I followed the guys inside to Keebo's lab, where I noticed that they all definitely had their guard up against me.
Guess I shouldn't have skipped the meeting after all... I'll ask Rantaro about it later.
Not much happened in Keebo's lab, other than Keebo's own insistence that this wasn't his lab. You walked closer to the super computer and let out a sigh, if Miu was here you'd be able to go to the virtual world. Although, based on the events of the fourth trial... you weren't sure if you were particularly upset about that. Although, Kokichi and Gonta had been close lately. A part of you was worried for them, but you were also too focused on your own survival.
"Well if that's all there is in this, should we go to the gym to share what we found?" Shuichi asked.
You simply nodded, while everyone else voiced their agreements. You followed the group back to the gymnasium, and fell behind so you could ask Rantaro what was going on.
"Rantaro, there's something your not telling me... right?" I whispered.
Rantaro gave a side glance to the other three, as if measuring the distance between us and them, "I didn't want to tell you just yet, but..." As Rantaro trailed off he sighed, "...there are talks about you being the mastermind... or at the very least a mole."
You were stunned, "What? Why?"
"Because of what you pulled with Angie's vote. She didn't look like she was lying at the end, and if we didn't make the votes tied perhaps Monokuma wouldn't have killed her." Rantaro said, "I mean, I still think that her denying it at the very end was just her last ditch attempt to escape alive... but some of the others disagree."
You closed your eyes in annoyance, "So you're telling me, that because Angie didn't exactly admit to her crimes, everyone else thinks Monokuma lied about her being the culprit. And because I was the one who proposed the idea of making the votes tie... everyone now thinks I set Angie up to be killed." You cursed, You were fuming. Your attempt at making sure everyone stayed alive ends up turning me into a suspect!
Rantaro nodded glumly, and you let out a sigh, trying to calm yourself down. "And I suppose the situation that happened with Maki doesn't help me either...Oh well, I'll just have to prove it to them... one way or another... Now is there anything else from the meeting you were hiding from me?"
"I wasn't trying to hide it, I was going to tell you afte-" The gymnasium came into view, cutting Rantaro's protest off. You followed inside, and practically everyone else was already waiting for your group.
"Oh look! Our newest murderer finally showed up to a group meeting!" Kokichi shouted upon seeing you.
You opened your mouth to say something, but Rantaro spoke up instead, "Not now Kokichi, we have something to do first."
You heard Kokichi pout, but he did shut up. You continued sulking though. You weren't sure exactly when your friendship with Kokichi deteriorated this much, or if he was just always like that. You partially listened as everyone explained what they found, like Tsumugi's Lab (Which Kokichi had unlocked) and Shuichi's as well.
Soon enough the meeting was over, and you all went on your own ways. Or well most of you did. During the meeting you had been contemplating whether or not you should go talk to Kokichi, and you finally made up your mind. You were going to figure out what exactly went wrong, and well... fix it.
So you walked up to Kokichi, and attempted to talk to him. He was just exiting the gym, so he was by himself right now. "Hey Kokichi can we talk?"
"WAHHH Are you going to kill me too?" Kokichi burst... into obviously fake tears before regaining his composure like usual. "I have nothing to say to you... murderer." You flinched, not just because of the hurtful words that Kokichi said, but because Kokichi's eyes were filled with disgust and anger. You've... never seen him look like that before. Or at least, not directed towards you. You didn't even notice that Kokichi left you standing there in shock, you only snapped back to your senses once the Ultimate Supreme Leader left.
You didn't even bother to head towards the dining hall with the rest of them. That one encounter with Kokichi seemed to have sucked the life out of you. Plus you weren't exactly wanted by anyone at the moment. You went back into Maki's room, and you felt tears silently streaming down your face.
"Is this what I get Maki?" You shouted to the room, "For setting you up? For killing you? Do I truly deserve this right now?!"
You let out a shaky breath, in attempts to calm down. "No... this is because of my own mistakes, I killed Maki to save Rantaro... but that wasn't my real mistake, revealing everything to them at the trial was the mistake. I wouldn't have gotten caught, I just got riled up by Kokichi's bet..."
You shook your head, "Can't blame Kokichi for that... no that's truly my fault. Plus Shuichi heard me say in the library that I was the reason Maki was there. I didn't think that telling the truth would have so many negative effects."
At the thought of your current situation, a sudden anger started to overwhelm you. "No! Why... why should I feel guilty for that? Why should I be blamed anyway?! They're... just game characters! They're not even real!"
You put your head into your hands. Hours seemed to go by as you stayed in the same position. You weren't even sure what you were upset about anymore. Apart of you reasoned that it was everything building up and then finally collapsing with Kokichi's harsh words. Another part of you believed it had to be because of all the unknowns. In your time of just sitting there, you realized that you didn't even know if you could go home by completing the game, and you didn't know how many times you could restart. Seeing as you wasted two times because of Tsumugi.
Speaking of Tsumugi! You didn't know who the mastermind was anymore. What if the game took a completely different turn and instead of finishing it by finding the mastermind... it actually only ends when there are two people left. You were already exhausted by your time here, who knew how much longer you could take.
You almost laughed at the irony of it all, the night before you joined this cursed killing game... you wanted to join. You wanted to meet these people. You wanted to be apart of this game filled with despair. Now? You were on the verge of begging to be taken home.
Of course, it was at that moment that someone chose to knock on the door. You briskly wiped away any remnants of tears in on your face. "Who is it?"
"Nee-heehee! It's me! The one and only Kokichi Ouma!" Kokichi's voice echoed from the other side. "I decided I would give you a chance to change my mind about you!"
Almost immediately, your heart was filled with joy. Just the fact that someone was willing to change their opinion about you gave you some hope. And it was Kokichi nonetheless, the person who called you a murderer to your face.
He probably was just teasing right? He does that a lot. I mean... it IS Kokichi after all.
With no hesitation you swung the door open, and Kokichi was the first sight you saw. He had an innocent smile on his face, which you couldn't help but greet with your own smile.
Of course, that smile was wiped off almost immediately, when you felt a familiar set of hands wrap around your throat. Your hands started to claw at your culprit, attempting to get them off. You legs started thrashing.
"Gonta is so sorry (Y/N)!"
You opened your mouth to ask 'Why'. But barely any sound escaped. Your vision was already beginning to blur. Only the sound of Kokichi talking was the only thing to still reach your body.
"Don't be sorry Gonta. (Y/N) is the mastermind after all. And it'll be easier for everyone if they can live here without the mastermind right?"
You tried to shake your head no, to say that you weren't the mastermind. But it was far too late, you already were losing consciousness.
The next time you opened your eyes, you awoke to the familiar darkness around you. You looked blankly at the screen. It still only provided you with two options.
"No..." You started to cry, "No! After everything? After all I went through, I still get killed... by Kokichi nonetheless? I can't even retry this past chapter, because it was obvious that he was aiming for me, and not just some random target."
You were almost full on sobbing now, but the screen mercilessly blinked back at you.
R E T R Y O R R E S T A R T ?
"No! I don't want to do this! I want to return home!" And with those words the two options that were infront of you started glitching. You stared in confusion.
R E T U R N, R E T R Y O R R E S T A R T ?
You let out a bitter laugh. "It was this easy? This easy to return home? Fuck this bulls**t! I'm going home!"
"I want to Return!"
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Um....
I switched back to my old line-break version because although *** is neater, I just like ~ a lot more.
Yeah. This is me basically not knowing what to say for this chapter... except...
THANKS FOR READING AS ALWAYS!