Let's All Be Friends

Reach The Stars

"Momota!" Maki cried, but there was nothing left to be done.

"Don't worry Harumaki. I'm ready. Just give it everything you got!" Kaito shouted, a declaration to Monokuma as he used his remaining strength to stand up straight and shout out. A man confidently striding to his own gallows.

In response, Monokuma laughed out and said, "Finally someone whose eager for their own punishment. Well, it's Punishment Time!"

He saw the rest of his classmates especially his sidekicks distressed despite the smiles they gave after what he said to them, except for Maki who was crying openly and looking to charge at the bear.

But there was nothing more to be done. He always expected to die... he had really been lying to himself up until the last moment. But...

"Screw you! I'm not going to die the way you want!" Kaito shouted. Just like how Kokichi showed his defiance when he died for his own plan, Kaito was going to show his defiance by dying the way he wanted to die.

Because with or without execution, he was going to die...

'Sorry, Harumaki, Shuichi... everyone,' Kaito thought.

For lying to them about his condition. For being unable to survive with the rest of them.

But it was because that he was about to die and for a greater purpose that he agreed to Kokichi's plan and do one last useful thing.

To find a path to end this killing game.

Kaito never truly believed that Kokichi's plan would actually work, but in doing so, they would have confirmed a lot of things, including Kokichi's theory. That they were being watched, watched by others who satisfied themselves in such a gruesome event. That was unforgivable.

And it was an important bit of information. It meant Monokuma couldn't do as he pleased. It meant that there was a weakness in the killing game. It meant that the end of the world was a lie if people are watching because it meant they weren't the last of humanity. It meant that there were many truths behind this lie of a killing game that could bit by bit help them get out of the killing game...

But... ahh... this was no longer his battle, huh? At least...

He did a lot in his brief time here, as Kaito was looking at all his classmates who he tried so hard to cheer and be the beacon that everyone needed. The hero that everyone needed. The hero that he himself wanted to become.

As Kaito helped improve people as much as he could, as he looked at Shuichi who looked stressed out and in tears despite the quivering smile on his face.

Shuichi... it wasn't a lie that he was jealous of his detective skills, in being the person they needed at those trials and always saving them when they most needed it, when he had become more confident, useful and someone everyone looked up to. Shuichi had become the hero that Kaito could not and when he started becoming jealous, as petty as it was but it was always there.

It took a turn for the worse, Kaito's jealousy, after the fourth trial, but after everything that happened, it was thanks to Kaito who helped Shuichi and Shuichi who helped Kaito in turn. They were more than hero and sidekick although that was how Kaito put it initially for his own fantasies... in the end, they were friends, which made Kaito glad when he could bid Shuichi farewell without any bad blood between them.

And finally, as Kaito helped defeat people's enemies as much as he could befitting a hero, as Kaito rested his eyes on Maki who couldn't smile, who was crying openly... the once closed off person now showing more emotion than ever before, who wanted to protect Kaito and did all those things...