Once everyone's votes were in, the roulette wheel began to spin. Seventeen silhouettes were drawn on it, but by now, everyone already knew what the result would be.
Boom!Bang!
Ba-da-da-daaam!!
Fireworks exploded. A gaudy fanfare blared. The roulette stopped with its pointer fixed on Enoshima's silhouette, and Monokuma Medals came pouring out in a glittering flood.
"Th-This is... what...?"
Enoshima muttered in stunned disbelief.
"Junko Enoshima. This is your defeat."
"L-Lost...? Me...? Th-That can't..."
"What, are you seriously not going to admit it...?"
"N-No waaaaaaaaaaay!!"
In an instant, Enoshima's expression twisted into rapture, and she screamed in a voice trembling with manic excitement.
"This is the best thing eeeeeever!!"
As if she'd been waiting for this exact moment, Enoshima broke into a radiant grin and launched into a feverish monologue about how exquisite the despair of her final moments would be.
The others stared at her with exhausted disgust, but Enoshima just kept babbling on all by herself. Watching that spectacle, I couldn't help it.
I laughed.
"Puhahahahahahahahahaha!!!"
"...Anyway! The greatest despair of my life...? Huh...? What? What's so funny...?"
"Pffft... how am I supposed to look at you right now and not laugh...?"
"Huh...?"
I looked her straight in the eyes and spoke.
"You're just some lunatic who thinks she's [Ultimate Despair], rambling on about despair like you're actually something special. How could anyone not laugh at that?"
At those words, Enoshima replied in a voice gone cold as ice.
"I'm... just... a lunatic...?"
"What, did you really think you were some all-consuming despair that could swallow the world? You couldn't even drag down all sixteen of us."
"....."
"And when you realized that wasn't enough, you tried to force us into despair with a brainwashing video. Then even that failed. And you still want to call yourself the [Ultimate Despair]? Don't make me laugh!"
"....."
"You're not the [Ultimate Despair]. You're a mentally ill student. That's all. And if the so-called forces of despair worship someone like you... well, that tells me everything I need to know about their level."
"I..."
"Why do you keep trying to argue the point? You're nothing but a lunatic. No matter how hard you deny it, that fact won't change."
"K-K... if you keep pushing her, what if Enoshima snaps and makes all the Monokumas self-destruct...?"
Before the sentence could even finish, the monitor that had been playing the despair video flickered—and Fujisaki's Alter Ego appeared on-screen.
"Guys! I finally managed to seize control of the academy network! Actually, Enoshima's Alter Ego was resisting really hard, but then it suddenly vanished, so I kind of stole it by accident..."
"...I withdrew it just now."
Enoshima began to mutter with dead, hollow eyes.
"At this point... I really am... sick of everything... it's despairing... so despairingly tiresome... I just... want to die..."
With all the life drained from her face, Enoshima reached for the red button beside her.
"Alter Ego, can you disable that Execution button?"
"Umm... that's not connected to the school network. It's a wireless control device, so if I want to hack it, I'll need a little time..."
"Then restrain Enoshima."
The moment I finished speaking, Monokumas burst forward, swarmed Enoshima, and pinned her down with brutal force.
"...What exactly do you think you're doing...?"
"What, did you think you could pull all this off and then die comfortably? Not a chance. If you die like this, the despair freaks outside will turn you into a god."
"....."
I walked up to her restrained body and whispered in her ear.
"I'm handing you over to the Future Foundation. Sure, there are plenty of people who want you dead—but killing you would be a waste. We'll lock you up, then expose every last scrap of what you really are to the entire world."
".....!"
"A promotional broadcast for 'Junko Enoshima, the former [Ultimate Despair], who was moved by the Future Foundation and came to embrace hope.' Sounds hilarious, doesn't it? Of course, for you, that'd be a punishment even worse than death."
"...Hahaha....."
"So sit there quietly. And don't get any stupid ideas."
Leaving those words behind, the boy led the children away as they kept glancing back at her. Enoshima despaired, as she always did—but this time, the old ecstasy, the old intoxication, never came.
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"Waaaaaaaaah!!"
"We won!! It's a victory!! Hope wins!!"
"Long live Class 78!! Long live the [Ultimate Hope]!!"
The Future Foundation erupted into a frenzy of jubilation.
Up until the moment that brainwashing video appeared, the atmosphere had been utterly hopeless. At that point, the leadership of the Future Foundation had already begun preparing for a second despair pandemic and drafting plans for a desperate last stand.
But then Fujisaki's Alter Ego appeared like a miracle and broke the brainwashing on K and Naegi, and the entire situation flipped on its head.
The bullets of hope fired by the united front of Naegi and K shattered despair one argument at a time. Thanks to that, the children regained hope, all voted for Enoshima, and the century-defining clash between hope and despair that would decide the fate of the world ended in hope's victory.
After that, K even restrained Enoshima when she tried to kill herself. For the Future Foundation, things could hardly have gone better—but the good news didn't stop there.
"Breaking news! In Towa City, all members of the Warriors of Hope except Monaca, believed to be their de facto leader, have betrayed the despair side and joined forces with the 'mandatory rescue targets'! At this rate, the unrest may be fully suppressed within days..."
"The whereabouts of Class 77, believed to be the leadership of the despair faction, have been discovered at a collapsed despair stronghold! Pursuit operations will begin immediately..."
"We've just confirmed the identity of the missing [Ultimate Neurologist], Matsuda Yasuke! This should accelerate Branch Chief Ryota Mitarai of the 10th Division's research into a 'brainwashing release video'..."
"The despair forces around Hope's Peak Academy have collapsed! If we wipe out the remaining pockets of resistance, we can advance on Hope's Peak Academy immediately!"
"We need to rescue all of Class 78 as quickly as possible and recruit them into the Future Foundation! If necessary, we should even consider offering executive positions to every member of the [Ultimate Hope]..."
Listening to the incoming reports with a faint smile, Chiaki Nanami, Branch Chief of the 13th Division, murmured softly to herself.
"Hinata... you're watching too, right? This is what real hope looks like..."
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"Haaah... it's finally... over..."
"No kidding... We can leave now, right?"
"So if we press this suspicious red button that fell when we restrained Enoshima... the entrance hall doors open, right?"
"It looks suspicious no matter how you slice it... Are we really sure this lets us escape? It's not a self-destruct button or something...?"
"Alter Ego analyzed it, and it really is the button that opens the entrance hall! We can finally get out of here!"
Watching the others chatter excitedly, I walked forward with a sense of clean, almost unreal relief.
Off in the distance, Naegi and Sayaka Maizono were talking with their faces flushed red. I found myself hoping their love would keep going strong even after we got out of here.
Byakuya Togami recoiled in disgust as Genocide Jack suddenly pressed herself right up against him, then clicked his tongue and kept walking. It looked like Fukawa and Genocide Jack's fervent pursuit would continue for a long, long time.
Mondo Owada, Leon Kuwata, and Kiyotaka Ishimaru were bickering as usual while they walked. Then Chihiro Fujisaki carefully slipped in between them, and Mondo smacked him on the back and laughed playfully.
Seeing that, Ishimaru immediately snapped at Mondo, and another round of joking argument broke out. It was such a peaceful sight.
Celestia Ludenberg, lacking a better option, was making Hifumi Yamada serve as her slave. Yamada had taken out his sketchbook and was fanning her with it. He looked exhausted, but also weirdly fulfilled.
Aoi Asahina and Sakura Oogami were walking together, drinking some kind of protein coffee they'd apparently made somewhere. I was genuinely glad the ending for those two girls had become a comedy instead of a tragedy.
Yasuhiro Hagakure approached me with an unusually serious expression, showed me a contract, then tore it clean in half. Startled, I asked him why, and he said he was done living such a pathetic life, scamming people all the time. Even sea urchins grow, huh? Human beings really are impossible to predict.
Junko Enoshima was being dragged along completely bound up by a Monokuma controlled by Fujisaki's Alter Ego. For a while now, Enoshima had done nothing at all, just staring with dead eyes. Well, maybe she was despairing or something.
Beside me, Kyoko Kirigiri was interrogating Mukuro Ikusaba. Since the school regulations were gone now, Ikusaba was spilling stories from the past with surprising ease, and every time she did, both their faces turned red. What exactly were they talking about?
Come to think of it, what had all of us been like before our memories were erased? I was curious, but... now, there was no way to know...
"Ah! That's it!"
I suddenly shouted, and everyone heading for the entrance hall jumped in surprise.
"W-What is it...!? Don't tell me Enoshima...!?"
"What now?! I've had just about enough already!"
"K...? What's wrong...?"
Leaving the others behind, I walked over to Naegi and spoke.
"Naegi, I borrowed my [Ultimate Counselor] ability earlier, right?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah...? I really was grateful for that back then!"
"Then this time, let me borrow your luck."
"U-Uh...?"
It was time to get one more escape switch.
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All of us stood before the doors in the entrance hall.
In my hand was the button that opened the entrance hall doors. In Naegi's hand was the escape switch Enoshima had tossed into the prize machine as a joke—the device that would restore our lost memories.
Honestly, I'd only gathered up every Monokuma Medal scattered around the trial grounds on the off chance it might work, but Naegi pulled the escape switch on the very first try.
Well, come to think of it, after clearing the game, the escape switch itself wasn't a one-in-a-hundred-million pull anymore—it was obtainable at normal odds. Still... I guess [Ultimate Lucky Student] really does mean lucky.
Once we got out of here safely and were rescued by the Future Foundation, we'd use this switch to restore everyone's memories, mine included. After all, there was nothing more precious than the memories we'd lost.
"Come on, everyone. Let's get moving already..."
"Haaah, I'm shaking... A ruined world, huh...? Do you think we can really survive out there?"
"It's fine! K told us, remember? The Future Foundation is coming to rescue us! So we're good...!"
"I-It really isn't a self-destruct switch, right...?"
"Hurry up and press it. I'm sick to death of this place."
"U-U-Umm...? The Class Trial...? B-B-Byakuya...? Did we... win...?"
Watching them all chatter like usual made me smile. As I stood there looking at them for a moment, Naegi spoke to me.
"Whew... On the other side of this door... there'll probably be a lot more hardships waiting for us, right...?"
"...Probably."
"But... if everyone's together... somehow, I don't feel afraid."
"...Same here."
Then Ikusaba, who had been standing quietly beside us, spoke to me too.
"Um... if we're going to meet the Future Foundation... wouldn't it be better if I didn't stay with you...? I mean... I..."
"That's all in the past now... And the fact that you betrayed them is already pretty well known, so you'll probably get some leniency. Besides... I can't just abandon the person who protected me. Since it's come to this, shouldn't we stay together to the very end?"
Ikusaba's face turned red at that. Kyoko Kirigiri, who had been silently watching, shot me a frigid glare, shoved Ikusaba aside, and muttered under her breath.
"Soon... I should probably look into something sturdy... and easy to fasten around your neck..."
"U-Uh...?"
"Just hold my hand, you idiot."
With an awkward smile, I took Kirigiri's hand. Looking at me, she began to speak.
"What's beyond this point is definitely unknown territory. Even so... whether the world has been destroyed or drowned in despair, if I'm with you, I feel like I can do anything."
"...Me too, Kirigiri."
With that, and with everyone watching, I pressed the switch.
The doors slowly opened... and as we felt sunlight for the first time in so long, and the outside air—hardly fresh, but still real—against our skin...
We stepped forward, toward another hope.
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In the trial grounds, now empty after everyone had gone, Monokuma lay collapsed in the middle of the darkness.
".....Upupupu."
At last, laughter leaked out from the fallen Monokuma. Then light flickered back into his eyes, and he muttered:
"Interesting... very interesting..."
Monokuma rose to his feet, spread both arms wide, and shouted with theatrical force.
"I am... Monokuma... the headmaster of this academy!!"
Listening to his own voice echo through the chamber, Monokuma let out a sickening laugh, then finally ran out of strength and collapsed again.
And at that same moment, in the data processing room, Enoshima's Alter Ego—which had barely preserved itself by planting backup data on its own—was being secretly transmitted somewhere far away.
—Part 1 Complete—