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Monokuma’s announcement didn’t distress me like they used to. The class trial had ended and I went about my next day like usual, fully expecting my day to be interrupted by a body discovery announcement at any moment. At the current moment, I was walking through one of the halls. While I usually spent my free time in the library, exercising my Ultimate Talent; today I had decided I was going to try to be a more productive member of my class. After the third trial of seeing how adamant Kokichi was about ending the killing game, I had realized just how important it was to figure out a way to end this, instead of just waiting to die. Up until then, I had just been allowing myself to be subjected to the killing game. I hadn’t even cared if I lived or died. I had given up the moment I learned there was no escape, and had thrown myself back into my studies to distract myself from the cruel reality I was living.
I reached the end of the hall and came to a door. I knew exactly where I was, I had studied the map of Hope’s Peak countless times and had read the school handbook twice. I was at the door that led to the room with the hydraulic press. Why had my legs brought me here? I stared at the door for a moment before deciding to follow my current trend of motion and follow my feet inside. When I opened the door and entered, I heard a strange sound like... Why did it sound like someone was running the hydraulic press? I looked over at the control panel and found Kaito standing in front of it, his hands on the controls. For some reason, my eyes snapped to the hydraulic press. Is that..? The next moment was a mess of logical decisions and instinctual reaction. I bolted for the controls and shut the machine off. Kaito’s hands were grabbing me firmly. And then they suddenly weren’t? My knuckles hurt. I noticed Kaito wasn’t moving, but only for a second before I remembered. Kokichi. I ran to the hydraulic press. Kokichi was laying calmly inside it, his cheeks wet with tears.
“Kokichi!” I shouted, pulling Kokichi out of the hydraulic press. Kokichi looked confused. “Kokichi, are you okay?” What was that expression on Kokichi’s face? I felt like I was missing some kind of important information. Something was wrong. Why was Kokichi looking at me like that? “K… Kokichi?” Why wasn’t he answering? Kokichi’s lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear anything. At first Kokichi looked confused. Then he looked up towards where the controls for the hydraulic press were with an angry expression, moving his lips some more but not seeming to make any comprehensible sound. After a moment, Kokichi’s expression changed dramatically. His skin paled, even more than usual, and his eyes widened. He looked at my hands, then up at my face. His lips moved again. I heard the muffled sound of Kokichi’s voice, it was like I was in a glass box.
“Jun?” I stared down at him. He grabbed my hand and raised it up, “What did you do?” I looked at the hand in front of me. It wasn’t hand colored. Who’s hand is that? Why is it covered in blood? I stared at it, my confusion probably evident on my face. Kokichi grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me violently, “Jun!” His voice was loud and clear now, he was screaming, his voice raspy and strained. I looked down at him.
“Kokichi?” He looked so scared. “Why do you look like that? What’s wrong?”
“Did you kill Kaito?!” He yelled at me. What is he talking about?
“Of course not! Why would I do that?” I looked back up at the area near the controls. “He was right there just a moment ago, where did he go?” I looked at the ground next to the controls. What is that? There was a big mess next to the controls. It almost looked like a muder scene, covered in blood. I looked at Kokichi. I didn’t kill Kaito. Right?! My skin felt cold. “Kokichi?” The sounds fell from my lips like a mouthful of water. I went to look at my hands, I found a pair of bloodied hands in their place. Those are mine. My hands were covered in blood. Kaito’s blood.
I looked at Kokichi. My vision blurred as my lower eyelids started to feel weighed down. Water poured down my cheeks as I just stared down at him. Was I even breathing? I didn’t care. “I…” I couldn’t think. “I didn’t…”
Kokichi looked up at me with an expression I had never seen on him before. He was worried, genuinely worried. I felt his small and surprisingly gentle hands wrap around my own. I moved my eyes to look at his face, but everything was blurry. He said something, but it was so muffled I couldn’t understand it. My knees hit the floor as I began to understand the situation. I had killed Kaito. My hands were covered in his blood.
Kokichi looked at me with a resolute expression, “Jun, I-” He started, having my complete undivided attention. “I can make this work. My plan’s in shambles but I can still make this work.”
“Plan?” I looked up at him.
“We don’t have time to worry about that now. We have to find a way to keep Monokuma from finding out it was you who killed Kaito.” His words weren’t making sense, but I knew he was intelligent, so I trusted him for now.
I nodded, trying to shake off my own panic, with our combined intelligence we should be able to fix this.
. . .
I somehow managed to recover from the shock and was able to work with Kokichi to formulate the perfect plan. Being the more physically capable between us, I was tasked with cleaning up the crime scene. Disposing of the body was impossible to do without alerting Monokuma or the other students, so I merely hid it in a place that was a bit more out of the way. The bloody mess it left behind, on the other hand, was proving to be a bit of an issue. There was just so much of it. Which was shocking because the actual murder was nowhere near rough enough to cause all of this. I was smart enough to know not to use my own clothing to clean up the mess. It would be extremely suspicious if my own clothes went missing suddenly, so I decided to use some towels from the girls’ locker room (it was a surprisingly nice locker room). Nobody would miss them, since nobody used the locker rooms. Everybody spent their time in their labs anyway and found a safer place to clean themselves. Next, I disposed of the towels however I could. I had read enough books on various topics to know how to get the blood out of my clothes, though I was really starting to wish I chose to wear white as it would have been easier to bleach the blood out. After finally finishing the cleanup, Kokichi advised me to go about the rest of my usual routine inconspicuously, he would take care of the rest.
I headed to my own lab and grabbed one of the books off the shelves and my notebook before making my way to the library where I usually spent my time studying, since it was often more quiet than my own room. When I arrived, I found Kiibo standing in the middle of the room. He turned at the sound of my footsteps, and I remained as calm as I could.
“Where have you been, Jun?!” He seemed upset. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere. I was starting to worry you had become a victim.”
I felt a twinge of guilt in the pit of my stomach, but kept my cool. “I’ve been wandering around campus all day, it must have just been dumb luck that our paths didn’t cross.” I lied, giving him my usual smile. He eyed me suspiciously but said nothing more on the matter. “Why were you looking for me?” I asked. “Did you need something?”
Kiibo shook his head. “No, I-” He let out a mechanical sigh, “I just wanted to see you.” He said with a smile. It hurt when he said that, but I couldn’t let anything slip out.
Kiibo and I spent the rest of our day reading in the library.
. . .
Four days went by and I was surprised there hadn’t been a body discovery yet. I went to the dining hall at 8:00 sharp and ate something light. Lying to everyone wasn’t really all that difficult. That was probably because I didn’t really talk much to begin with. I was mid-bite into a cream-cheese bagel when I heard the familiar chimes and-
“A body has been discovered!”
There it is.
. . .
The students took the time investigating and I wondered if Monokuma already knew it was me. Regardless, I decided to spend the investigation time alone, since that’s what I always did anyway. The less out of the ordinary I was, the less suspicious I would be, right? Everyone knew I hadn’t really liked Kaito anyway, so why would I bother giving his murder any special attention compared to the other victims. Instead I spent my time in the library, making sure I was well versed in the art of deception before I went into the class trial. Himiko walked into the library for a brief interaction with me. Upon noticing my presence as human, rather than furniture, she was understandably startled. She turned to me and glared.
“Why aren’t you investigating?” She asked in an uncharacteristically sharp tone.
I let my current state of exhaustion wash over my countenance as I looked up at her from my book. “I’m jealous of the victim.” I said in a tone so cold I actually surprised myself. She looked at me with an intimidated expression before leaving in a hurry. I went unbothered for the rest of the time before the trial.
The school bell chimed once again signalling everyone to convene for the trial.
The trial started and I did what I always did, litened passively and offered no input that may help or hurt the trial. Hey, at least I wasn’t regularly committing perjury like Kokichi did. I glanced at Monokuma. At that moment I knew I had to do something. I saw it in his face. He knew I was the killer. The way he looked at me. He was fully expecting me to graduate. With the way this trial was going, with Kokichi being the main suspect, and him playing on it really well. He was a good liar. So good he could have convinced me, if I hadn’t been the one to kill Kaito that is. But if Monokuma knew it was me, then our ruse was for nothing. Everyone else would be killed and I would go on to graduate. I didn’t want to graduate if it meant sacrificing everyone else. I was so proud and appreciative of Kokichi’s efforts to use my mistake, but it was a failure. Monokuma knew. I looked at Kokichi, we locked eyes.
“Kokichi.” I said, trying to hold back my hesitation. For the first time since I got here, I didn’t want to die. But if I didn’t, everyone else would. I was sure they’d find a way to escape without me, I hadn’t been much help before. Kokichi looked at me with a concerned expression. Everyone else looked at me. I normally didn’t say much in the trials, occasionally I would say something helpful. Apparently, the less you say on average, the more likely people are to listen to what you do say. I avoided everyone’s eyes. “The bear knows.” I said. Kokichi understood, I saw it in his eyes.
He sighed and shook his head, “Are you sure, Jun?”
“Yes, I’m sure.” I said, barely keeping my voice from quivering.
Kokichi sighed, “Oh well… It was worth a try. I did what I could.”
“Me, too.” I said, heaving a heavy sigh. I figured I should just get the confession over with. Why bother postponing the inevitable. “Kokichi didn’t kill Kaito.”
Everyone looked at me in shock.
I didn’t bother listening to their questions, or answering them. I was just going to explain the situation to them and plead guilty. “I killed him.” I said, earning more sounds of surprise. “I don’t know why you’re all so surprised. I thought everyone knew I didn’t like the guy.” I said nonchalantly. Maki looked the most upset. “That isn’t the reason I killed him, but it might as well be.” I said, lowering my head, more out of exhaustion than shame.
Someone asked something along the lines of “Then why did you kill him?”
I looked up at the group. “He was trying to kill Kokichi. I think I was probably trying to protect my friend. But I’m not really sure, since the whole thing was a blur. One moment Kaito was moving, the next he wasn’t. It wasn’t premeditated or anything. Guess I just snapped…” I shrugged. Then, heaving a sigh, I put my hand to my head, “Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, he and Kokichi had been working a plan to deceive Monokuma and Kokichi’s death was part of that plan. Knowing that there were only a few survivors left, Kokichi tried to salvage his plan and lie to everyone in an attempt to use my mistake to confuse Monokuma. But I guess the dumb bear saw through our ruse.” I looked Shuichi in the eyes, “I’m confessing to the murder. I did it. You can be one hundred percent sure that I was the one who killed Kaito. I know that if you don’t vote me, the killer, out, then you will all be put to death in my place and I’ll be set free. I don’t want that. Please just vote me out and continue with your search for an exit. I have a notebook in my room filled with notes from all the research I’ve been doing in the library this whole time, as well as notes on the behavior of every student in our class. Some of the notes may prove useful in your search for an escape.” Someone in the group doubted my claims. To which I very simply responded, “What would I stand to gain from lying about this?” Which shut those doubts down rather quickly.
Everyone, including myself, voted for me as the blackened. My execution began. I won’t explain it in excruciating detail, since nobody needs that in their head. I will say it was as painful as it looks from an outside perspective. I’m sure my ears were bleeding. The last thing I remember before everything went black was a high pitched ringing washing over the sounds of muffled voices. Everything went cold and the world faded away. The last thought that went through my mind was the hope that everyone would make it out alive.