When Kyoko Kirigiri and I went down to the first floor, the others had already gathered in front of the red door.
"...Wow. They're not even trying to hide the skinship anymore..."
"You've seen it once, you've seen it a hundred times. Just roll with it..."
Listening to those nearly enlightened voices, we joined the group and talked for a moment before going in.
"But... seriously, what was up with that photo...? The first time I saw it, I got chills all over..."
"Exactly. A photo with everyone in it except the person who received it... and we've never even taken a picture together in this place..."
"M-Maybe it was just edited...?"
"And that's not all... the DVD Monokuma suddenly handed out, the one labeled 'Class 78 Emergency Interview,' was just as suspicious. Do any of you remember filming something like that?"
"N-No... but maybe that was edited too..."
"A still image, maybe. But a video that vivid? No. The people on that DVD were unquestionably us."
"Come to think of it... the belongings in the locker room were suspicious too. There were items in there connected to all of us..."
"M-Maybe the Mastermind just planted them there to mess with our heads...?"
"Then how do you explain the notebook filled with personal information and knowledge that only I would know? Wasn't it the same for all of you?"
"I mean... there was this massive analysis of the characters and worldbuilding of Angelic Alien☆Fluffy Princess... I was so happy for a second, because I thought there was another person in the world as cultured as me..."
"And... what was that blood-soaked room on the fifth floor supposed to be...?"
"...No matter how much we chatter here, we won't uncover anything. Let's expose every truth with our own hands in the Class Trial."
"Whew... yeah... I guess that's what we've gotta do..."
The others finally steeled themselves and opened the red door.
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.
.
As the elevator descended, a long silence settled over us. But it wasn't the same silence as before.
If the last silence had been born from vague fear and anxiety, then this one was the silence of people who had already hardened their resolve before the final showdown.
My eyes drifted to Mukuro Ikusaba. Earlier, when I'd come in holding hands with Kirigiri, she'd looked at me with an expression of weary resignation. There was a lot I wanted to say to her, but I decided to put it off until after we won the Class Trial.
Then, with a heavy thud, the elevator reached the trial grounds.
".....Everyone, let's go. We're ending this killing game with our own hands."
All of us entered the trial grounds with grim, determined faces.
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.
.
"Upupupupu...! Well? Since it's the final Class Trial, I put in a little extra effort...! It's pretty different from usual... ah, wait, come to think of it, this is the second one..."
Just as Monokuma was about to launch into another one of his pointless comedy routines, Kirigiri cut him off.
"Stop stalling and start the Class Trial already. We're going to finish you there, Enoshima."
"Upupupupu... my, my, aren't we impatient? Then again, maybe that's why you stole something I'd already had my eye on first...?"
".....Start."
"Upupupu! Well then... even if it is only the second one, this is the grand final boss battle, so as a sign that I'm participating too, I'll sit in the empty seventeenth seat...!"
"In that costume? Enough already... why don't you show yourself, Enoshima?"
"Upupupupu... if I show up from the start, it ruins the flair, doesn't it? Shouldn't I make my entrance at the climax so this final Class Trial can shine even brighter?"
".....Haa."
"Then... let's begin!!"
As soon as he said that, Monokuma hopped down from the judge's platform and plopped himself into the empty seventeenth seat.
"Upupu... now then, let's make the rules perfectly clear, shall we...? If you uncover the identity of the corpse from the last case, the identity of the culprit, and on top of that reveal the secrets of this academy... then you win! But if you fail... it's Execution for all of you...! Upupupupu..."
"And if you lose, then you'll be the one executed, right?"
"W-Well... of course...! Otherwise how would you stay motivated...?"
"I've had enough of this time-wasting. Have you found the identities of the corpse and the culprit?"
"Um... well..."
I glanced at Kirigiri. If it looked too hard for her to say, I was ready to explain it myself, but after taking a deep breath, Kirigiri began telling everyone the truth.
"The corpse was... my father, and the former headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy, Jin Kirigiri. And the person who killed my father was none other than Junko Enoshima."
At those shocking words, the others stared at Kirigiri in alarm and concern, but she accepted their gazes in silence and continued.
"In other words, in the last case, Enoshima manipulated the entire murder itself in order to eliminate K, and she tried to have K executed despite him being completely innocent."
"Upupu...? Do you have any proof...?"
".....Are you really going to play dumb? After kindly leaving the Execution footage in the headmaster's office and even confessing to it?"
"Upupupu... actually, that wasn't me! It was an impostor! The video was fake too! I refuse to accept it!"
The moment Monokuma started throwing a childish tantrum, everyone turned a glacial stare on him. Under that barrage of contempt, Monokuma pretended to wipe away cold sweat and said,
"Upupu... what the heck... this feeling of being judged... fine!! You want me to admit it, right!! Yeah, you got me! The last case was a trap I rigged from beginning to end! I killed Jin Kirigiri with my own hands too!! Ahhh, that feels so much better... upupu!!!"
The others looked baffled at how easily he had just confessed to everything. Watching Monokuma, I spoke quietly.
"Enoshima... what are you thinking...?"
"Upupu...?"
"Why are you admitting it so easily? This should be a fatal fact for you... About the outside..."
"NG! That's an NG word!! If you say any more, after coming all this way you'll just get executed in the dumbest way possible, okay...?"
".....That school regulation still applies even now?"
"Well, of course! It's only thrilling if you uncover the secret through your own effort, right? If someone stood next to you during a treasure hunt and told you exactly where everything was, would that be fun...? Upupupupu..."
As I listened to Monokuma's nonsense, I sank into thought. Something felt wrong. Of course, this was Junko Enoshima, so trying to judge her by ordinary standards was pointless to begin with, but even so, the atmosphere around Monokuma now was different from before.
He was practically spoon-feeding us the corpse's identity, and then he admitted everything without even forcing a proper debate... somehow, it felt like the current Enoshima didn't care how this trial turned out.
With that uneasy suspicion gnawing at me, I glared at Monokuma. Monokuma avoided my eyes and started whistling. Yeah. There was definitely something there.
"Uh... so then... all we have to do now is figure out the academy's secret...?"
"Hmm... but even if you say the academy's secret..."
"The academy's secret is simple enough..."
Byakuya Togami addressed everyone in a firm voice.
"We lost our memories."
"W-What...? Amnesia...?"
As the others asked in confusion, Celestia Ludenberg smiled faintly beside him and spoke.
"The photos and DVDs taken without our knowledge... and even the belongings in the locker room that were deeply connected to us... if we've lost our memories, doesn't that explain everything?"
".....!"
Only then did the others finally grasp the source of the dissonance they had been feeling all along.
"C-Come to think of it... didn't all of us feel something strange the moment we stepped into the academy entrance, and then when we came to, we were in a classroom...?"
"Yeah... so much happened after that that I forgot all about it, but... don't tell me all our memories after that point were erased...?"
"Then... does that mean we've already spent our school lives here at Hope's Peak Academy...?"
"Enoshima!! Are you saying you erased the memories of students who had lived together through thick and thin, then forced them to kill one another!? Unforgivable!!"
"That... bastard..."
"Now every secret has been exposed...! You've lost, Enoshima!"
The others glared at Monokuma in fury after learning the truth, but Monokuma just scratched his head and said,
"Hey now, I love the fiery atmosphere and all... but the Class Trial isn't over yet, you know...?"
"What are you talking about!? The fact that you erased our memories was just—"
"Nope... you got the part about your memories being erased right... but you still don't know why you had to live trapped in here and play a killing game with those memories gone, do you...?"
"Because you're a lunatic who kidnapped us, forced us into a killing game, and gets off on this kind of thing...!"
"Upupupu... is that really the 'truth'? Are you sure you want to lock in that answer...?"
"Everyone, stay calm. The one cornered here isn't us. It's Enoshima."
"....Kuh."
Now, with only the final truth left, the others and Monokuma stood in direct opposition. A brief silence fell over the room, but then Sayaka Maizono shattered it.
"We locked ourselves inside this academy."
"W-What...!?"
"You can tell from the video, can't you? We chose to lock ourselves in this academy of our own free will."
"W-Why...?"
"I don't know why. But if it's true that I chose to lock myself in this academy forever, leaving behind my precious idol career and my fans... then something enormous must have happened, don't you think?"
"Something enormous... but the outside is norm—"
"If it's true that we lost our memories at the point when we entered Hope's Peak Academy, then a considerable amount of time must have passed since our enrollment. Naturally, something happened in the world during that blank span of time."
"I don't know what it was, but if it was enough to make me give up my dream life as a castle lord attended by slaves, then it had to be something huge."
"Hmm..."
The others fell into deep thought. After a long silence, Togami muttered quietly among them.
"Perhaps... the end of the world."
"T-The end of the world...? Isn't that way too extreme a leap...?"
"And yet a kidnapping operation on this scale took place in the middle of a prestigious academy in the city, and no rescue ever came. Even the most capable butler of the Togami family, one of the shadows that move the world, was taken down despite the fact that he should have been protecting me, the sole heir."
Togami glared at Monokuma and continued.
"And... during our video call, my butler said he had failed to protect the Togami family. If something happened that could bring down the Togami family, one of the world's shadows... then nothing short of a catastrophe on the level of world destruction can explain it."
"I-I mean... even so... the end of the world...? That's not exactly easy to believe..."
"B-Byakuya-sama has to be right...! I-I'm useless right now, but... if it's that one...!"
Fukawa, who had been silently watching with an unconvinced look, suddenly set her face with determination, pulled out a pepper shaker from her pocket, and dumped it straight into her nose.
"Puh-hah-CHOOOOOO!! sniff... Huh? What's this place? Don't tell me they finally caught me for being a serial killer and dragged me into court? Gahahahahaha!!"
Togami watched that with a look of utter disbelief, then suddenly seemed to realize something and barked an order at Genocide Jack.
"Genocide Jack. Tell me the biggest incident that happened in the world recently."
"That would be... a few days ago, Byakuya-sama's embarrassing secret that until he was nine years old he was scared of gh—"
"This is not the time for jokes. Answer properly."
"Yeeees!! Then maybe it's that Togami-sama's favorite gift is civet coffee and millenni—"
"If you spout nonsense one more time, I'll sew that mouth shut forever."
"Hmmmmmmmm... then I guess you mean 'the Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History'...?"
Togami's eyes widened, and as he pressed Genocide Jack for more, she began explaining in a feverish rush.
"That incident was... terrifying enough to make even me go pale... a disaster so huge that calling it mere 'talent' would be an insult, it was genius on a monstrous scale...! Because of that utterly despair-inducing event... the world, like, all at once... um... wait, how did it go again?"
"I-It didn't... collapse, did it...?"
"Yeeeeees!! Correct!! It totally went kaput!! Gahahahahaha!!"
Genocide Jack's words plunged everyone into shock.
"W-Wait... but how does Genocide Jack know that...?"
"She's a split personality... so maybe only Fukawa's memories were erased, while Genocide Jack's weren't...?"
".....That settles it. The outside world... has fallen... and that's why we locked ourselves in here..."
Once everything became certain, an oppressive silence began to spread among the group.
"Upupupu...! Looks like you've finally uncovered the truth, so all eyes up here!! Please watch this video!!"
Everyone looked at the screen descending into the trial grounds, and soon horrifying images began to play across it.
World heritage sites across the globe being smashed to pieces and replaced with Monokuma monuments. Crowds in Monokuma helmets erupting into massive riots. A giant Monokuma charging through city streets, pulverizing buildings in its path...
"Upupupu...! Just like you guessed, the world is ruined! My true identity is Junko Enoshima, the [Ultimate Analyst]! The one who drove the world into this state!"
People committing mass suicide. Small children clinging to their dead parents and sobbing. National leaders dragged into the streets and executed...
The longer I watched those grotesque scenes, the more my head began to throb. The people on the screen screamed. The blood on the screen flooded everything red. The whole screen turned red. Red. Nothing but a screen dyed red. And I stared at it without blinking.
"Anyway, I wanted to plunge the whole world into despair and spend a wonderfully despair-filled happy time that way, but this disgustingly dazzling hope kept getting in the way of my plans... and way too many remnants of hope were left in the world. So I thought about it and came up with a new plan...!"
The screen changed, and then the outside appeared in real time. Outside, a massive crowd was staring up at a gigantic monitor, and on that monitor, our Class Trial was being broadcast live.
"I figured if I erased the memories of Hope's Peak Academy's Class 78, made them kill each other in a killing game, and broadcast it to the entire world, I could finally crush the hope that remained... but it didn't work out so well, you know?"
On the screen, I could see people watching the Class Trial with desperate prayers on their lips. The crowd was a chaotic mix, but every last one of them wore the same revolting expression of hope on their faces. It was nauseating.
"Still... doesn't it only matter if I win at the very end...? Honestly, I'm sick of both hope and despair now. And of course, I'm sick of this Class Trial too. So I figured I'd just wrap it up already. I just told you all my secrets, didn't I? All the conditions for ending the Class Trial have been met! Congratulations!"
Before I knew it, smoke began to rise, Monokuma vanished, and Junko Enoshima herself appeared in the trial grounds.
Just looking at her sent a wave of ecstasy crashing through me, and my body trembled. The others, too, were staring at her with rapturous eyes before they even realized it. Of course they were. She was someone who deserved worship.
"Honestly... I didn't really want to use the brainwashing video again... but if this keeps going, you idiots are just going to start babbling about your pathetic little hope theories and overcome despair all over again, right? I may be sick of everything, but I still can't stand watching hope win."
Enoshima's face went blank, and she continued murmuring in a low voice.
"Whether the people outside watch this and feel hope or despair, they can do whatever they want... I'm sick of it. I want to end everything and die too..."
Then Enoshima changed her expression again and began speaking under the eager, expectant gaze of everyone present.
"So, what do you think? The situation outside is awful, right? Despair-inducing, right? So how about we all just die here together...? Starting now, you'll vote for yourselves! That way, instead of suffering and dying in that despair-filled outside world, you can die comfortably right away! Well? Sounds good, doesn't it?"
"Yes, understood."
"Such obedient little students! Then it's voting time!! Everyone, vote for yourselves! Of course, I'll do it too... we're all going to die here together...!"
...I should hurry and obey her command.