Chapter Text
PROTAGONIST - BASIL
VICTIM #1 - MRS POMP
KILLER #1 - DEDAN
VICTIM #2 - JUDGE HOLDEN
KILLER #2 - SONIC THE HEDGEHOG
VICTIM #3 - AKITA NERU
VICTIM #4 - ???
KILLER #3/TRAITOR - SAYORI
VICTIM #5 - ADELEINE
VICTIM #6 - LUZ NOCEDA
KILLER #4 - FROGGY
VICTIM #6 - ARLE NADJA
KILLER #5 - LAVENDER
SUPPORT - KYOKO KIRIGIRI
TO BE REUSED - PETER PARKER
MASTERMIND - EVIL JAX
I put away the list.
I’m still wondering, who should victim 4 be? Questions, questions. So far, I’m leaning towards Jax or Ragatha. Those two have preexisting history and beliefs about me, after all. But at the same time, it would be wasted. No, I need someone who can be just… cannon fodder. Sayori works as a killer, and Neru works as an irrelevant student, so I need someone else who probably wouldn’t do much. But I’m stumped.
Of course, I’ve been getting the traitor on board before going into the thing. She thinks we’re just running a cool simulation, and that I’m just an aspiring developer. Of course, there’s no simulation I want to test. This is all real. And I’m going to whisk Sayori away from her death to return at the last trial, only to reveal that she really did kill two people. Two nobodies, but two people nonetheless. It’ll break her. It’ll be fascinating, seeing what happens when people think it’s ‘fake’. So many seasons, and few have realized the research potential of a killing game. It’s almost amazing, just how much you can get from it! Everyone gets lost in the same ‘hope and despair’ spiel. I want to see true despair, yes, but I want to see everything else. Truly get to the bottom of what makes people tick.
You see, I don’t want to want to do this. But I do. And to understand how to not want to want this, to get what I really want, I need this game. I need to see what happens. And this order is essential for a good narrative, meaning I can run more games with more money due to more views, meaning more research. It’s a beautiful thing.
But it all hinges on this one last person.
I have the location, I have the resources, I even have the stupid bear ready. All I need is this last person, and I can get started. I can easily trick Sayori into ‘entering the simulation’, which involves knocking her unconscious, getting her onto the helicopter, and getting her into a classroom. I have the motives ready. I’ve done my research. But the person I was meant to have on - don’t even remember their name now - died before I could. How ironic is that? Died before they could get taken to the killing game. Natural causes, as well! That’s just, that’s just impressive, right? But I digress.
One more victim. That’s all I need. Just one more.
I’m still stuck on this when my phone rings. I pick up the call, putting on my best nervous voice.
“Hey, wh-who are you? How did you get this number?”
“It’s me, silly!” Sayori’s voice. I recognize it.
“Oh, thank goodness, I was, sorry, you know, I’m like that sometimes.” If Sayori knew what I really was, she wouldn’t go along with this. And she’ll have the most delicious reaction to the eventual curtain call, so that simply won’t do.
“No, I just wanted to ask how things are going.” I open the hangar cameras on my laptop, inside the plane, as a ginger bearded man with glasses strolls in. Finally. Victim 4.
“Things are going great. I’m just getting ready. We should be able to start the simulation soon! Oh, Sayori, this is a most joyous day for us!” Good, startle, you little rat. I put on the mask, hiding who I am. He will see rabbit ears, but he will chalk that up to a mere hallucination, ideally. I grab the tranquilizer pistol from my pocket.
“Wait, really? Oh my god, yes! I’ve been waiting for this! But, um… at the same time, just, you know…”
“The clouds?” I allude to her childish analogy for her strange infliction. To think you would be depressed when you have no reason to be. Why? I must find out. I exit the plane. I can see the man.
“Uh, I’m sorry, what the he-” I fire at him, and while he yelps, he’s nowhere near fast enough to react in time. The dart hits him, and he falls to the ground, sedated. What brought him in here, I wonder.
“Yeah, they’re… they’re feeling pretty bad.”
“They get like that sometimes, right? But remember, there’s good days too, alright? Hey, look, you wanna feel good, right? You want the clouds to go away. You want more good days. They’re ahead! We’ll get a lot for this simulation, you know? Friends, money, you’ll get everything, and you won’t have a reason to be unhappy!”
“I just… I know I don’t really have a reason to be, I just… I’m sorry, I don’t want to burden you…”
“You’re not burdening me! You’ve been an extreme help!” None of it was practical, though. She’s mostly here for the long term plans, but also, I find her interesting. She wears the same mask but for a different reason. I quite like her, this Sayori. She’s an interesting one. And she’s got a good body on her, as well. No self worth and a people pleaser, and honestly, she should be glad I got to her before any random man on the streets. She would have been wasted as the inevitable statistic, suicide or homicide, that she would’ve been otherwise. Many of these people would. Now, they’ll be important to something. They’ll be immortalized. I will show them, especially Sayori and her so called ‘depression’, what true despair is. It’ll be a learning experience for all of us.
“OK? So don’t call yourself a burden. You’re an asset, Sayori. A vital asset. I need you.” I don’t, but anything she’s been led into seems nicer if I’m the one depending on her. At least, that’s what I figure. I take off my mask. I don’t need it anymore. I put this man - I don’t know what’s he called, unfortunately, since he didn’t have a driver’s licence, but that confirms he’s a nobody - into the back of the plane, in a body bag. “Tell you what, I’ll come pick you up, OK? I’ll be there for you. No matter what happens, I’ll be there.”
“...thanks, Evil Jax!”
I cringe. “Just… call me Jax, please.” Evil Jax gives away the game too soon, doesn’t it? It’d be like revealing my talent as ‘Ultimate Mastermind’.
…which I could have. I could easily make that my talent. In fact, I’ll do so. My talent. Ultimate Mastermind. It’s pretty funny, huh?
I double check the list again. The two nobodies get no talents. That seems fitting. But then, there is one tradition I’m missing.
“Sorry, sorry, I just, ‘Evil’ makes me sound bad, and I don’t want to be misconstrued as this bad guy, you know?” I quickly jot down ‘Ultimate Lucky Student’ on a card, open up the body bag, and slip it into his pocket. I made sure to get every other talent set. Sayori has ‘Ultimate Traitor’. The two most dangerous talents. It’s pretty funny. Of course, I’ll lie about mine… which technically wouldn’t be a lie, since I create the talents, but then, I’m nowhere near the Ultimate Softballer. If anything, Evil Pomni is probably closer to that than me. She’s pretty frickin’ good, don’t know what else to say.
“No, no, you don’t need to apologize! I’m sorry I didn’t pick up on that before.” It’s the only time I’ve actively brought it up, because I intend for her to call me just ‘Jax’ before I can even introduce myself to her. I’ll be in the same room as Basil at first, a sort of decoy support, and helpful from the start, until the final reveal. But I want her calling me Jax early, as a subtle hint. While also still having my name be ‘Evil Jax’. In truth, I don’t like the name, but it’s just because it’s tacky. Even if I’m a one note NPC, or at least meant to be, come on, you couldn’t have called me anything else? It’s unoriginal, that’s what it is. Dang, Caine, you really suck at worldbuilding.
“It’s fine. Just, please don’t call me ‘Evil’. Anyway, I think we’re ready to go! I’ll be around in a second.” She’s so naive. She’s genuinely pathetic. She has no self worth, and so rather than pretending she means something to me, I offer her the ‘cure’. She’ll never get this ‘cure’ as it doesn’t exist, of course. If anything, I’m going to make it worse. Pull the wool from her eyes, peel back the layers of this onion to reveal that the core is rotten inside. Show her what real depression is like. It’ll be fascinating to watch. Such a happy life, and yet, she’s still empty inside. I’ll make her realize how good she had it. If anything? I’m doing her a favour. Without me, she’d probably be hanging from a ceiling, bloodied hands from realizing last second she didn’t want to die, a noose around her neck, and dull, dead blue eyes.
At least now, it’ll actually mean something, right?
“OK! See you then!” She hangs up. I close the hangar as I walk out, a softball bat in the bag I’m carrying.
Sayori’s house isn’t far. When I was initially scouting her out, I was shocked at how relatively close it was to my place. She’s never seen the hangar, of course, or my office. She’s not seen the abandoned school I’ve commandeered, either. She doesn’t even know what our budget is. I’ve lied to her about that. She thinks it’s a rudimentary simulation, and she’s even been led to believe she can’t code. She can, she’s very good at it, but by misleading her - she’s been coding Monokuma and the turrets, not this ‘simulation’ - I’ve made her believe she’s only good when I’m literally telling her what to do.
Most bosses would probably instill fear in her. I like to challenge myself, though. Make her feel worthless, feel despair, without ever dropping the facade. I have to wait. For that final trial. It will be so cathartic. You can save your judgement, I’ll never hear you anyway.
I walk in. Funny thing, she thinks her parents are just out on an extended holiday. Since before I first contacted her three months ago, she’s been alone in the house, her one friend ‘moving away’. The Literature Club was the only thing potentially challenging me, but it wasn’t that hard to get ole’ Sayo to stop attending school with empty promises of money, fame, happiness. And it was only a bit harder to stop them poking around other people’s business. The best part? She thought they’d all ‘moved away’ because of her! She said she knew logically that it couldn’t be the case, of course, and you have no idea how tempted I was to say she should ‘trust her instincts’. But sadly, I couldn’t. It would’ve ruined the operation.
I enter her room. It was hard, you know, striking a balance between isolating her and stopping her from genuinely killing herself before I could reap the results of what I’d sown. But I managed it. Convinced her that things could get better, but only if she stuck with me. And hey, she didn’t have any other options, right?
Sayori smiles when she sees me. Obviously, it’s not a real smile. I don’t think she’s ever had a genuine smile. I’m almost offended, you know, that even after everything I’ve done for her, she won’t even give me a real smile. The best laid plans of mice and men may not have been led astray, but sometimes, her ungratefulness makes me feel like ditching my plan, getting a different ‘Ultimate Traitor’ who’s slightly less of a crybaby but just as much of a pushover, and then caving her skull in with the softball bat in my bag. I’m really tempted, but then, I pride myself on control, and that includes self control.
“Hey, E- Jax! How are things going?” So saccharine. The fact I have to match that? But then, reaping the rewards will be oh so satisfying, hopefully.
“They’re going great! As I said, we are ready to go! Are you feeling ready now? To enter the simulation?”
“Yeah, I’m ready. But are you sure you-”
I cut her off before she can waste more of my time. “Sayori. You’re the only person I’ve met so far who’s ever been nice to me.” Now she feels good. Now she feels somewhat in control, or at least, that’s what I figure. “Of course I want you! You comforted me when we first met.” After I’d barged into your house, of course. “You’re amazing, Sayori, and I want you to be happy. This is your chance! Just remember not to tell anyone anything, OK?”
“...OK, got it.” And finally. A genuine, real smile. Now I know. Now I know I mean something to her. She’s very emotional right now, and in general. This, this is a good moment.
“Now, are you ready for the simulation?”
“Yeah, I’m ready.”
“Great! Then let’s get started.”
I unzip my bag, with her already sitting in the center of the room.
“Now…”
I check, and yep, there’s a tranquilizer pistol inside the bag. I grab it, along with a cheap ‘headset’ made out of cardboard and a few wires. She won’t question it. She won’t have enough time to.
“This will only hurt a bit.”
I put the headset on her, her eyes closed. She’s expecting to be transported in, after all. I fire the tranquillizer dart into her right shoulder and watch her fall unconscious.
I grab her and start bringing her downstairs. I resist the urge to toss her down, with the worry it would cause me more trouble than is worth. I’ll wait until we’re at the facility to orchestrate any cartoonish violence.
There’s a car outside. My car. I open the back door, and I drape her across the seats. I close the door, windows closed. Dang, pretty hot day.
I go back inside the house, into her room, to grab her laptop, the most important thing. But first, I log in - she eventually caved in and told me her password, though she was pretty good at hiding it for a while - change the password and account so she can’t ever access it again, then copy the character list to there. Writing it out takes some time, but I needed to update it with their talents, after all. I check. Yes, it has access to the cameras at the school. She’s done a pretty good job setting everything up. I guess she’s good at one thing.
I close the laptop lid and put it in the large carrier bag. I then grab my metal softball bat, still stained red. I grab the camera as well and lay it down on the floor.. I hide my face with a mask, though, and I make sure to get into an all black suit so that she doesn’t recognize my clothes. It’s low quality, the video camera, which I then turn on. Voice distorter on.
“I HOPE YOU LIKE MY PRESENT, YOU WORTHLESS BITCH!”
I swing the bat right onto her desk, watching it collapse. I then swing it a few times at her bed, and then reach up and tear down her ceiling fan, but dang, she doesn’t have much in this room to smash. I still find a bit more. Windows, dents in the wall, and though this one doesn’t need the bat, I take ‘Mr Cow’, let him get his close up to the camera, and then suddenly, BAM! A knife pierces right through him, a zombie knife I had in my pocket. It goes right through his back and sticks out his front, and I twist it, and then slice upwards, downwards, to the left, to the right, and gleefully reduce the cow plush to nothing more than fluff. I take the camera in my hand and go room to room, destroying everything. I even found some of those cute little poems she wrote for her cute little club! Awwww, I’m sure you want to fill those bottles, sweetie, or whatever those stupid poems are talking about. Oh, you want breakfast? I grab a lighter from a kitchen draw and I burn those cute little poems until they’re nothing but dust.
I pause the camera, grab my bag, and head outside of the house. An associate has already taken the car with Sayori in it, and I hear that there’s motion in my hangar. I send a message.
You can fly now. I’m just doing her motive video.
I’ll be there in time, it’s all but assured. Evil Orbsman, BaZooble, Evil Ragatha, and Ming are setting up the school, while I got some guy to fly them there for a couple of bucks. He thinks he’s getting a big payout, the funny guy. He’ll fly them there, Coach will shoot him, and they’ll take the plane back. Me, I’m driving there. I’ve got the fake police car ready.
I lay down the video camera. If we need more videos, the others will be on the roll. Evil Orbsman and BaZooble are completely obedient, Evil Ragatha wants to see what happens, and Ming just said I shouldn’t assume he wants to be paid! It was so easy to get everyone involved. They love smashing things, I suppose.
But for now? This is the last part.
I show the camera the Molotov I brewed, which has been hiding in the bush. I then throw it, and wooo, right through a window! Oh, you can hear it. You can hear it break, and you can hear the burning. You can soon see the smoke. I turn to the camera, my face still obscured by, as it happens, a clown mask. She hates clowns.
“YOU SHOULD GET TO KILLING SOMEONE. BECAUSE OTHERWISE, IT WON’T JUST BE YOUR HOUSE. MONIKA, NATSUKI, YURI, EVEN THAT CHILDHOOD FRIEND YOU MENTIONED. WE CAN FIND THEM. AND WE’LL HURT THEM. WE’LL HURT THEM REAL BADLY. SEE YOU SOON, KIDDO.”
I turn the camera off.
Now that is how you film a motive video.
Into the hangar. I’ve been calling it a hangar because of the plane, but now that’s gone. It’s just the garage.
I enter my office. It looks like the guy didn’t think to try and rob me. There’s a smile on my face as I grab the police car keys.
I enter the car. I send another message.
omw
Best to leave this one short and simple. I start the engine, and I reverse out of the garage onto the road. The siren starts blaring (gotta have some fun) and I drive.
I reach the empty school we commandeered. I meet up with the group outside.
“Alright, I’m heading in now. Thanks for your help, guys!” I never drop the act.
I enter the school building. They close the doors behind me.
I spend some time boarding up everything, closing off areas, making sure everything’s in place, all that jazz. I check the cameras.
So that’s where our protagonist Basil is. I enter Classroom 1-A. Fitting, I suppose.
They’ve actually done a pretty good job making sure everything’s as it should be. I checked on the cameras. They did what I needed. But there is one thing I need to be in peak performance.
I head to those beautiful closed off doors. My laptop’s in my hand. I already know where my dorm is, of course, and I’ll put the laptop in said dorm - most likely the bathroom where no one will ever go - after I just make sure this is all good.
>OPEN_TRIAL_DOORS
The doors open. Good. The elevator is right there for when I need it.
I head to my dorm. It’s looking as I want it. The secret exit to the underground lair is there, as it should be. Another entrance to said mastermind’s lair is in the female bathrooms, in a toilet marked ‘OUT OF ORDER’. If you try to open the door, well, it’s locked! And only I have the key. It’ll be fun to watch them struggle with that for a bit, through the cameras, obviously. I have cameras for everything.
And if I’m right…
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! All I hear outside. So it looks like they’ve done their job. It’ll look fittingly apocalyptic and dead. Team Danganronpa should get a kick out of watching my DIY efforts outclass everything they’ve done. I didn’t even need (or, admittedly, have) any memory erasing equipment. And yet. Would you look at that. Everything’s in order.
I finally make my way back to Classroom 1-A. The outside world remains boarded off. Everything is in order. Everything is as planned. Basil has his dumb little ‘Ultimate Accomplice’ card. He’ll probably try to hide it, of course. Hope he doesn’t choose ‘Photographer’, since that one’s taken by Pete. As much as I could have made a Spider Man reference, I felt like this could be a funnier gambit.
I lay in the cupboard next to Basil’s. I’ve activated everything already. The bear, the messaging system, the guns, everything. And we’ve got those executions ready. Had to reuse some old tech of Team Danganronpa’s, but I’m sure they won’t mind. Hell, even the famous ‘Junko Enoshima’, were she real, would commend me for the despair I made her feel on doing better than her without as much of the money or tech!
And thus, I pretend to sleep, until the alarm blares and I hear someone in the other cupboard stirring.
Showtime.