Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

At the end of everything, it all came rushing back.

Arguments with Ryutaro. Slamming the door in his face. Her first time in Hope’s Peak. Meeting her classmates. Meeting her classmates again. Boring classes that lasted forever. Sleepovers in each other’s dormitories. Yamoto’s antics. Yukki’s apathetic glare. Satsuki confiding in Maki about her crush on Haruhiko. Akane’s nervous energy. Mikako’s endless supply of sweets. Mitch’s corny advances. Mitch bashing her head in with a hammer. Yukki’s cheerful demeanor. Sprinting through the halls with her friends. A claw impaling an upperclassman. Students throwing themselves from rooftops. The parade. Finally breaking down Rei’s icy exterior. Shooting a hoard of Monokuma’s through teary eyes. The siege of the Kisaragi foundation. Blood gushing from her head. 

Memories spilled onto the laundry room floor, mixing with brain matter and chunks of skull. Maki didn’t care. She couldn’t move an inch, forced to lay helplessly at the feet of someone she once called a friend, her eyes level with Mitsuhiro’s bloodstained shoes. 

Blood. Blood was everywhere. It trickled down her back and onto the cold tile, pooling around her limp form. She couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. She realized too late that it was her own. 

Puzzle pieces snapped into place in her final moments, parts of the whole she hadn’t known were missing. As everything slotted into place, she thought she saw Mitch move. 

‘Huh,’ She thought, somewhat surprised by her own lack of fear, ‘So that’s what happened…’

Though she lacked the strength to close her eyes, the world went dark anyway. She heard footsteps moving throughout the room, and then someone’s arms slipped under her legs and torso, was someone picking her up? 

She felt the floor fall out from beneath her, matted hair – saturated pink – falling over her eyes, dripping and staining the floor beneath her. 

Maki didn’t think anything after that.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

She woke up in the girls’ bathroom, which immediately struck her as odd, seeing how she couldn’t remember how she got there. 

Outside of the stabbing pain in the back of her head and her inherent disgust at having slept on the floor of a public restroom, Maki found herself rather alert for a victim of attempted murder.

Naturally, upon recalling that small tidbit, Maki immediately stumbled to her feet, whirling around in a blind panic, scoping her surroundings for any sign of Mitsuhiro. She was ready to fight if she had to, disadvantaged or not. God, what was he thinking? Doing that to her of all people! She couldn’t believe his stupidity. She trusted that idiot – he even saved her life, not so long ago. 

Or… maybe long ago? How much time had passed between getting ambushed at the Kisaragi Foundation and now? 

Priorities, Maki.

She searched the stalls and around corners, anywhere the soccer player might be lying in wait. Lucky for her, she found nothing. Her shoulders slumped, only then allowing herself to relax. With one problem momentarily solved, she turned her attention to the next.

She felt along the back of her head, assessing the damage. It hurt something awful, and she hissed as her fingertips grazed the open wound.

Her hand came back stained bright pink – a terrible sign. Maki had been trained in CPR and first aid, and though she was no ultimate nurse, she knew enough to know bleeding from the head was really, really bad. Her heart sank into her toes as she reached back again, only to come away with more blood on her fingers. The sight was enough to make her woozy.

She had to keep her head on straight, however. There was no time to waste. She needed to find help. She needed to get out of Mitch’s reach. She needed to find Inori so the smaller girl could stop the bleeding. If anyone could patch her up, it would be her, after all. Plus, if Inori was around, Kakeru was probably not far behind. She’d seen the lawyer bench press three times her weight without breaking a sweat, he’d defend her at a moment's notice. That settled it, she needed to get back to the dormitories. 

She stepped forward, about to break into a sprint, when she suddenly stopped in her tracks, a sudden thought entering her mind. 

How did she know Kakeru could lift so much? She hadn't spent much time with Kakeru in the past few days, much less watched him work out, why would she immediately assume he and Inori would be together, anyway? Either the blood loss was getting to her or she’d sustained more brain damage than she’d thought, but then, once again, a barrage of memories flooded her mind, instantly bringing her to her knees. 

Now with a moment to actually think about what all that meant, Maki felt faint. 

“There’s no way. There’s no fucking way. This can’t be happening!” She cried, her voice echoing in the empty bathroom.

There was too much to reconcile in the moment. She had to focus. One thing at the time. She needed to find Inori. 

She mustered enough strength to lean back on her haunches, testing her balance. She leaned back a little too far, however, and landed on her butt, her head bumping into something. 

‘Jeez, right in the head wound!’ She lamented, turning around to see what she’d hit. 

Maki considered herself to be a pretty tough cookie. She didn’t run away from a fight, hell, she started fights more often than not, besides, she had to have some grit in the sharpshooting scene. All that to say, there wasn’t a lot that could truly shake her. 

Still, when coming face to face with her own hanging body, she screamed. 

Nononononononononononononono…

Her eyes were still open, half lidded, no light reflected in them. She stared blankly into space, entirely unaware of her surroundings – unaware of the other Maki retching at her feet, shaking violently, yet unable to cough up anything other than saliva. 

“No, no, please no, God! Oh God, please no.” She whimpered between breaths, unable to stop herself from glancing up, catching a glimpse at the…thing, before doubling over again. 

This was too much. She could handle losing her entire family. She could handle the world ending. She could handle being thrown into a killing game by a psychotic teddy bear. She could handle a myriad of things. But this? Maki couldn’t handle this. She couldn’t handle coming face to face with her own dead body. She couldn’t handle the translucent tinge to her own skin that she’d somehow missed before, yet was quite obvious under the fluorescent lighting.

Maki didn’t even believe in ghosts. But she also didn’t believe that any of her friends would turn on each other. She’d made that mistake twice already. 

She didn’t even understand what happened. How she got there, why she was hanging. Why would Mitch do this to her? They used to be friends. They were friends. Right?

But that wasn’t the Mitch she knew. The Mitch she knew was an arrogant asshole at the start of the year, but who mellowed out and became an smarmy yet adorable goofball after only a few months of being around people who wouldn’t take his shit. The Mitch that saved her life then asked her out in the same breath. The one that made her feel pretty even though she wouldn’t go out with him in a million years. 

Seemingly, they were the same person. Mitch would do this to her. Desecrate her like this. And for what? They would’ve been okay. They just had to keep their hopes up. Someone would have come for them eventually. 

No, they wouldn't have. They were on an island. This wasn’t Hope’s Peak, but a cruel facsimile. She could see it clear as day now. She knew what the outside world was like; what it’d been reduced to. They ran to the Kisaragi Foundation for a reason. 

 Nobody was coming for them. 

Maki broke.

She cried, she writhed, she continued to dry heave till it was clear that there was nothing in her stomach to heave. She screamed, she cried for her mom, her dad, for Ryutaro. She cried for Haruhiko and Satsuki, she cried for everyone till her voice gave out, but still, nobody came. Nobody came because nobody heard her. Because nobody can hear a ghost. 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

She looked everywhere, but she couldn’t find anyone. 

After prying herself out of the well of her own self-pity, Maki stumbled towards the dorms, banging on doors, shouting for her friends to “Wake the fuck up already!” to no response. 

She’d about had a heart attack when she slammed herself against Haru’s door when jiggling the lock didn’t work, only to be suddenly thrown into a freefall, colliding with the floor on the opposite side of the door. 

Of course, ghost powers. Why not? She should’ve expected this.

Unfortunately, unless everyone had been miraculously rescued in the some-odd hours since her untimely demise, it appeared that Maki had no access to the land of the living. That included getting to haunt her classmates, apparently. 

Her skin crawled at the thought of being completely alone in this new environment. She’d always hated being by herself. She thrived in groups, she lived to see her friends. To be unequivocally isolated from the outside world… that would be her personal hell.

She wondered if anyone had found her by now. Enough time had passed, surely. It wasn’t like Mitch had hidden her body. Someone was bound to stumble upon her sooner than later. 

A fresh wave of nausea rolled over her at the thought.

She didn’t want to imagine her friends finding her. She didn’t want to picture their faces turning blue from shock when they found her body. She didn’t want to guess who’d find her first. Any way she sliced it, it ended with the world as they knew it ending and the course of their lives forever changed.

It was enough to make her want to rush back to the girls bathroom, to cut herself down from the makeshift noose and arrange herself in a more peaceful manner to somehow soften the blow. 

“Soften the blow?” HA.

She continued to search for signs of life, but found nothing. Everything was just as it’d been left when she died. 

With nothing else to do, she returned to her room, if only to lie down and wallow in her misery a little longer. She deserved some wallowing, after the day she’d had.

She paused with her hand on the doorknob, an oddity catching her eye. 

She stepped back, glanced back and forth between her room and the one next to hers, gears turning in the back of her mind. 

She opened her door, stepping inside, the row of guns displayed on the walls confirming with a single glance that it was indeed her room. 

So, why did it say it was Tsurugi Kinjo’s on the nameplate?

Maki was never one for puzzles. She preferred things to be as straightforward as possible, so while it certainly caught her attention, she didn’t give much thought to that particular detail, instead flopping down on her bed, curling into the fetal position, hugging herself for comfort, glad that she could at least still sink into the mattress and the feel the warmth of the blankets, if nothing else. 

She didn’t realize she was still bleeding till she gazed through tired eyes out at the room, spotting a bloodtrail that betrayed her every move. 

She didn’t know if ghosts could use cleaning supplies, but that was an issue for another day. Who knows, maybe she’d move on to an actual afterlife while she slept, instead of this waking nightmare. 

She wasn’t so lucky.

As Maki soon found out, not even death could stop Monokuma from bothering her. 

She was startled out of a tortured sleep to the bear's shrill voice gleefully booming over the intercoms, 

“A body has been discovered!”

Immediately she shot up, vision swimming momentarily from the sudden shift in perspective. 

She hoped that she wouldn’t spend eternity with a headache, though things were hardly going her way so far, so she wasn’t getting her hopes up.

It took a moment to process what the announcement actually meant, outside of serving as the world’s worst wake up call. 

A body… Oh…

So, they’d found her. 

It took longer than she’d expected.

She thought back to what Monokuma had said upon their arrival, about how anyone who decided to kill would first have to pass a class trial before escaping. If her memory was correct, then upon the discovery of her body an investigation period would start, where everyone would then be forced to investigate her murder and solve the case like some twisted form of Clue. 

The thought of her classmates – her friends – being forced to examine her corpse was sickening. She just hoped they wouldn’t be too traumatised by what they found.

That led her to another thought. Mitch would have to get away with the crime, which meant that he likely staged her body to throw off the others. After all, why else would he hang her? She was whacked on the back of the head. She hadn’t examined herself too thoroughly to see whether he’d cleaned up the bloody mess that was her skull, but surely it’d be obvious that she hadn’t hung herself or died by suffocation. Hell, they had a surgeon on standby! If Mitch thought he could sneak anything past Inori he was dumber than she thought. 

Of course, he’d somehow avoided getting pummeled by a machine gun in order to string her up in the girl’s bathroom, so obviously he was somewhat creative. Too bad he never applied that same ingenuity to his studies, but it wasn’t like grades mattered much in this new world…

Wow, it was weird having a backlog of memories return out of the blue. A lot of it contrasted with what she’d taken as fact over the past week. It felt like looking into a parallel reality, a real life spot the difference. Her head was sent spinning just thinking about it. 

Alone in the halls of “Hope’s Peak”, Maki had plenty of time to mull it all over. She couldn’t be certain how this whole “haunting” schtick worked, but as long as her circumstances weren't some cosmic fluke, there was a high chance she wouldn't be alone for long.

She’d reassured Yuki that nobody would kill anyone. She preached about keeping their spirits up and having a positive attitude, not realizing that at that very time, Mitsuhiro was plotting her demise. 

Her blood boiled just thinking about him. A shiver ran down her spine, imagining the look on his face when she walked through the door before he swung the hammer without a word. 

She trusted him. She shouldn’t have, but she did. Even without her memories of her school life she still followed that note to her death. 

She fell for the oldest trick in the book. Wasn’t that the first rule of mystery novels? Don’t follow the suspicious note telling you to meet in a secluded place and to tell no one where you’re going. She heard her brother’s voice in her head, mumbling about his stupid sister. Maki liked to think she was smart. Not Rei smart, but smart enough to have some common sense. 

It became evident that it wasn’t just her skull that was shattered, but her confidence as well. 

No, that wouldn’t do. She rolled her shoulders back, forcing herself to raise her chin up in defiance to the circumstances. So what? She was dead. She’d get over it. For now she was still trapped in a mystery box that was this faux academy, and as of now, she was the only one capable of solving any of it. 

She said a silent prayer to her friends, hoping against all odds that they’d be alright. She wasn’t sure if she could include Mitch, that was still too fresh of a wound. Regardless, she set off to investigate. 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Rooms, rooms, rooms. Classrooms, bathrooms, dorm rooms, Maki grew frustrated by the amount of ground she’d covered with annoyingly little to show for it. She wasn't entirely sure what she was even looking for, after a while. She was dead, it wasn’t like there was a special button she could press that would magically teleport her back into her body. The most she could hope for was to fumble her way into uncovering some secret they’d somehow missed.

But what if she did? Then what? It wasn’t like she could tell anyone. She couldn’t help anyone now. 

However, that didn’t stop the mysteries from itching at her. None of this made a lick of sense to Maki, from how she lost her memories to how she could hear the Monokuma announcement when she was supposedly alone.

She saw no signs of life, aside from herself. The only things that moved were things she touched with her own hands. The kitchen showed no signs of being used despite plenty of time having passed, enough for both breakfast and lunch to have come and gone by her estimation. It didn’t make any sense. Maki didn’t know if anything she did here affected the real world, otherwise she was certain Mikako would’ve busted out the ouija board the moment she sensed a supernatural presence. Heck, even Kinji would’ve noticed had something went spiritually awry. So, for now, she was forced to operate under the impression that she was completely isolated from the living world. That sucked, but wasn’t wholly unexpected. 

It was hours into her investigation that she noticed it. In the entrance hall, where there had once been a solid carpeted wall, now stood an open elevator. She did a double take, racking her memories, certain that no such apparatus existed in either version of Hope’s Peak; not in this spot, at least. That only fueled her curiosity, and with literally nothing left to lose, she stepped inside. 

She didn’t expect pushing the buttons to do anything, so she jumped when a ding rang out, and suddenly the elevator roared to life, the doors shutting before Maki could react, slamming shut and trapping her inside.

Okay, maybe she did have something to lose, she wasn’t sure if she could die twice, but death by elevator sounded a lot more gnarly than a blow to the head, and she really didn’t want to give herself any more brain damage. 

Thankfully, the worst didn’t come to pass, as the elevator functioned exactly as intended. Maki felt her stomach flip as she slowly descended anyway, the large shuttle ferrying her down, down, down. 

That didn’t make any sense, as even though there was a basement in Hope’s Peak, it didn’t take that long for an elevator to travel the distance between floors. Maki readied herself for anything as the elevator finally screeched to a stop, the doors inching open to reveal a place that Maki had never seen before in her life. 

“What the hell?” She said, her voice echoing in the large chamber.

What stood before her was a crude mockery of a courtroom, complete with gaudy decorations and a throne where the judge’s chair would have sat. Below stood a bunch of smaller platforms, each with a podium that made a circle in the middle of the large room. Tentatively she stepped forward, vigilant to her surroundings, kicking herself for not bringing one of the weapons from her room for protection.

“Stupid even in death, Maki,” She berated herself for her lack of forethought, but it was too late to go back up now, who knew if this room would close off again the second she went back upstairs.

She stood in the center of the circle. Glancing at each one podium, all empty, save for one.

She blanched, taken aback by the sight of her own face staring back at her. A picture on a stand, right where a person would be, except her portrait had been graffitied with a large X that covered her features. 

“That’s… fucked…”

She examined the area some more, bouncing on the velvet lined throne, checking for anything that gave a clue as to the room's purpose. It hit her surprisingly late. 

“Class trial. Of course!”

Everything else about the whole killing game was distasteful as hell, why would she expect the class trial to be any different?

So this was where everyone would battle it out, turn against one another and inevitably sentence someone to death. She hoped for their sakes that they got it right, at least. She didn’t want to see any of her friends here before their time. Someone had to get off this island. Someone needed to find her mom and dad to tell them she wasn’t coming home. Someone needed to look out for Ryutaro. She didn’t know how long she’d been gone, but it couldn’t have been that long, surely. He was a teenager now. Maybe as old as she was when she first left for Hope’s Peak. 

She wished she’d been kinder to him, given him a proper goodbye. She’d trade anything just to give her little brother a really big hug, right about now. 

Dejected, and with nowhere else to go, Maki slumped beside her podium, her picture taunting her. She turned away, staring out into the empty courtroom, the endless silence closing in. 

There was nothing she could do now, except wait. 

She’d never felt so hopeless.

Later, when it became clear that nobody else was coming, Maki returned to her room, where she spent hours laying in bed in a futile attempt to sleep off eternity. In reality, she only succeeded in acting like a slug until she was finally pulled from her lethargy by a faint bump from somewhere outside her room. 

After only a day, Maki was unsettled by how quickly she’d adjusted to isolation. Her heart rate quickened and adrenaline spiked at the faintest hint of something other than her existing in this space. 

She froze, unable to discern what her next move should be. She couldn’t be one hundred percent certain she’d heard anything – for all Maki knew, she just had a jumpstart on going completely cuckoo. 

So, she lay very, very still and listened; holding her breath, waiting for something to happen. 

Thump

Yeah, something was definitely out there. 

Friend or foe, Maki wasn’t taking any chances. She reached for her rifle, triple checking that the barrel was full.

Ear against the door, she listened for any signs her mark was drawing closer, confirmation she gleaned immediately. 

Whoever it was, they were shuffling down the hall, feet scraping against the floor, by the sounds of it. Their footfalls were heavy, causing them to sound closer than they actually were, they were at least at the end of the hall.

With a deep breath, Maki pushed open the door. 

Through the sight, she scoped the area, landing on a tall figure that, true to her deduction, stood opposite her at the end of the dormitories.

It looked like a person – or what used to be one. They were tall, hunched, and completely unrecognizable. Flesh had melted together, patches of skin having sloped off, exposing bone in areas. Clothing clung to the gnarled frame, singed, some parts attached by a only single thread. The arms and legs were contorted beyond measure, as if they’d been broken in several places. Maki didn’t understand how it was even standing, much less walking. She felt the familiar urge to vomit. 

It saw her. She couldn’t see its eyes beyond the heavy scarring but it must’ve seen her somehow. It picked up its pace, shambling towards her on broken legs. She heard damaged bone snapping some more with each step, knees buckling but the figure kept moving. The thing must’ve been running on nothing but adrenaline. 

At a loss for what to do, Maki did what she was best at. Barreling ahead without thinking. 

She closed the distance between them in two big strides, bringing the butt of the gun up high over her head, slamming it down on the creature. 

It stumbled, disoriented, slumping against the wall, gurgling in what might’ve been pain. 

And for the second time in twenty-four hours. Maki ran away screaming. 

She really couldn’t make a habit out of this.

She retreated back into her dorm, slamming the door and locking it. She fell against it, hyperventilating, vision spotting as her airways constricted. Still, she’d been spotted, and she could hear the thing using the wall to pull itself up, continuing its slow march towards her door. 

She clutched the rifle to her chest like a child would a teddy bear. A million thoughts running through her head. 

The main one being: who was that?

Second one being: What the FUCK happened after she died?

Maki wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to either. 

Unfortunately, she didn’t think she’d have a choice. 

Chapter Text

Knowing she’d be cornered in her room if she didn’t act before the creature blocked her door, Maki took a moment to breathe, once, twice, three times before steeling her nerves, drawing her weapon and swinging open the door, aiming to fire if it came down to it.

The figure had drawn closer, stumbling on broken legs. It groaned as if in pain, damaged vocal cords cracking as they attempted to make sound. Narrowing in on what used to be a mouth, Maki recoiled, noticing for the first time that the creature didn’t even have lips. She doubted it could make any discernible noise if it tried.

She held her ground, standing firm with her finger ghosting the trigger. She tried to keep her breathing steady but the stench of molten flesh flooding her nostrils made the task nigh-impossible. 

“Stay back!” She ordered, as if she were fending off a rabid animal.

The figure hesitated, obviously understanding her. It cocked its head to the side, their shambling gait slowing to a stop in the middle of the hallway, not fifteen feet from her.

At such a close range, Maki got an unfortunately detailed look at the grotesque sight before her. 

Had it not been for the distinctly humanoid shape, she might’ve assumed it was a demon. She wasn’t particularly religious, but she’d heard Mikako and Kinji share horror stories from their respective fields; tales of possession and twisted, tortured entities – and they were never ones to exaggerate.

Maki wasn’t taking any chances – she didn’t know if traditional bullets would do much damage against a demonic entity, but in the off chance she was in the presence of one, there was no time like the present to find out.

“You move another inch and I’ll turn you into swiss-fucking-cheese!” She shouted, lowering her voice an octave to appear more menacing.

The creature didn’t move. It paused, an almost pensive air falling around it, as if it were genuinely considering her threat. It emitted a low grumble before hunching in on itself, mangled limbs drawing up towards its chest, making it appear smaller and meeker than it first presented.

“I won’t hesitate!” She added for effect, though it was more for her sake than anything. She hoped she didn’t come across as overly desperate.

Obviously at a disadvantage, the figure stayed put. It was sickening just watching it maintain its balance, swaying on exposed bone, buckling under its own weight, putting even more pressure on the catastrophic breaks. Maki waited for any sign it’d attack, lunging at her the moment she let her guard down; but upon further assessing the situation and the creature’s current state, she doubted it had the capability to pick itself up off the floor should it fall over.

“What the hell are you?” She asked, not knowing why she bothered asking such a question – it wasn’t like it could respond.

The creature flinched, as if taken aback by her words. A melted hand reached towards her, then stopped. It was as if it were noticing the extent of its injuries for the first time. It slowly examined its hand, before pulling it back, gnarled fingers tracing the edges of its jaw. As it did this a section of cloth less damaged than the rest was revealed from under the creature’s arm. It was still terribly burnt, but a familiar streak of blue that stood starkly against the mess of flesh caught Maki’s eye. She squinted, wracking her brain for where she’d seen that particular shade before, stepping closer in the process, unintentionally closing the distance between them.

At a closer angle, she could see even more of the blue mixed into the burnt canvas of a body. Looking up, she studied what little remained of the face, gaze fixating on small strands of distinctly blond hair that clung stubbornly to what used to be someone's scalp.

Maki’s stomach sank as the pieces slotted together, her stomach sinking at the implication.

“...Mitch?”

He looked at her, and although he didn’t have any muscles to change his expression, he still choked out something that might’ve been a sob had he had any tear ducts left with which to cry. 

Maki was horrified, but against every survival instinct she had in her, she found herself lowering the gun. 

“What did they do to you?”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Call it premature, but Maki assumed the others won the trial. 

Nobody else had come hobbling down the halls looking like horror movie rejects – she knew because she’d waited, Mitch and all. So, for the time being, she assumed that Mitsuhiro was the only new occupant of her special little hell. 

Oh joy…

She felt rather disgruntled, if she did say so herself. What kind of afterlife puts a murder victim and her killer in the same room for eternity? Shouldn’t there be some, like, divine witness protection program or something? Maki at least wanted the option to leave the school, maybe put some more distance between her and the walking corpse of the boy who bashed her head in. If there was a ghost replica of the Kisaragi Foundation, then there had to be a ghost Tokyo, didn’t there?

Despite her complaints, or perhaps directly in spite of them, Maki appeared to be stuck in the fake school for the time being, playing nurse to her murderer and friend. She didn’t know what deity she’d pissed off to be dealt this specific brand of karma, but that was a problem for a future Maki to mull over.

The present Maki was currently in the med bay with her own fish to fry, fumbling her way through first aid, her patient motionless on the cot behind her.

“Honestly, dude. I don’t think burn cream is gonna do much for you at this point.” She said, grimacing nervously. 

“Guuuuuuuuuuuuggghhhhhhhhhhhhh” was his only reply.

“Yeah, that sounds about right…”

She turned away, sighing deeply. Some company she’d gotten. Be careful what you wish for, she’d been told time and time again. She should’ve listened. 

She rummaged through the available kits, picking up some gauze, weighing her options. 

“Can you stand anything to touch you? We might be able to give you a second skin of sorts. Then again, it might just hurt like a motherfucker.”

“Mmmmmmphhhhhhhh”

“You got that right. Well, here goes nothing!” 

They were off to a great start.

……………………………………………………………………….

By the end of it, Mitch looked like a mummy, pitifully writhing on the bed. Despite her best efforts, it hadn't been a pleasant experience for either of them. She almost felt bad for the guy, had he not beaten her head the day before. Still, bludgeoning him with a rifle after being burned alive probably added enough insult to injury for a lifetime, and she didn’t feel like spending any more time torturing the soccer pro.

“So, here’s the deal. You stay on that bed, I’m gonna chill on the other. Make a single move and I put a bullet in your brain. I don’t care that I just spent hours bandaging you up, you try anything, and it’s over, do you hear me?” 

“Mmmm…”

Maki plopped down on the cot opposite Mitch, trying to make herself as comfortable as she could on the firm mattress. 

“And before you ask, no, I don’t know what the hell this place is, or how we got there. I woke up in the bathroom yesterday next to my hanging body. Really tasteful, by the way, thanks a lot.”

Mitch had the audacity to look ashamed, or as ashamed as he could behind layers of wrappings. 

“It’s just me and you here. Monokuma occasionally chimed in, so don’t freak when he blares over the intercom. Honestly, I doubt he’s even aware we’re here. My best guess is it just bleeds over from the real world.”

Mitch said nothing, not even a hum of acknowledgement. He stayed deathly still on his bed, playing the part of a corpse perfectly. Maki half-wondered if he fell asleep; he was surely in enough pain to warrant a medically induced coma. It was a testament to either his stamina or stupidity that he’d stayed conscious this long.

“Higa?” She called, refusing to give him the privilege of being on a first name basis. 

Once again, no response. 

“You have got to be kidding me.” She vented, crossing her arms and flopping onto the complimentary pillow the med bay provided. 

This was going to be a loooooooooong afterlife, at this rate. 

Not wanting to leave Mitsuhiro alone for long, but also not wanting to die of boredom while he slept away some third degree burns, Maki occupied herself with darts, having pried the board from her bedroom wall to set it up in the med bay.

It wasn’t all that fun, especially when she played by herself. As the Super Highschool Level Sniper she had impeccable accuracy, so there was little thrill in making the perfect shot when she hit the nail on the head ten times out of ten. 

She’d like to test some of the longer range weapons she’d been provided with, but for the sake of Mitch’s sleep she didn’t want to turn the med bay into a shooting range. She didn’t have much bedside manner, but she wasn’t heartless. 

Eventually she abandoned the dartboard entirely, instead aiming for random areas in the room. Chipped paint on the wall, a divot in the ceiling. She pegged each letter of the eye chart with her eyes closed twice. 

She was itching to explore the school some more. She half-considered grabbing a wheelchair, maneuvering Mitch into it and wheeling him around their humble abode, refamiliarizing him with the sights. Heck, maybe they could have wheelchair races.

It was admittedly surreal to be picturing activities with your murderer, but Maki’s life had already taken so many turns for the bizarre that little could shock her, especially after today. She hoped that Mitch could find a way to communicate soon, though. The moaning was exhausting to listen to after a while, and she had a plethora of questions she wanted to ask. 

Starting with why he chose to target her of all people. Sure, they didn’t have their memories at the time, but Maki hadn’t done anything to anger him during their shared time in the killing game. There were plenty of others that would make better targets. Rei, for one, with that attitude, or even Kizuna, who’d reverted back to her bitchy self (as opposed to her slightly less bitchy self). Out of everyone, Maki didn’t think she’d done anything to upset anyone, except maybe giving Haruhiko a bump on the head after sending him crashing into a nameplate.

So, that was question one. Question two being, what happened to him? Monokuma informed them all that killers would be executed, but obviously something much more heinous than even that had befallen Mitch, if his current state was any indicator. She worried for the others, hoping that nobody else got caught in whatever crossfire he did. 

She looked over at Mitch, who hadn’t moved in a while; the small rise and fall of his chest the only sign he was still breathing, or as close to breathing as ghosts could, she supposed.

Figuring he was down the count for the time being, Maki figured she could afford to play around for a little while. She made the executive decision to raid her monocoin stash, hoping that maybe she’d get something good from the antique store to help pass the time. If nothing else, gambling might become her new hobby.

She hadn’t spent much time in the antique store. It wasn’t exactly her style. Teruya ran the place like the military, however. She remembered how she’d acted towards the boy during the past week, how she’d disregarded him as mainly childish and aloof. He was too much for her tastes, and perhaps at the start of the school year, she’d felt the same way, but with her recovered memories she felt ashamed for ever thinking poorly of the merchant. She recalled fondly how he’d made a habit of sneaking her the latest beauty products or accessories from his father’s store before they’d officially hit the shelves, playing it off as a super-special-marketing-tactic, when they both knew it was because he saw something she’d like and nabbed it for her. He kept a list of everyone’s likes and dislikes, from their favorite colors to their preferred textures in clothing. The little green guy was a sweetheart, deep down – if a bit of a pervert at times; he was best friends with Haru, after all. 

The shop felt empty without his boisterous presence or the sound of his obnoxious accent filling the empty air. Despite the circumstances her class had found itself in, they truly had made a little home out of the school already.

Sentimental as it may be, she felt a swell of pride in her friends for (mostly) maintaining the same comradery that’d made her high school years something truly special. Even though they lacked their memories of their time together in the halls of Hope’s Peak, slivers of those bonds still wormed their way into the present. 

From Haruhiko and Satsuki, who were never far apart from one another, Akane and Ayame talking quietly over breakfast, or Inori running around with her medkit, eager to help anyone in pain. It warmed her heart to learn how some things never changed.

Finding the Monomono machine, she slid a coin from her pouch into the slot, standing back as the machine whirled to life, grumbling like the world's worst washing machine. It rumbled and shook like it was preparing for take off, Maki waited for it to finish seizing. 

She didn’t have much to gamble with. She’d only found three monocoins through the entire week. She didn’t know how Yuki did it. The boy was like a bloodhound when it came to finding the things. She chuckled, thinking of how she’d seen him rummage through the trash on multiple occasions, searching for them. 

Maybe she didn’t have the same gumption, but she did have standards. At least she wasn’t digging through used napkins and snotty tissues for monopoly money.

Speaking of things that had changed. She had to wonder what was up with the redhead. The Yuki Maeda she’d known was a stoic outcast who stonewalled any attempt at friendship with scathing cruelty. He was essentially the black sheep of the class, and that was saying something with the likes of Mitch among the roster. The human embodiment of sunshine who’d bounced from person to person like a golden retriever meeting new friends over the past week was the exact opposite of the boy she once knew.

Where Yuki appeared to have taken a turn for the better, Mikako, on the other hand, appeared to have taken a turn for the worse.

Maki hadn’t realized just how sickly Mikako looked until she had the before and after with which to compare. Gone was the bubbly girl who rambled non-stop, with a personality rivaled only by her brother. The few times Maki could force a word from her lips, she couldn’t ignore how painful each syllable looked to say. Something had gone terribly wrong, it was obvious after putting some thought into it. She kicked herself for not recognizing it sooner.

Maki was separated from the group during the majority of the siege, so she didn’t know what exactly the others went through before they were captured. As far as she knew, she was one of the last ones to hold out. 

They did something to her friend, something different than they’d done to the others. Maki felt it in her bones; but there wasn’t much she could do for the girl now.

The monomono machine slowed to a stop, the annoying chiptune singing in victory. The drawer at the bottom opened up, revealing a set of athletic sneakers. 

Okay, nice to have a new set of footwear, but that wasn’t exactly an activity. 

She slipped another coin in, hoping for a better result this time. 

While the machine sputtered back to life, Maki wandered around the antique store, surveyed the shelves and the items they contained. The place was riddled with junk. Teenagers didn’t have a purpose for half of the inventory, seriously, what high schooler needed a crowbar ready at hand? Did antique stores even carry crowbars?

Shrugging it off as more Monokuma madness, Maki turned back to the Monomono machine, which had once again spat out something from its innards. 

She walked over to collect her prize – a fountain pen, this time. It was kinda kawaii, with a heart shaped topper and strawberry pink body. She was pleasantly surprised, it was definitely something she’d choose for herself. She quickly doodled a flower on the back of her hand, satisfied to see a glittery sheen to the ink. 

Inserting her last coin, she pocketed the pen, making a mental note to stop by her room and retrieve her note pad. Pens weren’t ideal for sketching, but she’d make do. 

That train of thought gave her another idea. She wasn’t sure if Mitch was capable of holding anything, with his hands as damaged as they were, but if he could, writing might make things infinitely easier for the both of them, she’d make sure to grab his notepad from the dorms as well. 

The jingle played one last time, the chute flipping up to reveal the final prize. Maki picked it up, flipping through its pages, quirking an eyebrow upon recognizing the title.

It was one of those romance novels Kizuna was addicted to. The pink haired girl had spent many a class with those paperbacks hidden behind open textbooks. 

Reading when one of the only times the cheerleader was quiet, it was eerie to witness. It was like she morphed into an entirely different person when engrossed in one.

Of course, Kizuna would rather be caught dead than nerding out over the newest release from her favorite author, but that hadn’t stopped the tsundere from excitedly dragging Maki into the mall’s bookstore suspiciously close to those opening days. 

Maki smiled, cradling So Lingers the Ocean under her arm, packing up her spoils before exiting the antique store, meandering in the direction of the dormitories. 

…………………………………………………………………………………

Circling back to the med bay after depositing her gifts in her room as well as retrieving both her and Mitch’s notepads, Maki crossed the threshold next to the stairwell, stopping upon sensing something had changed. 

She glanced around, unable to discern what caught her so off guard, but after a second look her eyes bulged in shock. 

She’d never run faster than she did to the med bay, throwing open the door, startling poor Higa who’d been drifting in and out of consciousness, now fully awake from the shock of her entry.

“MHHHHH!”

“Oh, good, you’re awake. The gates open.”

“?”

“First off, how did you do that with your mouth, second of all, we have to get going! This may be our ticket outta here!”

Mitch was given no time to protest. Maki yanked one of the wheelchairs from the corner, folding it out and sending it swerving towards the bed. She jogged over and pulled him upright as gently as possible, and the soccer player was so stunned by her sudden excitement that he didn’t even protest or make a sound. 

Before they knew it, Maki had wheeled them down the hall towards the stairwell with a speed rivaling a torpedo. It hadn’t crossed her mind in the heat of the moment how she planned to maneuver Mitch up a flight of stairs in his condition, but she was too energized to care. 

Being cooped up on one floor for so long had driven her stir crazy. The thought of not only getting to see somewhere other than the same few rooms, but also potentially finding an exit or even a conveniently placed window would mean the world. 

Mitch, perhaps delirious from pain, but also sharing that same desire, tested the waters, clinging to the railing, placing as much of his weight on that instead of his legs. 

“C’mon c’mon C’MON!” She encouraged, practically vibrating out of her skin, picking up the chair and dashing up to the second floor, throwing it on the floor before rushing down to help Mitch along.

Mitch shook, but continued onwards, Maki held onto his arm and waist, guiding him step by step. Little groans spilled out without his permission; she could tell he was bottling it in. The bandages around his face – his eyes particular – looked damper than the rest. 

Wait, didn’t his tear ducts burn off?

Not wanting to distract him, Maki helped him keep their forward momentum, the two sighing in unison when they reached the next floor.

Actually standing in a new portion of their prison felt surreal. Even if all she could see was a hallway nigh-identical to the one beneath it. Easing Mitsuhiro back into the wheelchair, Maki took a wild guess, wheeling them off to explore.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

A bath house, a power room, a switchium, a training room, and a library, 

No exit, no windows. No closer to the outside world than they were before. 

Maki sank to the floor beside Mitch’s wheelchair, fighting back tears. 

She’d been so hopeful. She felt it in her bones that they were about to get out of there, and what for? She’d dragged Mitch out of bed, putting him through more pain because she ran headfirst into things without thinking once again. She’d never felt more ashamed of herself. 

They’d ended up in the library. Mitch sat silently in his chair, staring into space while Maki dissolved into hysterics. She didn’t expect much comfort from him, for obvious reasons. He likely was struggling to stay conscious, the constant movement aggravating his injuries. 

It hadn’t yet been two days and she was already losing her mind. She'd tried to keep her spirits up, just as she had pushed the others too, but it was no use. 

She wanted to go home more than anything, but that wasn’t an option anymore. She could’ve killed to escape, taken her chances with the class trial, and maybe even succeeded. At least then she’d perhaps have gotten the opportunity to get off the island and find her parents, even if the odds were low. Sure, they may not be able to ever return to their old house, and maybe she’d have only gotten herself killed in a more brutal, sadistic way for her efforts, but at least then she could say she’d tried. 

Instead she’d just sat there, pretending that nothing was wrong, ignoring her fears and instilling false hope in her friends, then got herself killed and left them to deal with the aftermath. 

She’d never go home, now. No matter if another floor opened to reveal a bright blue sky, she’d still be stuck in this purgatory. 

Her breaths grew shallow as she struggled to intake more air. Ghosts might not be able to suffocate but she quickly realized that it could feel like they could. 

“What are we going to do?” She wailed, her face a teary, snotty mess. 

She stared up at Mitch, who stayed still as a statue, likely processing the weight of his own mistakes in tandem with their new reality. 

“Say something!” She demanded, choking on the words. 

Slowly, he turned his bandaged head towards her, looking down to meet her eye. She couldn’t read his features, but carefully, almost shyly, he extended a hand in her direction, just as he had that morning. 

Despite how angry she was at him, despite how it made her sick, how he dared try and comfort her after getting them both into this mess – despite everything, Maki took his hand. In that moment they weren’t victim and killer, friends or foe, they were just two teenagers trapped in a waking nightmare. 

The library echoed with their cries as despair settled in. 

Chapter Text

“Rise and Shine Ursine! It is now seven AM! Lets–”

“SHUT UP!”

Maki threw her hands over her ears, rolling over in bed in order to properly glare at the screen in the corner of her room. Monokuma looked nonplussed as usual, swirling a martini with his stubby legs kicked up to the monitor. His smug mug made her blood boil just looking at it. She chucked a pillow at the TV in frustration. 

It hit its mark, but flopped pathetically onto the floor with a floop. Monokuma prattled on for a minute more before finally signing off, completely oblivious to her defiance. Maki didn’t know why Monokuma bothered with the announcements, it gave the same spiel each time. The monochrome maniac’s dead, beady eyes appeared to gleam in the split second before the connection severed, the afterimage burning into the sniper’s retinas. 

She hated that guy.

She’d hoped that a good night’s rest would perform a hard reset on her mood, but that hadn’t been the case. She’d been in a sour mood since yesterday afternoon, the failed investigation of the second floor sapping what little resolve she still carried with her. 

Maki had left Mitch in the med bay, redressing his wounds and getting him comfortable, several of his more prominent breaks having been aggravated from over exertion. She’d done her part, playing nurse till she was sure he wasn’t going to rot away in agony the second she left the room, informing him that she was headed back to the dorms for the night because she needed some time alone.

Mitch, for his part, seemed understanding – that or he was so loopy with pain he would agree to anything. She told herself he likely needed time to process their situation too, though she’d be remiss to believe she’d actually considered his feelings in the matter at the time.

Regardless, it was a new day. A new day and no closer to escape. 

Maki never felt more trapped.

She tried to calculate how long she’d been stuck here, “here” including both her current quarters and the fake Hope’s Peak. A quick tally on her fingers estimated only a week had passed at most. 

That didn’t feel right; Maki felt like it’d been months since she last saw the sun. To think the weeks lasted this long… she shuddered to think of the state she’d be in in a year or two.

Nope, nope! Don’t think like that Maki, don’t you dare!

Either way, if she were stuck here a year or a millenia, the first order of business was to roll out of bed.

It was a pain, not being able to sleep on her back. Her head was still sensitive to the touch, particularly the area around the wound. It felt like she had a big bruise smack dab in the middle of her occipital lobe. The one saving grace was the excessive bleeding stopped. She hadn’t noticed at first, until she realized she hadn’t had to mop up the trail of her own bloody footprints for a while. After some investigation and some awkward maneuvering with a handheld mirror, she found that while blood appeared to stay pooled in the cavity Mitch put in her skull, none seemed to overflow.

Maki likened it to an optical illusion. It didn’t make any logistical sense and was trippy to look at for too long, but she wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth – better trippy than bloody, right?

Still, it was hard not to instinctively run a hand through her hair without being greeted by a nasty surprise and a sharp pain that travelled the length of her spine.

 She was managing…

It’d given her an idea, if nothing else. She’d noticed how nimbly Mitch had moved that afternoon compared to earlier that morning. Of course, his physical trauma extended far past what Maki could see, but she couldn’t help but wonder if their time in this supernatural plane was somehow slowly reversing the damage done to them in life. 

Rei would berate her for proposing such a theory without much backing evidence, but the professor wasn’t here (and hopefully never would be) so Maki-logic was the best she had to work with at the moment. 

She’d like to get Mitch’s thoughts on it, if nothing else. 

Speaking of the soccer player, she needed to check on him.

Maki hurriedly dressed, ignoring the knots that were accumulating in her hair (she was not letting a hairbrush anywhere near her head for the time being), shrugging on her green sweater before taking off.

But before finding Mitch, she had a detour she had to make.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Should you really be moving?” Maki asked upon entering the med bay, pushing open the door with her back while balancing the tray of snacks against her hip. 

 the soccer player jumped at the sound of her voice, hissing at the sudden motion, bandaged hand flying to cradle his ribs.

He was in the middle of standing up, a process which had devolved into an entire ordeal, by the look of him. In different circumstances, she’d be teasing him from wheezing and hobbling around like an old man, but she didn’t feel like kicking the dude while he was down.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.” She said, grimacing sympathetically. 

Wait. What was she thinking?

“Actually, no, fuck you and your nerves. I hope it hurts.” 

Mitch flinched again, this time the pain dealt being entirely emotional. 

Okay, maybe you laid it on a little too thick, Maki.

“Okay, sorry. I wish you a moderate amount of pain. Tensions are high, okay? Give me a break…”

Mitch hung his head, dejected. It was wild how fast he’d taken to gesticulating and miming his emotions. She supposed it was a good thing, since his vocal cords were likely annihilated. 

She set the tray down on the counter, swiping a tall glass and a straw before facing Mitch once more, she showed him the concoction mixed within, the fruit blend taking on a bluish hue. 

“It’s a smoothie from an old health-nut recipe a friend taught me to make once, she swore by the stuff. It’s just a bunch of fruits and berries and whatever. It tastes pretty good.”

Mitch blinked at her, obviously confused. 

“Alright. I’m going to ask you a question, and I want you to think looooooong and hard about it, okay?

In the two days we’ve been here, have you gotten hungry even once?”

Mitch cocked his head to the side, miming being deep in thought, after a moment, he shook his head. 

“Exactly, so I thought we’d run a little experiment. I brought some snacks, and me and you are going to stuff our faces full and see what happens. There’s still food in the kitchen for a reason, right? Surely they wouldn’t taunt us with sweets or stuff knowing full well we can’t eat it. I know this place is hell and all, but it can’t literally be hell, you get what I’m sayin’?”

Mitch nodded slowly, processing.

“Also I’ve had a really bad week and I really want to binge eat some chips and ice cream and if I can’t do that, I’m going to cry – and if I’m going to cry, I’m gonna need a shoulder to cry on and your’s is the only one available.”

Blue eyes peeked from behind bandages, an uncharacteristic sympathy conveyed within.

“Truth is I might cry anyway, but there’s only one way to find out –”

She offered him the smoothie, helping him cup it in his heavily wrapped hands before grabbing some snacks from the tray for herself. 

She held a granola bar up to her mouth, hesitating before taking that first bite. Mitch, likewise, sat staring at the smoothie, making no motion to do anything but let it spoil. 

Both were waiting for the other to make the first move, which put them at an awkward stalemate. The Maki of a week ago might’ve doubled over laughing at the weight she put on such a tiny thing such as eating, she could hear that girl laughing in her mind. 

“Uhhh…” She stuttered, trying to fill the silence.

Before she could embarrass herself by muttering nonsensically, Mitch cut her off by taking a large swig of the smoothie, audibly gulping.

In the split seconds that followed, they both held their breath as if waiting for a bomb to detonate. One, two, three, four, five.

“All good?”

A nod.

Maki had never been one to binge eat. She had to stay somewhat in shape for her competitions and general health. The only time she ever over indulged was once when she got her heart broken by a middle school crush and her mother introduced her to the fine art of ice cream and rom coms. 

It wasn’t the same as being with her mother, snuggled up under her favorite blanket in their living room while Ryotaro moaned about stupid sisters and their stupid hormones, but there was comfort in shoving chocolate after chocolate into her mouth after not knowing if she’d ever be able to again. 

She licked her fingers, raspberry meringue setting her taste buds alight.

“Maybe it's because I haven't eaten in a while, but does everything taste, like, absurdly delicious to you too?” She asked, turning to where Mitch was (slowly) nibbling away at a muffin.

Mitch was quick to nod in agreement. They had to watch what he ate; Maki didn’t have any way to check how widespread any internal damage may be, and they didn’t want him to perforate his stomach or large intestine on top of everything else. In truth, she felt quite miffed at how they were stuck with the injuries that killed them – it felt like rubbing salt in the wound – no pun intended. 

Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any cosmic refunds, and if there were, then customer service had gone on an indefinite holiday. 

At least they had chocolate.

“Do you think you could hold a pen?” She asked, popping in another sweet. 

Mitch clenched and unclenched the hand with the least damage, shrugging slightly. 

She reached into her sweater pocket, pulling out her notepad and fountain pen, “try it –” she ordered.

Mitch looked at the pastel pink pen incredulously, but still took both it and paper from her.

She scooted closer to him, leaning over his shoulder – careful not to disturb his wrappings – and observed as he slowly applied ink to page.

It wasn’t pretty by any means; Rei would probably break out of hives at the sight of his handwriting, but it was writing nonetheless. 

Hi

“Hi yourself,” She fired back.

Just those few pen strokes took it out of him. His hand was shaking something awful, and he winced as Maki unfurled his fingers to loosen his grip. 

“Don’t overdo it, I’ve already had you doing too much already. Sorry you got stuck with me, I know I’m no Inori.”

Mitch stilled, eyes studying her curiously, judging the sincerity of her words. 

“I mean it. I’d say you got what you deserved for what you did to me but this –” She motioned to his general state of being, “this is overkill. It’s hard to stay mad when you’re in constant agony or whatever.”

“Quit staring at me like that! I’m no Mother Teresa, obviously, but you were still my friend once.”

She set her snacks to the side, turning her full attention to the soccer star.

“Can I ask you something, though? I don’t know if I want the answer, but I need to know.”

Mitch readied himself, they both knew what she would say next.

“Why did you kill me? I know we lost our memories and we didn’t really get along this past week, but the same goes for everybody. I’ve been wracking my brain but I don’t remember what I did to make you want to hurt me of all people. Was it something I said? You know I speak without thinking – I don’t mean anything by it. It comes out wrong and I don’t realize it until it's already out. So, please, if I did something you’re gonna have to tell me because I can’t figure it out.”

The more she spoke the tenser Mitch became. Maki felt like she was sitting alongside a statue. 

He sat, thinking, leaving Maki on the edge of her seat, her knee bouncing with restless energy.

Finally, he reached for the pad and pen again, attempting to scrawl something for her to read. 

He tried several times, each time grunting in frustration when his hands wouldn’t cooperate. He gave up after filling an entire page with scribbles, flicking the pen to the side with a groan.

Maki deflated, already accepting that she wouldn’t be getting her answer for a while, but Mitch surprised her by motioning for his wheelchair. 

“Wait, what are you doing? You need to rest, HEY!”

She could do little to stop the teen from hobbing to his feet, even in his impaired condition he was an athlete through and through, powering through the pain as he took one step after another; plus he had both height and weight on her, so there was nothing Maki could do except fumble to catch him if he fell and maneuver the chair closer for his convenience. 

“Where are we going?” She settled on, after he collapsed into the seat with a huff. 

Mitch motioned for the door, and Maki quickly wheeled them into the hall, since he was still in no shape to push himself. 

He motioned again, this time in the direction of the dormitories, Maki had plenty of questions but obeyed, unable to guess where this was going. 

He stopped them outside her door, causing her confusion to worsen. 

“What are we doing here?” 

She thought – if anywhere – he’d want to go back to his own room, she didn’t see the point in going to hers. 

He started to gesticulate, waving his arms in the direction of the door. 

“Do you want to go in?” She asked, grasping at straws.

A firm shake of the head told her no.

“Okay… then what?”

Mitch only continued to point at the door, as if continuing to do just that would eventually work. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, dude,” She said, exasperated, throwing up her hands to bring her point home. 

With an aggravated sigh, Mitch scooted to the edge of his seat, craning his body upward till he was able to tap her nameplate.

“Once again, this is my room. What, you think I don’t know that?”

Mitch glared from behind his bandages, but wasn’t dissuaded.

He reached down, grabbing the wheels, struggling to maneuver himself to a different spot; Maki jumped to help him, but he didn’t go far, stopping her only a door away, outside Kinjo’s room.

He did the same thing he had at her door, tapping the nameplate and waiting for her to magically understand. 

“Yes, that’s Kinjo’s room, that’s his namepla–” 

A sudden realization cut her off, a detail she’d noticed on the first day that slipped her mind in following havoc. 

She stepped back so she could properly see both doors, making sure she was seeing things correctly.

Nope, she was right. When she’d first got here, the nameplates on the doors were switched. The error hand since been corrected – when, she couldn’t tell. She didn’t know if the same mistake had happened on the flipside, but everything else was accurate to the living world, so she had no reason to doubt it.

Mitch was pointing at the nameplates. Mitch was pointing specifically at Maki and Tsurugi’s nameplates.

She looked to the blond, who looked relieved that she finally got it. He grabbed the notepad from where he’d been balancing it on his lap, and began to feign writing on it. 

Oh.

Oh…

OH!

“You weren’t after me, were you?”

All Mitch could do was nod, hanging his head in shame.

That… made a lot more sense…

Maki fumbled for a response, but she didn’t know what she could say to that. The realization that her death was a fluke should’ve been a relief, after all, he hadn’t meant to cause her pain. That meant her friend hadn’t set out to betray her. A part of that burden lifted off her shoulders, a little spark of hope worming its way back into her heart. However, on the other hand, not only had he constructed a plan to murder another of their friends, but when that plan failed, he still swung the hammer her way.

“Why… Why did I die, then? If it was Tsurugi you wanted…”

Her voice was wobbly, meek. She sounded like a child on the verge of tears. 

Mitch turned his attention back to the notepad, this time actually scrawling out a few characters on the line. 

He held it towards her, refusing to meet her eye. Maki inspected what he wrote.

PaNIc

“You panicked? That was it?”

Another nod.

Maki let that thought sink in, determined to keep her composure from completely unraveling. It was a losing battle, however, her cheeks were already wet. 

“I guess it would’ve been hard to explain why you were hiding behind the door with a hammer, huh?”

It was a dry attempt at humor. Mitch didn’t laugh. 

“Tell you what, do you wanna go hang out in your room for a bit? I’ll get you back to the med bay in a little while… I just need some time to myself, I think.”

Mitch put up no fight in being maneuvered to his dorm. Maki made sure he had everything he might need within arms reach, then left, wandering aimlessly down the halls of Hope’s Peak, lost in her own mind.

She found herself back on the second floor. It was the first time she’d ventured up there since it’d opened, and while she remained bitter over the false hope it’d given her, Maki needed to put as much space between herself and Mitch as possible. 

Her thoughts drifted to her friends; she wondered how they were fairing; if Monokuma had implemented another motive yet. She hoped the group had enough common sense to ignore the bear’s blatant fearmongering, especially after seeing what happened to her and Mitch, but as much as she loved her classmates, they weren’t the brightest bunch. Kinjo, Rei, and Yamoto were always leagues above the others intellectually. Listening to those three banter was like watching a three person ping-pong game with a soap opera playing in the background. They bounced ideas off one another and debated non-stop for hours, while the others could do nothing but stumble along behind them, forever playing catch up.

She worried for Rei, who without her memories had reverted back to that closed-off, brutish bitch that wielded words like weapons, cutting down everyone in her path. With her recovered memories, Maki knew a different side to her. She knew the Rei who brought her teddy bear to the girl’s night because she couldn’t sleep without it, or the Rei who Satsuki finally broke with a joke so out of pocket that tea shot out of the red-head’s nostrils in the middle of class. 

She remembered how frustrated she’d been by the professor after only a day into the killing game… she feared for her safety, knowing she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from raising tension when the atmosphere was already bleak with distrust. If she continued to act in the manner she’d been, then all it would take was one mistimed comment and she’d find herself right alongside Maki and Mitch soon enough. All Maki could do was hope that someone could knock some sense into her friend, that the group would be able to recreate the growth that allowed Mekaru to finally come out of her shell and be an actual teenager for once. 

That was wishful thinking, of course. There was a big difference between being able to grow in a healthy and stable school environment… Those days were long gone, even for the world outside their prison. 

She shook away those thoughts, glancing around to find herself in the library. 

There wasn’t anything to do, even less when she was by herself. It took all the gumption she could muster, but she refused to lie around and act like a slug. So, she channaled her inner Mekaru, and got to work investigating. 

While she and Mitch had done a cursory job the day prior, Maki now went back over every inch of the place with a fine toothed comb, determined to find something – anything – that might give her a clue to their circumstances.

So many details of her class’s capture were fuzzy. She’d been running on adrenaline for the majority of the attack, focusing only on shooting anything that moved till she finally jumped from behind. She never saw her attacker, she only remembered that it wasn’t a Monokuma robot, but an actual human who did the deed. 

Many questions were left unanswered in pursuit of survival. Kisaragi knew more than any of them, he’d orchestrated their escape, but had never told them the full story behind his investigation. She knew it was his way of protecting them, he had a “I won’t tell you anything that’ll put you in danger” mentality that was equal parts noble and infuriating. Mikako had ranted to her many a time about her frustration over her brother’s cageness, right up until he burst into their class with a high-tech gun, mowing down Monokumas to save his classmates.

She’d heard him mention something to Mikako about a traitor, that someone had sold them out to the ultimate despair. What she didn’t know was whether that traitor was a part of the foundation itself, or – and she really didn’t want to think about it – one of her own friends. 

Maki hesitated to write the idea off, not after her naivete was completely shattered along with her skull on the laundry room floor. If one of their own had stabbed them in the back, then she needed to find out who. 

She combed through the shelves, finding book after book on engineering, astrophysics, and other gobbledygook that only Yamoto would understand. 

She pulled book after book from the shelves, flipping through, shaking them out, searching for anything.

“Nothing… nothing… nothing… How can there be this much nothing?” She muttered, throwing

a large tome on bioengineering to the floor alongside fifty or so other equally boring materials. 

She’d been at it a while, with absolutely nothing to show for it. She kept searching, despite the lack of progress. 

Just as she was about to give up, she grabbed one less textbook, barely paying attention as she shook it till she heard the familiar fwap of paper as something fell out and floated to the floor. 

Maki grabbed it in an instant, heart racing. That hope quickly faded into confusion, however, as she processed what she was seeing.

A photo. A photo she’d seen many times before. A photo filled with people she was very familiar with.

She remembered that day. It was a class trip. She and the rest of her friends had exchanged their school clothes for swimsuits and hit one of Hope’s Peak’s private beaches for the day. 

She remembered it vividly. She and Satsuki had destroyed Haru with water pistols – the poor guy’s eyes were red for weeks afterwards. Kizuna pitched a fit all the way back because she only managed to get twenty numbers by perusing down the coastline in her skimpy bikini, utterly insulted because “I can get fifty contacts in my phone without breaking a sweat on a normal beach! This place is so stupid! There’s hardly any hot guys to admire me!”, and most of all,  because it was the first time she’d ever seen Kinji shirtless. Maki didn’t know priests could be shirtless. She chuckled, remembering how she’d let that thought spill out in front of the towheaded teen, earning both an incredulous look and a small smirk as she’d turned redder than Mikako’s sunburn. 

She couldn’t remember who had taken the picture featuring Kinji, in all his shirtless glory (seriously, why was the priest so ripped?) Kakeru, with his cool shades and abs on full display, and a beaming Inori, who was, for once, not wearing a lab coat, and instead a semi-modest two piece that made her look more adorable than she already was.

Those three were always close; of course, it was an odd trio, a doctor, a lawyer, and a man of God, but after seeing them play together, splashing in the waves and collecting seashells at the edge of the water, it was impossible to imagine one without the others close behind. 

Still, Maki had to wonder how the picture had ended up tucked away in a textbook in the Kisaragi Foundation’s library. She didn’t remember any of her classmates bringing any photos to the island, though there was a class scrapbook that Mikako had started that contained a plethora of memories from their time at school. 

It was a curiosity, if nothing else. However, it wasn’t a clue to escape. Maki tucked the photo carefully into her pocket, continuing her search, figuring that there might be more scattered about if only she looked. 

Hours later and Maki succeeded in making an impressive mess, but other than that… nothing else. 

The photograph was better than returning downstairs empty handed, however. It was nice to see other faces besides her own and the bandaged Mitch; who, speaking off, had been left alone for far too long.

She hurried downstairs, skipping down two at a time, skidding to a stop only when she reached his door. 

She knocked as a courtesy, she doubted he’d locked it, before barging in. 

Mitch was exactly where she’d left him. He was hunched over in his wheelchair, scribbling something furiously into his notepad. He glanced up when Maki entered the room, nodding to her before turning back to his writing.

“What’cha doing?” She asked, leaning over his shoulder to get a peek at the paper. 

Mitch moved to block her view, motioning her to stand back, clearly dissuading her from snooping.

“Jeez, okay, be like that!” She mockingly joked, stepping back with her hands raised in faux surrender.

“By the way, I poked around upstairs some more, I didn’t find a way out, but I did find something!”

She dug the photo out of her pocket, waving it in front of Mitch’s face. 

She smiled at his shock. 

“Weird, right? I found it tucked in a library book. No clue how it got there, but it's freaky, isn’t it? It makes you wonder what else is hidden away in here. You and I might've just found something to do to pass the time!”

Mitch smiled, his bandages raising with the curve of his lips in place of dimples. 

She set the photo on his desk, taking one last look at her friends. It was nice to see other faces, even if they were only captured on film.

She turned to leave, mentioning wanting to hit the showers before nightfall. Even death couldn’t change the warmth and comfort of a steam filled bathroom, it seemed.

However, before she could leave, a gauze-wrapped hand grabbed her own.

“Yes?” She asked, a snide comment about his pervy behavior in relation to bathhouses dying on the tip of her tongue when she noticed his notepad offered to her. 

“Okay…” She said, taking it, now able to see the paragraphs worth of writing shakily scrawled across the page. 

Maki took a deep breath, psyching herself up to decipher the text.

KiYOka, i’m SORry. 

DonT FOrgIve me.

 I hAtE thaT I turned bAc k into thE MAn i wAS befOrE I came to HOpeS Peak. I hate thAT I died ThaT man. I’m SorRRY i wAs Selfish and that YoU dIED bEcaUSE of me. I’LL SpEND the ResT of MY afTerlIfe dediCaTED tO pAYinG foR mY MistakEs, by YouR Side, If yOu’ll LeT me.

It took an embarrassingly long time for her to read what little was written. She was struck immediately with the thought that it must’ve taken him the entire time she was gone to write it all down.

She looked up, wanting to say something but she was surprised to see Mitch was no longer in his chair. She glanced around, gasping upon realizing that while she’d been reading, he’d gotten up from his seat and down on the ground before her, his mutilated body manipulated into a full bow at her feet. 

“Mitch! What are you doing?” She exclaimed, falling to her knees in front of him, helping him into a seated position, bones popping and skin re-tearing in the process. 

“Mmmm…ma…ki.” He croaked, clinging to her strength. 

“Shh… don’t speak. You’ll fry your vocal cords again.” She chastised softy, wrapping her arms around him in the world’s most delicate hug, “Look, I know… I don’t hate you… I don’t think I’ll ever forgive you, but I don’t hate you, okay? We’re together in this now, you’re not going anywhere without me, understand?” 

Slowly, two shaky arms came up to mimic her embrace, mindful of the sensitive spot on the back of her head.

The days that followed were better than the last. Maki’s theory about their wounds healing became truer every hour, till she and Mitch finally exchanged the wheelchair for crutches, a much more suitable means of transportation around the school. Their exploration continued. They couldn’t get back in the trial room, the entrance had sealed itself off behind a wall of carpet once again, unlikely to be reopened unless another trial was held. 

Their time was spent making the most of the new floor’s accommodations. They’d taken to using the gym to help with physical therapy; Mitch spent more time there than anywhere else, Maki could hardly pry him away from the treadmill for more than an hour at a time. When they were doing mobility exercises they snooped around every crevice and cranny available to search, but dredged up nothing beyond that single photograph. 

Things had been eerily quiet from the other side; unnervingly so. Monokuma made no broadcasts other than the day and night announcements, and nothing else of note had changed in the building to indicate any major change had occurred. If Maki were being honest, the radio silence made her worry about hers and Mitch’s futures. She hadn’t spoken her fears aloud, but a little voice in the back of her head did question whether the student’s theoretical rescue would apply to her and Mitch as well. 

However, there was no use worrying over things she had no control over. 

For the time being, she and Mitch had found themselves a steady rhythm. The fact they’d gotten that far was a miracle in itself. 

But still, peace couldn’t last forever in Hope’s Peak Academy. Three days later, as she turned in for bed, Monokuma’s smug grin sprung to life on screen.

“Hell! It is now ten PM! Soon it will be nighttime, so the dining hall will be closed…”

Maki lay her head on her pillow, snuggling under the covers.

“... It’s what I’d wanted to say as usual… Puhuhu! A body has been discovered!”