sayaka’s death… was an accident…?

That stupid, oblivious… he was just trying to…

Leon felt a massive headache beginning to form behind his eyes as his left hand wiped at them, dragging itself down as he shook his head solemnly at the floor. This whole thing…

“An accident…”

It felt like a superhuman effort to just lift his head and turn to hear Hiro shakily reenter the conversation. And that alone was a massive chunk of regret. The guy’s face… Like, this dude was ugly crying and had all the works. Tears were openly streaming down his cheeks as his eyes started to take the shade of puffy red. And his mouth seemed like it was unable to close as he attempted to speak.

“...Y… Yeah… A-An accident… an accident is… what this… this is an accident, or a mistake, or a dream, b-because I would never kill- I would never kill anyone!” he cried, his crushed, teary eyes desperate for anyone to look back at him with anything instead of the pained and conflicted expressions he saw, “I would never… Y-You gotta believe me! You gotta- you, you… M-Makoto…!”

In his broken pleading, he had done a double take at Makoto keeping eye contact with him and it resulted in him stepping forward, leaning against his podium to where his tears dripped onto the wood. Seeing him like this caused the kid to grimace with a deeply saddened frown, slightly gritting his teeth as Hiro’s voice cracked more and more into pieces.

“Please… you gotta believe me… Y-You believe me, don’t you? I-It was an accident…! I was just trying to stop my… I-I didn’t mean… I would… I would never…”

All the pressure and grief seemed to finally be too much, as the clairvoyant’s spiky head finally dropped with a massive sob and gasp of air. His knees buckled under the weight of his misery, his feet sliding underneath his body before his hands kept his arms above him from clutching at the podium. The horrible shaking only seemed to worsen as he started to wail.

“...I-I… I’m sorry, man… I’m so, so, so, so sorry…”

………………

An accident…

As nothing but Hiro’s small, yet clear sobs were the only noise being made in the courtroom, Leon could see how everyone couldn’t even look at the guy anymore. Some had their eyes closed, others like Makoto unable to tear their eyes from the floor, even Chihiro seemed to tear up slightly in potential sympathy towards him… But.. this is what they wanted… right?

They all wanted the truth…

The truth… Leon was dying, both literally and figureatively, for everyone to find the truth in the beginning, so desperate to clear his name of a murder he didn’t do… and now that they’ve finally got here, the truth was something that even he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted anymore. Yeah, it cleared his name and he isn’t at risk of dying anymore, but… this is…

This was the truth?

Sayaka’s whole attempt to take his life ended in an accident…?

Her entire plan to kill him… the fact she was willing to go so far as to trick Makoto, arguably the closest person to her… ended like this? Ended… from an accident that resulted from her paranoia and…

…and on top of that… she thought Leon himself was gonna come back and kill her… When… W-When, when it was HER who… who started this whole damn thing, and she had the gall… the fuckin’ nerve to believe he’d… he’d… he’d stoop to her level and… and…

…She really believed that…?

Did she really think so low of him? Low enough to not just kill him, but think so lowly of him…? Did she… did she never mean any of those things she said? Like when she thanked him for liking her music? Or being genuinely interested in helping him? Was Makoto the same to her? Is that why she was willing to betray him like this?

…Did she…

“...Upupupu… Gee, the entertainment industry can get really scary, huh, Leon?”

…What?

A disturbed scowl forming on his mouth, Leon unsurely turned his head to look at Monokuma, “Huh? W-Why are you…”

“Well, you said yourself that you’re looking to ditch baseball in order to go into music, right? But are you sure you really wanna do that? It seems like it’d be full of crazy and unstable nutjobs! After all, look what it made poor Sayaka do!” it said, waving its arms around before placing both paws on its cheeks, “She was willing to betray both you and Makoto in order to escape, placing the blame on him while killing you and sacrificing everybody to graduate. Boy howdy, that industry seems like a real terror, huh? I mean, to try and kill someone just because of those relationships she had with the people on her dvd! She seemed so nice and lovely on the outside, but inside… she’d descended into pure madness!”

“Wh… What did you say?”

Leon broke eye contact from the crazy robotic psychopath to look back at Makoto, who suddenly had a dark and offended look in his eyes. That and the punk looking away didn’t appear to bother Monokuma as it continued with its thoughts, focusing its attention now on him.

“Oh, please don’t think I don’t understand! I completely understand; really, I do. Yup yup, it’s all clear and as black and white as my handsome self! You’re in utter despair thanks to Sayaka’s betrayal, right? Compassion, intimacy, love… the stronger those feelings exist, the stronger the despair is when they collapse!”

“Don’t you dare say that!! Stop screwing with us!!”

Makoto shouted out with his fists tightening to the point where they were shaking. Slowly, he took a step backwards to exit out of his seat and started to move in a swift pace towards the left, making his way behind Sayaka’s portrait and Taka.

“You… This is all your fault! Sayaka being forced to do something like that… All of that… Everything…!!”

…Wait, was he going to- …!

No, wait a minute! He really wasn’t going to-!!

It seemed like everyone started to catch onto what potential bad situation was going to unfold as the lucky student began to quicken his steps towards where the bear stood in his throne. Many students began to call out to Makoto, but his sudden outrage made him go deaf and did nothing to stop him. In a split second, Leon’s gut began to drop with dread upon remember what happened in the gymnasium and realized that this was going to be another-

That’s when he caught Kyoko leaving her seat and immediately walking faster to catch up to him.

“It’s all your- Ah!?”

As Makoto got within a little over ten feet of Monokuma, her gloved hand shot out and managed to latch an iron grip onto his left arm, stopping him in his tracks. Startled, the boy whirled around to look at her, a confused and upset look glancing between her and his trapped arm.

“That’s enough. I understand you’re angry, but you need to calm down. Otherwise, it’s just going to be another repeat of what happened to Junko,” she warned, causing him to blink and let out a subtle, surprised grunt, “If you really want to make Sayaka’s enemies pay for what they’ve done, you need to let it go for now.”

While there looked to be a small bit of hesitation on whether or not he should try to fight out of her grip and clobber the dumb bear (and really, Leon wouldn’t blame him if he did; if it weren’t for it being a bomb or the threat of being executed from beating the crap outta it, he’d do the same damn thing), common sense luckily won out and allowed Makoto to regain his senses. His arm was released and his shoulders slumped, shaking his head frustratedly.

“Dammit…!”

“Ahh, that was a close one…”

He and everyone besides a broken Hiro turned to see Monokuma just pouring with sweat and pretending to curl up in fear within its seat.

“I thought for sure you were gonna give me a good walloping and clean my clock! It’s a good thing that it didn’t happen. Because…”

It happened before anyone could blink. It quickly stood up straight, revealing its claws and its red eye glowing menacingly.

“Just barely avoided punishment, you did. You would’ve been dead where you stood. So you better be thanking Kyoko after this for saving you, because I wouldn’t have,” it snarled, making sure to match Makoto’s resentful glare before clearing its throat and returning to its inappropriately cheerful tone of voice, “Now then! Since you all so magnificently revealed the identity of the killer during this class trial…”

It looked at a specific person.

“...the blackened, Yasuhiro Hagakure, will receive his punishment!”

The moment those words came into the room, Hiro’s head slowly rose and he had stopped crying. His face was a complete mess, and yet, the stunned silence of his eyes spoke volumes.

“...P-Punishment?”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“So… then, what exactly is this ‘punishment’ you keep talking about…?” Hifumi once again demonstrated his nervous habit of biting his fingernails, asking a question that nobody truly wanted to know… but were going to eventually.

“Oh! Well, to put it simply…”

Monokuma’s face darkened, the grin on the black side of its face curving the corner closer to its eye.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“...Oh gawd… Y-You mean… You mean execution…!”

!!!!!

Hiro’s increasingly panicked whisper formed into a yell of horror as he scrambled to get to his feet. And that alone caused Leon to also panic and feel his breath catch in his throat.

Oh gawd, oh man, oh fuckin’- this was it. It was time for Hiro to… He was really gonna be killed in front of them? L-Like Junko again-

Oh, fuck him, NO fuckin’ way- he was NOT about to watch another gawddamn blood fest and be hurled into another panic-

And it wasn’t just him. It appeared that everyone at least had taken a step back out of their podiums and away from the direction of where Monokuma and Hiro were on that side of the circle. And when that happened, Leon attempted to stand out of his chair too fast and- gaah! Fuck, not again-

Already seeing the difficulty he was having, Hina made a small gasp and hurried over to him, catching Sakura’s attention and making her do the same. As the fighter made her way over, Leon looked up anxiously at the swimmer getting there first.

“H-Hey, hold on; don’t hurt yourself. You need help?”

“Yeah, j-just… get me up-”

His stressed voice caught in his throat due to everything, but Hina totally understood; carefully moving around him to take a firm hold of his left arm, she was able to pull him up and help him move past some of the others. By the time Sakura had gotten close to them, Leon had began trying to slightly hurry to move away from the group, ignoring the startled glance of Hifumi or Toko making a scared peep and keeping her back towards him.

“Leon, I said hold on…!” Hina whispered worryingly, coming up from behind him and carefully placing a hand on his shoulder to stop, “Are you okay?”

He looked over his shoulder with a freaked out look.

“Okay?? No, I’m…! D-Dude!! Hiro’s gonna… he’s about to be…!”

He couldn’t bring himself to finish that sentence. But he didn’t have to. Both girls understood the reason for his distress as he winced again and slightly bent over to hug at his injury more. Hina could only grimace at Sakura’s frown before all three began to watch the inevitable unfold.

Meanwhile, the whole time, Hiro had managed to shoot to his feet, but nearly tripped over himself when his jacket had slid off of his shoulders and he started to plead his case.

“W-Wait a second! T-Timeout! Like actual serious timeout!! I-I didn’t mean to kill her! It was an accident, yeah? Doesn’t that count for somethin’!?” he pleaded, his eyes shrinking into unstable dots before addressing the supposed headmaster, “L-Like, I didn’t intentionally try to murder her, s-so that should count towards cuttin’ me some slack, right??”

“And yet… you still went along with hiding this accidental murder, did you not?”

Celeste’s voice seemed to stop him in his tracks, “After all, if it was an accident, you could’ve attempted to run out of the room to find help, just like Leon did as well. You had a number of chances to do so upon seeing the blood in the hallway. You didn’t have to conceal the secret of your destroyed fake crystal ball by destroying the-”

“I WAS SCARED!!!”

The unholy shriek of heartbreaking guilt and regretful anger silenced the skepticism. Seeing as the lolita was unaffected by his interruption, his trembling form resumed some tears falling down his face as he glared around the room.

“WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO, HUH!? Y-YOU… YOU THINK SOMEONE CAN THINK CLEARLY IN A SITUATION LIKE THAT!? NONE OF YOU!! YOU HEAR ME!? NONE OF YOU ARE ANY DIFFERENT!!” he shrieked, though his voice started to lose volume slowly, “ONE WRONG MOVE, AND… And you would’ve been the one standin’ here! It was… It was complete chance I… that this happened… I…”

He sobbed, his head dropping again.

“I-I was just… unlucky… okay?”

Leon bit his lip, muttering a curse under his breath.

From what he could hear, the hum Celeste gave didn’t seem too convinced, regardless of the theory Kyoko had proposed earlier.

“Is that really what you believe?”

“Celeste…”

Leon gingerly straightened himself and joined everyone in looking over at Makoto, who frowned deeply.

“Please… stop it. I’ve had enough of this.”

The girl seemed surprised, “Oh? Are you sure? You were closer to her than anyone, were you not? Even if we believe this was an accident, he still killed your precious Sayaka. You understand that, do you not?”

The kid glanced away for a brief second, thinking of his response. When he looked back at her, some of the fire that was in his eyes during the trial had returned.

“Of course I do. But… I can’t say that Hiro is solely to blame for this. However, I don’t plan on blaming Sayaka, either. Because…”

And just like in the trial as well, he turned and jabbed an accusatory finger towards Monokuma.

“Because the one to blame… is that thing!”

“S’waaah!?” the bear pretended to be blown away by this, having the gall to look shocked.

“Sayaka, Hiro, Leon, and Junko…! If it weren’t for you, none of this would ever have happened to the four of them!” Makoto spat out loudly, bringing a stunned look to Leon’s face, “We shouldn’t be fighting each other… we should be fighting the one who put us in this situation! The mastermind!”

…Wait, what? He…

Makoto didn’t… blame him? And even felt like he didn’t deserve this? Does this mean he doesn’t hate him for what happened to Sayaka…?

“Oho! Such a bold and passionate claim! Did you awaken your sense of justice just now?” Monokuma dropped the act and stood back up straight, folding its arms amusedly over its chest, “Well, I hate to break it to you adorably idealistic student of mine, but it just so happens that there’s nothing more unethical than an unwavering sense of justice. After all, it’s people with that sort of mentality that perpetuate war all over the world.”

One more, its face relished in how it darkened as it mockingly chuckled, “Is that the kind of justice that’s awakened within you!?”

“Just… shut up!” Makoto balled up his fists tighter once again, but seemed to still remember the warning the girl behind him gave in order to stay alive and controlled himself to not launch into a frenzy at the bear.

“Oooookay, well, anyway,” Monokuma waved him off as a nuisance before turning its focus onto a panicking young man and rubbing its hands together in anticipation, “More importantly…! Let’s hurry up and get to what everyone’s been waiting for! The punishment!”

Y-Yeah, pretty sure NO ONE wanted to see-!!

“W-WAIT!!”

All turned to Hiro, as he dared to take a few steps towards the judge and beg, “O-Okay, s-so I killed her! A-An accident, but… y-yeah, I can understand being punished! B-But it doesn’t have to be execution, r-right??”

His body began to shake, with his attempts to pacify himself by rubbing his wrists only backfiring with rough, jagged movements.

“I-I mean, I won’t leave!! I’ll stay here for the rest of my life!! That could be my punishment! O-Or the debt I currently owe to some people I know! I-I can’t exactly say wh-who they are, but… y-you can triple that for what I owe you and I’ll pay you back over time!! O-Or-”

“EEEEEEEEE!!”

He recoiled massively when Monokuma imitated a buzzer and crossed its arms in the form of an ‘X’ before sitting back down in its throne.

“Sorry, fortune cookie boy! But no more begging! No more excuses! In society, it has a list of rules to abide by and there are consequences for breaking them. You were there with everyone when I went over the rules,” it explained, the glow in its red eye becoming more and more impossible to ignore, “And the rules state the only way to murder someone and not go bye-bye is if you don’t get caught! You must pay the penalty for breaking the rules! That’s just the way your cookie crumbles!”

And with that, all the color left Hiro’s face.

“B-But… I-I-It w-was a-a-an accident-”

“Accident, self-defense, or intentional… murder is murder,” Monokuma’s voice became eerily calm as it lodged the final nail in the coffin, “And you got caught. Society demands punishment.”

Upon hearing how there was no way it was going to budge and that he was fatally screwed, Hiro slowly took a few steps backwards, his arms swaying limp near his sides.

“...N-No-”

And that’s when it began.

Hiro hadn’t even managed to get more than a two letter word out before something bright flashed behind him. From behind the red curtains, something metallic ended up shooting straight towards him at blistering speeds to where not even the loud gunshot-like bang of a sound caused him to react. The item latched itself around his neck, clamping down hard and scaring the ever loving shit out of the guy. With some of the class letting out some scared cries and gasps, the entire class could only stare helplessly as they witnessed the trapped blackened reach up to his neck after gagging from it, trying to pry his fingertips into what was now recognized as some collar that was attached to a chain that came out from behind the curtains.

“!!! O-Oh nO NO NO NO NO NO!!!” he spiraled into hysterical sobs, wrenching his body back and forth to try and free himself from the collar, “I-I’M BEGGIN’ YOU, PLEASE-!!”

“Ah, sorry about that. I normally would wait to activate that, but something tells me he would’ve tried to make a break for it, and I’d rather not have to put up with that when this needs to be done,” Monokuma actually had the gall to apologize to the horrified group.

“P-PLEASE!! D-DON’T!! DON’T DO THIS!!” Hiro shrieked, tears and sweat pouring down his face while the taut chain kept him in place.

“Now then, I’ve prepared a very special punishment for Yasuhiro Hagakure, the Ultimate Clairvoyant!” the bear joyfully announced.

“IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!! IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!!!” the shriek only intensified when the guilt overtook Hiro’s body and weakened his legs to make him collapse on his knees, destroying any mental sanity he had left by causing him to try and claw his way on the floor to escape the collar.

With a motion of dominant finality, Monokuma lifted both arms up and loudly proclaimed.

“Let’s give it everything we’ve got! It’s… PUNISHMENT TIIIME!”

And if anything could give a glimpse of what hell looked like and what it had waiting for unfortunate souls… it was the unholy and haunting abomination that Hiro had turned into… Something that would give a person potentially neverending nightmares.

Forsaking any attempt to free himself…

With tears, sweat, snot, and drool running down his face…

His skin completely turned a shade of blue as his hands clutched at the sides of his head…

He let out a scream that only could be described with one word:

Despair.

“MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!”

Upon that unhinged and broken note, the floor in front of Monokuma’s throne had opened to reveal a gigantic red button on top of what was designed to be some kind of a handheld video game console. Attached to it was a small, light brown gavel. With its red eye giving off a brief twinkle, it took the gavel in its right arm and brought it down against the red button-

…!!! THE CR-

It was almost instantaneous how all the lights in the class trial room had dimmed, startling everyone at the abrupt change in lighting. Leon had nearly had a heart attack with how harshly he tensed, ignoring the billionth time he did something to painfully agitate his wound. It not only had disoriented everyone, but had disguised the lowering of the screen that had shown the voting results just prior. The brightness of the screen caught everyone’s attention when it began making 8-bit noises and displayed a red background where the tiny Hiro sprite from the screen on their podiums, noticing a tiny Monokuma sprite approach him. As it got closer, it grabbed the flailing Hiro sprite, pulling it off screen as the words, ‘GAME OVER’ appeared on top and ‘YASUHIRO HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY. TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!” on the bottom.

The moment it ended with a jingle…

“!! HHRK-!!”

The chain suddenly began pulling back, janking Hiro with it. Due to his kneeling position, he had no chance of resistance and was choked when he was literally dragged across the floor and out of the room, his jacket falling off his shoulders and lying where he was. Many screams and cries filled the air, only fueling to Leon’s heartbeat pounding in his chest and somehow his neck-

Oh fucking gawd, one moment, the dude was on the floor, and now he’s trying so hard to scream-

At this point, the screen lights up with a feed that catches everyone’s attention. And upon seeing it, Leon feels himself gawk at how… inappropriate the setting is.

The room being shown on screen looks like some kind of a gameshow set that he would see on TV. Like, for real, we’re talkin’ bright, welcoming colors like yellow and pink with polka dots, flashing lights in the background, just a lively atmosphere that was just missing some kind of host, contestants, and a crowd.

It was only seconds until he then recognized that there was a chain moving through the room pulling something. And not too long did it drag Hiro in, the collar letting go of him after getting closer to the middle of the room. After it released him and the clairvoyant ended up partially rolling due to the momentum of being dragged, the chain and collar ended up going off screen. With panicked breaths and horribly shaken up, he took a second to slip back on his footwear that had slipped partially off his feet and pushed himself up, just then deciding to wipe at the disgusting mess on his face with his forearm. From there, it was a combination of being confused at his supposed execution being like a game show set and also searching for a way out.

A loud, dramatic noise caused him to whirl around as the camera panned to show that along one of the walls, there were three doors with flashing lights that one would see out of a carnival around the outlines. A happy jingle then played alongside the sound of an audience clapping and cheering before the screen cut away briefly and showed out some kind of title card. It was, again, modeled after one of the more popular game show title cards and it read:

“Quiz Time! I Heard There’s a Chance of 30%!”

…Oh, shit, that-

The camera cut back to Hiro. He was tense, his every twitch and motion looking like some kind of a wild animal on high alert. Eventually, the doors came back into view on screen and it revealed that there was an ‘A’ on the left door, ‘B’ on the middle one, and ‘C’ on the right. Above all three doors, a small, white sign is unveiled with a triumphant horn sound. It read:

“Behind one of these doors is Yasuhiro Hagakure’s execution! Hence, there is a 2/3 probability that he will find his escape and a 1/3 probability that he will die! Let’s see if our contestant can guess wisely!”

…W-Whoa, for real?? So if Hiro picks the right door, he can avoid his execution?

As the screen cut back to Hiro, his facial expression had become filled with an anxious sense of hope, an excited grin blossoming before determinedly licking his lips and staring with a focused scowl at all the doors. The trapped blackened realized this potential escape as well. His eyes began looking over each of the options, trying to come up with a decision… before he finally picked a door.

With a hurried pace, he moved towards Door A. Despite hesitating briefly due to spotlights and a sudden drumroll, it didn’t stop his approach as he gladly began to throw his arm out when he got closer-

-only for the door to suddenly grow a pair of metallic cable legs-

-WHAT THE FUCK!?

Hiro wasn’t the only one freaked the fuck out by that! Despite him jumping back and failing to land properly, multiple people in the trial room made very loud noises of shock and bewilderment. They watched the spiky haired young man attempt to stand up, gawking at the now mobile door running away. A buzzer signaling the incorrect choice rang out, with the lights on the set blinking briefly and a recording of an audience laughing playing alongside it, before resuming back to normal.

Now there were only two doors left.

Turning back to the remaining two choices, all of what remained of Hiro’s confidence took a massive dive. Panic really began to set in over the fact that he knew it was a fifty fifty percent chance of escape. He couldn’t afford to be wrong now. He had to make the right choice. And after a few seconds… he made his pick.

He dared not move from his spot, but pointed to the next door over: Door B. Again the spotlights and drum roll played…

…only for that door to sprout metal legs and do the same thing, receiving the same notification of selecting the wrong choice…

…..oh shit.

That only left… Door C.

Hiro’s positioning stayed deathly still. His arms limply stayed in front of his waist. The only thing moving was his head ever so slightly beginning to shake no in disbelief. Realizing the outcome, tears had once again replenished in his eyes and rolled down his face. His jaw moved slightly up and down, but nothing seemed to come out of it.

It was then that everyone realized that the set he was in had noticeably darkened. Within seconds, all of the flashy lights had died out and only two spotlights on both him and Door C were the only visible things anyone could make out.

It was as if the set was prompting Hiro to go to the door.

And the clairvoyant shook his head more, his arms curling up into his chest while taking a step back-

All of a sudden, a loud, mechanical whirring noise blasted the speakers of the screen, causing many of the trial room occupants to recoil at seeing what was causing it:

Door C had suddenly opened, like some kind of a sliding, metal door… and on the sides of it and the door frame were massive, razor sharp spikes. Like it had morphed into a monster’s mouth laying sideways. And it snapped shut with a sickening snap before reopening again, causing Hiro to flinch awfully. It was then that on the sides of doors revealed multiple metal cables with claw-like hands attached, shooting out towards the panicked target. Before he could even properly turn his body around to attempt an escape, the hands grabbed onto his elbows and knees. The jarring pull that stopped his movements flat caused his balance to fail, which resulted in him harshly crumpling to the floor in a way that made several watching wince upon seeing it.

And it was then that the arms began to pull him backwards towards the door. Realizing he was pulled, Hiro began to break out in screams and panicked sobs as he fought for his life to get free. But with the cables successfully locking the body parts that help make the arms and legs function, all he could manage was his nail scraping and most likely breaking on the floor as he was dragged and twisting his body to see how close he came to the door.

And eventually, his body was dragged so close to the door that his ankles were in the entryway…

Leon had seen a lot of horror movies. He was never really a big fan of them at all, but many of his former teammates liked them and would invite the team to go see them in theaters. And to avoid any potential chance of being called a chicken or have stupid misconceptions of him getting scared from these movies, he’d accept the invitations (bregrudgingly, in secret). He really didn’t like seeing gore, blood, or disturbing death scenes. Just wasn’t his thing and made him extremely uncomfortable.

But at least with movies, after seeing a bunch of the genre, he could tell with certain cues that a death was coming and he could prepare himself for it. A camera angle, suspenseful music or lack thereof, how much time a character spent on screen… those kinds of things.

…There’s only so much movies can replicate.

It happened faster than anyone could realize. The door closed with such force and speed… and then the most painful, agonizing shriek was heard.

Where Hiro’s ankles were… was nothing. Only blood splatter all over the door and floor, staining his shins and the edgelines of his pant legs.

Leon could only gawk in absolute horror as the trial room descended into scared wailing and freaked out screaming and cursing upon seeing the door just forcibly amputate the blackened’s feet off.

Hiro had lost all sense of sanity. No visible eyes within the tear-filled, white spaces where they belonged. With what could only be described as an nonstop, unholy screech of the damned coming out of his mouth, he shakily tried to push himself up with his hands. But with how much pain he was in and how the cables restrained him, all he could do was continue to stare and howl at part of his body being forever gone.

The door reopened, revealing more blood and the severed body parts behind it as the cables began to pull him further into its entryway. He tried to claw his way out, but from already suffering fatal damage to his body, it impaired his ability to realize he wasn’t getting anywhere.

And once again, the doors slammed, slicing their way into his waistline and cutting him in half…

…Something was wrong.

Leon couldn’t figure out what it was at first. After all, his eyes being unable to look away at the horror of a person being legitimately eaten by a door was extremely distracting, to say the least. But upon seeing it come this far and how many people were freaking out around him, his eyes had darted in various directions downward to the floor once he realized something was wrong. And honestly… it didn’t take him too long to figure it out.

He couldn’t breathe.

And it wasn’t like he was being attacked from behind in a chokehold or something got stuck in his windpipe. No no, it was far worse. He could breathe. But he wasn’t getting enough air-

Oh shit, he was hyperventilating-

The pounding in his ears only showed how hard and fast his heartbeat quickened upon beginning to freak the hell out that he couldn’t get the air he needed. He tried to straighten himself out, and yet, that only seemed to cause his spine to crumple even further and make him more slouched, which closed off the ability to get even more air-

Out of reflex, his left hand reached for his throat upon feeling like he was exhaling more than inhaling. Like good shit that did, really, fuckin’ hell, he couldn’t- A-And the pain coming from his injury suddenly just- g-gawd, did the pain medication wear off already-

Feeling himself gasp and barely conceal his gritting teeth behind squirming lips, Leon looked up-

Has it ever been said that sometimes he has the worst fucking timing ever?

Like, gawddamn, his eyes look up in the direction of the screen just in time to see that Hiro, his arms weakly wiggling around and now resorting to painful moans, was dragged more into the deathtrap, so that when the door closed again… it pierced into his chest deeply. His head went back, coughing a rather large amount of blood as he stained his chin, neck, and shoulders entirely. Hiro didn’t make any kind of scream or anything, he just grimaced violently and let more blood pour out down his lips-

Oh gawd, oh gawd, oh-

His body was pulled more into the door-

Hiro’s near unconscious, blood-dripping face being placed right in the pathway of the door-

It closed-

Leon himself didn’t realize that within that moment…

…his eyes rolled into the back of his head and all turned to black.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

……

……mm….

…Dark… So…

So dark and… soft? Like… comfy even…?

…W-Wait, he was standing just…

The tired mind inside of a skull adorned by orange-red spiky hair began to work out that the atmosphere around him massively contradicted what it felt recently. And as such… Leon found himself letting out a tired groan as his eyes fluttered awake.

In that small moment, he realized a few things from the get-go:

One: he was laying down on something soft, a fact that both he and his body began singing praises about.

Two: the setting was dark, and was welcomed on his tired eyes and head.

Three: none of the prior two things were something he had back in…

…back in…

…Wait, where was he?

His eyes trying to focus within the darkness, he was able to make out a distinct ceiling that he had seen before. Making sure he wasn’t going crazy or hallucinating, he slowly turned his head to look to his left. Yup, there they were. The guitar and the amp, right near his bathroom door. Like… he saw them, but… he couldn’t believe he was seeing them.

He was back in his dorm room…

…At night?

……Wait…

Wait a f… Was… Was that all a dream… Sayaka, him, Sakura and Hina… everything…?

After all… he was… he was sitting in bed before he checked his handbook and went over to Sayaka… did his mind just play an awful trick on him?

If that was the case… then she’s still alive… Sayaka would be-

!!!!!!!

OHHHH, FUCKIN’ PISS ASS-

All Leon did was just slightly move his body a tad to turn over to his left in order to get out of his bed to make sure this wasn’t a dream before a massive wave of pain exploded out of his side. It was so crippling. The way it caused his right arm to shake and clutch back at it, halting his movements and making him slump back against the pillow and mattress. Damn, stupid side hurt way more than before…

Well, gawddamn it, it wasn’t a dream, was it? Fuckin’ hell…

Sucking a harsh breath through his teeth, he carefully lifted the blanket to look at the damage. That’s when it hit him that he was still in the same clothes he had on prior, minus his jacket. The t-shirt he had on still contained the tear from where the knife cut through him, with the bandages still wrapped around his torso. But… hold up, weren’t they more… y’know… bloody…?

Okay… so… he was back in his room.

That means from when he was down in that trial room with everyone to now… he got moved…

…How did he get here-

Leon’s breath caught in his throat the moment he heard the door to his room begin to open and a light peered through-

Oh gawd, what the fuck- how did someone get into HIS ROOM- HE’S GONNA DIE- HE LITERALLY CAN’T MOVE-

“!! S-SHI-”

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO- PLEASE, GOD, HE JUST SURVIVED- YOU CAN’T- PLEASE-!!!

“H-Hey, Leon! Stop! It’s okay!”

-!! H-HINA… Hina?

Despite how agonizing it was, Leon had managed to prop his upper half up somewhat with his tense left arm. But upon hearing who it was, he froze in his tracks and looked towards two individuals entering his room. Hina, who was dressed in her usual attire except her red jacket missing, and Sakura, who was wearing the same clothing she had been sleeping in when she answered Hina’s door after him waking them up. Hina had instantly made her way over to him, motioning for him to stop with a concerned face.

“It’s okay. See?” she reiterated, trying to give a smile, “It’s just me and Sakura. You’re okay…”

…It’s just Hina and Sakura…

He’s okay… It’s them…

Ohh, thank you, God.

Exhaustion caused whatever pent up fear and stress to just scrape its way out of his lungs as he massively sighed and felt himself collapse back into his bed. His heart and mind were grateful at the relief of being safe and not panicking over the false realization of being killed by some kind of malicious invader.

Now his body, on the other hand… when he just flopped back onto the bed, that didn’t make his wound too happy.

“Oh, thank fuc-!! AHH…. C-Crap…”

“H-Hey, take it easy…!” Hina gently scolded, watching as Leon grit his teeth in reaction, “Just because you’re in your room, doesn’t mean you’re automatically healed…”

“Y-Yeah… I can not only see, but feel that…” he barely managed to grunt out in agreement, earning a small huff from the swimmer.

Hearing the door close and lock, Leon was suddenly blinded by the lights of his room coming on and disorienting him. However, he managed to squint his eyes open to see Sakura coming closer. In her hands were a banana, a few bottles of water, a few napkins, and a familiar looking pill bottle.

“It’s good to see you’re awake at last,” she said, a small smile on her face while she looked him over, “How are you feeling right now?”

He made a scowl, unable to try and play it off as he still was reeling from the pain.

“...Like shit, not gonna lie. Like, it hurts more now than it did earlier ago. And I’m uber tired, for real.”

“It would seem that the pills you took earlier this morning have worn off if you’re in that much pain from moving,” she said, “Give us a moment, Leon, and then I’ll let you have a few more to help with your discomfort.”

Upon speaking, she turned her head to Hina, motioning for her to do something. The smaller girl apparently seemed to get the implication of what Sakura wanted, because she turned around and brought over the chair that was near his desk behind him. Turns out the seat of it was a perfect height for him to reach his good arm to it without any risk of hurting himself, as she sat it right near the mattress and Sakura was able to put down the banana, napkins, and water bottles on it while keeping the pill bottle in her hand. After doing so, the muscular girl ended up moving towards the…

…fallen trash can with all his former baseball stuff in it.

Oh.

“...O-Oh, hey, ya don’t gotta… y’know… I can get that later…”

His weak protest died in a somewhat embarrassed lump that got stuck in his throat when Sakura had peered back at him over her shoulder.

“It’s quite alright. I don’t mind; besides, you’re going to need the trash can anyways.”

With that, she proceeded to undo what he did on the first day: putting all the baseball stuff back onto his shelving unit. A part of him was slightly peeved at that, but… even with his standards or who Sakura was, he was too exhausted to put up any kind of a fight on that front. As she grabbed the trash can to bring it over, his attention was caught by Hina talking.

“Yeah, Sakura’s right. Especially since the dining hall’s going to be closed in a little while, so you’re gonna need to stay put and throw away any trash in here.”

Well, it wasn’t like he was planning to-

-wait, hold up.

“Huh? Why’s the dining hall gonna be closed?”

“Because it’s going to be nighttime soon, and it closes during those hours.”

Leon felt his eyes widen and bulge out a bit upon hearing that.

“Wha- Nighttime? What the h- H-How long have I been out…?”

“Well…”

Hina looked back at the fighter for a small bit before sheepishly giving a hesitant smile and rubbing the back of her head, “Pretty much the entire day, actually…”

Man, if looks could kill right now…

Leon couldn’t help but gawk at her while attempting to sit up in a way that didn’t hurt himself.

“What the crap!? Y-You’ve gotta be joking! There’s no way I was asleep for an entire day…!”

“Leon,” Hina frowned, placing her hands on her hips as she tried to break it to him as gently as she could, “You said yourself during your testimony back at the class trial that you couldn't go to sleep because of what was on your dvd. And despite you passing out for a bit while Sakura got your wound taken care of, from there to when you woke up in the nurse’s office? Only a few hours had gone by. So you, after nearly being killed with a knife, were literally running on less than two and a half hours of sleep…”

Leon stared at her as if she had just slapped him across the face.

Less than two and a half hours? Like, sure, he knew it had to only be a few hours while he was unconscious... but only that much? Damn, no wonder his brain felt so... off and heavy. Both now and then. Was he really being carried through the investigation and class trial on pure adrenaline or something because of the consequence of getting it wrong? Or maybe it was the medication that prevented him from truly realizing how exhausted he was...?

“Add that to being on high dosage pain medication and you having a panic attack upon seeing what was shown to us, similar to what happened to you after seeing Junko being killed? Your body was in desperate need of rest, and it decided that you would sleep until now,” Sakura added.

What was shown to…

That’s when it all came back to him.

The trial room.

The screaming.

The doors.

The cables.

The blood…

…Him.

Leon closed his eyes for a small bit, before sadly looking back up at the two.

“...Then… Hiro. He’s really…?”

Upon hearing that name, Hina’s shoulder scrunched up for a split second before looking down towards the floor sullenly. Sakura folded her arms, closing her eyes with a sigh.

“...Yes. Hiro is dead. Executed in a gruesome fashion.”

He knew it, but… deep down, he really hoped it wasn’t true.

Leon couldn’t help but wince as Hina folded her arms over her chest, bringing her head up to glance at the wall to her left.

“Yeah, it was… really hard to watch that… I mean… He was Sayaka’s killer, but…”

…Yeah, he totally got what she meant. He was the killer, but… the way he went out, you couldn’t help but feel bad for him… that was downright brutal and awful, man…

Trying to recover from her voice trailing off, Hina scratched at her face uncomfortably, “...Though… I kinda don’t get something about his execution…”

Leon blinked as Sakura asked on behalf of both of them, “What do you mean?”

“Well… Monokuma stated right before it that it designed a ‘very special punishment’ for Hiro, right?” the swimmer frowned, “But the thing itself was like a game show, and he did fortune telling stuff. Like, it would’ve fit more if he was the ‘Ultimate Game Show Host’, but he wasn’t. So how was this designed specially for him…?”

She didn’t even need to finish her explanation before he realized he had the answer. In fact, he had noticed it during the execution itself when the title of it showed up, how cruel it was…

“...It wasn’t. I think whoever’s behind Monokuma was taking the piss with Hiro.”

Both girls looked towards his tired face as Hina blinked.

“Huh? How?”

“...The conversation I mentioned at the class trial. The one where Hiro admitted to only having one crystal ball in the school?” he paused until she gave a nod to signal that she followed, “During that same one, he mentioned that the crystal ball had ‘helped soar his correct prediction rate up to thirty percent’.”

The dawning of realization hit both girls from that, based on their expressions.

“...And the title of his execution referenced thirty percent,” Sakura pieced it together, frowning at the answer.

“That’s… so horrible,” Hina barely managed to breathe out, shaking her head and staring back at the floor in reaction.

Yeah, it was. Like a spit in Hiro’s face while that door practically chewed him up and ate him in pieces. Just…

Fuck, this was depressing as all hell, and he was, like, BEYOND done with this.

He cleared his throat, trying to ignore any pain he got from his side doing so, and was grateful to catch both girls’ attention by making a rather overly exaggerated huff.

“Well… aside from the mega embarrassing fact that I passed out once again… was I the only one? Like, please tell me that I wasn’t, even if it’s not true,” he inquired, deadpanning at the last part.

Hina shook her head and gave the beginnings of a smile.

“Actually, you weren’t, and it is true. Toko and Chihiro ended up on the floor with you from seeing that, while Makoto, Taka, and Hifumi nearly joined you guys. And I almost did too, actually,” she laughed softly, a tint of a blush on her face as she looked towards the other girl, “That is, if Sakura wasn’t there to prevent me from falling and get me to look away from the screen.”

“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Hina. And that goes to you as well, Leon,” Sakura reassured both of them, “What we were forced to witness would unnerve anyone. To be honest, I feel bad for both Toko and Chihiro. Especially the former, due to her phobia of blood.”

Leon nodded, taking a breath and looking to move off this topic.

“So, uh… after the faint party, what happened?”

“After pulling themselves together the best they could? Pretty much everyone went back to their rooms to sleep or did their own thing. It was like everyone was just tired from everything and didn’t wanna do anything after the trial got done,” Hina shrugged, rubbing at her neck, “I can’t blame them, especially when we all had little sleep and… yeah.”

“As for you, we put you in your room and have been checking up on you every two hours since then,” Sakura explained, nodding to him, “Apologies for the intrusion, but I managed to put on new bandages for you. We also took your jacket and shoes off and currently have them going through the wash in the laundry room to see if there’s any chance of salvaging them.”

“Yeah. Left your pants on, because… you know, what you talked about in the laundry room,” Hina chuckled out softly.

“Nah, it’s cool. And thanks, but really, I plan on ditching them and whatever else is ruined. Especially my t-shirt. I don’t think we’re gonna patch whatever damage is done to them,” Leon waved it off, giving a small, sad smile about losing a good pair of his clothes.

And at that point, before anything else could be said, the security monitor in Leon’s room suddenly came to life with static noise, causing all three to turn around and see Monokuma appear on screen like it had before, holding a wine glass and in a seat in front of a bunch of monitors.

“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. Okay then… sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite…”

And with that, the screen went dark once more. Seriously, he was never gonna get used to these announcements…

“Well… I guess it’s time,” Hina said, scratching at her forehead briefly.

Leon shrugged.

“Yeah… I guess so…”

“Before we go, Leon, I’ll give you some more of the medication. However, do you want to take off your jewelry?” Sakura asked, taking a step closer.

His eyebrows rose at realizing that he still had every one of them on.

“Oh, yeah, probably should.”

“Very well.”

Despite her size and appearance, the fighter was very gentle and careful as she moved towards the edge of the bed and slid one of her hands softly behind his back, giving him help in sitting him up. It still hurt, but… not as bad as when he tried moving around. Once sitting up, Leon slowly lifted his arms up towards his right ear and began to remove all of them from it. Evidently, it took a short while, because Hina made a bit of a face at it.

“...Geez, how many earrings do you have on that one ear?”

Something about that comment got an amused snort out of him as he smiled at her.

“Hey, I told ya; you’re lookin’ at a future punk rock hall of famer, y’know. Gotta look the part to an badass extent,” he said, managing to reach behind his neck and take off his necklace before sliding off his goatee bead and rings.

Hina kept the expression on her face, but seemed to let it go and not saying anything as Leon finished removing his labret and tongue piercings, making sure to wipe them off on his comforter blanket as best as he could. Seeing it, Hina took the napkin from the seat, placed it in her hand, and she held her hand out for him to place all of his accessories on it. She then moved behind the bed, most likely to put them in where his other ones were kept.

“Good. Now…”

Sakura’s voice directed his attention to her handing one of the water bottles to him. Once he took it, she then opened the pill bottle and handed him two pills, giving a nod to him. He nodded back to thank her, opened the water, and with one fell swoop, downed them with a gulp. After that, he handed the bottle back to her, which she then placed back on the chair next to the other bottle and banana.

“Okay. Now that those things are done, just to make sure… Do you need anything else?” Hina asked, after making her way back over.

Leon shook his head, not being able to think of anything.

“You sure? You don’t need to use the bathroom or anything?”

The thought flashed through his mind right after that, but taking a moment to feel for himself… nope, he was good. He shook his head again.

“Nope, I’m good.”

“Alright… then…”

Hina’s voice trailed off, looking towards Sakura, who nodded and made her way back over, before continuing, “...I think we’re gonna head out for the night. Just to let you know, we also put your handbook over on the desk near your jewelry case.”

The fighter looked back towards him, “The both of us are going to be in my room, just next door. Monokuma has Hina staying with me, as well as Makoto sleeping in Sayaka’s room, so that it can ‘take care of the mess’ in the hallway and in both Hina and Makoto’s dorms.”

…Wow, the stupid bear is making Makoto sleep in Sayaka’s room? Frig, that’s gotta be hard on the kid…

“And we have your room key, so nobody is gonna be able to get in. Just try to get as much rest as you can, okay?” Hina added.

He let out a sigh.

“Yeah, okay.”

“Then we’ll be taking our leave. Have a good night, Leon.”

“Yeah. Sleep well.”

With that, both girls turned and began making their way towards the door.

Leon found himself looking down at his lap.

Hina… Sakura… Both of them have done so damn much for him… they believed in him… they’ve done all of this… they’ve checked on him multiple times during the day… Something about that… it…

…it made him want to try again.

Yeah… it was broken before by Sayaka, but…

……Fuck it.

He was going to try again.

Because he…

He looked up.

“...H-Hey… Hina? Sakura?”

He rushed out calling their names, and in perfect timing. Both girls stopped and looked back just Sakura had grabbed onto the doorknob.

“Hm? What’s up?” Hina asked.

Leon took a second before licking his lips and trying to get the words out.

“...The people in my dvd…” he said slowly but eventually, “...It’s my cousin, Kanon… and my dad… Basically, my family who I live with…”

Because he…

…He trusted them.

Initially, both girls showed expressions of shock upon him revealing the identities of who was on his video. But after sharing a glance, both girls smiled as Hina nodded.

“Okay… okay. Good to know,” she said softly.

“We can talk more tomorrow. Please get some rest, Leon, and have a good night,” Sakura once bid farewell while flipping the lights off.

“Yeah. Night.”

And thus, Sakura opened the door and she and Hina left, closing and locking it behind them, leaving a tired and hurting Leon sitting upright on his bed.

……

……Heh.

He trusted them.

The day after he felt like he couldn’t.

Man, how one day can change everything.

Sighing a tired breath, Leon glanced over at the chair. A few seconds of mentally debating it, he carefully reached over and grabbed the banana and the water bottle he drank out of, starting to work on opening the peel. He took a bite of the fruit, staring down at it… before closing his eyes and using his other hand to rub at the bridge of his nose.

It’s just… the weight of everything just… seemed to all come crashing down on him at that moment.

He was in a killing game, with a knife wound.

He got it from Sayaka Maizono, one of Japan’s biggest pop sensations and someone he seriously looked up to as someone in the music industry.

And said person and two other people, whom he had searched with and had conversations with… were now just… gone. Forever. Never coming back.

And now, any good impression that he was working so hard on since day one is probably down the toilet with everything. His blow up in the av room, his life and death struggle with Sayaka, the class trial… everything.

Just…

“Hi, I’m Sayaka Maizono. I look forward to getting to know you!”

“Hiii! I’m Junko Enoshima. Charmed, I’m sure!”

“I’m Yasuhiro Hagakure- Hiro for short! Take it easy, yeah? I know I will!”

………

They were really…

………

Leon growled out a huff. He was too tired to think anymore. He could worry about what he was gonna do later or how people thought of him or whatever junk he had to tomorrow. But in the safety of his room, where nobody could get in but the two people he knew he could place his trust in… it was time for sleep.

And as such, Leon Kuwata worked to finish off the rest of his banana and water before dumping them in the trash and letting himself fall back into the bed before drifting off to sleep…

================

CHAPTER 1: TO SURVIVE: END

REMAINING STUDENTS: 12

Notes:

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments; criticism and ideas are appreciated so I can make this story/series better.

Chapter 23: Yo! (2024 edition: Chapter 2 is coming!!!)

.....Holy.... gawd, it's been over a year....

Ladies and Gentlemen, and everyone else in between and out in space.... I. AM. BACK!!! And this story IS. NOT. DEAD!!!!

Thank you all for being fans of the story and giving me the motivation to wanna continue this series. Unfortunately, I've been dealing with some really bad anxiety and stress to where it can cripple me and even make it impossible to drive a ten minute drive home at times. That, and the death of my friend back in February of 2022 and dealing with financial issues has been... sort of this awakening that I needed. I'm SO DEEPLY sorry it's taken over a year for me to get better, but I want you all to know I have remembered you all and finally, I can function without freaking out over a ten minute drive and I feel wonderful! And.... I'm currently halfway through the first part of Chapter 2!! I'm so excited to be able to jump back into my passion of giving Leon the story he can have; that's why I'm grateful to you all for being patient and hope you can be there if I feel like I'm out of touch in my writing! I cannot wait to share the plans I have for this story as we settle into 2024! God bless you all, and hopefully, this update will be soon!

-MrAwesomeMatty

 

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of The Weenie Chronicles (will rename later)