Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the Danganronpa series. I only own Hikari Seishin and her family. I also do not own any video games I mention in this fanfic.
Note: I try to make the story as canon as I can with obvious creative liberties. Please let me know if any of the original cast is OOC and I will do my best to fix it.
A/N: Sorry that this chapter took a while to write. Work has been wiping me out for the past month since I now work two jobs. Thank you for your continued support!
Chapter Twenty-Five
A Syringe Filled with Punishment
"I'm not the killer!" Mikan insisted with a whiny voice.
Nagito scoffed at the Nurse's denial. "We can't think of anybody else other than you who could have filmed that video."
"Huh? Do you have any proof?" Mikan asked Hajime and Hikari in an eerie monotone, her eyes blank and foreboding. "Is the hemp bag on her head the proof? Is the hospital gown she was wearing suspicious? Or could it be the hospital slippers she had on?"
The Spirit Medium bit the inside of her cheek as her head throbbed weakly from her injury. How did Tsumiki end up like this…? She sounds so…menacing when she's like that…
"Mioda and Tsumiki clearly have different body types…" a frustrated Fuyuhiko pointed out as an attempt to aid the two teens who watched the hanging video.
"Is that really your proof?" the dark-purple haired girl gibed, getting angrier the more she talked. "You could tell her body type under the hospital gown? Just from that video? Just from that camera angle!? Just from that dim candlelight!? There's no way you'd be able to make out her body type! So please forgive me already!"
I don't understand why she wants us to forgive her if she believes she's innocent… Hikari thought as she crossed her arms, her eyes moving down to stare at the floor. And what was Kuzuryuu getting at…? I know that they have different body types, but it was kinda hard to tell in that video… Hikari blinked a couple times as she played back the video in her mind while she focused on what Mikan had just said. Wait a minute… The blue-eyed teen looked across the podiums to Hajime. "Hinata, when we testified about the video, did you mention anything about the camera angle?"
Hajime also blinked before his lips parted in realization. The brown-haired boy turned to Mikan. "Tsumiki…you have committed a major mistake… As we said before many times…Seishin and I are the only ones who saw that video. Neither of us…said anything about the camera angle. Isn't that right, Seishin?" Mikan gasped and tensed up as Hikari nodded in a serious manner.
"You're right, Hinata. I didn't say anything about the camera angle since I'm not good with that kind of stuff," the Spirit Medium affirmed, a hand on her hip.
"I still don't know how you managed to electrocute yourself when you set up the hospital's surveillance unit a couple nights ago," said Kazuichi, scratching the back of his head. Hikari shot the Mechanic an annoyed stare, some of their friends sweatdropping when they learned a new piece of information about the usually reserved bespectacled girl.
Hajime cleared his throat to redirect everyone's attention to the task at hand, his eyes still on the Nurse. "So, how can you say anything about the camera angle as if you saw that video yourself!?"
"Heeeeeee…!" the Nurse yelped, appearing to be taken aback, her mouth opened wide.
"The only reason Tsumiki knew the camera angle Hinata and Seishin had seen…" Nagito began to say, a hand to his chin pensively before he cracked a grin at Mikan, "is because you're the person who actually filmed that video… Is that right?"
"This is your just reward. The more you desperately argue, the deeper you dig yourself in a hole…" Chiaki spoke to the apron-wearing teen with a frown. "…You lied, didn't you?"
Mikan winced, beads of sweat forming on her face. "…Guhhh!"
"Are…you serious…?" Akane asked breathlessly as she stared at Mikan in complete shock. "Is it true, Tsumiki!?" she questioned, the Gymnast's shock morphing into anger. "Did you…did you kill Saionji and Mioda!?"
"Ahhhhh!" the Nurse squealed, cowering behind her raised arms and trying to make herself as small as possible with tears and snot dribbling down her face. "F-Forgive meeeee…"
Hikari widened her eyes and covered her mouth with one hand. She's…she's not denying it…! Is this why she is asking for forgiveness…? Hikari lost her train of thought when Mikan's behavior abruptly changed yet again.
"…Huh?" murmured the light-greyish purpled eyed young woman, staring blankly into space. All traces of fear or any emotion vanished from the Nurse as she echoed that one word as if she was on repeat. "Huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh?" The Spirit Medium felt goosebumps when she heard Mikan giggle with a blush on her cheeks. "Ah! I was wrong! Wrong! No no, that's not it at all!"
Hikari wasn't the only one who became uneasy due to Mikan's bizarre mood swings. "That's not it…?" Gundham cautiously asked, his body and even the hamsters were visibly tense.
"I mean, it's impoooooossible!" the Nurse claimed with an airy, yet eerie voice, her eyes having a crazed appearance to them.
Hajime felt his blood run cold at those words as he watched Mikan. I-Impossible…?
"You know that hemp bag Mioda was wearing when she died…?" Mikan reminded her peers monotonously. "Try remembering the tote bag instead. Diiiiiiiing, I totally remember now."
"Wh-What the heck's wrong with her…? She's getting weirder by the minute," Kazuichi said, the Mechanic feeling perplexed and apprehensive.
"The tote bag… Isn't it the same one that girl was wearing in the video?"
Fuyuhiko clenched a fist and looked angrily at the bandaged teen. "How do you know so much about that video!?" Mikan only tapped her fingertips together as she giggled.
"Tee hee hee! Who cares about that!?" she said dismissively before she went back to being unnerving. "More importantly, did you know that bag is a limited item that was sold at the movie theater? Hinata and Seishin saw it too, didn't you? You remember the Usami decal on it, right? Whoopsie, don't worry about it. I remember it even if you don't. Tadaaaaa! There's no mistake that that tote bag is a limited item!" Hikari felt the blood drain from her face when Mikan was disclosing details in the video that Hajime and Hikari either forgot or just didn't bother to mention. The Spirit Medium felt her heart pounding against her chest, blood rushing in her ears.
H-How…? Does this mean she really is the killer? Why would she kill Mioda and Saionji like that!? Hikari felt her body shake as guilt snaked its way inside her. I was so tempted to get that tote bag back then… A memory flashed in her mind of herself standing by the concession counter at the movie theater, Monokuma waving an arm toward the Usami tote bag. Would the murders not have happened if I had gotten the bag…?
"So don't you think it's impossible?" Mikan asked again. "Using one tote bag in both conference room and the music venue at the same time…? It's blatantly obvious that it's impossible, don't you think!?" The Nurse smiled shyly and placed a hand to her cheek. "That's why that video isn't fabricated and I'm not the killer." She then started pulling on her locks of uneven hair in fury once again, seething at the group of teens. "So you'll forgive me, right!?"
"Taking your stubbornness this far… Such despair," Nagito said, exasperated with his arms crossed.
"Then you're gonna forgive me? I won't stop until you forgive me! I'll keep explaining it until you forgive me! That bag is a limited item!" Mikan screamed at the top of her lungs before she took on her innocently coy persona. "Hehehe…! That's why that crime is impossible for anyone to pull off."
Even the tan-skinned teen was perturbed by Mikan's erratic behavior. "This chick…has she lost it for good…!?"
"Will you forgive me? You'll forgive me, right? Isn't that right? You're obviously gonna forgive me, right? There's only one bag! It's impossible to use it in two places at the same time!"
Hajime closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I know what I have to do… I have to put an end to this! The ahoged boy slowly opened his light brown eyes to face the irrational Nurse. "Monokuma…mentioned something to me earlier. Whoever bought that bag should've received another one as a bonus prize. Which means it's not impossible to use that bag in two separate places. So please, just stop making desperate excuses!"
Mikan shook like a leaf, withdrawing herself once more. "Wh-Why…? Wh-Why can't you forgive me…!? Why…!?"
"It seems…her desperate struggle is finally coming to an end," Nagito declared in a somber voice.
"Why does everybody always hate me!? You should just forgive me already!"
Hajime gritted his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut. "Tsumiki…it's already over… After I go over your crime from the beginning and show that you have no arguments left…" He stared at Mikan, frustration evident in his eyes. "Please, just admit it already! In the end, at least let me believe in you!" Hikari could only stand at her podium and watch Hajime look over the evidence one more time. She felt tears threatening to fall as she tried to understand why Mikan would commit the crime that left two of her friends dead as well as inflicting injury to the Spirit Medium herself. Hikari took a shaky breath and blinked away any incoming tears when the ahoged teen finally said, "Here's everything that happened in this case…
"The key to this incident is the surveillance camera video that only Seishin and I saw," Hajime started off saying to his friends. "That's why…I'm going to start with that to unravel the knots of this crime. When I went to the hospital with Seishin and Tsumiki this morning, I noticed a specific thing in the lobby. The incoming signal light on the surveillance monitor was blinking ahead of the scheduled time. When I switched on the monitor, what appeared onscreen was…a person wearing a hospital gown and a bag on their head about to hang themselves right at that moment. That surveillance camera unit was designed for two-way communication with the hospital and the music venue… That's why Seishin and I thought the signal originated from the music venue…so we immediately headed over there. But that was the killer's trap… In truth, that video was recorded in a different place. The killer brought the music venue camera the night before and made their preparations in advance… And then…they filmed that video in the hospital conference room. By doing so, they tried to make Seishin and I think the incident was happening in real-time. When in fact…the crime had already been committed by that point. The person in the footage wearing the bag was actually the killer acting as a fake.
"Seishin and I didn't know that, so we both went to the music venue…and found the hanged body wearing a bag on its head. Seeing the body before me, I panicked and rushed out of there to get the rest of you guys… But…that was also part of the killer's trap. After cleaning the conference room, the killer was likely watching the music venue from outside… And, as if they were switching places with me, they went inside the music venue… They originally were just going to work on their last trick, but they came across an unlikely predicament when they noticed that Seishin didn't follow me out of the music venue." Hajime frowned when he added, "I had no idea that Seishin stayed behind in the music venue until I reached the motel. The killer probably didn't expect Seishin to remain there either. So, with quick thinking, the killer took the opportunity to make their ruse even more believable. First, the killer attacked Seishin from behind with the surveillance camera that was used in the conference room, killing two birds with one stone by incapacitating Seishin with the hope that the head injury was fatal as well as destroying the camera which they had planned to do in the first place. After destroying the camera, they mixed it with what was left of the surveillance monitor found at the crime scene. The surveillance camera the killer used was originally brought from the music venue, but…when they brought it, they made sure to destroy its monitor beforehand. They wanted to hide the fact that the camera wasn't at the crime scene… The killer could possibly have also dragged Seishin's unconscious body closer to the scrap heap to half-heartedly imitate the tin man's death. Next, the killer peeled off the wallpaper covering one of the stage pillars, revealing Saionji's body. When I first arrived and saw the hanged body, I didn't notice anything strange about that pillar… I didn't expect it to be slightly larger from the wallpaper, or have Saionji's body hidden inside… Seishin didn't notice it either, but the killer undoubtedly didn't want to take any chances of Seishin potentially finding out which is another reason why the killer attacked Seishin right away. In the end, the killer transformed the crime scene into a closed room. They broke one of the drumsticks from the storage room and placed it near the music venue's entrance. However, they did this to mislead us into believing that the music venue was locked from the inside… In actuality, the reason the music venue became a closed room was because of the glue. The killer sealed the door with glue and intentionally created a closed room that could be forced open.
"With that, the killer finished tampering with the crime scene and met up with Kuzuryuu and me… They helped us force open the music venue door, despite the fact that they personally sealed it… And they made us discover not just Mioda's body, but Saionji's suddenly present body and the unconscious Seishin as well. At the time, they pretended to be surprised but…inside, they were probably relieved that their plan worked out even though Seishin turned out to still be alive… They perhaps felt that they didn't have to worry about Seishin since she was unable to see the actual crime scene and was too injured to help with the investigation.
"Isn't that right, Tsumiki!?" Hajime said with a raised voice, staring at the Nurse with a serious expression. "This crime was orchestrated by you, wasn't it!?" A heavy silence fell in the larger chamber to be broken by Mikan's weak chuckles that erupted into a bubbly laughter. Hikari shivered as a chill permeated throughout her body, still in utter disbelief that her friend could do such a heinous crime.
Kazuichi also appeared uncomfortable at Mikan's sudden giggles. "Whoa! N-Now she's laughing!?"
"Haaaa…" Mikan sighed happily, her eyes closed, "it's been suuuuuuch a long time… This feeling…I know it well… Like the floor is collapsing…like the sky is falling down upon you… This feeling of despair!"
"Tsumiki…! You…what has happened to you…!?" Sonia lamented, looking at the Nurse fearfully.
"…Whoa there, before that, a moment of your time!" Monokuma loudly interjected. He covered his mouth with his paws. "It seems your arguments have reached a conclusion, so let's proceed to our regularly scheduled voting time! Now then, please pull the lever in front of you and cast your vote. Who will be chosen as the blackened!? Will you make the right choice or the dreadfully wrong one!?"
Hikari felt her heart drop into the pit of her stomach, her face draining of color. That's right, we still have to vote… We have to vote for Tsumiki to be killed in order for us to survive… It's true the blackened are—were—murderers, but voting for their deaths…doesn't that make us killers too? She felt a bad taste in her mouth as her podium's surface transformed into the voting apparatus.
"Let's go!" Monokuma cheered enthusiastically, raising his black paw in the air. Just like the previous times, each podium's surface became a touch screen showing every student's pixelated face. This time, there were red Xs over the students who were already dead: Byakuya, Teruteru, Mahiru, Peko, Ibuki, and Hiyoko. Next to the touch screen was the silver lever with the Monokuma head on top. The Spirit Medium looked down at the screen with a frown, light reflecting off her glasses to hide the girl's sorrowful eyes when she was staring at the pictures of her fallen friends. She took a shaky breath before her eyes glided over to Mikan's pixelated face on the screen. Hikari clenched her fist with determination as her other hand hovered over the screen and pressed her index finger against the Nurse's picture before gripping the gleaming silver lever, pulling it down.
Just as it happened during the past two trials, the huge tablet screen above everyone showed a large slot machine, the reels spinning. A moment later, the reels, from left to right, started to slow down. Each reel stopped to reveal Mikan's face which caused all three symbols to flash red, the slot machine's colorful lights going off. Below the reels, the word "GUILTY" flashed on and off and gold coins flowed from the payout dispenser. Bouquets of vibrant flowers and confetti started to appear on the screen.
Monokuma hopped off from his royal seat seconds before the rope holding up the constrained Monomi snapped, causing the bunny to fall a few feet onto the hard floor with an "Oof!" The teens stepped away from their spots at the podiums, Hikari's legs feeling like jelly from standing for hours straight with no food or water while having suffered a head injury.
"Now then, though it may be obvious at this point…" Monokuma said before he started chortling, "you got it right once again! That's like three in a row!"
Hikari glared weakly at the two-toned bear. It is three in a row…
"That's right, the true identity of the horrifying blackened who killed two girls and attacked a third was Tsumiki Mikan!" Monokuma declared with gusto.
"Damnit…" Akane muttered, appearing very deflated at the outcome. "You gotta be…shittin' me… Are you sayin'…Tsumiki, the one who nursed us back to health…was the one who killed Mioda and Saionji…?" The Gymnast's dejection didn't last long before it morphed into anger. "Don't joke around with me, Tsumiki! Did you lie to us all along!? Were you plannin' to kill them from the start while you were nursin' them!?" Mikan just smiled eerily and giggled uncontrollably, appearing to have no remorse for her crime.
Kazuichi took a step forward, pointing a finger at the crazed Nurse. "D-Don't just laugh, say something! This is going nowhere!" Of course, Mikan continued to laugh even more. "What's going on…? Th-This chick…!"
"Tch…" Fuyuhiko clicked his tongue, his eye watching the blackened warily. "This is nothing like Peko… She's actually…gone mental…!"
"There's nothing we can do. She's no longer the same person. She's…no longer the Tsumiki Mikan we knew," Nagito informed the others while looking at Mikan with disdain. Hikari blinked, still dumbstruck as to why Nagito was taking this case so personally.
Could it be because Tsumiki nursed him while he was ill? the bespectacled girl hypothesized. Maybe because she killed two people? Who knows with this guy…
"Based on my predictions…" the Luckster went on, "She might've caught it, too. She probably had the Despair Disease, which was the motive for this case…"
"What…!?" exclaimed Gundham, his arms crossed but Hikari noticed his hands gripping his sleeves in shock. "Tsumiki, too…you say…?"
Nagito smiled at his stunned friends. "I know because I was looking at Tsumiki for so long. She was the one taking care of me, after all. My consciousness kept drifting but even so, when I did catch a glimpse of her, her expression was…" He paused briefly, his smile fading as he continued, "…full of despair. A despair so devoid of hope that not even a single fragment of it remained."
H-Hold on…" Hajime stuttered, a bit astounded to hear the new development. "Did you say…Tsumiki also had the Despair Disease…?" The boy's eyes widen in realization. "Then…that means she was…!"
"Huh? Hinata, has something crossed your mind?" Nagito turned to him with a friendly smile. Hikari glanced over to the plain teen with an eyebrow raised.
Hajime bit the tip of his thumb with a troubled countenance, his eyes turned to the floor. "That's right…" he said quietly, "Tsumiki felt very hot at that time… Now that I think about it, that must've been…a high fever…just like what Mioda and Owari had…"
"It cannot be…!" Sonia cried out. "Then…because of that disease, Tsumiki was…?"
"The symptoms that she surely felt must've been deserving of the name, Despair Disease," the white-haired teen remarked offhandedly. "Losing all hope…and harboring despair for all hope… Because of the Despair Disease, she was likely overcome with despair. That's the reason why…she can still laugh in such a hopeless situation." Hikari looked over at Mikan who still was giggling hysterically, the Nurse's face turning pink from the constant laughing.
So I was…needlessly jealous and upset at Hinata those times because Tsumiki wasn't acting herself? Hikari thought gloomily, the guilt building up even more for letting her jealousy and anger get the better of her. And now Tsumiki's going to get executed because of the Disease's influence over her? That's not fair…
Nagito narrowed his eyes at Mikan, sighing heavily. "Which means the Tsumiki standing before us is no longer the SHSL Nurse. She's a completely different person now that she's infected by the Despair Disease… She's a human who deserves to be called the SHSL Despair, isn't that right!?"
Hikari sweatdropped with a deadpan stare at the Luckster while Mikan gripped her sides, her face's rosy complexion turning a darker red, the laughter never ceasing from her lips. What is it with you and hope and despair, Komaeda…? It's like you're obsessed and not in a healthy way.
"That's the reason why…I cannot forgive this," the hoodie-wearing boy explained to the other teens. "I mean, killing someone for the sake of despair, instead of for the sake of hope…" Nagito gritted his teeth and made a tight fist, his light green-grey eyes consumed with fury. "There's no way I can forgive that." All of a sudden, Mikan stopped laughing and tilted her head to the side towards Nagito, her eyes still having a demented look.
"Oh…?" Mikan said wistfully. "For the sake of despair…?" She exhaled lightly, her face still having a pink hue. "Haha, that's completely wrong!"
"…Wrong? Wrong…what's wrong?" asked Nagito.
"What I did…was for the sake of my beloved," Mikan explained in an unsettling voice.
"Your beloved…?" Hikari wondered out loud, blinking.
Fuyuhiko fidgeted restlessly, trying to keep his anger in check as well as hide his unease that the Nurse would go to such lengths for the person she loved, reminding the Yakuza of what Peko did for him not too long ago. "Wh-Who are you talking about…?"
Mikan giggled, her hands resting over her heart. "If only they were still alive… They'd be so happy. …I know." Tears started streaming down her face as she continued talking. "My beloved…was the only one… That's right, the only one who…never hated me. They forgave my existence. They forgave me and accepted me. They gave me value. They loved me. I loved them with all my heart and they returned it in full. This is…my reciprocation."
Who was this person Tsumiki's talking about…? Hikari thought as she watched Mikan go further into a manic mood, drool dribbling from the Nurse's mouth. She mentioned they're not alive anymore… Could it have been someone in her past before coming to the island? Maybe it could have been someone who died from this killing game so far? I'm not sure, but…I'm getting the feeling that this person was just using Tsumiki… I mean, who in their right mind would be happy to know that their dearest person would kill innocent people for them and say it was in the name of love? That's… It's like the same with Komaeda but instead he would kill for hope.
"I understand that I've done something unforgivable," the dark purple-haired young woman acknowledged joyfully. "But you know, but you know! To transcend all that is truly…what love is all about!"
"Hey…" Nagito said quietly with a serious expression. "I don't understand…what you're saying." The Spirit Medium felt her jaw drop slightly.
What the heck!? I thought he would understand that completely since he has the same stance for hope! Hikari thought, baffled. …Doesn't he?
"You don't understand?" Mikan questioned the Luckster in a tittering tone. "Is it because you don't have anyone to love? Is it because you're also someone who isn't accepted by anyone? …What a pity. I feel sorry for you." The glasses-wearing girl certainly felt the sharpness of those words directed at Nagito and couldn't help but feel bad for him, the pale boy himself at a complete loss for words.
That was a low blow, Tsumiki… Komaeda may be erratic, but still…
"Even if I say this…I'm sure nobody here would understand but…love is a wonderful thing," Mikan remarked with rosy cheeks, the unstable girl's temperature rising as sweat starts forming on her body from being worked up. "Ahhh, this feeling of freedom where you no longer care about anything! My beloved and I are the only ones within that thin veil, and I'm just looking out through it… That's why…as long as I'm on the inside, no matter how much they tease me, splash me with water, kick me… It's like nothing matters! I could just die, that's how little it matters! Who cares about hope or despair!? It's love, only love!"
Looking at Mikan with concern, Chiaki addressed her question at Nagito. "Komaeda…is this really the Despair Disease you were talking about?"
"It seems that…" Nagito began to say, running his hand through his puffy white hair, "I was wrong… Not only was she affected by despair…"
"You were half right," Mikan corrected them with a light sigh. "It's right to say that this is all thanks to that disease. Because…thanks to that disease, I was able to remember my beloved."
"Remember…?" Hikari echoed hesitantly, raising an eyebrow.
"Apparently that's what my symptom was. Haha…what a wonderful symptom…"
"Which means you had…the Remembering Disease?" Hajime asked slowly, his body tense from uneasiness.
Nagito crossed his arms. "But if this means she remembered something and ended up like this…" The Luckster scowled at the Nurse, Nagito's hands gripping the fabric of his forest green hoodie's sleeves. "Are you saying you were like this from the start? Were you like this before you even came to this island?" Mikan cowered in fright, raising her arms up to defend herself.
"D-Don't get so angry…!" she pleaded with a trembling voice. "Well…first of all…" Then, in a flash, she was all smiles and giggles. "The reason I became like this wasn't my fault. It was all your fault, you know? Because…it's not like I'm entirely responsible for turning out like this… I'm the person I am today because of many human relationships. So…it's everybody's fault that I turned out like this, you see? Even so…the current me was most strongly influenced by my beloved's existence. And it was also my beloved who created the me that everyone can't forgive. But my beloved still forgives me and still accepts me… That is the key difference between all of you and my beloved."
"Like I said…" Fuyuhiko growled impatiently, "who the fuck are you talking about!?" However, the Nurse began another hysterical laughing fit, ignoring the Yakuza completely.
Hajime frowned at the unstable young woman before him. "Tsumiki…please answer me… Did you really remember? You ended up like this…all because you remembered? There's no way I can believe that! There's no way…the person you are right now is the real Tsumiki…!" Mikan's laughter started dying down, the girl wiping a tear from her eye.
"Ohhh… You still doubt me…?" she asked breathlessly. "Then…to prove that I remember, I'll tell you all something nice! It's about that World Ender organization that you all were worrying about."
"You serious!?" Kazuichi gasped, his eyes wide. "You know!?"
"Heehee, not know… I just remembered, that's all. I knew about it all along. How that horrifying organization known as 'World Ender'…is also the organization known as the Future Foundation."
"The Future Foundation…?" Hikari wondered, crossing her arms. I've never heard of them…
"Hey, just what is the Future Foundation?" Nagito interrogated Mikan, a hint of arrogance present in his voice. "What are they planning?"
Mikan beamed, her fingertips pressing against each other. "As the name suggests, that organization is the 'World Ender.' The Future Foundation…is trying to end our world. To put it simply… They're trying to claim the world for themselves."
"Wh-What the heck…?" Kazuichi gulped, his skin turning white with fear. "This isn't a comic book, you know…!"
"Heehee! As part of their plan to end the world, the Future Foundation…brought us to this island. Isn't that right, Monomi?" Mikan asked as she turned ominously to the pink and white rabbit who jumped in fright.
"…Huh?" Monomi squeaked in a high-pitched voice, her paws in the air and her ears shooting straight up.
"I-I knew it…!" the Gangster shouted heatedly. "Monomi…Monokuma… They're both members of that crazy organization, aren't they?"
"Puhuhu," Monokuma chortled, his paws covering his mouth. "Monomi and I aren't members." The bear leaned his head back and declared loudly, "I am Monokuma! My existence is entirely my own! Puhuhuhuhu."
"Puhuhuhu," Mikan parroted merrily, eyes closed with a smile.
"Don't laugh," Nagito commanded sharply, appearing very annoyed with the Nurse. Nevertheless, the teen addressed the girl again. "Hey Tsumiki… If you really do remember…then you already know, right? You know the true identity of the traitor hiding among us."
Hikari involuntarily shivered when Mikan giggled, "Ahaha, of course I know that! Let's see…" The bandaged girl slowly gazed at everyone in a teasing manner, her light greyish-purple eyes sparkling mischievously.
W-Was it just me…or did she stare at me a bit longer than everyone else…? Hikari mentally fretted, biting her bottom lip nervously. The Spirit Medium blinked and glanced over her shoulder when she felt a light pat on the back. Chiaki stared at her assuredly as the Gamer gave her friend one more pat on the back to calm her down. Hikari relaxed slightly, smiling weakly with a nod, glad to have such a strong bond with Chiaki that they don't need words to communicate, the bond reminding Hikari once again of her bond she had with her sister, Kotone.
"The Future Foundation lackey that's hiding among you all…is…" Mikan said, pausing to build up suspense. However, the Nurse clasped her hands and stared off into space blankly once she knew everyone was waiting with bated breath. "…Oh well, no one really cares about that, don't you think?"
"AW HELLLLL NOOOO!" Kazuichi roared, looking as if he would flip tables if such objects were in proximity.
"Heehee, you'll find out eventually…so there's no need to be so impatient. Probably…when that countdown ends."
Hajime stepped back in surprise. "You…you even know about that…!?"
"Oh, I don't know anything," Mikan replied innocently.
"…Huh?"
"I have a feeling that's what it is, but…who cares about that, you know? I'm drowning in so much love… From the bottom of my heart, I just don't care about anyone or anything," the Nurse professed proudly, her cheeks turning pink with giddiness.
Sonia clasped her hands together, staring at Mikan with deep concern apparent in her blue eyes. "Tsumiki…! I-Is this really you!?"
"I-I won't believe it…!" Hajime stammered, his face etched with disbelief as he stood in front of Mikan. "There's no way I can believe…you were like this all along…" He closed his eyes tightly, his hands shaking as they became fists. "Because…if that's true…!" He paused briefly, gritting his teeth before speaking again. "Then who's the person we've been spending time with up until now!?"
"Hmph…" Mikan scoffed almost inaudibly before she replied, "The past."
"The past…?" the Spirit Medium asked the Nurse tentatively.
Mikan proceeded to elaborate to the teens present. "That person… She didn't exist in the beginning… She's just my past self who lost her school memories…" Giggles started escaping from Mikan's lips, the girl raising a hand to cover her mouth in a mocking manner. "Haha…you guys considered that thing a friend."
"Of course I considered her a friend!" Hikari snapped at the bandaged young woman, Mikan's words striking a nerve with Hikari. The bespectacled girl's voice quietened, her eyes looking downwards. "How could I not…especially after all that we've been through together, the good times and the bad…"
Mikan stared at the ebony-haired teen before she let out a long and heavy sigh. "…That doesn't make me happy at all. It just fills me with despair. You guys accepted my past self, but not my present self… Well…that applies to you all as well. Memories of people…memories of events… Whatever memory it is, losing memories are…like losing your personal identity. Memory is the most important component in building a person… Don't you think? Losing our memories…makes us shadows of the past. Don't you think?"
"Hey, I don't know what you're trying to say but…" Nagito said with a small hint of exasperation in his voice, "in the end, it always leads back to that story. That story about our stolen school lives…"
"So…it was true all along… Our memories were taken away!" Kazuichi squawked in alarm, a shaking hand gripping the beanie on his head.
Fuyuhiko sharply inhaled through his teeth, his knuckles white from making tight fists. "If it wasn't true… We wouldn't be suffering this much…!"
"Well, why don't you just take your sweet time and remember at your own pace?" Mikan happily suggested before turning to Hikari. "But before I go… There's something I want you to do, Seishin." Hikari blinked and felt her heart stop when the Nurse started approaching her. "Since your talent did come back, I want you to call forth my beloved's ghost. I want to hear their voice and physically feel their loving embrace before I die to join them spiritually."
"H-Huh…?" Hikari stammered, taking a step back. "U-Um…I c-can't…"
Mikan grinned frenziedly, her warm hands resting on both of the frightened girl's cheeks. "You can! I know you can! Who knows…the spirit possession might trigger the full return of your talent!"
"I s-seriously can't…" the Spirit Medium weakly persisted.
"Come on…you did it for Kuzuryuu… You summoned his sister's spirit. You can do the same for my beloved too, no?" the Nurse encouraged in an airy voice to the smaller girl who looked very uncomfortable in the hands of her attacker.
Alright, this has to stop… Hajime thought, unable to stand quietly by anymore. He took a step forward, but froze in place when Fuyuhiko briskly strode past the ahoged male to the girls. Huh? What…? He stared dumbfounded at the Gangster when he pulled Mikan roughly away from Hikari, the Nurse stumbling back a bit before falling on her butt. Chiaki gently placed her hands on the terrified girl's shoulders from behind, whispering in the Spirit Medium's ear, comforting the traumatized girl as Sonia and Akane came over to give their support.
"That's enough, bitch!" the Yakuza spat at Mikan, his body in a defensive position in front of Hikari and the girls. "If Seishin says she can't, then she can't. It's as simple as that. Besides, you're the one who fucking attacked her! Do you honestly believe that she would do a favor for you after all that shit went down?"
Really…how close are those two? But…why do I keep worrying about that? I trust them, don't I? Hajime asked himself as he felt the familiar discontent simmer in his chest before shaking his head to focus on the current situation. I trust them. They're my friends. Today's just been a very stressful day with everything happening and my body is literally running on fumes. The brown-haired boy can definitely feel the toll of the day's events, his body felt heavy with exhaustion and from a lack of nutrients though he hadn't had much of an appetite all day.
Mikan blankly looked from Hikari to Fuyuhiko and sighed heavily. "Oh well… I tried…" She dusted herself off once she got back on her feet, seeing the bespectacled girl watching her. Mikan glanced at Monokuma with a ghostly trace of a smile before saying, "Oh Monokuuuuuuuma… Is it all right for you to start now?"
"…Punishment time?" Monokuma asked, appearing hesitantly hopeful.
"Dammit…why…?" Hajime muttered before turning to the smiling Nurse, the mental and emotional exhaustion now affecting him. "Tsumiki! Why does it have to end like this!? This…is too pointless… This…is too much…!"
"Now then," Monokuma announced proudly, "I have prepared a special punishment for the SHSL Nurse, Tsumiki Mikan!"
Mikan sighed in relief, "So it's over. I've done all that I could have done. It's really…" She clasped her hands to her chest, her smile growing wider. "Now I can go to my beloved who always forgives me…! I can finally see them." Hikari watched guardedly from her spot surrounded by her friends as Mikan became more manic in her happiness. "Please forgive me, the one who's going to die with the hope of finally seeing you!"
"Let's give it everything we've got! It's…PUNISHMENT TIIIME!" Monokuma roared excitedly, Hikari flinching as her head throbbed strongly due to the sudden loudness, reminding the Spirit Medium that she hadn't fully recovered yet.
Monokuma waddled to his golden throne and hopped onto it, taking out his gavel out of thin air as a red button rose up from the ground in front of him. His left eye glowed a bright red as he raised the gavel high in the air. Once he slammed the small mallet onto the big red button, a black screen appeared on the big screen with red pixelated graphics showing Monokuma walking by Mikan and grabbing her by the hair, dragging her away. The words "GAME OVER" and "MIKAN HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY. TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!" stuck out like blood against the black screen. Like with Teruteru and Peko, a steel claw sprang out from behind a set of steel doors, latching onto Mikan's neck, dragging her through the darkness into the unknown. The ever-shrinking crowd of teens looked at the huge tablet's screen with trepidation, each one of them knowing that they would soon be watching another death happen before their eyes.
The next image on the screen was Mikan laying on her back in a white hospital bed inside a sterile hospital room. An enormous window that took up much of the back wall was adorned with white lace curtains, the bright sunlight penetrating through the sheer fabric and illuminating the room. The camera zoomed out gradually for a few seconds before Monokuma, dressed up in a nurse's uniform, jumped up from nowhere right in front of the camera with a gigantic syringe that was filled with a light green fluid to his left. He picked up the syringe with both paws, holding it above his head with a frenzied expression. The evil bear ran as fast as he could to Mikan, skidding to a halt in front of the bed with the syringe's needle aimed right at the SHSL Nurse. Then, the ceiling opened up and the walls began to collapse, similar to how the classroom the group arrived in had opened up to reveal the inescapable island on their first day here. After the last wall toppled backwards, everything on screen began to quake, causing everything to fly feet in the air as a large left arm with rocket thrusters at the end appeared out of the ground and plopped down in front of Monokuma. Mikan landed on the arm's forearm, straddling it as if the girl was about to ride a horse. Hikari could only stare in terrified confusion as Monokuma injected the needle into the arm and pumped the syringe's contents into the limb. Mikan leaned her head back and appeared to be in ecstasy, her skin glowing as sweat trickled down her face and body, her mouth open as she looked skywards. One the needle was empty, the arm turned a crimson red, its fingers spasming before the rocket thrusters came on, shooting the arm with both Mikan and Monokuma into the air with a large plume of smoke trailing behind. Making a tight fist, the arm was speeding at Mach speed, Monokuma clinging to the syringe for dear life as Mikan stayed glued to her position on the forearm, her eyes closed. Once the arm reached a certain point in the atmosphere, the thrusters slowed to a stop before the upper arm to the elbow detached from the rest of the arm. As if in slow motion, the upper arm, along with Monokuma and the syringe, started to fall downwards. However, Mikan, the forearm, and its hand kept going past the clouds and the orange sky, a powerful rocket thruster propelling the Nurse higher and higher. The arm sped by multiple twinkling yellow stars as it was travelling into space. The camera panned back to where the arm's launch took place, the camera's angle tilting up at the setting sun, the billowing plume of smoke still very visible in the air as what appeared to be a star shined brightly at the end of the smoke trail for just a moment. Once the fleeting burst of light died out, Monokuma was caught in the camera's view as he was plunging at a great velocity and landed right in front of the camera with only the bear's lower half to be seen, his feet sticking up from dirt he was half-buried in before the screen went black.
Everyone just stood still and stared blankly at the tablet's screen, not quite sure what they had just witnessed. After a few more minutes of just taking in what had just happened, the remaining teens gathered around once more.
"Who was that Tsumiki…from earlier?" Gundham asked, still appearing very unnerved. "Was that her true form? Or…is that itself a symptom of the Despair Disease?"
Nagito clenched a fist angrily. "…It doesn't matter either way. If she ended up like that just from 'remembering'…then all along, Tsumiki was never worth being a Symbol of Hope. Even if her words were influenced by the Despair Disease, if the disease turned her into that… If she lost herself to a simple disease, she was definitely unworthy of being a Symbol of Hope." He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and then smiled carefreely. "So…let's just move on. C'mon, let's take all this despair and change it into hope!"
"Th-That is impossible!" Sonia expressed in disbelief, clasping her hands anxiously before tears started cascading down her cheeks. "I mean…I thought we were friends this whole time…but even so…"
"Damnit…" Kazuichi cursed breathlessly as tears and snot fell from his face. "It…would've been so much easier if she was the traitor, too…"
"Wrong!" Monokuma exclaimed as he jumped onto the top of the closest podium. "Too bad that's not the case. Mikan was not the traitor." He covered his mouth with his paws in glee. "The traitor is still alive. As proof, see how fine Monomi looks right now." Hikari glanced down to see the stuffed rabbit looking mortified.
"I'm not fine at all…" Monomi squeaked in a small voice.
Monokuma tilted his head to the side. "But if the traitor died, you wouldn't be this calm, right? I mean…you're both pawns of the Future Foundation. So you guys are like two hearts beating as one, right?"
"What does that make you, fiend?" Gundham asked the bear, his arms crossed. "You did say that you're different than Monomi…"
"Who cares about who I am!? More important, I'm tired! The drama just kept going and going, I didn't even have time to eat my black bean right eye during the break!"
"Your right eye is made out of black beans!?" Monomi gasped in shock, her paws in the air. After a few seconds, the bunny composed herself and looked at Monokuma sternly. "…Wait, now's not the time to focus on that. What are you trying to say!?"
"You know, isn't it said that life has its ups and downs? It's fun because downs come after ups, but if life was full of downs, wouldn't it get boring?" Monokuma asked the emotionally battered teens before he started to belly laugh. "Soooo in order to help you guys feel better, I've prepared a special event!"
Hajime frowned at the bear suspiciously. "…Special event?"
"Puhuhu…," Monokuma giggled, covering his mouth with his paws, trying to quiet his laughter. "Head over to the first island's beach. An old friend will be waiting there."
"Old friend…?"
"Could it be…" Akane gasped, her eyes wide, "Nidai…?" She approached the bear with cautious optimism. "Is it!? It is, isn't it!? Nidai was safe after all!?"
Monokuma scratched the back of his head with a paw. "Um… 'Safe'…how should I say this…hmm…"
"I knew it… I knew that crazy bastard Nidai would come back to us in one piece!" Fuyuhiko remarked with a smirk, relieved to know that the SHSL Team Manager was alive.
Nagito's face brightened up at the news, chuckling. "Awesome! We're starting to see the light of hope!"
"The light of hope…?" Sonia questioned quietly, still feeling melancholy. "Um…I am happy that Nidai is returning to us, but…but I… Three of our friends just died… So I honestly cannot be happy…"
"S-Sonia-san…" Kazuichi murmured with a frown, looking at the blonde Princess.
"However…" Sonia said before tears started falling, hugging her arms tightly. "Even so, I am still happy… If Nidai is safe, I am truly happy…!"
Gundham silently watched the regal young woman with his heterochromatic eyes, his arms crossed. "If you are happy…" he began to say, turning his head away, "you should honestly greet him with open arms. Perhaps those who have been taken from us would do the same if they still lived…"
"Hey," the Yakuza snickered at the Breeder. "Supreme Overlord of Who-Gives-A-Shit… That line doesn't suit you at all."
"Silence," Gundham snarled at the Gangster. "I shall crush you into dust."
Ignoring the boys' flippant banter among themselves, Sonia looked up to the ceiling, her hands together as if in prayer. "Um…Mioda, Saionji…Tsumiki. Can you hear us? If you are unhappy right now, I apologize… However…please forgive me for right now… I…want to warmly welcome Nidai when he returns to us!"
"You don't have to worry, Nevermind…" Hajime reassured the foreign Princess, placing a hand on her delicate shoulder. "I'm sure your feelings are reaching them…"
Chiaki nodded, smiling gently at Sonia. "Then let's all go greet Nidai. Let's make it grand, even for those who have died." Suddenly, Akane started to let out a couple of sobs, almost startling herself.
"Huh…? What the heck…? Do I still have the aftereffects of that disease…?" the Gymnast wondered out loud as she rubbed her hands up and down her face to get rid of the renegade tears, another sob escaping her lips. "…I don't get this at all…"
"All righty then! Let's go!" yelled a pumped up Kazuichi.
Hajime looked over his shoulder to give the Mechanic a tired smile. "…Yeah, you're right." Everyone started to file into the elevator, their chests being filled with giddiness that they'd finally see their big and burly friend again after what felt like years. When the elevator began to ascend, Hikari took a glance around. The Spirit Medium saw the obvious difference in the group's mood now from back when they had entered the lift earlier that day. Many of the teens were looking upwards as if they were willing the elevator to travel faster; some were even holding back their pent-up excitement, their bodies restless. However, there was a more somber revelation Hikari had realized.
There's…not many of us left… Hikari thought as she looked at her eight companions. Almost half of our group is gone… Her gloomy thoughts were pushed into the back of her mind when the elevator came to a stop, its doors opening soon after. Everyone scrambled out of the elevator and ran down the escalator steps.
"…Hurry! To the beach on the first island!" Hajime shouted as he stumbled onto the sand surrounding Monokuma Rock.
Akane grinned as she jumped the last five steps of the moving stairs to the ground, starting to sprint away from the rock formation. "All right! Let's haul ass!" Everyone else began to follow the tanned teenager as fast as they can. Due to recovering from his stomach wound, Fuyuhiko was one of the last in the group still at Monokuma Rock. However, that wasn't the only reason he lagged behind.
"Are you sure you're all right?" the Yakuza questioned the only other teen who was slow to leave the site. "We all know you've not been feeling great because of your head injury."
Hikari glanced to her right to see Fuyuhiko walking a little ahead of her, looking over his left shoulder at the Spirit Medium with a hand in his pocket. "Yeah…" she replied absentmindedly. "It's just everything that happened today is a lot to take in… I also haven't had anything to eat all day so I'm feeling a bit weak."
Fuyuhiko nodded in understanding, reducing his walking speed to match Hikari's as the two reached the bridge that gave access to the first island. "Tell me about it… I'm going to grab some food from the supermarket on the way back to the cottages." His lips curved downward, his golden eye inspecting the girl from top to bottom. "But seriously…if you feel worse, just tell me and we can rest. I'm sure everyone, including Nidai, would understand."
"I will. Thanks, Kuzuryuu…" Hikari said with a small smile, being reminded of a similar situation a few nights ago when she was walking with Fuyuhiko to the very same beach they were heading at the moment. After a few minutes of silently walking, Hikari and Fuyuhiko approached their friends once the pair arrived at the first island's beach.
The ponytailed girl exchanged a reassuring smile with both Chiaki and Hajime when they stared at her with concern in their eyes. "I'm okay," she mouthed wordlessly to them which caused Hajime and Chiaki to relax.
Hajime then surveyed the area of the sandy beach. "Where…where in the world is Nidai?"
"Heeeeey Nidai!" Akane called out, her hands to her mouth. "Show yourself!"
"Listen! We have come to pick you up! Please hurry up and come out of hiding!" Sonia yelled, joining the others in calling out for Nekomaru. Everyone scoured the shore in different directions, looking for the largest member of their group, to no avail.
Kazuichi gripped his beanie as he panted lightly, "Wh-What the hell, man… He's nowhere to be found!"
"Dammit…" Fuyuhiko swore under his breath, his eyebrows furrowed deeply and his eye closed. "Could it be…did we get false info from Monokuma again?" Then, out of nowhere, a loud deep laugh boomed into the air.
"Gaaaah-hahaha! What happened!? Were you all looking for me!?" a familiar voice roared joyfully.
"Th-That voice!" Sonia gasped in delight. "Could it be…?" Everyone's mood instantly lifted once they heard the recognizable voice and turned towards the direction of its source. Once they did look upon the speaker, the teens could only stare with their jaws dropping in shock.
"…Huh? What the-?" Hajime murmured, flabbergasted.
"Yo! I've kept you waiting!" the person greeted them cheerfully. He observed his friends curiously when they didn't move without a word. "Hey, what's going on!? Perhaps you don't remember my face since we haven't seen each other in a while!? That's pretty sad, you know! That's too much! Gaaaah-hahaha!"
Akane raised an eyebrow and watched the person in front of her warily. "Um… Who're you?"
"Huh? You too? What's going on? If you're messing with me…I'll stop doing IT to you!"
"Um…Nidai?" Chiaki spoke up hesitantly. "Haven't you…noticed it yourself?"
"What do you mean, 'noticed…?' Oh, you mean this body!? Gah-hahaha! This is nothing!" Nekomaru started to flex his biceps, showing off his new body which was now completely roboticized. The young man's skin was now made of steel, his eyes made of two yellow lights which were currently turned on and emitting two rays of light, and his ears, hair, and goatee were now steel spikes. "The name's NIDAI NEKOMARU! I've been reborn in the rivers of hellllll! Gah-hahahahaha!" Sonia started to hyperventilate briefly before she let out a panicked and ear-piercing scream, causing Hikari to wince and hold her head with both hands, her head throbbing in pain with the sudden screech in close proximity.
"N-Nidai…? Is that you…?" Akane asked uncertainly while Chiaki quickly moved to calm Sonia down, the Gamer glancing with worry at the pained Spirit Medium. To her relief, Chiaki saw that Fuyuhiko stood close to Hikari, making sure the petite girl wasn't in too much discomfort.
"Gahaha! No matter how you look at it, I'm still me!" Nekomaru comfirmed loudly.
"No matter how we look at it…this isn't you at all…!" Hajime gaped.
Nekomaru lowered his arms, his mood slowly deflating. "Jeez, you guys are a strange lot. You all have such big, wide eyes…" However, his dejection didn't last long, the giant robotic teen chuckled proudly. "Oh, perhaps you've all fallen in love with this metallic body of mine!? Gahahahaha! I already know what you want to say just by looking in your eyes! Then again, I am a former team manager!" Chiaki flinched when Sonia screamed again, this time right in her ears.
I have to calm Nevermind down… We can't afford for Seishin's head injury to get worse, Chiaki thought after taking a quick glimpse towards Hikari whose eyes are shut tight in agony while Fuyuhiko covered her ears to block the sound, looking at Hikari with worry etched in his face. The Gamer quickly wrapped an arm around the Princess' shoulders. "Nevermind…you need to stop screaming… Seishin is still suffering a head injury…" Chiaki felt the tension in her body ease when Sonia suddenly stopped, her hands clasping her mouth as if she had forgotten about Hikari being hurt. The pale pink-eyed girl smiled gently at Sonia in gratitude, rubbing the Princess' back soothingly.
Nekomaru grimaced at the scream as well, looking perturbed at his friends. "Ngh…what happened? You look like you've seen a ghost or something!"
"Hey man…" Kazuichi sighed, trying to act calm and collected though his tensed body proved otherwise, "don't go scaring Sonia-san with that strange-ass mask…" The Mechanic even went so far as to stroll right up to Nekomaru and grab hold of the taller boy's head. "C'mon, take it off!"
The Team Manager grunted in pain as Kazuichi attempted to pull his head off. "Ow…ow ow ow ow… S-Stop it…" he said muffled against Kazuichi's arms. "STOOOOOPP IIITTT!" Nekomaru bellowed, grabbing the Mechanic's arms and tossing the pink-haired teen away from him. Everyone watched as Kazuichi landed on his back in the sand in front of them with a dull thud.
"H-Huh…? Why won't it come off…?" the beanie-wearing teen wondered in a daze, still lying flat on his back. He abruptly sat up as if he came upon an important realization, staring dumbly at Nekomaru. "Wait…what? Are you friggin' kidding me?" Then he started screaming in terror. "HOLY CRAAAAAAAP! IT'S NOT JUST FOR SHOW!"
"It's not just for show, it's PURE ELECTRICITY! I've been reborn as PURE ELECTRICITY! GAAHAHAHAHA!" Chiaki could only blankly stare at the unfolding scene in disappointment as she saw the noise level was getting worse and not better.
"If…you're seriously Nidai…" Akane began to say, her shock melting into guilt, "that's…my fault, right…? You ended up getting' a body like that, and it's all my fault, right…?" She clapped her hands together in prayer with her eyes closed in front of the robotic young man. "S-Sorry, Nidai… I…I don't know how to apologize for this…" However, Nekomaru easily brushed it off.
"Gahaha! Don't worry about it!" he chuckled heartily. "A lot of stuff happens when you're alive!"
Kazuichi scrambled to his feet clumsily, gaping at Nekomaru. "You're too upbeat! Is this really okay!?"
"If you keep sweating the small stuff, you're going to end up getting more grey hairs!"
Fuyuhiko removed his hands off of Hikari's ears when he thought things have quieted down and put his hands in his pockets. The Yakuza still stood close to the Spirit Medium which Hajime now has noticed and has grabbed his attention. "Hey, hey… C-Commenting on every little thing he does is a waste of time…!" Fuyuhiko said with unease, trying to process Nekomaru's condition himself.
"B-But…" Akane stammered, staring at her closest friend with wavering optimism, "you're really Nidai, right? You…came back for us, right?"
"That's right!" Nekomaru attested loudly. "I've resurrected from the depths of hell in shining silverrrrr!"
The Gangster sweatdropped. "How…are you even okay with that…? It doesn't even compare…to my eyepatch… How…can you accept that body…?"
"Oh! It's better to just be alive!" Nekomaru answered cheerily, looking down on the smallest male.
"…Huh?"
"It's better to just be alive… Hey, don't you agree? If I'm alive, I can still talk to you all. If I'm alive, I can still fight… It doesn't matter what happens to my body! Not one bit!"
Hikari looked at Nekomaru with a hint of doubt, the pain in her head slowly subsiding. People can talk if they're still alive… They were still able to after death…to me anyway… She frowned and averted her sad eyes to the sea. No, that's right…my talent hasn't truly come back so I guess what Nidai is saying is true…
Chiaki stepped away from Sonia once the Princess calmed down, the Gamer tilting her head to the side. "Anyway, I'm glad…that's fine, right? Right? Nidai definitely came back to us…"
"My, my! Am I interrupting your touching reunion?" Monokuma chirped with glee when he jumped up from underneath the sand. Monomi wiggled and squirmed after him in a tizzy.
"Ha-wa-wa-wa!?" she gasped once she saw Nekomaru and then burst into tears. "Kyaaa! Why is Nekomaru a robot!?"
"Unfortunately, it was truly difficult to save Nekomaru from the jaws of death…but they don't call me the Psychopop Magician for nothing!" the bear clarified before he started roaring with laughter. "Oh my goodness! Such a beautiful Before-and-After has occurred!"
Nekomaru chortled with feigned modesty, not letting Monokuma daunt him. "It appears to be a little too dramatic! Thanks to that, I'm getting stabbed by all these envious stares!"
"Hey…if you're really a robot, what's going on with your thought process?" Kazuichi asked in a faint voice, still reeling from shock. "Is that a program, too? Then…what happened to the other stuff, like your self-awareness and-?"
"Fool! How many times do I have to tell you that it doesn't matter!? No matter what shape or form I take, I AM NIDAI NEKOMARUUUUUU!"
"Th-That kind of reaction… It looks like you really are self-aware…" Kazuichi mused before his dark-pink eyes shone with excitement. "That means this technology is insane! I've never seen or heard of anything like this before!"
Monokuma sighed wistfully, his paws on his tummy. "What the commoner considers advanced is not much of an advancement. If you think advancements exist in colleges and laboratories, that's a huge misunderstanding! The real advancements exist…in the place where you can pass on that talent."
"A-And you're saying that's you? Were you…really that amazing?"
"Stop admiring him…" Akane snapped bitingly at the Mechanic before she set her sights on the bear. "You stupid stuffed toy! Don't go screwin' with people's bodies like that!"
"Huh…? H-Hold on…if you harm Monokuma, you're going to…" Fuyuhiko began to warn the angry Gymnast but was interrupted by Monokuma's laughter.
"Puhuhu, you intend to defy me yet again?" the stuffed bear asked Akane as he revealed his claws. "You're quite the barbarian… Jeez. This time, you will definitely fall prey to my Monokuma Bazooka!" With that, Monokuma moved his right paw so it was pointing at Akane, his white paw turning into what appeared to be a mini cannon aiming right at the girl. A white light blinded the teens, many of them shielding their eyes. Hikari stumbled a bit as the ground shook from the force of Monokuma's attack, but luckily Fuyuhiko was right next to her and kept her steady as he held her left arm.
"Ah…ah…N-Nidai!" Akane called out as the light faded and everything calmed down. Everyone couldn't believe what they were seeing: Nekomaru stood in front of Akane, having taken the hit from Monokuma's attack, the robotic teen's chest singed slightly from the blast.
"Gahaha!" Nekomaru laughed triumphantly, beating his chest with his steel hand. "That didn't faze me at allll! Check it out, I'm intact! I have no injuries at alllll!"
"Are you fucking serious? He took that blast and doesn't even have a single scratch…" Fuyuhiko murmured, stunned.
Kazuichi squealed with exhilaration, starting to feel pumped up. "A-Awesome… He's…seriously a real robot! Hey, can you let me disassemble you!? Can you let me disassemble you and show me your insides!?"
"NOOOO THAAAAANK YOUUUUU!" the Team Manager shouted nervously, backing up from the overly excited Mechanic. "If I get disassembled, I'll end up dying!"
"By the way," Monokuma butted in, acting as if what had just occurred never happened, his bazooka gone, "I suppose I should fill you in…even though he's a robot now, if Nekomaru is killed, it's still going to count as murder, okay? Of course…it's possible that Nekomaru might kill someone instead."
"Don't say such foolish things! That will never happen!"
"Puhuhu… Well, with all that in mind, you guys enjoy the killing school trip together!" Monokuma said to the teens delightedly.
Nekomaru turned to face his friends and bowed respectfully. "Once again, I hope we can all get along!"
"It's impossible…" Fuyuhiko sighed with exhaustion, letting go of Hikari's arm. "It's gonna be a while before I can mentally process this…"
"Um…will Nidai never return to his original form…?" Sonia wondered sadly, tears forming in her eyes. "If that is the case…it is a burden for Nidai!"
"Hey, hey…" Nekomaru said, raising an eyebrow. "it's not like I came back as a monster. I'm just a robot now, you know?"
Chiaki tilted her head to the side. "I'm sorry…I can't really see a difference."
"Well, just consider this a little promotion," Monokuma suggested. "By making a robot one of the main characters, a genuine mystery is transformed into a sci-fi mystery…and the hard-boiled is transformed into cyberpunk!"
"You're totally destroying the genres!" Monomi remarked in shock, her paws in the air and her ears pointing upwards.
"Oh well, who cares!? As long as it's fun, it's totally fine! Ahhhh-hahahahaha!"
Hajime just stood there mentally and physically fatigued, realizing that he was now living in a mad world where the strange and outlandish were now normal. At least…this night is almost over… Hajime thought to himself as everyone began to leave the beach and heading to their cottages for some much-needed rest. Unfortunately for Hajime, he would quickly learn that the night was only just beginning.
Days Left: 9
Survivors: 10