Hell Springs Forth - Deadly Life 3
She jumped in place as her name passed over my lips. "Uh... yes? What are you getting at...?" Mountain asked, slowly and tentatively.
"What are we getting at...? Seriously?" Sugarcoat scoffed.
"Yea, what are you getting at?!" Ocean yelled angrily. "That's my sister you're talking to!"
"YOU DID SAY YOU WERE GOING TO RAKE THE SAND IN THE ZEN GARDEN FOR A WHILE, WHILE JUNIPER, SUNBURST AND I SHOWERED," said Kotenage. "SO THAT MAKES YOU THE LAST PERSON IN THE AREA!"
"Y-Yes, but I had no reason to kill Juniper," Mountain gulped almost imperceptibly, trying to keep her voice steady. "I never even read her secret."
"Oh, so she read yours, then? And then maybe she just wanted to talk about it, and you killed her?" Sonata tilted her head, eyes wide and innocent.
"I, uh... no..."
"Psh, please..." Sugarcoat rolled her eyes. "That definitely means she saw your secret."
"I did not kill her," Mountain asserted. "I spent about fifteen minutes raking the sand, then I got cold and returned to my cottage. Alone. I never saw Juniper or anyone else."
"Yea! There's no way my sis would ever kill someone!" Ocean nodded. But as she spoke, a thought came to me.
She was raking the sand... there's something related there, I can feel it...
Where was Mountain raking sand? ...In the Zen garden, of course. Now, what is the Zen garden right next to? ...The dangerous hot spring, right. So why did the rake have sand stuck to its prongs? ...Because it was dipped into the hot spring!
It's all coming together!
"You know, Emmy... there's no water in the Zen garden, correct?" I asked.
"Uh, yea... why?" she pursed her lips.
"Well, we looked at the rakes... and the longest one had sand stuck to its prongs. Dry sand isn't going to stick to anything that's already dry." I watched Mountain's expression begin to crack as she realized the implication.
"But... if that rake was wet? Like... someone maybe got it wet pushing Juniper into the hot spring...?" Memento smirked.
"Dry sand would definitely stick to a wet rake," finished Sunset.
"I... no! Not at all! I see it's time for me to go on the hunt!" Mountain argued, suddenly staring daggers at me. "How would anyone even accomplish that?! You've seen those rakes, they're made of flimsy bamboo! There's no way anyone could push with enough force to knock Juniper into the hot spring!"
"Maybe not," I admitted, "...but that's not the only way they could've been used."
"Oh yea? How? I've used hunting spears, you know, and a bamboo rake is nothing like that! You can't stab, you can't slash, and you definitely can't push! You can't even hold something down with one of those!"
Ha! I've got you now!
"Funny you should mention holding something down with a rake." I felt a small smirk inch its way across my face. "Because if you saw Juniper's body, you would've seen that her legs and torso were pressed down into the mud."
"They... t-they were...?" Mountain blinked rapidly, her aggressive demeanor evaporating like steam.
"I see... maybe you didn't hit Juniper with the rake, but simply swinging it at her would definitely make her step back," reasoned Sunset.
"And then she stumbled in the mud surrounding the hot spring and fell in... and then you held her down to finish her off!" I added.
"Oh... that's like crashing and dying in a big ball of fire... but wet!" Silver shuddered in horror.
"Dude, gnarly..." Indigo sighed, her face in a twist between disgust and horror.
"But what about Sunburst?" Ocean shouted, pointing at him. "If you seriously think my sister did it, then why the fuck were his swimming trunks there?!"
"W-well, like I said... I took them off in the locker room to take my shower, and when I was finished, they were gone," Sunburst frowned.
"Right, like a fuckin' Sasquatch made off with them or something?" retorted Ocean. "Why didn't you just follow the trail of nasty-ass fur it left behind, then?!"
...A trail? ...A trail!
"Yea! I can agree with that!" I yelled loud enough to break through Ocean's rant. "Actually, Ocean, there was a trail of sorts... In both the men's and women's locker rooms, there was orange mud on the floor."
"And? What about it? We are in the middle of a forest, where the floor is made of fuckin' dirt and it's been snowing and melting on and off," he glowered.
"Only the dangerous hot spring had that orange mud around it," said Indigo. "It was like nature's sign for 'stay the fuck away from this place'."
"Right... and there was even some of it scraped off on the stone lantern near the shower building," added Sunset. "Like they realized it, but didn't quite get it all off."
"I... but... but..." Mountain stammered, her composure breaking. Glancing over towards Ocean, so was his. In fact, Ocean looked far more offended by the accusation than his sister did. His face was an ugly shade of purplish-red, and his eyes were squinted so tightly they were almost shut.
"It was not my sister!" he screamed, angry tears beginning to stream down his face. "She had no reason to kill Juniper! She'd never kill another human being! Even if she did, she'd never do so in such a fuckin' cruel, inhumane way! She respects life too much to do somethin' like that! No... you're dumb! You're fuckin' dumb!"
I glanced over towards Mountain again - the usually stoic huntress was frozen in fear. Her jaw was painfully clenched behind her balled fists, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, the teeth on her necklace clattering. A pang of guilt caught my heart... she had always been friendly towards us all.
...Was it all a lie, though? And even if it was...
...Was she really willing to sacrifice her own brother...?
"If Emmy didn't even know what Juniper's secret was, then why the flying-fish-fuck would she kill her?!"
As his words reverberated in my mind, an image came to me. Murky and dark, from the depths of my memories. As it came to the surface, I saw its shape... and the final clue revealed itself. Suddenly, it all became clear.
I can prove it was you!
"...Maybe she really didn't know what Juniper's secret was," I answered somberly. "...But Juniper knew hers, and she didn't want anyone else to find out... so she threw Juniper's Monopad into the hot spring."
"She... what...?" Ocean blinked and stopped shouting.
"Right... if it didn't break due to being boiled, then it might've remained lost in there under all the mud," said Sunset.
"Not to mention most people would hesitate to go digging around in there, due to poor Juniper being partially dissolved in the water," added Memento.
"It would also explain why there was mud in not only the men's locker room, but the women's, too," I continued. "Juniper most likely didn't have her Monopad on her, but she did have her locker's key. After rifling through her pockets, Mountain took the key and got the Monopad from her locker at the same time she stole Sunburst's swimming trunks."
"Damn it..." Mountain hissed under her breath, tears finally beginning to fall as she blinked. Ocean stared at her, his anger replaced with sad betrayal and shock.
"Emmy... really...? Y-You did it...?" he mouthed.
"Yes..." she sobbed, immediately bowing her head to hide her face. "I... god, I didn't mean to... I didn't want to...!"
"But... B-But... w-what about...?" Ocean's lower lip trembled.
"Damn... you were willing to let your own brother die with the rest of us?" Soarin' asked, shocked.
"N... N-No... I... I...!" Mountain began to hyperventilate in a vain attempt to stop crying.
"That's cold... ice cold..." Sonata breathed, before her face twisted into a chilling grin for a moment. "...I'm impressed!"
"Say what?" Sunset didn't miss a beat.
"Nothiiiiing!" Sonata sing-songed, rolling her eyes and smiling innocently.
"Well, I must say... well done, Starlight," Sugarcoat finally spoke, slow-clapping again as she spoke through a venomous grin. "Of course I knew my hunch was right, but you arrived at the same conclusion and put it so eloquently! ...See what I mean? Nobody can resist peeking at a secret," she smirked as her gaze lingered on Sunset, who growled in return.
"God... you are the worst sister ever," Indigo grunted at Mountain. "Even my older sis isn't that much of a bitch."
"Well, let's go over this one more time, just to be 100% sure," said Flash. "I mean... doesn't hurt to be thorough, especially if all our lives are on the line."
"Okay," I nodded, taking a deep breath.
This is the truth of the case!
"It began when Monokuma announced the new motive this morning at breakfast. He just couldn't help himself from potentially ruining our trust-building exercise. After some discussion, it was decided that the party would be held anyway, and we would all gather and talk about the motive at dinner after the party, when we were all more relaxed and in a better mood. Most of us didn't even have our Monopads with us at the time, so they couldn't look at their random secret then if they wanted to. However, Juniper was one of the few that did have her Monopad with her. Sometime between breakfast and the murder, she peeked at her secret. It was apparently so interesting, that she couldn't wait until dinner to discuss it with the secret's owner... who unfortunately, turned out to be her killer.
"After the party ended at 4:00pm, a few of us who had brought their clothes with them to the shower building remained behind at the hot springs. Kotenage took his shower first, while Juniper and Sunburst were next in line. After Kotenage was finished, Juniper took her shower next. When she finished, it was finally Sunburst's turn. However, instead of going back to the main campgrounds, Juniper sought out the owner of the secret she had read.
"At this time, the killer had decided to rake the sand in the Zen garden for a while to decompress after all that socializing. When Juniper approached them, wanting to know the details of the secret, the killer reacted by swinging the rake they were holding at Juniper. Not a fatal blow in the slightest, except Juniper stumbled and fell directly into the boiling hot spring. She tried to get out, but the killer then held her in place with the rake until she succumbed to the boiling water and drowned.
"Now it was time to obfuscate what had happened. First, the killer put the rake back in the Zen garden, unaware that the dry sand would cling to the wet prongs. Next, they searched Juniper's body... presumably for her Monopad, but although they didn't find it on her, they did find the key to her locker in the shower building. They made their way to that building - noticing that mud from the boiling spring covered their shoes, they scraped off as much of it as they could on a nearby stone lantern. However, they didn't get it all off. Mud was left behind as they first opened Juniper's locker and took her Monopad, and then when they noticed that Sunburst was still showering, opened his locker and stole his swimming trunks.
"Finally, the killer made their way back to the boiling spring and Juniper's body. First they threw the Monopad into the hot spring, hoping that if the heat didn't destroy it, then the water would at least hide it from view. Then they cut Juniper's skirt off of her body and tossed it aside, along with the stolen swimming trunks. This was to hide the intent of the murder. After finishing their tampering of the crime scene, the killer made their retreat back to their cottage and a warm shower, as all that running and motion had sapped their body heat.
...Well? Isn't that what happened, Mountain Lucky, the Ultimate Hunter?"
Defeated, Mountain raised her head slowly and sniffled before nodding once. "...Yes. You caught me," she admitted quietly.
"Wooooow! Slam dunk! Hook, line and sinkerrrrr!" Monokid howled raucously, strumming a jumble of notes on his guitar.
"W-We don't know that... Maybe the real culprit is someone nobody expects!" Monosuke tried his best to stifle his laughter, but was failing pretty miserably.
"Alright, let's go!" Monokuma leapt up from his throne, pumping a fist into the air. "The heart-racing excitement as the blackened and the spotless finally face off...!"
"IT'S VOTING TIME!" Monokuma and his Kubs cried in unison. A noise drew my attention to my lectern, where the surface had split itself down the middle and slid apart, revealing the sixteen buttons. Now in addition to Dr. Hooves', Button's and Juniper's faces were dark as well.
A huge TV monitor lowered from somewhere high above, stopping just above Monokuma's throne and showing a countdown from 30. I heard groans of lamentation all around me as I stared at the buttons, feeling sick to my stomach.
I sighed and closed my eyes as I pressed Mountain's button. A few more seconds passed before the countdown vanished, replaced by a blaring siren and an image of Monokuma holding up a sign that said "Announcement". More than one of us jumped at the sudden noise.
"Now, then... it seems the voting has finished!" Monokuma giggled. "Let's see the result!"
The image on the giant monitor switched briefly to show the words "Voting Results", then switched again to display our names next to images of our face, arranged into two tidy columns. I felt my heart skip a beat as tally marks quickly appeared beside Mountain's face.
It was not a unanimous decision this time. Ocean had been unable to accept that his own sister had committed a murder, and had instead elected to vote for Sunburst. A flash of mixed emotions crossed Sunburst's face as he noticed and looked towards Ocean.
"Who'll be chosen as the blackened?" Monokuma continued to taunt. "Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one? What's it gonna be? What's it gonna beeee?!"
The giant monitor's image died for a second, only to next display a wheel labeled "Verdict" divided into sixteen sections, each with one of our faces on it. Light spun around the sections in a clockwise fashion, gradually slowing down until it came to a stop right on Mountain's section. Bells rang in celebration, and Monocoins and confetti fell from the ceiling as Mountain's name flashed across the screen.
It was true.
I was right.
A weight lifted from my shoulders, while crushing my soul at the same time.
*Class Trial End! All Rise!*
"Oh, my!" Monokuma exclaimed. "You... mostly all voted correctly! What an unexpected and unpredictable outcome! The blackened who killed Juniper Montage is Mountain Lucky, the Ultimate Hunter!" Below him, the Monokubs cheered and hollered in celebration.
"Phew... we survived..." Flash exhaled deeply, slumping against his lectern. "...That's good."
"Good?! There's nothing good about this at all!" Indigo shouted.
"Sis... what the fuck...?" Ocean stared at Mountain, almost on the verge of tears himself. "You knew I'd die, too... why? Why the fuck did you do that...?!" But Mountain, staring at the screen above us with hopelessness in her eyes, could not answer.
"You were always so nice to us..." Silver trailed off.
"Why, sis?! WHY?!" Ocean screamed. Mountain blinked, finally able to tear her eyes away from the screen, and met his gaze. She loudly exhaled through her teeth for a few breaths before finally speaking.
"...I didn't mean to." Her teeth clenched and her eyes shut tightly, forcing out tears. "...I never meant to kill her."
"Oh?" Sugarcoat sneered, raising her eyebrow in fake interest.
"It's true... she had my secret. She came up to me wanting to know the details because she thought it would make for a good movie. She wanted to act as me in it, said she'd win an Oscar for sure..."
"Ooh! Sounds like a blockbuster!" Sonata giggled. Mountain's face immediately flashed with anger.
"NO! Nobody can know what I did!" she screamed, then fell back into a quiet voice. "...She kept insisting, getting in my face about it... I tried to push her away with the rake, but she tripped and stumbled right into the hot spring. I ran over immediately to try to get her out, but..." Now Mountain fell silent.
"...The damage was already done, huh?" Memento frowned. "Falling in boiling water, with our lack of serious medical supplies? I might only work on the dead, but even I know that's a poor prognosis."
Mountain nodded shakily. "...She tried to scream, tried to lift herself out of the water, but the pain must've been too much. She kept flailing, water kept getting into her mouth... I... I already knew I was dead, so... I... held her under and... put her out of her misery. It was the last kind thing I could do for her..."
"B-But I was there!" Sunburst yelled. "I-I know some medicine, I could have helped her!"
"That's why I ran to the shower building!" Mountain hiccoughed, more tears dripping down. "But then I realized she was already dead, and I would simply be making someone else a witness... so I... tried to hide it. But even after I had, I-I couldn't make myself rejoin the o-others... I got dressed a-as quickly as I could and hid in the forest i-instead, all the way up until the b-body discovery announcement played... but I tried to frame you... I'm so s-sorry, I wasn't th-thinking-"
Sunburst held up his hand. "Well... I can't say that I'm pleased you did... but I do understand why you did it."
"Me too. And now you're gonna die for it," Sugarcoat put her hands on her hips and glared.
"Wait! Don't you guys want to know what her secret she tried so desperately to keep secret was?!" exclaimed Monokuma.
"What?! No! Please, no!" Mountain begged desperately. But it was already halfway out of Monokuma's mouth.
"Mountain Lucky is partially responsible for the Winsome Falls High School Poisoning." The last word hung chillingly in the air. Mountain's expression fell even lower that I thought possible. She bent her head as she shrank down onto her lectern, barely holding on.
"P-Poisoning...?" Sunburst stuttered weakly.
"Damn it..." Mountain whispered to herself, even more tears streaming down her cheeks. Across the room, Ocean gasped.
"...Is that why you stopped...?" he murmured.
"W-What happened?" Sugarcoat growled. When Mountain didn't respond immediately, she slammed her fist down on her lectern. "What did you do, damn it?!" Mountain sobbed quietly to herself for a few moments before the barest of whispers escaped from her mouth.
"...It... I-It was karma."
"Do you want to tell us about it? It sounds like it's weighing down on you a lot," asked Memento.
"Also, if you don't, then I willlllll," Monokuma smiled devilishly. Mountain inhaled messily with a sniffle.
"...When I was a teenager, I was already renowned for my abilities. People hired me to take care of problem animals, to cull an overpopulation... But there were also people who... offered me even more money if I caught certain animals for them..."
"So you were a poacher?" Soarin' spat. Mountain recoiled at the word.
"...Y-Yes. But only if the buyer promised to use the rest of the animal, in the case of hunting elephants or rhinos for their ivory, or big cats for their hides and body parts."
"You do realize that they likely only said that to get you to do it?" The venom dripped from Sugarcoat's every word. She simply wanted to see Mountain suffer at this point.
"Ye... Y-Yes... I am aware," she sighed mournfully. "I also captured their offspring, to sell to private owners... some of them made it to zoos."
"That... that's horrible!" Silver yelled, appalled.
"I know," Mountain's head bowed even lower, nearly touching her lectern with her forehead. There was an angry silence in the air for a few moments.
"...But what does this have to do with that poisoning?" asked Sunburst.
"In high school, I had a friend," Mountain spoke solemnly. "Her dream was to be a herpetologist... to study reptiles and amphibians. She had an entire room in her house dedicated to her many pets... snakes, lizards, frogs, toads... you name it. But... unfortunately, she was bullied by many of our classmates, simply for her interests."
"O-Oh..." Sunset looked down at her lectern miserably. I could only imagine the guilt she still felt from her own high school days.
"Yep... kids can be right bastards at that age," Memento sighed, nodding.
"...One day, I told her about my next trip to the Tenochtitlan Basin, to hunt a man-eating jaguar, when she asked me a favor: to catch her a golden poison frog. She wanted to expand her menagerie and admired its color. I did ask about the frog's toxicity, as they were used to poison arrows for hunting and were one of the most toxic animals in the world, but she assured me that without its diet of a specific beetle, it would soon be rendered perfectly safe. So I went, and I managed to catch three of them for her. Using my contacts, I smuggled them without incident and gave them to her... she was ecstatic when she told me I had managed to catch two females and one male." A small smile graced her lips at the memory.
"Impressive... those things are endangered!" Monosuke chuckled. "You're exactly my kind of magical human trash!"
"Then what happened...?" breathed Flash.
"It wasn't until my next hunting expedition," Mountain swallowed, her voice cracking. "While my brother and I were absent from school, my friend decided to make a large batch of cupcakes. For her birthday, she said, except that her real birthday had been four months prior, but it wasn't like anyone cared about that detail..."
"...I think I can see where this is going," Memento cringed.
"She handed them out in the morning, before classes began. By the end of the first class, the parking lot was full of ambulances. They were chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate ganache frosting... that had been laced with poison from the frogs. Turns out they can stay poisonous for years after their diet of beetles is cut off. The frosting was also decorated with rock candy, to cause abrasions in the mouth when chewed, and to let the poison into the bloodstream. As she'd expected, her bullies took more than one cupcake... one of them grabbed four. Out of the 46 people who had eaten a cupcake... 17 of them died, and most of those who were saved never fully recovered from the poisoning."
A somber silence hung in the air, thick like mist. My mind raced with horrible thoughts born from that information, while it struggled to shut it out at the same time. My fingers felt cold, my lips numb.
"How... H-How...?" Sunburst mouthed.
"It was all over the news, even where my brother and I had gone," Mountain continued. "I dreaded returning home, fearing the police would be waiting for me. But my friend never told anyone where the golden poison frogs had come from... at least, I assume so. I've never had any run-ins with the law to this day, and I've also never been able to contact her again... how could I-I? If I were to thank her for n-never turning me in, or even try to a-ask her how she's doing, th-they'd know who got her the f-frogs..."
I could feel my heart break as I watched Mountain break down, burying her face in her arms as she slumped onto her lectern and cried. What she had done was horrible, to be sure, but she never meant to be the pawn in a plan for revenge. It was plain as day that the guilt of her actions weighed heavily on her heart. I bit my lip as I reexamined my own past for the hundredth, thousandth time...
...at one point, that could've been me.
"...I-I immediately ghosted my c-contacts after that. I have n-never poached another a-animal since that day..." she sobbed.
Nobody spoke for a few moments... what could we say?
"...And on that bombshell, I think it's time for the main event!" said Monokuma.
"Oh, no..." I gasped, realizing what he meant by that.
"Wh... Main e-event...?!" Silver trembled.
"Oh, right..." Sonata cooed, as if remembering a forgotten chore.
"I have a special punishment prepared for the Ultimate Hunter, Mountain Lucky!" the bear continued. Mountain's sobbing grew louder, knowing her time was almost up.
"Wait... W-Wait...!" Ocean stammered, tears welling in his eyes as he reached out towards his sister.
"Let's give it everything we've got!" Monokuma's shouting built in a crescendo. Inhaling a loud gasp of air, Mountain stopped crying long enough to lift her head and take one last look at her brother.
"...I'm so s-sorry, Ocean."
IIIIIT'S... PUNISHMENT TIME!
A large, red button rose up in front of Monokuma's throne as the bear pulled out a toy gavel from nowhere in particular. His red eye gleamed mischievously, and with a hop and a squeak from the gavel he smashed the button with all his might. He and his Kubs then leapt down from their stage and out of sight as the giant monitor flashed back to life. It displayed an image of Mountain standing in front of a fence as Monokuma slowly walked past, the bear grabbing and pulling her by her hair as he continued off screen. Text above and below the image read "Game Over" and "Mountain has been found guilty. Time for the punishment!" as the unfitting music played.
The long chain shot down from the ceiling and clapped its shackle around Mountain's throat. Her screams echoed hauntingly as she was dragged away. I wanted to reach out to her, but quickly the sparkling lights and pulling sensation stopped me - we were all being teleported again.
"No, sis! No!" Ocean shouted as we all vanished in a dazzling field of sparkles. We reappeared not a second later in the same confined section of bleachers, but in a new area this time: it was within a small clearing in the middle of the forest, with an asphalt two-lane road right in front of us. The full moon shone down from above, bathing us in its silver light... odd, since it had been snowing somewhat heavily when we'd gone down the elevator.
Wait... a road? ...A road!
But before I could think of any plan to use this rare opportunity, perhaps tossing something of mine out of the cage and into the road to be discovered by a passerby, a giant TV monitor lashed to a large tree buzzed to life... and I gasped.
Mountain had been trapped in a rope snare - she was hanging about ten feet off the ground by her ankle, upside down. She was struggling to hoist her torso upwards to free herself. In the distance I could hear howling, like timberwolves... the camera panned over to show Monokuma and the Kubs on top of a hill, each riding on the back of a mechanical wolf, patterned in the same black and white as their leader. Monokuma's wolf sniffed the air, its red eye gleaming, and it turned its face to the sky and bellowed loudly, the other wolves joining in.
*Ultimate Hunter Mountain Lucky's Execution: Executed*
*The Life of a Prey Animal*
Suddenly, the wolves began running down the hill, straight towards Mountain. They were quite some distance away, but at their rate of speed they would be upon her within a minute. Glancing their way, Mountain tried once more to hoist herself upright, flexing her abs as hard as they would allow. Finally, she managed to lift her arms just enough to grab onto her legs. She let go with one arm and moved her hand to her hair, removing a hair clip from her bangs. The camera zoomed in - the hair clip was black metal rather than plastic, with one end sharpened into a point and one side forming a serrated edge.
Her hair clip... was that what she used...?
Mountain adjusted the hair clip in her hand and frantically sawed at the rope with it. Slowly but surely the rope began to fray, but the wolves were fast approaching. The camera was close enough to pick up her heavy breathing as she desperately sawed faster.
The mechanical wolves leapt into the air, just as the rope snapped. Mountain fell like a lead weight, groaning in pain as her back hit the ground. But as the wolves landed, she recovered and began tearing her way through the forest, slinking between trees and through bushes in an effort to escape. The forest was thick and dense; branches rebounded and slapped her body, while thorny bushes scratched at her exposed skin. She grunted and inhaled through her teeth as she created some distance between herself and her pursuers.
The trees thinned out, and Mountain allowed a small smile to cross her lips as she approached the small clearing. But that smile quickly faded as her foot brushed against a barely-visible cord hidden in the grass, and suddenly the ground in front of her slipped away like a rug being pulled out, revealing a long, deep trench filled with sharp, narrow spikes. Without missing a beat, Mountain leapt as far as she could, just barely clearing the pit as the Monokubs on their wolves skidded to a halt at the other side.
They didn't pursue her, at least not at first. She continued to run as they paced and watched... dread dripped down my neck as I wondered why. The answer was soon apparent as Mountain shouted, and something metal slammed shut. The ground of the next part of the forest she had entered was littered with bear traps hidden under piles of leaves, sticks and moss. She danced awkwardly as she did her best to avoid the traps while putting distance between herself and the Monokubs...
...But she couldn't avoid them all. A bear trap slammed shut on her lower right leg, tearing into her flesh. Mountain fell to the ground and screamed in agony. At the sound of her screams the wolves finally prepared to leap over the trench, trotting back a ways to get a running start. Tears streamed down her face as Mountain grabbed a nearby stout stick and wedged it between the trap's teeth, opening the jaws just enough for her to escape. She stumbled to her feet and frantically hobbled away as fast as she could as the last of the wolves crossed the gap and resumed their pursuit. Blood dripped from her leg as she limped, leaving behind an obvious trail; her eyes widened with pain and fear, and her breathing grew ragged.
I could feel a slight rumbling in the ground... what horrible trap could she face next?
She ran, and she ran, until suddenly she blasted out of the forest and into the road right in front of us. We all gasped at the sudden realization of seeing her there, and she came to a stop as she recognized us all, nearly tripping over herself. Her lower leg was completely soaked with blood now, and the adrenaline seemed to be wearing off just enough that Mountain bent over and grabbed at her wound. She ripped off part of her pant leg, tattered by the bear trap, and began tying it around the torn flesh...
And then the rumbling grew much stronger. A pair of blinding lights froze Mountain where she stood as a fully-loaded logging truck came speeding down the road. There was no squealing of brakes, no effort to slow down as it charged towards her, intent on running her over. Mountain blinked, her mouth open in a silent scream; she couldn't hope to move fast enough to get out of the way in time.
SIIIIIIIIIIS!
Suddenly, something dashed onto the road and shoved Mountain out of the way just before disappearing under the logging truck. A horrible crunch and a wet scraping noise filled my ears as the truck passed by, jolting slightly as the tires ran it over. And as the truck drove off into the darkness, I couldn't help but stare at the motionless lump left behind.
"O... O-Ocean...?" Mountain breathed, then blinked, then screamed. "OCEAN!" Everyone gasped as our vision forced its way into focus, and we realized that that motionless lump was Mountain's brother.
"Wha... what?!" Indigo shouted in confusion.
"O-Ocean?! How did he...?!" Soarin' stammered. I whipped around to take a head count of the others, not wanting to believe what I'd just seen. I counted out the survivors; myself, Sunset, Flash, Sunburst, Silver, Indigo, Sonata, Soarin', Kotenage, Memento, Sugarcoat...
...and behind her was a gap in the cage, a pair of bolt cutters on the ground beside it. They were small enough that Ocean definitely could have hidden them on his person without us noticing.
Ocean... he... he...
The others took note of the gap in the cage, and a few moments later we had all gathered around Mountain, who was cradling her brother's broken body in her arms as she cried hysterically. One look at him told me he wasn't going to make it - one of his legs had been mangled beyond recognition, and his femur was poking out of his other. His chest and arms were also mangled and soaked with blood and shreds of fat globules, and his head... almost his entire face was scraped clean and bleeding, and I gagged when I realized that his left eye was nearly squished out of its socket.
"Ohhhh... oh, Ocean..." Memento paled, her arms dropping limply to her sides. Silver quickly turned away and began trying to keep her hyperventilating under control, while Indigo stumbled a few feet away and vomited.
"W-Why...?!" Mountain sobbed. "Y-You f-f-fucking i-idiot, w-why?!" Weakly, Ocean opened his mouth, but all that came out was a deep rattling noise and a gush of blood. She didn't seem to notice or even care that she was quickly becoming soaked in blood. "I-I gave myself u-up so t-t-this wouldn't h-happen to y-you... why?!"
"I... I think he's dead already..." Sugarcoat whispered, her face pale, her expression as hopeless as the rest of ours.
"S-Shut up! No... Ocean, b-brother... c-c'mon, say s-something!" Mountain begged, shaking Ocean's body. The only response she got back was a couple of uneven, raspy, empty gasps for air. As Mountain trembled and sobbed, Memento slowly shook her head, walked over to them and gently slid her hand over Ocean's eyes to close them.
"I'm sorry, Emmy... he's gone..." she sniffled, laying her other hand on Mountain's shoulder. The affirmation of death only caused Mountain's shoulders to heave, her sobbing incoherent. Watching through teary eyes, I only barely noticed wisps of light blue energy leaving Ocean's mouth and trailing off towards Monokuma's waiting jaws.
Before anyone else could step forward to comfort her, however, the world disappeared in a flash of sparkles.
~
An instant later we all reappeared in the trial room. As Monokuma and the Kubs reappeared as well (Monophanie already in the process of vomiting her guts out), Mountain blinked and trembled in disbelief when she saw that Ocean's body had not followed us here.
"O-Ocean... N-No... Where's my brother?!" she screamed angrily, wrapping her arms around herself rather than where Ocean's body had just been. "What did you do with him?!"
"Hmm? What, that loser?" Monokuma sneered, wiping away the remnants of glowing energy from his teeth. "What about him?"
"Don't you talk about him like that! You... you pushed him into the road!" she accused, pointing at the bear. "Why?! Why would you kill him?!"
"I did no such thing," he replied casually, although his red eye was glowing ominously. "He decided to cut through the safety fence and pushed you out of the way of your justly-deserved death. Not my fault he wasn't fast enough himself."
"Heh! Ain't that called irony or somethin'?" Monosuke chuckled behind him.
"C-Can't you do something?!" Silver quivered. "Can't you h-help him?! H-He wasn't s-supposed to die! Th-That's against your own rules!"
"What, you think I have access to some kind of healing magic? Or do you want me to raise him from the dead?" Monokuma smirked. "There ain't much left of him, he wouldn't be that great of a zombie."
"You can do something! I saw that magic get sucked into your mouth!" Sunset shouted, furious tears in her eyes.
"Oh, that? I was simply disposing of it. He doesn't need it any longer," the bear shrugged. "Sorry, but them's the breaks. He's dead! Departed! Expired! Perished! Kicked the bucket! Pushing up daisies! Pining for the fjords! And it's all his own sister's fault."
"That's not fair... Th-That's not f-f-fair...!" Mountain shrieked.
"Not fair, eh? Isn't it fair that you get to live?!" Monokuma suddenly leapt into Mountain's face, claws extended on his raised paws. "Here I am trying to give the world what it wants, trying to remove a filthy magical mass murderer from polite society, and SOMEONE goes barging in like a hero and gets himself killed... saving trash like you! YOU were supposed to die! YOU murdered a fellow camper and YOU were supposed to die! Not him! He was just a stupid idiot throwing away his life to save your worthless hide... it's YOUR own damn fault your brother is dead! Ugh, I spent all day putting that excellent execution together..."
I heard gasps all around me, drowning out my own as I listened to this cruel monster berating her. Mountain had no response as Monokuma huffed and seethed. She glared through her tears at him until grief overwhelmed her once more, and she bowed her head in grim acceptance.
"...Ah, whatever," the bear eventually shrugged again. "So the wrong person died this time. That'll just make things interesting in the future..."
"I-It will...?" shivered Sunburst.
"Now we have to live with her..." Sugarcoat seethed, her eyes full of contempt as she stared at Mountain.
"And who knows when she'll kill again..." grinned Monotaro.
"Once a killer, always a killer!" Monokid howled with laughter. The other Monokubs joined in as they hopped down out of sight, their cruel laughter echoing in the otherwise silent room...
...Except for Monophanie. During Monokuma's outburst she had stood stock still, as if she were just as horrified as the rest of us to hear the words coming from his mouth. Even as her father and brothers vanished she remained in place... standing there, watching silently.
Finally, after a few more moments, she took a few tentative steps in Mountain's direction. Hearing her footsteps Mountain dragged her eyes upward to look at the pink and white bear.
"Um..." Monophanie shivered, her voice timid and wavering. "...S-Sorry about your brother..." Mountain's expression shifted slightly, before fresh tears overcame her. If she had uttered her thanks, it was fully choked out by her sobs. Monophanie fidgeted for a moment before awkwardly dashing away into the darkness.
She... she apologized...?
Nobody spoke for a few moments... some of us had to sit down to process all that had just happened. Mountain cried pitifully, her sobs and gasps for air the only background noise. I felt like I should go over and try to comfort her... but what could I possibly say? And the way that most of the others were looking at her...
Anger... hate... disbelief... fear... rejection... disgust... shame...
I could see it all in their eyes... I could feel it deep down in my very soul.
It reminded me too much of how I once saw myself. How I once saw everypony around me. I glanced over to Sunset, gasping lightly as I saw the same emotions on her own face.
Finally, Memento quietly walked towards Mountain, knelt down and gently placed a hand on her back. "I can't imagine the pain you're feeling right now... but we'll get through this together, alright? You won't be alone." Mountain's cries grew slightly calmer, but her shoulders heaved and shuddered.
"I beg your fucking pardon?" Sugarcoat gaped, emphasizing every other word as she stared incredulously at Memento. "You do realize she's the reason all of this happened, right?!"
"I do, yes," Memento replied simply.
"Why... why the fuck should we help her...?" Indigo spoke through clenched teeth, voice shivering with anger. "She's the reason both Juniper and Ocean are dead..."
"Besides the fact it wasn't intentional... no one deserves to have their loved one taken away from them like that," Memento bowed her head. "That's a kind of grief that'll eat away at your sanity for as long as you live... I think that's punishment enough, in this case."
"...You're a far better person than I am," Flash sighed, averting his gaze by rolling his eyes.
"SHE HAS CERTAINLY GAINED ENOUGH NEGATIVE KARMA THAT SHE WILL LIKELY BECOME A DUNG BEETLE IN HER NEXT LIFE," mused Kotenage.
"Well, count me out. I don't want you within 500 feet of me ever again," Sugarcoat growled, pointing viciously at Mountain. "You're just as bad as Monokuma."
"I... I need to leave..." Indigo rumbled, turning her back to everyone as she headed for the elevator. "...I'll probably wind up murdering her my-fuckin'-self if I stay any longer."
Sugarcoat was right behind her, and more and more people followed suit. I followed almost automatically, my legs moving of their own accord. When I looked back through the elevator doors, only Mountain and Memento remained. Her body shifted as the doors began to close, and she screamed painfully at the ceiling until her lungs were empty.
Those screams... those screams will haunt me until the day I die... so full of agony, of guilt... of despair.
~
An inch or two of snow had fallen since we'd been gone. The Dining Hall had long since closed, but our dinner had been graciously arranged on the floor just outside of it... now freezing cold. As much as my stomach growled, I wasn't hungry.
Sunset joined me in my cottage a few minutes later. We sat in mournful silence for a while, trying to cheer ourselves up but nothing came to mind. Eventually she rolled over on the couch with her back to me, and I took it as a sign to turn the lights off and settle into my covers.
As I tried to fall asleep, however, a question came to me, and nagged until I had to ask. "...Hey, Sunset?"
"Mm?" I heard her shifting on the couch.
"Did you ever see what my secret was?" Even though I trusted Sunset, I could still feel my heart race.
"Your secret? Well, it was that you're actually a pony..."
...Huh?
"Wait... that was it? Not how I had an anti-Cutie Mark cult or ended the world multiple times in multiple timelines? Or even something else?"
"Nope... I know, kind of a weird thing to pick compared to everything else you've done... what was mine?"
"Oh, yours was about how you tried to take over Canterlot High School with zombie teenagers."
"Ah. I figured it was that one."
I heard Sunset shift on the couch again, then eventually the quiet sounds of her sleeping. I couldn't help but let the knowledge of my secret ruminate in my mind... of all the things the mastermind could have chosen, why that?
It was all I thought about until my eyes finally closed.
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This makes me very very worried for sonata
😣
So..that was her secret
H-he did a fuyuhiko.. and saved her like when he did to try and save peko
This was definitely one of the most heartbreaking deadly life’s I ever seen in a Danganronpa Story I have Ever read.
And remember when I said I’ll be worry about starlight and Sunset and Especially Sonata? Yeah now I’m adding Mountain to the list
I just can’t shake the feeling of sonata and Mountain having deathflags now after this chapter. And who knows what motive could be next
Well, only way to find out is wait and see for daily life chapter 3
Ahahaha, wow. Ocean sacrifices himself for Mountain when she murdered over 17 people with frog poison and melted Juniper to death. That's quite despair inducing indeed. Junko would be proud.
And she still got injured. On her...leg...
Hmmm.
Jokes aside this was quite a fun mystery. Like MlP fan I think Sonata's got a huge death flag going. I'm betting she's the next victim.
Also I get the feeling things will be complicated next go around. It's the third case so it always gets whacky.
Well so much for my theory. I must need a reality check because not only was I wrong but I typed entire paragraphs about things I saw that weren't actually there. Things certainly will be interesting with that shocker at the end.
Nice, pulled the sacrifice from 2-2 and arguably the better outcome from 3-3 where the killer stays with the group
She probably won't, but I really hope Mountain stays alive throughout the rest of this story. That's a whole new dynamic we never got to see in the games, and you can't blame somebody too much for an accident.
Our big boys probably gonna hit the hay in the bad way... chapter 4 cliche and all
I... did NOT see that final twist coming. Poor Mountain... I think this may have been the worst possible punishment for her. Her secret is out, everyone hates her, and now she has survivor's guilt from outliving her own brother in an execution meant for her.
That is not just f😰cked. No, that's straight up FUBAR!