I woke to Monokuma's morning announcement, a grotesque little ritual that had already become part of daily life.
"Ugh... my whole body aches..."
At least there had been sleeping bags in the supermarket, so we hadn't been forced to sleep directly on the floor. Still, sleeping in one of those was nothing like sleeping in a real bed, and every inch of me felt stiff and sore.
When I looked around, Nanami and Kyoko Kirigiri were already awake and getting ready to head outside.
"You're up?"
"Yeah..."
"Good. Then get ready. We'll need to head out soon."
"Today... I have to apologize to Hinata. No matter what..."
Yesterday's motive still left my thoughts in turmoil, but there was no time to sit around in a daze. I had to get ready and go persuade the neutral group.
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Knock knock knock
Just as we were finishing our preparations to leave, someone knocked on the door.
"Um, I brought breakfast."
"Ah, Koizumi? Thanks."
Koizumi had come to bring us breakfast. As I accepted the meal she held out, I casually tossed her a question.
"Koizumi, where do you stand on today's vote...?"
"...Honestly? I don't really trust you guys that much. But in a situation like this, that can't be helped, right?"
She had a point. Blindly trusting suspicious people in a situation like this would be idiotic.
"Yeah, I get it. But if today's vote ends with everyone deciding to trust us, then I hope you'll watch what we do after that and reconsider."
"...I do intend to accept the result of the vote. And depending on how you act from here on, I'm willing to change my position too. So you'd better not try anything stupid."
Koizumi disliked unreliable men and had a bit of a prickly personality, but fundamentally, she was still one of the more sensible people here.
If we could earn her trust, it'd definitely help. But for now, it didn't seem likely that she'd lower her guard.
"By the way, this is a pretty impressive breakfast. Did you pick it out yourself? Thanks, seriously..."
"It's nothing much... Haaah. If only that Komaeda guy would just quietly eat what he's given like you do..."
"Huh? Why Komaeda...?"
"Actually, before I came here, I went to bring him food first... and would you believe it? He said he didn't want rice and asked me to bring him toast instead. Does he even understand his position right now?"
Watching Koizumi fume with a look of pure disbelief, I suddenly remembered the game from last night.
In the original story, Koizumi received a letter from Kuzuryu, then got talked into going to play the game by Komaeda. And right now... this was exactly that timing. No way...
"Um... Komaeda didn't happen to say anything else, did he?"
"Honestly, even tied up like that, he still deserves— huh? What did you say...?"
"I mean... did Komaeda say anything... suggestive? Anything with some hidden meaning..."
The moment I said that, Koizumi forced an awkward smile and started to stammer.
"Nng...? Wh-what are you talking about...? I-I have no idea...?"
"....."
"A-anyway, I just remembered I have something to do... so I'll be going...!"
Yeah. Komaeda had definitely done something very Komaeda-like again.
If Koizumi was reacting like that, then there was a very high chance she'd gotten a letter from Kuzuryu.
I'd asked Pigami to keep watch and see if anyone tried to play the game in preparation for Kuzuryu making a move, but... had he failed to stop him?
This was bad. If Koizumi ended up playing the game too, things could get seriously dangerous. I had to stop her before she—
"Wait. Where do you think you're going?"
I hurried after Koizumi to stop her, only to have Pekoyama block me at the entrance.
"N-no, it's just..."
"Didn't we agree that no one goes out until everyone has finished breakfast, and that at least two guards must accompany them?"
"....."
And so, it wasn't until everyone had finished breakfast that I was finally able to leave the old building with Kyoko Kirigiri and Nanami, my heart heavy with unease.
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Before leaving the old building, we'd discussed how to use the little time we had left before the evening vote.
Kyoko Kirigiri had originally planned to move with me today, but after staring at me for a moment in thought, she muttered that if I ran into the students opposing us, something bad would probably happen.
When I asked what that was supposed to mean, she looked at me, let out a sigh, and declared that she'd go persuade the opposition by herself.
Then Nanami said she wanted to go apologize to Hinata, which naturally left me with the role of persuading the remaining neutral students.
So in the end, Nidai was assigned to accompany Nanami, Owari was assigned to Kyoko Kirigiri, and Souda—who happened to show up saying he had business of his own—got stuck with me as a substitute guard.
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"Hey...! K...! Help me...!"
"Hm...? What's wrong..."
"Look over there! Over there!!"
I followed Souda's blazing stare and saw Sonia and Tanaka talking together.
"My, your hamsters seem quite lively today as well, Tanaka!"
"Do not be deceived by appearances. These creatures are my loyal retainers, the Four Dark Devas of Destruction. Should an ordinary mortal witness their true forms, their sanity would never survive the revelation—"
"In the Novoselic Kingdom, we have a saying: if you wish to understand a person's character, look at the animals they raise. According to that saying... Tanaka, you must be a truly wonderful person."
"Th-thank you..."
At Sonia's praise, Tanaka turned his eyes away and hid part of his face behind his scarf. Watching that scene, I couldn't help smiling.
"Wow... that's sweet."
"No! It being sweet is bad!! You said you'd help me!!"
Souda shouted, practically on the verge of tears. Right... those two were part of the neutral group. This was the perfect chance to persuade them.
"Uh... hey there...?"
"K, is it? It feels like it's been a while since we've spoken..."
"Familiar, why do you wander alone after abandoning your master?"
"...Huh?"
"So the contract between servant and master is a loose one. I see... perhaps the terms of a pact truly do vary according to the sorcerer's tastes..."
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but... anyway, I happened to see you two talking as I passed by... and I thought maybe we could chat for a bit..."
"With us?"
"Yeah, um... well..."
I had boldly said I wanted to talk, but now that I was standing there, I had no idea what to say.
After frantically turning it over in my head for a moment, I reluctantly decided to use my cheat code: knowledge from my previous life.
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"To think that Kirakira-chan, who was active in Spain, was actually Japanese...! That's incredible...! How in the world did you uncover their identity!?"
"K-Kyoko Kirigiri and I are a famous detective duo, you know... hahaha..."
"What was that person's name again...? Hi... Hiji..."
"Takumi Hijirihara. He's the kind of guy who roams bizarre crime scenes and kills murderers. Figuring out his identity was pretty difficult, though..."
"Th-then...! D-do you also know the true identity of Genocide Jack...!?"
"I-I do know it, but..."
"I-I'll do anything, so please tell me...!"
To win Sonia and Tanaka over, I made full use of every scrap of knowledge I had.
I started by saying I wanted to get closer to them and just chat a little, then gradually steered the conversation toward serial killers Kyoko Kirigiri and I had supposedly investigated together, slipping in exactly the kind of information that would make Sonia's eyes light up.
Thanks to her delightfully off-kilter taste for obscure and bizarre things, Sonia had always been fascinated by serial killers. Just as I'd expected, the moment I brought up Kirakira and Genocide Jack, her eyes began to sparkle and she warmed to me immediately.
Thank God I'd read the Danganronpa side manga [Killer Killer], where the true identity of Kirakira-chan—the one Sonia mentioned in the library in Chapter 2, and the one Pekoyama later imitated in the trial while wearing a mask—was revealed.
I felt a little bad for Hijirihara and Fukawa, whose identities and murder records had just been broadcast to the Future Foundation out of nowhere, but what could I do? Besides, the Future Foundation had recruited Fukawa knowing exactly who she was, so that probably wasn't an issue.
Though... Hijirihara was working for the Future Foundation too, wasn't he? Had his identity already been exposed?
Eh. Whatever.
He was the kind of person who wandered all over the place carving up murderers anyway... and even if he was from a side manga, he had protagonist privilege. He'd probably manage somehow.
"Hooh... so you have accessed the [Heart-Pounding Breeding Diary] site. Not bad for a mere familiar. However, you shall never grasp its true essence—"
"Um... Tanaka... actually..."
"What is it...?"
"I'm also... a member of the secret wizard organization..."
"What...!?"
As I leaned in and whispered that to Tanaka, I felt a truly excruciating level of secondhand embarrassment. [Heart-Pounding Breeding Diary] was a site run by Tanaka, supposedly dedicated to the animals he raised.
But judging from the things Tanaka said in the game, there was a high chance it was really a site where he shared his chuunibyou tastes with like-minded subscribers. So I cautiously dangled the bait... and landed a monster catch.
"How terrifying... This is no domain a mere familiar could trespass upon lightly... Just how fearsome must the magical power of that girl who commands you be...?"
"Well, I'm the weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings she commands, though."
"Th-that cannot be...!"
Ignoring the goosebumps crawling all over my skin, I played along with Tanaka's chuunibyou act for a while, and before long, we'd become surprisingly close. Sure, it would probably make him more of a hassle for a while... but if it helped us win the vote, I could live with that.
"So then, everyone... please vote for us today!"
"Of course! There's no way Ms. Kyoko Kirigiri, a hunter of serial killers, and you could possibly be the bad side! I've decided to trust all of you now!"
"My true power has not yet returned... If I were to confront you head-on now, I would suffer grievous losses indeed. Our duel shall be postponed until after we escape this place, when the restraints binding me and the Four Dark Devas have been lifted..."
"Haha, thanks, you two! See you later!"
I was just about to go find Kyoko Kirigiri, feeling much lighter than before, when—
"I-I... I wanted to talk to Sonia just once..."
"Huh...? Souda...? What's wrong?"
"...I'm switching sides. I'm voting against trusting you....."
"Uh... uh...?"
I ended up wasting a ridiculous amount of time trying to soothe Souda after he got spectacularly sulky.
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"At last... it's time."
"Whew... I just hope this goes well..."
"...Everyone, let's do our best."
Time passed, and evening—the hour of the vote—finally arrived.
Nanami, Kyoko Kirigiri, and I gathered at the entrance to the dining hall and shared the results of everything we'd done that day.
"Nanami, did your apology to Hinata go okay?"
"Yeah... I apologized as sincerely as I could. Thankfully, Hinata accepted it with a smile, but... it still doesn't feel like enough. Is there some way I can show him how serious I am?"
"Hmm... what about giving him a present? That Monokuma vending machine has all kinds of stuff in it. I'll lend you some of the coins I've picked up here and there, so why not give it a try?"
"Th-thank you...!"
"It's nothing, really. More importantly, Kyoko Kirigiri, how did things go for you?"
When I asked, Kyoko Kirigiri answered with a frown.
"The students opposing us are far too wary. Kuzuryu cursed me out the moment I approached him and drove me away, and Pekoyama refused to speak to me at all."
"Hmm..."
"As for Koizumi and Saionji... the moment I appeared anywhere near them, they quietly slipped away before I even had the chance to start a conversation. If they're that guarded, forcing the issue would only backfire."
"That's a shame, but... I guess it can't be helped. At least it seems like we've won over Sonia and Tanaka, and Nidai and Owari seem to view us pretty favorably too... though I'm not sure about Tsumiki..."
The moment Tsumiki came up, Kyoko Kirigiri smiled.
"Don't worry. I've already persuaded Tsumiki."
"Ohhh... impressive..."
"...Then let's head into the dining hall."
"Yeah..."
And so, the three of us stepped into the dining hall with tension coiled tight inside our chests.
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"So? What do you think...? Komaeda...?"
"Ahaha... how despair-inducing. It's perfect fertilizer for hope..."
"Upupupupupupu..."
"H-hey...! Wake up, pwease!"
"Mm..."
"Hurry! The concealment function is about to wear off!"
"Wah!? Monomi...?"
"Hinata! To stop Monokuma's atrocities... I need your help...!"
"My help...?"
Meanwhile, at that very same moment, in the old building's storage room and in Hinata's cottage, four beings—similar, yet somehow different—had split into two groups and were each setting their own plans into motion.