A Farewell to All Futures

A Thin Line Divides Heaven and Hell

Warning: mentions of brainwashing, murder

***

"Attention, Main Course students of Hope's Peak Academy! This is your daily wake-up call and reminder to be quick to change and arrive at the building before the Reserve Course does!"

Sora groaned as that announcement sounded throughout the residence building, disturbing her from her peaceful sleep with her girlfriend beside her. It seemed to get more frantic with each passing day. The albino pulled herself out of bed as adrenaline finally brought her back to her senses. 

Beside her, Yoruko stretched and got up out of bed as well. "Morning, Sora." She groaned.

"Good morning, Ruko. How was your sleep?" Sora asked as she changed into a new set of clothes, having fell asleep with her old ones on.

"Terrible. I couldn't rest easily with all the information Mikado and Nikei brought back last night." The smaller girl confessed. "I'm just so...worried. That isn't wrong, right?"

"No, not at all. And speaking of them, I have to have a little word with them before I have to make a choice." Sora turned and went out of their room.

"Wait, what choice?" Yoruko asked, her voice thick with concern. "Sora?!" Her cries were ignored as Sora closed the door behind her.

In the shared living space, Sora was surprised to see Mikado making two cups of coffee and pouring a small vial of a transparent liquid in the larger of them. "What's in the bottle?" She questioned, nearly startling the wizard.

"Good morning, Sora. It's just liquid caffeine for Nikei." Mikado explained. "He's been up all night, and I want to at least make sure that nothing can interfere with his progress. I've been giving him energy boosts with my magic as well, but I know that he's going to crash hard when his body finally runs out of energy."

"What has he been doing up?" Sora asked. "Was he doing what I asked him to do?"

"Indeed, he has been working on an article compiling all the information. Though without all the necessary information, he can't complete the article and get the culprit convicted." Mikado sighed.

Sora pursed her lips as she looked downwards in thought. "Tell him to keep writing regardless. Does he have a suspect in mind?" She inquired.

"He thinks that it might be Junko Enoshima." The wizard curtly stated.

"Junko?" Sora asked in surprise. "But wasn't she the one who found the bodies?"

"Yes, but he says that it's suspicious now in hindsight. Personally, I think so too." Mikado hummed. "For one, her alibi is super suspicious. Why was she at the old school building at three in the morning when she had plenty of other opportunities to get her things from the building? And if her excuse was that security wouldn't let her in, that's false because they let Iroha get her art stand from her roof as long as she was accompanied by a security guard."

"That's correct. Wait, didn't Nikei say that she sent the mass email to the Reserve Course the night of the murders?" The albino recalled.

"That's correct. He also told me that in the video he accidentally saw, the Student Council was killing each other, not being slaughtered by one man." The wizard narrowed his eyes. "Another thing he told me was that the video seemed to be having some brainwashing qualities, and this can be backed up from the students wearing the strange bear heads and watching the killing video on repeat."

After a few moments of silence as Sora was in thought, she finally looked up with a resolved expression. "I need to get to the bottom of this. Today, I'll go to the Steering Committee building."