Der Flohwalzer (ネコふんじゃった Neko funjatta lit. I Stepped on the Cat) is an execution in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, with Kaede Akamatsu being executed and Monokid being destroyed in the process.
Sequence
The execution opens with Kaede looking downward nervously with the other students watching her. A shackle that has a design of Monokuma on it connected to a long rope descends from the top of the trial room, with Kaede glancing at it. The shackle goes behind a nervous Kaede and closes around her neck, pulling her towards the trial room. Despite Kaede and Shuichi Saihara reaching out to each other, they are too far away to grab each other's hands, and Kaede is pulled up to the trial room, its entrance closing once she is inside. As the "LIVE" sign of the trial room's entrance flashes on, Kaede is dropped on her knees onto an oversized piano with a spiked cover and thorny vines, sheet music flying past her as she falls. Monokuma, wearing a black tuxedo, sits on a tall chair in front of the piano holding a baton acting as the conductor, while a crowd of other Monokumas start to gather and a large machine connected to the piano decorated with red roses featuring a cat, a pocket watch and a playing card emerges from behind it.
After laughing, Monokuma raises his baton, and the Monokubs appear on both sides of the piano, holding ropes which they pull downward. The rope is revealed to be tied around Kaede's neck, which pulls her upwards and forces her to stand up, grabbing the clasp. As Monokuma conducts, the Monokubs then start pulling her up and down, making her play a song on the piano using her body. However, Kaede begins to step on the wrong piano keys, playing so out of tune that it disgusts the crowd of Monokumas.
Suddenly, the Monokubs begin to speed up the song, pulling Kaede up and down so quickly that she finds herself unable to breathe, her face red and her eyes swirling from dizziness. Monokuma begins to swing his arms about wildly instead of actually conducting the song, due to its speed, and starts sweating. The song becomes faster and faster with the machine connected to the piano seemingly breaking until Kaede dies from asphyxiation. Just as she dies, Monokuma stops swinging his arms and stops the song, flinging drops of sweat everywhere. The lights around the piano darken, as a shocked Monokuma stands on the stool panting and Kaede's dead body continues to swing with the rope. The spiked piano cover starts to close in on Kaede's motionless body, but Monodam pushes Monokid in before it shuts completely. Kaede's corpse is destroyed by the piano cover's spikes as her blood splatters. Monokid is decapitated with almost his entire body being destroyed, leaving only small parts, and his head rolls over to the watching horrified students.
Trivia
- Kaede's execution is similar to Leon Kuwata's and Teruteru Hanamura's executions, The 1,000 Blows and Deep Fried Teruteru respectively. Both begin with the innocent students surrounding the culprit, have the culprits later pulled back by a chain on their necks and dragged to their execution. They also end with the silhouettes of the remaining students shown watching the execution.
- This execution is named after a beginner-level solo piano piece known as Der Flohwalzer (or Flea Waltz; Neko funjatta in Japanese). This is also the song that Kaede plays in the execution.
- Interestingly, the majority of the song is played with black keys, however, Kaede was shown only stepping on white keys during her execution. Furthermore, the keys she had stepped on were nowhere close to the keys that should have been played in the song.
- This is also the first execution to date to have a non-English title in the game's localization.
- Kaede's execution seems to foreshadow the other executions as well. The thorny vines on the case of the piano which is seen in Kirumi's execution, a rope as in Korekiyo's execution, a caterpillar statue that is seen during the end of the execution which is related to Gonta's talent, and the iron maiden which is used during Kaito's execution.