Chapter Text
It wasn’t our fault. I kept trying to convince myself of that.
I just wanted us all to escape together. To be friends with everyone. For us all to live our lives.
This didn’t have to happen. No matter what Monokuma said I don’t think anyone would have needed to die. Why go out of his way to gather us all, to taunt us about giving us our lost memories back, to try and make us kill each other, if he was ready to just kill us all at the very start?
So why did Rantaro need to die? ( Why did he have to be killed? )
Why did Shuichi try to kill him? ( Why can’t I just admit he killed him? )
He must have started setting it up before he got me involved. When everyone else was still able to enjoy what free time we had. I spent mine talking to Korekiyo, since I wasn’t sure anyone else would want to. I know he said to call him Kiyo, and I will since he asked us to, but it’s too weird to think of him that informally at this point. I can’t help hoping his sister’s less creepy than he is, considering I already agreed to meet her and he’s too excited about helping her make a new friend to try changing my mind now.
But that was the only time Shuichi and I were really apart. Even after we asked Miu about the cameras I spent the rest of that day with him. ( How could such a compassionate detective have done this? )
The trial had been going so smoothly, I was even grateful he tried to help me lie to protect him. I tried helping his lies in return. But now I don’t know how much of anything he said was a lie. Was his story? Our friendship? Was I just seeing things when I thought we connected so well? Or just during the trial?
Even when we proved it had to be him who set up that trap he insisted he hadn’t done it. Not that he didn’t set up the books that way, or he kicked the grate of the vent “by accident in his rush to the door” to set the ball against it in motion when we headed downstairs. He just kept saying there was no way the ball could have hit Rantaro in hindsight. That it must have fallen short and the injury didn’t look right which helped support this thought. That knowing he wasn’t the killer was why he forced us to do this trial instead of taking the First Blood Perk in the first place.
His arguments made sense to me but what else could we do? We were running out of time and him being wrong seemed like the only possible explanation. The “Ultimate Detective” could be wrong, couldn’t he? Or was he lying about all of that too? Was there even a mastermind to be worried about or was he just trying to use me as an alibi for the worst case scenario? Why would he have wanted us dead if he thought he could walk free either way? (Did he betray us or did we betray him?)
I almost wish we could see who we all voted for during the results, but I like to think Shuichi knew that one of my votes came from me. There weren’t any rules against intentionally voting wrong after all, just against trying to refuse, and after he begged so hard to get any of us to believe him I figured this was also my fault in a way. I was the one closest to Shuichi after all, and as the leader everyone’s safety was my responsibility. It’s not like my vote mattered since when the results came in Shuichi still had the majority. ( Monokuma said we got it right, but did we? Can he lie about who’s blackened if it keeps this “killing game” going? Even if it was true did Shuichi still really deserve that? )
It called itself “Scarlet Studies”.
A chain and monokuma faced cuff attached to it came out of nowhere and caught him by the neck, dragging him into what looked like a film’s room set. It only had three solid walls, each covered in photos, while the fourth wall, the one facing us, was made of something like glass. The pictures were probably meant to be ones from his Uncle’s work, but there were strips of black or pink ink covering the eyes of the figures on them.
The red Monokub gave him a slip of paper saying how out of respect for earning but not using the First Blood Perk “and assuming you really were dumb enough to think it wasn’t you” it would work like an Escape-the-Room game. If he could find the trick to the door fast enough and get out of the room the collar left around his neck wouldn’t kill him with the poison it was meant to inject. He should have realized this was a lie, but he didn’t. Or maybe he just figured he had nothing left to lose so it was worth a try. ( Didn’t stop me from hoping it was true too. I’d like to think we all were. )
It was impressive seeing how fast he could work, like he instinctively knew where to look and what type of solution to try first. The Monokub, Monotaro I think, started to realize that by being in the room with him he could be in some sort of danger too and began to panic while his siblings on our side kept encouraging him to get out. But when Shuichi solved the last puzzle the door just sprang open.
I’ll never forget the look on his face as he lunged at it, looking straight at me through the door frame. His eyes were terrified but the smile on his face was more like this was the proudest moment of his life. Maybe it was, since he had solved something truly fitting an “Ultimate Detective” despite his worries.
Or at least it would have been had the door been locked in the first place.
The exit was facing us after all, and for us it was just as easy to see through as the wall surrounding it. We could see that when he entered the room the lock didn’t have any of its gears or picks in place. But stage by stage as he worked the gears would get out of alignment, locking the door as soon as he even tried to look for a way to open it. The “door” that opened for him now was just a trap.
His fingertips nearly reached the frame of this false door, ready to grab what he could and drag himself through if anything tried pulling him back, when the gun sprang out and “fired”, impaling him through the side of his head with its long narrow blade with the word “bang” inscribed in it like a joke gun’s flag.
It all began retracting as soon as the life faded from his eyes. Everything he did just enabled the new locking mechanism to spring to life and return the room to its original state, ensuring it would be a “perfect” locked room this time around. Monotaro’s scarf got caught in one of the chains undoing all of Shuichi’s wasted effort, dragging him along with it. The green Monokub tried pushing the blue rude one into Monotaro’s way as he flew out the door the same way Shuichi was dragged in, but it was too late and the force of Monotaro’s stop caused his head to fly off his shoulders while his blue brother was unharmed.
As we all struggled to process what we just witnessed as Monotaro’s scarf fluttered to the ground and landed right on Shuichi’s hat, sitting right where he stood before the execution snatched him away. I hardly realized that was the first time I’d seen him without it in all of the rush.
I remember finding myself wishing I never mentioned it as I brought it back to my dorm in a state of shock. Kaito may have tried to say something to me, probably to try and offer some comfort or condolence as that feels like the sort of thing he’d do, but I was too far gone to really register it. I think everyone was watching as I was the first to make my shaky exit. And now for the second night in a row I find myself lying awake, going over these events again and again as if this can change anything about what happened, not sure if I’m waiting for sleep to come or to hear the morning announcement.
My name is Kaede Akamatsu, and if I thought I was the protagonist of this story before I don’t think I am now. Maybe Shuichi, or Kaito, or Kokichi, or even Kibo was meant to be but not me. But if my friends still need me to lead them then I will the best I can anyway. You don’t need to be the main character to be the most important one after all. We’ll all have our roles to play here right up until we can find a way to break the rules that bind us.
And if there’s one thing a Piano Freak like me knows it’s how to keep playing no matter how hard it gets.
End of Prologue: Your Class Trial, Our Class Trial
Surviving Members: 14