Fires of Despair [Taro/Ignia FTE] (Completed)

Taro quicken his breathe when Ignia walked through the door.  There she was.  There.  For him.  He can't let this opportunity go to waste.

"Mrs. Brand.  Ple...Please.  Have a seat."  He pulled out a stool at the bar and Ignia, almost reluctantly, did so.  He took one of the stools and dragged it to the other side of the bar so they were face to face with each other.  His eyes faced hers.

She spoke with her finger just shy of touching his face.

"Funny business?  Mrs. Brand.  Please.  I won't do that.  I won't do anything of the sorts.  Believe me when I say that I need you perfectly healthy for our time her.  On our date.  I don't want you to taint this day with something that I did that may have offended you."

Her fiery passion of her hatred for Taro's betrayal flared up in her eyes.  It almost made Taro felt guilty.  Almost.  If she knew what he has been through, she would have been on his side.

"First things first, why'd ya do it?  Why do ya wanna fuck us over?"


Taro sat there, processing what Ignia has just stated.  With a discombobulated look upon his face, he went to the alcoholic beverages and poured a glass for the both of them.  He turned back around with both glasses in his hand.

"I'm sorry, but that question caught me off guard.  I was expecting a different question from you."

He placed both glasses down in front of them and began to mix the two glasses into one glass.  He then repoured the now mixed contents back into Ignia's glass.  He took a sip from his own drink and left Ignia's right in front of her hand.

"To answer the question that you are bound to ask later on, I have only had conversations with Monokuma regarding anything Monoworld-related.  In other words, I don't know who the mastermind is.  Even if I did, Monokuma has banned me from divulging any information regarding Monoworld.  As for your question, unfortunately I have to be a bit vague.  Like I said, my reasoning and his plan might have a few, overlaps.  I will only tell you that I volunteered for this game because of a promise.  A promise I had made to someone who sleeps an almost eternal-like sleep.  I visited him, for days, telling him that I will make good on our promise."

He went silent for a few seconds.

"I can't die without fulfilling the promise I made to him.  Then, I simply don't care what happens.  It's all inevitable anyways.  Monokuma knew my dilemma and offered to allow me to fulfill my promise so long as I maintained the spirit of the game and help fulfill his goals."

Taro took another sip of his drink.

"So, uh, Monokuma also gave me a list of names.  Amongst the names he gave me was one 'Cryos'.  Apparently, that name rings a bell.  Who is he?"

"I don't know if this makes you feel any better of my betrayal, but I wasn't sure who I was going to be stuck with.  All I was told was that it was Hope's Peak Students."

Taro took another drink.  He knew he had to face this extreme hatred of the others head on.  Ignia was, perhaps, the only one who could possibly be the only one who can have a normal conversation with.

"Like I said, I have to be vague for fear of Monokuma ending me before I have a chance to complete my promise.  I can neither confirm nor deny his intentions in creating this game."

He relaxed his tie, which seems to be suffocating him more by the second.

"But, I will say that so far, I have no regrets.  I am a man of my word.  I will not leave this Earth if I have no completed that promise."

He unbuttoned his top collar and took another sip.

"As soon as you told me someone was waiting for you, I figured that had to be Cryos.  Though, I couldn't be sure how you knew him.  Though I have received hints here and there from Monokuma in the form of puns and other strange wordings.  For example, Adrianna's flowers.  I won't go into detail, but those flowers are special.  Really special."

He took another sip of his drink.

"You doing okay?  I mean, given the circumstances."

"I'm taking off my clothes?"  Taro muttered.  His eyes were unable to focus and only stared blankly at Ignia.

He leaned towards her until he was right in her ear.

Despite Taro's best efforts, all that came out was sound.

He then toppled over onto her and fell onto the ground and started shaking.



When a child hits his head at a young age like Taro has, seizures become more and more likely to happen.  His father visited in his room for his 12th birthday the day before, as he had work that he could not miss for fear of being fired.  Taro understood.  The hospital bills alone took up most of the spare change around the house.  Not to mention that his medication was expensive.  Taro was happy he cared.  Most families don't get that.  All that changed when a wayward wrecking ball struck the hospital and sent it collapsing.  His father survived ten hours in suffering and pain before Taro killed him out of mercy and reassurance by his father that he was not morally responsible for his death.  Five hours after that, the paramedics finally reached them.  He walked off to see his mother there crying over the man she once loved.  That was the first time he had killed someone.  And that is a whole new trauma.  The promise he made to Junpei had to be completed in Monoworld.  He couldn't do it anywhere else.  He would have to endure the murders just so he would get his wish.

He continued shaking for another minute until he stopped.

"Www..."  he tried sitting up, "What's on the bar?  I need something soft to rest my head against..."

Foam started to seep out of Taro's mouth and start convulsing harder.

Ignia's movement to the bar was only making things worse as Taro kept banging his head on the back of the bar.

The banging Taro did was slowly making him bleed in the back of his head.  His eyes still blanked and expressionless.

The convulsing Taro did managed to make an orange bottle slip out of his pocket.

On the bottle, the words "Valporic Acid" was read.  The bottle was empty, but by the label, Taro is supposed to have taken his medication to help with his seizures at noon.  Taro would have been faithful in taking his medications, but he left it in his room during the trials.  When he was finally done with his deep slumber, it was already time to go to the fountain.

At this point, Taro started choking on his own tongue and was slowly starting to suffocate...

Taro shook for a few more seconds until he stopped.

His head was dazed and his overall, but he was still able to understand Ignia.

"I'll...talk...."

Taro was breathing heavily and he feared that he might go into another seizure.  He reached into his pockets to find the bottle, but didn't realize they have fallen out onto the floor.  In his confused state, he thought that they were back in the room.

"My.....prom.....iise.....to....Junpei?"  He asked.  "It was.....he would only die..........over my dead body.  I came here........when Monokuma gave.......me the guarantee.........that the promise could be..........fulfilled......I never asked........about details........because I was.........content with.........his deal........alone."

He spat up on his face and it drooled down onto his face.  He used his sleeve to wipe it off.

"Adrianna's flowers........were poisonous.........they killed........many.........framed her.........brother......for it........"

He slid down in a lying position and watched the ceiling.

"As for.......the ? ? ? Room........I was........given anesthesia..........in Nagasaki......I don't.........know where...........we are now.........we could be..........in Nagasaki...........or on the opposite side of the world.........for all I know..."

He took out a pill and swallowed it, not really caring about the other twenty or so that spilled out onto the floor.

"Monokuma told me.  He, he told me stuff sometimes.  He's the one who told me about Monokuma's and Willow's conversation back during Daisuke's trial.  He tells me things to fuck up the trial."

He slowly turned his head towards Ignia.

"Junpei is alive.  Trust me on that.  Monokuma would be stupid to kill him."

He blinked slowly as he continued talking to Ignia.

"As for anything else you need to know, just that I have lost my entire family.  Each one in an accident, where it's either accidentally killed or unwittingly killed.  As for your assistance..."

Taro sat up slowly to be at eye level.

"Monokuma would allow me to join Monoworld and keep my promise with Junpei so long as I do certain things.  Those certain things would cause both of our deaths if I were to disclose them to you.  Just promise me that you will not judge me for the events I will perform to coincide with a plan.  A plan that absolutely must come into fruition if my promise to Junpei is to be successful.  The pros outweigh the cons on my end."

He put his hand on Ignia's shoulder.

"My father was a die-hard christian.  He was an alter boy, did work for the Church, went there every Sunday to pray and confessed to priests at the start of every month.  My mother was a groundskeeper and an atheist.  She believed that everything was due to the randomness of life that people just found meaning in the randomness and just attributed it to a higher power that doesn't exist.  One day, she was behind on payments and was stressed out.  She got into a heated debate with my father.  So much so that they decided to continue the philosophical debate in a fast food joint.  They talked for hours.  From Noon until 3AM the next morning.  At that point, they just stared at each other.  They just admired the others beauty.  The passion they had for the debate somehow made them realized that the other wasn't bashing on the religion, but wanted to have a good ethical debate.  That wasn't something that happened often.  Two years later, they got married.  It was at an observatory that they just hung up Jesus Christ figurines and other memorabilia of the sort.  The conceived a daughter on that honeymoon.  Nanako Yamada.  She was a stubborn child who demanded that she gets a quarter to help out cancer patients.  She didn't even know what that was until seven, all she essentially knew that it wasn't a "good girl."  They had two other children before having me.  It was due to the giddiness of her pregnancy that finally decided to surprise my father and her husband after a particularly stressful week.  Eight months pregnant, and she still managed to walk over to the church with the then-youngest child strapped into a stroller.  That was the first time she attended a sermon.  It meant the world to him.  His whole family was just, there.  There to support him.  He almost cried.  Then he screamed in horror as a car crashed through the church doors.  The car just so happened to contain men who just toppled an armored truck and stole 2 million dollars worth of diamonds.  A pit maneuver brought them into the sacred land.  With one of them dead on impact and the other in critical condition, the other two thought fast and held everyone hostage.  The cold wet rain seeped into the church slowly filling it up with water.  Thirty-five hostages.  A family of five, a priest and two nuns, a cancer-stricken woman wanted to be let into heaven, three brothers coming back from active duty, a construction worker wondering if God will forgive him for cheating, a pair of closeted lesbians who want the church to recognize their love,  15 alter boys in the choir who just sang beautiful music, a business man who just wanted refuge from the rain, a medic who wonders if their even is a God after what he has seen, a plumber who was fixing the plumbing in the guest room, the blind old organ player who could play like he could see and the rebellious priest's son who wanted nothing to do with the church.  They made a deal with the police.  Well, it was more like a ransom.  You see, they felt bad for the third.  They forced him into this.  He didn't want to be in this situation at all.  They only pressured him because he was the one with the explosives.  When the armored car flipped, the guards died in the process.  All of the blame could be easily planted on him.  They figured that they were going to die anyways, so why not do one last good thing.  They demanded that the third member gets put on a plane to a place with no extradition rights in place or difficulty to acquire one.  For every ten minutes that the third person was not in a country and let loose, they would kill a hostage.  If the police even went into the church, the left over explosives would kill everyone alive inside.  All thirty five, strapped to bombs and wondering if they'll make it out alive.  Each and everyone was fearful of their lives.  The first ten minutes came and went and the third member was still in custody.  The robbers told the group to select a member to die.  The rebellious son did not believe him.  He didn't believe they had the guts.  He asked him to kill the head alter boy.  Unfortunately, the robbers complied.  The plumber, the business man and 5 of the remaining alter boys got pissed at him.  Anger at what he did.  The medic was scared silent.  The blind player didn't believe he died until he touched the coldness of the alter boy.  My family just looked in shocked, the parents fearing for the kids and the kids fearing for the parents.  Each one now knows the dangers of the situation.  The police would have sniped them already, but the way the Church was structured, they couldn't get anything in.  Any sign of them, and the robbers would blow up the hostages.  They were in a lose-lose situation and were considering there options.  The second ten minutes came and the robber asked them again.  The five alter boys asked for the rebel's head.  The priest offered, instead, for his own head.  It was his son and he had to protect him at all costs.  The rebel told him to not sacrifice himself, but the robbers did not listen and killed the priest.  Still, there was no plans to even put the third man on the plane.  With any sudden movements, the robber could kill them all by just tensing his hand on the detonation switch.  The police had no options.  The third ten minutes passed and the alter boys still wanted the rebel dead.  The eldest army brother yelled at them and said that if they killed the rebel, then they would let a man's sacrifice in vain.  The other two jumped in and a vicious argument erupted.  Getting anxious, they decided to kill the construction worker, who had been scared as a ghost since the car crash.  He died muttering that he regretted his actions.  The robbers asked them to consider who to die to save time.  They needed to be on the clock for fear of not being taken seriously.  The blind man yelled at the robber for their cruelty while the cancer patient asked him to silence, for fear of being the next targeted.  My father gave a look of suicide and my mother gave him the look of discouragement.  It was almost as if she voiced that if any one of the five die, the rest will go with them.  That's how tight my family loved each other.  The medic started screaming in pain as one of the nuns tried to calm him down.  The fourth ten minutes passed and the quietest alter boy spoke.  He named his bully, figuring that if anyone was going to die, it should be someone who deserved it the most.  The robbers complied.  The adults were too much in shock after the actions.  The alter boys, however, weren't.  They got into an argument of justice and fairness.  The team was split over whether to kill the victim or not.  When the fifth ten minutes passed, the victim alter boy sided with those trying to defend them and the seven of them killed the strongest proponent of killing the victim.  The robbers complied.  The adults were still horrified into silence.  One of the lesbians broke down and was consoled by the other.  The plumber passed out do the stress.  The alter boys kept on raging between them.  A half-an-hour passed and three more of the boys were chosen to die.  Finally, the rebel lost his cool and punched the remaining alter boys in the face.  In atonement for the first boy, the rebel decided that no more children would die.  With that, the adults all agreed that no more alter boys would die.  My family was immediately added to the bunch of keep alive as my mother was pregnant and any member of my family who died would only result in the suicide of my mother.  So the remaining thirteen adults had to decide amongst themselves who would die next.  The medic was still too traumatized to be part of the decision making.  The nuns refused to take part in this sick game.  The others gave their quick arguments on why not them.  The only exceptions were the army brothers.  They promised to serve their country of Japan, and that extended to the people of Japan.  They each gave a toast of wine to the three and went out bravely.  The next thirty minutes passed and the three brothers were gone.  They had there final laughs.  They had there final goodbyes.  They died in an attempt to save twenty-four others.  After the last brother died, the medic went nuts.  He started hallucinating other patients that he failed.  He became mad.  When the next ten minutes came, he was delusional and decided that the cause of their suffering was solely on the alter boys for getting themselves in this mess.  He ordered the robber to kill an alter boy.  He did so.  The alter boy died in his sleep.  The others finally decided that the medic needed to be put down out of his overall well-being.  The next ten minutes had the reluctance of the plumber to order the kill on the medic.  Some of the alter boys finally woke up around that time.  They saw the extra dead alter boy and immediately thought it was another alter boy.  Despite the demanding of one of the lesbians, the rebel couldn't work up the courage to punch them again.  He just couldn't.  Another twenty minutes passed and two more dead alter boy until the victimized alter boy finally told off the other five.  He felt guilt.  The kind of guilt where a person's entire personality changes forever.  He deeply regrets everything he did.  He asked for the robbers to kill him next.  Despite the protests of everyone else, the robber did in the alter boy.  The other alter boys fell silent.  They realized their mistakes and stayed silent.  With nine possible people left for the next death, they all pointed fingers at another.  The plumber said that the cancer woman should die because she is already dying.  The older one of the nuns wanted to kill the plumber for suggesting that the cancer patient should cut her already short time left even shorter.  The business man wanted that nun dead for blasphemy.  The red-haired lesbian wanted to kill the business man for trying to kill a member of the church.  The black-haired lesbian wanted to kill the rebel for starting this whole mess.  The younger nun, after discovery that she was a lesbian, wanted to kill her because it's not God's will.  The rebel wanted to kill the younger nun for she was not accepting who the lesbian was.  When the next time frame came, it was a complete tie.  The robbers did not know who to kill, until the old player spoke up.  He did not want to live in a world were such cruelty that he had witnessed was allowed to exist.  He asked for the robber to kill him and they obliged.  After the old player fell dead, the stress finally got to my mother and she went into labor a month early.  Everyone panicked and tried to save the newborn with their limited knowledge.  My father, too shaken, talked them through it.  After thirty minutes of labor, which included the deaths of the two nuns who sacrificed themselves for the infant and the plumber who was just shot randomly, I was born when lightening hit the top of the church.  The lightening blew the power circuit and, in the blackout, the rebel managed to overcome the robber with the detonator, the robber with the gun shot randomly in the darkness.  When the power came back on, the Japanese police force had surrounded the two dead corpses of the robbers, one struck in the head with a cross and the other with a gunshot.  It was not without it's sacrifices.  The rebel and Nanako were both shot fatally.  They weren't going to make it.  Nanako began to cry, scared of what will happened to her.  The rebel, inched over to her and told her everything will be fine.  He told her of the beauty of Heaven.  He told her about how God will take care of her.  He told them about how the innocent children are and that God will allow them into Heaven.  He managed to convince her not to be scared any longer.  Nanako died peacefully along with the rebel who reformed into a good man.  His name was Taro Korashiki.  He is my name sake.  When my parents got divorced, my mother married the business man and my father married the cancer woman who was fortunate enough to beat her cancer.  The lesbians would eventually become my godparents in case anything went wrong.  A rogue cop from the Americas decided to recheck the church to find an entrance point when the lightening struck in order to save his stepfather.  His name was Kevin and he would be my future stepbrother.  Outside in the car was Elizabeth, my future stepsister, who had a temper tantrum and was told to wait in the car.  When the cops weren't looking she ran into church when lightening struck the church.  The five alter boys were Gerald, my future stepbrother, Junpei, my friend I made my promise to, and the Wasonaki triplets, who the lesbians adopted after the incident.  All 14 of us became a part of a huge family with coping and everything.  Every time I was in an accident and all the members were there, a family member died.  This was fact.  All of them.  One at a time.  Never once did they think I was a curse.  They even desperately tried to convince me out of it.  They failed all the time.  I was cursed to watch every member of my family die one by one.  And now, I can't lose Junpei.  I made a promise and I intend to keep it.  So many people gave their lives to make sure I lived.  I'm not going to start hanging myself just to end the curse.  That'll be a disrespect to all of them.  I will stay alive and do whatever I can to make sure that Junpei's heart beat doesn't stop until I say it must."

He released her hand on the verge of tears.

"I hope you understand this."

Taro sighed.

"Trust me.  Monokuma and I have a deal.  Junpei is alive.  If Monokuma really wanted to fuck me up with despair, then Junpei would meet a fate worse than death.  I know it.  Monokuma knows it.  Knowing Monokuma, he most likely has the means to it.  Besides, my plan brings more despair than whatever Monokuma could bring to me.  And you can't stop me.  I need to continue with this plan.  It's my only chance.  It's my only chance Ignia!"