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Kaede hung limply in front of her classmates over the giant piano.
Kaede hung limply in front of her classmates over the giant piano.
Kaede hung limply in front of her classmates over the giant piano.
Kaede hung limply in front of her classmates over the giant piano.
Excruciating pain in her back, then she's gone.
____________________________________________
A tunnel.
Felt like it.
Felt like it was being sucked through a tunnel at top speed.
Why "it"?
It was quite unknown what it was, didn't know its own identity. Just that it existed.
And then.....
She saw the light.
Blinking so that her eyes could adjust to the new environment, was an alive and whole Kaede Akamatsu. Sight. She could see......a blood-stained surface?!
Another sight came to her. A huge puddle of bright pink liquid - blood - flowing through from in between strands of fluffy light green......his hair......Rantaro's hair.....
Rantaro.....
She didn't know that she was hyperventilating, but a loud voice then intruded upon her ears.
"Oh?? It worked?" a cheerful voice laced with amused surprise said.
No.....
Angie?
How is Kaede hearing her voice? Maybe she was in the afterlife, and Angie had died already in this cursed killing game? That's why Kaede could hear her?
It suddenly occurred to her that a hard, flat, wooden surface was under her. With a jolt, Kaede realized the "blood-stained surface" she was looking at was a ceiling, the wooden surface under her being the floor.
As if on instinct, Kaede turned her head. Awkwardly, as if her neck hadn't been oiled in a long time.
Who was she kidding, Kaede was a human! Why would her neck need to be oiled?
....and she saw an excited Angie jumping up and down excitedly on the wooden floor, a little distance away from Kaede's lying form.
"Praise Atua!" Angie gasped, a wide smile beginning to spread over her face. "The ritual has worked! I must tell the others."
Before she could make ready to sprint out of the room to do so, Angie stopped herself just in time, and turned to Kaede.
"W-What?" was all Kaede could say as she used her mouth for the first time since.......the discordant, distorted sound of the Flea Waltz replayed in her brain as her limp body was jolted, swung around to press on the giant keys......
No! She clearly wasn't dead now....but how? How.....
Angie interrupted Kaede's internal struggle by bending over her and offering her outstretched hand. "You feeling alright?" she asked Kaede, who took Angie's hand and hoisted herself up.
"What happened to me...." Kaede's heart beat fast. No way this was happening. She was alive.
Shouldn't she be thankful?
"Ah, nothing to worry about!" Angie said happily. "I should tell the others that you're back."
Her gaze looking past Angie, Kaede saw what looked like a messy room, filled with art supplies scattered here and there.
"What is this place?" Kaede asked, dumbfounded.
Nodding, Angie responded, "My research lab. Isn't it simply divine~?"
The pianist gave her a nod back, unsure of what to say. After all, what could she say? Something like, "Oh gosh, I love this room where I woke up alive and unscathed, after dying from an elaborate execution?" No, Kaede was super confused, instead. And terrified.
She'd never be able to look Shuichi or anyone else in the eye ever again.......
But who said she woke up in the Ultimate Academy - the place where the killing game was hosted?
Angie did say this was her research lab, though. And research labs for Ultimates were probably just in the Ultimate Academy. Not any other place. Right?
The horrified and absolutely not-calm look on her face was apparently apparent to Angie, who wrapped her delicate arms around Kaede, who was glad the arms weren't touching her neck in any way.
The metal collar which had wrapped itself around her neck- NO! Don't think of that.....
While Angie hugged her silently, Kaede was biting back tears of helplessness.
Eventually, the tiny artist had to pull away from the hug, giving Kaede a bright smile. "Don't worry, I'll be right back!" She went away, facial expression mingled with concern.
It was then that Kaede had noticed the hanging abominations around her.
***
"E-Eh???" Kaito yelled, latching himself onto a flustered Shuichi. The two of them, along with Maki, had been peacefully walking to breakfast until Angie greeted them with the recent news. "Your f-freakish ritual w-worked?"
"Yes!" Angie beamed, raising her arms in happiness, her loose sleeves falling down her limbs as a result. "A transfer student has indeed come back from the better place! It's all thanks to Atua."
Maki was so tensed up that even her two twin-tails were stiff. "Really?" she asked, her voice very still and silent, but still ominous. "You sure this isn't just some lie you're telling us to convince us to join your cult?"
"Silly Maki~" Angie sighed. She put her hands down to point at the cowering spaceman. "Why would I try persuading you guys that way when Kaito over there wants nothing to do with 'ghosts and occult nonsense'?"
Kaito, who was the "cowering spaceman," wrapped his arms and legs around Shuichi even tighter until the detective felt like Kokichi in one of Maki's chokeholds.
"Oh, I don't know," remarked Maki facetiously. "Maybe you'd try convincing us to abandon him to join the cult in the process."
Currently, Shuichi was turning blue in the face. At this rate, his skin would be more blue than his hair.
"Are you sure about that?" Angie asked, her bangs casting a sinister shadow on her face as she leaned forward, towards Maki. "Kaito seems to be clinging to Shuichi like a leech, nyahaha~!"
An embarrassed Kaito's face reddened. "I-I'm not scared!"
"Oh? And how did you know I was insinuating that, hmm?" asked Angie mischievously, wagging her finger in Kaito's face.
"Cut to the chase. What do you want?" came Maki's curt request.
"I did the ritual at night, and it worked!" Angie clasped her hands. "That proves the people who 'died' so far didn't actually do so. Atua is always right."
Kaito turned white, and clutched Shuichi even harder. As Shuichi was almost at the point of choking to death, Maki pried Kaito off of him.
"So," Maki pondered while wrangling with a scared Kaito, "you decided to revive a student in the dead of the night, leave them in your lab, and tell us about it in the morning? Don't you see how dangerous that could be?"
"W-Wait, you're implying that the 'transfer student' may be brought back to life as dangerous or something?" asked Shuichi, putting a hand to his chin as he looked to the side.
"No, no~ not at all!" corrected Angie. She turned to Maki again. "Don't worry, I have taken good care of our transfer student! I allowed them to sleep in my lab for now, as I gave them some bedsheets and pillows from my dorm. For safety measures, you remember that I have the key to my lab, right?"
Maki put her mouth in a line. Perhaps there was some point to what Angie had said.
"I even took away - and explained - the other hanging effigies, as they seemed disturbed by the sight," she continued to ramble to Maki.
"I get it, I get it," Maki shut Angie down. "I'm satisfied now."
The detective next to her was attempting to rub Kaito's back as an act of comfort. "I've noticed something strange about your statements, Angie. You've referred to the student as a 'they'." His ahoge seemed to perk up. "Do...do they go by those terms, or...or did you not want to reveal their identity that easily? Perhaps to respect their boundaries, if they don't want anybody to know they're alive yet?"
Angie's smile started to look a little frozen, but thawed again as she began to answer, "Well, I didn't ask the student if they wanted to be known to us all. So Atua told me that it would be best not to tell anyone the transfer student's identity."
Assuming the worst and having lower expectations, Shuichi thought. That was smart......and surprisingly considerate of a cult leader like Angie.
"Wait a second...." Maki started, holding the now still Kaito. "If you used the necronomicon.....which was a motive for murder....."
".....then we basically used a motive, and thus, we're playing into Monokuma's hands, right?" continued Shuichi from where Maki's words ended.
Her red eyes glowing brighter and angrier, Maki directed her fierce(and famous - or infamous) glare at the artist/cult leader. "Or rather, she is. She just told us that the ritual was conducted by her."
The astronaut she was holding looked ready to faint again. And the resident villain - Kokichi, who was on his way to get breakfast from the dining hall - just came into sight, snickering at Kaito.
"Ah, Maki," began Shuichi nervously, sending Kokichi a stern look for laughing at his friend, "I think we should put Kaito back into his dorm-"
"The Luminary of the Stars doesn't chicken out back to his dorm!" yelled Kaito, suddenly standing up straight and tall without needing any support. "This is just a simple bump in the road, but I'm NOT giving up on breakfast!"
Chuckling, Angie skipped ahead, past Kokichi. "Well, I am going to get some food for myself and our transfer student. May Atua keep you all safe!"
With a look after her, the supreme leader turned around to Kaito, Shuichi, and Maki, looking at his hand as he spoke. "Well. Three annoying people here. A nosy detective, a killer, and a scaredy-cat. Ugh!" He turned his back on them to go ahead, too.
Literally all Kokichi said in that moment was said in a jesting, but nevertheless biting tone, but Shuichi sensed something wrong. Something, like a real frustration.
Hmm. Kokichi was always so difficult. But that "difficulty" really aided a lot in class trials, didn't it? So why was Shuichi complaining?
Like it or not, Shuichi was mildly worried about Kokichi. Scratch that, VERY worried.
Something understanding inside him told that Kokichi was a student, a victim of this killing game(if he wasn't the mastermind) alongside the others. Even if he may act like a "villain."
He shook those thoughts away for later. Now, Shuichi could maybe use the clues Angie had inadvertently given to him to deduce who had been revived. If Angie hadn't been lying about the ritual working......
Kokichi was right. Shuichi is a nosy detective. Glaring at Kaito and Shuichi, Maki(who was probably a little stung by Kokichi's words) made them all resume the walk to the dining hall.
First, Angie had mentioned that the student was disturbed at the sight of the hanging effigies. A normal reaction, but....if Shuichi read into it.....maybe the reason for being disturbed was guilt? So the student may be a blackened. That narrowed it down to Kaede and Kirumi. But Kirumi often didn't show her emotions(Shuichi ignored how Kaede had hidden her own suspicion, stress, and distrust). Until her death...
Kirumi's panic from the previous trial, before her execution, played in Shuichi's mind, causing him to breath a little faster. He hugged himself a little for comfort. No need to focus on that now, thought Shuichi.
So, if Kirumi's off the list, then probably it was Kaede who got revived?
His breathing hitched at the thought, Shuichi mulled over the thought as Maki opened the doors to the dining hall. Since it was very early(about 8:00 A.M., which was when the morning announcement went off), only the training trio(Shuichi, Maki, and Kaito), Kokichi, Angie, and Kiyo were there. Because the members of Angie's cult - or student council, as Angie liked to call it - were patrolling the halls at night, they slept longer. Except for Angie herself, it seemed.
Miu Iruma wasn't there either. Obviously, she ignored the curfew set by the student council and worked an all-nighter in the computer lab on the fourth floor. And slept late because of that, too.
Conversation was currently being exchanged between the two most troublesome students - Kokichi and Angie, while Kiyo was listening in on it. Observing, as he would say.
Honestly, something felt a little off about him. But Shuichi focused on getting food with his friends - Maki and Kaito - instead of random suspicions. Angie was also heading to the kitchen to get food for herself and the transfer student.
That all happened with little happenings, except for Maki sending Angie a look that wasn't quite a glare, but not unlike it. Who could blame her? Angie had started a cult to keep everyone inside the prison of a school, as she claimed the desire to go to the outside world was corrupting and would cause more death.
However, wouldn't Angie's plan and the controversy over it also cause dispute and trouble?
She seemed to be picking out food carefully. Probably so as not to pick something the transfer student may not like.
That may prove the authenticity of Angie's statement about her ritual working. Unless she was playing an elaborate trick on them.
There was one thing she said, though, right when she left the kitchen.
"Well," she turned to Maki, Shuichi, and Kaito, "if the transfer student would be comfortable with it, then you may see them in my lab someday. Now, bye-onara!"
And then she swiftly flew out the door.
When the training trio had finished picking up their food, they headed out the kitchen, and found that Angie had already gone from the dining hall, too. Kokichi and Kiyo were having a conversation now, with Kokichi teasing Kiyo, who threatened to tear out Kokichi's nerves.
So as not to be dragged into this argument, the trio sat farther away on the table from those two.
***
"Kaede!" whispered Angie after closing the door to her research lab, making sure nobody was out in the halls of the academy's fourth floor. Not that anyone would be there, considering it's creepy ambience. Except Kiyo. Firstly, is lab was on the floor; and secondly, he was the type to enjoy this kind of atmosphere. "I have brought food for you."
Kaede, who was briefed on the situation which happened so far, took the food when it was given to her. Watching her as Kaede finished, Angie asked, "Sooo, what do you think?"
That question could mean a lot of things. What Kaede thought about the food, about what happened after Kaede had - apparently - been executed. Or what she thought about Angie's research lab, or of the ritual used to revive her.
But one thing was on her mind: What did the others think about her - no, would think of her now she was alive?
Of course, there was only one way to find out. Kaede bit her lip nervously, while chewing on the last bit of her food. What if they think you're the mastermind, and that's how you were revived so successfully? asked a little voice in Kaede's head. Since the mastermind is.....well, the mastermind, and could control a lot of things.
She'd have to take the risk. Kaede couldn't hide out in the Ultimate Artist's lab forever while the killings would - most assuredly - continue.
This second chance at life was given to her, and should be used wisely. That's what Kaede thought.
"I think.....well," started Kaede, after she finished the last bite of food. How voraciously she had eaten it, probably because the feeling of food is amazing on your tongue after "being dead" for a long time. "Maybe I could see Shuichi, I guess? We were sorta' close when I was alive." Then, the thought that she had basically used his knowledge to try killing the mastermind crossed her mind.
Shaking it away, Kaede continued, Angie giving her an encouraging small smile, "And I think you could tell the others I've been revived. Wait, have you already....?" she suddenly asked Angie, who shook her head.
"Atua told me to assume otherwise," Angie said in a serious tone. She stopped, allowing Kaede to speak again.
"Well, I don't mind if you tell them now," Kaede sighed. "Like, right now. The sooner, the better."
"...okay, then!" quipped Angie, staring at Kaede for a bit, then leaping out the door, closing it after her.
While Angie was gone, Kaede did some more thinking. Angie had told her about the student council she'd started. Obviously, Kaede didn't agree with its premise, but didn't voice it out loud. After all, Angie had been the one to revive her. Wouldn't help to be, well, rude right now.
Once Angie would have told everyone that Kaede was alive, then maybe Kaede would do something about the student council. She mulled over the plans in her head, anything to not think about the people she'd failed - Rantaro, Shuichi, Ryoma, and Kirumi.
Anxiously, she tapped her foot on the floor. And Angie told her about Maki's secret - she wasn't actually a child caregiver, but an assassin. According to Angie, Maki had been taken under Kaito's wing - and so had Shuichi. It was well-known among the students that the three trained every night.
Maybe Kaede, along with Kaito, could convince Maki to get along with the others? Perhaps stop killing?
Something told her that was far from possible. But she had to try.
To make everyone get along.
***
A student council meeting had been started up in the dining hall, with, obviously, Angie as the one to start it. Whoever was in the student council, and whoever was in the dining hall at the time had to hear whatever was said in the meeting.
"Everyone! Let us all settle down!" Angie announced, everyone sitting down at the table. Except Angie, of course, as she was the one speaking. "Remember the necronomicon?"
Everyone nodded. Kokichi's face had gotten strangely blank. He wasn't part of the student council - he wasn't that naiive - rather, he was one of the people in the dining hall at the time the meeting started. Same with Kiyo.
"Neehee, let me guess!" Kokichi looked at his fingers as he stretched them out in the air. "You revived someone, riiiight? And they are a zombie, running around infecting everybody! Ooh, ooh! I'd bet Kaito got infected first!"
As usual, Tenko was the first to lash out. "Who gave you the right to speak, degenerate? You aren't even supposed to be a part of this meeting!"
"And don't make jokes about that," shivered Tsumugi, looking a little antsy in her seat. She adjusted the bright orange bowtie-like thing around her collar. "And besides, this isn't even a good setting for a zombie apocalypse....."
Gonta, who was next to her, tried to calm her down.
"Please, don't disrupt the meeting, everyone!" yelled Kiibo, standing up. Kokichi rolled his eyes, putting his hand on the table.
"Wow, the robot can talk!" he jeered at Kiibo. The resident man-hater came to Kiibo's defense.
"Don't you make fun of him like that!" shouted Tenko, clenching her fists as she stood up. "He's more human than you are!"
"Please! Silence!" Kiibo continued to say.
Yawning next to him, Himiko sighed, "If I had had enough sleep, I'd put a Silencing Charm on you guys...."
Agreeing with Kiibo, Kiyo affirmed, pulling his mask up the bridge of his nose, "Yes, I believe Angie has something important to say."
Tenko, who slowly sat back down, scowled at Kokichi, who decided to snatch Kiyo's hat to play with it. His expression hardening for a bit, Kiyo looked ready to threaten Kokichi again, but decided against it. After all, what Angie had to say seemed rather important.
"You're correct, Kokichi," Angie said, confirming what they had all feared - or anticipated. "A very, very lucky student has been chosen by Atua to come back to us."
"And it's veeeery lucky to come back to a killing game, right?" Kokichi remarked with a grin, putting a finger under his nose, his face sinisterly shadowed by his bangs.
While Tenko looked ready to flip Kokichi, Angie corrected, "Well, it's better to be alive, anyways! Now, if that's fine with all of you, I'll tell you who the transfer student is!"
Now, everyone was interested, sitting up a little straighter with the exception of Himiko, tired more than usual. Her eyes came into focus more, though.
"Let me guess!" Kokichi said again, literal stars in his eyes. "It was Kirumi! Aha! I knew it! Mom always comes back-"
"Kaede!" Angie declared. "It was Kaede Akamatsu who got revived!"
All was silence. Kokichi's face went blank, and Kiyo's eyes went wide. In the meantime, Tenko let out a gasp and Himiko almost fell off of her chair. As Tenko wasn't there to rescue her, Gonta held Himiko's chair just in time, saving the mage from a potentially fatal fall.
"Awww, come on!!!" complained Kokichi, donning the appearance of a whiny brat. "Whyyy? What if she tries to kill one of us under the excuse of thinking her target was the mastermind?"
"But didn't Kirumi kill someone too? And that for a 'selfish' reason...." muttered Tsumugi, as a comment on how Kokichi complained earlier that the revived student wasn't Kirumi.
"Gonta doesn't understand Kokichi," Gonta said, looking into his lap. "Kaede not think like how Kokichi says she does!"
"You would seriously take only her word as the truth?" Kokichi almost laughed. "What if she herself is the mastermind and wanted to trick us! Come on, Gonta, even you aren't that dumb."
"Don't be rude!" yelled Tsumugi. "Even Roland from Unwind isn't as mean as you-"
"Sheesh, Tsumugi, that was a lie!" he hollered back at her. "I am so hurt! You don't know me after weeks of being stuck with me....."
As Kokichi let out the crocodile tears, a certain blonde inventor passed by, and opened the dining hall doors, then poked her head in.
"Damn...." she said quietly, watching the ruckus, "...they're all finally getting it on and over with."
She let herself in, and put her hands on her hips. "Hah! Look what I've stumbled upon! An or-"
"OH MY GOSH, MIU!" Kokichi screamed at her, rolling his eyes. "Take off your rose-tinted goggles! You clearly can't see that we aren't doing that kind of thing."
Indeed, Miu was literally wearing her goggles over her eyes and had forgotten to put them on the top of her head again. So, she did so right now and looked at everyone.
"Sheesh....." Miu sighed off to the side. "It was just an expression...."
Peacefully, Miu went inside the dining hall and got her food from the kitchen.
"This meeting is dismissed!" Angie declared, proceeding to walk out of the dining hall, her yellow raincoat flopping about her form. "And remember, I've told Kaede all that's happened so far."
And so, she walked out, happening to unintentionally slam the dining hall doors shut behind her in Miu's(weighed down with her packaged food, was beginning to head out of the dining hall) face.
For a moment, the inventor just stood there, saying a curse word or two, then waited for a while(perhaps not to accidentally hurt Angie, if she took some time in walking away) before opening the doors to get out of the room.