Entertaining a Small Thought

5th Arc Part 3: Let's Drop Dead

Ding dong, bing bong

"..."

"Monokuma...isn't here?" Shuichi muttered as he watched the monitor in his room before it flicked off.

He had investigated his lab but hadn't found anything that would have been of use against Monokuma. So instead, he spent the rest of the day looking around the academy for any useful items and supplies before helping Rantaro and Kaede sort out the weapons in the gym. After that, he simply spent time with everyone before heading to his dorm to rest up before the fight.

Now it was nighttime, and the nighttime announcement had played, as usual. But for some reason, Monokuma wasn't on the screen. It was just what Shuichi figured was some kind of office for Monokuma, the one he was usual in when making body discovery announcements, but the chair the bear had previously sat in was empty. What could that mean for them?

"Is the plan compromised?" Shuichi asked out loud before sighing.

He had to get to the gym. Everyone is probably already there or is heading there now. He couldn't keep them waiting.

Even if this was doomed to fail, he still wanted to fight alongside everyone.

It didn't take long for him to arrive at the gym, where everyone was already waiting. Seeing everyone already there made him wonder why he tended to always be late to gatherings like this.

"Good. We're all here now." Rantaro nodded. "I hope you're all ready. Who knows what might happen now."

"So these are all the weapons we've gathered?" Keebo asked as he turned to the pile of weapons next to them.

"That's right. This is everything we thought would be most effective against Monokuma." Kaede explained.

"We most certainly don't have a shortage of tools at our disposal," Kirumi added.

"You all can have those weapons. I don't need anything like that when I've got Neo Aikido on my side!" Tenko proudly proclaimed.

"P-Perhaps, but it still might be better to have a weapon on you just in case," Shuichi suggested.

"Well, let's get started," Rantaro said while picking up one of the weapons for himself. "This is our final chance. In fact, we might have a better shot at this than we initially thought."

"What makes you say that?" Kirumi asked.

"You saw the nighttime announcement, right? Monokuma wasn't there." Rantaro explained. "Either he already knows what we're planning, which is likely if we're honest, or perhaps he's distracted with something else. If it's the latter then our chances of beating him or luring out the real mastermind have gone up."

"So then you really think we can win this fight?" Kaede asked nervously as she picked up a weapon of her own.

"That's right. We haven't been this determined to beat Monokuma before. I think we finally stand more than a chance." Rantaro nodded. "All we need to do now is–"

"You're all going to get yourselves killed." Another voice pierced through the air, cutting Rantaro off. Everyone turned to the source, only to be surprised to see Rin coming out from behind the gym's stage. "Seriously, I can't believe you all are so stupid." He muttered as he leaped off the stage and walked towards them.

"Rin. What are you doing here? I thought you told Shuichi you weren't going to join us." Keebo stated.

"I didn't say anything of the sort. I just told Saihara how incredibly reckless this plan was. That's all." Rin corrected before shaking his head. "But still, you didn't assume wrong. I'm not here to help fight your battles. Not anymore."