Danganronpa: Memento Mori

Chapter 1, Part VII

Chapter 1: Down the Rabbit Hole, Part VII (Class Trial)

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As soon as all of us had cast our votes, we looked up to a screen that had turned on behind Monokuma. It appeared to show an animation of a roulette wheel, its pointer spinning around pixelated faces of ourselves, eventually settling upon Ren's face. And with a jaunty-sounding jingle and confetti falling from the sky, we knew that we had chosen correctly.

Ren Kurusu, the Ultimate Inmate, was the murderer of Mugen Kojima, the Ultimate Game Master.

All we could do... was watch as he said his last goodbyes, before facing the music.

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Haruhi: (cough) Excuse me?

Ren: Yeah?

Haruhi: ...You killed him.

Ren: Yes, I did. No, I can't take it back, and... I'm gonna die... goddamnit...

Kozue: So, if that's the case, then-

Ren: What?

Kozue: You took that brick with the intention of killing Mugen with it, didn't you?

Madoka: So then, was you planning a murder from the very beginning? Have you ever cared for us?

Ren grit his teeth, as though he didn't want to admit it.

Ren: ...At first, I did.

Kaiji: Re-really?

Hirou: Huh?

Ren: I knew that we were trapped here - I wanted to strike back at the mastermind. And the best way, I thought, was making sure that we didn't have to play their game at all! But only that one brick was loose, so I quickly grew a bit iffy on the chances of escape...

Madoka: You gave up that easily? For an escape artist, you're actually pretty pathetic.

Daigo: Stop, Madoka. Don't make him go to his grave feeling even more guilty.

Madoka: Still trying to defend him, aren't you?

Daigo: Uh...

Madoka: He killed Mugen. He tried killing you. He tried killing all of us.

Daigo: ...Ah...

Ren: As I was going to say, the box Monokuma left behind was a much more easier target, but the diary I found in there...

Ayane: Made you turn to murder.

Ren: Yeah, in a sense. But that wasn't my initial plan. Once I read through it, I realised just who was the one responsible for trapping us all here!

Luka: Mugen, I assume?

Ren: Yes! Isn't it so blatantly obvious?! He was most certainly the mastermind, and I thought to myself, maybe he needs to be killed so that we can get out of here!

Daigo: If that's the case, then Ren... why was you planning on letting all of us die?!

Ren: Truth be told, I barely knew you guys. So when it turned out that either all of you die or I do, guess who came out on top? Self-preservation, man. Self-preservation.

Daigo: We were friends, Ren! We were friends and you tried pinning the blame on me! Why, Ren?! WHY?!

Ren: Hard to feel betrayed once you're dead. And sorry Daigo, but we weren't best friends. I only just met you, so it was easy to consider you a sacrifice for the cause.

Yura: Is that what you really believe?

Ren: Yeah. And besides, once I told Daigo everything, he - well, he wasn't on good terms with Mugen, after all. Made him a pretty good prime suspect, don't you agree?