#*sigh* I have the discipline for what this game simulates

[violet-dragongirl]

Yep I need to take a break, eat, drink, maybe get tipsy, watch some Lupin III Series 5 and chill for second

[gospelofme]

The Parent-Teacher Conference

Thanks to @leias-left-hair-bun for the inspiration!

Jesse x female Twi’lek reader

“Nope, I’m not going this time! I went last time.” You reminded your husband over the comm. You were going through a To Do List you had made, you had to make sure you’d completed everything before the trial tomorrow.

“But baby, you’re so much better at that than me!” Jesse countered, he used that phrase a lot. Sometimes it was true. But not today.

“Hon, it’s just sitting down with Kasen’s teacher while she tells you that he’s doing okay in her class. She’ll probably tell you something he needs to work on, maybe he’s too talkative, maybe not talkative enough, I don’t know. Where did I put those crime scene photos......oh wait they’re in here already.” You heard Jesse inhale to make another excuse, but you were ready for him.

“Now remember babe, the conference is at 3pm or 1500 your time. You’ll do awesome! I love you!” You made kiss sounds into the comm and ended the conversation.

“Couldn’t get out of it?” Fives asked, him and Echo were gearing up for a friendly game of squash. And by friendly, chances are they’d end up bruised and sore after. They’d discovered the game after watching Obiwan play against Cody and decided to try it themselves. The idea of trying to hit each other with a ball smacked off the wall appealed to them more.

“Nope.” Jesse looked defeated, he never knew what to say at those things. But, he had made you go to the last three.

At 2:45pm, Jesse was sitting in the hallway outside his son’s classroom. Kasen sat next to him reading a book, his foot knocking against his father’s armored calf. A couple of the other parents in the hall gave Jesse nervous glances, it wasn’t every day they saw a fully armored and helmeted ARC Trooper sitting on a bench meant for kids.

“Is he awake?” He heard on dad whisper to another. Jesse was leaning back against the wall, his arms folded over his chest. The look his visor had seemed to be staring down the rest of the parents waiting in the hall. The intimidating visor worked wonders in the principal’s office and with the other teachers, but it had been a while since he’d been to this teacher’s office.

“I don’t know. It looks like he’s staring over here though.” The other dad whispered back. Jesse smirked under his helmet. He actually was busy watching Echo and Fives destroy each other in their friendly squash game via a live feed from Kix. Kasen asked to watch, Jesse transferring the helmet over to his son.

“Hey Uncle Kix!! Who’s winning?”

“Kasen.” A female voice made Jesse sit up, it was time. He took his helmet back from Kasen and placed it back on.

“Come on bud.” He nudged his youngest, who looked nervous. Jesse stood and walked passed the young teacher as she stood aside for them. Kasen hurried to a chair and sat down.

“It’s nice to see you again Mr. Victoire. Your wife has kept you up to date with Kasen’s time in my class yes?” The teacher asked as she sat down behind her desk, Jesse took the seat in front of the desk.

“Uhm, yeah she’s given me the cliff note version.” He said with a shrug.

“Well I’ll start with the good then.” The teacher propped a datapad up on her desk and angled it for Jesse to look at it.

“As you can see, his grades have gone up since the last semester. Especially in reading. Math is going up slowly as well. He’s always been good with science.” The teacher started, this wasn’t so bad. Jesse could do more of these if they were all just looking at his kid’s grades. But then the teacher abruptly jumped into test score averages and where Kasen was in terms of class percentage. It quickly evolved into gibberish.

“Uhhhh...is that good?” Jesse asked after the teacher explained standardized testing and where Kasen was in terms of the educational standards. He looked down at Kasen, so looked just as lost. The teacher gave a smirk.

“It’s a little below average, but not by much. Kasen knows the material, based on his homework grades. But he’s not a good test taker. Which is normal. Not many kids are. I wasn’t. I think he second guesses his answers or blanks sometimes.” This was the part Jesse was dreading. His tests weren’t written. His tests were graded but only in a sense of life or death (simulated and not).

“It’s okay though,” the teacher soothed, picking up on the ARC Trooper’s uncertainty. She had to rely on his tone of voice since he was helmeted. Usually she’d require that he remove his helmet, but she knew it could be a sense of comfort.

“I’m going to start handing out practice tests to the kids who have testing anxiety. Both to do in class and at home. They’re not graded, and it’s not going to be the same test questions, but the material is going to be the same.” She explained, Jesse gave a nod.

“Well, if that’s everything, then...” Jesse stated, pushing his chair back. Kasen quickly grabbing his bag.

“Not quite.” Jesse pulled his chair back in and Kasen’s bag dropped to the floor with a thump.

“Usually I have issues getting kids to stop chatting in class, but Kasen doesn’t talk much at all. Is he a shy kid?” The teacher asked. Jesse gave Kasen a look, which was hidden behind his helmet but he knew his kid saw it.

“Not at home.” Jesse replied. He knew Kasen had issues with some of the other students in his classes. The teacher sighed.

“I know he has gotten into fights. I’ve tried to discipline those students when I see the teasing or fighting happen, but I don’t always catch it.” The woman admitted. She sounded defeated.

“I know his sister steps in and has fought the bullies, but I’m worried about what happens when she ages out of this school.” She added. Jesse and you had worried the same. Kasen could defend himself if he needed, but he wasn’t one to fight first.

“Mr. Victoire?” The teacher’s voice prodded him out of his thoughts. “I have a feeling Kasen’s lack of class participation is due to the students who make fun of him, to put it bluntly. Now, I plan to discuss this with those parents, but perhaps you can work on building Kasen’s confidence.” Jesse gave a nod but still kept his eyes on his kid. Kasen felt his father’s stare and tensed up. These things made him uncomfortable. He relaxed when his father’s hand ruffled his hair.

“Which kids are they? If they’re out in the hall, will you point them out?” Jesse asked, his voice gentle but stern.

“Uhm, sir, I don’t think I can let you intimidate the children...” the teacher began, uncertainly. Jesse sighed.

“Kasen is too good of a kid to point them out. But I’ll think of something. It’s been a good conference, thanks Mrs....?”

“Fortner.” The teacher answered, giving up. She led them to the door and prayed nothing happened that would require her to call the Coruscant Guard. She called the other student and the door closed.

Jesse waited as his son took a homework book out of his locker, his helmeted gaze landing on each of the parents and students still gathered. He wasn’t sure which ones were the culprits, but he decided to just give each a stern stare down. Wolffe would be proud he felt. He’d taken lessons on how to stare intimidatingly while helmeted from him.

“Dad, can we go home now.” Kasen asked.

“Yup, just checking out who all is in your class.” He picked Kasen up, making it crystal clear he was his father.

“I knew he was looking at us!” The father from earlier whispered to the other dad.

“So, you’re going to tell me which kids are being little kriff heads right?” He said clearly as he walked passed the other students and parents gathered. He noted two boys who shifted nervously and refused to look at Kasen. Jesse smirked.

Tag List

@jgvfhl @nelba @leias-left-hair-bun

@baby-queen-zen @halzore @escapedthesarlacc

[lore-a-lie]

Chapter 3, Act 10: The Inmate’s Sonatine

CLASS TRIAL- IN SESSION

Again the students filed out of the elevator and made their way to their podiums. But as Kaede looked around the mockery of a courtroom, she saw that the memorials of the fallen were different this time.

Ryoma’s wasn’t that different, aside from technically not being held at his true height. Much like during the actual trials it was made at the level he participated at, minus the box he’d have to stand on for it. And seeing that cross over his monochrome face stung her all the more with how impersonal his was compared to other students. Just a harsh blocky x, not a trace of his talent or personality to it.

(As if his death was one set from the very beginning, no need to make it at all unique.)

The second alter made it look like their fates being set in stone was unlikely, though. Particularly as it was present on a podium that was still occupied.

BehindHero’s head there was another colorless photo, at the same level of his own regardless of any height differences the siblings were meant to have had. But from what she could see of it, that was Kiyo's photo rather than an image of his sister from his motive video. And it wasn’t because he was blocking anyone’s view of it, despite how seeing it made him tremble like a fragile branch lost in a hurricane.

Instead of being vandalized in red, there was an orange question mark rather than a cross like the others. And while the Kiyo of the portrait’s mask was still on, the dot of the symbol completely covered where his mouth would be while the upper curve hid both eyes from view. Probably to allude to his “sister’s” most overt differences from him, despite having no image of her own to present for the court.

And Kokichi wasn’t about to let them go through another lousy explanation for a process they’d suffered through four times previous after being presented with an oddity like that.

“Jeez Louise, you kids sure like being confusing, dontcha? At least I don’t have to deal with my bumbling brats failing to keep up anymore. I really oughta thank you all for making such an exe-cute-tion possible, don’t I?” Monokuma scratched at his head before exposing his claws like a threat as he fumed. “But speaking of “.exe” you just had to go playing with toys that don’t belong to you! Serves you right for trying to avoid your schoolwork! Kids your age should know better than to waste all day playing video games-”

“Says the robot bear forcing them to play games or die,” Kokichi stated, arms behind his head like he hadn’t a care in the world while his eyes told a much angrier story.

“It gets you all up, active, and social, don’t it? Don’t lump my wonderful killing game in with your newfangled time wasters, mine can teach you real-world skills! Think of it more as a... social culling.”

“Culling would indicate such deaths were natural, doesn’t it? That’s hardly fitting,” Kiyo pointed out.

“Who asked you?!” Monokuma snapped. “Just because I “should” be thanking you for disciplining my uppity upstarts doesn’t mean I’m not still furrrious about you acting all high and mighty, trying to play my system to waste some of my valuable murder victims! Why don’t you just drop dead already?!”

And with Monokuma so distracted Kokichi saw his chance to get to the point. “Speaking of, why don’t we cut to the chase? What’s that question mark about?”

“What are you asking me for?” The bear innocently asked with a tilt of his head. “You’re the ones that kept acting like someone died during one of your little VR chats. But without a body, how am I supposed to believe you? So I improvised! It’s important for all victims, real or imagined, to be present when justice is served!” He nodded his little head and lounged in his throne.

But as he got comfortable a light flashed over his head. “Hey, wait. Speaking of tricking your dear headmaster and judge, you’re trying to make me forget to lay down the rules, aren’t you!” He shouted, puffs of smoke rising from his ears.

“Come on, we’ve been through this already enough, haven't we!? We know what to do. So let’s just jump into it!” Kaito argued.

“Hey! Even if you say that, what do you know? Refreshers don’t hurt-”

“Mastermindsaysyeah”

“STOP INTERRUPTING ME OR I’ll HOLD YOU IN CONTEMPT!”

“Well that “didn’t hurt” either, now did it?” Kokichi asked in his sweetest of tones with a bat of his eyes. &I'm not annoying you, am I?~&

“What would “contempt” even mean for this?” Tsumugi asked, though largely to herself.

“Whatever it is, it’s either deadly or redundant so best not to push it. We’ve all beaten Monokuma to having &contempt& for this kid,” Tenko stage-whispered to her behind her hand. 

“HEY!”

“WHATEVER!” Monokuma roared with a sense of finality. “Any useful questions since you’re all so eager to get on to the main event?”

“Is there anything actually stopping me from going over and strangling the first person to seriously accuse me of murdering my own sister?” Korekiyo asked, hand raised as though they were in school.

“... Ya know, I hadn’t considered that. You’re all normally so prim and proper about everything it’s never really come up before. I wish ya woulda told me if you were planning some Jerry Springer shenanigans, then I could’ve brought my mondo butter to have with some popcorn as you kids went at it! But you know stabbing would probably be easier to do uninterrupted.”

“Alas, I haven’t been allowed to touch anything sharper than a pen in quite a while, and even that’s only because its stabbing ability is so often underrated.”

“... And the fact this is how you try to convince us to not accuse our resident evil psychopath of being a part of yet another double murder makes a pretty good case to take those away from you too,” Kokichi snarked, but since Kiyo had adjusted best he could to the cruel reminder behind him he managed to keep a stoic facade despite the jabs.

“You’re free to say what you will about me in regards to Ryoma’s untimely end, but I assure you I wasn’t responsible for either of these tragedies this time. Certainly not Hers...”

“Ow, you made that pun on purpose didn’t you? B-but what was that he said about butter-” Kaede heard Tsumugi complain before Kibo cut her off.

“Don’t encourage them Tsumugi, we need to focus! First, we need to clarify if this is actually a set of two murders or not. Kiyo’s still here after all, so not only can we not prove his “sister” is dead but when she was killed may not matter for whoever is the blackened we need to find.”

“Sure we can, she’s been dead this entire time! Being here at all is supposed to be enough “proof” of that, right Kiyo? Assuming she ever existed outside of his head in the first place.”

“Please stop that Kokichi, you know what I mean! Kiyo being involved with Shinguji’s death seems unlikely, provided the damage assumedly done to her avatar could have negatively affected her,” Kibo scolded, but seeing he only got raspberried in reply the bot shrugged and looked to Kaito beseechingly.

“Can we just call her a normal name for now? If she’s not here to bitch about it what’s the harm?” The astronaut offered, and explained his reasoning before the bot got too disheartened at being seemingly ignored. “It’ll be easier to focus if we’re not stuck worrying over what to call one of our possible victims, yeah?”

“If you must,” Kiyo answered with a sigh as he shook his head at such a minor gripe.

“YEEES!” Kokichi cheered, eagerly hopping on his platform using the railing for support. “Okay, so who’s the guy we need to thank for finally offing Cersei before she could go all wildfire on us?”

“... From the Odyssey? Odd theme, given how Angie’s addressed her by the birth name of Persephone. Though She hardly turned men into beasts.”

“Sounds like she certainly enjoyed grooming the ones she could-” Kokichi teased, and finally got the reaction from Kiyo he was looking for as his toothy grin only widened in the face of his fury.

“ YOU HOLD YOUR TONGUE OR I WILL BE SOON ENOUGH! ” ( God damn it, we need to move on! )

“Knock it off you two!” Kaede snapped. After getting their attention she tried to calmly propose a real starting point. “I think we should prioritize Ryoma’s case first. We have more evidence there and she might not even count as a victim or be related to this at all.”

“Are you sure you’re not just being biased?” Tenko questioned with a scowl. “Neither case has that much for us to work with. At least with Circe we can rely on more testimonies to add something useful. We know she never left the simulation, and the virtual world isn’t that big. Someone must have seen or heard something!”

“How do we even know for sure that was her body? At least we know Ryoma’s dead, and we know if we get his case wrong we’ll all be dying for it!” Kaito yelled, slamming a fist on his desk. Which he quickly regretted judging from his wince and how he flexed his hand afterward.

“Of course it was her avatar by the river, if it wasn’t hers whose could it have been?!” Kibo argued back.

That’s a good question. But at the same time there was evidence it might not be her original avatar, wasn’t there?

It’s one of the few pieces of evidence for this case that we do have, with how Monokuma rushed us. Could it be a hint that what we found in the virtual world is all we need?

That would explain why Ryoma’s cause of death is unknown, if we don’t really need a murder weapon.

But we need to take this one step at a time. If we rush ahead we could slip up.

And if we do that’ll be the end of us.

“Why are you asking that, Kibo? Weren’t you the one who made it possible for us to change between avatars? How exactly does that work?” Kaede asked him, as she hadn’t been able to before.

“Oh. I mean, it’s pretty simple. You enter the wardrobe, it brings up the list of all of the avatars I’ve made, and among those not currently being used you can select one. Obviously, trading avatars will add your previous one to the list of options, I just wanted to avoid another case like when Kiyo and his sister had identical forms. It’d just make things really confusing.”

Kokichi was quick to see where she was going with this. “And how many avatars don’t we use anymore? Is there an accurate Keeboy option?”

“Well, let’s see… There’s no other version of me, I didn’t see any reason to.” Kibo started and counted along with his fingers as he went on. “Kiyo has three variants, his original, the haircut, and the “gender flip”. Angie has two, the latter with adjustments to how it senses the cold since I had troubles with just updating her original. And Tenko has two, she asked me to make a duplicate of hers so she and Ryoma could test the wardrobe while I was still tweaking it. So that’s three unused sprites in addition to the 10 of us and Kiyo’s sister.”

“Yup! I actually got Ryoma to play twinsies with me!” Tenko said with a smile before her face fell. “It was nice of him... Miss Shinguji was willing to do it too of course! Gonta just thought it’d be a bit too risky so that was a no-go. So Ryoma offered since Angie said she was too busy trying to cheer up the weirdo.”

“I did not! Atua thought it was a bad idea!” Angie objected and puffed her cheeks. “So what if I was having fun?”

“Also you were practically buried in Christmas supplies at the time,” Kiyo added nonchalantly.

“I could have gotten her out!”

“Unlikely. Not unless you would be willing to work with me to get her out of that mess, you would fare no better than my efforts were.”

“Angie wasn’t stuck! There was a lot of fun stuff in there, once you tipped the boxes over,” Angie insisted.

“You weren’t supposed to do that!” Kibo complained. “I set them up like that for your own safety.”

“We’re getting sidetracked!” Tsumugi interrupted. “Was Angie playing in the decorations before or after the walk along the river?” (That’s still losing the point of Kokichi’s question though!)

“Before, getting her out of that mess so Kibo wouldn’t get stressed out by the havoc she had wrought was one of Ryoma’s stated objectives.”

“Uh-huh, uh-huh! And Ryoma leaving Kiyo alone to try and mess up my beautiful interactive art piece was weird! Very weird!” Angie eagerly nodded. (So that’s what she meant by he was acting funny. He hasn’t trusted Kiyo as far as he could throw him since the last trial. Did he get over that? When? Why?)

“That… Is not the way I’d describe it.” Tenko stated with a wary look on her face as she poked her fingers together.

“That’s because Tenko has terrible taste!” Angie beamed, while Tenko and Kiyo traded similarly exhausted looks in what might have been their most civil and casual interaction to date.

“Okay, well, at least that helps give us some sort of timeline. But we’re losing the point of Kokichi’s question!” Kaede reiterated, “And we do have evidence that the body we found wasn’t Cersei's avatar.”

“What?! But there was no one else it could be-” Kibo tried to argue.

“Kokichi found Kiyo’s mask and gloves in one of the avatar’s pockets! Unless you mean to tell us that was part of how you designed her, Kibo, I think that counts.”

“Also she was flat as a board!” Kokichi gleefully added, hoping to ruffle feathers.

“I can’t tell if you’re a brave man or a dead one for saying that right in front of a girl’s brother. Or lover,” Tsumugi joked, as she warily eyed the man next to her.

Said man was left looking rather confused. “It’s hardly like he confessed to feeling her up or something. It’s merely a statement of fact, and is a simple observation which does add weight to Kaede’s theory.”

Even if that’s true, why is he so calm about that? Besides, he should know better than anyone if his sister is still around or not! I mean she has no reason to use his avatar. They’re so similar there’d be no point.

Not unless… It wasn’t his sister. And if that was Kiyo’s avatar, who was using it?

This is Kiyo we’re talking to, isn’t it?! They couldn’t have switched! He can’t be dead, not yet!

I know it was his voice I heard when he spoke in the sim, not her’s. So he has to be fine! Doesn’t he?

Why does him dying bother me so much anyway? Is it just because he’s the lesser of two evils?

It doesn’t matter. Not yet at least. I can’t go zoning out right now. Not until we’re all safe.

“So, Kibo? Is that proof enough for you?”

“I… Yes. But when could she have gotten access to the wardrobe?!”

“It’s okay, Kibo, let’s just take things one step at a time. Hell, maybe it wasn’t even her,” Kaito offered.

“If it wasn’t Kiyo sister who could it be? Can Ah-vu-tars be left lying around, like clothes?”

“Well, I didn’t think that they could,” Kibo said with a troubled expression, “They always disappear when a person logs out. But with how unresponsive she was I don’t see how else to explain it.”

“Then maybe we should focus on something else for now,” Kaede suggested. “Did anything weird happen with any of you? Or Angie, you said you were with Kiyo most of the time, did he and Cersei get some time to themselves or something like that?”

The question made Angie look uncomfortable, as she kept nervously looking to Kiyo. But he completely froze up.

“Kiyo? Did something happen?” Kaede pressed.

“I… Nothing of note.”

“Come on, out with it! There’s no point in lying,” Kaito urged.

“Are… Are you sure the person we thought was my sister in the simulation, wasn’t?” he only asked.

“No one would know who your sister was or wasn’t better than you, right?” Tsumugi asked.

“Were you the one that killed her?” Tenko accused. “We all saw you try to hit her earlier, did she say something else to set you over the edge-”

“It was nothing like that!” Kiyo snapped. “I don’t know what came over her, I was alone on the bridge and suddenly she just-” he cut himself off as he clutched at himself again.

“She just what?”

“She… Was still upset by my earlier… “weakness.” She expressed an interest in seeing if there might be a different means of accomplishing my objective.” Kiyo quietly muttered, gripping his arms tighter the more he went on.

“So… She attacked you?” Kaito asked, trying to put together the dots.

“If I had a life I was willing to give she made it clear she would be more than happy to take it off my hands.” He conceded, but it sounded like Kiyo couldn’t believe what he was saying.

“Wait, so she tried to kill you?! And you just kept quiet about it!?” Kokichi shouted.

“As opposed to what? It was hardly anything more extreme than what she’s asked of me before.” Kiyo cooly stated, but his eyes looked distant. Glossed over, almost broken in a way, not that unlike how he looked when she first saw him that morning. “If my spirit could die in the realm Kibo made without ending my body, she was hoping that she could take it over in my stead. Without the need to share.”

“What the fuck?!” Kaito sputtered.

But out of everyone who looked equally shocked and appalled by what Kiyo was saying, and the almost matter of fact way he said it, there was one who barely batted a lash.

“Did you know something about this, Tenko?” Kaede asked. “Were you trying to help her do this?”

“Wh-what gives you that idea?” She sputtered. “I mean come on, I know me and Miss Shinguji are getting kinda close, but I’ve never been able to really talk to her alone! So how could I be involved with anything like that?”

Tenko did have a point, but a look around the room showed Kaede that despite being her strongest witness Angie seemed troubled and unconvinced.

So there might be a contradiction here. I better find it.

“You don’t seem too shocked about her wanting her brother dead.” Kaede shrugged, but tried to keep her voice level and non-aggressive. “Since you were the one to offer the wardrobe to Kibo, I’m wondering if she had something to do with that. Like if she was hoping a feature like that could let her freeze Kiyo like the rest of the female avatars do, to make it so he couldn’t fight back.”

“Well, who doesn’t?” Tenko irritably asked. “His sister said she never actually wanted him to kill anyone, so if we were left with only one of them she’d obviously be the better choice! But that doesn’t mean I have anything to do with that, I had no chance-”

“Is that what she talked to you about when Angie was talking to Kaito?” Angie’s voice cut in like a knife, and made Tenko stop cold. Taking her friend’s ashamed silence as her answer, Angie explained. “Kore used that argument during one of our talks, Kaito was with us but Tenko didn’t want him spying.”

“Of course she didn’t,” Kokichi shook his head with a sigh. “Gawd Tenko, I wasn’t expecting you to really be that stupid.”

“HEY! I am not, and that doesn’t prove anythin-”

“Then why did you want me to make you a second avatar?” Kibo asked, though his tone sounded hurt. “You asked me about how the Shinguji siblings’ limiting would work with avatar switches too…”

“What the hell, Kibo why didn’t you mention that sooner!?” Kaito spoke up.

“I-it was a good question! And Tenko had expressed an interest in dressing up like her friends before so I thought it wasn’t that unusual at the time. With Ryoma there, I didn’t think there would be any problems.”

There was an uncomfortable silence as Kibo stared down at his feet. And Kaede asked the question she didn’t want the answer to.

“Tenko, was Ryoma aware of what you were doing?”

Tenko slouched and swayed herself in her stand as the class waited for an answer.

“Yeah… He caught me talking to Cerci about it when Kibo was distracted. But he didn’t think it was a bad idea or anything! I mean… If there was no body left behind, there wouldn’t need to be a trial, right?” She went on as she fidgeted, body language being more than enough to show her conscience wasn’t so clear as she wanted to make it sound. “That’s why we have that question mark now, right?! So Kirumi would get the justice she deserves, Cerci would be free, and Kiyo wouldn’t hurt anyone ever again!”

“And that’s why you thought the body in the river was Kiyo’s… But wait, does that mean it was Kiyo!?” Tsumugi thought aloud, and all eyes turned to the Shinguji who was still with them, hoping for answers.

“Of course it wasn’t!” Angie insisted, “We never went near the wardrobe, and Kiyo never stopped having short hair! If only one of them is with us then I swear on Atua’s name-”

&If you were with him the entire time, when did that attack on the bridge happen-&

“Does it really matter, if none of you honestly believe you can tell the difference?” They cut Kaito off as they held their hand up as though to cover their mouth. And as he did Kaede caught what it meant.

There’s no reason for him to do that while he’s already wearing his mask, unless it had to do with his sister. Either “Kiyo’s” overcompensating so Shinguji can hide her face while being the only one in there, or she’s fighting with the real Kiyo for control of his body and he’s still winning.

Between the two the latter sounds more plausible, but that wouldn’t explain why he won’t let her out. Even if she attacked him before she can’t do anything out here right? Or is he hiding a witness from us?

Should I try to get him to lose focus so she can tell us directly, or could this be for our own good?

As she looked to the others while weighing her options her gaze met Kaito’s, and he seemed to be having similar suspicions. And if it was Kaito doing the talking, if Kiyo’s sister was in there in any way, she wouldn’t be able to resist lashing out. So Kaede gave him her nod of approval.

“Why should it matter if Kiyo’s Sissy side is out of the picture anyway? Ryoma was real, and we know she wasn’t, so why bother?” he arrogantly said as his chosen taunt. And with the way Kiyo’s right hand spasmed before he physically took hold of it to calm “himself” down they had all the proof they needed.

Kokichi’s forced dry laugher cut them off from making sure everyone else was aware of their discovery. “You better be just stealing Angie’s earlier joke, Kaito. Because if not, you’re getting short-sheeted tonight, and things will only be getting worse for you from there buster.”

“WHAT?! What I say? And how do you expect to manage that, huh?”

“I can pick locks genius, the only one safe from night-pranks is Kiyo!” Kokichi bragged with a dark aura. And past experience led Kaede to assume he had worse in store for Kaito as he went on. “Because unlike Gonta and Ryoma, I can’t get his stupid door open anymore. I don’t have the strength or momentum to move those stupid boxes Gonta barricaded it with. Speaking of, if Gonta wasn’t able to get Kiyo this morning and Ryoma didn’t check on him, how could you get through, Kaito? Sure was lucky you did, considering what he was up to, riiiight?”

Oh. Oh no. He doesn’t seriously think Kaito would kill Ryoma for whatever happened earlier, does he?! Obviously he wouldn’t! He was angry, sure, and even if Ryoma… If Ryoma really did leave Kiyo there to die, that wouldn’t be something to kill him over! Not that I’ll ever be able to ask him about it now…

Jeez, does he really think Kaito would have gone to the effort of trying to get Ryoma breathing again if he had been the one to attack him? Where could the other two witnesses have come from if he did?!

But should I use that truth to make that obvious, even if he’s only putting Kaito on the spot to see if the real killer takes the bait, or let it stand for now? Could lying be to our benefit here? It has before.

… Maybe I should fib a little just to see where this goes. Kokichi might know what he’s doing, and we don’t need to bring up Shinguji’s survival right away. We all saw that reaction just now.

“Can you really say it was lucky?” Kaede asked, and only felt a little bad about the resigned but pained nod Kiyo gave at that as he clenched his eyes shut while Kaito nearly gave himself whiplash at the perceived betrayal. “You really are full of it sometimes Kokichi, you know Kaito’s been doing nightly training sessions. Why wouldn’t he be able to move some stupid boxes out of the way? He didn’t even need my help to do it.” She went on, and hiding his failing health did seem to put Kaito marginally more at ease.

“Besides, it was like noon when we went to get him, wasn’t it? If Gonta couldn’t get him closer to 10, and Ryoma had no reason to bother, what’s there to suspect?” Kaito followed her up, to strengthen her lie. “Why the fuck would I ever want Ryoma dead?! He hasn’t done anything wrong since we woke up here!”

And the only other person who might have known what had happened between Ryoma and Kiyo that morning spoke up as she had hoped.

“Why Kaede lie? You blinking like butterfly trying to take off. Why?” Gonta asked, and apparently Kaede’s partial goal differed from Kokichi’s, given how the boy rolled his eyes at his lessons being put to work.

“What are you talking about Gonta, what could I be lying about?” she bluffed, trying to relax her expression as much as she could to keep any more tells from throwing her off too soon to make her point. “You got to the cafeteria with Kokichi long before we had any idea where Ryoma was, so what’s there to doubt? Going with Kokichi assuming someone moved the barricade before Kaito, if Ryoma visited Kiyo before we did he probably did it right before he got to the cafe himself, wouldn’t he?”

“... So Kaede lie ‘cause Gonta lie?” Gonta asked, looking rather ashamed and hurt by his assessment.

“When did you lie? You had been with Kokichi all morning, haven’t you?” Kaede pressed again, and this time Kokichi was less bored by the direction things were heading.

“Ah. No. Kokichi not there when Gonta check on Kiyo, but Ryoma was already talking to him. It rude to interrupt, so Gonta wait outside until Ryoma finish arguing. Ryoma say Kiyo not in mood to see people, and that Kiyo ask him to drop his audition tablet in dining hall, so Gonta let him be and Ryoma went on ahead before taking a walk to calm down. Gonta no mind ‘cause it gave more time to go over motive with Kokichi! And also practice with lie catching.”

“Oh? So you just left him there because Ryoma told you too? That’s pretty fishy. What exactly was this “argument” about, Kiyo?” Kokichi asked Kiyo, though his eyes kept wandering back to Kaito.

“Nothing worth killing over.” He tersely replied, his right side still acting up on occasion. When it became clear that wouldn’t cut it he continued with a sigh and shrugged. “He wanted to see my audition. To see if the other me was “like his was”.”

Kiyo’s mask quirked like a bitter smirk, but he refused to make eye contact with anyone. “When he saw I wasn’t fit for visitors he had a few choice words to say about the nature of karma. Particularly given that if my memories are reliable, even though I killed less than him, I might have deserved his punishment far more. And yet, by virtue of but a single year, had I been caught the death penalty would have been impossible for me. The dubious benefits of still being a “minor” in the eyes of humanity’s fickle laws.”

“However, Ryoma didn’t fully close my door behind him when he left my life up to the fates. Kaito and Kaede knew that all too well.” He corrected Kaede’s lie at last. “Had Gonta claimed my door was unsealed when they left that would be true, but only because from what I heard he was equally sure the threat I had presented towards our feminine companions before had passed with recent revelations.” He side-eyed Gonta as well. “So if Ryoma’s actions been “wrong”, would Gonta’s be any better?”

“That sounds like a motive to kill to me!” Tenko snapped.

“Nonsense. As far as I’m concerned both were merely respecting my wishes at the time. Unless you seriously believe there is anyone here that would desire retribution on my behalf?” Kiyo countered, “Aside from someone who may have had their own self-interest in mind with such an act, of course.”

“And why should we rule her out?” Kibo asked.

“Because how could she move Ryoma’s body, silly?” Angie replied while pulling a face. “Atua and I never let Kiyo out of our sight, so without him Kore couldn’t have left the simulation! If he died after leaving it can’t be her, and if he somehow died inside of it Kore would have needed an accomplice to help hide it.”

“Besides, if she killed Ryoma, why would Kiyo’s old avatar be there? The only reason we thought she was involved was because we mistook it for her’s.” Kaito agreed.

“So… Kaito saying Kiyo die, and this Kiyo is fake?” Gonta asked after visibly struggling to keep up since the idea of swapping avatars came up.

“I don’t know. Maybe? This is pretty confusing, huh?” Tsumugi laughed at her own difficulty to help put Gonta more at ease. “Maybe explaining it all again in smaller chunks would help clear things up?”

“Nah, we can get back to that later. Even if the body isn’t Kiyo’s or his sister’s, her wanting Kiyo dead could be important.-”

“It’s not about wanting me dead! She’s just scared of what would happen if she experienced dying again!”

But despite his anger towards Kaito, Kiyo didn’t look like he believed a word of his own excuses for her. He was practically turning blue, and grasping at straws like a drowning man seeking a lifeline in order to find any conclusion aside from the obvious. As if the betrayal would hurt less if it was on his own terms.

Like her trying to kill him at all wasn’t proof enough that she doesn’t care about him anymore. At least he’s not trying to blame it on Tenko “corrupting” her or something.

“But why would little-big-sister attacking mini-Kiyo change anything? If that not her body in river, she no die right?” Gonta asked again.

“Not necessarily, but that is a possibility!” Kibo brightly nodded at him, “I mean it fits Monokuma’s reluctance in regards to treating her as a dead student.”

“You don’t need to keep babying him,” Kokichi spoke up, killing Kibo’s attempt to help Gonta feel useful. “Gonta doesn’t need to keep caught up if thinking like this is too hard for him right now. We’re timed here! We can just explain everything right before we vote, and help him understand later.”

“No, it’s better for him to struggle and come to his understanding on his own terms,” Kiyo firmly objected. “There’s nothing gained by simply spoon-feeding him a sequence of events he’ll have little choice but to agree with. His input could help be the difference between life and death for all you know.”

“It’ll be our death if slowing down for him chews up too much of our time! If he doesn’t get it, he doesn’t get it. It happens, and we don’t need to make him feel guilty over it,” Kokichi argued.

“I hardly think that’s fair to say, considering our dear Gonta’s been clever enough that not one of you noticed he’s been prepared to kill me since he first caught wind of a possible murder in the simulation.”

“EXCUSE ME?!” Kaito yelled, but Kiyo didn’t so much as bat an eye with how matter of fact he was being.

“What!?” Kaede shrieked in near unison. “Wait. Gonta, was that why you were waiting in the salon?! You told us you were just guarding the phone because Kibo told you to!”

“Huh? Why would I need him to do something like that?! What are they talking about Gonta!?”

“I dare say that rests my case. Wouldn’t you, Gonta?” Kiyo asked Gonta with what could have been guilt in his eyes. That same strange glimmer in them that he had when confronting Kaito about his disease.

Gonta looked ashamed, as he stared at the floor of his podium. Like he couldn’t bring himself to face his friends. But to build up nerve he took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and gave Kaede the quickest of remorseful smiles before answering.

“Yes, Gonta was. Gonta need to protect friends. Gonta thought, if Kiyo survive killing Kirumi, then Gonta survive killing Kiyo if friend die. Either Gonta survive with friends so no threats left, or Gonta die for failing to protect friends from Kiyo. That how “You Break It, You Bought It” rule work, right?”

“GONTA?!” Kokichi screamed at him, looking absolutely betrayed and heartbroken. Kaede could swear the pain she saw was genuine, and with the way Gonta flinched at his reaction she knew she was right. “Were you trying to leave when we got there just so you could make sure Kiyo was physically dead!?”

“You can’t be serious, right Gonta?” Tenko asked, before furiously turning to face Kokichi instead. “YOU, you put him up to this, didn’t you?! I knew it! You hate murder enough to not dirty your own hands, but not someone else’s, right? That’s what a leader does, you delegate-”

“NO. ” Gonta’s voice growled, as the horrible sound of wood cracking filled the courtroom. With his hands flat on the desk area of his stand, it sounded like he scratched deep into its surface in frustration. “This Gonta plan. Kokichi no want to hurt people. Gonta promise to protect friends, so this how Gonta do that! Gentlemen need to take full responsibility for their own actions. And no one else’s.”

Gonta paused for a breath again before taking a deep respectful bow before the class. “Gonta sorry he hurt friends by keeping plan secret. Kiyo not supposed to know about it. Gonta sorry he not be as open as…” He took a ragged breath for a moment. “As Ryoma. Gonta sorry he fail Ryoma. But…” As he paused again he stood straight up and looked Kiyo dead in the eye. “Gonta not sorry about wanting Kiyo dead.”

Kiyo only nodded his own agreement of sorts, “Good, you have no reason to be. On the contrary, I think it was rather astute of you.”

“I… I don’t agree with your plan, but I agree that it proves you’re smart. It’s smart to plan ahead and defend others. But you didn’t need to prove it to us!” Kaito firmly stressed, but his face fell as he went on. “Or you shouldn’t have felt you had to, and you shouldn’t have felt you had to hurt someone for us. I’m happy you didn’t have to.”

“Happy Gonta no get chance you mean. I know Kiyo’s sick, sick with the other Kiyo. Seen parasites like it in bugs.” Gonta said, mostly to himself as if to justify his own idea. “Ants know what to do if worker infected by Cordyceps or similar fungi that take control of ant body. Worker thrown out of colony to protect everyone else. ‘Cause it not an ant anymore. Fungus controls the body, ant mind no matter.”

Kaede couldn’t shake how cold she felt, as she helplessly watched the sweet boy beside her talk like this. But she desperately hoped talking some sense into him would help. “That’s not the sort of sickness we’re dealing with Gonta, I swear! We don’t need to do anything like that and you definitely don’t need to kill anyone for us! It’s not like with bugs, if he gets outside there are people who could help him get better.”

“Do we really want him to?” Tenko bitterly asked.

“It doesn’t matter what we want, it isn’t right to kill him!” Kibo snapped at her, taking her by surprise. “He’s one of us, like it or not. We know he’s not our enemy, so would you stop treating him like one?”

“Yup-yup, Kiyo’s not the one who put us here.” Angie agreed, which took more wind out of Tenko’s sails. “Besides, Atua’s not fond of that sort of reasoning anyway. He’s lost a lotta prophets before Angie ‘cause He forgot to support them when times got tough and His people lost faith and turned on ‘em like that.”

“He’s not our victim either, and if his sister isn’t actually dead that means we have another suspect here. So can we just try to figure out what happened to Ryoma?” Kaede urged.

“But Kore couldn’t have moved Ryoma’s body-” Angie firmly repeated, but the frustration in her voice betrayed her ever-present smile.

“Then maybe someone else moved it!” Kokichi offered up as a new angle of approach. “Or she used Kiyo’s spare body during the crime, ditched it to frame Kiyo, and however she managed to ditch it got her back to the salon so she could log them both out.”

“But he didn’t-”

“And why the hell should we believe you!?” he angrily snapped at her, to which she had little response. But his gaze kept bouncing between him, Kibo, Kiyo, and Tenko as she struggled to find words.

“Why shouldn’t we trust her?! What reason does Angie of all people have to help a man like him!? Yeah, she’s been nicer to him today, but that’s not ‘cause she wanted to!” Tenko spoke up in her stead, seeing Angie’s hesitation. But that only infuriated Kokichi more.

“What sort of reasoning is that?! Why should we all bet our lives on one person telling the truth? Both Angie and Kiyo could be lying, or the sneaky son of a bitch might have tricked her and she’s too proud to admit it!”

“But what would be the point of framing Kiyo? If we voted for him instead of her, why should it matter?” Kaito asked. “They share a body! Either both of them escape or neither of them do, right?”

“Oooh, that is a pickle, ain’t it? I mean, I’d like to think it matters.” Monokuma teased as the twisted teddy scratched at his chin with a blackened paw.

“What do you mean “you’d like to think”?!” Tsumugi asked in a panic, wringing a lock of hair between her fingers to try and spend some of that nervous energy.

“Welllll, there’s no reason for two “different” people to have the same execution. It’s no skin off my nose if the blackened living means one of the spotless will be forced to live the rest of their lives with guilt.” He chuckled and rubbed at said nose for emphasis. “But the odds sure aren’t looking good for either of them, are they? Pu-hu-hu~”

“Hey! Don’t go jumping to conclusions!” Kibo told their tormentor with an unusual air of confidence. “We have no evidence to doubt Angie’s testimony, so the probability of either sibling’s direct involvement in Ryoma’s death are low.”

“Well, it’s not like we have a better suspect, do we?” Tenko complained.

“That doesn’t mean we should just accuse who seems most convenient!” Kaito shot back.

“It’s not about “convenience”! It’s about not getting us all killed,” Kokichi said. “And if there’s no evidence against it we don’t have a whole lotta other options. Do you really want to roll the dice on a suicide when someone else had to be involved to move his body?”

“No! Ryoma no do that!” Gonta objected with tears welling in the corners of his eyes. “He have no reason to. He had family and friend waiting for him.”

“Besides, who here would do anything like that?!” Tsumugi agreed. Kiyo’s “polite” cough was answer enough to that though, so she backtracked. “ASIDE from Kiyo, since Angie says he couldn’t leave.”

The arguing just kept going on in circles from there, and Monokuma watched them bicker with a mix of joy and pride in the worst of ways. But Kaede stayed out of it and tried to focus on keeping track of the theories and objections being fired across the room.

And as she did she noticed she wasn’t the only one. Kiyo was still fighting with himself to stay as much out of the conversation as he could stand. Angie also held her tongue, but she seemed far more conflicted. So much so that Kaede was sure she knew more than she’d shared.

But if she does, why hasn’t she mentioned it? Is it related to why Kiyo’s refusing to let his sister get involved?

Did something happen during their walk? There is the bridge, maybe she saw the avatar in the river before it got caught on the rocks. Or she saw how it ended up getting in the river.

At least she’s more willing to talk than Kiyo is. God, I hope he’s not keeping his mouth shut just to spite us. But if he is still suicidal this could be a way to keep from dying alone. Or risk being stopped again.

Either way, maybe she just needs a little push to talk about what she knows. Hopefully whatever she has is enough to clear things up so we can get this trial over with.

If it isn’t then we’ll have no choice but to hope whatever “Cersei” has can bring us to the truth. I really don’t want things to come to that. She’s too dangerous for us to trust, and the stakes here are too high.

So here’s hoping Angie or her “Atua” will do the trick.