Shuichi drummed his fingers against the armrest of the passenger seat. He stared intently out the window, his eyes darting between each streak of headlights that passed. Paris had managed to get the Detective and his friends out of the Danganronpa District and onto the freeway without incident, but that didn't mean they were safe. Not yet. There was a faint buzzing in the back of Shuichi's head, the same instinctual alarm that went off whenever he had overlooked a vital clue or left a loose end in a case. But try as he might, he couldn't trace the feeling to its origin. As much as he hated to admit it, Kokichi's plan had worked out pretty much as the Overlord had predicted. And now that Paris was at the wheel and the signal jammer was back on the dashboard, it was unlikely the van was being followed.
So why did Shuichi still expect to see helicopters descending over each passing streetlight? Why did that super sports car changing lanes behind them look so familiar? He couldn't discount the possibility that he was being paranoid; it would be an understandable defense mechanism, given what the Detective had already been through. There weren't many people left in the world that he could trust, and now even his memories warranted constant scrutiny. Such uncertainty forced Shuichi into a precarious position: being constantly on-guard had its advantages, but if he wasn't careful, his latent skepticism could easily morph into cynicism. Or worse. Shuichi shot a glance over his shoulder, but looked away the moment Kokichi's eyes met his.
"Something up?" Paris asked.
"Just thinking," the Detective sighed. His gaze fell to the hacker's tablet resting between them, currently folded up to be no larger than a deck of cards. "Do you think I could borrow your…what did you call it?"
"My KeroPad?" she answered. "Yeah, just gimme a sec." Without looking away from the road, she deftly plucked the device from its resting place, flicked it open to tablet size, and keyed in her password before handing it to Shuichi. "Just uh, don't go into 'artwork' folder. For everyone's sake," she added with a sheepish grin.
Shuichi decided not to think about that too much, and instead turned his attention to opening as many news tabs as possible. His fingers danced across the screen as he flicked between them, trying to glean as much information as possible. Unsurprisingly, the media was in chaos. Rumors and "breaking reports" swarmed the airwaves, but little of the information seemed substantiated. All the better, the Detective supposed. The more noise was clouding the networks, the harder it would be for the authorities to uncover the truth.
The video feeds were of particular interest. Many of them tracked the 53rd class as they entered the crowd, and a couple networks managed to follow their general direction through the chaos. That changed during the parking garage phase of the escape: no matter where the cameras looked, all they found were cops stopping vehicles and dragging out the cosplayers and protesters inside. A few drivers attempted to dodge the police blockade, many of them crashing and creating even further mayhem and confusion. Shuichi hoped nobody was seriously hurt.
A blurb in one of the news stories caught his eye. While most of the background writing centered on the 53rd class, this article actually had a section devoted to Paris as well. There wasn't much there that Shuichi didn't know: the hacker was apparently a fan favorite going into the 50thseason of Danganronpa, only to mysteriously disappear before the show had wrapped. Curious, Shuichi clicked on an embedded link to learn more.
What he saw made his blood freeze.
Kokichi shoved his head between the two front seats. "Paris, did you show Shuichi your fan art? He looks white as a sheet!"
"Huh?" Paris glanced at Shuichi, surprised. "No! I told him not to go into that folder."
"Well he definitely saw something," the Overlord said, his expression the picture of innocent curiosity.
"I-it's nothing," Shuichi said, quickly closing the Tarot. "Just worried that one of the news cameras followed us." What he had read about Paris was troubling, but there was no sense in bringing it up now. Doing so would make an already tenuous situation untenable. Whatever the hacker had done in a previous killing game, the detective trusted her to at least get them out of Team Danganronpa's reach.
Paris shrugged and turned back to the road. But Kokichi's attention stayed on Shuichi. Did the Supreme Leader know? Had he detected Shuichi's lie?
"Pffft," the impish Overlord scoffed. "Of course the news cameras didn't follow us, stupid! My plan was foolproof! Even you have to admit, I really outdid myself this time."
"It was reckless," Shuichi answered, grateful for the change in subject. "And took advantage of a lot of people. Including us."
Kokichi recoiled. "Oh no…you're right. How could I be so thoughtless?" His lip quivered. "I put everyone in danger, deceived all those people, and for what? Oh, if only I could take it back! If only you all were still living an honorable life in prison instead of associating with filth like me!"
"Okay, you've made your point."
"How could you be so cruel?" Kokichi sobbed, undeterred. "All I wanted to do was make you happy! But not even saving your life is good enough. Damn you, Shuichi! Why must you toy with my heart so?"
Paris frowned, sympathetic. "It's okay Kokichi. I'm sure Shuichi's just stressed, you know?"
"I know he's lying," Himiko muttered from the back of the van. "But I actually kind of feel bad for him."
"I don't," Maki stated flatly.
Kokichi sniffled. "I don't know what more you want from me, Shuichi. Sure I had to play dirty, but we still won, didn't we?"
"For now…" Shuichi answered.
Kokichi's face went blank. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm not sure," Shuichi admitted. "I just feel like we're missing something." He had been distracted by Paris's history, but the uneasy feeling tugging at his thoughts still hadn't subsided.
Paris tilted her head. "Well if Team Danganronpa was gonna try anything, they'd have to try it soon." She pointed out the window. "We're here."
Shuichi followed Paris' finger and felt his breath catch. A massive wall jutted out of the metropolis ahead, its sheer concrete surface stretching high into the sky above. The barrier stood for miles in either direction, before breaking at a sharp 90-degree angle, effectively locking an entire section of the city away. Clearly, whatever was inside wasn't supposed to get out.
"What…is that?" Shuichi whispered.
"The blast wall," Paris answered. "They built it near the end of the Burning Age. To protect the rest of the city."
"From what?"
"You'll see." Paris said, taking a fork in the overpass that lead straight towards the deadlocked district. The traffic thinned and then disappeared completely, the mile markers becoming warning signs ordering drivers to turn back. Discarded police tape and flattened traffic cones littered the side of the road, illuminated only by the van's headlights at they passed rows of cracked streetlights.
"Uh, Paris?" Kokichi said. "You do realize you're driving us headlong into concrete, right?"
"Nyeh?" Himiko exclaimed, rushing to look out a window. "What did you say?"
"Relax," the Hacker waved them off. "I swiped the access code years ago."
Shuichi instinctively grabbed his seat's armrests as the van shot forward. For a split second, he was actually convinced their escape was about to end in a fiery crash. But as the headlights blossomed against the approaching fortification, a section of the walls parted to reveal a hidden tunnel. The vehicle continued unimpeded, emergency lights on the walls flickering as it passed, revealing a passageway thick with dust and soot. How Paris was able to navigate the road was a mystery to Shuichi, but before he could parse it, the corridor suddenly opened.
Shuichi blinked as moonlight flooded his vision again, illuminating a desolate commercial district. Skyscrapers stood on either side of the overpass, their windows cracked and dusty. A few of the smaller buildings were slumping under the weight of time, their billboards and advertisements faded and illegible. Loose papers and trash blew in the breeze, the only motion in a neighborhood that otherwise seemed frozen in time.
The Detective squinted, puzzled. The emptiness was unnerving, sure, but no reason to wall off an entire section of Tokyo. Was there something he was missing?
He got his answer soon enough. As Paris exited the freeway and approached ground level, Shuichi realized there were rusted metal tubes scattered all over area, many of them embedded in concrete as though they had fallen from the sky. Shuichi gasped, suddenly aware of what he was looking at.
Bombs. And lots of them. Apparently dormant, but still gleaming dangerously as the vans headlights swept over them.
"U-uh," Himiko stammered. "A-are those wh-what I think th-they are?"
Kokichi whistled. "Freeeaaky. These people sure know how to party, huh?"
Shuichi exhaled slowly, trying to control his breath. Even Maki seemed a little unnerved. "What happened here?" she asked.
"I don't know the whole story," Paris admitted. "But supposedly during the Burning Age, one army or another totally whiffed an airstrike and dropped, like, a megaton of duds on this district. Nobody knows if it was a miracle or a mechanical screw-up, and nobody knows if they'll still go off some day or not."
"Anyone else hear a ticking sound?" Kokichi put a hand to his ear.
"St-stop!" Himiko shouted. "That's not funny!"
"Anyway…"Paris continued, weaving around a derelict bus. "It ended up being too dangerous and pricey to clean this place up, and everyone had evacuated anyway, so they just built a big ol' wall and called it a day. Pretty sure most people have never even seen this place." She grinned. "Which makes it the perfect safehouse."
"Wait a second," Shuichi said. "You're saying your hideout is inside this minefield?"
"Sort of. There's a train station just up ahead that has an access hatch to all the old tunnels running beneath the city. That's where my secret lair is." The Hacker winked mischievously. "So don't worry, even if the bombs do go off, we'll be safe and snug underground."
Maki frowned. "Unless the tunnels collapse."
Paris blinked, then laughed. "Oh yeah. If that happens we're totally boned."
"N-not me," Himiko meekly proclaimed. "My magical barrier w-will protect me, so I-I'm not scared at all."
"Hear that guys?" Kokichi asked excitedly. "Himiko just volunteered to be our human shield from now on!"
"W-wait…that's not…"
Shuichi leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. Ahead, he could make out a domed, multi-tiered building, its wide, once-pristine windows cracked and punctured by several errant missiles. This was the train station Paris was referring to: their gateway to her hideout and, presumably, safety. The thought should've filled Shuichi with relief. But somehow, the feeling still eluded him.
The Detective closed his eyes, running through the preceding events once more. If there was one trick he had learned during the Killing Game, it was that sometimes following the evidence wasn't enough. Sometimes to make a break in a case, you had to make a leap of faith to challenge your perception. In this case, Shuichi had to put his trust in Team Danganronpa's capabilities. He had to assume that, somehow, somebody had managed to track them.
So: if the Detective viewed the current situation through that lens, what did he see? Was there a way to reconcile this assumption with the fact that the 53rd had made it this far? Wouldn't their hypothetical stalker have intervened by now?
Or…would they have lay in wait, biding their time…until the fugitives led them right to…
A bolt of clarity raced through Shuichi's mind. He whipped his gaze to the passenger window, eyes scanning the overpass above until he found the confirmation he was dreading. There, among the abandoned cars and rusting bikes, a familiar super sports car was parked overlooking Paris' route. And standing in front of it, her black hair billowing in the breeze, was Team Danganronpa's Head of Security.
Chloe Schwarzblum had found the 53rd. And now they were right in her crosshairs.
"Everyone hold onto something!" Shuichi managed to shout before the POP of a gunshot echoed in the distance.
BOOM. The van jerked off course as the back-left tire burst. The vehicle careened towards a nearby bomb, the Ultimates screaming all the way. Paris yanked the wheel hard, swinging into the turn and narrowly avoiding an explosive collision. But the momentum of the maneuver was too great: the van tilted and tumbled end over end, Shuichi and his friends bouncing in the interior like rag dolls. The world spun as the Detective slammed into the roof, all sense of direction knocked free from him.
With a metallic screech, the van finally settled on its side. Shuichi groaned and tried to lift himself, his head still throbbing. In the distance, he heard the sound of an engine approaching.
The 53rd class had thought they were free. Now they were sitting ducks.