Danganronpa: String Theory (DrV3)

4.13 - Triggering

He doesn't say any more, gesturing along the path so we can continue walking.

At this point, there really is no redeeming this guy. If I can blow up in rage and out Kokichi for breaking my heart, then logically I should have no trouble outing Korekiyo for his past and his current plans.

Then again...it took time to convince myself Kokichi was up to no good. Even with so much proof in front of me, I couldn't shake off my mind's eye image of him due to his consistent efforts to flirt and convince me otherwise.

Maybe that's what's happening here, albeit without the crush like I had on Kokichi. I just don't want to let go of the nice but creepy Korekiyo I've known thus far in the time we've been here, or maybe I can't. These people are the only ones I have, and they're thinning out.
Besides that though...

"I can't believe you..." I murmur under my breath, the clarity of my inability to out him suddenly clear as a crystal.

Korekiyo tilts his head just slightly, carefully eyeing me when I refuse to move.

"Pardon? Did you just say..."

"You've murdered ninty-six people up till now? It's just unbelievable," I spit out like the sentence has no business escaping my lips, my eyebrows knitting together when I turn my gaze back up towards him. "You're still in high school. The idea that you could do that as an adult with free reign across the world is hard enough to believe, but for you to do it as a teenager? On trips that were likely funded by the efforts of schools? Trips that are likely monitored ? You're JOKING."

I'm pissed off thinking about it, enough that my heart rate starts to climb up again. Zero to sixty, as per usual- but this time I hold myself back from acting out past some choice words and vitriol. Even Korekiyo can tell my temper has gone past the usual scale, because I can see he's taken a wise step back despite his otherwise blase look to my expression and tone of voice.

"...I've never had an opportunity to witness something like this," Korekiyo speaks up after observing me for a long moment, watching as my breaths start coming out shorter and my back straightens up into something more aggressive than tense or scared. "So you've chosen to deny it despite my admittance to my crimes. I wonder if any of my past victims would have shared similar sentiments. Since I had to examine them to see fit if they were good candidates for my dear sister, I was close to all of them. As stated before, their deaths were swift. None of them ever saw it coming."

I growl at his words only because the reality he lives in sounds so stupid. He can insist all he wants, and I still refuse to believe him. Why should I believe him, anyways? I've got a dumb murder-victim document plan that's only been half-right thus far, and I've got only Korekiyo's verbal word. He could be lying to stir up trouble just like Kokichi would, except with a more dedicated execution in his lies.

A verbal confession isn't enough for me when all I've got as proof is some verbal maiming and a farce of a confession to ninety-six murders no one can be sure even happened, save for Korekiyo's insistent word on it.

"If you want me to believe you, I need solid proof. If you can't give me that, then I choose to believe the logic my gut is telling me: you logically couldn't have killed ninety-six girls-"

"Then you don't need to believe that much. Regardless of your depressing inability to accept my true nature, I'm still a killer. Trust in the reality that I will eventually kill you, as I must insist... I mean it."