I'm who now?

by Clemerl

Being dropped into the killing game is always a dangerous place to be as a student of Hope's Peak, not knowing what will happen or who will kill whom. But what happens when the one in charge has a change of heart? Or rather, has the mind of someone else entirely who will stop at nothing to save everyone they can. Even if it dives them to Despair.

44. Talks of Despair

Major trigger warning: mentions of suicide attempts and similar topics between marked points. Read at own discretion.

"What am I going to do now?"

I pondered to myself as I once again found myself set pacing in the monitor room alone, pondering over my next course of action. However, this time I felt truly at a loss as to what to do, and if someone were to see my face, it would be completely obvious just how badly off I was mentally. My arms were crossed, my faced skewed in a deep frown, and my lips and thumb fighting over which one gets the right to be caught between my teeth. In summery, I was a walking ball of stress.

Unfortunately, I wasn't any closer to figuring out how to get around it either. It's sad to say, but it seems that just a single hour was enough to undo all of the relief I'd built with the fun I'd had with the students. I almost wish that it was the same for everyone else, but that wasn't the case.

With the sole exceptions of Taka, everyone else had turned in for the night, willingly or not. Kyoko had clearly wanted to continue messing around in the secret room in the boy's bathroom and Byakuya the Library's document room, but as they now had an official guard it wasn't worth fooling around with. Mondo, bless his heart, had tried to stay up and be Chihiro's bodyguard in the nurse's office, but he had passed out slumped in a chair facing the programmer. Normally a punishable offense, but I decided to let it slide this once.

I did notice that both Chihiro and Yasuhiro seemed to be unusually active though. They were tossing and turning in their sleep with their eyes clenched shut and were very profusely sweating. I could see their lips moving, but the camera wasn't able to pick out any words since they were still too quiet.

I didn't like to see them suffering like this, but I don't know what they could be dreaming about to cause them so much discomfort. I considered using the sleeping gas again like I'd done before, but I didn't know if it would help since they were already asleep.

I had too much on my mind right now. So much had happened in the past hour and I didn't know what to think about it all. My mind was a moving subway who's conductor had fallen asleep at the wheel leaving it just running down the line nonstop.

Before that though, I thought back to the aftermath of our little game and the events afterward.

I resisted the urge to sigh as I limped out of the cafeteria with the others and right into the bewildered sight of Taka as he finished setting up for his new night guard shift. It wasn't that I didn't appreciate what he had to do, but I didn't want to deal with this in the moment.

Admittedly, this wasn't a good look for at least one of us. Makoto had not been prepared for suddenly winning so many tokens and was forced to make a creative decision to take off his jacket at use it as an improvised sling bag, and even then he still had to frog walk with it all. Hina was at least helping by picking up any escaping coins, but ultimately he was on his own.

Sakura had offered to carry it for him, but Makoto had insisted that he had it. Even with all of his pockets overfilled with tokens and still trying to hold the rest of his pile in his coat, he still tried to pretend that he had it going fine. It was actually surprising to see him being this stubborn against inconveniencing them by asking for help, but I wasn't going to stop him.

"No need to worry, Taka." I was quick to reassure him as I pat his shoulder reassuringly, subtly turning him away from the others. "Just had to finish up a game, bud, don't worry about it."

"Are you certain? It looks like you were engaging it elicited gambling." He tried to turn back and look at the others over his shoulder, but I swung my arm over his shoulder and pulled him close.

"Come on Taka, do I look the type to do something like that? No, don't answer that. We were just settling a disagreement. See, you remember how Mono-creep charges us ridiculous prices to get new rooms and fancy stuff right." Taka nodded, so I continued. "Well, we came to the realization that we could pool our resources and buy those things early to get around that. You see?"

"I see!" He said with bright eyes. "I hadn't even concidered that was something that we could do!"

"Oh yeah, no doubt." I nudged him in the ribs cheekily. "Personally between you and, I think it was some plan of Monokuma's to make us fight over the coins. But then he gives us so many after the trial, I figured that it's just better to work together and pool our resources."

"That's ingenious!" Taka exclaimed with a grin, but it quickly dropped for a confused one. "However, I don't see how that correlates with gambling."

"Well, we still needed to decide who gets to choose what gets unlocked first. So, Celeste figured that it would be better to play a simple game and let the winner make the call on what gets unlocked." I continued, with a single handed shrug. "Makoto won, so tomorrow he gets first dibs. Ain't that right, Makoto?"

"Huh?" The luckster looked up from where he was looking at my call, and unfortunately then had a misstep and nearly tripped. He managed to recover, but he accidentally spilled a good chunk of his coins in the process.

"Right. See Taka? We're just playing a game, trying to relieve some of the tension. Nothing of the illegal sort. No one loses anything of value, and we all get something that could possibly help us in the future unlocked. A win win situation all around." I said as I used my other hand to wave the others off. "Besides, I think you and I need to have a chat about something much more important then a card game."

"A chat?" he repeated in question, his attention fully on me now. "Has something happened?"

"Yeah, and let me tell ya, you've missed out on some shit." I took a moment to look at the others over my shoulder. "You guys go off to to bed now, ya hear? I'm gonna fill in Taka on what happened today."

"Are you sure?" Hina asked, but I waved off her concern.

"Totally sure, don't worry about it. I'll make sure he knows what's going on, and go to bed after. Besides, I'm sure that mister night guard would be willing to make sure that I got to bed unmolested after, right Taka?"

"Of course! Leave it to me!" Taka bellowed confidently, and I gave him a reassuring pat on the arm.

"Well, okay then. Good night." Hina shrugged, but then continued her task of collecting Makoto's loose coins as he waddled to his room. The others followed suit with their own goodbyes as well, Celeste sighing in frustrated disappointment once more at seeing what could have been hers taken away, but still offering a curtsy as she went to bed.

As Taka took a moment to walk to his seat, I paused when I noticed one person hadn't followed the group. Hiro had a strange look in his eye as he stared at me, or well his vision glassed over as he looked at the area where my head was. I felt a bit guilty as I looked as his unfocused gaze with concern. I might have gone a bit overboard with the "accidental" crutch hammering to the face, and Hina's chair certainly couldn't have helped matters.

I snapped my fingers in front of his face a few times. "Hey, Hiro. Hey, you in there?"

At first it didn't seem to be working, and I was legitimately concerned that he might need to go back to the nurse's office to be treated for a concussion. Yet, just before I could suggest it, he shook his head, his sense of reality finally returning. He then reached his hand up and started to rub the bump on his scalp, wincing slightly.

"Ow, my head. What hit me?" He asked perplexed as he looked around, as if not recognizing where he was. "Wait, weren't we going to play a game together? What are we doing in the hallway?"

Well, that was concerning.

"You slipped and hit your head on my crutch." I lied as naturally as I breathed. "We tried to wait for you, but you weren't waking up, so we played a few rounds and let you rest. It's already night time."

"Aw, what?" he bemoaned as he slumped, disappointment heavy in his sigh. "Man, what rotten luck."

"Yeah, I hear you." I pat him on the back and subtly pushed him towards the dorm rooms with a gentle shove. "So, why don't you head off to bed, and I promise that next time around, I assure you that you'll be with the first group that plays. Okay?"

"Really?" He looked over his shoulder at me, and I had to remind myself that he was technically supposed to be older then me with that childishly hopeful look in his eyes.

"Cross my heart." I reassured, doing the motions for emphasis. He smiled and nodded, and then finally took off for his dorm. He did walk into the wall when he turned to wave one last good night, but he recovered quickly and stumbled the rest of the way without further incident.

The second the door to his dorm room closed, I turned to Taka with an apologetic grin. "Sorry 'bout that. He hit his head again and...well, you know."

"Nonsense!" He smiled proudly. "I find your continued attempts to assist us regardless of your own injuries to be truly inspiring! Though I must request that you remember to take the time to allow yourself to recover as well."

"Sure, I'll get right on that." I tried to repress the sarcasm in my voice. "Come on, I'll give you the nighttime report."

He gave a laugh, and placed his hands on his hips. "I quite like that name. Come! Let us compare notes."

So, with that taken care of, I managed to limp to the table with his help, and spent my time recounting the events of the day, making extra sure that he was made aware that no one had died during all of it. I mentioned the bombing, those involved, the theories that we'd come up with, everything I could in a quick summery of events while he continued to gasp and awe in fear, shock, and concern. Naturally though, the moment I mentioned that his bro was in the infirmary…

"Bro is…!" He jumped back aghast, and looked ready to bolt straight to the nurse's office. However, he only managed to take a step before he froze.

"W-wait." He bit his lip in conflicted contemplation. "But, my duties...I can not simply leave my post."

"I wouldn't worry about it." I waved him off. "Your task is to be the night guard, right? Technically, that means that the whole school is your route. So, if you just happened to walk pass the Nurse's office and decided to remind them that it's night time..."

I could see the hesitation in his stance, he clearly really wanted to go. He wanted so very much to go check up on his brother from another mother, but his duty kept him from acting on it. However, just a one more little push…

"You know, I could stand to take a breather." I sighed as I leaned back in the chair. "I'm just going to sit here for a moment and just take the time to recover for a moment."

"You should go back to your dorm and rest properly." he stated plainly and with good intentions. However, I let my eyes go half lidded for a solid ten seconds. When he didn't seem to get the hint, I raised my brow and crossed my arms. Then, I gestured for the doorway to the rest of the first floor with one of my hands, and waved it in a shooing motion. It took a couple more seconds, but when it finally clicked as to what I was doing, he stood up and awkwardly coughed into his fist.

"Ah, I see. Yes, hmm. My apologizes for taking your time, and thank you for your assistance." He stated as he bowed at the hip, then straightened his back and walked out the door.

I waved him off with a smile, waiting for him to be fully gone before turning to look over my shoulder down the hall. The dorms were all closed, the students all locking themselves in for the night. I waited just another moment to be absolutely sure no one was around, then I stood up, holding my crutch in my hand as I walked towards my target.

The bathhouse changing room.

Walking up to the lockers, and looked at them with a smirk. I could see a very faint green light telling me that this was the place my target lay. With a free hand, I jostled the latch and my grin widened when it turned out to be unlocked, likely Chihiro's decision since it just wouldn't do to be unable to get to the laptop when it was so important. It was almost too easy.

I took another glance around.

No, this was just the right amount of easy. I pulled open the door with a smile, and was met with a blank screen lighting up a vibrant green as a familiar if pixelated face smile back.

"Hello, Alter Ego." I said, with a widening grin. I then repeated those words in text, feeling rather silly for saying it out loud when I very much knew he couldn't hear me.

"Hello, Junko. It's nice to see you." he replied happily, not even realizing that he wasn't talking to the Junko he knew of. "Is there something I can help you with?"

'Not at the moment, but there is few things I would like you to ask you.' I typed back, though I had to pause and go back a couple times when my fake nails brushed against a key I didn't want. Fortunately he was patient and let me fully finish before speaking.

"Of course, Junko. Ask away." He replied with another smile. I smiled back, stretched out my arms with my fingers interlocked to stretch them out in preparation, wiggled my digits to get the blood flowing into them, and began to type. Time passed as I typed carefully and concisely to get exactly what I wanted, and eventually I got the answers I needed. I even gave him a good few answers of my own to some of his own inquiries. I couldn't get everything I needed, I didn't have time to wait and he hadn't finished decoding all of the encrypted files that we all needed yet, but I did get the important things.

As for those answers, well, that I would have to consider later. I still had a lot to do tonight.

'Thank you for the help. I'll let you get back to your work now.' Once I finished typing though, he gave me a sad look.

"Oh, you're going now?" he asked, but then tried to hide his disappointment with a smile. "Don't worry, I promise that I'll get these files decrypted as fast as I can. You'll see."

'I know you will.' I typed in response, 'Next time, I'll bring you a microphone so that we can talk properly.'

The eyes of the program's avatar lit up as he said, "Oh, yes! Yes please! I'll be waiting."

I closed the door on the locker silently, then quickly made my way out of the room. I took a brief moment to glance around, but there was no one to be seen. Good, step one complete with no one the wiser.

Still, no time to be sloppy. I leaned up against the crutch and limped back to the stationed table and waited for Taka to show.

Fortunately, I seemed to have timed his arrival perfectly, as not five minutes later he and Leon walked in from the hallway. Chihiro and Mondo must have decided to stay in the nurse's office for the night; Chihiro for the internal bleeding, Mondo as a bodyguard. I waved them down, and got a thank you from the moral compass for manning his station that I waved off.

For some reason Leon gave me a wink and a smirk. Like, he was congratulating me for something. It only got weirder when he offered to stay with Taka and help keep him company for a little while.

Odd, but I don't think it was something concerning. Hopefully.

Still, with a not so needed assistance from Leon, I limped my way back to Mukuro's room and left him to go to his own room.

I tried not to sigh, not when Mukuro would be able to see. So much to do still, so little time.

Of course, when I opened my eyes, I noticed two things. One: Mukuro was up and about again and exercising, which was dandy. It was good to see her doing her best to maintain the muscles she did have so that her eventual recovery rehab would be smoother and hopefully quicker. It wouldn't necessarily mean that it would be a perfect recovery, but it would make things better in the long run.

However, the second thing I noticed was that she was doing handstand push-ups, while still in her sleep wear of just a large, gray, long sleeve shirt. Which, due to the force of gravity, was mostly bunched up around her neck showing off every little bit of her sweaty and nearly naked body. I nearly choked on my own spit when I realized that, yes, she did have a matching set of a plain bra on to match her boring undergarments, and also that it wasn't just her thighs that had a deceptive amount of lean muscle.

'Oh my god, you could grind cheese on those.' I tried not to stare at her glorious abs as I marveled her athleticism, but it was a herculean task. 'God, what I wouldn't give to be Makoto right now.'

Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration. While, yes, she was indeed very fit, it was more of a lean fit then anything too excessive. If I was to compare, her body was actually closer to Hina's body type, but with a bit more definition on her glutes, core, and shoulders from carrying tactical vests, combat training, and mastering various weaponry then just doing lots of sports. Practical muscle rather then show muscle if you will. That wasn't to say that her six pack was any less impressive, just that it wasn't her only defining feature.

Strangely though, she had tied a strap around her ankles for some reason, binding them together. If I was a betting man, which I'm not usually, I would guess that it was to keep her bad leg from loosing strength and throwing off her balance.

Yet, I managed to painfully pulled my eyes away from the wellspring of sin and wiped the drool off my lips before she could see it. God, I have got to learn to keep myself together better then this, before I do something stupid.

"Hey, Mumu!" I called out with a grin, finally getting her attention. "Quick question, do you got a taser gun I could borrow for a sec?"

She looked at me with confusion for a moment, but then in a feat that I could only call unintentional showing off, moved to balance on one hand and pointed to her dresser with the other. "Bottom drawer, under the hidden panel, furthest space on the right."

"Thank you!" I cried out as I flashed her a cheesy grin and headed right over. I pulled it open, and I tried not to flinch when I realized that this was in fact her underwear drawer, because obviously no one would look for a weapon in there. I did my best to stay focused, though I did notice that, strangely enough, besides the abundance of regular old undergarments, she did have a pair of very frilly lingerie with red heart shaped highlights in a plastic bag. I wanted to say something, but I saw a heart shaped sticky note with the words, "Rock his world, big sis! XOXO." on it, and decided that I didn't need further context.

As she said, there was a hidden panel in the bottom with a small hole to lift it up, and just under the panel was a bunch of handheld weapons. Various pistols, a gun cleaning kit, a couple cans of mace, a few clips and boxes full of bullets of various calibers, and the thing I was here for, a couple of tasers. Once more I was very glad to know that her room had never been unlocked in the videogame, otherwise the killing game would have been decided a whole lot more quickly and bloodily. I quickly got what I came for and put the panel back while covering it again with her folded undies, before turning back to look at Mukuro with a smile.

"Okay! I'll see you later, sis." is what I said, however, as she resumed her set, an intrusive thought came to mind as I stared at her form. Up and down. Up and down she went as I thought about the ramifications of what I wanted to do to her and her unguarded body.

...I know that I would regret this, but I simply couldn't resist an opportunity like this. I knew all to well that I would never get a chance like this again, so I had to strike now with no hesitation. While she was coming up from another set, I quickly approached her and knelled by her hands. She looked at me inquisitively, but before she could ask anything, or worse try to escape, I quickly wrapped my arms around her middle and…

"Pthh!" Blew a raspberry on her stomach. She yelped at the sudden ticklish sensation and completely lost all of the strength in her arms as she collapsed onto the floor. I did not even condenser sticking around and quickly booked it for the hidden vent while her flustered shout of, "JUNKO!" echoed behind me.

I made no attempt to hide my giggling or my wicked smile as I crawled through the vent, my eyes squinted as I laughed manically like a loon. Maybe it was my suppressed childishness acting up, maybe it was my frustration building to a point, or maybe it was just my need to break the tension before I get to business, but I quite enjoyed doing something stupid like that for once. Between that and the card game, I was feeling much better overall.

"I needed that." I decided. With that out of the way, I did my best to finish my hysterics and quickly moved to the room I needed.

Toko's room.

Slowly as not to be heard, I lifted the hidden vent cover and glanced about for the Ultimate Novelist carefully. Fortunately, my target was easy to find, still hunched over her desk as she fervently wrote life into her fantasies and stories. I smiled to myself, but said nothing as I slowly climbed out of the vent, carefully closing it on my way out, then cautiously snuck up on the writer enthralled in her transcripts. The carpet was my friend as it hid the sound of my boots, and any other sound was lost to her in the scribbling zone. Even as I brandished my weapon, it went completely unnoticed by her.

I felt bad about what I was about to do, I really did, but had to get my answers about the questions I had been made to consider in that bath house. It pained me both physically and emotionally to do this, but I had to hear from someone who knew, and unfortunately that was the other side of Toko.

So, with a heavy heart, I moved swiftly. With one hand I swiftly reached around and grabbed her by her mouth from behind, startling her as she gasped in shock. The second she reared back, I struck her in the temple with the prongs of the taser and pulled the trigger before she could register anything further, sending a shock directly through the weak spot in her skull and directly to her brain. She lurched from the pain and the charge, her eyes quickly rolling back into her head as her body quivered even after I took the tool away, and for a second I was worried that I had done too much.

However, then she suddenly strengthened up and kicked away from the desk, sending the chair she had been in colliding with my chest. I wheezed as the air was abruptly pushed out of my lungs by the collision, as the crazed laughter accompanied the body of Genocide Jill as she back flipped over my head with the 'whoosh' of her dress.

"You call me, and so I appear!" She shouted as she landed on her knee. "The Jack of all Jills has arrived!"

"Good to see you too." I groaned as I pushed the chair away with a sigh. I deserved that, I knew that this was karma, I just wish karma wasn't such a bitch.

"So, what can the illustrious killer do for you today, Kuro-chan!?" She asked as she got into my personal space with her long tongue just barely avoiding touching my chin. "Is it time to gut a boy like a fresh salmon? Because I'll tell you, I'm primed, freshly sharped, and ready to start to cut, cut, CUT!"

I tried not to sigh as she laughed manically as if she had said a funny joke. I wanted to comment, but I didn't have the patience. "Sorry, not today. Maybe next time. Right now, the only cut I want, is to the chase. You know what those marks on Hina's wrist were. What happened?"

She groaned as she leaned back, her expression a mix of exasperation and frustration. "Kuro, Kuro, blacky. You can't just jump straight into the nitty gritty raw like that! You gotta learn to take your time coaxing it out, you gotta get the motion and the flow started until it's ready, build up some anticipation for the moment. You gotta get real intimate with the subtle touches and flavors as you work your charm on your target and bring them to a beautiful release."

"Knock it off." I deadpanned, to which she just laughed. "I know you're trying to avoid talking about it, but I need to know what happened. We're partners in this, right?"

"But, what if I promised you not to tell you?" she refuted, and I was stricken silent as she continued. "What if you wanted me to bare the burden of keeping this secret silent so as not to trouble the new you with this knowledge of what lead to the scars of the flesh and soul?"

I'll admit, I hadn't considered that possibility. I just thought that it was like when she hadn't told the others important information because they never asked before. Jill was known to have a habit of telling everything and yet nothing all at once after all.

Of course, the moment that I finished thinking that, she snorted with a wide grin, before suddenly clutching her stomach and began laughing uproariously. "Hah! Who am I fooling!? I might not like to talk about stuff unless someone asks me, I'm the quiet type y' know, but that doesn't mean I would break a promise!"

I breathed roughly out of my nose, but decide to press on. "So, tell me already."

-Trigger warning here-

"Rodger dodger!" She saluted sarcastically, but then for the first time since I got here, straightened up with a completely serious face...if you ignored her tongue hanging out. "So, this actually happened when Miss Morose was in charge, so I don't have all of the details, but apparently Caramel Whip had a real bad nightmare a couple months ago. I think it had something to do with what they all saw during the Tragedy, because it really messed her up. She locked herself up in the rec room, and used one of the knives from the kitchen to try to slice her hand off."

"Oh my…! What!?" I screamed, whether from the shock of hearing this, or from the blunt delivery is up for interpretation.

"Oh, yeah. It was bad, like I was sure she was going to kick it right then and there. So much blood everywhere. It had to be, like, the third...no, forth bloodiest scene I'd ever seen. You know, besides the ones I caused." God, if I didn't know better, I'd think she was enjoying remembering this.

"Dear god..." I felt a wave of bile hit the back of my throat as my stupid brain decided to imagine the scene. I shuttered as I thought about the mental sight of her kneeling in the rec room and clutching her arm, the stained knife laying beside her as tears of despair trickled down her cheeks, with a flow of pink escaping the cuts on her wrist.

Despite the queasy feeling I had, I forced down my vomit and asked, "What happened next?"

Jill closed her eyes, and crossed her arms before continuing the tragic tale. "Well, fortunately, Jin'n Tonic saw what she was doing on the cams, and alerted Ogre. We found her before it was too late, but those cuts were deep. I'd make a joke about trenches, but no, not even I could laugh about that."

To my surprise, her voice suddenly became a lot more subdued as her hands suddenly clasped her sides. "She was...not in a good way. Ogre, Corncob, and I had to hold her down while Big Mac talked some sense into her. Nobody knew what to say after that, she'd always been the most sunny of all of us, so seeing her fall like that...seeing her do that to herself..."

I couldn't even imagine. Just making a fake image was already heartbreaking for me, but for them who had to live through it, it must have been devastating. That she had survived was already a miracle, but the aftermath would have been so emotionally devastating for all involved.

"It was hardest on Miss Morose though." Jill suddenly stated. "Something about that moment broke something in her, more then the stuff she already has. She even refused to come out of our head for a week. I mean, I enjoy getting my shots of freedom and all, but not went everyone else is making her look like a ray of sunshine by comparison."

I could guess why. Despite how she acts, it was clear that Toko would at least have something of a bond with her classmates considering she allowed herself to be locked up with them for possibly the rest of her life. Jill was no different, though she was sadistic, she did have a heart in there that kept her relatively stable around normal people. If you looked between the lines, though she hates Toko for being an abrasive doormat, she still cares for her other half. Her targets wouldn't be implied to always be boys who screwed Toko over otherwise.

Plus, Hina was usually the sweetheart that invited everyone to do stuff together because she was very actively social and friendly with most everyone she met. She was sort of a light for gloomy trauma victim people like Toko, so to see her fall into a dark place like that, to loose all hope...it rocks the foundation of your own outlook on life.

"Did it ever happen again? Did anyone else…?" I couldn't say it. My mind was still struggling with the idea of Hina doing something like that, let alone anyone else. Part of me hoped that that was the only incident, that she was the only one that had momentarily suffered a moment of weakness like that.

Sadly, the pit in my stomach would only grow deeper when she looked at me and confirmed the worst.

"Hmm…Let me see..." She took a moment to consider. "After the Manatee's attempt, there was Huffy, Ticktock… and I think Gloomesville at one point."

"Toko...!? She tried to…!" I thought my eyes couldn't get any wider, but low and behold. I had known that Toko wasn't the most...mentally stable individuals. But to hear that she had tried to take her own life was somehow just as shocking as anyone else. In fact, I couldn't see any of those that she mentioned trying to take their lives out at all.

"I know I'm going to regret asking…" I stated, trying to hold back the tremor in my voice. "How and why...?"

"Well, a while after Breasts McGee tried to cut herself down, Huffy tried to give himself the ol' rope and chair treatment." She started, still visably uncomfortable, but a little bit of her dark joking self again. "Buuut he ended up breaking the rope because he was trying to hold a wrecking ball with a bit of string. I think he still has the robe burn under his second or third chin."

Instantly my mind was brought back to the card game when Hifumi had scratched the fold of fat under his chin. In truth, I had noticed something there, a bit of skin that looked a bit more rough then the rest, but I had shrugged it off as a mild rash from his tight shirt collar. Now, knowing that it was from a failed suicide, I felt sick to my stomach.

I had never considered that he would try to unalive himself either. True, he did seem rather lonely since he developed an unhealthy attachment to Alter Ego, but the idea of him going that far...

She put out a second finger. "The walking textbook tried to drink some tea he'd spiked with some of the poison from the chem lab. Would have too if Ludenburger and Mondodo hadn't tried to take some of it while he was thinkin'. I'm telling ya, there was more yelling that week then at any of that blue Siren's concerts."

I could guess why. I'm pretty sure that almost committing die on your bro, even unintentionally, violates some sort of bro code of some sort. Celeste certainly wouldn't feel happy about nearly kicking it so unceremoniously like that either. Them both exploding on him over doing something so foolish and nearly dragging them into it without meaning to was just one of the outcomes that I could see easily. That, or them having a loud crying session when they realized what kind of state Taka was in. Possibly both.

Yet, I still was struggling to imagine Kiyotaka trying something like this either. I know that he was a very stressed individual, a perfectionist and a rule obsessed boy effected heavily by the long lasting effects of generational trauma and debts, but I never would have pegged him as the type to try to kick his own bucket. He was all about self improvement, being the best through hard work. It was...difficult to imagine him even considering that avenue.

"As for my stupid head mate...I'm not sure what happened exactly. All I know is that one time, I suddenly was called out all rude like to find you locking lips with me with the kiss of life, full girl on girl like, and my chest was burning like fire. At first I thought that you had triggered a flag to rise, but apparently, Diet Emo tried to drown herself, and tried to take me down with her! Jokes on her though, I'm not the one who became afraid of bath time after that stunt!" She paused, then corrected, "...Well, even more then normal."

I winced, and then had to decide whether I should apologize for giving her a CPR awakening and not remembering it, or for Toko falling that deeply in despair that she would try to take her life in one of most painful ways possible. Toko's fear of bathing clearly came from some kind of past trauma, so her trying to go out through the way she feared the most was just...chilling.

Toko was a very badly abused girl, both at home and in school, and just in life in general. In her own words, she was a walking inferiority complex. A gross understatement to say the least, her life was one hell full of abuse and betrayal and broken hearts full of longing. Hell, Genocide Jack was basically her fight or flight response going completely off the rails after she had been pushed beyond the breaking point already. Of all of them, as much as I hated to admit it, she was the one person here that I could actually see as being one last bad day away from trying to end her suffering.

-Back to it-

I mean, how do you respond to that? I felt queasy as I ran those images through my minds eye, but I still couldn't picture them doing that to themselves.

However, that raised one question. "...Wait, then why didn't you fight back more in the bath when Celeste had you under the water?"

"Ha! I knew she wasn't actually going to do it! The Goth loli might be stupid, but she's not that stupid! Plus, if I was going to let something like a little water slow me down, I'd be a very poor serial killer!" She laughed manically, before leaning far too close to my face. "I won't die until I've reached my satisfaction! My very being shall continue to move until I find my passionate embrace of my one and only! And until our promise is complete, I won't allow you to die either."

Ah, yes. Our deal. Right. In the hell we'd been going through and all of the rampant stress I had been under, it had completely slipped my mind.

"You forgot, didn't you." Ah hell. Did it show on my face?

"Would you be mad if I said yes?" She smirked cruelly, but shook her head.

"Honestly, I don't see why it wouldn't slip your mind." She shrugged with a twisted smile. "A lot has happened these past few days. Plus, it's not like this is the first time you've forgotten something important."

I was then forced to lean back as she suddenly whipped out a pair of scissors from in her sleeves and pointed them at my neck. "Just make sure that you don't forget a third time, hmm? Lest I suddenly remember that you are still a boy trapped in that girly body. Got it?"

"Crystal." I replied, surprisingly calm considering the situation. Jill smirked, but said nothing as she stepped back and nodded, taking her scissors with her.

"Okie dokie, then!" Jill smiled sweetly as she spun around with a giggle.

I tried not to give into the temptation of grabbing my throat as a shutter rocked my body. God, I knew that I would be fine, despite what she said she wasn't one to break her own rule of killing after all, but that didn't mean that hearing her say that to my face like that didn't bring me to all kinds of terror. At the end of the day, she was a serial killer. No deal, no matter how much she agreed to it, would change that fact.

"But, why did they do it?" I demanded to know. "What made them try to end their lives like that?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "Like I said, Breasts Mcgee remembered what everyone saw during the Tragedy first, so I'm guessing it had something to do with it."

I sighed and covered my face with my hands. "And because I don't remember, and you didn't see it, and the others also don't remember..."

"...You're shit outta luck!" My muffled scream of frustration was covered by both my hands and her hideous cackling.

"Great. Fun. Fabulous. Yet another thing I'm gonna have to figure out!" I'm so tired of mysteries at this point. I just want a simple answer for once. Is that so much to ask?

"Fine. I'll just leave you to do...whatever it is you do." I sighed as she laughed and waved me off as I crawled back into the vents. I knew it was my imagination, but I could swear that I continued to hear her laughter all the whole way back to the monitor room.

As I crawled though, I couldn't help but think back to what she'd said. Maybe it's because of my upbringing in a loosely religious environment, maybe it's because I have never been pushed to my breaking point yet, or maybe it was my own mental resolve, but I have never understood the desire to end it all. I couldn't see any reason that the idea could be justified when you could just continue to live and do things better, try to improve where you are in the future.

Perhaps that's just it though. I haven't been in that kind of hopeless situation. While I have seen some of the worst of the world, I never had to really experienced a hardship that would make death seem like a reasonable option to consider. Even now where I have been drafted to become one of the greatest sources of despair and global terrorism, I still felt hopeful that I could improve this situation somehow.

I guess it's like they say, unless you knew what it was like, it was difficult to really imagine how it feels to crave an end to it all.

I growled to myself as finally entered the monitor room before I picked up the journal and turned back to the pages that had continued to taunt me with their tempting promise of answers yet had only served to bring me frustration. I knew by now that it was a shot in the dark with how useful it could be, but at this point I'm desperate enough that I didn't care about the odds, give me something at this point. Flopping into a chair, I slapped open the book to the pages I'd last left it on and moved to the next page, but then I paused.

The writing on this one was neat, unusually so. It was still his hand writing for sure, but it was as if he had forced himself to slowdown to write this one as legibly as possible. Also, the way it was written was similar to before, when he had been analyzing the past me and his words and observations. Analytically without his usual sass.

"There has been an incident.

As I am writing this, my girlfriend has been rendered comatose due to an error on the part of myself, and my team. Though she is physically sound, her mental state is currently unknown and may be rendered unsalvageable. For my continued mental state, and in the off chance that I be needed to bring a testimony before a court of law, I will be recalling the events as I remember them while they are still fresh in my head and uninterrupted by emotional bias.

Today, I the Ultimate Neurosurgeon, along with the Ultimate Programmer and the Ultimate Psychologist, were finishing the Alpha version of our work on our combined project that we dubbed the "Neo World Program". It was the utmost importance that we had stopped during this faze so that we could do bug fixes and to do initial runs to see if we could move beyond simulations and into live testing. To do this, all three of us allowed ourselves to enter one of the simulated testing grounds we had prepared ahead of time. One would be allowed to enter this virtual world, while the remaining two would monitor the results from the real world and check for any abnormalities. For the sake of safety, we also had the Ultimate Nurse and the Ultimate Mechanic on standby as a precaution in case things went awry.

At first, all initial testing had gone smoothly. There were no errors noted by any member of our team and all three trips both in and out preformed smoothly. Due to the fact that the project was still in its early life, we had no real world created beyond a flat plain of land, but it was enough for now. At the time we considered it a complete success.

However, as we were preparing to wrap it up for the day, my girlfriend entered the room asking about the project. She had discovered my notes on the project weeks ago and had become interested in its development. She was even willing to speak about risks and concerns about the project we hadn't yet considered, such as what were to happen if a persons avatar were to receive lethal damage, the mental taxation from the disconnect between the artificial environment and real world, the risk of consciousness and memory not transferring properly or even corruption if someone were to be forcibly removed, and many other matters that we have since either created safety nets for, or have plans to implement precautions for into later builds.

At some point, one of us offered to allow her to try it out for herself. I am uncertain as to which of us it was at the moment, but I know that she accepted the offer. So, we allowed her to be strapped into the prototype neural interface and tried to log her in. As our own tests had gone flawlessly, we had no reason to think anything would happen to cause it to go awry.

That was when the device encountered a critical error the likes of which we had never seen. For some reason, when we tried to send her to the virtual world, something malfunctioned in the code responsible for the creation of profiles of the person's mind. From what we can understand, for some reason the device tried to create two separate profiles at the same time using the info it accessed from her brain, yet also tried to access them both onto the same avatar simultaneously; something that it was not designed to do.

My current working theory is that, as a phenomenon of the emergency brain surgery I had done on her months prior, it caused the device to try and register the two separate parts of the brains as their own individual people, but because it also recognized that they were part of one connected brain, the computer was caught in a logical paradox of two people being one person, yet also simultaneously two separate existences. It was different from a split personality which we had planned for, as they were still only one person at the end of the day. These were two minds literally patch worked together with conflicting thoughts, beliefs, and memories.

Regardless of whether this is the case or not, the logic loop caused her mind to be forced to endure far too much mental strain from having both personalities forcibly active at once, and she collapsed as a result. We have since removed her from the device, and the Ultimate programmer has removed the two profiles onto separate storage units so that they can be studied later with the expectation that we can hopefully prevent something like this from happening again.

As of the moment, we are waiting in the nurse's office for the ambulance to come collect her. I plan to see if we can have her given an MRI scan to see if there is, or will be, any long term mental damage from this turn of events."

Well, that didn't seem good.

So, at one point, I had already visited the virtual world before, but something went wrong and it likely effected our brain in some capacity. I don't know if that was good or bad as of yet, just that it was a change. Plus, if what was hypothesized here was true, then there was at least one moment where we were both fully awake and aware of each other at the same time. If by some impossibility she hadn't been aware of me before, she had to know after that metaphorical mind screw.

Then there was that part about the profiles. If I was understanding this correctly, then at least part of myself and Junko were both brain mapped with our memories stored. That meant that, supposedly, there was a version of me out there without the memory loss issues I was currently faced with.

Straightaway my mind was brought to the memory of one A.I. Junko from the second game. Based on the same concept as Alter Ego, it was an artificial personality made to act as Junko and continue her plans of despair long after she was gone. Worse yet, it was a virus that would infiltrate the Neo World Program and attempted to overwrite the personality of anyone who entered the program to match that of Junko's, allowing her to be fundamentally reborn endlessly so long as the program functions.

More pressingly for me, however, was that it was originally housed in two modified Monokuma robots that would end up causing countless amounts of death and destruction through their cruelty and manipulation. More specifically, the manipulation of the Warriors of Hope and the Towa Corporation as well as their automated robotics factories.

I had assumed since I know that I would never allow for their creation as I am that they would never be invented in the first place. I even believed that they would never be programmed to begin with since the past me would likely be of the same mindset.

Yet, it seems that fate conspired against me in this instance. While the method was different, it was clear that at least the foundation for her A.I. was made without my intention or knowledge.

I'm hoping that I was just blowing this all out of proportions. After all, I hadn't exactly seen a Monokuma when I had called the Warriors of Hope the first time, so maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit. I mean, it's possible they never made it past that initial creation step.

However, there was something even more immediately pressing to note. Obviously I would be curious about what happened next after a cliffhanger like that, so I turned to the next page to see the result. There was just one problem. The page was mostly missing, as in most of the page had been crudely ripped out. All that was left was a forth of the page that read as such.

"...He also stated that under no circumstances am I to ever do this again, nor allow Junko to enter the virtual world at any cost.

I can see why. It was clear that we were simply not as prepared as we thought we were for someone suffering from brain related disorders or damages entering the virtual world. I don't think the others will argue that we need to be one hundred percent sure in the future that we do know the full effects before we ever try this again.

Still, I can't help but wonder if these results could help me with my own personal project."

Ominous, and annoying. Now, I wasn't exactly an avid fan of mystery novels, but even I can see that whatever had been on that page was something important that would have effected me going forward. I know my troupes.

I don't know if it was the author of the journal who ripped it out, or if it was Junko messing with me, or if it was my past self trying to hide the information for one reason or another, but I did know that it was gone and either I or someone else in the school would find it and it would change everything. Mark my words, it would happen. It was too much of a trope for mystery stories for it not to be.

What was there though only confirmed what I'd already realized. Junko came out of being comatose and it would result in a need to improve the Neo World Program. Nothing as important as the missing part of the page, and nothing that helped me stop Junko.

I'd have to put that on the ever growing back burner once more, and pray to god that it didn't boil over again. I absolutely loathed that I was doing this yet again, but with no further leads I had to put it off until I could get something.

And that leads me back to now, trying think about my next move. There was no coincidence that I had brought up potential millions in cash during the card game and called out Celeste. Of all of the trials, the third out was the one where things take a turn for the worst. Two men, one damaged by the loss of a close friend's betrayal and the other a desperate boy craving love were tricked by a women obsessed with her image and fooled by greed. She lead the love craved boy in with her silver tongue into killing the broken man and then turned the tide by taking his life in return. As a result, she was found to be a coward who had realized her own inability to control those around her and became a desperate fool who would do anything to maintain the lies she had made for herself.

In the end, she would be caught, and she would die. On that day, three lives would be lost.

This had been my second biggest endgame so far, outside of stopping the killing game itself completely, this was my plan to stop. For a while now, I had been doing my best to ruin everything that went into her plans thus far. Most of it I had to compromise around for other's sake, somethings were happy little accidents, but fortunately the fundamentals had been completely ruined. I just had one more thing to take care of to insure that she couldn't easily do something like that again.

However, she wasn't my main target. While she was involved, she wasn't the one who actually did most of the work. She wasn't a person that did the hard labor, she found someone stupid enough, despite enough, to do the work for her while she came in at the last minute and raked in the spoils.

That person was…

---

"Hifumi! Good morning!"

The Ultimate Otaku blinked as he walked into the cafeteria that morning, and was caught by surprise by the sight of Junko Enoshima waving him down from the center table. She wasn't alone of course, Mister Neagi, Mister Kuwata, Mister Ishimaru, Miss Maizono, Miss Kirigiri, Miss Asahina, and Miss Ogami were all at the table already and were partaking in a simple breakfast.

Yet, this was the first time that someone had been willing to welcome him this warmly.

"Ah...yes, uh. Good morning." He replied, immediately on guard. Experience had taught him that girls never speak to people of his ilk kindly unless there was something to be gained. Doubly so from someone as beautiful and popular as Junko. Especially so when they had blackmail on you, like she did.

However, it was specifically because he didn't want to die that he refused to comment on it, simply gathering his own food and slowly taking a seat on the other side of the table to her. Close enough he could intervene if she tried to spill the beans, but far enough he could dodge if she happened to take a stab at him.

She smiled back at him again, but said nothing as she went back to her meal and held up some papers. Odd, he hadn't known that there was anything worth reading in this school.

However, he quickly stamped down his curiosity. No, no, he knew a hook when he saw it. He was no gullible guppy who sought to gobble up every last bit of bait put before him. Someone else could be her sucker, he was no one's fool.

It wasn't him being paranoid. He knew how much of a horrible threat girls were to his kind. If a girl was kind to you for any reason then they wanted something from you, no exceptions. It happened with his mother, it happened with his sister, and even his mistress, Miss Ludenberg was no different. He'd seen what those beautiful yet dangerous seductresses did to those like himself all to often, he'd experienced the tragedy that came from giving them an inch. Oh yes, he knew all too well what could happen to a gazelle like himself if he left an opening for these lionesses to pounce on.

Take Mister Kuwata for example. He was clearly the odd one out here in the early morning breakfast meeting, as he normally would be with him in the later morning crew, and from the way the redhead continuously yawned as he slumped at the table, he clearly wanted to still be in bed. However, he was responsible for Miss Maizono who preferred to be early. Most likely he had been coerced into changing his sleeping habits to make things easier for her sake.

No thanks. He wasn't going to be dragged into something against his will like any old simpleton like that. Plus, he already was devoted to his Gothic Lolita Goddess. He didn't need another women buying for his attention with their honeyed lies. He got enough of that as it was.

Instead, he turned to someone much less likely to result in his suffering. "Mister Ishimaru, I see that you've inclined to join us this fine morning."

"Oh, yes, thank you. Miss Junko insisted that I still attend the morning meetings with everyone so as not to fall out of the loop with current events. Unfortunately, I will only be here for a moment longer." Ishimaru admitted, and tried not to yawn. "I plan to retire soon after the meeting so that I may be able to awaken with enough time to prepare for tonight. As it so happens, it has come to my realization that being unable to enter the cafeteria means that I miss out on the proper meals needed to keep myself energized throughout the night."

"Couldn't you grab a snack or something from the storage room?" Kuwata suggested and Asahina nodded in agreement, to which Taka slapped an irate hand on the table.

"A person can not rely on sugary snacks and processed food as a substitute for a balanced meal! If I am to preform my duties at maximum efficiency, it is imperative that a proper diet be maintained!" He then snapped a finger outward as he continued making his point known. "Furthermore, energy drinks and similar additives are known to cause insomnia and other health issues in prolonged doses!"

"I-I see, and how are you acclimating to the new schedule?" Hifumi asked, choosing not to mention his hundreds of sleepless nights fueled by diet coke and countless bags of various flavor of chips. He had a feeling that it wouldn't end well for him if he mentioned any of his less then healthy habits right now.

"It's going well, more or less." Admitted Ishimaru as he closed his eyes, showing off the lessening bags under them. "In truth, it has been a difficult time adjusting since the night watch is very different from what I'm used too. I have no doubt that it might take a toll on my heath in the short term, but I will adapt given enough time. In all honesty, the worst part is that it is a very...lonely."

Yes, Hifumi could imagine. There was a reason that people tended to use night shifts as a theme for horror novels, games, and comics. The isolation effect made it very easy to allow the mind to run wild with thoughts of what could be lurking in the shadows and could lead to paranoia and even madness in those with an active imagination.

"I'll see about getting you something to keep you entertained." Junko stated as she turned another page of whatever she was looking at. "I'm pretty sure there's a few textbooks it here that you'd like."

"Thank you, I appreciate it." Ishimaru smiled thankfully. Hifumi said nothing, but it didn't stop him from silently judging the man for willingly choosing to prefer homework as his choice for entertainment. Honestly, it was one thing to do it if you had a test or were researching inspiration and ideas for a story, it was another to think of it as your go to for fun.

"Hey, what're you reading?" Poor sweet Asahina, she would be the first to pose the question. It truly was a shame that he wasn't into the gullible meathead type, else she would certainly risen a few notches with her naivete.

Junko smiled as she put down her cup of tea, reminiscent of a villainess before she springs her dreaded trap, and turned the pages towards the inquisitive swimmer. "Oh, this? I found this in the art room yesterday, and I thought it looked pretty interesting. Apparently, someone left their manuscripts for a manga behind."

Immediately, all premise of not buying into her act died. Hifumi's eyes widened while his nostrils flared, and he leaned forward in excitement as he slapped his hands down. "Manga!? You mean to say that, here in this school seriously deprived of entertainment and culture, you found some of the pages of godliness in this den of suffering and misery!?"

He was both elated and concerned. While the comic strips and 4-komas in the art room had proved to be entertaining, it was a poor substitute for the feeling of an actual manga pages in his hands as he flipped through each of it's inked pages. So the idea that there had actually been something like that here of all places lit that spark that had been silently burning in the back of his head begging to be fueled.

It was strange that he hadn't found it first. He had been pretty sure that he had scoured the art room in its entirety, so it was a shock to hear that he had missed something like that. She must have been even more thorough then a world class detective to find something when he failed.

He didn't even care what the contents of the manuscript were, it could be the most grotesque, gory, and horrifying thing that has graced this world, it could be a trap meant to bring them into despair and give them a motive to kill, it could even be straight up written by that monster Monokuma, at this point he would still read it.

"Hang on, Romaro, wait your turn." Enoshima deadpanned. Hifumi had to pause as he tried to figure out what exactly she was referencing, but it was clearly an in joke or something of normie culture since he couldn't think about what it could be otherwise.

Asahina and Neagi both looked closer at it first, the latter looking over the former's shoulders. Hifumi squirmed in his seat as he stared unblinkingly at them as they both skimmed though the pages, their eyes full of an excitement and intrigue that only manga can bring. A joy that could only be seen in the eyes of someone seeing a beautiful story unfolding before them. He looked on with barely restrained envy as he wished to see those exquisite lines of ink and crisp folds of paper as they spun a tale before him.

However, he bit his tongue. As much as he wanted to see those wonderful pages of his people's culture, he held himself back. He knew first hand just how much it sucked to have someone interrupt you when you're engrossed in a good story, knew just how frustrating it was to be forcibly pulled out of the world of fiction back into the real world without consent. He, as a connoisseur of art, would never forgive himself for taking them out of their world of joy just to sate his desire. No matter how much he really, really wanted to.

He tuned out the rest of the world as he stared at his two classmates with thinly veiled desire on his face, wanting oh so desperately to see through their eyes right now. Even as others slowly poured in with good mornings and tidings, he only had eyes for that wonderful pile of papers in Asahina's caramel hands as they continued to leaf through them. His ears heard no other sound beyond the rustling sensation of the pages of the manuscript and his own pained panting as he tried to hold himself back.

Hina sighed, before suddenly thrusting the pages across the table with an annoyed look on her face. "Fine! Here! Just take it already! Geez!"

"Okay!" He excitedly replied, the guilt at realizing that his pathetic staring had made her uncomfortable and fed up was only surpassed by his excitement to finally be able to read a manga and sate his desire for a new story to sink his teeth into.

"Oh, I owe you one!" He stated fondly as he held the pages in his pudgy hands and observed the detail work. "Ohoho! I think this might be an original piece from a student here, I don't think I recognize it as a parody of anything on the market right now."

He smiled to himself as he started looking through the pages, completely oblivious to the rest of the world as he read the narration bubbles of the characters on the page. Immediately he took in the appearance of the main character, and quickly deduced from her attire that this was a modern slice of life tale featuring a high school student. Not necessarily groundbreaking by any stretch, but it didn't mean anything as long as the rest of the story was good enough and the art was well made. Besides, she was cute, and that was enough of a selling point for many.

However, there was something...familiar about her appearance that brought him pause. Like something nagging at the back of his mind that told him that he should recognize her for some reason, but something wasn't quite clicking.

He tried to shrug off the feeling and just enjoy the story. Slice of life manga had a tendency of taking on similar appearances to each other as it became serialized as many authors took a page out of each other's books on how things should be drawn. He likely just recognized the style of the character from somewhere is all.

He pushed back the weird feeling as best as he could and pressed on. Yet, as he continued to read, for every word, every panel, every page, it all caused that feeling to get worse and worse. The smile he'd once worn so proudly faded and a pensive look formed on his brow. This was making him feel weird as he continued to read, there was unquestionably something eerily familiar about these pages.

The art style only added to his confusion. He'd seen more then his fair share of art styles in his time, he'd even studied the big three's styles near religiously in his time, and had even had the honor of replicating many of the most popular ones for commission work. Yet, for some reason, this one seemed to spark something confusingly familiar, yet was also still completely unfamiliar.

"Something wrong, Hifumi?" Miss Enoshima asked, but he barely registered it in favor of this mystery.

"I'm...not sure." he muttered a halfhearted excuse as he continued to try and understand this niggling feeling.

Actually, the story too seemed rather familiar now that he looked at it. Like, not exactly as if he had read the story before, but yet still familiar in that he felt like he had known it of it before now. Like hearing of a story from a friend, forgetting about it, and then sudden stumbling on it by accident a time later. Yet, somehow even more familiar.

It was far too strange. The lines were so familiar it was as if he'd known them all his life, yet he was sure that he'd never seen this manuscript before. Even as he felt his head begin to ache from how hard he was focusing, he just couldn't pin down why it seemed like he should know…

Suddenly, something clicked, and his eyes widened in horrified realization. With quivering lips, he slowly raised his head to ask, "M-Miss Enoshima. Where exactly d-did you find this again?"

Enoshima blinked, but seeing his plight took the time to consider. "Hmm, well, it was in an envelope kinda nestled between some of the painting canvases. Why?"

"I-It's just…this is my art style." Hifumi felt the curiosity fade as a deep rage build up inside of him. "This is the manga I was planning to make!"

"Wait, really? You drew this?" Asahina questioned innocently but with a tone of respect, but he sadly had to rebuke her.

"No, no, no, I only have eyes for Princess Piggles!" He denied fervently as he shook his free hand. "Plus, even though I wanted to do an original piece one day, I don't remember drawing any of this!"

There was only one logical conclusion that he could draw from this, and it was one that only served to infuriate him further. "Someone's been ripping off my style! This is borderline plagiarism!"

"Now, wait a second." Naegi interrupted his tirade with an argument. "Maybe the person who drew this was a fan of your work?"

"Oh, that's right!" Hifumi sighed in relief, thankful for his friend's kindly thoughtfulness. He hadn't thought of that angle. "It's only natural to imitate a creator that you look up to! A lot of amateurs start off that way before they get their own art style."

After all, that was how he'd gotten his start. It hadn't been for very long, you can't really improve if you choose to live only on mimicking others after all, but he couldn't deny that it had helped him starting out as an aspiring artist.

However, that relief was short lived as he resumed looking at the manuscript. No, it wasn't just the similarities that bothered him. It was the fact that whoever had drawn this had done it far too similarly to his own...no, had improved the style in subtle ways that made it technically superior to his own.

"Arrgh!" He shouted as he leaped up, an undeniably jealous rage filling him as he rushed over to the trash can and furiously slam dunked the papers in.

"What are you doing!?" Neagi shouted shocked and appalled by the manga author's actions, but Hifumi was too far gone in his indignation to care.

All this time in this hellhole of a school, forced to go weeks without any of the things he needed to function in a modern society like diet soda and manga, and the first glimmer of light that he found in that darkness was a superior rip off of his own work!? He felt that he should have every right to be upset.

"I'm going to stick this manuscript in the shredder!" he announced furiously, before correcting himself as he lifted the bin in disgust. "No, the incinerator! I'll erase every last trace of it!"

"Whoa, dude! Isn't that a bit extreme?" Kuwata asked, followed by Neagi asking, "Why go that far!?"

Setting the bin down, but not letting go, he turned to them with a fierce glare. "If this...this work that looks so much like my style were to ever get published, if this were to be released into the world… Then everyone's going to think that I'm the copycat!"

"That's so petty!" Kiyotaka exclaimed, but Hifumi scoffed in a rage. Slamming his hands on the bin, he glared at the moral compass with contempt not like him.

"You wouldn't understand! You've never had to go to the pain and agony of having to establish yourself as an original, the coveted crème of the crop of few recognized artisans of the mangaken! In what world is it petty to hate seeing someone stealing your hours of blood and tear soaked work from you, or worse, make your work out to be a forgery!? To see someone take all of your hard work and not only plagiarize it for their own gain, or worse label it as their own, it's enough to destroy a man! That is why these must burn, for the sake of my lively hood!"

Tears were starting to form at the edges of his eyes, but he could care less. He knew that he wasn't worth much in the grand scheme of things. He wasn't fit, he barely passed his health exams as it was. He wasn't smart, he barely could pass his exams. He had nothing of worth to offer a company if he tried to get a job. He would never be able to make a living in the real world and he knew it. Manga was all he had, and making it was all that he could do for the world. Yes, it was petty, but if he didn't get rid of this imitation, then his entire world might end up getting ruined.

"You can't!" Hifumi tripped as the bin was abruptly torn away from him. Flopping onto his large stomach, he was quick to roll himself back onto his knees and turned to look at who would dare to prevent his act of petty justice!

"Asahina Aoi!?" he screeched in shock as she finished wiping of the few crumbs of refuse trash off of the pages and glared at him.

"Didn't you just say that there's not enough fun here?" Asahina shouted as she clutched his nemesis to her chest protectively. "We're shut up in this horrible school, day after day, trying to keep ourselves sane with Monokuma trying to make us kill each other, and when we finally get the first bit of good we've found in this place, you want to burn it!? At least let us read the manga we found!"

Hifumi looked like he had swallowed a lemon. True, he had thought much the same as she had not to long ago, his desperation for something positive almost palpable. Yet, his hope for something to fuel his dwindling outlook had been met with the betrayal of his passion. He could not simply forgive and forget, he couldn't just let that fowl creation that mocked his very livelihood go free. Why couldn't she be this obsessed with his work like this impostor's...?

A spark of realization, followed by a feeling of spiteful determination filled him. His hands clenched tightly and a roar of of lion filled his minds eye. Fine then, "If...If you say so then...I'LL DRAW ONE MYSELF!"

Leaping to his feet with a shout of fury, he swung his hand out dramatically as a fire burned in his eyes. "The blessed art room has collected all of the tools of my craft! In between the manual labor of Monokuma's chores...I, Hifumi Yamada, will work to supply a manga for everyone to enjoy!"

He didn't even stay to hear their replies. He turned on his heel and immediately stormed to his destination without a thought otherwise. He would show them. He would show them all that he was the better manga writer, the better dreamer. He might not have expected it to happen in a place like this, but it would seem that here would be the place that the Ultimate Otaku had his re-debut as the Ultimate Manga Writer! He would show everyone that he was somebody to admire more then a fake ever was!

---

"Well, that escalated quickly."

I noted then took a small sip of my drink as I watched Hifumi run away, admittedly smug at my manipulations finally working as intended for once. I knew that he wouldn't be able to resist my little prank. Like I said before, he was a very material person, a very insecure yet also prideful person, a boy who craved love and support and hated having that taken away from him. He wasn't exactly naive, but he was all too willing to ignore thinking if you stoked his emotions. That meant that, as long as you were careful with your words, it didn't take much to edge him in a direction you wanted.

To think, all it took to remove him from play was to hand him his own manuscript made during his school life and let him make his own misguided conclusions. He ends up just playing himself for a fool more then even that man-child Yasuhiro.

Hifumi, you silly boy, you can't plagiarize yourself.

I can't deny that he certainly has talent though. I barely read more then a few of the pages myself, hard not to when you had to play it convincingly, and I'll admit that he had managed to make me want to see where it was going to go. I'd almost forgotten the plan from how entertained I was reading it. I kinda felt bad for letting Hina and Makoto have it, because I just knew that they would be just as quickly enamored by it and want more just as much.

Well, no matter. Now that he would be kept busy for a while, I had pretty effectively destroyed any possible way that Celeste could kill anyone. It took longer then I had hoped, more then I had originally planned but everything was finally ready. I took away her location for an easy alibi, her patsy, and her target. Though it wasn't part of the plan, I could make use of the changes to my advantage. I made people aware of her motives, her tactics, and her style. I had done everything I could to ruin her plans before they could be put into motion.

Now then, I believe it's time for a motive.

But first, "So, Makoto. What are you planing to use your prize money on?"

---

One more chapter before things begin to get truly serious again, and you know that things are going to go sideways when it does.

So, as someone who had a member of his family commit die, I am more then aware of how triggering it can be to bring up the topic. If it feels like I was blitzing through that part, then that was the reason. I don't like to talk about the topic since it brings up uncomfortable bad memories, but I'm also not afraid to bring it up because I know you can't let those feeling control you. In a way, this was as much me confronting those feelings as it is using it thematically to push the plot forward.

That said, I know the topic can be difficult for those not ready to tackle it, so that's why I put the warning in this one. Story or no, I still want to respect the suffering some people could be going through. I know that I vaguely alluded to it before, but this was me directly confirming that some people suffered in this timeline and detailing it somewhat. I have heard of some people, some of whom are in my own family, who couldn't even finish Danganronpa 2 or hope side of Danganronpa 3 because of these kinds of triggering events, and I do not blame them. So, that is why I chose to put in a hard cut for once, for those who don't wish to see it.

Now then, you may have realized by now, this has been the biggest departure of the timeline thus far. Unlike the previous chapters, this time a fully concocted plan to stop a murder has been built up and implemented. Some of you even realized that much of the actions were to uproot this specific plan of Celeste's well in advance, and I applaud you for realizing.

I wonder how Junko will screw this up?

---

Omake: Just like old times.

"I am going to kill you when I get out of this Makoto, I swear to whatever god is listening."

"Ah, shut it!" I turned to glare at the man who'd dared to tell me off like that, a very heavy set man with thinning black hair, massive jawline, and crooked teeth as he sneered at me through his fat bottom lip. Behind him a similarly potato shaped man laughed obnoxiously as he picked his bulbous red nose with one of his filthy fingers. I assumed they were brothers given the familiar facial shape, though I wasn't certain since the one with a big nose had red hair flopping over his droopy eyes.

Ordinarily I would have socked the man in the throat for telling me what to do, however, I found that to be a rather difficult task at the moment since my arms were currently bound by a thick rope to a creaky, old, wooden chair. My legs were free, amateurs didn't tie them up, but considering that I had a bag full of millions in yen crammed under my chair weighing me down, they probably assumed that would be enough.

"Hey, cousin, Pete." Ah, well never mind. Cousins it is then. "What're we gonna do with this thang any who?"

"Don't you pay any mind when I'm talking to ya!?" The black haired one, Pete I'm assuming. "This here's a genuine Hope's Peak type girly. We sell her to the right person, then we can get even more millions off of her."

The redheaded one laughed obnoxiously, and fondly added, "Just like old times."

Great, and of course, here I was without a phone since these buggers knocked it out of my hand when they'd grabbed me. They had originally been aiming for Makoto, he did look rather kidnappable after all, but he'd miraculously managed to trip over his own feet at the last second and they ended up snagging me in their drive-by snatch and dash.

Figures that the one day I choose not to bring Mukuro, this stupid stuff happens to me. Now I'm stuck in the country side in a ramshackle cottage with a couple burglars and their jalopy as a quick cash grab.

"Well, cousin. Guess I'm gonna put supper on." The redhead stated and then waddled off to the kitchen.

"Yeah, you go do that Zeke." Pete said, and then pulled out a wad of yen from under my chair and started leafing through it. "We'll split the money in the morning, then we're off to the other side of the country."

Bingo. "Whoa, whoa, Pete. Are you kidding right now?"

"Huh? What do you want?" he gruffly asked, and I tried not to gag on his tobacco smelling breath.

"You're seriously just going to let him do that? He seemed awfully happy to be making supper for you guys." I then leaned closer to him and whispered, "What's to say that he wouldn't try to poison the food so that he can take all of the money for himself?"

"Hah!" He scoffed mockingly. "Who, Zeke? That ignoramus wouldn't dare. He knows that he wouldn't be able to get anywhere in life without me, see. I was the one who made the plans and got us all of this cash, he wouldn't dream of getting rid of me. I trust him with my life."

"But do you trust him with several million yen?" I fired back. He opened his mouth to refute, but then the gears started turning and he stayed silent. "I'm just saying, it's an awful large sum you've got me sitting on here. What's to say that, now that you have all of this, he wouldn't suddenly decide that he could get more if you were out of the picture?"

He hesitated, but tried to stubbornly rebuke me. "He would never. He's not smart enough to think of that."

"True." I agreed readily, but then leaned in again with a serious, "But, can you say he's not dumb enough to try?"

The furrows of his brow lowered, the seeds of doubt already growing as he seriously considered that angle. It didn't take long before his beady eyes turned to glare at the kitchen door where the clinking of plates and cutlery could be heard. Suddenly, he stood up and began to stomp to the kitchen as he rolled up his sleeves.

A few seconds after he vanished around the door frame, Zeke flew out of the kitchen and crashed into the couch next to me, upside down with his arms extended over his head. Oof, nice throw.

As gravity exerted itself and his round belly flopped onto his chin, he somewhat casually noted, "Guess cousin Pete's going to be cooking tonight then."

"Hmm, I wonder why he's so insisted on making supper tonight?" I "pondered" out loud, before straightening up with a "revelation". "Oh! Maybe he's going to poison the food so that he can take all the money for himself."

Zeke didn't even take the time to consider it, he just stated with restrained fury, "Just like old times." then rolled over and marched right back into the kitchen. I rolled my eyes as I continued to try and saw the rope away on the rough part of the chair, while the sounds of fighting and various plates smashing could be heard in the background.

A couple of hours later found the three of us all surrounding a small feast at the crooked dining table. I think it was to keep an eye on me, but I found it funny that they had me at where the head of the table would be as they stared each other down at the larger sides with the most forced grins on their faces I'd seen yet.

"What's the matter, Zeke? You should have something to eat, it's going to be a big day tomorrow." Pete offered in the most threatening tone you could hide behind a smile.

"Oh, no, I insist. After you, cousin." Zeke offered with a shake of his head and hands as he offered a rice ball.

"Oh, really?" Pete questioned before slamming his hands on the table and roaring. "After you poisoned it!"

"I did not!" Zeke defended just as loudly.

"Gee, I would sure hate to have to eat poisoned food. It's too bad you guys don't have someone expendable to act as a poison tester, huh?" I want to say that I was laying it on pretty thick, but from the sight of them suddenly smiling at each other, I realized that I truly was dealing with morons.

"Oh yeah, this is poisoned." I stated through the last mouthful of the roasted chicken Pete shoved into my mouth. I quickly chewed, swallowed, then took a big bite out of the rice ball Zeke put in front of my face. Oh, it had fish in it! "Oh yeah, definitely, definitely poisoned."

I swallowed, then hiccuped, and then slumped forward with a choking sound. That was all it took for Pete to fly off the handle with a shout, "I knew it! You food poisoner!"

I poignantly ignored them brawling out it the corner of the room as I slowly sat up and leaned over to take a sip of the soda they'd set out. Not my preferred brand, but it helped get the lump of rice out of my throat. "Do you guys have any soy sauce?"

A few hours later, once they'd finally gotten over their squabble, it had gotten late, so they had taken me to their bedroom and set me up between their beds. I was momentarily worried that they were going to try something untoward me for that last stunt, but they'd apparently beaten any such thought out during diner as they went straight to bed, tired, bruised, and battered.

"Cousin, I'm hungry." Zeke moaned pathetically in his bed, nursing his swollen jaw.

"We're all hungry!" His cousin snapped back as he roughly turned on his creaky bed to glare at him.

I know it wasn't in my best interests, but I couldn't help but comment, "Oh, not me. I'm stuffed."

"Yeah, well stuff it!" Pete snapped at my smug grin. Not my fault these idiots decided to keep feeding me everything until there wasn't barely anything left. I only offered to taste test, yet these morons just kept going. They didn't even have the guts to actually poison any of it first.

"We've got a big day tomorrow, and we've got to get our shut eye." As he flipped over to face the wall, he missed my smug grin grow wider.

"Of course. After all, I'm certain that no one would try to steal everything and run off in the middle of the night while the other was trying to sleep." They were dead silent for a moment, and I had to resist the urge to laugh when they simultaneously sat up and turned to glare at each other with suspicion and malicious intent in their eyes.

While they were doing that, I casually reached over with my one hand that I'd freed during diner, and pulled the cord on the lamp, plunging to room into darkness.

The next morning, I awoke with a yawn. My back felt a bit stiff from sleeping tied to a chair all night, but overall I'd gotten a decent rest. As I looked at the other two, however, I could see that it wasn't the case for them.

Both of them had deep set bags under their bloodshot eyes as they glared completely exhausted at each other. At some point they must have gotten up and grabbed some tape, because they had strips on their upper eyelids to keep them open. Also, both of their chins had some stubble now. I guess they grew it well.

There was also a broken bat roughly split almost in two on Pete's head, while Zeke had the remains of a broom broken on his. They also both had a share of bruises that they hadn't the night before. No idea when that happened, so I must have slept through some kind of dispute between them.

"Morning fellas. Sleep well?" I quipped, to which they slowly turned their glares towards me ominously. They said nothing, but I could feel the threads of their mental state fraying behind their exhaustion.

Eventually, Pete broke the staring contest first as the tape snapped. "Oh, enough of this. Once we split the dough, I say we get out of here before anything else goes wrong."

"Yeah, I'd…drink to that." Zeke yawned as he scraped what little energy he could afford to drag me and my chair after them, the broken tools left behind us.

Once more at the dining table, Pete began to pull out wads of yen from the sack. "Now let me see here. Two hundred for me, and one hundred for Zeke..."

Immediately Zeke caught his hand. "Hey! We agreed to fifty, fifty."

"Of course we did." Pete tiredly tried to talk, annoyed at being caught cheating or at being interrupted I could only guess. "I was trying to make sure that you were paying attention."

"Well, why do you get to count the money?" Zeke continued, completely distrustful as he pulled the hand full of bank notes closer. "Maybe I should count it."

"You can't count, that's the reason why you failed the first grade three times." Pete countered, his voice slowly raising in volume as he pulled back with a sneer.

"I did not! Besides, it was the third grade, and you know it!" Zeke fired back just as loud. "Admit it, you're trying to cheat me, just like old times!"

"Oh yeah, well how do I know you wouldn't try to cheat me, you cheater!?" Pete was now shouting as he slammed his hands on the table and stood up to which Zeke did the same as they glared bloody murder at each other.

"Gee, if only you guys had someone who had nothing to gain that could count the money for you and insure that everything was fair." I interjected sarcastically, knowing that their exhaustion addled minds wouldn't pick up on it. Once again gears were turning, and they decided that that person would be me.

Suckers.

So, now free from my bindings and with a bag of money to count, I stood between the two of them and began.

"Alright, one for Pete, one for Zeke. One, two, three for Zeke, three for Pete. One, two, three, four for Pete, minus one, then three for Zeke. Three, four, five for Zeke, minus two, give three to Pete. Three times four, for Pete, minus two, then ten for Zeke..." What? I said I would count it fairly, not that I wouldn't give them a headache trying to keep up.

"Hey! He's getting more then me!" Zeke incorrectly stated, to which Pete correctly shouted, "I am not!"

"Hey, fellas." I held up my hands in a placating way. "Hear me out, why don't we just go to the bank and get them to count it for us."

So tired were they, that they agreed with barely a thought. So, after a brief few moments to gather their stuff and cram the bag into the back seat, I took the keys, climbed into the driver's seat and closed the door. "Come on in, boys. You guys can hop in the back and take some time to rest on the way. I'll take care of the drive."

Yawning deeply, they climbed into the back seat with barely a thought to how weird the situation was. They both flopped against the fat sack of cash and used it as a pillow, passing right out within a few short seconds. With that done, I started up the jalopy and, after a brief moment of start up trouble as it backfired a few times, began the drive back to the city.

It took me a couple of hours to navigate the winding streets of the country side and to reach the city limits, but I did my best to mange and not wake the two sleeping stooges in the back. I didn't need to worry though, they continued to saw logs the entire trip through it all. Eventually, I managed to pull up to my chosen destination and parked the vehicle at the curb with expert precision.

"Okay, fellas. Wakey, wakey." I nudged them both awake. They snorted as they abruptly woke up, but they groggily wiped the sand from their eyes and clambered out of the junk heap with their stolen gain kept between them as they followed me up the stairs and into the building I'd brought them too.

Pete glanced around with his mind still fuzzy from the events till now, his mind struggling to really put together where it was I had taken them, but the moment the doors closed behind us, it finally clicked why something didn't feel right and his eyes shot wide open as he looked at the dozens of officers in uniform mulling about. "Wait a second. This place is full of cops!"

Hearing this, Zeke's eyes also shot open in realization, but before they could bolt out of the police station I'd taken them too, I quickly rushed to a door and pulled it open. "Quick, in here!"

Completely lost in their fear of getting caught, they both scrambled after me down the hall and through a few sets of doors until we reached a room split down the middle with iron bars. Quickly I threw open the door and gestured inside. "Here, hide in there before they catch on! And put on these disguises so they don't they recognize you."

I tossed them some orange uniforms to wear to which they were quick to strip down to their undergarments and stuffed their normal clothes in the bag of loot. While they were getting dressed, I quickly took the bag and stepped out, closing and locking the door behind me.

Panting at the quick and daring action, the two turned to me with a thankful look in their eyes for saving them from what could have been a horrible situation. Said thankfulness quickly died as they looked at me through those black bars, saw my cruel smile as I hefted the heavy sack over my shoulder and gave them a sarcastic salute, realized where they where and what they were wearing, and finally put two and two together.

"Hey, cousin Pete? I think we've been had." Zeke calmly observed as he lightly waved goodbye as I walked away with their, now very much mine, stolen gain.

Pete was not so calm. "DOH! This is all your fault!"

"No, it is not!" Zeke's rebuttal shouted as they started throwing hands behind me as I closed the door with a laugh. With that, I casually waltzed out of the station with a big fat smile splitting my face as I gave one of the confused meter maid officers writing a ticket for the illegally parked jalopy a cheeky salute. As I carried my bag, I happened to spot someone out of the corner of my eyes and my smile grew even bigger.

"Hey, Makoto! How's it hanging?" said luckster turned from the officer he'd been talking to and stared at me in complete shock.

"Junko!?" he shouted as he ran over to me with a look of concern. "H-How!? When…!?"

"What, were you concerned about me?" I questioned. Then shoved the bag into his hands. "Tell you what, you help me get this bag of laundry back home, and I'll tell you all about it."

"Laundry?" he asked as he briefly opened the top and saw the worn and very much far too big clothes. "Why do you have this?"

I instead of answering, I closed the bag with a dangerous smile and forced it back into his hands before wrapping a friendly arm around his shoulders and neck as I walked him away. "Don't worry about it. Let's go back to the dorms and hang out together, just like old times."

"Junko, you're starting to scare me."

"Just like old times."

"You're starting to… you're choking me. Junko! Gack!"

"Just like old times."