[A/N] Just a warning, the second scenario in this set is absolutely one of the most worst ones of the lot. Trigger warning: Discussions of s**c*de, p*nic att*ck, one body insult. The first scenario also includes some existential insults. Take care of yourself and remember that your mental health comes before my stories.

Keiji's Fear:

Chimon

I've been wondering about something. These simulations force us to feel certain things— fear, obviously, but also sadness, and anger. We feel relationships with other people, and they affect us. It makes me curious; if I hadn't gained my ability to love back, would these simulators give me that feeling artificially? What would that have felt like, for my mind to be twisted into a sense of caring with my old apathy in the background?

"What's running around in that head of yours, little lark?" Monokuma asks.

"Oh. Is it my turn?" I ask in return, pointedly not answering his question.

"Yep yep! Time to get up and smell the morning coffee!" Begrudgingly, I stand and start to head that way. The stupid bear waddles behind me.

My mother used to like to keep a coffee-scented candle in our house. The smell is so vivid in my memory. One time, Papa gave me milk with a bit of coffee in it, and Mama was a little annoyed at him for doing that when I was so young. She wound up making him drink that instead of normal coffee for the next week. Mama was beating him at his own game. Papa and I were always tricksters, back before he became... the way he is. Dammit.

"You're making a very serious face! This thoughtful quietness reminds me of Monterio."

"Hey! You're not allowed to talk about him!" I demand, stepping into the machine.

"Puhuhu! Struck a nerve, did I? Ohhh, yeah. Baby's finally going through puberty. Hormones, am I right?"

"Mhm. If I'm lucky, I'll get strong enough to clock the shit out of you."

He laughs. "We both know that's not happening. And even if it did, you'd die for it." He spins the wheel. "13! Americans consider that unlucky!"

"Fun." It happens so fast that by the time I finish the word, I'm in my own house. The doorbell rings. I stand on my step stool and look through the peephole. For a second, I wonder whether I accidentally got the wrong version of this fear, because that's a stranger. But the simulation seems to agree with me. Stranger. "Mama? Papa? There's a random kid at the door. And he's got suitcases."

"Oh, right. I guess we never mentioned it to you. We're taking in a foreign exchange student from Sweden." My mother says it as though she were telling me she's getting groceries.

A strand of curses floods through my head, but I say nothing. "Where is he going to sleep? We only have two bedrooms."

"Your room, kiddo. You'll share it," my father explains as he opens the door. More internal cussing, and a swell of panic in my stomach. From the cussing alone, I wonder whether it's Wakumi's, but dismiss that quickly. This doesn't seem to fit her. The boy formally introduces himself as Filip Nilsson, and he takes his shoes off before entering the house. He even has a gift for my parents— he clearly already knows cultural etiquette type stuff. I'm silent as they show him around.

When they finally bring the tour around to my room and help him set up, he plasters one of the walls with a crap ton of awards– in hypnotherapy, no less. Does the person who wrote this know that my work is illegal? This wouldn't happen in real life. Soon, though, I find myself getting swept up in it anyway, because my marble collection gets pushed into a corner. My room is small already, and now I have half the space.

We have dinner together– unusual both in and out of the simulation– and Filip keeps my parents completely consumed in conversation. It seems like he knows the ins and outs of my mother's job, even more than I do, and he understands my father's hobbies so much more than me. Fucking sports. My jaw clenches. The animosity comes from me, and not the person who owns this fear. From them, I feel longing and loneliness. I try to contribute to what they're saying. I ask Mama what she made those crystals out of, and how she makes PAX paints. She answers, but there's an air of disinterest.

Things continue like this for weeks. I throw myself into study just to try to beat Filip once, but no matter what I do, he's always ahead of me. He's better at our job than I am. He understands my parents. And they actually engage with him. And praise him. And they... they treat him like their son. They treat him like they never treated me. They treat him like they used to treat me, in real life.

My parents host a work party; they only do this once or twice a year. I usually try to mingle with their associates. Or, at least, that's what the simulation tells me. Tonight, though, I stay out of the way. Filip is asleep, but he spent about an hour charming and impressing everyone. I quietly head into the room to grab something to snack on while I study. "Yes," my father says to someone important, "Filip truly is ahead of the curve. I don't think I've ever seen a child with so much potential. He is going to change the world." I want to go lock myself in my room for a month, but I don't even have my own private space anymore.

"What about the other one? Er, what was his name again?"

"Chimon? Ah, well. He is not entirely unskilled, and he's not unintelligent, either. He will probably become someone somewhat respectable, in his own right." My breaths heave. The simulation tells me "run away. Go somewhere, anywhere that isn't in this house. They don't need you." But I can't. I WON'T. Not anymore. How dare this man keep doing this to me?! I wasted my entire fucking childhood just to make up for his mistakes!

I march over to him, hands clenched so hard that they're trembling. "Speaking of. Could you refill my glass?" he requests, tilting a champagne flute my way.

I smack it out of his hand and it shatters upon impact. "GODDAMMIT! FUCK YOU, YOU UNGRATEFUL, USELESS ALCOHOLIC!" I yell, and I wind up to deck him. I feel my fist connect with his face, and all goes dead silent. After recovering, he stares at me with this empty, terrifying gaze, and then I remember what Wakumi said. I broke the script. It's gonna get worse. I try to run, but he snatches me by my hood and pulls me all the way up to face-level.

Everyone in the room seems to stretch and grow impossibly large and imposing. After a point, they don't even look human anymore. They just keep whispering things like "Nobody wants you here." "Your existence is a waste." "You will die alone, with nothing to show for yourself." "It would've been better if you were never born." They layer over each other, swallowing me. The hood yanks on my neck and I start to feel like I'm suffocating.

"Stop! Stop! STOP IT!" My eyes wrench open, and I'm faced by Monokuma again. I pant, grabbing at a bag to vomit in. "Papa... so many of these fears have parents in them..." I whimper.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kana's Fear:

Tozen

"Sixteen!"

My heart sinks into the pit of my stomach. "Please, no."

"Sorry, kiddo. Them's the breaks."

I don't want this one. And I knew I couldn't avoid it forever. But everyone who's had it has absolutely hated being a part of it. Even just yesterday, I found Yuu right outside the door literally sobbing. I tried to help from a distance– we all know not to get too physically close unless he specifically tells us we can– but he couldn't make himself accept anything I offered. He's finally starting to have an easier time eating, but I think, in high-stress moments, he still worries about poison, so he didn't want any snacks. Azumi was with him, so I entrusted him to her; her gentle demeanor helps all of us more than she knows. I... I hope I help her, too. Even though I've been semi-avoiding her and Ren lately.

I wake up at school. Alright, Kana. Let's do this. I see a group of my friends– ex-friends, in this world– gossiping to each other and seeming pretty bored. My heart has a weird blend of feelings when I look at them; there's a sense of smugness and superiority, but there's also pity and loss. I'm not one of them anymore. I finally moved past needing that, but they're still in that place.

Her feelings give me perspective— I usually have no sympathy for bullies, since I was picked on a lot as a kid, but the way she experienced it... "I don't need it anymore"... makes me understand a bit more.

The bell rings and I head to my next class, but the atmosphere in there is oppressive. The teacher can't even make eye contact with any of us. Everyone is silent, wary as we sit down. "We have an announcement. ...has died of unnatural circumstances." The name he says is muted in this simulation, but the feelings bubble over nonetheless.

My surroundings seems to blur and my ears ring. Everything goes away. Nobody ever says they committed suicide. The world is perfect and peaceful and boring, how could they ever admit that someone committed suicide? There's no reason they would. And if there is, it's because of genetic mental health problems. It's because their brain wasn't producing enough serotonin. It's not because they'd been bullied for years. It's not because YOU bullied them for years! They aren't dead because of YOU! IT'S JUST UNNATURAL CIRCUMSTANCES!

I can't breathe. I can't breathe! She had a family! They're probably in so much pain! She could've had a future! She could've had a career and a lover and kids and— and all of that is just GONE now! And it's all my fault! I made her hate how she looked— her perfectly reasonable amount of acne, her perfectly normal hair! I made people stay away from her! I teased her when nobody got her anything on White Day! I— I said she should... My whole body wracks with shivers and my heart pounds out of control. My mouth is so dry. I feel like I'm going to die. And to think, if things had been just a little worse, I could be that girl. The thought only scares me more. Is this what Ren felt when he had his panic attack? Is this what Yuu feels?

I curl up and open my eyes, expecting to find myself back in the real world, but this place isn't so merciful. My phone rings. It's Ruri. I don't want to answer, I can't make myself answer. But she leaves a voicemail. She rings again. And leaves another voicemail. It's minutes and minutes of her and Junpei berating me, screaming at me, blaming me, telling me that they warned me, asking if I lied when I said I wasn't hurting people anymore. I can't make this better, I can't fix it, she's gone forever!

Monterio. Monokuma didn't even bother to swap him out for anyone else. It would've been abundantly clear to us who this was supposed to be anyway. I run to him, begging him to hold me, to comfort me, to tell me that I'm not like that anymore. For a few moments, he lets me into his chest, hugging me and rubbing my head soothingly, but his grasp is loose, like his heart really isn't in it. He feels a million miles away. "Where are you? I need you. You promised we'd always be together." He stares at me with a glare so cold it could make hell freeze over. And then... he just walks away.

I can't be alone again. Don't leave me. I chase and chase, but he vanishes from my life. "WAKE UP!" I yell to myself. And like a bad dream, I snap out of it. Tears slide down my face automatically. I try to say something, but the words don't come out.

"Oh shit. Did I make you aphonic? That would be a problem." Monokuma's lack of teasing almost makes it worse. He's usually so larger-than-life, but the normalcy and almost concern makes me recognize just how bad this actually was.

"A-Aphonic. Like sounds? No sounds?"

He sighs in relief. "Right. Good, you can talk. Cool, then you can get out of here."

"You're awful." Then Kana's thoughts flow into my brain. "Whoever you are, I'm sorry if you need this. If you feel like you need to torment us to survive."

"Pity from you? That's hilarious." He stands up on the table so that he's nearly ear-level to me. "I can do so much worse to you all." The last word is a whisper, but I hear it loud and clear. "Lardass." I hug myself instinctively.

"Okay." I leave, take time to pull myself together, and then head to the game room to start cleaning. If I'm perfect, if I give them everything they need and want all the time, they won't leave. I can't be alone again. My pace starts to increase. What happens when one of them confesses to me? Will they leave if I can't face them? I'm sorry, Azumi. I'm sorry, Ren. I know it's terrible of me to run from your feelings like this. But I just don't want to lose either of you. Can things just stay like this a little longer?