Chapter 6: Remember, You Will Die, Part VI (Class Trial)
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The wheel spun. It landed on his face. The confetti dropped and the jingle played. But there was nothing to celebrate.
It was over now.
Naoya Edogawa, the mastermind, was at our mercy - at his mercy, to be correct. And he now had no intention of making it out of here with his very own life.
Naoya: Kaori... In the end, you were the better one...
Kaori: What? After all that resentment festering within you, you acknowledge it? I'm just a mere weaver, not some crime-solving genius-
Naoya: We're all just mere men. We could have easily become gods among men, but...
Umiko: But what?
Naoya: The world didn't let us. You four... you moved on. You made the most of such an unfortunate circumstance. But I... I just spiraled down into a path of ultimate self-destruction...
Daigo: That means nothing! What you did to Ryoko... you're killing her!
Ryoko: ...
One glance at her was enough to tell that unless we acted now, and even if we did act, she didn't have much time left. Her skin was pale, her eyes were beginning to become clouded, her breathing was hoarse and raspy.
Naoya: I'm sorry.
Daigo: Really?
Naoya: Yes. I was blind and now I can see. I've done so much wrong - allow me to do one last thing right.
Souta: What are you thinking...?
Naoya: Consider this... my last mercy.
He had reached into his pocket and took out a small vial, containing a glowing gold liquid substance. He weakly held his hand out to Daigo as if he was offering him the vial - and the salaryman reluctantly took it.
Daigo: What is this?
Naoya: The antidote. If you're lucky, she'll live. Probably won't remember anything about this though. In fact, she'll probably never remember anything aside from her own name-
Daigo: And you consider that mercy?
Naoya: Think about it, Daigo. After everything I did to her, I'm offering Ryoko a chance to live. To live as close to a normal life as she can. And in all honesty, it's for the best.
Daigo: ...I get you now. I understand.
Daigo then walked over to the red-haired girl, almost unresponsive, opened up the vial, and gently poured the antidote down Ryoko's throat. Within seconds, she seemed to be aware of her surroundings once more, and able to stammer out a few words.
Ryoko: Ah... thanks... I-I guess.
Daigo: Well, now... He's giving you a chance to survive.
Ryoko: Really? Oh. I understand.
Souta: Yes. Now, we probably have to get out of here, considering that-
I noticed that several drops of water were starting to trickle down from the ceiling, falling down the walls, and settling on the floor. We didn't have much time left before it would begin in earnest.
You know, the flooding of the Nautilus, and of the victims of the Killing Game.
Naoya: Guess it's the end for me. But not you. Not you-
Umiko: What do you mean by that?!
Naoya: You can take my intended secret passage out. I don't need it.
Souta: So... you're giving up your chance of escape, for us?! How, and why?
Naoya: Don't question it, Souta. Go behind Monokuma's throne. You'll figure it out from there.
Kaori: Right...
Naoya: Besides, I have nothing to escape for. They probably already know that I was behind it. If I was unlucky, they would kill me for it.
Kaori: And what if they don't?
Naoya: Don't lie. My father has already buried one of his children, he can easily bury another. And besides, I've brought this dishonour to the Edogawa name on myself - because I didn't know when to stop. My name will go down in history for all the wrong reasons, and that shall be my penance.
Kaori: What do you want us to do, then?
Naoya: Tell nothing but the truth. Tell them that it was me from the very beginning. That I merely pretended to be your ally. That now, I am giving you one last reward for defeating me. Go.
Kaori: Naoya, but-
Naoya: Go! Leave me, leave the Nautilus, leave this Killing Game, behind.
By then, he had wandered towards the red button that Monokuma would slam with his gavel to begin an execution and put his glove-covered hands gently upon it. We could tell that Naoya intended to execute none other than himself - and that to buy enough time to save ourselves we had to leave him behind.
He therefore pressed the button, and the screen flickered to life one last time to show one last animation. There was no Monokuma though - just us and Naoya, walking away in different directions. Us to the left, and him to the right.
There wasn't even a chain to drag him out of the courtroom. Just the flow of running sea water.
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CONGRATULATIONS: NAOYA HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY, TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!
Mystery Buried Deep: Ultimate Private Investigator, Naoya Edogawa: Executed
Klaxons were blaring, everything was illuminated in a red glow and the water was now beginning to flood the courtroom, and the entire Nautilus along with it. The entire carpet was now wet, and it was only a matter of time before it would have been waist-length. Thinking fast, I pushed aside Monokuma's throne, as he hinted at; revealing a secret passage. We had to run.
So it was that the five of us, the four who survived as well as Ryoko, leaning upon Souta and Umiko for support, ventured into that passage. Naoya stayed behind, facing away from us and not even moving. The last we saw of him, he was staring at an old photograph, depicting him as a child, and an older girl with grey eyes and blonde hair: almost certainly Arisu Edogawa.
Me, Daigo, Umiko, Souta and Ryoko eventually found ourselves in what appeared to be a docking bay for... bathyspheres? Escape pods, most likely. I took a quick glance to see that there was another entrance: one that had been bricked-up. Ah, so that was what was behind Ren's futile attempt to seek a way out for all of us. Too late for them now, though.
Regardless, I opened the hatch and we as a group together clambered into one of the bathyspheres. There was enough room for all of us - 6 seats, and 5 people to take places. We strapped ourselves down with the seatbelts, and as soon as we were all set, Daigo (closest to the door) closed the hatch and activated it, abandoning Naoya to his fate.
As we accelerated upwards, back to the safety of the surface, a speech erupted over the built-in radio loudspeaker. It was the voice of Naoya, congratulating us for having outsmarted him and for having won the Killing Game. We could barely hear him over the sound of the crashing waves slowly filling up the courtroom in which he intended to die in. And with a final, deafening sound of the sea engulfing him, all was silence.
Naoya Edogawa, the self-proclaimed Ultimate Private Investigator and the mastermind of the Killing Game, was dead.
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The five of us were sitting in our seats, battered, exhausted and weary... but alive. His final words were still echoing in my head:
Naoya: Kaori Hotaru. Daigo Bushida. Umiko Nitori. And Souta Furusawa. Congratulations to all of you for winning the Mutual Killing Game. I honestly expected it to end with a successful murder and cover-up, but what's done is done. You have outwitted and exposed the mastermind and his scheme, and have therefore secured your own freedom. Well then, we have finally come to the journey's true end. My duties, as the opposition lurking within your midst, have been fulfilled... You were truly remarkable guests. Adieu.
The bathysphere was flying up at a fairly ludicrous speed now, and within seconds, with a loud crash of displaced water, it finally surfaced. What followed was, of course, the awkward silence: we made it out of here with our lives... but what about them?
What about the young girl who inspired Masao, probably not knowing that he died trying to save us all? Or what about Yukiharu's parents, probably not knowing that the son they considered to be nothing but a racehorse threw away his life to try and get away from them? And what about us, now having to pick up the pieces and try to get back to as close as a normal life as we could?!
I looked around, seeing the expressions on my companions' faces. Ryoko was barely lucid. Umiko's head was tilted downwards. Daigo was just staring straight ahead. And Souta looked like he had came to a startling realisation.
Souta: ...Excuse me? Have you ever stopped to consider something?
Daigo: What?
Souta: There's five of us, and we've got nothing except the clothes on our backs! Not even a tin of tuna to share amongst ourselves!
Umiko: And-
Souta: And there's not a single lifejacket in here either! So if by some miracle we do get spotted, then if we fall into the sea, then we're off to join the mosasaurs!
Umiko: The-the mosasaurs?
Souta: Yes! We'll just sink like a stone and drown!
Ryoko: ...Huh... So this was... all for nothing?
Daigo: No way. Help must be coming. Kaori?
Kaori: Yes?
Daigo: Ju-just check we're not stranded in the middle of the ocean, okay?!
Kaori: Right then.
I unbuckled my seatbelt, feeling the vibration of the bathysphere as it gently bobbed upon the ocean's surface. Making my way towards the hatch, I swung it upwards, allowing the fresh air and the scent of seawater to waft in. I could hear the deafening sound of an aircraft appearing to be hovering above us, and above all, I also heard what appeared to be men... talking to each other.
First Man: Looks like someone's coming out. We've got at least one survivor.
Second Man: Okay, so should we lower the rope?
First Man: She looks able to.
Second Man: Right then.
I stood at the edge of the bathysphere, holding onto the hatch with both hands to make sure I didn't fall right at the very end. My eyes looked up, towards the sunrise, the white clouds, the baby pink sky. And I finally knew.
We were free.
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Chapter 6: Remember, You Will Die, Part VI, End
4 Survived