Work Text:
“That’s correct! The Mastermind behind this killing game you’ve once again been forced into is none other than the Ultimate Hope, Makoto Naegi!” The black and white bear infamously known as Monokuma stated, laughing maniacally as he did.
The aforementioned lucky student stared straight down at the ground, gripping the podium in front of him as tears fell from his eyes. Even when he tightly shut them, they still escaped.
“Though you already knew all that, considering that explosive confession earlier!” The bear continued, still smirking menacingly. “Though what I don’t understand is why he thought putting himself back in a situation where he had been relied on so many times, when that is what he was trying to avoid, was such a good idea! Seems kinda counterintuitive to me!”
“Shut…just shut up, Monokuma…” Makoto muttered, lightly lifting his head to glare at the animatronic.
“Makoto…” Aoi Asahina, a good friend of Makoto’s and the only survivor from his game he had brought here, called his name sadly, gently reaching out to him. Tears formed in her eyes, despite the look of betrayal on her face. “I…I’m so… pissed at what you’ve done! But…” She shakes her head, the hand reaching out to Makoto falling slowly to her side shakily. “...but I still don’t want you to die! I didn’t want this!”
“Hina…” Makoto looked over to her, a sad smile on his face. “It’s alright. I deserve this.” He looked solemnly at a certain podium, the one that once belonged to the Ultimate Detective Shuichi Saihara, and the only one that actually understood how it felt to be relied on, and the stress it brings.
The one Makoto cared about the most, even more so than Hina.
Instead of the detective himself standing behind the stand, however, there was only his portrait with an X through it…to signify the boy was no longer amongst the living.
Makoto grimaced in pain and looked away, a pang of guilt stabbing him in the heart. He looked towards Shuichi’s closest friend and fellow survivor, Maki Harukawa. “I…I’m so sorry, Maki. I’m so incredibly sorry!” The former Ultimate Hope cried out, the tears falling from his face at an even faster pace now. “You have no reason to forgive me, in fact I don’t expect or really want you to. What I’ve caused is unforgivable, and I regret everything I’ve done.” He lowered his head, moving his arms to hold his sides. “But…I deserve this outcome.”
Maki raised her bowed head to glower at Makoto. If looks could kill the rapidly approaching execution would be unneeded. “...Shuichi would still be alive if you didn’t make this stupid game.” She spat, the venom in her voice potent enough to kill everyone in the room.
“I know that!” Makoto exclaimed, the regret he was feeling boiling up to a breaking point. “I…I know that…” He repeated, his voice softening and shaking slightly. “Shuichi…Shuichi didn’t deserve to die. He tried to take the burden of responsibility off my shoulders. He’s the reason I began regretting what I did.” The mastermind sadly looked around at the remaining survivors; Mahiru Kozumi and Sonia Nevermind, whom Makoto had personally helped rescue from a previous killing game in the Neo World Program. That fact caused the betrayal to sting even more, which was why both Sonia and Mahiru refused to give Makoto any mercy.
He completely deserved this fate.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, remorse and guilt and hope and all that, yawn!” Monokuma cut in, hopping off his throne and waddling over to Makoto’s podium, grinning evilly up at him. “Whatever whatever! You can say sorry all ya want, but you set this all up, and now you gotta fall down!” As he finished his taunt, a collar shot out from the wall and wrapped around Makoto’s neck.
The fallen Ultimate Hope reached up and clutched at the metal contraption, a drop of sweat falling from his forehead as his heart pounded out of his chest in anticipation of the excruciating death that awaited him.
“Makoto!” Hina cried out his name and ran toward him, only being stopped by Maki grabbing onto her wrist. “Makoto, no! Monokuma please, don’t kill him! Kill me instead!”
“Hina, no!” Makoto turned to look at her, straining slightly as the collar’s chain restricted his movement. “Hina, please, don’t do that. Sakura wouldn’t want you to do this.” He smiled sadly at her. “Just…protect the others, alright? Keep them safe.”
“Makoto…” The swimmer sniffled, wiping at her eyes before nodding. “I will. I promise, Makoto.”
The once hopeful boy closed his eyes, tilting his head as his smile widened ever so slightly. “Thank you…And tell the others-” Makoto began to be pulled away, gasping out as he was sent forcefully backwards by the chain connected to the collar. “-I’m sorry!” He quickly finished before he was dragged completely into the execution room.
Aoi trudged along through the halls of the Future Foundation Headquarters, wiping at her face as the images of Makoto’s last moments continued to plague her mind. Maki walked beside her, occasionally giving the downtrodden girl a concerned glance.
Maki obviously despised Makoto for what he had done. He had betrayed the Future Foundation, betrayed his friends, betrayed Hope. Although she could understand his reasonings of being crushed under the pressure, she could never forgive him for taking away one of the only two people Maki had left.
However she knew Hina still cared about him; she had made that evident during the last trial. The two were close, as close as Maki had been to Shuichi. Because of that bond, Maki and the other two survivors of Makoto’s masterminded game had come to an agreement to not speak badly of the mastermind around his friend, and to keep a close eye on the Ultimate Swimming Pro.
Currently the four survivors were making their way to a meeting room to meet with the rest of Hina and Makoto’s surviving classmates to…explain what had happened. It had been about a day since they had been rescued, and they had finally been asked for an explanation.
It didn’t take long for them to reach the correct room, and Hina reached a shaky hand to turn the doorknob and push open the door. As she and the others walked in, the others in the room quickly looked up.
“Hina!” A familiar voice was heard before Aoi was suddenly embraced in a tight hug. The girl let out a squeal of surprise and looked up to see the relieved face of Yasuhiro Hagakure. “Oh thank Buddha, you’re alright! We were so worried!”
The tired girl gave a somber smile and hugged the older boy back. “Hey…Hiro…” She muttered, her voice nearly giving out.
The clairvoyant looked down at his friend and frowned, feeling a pang of sadness in his heart as he released the hug, leaving his hands on her shoulders and giving them a comforting squeeze. “I’m…so sorry, dude.” He said softly. “I don’t know how hard it musta been to go through another…another one. Let alone one that was made by-”
“Hiro, that’s enough.” A strict voice cut through the conversation, causing Hiro to quiet down. Aoi slowly looked over and saw Kyoko Kirigiri walking over to them. “I know you mean well, but Hina has been through a lot. We should give her a moment and let her sit down.” Hiro gave an apologetic smile and backed away from Hina towards the table that seated the rest of their friends. Kyoko looked to her friend and simply bowed her head before gesturing to the table and walking over to a seat herself.
Hina sighed and took a seat, as did her three companions. She looked across the table towards her friends, and the four of them all had the same expression on; sympathy. Even the always stoic and stern Byakuya Togami had a softer expression on his features. It made sense why. Every single one of them were aware of who had been the cause of the disappearances from the foundation. They knew who had fallen so deep in Despair that Hope was completely destroyed. They knew who had killed several more after trying so hard to help.
Their forever hopeful Makoto Naegi.
A thick silence covered the room, until finally Byakuya broke it. “Did you learn his reasonings?” He asked, his voice gentler than normal. “Did he explain why he…betrayed us?”
Hina nodded, holding her sides tightly. “Y…yeah. He did…” She whispered, looking to the other three that escaped with her. “He…he told us that…he was…tired. Tired of being Hope. Tired of helping everyone, of being relied on.” The four across from her reacted in shock as she continued. “Makoto…he was asked to help save everyone. He saved us. He saved them.” She gestured to Sonia and Mahiru. “He saved the world! He was asked over and over to help everyone, but he never had anyone who he could rely on.” Aoi looked down, tears quietly falling onto the table. “The stress of having to save literally everyone had gotten to him. It…it broke him. His Hope, the hope we thought was unbreakable…shattered.” She shut her eyes and shook slightly. “I wanted to help him. I wanted to bring him back! But…” She opened her eyes and slowly looked over to Maki, Sonia and Mahiru. “...they…they thought…”
“We were unable to get past our anger at his betrayal, and the rest of us voted for his death.” Maki finished for her, looking at the distressed swimmer girl. “Mahiru and Sonia were upset at the fact that the one who had saved them from Despair and a virtual killing game would do something like this, and I…” She took a deep breath. “I couldn’t look past that his game killed one of the two people that I survived with.”
The four Future Foundation members were silent, taking in the information they just received. After a few more moments in the quiet, Toko Fukawa spoke up. “W-w-why didn’t he ever t-tell any of us this i-if he was so overwhelmed?” The young author stuttered out.
“He didn’t think he could.” Hina explained, holding herself even tighter. “He thought because he was the one that was supposed to save everyone that he couldn’t ask anyone else for help. But…” She brought her hands to the table and clenched them into fists. “We should have checked on him! We should have known pushing all that responsibility onto him would affect him! We were supposed to be his friends! But we just let him suffer and break down!” She began to cry even faster now, angry at herself for not noticing the pain Makoto had been going through. “We’re as much to blame for this as Makoto is! If we had just been real friends, he wouldn’t have-”
“Maybe that’s true.” Kyoko cut her off, causing Aoi to look up. The detective’s face was solemn, and though she attempted to keep her emotions hidden like normal, it was clear this was taking such a toll on her not even she could hide the sadness she was feeling. “Maybe we could have been enough of an anchor for him, and maybe we should have been more wary of his feelings.” She looked at Hina in conviction. “But we are not to blame for Makoto’s actions.”
“But…no, Hina’s right!” Yasuhiro exclaimed, tears forming in his eyes. His outburst caused the others in the room to look at him. “We never asked him how he felt about being everyone’s savior. We never tried to take on any of that stuff ourselves! We just kept pushing it onto him over and over and over!” He brought his hands up to his hair and pulled at it. “Damn it, why didn’t I look into him with my crystal ball?! I should’ve checked on him more!”
“Ignoring that last ridiculous statement-” Byakuya sighed in annoyance, pushing his glasses up with a finger. “Hina, Makoto made his choice. He could have easily come to any one of us and voiced his problems, but he chose not to.” Despite his harsh words, the Togami heir’s voice had a sense of hurt and sadness behind it. “He chose to allow himself to fall to Despair.”
“He didn’t choose!” Hina snapped, standing up suddenly from her chair which caused it to squeak across the floor. “I don’t even think he ever fully fell into it! At the end, he apologized! He regretted it! His last words were for me to tell you all he was sorry!” She slapped her hands on the table, her expression now one of pure anger. “He was still fighting Despair, even until the end! It’s why I wanted to spare him!”
“He said the only reason he felt any guilt was because Shuichi died, though.” Mahiru spoke up.
“No, he didn’t.” Aoi spat, glaring at her. “He said it was because Shuichi comforted him! Because Shuichi tried to take the burden from him!” Her head shot back to the others from her class. “If all it took was one person sympathizing with him to make him regain his Hope, then all of us definitely would have been enough to keep him from losing it in the first God damn place!”
The room fell back into an uncomfortable silence.
“...Regardless…” Byakuya broke through the silence, avoiding meeting Aoi’s gaze. “Now that the 14th Division’s biggest weapon has been…terminated…new measures will have to be thought of.”
Hina narrowed her eyes at him, scowling. “Is that all you care about? That we don’t have Makoto’s Hope as a weapon anymore?! Did you not just hear what I was saying about us relying on him for shit like that?! What the hell is your problem, Byakuya?! I thought you cared about-”
The girl’s angry shouts were cut off by the room’s door being slammed open, catching everyone’s attention and causing them to spin around and look for the intruder. There, they saw a short blonde boy with a buzz cut and an eyepatch, the Ultimate Yakuza Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu. Standing behind him were two others; one from his own killing game and the one who, other than Makoto, was most responsible for their survival, Hajime Hinata, and the other…
“Tell me it’s not true!” Komaru Naegi cried out desperately, tears pricking her eyes as she walked forward. “I-it can’t be true! Makoto would never do something like that!”
“Komaru…” Toko stood from her chair and hurried over to her friend, hesitating for only a moment before embracing her in a hug. “Komaru, I-I’m so sorry.”
“So…what we heard was true?” Hajime asked quietly, looking sadly from Komaru to the others. When Kyoko nodded, he grimaced and looked away.
“No. No fucking way!” Fuyuhiko exclaimed, his one visible eye wide in disbelief. “You can’t be fucking serious! There’s no way he would do that! He saved us! He helped us! He-”
“Fuyuhiko.” Sonia cut him off softly, looking up at him with sadness in her eyes. “I am sorry, but it’s the truth. Makoto…Makoto lost himself to Despair and created another killing game.”
“It was because of us!” Hina cried out, banging her fists on the table again. “We relied on him so heavily he cracked under the pressure! Just because he was the Ultimate Hope we thought he was unstoppable! We forgot he was still a person! We did this! We caused this! ”
“Wh-what the fuck?” Fuyuhiko gaped at Hina in shock, taking a step back from her. “What the fuck are you talking about?! How the hell is this our fault?!”
“According to what Hina has said, Makoto was under such immense pressure of being forced to rescue several groups of people and having us all rely on him for his Hope to save the world that he…snapped.” Kyoko explained, her arms loosely crossed. “It seems like he created this game in order to prove others did not need to rely on him for survival. Apparently it was only due to the kindness of Shuichi Saihara that he began to return to himself and regain his sense of Hope.” She looked sympathetically at Maki. “However, Shuichi was one of the casualties.”
“He was killed by Teruteru.” Maki spat, refusing to look at anyone.
Hajime and Fuyuhiko’s eyes widened, before they both looked at each other sadly. “God damn it, that fucking idiot.” Fuyuhiko muttered. He looked over at Maki, who was still avoiding everyone’s gazes. “I…I’m sorry…”
Maki didn’t respond.
“He apologized.” Hina whispered, finally slowly sitting back down in her seat. “As he was being executed, he said he was sorry. He hated what he did.”
“Well, then that just makes it all fucking peachy then, huh?!” Fuyuhiko spat out. “Mikan was in there too, yeah? She went missing along with the rest of you. She ain’t here, so she died too, right? So Makoto got two of my friends killed!” He let out a quiet growl, pure hatred in his eyes. “Who the hell cares if he felt guilt in the end!?”
“Shut up! Don’t talk about him like that!” Komaru screamed, pulling away from Toko and whirling around to face Fuyuhiko. “Makoto was a good person! He cared about everyone! All he wanted was for everyone to be safe!”
“Is that his idea of safe, then?!” The Yakuza snapped back, glaring at the younger girl. “Throwing people back into a fucking killing game?! Yeah, just a Goddamn saint!”
“Just shut up already!” Komaru covered her ears and sunk to the ground, tears streaming down her face. Toko gasped and dropped to her knees, pulling her friend into a hug to console her.
Fuyuhiko watched this happen, and his features softened. “...Shit.” He cursed under his breath, remembering he had been talking to Makoto’s sister.
Hajime sighed and placed a hand on Fuyuhiko’s shoulder, gently leading him away. “We…got the answers we were looking for. We should go.” He said quietly. “The others will be wanting to know.” The shorter of the two nodded, allowing himself to be led out of the room.
“Sonia, Mahiru, if you two would like, you can join them.” Kyoko offered. “And you can go find Himiko, Maki.” The first two nodded, following their classmates. Maki, however, hesitated. “Is she going to be alright?” The assassin asked, looking over at Komaru, who now had both Toko and Hina comforting her.
“She’s in good hands.” The detective responded. “We’ll make sure she’s alright. You can check up on her later if you’re concerned.” Maki nodded, and with one last worried look to the young girl, left to find her last remaining friend.
Things were never quite the same at the Future Foundation, or in the world, really. Though they tried to keep the news of exactly what had transpired hidden, it was only a matter of time until the news of Makoto’s descent into Despair became public knowledge.
The aftermath wasn’t pretty.
The idea that even the one known as the Ultimate Hope could be tainted and broken down by Despair nearly caused a second Tragedy. It was only by the combined efforts of everyone in the Future Foundation-those rescued from the Neo World and the Academy for Gifted Juveniles included-that they managed to keep some semblance of order.
Maki and Himiko had had the least interaction with Makoto, but that didn’t mean this betrayal meant nothing. Knowing what good he had done for the world, and even more so, that his game was what took Shuichi from them both, they were filled with a sense of anger and sadness.
Neither could forgive him, and neither could forget Shuichi.
The remainder of the 77th Class all took the news in their own ways. Some, such as Hiyoko, Peko and Kazuichi, felt similarly to Fuyuhiko, becoming angry and feeling as if Makoto’s fate was justified. Others, like the Ultimate Imposter and Ibuki, sided more with Aoi, believing that Makoto just needed help and support, even if his actions were despicable. They all agreed, however, that they would still try to move on in the name of Hope.
Someone had to now, after all.
The survivors of Class 78 were devastated. No matter how much time passed, it was obvious the hole left behind by Makoto would never fill. He was more than just the Hope the world needed. He was their friend. And Hina’s words had reached all of them; maybe they could have been better friends to him. Maybe they could have shouldered his burden. The guilt of possibly being the cause of Makoto’s betrayal affected them all, though some showed it more than others.
However they felt, all five of them missed him dearly.
Komaru took the event the hardest, as to be expected. She holed herself up in the room provided to her by the Future Foundation, refusing to come out for anything less than eating. The only one who could get her to speak was Toko, and even then it was only a few words at a time. The poor girl couldn’t believe her kind older brother would ever willingly put people, including those he had saved and those he cared about, back into something so traumatizing and horrific as a killing game. She wished she had noticed how he had been feeling. She wished she had checked up on him more.
She wished she had been a better sister.
In the end, Makoto's betrayal was not only a great loss to his friends and family, and to the ones he had saved.
But it was also the loss of hope.