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“Good morning, everyone! It is 7am! Time to rise and shine~!”
Sonja hated that she was getting used to Monokuma’s morning wakeups. It did make sense. She’d been stuck in this school for nearly a month now. Still, she hated that hearing the damn bear had become a normality in her brain.
“Get ready for another beautiful day!”
However, she couldn’t let her annoyance towards the bear stop her from pushing herself out of bed. Even if she frankly just wanted to remain there rotting, she couldn’t let herself. Sure, maybe the investigation through the school seemed pointless. But if she let herself give into the despair that was trying its best to get a grip on her mind, it’d never let go. Still, it was hard to drum up the will.
The days since the last class trial had been particularly rough. The air had changed after each one, the tension between the remaining students continued to grow despite the comradery they tried to build. Still, the aftermath of this one had just left everything feeling hollow.
Sonja had never thought that she’d miss Tom’s shenanigans. The general noise that had come from living with the Ultimate Trickster had caused her nothing but headaches. Running into one of his pranks had always served to cause her annoyance. Now he was gone, she wished she could have the headaches back. Someone so loud and boisterous being dead just couldn’t click in her head.
Red being gone too just made everything far too quiet. The boy had always been good at lifting the mood, telling jokes and stories that distracted from the misery they were forced into. His absence had been all the more noticeable in the dour mood they’d been left in.
Then, of course, there was the lack of Capsize’s presence.
The Ultimate Navigator had been a near constant presence for Sonja in this killing school life she found herself stuck in. Since waking up in the same classroom that first day, not a day had gone by where the two girls hadn’t interacted at least a little. Their little interactions had ended up the siblings’ downfall as Capsize had an alibi that her brother lacked.
Though she wasn’t dead, they hadn’t hung out at all since the class trial. To be completely honest, Sonja hadn’t seen Capsize at all since that first day after it. She’d come into breakfast looking completely broken, dishevelled in a way that she never had been before.
She hadn’t been in the room very long. She’d quickly gotten chased out by Alister, despite Tucker’s best attempt to argue that she should be allowed to stay.
“You’ve shown us the type of person you are! You’re a disgraceful criminal who was willing to kill her own brother for money! Stay the hell away from us!” Alister had yelled those words and Capsize had fled. For a moment, her bloodshot eyes had met Sonja’s, begging for her to say something. Despite the twinge of her conscience reminding her of their friendship, she’d remained silent.
Capsize had run out the room and Sonja hadn’t seen her since. She had no idea if she’d made the right decision.
It was stupid. Capsize had plotted a murder, only prevented from actually committing it herself because her brother beat her to it. She was going to get them all killed! And for what? Money?!
No, her mind wanted to say. Her performance in the class trial had all been to try and save Red.
However, no matter how much Sonja tried to cling to that explanation, it didn’t explain the girl’s initial murder plot. After all, Red had only killed Tom and become the blackened to try and save Capsize. Neither sibling had presented a motive beyond trying to save the other, leaving the original reason they plotted to kill a mystery. So, in the end, it had to be the money that Monokuma had offered the blackened should they succeed.
How was she meant to look at Capsize the same way anymore? Despite how short a time they had actually known each other, the fact she’d do something so horrid came across as an awful betrayal. She had done something so awful, for seemingly such a selfish reason.
Despite that, Sonja couldn’t shift the guilt of abandoning her friend to her grief. She’d found herself standing outside her door a few times, considering getting her attention and giving her the comfort she almost certainly needed. But she could never bring herself to actually knock.
“And one more thing~!”
Monokuma continuing his morning announcement beyond the normal speech caused her heart to leap into her throat. A sickly dread descended upon her as Sonja waited for the bear to say the words that meant yet another person was dead.
“I’ve prepared a special gift for each and every one of you! You’ll find yours on your desk! Enjoy~!”
With that, the monitor mounted to her wall broadcasting the bear finally clicked off. However, the fact that no body discovery announcement had come did little to ease Sonja’s mind.
A new motive. There was little else a gift from Monokuma could be. Waiting for her was a new method the mastermind had cooked up to drive them to murder each other.
She looked towards her desk and, just as the bear had said, sat upon it was a giftbox. It was mockingly festive considering that it almost certainly held something grim.
What would be inside? All the previous motives had been generalised, the same information presented to the entire group. The idea that this one was personalised just made her dread all the worse.
She briefly considered just leaving it. Nothing Monokuma could’ve given her would be good, after all. But, if she had received a giftbox, so had everyone else. Even assuming most people would have the same hesitance about opening it as her, she would bet her life that Martha had already rallied her little cult together to open theirs.
If three people were opening theirs, all ignoring her ‘gift’ would be doing was sticking her head in the sand. She’d be leaving herself lacking what might be necessary information should a class trial come out of this. Whether she liked it or not, it was better to check out whatever motive had been left for her.
She trudged over to her desk and pulled the lid off the ornate giftbox.
She half-expected to find a weapon inside. Instead, there was just a tablet. It looked almost identical to her student handbook. That all but confirmed that this was the next motive.
Again, the desire to just ignore it flagged in her brain. She could so easily shove it in a drawer and just ignore its existence. Better that than let herself get infected by the same desperation and selfishness that had affected the others who had made themselves blackened.
But then what good would she be? She couldn’t fix the horrid things in the world if she turned against them. That had been her motto for so long now, and the murders she had experienced in this school only cemented that.
She could face this motive head on. She had to.
Even with her best attempt at reassurance, there remained a sureness in her chest that she’d come to regret doing what Monokuma wanted. Still, she turned on the tablet. It lit up and her fears were confirmed by the words displayed in the centre of the screen.
Motive Video
Those words alone would’ve been enough to form a lump in her throat, knowing that whatever she was about to watch was meant to drive her to murder. However, those words weren’t the words that kept her fingers locked to the device like a vice grip. Rather, it was the two underneath.
Capsize Dunbar
This video wasn’t meant for her.
Every overlapping opinion she held towards the other student became a whirlpool sploshing around her mind. There was no way that her holding this tablet was an accident. Despite her more logical thoughts telling her that nothing good would come from watching on, she did so anyway.
The screen flickered and the title screen was replaced by a video of a middle-aged woman. Sonja didn’t recognise her, though of course she didn’t.
The woman sat alone on the sofa, the scene looking normal and domestic aside from the medical equipment that the woman had just barely failed to keep out of frame. Though she was smiling, Sonja knew that her current health couldn’t be a pretty picture.
“Now, neither of you tell your parents I’ve filmed this. I could do without your father giving me another earful about turning you two soft,” She spoke with the same accent as the siblings, in a tone that reminded Sonja so much of Capsize. Her hair was the same ginger as Red’s, braided in the same way as Capsize often had hers. Every moment, Sonja found another piece of the twins in the mystery woman. “I’m so proud of the two of you for getting into that school. Make sure to take care of each other.”
Had the video ended there, it would’ve been a nice message. Perhaps bittersweet, considering current circumstances, but sweet enough still that Sonja would’ve considered passing it onto Capsize. It seemed like the sort of hopeful message that her… That Capsize needed right now.
But nothing given to them within this school was ever going to inspire hope. The video of the woman froze with a jolting amount of static. And Monokuma’s voice began to leak from the speakers.
“Capsize Dunbar, the Ultimate Navigator. She’s always placed so much importance on family. Though her parents were hard asses, her aunt made sure to nurture her and her brother. And when she got too sick to take care of them, Capsize did everything in her power to make sure she was supported.”
A bile began creeping its way up Sonja’s throat, its journey aided by Monokuma’s gleeful tone.
“And her brother? Well, Capsize might even kill herself and a dozen other people to keep him safe!”
The screen once more flickered, this time to a place and people that Sonja recognised. Capsize and Redbeard sat in Capsize’s dorm room, filmed by the ever-present CCTV camera. They looked drained, shell-shocked.
“Should we tell the others?” Red questioned. The clips she was watching had clearly started halfway through a conversation between the two. Whatever the context of his question had been purposefully lost.
“They wouldn’t believe us. I can hardly believe it, and I found the damn evidence,” Capsize said, pressing her knuckles into the bridge of her nose.
Sonja felt her breath hitch. Had… Had they found another motive? Neither of them had mentioned it, and surely there would’ve been no reason to hide it once they’d been caught. Yet, here was a private conversation that made it seem undeniable that the two had discovered something that was still hidden from the rest of the group.
She wracked her brain, attempting to figure out any possible reason that the two would’ve kept their motive hidden even when one of them was about to die. The video didn’t care about her attempt to think and kept going regardless.
“If it’s even half true… then Mabel’s—”
“Don’t say it…” Red muttered, both siblings holding a similar sombreness.
Sonja knew what was coming before Capsize actually said it.
“One of us needs to get out of here.”
Sonja felt herself shaking. This couldn’t be real. They’d done it for the money! They had to have done it for the money! If they had a sick aunt they were desperate to get back to, why wouldn’t either of them have said so?!
“Even though succeeding would lead to her own death, Capsize fought to save her brother so he could take care of their aunt in her stead~!” Monokuma’s singsong tone once again began narrating, almost mocking her desperate attempt to deny this new motive she had been presented for the siblings’ actions. “Not only did she fail miserably at protecting him, but her plan had also been pointless in the first place!”
Sonja had a split second to comprehend the bear’s meaning before the screen once more flickered, and reality was harshly dropped upon her.
She liked to believe that she had a strong stomach. Even if she hadn’t been forced to investigate three murders and watch three executions in this god-forsaken school, she had seen horrific things in her work in animal rescue. She’d seen scenes worse than the average horror movie. None of it stopped the disgust that came from the screen being taken up by the images of two corpses.
She had obviously seen Red’s body before. She had watched him die less than a week ago. But that didn’t make the image before her, him hanging with a broken neck, any more pleasant to look at.
The woman – Capsize’s aunt – looked more peaceful in comparison. But she still looked so sickly compared to the video of her talking with a gentle smile. It was undeniable that she too was dead.
And Monokuma still wouldn’t shut up.
“Thanks to her own actions, all of Capsize’s loved ones are dead! There’s not a soul left in the world that cares about her! She’s completely and utterly alone~!”
With one final laugh, the tablet turned itself off. Sonja’s grip on the device loosened and she let it fall to the floor. The sudden silence in her room felt all consuming.
“It’s not true. She’s not--! I--!” She spoke to herself through quickening breaths, attempting to argue against Monokuma’s final statement.
It wasn’t true. She still cared about Capsize! She wasn’t alone!
But she couldn’t bring herself to say any of it aloud. The truth, whether she wanted to admit it or not, was that she had abandoned Capsize. When Alister had exiled her from the group, she’d sat by in silence rather than arguing that they should forgive her like Tucker. She had given Monokuma exactly what he needed to make Capsize believe his words.
And if Capsize heard them then--!
The girl’s attempt to attack Monokuma after her brother’s execution flashed through Sonja’s mind. Despite knowing she’d too would face one of his punishments if she had landed a blow on the bear, she’d only been stopped by Steve dragging her out of the courtroom kicking and screaming.
If Capsize got a hold of this tablet and watched the video left for her, Sonja didn’t want to imagine her reaction. She didn’t want to fathom the reality where the next body she came across was Capsize.
Would Monokuma still make them do a class trial if the victim had…?
Sonja made herself swallow rather than finish that sobering thought. Capsize wasn’t going to die. She wasn’t going to let Monokuma spread this despair to her.
She pushed herself to the best sureness she could muster.
She would make up for the fact that she’d abandoned her friend. She’d show Capsize that she was still there for her, so no matter what she found out, she’d know she wasn’t alone. And if Capsize pushed her away, as frankly the girl might be right to do, she’d still make sure that this video meant to hurt her never fell into her hands.
Though Sonja still held her own questions, namely what precisely Capsize had found that had driven her and Red to such desperation and why even at the end Red hadn’t said anything about it, those could wait.
The only important thing now was making sure that Monokuma didn’t get his way and once more turn them towards despair.