It All Started By One Single Tear (Rantaro x reader x YandereMastermind Kokichi)

Chapter 5 Part 32: What Happens Now?

Rantaro's POV:

    "We should probably now address what exactly we saw in there now and what we should do moving forward, yeah?" I asked.
    Before meeting up In Kirumi's Lab, Kaede, Kirumi, Ryoma, and I managed to use the device Miu made to find the hidden route, so we could see the library's hidden room. In my mind, that said room did belong to Kokichi because of the way it looked.
    I recalled everything I saw, including a larger monitor with a sleek black chair behind it, and I had a sneaking suspicion that monitor was used to keep tabs on all of us. I didn't think Kokichi would want to just use Monokuma to keep tabs on us. He liked to catch himself up on anything interesting to him, and that much was obvious to me.
    What I said was more or less the beginning of the conversation we would have. We needed to address what exactly we all saw to get everything in order, as well as planning on our next move. Since I was putting my trust in the others, I had to be prepared to share my ideas and what I thought. So far, I thought of myself is doing okay in that regard, but this situation wasn't about me right now.
    "For starters, maybe we should talk about the look of the hidden room," Ryoma muttered, "because that room definitely has Kokichi written all over it."
     "I agree," Kaede replied, "the purple string lights, and the decals on the wall make me more certain the room belongs to Kokichi. But maybe that's because he didn't think anyone was going to see that room..."
"That would make sense," Kirumi replied, "I'm sure Kokichi was confident no one would see that room, so that's why it's decorated like this that... the important thing isn't in the decorations though. I think we need to discuss the contents of the room as well their functions. Once we do that, we should be able to devise a pretty solid plan."
I knew Kirumi was right about that. The truth of the hidden room wasn't hidden in the decorations of the room. We all knew that Kokichi was the mastermind, and all the decorations on the walls did was confirm that fact to us. Specifically the contents of the hidden room that were the most suspicious to me was the machine in the center of the room that was covered by a draped cloth. The last thing that evoked suspicion was the monitor that probably was used to keep tabs on us.
"Well..." I trailed off, "I would like to think that the monitor with the sleek chair in front of the screen would have to be some sort of computer or surveillance system Kokichi uses to keep tabs on all of us. I think it makes sense considering there is a chair in front of the screen, right?"
The others waited patiently when I was speaking about what the easiest suspicion to grasp was. I think everyone in my group was aware that monitor was probably a surveillance device used to keep tabs on us, I mean what else could it be? I wanted to try and figure out what we could do to turn the tide on him.
    "I don't think that would be anything else aside from a surveillance system," Kaede explained in response, "I think that was the most obvious thing in the hidden room. To be honest, I'm more worried about that weird machine in the center back wall of the hidden room. There's only a few possibilities on what that could be..."
"I mean it is obvious why that would be a concern," Ryoma explained, "the machine was covered by some sort of cloth, so it's obvious that Kokichi would want to keep that hidden. I don't think any of us knows what it is."
"I actually might know what that machine is," I said in response to Ryoma's words.
The reason I replied to that was because I did know something. I knew what that machine probably was, and it wasn't just because of process of elimination. The reason was because I gave myself a warning before my memory was erased. In my Survivor Perk Monopad, I was told to wait until Monokuma needed a spare. That's when the mastermind would act. Considering that in the beginning, it was said that there was a rumored "Monokuma Making Machine", then that's what that thing at the back of the hidden room. That's what it had to be.
    "If you know what it is, please elaborate," Kirumi requested in response to my words.
    "Do you all remember the additional motive added before my supposed death?" I asked.
    "Yeah..." Kaede first responded, "we were given a time limit of two days from the announced day. If a murder was not committed by then we would be mauled to shreds by countless Monokuma robots. And it was said to be done by a rumored Monokuma making machine."
"I can recall that as well," Ryoma replied, "Monokuma decided to enter the scene in some sort of stupid cosplay get up..."
"I can agree with those statements," Kirumi mentioned, "and Monokuma seemed very serious about the statement, considering how he was speaking about the event."
Everyone in my group seemed to remember the first event that really launched this game to a start. The time limit was a very important event for what the covered machine was. I was sure everyone remembered that specific event along with everything else this traumatic experience has dealt us. It was nice to verify that everyone remembered the time limit additional motive.
"Alright, so everyone here is able to recall that event clearly, yeah?" I asked, "well, considering the Monokuma making machine would be an important asset in this game, it would stand to reason it would be in the hidden room. Something like that would need to remain hidden. My guess is that the machine that has the cloth draped over it is that said Monokuma making machine."
    Kaede, Kirumi, and Ryoma were looking at me as I spoke of what I thought that machine most likely was. There was only so many things that machine could be, so it was most likely the Monokuma making machine. With knowing that Monokuma has spares, one could see why this was the case.
    "I think that could be true," Kirumi explained, seemingly thinking to herself, "before the time limit happened, Monokuma was destroyed, but then he came back a day or two later. It's obvious that he does have spares, but we never fully confirmed how those spares came into existence."
    "I think I agree with that," Kaede muttered, "it was proven that Monokuma has spares, but we were never able to confirm how aside from a rumored machine..."
    I thought about my next course of action. I was thinking about what to say next, and I knew a general idea. My knowledge from my Survivor Perk Monopad could help us devise an idea to get Kokichi alone, but we would have to counter whatever he was planning to do.
    "It looks like from the sound of it, we seem to have a good idea on what that machine is," Ryoma mentioned, "so how do we move forward with that knowledge?"
    "We move forward by revisiting some of the beginning events," I explained in response, "my Survivor Perk Monopad came with a message from myself before my memories were wiped. A part of that message explained that one of the only chances we had at defeating the mastermind, in this case, Kokichi is when Monokuma needed a spare. I think we could pull a plan to utilize Kokichi needing a spare off now because we know how he pulled one over on us the first time."
    As I was explaining what I though, I noticed everyone seeming to understand what I was trying to explain. Explaining how Monokuma needing a spare was one of the only chances we had at defeating Kokichi, but now I knew for a fact that he didn't play fair. If Kokichi wasn't going to play fair, neither were we. Now that everyone knew how everything truly happened, Kaede knew she wasn't to blame. It was Kokichi who tried to frame her, and I knew that. He tried to make her a supposed murderer, passing the blame to her because none of them knew any better. I knew this game wouldn't be fair, and I knew Kokichi wouldn't play fair to keep us from rescuing (y/n). 
    "That is true..." Kaede muttered, "since we found the hidden route, we can't conclusively say that the library is the only way to get in any more. I feel like part of the layout of the hidden room in the library was intentionally designed to trip us up..."
    "That is possible," Kirumi replied, "now that I think about it, Kokichi was probably the true culprit during your case, Rantaro."
    "I know that," I replied with a small chuckle, "if it weren't for (y/n), Kaede and I would both be dead. I don't think Monokuma would've said it was actually the mastermind though. As we've seen, they want the game to continue, so if everyone dies, there is no game. Even (y/n) confirmed that fact at the end of that trial."
    "That is true," Ryoma replied, "I'm starting to realize that some points I made in that trial were actually true. The mastermind did go back into hiding, but grouped back up with the people in the dining hall to make himself look less suspicious. Since we now know there is a passage way in the men's bathroom, it makes it clear who that Kokichi was the one who actually attacked. Where does this get us in terms of a plan?"
We went from speaking about the time limit to what happened with me. Everyone was aware that Kaede was innocent, and finding the hidden room because of Kokichi's alibi was something that proved he was the one who actually dealt the supposed final blow in my case. I didn't know what everyone discussed in the trial, but Ryoma mentioned that he made a point in the class trial that probably didn't have enough evidence to back it up, but we were now back on the topic because of that fact. Ryoma ended his explanation with asking where this got us in terms of a plan.
    It didn't really surprise me that Ryoma wanted to know how this contributed to a plan for rescuing (y/n) and taking down Kokichi. Part of me was tempted just to play it by ear, but I knew that couldn't happen. I had to be careful, and so did the rest of us.
    "I think we should utilize Monokuma needing a spare," I explained, "since we know that the machine is in the hidden room, we know Kokichi would have to go there in order to create a Monokuma spare. That should be the first step of our plan anyway."
    "But what should we do after that?" Kaede asked in response, "first of all, the school rules say we can't attack Monokuma, do so how do we get Monokuma to need a spare?"
    "Maybe Miu can help us," Kirumi replied, "Miu is very intelligent with her machines, so I'm sure she can make something to help us carry out that plan. This is only a guess though, but I'm very confident in her abilities."
    "But what do we do after destroying Monokuma?" Ryoma asked, "we only have a small window of time before Kokichi tries to do something to (y/n). It would be more ideal if Kokichi left (y/n) behind while he creates a spare. To get this to work, we have to establish a way to get into the hanger. The Exisals are there guarding the hanger entrance, remember? We have to think about every roadblock we can run into."
"I don't think it's completely necessary to have a full plan on what we are going to do," Kirumi explained in response to Ryoma, "I hope you do recall that we have more than just us to speak about this to. Everyone who is participating can tell us what they think we should do. It should be easier to plan when we have more ideas. Plus if anyone knows about planning strategy for some this situation, it's Maki."
"Maki, *is* the Ultimate Assassin after all," I mentioned, "to be honest, I do think the lot of us are thinking about killing Kokichi... that was the plan from the start was to kill the mastermind. Now we know who the mastermind is, so now we know who to target. The stakes are high because (y/n) is his hostage, so we have to do something before he uses her to get us to kill each other."
"I don't think any of us wants to think Kokichi would play that dirty, but if he tried to frame me..." Kaede explained, "then he would... I think everyone agrees with that notion. I agree that we should talk to the others before deciding what we will do. All we needed to do was confirm whether or not there was a hidden route. We confirmed that there was a hidden route. Discussing possible plans is important, but we need to make sure the others working with us are on the same page before we start doing anything crazy."
     Kaede was right. Part of me was going on about what we should do. I knew everyone else needed to be aware of the plan before we would do it. We did what we said we'd set out to do. We were able to find the hidden route. I knew that utilizing Monokuma needing a spare would be a part of the plan, aside from that, we had no idea how to proceed. In order to bring a plan that we all could agree on, as well as one that would work, we had to discuss this with the others. They were probably doing a good job leading Monokuma and Kokichi to believe we were planning on attacking the hanger dead on.
    "I really hope the others are doing okay," Kaede muttered, "I'm sure we can trust them, but Miu can be pretty brash and shout things she doesn't mean to say."
    "I don't think we should worry about Miu," I replied, "yes, she does like to be the one in charge and shout brash things to try and get people to respect her. Fact is, even if it was Kokichi orchestrating it, Miu was still technically saved by (y/n). I'm sure she of all people knows how dire this situation is. Even if at the time I was being idiotic and ignoring (y/n). We all know the stakes are high. That's why we need to do this as perfectly as we can muster."