Turning The Tide |Naezono|

Prologue

Sayaka sat at Makoto's desk, waiting in antipation for her soon to be victim. She had already made a plan and as long as things went according to that plan, she could easily point the finger at him and rid herself of suspicion. The thought of hurting the one person she cared about by taking advantage of his trust made her a bit nauseous and shakey though.

Still, she had already decided that she had to escape to save her group, at any cost. She had known them for so much longer and they meant the world to her.

But then doubt started to fester, molding into a horrifying looming shadow that clung to her. They were really dead, weren't they? They all had been lying face down in the motive video, knocked out and possibly dead.

She didn't like to think about it. It sickened her. And yet, what other explanation could there possibly be? Monokuma had already proven himself to enjoy murder. It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine that he had already claimed their lives.

Sayaka had been trapped there for at least 3 or 4 days now. She would soon become irrelevant if things kept up at this rate. So she needed to take this opportunity of trust and make the kill, so she could escape that fate. However, what she would find in the outside world was still an uncertainty. Law enforcement had failed to save them within a few days, after all, so it was impossible to know the conditions of the outside world. Questions began to swarm her mind.

What if she was irrelevant already?

The rest of the members of her idol group were dead. It'd be hard to stay relevant when the rest of the group was deceased, even for the leader of the idol group. Was it even possible for her to be relevant anymore?

What would she do if she had already been forgotten? What if this all meant nothing anyways? What if beyond the walls of this ironic and horrific school, it really didn't matter.

She couldn't let the dream slip away, but what if it already had? What then? Sayaka bit down hard on her nails.

Did she really want to sacrifice Makoto for something so uncertain? Could she really accept seeing him die brutally only to risk finding that all this work and suffering proved to be entirely worthless? Monokuma did say there would a drastic punishment after all.

The doorbell rang. A nervous energy in the room smothered her. It was time. She no longer had time to hesistate.

Sayaka opened the door and allowed Leon to enter, kitchen knife in hand, hiding the blade behind her back. Despite feeling terrible about betraying Makoto, she felt she desperately had to graduate and there was no known way out after all, other than to kill somebody. Though she couldn't help but let her mind linger to Makoto's promise. He had promised that he would find a way out. She gripped the knife harder and tried to will herself to move and make the kill, but she found herself frozen.

Assuming she got away with Leon's murder, what next? What after watching everyone else die? What if there was nothing left for her in the outside world? Hina had previously brought up that the authorities should've been rescuing them by now and if that wasn't the case, then what could possibly be going on? She slowly backed up towards the bed and shakily sat down, her hands still behind her back gripping the knife.

"Uh... Sayaka? What's up? You don't look so good," Leon asked.

"...Do you think I'm irrelevant now? In the outside world?" She asked him.

"W-Wha? N-No I don't think that-" Leon replied, confused. He still didn't understand why Sayaka invited him here.

"Then how come the authorities haven't saved us yet? I mean... what if something bad is going on out there and we don't know it. How would you deal with that?" Sayaka responded, slowly nudging the handle of the knife until it fell off the other side of the bed so Leon wouldn't see it.

"I mean yeah- it's really strange but didn't you see those plates on the windows? Not even the two strongest people could take those down. This situation really sucks but I don't get why you're asking all of these questions all of a sudden."

"I thought about trying to graduate."

"Wh-Wha?! Are you serious?!" Leon slowly started backing towards the door.

"My friends in the outside world are in danger and I'm really worried about them."

"Why are you tellin' me this?"

"Actually, this is Makoto's room."

"Huh?!"

"I was going to try to kill you but I can't do it. I'm really desperate but I don't know if it's even worth it. I-I don't want to figure out what's going on by myself."

"Of course it's not worth it! What the hell is up with you?!"

"I'm sorry... I'm just... scared. You may not understand because you said you hate baseball but... I love being an idol and it's been my dream. That dream crashing terrifies me."

"This is seriously freaky. I'm out of here," Leon reached for the door handle.

"Wait!" Sayaka sprung from the bed. "I'm sorry. If you don't trust me, I understand but... can we please keep this between us. I want us all to work together to escape, just like Makoto said."

"Kay' sure whatever. I'm out of here," Leon said before fleeing the room.

Sayaka locked the door behind him and slumped into Makoto's bed, clinging to the sheets tightly. She couldn't bring herself to be the reason that Makoto died. If her friends in the outside world were really dead then the only person she had was Makoto. She laid there, feeling guilt for nearly framing Makoto for murder, before succumbing to sleep.