Chapter Text
Arc 4 - The final loop (Loop 25)
- “We shouldn’t have to push ourselves… Let’s just find another way out, okay?”
- “If this is where I find the truth… I won’t avert my eyes anymore.”
- These are potential chapter titles for this arc, depending on the number of chapters it needed to be split into.
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[Scene 21] [c]
Shuichi slams his door shut and activates the hastily put-together EMP device. He spirals around to face Ouma-kun, who is already seated on his bed, waiting for his arrival. As for the detective himself, he leans against the door and slides down, hitting the ground.
“...Everything makes so little but so much more sense,” he breathes out. “All that way back in my execution, and Monokuma’s reaction to how I knew about Nanami-senapai’s execution. I thought it’d just been the fact that I knew about the other killing games, but…”
“But they were real,” Ouma-kun finishes for him, similarly wide-eyed. Neither of them had had much time to process the information before something had happened - something they could only assume to be the impending crash of what they now know to be the simulation that they’re in. “We’re actually students of Hope’s Peak.”
“Were,” Shuichi corrects, feeling slightly hysterical. “We’re actually twenty-two now. Twenty-two . That’s ridiculous. Even with the extra year the loops gave us, I still feel like I’m seventeen.”
“Same,” Ouma-kun agrees, passionately. He throws himself down, back-first, onto the bed, and Shuichi joins the other. “We’re so old . When we get out of here, we’re going to have so many things to do, so many adult responsibilities to take care of. That’s not even mentioning The Biggest, Most Awf-”
“-Just call it The Tragedy,” the (former?) Ultimate Detective laughs. “No one wants to deal with that whole name.”
“How boring of you, Saihara-chan,” the other says mockingly, before turning serious. “Do you think we can actually make a difference now?”
The hysterically happy mood of the room plummets as Shuichi is thrown back to two loops before. He takes a steadying breath and meets the other’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I was wrong, and I shouldn’t have said that. I-”
“Stop.” Ouma-kun’s voice is flat, and that’s what makes Shuichi cut himself off. The former sighs heavily and sits up. “...I’m… I’m sorry too. What I said was insensitive and not what either of us needed at the time.”
“No, I needed that.”
They sit in slightly awkward silence for a while, not really sure how to go about the aftermath of this. There’s something strange about apologising to each other like this, something solemn and sincere and heavy and more than the apologies that Shuichi finds himself spilling out without control.
“So, Ouma-kun-”
“Call me Kokichi.” Shuichi freezes. The Ultimate Supreme Leader rolls his eyes lazily, glancing back at him. “Don’t make a big deal out of it. We have, by all technicalities, remembered each other for about a year by now. We’ve been through this particular iteration of the killing game twenty-one times together, knowingly or not. We’ve apparently known each other for even longer.”
The leader is right. They’ve literally been through life and death together. They’re not the people they were when they first woke up in the killing game either. Time has made Ou- Kokichi-kun less rough with his words and actions. Time has made Shuichi a little more confident in himself.
”Don’t worry your pretty little head about it, though!” Kokichi-kun chirps, intertwining his fingers and locking them behind his head. “I get it if you’re not comfy ab-”
”No!” Shuichi says before he can even think about stopping himself. The other stares at him unblinkingly. He takes a deep breath. “You can call me Shuichi too… Kokichi-kun.”
The purple-haired boy smiles - it’s a little plastic at the edges, but there’s something in his eyes. “If you’re sure that you’re okay with that, Shuichi-chan! Now c’mon! Enough time for sappy talks, we have a killing game to end!”
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[Scene 22] [c]
“Wait, why these groups?”
Shuichi stares blankly at Shirogane-san.
”I’m not saying that your judgement is wrong,” the Ultimate Cosplayer rushes to correct herself. “I just wondered what your logic behind this is.”
The reasoning behind the groups is simple. Shinguji-san can’t be in a group with any girls, while Chabashira-san can’t be in a group with any boys. Shuichi and Kokichi-kun need to be in separate groups to keep their eyes on as many people as possible, Akamatsu-san and Amami-san need to be in separate groups so Akamatsu-san can’t set off her trap and Amami-san can’t sneak off to the library - specifically them since they’re most consistent in their first murders. Shirogane-san, as the (unknowingly manipulated) Mastermind, needs to be watched by people who can and will take her down. Of course, they can’t exactly say any of that, other than Chabashira-san’s part.
”It made sense,” he answers instead, shrugging noncommittally, the memory of Shirogane-san’s smile as she rigged their trial still fresh in his mind. Even if she isn’t truly in control of her actions here, she can’t be allowed to know yet. “It felt like it would work.”
”And it will,” Kokichi-kun chirps, eyes deadly serious. “We’ll end this killing game, right?” Shuichi can tell that it’s a challenge and a promise, an anticipatory shiver running down his spine. He can’t wait for this to be over.
“Of course!” Akamatsu-san agrees, and Shuichi smiles. The rest of the class expresses similar responses as they all split up into their assigned groups, but Shuichi’s eyes stay on the so-called Mastermind’s body.
It’ll be the last loop. It has to be.
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[Scene 23] [ic]
Group mealtimes are chaotic. It’s crowded and enthusiastic in a way that is difficult to achieve the moment a death has occurred. The time limit hangs over them like a guillotine, but Shuichi has hope that they can make it through this. That’s the truth.
“Shu-chan!” Kokichi-kun screeches, darting behind him and using him as a makeshift barrier as Momota-kun chases after the leader. “Momota-chan’s trying to kill me!”
“I’m sure Momota-kun wouldn’t do something like that at this point in time,” Shuichi answers calmly, lifting his bowl of miso soup to his mouth. He takes a sip, then places it back down quickly but firmly as Kokichi-kun holds him close and nearly causes him to spill it. “Kokichi-kun, please…”
The leader pouts, but lets go, promptly changing to have a wide grin on his face. “If my beloved says so!”
Shuichi simply smiles, amused by the other’s antics. He’s about to return to finishing up his breakfast when he realises that the dining area is unusually silent.
Scene 23 : The class is confused by Saihara’s and Ouma’s unexpected camaraderie (how they suddenly start calling each other by their given names)
- They don’t explain lol
- Then, the topic changes to… uh. Idk? Ah! Yes. The Mastermind
- Emphasise how uncomfortable Shirogane is now and how can see it bc they actually have a clearer picture. Lol
- “We have a week. We just need to get through a week.” “Why a week specifically?” “Don’t question it.”
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[Scene 24] [e]
Scene 24 : Time limit motive ends without a murder
- Saihara, who has spent much of this loop deep in thought, comes to a realisation
- They can tell people, as long as they tell everyone!!
- He tells Ouma that
- Ouma is still hesitant which.. Fair enough lol
- Last time they told someone it went… badly
- Some more discussion on where it might go from there
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Rounding off this arc: Escaping the simulation. Was not clear how, might have been one more chapter's worth.
Final chapter (Act 5/Epilogue): Everyone settling back into real life. Trying and failing, how it works and how it doesn't. Something about specifically Saihara and Ouma trying to live without a time loop. End on a hopeful outlook on the future.
Outside of Loops:
- They’re actually ultimates (class 79B)
- The tragedy actually happens
- They weren’t in despair
- Not really???
- But they were put into the simulation for a broadcast killing game because Enoshima is just… like that
- FF finds them and fucks around w the sim
- Only they didn’t mean to make Ouma remember
- And the OG loops were mastermind-swapping and tended to modify backstories a little, but they locked it to these ones with the “fucking around”
- Much to 77B and (the remaining) 78A’s horror
- Esp bc they watch Saihara have a breakdown beginning loop 4
- Which was already looping, but they caused Ouma and Saihara to remember
- Then they leave it when it produces no visible results (after loop 3) w the justification of “we’ve tried and done what we can, they can figure out the rest”
- The 2 classes try their best to help their kouhai
- Note: 1 loop is at most 3 weeks, but tends to be 2 on average
- Seems short, but canonically there’s only 13 theaters, which happen every night