• Published 20th Jan 2021
  • 1,558 Views, 153 Comments

Danganronpa vG: Goodbye Magic - witegrlninja

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Hell Springs Forth - Deadly Life 2

A heavy clank heralded the end of our descent, and the doors ahead of us opened with a whoosh of cold air. It did little to refresh me... stewing within my own inner turmoil. It was only by instinct that I followed the others through the doors and into the court room, where Monokuma and his Kubs were waiting for us on their throne.

"Welcome! So you're all here once again... guess all that talk about not killing each other didn't pan out, now did it?" Monosuke smirked.

"Did you wanna come here again 'cause of how wonderful it is?" asked Monophanie.

"Isn't it wonderful? I put so much effort into building this place, it should be a monument!" Monokuma nodded proudly.

"...Actually, we're the ones who built the court room," Monotaro mumbled. "But Father just took all the credit!"

"Hey, I'm happy to be the muscle for Papa Kuma's plans!" grinned Monokid.

"And I am happy to be used as a slave by Daddy!" Monophanie chirped. Behind me I heard Ocean cough and splutter as if he'd choked on his own saliva.

"...Never. Say that. Again," Sugarcoat drawled, disgusted.

"You idiots are really committin' to this henchman bit..." sighed Monosuke, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Oh, but you guys are just so cute, I can't help working you to the bone!" Monokuma huffed, his tongue sticking out. "But as much as I'd love to talk about architecture and whatnot, that's not why you're here."

"Ah, that's right! A broad's been moidered, and one o' yous did it!" Monosuke pointed at us.

"And if they get away with it this time, then we get to tear all of you apart!" Monokid shouted excitedly.

"Now, show me just how you intend to bargain for your lives!" Monokuma laughed as we all took our places. I tried not to stare at the portrait of Juniper to my left, her face crossed out with a sloppy, hot pink X.

Poor Juniper... she didn't deserve this.

Even if I hadn't known her that well, even though she had done some villainous things in the past... she still didn't deserve to die like this.

But which of us was responsible? Which one of us was guilty of killing her so brutally? And which one of us was ready to sacrifice the others for their chance at freedom?

It was up to us to find the truth...

It was up to me.

*Class Trial! All Rise!*

"Ahem! Now then, let's begin with a basic explanation of the class trial," Monokuma grinned. "During the trial you'll present your arguments for who the culprit is, and vote for 'whodunnit'. Vote correctly, and only the blackened will be punished. But if you pick the wrong person? I'll punish everyone besides the blackened, and that person may leave the campgrounds!"

"I just can't believe it... why? Why would one of us put us all through this again?" Silver whined sadly. "Why did you kill Juniper?!"

"Knowing that this time, if they get away with it we'll all die, too..." Flash nodded sympathetically before his eyebrows furrowed. "What kind of horrible person-"

"Yeayeayeayea, whatever," Sugarcoat cut in, flicking her hands dismissively. "We're all pissed off, no need to beat around the bush about it. Let's just cut to the chase and find the asshole."

"We also need to figure out why," Sunset frowned. "Why did they kill Juniper?"

"Pff, that's easy. The motive, of course," Sugarcoat replied.

"Maybe, but there's a good bit of evidence to suggest that may not have been the case..."

"Uh, no. If there's anything I do know about people, they can't restrain themselves. Give them something they're not supposed to see until later, and of course they're gonna sneak a peek," she glared at Sunset.

"It's not wise to just assume these things about people!" Sunset argued, glaring back. "We need to go over everything!"

"Oh, we will. I'm just saying the obvious first!"

"No, you're shoehorning us into what you're thinking of first!" The budding argument between the two of them made me slap my forehead and drag it down my face.

Oh, boy... don't you realize you're both saying the same thing...?

"Hey, let's start with something everyone here can agree with," I raised my voice to get everyone's attention. "Let's just... start from the beginning, with the body."

"Hurgk... do we have to...?" Silver whined, gagging at the memory.

"'Fraid so," shrugged Memento. "Points for creativity, if nothing else."

"...Probably should've seen it coming since seeing that danger sign for it, in hindsight," said Sonata.

"But... half of the body wasn't even there anymore! Where do we even start?!" Soarin' grimaced.

"Well... with the half that was still there, I guess," I bit my lip in apprehension.

"Actually, I'd say more than half of her was left," said Memento. "She still had most of her clothes on."

"Wait... most of her clothes on...?" Sunburst blinked.

"Oh, yea... she wasn't wearing her skirt," glared Flash.

"What, like someone stole it off her dead body or something?" Indigo recoiled.

...No, nobody stole it!

"Wait, that's not right!" I exclaimed. "No one stole her skirt... it was thrown just a couple feet away from her body."

"Right... it was ripped, too. Like someone cut or tore it off..." Sunset's lips grew thin.

"Oh... ew..." Silver shivered. "That's... not cool."

"That... makes this so much worse," Indigo snarled.

"So the culprit was likely a man, then?" Mountain glared darkly around the room.

"Possibly... but not necessarily," said Sunburst. "That's just one piece of evidence towards that conclusion."

Ooh... no it isn't...

"Wait, that's not right!" I inhaled through my teeth before explaining. "There was another piece of clothing at the scene."

"Yea... we found a pair of men's swimming trunks," Sunset nodded.

"Oh? Who's are they?" Sugarcoat raised an eyebrow.

"Ocean said his were light blue, mine were black, Kotenage wasn't wearing any..." Flash counted out on his fingers.

"Uh... mine were white," Soarin' offered carefully.

"Well, what color were they?" asked Sonata.

"These swimming trunks were... navy blue in color," I answered. Sunburst gasped.

"Oh... that's where they were!" He smiled in understanding. Then his expression fell a few moments later. "Wait a minute... why were my swimming trunks beside the body?!"

"Isn't it obvious?" Sugarcoat sneered. Genuine terror filled Sunburst's eyes as he shook his hands in front of him.

"Goodness... no! No! I would never...!"

"I dunno... I saw the way you looked at the girls when they got naked," Ocean leered.

"Uh, no dude, I'm pretty sure that was you," Soarin' pointed at Ocean. "Sunburst did the gentlemanly thing and looked away."

He's right... he just doesn't seem the type...!

"Yea! I can agree with that!" I broke in. "So far, Sunburst has been pretty bashful around the girls. Combine that with the fact that he told Sunset and I that his swimming trunks were missing, and I just don't think he's the one who did it."

"HE ASKED ME TOO, NOW THAT I THINK OF IT," nodded Kotenage. "HE DEFINITELY ENTERED THE LOCKER ROOM WITH THEM ON."

"That's nothing," Sugarcoat sniffed. "Maybe he just bought another pair and used them as a decoy."

"I thought you didn't even believe this was the motive for the murder," Sunset grumbled, glancing at Sugarcoat.

"I still don't. I'm simply being the devil's advocate right now," she replied arrogantly.

"To be fair... you could easily come up with 'what if's' for every possible explanation, though," said Sonata.

"And it's still a solid motive! That whole bashful thing could just be an act, and he's actually a depraved, repressed weirdo!" Ocean thrust his finger at Sunburst.

"Bruh... go to horny jail," Indigo popped open a capsule from the MonoMono Machine and took out its contents, snapped it back together and lobbed it at Ocean's head. She then opened the bag of chips that had been inside and stuffed a few in her mouth. "I've spent enough time hanging out with you to know you're into some freaky shit; me too, don't get me wrong, but you're the only one who thinks that way."

"N-Not true!" Ocean stammered after the capsule bonked him on the temple.

"Hey! No eating in my court room! Clear liquids only!" Monokuma shouted. Indigo grumbled under her breath and shoved the chip bag into a coat pocket.

"Besides, do you really think the Ultimate Scholar would be stupid enough to leave behind such an obvious clue?" growled Sugarcoat. "What kind of brainless zygote would leave behind their fucking swimming trunks after doing something like that?!"

"That's true... it does seem a little too obvious, doesn't it?" hummed Memento.

"Now that I think about it, it does sound more and more like it was meant to mislead us," Sunset sighed. "Whoever did this planned on framing Sunburst for the murder." To her right, Sugarcoat slowclapped sarcastically.

"Now you see why it had to be because of the motive," she exhaled in a loud groan.

"Hey! People murder for that reason all the time!" Sunset retorted.

"Yes, but not in a place like this!" Sugarcoat snapped. "Even the most psychopathic, sociopathic buffoon isn't going to indulge their depraved fantasies if it could wind up leading to their certain death!"

Across the room, Sonata coughed. "Someone clearly hasn't played enough visual novel-slash-murder mystery games," she muttered.

"So... the culprit wasn't necessarily a man, then?" Mountain's expression softened slightly.

Wait... not necessarily a man...? Didn't I see something that could make that the case?

...

...

...Oh! I know!

"...You may be onto something, Emmy," I nodded slowly.

"Oh?" She jumped slightly.

"Yea... one of the clues we haven't gone over yet... you've all seen the mud surrounding that particular hot spring? It was tracked into both the men's and women's locker rooms."

"It was?" asked Memento. "So it really could have been any one of us, then." Uneasy silence drifted in the air as everyone glanced at one another. I wracked my brain in an effort to put together another line of questioning, as this one seemed to have come to an end.

Sunburst was likely innocent - between his swimming trunks being at the scene of the crime and his genuine confusion towards their disappearance and subsequent surprise towards their discovery, it was indeed likely to be a false clue. The tracked mud led me to believe that someone had gone into both locker rooms... perhaps the killer had stolen Sunburst's trunks from the men's, but what had been stolen from the women's? Then there were the remaining clues... where did they fit in? None of them led to a possible suspect either, at least not in a way I could deduce.

I let out a deep sigh. There was only one other avenue of discussion we could take... the one everyone dreaded to mention, including myself.

"...I'm afraid there's only one other thing we can talk about to point us in the right direction."

"Fiiiiinally," Sugarcoat groaned. "Time to settle this... now we talk about the motive. Which of us has each other's secret? We'll have to reveal them."

"Uh... d-do we really have to?" Soarin' cringed.

"Yea, I was kind of hoping we could, like... not," Sonata glanced away. Keeping my expression as neutral as possible I tapped on my Monopad, where a new tab had been added this morning. It was flashing obscenely, begging to be opened. I stifled a sigh and opened it.

The tab stopped flashing, and I was greeted by an image of Monokuma grinning while a blank speech bubble above him filled with words. So, whose secret do I have to share with you, it taunted before laughing. The image disappeared, soon replaced with an image of...

...Sunset.

Sunset Shimmer. Doesn't she look sweet? Monokuma's head reappeared, along with the same speech bubble. But her secret is anything but... Using magic, Sunset once transformed into a horrible monster and tried to take over her high school! And not in the lame after-school-special way, neither! After mindcontrolling all those teenagers, she wanted to take over the world!

...That's it?

I mean, yea, on the surface that sounded pretty bad. But that was years ago, she was almost immediately defeated by Twilight and her parallel universe friends, she'd told me all about it... to me, that really wasn't much of a secret. But I could see how the others might react negatively to it.

I wonder what my secret is...?

"Too bad, it's all we've got left at this point," Sugarcoat sighed and scrunched up her nose. After a beat of silence she jabbed a finger at Soarin'. "Alright, we'll start with you and continue down the line... well? Spill."

"Ooh... and here I was only gonna reveal the secret of the blackened when the time was right, but this is juicy!" Monokuma leaned forward in his seat.

"Wha- hey! Why do we have to start with me?!" he recoiled. "I don't want them getting mad at me, even if they are the killer... If they aren't, I might be next, then!"

"I can start, if it makes you feel any better," Sunset offered, though she didn't seem too happy about it. I wondered whose secret she had... and I wasn't too sure I wanted to hear my own secret coming from someone else's mouth, even though I honestly had no idea what it could've been.

"No... here, how about this," I shook my head. "We all have someone else's secret, right? When it's your turn, just point to the person whose secret you have. You don't have to say anything else."

"Aww..." Monokuma huffed.

"Oh... yea, I guess that's okay," Soarin' nodded. He still took a moment to compose himself before pointing to his right. "Uh... well, I got yours, Sonata."

"Oh! You did?" Sonata chirped before pointing back. "Well, I guess that's alright. I got yours too, Soarin'!"

"Oh... uh..." Soarin' rubbed his head, embarrassed.

"Alright... well, I have yours, Starlight," Sunset pointed at me. I tried to read her expression to get a hint of what my secret could be, but nothing really stood out. Either way, my heart immediately felt lighter - I knew my secret was safe with her, whatever it was.

"Ah. I have yours as well," I replied, pointing at her. Her face visibly brightened, and she gave me a slight nod.

"I have Indy's secret," Ocean spoke up, pointing at her.

"Hey, I got yours, too!" she smirked as she pointed back. "I bet mine's cooler than yours!"

"AND I HAVE SENTRY-SAN'S SECRET," Kotenage pointed at Flash.

"I got yours too, man..." Flash pointed back. "...Though I don't know why peeing in a hot spring is a secret." Before anyone could react Kotenage gasped loudly, his face rapidly draining of blood.

"AGH! WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?! IT'S SO SHAMEFUL... I WAS JUST TOO COMFORTABLE TO MOVE!" he wailed. Glancing around the room, I saw that everyone else was just as confused as I was.

...Must be a cultural thing?

"...I hope that didn't happen just a few hours ago," Indigo grimaced.

"What? Everyone does it," Ocean shrugged. Indigo's eyes shifted over to him.

"Er... well, I have Sunburst's secret," said Silver.

"And I have yours as well, Silver," he replied.

"I've got Sugarcoat's secret," Memento said, her eyes slightly narrowed as she looked at her.

"Hmph... and I have yours, Memento," Sugarcoat replied, meeting her gaze. "It would seem that we've all been arranged into pairs. Whoever has one person's secret, that person has the other's. And guess who we haven't heard from yet...?"

Could it really be that easy? Only one of us hadn't spoken... and they were stoically staring at the ground. My lips pressed together as I thought about the clues, and as I considered them, everything began to click.

It still didn't make sense, though... why? Why would they go this far?

...Didn't she care what would happen to her brother...?

"You... you had Juniper's secret, didn't you... Mountain."

Author's Note:

Ehehehehe... sorry this took so long to write. After finishing mortuary school I had to take two national exams, and I'm trying to find a job, and I've just either wanted to play a video game or just felt "eh" about writing...

The next chapter is already almost finished, though! Much longer than this one too, I promise.