Chapter Text
“No, wait, don’t vote! It wasn’t me, I swear…!”
Kirumi shook her head a bit at Shuichi’s desperate attempt. “The evidence is clear cut. I apologize, I thought better of you.”
He furrowed his brow at that. “But it’s you, I know you are the one who killed Ryoma…!”
It was futile, no matter what he tried to say. The trial of Ryoma’s murder was perfectly planned out by Kirumi. There was a moment where it seemed Shuichi had figured her out and got the others on board, but she quickly took the strings back in hands and managed to stitch together a story where Shuichi was Ryoma’s murderer. Of course he actually wasn’t, Kirumi was. But the only ones in the class who knew that were she and him.
The others didn’t doubt Kirumi on the matter and swiftly voted for Shuichi despite his pleading. With all votes casted Monokuma jumped from his seat to present the poll results. Kirumi smirked lightly at them; 11 votes in total had been put on Shuichi. The 2 other votes were put on her. By Shuichi no doubt, along with someone else. She grimaced at another but him having their suspicions on her, although it didn’t matter in the end. The majority vote was overwhelming.
“Puhuhu, 11 votes for Shuichi, and 2 votes for Kirumi… That means the final vote counts for Shuichi Saihara. Is that the correct answer? Let’s see, let’s see… The final judgment is… is… INCORRECT!”
“What?!” The class backed off out of shock, everyone immediately breaking out in a cold sweat.
“I told you!” Shuichi gritted through his teeth. “It wasn’t me…”
“Should’ve listened to the emo boy,” Monokuma cackled. “Only 2 people voted correctly.”
“C-can we have a revote?” Kaito asked in a panic. “My hand just slipped…!”
“No way! I just laid the answer out for you already, that’d be unfair! Kirumi wins, everyone else loses!”
The class turned towards the maid, their drilling eyes showing a range of emotions. Some were still in shock, others had already translated that shock into anger, and some became emotional over the idea that Kirumi betrayed them.
Gonta sobbed lightly. “Gonta thought Kirumi protect everyone…”
“I am protecting everyone,” she quickly corrected. “You must understand I killed Ryoma for the greater good.”
“Suuure,” Kokichi said in a surprisingly aloof tone. “Just tell yourself that.”
“I can’t believe it…” Himiko hid further under her hat. “My magic didn’t sense this at all…”
Before anyone else was able to tune in on the disappointment, Monokuma quickly interrupted. “Don’t you worry, you’ll all be dead soon!”
“Dead?”
“Yes, don’t you remember? If the culprit is not caught, everyone but the culprit dies. And since you voted incorrectly… Puhuhu…”
Immense panic immediately filled the room, the memory of Kaede’s execution flashing by everyone’s eyes to remind them they too would be tortured as such. They jumped off their stands, trying to run away from their fate which had been sealed. Metal arms quickly came to interrupt the escape attempt and pull them towards the execution room one by one. The last one pulled in being Shuichi.
He glared at Kirumi as he got dragged away. “How could you, Kirumi…?!” he yelled, his eyes even starting to water at the promise they made together. “We were supposed to get out of here together, you were going to be by my side, you promised…!”
She bit her lip a bit, but quickly flattened her expression to hide the pain she felt. “It was but a lie.”
Shuichi too was dragged behind the doors, and Kirumi took this as her sign to leave for the elevator. There was no point in sticking around, after all. But Monokuma didn’t allow that. He wanted to make sure she would forever remember what she did to her classmates.
And remember she would.
The entire class was put in a room, tightly squirming together in each other’s arms in the hopes of protecting one another. Monokuma happily entered the room with a big beautiful iced cake, spelling “congratulations on winning” . The only missing piece was the lit candles. He placed them on the large pile of sweets one by one, until there were 12 in total. Nobody knew where this was heading, and the group only held on tighter. The nervousness clearly translated to Monokuma as well, because no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t get his match to light up. It pissed him off, and so he decided to call in the big guns of a flamethrower. With full power the fire blasted over the cake and even went as far as to the other side of the room, hitting the students.
As the fire scorched everyone, screaming and yelling rang through Kirumi’s ears accompanied by the smell of burning flesh and melting metal. Some made attempts at putting themselves out, but were unable to do so at the end of it all. One by one each of them fell to the floor, the last one to fall once again being Shuichi. He reached for Kirumi as he screamed out his final breath of life and turned scorched. An image that would, just like his death, burn itself in her mind.
Alas Monokuma got the fire under control, white foam covering both the charcoal bodies and the cake which had by now turned into a mess. But the candles were lit, and so it was finally time for Kirumi to eat her cake.
…
“Open the door already, Monokuma.”
Kirumi stood in front of the heavy safe door that led to the freedom she had murdered for. The very reward earned for her coldblooded actions. By winning, Monokuma shut off all the traps in the underground which, just as the class had suspected at the time, actually led to the outside world. As soon as Monokuma would open this door, Kirumi was a free woman.
“Puhuhu… You’re quick to get to the chase. Are you sure you don’t need a minute to recover from the execution you put your classmates through?”
She furrowed her brow at the comment. He clearly wanted her to feel bad about her actions and doubt the decision she had made. But it wasn’t going to work. The sacrifice of her classmates was one that would soon be repaid with her return to the outside world. Her return as de facto prime minister to save her people from the awful event that would befall them.
“No, open it.”
“Alright, alright. Well, here we go!” The bear pulled out a key and put it into its slot. The creaking of metal filled the air to signal the door opening, a dazzling light blinding Kirumi.
She squinted her eyes to adjust to the light, walking towards the door. There was no real indication as to what time of the year they were in, but she had at least expected a nice breeze. A breeze that would signal the freedom she had achieved. But instead incredibly hot air hit her skin. It wasn’t even the air of a hot summer day, it smelled far too awful for that. This wasn’t just any kind of air.
As her eyes finally adjusted to light, it became evident why. The world she was faced with was destroyed, in rubble; apocalyptic. There was no greenery, no animals, no birds and no people. All that could be seen was the once upon a time street of a large city, the buildings stripped and falling apart while sand covered most of the destroyed cars to further emphasize the deserted state.
With a gasp Kirumi stumbled back a bit. “W-what is this, where are we…?!”
“It’s the outside world,” Monokuma happily declared.
“That’s not the outside world… It’s… It’s destroyed.”
“Ohhh, oh, right. I suppose I only gave you part of your memory back with your motive video, hm? Let me fill in the blanks for you.” He pulled out a memory flash light and pointed it at Kirumi, flipping it on and once again blinding her view.
A shock went through her brain as all of her memories returned. She was the de facto prime minister alright, and there indeed was a great danger coming to the country and in extension to the entire world. It was a rainfall of meteors that came to threaten all of life and destroy the biosphere. In response to that, many world leaders had come together and set up the Gofer Project, a project Kirumi personally worked on as well. It was essentially like the Arc of Noah, putting students with incredible talent together to be sent off into space and only returned to Earth once it would be habitable again. 16 students in total. 8 boys, and 8 girls.
And those 16 students…
Those 16…
Were she and her classmates.
Kirumi fell to her knees and hands, taking in deep breaths of air. There was no way for it to be true. If she and the others were on the Gofer Project’s spaceship, it meant the meteorites could not be stopped. It meant everyone else on the planet was left to their own devices, only those 16 being spared. And if that image of the outside world was true, that also meant the meteorites had long come in to destroy the planet.
Everything would be gone.
Monokuma let out a cackle at the despair that was filling Kirumi’s bones. “I guess I maybe should have told you I recorded that motive video before the meteor impact… The awful event I described has already happened!”
“No…”
“Yes! Nobody’s out there, and nobody is in here anymore either… Just your very lonesome self… Puhuhu…”
Kirumi’s breath choked up at the thought, but she also refused to give in. She refused to believe her betrayal was for nothing. With gritting teeth she confidently rose up again, puffing her chest forward. “Keep your games to yourself. I will go out there and I will prove you wrong. No more than 13 people need to have survived for it to be worthwhile. I made an oath to my country, I will find my citizens and I will support them!”
Monokuma was clearly not impressed. “I see, I see… You refuse to give up. I admire that. It will only make the despair you eventually fall into all the more satisfying.”
With that Monokuma left the scene, leaving Kirumi completely on her own with the exit to the truth. The awful truth of her having traded 13 people’s lives for a dead world. But this could not be it. She refused to believe that. She was going out there, she was going to search every nook and cranny for her people. Kirumi was right in killing her classmates, she did the right thing.
“Your deaths… will not be in vain. That is a promise.”