That godawful sound rang out again. So in the end, the damned morning had arrived.
"...Damn it."
Maybe it was because my mind was such a wreck, but I stayed up the entire night. Even so, what weighed on me wasn't exhaustion. It was fear. Helplessness. I let out a long sigh and pushed myself to my feet.
"Sacrifice isn't something that belongs only to you."
Out of nowhere, I remembered what Kyoko Kirigiri had said to me in the park yesterday.
"Even so... you don't need to sacrifice yourself too..."
If you died here, Enoshima's personality would overwrite you, and you'd spend the rest of your life as her. Just imagining Kyoko Kirigiri ending up like that was horrifying.
"Should I just... ask Komaeda to kill me instead?"
I seriously considered it for a moment, then discarded the idea. I couldn't unleash a monster on the world that had Enoshima's personality and Komaeda's luck on top of it.
Sure, the school rules said that if we killed the Observer, there'd be no Class Trial and we'd be allowed off the island. But there was no way Monokuma would ever do something that merciful.
He'd definitely pull some trick. Maybe he'd say he'd never promised to let us leave alive and kill us on the spot, or maybe he'd tamper with us when removing us from the program.
So if Enoshima's personality had to overwrite someone, it needed to be a person the Future Foundation could subdue as easily and safely as possible. For example, me—a guy nobody here could beat in a fight except maybe Saionji or Kuzuryu.
...Actually, now that I thought about it, Kuzuryu was a yakuza, so he'd probably be good in a fight. Which meant the only person on this island I could beat was Saionji. Yeah. That just made me even more perfectly optimized for being subdued by the Future Foundation.
If this were a problem where only one person had to be sacrificed, it'd be simple. But this setup demanded both a killer and a victim, no matter what. I couldn't see a way out.
"...Sigh."
I glanced around my room. After hearing what Kyoko Kirigiri said yesterday, I'd half-lost my mind and stormed into the dining hall to grab as much food as I could. Now the room was full of it.
At least my brain had still been functioning enough to choose things with a long shelf life, like canned food and jerky.
"Maybe... if I can just hold out with this food..."
If I forced myself to cling to hope, there was one thing I could still bet on: Monomi had become far more competent than she was in the original story.
The reason was probably the variable created in the last killing game—Fujisaki, one of the developers of the Neo World Program, had survived.
The developers of the Neo World Program were Chihiro Fujisaki, the Ultimate Programmer; Matsuda Yasuke, the Ultimate Neurologist from the Danganronpa side novel; and Miaya Gekkogahara, the Ultimate Therapist from the anime.
Out of those, Fujisaki's survival was certain. I had no idea whether the other two were alive or dead, but if my existence had caused enough deviations for them to survive too... then maybe hope still existed.
Honestly, it was little more than wishful thinking. But if my hypothesis was right, then if I could just endure inside the Funhouse for a few months with this food, Monomi might regain her authority and drive Monokuma out, or outside intervention might resolve the situation.
Thinking that way gave me at least a little strength back. Even if the odds were low, there was a world of difference between having hope and having none.
And more than anything... I couldn't sacrifice Kyoko Kirigiri. Even if the sky split in two, that was one thing I would never allow.
So somehow, some way, I had to thrash. I had to struggle until the bitter end.
.
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.
.
"Upupupupu... Watching him struggle so desperately to the very end... isn't it just adorable, Monomi?"
"....."
"By the way, was it you who told him to stockpile food? Huh. How'd you figure out the fourth motive...? Ah, did someone hack in from outside? I didn't see any traces of that... The Future Foundation's got some bite after all!!"
"....."
"But it's still a waste of effort! Before I lock them up, I'll confiscate every last belonging they have!! I'm not kind enough to overlook a scheme that's this painfully obvious...!"
"....."
"Huh? Monomi? Why so quiet? Did you finally break? You were at least talking back a little while ago... how boring..."
"...Just a little longer, just a little longer..."
Letting Enoshima's Alter Ego's mockery wash over her, Monomi poured every ounce of her strength into deciphering the Future Foundation communication signal she'd miraculously managed to catch just moments ago.
"kzzzt... Monomi... listen carefully... the hint... for the escape code... is..."
"I-I can hear it now...!"
Monomi had endured the torture and barely succeeded in decoding the signal. She started listening to the decoded message with trembling relief, only for a troubled look to spread across her face.
"T-That's all...? What in the world... is it supposed to mean...?"
"Upupu... A naughty program that ignores me... deserves to be punished, don't you think...?"
"I-I don't have time to sit here wondering about it... Hurry...!"
Bzzzt! Bzzzt!
"Upupu...? What now? What's going on...?"
All at once, the area was bathed in red as an alarm blared. Enoshima's Alter Ego, who'd been sneering at Monomi, stiffened in confusion and turned to stare at the monitor.
"With this... I've used up all the emergency authority Fujisaki gave me last time... Now the only thing I have left... is the fragment of the [Magical Stick] hidden in my shoe..."
"A system object was altered? Out of nowhere? Upupu... a bug? I don't know what it is, but if I just modify it back..."
"Error! No search results found."
"Upupu...?"
Watching Enoshima's Alter Ego scratch her head, Monomi thought to herself.
"Even for you... if you want to inspect every single one of the countless object codes created when all of Jabberwock Island's data was imported wholesale... it's going to take a very long time..."
"Monomi... what did you do this time...?"
"Please... let K notice my hint..."
"Ugyaaaaaaaaah!!"
"You know, it'd be better for you if you just told me... no, forget it. That's too cliché. I'll look for it myself, so you can just sit there and enjoy a nice electric steam treatment..."
After shocking Monomi with electricity and leaving her there, Enoshima's Alter Ego let out a tired sigh and began combing through the countless objects one by one.
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.
"K, why are you carrying such a huge bag around?"
"Ahaha... the new island kind of has an amusement park theme, so... I thought I'd at least try to create a picnic mood..."
"Ooh!! Then does that mean you've got snacks in there!? Sandwiches!? A lunchbox!?"
"O-Owari!! Calm down!! If you eat it now...!"
"Huh? What the heck... canned food, jerky... why'd you only bring stuff like this...? munch munch"
"Don't complain while you're stealing it!"
Morning came, and we headed for the fourth island. The others saw the bag stuffed with emergency rations, but my excuse about wanting to create a picnic atmosphere seemed to satisfy them well enough.
Once we arrived on the fourth island, Monokuma dangled a reward in front of everyone if they rode the roller coaster, and the others eagerly moved to take him up on it.
"Upupupu...! Sorry, but I'm a little busy right now, so come back in a bit!! Well... why don't you enjoy all the healing fun this amusement park has to offer...? Because soon... you're going to have a truly terrifying experience!! Upupupupu...!!"
The others laughed it off, saying there was no way a roller coaster could be that scary. But hearing that made my head start to pound. Monokuma really was planning to lock us up.
Leaving me behind with my already-dark expression growing even darker, the others quickly got swept up in the bright, exhilarating atmosphere of the amusement park and scattered off to enjoy themselves.
At the moment, the only people not looking excited were me, Kyoko Kirigiri—because we knew what was coming—and Nanami, who was deeply disappointed by the complete lack of game booths.
"N-Nanami, um... there's a Ferris wheel over there... want to ride it together...?"
"Ah, ahh!? S-Sure..."
Hinata and Nanami both turned bright red and hurried off toward the Ferris wheel, leaving only me and Kyoko Kirigiri standing there with matching gloomy expressions.
"K, about yesterday..."
"Forget it. I didn't mean it. I was just talking."
"Really?"
"....."
"I will never let you fight alone. Understood?"
Kyoko Kirigiri said it calmly, almost matter-of-factly. I forced myself to look away from her, and just then, a noisy commotion rose up in the distance. When I went to check, I found Monokuma arguing with the others.
"What's going on...?"
"Who knows? Monokuma's blocking us from going into that mouse castle over there. Doesn't that seem suspicious?"
"Let us in!! Why won't you let us go inside!?"
"Because... there are terrifying mice living in there!! I can't let you in!!"
I stared at Monokuma for a moment as he trembled and shouted in outrage, looking utterly pathetic. Then I turned on my heel and headed for Monomi House.
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"...It's empty."
Just as I'd expected, Monomi House was deserted. This had originally been Monomi's living space, but Monokuma had turned it into a haunted house, so the whole place had a distinctly creepy air.
But Monomi should've still been staying here after that... and yet she wasn't here either. So where had she gone? Maybe, somewhere out there, she was doing something for our sake right now.
"Why am I like this...? I keep trying to rely on someone else."
I slapped my own cheek to snap myself out of it, but when I thought about it, Monomi was the only thing left to rely on. The only things I could even attempt were stopping everyone from boarding the train to the Funhouse and stockpiling food.
The unfortunate part was that if Monokuma really wanted to, he could crush both of those attempts without any trouble.
"...Haaah."
"K? So this is where you were. They said the roller coaster is ready now."
As I stood there sighing, Nanami came to find me and spoke up.
"Ah, yeah... got it."
"Everyone else is already gathered. They're all curious what the reward is, so come on."
After saying that, Nanami started walking ahead of me.
Watching her back, I found myself asking a question before I even realized it.
"Nanami... there's something I want to ask you..."
"Hm? What is it...?"
"If everyone was about to die, and the only way to stop it was to give up your own life... what would you do?"
"....."
Nanami's expression darkened. Why had I asked her that? In Chapter 5 of the original story, she too sacrificed herself in her AI form, so had I unconsciously wanted advice from her? What a nuisance of an unconscious mind.
"No, forget it... what am I even saying? Just igno—"
"I'd sacrifice myself."
"...What?"
"If one life of mine could protect everyone... then of course that's what I'd do, right?"
Nanami said it with a smile. For a moment, her face overlapped with the final moments I'd seen of her in the game. I looked at her quietly, then finally spoke.
"Yeah. If it can save everyone, then sacrificing yourself would be the right thing to do. But..."
"...?"
"You don't have to do that."
"What do you mean...?"
"...At least not this time."
I ignored Nanami as she kept looking at me with worried eyes, asking what I meant, and walked toward the roller coaster.
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"Okaaay!! We've arrived!! So, how was it!?"
"K-Kill me... just kill me..."
"It was truly delightful! I'd love to ride it one more time!!"
"L-Lady Sonia...? Even for you... that's a little..."
"All right!! Let's go again!!"
"D-Don't you dare...!!"
The roller coaster was terrifying.
"Ughhh..."
"Hehe, you're cute."
".....!"
I was still trembling after we got off when Kyoko Kirigiri, who'd been sitting beside me, wrapped her arms around me.
Come to think of it, roller coasters were actually pretty fun.
"Monokuma!! Get me off this horrible thing right now!! Hurry!!"
Consumed by the fear that he might be forced to ride the roller coaster again, Souda started screaming his lungs out at Monokuma.
"Upupupu... before you get off... take a look at your reward first!!"
Monokuma handed something out to all of us still seated on the roller coaster. If my memory was right, it was probably information on Class 78's Killing School Life.
"Th-This mark... it's the same one carved into those ancient ruins...?"
"W-What is this...?"
I flipped through the file, and sure enough, it contained materials about Class 78's Killing School Life. Well, since things had diverged from the original story, naturally the contents had been rewritten to match the killing game I'd actually experienced.
In the original, when the others saw this file, they learned that Pigami had been caught up in that mutual killing school life. Though in truth, Pigami was just the Ultimate Imposter pretending to be Togami.
This made Pigami's response pretty important. His leadership had still been shining up to now, so I needed to help smooth things over here before he got thrown off balance...
"Wait... what is this...?"
Something was wrong. As I looked through the file, a strange sense of dissonance crawled over me. What was this...? Why was this part...?
"Why are K, Kyoko Kirigiri, and Togami in here...!?"
"W-What the heck? You guys? How is that possible!?"
"Class 78...? But we're Class 77, aren't we?"
"More importantly... you guys already went through something like what we're going through now?"
"Ahahahaha, so that's what it was...! I knew it... you really are hope after all!! Ahahahahahaha!!"
Ah. I'd completely forgotten that Kyoko Kirigiri and I were in there too.
"W-Well, that's..."
"Then does that mean you three were a year younger than us?"
"That's not what's important right now. What exactly do you know? Why are you going through a killing game like this for a second time?"
"You guys were kind of amazing, huh...? Doesn't this mean you already survived one killing game like this? Three out of the sixteen survivors are here with us... that actually makes me feel a little safer."
"I see... no wonder you two were so lovey-dovey... after surviving a brush with death together, that's when your feelings blossomed... ehehehe...!"
"Mr. Pig's Feet... you were actually pretty... handsome back then...?"
While I was still reeling under the storm of questions, Monokuma suddenly shouted at us.
"Well then, ladies and gentlemen!! Hold on tight!!"
"...What?"
"Our next destination is... the Funhouse! The Funhouse it is...!"
"You insane bastard!!"
The instant I heard that, I panicked and tried to unfasten my seatbelt—but for some reason, it wouldn't come undone.
"Upupupu... I had a feeling someone with weirdly sharp instincts might try to stop everyone from boarding the train to the Funhouse...!! And hey, a roller coaster is transportation too, right?"
"What kind of bullshit is that!!!"
"K, what's wrong?"
"W-What is it...? What's happening?"
"I don't know why... but this feels really bad..."
"If K is reacting like that... then I think this situation might be more serious than it looks..."
"...It feels as though the Hexagram of Ruin lies before us. Even the Four Dark Devas of Destruction tremble. But why..."
As I desperately fought with my seatbelt, the others began murmuring among themselves, finally realizing something was wrong. Monokuma looked at us and laughed, then shouted with manic cheer.
"Well then, since there was an encore request earlier... we'll be starting up again!! Of course, this time our destination isn't here—it's the Funhouse!!"
"Y-You... underhanded piece of shit...!!"
"Upupupupupupupupupupupu!!"
And just like that, I kept hurling curses at Monokuma while trapped on the roller coaster as it let out a grotesque mechanical shriek and tore down the altered rails at breakneck speed. Then the dizziness hit me all at once, and I blacked out.