"Ugh... ow..."
"P-please bear with it just a little longer... If we don't treat it now, the wound might get worse..."
I was currently being treated by Mikan in my room. I'd been injured plenty of times already, but maybe because this was the first time I'd actually been stabbed somewhere with a knife, groans kept slipping out of me through the entire treatment.
"Does it hurt a lot...?"
"Ah... haha, I'm fine. This much is nooooothing—ow, ow, ow...!"
"...If it hurts, say it hurts."
"Ah... it hurts."
Kyoko Kirigiri, who had been watching from the side while I got patched up, let out a quiet sigh and stepped over to me.
"Mikan, you've done enough. I'll handle the rest of his treatment."
"Huh...? Y-you will, Kirigiri...?"
"Yes. There isn't just one or two people who need immediate care right now, is there? I'll take care of K, so you should go."
"Th-then... I'll be going now..."
Mikan hesitated, fidgeted, then hurried out of the room in a flustered scramble. I watched her leave, then let out a long, heavy sigh.
"Whew... Come to think of it, she..."
".....?"
When I suddenly muttered that with a dark look on my face, Kirigiri—now holding Mikan's medical supplies and treating my wound in her place—tilted her head.
"What's wrong, K...?"
"Ah... it's just... I'm worried about what kind of rotten motive Monokuma's going to throw at us next..."
"It's fine. The motives Monokuma gives us have lost their effectiveness now. Everyone already learned that this last motive was manipulated, so there won't be any students left who trust them."
"....."
Kirigiri was trying to reassure me, but my expression stayed grim. And for good reason. The motives from here on out weren't the kind you could just outplay—they were coercive, inescapable, the kind that forced themselves on you.
The next motive to appear would be [Despair Disease]. The true nature of [Despair Disease] was that Monokuma used a virus to trigger bugs in several students.
The symptoms differed from victim to victim. In the original story, Komaeda came down with a disease that made him tell nothing but lies, Ibuki got one that made her believe everything with deadly seriousness, and Owari was afflicted with a disease that made her interpret everything negatively.
And Mikan's symptom was... recovering her memories. Which meant returning to what she had been as [Ultimate Despair].
The Mikan who returned to [Ultimate Despair] murdered two students. In other words, the most dangerous element in this motive was Mikan Tsumiki herself—the health committee member who would naturally end up nursing everyone if [Despair Disease] started spreading.
"K...?"
"Ah, yeah..."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing... I'm just worried..."
"Hmm..."
Kirigiri shot me a skeptical look. I wanted to share what I knew about [Despair Disease] with her too, but Monomi still hadn't shown up.
She'd probably been getting bullied nonstop by Monokuma ever since he dragged her away. And without Monomi, I couldn't use the concealment function. If I spoke carelessly, Monokuma would realize I knew about [Despair Disease].
[Despair Disease] was a brutal, merciless motive, but at least it was one I knew in detail, wasn't it? If I exposed the truth to Monokuma for no reason, we might end up facing a completely unforeseen motive instead. I'd have to postpone sharing the information until Monomi came back—or think of some other way to pass it along.
"Mm... ah—AAAH, OW OW OW OW!!"
"....."
Kirigiri had started disinfecting my wound. Disinfecting hurt, so I'd definitely asked her to warn me first so I could brace myself mentally, but...
"K-Kirigiriiiiii!! Aaagh!!"
"My good little K... what are you thinking so hard about this time?"
"Wh-what... nghhhhhh!!"
Kirigiri sighed, peeled away the gauze soaked with disinfectant from my wound, replaced it, and started wetting the new gauze again.
"Whenever you make that face and sink deep into thought... before long, you end up getting kidnapped or seriously hurt somewhere, don't you?"
"Ha... haha..."
"You're laughing?"
"....."
"Tell me what's going on, quickly—"
At an angle the CCTV couldn't see, I traced the words "Monomi," "surveillance," and "dangerous information" with my finger. Kirigiri stared at it for a moment, then sighed and spoke.
"I don't know what it is, but for now, focus on treating your wound. If you push yourself, it might get worse. We can share information later."
"Hehe... thanks..."
"What exactly are you thanking me for...? Never mind. I'll be going now—"
Knock knock knock
"K...? Are you in there? I'm coming in... okay...?"
When Koizumi's voice came from outside the door, Kirigiri started to rise from her seat—then paused. A second later, she sat back down in the chair with her legs crossed and...
"K-Kirigiri...?"
"Shh."
She leaned against my shoulder.
"Are you getting treated okay? I came because I had something to pass on, and something I wanted to say—"
Koizumi saw Kirigiri resting against my shoulder and froze solid.
"W-wait, wasn't M-Mikan the one treating you...? A-and besides, even here... you're doing... that lovey-dovey stuff...?"
Her face turned bright red and she started stammering. Kirigiri glared at her and opened her mouth.
"So, what was it you needed to pass on?"
"R-right... Ibuki is holding a live performance tomorrow to celebrate everyone getting along..."
"Is there a place suitable for that?"
"Ah, you two didn't know... Monokuma opened the third island. We took a rough look around with the others, and there's a hospital, a live house, an electronics store, a motel, and the live house is where the performance will be..."
"A motel...?"
"...Huh?"
"A motel, you said. Are there cameras there?"
At that, Koizumi's face turned even redder than before. Trembling all over, she finally squeezed her eyes shut and shrieked.
"Y-you... shameless...! What in the world is even inside your head...?!"
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"A-a camera... in a motel..."
"I was asking because I wondered if it might be a space where Monokuma couldn't watch us. Since it's a motel, it's private, so I thought maybe there wouldn't be cameras."
"Ah... ahh, so that's what you meant? I-I thought..."
Koizumi fanned her flushed face with her hand for a moment, then started giving us the information.
"I checked the motel briefly... but just like everywhere else, it had cameras installed. And compared to our lodgings, it's pretty shabby. The walls have peeling paint, the faucets are rusted..."
Hearing that, Kirigiri spoke in a disappointed tone.
"That's unfortunate... If there hadn't been surveillance cameras, we could've avoided Monokuma's eyes and planned things there... and taken care of a few other matters while we were at it..."
"Other matters...?"
"...It's nothing. Anyway, is that all you came to tell us?"
Koizumi scratched her head, then continued.
"There's one more thing. The hospital opened, and those... idiots with serious injuries were moved there, right? So I thought maybe the other injured students should go too..."
"Ah, that's okay. I can get treated here just fine."
"If you say so..."
Koizumi looked at my wound with a dark expression. Kirigiri frowned at that and threw her another question.
"Then that takes care of what you came to pass on. What was this thing you wanted to say?"
"Uh... uh...?"
Koizumi's face turned red again and she started stammering, and Kirigiri began pressing her with relentless scrutiny.
"Didn't you come because you had something you wanted to say to K? Then now's the perfect time to say it."
"R-right now...?"
"Why? Is it something you can't say in front of me? What kind of thing is it...?"
"Th-that's..."
"Hm? I can't hear you very well."
"I mean..."
"Koizumi...?"
"Because of... me... you got hurt... right, K...? S-so..."
Koizumi tried to say something to K, but she was so tense—and Kirigiri was interrogating her so sharply from the side—that she kept stumbling over her words until finally...
"I mean...! I-I'm sorry!!!"
Leaving only that behind, she bolted out of K's room with her face burning scarlet.
"Th-this isn't what I meant..."
After that, Koizumi clutched her flushed face and muttered while leaning against the closed door, but tragically, her words only echoed into empty air.
.
.
.
.
.
"Was that... what she wanted to say?"
"...This is dangerous. I should probably look into something new to put around your neck soon."
"Huh...?"
"What a shame... that the motel has cameras."
"K-Kirigiri...?"
Kirigiri looked at me quietly, then smiled and began to speak.
"Do you remember? The locker room in Hope's Peak Academy that didn't have CCTV?"
"Ah... there...? Of course I remember. But... why bring that up?"
"That's where it started, wasn't it? Our adventure?"
"Adventure, huh... when I think about it, I guess it really was one. Hahaha..."
"It's strange, really... I've been watching you all this time, from then until now, but there are still so many things about you I can't deduce... In a way, it's suspicious."
"Uh, y-yeah...?"
"Yes. Which is why..."
Kirigiri leaned her face close to mine and declared it with brazen certainty.
"From now on, I'll stay by your side and keep investigating you. All those mysteries of yours."
"...!"
"So... don't go anywhere. Stay with me. Because you're mine."
"Hngh..."
"And... there's one thing I'd like to ask of you..."
Kirigiri made a shy expression, then lowered her voice and whispered into my ear so softly that no one else could possibly hear.
"From now on, call me by my first name."
"U-uh...!?">
"If we're going to stay together all the time... doesn't it feel a little strange to keep using my family name? And if I'm the only one calling you by your first name... honestly, that's not fair, is it?"
"I-is that so...?"
"Come on. Hurry up and say my name."
"K-Kyo... Kyo... Kyoko..."
"....."
When I said it with my face flushed red, Kirigiri's face reddened too, and she murmured in a low voice.
"K..."
"Kyoko..."
And just like that, without either of us knowing who moved first, we wrapped our arms around each other at the same time and started kissing.
.
.
.
.
.
"Upupupu... you two are seriously rolling around in your own nonsense... Upupupupupu..."
In a pure white space, Enoshima's Alter Ego watched the floating screen in front of her and spoke in a voice that sounded almost spiritually detached.
"Yeah, yeah... do whatever you want. Snuggle, grind, cling, whatever. If I waste energy worrying about that, there's a high chance I'll lose again just like last time..."
This Alter Ego had been trying not to repeat the original Junko Enoshima's mistakes, using the data accumulated from the previous Killing Game as a foundation. But since she still had an emotional module, irritation was unavoidable.
"Upupupu... I should hurry up and spread the [Despair Disease] virus... Then this time, surely... a murder will happen, right?"
Humming to herself, the Alter Ego began manipulating a tangle of complex code. Then, all at once, she stopped and stared at the screen floating in midair.
"Hmm... I was only planning to give [Despair Disease] to three people at first... but adding one more shouldn't hurt, right? Upupu... upupupu... UPUPUPUPUPU!!"
She was several times more capable than the original Enoshima—but somehow, her pettiness had scaled up right along with her. Such was Enoshima's Alter Ego.