Chapter Text
It had been a few days since the execution, Makoto still saw Leon’s petrified face in his sleep, but the flashes of it were starting to get shorter. Honestly he wasn’t sure if they even would have been if not for the constant stress and tension he felt around the school. He had been so sure that things would be fine if everyone could just get along, he had even been hopeful specifically about Leon and Sayaka, he had been getting along so well with them until it….happened. They had both seemed so strangely normal compared to the other students, Makoto had honestly started to believe that they might have been, that maybe he wasn’t so different from the other students here after all.
All of that was out the window now, he felt like he barely knew anyone. The only other student who really talked to him was Kyouko, and ironically he found her the most mysterious of all. Chihiro was a computer genius and a girl….a rather shy girl at that, Hina and Sakura were both all-star athletes (then again…Leon had been one as well…) Yasuhiro was twenty-one and psychic, Celeste and Toko were both extremely weird, Byakuya was a rich prodigy heir and honestly kind of an asshole, Kiyotaka was seemingly everything that Makoto wasn’t (at least it seemed like Kiyotaka was TRYING to be polite…sometimes…so maybe that was something), Hifumi was…well…honestly Hifumi reminded Makoto of some of the geekier kids he had known at his last school, just more intense, and supposedly Hifumi was making good money off of it too, which Makoto couldn’t even begin to wrap his mind around. Finally there was Mondo and Kyouko, both easily the most intimidating people Makoto had ever met, and he wasn’t even sure which was moreso. At least Kyouko seemed to like him, and she didn’t tower over him the way Mondo did, but Mondo also didn’t seem too bright, or at least he didn’t seem much smarter than any of the other students here, while Makoto almost suspected Kyoukoof the kind of superhuman intelligence you’d see from a robot in a movie.
Scary stuff.
At the very least, the last few days had been quiet . Things were even starting to look up a little, Kiyotaka had started hanging around Makoto and while the kid was weird if he was anything he was well-intentioned. Sure his face-off in the sauna with Mondo had been a little worrisome, and Makoto couldn’t make heads or tails of their newfound brotherhood but at least they weren’t at each other’s throats, and that less likely to kill each other.
And it seemed that Monokuma was one to agree.
It was the next morning when the students were all called by Monokuma to meet in the gymnasium for an announcement. The portly little bear stood before the students on the stage with a microphone, Makoto almost off-put by how much it felt like a real school assembly.
“Things have just been so dreadfully boring lately,” Monokuma sighed, the students watching him, unconvinced. “Y’know I only picked you guys because you teenagers are SUPPOSED to be little raging freak-bags of unchecked hormones and inhibitions. Where’s the passion? The drive? The initiative!? You kids are too freaking young to be giving up on your freedom this fast,”
“I thought you made a fair deal” Celeste remarked snidely with a shrug, “Are we really to blame if you’ve made the school so inhabitable?” A couple students shot glares in her direction. Sure she was the ultimate gambler but did she really HAVE to risk making their situation any worse? Makoto caught a glimpse of Hina and seriously worried that Celeste would drop dead if she caught sight of the swimmer’s glare.
They had JUST gotten the pool.
“Ohoho your words flatter me Celeste but seriously---haven’t you kids ever been to a zoo? Even a nice zoo? Y’know where all the animals are served on hand and foot and have all the space to frolic to their heart's content? All the amenities their simple little minds could ever dream of? Certainly less sad than those roadside shows with’em all cramped into little cages. But that’s the thing kids, a zoo is STILL a cage, all that nice crap is just to make the visitors feel better and pack the pockets of those mean old zookeepers with their money! Sure maybe the animals like it too but it’s freaking BORING to see’em all just laying around all day! Who wants that!?”
“I…I like the zoo…”Chihiro murmured quietly, a few students turning to look at her, genuinely surprised that she would say anything at all given how quiet she normally was.
Monokuma wasn’t having any of it.
“Well this AIN’T a zoo boys and girls! Sure you’re still all caged like animals! But I think it’s best if we acknowledge this little arrangement for the circus it is! You ever been to a circus where the animals just laze around all day? No!? Cause those animals know they gotta WORK for their meat! Those people wanna see some action and the fella holdin’ the whip knows it! And those animals HATE bein’ whipped you see?”
An uneasy quiet fell over the student body. Even Kiyotaka, who so often was the model of stoicism during these meetings, seemed perturbed.
“So…you’re saying if one of us doesn’t kill someone else here soon you’re going to do something to punish all of us?” Sakura asked, the only one brave enough to put forth the question on everyone’s mind.
Monokuma placed his hands…paws? Over his belly and threw back his head in gleeful laughter “Oh no no Miss Sakura, please, could such a cute bear really be so cruel? That would just be weird,”
He damned well knew how cruel he was, how cruel this ALL was. Why’d he have to act so damn coy about it all the fricken’ time?!
“No no, instead I’ve devised a little carrot on the proverbial stick as it were to wag at all you animals, try and motivate ya to get that blood moving again!”
Sakura raised an eyebrow at this
“If none of you kids find the GUTS to sacrifice one of your fellow classmates for a shot at graduation by midnight tonight, then I’m afraid you’ll all be waking up IN a fellow classmates body!”
That certainly caught everyone’s attention.
“You must be joking,”
“--how’s that even possible!?”
“Relax, relax, I think I’ve made my point across” The twisted bear giggled “So you ARE still red-blooded, good good,”
“Does…does that mean you aren’t actually going to do it?”
The bear laughed again “No no, don’t be so silly, of COURSE I’m still going to do it--of course, however even I, the great, adorable, Monokuma can only do so much---so any and all changes will only be temporary”
“T-temporary!? What the frick does that mean!?”
Standing across from Hiro, Byakuya scoffed. “I presume he means that we’ll only be swapped for as long as it takes for one of us to go crazy enough in a different body to murder someone, or…or to use the opportunity and confusion to pin someone else for a murder…”
“Well you’re certainly righter than wronger!” Monokuma stood with his hands on his belly, laughing, “Oh Byakuya if only the others were more like you and could share in my vision of what Hope’s Peak could REALLY be---”
Byakuya rolled his eyes, why he kept trying to use the bear to support his own dominance over his fellow students he wasn’t sure, it really shouldn’t matter WHAT that mangey toy thought.
“--buuuut that’s basically the point of this whole experiment more or less,”
“Hmm…if you’re changing our bodies--somehow--what’ll be done with the e-handbooks? You already told us we can’t exchange them ourselves,”
“Don’t you worry a hair on your psychotic little head! I’ve already thought of everything! You see your handbooks are all the same device really, before any of your personal files were uploaded to them they were completely interchangeable, so all I have to do is swap files on the respective handbooks and voila! The contents of the handbooks change to match the contents of the body without ever ACTUALLY changing hands! I’m sure Chihiro could explain it to you in more detail.”
Chihiro crouched a little as she felt a couple of the other students glance in her direction at the mention of her name. Surely Monokuma just meant…because she’s the ultimate programmer…
“Now then! If there aren’t any other pressing questions, I recommend you all think very very carefully about how you spend these next 24 hours! They do say you don’t know what you have until it’s gone for a reason---I’m looking at you boys---See ya later!!” And just like that, he was gone.
The students were left alone in the gymnasium to contemplate the news, they were speechless, the room was completely silent
Until Hina broke the silence.
“Wait….does that mean I might have to swap bodies with…a BOY!?” Everyone’s heads pivoted as the shared thought broke into all of their heads, the possibility of waking up in another’s body already so vexing that nobody had even considered the ramifications to such a basic extent yet.
“I would assume so, or at least that it’s a possibility,” It was the best Sakura could offer her friend for assurance, assurance that her observation was astute, and assurance that such a fate wasn’t necessarily guaranteed.
“True..” Byakuya hummed, turning to face the girls “Although I’m sure he’d find such a punishment amusing, if it was what he explicitly intended then I assume he would have said as much. Why give us the heads up that our bodies are liken to change as a threat to inspire another student murder, but leave out the detail that we would be swapping with someone of the opposite gender?”
Makoto’s brows furrowed “Well…it’s not like he said it definitely wouldn’t happen,”
Kyouko nodded subtly “So it sounds like an aspect he’s most likely leaving to random chance,”
Byakaya snickered, “Honestly Kyokyo I almost expected better from you, but this is meant to be a punishment . We’ve already seen that the bear is likely planning our executions in advance to be as ironic, humiliating, and personally horrifying as possible, I’m sure he will be doing the same for our body swaps as well.”
Wait…did Byakuya mean that Monokuma was going to have them change bodies based on who he thought they’d be the most miserable switching with? Makoto tried to think for a moment who he thought he’d be the most…upset? About switching bodies until his train of thought was interrupted by Byakuya.
“--and besides who’s to say it would be a perfect 1 to 1 switch? Who's to say that I won’t wake up in Kyouko’s body, her in Makoto’s, and his in mine? That would certainly add to the chaos of it all, which seems to be his ultimate goal,”
“That doesn’t make any sense!” Toko cried out in protest “I KNOW none of you would resent being stuck in anyone ’s body worse than MINE! If that’s what this was all about, why not force all of you to be ME!?” Tears flooded her eyes as she gritted out her words through a locked sneer, quickly turning on her heel and rushing out of the gymnasium before anyone could respond.
Time hung over the remaining students, heavy in the awkwardness of it all.
“W-well I’m sure at least some of you guys wouldn’t like waking up as small and weak as me,” Chihiro turned and tried to smile as Sakura---or even Mondo---in an attempt to demonstrate an air of light self-deprecation and humor to lift the spirits of her fellow classmates, but instead she accidentally made direct eye contact with Hifumi and without a word the two awkwardly turned away from their fellow classmates.
Celeste's eyes scanned over the room, some students trying their best not to look at Chihiro OR Hifumi, other’s darting their gaze to the doors through which Toko had left in such a hurry. With a breath Celeste stepped into the center of it all, assuring everyone could see her and hear what she had to say.
“Yes, tomorrow truly is exciting and dreadful, is it not? The horror of losing the familiar shame of our own teenage bodies in exchange for the horrors of a new one we do not know, but while we are on the topic I would like to give the very lucky student who winds up in my body tomorrow, if i find out that you have torn, scruffed, snared, stained, or even wrinkled any of my precious, precious fashions---- it won’t so much be a poor gamble as a guaranteed MISTAKE! Understood ja?”
It was enough of a sign for the rest of the students to begin filing out. Amidst the halls Makoto decided to try and scope out Kyouko, she had had such a cool head with the investigation and trial, he hoped that she might have some sort of insight or plan into what was going on.
“Kyouko!”
“Makoto,” she regarded him briefly.
“Do you--”
“Have any idea what Monokuma was talking about? No…although I have a few suspicions that I’m not prepared to share with you. I think we should regard this seriously. We have less than 24 hours to consider any preparations that might be necessary, I suggest you spend it wisely Makoto,” She quickly turned away from him and continued down the halls to her own room.
With everyone so…out of sorts, Makoto also decided it would be best if he just returned to his own room. He laid down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Would it even be the same ceiling tomorrow? Would he wake up in someone else’s room? Whose would it be? He shot up, his face warm and red, thinking about what Hina had said earlier;
“Wait….does that mean I might have to swap bodies with…a BOY!?” Everyone’s heads had pivoted as the shared thought broke into all of their heads, the possibility of waking up in another’s body already so vexing that nobody had even considered the ramifications to such a basic extent yet.
“I would assume so, or at least that it’s a possibility,” Sakura had suggested.
What IF he woke up as Hina tomorrow? Well on the bright side, if he were to, she at least mostly wore sneakers. He couldn’t imagine that trying to walk around in someone else’s body could be anything OTHER than weird, and trying to learn on the fly how to walk around in heeled or strappy shoes at the same time. He was about to lay back down when he realized it would probably be for the best if he showered NOW instead of waiting to do so in the morning as he usually did, while the possibility of waking up as one of the girls tomorrow didn’t exactly help---Makoto wasn’t thrilled by the prospect of having to bathe in the bodies of ANYONE other than himself, no matter the gender. He figured the best he could do was to shower now as a polite gesture towards whoever would inherit his body in the morning, and to hope that his other classmates would think to do the same before the water was shut off. Now clean and with nothing else to do, Makoto took to the task of trying to list the potential ‘risks’ he would have to brace himself for par Kyouko’s advice. He had no way of knowing WHO he would wake up as so he drew up a graph and tried to think of at least one positive and negative aspect for everyone, and ways to ‘overcome’ those challenges.
Some were easier than others,
Celeste had been rather clear in her threat…
“Yes, tomorrow truly is exciting and dreadful, is it not? The horror of losing the familiar shame of our own teenage bodies in exchange for the horrors of a new one we do not know, but while we are on the topic I would like to give the very lucky student who winds up in my body tomorrow, if i find out that you have torn, scruffed, snared, stained, or even wrinkled any of my precious, precious fashions----it won’t so much be a poor gamble as a guaranteed MISTAKE! Understood ja?”
…so Makoto wrote down that if he were to wake up as Celeste he would make sure not to damage any of her clothing and try to stay extra still.
Chihiro? He could…avoid getting into confrontations? That was sort of his thing already. Uh…try really hard not to go to the bathroom? That really applied to all the girls didn’t it?
Makoto decided to make note of that in the margins.
Now for the guys…Byakuya? Makoto was sure no matter who got Byakuya’s body was sure to get an earful from him later. He briefly wondered if someone might try to use this opportunity to kill Byakuya, he did seem to have a habit of antagonizing the others, and Sayaka apparently targeted Leon because she thought he was an easy target. Makoto always tried his best to remain friendly and push back against any senses of conflict brewing among the other students so he probably didn’t have much to worry about in terms of somebody trying to use his body in a murder.
There was also Taka….for a minute Makoto thought switching with Taka wouldn’t be so bad, they were both boys and already about the same height, Makoto wasn’t that much smaller than him, so getting around wouldn’t be too bad. Those boots didn’t exactly look comfortable however. But then Makoto began thinking about the possibility of Taka waking up in HIS body, how weird and extreme that guy was. Makoto remembered what happened with the saunas, what if he tried that again and completely fried his body?
It was then that Makoto decided it might be better for him to use this time to set out notes instead FOR whoever woke up in his body. At first he wrote a general one, trying to be polite and ease them into this, explaining where things in his room were, his plan in regards to the shower, assurance that his body had no allergies or dietary restrictions, and a simple request for them not to do anything risky.
Makoto then filled the rest of his afternoon filling out notes for individual classmates upon the possibility they inherited his body, reminders for Sakura and Mondo of how fragile his bones were compared to theirs, an apology for Byakuya, Celeste, and Toko about the arrangement --- not that he imagined anyone would be happy with it, a set of rules for Taka that he hoped he would take as seriously as any others, and a thank you for Kyouko, with the assurance he would try to help her however he could in exchange for her help on the trial.
After setting out the last note the monitor turned on and Monokuma announced the beginning of the night. Makoto pulled himself under the covers and said goodnight to his body, as he knew it, until he had it again.
Whenever that was.