Chapter Text
…
…
I can’t do it.
I can’t do this to someone else.
I know who the killer is, but every time I try to say it, to look at them and make the accusation, all I see is Max. The final look of fear on her face before the explosion.
I can’t do that to somebody again, not knowing what will happen.
Especially not to someone who didn’t even want to kill anyone.
To someone who fought alongside the rest of us, who tried so hard to get us all to safety.
How could I send someone like that to their death?
Someone else would see it. The problem, the testimony that had to be a lie. Someone else would see it, and point it out, and I wouldn’t have to be the one to do this again.
I know that it’s stupid. That no matter what I do, someone will die. I won’t be any less guilty for staying quiet now. And yet even so, I can’t bring myself to open my mouth.
“…came out to help Remedy at 10:06,” Riz was saying. “So with all the testimonies out there, does anything seem off to anyone?”
“Sorry, I just now realized- Excel jumped in the pool in the middle of the breakout for no reason,” Candace said. “I know we talked about it earlier, but that’s just weird.”
“I think he meant, like, did anyone see somebody doing something suspicious?” Devra pointed out. “Like, uh… Karma, when you saw Susato, did she look at all like she was booking it away from someone with an axe?”
“Nope,” Karma replied, indifferent as ever. “It’s a shame, really. I would've loved to see someone like Noelle trying to pull off a kill. It’d probably be pretty funny!”
“Would she have even had to?” Giovanni asked. “Noelle was, like, really bad at fighting. I’m not sure she’d really be all that good at bludgeoning somebody with the axe or whatever she was trying to do.”
“Hack,” Riz corrected.
“Geez, rude! Just because I don’t know a word doesn’t mean you can call me names.”
“What if one of the testimonies is a lie?” Susato suggested. Good, she was smart- she’d see it, right? “Perhaps someone claimed to see something they shouldn’t have?”
“No, everything lines up there,” Riz muttered. “Anytime one of us saw somebody, that’s where they should have been.”
“Oh!” Candace shouted excitedly. “What about that Sherlock Holmes thing?”
“Herlock Sholmes,” Susato corrected, almost reflexively.
“Yeah, yeah, Holmlock Shears, whatever. The thing about the dog in the nighttime!”
Legoshi pointed at himself, looking lost. “Uh- I don’t think I saw anything-”
“She means, has someone left anything out?” Akechi grumbled. “Do any of the testimonies fail to mention a detail?”
Remedy fidgeted with one of the gems on her cape. “It does seem a little strange that nobody saw Noelle at all. I suppose she wouldn’t want to be seen, since she was planning a crime, but it seems a little far-fetched that no one noticed her carrying the hatchet around.”
“And if someone were to have seen her wielding the hatchet before her death, and he or she remained silent,” Susato mused, “I fail to see any reason to keep quiet about it until this point in the trial.”
“Yeah, but it’s not far from her starting position to the ropes course,” Katniss sighed. “And the only person stationed near the ropes course was Karma, and he was holed up in the arcade.”
Crap. No one’s seen it. No one is going to say it because I can’t say it and we’re all going to die.
So I guess- I guess maybe I just need to give them a little push. “What about before she went to the ropes course?” I forced out. “Noelle had to do a lot of prep work; should someone have seen her then?”
Alright. That… that had to be enough. Someone had to pick up on it now.
Sure enough, someone did. I wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or guilty or what, but I caught Riz looking at me with- horror? Suspicion? Clarity? Some mixture of the three.
“I agree with that,” he said at last. “Adrien’s got it. Because someone should have seen her when she went to the armory.”
“But Legoshi was the only one stationed at the armory, and he wasn’t there!” Candace protested.
“No, not Mr. Legoshi,” Susato corrected. She’d figured it out too. Thank god. With the two of them on it, I wouldn’t have to do anything else. “It may be true that there was no one else watching the armory, but if you look at the path Ms. Holiday would have taken to get there…”
“…she would pass directly through Mr. Hamada’s field of vision. And yet he didn’t see her at all.”
I closed my eyes. I knew it was coming but it hurt to hear it nonetheless.
Hiro stammered. “I- I don’t-”
“Hey!” Devra shouted. “What are you trying to say, huh? Did you not hear Hiro’s explanation earlier? He said that he might have seen some other people; he just didn’t recognize anybody ‘cause it was all shadows!”
Susato slammed her hand into her podium again. I got the feeling she was enjoying being this dramatic, even if only slightly. “But he said he could pick out Mr. Legoshi’s silhouette. And Ms. Holiday’s would have been even more recognizable, because of her antlers!”
‘Actually, there’s something else that points at Hiro,” Akechi said, with even more acid in his words than usual. “Because, as we just discussed, the killer was Noelle’s initial target for murder. Out of everyone here, Hiro is physically the weakest, with Noelle a rather close second. Even armed, I doubt she could have hoped to have taken out anyone else. The only person who makes sense as her choice of victim is you, Hiro Hamada.”
“So?” Hiro demanded. “I-I just wasn’t paying attention for a little while, and I missed her! That’s all! B-Besides, Noelle couldn’t have targeted me! I was locked in the garage, not at the ropes course!”
“No, you weren’t,” Karma said with a sneer. “Obviously you weren’t. Because you had one of the Crawler Bots, like you gave me.”
“One of the- huh?” Hiro stammered. “What- what does that prove?”
Everything. It proves everything, because the Crawler Bots don’t have-
“The Crawler Bots don’t have cameras, or location sensors, or anything like that,” Karma explained. “So why the hell would you give yourself one, if you were stuck in a place where you couldn’t possibly see most of the ship, hm?”
“I-I just-”
“Besides, is moving little figurines around on a map the best way you could come up with to shout your orders?” Karma pressed on, relentless, cruel. “It seems like a better place to do it from would be, maybe… somewhere high up? Somewhere you could see the rest of us? Wow, I wonder what place you might really have picked.”
“Oh! The ropes course!” Excel shouted in excitement. “That’s high up! It’s the perfect place to overlook everything! I bet that’s where Hiro really was!”
“…Yes,” Karma said. Apparently even he wasn’t immune to Excel’s shocking inability to pick up on nuance. “Yeah, that’s what I meant.”
“Uh, didn’t we say Noelle chased the killer up the ropes course?” Giovanni asked. “So, what, did Hiro know she was going to chase him and just get a head start?”
Riz shook his head. “No. We were wrong about that. What actually happened was that Hiro was never really in the garage. He was always on top of the ropes course, playing tactician from there.”
“But, if we all thought Hiro was in the garage, why would Noelle go to the ropes course?” Legoshi mumbled. “Wouldn’t she have gone to the garage to try and kill Hiro?”
“No, no, no no no,” Hiro sputtered, his eyes wide. “I didn’t- I didn’t, really-”
“Then explain it,” Riz growled. “If you didn’t kill her, explain why you didn’t see her. Why you were in a room where you couldn’t use the weapon you made for yourself.”
“I-I-”
“Knock it off!” Devra bellowed. “You aren’t giving him a chance to speak! Besides- this whole thing is pointless, because Hiro has an alibi! Adrien- you put him in the garage before the breakout, right?”
“…Yeah. Yeah, I did,” I agreed, looking down, unable to meet anyone’s eyes. I could see what Devra was getting at, but-
“And! And!” Devra continued, her fists clenched in fury. “Riz, you were outside the garage entrance until after Noelle died, right? So you would have seen Hiro if he left!”
…That’s right. Hiro couldn’t have left while Riz was watching the garage. So that should clear him, except…
“Except I didn’t go into the speedway until just before the breakout started,” Riz pointed out. “Excel didn’t either. But Adrien locked Hiro in the garage some time before the breakout started. All Hiro had to do was leave after Adrien did.”
Hiro laughed unconvincingly. “N-No, that’s- that’s not possible. Because- the way you’re saying it, I was actually on top of the ropes course from the start of the breakout, in order to give directions, right? I would’ve only had, like, two minutes to get to the top of the ropes course! And there’s no way I could do that- look at me!”
That was true. Actually, I doubted Hiro was in good enough shape to make it to the top of the ropes course at all, much less in such a short timeframe. Except-
“Except you wouldn’t have had to climb it normally,” Riz said. “Because you had your gadgets- I mean, Noelle had the firebomb, but she wouldn’t have bothered taking anything else. Specifically, you had a grappling hook! You just used that to get to the top, and you stayed there until Noelle came for you!”
“But people saw him in the garage!” Devra shot back. “After the breakout started! Susato and Excel both said so, right? They saw him!”
“Uh, no they didn’t,” Candace replied.
We waited for a moment for her to explain. When she didn’t, Susato spoke up. “Ms. Flynn, I can assure you that I did see him. While I cannot explain how he left, I’m certain that he was in the garage.”
“No, you saw something through a frosted glass window,” Candace corrected. “Just like Hiro looking out, all you could make out was a silhouette. So it’s just something that sort of looked like Hiro; it wasn't actually him. Believe me. It’s a common mistake.”
“What… what object would look like me?” Hiro demanded. “There wasn’t anything- you can’t say there was some mystery item that I used!” He was audibly shaken- against all odds, Candace might actually have been onto something, for once.
Candace shrugged. “Eh. Probably a weirdly-shaped blender, or something.”
…and there it is. The world makes sense again.
“A blender?” Devra repeated. “That doesn’t make any sense- there wasn’t a blender in the garage! Among other problems!”
“What about a conveniently shaped lamp?” Monokuma suggested.
“There wasn’t one of those either! And anyways, you stay out of this!”
“Fucking- everyone stop suggesting things,” Riz ordered, clutching at his forehead. “This one is obvious. It was the metal statue of Hiro that you made, Devra. That’s what he could have used.”
Giovanni cleared his throat in a way that made it very apparent he was doing it for attention. “Uh, Hiro’s small, but he’s not that small. I think anybody could have guessed it if it was a dinky little figurine.”
Excel gasped excitedly. “Oh! Maybe he made a shrink ray and used it on himself, and that way he’d be the same size!”
“That’s ridiculous-” said Akechi-
“We don’t have the parts for that-” said Devra-
“How would that even help-” said Candace.
“Oh.” Excel fell silent for maybe a tenth of a second. “Oh! What if he made some kind of opposite-shrink-ray and he used that-”
“He placed it in front of a light source and it made the silhouette bigger,” Riz screeched, starting to look almost feral. “A headlight, probably, since the garage is where the go-karts are.”
“I- um- I didn’t do that,” Hiro protested, a look of panic plain on his face. “Like- why would I bother, r-right? I didn’t know that Noelle was going to do anything, right? So I wouldn’t have done anything to fake an alibi!”
“You weren’t faking an alibi,” Katniss said. It was odd. She sounded almost… regretful? “You were doing the same thing all of us have been doing for the past week. You were trying to fool him.” She thrust her arm out across the circle, pointing over everyone’s heads, straight at Monokuma on his throne. “You wanted to mislead Monokuma about where you were, in case he decided to attack you.”
Hiro flinched backwards. He didn’t have a response, I could tell. It seemed Devra didn’t, either. But-
“Oh! My apologies, everyone, but I’ve just realized- Mr. Hamada’s alibi holds up regardless!”
But then Susato interrupted. “I did more than merely see him,” she continued. “I spoke to him, as well. So he had to have been in the garage when I passed by.”
“Hey! Hey! Excel talked to Hiro too! And he also spoke back to her!”
Devra let out a shaky, relieved laugh. “S-See? Hiro can’t have done it-”
“No.” Unlike Katniss, or Riz, or Susato, there was no sympathy or apology in Akechi’s voice. He- he was actually smiling. I couldn’t help shuddering as he kept talking. “No, it doesn’t mean anything like that. Hiro had a way to speak to you without being in the garage. Our earpieces.”
Susato started to speak, but Devra beat her to it. “Uh, I think one of them would have mentioned that? Do you seriously think anyone could confuse a real person for a voice over a radio? That’s just crazy!”
“Actually, I think that’s exactly what happened.” Akechi’s malicious grin widened. “In stressful situations, like the breakout, perception becomes unreliable when it isn’t focused on the immediate threat. Afterwards, memories of individual moments become fuzzy. And Susato hadn’t even seen a cell phone before she arrived here; she wouldn’t have any idea what a radio headset was. All of which combined means that she would have assumed that Hiro was right next to her upon hearing his voice in her ear, even if he was talking through the earpiece.” He glanced in the general direction of Excel for half a second. “And your other supposed witness is a halfwit. And anyway, I can’t imagine her ‘conversation’ with Hiro involved more than a few words on his end. Certainly not enough for her to realize anything was wrong.”
“Then- then how did he get back into the garage?!” Devra’s voice was getting hoarse. “Riz was still by the door! And- and even after he left, he and Remedy were in front of the only entrance to the speedway! Hiro couldn’t have gotten past them- and I found him in the garage after the announcement played! So he couldn’t ever have left-”
“Ha! Aha! Excel has pierced the veil of lies to uncover the solution!” Excel paused for a moment. “He jumped!”
Riz started massaging his temples. “No.”
“Hey, hey, listen to Excel! There’s no roof on the racing stadium-”
“The word is ‘speedway’.”
“-on the racing speedway, so Hiro could have just jumped back to the garage, past the door that was being watched! See? Excel told you she had the answer!”
“Except the fall would kill him. Like it did Noelle.”
Excel looked genuinely confused. “Huh? But- Excel fell off the top of the ropes course yesterday-”
“Maybe he had a parachute,” Katniss suggested, speaking over the rest of Excel’s objection. “Probably he had some method of escape prepared, anyway, as a precaution against Monokuma.”
“I don’t- I don’t know how to parachute,” Hiro said weakly.
“A zipline, then,” Karma said. “Like we just said, you had a grappling hook. You could zipline down from the top of the ropes course into the speedway using the line from that. Presumably you’d already taken one of the zipline bars from the ropes course itself- you admitted you’d harvested parts of it to build the weapons earlier.”
“Then what about Noelle?!” Devra shouted, looking harried and desperate. “If she was going for someone at the top of the ropes course, how would she have gotten up there fast enough? Especially carrying the hatchet! Obviously, she couldn’t- so she was chasing someone up there, like we said, so it isn’t Hiro, even if he was up there- it isn’t him- it isn’t him!”
“Come on, don’t tell me you haven’t picked up on it,” Karma chuckled. “Noelle had a way up too. Because she had one of your Crawler Bots- you know, the things that can climb walls.”
She moved her own Crawler Bot towards the garage wall. It hit the wall, and then-
THUNK.
-dug its two front blade legs into the wall and began scaling it.
“Whoa…” Giovanni gasped. “She really held on to her Crawler Bot all the way up the tower?”
Karma shrugged. “She could have. Or, if she didn’t have the balls, she could have just tied herself to it with a rope. Either way, she’d get up there, wouldn’t she?”
“Uh- Akechi, can I…?” Legoshi trailed off. “If I… thought of something, do you want me to say it…?”
“Yes. Whatever. Go ahead. It can’t possibly be less relevant than whatever Excel was blabbing about.”
“I think that I might not understand what Noelle’s plan was, but… if she went up there with the hatchet, and she’s stronger than Hiro, how is she the one who died?”
I blinked. That- yeah, that actually was true. Noelle should have had no trouble dispatching Hiro, but here he was, alive. Not even a scratch on him. So… was I wrong? Please, whatever god or kwami or whatever is out there might be listening, let me be wrong.
Except. Of course. I wasn’t. I couldn’t be. I saw it, but-
“Her tinnitus.” Remedy was looking downwards, her voice unusually watery. I guess she found this hard to do too- at least she had the courage to do it anyway.
“Tinnitus?” Devra repeated. “That wouldn’t make it harder for her to kill someone, would it?”
“Ordinarily, no, but,” Remedy closed her eyes and started speaking like she was teaching a class. “At the time of her death, Ms. Holiday was experiencing severe tinnitus, brought on by a loud noise. Now, we know from her watch that she hit the ground at about thirty seconds after 10:04, she should have started her fall about twenty seconds after 10:04. And when you consider Mr. Gukgak’s testimony…”
“No, Hiro told me to leave. Remedy was outside the entrance and needed help, since something happened to her car.” Riz frowned. “I thought it was weird, because I heard her drive by earlier- a little after 10:04.”
“…and Mr. Akabane’s testimony…”
“Anyway, maybe ten seconds before 10:05 Remedy drove past in that demon kart of hers…”
“…it seems that I must have driven by the ropes course at that time.”
“S-So?” Hiro stammered. “You didn’t go up there, so you didn’t see anything- not that you would have! Because- Because there was nothing there!”
“I didn’t have to go up,” Remedy said. “Because the important thing is that if I was by the ropes course, Noelle would have heard my kart. And she was afraid of motor vehicles.”
Ahead of me, Noelle, her head down and her hands over her ears, veered off course and careened into a light pole.
“I mean, uh, think about cars. Everybody has one, right? Nobody cares about it, but I look at one moving and I just think about- what if it swerved, or doesn’t stop, and… and I panic,” she admitted.
“Even in the midst of carrying out a murder plan, I imagine the noise would have startled her. She’d freeze- maybe even drop her weapon.”
“No- no, no, that- that didn’t happen, no, no, no no no.” Hiro was panting now, clutching his arms over his chest. With all this relentless, undiverted pressure, he’d probably crack in a moment or two.
Unfortunately, someone else stepped up.
“Shut up,” Devra growled. “Shut. Up! Hiro- he spent weeks trying to get us all out of here, and this is how you repay him? Do you really think he’d even be doing this now if he was the culprit? He wouldn’t! He wouldn’t just sacrifice all of us like this!”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Hiro wince.
Devra clearly hadn’t noticed. “It- it has to be Katniss’ fault somehow! She’s the bloodthirsty one, remember?”
“I was too far away,” Katniss reminded her. “And I couldn’t make Noelle fall off of a tower just by shooting an arrow at her.”
“Then- then it was Karma! We all saw him try to kill somebody!”
“Confirmed innocent,” Karma sneered.
“Or- or Akechi, because- flipping, look at him!”
“Wrong part of the ship, again,” Akechi sighed.
“Then- then- I don’t know! Someone else! There’s something wrong with this, there has to be- Noelle’s clothes!”
What.
“What?” Asked Riz. “What do her clothes have to do with anything?”
“They were by the theater, weren’t they?” Devra demanded, staring into Susato. “If Noelle fell from the ropes course, they should have landed near that. And- and if Hiro took a zipline straight to the garage, then he couldn’t have moved anything!”
This was it. The last argument, the final defense. I could see it in Devra’s whole body- shaking hands, cracking voice. The fear. The knowledge, deep down, that she was wrong about this. The absolute lack of hope that she could prevail here.
I closed my eyes as Riz delivered the deathblow. “An explosion. He could have set off an explosion near Noelle’s remains. That would have launched her clothes and antler along the street to end up here.”
“Explosion?” Giovanni suddenly perked up. “There was an explosion somewhere and I missed it?”
“There almost certainly had to be,” Remedy said. “Because of how Noelle’s dust travelled. After she hit the ground, the dust might spread out on the ground, but it was all flying through the air after the announcement.”
“Besides,” Riz said, “it had to get all the way to Remedy and me. And the announcement played way after she died- something else must have happened to spread her dust around, and the only thing that makes sense is an explosion.”
“So… what?” Candace asked. “Couldn’t anyone have done that? Explosions happen randomly all the time!”
“How many things on the ship were actually explosive?” Riz pointed out. “Not very many! Just the two firebombs, which we used, Monokuma, who wouldn’t have been around, and-”
“The Crawler Bots,” Akechi finished for him. “Given that on the west side, only Hiro, Noelle, and Karma had one, and of those three, Noelle died and Karma has been confirmed as innocent, I think the conclusion is obvious.”
“But- but the killer could have taken Noelle’s Crawler Bot!” Devra protested. “It would’ve been on top of the ropes course, maybe, and then, uh-”
Karma coughed. “Except they’d have to know that it could go down the walls. Not to mention that it could explode in the first place. The only people who knew about that were the ones trained to use them.”
Devra flinched. “I-I- then- one of you all told somebody how to use it! That could be possible, right?”
“Devra.” Riz grimaced. “Nobody wants this to be the answer, okay? But this is the only way it could have happened. Just listen. I’ll make sure you get it, and we can vote.
“For a week, all of us had been preparing to try and make our escape from the Starship Despair- by force. As part of that, we had all taken to training with weapons in preparation for our breakout, while our two technology experts prepared various gadgets and tools to help us out. Unfortunately, seeing the training and the devices gave someone an idea- a plan to escape not by breaking out, but through murder. I guess we’ll never know why she decided to do it- maybe it was the phone calls she received, maybe it was something else- but the person planning to escape was actually our victim, Noelle Holiday.
“To pull off her scheme, she knew she’d need a weapon. But since Legoshi was stationed right outside the armory, where all the weapons were, she’d need to get him to move. So she stole the prototype firebomb from the garage, along with a chunk of meat from the diner when she was helping rig it to blow. Then, she stashed both of those in a cabinet in the clinic. When the firebomb went off, it cooked the meat, creating a smell that drew Legoshi away from his post, leaving it open for Noelle to grab a small hatchet.
“With that accomplished, she ran over to where her target would be- specifically, at the top of the ropes course. Rather than take the time to challenge it normally, Noelle used her Crawler Bot to climb up the tower wall. Once she was up there, it would be simple to kill her target and get back down to earth before anyone realized she was gone.
“We can’t tell what her plan was after that- because it all went wrong. Just when she was about to strike, Noelle was startled by the sound of Remedy driving past, causing her to panic and drop her weapon. Her victim took the opportunity to get away from her- but in the process, he accidentally pushed her off the ropes course tower, becoming Noelle’s killer.
“The culprit had to think fast. If the breakout succeeded, what he’d done wouldn’t matter- but he had a bird’s eye view of the ship. He knew we were fighting a losing battle, and his only chance of survival now was to cover up the crime. Miraculously, he had inadvertently given himself an alibi- in order to trick Monokuma, he had set up a statue of himself in the garage, projecting his silhouette against the window to make it seem like he was inside. All he had to do now was convince the rest of us, too. So he used his position as tactician for the west side to order me out of the speedway, then used his grappling hook as a makeshift zipline in order to re-enter the stadium unseen. Then, all he had to do was wait.
“Except he got reckless. Afraid that finding Noelle’s remains near the base of the ropes course would be suspicious, he came up with a plan to move her discarded clothing by blowing up his own Crawler Bot. And… maybe this is wishful thinking, but I think the culprit knew the rest of us couldn’t fight much longer. If the explosion scattered Noelle’s dust and triggered a trial, Monokuma might let us all live until we’d handled the case. Either way, the culprit detonated his Crawler Bot and sent Noelle’s clothing and disintegrated corpse flying. That was what really sealed his guilt- the only other person on the east side who knew about the Crawler Bot’s explosion feature was Karma, and he’s certain to be innocent, as one of the first people to witness Noelle’s dead body.
“It sucks. I know it sucks. But if you take into consideration all the clues- who would need a vantage point like that, who Noelle would target, whose testimony was missing details, and who knew about how to use the Crawler Bots- there’s only one solution to this mystery.
“The only person the killer can be… is Hiro Hamada.”
“...no.” Devra said. “No, there’s someone else. There has to be; I can- I can fix this. Just give me a second to think, please-”
I can’t. I can’t keep watching this. If I couldn’t bring myself to solve this case, then maybe the least I can do is end it.
“Hiro. Please.”
I looked at Hiro- really looked at him, pleading. “I don’t want to believe you did this- I know you wouldn’t, normally, but- but if you’re the killer, and you get away with it, we’ll all die too. Even Devra, the person who’s been fighting for you this whole time. She would die because she believed in you. So- so if you did it, please. Just end it here.”
Devra glared at me. “You- Knock it off! You haven’t said anything in forever, and this is when you start talking? Quit trying to force him to admit to something he didn’t-”
“Devra, stop,” Hiro choked. “Please. I- I did it, alright? I killed Noelle.”
Devra flinched backward, looking as hurt and stunned as if Hiro had punched her in the face. “W-What? No, you-”
“They got everything right,” Hiro admitted softly. “Yesterday, when we were deciding on positions, Noelle pulled me aside.”
“Hey, Hiro? You’re- uh- giving orders from inside the garage tomorrow, right?”
“Yes,” Hiro hissed softly. “Don’t be noisy about it, remember?”
“Oh, right!” Noelle squealed, just as loud, before finally managing to quiet herself. “I mean, uh, right. So I was thinking- is that the best place to be? I mean, I’m not sure I can really focus on telling you where I am if we’re- you know.”
“Did you seriously not think of this before,” Hiro asked, exasperated. “Unbelievable. Look, I’ll think of something for you, I guess-”
“A-Actually- I mean, I’ve played tactics games before, and in those, the person giving orders usually has a high up view, so they can see everything. So maybe…”
She looked up at the ropes course.
Hiro blinked. “Yeah, actually, that’s…” He swallowed hard. “That’s a really smart idea. I’ll ask Devra about it-”
“No!” Noelle said loudly, before clapping a hand over her mouth. “I mean- it’s not as safe a place as the garage, right? Monokuma might get up there if he knows where you are, so maybe- maybe don’t mention it again? In case he overhears?”
Hiro shrugged. “Alright. But if this goes wrong, it was your idea.”
“None of that seemed suspicious to you?” Akechi deadpanned. “Go somewhere and don’t tell anybody?”
“I-It was Noelle!” Hiro protested. “Would you have thought she could do anything like that?! But then- then, when I was up there- I don’t know what happened, really, but- Noelle was just there, somehow, with the axe and babbling like a psycho. I tried to get some kind of response out of her, but she just kept saying- I don't even know! She was rambling about how she had to proceed, and get stronger, and then there was a loud engine noise, and she dropped the hatchet, and I just- I just wanted to get her away from me so I could run toward the slide and escape down that way. I didn’t- I never wanted her to fall, I promise. She- she went straight off an edge with no railing, and then- then that’s it. You all worked the rest of it out.”
“My, my! It seems you’ve all reached your conclusion,” Monokuma said. “Well, I guess someone admitted to the crime, which takes away the suspense a little, but whatever! All of you, vote for the blackened responsible for Noelle Holiday’s death on the screen in front of-”
“Wait! Wait, wait, stop!” Devra shouted.
“Oh, what now?” Akechi snarled. “What, have you not dragged this trial out enough? Do you want to nitpick at yet another inconsequential detail?”
“I- shut up, you jerk,” Devra retorted. Not the best comeback I’d ever heard, but then all of us were pretty spent, mentally, by now. “I have a question for Monokuma before we vote. How do you define who the blackened is? Like- if two people stab someone at different times, who counts as the blackened?”
“This is irrelevant-” Akechi started to say, but Monokuma spoke over him.
“An interesting question- and one that comes up far more often than you’d think! The blackened is the one most responsible for the murder at hand. In a case like that, it would be whoever dealt the more deadly blow. Usually that’s whoever dealt the second blow, but in cases where, say, one person slashed the victim’s throat and the second person just stabbed them in the stomach, the first attacker would be the killer- you’d die from that wound way before the second one.”
Devra’s face lit up. “Then we don’t actually have to vote for Hiro! Noelle started the whole thing, and Hiro never wanted to hurt her- it was an accident, and on top of that it was self-defense! We should vote for her, and nobody has to die!”
“Could that really work?” Giovanni asked. “Like, can we even vote for dead people?”
“Someone voted for Subaru last trial,” Riz said. “Not sure who.”
“Oh! Excel tapped on his picture because it was greyed out, and she thought it was one of those spot the difference puzzles! She’s surprised to hear she voted for him- what election was he running in?”
For the first time since he confessed, Hiro looked up. “You mean- I’m not gonna-”
“Stop being ridiculous,” Katniss cut in. “Do you really think Monokuma will let you do that? Seriously? He doesn’t want us to have a happy ending where nobody dies. If we vote for Noelle, we’re as good as dead. Right?” She looked up at Monokuma.
“Hmm… I’ll just reiterate that the blackened is the one most responsible for the crime. Me providing any information on who the blackened really is before the vote is strictly against my principles!”
“But we’re just asking about the rules-”
“No! No more questions! No more talking, period!” Monokuma declared. “If you wanted the fine details, you shouldn’t have pissed me off by blowing up my beautiful ship! You’re gonna have to vote based on your own instincts, here- Hiro or Noelle! Pick a side! And do it right now, because it’s voting time!”
“If any of you have any sense at all,” Akechi said coldly, “You’ll vote for Hiro.”
“You-” Devra started to say, but Monokuma interrupted.
“No! More! Talking! Just voting!”
The screen on my podium lit up. This was really it- did I believe that I could vote for Noelle, and save Hiro along with everyone else? Or… was that stupid? Was the only way to survive to vote for Hiro’s execution?
…I’m a superhero. If there’s a chance I can save everyone, I have to take it. No matter what.
I pressed my finger to the greyed-out picture of Noelle’s anxious face. The screen changed- “Please wait for others to vote.” It hadn’t shown that last time- I guess I must have cast the final vote back then. I looked up at the others. Most of them had voted already and were glancing around warily, maybe expecting Monokuma to suddenly pull out yet another trick. I checked who was still staring down at their screens- Susato. Riz. Candace. Giovanni. And, to my great surprise, Karma- I was certain he would vote for Hiro as soon as the options came up. One by one, each of them made their choice. Giovanni was the last holdout; to me, it seemed like he was actively waiting for everyone else to choose before he did. At last, though, he tapped the screen and the text on my podium vanished, replaced by two images- two faces. Noelle. Hiro.
“Ladies and gentleman, wolves, goblins, and- well, there’s no third thing anymore, is there. I present to you the results of the vote!”
A tally mark appeared under Noelle’s face. That was one vote. Then another, a moment after.
Tick. One vote for Hiro. Two, three.
A third vote for Noelle. A fourth. Then a fourth for Hiro. A fifth for each of them, an instant apart.
Was it really going to be-
Tick. Tick. Two votes for Hiro. My heart sank.
No.
No!
“NO!” Devra screamed. Hiro seemed to have shut down. The sight of the last vote tallying itself for Noelle barely even registered in my mind. That was it, then. Hiro was going to-
“Well! It seems you all decided that you want Hiro Hamada to be the blackened!” Monokuma chuckled. “To tell you the truth, I would have accepted either answer, but it brings joy to my grizzly heart to know that the rest of you are such firm believers in capital punishment!”
…huh? “You mean,” I said, horrified, “if we all voted for Noelle-”
“Yep! I’d have taken it! She really did bring it on herself- what was she thinking, getting so close to the edge? But you all want execution, so I won’t stop you!”
“No- no, no no, this- we- we can vote again, right?” Hiro asked, glancing around everywhere, looking for some form of salvation. “If everyone agrees-”
“Stop complaining and accept it!” Monokuma jeered. “Your fellow participants cast you aside. Tossed you to the wolves- pardon the saying, Mr. Legoshi- to save themselves! If you don’t like it, you can use your last words and put a hex on their bloodline, or something.”
I couldn’t breathe. We really could have saved him- If I had spoken up, could I have convinced anyone to vote the other way? Was this my fault?
“Uh. S-Sorry?” Riz said, weakly.
“Sorry?” Hiro repeated, coming out of his stupor, his voice low, trembling with anger and hysteria. “I- I’m going to die. I’m going to die because of you. This- this is a joke, right? You- you, and whoever else voted for me- I hope you die here. All of you.”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Monokuma cheered. “Stick it to ‘em! Oh, the despair of betrayal- the feeling that those you trusted have abandoned you- isn’t it amazing? I’m so glad you could feel it before the end. And speaking of- I’ve prepared a very special punishment for the Super Duper High School Dogfighter, Hiro Hamada!”
Hiro’s cold glare suddenly wilted, replaced by a look of fear. “Oh, god- I’m- I’m really gonna die. No, please- please, it was an accident, I- no, no, no no-”
“Let’s give it everything we’ve got!”
Just like with Max, a metal chain descended from the ceiling, a collar closing around Hiro’s neck.
“Please- help,” he gasped. “Devra- someone- help- please, Ta-”
“It’s… punishment time!”
“TADASHIII!”
HIRO HAMADA HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY
INITIATING THE PUNISHMENT…
He lands in a lecture hall, his arms chained to a desk. His legs bound to a chair. Anxiously, he glances around- he isn’t alone. The other seats are filled with odd, featureless mannequins- facsimiles of students, all staring blankly at the front of the room, where a lectern stands in front of a projector screen.
Out from behind the lectern steps Monokuma, dressed in a sweater vest and glasses, like a college professor. He raises a clicker. The screen turns on. A speech begins to play.
GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL TOMORROW
“One of the earliest tools used by mankind is the rock,” says the speech. The slide projector blinks, now showing a pile of stones. “Used to crack open shelled food, handy for keeping shelter in one place, and of course, most excitingly, for the ancient practice of stoning.”
Crack. A stone smashes through the head of a mannequin behind Hiro, grazing his cheek, landing on his desk. His eyes widen. Was this what would happen to him? Beaten to death?
“Of course, when most people think of early inventions, they think of fire. It warms and it burns- sometimes at the stake.”
Blink. The projector shows a woman, tied to a heap of burning wood. Woosh. Behind Hiro, a mannequin ignites.
“Yes, throughout the years, human progress has always led to death. From gravity-”
A mannequin in the front row is suddenly jerked into the air by a noose-
“-animal husbandry-”
An awful SQUELCH and the sound of hoofbeats as a mannequin three seats to Hiro’s left is rent apart.
“-to more modern innovations, like electricity-”
The mannequin to Hiro’s right spasms and falls over onto Hiro’s desk, sparking. Hiro leans away from it as best he can, but-
“-or even chemistry-”
-the mannequin on his left slumps over, green gas billowing from its prone form, making Hiro’s eyes water as he gags.
“-but I would say the most exciting frontier in execution technology is this: the microbot.”
Without warning, they come. Tiny little devices, the ones he agonized over for months, pouring in like spiders from every vent, from under every seat. A sickening black cloud of metal. Coiling around Hiro’s torso, his limbs, swarming over his pleading face. Beginning to pull, stretching him against the restraints, pulling joints from their sockets, pressuring the spine-
It’s almost a relief when the writhing mass brushes against the still-sparking mannequin a desk over. The whole cloud- a near-perfect conductor- jolts for a moment, and collapses, circuitry fried.
Leaving nothing but the still, slightly smoking body of Hiro Hamada at his desk.
EXECUTION: SUCCESSFUL
I wish I could say there was silence. That would be dramatic, right? But there was a cacophony of small noises- ragged breathing, whimpering, panicked mumbling. And then, cutting through all of it-
“Who? Who was it?”
Devra, a tear streaked face red with hatred, stared up at Monokuma. “Who voted for him? Tell me, goddamnit!”
“Whoa, let’s not get too fired up!” Monokuma scolded her. “Voting is a private matter, naturally. That’s a key part of any good democracy!”
“I don’t care!” She shouted back. “I have to know! Whoever voted for him- they killed him! It’s their fault that Hiro’s dead!”
“Is it?” The bear asked. “Remind me, who was it that proposed this whole ‘breakout’ idea? Who was it that told everyone not to mention it to their loved ones on the phone calls, and make it sound like you were stuck here with no option but to kill to escape? And who was it that removed the oh-so-important safety handrails from the top of my ropes course? The way I see it, this whole thing could have been avoided if you hadn’t pushed for all this, Ms. Caspit!”
“How do you know all of that?” Katniss interrupted. “About who proposed the breakout, and what we said?”
“Puhuhuhu! Did you seriously still think I didn’t know what you were up to just because there were no cameras in the pool? I just planted a microphone in there! Plus, you all were so focused on making sure I didn’t know it never occurred to you that I might be trying to keep you from knowing I knew! You know?”
“No!” Shouted Excel.
“All of which is to say, you were never going to accomplish anything with this hare-brained scheme of yours. Now a bear- brained scheme, that might have worked! But instead, all you got was your only friend in years violently executed.” Monokuma’s red eye glinted. “Some leader you turned out to be, huh?”
Devra slumped forward onto her knees. That was it. The fight had left her. Nobody else dared speak up- listening to Monokuma describe more of our failings in his stupid cartoon voice was more than anyone could bea- handle right now.
“Alright, alright- trial’s over! All of you, get!” Monokuma made what was probably a shooing motion- the paws made it hard to tell.
Just like after the first trial, the walk to the elevator was quiet. The trip back up was mournful. I couldn’t tell where to look. Certainly not at anyone else, least of all at Devra, huddled up in a corner and quivering miserably.
When at last the elevator reached the lobby and the doors opened, once again Riz stepped out alone, not even looking back this time. I almost called out, to tell him that he couldn’t leave the building- but then I noticed. The sliding doors leading out of the apartment and to the rest of the ship were still blown off their tracks. I could make out piles of rubble still present outside.
I guess Monokuma would have a harder time tidying this mess up, huh.
I should go after him, shouldn’t I? Try to help him with- whatever he did on his nightly investigations. If we could find another way out of here-
Ha. Funny. There’s not a way out of here. We tried that, and it failed, and it was always going to fail, and people died. Plus, what help would I be?
I was a coward. I didn’t speak up because I couldn’t just face the facts. And if I had… would things have changed? Could I have convinced everyone to agree with Devra’s plan, if I’d just said something instead of letting everyone else do the hard work for me?
If I wasn’t so pathetic, could Hiro have survived?
I shut myself in my room, laid flat on the mattress, and stared up at the ceiling, dreading the dawn.
CHAPTER 2: COMPLETE
12/16 PASSENGERS REMAIN
Got a present!
Prototype Microbot
The final invention of a prodigious mind. Once, it may have revolutionized the world and ushered in a bright new future. Alas, the only thing it’s useful for now is spreading misery and despair.
