everybody we’re fucking 1k away from 100k of trwamtp. unfucking real yall
-
Title: The roles we (are meant to) play Summary: It’s an eerie feeling of déjà vu that overtakes him when he opens his eyes and sees Ouma hovering above him, blocking everything else from sight. And, for a moment, it’s almost like being back in Gonta’s lab with fourteen of them still alive.
Or, Saihara moves that little bit faster and Ouma ends up with a different hostage in the hangar.
Chapter 14 Short Summary: our trial comes to its close and not everyone is pleased with its results.
ao3: [chapter 14]/[start from the beginning]
“You saw… Kaito,” Harukawa says haltingly, like the words don’t quite fit right in her mouth, openly confused. “You’re sure you saw Kaito talking to Monokuma and not someone else.” She says, an almost pleading tone to her voice and Shuichi, Shuichi he gets it. Of all the people he had expected to have been the culprit of that conversation Momota had not even been on the list. Not just because Momota wasn’t even on the list of people Shuichi could imagine speaking in a private conversation with Monokuma, but also while at the very least Kiibo and Ouma were comparable in height, and even though Shuichi himself was taller, he didn’t put up an imposing figure. Momota however, was tall, and broad, and loud.
Even if tired why would Yumeno not recognize him?
“I did! I’m absolutely sure of it!” Yumeno says, head turned upwards with pride.
“You didn’t sound so sure earlier,” Kiibo says, looking as unsure about this as the rest of them, “and I must confess that I can’t agree with your statement.”
“I couldn’t remember because my head was clouded by a sleepiness curse that dulled my senses.” Yumeno says, stamping her foot to the ground, “And I told you, I didn’t just remember who it was, I remembered why it was so hard for me to remember.”
“Well, why was it?”
“Thanks for asking,” Yumeno says with a flourish Shuichi is sure is usually reserved for her magic acts. “It’s because there were two people there, not just one.”
“Huh?”
“There were two people talking to Monokuma you mean?”
“No,” Yumeno replies, shaking her head, “It was a couple days ago, I was leaving my lab to get something to eat and then go to sleep but as I rounded the corner I heard arguing.” The confidence that had overcome her seems to vanish as she curls inward slightly. “I got scared so I hid but I saw them, Monokuma and Momota-kun arguing about something –or at least Momota-kun looked upset, Monokuma looked the same as ever. I was too far to hear them but…” Her face twists, "I saw Ouma, he was hiding in the little walkway that separates the front half of the first floor from the back half."
"And then what happened?" Harukawa presses but Yumeno shakes her head once again.
"I was tired you know… and sitting there huddled on the ground I fell asleep. When I woke up they were all gone and I was still so sleepy I just assumed it was a dream and went to my room. I had forgotten all about it until Saihara was talking about how he hasn't seen Monokuma since the gym."
"So that's all you know?"
"Yeah," Yumeno says through a yawn, "and all that remembering has made me sleepy."
"Where does this leave us, if Momota-san was really the one who knew the motive then… he's dead now, we still don't know what the motive was." Kiibo laments.
"No, that's not entirely right," Shuichi says, heart thrumming an unsteady beat in his chest, “If what Yumeno-san saw is true, then there is one person left who might know something.” But even before he finishes, he knows the other won’t. Why would he when he’s been so unhelpful so far.
“Ouma.” Harukawa says, the air around her looking demonic in its intensity.
“Why yes?” Ouma says cheerily, “Whatever could I do for you?” He asks, batting his eyelashes at them.
“What did you hear?” She asks, but the question comes out so flat it seems more like a demand.
“Hear? I’m not sure what you mean, I hear plenty of things, you’re going to have to be way more specific if you want me to know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play around.” She hisses, “Not now, not about this, we all heard Yumeno’s story, we know you were there, so just what were Monokuma and Kaito talking about. Tell us now, or I’ll make sure you regret it.”
Ouma hums, doing a great job of being absolutely disinterested in Harukawa’s threat. “You mean a tired delusional girl’s hallucination? You actually believe that? I have absolutely no idea what she’s talking about. Sorry.” Ouma pauses, mouth forming a small ‘o’. “Oh, oh! Maybe I do, but I just,” he shrugs, “it’s just not coming to me, actually, I don’t think I’ve ever even spoken to Momota-chan before! Sorry, maybe try again later.”
“Don’t lie Ouma-kun,” Kiibo chastises, “We’ve all seen you running around chasing after Momota-kun as of late. If anything the fact that you may have overheard something between the two of them makes that seem all the more suspicious.”
“Not ringing a bell!” Ouma sings, “But what do you expect when a hunk of metal is trying to tell you it knows your own memory better than you. Barely any better than Ice Queen over there.” Ouma says, and then his entire posture falls, hands that were playfully lifted to his cheeks falling limp beside him as his expression clears. “Seriously, just get over it.”
“Why you –” Harukawa growls, reaching over her stand arms outstretched as if she wants to reach out and grab and twist.
“Let’s just, let’s just move on.” Shuichi interrupts, trying to ignore the heavy feeling growing inside him. Ouma knows something. Ouma possibly knows everything about this case but he won’t tell him a word. And Shuichi trusts him, Shuichi wants to trust him. He’s spent all this time with Ouma, he knows they’ve gotten closer but something about this situation just leaves a bad taste in his mouth. He doesn’t think Ouma did this, his attitude and general demeanor despite the contrary just reinforce his belief.
If Ouma had done this he would be doing a better job of hiding it, the way he’s acting now it’s so obviously suspicious. Refusing to give information, acting cagey, with four trials under their belts, they’re all used to the way the blackened seems so positively normal until the second the charade ends. Until the moment it becomes all too clear it couldn’t have been anyone but them and what little composure they have left just snaps into nothing as they give one last ditch effort at making it out of this alive. Ouma has done none of that, in fact he seems to be doing his best to do the exact opposite of that. But, why would he be trying so hard to make it look like he’s the culprit… unless.
No, he doesn’t want to think that could possibly be true.
“Maybe we could try discussing the murder weapon?” He hears Kiibo ask, pulling him from his thoughts and back into the present. He doesn’t have time to be thinking of things that don’t matter right now.
(Even if Ouma’s behavior is absolutely relevant to this trial, Shuichi can’t focus on it when there’s still so much else to discuss, because he doesn’t think he likes where he can feel this heading, isn’t sure what he’s going to feel when they reach the end of this.)
“Well it’s poison isn’t it?” Shirogane asks, looking more and more irritated the longer this trial drags on, and he wonders if there’s anything they could possibly say or discover that would result in her changing her mind about Ouma. If they worked together and found all the evidence pointing towards someone else, would she still refuse and vote for him? Would her belief that Ouma and him are remnants override her common sense at that point? Outweigh the facts as they are?
(Or maybe it’s him that’s being delusional.
But he can’t think about it that way.)
“Maybe?” Kiibo replies, looking intensely at his Monopad as he fiddles with it, “If you read the Monokuma Report it doesn’t actually say what killed him.”
“What do you mean?” Harukawa asks, “Of course it does, it mentions that poison was found within Kaito’s body, what else could have killed him.” She continues but Kiibo just shakes his head again, still looking through the file.
“Well,” Yumeno says, “Are you gonna tell us or just keep staring at it?”
“What he means,” Shuichi says, replying in his stead because he had noticed that discrepancy too when looking over all the clues he had gathered so far. “Is that the Monokuma File doesn’t actually state a cause of death. It says that Momota-kun had no life-threatening wounds and it said a variety of substances were found inside him but it doesn’t exactly say what killed him.” Shuichi hadn’t thought much of it, so it didn’t explicitly say Momota had been poisoned. There weren’t many other options when he had no real wounds to have caused his death. It had to have been internal for that to be true and when trapped in a room of poison what other options were there.
“So you’re saying it doesn’t even say what kind of poison it was that killed him? That there was more than one?” Harukawa asks, seemingly perturbed, and sure it’s odd but he can’t think of why it would produce that kind of reaction from her.
“Harukawa-chan did you even read the file?” Yumeno asks and Harukawa turns away, the bright red in her ears becoming apparent with the action.
“I skimmed it,” She replies, combing an impatient hand through her hair, “I did not think it would have anything of relevance in it given the circumstances but. This is odd, you’ve all noticed right?”
“Odd?”
“Kaito was poisoned.” Harukawa states and when her pause extends the rest of them nod, “Even an inexperienced killer can kill with poison, perhaps not as well or as discretely but poison has been a common method of murder for centuries for a reason. Common household items can be used as poison if taken in enough quantities or for a long enough period of time. Though as Saihara has said, all the poisons I can remember from his Research Lab are relatively fast acting. There was no reason to use more than one, in fact using more than one can be dangerous, some of them might neutralise each other like some kind of faux antidote. The fact that there are so many doesn’t… it doesn’t make sense.”
“Well,” Yumeno says, twiddling her fingers, “not everyone is a trained assassin, maybe they didn’t know? Or,” she says a bit louder, holding her hands out, “maybe they just had a whole bunch set up to make sure Momota got hit by at least one but something happened and he got all of them. Like, they had a whole buffet of poisoned food out and ready for him because they weren’t sure what he liked but Momota arrived and was just like, everything looks amazing! And just ate all of it no problem.”
“… You’re suggesting that the blackened provided a… buffet for Momota, in a room full of poison, and he just ate it no problem?” Kiibo asks incredulously, looking over at Shuichi as if silently asking if they had heard the same thing. He smiles tiredly in response. He’s not entirely sure what to make of that either.
“I -I mean, I’m just saying,” Yumeno stutters, “it could happen, it’s not impossible.”
“Even Kaito isn’t that much of an idiot, I’m afraid.” Harukawa retorts and it’s the closest she’s come to looking less than murderous and righteous anger since the trial began, closest she’s come to looking almost cheerful.
“So then how did the poison get in his body?”
“Ingestion is the most likely cause,” Shuichi interjects, thinking back on his investigation of the body. “The poisons were found in his stomach after all and while he did have a couple of scratches and cuts on his palms they didn’t seem to be connected to the poisoning.”
“How though,” Kiibo repeats, eyes closed in concentration, “did the killer get Momota-kun to ingest it? Though exaggerated Yumeno’s scenario holds merit, when it comes to ingesting poison the most likely way to get your victim to do it is to put in their food. At the same time though, Harukawa-san has a point, Momota-kun is no idiot and anyone would be wary of food or drink given to them in a room full of poison I would think.”
“Not unless it was someone he trusted completely.” Shuichi replies in agreement.
“Well that would rule out Ouma-kun.” Yumeno mutters.
“I suppose it would.” Kiibo nods.
"So then it wasn’t him?"
"He just would've had to make him ingest it another way "
"Like what? Forcing him to drink it? Ouma's as small as me that never would've worked." Yumeno rebuffs.
"Ouma is devious," Harukawa defends, "if he wanted to I'm sure he could have found a way to do it."
"Even if he did," Kiibo behind, "there is one thing that strikes me as peculiar. If Momota-kun was poisoned inside the lab could he not have simply taken the antidote? Unless the poison killed him in seconds, I don't understand why he was just sitting down as he died."
"Did you not see the mess?" Harukawa questions, one eyebrow raised.
"Well I, you and Saihara-kun… you know, almost immediately as I entered and after. After I felt sick standing there, Saihara-kun and Yumeno-san insisted that I go."
"It was pretty gross," Yumeno agrees, "but thankfully Saihara was the one who inspected the body."
"Not like that," Kiibo replied with a shake of his head, "I don't mean sick like queasy, or at least not just like that. I’m not capable of that kind of illness anyways. Something about that room just made me feel like my wiring was about to short-circuit, or faint in more understandable terms. It got worse the longer I was there." Kiibo sighs, "I had wanted to help investigate but…"
Harukawa, apparently noticing she has stepped on a sensitive subject opens her mouth before closing it once again. She is silent for a moment before speaking. "At least you attempted to help, that's more than some of us can say. I only noticed in the short amount of time I was there because I am adept at noticing such details. The area by the cabinet full of poison was pretty much destroyed, tumbled and broken bottles, even one of the glass windows was cracked." She tilts her head, pensive. "It's the kind of mess that would imply a struggle but."
“But the state of Momota-kun’s body doesn’t support that right?” Shuichi guesses and Harukawa nods.
“Yes, the few cuts on Kaito’s hands don’t abide by the kind of bruising one might expect from a struggle unless the blackened had been wielding a knife and even then, those cuts are just superficial if the Monokuma File is to believed,” She adds, looking down at her Monopad as to confirm and when she looks up Shuichi nods at her statement. He had noted the same thing in his investigation. “If Kaito had fought or struggled with someone there would be some kind of wounds on either him or his murderer, even if weakened by poison Kaito was a strong enough person to have still put up a fight. As it stands it seems as if Kaito just… passed on with no struggle whatsoever.”
“Then who caused that mess?” Yumeno asks, “Or are you saying it just appeared out of nowhere?”
“The blackened then?” Kiibo suggests, “Perhaps they tripped trying to grab it and caused the mess?”
“So your suggestion is that the blackened somehow made that mess before Kaito showed up and Kaito saw that and walked in anyways?” Harukawa questions flatly and Kiibo laughs quietly, refusing to make eye contact.
“It was just a suggestion…”
“Momota-kun was there,” Shuichi says, “he was there,” he repeats when all eyes turn to him, “when the mess happened or, at the very least he approached it.”
“Oh? What makes you say that.”
“There was glass on his shoes, like he had stepped on something made of glass, which coincides with the more shattered bottles in the mess. Most of the glass was concentrated in that area so it’s unlikely Momota-kun stepped on it as he walked into the room.”
“So Momota-kun was by the cabinet.” Kiibo clarifies.
“And then the blackened did nothing?” Yumeno asks, “That doesn’t make any more sense than the other way around. Either the killer was there and didn’t stop him or they weren’t there and Momota wasn’t able to find an antidote in time.”
Harukawa hums, tapping harshly upon the podium. “The second scenario is more likely, there is just no plausible scenario in which a killer would watch their victim attempt to save themselves and do nothing to stop them.” She pauses, as if remembering something. “Unless they were truly sadistic, then it might bring them some perverse sort of joy to watch Kaito suffer as he did.”
Shuichi knows that Harukawa is a trained assassin, that she has definitely killed her fair share of people in the past. It still strikes him as spine chilling, hearing her say something so horrid as if it’s nothing, as if the thought of someone watching Momota die and finding amusement in it is an everyday occurrence for her. And perhaps it was, Shuichi only knows the small bits of her life Harukawa has shared with him but even those are enough for him to know it was no where near kind, that imagining her seeing this as someone if not mundane, at the very least not worth the surprise and sickness that it is causing in him.
“You know who would take perverse joy in the suffering of an ultimate? Of Momota-kun who such a shining beacon of hope?” Shirogane says, perking up.
“Shirogane.” Harukawa replies, voice too cold, too steady. “If you are going to supply nothing but comments that Ouma is at fault, when no one has yet to deny that he is the most likely culprit, then I would prefer you say nothing at all. I am not here trying to prove Ouma’s innocence, but to prove without a doubt it was him, so he has no choice but to admit it because only then can I even hope to find out why he picked Kaito as his victim, because there is no chance in hell I’ll ever get that information from him as it stands.” She spits, glaring at Shirogane and than transferring her gaze over to Ouma who grins as he notices her attention but otherwise says nothing about her statements.
Shirogane on the other hand looks angry at Harukawa’s words, despite the fact that she had not disagreed that Ouma is at fault. And even Shuichi must admit that while their end goal might be different the fact of the matter is that no one, not even him, and especially not Ouma, can deny that Ouma is the one amongst them who seems the most likely. Even barring the whole remnant thing Ouma has always been the one who was the odd one out so to say, and it’s been no secret that he Momota have never seen eye to eye. Kiibo had even mentioned it earlier, Shuichi had witnessed it, Ouma had been harassing Momota about something, there was something between them.
There was so much pointing towards Ouma being the blackened to the point that Shuichi just kept coming back to the thought that it was too obvious, too on the nose.
“Who cares about any of that! We’re here dragging this out when we could end it right now.” Shirogane shouts, “I don’t –I don’t want to keep hearing you guys discussing the death of one of our friends like it’s nothing, I –” she stops, eyes welling up with tears.
“Goooooooooooooooooood,” Ouma says, “Could you just, shut up? I for one am having a great time here and considering I’m the one up for execution I think my opinion matters just a little bit more here, right? So let me enjoy this will you, it’s just getting good man.”
“You’re making fun in a situation like this? What’s wrong with you?” Shirogane asks, looking absolutely horrified, and Shuichi sighs. Now isn’t the time for this, it’s never the time for whatever it is the two of them keep doing.
“Hey.” Yumeno says, looking more annoyed than Shuichi thought her capable of. “Stop talking, if you guys aren’t going to say anything useful maybe don’t say anything at all.”
“I agree and I suggest both of you listen; I’m not sure how much longer Harukawa-san is going to able to restrain herself.” Kiibo adds, eyes flicking over to her as he finishes. Shuichi follows his gaze and sure enough Harukawa looks incensed, eyes almost glowing as her breath comes out in large, pointedly steady and deep, breaths.
“If we are all in agreement.” Harukawa says slowly, deliberately, as if each word is a struggle. “Can we continue?” She asks but again the question comes out too flat to be anything other than a demand. When no one speaks up again she nods, satisfied. “Saihara, you were saying?”
“M-me?” Shuichi says, unable to stop the way his arms move up reflexively in a defensive position. “You were the one talking before we got interrupted.” She glares, “Ah, I mean…” He rubs the back of his head; what does he mean?
“Shirogane-san isn’t entirely wrong though,” Kiibo says, Shuichi’s saving grace since he can’t seem to figure out what it is he wants to say, “a remnant would be someone who fits that bill.”
“That would apply to me too wouldn’t it.” He tries, though isn’t surprised by the looks that garners. Even when they denied him for that very label they’ve never quite held him to the same standards they held Ouma to.
“You’re too soft,” Yumeno says, wagging her finger at him, “I told you right, I think maybe I’ve fallen into despair too, and I gotta tell you even under the effects of despair I don’t feel like watching someone suffer in pain. And if I can’t, with all the horrifying rituals I’ve performed than you definitely can’t.”
“Yumeno-san!” Kiibo exclaims, “Just what are you saying!”
“It’s just a joke,” Yumeno says, putting up a lazy peace sign, “I’m not any different than I usually am right?”
“I suppose not,” Kiibo says, deflating with the words, “But don’t joke about that,” He reprimands, “it is true though, imagining Saihara-kun in that scenario just doesn’t seem right to me at all.”
“And,” Harukawa says, “even if Ouma is the more likely two of the scenario, I don’t think he did it either. Ouma is smart, he’s devious, I don’t see him allowing such a risky scenario even if it’s for so called despair. No the more likely scenario is that Kaito was on his own when this occurred, perhaps he had faked already having died and once his killer had left he attempted to find the antidote to his affliction only to… pass away before he could find it."
"Then what about the mess?"
Harukawa shrugs, "Frustration maybe? I can imagine that as the poison took its toll he was perhaps exasperated and throwing things around. Still, even with that explanation there's one thing that still doesn’t make sense."
"The fact Momota-kun was found sitting." Shuichi says before Harukawa does, because he couldn't figure that one out either.
"Exactly," she says, "for that scenario to be true Kaito would have had to have spent his final moments moving towards the sofa to sit instead of continuing to search.”
“Maybe he was tired?”
“So he chose to die instead?”
Yumeno scratches her cheek, “Well, when you put it that way.”
“Is it that important?” Kiibo says, “It’s odd, but what Momota-kun chose to do in his final moments is not something we can really ever know, not even his killer would, if we believe he died on his own.”
Harukawa huffs, crossing her arms. “You’re right but,” she sighs, “it doesn’t sound like him.”
“Wait,” Yumeno says, “I get that something happened by the cabinet to cause that mess, but how does that explain what I found by the door?”
“Oh,” Shuichi replies, he had forgotten about that until now, “that’s right. Yumeno-san found a shattered bottle near the door.”
“He threw it at the wall perhaps?” Kiibo suggests.
“There wasn’t anything on the wall though,” Shuichi says, “the contents of the bottle had stained the floor but the wall itself was clean. There would’ve been something left from the impact if it was.”
“So… something got in the way?”
He shakes his head, “I didn’t see anything like that either.”
“I searched that room top to bottom and didn’t see a single stain outside of the one I found,” she pauses, “aside the one by the cabinet of course.”
“Then it was someone.” Harukawa concludes.
“The killer?”
“The chances of it being someone completely unrelated are low.”
“Is there any way to even prove who it was?”
“Hmm,” Yumeno hums, “Oh I know, I can cast a truth spell to make everyone confess their sins. Then we’ll definitely know who it was in there.”
“Yumeno-san, if you could do that, we could just find out who killed Momota-kun.” Kiibo says, looking slightly confused, “Also if you could do that why haven’t you done it before? For any of the trials? It could have saved us a lot of trouble and time if you had done it.” He lifts a finger, “Not that you could, as magic is not real.”
“Magic is real, and the reason I haven’t done it before is because it requires a lot of MP that I didn’t have before. But finally, after all this time, I’ve stored enough to perform it.” She sniffs, “But I won’t, nonbelievers don’t deserve to see the glorious magic that I have spent decades perfecting. You’ll just have to figure this one out yourself.”
A deep sigh echoes through the trial room, loud enough to halt conversation as they look over to see Harukawa pinching the bridge of her nose. “Does anyone have any useful suggestions, anything that we can actually do right now.”
“The bottle would have most likely left a stain on the culprit but,” Kiibo shrugs, “you all change your clothes every day, and we can’t exactly leave and check the laundry baskets of each of you.”
“Well what about you Kiibo?”
“I –” Kiibo begins and then stops, “Well I don’t wear clothes.” He says slowly as if he doesn’t particularly understand what he’s saying. “You’d have nothing to check in my room, I would have just had to have wiped the stain off if it was me.”
“So you admit it was you?” Yumeno accuses, pointing her finger at him. “And that you’re just talking about this to distract us.”
“N-no, absolutely not!” Kiibo defends, waving his arms out in front of him, “What reason would I have to kill Momota-kun.”
“Well what reason do any of us have, not when we don’t even know what the motive was.”
“I’m just saying that—”
“Stop.” Harukawa says, then nods her head over at Shuichi, “He’s figured something out.”
“Ohh,” Yumeno says, “He definitely does he has that look on his face. Do you think if we leave him like that long enough he’ll figure out who did it?”
Harukawa smiles just slightly, “I don’t think it works that way.”
“With Saihara-kun you never know.” Kiibo says sagely, just in time for them to watch Shuichi’s eyes widen in realization.
“Ouma-kun,” he says, rolling his eyes at the way Ouma brings both hands to his chest in shock, “Roll up your left sleeve for me please.”
“You want me to undress, in front of everyone! Saihara-chan I never knew you were so daring.” Ouma grins, fanning himself lightly.
Ignoring the blush that is most surely crawling up his neck he shakes his head, gripping the stand before him tight to keep him steady, “I’m not joking around here, please roll up your sleeve.”
Ouma tsks, “You better be treating me to a nice dinner after this, my services don’t come cheap.” He grumbles, but complies nonetheless, slowly running up his sleeve.
“Now, Yumeno-san you’re closest to him, can you check his hand, or maybe his wrist but if I’m right he should have something in that general area.”
Yumeno gives him a weird look but complies nonetheless, reaching over to grab Ouma’s arm while ignoring his indignant shout. “Uhhh,” she mumbles, turning Ouma’s hand over and around. “You’re right,” she says, somehow finding the strength to lift Ouma’s hand above her in a way that Ouma is forced to stand on the tips of his toes. “he has a cut from the corner of his palm down to his lower wrist.” She squints, “Looks new too, it’s barely scabbed over.”
Ouma grunts, pulling his hand away from Yumeno with a huff, “Are we done manhandling me? Did you have a reason for that or did you just want to watch that?”
He takes a breath, Ouma is riling him up on purpose. “I did have a reason for that. Like Kiibo-kun said a stain can be washed off but if Momota-kun really did throw it, with enough force that it shattered on impact, it should have been hard enough to cut.”
“So Ouma was in the room with Kaito, he was there and he did it.” Harukawa spits and Shuichi can already see the rage growing inside her.
“Wait,” He says quickly, “I’m not done yet.”
“What more do you need to say, he was there, he did it.” She says through a growl.
“No, no. Remember what we talked about earlier, if Momota-kun was the one who caused that mess, why didn’t the blackened stop him? It only made sense if he had been alone when it happened, but he wasn’t so what does that tell you?”
“That we were wrong,” she hisses, staring at him like she would love to lunge over and grab him. “Clearly I underestimated the effects despair has on one intelligence.”
“Think rationally,” he snaps, “I know you want someone to blame, someone to answer your questions, but jumping to conclusions isn’t going to get that. When you agreed to this trial you agreed to see this to the end.” She glares at him and he glares at her right back, something that is not quite rage fueling his actions.
“So,” comes Yumeno’s meek voice, “what do you think happened then?”
“I,” he starts, then stops, closing his eyes. He’s gone this whole trial trying so hard to fight for Ouma’s innocence, trying to find that one thread but… “You two.” He says, gesturing towards Yumeno and Kiibo. “The trail of blood you two spotted, where did it come from?”
“Why would we know?”
“Take a guess,” he prompts, “I don’t expect you to.”
“Momota-kun?” She replies, but then starts speaking again. “But he died of poison, and in your lab, he wouldn’t have left a blood trail leading to courtyard.”
“Oh,” Kiibo says, “Ouma-kun! He had that cut on his hand, it bled as he walked back to his dormitory.”
“See,” Harukawa says, “proof that –”
“—That’s not right either.” He interrupts, “Harukawa-san you saw me coming out of Ouma-kun’s room. I saw him when he came in, it’s how I knew to make him roll down his sleeve, I had seen the faint stain from the bottle.” He sighs, hand reaching up to grab his arm. “I didn’t see blood, which I think would’ve been more obvious than a pale stain. And Ouma-kun didn’t know I was in his room, he didn’t even notice I was there at first. There was no reason for him to have already have hidden it.”
Harukawa opens her mouth then shuts it was a click as if it pains her to hold her words back. He wonders if it’s a victory for her to hold back what was surely accusations that he was covering up for Ouma on purpose, that he was somehow colluding with him to get him out of his presumed execution. As if doing that wouldn’t end with Shuichi dead as well.
“If you’re going to shoot down the only possible options, then tell us what you think happened.” Is what she eventually settles for saying.
“Harukawa-san,” he replies, “how was Momota-kun’s health?”
Her face goes pale and she turns her head away.
“He told us he was getting better and we believed him because it made things better, but you were always watching him, what was the truth.”
She grits her teeth, “Kaito was, Kaito insisted he was fine,” she says, still not looking at them, “But I didn’t believe him, no one who coughs up blood is fine. So you’re right, I kept an eye on him. I never saw him cough up blood again but I’m not stupid, I saw how increasingly tired he looked, how in the morning he always looked pale before cheering up the second he saw one of us.” She takes a deep breath. “He wasn’t well.”
He nods, it was what he had expected to hear, even if thinking of Momota suffering in silence like that causes his stomach to twist painfully. “I checked Momota’s dorm room after inspecting my lab. I thought maybe I could find something that led him there, a note or something.”
“Did you?”
“No,” he denies, “but I found blood… I found a lot of blood. On the bed, on his clothes, in the sink in the bathroom, and so much on tissues he had thrown out.”
“So he was poisoned before the lab?” Kiibo theorizes.
“I don’t think so, so much of the blood was old and dried, you and Yumeno-san saw the pile of clothes, there’s no way that was just from that night, that’s a collection from at least a week. What I think is that Momota-kun was sick, I think he’d been getting worse.”
“And how does that lead to your Research Lab?” Harukawa accuses.
“Well,” He says, “We never did figure out what the motive was…”
“Don’t change the subject.” She threatens.
“I’m not,” he replies, shaking his head, “Momota-kun knew it, it’s what makes the most sense given what Yumeno-san saw, but what didn’t make sense was why Monokuma would tell him first. Momota-kun who was so against murder, who believed we could work together to end this. What could Monokuma possibly have to offer Momota-kun that could ever entice him to murder?”
“A cure,” Kiibo breathes, “If Monokuma could offer a cure to his illness in exchange for a murder that could convince anyone, especially if it was as bad as it seemed.”
He nods, “Exactly, and it also gives a good reason for why Momota-kun wouldn’t want anyone else finding out about this.”
“Because I’d do it.” Harukawa says quickly, voice that too cold tone once again. “If it would save Momota-kun from death I would’ve done it, and he knew that, and would never let it happen.”
“Correct,” he says, “At least I think… did we guess it Monokuma?”
“OH abso-bear-lutely!” Monokuma cheers, “I’m so glad you guys figured it out, it hurt your headmaster’s heart so much to keep a secret from you all.” He continues, wiping a tear from his eye, “But you guys got it on the nose, and as I promised I won’t tell but I will confirm. Kaito promised me that if I didn’t tell anybody he’d have me a body within the week! The body might have been his… but a body’s a body and I’m a bear of his word. So mums the word! Until now that is.”
“… Thank you,” He says after a pause.
“Anything for my dear students!” Monokuma says dreamily and Shuichi sighs, choosing to ignore him for now.
“Anyways, I think… Momota-kun woke up that night, or just couldn’t get to bed, because his illness was getting worse. So, in a last ditch effort to save himself he went up to my lab hoping one of the antidotes might alleviate his symptoms for a little while longer. But –”
“How does Ouma-kun tie into this?” Yumeno asks, interrupting his explanation.
“I was going to get to do that. Ouma-kun overheard their conversation, that means he knew the motive, that Momota-kun was only getting worse. I assume Ouma-kun was keeping an eye on him and when Momota-kun left his room he followed after him. As I was saying though, the trail of blood is Momota-kun’s, probably dripped down from his hand or chin after coughing it up in his room. Led all the way to my lab where –”
“—I killed him.” Ouma finishes for him and no –no that’s not what he was going to say, it’s not what happened. It can’t be. He doesn’t want it to be. “Ya got me! I did it! No hiding from it now.” He says, face that terrible mask he has only seen during Gonta’s trial.
“You admit it,” Harukawa hisses, hand curling so hard around the stand Shuichi can hear the distinct splitting sound as it splinters apart beneath her grip. “You killed him, I knew it, it had to have been you. Did you have fun watching him try to defend you?”
“Fun?” Ouma questions, “It wasn’t just fun it was… I can’t even describe it, the feeling welling up inside me,” he sighs, “I wish I could live in this moment forever.”
No this can’t…
“See I told you it was him, why did you even let this disgusting trial happen.” Shirogane says.
“Because he’s going to tell me why,” Harukawa demands, “Why Kaito of all people.”
It doesn’t make sense why would he…
“No reason,” Ouma says cheerily through a face that looks far too demonic, “I knew with that motive he’d be on his own at some point, so I was just biding my time to kill him. But the look on your faces when you saw the body, that was definitely a bonus!”
“You bastard, I should’ve killed you after that second trial, I should’ve ended you right there then none of this would’ve happened.”
He’s playing this up too much, Ouma isn’t like this. Shuichi would stake his life on it, he already has. So what is he missing?
“But ya didn’t!” Ouma says, “So come on, let’s put this to vote. Sentence me to execution so we can end this whole thing once and for all.”
It clicks then, what exactly it is Ouma is trying to do and for the first time… He feels so angry, for one long moment he thinks he can imagine the kind of rage that makes Harukawa reach out and choke because he thinks he might be feeling it right now.
After everything he still… still doesn’t…
“Gladly,” Harukawa says, “I’ll watch your execution with a smile.”
“Harukawa…” Yumeno says softly, though cowers when Harukawa turns to look at her.
“What could we have possibly left to discuss? He confessed, he gave his reasons, there are no questions left to ask, answers left to find.”
“Still…” Kiibo says weakly.
“No, we’re done with this, Monokuma we’re –”
“No!” He shouts just that simple action leaving him breathless. “No, not yet!”
“Saihara what more do you want, so we got the order wrong, Kaito had already been in the lab and then got murdered. Ouma was able to take advantage of his weak state due to his illness and forced him to drink a bottle of poison.”
Think, think, think. There has to be something left that absolves Ouma of guilt. A clue he looked over, a testimony he didn’t see through well enough.
A testimony… testimony, that’s it.
“Shirogane-san, tell me again how you found the body.” He asks through gritted teeth.
“Saihara stop prolonging this –”
“Please, Harukawa-san, just this one last thing.” He begs and she relents, irritated, looking over at Shirogane and prompting her to speak.
“I told you already, I found Yumeno-chan and together we searched the school –apparently for Momota-kun, not that I knew that at the time. We we’re both together when we walked into your Research Lab. The announcement rang as soon as we saw the body and Harukawa arrived right after.”
“Wait…” Kiibo says, “It was just you and Yumeno-san when the announcement rang?”
“No, Harukawa-chan was there I’m pretty sure.”
“I was not.” Harukawa says slowly and he can tell both she and Kiibo are seeing what’s wrong there. “I was already on the fourth floor when I heard your screams, I ran as fast as I could but the announcement was already playing before I reached you two.”
“You see what’s wrong with that right? The announcement plays once three people have seen the body, but Yumeno-san and Shirogane-san are two people.”
“There was a third person… before them.” Harukawa says, eyed wide.
“Exactly,” Shuichi replies, heart racing, “It couldn’t have been either of them because then the announcement still wouldn’t have rung. It’s not me or you, we can both attest to being in our rooms, or at least the dormitory during that time. Kiibo-kun doesn’t have the strictest alibi, but he does have something that I think proves who it was.”
“I do?” Kiibo asks, looking confused but then the expression clears. “I do! I saw Ouma-kun, twice.”
“You did and I think I know why. The second time was when Ouma-kun went back and found Momota-kun’s body, Ouma is the only person who had the reason and motive to be there but he couldn’t have been the killer because then he couldn’t be recognised as the first person to find the body.”
“That idiot,” Harukawa says, tears streaming down her face, “I don’t care what he would’ve thought if it had saved him I… to die like that.” Her shoulders shake as she curls in on herself.
“He died of illness…” Yumeno whispers.
“So it seems.” Kiibo agrees softly.
“Alright,” Monokuma announces as Shuichi looks up meeting eyes with Ouma. “That’s enough talking, it’s voting time!!!” The other looks furious and Shuichi stares right back, he’s not the only one who’s angry.
He’s not the one who has a right to be angry, but whatever, that can wait until Ouma is saved from execution, or, considering he didn’t do it, saved from all of them dying terrible deaths.
-
RESULTS:
H.M:
K:
M.K: ||||
O.K: ||
S.S:
S.T:
Y.H:
-
“And the blackened you’ve chosen is… Momota Kaito!” Monokuma announces with a flourish, twirling around, “And you’ve got it right once again so congratulations you all get to live another day and—”
“Just shut up!” He shouts at Monokuma, anger coursing through him as he pushes away from his stand and marching over to Ouma’s. “You lied to me, after everything, after we promised. You told me all that last night and it didn’t mean anything to you did it? You knew we would find Momota-kun in the morning and you were planning this. This stupid idiotic plan that I already told you in the hangar wouldn’t work.”
Ouma scowls, pushing back from where Shuichi has leaned forward. “What do you know! Everything I’ve been working towards, everything I’ve sacrificed for a chance like this! This could’ve worked, it would’ve worked. How could I have passed an opportunity like this up?”
“That’s the problem! It’s not I, not anymore. I said I’d help you, that we’d do this together, you don’t need to sacrifice your own life for this, we could’ve worked someone out. You could have told me that Momota-kun was dying.”
Ouma stares at him, face contorted in anger before he turns away, staring at the ground instead. “This is my fight, it’s been my fight long before you even knew there was a fight to fight.” He opens his mouth, then closes it with an audible click.
“I’ve…” he says and is forced to pause, trying to swallow through the lump forming in his throat, “Did all of this mean nothing to you? Did you ever really not for a second think you could trust me? After everything? I -I, I let them all hate me for you, I lied to Momota-kun just to try to get you to trust me, I spent this whole trial trying to save you but why did I even bother.”
“Saihara-chan…” He says, softly… too soft and it just makes him all the angrier.
“Don’t call me that!” He shouts, reaching out and holding him by the shoulders. “This isn’t a joke, this isn’t a game, these are our lives you’re playing with. What if your plan had failed? We all would have died, was the victory you wanted? Boring enough for you?”
“It wouldn’t have failed.” He says firmly, but he still won’t look at him.
“Because you planned it? And it always works out so well for you right? It’s your fault the cameras weren’t working, right?” He accuses, “I knew it was odd Kiibo-kun felt so ill in my Lab but it was you. You set off an electrobomb to disable the cameras so you could enact your plan, so you could get yourself killed.”
“It would have worked,” he repeats like a broken record.
“You can’t know that,” he says, anger puttering out of him, instead just leaving him feeling empty, “I promised you I wouldn’t leave you alone, not anymore, but apparently that doesn’t mean much to you anymore, if it ever even did.” He lets the other go, stepping back away from him. “Don’t –stay away from me, got just a little bit. Please, if you have any consideration for me left.”
Ouma looks at him and smiles, except it’s wrong, not wrong like he sometimes smiles where it leaves Shuichi feeling faintly terrified but wrong in a way that hurts. In a way that makes Shuichi’s heart clench as he looks at it. And that’s, that’s not fair, Shuichi is the one who gets to be upset here, distraught, betrayed. Not Ouma who did this knowingly, not Ouma who after everything still thought dying by himself was better than working together with him.
“Of course, my beloved,” Ouma says, still smiling that same smile, “but take this will you?” He says, stuffing something into his pocket and ducking underneath him and escaping into the room.
Following his escape causes him to turn and face the rest of the group who are staring at him, some more openly than others. He tries to work up the energy to feel embarrassed, or anything, but instead he just feels tired.
“Anyways!” Monokuma says quickly, laughing just one notch too loud, “I know we’re all pretty disappointed by the end of this trial. I mean, the blackened was already dead. That’s boring and also so been done before. How are we supposed to have a fun exciting school life when can’t even watch an execution to get our blood pumping.” Monokuma sighs, drooping, “It makes me so bear-y sad.”
“Actually, we’re all pretty okay with that,” Yumeno interjects, having at some point moved to stand behind Harukawa who is staring at him with an expression he can’t decipher. He hopes its not judgement, he doesn’t think he could handle that right now. Eventually though, she looks away, turning her gaze instead to Ouma with another look he doesn’t get but is decidedly not anger. He doesn’t know what to think about that.
Doesn’t know what to think about anything anymore.
“So bear-y sad. But don’t worry about it, your precious headmaster has figured out a way to make everyone happy so stay tuned.” Monokuma announced, jumping up in the air and then disappearing into the ground as he falls.
“Where did he go?” Kiibo asks, inching towards where Monokuma had been standing before he up and disappeared.
“Don’t move,” Harukawa shouts as Kiibo nears and he freezes instantly, almost falling forward with the momentum still pushing him.
“Harukawa-san,” Kiibo says shrilly, sparks seemingly to float around him as he anxiously flutters from his spot, “Don’t speak so forcefully so suddenly, if I had a heart it would have surely stopped at that.”
Harukawa scowls, glaring at the empty space Monokuma left. “Don’t go there, something’s coming, and you don’t want to get caught.”
“Something’s coming, what do you mean?”
“He’s obviously coming back, do you really want to be there when he does with whatever contraption he’s decided to bring.”
“Ah,” Kiibo says, taking another step back, “I see what you mea–” his reply is cut off with a shout, as the ground beneath him crumbles, falling into the abyss beneath them. Harukawa shoots forward, reaching out to grab Kiibo and pull him back. The two of them stay on the ground as something seems to rise from the hole that has appeared, obscured by smoke and dust as loud rumbling echoes through the trial room.
As soon as the sound settles, he, Yumeno, and Shirogane rush forward to join them. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Ouma follow them, slowly but surely.
With the sound stopping so does the movement, and the dust and smoke around them begins to dissipate revealing Monokuma sitting a top a box a rocket resting menacingly behind him, the destroyed ground once again restored to its pristine state.
“Like I was saying,” Monokuma says, swinging his legs back and forth, “It’s just not a trial without an execution! I mean it’s what everyone has been waiting for right? All that talk is just a set up for this glorious, stupendous, exhilarating, execution.” He sighs running his hands down his body. “So I’ve decided to have one anyways!”
“None of us did it,” Yumeno says, looking up from where she had kneeled down next to the two of them, “you can’t just execute one of us because you think it’d be fun.”
“Go ahead and try,” Harukawa says, pulling a knife out, “if you want to break your own rules than I’m happy to participate. Try to touch a hair on any of our heads and I’ll make you regret it.”
“No,” Monokuma laughs, “I would never hurt my precious students –not unless they deserved it of course. This is something else, someone else.” He drums his hands atop the box he’s sitting on, “Ta-dah!” Monokuma exclaims, rolling backwards off the box and it springs open as he removes his weight from it.
“Rise and Shine, Ursine!” Comes a chorus of voices as they spring upwards from the box they had been trapped in. Shuichi sighs, they were the last people – bears, animatronic things – he wanted to see right now.
They all start speaking, voices overlapping in increasing volumes and Shuichi neither can, nor wants to, make out. He would’ve been fine if they had never appeared again.
“Silence my dear cubs!” Monokuma announces, spreading his arms out, paws down as he appears once again this time from atop the rocket. “My adorable little children we’re meant to make a surprise appearance in the next trial, but I thought this way would be more fun –for me anyways.”
“Papa?” Monophanie asks, apparently the first of the lot of them to sense that something is amiss.
“Now, now my dear daughter, nothing to worry about.” He says placatingly, “Just get into the rocket and everything will be fine.”
“But –” Monotaro tries to say.
“Get in now.” Monokuma says, cheery demeanour belied by the ominous red glow in his eyes as the rocket splits open, the stricture dividing itself in half, leaving only a small platform to stand on.
They reluctantly abide, climbing onto the small compartment one by one and as the last one files in the entire structure snaps closed like the doors of an iron maiden, their small frames unable to be seen through the small window on its front.
“And now,” Monokuma says, holding a switch up in the air, “The moment we’ve all been waiting for.” He continues as he flips off the rocket towards them, “Execution Commence!”
He presses the button and the rocket fires up, flames sputtering out from the bottom as it rises into the air and then pauses doing a complete 180 and spiralling into the floor and out of view.
They stand there in awed silence, taking slow steps away from the crater its descent left. Would this have been one of them, had it not been Momota meeting his own unfortunate end? Would he have had to watch another of his classmates die a terribly gruesome death?
If it had to happen, he’s almost sick to admit that he’s glad it’s the Monokubs and not any of them. The Monokubs aren’t alive, they aren’t real, and they’ve done nothing but make all their lives miserable since they appeared way back when.
Despite his better judgement, he chances a glance at Ouma who is staring at the hole in the ground with a look of absolute rage painted on his face. His hands are clenched into too tight fists and he just imagine the angry red marks his nails must be leaving on his palm. He wants to reach out, to uncurl his fingers. To reach out and offer the comfort Ouma had offered him in his own odd way so many times before.
And then he remembers what the other did and forces himself to turn away.
Turn away just in time to hear the approach of the rocket once again, the ceiling above them rumbling as bits and pieces of it rain down on them. It comes up all at once, shooting back up and bringing a river of rocks and debris flying at them.
“Watch out!” Kiibo shouts, moving to stand in front of them, arms raised defensively, as he take the brunt of the oncoming debris to shelter them. It crashes loudly into the ground before them, the rocket swinging open to reveal the broken bits of each of the Monokubs, blood colour dyed oil intermixed within it.
Even though Shuichi holds no love for them, even though he knows they aren’t real, the sight makes him sick, blood curdling in his veins. Their family might’ve been a charade but did Monokuma truly feel nothing after killing his supposed children?
As if to answer his question Monokuma sighs, the sound muffled through the helmet of his spacesuit. “Now wasn’t that just wonderful?” He breathes, panting heavily. “The beautiful despair of watching my own cubs die I can barely take it. And I won’t have to! This killing game is never going to end so I’ll keep myself in this feeling for the rest of time.” Monokuma concludes with a swoon.
His heart stutters, no, they just can’t keep doing this.
He needs to end this now, somehow.
For everyone’s sake.