""Alright, enough of this," Peach sighed, growing tired of their banter. "The mastermind is obviously Sarah!"

"W-what?"

"Oh, and Saiko, you can stop pretending you're fucking dead," Peach continued, moving on with what they'd learned from their investigation. "We all know you're still alive. I won't question how, though."

"What the hell you talking about, Peach?" Waluigi asked, confused. "I don't understand-"

"Oh, come on, it's so obvious! We've been hearing it this whole time!"

"What?"

"Wait..." Rubi muttered. "Peach, Mario, you're right! It's all Sarah! This whole thing? It's some sort of music video for her career or whatever! She was talking to us about it, how she wouldn't show us until it's done!"

"Those lyrics too," Kaira added quietly. "If all makes sense now... we kept hearing random ass singing that was relating to what was happening, and now it makes so much more sense...wait. Did you say Saiko's still alive?"

"If we're right, then yeah," Mario told her. "You're not gonna like it, though. Saiko and Sarah have been behind this whole thing."

Instead of freaking out as everyone had expected her to, Sarah calmly raised her left hand and shook it, greeting everyone.

"What have we been behind?" Sarah asked smoothly. "Why don't you tell us what you think?"

Peach glared at her.

"You tell her," Mario nudged her. "You're the one who figured it out."

"Don't be silly, we did this together," Peach disagreed, but continued talking anyway. "Fine. We were here for longer than when we woke up. We got brainwashed in that time period, causing us to forget that and wake up. During that time period, a revolution was happening for us all to support a corrupt king- a creature named Bowser. We found a megaphone in a bloodstained room, which I'm pretty sure you used to brainwash everyone with your damn singing, am I right? I mean, I heard you sing once, and I fell into a trance."

"Mm-hmm," Sarah nodded. "Go on. Or do you want me to continue?"

"No, I'll say it," Mario took over from there. "I'm pretty sure I had all of us... we were friends before our memories got wiped... holed up in here. After all, I was a hero. I could save some of us. But then you overtook us."

"Correct!" Sarah beamed, tilting her head slightly. "Let me fill in the blanks, however. Everyone who didn't agree with us, Saiko killed with that scythe you found. That classroom? They were hosting a rebellion meeting that we crashed. Those who weren't brainwashed were killed. You all had a lot more people holed up in this place, but they weren't brainwashed, so Saiko killed them! Saiko went with the brainwash, too. She wanted to feel despair."

"How did you fake her death?" Kaira asked, her lip quivering as she found out the person she'd loved was... well, also a murderer.

"Fake blood!" Saiko sprang out from behind Monokuma, her blue eyes wide with excitement. Her hair was dyed completely blue, her blonde roots gone. "Come on, guys! You all should be glad I'm back!"

"Saiko," Kaira's throat went dry with shock, but her eyes finally narrowed in anger and her voice broke. "Y-you- how could you-!?"

"Does that mean we murdered Boo for no reason?" Rubi went pale. "Oh no..."

"Shit," Waluigi felt horrible, as he was the one who incriminated Boo. "Fuck..."

"Satsuki, Saiko swears she cared about you," Saiko cooed, smirking. "Until Sarah filled me in about what I'd missed, Saiko really did love you. Saiko still could love you...just give yourself to despair!"

"That's right," Sarah continued. "Here's our deal. If every single one of you agree to pick hope over despair, we'll let you all go and you can escape! But if even a single one of you pick despair, I'll give you all the pity of death!"

"That's so stupid!" Peach shot back. "None of us are going to pick despair!"

"Oh? Are you sure?" Saiko mocked, her eyes wide in mock terror. "I'm pretty sure our murderer Satsuki has nothing left back in the real world. Mario killed his brother, he's no hero anymore. Waluigi has no one left, he'd probably just waste away and waste all of his spendings on gambling. Toadette has no manager to make her movies, everyone's forgotten about her in the two years she's been gone. Birdo's just a miserable bitch, there's nothing waiting for her wherever she goes. Rubi, Bowser banned badminton, so all of your hopes and dreams are crushed. Oh, and Peach, your status as an heiress is gone, by the way, ever since Bowser took over. You really think all of you will pick hope?"

Everyone stared at each other in the silence. They weren't willing to admit it just yet, but death sounded awfully appetizing compared to facing everything that Saiko had listed above.

"Did you just say two years?" Toadette gaped, breaking the silence. "We've been away for that long?"

"That was the least important thing Saiko said, but yes."

"Everyone smile, you're being recorded!" Sarah smiled manically. "New music video, ya'll!"

"For fucks sake, you can just kill me," Kaira shut her eyes, unsheathing her katana. "Or rather, I'll do it myself. There's nothing waiting for me."

"No!" Peach's voice rang out before she could stop herself. "Look, we cant give up now! We've come so far-"

"What do I have waiting for me back in that hell?" Kaira growled. "I had one hope, and she fucking organized her own death. Do you know how broken I was?"

"Look, Kaira, I know things haven't been great," Peach reasoned. "But all things considered, don't you want to see these two put to justice? You care about Saiko, help us put her down before you change how you feel about her!"

It was as if hope suddenly bloomed, and Kaira sighed heavily, aiming her katana at Saiko and Sarah.

"...I don't know what the hell I was thinking," Kaira snarled. "There's no way I'm letting these two get away with what they've done to us!"

"Peach, I'm not too sure," Rubi looked away. "There's nothing but teasing waiting for me. I'm not even good at anything without badminton."

"So don't you want to get out so we can restore badminton?" Peach reminded her. "If we sit here, there's more people suffering every day. Even if you have to suffer, don't you want to help better everyone else?"

"...you're right," Rubi said with a fire in her eyes. "I don't know why I was having such selfish thoughts!"

"Wario's dead," Waluigi scowled. "You can't bring him back-"

"No, but shouldn't you live on in his memory?" Peach scolded him slightly. "Carry on his business? He wouldn't want it to end here for you!"

"...wah. I hate it when you're right," Waluigi sighed. "True."

"Peach, there's actual jackshit in the world for me," Birdo lamented. "And I don't give a shit about you all."

Peach grinned slightly.

"No, but I read the files. Whoever Yoshi is, they're waiting for you."

"...Damn, I wish I could just let you die!" Birdo scowled. "Yoshi, I'm coming!"

"There's literally nothing waiting for me," Toadette sighed heavily. "Everyone's forgotten about me by now..."

"So reclaim your name!" Peach fired back. "Live so people will remember you!"

"...you're right," Toadette didn't need any more coercing. "I guess."

Peach turned to the hero, and he looked away.

"Don't give up hope."

"Peach, I was so mean to my brother. I probably deserve death," Mario hung his head in shame.

"No!" Peach refuted. "You have to live on in his memory. If you don't do that, you're letting him down. Come on, Mario, hope is the only way!"

"...I don't know what I was thinking. Of course it's hope!"

"Do you want to give me an inspirational speech, too?" Sarah mocked, brushing her hair behind her ear. "Oh, Sarah, everything's going to be okay."

"The world is in such bad condition!" Saiko reminded them. "Pollution, and people run wild to try and kill. Hell, kidnapping is easy as hell too!"

"We're going to fix that," Mario ignored her claims. "We're going to save the world."

Hope was blooming strongly in the room, all of the seven survivors were standing together, not willing to give in to despair. Despair couldn't get anywhere near them.

"We're not giving in!"

"Time to see how true that is," Sarah smirked. "Why don't we put this to a vote?"

"You all picked hope!?" Sarah panicked. "What the- this must be a mistake. There's no way-"

"No mistakes!" Kaira shot back. "Fucking let us go."

"It was bound to happen," Saiko shrugged, okay with the fact that she was about to die. "Long Live the King!"

"Fine," Sarah narrowed her eyes. "Long live Bowser! You little twerps are wrong. Despair always runs stronger!"

ᏚᎪᎡᎪᎻ ᎪNᎠ ᏚᎪᏆKᎾ ᎻᎪᏙᎬ ᏴᎬᎬN FᎾᏌNᎠ ᏩᏌᏆᏞᎢY. ᎢᏆᎷᎬ FᎾᎡ ᎢᎻᎬ ᏢᏌNᏆᏚᎻᎷᎬNᎢ!

Sarah sang happily on a platform, singing the words would make her execution easier.

"Sing, me, to sleep, now," Sarah sang loudly, as the loud grinding machine began coming closer to her. "Sing, me to sleep now, oh won't you sing, me, to sleep now? Sing, me, to sleep..."

A scream was heard as she was shredded to pieces, but the lasting effects of her brainwash brought everyone into a trance, before shaking out of it. Her voice still haunted in their heads...

Saiko twirled her scythe excitedly in a room alone, the smile never leaving her face. Her feet were chained to the floor, as a metal crusher began sneaking up on her. Almost tauntingly, she winked as it was about to come down.

"Bye bye!"

Crush.

Blood was splattered everywhere.

"...lets go figure out the world," Peach sighed, looking away. "We can do this."

"Yes," Mario agreed. "We can."

"Let's bring hope to the world again!"

*sniffles and wipes a tear away* I'm so proud of all of you, when ya'll thought it was Bowser, my hopes were going down the drain. That's why everything kinda became obvious towards the end, lmao. Ya'll were like "not enough clues" but y'all still got it. What the hell, believe in yourselves more!

This is the end, I love all of you, thanks for liking this book, don't forget to vote and comment ya'll, there's an alternate ending if you hated this one. If you didn't like this one, okay, deal with it, sorry. I tried.

Thanks for reading!