#monotheater

“Well, I have had an entire trial to deliberate on it.  So let us discuss....”

“...The prior matters.”

“Now, I was quite stuck as to what to do with this one!  How closely you all flew to the sun -- only to have the votes tied at the last moment!  How much have I deliberated....”

“...But at the end of the day -- well, I couldn’t abide by some of the theories to give you credit for that miserable little tie.  For goodness’ sake, my friends -- an accomplice?  How in the world did we all land on that little issue?”

“It was so dreadfully boring by the end -- I simply can’t reward such things.”

....

Oh.

“...But... with so much excitement, I feel as if we still need a climatic finish!  Consider it my version of your little ‘final moments’ turn-arounds.  Hoo-hoo.”

“...I will depart for an hour.  When I return, we will play tarot with my deck of cards.”

“...And the first one I pull -- well.”

“Mm. I suppose that’s that, then. A bit too showy for my tastes...”

They shrugged.

“But rules are rules, I suppose. I’m given to understand you’re accustomed to having new areas to open up to you...”

“That won’t be the case now. You have uncovered all floors of the city. But perhaps there’s secrets you have yet to uncover.”

“...Not that I would know anything like that. But you are free to go now.”

“Well, that was pretty convincing, huh? It’s too bad y’all got it...”

Wait. That can’t be right. There was a confession and everything. And all of the evidence--

“....Right.”

Oh.

“Ha! You should’a seen the looks on your faces. Naw, she might be one of them fancy actor people but that was all real. So, good job! Now, scram.”

With another execution over, you’ve come to expect Monowolf’s teleporting. The pain that goes through your head is no more than an inconvenience by now, which probably means you’ve been hanging around with these Volitions too much. Something like that. When you’re back in your home dimension, you notice that it’s still quite dark. It’s probably only like two, three in the morning, something like that.

And, of course, you notice Takumi’s horribly mauled body up in the branches of the Light Tree. There’s still blood dripping from his wounds onto you below, which is pretty gross. Kleis, once again, takes it upon herself to retrieve the body. Throwing him over one shoulder, she starts to head over to the Mortuary again...but then she stops and looks over at you.

“...Hey. You know...you guys are pretty close. You can end this soon if you want.”

“Just remember...You only need to catch the Mastermind.”

[tw: neck trauma, animal violence]

[music by Mel!]

Takumi is forcibly dragged into a dark room, only illuminated by lights coming from two glowing doors. The doors are labelled with the glowing words RIGHT CHOICE? and WRONG CHOICE?. He looks between the doors, wondering what these enigmatic messages could possibly mean, before their meaning hits him. He wonders if the words on the doors really mean what they say… if he picks the right choice, he’ll be okay, right? But if he picks the wrong choice… he’ll end up dead. The question marks confuse him, though, are they really right and wrong?

No, it has to be a trick. He thinks. This puzzle is reverse psychology, obviously, and in that case -- the door labelled wrong is the right one, and the one labelled right is wrong. Yes! That wasn’t tricky at all. He feels proud. With a sigh, he walks over to the WRONG CHOICE? door and pushes it open.

Behind the door, everything is a nice bright color, and the first think Takumi sees inside makes his eyes light up. There’s a short red-haired girl waving to him. She’s standing with a taller brown haired girl, and next to them is a fluffy white dog wagging his tail excitedly. And in all of his excitement to see the three of them, he runs towards them, his arms outstretched. He looks like the happiest you’ve ever seen him be. He was right, obviously! This is the correct door!

Wrong. As soon as Takumi puts his arms around the dog, he’s realized this was all a big mistake. His dog has its mouth around his neck, the colors have gone from bright to dark, and the two girls from before seem to have faded from existance. It tears its teeth into his skin, and Takumi lets out some kind of a wheezing sound, as he tries to pull the dog off. But suddenly, one dog turns into two, and then more and more dogs start appearing, latching onto him with their teeth. The whole room is suddenly flooded with all sorts of dogs, and you can’t even see Takumi anymore…

Eventually the dogs disperse, and in the center of the dark room lies what’s left of Takumi Minatoya.

Takumi Minatoya, SHSL Dog Groomer, has been executed.

And again, you’re not given any warning as to when Monowolf teleports you out of there, and the usual sickening feeling hits you like a brick. He can give you a heads up, at the very least…! When you come to in the Light Garden, you look up at the branches of the Light Tree, and sure enough, she’s there. As mean as she was in the moments before her death, you can’t help but feel a little sorry for her. Poor Aimi.

Just like before, Kleis is the one to take the body down. She turns to give you all an inviting nod, as if to say, “You’re free to follow me if you like,” and heads off in the direction of the Mortuary.

...You’re not sure why, but it feels as if Kleis is a little bit more...cheerful than usual. How strange.

[music by Mel!]

Blackness. For a few moments, the projection was nothing but a dark hole, but it soon flickered to life with an image of a high school classroom, entirely ordinary. It's full with students working quietly at their desks, Aimi seated in the middle of the class. It looks like she's asleep…? A boy next to her reaches out and shakes her shoulder, and she starts to stir, head rising up. She blinks, confused, and rubs at her eyes as the boy next to her chuckles.

“What, were you up all night studying? Wouldn't expect any less from President Yokota! Really though, Aimi-chan, that’s the first time I've ever seen you fall asleep in class.”

Aimi still looks confused, perhaps a little distressed, before realization dawns on her face, and she exhales happily. That's when you come to realize it, too- Aimi thinks she woke up from a bad dream. She laughs, turning to the boy and shaking her head.

“Haha, no, I’m just pretty sleepy today. I was having a nightmare, actually, so thanks for waking me up. I was a Hope’s Peak student, then-”

She’s interrupted by the teacher clearing his throat from the front of the class.

“Miss Yokota? Please read page sixty eight for us.”

Aimi’s eyes dart down to her desk, where a textbook is open. Nodding at the teacher, she stands up and steps beside her desk, holding up the book and starting to read aloud.

“- But what nobody knew was that the girl wasn't truthful at all. Try as she might, Aika had a rotten heart, and only acted good for other people. Despite her best efforts to be good, she was full of violent urges. She had an animalistic desire to hurt, to destroy, to rip apart. So even if she was able to fool everyone else, Aika knew her heart wasn't in it. And then what was the point?”

Aimi’s face takes on a slightly concerned tone, but she keeps reading, albeit slightly hesitantly.

“People were friends with her, but she wasn't their friend. Others troubled her greatly, and she couldn't bond with them properly. But in her attempts to be good, she pretended. Putting on her mask, Aika pretended to be the perfect girl- friendly, hard working, sociable. But you can't fool your own heart. Evil can't change.”

Aimi looks pale, her hands shaking slightly, and doubt is spreading across her face. Abruptly slamming her book down on the desk, Aimi turns on her heels and runs from the classroom, ignoring the confused murmurs among her classmates. Something is dawning on her, slowly but surely, and Aimi’s breath picks up rapidly as she runs down the school hallways. Somehow, it doesn't feel as though it's just because of her speed. She nearly stumbles as she gets to the set of stairs at the end of the hallway, feet pounding up them as she reaches wildly for the door. With a bang, Aimi flings open the doors to reveal the school roof, sputtering to herself about needing some fresh air.

Half running half stumbling over to the railing, Aimi all but collapses against it. Struggling to breathe, Aimi’s terror is unsuited to the happy, sunny day you can see on the roof. All the while, she’s snapping that golden band against her wrist. Snap. Snap. Snap.

“Dream, dream, it's a dream, just a dream, bad dream, you're okay, you're okay, it's fine-” Aimi is repeating a mantra to herself, trying to control her breathing and relax. For a moment, it looks like she's succeeding- right until a hand is placed on her shoulder. Aimi yelps, jerking around to get the hand off of her and see who it is. It looks like she doesn't like whoever it is.

Judging by her ear piercing scream, that is.

Before she can physically react, the new person has their hands wrapped around Aimi’s throat, pinning her against the railing. Aimi’s eyes are wide like dinnerplates, and she’s tearing up as the realization that none of this was a dream is dawning fully. The view pans out, showing the new person. A pretty girl with short black hair and an emotionless expression is holding her firmly. Aimi barely manages to squeak out a “M-Mariko…!” before the other girl squeezes tighter, cutting her off.

“Oh, Acchan. It didn't take you this long to realize it was fake, right? You’re supposed to be smarter than that. Clever enough to fool yourself into thinking someone as rotten as you is capable of good, but stupid enough to believe she's not actually going to die.”

Mariko leans in, pushing Aimi farther back. The hacky sacker’s feet lift off the ground, and Aimi makes a horrible hacking sound as she’s leant halfway over the railing. It's a long way down… Mariko keeps speaking.

“You’re cruel. You don't really feel love, right? You knew that. You acknowledged that. You wanted to be good, but you ended up becoming well-liked instead. Believe me, you can be one and not the other. Remember choosing social acceptance over kindness? Remember how your little group of friends bullied me into shutting myself in? I remember.”

Even farther over the railing. Mariko’s hands loosen slightly, and Aimi gasps for air, sputtering out words at the same time. “M-M-Mariko, I’m sorry! I’m terrible, I know, I know, but please… I was trying to be good, I did everything I-”

“Not good enough,” Mariko hisses, clamping down on the girl’s throat again. “I’m not the real Mariko, and you know that. I'm the part of you that sees you for the true monster that you can be, Aimi. Your heart is full of hatred. When was the last time you did something good for the sake of being good? You do it so that nobody will realize that you have such a violent heart, to fool yourself into thinking you're good. You're a truly awful person, Aimi Yokota. If anyone feels otherwise… Well, they're either oblivious to who you are, or they're just as bad as you.”

Aimi is openly weeping, sobs catching in her tightly held throat as Mariko holds her farther over the ledge. Most of her body, save for her legs, is now hanging off the edge of the school. Mariko’s grip on Aimi’s throat loosens, giving Aimi time to scream and babble pleas that are entirely incomprehensible. Mariko’s gaze hardens.

“You thought about killing yourself all the time, right? You knew death was best for someone like you. So I'll just help you out now. Goodbye to the liar, the coward, the murderer, Aimi Yokota. Remember- you wanted this.”

And Mariko throws the shrieking Aimi forwards, the girl sliding off the railing and over the edge of the building, still facing upwards. For a minute, it's quiet. Aimi’s face is staring upwards, allowing you to witness the subtle transition from terror to the start of acceptance. There’s no noise, save for the flutter of her clothes as she falls downwards.

Then there's a hideous crack as Aimi hits the ground, bones snapping as the concrete meets her skin. Someone else in the distance screams, and Mariko, still watching from above, purses her lips thoughtfully as she stares at Aimi, watching life flicker out of the hacky sacker. A gust of wind blows along, and Mariko floats along with it, dissolving into dust as it carries all traces of her away. It's only a minute until Aimi’s eyes stop moving, leaving her entirely still, the start of what seems to be acceptance forming on her face, now frozen that way forever.

And with that, the rest of the world around the girl breaks into dust, floating away like Mariko, and taking Aimi with it. The imaginary world of her execution fades into dust.

And with that, the projection disappears, fading away permanently- not unlike the world around Aimi did.

Aimi Yokota, SHSL Hacky Sacker, has been executed.

You’re not even warned this time. Soon after the execution fades away, Monowolf waves a paw and you’re back in the Light Garden. It’s really hard to get used to that horrible nausea and the pain surprises you.

Then you remembered what happened last time.

Indeed, Teddi’s body was up there, entangled within the branches of the tree. At the very least, it’s not as messy as Ame’s execution was. Just like before, Kleis is the one to retrieve the body.

You look up into the sky, and you notice that it’s still quite dark. That trial was a lot faster than the previous one, so you guess that it’s, like, what? Four, five in the morning? After that mess of a trial, some of you feel like you need a good rest...

As the body is released from its entanglement, Kleis hoists it over her shoulder and looks to the group of you.

“...Rémy. Follow me, if you wish.”