"There are traitors hiding among you, pretending to be your friends... Isn't that just terrifying? Little creeps like that totally deserve to get murdered... Upupupu...!"
"....."
After Monokuma's barrage of bombshells, the students could only stand there in stunned silence, robbed of speech.
I felt like my mind was about to snap too. The difficulty had spiked way too hard. Just how massive did the butterfly have to be for one flap of its wings to whip up a storm like this?
"Um... is it true... that there's really a traitor here...?"
"Who is it!? Get out here, now! If you come clean right now, I'll let it slide!"
"...Cut it out. There's no way a traitor like that exists."
The atmosphere turned ugly for a moment, but Pigami stepped in and forced everyone to calm down.
"Hey, Monomi. You should be able to answer this."
"H-Hweh...!"
"This memory loss crap, this traitor crap... is any of it true?"
"W-Well... what you all need is your 'future'... so... you shouldn't look back at the past, or anything like that..."
Monomi babbled incoherently, then flicked a glance at me. I wanted to help somehow, but if I revealed here and now that I was the traitor—
'Wait. Should I just come out and say it?'
In the original story, Chiaki Nanami couldn't tell the others she was an observer from Future Foundation because of her AI restrictions.
Which meant Kyoko Kirigiri and I could, in theory, tell everyone as much as we wanted that we were Future Foundation observers.
In the original, Monokuma exploited the fact that Chiaki Nanami couldn't reveal the truth, spreading rumors about a traitor and poisoning everyone with distrust. But if we, who could freely expose ourselves, just told them the truth and explained the situation right now—
"So! I'm adding a new school rule! Check your E-Handbooks!"
Everyone's E-Handbook, mine included, vibrated at once. I pulled mine out and checked the rules. A new one had been added.
"If the traitor is killed, no Class Trial will be held, and the blackened who killed the traitor may immediately graduate from the killing game."
"...If he added a rule for it, then I guess there really is a traitor?"
"S-So... there really was one after all...!?"
"Hiiieek! Th-that's scary! Super scary!!!"
"Everyone, calm down! This is just one of Monokuma's tricks to throw us into confusion—"
"Hey, you. Every time the traitor comes up, you keep changing the subject... You do realize that makes you look pretty damn suspicious, right...?"
"What...?"
Pigami tried desperately to steady the group, but the moment Kuzuryu openly cast suspicion on him, the situation started spiraling even further.
'Damn it... what do I do...?'
The students' distrust was climbing straight into the stratosphere. Before it got any worse, should I just reveal the truth right here?
After agonizing over it, I steeled myself to stop this fracture before it spread any further and opened my mouth—
Then my E-Handbook vibrated one more time.
I looked down, and another rule had been added.
[Observer Special Rule☆]
"Observers may not reveal to the students that they are observers. This is a special rule visible only to observers."
'Shit.'
I snapped the E-Handbook shut and carefully scanned my surroundings. Kyoko Kirigiri had looked at hers too; she immediately turned it off and looked at me. Apparently, she'd received the same rule.
Enoshima's Alter Ego had somehow become even pettier. At this point, calling her the Ultimate Despair felt wrong. Wouldn't Ultimate Petty be more accurate? Either way, what the hell were we supposed to do now...?
"...Huh?"
I turned at the sound from beside me and saw Chiaki Nanami staring at her E-Handbook in shock before hurriedly snapping it shut. Looks like that rule had been sent to memoryless Chiaki Nanami too.
Thankfully, everyone was too busy bickering over the traitor's identity to notice the strange reactions from me and Chiaki Nanami.
Still, I hadn't expected that rule to reach Chiaki Nanami even without her memories. She was probably drowning in confusion right about now. Which meant I needed to get in contact with her as fast as possible.
"...Everyone, fighting like this won't solve anything. We should all get a good night's sleep and calm ourselves down first."
"So now we're taking orders from you again—!"
"It's a leader's order. Forget everything Monokuma told us today. Tomorrow morning, after Monokuma's announcement, everyone will gather in the dining hall."
"....."
Kuzuryu and a few others looked openly dissatisfied, but in the end, everyone followed Pigami's lead and dispersed to get some sleep.
.
.
.
.
.
"Ding dong, bing bong!"
Listening to the announcement I'd heard so many times it was starting to make me sick, I dragged myself out of bed.
"That bastard Monokuma."
The curse flew out of my mouth the instant I woke up. I hadn't expected him to stoop this low. It was already enough of a headache trying to stop the murders, and now I had one more landmine to worry about.
"Upupupu? Were you just talking shit about me...?"
"Yeah, I was, you mangy little bear— ...huh?"
I turned my head and saw Monokuma standing there, tilting his head at me. In an instant, goosebumps crawled over my entire body.
"Gwah! Holy shit!"
"Upupupu... throwing pillows again, huh...? You knocked Monomi flat with one last time too... Did you study some kind of pillow martial art...?"
"Y-You... why are you here...? No, more importantly, how much do you know about what happened early yesterday morning?"
"Upupupu... I know Monomi got blasted away by a pillow! As for what happened after that, Monomi used what little authority she had left to cover it up, so I don't know a thing!"
Oh. So Monomi could use some kind of concealment function. Finally, she had one practical use. Honestly, I'd assumed she'd be completely worthless, so the fact that she could at least serve as a totem was a relief.
"Well... anyway, did you enjoy my present yesterday? Upupupu..."
"I-I saw it... but what the hell was that supposed to mean...? Me, an observer...? What even is an observer—"
"No way... are you pretending not to know...? Upupupupupu... K, you're adorable...! Upupupupupupu!!"
Monokuma burst into raucous laughter, then started speaking while staring straight at me.
"You know, don't you? That you're an observer working for Future Foundation..."
"I-I lost my memories—"
"Then how did you know, the moment you came to your senses, that this place was virtual reality and that a killing game was about to start?"
"...What?"
"Back on the beach, you saw Kyoko Kirigiri and started bawling your eyes out, then once you calmed down you started saying all that stuff, remember? You should've been more careful about eavesdroppers... or should I say, eavesdropping bears... Upupupu...!"
Damn it. I had been way too careless. I was so rattled at the time that it never even occurred to me Monokuma might have already seized control of the system.
"....."
"What kind of trick did you use to keep your memories even after getting hit by my virus...? You pulled this in the last killing game too, and now again... Well, it just makes things more fun for me! Upupupupupu...!"
Looks like Monokuma assumed I'd preserved my memories because I'd prepared some kind of countermeasure. Well, even as an Alter Ego, there was no way he'd know I came from another world. So I guess that was only natural.
"So... when are you going to use the one-time escape code?"
"...What?"
"The one-time escape code! If you've still got your memories, you should be able to get out whenever you want, right...?"
"....."
"Don't tell me you're thinking something embarrassingly noble like, 'Only an observer can use the escape code, so I can't leave until I've saved all the Class 77 students!'"
I had no idea what to say, so I just stood there in silence, sweating bullets. Monokuma looked at me, grinned, and continued.
"Or maybe... you only managed to preserve part of your memories, so you don't know the escape code...?"
At the words 'don't know the escape code,' I flinched—and Monokuma exploded into laughter.
"Upupupupupupu...! I knew it! Your memories are incomplete right now, aren't they? So what's it like, having incomplete memories? Hm? I'm dying to know!"
I wanted to crack him right between the eyes for smugly jumping to his own conclusions, but I forced the urge down, ground my teeth, and moved to leave the room.
Then Monokuma dropped one last loaded line, and my feet froze in place.
"Well... if you're confident you can stop even a single murder from happening, then go ahead and struggle all you want in that incomplete state!"
"...What?"
"I've been infiltrating the Neo World Program since the earliest stages of its development, so I've tampered with all sorts of things... For example, I set it so that any student who dies in here gets overwritten with Enoshima's Alter Ego and released into the world immediately... Upupupupupu...!"
Shit. My worst fear had just become reality.
In the original story, the Alter Ego's plan was to kill the students first, then, if the survivors chose to graduate, implant Enoshima's Alter Ego into the dead students' personalities and unleash them on the outside world.
But now the story had twisted so far off course that graduation didn't even matter anymore. The instant a student died, they'd be transformed into Enoshima mark two and released into the world.
In other words, the possibility that we might still be able to save them after death—like in the original—had been completely erased.
From the start, I'd abandoned the idea of sacrificing a few students just to save Hajime Hinata because the risk was too enormous. Still, in a truly hopeless situation, I'd at least considered it as a last resort.
Now even that path had been sealed off.
"Upupupu...! Are you in despair? You are, aren't you? What's with that face...? Upupupupupupupu...!"
I couldn't stand looking at Monokuma's face for another second, so I kicked the door open and stormed out of the room.
"Upupupu... yeah... keep despairing like that..."
After K left the room, Monokuma stifled his laughter for a long while before suddenly muttering to himself.
"This time for sure... let's settle once and for all who the final victor between despair and hope will be...! Upupupupupu...!"
.
.
.
.
.
When I entered the dining hall, everyone except me was already there.
"Jeez... seriously, why are you so late? Everyone's been waiting for you, you know."
Koizumi glared at me and snapped the words out irritably. I had no idea why, but for some reason she seemed to have really it out for me.
"Ah... s-sorry, I overslept..."
"Save the excuses...!"
"Anyway, he's here now, so who cares? Stop nitpicking. We should be discussing what to do next."
"B-But..."
"Am I wrong?"
"....."
Koizumi shrank back at Kyoko Kirigiri's icy tone, shut her mouth, and muttered under her breath. Hngh... big sis Kirigiri...
"More importantly, where'd Kuzuryu go?"
"Kuzuryu said... he wasn't in the mood today, so he'd be skipping the meeting..."
"Not in the mood, my ass! He's probably off ranting about the traitor again..."
The moment Souda tactlessly brought up the traitor, everyone's faces darkened. Chiaki Nanami looked especially bad—like she was one push away from tears. She must've spent the whole night agonizing over it.
"Now then, everyone, cheer up. I have good news."
"Good news...?"
"That's right. You may rejoice... Tonight, we're holding a party."
Pigami's declaration sent a stir through the room. At the same time, my own heart started pounding with anxiety. Because in the game, the first murder happened at tonight's party.
Pigami held the party to strengthen everyone's unity and keep an eye on the students, but during the party, Hanamura overheard Komaeda's murder plan, half lost his mind, tried to stop him by killing him first... and ended up murdering Pigami instead.
So then, how was I supposed to stop Pigami from dying? The answer was simple: don't worship my game knowledge, but use it where it still applied.
Sure, the story had twisted badly, but Hanamura's motive hadn't changed, and there was zero chance Komaeda had stopped being a hope-crazed maniac. If the party happened, there was a high probability events would still flow in roughly the same direction as the game.
All I had to do was check the surrounding conditions, separate the parts likely to unfold the same way from the parts likely to diverge, and respond flexibly.
"I'll permit you to use the old building! If it's for everyone's unity, I'll help with anything!"
"Good. Then we'll use the old building as the party venue—"
"But wasn't it left abandoned because it was scheduled for renovation? It'll be filthy... Doesn't anyone want to clean it...?"
Then the first thing I needed to do was stop Komaeda from cleaning the old building. If he got in there, that was where his real trolling would begin.
"To think I might be allowed to perform the vulgar act of cleaning... my heart is positively racing!"
"No, I simply cannot allow a princess's hands to be sullied!"
"Nope. I hate it. Not doing it."
Sonia's eyes sparkled, Souda hurriedly tried to stop her, and Saionji refused in a bratty voice. Meanwhile, Komaeda was already rummaging in his pocket and pulling out a lottery box.
Now. This was the moment.
"What, nobody's gonna do it...?"
"Haha, I figured as much, so I prepared a drawing—"
"I'll do it!"
The instant I volunteered to clean, every eye in the room swung toward me.
"W-Wow! You're gonna do it all by yourself? That's so nice! So amazing!"
"K is really kind... hahaha..."
"B-But... can you really clean a place that big by yourself...?"
"Hmph... somehow I don't exactly trust that."
Koizumi muttered while shooting me a sidelong glare. I was just about to protest the injustice of that when Kyoko Kirigiri cut in.
"I'll help him."
Kyoko Kirigiri shot Koizumi a glare, then looked at me the same way before stepping to my side.
"Hmm, ahem. Well, if there are two of you..."
"Those two really are... you know... right...?"
"Yeah... it's that, all right. Lucky them..."
"Are you sure just the two of you will be okay...? If you don't mind, I could help too..."
Amid the students' whispering, Chiaki Nanami spoke up and asked us. This was our chance—an opening for Chiaki Nanami to meet with the two of us.
"Th-That'd really help, actually..."
"Please do."
"...Okay! Then I'll help you two too!"
Things were falling into place so smoothly it actually made me uneasy, but for the moment I shoved that anxiety aside and headed off with Kyoko Kirigiri and Chiaki Nanami to clean the old building.
"...Haha."
And all the while, Komaeda watched us go with a smile.