smile // kaemaki [not going to continue]

1

hey kiddos welcome to this fic i never finished and possibly never will.

enjoy??

{Kaede's POV}

"Well, I guess that's that."

I still couldn't believe it. I felt as though my breath had been knocked out of me. I couldn't- no, I didn't want to believe it. Even though we went through this trial, even though I spent so long investigating, even though he had confessed to it... I refused to believe that he could've done something like this. I know he wanted to save us all by ending the killing game, by killing the mastermind, but this--

I couldn't focus. I was just repeating an endless loop in my head, repeating it like a mantra: It's not real. It can't be real. I was barely hearing the muffled sound of the outside world, of my friends, of Shuichi. It all felt like a dream, like I was detached, dissociated from reality.

"Kaede...?"

A voice snaps me out of my train of thought. I look up and see his face. It's tearful, like mine. He's scared. Scared to die.

"Kaede... I'm so sorry, I thought that I could do it, that we could do it... stop the killing game and escape... I'm so sorry..." Shuichi managed to say, despite his fear and pain. He was trying to stay happy, to stay optimistic until the bitter end. I look into his eyes. Surely this can't be the end? Even though we've only known each other for a few days after waking up here, I already felt connected to him. "Shuichi..." I manage to utter only his name.

"Kaede," he takes a breath, and restarts his sentence. "Kaede, I want you to have this." Shuichi reached up and took off his hat, the one he had been defensive of whenever he was questioned about it. It was clear it had some sort of emotional value to him. "It's very special to me," he continued, "and I really want you to have it." He was about to hand his treasured hat to me, but hesitated. After a brief moment, he placed it on my head instead.

Neither of us really knew what to say at this point. I glanced around, scanning the faces of everyone around me. Pain, disbelief, fear... despair.

"Kaede," He says hesitantly, repeating my name once again, "I need to tell you something."

My heart tears a little more. "I know what you want to say, and yes. I will carry on your wish. I will get everyone out of here, no matter what it takes." I pull him closely into a hug, tears streaming down my face.

"Thank you," He replies. "That means so much to me... but what I really wanted to tell you that..." He hesitates and takes a breath. "That I-"

A nauseatingly familiar high-pitched voice cuts him off.

"Enough with this sappiness! This is no better than a cheesy soap!" The 'headmaster', Monokuma, exclaimed with his arms raised in anger. "If this is all, then we should get right into the punishment!" He quickly adopted another pose, sticking out three claws to emphasize his point. My heart dropped at the word punishment. Execution. Death. Why? Why did any of this have to happen? Why were we being forced to play this stupid killing game? I thought about how much I wanted to end this game, but cut myself off in my thoughts. This urge, this need to end the killing game... is exactly what took -what is taking- another person from us...

Deep in my thoughts, everything on the outside world is once again reduced to a haze. Just murky background noise.

My thoughts were then violently interrupted by a zooming blur being swiftly dragged out of the trial room. Bat an eye and you'd miss it.

Before I even have the time to process what just happened, my attention focuses to a large screen on the wall. A video? No, live footage.

It was Shuichi.

He was going to get executed.

And there was nothing I could do but watch.

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