The Five-and-a-Half Mile(?) Hallway

**The Five-and-a-Half Mile(?) Hallway** is the name of Wanda Morinaga's execution, as featured in Danganronpa: Operation V.K..

## Sequence

*Excerpt taken from Chapter 24 of Danganronpa: Operation V.K.*

12 A.M.

It was already well past the night announcement by the time the trial ended, so once Rin was back in her room, it was a bit past midnight. Though she was undoubtedly tired, it would've been very, very difficult for her not to notice the new addition to her room. A TV monitor had been placed atop her dresser while she was out. It didn't appear to have any buttons in particular, and wasn't plugged in to anything.

As she did her best to prepare for bed like normal, it crackled to life. The crackling effect was probably just for show, given its apparent tech level, but it turned on, nonetheless. With her toothbrush still in her mouth, Rin ignored the fearful feeling in the pit of her gut to lean her head out the bathroom door and look.

**Wanda Morinaga's Punishment**

**THE FIVE-AND-A-HALF MILE (?) HALLWAY**

So decreed a stark, grey title card. Suddenly, the fact that the monitor had no buttons occurred to Rin again. Did everyone have one of these? Would they all be forced to watch Wanda's execution from inside their own rooms? She ducked her head back in to finish brushing her teeth—

“—And I wonder if anyone will even remember that I died.”

Within two minutes, Rin was on her bed, having finished brushing, staring with rapt attention to the screen. The footage was being recorded from a cheap, black-and-white camera. Judging from its position on the screen, and the fact that Wanda hadn't appeared but had spoken, Rin surmised that she must be the cameraperson, carrying it in her left hand.

“I don't know how long it's been,” Wanda said. “I'm not even sure if there's anything here...or who I'm even talking to.”

Wanda walked quietly through a long, dark hallway. The only light that Rin could see was a small light from the right of the camera. The shaking eventually showed her that Wanda had a torch in her other hand.

“At some point I just started talking to myself.” Wanda said. “Eriko's execution was so quick, there's no way Monokuma would show this whole thing to them. Perhaps he's waiting to make a supercut of it, or something.”

The only sounds from the TV were from Wanda. Wanda's voice, Wanda's breathing, Wanda's footsteps. The walls were black, the floor was black, the ceiling was black. Other than Wanda, it seemed completely sterile. Rin noticed she had goosebumps.

12:20 A.M.

“You know,” Wanda said into the darkness, rounding a corner that led only to yet more dark hallway. “I don't have any idea where Monokuma thinks I could think this would lead. I mean, we're underwater, and I don't believe I've gone up at all. The only place I could be going is down. That's simple logic.”

12:23 A.M.

“...But I'm still walking, aren't I?”

12:45 A.M.

“He said that if I dropped the camera, there'd be consequences. I have no idea what. Probably death. Perhaps he's going to make me drop the camera at some point.”

Wanda shivered. “I feel as though it's getting colder.”

12:55 A.M.

Rin could swear she heard a sound well off in the distance, but Wanda didn't seem to hear it.

“This is laughable.” Wanda...well, laughed. “What a joke. Eriko dies by having a plane crash into her, and you just have me walk? What's the point? What do you get out of this?”

Another, sadder laugh. “What did I get out of this?”

The torch went out.

12:58 A.M.

Wanda managed to relight the torch.

1:25 A.M.

“I've been isolated for longer than this before,” Wanda said. “I've been isolated for years. People have seen me, but I've been alone. So what's the problem here? There isn't any. This is just what I'm used to.”

There was a window on the wall.

But it was frozen shut.

1:50 A.M.

“I should be dead by now,” Wanda said. “Why aren't I? How long do I have to go before you do something? How long do I have to go before I do something?”

2:10 A.M.

“...Ridiculous, completely ridiculous. This is the stupidest method of execution I've ever heard of!” Wanda kicked the wall. She made a reeling noise of pain. “Or just freeze me already if you're going to do something!”

2:30 A.M.

“I wonder if my father will think I loved him when Yayoi comes to see him. Of course, I don't. He was a pathetic man, you know. You know how I always talked about dreams, when I was alive? Assuming I'm dead when you see this. Well, my father wanted to be a cellist. That's it, that's all he wanted. And that was why my mother married him. But he had a skill, you know, he was a very skilled surgeon. And so he did that for a living. He abandoned his dream. And that was why my mother left him. It makes me very mad, you know, it makes me, I bet he's in that darkness right over there, I see you, I see you, you son of a bitch!”

She threw her matchbox into the darkness.

“...I should pick those up.”

2:55 A.M.

“...But am I even any better?” She was laughing. “Maybe, you know... Maybe Miria was right. Maybe they were right! Haha! Wouldn't that be something?” She was coughing. Her breath was visible in the air. She was still laughing. “Hahaha, yeah, maybe, maybe I should've made some friends! Maybe I should've done things a bit differently!”

3:15 A.M.

“...And my mother told me that he had told her, no, you silly woman. Even Izuru Kamukura had a ladyfriend. Someone he loved. I didn't think that was at all possible! Of course Izuru Kamukura would never love someone! Haha! But he did! You know, he did! And maybe that was the moment I should've realized that I was wrong about everything, wasn't I...”

3:35 A.M.

“...And I wanted to know what it felt like, being in love, being able to trust someone for real. But I don't know how to go about that. I mean, really, all I've ever known is being taken. Hahahaha. If you ever see Rin, camera, tell her that I know, I'm pretty much the worst.”

4 A.M.

“I'm sorry, Miria.”

A sob.

“I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You deserved to live more than I did. You had someone you loved. You had something to go back to. I don't have anything. I'm nothing. I'm not even a person. I don't even exist. I've been chasing ghosts so long I became one. I'm just fake. I'm a ghost story. I bet they'll wake up and forget I ever existed.”

4:15 A.M.

“I'm sorry, Rin. I'm sorry, Claus. I'm sorry, Gavin, Luan, Stella, Yayoi, Jun, all of you, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I wanted to be friends with you, I did, I know that now, that's what I wanted, that's all I wanted. I'm sorry I ruined everything. I'm sorry.”

4:25 A.M.

“I'm sorry, Mom. I'm sorry I'm such a waste of a child. I hope you're happy wherever you are with Ms. Hashizawa. I hope you're happy there without me. Maybe you're in a good place. I'm going to hell. I know it. If hell exists then I'm going there. Maybe I'm already here. Maybe this is hell. It's too cold. I'm so cold.”

4:40 A.M.

Silence. “Maybe I should just fall asleep right here. That'd be nice.”

5 A.M.

And there was the end. Wanda's legs were struggling to keep moving after a while, but she did make it to the end. She began to laugh. It was pained, defeated, sorrowful.

“Oh, of course!” She said. “Hahahahaha! Of course!”

From the torch light, it was obvious that the room at the end of the long, long hallway was completely different from the rest of the hallway. Velvet carpeting, probably-red walls, there were hearts in the paint. Glitzy mirror, a high-tech dresser with designs Rin didn't even recognize. The mirror, at a makeup desk, was even surrounded by chintzy lightbulbs. There was a marble pillar at one area of the room.

Wanda laughed, and laughed, and laughed. She brought the camera up to her face to hold her head from laughing, even. She no longer looked like herself. She looked almost ghoulish, her face drawn. It was cold. There was frost on the lens.

“Why, it's Uncle Valky's Love Nest!” Wanda said. She threw her arms wide, or at least, one arm. “So that's what you're saying, huh, Monokuma? This is all I have waiting for me? This is all I am? Maybe, all I have to do is go to sleep, and I'll just wake back up and the last four years will have been a dream?” She kept laughing.

There was a bulletin board that Rin hadn't noticed, but Wanda seemed quite familiar with it. There was a note pinned to it, that Wanda held the camera up to along with her torch.

Hey-hey-hey, my little magical girl! It's been a while! I know you've probably missed me quite a bit, and it makes me so happy to see you back home again. You've really blossomed with age, wink wink, nudge nudge. So, here's the deal. You've done a fantastic job here, so I've got a place for you in a new show I've been writing, real cool stuff, lotsa beauty-of-humanity kinda jazz, yeah? And you can keep on with that little ghost-hunting hobby of yours. All you gotta do is play with Uncle Valky again, you dig? It's just not the same without you! Looking forward to seeing you back again! XOXO ♥♥♥

~Valkana Kago

Wanda laughed again. One last, cold laugh. Then, she raised her hand up, and she threw the camera out of her hand, towards the mirror. With a loud crash, the camera's viewpoint lay still, cracked, at the bottom of the mirror, staring directly at a photograph of a man in his 30's, with a white fedora and a goatee, in a low-cut shirt—

Blood splattered against the cracked fragments of the mirror. The camera did not move, but Rin could hear the sounds, the sounds of striking, of blood being spilled, of bone breaking, crashes against a wall? Stabbing? Slicing? Crushing? Who could say what actually happened? Only the footage Wanda's camera recorded remained.

Someone said, “I didn’t want this. Why did it happen?”

A final slump resounded.

And the camera turned off.

## Trivia

* This is the only execution in Operation V.K. in which Monokuma does not appear.