{ Mastermind Chihiro. } [ON HIATUS]

Coming For Her Neck.

Chihiro watched as everyone began to assemble in the hallway. Picking the rooms to fill with gas had been tricky, but he believed the cafeteria had been a good idea to disorientate them a little. Though he felt awful for doing it whilst Aoi and Toko were still inside.

He'd been watching Celeste very intently, as she stood there in the corridor next to Kyoko. The abandonment of the accent had surprised him a little, but now he was just waiting for her to discard her drills, and maybe even her name! Ooh, positive character development always cheered him up! He supposed you could call it getting stronger.

Getting stronger.. he grinned proudly. He felt strong. Knew he was strong. And you know what? Chihiro was strong.

Because he hadn't realised, in his short period of time before.. the incident, physical strength was not the strength he had sought after. What it was was his mentality, mindset, or as he'd rather put it, to stop being such a wuss! In other words, manning up! At least, that's how Mondo would say it.

Chihiro's mind slowly slid to the memory of Mondo Owada, his hero and his killer (sort of). At the beginning of his new life, new job, he had cried for Mondo, cried for the boy who was never the stronger one, but in fact the weaker. Now he'd come to realise that Owada was never the right role model he should have pursued. If only he'd chosen Sakura..

Wait.. if only? He threw these words around in his mind for a moment. Did he really and truly regret his decision? If he'd chosen Sakura, he wouldn't have been bonked with a dumbbell. He wouldn't be here, as the Mastermind. Would he even be alive? Who's to say that Celeste wouldn't have gone after him instead? Maybe Mondo would have killed him anyway?

Chihiro slammed the door on these questions, shutting them out of his mind. Now was not the time for pondering what could have been, but instead what is to come in his new life.

He grabbed the Mastermind booklet off of his desk, flipping the pages till he found the correct one. The punishment guide. At the very bottom, it listed the multiple options and procedures he could take upon discovery, victory, and most unnerving of all, sheer boredom.

The suggestion that stood out concerned him the most. His eyes focused on it for about five seconds, before he put the booklet back on the desk with a loud noise. He needed to destress, this was not helping in the slightest.

Chihiro walked over to the now fixed throne chair, sitting on its red cushions and relaxing. Everyone needed breaks, even Masterminds. And it let him forget about the killing game, about the friends he was condemning, if he could even call them that.

Wait, what? What did he mean by that? Well.. could he call them friends? He was sort of betraying them with the whole Mastermind thing. No, no, he was doing the right thing. Was he?

Chihiro sat there doubting his doubts for another five minutes, until Monokuma popped up next to him. The boy was used to this by now, and broke out of his thoughts to listen to what the bear had to say.

"Oh, hey Monokuma. What did you need?" He asked, as the bear stood there sweating.

The bear fumbled a bit. "Uh- well, you see.. someone sort of inhaled a load of the gas and if they inhale like even a little bit more they're sort of going to definitely die??" The bear rambled this out quickly, voice rising in pitch.

Chihiro was dumbstruck. "Well, uh, I mean.. who is it?"

Monokuma waddled over to the screens at the back of the room, Chihiro getting up off the chair and following him. He pointed at the screen at.. Toko. Toko Fukawa, the Ultimate Writing Prodigy.

Fujisaki felt a pang of sympathy for the girl, who always loved to play the victim, loved to obsess over Byakuya Togami, to write books and poetry, who had so much potential in this world. He was close to even feeling remorse. But then he thought of something else.

Genocider Syo would be dead as well. All those young men, their families, friends, loved ones.. Syo had caused so much pain in this world. Was it really all that bad? He knew it wasn't Toko's fault, but he couldn't help this feeling that justice was finally on its way to meet her. That karma was, after all this time, coming for her neck.

And then he said the last thing anyone would ever expect.

"Add it to the motive."

He walked back to his chair, slumping in it as Monokuma stood there speechless. The bear had expected Fujisaki to change during the course of time, but not this quick! He recovered soon, though, and disappeared as he grinned maliciously at his new task.

The screens flicked to the announcement to head to the gym, then disappeared as it finished. Chihiro sighed deeply. Gosh, this was all so strange. So difficult. When the killing game started, he never expected anything like this. Who would?

If Sayaka had survived, would she be in the same situation as him? Or Leon, maybe? The way he'd gotten here was a fluke, a crazy chance that had managed to take form. And you know what? Chihiro was happy. Happy it had been him, and not them.

He was strong. And it was as they said, you know?

Survival of the fittest.