"Mmm..."
"Uwaaaahhhm..."
I had been dead asleep, more deeply buried in exhaustion than ever before, but the relentless doorbell finally dragged my eyes open. I let out a long, ragged yawn.
"What time is it... 8:30...?"
Judging by the clock, I'd seriously overslept. That realization snapped me awake in an instant.
"Nanami! Are you in there!? Nanami!!"
"Yeah... sorry, I overslept a little."
The voice outside was Hinata's. He'd probably gotten worried because I hadn't shown up for breakfast, even this late.
"Whew... thank god... you're safe...?"
"I'll be right out, so just wait a sec... Huh? What do you mean by that...?"
"The dining hall is total chaos right now! Everyone's about two seconds away from full-blown panic!!"
"...What?"
At Hinata's shout, I instinctively knew something had gone horribly wrong. I hurriedly got dressed, then threw open the door to my cottage.
"What do you mean, chaos? What on earth..."
"You should see it for yourself. I can't even explain it properly..."
"What...!?"
With a bad feeling coiling in my chest, I headed for the dining hall with Hinata.
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"Before you go in, you'd better brace yourself."
"It's that bad...?"
"Haah... 'bad' doesn't even begin to cover it... Forget it. There's no point trying to explain."
Tense all over, I opened the dining hall doors.
"Yo. The game nerd and our precious protagonist. How've you been?"
"K... K...?"
The first one to greet me was K. He was sitting in a chair with his legs crossed, shirt half-open, glaring at me. He looked so delinquent, so aggressively rough around the edges, that it was almost impossible to believe he was the same person as usual.
"Starting this morning, a few people suddenly changed. In K's case, his personality flipped a full 180, and now every time he sees me, he calls me the protagonist..."
"What does that even...?"
"Yes! Hinata-san is the protagonist of this place!! I have now confirmed it with absolute certainty!!"
".....?"
Then Ibuki, having even abandoned her usual quirky way of speaking, started solemnly declaring that Hinata really was the protagonist.
"Yeah... that bastard's the protagonist... and the root of all evil too... Hahaha..."
"I see! Hinata-san truly was the root of all evil! I understand perfectly now!"
"Haah... Mioda believes literally anything she's told is the truth. As you can imagine, that's causing a lot of problems..."
"What the hell is going on here..."
I could understand the words Hinata was saying as he explained things to me with the hollow expression of a man who had transcended suffering, but my brain flatly refused to accept them.
"No... Hinata isn't the protagonist..."
"Ko... Komaeda!? Why are you here...?"
"...K said it'd be more entertaining if he were around, so they untied him and brought him here. Obviously, we were going to subdue him again and throw him back in the storage room, but... he's gone a little strange too. So for now, we're just leaving him alone and observing him."
"The protagonist isn't Hinata... it's me!! I'm the most amazing one here!! You're all just insects!! So would you disgusting little bugs kindly disappear from my sight already...?"
"For the record, Komaeda's symptom is lying. He's been doing nothing but lying this whole time."
I glanced around at the others. Just like Hinata, they all wore the same spiritually exhausted expression. Judging by that, this absurd situation had apparently been going on for quite a while.
"Sniff... sniffle..."
"O-Owari... hang in there...! I'm sure... there's a way to fix this..."
"There's no way to fix it... we're all gonna die here...!! Waaaahhhhhh!!"
".....?"
At first, I thought she'd simply panicked and burst into tears because of the situation. But when I looked more closely, Owari clearly wasn't in her right mind either.
"Owari's gone strange too... Her symptom is that she thinks about everything in the most pessimistic way possible..."
"Ni-Nidai... save me... I'm so scared... No... I guess asking you is pointless too... Even you can't beat Monokuma in the end... waaahhh..."
"Would you shut the hell up, you empty-headed bitch? Stop whining and just sit there quietly."
"K... that's way too harsh...!"
"Oh? So after becoming human despite being made of nothing but zeros and ones, you've gotten pretty full of yourself, huh? Nanami?"
"What...?"
"Looking at you suddenly makes me want to play Tetris... Ahaha, okay, maybe that one was too much. Sorry...!"
".....?"
K kept spouting incomprehensible nonsense, and my already muddled thoughts only grew more chaotic.
"Speaking of Tetris, Tetris is actually a brainwashing program created by the world government to control humanity..."
"I see! So Tetris was a brainwashing game made as part of a government conspiracy!!"
"Waaahhh... I've... I've never even cleared a single line in Tetris... Does that mean I'm too stupid to even get brainwashed...? Waaaahhh..."
If I kept listening to those three any longer, it felt like my own sanity would start to peel away. In the end, I gave up on following their conversation and retreated toward the others.
"Why are they... suddenly acting like that...?"
"I-I think I might have an idea..."
Tsumiki began speaking to us in a timid voice.
"All of them... are suffering from very high fevers..."
"A fever...?"
"Y-Yes... I thought maybe I could figure out the cause, so... I examined them thoroughly... All four of them are burning up... their foreheads are blazing hot..."
"Then... the reason they're like this... don't tell me...?"
We had been talking with Tsumiki for a while when the dining hall doors suddenly flew open.
"Ki-Kirigiri...?"
"Where the hell were you? I knocked on your door and you didn't answer, so I thought something had happened to you too!?"
"Hurry up and stop K... right now he's..."
"Haa... haaah... haaah..."
"H-Huh...?"
When Kirigiri arrived, everyone expected we'd finally be able to rein K in. But Kirigiri just stood there at the entrance, trembling violently, before suddenly collapsing in a limp heap.
"Ki-Kirigiri!! What's wrong!!"
"P-Please stop letting patients walk around nowww!! Pleaseee!!"
"Y-you too...? If you've lost it as well..."
I rushed over to Kirigiri. Trembling all over, she looked up at me, then pulled a notebook with a heart-patterned cover from her clothes and handed it over before speaking with visible effort.
"R-Read... this..."
"Kirigiri!! Stay with me!!"
"Y-you... can do... it..."
"Kirigiri!!"
Before she could even finish, Kirigiri lost consciousness.
"Upupupu... originally, there were only four initial carriers, you know..."
At some point, Monokuma had popped up right in the middle of the group. Scratching his head, he started talking.
"But one certain couple got a little too touchy-feely... and ended up passing it to each other, didn't they? Well, four or five, what's the difference...? Guess it doesn't really matter!"
I glared at Monokuma as he addressed everyone with infuriating calm and shouted, "Monokuma!! What the hell did you do!?"
"Upupupu? Didn't you all figure it out already? I just gave you the third motive, of course!!"
"The third... motive..."
"And that third motive is... [Despair Disease]! [Despair Disease] infiltrates your bodies and manifests all kinds of delightfully despair-inducing symptoms!! Upupupupupu!!"
"Then those guys really are...!"
"That's right... K has 'Personality Reversal Disease,' Komaeda has 'Liar Disease,' Owari has 'Coward Disease,' Mioda has 'Super Serious Disease,' and Kirigiri has..."
"U-Um..."
"Hm...?"
"You... you really don't have to worry about someone like me..."
"Kirigiri...?"
"...She's come down with 'Super Timid Disease'!! Upupupupupu!!"
"I-I'm sorry... I should have predicted that I might get sick too... I really am... unfit to be a detective..."
'Should I just GG and give up...?'
My mind went completely blank.
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"I-I'm... sorry... for causing trouble for everyone..."
"Kyoko, shut up and just come with us."
"O-Okay..."
Once K and Kirigiri left the dining hall under everyone's watch, and all the students infected with [Despair Disease] were gone, a heavy silence settled over the room.
"What... do we do now...?"
"Good question..."
"For now, one thing is certain: we need to isolate them. The ones who just left the dining hall should be moved to the hospital."
In the middle of all that confusion, Togami began organizing the situation. K had called him Pigami, but... I still liked the name Togami better.
"I-I'll handle the nursing..."
"I-I will help nurse them as well. As atonement... let me assist all of you...!"
"I too... will follow young master's will."
"Then including myself, that makes four people who will care for the students infected with '[Despair Disease]' at the hospital. As for the rest of you..."
When Togami glanced at the others, they all started speaking at once.
"Everyone's suffering right now. I can't be the only one who sits this out! I'll help nurse them too...!"
"L-Lady Sonia! It's dangerous...!"
"I appreciate the sentiment, but if we increase the number of caregivers any further, we'll only increase the risk of infection. So the four of us will handle the nursing."
"But... it doesn't feel right to leave all the hardship to just you..."
"So what, you want to help them and get infected too? The second this turns into a mass outbreak... we're finished."
Saionji's icy words made everyone flinch. She was right. If a disease that potent spread to everyone, the result would be catastrophic.
"Fuhahahahaha!! A mere disease could never touch me, the overlord of ice who subjugates all—"
"I'm being serious right now, okay...? Haah, I don't think any of you understand how bad this is. Honestly, it'd be easier if those five with [Despair Disease] just died already..."
"...Saionji. There are things you should say and things you shouldn't."
"Ko-Koizumi big sis...?"
Cutting Saionji off, Koizumi stepped forward and addressed everyone.
"Togami, what you're saying makes sense, but... I'm not about to sit around comfortably while leaving everything to you guys. I already did something pathetic like that once. I'm never doing it again. So... starting today, I'm staying at the motel next to the hospital."
"The motel... you say...?"
"Yeah. That way, if anything happens, I can rush over and help immediately. That much should be okay... right?"
"If that's your offer, then it's more than welcome."
Once Koizumi declared she'd stay at the motel, and Togami accepted the idea, the others began following her lead one by one.
"I-I will too...! I'll stay at the motel too!"
"Leave the patients' special meals to me... I, Hanamura-sama, will whip up dishes so perfect they'll blow [Despair Disease] away completely!"
"One of the people I was personally training ended up like that... As her manager, I can't just stand by and watch. I'll join in too."
"Caring for sick subjects is a ruler's duty, so why should friends be any different? I shall participate as well!"
"I-If that's Lady Sonia's wish, then I will too..."
"Uwahahahaha! To see the tangled threads of friendship hold fast even in the face of adversity... truly magnificent!! Very well! I shall join your noble undertaking as well!!"
As the others cast their votes in favor one after another, even Saionji, who had hesitated until the very end, finally clicked her tongue in irritation and decided to head for the motel too. And just like that, all of us agreed to stay at the motel until [Despair Disease] was cured.
One by one, everyone started heading toward the motel. As for me, I helped support Hinata, who still hadn't fully recovered from his injury, and walked him out of the dining hall while lost in thought.
'Still... I'm glad everyone trusts each other this much...'
It was a relief to see everyone believing in one another and moving in a positive direction, but the more I watched them, the more I thought of K and Kirigiri. Without their efforts, we never would have seen everyone come together like this.
Now that K and Kirigiri, the two who had quietly been guiding everyone all along, had been neutralized, we'd have to trust in Togami's command and leadership.
Because I... didn't have the confidence to do what they did. Sure, I could proudly say my determination to stop the killing game was every bit as strong as theirs, but...
Compared to Kirigiri, with her brilliant deductive ability as the [Ultimate Detective], and K, who could care for everyone's hearts as the [Ultimate Counselor], wasn't my talent as the [Ultimate Gamer] kind of... pitiful?
I had to do my best somehow, but... the sense of helplessness was impossible to shake...
"Nanami, come to think of it, what's that notebook you've been holding against your chest this whole time...?"
"Hm? Oh, this... I was actually about to show it to you."
Right. Kirigiri had given me that notebook. I carefully showed Hinata the notebook I'd been clutching to my chest.
"Th-This is...?"
Hinata's face turned red. Well, fair enough. Even to me, the cover looked embarrassingly suggestive. If someone didn't know better, they might think it was a love letter... maybe...?
"W-Wait! This is a misunderstanding...! I mean... Kirigiri gave this to me!!"
"Ki-Kirigiri did...!?"
Hinata stared at me in shock. Apparently, he'd misunderstood in a completely different direction...
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"This is..."
"So K and Kirigiri already knew about the third motive..."
After wasting a little time clearing up that misunderstanding, we finally looked through the notebook's contents and couldn't help but be stunned. The notebook Kirigiri had handed me was densely packed with information about the third motive, [Despair Disease].
"It even lists the initial carriers and their symptoms... Though there's nothing about Kirigiri or K themselves. Maybe they didn't predict things that far?"
"Hmm... but right now, this information isn't all that useful. Everyone already knows all of this."
"True..."
Realizing that the information Kirigiri had struggled so hard to pass on was basically useless took the wind out of me. I tried to hide my disappointment and close the notebook, but suddenly Hinata shouted.
"Huh? Wait! This part... this seems important."
"Hm?"
Where Hinata pointed, there was a memo that read:
The moment Hinata read that line, his expression hardened and he broke into a frantic run toward the hospital. I tried to follow after him, but when I absentmindedly turned the page and saw the words written there, I couldn't help stopping in my tracks.
'M-Me...?'
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"F-Fuwaaaahhh!!"
In a space swallowed whole by darkness on every side, Monomi was running for dear life.
"I-I have to get out of here somehow... and fix [Despair Disease]... no, the bug... If I don't... then this time for sure...!"
Monomi kept sprinting, desperately dodging the Monokumas charging at her from every direction. Then, at last, she spotted something in the distance and cried out in delight.
"F-Found it!! The magical stick!! Just as I thought, it was hidden here in the dummy data... you underhanded Monokuma!!"
Overjoyed, Monomi ran toward the magical stick, only to gulp in fear when giant robots suddenly blocked her path.
"I-I... I won't give up...! I still have... plenty of spares left...!"
In truth, she only had a few dozen usable spares remaining, but she puffed herself up anyway and charged straight at the robots.