What if it Repeated? (Oumasai/Saiouma)

Chapter 35- No More Chances

Pain. It was all pain. His body was on fire. Every cell in his body felt like they had all been dealt their own excruciatingly painful blows. It was too much. His eyes were glued shut, the thought of opening them made him shake. He felt his knees buckle and he fell onto something hard. He scrambled to grab hold of anything to help support him and felt something long and rectangular. He grabbed onto it hoping more than anything it would hold, but it slid with him and he crumpled ungracefully to the ground.

He was shaking uncontrollably and he gasped for air as if he was still trapped in the airless abyss. Oxygen had never felt this good. It came to him as a relief that he was actually able to take a breath again although everything felt hazy. The simple notion of trying to think back to what felt like only moments ago made his head throb horribly. He must have died. He must have restarted. That would explain why he was here. Wherever here was.

Though that didn't explain why he was feeling so awful now. The previous times he had come back the worst he had felt was a quite sore -but bearable- muscle or tendon in which he had some relation to how he had died and had usually subsided soon enough to allow him to get his bearings and sort out the situation he was in. But now was agony. Nothing he had felt before compared to this in the slightest. It burned. It felt like bugs were eating him alive. He pictured the licking of flames at his and Kokichi's bodies he had seen briefly before he had lost consciousness. That must be why it burned so bad now.

In amongst the pain something seemed to click. It had just occurred to him, this wasn't a locker. He had first fallen onto something that wasn't the floor and above all that, he had not heard Kaede's voice asking if he was ok. He needed to see. This wasn't familiar to him at all. He tried to blink, but saw only the bright spots of light instead of his surroundings. He rubbed his eyes shakily and attempted again. Although the picture was fuzzy he could just make out a high desk with a painfully bright LED glow emerging from the top just passed his field of vision. Where was he?

He had died hadn't he? He couldn't have survived. No. He couldn't have. The machine was used in Miu's lab. Even with his obscured vision, he could discern that this was not the lab he was so accustomed to, and rather somewhere unfamiliar. If he had restarted again that would explain Kokichi's disappearance as well. His breathing hitched and he felt a gush of guilt and nausea hit him hard. He wasn't going to think about it. He could pretend nothing ever happened. That he had died alone, but he couldn't. He couldn't forget what he had done.

"K-kokichi..." he choked out, clenching his fists tight around him in an attempt to keep himself more grounded. He was a monster. How could he had done something like that?!
"What the! What're you doing on the floor, isn't Danganronpa about to start?!" A high pitched voice cried from somewhere in a distant land. He was alone. He had no one. No one was capable of reaching him now. "Detective?" A black and white mass poked its head around the side of his blurred vision. Shuuichi jumped and felt his stomach lurch sickeningly and the urge to throw up rose inside him.

"H-huh...?!" He could recognise that black and white monster anywhere even in his current flawed state.
"Thought it would be good to start using the name, you know to get in character! upupupupu~" Shuuichi blinked and the bear finally grew into full focus.
"In character..." he groaned as he quickly wiped the tear away that had been threatening to fall down his cheek, "What do you...?"
"Why are you on the floor? You can't do anything from down there." The bear tutted, ignoring his words as if he hadn't spoken at all.

Shuuichi felt a sharp pain cross across his head and he winced. None of the pain seemed to be subsiding, though he felt lucky that he was able to see again.
"What would I do if I wasn't on the floor." He said, gritting his teeth through the pain. Monokuma laughed a high cackle and didn't stop for a long while. When he did he fixed Shuuichi with his red gleaming eye and he felt like he was being seen through. As though that eye could see exactly what he was thinking.
"You're not getting cold feet are you...?! You seemed so excited before." The bear simpered and Shuuichi felt his blood run cold. Cold feet. Before. Him, excited...? ...He couldn't be...