New Challenger
"Upupupu... Talk about impeccable timing... barging in with thirty seconds left until ten o'clock..."
"Hinata! Hurry!"
"...Ngh!"
Hinata clenched his teeth against the pain tearing through his gut and snatched the paper off the table.
With that, Hinata scrawled YES across the paper and shoved it into the ballot box.
"Fifty-three seconds, fifty-three... that was a close one..."
"Monokuma! That makes the vote ten in favor and five against! Twice the opposing votes don't exceed the votes in favor! This vote is... a victory for the monitors...!"
"I already know that, so quit explaining!! Take this! Monokuma Punch!"
Monomi took the rocket punch Monokuma fired and went sailing into the distance. On any other day the scene would have looked pretty pathetic, but this time she had come through in a big way, so it didn't look pathetic at all.
Atta girl, Monomi...!
I was praising her inwardly when Komaeda started muttering beside me.
"This isn't the hope I wanted... I was hoping for something a little more magnificent..."
"Would you shut your damn mouth already, you deranged hope-freak."
"Shut up."
"Komaeda, I'm sorry, but I need you to close your mouth."
"....."
Under the combined glare of me, Kirigiri, and Nanami, Komaeda immediately clammed up and started scratching his head.
"Komaeda... your theory of hope is wrong..."
Hinata forced the words out between labored breaths.
"Hope can... get crushed by despair... just like that..."
"....."
"So don't... get in everyone's way... with your delusions... when they're working so hard... to keep that from happening..."
"....."
"...Ngh!"
The moment he'd driven the point home, Hinata clutched his stomach and crumpled to the floor.
"H-Hinata...!"
"Tsumiki, hurry...!"
"I-I told you not to puuush yourself...!"
Tsumiki and Togami propped up the writhing Hinata and helped him out of the cafeteria. For a while, silence hung over the room.
"...What a shame."
The one who broke it was none other than Monokuma. Perched on the edge of the table, he fixed his gaze on Monomi, who was still trembling in a heap far across the room.
"Monomi... why do you keep talking back to me like that...?"
"I-I can't just stand by... and watch you do these things...!"
"Fine, struggle all you want... before the last scraps of your authority get hacked too...! Upupupupu...!"
"M-my authority...!"
"Oh, right — things were starting to get boring anyway, so how about a little change of pace? I'll be opening the second island, so be sure to pay it a visit! That's all for now!"
And with that, Monokuma vanished.
"I'll protect everyone... no matter what it takes...!"
Monomi cried out in a voice thick with frustration, then disappeared as well, leaving only the students in the cafeteria.
"...So, what do we do now?"
"Night's already fallen, so we'll put exploring the second island off until tomorrow. First things first — we deal with him. Everyone agreed?"
The others nodded in silence. Then they subdued Komaeda — who had kept his mouth shut until that very moment — as violently as they could without it technically counting as assault, trussed him up tight, and hauled him off toward the hotel.
"Whew... we hit a few snags, but it all worked out in the end."
"The real problem is what comes next. We need to stay sharp from here on out."
"I hope Hinata's going to be okay..."
After dumping Komaeda in the hotel warehouse together, everyone went their separate ways. It was late, and they had finished what they came to do.
Nanami, Kirigiri, and I no longer needed to stick together now that we had won the vote, but after spending the last few days in each other's pockets, we naturally fell into conversation as we walked.
"Kei. A word."
"Hm? Togami...?"
Togami had appeared in front of us out of nowhere, and he looked like he had something to say.
Come to think of it, I had asked Togami to stop anyone who tried to play the game. But judging by Koizumi's reaction, Kuzuryu — who had already played it — had sent a threatening letter to Koizumi, someone connected to one of his classmates. So what exactly had happened?
"About that favor you asked of me last time. I'm afraid I have to apologize. I failed to stop Kuzuryu from playing the game."
"Kuzuryu did...?"
"I tried to stop him when I saw him approaching the console, but he'd already caught me playing it myself. He asked me why I was allowed to play if he wasn't. I didn't have much choice but to step aside."
"Hmm..."
"I could have forced the issue, of course, but stirring up any more trouble in that situation would have been bad for everyone. Sorry I couldn't keep my word..."
"It's fine. You did what you could. Thanks for trying, Togami."
"...I'll be going, then."
So it was Kuzuryu who had played the game and sent Koizumi that threatening letter. If I left this alone, Chapter 2 could repeat itself. I needed a plan, and I needed it fast.
Fortunately, we were the ones holding the Clear Bonus that had gone to Kuzuryu in the original. He probably hadn't seen it, which meant he still couldn't tell whether the game's contents were real or fake.
In other words, as long as the Clear Bonus stayed hidden, we might be able to stop Kuzuryu's spiral more easily than expected. I was going to have to be extremely careful about keeping it under wraps.
"Hey — the Clear Bonus. Where is it right now?"
"Ah...! I hid it in the hotel restaurant!"
"Hmm... It was fine while we were stationed at the hotel around the clock, but now that we're not staying there anymore, leaving it there is a little..."
"I'll take care of it."
"Oh. Then I'll leave it to you... Let's split up here."
Kirigiri headed back to the hotel, Nanami toward the cottages, and I was left alone.
...Damn it.
The moment I was by myself, the bright expression I'd been forcing crumpled, and a long, heavy sigh escaped me.
The hard part is still ahead.
Today's incident had been a victory — the first one I'd tasted in a long time — and yet I couldn't bring myself to feel glad about it. Of course I couldn't. We hadn't even stopped a motive or a murder. All we'd won was the right to walk around freely.
We still hadn't resolved the motive we'd been given. And even if we did, the third motive and the fourth... just imagining them made my skin crawl. Honestly, I didn't have the faintest idea how to handle them.
The third and fourth are basically just... "someone has to die." God. What the hell am I supposed to do...
And it wasn't just the motives. Monokuma's attitude had changed, too — different from the last killing game. He had been plenty cheap last time, but in this killing game his cheapness had multiplied several times over.
The cause was probably the fact that this killing game had a different purpose than the last one. Thanks to that, just thinking about what lay ahead made my chest tighten and my breath run short.
Standing here brooding isn't going to change anything. I should pull myself together and... no, pulling myself together won't solve this either... haah...
I tried to gather my mental fortitude and flip into positive mode the way I usually did, but the stress had piled up so high lately that forcing myself into that headspace was brutally hard. After standing there sighing for a while, I headed for Jabberwock Park, hoping to clear my head.
"Haaah... I'm losing my mind..."
I tried meditating as I walked through the park at night, but my nerves showed no sign of settling. Still, wandering around had to be better than standing still, so I spent a long time drifting through the darkened grounds.
Come to think of it, taking a stroll in the middle of the night like this would have been unthinkable in my old life. But I had already survived too many brushes with death to be scared of a dark street. If anything, it was so deserted I was starting to yawn...
"I told you!! I don't know anything about that!!!"
"Jesus!!"
A shout rang out of nowhere and I screamed. Clutching my pounding heart, I looked toward the source of the noise — and found Koizumi and Kuzuryu glaring at me.
"The hell are you...?"
"This asshole just screamed out of nowhere... you gonna get lost or what?"
On any other day I would have tucked my tail and run. But the people fighting happened to be Koizumi and Kuzuryu, so I couldn't exactly do that.
"What are you two doing out here?"
"Mind your own goddamn business and walk, dumbass...!"
"Whoa, why the language..."
"You lookin' for a fight...?"
Watching Kuzuryu spit curses with his face twisted up, I felt a sudden, powerful urge to flick him in the forehead. I barely suppressed the impulse and took a closer look at the two of them. Kuzuryu was wound up tight; Koizumi was trembling with anxiety.
"I don't know what's going on, but Koizumi looks pretty shaken. Maybe ease up a little..."
"This is between us, so stay the hell out of it!! Don't make me say it twice..."
"Ah, you foul-mouthed little shrimp."
He's way too worked up. Someone needs to calm him down first... what could have him this angry...?
"Wh... what...!?"
Ah. I had accidentally said that last part out loud.
Kuzuryu clearly hadn't expected to get sworn at. He stared at me with a blank look, then his face went red and he started shouting.
"Shrimp!? Did you just call me a 'shrimp'!? You son of a bitch!!"
I hadn't expected him to react more violently to "shrimp" than to the actual cursing. I was about to apologize — but letting that one insult fly had felt so good that all the resentment I'd bottled up from the last killing game through today came surging out at once.
...Fine. I was going to close my eyes and let it rip. If I didn't vent somehow, the stress was going to drive me insane before long.
"Yeah, that's right, you little shrimp! You're a pint-sized brat who does nothing but bitch and moan all damn day!!"
"....."
"....."
Getting that off my chest felt so incredibly good I could have floated away. I should have unloaded on Komaeda like this too. Tomorrow I'd have to track him down and finish the job...
".....!"
A wave of murderous intent slammed into me so hard I whipped around — and found Pekoyama striding toward us, her eyes wide and blazing. With every step she took, the killing intent grew thicker, until I could barely breathe. The emergency buzzer hanging around my neck flashed through my mind and I reached for it, but—
Pekoyama casually intercepted the hand moving toward the buzzer with her wooden sword, whispered the words like ice against my skin, and walked past.
"Kuzuryu. Someone's looking for you. Follow me."
"....."
Kuzuryu and Pekoyama moved off, still radiating bloodlust, leaving Koizumi and me behind.
Did I... almost just die...?
If I'd been alone, I'd probably be a victim by now, buried somewhere in this park. A sudden chill crawled over my whole body. Yeah. The acting-out ended tonight.
"H-hh..."
"Hm?"
A strange sound came from beside me. I turned my head and found Koizumi sitting on the ground. Not surprising — she'd already been shaking with anxiety, and then she'd felt Pekoyama's killing intent on top of it.
"Hey, Koizumi... you okay?"
"....."
"Here. Take my hand and stand up slowly."
"Nn..."
I took her hand and helped her up. Koizumi kept her eyes down, her face deathly pale.
"Th-thank you... for helping me..."
"It was nothing. Anyway... you've got a lot on your mind, don't you? Get a good night's sleep and pull yourself together, then come see me tomorrow for a session. I'll do everything I can to help — that's what the Ultimate Counselor's talent is for."
Part of me wanted to talk about the motive right then and there, but she was in no condition for it, so I put the counseling off until tomorrow.
"...Okay."
"I'll see you tomorrow, then. It's late, so get back safe."
With that, I headed for my cottage for the first time in days, ready to finally shake off the stress and exhaustion that had been piling up.
"What's with him... sticking his neck out for no reason... like an idiot..."
Meanwhile, Koizumi watched Kei's back fade into the darkness, her face flushed as she muttered to herself.