Phobia

In Her Head or Heart?

Himiko cried out as the wheel landed on someone she saw as a close friend.

"No wait take me instead! I'll go!" The red head screamed. Kirumi reached out to the girl next to her and pulled her into a comforting hug.

"Puhuhu that's not how this works~!"

"It will be okay Himiko. If you go now she will just have to go later." Kirumi stroked the mage's hair as she started to calm down, staring at the pigtailed girl who was making her way towards her.

Angie reached forward and replaced Kirumi, pulling the girl into another soothing hug as she started crying again.

"It's okay Himiko. Angie will be okay!" Patting the girl's red hair she hesitantly pulled away from the hug and made her way to the stage as she knew there was no way out of the situation. Better get it done sooner rather than later right?

Himiko clutched onto Tenko's arm as she started crying into her shirt at the thought of losing one of her best friend. Angie was so nice to her, Himiko couldn't handle seeing her in pain. Tenko knew this, so instead of being overprotective over her like she usually did she just kept hugging the mage and rubbing circles onto her back.

"Nothing's happened yet, why is she crying?" K1-B0 whispered to Kaede, confused as to what Himiko was crying about.

"Oh Kiibo, she's worried about Angie. Imagine if someone you really cared about was in Angie's situation. You'd be terrified too right?"

K1-B0 thought to himself for a second, his gears whirring as he processed the girl's words. "I think I get it." 

Kaede smiled at the robot. "Just take your time, you'll understand it eventually!"

"Thank you Kaede." The robot smiled back at the kindness the pianist was showing to him.

"You two lovebirds shut it and watch the show!" Monokuma growled at the two, causing everyone to turn and stare at them before realising they should probably be facing the girl climbing onto the stage.

Angie clenched her eyes shut as she embraced her turn to be tied to the stage, but the chains never came. Instead, the crackling of speakers was the only sound throughout the gym. The room was silent again except for Himiko's occasional hiccups as the students painfully waited for what was coming, all anticipating different things. 

The silence became deafening as no one dared to make a sound in fear of being gagged in metal... or worse. 

"Atua isn't real."

An unknown voice sounded from around the room, the speakers making the disembodied voice run around all of the students.

"Angie says you're wrong." The artist was calm, unfazed as everyone always tried to tell her how Atua was fake, how she was crazy, but she knew she was right. She had to be right.

"You aren't a lone vessel, you're a fake."

"Atua is not your god."

"Like a god would care about you."

"You're just insane."

"There is no other side."

"You'll die alone in the end."

The voices started speeding up, more and more joined the original voice until the noise became incoherent. The victim standing on the stand continued to smile as the weak insults were thrown at her and she continued to dodge them. All the voices had gone silent so Angie took the moment to look around at the students before her, trying not to show how horrible she felt at the sight.

Himiko was still clinging to Tenko, staring up at the artist with teary, terrified eyes. Shuichi was shaking on the floor while Kaede tried to soothe his panic, and surprisingly for most, Gonta was comforting Kokichi who was trying to say he was fine but the tear on his cheek gave him away. Angie guesses the voices triggered something in them? Angie thought to herself. She looked away from them as she waited for Monokuma to end the punishment, not wanting to bring the boys any unwanted attention.

That's when the one sentence that Angie had always been scared to hear rang throughout her head.

"Atua would never care about you."

That one sentence caused Angie to feel like her entire world crashed around her. Maybe because of the previous insults already breaking her down, or maybe it was from past experiences that the flashback light forced her to have fresh in her mind, but Angie soon found herself crying on the floor mumbling to herself.

"Atua is real. Atua loves Angie. Atua will protect Angie." Over and over again that's all the students heard before Monokuma laughed.

"Alrighty~ This is getting boring so let's make it interesting~!" 

Himiko ran from Tenko, who soon followed behind her, to embrace Angie and hold her close. The small magician instantly started trying to comfort the artist, whispering to her about how much Atua loves her, accompanied by Tenko who started doing the same thing for her female friend.

The two girls led the artist off the stage and back to where the rest of their friends and fellow students were, where most people were waiting to comfort the crying but smiling Angie. K1-B0 was quite confused, and just stared at Angie trying to understand what had just happened since he didn't understand religion too well. It was something Iidabashi had apparently forgotten to program into the robot's conscious for a reason unknown to the boy. 

"Kiibo!" The robot blinked as he came to realise everyone was weirdly staring at him.

"Yes?"

"You were making loud whirring sounds, are you okay?"

"Ah yes, just... confused."

"What is Kiibo confused about?" Angie piped up, already seeming like her usual self.

"Well, why were you so upset about those voices saying this Atua person is fake?" The question made some people visibly uncomfortable, but most just understood the boy's curiosity.

"Nishishi~ Of course the robot doesn't get it!"

"Shut it Kokichi." Maki spoke, surprising a few people at the fact she did in fact know how to speak.

"Angie doesn't like people insulting Atua. Atua comforted Angie when no one else did, He makes Angie feel safe and happy!" Angie beamed at the robot. K1-B0's face turned pink as his armour expanded to cover the lower half of his face in response to the bright, holy smile in front of him.

A few people noticed this and chuckled, the robot had unknowingly made everyone happy again and full of hope at his cute, childlike curiosity towards Angie. This angered Monokuma and another student as all they wanted was despair, whether there was a reason for it or not.

"Let's keep going!" Monokuma shrieked.