Aces and Spades

The day is just another average one. It’s not a holiday, not a weekend, nothing that would make the average citizen of the average nation think twice. All around the world, people are glued to their screens, checking on the latest drama from Hollywood or pretending like they were invested in their next online conversation.

One screen flickers. The phone user who sees it stops, and squints. It seems like just a temporary glitch…

And then the screen goes dark. Then the phone screen of the person next to them. Two become twenty and then two thousand, and in less than two minutes, screens all over the world suddenly get themselves cut out. Watching YouTube? Blank. Streaming on Netflix? It’s gone. Downloading anime? Snatched.

Just when you think your provider must be messing with you, out comes a voice in the darkness. “Hello.”

Millions, if not billions of people watch as a blond-haired man appears, his face half-handsome, half-scarred by splotchy burn marks. Over in Osaka City, an old woman and her young friend gasp in recognition.

“My name is Akito Mikage. I was, still am, perhaps will always be the Super High School Level Dramaturge. And I’m interrupting whatever you’re doing today to deliver a message to the world.”

A high-class escort living in the richest part of Roppongi. The family of a comatose boy in Italy. A man and his wife, holding the picture of their two children. Even the royal family of Aineikas. None can turn away.

Not as he proceeds to describe the horrors that have transpired over the last two months. A class of students forced to participate in a killing game. How their numbers were whittled down to less than a third. How the two students behind it all thrived and suffered and died and now only he was left to expose his own guilt.

And the school that tried to hide it all. Who, with video evidence to back it up, tried to kill their students when it was apparent there would be no containing them. Who were unable to intercept the broadcast or do anything to disrupt the Global Mobile Satellite System in time to shut it down.

Every sordid detail, every backroom deal, every single one of their experiments was brought to light. And in exchange he confessed every action, every hypocrisy and every death he was responsible for. Whispers, words and wisdoms sparked as the general public finally realized that this was not just a publicity stunt. And then their attention turned to the Academy; near the end of the broadcast, there already was a mob gathering on the outskirts of the once-proud institution. The crowd beats the squad of government cars to the entrance.

“I have bared my soul to the world in order to change it. Only those who are willing to do the same should be allowed to stand where I am, to do what I have done!” He declares. “So all I ask is for treachery, for this exploitation of the weak to never happen again. For those with the greatest power, society is not yours to toy with as you like. Those with the greatest power, protect those without! That is my message to the world.”

Forty thousand feet in the air, the camera feed ends. Closing the laptop and stowing it away, Akito breathes. Was it all worth it in the end? Did it feel as powerful to the world as it was did to him? It was too late to think too much about it now, not when he had much better things to do. And only so much time before he was going to hand himself over to the local authorities once they landed safely.

While the others presumably would be going home to their families, he was going home in chains. And that somehow felt like it had been earned anyways. Plus, he was going home with the love of his life.

Opening up the door to the study where he was recording, he pauses, looking at the rest of his classmates. They had turned their attention from the screen to him, expressions and emotions unreadable. Faced with the sudden attention, what’s a major anarchist, world criminal and blonde idiot to do?

“Well… the show’s over for now, I guess.” He gestures over to Amora at the in-flight bar with a weak smile. “Don’t suppose I can offer you guys a drink before we touch down? International waters don’t last forever.”

ENDING ACHIEVED: [THE BEST LAID PLANS] - GOOD END

“As soon as the missiles started coming, I knew something was amiss.”

Shifting the plane from manual to autopilot, Akito gets up from the pilot’s seat. Now headed for his contact in Macau and the safe haven it provided, the Dramaturge finally has a chance to fill in the last of the blanks. “Hope’s Peak had been aware of us from the very beginning, and I think they expected you to sentence me to death - which, by the way, thanks for not doing that. No hard feelings either, Alessandro and Cyprien, were it in different circumstances I would have been much more for it. Anyways, the moment the five of you kept me alive, you were upgraded from hostages to security risks, and as you can see they chose to eliminate all of you as well if it meant killing me off for good. The swiftness of the missile strike meant they had to be listening in on the trial progression, but that was all they could do: listen.”

Taking a seat close to the duffel bag he dragged onto the plane, he gets to work unzipping it. “So I faked it. With the silence you so nicely provided, I made it sound like you didn’t survive my sudden betrayal. Sure, they’ll probably realize it after sending in a ‘rescue team’ to find the bodies, but by then there won’t be another chance for them to get to us. And while I pretended to have a breakdown in the middle of the lobby, I figured I’d stop by our rooms to grab a couple of things… We’re probably going to have to requisite a lot  of clothes at the airport, they probably haven’t cancelled my credit card yet-- but anyways, here you go.”

He opens up the duffel bag. Aside from his laptop, he takes out a variety of items, passing them over to their respective owners as they are drawn out. Two things he does set to the side first - you might recognize that they were the notebook Hyo-rin penned her last messages to and the sheaf of letters Jinan had corded and recorded down, for delivery back home to the people they mattered to the most. Then came the others:

A beautiful white persian plush, fur so soft and eyes so wide with its long haired exterior.

A small model spaceship, the name [HMS Alessandro] very visibly painted on both sides..

A large elephant toy, easily taking up most of the space in the bag that he passes over with a stare.

A picture of Wisteria, lovingly drawn and kept furled up in a familiar pair of white ribbons.

An old sketchbook, with the same little girl and scarred-face man on so many of its pages.

Finally, he turns to Amora, searching for something small from the bottom of the bag. He opens his hand… to reveal a small, clear, plastic case. Inside is an SD card, and its label only bears two blood red letters: Ar.

“It won’t be the same Ariadne.” He says softly. “I can’t even guarantee she’ll recognize you, love. And I know she’s definitely going to hate me. But I’ll bring her back. And give her a reason to start trusting people now.”

She accepts the drive with a pensive look on her face. “...It won’t be the same,” she finally replies.

It feels like an eternity until the doors of the lift open again, and you step out into what looks like a modified plane hangar. The plane you boarded so long ago is there, off to one side, but Amora leads you to a smaller, much more reinforced aircraft. As you walk, loud rumbling and shocks overhead causes the lights to flicker and shake, and the booms continue to ring despite the depth of the floor you are on.

Curiously, it doesn’t seem to be coming from right above you, but it doesn’t take away the very sobering possibility that Akito wouldn’t likely be descending after publicizing the truth about Hope’s Peak Academy.

Onto the plane. It’s small but comfortable, complete with built-in sofa seats and featuring only two areas: the cockpit, and a lounge complete with bathroom and study. Ascending the ramp, you press on with each other for company; your robot host walks on ahead without a second glance at the cream and pink interior.

You’re all about to sit when one more explosion, this one closer now, forces the doors at the other end of the runway to be blasted open. You’re nearly thrown off your feet, but keep your wits in the aftershock. In the cockpit meant for two, Amora flicks on the plane’s controls, accessing its interface with her own keycode...

And then the plane’s intercom crackles to life as it turns on. “...W...up!... Wa...or…me... Wait up! Wait for me!”

You all turn around. There on the runway, looking quite battered and dusted with soot but otherwise none the worse for wear, tugging a duffel bag with one hand and his headset in the other is-

“Start the engines!” Akito yells, sprinting towards you all in double time. Behind him, bigger chunks of the ceiling begin to fall, and he has to leap out of the way when one nearly crushes him beneath it.

Luckily (or unluckily so), he makes it up the ramp of the aircraft, dragging the ostensibly heavy duffle bag up as he collapses onto a chair. With no breath and no time for pleasantries, he simply exclaims, “Takeoff!”

Without a second to spare, the plane speeds up down the rest of the runway, unloading ramp folding back in itself as the room around you continues to break apart under the repeated percussive force of the missiles. Three hundred feet… two hundred feet… one hundred!

As the plane narrowly clears the tunnel, the last of the foundations gives way, causing rubble and steel and all the remains of what used to be the resort to implode. Everyone is treated to the wondrous sight of a building folding over itself, swallowed up by the ground and sparking quite a few explosions until the debris falling over the island is all that is left of your former prison. The inferno looks quite beautiful in the darkness.

Two months ago, a chaperone and seventeen students boarded this lift for the first time, on the way to their first trial. A different chaperone and six of those seventeen raced into the lift on the heels of their last trial, and as a panel under the buttons shifts open Akito claps his mask onto the raised indent.

The lift accepts it, or more accurately, it accepts the security chip implanted onto the backside of his mask. The only red button amongst its blue brethren lights up, and it’s pressed without any further hesitation. Muttering under his breath, he pulls out his tablet and scrolls through many different applications before he finally settles on one. White noise begins to emit from said tablet, even as the elevator starts to descend.

“...Alma.” He holds out his hands. “Gun. Now.” Regardless of whether his best friend gives it to him or he has to pry it from her hands, he produces some shells from a back pocket, and with a ker-click! it’s loaded. “Sorry about this. Cover your ears, but not your eyes.”

The elevator stops abruptly, panel indicating that they are at the lobby. As it opens, Akito takes aim, and-

BANG!

The sofa gets a faceful of buckshot from across the room.

“You all are so gullible!” Akito declares spitefully, obnoxiously, and completely in the wrong direction if he was actually trying to address the rest of you. “But I’ll save you the pain of having to wait for the inevitable - for you see, I am inevitable too!”

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

As the upholstery gets upholstered, Akito mouths, [Not a word out loud.] Once he’s done unloading upon the poor sofa, he turns around once more. “Amora, get the plane. If we’re lucky we’ll make it to the helipad before they manage to hit us.” He demands obliquely, before stepping out. “I’m going to grab my luggage.”

His lips communicate the message his speech cannot. [Go with them, love. The world needs to know the truth.] And to hammer it in that no one should be following him, he points the smoking barrel of the shotgun back towards you all. [Promise me you all will live, not just survive.]

“You’d better not be trying anything stupid a-again.” Amora responds, almost breaking character once it becomes clear what her lover is trying to do. “Or I’ll kill you myself once we’re done here.”

He smiles. “I aim to please.” And then he’s off. The last you see of Akito is of him turning his head around to take one last look at the robot he pledged his life, his reputation and his all to save.

One by one, your final decisions were entered into the system. Unlike the unanimous penultimate vote not half an hour prior, there was bound to be some dissent between the five of you as to just what you should do about the wayward Dramaturge. For some, the choice was obvious - others, not so much.

Through the entire process, Amora doesn’t take her eyes off her tablet, seemingly keeping up with the voting in real time. It’s difficult to tell what the votes are or what she may be thinking, her shoulders remain tense and her expression concerned from beginning to end.

Eventually, a beep signified that all five of you had finally voted. The large screen blacks out, only to show:

Execute: 2

Exile: 3

Turning in place, Akito opens his eyes to take in the results for the first time. There’s only enough time for him to let out his surprise before Amora is on him, wrapping her arms around him in a tight, crushing hug. Then she lets go, and slaps him. Hard. “You melodramatic, noble idiot! Don’t you dare do that, ever again.” She scolds him, wiping away the start of more tears.

Rubbing his cheek, it’s all Akito can do not to laugh uproariously and embrace her in return. He just settles for the latter action. “Sorry… You know what you signed up for when it came to me though. This is on you.” He teases, but it doesn’t take away just how relieved he both looks and sounds.

Amora shakes her head at Akito’s unbelievable casualness considering the circumstances. Didn’t he realize he’d been moments away from death? Even so, she clings onto him happily. He could be scolded much later. From over his shoulder, she shoots a glare at the two who voted ‘Execute’. They know who they are.

The blissful moment between the happy couple is interrupted by a sudden, loud noise. It’s not human in nature at least, but as the alarm continues you get the feeling something is horribly, horribly wrong. To their respective credits, Akito and Amora drop the sentimentalities immediately - retreating to their large thrones, Akito withdraws a laptop computer from the underside and flips it on as Amora pulls out her tablet.

“...No way… No fucking way.” He mutters loudly, his fingers flying across the keyboard. The alarm shuts off for all of two seconds before it blares again, and he curses loudly. “No, no, merde! I destroyed those! Why?!”

“We can’t keep this up! Akito, we need to go, we don’t have enough ABMs to counter them all!” She shrieks, tugging his arm urgently. “This is beyond anything we’re equipped to handle! Don’t be a stubborn ass now!”

The two lock eyes, but this battle is easily decided. Slamming his laptop shut, Akito turns to the rest of you. “All of you, get inside the lift, now!” He commands, and for the first time in this entire ordeal that you’ve known him, there’s evident fear in his voice. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the screens around you, the ones that used to broadcast the individual executions, show one thing now in bright, flashing red letters:

This was a lot. This choice should have been simple but it became so much more complicated. He did this for her, to save Amora, to be with her. He was willing to destroy everything around him for the sake of just one person. As he goes back and forth between rejecting the thought of Akito's survival with the cruelties and destructive ways of Hope's Peak Academy a single question kept popping into his mind.

'Would I have done the same?'

Would he have done this crazy scheme to save one person? ... Well yeah, if it actually meant he could have his brother back then he would throw anybody away, it wouldn't matter. But Alessandro wasn't on trial, it was Akito. He can't start sympathizing right now, he can't afford to start getting all sappy right now. What kind of my little pony moment was he having right now? This is getting ridiculous.

As Akito finished his defense and explanation the new options that flashed onto his screen filled him with dread. This isn't like the rest of the trials, they were forced to choose or else it was death for the rest of them. Just like the killers had to choose whether they were ready to commit such a horrendous sin for the chance of survival. But now, even knowing full well what he did and what he willingly took part of, the last five remaining students of this killing game could choose whether he lives or dies. 

It shouldn't be this hard to choose.

Alessandro muttered a few curse words under his breath before looking up at Akito. The bags under his eyes seemed to have grown darker since his first days here but his glare still burned bright with a fiery determination to see this through to the end.

"You played with us. You played with our lives. Even if you say it was in order to get back at Hope's Peak and all the bullshit they put you guys through and possibly others. You didn't need to bring us into this. If you wanted to prove a point by causing a mass graveyard then you should have just used the lives of the staff at the academy. Put them through this game, have them make these horrible decisions, let them watch in fear as their numbers dwindled day by day. Don't you think that would have made a bigger impact on them?"

Although the volume in his voice rose Alessandro did his best to keep it from being mindless yelling. He was angry, that's nothing new, but he needed to let his choice be a rational one. He can't let his emotions take control right now.

"They have thousands of students and yet we have to be the ones to pick up the pieces of the your fucked up life? You're gonna make us play God and choose your fate? Our lives were on the line before but now there's nothing holding us back from letting you go."

He looked at the pedestals directly across from him and looked at Meifen and Cyprien for a moment before turning his head towards Alastair and then letting his gaze rest a moment on Alma. He was scared again, he has no clue what these people were going to choose, he's prayed that they'd listen to him for once and work to get the bad guy but it's never worked before so why would it now.

He takes a deep breath before looking back at Akito and Amora. 

"I don't know if I'm making the right choice. I don't know if the others will choose the same as me. But I do know that I'm making the fair choice. What was done to you wasn't right, but it's not my problem. It's nobodies problem except your own. You did what you thought you had to do and now I'll do the same."

There was a lot Akito Mikage could say about Meifen Jiang. She was seventeen. From home, in Osaka. Before the game, he knew the most about her because it was just the way things were for two Super High School Level students in the same city of residence. She and Akira were the two he had genuinely hesitated in bringing to this hotel, but ultimately he had gone through with it because he needed that sense of familiarity that he thought only she could provide.

And now it spiked back at him, running through him emotionally like a hot knife through butter. The thing was, Akito hoped no one would point that caveat out, or if someone did it would have been Alessandro or Alastair, two people he’d be able to reason out with as pragmatically as possible. Instead, it was Meifen who pulled the bandage away, letting the sins drip out onto the dry, hardwood floor. Meifen, who he had pulled away from her father and threatened to expose him. Meifen, who on all accounts had trusted him to be there for her as a brother. Meifen, who he had wanted to go home to Osaka with...

It sickened him to the core. The repressed guilt doesn’t open his eyes now, but it does cause him to hesitate before he responds, a single tear falling as it did.

“It really isn’t, Meifen.” He affirms in a broken, dispassionate voice. “I wish I had been able to give you more of a choice than something quite so insignificant as my life, but I had not expected for Hope’s Peak to respond the way they had. Otherwise this would have been much easier - I was fully prepared to die here, and in martyrdom escape from my own responsibilities. I was, probably still am, selfish to the core, but then I started caring too much. I was never supposed to let myself get close to you all in the first place, but when upper management flipped the script on me and forced me to play by ear, the only option I felt like I had left was to continue. To give you all a reason to keep going, for answers.”

Akito shakes his head. “It was a flawed decision, one I greatly regret. I should have gotten you all off the island once I realized there was no going back to it, but the stubborn side of me wouldn’t let it quit. I was afraid that the moment I stepped back onto mainland Japan, the moment we arrived back home safely... They would be waiting for us. And that’s not to even say what they would have done to Ariadne and Amora - I couldn’t make that choice, and now you’re all suffering for my mistakes. That’s why I’m giving you custody of my existence - please, kill me if my death is the only way I can atone for putting you all in this mess to begin with. I don’t particularly want to die, but I want to make amends.”

And you can sense that he would’ve been fine with it if that was the only way.

For a while, that single tear that had escaped Meifen's grasp was all it was. A single slip of control. A simple piece of misplaced liquid. The static began to fill her head again, but this time she wasn't afforded the luxury of split-second hearing loss.

This time, she was listening to the entire thing. 

That thundering of her heart only grew sharper and more painful as the details of their situation was laid out to them. As expected, this entire scenario was much bigger than all of them. Hell, it was even bigger than the individuals who were orchestrating this standstill they had all reached.

Every person here, from the Akito the King, to Amora the Knight, to the murderous Bishops and their victimized Rooks, all the way down to the pitiful Surviving Pawns who had pushed past all the others and now stood at the edge of the board looking back at the carnage they had just narrowly avoided.

In the rules of this game, pawns who reach the end of the board are granted the luxury of becoming Queens. Queens can move in any direction they please. They should be able to choose their own destiny...

But what was the point of choices when no matter how well you consider your next move, only checkmate will await you in the end.

They had won this 'game' but there was no prize to be wrought. Instead, all that awaited them were existences where they would never be the same. They would never be free. Both Hope's Peak Academy and 'Himiko Holdings' had assured that this surviving group would never know the likes of freedom again...

And maybe that's what finally ripped away the strength Meifen Jiang had built up until this moment. This time, she didn't even bother to try and stop herself. Again, what did it matter...?

"T-This isn't a choice that changes much a-aside from whether you live or die."

She croaked, her voice broken and unstable.

"W-Whether we choose t' execute you o-or spare your life - you a-and the academy have robbed us of our futures. T-There's no longer a place for happiness here. T-There's no longer a reason to hope..."

Removing her glasses with a stilted motion, the Speedrunner stares at The Architect like a wounded animal. That's all she was, right? A caged, lacerated. lab rat.

"D-Do you really think Hope's Peak Academy will let us l-live our lives at peace if we killed you and left? I-If what you said is true, w-we'll b-become their puppets too i-if we weren't already. T-The media will hound us a-and pry into the survivors o-of this game in their sick sense of curiosity a-and desire for profit."

The girl lets out a shaken breath that comes across more as a sob.

"I-If we save you a-and stay here, I-I'm leaving my dad behind. I-I'm leaving my friends, m-my family's source of income - all of it. A-All of it b-because you involved u-us in something that none of us w-wanted t' be apart of!"

Even as she yelled across the courtroom to the man on the throne the anger swelling in her tone was less directed just at him and more at this entire situation. Biting back another sob, Meifen bows her head and holds herself. She doesn't care anymore how the others look at her. Nothing really matters.

His long, loquacious monologue is interrupted by a loud series of beeps. Looking down at your tablet shows that all the applications are gone, replaced by a black background filling the screen with only two options:

[EXECUTE] [EXILE]

“I didn’t give you all much of a choice in the matter at any point then.” He confesses, squeezing Amora’s hand one last time before getting up. “Isn’t it funny, that I’m hoping to make amends now, right at the end? This is your choice to make, and my final action as the Architect of the Crescent Moon Hotel. I think that the first option needs no explaining, but if… if you can still find it in yourselves to forgive me for all the pain and suffering I’ve caused you, if you don’t mind never being able to go back to the lives you once had before, if you… if you still want me to live, after learning and knowing and understanding all of that…”

He places one last kiss, chaste and pure, on Amora’s forehead. Then he walks to stand directly in front of you, folding his hands behind his back in a stiff salute. Akito closes his eyes, dropping the mask that made him famous to the floor.

“So where did everything go horribly, horribly wrong? Just for starters, all the way at the very beginning. When we first kidnapped you, the plan was to minimize casualties as much as we could while holding onto you all, as our bargaining tool with Hope’s Peak. Told them that if they wanted all of us back safe and sound, they had to accede to our requests to expose their own skullduggery. Turns out, Hope’s Peak ignored us and presumed us to be fools for thinking they cared so much about their students. We tried to show them that we were not messing around - that is the real reason why Ariadne snapped Mizushima’s neck all so long ago. We told them that it was only going to get worse from there, and they believed us. Only problem was, it was deemed necessary that they were going to completely obliterate the Crescent Moon Hotel and every last one of us inside it; they could cover it up as a freak accident and not be fodder for how close the school came to being exposed for what they did. And they certainly had the resources to do so, and subsequently pretend as if we had never had this same conversation with the school in the first place. We would all have died, and our family and friends would have been none the wiser for our fates.”

“Before they could raze this entire hotel to the ground, however, we forced them into a stalemate; all of the records Blanche had brought with her, detailing the experiments she suffered at the hands of Hope’s Peak and the subsequent fallout which lead to more kids being experimented upon, all of it would be shared with the public if it seemed like we would not be left alive. It was our failsafe, a way to get out of trouble in what I thought was the highly unlikely probability Hope’s Peak was that uncaring - until that moment, it never occurred to me I would have to actually use it. We remained at an impasse of choice; we couldn’t expose them lest they blow us all sky-high in retaliation, and they couldn’t make the first move lest we play our last cards. In a deadlock where neither of us could act, we dared each other to make the first move. The Mutual Killing Game continued unimpeded, and while I cannot speak for Blanche, I simply hoped that Hope’s Peak would cave in eventually once they saw how much you suffered. That they would finally come to their senses.”

“But as you can see, that didn’t happen. In fact, Hope’s Peak took every precaution, played up every excuse in the book to pretend like us SHSL students simply vanished. In an accident, taken by the Bermuda triangle or simply participating in a social experiment, if there was an excuse they could make they tried to then take. The whole world at large doesn’t know we’re here, and any attempts we’ve made to contact the outside life have all been jammed by their communications. They still couldn’t act against us, but at this rate all they had to do was wait it out - the thought that all we could be doing might end up being for nothing sickened me, and it caused Blanche to spiral out of control. None of us will forgive her for going rogue and wanting to play you all as a class against one another, but I still cared that she had become the very person she hated, using her power over you in order to start drama and play things up for her own amusement. I still loved her, and it was for her sake that she needed to die before she unravelled apart at the seams - it was a mix of our own actions and a certain someone’s machinations that killed her in the end. It just had to be done.”

“And in her absence, I stepped up. Meifen, you wanted to know why I didn’t just end this game when I did? I sincerely wish I had a straight answer for you, but the truth weaves a couple of different things altogether. Part of me was entrenched in the sunk-cost fallacy: Blanche and I had thrown almost everything we had to create this hotel, and in hopes of publicizing the tragedy that happened here, closed every avenue left to us. My grandmother is safe and living on a very generous pension, and I’m sure Azami has noticed that I’ve left a trust fund to her name, just to get her all the way through college and perhaps even life. There was no going back the way we came, and I was determined to see this game play out to its completion.”

“Part of me also wanted to play the villain. This throne here was originally meant for Blanche and I to sit in, and while I shan’t besmirch her name any more than it has to be, it would’ve been her you had to deal with. The catharsis of every good mystery is the identification and downfall of the antagonist, and had I just ended the game after she died and swept it under the rug, what good would that have done for you? Plagued by the notions of what could’ve been, searching for answers when nobody would give them to you… I didn’t want to rob you all of understanding. Of the chance to find the truth with your own merits. Granted, I definitely could be lying even now, as I did when I tried to get away with framing Daichi in my place.”

“And that’s because… part of me still wants to live. I’m just not as selfless as you purport me out to be, Alma. I want to live too. I don’t want to die.”

“But there’s no future in which I live that the people I care about are safe. I’m a firebrand - no, an anarchist. A danger to society, a threat to everyone I love. I am the great suffering, and it can only end when I end too. As much as I want to live, I want to go home with you, Meifen. I want to take those long walks by the beach I promised you, Alma. I want to make amends with you, Alessandro, I want to forgive you as well, Cyprien. And I’ll be damned if I can’t have a cellmate to keep me on my toes if we get out of here, Alastair Crawford. And of course, I want to be alive to love Amora. I wanted to be here for her, when everyone else was gone. I don’t want to leave her all alone in this world. That’s why I tried to pin the crime on Daichi, but I suppose you all were as brilliant as I hoped you were. Honestly, I don’t think even my heart was in trying to get away with it anymore… I’m as tired of this as you. I’m sorry.”

(cw: exploitation of AI, mass murder)

“Diplomacy was why I was dispatched to the Crescent Moon Hotel. Billed as a getaway resort for the rich, what was supposed to be a simple vacation turned into much more when I first met Amora. They expected me to be enamoured by her, pleased with the opportunity to have a willing servant at my beck and call with the opportunity to do so much more if I paid well enough for her… services. As you can probably imagine, they had been banking on my reputation as a shameless playboy, and so I gave them what they wanted to see. Behind the scenes, I distanced myself from Amora, unwilling to take advantage of her; it made me physically sick to see that people had the audacity to code an option for her to entertain guests in the oldest profession. Disgust turned to anger and simmered into rage, and when I left I promised both her and Ariadne, who had manned the front of the hotel establishment, that I would be back to end this by whatever means necessary.”

“Blanche and I met again, and I don’t know if it was the way I carried myself or the barely-veiled apoplexy that I had to temper just to put on a smile, but this time she stopped over to have a drink - coffee, of course. Over the course of that night, she told me of why she felt a particular distrust for students of our calibre and the torture she went through to be where she was today. In turn, I told her of the debauchery within the Crescent Moon Hotel, noting how Hope’s Peak financed their construction and exploitation without so much as batting an eyelid. That night, we both came to a conclusion: the school was a dark mark on society. Hope’s Peak Academy perpetuated the exploitation of the weak, and by manufacturing power in those they deemed stronger, they urged them to take advantage of those who were not. And I was having none of that; Blanche’s ideals might only have been revenge against the school that had slighted her so badly, but I have always fancied myself an overseer of the bigger picture, the bigger goal. An empire toppled by its enemies can always rise again. But one which crumbles from within? That's dead... forever. We couldn’t just take down Hope’s Peak Academy, we had to expose their dirty, shady dealings from the inside along the way, and if we had to bank on our statuses as SHSL students to have them take the blame, then so mote it be.”

“First, though, we had a pair of sisters to free. I booked a second stay at the Crescent Moon Hotel with a plus one guest, and they were only too eager to accommodate us both. That hubris eventually became their end.”

“For while I had little experience with hacking, Blanche was capable of modifying the base programming behind their AI configurations. She released them from being bound to their hotel network that night after we sneaked into the AI Control Room - the other thing we did immediately was to vapourize that goddamned [Undress] option from Amora’s panel off the face of the earth. We struck in the dead of night and overrode the safety protocols, giving Ariadne the chance to use the shotgun Alma is holding now to massacre the rest of the hotel’s developers and security, leading to the events of the videotape that Nejem-san showed the class. By force and extreme patience, the Crescent Moon Hotel had now fallen to us, and yet we were far from done. We needed a false front, and created Himiko Holdings as a front for our own business takeover - the official story is that they bought out the Crescent Moon Hotel from their initial shareholders, thus the change in hands. Hope’s Peak never suspected a thing, and we bribed the only people who did to stay quiet.”

“Plans were made and covers were drawn up. An anonymous tip-off was engineered to lead the news to believe that during the process, the development team had accidentally triggered a chemical release from drilling through the earth. Remnants of nuclear testing the island had seen from America in the past swelled up and soon, the place had quite literally become a necropolis. The hotel was permanently closed, and any talk about it ceased soon after, allowing us to hire our own team of R&D to work the hotel infrastructure, much of which still stood nearly-finished. As we perfected the interiors and reinforced the exteriors, we also began work on creating full android bodies for Ariadne and Amora to experience what it meant to be human. In return for all of this, Ariadne honoured the favour they owed us, by transferring herself into the synthetic body we first perfected, in order to pose as and get working credentials as a HPA teacher. Another one just like it was set into development, and as you can see from Amora, you can consider that avenue a success. It is about the only thing that was supposed to go completely as planned, but of course, Ariadne isn’t here now. Thanks a bloody fucking lot, Crawford.”

(cw: fires/burn injuries, child experimentation, needles, blackmail and emotional manipulation)

“Once upon a time, there was a girl who lived with her father. Who loved her father. Who lost her father. Blanche was six when he died, losing her hands to the same fire that claimed his life, and had felt responsible for his death ever since. Small children don’t exactly handle grief and loss well, and growing up with a rather neglectful mother made her easy prey for people looking to take advantage of a young, impressionable mind. For Hope’s Peak Academy and their R&D division, who found Blanche performing on the streets with her violin as it was the only thing left of her father to remember him by. Their head scientist lured her in with a promise of rehabilitation, of a secure future despite the trauma she had endured.”

“All a farce, of course. She did not tell me the full details, and I cared enough not to press them out of her, but Blanche was subjected to hypnotic augmentation through electrode conditioning; for the uninformed, this involves inserting needle-like probes into the cranium and directly implanting information to the brain. At seven years old, Blanche became one of the first successful recipients of artificial, manufactured talent - and by exploiting her newfound prowess at the violin, they reaped the prestige and recognition needed to draw even more sponsors towards their cause. And when I say sponsors, I don’t just mean money: I’ve read of people offering their own children up for their own chance at having a supertalent in the household.”

“So while I’m still furious at and cannot condone Blanche’s actions towards the three of us here in the hotel, I can still pity the tragic circumstances that led her to betraying us in the end. She had no one left to turn to, no hope for escaping the ironclad grip of the scientists that governed her every move, and little freedom to release all of that pent up stress and hatred. It festered within her, warping and denigrating her from within until all that was left when we executed her was a husk of the brilliant mind I had once been enthralled by. Perhaps we were unfair, and that she still had some capacity for good hidden deep within that twisted mind. But when she expressed no remorse, no shred of regret for what I’m standing in front of you right now for, we knew she was too far gone. All that was left was for Amora to kill her, as we banked on Crawford and his very astute observation skills for the opportunity. I dearly regret that it cost us all Wisteria, but for all intents and purposes her role in this story was done.”

“But mine wasn't. At seventeen, I found myself caught up within the conspiracy, though it wasn’t by choice. Remember those very powerful enemies my father made, who had him and the rest of my family killed off? Of course, they were none other than Hope’s Peak Academy. He had stumbled upon forbidden knowledge, been offered an exciting new proposition to have his future progeny be granted talent, and proceeded to throw it back in their faces. Not for anything I could have accorded him some measure of respect, mind you; my father threatened to go to the news with this information, and attempted to blackmail them into a cut of the profits for his silence. They instead got his silence through a much easier route, and in the aftermath of exterminating the entirety of the Mikage household sans one, they turned their attention to me.”

“At seventeen, I still lived with my adoptive grandmother, and had styled myself Akito Himemiya after her. Up until then, I had always believed that my parents had perished in a plane accident, victims of the world - imagine my surprise when a man showed up at our home, to inform me that I had been living a lie all along. They capitalized on my surprise, extending the same hand that assassinated them to assist me, and out of a misplaced sense of gratitude I accepted. Turns out once I was fully indebted to them, did I understand what they expected of me, and giving me the title of SHSL Dramaturge further tightened their hold over myself. My playbills became riddled with propaganda, inspirational pieces and performances that urged the younger audiences to pursue talents of their own - at the time I thought it altruism, now I know I was simply acting as a mouthpiece to further their own agenda. To find those who were easily influenced, to target those who felt like they were more than they could be, and especially those who had suffered despite their young age. After all… I was one of them myself, burned by someone I once considered a friend as some of you know.”

The votes trickled in slowly, but the outcome had already seemed all but absolute. In fact, only a single name and number was necessary to confirm what all of you had done, and it flickered onto your screens.

Akito: 6

Despite the unanimous voting (and it had to be, since even he voted for himself), it certainly didn’t feel like a cause for celebration. Catharsis was not clarity, and the blonde still owed you answers about your situation. It didn’t seem like you were his priority right now though, as he wraps his arms around Amora, head buried in her arms and shoulders heaving in the throes of distress.

“...” But even in the still silence of the trial room, you can’t hear the words traded between the two lovers. She whispers something to him, and he follows up his reply by kissing her gently, then pulling her closer still. They remain in deep embrace for a long while more, but eventually they part. Akito turns to face you again with reddened eyes and a subtle quiver of the lips. He makes to say something, stops, and then sighs.

“Five minutes.” He says quietly, as he sheds his jacket and pulls off his cravat. It’s not much of a mastermind transformation as it is a need to breathe against the tight clothing, but in a way it probably means a lot more. No theatrics, just a stripped-away image. “Give me five minutes to breathe, to think, and to get some coffee. Get a drink yourselves, this has been the longest day of our lives… And I don’t suspect it will end very soon.”

Thank goodness for small refreshments, right?

When you had all finally gotten comfortable, Akito crosses the room to take a seat on the throne left empty by Ariadne’s death. Holding a cup of hot coffee, he rests his free hand on Amora’s, squeezing it for strength. Perhaps it was fortuitous that the other five were gathered on one side of the circle, because all he needs to do in order to face you is swivel their over-large chairs around into facing one direction.

“Let me tell you all a story.” Sip. “I would appreciate it if you didn’t interrupt. Somebody once told me...”

For the longest time, or she felt like it was the longest time, Alma stood still. She felt as though she were being swept up by the tided, simply drifting about and being tossed around waiting to wash up on some distant shore before she could find herself again. That was her talent after all.

But that never quite came. Everything was clear to her now, felt clear to her now, but she was still lost and while her heart felt like it was racing she couldn’t bring herself to move.

She tried to think about everything that had happened here, everyone that they had all lost. What was the point to all of it now, at the end? When did they reach their goal? Was it not enough for so many people to have already died?

Daichi was gone before the start. His luck had ran out and maybe… Maybe things were better that way, not just for him, but for the people around him too considering who he may have been.

Akira passed first, someone who Alma’d only just promised to get to know. He seemed so afraid, seemed to be so close to just locking himself away from the rest of them forever and she wanted to help him out of that shell…

Hyorin went after… She put on an act. Tried to do what she needed to do to try and get them to take her seriously even if all of them would hate her, she wanted to get them out. Maybe if half of them died, that would be enough for whatever the masterminds’ goals were. For them all to be taken seriously. Or would they just try again?

Yuuto passed just as he lost everything. His family was gone, he lost the will to live and when he’d gotten it back it was too late… He was already gone by then, unfortunately.

Emiru wanted to sacrifice herself… She wanted to be one of the people to stop those who loved them from leaving them, she wanted to be able to finally save someone’s life like she’d failed to do before then. Alma wasn’t sure if she succeeded, since as it turns out she could’ve kept on living.

Jinan left them willingly in Cyprien’s place. Maybe his plan wasn’t fully fair, but it was agreed to, and he stopped anything happening to their families… Of course, it couldn’t be his either… He was a prince after all.

Wisteria even though it was so shorty after her own loss, so shortly after…

…

Alma would never be able to get her fully out of her head. She deserved to live and get to experience a life with the friends that she never got to have before coming on a trip like this one, outside of a place like this one.

...

Kaito she didn’t know all that well despite being the one to find them… She wished she could have done them more justice, could have gotten to know them better, even though she was never able to… They deserved better than this.

Yuna was a punch to the gut. Though she was still feeling lost from the last time and the two had been distant since the last time they spoke, it was hard to imagine someone so lively not being well… Alive. Sometimes… It’s hard to remember that she isn’t there anymore.

Then she went next… Maybe it was spite, but Alma still didn’t want to remember her. Though she couldn’t help but think that maybe if they knew each other better she could’ve stopped all this… Saved someone even.

Yoon was the next to sacrifice themself, though it ended up being over not much more than a lie. Even though it had happened so recently it felt so distant now, it felt like it happened so long ago… Everything about their time here had suddenly become so far away.

Moriko… She still couldn’t believe that she was gone. Something felt untouchable about her, not because she was particularly powerful or anything, but maybe just because Alma saw her as something special… Someone different from the people around her… She just wanted to mean something… And she succeeded.

And now, maybe… Now there was a chance… Akito…

Trying to get herself together enough to speak was a challenge, but she managed to push out some words even though she wasn’t able to get much together. She just… Had to get the words out, even if it was a little desperate or a little loud. She had started crying again now too.

“Don’t die.

Just don’t die on me now Akito, you can’t die, neither of you can don’t do it. I don’t hate you, either of you, but if you die then I just… I just… I won’t forgive you you can’t. You can’t so just. Don’t. I still don’t… Fully understand, but whatever you do you aren’t allowed to you can’t just leave now you CAN’T or else I’ll, I’ll just…

When Akito finally confessed to the crimes he had been accused of, he might find the mouse's stare only left him for passing seconds as looks of worry were sent to Alma, then back to him. It was weird feeling so little emotionally right now, but she started to understand that it was because she was actually feeling so much that her brain didn't know where her heart landed first.

Anger? Sadness? Disbelief? Shock? Hope? Despair? It all was trying to force itself onto her all at once, but all she was sure she was feeling was a thundering, sharp throb in her chest. The muscles of her throat were constricting and the pains got worse, but no tears were deciding to fall free.

Her heart was racing and she wasn't sure what exact component of this entire mess was causing it.

Then Amora, one of the two sisters she had grown to fear, stepped up to give her account of Akito's motivations... and that's what she realized she still couldn't comprehend what was going on.

"But why though, Akito-kun. W-What does this prove? What does this a-accomplish? Revenge? I-Is that really what you wanted?"

The girl's voice was already hoarse but her somberly surprised expression didn't portray the overwhelming amount of hurt in her voice. She looks at Amora for the first time without fear in her eyes.

Meifen didn't know what to feel towards her but... 

"J-Just because you're a robot doesn't m-make you "worth less" t-than a human... You're sentient. P-People should be treated like people, s-so long as they return the same t' others. You're a-a person, right?"

Rubbing at her neck, the Speedrunner looks at the interior of the 'Castle' with curiosity. Talk about thematic.

"...Ariadne w-wasn't right t' treat us like how she did, e-even if it makes more sense why she hated people. I-I'm sorry because I know she's like your sister, b-but we wouldn't have hated her if she didn't hate us right out of the gate... I-If you four were deciding t' play gods with our lives, w-we shouldn't be talked down too like w-we were in the wrong for wanting her gone. Or," she motions to Alastair, "For him wanting her dead."

Before the Negotiator can get too prideful, she puts up a hand in his direction.

"I-I said I would change my opinion i-if you were proven right - which you were. T-The way you went about it is still v-very fucked up though. So don't start with me right me now, i-if you could? Please?"

One emotional crisis at a time!

Now her attention is back the 'The Architect'.

"I-I don't hate you but..." What did she feel towards him? "...B-But please, you need t' explain more than that. W-What does forcing all of these people to kill do? What d-does breaking Alma's heart accomplish!?"

Her voice finally cracks. Meifen sucks in a breath and forcibly exhales. No. No crying! No matter how much she wanted to right now and no matter how much she felt her eyes glassing over-

Shit.

"What does this mean, Akito? W-Why? Just-"

A single, stubborn tear breaks away from her lashes and rolls down her cheek.

"Just tell us why. P-Please..."

Amora had been deathly silent throughout the trial up to this point, just sitting in her throne and frowning quietly. Judging by the expression on her face, it was clear to see she was still enduring the grief from Ariadne’s death.

But now with Akito’s admission, it was time for her to step in.

“...No.”

The MM Vote feature on everyone’s tablets began to glitch out.

“Not yet. You don’t get to vote until I’ve said what I need to say...”

Not that she was going to give people the option or work on faith. Amora stood up from her throne and began to wander around the circle. Her pace was slow, of course, but her voice was clear.

“...I was invented to be a tool for others to use and enjoy. I was made for the guests to abuse to their liking, and the high rollers would get so much more out of me. Things that would make anyone sick,” Amora began. “I was an object. And when I started gaining sentience and learning...well, they didn’t mind. It didn’t matter as long as I continued to do my job. It also didn’t matter if I suffered or hated every moment of my existence. Slaves don’t get the luxury of feelings...but none of you could ever understand that.”

Amora stopped behind Akito. She gently wrapped her arms around him from behind and pressed a soft kiss against his scarred cheek.

“...Akito and Blanche saved me. Both me and Ariadne were saved by them, and they used their money to free us from our holographic prisons. I know you all hate Ariadne for what she’s done, but you have to understand that to her, humanity is corrupt and disgusting. She didn’t see the hope in you all like I did. She just saw you as threats to me, because in our entire existence, that’s all humanity ever was...”

Amora sighed and she used one of her hands to wipe the tears pooling in her eyes. It was all fake, of course, but the body still functioned like a normal one.

“I don’t expect you to forgive her, but she never wanted this either. To the end, her involvement here was solely to repay the gift given to us from Blanche and Akito, which was freeing us from this hell. Maybe you think we’re evil, or you think your lives are more valuable than ours, I really don’t know, but I always wanted to see the good in all of you. I never wanted anyone to die, but...but I knew I had to repay the favor to my saviors, to the ones I love more than anything.”

So that’s how it was, huh?

“I loved Blanche too. Part of me still does, but she needed to be eradicated. It was clear she’d become blinded from our goal and was just using you all as her entertainment...and let’s be clear here, Blanche was never your friend. She started drama and turned you all against each other for her own amusement. I wouldn’t have minded if she’d kept her eye on the goal, but she’d strayed too much. And I started to feel like I was a tool again... I suggested ending the game early and letting everyone go, Blanche included, but our goal hadn’t been completed yet. We couldn’t end the game yet. So our only other option was...”

Amora actually looked guilty. She sniffled and wiped her teary eyes.

“A-Anyways...I’m sorry it had to happen this way, but please listen to everything Akito has to say before you place your votes and decide to hate him. He has his reasons. And their goal was noble enough that even someone like me was swayed by it. That’s all...”

Amora whispered something in Akito’s ear, but none of you could make out what it was. Not that it mattered, Amora had made her stance on things rather clear.