#im......sad.....

He can’t fault him.  

They both know there’s no staying.  His fate is a fixed point in time - set in stone the moment Monokuma drafted the second motive.  He doesn’t know when he came up with it, exactly...has he really been a dead man since the beginning?  Since he was chosen for this...game? 

...But of course Kiyotaka is asking him to live.  If their positions were reversed - 

( And they would never be, Kiyotaka does not have it in him to do what Mondo did.  No matter what was placed in front of him.  No matter what Monokuma threatened and taunted him with. Kiyotaka was an objective, immovable good. )

...If their positions were reversed, in a twisted version of this timeline, and Monokuma managed to force his hand - he would ask the same.  Demand the same.  Up until the moment of inevitable death, he would not spend a second not fighting for him at any conceivable cost.  In this moment, if it were Kiyotaka on the stand instead, he would dismantle every wave of spare Monokumas that they could throw at him.  Destroy them faster than the mastermind could make them.  And he would take his hand, pull him upstairs, and retch that fucking door open if it broke every bone he had.

...

But it’s not.  Mondo is the murderer.  Mondo is about to die.  Rightfully. 

And all he can do for him now is pretend he isn’t terrified.