Unending Confusion
They did it. The bright sky of the outside world is beautiful, and Maki takes a step towards it. They did it. Saihara changed the outside world, and now, they were free. Danganronpa was finished, and Maki couldn’t help but smile and look on to her future. She doesn’t know what she will do after this, but they’re gonna figure it out together. Maki Harukawa, Shuichi Saihara, and Himiko Yumeno survived the 53rd danganronpa game, and everything else is going to be fine. At least, that’s what Maki hopes for, but as she follows Saihara closer to their future, the world shifts, the light dissipates, and Maki falls through pitch blackness.
When she finally stops falling, which, weirdly, isn’t an abrupt occurrence, Maki lifts her head from where she’s been placed, opening her eyes. Though, she can’t really be sure that her eyes are open, and she’s not dreaming, because she sees an empty classroom. More importantly, the classroom that she originally woke up in at the start of the killing game. Maki rubs her eyes, and looks around again, yet again confirming that she is back in the classroom she started in. But how? was her only thought as she stood up from her desk, pondering her situation. Kiibo had destroyed the academy entirely, surely this classroom wouldn’t have survived. If she remembers correctly, it was also this very classroom that she first saw Ouma, or at least heard him dramatically squealing in the locker and left immediately to hide away from who she could only assume to be her kidnapper at the moment. But now she can’t, especially because Ouma couldn’t possibly be in the locker.
“Hello? Anyone out there? I’ll scream if you don’t answer me!” The childish voice of Kokichi Ouma freezes Maki in her place at once. Ouma is dead, Saihara proved that in the 5th trial. That stupid squeaky voice couldn’t possibly be him.
“Are you sure? I could burst your eardrums! Here I go… AAA—“ Maki slammed the door behind her, leaving the classroom behind, and with it, the thought that Ouma was currently dead. No matter what sort of argument Maki thought of, there was no doubt that the person inside of that locker (whose screams could still be heard from behind the classroom door), was Kokichi Ouma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader. How was he alive? Maki couldn’t tell you, but this seems to be a reenactment of the beginning of the killing game, which as far as she can tell, has been made horrifically accurate. She wouldn’t be surprised if some other dead people popped up, like Amami or Angie. Maki doesn’t want to think about if she’s going to see Kaito again. In fact, she doesn’t want to think about anything related to him, so she retraces her steps from the beginning of the game, walking down to the basement.
The basement it the same as it always is, she investigates the game room and it’s just like last time, when she leaves the game room she briefly passes by Hoshi, and the monokubs announce that there are more ultimate students in the building, just like last time. When she enters the library the musty smell hits her face suddenly, just like last time. She looks over the books on the top of the shelves, which haven’t been organized by Kaede, so they’re all jumbled up, just like last time, and there are no books on the top of one shelf, just like last time. The whole situation is so scarily exact to the beginning of the game, all Maki has seen, heard, and said, have been exactly the same as the first time she woke up. It might not be a very detailed memory, after all, it has been a while since the beginning of the game, but so far, everything is lining up. all that really needs to happen is—
The library door opens behind Maki, letting in the very people she was just thinking about. Kaede Akamatsu and Shuichi Saihara, Both had Ultimate talents, and were talking to each other about the organization of the room, before Akamatsu walked over to Maki.
“Um… Are you an Ultimate student too?” Akamatsu asks, smiling brightly. Before, Maki had the impression that Kaede was kind of a dumb blonde, too optimistic and talkative for her tastes. Of course, Maki now knows that ‘Optimistic’ and ‘Talkative’ are defining characteristics of her tastes, but as Maki looks at Akamatsu, she can’t bring herself to say anything more than what she said last time;
“Yeah, that’s right,” Maki deadpans, looking directly at Akamatsu without breaking her act. In truth, Maki was quite happy to see Akamatsu alive, she could hug her and whisper “We granted your wish! Me, Saihara, and Himiko!” but Maki doesn’t even know what happened after they got out. She couldn’t say anything about last time if doesn’t even know what happened! Akamatsu probably doesn’t even recognize Maki, and looking at Saihara, he probably doesn’t recognize her either.
“I’m Kaede Akamatsu. I’m the Ultimate Pianist,” Akamatsu introduces herself, breaking the silence that Maki loved to fill with her thoughts.
“I’m Shuichi Saihara, and I’m the Ultimate Detective, I suppose…” Saihara speaks next, meeker than Akamatsu, seemingly still hiding under his hat.
“Geez, not ‘Suppose’, you are the Ultimate Detective, okay?” Akamatsu corrects Saihhara.
“Y-yeah, you’re right,” Saihara turns his head. It’s really weird having his face be covered by his hat again, after watching him gain confidence in himself throughout the game.
“And what about you?” Akamatsu brings the attention back to Maki. For a moment, She considers telling them the truth of my identity, how much of a monster she was made due to Team Danganronpa’s implanted memories. Looking in their expectant eyes, Maki took a deep breath and—
“Maki Harukawa… Ultimate Child Caregiver…” couldn’t admit it. The only person who really had a problem with her job was Ouma, and he was one out of… twelve. Thirteen counting Hoshi, who actually slightly understood Maki’s situation, but was willing to blackmail her to get his video.
“Ultimate Child Caregiver, huh…” Akamatsu ponders aloud.
“Surprised? I don’t look like someone who’d like kids, do I?” “Huh?”
“Well, you’d be right. I don’t like kids that much,” That isn’t really the truth, Maki just hasn’t been around kids since the orphanage. She only has positive memories of these kids, even when they were annoying.
“B-But… if you’re the Ultimate Child Caregiver, then children must like you a lot, right…?” Akamatsu says.
“Kids are… weird. They come to me on their own. I’m not that good at taking care of them… I’m not that friendly, either…”
“But they say kids are very intuitive. If they like you that much, then they can probably tell how loving you really are, Maki!” Akamatsu reassures Maki with a smile. Throughout this conversation, Maki feels an annoying amount of deja vu creeping up her spine. Of course she knows exactly where it’s coming from, the same events from before are happening again, which obviously means something is wrong, but she can’t bring herself to change anything about this conversation. Maybe she misses the naivety of the beginning, but she’s just retracing her steps.
“Yeah! That must be it! You’ve chosen a perfect career for yourself!” Akamatsu proclaims.
“…It wasn’t my choice to begin with.” Maki spits out instinctively, instantly regretting it when greeted with confused faces.
“Huh? What do you mean by that?” Akamatsu asks.
“… Nothing. It’s just… I grew up in an orphanage and got saddled with helping out a lot,” Maki is quick to dismiss her out of place harshness by repeating old stories.
“Ah, by the way… Do you know anything about the monokubs?” Saihara asks.
“Yeah! Someone’s gotta be controlling them, right? Any idea who that might be?” Akamatsu questions Maki, determined to understand the current situation.
“… How would I know?” Maki says.
“Well, fair point…”Akamatsu thinks to herself, “Hmmm… the monokubs are definitely involved in our situation…” Last time, Maki responded to this by quite harshly pushing the attention onto Saihara, pressuring him to be more knowledgeable than possible at that time, Maki doesn’t want to be as hostile this time around, even if it’s a dream, where she’s just retracing the same stuff over. So she stays silent, and there’s an awkward silence left over. “Well, who cares about some stuffed animals!? Escaping this place is way more important!” Akamatsu moves on to the next topic, skipping over some initial tension between Saihara and Maki, and Maki can go back to repeating the same lines over again.
“Seriously? You think we can escape?” Maki asks rhetorically, “Abducting Ultimates from across the country would require massive resources and planning. What makes you think a group capable of that would let us just walk out of here?”
“If they won’t end this, then we will! I know we can do it if we work together!” Akamatsu smiles and Maki feels slightly sick, knowing what happens to her nearly immediately after the second motive is revealed.
“Work together? With strangers? You’re a naive fool if you think you can end this so easily,” And Akamatsu was a naive fool, but Maki couldn’t really talk because Maki was also a fool, everyone at least slightly believed in Kaede in the beginning, and they of course believed in themselves.
Maki left the library after that, having said everything that she had already said before, with no old words to repeat back to them. Of course, having said that, she also has no idea where to go from here. It’s confirmed that she can change things without getting smited, at least, with that interaction with Saihara ending up never existing in the first place. though Maki does wonder what might change because of that, with the butterfly effect and all that considered. Maki wanders around the academy aimlessly, hiding herself away from the others, not knowing if she’d be able to speak to them after what she’s been through. In the end, Maki just sits and looks through the monopad, acting like she’s learning new things about these people she’s trapped with for the cameras, after all, those do exist to watch over everyone, making sure nothing is wrong. Maki doesn’t even know why she cares about appealing to that, there’s a possibility (getting weaker) that this is a dream, and she’ll wake up after hitting her head on a rock by accident or something, and she’ll be fine, and be in the outside world after surviving the thing she’s reliving right now.
“Ding Dong Bing Bong!” the announcement system blares loudly through the hallway, shattering her pointless hope. Well, even if I don’t wake up, this is an opportunity to save the lives of the less fortunate students in this killing game Maki thinks, picking up the shards of hope left in her head.
“Hiiii! Thanks for bear-ing with us!” Monophanie squeaks through the monitor. An awkward silence was left, which seemed to be space for Monodam to speak, as it looked away from the camera in some form of robot shame.
“Kept you bastards waiting, huh?” Monokid bellows, bass-boosting the speakers and making Maki’s ears hurt.
“Everyone, make your way to the gym please,” Monotaro says.
“The opening ceremony can finally begin!” Monokid yells.
“Phew! We finally finished our preparations!” Monotaro sighs with relief.
“… You do realize you just read your lines backwards, don’t you?” Monosuke chastises the other kubs, shaking his head.
“So long, Bear well!” The monokubs quickly move on from that and conclude their first annoying announcement segment of a series of stupid elaborate bullshit skits made for the audience’s pleasure.
God, the audience, Maki did not want to think about the horrifying world outside that praises this disgusting game, a peaceful world with this as its godly savior of entertainment? Maki doesn’t even think that it’s possible. When Maki gets to the gym, she’s unsurprisingly one of the first people there, yet another event that is exactly the same as before. She walks over though the gym, eventually standing by the basketball net. There is an awkward silence hanging over the room, as more and more people gather, the tension makes itself clear. It is only when Akamatsu and Saihara enter the room that someone speaks up.
“All sixteen of us have gathered…” Tojou, Ultimate Maid, Fell to her death after climbing up a torturous rope of spikes.
“Hmm, it’s pretty spectacular seeing all sixteen of us Ultimates gathered together,” Kaito, Ultimate Astronaut, Died a hero.
“Kehehe… You may not be able to be so easygoing for much longer…” Shinguji, Ultimate Anthropologist, Died after boiling alive, betrayed by his beloved sister in the afterlife.
“In this situation, it’s no use thinking about things. So eventually, Tsumugi stopped thinking,” Shirogane, Ultimate Cosplayer, Died alone in her stupid way of thought, deserved everything horrible in life, and still does.
“Nyeeeh… What’s gonna happen to us? I bet it’ll be a big pain…” Yumeno, Ultimate Magician, Survivor who doesn’t remember me. Silence floods the room. Something is wrong, Maki knows that someone speaks here, but nobody is, who spoke before that isn’t speaking now? Should she say something in their place? Would that do anything?
“Erm, I think we need to be on our guard. We do not know if and when danger will strike,” Kiibo breaks the silence, and that thought is quickly pushed to the side. K1-B0, Ultimate Hope Robot, ended what had worn thin at the cost of his life.
“D-Don’t say that… I’m so scared… I dunno what to do…” Ouma—…kun, Ultimate Supreme Leader, Died in a hydraulic press, wishing his lie would fool monokuma and end the game, it did not.
“There is no need to worry. Kami-sama will protect us,” Angie, Ultimate Artist, Died because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Phew! That’s a relief!” Ouma obviously doesn’t believe in Yonaga’s Kami-sama, which in hindsight, it makes sense that Ouma was hiding his fear behind a wall of lies all along.
“Is your brain full of weeds or somethin’? I’ll whack ‘em outta that skull of yours!” Iruma, Ultimate Inventor, Died because she chose the wrong person to attempt murder on.
“Don’t worry about it! Just leave it to me! If those teddy bears show themselves again, I’ll kick all their asses!” Kaito exclaims, being the hopeful idiot he always has been. Wait, that’s not right, well, the idiot Maki has always known him to be.
“…Huh? What’s that?” Gokuhara, Ultimate Entomologist, Died from trust. “Hm? What’s wrong?” Hoshi, Ultimate Tenis Player, Died with no reason to live.
“Listen… Hear that?” Gokuhara says, and we all collectively listen for something, which turns out to be—
“Ah, I think I hear it. It sounds like an engine from a robot anime—“ As if on cue, the exisals appeared out of nowhere, stomping on the ground making the floor rumble. “Yoo-hoo! Rise and shine, ursine!” The monokubs yell collectively at the students, making most of them panic. Everyone starts yelling about ‘monsters’ and how scary they are. It pauses slightly before Maki realizes that she has a line to say to Kaito right now.
“Hm, didn’t someone say they would ‘kick all their asses’?” Maki was always up for calling Kaito on his bluffs early on in the game, and she still is, it feels less serious than calling him on being sick. Maybe she won’t think about that for now.
“Wh-What the hell!? Nobody told me about these!” Kaito screams, not defending himself as well as he thinks.
“Alright, chill out, no need to panic… we’re probably not in any danger. If they wanted to kill us, they’d have done it by now,” Amami, Forgot his Ultimate, Died as a lie. With that, Amami casually walked up to the exisals. “So… what do you want from us? You clearly want something, that’s what the guns are for, right? Let me guess, you’re gonna force us to do something, and if we don’t, we get hurt. Well, you have our attention. So what do you want?”
“Huh. Well aren’t you a wiseguy?” Monosuke taunts.
“I’ll start us off! Listen up! Here’s what we want you punkasses to do…” Monokid’s exisal slightly shakes, “Hahhhhh! My heart’s goin’ 100 miles per hour! I'm gonna say it! You ready!? Hell yeah! It’s a—”
“KILLING-GAME.” Monodam cuts in.
“Huh?” Akamatsu, Died to a lie.
“M-M-Monodam! How DARE you upstage me!”
“Wait, what did you say?” Chabashira, Ultimate Aikido Master, Died trapped in a cage, but something’s wrong.
“I-If I heard him correctly—”
“KILLING-GAME.” Monodam cuts in, yet again.
“Oh! He said it again!” Monotaro says, contributing nothing.
“Grrrrrrr! God damn it, Monodam! I’m gonna crush you with this here Exisal!” Monokid growls. The Monokubs start arguing, eventually escalating into everyone threatening each other and calling them jabronis. All the students start to panic slightly, unable to decipher what they are witnessing.
“Now, now, now…” The ominous voice of what Maki knows to be Monokuma echoes through the speakers in the room.
“What?” Akamatsu says, alarmed.
“My cute little cubs… You gotta knock off this awful fighting…”
“Oh! That voice!” Monophanie exclaims. The Monokubs hop out of the exisals, jumping onstage to find Monokuma.
“Father!? Father, is that you!?” Monotaro screams.
“Papa Kuma! Papa Kumaaaaa!” Monokid yells.
“Daddy!? Where are you, Daddy!?” Monophanie squeals.
“D-Daddy?” Akamatsu says, flabbergasted. At that moment, the lights in the gymnasium suddenly shut off… and a spotlight highlighted Monokuma jumping up from the podium, and floating back down with wings that immediately fall off as soon as he lands back on the stage.
“I am the god of this new world, and the headmaster of the Ultimate Academy! The one, the only… Monokuma! Nice to meetcha!”
“Yayyyyy! Father’s here!”
“Hell yeah! Another epic entrance from Papa Kuma!”
“Daddy is soooo cool,”
“…”
“My cute little cubs! You’re all so freakin’ cute! The only reason I can tolerate your tiresome antics is cuz you’re all so cute. Even when the prologue is going way too long, I’ll tolerate it because you guys are cute. In fact, the very first prologue ever was only short because you weren’t there,” Monokuma says.
“Pops… are you mad at us?” Monosuke asks.
“Don’t be an idiot! I would never get mad at my cute little cubs!” Monokuma yells.
“Gahhhh! He is mad!” Monokid trembles.
“But… Daddy is still cool even when he’s angry,”
“Pops is from a planet of handsome bears that get cooler as they get angrier. Super Monokuma, Super Monokuma 2, Super Monokuma 3, and finally Super Monokuma 4–” Monosuke gets interrupted by Monokuma throwing all of the cubs around and getting an anime-like power up. Man, the clues that Shirogane was the mastermind were there from the very beginning, huh. The stupid shenanigans continue, and most could only sit and watch the bizarre events play out.
“Wh-What is this? What’s going on?” Until Akamatsu speaks up, opening the door for others to comment.
“Another teddy bear appeared…” Shirogane explains, her voice shaking with faux nervousness.
“Yes, but that is no ordinary teddy bear. I can see it… the despair and madness swirling around that cursed thing…” Shinguji speaks in a low, mysterious tone.
“Whoa… First of all, I’m no teddy bear. I’m Monokuma. And second of all, show some respect! I’m the headmaster of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles!” Monokuma announces angrily.
“… Headmaster?” Maki asks, letting herself slip into the role of being a player in this game without awareness of the situation.
“It appears to be some sort of autonomous robot with a built-in A.I., like me…” says Kiibo.
“Ding ding ding!” Monotaro sings.
“The Exisals are different though! They’re brainless buckets of bolts!” Monosuke explains.
“They’re mindless pretty killing machines that can only be controlled by us, the Monokubs,” Monophanie adds.
“Autonomous robots piloting weapons platforms… This is turning into quite the story,” Hoshi says, slightly bewildered.
“Well, that may be, but what I’m worried about is this ‘killing game’ you mentioned. What exactly does that mean?” Amami asks, staring directly at the Mono-crew.
“Puhu…puhuhuhuhu…”
“What is so amusing?” Tojou ponders.
“It’s just… When I said it before, I kinda just phoned it in and now I feel awkward…” Monokuma acts as if it’s taking a deep breath and then, “I want you students with your Ultimate-level talents to participate in a killing game,”
“…” Everyone takes a moment to realize what Monokuma said.
“K-Killing game? Us?”
“Please stop joking! Why would we agree to join a killing game!?”
“Huh? You guys actually don’t wanna do it?” Monokuma feigns confusion.
“‘C-Course not! Gentlemen not hurt people!”
“But if you’ve looked around the academy, then you already know, don’t you? The academy is surrounded by a huge wall. You can’t escape to the outside world, and as long as we have Exisals, you can’t defy us. In other words… I hold the power of life and death over each and every one of you,” Monokuma explains.
“So do what you say if we don’t want to die,” Amami reiterates. Again, this tension hangs in the air like someone is supposed to speak up, but someone isn’t saying their lines. Maki looks around, trying to remember who it is that keeps messing up. God, she says that like this is supposed to be exactly the same, but Maki doesn’t know anything about why she’s here again, why should she expect consistency? Of course, someone fills the place of the missing dialogue at some point.
“G-Geez, what the heck? Why would new friends kill each other?!” Akamatsu yells at Monokuma.
“… Who said you guys were friends?” Monokuma asks, sending a chill down everyone’s spine, “You guys aren’t friends at all… You’re enemies out to kill each other,”
“E-Enemies…?” Saihara, Ultimate Detective, survived who doesn’t remember me.
“W-We’re enemies?” Akamatsu exclaims. The Monokubs start saying stupid bullshit again, going back and forth with Monokuma until…
“Cool it with the stupid banter. I want to ask something. How are we supposed to kill each other? Are you going to give us weapons?” Hoshi asks, understandably concerned about the situation.
“What the hell, man!? What are you asking?” Kaito yells.
“We need to get info from them first. We can’t do anything if we don’t know anything,” Hoshi explains.
“Weapons? Huh? What kinda barbaric display are you envisioning? You couldn’t be more wrong. Why, at the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, the killing game is quite the refined, sophisticated experience!” Monokuma boasts.
“Sophisticated experience?” Maki asks, half regurgitating old words and half scoffing at the notion that any game involving killing could be called sophisticated in any way.
“Yes… Here, the killing game is punctuated by class trials,” Monokuma announces.
“Class… Trials…?” Akamatsu’s voice waivers, with true confusion and fear.
“Okay! Let us explain!” the Monokubs cheer loudly and begin to explain the class trial. They go over all these things Maki already knows, and she starts to tune out the conversation. She’s been doing well in staying present for a while, but as the group goes on about clarifying things that are clear as glass to her, she can’t help but tune it all out. Even as Monokuma reveals the true meaning behind the “punishment”, she can’t focus on it. Everyone is freaking out, and Maki herself is quite wide-eyed, but her mind is fully elsewhere. She’s now fully focused on trying to figure out who is acting out of place, because a couple times, there just seems to be awkward silence where Maki swears there wasn’t any before. Who wasn’t talking where they did before? Maki racks her brain, but it’s no use, it’s not like she has photographic memory. Certain points where someone used to speak, were now either gone, or felt different. Even at the end of the stupid killing game announcement, Maki still couldn’t understand who it could be. The Monokubs left the room, leaving everyone in a daze, before an alarm rang from everyone’s monopads. Maki looked down at the screen, that opened up with the rules, which she already knew very well, so she watched them with minimal interest, only seeing if anything changed. Nothing. Same old same old, no changes at all.
“The Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles School Regulations… So these are the rules…” Hoshi mumbles to himself.
“I do not understand why someone… would force us to do this?” Tojou remarks, pointing out how absurd and stupid this whole concept is.
“But the rules are pretty cut and dry. This game doesn’t seem like it’ll be boring” Ouma says. It’s obviously a lie now that Maki knows about the rules that Ouma himself enforced on his small organization, and Kaito did quote Ouma saying that “I had to think this game was fun to survive… I had to lie to myself!” Maki can actually see from his perspective here, funnily enough.
“... That’s not the problem,” Chabashira mumbles. Wait, mumbles? Isn’t Chabashira quite loud? Maki stares at her, discreetly of course, she’s not obscenely stupid. In fact, Chabashira’s whole mood seems entirely off, she’s slumped, her eyelids are drooping, and she’s totally checked out, looking down at the floor.
“Hey, hey! What does this sixth regulation mean?” Angie asks, calling out to the rest of the students. “‘The killing game and class trials will continue until only two surviving students remain.’ Only two surviving students? What would be the reason for that?”
“Perhaps it’s because you couldn’t have a trial with just two people…?” Saihara theorizes.
“Nyahahaha, Angie understands. You’re so smart, Saihara.” Angie says cheerfully.
“Q-Quit screwing around… Killing game… School regulations… To hell with all that crap! Who’d go along with something like that!?” Kaito yells, lifting the Monopad to smash it on the ground.
“Whoa, hey now, don’t do that. School rules say you can’t break it,” Amami intervenes.
“If you violate the rules, the Exisals will dispose of you…” Maki comments, making sure to warn the idiot of the consequences of his actions.
“I don’t care about the rules! There’s no way I’m gonna play this messed up game!” Kaito objects, sticking to his guns.
“This isn’t about “playing” the game. It’s too dangerous to disobey him now,” Amami argues.
“Forget about him! Just means one less dumbass for the world to deal with!” Miu yells.
“Hey! Who you callin’ a dumbass!?” Kaito screams back. It seems as if Miu will respond, when someone speaks up.
“HEY!!! QUIT FIGHTING ALREADY!!!”
“Whoa! Wh-What the—?” Kaito looks at who shouted.
“We shouldn’t fight amongst ourselves. Right now, we need to work together.” Akamatsu announces, “Honestly… I’d probably be more inspiring if I played a song than gave a speech… Chopin’s ‘Military Polonaise’ would definitely help unite us!”
“Yeah, I could definitely get behind some bolognese, and I don’t even like meat or tomatoes,” Ouma directly challenges Maki’s understanding of him by reminding her that he’s a little shit who likes to anger people.
“Tenko agrees with Akamatsu, gotta remember who the real enemy is, right? Master told Tenko that strength must always be aimed in the right direction…” Tenko says, her disinterest and exhaustion even more apparent than before. Maki couldn’t help but wonder what happened to change this, out of all things.
“A-Anyway… you’re all panicking too much… just… stay calm… like me…” Yumeno whimpers, clearly nervous.
“Wow! You’re shaking so much!” Angie comments.
“Even I can’t handle these intense vibrations! And trust me— I’ve got loads of experience!” Iruma exclaims.
“Anyway… why don’t we work together and search for an exit one more time?” Akamatsu suggests, trying to steer the conversation back on topic.
“But… we looked all over that wall and there wasn’t a single hole,” Shirogane says, with a deflated expression.
“Now wait just a second. If there’s no hole in the wall, then how did we get inside these walls in the first place?” Kiibo wonders.
“… Oh, good point,”
“That means there must be an opening somewhere! We just have to find it! Whoever trapped us here wants us to fight each other, so let’s show ‘em that we’re not gonna let that happen! We’re not gonna fight each other! We’re gonna work together! Okay!?” Akamatsu’s encouraging words echo through the room, but rather than soothe Maki’s worries, it just made her sad. Maki knows the horrible irony of her words, she worked alone to keep everyone safe, and then died a horrid fate because of the mastermind's lies.
“… Why are you all so quiet…? Did I say something wrong?”
“On the contrary. You made your case with such succinct aplomb that we’ve been rendered speechless,” Tojou explains.
“Heh… I was gonna say the same thing, but you beat me to it. You’re exactly right! We can’t give up so easily!” Kaito says, smiling brightly.
“Let’s split up and try to find the exit! Ohhhhh! Kami-sama, give us strength!” Angie cheers.
“I must admit, I admire your spirit,” Amami chuckles.
“Oh, wait!” Gokuhara interupts.
“Nyeh…? What is it? We were just about to get started,” Yumeno says.
“Um… Maybe it don’t matter much, but… Gonta find manhole earlier. In grass, behind school building,” Gokuhara reveals, talking about the annoying death road of despair sitting back there.
“A manhole?”
“Gonta peek in. See big, underground passage. Think maybe it's the exit… Sorry, it’s probably not so simple,” An awkward silence ensues again, and Maki looks directly at Chabashira. She’s completely checked out from the conversation, staring at the ground. At some point, Maki should talk to her, see what’s going on in her head.
“… The boiler is behind the school building. We must corroborate Gokuhara’s claim at once. Gokuhara, Please lead the way,” Tojou suggests.
“Okay! Everyone, follow Gonta!” Gokuhara declared, and everyone followed him out of the gym, except for Akamatsu, Saihara and Amami. Maki lingered slightly by the door, curious as to what they might talk about.
“…Akamatsu, that was pretty cool back there,” Amami complimented, stopping Akamatsu in her tracks.
“Huh? What was?” Akamastu asks.
“The way you changed the mood completely. Seems like everyone looks up to you,”
“L-Looks up to me? C’mon, that’s ridiculous. I… just spoke from the heart, is all,” Akamatsu pushes away the flattery, humble as ever.
“So it just comes naturally to you, then. That’s even cooler. You have what it takes to win…” Amami comments ominously.
“What…?”
“I was just thinking, what you said back there would have pissed off whoever’s running this. They definitely don’t want us holding hands, workin’ together… They’re going to come for you, Akamatsu. With everything they’ve got. I’m a little worried about you. You’re just so… straightforward,” Amami explains, then walks to the door Maki is standing by. Maki speedwalks away from the door and towards the crowd following Gokuhara. Unfortunately, she isn’t far enough away by the time Amami walks out the door.
“Hey, what are you so behind for?” Amami asks, suspicious.
“Well I was trying not to talk to anybody,” Maki lies, speedwalking faster to get away from him.
“That’s not very cooperative of you, I thought we were following Gokuhara so we could work together to get out?” Amami questions her, speedwalking behind her.
“Socializing is exhausting, and I can participate without it, please stop speaking to me,” Maki emphasizes, continually speeding up.
“Fine, can we at least walk together in silence then? This is slightly tiring!” Amami yells, breathing heavily.
“Fine!” Maki slows down, now following the crowd from approximately fifteen meters behind. Amami catches up, stops himself, and starts walking next to Maki. This is slightly different from last time, of course, because Maki decided to be nosy and eavesdrop on Akamatsu and Amami’s conversation. It’s slightly melancholy, how nice this moment of just following behind the crowd silently with Amami is, because Maki knows the cruel fate that he faces from Shirogane. Despite that, Maki decides to appreciate this new moment. Despite her initial suspicions of him, way back when this all started, he’s a really respectful guy, even when slightly suspicious. They all get to the boiler room, and wait until Akamatsu and Saihara show up.
“Looks like we’re all here. So, where’s this manhole?” Amami asks Gokuhara.
“Umm… Over there, in grass,” Gokuhara points to a patch of grass where the manhole is. The group crowds around it.
“An important hole near some bush!? Sounds familiar, am I right ladies!?” Iruma cackles.
“Awwww, this manhole cover looks heavy. Can we even lift it?” Angie wonders.
“I can try,” Kiibo says, walking up to the manhole cover. He grabs the edge of it and pulls up while grunting, but to no avail. “How embarrassing, it won’t even budge,”
“Huhhh? A robot’s not even strong enough to move it?” Angie exclaims.
“Oh, don’t worry, my physical strength is approximate to that of a strong senior citizen,” Kiibo explains.
“Th-That’s fuckin’ pathetic!” Miu yells.
“Th-The professor did not want a repeat of the tragedy that occurred during trial production,” Kiibo says, slightly embarrassed.
“Umm… Now I’m just plain curious what happened during that trial…” Shirogane added uselessly. You say that like you don’t know everything about us all, Maki thinks, mentally beaming that thought to Shirogane.
“Oh, then allow Gonta,” Gokuhara suggests, “Gonta lift up cover before to peek inside. Should be able to pick up cover too,” Gokuhara grips the edge of the manhole cover and just— picks it up. Just like that.
“Upsy-Daisy,” Maki almost forgot how strong Gokuhara was, seeing him hold the heavy manhole cover with just two fingers was still slightly unsettling in her mind.
“So easily!?”
“His strength… must be due to my magic. Yup… there’s no mistaking it,” Yumeno adds, denying reality using her understanding of the world. There’s a slight pause again, one where Chabashira might’ve complemented Yumeno’s magical abilities, but it disappears.
“… What should Gonta do with the cover now?” Gokuhara asks.
“Please leave it somewhere else. Be careful not to hit anyone with it,” Tojou suggests.
“Um, actually… Gonta no can do that… Very rude to litter…” Gokuhara objects, but with no real other place to put it, he tossed it aside, a grimace on his face. It easily flies around 4 and a half meters before hitting the ground.
“Kehehe… what wonderful strength. You could crush a child’s skull with ease,” Shinguji says, adding more layers of unease to the situation than truly necessary.
“How un-gentlemanly! Gonta NEVER do that!” Gokuhara yells.
“… That doesn’t seem like something anyone would do, gentleman or not…” Shirogane adds after a slight pause. How interesting, now Shirogane feels the need to fill in for Chabashira. Obviously, Shirogane must’ve noticed the change in behavior as well, but Maki didn’t think she’d replace her lines.
“But Gokuhara is sooo much more reliable than some bean-counting robot,” Ouma remarks.
“Are you… talking about me? Because I can count many things, not just beans,” Kiibo corrects Ouma, completely unaware of the ill intent behind Ouma’s assumptions.
“Nishishi, I dunno about that,” Ouma teases.
“Ouma, are you assuming that because I am a robot, I cannot count things other than beans? That’s a horribly misguided view you have!” Kiibo protests.
“Th-This place is kinda creepy… We’re really going in here” Shirogane says, bringing the attention back to the manhole.
“I’m sure it’s fine. At the very least, we definitely won’t die down there,” Kaito assures us. A small awkward silence is interrupted by-
“…Gonta protect everyone! Do not worry!” Gokuhara proclaims. So now even Gokuhara is replacing Chabashira’s lines, Maki can never tell what’s next with this situation.
“Awfully quiet… Where are Monokuma and the Monokubs?” Amami wonders.
“I was certain they would show up at some point and crush us like rotten gnats…” Shinguji adds, yet again being way too descriptive.
“Nyahahaha! They probably haven’t noticed yet!” Angie suggests.
“Then let’s hurry before they show up and mess with us,” Ouma cheers, rushing to the manhole. Everyone climbed down the ladder one at a time into a dark, open area with pipes and metal surrounding them, AKA where the death road of despair starts.
“It’s more spacious than I thought it’d be…” Hoshi comments.
“Yodelay-hee-hoooooo!” Ouma yodels, letting his squeaky voice echo through the dark room.
“What… is this place?” Akamatsu asks. Maki is confused before realizing that she was supposed to say that, mentally cursing herself.
“An old industrial passageway, I suspect… Perhaps factories once existed here?” Tojou guesses.
“And this is all that’s left of ‘em,” Kaito finishes Tojou’s thought with his own.
“Hey, take a look at this,” Amami pointed to the sign that was engraved with the word ‘Exit’ on it, “What a considerate sign… Apparently, the end of the tunnel is the exit,” he says, smiling. There’s another silence. Chabashira’s not gonna say anything, maybe Maki can make up for missing her line last time with this?
“Considerate? You don’t find that at all suspicious?” Maki judges.
“Hah-haha! Don’t piss yourself in fear! Your natural scent is bad enough!” Iruma cackles, and Maki realizes her horrid mistake.
“I’m not scared, and maybe you should smell yourself before you try to insult me,” Maki retorts.
“Heeee!? I-I’m not stinky! Sh-Shut up!” Iruma stutters, flabbergasted. Now Maki understands why Ouma insults Iruma so much, the flip of a switch from confident to scaredy-cat is quite funny, Maki is holding in her laughter this very moment.
“… Well, I think we should at least try. No point in standing around here,” Amami comments.
“Ah, yeah…” Saihara says, thinking to himself.
“No need to worry! It looks a bit dangerous, but we’re all Ultimates here! As long as we work together, everything will work out just fine!” Akamatsu cheers.
“Y-Yeah… you’re right,” Saihara says. Maki forgot how much he relied on Akamatsu in the beginning, he’s done barely anything but suck up to her.
“That’s exactly what I was gonna say! We’re really on the same wavelength, Akamatsu! Gimme a hug!” Kaito boasts.
“Um… no,” Akamatsu declines, slightly off put by the sudden offer. There’s a brief wave of silence before everyone walks into the passage, one known by Maki as the Death Road of Despair.
Maki knows it’s probably pointless, but she actually tries really hard to avoid the obstacles and get to the end. Maybe that’ll change something, their desire to leave might disappear, or not, maybe it is pointless. Akamatsu does raise Maki’s spirits though, enough for her to keep trying. Even when they failed the first time, she tried again. Everyone tried again, around twelve times, but then, something odd happened.
“Geez, we failed again,” Akamatsu rubs her temple, “But we can’t give up! We can’t lose hope!” Akamatsu continued on her whole “Don’t give up” spiel.
“Tenko agrees,” Chabashira says, “Which is also why Tenko thinks we should stop,” Everyone freezes.
“Wh-What are you saying?” Akamatsu stammers.
“Those are two contradictory statements, whatever could you mean?” Tojou asks.
“Tenko means we should stop. Not forever, of course, but Tenko does think we should give ourselves a break,” Chabashira explains. What the fffffuck.
“But… if we stop now, we’re giving in to Monokuma’s—“
“No, we’re not,” Chabashira interrupts Akamatsu, “If we keep going, we’re just gonna wear ourselves out. Master said that if you overwork yourself, you’ll only feel worse in the end. Tenko is going to stop and get rest, so Tenko can tackle this again tomorrow with more energy. Tenko suggests you all do the same, though Tenko is not stopping you from trying at it again,” Chabashira announces, uncharacteristically calm and confident.
“Hm, that’s an interesting opinion, very bold of you to go against the crowd at a time like this,” Amami observes.
“… Sure,” Chabashira dismisses Amami’s claim.
“I think that she’s right, y’know?” Ouma speaks up, “I mean, it’s not like we can’t try again later, right? Going back at it after resting up is definitely not what a person who’s given up on escaping would do, so I’m following her!”
“I-“ Akamatsu sighs, “I dunno, should we really stop here?”
“If we go one more time, are you going to say that again?” Shinguji comments.
“Wh-What?”
“You seem very determined to keep going here, if we don’t stop now, we might get on a roll, only stopping when we’ve become corpses,” Shinguji adds.
“Um… Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Akamatsu admits.
“A-Akamatsu?” Saihara exclaims.
“C’mon, don’t give up yet! We’re so close!” Kaito yells, stubbornly refusing to stop.
“Well, it’s not like we won’t be ‘so close’ in the morning, right? It’s a pain to keep going like this, and I need to restore my mana,” Yumeno argues.
“Sorry, Kaito, but I’m just plainly tired, and it’s not like this opportunity will disappear overnight, so…” Shirogane says, walking over by the ladder.
“Yeah, what they said,” Chabashira responds, climbing up the ladder. One by one, most of everyone decides to leave the Death Road of Despair behind, excluding the more optimistic and Tojou. What in the actual hell is going on. Why is Chabashira acting out of character. God, Maki is so confused she’s thinking like Shirogane right now, but it’s sort of the right way to think. How did Chabashira go from loud and emotional to quiet and intelligent in a split fucking second? Thoughts were racing around Maki’s mind, each implication more confusing than the next. Eventually, Maki leaves the manhole too, being greeted with Gokuhara waiting, the manhole cover in his hands.
“Oh, don’t mind Gonta, just waiting until everyone is out so Gonta can put cover back on,” he greets.
“Ah… ok?” Maki says, walking out the door.
Maki strolls along the path towards the dorms, the evening light a stark contrast to the darkness she walked in before. Eventually, she realizes that she doesn’t have to go to sleep yet, because it’s not nighttime yet. Even so, she’s exhausted, and doesn’t exactly have an appetite after that confusion, so she doesn’t want dinner. She decides to go to sleep anyways, waltzing into the Dormitories. There, Amami has decided to just sorta stand in the middle of the room.
“…”
“…”
“…” Maki decides to go into her dorm without commenting on his odd behavior. She can’t handle this weirdness anymore. She closes the door, sets her monopad on the table, and falls on her bed.
“Hey! you can’t just ignore the keys to your room! You might get murdered in your sleep!” Monotaro appears out of thin air to yell at Maki. Great. Maki stands up and grabs the keys.
“Ugh… fine, Oh, look, the keys to my room!” Maki goes to her door and puts the key in, “Wow! I’m locking it! How crazy that you showed me this, Monotaro,” Maki cheers sarcastically, a large grin on her face.
“Geez! Okay, Okay, fine I get you don’t want me here you meanie!” Monotaro trembles, disappearing from the room. Maki sighs, and gets into bed. She’s gone to sleep in this hellhole before, but since it’s not actually nighttime yet, she’s having a hard time going to bed, tossing and turning for nearly an hour. Then, a notification goes off on Maki’s Monopad. Curious as to what it could be, Maki slithers out of bed and grabs it. There, in her face, is a new rule.
“Students may not commit suicide, if attempted, the weapon(s) used to kill themself will be confiscated immediately by Monokuma, and the student will be kicked out of the room they got the weapon(s) from for six hours.”
What.
The.
Fuck.