"It has to be you, Naegi." I said as I pointed at the brown haired student.
"Huh?!" he said in surprise.
"What?! Why is it Naegi?!" Keebo asked with a worried look.
"Gonta not think Naegi would do such a thing!"
"I cannot believe he would do such a thing." Celeste said in suspicion.
"You've got it wrong! I didn't do it!"
"I don't think you meant to do it," I tell him, "but there's a crucial piece of evidence that makes me think you had the bomb."
The other detective says nothing as I continue explaining.
"I'm sorry for just saying this, but you were gonna give a gift to Kirigiri, right?"
He slowly nods his head, a bit embarrassed. "Yea.."
"Wait, what does that have to do with anything though?" Soda asked.
"Shut up and let him explain." the affluent progeny sighed.
"...Did you use the Hopes Peak Academy duffle bag to pack the gifts?" I hoped with all my heart he would say no, and that somehow Komaeda was the one who activated the bomb in his room.
"Yes." he replied. I grit my teeth as I close my eyes.
"I found that duffle bag in Komaeda's development room.." his eyes widened. "You somehow switched bags with him and accidentally activated the bomb.."
"HUH?!" Everyone yelled out.
"I initially thought that Komaeda just had interesting taste with novels.. But, it makes more sense that those were the gifts he was trying to give Kirigiri! I even noticed a rose in the duffle bag, and judging by the vases with even more flowers in her dorm, I assume that you commonly give them to her?"
He awkwardly nodded.
"That bag I found was not Komaeda's, it was yours! And in exchange, you had Komaeda's bag!"
"Ah, that's right! I did pack a bomb in the same bag.. What a coincidence!" Komaeda said with a chuckle.
"That's not funny, man!" Soda cried.
"Oh yea! I saw Komaeda holding that bag! Thought it was food but I guess it was a bomb." Owari shrugged with a big grin.
"Why are you saying that so casually?!"
"Why didn't we find that bag then?" Celeste asked.
Naegi with a guilty look responded. "Uh.. I stuffed it in my development room and was thinking about giving it later.. I guess that just messed up the case." he awkwardly laughed. "I remember that I did fall on my bag before the explosion.."
"Did they even have a time to switch up their bags?" Hinata asked. "We can still prove his innocence-"
"No, I ran into Komaeda while turning a corner. We both dropped our bags and I guess that's when we mixed them all up.." he reassured him. He was completely content with being the culprit, he really didn't deserve this.
I hesitate before accusing the boy. "Naegi.. You are the culpr-"
"Your evidence lacks." Kirigiri interrupted me as she pointed.
"Huh..?" I look at the other detective strangely.
"It cannot be Naegi." she says as she crosses her arms. "That little piece of evidence isn't enough to convict him completely."
"Oh boy! Battle between two detectives! Who'll win?!" Oma exclaimed, hyped up.
"Whose hope will shine brighter?" Komaeda said with a twisted smile. "I really am lucky to be able to witness this!"
"So what if he had Komaeda's bag? He would've felt the weight difference." she started.
"Judging by the explosion did happen, he definitely didn't notice the weight difference!" I retorted.
"That's because he probably still had his bag at that time. They probably switched up after the explosion."
"But he couldn't have, none of them carried their bags out during the explosion."
"While we were investigating, someone could have switched up the bags."
"There's no reason for anyone to do that!
"What if Komaeda switched up the bags to frame him?
"I think at least one person would see him carrying a big duffle bag around while investigating!"
The argument got heated as we kept on discussing.
"If he had the bag before the explosion, why did he willingly activate it?"
"Probably an accident, he could've tripped and accidentally triggered it!"
"How would he accidentally activate it? Do you think the Ultimate Lucky Student would get that unlucky?" she asked me.
"His luck works in unpredictable ways!" I tell her firmly. She grits her teeth and looks away, distraught.
"Kirigiri," Naegi looked at her and grabbed her gloved hand, "it's okay. If this is the truth, then I just have to accept it." he gave a gentle smile. She calmed down as she looked down.
"..I do not expect you to forgive us.. This is not even your fault."
"It's okay! It's better that it was me than anyone else."
"How can you stay positive in a time like this..?" her voice quavered. She's so calm and collected, so to see her like this..
"Can we really base this logic off of luck?" Keebo asked.
"Luck may be a pretty sucky talent," Komaeda explains, "but the fundamental rules cannot be broken. It is absolute power over all of us. As the Ultimate Lucky Student, his rules of luck are especially stern."
"What the hell? This explosion happened because of Naegi's bad luck?" Soda said in agony.
"Hey, Saihara. Why don't you tell everyone how Naegi did it so we can all be on the same page?" Oma said with a laidback expression.
"Alright.." I stand up more upright.
"This plot started when Mr. Shirokuro announced to us that he would be restricting our talent developments. A certain lucky student got angry over this and devised a plan.. That person was Komaeda. He gathered parts to make a remote controlled bomb, and got a perfect opportunity to set up the bomb when he rigged the drawing to clean!"
Komaeda interrupted me. "Actually.. I didn't rig the drawing. I just relied on my luck!"
"..Right." I continued explaining. "While we were sleeping, he set the trap while we were trying to develop our talents! The next morning came and Komaeda wrote a note to Mr. Shirokuro that would convince him to stay inside. That's why Mr. Shirokuro was in such a hurry to get back to his office, but he didn't know that he had fallen into his trap."
Kaede continued for me. I looked in shock as she explained. "As Komaeda was walking around, he bumped into the culprit and they accidentally switched bags. Little did the culprit know, that would be lead to their downfall. While that was going on, Togami and Nanami got into an argument and accidentally triggered an electro jammer bomb. This had been essential in finding the actual culprit of this case."
I go back to explaining after she finishes. "Due to the culprit's bad luck, he somehow activated the bomb inside of the bag, completely unaware of what he had just did. Immediately after hearing the explosion they triggered, they tossed the bag aside to check out what happened. Komaeda, the mastermind of this plot, got his innocence proven from Owari when she witnessed him run out of his development room. We would've got the wrong person if not for this. As the culprit got outside and looked upon the explosion, even they did not know they were the one who triggered it. They probably thought whoever did it was insane.."
Both Kaede and I gave guilty looks at the boy as we both say the same thing. "This is the truth that shouldn't exist, Makoto Naegi, the Ultimate Lucky Student, or.. The Ultimate Hope." He gave a content smile as we accused him.
"Wow, I only said Saihara, so why did Akamatsu come in too?" Oma grinned.
"This.. Sucks.." Soda said after some time.
"Gonta not really wanna think Naegi was guilty over an accident.. Is there some way to have Gonta expelled instead?"
"I'd rather we all get expelled instead!" I yelled out. Naegi looked at me in shock. "I don't wanna play into Mr. Shirokuro's game.. It's not fair! This wasn't even his fault.. I may have found the truth, but it's just not fair! It'll be better if we all go out instead!"
"Yea!" Kaede agreed with me. "We'll go down together."
"You can't!" Naegi yelled at us. "You can't throw away your talents like that. I don't want to be the reason you all throw your future away!"
"You're okay with this..?"
He shook his head. "Of course I'm not, it honestly sucks. I'm scared of getting expelled, and I really don't want to get a criminal record. But... I can't always get what I want, right?" his face was a little pale, yet he gave a gentle smile.
"Can't you be a little bit more selfish?" Nanami asked the boy. He laughed in response.
"Even now, Naegi sees hope in a situation full of despair.. How wonderful!" Komaeda said in glee.
"Can you shut up for a second?" Hinata said with an annoyed tone. He obliged.
"Hmph." Togami crossed his arms. "If you'd like, I can bribe someone to excuse you from a criminal record. I have more money to spare than anyone can imagine."
"Really?"
"...I suppose. If you'd like to work as my secretary for the next few years, I'll grant you that pity." the lucky student laughed as Togami pushed up his glasses.
"I guess that's when his good luck comes in." Kaede giggled.
"Mr. Shirokuro," Hinata raised his hand, "we've made our choice."
He stopped leaning on his hand as he looked at all of us. He gave a menacing glare. "Alright. Now, who do you think it is?"
"Umm, it was me." Naegi told him. "I triggered the bomb."
We all slowly nodded our heads, we didn't want him to get expelled.
Mr. Shirokuro immediately got up from his podium and walked up to the brown haired student. Sweat went down his forehead as he continued to approach him. Mr. Shirokuro stopped right in front of the boy.
Surprisingly, he let out a laugh.
"Congratulations, Naegi!" he yelled out with a smile.
What.
We all stared in confusion as Mr. Shirokuro had a laughing fit. "I guess it would be fitting for the Ultimate Hope to stop despair!" this demeanor of his was not what we were used to..
"Allow me to introduce myself.. As my actual self." he gave a gentle smile as he removed his contact lenses revealing brown eyes. He ripped off his white wig to reveal messy black hair.
What.
We couldn't believe what we were seeing right now. It looked like Naegi stopped thinking as this happened.
"Um.. I'm Mr. Hiroshi. Former Ultimate Actor." he gave a polite smile as he bowed.
"What?!" we all yelled out.
"What?! What's happening?!" Soda said in surprise.
"Nishishishi! This took a really interesting turn!" Oma laughed.
"Who's this guy?! Where's Mr. Shirokuro?!" Owari yelled out.
"What am I looking at? Why did Mr. Shirokuro turn into an average commoner?" Togami looked in concern.
"Like I said, it's Mr. Hiroshi. Mr. Shirokuro is just an act. Doesn't exist." he sighed. "Pretty good acting though, right?!" he said excitedly.
"I guess??" Kaede said, confused. "Wait, was all what you were doing.."
"Yea! An act!" he said with a smile. "Kirigiri, or I mean, Jin Kirigiri, wanted to research Ultimate Hope. He hired me for the job and I gladly took it. He described it as a talent that overcomes despair. Of course I didn't really understand but.. I took on the role of how he described it, prohibiting everyone from developing their talent. I hope I did good!" he stretched. "He wanted to test if somebody would stop my 'despairful' deeds."
"Wow, so Mr. Hiroshi did have a talent shining with hope! He just wanted to bring the hope out in all of us, how great!" Komaeda said with a smile.
"Wait, am I still getting expelled?" Naegi asked as he scratched his chin.
"Huh? Of course not, I never intended to. I'm not even a teacher here." he chuckled. Kirigiri gave a sigh in relief. "I don't wanna expel Naegi, he seems like a good kid. And he's a candidate for Ultimate Hope. Of course after this, he's probably gonna be Ultimate Hope officially."
What were we worried about then..
The other students seemed to have the same thoughts as me based on their facial expression.
"I'm gonna be the Ultimate Hope?!" he said with a shocked expression.
"Yup! Naegi, you did good to stop me! A bit dramatic, gotta admit, but it worked nevertheless!" he smiled at him but the lucky student gave a guilty look. "Oh, don't worry about me. I'm fine, I survived."
"Wait, but Naegi didn't even do it purposefully.." Keebo told the actor.
"What do you mean?"
"Were you paying attention to the trial..?" I asked him.
"No, I don't really care about that." he replied casually. "I was just blanking out and thinking of random stuff. I trusted in the Ultimate Detectives to figure it out because I honestly had 0 clue who it was. It's the main reason I set up this trial, I needed to figure out who did this so I can appoint them as Ultimate Hope. I'm not actually the Ultimate Judge, after all."
"No wonder I didn't remember seeing the Ultimate Judge on the Hopes Peak Academy student list on any class.. I thought I was such trash that I couldn't even remember that!" Komaeda laughed.
So that's why he wasn't talking during the trial.. It seemed we all agreed to not tell him that Komaeda was the one who actually stopped him.
We all gave him a disappointed look. Mr. Shirokuro was actually a loser like this..?
"But, I'm really sorry everyone!" he bowed to all of us. "I know that what I did hurt all of you, and I'm really sorry."
"Do you really think we'll forgive you after all of this?" Celeste sighed.
"No.. So Hopes Peak Academy has offered a money compensation for everything I've done."
"Okay, I forgive you." she quickly changed up.
"To be honest.. I almost broke character multiple times when seeing you guys. I hurt all of you personally, I am in complete fault here. After little pianist's speech against me, I felt too guilty. So, I decided to take a little break from harassing you guys."
"Eh, really?" Akamatsu said in surprise.
"Yea I felt really bad, especially what I said to Kirigiri. Sometimes I get too serious when in character." he looked at the female detective. "I don't expect you to forgive me, but I mean it when I say I'm sorry."
She closed her eyes as she sighed. "It's fine. You were right, I don't have any relations with my father anyways."
"That's not true," he told her, "your father still cares about you. When I was in his office, he wouldn't stop looking at a portrait of you. It was pretty funny to see the serious guy get all mushy like that." he gave a gentle smile.
She said nothing.
"Seriously, I'm sorry students."
I was a little hesitant to forgive him, and I guess Kaede noticed. She looked at me with gentle eyes. "It's okay, Shuichi. You should forgive him, I already got over what he said because of you anyways!"
"..Okay." I say with a sigh.
It seemed everyone else forgave him as well, the money compensation was a big part of that though. And, he was just doing his job... Even if he did go too far.
"What about the office though? It got blown up, isn't that a pretty big deal?" Hinata asked him.
"This place is just an abandoned academy. Once we were done with it, it was probably gonna get demolished anyways. I don't really care. Don't worry, I'll make an excuse of what happened so Naegi doesn't get in trouble!" he gave a thumbs up.
"Um.. Thanks..?" Naegi laughed awkwardly.
"Anyways guys, you can probably leave now.." Mr. Hiroshi said to all of us.
"Eh? I thought we're going back tomorrow?" I asked.
"Well, that would be ideal but.. It wouldn't be safe if you were right next to all these ashes, you know?" he said with a chuckle. "You guys can pack, I'll be sitting on the bench near the exit if you wanna say goodbye. I'll understand if not. I gotta make a couple calls to explain what happened here.."
Mr. Hiroshi walked out and as soon as he did, we all took a deep sigh.
"Gonta thought Naegi was done for. Gonta glad nothing happen after all!" he said happily.
"Yea.. I really am lucky.." he says, still trying to grasp what just happened.
"Eh, so you'll be Ultimate Hope now? How boring!" Oma walks up to the lucky student. "Just kidding, that's so cooll!"
Hinata and Nanami were lightly punching Komaeda on each shoulder meanwhile. He muttered out an 'ow' every time he got hit.
"You better put a close eye on that boy," Celeste pointed at him, "make sure he doesn't do something like this again."
"We will.." Hinata said as he kept punching his shoulder.
"Komaeda, you better not doing anything like that again.. Cuz, we're friends after all, we don't want you to get expelled.." Nanami continued punching his other shoulder.
"Friends..?" he gave them a weird look.
"Yup, we're friends." Hinata told him. "So we're gonna make sure you don't do stupid crap like that again. You better not, I swear."
Komaeda just laughed. "I suppose we are friends. Okay, I won't do something like this until the opportunity arises!" he pulled the both of them into a hug.
"Hey!"
"You really are a serenity, Hinata. Although you may be a reserve course student, the hope within you matches an Ultimate."
"Are you trying to piss me off?" he said in an annoyed tone but he immediately smiled after. The 3 separated from their hug, all smiling.
Kaede and I smiled at their friendship. They really are close.
"Saihara, thank you." Kirigiri thanked me.
"Um.. What for?"
"For proving me wrong. I was foolish to try to defend him based on personal bias.. I went against my family code."
"It's okay, Kirigiri." I console her. "Honestly, I'm glad you tried to defend him. It would be bad if no one stood up for him, it would just mean no one trusted in him in the first place. It just means you care about him."
"Yea, thank you, Kirigiri.." Naegi said with a blush.
She crossed her arms as she looked away. I couldn't see her facial expression. "..No problem."
We all walked out after all of that. Although she didn't say it, Kirigiri definitely looked glad Naegi didn't get expelled. The two walked away together to talk alone. Kaede and I walked in the dorms, about to pack our stuff.
"Wanna walk home together?" she said with a smile.
"Of course." I respond as I headed in my dorm. I called my uncle that I would head home early.
After we both got our stuff, we prepared to leave this stupid academy.. Mr. Hiroshi was sitting down on the bench, just like he said he was. We waved at him.
"Oh, hey Saihara and Akamatsu."
I lightly bowed as I was about to leave but he stopped us. "Hey, I wanna apologize for what I said earlier, Akamatsu."
She looked at him.
"A talent like yours is really cool. Any talent is amazing too. It would pain me if Mr. Shirokuro discouraged you from continuing playing piano. Please, continue developing that talent and spreading your happiness to others." he said with a smile. Akamatsu gave a smile back.
"Okay, Mr. Hiroshi. I forgave you anyways.. You just did that because of how serious you are about your talent too. To be honest, it just taught me that people will be like that, and I have to just ignore them! I need to keep my love for piano for the people that enjoy it!" she pumps her fists up.
He laughed in response. "I like that positivity! You could be an Ultimate Hope candidate too, you know?"
She brushed it off. "No way.."
"Well, anyways. I'll see you two around. Maybe not at school, but maybe another time. Take care kids." he waved at the both of us.
We both waved goodbye as we headed out this academy that brought us so much despair, and so much hope.
A.N: Mr. Shirokuro from the start was an act and I was so scared to reveal his true identity. Like, I knew what I was doing from the start but now that I'm writing I'm scared you all think it will be lazy ;-;
Here's a little backstory of Mr. Hiroshi that I wrote up, I was originally gonna put this in the story but why would he give his life story to a bunch of students? I don't wanna waste this backstory I wrote for him so I'm putting it here, read if you want, don't read if you don't.
Hiroshi got bullied in elementary school for being too extroverted. He openly talked about anime and nerdy stuff that the kids didn't care about. Kids were annoyed at him, so he set up an act to be someone that the kids enjoyed being around. He then got multiple friend groups where he acted different in front of every one. Every friend group he was completely different, from shy, from outgoing, from smart, from stupid.
In middle school, he realized how good he was at acting and took theater. His teachers were surprised of seeing his performance and the Ultimate Scouters took notice of this, appointing him as the Ultimate Actor. In Hopes Peak Academy, he still acted out different roles not being himself. Hiroshi was able to perfectly represent the personality they assigned him, going too far to stay in character sometimes (represented by Mr. Shirokuro.)
Though, he doesn't like acting in a way that gets him hated and almost always breaks character. He really cares about what others think about him and that's why he started acting in the first place. He did get better at acting like that from Hopes Peak Academy though, yet he still hated it. The only reason he did it to everyone here was because Jin Kirigiri asked him to, and he respected him.
During his years there though, he learned that it was okay to be himself. Of course, he still acted as it was his talent, but only in plays or movies. He always rejected offers in big movies because he didn't like the stress of being a celebrity, but he did act in live theaters.
Hiroshi isn't able to cosplay like Shirogane is because he gets embarrassed, remembering how the kids made fun of him for talking about anime or fictional things. He can't act like real people like Ultimate Imposter, because he gets stressed out if he's representing them well enough. He feels like he's not giving them their correct justice.
Also Shirokuro is obviously taken from Monokuma (shirokuro = half black half white)
I wonder if you guys still have a grudge against him LOL.