Yamaguchi struggled to hold back her tears while Hikasa and Toyotomi carried Runihura's voluminous body away, struggling to keep it from falling to the floor. She held her face in her hands, trembling a little.
She hated this. She hated having to play the role of Monobear, watching twelve innocent people – whoever they were – try to stay strong under the circumstances. She hated that Yukio had to stay among them, putting himself in danger and analyzing in person everyone inside the virtual world. She hated the three criminals who had led to the deaths of a handful of people in the killing game in the bunker.
But despite all that, she never wished for anyone's death. She was fed up with people dying, she had wanted to never see someone dead ever again, yet she had been forced to face death again. If it wasn't for the result they were seeking, to stop those three people they were looking for, she'd be trying to get away as soon as possible.
"Mika-chan...?"
Akane sat nearby, sounding sympathetic. Yamaguchi looked up, drying her tears, and tried to look like she hadn't just been about to break down. "I'm fine. I'm just having a bit of a hard time, don't worry about it"
"What do you mean I shouldn't worry about it?"
"I'm not going to stop helping you all, but...are we doing this the right way?" she asked quietly "Is this really the best way to do this?"
Akane hesitated visibly. She played with a strand of her hair, looking at the screens that showed Heavenly Resort. "No. There have to be better ways to do it. But it's not like we had any other options at this point. We either did this or those three would have caused much more trouble around the world" she watched everyone return to their cottages "Everything's calming down now...but if those three aren't caught, they'll keep the Tragedy going. We had to do this"
"Did you ever think it'd go like this? This wasn't supposed to happen..."
"I know. I didn't think it'd happen" Akane awkwardly patted Yamaguchi's back "I'll ask the admin to check what happened"
Yamaguchi stood up, dusting inexistent dust off her coat. "So what are we going to do now?"
"We can't stop now. We have to continue. It's not like we have much time left. Toyotomi-kun has been in contact with the headquarters. The rumors aren't good"
"Rumors?"
"The Future Foundation is over. They'll be coming very soon to take everything left in these facilities"
Everything was going to be taken back by the higher-ups, those who were left. The Neo World program, the building, the furniture, absolutely everything had to be returned. Nobody knew exactly when they'd be coming, but they had to be quick with their plans if they wanted to be done before anyone arrived to Jabberwock Island. Yamaguchi nodded grimly. "I'll...I'll try my best to keep going with this. But just in case, we should hurry up. Is there any way we can hasten the process?"
"Alter Ego is doing everything she can do. We have done a lot of progress so far, it's only matter of time before she—" at that moment, there was a loud beep coming from the console. Akane smiled, pleased "See? She keeps working very hard! I'll check what she found out this time"
"Say hi to her for me"
"Got it. You go drink something, okay? I'll pay for it later. Take your time" with those kind words, Akane sat in front of the console and started typing. Yamaguchi watched with admiration. Akane didn't like the situation either, but she tried her best to look like she wasn't feeling the weight of their responsibilities. Even though the odds of being successful were quite low, she refused to back down.
Yamaguchi sometimes wished she could be like Akane. Maybe if she were more like Akane, she would be enduring better this mess? If only...
It wouldn't have mattered, anyway. Strong or not, they had no way to prepare for the fallout the next 24 hours would bring.
-ooooo-
Toyotomi closed the door to the infirmary, forlorn. Hikasa and him had just placed Runihura on one of the beds, setting him up for a long, long stay immobile in the infirmary. It was no secret that dying in the virtual world would end in brain death. That was a situation they had no idea how to deal with, but the consensus was that anyone who suffered brain death would be set up in the infirmary and kept there, instead of being left in the pod they were in – to avoid further damage or any danger from the rogue prototype Enoshima AI affecting the vegetative body. Nobody was sure if this was the right thing to do in that kind of situation.
"That guy was real heavy" Hikasa commented, taking deep breaths "I'm getting rusty with my weightlifting"
"You shouldn't compare him to a dead weight"
"Sorry. I still don't get it...how did this happen? I thought you had said this wouldn't happen!"
"I'm not sure either, but we can't let this stop us"
Hikasa crossed his arms. "You going to let this go without even trying to find out why it happened?"
"We need to find a lead. Let's go back to the control room, we'll analyze the recordings and—"
"That may not be necessary"
That had been said by Mitsuhiko, who was approaching. It seemed he had heard what they had been saying, and had a piece of his mind to give to them. Toyotomi and Hikasa exchanged a look, unsure of what to think of the hunter approaching them like this. "What do you mean?" Toyotomi decided to get a handle of the situation.
"Someone's trying to sabotage us"
"No, that's not possible. We're all in this together, nobody would betray us" Hikasa immediately said, and turned to Toyotomi "This guy's lying. There has to be some other explanation"
Mitsuhiko didn't seem amused at all, pouting a bit but disguising it quickly "Do you realize that you're pretty much accusing me of trying to betray you?"
"That's not what I mean, what I mean is—"
"Okay, that's enough" Toyotomi glared at Hikasa and Mitsuhiko authoritatively, waiting for them to settle down and step away from each other before giving Mitsuhiko his undivided attention "I guess you have reasons to think that?"
"I do, but I think you have the wrong idea. It's like Hikasa-san said, we're all together in this, so of course the saboteur is someone who isn't among us six"
"That's impossible, nobody on this island has any reason to sabotage us" Hikasa said.
"I'm talking about a Main Board member. I think we either didn't catch one, or they managed to sneak an accomplice onto this island before we sent them all into the Neo World Program"
Toyotomi wanted to deny the possibility, but he couldn't. That'd explain so much... "...I suppose that's possible, but without proof—"
"If there's an intruder we should be able to see them through the security cameras" Hikasa noted, but Mitsuhiko shook his head.
"I already checked them, and there was nothing. This intruder is clever, she avoided the cameras and detection for the most part"
"Wait...she?" Toyotomi inquired. Mitsuhiko's hand went to his head, he looked unsure of how to word what he was going to say, but it wasn't like staying silent was an option here.
"I saw the intruder. It's a woman, around forty or fifty years old. I think it's Valkyrie"
"We can't have missed Valkyrie, she's the most dangerous one among those three" Hikasa bit his thumb "If we missed her, we're all in danger!" He was right, and Toyotomi knew it. For a moment he felt like a big weight fell into the pit of his stomach, had they made a huge mistake somehow? How could they have missed Valkyrie and trapped one more innocent person than intended?!
Mitsuhiko lowered his voice, looking in direction to the room where the virtual room machines. "One thing more...you can't tell Akane about this. Please, don't tell her"
"We need to tell her, she's our partner" Hikasa said.
"I don't think this is the kind of thing Akane should hear about" Mitsuhiko said delicately. Toyotomi, unsure where this was going, tried to assess the situation.
"Why shouldn't we tell her?"
"Because I think she finding out who may be sabotaging our work will hurt her"
Not understanding, Toyotomi tried to get more details. "What do you mean? I don't get it"
Mitsuhiko again looked in direction of where Akane was likely to be. "I saw the saboteur's face for a moment. It's a face I saw very recently – just a couple days ago, in a photo Akane showed me"
"Say it straight! So you think Akane knows the saboteur?"
"Yes" Mitsuhiko seemed sorry "I hope I'm mistaken, but...
...Valkyrie may be Akane's mother"
-ooooo-
Junko Enoshima relished in the possibility something wouldn't go according to plan, but there was a limit to the elation she usually felt. Right now she was feeling frustrated, not jubilant. She moved a hand in front of her face, testing just how much control she had over the body she was inhabiting. She had managed to take over the body, she could feel this unfortunate person's consciousness pushed aside and reducing little by little. In just matter of hours, her control would be absolute, the person whose body she had invaded soon would cease to exist. She was sure she'd be able to act like them, make it look like nothing was wrong. She was triumphing.
So why the hell the other two copies of her hadn't met with her?
Well, she supposed it was no surprise one met with her – it's hard to go anywhere when you're dead. But the other one? Where had she gone?
There was a possibility she couldn't ignore: that the opposite had happened. Instead of Junko taking over someone's mind, the host's consciousness managed to overpower and get rid of the AI. But how would that happen? There had to be some sort of change, some way that led to a drastic change in mentality. She wasn't stupid, she had seen what had happened, but she had underestimated how much the stay so far at the Heavenly Resort had strengthened the host of that other copy. "By all means, it doesn't make any sense" she said, pretending she had glasses one.
Note to herself: get glasses and other props. It was hard to do the other facets of her personality without props.
Junko looked up to the sky, wondering if the kidnappers were having fun watching the game they were making. There were a few pointers she'd like to give them for maximum despair, because so far it was rather tepid! Weak! The amount of despair in the air was frustratingly low, she could pretty much see the carrot and stick hanging in front of her! If there wasn't some bona fide despair soon, she'd show them all what despair truly meant!
"Twelve hours. We'll give you twelve hours, peasants...and then you shall let us tear this place apart!" she proclaimed to nobody, a fake accent slipping in her voice. She looked at the clock around her wrist. 3:00 AM
She'd make her move at 3:00 PM unless something astonishingly good, incredibly filled with despair happened before that hour.
The next 24 hours were guaranteed to be wonderful!
The story is going into its second half now. It feels so strange to know the end of this trilogy is getting closer and closer.
Thank you for your support during all this time.