Trial 4: The Trial of Alex Grant and Molly Kipton

Devin knelt by Alicia, his arm awkwardly hovering for a moment before rubbing her back gently. He had removed his hat when the first gout of fire hit Felix, and he held it to his chest respectfully as he grimly watched the end.

"Our families are safe." She shivered and wiped away her tears. "They're safe."

"Aaaaaand I'm bored again. Let's go on with the next one shall weeeeeeeeeee?" The platform raised Monokuma back into the ceiling. A split second after that, it fell into a throne in the room where Liam stood, high above the mannequins. "Let's give it everything we've got!"

[Landslide Vote]

Monokuma clapped its paws together, and all of the mannequins turned and looked towards Liam, with glowing red eyes. Liam swallowed hard and stared back at the figures, trying to not let any fear show. And then, one by one, all of the eyes began to turn green. It started slowly at first, a small beeping sounded out in staccato, and grew until all of the mannequins had green eyes. Behind Julie, Alicia, and Devin, three panels lit up green, with all of the saying the word, "Yes!" on them.

"It looks like everyone here has voted yes for Liam Nixon!" a sound of fake applause echoed throughout the room. "But just to be sure, let's count the votes!" A loud sound echoed throughout the room, and the wall directly behind Liam began to part, revealing a huge pile of papers, stacked about three stories high. Liam turned and looked at the papers before turning back to the people in front of him. At once, everyone's eyes turned back to red, and the panels behind the students wording changed to, "Guilty."

The papers began to fall of the stack, making the entire thing unstable, before it all came crashing down around Liam. The force of the papers instantly broke his arms and his neck. The podium and all of the mannequins were quickly swallowed by the tidal wave, and the papers piled up until it reached the bears feet. On top of the papers, was the word Guilty again.

The bear jumped off of his throne and began laughing. "Oh man. Guess you can't win em all, eh?" The bear began jumping on the pile of papers.

James shrugged, "Guess you can't. Hnh?"

Julie frowned and dug her nails into her arm, "...Let's get out of here."

Alicia grimaced and looked away. "There's no winning this game." She said sadly.

Devin grit his teeth at the grisly sound of breaking bone, then uttered a quiet sigh as the papers settled.

"Giving up won't do anything either," he said simply.

"Not now it won't." Julie stopped on the stairway, "One of us just has to kill the other two. Won't be long now." She glared at the two before turning away.

"We're not killers Julie, stop with that. If anything this last trial proves it, the murder was set up and out of their control. It could have easily been you." She was sick of Julie acting like she was better than everyone else here.

"Would you rather stay stuck in here until you die? We've looked for a way out and we can't find anything." She turned to Alicia. Her face was emotionless. She wasn't angry or scared. She just looked tired. "You made a promise, didn't you? Do you plan to break it?"

"I'm not killing anyone to keep it either, I made that promise too, you know." As she said it she cringed and was already predicting Julie's next words. She put her money on something about 'willful optimism'.

"It's one or the other. Hope you're ready to make that choice. One will get you to see your family." Julie shrugged, "Not that I care either way. I'm not going to be killing anyone over it."

"Never said I was." She replied curtly.

"Noooo ya don't! " The bear sang out. "James'll be staying down here with me. You guys don't have to worry about talking to him again. I'll straighten him out."

Alicia looked Monokuma in the eye. "Shouldn't he be treated as a student?"

"Nope! He's more ova.... Drop-out! Yeah!"

"He came back to finish his degree."

"That's not how this school works, y'know. Plus are you trying to get him killed?"

"Putting me in this game wouldn't help you at all. I only showed up for the trial." James remarked.

"So you're just going to die now?" She asked. "Don't you have people out there waiting for you?"

"Huh? Who said anything about dyin'? "

James shot the bear a look, "I will simply be...escorted out of the building."

Alicia wasn't convinced, but she conceded. "Than you for everything you tried to do for us. I'm sorry we weren't better."

James looked down at the floor and adjusted his glasses. "I...I'm not done yet. I promise I will get you all out of here. Just please...Don't give up. Now go on." He nodded towards the stairs.

Julie stared at James for a bit before clicking her tongue, "Whatever." She began up the stair in a huff, followed by Alicia and Devin. The three entered the elevator together, and began the ascent, back to the first floor of the school.

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