Escaping the End of the World [Tamashi]

Ryuu looked up slightly when N3 approached and began talking to him. Hm. Expendables. They were annoying especially when he was trying to work on a way out. Then again, he needed to stay amicable with them, so they would do as he said, even if he was leading them to their death. He was, after all, debating that if it came to the worst which expendable should kill another expendable. And right now, N3 was who Ryuu had as his number one pick for the first victim. Seeing as he was the biggest threat in finding out he was already strategizing a possible murder if he couldn’t find a way out before they all starved.

“What do you need?” Ryuu stared at the blonde with an annoyed look, forgetting for a moment he was supposed to be amicable and not annoyed with expendables. Even if he didn’t like interacting with expendables. It tended to end up with Ryuu actually ending up caring for someone, and that did not end well, especially if they were expendable. But he would let them go, as he had done before. He would let them die for the end game to be won. The path did not matter, only the end result. And that result would be the nine non-expendables (which included himself) getting off this ship alive. If, of course, everyone did as they were supposed to do.

So the Analyzer knew exactly what he thought. It wasn’t like he was planning on it staying secret for too long. He was going to call a meeting of the nonexpendables soon and it would be completely out in the open exactly what his plan was: to get nine out, eight of them, and one was him. Only 8. The others would be his testers. The expendables. Those who could die. But he would make their deaths useful; he would try to figure out something with each death. But really, it didn’t matter. This person in front of him, wasn’t a person. He wasn’t living. He was merely a tool. And that was how it had to remain.

“Oh, you found me out,” Ryuu said with a slight sarcastic edge to his voice, “I’m actually surprised you didn’t figure it out sooner. Then again, you might have noticed it right away, but you hadn’t the courage to confront me.” Normally, Ryuu didn’t have to communicate personally with his expendables, and he wasn’t the nicest guy in the world either. He was actually a jerk most of the time, and while he knew that being kind to the expendables would make his life a lot easier, he couldn’t seem to control himself when it came to his opinion on someone.

“Tell me, N3” Ryuu began, stressing the designation, with the hope of continuing to place the kid in the ‘non-living’ category in his mind. He couldn’t consider him an equal, only someone beneath him or they would never get off this ship. None of them. “Is it not logical that in order to get off this ship, there must be some necessary sacrfices?”

Ryuu almost laughed aloud as he heard the analyst seeming to get his feathers ruffled by him. Yes. He would definitely need to be the first to go. He was rogue, and therefore Ryuu would be unable to control him. He was idealist, he knew nothing about the real world. Even as young boy Ryuu knew what the real world was like, the death that had to come in order to achieve victory. Necessary cost, because otherwise, everyone would die. And someone had to make the decision of who was going to die, in the end. He respected her choice, and so she died in place of someone who he normally would’ve considered expendable, and thus, she had to become expendable herself. N3 had no idea what they were going to have to go through. Monokuma, Ryuu could tell, was not going to give up, he was going to make them kill one another. But Ryuu needed time to get them off this ship, he needed to find a way off of it, even though there was a force field preventing jumping, preventing escape. He was reminded of when he was in school, and he was placed within what seemed an impossible situation, and yet he was still able to get out of it. It was programmed to be unbeatable, but he beat it. He won, without cheating, he won because he was the best strategist even if he was only ten years old at the time.

N3 was proving his expendability. N3 was a tool to be used. His idealism was getting in the way of logical thinking. His emotions were ruling. Ryuu knew that him making the hard choices would get them nowhere but death, because he wouldn’t make the hard choices. Ryuu would. Ryuu would make the hard choices that everyone would hate him for, but in the end, some of them would survive. There was no case where no one would die. But the fact he planned for nine to survive was huge. That was more than half of them. The best and the brightest of them. Ryuu hated that he would be able to make the hard decisions, but in a way, Monokuma reminded him of his dad, who would purposefully put him in hard situations in order to get him to hone his skills. He almost died several times, but not once did his father intervene. He was sure his father would’ve let him die. Therefore, Ryuu learned that he could never depend on anyone, he had to consider people as expendable or the job would never get done.

“The point is survival. If you live by certain rules, certain morals, and you end up dead? You’re dead. Nothing matters after that. You are dead. You cease to exist. Your life meant nothing. Without sacrifices everyone on this ship dies. Would you really be willing to bet every life on this ship, just so you would feel good about yourself?” Ryuu was willing to take the burden onto his shoulders, so that the others wouldn’t have to, he was willing to bear the guilt, as he already had been bearing for years now.

It wasn’t Monokuma who taught him to be like this. It was his father, always pressing him, nearly killing him over and over again. And yet, Ryuu didn’t care. All he cared about was making his father proud of him. And when she died? His father said that she was too weak, and deserved to die. Ryuu didn’t agree, but he didn’t dare argue, he wanted his father to be proud of him. He didn’t dare show the weakness of regret. His father told him that he was proud that he made that decision, because the outcome was favorable. And so, Ryuu learned to never make attachments so he would never have to feel that pain ever again.

Ryuu’s look of annoyance twisted into a grin, but it wasn’t a normal grin, he almost looked evil. “Thank you, for volunteering your life. The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few.” Ryuu spitefully laughed and looked back at the computers. No, he couldn’t let himself feel guilty. Not right now. Not in front of this… in front of N3. He couldn’t let him see the feelings, those feelings he hid from every one that he could. Those feelings that got in the way. Those feelings that made him weak. “Now, can I, please, return to what I was doing?”