Kirsche Komix #1 – Monetization

ASSorted Reviews – Master Detective Archives: Rain Code (Spoiler Free!)

Kazutaka Kodaka and Rui Komatsuzaki are two names that are often associated with one another, and the mere mention of them is enough to send some people into panic, but if you don’t know them, your reaction is probably a potent “who dat?”- I’ll tell you who: Kodaka is the creator and writer of the infamous Danganronpa series of visual novels, anime, and other random media; and Komatsuzaki is the illustrator who offers his talent to create the unique visual style of that series (as well as others, such as Akudama Drive). If, for some reason, you’re not familiar with the Danganronpa series, it involves an evil teddy bear who orchestrates a Saw-esque killing game involving highly-talented students. This series is known for its wonton violence that tugs at people’s heartstrings despite the fact that everyone always warns them “not to get too attached to the characters”, as well as the Pepto Bismol-colored blood that covers the intricate crime scenes of these games.

DR has had quite a large reach with its critically-acclaimed main trilogy, and its not-so-beloved anime adaptations and spin-offs, but the main storyline has (arguably) concluded, with the preeeeeetty divisive ending to Danganronpa V3, although some would say that there are still some stories that could be told with the established characters… But at the moment, it doesn’t look like that is going to happen anytime soon, as Kodaka has been focusing on creating new IPs with other former Spike Chunsoft employees in his new company, Too Kyo Games, which is completely respectable.

ASSorted Reviews – The Picked Min 4

Pikmin 4 is something a lot of people have been waiting for, myself included. The first two games in the series were pretty important to me during my growing years, and to this day, I consider Pikmin 2 to be one of my absolute favorite video games, which is pretty impressive when you take into account the fact that I’ve played over 800 video games- most of them to completion. I won’t pretend that there’s some nostalgia involved in my love for the Pikmin series, especially P2, but that’s not to say I unconditionally adore every single aspect of the series. All of the games in my top 5 have pretty notable flaws that could easily turn off new players, and P2 is no exception. Consider that just as a disclaimer, but I’m sure you already expected me to be mostly impartial anyway. Let’s talk about Picking some Min.

I will open by speaking about the story, given that it wasn’t talked about at much length during the promotional period of the game. Instead of playing as a named spaceman, like Olimar or Alph, Pikmin 4 has you take control of a customizable genderless avatar who is part of a rescue team, with the goal of helping out the MANY castaways stranded on the planet PNF-404, also known as Earth after the Rapture. During the opening of the game, you briefly play as Olimar right before sending a distress signal, but you’ll notice something unique about this section: it’s not a follow-up to Pikmin 3, but an alternate take that follows the bad ending of Pikmin 1! This was speculated since people saw a Pikmin-like creature with Olimar’s features during the trailers, and they pretty much called it.

Some people would not like that it’s not a direct follow-up to the threads left open from Pikmin 3, but personally, I like this idea a lot, so I don’t mind that it establishes an alternate timeline instead. There are a lot more characters than usual in the series, not just in terms of the side cast, but also for the protagonists. The main group, the rescue team, features a total of seven members, including the nameless protagonist. I won’t go into much detail about them so as to give people a chance to meet them on their own. I wouldn’t say that they’re as memorable as Olimar, Louie, or the Hocotate ship, but they’re fine enough. It’s not easy to make a large cast of characters as memorable as a middle aged spaceman stuck in a dead end job who really misses his family and still commands an army of little guys. But Oatchi, the dog… He’s perfect. So soft and fluffy… His ears flop around when you jump and it’s the most adorable shit I’ve ever seen. I’ve only had Oatchi for a few days, but if anything happened to him, I’d kill everyone and then myself. I fucking love this dog.

All in all, the story is quite simple, as it should be. The real incentive to play is the game itself. The overall gameplay cycle is as follows: Visit an uncharted part of the planet with your dog and your Pikmin for a limited amount of time while trying to gather treasure and rescuing castaways. Like Pikmin 2, there is no hard limit in the days you can spend in your quest, so you can explore leisurely at your own pace or challenge yourself to do things as efficiently as possible. This entry reintroduces the caves from Pikmin 2, which were one of my favorite parts of it. In these dungeons, you don’t have a time limit at all, and only a bit of time will have passed on the surface after leaving them. 

There are some key differences between the caves in P2 and P4. In P2, these dungeons were procedurally generated, with only certain elements such as treasures or enemies remaining the same between multiple visits to the same dungeon. P4’s dungeons are static in the sense that they don’t change, and instead focus more on puzzle-solving, like in Zelda. When you revisit dungeons, you can go to specific floors in case you missed something in your previous visit, or if you need to grind for something specific that you can’t find elsewhere (i.e.: Purple Pikmin, which are very rare). This change is very welcome, although I haven’t used it much because I tried to 100% each cave on my first run. Regardless, I’m sure newcomers will be able to get a lot of use from it. In general, I think the dungeons are easier than the ones in P2, with bosses only being introduced like four caves in, while the second cave in P2 already had bosses. Some of them can still be fairly challenging, especially when you can only rely on a lower limit of Pikmin to tackle them.

This limit is a new mechanic that was introduced in this game. Normally, you could (theoretically) get 100 Pikmin of any time at any point of the game, but this game limits your output at the start, and you’ll only be able to use more at a time after collecting “flarlics” a new upgrade for the Onion (the ship where Pikmin are born and transported). In addition to that, the colors of the Pikmin you can find and use are also limited. You cannot use more than three types of Pikmin on the surface, but you can use more if you find them underground. These wild Pikmin don’t always correspond with the color of the Onions that are available to you, so you have to ration your use more cleverly until you find the matching Onion, after which point you’ll be able to spawn as many Pikmin of that type as you desire. This mechanic caught me off-guard at first, but I really enjoyed the layer of depth and strategizing that it added to each day.

There are two new Pikmin types: Ice Pikmin and Glow Pikmin. All other previous types return as well, making up for the lack of Whites and Purples in Pikmin 3’s story mode. Ice Pikmin are frankly overpowered. When they attack enemies, they can freeze them in place for a few seconds, and that often creates a chance to absolutely demolish any creature. This status is similar to the Ultra Bitter Spray from P2, but way more broken somehow. During a boss fight against a giant Wollywog, I froze the creature in midair, and when it fell to the ground, its body instantly shattered. They can also freeze water surfaces, making it so other Pikmin that aren’t blue can walk across them. But they also have one small disadvantage that they share with the Bitter Spray: when you defeat a frozen enemy, they don’t leave a carcass behind, and carcasses are necessary to grow your army, and in the case of Dandori Battles/Challenges, you need to bring back as many carcasses as you can. Pretty grim.

Glow Pikmin are only used during night-time expeditions, which I’ll explain later. Additionally, you can sometimes use them in caves, but they’re basically like Bulbmin- not a permanent part of your army, but immune to the majority of hazards. The returning types didn’t have a lot of changes. Red Pikmin received a new mechanic where they can pick up fire starters that can be used to burn down or melt certain objects, which created a lot of interesting new puzzles. Yellow, Blue, Rock, and Winged Pikmin are essentially unchanged from how they worked in P3, although some people claim that Blues were buffed due to the presence of more water, but I didn’t really notice that much of a change, if I’m being honest. White Piks didn’t get any gameplay changes, but the color of the poison hazards that they can fight against has been changed from purple to greenish blue. I don’t really see this change as a necessity, but it’s not like I’m gonna complain about it. Lastly, Purple Pikmin are still not quite as overpowered as in Pikmin 2, but they’re still the strongest type in combat. They’re just overshadowed by the Icemin. Sucks to live in a world where Ice Guys finish first!

Besides the Pikmin, there’s the new addition of Oatchi, your faithful space dog-thing. He has the strength of several Pikmin (3 at first, can go up to 100), and you can ride on his back in order to avoid certain hazards. He’s also capable of combat, but it’s more advisable to rely on your Pikmin for battles. As you could probably guess, Oatchi can receive various upgrades throughout the game to enhance his convenience. Oatchi’s upgrades depend on his “Pup Drive”, which increases by one point every time you rescue or heal a castaway. The upgrades vary from strength boosts, speed enhancements, or other simple quality of life commodities, but you can go the whole game without using them.

Upgrades aren’t limited to Oatchi. By collecting pieces of raw material, you can craft new pieces of equipment that can increase your stats, grant you elemental immunities, give you the ability to detect hidden treasures, among others. Raw materials can be collected during normal gameplay, and they can also be used to build structures in the overworld, as well as to “buy” field items that assist you in gameplay. I’m not going to enumerate them all, but the roster includes Rock Bombs from the previous games, which can be stocked and used at any point.

Personally, I don’t have any problems with including assist items like these to make the game easier to newcomers, but I already feel like this game isn’t particularly hard, so some of these items feel like overkill at times. But obviously, you don’t NEED to use them, you have the freedom of choice. Since most upgrades aren’t mandatory, I have a feeling that we’re going to see a lot of challenge runs for this game in order to tackle it with minimalistic methods, and I’m sure that’s going to be really fun to do/watch.

Another new feature that could be a bit polarizing is Rewinding. This one is included in a fairly subtle way, as the game doesn’t even point out it exists unless you screw up really hard. As the name implies, it lets you rewind time to correct some mistakes, which you will make. No one can perfectly predict everything in an RTS. I personally avoided using this feature for the most part, but some of the last dungeons have a pretty steep difficulty curve, so I’m not going to shame anyone for playing Steins;Gate Pikmin Edition. I’d say it’s not a feature that’s necessary per se, but it’s appreciated for people who don’t want to grind Pikmin after losing a battle horribly.

One of the game’s new selling points is Dandori, a philosophy involving efficient organization to get many tasks done in limited time. This manifests in gameplay not just through normal modes, but with Dandori Battles and Dandori Challenges. The former is an enhanced version of the two-player battle mode from Pikmin 2, where two players have to compete in order to collect marbles, except now, instead of marbles, you can pick up any item lying around in the battlefield. The winner is determined by the combined weight of all the collected items- whoever collected the most stuff wins. The game mixes things up by adding temporary bonus items that are worth more points, items that obstruct your enemy’s progress, and some potent sabotage tools. These battles are featured in the main story with Olimar as the opponent, but you can replay them at your leisure with friends or enemies. I didn’t dislike these, but they were usually the challenges that I left for last because of how intense they can get.

On the other hand, Dandori Challenges are a bit more simple. Essentially, they’re the challenge mode from Pikmin 3, where your goal is to pick up as much stuff as you can within a time limit. It should be pointed out that the treasures you collect in either of the Dandori modes do not count for your general progress, but you still get rewarded with raw materials and rescued castaways if you beat them. With a catch. These castaways have been turned into leaf-like creatures and they can’t think of anything but Dandori. Just like a white mom who just read a Marie Kondo book for the first time. I liked the Dandori Challenges more than the Battles for the simple fact that you’re only competing against the clock (and your own high scores), but even then, if you fail at either, the game offers to skip the story-based ones. I don’t like that. The game already gives you a lot of advantages if you’re struggling, but I think skipping story content is a bit too much. An assist mode would’ve been fine enough, but again, the choice is yours.

The last new mode introduced is Nighttime Expeditions, which isn’t based on any previous element of the series. Before, you weren’t allowed to go outside at night because monsters are more active, but P4 gives you the chance to explore during nightmurder in order to obtain cures for the leafed up castaways. This mode is more akin to a tower defense game than the usual RTS, as you need to defend a structure called the “Lumiknoll” using Glow Pikmin, which come directly from the Lumiknoll when fed glow pellets. All enemies are immediately attracted to the Lumiknoll, and you have to either kill every last creature on the map, or survive until the sun rises. These can be pretty tough if you’re not ready, as some of the enemies that try to get you are usually bosses, including a fan favorite one that hadn’t been seen since Pikmin 1, and the mere sight of it causes most players to instantly clench their sphincter.

Each mission will only pay out the first time you complete it, so don’t think you can grind for cures. Much like the Dandori modes, if you fail, you can skip them, but like- don’t do that, it’s lame. Play the fucking game. Even if you’re not good at Bloons TD6, you can do these if you stall long enough. You have the tools. The only one that may drive you mad is the very last one, but it’s not mandatory.

Returning from Pikmin 2 (and P3 Deluxe) are the Piklopedia and Treasure Horde, which is my favorite part of the series. In them, you can observe the enemies you’ve fought and the treasures you’ve collected, along with descriptions written by the characters, which get amazingly technical (when Olimar is writing them) and add an unbelievable level of scientific trivia to the Pikmin world. Plus, the Piklopedia now allows you to have practice runs against enemies you’ve encountered before in case you don’t have a solid strategy yet. This feature is extremely helpful and fun, as now you don’t need to defeat the enemy to register them, and it’s something I’ve taken advantage of to prepare myself for the new enemies instead of rushing like a fool. The only real grievance that I have with the new Piklopedia is that the initial flavor text before getting Olimar’s notes reeks of “wholesome 100 Reddit Chungus”, which I’ve come to find very annoying. The worst example I’ve seen was a monster’s movement being described as “blorpily sloshing”, which gave me an ulcer to even type out. But once you unlock Olimar’s notes, you get to read in detail about the insane lore of the creatures on PNF-404.

Once the main story is complete, there’s an expansive amount of post-game content, that I will not spoil because the game came out less than a week ago, but just know there’s a lot and it’s very good. Okay?

The last thing I want to mention before moving onto my conclusion would be the Side Missions. The game allows you to tackle alternative objectives during your expeditions, which you learn about from the rescued castaways. These are good for tracking your overall progress, and when you beat them, you get some extra pieces of raw material as a reward. These aren’t very complex, they usually involve things that you’re naturally going to achieve while you play, but there are some tougher ones, like getting medals on all the Dandori Battles and Challenges. Should you struggle with those, you can get help from a second player, but I can’t go in depth about that because I have no one to play the game with. 🙂

Overall, I had a major blast with Pikmin 4, and I think it’s a great experience for veterans of the series, while having enough accessibility options for new players. You don’t need to have played the previous games to understand the story in P4, but some of the things you’ll encounter are pretty clear fanservice for those who’ve been playing since game one. That’s right, if you beat the main campaign in less than 30 days, you get to see Olimar’s naked dad bod. It’s what everyone wanted from the beginning. 

I need some time to marinate the experience and determine whether I enjoyed Pikmin 4 more than 2, but I can say with complete certainty that it’s better than Pikmin 3 Deluxe and Pikmin 1. Hey Pikmin is still the best one, though.

ASSorted Reviews – Trauma Center: Under the Knife

Right now, in the year of our lord 2023, Atlus is well known mainly for their RPG series, especially those in the Megami Tensei series, like Persona 5, Persona 5 Royal, Persona 5 Scramble, or Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight. It’s understandable that they put so much emphasis on the stuff that succeeds, but sometimes, you gotta miss the early 2000s, when they did more experimental stuff.

One of their strangest experiments is the Trauma Center series, which made use of a concept that had only been done by Dr. Mario: a video game about medicine. The creators have mentioned being inspired by American hospital dramas, such as ER, and it really shows.

If I could sum up Trauma Center in one brief sentence, it would be “Cooking Mama meets SMT”. This may be because I played Cooking Mama right before Trauma Center, but they do have remarkably similar gameplay. 2005’s Trauma Center: Under the Knife, as a DS game, relies almost entirely on the touch screen for its mechanics, and it honestly works really well for the most part.

There’s two gameplay types: the visual novel sections, where the story is relayed to you, and the surgery sections, which are self-explanatory. In the latter, you tackle diverse operations with the kinds of tools you’d expect from real surgery: scalpels, forceps, lasers, and miracle biogels, among others.

These surgeries usually require a lot of memorization for which tool needs to be used for which injury, but while it may sound daunting, the amount of repetition helps you get through this hurdle, and of course, muscle memory will do most of the work for you. Now, I honestly really like this idea, but it has a lot of problems in execution.

For starters, the screen resolution does not do this game any favors. You literally need surgical precision for some of the missions, and with the original DS touch screen’s resolution of 256 x 192 pixels, it is easier said than done. I played the game on my New 3DS, which has a higher resolution, but I still struggled with the precision on some of the later surgeries. Add on to that the fact that I’m left-handed, something that this game does not seem to bode well with. I have pretty slender hands, but even then, I would often find myself being unable to see where I was messing up, or if I was missing something on the screen. However, in the game’s defense, it’s not like Kid Icarus Uprising, where you could just use a different button configuration to adapt it for different lateralities- because it does not use buttons for anything besides skipping dialogue. On top of that all, there are some performance issues due to their use of 3D models instead of sprites, especially in the later parts of the game, where there’s an immense amount of lacerations and viruses on screen at all times, and it’s almost impossible to suture the cuts with precision due to the tremendous lag and the amalgamation of the VFX for the cuts.

But besides those technical issues, the game is legitimately difficult. Before you say “skill issue” like the funny little internet creature you are, I invite you to check some gameplay videos and see how easy it is to mess up. I sincerely can’t tell if it’s an intentional artistic choice, or if the devs just didn’t playtest it enough. The first quarter of the game is generally manageable. You do need to pay some attention to the patient’s vitals and the time limit, but they’re generous with that for the most part. But the worst part of the gameplay comes with the introduction of the GUILT virus. Yes, that is what it’s called, and yes, they made up some bullshit acronym to fit it.

This creation from bio-terrorists is where the main struggle comes from. The virus manifests itself in various forms, like a tiny evil shark, some yin-yang tumor generator, or others. Each variant must be dealt with in different ways, and they get harder and harder with each variant- except for Triti, which is the absolute worst thing ever and appears for the first time in the middle parts of the game. This variant is sort of puzzle-esque in that there are some ways to make it a little easier, but if you try to tackle it without a strategy, you’re going to have a bad time. It’s an infinitely-multiplying set of triangles that requires you to remove three spikes per triangle. Once you remove the spikes, you have to cut the triangle off and put it on a tray. I make it sound easy, but both the spikes and the triangles regrow at a very quick rate, so you need to be el mucho fasto. Plus, sometimes, the spikes occasionally turn into a poisonous gas fume that you have to extract immediately or you fail the surgery. There’s a way to make it easier, by using the game’s main gimmick, but I’ll explain that when I get into the story. So yeah, even with every possible advantage, I suffered a lot because of Triti. I am not exaggerating when I say that every time I did a Triti surgery, I had to take long breaks afterward because my hands were in severe pain. If I get diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, I’m blaming this game and suing Atlus. There’s also a one-time surgery where you have to DEFUSE A BOMB, and it’s really frustrating, because you have to keep track of several mechanisms at the same time while under a time limit. It’s bad in terms of gameplay, but hilarious in the context of the story.

But that’s just the game at its worst. There are a bunch of stupidly frustrating missions, but I generally enjoyed the normal ones where you just extract tumors or zap little viral sharks. On the positive side, a lot of the really difficult sections were nerfed in the Wii remake, Second Opinion, which I haven’t played, but I watched Game Grumps play it, and I could really tell all the changes they made right away.

Moving on, there’s the story. Your main character is the wonderfully-named Dr. Derek Stiles (GET IT? HIS INITIALS ARE DS!), an up-and-coming surgeon working in the Hope Hospital in Los Angeles. At the start of the game, he’s pretty much a newbie, but later down the line, he discovers a hidden power that gets him all the fame and bitches he so desperately needs. This power is the, I shit you not, Healing Touch, which you trigger by drawing a satanic star on your patient’s body, and it causes time to slow down to a crawl for a few seconds. It’s generally pretty helpful for some of the tougher surgeries, like the aforementioned Triti. Other than that, it’s not particularly well-explained, and its only other detail is that it drains a lot of energy from the user. Basically Witch Time for surgeons.

Most of the other characters don’t really stand out that much, but it’s worth mentioning Angie, your assistant nurse, who’s pretty much just your average tsundere who treats you like shit at the start, but wants to pleasure you orally by the end of the game. There’s also this guy called NIGUEL (not Nigel, not Miguel), who’s just an arrogant piece of shit who thinks he’s the greatest doctor of all time. Fuck that guy and his stupid name.

As mentioned before, the antagonists are a group of bio-terrorists who created the GUILT virus, known as Delphi. They’re not represented by any particular character until the very end of the game, and this makes them a little forgettable in my opinion. I think it would’ve been cool to give them some kind of cultist vibe, with plague masks to fit the medical themes. Their motivations are also incredibly weak, but I think they’re funny enough to avoid spoiling them.

That’s a recurring issue with this game’s story, being unintentionally funny. It has zero self-awareness of its plot’s stupidity, but that’s honestly part of the charm. It just screams “self-serious 2000s drama movie”, mostly cuz it’s basically that. If you’ve seen any hospital drama show and added heavy-handed terrorism to it, you’d have this game’s plot, and I kinda love it. I often found myself excited to play more just to see how much stupider the game could get, and stupid it got.

Despite its poor writing, there are some areas where it tries to be profound and fails catastrophically. For example, there’s a patient who is suicidal, and Big Dick Derek casually fixes her depression by holding a mirror in front of her and telling her to repeat her suicidal statements. If only it was that easy. Another part that pissed me off immensely was when they took a stance against euthanasia. Okay, I get that it’s a touchy subject and not everyone is okay with it. The particular case that involves it in the game is probably not the best dilemma about euthanasia one could propose, given the existence of miracle doctors with Witch Time. I just think the way they generalize about all cases of euthanasia was the kind of shit you’d hear from American politicians. I will say, however, that they attempt to criticize the business of Big Pharma when they try to release a cure for GUILT without it being approved by commercial distributors. This is one of the few moments where it feels like the game has an actual message besides “diseases are painful”.

People die when they are killed.

Visually, I don’t have a lot of issues with the game. Things are easy enough to tell apart in surgery, and some of the viruses are cute. The characters are, once again, unmemorable, BUT, their designs improve significantly in the Wiimake, where they were redesigned by Masayuki Doi, the second/third most iconic character designer in the MegaTen series (after Kazuma Kaneko and maybe Shigenori Soejima). I seriously love the redesigns in the Wii version, they make the game feel much more unique and mature in comparison to the generic “animu” style from the DS game.

Shinji-looking bitch (DS version)

Big Dick Derek after throwing a frisbee (Wii version)

Regrettably, I cannot comment much on the music. It was composed by Shoji Meguro, the same person who blew everyone’s mind with the Persona series’ OST. This game’s soundtrack is definitely not his best. It does its job. It sets the mood just fine, but it’s not good enough that you’ll be jamming out to it when you’re not playing. Fortunately, the second game has the greatest song of all time, Gentle Breeze. The rest of the sound design, and by that I mean the sound effects, is quite solid. It adds a lot of impact to your actions, especially your mistakes, so it gives the game a whole ‘nother layer of realism, with all them squishy gore sounds and whatnot.

I probably sound fairly negative about this game, but that’s because the bad outweighs the good in this case. I love the concept of a surgery game, and the early missions are really fun, but it just gets extremely stressful and difficult- and your only real reward is the poorly-written story and whatever ranking you got from the missions. It shouldn’t be hard to gather from my insinuations that the Wii version of the game is considerably better. The revised gameplay, artstyle, technical performance, difficulty, and to a lesser extent, story- all help turn this game from a gimmicky mess to something actually playable.

I strongly doubt that you’ll find any copies of this in your local GameStop (I did once), so if you want to play either version, you’re gonna have to turn to yar-har-ing. If you, for some reason, decide to play the DS version, do it with a flashcard or download it on your 3DS, because if you try to emulate it, you WILL suffer. DeSmuMe, the most well-known DS emulator, fucking sucks when trying to play games involving 3D models. If the game lags so hard on native hardware, I cannot possibly imagine how painful it would get on DeSmuMe (seriously, that emu lags even in games that barely use 3D, like Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow or Pokémon Black/White), plus, touch screen games were not envisioned to be played with a mouse. This ain’t Super Princess Peach or Kirby Squeak Squad, you’ll be doing more than just tapping the screen. The other major DS emu, MelonDS, has better performance, but I doubt it would make the mouse controls any less awkward. Fortunately, Wii emulation is much better, so you can definitely survive if you play it on Dolphin, although you’ll need a USB sensor bar if you don’t want to awkwardly keep your actual Wii plugged in while playing (seriously, just jailbreak it at that point).

In conclusion, these are my main points about Trauma Center: Under the Knife, for the Nintendo DS:
+Fun and innovative ideas
+Unique gameplay
+Hilarious(-ly bad story)
+Decent music
+Good sound effects
-Objectively inferior to the Wii remake
-Poor resolution
-Performance issues
-Ball-busting difficulty
-May cause actual bodily harm
-Mediocre artstyle and characters
-Triti

Final score: They did surgery on a bomb/10

Nocverse Lore – Episode Brain

Darkness, nothing, void, senseless. I’ve felt like this for as long as I can remember. None of my senses function. It’s a miracle that I can even think. If this is death, I want it to end. I can’t remember jack shit. There’s no way this isn’t some messed-up nightmare. I gotta be in some sort of coma. Come on, wake up, wake up, WAKE. THE HELL. UP.

“AAAAAAAGH!”

As I continued to mentally shout at myself, I actually felt words, or rather, sounds coming out of… somewhere. I wasn’t even sure that it was my own body, but there was some semblance of feeling in that scream. I relentlessly tried to replicate it. Not all attempts were successful, but I could feel my senses slowly coming back to me.

“I want my goddamn life back!”

After what I can only imagine were hours of shouting at the void, I managed to string together a sentence. Full of profanity, but still a sentence. Can you blame me, though? I’m not even sure if I’m alive, I think I have the right to ignore the swear jar for a while. If I’m dead, I don’t think any god was going to let me in, anyway.

I’m… not sure why I just said that. Did I do something bad that I can’t remember? UGH, that doesn’t fucking matter now. I’ll have time to reflect on my actions when I’m awake. Let’s just continue to shout like a damn madman.

As I carried on with my loud shenanigans, more sensations returned to me. I could hear a faint buzzing in my ears. It felt like a heavily distorted voice track, just like those fake psychophonies they use in shitty ghost-hunting reality shows. Unlike in those, there wasn’t an annoyingly idiotic, but fairly attractive show host to spell out the meaning of the voices, so I couldn’t understand a word of them.

Little by little, I started to distinguish something touching me. It was like a slap. Actually, drop the “like”. Some jackass was slapping my face. I made an attempt to move my hands to stop that wanker, but the most I could do was wiggle my fingers. Not too useful, but at least it told me I have a body.

“Sir, can you hear me?” The buzzing sound became clearer. Now, it was a distinctly deep male voice, with an incredibly smooth accent that didn’t sound familiar. I really wanted to reply, but my speech was still not working well.

“Y… Yeh.” Fucking what? Earlier I said two full sentences and now I can barely say “yes” correctly? No wonder that asshat was slapping me, I deserve that shit. Perhaps my baffling stupidity woke my other senses up, because some blurry silhouettes appeared before my eyes.

“He’s waking up, doctor.” A female voice spoke. I steadily recovered all feeling throughout my body, but it felt wrong. It was too light and empty, but I still couldn’t tell why. Once my vision cleared up, I was met with the kind of scene I expected. I lay on a hospital recliner bed, with a layer of cheap bed sheets over my body. I tried to look around to find the female voice, but my limited mobility meant I could only see as far as my peripheral vision allowed.

As soon as I started pushing the limits of my impaired sight, I instantly regretted it. The woman that was looking after me did not look like anything I had previously seen. She was like a faceless mannequin, but in the places where her facial features would be, there were torn-up threads that made it look like her semblance was a piece of fabric with holes crudely added in there so she could use her eyes and mouth.

Shook up by the nurse’s inhuman face, I looked the other way, where I assumed the doctor would be. Luckily, what I saw was not as unpleasant, but it still shocked the shit out of me. It was a dog. A whole-ass Shiba Inu. But the dog’s head was mounted to a human-like body. It even had paws and all! Weirdest of all, he wasn’t even wearing a lab coat, but a goddamn tuxedo. That is not appropriate for a hospital.

“Good morning, sir. I hope our appearance didn’t startle you.” Then, all of a sudden, the fucking dog starts talking to me like it’s nobody’s business! Please tell me this is just some bizarre coma dream.

“It did.” Despite my dismay, I still managed to speak my mind.

“Well, don’t worry, pal. You still have another shock coming.” This smug fucking dog had the nuts to talk to me like that and then he stuck some kind of hand mirror. My eyes focused on its reflected image… I guess I get why he said what he said, and also why I felt so light. I didn’t have an inch of flesh on my face. All that was there was a skull with a red tint, as if it had been soaked in blood for a long period of time. Didn’t even have eyes, just sockets.

“Guess I’m boned.”  God, did I actually fucking say that? I could almost hear the damn laugh track. At least, the nightmare-inducing nurse was chuckling, although her laugh sounded more like a hellish screech than an actual laugh. I think I want to go back to the coma.

“Classic case of Witzelsucht Syndrome. Love it when patients tell bad jokes at inappropriate moments. How are you feeling, my bony friend?” The dogtor addressed me calmly, as if this was normal to him. Damn it, now I’m making puns inside of my head.

“I’m really damn confused. Can you tell me ANYTHING about what’s happening or where I am?” I spoke honestly. The dog seemed to expect this answer, so he prepared a whiteboard that had numerous diagrams depicted on it.

“Before I answer that, let me introduce myself. My name is Neil, and I am a Shiba Inu.” Doctor Neil casually stated his name. I was left with more questions than answers.

“Just Neil? No surname?” I asked in response, to which the doctor shrugged sarcastically.

“I mean, have you ever met a dog with a surname?” This stupid answer made me feel genuine anger.

“Well, for starters, I’ve never met a dog that could fucking speak.” My speech finally felt like my own again.

“I get that a lot. But let’s not dabble that much on me. Lemme tell you where you are. This place is called Universe-87, also known by its inhabitants as The Blank Tomb. This is because most of the people who live here are kinda dead!”

You know what, I’m not even surprised anymore. This seems reasonable in comparison to that nightmare nurse and the dogtor. Fuck it, let’s just nod along.

“So yeah, you’re nothing but a lost soul with too many regrets to pass on to the next world. You probably don’t have any memories of your time on… whatever universe you lived in. But don’t worry, you can recover them with the appropriate stimuli! That’s why-”

“Hold up. So if I manage to free myself from my regrets once I recover my memories, does that mean I get to go to heaven or whatever?” This time, the bizarre nurse got closer to me to give me her info dump.

“There is no heaven. Regular souls simply fade away and become parts of other souls that give birth to new life. Troubled souls like you stay here forever, but some say they’ve seen souls escape this universe. We are in a physical plane of existence after all. You are simply a materialization of your soul at the time of your body’s death, hence why you’re a skeleton.”

That made no fucking sense. If I look just the way I did when I kicked the bucket, why am I a skeleton? It takes a long time before all the flesh rots away, and it doesn’t leave bloodstained bones behind. That’s just not how things work.

“I’m sure you’re full of questions right now, my dear patient. Unfortunately, we don’t have any records of your name yet, so we intend to give you a placeholder nickname: Jugemujugemugokonosurikire-” No way am I gonna let him finish that name.

“Don’t call me that. If you’re gonna give me such a stupid name, I’d rather you didn’t call me by any name.” I snapped back, but Neil seemed disappointed, as his ears drooped and he let out a little whine. It was honestly kind of cute.

“Aw, they never let me call them that. But anyway, our primary goal right now is to see if we can piece together anything about your past.” I’m going to ignore the fact that I’m not the first person he tried to call by that name.

“Ugh… I can’t really recall anything.” Although I furrowed my skeletal brow in frustration, Neil seemed to have picked something up from what I said, as he was writing something down on a clipboard.

“Well, we already have some data from the time you’ve spent here prior to your awakening. Judging by your bone structure and tissue samples, we concluded that your genes were predominantly African and European. We can’t exactly pinpoint which universe’s version of those places you’re from, but we believe it must be from one of the first ten.”

“Thank god I’m not white.” I instinctively spouted that. I don’t actually have anything against whites, but y’know, I think I prefer not being the human equivalent of “factory settings”.

“Also, from what little we’ve spoken, I’ve noticed a very slight British accent. You probably tried really hard to suppress it.”  Oh god, don’t tell me I’m British, that’s worse than being a cracker. If I had any sweat glands, I’d have bullets coming out of them right now.

“Can you move yet?” The nightmare nurse asked me as she held my radius and ulna with her completely pale hand. A horrible chill travelled throughout my entire body despite having no nerves. I guess things are already weird and anatomy-defying enough as it is, I shouldn’t question it.

“Somewhat, yes.” I clenched my fist and tried to move the rest of my arms, which surprisingly worked. Next, I moved the upper half of my body up. It seems that the lack of muscle tissue also meant that I wouldn’t have muscle atrophy.

“Excellent! Do you wish to go for a walk?” The doctor kindly asked me, but I wasn’t sure. This whole thing already seemed pretty unreal, and it only got weirder when I looked at my exposed ribcage.

“Well, not like this, that’s for sure. I may not have the bone that matters anymore, but I can’t just walk out butt-ass naked.” I’m not sure why I still had my sense of shame, but I suppose it was a good sign. I hadn’t fully lost my humanity like I did my memories and skin.

“That’s… odd. A great deal of spirits ends up discarding clothing entirely given that there are no laws prohibiting streaking in this Universe. But it is okay, there are still plenty of people who retain that dependence on clothes.” Aight, but both you and your weird fucking nurse are wearing clothes, why are you giving me this shit?

“We shall provide you with form-fitting clothing shortly.” The nightmare nurse politely said before turning her head 180 degrees and starting to walk backwards out of the room. Boy, am I glad she’s outta here.

While the demonic bitch did her job, Neil fiddled with something I couldn’t quite see, but it sounded like a squeaky toy. Upon getting a better angle, I realized that the item being squeezed between his paws was just a fidget cube that made dog toy noises. Not even surprised anymore.

In just a few minutes, the nurse came through the door again, this time with her head facing the correct direction. On her deathly-cold hands rested a pair of beige jorts and a gray t-shirt with a slightly faded decal that read “My wife left me. Good, more time to fish.” Just looking at it made me want to vomit.

“For fuck’s sake, what morgue did you get this from?” I asked the nurse while I reluctantly put the articles of clothing on.

“The one on the fifth floor.” I was left speechless by her reply.

“Okay. I can bear with this for a bit, but goddamn it if you don’t get me to the nearest Gucci store, I’m going to kill myself, potentially for a second time.” 

“You’re in luck. There’s one right outside the clinic. Just hope you can pay the price.” Neil smirked as he gave me hope and immediately shat on it like it was his owner’s shoe.

“You gotta be shitting me, there’s money in the fucking afterlife?” I was upset, but at the same time, I wasn’t expecting to get Gucci goods for free. How was I supposed to have money to pay for it, though?

“As I said earlier, this is not an afterlife, it’s more like a re-life. If everything was free, no one would work to make this place better. We’re not omnipotent.” The nurse continued to explain in her disgustingly raspy demon voice.

“So does that mean you’re both spirits like me?” 

“Well, we’re more like “agents”. We never really died per se. We were just born here to aid those like you.” I don’t think I’m going to question that. My head’s already tired enough as is.

“Aight, but is there any easy way to earn money here?” The moment I asked the question, both of these jackasses started laughing their asses off. Yeah, ha ha, I get it, money ain’t easy to earn, but fuckin’ hell, you could have some tact.

“Hehe, don’t worry. You can do some odd jobs for us and we’ll pay you all the cash you need. We kinda have this detective joint on the side.”  The dog’s exposition almost made me mad. This made so little sense, it barely felt like it was happening. A fucking Shiba Inu who is a doctor and detective. Oh my god, does that make him a sleuth? I hate it.

“And what are you supposed to investigate, exactly?” Tired of ruminating about my own dislike of the situation, I just went ahead and asked about the job. No time to waste.

“Well, we work with people who don’t remember their lives so we can piece together the most important details. Given how many murdered amnesiacs we get, there’s not exactly a shortage of clients, y’know? Plus, we also search for missing people and all that good stuff.”

“Can someone like that really get involved in the investigations? Could that very amnesia not get in your way?” I felt curious about the concept, but was unsure about what I could bring to it.

“It wouldn’t be an issue. You appear to be pretty functional at the moment. The only problem is that you don’t know anything about yourself. That ain’t ever been a problem during the job.” Neil cleared some of my doubts, but that response implied other amnesiacs had worked with him before. Perhaps doing that kind of job helps jog people’s memories?

“In that case, you can count on me, although I’m unsure how much I can actually contribute at the moment.” I decided to cooperate with Neil, despite my impairments.

“It is okay, patient. You can just wing it, and eventually, you’ll recognize your own potential.” The nightmare nurse addressed me in an emotionless tone, but although she scared me, her words made me feel confident about my hypothesis. If I work with them, it’ll bring me one step closer to my truth.

I accompanied the dog and the nurse out of the hospital, and into a small office close to a donut shop. When I passed by the shop’s windows, I witnessed the glory of this world’s processed pastries. My sockets were assaulted by an array of recipes and flavours I had never even imagined, but they all sounded amazing. I was never one for junk food like that, but man… I can’t pretend I wasn’t craving those jelly-filled doughnuts.

My lack of taste buds and money brought me back to reality, and I stopped window-shopping before finally entering the office. It was exactly what I expected it to be: a crammed red-brick building with tons of scattered papers all over its furniture, and to top it off, there was a vintage pinball machine right next to Neil’s desk. It depicted some kind of rock band, but it had to have been one that wasn’t from my time, as I didn’t recognise it in the slightest.

I slowly sat down on one of the chairs located in the room, and before long, Neil handed me a binder with case files. He forcefully opened it and pointed to a particular one labelled JMG-37.

“Alright, so there’s this guy who mysteriously disappeared from this place and hasn’t been seen in at least two Jeremy Bearemies.” Slow down, please.

“What on Earth is a Jeremy Bearemy, and how much is it in yards?”

“Oh, right, I hadn’t told you. Time in this universe is sorta odd. Since we get people from many different time periods at the same instant, the way in which temporal progression works here is less a straight line and more of a constantly-moving loop-de-loop that some fellas decided to name Jeremy Bearemy because of how its graphic representation looks. Also, it has no comparable time unit compared to most human-made measurement systems, so don’t sweat the details.”

Wow, that explained nothing! But I suppose it’s not that important. All I need to know is that two JBs is one JB too many. Regardless, the file depicted a fairly old man. He looked Hispanic, around his 80s, bald, and with no facial hair. His skin had a few darker spots caused by age. Guessing by his age and sickly appearance, I would’ve guessed he had died of natural causes, but there were bandages wrapped around his head, so he probably had a head injury of sorts.

“So what do we know about this man, Neil?”

“His name was José María Goyache. Don’t ask why he’s got both a male and a female name, I don’t get it either. During his stay here, he lived alone in one of the southern districts of the Tomb. We haven’t identified any family members, but he seemed to have some kind of organization that used his surname. As for what their business was, all answers we’ve gotten about it were unclear.” The dog updated me on the facts.

“When we interviewed the witnesses who gave us that information, they were all very tense. It’s possible that Goyache’s business was related to the regrets that kept their souls alive.” The nightmare nurse built up on the explanation, which already gave me some ideas.

“Hmm. If that’s the case, it could’ve been some sort of corrupt company, or maybe even a human trafficking ring. Either way, it would be something that made others miserable or embarrassed. Is there a particular profile for the people you questioned?” I started to bring my own ideas in.

“A couple of ‘em were Hispanic, but with slightly darker skins. Most of the witnesses seemed to have their bodies in pretty bad states. Some were missing teeth, others were so thin they could classify as two-dimensional, stuff like that.” The dawg gave me more clues.

“Then I think the latter of my ideas is probably related. I see slave drivers or drug cartels as a high possibility. You wouldn’t really see people losing teeth over corrupt banks. I think some Christina might’ve been involved.”

“Who is this Christina?” The nurse asked me. Of course, I didn’t think they’d get my nicknames.

“Methamphetamines. Or, well, a lot of other drugs could work in this case, given those symptoms, but I have a gut feeling that meth is involved.”

“You seem to have good knowledge of these kinds of things. Were you a cop in your past life?” The dog asked, trying to get my memory’s gears working. I looked at my skeletal hands trying to reminisce, but very few things came back.

“Not a cop. Definitely. But I’ve seen a lot of people who used drugs. I don’t think I ever did them myself. I have all my teeth.”  My answer perplexed the dog, but it seemed that this was just a distraction. We returned to looking at files and putting our ideas in common.

After our initial brainstorming session, we agreed to pay a visit to one of the previous witnesses, but unfortunately, that person lived quite far away from the office. We boarded a bus. By the way, public transport is free here. The road seemed to be almost car-free. I can’t tell if it was because of the low population or because the Blank Tomb was very eco-friendly.

I suppose I expected this place to be chock-full of assholes, but I suppose dying with regrets changes people. Still, can’t help but wonder if I was one of those assholes too. I have no way of knowing if my regrets are because I hurt the people around me or because I just had unfinished business.

And even then, I have this feeling inside me… I can’t quite tell what it’s meant to be, but it’s sort of… lonely. I wonder if there is anyone in this place who knew me in life… I suppose it’s impossible for them to recognise me even if they did. What a conundrum…

My inner monologue was cut off when the bus arrived at the stop we needed to get off at. After leaving the vehicle and walking through a few, mostly-empty streets, we reached an apartment complex. Neil walked up to its intercom and pressed a button with his paw. No one responded.

“Oh well. No time for stakeouts.” The dog said in a casual tone before striking the door with a roundhouse kick, breaking the damn thing in half. If I had eyes, they’d be popping out of my sockets. What is that dog doing!? He then continued to violate all B&E laws known to man by simply walking into the complex. We used the elevator to get up to the fifth floor.

The apartment that we were looking for had its door wide open. Thankfully, that meant no more reckless property damage, but at the same time, it raised concerns for the investigation. The moment we stepped into the apartment, we realised it had been completely cleared out, except for a giant block of ice that was in the middle of the room. Neil ran toward it and gasped.

“This is not good. The witness is inside that thing.” Neil’s answer made me want to examine it immediately, and sure enough, there was a man inside that block of ice. It had not started to melt yet, so he had either been frozen recently, or that ice was ungodly cold. “Nurse, get the blowtorch!” Neil shouted, and the nightmarish creature took a large blowtorch out of her cleavage. Despite being a walking skeleton, I was still the least cartoony of this trio.

The nurse carefully melted the ice until the man inside was free, but despite being thawed out, he was not recovering his body heat at all. There were no external wounds at all, either. Dark questions started to pop into my mind.

“Neil? Can the people here die?” The doctor trembled in response. He was not hoping to get into a situation like this one.

“They can’t. They are souls with a physical form, but no matter how much time passes or how much damage they take, they cannot die. And that is an absolute truth.” The doctor’s answer made a chill run down my spine. This person in front of us was undoubtedly dead, but that was a complete impossibility.

“Please, go to the apartment we’ve prepared for you. It would be a bad idea to let you work on this case. You must get to a safe place.” The warning filled me with fear. But at the same time, I felt like I couldn’t accept it. But I knew it was a bad idea to talk back. I left the apartment by myself, but before I stepped out of the complex, I decided to knock on one of the doors.

A woman opened the door. She was missing one of her eyes, but she was not in pain. I can’t lie, I was slightly shocked, but she was much more surprised than I was. I suppose seeing a living skeleton was rare even in a world where people don’t die.

“I apologize for intruding, ma’am. I’m investigating some strange things that have been happening in this building. Have you seen anyone suspicious here lately?” The look she was giving me with her singular eye already carried great suspicion, especially considering that someone had just broken the building’s front door.

“Well, there was a dog a little ago…” The woman responded, but I cut her off, asking her if there was anyone before that.

“Hmm…” The eyeless woman put her hand on her chin, thinking. “There was someone who came here during sunrise, but I couldn’t get a very good look at them… I think it was a woman… Yeah, and she had really huge tits. But I couldn’t see her face.” I thanked the woman for her testimony. I guess even if it’s somewhat crude, it’s a useful piece of testimony.

Desperate for an answer, I kept asking other neighbours about the voluptuous woman, but to my surprise, none of them saw her. However, they did claim to see other suspicious people, sometimes men, sometimes women, and sometimes creatures they couldn’t really describe. There was only one thing that most people think they saw. A mask.

This was all really confusing, but I think I gathered enough information. I decided to go to the address that the dog gave me by boarding the bus. During the trip home, I decided to rest my head on the bus’ window, lazily taking in the passing scenery as I assimilated all the evidence I gathered.

I couldn’t see much more than blurry people and trees, but during one of the bus’ stops, I saw something bizarre. There was a person wearing a skirt whose figure was rather masculine. I couldn’t quite tell their gender, since they were wearing a hoodie. But what caught me off-guard was when that person turned around, almost as if they knew I was looking at them. Their figure was still obscured, but they also wore a mask with a strange symbol, a red eye, and a twisted grin.

The sigil on the mask didn’t seem familiar. It could’ve been some sort of Asian symbol, but all my contact with their culture was limited to… meeting surgeons? Wait, that’s it! I’m finally starting to remember things! I was a surgeon as well, but I can’t recall what kind. This is a huge step forward, however.

If I expose myself to surgical knowledge, and maybe history, I could recover even more about my past! Wait, shit, where’d that masked person go? I completely zoned out and lost track of ‘em. Damn it. I have no way of knowing if they’re the person who killed the witness, but I think it’s a safe bet.

Still, wasn’t it strange? Someone with the power to kill the unkillable wouldn’t really be roaming the streets nonchalantly and wearing something as suspicious as that mask. It could be someone unrelated.

Ugh, fuck. I shouldn’t be doing this at all. I’m already lucky enough to have gotten this second chance at living after losing it all. I shouldn’t risk becoming part of the aether because of pure curiosity. I should simply take shelter and hope Neil can find something less dangerous.

After a while, the bus arrived at my stop. I got off the vehicle and headed to the building where my new home was headed. As I walked through the empty streets lit by the gray light emerging from this alien sky, I tested my memory by listing surgical instruments that I could think of. Occasionally, when picturing the tools, I had brief flashes of myself carrying out surgeries, but the images were blurry, and I couldn’t make heads or tails out of the pile of gore that I was operating upon.

Soon enough, however, I arrived at my new apartment. It was extremely clean, and it seemed that it had all the necessary appliances for a normal life, all completely new. It felt overwhelmingly sterile for a house, but perhaps that was fitting for a surgeon. Even if I knew this was all automatically assigned, it still felt eerie, almost too good to be true. Until I opened the fridge and saw that it was emptier than my ribcage.

A lot of things about my new body escape my grasp. I spent my whole life studying the human body, but despite having the same skeletal base, it didn’t follow logic. I could speak without vocal cords, see without eyes, and presumably eat without a stomach. But I was not hungry at all. In all likelihood, the option to eat was just something souls could do to feel slightly more human, rather than a biological necessity. I suppose that’s good, it means less spending on food, and more on meaningful things like clothes that don’t publicly announce the divorce I haven’t actually had and my false love for fishing. Wait… I wasn’t divorced, right?

Argh, I don’t feel like thinking of my love life. Not like I’ll ever have one again with this horrid appearance. Whatever, I’m getting sidetracked again. I’m rather tired, so I’ll just check if the bed is good. As I entered the single bedroom, I found a large black box on top of the sheets with a blue ribbon tied to it. There was a note stuck between the ribbon and the box, which I promptly took out.

“To my soon-to-be friend:

This is a welcome gift from your friendly neighbor. A new life awaits you, and you must dress to impress!

A tip of the hat.”

That pretentiously-composed card just filled me with questions, but the main one was “what’s in the goddamn box?”, which I could answer immediately. It may have been reckless, but I opened the present instantly, revealing a neatly-folded purple suit. It was definitely Gucci. I almost squealed in excitement. I tore off the god-awful fishing clothes from my body and promptly put on the haute couture composition. The box also contained an Armani trilby with high-quality fabric that matched the suit’s colour, as well as a pair of genuine snakeskin shoes and high-grade sunglasses, which I had to tape to my skull because, well, no ears or nose.

I felt like a million bucks in this outfit. It’s probably what it cost to put together, but I am not complaining. I was born to fucking wear this. These clothes don’t just fit my body, they fit my SOUL. I looked at myself in the bathroom’s mirror and smiled as much as my jaw allowed. But something was still missing.

I grabbed a black sharpie from one of the drawers, and proceeded to carefully draw a pair of smug eyebrows on my skull. Now I’m perfect. Just as I was about to throw away the box, I noticed an envelope stuck at its bottom. I opened it and found what appeared to be a wad of bank notes. Unlike the cash I recall from Earth, the bills did not depict any personalities, like presidents or queens, simply opting for a plain background where there were details about the currency.

Reading the text gave me some clues about the state of the world I was in. The currency was called Multiversal Monetary Credit, which, despite sounding extremely generic, made more sense than just using made-up words like dollar or kroner. Apparently, these credits were accepted in a large quantity of universes, where they can be used directly or exchanged for the local currencies. Certainly sounds convenient. A universal currency like that would be unthinkable in the society I lived in. It’s almost like people were allergic to unity.

Once I had a grasp of the economic system, I took a few of the bills and left my apartment. The donut shop from earlier was too tempting, and I wanted to test my hypothesis regarding what happens with the food that I eat. I immediately directed myself to the store and ordered a diverse assortment of sweets that mixed those flavours I didn’t know with the ones I was able to recall from the living world. Experimenting is important, but I wanted to have some safety in my investments as well.

I sat down on the most luxurious couch they had at the restaurant and crossed my legs like I owned the place. There was no point in wearing high-end clothes if you didn’t demonstrate at least a bit of swagger. At the same time, I was concerned about staining my new outfit with crumbs and gelatine, so I placed kerchiefs around my neck and inside the suit, just in case the food fell straight through my ribcage.

I took a bite out of the first doughnut. It looked like it was made of some kind of cyan variant of bread, and it had seeds embedded both inside and outside of its crust. As I chewed on it, I could feel a strong flavour that wasn’t comparable to what I could recall. Instead of being sweet or salty, it felt incredibly… savory. I don’t know how else to describe it. All I could muster as a review was “It’s pretty good”.

The moment of truth. It was time to swallow. Even in my lack of a tongue and lips, the two major elements alongside teeth that compose our ability to ingest food, I was able to push the food into my imaginary esophagus. It was like telekinesis, something I had previously considered mere science-fiction created for B-series revenge porn movies, and yet, feeling its existence inside my own body made me instantly believe it. I had no reason to doubt anything at this point.

I enjoyed eating, even those pastries whose flavours didn’t fit my tastes. It felt like retrieving a distant and pleasant memory, while also bursting through the walls of logic like a frosting-covered wrecking ball. I occasionally let out small moans that doubtlessly got me weird looks from the other patrons. I would apologise to them, but frankly, I don’t give a shit what they think. I’m a goddamn skeleton.

Eventually, someone new arrived at the restaurant. This person went straight up to the counter and ordered a pile of salt. They did not pay, but they received a plate with exactly what they had ordered. This complete nutcase grabbed the plate and walked up to my table, placing their strange order in front of me and sitting down without asking for permission.

I wanted to ignore this freakshow, but the moment I directed my gaze at them more directly, I realised that it was the same person I saw when I was riding the bus. Same mask with the same creepy grin and red eye, but different clothing, too complex for me to describe. Despite my wish to keep my thoughts to myself, I simply whispered “Who the hell are you?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” The person responded to my query with a sarcastic remark. It made me want to backhand that stupid mask into the next Jeremy Bearemy. Their voice didn’t sound male or female. It just sounded SMUG. They let out a chuckle and started talking again. “You don’t need to worry about it. I’m just here to drop you a little hint, Brain.”

Brain. They talked to me like they knew who I was. After their vague statement, the stranger grabbed a handful of salt and threw it at the mask they wore. I expected it to spread all over the place, but it disappeared as if they had swallowed it. What the dick?

“Man, the salt here really is something else, huh?” WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, YOU AAAAAASSHOOOOOOLE!? “Anyway, bye.” The absolute fucking lunatic just up and left like nothing happened… Which I guess isn’t exactly wrong, but still, w h a t ?

I tried to analyse every one of their statements, but I couldn’t make heads or tails out of anything. It wasn’t cryptic- it was straight-up nonsensical. But they called me Brain, didn’t they? Were they teasing me about my intelligence- or lack thereof? Was it an actual nickname I had in life? I need to ask Neil about this. There was no way this person wasn’t involved with my death. I finished the few donuts I had left and got out of the store. I needed to return to my apartment and get some sleep after whatever that was.

There was little else to do when I got back to my new and cramped home. I simply took off my exquisite clothing and hung it inside the closet. Once I was back to my naked skeletal glory, I threw myself at the crappy bed without any regard for its integrity- or mine, for that matter. I was expecting to struggle with falling asleep, given my lack of eyelids, but fortunately, my loss of consciousness took place the moment I willed it. Convenient.

My night was dreamless. After being in a coma for god knows how long, my brain was probably hoping for a proper break. I could feel my synapses reconnecting and functioning faster once I woke up. Perhaps that would contribute to the recovery of my memories. Part of me was hoping that Neil would come to wake me up personally so we could start therapy or work as soon as possible, but that did not appear to be the case. Eager to get going, I dressed up and left to look for the dog’s office. Neither he nor the nurse could be found there, but I didn’t feel like wasting time.

Where could I go to independently research the leads I have? Oh, right, the library… Is there even a library in this place? I walked to one of the bus stops, which had maps of the district underneath their electronic marquees. As I carefully examined the map, I found various public libraries, including one that was close enough that I wouldn’t require taking the bus to get there. I paced myself there while also carefully looking at the people around me, in case I ran into that masked weirdo again, which fortunately did not happen.

As I arrived at the public library, I was met with a massive amount of documents and people, many of which looking just as mangled and bizarre as me. It eased some of my feelings of alienation, even if, by definition, I WAS an alien to this place. I asked the receptionist for help. Frankly, I was feeling really lost, and I wasn’t sure where to start searching.

“You’re looking for clues on your identity? What leads do you have so far?” The receptionist kindly asked.

“All I know right now is that I was a black surgeon from the United Kingdom… And for some reason, the word Brain feels related. I’m not sure what the time period would be, but some of this has gotta amount to something.”

“Okay, please come to me, I’ll take you to our information terminals so you can conduct your search.” The receptionist’s language bothered me. I could figure out what an information terminal was. I know for a fact that computers were a thing in my time. And I’m pretty sure I knew how to use them. Surgery requires the usage of high-end computers that aren’t usually available to the general public, so I had to master them whether I wanted to or not.

I sat down in front of a thin computer monitor. The receptionist typed the data I had given them into various menus. I felt like a fucking grandpa, being patronised by someone younger than me. I know how to use a search engine, for fuck’s sake. Once the results started to display, the receptionist told me how to cycle through them, which increased my irritation. No way, you’re telling me that to change the page, I have to click on an arrow that points to the right? I am amazed beyond words.

Shrugging my annoyance off, I merely looked through the documents. Many of them included death certificates of black surgeons who died of brain injuries or illnesses. None of their faces seemed familiar to me. Other documents involved news celebrating the presence of black people in the scientific community. Reading those made me feel kind of giddy. I know I probably don’t even count as black anymore, but the sense of connection to those successful scientists felt good.

After roughly two hours of ceaseless research, I came across something that aroused my interest. A headline from a sketchy magazine about paranormal events that read “Genius black neurosurgeon mysteriously disappears after a run-in with the mafia”. I smiled, feeling like I had struck gold. I kept reading the article’s contents.

“On March 26th of this year [1996], Sheffield’s Saint Hieronymus Hospital suffered a major loss, as their top neurosurgeon, Doctor Ishmael Cassius, better known for his nickname Brain, had been absent from work for two weeks. Dr. Brain was a highly responsible and talented individual, who never missed a day of work, and even worked during holidays due to the difficulty of the surgeries he had to perform. His diligence had even caused doctors and patients who previously held racist views to change their minds about black people, because Cassius was a true paragon of the medical sciences who never let race or religion influence his choices.

His co-workers had immediately realised his absence, but refrained from commenting on the man’s disappearance, but once work started piling up, the Hospital’s directives requested that the police searched his home. Much to their dismay, they found no signs of life, or even any attempts of Cassius fleeing the city. Everything in the house was intact.

On the last night that Dr. Cassius was seen, he was asked to operate on José María Goyache, a known kingpin that dealt with various drugs such as marijuana, methamphetamines or hashish, who had seemingly been shot in the head, possibly in a failed trade or a sting operation. Goyache received surgery from Ishmael, but due to the severity of his injuries, even the doctor said he didn’t see a chance of him surviving.

Goyache’s criminal group is suspected to be behind the surgeon’s disappearance, but due to the lack of signs of a struggle in his home, we offer our own theories…”

The rest of the article went on to talk about ridiculous shit like being abducted by aliens on the way home, or secretly being part of a conspiracy to replace the white race. Maybe I shouldn’t take this information at face value… But all the things described in the article rang very loud bells in my head. Ishmael Cassius. Saint Hieronymus. The night of my last surgery. Seeing those names and events refreshed my memory. I knew that was me.

On top of that, Goyache… That’s the guy that Neil was looking for. One could say I killed him, even if I very clearly didn’t. I can tell that I had lost patients before. It’s impossible for a surgeon to avoid the touch of the reaper for long, and I know I wasn’t an exception, even if people considered me a genius. This didn’t tell me anything about that guy’s disappearance, but it certainly revealed a lot about my identity. I was satisfied.

For the sake of double-checking, I performed another search with my proper name, along with Goyache’s, just to see if that sensationalist magazine was telling the truth, and surprisingly, the only outlandish things were the conspiracy theories at the end of the article. Once I considered my search to be finished, I turned off the computer and left the cubicle. But before I got out of the library, I asked the receptionist one more question.

“Excuse me, do you have any information on this symbol?” After asking the question, I grabbed a pen and doodled the 死 sign from the stranger’s mask on a piece of paper. The librarian used a desk scanner to digitise the crappy drawing and ran a reverse image search on their computer. Now that’s the kind of tech I could barely understand.

“It appears to be a Japanese kanji. It means death, and it’s usually pronounced as ‘shi’ or other similar words.” Well, that’s not foreboding at all! I doubt I could find any concrete info about that masked person with just that lead. Death is a common word in any language, and death masks, as in, those molds that are made of people’s faces when they die, are likely to get in the way of any relevant results. I’ll just go look for Neil.

The moment I stepped out of the building, I sighed in relief, but this feeling did not last long, as I was assaulted by a figure I couldn’t perceive in time before I was tackled to the ground.

“*Glomps you.* Uguuuuu! Hewwo, Brain-hakase~! I can see you’ve been stalking little old me~! You silly boy, you could’ve just asked me out directly!” It was that goddamn masked idiot. The blood on my bones boiled with the fury of a thousand suns. I resisted my urge to shout various slurs at this incomprehensible, genderless creature and instead opted to grab them by the neck like it was a goose. I lifted the fucker over my head and pushed them against a wall.

“Enough of your bullshit, jackass. Explain who you are and why you’re so obsessed with me.” I wasn’t an aggressive person, but this person was pushing me over the edge.

“Kyaaaa~! No need to be so pushy, senpai!” The presence of all those weird words I didn’t understand just made me angrier. I couldn’t hold it in anymore, so I punched them in the stomach. “Okay, okay, I’ll stop. Jesus, calm down.” Once the idiot stopped acting like what they are, I lowered them, but without letting them go.

“I can’t tell you who I am just yet. It’s not the right time.” They were messing with me. I gave them a bloodlusted look through my sunglasses, which seemed to actually get through to them based on intention alone. “Buuuut, I can tell you that you’re a very important piece of existence, and you have powers you’re not yet aware of. The key to awakening them may be found along with the truth about how you died.”

For a change, they were being helpful, even if it still sounded like they were pulling my leg. “Okay? And how can I do that? Could you tell me, please?” I politely asked, holding back my wishes to smash the asshole’s masked face against concrete. Before responding, they took out what looked like a set of tarot cards.

“I’m afraid that’s not in the cards.” With that statement, the stranger formed a portal behind their back and disappeared from my sight. I’m too old to deal with this shit. Unsure of what to do, I returned to my apartment. Even though I had gotten most of the answers I craved, I felt defeated. That masked fool was playing me like a goddamn fiddle. And I still can’t understand what for, exactly. I don’t know shit about no damn powers, I’m just a surgeon.

And yet, pieces still managed to fall into place somehow. When I arrived at the apartment, Neil was waiting at the door. He seemed distressed, as he was pressing his paw against one of his arms, as if trying to stop some injury from bleeding.

“Neil, what’s wrong!?” Although I wanted to break the news about my identity, I was more concerned about his health.

“I was attacked by a strange person who is not from this universe… They wore a mask… It was some kind of shapeshifter… They were definitely the one who killed the witness…” The dog panted between sentences. Given his previous statements about the Tomb’s inhabitants being unable to die, this concerned me greatly.

“I’ve encountered them too. They seem to be connected to my death. But I’ve also discovered many things about my identity. You can call me Brain for now. I was a surgeon who worked on Goyache right before he died, but I don’t know what happened after that.”

“Good job on finding that out, Brain. I didn’t expect you to do so this quickly. I suppose that name fits your capabilities, heh.” Despite his injuries, Neil still cracked some jokes. “But that’s not what I came here to tell you. The masked killer told me where Goyache can be found. I’d tell you where it is, but… They’re definitely preparing an ambush. You shouldn’t go there unarmed.”

A surge of confidence filled my spirit. Even if I couldn’t discern the stranger’s motives, I felt like they weren’t going to kill me. They could’ve done so in any of our encounters. And that weird speech about hidden powers… I know I can solve this by myself. “Give me a gun, then.”

Neil was shocked by my response. His ears reeled back like I had thrown a ball at him, but he nodded. He took a strange pistol from his pocket and handed it to me, along with a note with the address. The gun was different from the stuff I had seen in movies. It was very sci-fi, with glowing creases and all. I assumed regular bullets wouldn’t be effective on whatever I was about to face. “Thank you, Neil. Now get your ass back to the hospital.” I expressed my gratitude for Neil’s vote of confidence and left.

I once again took the bus to my destination. The drivers and passengers failed to notice my weapon, as I had hidden it inside the void between my body and my clothes. When the bus arrived at the stop, I walked out and looked around the place. It seemed to be an abandoned part of the city, as numerous buildings were practically falling apart. Most of them looked like your average financial district buildings, but the one that I was supposed to go to was the one that stood out most: a ruined courthouse that bore no name.

The statues at the entrance were so damaged that I couldn’t tell what they represented. Not lady justice, no lions. Nothing recognizable. It inspired poetic images of a corrupt system where justice was so warped that it could be considered shapeless. Pretentious, I know, but I don’t know, just humour me for a bit. I adjusted my luxurious suit and took my firearm out of it before promptly kicking the massive doors to the courthouse to literal splinters. I don’t know if the wood was just worn out or if I had grown absurdly strong… I’d put my money on the former.

The crashing sound of the destruction caused by my kick repeated itself numerous times throughout the empty halls of the courthouse. From the outside, they looked like they stretched into eternity, but when I stepped inside, I could see my destination clearly. An open trap door on the floor, right in the middle of the hallway.

I took joy from each of my steps toward the hole in the ground. The image of an efficient and lean man, wearing clothing that was as expensive as a small house and holding a potent killing machine in his hand as he went on to face his own destiny… It made my mind tingle. They should make a movie like this.

Brushing aside my masculine fantasies, I jumped into the trap door and landed in an underground courtroom that seemed intact, despite the damage that the rest of the building had suffered. Inside it, I saw two people. Goyache, looking just as skinny and old as he did in my memories, but with the incisions I made on his skull still present. It was almost as if a slight breeze could blow the top of his head away. I could swear I put sutures on it…

The other person was, obviously, the masked entity. They sat on the judge’s stand, spinning the gavel atop his gloved finger like it was a basketball. I could tell they were chuckling underneath that stupid mask, judging by the brief movements their upper body was making.

“You’re just in time, defendant. The court is now in session for your trial. Judge Nocturn Ghadd presiding.” At last, the masked jackass stated their name. That’s one less question. Five million to go.

“The hell are you talking about, clown?” 

“Order in my court! You have the right to shut the fuck up and sit down!” Nocturn snapped right back while smashing the gavel on the table, but I wasn’t about to take any of that shit.

“That’s what they say when you get arrested, not when you’re in court. You couldn’t even get that right.”

“Oh, we got ourselves a smartass, then. In that case, I’m getting you a government-assigned attorney, see how you like that.” Upset by my remarks, Nocturn took out several cards, which seemingly caused the sudden appearance of various monsters in the courtroom. These monsters looked like some kind of snowmen mixed with imps, but they all wore two-piece suits to match the situation. The one that appeared next to me in the defence stand looked the shabbiest of them all.

“The court requests that the prosecution presents their opening statement.” Nocturn’s mask shifted its pattern into something that resembled a weird cat as they pointed to the prosecution, which was another one of those strange snowmen.

“The defendant, Ishmael “Brain” Cassius, stands accused of malpractice and the murder of José María Goyache, who also happens to be our first witness, hee-ho.” The snowman spoke in a very high-pitched voice. I looked over at the old man, who looked even more confused than I did.

“HEY WITNESS! Get yo’ ass on the stand and state your name and occupation.” The judge yelled at Goyache, who merely gazed around the room as if he didn’t understand what he was told, but one of the snowmen, presumably the bailiff, pushed him to move to the witness stand. “NAME, OCCUPATION, NOW!” The “judge” continued to shout at the confused old man. I felt pity for him.

“José María Goyache, pharmacist.” As the old man finally replied, Nocturn smashed their gavel once more. “NO LYING UNDER OATH, YOU STUPID SHIT!”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I was a kingpin in life. I ran the biggest drug ring in the UK with help from my network in the rest of Europe.” That made more sense, although, in a way, one could say a pharmacist and a kingpin aren’t that different. Just kidding, that’s a stupid comparison.

“So how did you die, exactly-ho?” The prosecutor continued his line of questioning, and although it was hard to take that 4-foot tall snowman seriously, he was trying his best, damn it!

“I was shot in the head.”

“By the defendant?” The prosecutor pressed.

“No. It was a thug from a rival group. A deal-gone-wrong sort of deal.” The courtroom fell silent. Nocturn’s mask turned into a poker face.

“Are you telling me it wasn’t Ishmael Cassius that killed you?” The prosecutor was sweating bullets. Or he might’ve been melting. Couldn’t tell, honestly.

“I don’t even know who that is.” It was difficult to hold my laughter in. I mean, did I even have a reason not to laugh my bony ass off? It’s not like this is a legitimate court.

Nocturn placed their palm on their face. “Great, I wasted all this effort into making a set piece for our showdown, and it didn’t go at all how I expected it to go. I THOUGHT YOU ACTUALLY KILLED THAT GUY, BRAIN!” Nocturn’s disappointment was like music to my ears.

“I did surgery on him, but he was practically dead already by the time he got to the hospital. Waste of public money, if I’m being honest.” I explained the situation to Nocturn.

“Ooooh, I get it now! Wait. No, I don’t” They’re not very bright, are they?

“That must have been my whore wife’s idea. She’s always trying to control every aspect of my life.” Goyache replied with something that caught my attention.

“Women, am I right?” Nocturn let out a misogynistic comment that only made Goyache laugh.

“So, Goyache. I vaguely recall interacting with your wife. Is there any particular reason why she was so controlling of you?” I was practically doing the attorney’s job for him. Come to think of it, he hadn’t even spoken yet.

“She was basically using me as a puppet to run the ring. I’m pretty sure she was doing some weird cultist witch stuff. One time, I saw her rip the flesh off someone for declining a deal. Not even sure how she did it.” Goyache’s statement was very relevant to the court record.

“So, from your experience. Do you think Mrs. Goyache could’ve used her voodoo shit to kill someone who could not save your life? Perhaps even reduce that person to nothing but a skeleton?” I pressed on his statement with my hypothesis.

“That sounds like her, alright.” A smug smirk formed on my skull as I heard this response.

“Your honor, I rest my motherfucking case.” Nocturn was unamused by this chain of events.

“Uuuuuugh. This blows. You were supposed to break down, thinking you had killed this dude and jumped into a vat of acid mixed with red food dye, or something. But noooo, you had to actually take control of your own fate and find out the real circumstances behind your death. You definitely awakened your powers.” Nocturn whined like a small child who couldn’t be taken to Burger King after school.

“Cry me a river, bitch. Now, explain all that garbage about powers and fate.” I triumphantly claimed my victory. Nocturn snapped their fingers, and all the snowmen- as well as Goyache- disappeared from the room.

“Okay, but drop the attitude, or I WILL cry. Hard.” I would’ve rolled my eyes if I had them. “So basically, there’s this thing called the Multiverse. it consists of a tree-shaped cluster of worlds that infinitely branch out based on meaningful actions. You’ve probably heard of the butterfly effect, so I’ll refrain from explaining why there are so many universes. But there are certain beings who exist outside of the conventional rules of the multiverse. Some cultures would call them gods, but it would be more accurate to call them Concepts.

I am one of those Concepts. Ordinarily, existences like mine are incorporeal, and we control the flow of fate in a passive, sort of unconscious way. But we also have a will. However, the only way to manifest our will is to create a physical vessel and give up part of our power. When we become physical beings, we lose that pseudo-omnipotence and immortality, but gain so much more in return.”

Why were they dropping all this shit on me? I understood what they said, but not why I should know it. “So what concept are you, Nocturn?”

“I am the embodiment of Conflict and Consequences. I am the millions who die in wars. I am the one who truly kills the idiots who get into bar brawls. I am the punishment that follows all the conflicts that ever begin. And I can control the outcomes of most situations. But obviously, there can be no consequences without causes. And that’s where you come in, my friend.”

It was hard to take in, but I could sort of get it. “Aha, so I’m the Concept of Cause, and you’re the Concept of Effect.” Nocturn clapped happily.

“Ding ding ding, jackpot! Now, I know you’re probably wondering stuff like “why am I a Concept? I thought I was just a surgeon!” or alternatively “if Concepts can’t die, why the hell am I here?”, and to that I’ve got all the answers you need! We used to be part of a bigger Concept: Fate. The driving force of all things that happen, but we got separated because we had beef with another Concept, Chaos. I took a chunk of Chaos’ subconcepts, hence why I’m part of Conflict, so you got split off from me and reincarnated into a human being until you had restored enough of your power to manifest again. The separation of the body and soul that is caused by death allows for the soul to gain a stronger presence, hence why I waited until you died to contact you.”

Did I have a reason to believe all this jargon? No. Did I believe it anyway? Yeah. Even if it was fucking absurd, it resonated with me. It was as if I already knew all of it but simply forgot about it. “So what now, am I supposed to become one with you, or something?” Wait, that sounds too sexual.

“Hehehehe, no. It’s not really possible for two concepts to merge after they’ve split. All we can really do is stay together permanently. It’s like marriage, but without the sex!” Thank goodness. I’m not even sure if this thing has genitals, let alone human ones.

“Wait, I have a question. If we, as a whole, make up causality, how were things being decided when we were separated?”

“That’s what Chaos’ role is. It tries to take control of the threads of fate the moment Causality sleeps on the job. It’s not a common occurrence, I swear, I’m good at my job. I tried to keep consequences logical even when the causes were random. It’s not easy, lemme tell you.”

“So are we supposed to kill Chaos or something? Would that even be possible?”

“No, that’d be dumb. Concepts can die, yes, but it’s kind of pointless to kill one, because they just come back eventually, due to it being something that exists in people’s minds. It’s why Cause manifested in you. I don’t think Chaos is even looking for us, so it’s better to leave things just the way they are because life is beautiful! Well, there really isn’t much else we can do in this universe anymore, so what say we go to my place and cause some fools to fight to the death for arbitrary and frankly out of character reasons?”

Nocturn seemed like a really strange person, but at the same time, I felt a sort of affinity with them, now that I had gotten the truth out of them. It was difficult to describe, but I no longer wanted to stomp on their face until it was a small blue stain on the courtroom’s carpet. Wait, that reminds me, I didn’t get to use the gun. That’s so lame. Why would anyone tease a cause and then have no consequence to it? It’s literally like a reverse Chekhov’s gun! Bah, I’ll keep it in case someone wants to make that movie idea. Saves them money on props. People used to tell me I looked like Sam Jackson if he had long hair… Or any hair at all.

“Sounds Gucci to me.”

And so, the Masked Motherfucker met with their other half- or rather, quarter. Well, it’s not an exact proportion… Agh, it doesn’t matter! Anyway, they finally reunited after the mysterious separation of Cause and Effect. It would not be difficult for them to abandon the Blank Tomb, as Nocturn possessed the ability to open the borders between universes. Brain felt slightly sorrowful for not being able to say goodbye to Neil, or getting one last serving of those delicious donuts, but maybe in the next universe they’ll visit, they’ll have similar stores?

“Haha, no. There’s nothing in Universe-0, you dumbass narrator!” Nocturn suddenly yelled at nothing. I know I just said I can tolerate him more now, but I’m starting to have second thoughts.

---

“Concept: Cause has reunited with Concept: Effect. Numerous imbalances have been created in the state of Universe-87. It is not known where their base of operations will be located next. It is expected to see numerous spatio-temporal distortions appear in other universes. What course of action should we take?”

“Await the appearance of said distortions. The possibilities for their current location are far too varied, and we cannot act until we deduce a pattern. Once enough data has been collected, we are to pursue them. But for the time being, we must wait. The damage they can cause in a year is not great enough to be a cause for concern.”

“With all due respect, sir, I must remind you that we are dealing with a psychopathic Concept who has already wiped out multiple realities.”

“Not to worry. They are limited in their current state. There is only so much they can destroy right now. They’re a lazy idiot, regardless.”

“That is true. Apologies for my impertinence.”

BRAIN & NOCTURN WILL RETURN FOR SHANG-CHI 2- I MEAN, “KIRSCHE’S ABHORRENT ADVENTURE”

Light Yagami VS Junko Enoshima – DEATH BATTLE!

(Note: This fight was originally published on DeviantArt from March 8 of 2018 to the 31st of the same month. This version is intended to merge both parts while also fixing minor things that have been on the back of my mind since I released it.)

Brain: “Alright, the combatants are set. Let’s end this debate once and for all.”

Nocturn: “It’s time for a KILLING GAME!”

---

Part 1

My name is Light Yagami. I may look like a normal person to most people, but I am hiding a secret that could throw the world into a permanent state of disarray and chaos. What’s this secret I’m speaking of, you may ask? To put it simply… I am God.

I did not create this world, nor the creatures that inhabit it, but I have the power to control their lives… and deaths. And it’s all thanks to a simple notebook. It may sound ridiculous, but with this Death Note, I can make any human die in whatever twisted ways I desire. However, I am not a psychopath. I don’t kill people without rhyme or reason, no. I only kill those who truly deserve it, the wretched criminals that roam this Earth and ruin the lives of the weak.

I am going to use this power to create a New World. One where crime is non-existent, and both the strong and the weak can live together in harmony, without the need of being afraid of violence and death! And the one to create that New World Order will be none other than me, Light Yagami, known by the rest of the world as Kira!

Naturally, I cannot make my identity available to the general public. Only a select few are aware that I am Kira, but there are some rather nosy people that suspect me. I’ve been acting as both Kira and the prestigious detective L for a few years now. I’m in charge of investigating my own case. Heh, it’s quite ironic…

But enough about that. Let me tell you why I am in this position. It all started when I received a peculiar letter…

“Dear Mr. Yagami.
We at the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles have recognized your overwhelming talent and would like to hire you as one of our teachers for this upcoming semester. We have enclosed a file with all the details that you need to know, from our location to the salary that you will receive. We will patiently await your response.
Yours truly, the headmaster.”

I had no idea what that letter was talking about. I had never heard of that academy, and I most certainly didn’t apply for any sort of teacher job anywhere, let alone that shady school. I simply threw away that nonsensical letter and went on with my life. But it seems they had different plans…

One day, I went out for a brief walk while carrying a black backpack, which contained my Death Note. Alongside me was Ryuk, a Shinigami dressed in pitch-black clothing. To put it simply, he was the guardian of the Death Note. Only those who had previously touched the notebook were able to see and hear him.

“Kukukuku… Where are we going, Light?” The Shinigami spoke to me, but before I was able to reply, I felt my consciousness slip away as two figures I couldn’t identify in time grabbed me by surprise and put me to sleep using a handkerchief soaked with chloroform. They threw me inside their black car and started driving it somewhere.

“Oh, well. I should probably follow them.” Ryuk said in a laid-back tone as he spread his wings and flew in the same direction as the car, more out of curiosity than of willingness to help me.

A few hours later, I woke up in a strange place… A classroom of sorts. It was full of empty desks, and there were cameras attached to a few of its corners. I had no recollection of how I got here, aside from what I’ve already mentioned so far. Confused, I tried to exit the classroom, but right as I grabbed the door’s handle, I heard a loud “THUMP” coming from the lockers that were located in the back of the classroom. I turned my head and saw a teenage boy lying on the floor.

“Ugh…” The boy let out a groan as he tried to get up from the floor. He was wearing a black school uniform and a baseball cap, which obscured his dark blue hair and gambogeish grey eyes.

“Are you alright?” I offered to help the boy by using my right hand to reach out to him.

“Y-yeah… Thank you.” The boy said in a rather timid tone as he grabbed my hand and got up from the floor.

“Do you have any idea of how you got here?” I questioned the boy. My mind was still full of unanswered queries, but I needed to keep calm.

“I have no clue. All I know is that some strange people knocked me out and threw me into a limousine of sorts. Do you know anything, mister?” The boy gave me his disappointing answer in a polite manner. Despite the situation he was in, he was awfully calm.

“Same as you. And no need to address me so formally. You can just call me Light, Light Yagami.” I answered his question and introduced myself.

“Oh, pleased to meet you, Light. I’m Shuichi Saihara. I’m formally known as the Ultimate Detective, but I don’t think I’m deserving of that title.” The boy introduced himself in return.

“You’re a detective too? That’s pretty impressive for someone as young as you! I’m just a simple detective from the Japanese Police Force.” I enthusiastically replied. I don’t know if this Shuichi person will be a friend or a foe, but I would prefer to have him on my side.

“Hm… Could this mean they’re kidnapping detectives? It would certainly help them if they wanted to commit a large-scale crime.” Shuichi theorized while scratching his chin with his right hand.

“We’ll think about the reasons why they kidnapped us later. For now, we should try to investigate this place.” I proposed the idea to Shuichi, who nodded in agreement.

We opened the classroom door and left, only to find a long hallway covered in moss and dust. As we walked through the deserted hallway, we noticed a menacing anthropomorphic creature covered in machine parts. It had white hair and a large antenna sticking out of its head.

“Watch out, Shuichi! That might be an enemy guard.” Nervous, I tried to hide behind a corner with Shuichi, but it seems I spoke too loudly.

“That’s robophobic! Just because I’m a robot, I have to be an enemy, right? You humans are all the same!” The mechanic creature yelled at me, almost as if it were trying to scold me.

“Uh, I think it might not actually be an enemy,” Shuichi said to me with a worried look on his face, but it seems that the robot was not satisfied.

“It? Do not treat me like an object! I may be a robot, but I am very much alive, and I am a male!” The strange robot started rambling. I approached him and tried to apologize, for everyone’s sake.

“We apologize for our insensitivity, we were just slightly confused. You can call us Light and Shuichi. Do you know if there’s anyone else in this building?” I offered the robot a handshake, which he promptly accepted. Despite being a robot, he didn’t seem to be very strong.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance. My designation is K1-B0, but you can just call me Keebo. As for your question, I have seen a few more people here, but they didn’t know anything about the building we’re in.” The robot replied with a polite introduction.

“Thank you for the information, Keebo. We’ll let you know if we find an exit.” Shuichi cheerfully replied. We waved K1-B0 goodbye as we went our separate ways. We kept on walking until we found a small girl that wore a strange school uniform accompanied by a witch hat, which covered her short crimson hair and her bored-looking brown eyes. Before we even said anything, we could hear her whining.

“Nyeh… I just want to go home… Why did I have to run out of mana in a moment like this?” Her voice was so monotone that it made me want to yawn, but if I wanted to learn more about this place and how to escape it, I had to force myself to interrogate everyone.

“Excuse me, do you anything about this place or how we got here?” I reluctantly asked the little girl. She looked like a complete airhead, so I did not have high hopes, but there was no harm in trying.

“Nyeh? Right now, I don’t know anything, but if I had my trusty magic ball, I would be able to see everything that happened here in both the past AND the future!” The little girl kept on spewing pointless fantasies. I don’t know what I was expecting.

“I think you need to focus more on the present.” Shuichi gave a snarky reply that nearly got a chuckle out of me.

“How dare you talk back to the Ultimate Mage, Himiko Yumeno? Well… I’m more well-known as the Ultimate Magician, but that’s just a farce!” The little kid whined again as she stated her name.

“Um… If you learn anything about this place, please let us know.” Shuichi said to the girl as we returned to our path. A strange question popped up in my mind.

“Hey, Shuichi. All the people I’ve met here so far seem to have some sort of “Ultimate” title. What is that supposed to mean?” I asked the Ultimate Detective.

“Well, the Ultimate Program is an incentive created by the government to develop the talents of young high school students that excel at something. Think of it as a scholarship of sorts.” Shuichi gave me an elaborate response. As expected from the Ultimate Detective.

“But then why am I here? I’m not an Ultimate, and I graduated from college a long time ago-“ When I asked that question, I realized something. The letter that I received earlier this month was talking about getting me to work as a teacher in some sort of Ultimate Academy. I think I need to gather some more information before telling anyone, but at least I’m getting closer to the truth.

Shuichi and I trod through a long corridor that led to a large room filled with sports equipment. There was some sort of stage on the back, and a large window near the ceiling on the right wall. A plain-looking girl with glasses and long, blue hair stood in the middle of this gym-looking room. She seemed to be pretty out of it, so I tried to talk to her.

“Hey, are you alright?” Despite my attempts to talk to her, she didn’t even blink. I didn’t want to bother her anymore if she didn’t want to talk, so I signaled Shuichi to leave the room. However, she decided to speak right as we turned around.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you there.” The girl spoke out to us. Shuichi and I looked into each other’s eyes, confused, but we decided to continue the conversation.

“Hey, we were wondering if you knew anything about this situation,” Shuichi asked her, but the girl shook her head.

“Sorry, I’m just as clueless as everyone else here. The name’s Tsumugi Shirogane. You might know me as the Ultimate Cosplayer.” She replied in a monotonous voice.

A cosplayer? What would anyone gain from kidnapping a cosplayer? Have otakus taken over Japan? I’m starting to worry about the future of this country.

“Wait a sec. I think I know you… You really remind me of the protagonist of a very popular manga… Hm… No, it must be my imagination.” Tsumugi said as she carefully looked at me from a distance.

“Um, sure, whatever. Just let us know if you find out anything about this place.” I replied to her in an upset tone as I decided to leave the gym, Shuichi following me.

As we kept on walking, we found a peculiar-looking boy standing around in a large room. The boy was very tall and slim. He had short green hair and wore very casual clothes, adorned with a set of rings and other various tokens. Shuichi and I approached him, but he talked to us before we had the chance.

“Hey there. I assume you two also appeared here for no reason, right?” Much like his dressing style, the young man’s voice sounded very casual, but mysterious at the same time.

“Yes, that seems to be the case. Are you another Ultimate?” Shuichi replied to him while asking about his talent.

“That I am. But there’s a small problem. I cannot remember what my talent is no matter how hard I try. The name’s Rantaro Amami, by the way. Does it ring any bells?” The boy replied, but his response left us in a state of confusion and disbelief.

“Sorry, but it doesn’t sound familiar at all,” I answered his query, and Shuichi shook his head, implying that his answer was the same as mine.

“Oh, well. Guess I’ll find out in due time. But anyway, I’m curious about that large door over there, but it’s too big to open by myself. Would you mind helping me out?” Rantaro said in a laid-back tone. Both Shuichi and I replied with a simultaneous “Sure.” We rushed to the door and began pulling the handles, slowly making it open with a loud creaking sound. A bright light filled the hall, coming from the outside world.

“Looks like we weren’t trapped after all.” Shuichi said with a relieved expression, but the moment Rantaro stepped outside, he put a stop to our enthusiasm by saying “Don’t get your hopes up. Look again.” Following Rantaro’s advice, I walked out the door and looked at the sky…

All I could see were miles upon miles of barren wastelands through a semi-transparent dome with iron bars spanning its entire width. Inside the dome were a few small buildings, and the one that we were in a moment ago, which was noticeably larger on the outside. It likely had more floors that we hadn’t discovered, but I suppose we’ll find out in due time.

There was a small terrace near the main building, and there appeared to be a girl of short stature sitting on one of its benches. The girl had tanned skin and white hair, and her outfit was composed of a long yellow jacket that barely covered her white bikini top and grey skirt. I walked towards her, accompanied by Shuichi. Rantaro went his own way to investigate. Before we reached her, she noticed us and quickly ran towards us.

“Yoohoo! Are you the ones who kidnapped Angie and brought her here? Or were you sent by Atua to save her?” The girl enthusiastically danced around us while speaking in her thick foreign accent. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what country it was from, but it sounded like something you would hear from a Polynesian person.

“I’m afraid we’re technically neither. We’re hostages as well. Is your name Angie, or are you referring to someone else?” Shuichi said to the girl, who looked at us with a curious expression on her face.

“Yah, I am Angie Yonaga, the Ultimate Artist, and faithful devotee of Atua!” She enthusiastically said while waving around a small brush.

“It’s pretty surprising to see that someone as young as yourself could become the Ultimate Artist. You must have practiced a lot.” I put my fingers on my chin and questioned her, pretending to care about her life.

“Nyahahaha! The reason why I have talent is that my body is no more than just a vessel for Atua to pour his blessings onto our world!” Angie said in an enthusiastic tone while putting her palms together, almost as if she were praying.

“Who is this Atua you speak of?” Shuichi asked, curious. Hearing this seemed to upset Angie slightly, but she hid it well with her permanent smile.

“How have you not heard of the very being that created you? Atua is our Lord and Savior, and if you don’t submit to his will, you’ll spend the afterlife in an abyss of eternal suffering!” The girl rambled on about her deity in a cheerful tone. The dark subject of her rant, however, made her attitude somewhat disturbing.

“Say, how did someone as small as you move such a large door? Please answer seriously, you can leave all that Atua make-believe-“ I tried to question her, but before I finished my potentially offensive phrase, she responded.

“Oh, a girl in blue opened it for me while insulting two short boys that were with us.” I was shocked by her unexpected honesty, but it was much appreciated. We both gave her our thanks, to which she replied with “Thank Atua, not me.” Annoyed by her constant religious fanatism, I simply waved her goodbye and walked away from the terrace, aiming to investigate a small building to the west of the school building.

We walked the stone path that led to it, and once we reached the building, we encountered a man of very short stature, presumably one of the two guys Angie mentioned. He wore dark punkish clothes along with a wool hat with spikes. Looking down at his legs, he had metallic shackles attached to his ankle. His eyes looked completely dead, but he was very much alive. We approached him to see what he was doing there.

“Hello, sir. We’re investigating the vicinity of the school building. Do you know what’s inside this small building?” Shuichi politely questioned the short man, who looked at the ground with a gloomy expression.

“No need to address me so formally, kid. Name’s Ryoma Hoshi, Ultimate Tennis Pro. You can just call me Hoshi. I don’t even play tennis anymore…” The man said, raising his head to make eye contact with us.

Hmph. To think that this midget was a tennis pro at some point. Nevertheless, Hoshi wasn’t what interested me. I was more curious about the locked door that he was standing next to.

“Do you know what’s behind that door?” I asked in a deadpan tone, the Tennis Pro simply shrugging the question off while putting a cigarette in his mouth.

“H-hey, you shouldn’t smoke here.” The Ultimate Detective nervously scolded the midget, who casually bit half of the cigarette off before saying “It’s not a real cigarette. It’s just candy.”

“Okay, but why are you standing here if you don’t know what’s in the building?” I interrupted their casual chatter with a relevant question, causing Hoshi to cross his arms and go back to his previous gloomy expression.

“I just don’t feel like I deserve being with the others. Ever since that incident… I haven’t been able to get close to anyone without feeling remorse or anxiety…” The tennis pro stated, arousing interest in both Shuichi and myself.

“Wait… I think I know what you’re talking about. Ryoma Hoshi… Aren’t you that man who massacred a whole branch of the mafia for personal revenge?” Shuichi exposed this fact that was completely unknown to me. This was certainly interesting to learn.

“The one and only… Not exactly proud of that, though. It was all my fault… And I only made it even worse. ‘Least I got some hard time in the slammer. Got what I deserve. But if you ask me… My punishment should be greater. I still need to atone for all those lives that have ended because of my stupidity and selfishness.” Hoshi continued to rant, but learning details like those certainly made this conversation more enjoyable… for me.

“That’s… pretty deep. I really don’t know what to say about it. Just know that if you need anything, I’m here for you. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.” The kind Shuichi offered his aid to the depressed man, but all he did in response was nod it off. We would’ve stayed there to investigate the locked building, but without a key, we couldn’t do much, so we merely left that zone and took the stairs located to the east of the facility, which led to a large courtyard on the lower floor.

In the middle of the courtyard was an athletic-looking girl with dark braided hair and a large green bow on it. She wore a short blue blouse and a skirt of the same color. For some reason, she was stretching her legs. She must be the girl that Angie mentioned.

The moment she heard our footsteps, she got up and charged towards us at full speed, only to grab Shuichi by his arm and throw him onto the hard concrete floor, causing him to scream in pain. She prepared to attack me, but I raised my fists and took a step back. She got into a peculiar combat stance similar to those used by Aikido fighters.

“Back off, you degenerate males! You perverts are no threat for Tenko Chabashira, the Ultimate Aikido Master, and pioneer of Neo-Aikido!” The girl yelled at us in a very aggressive tone while stepping on Shuichi’s back.

“E-excuse me, but could you stop that? I don’t particularly enjoy getting thrown around like a ragdoll.” Shuichi said after groaning in pain. Tenko let go of him and took a more normal stance.

“Ugh, I bet you secretly liked getting stepped on. Normally, I would apologize for the sudden attack, but you degenerate males don’t even deserve that.” The Aikido practitioner scoffed at us while making an incredibly weird face.

“That was uncalled for and sexist. I don’t know what you’ve been through, but it’s extremely rude to attack someone just because you’re prejudiced towards their gender.” I scolded the girl, clearly annoyed by her behavior.

“Psh, whatever. Just don’t get in my way or you’ll get an unrestrained taste of my Neo-Aikido!” The androphobic teen left the courtyard with a look of disdain sullying her face. With that nuisance out of the way, we decided to keep exploring the courtyard, seeing that it had a small chapel-like building that we hadn’t visited yet.

Its entrance was a large red door, and it had a small sign labeled “Shrine of Judgement”. Upon opening the doors, we saw a large fountain with a statue depicting a muscular man with the head of a teddy bear holding some sort of jar of water.

Staring at the fountain was a short boy with dark purple hair and eyes dressed in a white denim outfit decorated with a checkered bandana. He had a rather mischievous expression, and it appeared that he noticed us entering the shrine.

“Ah, hello! It seems you have discovered my secret lair! I’m Kokichi Oma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader! Please make yourselves at home!” The boy said while putting his arms behind his head in a laid-back manner.

“U-Ultimate Supreme Leader? Secret Lair? What are you talking about?” Confused, Shuichi questioned Kokichi, who smiled chuckling.

“Nee-hee-hee! Actually, I lied about the secret lair part. The rest is all true, though. I’m the leader of a secret organization with thousands of members all around the world!” The boy said with an air of superiority to his voice, which seemed to upset Shuichi.

“And what’s that organization’s name, Kokichi?” The Ultimate Detective asked while adjusting his hat. Kokichi put his finger to his mouth and smiled smugly.

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be secret anymore, would it?” He replied in a condescending tone, which irritated both of us.

“Then how do we know you’re not lying?” I pressed on, looking to throw him off.

“That’s what makes it fun! You don’t know who’s really telling the truth until you find out for yourself! For all we know, you could be a sociopathic murderer beneath that friendly exterior. Anyhow, I don’t think I ever got your names.” Kokichi spoke with an air of superiority to his voice. His comment about me being a sociopath caught me off guard, but I didn’t let it get to me.

“I’m Light Yagami, and he’s Shuichi Saihara. And don’t think just because you’re younger than me, I’ll let you mess with me. Respect your elders, kid.” I reprimanded the so-called Supreme Leader, causing him to change to a somewhat annoyed expression.

“Heh. All I’ll say for now is that you should watch your backs and beware of who you trust. You never know when someone will stab you in the back.” The boy said in a suspicious tone as he left the shrine.

Both Shuichi and I stayed silent for a moment due to the Supreme Leader’s comment, but our silence was suddenly killed by a loud DING DONG sound coming from a set of speakers located outside of the shrine. We quickly stepped outside to see what was happening, but the monitors weren’t showing anything. However, a message began to play on the speakers.

“Ahem! Hello, my dear Ultimates and not-so-Ultimates! I’m the headmaster of this academy. I have an important announcement to make, so please gather in the gymnasium! I will explain everything about your situation. I will see you all there!” A loud, high-pitched voice blurted out of the electronic equipment. The contents of the message shocked both of us.

“T-the mastermind is going to show themselves just like that? This has got to be a trap!” Shuichi nervously spouted. Not wanting to see him panic, I put my hand on his shoulder.

“Calm down, Shuichi. If they’re calling us to that place, it has to be for good reason. We’re expert detectives. I’m sure we can figure out a way to turn the tables.” I tried to comfort the boy to the best of my abilities. The last thing I want to deal with right now is a bunch of overly emotional teenagers having mental breakdowns.

“Y-you’re right. Let’s head there and see how the situation progresses.” Stuttering, but slightly calmer, Shuichi agreed with me. Given his response, we both marched back into the school building. Upon entering the gym, we saw all the eight other people that we had met earlier. It seems there wasn’t anyone else in the building, or in that room, for that matter.

All the Ultimates stood around while chattering amongst themselves, but their casual chat was interrupted by another loud DING DONG. Everyone’s looks focused on the back of the gym, which had a small stand raised above the ground. Despite the alerts for the arrival, no one seemed to be behind the stand, until…

“MONOKUMA APPEARS!” A squeaky voice resonated throughout the room while a small teddy bear jumped out of the ground and onto the stand. The stuffed animal had a rather peculiar look to it. Half of him was white and innocent, while the other was black with a red eye and a wicked grin. Its sudden appearance caused the Ultimates to mumble loudly about it.

“A-ahem! Please, stay silent, the headmaster is about to speak!” The black and white bear said, much to the confusion of everyone in the room. I could hear some skeptical people saying things like “That plush is the headmaster?”

“I SAID SHUT UP! Jeez, kids these days don’t respect their superiors in the slightest.” The stuffed animal yelled, clearly angry, causing the entire room to go silent, except for Kokichi, who could be heard chuckling, but the bear paid him no mind and continued his speech. “Now that there’s some peace in the room, let me explain who I am, and what you’re all doing here. My name is Monokuma, and I’m the headmaster of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles!”

“Hold on for just a sec. How can a stuffed animal move around and speak? Who’s controlling you?” Rantaro questioned Monokuma while raising his pointer finger.

“No one is in control of my sexy little bear body but myself. Hell, sometimes I can’t even control myself! But I guarantee you, I’m fully autonomous.” The bear said while striking a stereotypical “sexy” female model pose.

“So… In other words, you’re a robot. Do you know who else is a robot? Keebo! If you connect the dots, it becomes obvious that the two robots are in leagues!” Kokichi said with a smug look on his face.

“Wait, that’s robophobic! Just because we’re both robots doesn’t mean we have to be allies!” Offended, Keebo protested against Kokichi’s suspicion. Tired of this pointless dilly-dallying, I decided to speak up.

“Everyone, this is a serious situation. If we don’t listen carefully to what the self-proclaimed headmaster says, we might end up in even hotter water than we already are. I suggest we use our heads and act maturely.” The sound of my voice silenced the nervous teenagers, causing Monokuma to let out a chuckle.

“Heh. Well said, Professor Yagami. As expected from the man that will act as their teacher!” The bear said in a mocking tone, but the contents of his taunt shocked me.

“Teacher!? What the hell am I even supposed to teach! I’m just a normal detective with no educational license.” I objected to the bear’s wishes, but my response only made his grin intensify.

“Oh, don’t worry, you’re not here to teach them any ordinary subject. You’re here to teach these Ultimates how to commit a murder!” The bear retorted, causing the tension in the room to get even more palpable.

“W-what are you going on about!?” I asked with my fists clenched. I have no idea what this bear is talking about, but hopefully, he’s not aware of my real identity. There’s just no way for someone like him to know… Is there?

“Puhuhuhu! That is the reason why you’re all here! To take part in a mutual Killing Game with the guidance of mister Yagami over there!” The bear yelled out while laughing. Everyone in the room began screaming.

“You mean we have to kill each other!? That’s completely immoral!” Tsumugi screamed in an upset tone.

“Nyeeeh… Killing someone else is too much of a pain. And then you need to hide the evidence and stuff… Granted, I could use my magic, but…” Himiko murmured with her monotone voice.

“Killing is not an issue for me. I have witnessed many sacrifices in the name of Atua. It can’t be too difficult!” Angie said with an unsettlingly cheerful expression.

“Are you all seriously going to just blindly follow what that bear is saying? Use your brains! Killing is wrong!” Shuichi tried to silence the crowd but to no avail. The panic was too strong at that point.

“Puhuhuhuhuhu! So soon and you’re already panicking? I haven’t even begun explaining the rules of the Killing Game!” Monokuma kept on talking despite the noise of the Ultimates’ whining.

“Rules? Forget the damn rules! I’m going to tear apart that stuffed animal limb by limb!” Tenko cried out in anger as she charged towards Monokuma.

“Rule number 1: Acts of violence against the headmaster are strictly prohibited, and will be punished with execution.” The robotic doll said, causing the Aikidoka to suddenly stop in her tracks, her sandals making a squeaking sound as she drifted through the gymnasium’s recently cleaned floor.

“E-executed? You don’t mean…” Tenko mumbled under her breath, intimidated by Monokuma’s statement.

“Yup! It means exactly what you think it means! I will kill you on the spot if you break the rules! Now, instead of going through the tedium of explaining every rule, I’m just going to hand you these handy dandy Monopads, which have the rules listed in them, as well as a map of the school, and a list of all the students!” The animated stuffed animal handed each of us a small monochrome tablet. I clicked on its “Home” button, causing it to display several options. I promptly selected “Rules of the Killing Game”, making the screen show a list of rules.

1. Acts of violence against the headmaster are strictly prohibited and will be punished with execution.
2. When a murder is committed in the academy, a class trial will be conducted. Participation in this trial is mandatory for all surviving participants.
3. If the killer (hereinafter referred to as “the blackened”) is correctly identified during the class trial, only the blackened will be punished for their crime.
4. If the blackened cannot be identified, or if an incorrect participant is identified as the blackened, everyone except the blackened will be punished for the crime.
5. If the blackened survives the class trial, they are declared the winner. At which point, they will graduate from the Ultimate Academy and re-enter the outside world.
6. If innocent participants (hereinafter referred to as “the spotless”) continue to survive class trials, the killing game will continue until only two of them remain.
7. “Nighttime” is officially designated as the hours between 10:00 PM and 8:00 AM During this time, the dining hall and gymnasium are closed.
8. Monokuma will never directly participate in a murder.
9. Your Monopads are very important items. Make sure you do not damage them.
10. A body discovery announcement will occur when three or more spotless students discover a body.
11. Both teachers and students have the same rights when it comes to murder.

After giving the rules a calm read and began checking out the map of the academy, I noticed that there were places we hadn’t been to. My curiosity piqued upon realizing that the blackened could escape as long as they don’t get exposed. If I play my cards right, I might be able to leave this school-shaped prison and return to my life as Kira…

“Before I leave you, I’m going to give you a small bonus because I’m feeling very generous!” Monokuma said with a huge grin on his face.

“Just stop playing around… I’m pretty sure none of us are in the mood to deal with any of this.” Hoshi said while adjusting his hat. What could Monokuma possibly mean by “small bonus”, though?

“Prepare yourselves to hear the motive of the Killing Game!” Loud gasps could be heard after the mastermind pronounced those words. Giving us another motive to kill besides the guarantee of their freedom… This is rather intriguing.

“If you want to be able to survive in this academy, one of you has gotta kill someone else before tomorrow at 8 PM, or everyone will be executed!” The bear continued his speech, intriguing us even more.

“Does that mean… one of us WILL die!?” Shuichi screamed in confusion, but his screams only made the situation worse. Himiko was trembling and hugging Tenko, while everyone else except Kokichi wore faces showcasing pure, unadulterated fear.

“Does it count if we kill Keebo? I mean, he’s not a human, so…” The Ultimate Supreme Leader mocked the robot once again, causing his nervousness to turn into anger and irritating some of the other students as well.

“Dude, just knock it off already. This is no time for jokes. Our lives are at stake!” The mysterious Rantaro told Kokichi off with his arms crossed.

“Aaaaaaaanyhow, it’s almost 8 PM. You should be going to your rooms soon! I will see you all tomorrow!” Monokuma said before disappearing into thin air. The Ultimates continued to panic, but before the issue escalated any further, I walked up to the stand where Monokuma gave his speech and prepared myself to talk.

“Everyone, be quiet and listen to me! According to the Monopad, there’s a dorm with rooms for everyone to the right after exiting the main school building. Given how we’re trapped here, I believe the most logical course of action would be to rest for the remainder of today so we can work on a plan to escape tomorrow.” I tried to convince the Ultimates, with some of them looking at me with scorn.

“Who named you our leader? Just because that bear called you our teacher doesn’t mean that you get to boss us around!” Kokichi yelled out, pretending to be angry, seemingly wanting to cause discord.

“Yeah, that degenerate is right! The leader has to be a strong, independent, beautiful woman!” Tenko screamed, full of pride.

“So… Not you.” Kokichi mocked Tenko, causing her to be angered. The Aikidoka tried to attack the Supreme Leader, but Himiko grabbed her by the arms so she couldn’t do anything.

“Guys, I think it’s plain to see that Mr. Yagami seems to be the most level-headed right now. I believe it might be a good idea to listen to his advice.” The Ultimate Cosplayer spoke her mind, and it seems that it was able to convince everyone.

“Alright, thank you, Tsumugi. Before we all leave, I want to establish a meeting point so we can discuss our plans in detail tomorrow. In the morning, we’ll use the Dining Hall as a meeting point. There are still a few places in the academy that we haven’t explored, so I would like to get a good grasp of the layout of this place before designing a plan to fight back against Monokuma. Any objections?” I thoroughly explained my plans to the teenagers, hoping there would be no issues.

“OBJECTION!” The blue-haired cosplayer screamed while pointing straight at me. Everyone in the room started looking at her, but she quickly regained her composure and blushed slightly as she apologized. “S-sorry, I didn’t have any actual objection. It’s just that I always wanted to say that…”

I sighed and stepped down from the stand, signaling everyone to leave the gym and go to the dorms. I headed to the dorm building before anyone else, trying to locate my room, which was on the lower floor of the two-story building.

I opened the door with my name on it and saw a small, dark blue room with all sorts of common pieces of furniture and a small window covered by marine blue curtains. Despite being a kidnapper’s place, it seemed fairly comfortable. I took off my shoes and backpack and sat on the bed. Without even intending to fall asleep, I subconsciously closed my eyes and crashed into the bed in less than a minute. Today had been a tiring day.

“Light…”

“Wake up, Light…”

In my dreams, I heard a familiar voice. Startled, I slowly opened my eyes, only to see a large shadow with a wingspan as dark as the night. Even though I couldn’t see much because the lights were off, I could recognize that silhouette. Somewhat confused, I decided to address it.

“Ryuk, how did you get here?” I asked while turning on the lights, getting to see the Shinigami in all his glory.

“I followed the car that took you here. Sorry for taking so long, I lost track of it for a moment.” The God of Death replied in a laid-back tone.

“Does that mean you know exactly where we are?” Nervous about my escape, I pressed on.

“I don’t know, Light. We’re pretty much in the middle of nowhere. And I do mean that. We’re miles upon miles away from civilization.” Ryuk explained, intensifying my worries.

“I need to think of something… If I don’t keep on purging criminals, the SPK is going to suspect me even more than they already do, and I can’t contact Mikami or Misa from here… Plus, there’s also the factor that I’ll get killed if a murder doesn’t happen tomorrow… There’s only one solution. I’ll play the Killing Game!” I thought out loud, knowing that only Ryuk could hear me.

“Kukukukuku… That’s the Light I know. Can’t stop thinking about murder even when your own life is in danger.” Ryuk chuckled while floating around the room.

“I need to be extremely careful. Using the Death Note to kill would basically require me to have the cameras record me writing the victim’s name, but I can’t make it obvious to everyone else that I’m responsible for the murder. On top of that, doing this would make the mastermind aware of my identity… So maybe I should try to unmask them too and then purge them before they make any of this information public… Hm… I think I can work something out. Now, all I need to decide is who should be the victim.” I put my hand on my chin while thinking about how to escape.

“You should probably think about that tomorrow, Light. It’s pretty late.” The Shinigami said as he sat on the desk located to the right of the bed.

“Since when do you care about my well-being?” I scoffed at the God of Death while getting into a more comfortable position.

“I can’t get apples unless you’re there,” Ryuk responded in a sarcastic, but sincere tone.

“You never change, Ryuk. I’ll get you a few tomorrow,” I chuckled at his joke as I went back to bed, falling asleep moments after closing my eyes.

---

Meanwhile, somewhere in the academy…

A tall and voluptuous girl sat in a completely dark room, illuminated by nothing but a few computer screens. The girl cracked a wicked grin as she looked carefully at the monitors, which displayed the rooms of each participant of the Killing Game.

“So, you want to unmask me, Professor Yagami? We’ll see who uncovers whose secrets.” The girl got up from her chair while still staring at the screens. “And when we do, one of us will show Despair the likes of which has never been seen!” Thinking out loud, her voice escaped her throat as she pressed a few buttons on the computer, turning off the lights, only to leave the room afterward.

---

The next morning…

BEEP BEEP!
BEEP BEEP!

The sound of my pocket watch’s alarm awakened me from my slumber… It was still set for the same hour at which I normally got up to go to work with the investigation team, which was 7:30 AM. Despite my tiredness, I still managed to get up, knowing that I had to seize my chance to investigate the parts of the building that I hadn’t seen yet so I could plan out today’s murder. Trying to get to work as quickly as possible, I hastily put on my shoes and backpack and headed out of the dorms and into the main school building, with Ryuk following me while chuckling softly.

My first destination was the dining hall, which was at the end of the corridor that was to the left from the entrance. The room was pretty ample, housing a large table with enough seats for every one of the hostages. To the bottom of the room was a small kitchen with knives and cleaning appliances, and a small door that led to a terrace outside. After quickly eyeballing everything in the room, I exited it, preparing to go to the next location, the storage room that was directly in front of the dining hall.

I entered the storage room, Ryuk casually phasing through one of the walls. Much like the dining hall, this warehouse was pretty large, with it spanning at least a quarter of a kilometer. Many shelves, littered with all sorts of utensils, decorated the walls of the room. An extensive amount of sports equipment could be seen scattered all across the floor. Large black cases, weight plates, shot put balls, jumping rope, barbells, a set of medals… They really are well-equipped. I looked around one of the shelves, looking for any tool that could’ve been of use to me.

“Aha, found it!” I thought to myself after finding a small roll of adhesive tape. Knowing that it would be helpful with my scheme, I grabbed the roll of tape and stuffed it into my backpack. After looking around some more, I exited the storage room and left for my next destination, which was the basement that could be accessed from the stairs that were to the left of the main entrance. Once I found myself downstairs, all I could see was a poorly illuminated basement with two large rooms, both of them having two doors on each side.

Wanting to get over with the investigation, I stepped into the room on the right side of the basement, which turned out to be an old-looking library. As expected, the whole place was filled to the brim with overflowing bookshelves. I quickly eyed some of the titles to see if anything interested me, but it all seemed like the basic literature that you would find in your average library. I tried to pick up one of the books, titled “The History of the Future Foundation”, but I was interrupted by Ryuk, who was looking at the manga section.

“Hey, look! I found some hentai!” The God of Death quickly flew towards me and swapped my book with the thin comic book that he had brought. He then threw away my book like it was nothing. All of a sudden, the doors burst open, and the blue-haired cosplayer came into the room, nervous. Not wanting to be seen holding the pornographic manga, I dropped it and pretended nothing happened.

“Tsumugi? Is something wrong? You’re hyperventilating. Take deep breaths.” I tried to help the girl relax by putting my hand on her shoulder, which caused her to get slightly flustered.

“N-no, it’s alright! I-I was just doing my morning exercises! Y-you know cosplayers need to keep their legs strong. Conventions are exhausting!” The otaku stuttered while panting heavily. She then approached the comic book that I had dropped. “You were reading this, right? “Otome ni Omakasekkusu”? Hmm, good choice. I see you prefer a more gentle kind of love.” Tsumugi said as she flipped through the comic’s pages, her words confusing Light.

“I wasn’t reading it,” I responded in a deadpan tone.

The otaku flashed a smug smirk as she looked at me. “Suuuure. Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. But know that you owe me one, professor.” Tsumugi teasingly smiled as I prepared myself to leave the room.

“What a strange girl. I like her.” Ryuk muttered while we exited the library through the secondary door, which led to a hallway. In front of us was a sliding door. I reached out to open it, only to see that it was stuck, only allowing it to open slightly. I let out an annoyed groan and tried to enter the room through the front door. Once I turned the handle of the main door, I saw a small room filled with arcade machines. Inside that game room was Kokichi, playing with one of the machines.

“DIE, DIE, DIE, YOU ALIEN SCUM! KNEEL BEFORE YOUR NEW EMPEROR, KOKICHI OMA!” The boy yelled while aggressively mashing the arcade’s buttons. An annoying jingle came out of the machine’s speakers. “I DIED!? That did not hit me! It’s not true! It’s bullshit! THAT DID NOT HIT ME! IT DID NOT! Oh, hi, Yagami.” The Supreme Leader threw a tantrum… only to follow up with an extremely casual greeting.

“Good morning, Kokichi. Don’t mind me, I’m just investigating.” I greeted the boy while looking at the machines. After acknowledging me, he continued to play his video game. I tried to look for anything relevant in the room, but there wasn’t really anything noteworthy, except for a door located in the back of the room. I approached it and attempted to open it, but it was locked from the inside. Irritated, I let out a light groan, which seemed to catch Kokichi’s attention.

“What’s wrong, Teach? Locked door?” He rhetorically asked. My only reaction was a disdainful “Tsk”, but that only made him chuckle. He paused the video game and promptly walked to the door. “No worries! There doesn’t exist a door in this world that can withstand the Ultimate Supreme Leader’s Lockpicking Technique!”

Kokichi energetically cried out as he took out a small set of hairpins and inserted them into the lock. After a few seconds of messing with it, the door opened by itself. “Et voilà! Now, what are magic words?” Kokichi said with a condescending look on his face.

“Thank you…” I reluctantly showed my gratitude to the smug teenager while I entered the room. It was a neat and tidy room with a projector screen, a couch, and several shelves filled with DVD cases. Among those cases were tons of movies from all genres imaginable. In the middle of the room was a large table with a decent amount of space underneath. Seeing this gave me an idea, but I needed to wait for Kokichi to get out of the room before executing it.

In the meantime, I tried to check out the secondary door that was located on the right side of the room. Since I tried to open it from outside earlier, it was still slightly ajar. I attempted to force it open, but it seems the rails were completely stuck. With no way to fix it, I simply left it unclosed.

By the time I was done messing with the door, the white-clad boy had already gone back to play on the arcade machine. I closed the door that connected the two rooms and sat near the left border of the table. Ready to begin setting up my scheme, I took out the Death Note and the adhesive tape I found in the storage room.

I opened the notebook and flipped through its pages until I found a blank one. I carefully tore out a small piece of it and taped it under the table. The time to take action was coming soon. With my investigation and preparations done, I left the room and leisurely walked back to the dining hall, waiting for everyone else to arrive.

Ryuk grabbed an apple from the fridge while I prepared some buttered toast with sugar. A simple breakfast, but a delicious one at that. While the Shinigami and I enjoyed our breakfast, the room’s monitor lit up, showing a still image of Monokuma. The speakers then emitted the bear’s voice.

“Ahem! This is a school announcement. It is now 8 AM, and as such, the morning has officially begun. Make sure to grab a bite at the dining hall before starting this beautiful day of murder!” Right after the peculiar announcement ended, I heard footsteps nearby. Even though he’s only visible to those who have touched the Death Note, Ryuk went to hide behind the kitchen’s walls. Kokichi and Tsumugi entered the dining hall, followed by Shuichi, Rantaro, and Keebo.

“Good morning, Light.” Shuichi greeted me while wiping his eyelids, still somewhat drowsy. “Did you come up with any ways of avoiding Monokuma’s plan to kill us all?” The boy asked me as Tenko and Angie entered the room.

“More or less. I have a few ideas, but I’d rather wait a bit until everyone is fully awake to discuss them.” I explained to the detective after swallowing a piece of the toast, Shuichi nodding in acknowledgment. In the meantime, the two Ultimates that hadn’t arrived yet, Himiko and Hoshi, opened the doors and came in with equally exhausted-looking expressions.

“Nyeh… Why did I even bother to get up, if we’re all going to die today anyway?” The Ultimate Magician sighed as she grabbed some milk and cookies from the kitchen. Her pessimistic attitude made some of the people raise an eyebrow while looking at her in concern.

“Don’t worry, Himiko! I will protect you from that degenerate bear!” Tenko enthusiastically said while offering Himiko a hug. The witch girl, however, ignored the aikidoka and sat down to eat her breakfast. Seeing that everyone was present, I decided to try to prepare for the next stage of my plan. I went to the kitchen and picked up a glass and a small spoon. Once I had those, I went back to the table and softly tapped the spoon on the glass.

DING-DING

The sound caught everyone’s attention, just as I intended. Now was the perfect time to give my speech. “Okay, everyone. We have to plan something to prevent Monokuma from murdering us. Since we’re all rather tired right now, it would be in all of our interests to organize an assembly in two hours. After exploring the academy, I believe that the most appropriate place for the assembly would be the AV room in the basement. Any objections that aren’t from Tsumugi?” The cosplayer timidly lowered her hand. I knew she would try to repeat that joke.

Shuichi and Keebo shook their heads, approving my idea. Rantaro gave me a thumbs-up as he said “None from me. Sounds like a good idea.” However, not everyone was satisfied. Himiko and Tenko seemed completely indifferent, while Angie was just drawing something on a napkin. Hoshi, on the other hand…

“There’s no point in trying to fight off that bear. You’re fighting an uphill battle, and it’s one you absolutely cannot win. We’re talking about a mastermind with enough resources to build a whole academy with advanced surveillance and massive installments. They most likely have access to weapons far stronger than anything you’ve seen yet. At this point, we might as well give up our lives. Unless… any of you wants to play the Killing Game.” The Tennis Pro protested against my idea, his words scaring some of the people in the room.

“Look. I won’t stop you from holding your little strategy meeting, but I’m just saying… I’ve already relinquished my life… I did so the moment I decided to kill all those people. If I were to die… Nothing of value would be lost.” Hoshi’s deep words made everyone in the room feel a strange pressure.

“Hoshi, that defeatist attitude isn’t going to take us anywhere. No one deserves to die, please reconsider your idea.” Keebo tried to scold the tennis player, but he simply shrugged at the robot’s comments.

“You’ve still got a ways to go…” The tennis pro mumbled as he left the room. With that conversation over, we all resumed our meal. Once I was done with my breakfast, I stepped out of the dining hall alongside Ryuk and went to the AV room. Since there was still a lot of time before the assembly, I leisurely watched one of the movies that were on the shelves.

---

Two hours later…

With the movie now over, the time for the assembly was about to come. I made sure to sit near the part of the table where I had set up my hidden piece of the Death Note. In just a few minutes, people started to come into the room. As I expected, only Shuichi, Keebo, Tsumugi, and Rantaro decided to join the meeting, but that should be enough. I’d prefer if the room didn’t get crowded while I’m writing names on the Death Note.

“Welcome, everyone. Let’s begin the assembly. I will make sure to take note of everything we discuss.” I greeted the four Ultimates while I took out a regular notebook and a pen. “The most pressing issue right now is the time limit that has been applied to us. What are your ideas to prevent that?” I asked them while fidgeting with my pen.

“Well, I think there really isn’t much we can do right now. We could try to investigate if there’s a hidden exit, but at this point, I highly doubt we’ll be able to find anything.” Shuichi said with a concerned look on his face while putting his fingers on his chin.

“There was still that small building next to the main block, right? I don’t think we’ve explored that one yet.” Tsumugi said as she lifted her finger.

“Yeah, but isn’t that one locked? Unless someone were to break down the lock, we can’t really get there.” Rantaro responded to Tsumugi’s idea while making a serious face.

“Could Keebo do that? I mean, he’s a robot, so he should have some sort of weapon to destroy the door, right? Kinda like a Gundam!” The blue-haired cosplayer suggested in an enthusiastic tone, but her idea didn’t seem to please Keebo.

“I’m not as strong as you think. At my best, I only have the gripping and lifting strength of an old man.” The robot explained with a disappointed look on his face, which crushed Tsumugi’s enthusiasm.

While the Ultimates discussed their ideas, I took note of whatever came up. But the moment they got distracted, I carefully snatched the scrap of the Death Note from underneath the table and carefully hid it inside my notebook. With all the pieces now in place, I took action. I swiftly used my pen to write the name of the only person who I think deserves to be purged. A disgusting criminal whose sloth and hatred for life itself would be able to bring ruin to others… Ryoma Hoshi, the Ultimate Tennis Pro!

The ink flowed into a swift and beautiful imprint on the paper. Wanting to keep the circumstances as normal as possible, I decided not to write any specific cause of death. Now all I had to do was play the waiting game and act normally.

“Well, Light? What do you think we should do?” Rantaro asked with a curious look on his face. I smirked and put both of my hands on the table.

“I believe that the best thing we can do is to unmask the mastermind of this operation. Once we know their identity, we can force them to free us.” I tried to explain my ideas.

“But how are we going to find that out? It could be any person in the world, for all we know.” Shuichi nervously stated his rebuttal.

“No. I think someone in this building is the puppet master. They’re simply using Monokuma as bait to make us believe that they’re not one of us. If they really are human, they must have made at least one mistake that could lead us to their identity.” Despite it being a bluff, I proudly presented my argument, in hopes that it would mess up the mastermind upon hearing it. The Ultimates appeared to be concerned about my idea, but before anyone got to say anything, we heard a loud CRASH sound coming from the first floor.

“What the hell was that!?” Rantaro yelled as he got up.

“It came from the first floor! Hurry up, we need to see if we can prevent a murder from happening!” Keebo said as he quickly opened the door. Running as fast as we could, we made our way out of the AV and game rooms and then walked up the stairs. Once we were on the first floor, we weren’t sure where to head to next.

“We need to split up! I’ll look in the classrooms from the right wing! You guys handle the left wing!” Tsumugi suggested before hightailing to the place she mentioned. Shuichi, Rantaro, and I went directly to the storage room and the dining hall, while Keebo ran to the gym as fast as he could. While Rantaro looked around the warehouse, Shuichi opened the doors to the dining hall.

“The door to the terrace got smashed to pieces! That must be what caused that loud noise!” Shuichi shouted as he pointed to the shattered glass that was where the secondary door used to be. Pretending to be concerned, I ran through the door alongside Shuichi. We quickly made our way through the courtyard, but we were unable to find traces of the perpetrator of the act of vandalism.

“Damn it… We were too late.” I exclaimed while looking around the vicinity to see if we could find any more clues.

“Well… While we’re here, why don’t we try to see if we can break that lock from the small building?” Curious, Shuichi pitched the idea to me.

“Alright. There’s no harm in checking.” Since I was just as curious as him, I agreed with his idea. Both of us headed to the shack, but we noticed that the lock was no longer attached to the door, but lay on the ground instead. With the door now open, Shuichi and I looked at each other and nodded. We stepped into the room, but all that we found was a black box. Curious about its contents, I gently opened it, only to see…

…The lifeless corpse of Ryoma Hoshi, with his neck covered in blood as he lay in a fetal position inside the black box. That was definitely unexpected. Even though I wrote his name on the Death Note, it seems that someone has tampered with his body in some way. Realistically speaking, he should’ve just had a heart attack and collapsed somewhere. Heheh… This should be interesting.

“I-is that Hoshi? Can you hear me, Hoshi!? Please, open your eyes!” Shuichi tried to check if the tennis player was still alive, but he was completely still. His life had already faded away. Startled by the detective’s screams, Rantaro ran to the small building as fast as he could, only to see the results of my scheme.

“Damn… I knew it was inevitable… After that depressing speech of his, I started to worry that some coward would try to take advantage of Hoshi’s nihilism.” The mysterious boy with the green hair said, his voice filled with sorrow. The moment he finished his monologue, the monitor in the room lit up, showing a picture of Monokuma holding a glass of wine.

“A body has been discovered! Repeat, a body has been discovered! Please, everyone, gather in the boiler room, located in the small building to the west of the main school building. Soon, we will begin the investigation period, which you may use however you please. Once the time limit is over, we will begin the Class Trial!” The bear’s high-pitched voice informed us of the current situation, presumably playing the same message in every room of the academy. In a matter of minutes, all the students arrived at the crime scene.

“W-what the hell happened here!?” Tsumugi yelled upon seeing the midget’s corpse. Tenko was taken aback by the sight of it as well, but she didn’t say anything. From the looks of it, Himiko was absolutely terrified and shaking uncontrollably, her nose and eyes beginning to leak slightly.

“My brothers and sisters, let us say a prayer for our fallen friend’s soul. May it reach Atua’s domains and rest in peace.” Angie put her hands together and prayed with a smile on her face.

“WAAAAAAAH! Why did it have to be Hoshi!? God, why couldn’t you have taken Himiko or Keebo!?” Kokichi cried some very obvious crocodile tears and whined as he insulted the magician and the robot.

“Wh- Why would you say that? Is it just because I’m a robot?” K1-B0 tried to get the Supreme Leader to apologize.

“Nah, it’s just cuz you’re both annoying.” The boy’s fake tears dried up as his expression changed into an indifferent one.

“You’re one to talk! All you do is insult others! If I had my magic wand here, I would unleash an explosion powerful enough to send you to the Shadow Realm!” The red-haired girl threatened the trickster, but it seems that her boasts only made him laugh out loud. Before the childish argument went further, Monokuma appeared in the middle of the room.

“Ahahahaha! Good to see you’re all here!” The bear announced his presence, receiving nothing more than disdainful looks from the Ultimates. “Aw, what’s with the sour faces? I thought you guys would’ve been happy to see your adorable little headmaster!”

“Just shut up already! We don’t want to hear your babbling!” Tenko shouted in anger at the robotic bear.

“Agh… And here I thought I was being nice by bringing you all a present to make the investigation easier… Oh, well… I’ll still leave it here. Ingrates…” With a gloomy attitude, the bear took out nine small tablet computers and handed them to us. “With that being said, let the investigation begin!” On a completely different note, Monokuma disappeared from the room, leaving us to inspect the scene.

Before I started to inspect the crime scene, Ryuk appeared behind my back and chuckled. “Kukukuku… Things have taken an interesting turn, eh, Light? Do you think your plans are going to work?” I refrained from answering his question, knowing that people would hear me if I did, my only answer being an indifferent “Hmph.” Without any other distractions, I began my examination.

INVESTIGATION START

“Let’s take a look at the tablet that Monokuma gave us,” Shuichi said as he pressed the home button on the electronic apparatus. Wanting to see its contents, I did the same thing. The screen lit up, showing the silhouette of the deceased tennis player with pink marks on his neck, along with some text, which read the following:

“Monokuma File:
The victim was Ryoma Hoshi, the Ultimate Tennis Pro. His body was found inside a black box in the boiler room. The time of death was 10:10 AM and the body was first found at that same time. The body has no external injuries, but some of its cervical vertebrae are broken.”

I see… So it’s an autopsy report of sorts. Still, isn’t it a bit vague for an autopsy report? The fact that it didn’t mention anything about the cause of death being a heart attack is concerning… If Hoshi died before I wrote his name on the Death Note, then this will count the murder as someone else’s action. I better take note of this. I checked my Monopad and wrote my thoughts on the piece of evidence to a “court record” of sorts. With that being done, I closed the Monokuma file, but before I started inspecting the scene itself, I was interrupted by Shuichi.

“I believe that we should try to split up to investigate the school more efficiently. In order to prevent people from tampering with the body, I recommend assigning two people to stay here as guards.” As expected from the Ultimate Detective, Shuichi gave his suggestions.

“Good thinking there, Shuichi. I’m a bit useless when it comes to all this investigating business, so I might as well stay here standing guard. Does anyone else wanna volunteer?” Rantaro offered to watch over the corpse with a laid-back attitude. The moment he said that, almost all of the Ultimates ran away in different directions, leaving only Shuichi, Rantaro, and K1-B0 behind. The robot sighed, disappointed.

“Why am I even surprised by this outcome? I suppose I’ll stay with Rantaro.” The two boys stood close to the door and looked at Shuichi and me from the distance. With that issue taken care of, I continued the investigation by examining Hoshi’s corpse without taking it out of the box. Just as the Monokuma File said, the corpse didn’t seem to have any external wounds.

However, there was something really strange about the body… There were notable bloodstains around the neck, but it’s impossible for Hoshi to have bled at all, considering the fact that the wound didn’t leave any cuts on the skin, just a large bruise. I added the details about Hoshi’s wound and the bloodstains to my Monopad.

Afterward, I prepared to close the box again, but Shuichi stopped me before I did. “Wait, Light! There’s something else inside the box, look.” The Ultimate Detective put his hand in the box without touching Hoshi’s body and took out what appeared to be a medal.

“What is this doing here? Why would there be anything else in a box that’s supposed to be used to hide a corpse?” I pondered out loud while carefully examining the medal. It didn’t have any particular details related to Hoshi’s death. It was just a plain medal made of gold with an engraving depicting the number one surrounded by laurel leaves. Although it didn’t seem to be of great relevance, I still took notes about the Gold Medal on my Monopad.

Once we made sure that there wasn’t anything else in the box, I closed it and began examining its exterior. It was a pretty large black case with metallic edges, likely designed to carry sports equipment or musical instruments. As we had already found out, its dimensions were big enough to fit a short person inside it.

It was robust, but also light enough to be able to be carried by a person with average strength. What was most peculiar about it, though, was the fact that there were a few blurry bloodstains on its sides and handles. The killer must have been in a hurry if they didn’t have time to clean them off. I quickly wrote down my impressions about the Black Box on the Monopad.

Seeing that there weren’t any more clues in that area, I prepared myself to leave, but as I approached the door, I noticed something on the floor behind the door. I crouched to pick it up and realized what it really was. It was the same lock that we saw on the door to this building yesterday. It didn’t seem to have any sort of damage, so it must have been opened normally instead of through brute force. It looked like an extremely important piece of evidence, so I added the Lock and the details surrounding it to my notes.

With all the details about the room having been looked into, I decided to step out of the room alongside Shuichi, who was taking notes as well. The moment we left the small building, Rantaro shut the door and stood before it. I prepared myself to leave the area, but I heard the Ultimate Robot’s voice calling out for me. “Light, Shuichi! Before you leave, I think that it might be good to go over the events that transpired before the murder.” In a serious, but worried tone, Keebo gave his suggestion.

“That sounds good,” Shuichi replied, prompting the robot to begin his recap.

“Based on what I can see in my inner memory, the first thing that happened today was the brief reunion that took place in the dining hall at 8 AM. After it ended, everyone split up, leaving us with a two-hour period where no one has alibis. At 10 AM, we started the assembly, which gives us four and Tsumugi airtight alibis for the time of the murder.” The robot narrated his memories of today. I quickly added K1-B0’s Account to my notes. Rantaro’s expression turned into a pensive one before he began talking about his thoughts.

“If I recall correctly, we were only able to talk for roughly five to ten minutes during the assembly until we heard that loud noise coming from the kitchen. It took us three minutes to get to the first floor, where we split up again. I heard Shuichi’s screams while I was in the courtyard two minutes after we split up, and by 10:20 AM, everyone had arrived at the scene of the crime.” Showcasing an impressive memory, the green-haired teenager explained the timeframes relevant to the crime. I jotted down Rantaro’s Account and thanked him.

“Where should we go now, Light?” The Ultimate Detective asked me while looking around the vicinity.

“I believe we should inspect the dorms. There might be details there that we haven’t seen yet.” With a thoughtful expression, I gave Shuichi my suggestion, to which he nodded with a calm smile. We made haste to the large dorm building, noticing something very peculiar along the way. Hidden by the overgrown grass was a large metallic plate lying close to the entrance of the dorms.

Upon more careful inspection, we noticed that it had two particularities to it. According to the number depicted in it, we found out that it was a 100-pound weight plate. There were some bloodstains on it, but they were very minor. I used the Monopad to take a picture of the Bloody Weight Plate and moved the investigation to the dorms.

Once inside the dorm building, we looked around to see if there were any major clues in plain sight, but as expected, it wasn’t going to be that easy. The young Saihara spoke his mind to me. “Light, we should try to memorize the Layout of the Dorms. It might help us connect the dots later.” Acknowledging his quick thinking, I started to look at the order of each room while taking notes.

“Let’s see… On the top floor, starting left from the entrance are Tenko, Rantaro, Himiko, Keebo, and yours. On the bottom floor are Hoshi, Kokichi, Angie, mine, and Tsumugi’s. Speaking of Hoshi’s room, it might be worth our time to check it out.” We walked toward the late Ryoma’s pad and tried to turn the doorknob, but much to our dismay, it was completely locked. “Damn it! We can’t open it… I suppose our only option is to break it down.” I took a few steps back and prepared myself to throw my entire weight onto the door.

“Ooooh! Performing acts of vandalism without me? I thought we were friends, Yagami!” The voice of Kokichi Oma echoed throughout the dorms as he exited his room, causing me to return to my standard position.

“Kokichi, this is a serious investigation. Please, do not intrude with your foolishness.” Shuichi angrily scolded the short boy, who laughed it off as he crossed his arms.

“Actually, the only intrusion that I can see here is the one that you two are trying to perform. It looks like you’re having a key problem.” The Ultimate Supreme Leader mockingly replied, but his words struck a chord with me. Kokichi was able to pick the locked door to the AV room earlier this morning.

“Would you be willing to use your Lockpicking Skills to help us with the investigation?” I tried to convince the boy, whose face contorted into a dubitative smirk.

“Hmm… Anything for you, sensei! But only because you asked nicely!” Kokichi’s face returned to its obnoxiously smug expression as he took out a pair of hairpins and inserted them into the lock of Hoshi’s door. In just a few seconds, a clicking sound came out of the door before opening completely.

“Thank you, Kokichi. This will undoubtedly be useful.” I expressed my gratitude to the boy in white, to which he replied with a sarcastic bow before going back to his own room. With that roadblock gone, I entered the bedroom as Shuichi held the door just in case. I didn’t really see anything out of the ordinary in the room… Until I checked the drawers on Hoshi’s nightstand. Inside was a small piece of paper with ugly-looking handwriting on it. Seriously, I’ve seen more legible handwriting from doctors. Frustrating caligraphy aside, the contents of the note were as follows:

“Hello, Ryoma. I have found something that might interest you. If you want to see it, please check outside your window at 10:10 AM. I am sure you would gain plenty if you acquired it.”

“Very interesting… This mystery is starting to make more sense. Now, I believe we should inspect the storage room. I remember seeing a few of the relevant items there.” In a calm and collected tone, I directed my newfound sidekick to the main school building. Shuichi and I headed to our destination, looking out for any clues. However, my extrospection made me realize that my Shinigami was no longer following me. When did he even leave? Eh, he’s probably eating apples in the kitchen. As long as he doesn’t interfere with my plans, I couldn’t care less about what he does.

Upon arriving at the storage room, we met Tenko, who was checking out the many boxes located in the room. She noticed us and quickly walked up to us, stopping right in front of our very faces. “About time you two showed up! Ugh, you degenerates are always leaving the heavy lifting to the ladies.” She shouted at us in a condescending tone, but I simply sighed and replied in a calm manner.

“Ah, Tenko. You’re just the person I was looking for. I would like to know where you were after leaving the dining hall earlier this morning. Please, try not to withhold any details.” I inquired at the misandrist, whose anger intensified.

“Why do you care? Is that what you sick bastards get off to? I will never be anyone’s fetish fuel!” Tenko replied while crossing her arms.

“Uh, actually. It’s for the investigation. By refusing to answer our questions, you would only make you more suspicious, you know?” Thinking quickly, the young detective argued back, taking the aikidoka aback.

“Y-you… Fine, I’ll talk. But this better be worth it!” The martial artist briefly pouted before commencing her explanation. “Let’s see… Right after having breakfast, I went to the gymnasium to train for a while. Afterward, I took a walk inside the school building, making sure to check out most of the rooms. Once I was done with that, I went to my dorm room, where I read a martial arts manga that Tsumugi recommended to me. After that, I went back to the gym, and then I heard a loud noise coming. Confused, I searched the first floor, but the only person I found was Tsumugi, who was coming out of the girls’ bathroom. Is that enough, Sherlock and Watson?” We carefully listened to Tenko’s Account while nodding along.

“Yeah. Thanks a lot, Tenko.” Shuichi kindly smiled, but Tenko gave us a look of disdain before exiting the room. With that nuisance out of the way, we could finally examine the room more thoroughly. Other than the empty boxes that Tenko was messing around with, we were able to find a few suspicious objects. The first of them was a black box, identical to the one Hoshi’s corpse was stuffed into; a metallic bar connected to a singular 100-pound weight plate; and lastly, a case with two medals, one made of silver, and the other one made of bronze. All three of these items were eerily similar to previous clues that we had investigated. Clearly, they must have some relation with them… I took note of the Suspicious Items and kept on looking for more clues.

Inside one of the boxes that Tenko was rummaging through were several plastic envelopes with miscellaneous pieces of white clothing, such as socks, underwear, undershirts, and most importantly, gloves. The box containing the white gloves had a single empty plastic envelope. The killer must have used a pair of these gloves during the murder… I added the evidence regarding the Empty Glove Envelope to my notes. After having searched through the entire storage room, those were the only clues we were able to find, but despite their low quantity, they were certainly of the utmost quality. Satisfied with those results, I left the warehouse with Shuichi and entered the dining hall again.

Unsurprisingly, the room didn’t have anything new since the last time we visited it, but I figured we should at least try to inspect the Shattered Glass Door. I crouched and carefully looked at the countless glass pieces lying on the floor, soon noticing that a few of them were stained with blood. I think I’m finally piecing this mystery together… No pun intended. Given that it was the only apparent clue in that room, we took our leave.

“Where should we go now, Light?” The young detective asked while adjusting his cap. I pondered while looking at the map displayed in my Monopad, only to realize that there was one room that we’ve been neglecting since we first found it: the library. I pointed out our new destination to Shuichi, soon walking to the basement floor, where we opened the door to the library.

Inside the library was Himiko, standing by herself and trying to push one of the bookshelves. Curious, I tried to approach her. “What are you doing, Himiko?”

“It’s hard to explain…” The little girl replied in an exhausted tone, but Shuichi pressed further.

“If it’s not too much to ask, we need to hear what you were up to while we were holding the assembly. I assume it relates to what you’re trying to do now.” The boy asked, with Himiko turning all her attention towards us.

“Y-yeah… While the assembly was taking place, I was here looking for magic books with Angie. But when I pulled one of the books from that shelf in the middle, it moved on its own! It must have been the work of my immense magic power! And the most surprising thing was that there was a hidden door behind the shelf.” The red-haired girl explained almost as if she were narrating a fairy tale.

“Did you check where that door led to? Would you mind showing us that door?” As I wrote down Himiko’s Account, I continued questioning her.

“Nyeh… Angie and I tried to open it, but it had some sort of electronic lock. If only my Door-Opening Magic was a few levels higher, I could’ve forced it open… Also, I’ve been trying to move the shelf again, but it’s not budging an inch… I checked the same book that I moved the first time, but it didn’t work…” In a concerned tone, the magician continued explaining.

“Do you have any way of proving your testimony? For all we know, you could just be lying, or exaggerating the truth.” Skeptical, I menacingly pressed on. My questions seemed to intimidate the little girl.

“I-I-I’m telling the truth! I promise! If you don’t believe me, just ask Angie. She was with me the entire time. I think she’s in the girls’ bathroom right now.” Himiko responded, trying to keep her composure. Taking her words into consideration, we thanked her and left the room, directing ourselves back to the first floor’s east wing, where the two public bathrooms were located. Just as Himiko said, the tanned artist was walking out of the girls’ bathroom right as we arrived. Wanting to verify the magician’s testimony, we approached her.

“Excuse us, Angie. We need to ask you a couple of questions. Please answer them sincerely. Is that okay with you?” Shuichi politely asked her, and she smiled at us.

“Of course! Atua’s teachings say that lying is for sinners, so you do not need to worry about that possibility.” The enthusiastic artist casually accepted our proposal.

“Perfect. Himiko told us that you two discovered a hidden door in the library earlier this morning. Is that correct?” I inquired while preparing my Monopad to take note of Angie’s Account.

“Yah! It was pretty surprising to see that there was something like that in a boring place like the library. Sadly, we could not get it to open, but there might be some other way to enter it.” In an unsurprising turn of events, the story that Himiko told us ended up being real. Many hypotheses were flying through my mind right now, but our time was running short, so I needed to take action as quickly as possible. If what Tenko said is true, there has to be some sort of lead inside the bathroom.

“Say, would it be too much to ask you to escort us to the girls’ bathroom for a moment? I need to check for clues.” Despite the risks that could come from my question, I still asked it. Angie’s expression turned dubitative for a moment, but she responded quickly.

“That will not be an issue! I am sure that your intentions are not perverted, and it is what Atua would have done. I will try to cover you.” In a stroke of luck, the girl allowed us to enter the restroom. It was rather small, with only three stalls and a large utility closet. Next to the wash bins was a metallic trash can. I approached it to see what was inside. Besides some things that… I’d rather not mention, it contained two valuable clues: a pair of silk gloves covered in blood, and a bunch of crumpled tissues, which were bloodstained as well. I quickly took pictures of the Bloody Gloves and Tissues and got up to resume the inspection.

Seeing it as the only remaining place to look for evidence, I directed myself to the utility closet and opened it. Much to my dismay, it didn’t have anything out of the ordinary. I tried to take a step forward, but due to a small puddle of water that was on the floor, I tripped. Luckily, I managed to stop myself from hitting the ground by grabbing a metallic handle that was attached to the back wall. Doing this, however, had a very interesting effect…

The bathroom’s wall moved back, revealing a Secret Passage. “W-what the heck is this? Are you alright, Light?” Shuichi entered the closet with me and helped me stand up.

“Yeah, I’m fine. But what matters now is this hidden door. We need to see where it leads to…” I calmly replied as I took a step into the passageway. It contained a long set of stairs that led down into the basement, but at the end of them, there was a rather peculiar door… I tried to open it by turning its handle, but to no avail. This seems very familiar…

Knowing that there was nothing else we could do, we made our way out of the secret passageway back into the girls’ restroom, but what was awaiting us there was rather unpleasant…

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, YOU DISGUSTING DEGENERATES!? I BET YOU COERCED POOR LITTLE ANGIE INTO LETTING YOU IN TO DO YOUR PERVERTED BUSINESS BY TELLING HER IT WAS FOR THE INVESTIGATION. GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!” …Tenko angrily scolded us as she grabbed us by the arms and threw us out of the bathroom. Can’t say that was unexpected…

DING DONG DING DONG
BING BONG BING BONG

Now back in the hallway, we heard a chime coming from the nearest monitor. Once again, it displayed Monokuma drinking wine. We turned our attention toward it, not wanting to miss any details.

“*yawn* I’m getting tired of waiting… You’ve had enough time to investigate. You know what that means, right? It’s time for the Class Trial to begin! Please, gather in the Shrine of Judgement, the chapel-like building with a red door located in the courtyard. Attendance is absolutely mandatory! If you don’t come, I will take you there by force!” After the monochrome bear gave his speech, the monitors turned off. Shuichi and I looked at each other. His expression was anything but confident, but that did not matter. The moment of truth was about to come.

We both walked to the designated location while a tense silence filled the entire school. I gently opened the red doors of the Shrine of Judgement. We were the first two to arrive, but our loneliness was remedied soon. Every one of the living Ultimates poured into the building, all of them with serious frowns… Except for Kokichi, obviously. Alongside the teenagers came Ryuk, who greeted me by saying “Sorry for leaving without telling you anything. I wanted to explore this place a bit more.”

Once the ten of us were there, the large Monokuma statue began moving on its own, crushing the jar that it was holding and submerging itself in the water as a stone bridge covered the fountain. With the statue gone, the doors to an elevator showed themselves behind it. Determined to end this preposterous game and return to my life, I took the first step towards the elevator.

The metallic doors opened themselves after detecting my presence. I entered the elevator, and all the students followed after me. This trial… It will determine who lives and who dies. But I’m convinced I can do this… I am Kira. I am God. An amateur crime like this cannot stop the god of the new world. I will find the perpetrator… And I will purge them! They will regret the day they decided to challenge me! I will escape this place no matter how many lives I have to take!

---

Part 2

(Note: Unlike Part 1, this part will be narrated in the third person.)

For the nine people trapped in the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, this day was an important one, for it was the day in which they would risk their lives in a Class Trial of truth, lies, hope, and despair. With the sudden death of Ryoma Hoshi being shrouded in mystery, it was their job to uncover the truth and expose the culprit, lest their lives would be reaped by the mastermind.

All nine of the hostages stood silently inside a cold elevator. Accompanying them was Ryuk, the black Shinigami that watched over Light Yagami. He didn’t really care about who lived and who died, but he still wanted to see the spectacle that this massive debate was going to be. To him, humans were nothing more than sources of entertainment, and he refused to side with anyone. He only followed Light because it was obvious that a human with the power to kill anyone was going to live an interesting life full of misadventures.

With a sudden shake and a loud metallic noise, the elevator stopped and opened its doors, letting the students and their “teacher” see a large courtroom covered in a neon blue light. There were ten white stands laid out in a circle in the middle of the room, with a tall wooden chair situated beyond them. Sitting on that large throne-like chair was Monokuma, whose typical grin shined as bright as always.

“Welcome to the courtroom, everyone! Please, step onto your stands so we can begin the trial!” The stuffed animal cried out from his chair while beckoning at the hostages, who reluctantly approached the designated places that had been established for them. Shuichi dreadfully stared at the only empty stand, which had a portrait of the deceased Hoshi.

With all the students and their teacher in place, it was time to begin the Class Trial.

“Let’s begin with a basic explanation of the rules of the Class Trial. For the next hours, you will be tasked with discussing the circumstances of Ryoma’s murder. If you can figure out “whodunnit”, only the culprit of the crime will be executed. But if you pick the wrong peeeeerson, I will punish everyone besides the Blackened, so be careful who you choose!” The mechanical bear explained in a deceitfully playful tone.

“Seems fairly simple. So basically, we just need to make our arguments and present the correct evidence, right?” Rantaro said, holding his fingers to his chin.

“Yes, that appears to be the way in which this court will function. Does anyone have suggestions for the first topic of discussion?” Light asked, curious to see what awaited him. Despite his quiet nature, Shuichi was the first to speak out.

“I’m personally really curious about the circumstances involving where the body was found. After all, the boiler room was locked before we found the body, so there’s no way anyone would be able to access it.” The young detective brought up his idea while adjusting his cap.

“Ooh, that’s true. The boiler room was always locked, but we never saw how it was opened.” Tsumugi reiterated Shuichi’s last point.

“But how and when was it opened? I don’t think anyone here has a key, so unless someone broke the lock, it’s impossible for anyone to make it into that room.” Keebo made his argument.

“That’s not possible. The lock was still near the door after the murder, and it was in perfect condition. If the killer had broken the lock to get into the room, it would have dents, and pieces of it would be shattered. Furthermore, I believe someone here is hiding something…” Light gave his explanation while turning his head to the Ultimate Supreme Leader.

“Neeheehee! Whatever could you mean, Light?” Kokichi sarcastically asked while hiding a mysterious smile behind his index finger.

“There is someone here who can open any door without needing a key.” Shuichi continued Light’s argument.

“Ah, that’s right! They must be talking about the mastermind!” Himiko said, thinking she was getting a good clue.

“Not necessarily. If you know how to pick a lock, you have no need for keys. Isn’t that right, Kokichi?” Light followed up.

“You’re sharper than I expected. But tell me, how can you prove that I picked any locks, Professor Yagami?” The white-clad teen condescendingly responded to Light’s accusations.

“It’s rather simple. This morning, before the breakfast reunion, when I was investigating the basement floor, you picked open the door to the AV Room. In addition to that, you unlocked the door to Hoshi’s room. Before you ask for any way to prove my claims, Shuichi witnessed the second instance.” The adult detective explained in a stern tone.

“Exactly. I saw your lockpicking skills with my own two eyes. The chances of you being the one to unlock the door to the boiler room are very high. What do you have to say to this, Kokichi?” The Ultimate Detective reinforced my testimony, but the trickster seemed unphased still.

“Hm, but even if that’s true, you still can’t say for sure whether or not I was the one who opened that door. For all you know, there could be someone else with that ability here. For example, it could’ve been Himiko with her magic!” Kokichi relentlessly defended himself.

“Wh-what? I would never use my magic for a murder! Also, I was with Angie this whole morning? Do YOU have an alibi? I bet you don’t!” The Ultimate Magician shifted the blame back onto Kokichi.

“Nope, I don’t! You wanna know why? It’s because I was lockpicking the door to the boiler room!” In an unexpected turn of events, Kokichi confessed.

“Wait, what? Weren’t you denying that a moment ago?” Rantaro questioned the boy’s actions, confused.

“I never said I didn’t do it. I was just testing your abilities. But yeah, after we had breakfast, I went exploring for a bit, and when I found out that the boiler room was locked, I gave it a taste of my lockpicking skills!” The Ultimate Supreme leader gave his testimony while a wicked grin adorned his face.

“But, doesn’t that mean you’re the murderer? It does line up with what Atua is telling me.” Angie questioned with a dubitative expression.

“I don’t think so. Besides the picked lock, there isn’t really anything else that we can use to connect Kokichi to the murder itself. All we know is that he unlocked the boiler room. Speaking of that, why did you do that, Kokichi?” Light continued his argument.

“Huh? Do I need a reason? I was just checking around the school grounds to see if there was anything we missed earlier. Weren’t you doing the same thing before breakfast, Professor Yagami?” The purple-haired boy retorted, his response irritating Light.

“I suppose that makes sense… But please, stop calling me Professor.” Yagami replied, annoyed.

“Fiiiiine. Would you prefer if I just called you by your name backwards?”

“Silence. That joke was never funny.”

“Wait, Yagami backward… Imagay? Oh, heheheheh.” Interrupting the progress of the trial, Monokuma picked up from where Kokichi left it, clearly annoying the Death Note owner even further.

“Um, guys? Instead of pointlessly fighting about Kokichi’s immature jokes, we should try to focus on how the act of opening the boiler room could be connected to the crime.” Shuichi halted the discussion, bringing it back to its rightful place.

“Well, yeah. Of course, it’s connected. The body was found there. It’s possible that the murder also happened in that room as well.” Rantaro brought up his point.

“We don’t know that yet. For all we know, the killer could just be using the boiler room to obscure the place where they killed Hoshi.” Keebo offered his rebuttal.

“I agree with that, Keebo. There’s evidence that points to the murder’s location being somewhere else.” Yagami supported the robot’s argument while looking through his notes.

“What do you mean, Light? Was the murder really somewhere else?” Shuichi questioned nervously.

“Yes, I believe that it all happened outside the boiler room, and I think I have an inkling of where exactly it was.” As Kira said this, the tension in the room grew. “I am certain that Ryoma was killed near the dorms.”

“How can you be so sure? Where’s your proof?” Tenko responded, irritated. “I won’t believe what a degenerate like you claims until it’s completely backed by solid evidence!”

“There was a large weight plate covered in blood hidden in the grass by the dorm building. When taking into consideration the fact that the corpse has a broken neck, I think that connecting the dots from here should be easy enough.” The Death Note owner elaborated on his hypothesis.

“Ooh, I think I know where this is going! The blackened must have snuck up on the victim while carrying that plate and then WHACKED them right on the neck!” Tsumugi tried to figure out the method, but her theory didn’t seem to satisfy everyone.

“No, that’s wrong!” Shuichi yelled out, making everyone turn their heads toward him. “Sneaking up on someone while carrying such a large and heavy item, all while in a mostly open area… Doesn’t seem like the most efficient way to try to kill someone. Plus, just a single bash from the weight plate shouldn’t be enough to kill someone.”

“Oh… I see. I overestimated the killer’s strength, I guess.” Tsumugi replied to Shuichi’s statement, somewhat disappointed.

“But then how could they have done it? Could they have built some sort of mechanism to make the plate gain enough momentum to be able to break Hoshi’s neck?” Rantaro theorized as well.

“That’s not completely out of the question, but if it were the case, there would be some sort of sign of the setup used.” Keebo offered his rebuttal.

“Well, they could’ve still used a mechanism and dismantled it before anyone found it,” Kokichi argued.

“That’s just not possible. The timeframe for the murder does not allow for such a quick cleanup. The killer was very clearly in a hurry.” The Ultimate Detective showed his disagreement.

“Is that so? How exactly do the timeframes affect the crime, then?” The Supreme Leader pressed on, curious.

“Um… Let’s see. According to the Monokuma File, Hoshi died exactly at 10:10 AM. At that time, I was in the AV room with four other people holding an assembly. The assembly started at 10 AM, and it lasted roughly ten minutes.” The boy with the hat continued his explanation.

“Nyeh? Why did you stop the assembly so soon?” Curious, Himiko questioned Shuichi.

“We were forced to end the assembly when we heard a loud crashing noise coming from the first floor. Given the testimony that you gave us during the investigation, both you and Angie must have heard it as well.” Light picked up where Shuichi left off, giving his testimony more validity.

“Hmm… Now that you say that, I do remember hearing something when Himiko and I were at the library.” The tanned artist confirmed Light’s theory.

“The noise we heard came from the dining hall, where someone, presumably the blackened, shattered the glass door that connected with the courtyard. I believe that they did that to create a shortcut to the place where they killed Hoshi. If Rantaro’s account is accurate, Light and I found the body five minutes after the murder took place. Following that train of thought, it’s impossible for the killer to have dismantled any sort of mechanism because they already had their hands full with having to move the corpse to the boiler room.” The young sleuth offered his thesis with a worried look.

“All of that is fine and dandy, but how can you be so sure that the person who broke the glass door was also the killer? Anyone could have done that, regardless of whether or not they killed anyone.” Smug, Kokichi found the hole in Shuichi’s argument.

“B-but why would anyone other than the killer break down that door?” Nervous, Shuichi tried to find a rebuttal to the trickster’s arguments.

“Simple, they could be in leagues with the perpetrator.” Rantaro seemed to find reason in the trickster’s ideas.

“But, wouldn’t they still get executed even if they did that and the killer was found out?” Light questioned.

“Exactly! Cooperation in a Killing Game is pointless. Even if the killer made it unscathed out of the trial, the accomplice would still be executed alongside the other spotless students.” Monokuma interrupted the discussion to give the students that valuable piece of information.

“In that case, the person who broke down the dining hall’s door MUST be the killer!” Determined that he was right, Light stated his beliefs.

“So, knowing that the blackened had to be in the kitchen at around 10:09, we can finally start picking potential candidates. Let’s hear our alibis.” Keebo encouraged his classmates.

“Well, for starters, I was in the AV room with Light, Shuichi, Keebo, and Rantaro. So it’s impossible for any of us to have done it.” Tsumugi explained her group’s alibis.

“I can put Atua as a witness that I was with Himiko in the library until we saw Monokuma’s announcement!” Angie swore upon her god.

“That just leaves Kokichi and Tenko as the only ones without alibis. Or maybe you can cover each other?” Yagami filled in the blanks.

“No can do, sir. After I unlocked the boiler room, I just went back into the building and took a walk around the halls. I did see Tenko inside the school building, but that was prior to the murder.” The white-clad boy elaborated on his vague testimony, completely calm. Tenko, on the other hand, was sweating bullets.

“If I recall correctly, Tenko spent a lot of time walking around various places in the school all day long. Would you mind giving us a refresher?” Shuichi tried to persuade the aikidoka into giving everyone the info that they needed.

“A-alright… I went to the gymnasium after having breakfast. Then, I searched for any possible exits in various rooms of the main school building. After an unsuccessful search, I grabbed a manga from the library and went to my dorm room. A bit later, I went back to the gym, and that’s when I heard the noise from the dining hall. At the time, I wasn’t too sure where the sound had come from, so I just explored the first floor by myself. I ended up in the bathroom, where I saw Tsumugi. Right about that time, the body discovery announcement played.” Tenko gave a detailed testimony.

“Oh, right. We did split up once we got to the first floor. Tsumugi headed to the east wing, so it makes sense that you’d meet up there. I went with Light and Shuichi to the west wing, and Keebo headed straight to the gym.” Rantaro elaborated on how the events played out.

“Wait a second. Something doesn’t add up. Isn’t that right, Keebo?” Light earnestly pressed on, astonishing Tenko.

“Quick thinking, Yagami. I was concerned about that too. When I went to the gym, I never saw Tenko, and there aren’t any alternate paths from the gym to the east wing.” The robot proved Kira’s train of thought correct.

“W-what are you implying, you robotic degenerate? If you didn’t see me, it’s just because I’m very fast and you have terrible eyesight!” Offended, Tenko tried to prove her innocence.

“Hey, my eyesight is 20/13! I’m pretty sure I would see you even if I didn’t want to!” Keebo defended himself.

“Why would anyone want to see Tenko’s ugly face anyway? I’d rather stick my face in a garbage bag… Not that Tenko isn’t one already.” Laughing to himself, Kokichi insulted the aikidoka.

“Say that to my face, you immature runt!” Full of anger, she tried to leave her stand, but Himiko and Angie grabbed her from each side to prevent her from doing so.

“Stop with the ad hominem already. The point is that Tenko’s testimony is faulty. Considering what K1-B0 said, she can’t have been at the gym during the murder, but there is proof of her being in the bathroom thanks to Tsumugi. Taking these factors into consideration, she could’ve perfectly been in the dining hall, only to run to the dorms, kill Hoshi, hide his body in the boiler room, and enter the school building through the main door, only to go directly to the girls’ bathroom.” The Death Note owner theorized, with each word making Tenko turn even more pallid.

“A-are you seriously accusing me of killing someone!? Is it just because I’m a girl? Ugh, you degenerates are all the same!” The androphobe screamed, angry and nervous.

“Hmph. She’s not even being subtle. She’s already started digging her own grave. But even though it’s obvious at this point, I believe we should try to connect the dots properly. We still haven’t established the exact way in which Hoshi was murdered.” Rantaro said, holding his index finger up.

“E-exactly, you can’t just point your fingers at me! Show me something that you can use to link me to the crime! Spoilers: You won’t find anything because I didn’t do it!” The defending party said, sweating intensely.

“Well, if you compare the evidence to what Tenko’s account encompasses, it’s very easy for her to have been the one to do it all. You said you had visited almost all the rooms in the main building this morning before the assembly, correct?” Shuichi cross-examined the suspect.

“Y-yeah. I went to the library, the storage room, and the dining hall.” Tenko continued explaining, getting increasingly more nervous.

“Wow, at this point, you might as well say you’re guilty. There’s no way this isn’t connected to the murder somehow.” Kokichi said with a condescending expression on his face.

“I hate to agree with him, but he’s completely right. If Tenko visited those three rooms before going to the dorms, then it’s very likely that she was the one to take the missing items from the storage room.” Shuichi agreed with the Supreme Leader.

“Nyeh? What missing items are you talking about?” Himiko questioned in a lazy tone.

“During the investigation, we found out that a few items were in suspicious situations within the storage room. We believe that they’re all connected to the murder!” Shuichi established. Yagami showcased several pictured on his Monopad before giving an explanation.

“The first of those items was a large black box identical to the one that Ryoma’s body was found in. Based on that, it’s easy to assume that the one used for the murder also originated from that room. The next item was an iron bar connected to a single 100-pound weight plate. The bloody weight plate that we found near the dorms had the exact same design and weight. Furthermore, there was a case containing two medals made of silver and bronze respectively. A gold medal with the same design was found inside the box where Hoshi’s corpse was found. Lastly, one of the boxes with spare clothes had a single empty envelope. This envelope was meant to have a pair of white silk gloves inside it.” Light elaborated in great detail.

“How are those gloves relevant? I don’t think I saw anything like them at the crime scene.” Rantaro asked, doubtful of Light’s accusations.

“Wait, I think I saw a pair of bloodstained white gloves when I went to the bathroom.” Tsumugi testified, causing Tenko to begin sweating even more.

“Exactly. When Angie helped us investigate the girls’ bathroom, we found them alongside a few bloody tissues in the garbage bin. What do you have to say about this, Tenko Chabashira?” Shuichi reinforced our theory while accusing the suspect.

“…” She merely stayed silent, knowing that anything she said could incriminate her further.

“Pleading the fifth, huh? Smooth. Since Miss Karate Girl here refuses to speak, I wanted to ask something. You said there was a gold medal inside the box where we found Hoshi, right? What’s its relevance to the case? Seems to me like it could’ve just been planted there to distract us.” The Ultimate Supreme Leader said while grinning.

“I have a theory in regards to that,” Kira answered Kokichi’s query. “Given the location of the medal, I believe that the token and the box that contained it were both nothing but bait.”

“But hey, that’s just a theory, a murder theory!” Tsumugi interrupted with a non-sequitur.

“Wh-where are you heading with this, Light?” Astonished, the Ultimate Detective questioned the adult.

“If you may recall, we stated earlier that the weight plate could only be used as a murder weapon if it had a good amount of momentum. We’ve already established that the killer didn’t use any sort of mechanism to kill. However, if someone were to drop the plate on the victim’s neck from a high altitude, it would surely kill them in one blow. But still, that requires a lot of precision, especially if the target is moving.” Yagami offered his theory.

“Wait, are you suggesting that the box and the medal were used to keep Hoshi distracted while the killer dropped the weight plate from one of the windows on the second floor of the dorms?” Shocked, Shuichi filled in the blanks that Light left on purpose.

“Hey, now. Aren’tcha getting a tad bit ahead of yourselves? This is just speculation. Can you back it up with anything?” Rantaro said, intrigued by the detectives’ arguments.

“Hey, Avocado Head. If what we’ve seen so far of this trial is anything to go with, it’s pretty clear that these two always have an ace up their sleeves. I’m not siding with them, but… This is pretty entertaining.” Kokichi said, his pejorative nickname irritating Rantaro.

“Kukuku… I like how this human thinks.” The Shinigami broke his silence and spoke directly into Light’s ear.

“Heh. He’s right. We do have the perfect piece of evidence that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the murder was carried out exactly how we described it. Please, take a look at this note that we found inside Ryoma’s pad. Apparently, someone used it to lure him out of the dorms. I rest my case.” With his tone now sounding slightly more arrogant, Light took out the note that he found during his investigation. All the Ultimates read its contents, shocked looks forming on their faces.

“I-I never wrote anything like that! That handwriting has to be that of a degenerate male! Girls always have cute, cursive handwriting with hearts on top of the “i”s!” Tired of being shamelessly accused, Tenko yelled out.

“Neeheehee… Is that really your best excuse? Then why don’t you write a copy of that note for us?” Kokichi taunted the aikidoka, who didn’t respond; and instead, let out an annoyed grunt.

“Tenko… Why did you kill Hoshi?” Himiko asked, tears filling her eyes.

“I didn’t kill him! This is all just a terrible coincidence!” Tenko cried out in despair.

“This so-called coincidence still has more evidence pointing at you that we haven’t discussed yet. Remember where we found the murder weapon? It was right under one of the windows of the dorm building. After checking it thoroughly from the inside, it’s easy to see that it lines up exactly with where your room is located!” Light continued his accusations, with Tenko’s face contorting into a despairful grimace.

“STOP IT! PLEASE, I BEG YOU!” The aikidoka broke into tears, the pressure making her proverbial mask crack.

“I’m sorry, Tenko. But if we want to make it out of here, we need to find out the truth behind Hoshi’s death!” Shuichi tried to convince the “Blackened”.”

“Puhuhuhuhu! Looks like you’re having a lot of fun! Have you decided who you’re going to vote for yet?” The headmaster interrupted the debate while chuckling.

“Yes. I think we’ve already exposed everything that we needed.” K1-B0 replied to Monokuma’s query on behalf of everyone, but…

“No, that’s wrong!” Light let out an exclamation that resonated all throughout the courtroom. “Monokuma. We may have exposed the Blackened, but there’s still one more person whose name needs to be called out.”

“What are you talking about? Remember that your paycheck depends on my mood!” The monochrome bear threatened Light.

“I am talking about the mastermind of this Killing Game, Monokuma. I have seen through your tricks, and I’m well aware of who it is that’s controlling this operation! I am going to make sure everyone knows who it is!” The owner of the Death Note responded to the bear’s threats with his own.

“Hmph. So you really think you can do that? Very brave of you, but I assure you that there’s nothing you can gain from this. Even if you expose the mastermind, they won’t be executed, since they haven’t necessarily killed anyone.” Monokuma stated in a defiant tone.

“Well, with that statement, at least we know that the blackened and the mastermind are not the same person.” Shuichi brought up his point.

“Monokuma, do you really think the Killing Game can continue as normal if everyone knows who the mastermind is? Once their identity has been exposed, there’s nothing stopping any of us from killing them and putting a stop to this twisted game.” Light continued to argue.

“Killing… the mastermind?” The Ultimate Magician rhetorically asked, concerned.

“Wouldn’t doing that make us just as bad as them?” K1-B0 inquired, trying to hold the moral high ground.

“Hmph. Don’t be so foolish. A criminal’s life is absolutely worthless. If you’re cowardly enough to kidnap teenagers and make them kill each other, you do not deserve mercy. By defending them, you’re just enabling their misdeeds.” The owner of the Death Note stated his opinion, causing a sorrowful silence to fill the room.

“Light…” The Ultimate Detective muttered before snapping out of it and going back to his normal expression. “…What are the clues that led you to know who the mastermind is?”

“Do you remember Himiko’s testimony? She said that there was a hidden door in the library that had an electronic lock. Now, we do not know what’s inside it, but given certain circumstances surrounding it, we can infer that it is related to the mastermind in some way. For one, the mechanism hiding the door was blocked out after the murder took place and Himiko discovered it.”

“Y-yeah… At first, you could open it just by pulling one of the books on the shelf that was blocking the door, but after Hoshi died, there was no way to move the shelf.” The red-haired magician verified.

“In addition to the one in the library, there’s another hidden door that can only be accessed through the utility closet in the girls’ bathroom. The closet contains a passageway that leads all the way into the basement, and judging by the layout of the academy, it would converge with the same room that the library’s hidden door leads to.” The adult detective continued explaining.

“W-where are you going with this? I don’t understand how this is supposed to point towards the mastermind.” Tsumugi asked, confused.

“I believe you of all people should know better than anyone.” Kira accused the cosplayer, whose expression shifted into a confounded one.

“Are you implying what I think you’re implying!?” Tsumugi responded, full of unease.

“If you piece together all the facts of this case, it makes sense that the mastermind has to be you, Tsumugi Shirogane! And before you beg for proof like a hungry stray dog at a picnic, let me give you just that.”

“…You’re giving her a stray dog?” Kokichi mockingly interrupted, only to get ignored.

“Let’s start from the very beginning. This morning at 7:30, I went to investigate the library by myself, but while I was doing that, Tsumugi barged into the room, breathless from running. Normally, such an event would not be strange or memorable, but when you consider the rest of the coincidences involving Tsumugi and the rooms that have hidden doors, it only makes the truth that much more obvious. The other coincidence that I’m talking about is one that comes from Tenko’s testimony. Right after the murder, Tsumugi was seen in the girl’s bathroom. Pretty suspicious, isn’t it?”

“Wow, this is so much of a stretch that Luffy would be jealous! There’s nothing solid or incriminating about this theory of yours!” The blue-haired girl said in response to Light’s arguments.

“Tenko. I’m well aware that you probably don’t want to help me after I drove you into a corner, but I need you to testify in greater detail about your encounter with Tsumugi.” Light encouraged Tenko while ignoring the cosplayer’s accusations.

“…I understand. I regret what I did, but I will try to use my knowledge to help… I went to the bathroom after killing Hoshi to wash my hands, and that’s when I saw her. Now that I think about it… She didn’t come out of any of the stalls. She came from the utility closet…” The aikidoka explained her testimony.

“Fantastic. Thank you for the information. Now, knowing this, all the pieces connect to each other. Tsumugi didn’t want me to discover the hidden door, so she ran into the library as fast as she could. She likely knew through the usage of some sort of pager. Once she suspected the murder had taken place during the assembly, she made her way into the “mastermind room” through the girls’ bathroom, where she likely monitored the situation by using the cameras located all throughout the school. She must have also set some sort of locking mechanism to prevent people from entering the room.” Light described his train of thought. The whole room was astonished by the depth of his argument, with an awkward silence following Light’s statement.

“Wow, Light. You really did a number on her! The best thing is that even if you can’t prove anything with decisive evidence, no one will trust Tsumugi anymore! She’s absolutely cornered!” In an abnormally joyful tone, Kokichi mocked the suspect.

“Hmph. I suppose you leave me no choice, then.” The cosplayer’s distressed expression shifted into a dark and serious one as she used her fingers to reposition her glasses. “Yes, I am the mastermind.”

“All according to plan.” The bearer of the Death Note thought to himself as he flashed a wicked grin. All the other students, with the obvious exception of Kokichi, were completely shocked.

“Tsumugi? But… why? Why would a simple cosplayer do this?” Tenko inquired, her face completely pale.

“If what she’s saying is true, I’m pretty sure there’s more to her than her cosplayer self,” Rantaro responded while trying to keep his composure.

“Th-this doesn’t make any sense! There has to be something wrong!” Himiko expressed her incredulity, but she was only met with a chuckle from the mastermind.

“Heheheh. There’s no mistake here. I am the one who ordered those strange figures to kidnap all of you and bring you here. I am the one who programmed Monokuma. I created the rules of the Killing Game.” The cosplayer said, laughing.

“Puhuhuhuhu! That’s right! Light got it all correctly. Are you sure you didn’t cheat or something?” Tsumugi’s robotic bear jokingly questioned Light.

“You… you monster…” K1-B0 insulted the criminal mastermind.

“So, now that you know all of this, what are you going to do? Will you try to kill me? Or will you just drown in your despair while the trial goes on?” Shirogane continued gloating while the Ultimates suffered.

“The trial must go on.” After a long silence, Shuichi spoke out with a dark expression. “There are still questions that need to be answered.”

“What!?” Both Light and Tsumugi exclaimed in surprise.

“Tenko may have confessed her guilt, but there is still something I don’t understand about this case. Hoshi’s neck was covered in fresh blood when we found him, but upon inspecting the wound that allegedly killed him, we realized that something doesn’t quite add up.” The young detective said, determination filling his eyes.

“For Atua’s sake, stop making this more complicated! Tenko already said that she did it!” Angie complained, tired of the trial.

“I’m sorry for confusing you all, but I’m sure there’s something about this that could make a significant difference.” The black-clad detective apologized. “The problem with the wound lies with the fact that despite being covered in blood, there wasn’t a cut or anything that would allow the wound to bleed. Plus, death by neck trauma isn’t quite instant. It can take up to several minutes depending on the person’s build. So realistically speaking, it’s impossible for Tenko to have killed Hoshi and prepared the scene of the crime so quickly.”

“But the Monokuma File explicitly stated that Hoshi died of blunt neck trauma!” Light said, nervous.

“No, that’s wrong!” Shuichi yelled angrily before taking out the Monokuma file. “The Monokuma File never said anything about the cause of death. “The victim was Ryoma Hoshi, the Ultimate Tennis Pro. His body was found inside a black box in the boiler room. The time of death was 10:10 AM and the body was first found at that same time. The body has no external injuries, but some of its cervical vertebrae are broken.” Do you see what I mean now?”

“Wh-what!? This can’t be…” The adult thought to himself while trying to keep his composure.

“Knowing that, and seeing that there was already blood in the dining hall due to the broken glass door, I think that Tenko simply got cut when she broke through the door, and she used that blood to create a false lead when she tried to kill Hoshi. Considering that several pieces of evidence like the black box and the weight plate are stained with blood as well, it’s pretty consistent.” Shuichi kept on presenting his arguments, with Light getting more nervous with each truth bullet that Shuichi shot.

“Oh, there’s another inconsistency! If the time of death was 10:10, and that was also the first time the body was found, wouldn’t that mean that the person in the scene of the crime would’ve been the first to spot it?” Kokichi pointed out.

“Exactly. The body discovery announcement only plays when three spotless students find the body!” The mastermind said with an arrogant expression.

“B-but I remember killing Hoshi by dropping the weight plate on him! I even checked his pulse before stuffing him into the box! I’m sure I’m the killer! There was no one else at the scene!” Tenko claimed, her look getting more and more concerned.

“Then, that means… Hoshi’s heart had already stopped by the time you tried to kill him!” Shuichi stated while readjusting his hat.

“That… actually rings a bell, doesn’t it? Haven’t you all heard the rumors about those weird heart attack accidents happening to criminals because someone called Kira was purging them somehow?” The mysterious Rantaro mentioned his theory. “Is it possible that… one of us is somehow related to Kira?”

“That’s ridiculous! I’ve been investigating the Kira case for years, and it’s impossible for anyone here to be that deranged psychopath!” Light lied, wanting to protect his identity.

“Y-yeah, that does sound like a bit of a stretch,” Himiko said while trembling like a defenseless deer.

“Hmmm… But don’t you think it’s really suspicious that a situation so similar to the Kira killings would happen when someone so close to the investigation is present here? And considering that I offered the opportunity to leave this secluded place by killing someone and that the person who died is a publicly known convict, all the pieces add up!” Tsumugi exposed even more of her opinions.

“What the hell!? Are you seriously accusing me of being the very same person that I’ve been chasing after for so many years? Are you out of your mind!?” Yagami yelled, his anger clearly getting to him.

“Puhuhuhuh… I believe we’ve already discussed everything that we needed. Here comes the moment you’ve all been waiting for! IIIIIIIIIIIIT’S VOTING TIME!” Monokuma cried out in joy as the small screens in the stands of each student lit up, showing a roster of all the participants of the Killing Game.

“Wait, don’t do this yet! Stop the voting! We have not come to an agreement!” Light shouted at the bear.

“No can do, pal! My patience has already run out, and the uncertainty of not having a definite result only makes this all the more exciting and despair-inducing!” The bear denied Light’s request, causing him to grunt in indignation. With everyone being forced to vote, the students and their “teacher” started to select their pick for the blackened. In just thirty seconds, everyone had chosen who they thought was the murderer. After that, a large screen appeared in the middle of the courtroom, showing the number of votes that each person had gotten.

“Let’s see… In third place, with only a single vote, Tsumugi Shirogane! Next up, with three votes, Light Yagami! And last, but not least, the person that you chose as the killer… With 5 votes, Tenko Chabashira!” Monokuma announced in a playful tone.

“I see. So that’s what you decided to choose. I understand suspecting Tenko more than Light, given how she practically admitted her guilt, and that there are many things that incriminate her… I’m just not entirely convinced it’s the right choice.” Shuichi said with a sad look on his face, which he tried to hide with his hat.

“Who cares? Let’s just see who’s the blackened already!” The Ultimate Supreme Leader complained, excited to see the results.

“Fine, fine. Let us see the one true answer!” The bear said as he pressed a red button with a gavel, causing the screen to morph into a slot machine that displayed the faces of all participants of the Killing Game. The slots spun while the neon lights of the machine lit the room, only to come to a screeching halt when showing Light’s face on all three slots.

“Well, well, well. Looks like you voted for the wrong person! Tenko was NOT the Blackened! It is just as Shuichi said. The killer is Light Yagami, your teacher of despair!” Tsumugi evilly laughed while announcing the results.

“L-Light? H-how!? There has to be a mistake! I swear I killed Hoshi!” Tenko cried out as anxiety built up within her.

“I… I’m not going to waste any more time. I know Tsumugi is going to execute us all very soon, so please, Light, tell us what happened. How did you do it? Are you really Kira?” Shuichi, feeling betrayed, questioned the other detective.

Light, however, was only feeling an immense bliss at that moment. “Heh. Heheheh. Hahahahah. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! It all went just as planned. You’re all so laughably gullible! All I needed to do was play the good guy and you fools were bound to fall into my trap!” The owner of the Death Note laughed maniacally.

“You… You scumbag… I knew this case was too easy to be true…” Rantaro spitefully said while clenching his fist.

“I… I really don’t understand this. Please, explain.” K1-B0 asked for help, confused.

“Fine. I’ll give you your explanation. It’s not like you’re going to be able to tell anyone, seeing how you’re all about to die. Yes, I am the Blackened, and not only that. I am also Kira, the God that purges criminals from the Earth to achieve greater justice. With nothing but my Death Note, I can make anyone die in whatever way I desire… And that’s what I did with Hoshi.” Light explained, his face no longer seeming innocent, but now a twisted mess of pure evil.

“Light… I trusted you. I thought you wouldn’t do something so vile… And now you’re telling me that you’ve been killing people for YEARS? You… You disgust me beyond words! I swear that you’ll be found out… and I’ll be watching every minute of it from Heaven!” The Ultimate Detective’s eyes filled with tears as he insulted his peer.

“Every word of what you just said… was wrong.” Light smiled as his eyes turned red. “You did not trust me. None of us trusted each other. The moment we learned that we’d be involved with a Killing Game, all trust became meaningless and null. And my actions… they are not vile… My actions are those of Justice! I am God! As such, I will make sure to purge any filthy criminal that crosses my path! And that “disgust” you bear towards me… Are you sure it’s not admiration? I might have saved you at some point in your life without you knowing. Also, I will never be caught. My wits are unmatched! Oh, and lastly, Heaven and Hell do not exist. There is only life and death, and you’re all quite close to the latter.” The bearer of the Death Note rambled on with an evil grin on his face.

The room was in pure shock to see Yagami’s true colors, but one foolishly brave Ultimate stepped up to him. “Hey, so… All this philosophical bullshit is cool and all, but what the hell is a Death Note, and how did you use it to kill Ryoma?” The Supreme Leader couldn’t help but ask, causing a reaction of irritation upon Light, who reluctantly reached out to his backpack, out of which he took a pen and a small black notebook.

“The Death Note is a powerful tool owned by the Shinigami, the Gods of Death. It is a notebook where just writing a name on it causes that person to die in whatever way is specified. Let us make an example out of our beloved mastermind, Tsumugi Shirogane!” Light began writing the cosplayer’s name on his notebook.

“HEY, HEY, HEY! I’m the one who’s supposed to do the executing! It’s punishment time!” The robotic beat interrupted Light by slamming his gavel on a red button again. A screen appeared in the middle of the courtroom again, this time displaying all the living students besides Light, as well as the following message.

YOU HAVE VOTED FOR THE WRONG PERSON
GAME OVER

The trial grounds began shifting around, separating Light from the rest of the students. All the stands formed a tighter circle with Tsumugi’s staying in the center. The floor started to shake wildly.

“O, SPEARS OF GUNGNIR, BY THE MIGHT OF ODIN, I CALL UPON THEE!” The blue-haired cosplayer yelled, causing the floor to shake even harder while thunder cracked outside of the courtroom. A long spear came out of the ground, only to pierce right through Shuichi’s chest, causing him to instantly vomit some blood. In less than a second, more spears appeared, each one piercing the body of one of the Ultimates.

With loud SHINK sounds filling his ears, Light could do nothing but rejoice as his plans came to fruition. The sight of the bodies of Shuichi, Rantaro, Kokichi, K1-B0, Tenko, Himiko, and Angie getting skewered by more and more spears filled him with an unfathomable sense of joy. He had won this battle, and his freedom was about to come.

“Thirty-eight, thirty-nine… Forty seconds… Now, your time to perish has come, Tsumugi Shirogane!” Light exclaimed as he looked at his watch. He knew that enough time had passed since he wrote Tsumugi’s name on it, so he patiently awaited the moment the cosplayer’s heart stopped…

…But it never came. Tsumugi’s stand rose above the stands holding the skewered corpses of the still semi-conscious Ultimates. The mastermind stood there, crossing her arms and laughing.

“Y-you’re both… disgusting…” Shuichi said with his last breath before becoming completely motionless… None of his classmates were lucky enough to survive for the time needed to say their last words.

“Aaaah… This despair… It’s so lovely! Look at their bodies… All riddled with holes. Doesn’t it feel wonderful to see suffering this PURE and RAW!?” The mastermind smiled as her stand moved closer to Light, whose face was covered in sweat due to the anxiety of not seeing Tsumugi die. “Mmmm, but the most despairful face here is yours, Light! You really thought everything would go according to keikaku, and now look at this yourself. It’s going to be so fun to break you~!”

“B-but… How the hell did you survive!? I wrote your name on the Death Note!” The detective questioned, getting increasingly more nervous. “W-wait. Could it be…?”

“Heheheh. Your next line will be “Your real name is not Tsumugi Shirogane!?”, and the answer to that question is yes! Let’s just say that I didn’t really mean it when I said I was the Ultimate Cosplayer. To be more accurate, Tsumugi is the Ultimate Cosplay! She’s nothing more than a fictional identity created by the one and only… me!” The person pretending to be Tsumugi took out a small remote and pressed a button on it, causing a thick fog to appear, completely obscuring “Tsumugi”‘s figure. Anxious, Light looked back at Ryuk, who simply watched the scene with a lifeless look in his eyes.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier, Ryuk!?” Kira reprimanded the Shinigami, who shrugged in response.

“I didn’t think it was going to be relevant. Plus, you already know I’m not supposed to help you.” The pitch-black god of death said in an indifferent tone.

While the two talked to each other, the fog began to clear up, revealing the silhouette of a voluptuous woman with a curvy body and peculiar-looking hair tied in twin ponytails. As the smoke disappeared completely, Light and Ryuk got a clear look at the woman.

Light’s eyes came into contact with the attractive woman, whose light-pink hair and shiny blue eyes contrasted her pitch-black blouse, which was quite open at the chest area, showing a glimpse of her black and red bra. The lower part of her body wore a red miniskirt and a pair of tall black boots.

Her entire appearance seemed gaudy, with many complements decorating her outfit. She wore two teddy bear-shaped hairpins resembling Monokuma. Around her neck was a black and white tie, which was partially covered by a large red ribbon. Her slim hands were adorned with flashy red fake nails, which gave her a somewhat idol-like air.

“Betcha didn’t see that one coming! Name’s Ryoko Otonashi, also known as the Ultimate Despair!” The girl introduced herself while smiling deviously.

“Cut the bullshit. The fact that you think you can fool me with such an obviously fake name is an insult to my intelligence.” Light pretentiously responded to “Ryoko’s” introduction.

“Aww, you’re not going to believe a cute girl like little ol’ me? I’m so offended I might cry!” The mastermind blushed as her expression shifted into a cutesy one, along with her voice.

“You’ve already given me more than enough reasons to doubt you.” Light said, his voice full of spite and distrust. “Now, fulfill your end of the bargain or I’ll make you regret it.”

“Hmm? What bargain?” The mastermind said, playing dumb.

“The rules of your stupid Killing Game. They said that if the Blackened survived the Class Trial, they’d be allowed to re-enter the outside world.” The Death Note owner elaborated.

“Oh, so you just want to leave? That won’t be an issue at all! I don’t mind letting you go… But I want something first.” The pink-haired girl mysteriously responded, covering most of her face with her hand.

“Haven’t you already had your fair share of fun by putting me through this torturous show?” Light responded, his anger intensifying.

“Hm, perhaps. But in my personal belief, there are two aspects of life that I cannot have enough of. Fun and despair!” A small crown suddenly materialized on the girl’s head as she faked an English accent.

“I do not care about your philosophy, you wretched criminal. State your terms and we’ll see if we can come to an agreement.” Yagami sternly said.

“I’m sure you can imagine what I want. Let me give you a clue, it starts with the letter D, and you have one.” While blushing and making a provocative face, “Ryoko” started lightly drooling as she teased Yagami.

“Uuuh, Light? I think she wants your di-“ Ryuk obliviously lampshaded the joke, only to be interrupted by Light.

“She means the Death Note, you imbecile!” Kira shouted at the Shinigami, surprising the Ultimate Despair.

“Oh, are you talking to your imaginary friend? Or is it your Stand?” With her expression changing to imitate a stereotypical nerdy face, “Ryoko” questioned Light.

“Stand? What are you even- Ugh, forget about it. If you want the Death Note, you’re not precisely in luck.” Light retorted as he stuffed the notebook back into his backpack.

“Aw, come on! I’ll do anything in exchange~!” Making her cutesy face again, she tried to seduce Light.

“Kukukuku… Are you sure she’s not trying to have-“ The Shinigami mocked Light once again, only to be met with a cold glare from him, which stopped his joke.

“Anything?” Light looked back at the Ultimate Despair, who repeatedly nodded in an adorable fashion. “Then die and get out of my way, you filthy bitch.” With his anger finally reaching its peak, Light flat out insulted “Ryoko”.

“Well, that’s fucking rude! Goddamn, and here I was, trying to be fucking nice to you, only to be met with a piss-poor attitude!” With her hair getting slightly untidy, the Ultimate Despair snapped at the detective.

“Hmph. If you want the Death Note, you will have to take it from my dead body!” Tired of dilly-dallying, Yagami finally said what he wanted to say.

“Oh, yeah? Then so fucking be it, bitch! I’ll tear out your lungs from your ass if I need to!” The Ultimate Despair vulgarly replied to the detective’s statement as she rose her hands in a fighting stance. However, before Light approached her, she had a brief moment of introspection.

“Here’s the fruit of my labor. This Killing Game gave me the chance to create a level of despair far beyond any human comprehension! All I need to do is defeat this pasty detective and steal his notebook. Light Yagami, prepare to die at the hands of Junko Enoshima!” Without saying a word out loud for the sake of her safety, the mastermind thought about her plan. The battle of wits was finally over. It was time for their hands to do the talking.

Ready to begin the fight, Junko cracked her knuckles and lunged at Light, who quickly stepped back and grabbed the fashionista’s forearm before reeling back his own arm and punching the girl on the cheek. Not even stunned by the damage, Junko slightly lifted her left leg and used it to stomp on Light’s feet, causing him to flinch. While Kira was stunned, the model stepped back and delivered a kick to the detective’s midsection, knocking him down.

From the floor, Light tried to push himself back up with his hands, but he suddenly felt the floor shake. Recalling what he saw during the executions, Light instinctively rolled to the left, barely managing to avoid a spear that rose from the ground. However, that was merely a distraction arranged by Junko, who quickly approached the still downed Yagami and promptly used her heel to step on the man’s stomach, causing him to groan in pain. Wanting to retaliate quickly, Light performed a low kick from the floor directed towards Junko’s shin, which made her fall down face-first.

Before the Ultimate Despair landed on top of Light, he grabbed her by the neck and began repeatedly slamming her head against the floor while he tried to get himself up again. Once he was back on his feet, Light commenced kicking Junko’s ribs intensely, making the Ultimate Despair moan with every hit that she took. Seeing how the criminal had stopped squirming, Light walked away from her and dusted off the back of his clothes.

“Stay where you belong. You should be grateful that I’m not making you lick my shoes. You criminals disgust me beyond human words.” Kira scornfully looked down on the fallen fashionista, but his distraction was a very clear mistake.

“Is that so? Then I’ll make sure you never say or write a word again, you wannabe God!” The voice of the mastermind was heard before she swung a large baseball bat at Light, striking his left arm. Yagami let out a loud scream, knowing that Junko’s attack had dealt great damage to his humerus. With his right hand, Light punched Junko in the mouth, but hardly inflicted any pain.

“Ugh, you’re pretty sturdy for a bimbo…” Light insulted Junko as he backed away. Junko, however, simply chuckled at the detective.

“Nah, I’m not sturdy. It’s just that you hit like a girl.” The Ultimate Despair jokingly responded as she took out a grenade from her pocket. The sight of the explosive alerted Kira, who quickly ran behind the large chair that Monokuma was sitting on. Still bloodlusted, Junko removed the pin from the grenade and swiftly used her baseball bat to chuck the explosive at the chair, prompting Monokuma to jump off. The hand grenade caused a small explosion upon making contact with the chair, blowing it to bits, and exposing the Death Note’s owner.

“T-that’s animal abuse!” The robotic bear exclaimed as it landed on the ground next to “Ryoko’s” legs. Indifferent, the Ultimate Despair kicked the bear, making it fly towards Light’s position. “GRAAAAAAR!” The Monokuma roared as it prepared to grab Light, who was crouching behind the rubble left by the explosion. Before the bear made its way to him, he delivered an uppercut with his right hand, knocking it away. With a quick motion, Light ran out of his hiding place and kicked the downed Monokuma again, causing it to swiftly travel back to Junko.

The supermodel of Despair held the automaton for a moment before it started glowing, unleashing an explosion that filled a good portion of the room, destroying several of the stands and sending Junko flying to the opposite end of the courtroom. Once the smoke from the explosion cleared up, Light approached Junko, thinking she was dead, however, it was not going to be that simple to kill her.

“O-okay… Not gonna lie… That hurt a bit.” Enoshima whined as she tried to get back up by grabbing onto a nearby pillar. Light cautiously stepped back and picked up a broken piece of the metallic stands.

“Don’t worry. This will hurt more.” Holding the sharp piece of metal to Junko’s neck, Light prepared to kill his opponent. With Junko backed into a corner, she began smiling intensely.

“Heheheheh… This despair is amazing… You used my own weapons against me. Your cunning is truly exceptional.” The Ultimate Despair praised her enemy while rummaging with something with her hands behind her back.

“Stop what you’re doing. You’re not fooling anyone with those cheap tricks.” The owner of the Death Note said in a serious tone, getting the metallic bar closer to Junko’s neck. The mastermind could not help but press her legs together as she drooled onto the iron bar. “…You’re even worse than I imagined.” Light spitefully looked down on the seemingly aroused Enoshima before hearing a loud creaking sound coming from behind him.

CREEEEEEAAK

“What was that!?” Light shouted, surprised by the sound. Junko, however, did nothing but let out a chuckle as she saw a large door behind Light slowly opening. Curious, the detective turned his head while still holding the bar, only to see a shining red eye coming from a pitch-black space in the courtroom. Out of the newly opened door rushed a brand new Monokuma with its claws extended.

“Graar! I lived, bitch!” The bear vulgarly shouted as he dashed towards Light. Knowing that it was best to defend himself, the detective used the piece of the stand to stab the Monokuma in the head, causing it to slowly stop moving. However, this was a bad move for him, given that he left himself open to a counterattack from Junko.

“Hey, dumbass, don’t forget about me!” With a sudden mood swing, Junko rudely yelled as she delivered a sneak attack to the detective using a combat knife. Light tried to step away from Junko, but this only caused the attack to slightly graze him instead of stabbing him fully. The quick attack left a shallow cut on Light’s right cheek, and also cut open the man’s backpack, causing its contents to spill out. A black notebook, a brown pen, and a wallet landed on the floor, with Light panicking as he noticed. Satisfied, Junko murmured “Jackpot!”

“I won’t let you lay a hand on the Death Note!” Kira said as he quickly crouched to grab the things that he had dropped. From the floor, Light used his pen to stab the mastermind in her right thigh, causing her to let out a moan of pain with a slight bit of pleasure mixed with it. With his notebook in hand, Light made a dash towards the door that Junko had opened, assuming it led to the exit, grabbing the metallic bar from the broken Monokuma on the way.

“My, my. It seems you are quite the fool, Mister Yagami. That door will not lead you to your freedom… Only your despair!” Junko said to herself as fake glasses materialized on her face and her hair was united into a single large ponytail. She looked at Light entering the dark room before pressing a few buttons on some sort of controller, letting a condescending chuckle escape her mouth afterward.

Once inside the room, Light heard the metallic doors shut, leaving him completely in the dark. A couple of seconds later, two sets of emergency lights lit up all across the dark corridor, signaling Yagami to go forward. The detective slowly started walking, expecting a trap to pop up at any second. However, all that he felt at first was a familiar presence.

“Hey, Light. That fight was pretty awesome. Never thought you’d be able to do that kind of stuff.” That voice belonged to none other than Ryuk, who had been silently watching the action from the sidelines.

“Why in the world aren’t you helping me, Ryuk? I’m nearly at my wits’ end here!” Light angrily yelled at the Shinigami.

“Kukuku… Fine, I’ll help you. But I’m not going to write Ryoko’s name on my notebook.” Ryuk responded with a chuckle, only to be met with a scornful look from Light. However, their banter was promptly interrupted as Light heard the sounds of several robots activating. Kira looked deeper into the hallway and saw dozens upon dozens of red Monokuma eyes slowly approaching. With every passing second, the figures of the copies of the bear became even more visible. Knowing that he couldn’t take the risk of getting cornered by the bears, Yagami charged forward and slammed the iron bar onto one of the Monokumas’ heads before kicking it down and stabbing the bar into the eyes of the two closest Monokumas.

With the first three enemies being down, Light continued moving deeper into the corridor, which started sloping up. Noticing more Monokumas getting closer, Light got on guard and raised the iron bar horizontally. However, the iron bar was met with the sharp claws of a Beast Monokuma. The Death Note owner tried to parry the hit for as long as he could, but the makeshift weapon gave in quickly. With nothing more than a pair of two-inch-long pieces of iron, Light was left defenseless against the bloodthirsty robots.

In a desperate attempt to protect himself from the Beast Monokuma, Light began trying to kick it in the head, but the quadrupedal robot did not budge in the slightest upon meeting Light’s foot. The Death Note owner tried to step back to avoid the monstrous creature, getting increasingly nervous.

“Light! Grab the Death Note and turn it into a scythe!” Ryuk called out to Yagami and gave him some advice.

“Wait, what the hell are you talking about!? It can do that!?” Light responded, confused, only to take out the Death Note and focus on trying to transform it somehow. In an unexpected turn of events, the notebook morphed into a black mass and soon took the shape of an ominous black scythe. “Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner!?”

“I never thought it would be necessary for you to carry a weapon this big, so I just kinda never said anything about it,” Ryuk responded, triggering an irritated groan from the human, who nervously brandished the scythe. As the Beast Monokuma charged towards Light, he swung the weapon at it, casually splitting it in half. Surprised by the cutting power of the blade, Light looked at it for an instant before returning to his path.

Now motivated by his newfound power, Light dashed through the corridor, hacking and slashing through all the Monokumas he found. However, his charge was stopped when a large monochrome sphere ran into him, sending him a couple of meters back. The sphere stopped in its tracks and sprouted arms and legs, showing that it was yet another variety of Monokuma… A Ball Monokuma. The peculiar machine lobbed a bunch of trash at Light, who was still trying to get up. The human’s clothes were now stained with a weird brown substance, and there was an empty cup of noodles on Light’s head.

Irritated, Light brushed his hair with his hand, throwing away the cup. Once he was ready to fight again, he swung the scythe at the Ball Monokuma, impaling it through its red eye. The blade of the Shinigami got stuck inside the spherical robot, but Light simply put both of his arms’ strength into lifting the notebook-turned-weapon and swung it forward with all his might, making the broken down Ball Monokuma fly off and hit a set of Monokumas wearing body armor, knocking them down.

Light hurried onward and quickly stabbed the Guard Monokumas in the eye with the blunt tip of the scythe’s shaft, destroying them before continuing his path. The detective tried to look at the depths of the corridor, finally being able to discern the end of it. A rusty ladder was the only obstacle left for Light to surpass… Or so he thought. The Death Note bearer let out a sigh of relief as he walked towards the ladder, but he was interrupted when a larger Monokuma fell out of the ceiling in front of him. The Monokuma had parts of its “fur” peeled away, revealing a more monstrous and mechanical design.

The bear let out an intimidating roar with a metallic tone before charging straight at the human and hitting his left arm with its paw. Due to the damage that Light had already taken before, this attack was severely crippling to him, breaking his left arm. Kira let out a scream of agony as he dropped his weapon because of the pain, but he soon grabbed the shaft of the scythe with his right hand.

“I’m sure you can see this, Ryoko. Know… that no matter how much you wound and torture me… You will never be able to avoid the wrath of Kira!” The sociopath said while panting heavily before delivering a swift slash with his right arm, decapitating the Junk Monokuma. With that last robot having been slain, Light turned the scythe back into a notebook and tucked it into his pants. After that, he made his way to the ladder and carefully grabbed it with both of his hands, though showing some clear pain when moving his broken left arm. The detective slowly climbed up the ladder, eventually reaching the exit.

“Finally…” Light exclaimed, relieved, as he made his way to a small room with a single trap door. He pushed it open and exited the room, seeing that he was in a familiar place… The boiler room. Now that he had a moment to rest, he took off his jacket and tore it in half to make an improvised arm sling for his broken extremity. Once he was all set, he grabbed the Death Note and exited the boiler room. However, what awaited him outside was not exactly pleasant.

WHACK!

The moment he stepped outside of the small building where the boiler room was located, Light got hit with a baseball bat in his broken arm once again. This ambush was the work of Junko, who had been waiting for Light while he fought the Monokumas. Just as Junko planned, the surprise attack made Kira fall down immediately, dropping the Death Note in the process.

“You snake! Is that what you call fighting fair?” Light scornfully asked his assailant, who bent over and picked up the notebook of death from the floor while Light lay next to it.

“Don’t make me laugh. Who said we were meant to fight fair? We’re killers! Masterminds! Fairness and mercy are only for those foolish enough to live like lawful goody-two-shoes! On this battlefield, the only thing that matters is who can cause the most despair, and with this notebook, I’ll reign supreme! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take my leave. Hope you enjoy dying here by yourself!” The pink-haired mastermind mocked his floored opponent with a speech before sprinting towards the academy’s main building.

“God damn it… I need to catch up with her… If I lose the Death Note, I’m as good as dead…” Light anxiously thought to himself as he struggled to get up from the floor because of his wounds. Pushing himself against the nearest wall, he managed to get up. “I… I will destroy you, Ultimate Despair!” As he commenced slowly walking to the school building, he uttered those words.

After several minutes of walking, Light finally reached the building. Thinking quickly, he tried to go to the girls’ bathroom. “If she planned to exit through the school, she must have used the secret passage.” The detective thought to himself while treading towards the bathroom. Once he found himself in the restroom, he opened the utility closet and pushed the wall, opening the passageway. Yagami made his way through the dark corridor until he reached a door. Unlike the last time he visited this passageway, the door was completely open. Light grinned as he stepped into a small room full of computers.

He looked at the screens, seeing that they displayed live footage of every other room on the school grounds. It must undoubtedly be the mastermind’s room. Quickly inspecting the room to the best of his abilities, Light found a small trap door underneath a chair. He opened it and let himself fall through it, reaching yet another hidden room. This time, it seemed like a long futuristic hallway with screens and speakers all throughout it.

“I see you finally made it here! Welcome to a little attraction that I like to call the Death Road of Despair! It was originally intended as the execution room for a certain pesky gamer, but I repurposed it into the Ultimate Obstacle Course that you’ll have to go through if you want to escape and recover the Death Note!” Through the speakers, Light heard the voice of Junko, whose image was shown on the monitors.

“What’s the point of playing around like this? You’ve already proven that you can kill someone instantly, and on top of that, you are in possession of my Death Note. You have no reason to make me go through your stupid obstacle course.” Light angrily called out to the mastermind while starting his odyssey through the Death Road of Despair.

“Because it’s fun, duh! Seeing prodigies like you or those Ultimates suffering intensely is the greatest pleasure that exists in this world!” Showcasing her sadistic nature, Junko responded to Yagami’s query.

“I really don’t understand you. Killing for pleasure is sickening-“ Kira continued his argument, only to be interrupted by what appeared to be a baseball that hit him in the chest. Light let out a moan of pain while trying to look for the source of the attack. However, this turned out to be a bad idea, seeing how his chest was hit again by a pair of baseballs coming from a pitching machine hidden in the wall.

“Ah, your hypocrisy is almost insulting. Do you not feel relieved when you see those criminals you despise so much collapsing because their hearts stopped? Is that not killing for pleasure as well?” The monitor showed Junko wearing a crown while faking an accent again. Aggravated by Junko’s words, Light continued moving forward without saying a word, trying to go faster to avoid the baseballs that were violently bombarding his defenseless back. Once he walked out of the pitching machine’s range, he leaned against one of the walls to catch his breath.

“Hey, who said you could stop?” Junko yelled at her opponent and pressed a button, activating a mechanism of sorts. Said mechanism consisted of three massive circular saw blades that traveled across the floor without slowing down. Upon noticing the moving trap, Light hurried onward while guiding himself along the wall with his right hand. Wanting to see the detective putting more effort into his escape, Junko activated another blade. However, this one moved horizontally across the wall that Light was leaning onto. Before the saw could slice his hand off, Light stepped away from the wall and tried to move faster.

The circular saws kept on following Light relentlessly, but the impersonator of L finally got a stroke of luck. In front of him was a flashy motorcycle with tiger-themed decals. Knowing that it was the only way to outrun the blades, Light quickly mounted the vehicle and grabbed its handles with one hand.

“Hey, you’re not wearing a helmet! Where’s your driver’s license? That’s illegal, you criminal! I’m gonna call the cops on you!” Pretending to be angry, Junko mocked Light as she pressed a different button. Kira ignored the Ultimate Despair’s taunts as he started up the bike’s engine and fled from the saw blades, letting out a sigh of relief as he saw the deadly traps disappearing from his view. Sadly for him, that peace did not last long, for the sound of loud sirens began to echo throughout the corridor. Light looked back, only to see a large firetruck being driven by a Monokuma.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” The male sociopath muttered, absolutely fed up with Enoshima’s vile antics. The supermodel, on the other hand, was laughing her lungs out.

“Oh, shit! Looks like I called the wrong fucking number! One of these days, my mistakes are going to end up killing someone, hahahaha!” Junko cackled while looking at Light accelerating on the motorcycle. Light’s eyes widened as he saw that he had reached the end of the corridor, but instead of a door, there was only a wall, but with another path opening to the left. Knowing that he could use that sharp turn to his advantage, Light prepared himself and jumped off the motorcycle at the last second, making the vehicle crash right into the wall and creating a sizeable explosion, which sent him flying away from the wall. With no room to make the turn, the firetruck crashed into the wall as well, making an extremely loud sound.

“Conglaturation! A winner is you!” Speaking in broken English, Junko made a nerdy voice while telling Light that he had reached the end. The detective got up and looked in front of him, seeing a door with Monokuma’s face drawn on it. Ready to end that ridiculous game, he opened the door and entered the next room, a dark high-tech-esque room where Junko was sitting menacingly with her legs crossed while holding the Death Note. Much to Light’s surprise, Ryuk was with her.

“You’re probably asking yourself what the Shinigami is doing here. Don’t worry, the answer is simple. He already knew the way to the Mastermind’s room, so he just came with me once I picked up the Death Note.” The pink-haired woman explained with a sad look. She wasn’t actually sad, she just wanted to mess with Light.

“Sorry about that. I saw the room when I went to explore during the investigation.” Ryuk expanded on Junko’s statement.

“I don’t care. I beat your game, so just give me the Death Note.” The detective anxiously commanded Junko, who grinned in response to Light’s order.

“Hey now, I never said I’d give it to you if you completed the Death Road. If you want it, you’ll have to find it first.” Enoshima taunted Kira once again, but the Ultimate Despair’s constant roundabouts and insults only intensified his already massive anger. Absolutely livid, Light clenched his right fist, walked up to Junko, and punched her right in the nose.

“I’ve had enough. You’ve been doing nothing but clown around this whole time. I hate your stupid shit-eating grin, your bipolar attitude, and your entire being as a whole. I’m going to beat you senseless even if it’s the last thing I do!” With his voice now full of unfathomable rage, Light snapped at Junko, whose nose was now bleeding from the impact of Yagami’s punch.

“Heheheh. You’re finally getting serious? Then I should do the same too!” Despite her injury, Enoshima responded to Kira’s threats as she reached out to a bucket of ice, from which she grabbed an ice pick. Armed once again, she charged straight at her opponent, who blocked Junko’s attack by using his broken left arm to intercept the weapon. With the ice pick stuck inside his arm and Junko still gripping it tightly, Light moved his arm to the left and promptly delivered a headbutt to the fashionista, who had to back away, letting go of the improvised stabbing tool.

Thinking quickly and efficiently, Light forced the ice pick out of his arm and proceeded to wield it himself. Despite having given many ominous glares in the past, Light’s eyes were completely tainted with bloodlust. The genocidal maniac, now corrupted by his hatred, charged towards Junko and attempted to stab her with the ice pick, but the girl grabbed a Monokuma plushie from her chair and placed it in the trajectory of the weapon in order to stop it. Before Light withdrew the pick, Enoshima pulled him by the arm and proceeded to hit him in the stomach with her knee, making him cough up some blood, which stained Junko’s chest.

“You’re so much fun to fight when you’re actually putting effort into it!” Junko praised Light before throwing him at one of the walls, cracking it slightly. Filled with indignation, Light tried to put himself together again and threw a punch at the fashionista, who casually blocked it with the palm of her right hand before twisting Light’s arm. Kira struggled against the Ultimate Despair’s strength, but since he couldn’t make her budge, he tried to kick her in the shins, which made her let go of the Death Note bearer’s arm.

With Junko’s guard being down, Light threw himself on top of the girl, pinning her to the cold floor. He smiled evilly as he took out a fancy-looking ballpoint pen from his pocket. “I’m sure you want to do the Shinigami Eye Deal with Ryuk. You’re pathetic enough to sacrifice half of your lifespan just to become a more efficient killer. But what if I simply took your eyes away? Hahahahah… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!” Yagami laughed malevolently as he reeled back his arm, only to drive the ballpoint pen he was holding right into Junko’s left eye.

“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Junko let out a scream of pure agony as she felt how Kira gouged her eyeball out. Even if she didn’t want to, tears flowed from her right eye. “This is bad! This is bad! THIS IS GREAT! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!” The Ultimate Despair cried and laughed as she pushed Yagami off of her. “GOD, THANK YOU SO MUCH, KIRA! YOU’RE THE FIRST PERSON TO MAKE ME FEEL THIS MUCH DESPAIR! ALLOW ME TO SHOW YOU MY THANKS!” Continuing her despairful breakdown, Junko got up while covering her now empty eye socket with her hand.

“You’re being delirious. This insane rambling that you’re going on will be useless-“ Though Light tried to scold her, Junko snapped her fingers, causing a spear to rise from the ground, impaling Light’s left arm. Before Light could even scream, Enoshima snapped her fingers again, causing yet another Spear of Gungnir to appear, this time stabbing right through the detective’s right arm. With Light now immobilized, Junko approached him slowly, swaying her hips.

“After you gave me this wonderful despair, I need to return the favor, but a thousand times better.” With her single eye gleaming just like that of a teenage girl in love, Junko whispered at Light while caressing his face. “My real name… is Junko Enoshima.” In what seemed like an insane move, the girl revealed her true name to the one person who could kill her by knowing it.

“Wh-why are you telling me this? You do know that I’m going to kill you as soon as I break free, right?” Light questioned Junko’s foolish actions, but before responding, the mastermind brought the Death Note to her victim and put it in front of him.

“Write my name. Oh, wait. You can’t.” Junko sarcastically mocked her enemy. “After all this effort, you’re stuck in front of me, knowing my name, but being unable to write it in your deadly notebook. I can feel your hatred just by looking at you.” The mastermind explained her ulterior motive.

“You… YOU ABSOLUTE BITCH!” With almost primal rage overcoming Yagami, he insulted Junko and began shaking his body to the best of his abilities in an attempt to break free from the spears, but to no avail.

“So pathetic… So despairful… But I’m not done breaking you. Your despair can still grow further.” Junko stepped away from Yagami and brought a small television near him. She then turned it on, showing a video that featured distorted visuals and sounds. Light’s eyes were drawn to it, almost like he was being hypnotized.

“This is a Despair Video… And it’s going to be the first step of your execution, Light Yagami.” In an uncharacteristically serious tone, Junko explained her actions to Yagami, whose mind was drifting away due to the effects of the clip, as well as the loss of blood.

Inside Light’s mind, the following words appeared “Light Yagami has been found guilty. Game Over.” He saw the image of Monokuma dragging him away to some sort of room where nothing was present. Only the infinity of darkness. The moment Light’s wounded body reached that void, Monokuma disappeared. Light’s mind was completely blank in confusion… But it all faded away as he saw a middle-aged man with rather ugly facial features. Light looked at the man carefully, but upon closer inspection, he realized who he was.

It was none other than Kuro Otoharada. A terrorist who held several people hostage at a school several years ago… And the first person whose name Light ever wrote on the Death Note. This realization made Light’s eyes widen.

While Light hallucinated due to the effects of the Despair Video, Junko, accompanied by two Monokumas, grabbed a scalpel and started to cut open Light’s chest. Despite the pseudo-anesthesia that Light was undergoing, he was still squirming, making Junko’s cuts slightly imprecise. Even with that issue, Junko continued the operation until the owner of the Death Note’s ribcage had been cut open completely, showing the human’s heart and organs in all their bloody glory.

Back inside Light’s hallucination, a pitch-black notebook fell in front of the detective. Curious, Light opened the cover and saw its blank pages. However, that soon changed when Kuro’s name appeared on it even though no one was writing anything. Yagami stared at the person that was once his victim, who was now pointing at him while the image of a clock materialized behind Kuro. Light’s confusion intensified greatly, but the worst was yet to come. In the real world, the Monokumas and Junko were connecting several wires to Light’s organs.

After forty seconds had passed, Junko pressed a switch, which affected Light’s perception. All he could hear were repeating beeping noises…

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP…

The repetitive sound prolonged itself, and when it did, Light felt a sharp pain in his stomach. It was so intense that he felt like he was going to puke every single meal he had ever consumed, and then, he realized the harsh truth… His heart had stopped. His pain was over, and he felt as though he was seeing a bright door… But then…

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

The beeping sounds returned to their former pace, and Light’s heart kept on beating. He was shocked. He didn’t understand what was going on. But a mere glance at the notebook’s pages was enough to grasp the situation. They were suddenly full of names again. And as he looked around the infinite darkness, he saw them… All the people he had ever killed with his notebook. The realization made him fall to his knees in despair as tears formed in his eyes… Only for the beeping to become a constant sound again. He felt the same pain as before… But this time, it was thousands of times stronger. Not only that, but he felt his whole body collapsing and being set on fire. This was surely fate’s retribution. Some people call it karma, some call it judgment. But what matters is that the man who had purged thousands of people to achieve his perfect world was now suffering every single death that he had caused… all at the same time.

Light’s suffering continued, but he felt relieved when he saw the image of Ryuk, the Shinigami that had accompanied him throughout his killing journey. Light reached out to him and grabbed his legs like a crying kid having a tantrum would to their father.

“Ryuk… please… stop… my… pain…” Yagami begged pathetically, and the Shinigami kneeled down to get to the same height as the detective.

“You don’t deserve it. But I will do it again. Not because you asked. But because it has become tedious to watch this show, and because the owner of the Death Note is meant to be killed by a Shinigami. So farewell, Light Yagami.” The imaginary voice of Ryuk reached Light’s agonizing ears right before Ryuk drove his hand through Yagami’s chest. The God of Death then swiftly ripped out Light’s heart, which had taken the shape of a blood-soaked apple. Without a moment of hesitation, Ryuk devoured the apple, and Kira fell down, completely inert.

In reality, Junko had simply submitted Light’s heart to extreme electrical shocks before ripping it out and crushing it with her heel, but the Despair Video made that fake reality the real execution. The Ultimate Despair walked away from the corpse of her enemy and picked up the Death Note. “From now on, the Ultimate Despair… becomes one with Kira.” The girl muttered under her breath as she left Yagami to rot.

K.O.!

---

Nocturn: “Well, damn. That… was balls.”

Brain: “Yeah, balls to the wall insane. That’s gotta be the most intense finisher I’ve ever seen.”

Nocturn: “Who would’ve thought that the person with the ability to kill anyone with just a notebook would lose so hard?”

Brain: “Well… If this had been based purely on strength and physical abilities, then I’m sure everyone would’ve been able to see it coming. Light’s physical “feats” are nothing impressive. None of them break human limits in the slightest. On the other hand, a single look at Junko’s feats can tell you that she’s easily superhuman. For example, she can survive getting crushed by a firetruck or bombarded with thousands of baseballs at incredible speeds. Considering that she’s survived a punishment that killed Leon Kuwata, who was able to wreck a Monokuma with a single pitch, it’s not too far-fetched that she has similar strength. Take into account the fact that Monokumas can survive blows from the likes of Sakura Ogami (who scales to Nekomaru Nidai’s City Block and Large Building level feats), and you have yourself a pretty strong lady. She’s also quite fast, considering that she can keep up with her sister Mukuro, who can dodge explosions point-blank, and is massively superior to the bullet-dodging Yasuhiro Hagakure.”

Nocturn: “But you just said physicality wasn’t the important part of this match, you boob. Make up your goddamn mind.”

Brain: “Don’t worry, I still stand by that. I’m only explaining those aspects because even though they’re not the main factor, they still hold importance. You’ll see why in a moment. To fully reach a solid conclusion to this match, we’ve had to take a look at a lot of scenarios, with the one that we found the likeliest being the one that was represented in the fight scene.”

Nocturn: “Oh, I think I see where this is going. I’ll take the wheel from here. For starters, it’s important to think about how Light could meet Junko. While it’s very likely that he could simply find out about her by looking at lists of criminals, Junko’s name did not become famous as a criminal until the events of the first Killing Game were over, which would involve a ruined world where communication media is basically nonexistent, so it wouldn’t be possible for Light to find out about it unless very specific situations were involved, such as an unlikely alliance between the Japanese Police and the Future Foundation.”

Brain: “Exactly. Seeing as that theory holds no water, the likeliest scenario would be that Junko could find out about potential Kira suspects through information leaks and hacking, which she’s skilled in. Junko hacked into the Future Foundation’s Neo World Program, which was one of the most sophisticated and confidential programs in the world, so something as simple as hacking into the SPK or the Japanese Police Department’s files would be as easy as taking candy from a baby. Once Junko knows about those suspects, she would most likely kidnap them and put them in a Killing Game to bait them into using Kira’s methods, which she would monitor 24/7 through the use of cameras and microphones. This task would be made easier thanks to Junko’s Monokuma identity. Plus, she could always just pose as one of the participants of the Killing Game to gain more info on her own.”

Nocturn: “And while you could argue that Light would try to avoid writing on the Death Note while being watched by cameras like in the infamous potato chip scene, that would be counterintuitive, seeing that he would not be able to survive the Class Trial if he did that, considering that it would hide his identity completely. However, if he let himself get filmed while killing with the DN, he would most likely be able to pass off as the Blackened and survive a Class Trial without issues unless he got cornered somehow and he slipped up.”

Brain: “With the issue of the Class Trial out of the way, we only need to clarify what would happen if Light and Junko met face to face after the trial. In a scenario where Junko knows about the Death Note, she would most certainly keep her mouth shut about her real name and use a fake one. She may or may not toy with Light a bit first, but if she goes serious from the beginning, she can beat the lights out of Light and steal the Death Note from him without trouble. In a scenario where she doesn’t know about it, Junko would probably make the dumb mistake of saying her name out loud, but her speed and analytical prowess combined would be enough to stop Light from writing her name on the DN. And it’s not like Ryuk would cooperate with him, and Light is too stubborn to do the Shinigami Eyes Deal, which would give him an instant win.”

Nocturn: “So to sum it all up, there ARE scenarios where Light would win, but if you combine all the facts about both series, the likelier cases would be the ones where Junko would decimate Light. At this point, it’s obvious to Note that Light would meet his Death against Junko.”

Brain: “The winner is Junko Enoshima.”

Despair of the Gods – PRELUDE

(The original prelude was posted on DeviantArt on November 7th, 2017. No major changes have been made for this version.)

Nocturn: “Up until this point, we’ve analyzed all sorts of powerful characters, such as a God-slaying Phantom Thief, a serial killer with a hand fetish, and even a gun-toting cyborg, but we’ve never done a full-on battle of wits between “normal” humans.”

Brain: “Yeah, those quotation marks are there for a reason, as these two young sociopaths are far from normal.”

Nocturn: “Light Yagami, also known as Kira, the owner of the Death Note.”

Brain: “And Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Despair, and the woman behind the biggest, most awful, most tragic event in human history.”

Nocturn: “This battle isn’t going to be a conventional one. Instead, it will involve more brain than brawn, but don’t worry, there will still be a physical confrontation.”

Brain: “We’re Brain and Nocturn, and we’re here to analyze their weapons, abilities, and feats in order to determine who would win a DEATH BATTLE… of wits!”

---

Light Yagami

(The original bio was made by Carbonated-Jem on DeviantArt)

Background

Light Yagami used to be just your typical honors high-school student, but his life took a sudden turn when he found a mysterious black notebook lying around his school with “Death Note” written on its cover. Light promptly picked it up and opened the cover, revealing a set of instructions. “The human whose name is written in this note shall die.” That was the first rule Light saw. At first, Light dismissed the notebook as some sort of prank, but his opinion changed after he was visited by the notebook’s original owner, a Shinigami, or God of Death.

The Shinigami, named Ryuk, explained to him that the Death Note is a tool used by the Gods of Death to regulate the lives of humans. Curious about the notebook’s power, Light tested it on a serial killer that was appearing on live television. Much to his surprise, forty seconds after writing the serial killer’s name, he died of a heart attack. Knowing the amazing power that he had received, Light started to kill various criminals from all across Japan. This, however, started to raise suspicion from the Japanese media.

Given how most of Light’s killings shared the same method- cardiac arrests, the public took notice and gave Light’s murderous persona a name, Kira. With the police now looking for clues on how to find Kira, a prestigious detective known as L commenced his search for Kira. Eventually, Light joined his father, an important member of the Japanese Police Force, in his search for Kira, while continuing the killings in his free time. A life of deception and violence was the only thing that awaited him…

Light Yagami

Aliases: Kira, L, God
First Appearance: Death Note: Chapter 1 (December 1, 2003)
Age: 23
Birthplace: Japan
Species: Human
Height: 1.79 m (5′ 10½”)
Weight: 54 kg (119 lbs)
Occupation: Detective, Serial Killer

Powers & Abilities

Intelligence:
-He was already the number one student in Japan before the beginning of the series.
-Carefully made sure to test out the Death Note without raising suspicion after getting it.
-He plans out way ahead in how he uses the Death Note.
–Started out by just killing off criminals with heart attacks to make the world aware of him, then decided to start manipulating the time of deaths in order to make Interpol aware of his capabilities.
-Planned for L to be found by Police rather than Light himself finding him.
-Designed a special setup in his desk cabinet to make sure his Death Note would be safely hidden.
-Thought ahead and kept a stock of criminals to test the limits of the Death Note.
-Thought of a plan to keep suspicion off of him by causing a bus hijacking.
-He was able to use the information at his disposal in order to trick an FBI member into killing the rest of the agents sent to Japan investigating the Kira case.
-He can manipulate most situations into giving him information for future use.
– He plans in advance and sets deaths up a week in advance in the off chance that he goes to the hospital or something similar like that.
-He has made specific precautions to make sure if someone’s gone into his room or not. Just from small details, he figured out that his room and house were full of cameras and microphones.
-He was able to convince the neutral Ryuk into helping him locate all the cameras in his room.
-Almost immediately thought of a way to continue his killing actions in his room despite there being 64 Cameras in there through the legendary potato chip scene.
-He is a great hacker all around.
–Hacked into the Yotsuba Company and the NPA Computers on multiple occasions.
-His intelligence has even been complimented by L himself, to the point where L even asked for Light to join the investigation of the Kira case despite being suspicious of him.
-Actively had his memory removed so he wouldn’t be caught.
-He was able to delay Yotsuba’s plans to kill more people by a month.
-Not only did he devise an extremely complex plan involving the loss of his own memory, but despite it being insanely centered around pure luck it went off without a hitch.
–Planned down to the most minute details like if Misa forgot L’s real name, or how he’d write the current owner of his old Death Note, Hikuchi, without L noticing.
-As L, kept the world on a leash of careful planning, tricking it into his hands.
-He was then dealing with 2 of L’s Successors who were just as efficient as the first one, and actually managed to take one of them down.

Acting:
-Skilled at acting completely collected during a situation.
-Usually, he uses this for most of his plans at getting information.
-He can play the cold killer Kira when delivering public messages or he can play the calm-minded genius and college student Light Yagami.
-He can even perfectly act like he’s got some form of Split Personality.
-Tricked L into thinking he had a split personality that was Kira.
-Uses this as a way to manipulate others for his plans.
-Acted as L, Watari, Kira, and Light on a near-constant basis.

Equipment

Death Note:
-The Notebook of a Shinigami.
-The Notebook has a set of rules that Ryuk himself wrote down in the book.
-Anyone who possesses the Death Note or even a small piece of it can see Ryuk.
-The human whose name is written in the book will die.
-The Note will not take effect unless the writer has the person’s face in their mind when writing their name.
-If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person’s name, it will happen.
-If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.
-After writing the cause of death, details on the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
-If the cause of death is written as a heart attack, the time of death can be manipulated.
-Unlike Shinigami, Light doesn’t extend his life by killing people.
-The cause of death can be manipulated as much as Light wants as long as it is within the realm of possibility.
–Can’t make someone go from Japan at 5:30 to France at 6:00 in order to die.
–Can’t make someone say or draw something that they don’t actually know.
–It will just default to a Heart Attack in this case.
-Anything can be used to write in the Death Note as long as it is able to make understandable letters.
-Anyone can use the Death Note as effectively as Light as long as they have even a small piece of paper from it.
-It can set the deaths of targets in advance as long as he puts the name in front of the cause and time of death.
-It won’t affect those under 780 Days Old.
-The Death Note becomes useless if a name is spelled 4 times wrong.
-The Death Note will not have an effect if an alias is written down.
-It can’t have someone die in a way that will immediately end the lives of others.
–Will default to a heart attack.
-Suicide as a cause of death is viable.
-It can change the cause of death as long as it’s within 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
-If Light loses the Death Note he has 490 days before he loses complete ownership of it.
–Will need to retrieve it in that time.
-Can lend people the Death Note to be used.
–Those people borrowing it will not be followed by a Shinigami.
-Can’t kill people the age of 124 and onward.
-Can’t kill people with only 12 minutes to live left.
-The Death Note will never run out of pages.
-It can erase his memories by relinquishing ownership of the Death Note back to a Shinigami.

Pocket Watch:
-It’s normally just a watch for telling time.
-After some improvements by Light, it now contains a scrap of the Death Note.
-It also contains a small needle that he can use to prick his finger to write someone’s name in blood.
-Light’s secret weapon.

Ryuk:
-The Shinigami bound to Light’s original Death Note.
-Ryuk has his own Death Note.
-Ryuk was able to trick the king of the Shinigami into giving him a second Death Note.
-He was pretty much the entire reason the series began, all because he was bored.
-Wrote down the rules of the Death Note for a human to read.
-Ryuk must follow Light wherever he goes.
-No one can see Ryuk unless they touch the Death Note.
-With Ryuk, Light can make the Eye Deal, allowing Light to see the names and lifespans of anyone he looks at. Ryuk himself already has these eyes himself.
-Ryuk can obviously write down names in his Death Note with the same rules as Light’s Death Note.
-The only way to kill a Shinigami is by tricking them into extending the life of a human.
-Things like stabbing or firearms can’t kill Ryuk.
-Ryuk CAN and HAS killed Light.
-He can be tempted to assist Light using apples.
–Helped Light locate all the cameras in his house
–Helped Light make sure he wasn’t being followed
–However, he will not do drastic things such as revealing an enemy’s identity, as that will result in directly extending Light’s life, and thus, Ryuk’s death.
-Has made it very clear over the series that he is not there to help Light or his enemies.
-Anything he does for Light is purely for his own benefit.
-He can phase through walls.
-He can fly.
-Overall kinda useless.

Scythe:
-A bladed weapon that has never been used in canon.
-Light has been depicted wielding it in several volume covers and Jump Ultimate Stars.
-In JUS, the Death Note is able to transform into this scythe.
-Since it isn’t canon, it won’t be taken into consideration for the verdict, and will only be there for entertainment purposes.

Feats

Strength

*Claims he could probably overpower a grown woman.
*Can do a bit of damage to L with his punches.
*Sent L flying across a small room with a single punch to the face.
*Knocked away an officer, Mogi’s, hand
*Generally has the same physicality as any slightly fit adult.

Speed

*Generally a pretty quick thinker.
*Keeps up with L in a game of Tennis.
**L was a Junior Champion over in Britain.

Durability

*Had the stamina to write names down for 4 days straight with barely any sleep.
**Consider also that he’s still a student taking classes.
*Usually takes attacks from L.
*He was still moving after being shot in the hand.
*Survived a gunshot to the side.
*Despite sustaining two bullet wounds, dragged himself away towards Ryuk.

Skill

*Surprised even Ryuk with the progress he made only five days after getting the Death Note.
*Became a center of attention for Interpol because of his actions.
*Became such a problem that Interpol required the assistance of L.
*Ended up becoming an ultimate rival to L.
*Throughout a good portion of the manga, he repeatedly came up with complex plans to avoid being caught.
*Outsmarted the NPA on a few occasions.
*He was the Junior High Champion Tennis Player in 1999 and 2000
*Beat L in a game of Tennis
*Became the object of affection for Misa Amane, a popular pop idol.
*Entered a relationship with Misa.
*He was close to finding L’s true identity.
*Found a way to completely erase his memories of his life as Kira.
*Joined L and the rest of the task force in an effort to stop Kira.
*L himself said Light would make a great successor.
*Not only did he devise an extremely complex plan involving the loss of his own memory, but despite it being insanely centered around pure luck it went off without a hitch as he planned.
*Tricked the Shinigami Rem into killing L.
*In the process, he also killed Watari and the Shinigami Rem.
*Became L.
*For 5 years acted as both Kira and L ruling over the world with his Death Note.
*Began dealing with the “True Successors” Mello and Near.
*Gained the favor of Teru Mikami, a loyal follower of Kira’s ideology.
*He was able to deal with Mello after an arduous process, although it ultimately failed.

Weaknesses

*His physical stats are essentially just that of normal humans.
*He requires the face and real name of someone before he can kill them.
*He is very unwilling to take the Eye Deal.
*MASSIVE God Complex.
*Some of Light’s better plans required the use/help of other people.
*His normal personality (Should he erase his memories again) won’t manipulate the emotions of others, especially women.
*Ryuk is capable of killing Light.
*It is a rule that those who own Death Note will be killed by the Shinigami.
**Ryuk is unwilling to give the names and faces of people to Light.
**Ryuk will not interfere and stop someone from killing Light, as that’ll kill him too.
*Without access to even a scrap of the Death Note’s paper, Light pretty much can’t do anything.
*He goes a bit insane if he’s backed into an extremely desperate situation.
**When he was close to being caught, he begged for Ryuk to kill his enemies, which is what got Ryuk to finally kill Light.
*Ryuk himself doesn’t seem to understand the full capabilities of the Death Note.

Look around you, and all you will see are people the world would be better off without.

---

Junko Enoshima

(The original bio was made by Unserious Sam on DeviantArt)

Background

Despair. Hopelessness. Hatred. Those conditions were the only things Junko Enoshima and her sister Mukuro Ikusaba had when they were children. However, despite all the pain she suffered, Junko was bored with the world due to her immense intellect and analytical prowess. That’s why she teamed up with her sister, who was known as the Ultimate Soldier, to create a new world. A world full of nothing but Despair. She started to plan a Tragedy that would require infiltrating Hope’s Peak Academy, a prestigious high school that served as a home for the world’s most talented teenagers, the Ultimate symbols of Hope. While investigating the academy, Junko found out about a genetically engineered student known as Izuru Kamukura, the Ultimate Hope. Junko turned Kamukura into her ally and created a “despair video”, containing a recording of one of Hope’s Peak’s classes taking part in a miniature killing game. Junko captured Chisa Yukizome, one of the teachers of the academy, and showed her this Despair video, brainwashing her into becoming an ally of the Ultimate Despair. With Chisa’s cooperation, she captured the pupils of Class 77-B and turned them into Ultimate Despairs by showing them the long-drawn execution of their beloved classmate, Chiaki Nanami. When word of these events came out to the public, the entire world began to sink under Despair, and the few Ultimates that remained sane were put inside Hope’s Peak as a bunker to protect the last remnants of Hope… But Junko had different plans for them, as she infiltrated the group alongside Mukuro, and organized a new Killing Game after erasing the Ultimates’ memories.

Junko Enoshima
Aliases: Ultimate Fashionista, Ultimate Despair, The Mastermind, Ryōko Otonashi
First Appearance: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (2010)
Age: Approximately 20
Birthplace: Japan
Species: Human
Height: 1.69 m (5’7″)
Weight: 45 kg (99 lbs)
Occupation: Terrorist, Model, Analyst, Student

Powers & Abilities

Intelligence:
-She is easily one of the smartest characters in Danganronpa.
-As she has spent time as The Ultimate Analyst, she is an absolute expert at analyzing people, getting a read on their mentalities and emotions.
-To a certain degree, she’s able to copy people’s talents.
-She can manipulate others to do whatever she wants, by whatever means works.
-Constantly shifts her personality, which makes it rather difficult for people to get a good read on her.
-She can seemingly plan things several years in advance.

Despair:
-As The Ultimate Despair, her main “weapon”.
-Stated to “infect anyone she meets using despair”.
-This is her main method of affecting people, trying to make them lose hope and motivation, allowing her to manipulate them as she sees fit.
-To affect someone with Despair, she can use “Despair Videos” that make the viewer want to kill themselves.
–These videos usually contain violent or sickening imagery that no regular person can stomach.

Equipment

Monokuma:
-A robotic bear that she can control.
-Often used as an alias/disguise.
-Monokuma’s physical prowess is so immense that it can trade blows with the strongest humans in the world, such as Nekomaru Nidai or Sakura Ogami.
-If a Monokuma is destroyed, it will simply respawn.
-Each Monokuma contains a bomb that could explode if necessary.
-Normal Monokumas have a set of claws that can casually tear through a human being.
-There are several variations of Monokuma. (NOTE: These variations have never been strictly controlled by Junko herself, but they were included for entertainment purposes, just like Light’s scythe.)

-Ball Monokumas try to crush their victims by rolling into them.
–They also throw trash.

-Beast Monokumas walk on all fours and act more ferociously.

-Bomber Monokumas carry a bucket full of explosives and wear body armor.
–Not very intelligent, since their explosives can be used against them.

-Guard Monokumas wear full body armor and carry duralumin shields.

-Junk Monokumas are larger in size, more durable, and more vicious.

Baseball Bat:
-A regular bat.
-Seems to be her main choice of weapon should the situation call for a direct conflict.
-Used in her fight with Juzo Sakakura.

Ice Pick:
-A regular ice pick.
-A good short-range stabbing weapon.
-Tried to kill her sister and Izuru Kamukura with it.

Knife:
-A standard combat knife.
-Used to attempt to kill Makoto Naegi.

Wallet Bomb:
-An explosive disguised as a wallet.
-Left it as a “tip” to a taxi driver.

Grenade:
-A regular grenade.
-Pull the pin, and it goes kaboom.

Spears of Gungnir:
-The weapons used in her sister’s execution.
-The victim’s body gets pierced by fifteen spears.

The 1000 Blows:
-A rapid-fire Baseball Machine Gun.
-Used during the execution of Leon Kuwata.

Motorcycle:
-A motorcycle that was used in The Cage of Death, the execution of Mondo Owada.
-Can be used as if it were a normal motorcycle.
-Can somehow move fast enough to liquefy someone.

Firetruck:
-Used during The Burning of the Versailles Witch, the execution of Celestia Ludenberg.
-Can run down people with it.
-Serves all the other functions of a firetruck.

Bulldozer:
-A Bulldozer used during Excavator Destroyer, the execution of Alter Ego.
-Can crush or bash people with the crane of it.
-Likely serves the other functions of a Bulldozer.

Spaceship:
-The rocket used during Blast Off, the execution of Jin Kirigiri.
-Fast enough to fly into space in just a couple of seconds.
-As it plunges back towards Earth right after, it is unknown whether this can fully function as a rocket or it was just designed for killing others.

Ultimate Gamer’s Punishment:
-The labyrinth used in Chiaki Nanami’s execution.
-A massive labyrinth full of deadly traps, such as:

–Floor spikes.

–Small cannonballs.

–Circular saw blades.

–Large rolling stones.

–Projectile blades.

Feats

Strength

*Smashed a shelf of anime with a baseball bat.
*Knocked Makoto Naegi out with a single strike.
*Casually tossed a metal wrench across a hallway before it crashed and got stuck into a wooden pillar.
*Beat Juzo Sakakura, the Ultimate Boxer, in a fight.
*Superior to Leon Kuwata, who badly damaged a Monokuma.

Speed

*Comparable to Yasuhiro Hagakure, a non-combative student who dodged gunfire from a helicopter.
*Able to perform attacks at superhuman speeds.
*Somewhat comparable to her sister Mukuro, who was able to dodge an explosion from Monokuma.
*When controlling Monokuma, she was able to react to Sakura Ogami’s blows.

Durability

*Survived massive abuse from the Ultimate Punishment.
*Survived getting blasted by one thousand/one million baseballs in the chest at high speed.
*Survived riding on a motorcycle in an electrified cage that was intense enough to liquefy someone.
*Survived getting burned alive.
*Tanked getting crushed by a firetruck with no injuries whatsoever.
*Tanked getting pounded by a bulldozer at high speeds without even budging an inch.
*Survived getting launched out of orbit in a rocket before said rocket turned back and crashed into Earth.
**When she did this to Jin Kirigiri, he got reduced to a mere skeleton.
*Took a casual beating from Izuru Kamukura.
*Endured getting her head stomped on by Izuru Kamukura. This, however, knocked her out.

Skill

*Essentially took over Hope’s Peak Academy.
*Managed to convince Izuru Kamukura, a being created to be talented at everything to the point of boredom, to assist her in her conquests.
*Also managed to convince her sister, Mukuro Ibusaba, A.K.A. the Ultimate Soldier, to become the Despair Sisters with her.
*Directly started The Tragedy, an event that literally put the world into an apocalypse.
*Indirectly caused 2,357 reserve course students to commit suicide.
*Managed to turn Class 77-B into Ultimate Despair.
**She did this by forcing them to watch the execution of their class representative, Chiaki Nanami.
*Indirectly caused the deaths of 10 out of 16 of the Class 78 students.
*Created a perfect copy of an Artificial Intelligence created by the Ultimate Programmer without help.
**Said AI was able to infiltrate into the Future Foundation’s simulation of Jabberwock Island and gained complete control of it.
**AI Junko managed to organize a new killing game and forced Hajime Hinata to turn back into Izuru Kamukura.
*Took in the Warriors of Hope before they committed suicide, teaching them her ways and causing Monaca Towa to want to continue her legacy.
*She was an indirect cause of the Towa City Disaster.
*Even after her death, the world became obsessed with her, to the point of people trying to impregnate her corpse.

Weaknesses

*Despite having blatant superhuman physicality, she’s far from being one of the strongest characters in the series.
*Not a direct fighter often, preferring to manipulate others.
*Obsessed with Despair to a fault.
**Will kill her most loved ones to bring herself into despair.
**Can leave holes in her plans, likely so that she has a chance to feel despair.
*Strong-willed people are able to overcome her despair.
*Would likely need preparation time to make the perfect executions for her targets.
*Monokumas are a lot deadlier than her, and without them, she doesn’t have much to work with.
*Fodder automated Monokumas aren’t as smart or durable as the one Junko controls.
*Fodder Monokumas have a weak spot in their left eyes.

If someone like me is born, that means the world is yearning for despair.

League of Villains VS Claw – DEATH BATTLE! (Parts 1-3)

Nocturn: “Okay, Season Finale time. Let’s make this one to remember!”

Kirsche: “The evil armies are prepared, and the bosses are on the edge of their seats!”

Nocturn: “Yeah, the bets have been placed, and the combatants are set. It’s time for a DEATH BAAAAAAATTLEEEEEEE!”

Madoka Orimura boosts into a DEATH BATTLE!

Background

Madoka Orimura
Aliases: M
First Appearance: Infinite Stratos: Volume 6 (2010)
Age: 16
Birthplace: Japan
Species: Artificial human
Occupation: Terrorist
Backstory: In a society where women have earned supremacy due to their exclusive ability to pilot highly powerful mechs known as the Infinite Stratos, the grim Project Mosaica was designed in order to create the perfect human. This bioengineering project gave birth to Chifuyu Orimura, who would go on to become one of the most skilled and powerful IS pilots in history. However, during the project, two more subjects were created, Ichika, the sole male capable of piloting IS armors, and Madoka, the closest thing to a clone of Chifuyu that the project could achieve. However, Madoka’s existence was kept secret from Chifuyu, since she was considered a failure in their eyes. Carrying an immense grudge toward her “siblings” for her whole life, Madoka joined the terrorist group Phantom Task with the intention of killing Ichika and Chifuyu.
Theme:

Equipment

Silent Zephyrus:
-Madoka’s first Infinite Stratos (a mechanic exoskeleton that can only be piloted by women).
–IS can increase body functions and keep the pilots in a stable state. This increases the heart rate, pulse, lung capacity, amount of sweat lost, endorphins, etc. They also accelerate the user’s regenerative abilities (Vol 1, C. 2).
–IS armors possess a self-defense system based on energy shields designed to prevent pilots from overexerting themselves in combat. Once these shields break, the pilot is left defenseless.
-Can perform Ignition Boost, a technique based on increasing the IS’ speed in short bursts.
-Stolen from England’s IS arsenal. It’s an enhanced version of Cecilia’s Blue Tears.


-Contains the laser rifle Star Breaker, which also functions as a bayonet.
-She can also summon a knife out of nowhere.

-Contains six BITs, drones that can attack from a distance or defend the user.

Kurokishi:
-Madoka’s personal IS, an improved version of Silent Zephyrus.
–Functions as a “Second Shift” that Silent Zephyrs can transform into.
-It still possesses some features like Ignition Boost and BITs, but the armaments are different.

-It now uses a broadsword called “Fenrir Blow”, which can also turn into a whip.
-It possesses an arm-mounted Gatling cannon.
-In addition to its 6 BITs, it also possesses two hip-mounted Lancer bits, which function both as spears and cannons.

Feats

Strength & Attack Potency

Attack Potency: Large City/Mountain Level (Superior to Houki’s Akatsubaki, which was able to disperse a large amount of clouds casually.)
-Easily struck down and broke Natasha Fairs’ bones. (V5, C1)
-Destroyed an inertia-nullifying barrier created by Laura. (Anime S2, E4)
-Kurokishi destroyed several IS units. (Anime S2, E12, Chapter 24 of the novel)
-Pierced through Ichika’s Byakushiki. (Anime S2, E12/C24)
-Overpowered Cecilia’s Blue Tears. (Anime S2, E12/C24)
-Using Kurokishi, she evenly matched Ichika’s Byakushiki. (V9, page 47)
-Cleaved through Ichika’s Yukihira Nigata. (V9)
-Destroyed Ichika’s shields and nearly killed him (V9)
-Stabbed Cecilia’s arms with her IS’ bayonet. (C24)

Speed & Reactions

Movement Speed of the Infinite Stratos: Supersonic+ (Direct statements state that the maximum speed of 2450 km/h, nearly Mach 2, although certain techniques can double that number.)
Reaction Speed of IS Pilots: Faster than Light (The armaments used by many machines throughout the series specifically use lasers, which pilots frequently dodge or block. The beams are often referred to as “lasers” or “light” in the official novel translations. This can be seen as early as in Chapter 2 of the first Volume, and it continues very frequently throughout the series to the point where there’s no need to even cite specific cases, BUT I WILL DO IT ANYWAY >:D)
-Blitzed Natasha Fairs, pilot of Silverio Gospel, who had previously dodged laser beams. (V5, C1; V3, C4)
-Madoka on her own easily dodges bullets. (Anime S2, E1)
-Reacted to attack from Laura Bodewig’s IS. (Anime S2, E12)
-Outmaneuvered a barrage of missiles from Kanzashi’s IS. (Anime S2, E12)
-Easily overpowered Rin (C24)
-Easily intercepted a knife with her hand. (C25)
-Her reflexes are faster than the IS’ autopilot. (V12)

Durability & Stamina

-Endured getting stabbed in the chest by Iris Calling. (V5, C1)
-Endured combined attacks from several IS units. (Anime S2, E12)
-Survived an unhinged beating from Shirokishi. (V10)

Skill, Intelligence, & Others

-In their first encounter, she defeated Ichika (Anime S2, E4)
-Pushed Ichika to his very limits and forced him to turn into Shirokishi (V9)
-Easily surpassed most other national representative candidates by herself.
-Figured out Chelsea’s weakness with ease. (V11)
-As a bioengineered human, she’s naturally superior to other humans in the series.

Scaling

Strength & Durability:
-Weaker pilots such as Rin have been able to break “a 30 cm diameter hole” through a door without weapons (V1, C4).
-Rafale Revive’s power is compared to that of 100 tanks (V2, C3).
-Ichika made a large crater by pure accident (Anime S1, E3)
-Ichika intercepted and survived several large explosions. (Anime, S2, E6&9)
-Houki’s Akatsubaki was able to disperse a large amount of clouds with a casual barrage. (Anime S1, E10)

Speed:
-Ichika was able to move an unspecified distance while an infrared laser was being fired. (V1, C4)
-Houki’s IS was able to dodge several bullets. (V2, C4)
-Ichika was able to perceive a bullet in slow motion. (V2, C4)
-An unarmored Ichika was able to barely dodge a laser. Probably just a gag feat. (V2, C4)
-Houki’s Akatsubaki was able to intercept 16 missiles with her lasers. (V3, C3)
-Shirokishi intercepted 1221 missiles before they hit their mark, possibly even more with more time. (V3, C3)
-Silverio Gospel’s armaments make use of “light bullets” (V3, C3)
–Ichika’s IS in its Second Shift was able to block several of them (V3, C4).

Weaknesses

-The energy shields provided by the IS are not infinite.
-Once her shields are gone, she’s as vulnerable as any human.

My name is Orimura Madoka. In order for me to be myself….I’ll take your life.

Rectifying previous post

I want to keep this brief. I don’t really think I can follow up on the ideas I exposed in my last post. Due to heavy emotional strain caused by college and other things, I’m really struggling with creative work, and frankly, VS is already really limited in what one can offer with it (although you know well that I try to make my content more like short novels rather than just battles).

I always knew I couldn’t do VS forever but fuuuuuuuck I’m not sure how much longer I can take it.

I’m not quitting immediately because I don’t like leaving things unfinished, but whether or not I keep writing will heavily depend on the reception to the last two parts of League of Villains VS Claw. This isn’t some kind of “haha I want attention” post, but honestly? I do want some damn attention.

On DA, LoV vs Claw’s currently-released parts have a very low amount of engagement, to the point that even some of my more filler-like fights like Mai vs Yumi did more numbers than what’s been one of my biggest projects so far. I can understand that people don’t always want to read an unfinished product, or maybe they just don’t care that much for the series, or all the fodder characters from the early parts. I can respect it if you don’t read it for those reasons, or any other.

But that doesn’t make it any less frustrating to the author. It really feels like wasting time on something that only I’ll care about, and you know, normally I wouldn’t mind that. I always told myself that I didn’t write for others, but for my own self-fulfillment, but if I’m not having fun writing, what am I even doing?

I’m gonna link the released parts of LoV VS Claw and sincerely ask you to check them out if you haven’t, maybe give a little feedback (honest stuff only, please let me know when I fuck up, and also yes I know I SOMEHOW mixed “cannibalism” with “capitalism” in Part 2 and it’s still fucking hilarious but no need to point it out lol. Eat the rich.)

Part 1

Part 2

I’ll be done with college this week, so I’ll actually have time to write. Hopefully, by the end of the summer, I’ll be done with the fight, and I’m gonna try to make it as great as I can.

Please enjoy and look forward to what the future may offer.

TL;DR: If League of Villains VS Claw doesn’t do numbers, I’m quitting. Will still update the blog with the old stuff, though.