Why...?
"Why couldn't you be more selfish, Kaede? If you were, you could have gotten away with this. You could have survived." "If only you had framed me instead-"
"Hey, Shuichi..." Kaede called out. I didn't want to let her finish her sentence.
"If you had lied..."
"Hey, Shuichi! An ultimate detective like you should keep looking for the truth." Said Kaede, tears pouring out of her eyes as she smiled at me.
How could she tell me to look for the truth? Does she not see what happened because of it?
"Alright, that's it." Monokuma called.
That's when I zoned out, I was trying to make sense of it all. I stopped listening to everyone until I heard Kaede yell at everyone to stop protecting her.
"Enough, you guys... I've already prepared myself for this."
"You're giving up?" I said, "But why? You said you'd never give up..." " that we'd get out of here together..."
"...So why are you giving up now!?" I said as tears fell from my eyes uncontrollably. Did you mean what you said, or was that a lie too!?" I choked through my tears.
"We can still do something! Please..." I pleaded.
"I'm not giving up. Because I have you."
Kaede went on about her wish while I hung on to her every word.
Everyone started accepting her wish, agreeing to honor it
"I have a special punishment prepared for the Ultimate Pianist, Kaede Akamatsu!" Monokuma said with his stupid grin.
"W-Wait, wait a second! Kaede, please," I pleaded
"You can't lose to this killing game! I know you can beat it!"
"let's give it everything we got! It's..."
"...PUNISHMENT TIIIME!"
"I believe in you guys! So please, believe in yourself!" Kaede yelled through tears.
"...Okay? It's a promise." She finished.
When Monokuma pressed the button, my head was swarming. I watched a Monokuma-themed choker wrap around Kaede's neck, pulling her up. I reached for her but only met her fingertips.
The next thing I knew, she was sitting on a piano. I wondered what Monokuma was going to do to her.
I watched Monokuma hang her to her death by making her play the piano. My eyes filled with tears. Why did the truth have to punish the innocent? Why couldn't I find a selfish murderer?
I felt warm tears drip out of my eyes, I stared at my fingertips. If they had reached her, I could have probably saved her.
I watched as the piano sped up. I watched as everything around her went haywire.
I caught a glimpse of her eyes. I saw spirals in her eyes, the same ones that were on the first culprit I ever caught.
Tears stopped dripping down my eyes. I lowered my hat and looked down so I wouldn't have to look at her anymore.
After a bit, the piano stopped. I heard a sudden crunch, and I heard a splatter.
I looked up and saw the background behind Kaede had fallen, crushing her.
I looked back down immediately, warm tears pouring down my face again.
Suddenly a hard punch met my face.
"Clench your teeth" yelled Kaito. My tears stopped.
"Kaito! You are supposed to say that *before* you hit him!" shouted Kiibo
I laid on the floor as Kaito started yelling at me.
"Didn't you hear what Kaede said!?" Kaito yelled.
"She said...she believed in you!" Kaito continued yelling
I lied there, taking in what Kaito said.
Before I could stop them, warm tears started leaking out of my eyes. She believed in me, even after I was wrong about the mastermind, even if my wrong deduction got her to kill in vain.
Kaito continued yelling at me, but I stopped listening to him. Kaede wanted me to expose the truth, but the truth was her downfall, the truth was the very thing that killed her...
I shakily stood up, I had stopped crying but Kaito was still trying to get me to say something.
"Enough, Kaito" Said Kirumi. "Sucker punching is pretty low...even for a lowlife degenerate male like you. You better knock it off or I'm gonna explode my Neo-Aikido all over your face!" Yelled Tenko.
"...Tch. Fine." said Kaito reluctantly.
"Shuichi...Are you okay?" asked Tsumugi
"...I'm fine." I mumbled.
I started walking towards the stage, walking past Monokids head. There was no way she had died. She just couldn't have.
I saw some drops of blood fall from the stage. I knelt and felt it. It felt like blood.
I felt something poke my knee. I stood up and saw it was a broken piece of plastic.
I looked around in the small puddle of blood and found a hair clip. Her hair clip.
I picked it up and closed my fist around it.
I stood up and turned around and saw that everyone had left the room, well, everyone but...
"Kaito? What are you still doing here?" I asked him.
He recommended that I go to Kaede's lab, so I did.
I walked there and met a room with a magnificent piano in the center of it.
If only I could have heard her play, just once...
I looked at the CDs that were on the shelf
I stood in front of the CD covered shelves and kept looking until I found one called...
"Claire de Lune" I muttered.
She had talked about this song to me before.
I placed the CD inside the player and listened as the melody filled the room.
"I believe in you, so you should definitely believe in yourself" Said a voice in my head
I stayed silent. The voice was familiar, it was like I knew them in a past life...
...I knew what she was talking about, despite not knowing who she was.
"Yeah...I'll try. I don't know if I can do it, but..." I said hesitantly.
"No... I'll do it!"
"We'll get out of here together... I'll get us out of here... for everyone." I continued
Right after I said that I recognized the voice. I knew who it belonged to.
"I won't give up... for your sake, Kaede."
"From the bottom of my heart, I promise you, Kaede." I finished
She appeared in front of me, playing the piano.
"Yup, that's our promise. I'm leaving everything up to you" She said.
"...Goodbye." She continued.
"Wait!" I yelled. I knew she was alive. There was no way she had died. She had appeared right in front of me.
I ran up to her, but when I wrapped my arms around her, she had vanished.
'Her promise...' I thought.
I knew her promise wouldn't be possible to keep. How could we survive together if two of our classmates were already dead?
Even if we tried to survive with the rest of us, Monokuma would probably give us more motives...
... I knew I couldn't keep her promise. More of us would kill...
That's when the answer came to me, Not all of us could survive, but we could still get out of here together...
I saw her ghost, that must have been what that was, she got out, just not with us. She had left the academy.
If we all died together, we could get out of here. We would still have Kaede and Rantaro...
I smiled.
"I will see you soon, Kaede," I said, as my smile widened.
I took the CD along with the CD player since Monokuma had no rules against taking stuff from other people's labs.
I went to my dorm, placed the CD player on the desk next to my bed, and put the CD in.
I put the CD on loop and placed my hat and her pin next to it.
I turned off the lights and flopped onto my bed.
I thought of my plan as my eyes shut.
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Editors note : Tell me if you find any grammar mistakes in this chapter. Thank you.