Healing Time
Kei let out a pained groan. "Ugh... it hurts..."
"Please hold on just a little longer... If I don't treat you right now, the wound might reopen..."
Kei had been injured quite a bit lately, but this was his first time being stabbed somewhere with a knife, so he couldn't help but groan through the entire treatment.
"It hurts a lot...?"
"Ah... haha, I'm fine. It's not that bad at all!! It stings a little..."
"...If it's painful, just say it's painful."
"Ah... it hurts..."
Kyoko Kirigiri, who had been watching Kei get treated from the side, sighed and quietly moved closer to his side.
"Tsumiki, you did well. I'll take over the rest of the treatment."
"Huh? From Kirigiri-san?"
"Yeah. There are a lot of people who need to be taken care of right now, aren't there? I'll handle Kei, so you can go."
"Th-then... I'll go now..."
Tsumiki hesitated for a moment before quickly leaving the room. Kei watched her go and let out a deep sigh.
"Whew... now that I think about it, she..."
"...?"
Kei suddenly sighed with a gloomy expression, and Kirigiri, who had been treating his wounds with the tools instead, tilted her head curiously.
"Why are you like that, Kei...?"
"Ah... I'm just worried about what kind of damn motive Monokuma will give us next..."
"It's fine. The motives Monokuma gives us have already lost their effect. Since the motive this time has been exposed as manipulated to all the students, there won't be any kids who still believe in motives."
"..."
Kirigiri tried to reassure him, but Kei's expression remained dark. After all, the motives that would appear from now on would be based on fabricated and forced desires.
The motive that would appear this time was the "Despair Disease." The true nature of the "Despair Disease" was that Monokuma would use a virus to cause bugs in a few of the students.
Each student who caught the Despair Disease would have different symptoms. In the original, Komada would only tell lies, Mioda would believe everything seriously, Owari would think everything negatively, and so on.
And Tsumiki's symptom... was recovering memories. What that meant was that she would return to her state as an Ultimate Despair.
The Tsumiki who returned as an Ultimate Despair would kill two students. In other words, the most dangerous person in this motive would be Tsumiki Mikan, the school nurse, who would naturally end up caring for the students if the Despair Disease spread.
"Kei...?"
"Ah, yeah..."
"What's wrong?"
"No... I'm just worried..."
"Hmph..."
Kirigiri glared at him with a doubtful look. She wanted to share information about the Despair Disease with him, but Monomi hadn't appeared since earlier.
She was probably being tormented by Monokuma after being taken by him, and without Monomi, she couldn't use her concealment function, so Monokuma would learn that Kei knew about the Despair Disease.
The Despair Disease was a powerful and ruthless motive, but at least Kei knew the details. It was better not to expose the information to Monokuma and risk an unexpected motive. Information sharing would have to wait until Monomi returned or come up with another way to pass it on.
"Um... ah, it stings!!"
"..."
Kirigiri had started disinfecting Kei's wound. He had asked her to tell him before disinfecting because it hurt, but...
"K-Kirigiri!! It hurts!!"
"Our good Kei... what kind of thoughts are you having?"
"W-what... it hurts!!"
Kirigiri sighed and peeled the gauze soaked with disinfectant from the wound, then dipped it again in the disinfectant.
"If you think deeply with that expression, you'll get kidnapped or seriously injured before long, won't you?"
"Ha... haha..."
"Laughing?"
"..."
"Tell me what happened quickly..."
Kei secretly wrote "Monomi, surveillance, dangerous information" with his finger in an angle where the CCTV couldn't see. Kirigiri stared at it for a moment before sighing.
"Haa, I don't know what it is, but... focus on treating the wound first. If you push yourself, it might reopen. We can share the information later."
"Hehe... thank you..."
"What are you thanking me for... anyway, I'll go now..."
-Knock knock
"Kei? Are you there? I'm coming in...?"
At the sound of Koizumi's voice from outside the door, Kirigiri froze for a moment before sitting back down with her legs crossed on the chair...
"Kirigiri...?"
"Shh."
She leaned against his shoulder.
"Are you doing well with the treatment? I came because I had something to tell you and things I wanted to say..."
Kirigiri leaning against Kei's shoulder made Koizumi freeze.
"Ah, wait, Tsumiki was treating you, right? I mean, here too... flirting...?"
Her face turned bright red as she started stammering, and Kirigiri glared at her.
"So, what did you come to deliver?"
"W-well... tomorrow, Ibuki is holding a live performance to commemorate everyone's unity..."
"Is there a suitable place for that?"
"Ah, you probably didn't know... Monokuma opened the third island. I looked around with the kids, and there are hospitals, live houses, electronic shopping centers, motels, and another live house... we're performing at that live house..."
"Motel...?"
"...Huh?"
"Motel, you said... are there cameras there?"
Kei Koizumi's face turned even redder at that. She trembled for a moment before closing her eyes and screaming in a high-pitched voice.
"Th-this... shameless...!! What the hell is in your head...!!"
"Huh? What are you saying?"
"M-motel... cameras..."
"I asked because I thought there might be no surveillance in spaces Monokuma couldn't monitor. Motels are private spaces, so maybe there are no cameras?"
"Ah, ah, I see... I thought..."
Koizumi fanned herself to cool her burning face before continuing to deliver the information.
"The motel... I checked it out briefly, and it had cameras installed just like the other places. And compared to our dorms, it's quite shabby. The walls are peeling paint, the faucet is rusty..."
At those words, Kirigiri spoke with a regretful tone.
"That's a shame... if there were no surveillance cameras, we could have planned an operation to avoid Monokuma's surveillance... and there were things we could have done too..."
"Things to do...?"
"...Nothing. Anyway, is that all the information?"
Koizumi scratched her head and continued.
"One more thing. The hospital opened, and the idiots with serious injuries have been transferred there. I thought it might be good for the other injured kids to go to the hospital too..."
"Ah, that's fine. I can get treated here."
"If you say so..."
Koizumi looked at Kei's wound with a dark expression. Kirigiri frowned and asked Koizumi.
"Then, since the delivery is done, what did you want to say?"
"W-well...?"
Koizumi's face turned red again as she stammered, and Kirigiri began to relentlessly interrogate her.
"You came because you had something you wanted to say to Kei, right? Then say it now."
"N-now...?"
"Why? Is it something you can't say in front of me? What kind of story...?"
"Th-that..."
"Huh? I can't hear well?"
"So..."
"Koizumi...?"
"B-because of me... you got hurt... Kei...? I mean..."
Koizumi tried to say something to Kei, but with the tension and Kirigiri's fierce questioning from the side, she kept stammering until...
"So...! S-sorry!!"
After saying that, she left Kei's room with her face bright red.
"T-this isn't..."
After that, Koizumi leaned against the closed door with her face still flushed, muttering to herself, but her mutterings only echoed hollowly into the air.
.
.
.
.
"The thing I wanted to say... was that?"
"...That's dangerous. I need to find out what new thing to put around my neck soon."
"Huh...?"
"Yeah, that's a shame... there are cameras in the motel..."
"Kirigiri...?"
Kirigiri quietly looked at him before smiling.
"Do you remember? The changing room without CCTV at Kibogaeshi Academy?"
"Ah... there...? Of course I remember. But... why there?"
"That's where it started, right? Our adventure?"
"Adventure... thinking about it, it was an adventure, haha..."
"It's really amazing... I've been watching you since then, but there are still many mysteries I can't solve... it almost feels suspicious..."
"Eh, th-that...?"
"Yeah. So..."
Kirigiri pulled her face close to his and declared boldly.
"From now on, I'll stay by your side and solve the mysteries. Your doubts."
"...!"
"So... don't go anywhere and stay by my side? You're mine."
"Heu..."
"And... I have one request..."
Kirigiri made a shy expression and whispered quietly into his ear as if someone might be listening
"From now on, call me by my name."
"U-um...!?"
"I'll be by your side... calling me by my name doesn't suit me? And only I calling you by your name... isn't that unfair?"
"I-is that so...?"
"Come on, call me by my name."
"Kyoko... Kyoko... Kyoko..."
"..."
When Kei said it with a red face, Kirigiri's face also turned red, and she muttered softly.
"Kei..."
"Kyoko..."
Without anyone deciding who went first, we simultaneously hugged each other and started kissing.
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.
"Uwaa... you guys are doing some crazy things... uwaa..."
Enoshima's Alter Ego floated in the empty space in a sea of white and spoke in a detached voice while watching the video.
"Yeah... do what you want... if you focus on that, the probability of failure will be high like last time..."
The Alter Ego had tried not to make the mistakes that the original Enoshima made, based on the data accumulated from the previous killing game, but with an emotion module, she couldn't help but get irritated.
"Uwaa... I should spread the Despair Disease virus quickly... then this time... there will be killings?"
Enoshima's Alter Ego started manipulating complex codes while humming a tune.
"Um... originally, I was going to give the Despair Disease to only three people... but adding one more shouldn't matter, right? Uwaa... uwaa... uwaa!!"
The Enoshima Alter Ego had become several times more powerful than the original Enoshima, but her pettiness had also increased.