Return, Retry, Restart...Continue? (Danganronpa V3 X Reader)

Chapter 59

"....No you didn't Shuichi." You immediately countered. There was no way. Absolutely no way. And you had the evidence to prove it. Although it had only occurred to you now. "I didn't realize it now but... you were with us for quite awhile before Kaede's death time. Eight.. Fourty Seven I believe. The time of death is 8:56, and while that's only around nine minutes... I find it hard to believe the stab wound was shallow enough for her to last that long."

"....It doesn't mean it's impossible!" Shuichi sounds.. desperate.

"No... (Y/N) is... right. There wasn't any signs of struggle or- anything really. She just laid there in the middle of everything... If she bled to death... well I'm sure she would try to run or move... so I believe the death must've been instant." Rantaro follows up right after.

"Nyeh... I suppose it can't be Shuichi..."

"Gonta think it not Shuichi! But who the culprit?"

Meanwhile you're shaking your head. You didn't think Kaede's death would change this much about Shuichi. Albeit- she was responsible for the initial character development but... why is he....?

You do think for a few seconds about all the possibilities... This is the first case after all right? The question is if- the mastermind behind this game is orchestrating this whole thing somehow. Since that's what happened in the original version. No but... he looks desperate. Not- in the same way that Kaede did... he's not fully accepting it...

"If I may, perhaps we should look towards the alibis of the others here?" Kirumi suggested. "I was making a meal in the kitchen, I can confirm that Miu, Korekiyo, and Tsumugi were in there as well. Although the later had left for a brief moment to go to the bathroom."

Of course, the comment about Tsumugi leaving to the bathroom made you snap to attention. Is she the mastermind then? That's the only thing that can explain it... right? But she died? No wait, one thing at a time.

"Gonta, Himiko, Angie, Tenko, Maki and I... along with (Y/N), Rantaro and Shuichi were all in the game room together."

Shuichi looked all the more dejected, but he didn't say a word.

"I was in my room... admittedly no one can confirm so but... I would never lie!" Keebo answered immediately.

"So you have no alibi yes...?" Korekiyo questioned.

"Err... but Ryoma also was in his room alone."

Ryoma sighed "....That's right. And if it's anything, I did see Keebo leave his room when the announcement first played. Didn't you guys discover the body almost immediately after the death?"

".....Which makes it hard for him to have made it to his room huh....?"

Kaito turned to me, "Doesn't that mean that Kokichi is the only one without an alibi?"

And.... everyone turned to Kokichi. While you're rolling your eyes. Unless this game was more twisted than you thought there was... no way.

"Nee-hee-hee! Took you guys this long huh?" He put his hands behind his head. "You all are sooo slow! I am the culprit!"

"Eh?! Shuichi and Kokichi both say they are culprit?" Gonta shook his head a bit. "Gonta is not sure who to believe."

You glance at Rantaro, both- both of these options just seem... Wrong. Kokichi actually being the murder is also just improbably due to his character. Surely you haven't broken the game that much right?

Usually... even if this isn't the first game there are... slight parallels to the other games... Like Angie's death- it was similar to Leon's execution so...

You were scared of the theory you were about to propose, but in your mind it was also the only one that... made the most sense. Of course, if this was true then the storyline- the events of this timeline were far beyond repair. Not that it already wasn't but.

"I don't think it's Kokichi or Shuichi. Since we discovered the body so quickly after the death- And from the looks of it... the death was an instant one..." You started a bit hesitantly before nodding to yourself. "We didn't see Kokichi nearby the scene, and-? I'm not sure about the others but did any of you see Kokichi nearby? Because we could clear Kokichi the same way we cleared Keebo. Kokichi couldn't have that quickly."

Okay yes, there were many many holes in this theory. You knew that. But- he used to be one of your favorite characters. It didn't make any sense for him to kill, with Dice and the like. Shuichi was quite literally with you very close to the shown time of death. There was no way he could killed Kaede either.

"Huhhh? Then who does (Y/N) think did it? It's Atua's naptime right now so I can't ask him."

You sighed looking down at you feet before looking back up to face the rest of them. "I think the culprit is Kaede herself. I think- she killed herself to save the rest of us."

"A suicide..." Maki mused out loud. "It's not impossible."

Kaito looked up at Monokuma. "Is this true? Would a suicide count as a murder?!"

"Upupup! Of course! After all you're killing the most important existence... yourself!"

Shuichi gripped the podium a bit. "No! That's- that's wrong. I killed Kaede!"

"....Shuichi." Rantaro's voice was icy, "If you truly cared about Kaede, would you really be trying to kill all of us? If we vote you and your wrong... we all die."

"If she died for us then it's only fair that we die too right?!" Shuichi countered back.

At that moment you- already knew he wasn't the killer. It was a Asahina situation. The parallels keep repeating.... although your shock was evident that Shuichi could- be this illogical. He wasn't like this- sure he hid from the truth but...

Then again, you couldn't predict anything. Kaede didn't have the speech with Shuichi about looking toward the truth. She wasn't here to force him to solve her own murder. So- of course he'd be illogical. He didn't have the events needed for him to grow.

But where did it all go wrong? Why did Kaede kill herself? Why... why didn't she go through with the plan? You couldn't help but keep asking these questions to yourself. You could hear the shouting of the trial room going on.

Shuichi's crying voice voice rang in your ears, as he kept insisting he was the culprit. Kaito kept asking why Kaede did it... it was... well chaos in its most despairing form.

Monokuma's shrill laughter broke it though. "Upupupu! Ready to vote...? Then it's voting time!" The screen below you lit up with a bunch of faces, and you pressed Kaede's unhesitatingly. At least this time you didn't have to see her execution.

The screen above lit up, and the amount of votes were shown, of course there was one vote for Shuichi- likely being him himself. But the overwhelming majority was for Kaede much to your relief.

"You are correct! The blackened of this case... is Kaede Akamatsu! The Ultimate Pianist!" Monokuma then growled slightly. "Hmph! This means I can't show off my excellent executions but.... upupupu guess it's not too bad of a result!"

"I'm.... so glad there was no execution... all the gore and blood!" Monophanie's voice shrilly rang throughout the room.

"So she offed herself huh?! What a loser!" Monokid strummed his guitar shouting. "Although that detective emo boy is just as bad!"

"Agreed! What were you thinking Shuichi? Confessing..." Kokichi grinned the slightest bit. "Nishsishi... you weren't trying to get us all killed now were you?"

"...No surely- Shuichi didn't know right? And- Kaede wasn't...." Tsumugi started to protest but ended up trailing off.

"Knock it off!" Kaito shouted. "You all are pissing me off! Is this how Kaede would've wanted us to end up?"

"Well since lover-boy seems to not want to share! I suppose I'll do the honors myself!" Out of nowhere; Monokuma picked up Kaede's pink backpack and took out a slip of paper. He opened it up and started to read.

"To all of you: When you are reading this I will be gone. I'm sorry for not being able to tell you this beforehand but I couldn't let you all die. I contemplated Shuichi's plan for catching the mastermind but there was just too much that could go wrong. Please don't follow my example. You must band together to defeat this mastermind!"

...Of course most of the emotion was lost as it was read in a mocking-monokuma tone of voice, but there wasn't much you could do about that. Although from the corner of your eye you spot Shuichi crouched down and crying. 

"I don't know what kinda mastermind she was on about but oh well! In any case you all are free to go!" With that the bears disappeared and the remaining sixteen of you were stuck there dumbfounded. For awhile no one said anything, until Tsumugi spoke up.

"Shuichi... why didn't you-?"

You decided to cut in, you didn't want the actual- well supposedly actual mastermind to be ruining this moment. "Not now Tsumugi just..." You looked around a bit, "Look guys I think we should... exit this place, staying here wont do anything."

"(Y/N) is right... there's not much left for us to do here." Although Rantaro said that he glances over towards Shuichi.

Apparently Kaito caught Rantaro's glance too since he flashed a thumbs up at both of you. "I got him don't worry you all go on ahead."

Well that was different. You couldn't help but wonder why Kaito didn't punch Shuichi this time- perhaps the cause of Kaede's death? Or maybe it was cause Shuichi wanted to sacrifice all of them for Kaede. Regardless, you send Kaito a grateful nod and you alongside everyone else finally exited the trial room.

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That took... way too long huh? I finally have motivation again and my school is relaxing down it's workload. I promise I will finish this~

In any case, until next time!