Chapter LX: Full Circle

XxX

Naegi

Enoshima's hands flickered downward to her chair as bars materialized around the laptop. Dramatic effect bars, I assumed. There was no way Alter Ego had mobility capabilities. The laptop blurred behind a wall as she turned to face us. Her expression seemed almost subdued, her voice calmer than it had been for much of the trial. If I had to classify her emotions, she seemed at peace.

"You know, I've kind of always been waiting for this moment. The final execution, when all was revealed, when you all finally saw the truth...but it just isn't the same as I expected. I don't feel...fulfilled." Her arms opened companionably. "You all have impressed me so much throughout your time here, my students. So, when all's said and done, I think I'll be following your activities with great interest. That's a...headmasterly thing to do, isn't it?"

Komaru laughed.

"That's an awfully forward thinking opinion for someone who's going to have enough laser sights on their back to light up a rock concert. Some might almost call it...hopeful."

Enoshima shrugged.

"Since I've given you all such despair, I figured I should try some hope. I even took some time out of my day to...fight for it. One might call me a warrior of hope, if they were feeling charitable-but I digress." Her fingers flickered and the wall to her left slid up, revealing Alter Ego attached to a small metal box. "You've made your choice, students. It's time for you to see the fruits of your decision. I give you...Overclocking!"

The table pulsed with a soft, red glow as the laptop switched on. Text boxes flickered by on the screen as the table glowed brighter and brighter, causing the air above it to shimmer with heat. Eventually, Alter Ego's face appeared on screen as the table settled onto a bright orange glow. A moment later, his face vanished, replaced by large block letters. He clearly wanted us reading what he had to say.

"Enoshima has linked the temperature of the table to the amount of processor load on my CPU, it seems. Clever. I don't have much useful time, then. Here goes. Every one of you was chosen to continue the fight. Remember that. You all needed death to escape this place, but that death was not your own. That death never needs to be your own. One final instruction: reality is an unfriendly place. Create your own, if you wish to enforce it."

With that, his screen flickered. I could almost imagine tinny screams coming from the speakers as the case buckled and sparked. Moments later, it crumpled entirely and began to melt. The table beneath it flickered to black the moment the computer died, letting the twisted mass solidify into something unrecognizable. I closed my eyes slightly, turning away. He was gone, it seemed.

Enoshima watched the broken metal for a moment longer before turning away herself.

"He died like he lived...useless! So, my wonderful students, are you all ready for the next stage? It's time for you to graduate!"

The bars around our wrists and ankles snapped open, leaving us free to move. Komaru and Mukuro jumped up, moving subtly towards Enoshima. The other students and I stood up slowly.

"S-so...this is it? We just...leave?" Fukawa asked haltingly. "No more...trials, no more challenges, no more death?"

Enoshima nodded. She quickly pressed a sequence of buttons on her chair.

"The front door is open to you, and the elevator is active. Begone, students!"

Mukuro abruptly pulled out a pistol, shooting Enoshima in the head. Enoshima's eyes widened before she vanished, revealing a Monokuma chassis in her place.

"Come on, sis! Did you really need to ruin that? I could have kept these idiots going for at least ten more minutes!"

Another bullet to the chest silenced the Monokuma. Mukuro turned back to us.

"Come on! She only just switched for the chassis-I saw the shimmer. If we move quickly, we might still be able to get some trace of her!"

We immediately jumped into a sprint, moving for the elevator. Komaru began snapping commands into her communicator.

"Nobody leaves this building, Bravo. Primary target is attempting exfiltration. Primary target is Gemini-1. Repeat, Gemini-1 is attempting exfiltration."

Moments later, we heard static crackling, followed by a voice.

"-KKKSSSHHHT-Overwhelmed...warriors...ambushed from behind...lucky bastards managed to drop a building on us...fighting our way out... -KKKKSSSHHHHT- expect... no...reinforcement..."

Komaru cursed and sped up. We reached the elevator quickly, and Mukuro whipped the doors shut. As the elevator rumbled upwards, Komaru moved to the front and cleared her throat.

"So, it seems there's been a slight change of plans. We might not have Future Foundation reinforcements at the exit. I certainly hope everybody's stayed in shape, because we'll need to fight our way to the exfiltration point. It's only a few tenths of a mile, and we'll have air support, but I hope everybody's ready to run."

Mukuro quickly made a few adjustments to the communicator on her belt.

"We'll have ground support from the Monokumae I've turned. They should be ready to meet us at the door in 5 minutes. We'll move then. In the meantime, get yourselves ready for the extraction."

We nodded as the elevator doors opened. The students made a beeline for their rooms, though whether to prepare or to mourn I knew not.

XxX

Kirigiri

I stood still in the center of the room Naegi and I had shared for the past two and a half weeks, staring down at the note in my hand. The note I had found in my cheek upon waking, the note that had haunted me every moment I found myself without a problem to solve... Three short sentences: one four words, one six words, one five words. That was all it had taken. I didn't know what was on Naegi's note, but mine held a mystery. A mystery that, despite everything else, was more unsolved than ever. With every trial, with every death and execution, the pieces grew more complex. I looked down at the paper, now crumpled enough that only the last sentence was visible.

"Death is your only escape."

With a convulsive jerk, I crumpled the paper entirely before ripping it into pieces. As I let the debris flutter to the floor, Naegi walked in behind me.

"What was that?" He asked curiously.

I turned back to him, shrugging. "An old memory." My expression remained carefully neutral.

His head tilted for a moment before he knelt, picking up the scraps. Once he had collected all of them, he turned back to me.

"I don't know what it is you're hiding, Kyouko. What I do know is that it probably shouldn't be hidden. Is...is this something about me? About the school?"

I froze. What could I even say to that? It was some sort of twisted motivation? It was about the headmaster's death? After a moment, I made my decision. One which, hopefully, wouldn't come back to haunt me.

"When I woke up, I found something in my mouth. A note, explaining everything and nothing at the same time. It's nothing important now. Or, at least, I can't see why it would be important now."

His eyes widened and his fist clenched around the paper scraps before releasing, leaving them to drift slowly towards the floor. As they landed, I relaxed.

"Thank you for being honest, Kyouko. I'll trust you." He stepped closer to me, looking into my eyes for a moment before glancing back around the room, mentally cataloguing what he needed to retrieve.

"I...I should finish packing up." His voice, normally calm and cold, was...halting. Slow. His eyes were downcast.

I nodded and briefly placed my hand on his shoulder.

"Makoto. We made it. We're alive. Whatever happens...remember that."

He looked back up at me, eyes now misty.

"Not everyone made it, Kyouko. That's what I'll remember. People died because of my failures. Maybe, if I remember that, I won't fail as much. I won't fail you all as much."

I gently placed my other hand on his other shoulder.

"Nobody could have saved everyone. You did what you could, Makoto. Don't blame yourself for what Enoshima did."

The mistiness in his eyes increased as his breath hitched.

"T-tell that to the ones who died because of my mistakes. To Hagakure and Ishimaru. To Oogami. To..." His voice trailed off.

"To Fujisaki?" I asked. "Makoto, Chihiro chose to go out there. Chihiro knew he could have asked us for help, and he didn't. He didn't want to risk our lives. His death isn't your fault. It's Enoshima's, or Alter Ego's. We both know that."

He closed his eyes and slowly nodded, before pulling me into a quick embrace. My muscles tensed before relaxing.

"Thank you, Kyouko, for everything."

His arms released me as quickly as they had wrapped around me. He turned around and returned to packing. I continued to stand in the center of the room, almost rooted to the spot. About two minutes later, he threw a backpack over his shoulder and turned to me.

"Let's go, Kyouko. Wouldn't want to be late for our graduation, right?"

I nodded as I moved toward the door.

"Yes, let's. This room has too many memories."

XxX

Naegi

Kyouko and I approached the door to find Komaru and the other three students waiting for us. Celeste turned to face us as we turned the final corner into the entrance hall.

"Cutting it rather close, weren't you." She remarked with a slight smile on her face.

I shrugged.

"I didn't want to miss anything and have to go back for it. I feel like the Future Foundation might be a bit annoyed with me if I asked."

My sister laughed.

"You've got that right. Don't expect to be revisiting this building again until it's either a whole in the ground or thoroughly reclaimed by the Foundation. I sincerely hope you've all packed everything."

The other students and I nodded. Ikusaba noted our nods before pressing a few buttons on her communicator.

"The turned chasses should be here in a minute or so. What's the ETA on our air support?"

Komaru turned to her, joviality vanishing from her face.

"We have air cover from 30 seconds from now until 8 minutes from now. If we move quickly, that'll be enough to get us into the nearest forward operating base. If we don't make it there in time, that's all the air cover we're getting anyway. The warriors of hope somehow managed to fight Bravo to a standstill, and the Foundation can't spare any more resources from that conflict. Everyone ready for a nice jog?"

I glanced around at the other students. Kyouko's face had resumed its normal, neutral expression. Celeste's was eager, yet controlled...she looked like she was anticipating success. Togami and Fukawa stood more to one side with almost identical looks of calm determination, drawing strength from one another. Unbidden, my mind began to fill in other students in the empty spaces. First, those I had known well. Asahina, stretching and preparing to leap out into the unknown. Oogami, dropping into a martial stance, ready to face any enemy. Ishimaru, his posture almost militarily precise and his eyes blazing. Hagakure, grinning, friendly towards everyone he found. After them, my mind moved on to those I had known less. Kuwata, brash and confident. Maizono, eager and energetic, willing to give her all to save those she cared about. Oowada, a man of violence controlled to protect his people. Yamada, the expert in worlds created by man. And, finally...Chihiro, his hands twisting around each other, body language shy but eyes determined and strong, ready to face any challenge thrown at him as long as he could help his friends...I cleared my head. This was for him. This was for all of them. All the ones who had died to get us here, and us, the ones who tried to save them.

I turned towards my sister.

"I'm ready if you are. Shall we?"

She nodded towards Mukuro, who pressed two buttons on a remote by her side. The massive iron door before us slowly rumbled open. Together, the other students and I stepped forward into the outside world.

End of Arc 6

Dead/ex-students: Oowada, Yamada, Maizono, Kuwata, Ikusaba, Hagakure, Ishimaru, Oogami, Asahina, Fujisaki.

A/N: This is the end of LiDD. I can't believe how much fun it's been to write, how damn amazing this community is, or how much I've gone through both through this fic and while writing it. It's not an exaggeration to say I've poured my sweat, tears, and the blood of the students of Kibougamine into this story.

20 months ago, I thought this would be a small project, the labor of a few weeks if that. I also thought it would get a bit of attention at most. And now, here we are, 20 months later. This story is 215 pages, over 100k words, and the 5th most followed Danganronpa story on FFN. I honestly...don't know how to thank all of you, for following, for reviewing, for keeping me on my toes with your surprisingly prescient guesses, and for reading.

Now for a postmortem analysis of the writing: the first arc, relatively speaking, ain't great. I wrote it in a week, rushed scenes, and forced characters to act in OOC ways rather than letting the story progress naturally. It really took me until midway through the second to figure out how to balance natural progression and foreshadowing, and until the fourth arc to master that balance to the degree I currently have. If I were to do it again, I'd have set my update schedule to a chapter a week, finishing this story in about the same time while staying much closer to consistent quality.

Next steps: My educational obligations have mostly wound down, so I should hopefully be able to write more in the upcoming months. No promises what I'll be focusing on, though, it'll probably be SBatPD and PoSG rather than a sequel to this. When a sequel to this does come, I'll post a chapter announcing it along with a sample of the first chapter of that sequel.

So, any questions for me, my readers? Any overall analysis? Any last words?

Please review!