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“Now then, it looks like everyone’s here, so I might as well finish this!”
Akane Owari had never really stopped to think about how she might die some day. She was the kind of girl who lived in the moment, laughing in the face of danger and charging headfirst into anything that looked like a challenge without worrying about what might happen if she failed.
“Didn’t I say I wouldn’t allow any rule violations against me?”
If she had spared her own death any thought before now, however, she probably would have guessed she’d die from something simple like old age or overexertion. The idea that she might get blown to smithereens by a robotic teddy bear wielding a laser bazooka wouldn’t have even crossed her mind.
“This… is what happens when you break the rules! Disappear!”
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Coach Nekomaru rushing toward her, but she knew it was too late to save her. Her battle against the impossibly agile bear had left her too exhausted to move, and he was too far away to reach her in time. The world seemed to move in slow motion as Monokuma’s arm cannon glowed with a brilliant blue light…
...and then abruptly fizzled out, making a sound like someone violently passing gas.
“...What the fuck?”
“Puhuhuhuhu! Just kidding!” Monokuma giggled, his arm transforming back to its normal state. “Well, kind of. I actually was going to kill you, but I just thought of something way more fun I could do to punish you!”
“I… huh?! The hell are you talking abou- AAAA!”
Before any of the students assembled on the beach could do anything, Monokuma blurred forward faster than the eye could see, grabbing a fistful of Akane’s long, wild brown hair in his paw and giving it a painful tug.
“H-hey! Get the hell off me, you stupid plushie!” Akane demanded, trying in vain to wrestle her hair free of Monokuma’s unbreakable grip. “Whatever you’re planning, I’m not gonnaAAAAAAHH! OW OW OW OW OW OW!”
“Oops! Were you trying to say something?” Monokuma asked as he started making his way toward the road, dragging Akane by her hair behind him. “Still, if you really don’t want to play along, I can always go back to my first plan…”
“Ghhh… Fine, I’ll - AH! - I’ll play your stupid game!” Akane yelled, helpless to even try and stand up as Monokuma dragged her away. In the back of her mind, she couldn’t help noticing that her injuries didn’t seem to be getting any worse despite her rough treatment - a phenomenon she quickly added to the ever-growing list of reasons Monokuma was total bullshit.
“That’s more like it! Now, let’s give it everything we’ve got! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT’S PUNISHMENT TIME!”
As the sadistic bear swiftly made his way toward the hotel with an angry Akane in tow, the other students could only watch in confusion as they tried to piece together what the hell had just happened.
“Uh, guys?” Hajime spoke up, breaking the silence. “Not that I’m not glad Akane didn’t get blasted, but am I the only one who feels like something isn’t right here?”
“I’ll say something isn’t right,” Nagito grumbled, looking uncharacteristically disappointed by the turn things had taken. “How can everyone overcome the despair of Akane’s death if she isn’t going to die after all?”
As usual, Nagito’s input was paid all the attention it deserved - namely, none whatsoever, aside from some dirty looks from his classmates.
“H-hey, hold on a minute!” Kazuichi blurted. “That last part… isn’t that what he always says right before he executes someone? I thought he said he wasn’t gonna kill her!”
“M-maybe he’s going to do something r-really bad to her instead..” Mikan stammered. “Something she’d h-hate even w-worse than d-dying…”
“If that’s the case, we’ve gotta get down there fast and stop it!” Nekomaru yelled, recovering quickly from his brush with death. “Hang on, Akane, we’re on our way!”
As the group hurried down the path after the distant silhouettes of Akane and Monokuma (some more eagerly than others), they could only wonder what terrible, horrifying, despair-inducing fate Monokuma had in store for their friend...
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“NMMMMMMM! PLMMFF, NMMM! H’LL DM MMNYTHMNN!”
“Oh? What happened to all that fighting spirit you had earlier?” Monokuma cackled, Akane’s muffled pleas only spurring him on. “It’s barely been two hours, and you’re already begging for mercy! Is it the heat that’s getting to you? The smell of cooked flesh, maybe?”
“PLMMPFF, MMHK HT STMMP!” Akane begged, thrashing desperately in her bonds. She’d known that what kind of torture Monokuma had planned for her would be unbearable, but she’d been sure she could handle it if she faced it head-on. How could she have known he would do something so depraved, so heartlessly cruel?
“Hate to break it to you, but we’re just getting warmed up! Just another minute, and I’ll be ready to start your real punishment!”
As Akane screamed and struggled with all her might, only two of her classmates remained within the hotel restaurant to watch. Most of them had excused themselves a few minutes into the show once it became clear exactly what Akane’s punishment would be.
“Chiaki?” Hajime whispered, his eyes fixed on the bound form of the Ultimate Gymnast.
“...Huh?”
“Am I the only one who thinks this is… well, kind of embarrassing?”
“...It’s better this way,” the quiet girl said after a moment’s thought. “Without a doubt, that weapon of Monokuma’s would have killed her if he’d fired it. Akane may be suffering now, but she’ll recover from this in time.”
“I guess when you put it that way…” Hajime mumbled.
“But to answer your question: no, you’re not the only one. This is very, very embarrassing.”
DING!
“About time!” Monokuma cheered, throwing open the lid of the grill and letting the delectable scent of its contents fill the air. “I always hated how long it takes to cook this stuff, but you know what they say: you can’t rush perfection!”
Even muffled, Akane’s desperate whine was clearly audible throughout the room as Monokuma transferred his freshly-cooked meal to the plate in front of him. Eight slices of smoked salmon were stacked one after another onto the platter, so perfectly cured, glazed, and grilled that Teruteru would have wept tears of joy.
However, the smoked salmon was only the centerpiece of Monokuma’s feast. There was a veritable banquet of gourmet-quality meat dishes spread out along the dining table in front of him - turkey, roast beef, steak, venison, pork, and even an assortment of sushi. To someone with an appetite for meat as big as Akane’s, this was the kind of legendary meal that only came along once in a lifetime.
And at the other end of the table sat Akane, tied to a sturdy, high-backed chair mere inches from a smorgasbord of the most delicious food she’d ever laid eyes on. Her wrists were crossed behind the back of the chair, wrapped in heavy steel chains, and secured with a durable iron padlock. Still more chains were wrapped around her torso above and below her breasts, keeping her confined to the chair, as well as around her legs in four different places. To keep her from kicking around too much, her feet had been tucked back behind the crossbar between the chair’s front legs, and her wrist and ankle restraints had been connected by an especially thick length of chain in a sort of hogtie.
“PLMMFF, JHFT LMM M MMT H LMMTLL!” Akane cried, sounding almost on the verge of tears as Monokuma took his time tying a napkin around his neck. Unfortunately, even if he’d been in any mood to listen to her pleas, her thick gag rendered her words completely unintelligible. A foam rubber ball from the convenience store had been stuffed into her mouth, and two heavy scarves had been tied over her lips to keep it in place - one black, and one white.
“Huh? What was that? Didn’t your mom ever tell you not to talk with your mouth full?” Monokuma taunted, sticking his fork into one of the pieces of salmon and starting to cut it. “If you really want some food, go ahead and dig in! No one’s stopping you - all you’ve gotta do is break those chains! Better hurry, though - I’m a pretty fast eater, and cooking all this food made me work up a heck of an appetite!”
A malicious gleam shone in the robotic bear’s eye as he held his first forkful of fish aloft. “Or if you want, you could think of this as a training exercise! You never know when being able to ignore your hunger could come in handy, after all…”
And with that, Monokuma dug into his feast with all the delicacy and table manners of… well, a very hungry Akane. The first two slices of salmon vanished in a matter of seconds, followed in short order by one of the turkey legs and a full plate of sushi.
“NNNNMMMMMMMM! YMM SNN HF H BMMSH! LHHFF SMMM FRR MH!” Akane sobbed, straining with all her might against the chains that bound her. Without a doubt, this was the biggest, most awful, most tragic event in her entire life! She could only imagine what kind of sick, devious, perverted mind it must have taken to come up with something as vile as this…
Elsewhere on Jabberwock Island, the digitized consciousness of a certain pink-haired girl performed the AI equivalent of a fist pump.
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