"....."
"Ahaha... get back safely..."
After seeing Kuzuryu off as he left the storage room, Komaeda sank into thought, maintaining a silence so unnerving it bordered on terrifying.
'Good... I've created the crisis for them... so now, do your best and show me hope again... traitors... no, you [true hopes].'
Komaeda yearned for hope.
He didn't merely admire it. He loved hope with a desperation so absolute it was practically pathological, and what he believed—what he clung to with fanatical conviction—was that no matter how colossal the "despair" that descended upon them might be, "hope" would never, ever lose.
That was why, if he could just witness that rapturous instant when hope collided with hope and burst into brilliance—if he could see the "absolute hope" born from that clash—then there was nothing he wouldn't do.
In other words, for the sake of hope, Komaeda didn't mind being used and discarded, becoming a stepping stone for everyone else, or even being killed.
And lately, one principle had come to govern his actions: to inflict trials and despair upon the "traitors."
The reason Komaeda had begun thinking that way was because, at the exact moment Monokuma declared that everyone's memories had been erased, something flashed through his mind. A memory... no, not quite a memory. More like a keyword.
"Those three are the true hope."
For a moment, that sudden fragment had thrown Komaeda into confusion. But the instant he realized it wasn't some passing thought, but a concept engraved into his mind with astonishing clarity, he was overcome with ecstasy.
[True hope]... If even he thought of them that way, then just how magnificent, vast, and beautiful must that hope be? If he could witness with his own eyes a hope so sublime that someone as lowly as himself couldn't even begin to imagine it, then Komaeda would have no regrets left in life.
However, there was a problem with accepting that unstable memory at face value, especially when it had surfaced the instant the Mastermind made that announcement.
He couldn't tell whether it was his "luck" activating and dredging up a piece of his erased memories... or whether the Mastermind had played some trick on him in order to conceal the [true hope].
So Komaeda began subjecting the "traitors" to trials and despair. If they really were [true hope], then there was no way something as trivial as "despair" could defeat them. By his standards, personally testing them with suffering and despair to determine the truth was an extremely rational, reasonable decision.
To inflict those trials and that despair on the traitors, Komaeda had tried to make Nanami kill Hinata, one of the other traitors. He had even cast a vote of no confidence when the issue of whether the traitors could be trusted came up, hoping to have them permanently confined in the old building.
And yet, despite his luck aiding those plans, the "traitors" had overcome every trial and every despair with a hopefulness so astonishing it was almost grotesque. Setting aside his own pitiful talent of luck, what kind of people made despair itself look so powerless? Didn't that prove they were "hope" beyond any doubt?
If they endured even this trial, then they truly would be the [true hope].
And if that was the case... then the hope those true hopes would create together with the Ultimates, the very symbols of hope... just how fantastical would it be?
Komaeda wore an ecstatic smile as he imagined the moment despair would be crushed and the hope everyone created would blaze with dazzling brilliance. Then, suddenly, he fell into thought.
'That reminds me... misfortune should be coming soon, shouldn't it...? Sure, I got tied up all over and imprisoned in the storage room, and I got cursed out by the hopes I admire... but for using my luck back-to-back like this, the backlash feels way too small...?'
Komaeda briefly wondered what great misfortune might be about to descend on him, then dismissed the thought. After all, what did it matter? Whatever misfortune came, it would only befall someone as worthless as him.
Thinking that he could endure any amount of misfortune for the sake of hope, Komaeda lowered his face to the food scattered across the floor and began eating once again.
Without ever imagining that the misfortune awaiting him would arrive in the worst possible way, at the one moment he least expected it.
.
.
.
.
.
"Mono...mi... this is... Future... Foundation... 14th Division... can you hear..."
"I-it finally connected, yeees!"
"I only... made a brief opening... used a little trick... won't hold for long... from here on... listen carefully... to what I say..."
"Please, go ahead! I'm listening very carefully!"
"There is... decisive evidence... that can break... the current situation... but Monokuma... placed restrictions on you... so I can't deliver it... directly..."
"Fuwaaah... I'm useless after all... I'm so sorrry..."
"So... modify... Monokuma's motive... the game... a new... hidden ending... if you clear it... bzzzt..."
"A g-game...?"
"Get help... from the girl... who has the talent... for games..."
click
As the radio's already unstable signal deteriorated completely and cut out, Monomi muttered with a hollow, crestfallen expression.
"Fujisaki... were you already gone...? I still had so much I wanted to say..."
Monomi sat there in dejection for a moment. Then she sprang up with a resolute look and shouted before vanishing somewhere.
"Just you wait, Monokuma!!"
.
.
.
.
.
Souda and I were currently hiding our presence inside the restaurant near the beach on the second island, waiting in breathless silence for the girls to arrive.
"Hey! K! Get it together! You're supposed to be keeping watch to see whether the girls are coming or not, remember!?"
"Huh? Ah..."
"If we miss Sonia, then this whole thing's a total bust!"
I couldn't focus. Not even a little. I was about to see Kyoko Kirigiri in a swimsuit. How the hell was I supposed to keep a clear head under those circumstances?
"Still... I wonder what kind of swimsuit Sonia's wearing...? She's a foreign princess, so... maybe a bikini?"
Thanks to Souda's comment, I immediately imagined Kyoko Kirigiri in a bikini instead. The mental image hit with such catastrophic force that my face turned bright red.
"I mean, between the bikini top and bottom, there's this pure, Pegasus-like fantasy and innocence, and—mmph!"
I clamped a hand over Souda's mouth before he could keep feeding me increasingly deranged material for my imagination. This was absolutely not because I was some shady creep. It was Souda's fault for describing it so vividly that I couldn't stop picturing it.
Though... Sonia was probably going to show up in a diving suit. Poor Souda...
As we waited there for a while, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
'Come to think of it... wasn't Kuzuryu supposed to pass by the restaurant around now...?'
Well, plenty of things had already changed from the original story, so maybe Kuzuryu just wasn't going to come this way. It was probably because Koizumi had decided to apologize.
Kuzuryu had said he'd go talk things out with Koizumi after the beach trip was over, so this whole mess should be resolved by the end of today.
"Oh! Over there, that's...!"
"Hm?"
Where Souda was pointing, Tsumiki and Ibuki were standing.
"Hey! Duck your head! They can't spot us yet, got it!?"
"Too late. I think they've already noticed us. Besides, they're coming this way."
"W-wha... what!?"
Tsumiki and Ibuki stepped into the restaurant and started talking the moment they saw us.
"Huh? What are you guys doing hereee!?"
"H-hello...! The weather is really nice today... right...? Uuugh... I finally managed a normal greeting..."
"Uh... you two... I mean... this is, well... what a coincidence...!"
"A coincidence, you saaay?"
"I mean... we just happened to be here... and somehow..."
"This is super suspicious! Your eyes are flopping around like a salmon on the verge of spawning!"
"N-no... that's not..."
If I kept leaving the acting to Souda, we were going to get thrown out. I had no choice. I'd have to step in myself.
"I came to see Kyoko Kirigiri."
"Whaaat!?"
"W-what!?"
"We made plans to meet here."
We hadn't actually made any plans, of course, but to get out of this painfully awkward situation, I needed a lie that sounded plausible. I was a little worried about how I'd clean this up later, but that was a problem for future me.
"So until it was time to meet up with Kyoko Kirigiri, Souda and I were just going to grab a quick bite here. What about you two?"
I delivered the lie with a perfectly calm face and glanced sideways at Souda. His eyes went wide, and he quietly flashed me a thumbs-up. Lucky bastard.
"So that's what it was...? Well, we're going to enjoy the beach with the other girls, so we came here to eat first."
"Oh, really? Then... mind if we join you too!?"
When Souda excitedly cut in, Ibuki told him he'd have to get Sonia's permission first, then she and Tsumiki took seats at another table and started eating.
"K... I've seriously underestimated you...! So you've actually got game when it counts...!"
"No... you're just a terrible actor..."
"More importantly, did you bring a swimsuit? I already came wearing mine!"
"Ah, a swimsuit?"
"Yeah, a swimsuit! You can't go swimming without one! If you don't have one, I can lend you this spare I brought—"
"No, I brought my own."
There was no universe in which I was going to stand in front of Kyoko Kirigiri wearing the outrageous olive-drab speedo that embodied Souda's deranged fashion sense, so I'd brought a plain black pair of swim trunks instead.
"...Tch. Fine, then."
"Why do you sound disappointed!?"
After that, Souda and I kept chatting in low voices when suddenly the door opened and someone walked in.
"Y-yo... sorry I'm late..."
"O-Owari...?"
Owari entered the restaurant wearing a swimsuit, covered in blood. She'd probably gotten into another brawl with Nidai somewhere and ended up like that.
Though... wasn't Nanami supposed to be the first one to come in? Well, it was a minor detail, and so many things had already diverged from the original that I decided not to dwell on it.
"Y-your injuries are serious!"
"Huh? This much? If I just spit on it, it'll—"
"P-please come with me right now! I'll treat you!"
"I'm fine—"
"Owariii! Please come this way!!"
Watching Tsumiki—her [Ultimate Nurse] instincts apparently awakened—drag Owari toward the restroom with an uncharacteristically firm attitude, I heard the door open again.
"It's awfully noisy in here. What's going on?"
The one who entered was Pekoyama Peko. Thankfully, there wasn't a single drop of water on her. Honestly, if she'd been wet, I might've panicked a little, but it looked like fate had changed after all because Koizumi had changed her mind.
"....."
Pekoyama glared at me, then went and sat down far away. She still seemed pretty suspicious of me.
"Umm... everyone's gathered here, huh?"
This time, Koizumi opened the door and stepped inside.
"A school swimsuit...? Classic..."
"W-what? I thought it was only girls here! Why are you guys...!?"
Koizumi, dressed in a school swimsuit, flushed bright red, then immediately turned around and ran right back out of the restaurant.
"Classic, sure... but old standards become classics for a reason... yeah..."
"....."
Souda was still offering his review without noticing the icy stares gathering around him, and I was just starting to look at him with matching contempt when I heard a familiar voice.
"K...?"
I turned my head...
Kyoko Kirigiri was standing there.
"Uh... ah... ahhh..."
Kyoko Kirigiri stood at the entrance in a sky-blue bikini. The sight of her was... like...
'Hnnnngh... Kyoko Kirigiri noona... I'm dead...'
The price of beholding a goddess was that my brain stopped functioning entirely. I was standing there with my mouth hanging open, staring at Kyoko Kirigiri in a ridiculous daze, when she suddenly started striding straight toward me.
"Ah... uh... huh...?"
When she reached me, Kyoko Kirigiri grabbed the cord of the personal alarm hanging around my neck and yanked me forward until my face was right in front of hers. Then she whispered quietly.
"Come with me."
"Y-yes... ma'am..."
As I was dragged away by the cord around my neck, one thought echoed through my mind.
'Am I... actually... going to die...?'
And as she watched the two of us leave, Pekoyama narrowed her eyes sharply before muttering to herself.
"Nanami didn't have it... so one of those two must."