Danganronpa: A Meaning of Meaning.

Chapter 1: Ending: Eye for an Eye

"....."

"Anything left to say?" Asumi said to the pastry chef. "Though he added a bit of details we never discussed, I think we've all reached a conclusion to this, haven't we?" She said, looking at the rest of us who all looked away in silence.

"....I guess." Senichi spoke up. "I just...it doesn't feel fair."

"He wasn't the one with an intent to kill!" Iona exclaimed as she looked towards Monokumo. "She was the one who tried to kill him, and he killed her in self-defense!" She said to the Spider who simply shrugged in response.

"Murder is murder. As I've said before, this isn't a supreme court." Monokumo said to her. "You all ready to vote now?"

"How can you like, ask us to vote for someone to die just for defending like, themselves?" Urara cried out. "I mean like, we weren't close but still like, that's really shitty!"

"I feel like none of you have realized I literally couldn't care enough." Monokumo replied sarcastically mimicking the valley girl voice of Urara.

"I..." Hirotaka started to speak up. "I'm....really sorry everyone."

"A bit too late for that, I won't lie." Nijiko said to him.

"It's true. I...killed Usagi out of self defense. It went along exactly as Rei explained. I walked towards my lab from Senichi's notification, and that was when she ambushed me."

"Hiro..." Hikaru muttered, looking sad.

"That was...when she attacked me. I opened the door, and felt the strike on my head. I...I didn't know what else to do, I tried fighting back without hurting her, but....I...can you blame me, I was-"

"Yes. I can indeed blame you." Asumi suddenly interjected.

"Sumimi, you can't say that!" Hikaru said to the jeweler which she rolled her eyes at.

"Of course I can. You say you killed her out of self defense. That you had no killing intent whatsoever, didn't you?"

"H-huh!? I...no you don't understand." He tried to argue back.

"No no. I completely understand. Whatever you saw in that motive video triggered you to still kill her when you could so easily have left her alive. Trust me, I can understand that." She said cruelly.

What does she mean by that???

"What I don't understand is you framing yourself as the victim of the situation. Say that you did no wrong when you definitely did." She continued to explain. "Tell me, when you placed her in a chokehold, why didn't you stop? You have a stronger body than her, and you could have run away to the Host's lab downstairs to call for help."

"Ashmi, I really don't think this is the right time-" Iona tried to say but was ignored like usual by Asumi.

"Tell me. Why didn't you stop. Tell me how you could look her in the eyes as you asphyxiated her without feeling the urge to stop what you were doing." She started to say to the Pastry chef who looked absolutely mortified.

"Are you saying...I....I could've stopped?" Hirotaka said in response.

"Look, Asumi. I know he did murder one of our friends, but when you're in a panicked state like he was, it's understandable he wasn't thinking strai-" Tsurugi tried to explain but was immediately cut off.

"Yes. You could've stopped. And did you?" She said Ignoring everything Tsurugi tried to say as she focused all her attention towards a Hirotaka who was now pulling his hair, contemplating what she just said.

"W-why didn't I...why didn't I stop...?" He muttered to himself as we all looked at him with mixed reactions.

"Hiro...please, it's not your fault-" Hikaru tried to comfort the pastry chef who looked to be at the brink of a breakdown.