We all slowly trudged out of the trial grounds, through the school area, and back towards the dorms, our spirits sullen and our hope defeated. What we just saw was etched firmly into our brains. There was no way we'd be able to forget something so traumatising, ever. I was the last to exit the trial grounds and back into the school. I felt like if I left, it would truly solidify Kuwata's death. One final act of betrayal on him.

"Come on." Junko said softly. She took my hand and pulled me back through the red door. Once we got back to the dorms, I felt steady enough to walk on my own, but I still didn't want to let go of her hand. It was warm and comforting, and it was steadily holding the broken fragments of my soul together. I felt like if I let go, I'd break down then and there.

"Junko…?" I said softly when we got back to the dorms.

She turned to me slowly. "Yeah?"

"Could you… stay with me? Tonight? I don't want to be alone." I looked up at her, feeling tears well in my eyes.

Junko swallowed and looked around. Everyone else was already in their bedrooms. "I-I don't think that's such a good idea…"

"Oh. Sorry, I thought-"

"No, no, it's fine." She took a deep breath. "Under normal circumstances I would. In fact I want nothing more. But I can't. Just… not right now. These are not normal circumstances. I'm sorry, Sayaka." She turned away sadly, then left for her room.

I was confused, but I let it slide. Could this be related to the thing she's hiding? I didn't know. Now on top of feeling upset, I felt confused and frustrated. What does Junko want? How does she feel? I walked into my room and closed the door behind me, sliding down the door and onto the floor. "What do I want?" I said out loud quietly. My mind was amassed with rushing thoughts, and my heart was overcrowded with fleeting feelings. All I could do was feel exhausted at everything. I slowly got off the floor and undressed. I crawled into bed and immediately fell into a restless sleep.

A nightmare shook me awake. I sat bolt upright in my bed, drenched in a cold sweat. Kuwata's screams echoed deafeningly in my ears. It was unbearable. Having no sense of the time, I warily got out of bed and walked around my bedroom, desperate to get my mind off it. I opened the door and peeped up and down the hallway. No-one was around, so I assumed it was still nighttime. I suddenly remembered my e-handbook. It told the time, right? I walked over to the desk where my e-handbook was sitting and checked it.

"6AM!?" I cried loudly. I was thankful the rooms were soundproof. There was no way I could go back to sleep, and walking around at night time was prohibited. All I could do was wait out the next hour, alone with my thoughts. The horror of that feeling became suddenly apparent, and I forced myself to think happy thoughts in order to block the horrifying trauma. "Makoto…" I whispered. I missed him so much. If he was still alive, I know he'd be fighting to the ends of the earth to make sure I was safe and happy. He would be here right now. I sniffed and tried to pull myself together. "No. I can't think about these things. He'd want me to move on." I thought about the notepad sitting on my desk. If I keep a journal, it'd help me set my mind at ease. I grabbed the pen sitting next to the notepad. My hand spasmed, as if it had been hit with 1000 volts of electricity, and I dropped the pen onto the floor. "Shit!" I cried loudly, clutching my hand. In the shock of everything going on, I had totally forgotten how much damage Leon had done to my wrist. I moved it around slightly. It wasn't broken, but something was definitely wrong with it. Fractured maybe? It was difficult to tell. I was used to pain in my wrists from holding microphones for too long, but this was unlike anything I had ever felt. I felt frustrated. It seemed like the entire world was out to get me. "Wait a sec…" I turned and looked directly into the camera, holding up my wrist. "Could you do something about this?" I cried loudly.

Silence. I could feel the camera focusing on me. I don't know what I was expecting. For the camera to just start talking to me? Please. However, seconds later, I heard the doorbell ring and Monokuma's voice came singing through the intercom.

"Little pig, little pig, let me come in! Puhuhu!"

I rolled my eyes and opened the door.

"You've got some nerve calling me at this time of the night! Ah, well, I suppose it is already morning."

"Can you do something about my wrist? Please?" I asked.

"Something?" He tilted his head. "I can do many things with a young girl's wrist. But nothing sex-"

"PLEASE." I interrupted before he could finish his foul joke. "I think it's fractured. It really hurts."

"Hmm…" He mused. "Well, the nurse's office is currently out of action, however, I would be a terrible headmaster if my poor students were suffering!" He giggled. "Sit down on your bed and take 5. I'll be right back." He said and disappeared without closing the door.

I sighed. I did what he asked and waited. I moved my wrist around a little bit, but it was still in excruciating pain. After what felt like forever, Monokuma came back with an assortment of items.

"Aw jeez, it's a shame that that one girl isn't here. She would have done a much better job…" Monokuma said in a contemplative tone.

"Huh? Who?" I asked. "What girl?"

"Oh I was just talking to myself. Don't you worry, Miss Maizono. If I were you, I'd be more worried about people trying to kill ya. You know, after what you did to Kuwata and poor Makoto…"

My face flashed angrily at him. "Shut up! That's not what happened! How dare you say his first name like that!" I snarled. "And they wouldn't try to hurt me!" I held out my wrist. "Now are you gonna fix my hand or what?"

"Sheesh, so impatient." Monokuma looked down sadly. "But fine. Since you did ask nicely before." He grabbed my hand and started moving it around in odd directions, making it sear in pain.

"Ow!" I cried. "Be careful!"

"Hush now, your headmaster is working." He said, and resumed his weird medicinal technique. He covered my hand with a weird mixture and then wrapped it in bandages. "Here. You can put this over the bandages if you want."

"A mitten?" I asked.

"Yeah! Then you'll look just like that one guy!" He giggled.

"What one guy!?" I asked, exasperated.

"Puhuhu… How I amuse myself. Well, that's all, bye bye now!"

"Wait!"

"Hmm?"

"Th… thank you." I said. "It feels a lot better." I couldn't believe I was thanking Monokuma of all people.

"Mr. Monokuma is always happy to help! Anywho, it's almost time to make my morning announcement! Best I dash off!" With that, he vanished.

I stood up and closed my bedroom door. I glanced at the mitten, sitting on the bed. The colours were ghastly, but other than that it was pretty cute. I grabbed it and put it on. It looked nice. I looked back over to the notepad. Suddenly I didn't feel like writing anymore. Daytime was closing in, so I just lay down on my bed and waited for the morning announcement.

Ding dong, bing bong!

I sat up. "That was quick." I mumbled to myself. I must have zoned out or something. As the morning announcement played, I stood up and stretched. I got dressed and headed out towards the dining hall. I stood outside Makoto's door as I walked past. I sighed. I didn't want to be late, so I only stood there briefly. I hurried down towards the dining hall. Naturally, Ishimaru was already there, as was Asahina and Ogami. Celeste walked in right after me, then Togami and Fukawa. I sat down and waited for everyone else to arrive, listening in on everyone's conversations, myself having no-one to talk to. Finally, the last few walked in: Owada, Kirigiri, and Junko. I smiled at Junko as she walked in, and she smiled back. She made a beeline for me and sat down.

"Hiya, Sayaka." She giggled. "Did you have a good sleep?"

"As good as anyone could have gotten after yesterday."

"Heh heh, yeah." Junko said sadly. "What's with the mitten?"

"Oh. I asked Monokuma to bandage my wrist. He insisted I wear this stupid thing over the bandages. Kuwata fractured it during our fight."

"What? Oh my god." Junko put her hand over her mouth. "Should have asked me." She huffed. "I know a thing or two about first aid."

"You do? Why?" I asked. "I thought you were the Ultimate Fashionista?"

"Oh please. That's not all I'm good for. I did a first aid training course back in middle school." She said matter-of-factly.

"Good lord."

"Alright, everyone. Listen up!" Ishimaru called out, and we all turned to him. "I declare today's breakfast meeting officially begun! Is there anything anyone would like to share?"

Asahina jumped up excitedly. "During my morning training with Sakura we noticed that the bars blocking off the stairs next to the gym were gone! We can go to the next floor!"

Ogami nodded. "There is a warehouse right outside the dorms that has opened up too. Has a lot of stuff in there."

"Good job!" Ishimaru cried.

"You weren't out during nighttime, were you?" Celeste asked. "Remember, that is how Makoto got himself killed."

"Ah, well-" Asahina looked nervous.

"Celeste, how dare you!" I cried. "He didn't get himself killed! He voluntarily sacrificed his life to save my own! That's not the same as throwing your life away or dying in a car accident!"

"He refused to adapt. As did yourself, and that is why things are the way they are now." Celeste explained calmly.

"Yeah? Well screw you!" I sobbed.

"Calm down Sayaka-" Junko tried to say.

"QUIET DOWN AND LISTEN!" Ishimaru yelled. Instantly we were silent. "Now is not the time to bicker, especially about the past!"

"Yeah, what he said!" Owada said. "What happened, happened. That's all there is to it. Let's just man the fuck up and move on."

"God, your foul drivel bores me." Togami muttered.

"M-moving on…" Ishimaru said, clearly having heard Togami's complaint. "It seems we have new areas of the school to explore. So today, right after breakfast, I say we split up and search!"

Everyone nodded.

"Oh yeah, I think the bathhouse just across the hall has also opened up." Owada said. "So we have that too."

"Noted!" Ishimaru nodded. "Does anyone else have anything to add?"

Nobody said a word.

"Understood! Then I declare today's breakfast meeting officially closed!" Ishimaru exclaimed.

"Do you hafta present everything so formally?" Hagakure asked. "It's kind of a drag, you know?"

"Formality and presentation is of utmost importance!" Ishimaru cried. "As is punctuality, which, I might add, you also seem to lack."

Hagakure blinked. "Shit dude, I wasn't expecting a backhanded insult like that from you." He laughed.

"Ah! My sincerest apologies!" Ishimaru bowed. "I let my emotions get the better of me!" He frowned. "This will not do! I must try harder!"

"Jesus, don't go overboard, alright?" Owada said. "You're gonna blow a fuckin' fuse."

After we all finished eating, we all split up and searched the school. Junko and I walked together. We checked the various areas around the dining hall that had opened up before checking the second floor of the school.

"A library. Cool." Junko said. We poked around the library. Togami seemed like he found his new favourite spot, so we moved on quickly. Kirigiri was tapping away on a laptop.

"Busted." She muttered to herself.

As we walked back towards the stairs, Asahina called out to us. "Hey! Check this out!"

We followed her in through a set of double doors to a small foyer.

"There's a pool here! A friggin' pool!"

"Well, it is an Academy for Ultimate Students…" I said slowly. "I'm not exactly surprised."

"Bit weird that it's on the second floor though." Junko frowned. She looked up at the ceiling and gasped. "What the hell is that!?"

I followed to where she was looking and jumped. "My goodness!" I cried.

It was a giant gatling gun. A freaking giant gun.

"What's a gatling gun doing outside a pool!?" Junko yelled.

Monokuma suddenly popped up in front of us.

"Ah!" I cried, stepping back slightly.

"It's to stop perverts, of course!" Monokuma explained as if it was perfectly normal. "Can't have anyone trying to sneak a peep in the changing rooms! Puhuhu!" He pointed to a small pad next to the girls changing room door. "See that? That's a keypad and your method of entering the changing rooms! You have to swipe your e-handbook to enter the correct changing room!"

"So, let me guess:" Celeste appeared out of nowhere and began speaking. "The door will only open if you swipe your e-handbook on the pad that corresponds to the correct gender? Thus I can concur that our genders are saved on our e-handbooks."

"That's exactly right!"

Asahina gasped. "Isn't that a little creepy? I don't feel great knowing my freakin' gender is saved on this thing." She waved her e-handbook around in the air.

"Creepy?" Monokuma tilted his head. "I'm trying to prevent the creepiness!" He yelled. "By enforcing this, I've prevented any male from entering the girls' changing room and vice-versa!"

"Hmm…" Celeste mused. "What if there was a way for someone to let a person of the opposite gender into their changing room? For instance, what if they just held the door open?"

"Impossible!" Monokuma cried. "The camera is watching, after all. If that happened, that would be regarded as a breach of the rules!"

"Then what if someone lent another person their handbook?"

"Huh?" Monokuma muttered. "Why would anyone do that? I haven't considered it - it's so stupid!" He frowned. "However, since you've brought it up, I have no choice but to make it an official regulation!" Monokuma stood still for a moment.

I heard a ping emanate from my pocket. I took out my e-handbook and saw the regulations symbol flashing. After clicking on it, I saw that the new rule had been added:

"Loaning your e-handbook to another student is strictly prohibited."

"Okay. So that confirms it." Celeste said. "It is impossible for a boy to enter the girls' locker room and vice-versa."

"Correctamundo!" Monokuma clutched his belly and laughed.

Junko turned white. "Wait, so-" She coughed. "I-if someone were to try and sneak in…" She looked up at the gun.

"Exactly! This gatling gun will turn them strrrrraight into swiss cheese!" Monokuma cried and proceeded to start making "Pew Pew'' noises.

Asahina gasped. "Isn't that a little extreme!?"

"Extreme?" Monokuma repeated. "I'm only concerned for your safety, you know!"

"Ah, yes. You've made that painfully obvious." I said sarcastically. "Anyway, you've explained it. We don't need you around anymore."

"Gah! The height of rudeness! And after I bandaged your hand only this morning!" Monokuma harrumphed. "But I'm bored anyway, so I'm gonna leave!" He announced and then disappeared.

"Okay, I guess we better check it out then." I said.

Asahina completely forgot about the gatling gun and jumped up with glee. "Yes! I wanna see the pool pool pool!" She giggled excitedly. She quickly took out her e-handbook and scanned it across the scanner next to the locker room door. After an affirmative beep, the door quickly slid open and Asahina ran inside, the door shutting just as quickly.

"My my, that is a fast door." Celeste muttered audibly, her finger resting on her chin. "Well, I've seen enough. I will meet you all at the dining hall later. Adieu." She bowed to us, then turned on her heel and walked out of the pool foyer and down the stairs.

"I think that's the nicest she's ever been." Junko mumbled.

I giggled. "I guess she's only polite when she wants to be. Anyway, let's check out this pool."

Junko beamed at me. "Absolutely. Lead the way."

I swiped my e-handbook on the scanner, and the door let me through. Shortly after, Junko followed. We came upon a weights room, filled with plenty of gym equipment. Ogami was already closely examining it, and Asahina was clutching her arm eagerly.

"Those two make quite a cute couple." Junko whispered to me.

I looked away from them, blushing. "You think so?" I said quietly.

Junko nodded and winked. "They're perfect, don't you think? The two star athletes. I wouldn't count my chances on the battlefield against them."

I carried on through the door and to the pool. The complex was massive. The pool must have been at least 200m long, with roughly 8 lanes in total. On either side there were two sets of seats, presumably for swimming events during the summer festival. Not that there would be any festivals here anymore.

"Wow." I breathed.

"It's huge!" Junko breathed, echoing my thoughts. "Other than that, it's not particularly exciting."

"The heck are you talking about?" Asahina grumbled from behind us, making Junko jump in surprise.

"Jesus Christ, don't scare me like that! Oh my God!" Junko scorned.

Asahina shrugged. "Sorry. But after a comment like that, I couldn't just let it slide! This pool is AMAZING! I can do so many laps in this!" She jumped up and down again in glee. "Man, I'm pumped!"

"Settle down, Hina." Ogami said softly. "We will have time later. For now we need to continue our search."

Asahina quickly stopped jumping and her face fell. "Sorry. You're right."

Ogami smiled, and together they left the pool.

"I guess that's everything, huh?" Junko said.

I nodded. "I presume the classes and bathrooms are exactly the same, so there's probably no use searching there."

"Exactly. Leave that to the actually thorough ones like Kirigiri and Ishimaru." Junko replied. We walked out of the pool and down the stairs.

After gathering in the dining hall and going over what we found, we concluded that we had found nothing of use to help escape, much to no-one's surprise.

"Tch. This sucks." Owada grumbled.

"Not all is lost!" Asahina piped up excitedly.

"If you say anything about the pool one more goddamn time…" Owada trailed off. He looked exhausted, like he had a lot less sleep than I had.

"Sorry…" Asahina's face fell.

I expected Ogami to snap at that, but she didn't even seem to notice. Instead, her eyes were fixed on Fujisaki, watching her very closely. Fujisaki was sitting next to Owada and trying to get his attention.

"Rather odd pair, don't you think?" Junko whispered to me, echoing my thoughts.

I nodded. "It's strange. Fujisaki always seemed too shy to talk to me, but she seems to like Owada immensely."

"Maybe she just likes muscly bad boys." Junko shrugged.

"Ew! Don't say that!" I pulled a face. "Also, going by that logic, that heavily implies you hang around me cause you like me~" I said playfully.

Junko blushed and turned away.

I giggled. "I'm just teasing! I wasn't expecting a reaction like that from you. "

Junko mumbled something under her breath.

"Huh?"

"Nothing." She said hurriedly.

"Right! That concludes tonight's meeting!" Ishimaru announced loudly. "Everyone, let's all meet up tomorrow morning and try our very best!"

"Yeah sure, whatever dude." Owada groaned tiredly and slumped his way out of the dining hall. Fujisaki quickly trotted out behind him. Everyone else gradually left the dining hall and we all returned to our rooms.

After making sure my bedroom door was locked shut, I collapsed onto my bed. My mind was swarmed with thoughts of my life back at home, adapting to life here, and most all, Makoto. How do I continue to carry this burden? It didn't seem like many people even cared that he was gone, or that Kuwata had been executed so brutally. Did everyone else feel the same way I did? I sighed. At least they didn't have to carry the weight of their guilt. My sins felt heavy on my back as I lay on my front, sinking into the bed. "Makoto, I'm so sorry…" I said for the twentieth time since he died, and then fell asleep.

The next morning, we all gathered in the dining hall as usual. It felt like routine at this point. We all talked about nothing in particular, then split off. I couldn't help but be curious about Fujisaki. Quite a lot of the other girls said that Fujisaki seemed too intimidated to approach them, which I felt was odd. Did she not like us? Why on earth was she so drawn to a man like Owada? Owada didn't seem the type to hurt a girl, but I still didn't trust his temper. I searched around the school looking for her. I ran into Ogami outside the pool and she said Fujisaki was in the foyer outside the changing rooms. She warned me that Fujisaki seemed to not want to be bothered. I thanked her and walked in, where I found Fujisaki staring longingly at the girl's changing room door.

"Hey, Fujisaki!"

Fujisaki jumped. "Ah! H-hi, Maizono. G-good morning."

"Oh jeez, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!"

"N-no, it's okay. I-I should have been paying attention…" She looked down at the ground. "Sorry…"

I giggled. "You don't need to apologise!" I said, trying to sound as kind and patient as possible. "You do that a lot, you know that?"

"Sorry… I guess I'm used to it…" She said sadly.

I didn't comment any further. I instead asked her what was on my mind. "So what'cha doing here? I would have thought you of all people would be in the library!" I giggled softly.

"Ehehe…" She giggled softly. It felt very forced. "I don't know… I just… I guess I just want to be stronger."

"Stronger? What do you mean?"

"Well… you can see me, right? I've always been weak. And being weak in a place like this… It doesn't bear thinking about." She sniffed. "So, I want to get stronger. Like Mondo."

"Owada?" I asked. "Why Owada specifically? There's tons of other strong people here, and many of them are much better than him." I said.

She looked at me funny. "Ah, I suppose that's true…"

"I mean, look at Ogami! She's very strong!"

Fujisaki almost seemed to shrink back in fear. "Y-yeah. She is."

"Oh! And Asahina too! She's very athletic!"

Fujisaki gulped. She glanced sadly down at her eHandbook in her hand. "I-I… I can't. I couldn't possibly go to either of them."

"How come?" I asked. I realised I might have sounded a bit too enthusiastic, as Fujisaki started shaking.

"I JUST CAN'T!" She cried surprisingly loudly. She turned and bolted out of the foyer and down the stairs.

"Fujisaki…" I said softly. I cursed myself for my insensitivity. I stomped my foot angrily on the ground and walked out. Ogami approached me.

"That probably didn't go so well, I imagine." She said kindly. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's my fault. I shouldn't have pushed her so hard. I just want to make sure she's okay. She doesn't seem to know what she wants."

"In a place like this, can you really blame her?" Ogami asked. "After all, it seemed you didn't either." Ogami winced. "Sorry, that was insensitive of me."

I shook my head. "No, it's fine. You're right. I should head back to my room. I'll see you at dinner, Ogami."

Ogami nodded. "Take care."

As I headed down the stairs, I watched Ogami rub her eyes with one hand and walk into the pool foyer.

After a short nap, I decided it'd be best to apologise to Fujisaki for what happened earlier. On the way to her room, I ran into Junko, who smiled at me, but continued walking down towards the main school area. "What's she up to?" I thought. I shook my head. I didn't want to waste my time on it, so I ignored it. I took a deep breath and knocked on Fujisaki's door. "Fujisaki?" I said, holding the button next to the door. A few seconds later, it opened.

"H-hello, Maizono. H-how are you?" Fujisaki said calmly.

I swallowed. "I'm good! Listen, I just wanted to apologise for earlier. I was out of line. I clearly overstepped my boundaries and I hope I didn't scare or offend you in any way…"

"N-no, Maizono, i-it's fine. I just wasn't feeling great before. B-but if you wanna continue the conversation from b-before, I-I'd be happy to listen now." She exhaled. "I think I'm beginning to understand what you were saying."

"Th-that's good!" I stood at the doorway nervously.

"D-do you wanna come in?" Fujisaki asked.

"Oh, uh, okay!" I replied.

Fujisaki casually opened the door and let me in. Her bedroom was tidy, but there were occasional pieces of metal scattered here and there.

"Hey, is that a toolkit?" I asked, pointing at an open orange toolkit on her desk, next to a laptop. "What's that doing there? I thought only the boys had them?"

Fujisaki's eyes widened briefly. "Oh, r-right. I forgot I l-left that out. M-Mondo lent me his. My proficiency is programming software of course, b-but sometimes I like t-tinkering with hardware as well."

"I see. That was nice of him." I smiled kindly at her.

"Y-yeah. M-Mondo is really nice to me."

"Well that's good. I'm glad you've made a friend you can trust like that."

"Trust, yes…" She said slowly. "Th-that's something I wanted to ask you…"

I tensed up. I somehow sensed this was coming.

"I-I know this m-must be a h-h-hard thing for you to talk about, but would you mind telling me about Naegi? What was he like?"

"Makoto…?" I said softly. "What really is there to say?"

"W-well, he trusted you, right?"

I looked down at the ground. "Yeah."

She sat down on her bed, and indicated for me to sit with her. "S-sometimes, I find it hard to t-trust people like that. Like if I o-open up to them, t-they'll reveal my secret… they'll hate me…"

I looked at her. "That's not true at all. None of us would ever do that. And I especially doubt Owada would either."

She smiled. "Y-yeah. I just… it's hard."

"Is that why you want to get stronger? Is that why you wanted to train at the pool?"

She nodded.

"Makoto trusted me to no end. Even after I betrayed him, he still saved my life. But that was Makoto. Always helping others."

"Y-you two knew each other, right?"

I nodded. "First day I met him, a crane flew right into the school pond. Makoto led it back into the forest, away from the school, where it couldn't get hurt."

Fujisaki smiled. "How very thoughtful of him."

I nodded. "It was from that moment that I always tried to get closer to him, but I never got the opportunity, not with how busy I was." I shivered. "Until I came here." I could feel my spirit slowly breaking. "And now he's dead. I'll never see him again." I sobbed.

Fujisaki put her hand on my shoulder. It was surprisingly hard. "I know… I'm sorry. I m-miss him too."

I shook my head. "What am I saying?" I giggled. "I'm supposed to be consoling you."

She giggled back. "Maybe this is what we both needed."

I looked at her. "Do you still wanna get stronger?"

"Yeah. I guess so. I just think… Mondo could help me."

"Why him though?" I asked the same question from before.

"I just… I want to change. I want to get stronger."

"There's more than one way to get stronger. There's many different ways of getting stronger. People have different things they're good at."

"Different… kinds of strength?"

I nodded. "And I don't just mean our Ultimate Talents. Of course you're strong at programming, but you have other strengths too. Other things that, over time, you can get good at. If you truly feel that training with Owada is the best thing for you, then do it. But I would explore other options."

"Like what?"

"Well, I've had to build up a certain amount of strength for my performances. Jumping up and down on stage for hours requires a lot of work. And I bet Junko usually goes days without sleeping due to all her modelling."

"Yeah… that's true."

"And it's not just that kind of strength." I continued. "I mean, look at Makoto. Owada said it himself, he was stronger than all of us. He was true to himself, and true to his word, and he fought until his last breath. I reckon that makes him even stronger than Ogami."

Fujisaki nodded. "Yeah! You're right!" She stood up, which made me giggle when I realised how small she really was. "I know w-what I have to do! I will get stronger! I will change, in the way th-that I want to!"

I had never heard her speak in such a confident manner. "That's the spirit!"

She turned back around to face me. "Thank you, Maizono! You've opened my eyes! I… I-I want to change! N-No more being scared! Eventually, I w-will have the confidence. I will become who I really am!"

"Woah! Settle down there, Fujisaki!"

Fujisaki giggled. "Thank you again, really. We should probably head to dinner now."

"You're right." I smiled and got off the bed. "Thank you for letting me talk to you. Shall we walk together?"

She nodded happily. I smiled. Maybe finally I did something to help another person. In that moment, I hoped - no, knew - that Makoto was looking down on me proudly.