"At this point, the bombs should've gone off already... Did they still not find all the switches?"
"R-Right now, even now..."
Bang!
"Ugh... ngh..."
Saionji had cautiously opened her mouth while watching me mutter to myself, but the instant she saw the bullet I fired punch a hole into the wall just beside her, the strength drained from her legs and she collapsed on the spot.
"They can't even find a single switch properly... pathetic... Nanami's probably the one leading the search, isn't she...?"
"....."
"Isn't that right...? Guys...?"
"....."
"Looks like you've finally realized your situation... Yeah, all you have to do is stay quiet and sit still until you witness me die..."
".....Ngh."
Watching the children swallow their groans, I sank into thought.
'So this is finally the end... A finale like this... isn't so bad...'
To kill despair and become a stepping stone for hope... maybe, at the very end, my luck had finally decided to take my side.
'No... calling it luck doesn't feel right... It's just a curse, isn't it...?'
Whenever that unwanted luck of mine kicked in, misfortune always followed. That alone was enough to make it a curse, but the misfortune was never limited to me alone.
When I was little, I got caught up in a passenger plane hijacking. My parents, who'd been trapped in it with me, were killed when a meteorite suddenly slammed into the aircraft. Of course, the hijackers died too, so I survived... but in exchange, I became an orphan.
Sure, I inherited a massive fortune and my freedom because of it, but from that day on, my cursed luck only tightened its grip around my throat.
I always survived in the end because of my luck, but the people around me started getting dragged into one calamity after another.
The first friend I ever made at school turned into a cold corpse the very next day after a traffic accident. I got kidnapped along with kids I used to play with. A teacher who always looked out for me got unfairly fired. Things like that.
Living a life like that... of course I got tired. Maybe that's why I started yearning for "hope"—something strong enough to overcome even fate through sheer force of will.
So when I found out recently that I'd been accepted into Hope's Peak Academy, I felt the greatest joy of my entire life.
Getting into Hope's Peak Academy, the stronghold of the hope I admired... wasn't that the kind of thing people only ever dreamed about?
Because of that, something as trivial as being told I was terminally ill just a few days before receiving my acceptance notice from Hope's Peak Academy stopped mattering to me at all.
If anything, I thought it was a relief. Since I'd already received my dose of misfortune, I wouldn't need to run off to some remote wilderness to avoid natural disasters or meteor strikes turning everything around me into a wasteland.
And honestly... when I got that terminal diagnosis, I was pretty happy.
I thought maybe my curse was finally going to let me go—finally release me from a life spent teetering on a knife-edge between uncontrollable luck and uncontrollable disaster.
But in the end, my curse never let me go.
On the very day I entered Hope's Peak Academy, I got dragged into this absurd killing game.
Even so, until recently, I'd had some genuinely happy moments. Because I thought I was watching hope stand against despair right in front of my eyes.
I was so happy that I even started thinking my luck felt sorry for dragging me into a killing game right after handing me a terminal diagnosis, and had decided to give me nothing but good fortune from then on.
But my curse sneered at that foolish optimism and handed me the greatest despair of my life.
The ones I thought were hope were all despair, and the real hopes sacrificed themselves to protect those "despairs."
The most despair-inducing part of all was that I, too, was despair... and because of my actions, hope was sacrificed.
That's why I made up my mind. I would end this wretched life together with my curse—the curse that had blindsided me with the worst possible misfortune at the worst possible moment, and snuffed out even hope itself.
Of course, I couldn't just die on my own. There was still one hope left. I couldn't bear to watch even that final remaining hope get sacrificed for despair too, so I resolved to die together with the despairs.
'Yeah... this is enough... haha... ha...'
I could feel the final moment drawing closer through every inch of my body. Even those idiots would find all the switches soon enough.
Right now, I was in a state of misfortune more despair-soaked than ever before. So when they all pressed the switches at the same time, my luck would activate. Eleven people—everyone except Nanami—would trigger the bombs attached to my body, and I'd die on the spot. Before misfortune even had time to interfere.
And ten seconds after the kids at the hospital witnessed that, the bombs I'd planted there—which had also been activated—would explode and blow them apart too. At that point, everyone except Chiaki Nanami would become blackened.
'...To think I can die after taking fifteen despairs down with me. For my last act, I actually managed to do something worth praising... Ah, right. I was included in those fifteen too.'
At least at the end, I wanted to be worshipped. I wanted to be praised. I wanted pity. I wanted love.
No... the truth is, I didn't just want that at the end. I wanted it all the time.
But in the end, someone like me apparently couldn't receive worship, praise, pity, or love from anyone—not even in my final moments.
'...How lonely.'
I was forcing down that bitter swell of emotion and waiting for the end when, all at once, it happened.
"Eeeek...!"
"W-What the...!?"
"No!!!"
"...Hm?"
Saionji was sprinting straight at me with everything she had.
.
.
.
.
.
'I-I almost... just now... I almost died...'
While Komaeda was lost in thought after firing that warning shot, Saionji sat collapsed against the wall, trembling violently.
'If he'd fired just a few centimeters more to the side, there would've been a hole in my head... Then I would've...'
The image of those two flashed through her mind again—collapsed on the ground with smiles on their faces, their bodies already going cold. The moment she remembered it, unbearable grief and terror came crashing over her.
'I would've died... just like them...'
If only she hadn't done what she did that day, maybe K and Kyoko Kirigiri wouldn't have had to sacrifice themselves. Maybe there really had been an exit hidden somewhere, and she'd thrown away their chance to find it. Maybe there really had been an escape route in the Final Dead Room, and they just failed to discover it because they hadn't examined it closely enough.
No matter how hard she tried to forget, she could never erase the sight of those two smiling as they pointed guns at each other's heads and pulled the trigger. Ever since that incident, the thought had haunted her without pause.
Because the one who started it all was her. She was the one who entered the Final Dead Room, armed herself with a weapon, suspected Togami—who had been guarding the Final Dead Room alone for everyone's sake—of being the Mastermind, threatened him with that weapon, and then stabbed Kuzuryu when he tried to stop her.
It didn't matter that she'd been starving for seven days and wasn't in her right mind. Back then, she'd done something she never should have done. In truth... at the time, it felt like she didn't care what happened anymore.
But the instant she saw Kuzuryu collapse in front of her, bleeding, her mind snapped back into focus.
She had stabbed someone. And if things kept going like this, she'd become a murderer. The moment that thought struck her, fear took complete control of her body.
Having your mind shatter just from the fact that you stabbed someone would already be bad enough. But how would it feel to know that person might die soon because they couldn't receive treatment—and that the moment they died, you'd be executed too?
Crushed by the guilt of stabbing someone and driving them toward death, and by the terror of her own impending death, she had collapsed to the floor and started shaking in a full-blown panic.
The others glanced at her, then turned away. In the end, she was left behind at the scene, alone with nothing but fear and dread.
"...It's okay. We'll figure something out somehow."
If K and Kyoko Kirigiri hadn't taken her hand and pulled her to her feet right then, whispering those words to her, she might have spiraled so deep into panic that she would've taken her own life.
And so, even in that shattered state, she somehow endured by clinging to the faintest thread of hope—that maybe those two had some kind of solution.
Selfishly. Horribly selfishly.
And then, that selfish hope of hers was fulfilled in the worst possible form: through the sacrifice of those two right before her eyes.
After that, she'd made a vow. For the sake of the two who died because of what she'd done, she would spend the rest of her life atoning. She would change her attitude. And if necessary, she would sacrifice herself just like they had.
But now that a situation like this had arrived, she was trembling in fear all over again—just like the selfish, pathetic version of herself from before.
'...In a situation like this... what would those two have done...?'
Right now, Komaeda was holding the three of them hostage and planning to make them witness his death. So why would he do something like that?
Actually, his goal wasn't hard to guess. If Komaeda was just standing there, and yet the bombs attached to his body were about to explode, then that meant someone outside was going to trigger them, didn't it?
That was probably what Komaeda was aiming for. She didn't know the details, but the person who'd end up activating those bombs would probably be innocent.
"...Ugh."
"Y-Young master..."
On top of that, Kuzuryu—who'd been held hostage this whole time—was starting to worsen again. He'd woken up miraculously, but he was still gravely injured and needed constant care. Because of Komaeda's threats, though, no one could even move.
'Yeah... in a situation like this... those two would've thrown themselves at him and stopped Komaeda...'
If those two had been here instead of her, then even if it meant getting shot, they would've hurled themselves at Komaeda without hesitation.
Because Kuzuryu and Pekoyama were far away from her, so there was less risk of them getting caught in the line of fire, and because Komaeda currently had his gun trained on Pekoyama, who was waiting like a predator for the slightest opening.
Komaeda probably never even imagined that a cowardly, selfish person like her would throw herself into danger to save someone else.
But... what if she did? What if she sprinted at full speed and tackled Komaeda right now? What if that gave Pekoyama even the tiniest opening?
According to what he'd muttered, the bomb would go off soon. And if that happened, then despite K and Kyoko Kirigiri's sacrifice, more victims would die all over again.
'I can't let that happen... I can't let K-oppa and Kyoko Kirigiri's sacrifice become meaningless...!'
And so Saionji made the biggest decision of her life.
'...Koizumi, I'm sorry. Kuzuryu too, and... everyone else as well...'
If this was how things were going to end, then maybe she should've tried being kinder in everyday life too. She still hadn't fully atoned for her sins, and the thought that she was trying to pay it all off with one short burst of sacrifice made her chest feel heavy.
'I hope we can meet again someday... K-oppa, Kyoko Kirigiri.'
Praying that, after paying for her sins in hell, she might someday meet them again and apologize in person, Saionji took a deep breath—then started sprinting at Komaeda with everything she had.
"...Ha."
Komaeda's face turned glacial as he swung the muzzle toward Saionji.
"S-Stop!!!"
Pekoyama shouted as she charged forward with her wooden sword, but Komaeda had already pulled the trigger.
"One shot probably won't kill you right away... As long as you stay alive until you witness my death..."
Watching the trigger being pulled, Saionji squeezed her eyes shut and hurled herself at Komaeda, praying she'd bought Pekoyama enough time, but...
Click!!
"...Huh?"
Click-click!!!
For some reason, at that exact moment, the bullet jammed. The gun didn't fire.
"Ahaha..."
Komaeda looked at Saionji throwing herself at him and Pekoyama's wooden sword surging in from the side, then let out a hollow laugh and murmured:
"Is this luck? Or is it misfortune?"