Morning arrived.
Normally, I would've dragged myself out of bed with a face twisted into a full-blown grimace, grumbling the whole way.
But today, I got up wearing a fresh, stupidly satisfied smile.
"Ow..."
The thigh that got carved up yesterday was stinging like hell, but even that pain couldn't wipe the grin off my face.
'Kyoko noona...'
The second I replayed yesterday in my head, my face heated up all over again. Not Kirigiri noona anymore. Now she was Kyoko noona. What a dangerously blissful development.
After getting ready to head out, I threw open the door to my cottage and shouted with all my might, "I love you, Kyoko noona!!"
"...I love you too."
".....?"
I turned my head.
There stood Kyoko Kirigiri, right beside the door, her face bright red.
Wait. Hadn't this exact same thing happened before?
"Why are you... here...?"
"Your leg is injured, so I came to help you walk..."
"Ah..."
Come to think of it, there was one major difference from last time.
Kirigiri was blushing just as hard as I was.
"....."
"....."
Still flushed, Kirigiri looked at me for a moment, then quietly stepped closer and wrapped an arm around my back.
"...I'll help you to the dining hall."
"...Okay."
And so we walked all the way to the dining hall pressed close together, neither of us daring to look the other in the face.
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"Oooh!! You two are here, sirs!"
"Both your faces are all red... before you got here, did you maybe... ehehehe..."
"I heard what happened yesterday... sounds like both of you went through a lot..."
Everyone was already gathered inside, and the moment we entered the dining hall, they greeted us.
Looking at them made my heart grow heavy.
Could I really protect every last one of them without letting even a single person fall behind?
That negative spiral started creeping back in again, sly and poisonous, but I already knew brooding over it wouldn't help in the slightest. So I forcibly shook it off and sat down.
"Hm...? The food's different from usual...?"
"Naturally! Because I, the [Ultimate Cook], prepared a special recovery meal for our patient!"
Hanamura approached me with a smug grin plastered across his face, then suddenly shifted into a deeply suspicious leer. I stared at him, baffled, and he began speaking in a wickedly playful voice.
"This special meal isn't just good for recovery, you see. It's also excellent for stamina, which is to say... virility..."
"K, let's eat."
"Huh...?"
The instant she heard that, Kirigiri's eyes sharpened. She scooped up some of the food laid out in front of me and held it toward my mouth.
"Your injury is in your leg, so at least this much, I can..."
"Open your mouth."
"Yesss..."
I opened my mouth like a baby bird, and Kirigiri started feeding me one bite after another.
This was... weirdly intense.
"Ha... haha... you two... really are... close... huh...?"
"M-Mr. Hanamura... blood...!"
Meanwhile, Hanamura, who had been watching us, muttered that while blood streamed from his nose. A panicked Tsumiki grabbed him and dragged him away.
"Why is everyone getting hurt so much latelyyy?!"
Watching Tsumiki cry out with tears in her voice made my chest tighten again.
Once [Despair Disease] started spreading, we couldn't leave all the nursing to her alone. My leg was still throbbing, but I'd have no choice but to help care for the sick too...
"So, when are you going to tell me?"
"Mmph... huh?"
"That dangerous information you mentioned yesterday."
Kirigiri whispered it to me.
Come to think of it, I needed to share what I knew about [Despair Disease] with Kirigiri too. Was there a safe way to do that?
'Should I secretly write it down in a memo and pass it to her...?'
The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a pretty solid plan. If I carefully wrote down everything I knew without letting the CCTV catch it, then handed the note to Kirigiri, that should work, right?
I quietly whispered my idea to her, and Kirigiri nodded, apparently convinced, before resuming the task of feeding me.
If it had just been the two of us, I would've been absurdly happy.
But the others kept sneaking glances at us, which made the whole thing painfully embarrassing. I tried my best to ignore their stares and keep eating when, all of a sudden, the dining hall door opened.
"....."
"....."
Kuzuryu, his head wrapped in bandages, and Pekoyama, bandaged around both her head and thigh, entered the dining hall in silence. They gathered a few dishes, bowed their heads toward us, and left without another word.
"Th-those two... where are they going...?"
Hinata, eating a patient meal while being looked after by Nanami, asked cautiously, and Nanami answered him in her usual gentle way.
"They said they're going to help prepare for Ibuki's live concert tonight... but with injuries like that, they really shouldn't push themselves..."
"Hmph! If that much labor is the price of atonement, they got off cheap! After what they did to Koizumi onee-chan... and now they get to act so comfortable...!"
"Hiyoko... that's enough now... we said we'd judge them by what they do from here on out..."
"I-if that's what you want, onee-chan..."
Kuzuryu and Pekoyama really did seem to be trying their best to atone.
The others were still hostile toward them, but well... their treatment would probably change depending on how hard they worked from here.
As for Komaeda, since he hadn't gotten to participate in yesterday's perfectly legal lynching, we decided to wrap his mouth shut with tape and only peel it off once per meal. It might sound harsh, but that was his own karma. He could take responsibility for it himself.
Although, now that I thought about it, wasn't Komaeda one of the initial [Despair Disease] infection targets?
'Well, no need to isolate him then. Works out perfectly.'
Pushing the exhausting thought of Komaeda out of my mind, I finished the rest of my meal with Kirigiri, who had fully transformed into a mother bird.
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After finishing breakfast, I returned to my room and was scribbling down everything I knew about [Despair Disease] in a memo when someone rang the doorbell.
"Who is it...?"
"Uh... K? Can I come in for a bit? There's something I want to talk about..."
It was Hinata. He said he had something he wanted to discuss with me.
For a second, I tensed up. After all, this was the protagonist of Danganronpa 2 and one of the most absurdly overpowered monsters in the entire series. But then I remembered that right now he was just an ordinary Reserve Course student, and the tension drained right back out of me.
Still, what did Hinata suddenly want with me?
Curious, I opened the door and welcomed him inside.
"What's up, Hinata?"
"Uh... I came because there's something I wanted to ask advice about..."
Lately, I felt like I'd been doing a lot of counseling.
At this rate, maybe I really should hang a sign outside that said something like "K's Worry Counseling Center."
"Counseling is always welcome! Have a seat first. Want some tea or coffee?"
"Ah... thanks."
In a timid voice, Hinata asked for coffee, then started looking around my room with open curiosity. Honestly, all that effort I'd put into decorating the place with aroma candles and psychology test kits from the supermarket so I could play pretend counselor was finally paying off.
"You really are the [Ultimate Counselor]... just one look and I can tell how incredible your ability must be..."
"Ahaha... that's too much praise. I'm still inexperienced. More importantly, what did you come here to talk about?"
"Mm... I've had a few things bothering me lately..."
At last, Hinata let out a deep sigh and began to pour out his worries.
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"I think I get the general picture. So that's what's been weighing on you."
"Yeah... if there was anyone I could talk to about this without holding back... the only person I could think of was you, the [Ultimate Counselor]..."
"Hmm..."
Just as I'd expected, Hinata was agonizing over the fact that he couldn't remember his own [Ultimate] talent. He looked miserable as he admitted that he felt isolated, like he alone was useless and couldn't help anyone.
I fell into thought.
Telling him the truth was out of the question. I had no proof, and the school rules would block me anyway.
So how was I supposed to comfort him?
I thought it over for a moment, then stopped.
Like always, the best thing I could do was say what I genuinely wanted to say.
"So what if you can't remember your [Ultimate] talent? The you right now is already more than cool enough."
"Me...?"
"Yeah, you. If it weren't for you, Kirigiri, Nanami, and I would've lost that last vote. If that had happened, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you right now. I'd probably be locked up in the old building like Komaeda."
"That was just... me doing what I had to do..."
"Do you have any idea how many people in this world can't even do what they have to? And after you voted, your injuries got worse and you collapsed, didn't you? Even while pushing yourself that hard, you still trusted and helped the three of us after we'd been branded traitors. There's no way someone like that is useless."
"....."
"You undervalue yourself way too much. That's why your self-esteem is scraping the floor. But the person I've seen isn't someone who deserves to be treated that way. So it's okay for you to have confidence."
The real Hinata, back when he was still just a Reserve Course student, had cursed his own lack of ability and longed for [Ultimate] talent so desperately that he willingly entered the Kamukura Project.
If his memories had really returned to that point in time, then of course his self-worth would be in ruins.
"Thank you... hearing you say that does make me feel a little better... but..."
Compared to before, the gloom in Hinata's voice had faded, but his expression was still dark. Well, naturally. This wasn't the kind of problem a few comforting words could magically solve.
"Hinata, if... you were just an ordinary person with no special abilities at all, what do you think that would be like?"
"A-an ordinary person...?"
His face, already shadowed, darkened even further.
I looked him straight in the eye and began to speak.
"This is a story about someone I know. I think it might be a good one for the you right now to hear. Want to listen?"
"...Yeah."
I slowly closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and began telling him the story.
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"And that's where the story ends. So? What do you think?"
"H-how do I put it... it's a depressing story. One with no hope at all..."
"Yeah. It's a very sad, very bleak story. So then, what do you think happened to that kid?"
"Mm... I don't think they got a happy ending..."
"No. That's where you're wrong."
"Huh...?"
Hinata looked puzzled at having his guess overturned, and I smiled faintly before continuing.
"That kid went through more hardship and adversity than anyone should have to bear... but right now, they're probably shining brighter than at any other point in their life."
"...Why?"
"Because while struggling through all that hardship together, they found friends who became more precious than anything else in the world."
"....."
"The kid who used to be even more pathetic, more negative, and more pessimistic than you are now doesn't exist anymore. Now they just carry those precious bonds in their heart and keep moving forward."
"K... was that... your story...?"
"Which is why, if someone like you—someone even better than that old kid—can gain precious bonds too... then you can shine even more brilliantly."
"....."
"And hey, we've got a killing game full of hardship and adversity right in front of us, don't we? Bonds forged in a situation like this are exactly the kind that become truly precious."
Hinata lowered his head and sank into deep thought after hearing that. I left him alone for a while so he could sort through the chaos in his mind.
Eventually, he raised his head and looked at me again.
And then I said something I'd wanted to tell him for a very long time.
"So how about this? From now on, whenever you have time, try hanging out with the others little by little and getting closer to them. Put your worries about talent aside for now. If you build precious bonds with people as one person to another, then no matter what your ability turns out to be—even if you have no ability at all—you'll still be able to shine magnificently in the end."
"Magnificently..."
Seeing Hinata murmur that with an expression like he'd just realized something, I could tell the conversation had landed better than I'd hoped.
I took a sip of the coffee beside me to wet my throat, then casually asked, "That's all the advice I've got for you. So? Did it help at least a little?"
At last, Hinata completely wiped the gloom from his face. Then he smiled and answered me.
"Of course... Thank you. I really mean it. It feels like something that was clogging up my chest just got blown wide open..."
Watching him drain the coffee beside him with a refreshed expression made me genuinely happy.
He'd probably been suffering over his own powerlessness for a long, long time.
I just hoped that before long, I'd get to see him move forward without breaking, and eventually shine in a way no one could ignore.
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"Ah... right. There's one more thing bothering me..."
"Hm? What's the problem this time?"
"This one is... about Nanami..."
"N-Nanami?"
"It's just... lately, Nanami keeps pestering me to tell her one wish I want granted... and I'm really fine, but..."
Hinata suddenly turned red and trailed off.
"Why a wish...?"
"She says that since she hurt me, she wants to make it up to me somehow... but honestly, she didn't do it on purpose... and she's already apologized enough... so I really don't need any wish granted..."
"Hmm... even so, it sounds like Nanami feels like she can only ease her guilt by doing something for you. She's felt bad the whole time about causing you trouble."
"No, I get that, but... lately she's been doing way too much for me. Helping me walk... feeding me... coming to see me whenever she has time... what if she wears herself out and gets sick because of it...?"
Huh?
Wasn't that basically my exact situation?
"So does that mean it burdens you? Or that you don't like it?"
"N-no...! It's not that...! If anything..."
"If anything, what?"
"Th-that's... I mean... um..."
Hinata's face turned completely scarlet as he started stammering.
Yeah. This was definitely exactly what I thought it was.
"I've got the perfect wish for your situation. Want to hear it?"
"W-what is it...?"
"A one-day date request ticket."
".....!"
After that, Hinata sat there blushing and sputtering for a long while. But the moment I started relentlessly pressing him about what he thought of Nanami, he finally bolted from my room like he was fleeing a crime scene.
At this rate, it felt like this island was about to gain another couple very, very soon.