Partial Epilogue:
The third trial. Constantine and Kasumi, the SHSL Genius and SHSL Psychoanalyst, had both been found dead two days ago. Their bodies had been hung using rope nooses, from trees on the edge of the forest.
- one trial later -
Monoryuu snorted, then began to chuckle. His chuckling quickly escalated into laughter which resounded throughout the frozen caverns with an eerie echo.
"So you all thought it was Rafael, the SHSL Memorizer, huh…" he laughed. "Sorry, but that's completely wrong."
A few gasps were heard from the remaining students. Someone choked and coughed.
"No…" Akina whispered. "That's… we can't be…"
"I told you, it wasn't me," Rafael said defeatedly.
"B-But the evidence," Lucas said. "All the evidence pointed to you."
His head was hung. "I was framed. Didn't I say so?"
Momo wrapped her arms around herself, shivering. "We're all going to die," she realized. "Guys, I-I don't want to die here. I don't want to lose to Monoryuu."
"We won't lose," a familiar voice murmured. The remaining students turned in surprise.
There stood Kasumi, at her stand. Looking around, Constantine stood in her place as well.
"H-Headphone girl?" Ichiro stepped back in disbelief. "How the fuck are you alive?!"
The hooded girl smiled softly, though something was… different. "Magic."
"It must be an illusion," Robert said. "... I would say hysteria, but clearly we all see her. Something's off about this though…"
What he said was indeed correct. The two presumed-to-be-dead girls seemed older, though not by very much, and their clothing had changed slightly.
"Kufufufu~" Constantine's familiar laugh rang out throughout the trial room. Her voice had assumed a darker tone. "You thought we'd let the game end here…?"
"That'd be such a waste…" Kasumi agreed. "Look, you're all turning red… what a pretty red…"
"Hush, Kasumi. You can mull over your weird colors later." Constantine spat. "Don't you think it's time for the big reveal?"
The quiet girl nodded.
"What big reveal?" Rico asked quickly. "Aren't we all going to be executed for getting the culprit wrong?"
"Not necessarily," someone said. Akina's voice.
"Akina?" Miyuki asked. "Did you say something?"
The young theorist quickly shook her head. "That wasn't me!"
"Of course not," the voice said again. "It was me."
Walking out from behind Monoryuu was a girl with a white scarf, a black jacket, and black hair. An older, monochrome-outfitted version of Akina.
The original students in the cavern all did double takes. Their Akina was standing right there. But the girl over there looked just like her, save for a look of maturity and gloom.
The older versions of Constantine and Kasumi threw off their hoods and jackets, revealing their own monochrome styles.
"What the hell…?" Zetsu asked in disbelief.
"Sur-prise~!" Constantine sang, gesturing to her little trio. "Kufufufu! The looks on your faces are priceless!"
"Oh shut up, Constantine." The blackened Akina sneered, clearly irritated by her cohort's actions. Her crimson eyes fell upon the young, innocent Akina—the one that hadn't been touched by despair. At least, not yet.
Akina shivered under the harsh glare of her doppelganger. It was all too confusing for even her, a theorist, to understand. At last, the despair-tainted girl raised an arm and pointed at Akina with a heavy sigh.
"You there. You know why we're here, don't you?"
"Akina?" Ukita asked apprehensively.
The theorist frantically shook her head. "I don't—I don't know. I-I can't remember."
"What?" Her older clone snorted. "No wonder you were so useless through all of this. The only reason you even got this far is because of those four over there."
She gestured at Jin, Jun, Micho, and a dead otter at what had been Angioletta's stand.
"Oh right—" the blackened mended after realizing her mistake. "—the comedian's dead. Great. I was getting tired of her irritating voice anyways."
Hiiro placed his hands on his stand. "What's so special about those four?"
"We…" Jin started shakily. "..."
"... don't belong here." Kasumi smiled, savoring their obvious discomfort at being called out.
"How can they not belong here?" Ukita questioned. "They've gone through this with the rest of us!"
Micho fiddled with her ahoge. "You see, we came with them."
"Y-You're despairs?!" Lucas cried.
"No!" she shouted back. "We're not like them. We came to protect you, but…"
Despair-Akina scoffed. "They couldn't do a fucking thing in the end. Couldn't prevent the killing game, couldn't prevent the Future Foundation's collapse, couldn't get you to the final trial—I could go on. Useless."
"Hang on!" Momo interjected. "'Future Foundation'? 'Final Trial'? Wh-What are those supposed to be?"
"Nothing you need to concern yourself with, now that they've failed!" Constantine replied. "Speaking of the future though... that's where we're from! Kufufufu~"
"What the fuck?!" Ichigo yelled. "You're sayin' you're from the fuckin' future now?! Am I on a drug trip or some shit?"
"Nope! At least, not anymore. It was pretty fun injecting you with all those drugs and watching you suffer a few years ago though. You were a great plaything, at least until you—!"
"Enough!" The blackened Akina growled, silencing the sadistic girl at once. Her gaze went back to the young Akina. "You don't belong either."
"Huh?" she responded feebly. "Wh-Why me?"
"You're from the past," Kasumi answered. "The gap in your memories—two years—is how far you jumped. We come from two years in the future, making the total difference equivalent to four years in age."
"Regrettably, you're also the first to do so," Constantine sneered. "Imagine what could've happened if we'd actually gotten someone intelligent!"
"She's quite interesting though, isn't she?" Despair-Akina mused. "So young, so naive. It's too bad you had to interrupt. I wanted to replace her in this little game."
"Replace her? Replace who?" Akina asked.
"Well, if I'm from the future and you're from the past, who do you think was originally here?" When Akina didn't reply, the blackened-girl continued. "That's right. The girl whose identity we both tried to assume… Akina Hiroyuki. The 6th student of Timeline-14. T014-06."