Chapter 9: The Fake
Mondo Owada knew what was coming next. He knew what Fujisaki and Maizono would do after he was forcefully removed from the former's room. That's not all he was concerned about from the programmer. What he had suspected from him was right, to an extent. But he didn't see any reason to not worry for the little guy. He was always getting himself in bat shit chaotic situations, despite the way he presented himself to everyone else. As he thought about his friend's wellbeing, he remembered the bleeding from the side of his head. It was bleeding somewhat heavily, there were likely a few shards of the beer bottle still in there. Owada didn't get help from people often, but the biker felt he needed to get it fixed.
Owada barely knew Mikan Tsumiki, they had spoke maybe a sentence or two months ago but he knew that she was close with Saionji, who of course was close with Fujisaki. He went to his office, where Tsumiki was testing out some equipment. "What's all this for?" Owada asked. "Oh, someone at this school is pregnant. No one here has ever been pregnant while I've been here, so this is the first time some of this equipment is being used. Don't ask, they want to be anonymous." she said.
The next few days were very busy. Enoshima gave a list of demands for her game as well as some deadlines. Every few days, she would give me specific things to program with extremely specific details that she usually wanted done in three days, when it would under normal circumstances take me a week or two to do it. The crazy bitch wouldn't show any mercy, either. She threatened me in ways only she could, telling me multiple ways she'd kill me if I didn't get this done. Beheading, crucifixion, castration, something about a machine with a laser, the list goes on. Even worse is that she strictly forbid me from seeing Maizono for this time, although she did allow me to tell her that I was 'sick'. I got very little sleep for a while but I got shit done. Every once in a while I'd receive a visit from the other few people who knew about the game that weren't me, such as Ikubasa, Tsumiki and Komaeda. Most of the time, they were acting as messengers to newer demands of Enoshima's. Komaeda being one of Enoshima's accomplices didn't surprise me, but I was surprised he wasn't just fucking with me like he was with the naked picture of me before. I dare even say he was a bit helpful, which was extremely uncharacteristic of him.
Oh yeah, that's why. This wasn't the real Nagito Komaeda. Every once in a while in the halls I'd see this guy dressed up as another student with near perfect accuracy, the only difference being that this was a fat dude and everyone he'd dress up as usually wasn't a fat dude. The first time I ever saw him, I thought I was seeing things. It was a few months ago and he was dressed like Togami and it took me a few minutes to process that it was real. Now, here he was imitating the white haired fuck to damn near perfection, excluding his weight and actual helpfulness. It was on one of his visits where everything just sorta clicked. I had been coding for several days straight, and this fake Komaeda had been talking to me about what the real one would always talk about: hope. Unlike the real one, however, his hope talk was interspersed with him eating a big bucket of fried chicken. "You underestimate the hope you will feel once you have finished this. Everyone around you will feel despair, but me and you will always feel hope. We will watch this game and we will laugh. Because we will have the hope, Fujisaki!" he yelled, shoving more of the fried chicken in his mouth.
"I know you aren't the real Nagito Komaeda." I said to him. He digested my words and the food at the same time. "And how can you prove this? Why would there be a need for a second version of me? One is already a plague, hehehe." he laughed. I explained to him the small things that made me realize that he wasn't the real deal, as well as the bigger indicators (haha, fat jokes). "Well, I guess you've found out. But you can't say I didn't do a good job." the faker said. "You did do a good job!" I told him. "The clothes, the hair, the voice, you played him really well. You're just too nice, and too... horizontally challenged?"
"Woah there, don't disrespect me or my fried chicken. This is good shit. Want some?" he asked. I had been so focused on the work that I actually hadn't eaten, so I took some of it. It was indeed good shit. So we sat around for a bit and ate some of the chicken. He explained that he was the Ultimate Imposter, and talked about how he came from nothingness and wanted to live a somewhat normal life by stealing people's identities. Of course, he got incredibly good at it and he considered imitating others as an addiction. "I don't really want to know, but still, where's the real Komaeda?" I asked this imposter. "He said something about a religious excursion. What religion, I don't know." It was likely some bullshit hope religion that only exists in his head. He was rather pleasant to talk to, much better than the actual white haired bastard. But it didn't take me long to realize how helpful this dude can be in a situation like this, where I'm rarely if ever leaving my room. It was a solution so simple, that I couldn't believe I hadn't thought about it now, and now the solution was literally staring me in the face.
"What are the chances you can pretend to be me until I get the shit for the killing game done?" I asked him. "Now most of the time, I'll ask for money from whoever wants me to do this, but I'll make an exception for you because your reason is good. I'll even start today, if you come by my room right now." he said. Sure, I'd be wasting valuable time and if this went too long I could easily be murdered in a horrifying way, but I needed to take a break, dammit. So I went with him to his place, where inside there were dozens of facemasks and clothing articles of everyone at the school, as well as several celebrities and politicians. "I've always wanted to show this to someone, but no one has ever asked. Barely anyone has even realized that I'm not the actual person I'm imitating." he said. "I'm sorry, what? Are you really so damn good that no one has ever questioned why whoever it is is so damn fat?" I asked. "Stop disrespecting me and my fucking chicken! It's good shit! If you do that shit again, I'll charge you for this. But yes, not even Junko Enoshima herself has questioned if I'm the real Nagito Komaeda." he said. He removed the Komaeda mask and replaced it with the mask of me. He went to the room's bathroom and switched into the clothes he had of mine. I didn't know how the hell to react once he came back out. I couldn't tell whether to be impressed or disgusted at the fact that it looked exactly like me if I had overdosed on chocolate pudding. "H-hey, does this look and sound good?" he asked, using my girl voice with perfect accuracy. How the fuck can anyone be this good?
I told him how good he was and gave him some instructions. It hadn't even occurred to me that I had unintentionally told him my secret, but he also knew Enoshima's plan. The both of us knew way too much for our own good. And after I thought about it for a while, the two of us aren't too different. We both love pretending to be people we're not in public areas, and are both so good at it that no one questions it, although we do it for completely different reasons. I was glad that he could do this job for me. Hell, we could potentially stop the game from taking place, although it didn't look likely. Once I left, I got back to programming. I didn't sleep that night but I was still thinking about how satisfying it was to know Maizono was still being cared for by someone she thought was me.