The team and I stood in silence as Mitsuo slowly came to. Standing up, he looked around at all of us. Judging by his confused expression, he still did not seem to recognize any of us.
"Finally awake, huh?" Yosuke shot at him. "You've been a major pain in our ass!"
It took a while for Mitsuo to respond.
"You guys..." he said quietly, with a tone of fear. "Wh-Who the hell are you guys?" It was as if he believed we were some sort of fantastical creatures. Considering what had happened recently, I couldn't hold it against him.
"We came here to talk to you," I told him. He stared at me with a look of amazement.
"...Talk? ...to me?"
He sounded as if he had been asked to be on a live talk show or something.
"The police are after you," Yosuke explained. "They think you're the one who killed King Moron and the others." Mitsuo gave him a blank stare. "So? Are you the killer?"
Mitsuo stared down at the floor. "All the cases..." he whispered to himself. "All on me..." We watched curiously as we waited for him to give his answer.
Suddenly, he started to laugh.
"That's right...I did it!"
This is unbelievable, I thought. Why would he do something like that and just laugh?
"You piece of shit!" Kanji spat at him. But he wasn't finished.
"And not just that bastard Morooka...That stupid announcer, and the Konishi bitch, too!" he yelled triumphantly. "I killed all of them! It was all me!"
His shadow, who had been silent all this time and who we had hardly even noticed, suddenly dissolved into a cloud of purple smoke, which then dissipated, leaving nothing there. This put the rest of the team on edge, but Mitsuo only smiled.
"Haha...that frickin' monster's gone..." he laughed, after which he batted at the air, as though trying to punch out the nonexistant shadow. "Take that, son of a bitch..."
Suddenly, his legs gave out and he dropped to his knees.
"He's exhausted..." said Rise with what little concern any of them could muster. "We have to hurry and get him out of here." With that, the team started to make for the exit.
Yosuke stayed behind for a brief moment. "Think you can handle this, partner?" he asked me, giving Mitsuo a look of disdain. "I really don't wanna have to look at him."
I nodded, and Yosuke thanked me before rejoining the rest of the team. Slowly and cautiously, I approached Mitsuo, who was staring silently at the ground. He didn't seem to notice me coming toward him. Or maybe he just didn't care. I held out my hand.
"Stand up," I commanded. He slapped my hand away and stood up on his own. He was still looking down at the floor.
There was so much I wanted to know right now. Why did he do all of this? What reason would he have for killing three people? And most importantly, why didn't he seem to feel at all sorry for what he did? I wanted to ask him all of this, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
So that display of emotion after Morooka's death...Was it just a lie?
"Come on," I said simply. When he looked up at me, it sent chills up my spine. There was only one emotion I could see in the stare that he gave me.
Hatred.
"Seta-kun, what's taking you so long? We need to hurry!" Yukiko called after me. Without another word, I grabbed Mitsuo's arm and dragged him along behind me.
...
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...
The next thing you know, you are sitting on the ground.
People are surrounding you.
You still can't see very well, so you don't know who they are.
"Where...am I?"
One of the taller ones speaks up.
*"This is the real world."
What the hell does that mean?
Who are these people?
Did they bring you here?
"Why am I here...Who the hell are you guys?"
An annoying high-pitched voice speaks up.
You turn to listen.
And there you see...some kind of bear-thing. Or at least the outline of one.
*"You seem confused from everything that happened. But we have a bunch of questions for you."
You don't hear his questions.
You're having a hard time trying not to laugh at his...beariness.
"What the hell...Is that some kind of costume?"
The bear-thing shuts its trap.
"Haha...What a loser...Get out of my face, you freak..."
The bear-thing's agitation is almost palpable.
*"F-Freak? Grr!"
He continues to make inarticulate noises of shock and rage.
...
Haha.
Now he knows how it feels.
...
One of the faceless people manages to pacify him.
Another of them speaks.
*"...Did you really do it?"
Oh, how you hate hearing that question.
But that voice sounds somewhat...familiar.
"Get off my back...I already told you...I did it..."
You would yell at him, but you find it a little hard to talk.
A female voice speaks up.
*"Why? How could you do such a thing?"
Aww, she's sad.
She sounds like she's about to cry.
...
What a load of horse shit.
If she had to go through one tenth of the hell you've suffered, her tears would fill five lakes.
Then she'd know how the fuck you could do such a thing.
...
Another female voice speaks.
*"Three people are dead because of you!"
This one is angry.
...
...because of you.
She's angry because of you.
The other girl is sad because of you.
All of them are here...because of you.
...
You laugh.
You laugh hard.
Because you finally did it.
You finally got someone to pay attention to you.
It took you so long...but you finally did it.
After a while, you compose yourself.
"Everybody's talking about it, right?"
No one answers you.
"It's a big deal...and I did it! All of it...all by myself..."
One of the male voices speaks.
Your vision has cleared a little, and you can see that he is wearing headphones.
And he yells at you.
*"You just wanted the attention?"
Oh, he has no idea how much you wanted the attention.
...
But no.
That's not all you wanted.
...
...care.
You wanted someone to care about you.
You wanted them to care about what you did.
No matter what it was.
...And not just that.
You wanted them to care that you did it.
...
You hear a third female voice.
*"Then why did you target me and the others? How did you kidnap us?"
You turn your head to the owner of the voice.
And you recognize it.
How could you not?
It's the person you've watched and admired day after day.
The one you most desperately wanted to look at you.
...
Well, you've succeeded.
You chuckle a little.
"Whoa, look who it is...Hey, Yuki..."
She does not deny it.
"After all this time, now you wanna talk to me..."
You laugh again.
"Haha...what bullshit..."
Again, she does not deny it.
Instead, she gets angry.
*"Answer me! If you held a grudge against me, that's fine...but why the others?"
Aww, how cute.
She'll look for any excuse to talk to you now that you took away someone she cared about.
"What a joke...you're so desperate it hurts..."
That shuts her up.
"I didn't care who I attacked...everyone pisses me off..."
Everyone pisses me off...
Even you, Yuki...
You and your fifteen pretty-boy lovers can rot in hell for all I care...
...
The headphone-wearing guy yells at you again.
*You killed Senpai over nothing? You son of a bitch!"
Then, yet another voice speaks to you.
*"I hope you're ready to get what's coming to you."
You see that it belongs to a muscular, punk-looking guy.
He grabs you by the collar, standing you up.
He looks at you with a menacing glare.
...
Oooh, I'm so scared.
"What, are you gonna kill me?"
Don't make me laugh.
I can just kill you first.
I can do that, remember?
*"Kill you? It ain't gonna be that easy, you piece of shit."
...
...See?
You are a piece of shit.
You're not nothing.
That impostor was a dirty liar.
...
The punk guy spouts some garbage about owning up to your crimes, but by this time, you're not even listening.
The headphone guy cries over his precious Senpai.
After the punk guy says something to him, he gets out his phone. Probably to call the police.
The others crowd around him, trying to comfort him.
How sweet.
But one of them does not join the rest.
He walks over to you.
...
It's him...that grey-haired kid.
So he came crawling back after all.
He stares down at you, but he doesn't say anything.
His face shows none of the hatred or disgust that the others did.
...
"See..I told you...I'm not nothing..."
His expression doesn't change.
Then, he says something.
*"You never were 'nothing'."
...
You don't have anything to say to that.
He turns around and is about to walk away.
...
Wait...
There's something you want to know.
"Hey..."
He turns back to you.
...
You can't believe what you're about to ask him.
"When I die...will you miss me?"
...
He smiles a little.
*"Of course I will."
...
You laugh.
"Yeah, right...You're just talking out of your ass..."
He doesn't respond.
...
The police come to take you away.
As they're escorting you out, you can sense him staring after you.
His stare bores into you.
...
He hates you.
You know it.
...
And you know what?
You don't blame him.
...
You laugh.
You've been doing that a lot lately.
But you don't care.
You laugh so hard that you're crying.
The officers look at you like you're some lunatic.
And you probably are.
But you don't care.
...
You don't care.
You don't...
...
You laugh until you can't anymore.
But even after you're done laughing, the tears won't stop...
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