Body horror? Parasitic horror? Putrefaction and animals related to it? Trypophobia marked in bold with underlining? Obsessive attitudes? Nah, there's nothing to be afraid of.

 The Academy dining room was full. Everyone present was doing something. Some were chatting friendly, others were looking at each other, a certain writer was in a corner looking at a certain guy with glasses. She almost made them forget that they were in a game of killing each other. It's an almost, if it wasn't for the fact that a redhead was mentioned.

 "Kuwata hasn't shown up yet." The idol noted, looking at an empty seat. "Do you think... that something happened to him?"

"It's possible." The brown-haired boy got up and shook his hand. "We should go see if she's okay. Maybe she's just taking time to get up."

They went to the corridor of the rooms, moving slowly. Seeing the door of her room, they noticed that it was ajar. If that wasn't enough, the limp body of her was clearly visible, thrown against a wall.

"Oh God no— No no no..." The idol watched the scene, covering her mouth, while she turned pale. Credible.

Makoto seeing the scene let out a scream. The discovery was announced over the loudspeakers, drawing the rest there. It wasn't long before a pair of gloved hands searched the body.

"It is indeed a gunshot wound." The detective dropped Leon Kuwata's head. "However, there is no trace of the weapon with which the homicide occurred."

"The assassin must have left it hidden," Sayaka suggested, grabbing Naegi's hand and still breathing heavily. "We must find it!"

They set about this, investigating in small groups or alone.

One of the people who did the latter was Kyoko Kirigiri. She thought of some reasons why such an act would even be considered. The videos as the reason were most likely, apart from a few things a little "out of place" with some of her classmates (main reason why she was alone). These thoughts were driven away by seeing a trail of blood in a corridor.

Without making any kind of noise, she approached the liquid, and chose to follow it, always attentive to her surroundings. She had reached a closet, where the fluid seemed to come from. she tried to open the door, but...

"Did you find something?" The idol asked rhetorically, with a strangely cheerful tone, smiling. This caught the purple-haired girl's attention, knowing that she was normally kind and compassionate, she wasn't supposed to act like that.

"Do you have any idea where she came from?" She played along, knowing the risk of doing that.

"It was me." She took out a knife, starting to move it in front of her. "I also killed Leon."

"Was it because of the videos?" "Maybe there's a logical explanation for this." She thought there would be even though she kept swinging the knife.

"No, not really. But don't worry, I understand why you thought it was possible. That is, it is to be expected..." she was going from left to right, without changing her objective.

"Then why did you do it?" She remained stoic, but it was obvious she was thinking of running away.

"I need Naegi to be with me."

"...what?" Her voice was filled with bewilderment. "This is not what should happen."

Her feelings about the luckster were...strange. She seemed to be attracted to him, but she didn't understand how she started to feel that way. It was as if that had appeared by force.

"That's right. Don't worry, I don't think you're going to take it from me, but I need your help."

"And do you think what I'm going to accept?" She tensed when she noticed that she was hunched over herself. Maizono was shorter than her.

"I'm sorry, but I have how to make you help. I don't need your will, just your presence. But hey, I'll make sure she hurts as little as possible. As far as possible, of course..."

"What are you going to do?" She backed away, raising an arm so she could cover herself if she attacked.

"Don't worry, you'll understand soon. Or not, if you're lucky..." she lowered her voice as she said this, but she raised it again. "I suppose you have other questions, where did I leave the rifle? There never was one in the first place!"

"How come you killed him then?" She changed the question, to distract her, a task that seemed difficult because of how she kept her gaze on hers. She wasn't blinking, barely breathing. Although, that made something inside her scream, she thought that she would just have to run to where the others were, and then review what options she had.

"If she doesn't stop chasing me, they'll discover her. If nothing happened until then, I'll push the evidence to discover her."

"How did I kill him? Ha! Why do you ask me to tell you if I can show you? Of course, whether you survive this or not is up to me, but you can't win out of this anyway."

She tossed the knife aside, and let out a scream. Multiple voices were heard coming out of her mouth, only one being human, mixed with the flesh of her separating torso. This, together with a blow and a crunch, were the last sounds that the purple-haired girl felt as herself.

"Oh God..." Makoto found the stains on the floor. There was no trace of either of the two girls.- Where did she come from?

"This is worse than she expected"- The heir kept his eyes glued to the floor, secretly impressed. "It can't be from Kuwata. He is too far away from this."

"Someone else must have been murdered." The bettor assumed, looking at the door. "We should open it."

They followed that suggestion, seeing that there was nothing out of the ordinary in the room. Just a few tools, some weapons, a shotgun holder...

"There it is!" The luckster noticed, seeing that there were stains on top of the weapon.

"Either she must have returned it after the homicide or it's a false lead." The gambler suggested.

"It's true." The blonde answered. "We'll have to find out about this."

"Guys!" Maizono was heard running, in a panic. "S-something happened, I heard a scream!" Lie, she didn't have time or ability to scream. "What if someone died?!"

"Sayaka! Calm down, there may be another reason." The luckster placed his hands on her shoulders, seeking to comfort her. "We can't be alarmed now."

"What do you mean, did you hear a scream?" The heir noticed that detail.

"I heard someone yelling further away, I think she was a girl..." She trembled and hugged herself. It was working.

"She must be the one who died..."

There was a moment of silence, until they decided to take the weapon and look for the second body.

Meanwhile, a certain programmer was researching around, holding a computer with him. He had it with him because in his room he found his broken chair, feeling that someone would break it. He couldn't let that happen, not while he was developing his little project, an AI that wasn't ready yet. For now it only repeated things that were written, and on certain occasions had a default answer. He had to perfect it. He would have perfected it.

He had been accompanied by Mondo and Ishimaru, who occasionally argued with each other. Both of their attention went to something that sounded like ripping flesh.

"Fujisaki, stay here. Let us know if something happens." Taka told him, and upon receiving his assent, he walked away with Owada.

A few moments later, footsteps were heard. The programmer turned to the side, noticing a rotten smell. He noticed that next to him was the idol, and— why was she smiling?

"Hello, Chihiro." Her voice sounded out of place. "Could you help me?"

"I'm not..."

"Calm down, I just need you to give me a hand..." He managed to see a mass of bones and meat in her mouth, causing him to jump. "... Well, you'll give me more, but you understand what I'm talking about."

He started to run, not knowing what was waiting for him, only thinking how horrible it would be if she caught up with him. She would have gone after him if it wasn't for a certain bicolor bear.

"Hey! Did you know that you can't kill more than two people? Leave a little for the rest!"

"How are you so sure that I killed Kyoko?" Her voice didn't change. "It doesn't matter, the next assassins will be after you soon, Enoshima."

The mastermind moved a little away from the microphone, curiously looking at the cameras. Ever since she killed Leon, Sayaka drew her attention above the rest. Her speech, the fact that the cameras failed at the attack of her two victims, that all you could hear was flesh being torn apart, it was exciting in her way.

Now what was she supposed to do about them? One of them left with a hole in his head and the other... With her she could claim not to be sure what happened. She only got to watch as he dragged her down a hallway.

But she never received an answer to that question, she only received knocks on her door forcing it open from her, and two figures that soon seized her and led her away.

Elsewhere, Chihiro was looking for his two friends, unaware of what happened to them. He slammed to a stop as he caught sight of a pair of blue eyes at the end of the hall. He fled in the opposite direction, not getting far as a mixture of flesh and bones clung to her leg.

The rest of the class gathered in the same room where the first body was found, noticing that it was no longer there. While they were talking about what could have happened, some people who were missing arrived, among them...

"Where were you then?" The heir questioned the blue-haired girl, in a mildly aggressive way.

 "Togami, leave her!" The luckter tried to defend her.

 "I'm saying that it is suspicious that she walks around and disappears."

 "Yes, it's strange that she does it, but she couldn't hurt anyone."

 "Naegi has a point," the gambler spoke. "Unless she had a good reason. Tell me, what did Monokuma give you?"

 "He gave me a recording of my groupmates... My friends..."

 "Doesn't that sound like reason enough?"

"I can assure you that it wasn't her." That bear had reappeared, but it sounded almost dead. "As you're all very slow, I'll let you go to the library, to find clues."

 They were all suspicious, but did not complain about the idea. After all, it was the best they had.

 They followed the directions, and went inside, looking for evidence. But they found someone, badly hurt.

 The programmer was in a corner, his mouth covered with what appeared to be meat, his organs somewhat exposed, and his head with a wound. Seeing that people had come to his hands, with quite broken fingers, they went to his keyboard.

"thr yu ar"  The keys were missing to capitalize, points, commas, tildes, the letters e, j, o...

"Fujisaki?!" The luckster approached, upset by his state. The people around him were just as alarmed and on the verge of bombarding him with questions.

"sh attackd us." The computer speakers were broken. He couldn't seem to find replacements for those missing letters and dots.

"She?" Several asked.

"Yes, me." This statement was followed by the skin on her blue-haired face falling off and her torso ripping, revealing limbs made of flesh, bone, and veins.

Seeing her, the common reaction was to try to leave the room. Some wanted to fight, but that desire was lost upon seeing Sakura being knocked down by— wasn't Leon dead!?—without much effort to the ground. They didn't know where they took her, and they didn't want to find out. They would still.

Panic caused everyone to go everywhere, separated. The group the lucky guy was with consisted of Togami, Celestia, Ishimaru, and Mondo. They locked themselves in the same room where the videos were shown. It was a safe place, at least until the lights went out.

"Is anyone hurt?" The delegate's voice echoed.

"It doesn't seem like it." The heir was somewhat more agitated.

"It's a shame." He showed that on his shoulder he had some kind of sting, with green marks around it, and something white writhing inside.

Both he and Mondo pounced on Togami and Celes respectively, ignoring the luckster for no apparent reason.

Although he doubted whether to escape or help them, he wondered what he could do. They were more, bigger, stronger. He had no choice but to run.

He barely got out, closing the door behind him. With a hand on his chest, he breathed hard. His eyes traveled around the hallway. There was nothing and no one, he believed. He opted to move to the left, looking for where to go. He stopped for a moment, seeing a first-aid kit lying near a wall. He took it, noting that, with the exception of a single bloodstain, it was mostly intact.

Inside there were syringes, a glass alcohol bottle, some bandages, cotton... He stopped his review when he heard footsteps, freezing on the spot. He realized that they were there, and realized their intentions when he noticed the smell of rotting meat that they had.

He didn't want to turn around, didn't want to see the horrors that happened to whoever he was there with. But he couldn't help it. His head turned to the left, noticing a humanoid figure. By getting closer. he distinguished with horror that it was Kirigiri. Or at least, a vague image of what she looked like, with countable similarities.

Her right leg bore cuts, where the lower layers of her skin throbbed. Her mouth was sealed, with a mixture of fungus and meat showing. Her clothes and hair were covered in both blood and a greasy, transparent substance. Also despite being in the dark, he could see that her left eye was full of worms, feeding and making little holes in it.

She moved slowly, hunched over. Seeing him, she raised her right hand, with the leather of the glove and her skin somewhat torn, trying to touch his shoulder.

Seeing what she was trying to do, Makoto backed away, flattening himself against the wall, trembling. His gaze fell to the floor, both to not see her and to look for something to defend himself.

He looked at the bottle with fear, thinking about how to use it. He could break the glass to cut her throat. He didn't dismiss the idea as he remembered how his redheaded classmate had been killed. However, remembering that he keptr made him rethink the idea. Before he could decide, she felt her fingers brushing against her hair. On impulse, he brought the bottle to her face, noting that unlike the rest of them she— (Did she have? Was she allowed to have?) — a reaction.

The brown-haired boy saw how she tried to separate her jaw, clearly fractured, to no avail. That green and red mass was too solid to break. But he wanted her to. That she screamed for help, in pain, or in horror at her situation. It would be more tolerable than having to see her suffer all this.

In a moment, he managed to get out of his state of immobility. He began to run aimlessly, desperate for a way out. He turned for a second, to see how the detective was running after him, forcing her legs to make a move that she clearly shouldn't be able to do.

The lights were flashing on and off, confusing him. He only had the path assured when he saw the exit door. Open wide, all thought went to flee.

The adrenaline rushed him out, and charged him for miles. He only managed to collapse upon reaching an abandoned building. He didn't make it up any of the floors before falling into a corner, passed out.

He slept soundly and dreamlessly. In such a profound way that the next morning he didn't notice when someone else entered the building, to pick him up and take him back to the academy.

It was a quiet trip, he only woke up once they arrived. The brown-haired man noticed that Kirigiri, whom he left behind a few hours ago, was the one who kidnapped him. He couldn't blame her, he didn't think she would have wanted it that way.

He looked around the walls, noting vein-like traces on them. He noted that they were made of the same stuff as Maizono's extra limbs.

"Maizono had done all this" was a strange statement to him, one that he didn't know he would make. Much stranger seemed the method. If one day they told him that the same girl, a professional idol, his friend, could do this, he would surely have laughed at the absurdity of the situation, or would have gotten angry if he didn't get to hear the part about "taking out tentacles and controlling his companions." And he thought the killing game was absurd.

His gaze now turned to whoever was carrying him, noting that there were fewer worms in her eye making those little holes.

It was obvious that she couldn't be acting at will, but every gesture from her gave him mixed messages. Her pulse was erratic, her breathing was short, but he couldn't tell if she was alive.

She took him to the academy's garden, where a vile imitation of Sayaka's figure stood in the middle, with several of those tentacles sprouting from her body, sticking to the walls. Everyone else was around her.

"You came back! You were taking time, I thought you would not arrive. Well, her other eye was failing, but don't worry. You are here already. Any questions?"

"...Why did you do all this?"

"Oh, my reasons. I have a few. The first is that I needed something to feed myself. I need to parasitize them so it doesn't hurt."

"Hurt?"

"I need to feed myself, it's painful not to. And my second reason is that you help me."

"Help?!"

"You help me so that it doesn't hurt too much. I need you to stay with me for the rest of your life."

"Wh-what are you?"

"Something from an older time, I have seen the earth being created, the death of everything, I am something beyond humanity. Only... So long, I needed shelter, humans... They were perfect, but it hurts. I needed to eat... I've been hungry for so many years, and this... Let me tell you about what I will do."

Even though he didn't want to continue listening he nodded.

"I am going to parasitize you, and I will feed with you together with those who are alive. I will feed on your energy and theirs, but I will give you food, you can feed us both." Multiple voices suddenly sounded.

She brought one of those limbs to the back of the luckster, sticking him to it before he reacted. He felt a sting and something moving inside his flesh, stopping to wrap around his spine.

"Now, I have a proposal for you." One of those limbs wrapped around Kirigiri's neck. "I can hang her here and now, if you accept, you will have to eat sooner, if not..."

"I don't know if she is alive..."

"I know, I hope you make the best decision."

The green-eyed stared at the scene, thinking about what to do. Knowing that deep down it didn't matter, she wouldn't come back.