#da5t

In the end, it didn't work.

Sure, maybe one person changed their vote to Date, but their vote was anonymous, so Yona didn't even know who to look to for solidarity. There were a million things she could have said to everyone in that courtroom, but she just felt so... deflated. Defeated. And, for the first time, completely unhappy with every single person in that room. 

What even was there for her to say?

Well, that is, until she found herself answering a question on a bizarre quiz show. The lights and colors were dazzling, but seeing that Kana was the one with the microphone just left Yona feeling sick to her stomach. Screw the answers she had to choose from, Yona just spoke her feelings honestly and... she froze in surprise as the correctness of her answer rang out. A shower of glittering confetti burst over her head and doused her. She sniffled and blinked the tears out of her eyes numbly, but not for long before.

That.

That happened.

Yona felt a less literal aching in her chest when she witnessed Hyouri's demise. Kana hadn't listened to her. Of course she hadn't. Nobody listened to her. The storm chaser fell into a surprisingly quiet bought of sobbing as darkness descended on the courtroom.

"I-It woulda been f-fine... J-Just 'cause he made a mistake didn' mean he deserved t'... d-d... Frankie coulda... exor... coulda...."

The quiet mumbling between her sobs was nothing she hadn't said before, and it sure as hell didn't help now. But she couldn't.... she couldn't.

Yona sniffled and looked around in the dimness, feeling raw on the inside. For once, she didn't feel any hope looking at the faces around her. People weren't supposed to kill anyone unless they'd gone wrong somehow, and people weren't supposed to condemn someone to die if there was a chance to save them or if they had better options, right...? Isn't that what... she had grown up believing? If Yona ever had beef with someone, she'd challenge them to a fair fistfight, but... she couldn't punch thirty people. 

She usually got over things so easily, but... she didn't think this sentiment was going to go away.

"I... hate all 'f y--"

Her whisper to herself was drowned out by a call for her name. Yona opened her eyes again and saw Ren, but for the first time, she felt extremely reluctant to jump to help, even though it was Suzume in trouble. But still, she slowly straightened up and trudged towards Ren with a scowl and heavy feet until she looked down at Suzume's unconscious form.

"...'Kay..."

Maybe it was cruel on her part, but Kaya was glad that this trial was finally over and the murderer executed. There might have been a part that felt bad for the condemned, but ultimately, it didn’t change her view on this case at all - after all, this all only happened because of someone’s incredibly careless behaviour. Something that could have been easily avoided, but it happened regardless.

Kaya watched the execution as per usual, though in the last moments, she averted her eyes away. She could only take so much cruelty before it became too much and she’d witnessed death enough already.

Thus, as soon as the execution ended, Kaya made her way to the elevator, not speaking to anyone. Right now, she wanted to avoid quite a few individuals, so she could get ahold of her composure. It’s not like as if there was much to save anyway, but being constantly broken wasn’t the way to go either, right? Furthermore, there was also the blackout and the unwillingness of the Monobears to explain it in any way. It would be better to focus on that instead of other trivial matters.

Either way, just as quiet as she had become after the trial took a turn into paranormal land, she left the trial room behind her just as silent.

…

A day passed by without anything out of the ordinary happening. It was the same as always - murder, investigation, trial, execution, peace, rince and repeat. This cycle just didn’t want to end, huh?

Honestly, Kaya had enough of this routine. She’d been done with it ever since the first victim, but now, she was utterly and completely done. The kind of done that makes you want to do reckless stuff and take on risks far more easily than before.

The dangerous kind of done.

Luckily enough, Kaya wasn’t out to assault either of the Monobears and instead, started to look around places again. It might be for naught - like it had been the previous weeks -, but something deep inside of her didn’t want to completely give up. A shred of undying optimism? Of hope? Who knew, but it was enough to keep her going to some degree.

At some point, Kaya found herself in the aquarium again - partly because of her wish to find something of importance in such a remote location, partly because to find some peace. She didn’t even know why it had such an easing impact on her… Maybe because of the sheer life surrounding her? Sure, it might be just fishes for some people, but for her, it was still precious life… Something that faded away all too easily in this place.

A deep sigh escaped her throat as she leaned her forehead and one hand against the glass of one of the tanks. Closing her eyes, Kaya was simply standing there and taking in the silence surrounding her… A peaceful kind of silence, not the dreaded one that seemed to follow them in this insanity.

Because of that, Kaya was aware of someone walking into the aquarium. She gritted her teeth slightly, not really thrilled to meet someone that she might not want to see right now.

Another sigh escaped her as she turned her head around. Fortunately, it was someone that she saw as a friend, someone she could trust - Setsuna.

“… Ah, hello, Setsu-chan.”

[#self-depreciation]

And like that, the trial was over, Hyouri was found guilty (on the exact technicality Shion had suspected at that...), and the execution... the thoroughly bizarre game show-esque execution... that the thereminist found herself a participant in (and why? Because she had idiotically fancied herself a potential friend to Hinatea at some point?) commenced.

That Shion was unable to answer the question Kana threw her way did not surprise her. Nor did the fact that Hyouri ended up dead by the end. They all ended up dead by the end, no matter how Shion might have felt about it. And besides, that part of her reminded herself amidst the flood of static that now occupied the bulk of her thoughts, even if there had been a chance of saving him, Kana had placed one-fifth of it in the hands of something like her. Of course she would botch it terribly.

(On top of that, Shion frankly didn't really care if Hyouri died or not. He wasn't hers. No one living here was - to believe otherwise was unbecoming of something like her and likely dangerous for them. Ergo, why bother trying to care? It didn't suit her in the slightest, and it was a waste of her energies on top of that.)

There were other things to worry about after that... terribly grotesque sight, gods, why didn't she look away, of course. There was the fact that Kana had not been dealt with, could (apparently) not be dealt with easily, and was hypothetically out there somewhere doing the sort of things evil spirits got up to. There was also the fact that the execution had closed not with the standard bear babble and a dismissal but with a blackout and... cold silence. Even in her current state, Shion found that more than a bit unsettling. Did the former cause the latter, or... ?

Even so, the thereminist elected not to think about either of those items too hard... as much as she could, with how her mind was at the moment. She had other things to focus on at the moment after all. Matters to debate on with herself. Conclusions to come to.

...

The conclusion Shion came to was this - she had no business trying anymore, not after all of that. No after she had failed so utterly.

Eleven years of fighting against what she was, trying to ensure that she would have somewhere to stay, fooling herself into believing she could be remotely good enough, and she'd fucked it up utterly and completely beyond repair, to a point where her usual mental patch-jobs wouldn't help. Everyone knew what she was. No one would want her around anymore for as long as she continued to live here (and who knew how long that would be?). She would be completely alone again.

And that was... just fine. That was alright. Shion was okay with that.

Few people wanted a thing to do with vermin, after all. No good and decent people did. This was just the natural order of things. There was no need to mourn the fact. It was how things were meant to be. Her mistake had been going so long believing it would go otherwise.

Such were the sentiments that part of Shion's mind spouted as the thereminist readied herself the day after the trial. She let it carry on. There was no point fighting with that part of herself anymore. It was her, after all. Every loathsome, hateful, venomous bit of it. And it had never really spouted anything but the cold, hard truth, hadn't it?

This meant, of course, that she couldn't be Shion Tsuzuki anymore, and gods, the realization felt horrendously uncomfortable, rather akin to being forced out into the cold without a coat. The persona the thereminist had built up for herself over the years had done so much to keep her safe and comfortable. That persona had been needed in ways she could never be, accepted by people who would have had little use for the actual her, and quite frankly, she didn't know how to be without it.

(Take it away, she had said, and what's left? Very little. Very little that's human, anyway. Very little that anyone would actually want to keep around. And people had already begun to see through to that even with that facade up. As expected. She couldn't have run away forever.)

It wasn't going to do her any favors now, though, that side of Shion reminded herself. What good was a persona that could not longer serve its purpose in the slightest? And why should any part of her believe that she had any reason to keep pretending at this point? She didn't deserve such comforts, did she? And besides, she'd managed without it before, back then, hadn't she? That was eleven years back, but even then...

("Live for yourself". That was what she had been asked to do, but the truth of it was that Shion hardly had a sense of what truly qualified as 'herself' at the end of the day, and on top of that, she was far too weak to be anything but a pathetic, scared creature projecting a shiny false front. Nowhere near strong enough to do such a thing.

If there was any mercy in the world, it was that the person who had asked that of her was in a far better place and ergo had no way of knowing how much of a pathetic failure she'd be on that front.)

There was no reason then, Shion decided as she dressed, to try to draw attention towards herself as she... as the person she had played at being back then once had, and ergo, her choice of outfit - a black suit jacket, gray shirt, black string tie, black dress pants, and black dress shoes - was considerably plainer than her usual affair.

Oh sure, it was still distinctive - when most every single piece of clothing in one's wardrobe hews to the 'nineteenth century British nobleman' aesthetic, one cannot get away from it, and shifting one's wardrobe to something considerably darker was not exactly an original move (hell, it had already been done on these very islands), but Shion couldn't quite bring herself to care. It served its purpose well enough, and that was what was important. It marked her as...

...well, to call herself 'a new Shion' would be disingenuous, the thereminist mused as she stared herself down in her bathroom mirror, half-heartedly combing her hair before she set out. (Vermin or not, she couldn't bear to let her appearance go completely to hell.) This Shion had always existed, she'd just been running away from the fact for all fo those years. A different Shion, then. The one who always had been.

They’d waited for Hyouri to be dragged off, only for it to...not happen. They’d expected something showy, not him just disappearing into the floor

...Actually, funny they should’ve used the word showy….

(Why did it have to be her doing this? Well, of course it would have been, and yet...there were certain people they were uncomfortably reminded of whenever she spoke.

...Maybe they’d been right after all. Haha! Wouldn’t that be something.)

And of course this execution had to be different. Of course the people who’d tried to defend him were getting dragged into it.

(They prayed the spotlight wouldn’t fall on them but they knew it was going to happen. Of course, that was what they got for speaking up, of course it wouldn’t go unpunished, of course because they knew her type far too well--)

And so they froze. Stammered out an answer, any semblance of bravery gone now that someone’s life was on the line.

(But of course there wasn’t going to be a right answer, Monobear wouldn’t just let him live--

Or Yona would get the right answer on a blind guess, that could happen. How did she do it?)

‘That’s a privelige he forfeited, along with his heart!’ What was that supposed to mean--

Oh.

It was strange. When you saw something that seemed physically impossible, there was always a moment of doubt, your brain trying to reassure you that it wasn’t real. Someone was screaming, and it took a few seconds to register that was their voice and them screaming. Then the screen cut, and...nothing.

Not even Monobear taunting them. That was also unsettling. The elevator seemed open, but before they could walk to it they heard the sound of something hitting the ground. The entirety of their attention snapped to Suzume. Not bothering to think twice about what could have happened, they ran to her side, trying to pick her up. And, unsurprisingly, failing.

“S….someone! Anyone! She’s--”

Did they just not see because it was dark? They looked around for a friendly face, anyone who might care. And the first person they saw…

When Hyouri Himeno was taken away, something as simple a trap door was not the method Suzume expected. Monobear was always so theatrical, never once practical. She never saw it coming, and even standing just inches away, there was nothing she could do except helplessly watch him disappear downward into terrifying darkness. Her quick hand grasped only a handful of empty air.

Suzume pulled her arm back toward her body and hugged the Hinatea doll with smothering force. She didn’t know what was going to happen now. No one did. 

Would it... hurt? Would it be needlessly cruel and drawn out? A quick and painless death was always too much to ask for when it came to Monobear. Even though she didn’t know what was going to happen next, she always knew that there was always a level of cruelty that she’d grown accustomed to expecting. 

... except this wasn’t Monobear, was it?

Kana.

This was worse.

Lights on the stage behind her illuminated to the room to a point that even she could see, and she watched Kana’s opening act with a mixture of fear and overwhelming sympathy for the boy tied to the director’s chair.

He was... so close, and they couldn’t do anything?!

It was a game within a game within a game. Kana was playing them all. Answering her trick questions wouldn't save him. It was all rigged. False hope. Tormenting them all with the fact that no one knew Hyouri at all. Worst of all was that Kana wasn’t even wrong about it either-- no one knew him. 

Suzume tensed once Masuyo was asked a question as well. Masuyo makes five. Five questions. 

They were done. Failed. And now Hyouri was going to--

“!!!” 

In all the trials Suzume had been through... she always looked away when it came time for execution... and in the rare moments she watched, she always knew when the end was coming. When it was time to look away.

But this... this was...

There was no time to prepare herself. No warning. No theatrical lead up. No prolonged pain. 

Just.... 

.... gone.

In almost slow motion, Hinatea’s doll slipped from her arms and it fell to the floor with a soft thump.

...That was it, then. Their shoulders slumped-- Yona’s plan had failed miserably and Hyouri Himeno was going to die for a crime he didn’t commit.

Ah well. They’d never been under the delusion there was any kind of justice here, What difference did they make, anyways? The best they could try to do was lessen the pain of the inevitable, and hope that was enough.

They accepted the figurine with a nod and a quiet word of thanks (in spite of some mild confusion.) But that wasn’t the important part.

“Ranko Himeno, Totokorozawa. I’ll remember.”

Another next-of-kin to inform, then. It was a burden someone had to take. Their biggest concern was that someday, someone was going to have to pick up what they’d been carrying and inform Arise and Yusef Murayama what had happened to their child.

They tugged at their scarf, listening to what would probably be his final words. They didn’t know what to say. Just saying ‘goodbye’ seemed so trivial in a situation like this. Wouldn’t actions speak louder than words? Whether it was their attempts to give closure, or Yona’s attempts to save him, or Suzume’s attempts to comfort him...at least it showed somebody had cared.

Suzume’s sobs only increased when Hyouri hugged her back. She really tried hard to protect him, and now all she felt at that moment was an overwhelming helplessness. There was nothing she could do to stop this. Nothing. It wasn’t right. It w-wasn’t...

She sniffled into her shirt one more time and looked up at him as he spoke.

And his words... surprised her.

“H...Himeno-san...”

He was... leaving everything to her... and she could only stare at him dumbfounded. First Daichi, then Rhiannon, and now Hyouri... a person she barely even knew before this trial. She couldn't understand why all these people felt like she was deserving of this generosity. Was she really? She was a thief, a cheater, a stray animal no one wanted. Japan didn’t care about people like her. They only wanted to find more ways to blame her. Children of bad blood... it’s a curse that can never be escaped.

... but maybe that meant she and Hyouri had more in common than she thought. They were both outcasts. Which was... all the more reason to honor his wish, right? 

She couldn’t say no.

Suzume released him and dried off her face with her sleeve before accepting the doll into her arms, hugging it to her shoulder like a mother cradling her newborn.

She sniffed.

“N-Nothing will happen to her. I promise.”

She sniffed again and wiped her face with a free hand. She couldn't keep crying like this. Be strong, Suzume. He was the one waiting to die here. Not you. You’ll have plenty of time for tears later.

“... and... I’ll finish what you started. It’ll be beautiful...”

Hugging the Hinatea doll a little tighter, Suzume looked down at the ground. There wasn't much else she could do now except stand quietly at his side until the time came.

As the execution ends, you’re left standing in shock, disgust, and numerous other emotions as you stare at the horror in front you. But, instead of being greeted by an obnoxious, pun filled epilogue...

You’re met with darkness, a blackout in the room--

And then nothing.

The Monobear don’t seem the be in the room anymore, and you’re apparently left to your own devices, the elevator down and ready to be used. 

...all of this causes a chill to go down your spine. You don’t know what’s happened, or what will happen, but it’s certain...