You Saw Right Through Me

Determination

"Why?" I whimpered. "I do not wish to befall regret upon you." She said. But we begged her to reveal why she killed Ryoma. "Very well, I did receive my own motive video. It did give me a reason to kill."

Monokuma played the motive video. Kirumi was such a great maid, that she was appointed to do the prime minister's job, making her the acting prime minister behind the scenes. She claims that the most important people to her... are the citizens of her country.

I covered my mouth. "Y-your country?" I stuttered. That would explain the sudden change in political decisions from about a year ago, when we weren't in this stupid game.

She kept the country from some crisis that it was about to face, although it wasn't revealed in the video. "I guess that's not too surprising. She is an Ultimate-level student after all." Kokichi said.

"I can't quite remember the crisis the country was about to face, but I wanted to know that the country, the most important people in my life, were safe." I hugged Kirumi, but she didn't hug back. "I request that you hug me back... please." I couldn't see it, but I knew she was smiling. She wrapped her arms around me.

I felt something wet fall on my head. When I looked up, I saw that Kirumi was crying.

I pulled out my handkerchief and wiped away her tears. "Th-the last expression I see on your face sh-should be a happy one." I forced a smile. She did the same.

"W-wait, did we just destroy a country?" Kokichi asked. I looked at Monokuma's conniving smile. "I don't think so..." I muttered. "I think... it's already at that level."

Monokuma laughed. "You all keep talking about Kirumi, but what about poor Ryoma?"

"Oh yeah. Why'd you kill Ryoma specifically?" Kokichi asked.

"He was easy to kill. His physical strength was irrelevant when he had no reason to live." Kirumi replied. "I showed him my motive video and told him that I needed to escape. He then told me that I had a reason to survive, unlike him and said he would go to clean up the tennis balls lying around, exposing his back to me."

I backed away. "He... He knew."

"But why did he still struggle?" Kokichi asked. "That's human survival instinct. Like when someone is about to do something like skydiving. They hesitate." I answered.

Kokichi brought up Ryoma's motive video. "Why would he need that if he was planning to die?" I wondered. "Was he... looking for a reason... to live?" Kokichi nodded. "Right on the dot, Y/N!"

I remembered what Ryoma said. "Well, the videos are about our loved ones." He wanted a reason to want to get out of here.

"That's right... he was looking for a reason to live." Maki recalled. Kokichi looked at his hand. "That's probably why you shouldn't have shown him his video." Ryoma's motive video showed up on the screen. "This message is for Ryoma Hoshi. Unfortunately, there is no one important to you. I'm so sorry."

Monokuma giggled. "Although, he did have someone in here that gave him a little light."

He pointed straight at me. "You, Y/N. You encouraged him. You showed him that there's more to him than the fact that he killed a whole mafia." I covered my mouth in shock. "You said that there was more to him than the fact that he killed a whole mafia, and when you threw that tennis ball to him, it warmed his heart. Sadly, these were made before the killing game, so I didn't expect you to give him such a warm feeling in his heart!"

Monokuma jumped down and held out his paw in front of me. "You're developing quite a collection, aren't you?" I saw that he had a small box in his paw. I picked it up and opened it. It was a tennis ball.

Dear Y/N,

I don't really have any reason to live anymore. But, you gave me a bit of hope. Do you remember this ball? It was the one you caught and threw at me. Ya know, the one I hit? I want you to have it. I think I'm about to die, so I wanted to somehow be part of that... collection you have. Think of this as a will, and this is what I am leaving you.

From Ryoma.

I teared up. "Thank you, Ryoma." I whispered.

I saw Shuichi's guilty face and gently slapped his cheeks. "Remember Shuichi, no regrets." I said.

I understood what he- no, everyone was thinking, though. Kirumi had thousands of lives on her shoulders, while we only had our own. She shouldn't die like this.

Kaito saw all of our faces. "Hey! You don't all regret this, right? Your lives are just as important as Kirumi's. Life is not something you can put a price on, so stop! Your lives are important to everyone in your life. So I'm going to say it: I wanna live! I'm not going to die in some stupid place like this!"

We all looked at Kaito.

"The idiot's talking again"

"But he's right. I mean you're right too, he's an idiot, but he's right."

"So divine! He's an Atua-damned idiot!"

"I don't know why but idiots always fill me with inspiration."

I guess idiot's just Kaito's nickname now. "Quit calling me an idiot!"

Kokichi giggled. "I'm sure Kirumi hasn't given up yet. She was hoping we'd try and take her place and then use that to cover up her escape, right?"

Kirumi stared at the small boy. "You are the most detestable cretin I have ever met, but you're right."

She held my hands. "You've been very kind to everyone here. Continue to do so." She turned around. Kirumi ran as fast as she could as I heard her agonising scream of determination. I looked at what she left in my hand.

It was a button from her dress. The once so calm and collected Ultimate Maid was running and screaming. But nonetheless, I screamed. "RUN KIRUMI!!"

We all yelled for her to run, but I heard the 3 horrifying words: "ITS PUNISHMENT TIME!"

I covered my ears and ran into Gonta's chest. I felt his muscular arms embrace me.

I heard Kirumi wince and I dared to turn around. I couldn't quite see, but she was being chased by protesters. She was climbing a thorny rope, desperate to escape.

She went into a tunnel leading upwards, so we could no longer see her.

I heard her scream and wince in pain. "W-what's up there?" I asked Monokuma. "Just some razor sharp saws."

I gasped as I saw the bottom part of Kirumi's dress slowly float down. "Oh no..." The skirt was stained with blood as I saw more pieces of her uniform come falling down, also stained with blood. At this point, it was raining hot pink.

I heard a snap and Kirumi's scream. "No!" We saw an object much larger and heavier than Kirumi's uniform. Monodam kicked Monosuke where Kirumi was about to fall.

With a big bang, Kirumi hit the ground. A drawing of a sky floated down and landed on top of her, and it was stained with her blood.

I covered my mouth as I stifled my sobs. I covered my ears, Kirumi's horrific screams ringing through them as I sat down. Shuichi knelt down beside me and put his arm around me.

I clutched the button and the tennis ball that I had just been given. "We have to get out of here."