"Gonta sorry! Gonta love you all!" Gonta cried as he met his fate.
He still couldn't believe it, but there was no other option, and even then... at least his friends were still alive...
He... still didn't understand why...
Miu was dead... but he still didn't understand what possessed him to do such a thing, even with other Gonta wholeheartedly admitting it, because of... despair.
What could be so despairing?
But it no longer mattered. Yet he had so many regrets.
He just wanted to protect his friends... he wanted all of them to escape together and fulfill Kaede's promise. Why couldn't he...?
In the end, so many things happened. So many...
He looked at all his classmates one by one, his eyes lingering still on a small purple haired dictator. He could still see the tear tracks down on his face... like he was sorry.
Gonta didn't know everything and maybe he was never meant to. But all he could do was hope that they will all be friends and get out together.
Even Kokichi with his mean and tricky ways, even if Kokichi makes himself so hated among his peers.
For some reason, despite what Kokichi has done, his circumstances with the results that are happening right now, he chose to not blame Kokichi at all for this situation. Despite being angry at him, despite being so confused and scared.
Gonta... Gonta had the choice to reject. He didn't. Some of it was his fault, and that was the truth.
After the tears that came, the insistence of being punished with him, his rant about how he knew it was his fault, his cry for Gonta not to go yet...
Kokichi may be a liar, but Gonta truly didn't believe all of that to be a lie. Because...
No matter how terrible some of his classmates can be, it seemed to be that Gonta want to believe in them because they were his friends.
Tsumugi would probably say that was stupid, but that's just what Gonta wanted to believe, especially for Kokichi...
Because Gonta believes in his friends... and always will, even past killers and victims because they were his friends once upon a time, and now... he can finally see them. Maybe he can ask Miu for forgiveness too, whether he deserved it or not. Still... to believe so passionately no matter what...
That's the least he can do now after everything, when he tried and failed to help his friends...
Execution: Wild West Insecticide.
The tearful farewell and now the death. Before he knew it, Gonta was tied up along with Alter Ego to a pole. He just bravely faced what was going on, facing his consequences bravely...
No need to look at friends anymore. No need to see their disappointed gazes. Whatever happens now, happens afterwards... is no longer of Gonta's concern.
He saw the root of all evil, Monokuma at ready and started unleashing...
Metallic insects. Insects that Gonta see are robots, attacking him with their sharp stingers... and give a deadly feeling.
'Poison...' Gonta thought, as he knew many of insects that have a poisonous touch but are not necessarily dangerous if you know how to handle them well.
The insects kept attacking him, but he didn't blame them. He blamed Monokuma who was tricking them into doing their bidding, so Gonta don't blame them...
He could feel the bruises and poison already... painful, oh so painful, but not as bad as the thoughts that have been running through his head all this time...
"Gonta could have done better... Gonta sorry... If only Gonta was smarter..."
But they were all inconsequential now. And then...
The last insect, the biggest of all, charging full steam ahead and before he knew it...
He was stabbed... stabbed thoroughly in the chest. His eyes bulged, the pain stung and the last thing he saw was Monokuma taking out a flamethrower...
And thus Gonta went to heaven as Angie would have said in Kami-sama's loving arms with the rest of his deceased friends. Gonta promises that he will watch over the rest of his living friends...
Little did he know...
Loading...
0%... 23%... 42%... 56%... 7-
ERROR... REBOOT... FAILED... EJECTION
0%... 21%... 42%... 65%... 87%... 100%
EJECTION COMPLETE.
Hiss. And Gonta only felt air before gravity took over and let him fall hard on the ground. Gonta... felt.
'Do people feel when they are dead...?' Gonta thought before finding his feet and opening his eyes, stood up.
What met his eyes was something he never really expected...
"Gonta, are you OK?" Angie asked, approaching Gonta with a vivid smile, and before he knew it, he was sobbing into Angie as she patted Gonta on the back soothingly.
'Gonta is sorry... so so sorry...' Gonta thought as he let himself be in embrace much longer. If only he was more useful, if only he could help his friends more...
Gonta half thought Angie would go away because she was dead, but then he realized... so was he, before he finally looked up and got a better look of his surroundings.
As he assumed, the rest of his dead classmates, people he could have protected better... were all there, and even...
When Gonta and Miu's eyes met, they both flinched, both of them looking away together. Gonta... Gonta never...
Flash...
"... outside world..."
"Despair..."
"... mercy kill..."
"Killing Game Busters..."
Flash...
"Gonta..." Gonta said when he finally remembered, "Gonta killed, because outside world, destroyed... no one..."
"It is not like that, Gonta," Angie quickly interrupted, "Rejoice for the outside world is not ending at all! It was just a lie!"
"A lie...?" Gonta asked, ragged.
"By Kami-sama's grace, please listen to me. If you let me explain..."
The virtual killing game, which portrayed many lies. The truth of it all, that the world they know now, although not ending, was something now close to a warzone, with the Tragedy ongoing...
And soon, Gonta was bombarded with information that they were classmates of Hope's Peak before, running to safety from the Tragedy and trying their best to revert the Despair Minions with something called Dangan Salmon and the reason why they are here is to save Rantaro and Tsumugi, flashes that recovered memories, along with a plan...
Throughout the explanation, Gonta felt glad... glad that the world did not actually end, glad that everyone was still alive, and they were friends before this, glad they were doing something against all this despair, despair he despised after it made him do something unforgivable. He was glad that when he saw all his friends... victims and blackened alike... had reconciled, became better people.
Even Kiyo... after you-know-what, as he looked much better, hanging out with the others with no one really hating him. Gonta was glad... as maybe that means, all his friends, they have a chance that they could be Gonta's friends, that everyone could be friends even after everything that transpired, even with all the terrible experiences he wished he could forget.
But everyone was alive! And that was the best thing that happened. However...
"Plan? What plan?" Gonta asked.
"A plan to prevent all other Ultimates from facing a fate as we did ourselves," Angie said, "A way to bring back all the Despair Minions back to their former selves..."
It was explained quickly of some virus that was put in the killing game to prevent them from despairing and also used to create a program that can completely defeat the killing games. Among the reasons why they are here now... but...
"Gonta don't understand..." Gonta said.
"... You don't need to fucking understand what's going on. Just be glad that you are still alive among us and... be a damn help with all this shit coming down," Miu said.
"Iruma-san..." Gonta started, a little choked up. Gonta remembered that he wanted to apologize to Miu when he had the chance, but when it came up, he found himself strangely for a loss of words. He tried to get them back, he needed to do this.
When the words were already at the tip of his tongue, Miu turned around, facing away from Gonta as she said, brusquely, "Forget it. I... don't want to care anymore. I... want to forget."
But it didn't seem that way, Gonta could tell, within Miu's shaking body, a little jolt here and there...
"Iruma-san..." Gonta said again, going to do it. But before another word could be spoken...
"I don't want to, stupidhead," Kokichi said.
"What?"
"I said I don't want to!"
"What is happening?" Kaede asked.
"The others were asking Ouma about the 'outside world'. And well..." Ryoma said, nodding to the screens where Kokichi was now facing the rest with... malice.
"Ahahahaha. Did you fall for that fake crying? You are so dumb! I would never cry for Gonta!"
Strained, quick, broken, mean. Everyone flinched, everyone cannot look away. Like a trainwreck.
"F- fake crying?" Tsumugi asked.
"If I said the actual truth back there, Gonta would have been reeeal mad," Kokichi said. Everyone outside looked at each other, wanting to know whether they even have a hint of the real truth Kokichi mentioned.
But no one had any idea what it was.
"We have seen him discover the outside world," Rantaro revealed to both Gonta and Miu.
"We have also seen him plotting around and even more frantically after he investigated Iruma-san's Lab," Kirumi said.
"We even saw the whole plan fall to place," Korekiyo said.
"But... but... even Kami-sama does not know what he's talking about," Angie said, still peppy... but strained, as if this was draining to her. Either way, the best option was to continue watching.
"That would have interfered with the game, so I simply lied to calm him down. ...See? As long as you lie for a good purpose, right?"
'Lie,' Gonta thought, 'Lie about what?'
But when Kokichi spoke through the whole crime, tear up, asked... asked to be executed along with Gonta, was that really a lie? Could that really be a lie? All those raw emotions, all the tears that Kokichi seemed to hold back unlike the fake tears that usually fly freely.
Gonta looked at the screen, more closely toward Kokichi and saw someone standing against the others as the confrontation continued.
"... really happened? Why did you make him do that?"
"Obviously, so it wouldn't be boring!" Kokichi exclaimed, becoming downright scary.
"What are you...?" Shuichi asked.
"I gave Gonta an incentive, cuz I thought it'd liven up the game," Kokichi said, "If I actually wanted to save everyone, like what Gonta did... I wouldn't have betrayed Gonta. You should have realized that."
Everyone gasped. Everyone remembered the trial, and... that was true. After all, the people there would have picked Kokichi, if he didn't go berserk at one point and decide to confess.
"Wha- what?" Miu spluttered, "Does that mean... what...?"
Everyone simply continued watching in shock. They cannot believe, not really... and they felt pained, watching something like this, but they did anyway. Gonta knew what Miu was implying. Kokichi openly admitted that he betrayed Gonta, and that hurt.
But for some reason he can't... blame Kokichi, not for betraying him, but for acting the way he is now. Villainous, maniacal... different. In despair... like when Gonta himself was in despair over the 'end of the world.' Was he acting like this because of despair?
How was Gonta so sure? That it was really an act? That he wasn't just that kind of person at all? Well, because it was somehow familiar... Familiar?
Flash...
"Why...?"
"Because... people... cannot trust... betray... don't want..."
"... scared?"
"Of course not... stupid..."
"But... chance..."
"Stupid..."
"Don't be scared... not like that..."
"Hmph..."
Flash...
Gonta clutched his head again, a sudden memory suddenly jolting out. A school, outside, two people, a confrontation. It was of him and Kokichi, of him trying to be friends with Kokichi.
Gonta... Gonta remembered, that it was a few weeks after, when he met his class for the first time, when he finally met people of his age for the first time after years in the wild, and they accepted him... despite his appearance and background unlike his family, who looked down on him, unlike many other people that couldn't bother with him.
Sure, in the wild, he had met people who wanted to do friendly fights with him. Maybe they could be friends, but then back at civilisation, it was like there were no such people, and Gonta wondered...
Life only changed when he was acknowledged as an entomologist, but even then... no one wanted to know Gonta for himself, and only approached him for business purposes and shied away from more personal talk. It was... lonely.
So, he was happy at the class, making friends with everyone for such kindness and attention given to Gonta... except for few who pushed people away. He didn't understand why, because don't you want to be close to people, when they can be there for you, when you can have fun with them and they help you as you help them?
But some people... Gonta found out, were the same as those animals and bugs he had encountered in the wild isolate themselves, as if walls surround them, as they hissed, clawed... poisoned.
Gonta almost choked up, a burning feeling in his chest but he ignored it, not wanting to worry any of his friends.
Gonta always tried to approach, and they always tried to retreat. Same with some particular classmates, with words rather than action. And Gonta knew why, having approached many difficult animals in the wild, and people as well, when they isolated him for his appearance.
They were scared... of something. Those that isolate themselves always fear something, within others that make them push others away. That's why he confronted Kokichi that day, because he thought it was sad for Kokichi pushing people away, and Gonta wanted to help.
It's the same right now as what Kokichi's doing, despite such a villainous facade, a deceitful aura, a painful betrayal. Pushing people away, because possibly... he's scared.
But scared of what?
So, Gonta did not only listen to his words. He picked up his twitching hands, his tapping feet that suggest nerves, subtly that no one else notice except Gonta with his good eyesight. He could hear that break in his voice which was so twisted. Gonta knew something was up, so he listened... and saw.
"Who cares about that idiot?!"
A jolt, a subtle flinch, forced out and strangled voice, as if spat out.
"I wanna enjoy this game filled with suspicion and betrayal from the bottom of my heart!"
Breaking... desperation... forced... angry... Insanity, pure insanity was filling up his words.
But then, why was he shaking? Out of that insanity, or was it fear? The eyes... filled of malice or desperation?
As he kept going...
"I am the supreme leader of evil, so it's obvious my personality would be twisted. The more you suffer, the more I enjoy it. There are people in this world who spread grief and misery for no reason than the thrill of it. And I'm one of those people. Nothing pleases me more than inflicting pain on others."
Kokichi was like the villains that Gonta watched when he was a kid before going to the wild. After coming back to civilization, that he watched many shows to catch up, immersing mostly in ways of becoming a gentleman and watching many gentleman fighting against criminals. Watching instead of reading because moving pictures were much easier to pick up than complicated words.
He was always so sad whenever he seen such villains, criminals... who wanted to do such bad things. And he wondered why... it always made him uneasy.
But then again, villains are not always evil. Gonta found that out, on his research of gentlemen, that there was a show of a gentleman thief. How can a gentleman be a thief? How can a thief be a gentleman? A gentleman is good and a thief is bad. Those two shouldn't collide but they did.
When Gonta watched, he saw a gentleman thief robbing, a bad thing. For a good reason, thus a gentleman. Doing a bad thing for good? That was his first taste of such a contradiction.
Maybe... just maybe, Kokichi was such a same contradiction. Just like Kaede who killed Rantaro because she wanted to kill the mastermind and let everyone escape. Just like Kirumi, who killed Ryoma for her country.
Maybe Kokichi had a reason like that he didn't want to tell. Maybe only time will tell, but... Maybe when Kokichi wake up, Gonta will get the answers he deserved, but...
"... Is that a lie? Ouma-kun is a liar after all," Gonta whispered softly to himself, but the rest heard among the shocked silence.
"But what reason would that degenerate lie?" Tenko asked, crossing her arms, "I know Gonta-san doesn't want to hear this, but what that degenerate did to you was awful and unforgivable, and nothing can justify that."
That... was true. Gonta didn't deny it, so he didn't. But for some reason, Gonta was sure that Kokichi was lying about something.
Gonta might only know Kokichi for a short time in the killing game, but... he was always very smart, and he always had a lot of plans. That messy room, when Gonta brought him back to his room unconscious.
That whiteboard, evidence of that case, jumbled notes he didn't pry because he's a gentleman.
What Kokichi did was indeed unforgivable.
But that doesn't mean Gonta will hate Kokichi, be angry at him but not hate. Instead, he just... wanted to know why. And then... with a new life, a second chance, move on, become friends with everyone again. That was what he wanted before the killing game, that was what he vaguely remember before all this, when he went to the school of Hope's Peak. Of friends, of helping, of being just Gonta throughout the whole thing. Still...
Why did he believe in him? In fact, why did Gonta so easily believe in many people, his classmates, despite their misdeeds anyway. Why did he have such blind trust towards them, even Kokichi now when he had every reason-
Flash...
"... murderer. Why do you...?"
"But you nice to... don't want to see you sad..."
"An assassin, you don't have to..."
"But that doesn't mean... you are..."
"Kukuku... it was inevitable that you would find out, so what are you going to do..."
"As long as... no more... but you were nice... so continue being friends."
"... stay away, for your own good. Because..."
"But Gonta want to help... because..."
Flash...
Gonta clutched his head again, his idea of belief... his strong bond of friendship with the others.
Despite one being a mass murderer, but with remorse, despite one being an assassin, but never wanted to be one in the first place. Despite a serial killer targeting girls... but from that flash, one that did so out of immeasurable grief that gave way to insanity.
And what about the so called evil supreme leader?
Soon Angie spoke up amidst all this silence.
"Kami-sama knows this is a grave sin among us... But Kami-sama also knows that all of us have also done and would do unforgivable things in the killing game one way or another. So, by Kami-sama's will, Angie think that once Kokichi wakes up, he needs to explain himself, and then we decide what to do with him!"
Gonta found himself nodding with Angie's words among others, with Kaede, Rantaro, Kiyo and even Miu among them. But few disagreed, and even those agreeing seemed to have doubts.
Because there was no doubt that Kokichi was the most hated person at this very moment, and it showed... in most faces of the truth of it. Yet there are some... that only showed disappointment. For Miu, he saw anger and confusion, the eyes showing something of pain... guilt? But Gonta didn't know.
Then, what does Gonta's face look like? Was it disappointment? Anger? Sadness? Hatred? Pity?
But before Gonta had the time to process anything else...
WHAM!
Everyone looked back at the screens and could not believed what they saw. Kaito down at Kokichi's feet. Kokichi punched Kaito!
The rest of the screens showed taunting, Shuichi's insult toward Kokichi, a harsh truth that can give no rebuttal, one that spun Kokichi off his heel as he left with a blank face.
They saw Kaito standing up, coughing blood...
"Momota-kun sick?!" Gonta cried, extremely worried.
"What the fuck?" Miu asked.
"We... we did see that after the 3rd trial. He... he even said that he didn't have time to be dying. He might... well, die," Kaede said.
"What?!" Both Miu and Gonta cried out.
"Will this affect him in the real world too?" Miu asked.
"What can we do for Momota-kun?!" Gonta asked, worriedly.
Kirumi shook her head, "That is unknown. Then again, they are in a virtual world. There is the possibility the mastermind is giving Momota-kun an illness for the sake of the killing game, and it never existed in the beginning, so he would be fine when he wakes up from this. But we don't know."
"Gonta hope Momota-kun will be alright. Gonta hope everyone will be alright, even Ouma-kun," Gonta said, a worried tone lacing his voice.
"Even Ouma-kun, you say? It's strange that you say that. Do you not feel any resentment for what he has done for you? Do you not feel angry at how he carelessly betrayed you as such? Certainly, you of all people would rightfully hate Ouma-kun and not even give him the time of day for this," Kiyo pointed out.
Everything that Kiyo pointed out was indeed correct, but at the same time...
"Gonta want to give him chance first, and then Gonta decide what to feel," Gonta said.
A chance, because from those flashes... from his friendships... Gonta remembered all the best he could do at the killing game was to believe in his friends. It was the same here. For his friends.
"Kami-sama agrees with you, Gonta. After all, look at Kiyo! And he turned out fine!" Angie exclaimed.
"Sort of," Tenko muttered, but it was easily heard. Somehow that broke the tension, giving loose smiles from many, even Kiyo himself although that 'insult' was directed towards him.
"Anyway, Gonta-kun, I know that was overwhelming, but don't let it get you down! After all, we are in this together! So, please don't worry so much," Kaede said.
"Thank you, Akamatsu-san," Gonta said, smiling, "If it's OK... Gonta wanted some time to be alone."
He just wanted to sort things out. Some time to mull over everything that happened. It was a long day after all. So he decided the best way to have time for himself and think it over. Afterwards, he can start afresh, helping his friends and having another chance...
Everyone looked at each other, and finally nodded.
"Of course, Gonta-kun. I almost forgot... you should look up your computer and phone, it might help jog your lost memories, alright?" Kaede asked cheerfully.
Lost memories? Of his classmates? Gonta would want to shed some light on those, so, "Gonta will do that."
***
But he didn't look through his phone and computer. Instead, he stayed there, staring at the screens. The others, knowing that Gonta would want some privacy, decided to retire to their rooms. There was only one reason Gonta wanted to watch the screens instead of regaining his lost memories right away.
Kokichi...
Within the anger, he felt, with a dash of belief and hope that the villainous scene was a lie, that Kokichi Ouma can be redeemed, because all gentlemen would want even the worst people becoming better for a better world, right?
Because all gentleman... wouldn't let anybody, no matter how bad, be outcasted, and try to help them up. Like how Gonta was outcasted when he was very young, as no one wanted to play with him... until he got lost in the forest and found friends with the animals. Gonta did not want anyone to be outcasted like he was.
So he wanted to know why Kokichi acted that way.
And...
"That fucking shota... what the fuck is he up to?" Miu muttered under her breath.
It wasn't only Gonta who wanted to know why.
It was after he made that simple declaration to himself at the Shrine of Judgment that he will end the killing game, something that shocked Gonta and Miu, making them question a lot of things, that he had been moving around all by himself. The Detective's Lab, outside with that message...
"Did he... did he even feel sorry at all?" Miu muttered, giving the evil eye to Kokichi, "That he killed us..."
"Iruma-san..." Gonta said, but he didn't know how to exactly handle her.
Their relationship was quite complicated, with Kokichi pulling the strings for everything. If perfectly honest, Gonta was simply put in the crossfire of everything and if neither Kokichi nor Miu even plotted anything, this would never happen... and Miu knows it, Gonta knows it.
Where the fault really laid... was unknown. But Gonta... felt that it was partly his fault. If he refused...
He wondered if Miu felt the same.
And how about Kokichi? Did he really not feel anything? Gonta wanted so much for that to be a lie.
Gonta and Miu saw Kokichi in his room. Gonta had seen his room once, after all, he had to send back Kokichi inside his room after that Insect Meet and Greet, and it was still the same. Messy and with that whiteboard...
He saw Kokichi dumped the virtual headset in his room before approaching the whiteboard. Kokichi was now putting Miu and Gonta's pictures together... even drawing a toilet paper and then stopped suddenly.
And...
A suppressed sob was heard. Gonta and Miu's eyebrows shot up as they saw Kokichi's body shaking, and then... from a box somewhere, he took a picture of himself. With near steady hands, despite his shaking body, he stuck that picture below Gonta and Miu's in between before he was drawing an L shape connecting Gonta's and Kokichi's before he stopped again.
Suddenly, he took his picture off the board and threw it down. There, sobs slowly erupted from Kokichi, quiet but like a dam broken.
Miu and Gonta looked at each other, before they looked at Kokichi. Were they seeing what they thought they were seeing?
"Iruma-chan, Gonta..." Kokichi was murmuring, "If I was... if I didn't see... If I just... if I could..."
With a shaking body, he was looking furiously around his room, screaming, "I know you can see me! This is what you get for putting us here, asking for this! Do you sick fuckers enjoy this?! Do you psychos get a kick watching this?! Do you love seeing all this suffering, this despair?!"
"You will regret the day that you brought me here in this killing game. I know more than you think! This will all end soon enough... soon enough..." Kokichi then said in a lower voice, as if in reassurance to himself.
Kokichi once again knelt down, sobbing quietly after that burst out before he finally looked at Gonta and Miu's pictures. He was murmuring softly, as if confessing to those photos but didn't want anyone to hear.
But Gonta and Miu did.
"Gonta, Iruma-chan... if you can hear me, wherever you are, I'm sorry," Kokichi said softly, "I didn't have to do what I did, yet..."
"I panicked," Kokichi admitted, a look crossing his eyes before it was gone, "The moment I saw the end of the world and felt that despair... then... what was the point of everything after that? Is there even any? And after that? Finding out Iruma-chan was going to kill me? When I don't know what is worth anymore? It was all auto pilot by then. I wanted to do something about it."
"After everything? After all those deaths and executions? After that betrayal of Iruma-chan? Maybe I could have done something without killing anyone? Maybe I could have been smarter? But... I was afraid... confused... couldn't trust anyone... betrayed... trapped. If I let it be, what will happen? If they survive and knew the outside world, then what? And what about Iruma-chan? Could I just let her be...?"
"Is that worth it? Even with the world like that... that despair... if for the others... I don't know anymore, but what I wanted... stupidly, selfishly... was to know that the world was not ending, where this stupid game was going... or end it all. To end, or to move forward? So I just did something. I could have done nothing... but... did I want to die or live? And... I just did it. I did it."
Blank, but still in tears, still shaking. Just unfeeling, but still spilling everything out as if he wanted to let it off his chest.
"It's unfair... for the both of you, for something pretty stupid. Especially... Gonta... just because I thought Iruma-chan would definitely set me up, that I needed someone, someone I might betray, and of all people... you were just too nice, y'know, even to someone like me... but... no matter how much I could use this, no matter what is happening now... this is too messed up. I snapped and it was unfair for you all. I should have died instead, but at the same time I wanted... thought... because of Saihara-chan... that he... everyone... and it means maybe... maybe I... maybe this game..."
But he didn't finish that sentence. Instead, Kokichi banged on the board with a punch, grieving in grimace as the tears remained glistened in his eyes, and yet he didn't wipe them away.
"I have truly become the monster, the villain that you all thought I was. And after what I did, I earned it. ... Just because everything was all over the place, Iruma-chan being a liability... And after everything, I... I won't let yours or anyone deaths go in vain... I... promise."
"After everything I did, for you guys and everyone else that died, I will try... try to keep those promises the only way I know how. I will try... because that's the only thing I can do for everything I have done," Kokichi vowed.
"I... I hope you are happy wherever you are," Kokichi said, giving a longing look towards the pictures, "I hope you don't forgive me wherever you are. That's the least you deserve for someone like me."
Kokichi chuckled sadly as he shook his head, "Whatever. Maybe this is enough to reset my feelings one more time... one more time. And end all this, my way."
Kokichi gave one last look at the pictures before he laid on his bed, "Insane yet again, talking to myself. But no one can hear me, no one of consequence. Fuck the audience."
And he slept. But little did Kokichi know, two people that he wanted to tell this the most... they...
"Ouma-kun..." Gonta said softly, tears falling in his eyes.
A sob could be heard but this time it was from Miu, "That... that... shota..."
With that, Gonta felt... at peace with Kokichi, that maybe it's OK to believe in the end. After all, the killing game was a hell that destroyed each and everyone of them in several ways. It will never excuse the actions done, Gonta still felt angry at Kokichi, because no matter what, it was inexcusable, things could have been done better, but at the same time...
They shared the same experiences, shared the same feeling of despair and in that, Gonta understood. Gonta now felt... determination with his friendship with Kokichi, before and during the killing game. He now knew why, and it made him feel better of himself.
A silence was formed in the room until...
"Is it my fault? That this happened?" Miu asked aloud, "If only I... then maybe Ouma... and we all..."
Tears streamed Miu's eyes freely, before she fiercely wiped them. Gonta, with tears in his eyes too and the words he always wanted to say suddenly came out, "It's Gonta's fault. If Gonta knew better... If Gonta refused..."
And then, there was silence. There were so many what-ifs to their situation. Gonta, Miu, and Kokichi too, but still 'alive' in the killing game. And then...
"I'm/ Gonta sorry," Miu and Gonta both said. They looked at each other in surprise. Then, Miu laughed, and being contagious, Gonta laughed along.
"In the end, we blamed ourselves, huh? Even that little shit," Miu said, as she nodded at Kokichi.
"Gonta guess so..." Gonta murmured.
Miu muttered, "God, what a mess..."
Miu shook her head, as she stood up, "I'm going to sleep now. Everything's just been exhausting lately. You should go to sleep now too. Let's start fresh next day, OK?"
And she was heading to her room, but...
"Wait, Iruma-san," Gonta called out.
"What?" Miu asked, turning back and looking at Gonta in the eyes.
"At the trial, Gonta meant it when he said he wanted to be Iruma-san's friend. Gonta think he doesn't deserve it after what happened at killing game, but Gonta want to try..." Gonta said.
Because Gonta still wanted to be friends with everyone, ever since the beginning of the killing game. And even after everything that happened, that remained true in heart.
Because before, during and even after killing game, the whole class were the first people of his age he interacted after being out of civilization for many years. His memories were foggy, he couldn't remember a lot about it, maybe he will find out a lot more soon when he gets to his room, but...
They were the first friends he had, they had shared so many experiences together, they... were in this together.
They were and still are... friends. And he couldn't ask for better ones, for them all to go to this killing game together just to save a few friends. For them to go through so much and heal so much together. Gonta felt... he couldn't ask for better friends, and he hoped, with time... with memories, that prove to be true.
He wanted everyone to feel the same way...
Miu had an unidentifiable look crossed on her face before saying, "Yeah, fucking why not, huh? Even after all that shit happened... we are still stuck together. What's the use of being at each other's throats like that? It's better to have a fucking orgy instead!"
"Or... gy? Gonta not know what's that," Gonta said, and for some reason, Miu took one look at Gonta as she sighed.
"Your too innocent, Gonta. Fucking forget it. The rest of the class will prob'ly have my ass if I explained to ya. But you get what I mean, don't cha?"
And then she smiled. Gonta smiled too. Because he knew what she meant. About them being friends rather than enemies. Maybe... everything would be fine after all.
***
Finally, Gonta went to his room, finding his mobile phone. A brief flash of memory indicated how he used the device and started it up...
There were so many photos, memories stored inside the thing, and Gonta found him smiling at each and everyone of them, the time he spent with all and everyone. His classmates, his friends.
The first set of people he met and truly befriended, both at Hope's Peak, and at the killing game.
Memories, familiar and firm... flowed through him, in flashes or just as if unlocking a door.
And... Gonta felt happy. That his missing memories brought so much... light when his life, well...
It seems they have done a lot together... so many memories that should not be forgotten, and...
Gonta smiled. Friends before, during and hopefully after.
No matter what happened, no matter the reasons. Were his friends good people?
Not everyone. But does that mean they are bad people?
Not really. Because Gonta knows...
Flash...
"... Iruma-san and Kiibo-kun?"
"... caught!"
"Gonta help..."
"... can't believe..."
"Stop..."
"Always there..."
"Yaaah!"
"... must stick together!"
"Because we are..."
Flash...
Gonta clutched his head in pain as memories of the Conspiracy and the Tragedy of eclipsed his mind. Because they are...
"Friends." It was because they were friends, that Gonta knew... throughout the conspiracy, helping, keeping safe.
The Tragedy... for greater good.
No one was perfect. Even Gonta himself wasn't. And his classmates were not always good people, but neither they were bad.
Because as friends... as people who Gonta tried to trust, people who tried to earn his trust, who hung out with him, who was there for him, who showed Gonta plenty.
They were good and bad, but in the end... throughout all this, one simple thing came to Gonta.
"Gonta just try his best for his friends. And help friends find the right path this time!"
Just like during the Conspiracy, Tragedy and the killing game.
That was all he can do.