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The metal collar around her neck tightened as she desperately tried to breathe. She felt herself go up and then come down again as her feet slammed onto the piano keys. She had managed to slip in a few breaths from the short time she had when she reached the ground. Her feet hurt, the constant slamming probably sprained them, or worse. She couldn't tell though, her legs had gone numb quite a while ago. She could feel her life slowly slip from her grasps as she began going limp. How long had it been since her execution started? What were the others feeling? How did he feel when she killed him? He probably hated her. She couldn't hold back the tears that brimmed in her eyes. The guilt she felt was immense. She didn't want to kill him, she didn't mean to. This was her punishment for her actions and she knew she was about to die very soon if this kept on going.
But after all, isn't this what she deserves?
If only... If only she had a second chance. She would do things differently.
Kaede Akamatsu opened her eyes and found herself in a locker. Her heart was beating fast as she raised a hand to her neck. Hadn't she just been executed by Monokuma? Why was she able to open her eyes? 'Ah,' she thought. 'is this the afterlife? So I really did die.' She thought, eyes welling up with tears, her heart heavy with guilt. But one thing she was curious about. 'Wait, why am I in a locker, again?' She thought to herself but brushed it off as she opened the locker door.
She scanned the classroom and... wait what?
Classroom?
And this of all classrooms??
Ah right, this was supposedly hell so obviously she woke up here to be tormented.
But when she heard the slamming from the other locker, she grew even more concerned.
Out came a boy, and who was that boy? None other than Shuichi Saihara himself.
"Shuichi..?" She whispered, looking at the panicked boy.
What was he doing here? Wasn't this hell? Wasn't she dead?
"Shui-" Kaede was cut off by his screaming. The momentary surprise was soon cut off by the feeling of annoyance. "Hey! Shut up! I'm not gonna hurt you." She said to the boy.
"A-Ah, I'm sorry I just thought you had something to do with the reason I was kidnapped." Shuichi said as he slightly pulled down his hat.
Kaede was beyond confused, what was happening? Did she have to re-enact her moments in the killing game? Was this her punishment?
But maybe, here, she could change things, if that was even possible? Even though this whole situation was made to torment her, maybe she could somehow make it better.
After re-introducing herself to Shuichi, she had suddenly remembered about the Monokubs and internally groaned, she didn't want want to see them again. So she did the next best thing and took her friend's hand and ran outside of the classroom. "C'mon Shuichi! Let's go explore!" She yelled cheerfully as she looked back at him, ignoring his protests. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad here after all.
She suddenly stopped and bit her tongue when she thought that. 'Don't forget Kaede, you're dead and this is hell.' She reminded herself and lost her smile. Although she had made a mental note that she did have free will. She sighed and turned to her current companion.
"Hey Shuichi, I was just thinking but, what if you died and then woke up again to a few days prior before your death?" Kaede asked as she faced him. The pianist (?) realized how strange her question sounded to others only after it came out of her mouth. "Ah, uh, what I mean is-" She was cut off by a laugh. "Kaede, what kind of question is that?" Shuichi asked as he let out a laugh, she couldn't help but smile after seeing him laugh, after all, he was basically the closest friend she'd had. She hated herself for betraying him.
"W-Well it was just a dream I had! And I was just curious about it 'cause it was so peculiar, y'know!" She struggled to come up with an excuse. "Well, wouldn't it be considered a second chance then? Maybe your dream death was unfair and you got a chance to fix it, if I got a chance to do that, I'd definitely try and fix things." Shuichi said as he tugged on his hat which Kaede had noticed of course. "Hey, you should try taking off your hat! I bet you'd look great." She said with a smile as he blushed furiously. "I, well, uh, you see-" He continued to stutter until she snatched his hat off his head. "See? You look amazing! Wow your eyes are so pretty!" Kaede told him as he snatched his hat back. "K-Kaede!" He said, flustered.
Her mind drifted to what Shuichi had told her, what if, this was her second chance? Would that even be possible? No, right? Ah, whatever! She decided that she would treat whatever this was as her second chance. And if that were the case, he'd have to be here, wouldn't he? She gulped nervously, it's not that Kaede didn't want to see him, she was just too guilty, she took away his life and would never forgive herself for that.
Kaede glanced over at her Ultimate Research Lab and paid it no attention until Shuichi had pointed it out. "Kaede, look over there, there's a door, we should go and try to open it." He remarked. She felt a little bit uneasy, after her execution, would she even be able to play the piano? Monokuma had taken the thing she was most passionate about away from her. She gritted her teeth but walked towards it nonetheless. "You're right Shuichi, maybe we can try to open it?" She said even though she knew that at the time, it would be locked. She took in a breath and jiggled the doorknob. Of course, it was locked.
"Ah, it's locked." Kaede mentioned and then suddenly remembered that the Monokubs were about to-
"Rise 'n shine, ursine!"
She groaned, there they were.
Kaede had decided that she would block out everything they were saying and decided to look around as she heard Shuichi freak out beside her.
"So long, bear well!" She sighed in relief when she heard those words.
"Uh, Kaede?" Shuichi said.
"Hm? What's up Shuichi?" She asked.
"A-Ah, I just said that we should go try and find the other students."
Oh. Oh. Now this would be hard for her. She'd have to see the faces of the ones she had previously let down. And of course, the one she had murdered. Words couldn't come out of her mouth so she nodded. She knew where they were, of course she would, after all, she didn't spend much time in the school.
They then turned the corner and there stood the Ultimate Cosplayer, Tsumugi Shirogane. Kaede didn't want to make the same mistake she made when she first tried introducing herself so she decided that she would try her best to get her attention.
"Shuichi, there's someone there." She said. "We should go introduce ourselves to her." Kaede continued, with a slightly strained smile.
The pair made their way to the still cosplayer. Kaede cleared her throat. No response. "Hi there, we would like to talk to you." She said. Still, no response. "Uh, Shuichi what should we do?" She decided to ask her companion. Last time, she poked her but clearly it was rude so she didn't want to do that again. "Hmm. Hello? Can you hear us?" Shuichi asked. She mentally face palmed. 'Shuichi, I don't think that's gonna work. And of course, it didn't.
"Uh, do you think she's just ignoring us?" Shuichi asked his friend. "She probably is." Kaede said with an awkward smile. "Maybe we should introduce ourselves and go? I mean there's other students here we can probably ask them if they know anything." The detective suggested to which his companion nodded. She knew that nobody remembered anything and it was hopeless to ask. But she knew it wasn't their fault, it was the mastermind's.
Kaede clenched her fists. The mastermind. The one who brought her demise. And... the reason she committed murder. But she had no one to blame except herself for that one.
Shuichi snapped her out of her thoughts by introducing himself to Tsumugi. Not long after, she did as well. Somehow, that had gotten her attention. "I thought you guys would never leave." She said which startled the detective. "Hi there, what's your name?" Kaede asked, shocked as well that she actually answered. "Ah, I'm Tsumugi Shirogane! I'm the Ultimate Cosplayer but that must be odd because I'm so plain." She introduced herself and the ex-pianist (she didn't know if she was even able to play piano after what happened) wanted so badly to tell her that she knew but she needed to keep her mouth shut. If this was in fact her second chance, she wouldn't want to ruin it by making herself seem crazy. To her, Tsumugi was a good person, she had considered them to be good friends before her, uh, execution. She was glad that she could see her friends again but hated the circumstances she had to be in to see them.
After speaking for a bit with Tsumugi, the pair had stopped by the stairs when Kaede had remembered the Monopad that should've been inside her bag. She was confused because the first time, Shuichi had brought up the fact that they even had Monopads. He should've brought it up when they had arrived at her Research Lab. She found that a little strange but decided to take it upon herself to mention it this time. "Oh right, Shuichi, I think there's something in my bag. It feels a bit heavier than before. I think something's inside." She said as she took the straps off her shoulders and took her Monopad out. "Ah, I have one in my pocket, I didn't notice it I guess." He said as he took it out. "It says Monopad on it." She said as she started it up. "It has our names on it, like a student handbook. I think we should keep them." The detective said as Kaede nodded aimlessly. After all, she had already been through this once.
It hadn't dawned on Kaede that on the first floor, she would meet him again.
The ex-pianist and the detective had made their way to the first floor. She made her way down the hall, Shuichi following behind. She suddenly froze when she saw a tuft of green hair. 'No no no no NO NO NO NO-'
Kaede was NOT ready to see him. She couldn't face him after she knew what she did to him. Her eyes widened and she had gone pale. "Kaede? What's wrong?" Shuichi said in concern. She didn't want to burden him, she really didn't. He treated her so kindly but didn't know what kind of monster she was. She couldn't stop her hands from shaking but attempted to put on a smile. "I-I'm okay. Don't worry about me." She lied. "You sure? We can take a break if you'd like." He said, patting her on the shoulder in reassurance and she almost cried at how nice he was being to her.
Unfortunately for her, Shuichi's voice had attracted the boy and he was now in front of the pair. His emerald green eyes which were staring back at her in concern. No, she shouldn't look at him, not after what she did, the shame she felt came creeping back up. She couldn't do this. Every fiber of her body tried to run but she just couldn't. She couldn't stop herself from looking at him.
"Is everything alright?" Came out his voice softly. That snapped her out of thoughts and she soon glued her eyes to the floor. "Y-Yeah! Everything's fine, right Shuichi?" She said, clearly panicking
The detective continued to stare at her in concern. "Um, yeah, everything's okay. Uh, I'm Shuichi Saihara, the Ultimate Detective." Shuichi decided to take the lead and introduce himself to the green haired boy who couldn't help but look at Kaede as well. "Oh, it's nice to meet you Shuichi, and you are?" He said with a slight smile as he stared at the girl in front of him. This made her feel even more guilty. She took his ability to smile away. "I, uh, I'm K-Kaede Akamatsu, the uh, Ultimate Pianist." She introduced herself as she proceeded to curse herself in her mind for messing up so much.
"Nice to meet you Kaede, I'm Rantaro Amami, I can't remember my ultimate talent at the moment, but I promise, I'm not a bad guy." He said as smiled at her. And she knew, she knew he wasn't a bad guy, she knew more than anyone else that he wasn't a bad guy. But because of her stupidity, she had to find out in the worst way possible. God, if he knew what happened, he would hate her.
Kaede knew she could never forgive herself for what she did to him. She didn't want to see him but she didn't want him to be away from her either, it gave her a sense of relief to know that he was okay. That Rantaro Amami was alive and in front of her. She decided to completely disregard the fact that she was in hell. She told herself that this would be her second chance and no matter what, she would fix things and properly catch the mastermind. With a new look of determination in her eyes, she mustered up all her courage and asked.
"Say uh, Rantaro, would you wanna join us and explore?"
Her question caught the boy by surprise, they had just met and she asked if he wanted to explore together? Kaede regretted her words, now he'd be weirded out by her-
"I'd love to Kaede." He replied with his signature relaxed smile. The ex-pianist, who had unknowingly tensed up, felt her body relax and she let out a sigh of relief.
She decided. She would protect him and his smile. She wouldn't let him die again. She wouldn't act recklessly.
"Yeah! Then, let's get going!" Kaede exclaimed cheerfully, deciding to turn her guilt into something else.