Aftermath
"Ugh..."
SLAP!
"....."
SLAP!
"H-hey, Kirigiri... maybe it's time to stop and... talk this out..."
SLAAAP!!
Incandescent with rage, Kirigiri slapped Pekoyama and Kuzuryu across the face until her own hands were shredded raw and bleeding. The kids who stepped forward to stop her could only shuffle backward when they met her ice-cold stare.
SLAP!!
"Kirigiri..."
SLAAAP!!
"Kirigiri...!"
Freed from his restraints with the kids' help, Kei called out to her in a desperate, aching voice — but Kirigiri only raised her hand again, her expression vacant, stripped of everything that made it hers.
"Kyoko!!!"
".....!"
She was already winding up to strike Pekoyama and Kuzuryu again when Kei called her by her given name and wrapped his arms around her from behind. Only then did she come back to herself.
"Kirigiri... stop..."
"What...?"
"That's enough. Please... just stop..."
"Let go of me. Right now. This isn't nearly enough for what they—"
"You idiot!! I said stop!!"
".....?"
For the first time, Kei raised his voice at her and seized her hand. Blood and fluid seeped from the palm he held.
"I already feel sick every time I look at your hands. What are you thinking, tearing them up like this...?"
His voice broke as he spoke. Kirigiri's hands fell limp at her sides, and when she answered him, she was trembling.
"I told you... not to come back... hurt..."
"You're one to talk. You were going to throw yourself away too."
"....."
Silence stretched between them. Then Kirigiri opened her mouth again.
"I'm sorry too... for throwing myself into it like that..."
"....."
"But this isn't the first time with you. Or the second."
"I'm sorry..."
"So from now on... I'm never going to let you fight alone again."
She tightened her grip on the hand she was already holding. Blood ran faster from her torn palm. She didn't flinch. She looked at Kei and finished, her voice steady.
"Kirigiri..."
They held each other's gaze for a long moment, then walked through the gathered kids with their hands locked tight. The others stared after them, dazed — until a sudden voice pulled every head back around.
"I... I..."
Kuzuryu had been touching the blood running down his swollen cheeks. All at once he dropped to his knees in front of everyone, pressed his forehead to the floor in a full prostration, and began to speak in a shaking voice.
"This... this ending..."
"So? What is it you want to say?"
"I... I'm sorry..."
"You're trying to apologize? Now?"
Kirigiri's voice was ice and contempt. Kuzuryu swallowed hard, squeezed his eyes shut, drew a deep breath — and then—
CRACK!!
"Kyaaah!!"
"W-what are you doing?!"
"Wh-what..."
He slammed his head into the floor with everything he had.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
"...What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Urgh..."
He kept driving his skull into the floor. Blood began to well from his horribly crushed forehead like a spring.
"This whole thing... was all on my orders. So... whatever punishment you give me... I'll take it."
The kids watched in silence as he spoke, trembling from head to foot. The silence that followed was thick and uncomfortable — until Kei suddenly shouted.
"Don't!!"
He snatched a chair off the floor and hurled it with everything he had.
"...Ghk."
"Wh-what was that!?"
"A... a dagger...?"
Pekoyama had drawn a blade from inside her clothes and was driving it toward her own stomach. The flying chair caught her dead-on, knocking the dagger off course so that it punched into her side instead.
"Why..."
"You thought seppuku would settle this?"
".....!"
"I... I have committed a sin that can never be washed away. I'll give my life, so please... spare the Young Master..."
Pekoyama pleaded with us in a desperate voice, the dagger still buried in her side. I stared at her and let my thoughts turn over.
If I'd just left her alone just now... Pekoyama would definitely have died.
In the original, Kuzuryu commits seppuku too — but if Pekoyama, the Ultimate Swordswoman and an assassin of the Kuzuryu family, had been serious about opening her own stomach, the odds of bringing her back would have been vanishingly slim. I'd been watching them both for exactly this, in case one of them tried it. I hadn't stopped it completely. But at least I'd stopped them from actually dying.
"N-no! I'll offer my life, so please... forgive Peko... I'm begging you...!"
"Young Master...!"
Watching the two of them launch into a full-blown melodrama, I couldn't help but sigh. How had things gotten this tangled?
Well... I didn't know why, exactly. The fact that the Twilight Syndrome Murder Case had been a play — that fate had been rewritten so that nobody died — that much was good. But those two, even if they hadn't murdered Koizumi the way they did in the original, had still committed crimes nearly as serious. Just listing the charges that came to mind — kidnapping, unlawful confinement, torture, threats, attempted murder — it was a parade of felonies. Leave it to a pair of yakuza to go all out.
In the original they were meant to be redeemed and become allies, so the remorse they felt now was probably genuine. The problem was how the kids would take it. Nobody was going to laugh this off and move on just because it had all been a play.
"The people you need to ask forgiveness from are already decided, aren't they?"
I turned toward the sudden voice. Koizumi had come back to herself and been getting the situation from Saionji. She stood with her arms crossed, glaring at Kuzuryu and Pekoyama.
"You start with me, Kei, and Kirigiri. That's first. Isn't it?"
"Th-then...!"
"But I don't want to forgive you."
".....!"
Kuzuryu and Pekoyama froze at Koizumi's merciless words. She pressed them harder.
"Sure, I got fooled too, and given the situation maybe there wasn't much choice. But you took the motive the mastermind handed you at face value, kidnapped us without even listening to an explanation, and treated us however you wanted. If that motive had been real, you were going to kill us. Weren't you?"
"....."
"You think I can just forgive that?"
They stared at her with hollow faces. Koizumi looked at them, sighed, and spoke again.
"So... I'll decide based on how you act from here on."
"Th-then that means...!"
"Don't get the wrong idea. I haven't forgiven you. Honestly, forgiveness or not, I don't even want to look at your faces. But the one who's really to blame is Monokuma, for planning all of this. So I'm giving you one last chance."
"Ahh..."
"That leaves two."
She finished and looked at me and Kirigiri. I gave her a small smile, then turned to the two of them.
"You two made a serious mistake. You came within a breath of destroying the hope everyone has been fighting to hold onto."
Their faces darkened. I kept going.
"I can't tell you to laugh it off just because it was a play. If you'd only hurt me, maybe. But you hurt everyone."
"We have no excuse..."
"....."
"So do what Koizumi said. From now on, you contribute as much as the damage you caused. If you can do that... I'll consider forgiving you."
When I finished, Kuzuryu and Pekoyama looked at Kirigiri.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Want me to hit you again?"
They flinched. She glared at them and spat the words out.
"For the time being, you crawl around and serve these kids like dogs. If you slack off even a little... you'd better be ready."
When she was done, Kuzuryu addressed everyone in a trembling voice.
"We deserve to die... thank you for giving us a chance. So from this moment on... I will devote my life to serving you...!"
CRACK!!!
The instant the words left his mouth, Kuzuryu slammed his head into the floor again with everything he had. Soaked in the blood that had sprayed from the impact, he lost consciousness.
"I will never forget... the sin I committed today... for as long as I live..."
Meanwhile Pekoyama pulled the dagger from her side and drove it deep into her own thigh. She collapsed with a groan, yanked the blade free, rammed it into her other thigh, and slammed her head into the floor with all her strength, just as Kuzuryu had.
CRACK!!!
"To those of us who have committed sins that can never be washed away... you have given a chance at atonement. I am deeply grateful. From this moment on... I will stake my life on helping you..."
CRACK!! CRACK!! CRACK!!
As Pekoyama kept pounding her head against the floor, Tsumiki finally couldn't take it anymore and screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Th-that's enough!! Please stop hurting yourselves alreadyyyyy!! As the health committee member, I can't just stand here and watch this anymooore!!!"
Tsumiki's cry was the signal. The kids grabbed Pekoyama and stopped her from slamming her head any further, then hoisted the unconscious Kuzuryu onto their shoulders and carried him outside.
"Hah... we went through a lot, but in the end, nobody died this time either. Thank god..."
I sighed as I watched them go. Then Kirigiri's eyes suddenly flashed, and she spoke in a voice that had gone completely serious.
"Wait. There's still an unanswered question in all of this."
The kids who had thought it was over — who had finally started to let themselves breathe — went rigid. Leaving their newly tense faces behind her, Kirigiri turned to Pekoyama, who was still being held up by the others, blood pouring off her, and asked:
"How did you two find out about the Clear Privilege? That's information only Nanami — who was the first to clear the game — and Kei and I, who actually received it, should have known."
"I... I heard it from the Young Master..."
"When?"
"This morning... the Young Master went to deliver a meal to Komaeda in my place, and when he came back... he was shaking all over, and he told me..."
At those words, every one of us quietly turned to look at the warehouse visible beyond the wide-open banquet hall doors.
"Everyone. Don't go so far that he dies."
The kids, furious beyond measure, were cracking their knuckles with ugly little sounds — when Monokuma suddenly popped up in front of them.
"Upupupu...! Great news, everyone! I've finally finished restoring School Rule Number One, which had been deactivated!! Now you can walk around without worrying about getting hit by anyo— huh? What's going on here...?"
Dark circles hung all the way down his face. He delivered the announcement in a forced, cheerful voice, looking hollowed-out — then sensed something was off and tilted his head.
I didn't so much as glance at him. I just stared at the tightly shut warehouse door with a look of utter resignation and muttered under my breath.
"That bastard really does have the luck of the devil..."