Ungloving Your Love (Naegiri family friendly pg clean)

Execution - Kyoko

An eyesore of a graphic appeared on the screen in front of us.

"Leon Kuwata has been found guilty. Time for punishment."

The background was an ugly shade of red, almost the colour of dried blood. An 8-bit recreation of Leon was being dragged away by Monokuma. My body stiffened. I didn't know what exactly was going to happen, but I had a good idea. I knew that he was going to die, I knew that we were going to watch it, and I knew that the way that he died was going to fill us with despair. So I prepared myself. I stood rigid and stoic, tightening my muscles and clamping my jaw. The mastermind is trying to crack us open and pierce our yolky interior. Some people like to think that there's nothing inside me to destroy. That's not true. It's just that I've learned to harden my shell to the point where I could never be vulnerable.

Leon was pulled away from us, taking with him all of our hope. I softly bit my tongue, absorbing all the pain I was feeling. He was tied to a pole, and each baseball that pummeled his defenseless body felt like a droplet of a new emotion raining down on me. It was like a fever dream that I was being dipped in and out of, begging for rest. It was... despair.

Once the final baseball was shot at him, I allowed myself to glance to my left. Makoto. I felt a twinge of urgency rush towards my brain as I started to think of the type of pain he must have been in. He considered everyone here his friend, and yet one sought to frame him, the other killed the one closest to him, and now they were both dead. Sayaka's death must have hurt him the hardest. They were so close, yet she had somehow brought herself to betray him like that. Yes, I understand the pain she must have felt seeing that video Monokuma gave us, and yes, I understand why she was driven to kill and yes, I understand why she went to such lengths to cover up her crime, but the fact that she did all that to Makoto fills me with such... irrational anger. I sighed briefly before managing to compose myself. My vitriol for her betrayal wouldn't do anything to restore Makoto's hope. Besides, maybe there was a reason to be grateful for her final moments. After all, she cared about us enough to write a dying message for us. If her plan had worked, she would have happily left us to die, but maybe that was her moment of clarity, where she regained her empathy for us and Makoto. I again looked to my left, seeing Makoto swallowing his sadness. He had started our school life with so much hope, yet I could see it slowly slipping away.

So I walked up to him.

"Makoto?"

"Yes?" he responded, his voice shaky.

"There is something I would like to discuss with you."

"It's about Sayaka, isn't it?"

I hesitated for a moment before responding.

"Y-yes. It is."

He put his fingers against his temples, as if he were experiencing a headache. I continued on, struggling to make eye contact for what felt like the first time in my life.

"Despite the fact that she originally framed you, she spent the last moments of her life thinking of a way to save your life. Even in death, she was thinking of you. Remember that."

"Wasn't it just an act of revenge?"

I couldn't lie to him.

"Perhaps. But I don't believe that is true. Despair changes people, which is exactly what the mastermind wants. But then, as her life was ending, maybe she had a moment of clarity. Maybe she had hope, hope for you to continue on and survive. So she thought of a plan to try and save you. After all that you two have been through, I can't imagine that she would have gone through all that effort and pain purely out of spite."

A glimmer of hope was beginning to come back, so I continued on.

"What I'm saying is that you don't have to carry Leon and Sayaka's deaths on your back anymore. You can move forward and survive this killing game."

He lifted his head to meet my eyes, his eyebrows furrowed.

"No. I'm not just going to forget about them. They were my friends. I'm going to grieve, and take that grief with me all the way through this killing game. And when I make it out of here alive, I'm going to continue thinking about them."

"A noble choice. A difficult one, but noble. Your hope inspires me, Makoto Naegi."