Monaca Towa enjoys her summer vacation!
He glanced at the clock hanging above the TV. Another twenty minutes until he had to go pick up Monaca.
He looked back at the TV; the credits of the final season of "The Bomb Inside Her" were rolling down the screen. He glanced at Komaru, who was sitting next to him on the couch; she was staring at the TV with an expression of disbelief.
"… What just happened," she muttered.
"I mean, I think it's pretty obvious what happened," he said. "Shota came back to life and got together with Yumi."
"B-But that goes against everything the story was leading up to! All the hints in the show were clearly setting up Yumi with Motomoto! The character development, the plotlines, everything was thrown out the window to set up such a terrible ending!"
"I wouldn't say the ending was that terrible. Motomoto got together with Yoko, the villain became good, and all the side plots got resolved."
Komaru stared at him, a mixture of disbelief and curiosity on her face. "Did we even watch the same show? The ending didn't make any sense; why did Yumi forgive the villain so easily? Did she forget about all the horrible things he did?"
"I mean he had a terrible life and he looked really sad an—"
"He placed bombs in her Makoto, bombs! How would you feel if someone placed bombs in you?"
"I would feel pretty mad I guess…"
"Exactly! In this season alone he tried to bomb Shota's house, almost killed Motomoto with a butter knife, and he blackmailed Yoko to try and kill Yumi. Yeah, his life was bad, but that doesn't really excuse all of his actions."
This conversation was bringing to mind a certain little sister of his. He couldn't deny that Monaca had done some pretty awful stuff in the past, like blackmailing him for one. Her actions at the school event had put his friends in a sour mood for a week, and the way she talked about her own friends—as if they were nothing but her playthings—was unpleasant.
He still didn't even know much about her. Whenever he tried to ask her something personal she would lie, ridicule him, or pretend to not hear the question at all. The two things he did know were her interest in technology, and that the mere mention of the Towa Group would enrage her.
… But he still kept trying to get her to change. If there was one good thing about him he could be awfully determined in the most demoralising situations. His attempts so far just made her ridicule him for it, but he persisted.
And recently, it seemed to be paying off. She stopped punishing him for any small mistake she perceived he had done, and started to give him stickers instead as a sort of reward for his behaviour. He had received a total of nineteen stickers from her, and at twenty she would do something nice for him, or so she said.
She was changing, slower than he would have liked, but changing nonetheless. He even felt that he was starting to enjoy hanging around with her.
… Or he might just be developing Stockholm syndrome. Crap, he really hoped that wasn't the case.
"You're right that his actions so far shouldn't be ignored so easily," he said. "And he should have received some sort of punishment for his crimes…"
"See!"
"But if he makes an effort to atone from now on, a genuine effort to become better than the person he was in the past, then l think he deserves forgiveness."
Komaru just groaned. "That would be nice, if not for the fact that this was the last season. We're never going to see him develop into a better person after this."
"Yeah… that's kinda bad."
"I can't believe I wasted so many hours of my life watching this garbage…" Komaru let out an angry yell and sprang up from the couch. "But the manga is still ongoing, so there's still hope that the ending will be good."
She smiled a little at him. "At least I found out my brother's the kindest person in the world. There's really nothing anyone can do to make you hate them."
He scratched the back of his head. "I guess that's sort of true…"
"Anyways, I'm going to rest for a bit in my room and hope I forget everything I've just watched. You're going to pick up Monaca soon?"
"In another ten minutes."
"Make sure you two get back home safely, okay?"
"Yeah, I will."
Komaru departed to her room. He looked back at the clock.
Was he really that nice?
He had been here a few times before, and yet he still couldn't help himself from examining the house in front of him. A double-storey house painted white all around, with a small garage on the bottom left, a window on the bottom right, another window on the top left, and a balcony on the top right.
It looked so… ordinary. It wasn't a bad home by all means; it kinda resembled his house a bit. But for someone as famous as Junko, he thought she would have lived in a more extravagant home, something like those mansions he would see on TV.
Maybe it was for the best though; the press would find it hard to believe that Junko Enoshima would live here. The only people who knew such information were her friends in class seventy-eight.
"Well what do we have here?" a voice said in front of him. He directed his gaze to the smiling girl leaning on the doorway. "To what do I owe the pleasure of for such a visit?"
"Uh, hi Junko," he replied. "I'm here to pick up Monaca." He approached the doorway.
"Oh, you're approaching me?" Junko said, her smile growing wider. "Instead of running away, you're coming right to me?"
"Um, I can't talk to you properly without getting closer?"
"Oh ho! Then come as close as you like."
Junko walked back into the house, cackling all the way. He had to admit that Junko could… be a bit strange sometimes with her eccentric personality. But she was still a precious friend of his, so he wouldn't judge her for that. Everybody had their quirks right?
He entered the house, taking off his shoes at the entrance before stepping into the living room. Junko was sitting at a table, leaning in her chair with her feet up. Lying on the table were combat knives, serving as a reminder that there was another friend of his living here.
"Where's Mukuro?" he asked.
"She's taking a walk outside," Junko replied. "She needed a little fresh air from the stench in here."
"I don't smell anything though."
"Exactly. Do you want anything to drink?"
"No, it's fine. I'm just here to pick up Monaca." Speaking of Monaca, she wasn't in the living room. "Where is she at the moment?"
"She's in the backyard with her friends. Why are you in such a hurry Makoto? Are you so keen to leave my presence?"
"N-No it's not like that! I just don't want to disturb you at this time."
Junko grinned. "You're such a worrywart; we're friends, aren't we? Just sit down and relax!"
"If you say so…" He sat down on the seat opposite Junko. "So uh, how's your anime project coming along?"
"Oh, it's going splendidly!" Junko answered. "Much better than I predicted. In a couple of weeks, the pilot should be finished."
"That's good to hear," he said. She had been working on this project for a little over a month was what she told him, and it was so important to her that she skipped a couple of school days just to work on it. "Maybe you should show it to me, let me give my opinion on it."
"Well… I don't think you're the type of audience I had in mind for my anime."
"Oh? What kind of audience did you have in mind?"
"The kind that is a bit… unimportant, I guess?"
That was a weird way to describe her audience.
"For you Makoto, I'm preparing something a lot more special than my anime, something ten times better! You better look forward to it."
"I guess I will. I still would have liked to see it."
"Who knows, you might get to see it someday."
"Maybe. I'm sure Monaca would have been delighted to watch it."
Junko dropped her legs off the table and leaned forward to place both of her hands under her chin. With a curious look on her face, she asked, "You sure care a lot about her huh? You two must be very close."
"Ehh, not exactly..." he said.
"Can I ask you a personal question?"
"Sure."
"Have you noticed anything strange about Monaca?"
"Uh, like what?"
Junko crossed her arms. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed? The way your sister behaved around people feels like she's acting in a cheap school play. Why is that?"
Damn, nothing could get past her. Despite her title, her observational skills were on par or even beyond Kyoko's own.
"To be honest with you, I don't really know why she's like this. She never really opened herself up to me, or to anyone from what I've seen."
"I see. That leaves you only one option."
"What?"
"It's time to do some fuckin' detective work!" Her sudden shout caused him to flinch back. "Have ya checked her room at all Makoto?"
"N-Not really? She set up a rule where I'm not allowed to enter at all."
"Fuck that, do it anyway! Rules were meant to be broken in life."
"I can't just go into her room without her permission, that's a breach of trust and privacy."
"It's for her own good," Junko said. "You're the big brother, and brothers are supposed to look out for their sisters' right?"
"Bu—"
"You said it yourself; she doesn't talk about herself much at all. How long has it been already, a month, half a year? What if she was planning something terrible behind your back, the biggest most awful thing you could imagine, and you could have stopped her if you had only broken that one rule back then? Are you still willing to wait now?"
… He didn't know what to say.
Junko chuckled. "Drop that gloomy look on your face Makoto; I'm only joking! As if Monaca can be that cruel. She's just a kid!"
"Y-Yeah…"
Junko's expression became serious. "Still, take my advice to heart. It's nice and all to wait for things to happen naturally, but sometimes ya just gotta take the initiative."
He heard the familiar sound of a wheelchair nearby. The sound grew louder, and Monaca appeared in the living room. She looked around, glancing past the two, before doing a double-take.
"Oh, you're here Big Bro," Monaca said, eyeing them with a smile. "Is Monaca interrupting something?"
"No, we were just chatting for a while," he replied. "Ready to go home?"
"Is it time already? Monaca would have liked to stay a little longer…" Monaca looked at Junko, who gave a little wave.
"You have school tomorrow," he said. "Besides next week's your summer vacation, so you'll have plenty of time to visit."
"Can't I just skip school then?"
"No."
Monaca shrugged. "Fine, fine, Monaca will go to school. See you next week Big Sis Junko!"
"See ya Monaca!" Junko replied, watching the girl go out of the front door. She turned to him. "And Makoto…"
"Yeah?"
"Keep it in mind okay?"
He nodded, saying goodbye to Junko as he met up with Monaca outside. Like in the past weeks, he placed his hands behind her wheelchair and started the walk home.
"What were you talking about Makoto?" Monaca asked.
"Nothing really, just school stuff," he lied. "How was today?"
"The same as every other day. Monaca hung around her boring toys while wishing she was with Junko instead."
"Monaca, remember what I said about referring to others…"
"Yes, yes, treat others the way you want to be treated. That doesn't make it any less true though."
He sighed, a thing that was becoming far more common than he would have liked. "At the very least, you really warmed up to Junko over the past weeks."
"That's because she's such a fascinating person! The way she changes personalities at the drop of a hat, how knowledgeable she is of the world… I never get bored around her. You really should have introduced me to her sooner; she's way better than all of your friends! No offense to doughnut girl, but she's a bit too active for my taste."
"Her name's Hina."
"Whatever."
He would like it if she remembered Hina's name, but he was pleased that Monaca wanted to hang out with one of his friends, for real this time. Junko hadn't said anything bad about her yet, so he knew she was behaving herself. Everything was alright at the moment.
… And yet his conversation with Junko kept repeating in his head. He didn't want to doubt her, not when she was showing signs of improvement, but what if this was all an act? She had shown in the past that she was willing to do bad things if it amused her, and it was suspicious how "nice" she became to him out of the blue. Was she actually planning something behind his back?
"… Hey Monaca, can I ask you a question?" he asked
"Of course Big Bro," Monaca replied, "as long as it's not stupid."
"Are you happy at the moment?"
"I thought I said no stupid questions."
"I mean, are you happy with your life right now?"
"… I guess."
That didn't relieve him at all.
"Maybe this is a bad idea…" he whispered to himself.
He was standing outside Monaca's room, his former room to be exact, with a hand on the doorknob. He twisted it, and as he expected the door was locked. He had no idea where she hid the key, but this wasn't a problem because…
He took out a key from his pocket. It was lucky he had ten copies of the key made for emergencies. He entered the key into the keyhole, turned it, and opened the door.
He scanned his former room; it looked pretty much the same as it was before he was kicked out. Around this time Monaca should be at Junko's place for about an hour, so better make this quick.
If he was Monaca, where would he hide his plans…
… He had no idea, so he decided to search the wardrobe first. He opened it up and the first thing that caught his eye was a yellow package, stuffed all the way at the back of the top shelf.
Huh, that was easy. He reached in and grabbed the package, opening it up to take a peek at the contents within. There were photos inside, so he took one out to examine it.
The picture showed a man in a suit who he recognised as Tokuichi Towa, eating at a table with other people dressed like him. He checked the back of the photo; written on it was a date along with the sentence, "dumb executive meeting with his like-minded friends."
Yeah, this wasn't creepy at all. He took out another photo; this one displayed someone else talking to a group of teenagers. He checked the back; "Pervert caught hitting on girls too young for him" was written on it.
"They do look really youn— No, got to stay focused!" He examined another photo, and another. Every single one depicted one of the men engaged in an activity. It was becoming very clear that these photos weren't for anything good, but what was he supposed to do with them? Should he confront Monaca about it? Maybe it would be better to tell Junko first, get her opinion before doing anything reck—
—Okay, he had been trying to ignore it ever since he opened the wardrobe, but what was that smell?! There was some sort of weird odour coming from somewhere around the wardrobe; a weird mixture of perfume mixed with the smell of something rotten.
He placed the package on his desk and checked the entirety of the wardrobe, holding his breath all the way. He found nothing, so he closed it. The smell still persisted, and the only place he hadn't checked yet was the back. He didn't want to though; his mind kept bringing up images of dead animals. He doubted that Monaca would keep a dead carcass around the house, but if she was willing to kill then…
He shook away those thoughts. He was just being paranoid. Monaca could be cruel, but to go as far as to take a life? He was giving her the benefit of the doubt.
Mustering up the courage, he turned the wardrobe around to look at the back. Taped on the back of the wardrobe was a notebook, ragged and covered with stains of varying colours. He reached for the notebook, but midway he changed his mind and left the room to search for rubber gloves and a hygiene mask. Once he got those on he returned and grabbed the notebook.
He flipped it. Through the stains, he could make out the title, "Monaca's Diary," at the top. In the middle was a little cartoon Monaca with the words "Everyone Loves" above its head, and the word "Monaca!" at the bottom.
He turned to the first page.
Siiiigh…
I finally got into Hope's Peak Elementary School, but I didn't expect things to be this dull. Passing all those tests only to do even more work? I think I would rather sleep forever actually. The teacher gave us these notebooks to write down our thoughts and feelings, but I don't really understand. Wouldn't that leave you vulnerable to blackmail? Is the teacher trying to promote weakness?
Eh, who cares. I finally have something to draw all of my wonderful inventions in! I'll have to hide this from everyone in the orphanage, someplace where they won't dare to look. The dumpsters would be the perfect place for that!
I still don't get the whole write down your feelings, but I'm booooored so I'll give it a try. If someone other than me reads this then I'll find a way to get rid of them, permanently.
He gulped and turned over to the next page. The right side contained a drawing of a van in space, titled "The Neet Express." For a drawing it was very detailed, maybe a bit much in his opinion. If you showed this to anyone he wouldn't blame them if they thought an engineer drew this.
The left side contained more writing.
The teacher assigned us into groups today to work on a poster. Monaca could have done the whole thing herself, but she graciously let the others do most of the work.
Monaca was stuck with four other kids whose names she can't be bothered to remember. There was a red-haired boy who kept boasting about how cool he was, a pink-haired girl who loved to tallllk a lot, a blue-haired boy who did the work as fast as possible, and some creep.
I don't like them, but they look like fun toys! I'll test them out in a week and see what happens.
He flipped to the next page.
I got punished today.
That was it, just one sentence on a single page. The next page had the same thing. He flipped again.
I got punished today.
He flipped several pages in and stopped at random.
Kya kya kya kyaaan! Luck was finally on the side of Monaca! I've finally escaped from the orphanage, much sooner than I anticipated, but I'm not complaining. No more cold meals, no more of my stuff being stolen, no more beatings disguised as "training" and no more misspellings of my name! That last part I'm really thankful for; it gets so tiring correcting idiots who won't learn.
I probably shouldn't be celebrating this early; I still don't know what my adoptive family's planning for me. Maybe I'll be stuck in the same situation as before, endless "training" with no end in sight. Nothing ever going right for little Monaca…
But I can't help it. For the first time, I might actually feel happiness in my dull, pathetic life. Besides, after two weeks I think I got a good feeling about this family. The mother and father seem gullible enough; the daughter was just stupid, and the son even stupider! I'll set up a prank sometime in the future; see how far I can get away with.
Monaca Naegi… The name doesn't sound right. Monaca Towa wasn't any better, but it fits me. As much as I hated them The Towa family were my real family. The family here was temporary, a means to an end towards my goal.
All that's left to do was wait. I just need to get into Hope's Peak Academy, get my father to recognise me, and then…
I'll figure the rest out.
Oh… Guess this explained why the Towa Group was such a picky subject for her. He skipped ahead to the latest entry.
After pondering for several days now I've finally thought of the perfect idea! I'd like to give a biiiig thank you to Big Sis Junko! The discussion we had today was such an inspiration. Monaca's super-duper high school plan can finally come to fruition! Now the details of this plan ar—
"Having fun reading Big Bro?"
He froze. Oh no no no n—
He turned around. Monaca was standing at the door, a smile on her face as she watched him.
"H-Hello Monaca," he said. "You're back early…"
"Indeed I am Makoto," she replied. "Big Sis Junko wasn't home today, so Big Sis Mukuro drove me back here. Just when I thought I was having a bad day I find Big Bro snooping around in my room like a criminal. I'm going to have to reduce your sticker count to zero for this."
She glanced at the diary in his hand. "I see that you've found out my secret Makoto."
"S-Secret?"
Monaca started giggling; she placed her hands on the wheelchair, lifted herself up…
And placed both feet on the ground, standing tall in front of him.
"Yes, it is as you've read," Monaca proclaimed. "I, Monaca, can walk the entire time!"
He dropped the diary. Yep, now he had seen everything.
"… Why do you look so surprised? I know that this might be a shock, but it shouldn't be that big of a deal."
"Y-You can walk!"
"Um, yeah I can. Didn't you read that part in my diary?"
"N-No… I uh, skipped ahead…"
Monaca looked dumbfounded. "Oh… this is embarrassing. Let's pretend this never happened okay?"
Monaca walked (god he still couldn't believe it) towards him, picking up the diary from the ground.
"I really need to find a better hiding spot for this. How much have you read?"
"Uh, the first page, the second page, a little bit of the middle, and a bit of the last page."
"Really, you couldn't be bothered to read it in order? I don't know if I should be happy or sad at that."
"Well, I— Wait that's not the point!"
He went and grabbed the package of photos. He took one out to show it to Monaca. "Why do you have these photos?!"
"It's for a school project," she replied.
"Do you really expect me to believe that?"
"It was worth a shot. But to be honest this doesn't concern you at all. Why don't you put that back where it belongs and get out."
He shook his head. "No. If you're planning something horrible then I won't stand by and let it happen."
Monaca sighed and placed a hand into her skirt pocket. She fumbled around in it for a while, but she eventually took out an item and held it up to him
"Must I remind you that your hands are tied?" she waved her phone in front of him. "As long as I have the blackmail photos you can't do anything against me."
"I don't care. I'm not going to sit by if you're planning to hurt people."
"… You're just so full of surprises. Who would have thought that Makoto had the backbone to stand up to me? But think reallll carefully about this; this is your future we're talking about here."
Monaca walked back and sat down in her wheelchair. She wasn't smiling anymore. "I'll let you off the hook this time. Now please, the door's this way."
He stood where he was for a moment, but he placed the photos back on the desk and followed her order. He didn't want things to end like this, but she was right. As long as she had those photos he couldn't do anything. Better think this through before doing anything rash.
He had a foot out the door until Monaca called, "Oh, by the way. Why did you decide to sneak into my room? It seems out of character for a boy scout like you."
Should he tell her Junko gave him the idea? No, better keep her out of it.
"I just decided to that's all," he lied.
"Hmm, turn around."
He turned. She was scrutinising him as she asked, "Did someone ask you to do this?"
He hoped those poker face lessons from Celeste paid off. "No, I thought of this myself."
"… I see. That's all I wanted to ask. Close the door on the way out."
He stepped out and closed the door. He took out his phone and dialled a number as he walked to the living room.
"Hello?" Junko answered.
"Junko, are you busy at the mo—"
There was a scream on the other end of the phone, loud enough that he moved the phone far away from his ear.
"Wh-What was that?!" he asked once the scream had stopped.
"Oh uh, that? I'm… just watching a horror movie that's all."
"That sounded awfully real though."
"It's a very good horror movie."
"Are you at the cinemas? I'll call you back la—"
"No, no, it's fine!" Junko interrupted. "I'm uh, in my own private cinema, so there's no one here but me. What did you want to talk about?"
"It's about Monaca."
"Oh! What did you find?"
"I found an envelope of photos showing the chairman of the Towa Group and his son. Did you know anything about this?"
"Yeah about that… Promise me you won't get mad okay?"
"I promise."
"I'm the one who took those photos."
"… Why exactly?"
"I mean it just happened in the heat of the moment ya know? Monaca and I were just having a nice little conversation until I bought up the Towa Group. Then suddenly she looked at me all serious and was like 'Big Sis Junko, can you do me a huuuge favour since you're obviously the most amazing and gorgeous person in the world?' And I was like 'Why of course Monaca, I would do it since I am the most amazing and gorgeous person in the world.' What else was I supposed to say?"
"Uh, you could have said no."
"But she had such an adorable face when she asked that I couldn't refuse. Besides, I knew that this was a totally creepy thing to do. That's why I asked you to check her room in the first place."
"True…"
"See, I'm totally innocent! I was just a poor bystander forced into doing a gross action, so there's no reason to get mad at me."
"I… guess?" He wasn't really in agreement with Junko's thinking, but she did try to make up for it in a way?
"Have you found out what's she planning to do with those photos?" Junko asked.
"No, I was about to until I was caught."
"That's a shame. What are you going to do now, are you going to ground her or something?"
"I can't really do anything against her because of… personal reasons. Do you have any ideas?"
"Hmm, how about you let her stay with me?"
"I don't thi—"
"I'm not asking you to let me adopt her," Junko clarified. "Just let her stay with me for about… a week. By my calculations, spending one hundred and sixty-eight hours around Junko Enoshima will lead her down the right path."
It wasn't that bad of an idea. Junko might be the only person that Monaca actually liked, so there was a good chance that she'd stop whatever she was planning if Junko was the one talking to her.
"… Let me think about it for a bit," he said. While it was a good idea, he felt it was a bit unfair to let Junko handle his problem. He had to at least try to solve this himself before letting his friend handle it.
"If that's what you want…" Junko replied, with a hint of disappointment in her voice. "Give me a call if you changed your mind."
"Will do." He said goodbye to Junko and hung up. Now then, he should call the others next for their opinions. He dialled Kyoko's number first…
This was harder than he thought.
He finished his fifty-eighth lap around the fountain and decided to sit down at a nearby bench. His friends couldn't give him any advice since he had to omit a ton of background information. His little walk around the fountain didn't spark any ideas either and just resulted in sore legs.
"Maybe I should let Junko handle it…" he muttered. He felt bad at letting a friend handle what was his problem, but at the moment he couldn't think of anything else he could do.
"To think that I'd meet someone like you here, today must be my lucky day."
He was startled out of his thoughts by the voice nearby. He looked to his left; there was a teenager wearing the Hope's Peak Academy uniform. He must have been daydreaming pretty hard if he didn't notice the boy standing a few centimetres from him.
"Oh, where are my manners," the teenager said, offering a handshake. "Nagito Komaeda."
He accepted the handshake. "Nice to meet you. I'm—"
"Makoto Naegi."
"Y-Yeah… have we met before?"
"Not in person, but I know a bit about you from personal research and from our class representative. Her name's Chiaki Nanami. You two have met before yes?"
Ah, now he knew why his name seemed familiar. Chiaki mentioned before that there was another student with the same talent as him.
"… Umm, you can let go of my hand now."
Nagito let go of his hand. "Ah yes, sorry. I was too preoccupied with your brilliance that I forgot."
"Okay… Didn't you bomb the academy gym?" he asked.
"Hahaha, well… that's a long story. I wouldn't want to bore you with the details, so the short answer is yes, I did. But it was for the best after all. If my classmate's talents were able to shine the brightest due to my actions, then I have no regrets."
"I… think I understand?"
"I'm glad you do! You truly are one of the symbols of hope to be able to understand someone as worthless as me. After my little stunt I got suspended indefinitely, got into a plane crash—"
"Wait what."
"My plane crashed. I decided to take a vacation during my suspension, but unfortunately, the plane I was on crashed. I was left stranded on a desert island for days."
"D-Did anyone else survived?"
"No, I was the only survivor. It was lucky that a nearby plane flew by and spotted my signal, else I might have been stuck there for a year."
"That must have been horrible for you…"
"I guess, but I think that's enough talk about me."
Nagito sat next to him. "Let's talk about you! I couldn't help but notice that you seem to be troubled."
He guessed it wouldn't hurt to see what Nagito had to say about his situation, so he told him an abridged version of his dilemma.
"I see," Nagito said, a hand under his chin. "So from my understanding you believe your adopted sister is planning something sinister, but you can't do anything against her due to reasons?"
"Yeah that's the gist of it," he said.
"While this is truly a dilemma, I'm sure someone with your talent will be able to overcome this challenge!"
"I'm glad you think that, but I really can't think of any other options except for the one proposed by my friend."
"And you don't want to use that idea because you feel it's a bit selfish…"
Nagito reached into his jacket pocket, taking out a pen and a piece of paper. He wrote on it and handed it to him. He checked it; written on the paper was an address.
"I think I've got an idea," Nagito said. "Are you free tomorrow?"
"I am," he replied. "Why?"
"I would like you and your adopted sister to come to this address."
"Is this your house?"
"Something like that."
Nagito got up from the bench. "I'm going to set things up for tomorrow. Farewell for now!"
"Wait! You don't have to trouble yourself by helping me. I mean this is my pro—"
"I know, I know," Nagito interrupted. "You don't want to drag anyone into your affairs. Truly admirable, as expected from someone of your talent! But don't worry Makoto; I'm only going to set the stage for your trial."
"Bu—"
He started to walk away from him. "Just think of this as a stepping stone!" he said, and soon disappeared from his view.
He stared back at the paper in his hand. He felt a bit uneasy going to someplace he had never been before, but Nagito really looked like he wanted to help him. He'd go meet up with him tomorrow, and see what he had planned.
The only thing he had to do was convince Monaca to come with him…
"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Monaca said.
"Yeah, this is the right way," he replied.
"Sure it is Big Bro, just like how it was the right way to walk around in circles five minutes earlier."
"This time I know we're going the right way."
He pushed the wheelchair forward. He had no idea how he did it, but he managed to convince Monaca to come with him for today.
"Why did you decide to come today?" he asked.
"You're asking now?" Monaca said. "Monaca didn't want to at first, especially after the unforgivable thing Big Bro did. But from how desperate he looked Monaca felt a bit intrigued to see what he was planning today. You're not planning to kill me are you?"
"What!"
"Just kidding! Although if you are planning to kill me make sure my death's a bit memorable."
"No, that's not— I'm not planning to do anything bad to you Monaca. We're just going to meet an acquaintance of mine."
"Figures. I've hung around with you long enough to know that you won't take the easiest solution to your problem. A little talking to won't change my mind y'know."
"Well, let's just see what happens."
A few more steps and they were at their destination. He took out the piece of paper to double-check the address. He looked at the house in front of him, then at the paper, at the house again, then at the paper.
"A-Are you sure this is the place?" Monaca asked.
"I-I'm pretty sure it is," he said.
"Is this a pyramid scheme? Have you been scammed Makoto?"
"I don't think so…"
The two-storey house in front of them was by no means old; it was a lot more modern than the houses he saw in the neighbourhood. It was just that the house might… have seen better days, to put it lightly.
There was a small gate that separated the two from the house. He touched it, and the gate collapsed in front of them.
"Real nice place you brought us to," Monaca said. "The paint's peeling off, the window at the bottom left is boarded, there's a dead rat festering over there in the crack… truly a place fitting for this acquaintance of yours."
The front door of the house opened. "Makoto, you actually came!" Nagito called out. He strolled over to them, stepping over the pieces of broken glass that lay in his path.
"Why wouldn't I?"
"I thought you would have changed your mind. After all, there are better ways to spend your time than with someone like me."
Nagito was still dressed in his Hope's Peak Academy uniform. "Why are you still wearing your uniform?"
"Well my time alone on the deserted island did some damage to my usual clothes, so for now my uniform will have to do until they are repaired."
Nagito turned his attention to Monaca. "I take it you're Monaca Naegi?"
"Yep, that's me!"
"Nagito Komaeda, at your service." He did a slight bow to her. "Were you at the school event, the one that failed due to 'outside circumstances'?"
"Hmm, maybe. Why?"
"That little incident caused quite a fuss among my classmates. For a while the only thing they were talking about was the little girl with green hair, travelling around the school in her wheelchair ruining everything. Of course, I'm not accusing you of being her; there must be plenty of people that fit that description!"
"How terrible! Monaca can't imagine herself doing something sooo mean."
"Yes, it was a truly terrible thing… But in a way, I'm grateful to that person. The despair caused by them brought my classmates down, but they were able to overcome it. They resolved themselves to show their talents at their brightest for the next event; a remarkable display of Hope triumphing despair!"
"Uh… huh…" Monaca gave a look to him.
"Ah, forgive me; I rambled on for a bit did I? Please come in!"
Nagito walked back into the house. They, however, stayed where they were.
"How long have you known this guy Makoto?" Monaca asked.
"I've… only met him yesterday," he answered.
"And you seriously trust him?"
"I don't think he means us any harm."
"Well, I don't like him."
"You say that to everyone you meet Monaca."
She crossed her arms. "I do, but this time I really don't like this guy. He's giving off serial killer vibes Makoto! Just take me to Junko's house."
He had to admit that Nagito kinda freaked him out a bit. He sounded a bit too obsessive about hope. But he only knew him for a couple of hours; maybe he was a great guy underneath it all?
"Let's just hear him out," he said. "If it gets uncomfortable we'll leave straight away."
"… Fine," Monaca responded.
He picked up a large stick and used it to clear away the glass in their path. He then pushed the wheelchair into the house.
The living room contained little in the way of decorations. The only notable things in the room were the furnace on his left, a family portrait hanging above the furnace, a table with four chairs in the corner to the far right, and a vase on top of the table. Nagito was standing to his left, next to stairs that led to the upper floor. There was another door at the far end of the living room, which opened to reveal the kitchen within.
"Hey uh, Nagito," he said, "do you really live in a place like this?"
"Oh, this isn't my house," Nagito replied. "I own it, but I don't sleep here. This house belonged to a family friend."
"What happened to them?"
"He died in a plane accident."
"O-Oh. I'm sorry to hear that…"
"No, it's fine! Turns out he wanted to give me this house when I'm older, and the stuff he had here was pretty valuable. I sold out some of it and came out… probably around a few million richer."
"A-A few million?!"
"Yep, a few million. I don't really need the money, but I guess a few million wouldn't hurt hahaha."
"I'm starting to feel pretty uncomfortable…" Monaca whispered to him.
"Now then. Let's go upstairs to get started," Nagito said.
"Uh, can't we just stay here?" he asked.
"No, no, we need to go upstairs for this to work."
"For what to work?"
"You'll see."
"Um, about going up the stairs…" Monaca said. "If you hadn't noticed already that's going to be pretty difficult for someone like me."
"You can have your big brother here piggyback you up the stairs," Nagito answered. "The wheelchair will have to stay here. Don't worry; I'm not planning to sell it."
The boy chuckled at his joke. Monaca just stared at him with an expression that he could only describe as the face when you find poop under your shoe. He crouched down in front of her, her arms wrapping around his neck as she latched onto him. Nagito went up the stairs, and they followed.
"I'm feeling super uncomfortable now Makoto," Monaca whispered in his ear. "This guy's such a creep."
"It's not nice to judge someone you just met," he responded. But yeah, he was feeling super creeped out too. Nagito was being very tight-lipped about what he was planning. He thought they were just going to talk about stuff, but now that they were going upstairs he had no idea what was going to happen.
"If he's planning to kill us I'm going to use you as a distraction and save myself."
"Wow, thanks for the heads up."
"You're welcome."
They reached the top. Nagito was standing to the right, an open door next to him that led into a room.
"Right this way," Nagito said.
He peeked inside the room. The room here was a lot cleaner than the living room. On his left was a door that led to the bathroom and next to the door was a miniature kitchen. On his right, there was a bunk bed, a bookcase, a desk with a microwave, and an exercise bike. The window in the middle of the room was tiny; only a little bit of light was shining through it. It was also pretty high up; he would have to be standing tiptoed to even see through it.
He stepped into the room. Oh yeah, it was also strange how the window was barred on the inside. Wouldn't it make more sense if it was barred out—
"No wait Makoto turn bac—"
Monaca's warning came out too late; the door was shut behind them. He tried to turn the knob but it wouldn't budge.
"Okay Nagito," he said, "very funny. Open up the door."
"I'm sorry to say Makoto, but this isn't a joke," Nagito replied.
"Fantastic work Big Bro! We're now trapped inside an old, gross house because you just had to trust this creep."
"You're not helping here Monaca."
He kept trying to turn the knob. This had to be some kind of joke right? Nagito would never do something lik—
—Ah, who was he kidding? He knew something was up but he decided to ignore all the warning signs. He kinda deserved this, to be honest.
"What are you planning to do to us?" he asked, having accepted that yes, he was indeed locked in here.
"Nothing actually," Nagito said. "All I want you two to do is just… talk."
"Is that it?"
"Yes, that's all I want. From what I can gather from our talk yesterday, you two don't seem to trust each other that much."
"Not really," Monaca said.
"So in order to solve your dilemma, I created a situation where you can be alone with her. With this, the two of you can let out your emotions, strengthen your friendship, and allow a wonderful seed of hope to sprout from your new bond!"
That didn't sound too bad actually.
"So if we just talk to each other you'll let us out of this room?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'll let you two out after six weeks."
Scratch that, this was bad.
"Six weeks?!" Monaca shouted. "You mean I have to spend all of my summer vacation with Makoto stuck in this crummy room?!"
"M-Monaca…" he gasped out, her grip around his neck having tightened. "I can't breathe…"
"I left plenty of food inside the cabinet," Nagito continued. "And I'll be checking on you daily to make sure everything is going well. I'll give you two some guidance to ensure your bond's properly developing, though I'll take my leave when private matters are being discussed."
He scrambled through his pockets to get out his phone. Yes! There was still a way out! Now all he had to do is call emergency ser—
"No service?!"
"Ah, I almost forgot. There won't be any cell service for about… a month. How incredibly unlucky for us. Rest assured I already told your parents about our little arrangement here, with some minor details left out. Your parents are really nice Makoto, but that should be expected from parents of those with talent!"
Six weeks.
Six weeks locked inside with an angry Monaca.
… He was not going to survive the first week.
"Now then," Nagito said. "Why don't I start off with some advice? Your situation might seem bleak at the moment; that it's hopeless to try to escape. But remember that in the end, hope will always triumph over despair. So don't give up, believe in the possibility of escape so your hope can…"
He charged at the door once more, and like the rest of his attempts, he bounced off the door to the ground.
"Keep going Big Bro," Monaca said, watching all of this from the top of the bunk bed. "I think I can see a scratch on that door."
He grabbed his shoulder. Was it bad if he couldn't feel anything from it? He stood up, fell right back down when his legs buckled, and decided to just lie on the floor.
"You can at least try and help me," he said.
"But I did help. While you were busy throwing yourself against a brick wall Monaca searched the entire room."
"Did you find anything?"
"If I did I wouldn't be here would I?"
He tried one more time to stand up and this time it was a success. He shambled to the bottom of the bunk bed and sat down.
"I guess we're really stuck here…"
"No thanks to you," Monaca said. "Monaca tried to warn you but noooo, you wanted to trust this creep instead of your trustworthy little sister. But that's not even the worst part, oh not even close. The worst part of this entire situation is having to hear him ramble on and on and oooooon about hope and despair, for six weeks!"
He stared at the door. "Nagito, are you there!" he called out. No answer. Either he was still behind the door listening in on them or he left. The latter actually sounded plausible to him; he didn't seem like the type of guy to go back on his word.
Then again he didn't strike him as the type to trap people inside rooms.
"I think he's gone for now," he said.
"Or maybe he's just staying silent," Monaca said, "waiting to go on another one of his rambles. If he starts talking charge at the door Big Bro. Maybe you might get lucky and smash into him."
"I really don't think he's here. I guess we should start talking while we have time."
"Why yes, because I'm absolutely in the mood for talking."
"What else are we supposed to do?"
"For starters, you can either shut your mouth for six weeks or throw yourself against the door again. Either one is preferable to talking to you."
… This wasn't going to be a pleasant six weeks. He might as well try anyway.
"You had a bad life at the orphanage didn't you Monaca?" he asked.
Monaca peered down at him. "Yes, I did Big Bro. But how did you kno— Oh wait, now I remember. It was because Big Bro Makoto broke into a little girl's room and read her diary. That's pathetic y'know?"
"I'm sorry okay! It was wrong for me to pry into your secrets, but those photos I found didn't exactly put my worries to rest."
"Whatever, it's all in the past now. So what about my terrific orphanage life? Do you want to know about alllll the great things the carers did to me, or maybe how the other orphans and I got along with each other?"
"I don't want to know about those kinds of things. What I want to know is why you didn't just tell me or my family about this."
"And do what exactly with this information?"
"We could tell the headmaster, get him to shut down the orphanage."
"Ah Makoto, you really do know how to make me laugh," Monaca said. "Let's go tell the headmaster, the headmaster who's nothing more than a puppet for the Steering Committee. Surely nothing could ever go wrong."
"It had to be better than saying nothing."
"Saying nothing is the better option! Don't you understand how much influence the Steering Committee has over Japan? Why do you think Hope's Peak Academy's the only school that cultivates talent? It's because they made sure to get rid of all of their competitors."
Monaca sighed and lay down on her bed. "But what do I know? If you want a target on your head go ahead and tell him Makoto. I won't stop you."
Well, this conversation was a total failure.
"Can I ask you about something else?"
"What is it this time?"
"About the Towa Gro—"
"Nope, I'm done! Good night Makoto!"
"It's still evening thou—"
"I! Said! Good! Night!"
He heard movement from above. He stood up and saw that Monaca had hidden her entire body under her bed's blanket. Guess that was enough talking for the day. He'd try again tomorrow. Hopefully, she would have calmed down by then…
"Monaca, what are you doing?"
"I'm flushing things down the toilet." Monaca took out a rubber from the pencil case she had found and dumped it in the toilet.
"You're going to clog up the toilet at this rate."
"I. Don't. Care." There was a flush from the toilet. "This bathroom's garbage anyway, the floor keeps making a sound every time I take a step."
Monaca got up, throwing away the empty pencil case into the bathroom bin. She started jumping up and down for some reason, with every jump causing the bathroom floor to creak.
"What are you doing this time?"
"I'm trying to collapse the bathroom floor so I can escape."
"That's too dangerous Monaca. Stop it."
"No."
"Just come over here and si—"
"No!" Monaca shouted. "No! No! No! I want to leave right now!"
Monaca stomped the floor again and again. Now he was really worried that the floor would actually collapse.
"I hate this place!" Monaca screamed. "I hate it I hate it I hate iiiiiit!"
"Okay, just… calm down Monaca!" he said. "Think this through a little. If the floor collapsed now you'll fall along with it. You don't want to hurt yourself do you?"
Monaca stopped her tantrum. She glared at him, but she eventually walked out of the bathroom and slammed the door shut. She sat down against the bathroom door, still glaring.
"D-Do you want to eat anything?" he asked.
"No," she answered. "I don't want to eat your stupid cup noodles."
"That's all we have Monaca."
"Well, I don't want it!"
He had to stop himself from groaning. It was the second day and Monaca's mood had already grown worse than it was yesterday. It didn't help that they woke up to the sound of Nagito ranting about hope and despair again. He managed to distract himself from most of it by reading the books in the room. Monaca, however, was resistant to the idea of reading "dumb old books," and bore the full assault of Nagito's words for four hours.
He got up from the bed and tried to turn the knob of the main door. Once again the knob didn't budge, so he leaned against the door and glanced at Monaca.
She was still giving him that death glare. He avoided her gaze and pretended to look around the room, waiting for the right time to initiate conversation.
"I could have been hanging around with Big Sis Junko by now…" Monaca said.
"You really like Junko huh?" he said, looking at her now that she wasn't trying to kill him with her mind.
"Well, duh. As I said before, she's attractive, intelligent, and infinitely more interesting than you. What's not to like about her?"
"I guess that's true."
"You see! Nobody can come even come close to how amazing she is!"
It was rare to hear Monaca praising someone wholeheartedly; he was starting to feel a bit jealous.
"… Although if I have to criticise Big Sis Junko," Monaca said. "I feel there's… something off about her."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know. Unlike you, I can't read her like an open book. I know she's hiding something about her character, and it sorta reminds me of… well, me. Maybe that's why I like her so much."
Huh, now that she mentioned it he did feel like there was something strange about her…
But it was probably nothing. "I agree that maybe there is something weird about Junko, but I don't think it's anything bad."
"You're not exactly a good judge of character," Monaca said, "and I didn't ask for your opinion anyway."
He shrugged, at the very least it looked like this little conversation calmed her down a bit. It should be a good time to change the topic.
"Sooo uh, about your fam—"
"Oh Makoto, you really do know how to push someone's buttons!"
Nope, too soon!
"Okay, okay! I'll stop asking!" he said, and turned his head away from the scowling girl's face to the other side of the room.
"… Ugh, fine…" Monaca said. "What do you want to know?"
"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," he replied.
"Well, I have to because a certain someone wouldn't shut up about it."
"I'm just worried about you. It must have been a shock to find out that your family was the Towa Group."
He looked back at Monaca. She was getting up now. "Yeah, it was," she said. He watched her walk to the bunk bed and climb to the top, burrowing herself under the bed's blankets.
"Is this why you had all of those photos, so you could take revenge on them?"
She popped her head out of the blanket. "Yep, that's the gist of it."
"And how exactly are you planning to take your revenge?"
"Oh, is Big Bro curious about Monaca's super amazing plan to take down the Towa Group? Monaca doesn't know if she should tell you or not…"
Monaca placed a finger under her mouth, her face in deep thought. Not that he believed she was going to tell him. This was most likely an act to get his hopes up.
"… Ah, it should be fine! It's not like you can do anything about it."
Or not.
"The first part of Monaca's brilliant plan is to get her father's attention. It should be easy enough; all she has to do is build something to show off to him. He'll be sooo amazed at my invention that he would beg me to come back to the family."
"Uh-huh."
"The next part's even easier. Now Monaca has to prove to her dumb father how intellectually superior she is to her lesser brother. Once that's out of the way her father would promote her to chief executive of their robotics branch."
"Okay."
"This part might be a little tricky. It might take months at best, or years at worst, but Monaca will create her greatest invention. A tool of immense power…"
His mind was racing at the possibilities. Was it some sort of weapon? Maybe she's planning to build some kind of bomb?
"A giant robot!"
"… What."
"Yes, a giant robot!" Monaca repeated, beaming at him. "The giant robot will be controlled by me, and I will rampage throughout Towa City with it! Everything that my father had built, crushed by my hand! The reputation of the Towa Group will be ruined forever!"
… Huh?
"I can see that you are clearly astonished by the brilliance of my plan. You may clap now."
"C-Can I offer some feedback?"
"Go ahead."
"That sounds really stupid."
She scowled at him. "Hmph, clearly Makoto is too dumb to grasp the brilliance of Monaca's plan…" She lied down on the bed. "But I guess it does need a little work."
"And what are you going to do if this uh, plan of yours fails?"
"It won't. I'll make sure that the Towa Group gets completely and utterly destroyed even if Monaca has to go down with it."
"And if you do succeed? What then?"
"… I don't know. Monaca hadn't thought that far yet."
"You don't have to take revenge on the Towa Group Monaca."
"But I have to. Do you know what kept me going during my life at the orphanage, what kept me sane from alllll the 'training' the carers put me through? It was the thought of meeting my real family, meeting them and giving them a taste of despair…"
Monaca chuckled. "It's stupid, but another reason why I had Big Sis Junko take those photos was because… I wanted to know them better. Underneath all my thoughts of revenge, a tiny part of me kept this small belief that maybe it was a mistake; maybe they had a good reason to abandon me… Buuuut as I looked through the photos it confirmed what I'd always known. The father was just your standard sleazy businessman and the son was simply a paedophile. That tiny part of me finally died and now I can go through my revenge plan without any doubts!"
"You can't devote your entire life to revenge…"
"You'd be surprised. What are you going to do now that you know all of this? Are you still going to try and stop me?"
"If people are going to get hurt then yeah."
"Then what if I only hurt those two? They deserve it after all."
"Even if they do deserve it wouldn't it be better to just… move on? I feel sorry that their actions caused you so much pain, but to put so much time and effort just to get back at them? It's not worth it."
"So you're saying I should forgive them? Sorry, but that has as much chance as Socki the Sock getting their hole fixed."
"I didn't say that you should forgive them. I just think that taking revenge on them now is pointless. You're no longer at the orphanage Monaca, and you're living with people that really do care about you."
"Yeah right."
"It's true. Why won't you believe it?"
"Because Monaca knows why your family adopted her. It's because they know that Monaca's the bastard child of a wealthy man, a man who wants to keep her existence a secret. I wonder how much money they'd get from blackmailing him."
"Monaca, do you actually believe that? It's been almost half a year already. You should know by now that my family isn't like that."
"Then why did they adopt Monaca then?"
Monaca was staring off into space, her expression unreadable. The last time he had seen her make such a face was when she got scolded by his mum.
"Monaca doesn't have any useful talents… She's just the Li'l Ultimate Homeroom, a title that's worthless in the real world… She doesn't even fill a role in the family; there's already you and Komaru. Take me out of your family and nothing of value will be lost. Your perfect life will just keep going as if I never existed…"
"That's not true. Not having some sort of useful talent doesn't mean that nobody can ever love you Monaca. I mean look at me; my talent's the Ultimate Lucky Student, something that's going to be pretty worthless when I'm looking for a job if I'm being honest."
He paused to see if Monaca would respond. She didn't, so he continued.
"And you're wrong if you think my family won't miss you. You're a handful sometimes, and your personality's something that really needs a lot of work. But when you're smiling, telling jokes to my family, you really do brighten up their day."
Monaca's expression didn't change; she just moved her head back inside her blanket. He hoped his words had some positive effect on her.
"… Beautifully said, as expected for one full of such talent!" a voice spoke behind the door. He scuttled as far away from the door as possible.
"Na-Nagito?!" he said. "How long were you standing there?!"
"About a minute. I'm sorry to have overheard a bit of your conversation, but I'm very proud that you two are developing a wonderful bond between each other! There's no doubt that the hope produced from it will be qui—"
"Oh for the love of God, can you just shut up!" Monaca screamed from underneath her blanket. "Nobody gives a crap about your dumb hope and despair!"
"Ah, but I must disagree. It might not seem like it at first glance, but hope and despair do play a huge part in this world. For example, while you believe that talent does not prove your worth Makoto, I have to say that yes, it does. Having talent means there's a strong hope in you, and that hope can be further strengthened…"
"Hey Monaca, can I ask you a question?"
"Go ahead…"
"Do I talk about hope a lot?"
Monaca revealed herself from her blanket. "On a scale of one to ten on how annoying you are about hope, you're at a ten and the creep's at twenty."
"I don't think I talk that much about hope…"
"Believe me, you do."
She retreated back into her blanket. He glanced at the tiny window in the room, night had fallen. He moved away from his corner of the room to the bottom bed, falling face-first into the pillow.
It was only the second day and he could already feel his mind crumbling from the constant rambling of hope. He liked hope and all, but not to this extent.
"I don't think I can handle any more of this…" He mumbled.
"Good," Monaca replied. "Let this be a valuable experience to never trust someone you met for a day."
"Mm-hmm…"
"… Y'know, I really do hate you."
"I'm sorry?" He turned his body to stare at the bottom of the top bed.
"The way you act so kind to me, being so patient despite everything I've done to you… Just drop the act already."
"I'm not acting."
He could hear her giggling from above. "You really are a saint Big Bro! No ordinary human being could ever tolerate my behaviour for this long. Either there's something very wrong with you in the head, or you're an angel sent from heaven…"
Monaca's giggling got louder. He was starting to worry about his safety.
"What could Big Bro possibly gain from hanging around me? Maybe he wants the blackmail photos?"
"That's not it." It would be nice to get rid of them though…
"Oh? Then maybe he wants Monaca to become a good little girl?"
"Y-Yeah?"
Monaca erupted into full-on laughter.
"Ahahaha! Me, become a good girl? How boorrring!"
"A-Are you okay Monaca?"
"What do you mean Big Bro?! I'm fiiiine! I'm having the time of my life!"
For a long uncomfortable minute, he listened to Monaca's insane laughter above. Had she snapped already?
"But really," she said, her tone containing no hint of amusement anymore. "You should give up on that."
"Why?"
"Because I see no point to it. You said it yourself; my life's going fine at the moment: you and I are in a nice working relationship, I have my own room, I'm meeting with someone interesting… What's the big deal?"
"But doesn't it feel wrong to you, hiding behind a fake personality?"
"I don't see the problem. It's not rocket science to know that everyone wears masks Big Bro; nobody would be friends if we all showed the ugly bits of ourselves. Do you really think people would want to hang around me if they knew the real me?"
"No, but if you try to cha—"
"And here you go again. Don't you know it's rude to force someone to change? Haven't you heard that the most important thing in life is to stay true to yourself? But since you're so stubborn why don't I tell you a little secret; remember how I said I met Big Sis Junko while hanging out with doughnut girl? That was a lie."
"Then where did you meet her?"
"On the school roof with my toys. Now, why were five kids hanging out there in the first place? I'll give you one guess."
"… Wait, don't tell me yo—"
"Ding ding ding! Time's up! If your answer was group suicide then give yourself a pat on the back."
He couldn't lie down anymore; he had to see Monaca's expression. He got out of bed and looked at the top bunk; Monaca was gazing at him with a grin.
"I know what you're thinking," she said, her usual cheery tone back at its full splendour. "Why on earth would they even do such a thing? The simple answer is that Monaca was bored, so as a prank she convinced them to try and fly into the sky."
"You can't be serious…" he muttered.
"But I am. Monaca was going to sit back and watch her toys go splat splat on the ground. If she didn't change her mind in the end or if Big Sis Junko didn't come at all there would have been four little spots of red at Hope's Peak Elementary School. Now tell me Makoto; would you have forgiven me if they jumped?"
"… No, I wouldn't."
"See, even you had to admit that my plan was truly horrible. Do you see it now? Monaca can't ever be a good girl after that, so give up on me."
"… There's something you said that got my interest."
"And what's that?"
"You said you changed your mind in the end. Why?"
"… I got bored." The grin on Monaca's face disappeared. "Have a nice sleep Big Bro."
She went under her blanket. He was still processing their conversation; she just revealed something that made all of her previous acts look tame in comparison.
A group suicide, all because she was bored. It made him feel that all of his efforts were for nothing; how could he change someone who was so stubborn to stay the way they are?
… But he still had a bit of hope left. Monaca didn't make any hint at it, but she was lying about the reason she changed her mind. He hung around her long enough that he had gotten quite good at spotting most of her lies.
And why bother telling him about this? Wouldn't it be smarter for her to keep quiet about it? And why didn't Junko tell him about this?
There were still doubts about whether Monaca was truly irredeemable, and that was enough to have hope. That was all he could do really, cling onto hope that she stopped because she was growing a conscience, and not out of some self-centred reason. Maybe it was all for naught; maybe she really couldn't change… but like he said he could be oddly persistent even when things appeared to be grim.
"You too," he replied. He went back to his bed.
"… What are you doing this time Monaca?"
"I think I got it Big Bro, the tool that can let me escape."
"Monaca, that's a spoon."
"I don't care what it is! With this, I can just dig a hole here…"
Monaca stabbed the ground with the spoon, and like he guessed it snapped. She stared at the now broken object in her hand, before flinging it at a wall.
"This is fine…" Monaca muttered. "I still have more spoons… and there's still plan B."
"What's plan B?" he asked.
"Building a time machine out of that microwave."
… It was official. Monaca had gone completely insane.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"N-Nothing, just carry on digging."
"Y'know, I thought your attitude would be a bit meaner today after our little chat last night. and yet you're acting no differently than usual. Doesn't Big Bro care about the nasty thing Monaca planned?"
"I do care. What you planned would have been unforgivable if you had carried it out, but you didn't."
"That's only because Big Sis Junko stopped it."
"But you were planning to stop it anyway at the end; you had a change of heart."
"Monaca could have been lying about that."
"No, you were telling the truth."
"So Big Bro can detect lies now?" Monaca sighed and got up to her feet. "I'm starting to think you really are some sort of angel… but whatever. Big Bro's like a cockroach; he never knows when to give up and accept the inevitable."
"Um, thanks?"
Monaca walked to the kitchen, no doubt looking for more spoons to destroy. He walked to the front door as always to turn the knob, third times the charm right? He turned the knob and as always the door opened.
… He blinked a few times.
"… M-Monaca, I think I found our way out."
"Mm-hmm, and I found Santa's workshop."
"N-No really, look!"
She stopped searching a drawer and turned around to him. She stared at the open door for a while, but she scrambled to his location once she snapped out of it.
"How did you open it?" Monaca whispered.
"I just turned the knob and it opened," he replied. "Do you think it's some sort of trap?"
They both poked their heads outside the door. Nagito was nowhere to be found on either side.
"Only one way to find out. You go down the stairs first."
"Why me?"
"Because I'm a kid and you're a teenager. If this is a trap you'll have a better chance of fighting back than me. Don't worry; Monaca has your back Big Bro!"
He doubted that, but her reasoning sounded solid enough. He exited the room and headed down the stairs one at a time. He peeked into the living room; Nagito was nowhere to be found. The kitchen door was closed, so maybe he was in there?
Monaca's wheelchair was near the furnace. He'd grab it once he checked if the front entrance was locked. He sneaked to the front door, grabbed the knob, twisted it and opened up to—
—Nagito standing right there. He really was unlucky, wasn't he?
"Ah, Makoto!" Nagito said, smiling as he stepped into the house. "I was hoping to meet you before you escaped."
"H-Hey Nagito…" he said, putting as much room as possible between him and the smiling boy. "How's your day?"
"Well there hadn't been any major accidents yet, so I guess it's pretty great!"
"That's good…" His back touched the end of the living room; there was nowhere to run now.
"How are things with Monaca?"
"Fine! Everything's fine now. We've talked things out and we're ready to leave. There's no need to keep us trapped inside that room anymore…"
"… If that's the case then my job here is done. Feel free to leave now."
"Wait really?"
"Sure, go ahead. I wasn't really planning to keep you two locked for six weeks; that would be kidnapping!"
He wanted to retort to that, but decided to keep his mouth shut.
"I wanted you two to escape all along. You see I actually left a key hidden inside somewhere in that room."
"You did?"
"I did. It was going to be a bit of a team effort to find it in order to build up your bond and all. You, Makoto, was supposed to ride the exercise bike in the room, activating the UV light I installed to its front. Using the UV light your little sister was going to search for letters marked in invisible ink, hidden inside the books I left behind in the room. This would then spell out the location of the key."
"How were we supposed to figure that out?!"
"Hmm, I thought I gave you plenty of hints though. Weren't you listening to my speeches?"
"Not really… Where exactly did you hide the key?"
"Inside a rubber."
"I think Monaca flushed that down the toilet."
"That's… disappointing to hear. When you two didn't escape on the second day I started to doubt that my plan was working at all, so I unlocked the door for you. Unless… this was your strategy all along, to cause me to doubt myself and let you go. If so then truly you really ar—"
"Not to be rude," he interrupted, "but I think it's about time that Monaca and I leave now…"
"Yes, of course. But before that, I need to do one last thing…"
Nagito reached into his school jacket…
And pulled out a revolver.
"Wh-What the hell?! Why do you carry a gun Nagito?!"
"I always carry one for emergencies," Nagito said, pointing the revolver at him. "You never know when you might get attacked."
"Then why are you pointing it at me?! I'm not planning to hurt you or anything!"
"I want to test our talent. Aren't you at least a little curious to see which of us has the strongest luck? And what better way to test it than with Russian roulette?"
Nagito placed a hand on the cylinder and spun it around. He dashed to the door next to him, thinking that he could hide inside the kitchen. It didn't work; the door was locked. He heard a click behind him; he turned around to face Nagito.
"This Russian roulette is a bit different than usual. Instead of one bullet, there are five. If your luck is stronger than mine then the chamber should be empty when I pull the trigger."
Judging by his luck there was a one hundred percent chance that he would be shot. Nagito had the revolver aimed squarely at his chest, and he doubted that he could move fast enough to dodge a bullet at this range.
Things seemed hopeless, but there was still a way out of this situation. He glanced at the stairs behind Nagito. If Monaca came down right at this moment, maybe she could sneak behind him an—
There was a loud sound of a door being shut from above the house. Scratch that, Monaca had abandoned him. He was going to die.
"Hmm, but did I actually put the bullets in?" Nagito said, aiming the revolver down. He opened the cylinder.
His mind went into overdrive; Nagito was distracted for just a moment. Should he charge at him? No, that wasn't a good idea. Last time he did that he charged headfirst into a table, and he didn't want to test his luck again.
He glanced to his left; there was a vase on the table. Maybe if he threw it at Nagito it could knock him out. It looked pretty expensive though… he would feel pretty bad at destroying it.
"Looks like I did. Sorry to keep you wa—"
He ran, the fastest he had ever run before, to the table. He grabbed the vase and hurled it straight at Nagito's head.
He missed; the vase broke against the ceiling, its pieces falling next to his target.
"… Can I say something?"
"Go ahead."
"That was a pretty bad shot Makoto."
"I know…" He sighed; it was pretty unbelievable how he missed his mark when Nagito was practically standing in front of him. A child could have thrown better than him.
"Now just hold still while I sho—"
The ceiling collapsed, burying Nagito under a pile of rubble. He covered his eyes from the dust that arose, waiting for the noise to stop. Once it had he opened his eyes.
Monaca was lying on top of the rubble, looking around her surroundings in confusion. The entire bathroom had fallen down with her, with water spewing down on the living room from the exposed pipes. Underneath the rubble with only his upper body exposed was an unconscious Nagito, the revolver lying a few feet away from him.
Monaca glanced down at Nagito, then at him. For the first time in the three days they've been trapped, she looked truly happy.
"Yayyy! Big Bro killed the creep!" Monaca cheered. "Ding-dong the creep is dead! Which old creep? The gross old creep!"
He rushed towards the unconscious boy. He was still breathing; he let out a sigh of relief.
"He's still alive."
"Ugh, thank you for ruining the mood Makoto." Monaca jumped off from the rubble. She picked up the revolver and examined it.
"Whoa whoa, put down the gun Monaca."
"I'm just looking. Don't you trust me with it?"
She spun the revolver around in her hand to show that yes, he absolutely did not trust her with a gun.
"Don't do that! You're going to shoot someone!"
"Relax. This revolver isn't real; it's just an airsoft model see."
Monaca opened the cylinder and showed him what was inside. She was right; upon closer inspection, he could see that the revolver was just a plastic, albeit detailed, toy. Inside the chambers were airsoft pellets instead of real bullets.
"That's a relief…" he said. "At least we know he doesn't actually carry a real gun."
"You never know," Monaca said, "it wouldn't surprise me if he did. So, are we going to kill him?"
"What, no. I'm going to call an ambulance when we find a payphone."
"He locked us up in a room, for almost three days! Can't you make an exception?"
"No."
"Fiiiine… Can I kick him?"
"No."
"Just once?"
"No."
"Wait… you're not letting him get away without any punishment, are you? At least let me get some blackmail material, for protection of course."
"Nobody's getting blackmailed today. Besides, I think getting crushed by a bathtub is punishment enough."
"You really are a softie. Don't you want to do anything to him at all?"
"The only thing I want to do now is go home and forget about what happened here. Can we have an agreement on that one?"
"Yeah, yeah, I agree… Where's my wheelchair?"
"It should be over… there…"
He pointed at the spot where he last saw her wheelchair. He could see it, but whether it was still the same shape well…
Monaca trudged to her wheelchair, if he could still call it that. She crouched in front of it, picking up one of the wheels that dropped off. She stared at it, her expression not giving him any hint as to what she was feeling.
"Are you okay?" he said, walking to her side.
"Yes, I'm… fine," Monaca responded.
"Was it special to you?"
"In a way. Two days after I faked my injury one of the carers gave me this, said it was a gift from someone. He never gave me an answer when I asked him, but I knew who it was once I found out the manufacturer."
"The Towa Group?"
"Mm-hmm. It's funny, but when I saw the name on the wheelchair I felt… happy. All the anger I had built up over the years vanished at that single moment, and I thought maybe they still cared about me."
Monaca got up and tossed the wheel at the broken mess in front of her. "Buuuut I snapped out of that disgusting train of thought. They probably sent it because one of the carers threatened them or something."
She walked away to the front door. He examined the broken wheelchair, crushed underneath the bathroom sink that had fallen down with Monaca. He started collecting the fallen pieces that were scattered about.
"What are you doing?" Monaca said, leaning on the front door with her arms crossed.
"I'm taking the wheelchair with us," he answered.
"Why? I can just get a new one."
"Because this wheelchair meant something to you. It feels wrong to abandon it when we haven't tried to fix it."
"Are you even looking at it Makoto? It's going to cost you more money to repair than it is to replace it."
She's not wrong… The wheelchair looked pretty much unsalvageable. Only a top repairman could bring back the wheelchair to its former glory, and he didn't want to think about how much that would cost.
"I… agree with you on that. But instead of getting someone else to repair it, why don't you do the job Monaca?"
"Me? Why?"
"I saw one of your designs in your diary. I've never seen someone at your age draw with such detail; I think you might have a talent with technology."
"I still don't see why we can't just buy a new one…"
"Give it a try. Who knows, you might like it enough that it becomes a new hobby."
She sighed as she continued to watch him pick up the pieces. Despite the fact that there was an unconscious body lying nearby and water was splashing everywhere around him, it felt a bit soothing for him.
Monaca headed towards the stairs. "I'll find you a bag…" she said, and left him to continue on his task.
"That should be it."
He placed the receiver back. An ambulance should be on the way to Nagito's location.
"I really think we should have gotten rid of him," Monaca said to his ear. "He might come after us for revenge y'know."
"I don't think he's the type to do that," he said. He exited the telephone booth and began walking in the direction he felt was correct.
"Are you sure you remember the way?"
"Yeah, I'm sure."
"It doesn't seem like you do. Are you tired? I feel like we're slowing down a little."
"No, I'm fine."
He was not. Turns out that carrying a child on his back and holding a duffle bag with a broken wheelchair stuffed inside would put quite a strain on his body. He just hoped that he could make it back home without collapsing on the way.
"If you can't walk anymore take a break. The last thing I want now is for you to drop me to the ground."
"That's very considerate of you Monaca."
"Just keep walking."
"… Are you still going to go through with your plan?"
"And here I was hoping that you had forgotten. Well, I got some good news for you Big Bro, I'm not. Hearing that creep ranting about hope and despair turned me off the whole thing."
"So what are you going to do now?"
"Nothing. For the rest of my life, I'm going to stay in my room and do nothing but eat and play games."
That… wasn't what he expected to hear. She must be tired that was all; by tomorrow she'd be back to her normal self.
Wait. That might be a bad thing too.
"Why don't you sleep for a while?" he said. "I'll wake you up when we're near."
"And let you dump Monaca into some back alley? No way."
"I'm not the ty—"
"I know, I know, I'm just joking. Monaca knows by now that Big Bro really is just that naive."
Monaca rested her head on his shoulder. "But that naivety leaves you vulnerable Makoto… One day you're going to put your trust in the wrong person and they'll betray you… What will you do when that happens…?"
"… I'll figure it out," he said. "And I have you with me. If I'm ever unsure about someone I'll consult with you if that's okay."
… Monaca didn't respond.
"… Monaca?"
He could hear her breathing near his ear; she must have fallen asleep. Their awful experience of being locked up in a room might have actually brought them closer. Maybe Nagito was right, overcoming a despairful situation might be a great way to bond together.
… Damn, he really needed to get some sleep.
He stopped walking. Didn't he pass this street already? He checked his surroundings to realise that yes, he was indeed walking in circles.
… This was going to be a long day…