A chill coursed through Katsumi's body.
*Ding Dong Bing Bong*
The Monokuma announcement sounded.
"A body has been discovered! Now then, after a certain amount of time, the class trial will begin!"
"Wh-What the hell, is this?!" Hajime said, his face looking clammy.
"Nidai-kun..." Katsumi said, staring at the body. "He's..."
Sonia's face turned pale. "No... this is a lie... right?"
"Why..." Hajime muttered.
"Hey!" Akane had shown up. "What happened—?"
When she saw Nekomaru's body, her face suddenly changed.
"Move... MOVE!" she shouted.
She violently shoved Hajime aside as she ran towards Nekomaru.
...
Tears started falling from her face. "Why...? Why is Old Man Nidai...? Why did he have to die... again?" She kneeled on the ground. "D-Dammit... I never paid you back... Why...? I never paid you back... for your help last time!"
...
Everyone else was silent.
After some time, Akane finally managed to stand up again, this time looking furious. "Hey! Who did it?! Who killed Old Man Nidai?!" she yelled.
Suddenly...
"Ooh boy! What a shame!" Monokuma said, showing. "I took all the time to bring him back and yet he still dies."
"You! What are you saying?!" Akane yelled, balling a fist.
"Owari-san, stop it!" Chiaki said.
"Anywaaaays, here's the Monokuma file!" Monokuma said as he handed it over. "And also... a gift from me to you! Red bean bread and milk!"
Food...
"Since if you guys don't eat, you might not last until the class trial..." Monokuma laughed. "Anyways, don't eat it too fast or you'll get a stomachache."
They all ate the food in silence. Katsumi managed to feel a little better.
A... little...
"The killer..." Akane said. "Once I find, I'll make sure to the crap out of them with my bare hands...!"
"Um... what has happened to the others?" Sonia asked. "They appear to be very late."
The people at Strawberry House...
"Gee, I never expected all of you to ditch Monokuma Tai Chi... What a shame," Monokuma said.
All of us...?
"Upupu... do your best to investigate," Monokuma said. "I'll be waiting at the class trial."
He quickly disappeared. There was nothing to do except start the investigation.
Again...
Investigate
Looking at the surroundings, there had been a giant pillar knocked over and the Strawberry door handles chained. Nekomaru's body was tied in wire, his head dented and his arms detached, with a giant wooden hammer next to it. There were also pillar fragments underneath the body.
"I'm sorry, Hinata-kun," Katsumi said, with a frustrated look.
"Huh?" He looked confused.
"I mean, autopsies are still my job during investigations, aren't they? Even after what happened to Tsumiki-san... But this time, since... Nidai-kun's a robot, I can't really do anything."
"Oh, um... that's fine," he said. "I mean, we can always ask Soda to help later."
"Yeah..."
"Hey! You guys hear that ringing noise?" Akane asked. "I think it's from... upstairs."
"Let's go check it out, then," Chiaki said.
In the end, Akane and Sonia stayed behind and the three of them, Hajime, Chiaki and Katsumi went upstairs. It was coming from the second floor, more specifically, the telephone in the lounge. Hajime picked up the receiver.
...
When he had finished, he placed the receiver down and explained what happened.
Apparently, Fuyuhiko was calling them since the people in Strawberry House couldn't get to the other side. Both the elevator and the button to Strawberry Tower were broken.
Did the killer do this...?
"Soda's in the middle of fixing the elevator, so all we can do is to put our faith in him," Hajime said.
"...I guess there's nothing else we can do for now," Katsumi said.
Darn it...
"Yeah..." Chiaki agreed.
/—/
Nagito had just heard from Fuyuhiko on the telephone that Nekomaru had been killed. After the call ended, Monokuma showed up, giving them some food and the Monokuma file. The investigation had started.
They had a short discussion of the events that happened beforehand. According to Kazuichi, at 5:30 am, the clock in the lounge had started ringing and shortly after, there was a rumbling noise.
Why was I the only one that didn't hear it?
Also, Fuyuhiko said he had woken up early at 5:00 am and when he checked outside, he saw Nekomaru going down the stairs. Since he was too weak to follow him, he just sat in the lounge, waiting for when he would come back. After some time was when the clock started ringing.
After that discussion, Kazuichi went downstairs to fix the elevator.
Now then... here comes the main event...
There's only one thing I can do for them... for everyone's sake...
But first...
Nagito went over to the elevator and tested it.
No response.
After talking to Kazuichi, it was confirmed that someone used a tool to open and mess with the control panel settings. Also, the elevator seemed to have been disabled on Grape Tower's side. However, without tools, he couldn't do anything.
Nagito quickly handed a multi-tool to Kazuichi, shocking him for a second.
Hirata-san's advice from before the party... weapons for self-defence... That was a while ago now, wasn't it?
"A guy like you... has been walking around with a dangerous tool like that..." Kazuichi muttered.
"Huh?" Nagito said, oblivious. "Is there something wrong?"
"I-It's nothing...!"
He then requested him to check the compass on the multi-tool when he rode the elevator after fixing it.
I need some information regarding the structure of the building.
Regarding the Strawberry Tower, the button was also confirmed to be broken.
Now...
I should get on with it... the main event...
—
"The Final Dead Room... Only those who win the Life-Threatening Game contained will reach the Octagon... And inside that Octagon, the Ultimate Weapon awaits."
There's no doubt Nidai-kun's killer has been to that place...
I don't mind dying anyway. That's all the more reason... why I should go...
"I'm the only one who can do this, after all."
With that, Nagito stepped inside.
The room looked dark with muddy-coloured walls. It had an eerie vibe to it. The door closed and suddenly locked behind him. Then, Nagito noticed Monomi inside. Apparently, she had gotten herself stuck while looking for who died.
This seems like an escape room.
The door at the end had irons bars covering it.
I guess I just gotta solve it and I'll be able to go through...
—
Nagito had typed in the last password and the iron bars lifted, along with a pedestal... with a revolver. However, when he tried opening the door, it still seemed to be locked.
"Hawawa! Could it be?" Monomi cried. "The letter I received earlier, it must be that..."
She handed the letter over to Nagito.
Solve the mystery of the Final Dead Room and you will have the Right to Play the Life-Threatening Game: Life-Threatening Roulette.
P.S. You are held liable for setting the roulette's difficulty! Depending on the difficulty, I've prepared special prizes, but don't overdo yourself!
"So everything up until now was the opening act..." Nagito said. "Judging from the gun on the pedestal, it's Russian Roulette, right?"
"R-Russian roulette?" Monomi repeated. "Y-You can't! No matter what, it's too dangerous! You mustn't risk your life!"
Mustn't risk my life...
...?
Ah, never mind.
"Hey, Monomi," Nagito said. "There's something I want to ask you. In all honesty, I don't really understand the rules of Russian Roulette."
"Ah, if that's the case..." Monomi said. "Load one bullet into the cylinder, then spin it. After that, point the gun toward you and pull the trigger..." She suddenly realized and went nervous. "Wait! You can't do that! There's a one-in-six chance you'll die!"
"A one-in-six chance of death, which means the failure rate is only one-sixth..." Nagito looked at Monomi. "Hey, is that rule really okay?"
"Huh?"
"I mean... if there's only a one-in-six chance of failing, wouldn't the game be too easy? So... shouldn't it be the opposite? Remove one bullet from the gun... and then use it while there are still five bullets loaded. If you do that, there will be a one-in-six chance of success..." He smiled. "Yep! That would definitely make it a more thrilling game!"
"Wh-What are you saying...?"
"Let's give it a go!" Nagito took the revolver emptied out a bullet, spun the cylinder and pointed it to his head.
"H-Hold on, Komaeda-kun... What are you doing?"
"What am I doing? Playing Russian Roulette, obviously. I've only removed one bullet, so there's only a one-in-six chance I'll survive."
"Y-You can't... Please stop!" Monomi desperately cried.
"Hm...It's not much of a talent, but even I have a Super High School-Level talent, you know. I'm the Super High School-Level Lucky Student. If I can't win when there's only a one-in-six chance of survival, what kind of Super High School-Level talent is that? I mean, if my luck gets me killed like this... There's no way you can call really call that a talent. If I really am the Super High School-Level Lucky Student, I'll be able to survive this... Isn't that right?"
Before Monomi could object again, Nagito had pulled the trigger.
*Click*
Then, there was another sound of a click from the door.
"Ah, that was the sound of the door unlocking, wasn't it?" he said. "Haha! Looks like we cleared it."
"I..." Monomi was trembling. "I'm scared of you, Komaeda-kun."
Nagito went over to open the door. On the other side was what looked like a storage room.
"So this is the Octagon..."
"Congratulations, Komaeda-kun!" Monokuma said, popping up. "For clearing the hardest difficulty, here you go!"
He handed him a large file with the Future Foundation symbol on it.
"And another..." He handed another file, this time with Hope's Peak Academy's crest on it. "Those are your student profiles that you've forgotten about!" Monokuma said. Anyway, do what you want with it! Upupu, you're surely going to make things interesting with that information!"
With that, he left, dragging Monomi away with him.
With these student profiles, I'll be able to find out what Hinata-kun's talent is!
He quickly took a look around. There were supplies of weapons, poison and at the back was... a window. When he looked outside...
"Th-This is...!"
It was completely unlike anything he had expected.
...
Before he knew it, he found himself laughing. "I see! So that's what it was!"
If I start to piece it together and think about it...
"Yeah... I see..."
The killer must have known this... It seems I'm finally getting a larger perspective of the Funhouse.
He looked around again.
There seems to also be a trapdoor here to exit. Though... I should get to reading the files now...
He opened the pages, read each word carefully and...
...Huh?
/—/
Around two whole hours had passed since Fuyuhiko's call. Hajime, Katsumi and Chiaki were still waiting in the lounge. Katsumi was standing against the wall with crossed arms, closing her eyes as she tapped her fingers impatiently.
...We can't just stay and dawdle, but what should we do?
All of a sudden, something incomprehensible happened. Nagito had suddenly shown up.
Huh?
Katsumi blinked again to confirm she wasn't seeing things. Sure enough, it was him. "K-Komaeda-kun?" she said.
Sure enough, everyone else was just as confused.
"How are you even here?!" Hajime asked.
"Maybe I... teleported," Nagito replied.
He's not answering the question.
"H-Hey... Answer me seriously..." Hajime stammered. "How were you able to come to this side?"
"Anyways, before I answer anything, I tried to investigate Strawberry House as much as I could," Nagito said, ignoring Hajime's question. "I'll fill you in on the details."
—
After he finished, he said one more thing.
"Also, I've cleared the Final Dead Room."
What the...?!
"That... life-threatening game Monokuma was talking about?" Katsumi asked.
"It wasn't that life-threatening. Just an escape game that ended in some Russian Roulette."
"You did... what?!" Hajime exclaimed.
"It was way too boring though, with only one bullet, so I put five bullets in the cylinder instead!"
He...!
Katsumi went pale. "Y-You... shouldn't've—!"
"But I'm still alive right?" he cut in. "Well... My luck really is the only good thing about me..."
He's still being too reckless!
"You're... okay, right?" she asked, quickly glancing around him. "No... injuries, right?"
"Of course, I'm fine."
"I-I see... That's... okay then..."
He briefly explained that he could now move between Houses because of the secret room and in the Future Foundation file he received, there was more about the killing school life, with the similarities. And...
"That's right, I know what Hinata-kun's talent is now," he said, pulling out a file with Hope's Peak Academy's crest on it.
"Does that... have information about our stolen memories?" Chiaki asked.
"Unfortunately, it doesn't for us," he said. "This file only contains Hinata-kun's information."
Only...?
"That's weird." Chiaki tilted her head. "Why only Hinata-kun's information?"
"It's quite troubling that you would ask me that," he said, his tone slowly becoming more condescending by the second. "I must say... it was always interesting that Hinata-kun was the only one who couldn't remember his talent."
"So, you know?!" Hajime exclaimed.
"In a way... Hinata-kun's existence is special. Because... you were..."
...
"...Just some Reserve Course Student from the Reserve Department." He looked down at Hajime with an expression of disdain.
What?
"Huh?" Hajime was confused.
"Unlike the Primary Department for Main Course students who possess Super High School-Level talents, the Reserve Department is for Reserve Course students who entered the school through a basic entrance exam. Essentially, you're like a substitute, or the second-string. Well, even then, that's just in name only. The Reserve Department pretty much only exists to increase Hope's Peak Academy's revenue stream."
Hajime just stood there with wide eyes. It appeared that he was barely taking anything in. Or... he didn't want to.
"...Like I said, to be a Reserve Course student, you don't need to possess a Super High School-Level talent. You just have to pay a rather costly entrance fee and tuition. With the funds obtained from these exams, the academy can focus on 'bolstering and researching talent'." He smiled. "Through this, the symbols of hope can be raised. Which means you're just a stepladder... But you should feel honoured. An average, talentless human can be put to good use for those who at known as mankind's hope!"
Hinata-kun... is talentless?
"Wh-What the hell... does that mean...?" Those were the only words Hajime uttered out.
Nagito let out a sigh. "Perhaps... you simply weren't determined enough. Did you admire hope...? Were you willing to sacrifice your body and soul to attend Hope's Peak Academy?" He went smug. "Or maybe... you were just obsessed with Hope's Peak Academy, like a fangirl following the latest trend."
"I-It's not that!" Hajime blurted. "I—!"
"...'wanted to become hope!'?" Nagito interrupted, disappointment etched across his face. "If that's what you're thinking, just stop it. Listen carefully... The only humans worthy of becoming hope possess amazing talents and a strong will. And the moment you're born into this world, you either have that or you don't. It has nothing to do with effort! You must be chosen by hope to become hope. That's why... it's not even worth admiring... Or... were you so blinded by your admiration for Hope's Peak Academy that you couldn't even see that?"
"...Gh!"
"You're just some nobody from the Reserve Course who never had a talent to begin with." Nagito had a calm smile. "A nobody who forgot he was a nobody... that's all."
"Then... I... I'm... just..."
"That's right, you were never a Super High School-Level! You had no talent whatsoever!"
Hajime was still. There wasn't a single word that escaped from his mouth.
"Aww, I feel sorry you..." Nagito said mockingly. "Are you sad that you're the only one here without a talent? But still, if you think about it positively, it looks like there's no more reason to doubt you. No that we know who you are... a normal, average, utterly unremarkable high school student, there's no way you could be associated with the Future Foundation." He thought out loud to himself. "But... if it's not Hinata-kun, then who in the world could the traitor be? The survivor of the previous killing game, Togami-kun, would've been the most likely candidate... But now... that's probably impossible."
Impossible? Why? Because he's dead? Somehow, I doubt that that's the reason...
"...Hey, are you listening?" Nagito looked at Hajime.
"There's no need... for you to listen to this," Chiaki cut in.
"...Huh?"
"It may be important to talk about the traitor is, but we need to focus on Mecha Nidai-kun's murder first."
Oh right...
"Yeah," Katsumi added. "If we can't survive the class trial, everyone is going to die together anyway... There'd be no point in thinking about this."
"...In that case, would the traitor be among those killed as well?" Nagito continued pondering. "That's something I truly wonder about... Oh well. It's fine... I'll stop for now."
"Komaeda-kun, if you cleared the Final Dead Room and reached the Octagon, did you see the Ultimate Weapon?" Katsumi asked.
"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Is there any reason why I should answer that?"
He's hiding things...
"Just tell us already," Chiaki said.
"Jeez, I guess I'll just say this... I didn't find anything worthy of being the Ultimate Weapon in the Octagon."
Really? What does that mean?
"...Don't lie, there's no way that's possible!" Hajime said.
"Coming from someone with no talent like yourself... that's truly offensive..."
"Wh-What did you say...?!"
"Hey," Katsumi said, cutting in. "Now's not the time to be fighting."
He...
"Yeah, I agree," Chiaki said. "Let's go back to investigating for now."
He seems to know much more than he's letting on...
Something's wrong...
With that, they headed down. The people from Strawberry House arrived. According to Kazuichi, the compass needle he held while riding in the elevator rotated 180 degrees.
What does that mean...?
When they all headed to the crime scene...
"Hey Soda-kun," Katsumi said. "Since Nidai-kun's a robot, I can't perform an autopsy. I don't want this, but do you mind trying to disassemble him to investigate?"
"Oh, I see..." he said. "I'll try then..."
When Akane objected, Nagito quickly talked back and harshly told Kazuichi to get on with it.
It's not just Hinata-kun. He's acting differently to everyone.
As Kazuichi disassembled his chest, they found his internal clock that had broken at 7:30 am.
7:30 am? I thought we discovered the body at around 7:00 am...
Nagito discovered a doorknob under Nekomaru.
But both doorknobs on either door here seem to be intact...
They got Kazuichi to fix the Strawberry Hall button to see if that was where the doorknob was from. Despite Hajime saying that the Strawberry door had chains on the handles that would stop them from entering from the other side, Nagito said it would be fine.
Why...?
When they got to Strawberry Tower, Nekomaru's body was there as expected, but...
The scene was seemingly flipped, the body now in front of the Grape House door. The chain on the Strawberry House door was also gone. The Grape House door was missing a doorknob.
Something's off. Did it rotate 180 degrees? No, that doesn't explain the doors. Something that we've been thinking is off...
Komaeda-kun seems to know something...
"Hey, Komaeda-kun," Katsumi said. "How much... do you know already?"
He looked at her but remained silent.
He might already know who the culprit is at this point, like last time.
Well, that's... okay... then...
"Hm... well..." She gathered her thoughts. "From those last clues, I'm catching onto something already, so it's fine. You don't have to tell me."
*Ding Dong Bing Bong*
The investigation had ended.
...
Suddenly, a giant Monokuma statue burst through the ground. Everyone slowly trickled in. As Katsumi was about to enter, she heard Nagito talking to Hajime behind her, making her stop in her tracks. Without turning back, she listened to the conversation behind her.
"We're the same," Nagito said. "The same stepladders... But, unlike you... I know my place. I always believed that the talent that survived would be true hope. But, there's no hope amidst all this killing!"
What he's saying... is different...
"Wh-When would killing ever be good?!" Hajime said.
"It's only natural that strong hope devours weak hope. That's what it means to live, right?"
"I can't... just accept that!"
"Hey, there's this one novel I like..." he went on. "It's about a high school girl involved in a serial killer mystery... but when you get to the end... Surprise! The girl was actually the killer! It's written carefully, so you have no idea until the end. The protagonist is a projection of the reader... and the projection was the killer... which means the killer you were looking for was you all along. How do you feel about novels like that?"
"Wh-What the heck are you talking about?!" Hajime asked. "Jumping to random topics and asking me about a novel I haven't even read yet...?"
"Such a normal answer. That's to be expected from a Reserve Course student... I guess... You admire hope... I love hope... in some ways we're similar... but I guess that's what's making me so emotional..."
"Hey, get on with it, you two," Katsumi spoke up. " Everyone's waiting."
"Huh?" Nagito looked back. "Ah... Hinata-kun, you should be grateful that an ordinary person like you could ever hang out with Super High School-Levels."
"Komaeda-kun, cut it out," Katsumi said.
He looked at her for a second, then went silent. He went into the elevator.
"Hinata-kun," Katsumi said, facing him. "Even if you're a Reserve Course student, don't let that get in your way right now. Even though I feel like something's wrong with him, we need to focus on the class trial."
"Yeah... thanks..."
She was looking visibly annoyed.
Why is Komaeda-kun acting like that?
I guess nothing will come out of thinking about it for now...
With that, they went down the elevator and entered the trial grounds.
Class Trial
Start