"I-Ikusaba...?"
"She... she wasn't dead?"
"A g-ghost!?"
Leaving the stunned students behind, Mukuro Ikusaba stared at K, who was seconds away from being crushed beneath the press, and sprinted straight for the execution chamber.
"Enoshima!! This trial is invalid!! Ikusaba is still alive!!"
Kyoko Kirigiri shouted at the surveillance camera, her voice sharp enough to cut steel.
Meanwhile, Ikusaba tried to force her way into the execution site, but a swarm of Monokumas burst out and blocked her path. Grinding her teeth, she charged anyway.
"I-I don't know what's going on, but Ikusaba is alive, isn't she?! Enoshima!! Stop the execution!!"
"That's right! If you kill K like this, that's a violation of the school rules!"
"...Please, let K go!"
"Do you really think a game can continue if even its most basic rules aren't upheld?"
"Ikusaba! You're wrong! K isn't the culprit! Stop the execution, now!"
Sakura Oogami joined Ikusaba a beat too late and tried to break through the Monokuma horde with her, but had too much time already passed?
"No!!!!!"
The students' desperate cries meant nothing. In the end, the press seemed ready to mercilessly pulp K, who still wore a stunned expression, but then—
Clank...!
The descending press stopped mid-slam, and the floor beneath it slowly began to open.
"H-Huh...? Aaaahhhhhh...!"
K let out a dazed scream as he dropped into the hole. A moment later, there was a splash, and the execution ended with almost absurd anticlimax.
"W-What the hell, no way he died like that, right?"
"The original punishment was death by that press. I heard him fall into water, but it sounded shallow. He's probably safe for now."
"...Enoshima, I think you owe us an explanation."
Kirigiri spoke to the camera with an icy expression, but instead of Monokuma popping out with his usual smug theatrics, only silence answered her.
"Ugh...! Ngh..."
The students, still reeling from the sudden reversal, snapped back to their senses at the sound of Ikusaba groaning in pain. She had made it halfway through the execution grounds.
"W-Where the hell did she even come from...?"
"But... is it really okay to leave her like that? She looks seriously hurt..."
"B-But wasn't Ms. Ikusaba the Mastermind...? And she took K hostage, and that footage in the video too..."
"What's important is that she barged in at the last possible second and stopped K's execution. And judging by the wounds she has now—wounds she didn't have in the video—it looks like she fought before she even got here..."
"...When I fought Monokuma beside her just now... I could feel her sincerity. She truly was trying to save K..."
Once Oogami finished her testimony, the students fell into even deeper confusion and began whispering among themselves. In the middle of it all, Kirigiri, her face still glacial, walked over to Ikusaba.
"....."
"I think you need to explain to everyone what exactly is going on, Ikusaba."
At Kirigiri's frigid voice, Ikusaba closed her eyes and was just about to speak.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzt!!
"W-What now!? What happened this time?!"
"Stop panicking. It's just your E-Handbook vibrating..."
"'Mukuro Ikusaba may not directly or indirectly speak of the secrets of the killing game or the secrets of the academy that she knows. If she breaks this rule, everyone, including Mukuro Ikusaba, will be executed'...? Damn it, that's going too far!"
"Enoshima! You cheap, perverted bastard! I know you're watching, so get out here!"
"...Just what kind of secret are you hiding?"
Ikusaba looked down at her E-Handbook, let out a sigh, and spoke.
"...If only my own life were on the line, I would've told you all the truth. But now that everyone's lives are at stake, I can't speak carelessly."
"....."
"...What I can say for certain is this. I'm not your enemy anymore. That much is true."
"Ugh, how are we supposed to trust someone who used to be the Mastermind just from that...? Even if she did save K... this still feels way too shady."
The students glared at Ikusaba with naked distrust, but she accepted those looks calmly and said,
"Even if I can't tell you everything, from now on, I'll do whatever you ask. Just say the word."
"Then take us to where Enoshima is right now!"
"But... wouldn't that count as part of the killing game's secrets?"
"Ah, right. Then... damn it, these rules make even the useful questions off-limits... what a pain..."
"...But do the rules even matter right now?"
".....What do you mean?"
Yasuhiro Hagakure scratched his head and spoke up.
"I mean... everybody knows violence against the headmaster is forbidden, right? But... you two just smashed a whole bunch of Monokumas, and you're both totally fine, aren't you...?"
For some reason, Hagakure looked at Ikusaba and Oogami with fearful eyes.
"M-Maybe that's just because it's those two..."
"Seriously... Monokuma seems pretty strong in a fight too, but those two were tearing them apart like they were dolls..."
"T-Then if she just blurts out the secrets of the killing game—"
"Nope... that's as far as the freebies go..."
Cutting Hagakure off, Monokuma suddenly appeared.
"M-Monokuma!! Where's K? And you said the culprit was one of us, didn't you!? Then what was the body in this case, and you—"
"God, you really never shut up, Naegi. Mind closing your mouth?"
".....?"
"W-What...? Didn't that bastard's way of talking just change...?"
"I'm just sick of everything... sick of pretending to be Monokuma... sick of looking at your faces... sick of the killing game... sick of despair... Maybe I should just kill all of you and end it here..."
Monokuma's voice was flat, almost listless, but hearing such horrifying words in a tone so unlike his usual one made him even more terrifying than before.
"Anyway... from now on, if you break the rules, there'll be no mercy... got it...? I can just call in every Monokuma... and blow them all up at once..."
"...What exactly happened with that execution just now?"
"I got sick of executing, so I canceled it... happy now...?"
"You didn't get sick of it—you got caught rigging it, so you had no choice but to cancel it...!"
"Haaah... I'm sick of talking back too... sick of everything, in the most despair-inducing way possible... I'm even sick of being sick of things... I'm leaving..."
With that, Monokuma vanished, limp and utterly drained.
".....What do we do now?"
"...First, there's something we need to do."
"And what's that, Kirigiri?"
Kirigiri answered with a face as cold as winter glass.
"Find our runaway puppy."
.
.
.
.
.
Still tied to the chair, I kept falling and falling—until I splashed down into a puddle.
"Bwah—! cough—! H-Help! Somebody—anyone there—"
After flailing around for a while, I realized the water was way shallower than I'd thought, so I wasn't actually in any danger. Embarrassed, I cleared my throat and started looking around.
"W-What the... isn't this the trash pit...? In the game, this place was supposed to be packed with garbage, so why are there so many Monokumas...?"
There were more broken Monokumas in the dump—spitting sparks from their wrecked bodies—than there was actual trash.
Judging by the lack of battle damage around here, these were probably the defective units from the Monokumas that had fought Ikusaba, dumped here afterward. Just how brutal had that fight been for there to be more Monokumas than garbage?
More importantly, the ropes were starting to cut off my circulation. First things first—I had to get free.
"Come on... just a little... a little more... got it!"
I picked up a sharp piece of metal from a broken Monokuma nearby and used it to cut through the rope binding me.
"Phew...! I can breathe again."
All I'd done was untie myself, but after nearly dying while bound hand and foot just moments ago, the rush of freedom felt incredible.
"All right, then... time to get out of he—"
But how? Come to think of it, I couldn't leave this place without Monokuma's secret key hidden in the headmaster's office...
I came up with a plan to drop into the trash pit and somehow forgot that one critically important detail. Yep. I really am an idiot.
"What do I do now...?"
At this rate, it looked like I'd be playing survival mode in the trash pit for the foreseeable future.
.
.
.
.
.
"Fuck... this place is... hell..."
I had no idea how much time had passed. At first, I tried to keep track of it, but now I just slept whenever exhaustion dragged me under.
Forget food—I hadn't even had proper water in ages. I was so thirsty that if much more time passed, I might actually end up drinking the stagnant water in the dump.
I tried to sleep to forget the cold and the hunger gnawing at me, but I learned something new: when a person gets too hungry, their stomach hurts too much to let them sleep.
"D-Don't tell me... I'm really gonna die down here...? Seriously... what a joke..."
Now even fear had started to creep in. I'd survived by the skin of my teeth, only to die like a stray dog in a trash pit? Was there any death in the world more pathetic than that?
'Before I die... I want to see Kyoko Kirigiri's face just one more time...'
The moment Kirigiri came to mind, tears welled up before I could stop them. If I could just see her again, I felt like I could do anything...
And so, just as I was about to sink into another day of helpless misery—
Splatch!!!
I heard the sound I'd been waiting for.
I whipped my head toward it, and there was Kirigiri, fallen into a heap of trash.
"..."
I'd piled up the softer garbage there just in case Kirigiri ever fell and got hurt, and thankfully, it seemed to have worked.
"....."
"K-Kirigiri... long time no see...? But, uh, on your head... there's ramen..."
".....?"
Of course, since this was my one chance to see Ramen Fairy Kirigiri with my own eyes, I'd resisted the urge to eat it and quietly left some ramen there beforehand. And just like that, I got to witness the adorable sight of Kirigiri with ramen as a hair topping.
Kirigiri indifferently brushed the ramen bits out of her hair, then turned to look at me.
"K-Kirigiri... w-what brings you... down here...?"
"...."
"K-Kirigiri...?"
But something was wrong. Kirigiri just kept staring at me coldly without saying a word. Then it hit me—what exactly I'd pulled during the last Class Trial.
'Y-You absolute lunatic...! Past me, you psycho...!'
I'd made Kirigiri worry. I'd even made her cry. Wasn't that reaction completely justified? It was freezing down here underground, but cold sweat still started pouring down my back.
"I-I'm sorry...! I-I was wrong about everything...! I-I'll never do it again...!"
"....."
"I-I'm really sorry!! Please forgive me just this once... I'm begging you..."
My whole body ached, but I dropped to my knees and bowed my head, desperate to somehow calm Kirigiri's anger. Maybe it looked pathetic, but if this would make her feel better, I'd kneel as many times as it took.
"....."
But Kirigiri only kept glaring at me coldly. Realizing that wasn't enough, I pulled out my trump card.
"H-Hit me until you're not angry anymore...! If it'll make you feel better... I'll take as much as you want...!"
For Kirigiri's sake, my body didn't matter. Out of all the methods I knew, this one had the highest success rate, so maybe—
"...Stay still."
".....!"
Kirigiri began walking toward me, still fixing me with that icy stare. Honestly, I'd braced myself, but it was still terrifying. Still, if this could ease her anger, what did a little pain matter?
"..."
"Hhk...!"
When Kirigiri stopped right in front of me and reached out her hand, I shut my eyes so she wouldn't notice how tense I was. But I couldn't stop my body from trembling. If possible, I just hoped she'd make it quick and decisive...
Flick!
"Ow... ow!"
A sharp sting shot through my forehead, and I yelped, clutching it. Crap—this wasn't the time to act dramatic. Worried I'd made Kirigiri even more upset, I cautiously opened my eyes and glanced up at her.
Kirigiri was smiling.
"...That's your punishment."
"K-Kirigiri..."
Yep. Kirigiri really was an angel. No matter what anyone said, for me there was only Kyoko Kirigiri. Ahh, Kirigiri...
"...If you do that again next time, I'll put a collar on you, so be prepared."
"H-Huh...?"
"Understood?"
"Y-Yes... understood..."
U-Um... Big Sis...? Somehow the atmosphere had changed. What was that?
As I stared at Kirigiri in confusion, she took something out.
"I figured there wouldn't be any food down here, so I brought this."
"B-Bread... and milk...!"
After going so long without proper food, I quickly reached out to take it—
"Wait."
"Huh...?"
"I said wait."
"Y-Yes ma'am..."
Out of nowhere, Kirigiri told me to wait in that cold tone. I had no idea why, but since it was the word of the exalted Kirigiri, I obediently waited. Then, after a moment, she smiled and said,
"Eat."
"Th-Thank you...!"
Something felt a little strange, but with food right in front of me, I had no room to think too hard about it. I took it from Kirigiri and started wolfing it down, and as I did, she gently stroked my head.
"Good boy."
...Something had definitely felt weird for a while now, but whatever. I decided not to think about it.