Mastermind Seiko Kimura

Not Again...

Makoto's POV

I groaned, slowly opening my eyes to find myself on the ground. Through my blurred vision, I could still make out the walls surrounding me: I was still in the Future Foundation's conference room. I hadn't remembered my trial even taking place and I didn't clearly remember how I ended up on the piercingly cold ground of the room.

'There was gas. It emitted from a small ball thrown into the room... Someone planned an attack!'

I took a deep breath, realizing what a dangerous situation I was in - again. I attempted to sit up, reaching to hold my pounding head when I noticed something out of place; There was a rather large bracelet wrapped around my wrist. It almost looked like a watch, but the screen wasn't lighting up. Not to mention, it was wrapped around my wrist so tightly, I thought it would cut off my circulation.

'This can't be possible...'

As if I wasn't already panicking, I could feel my heart beating out of my chest. I turned to my left to see Kyoko and Aoi lifting themselves off the ground, the same bracelet around their wrists. But they weren't harmed, from what I could see. None of us were, but we were very clearly still in the Future Foundation's conference room.

But something felt dark.

I was frightened being in the room while I was on trial, but fear turned into terror solely based off of the feeling of the room. Why was I, along with both of my friends, on the ground with foreign bracelets attached to our wrists? What gas was thrown into the room to knock us out? How long had we been there? We didn't seem to have moved. But the most important, dreadful question I hadn't had an answer to: Where were the rest of the Future Foundation chairman?

I felt my heart sink to my stomach as I turned to my right, looking out at the rest of the room. I scanned my surroundings even more before my sights settled on what happened while I was asleep. In front of me, the table that once stood was broken. On top of it lay Munakata's bloody, dead body. Most of the chandelier was buried in his chest, the rest of it scattered all over the room. Glass shards, big and small, were everywhere. Along with Munakata's blood...

Tears sprung to my eyes as I screamed. I didn't know what else I could have done. I was petrified. I had no idea what could have happened to cause something so gruesome and unexpected. Junko Enoshima was dead. All of the remnants were in the Neo World Program - as far as I was concerned. The world was going to heal! Absolutely nothing could explain why this was happening all over again.

'Had we forgotten something? Had we forgotten someone?! That couldn't be! Junko Enoshima was dead. All of the Remnants were in the Neo World Program. Nothing could explain an attack this high scale and gruesome. This is the work of none other than Junko Enoshima. But she's dead!'

I was so focused on Munakata's bleeding, dead body in front of me that I had forgotten to breathe. I wasn't even sure if anyone else was injured or dead in the room at the moment. I wanted to vomit. The longer I stared, the familiar scent of blood crept into my nostrils, filling my entire body with it and making me feel sicker and sicker.

Just as I could feel bile rise up my throat, I felt a hand place itself on my shoulder gently. I took the deepest breath I had been able to and I felt my ears pop. Once I finally blinked again, my eyes stung. I didn't want to look away from his body. It felt wrong to look away, but I couldn't keep looking. Especially not now that I could see and hear what was going on around me.

The person behind me, with their hand on my shoulder was Kyoko. I turned my head to look at them, still trying to catch my breath. They seemed calm - as per usual - as they spoke with a quiet voice to me saying, "That blood is fresh. This death was recent, Makoto." They looked around the room carefully, almost as if they had scanners in their eyes to scan each individual person to see who could have done this.