3rd Person POV
Junko Enoshima had finally been defeated. The killing game is now over, having ended with the death of the Mastermind.
And the remaining students along with the headmaster have just witnessed all of this happen mere moments ago.
As soon as Junko's life comes to a close, Mukuro Ikusaba collapses to her knees. Even until the very last second, she couldn't peel her eyes away. Even when she absolutely didn't want to see it, she just wanted to see her sister for as long as possible.
"J-Junko…?" Mukuro's entire body trembled as sweat poured down her face. She tried taking a deep breath, only to find herself unable to breathe.
"Junko…!" In that moment, tears poured down Mukuro's face as she realized no matter what, her sister wasn't coming back.
"Junko! I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry for betraying you, I'm sorry for letting you die! P-Please…!"
"Please… don't go…" Mukuro could stop herself, all these emotions rushed to her in an instance and she felt like her body was being torn apart.
"M-Mukuro!" Aoi crouched beside the girl as everyone else came to console her.
"Well, that monster was still your sister…" Byakuya mutters. He felt zero sympathy for Junko, but seeing Mukuro like this was… something he wasn't interested in seeing.
"I'm sorry that it had to end like this…" Kiyotaka mutters.
The only person who hadn't rushed to Mukuro's side was F/N, who picked up the button off the floor that Junko left behind.
He stared at the spot where Junko had died, the blood splattered everywhere, proving Junko was undeniably gone.
"I wonder… if this was the only way things could go." F/N mutters.
"Well, I'll never know now, but… I would have preferred if everyone could have just been normal classmates. Even you..." Without saying another word to Junko's remains, F/N crouched down and picked up the two hair clips of Monokuma's two sides.
After that, he walked back to everyone else and crouched down in front of her Mukuro.
"You know... Junko wanted nothing but despair." F/N begins as he wipes her tears away with his scarf.
"By siding with us, you gave her the despair she was longing for. In a weird way... I'm certain she's grateful. Because from what I can tell… she truly did love you." F/N stood up and held his hand out. Mukuro looked up at him and took his hand.
"Yeah... I'm certain Junko loves you for what you did. Even if she is nuts..." Aoi assures her.
"Y-Yeah…" Mukuro wipes away the last of her tears and sighs. "Maybe if I wasn't always thinking for others and not myself I… could have stopped all this."
"But… it's too late. Junko's gone now…"
"It's alright if you're sad, Mukuro. Because we'll always be here for you. We're classmates after all." Aoi pulled Mukuro into a hug, and after a few seconds, Mukuro hugged her back.
"Thank you, everyone…" Mukuro smiled warmly despite the lingering tears.
"I feel a little bit better, so we can get out of here now."
"She's right. Let's go, everyone." Jin advises the last of his students.
"Ah! I almost forgot." F/N pulls Alter Ego out of his jacket and switches him on.
"Oh! F/N!" Alter Ego looks around, seeing everyone gathered there.
"Did you guys do it? Did you... Win?" Alter Ego asked everyone.
"That's right. We're about to leave right now." F/N tells him. "We can finally leave this school."
"Ah! I'm glad. Was I... Helpful?" Alter Ego asks
"Of course you were. We couldn't have done it without you." Mukuro tell him. Since it was just a computer, she couldn't pat it's head or anything so she just rubbed her hand over the keys. It seemed to Make Alter Ego happy.
"Hearing that makes me really happy. I'm so grateful to have been able to help you all." Alter Ego says
"We're grateful to you. Now then, we shouldn't waste any more time." Kyoko reminds everyone
And with that, everyone headed to the main hall to finally escape this academy of despair. However Makoto and F/N stayed behind for a second.
"Hey F/N, before we go, there's something I want to ask." Makoto speaks up.
"Go ahead. I'm in a good mood."
"Are you… satisfied? Is this the ending you wanted?" Makoto leaned against the stand next to F/N.
"...I don't know." F/N answers. It was just the two of them here, and so F/N didn't hide it.
That look on his face was the same one Makoto saw before, a face devoid of anything at all. F/N's real face, and Makoto is the only one to see it.
"Seeing Junko enjoy losing like that makes this feel… empty. I couldn't see someone who deserved to suffer in despair do that." F/N admits.
"Yeah. It does kinda feel like she got what she wanted in the end." Makoto sighs as he takes in the expression F/N was making.
"Makoto, if I can be honest… I was disappointed that I managed to survive the fifth trial…"
"Why? Is there a reason?"
"This world is horrible. Nothing but horrible things have happened to me throughout my whole life. Whenever I finally had something, it was stripped away." F/N begins.
"That's why… I wanted to change this garbage world. It's not fair that people who deserve nothing but Despair never get it, while those who earned Hope all suffer. So no matter what… I wanted to right those wrongs."
"But… whether I could actually change the world, or if I ever died, it all meant the same in the end…"
"It means you won't have to live in a world you hate, right?" Makoto looked up at him.
"..."
"Makoto, you and I talk so much because you wanted to understand me better, right?" F/N asked.
"That's right."
"Then… I'm not going to answer every question about myself, you'll have to piece together the truth on your own."
"So… you want me to keep on getting to know you?" Makoto smiled as he looked forward.
"I think you're my best friend, Makoto. So I'm sorry about this, but… I'm going to give you a reason to still be around me." F/N admitted. His expression never changed, but Makoto can see, for a moment, that there was a glimmer of Hope in his eyes.
"Even if I understood everything about you, I don't think I'd just forget about you, F/N. I could never forget about anyone here. Because we're all classmates… and friends." Makoto promises.
"Ha… you're a dork for saying something cheesy like that." F/N shakes his head.
"W-Well… it sounded cool in the moment, so give me a break just this once…" Makoto laughed nervously.
"You two…" Kyoko walked out of the elevator to find them.
"Kyoko, you came back?" Makoto asked.
"You have the button to open the gate, remember?" Kyoko reminds him.
"Oh shoot!" Makoto realized as panic set in. "I-I'm so sorry, I got distracted!"
"Hehe…" Kyoko smiled. "You really are foolish, Makoto."
"Even you're laughing at me, Huh?" Makoto sighs.
"...don't ever change. I like you the way you are." Kyoko suddenly admitted.
"Would you like me to give you alone time?" F/N offers them
"F/N…" Makoto mutters.
In an instance, Kyoko leaned forward and wrapped her arms around the two of them.
"K-Kyoko…!" Makoto exclaimed.
"Kiri…" F/N averted his gaze.
"You're both such a pain… making me get attached to you…" Kyoko sighs.
The three went silent for a few seconds, and Kyoko finally released them.
"Sorry about that… I just… had to get it out of my system." Kyoko clears her throat.
"I-It's no big deal!" Makoto claimed.
"Your face is red." F/N pointed out.
"Can we just get out of here…?" Makoto sighed.
"I'll go first." F/N's expression faded into yet another fake smile as he entered the elevator.
"Let's go, Makoto." Kyoko says.
"Right."
"Oh, just… don't mention what just happened, alright?" Kyoko requests. "And… definitely do not mention what happened before the trial started."
"Y-Yeah…" Makoto's face went red as he and Kyoko entered the elevator and headed to the main hall.
When they finally reached their destination, everybody stood in front of the door. Nobody made a sound.
Seeing that they were finally here, Makoto felt almost... absentminded. This was their epilogue before the final ending. It's as if they were stuck there in limbo, unmoving, unsure. But... In the end...
"We can't just stand around like this forever. At some point, we need to leave."
To nobody's surprise, it was Kyoko who broke the silence.
"Well if that's the case... Makoto, would you do the honors?" Everyone turned to Makoto, who held the button that would free them in his hands.
"Okay." Makoto nods his head
As if awakened by their words, Makoto Naegi opened the button. Up until the moment of her death, it had belonged to Junko. And in the end, she dropped it before them.
"B-But... is that really it? Is that really the key to this door...?" Aoi asks with an unnerved expression
"You don't have to read too much into what she said to find the answer. Junko told us she would force us out into the outside world. This button is proof of it." F/N tells her.
"Yeah... You're probably right." Aoi says as she smiles warmly at him.
"But you know, we might not be able to survive out there..." F/N adds as he stares at the gate.
"You really know how to kill a mood don't you?" Aoi sighs.
"I'm not done, at least let me finish before you get mad at me." F/N sighed.
"I'm not mad... I've gotten used to the way you act." Aoi says. "It's part of your charm." She adds
"Can you... not say things like that in public?" F/N requests as he pulls his scarf over his face.
"It's punishment from before, so no complain!" Aoi says with a giggle.
"As I was saying... It's plausible that we could end up dying out there, right?" F/N says to everyone.
"I guess that's true... the future is very uncertain. But that hardly matters now. We have no choice but to move forward." Jin says
"That's true too. But with a future as uncertain as ours, we're quite lucky." F/N adds
"Lucky? How so?" Aoi asks him
"The future is uncertain. That much is obvious. But sometimes... an uncertain future may actually be the best future. Right?" F/N says
"Beautifully said bro. We must embrace our future of uncertainty and live on. For the sake of those who couldn't!" Kiyotaka says
"Kyeehaha! There's nothin' to worry about either way! If something ever happened to Masters, I'd take my scissors and jam 'em so far up–!"
"Achoo!" And.... Toko's back
"H-Huh...? Hey, where's the courtroom? Where's the m-mastermind...?" She asks
"It's all over. We're just about to leave the school..." F/N tells
"What? L-Leave...!? We can go outside!? Then... that means me and M-Master can all get married...? And then he'll g-give me a little jewel of a baby!?" Toko exclaims
"Something like that would be a greater despair than anything I've encountered so far." Byakuya shoots down her idea.
"Anyway, don't worry. I have no doubt that we'll be able to leave here without a problem. It's what happened after we get out that I'm worried about..." Kyoko mentions
"That might be an issue... But... How do I put this? Unlike this school, the world is really big, right? Since it's so big, I'm sure there must be some despair no matter what. But there also has to be lots of hope… right?" Makoto asks.
"The act of searching for hope, to try and find it, that by itself might be the true meaning of hope. As long as you have that hope, you can keep moving forward no matter what trouble you may fall into. Is that what you mean, Makoto...?" Mukuro asks him.
"Y-Yeah, that's pretty much the gist of it." Makoto admits
"I don't need any of you to spell that out for me. You know, Junko mentioned that there were still others out there who hadn't cast away hope just yet. Maybe I should find them and make them work for me. To rebuild the world, we must first rebuild the Togami dynasty." Byakuya says
"I-I'll go with you! I'll follow you anywhere you w-want to go! I-I'll follow you to opposite ends of the e-earth if I have to!" Toko exclaims.
"Maybe while you're doing that, you can make more friends, Toko." F/N mentions.
"Do you think I have f-friends already?" Toko asked him.
"Maybe. And if you don't, I believe you will one day."
"R-Really…? Ehehe… hehehehe…" Toko started giggling to herself, and nobody had the heart to stop her.
"Well my first stop is gonna be the closest donut shop! I can figure out the rest from there!" Aoi declared.
"Donuts...? Seriously? Do you not think about anything else?" F/N asks her
"Of course I do!" Aoi claims
"Then… take us all with you if you find one." F/N requests.
"Alright! We'll all eat donuts until we drop after leaving!" Aoi tells everyone. "Because, I would still like to be with all of you."
"Come on, Makoto. Even if everyone in the outside world is gone... Even if the world is steeped in despair... As long as I have people like you around, I can face forward and keep moving. If we can get out there and do something, have some sort of impact..." Kyoko trails off
"Well... There's only one way to find out what it's like out there." Jin says to her
Kyoko looks over to him and flashes him a quick smile. A small but meaningful gesture… but she quickly looked away from him afterwards.
"But what can we do...? There's so few of us, and we're so small. So what can we do...?" Makoto asks himself.
"...We can probably do anything. We've come this far after all." Makoto convinces himself before looking down at the button in his hands.
"Yeah! We can do anything!"
"Well, I guess this is goodbye. ...And goodbye… to Sakura. But hey! If we gotta say goodbye, we may as well do it with a smile on our face!" Aoi Asahina says.
"No matter what happens, I'll always be around to guide you in the right direction. Just count on me! It's my promise as a man!" Kiyotaka Ishimaru tells everyone
"You know how much I hate being annoyed. But if something does come up, you may as well let me know. I can't guarantee I'll actually bother listening, but you know..." Byakuya Togami adds
"I d-don't know why, but...I have a b-burning desire to start writing...! I might b-be able to pull it off... A story about my M-Master and me! A-And the others, I guess..." Toko Fukawa says.
"I can't say I'm sorry about what happened, but still... It does feel kind of strange..." Kyoko Kirigiri says
"I may have failed you all before, but I won't ever let that happen again. And I'll prove it to you all." Jin Kirigiri says.
"No matter what happens, we'll face any despair together. That much I know." Mukuro Ikusaba says to everybody
"To face the ugliness of the world with a beautiful hope swelling deep inside our very souls. That is what it means to have hope in the first place. At least... That's what I believe." F/N S/N says
"I... really don't know what to say. I guess we... graduated?" Makoto Naegi adds
"It looks like hope really is spreading. This means I have to push even harder...!" Makoto says to himself
"I'm going to keep moving forward, with hope in my heart."
"Since I have hope, I can show courage. Since I have hope... I can move ahead."
"The world... can move ahead."
Makoto pressed the button and the door began to open.
"With my hands... With our hands... Hope and despair mingled together... opening the door to the future..." Makoto says out loud as the door completely opens. Officially putting an end to the killing school life
And, putting an end to the Ultimate Despair...
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At least for now...
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Izuru Kamukura POV
"...."
"So in the end… Hope won."
"Hm… I really… didn't anticipate that."
For a moment, I felt this strange feeling. My lips curled upwards as I thought about it. About how this truly defied all my expectations.
"F/N… in the end you still surprised me. And because of that I'm wondering…"
"Is it possible that Hope truly is worth my time?"
…
I'll ask you that next time we meet, because I know we will see each other again, F/N. Until then...
"I'll be waiting."
~{ End }~