Bang!!
Gunfire rang out in front of everyone.
The kids rubbed their eyes like they couldn't believe what they'd just seen, or else stood there blankly, too stunned to process the catastrophe that had erupted without warning.
Thud
But reality showed them no mercy. The two bodies crumpled to the floor, limp and graceless, without the slightest consideration for the horrified children watching.
Only then did it truly sink in.
"Aaaaaaaah!!"
"This is insane... th-this has to be a lie...!"
"F-Fake... it has to be... some kind of trick..."
"S-Stop joking around... you guys... this isn't funny..."
Each of them shouted something—anything—to deny the atrocity sprawled before them, but the two corpses had already gone cold, and all they offered in reply was a relentless stream of blood.
"I-I was wrong... I-I won't do it again... p-please..."
Someone crawled toward the bodies and began to sob.
"F-From now on... never again... I won't do anything like that... so please... pleeease...!!"
The child who reached them grabbed both corpses and shook them with half-shattered sanity, but the dead don't answer. They never do.
Then Monokuma's announcement echoed through the air, driving the final nail into the truth that the two of them were dead.
"Nooooo!! Why you two!?"
"W-Why...? You... you didn't do anything wrong... so why...?"
"Ah... ahhh... aaaah..."
As Monokuma's merciless broadcast rang out, everyone broke in their own way—raging, weeping, or simply going hollow with despair.
Why had something like this happened?
To understand that, we'd have to rewind the clock.
.
.
.
.
.
"G-Good morning, everyone..."
"Ah, ahaha... looks like everybody's already here..."
Most of the kids, including Nanami and Hinata, didn't gather in one place until long after the original 7 a.m. meeting time.
"...Where are K and Kyoko Kirigiri?"
"They're washing up in the bathroom."
"W-What!? There's water!? Then—"
"What's the point of water? Didn't you see the new rule added to the E-Handbook this morning? 'Students may not consume food or water until they leave the Funhouse.'"
"O-Oh... r-right..."
Saionji snapped out the newly added school regulation to Hinata in an openly irritated tone, then glared sharply at the latecomers—including him, scratching his head in embarrassment.
"But seriously... fine, whatever, K and Kyoko Kirigiri are one thing... but why were the rest of you late!?"
"I... overslept..."
"W-We did too..."
"I-I have no excuse..."
"...Sorry."
The ones who'd overslept after each spending a heated night of their own avoided Saionji's eyes and mumbled their excuses. That only sent her fury soaring.
"Are you people out of your minds!? In a situation like this, you overslept!?"
"Saionji... calm down..."
"Koizumi, big sis!! Those idiots still don't even understand the situation, and they just casually slept in...!!"
"...Haaah, yes, you're right about that, but look at where we are right now... There's no point in picking unnecessary fights..."
"A fight!? This isn't a fight! This is me getting angry in a situation where anyone should obviously be angry, Koizumi, big sis!!"
Normally, Saionji would cool off if Koizumi stepped in. But for some reason, this time she only grew more incensed despite Koizumi's attempt to mediate.
"Saionji, you're too worked up. Right now, you need to settle down first—"
"Settle down and what? Bottle it all up again this time too...?"
Saionji swept her venomous gaze across the others and spoke.
"Some people are half out of their minds, going 'ahaha' and doing whatever they want... some people staged the exact kidnapping drama they wanted, then after a few rounds of self-harm, they laugh it off and act like nothing ever happened... and some people pushed someone to the brink of death, then got Despair Disease and got forgiven for it, and now they just sit here bawling among us..."
"Saionji, that's going too far—"
"And now... we're in a situation where, in a few days, we could all starve to death together, and even then you can't keep a single promise and just do whatever you want... Wow. Real impressive, don't you think...?"
"....."
With her fists clenched tight, Saionji glared at the others and muttered in a voice thick with fury.
"...I can't keep acting with hopeless idiots like you anymore. So from now on, I'm going solo. There's one empty room left anyway, so that's perfect."
"Saionji!!!"
"Stop getting mad at me already!! I'm disappointed in you too, Koizumi, big sis!! All you ever do is tell me to endure it!! The ones who actually did wrong are all those other idiots!! I can't take it anymore!!"
After shrieking that at Koizumi, Saionji broke away from the group and started walking toward the guest rooms.
"...Saionji?"
"....."
On her way there, still wearing a face twisted with anger, Saionji spotted K and Kyoko Kirigiri heading toward the gathered students. A frigid smile crossed her lips as she muttered,
"...You two are really having one hell of a time, huh."
".....?"
Leaving those words behind, Saionji entered the vacant guest room and locked the door.
"S... Saionji..."
And at that same moment, Koizumi stood among the dejected students with a deathly pale face, trembling as she called Saionji's name.
.
.
.
.
.
"Phew... this situation is really beyond awful..."
"...Given the circumstances, that's only natural."
Because of what had happened earlier, the group's meeting dissolved into nothing, and Kyoko Kirigiri and I returned to our guest room.
Honestly, even if that scene hadn't happened, it probably would've ended the same way. There wasn't anything we could actually do by gathering together.
Still, Saionji's words had forced everyone to confront reality, and the atmosphere had sunk into even deeper gloom.
I wasn't any different.
She was right. At this rate, within a few days either a murder would happen, or someone would starve to death. And unlike the motives we've faced so far, there isn't even a way to stop this one.
Our only hope, Monomi, was supposedly imprisoned and being tortured, according to Monokuma. Of course, anything that bear says has to be filtered through suspicion—but it was also true that we hadn't found Monomi anywhere up to this point.
I kept wringing my brain for an answer that refused to come, until Kyoko Kirigiri quietly placed a hand on my shoulder and spoke.
"You're brooding all by yourself again...?"
"Haha... it's not that. My head just hurts a little..."
"...Do you know why I did all that with you from last night until earlier today?"
"U-Uh... what...?"
"Because it was something I wanted to do at least once before facing the final moment. So I did it to my heart's content."
"...Kyoko."
"Family stays together until the very end, doesn't it? So..."
"...Kyoko!! We said we weren't going to talk like that anymore!!!"
"...I'm only saying it because you keep making that face."
"...What?"
Kyoko Kirigiri stared straight at me and continued.
"That expression. The one that says you're trying to solve everything by yourself like an idiot. You may not have said it out loud, but your face has been telling me over and over, and now you're going to backpedal by saying we agreed not to talk like that anymore? Even though you're thinking it as much as you want on the inside?"
"I can't let you be sacrificed—"
"Then what? You'll sacrifice yourself and leave me behind alone? Even though we're family? That's awfully cold."
"...That's not—"
"If you die, then no matter what happens, I'll die too. So don't even think about dying and leaving me behind."
"....."
"We're family now—the kind that decided to face the end together... right? So when your end comes, I'll be there too. Remember that."
"Kyo... ko..."
"So... when are you going to start?"
As I looked at Kyoko Kirigiri asking me that in a trembling but composed voice, I realized I was already holding her in my arms and crying.
"...Maybe it's because we're family. When you cry... it makes me want to cry too..."
And so we clung to each other and wept for a long, long time.
.
.
.
.
.
"Upupupu... even you brats... start to crack in front of a motive this overwhelming, huh...? That's right. Give it a few days, and somebody's bound to collapse into despair and commit murder... though I wouldn't mind if you just starved to death either!!"
'I don't have any spare lives left... this... is my last one...'
Pushed by the relentless torture to the brink of total destruction, Monomi thought to herself.
'Either way... this life is going to disappear completely soon... so maybe... it'd be better... to take one gamble...'
"M-Magical... Tele—Ugyaaaaaah!!"
"Upupupu... then until a victim shows up, maybe I'll blow off some stress by tormenting Monomi a little more...?"
Monomi tried to shake the foot wearing the shoe that contained a fragment of the Magical Stick while chanting her spell, but at that exact moment Enoshima's Alter Ego resumed the torture. Her whole body seized up, and all she could do was scream.
.
.
.
.
I have been spending my days in a state of intense excitement lately.
When I was kidnapped on my very first day at Hope's Peak Academy and dragged into this Killing School Trip, I thought misfortune had come crashing down as backlash for the luck that let me enroll at Hope's Peak Academy in the first place.
But after living on this island, I came to understand that it wasn't misfortune at all.
To witness, right before my eyes, those heart-pounding moments when radiant hope smashes despair to pieces one after another—what greater luck could there possibly be in this world?
Perhaps my talent felt guilty for saddling me with an incurable illness, because for a while now it seems to have decided to grant me nothing but good fortune.
Honestly, it does feel a little strange not to be hounded by the usual disasters that always follow me, but I'm far too busy watching the hope blooming on this island to dwell on something so trivial. So I decided to put that part out of my mind for now.
And yet, before we came to the Funhouse, there was something faintly unsatisfying about the hope I loved so much, even when I saw it with my own eyes.
The hope created by the observers and the students kept crushing despair, and everyone's hope kept growing stronger because of it, but that sense of dissatisfaction never truly disappeared.
So why did I feel unsatisfied even while watching hope?
After only a brief moment of thought, I found the answer.
Because hope had been defeating despair too easily.
The more overwhelming the despair, the more dazzling the hope that blooms in response. But if hope wins too easily, then of course it feels lacking.
Of course, to the observers and the students, it probably looked as though they had overcome despair through tremendous hardship. But that outcome was inevitable. Despair had certainly been given to them, yes—but it was only the kind of despair they could overcome if they tried hard enough.
That's why, even as I felt satisfaction watching hope spread everywhere, I couldn't help carrying that lingering dissatisfaction in one corner of my heart.
But after coming here, that feeling vanished completely.
Because this place is utterly despairing. There is no food. No exit. In other words, an insurmountable despair has finally arrived.
So then... what will hope do when it faces despair that cannot be overcome?
I don't know for certain. But one thing I can say with confidence is this: now that everyone has been cornered by a situation more overwhelmingly despair-inducing than ever before, this incident will become the catalyst that makes them bloom into complete hope. After all, no matter how crushing it is, even the most overwhelming despair can never defeat hope.
And so... I decided I would help, just a little, so that the children could use this despair as fertilizer and make the flower of hope bloom.
"Ahaha, Saionji. Hello?"
"...Get lost. I want to be alone right now."
"Come on, just hear me out for a moment—"
"No... I said no!!! Get out of my sight already!!!"
"Hmm... well, I guess it can't be helped... I was going to help you get out of here, though..."
"W-What are you talking about...?"
"Ah, now I've got your interest...? In that case... shall I begin?"