(3rd Person's POV)

"The hell...?" Junko wondered as she stared at the results. Everyone voted for hope.

Kyoko folded her arms as she stared at Junko. "You've lost, Enoshima."

"I...lost? Me...? N-No way... It can't beeeeee!" Junko shrieked in denial.

"Y-You still don't accept it...?" Hiro asked.

"Even the Ultimate Despair herself is vulnerable to the onslaught of despair, it would seem." Byakuya said.

"But there's no use trying to fight it now!" Hina glared.

"..." Sora stayed silent, narrowing her eyes at the mastermind.

"Well that's juuuuusst...!" Suddenly, an lustful smile appeared on Junko's face. "Totally the best!"

Everyone looked at her in confusion. "...Huh?" Makoto said.

"This...this is despair...! We came to this school two years ago, created our incredibly detailed plan... I even killed my own sister for it... To come this far, and fail at the very end...! It's the most ultimately ultimate despair!" Junko gushed.

"Wh-What are you talking about...?" Makoto grimaced in disgust.

"Don't you see? I was so hopelessly desperate! I was bored of the world the moment I was born! That's why I've been looking forward to this so desperately. This once-in-a-lifetime experience... It is my first and last colossal despair, here at the moment of death! To have the chance to taste of the highest grade despair--the utter failure of my dreams! Ahhh! I am so hopelessly happy right now!"

"Wait, is she...enjoying this?" Hina took a few steps back, put off by the woman's masochistic pleasure.

"Anyway, so are you prepared to admit defeat?" Kyoko asked.

"Haha...hahahahaaahahaaa!" Junko laughed. "You think I care whether I won or lost? Either way, it doesn't change a thing! Outside is only despair, inside is only despair! No matter where you go, despair awaits you!"

"Th-That's not true..." Makoto muttered, still feeling creeped out by Junko's behavior.

"You're wrong!"

"Huh...?" Makoto looked at Byakuya.

"Let me tell you this right now. We no longer fear despair." Byakuya declared.

Hina nodded in agreement. "Because we've decided to enter the outside world with hope!"

"Yeah, Naegi totally seduced us over to his side!" Hiro laughed.

"Kyeeehahaha!" Genocide Jill cackled.

"E-Everyone...!" Makoto exclaimed, a smile creeping upon her lips.

"Even if what you say is true and the outside world is full of despair..." Sora held her arms behind her back as she continued. "No matter who is against us, we will fight like we always have..."

"You said that despair is as contagious as any disease." Kyoko closed her eyes before opening them up and making a smirk. "But the same is true of hope. All you have to do is look at us to see how true that is."

"K-Kirigiri!" Makoto smiled.

"..." Junko looked at them all with a blank stare before shaking her head furiously. "Ahh, stop it! Stop! I hate those faces you're making! To see those awful looks causes me nothing by pain..." She sighed. "Fine, let me just say one last thing... If you guys wanna get all hung up on the word hope, that's no skin off my nose... But just be warned... From this point on, one despair after another will stand in your way. No matter where you run, no matter where you hide... Maybe you'll find some hope, but there is a very fine line dividing that hope from bitter despair." She smirked. "Knowing that, you still plan to cling to your hope?"

"Of course! Because we--"

"Shut up, shut up!" Junko harshly cut through Makoto's argument. "That was a rhetorical question. You interrupted my monologue!" She shook her head. "I'm almost done though, so whatever... Because it's almost punishment time, right!?"

Kyoko raised an eyebrow. "Do you really intend to go through with this?"

"That was the agreement, right?"

"H-Hold on! It's not like I want you to die!" Makoto said. "You don't have to--"

"Stop it stop it stop it STOP IT!" Junko snapped as she hissed at him.

"What!?"

"How many times do I have to tell you!? The act of living brings me no hope at all! All I want now is to taste that despair of death that you only get once in life. So... Don't get in my way!"

"B-But..." Makoto tried to argue.

"Naegi, don't bother." Sora spoke up, placing a hand on his shoulder before looking at Junko. "She wants this."

"..." Makoto said nothing, but sighed as he reluctantly nodded, relenting.

Junko smirked as she ran towards a big red button. "Puhuhu... Puhuhuhu! So this is how the despair of death feels... Ahh, it's so wonderful! Even a tenth of this despair... Even a hundredth...! I want every last soul on this planet to taste such despair! I want the entire world to die with that despair in its mouth! Okay, let's do this!" She felt an anxious feeling of euphoria as one could see her eyes swirling with chaotic madness. "I've reserved an extra special punishment for last! Let's give it everything we've got! It's...PUNISHMENT TIIIME! Haahahahaha!"

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CONGRATULATIONS! JUNKO HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY. TIME FOR THE ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT!

https://youtu.be/qvEWVgV4NVg

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It's over. It's finally over.

 And that's how everything came to an end...

The final class trial... Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Despair... Life at Hope's Peak Academy...

It was all over.

Arc 6: Ultimate Pain, Ultimate Suffering, Ultimate Despair, Ultimate Execution, Ultimate Death...Complete!

...

...

...

...

But even after saying it was all over... It's not like the building exploded or collapsed in on itself or anything. That wasn't the kind of ending waiting for the students. Nothing changed. Well, with one exception... 

The air purifiers turned off. Just like Junko said...they shut off immediately. That was the only difference.

The survivors left the courtroom and made their way to the main hall. They stood in front of the door. Nobody made a sound. Sora felt almost...absentminded. Even more than than usual. This was their epilogue before the final ending. They were stuck there in limbo, unmoving, unsure. But... In the end...

"We can't just stand around like this forever. At some point, we need to leave." To nobody's surprise, it was Kyoko who broke the silence. "Shirayuki, would you do the honors?"

"Gladly." Sora nodded. 

As if awakened by Kyoko's words, Sora took out the object she'd gotten. Up until the moment of her death, it had belonged to Junko. And in the end, she dropped it before the students.

"B-But...is that really it? Is that really the key to this door...?" Hina asked, a bit apprehensive to trust anything that belonged to Junko.

"You don't have to read into what she said too much to find the answer." Kyoko responded as she recalled Junko's words at the trial grounds.

---

"If, on the other hand, you desire to see us punished, then you must all leave this place. I will force you out, ensuring you all die horrible deaths in the outside world."

---

""I will force you out." She said that, just before dropping that. It makes sense that it would be our way out of here." Kyoko deduced.

"But you never know... Maybe it's actually a switch that's gonna make the school self-destruct! I mean, Enoshima never said specifically that she'd let us leave here alive!" Hiro pointed out.

"You may be right about that." Kyoko admitted with a shrug.

"Maybe!?" Hiro felt himself shrink in his spot.

"But even so, it's impossible to think we wouldn't take our chances with it." Byakuya said.

"Y-Yeah, I guess that's true..." Hiro mumbled.

"Kyeehaha! There's nothin' to worry about!" Genocide Jill cackled as she brought out her razor-sharp scissors. "If something ever happened to Master or Mistress, I'd take my scissors and jam 'em so far up--"

Suddenly, Jill froze and twitched. "Achoo!" She sneezed as she switched back into Toko. "H-Huh...? Hey, where's the courtroom? Where's the m-mastermind...?"

"It's all over. We're just about to leave the school..." Hina explained.

"What? L-Leave...!? We can go outside!?" Toko exclaimed. "Then...that means me and M-Master and Mistress can get married...?" She blushed as she started having one of her fantasies. "And then Master'll g-give me a little jewel of a baby!?"

"The answer is no." Sora bluntly said in a monotone voice. "It has always been no. The answer will be nothing but no."

"I'm inclined to agree with Shirayuki." Byakuya agreed. "That would be a greater horror than anything I've encountered so far."

Kyoko sighed as she ran her fingers through her hair. "Anyway, don't worry. I have no doubt that we'll be able to leave here without a problem."

"It's what's gonna happen after we get out that I'm worried about..." Hina nervously spoke up.

"B-But you know... In the end, I...! I think a part of me still thinks..." Hiro ruffled his hair. "...Maybe, when we get out there, we'll see that everything she said about the world was a lie. That on the other side of this door...is a world as peaceful as we remember.

A lie... A world as peaceful as we remember... Sora thought, closing her eyes.

"Well, no matter what it looks like, it's still our world. It's where we're meant to live." Makoto said.

"Yeah, I guess so..."

"And...how do I put this?" Makoto mumbled before finding his words. "Unlike this school, the world is really big, right? Since it's so big, I'm sure there must be some despair no matter what. But there also has to be lots of hope...right?"

"The act of searching for hope, to try and find it--that by itself is the true meaning of hope. As long as you have that hope, you can keep moving forward no matter what trouble you may fall into." Kyoko made a small smile. "Is that what you mean, Naegi?"

"Y-Yeah, that's pretty much the gist of it." Makoto awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. 

Byakuya scoffed. "I don't need any of you to spell that out for me. You know, Enoshima mentioned that there were still others out there who hadn't cast away hope just yet. Maybe I should find them and make them work for me." He smirked. "To rebuild the world, we must first rebuild the Togami dynasty."

"I-I'll go with you! I'll follow you anywhere you w-want to go!" Toko declared out of undying loyalty.

"Well my first stop is gonna be the closest donut shop! I can figure out the rest from there!" Hina subconsciously grinned, her mouth pratically watering as she could just picture the thought of getting a taste of the donuts from the outside.

"And what're you gonna do if there are no more donut shops? Or donuts?" Hiro pointed out.

"I'll just get some flour and make some myself! And if there's no flour, I'll just grow some wheat!"

"...Ah! I get it now!" Hiro exclaimed while widening his eyes. "If there's no road, you just gotta build one! Creation... Fate is telling me to remake the world! That's...my hope!" He realized. "I've reached the next stage! The next chapter of Yasuhiro Hagakure's Life Story is about to begin!" He got all up in Hina's face. "Thanks, Hina! You've totally opened my eyes!"

Hina sweatdropped as she took a few steps back. "H-Hey, personal space, buddy! You're seriously creepin' me out!"

"...Hm?" Meanwhile, while all these conversations was going on, Kyoko turned her head to see Sora quietly sobbing, small rivers of tears falling from her eyes. "Shirayuki? What's wrong?"

"N-Nothing. It's j-just...t-that..." Sora sobbed before wiping away the tears with her arm. "I'm just...so happy that's it's finally over. To be honest with you Kiri, I've always hoped that we would get outta here one day, but...seeing that it's actually happening... I just...!" She felt tears welling up again in the corners of her eyes. "I just can't help but cry a little bit, you know...?"

"I understand what you mean." Kyoko agreed. "After all the chaos, turmoil and tragedy that we've gone through, I can understand that it would bring a tear to your eye that what we've always been dreaming about since we first got trapped here was finally coming true."

"But, you know...I've gotta say...thanks, Kiri." Sora looked at her with a bright, tearful smile. "If it wasn't for you and Naegi and everyone, I wouldn't have gotten outta here. I...I am truly grateful for what you've done."

Kyoko returned with a smile of her own. "I told you, there's no thanks necessary. But..." She suddenly felt her face flush with red as she mumbled. "...I could say the same towards you, too. I may have called Naegi the Ultimate Hope, but...if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have learned to open up to others and trust them to stop this killing game with us. So...in a way, I guess that makes you....my hope."

Sora blinked. "Kiri..."

"...Call me by my first name." Kyoko offered. "After all, we are friends... No, we're more than that."

"What do you-" Sora stopped as she felt Kyoko suddenly hold her in an embrace. 

"I mean that, you know. I may call the others comrades or companions...but you... You're my best friend, Shirayuki. I mean that with a thousand percent. And I know you feel the same. Am I wrong?"

"W-Well...not exactly. If that's what you want, Kir-" Sora internally winced at Kyoko scolding glare. "Okay... Whatever you say...Kyoko."

Kyoko smiled. "Thank you...Sora-chan." She held Sora's shoulders and leaned in before giving the blonde a peck on the cheek.

"...!"

Kyoko smirked as she let go and folded her arms. "Come on, Sora. Even if everyone in the outside world is gone... Even if the world is steeped in despair... As long as I have people like you around, I can face forward and keep moving. If we can get out there and do something, have some sort of impact..."

Sora placed a hand on the cheek where Kyoko kissed her before looking in deep contemplation. But what can we do...? There's so few of us, and we're so small. So what can we do...? She thought before shaking those thoughts away. ...No, we can probably do anything. Yeah. With me, the Ultimate Analytical Prowess on their side, we can actually do anything.

The students nodded to themselves as the turned to face the main hall door.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye. ...And goodbye...to Sakura." Hina frowned in sadness before perking up instantly. "But hey! If we gotta say goodbye, we may as well do it with a smile on our face!"

"Hey, guys! You guys want your fortunes told, anywhere, anytime, you just let me know! I'll be there!" Hiro grinned.

Byakuya sighed. "You know how much I hate being annoyed. But if something does come up, you may as well let me know." He said with a actually genuine tone. "I can't guarantee I'll actually bother listening, but you know...

"I d-don't know why, but...I have a b-burning desire to start writing...!" Toko formed a genuine smile on her face. "I might b-be able to pull it off... A story about M-Master, Mistress and me! ...A-And the others, I guess..."

"I can't say I'm sorry about what happened, but still... It does feel kind of strange..." Kyoko mumbled.

"I...really don't know what to say. I guess we...graduated?" Makoto shrugged.

Sora beamed as she pulled out the device. Looking at the metal door entrance, she pressed the big red button on it. 

It looks like hope really is spreading.

"It looks like I'll have to push with more force...!"

I'm going to keep moving forward, with hope in my heart.

She sadly smiled with nostalgia as she remembered the victims of the killing game.

Sayaka...Leon...Chihiro...Mondo...Taka...Hifumi...Celeste...Sakura... Even Mukuro... We finally did it... 

Since she has hope, she can show courage. Since she has hope, she can keep moving forward.

The world...can move ahead.

The door began to open.

With her hands... With everyone's hands...

Hope and despair mingled together...opening the door to the future...

The metallic door showed a tiny, but bright light as it pried itself open. The students would only watch with a hopeful smile as they were prepared to face any adversity that would come their way.

...And thus ended the horrific nightmare that was the Killing School Life. The door then fully opened, enveloping the students with a bright white light that paved another door...to the future.

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...

FIN

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And there you have it. After 2 and a half years, this book is finally finished!

...Is what I would say if it were true.

Good news, this book's not over just yet! It may be the end of the main story, but we've still got a ways to go. After this, we'll be going into the game's extra content such as the Free Time Events, and School Mode! Then we'll get into the Ultimate Talent Development Plan and Danaganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp.

But until then...I'll be seeing you! Sayōnara!