Chapter Text
Monokuma
Hey readers, miss me?
How was the last chapter? If you enjoyed what you saw be sure to play Sengoku Asuka Zero, available for iOS and Android devices.
3:00 AM - March 7
Two hours down the drain and it was already 4:45 AM the next time that Ryota looked at a clock. It just wasn’t the Final Killing Game if the meek animator didn’t spend countless hours tossing and turning in bed thinking about the sinister plans that Monokuma was brewing up.
It’s not like he could help it, Monokuma promised that playing this game would reveal a clue on one of the big secrets of the killing game and he was only left to think about what the supposed “secret” could possibly be. The game was decently lengthened and it wasn’t like the clue of the game was exactly on the nose and spelled out as clear as day.
Which only leads to meaningless speculation about what the big secret could be.
If the big secret truly was the identity of the 16th participant, then what did the game have to do with anything? And why did Ryota always have to think about these things when everyone else in the building was asleep?
As his thoughts eventually gave out and was only on the verge of being whisked away into a deep sleep, his eyes shot right open at the sound of clicking coming from his door and served as his own personal alarm clock as he woke up almost immediately.
In only a few short blinks he could see that the individual responsible for manually prying his door open was none other than Munakata Kyosuke himself, which was never a good sign. In the depths of his mind, Ryota’s first initial instinct was to make a run for the door and call out for someone's help, except his body was far too fatigue to even instigate such an action.
The animator stared at his Vice Chairman in the eyes for such a long time that he was genuinely curious if the taller man was planning to kill him. Wait—no that wouldn’t make very much sense. His forbidden action prevented him from using a murder weapon and made it nearly impossible for him to start a murder.
Which means that Munakata was obviously here for some other reason. Ryota swallowed and asked something that he was going to tragically regret in the long term. “Uhhh...Munakata-san, what’re you doing here?”
He flinched as the council president briefly eyed the surveillance cameras fast enough to be unnoticeable and slowly walked over to Ryota. He greatly wanted to get out of this situation and run as fast as he could, but his body was so limp from staying up all night that he couldn’t even go anywhere.
Ryota sat helplessly on his bed as Munakata lowered his firm hand onto the boy's shoulder and whispered into his ear, “Get out of bed and follow me into the hall. Now.”
Those words were short and simple, yet they additionally carried such an authoritarian vibe, almost like he was the same Vice Chairman that used to give orders before this killing game had even started. Ryota was far too exhausted to even put up any arguments— especially not towards Munakata—and climbed out of bed to follow the man.
The two of them threaded through the dark halls and Ryota started to wonder exactly what this man had been planning. Minutes passed of walking and he still never elaborated on exactly where he was planning on taking the animator, only that refusing to go with him likely would have caused more harm than good.
Perhaps asking Munakata what he was planning wasn’t the best idea, Ryota opted to ask him another glaring question that was on his mind, “Do you mind if I ask you something...how were you able to enter my dorm room? I could have sworn that I left the door locked.”
“I merely picked your lock.” The Vice Chairman responded in a disconcerting manner. “It wasn’t a very difficult thing to do.”
And that only meant that Ryota was more prone to having someone enter his room at night and commit a murder while he was sleeping (Thanks Munakata-san...), but those were shockingly the least of his problems right now, what else could this man possibly be planning?
He followed Munakata to the very end of the hall until they stopped at a door that the animator swore never even existed before now, though of course, he could have easily missed it as well. Interestingly enough, this was the only door on this floor that was not occupied by surveillance cameras. This could only mean that behind this door was another big potential secret about the killing game.
At this point Ryota saw that these were becoming a routine...provided that any of these secrets were true or more lies to lead them on the wrong path. He couldn’t tell what were lies from the truth at this point and it was starting to get to him a little.
Ryota exhaled. “...What is this place?”
“It’s something that I assumed would interest you, I originally planned to show this to Naegi and his friends, though I figured that you deserve to learn this truth before anyone else does.” Munakata gave an explanation and stepped away from the door. “On the other side of this door lies the surveillance room to this entire building.”
That was enough to catch the Ultimate Animator’s attention, which seemed like something the taller man had been counting on in the first place. “The surveillance!?
“H-How were you able to find something like that?”
Munakata shrugged. “It was quite simple. The door was already left open, by the mastermind I’d assume, and that would only imply they want us to enter this room. Would it not?”
His speculation wasn’t entirely improbable and frankly was the only logical explanation for why Monokuma would ever even bother to leave such an important door wide open. There must have been some kind of bait waiting on the other side and it scared him to think that Munakata was likely going to take advantage of that bait.
“How do you know it’s just another one of Monokuma’s tricks?” Ryota retorted. “What did you find behind this door anyway?”
“I believe that it’s much better than you see for yourself.” Munakata said and grabbed the handle of the door for him to get a good view of the inside. He signaled the boy to make sure that Ryota was the first person to enter the room most likely out of some kind of torment.
A moment of silence filled the air and Ryota finally complied, making his first steps inside of the surveillance and inspected the area. Nothing was particularly out of the ordinary and mostly seemed standard for the Future Foundation.
In his mind, Ryota wondered if any of these monitors could actually give some insight on the identity of the mastermind, if they could do something like that then maybe ending this killing game would be much easier. Even he had to pitifully laugh about something like that, sadly there was no way that this killing game could
He walked over to some of the monitors and saw that none of them were displaying any videos, ultimately met with nothing more than a black screen. “Are these things supposed to be on?”
“I would assume not.” Munakata answered and walked inside of the room as well. “These monitors were all inactive the moment that I initially entered this room as well, the work of the mastermind I’d presume.”
Ryota blinked. “Then what did you want to show me?”
The Ultimate Student Council President hardly wasted a single moment before diving straight into what was on his mind. “I’ve discovered the identity of the traitor of the Final Killing Game.”
Ryota double takes a couple of times just to make sure that his ears were not deceiving him, could what Munakata have been saying actually be the truth? Did this man really find out such valuable information like the identity of the person controlling all of the madness that has occured.
A small amount of hope sprouted from within him and it seemed like they were potentially making some kind of progress after foggy weeks of hardly any information to go on. All of the fatigue that Ryota was feeling was cleansed out of his body and he improved his posture to anticipate the news that he would be hearing.
“Yes.” Munakata nodded. “Before I present you with this information, I ask if you truly want to know who the traitor is. I won’t hesitate to answer, but first I want to know if you ask for this truth.”
Of course, Ryota was skeptical about the potential consequences of what this revelation could be, but he owed it to all of his friends who died in this killing game that they finally learned the truth. That promise needed to be fulfilled. “Yes. If we want to stop this game then I guess it’s important that we learn who—”
“The traitor...is Gekkogahara.”
And there it was...the dead end to the ocean’s aroma, the answer that absolutely no part of Ryota was hoping to hear in the slightest. His pupils shrunk and were in a stagnant position of being glued to the man who just provided him such terrible news, his legs quivered before ultimately giving out, and he was positive that there was some screaming in his head as well.
No...that couldn’t be right. Obviously there was some kind of mistake and Ryota was clearly not hearing things correctly, that must have been a side effect of going nearly a whole day without any sleep, which likely caused some kind of hallucination in his subconscious. At least, that’s what Ryota continued to tell himself.
The idea of all of this being inside of his head—or perhaps even a bad dream were repeatedly thrown through his head as a means to convince him that none of what he just heard was true.
Ryota’s dilated pupils finally agreed to look Munakata in the face. “What...did you say...can you repeat that again? I don’t think I heard you.”
“If you insist.” Munakata gave a calm nod. “The traitor that Monokuma had been alluding to since the very beginning of this game is one Gekkogahara Miaya, the former Ultimate Therapist and the leader of the Future Foundation’s 7th.”
He frowned. “And if you remember what was said earlier in the game...the traitor of the Future Foundation and the mastermind of the Final Killing Game are the same person.”
“You’re lying!” Ryota lashed out and picked himself from the ground. “There’s no way that Gekkogahara-san is the mastermind! She’s done nothing but help and support us since the killings started!”
Munakata sighed and sympathetically smiled at the boy. “I had predicted that you would have this reaction and be in denial, which is why I took extra precautions and located video footage to add to my thesis.”
It took a few seconds before the Ultimate Animator fully realized that Munakata had been holding a shiny optical disk in between his fingers and walked over to the nearest computer to insert the disk inside and play the video displayed on it. The video buffered for a few seconds—which Ryota prayed was a malfunction—and the video eventually loaded and showed an image that Ryota never imagined to see.
Gekkogahara was on the screen, using her old Usami avatar like she did before the game had begun, and she was typing on her keyboard. All seemed relatively normal and in the back of Ryota’s mind, he wondered if this video was some kind of prank on Monokuma’s part in a horrid attempt to cause a stir in their group.
Ryota quickly looked back at Munakata. “What is this?”
The Vice Chairman stepped aside. “Just watch it. This was video footage recorded before the events of the Final Killing Game.”
“Hello. As I record this message, six months have passed since my fellow members the New Revolution and I have initiated our plans for starting the Final Killing Game. I have tasked myself to be the designated member to keep video diaries of these events in the likelihood of memory erasure.”
“Progress has been a success now and the New Revolution is completely prepared for the game ahead and to be permanently erased from this world. All fifteen participants of the Final Killing Game have been perfectly aligned as well.”
“Our current problem lies in the fact that two of our chosen participants of this game have now gone rogue. One participant has been completely missing for months and the location of the sixteenth participant still remains a mystery. We may have to continue this game without them.”
“I never intended for the Final Killing Game to go this way, but we cannot afford to wait any longer. Monokuma units are already being delivered and it will be time for the Future Foundation members to awaken soon and the game to begin.”
The recording just stopped afterwards. Ryota could hardly even fathom the sight that he just witnessed on the video, if anything on that disk was true, then Gekkogahara was not only a traitor, but she was also the person that was responsible for erasing their memories and starting this whole killing game.
And what was all of that talk about the Future Foundation members are to “awake soon”—would that not imply that in between those nine months of losing their memories they were out of commission or possibly even sleeping for such a long period of time.
Not to mention the video stating that the one participant had gone missing and the location of the sixteenth was still unknown. What exactly does this mean? Could it potentially mean that one member in this game doesn’t actually belong here?
Everything was so confusing, but those weren’t even the full extent of his problems. Gekkogahara—the girl who had been nothing but helpful since the game started—was the mastermind behind this entire killing game. How could Ryota just be expected to believe in a truth like this after everything that has transpired over the endless weeks that this game has been going on?
She had become one of his closest friends due to everything they had been through together and he probably would have easily given up the moment Yukizome died if it wasn’t for her. The idea that she was secretly colluding with Monokuma through all of this was incomprehensible to him.
Munakata responded as if there was nothing wrong. “That so-called friendship that you’ve harbored with Gekkogahara this entire time is fake . I’d wager it was entirely trumped up and a ruse to get you too close to her so that she could betray you when it was least expected.”
Ryota could already sense that those words carried a deep meaning for someone like him, considering that Yukizome had betrayed him earlier in the game as well. “Is...that really true…?”
“What was that?”
“I said is that really true?” the animator frantically repeated. “Monokuma has been deceiving us since the start...what if this is just another one of his lies to try and accuse the wrong person?”
“If I were to humor you and ask how you propose this video came to be, what would you have to say?” Munakata raised an eyebrow. “An animator like yourself could probably easily forge a fake video to frame Gekkogahara...are you insinuating that you could have constructed such a video.”
And now the blame was suddenly being shifted to him. Ryota could hardly even find the proper rebuttal to such a response because there were just far too many things happening at once, though he figured that if his animation technology was actually used to construct this video, then wouldn’t he notice?
Words of pitiful emptiness filled the room. Munakata merely scoffed, “I thought so.”
Things only made a turn for the worse when Munakata reached into his back pocket and rested a military knife into the palm of Ryota’s hand. He nearly yelped at the sight of such a sharp weapon and was left with no other choice than to grip the handle. He looked up to see that Munakata had been staring him dead in the face with his left eye for an extensive amount of time.
Ryota quickly attempted to hand the weapon back to Munakata and accidentally dropped it on the floor between them. “Munakata-san, what’re you doing!? Your forbidden action is holding a murder weapon...if you try to kill someone you’ll be—”
The silver haired man turned his back from the knife. “I can assure you this weapon is not for me.”
What? Ryota found himself choking on invisible air and began slowly backing away from the knife that acted as the barrier between the two of them. If Munakata held no intention of using the murder weapon for himself then that could only mean one thing…
His response was instant. “I want you to kill Gekkogahara.”
How could Munakata even say such a thing? Ryota recalled earlier in this killing game when he desperately tried to keep everyone together and vowed that a murder would never happen, and now he was personally requesting that he kill someone. Exactly how far has this man fallen since the death of Yukizome?
Ryota frighteningly backed away from said knife, as far as possible, trying to avoid making any kind of direct contact with the weapon. He was afraid of the idea of being forced to kill someone, but was also scared of what Munakata was going to do with him if he declined. Throughout this whole game, he never even thought about the prospect of actually ending someone's life and would never want to hurt anyone in this game.
He quivered in fear and attempted to decline Munakata in the least threatening way possible. “I...I can’t do that. I can’t kill her—or anyone else at that...there has to be some kind of misunderstanding.”
“I see, you intend to carry on this charade even longer.” Munakata replied with some small hints of exasperation in his tone of voice. “A few days back when I gave you the ID card, I allowed you to have some time to properly think things over before going along with my proposal.”
He scowled as the introverted animator. “Things are different now. I intend to give you a total of 48 hours to kill Gekkogahara before I begin to start taking matters into my own hands.”
“48...hours?” Ryota’s face went blue. “But...I can’t do that...there’s no way I—”
“I’m not giving you a choice!” Munakata violently ordered. “You have two days to kill Gekkogahara before I take matters into my own hands.”
The animator was slightly startled by the sudden change in tone that came from Munakata, it was quite noticeable that he was dead serious about killing her and ending this killing game. Ryota almost didn’t want to know what the “take matters into my own hands” comment could possibly be referring to, the fact that he was unable to use a murder weapon only made him more on edge of what he plans to do with Gekkogahara.
It hurt that Ryota was suddenly thrown into a situation that he never wanted in the first place, a huge burden that he never asked for, and something that he likely didn’t even deserve. The idea that Gekkogahara is a traitor almost feels no different than learning that Yukizome was responsible for killing the Chairman or that his classmates were converted into Remnants of Despair, it felt like things like this were always happening.
Just about every time Ryota gets close to someone, they always die or succumb to despair—sometimes even both—and was hoping with all his heart that Gekkogahara would have been the one exception.
The Ultimate Student Council President seemed to catch on to Ryota realizing his predicament because he leaned in closer to him and whispered, “And if anyone asks...this conversation never happened.”
"Ahem...may I have your attention, please! The Future Foundation Chairman has an official announcement to make. Good morning, everyone! It's time to rise and shine, and make today the best possible day!"
What a strange turn of fate it was when the morning announcement of Monokuma was actually the biggest relief in this killing game. At least the charismatic and overly annoying attitude of the monochromatic bear was better than all of the awful things that Munakata was talking about last night.
Upon waking up, Ryota wondered if everything that happened last night was potentially just a bad dream. At least that’s what he wanted to believe, only to find that the military knife that Munakata had given him was resting on top of his dresser where he put it last night before going to bed.
He rolled over and buried his face into the pillow. It seemed like every time Munakata wakes him up in the middle of the night, it’s to manipulate him into doing something awful. What did the council president even see in someone like him in the first place? All Ryota wants to do is escape the killing game and end the Tragedy, he lacks any interest in the “ideal clash of hope” that he and Naegi keep arguing over.
And not to mention all of that stuff he said about Gekkogahara being the traitor—or worse, even the mastermind. It was difficult to tell if that video footage was real or something that was superficially made. That footage appeared far too realistic to look like an animation, but maybe that was just Ryota trying to deny despite all of the blatant evidence?
He prayed with all of his heart the video was a fabrication and grabbed a fresh suit from his closet to get on with the day.
Before joining up with all of his fellow participants in the cafe, Ryota tremblingly grabbed the military knife and shoved it underneath his bed where no one could find it. The last thing he needed were his friends to assume that he was harboring a murder weapon and there was no were else to put it.
The minute that he stepped foot into the cafe, his eyes were met with another's pair of icy blue ones. “Good morning, Mitarai-kun. You’re just in time, we were just discussing the newest motive.”
Ryota almost choked at the sight of Gekkogahara, the first time he’d seen her since watching that video that literally was about her being the traitor. Exactly what was he supposed to say after watching that video? There was no way that he could just say something like “are you the traitor?” so casually.
It was probably for the best that he didn’t even mention the video until having conclusive evidence that she was actually a traitor.
He donned a superficial smile and looked to Gekkogahara. “H-Hey...Gekkogahara-san, good morning to you too. What were you guys talking about with the motive?”
“All of us found some strange video game in our dormitories, and they all appeared to be about the exact same thing as well.” Naegi explained. “A game called Sengoku Asuka ZERO and the game seems to be based on all members of the Future Foundation.”
“You played that game too?” Ryota gasped and sat down at the nearest table.
Fortunately, Ando had come around with some hot strawberry biscuits on a plate to satisfy Ryota’s rumbling stomach. “It looks like we all have. Yesterday, I saw that a game console and that Sengoku-whatchamacallit game was in my new dormitory too.”
Asahina crossed her arms. “I’m still not sure why I couldn’t find that game in my room, it looks like I’m not the only person who didn’t get one. Maybe it’s because I was helping Kizakura play his?”
“Wait...why were you playing the game for Kizakura?” Ando questioned.
Kizakura gestured his closed left palm, the one that wasn’t occupied by a flask of liquor. “Well, I still can’t open my left palm like the rest of you kids. You can do a lot with one hand, but I’m afraid that playing a video game sure ain’t one of them.”
Monomi scratched her ear. “And I guess we can assume that Munakata-san and Sakakura-san received those games as well.” Gekkogahara assumed.
“Speaking of which, where the hell did those two go?” Ando placed a hand to her hip and looked around. “Those guys are always disappearing during such important moments.”
Ryota wanted to mention that he saw Munakata last night and explain everything about that traitor video that he watched, though was fraught with anxiety over the consequences of what could happen. It’s ideal that everything that happened last night was just his little secret until he found the right answer.
He lied. “I haven’t seen Munakata-san…”
“What about Sakakura, do you think he could be planning something with Munakata right now?” Asahina wondered with caution.
“Somehow I doubt those two are in league anymore.” Ando commented.
“Yeah, but still...it’s a little strange that Sakakura-san hasn’t shown up at all this morning, usually he’s always here with us during breakfast.” Ryota mentioned and admittedly started to get worried. “Do you think something bad happened to him?”
“Nah, cool your jets kiddo.” Kizakura relaxed in his chair. “I saw Sakakura a little earlier this morning, the brute is totally fine, but I’m betting that he probably wants some alone time.”
“That’s a relief.” Ryota sighed.
“Sakakura is the least of our problems. Did anybody see the weird person in the mask last night?” Kizakura randomly shot out. “Or was I just suffering from a really bad hangover again and losing my mind?”
Kirigiri glared at him with annoyance. “You are going to have to be a little more specific.”
“M’kay. Well...last night before I was on my way to bed I saw some weird person wandering around the halls.” Kizakura chuckled. “They didn’t look like any of you kids...but then again I only saw them after downing an entire Tullamore DEW last night so maybe it was just in my imagination.”
“No, you’re totally telling the truth! I remember seeing that person last night too!” Asahina recollected. “They were wearing a mask or something...so I could barely even see their face."
“What time did you see them?” Naegi asked.
The athletic swimmer crossed her arms. “I dunno...it must’ve been like around 2 in the morning or something. I was on my way to get a donut from the cafe when I saw—”
Ryota kinda spaced out after those first couple sentences, mainly because what really peaked his attention in this conversation was the fact that apparently this masked person was found closely around the same time that Munakata had shown him the secret footage in the surveillance.
He was confused on what that could entail.
Of course, there was additionally the topic of the masked person on his mind as well. As if they didn’t already have enough keeping them up at night without more tragic things happening in the killing game. He could even think about who the potential identity of this masked perpetrator could even be at this point. The few baseless guesses that came to mind were that this person could have been Munakata since he could have easily put on a disguise to his “plans” and then met up with Ryota later than night.
Then again, without a picture of this person it wasn’t like there was a whole lot of information to go on.
“—and then after that, they just walked straight into Monokuma Hunter: Escape Game.” Asahina finished her story. Ryota started paying attention after hearing her mention that place again.
“If they entered that God-awful escape room, then wouldn’t that mean it’s somehow related to the newest motive?” Ando speculated.
“It’s difficult to say since Monokuma never actually told us what the motive of this case could be.” Gekkogahara acknowledged. “The escape game...the video games...and the identity of the 16th participant. Anything of those could be the real motive.”
“And at the same time...none of this could be the motive.” Naegi realized.
“This whole situation seems kinda familiar though...it takes me back to Hope’s Peak Academy,” Asahina suddenly spoke up, “A masked person showed up in Naegi’s dorm room with a knife and we found that same mask in the greenhouse.”
“Yeah, and that person in the mask turned out to be Enoshima, who later dressed Ikusaba-san up in the same mask in order to trick us later on,” Naegi recalled. “I’m guessing that Monokuma wanted to reuse that again.”
“If they were wearing a mask I’d be hard to tell if it was a boy or girl underneath.” Kizakura stated.
Ando bit her lip in distress and finally stood up from her chair. “Exactly what’re we supposed to do...if we just sit around twiddling our thumbs then we’re more likely to accidentally to start a murder without knowing it.”
“It’s quite simple.” Kirigiri expressed seriously. “If Monokuma won’t tell us what the motive this time is going to be, then we’re going to have to search the building and find that answer out for ourselves.”
The confectioner tried to give herself courage by nodding alongside the detective, yet even she had her own doubts about it. “Sure...but will that really work, can we really find the motive if we don’t know what to look for?”
“Maybe Ando-san is right about this?” Ryota thought aloud. “We’ve already visited most of the rooms available on this building and I’m not sure where we can even find a clue.”
“And without any leads we’re totally clueless.” Asahina sighed.
“Not entirely.” Naegi reassured her. “The three potential motives for this case actually gave us an idea on what we should start looking for. All we need to do is find anything related to the video games, the secret participant, or the masked person.”
“There’s a total of seven of us here right now...which means that there’s enough of us to search the four available floors on the building and find the potential motive.” Gekkogahara said. “If all of us thoroughly search the building then we’re sure to find something.”
“Great idea!” Asahina declared in anticipation. “Then, we’d better get going!”
Ryota only had the chance to nibble at his breakfast before almost everyone else was rushing out the cafe to explore every inch of the building. Just about everyone had left except Gekkogahara who patiently waited for him to finish eating.
He subtly nearly choked upon the sight of her and kept his cool by swallowing biscuits. “Gekkogahara-san...what are you still doing here…?”
The equally meek therapist brightened up with a smile and typed away, “I was waiting for you to come along with me. Usually the two of us have an easier time investigating things and I was thinking that would really come in handy now.”
Ryota frowned. There was no way that he could outright ask Gekkogahara if she was truly the traitor of the Final Killing Game, a scenario like that would just open up a whole different can of worlds that he would not be looking forward to.
The animator was left with the displeasure of shaking his head to decline. “I can’t...it’s just there’s something I have to do today...sorry, it’s really important and I can’t miss it.”
“Okay,” Gekkogahara calmly nodded. “Maybe next time, okay?”
Ryota smiled and nodded, hopefully by that point he could scrounge up some evidence to prove that she really wasn’t the traitor—of course, maybe that’s just what he wanted to believe. He feels bad about suspecting such a valued friend like this, but all of the evidence in his head kept on pointing to this being the truth.
After finishing up his breakfast, he decided to wander the building to do a little investigating of his own. Honestly, the empty halls that he explored countless times in this killing game had never felt so lonely, this must have been the first time since the Tengan trial where he was all by his lonesome and without a friend.
And it’s not like he wanted to suspect Gekkogahara of being a traitor either, after all the good things she had done throughout this killing game, repaying the girl with a knife to the back was the last thing he ever wanted.
She’d been present with him since the killing game had begun, while the two may have not interacted very much at first, it seemed like she had become one of his best friends and had a lot of good times together with her. Whether it be having therapy sessions together, opening up about their backstories, investigating the building together, or even something as mindless as watching anime together.
In all of his “happy” memories of times in this horrible killing game, Gekkogahara had always been present for, so instantly just taking all of that away seemed wrong. Ryota thought that she was a great person too.
His mind must have wandered off in more directions than one without even noticing, because the next thing Ryota knew, he somehow wounded up in the file room again. Ironically, that was the same place last place that he investigated together with Gekkogahara before finding out about that awful news.
The blonde animator contemplated if there even was a point in investigating this room anymore. He already searched this place front and back, there was nothing present in this room that could offer a clue about the game no matter how many times he searched, and with all of the files cabinets locked, that made things even more impossible.
“Were you able to find anything?” a familiar aloof voice asked.
He turned to see that Kirigiri had calmly been standing at the door this whole time, hardly even making a sound to indicate her arrival. Ryota honestly wasn’t even planning to enter this room in the first place and just had to come up with a different answer, “No...it doesn’t look like there’s anything in this place.”
Obviously he should have expected that such a halfheartedly false lie would catch the intention of someone worthy of the title of Ultimate Detective. Kirigiri had a delicate and intellectual smile appear on her face. “I see, now will you tell me the real reason that something is bothering you?”
Ryota froze. “What...but how did you know that I was lying? Is it because you’re the Ultimate Detective?”
“No, that’s unrelated,” Kirigiri responded. “I figured something was amiss the moment I saw you wander in here without Gekkogahara-san. The two of you prefer to do your investigations in groups, yes?”
He closely examined the suffocating surveillance cameras around them and wondered if it was even appropriate to say in a place like this. “There’s something that’s been on my mind all morning...but I’m not sure if you would be able to help me.”
Kirigiri nodded. “Try me.”
Ryota looked away. “Okay, but before I say it...can you promise to just keep this conversation between the two of us?”
Deep down he suspected that his request would be a longshot, being that she was a close friend of the other members of the 78th class, she may want to pass any information on to her friends. Except for the fact that it never happened, the lavender haired detective crossed her arms and responded with a nod of approval.
“...You have my word.” Kirigiri elegantly said. “If there’s something on your mind it would be better to continue the conversation elsewhere.”
She walked towards the door and was waiting for Ryota to follow her as well. His eyebrows raised at this gesture, “But didn’t you come here to investigate this room? What if there’s something more left to search for in this place?”
The Ultimate Detective shook her head. “If you have searched this room twice and still haven’t found anything, then I’m sure you have likely already answered your own question.”
Which likely means there is probably nothing left to find or search for in this files room, and the other file cabinets were completely useless to them. He sighed and followed Kirigiri from behind, closing the door and heading to the cafe with ther.
Which means there’s probably nothing left to find in this file room and all these other files were completely useless to them. He sighed and followed Kirigiri, closing the door behind them and going to the cafe.
Once they made their way to the cafeteria, Kirigiri fixed herself an ice coffee and sat down at the table, which only made Ryota wonder why she ordered the parfait that she shared with Kizakura since it seemed more delicious. Then again, she was always constantly getting annoyed by the antics of that man.
That was well besides the point of any significance, as Kirigiri took her first sip of tea she finally asked, “Now...what’s on your mind?”
“Well, last night I had a conversation with someone .” Ryota emphasized the last sentence in fear of the warning a certain student council president gave him before about speaking about their talk. “He told me the identity of the traitor of this game.”
Kirigiri responded in the same calm demeanor that Ryota was expecting. “The traitor. And you’re sure you know who this person is?”
Ryota had cringed at the thought of having to confirm this and was left without any other choice than to nod his head. “I’m positive. The problem is I can’t reveal who they are...if I state who the traitor is it’s going to hurt so many people.”
He averted his eyes and oddly stared at his palm. “I always said I wouldn’t forgive the person who caused the deaths of the Chairman, Yukizome-sensei, and the others, and that I wanted to survive this game to avenge them...but if they really were my friend then that would change everything.”
“I-I can’t just go around accusing more of my friends for murder...we’ve already lost so many people as it is,” he somberly finished and closed his eyes.
To his surprise, Kirigiri started laughing softly—wait a minute, what? Why was she laughing all of a sudden? It didn’t seem like Ryota had said anything inherently funny and had just finished speaking his heart out about his desire to prevent any killings from happening and believing in his friends.
He blinked. Was he missing something?
Ryota looked concerned. “Did I say something funny?”
Kirigiri continued to hold her smile. “That sentence sounded an awful lot like something that Naegi-kun would have said. It seems the two of you are far more alike than I originally thought.”
Why would she say something like that? Sure, at first he believed that Naegi’s title as the Ultimate Hope was nothing more than a means of attracting buoyancy towards any innocent bystanders and was mostly for publicity, but overtime he began to realize how much of a great leader the boy actually was.
His face embarrassingly flushed a bright red in denial. “N-No, there’s no way that I’m like Naegi-kun. We’re nothing alike.”
“No, the two of you are definitely alike.” Kirigiri smirked. “The way you speak about how you desire to spread hope no matter what, it would be hard not to acknowledge the similarities the two of you have with one another.”
Ryota figured by this point he was probably being too hard on himself, if someone with the title of Ultimate Detective was able to make an observation like that it couldn’t be entirely inaccurate to assume. Even then, it still didn’t necessarily answer the big question that had been on his mind.
“What should I do, Kirigiri-san…? I’m afraid of what the outcome could be for lying, but I’m also afraid of what will happen if I tell the truth.”
Kirigiri calmly closed her eyes. “Mitarai-kun, if you don’t mind, I’d like to tell you a story of something I had experienced once before during childhood.”
Ryota nodded. He wasn’t really intending on hearing a story and was more concerned about getting advice on how he was supposed to handle learning that his friend was a traitor, though it seemed impolite to tell her that and simply decided to listen to what she had to say.
“...When I was seven years old, my grandfather had a famous motto that he evoked in my mind—detective work comes before anything else—and for such a long time I believed in that as well.” Kirigiri spoke.
The introverted animator decided to do nothing more than listen, at the most he was intrigued by this story. “It must have been around the same time my mother had passed away. She had been diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer two years before and her treatments weren’t showing any improvements.”
“And...she passed?” Ryota sympathetically answered. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“I’d be sorry too, unfortunately I cannot even remember her face.” Kirigiri blinked. She didn’t seem inherently heartbroken and had no tears come from her eyes, but they narrowed slightly, almost indicating a hint of emotion coming from her. “—nor can I remember very much else about her.”
“You can’t remember?” Ryota gasped.
“Yes. When it came time to visit my mother in the ICU, my grandfather prevented me from seeing her, I could only look through the glass.” Kirigiri stated.
His face empathetically frowned at the story. He would never have guessed that Kirigiri harbored a rough upbringing with how she constantly presents herself as a cold and aloof woman to anyone besides her fellow classmates.
And not only that, but the story itself seemed kinda familiar in his mind...he vaguely remembered hearing someone else mention a story about a grandfather preventing a child from seeing their mothers death. Maybe it was just a coincidence?
“I suppose it’s the nature of my lineage. Another relative of mine had a track record of doing some deplorable things in the past, though I’m sure they would never begrudge someone the chance to see their mother a final time.” Kirigiri quietly said.
If all of the things she just described were true, then there was one question that still lurked in Ryota's mind. “Do you hate your grandfather…?”
Her answer came up faster than his question. “No, I don’t. My grandfather was undeniably a cold person, and my thoughts have changed, but I cannot bring myself to hate that man. He is the reason that I’m a detective today after all.”
It suddenly hit Ryota like a train. “I think I know what you’re telling me this.”
“Overtime, I realized that my grandfather wasn’t entirely right about emotions, they’re powerful and something that shouldn’t be underestimated.” Kirigiri finished before returning back to sipping the rest of her tea.
At first it seemed like she was only telling Ryota this story for some inexplicable reason, it was only after he asked her about the question regarding her grandfather that things openly started to make sense to him.
All this time she was actually giving him advice on how he should approach the situation. She was trying to tell him his decision should be his own and that being concerned about the reaction others will have will only make things spiral even worse. It’s just like how Kirigiri had spent so long following her grandfather's ideals.
Ryota smiled. It seemed like she was providing him with advice in an enigmatic manner—almost befitting of someone like her.
All things considered, Ryota felt he grew a little closer to Kirigiri.
Unbeknownst to either of them, Munakata had secretly been observing the entire conversation from the shadows, watching as Ryota’s doubts and insecurities grew into a heartfelt smile.
The student council president clenched his teeth. “Very well, if Mitarai wants to be this way...then I suppose I’d better begin to start taking matters into my own hands.”