Chapter Text
An almost eerie silence filled the trial grounds of hopes peak Academy. The place had never been this empty before, at least, not when a student was around. Only one person stood in that cursed room, the ultimate gambler herself.
Celeste surveyed the scene before her. She had won, the trial was over and she had emerged victorious. All of her other classmates were dead...
Under any usual circumstances, a person would feel extremely guilty and panic in a situation like this. But Celeste had numbed herself to all that, at least when it came to gambling.
She had been used to ignoring the feelings of her other opponents. It was part of what made her so good at being a gambler: being able to be neutral with winning all the time rather than feeling guilty about it. It also helped her keep her poker face, for without it, a huge part of her act would be gone.
Celeste had treated the most recent trial like any other gambling match. She relied on her usual luck and ultimate ability to carry her through, and despite having lost her cool a few times, she had been able to convince the other students to vote for the wrong culprit.
Now she stood alone in the empty trial grounds, awaiting her reward, and to see what would happen next.
Monokuma had disappeared for a few moments to "take care of a few things" as he put it, but now he reappeared, holding a mysterious red button and the box containing the promised $10 million.
"Ah, Monokuma," celeste greeted upon seeing him again.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," Monokuma said cheerfully, as though he didn't murder seven other students just a couple minutes ago.
"Is that the cash reward?" Celeste enquired, indicating the large box.
"Sure is! Rules are rules, and a promise is a promise," Monokuma replied, placing the box at her feet.
Celeste picked it up and held it in her arms. "Well if that's the case, I suppose this also means that I'm allowed to leave now, right?"
Apart from the money, Celeste had also done everything she did to get out of that wretched place. She hoped there wasn't another catch. It was hard to say with Monokuma, he had surprised them several times before.
"Yes yes," Monokuma set impatiently. "Like I said, rules are rules, and you one fair and Square."
Despite his words, he sounded slightly annoyed at that fact.
Satisfied, Celeste turned towards the elevators.
"Well then," she said. "I guess I should be heading off. I expect the doors will be unlocked by the time I reach them?"
"Geez, so impatient!" Monokuma grumbled after her. He hurried to catch up.
"I was about to explain how to open the front door, but I guess you wanted to leave without the key."
Celeste stopped in her tracks and turned back to face the bear. "What is it this time?" She asked, her own patience running thin for what felt like the 10th time that day. She just wanted to get out of there already, to be free and get home so that she could get the rest of her money and fulfil her lifelong dream.
Monokuma held up the red button above his head dramatically.
"This red button will be the key to your freedom," he explained. "Just press it when you reach the door and they will open right up."
He then dropped the button on top of the box Celeste was holding, and the ultimate gambler quickly snatched it up so that it wouldn't roll onto the floor due to its velocity.
Nodding, Celeste thanked Monokuma and made to leave again.
"I should be heading off now," she said as she approached the elevators.
"Have fun outside, if you can live long enough to even find any sort of fun," Monokuma called mysteriously from behind.
Celeste turned her head abruptly to face him at those words.
"Excuse me?" She asked sharply. "What do you mean by "live long enough"?"
"Oh, nothing," Monokuma said in a tone that clearly indicated the opposite. He began laughing maniacally, his laughter growing more and more insane by the second. "Let's just say the outside world is... Not how you remember it! Puhuhuhuhuhuhu, Puhuhuhuhuhuhuhu, Puhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhu! Good luuuck!""
And with that, he suddenly teleported forward and shoved Celeste into the elevator, letting the doors close behind her.
The girl stumbled, almost falling because of the sudden push. Anger welled up inside of her. "What was all that about?" She thought angrily.
She had won the game fair and square, and she was allowed to leave. But what was up with those maniacal threats, and the violence that Monokuma had just quite literally shoved her way?
"No, there is no need to ponder such matters," Celeste thought to herself as she tried to regain control of her composure. This was all just another trick, another card The mastermind was playing in an attempt to triumph over her in the death game.
She should have known better than to assume that they would just give up after they had lost, some opponents were just that stubborn.
As for the threats, they were most likely lies to intimidate her. There was no cause for concern, no proof to the contrary. Celeste need only make her way to the front door, push the button in her hand and open it. Then she could get away from here forever.
The elevator came to a halt and the doors slid open.
Quickly, before Monokuma could have any chance of stopping her, Celeste rushed towards the heavy front doors of the school.
Stopping right in front of it, she paused as she instinctively glanced back. She wouldn't miss this place very much, she had barely known the people she had been trapped with and there weren't exactly any happy memories.
Still, something painful tugged at her heart, something she did not acknowledge. Guilt? Some misplaced sentimental attachment? She didn't know, she barely felt it.
Stepping back, Celeste pushed the red button and looked back at the doors expectantly. As promised, they began to slide open, slowly but surely.
Evening light began pouring through the steadily widening gap, flooding the interior of the school with its first sunlight in days.
Once the doors were fully open, Celeste quickly stepped out into the evening air. The sun Hung low in the sky, and the air smelt strangely polluted.
But Celeste was too elated at her new-found freedom to think too much of it. She began walking, determined to put as much distance between herself and that cursed school as possible.
Why she had even accepted the invitation to become a student there, she had no idea. But that was not important anymore.
Her first priority should be to get home, not because she particularly liked the house she lived in, but because the rest of her money and remaining possessions were still there. She had not thought it wise to bring millions of dollars to school and keep it in her dorm room.
As Celeste crossed the first few streets, it began to strike her as odd for the first time at how quiet everything was. There were no cars anywhere in sight, no people or bicycles roaming around.
There wasn't even a bird in the sky.
"Perhaps it's just a quiet evening," Celeste thought to herself. "I doubt many people rome around Hopes peak Academy for no reason at this hour of the night."
Still, a strange feeling of unease and foreboding was starting to build inside of her. Celeste ignored it of course, choosing instead to break the silence by humming an old European tune she knew.
She approached the nearest bus stop and sat down on one of the benches, waiting expectantly for a bus to arrive.
The minutes went by, but no bus came. Perhaps it was a very, very slow evening?
But as the sun began to dip below the horizon, Celeste started to get a little anxious. Something was clearly wrong.
Was this another trick? Was the mastermind still up to something even after she had left? Was it possible that she was still trapped after all? Or maybe, maybe...
A feeling of dread so intense that it was impossible to ignore grew inside of the gambler.
Maybe, Monokuma's words from earlier weren't a total lie.
Was the world outside dangerous? How could it possibly be? Celeste had only been stuck in the school for about a week and a half.
The bear had to be bluffing, right? There was no logical way that what he said could make any sense. There was no way her survival could be threatened out here.
Still, Celeste got up from the bench uneasily, surveying her surroundings with much more caution than she had originally done.
She examined unremarkable things like the pavement and the signs, except, some of the signs she now realised had been broken...
The feeling of foreboding growing stronger, Celeste bent down and peeked under the benches. She was not a superstitious person by any means, but things were simply getting way too strange for her to ignore anymore.
She was pretty sure she was alone in this bus stop and there was nothing that could threaten her immediate survival, but still, it was better to be careful.
Celest was so certain that she was getting suspicious over nothing in fact, that she instinctively cried out in shock when, upon looking under the bench she had been sitting on, she saw someone looking back at her with wide eyes.
"What, who are you?" Celeste demanded, recovering quickly from her shock.
The girl under the bench squeaked and rolled sideways so that she was no longer facing the gambler. She then got up from her position on the floor and began to back away.
"I, sorry, I just, you..." Her words came out in a jumbled mess. "You're out of the academy," she said at last.
Celeste looked at The girl inquisitively. "Yes?" She replied slowly. How did this girl know that she had been trapped in an academy?
"You, won the trial..." The girl said weekly, turning pale.
"I did," Celeste replied. What was up with this girl? How did she know about the class trial?
"You, you let your other classmates die?!" The girl cried out at last, on the brink of a scream. "How could you? The world is already as despair filled as it is! You're evil!" She threw out, tears began pulling in her eyes. "You would rather have money then, then to live happily?"
Celeste couldn't help but feel like this girl was being overdramatic. Sure, The world has it's issues and it can be such an offal place, but to imply that the deaths of seven teenagers would affect the whole world seemed a little much.
"They lost the game," she replied simply. "We made a gamble, and I won. I did not kill them, it was just the consequences of losing, just like in any other gambling match I've ever taken part in. It's just that this time, the consequences were more extreme than losing a few thousand dollars."
"You're a monster!" The girl shouted. "How could you talk about it like it doesn't matter? After you've learnt the truth?"
Celeste felt her patience wearing thin yet again. What was her problem?
"Look," she said, starting to raise her voice. "How do you even know about all of this anyway? And why does it matter to you?"
"Wait... you don't know?" The girl asked, The possibility that Celeste had no idea what was going on dawning upon her for the first time. "Th-they never told you, when they let you go?"
"Told me what?!" Celeste all but shouted.
The girl before her sunk to her knees. All the fights seem to have gone out of her, and she succumbed to what seemed to be immeasurable sadness.
At last, she found her voice to speak. Looking Celeste directly in the eyes, she said quietly,
"The world has ended. Almost everyone is either dead, missing, or have succumbed to complete despair."