"Hello, my beloved students! It's time for another motive!"
Oh, those dreaded, dreaded, words.
Kaede had known with a painful dread in her heart that it was coming, but she hadn't expected it to be so quick. Had Monokuma gotten bored? Did he want to stir everything up, in the hopes that another murder was going to happen? Well, too bad for him, because that absolutely, definitely, was NOT going to happen! So bring it on!
"This time's motive will probably stop all you kiddos from acting all high and mighty like you rule the world! Kubs, bring it in!"
"Yes, father!" The Monokubs had seemingly returned to being mindless soldiers, blindly following their father's will. Tch. It would have been nice if they had helped the remaining Ultimate Students overthrow Monokuma, as they could have last time if Angie hadn't stuck her neck in and advocated for fake world peace and prosperity in the name of God, but that dream was long gone now.
They were holding what Kaede could only describe as an enlarged version of the flashback light, so large that the Monokubs had to hoist it on their shoulders to move it properly. What was Monokuma's plan? Was he going to zap it at them and implant some more lost memories? Wait, the flashback lights already did that, so why the need to make them larger and present it as a motive for murder?
Maybe it implanted false memories and the motive was to kill to get the real ones back! Wait, what if the regular flashback lights were all a lie too? It sounded like something Monokuma would do, definitely. If so, they couldn't trust anything that Monokuma said, what was the truth? What was a lie? Kaede started to get a migraine, in the same place where Kokichi's annoyingness, or, in a less subtle and more accurate way of putting it, BS hit her all the time.
She craved an asprin.
"This specially modified flashback light will take a key part of your memories--your talent, your inspiration, your guardian angel--and erase them all, so all of you will be pretty much talentless. Of course, the light's effects are temporary, so you'll all get your talents back! So don't be shy and start killing!"
"Wait-" Shuichi reached out his hand, but the Monokubs sure weren't waiting. They flicked the light on, and for a second all Kaede could see was darkness.
This motive sure was a whole lot worse than the Flashback Lights. Right in front of Kaede's eyes flashed all of her best memories, which of course were all related to piano in some way or another. Her first piano competition when she was 4, which she of course won. Playing in front of Noveslic Royalty when she was 10. A Christmas Concert in Tokyo, the first time she had moved the entire audience into silence. She did that multiple times after that. It was sort of a bad habit. All of those played in front of her as she floated in oblivion, sort of like a movie reel. That wasn't the bad part, though. Far from it. It was like she could feel something leeching away at her hands, taking away all that talent she was born with, along with the years of practice with which she had come this far. Monokuma was literally pulling the talent out of her hands.
<em>It's sort of funny that he's doing this. Because, in retrospect, if Kaede had been a normal, talentless High School girl, she wouldn't have been roped into this Killing Game, right? The bar was Ultimates only. If she wasn't an Ultimate, she never would have had to suffer through this hell. So, for the first time in her life, she sort of regretted loving piano so much. It might end up in her premature painful demise.</em>
WHAM! In an instant, Kaede found herself back in the Ultimate Academy Cafeteria's floor, still dazed from her detour in space. Around her, everyone else was either sitting or sprawled on the floor, trying to comprehend what had happened.K1-BO had curled up like a pill bug, his eyes blank. Shuichi was staring at Kaede, his eyes a strangely red tint other than the usual grey that she had become so accustomed to looking into. Had he been crying?
"W-What's happening?" Angie cried out, still tied to her chair. "A-Angie can't hear Atua!"
<em>This specially modified flashback light will take a key part of your memories--your talent, your inspiration, your guardian angel--and erase them all.</em>
Oh.
Atua was Angie's guardian angel in a way, she supposed. As Angie had said before, she was Atua's vessel for creating art. Without Atua, she just couldn't draw. Thus, no talent.
"S-Sister?" Kiyo looked frantic, desperate as he put his hand on his mask. He really was lost without his sister helping him."W-Where are you? S-Sister?"
He tugged his mask down, like he was summoning his other personality. Unfortunately, that did not work. The motive light had removed his lipstick as well. His normal face was fairly handsome and suspiciously feminine at the same time, with a prominent nose and chiseled cheekbones that Kaede hadn't noticed the first time because of everything with the lipstick.
But that wasn't the point. The point was that Kiyo was clearly standing on the thin line between sanity and insanity. His sister had been the one pushing him towards the sane side, and without her, his mental state was going anywhere but up.
this motive was an absolute DISASTER. So, even though Kaede was far from fine herself, he needed to step up and take charge with blind optimism, just like Kaito had done before.
"Right," Kaede coughed into her fist before standing up. Her legs were still wobbly, but she managed it without shaking too much."I know this motive is really hard for all of us, but we've got to get it together and push through! I know we can do it!"
"You're asking us to push through...that?" Shuichi pointed at Kiibo, Angie, and Kiyo. "Tough chance,"
"Tenko thinks that Kiibo has been turned off, "Tenko punched Kiibo on the arm. "Which Tenko thinks makes sense. The only way Monokuma could have stopped him from being the Ultimate robot was either to turn him into a human or shut him down. So Monokuma went for the easier version!"
"So we either pull through at the expense of Kiibo, or we get our talents back at the expense of two people---or one, if someone decides to end him or herself," Kirumi pointed out.
Kaede waited for Kokichi to pull some snide remark at the robot's expense, but strangely, this didn't happen. Weird. She glanced at the former Ultimate Supreme Leader, her face betraying an expression of somewhat concern. "Kokichi?" she asked. "Do you have anything to say about this?"
He just stared blankly back at her.
"You don't?" Tenko scoffed. "There's no way. The degenerate always has to have the last word."
Tears welled in Kokichi's eyes, and he shook his head vigorously.
"No, this might be Monokuma's doing," Kirumi pointed out. "Kokichi, what happened to you?"
Kokichi pointed at his mouth and made a 'zip' motion.
"Is there something wrong with Kokichi mouth?" Gonta asked. "Did Monokuma remove Kokichi mouth?"
"Kokichi, open your mouth," Kaede's heart was literally threatening to jump out of her chest. <em>What did Monokuma do to him?</em>
What she saw(or lack of what she saw) was absolutely terrifying.
Monokuma had pulled out Kokichi's tongue.
