Anguish & Desire/Chapter Thirty Two

This is Chapter Thirty One of Danganronpa: Anguish &amp; Desire, Comfort Time!. In this chapter, the Ultimates are forced to undergo another class trial, where life and death rests in the balance.

Author's Note: I have lost all motivation for this at the moment so here's a v v v v short chapter in terms of length/content. I mean this trial was also designed to be short from a story point but it's still so fkn bothering >_>

“Alright kiddies, let’s get it started!”

At MonoMech’s declaration, our fourth class trial officially begins. A trial that will determine whether Kiyo Azama, Kei Nakamoto, Kimie Tomori, Madoka Nakata, Rai Kitoaji, Isamu Shiomi, Satoshi Tsuda, or/and I will die.

The atmosphere of the trials are always tense, scary, and this one is no different. After all, we did lose Yuka Kihara, the kindest, most innocent of us…

...she deserved more than this. So much more.

Yet, she rests in a classroom, her body cold, covered in blood. Alone.

It sickens me--!

“Wow...you guys are all quiet today!” MonoMech exclaims from his throne. “What’s wrong? Bear’s got your fish?”

I look up from my stand and examine the room. It...really is disheartening. Nakamoto and Tomori are both distraught -- you can read in all over their faces. Satoshi...he looks more scared if anything else. Shiomi and Rai look concerned, and, I’m not sure if that’s over the trial or if it’s because of the rest of us. Azama and Nakata seem as if they’re ready for the challenge ahead, though they also look quite solemn themselves. It’s as if they wanna get started, but don’t wanna interrupt the rest of our mourning.

“Geez, I can already tell this is going to be slow…”

I don’t have the energy to be angry with MonoMech now.

“G-Guys...did one of us really kill Yuka?”

I...don’t wanna believe it. We’ve all grown so close in the time we spent here...could one of us really betray the rest of us now?!

“Ken, Ken, Ken…” MonoMech says, pointing an accusatory finger at me. “It’s been twenty four days, you’ve had three class trials already...you should know by now that this is the real day. One of you killed Yuka.”

...

“Twenty four days…? Has it really been so long?” Tomori says, holding her shoulder.

“I wanna go home,” Shiomi croaks. “Why didn’t help come for us yet?! Why do we have to keep doing this?!”

“Because Yuka is dead,” MonoMech says. “That’s why you have to keep doing this.”

“What do you get out of this?” Shiomi asks. “Why do you enjoy torturing us?”

“It’s for nothing but my own personal pleasure,” MonoMech says. “Consider it a social experiment.”

Azama scoffs. “Fuck off.”

“Obinata called it a game, didn’t he?” Satoshi asks. “Is that what you really see this as?”

“Obi-chi…”

MonoMech nods. “It is! A game for everyone to enjoy!”

“Everyone?” Nakata asks.

“Everyone, as in, all of the participants. Geez, Madoka, you really think too much into everything.”

“Maybe so.”

“I must say though, your precious loved ones are really getting worried~!”

…Touka.

“Kei’s momma Ayano.”

“Mother…?! What are you doing to her?!”

“Nothing~! I just wanna remind you who we have, who you are fighting for.”

“Right, Ken, Isamu? Your little sister Touka, and your little brother Jun are both quite scared right now! They’re quite literally shaking in their boots, upupupu.”

…

“You leave them alone!” Shiomi screams. “You touch my brother you’ll die.”

I jump up. “Don’t you hurt my Touka--!” “I don’t plan on making it out of here alive myself,” MonoMech says. “So your threats mean nothing to me. However, like I said, your family and loved ones will be safe as you made it out of the first trial alive!”

“But, I can’t save them from themselves,” MonoMech continues. “Like Katsuki Todoroki. I tell ya, Madoka, you mercenary types are insane. If he kills one more of my soldiers I’ll execute him myself.”

I look to Nakata, and I see her softly smile. “He wouldn’t want me to worry about him right now. He’s strong.”

“Yes, he is. But is Miss Niko Niiyama?” he questions, turning to Azama. “She seems quite frail herself, and she’s gotten even more ill since she’s been here.”

“I-I,” she stammers, and I only just notice she’s beginning to tremble. “Sh-She needs to be saved, guys...we need to get her and get out soon.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Tomori asks.

Shiomi gently grabs onto Azama’s hand, and, for a moment she stops shaking. “She’s the strongest girl I know. She was just always sickly, constantly taking medicine, very rarely could she go outside to play...if she’s run out of meds, that means she’s also not eating. We HAVE to get out of here soon, or else--!”

“Or else she’ll just...keel over!” MonoMech exclaims. “Meanwhile, poor Souta Iwai is all by his lonesome, without a loved one. He’s only here because we couldn’t get our hands on someone close enough to Satoshi.”

Satoshi looks down, almost guiltily. “I’m sorry, Iwai. I’m sorry that you had to get involved with this. I’m glad Alpha is safe, though.”

Alpha?

Huh…?

Is that Satoshi’s friend…?

Now.

He tilts his head, and looks up to Tomori. “Alpha was on my hunting team. No one knew her real name, and...she’s the closest person I have out there…”

Now...?

Now, what? Why did that come into my mind…?

“But, I’m not done yet!” MonoMech exclaims. “What about Naomi Masamune, Miss Kimie’s agent?”

Tomori leans in. “You won’t intimidate me.”

“Maybe not, but what about, Rai?”

I look swiftly to Rai beside me, who I can see caving in on themself. “Please…”

“But your parents are so worried, Rai.”

“They don’t care,” Rai mumbles. “They NEVER cared. They’re just worried about themselves--so don’t you dare try to make me feel bad. It won’t work.”

R-Rai…?!

MonoMech only smirks. “You’re starting to tremble, Rai.”

Rai curls their hands into a fist. “No I’m not--! I hope they die, I hope you kill them--!”

“Rai…? What’s wrong…?!”

Azama steps back. “Kitoaji…”

Rai looks up to me, and, for the first time, Rai’s pain isn’t hidden from me. It’s almost like Rai’s guard finally dropped. Rai’s constant smile, their cute giggle...none of that could be seen in their pale, trembling, face. “I’m sorry. I won’t let them hurt me again.”

“What did they do to you…?!” Nakamoto asks.

Rai flinches, and I see Tomori frown. “Can you be more insensitive?”

“S-Sorry,” Nakamoto says, sighing.

“Can we--can we please move onto the trial?” Rai asks. “I...I don’t wanna do this.”

“Of course,” Nakata says, and, though my eyes follow the conversation, my hands intertwine with Rai’s beside me. It’s...not much, but it’s all I can do right now.

Their hands are cold, they shake within mine.

“We should start with something...easy,” Azama says.

“Easy?” Satoshi asks. “Like, what?”

“Alibis.”

“Alibis? Isn’t it a bit early for that?” Tomori asks. “Don’t we normally start with the cause of death, or, even the timeline?”

“That isn’t as easy this time around,” Azama says. “Alibis, however, we as a group have already discussed.”

“Oh, and what is that?” Shiomi asks.

“None of us have them.”

A silence falls across the trial room.

“Well, except for Rabbit and I,” Tomori says. “Are you tired or something? This is something that I didn’t think we had to discuss.”

“Oh?” Azama asks, leaning in towards Tomori. “And why are you giving me an attitude?”

Tomori smirks. “It’s just interesting to me. I didn’t know you were deaf as well as blind. Or is it just selective hearing?”

“Guys, guys...where’s this coming from?” Satoshi asks. “We can’t be arguing right now.”

“No one’s arguing,” Tomori says. “I was legitimately wondering about her selective hearing. You know, I thought you had changed, Azama.”

“W-What does that mean…?!”

“You jump to conclusions that benefit you. You ignore the details that are right in front of you and I’m sorry, it’s just immature.”

Azama’s face begins to twitch. “Wh-What are you calling me…?”

“Stop it,” Shiomi says. “Guys, this isn’t what--”

“It is pretty late,” Nakamoto interjects. “Kiyo-chi, Kimie-chi, everyone is tired. When you’re tired, you make mistakes and you get angry. We all just need to inhale, and exhale. Okay?”

“1, 2, 3…”

Nakamoto and Azama both take a sharp inhale, and then exhale.

“Therapeutic, isn’t it?”

Azama nods. “Sorry.”

She looks...quite dejected, however. Did Tomori hit a soft spot?

“Tomori’s right though,” I say. “She and I were together for a little bit before finding Yuka’s body.”

“Rabbit woke me up,” Tomori says. “He was looking for Yuka, and, I helped him look for her. Nakata joined us later, and the three of us were together when the body discovery announcement went off.”

“Which, just to recap, means the three of you are innocent,” Shiomi says. “Easy to understand?”

Azama senses the condescending tone in Shiomi’s voice just as well as I can.

“Don’t talk to me like I’m an idiot,” Azama mutters.

“Like you’ve been doing to me these past few days?” he counters.

“G-Guys, please--!” Rai exclaims. “We can’t do this here!”

Shiomi’s arched eyebrow rests. There’s a small smirk imprinted on his face, as if he’s proud he got under Azama’s skin.

And Azama realizes it too, since she turns away from Shiomi, and her face slowly goes blank.

“Azama, it’s--”

“Let’s move on.”

Nakata’s sharp voice cuts me off, and Nakamoto -- who stands beside her -- even jumps a little. “We need to continue on with the trial.”

“R-Right,” Satoshi says. “Well, Azama was right about something before. The rest of us do not have alibis.”

Nakamoto nods, as Nakata turns to me. “Did Yuka ever tell you about what happened?”

…

“No. She was just...shaking a lot. All I can remember her saying was that she was really cold.”

“She couldn’t even see us,” Tomori says, sighing. “Even though we were right in front of her--!”

“I see,” Nakata says. “That does add up.”

Add up…?

“To what?” Satoshi asks.

“Later, Satoshi,” Nakata says. “It’ll make sense in time.”

…

Why do I get the feeling she already has everything figured out?

She’s always one step ahead of us...there’s never any exceptions.

“Nakata-chi is always so smart,” Nakamoto says, and his lips curl upwards. “It’s inspiring.”

She shoots him a glare, but instead of getting scared like he normally would, Nakamoto leans in close to her. “Now that’s a scary face.”

“Do you want to die?”

Nakamoto shrugs, and his smirk slowly fades. He turns back to Satoshi, Rai, and myself, and I guess notices how uneasy we all look, cause he scratches his neck. “Sorry about that.”

...what is going on with everyone today?

“Guys...what’s going on?” Rai numbly asks. “Why is everyone so argumentative?!”

“Can you blame them?” MonoMech asks, from his throne. “It’s such a stressful, despairing situation! Who would’ve thought you pure, innocent, beings would be put into such a death game! All Kiyo wanted was to graduate and become a world-class violinist so she can help pay for her best friends medical expenses!”

Azama almost faints where she stands. Her face goes white. “How would you know what I--!”

...Azama…

...the more I look at Azama, the more I see myself. She acts so rashly, so emotionally, and...we even have the same aspirations. Saving our precious family.

“And poor Yoichi! Oh, who? That poor pianist, remember him? I almost didn’t! So cold, calculating, so scared of being betrayed...and now he’s dead! You take someone who has only suffered betrayal and put them into a ‘betray or be betrayed’ type situation, what do you expect would happen?!”

Shiho…

“Or Hiroko! You take someone’s only family captive and see how they react. Even Ukon! All she wanted was to help, but she was so fragile, weak. It was like she was designed to sacrifice herself!”

“Sh-Shut the fuck up--!” Tomori screams. She grabs the stand in front of her, and that only makes her shaking all the more obvious.

“She died to protect you,” MonoMech continues. “And you must feel so guilty about Shuji and Yuka, too! It must hurt being so useless…”

“Tomori, don’t listen to him--! He’s trying to get under your skin!”

Satoshi nods from beside me. “You’re anything but useless!”

“H-He’s right,” Tomori says, her face now blank. “I’m useless.”

“This is going too far--!” Nakamoto exclaims. “This isn’t right!”

“Kei, Kei, Kei...remember when you wanted to be the one who saved everyone? The one who rallied everyone together and got everyone out? Whatever happened to that?”

Nakamoto winces. “It’s--!”

“Was that because you wanted to actually save everyone, or was it because you’re selfish? Because you wanted to be the hero?”

“I loved Mio-chi and Obi-chi!” Nakamoto exclaims. “I’d have done anything to get them out of here…! And, he told me--!”

“What did he tell you?”

Nakamoto stops himself. “No. I won’t let you hold anything over me.”

“Everyone, stop giving him the reactions he so desires,” Nakata says, turning to MonoMech. “Why are you attacking us so much today? “Normally you play such a neutral role during the trials--sure, you’d give us shit here or there, but never like this. What’s wrong?”

“I’m getting bored! That’s all there is to it, Madoka.”

“Really? For some reason I think we’re close to getting out of here, and for that reason, I would like to ask you all to please focus on only the trial. Ignore the stuffed toy, and let us find Yuka’s murderer.”

“Y-Yes! Please, let’s do that!” Rai exclaims. “Okay, so, something that we haven’t talked about yet, is the scene of the crime!”

“Which scene?” Satoshi asks. His voice is hoarse. “Where Yuka died, or where we found the broken mug?”

“There are multiple scenes?” Shiomi asks.

“We didn’t get a lot of time to investigate,” Azama says. “I’m also unsure what you mean.”

“There was a blood trail that led from the bio lab to the classroom where Yuka died,” I say. “The bio lab…”

“...was where Yuka was initially poisoned,” Tomori says. Her face is still ghostly, but she’s paying attention at least.

“Wait--poisoned?!” Shiomi asks. “When was this determined?!”

“Our own little Satoshi figured it out!” Tomori exclaims.

He blushes. “I really didn’t do much.”

“He found this at the crime scene,” Tomori says, presenting the Super Secret MonoMech Poison. Shiomi squints, and as if reading his mind, Tomori clarifies. “The bio lab.”

“The bottle is empty, and it says on the label it’s a liquid…”

“...also, if you read the side effects, it says that it could potentially cause one to lose their hearing, sight, and then they’d begin to vomit blood and, of course, death.”

After Tomori finishes, she sighs. “Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?”

…

Yuka...must’ve been so scared, so alone. I’m sorry I couldn’t have been there--!

“That’s not all, though,” Rai says. “She definitely met someone.”

“I mean, not to be an asshole, but…”

“Did you find a letter?” Azama asks, cutting Nakamoto off.

“No,” I say. “In the bio lab there were two mugs -- a broken one, and another filled with tea. It’s...It’s fair to say that whoever she was with tricked her.”

“Tricked her?” Nakamoto asks.

“They invited her for tea, and slipped her the poison,” Nakata explains. “Deceivery at it’s finest.”

Nakamoto scratches the back of his neck “I-I see…”

“So, she parted ways with Rabbit and met the blackened for tea, right?” Tomori asks. “We’re under the impression that after the poor girl realized she was poisoned, she ran to the locker? She left a trail of blood -- how come the blackened didn’t chase her?”

“Also,” Rai interjects. “If Yuka was blinded, how did she make it to the locker in the first place?”

“The poison could’ve affected her eyesight later,” I say. “Maybe she...she got there and afterwards lost her sight?”

“T-True,” Rai mumbles.

“I think Tomori’s question is a good one,” Nakata says. “Why didn’t the blackened chase Yuka, despite the obvious trail?”

“She was already dying,” Satoshi says, holding his elbow. “Maybe they figured it was okay to leave her?”

“The blackened was most definitely in a rush,” Nakata says. “They had so much evidence to dispose of.”

“Yet didn’t,” I say. “Why didn’t they?”

“It was an accident,” Nakamoto mumbles.

“It couldn’t have been,” Shiomi says, turning to Azama. “Right?”

“It’d sure make sentencing one of us to death harder, wouldn’t it?” she responds.

“That would explain the panic,” Nakata says, before narrowing her eyes. “Unless someone saw something and didn’t tell anyone.”

There’s a silence that falls over the room.

I...still don’t know if I wanna believe it, that one of us killed Yuka. After everything we’ve been through together, who could betray us like this?! WHY would they do this…?!

But…!

“I’d like to show you all something,” Nakata says, digging into her pocket. “I found it when the second floor was just opened up to us.”

We all wait for Nakata, who slowly pulls out a medicine bottle of her own. She passes it around the room, and when I get it, it’s very clearly labeled, ‘Super Secret MonoMech Poison’. In fact, it’s the same exact bottle as the empty one found in the bio lab.

As I pass it to Satoshi, I sigh. “Where did you get this?”

“It was in the lockers in the changing room by the pool,” Nakata says. “I hid it away in my room, and when I scavenged through the men’s locker room, there was no other one.”

…

“So the culprit is a boy,” Azama mumbles. “That’s good to know.”

“Why? Cause it saves you?” Shiomi shoots back.

Azama only glares at Shiomi as Satoshi sighs beside me.

“It also rules out suicide,” Nakata says. “Which is...a shame.”

...

So the culprit is…?

Who is it...?

The person -- the only person -- who could’ve found the poison…?

“It was an accident…” Nakamoto repeats, this time, softer.

“N-Nakamoto…?” Rai asks.

Oh…!

My eyes fall on Nakamoto, whose body nearly crumbles on itself. He shakes, his face tainted with the look of remorse.

But...that’s right!

The only person who could’ve had the poison is…

...is…!

''Nakamoto is standing by the lockers, his back rests against one of them and he keeps one eye open. “Yo, Ken-chi.”''

''“Hey,” I say, and, before I knew it, I stood in front of him. “Find anything useful?”''

''“Not really,” he says, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Lockers are empty, and there’s just a shit ton of weight training over there…”''

It really is…!

“Nakamoto, what’s wrong?” Azama asks. “You’re really not looking good.”

“I-I didn’t mean it--!”

“Didn’t mean what?” Satoshi asks. His voice is forceful, yet, calm. It might be the first time I’ve seen him so serious about something. “What happened?”

Before he could answer, Nakamoto falls to his knees. “I did it…!”

It was like he was...trying to cry, yet no tears could come. All he could do was choke up his words, hoping it’d reach us.

Nakamoto did it…?

He really did it…?

“You killed her?” I ask, and Nakamoto only nods.

“I-I did,” he stammers, looking up so he could face us once more.

“I killed Yuka.”