Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

My name is Lizzie. If your listening to this broadcast, then you have survived the Despair as well. To tell you what we're dealing with, this is the story of the first wave of Despair.

I stared up at what seemed to be my new school. Clover High. I remembered how excited I had been to get in. After all, It was for a selective category of people, YouTubers! I took a deep breath, then stepped onto the campus, ready for anything that came my way. Or so I thought. I suddenly felt...woozy.

"What the..." I said out loud, then everything went black.

When I woke up, I was in a classroom. That's strange... I thought, I don't remember coming in here. There was a piece of folded paper in my hand. When I unfolded it, it read,
   "Go to the Gym to meet the other 'Students'".
   Something was definitely up, from the weird classroom, to the... Oh gosh... There were Iron plates completely covering all the widows. And they were bolted in place! Talk about paranoia. I decided to go to the gym, and meet the people I'd be learning with.

I pushed open the double-doors of the gym, and was momentarily blinded by how... bright it was. Compared to the dark hallways, the artificial lighting was like sunlight.

   "This is way too weird..." One guy was saying"

   "Why are we back in high school? I thought once we graduated we didn't have to come back!" said another.

   The door shut behind me, turning all attention to me. Fifteen pairs of eyes stared at me. Well, technically that wasn't true. Fourteen pairs of eyes and one camera face stared at me. The weirdest part was, most of the people here looked like they were in their twenties. A little above high school age.

   "uh, hi." I said, waving an akward hand.

   Scanning the faces, I felt like I should know them. Here I was, a dorky teen with long brown hair and some freckles, among adults who'd probably been on YouTube for years.

   "I'm Lizzie" I said.

   That's when I got acquainted with my fellow YouTubers.

   "Hi, I'm Adam". One guy said. He had kind of curly brown hair, brown eyes covered by sunglasses, and a purple amulet around his neck. He wore a lot of gray and black.

Max had ginger hair, brown eyes, a goatee, and a Z pendant around his next. His outfit also had a lot of black.

Jess had long black hair, dark brown hair, a light purple tank top, jean shorts, and boots.

Nick had black hair, and had glasses on the bridge of his nose. He wore a blue work shirt, and pants.

Tommy had roundish yellow mask covering his face, blonde hair, a big smile, a red T-shirt, and jeans.

Red had ginger hair, like Max, brown eyes, and a red onesie that had the flash symbol on the chest, and Dino teeth on the hood.

Barney had very short brown hair, an eye patch, plus a green and purple Dino onesie.

Ashlie had long red hair, green-blue eyes, a navy blue sweater with white print, and gray pants.

Dan had dark blue hair, kind of like what I wanted to dye my hair in the future. He also had goggles pushed up on his head, a black jacket, blue shirt, and what kind of looked like elbow pads and knee pads, but gold.

Corey had a camera face, dirty blonde hair, a white hoodie with gray sleeves and a gray hood, and khaki pants.

Shelby had long, red hair, a little lighter than Ashlie's, a white paper crown, a white hoodie, and black pants.

Em had longish wavy blonde-brown hair, caramel brown eyes, purple t-shirt, and jeans

Ross had brown hair, blue eyes, glasses, and a squirrel onesie with a red bow tie.

Sasha had long purple hair, light brown eyes, a pink blouse, and jean shorts.

After being introduced to all of them, I noticed the last person that was in the gym. She was the only one in here other than me that seemed to actually be high school age. She had dark brown hair, light blue eyes, and was wearing jean overalls over a rainbow Dino shirt that had a hood.

    "Hi, I'm..." I started, when she interrupted me.

   "I know. I heard." She said, "I'm Olivia"

   "Nice to meet..." I started, then a voice rang through the gym.

   "Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3... is this thing on?" The voice was high pitched, and really annoying, actually.

   We all turned our attention to the stage, where a... Teddy bear stood. It was definitely the most screwed up teddy bear I'd ever seen. The white half of it looked like a normal teddy bear, while the black half had a cruel red eye, and a matching evil grin.

   "Hello there scrubs! My name's Monokuma, and I'm the principal of this fine institution!" I heard a lot of muttering after that.

   "Must be remote controlled..." I heard Dan say.

   "I'm not a robot!" Monokuma yelled, "I'm flesh and bone like the rest of you idiots!"

   He cleared his throat.

   "Now, I'm sure you all want to know why you're here. Well, ask and you shall receive, my friends!" He said.

   We aren't your friends, I thought. Monokuma continued,

   "Welcome to your new home for the rest of your poor pathetic lives! We have food, and rooms. All your needs will be satisfied"

   "Seriously?" Asked Nick.

   "I don't want to spend the rest of my life trapped in a school with Nikon!" Shelby called, gesturing to Corey.

"Shut up Shelby!" Corey yelled.

   "Now, now, for those of you who want to leave, there is a way" Monokuma said, the tone of his voice mischievous and evil, "Good old fashioned murder! Feel free to stab, strangle, bash, disembowel, heck, feel free to hex people! I don't care! If you kill someone, and get away with it, you're free to graduate!"

   "Are you s-serious?" Jess squeaked.

   "As a heart attack toots!" Monokuma said.

   "That's crazy, you psychotic teddy bear!" Yelled Barney(I'm writing no accent Barney, so I don't butcher his accent).

   "Uh, I'm.. I am not comfortable with this..." Red said.

   "Well, I don't care. Go explore." Monokuma said with a shrug.

   Then, he disappeared off stage.

   "This is crazy!" Ashlie said.

   "We might as well go exploring" Sasha remarked.

Everyone agreed, so we broke up into groups and spread out.     
   What we learned very soon, was that the stairs to the upper floors were barred. Every entrance and exit was blocked with heavy, intimidating metal doors. We all congregated in the cafeteria after about an hour. The crazy thing was, we had a heckuvalot of  food. And not the crappy stuff you usually get in school cafeteria. Like, actually really good stuff. We sat around a rectangular steel table, and started talking.

   "Anyone have any luck?" Em asked. Everyone shook their heads.

   "Unfortunately, we can't even explore the upstairs for an exit because it's blocked off." Dan said.

   "Why are you all still alive?!" Monokuma cried, startling us all.

The bear had appeared out of nowhere.

   "Hey, I think I speak for all of us when I say that we don't plan on killing someone!" Olivia said.

   "Yeh" Ross said.

   Monokuma was still for a moment, then her started laughing.
    "Upupu! Of course! I know what went wrong. Every killer has to have motive."

And with that, we were all sitting at desks in the AV room, sliding our individual DVD's into the player. I placed the headphones over my ears, prepared for the worst.

Surviving Students: 16

Chapter Text

   "Hey Lizzie!"

   My mom smiled up at me from the screen. My dad smiled next to her.

   "We're so proud of you sweetheart! You've made it so far!" He said.

   Mom continued,
   "We're so proud of you and..."

The screen turns to static for a couple of minutes, and when the screen returned, the room looks like a hurricane hit, with claw marks all over the walls. I quickly removed the headphones with shaking hands. I have to get out of here, I thought. I saw the others taking their headphones off. Some looked shocked, fearful, or like they wanted to puke.

   "I- I'm going to my room..." Shelby said.

   "Me too" Dan agreed.

   Before we all went to our rooms, Em said, "are we all in agreement not to leave our rooms after curfew?"

   We all murmured our agreements.
   Each of our rooms had a picture on the front, so we knew which ones were which. I entered mine, and looked around. There was a bed with frilly pink sheets. Ugh. There was a mahogany desk with a small pad of paper, and a black wheelie chair that I knew I could play with for hours. I opened the door inside the room, revealing a bathroom and a shower.      Unfortunately, Monokuma had put security cameras  in the bathroom, which did not make me inclined to take a dump anytime soon. After a little while, maybe half an hour, Monokumas  irritating voice came over the intercom.

   "Alright my little cherubs! A few things before you ready your sleepy little heads tonight. First off! Curfew is ten o'clock sharp! Second of all, Water is shut off after curfew. Wanna take a late night shower? Well guess what? You're out of luck!" He laughs, then continues.

   "Third thing on the list, only the girl's showers have locks on them. No guys walking in on the ladies while they're getting clean!..."

   he rattles on, but I had stopped listening to his announcements. I sat on the wheelie chair and spun around a few times. Curiosity filled me as I looked at the small drawers on the desk, just begging to be opened. I obliged, pulling out the one on the right, then the left. The first one was empty, but the other had a small sewing kit.

   What am I supposed to do with this?, I wondered. Monokuma ended his speech with,

   "Good night, my little cherubs. Sleep tight, do let the murderer strike!"

   I shuddered. Walking across the room, I made sure my door was firmly closed, and locked, then I walked to my bed. I removed my black boots, and zip up black hoodie, leaving on my tank top and jeans. The result of all that days stress and stuff came crashing into me like a tidal wave of exhaustion the moment my head hit the pillow, and I fell asleep instantly.

Waking up, I put my hoodie back on, but I was too lazy to zip it up. On went my boots, then I unlocked the door if my room and started toward the cafeteria. The first people that were already there were Jess, Dan, Red, and Sasha.

   "Morning!" Jess said, giving me a small smile as I entered.

   "Hey" I said back.

   The others also said their greetings, then we waited for the others to arrive. As they gradually trickled in, we all grabbed something to eat. I grabbed the shaker of cinnamon and the shaker of sugar, made some toast, and shook half the contents of both shakers on the pieces of toast.

   "That looks...sugary..." Corey said as he sat at the table, his arm moved stiffly, like he had a bandage on under his hoodie. I nodded.

    "Just the way I like it." I dug in.

Soon, we were all here, well except for one.

    "Hey, where's Shelby?" Adam asked.

There was a chorus of "I don't know" around the table. I could see many people had looks of distress on their faces.

   "I-I'll go check on her." Tommy offered.

   "I'll go with you." Max said.

Even he looked a little worried. They walked out of the cafeteria. Everyone ate in silence, which was broken by a scream. It was loud and piercing, and got my heart pumping. I bolted from my chair, and ran down the hallway. Shelby's door was open, and I flitted inside. Max was looking into the shower area in horror, his face pale. Tommy had passed out completely.

"Max, what..." I started, walking over to him, then I get my answer.

Shelby, sitting against the wall, blood dyeing the front of her white hoodie... pink? I shuddered. Then, Monokumas voice came over the speaker.

   "Hear ye! Hear ye! A body has been found. Everyone please meet in the gym in five minutes!"

The bear seems ecstatic. I looked back at Shelby's body, then me and Max dragged Tommy to the gym. He woke up a little bit after that, just as Monokuma popped up on stage.

   "Welp, one of you scrubs have done it." He said, his voice menacing. Then, it switched to something of pure joy.

"Oh, I'm so proud of the guilty perp! Yeh managed to take another persons life!" He exclaimed.

   "You're sick, man!" Adam cried. Jess was crying. Monokuma snaps out of his reverie.

   "Now's the fun part kiddos! Investigation time!" He said, "you all have a certain amount of time to examine body, and then we hold a Class Trial!"

   He paused then said, "Basically I send you untrained noobs into the field to find out who Shubbles killer is. Guess correctly, and I'll execute the guilty party. Guess incorrectly, however, and the guilty party graduates and the rest of ya get axed"

   This... was terrifying. Monokuma couldn't have been more excited.

   "You all get to play Judge, Jury, and Executioner! Quite possibly of yourselves! So precede with caution!"

   "This is crazy!" Barney cried.

   "Eh, you'll get used to it Eyepatch." Monokuma said with a shrug, "in the meantime, check your Student Handbooks for the details. Now get investing!"

I was one of the people to examine the crime scene alone. I kneeled down by the body, and for the first time I clearly saw the murder weapon. It was a pair of sewing scissors, identical to the ones I had gotten in my sewing kit, embedded in her sternum. There was so much pink blood. Something caught my eye, something that stood out against the gray of the wall behind her. Letters, written in blood. N I K C.

   Of course, I had no idea what that meant. I looked at the drawer of her desk, searching for... yes! Shelby's sewing kit, and the scissors were missing. So they had been the murder weapon... I thought, a little sad. After another hour or so, Monokuma came over the announcements.

   "Alright Chick-a-dees! It's time for the long awaited class trial! Everyone meet at the elevator so we can get this thing started!"

   So there we were, fifteen of us in the large elevator, heading to a trial that literally determined if we lived or died. Corey was glaring at Nick, who seemed uncomfortable. Then again, so did everyone else. Find the murderer. That was the only option.

Surviving Students: 15

Chapter Text

The trial room was large, with sixteen wooden podiums for us to stand on side by side in a circle. We all took a podium, and soon they were all full. Well, except Shelby. Her podium had her picture with her face X'd out.

"That is so creepy..." Ashlie, who's podium was next to the picture, muttered.

"Alright Peeps! Get this trial going! We'll hold a vote at the end to guess the guilty menace." Monokuma said, sitting in a large, cushy chair on one of the walls.

So it started.

"Nick did it!" Corey said, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

"What! What makes you think that dude?" Nick cried.

"I believe Corey is referring to Shelby's dying message" Em said.

"Right. Those letters. NIKC." Red said.

"Those are the letters in Nick's name." Sasha said.

Nick looked panicked.

"Guys, I promise I didn't kill her!" He said.

"I didn't know her that well, but I'm pretty sure she could spell." Dan said.

"Maybe not," Max said, " I mean, she was writing upside-down, and she must have been dying. She could have made a mistake."

I could see the others considering this.

"Monokuma, you saw what happened right?" Nick asked. "Help me out here!"

Monokuma yawned.

"Sorry, no can do Twitter. What happens on the security cameras stays there until you chumps figure it out yourself!"

"Nick, if you didn't do it, just give us some proof."

"If he can" Corey said.

"Shut up Camera Face!" Nick yelled.

Olivia, who was in the podium across from mine, was suddenly looking at Corey, her eyes wide. I could tell something had clicked in her mind.

"Well, I personally am not comfortable standing next to a cold hearted killer." Ross said.

He scooted as far away from Nick as he could, well, in the podium at least.

"Actually, Nick might not be the killer." Olivia said.

Everyone in the court room turned to her.

"What do you mean?" Jess asked.

Olivia turned to Corey.

"Corey, what was the name Shelby called you yesterday? During the entrance ceremony?" She asked.

He scowled. "Nikon. She liked making up nicknames for me." He said, shrugging.

"And how do you spell that?" Olivia pressed, unwavering.

"What is this, a spelling bee?" Corey asked, flustered, due to the red that spread over his camera face like a colored lens or filter.

"Just spell it Corey," Ashlie said, "you have nothing to hide."

He seemed to roll his...eye? And said, " Nikon, N-I-K-O-N, Nikon. Happy?" He asked.

Olivia nodded.

"Very" she said.

Nikon... I thought running it through my head. N-I-K-O... it finally clicked. Olivia must have noticed my changing expressions, because she asked,

"Have you guessed it too, Lizzie?"

I nodded.

"I think so..." I said.

"Guessed what?" Dan asked.

I took a deep breath.

"The C... the one Shelby wrote... it might not have been a C at all." I said.

"What do you mean?" Corey asked.

Did he look...worried?

Maybe.

"Shelby wasn't trying to write a C, she was trying to finish an O. And I'm sure she would have written an N if she hadn't died before she could." Olivia said.

The others processed this, and then Corey was being stared at by everyone there.

"Corey... Did you really kill her?" Max asked.

Corey was silent for a moment, then he snapped.

"DID I KILL HER? OF COURSE I DIDN'T FREAKING KILL HER! THAT'S TOTAL B. S.!" He roared, his camera face dilated.

Yep, he was freaking out.

"Here's what I think happened Corey," Olivia said, cutting across him before he could rant more, "You went to Shelby's room last night after curfew. You said you wanted to talk about escape. She trusted you and let you in"

"He must have search for a weapon in the room he could use on her" Em said.

"He saw her sewing kit on the top of her desk and grabbed the scissors." Ashlie said.

"It explains the bandage I saw him pulling his sleeve over this morning" Adam said, " Shelby must have fought back and cut him".

"Then he stabbed her" Sasha said.

"And he probably walked away smiling." Nick said.

Corey's head was down, not looking at us.

"Why'd you do it, man?" Tommy asked.

"Why?" Corey asked, his voice quiet,

"WHY?"

His voice rose as he yelled, "BECAUSE SHE HAD IT COMING! THE NICKNAMES, THE WAY HER VOICE MADE MY EARS WANT TO BLEED EVERY TIME SHE SPOKE!! THERE ARE SO MANY REASONS TO KILL HER! I'M SURPRISED NO ONE BEAT ME TO IT!"

(Quick apology to Corey for turning you into a psychopath). Max looked like he wanted to punch Corey. Then Monokuma interrupted for his throne-like chair. The first time he'd spoken since the beginning of the trial.

"Alright losers, let's get the voting started."

Our student handbooks buzzed, except Corey's, and from there, we voted on who the murderer was. Not that it was hard. What looked like one of those slot machines popped up on the large screens above our heads. One by one, the slots all stopped on Corey's face.

"Ding! Ding! Ding! You scrubs managed to find Shubbles' killer! I watched Camera Face do it from the cameras, and man was it the fight of the century!" Monokuma cried.

He seemed to smile, as he said

"I knew he had it in him! And now it's execution time! Oh goodie!"

Corey backed away from the bear, off his podium, saying "S-stay away from me!"

"Oh, I ain't gonna touch you, Camera Face" Monokuma said in a menacing voice, "I can't promise for my  friends though"

"What fri...?" Corey started, but then chains curled around his wrists, pulling him back.

Monokuma had disappeared, and the
rest of us followed Corey, who was yelling. There was a chain link fence in front of us, Corey on the other side. He was on the seat of a dunk tank. He was still chained at the wrists, and another chain had wrapped around his waist. A shudder ran down my back. There were electric eels in the water below, anxiously waiting for something to fall into the water. Monokuma was there, a baseball in hand.

"Hold your breath!" He called to Corey, who looked terrified.

Monokuma threw the ball hard and fast, and before it hit the target, Corey muttered,

"I'm sorry"

The ball made contact, sending Corey into the infested water. His screams were gargles under water, as the eels deliver electric shocks again and again. Finally, his camera face short-circuited, the focus broke. Corey was dead.

Surviving Students- 14

Chapter Text

   Jess was crying. Ashlie and Sasha were crying. I was crying. The only people managing to hold back tears were Em and Max.

"C-come on guys," Olivia said, "we should head upstairs."

We all went to the elevator, entering in silence. The next day or so, we tried to just stay positive. Then of course, Monokuma had other ideas.
                        ~~~~~~~~~
   It happened on the third day after Shelby's death and Corey's trial. We heard a whirring noise coming from the  hallway.

"What is that?" I asked.

Dan, who was the only other person in the room, sitting across from me, shrugged.

"Might as well check it out, I suppose" he said.

The two of us walked towards the sound, which got just that much louder with each step we took. We reached the staircase, and I couldn't believe what I saw. The fence thing that had been in front of it was lifting, leaving the stairs open for exploration.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention..." an irritating voice behind us said.

We jumped so badly we almost hit the ceiling.

"Jeez! Frickin... Don't do that you stupid bear!" I yelled, my heart racing.

"As I was saying..." the rude bear continued, "every time you guys win a trial, a new floor is unlocked! You two start exploring, I'll go get the other rug rats!"

Monokuma ran down the hall.

"Ok, that was weird right?" Dan asked.

I nodded.

"Definitely weird" I said.

We went up, and found a floor with multiple possibilities. There were locker rooms, a pool, and a music room.

"Wow" Ross said, though his face remained expressionless.

"This is cool... but how can we swim without swimsuits?" Barney asked.

Ross, Barney, and the others had entered.

"Barney makes a fair point" Jess said, "why would Monokuma open something up to us that we can't use?"

"Gee, I don't know, Tank top, maybe he wanted you to drown each other." Monokuma said, popping into our group.

"Gah!" Red cried, as the bear had popped up right next to him.

"For the record, you all have new swimsuits in your rooms, courtesy of mwah!"

"Um, why were you in our rooms?" Sasha asked.

Monokuma shrugged.

"I'm the principal, I can go wherever I want. Anyhow, go check out your new suits! Have fun!"

Then he left.

"Ok, that bear really gives me the creeps." Adam said.

"Well, we might as well go check it out" Tommy said.

"Ok, everyone meet back at the pool in ten minutes, ok?" Nick asked everyone.

Everyone was in an agreement, so we sped off to check it out.
   My swimsuit was, thankfully, a blue one piece. Bikinis always made me feel underdressed and uncomfortable. I put it on and went upstairs. I got into the Girls Locker Room by pressing my student handbook to the pad on the door. Inside, Jess and Olivia were there. They both had a one piece swimsuit in a different shade of purple. Jess' was a lighter purple, close to magenta, while Olivia's was a darker purple.

"We should wait for Ashlie, Sasha, and Em" Jess said.

I nodded. They arrived, Em in a red one piece, Sasha in a pink one piece, and Ashlie in a yellow one piece, and we headed into the pool.

"I love my swimsuit!" Ashlie said, admiring the banana yellow swimsuit, "it reminds me of BAÑAÑAS!!"

We gave her a look.

"Uh, Ashlie?" I asked, "what is a bañaña!"

She shrugged.

"No idea, but the thought of it makes me smile for some reason."

When we saw the pool, we couldn't believe it.

"Woah. Now this is a pool!" Olivia cried.

It was almost the size of a football field, with crystal clear water that looked like glass. Well, at least before I cannonballed into it, making ripples.

"Woo!" Sasha yelled, jumping after me.

The boys came in just in time to see Jess and Ashlie jump in. Max, Adam, and Ross jumped in immediately. Some of the others needed...persuasion. I doggie paddled over to Dan, who sat on the edges, his feet submerged.

"How's the water?" He asked.

An idea started forming in my mind, and I asked,

"what?"

"How's the water?" He asked, a little louder.

"What?" I asked again, swimming closer.

"I said..." he started, leaning closer to me so he was sure I could hear.

"How's the..." he started, then I grabbed his arm and pulled him in.

He came up, coughing, then he glared at me. Then he laughed.

"Haha, very funny" he said.

Everyone was having a great time for a while, then Monokuma struck.

"Alright, kids" he said, later in the gym.

We had gotten into our normal clothes.

"I've decided that we need another murder up in here!"

"Not again!" Red cried.

"Aww, don't worry! I'll make sure you're all motivated good and proper!"

And with that, each of else had an envelope in hand.

"Don't be scared, open 'em up!" Monokuma cried.

I was scared. I opened up the envelope, and gasped at the words on the paper.

Lizzie wet the bed until the sixth grade

"If you don't want your dirty little secrets revealed to everyone, I wanna see some murder in the next twenty-four hours!" Monokuma said.

Seriously? I thought, no one would seriously kill over stuff like this... would they? I looked around. The others had expressions similar to mine. Shock, some horror.

"Well, I'll see you all later!" Monokuma said, too cheerily.

He disappeared, leaving us to our secrets.
    "AHHH!" Came a scream a good couple of hours later.

Adrenaline shot through me as I raced towards the source. Heart pounding, I took the steps two at a time. Jess was the one who had screamed. She was in the pool area, where a body was floating in the water.

"Oh gosh..." I muttered.

I grabbed one of those long nets that life guards use to clean the pool as more people started to come in.

"Is everyone ok? Who screamed?" Adam asked.

I used the net part to pull the body to the edge of the pool. My stomach was trying to force itself out my mouth, but I managed to flip the body over. There was a collective gasp as people recognized the body. It was Red.

"Well folks! A body has been found." Monokuma announced, "You know what that means. Investigation Time! Get cracking!"

Our student handbooks buzzed as they received an autopsy of the body in mere seconds. I opened up the "Monokuma Files" as they were called, and read:
Name: Red Vacktor(YouTube name)
Injuries:

Blow to the head- non fatal

Cause of Death: Suffocation

   "Hey guys? Check this out" Olivia said.

Reds water logged body had been moved from the pool, and was laying by the towel rack. Olivia was trying to pry open his closed fist.

"There's something in here..." she said.

She pulled out a crumpled up, wet piece of paper.

"It looks like a note" Max said, looking over her shoulder.

We all gathered around around and examined.

"There are letters missing" Ashlie said.

"Really? We hadn't noticed." Sasha said sarcastically.

In a nutshell, the pool water had made some of the letters run, so this is what we had:

  R ,
  Mee me by th pool. I ink I ound a way ou .
                     a

    One of the letters looked like a runny a. The other three looked like illegible smudges. That's all we had to go on, and before we knew it, we were on our way to the trial room, another murderer in our midst.

Surviving Students: 13

Chapter Text

      The trial room was the same as it had been the last time we'd been in it. Intimidating, with a high ceiling lined with large tv screens. The only difference is that now Corey and Red's pictures stood in their places, the faces crossed out. We all stood at our podiums, looking around, trying to figure out who looked guiltiest.

"Alrightie scrubs! You all know the rules! Let's get this trial started!" Monokuma said.

So it began.

"Ok, who gave in?" Barney asked.

"What do you mean?" Sasha asked.

"Obviously someone gave into the teddy bears secret thing. " Ashlie said, giving Sasha a pointed look.

"That much is obvious" Em said.

"Well, we need to find the person of interest, and fast" Nick said, casting his eyes nervously around the circle of people.

   I looked around. Everyone had similar expressions of fear on their face, so I couldn't use that to Identify the murderer.

"We have to look at the details," Jess said, "Make sure we're not missing anything."

"Maybe that note could help us somehow?" Dan said.

"The water made the letters on the note run, so We couldn't read out the name of the person who sent it." Barney said.

I sighed.  Why couldn't these trials ever be easy?

"We managed to piece together everything but the name..." Tommy said.

Only an A.... I remembered, that was all we had of the name. Think, Lizzie, Think! I said to myself, trying to piece together the evidence.

"Well, let's think... did anyone talk to Red before he died?" Em asked.

"Well, I talked with him, like, an hour before he died..." Barney said.

Then he quickly added,

"but I didn't kill him! Promise!"

"We're not accusing you," Adam said, "yet"

   "I think we're missing something here..." Dan said, "has anyone else checked their student handbooks for the autopsy?"

A good half of us shake their heads.

"Well, the Fatal cause of death was Suffocation..." Ashlie said.

"...Not drowning" Olivia finished.

"Meaning that Red died before he was thrown into the pool." I said.

There were frozen faces of shock.

"Barney, what did Red say to you?" Sasha asked.

"He told me that he was trying to spread the word that he wasn't going to let that bear's secrets get the better of us..."

Spread the word... I thought.

"Ok, who did Red talk to that was to scared to admit it before?" I asked.

Adam, Ashlie, Sasha, and Dan raised their hands halfway.

"Ok, so..." I started, but Dan interrupted me.

"Lizzie, if it helps, Red said that if the secrets thing didn't work, he might have found a possible exit. I think he was talking about the note."

I looked at the four before Dan.

"That means these four were the only ones who knew about Reds plan, whatever it was" Olivia said.

"H-hey! You can't go accusing us of something without proof!" Adam cried.

"We're not accusing anyone of anything!" Jess said.

"Yet" Nick muttered.

"What was Red's plan?" Em wondered aloud.

"Um... I think he wanted everyone to know everyone else's secret. So Monokuma couldn't use them against us..." Sasha said.

"Yeah, that really worked for him." Ashlie said.

I tried to think. We didn't have the evidence we needed to find the killer.

"The marks on his neck could be a clue..." Adam said.

This sounded fairly reasonable, but Olivia had that look on her face.

"That's funny Adam" she said, "there weren't any marks on Red's neck."

I realized it was true the second after I heard it. We turned to Adam.

"What do want to keep secret so badly that you would kill Red just to keep it hidden?" Olivia asked.

Adam was furious, but he also looked nervous.

"Here's what I think happened a couple of hours ago." Olivia said, eyes closed in concentration.

"Red told you that he was going to tell everyone's secrets, and you couldn't let that happen. Your secret couldn't get out. So, you lured Red by the pool under false pretenses, and strangled him to death, probably a surprise attack from behind. Red hit his head on something, probably knocking him out, and making your job that much easier. You threw away the rope, or whatever you used, then threw the body into the pool to make us think he drowned. You didn't look at your Monokuma files, so you didn't see that it put the actual cause of death." Olivia pointed to Adam.

"You killed Red, Adam." She said.

Adam was looking down, not meeting the eyes of anyone else.

"Is it true?" Ross asked.

"Of course it isn't!" Sasha said, "Adam wouldn't kill anyone!"

"Like you know him so well..." Ashlie grumbled.

"I-I did it..." Adam said softly, "I killed him ... I couldn't..."

"You couldn't let anyone find out ###### ### ###########, could ya, Sunglasses?" Monokuma said.

Adams face paled. Monokuma shrugged, like he hadn't given away a persons deepest secret.

"Let's get this voting thing ROLLING!!" He called.

Once again, once all the votes were put in, a slot machine appeared on the screens, each slot popping up with Adams face.

"Ding! Ding! Ding! You noobs did it again! Our very own Sunglasses killed Mr. Onesie." Monokuma cried.

Then, with an evil glint in his eyes, he cried, "and now, EXECUTION TIME!!!"

Suddenly, we were back in the room, a chain-link fence between us and Adam. He was wearing a golden helmet, and holding a gold sword.

"Unleash the Squids!" Monokuma called.

Several, no, hundreds of squids swarmed Adam. He managed to keep the at bay for a while, but when his sword broke, there was no hope for him. The squids attacked from all sides. They blocked our view of Adam, until swimming away.
    All that was left of Adam was the golden helmet he was wearing, and his purple amulet.

Chapter Text

"Squids can do that?" Jess squeaked.

   "I guess they can..." Max muttered.

   As I looked around, everyone looked a little sick. I couldn't blame them. I felt like puking.

   "Let- let's go upstairs..." Barney said, "I'm really starting to hate it down here."

   We all went up, and discovered a new level of the building. When we explored, we discovered an art room, Game room, a workshop, and...

   "AHHH!! A LIBRARY!" I squealed. I hoped they had manga...

That next night, I heard a knock on my door. I was hesitant to own it at first, but then shrugged off my paranoia. Monokuma hadn't offered any incentives. Yet, anyway. To my surprise, Dan was there.

   "Hey Lizzie, may I talk with you for a moment?" He asked.

   "Yeah, of course Dan!" I said.

   I sat on the edge of my bed, and I let Dan sit in the swivel chair at my desk.

"So what's up?" I asked.

Dan took a deep breath.

   "I've done something awful..." he began.

   "Dan, please don't tell me you killed someone." I cut across him.

   He shook his head.

   "No, but I might as well have..." he said sadly.

   He looked so sad, but I couldn't believe he'd done anything as bad as killing someone. We'd only known each other for about a week, but he already felt like a best friend to me. Despite being several years older.

   "What happened, Dan?" I asked.

   He opened his mouth to speak, when Monokumas voice crackled on from the intercoms.

   "Alright rug-rats, A mandatory meeting is starting in the gym in three minutes! And if any student misses it, they face punishment."

   "Let's hurry" Dan decided.

   We all made it to the gym. Monokuma stood on stage, as per usual, with tarp over something huge behind him.

   "We need more murder in here Students!" He started.

   "No way!" Max yelled.

   "Nononono...." Jess started to say.

   "Aww, don't worry chick-a-dees! We've got a large reward for the student who can get away with murder. How about..." Monokuma starts, pulling the tarp away, "Freedom and Ten million dollars?"

   A huge stack of bills had been covered by the tarp. That wasn't good. I could already see hunger in some eyes.

   "That concludes this meeting!" Monokuma said.

   "Jess, what's wrong?" Dan asked.

    I looked at Jess, who looked more upset than usual.

   "I- I think I saw Red's Ghosts!" She squeaked, "last night"

   "Wait, ghosts? As in plural?" Max asked, confused.

   "Is that possible?" Nick asked.

   "I'm not sure... I couldn't sleep, so I thought that I'd read in the library to calm myself down... I found this room, and there were these guys that looked like Red..." she rambled.

   We made our way up to the library.

   "Let's check it out." Sasha said.

"Let's" Ashlie said.

   The two tried to go in at the same time, which didn't work.

   "Hey, move over, will you Bañaña head?" Sasha growled.

   "You first Cotton Candy hair" Ashlie snapped back.

   "Um, just go?" Tommy suggested.

   Eventually, we all got in, and Jess showed us the room.

   "The ghosts were over here..." she said.

   We looked around, searching for supernatural activity, when Ross said,

   "hey, here's... something."

   We gathered around... a laptop computer?

   "Does it work?" I asked.

   Max clicked a couple buttons, and the screen lit up.

   "How'd you do that?" Em asked.

   Max shrugged.

   "No idea, I was just guessing" he said.

   A face appeared on the screen.

   "Red!" Ashlie gasped.

   Then, the weirdest thing happened. Another face appeared by Reds, a yellow one. Then a green one, a blue one, and then a pink one that looked more like a girl Red then a boy Red.

   "Hi, I'm Yellow!" The yellow one said cheerily.

   "Green" the green one said indifferently.

  "Oh, hi. I'm Blue" the blue one said sadly.

   "And I'm Pink!" The pink one said in a girls voice.

   "Holy..." Tommy started, then trailed off.
  
   Olivia sat down in front of it.

   "There's a chat bar." She said.

   She typed:

   who are you?

   In to the bar.

   "Well, our master created us, so I guess we're like his Family." Yellow said.

   "Like, The Vacktor Family?" Nick asked.

   The heads pondered this.

"Guess so." Green said, shrugging imaginary shoulders.

   "Um, speaking of our Master, where is he?" Asked the red one.

   "Uh...ok, let's be gentle about this..." Dan started,

   but Olivia already typed:

   Adam strangled him.

    "Dang," Max said, "that's cold..."

   the blue head sighed, looking close to tears.

   "It- it's alright... Masters survival rate was pretty low. He knew he probably wasn't going to make it...." he said.

   Blue looked so sad, I wanted to hug him.

   "Hey, Vacktors, you're connected to the schools systems right?" I asked.

   All heads nodded in unison.

   "Could you, like, see if you could find any interesting that could help us?" I continued.

   "Now that you mention it, we found a weird pictures on one of the schools old data files. We were going to show master, but..." Pink started.

   "Yeah..." Sasha said.

   "So what's this picture?" Ashlie asked.

   "Just a second..." Red 2.0 said, the family disappeared as an image filled the screen.

   An impossible image.

   Red, Adam, and Corey, together, and smiling like best friends at the camera.

   "Are they alive? Somewhere?" Ashlie asked.

  "Of course they're not! We saw two of their deaths ourselves." Olivia said.

   She stood up and looked around.

   "Hmm, another curious detail..." she said, probably to herself more than us.

   "Uh, mind spilling the curious details?" Max asked.

   "What do you all notice about this room that makes it valuable to us?"

  It took us a little bit, but finally Em said,

   " it doesn't appear to have any security cameras."

   "That means the bear can't watch us in here!" Ashlie cried.

   "Brilliant deduction Sherlock." Sasha muttered.

   "You wanna say that to my face Cotten Candy butt?" Ashlie snarled.

   "Any day, Banana Breath!" Sasha snapped back with matching ferocity.

   "Guys, can you two-" I started, But Sasha had already stormed out.

   "Ten o'clock scrubs! Curfew! Get to your rooms or face punishment!" Monokuma crackled on the intercom.

   We did, and I slept fitfully.

Chapter Text

That morning, I woke up to what seemed like a normal day. The odd thing was, that only me, Dan, Nick, and Olivia had arrived to breakfast.

    "Where is everyone?" Dan asked.

   "Who knows?" Nick shrugged.

   We ate for a little, when we decided to go look.

    "I'll take the the third floor" I offered.

   "Ok, then..."

   They decided where everyone was going, then we split up to search.

    "Um, hello?" I called to the third floor.

   No reply. I opened a door to my left, and gasped. Em was lying there, a small hammer next to her. Not too big, but big enough to do some damage. I opened my mouth, and screamed to the others:

    "SOMEONE, HELP!"

My yells brought Dan, Nick, Tommy, and Ross.

   "Lizzie, are you... jeez!" Dan asked, seeing Em.

   "Oh no! Is she..." Tommy started, then Em groaned and sat up.

    "I was careless..."

   She looked around, then gasped.

   "Ashlie's in great danger!" She cried.

   "What happened?" Asked Dan.

   "We were attacked. Whoever it was, they went a great measures to hide their face. They kidnapped Ashlie, then hit me with that..." she said, pointing to the hammer.

   It had words on it.

   "Justice Hammer 1?" Nick read aloud.

    "They hung a left! I saw them as I was blacking out..."

    "that puts them out on the stairwell leading to the second floor." Tommy said.

   "Olivia's down there!" I cried.

   We ran down the stairs, and ran down the second hallway, where we ran into Jess and Barney.

   "Have you guys seen Olivia or Ashlie?" I asked.

   "Um, no. Sorry" Barney said.

    "What's wrong?" Jess asked.

   "Explain later." Nick said.

   "We should split up..." Dan suggested.

   "Dan, Em, Nick, and I will check down here..." I said, "Jess and Barney check upstairs, Ross and Tommy check downstairs."

   We split up, but it didn't take long for Jess to yell,

   "UP HERE!"

   We ran to the library, where Ashlie was sitting up, blood trickling slowly from the top of her head. Ther was another, slightly larger hammer labeled Justice Hammer #2.

   "Ugh, I can't believe it... I got attacked by Justice Robo" Ashlie groaned.

    "This is not really the time for jokes" Barney said.

    "She's not joking, I'm afraid." Em said, holding up a pink...camera?

   "I found it in the game room. Look."

   On the screen was a picture of Ashlie, with someone in a Justice Robo Cosplay outfit. They seemed to be grabbing Ashlie, who looks scared.

   "Um, hope it's ok with you guys, but I'm going to go chill in the nurse office" Ashlie said.

   The nurses office was on the first floor.

   "The rest of us should split into groups." Em said.

   I took the first floor, running close to where the front entry would be, when I heard a scream.

    "Is everyone ok?" I asked as we converged by Em, who had screamed.

   "I'm fine, I wasn't injured." She said, "I saw Justice Robo run into the Workshop!" She cried.

   "Then he's cornered himself" Dan said.

   Then a scream came from downstairs.

   "Em, Lizzie, Nick, you three go check on Ashlie!" Barney cried, "Jess, Dan, and I will go to the workshop!"

   We ran down the stairs, straight to the nurse office. There wasn't any nurse of course, so I don't know what the point of it was. We opened the door of the office, and what we saw was...awful to say the least. Ashlie's hair and face was covered in pink blood. Another hammer, slightly bigger than the second one, laid beside her.

   "Did she pass out?" I asked.

   "I'm sorry, most likely she's dead" Em said.

   "DUN DUN DUN. A body has been discovered folks! You know the drill!" Monokuma cried over the intercom.

   "Oh gosh..." Nick said.

   "Ugh... I think, I think I'm gonna puke..." I groaned, leaning against the door frame.

    "Deep breaths, dear. Let's get you to the ladies room, shall we?" Em said, putting a hand gently on my shoulder.

   Turning to Nick, she said, "Nick, go get the others"

   Nick nodded, then ran towards the stairs. Meanwhile, in the girls room, I leaned over the toilet and... you know what? Let's just say I felt less sick when I came out. Unfortunately, when we got back, Ashlie's body was gone.

    "What?! That's impossible!" I cried.

   "Wait here, I'll get the others" Em said.

   She ran out of the room, to the others. After several minutes, she returned with Nick, Barney, Tommy, Dan, and Ross.

   "Lizzie, are you alright?" Dan asked.

   "We-we were gone for maybe a couple of minutes! And when we came back... she was gone..." I said.

   "We're going to die...picked off one by one...exactly like they were..." Em said fretfully.

    "Two murders in the space of a few minutes..then found evidence disappears. It makes no sense..." Barney said.

   My eyes widened at his words.

   "What?! Two Murders?" I cried.

   "I'm afraid Sasha is no longer among the living. We found her body in the workshop, with another one of those hammers."

    "Yeah, Justice Hammer #4" Tommy said.

    "Oh my gosh! What's wrong with us! We left Jess back in the workshop!" Nick cried.

   He ran towards the stairs, and we ran after him. Jess was lying on the floor of the workshop, probably fainted from the sight of blood. However, I didn't see Sasha's body.

    "Nick, if what I'm seeing is true, then I don't know what to think..."

   Nick and the others noticed that there was no body.

  "That's impossible!" Nick cried.

   "Ok, let's try to figure this out." Dan said, "the timing of the deaths is too close for the body to have been moved, and Sasha being killed to have been done by one person."

    "And in the student handbook, it clearly states that no more than two victims per killer. Break the rules, and face punishment." Came Jess' voice.

   We looked at her.

"Right" Ross said, "let's not forget that two people are definitely not here."

   "It couldn't have been Olivia, she was with us in the cafeteria when we heard Em scream the first time." I said.

   "Which points the finger at Max being the murderer." Nick finished.

   "We need to find the bodies!" I said.

   "Let's go" Tommy said.

   We split up, again, but some of us stuck together . Me and Dan went to check the art room, but it was locked, so we decided to move on. Until we went to check it again, later, we hadn't found anything. Then it opened the second time, and we found the bodies. Sasha, who'd also been killed by a hammer, had blood coming from her head too, though it had stopped flowing.

    "Oh jeez..." I muttered.

   Em got the others while Dan and I waited. When everyone else arrived, I looked down, and saw Ashlie's finger twitch.

    "Ashlie?" I asked.

   She groaned. The blood was out of her eyes and she looked up at me.

   "Who're yyou?" She asked.

   It sounded like her tongue was swollen.

   "Oh, thaths wight. We're betht fwiends. Feover."

   "She suffering from head trauma." Jess said.

   "Ashlie, who did this to you?" I asked.

   She tried to think then gasped, "Sthkai Ma-"

   She didn't get to finish. She died before she could.

   "Ashlie...Sasha..." I muttered.

   "Ding Ding, knuckleheads! Another body has been found!" Monokuma called. "Same dealio as the others. Get going!"

    "Ok, interesting last words." Dan said.

    "Actually, quite clear." Em said, "she was about to say Max. The thing she said before that was nonsense from the head trauma."

    "Then let's find him!" Barney said.

Chapter Text

     Olivia found Max. I was coming out of the Art room, when she grabbed my arm and said,

    "Lizzie!"

    "Jeez! Olivia! Are you trying to scare the shiz out of me?" I asked.

   "Tell the others to meet me by the pool." Was all she said.

    "Um... ok" I said, very confused.

   I told the others, and soon Olivia stood in front of us, next to the lockers by the pool.

    "So what's this about?" Nick asked.

   "Yeah, why are we here, when we should be getting evidence?" Ross said.

   "This" Olivia answered, her voice monotone.

   She opened the locker closest to her. Stuffed inside was the Justice Robo costume. We gasped.

   "Is the person still in there?" Jess asked.

   We worked together, and the suit came out, with a little difficulty. The helmet came off, and Max was looking very confused.

    "Um, can someone explain to me why I'm in this suit... GAH!" He started, then cried out when he fell, "Dang it! This thing doesn't bend at the waist!"

     "Oh, cut it out! We know you're guilty man!" Barney cried.

    "Guilty of what?" Max asked as Jess and I unlatched the suit.

   Max stretched once he got out, and said,

   "Thanks" to me and Jess.

    "To be honest, I have no idea what you guys are talking about. I got a note from someone saying to come to the game room. Whoever wrote it said that they had possibly found a way out. So I went there, then... I don't really remember anything after I breathed in this funny smelling  stuff someone put up to my face." Max said.

    "Huh. So we're supposed to just believe you." Ross asked.

    "Let's focus less at playing the blame game, and more on gathering evidence, shall we?" Olivia said.

   I nodded.

    "Yeah, let's go." I said.

    I checked around to see if I could find anything that could be a clue. In the workshop, a couple hammers were hanging up. The largest one looked like it had been washed. I went to the art room, and found Olivia already examining the bodies. She looked at me as I came in.

    "Lizzie... Do you notice anything odd about Ashlie's face?" she asked.

   I looked, and Something strange did stand out. Weird. In the corner of the room, a trolley thing had pink blood on the wheels.  After thirty to forty minutes, It was time for the Trial to commence.

Em pointed to Max.

   "All the evidence points to you, Max."

   "What? I told you! I just woke up in that suit!" Max yelled back.

   "Ashlie tried to say your freaking name, Max, don't try to deny it!" Tommy called.

   "Yeah! You killed Ashlie and Sasha in that Robo Justice cosplay! Then you ran across the school and hid the bodies to throw us off! Then you went and hid in the pool locker!" Barney cried.

    "Actually, your story makes no sense Barney" Nick said, "Max couldn't have run anywhere in that suit."

   The others took this into consideration.

   "You're right Nick." I said, thinking, "another thing he couldn't have done in that suit is move the bodies. The flatbed cart is too low for him to use in the cosplay, because it doesn't bend at the waist."

   "That might clear his name." Em said, "then what about Olivia? She was missing for the duration of these events, was she not?"

   "Even with the flatbed, do you think I would be able to not get any blood on me? Let's look at a different theory. Ashlie simply moved herself." She looked at me.

   "Lizzie, you know why this a possible case."

   I remembered what Olivia had pointed out to me in the art room.

   "When we found Ashlie in the Nurses Office, blood covered her face. In the Art room, the blood around her eyes had been wiped off. She probably used her sweater. There was blood on the front."

     "But, if we're going by order of hammers, didn't Em get hit, then Ashlie got hit, then Ashlie got killed, then Sasha was killed?"

    "I'm guessing that Sasha was killed before anything else. The numbers were there to throw us off. Ashlie was killed by another hammer. Let's call it Justice Hammer 5" Olivia said.

   "And where is this mysterious hammer?" Em asked.

   That's when I entered. "There was a big hammer in the workshop, it looked like it had been recently washed."

    I heard the others talking, but it sounded like background noise. We were kind of at a standstill. I tried to think back to something that could point us to the culprit...

   "...Gameroom...Killed... Justice Robo... exactly like they were..."

    I turned to Em.

     "Em, what was the thing you said earlier? When we found Ashlie in the nurse's office?" I asked.

   "Hmm, let me think. I believe it was something about being 'picked off one by one, exactly like they were.'" She said.

    "Yeah, that's what I thought." I said, "but how did you know Em? We hadn't told you yet."

   "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean Lizzie" she said.

    "You said they, before Barney had told us about Sasha... how did you know there were two bodies before anyone told you?"

    "I don't appreciate your humor." Em said.

   "You and Ashlie were the only one who saw this 'mysterious character'" Nick pointed out."

    "And what about the picture of Justice Robo attacking Ashlie?" Em asked.

    "Simple. Ashlie wasn't being attacked by Justice Robo, she was trying to carry an unconscious Max in the suit!" I said.

   "Ashlie wasn't an innocent victim, she was one of the perpetrators!" Olivia said.

   There was a gasp.

   "Ashlie must have killed Sasha, then she was double crossed." I said, "By En, the person who convinced her to kill in the first place"

    "THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE! ASHLIE WAS TRYING TO SAY MAX!" Em yelled, "ARE YOU DEAF AS WELL AS NAÏVE?"

   "Ashlie's tongue was swollen when when we found her. Her words were all garbled" I continued.

   I looked at the others.

   "Try sticking your tongue out and talking." I told them.

   They all attempted it, and all of them almost perfectly replicated how Ashlie had spoken. 

   "If Ashlie had been trying to Max's name. It wouldn't have sounded that much like his name." I explained.

   "If you really have nothing to hide Em, power on your student handbook and show us" Olivia said, "it displays our name and YouTube speciality. I'd like to see yours"

   Em said nothing. Then, to everyones astonishment, she started giggling.

   "Huhu~ I guess I shouldn't have underestimated you." She said, "oh well, I guess I should explain"

   "I took 'it' from the room in the library and hid it somewhere else. Then I told Ashlie that Sasha had stolen it in hopes of getting herself out and leaving the rest of us here to rot. As you can imagine, that was the trigger for Ashlie. She and Sasha already hated each other, I simply need to give her a...push in the right direction.
   We came up with a plan to frame Max and kill Sasha. What Ashlie didn't expect was for me to double cross her. She thought we'd both be getting out of here."  She said with a shrug.

  "That's terrible..." Jess said.

   "Quite" Em agreed.

   "What about the thing Ashlie said before she died though?" Dan asked.

   We turned to Em, who said,

   "Ah, yes. My true profession. Ashlie was the only other one who knew it. See, with the money Monokuma had offered, I could do so much more. But for the next few minutes, I'll still be working at Sky Media." Em said.

   She smiled. I didn't iderstand how she could be so calm. Then Tommy actually put those thoughts into words.

   "How can you be so calm about this? You know you're going to die!" He asked.

   "Anything to get out of this place." Em replied.

   "Alright, enough chatter! It's Votin' time kiddos!" Monokuma cried.

   Once again, we voted on our student handbooks. Once again the slot machines appeared on the screens. Em's faces lined up on them.

   "Jeez! I can't believe you ignoramuses actually managed to figure it out again!" Monokuma crowed.

   He got that evil glint in his eye.

   "And now... PUNISHMENT TIME~!" Monokuma practically sang.

   We were back in the room. Behind the chain link fence, Em was tied to a tall stake, fire licking at her feet. It looked like a witch burning. Em was sweating. Burning's such a horrible way to go... I thought. Then we heard sirens. Monokuma was driving a fire truck. It was hurtling at full speed at the stake. Em just had time to widen her eyes, before we all heard a SPLURCH! And Em was no more.

Chapter Text

My stomach felt like it was trying to force its way up my throat. Em, or what had been Em, was being cleaned up by what looked like Monokumas wearing custodian outfits. When we got upstairs, Tommy actually did throw up. I started crying a little, because even though Ashlie and Em had been killers, they were still two of us. People who wanted to get out. As per usual, another floor was unlocked. It had a huge chem lab. The lab had everything from supplements to deadly poisons. That wasn't very reassuring. I didn't like the idea of poison at everyone's disposal.

Despite the circumstances, some weird relationships had formed. Me and Dan were best friends, even though we'd only met each other a couple of weeks ago. Nick and Tommy were also pretty close. So were Max and Jess, and Ross and Barney. Thinking of these, I smiled, thinking, Maybe there's hope for us yet. I should have known that that would make things worse.
~~~~~
We found The Vacktor family. Em had hid them in one of the Bathhouse lockers. Olivia said that Monokuma didn't put cameras in there because the lenses got steamed up and you couldn't see anything anyway. When we found them, they told us something interesting.

"It's so great to see all of you!" Pink said.

"We finally managed to crack some of these files!" Yellow said, cheerfully as always.

"The biggest, Most awful, Most hopeless Event in human history happened a year ago" Blue told us sadly.

"Yeah, after that, Hopes Peak undertook a certain project." Green said, shrugging nonexistent shoulders again.

"Hopes Peak?" Asked Max.

"That's what this school was called" Red explained, "Hopes Peak Academy"

"The idea was to make Youtubers carry out communal lives while isolated in Hopes Peak Academy" Pink said.

"Depending on the circumstances, there was a possibility that the Youtubers kept in isolation would never get to leave." Blue said.

"From the evidence, this plan originated solely from within the Academy itself" Yellow said.

"So The academy locked itself up?" Jess asked.

The heads nodded in unison.

"The headmaster led the project himself." Green said.

"It's highly probable that he's still inside the school somewhere." Red said.

"So the headmaster is controlling Monokuma..." Dan guessed.

"Most likely" Nick said.

That's when Monokuma came over the announcements

"All students please make their way to the gym for a special announcement" Monokuma's less-than-angelic voice crackled over the PA system.

I sighed. This couldn't be good. I made my way to the gym, and found almost everyone there already. I stood next to Dan near the back. When Barney and Ross arrived, Monokuma spoke.

"I hate to break it to ya kids, but there's a traitor in your midst! A mole, and I don't mean the furry animal, who's been telling me all your little secrets." Monokuma said.

Why did Dan suddenly tense up? I was concerned, then Max asked,

"well, who is it?"

Like he's actually... I started, then Monokuma chuckled.

"Upupupu~! Ask and you shall receive!" He crowed, "the mole helping me is..."

He pointed to the back, and for one terrible moment I thought he was pointing to me. Then, with a sick feeling, I realized he was pointing to Dan.

"Dan The Diamond Minecart!" Monokuma cried.

The others backed away from Dan, but I stayed where I was.

"You guys aren't seriously buying this, are you?" I asked, "The bear is just messing with us!"

I looked up at Dan.

"Tell them Monokuma's wrong!" I said to him.

He looked down at me with sad eyes.

"I'm sorry Lizzie. I really wish I could, but..."

"No..." I murmured.

"So what were you supposed to do, Mole?" Barney asked.

I glared at him, but Dan answered.

"If none one killed after a few days, I was..to kill" he said.

The others seemed to back either farther away. No no no... this couldn't be happening.

"I'm going to go to my room..." Dan said softly.

He turned to me and said,

"Thank you Lizzie"

After he was gone, Ross muttered,

"Good riddance"

I whirled on him.

"SHUT UP!" I yelled.

Without thinking, my hand moved through the air. SLAP! Ross raised a hand to feel his cheek, which had a red hand mark on it. The others seemed taken aback by my outburst, it I didn't care.

"HEARTLESS JERK!" I yelled, "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO SHOULD DIE!"

Ross actually smiled.

"Try to kill me then, if you want. It's within school rules" he said matter-of-factly.

I tried to calm myself.

"I'm going to my room" I growled, walking off.

Later however, I heard talking.

"I probably should have known Dan would be a mole." It was Barney's voice, "He kinda seemed like a pushover to me."

I entered the room.

"Take it back." I said.

"Why? It's true" Barney said.

"No it's not!" I yelled.

I saw red. Why were people badmouthing my friend. I was going to punch him, but he pushed me back hard, and I cut my arm on the edge of a table falling down. Jess was there, and ran to me.

"Barney!" She scolded.

"What was I supposed to do, let her hit me?" He asked.

Jess looked annoyed, then helped me to the nurses office. She knew a little first aid, and bandaged me up. Then Dan came rushing into the nurses office.

"Lizzie! Are you alright?" He asked.

He saw my bandaged arm,

"Who hurt you?" He asked.

"Barney pushed her and a table scratched her" Jess told him.

"He hurt you rather than me..." Dan said softly, "Unforgivable"

"Dan, it's ok, I..." I started, but he interrupted me.

"Don't worry, I won't do anything drastic. I'm just going to draw the line" Dan said.

He walked out of the room, and I followed.

"Lizzie, you don't have to worry. I'm going to ask Ross, Barney, and Max to come to the Game room, and ask for their forgiveness." Dan said.

I smiled.

"Sounds like a plan." I said.

I went to my room. After an hour, I decided to go to the game room to see if Dans apology worked. I walked and saw the door was open. However, when I went in, Dan was crouching on the floor, clutching his head. There was blood between his fingers.

"Dan!" I cried.

I ran and stood next to him.

"Lizzie, could you go get me some of that supplement stuff?" He asked.

"Of course!" I said.

And with that, I raced to the chem lab.

Olivia's POV

I turned the corner as I heard a yell. Lizzie was banging on the door of the Game room. I knew something was wrong from the look in Lizzie's eyes. I looked around the corner, and saw Nick coming up the stairs.

"Nick!" I called to him.

   He came over.

"Dan's in there!" Lizzie cried.

"The door won't open...!" Nick cried.

   "Dan! Let us in!" Lizzie cried.

   Dan didn't move.

"Something's blocking the door." I said, trying the handle.

" I'll get it!" Nick cried.

   He used his elbow to smash the glass of the door, and put his hand through. After we got inside, I saw the chair that was used to block the door.

   "Dan!" Nick cried, running over to the blue haired guy on the seat.

   He had blood on his head, and coming from his mouth. He was silent. He didn't move. He was dead.

   "Well, I do declare ladies and gents! A body has been discovered! Investigate, then Trial! You all know the drill by now!"

   "Dan...is dead?" Lizzie asked, turned to look behind at her.

   Poor girl looked depressed.

"Lizzie..." Nick started, probably trying to cheer her up.

   "I-I'm fine...I can take it..." she said, shakily.

She started to the door.

"I-I need to get the others" and with that she's gone.

"We have to solve this case, for Dan" Nick said.

I nodded in agreement. Soon, Max, Jess, Tommy, and Barney appeared.

"Jeez! Dan's dead?" Max cried.

"Hmm, yup. The mole is no more." Ross agreed.

   "so Dan was Eliminated..." Barney said thoughtfully.

"Oh don't play dumb, I know what happened," Lizzie said, " Dan told me he wanted to talk with the the three of you in this very room! Max, Barney, Ross... One of you is the culprit!"

"Hey, don't look at me! I didn't do it!" Max cried, edging to the door.

"Then why are you trying to run away?" Lizzie cried.

Max stopped.

   "Hmph. I'll admit there was a note under my door that said 'come to the game room' But who would be foolish enough to go? That goggle-wearing goon could have been lying in wait for me." Ross said.

   "Anyways, isn't it a good thing Dan was the next victim? He was a mole after all." Barney pointed out.

"Why you..." Lizzie started.

It looked like she was going to start a fight with someone.

   "We don't have time to argue, we have a mystery to solve." Tommy said.

So it began. I could see many pulling out their handbooks, but I would do that later. I had to gather any evidence I could. Several things popped out to me. Dan had two welts on his head. Nearby, on a CD shelf were six bottles, or rather, there were six. There were only four now, with a good amount of blood and broken glass.

   "He definitely was struck twice" I said, "but I don't think that would have finished him off. He has blood on his mouth. He must have coughed it up. Dan was poisoned."

But how... was the question. Dan had yellow powder on the instep of his shoe. He must have spilled it on him somewhere. Then Nick found another piece of evidence.

   "There's a protein drink by the door." He said.

   I looked at the cup, and it clicked something in my head. I exited to continue the search. After a while Monokuma told us to come to the elevator. It was time for a trial.

   Surviving Students- 8

Chapter Text

Lizzie's POV

"Alright losers! It's time to determine who killed DanTDM!" Monokuma called.

And then the trial began.

"We already know who it is!" I said, "It was Max, Ross, or Barney!"

"I already told you, I did a receive a note, but I wasn't foolish enough to actually go" Ross said.

"Y-yeah! I didn't go either!" Max stammered.

Barney looked at him.

"Heh. I saw what you did..." he said.

He pointed his finger at Max.

"Max killed him!"

"I WHAT?!" Max exclaimed.

"I went early to the room, and hid in one of those lockers. Dan came in, then Max a little after that. When Max came in, Dan told him to wait for Ross and I. Then Dan said, 'I'm going to put a stop to all of this'. Max freaked out and smashed one of those bottles over Dan's head and ran." Explained Barney.

"So it was you Max!" I cried.

"But I thought he was gonna kill me! And put a stop to this school life!" Max said.

"Enough talk! Can we start the voting now?" I asked Monokuma.

"Not so fast Lizzie," Nick said, "That story doesn't explain everything"

   "Yes. Dan had two injuries on his head. Max only hit him once" Olivia said, "who inflicted the second injury?"

   "Barney," Ross said, and Barney seemed to flinch, "After Max left the room, what did you do? Be honest"

   Barney sighed.

   "I was sneaking out of the locker, but I tripped. When I was getting up, I came face-to-face with Dan, blood dripping down his face. I freaked, and hit him with a bottle. Then I got out of there."

   "That settles it! Let's vote already!" I snapped.

   "Wait, something doesn't seem right..." Jess interjected.

   "Oh come on..." I muttered.

   "Barney, where were you when you hit Dan!" Jess asked.

   "I killed him right in front of the magazine rack." Was his reply.

   "You're wrong! Dan was sitting on the chair when he passed away!" Nick said.

   "So neither of those blows finished him off?!" Tommy exclaimed.

   "Yeah, Nick is on the right track. Allow me to present some evidence." Ross said, holding up a small bottle of poison.

   "Isn't that the bottle of poison that was in the supplement cabinet?" Nick asked.

   "Mhmm. Don't you find if strange? How do you think a bottle of poison ended up with the supplements?" Ross said, "the culprit left this byproduct when switching the bottles."

   "What do you mean?" Tommy asked.

   "This" Ross replied.

   Then he downed the poison. 

   "Oh shoot! Ross spit it out!!" Jess shrieked

   "What the heck man!" Max cried

   "I'll admit, this stuff make want to gag..." Ross said.

   "Ross can I see that bottle?" Olivia asked.

   "Sure" he said, tossing the bottle to her.

   She dumped it into her hand, and licked a little bit.

   "This is protein powder" she announced.

   "Exactly. That bottle was holding protein, not poison!" Barney said, "there was a protein cup in the game room. When you put these two clues together, what do you get?"

   "The culprit swapped their contents!" Max exclaimed.

   "Yeah! Then they gave it to Dan, claiming it would help him with his injuries." Tommy added.

   "The culprit used poison to murder Dan," Barney said, "And that culprit is you...

   "Lizzie"

   I tensed up at this.

   "What?! That's crazy! Dan and Lizzie were best friends!" Nick cried.

   "There was spilled powder in front of the cabinets in the Chen lab. Footprints were made by boots in the powder. The only ones who wear boots are Lizzie and Jess. These prints were made by smaller feet, so it wasn't Jess." Barney pressed, "I'm guessing you left the prints when switching the protein and poison."

  "And it explains why she's been pushing us to vote." Tommy said.

   "Yeah, she wanted to pin the blame on someone else before the blame came back to her" Ross concluded.

   Tears were rushing to my eyes.

   "I-I..." I started, then I broke down, "I did it! I killed Dan!"

   "I thought you two were friends! I don't buy it!" Jess cried.

   "She used that to her advantage. Dan never suspected a thing." Barney said.

   Tears were starting to stream down my face.

   "No...he didn't." I said," I found Dan in the game room, he'd been injured. He asked me to get some supplement for him. But when I got to the Chem lab, I realized I could use the oldest trick in the book.
    "That's when I switched out the protein and poison. And... when I gave it to Dan, he downed it so fast. After the poison killed him, I ran out the door..."

   Olivia's POV

   There was a hole in her story. Nick pointed it out.

   "That's not true! Before Dan's body was discovered, the game room was wedged shut! It was a sealed room!" Nick said.

   "Sealed room?" Tommy asked.

   "Lizzie, how did you block the door with a chair from the inside after you ran out the door?" Jess asked.

   Lizzie winced.

   "At this point, let me present some new evidence." I said, "Ross, you provided this clue.

   I showed everyone the protein powder in my hand. A shard of glass was mixed in with the powder.

   "The bottle had a shard of glass from the door window Nick broke to enter the game room." I said.

   "Wait... pieces of glass I broke ended up in a bottle in the chem lab?" Nick asked.

   "Mhmm." I confirmed, nodding my head, "and one more thing. Did you notice the glass shards were under the cup? Not on top of it."

   "Well are you going to elaborate?" Tommy asked.

   "Yeah, what do those shards mean?" Jess asked.

   "I've got it..." Nick said, "the bottle of poison was originally in the game room. Lizzie picked up the bottle while Olivia and I were focused on the body, and afterward she looked for a chance to drop the protein cup she had brought from the chem lab! The glass was under the cup because she had brought the cup after the window was broken!"

   "You're wrong..." Lizzie said softly.

   "As for the powder on Dan's feet, the same stuff is scattered across the floor in the chem lab, in front of the cabinets. Dan must have spilled it when he was getting the poison. There can only be one answer to why he was getting it...." Nick said, his words tinged with sadness.

   "wrong! Wrong! WRONG! I KILLED DAN! FIND ME GUILTY!" Lizzie yelled.

   "Dan commited Suicide." Nick said, and the sadness was more present in his voice," he took poison to end his own life."

Lizzie's POV

   "It explains the blocked door mystery as well. Dan blocked the door to keep anyone from stopping him" Olivia said.

   "How could you reach that conclusion?" Barney asked.

   Olivia looked at him.

   "You assume that someone here had to have killed? You think anyone here, especially Lizzie, would kill their best friend in this god-forsaken school?" Olivia asked, "if so, it's no wonder you came to wrong conclusion."

   "Look, I gotta admit, you're giving us good character drama here, and I really hate ta be he one to point this out, but you still gotta vote on who killed DanTDM." Monokuma said.

   So we did. My face was wet with tears by now, as the slot machines all stopped, one by one, on Dan's face.

   "Cha-Ching! Dan did his own dead lift!" Monokuma announced, making my stomach sink even deeper.

   I felt sick.

   "Why then..." Barney asked, "you stood nothing to gain! If Dan really did kill himself, then why would you hide it Lizzie? All of us would have died if you'd succeeded!"

   "That was my goal..." I said.

   I pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket.

   "This is Dan's last will and testament!!" I yelled, showing them the note.

   Ever since the bear outed me as the mole, I've seen the hate in everyone's eyes. So I choose to go by my own hands before the inevitable attempt of someone else...

   "Dan felt awful about being the mole! He was going to beg you for your forgiveness, but...."

   My mind flashed to Dan with blood running down his face. "Lizzie, could you get me some supplement?" He'd asked. I'd nodded, and ran to the chem lab. I had seen the spilled powder, and the missing poison bottle. "Did Dan take some poison?" I had asked myself, and ran as fast as I could down to the game room. I had found the note. I had tried the door, but it was stuck. "Dan! Let me in! Please!" I had yelled, "why does Dan have to die?"

   I looked angrily around at everyone in the room.

   "Dan had feelings too! Feelings you ignored! DAN DRANK THE POISON, BUT WE DROVE HIM TO IT!!" I cried, "it's not fair that we keep living while he's gone..."

   "So that's why you were trying to get us all killed?" Tommy asked.

   "You wanted to reach an incorrect verdict..." Jess said.

   "*ahem* Sorry to interrupt, but that letter was a fake." Monokuma said matter-of-factly, holding up  another folded piece of paper with To Lizzie on it, "This is Goggles real last testament. That one is just something I whipped up for fun."

   "w-what...?" I asked.

   "Lemme read it out loud in my best Dan impression..." Monokuma said, then started to read.

   Lizzie, keeping that I was the mole was the worst possible thing in this school. I tried to tell you once, but I didn't get to. I'm so sorry. Monokuma took my family hostage, otherwise I would have never helped the bear. I know you must be mad at me for leaving. But I didn't want anyone else, not even Barney or Ross, to stoop as low as a murderer. That is why the life I took was my own, so that the rest of you can live. Don't play the bears game, I know you can stay strong. Live on Lizzie, for me and everyone else who's died in the school.
-Dan

   "Upupupu~! What a heart-wrenching read! I must say! Too bad you almost got everyone killed, and Ol' Goggles died in vain!" Monokuma crowed.

   No... I thought. Dan's last testament, and I almost got everyone killed.

   "He didn't die in vain!"

   I looked at the person who'd spoken. Jess, who looked legitimately ticked for the first time since I met her.

   "Oh heck yes! Dan reminded us that we're not each other's enemy, you are." Max said, pointing to the monochrome bear.

   "Um, excuse me? You are enemies! Did you forget the School Life Of Mutual Killing?" Monokuma cried.

   "You do have a point, this game is to undermine our peers," Barney started.

   "Barney..." Nick started.

   "...which is why I'm dropping out." Barney finished, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I see all that remains is to find the Mastermind, and give him a harsh punishment."

   We all grinned at that.

   "Can you say Dan 'died in vain' now?" Olivia asked Monokuma. 

   "Hmph, I guess you're right. Punishment, you say Eyepatch? We forgot the punishment for murder is death."

   "Um, Dan's already dead..." Tommy pointed out.

   "Yeah, but I have a special execution planned, and it'd be a shame to let it go to waste."

   And with that, we were yet again in the punishment area, but there was no person behind the chain link. Instead was a Laptop with five colored heads. The Vacktor Family.

    "no...oh no..." I heard someone mutter.

   It might have been me. Monokuma was driving a construction vehicle. Faster than any of us could react, Monokuma pounded the laptop, bringing up dust clouds. When it cleared, instead of a laptop, all I saw was a black sphere of metal, with the the evil eye of Monokuma on it. The Vacktor Family... Was no more.

Chapter Text

"Oh my gosh..." Jess said.

"I can't believe it...." Tommy murmured in shock.

"I promised...I promised them we'd all get out..." Nick said.

Everyone else could only stare in shock and horror.

"You knew? You knew about the Vacktors?" Max asked.

"Yeah, I knew about your little AI friends. I'm the headmaster! I make it my duty to know things like that!" Monokuma confirmed, "before you go, there's a little P.S. note down here... *ahem*

Here's a message for you to pass on Lizzie. The Mastermind altered our bodies....

"Like I'm gonna tell you about that!" Monokuma interrupted the reading, "G'night kids! Ain't I just awful?"

Then the monochrome pest left.

"C'mon guys..." Barney said, "we might as well head upstairs."

"Wait!" I cried as everyone started leaving.

They all turned to look at me.

"I-I..." I started, "I'm so sorry! I tried to kill all of you... I don't expect to be forgiven any time soon."

Jess walked up to me, and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey, it's ok. It takes time to get over things like this, but I think we can all find it in our hearts to forgive you. I have." She said.

"Ok, I'm really sorry" I said again.

"How long are you going to say that?" Max asked,"just say it and get over it"

"O-ok." I said.

Then we headed upstairs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"SCREW YOU TEDDY BEAR!"

The yell startled me at my desk, where I was sitting. I got up. The sound had been slightly muffled, so it had come from another room. I stepped out and heard more yelling from the gym. When I entered, I saw Barney, who had Monokuma by his almost non-existent neck.

"I'M SICK OF YOUR LITTLE GAME YOU RAT!" Barney yelled.

He turned to the sound of my footsteps. He threw the bear as hard as he could away from him, and ran to me. I heard footsteps as the others approached the gym.

"Lizzie, listen to me. It's the Mastermind, I know who he is. It's..." Barney started, but before he could finish, a thousand pounds of dirt crushed him.

"Lizzie, what- AHHGH BARNEY!" Tommy yelled, coming in just in time to see Barney get crushed.

"Upupupu~oops! My finger slipped!" Monokumas voice said on stage, "no trial for him!"

Another death had happened.

"Why is there a huge pile of dirt in here?" Max asked, walking in.

"Who screamed?" Nick asked.

"It sounded like Barney..." Jess said, "where is he?"

Olivia looked at the pile of dirt.

"He's under there, isn't he." She inquired to the bear on stage.

"Yup! Old Eyepatch broke the most important rule! No Attacking the Principal." Monokuma said with a shrug.

   "What!?" Jess, Max, and Nick gasped.

   "Welp, you're down to seven now!" Monokuma cried with happiness.

Then he disappeared, leaving the rest of us to stare at what had been Barney.
   ------------------------------------------
Like after every other trial, a new floor had been unlocked.

When we investigated, we found a huge garden, with a ceiling painted like the sky. There were several empty classrooms, but something terrible had happened. When we opened the door of one, the stench of blood hit me so strong, I gagged. The crimson liquid was splattered across the walls, it was everywhere.

   "Urgh..." Tommy grunted.

   Jess covered her nose and mouth from horror and the smell.

   "A lot of people died here..." Nick murmured.

   "Let's go" Max said.

   We found several of the classrooms like that. And the Headmasters office, which was locked. When we tried the door, a familiar monochrome pest popped up almost out of no where.

   "Hey! This is a restricted area! It's locked for a reason!" Monokuma cried.

   "What's the deal with the classrooms?! What did you do to them?" I asked.

   "Blaming me! I'm offended. I didn't do anything to those classrooms!" Monokuma said, "I left them exactly like they were, mess and all! That's all the hint you're getting!"

   "What?" Jess asked.

   But Monokuma was already gone.

   "What's that supposed to mean?" Tommy wondered aloud.

   "The bear is trying to mess with us again." Ross said, "let's continue to explore."

   Also on the fifth floor was a dojo, which had lockers and everything. After we investigated, we met up in the cafeteria. Olivia wasn't there.

   "She's probably gone of to explore on her own again..." Ross said.

   "Hey guys, I need to show you something. I found it on the fifth floor." Jess said.

   She held out a survival knife.

   "I think Nick should keep it safe." Max said.

   "What? Why?" Nick asked.

   "Because you're probably the most likely to not use it." Was Max's answer.

   "It's become clear to me that you punks need a refresher in discipline!" Monokuma's obnoxious voice filled room.

   "Gah!" Tommy cried.

   "How long have you been a there?" I asked.

   "YER LOWER THAN THE TICKS ON MY FUR!" Monokuma roared, "HOW DARE YA STEAL MY TREASURE YOU LITTLE DELINQUENTS?!"

   "Treasure?" Tommy asked.

   "Don't play dumb with me! You even broke the surveillance cameras! That's a clear violation of school rules!!!" Monokuma yelled.

   "Man! I've lost all faith in the younger  generation!" Monokuma cried, storming away.

   "What was that about?" Max asked.

   "He accused us of stealing his treasure?" I said, confused.

   "It was probably Olivia. She's probably the only one who could steal something from Monokuma." Tommy thought out loud.

   "Maybe..."

   Later that day, I thought I saw Olivia slip into the Headmasters office out of the corner of my eye. But when I looked, everything was normal.
----------------------------
I didn't sleep very good that night. In fact, I woke up pretty early and couldn't go back to sleep. I went for a walk around the first floor. When I passed the gym, I saw... something lying on the floor.

It was Monokuma.

He looked like a deactivated robot, not moving or showing any signs that of life. I should get the others, I thought. Soon, Max, Jess, Ross, and Tommy were down in the gym. Max had taken his tool kit (the girls got sewing kits, boys got tool kits) and started dismantling the robot. Nick walked in later, his eyes widening at the sight of the pieces of Monokuma.

"Guys! What are you...?" He started.

"I found him earlier." I explained, "and we've gotten this far without being executed."

   "Max extracted a bomb from that thing!" Jess exclaimed.

   "Jess could you get the Mattock from the garden?" Tommy asked.

   "Sure!" Jess answered, running to the Garden.

   It wasn't long before she came running back terror.

   "In the garden, there's someone....with a knife shoved through them!" She gasped.

   We went to the garden. Sure enough, the survival knife we'd found yesterday was embedded in the chest of someone with a mask and a lab coat that hid the persons physical features. We couldn't tell if they were male or female.

   "The bleeding' stopped, but it hasn't dried, this wasn't to long ago..." Nick said.

  "It's probably Olivia... She's the only one unaccounted for..." Tommy said.

   "Let's see who it is!" Ross said.

   He went up to the body, and started to remove the mask.

   There was a BOOM!!

   And the body burst into flames.

Chapter Text

Ross was blown back by the force.

"Ross!" We yelled.

Me and Jess ran to him. He was alive. I breathed a sigh of relieve. We didn't need anymore deaths.

"We need to extinguish the fire!" Tommy yelled.

We rushed to the garden fountain. After a while, the fire was put out. The top half of the body was charred, unrecognizable.

"Ding Dong! A body has been discovered folks! You know the drill by now!" Monokuma announced.

"Jeez..." Max murmured, looking at the body.

"Who is that?" Jess asked.

"Olivia. The Mastermind is another possibility. It would explain why Monokuma malfunctioned..." Tommy said.

Light reflected off something by the corpse. A key looking thing.

"It must have been on the body..." Nick said, "I think I know what this goes to."

And with that, we stood outside a door labeled "Data Room". Nick put the key in the lock and turned it. With ease, he opened the door, and all of us gasped. There were several screens, maybe fifty.

"The feed from the surveillance cameras!" Tommy said.

"This is where the bear spies on us" Nick said.

"We're in the Masterminds Room!?" I gasped.

"Hey, there's a regular TV in here!" Max cried.

"Turn it on! We can see what's going on outside!" Jess cried.

But when Max powered it on, it just showed us, looking at the TV.

"Crap, it's just feed from another camera..." I said.

"Wait, this TV is picking up outside TV signals, but we're on all the channels...." Max said, "I think there's some kind of catch"

"What kind of catch?" A voice behind us asked.

When we turned around, a monochrome bear stood before us.

"MONOKUMA?!?!" Nick yelled.

"Hi. HAHAHA!!" Monokuma cried.

"You're supposed to be dead!" Tommy cried.

"Never assume a bear is dead until you see the rug Smiley!" Monokuma cried, "anyhow, don't you losers have investigating to do?"

We were lucky to be alive. I was surprised that Monokuma hadn't killed us. We got to investigating. The Handbooks weren't very helpful.

Body too damaged to identify

Injuries:

Single abdominal knife wound

Posterior blow to the head from cylindrical object the width of a metal pipe

Body shows signs of lack of oxygen

   It wasn't much to go on, and Monokuma didn't give us much time to gather clues. When Max, Nick and I were exploring by the rooms, I noticed that Olivia's was slightly open. Strange... I thought, Olivia would know better than that. I opened the door farther. Olivia wasn't there, but her room seemed normal. There was a card on her bed.

   "This looks like a dojo key, for the lockers." Nick said.

   "Then let's go check it out." I replied.

   We had to try it on all the lockers before we found the right one. When we did, there were several metal arrows, and a piece of bloody duct tape.
   What did Olivia have these in her locker for? I wondered. That's when Monokuma came over the announcements.

    "Alright folks, get your butts to the trial room!"

   When the six of us got there, we waited for about five minutes.

   "What's the deal, are we doing this or not?" Max asked.

   "I can't start the trial until everyone's here." Was Monokumas reply.

   "Sorry I'm late." Olivia's voice came from the trial room entrance.

   "Olivia!" I cried.

   "You're alive!"  Jess cried.

   "Or a ghost..." Max said.

   "I say she's just tardy! Let's get this trial started!" Monokuma said.

   "Wait, if Olivia is alive, who's the dead person?" Tommy asked.

   "Well, this class trial is for the murder...of a random student!!" Monokuma cried.

   "That literally makes zero sense..." Nick said.

   "Don't question it Twitter." Monokuma said.

   So the trial began.

   "Olivia, you're the only possible suspect." Tommy said.

   "Why's that?" She asked calmly.

   "We found the body at nine a.m. The sprinklers in the garden go off for one minute at seven thirty a.m." Tommy started, "The body was not wet when we found it, so the murder could have only happened between seven thirty and nine a.m. You were the only one not in the gym with us during that time."

   "The body wouldn't have gotten wet if it was covered by a tarp! I found a wet tarp in the garden." Olivia countered," Using the tarp prevents us from narrowing down a window for murder. That makes it impossible to verify our alibis."

   "But the body wasn't there last night, and Max, Jess, Lizzie, and Ross spent the entire morning in the gym! The four of us have the perfect alibi." Tommy argued.

   "Doesn't that make Nick a perfectly legitimate suspect?" Olivia asked.

   "Wh-what?" Nick sputtered, like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

   "The murder weapon has your name all over it!" Max said.

   "Wasn't the survival knife the murder weapon?" Jess asked.

   "No, I think that was a red herring. Something to throw us off" Max said.

   "The Monokuma Files says that whoever they are got whacked upside the head by something the width of a metal pipe." Tommy said.

   "Like the metal arrows we found in the dojo locker!" I recalled, "there was a clutch of arrows in it, with a bloody piece of duct tape that could have bound the arrows into a rod."

   "We found the key in your room Olivia" Tommy said.

   "I've never been to the dojo..." Olivia said.

   "Then who put the key in there?" Tommy asked.

   "Look, if you must know, I couldn't have gotten into my room if I wanted to. I lost my room key last night, and I had to sleep in a not-bloody classroom." Olivia said.

   "I did see a key in the cafeteria trash can..." Jess said.

  "That makes Nick the only person without an alibi." Max said quietly.

  Nick didn't say anything. He looked worried and like he was thinking hard.

   "If you have nothing to say in your defense, you're guilty" Ross said.

   "Isn't there something weird about this whole trial?" Nick asked," we do t even know who's murder we're solving! There's something more to this case that you're not telling us!"

   The last part was directed at Monokuma.

   "Like they say Twitter, the guilty dog barks the loudest. Anyhoo, TIMES UP! Time to vote!" Monokuma shrugged.

   "What?! There's never been a time limit before!" Nick yelled.

   The slot machine appeared on screen.

   "Monokuma stop it!" Nick yelled.

   The slots started moving.

   "This is messed up! It's obviously rigged!" Nick cried,

   The slots landed on Nicks face.

   "JACKPOT KIDS! The culprit was Twitter himself!" Monokuma crowed.

   "Jackpot?...I'm the killer?" Nick asked weakly.

   "Guys I didn't do it! I swear!" He cried.

   Then we were behind the chain link. Nick was stuck to a rocket with metal clamps, which had a screen showing his Twitter. With each second, his follower count went down. Like a countdown. Before the rocket could launch, the screen flickered. Five brightly colored heads appeared, and instead of blasting off, the metal clamps opened, and the ground beneath him opened. Nick dropped into darkness.

Chapter Text

"IVE BEEN HACKED!!" Monokuma shrieked," HACKED BY THAT STUPID, INSUFFERABLE VACKTOR FAMILY... THOSE LITTLE..."

Before he could call them anything, Olivia asked, "I see this put a dent in your plans." She said.

"Humph! Barely even nicked them!" Monokuma huffed," Sure, I was gonna send Twitter to the moon the hard way, but space debris or not, he's not coming back! He fell into the underground waste dump!"

And with that the bear disappeared. We headed upstairs.

"How are we alive right now? Nick wasn't the killer! Why else would the Vacktors save him?" Jess cried, tears filling her eyes.

"You guys wait here..." Olivia said.

Everyone turned to her, but she was walking away.

We didn't see her for another hour, and when she came back, Nick was with her!

"Nick!" I cried.

"Omigosh you're alive!" Jess cried.

"Man, about what we did to you..." Max started.

"Don't worry about it, ok? We have a bigger-" Nick started, when Monokuma came over the speakers.

"CLASSROOM ANNOUNCEMENT! THE YOUTUBE SCHOOL LIFE OF MUTUAL KILLING WIL NOW ENTER THE 'TRUE ANSWER ARC'" Monokuma announced, "ONLY SIXTEEN YOUTUBERS SET FOOT IN HERE ALIVE! BUT HOW MANY WILL LEAVE THAT WAY IS THE QUESTION TO BE ANSWERED!
"To give y'all a decent shot, I've unlocked all doors in the school. Search wherever you like!"

Then he was gone.

"What did he mean?" Tommy asked.

"We have to unlock every secret in this school," Nick explained.
"Or we all get punished" Olivia finished.

"We can do this guys!" I cried, positivity filling me,"we are going to win this thing!"

"Let's get to work!" Max cried.

All the upper floors were unlocked. There were more rooms, all had blood and destruction like the classrooms. After exploring them for a little, I found Olivia in the Headmasters office.

"This was the Headmasters room," Olivia told me, "so even teachers lived on the campus. I was underwhelmed by the information here."

She showed me an ordinary looking computer.

"I've tried everything I can think of, but I can't crack it." Olivia said.

I tried to think, examining the computer, then noticed a button on the back. It was so small, I would have missed it if I hadn't brushed my hand across the back of the computer. I pressed it, and a secret door opened. Inside was a dark room, with a box wrapped like a present.

"You can open it," Olivia said,"But if it's what I think it is, then it isn't going to be pleasant. Just don't scream, ok?"

I popped the lid of the present off, and let out a scream.

"KYAAAAAAAAAH!!"

Inside the box, was a skeleton.

"What did I just say?" Olivia asked.

Then she answered my unspoken question.

"It's the Headmaster." She said, that's the only thing that makes sense, since only sixteen of us entered alive."

"Huh, yeah. What's this?" I asked, a little memory card was by the box. We took it to the computer in the room, and put it in. On the screen, Shelby appeared.

"Shelby...?" I murmured.

"You may have to spend the rest of your life inside this school" the Headmaster said offscreen," Can you accept that?"

"Yes sir"

Shelby had been killed by Corey in this place. Why would she have agreed to staying?

Then I appeared on the screen, also agreeing. One by one, everyone did. As the video flicked to Ross, the screen went dark.

"Wha-?" I started, turning around.

Monokuma had unplugged the computer. The files were corrupted now! That only showed the files had been important.

There was a cold room on the sixth floor. It had coolers where the bodies were.

Shelby, Corey, Red, Ashlie, Sasha, Dan, Barney, and the mystery person. Em and Adam didn't have bodies to be in the coolers. I looked at the coolers. Something was up. Only seven lights were on, meaning that only seven coolers were in use. Before I could explore further, Monokuma made an announcement.

"Still looking for answers? Come to the gym to get a special hint!" He said.

He was definitely up to something, but what was the harm. I went to the gym, and found a picture with my name on the back.

When I looked at it, all my friends were posing for what looked like a class picture. One thing stood out at me. I was the only one missing from the picture.

"Alright folks! Without further ado, let's begin the school trial!" Monokuma cried over the speakers.

In the trial room, it was like the other trials, except Monokuma stood on a stool at a podium.

"I'm participating in this final trial!" He cried," THE FINAL CLASS TRIAL IS IN SESSION!"

"You're all working with the Mastermind! I have cold hard evidence!" Max cried, holding a picture.

It showed fifteen of us eating lunch. Max was missing from his picture, but I was there, throwing a muffin at Dan.

"Everyone's in here but me!" Max cried.

"I was gonna say the same thing!" Jess said.

Her picture showed everyone at a sports festival. I was also in that one, slightly ahead of Dan and behind Adam in a race. There was no Jess.

Tommy's showed everyone at the pool, where me, Shelby, Ashlie, and Sasha had challenged Dan Adam, Red, and Max to a water fight. Corey wisely was staying out of the water. No Tommy.

Nicks picture looked like a winter card. There was no Nick, but Ashlie was throwing a snowball at Sasha, And Dan was helping me put the head of a giant snowman on by letting me on his shoulders.

"I'm in your picture..." Jess said, as we looked at each other's pictures.

"So you all weren't ganging up against me." Tommy muttered.

"So much for hints" Olivia said.

"You didn't get one?" I asked.

"Why bother, it was an obvious trap?" She asked.

"Photoshop?" Nick asked.

"I didn't edit a thing!" Monokuma cried.

"I actually don't think he's lying..." I said.

"I don't follow you." Max said.

"Me and Lizzie found videos of all of us individually being interviewed by the Headmaster. We agreed to stay here for the rest of our life's." Olivia summed up.

"The reason we don't remember..." I said, "Is because we're all suffering from amnesia."

"WHAT?!?" Everyone gasped.

"Shucks! You noticed?" Monokuma asked," that's right, I nailed everyone with amnesia!"

"With precision, I'm guessing. It's to convenient for us all to suffer from the same memory loss." Olivia said.

"Oh shucks! You're right again!" Monokuma said with a shrug, "but you still haven't figured out who the Mastermind is."

"I think I've figured that out." Nick said, "The Mastermind is the person we didn't realize was gone since the beginning of this trial."

I looked around, and I knew who he was talking about.

"Ross" I said,"Ross is the Mastermind"

"Seriously? You think I'm Ross?" Monokuma asked,"really?"

"You're the only possible answer!" Nick said,"In everyones picture, your face is either covered by snow, water, or someone else's hand, or you're not even facing the camera"

"You also pulled the plug on the Headmasters Computer before we saw your real face." I said, realizing it.

"You reused Barney's body for a unnecessary trial, and planted false evidence in my room. Were you trying to get rid of me because I was close to unlocking the truth?" Olivia asked.

"Barney's body?" Jess asked, "Wasn't the mystery person hit over the head with a pipe?"

"That was camouflage," Olivia said, "The body that burst into flames was lacking Oxygen, and was flatter than a normal corpse. Barney was crushed by dirt, remember."

"Nick ended up taking the fall, then Olivia got him from the dump." Jess said.

"You are the Mastermind Ross!" I cried.

Monokuma stood, silent. Then, a dramatic puff of smoke rose behind Monokuma. A figure stepped out. It was Ross, but not the quiet Ross who wore a onesie. This Ross wore a dapper gray tuxedo, matching slacks, and black business shoes. He still had a red bow tie, and a gray squirrel tail. On his head, he wore...squirrel ears?

"Ross..." Max muttered, "What the heck man!?"

"Why would you do this to us?" Jess asked.

"Hmm, maybe I should start at the beginning..." Ross mused, his blue eyes colder than the Ross we met.

"This school was for all sorts of Youtubers, mostly beginners like Lizzie and Olivia. The Headmaster brought in several professional Youtubers like me and yourselves. However, after the most Hopeless, most Despairing event in human history happened a year ago..."

"Wait, a year ago?" Tommy asked,"What happened a year ago that was so terrible."

"How could we have been here a year ago? We just got here a few weeks ago..." Jess asked.

"Yeah, not really long..." Max said.

"Well, I wouldn't call two years 'not really long'" Ross said with a shrug.

T-two years?! I thought in horror. That made me seventeen...I had missed two whole years of my life. When I had blacked out when I stepped on to campus, two years had passed before I woke up in that classroom.

"Bull!" Max yelled.

"That can't be true..." Jess said.

"It's true alright, those pictures actually happened. You all were good friends" Ross said with a cruel grin.

"Then you made us murder each other?!" Tommy asked, "That's sick man."

"Why are you telling us this? You're helping us solve the mysteries..." Olivia cautioned.

"Well, I didn't think you'd want to leave when the outside looks like this..." Ross said.

The screens around the Trial Room turned on, each showing different things from news clips. The Statue of Liberty, with a Monokuma head. The Eiffel Tower, Monokumas head on the top like a bad cherry. The sphinx in Egypt, also with Monokumas face. People running around causing destruction, wearing makeup Monokuma masks. Despair. I could feel it creeping down my spine, towards my heart.

"The Headmaster wanted to keep the surviving people, you, alive, so he turned this school into a bunker." Ross said,"I took the liberty of infiltrating the school with a friend."

"Who?" Tommy asked.

"Barney." Ross said,"we had a plan where he believed we'd both be getting out alive. But he figured out the real plan, and almost told you all who I really was."

"The real plan was to kill him after we were all dead." Olivia said, "Am I wrong?"

"Nope, right on the dollar." Ross said nonchalantly.

"Sick..." Tommy said.

"Hey, it didn't matter if I killed him when I originally planned, when I did, or if I did it sooner. No matter who dies, there will always be Despair. For anyone." Ross said,"And it's time for your ultimate hope test!"

Ross pointed to Nick.

"If the rest of you throw Nick to the hounds, you can all go free. It has to be unanimous or you all get killed!"

"Why me?" Nick asked.

"Um, because I hate you? You keep speaking against me and stuff?" Ross answered.

The despair filled the room like a gas. It chilled me to bone. I didn't want to vote to punish Nick, but I also wanted freedom.

"Max! You expressed the strongest desire to live!" I heard Nick cry, "are you going to bend to the Masterminds will now?"

Max looked dazed for a moment, then grinned.

"Heck yes man. I wanna leave this place far behind! I'm in!"

"Nick..." I said.

"Lizzie, we have to do more than survive! We have to get out of here and live, for Dan, and everyone else who's died here!" He said.

I smiled.

"Y-yeah! Dan wouldn't want us to rot here for the rest of our lives! So I'm in too!" I said.

"Tommy, you're tough, are you going to let Ross boss you around?" Nick asked.

"No way man!" Tommy replied.

"Jess, I know you more than anyone want to get out. We have families, and so did the ones we lost her. I can't think of anyone who could find and comfort those families better than you can. We can find all our families, I promise!" Nick cried.

Jess had tears in her eyes, but she was smiling.

"Yeah, I'm in too!" She said.

Nick turned to Olivia, so did we.

"Olivia..."

"Your words won't reach her, she doesn't remember her family, yet she knows it's the reason she came to this school." Ross said, "this is the end of the line."

I looked at Olivia. I felt the feeling that had been nagging me since I first met her. That I knew her.

"Liv?" I said to her," You can't give up...sis."

She looked at me, and it looked like something had clicked.

"We came here together, and I sure as heck ain't going to leave without you!" I cried.

"Neither are we!" Nick said.

"I-I'm in." Olivia said, smiling at us," I am so in!"

"We choose Hope!" Jess yelled.

The slot machine appeared on the screens one last time, one by one stopping on Ross's face.

"Seriously? I lost?" Ross cried.

"Got a problem with the verdict?" Max asked.

"You can't talk your way out of this!" I cried.

"Sweet!" Ross said, "This is Despair... I infiltrated this school two years ago, devised an intricate plan, I killed my friend, only to fail in the bitter end!"

"So you admit defeat?" Tommy asked.

"Defeat? You don't get it. Win or lose, it's all the same to me. There's Despair either way. Despair is the only thing waiting for you as well." Ross said," Now let's get this over with. IT'S PUNISHMENT TIME!!!"

For the final time, we were behind the chain link. Ross wad there, shifting punishments. First, he was being electrocuted in the dunk tank, then he was swarmed with squids, he was burning at a stake, and finally, he was tied to a rocket. When the countdown went off and the rocket launched, Ross didn't make a sound. He didn't even scream.

Ross was gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We stood at the entrance, the button to open the security doors in Nicks hand.

"I can't believe we're actually leaving..." Max said.

"Yeah, I can't say I'll miss this place, but it feels weird leaving, you know?" Tommy said.

"This is goodbye then," I said," and goodbye to Dan..."

"Feel free to visit anytime." Jess said with a smile.

"Same" Nick said.

"Double same" me and Olivia said.

My sister... I thought when I looked at her.

"Here goes" Nick said, pressing the button.

The doors opened, and we stepped out into a new world.