Voided Truth (Hollow Lies Sequel) (Danganronpa)

Chapter 22 ~ Forcing Trust

"Kokichi," a voice said while waving a hand in his face.

Kokichi jumped back, letting out a squeak as he slapped the hand away and backed up on the bed.

"Fair enough. Sorry for startling you but you weren't responding and I didn't know what to do. I was hoping I could ask you some questions?"

Kokichi looked the person up and down, trying to decide if this guy looked trustworthy or not. He had white shoulder length hair, bangs covering his eyes. He was wearing a black button up shirt with a name tag that read "Makoto/Yuki." Kokichi squinted his eyes, continuing to back away a bit.

"W-What do you want from m-me," Kokichi asked.

"I just want to ask some questions. I promise this isn't another kidnapping."

Kokichi's eyes widened. "You... You know about the kidnappings?"

"Yes. We've actually been watching for a while but couldn't find a good time to approach you all without Team Danganronpa catching on. We've also been filled in on everyone's backstories up until a certain point."

"Who... Who are you? What is this p-place."

"They didn't tell you?"

"Um... kind of... I-I don't really remember..."

The guy nodded. "That's understandable. Judging by the blood on your clothes, you were the one holding that rag to Maki's head? I bet it was hard to focus on anything else. I'm glad you trusted your friends enough to let them bring you here."

Kokichi scoffed. "They... T-They aren't my friends..." He said it in a whisper, only the guy being able to hear it.

"Oh... Are you sure?"

"S-Shuichi broke me. Kiibo keeps k-kidnapping me. F-Friends don't do those things."

"... I see. Well, regardless, I'm glad you trusted them. Now, is it fine if I ask you some questions?"

"You still haven't answered m-mine." Kokichi glared at the guy, crossing his arms.

"Oh, right. My bad." The guy gave an awkward laugh. "First off, my name is Yuki. Ignore the confusing name tag. We have to display our legal names along with our preferred names. My parents unfortunately named me after- well, you obviously know who and why. But I have always hated that name. When I got accepted into a killing game, I was given the name Yuki. When I got my old memories back, I still felt attached to my new name and decided to keep it."

"They gave you a n-new name?"

"Yeah. Just me though. They thought having another Makoto would be too confusing. I'm surprised they even let me into the killing game. Probably would've been easier not to. Anyways, this building is the headquarters for Future Foundation."

Kokichi's eyes widened. "N-No... You... You aren't r-real..."

"Please don't say that. I question that every day as is..." The guy looked down, making Kokichi start to feel bad. "But no, we aren't the exact ones from the game series. We are a group of survivors that made our own version to try to take Team Danganronpa down."

"Oh yeah? A-And how you going to do that?" There was attitude in his voice, rolling his eyes. "Y-You couldn't even bother to save me from Kiibo because of a little f-fear."

"Actually, we knew Kiibo wouldn't have hurt you. And we weren't going to let him leave the country with you. Plus, with you hiding Maki's phone in his car, we could track you two anywhere. I know it seems like we weren't doing anything, but I promise we were. We've been working on something that should hopefully end all of this."

"Tsk. O-Okay then. Enlighten me..."

"First, I need you to answer my questions. I've answered yours, so it's only fair."

Kokichi rolled his eyes but nodded.

"Huh... It's interesting to see you being this way. Perhaps..."

"... Perhaps what?"

"Hm? Oh, never mind that. Anyways, I would like to understand more of what is going on in your head."

...

A few hours had past of Kokichi describing the mess he became. He ran through the full story of slowly getting his memories back through the killing game, even going into a bit of details on what exact part everyone played before the killing game. Yuki wrote everything down while assuring Kokichi he could stop for a breather at any time, noticing the toll this was taking on Kokichi. But Kokichi pushed on, slowly getting into more details on stuff as the story went on, stopping at where he is today. Yuki decided to take the opportunity to dig deeper. Kokichi's story only started when he moved to the last school he attended, not mentioning any of his life before. This question actually caused Kokichi to freeze, unable to answer it. Yuki understood and insisted they drop the subject.

After finishing the story and questions, Yuki asked if they could run some physical and mental test, pointing out the lightly bruised wrist from the cuffs and the cut he must have received during the fight with Shuichi. He doesn't even know how that happened, not registering any pain in that moment. They had him fill a few papers out and then hooked him up to a machine. The more time he spent at the place, the more on edge he became. It was hard to believe there was an actual hope to stop everything. That there were people willing to help him with no strings attached. They even constantly reminded him that they could stop the test at any point if it became too much. So, he persisted. He needed to know more about them and see if anything they were doing was worth it.

Once they were finished gathering all the data they needed, they brought him back to Shuichi and Kiibo, who were barely staying awake on the chairs they were sitting on. They tried offering the bed back to Kokichi but he preferred to stand, too on edge to relax. He couldn't get a question Yuki asked out of his head. He hadn't thought much on his life before the dreaded cursed High School that lead to this mess.

The memories were a blur, seeming to not be part of what returned when regaining his past memories. It was actually terrifying, realizing he may have had parts of his memories kept from him. Tsumugi did use a flashback light when giving him the rest of his memories. And it was already established that the flashback lights weren't reliable. He started to freak out, heart racing as he raced back in the direction of the testing room. Barging in, Yuki gave a started look before rushing to Kokichi.

"What's wrong," he asked. "Did someone break in?"

Kokichi shook his head, replying, "I don't actually remember the past."

...

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