The Confessional
A coward's attack, using the truth as a weapon. Enoshima really was rotten to the core. Just how long had she known?
Then again, this wasn't some embarrassing "memory," and it wasn't a "past" I was desperate to keep buried, either. She must have been dying to put me through the wringer.
"Wha—!"
"H-how...?"
"How do you... know about that...?!"
The kids erupted — Naegi among them, who'd wet the bed until the fifth grade. Most of them just looked a little startled or flushed with embarrassment, but Owada's face went slack with shock before he scrambled, a beat too late, to compose himself. Fair enough. His envelope would have his trauma written right there on the page: the truth of how he'd gotten his own brother killed.
Then again, wasn't this a chance to learn the kids' dirty secrets — the ones that never even showed up in the original? No. Now was not the time for that.
With the Motive Video, I had at least tried to stop it somehow. This time, if a murder didn't happen within twenty-four hours, the fact that I knew the secrets of the killing game would be revealed to the others. No exceptions. No way out.
So maybe I should just share everything I'd already told Kirigiri — dump it all on every last one of them? The thought lasted about half a second before I realized how stupid it was.
Kirigiri could see through lies, and my words had already awakened her talent as the Ultimate Detective, so she'd had reason to trust me. The others didn't have that. If I stood there with no evidence and announced that some high school girl had ended the world, how many of them would actually believe me? They wouldn't. All I'd do is pour gasoline on the panic.
And if I wanted to keep Enoshima from sniffing out my game knowledge, I could only share information with people I trusted as much as Kirigiri — people whose heads actually worked. Did anyone like that even exist...? No. The only one I had was Kirigiri-nee.
Nnngh, Kirigiri-nee...
Anyway. If the contents of the envelope in my hand ended up getting read out in front of everyone, I needed an excuse the others could actually swallow.
"Well? You don't want it getting out, do you? Right?"
Monokuma coaxed them in a sly, intimate little voice, and Naegi shouted back.
"Yeah, they're memories I don't want anyone to know about... but still... we're not going to kill someone over something like this...!"
Fair point. Nobody was going to commit murder just because the world found out he'd drawn a map on his sheets in the fifth grade.
"....."
But the biker who'd been sitting there in total silence since the beginning? That was a different story.
"Precisely! This is utterly absurd! A murder could never occur over something so trivial!!"
"Th-that can't be..."
Monokuma's ears drooped. He started muttering, all hangdog and crestfallen.
"But memories are an important keyword connecting you to the outside world..."
Then he lifted his head, looked straight at me, and spoke with a meaning that was impossible to miss.
"And sometimes... there are truths people would do anything to keep hidden."
He was definitely talking to me. So why did Owada, standing right beside me, flinch like he'd been stabbed? Speak of a guilty conscience.
"Oh, and I've opened up the second floor to give you a bigger space to murder in, so go take a look around! That's all from me!"
And with that, Monokuma vanished.
"I was shocked, but... it kind of took the wind out of it, huh? Having a secret get out would be embarrassing, but... it wouldn't be enough to make someone kill, right...?"
"Everyone...! I have an excellent idea...! We should simply confess all of our secrets, right here and now!!"
Absolutely not. I still hadn't come up with a decent excuse. Well — Ishimaru's suggestions got ignored in this scene anyway. So it probably didn't matter.
"Very well, I shall go first! My shameful past is—!"
"I-I don't want to hear about your embarrassing past...!"
"What!?"
Ishimaru reeled at Fukawa's merciless shutdown, his face crumpling with hurt. Even for him, baring something like that took real courage — and she'd swatted it aside like it was nothing. Of course he looked wounded.
"I don't want to...! I... I don't... want to say it...!"
Fukawa's reaction made sense too, though. Her shameful secret was that she was the serial killer Genocider Syo. Who in their right mind would volunteer that information in a situation like this?
"I... it's not that I refuse. It's simply impossible."
Yeah. How was anyone supposed to live with a name like Taeko Yasuhiro? If my last name had been the same as Hagakure's first name, I wouldn't have wanted to tell a soul my real name either.
"I... I'm sorry... I don't want to say it right now... B-but...! I'll work up the courage someday, I promise...!"
Fujisaki's secret was that he was a boy who dressed as a girl. In Chapter Two of the original, he confided that to Owada and said he wanted to overcome his complex. And then Owada, jealous of Fujisaki's strength — the strength it took to lay his shame bare in front of someone else — killed him. Of course, as long as I was here, that was never going to happen.
"Well... I suppose it can't be helped..."
By that point, even Ishimaru — still a little bruised — seemed to accept it. Good. I'd bought myself time to think of an excuse. In which case...
"Um... excuse me..."
Out of nowhere, Maizono cut in. What? This never happ— no, of course it didn't. In the original, Maizono died in Chapter One, and we'd just been handed the Chapter Two motive.
"Haaah... I'm... not running away anymore."
"What's going on, Maizono? Why so sudden?"
Naegi asked, worry plain on his face. Maizono looked at him, drew a long breath, squeezed her eyes shut, and shouted.
"I...! I was in love with Naegi...!"
".....Huh?"
Silence crashed over the room.
The kids stared, blindsided by the sudden confession. I was a little thrown myself. Why was she doing this now...?
"The document I received said, 'Maizono has been in love with Naegi since middle school.' And... it was true."
".....!"
"But... the person I am now... doesn't deserve to love him..."
As she said it, Maizono looked at me — or rather, at the wound on my face. She steadied her breathing, then turned back to Naegi and went on.
"I never even thought about fighting despair. All I did was try to lean on you... And if you'd been by my side yesterday, I probably would have... used you..."
"That's—! That wasn't your fault! Anyone in a situation like this would have—!"
"You're still so kind, Naegi. But you don't have to make excuses for me. Yesterday I lost my head and came within an inch of committing murder. Everyone else was struggling just as much as I was. Maybe more."
"....."
"You must hate someone like that, right...? But after yesterday, I made a decision... For the people who believed in me and cared about me, I won't give up anymore. I'm going to keep moving forward..."
"Maizono..."
"So... until I become someone worthy of you... will you wait for me...?"
"Yeah... I'll wait as long as—"
"You'll wait forever, won't you. That's so like you, Naegi. You're too kind."
"Wait, how did you know what I was going to say!?"
"Hehe. I'm an esper, remember?"
What had I just witnessed? It was so sweet I felt like I'd swallowed a fistful of sugar. I almost wanted to whistle.
The others looked plenty secondhand-embarrassed too, squirming in place. Fukawa was trembling from head to toe, furiously scribbling something into her notebook.
A sigh drifted from beside me. I glanced over and found Kirigiri watching the two of them with an expression that was, for some reason, unmistakably relieved. She'd been giving Maizono some pretty skeptical looks earlier — but after a display of complete and genuine reform, I supposed she had every right to relax.
Anyway. Brief detour aside, it had ended on a warm note, so now we could finally...
"Ahem. Ahem. It's all coming out in twenty-four hours if nobody dies anyway, so what's everyone being so shy for? Forget it. I'll just say mine now."
Leon Kuwata? Why was he jumping in...?
"So, yeah. My little cousin's into me. Like, way into me — the clingy kind. Honestly, at first I just thought it was a pain, so I deliberately kept my distance. But no matter how hard I pushed her away, she just kept trying, and somewhere along the way I realized I cared about her too."
His cousin...? Was he talking about Kanon Nakajima — the heroine of Ultra Despair Hagakure, the unlockable side story from Ultra Despair Girls...?
All I remembered about the two of them was that she was pathologically obsessed with Leon, and that Leon treasured her enough to make her a must-save. Hearing the backstory from the guy himself felt like unlocking a lore dump, which, I had to admit, was pretty entertaining.
"I figured I just thought of her as family, you know? A precious relative. But then I saw her get kidnapped in the motive video and my heart just— dropped. Yeah. At that point I kinda had to admit it. The paper I got said, 'Leon Kuwata is in love with his cousin.' So. That's the story."
Leon finished with the look of a man who'd just put down a heavy box. Two love stories in a row. A guy who'd been single since the day he was born was not built for this. Anyway. Leon's confession was over, so now we could...
"Wait! If we're doing this anyway, I'm going too! Better to just take the hit first!"
"Nngh... it's embarrassing, but... I'd rather just get it off my chest now than spend the next twenty-four hours freaking out..."
"Ahh, what a pain. I just gotta shut my eyes and spit it out, yeah?"
"This, too, is a trial we must endure! Only those who can face the mistakes and regrets of their past and acknowledge them shall attain true enlightenment...!"
"Everyone...! What splendid resolve! With all of you showing such courage, I can hardly stand aside! Now, allow me to finish what I started...!"
Bolstered by Maizono and Leon's honesty, Asahina, Naegi, Hagakure, Yamada, and Ishimaru all piled in, and a full-blown confessional session broke out on the spot.
Asahina admitted, red-faced, that she'd once eaten thirty donuts by herself, gotten a stomachache, and missed a swim meet. Naegi sheepishly confessed that he'd wet the bed until the fifth grade. Hagakure's shameful memory was that he'd paid a hundred dollars for a knockoff crystal ball, conned someone into buying it for a thousand — and then found out the thing had been genuine all along, worth two hundred grand. The guy was impressive in all the wrong ways.
Yamada's... I erased it from my memory. It was too nasty. I could still feel my sanity ticking down in real time. Ishimaru, trembling from head to toe, forced out the story of how he'd caught a nasty cold in middle school and arrived three seconds late.
Then Fujisaki, saying he wanted to take courage from Maizono and the others, came out with the truth: he was a boy who dressed as a girl. Everyone was pretty shocked at first, but once they heard how he really felt, the mood shifted. They rallied around him.
Sakura Ogami declared that her most embarrassing memory was losing a fight to a bear at the age of seven. How does a seven-year-old even get into a fight with a bear? And then, she added, she spent two years in disciplined training and won the rematch at nine. At that point I was starting to be genuinely afraid of how strong Ogami was now.
"Wh-what is wrong with you people... Why did you all suddenly get so honest...! Even so... I can't... A... a... ACHOO!!!"
Fukawa had been in the middle of swearing she would take her secret to the grave — and then she sneezed, became Genocider Syo, and started spilling her identity to the entire room.
"Yeees~! The Ultimate Murderous Fiend, Genocider Syo, has arrived!!! My real name is the pathetic Toko Fukawa, but whatever!!"
"G-Genocider Syo? You mean the serial killer...!?"
"What's the big deal if I've got two personalities! What's the big deal if one of 'em's a murderer! Everybody's allowed one little flaw!! Kyahahaha!!"
"What a wretched farce... I'll be investigating the second floor."
"Fwaaaaah! Byakuya-niiii! It's been so looong! But that thing you're holding right now — don't tell me... a marriage contract!?"
"Wh-what...?"
Byakuya Togami had been about to walk out, declaring he would not dignify this circus with his presence — and then Genocider Syo, who had mistaken the document in his hand for a marriage contract, snatched it right off him.
"Byakuya Togami believed ghosts were real until the age of nine and slept with the lights on? Oh. My. GOOOOD! This is it! This is gap moe!!!"
Genocider Syo, wound up to a fever pitch, lunged at Togami — who was grinding his teeth so hard he was shaking — and got pinned instantly by Ogami. How had Enoshima even dug that up?
More importantly... this girl didn't seem to have had her memories wiped. Through Genocider Syo, I might be able to learn things I didn't already know. I'd have to find a way to approach her later.
"So... who's next...?"
The ones who still hadn't gone public were Celeste, Kirigiri, Owada, Ikusaba, and me. Five people.
The ones left weren't going to give up their secrets easily. Celeste wasn't the type to honestly spill something like that, and Owada would need time — the truth sitting in his envelope was a trauma raw enough that, in another life, he'd committed murder over it.
Ikusaba had been suspiciously quiet this whole time, which only made her more suspicious. Her face hadn't twisted the way Owada's had, but she was the mastermind. Enoshima might have already given her orders. I needed to watch her.
And Kirigiri — why was she so quiet? She wasn't the type to casually bare a secret, sure, but she looked uneasy in a way I couldn't quite place. Had Enoshima written something humiliating about her father? That woman really did have a gift for putting her fingers in other people's wounds.
"You lot. So you've chosen to keep your secrets to the bitter end. Very well. From this moment on, I have no choice but to regard you as potential killers."
"T-Togami, that's going too far..."
"Too far? How, exactly? If only a handful of people had spoken up, I might have let it go — but the majority have already revealed their secrets. Which means the probability that a killer will emerge from those five within twenty-four hours is extremely high. Do you simpletons need even a fact this obvious spelled out for you?"
Togami looked at those of us who hadn't spoken with an expression of pure distaste. His own shame had already been paraded in front of everyone, and now a pack of commoners wouldn't even open their mouths. Of course he was angry. And Togami starting to assert himself was usually the first rumble of a much bigger fight...
"Therefore, you five will be staying apart from the rest of us for the time being."
"....!"
"We will investigate the second floor. You can kill each other on the first floor or not — I don't care. The entrance will be watched closely, so I suggest you abandon any clever ideas about sneaking upstairs."
"Wh-who do you think you—"
Ikusaba started to protest, her voice thick with resentment — but Genocider Syo, who had been sitting quietly after Ogami restrained her, darted to Togami's side in a flash and started throwing her weight around.
"Haaaah!? Are you talking back to our Togami right now??? Hmm? Who even are you??? Haven't we met somewhere before???"
Ikusaba froze for a second, startled — then her expression went flat and cold, and she backed down. Genocider Syo had probably figured out who she really was.
For the moment Syo only had eyes for Togami and didn't seem to care much beyond that. The problem was what Ikusaba would do next. For just an instant, her face had been terrifying.
"Byakuya-niiii~!? I chased off that nasty little spoilsport!!! I did good, riiight???"
"Hmph."
Damn it. He barely said a word, which meant Togami had already clocked how useful Genocider Syo could be and was going to put her to work.
"I... am of the same mind. Given the circumstances we now face... we cannot afford uncertainty at a time such as this."
Damn it. Now Ogami was chiming in too. Pushing back was going to be impossible. And that meant I wouldn't be able to keep an eye on Ogami... Had that been the point all along...?
"For the next twenty-four hours, you will remain on the first floor. We will remain on the second. During nighttime hours, we will switch. I have no intention of sleeping in the same place as a pack of potential killers."
"B-but the rules say you can't sleep in the halls... That's too harsh..."
"Then simply reveal your secret. I see no reason to accommodate people who are advertising their willingness to commit murder."
Naegi tried to step in, but Togami's mind was made up. He'd come in a little hard, but he wasn't exactly wrong, and the others were starting to nod along.
"But if you do that, those people will be in danger all night..."
"And what does that have to do with me?"
"...What?"
"This is that kind of game. A game in which, so long as I can protect my own well-being, I couldn't care less what happens to anyone else."
"But that's—!"
Maizono tried to argue, but Togami didn't leave her a gap. He just kept going.
"I'm tired of listening to you people. I'll be heading to the second floor. Anyone who isn't one of those five is welcome to follow. If you'd rather not — stay here with the potential killers."
And with that, Togami took Genocider Syo as his escort and went upstairs.
Everyone except the five of us who'd kept our mouths shut told us they were sorry for suspecting us, but they still needed to investigate the second floor, and Togami had a point, so please just hang on for twenty-four hours. Then they were gone.
And just like that, I was dropped into a death group with Kirigiri-nee — a group that also happened to contain the mastermind, the killer from Chapter Two, and the killer from Chapter Three.