"You made it, Akamatsu-san. You're a little late, huh?"
"S-sorry... K and Momota were fighting at the dorm entrance... I had to break it up..."
Akamatsu answered gloomily, then suddenly looked worried as she turned to Saihara.
"But... if you came all the way out here, doesn't that mean this is something nobody else is supposed to hear?"
"Don't worry. Everyone else is somewhere else right now. I checked on most of them before coming here."
"...Really?"
"Before I say anything, I want to ask one thing. I need you to keep this secret from everyone."
"...Okay."
"...And I hope you won't be too shocked."
At Saihara's careful warning, Akamatsu gave a quiet nod. Saihara cleared his throat, then finally began.
"When we came to the library last time, Akamatsu-san... I noticed something strange."
"Something strange?"
"Yeah. There are books scattered all over this library, right? There are even piles stacked on top of the shelves. But only this shelf doesn't have any books on top of it."
"....."
"And there were drag marks on the floor beneath the shelf. That bothered me, so I investigated more closely, and..."
As he said that, Saihara slipped his hand into the gap beside the bookshelf.
Then...
Rumble...
"This is..."
The bookshelf swung open, revealing a hidden door behind it.
"This bookshelf was a hidden door. It was here to conceal... another door inside."
"...Another door?"
"It only opens if you use the card reader, but even so, this door suggests one possibility. And that is..."
Saihara glanced at Akamatsu's face before forcing the words out.
"That one of the seventeen of us might be 'Monokuma's accomplice.'"
"....."
Akamatsu's lips sealed shut. Watching her reaction, Saihara continued.
"To confirm that possibility, I set a trap on the card reader. So..."
"Saihara-kun."
"Hm?"
"I trust you, Saihara-kun."
"Akamatsu-san?"
"...And of course, you trust me too, right?"
"O-of course. That's why I'm telling you all this, Akamatsu-san."
"Right... Then there's something I want to tell you too."
"...What?"
Just as Akamatsu was about to carefully begin speaking to Saihara—
"So..."
Tap. Tap.
Footsteps started echoing from the hallway beside the library.
".....!!"
The two of them froze in alarm, then hurriedly shut the secret door and held their breath, waiting for whoever it was to pass by.
But...
Creeeak...
Their hope that the person would simply walk past the library was mercilessly crushed. The footsteps stopped at the entrance, and then the library door slowly opened.
"Y-you..."
"Why are you... here...?"
Akamatsu and Saihara could only stare, eyes wide, at the person who had entered.
.
.
.
.
.
The next morning, after Monokuma had exploded and the killing game had been brought to a halt, everyone gathered in the dining hall again.
"Man~! For a while there, I thought things were seriously gonna go off the rails... I'm really glad nothing happened~!"
"Nghah... I slept nice and easy yesterday. Going to the bathroom was a bit of an ordeal, but I definitely brushed my teeth."
"Kyaaah! I want to see Yumeno-san brushing her teeth too!"
"What a relief~! It's all thanks to Atua~!"
"Yeah, yeah! It kinda feels like we're playing a bonus mode after the main story's over!"
"...."
"What's wrong? You look like you're deep in thought."
"I-it's nothing."
"By the way, K-san, Momota-san... have you two apologized to each other yet? You were still fighting at the dorm entrance after Akamatsu-san left earlier..."
"......."
"O-oh... so not yet..."
"G-Gonta think fighting is bad... At a time like this, everyone should act like gentlemen..."
There had been a little trouble, sure, but overall the atmosphere in the dining hall was peaceful.
"Um..."
In the middle of that fragile calm, Akamatsu, carefully reading the room, quietly opened her mouth.
"But... even so, doesn't this all feel too empty? I just can't believe it'll really end like th—"
"That's enough, Akamatsu. Learn to read the mood before you say things like that."
"Hey, K. I've been thinking this for a while now... aren't you being way too harsh?"
"That's true. I understand K-san's position, of course, but lately your remarks have gone too far."
"Yeah! You bastard...! What the hell is wrong with you? Your attitude is seriously not norm—!!"
Saihara and Amami spoke up at the exact same time, as if they'd been waiting for this. K shot them both a glacial glare. Then Momota, furious to the tips of his hair, strode toward him and started to say something—
"I-I'm fine...! Momota-kun. I was the one who said something tactless. So you don't need to get angry..."
"...Tch."
Akamatsu hurriedly stopped him, and Momota dropped back into his chair with a heavy thud, trying to cool his temper.
"That's right! Cool your head! You'll want to be nice and refreshed so you can properly enjoy the murder that's coming up!"
"Why you little... Huh? Y-you!?"
Momota, still seated and trying to calm down, flared up at the fresh provocation—then froze in shock the instant he saw who had said it.
"Upupupu... What? Surprised!?"
"Y-you...! You're still alive!?"
There was Monokuma, standing among the students in a ghost costume, laughing like a nightmare that refused to stay dead.
"Huh~? Dad~!"
"Dad's alive!"
"See! There ain't no way our dad'd die that pathetically!"
"B-but we were boiling Dad to make bear soup! S-so who's the real Dad!?"
"....."
The Monokubs burst out chattering at Monokuma's sudden appearance, and Monokuma puffed himself up proudly.
"Upupupu... Unlike you lot, I have backups!"
"B-backups?"
"Ah, come to think of it, there was a machine like that!"
"Monosuke, what're ya talkin' about?"
"You just switch it on, and it can make as many backup Dads as you wa— Gyaah!"
Lick lick lick lick lick lick
Just as Monosuke was about to spill something, Monokuma suddenly grabbed the Monokubs—including him—and started licking them. Meanwhile, the students stood there with stiff, horrified faces, still reeling from the sheer shock of Monokuma's return.
"Th-then... the killing game isn't over...?"
"Nghah... what a pain..."
"W-what... the killing game's still going on...? Then... I guess it won't be boring! Nishishishi..."
"So unless we defeat the Mastermind, the killing game can't be stopped after all...?"
"I figured there'd be backups. I just didn't expect you could manufacture them inside the academy."
"Upupupu... Oh yeah? Then I wonder if you predicted this development too...?"
Monokuma grinned with nauseating delight, then shouted,
"A-an additional motive...?"
".....!!!"
.
.
.
.
.
"Upupupu... I was originally planning to give you a generous two days, but circumstances came up on my end! So then... either die together in perfect harmony... or commit murder. Your choice! Upupupupupu...!"
Leaving those words behind, Monokuma vanished, and the Monokubs hurriedly scurried after him.
"....."
Once only the students remained, the dining hall began to fill with a thick, suffocating despair and fear.
"H-hey... what are we supposed to do? It's not even two days from now—everyone's going to die tomorrow night... Wh-what do we do?"
"I-if I die, that'll be a global loss, y'know!? Isn't there anything we can do!?"
"I... I don't want to die like this..."
"It's okay~! I'm sure Atua will welcome us kindly~!"
"Isn't that something to worry about after we're dead...?"
The students, thrown into a panic, started babbling in every direction. Chabashira and Gokuhara cried out against fighting, Momota shouted that they'd figure something out somehow despite having no plan at all, and Harukawa immediately shot him down. The room was sinking into pure chaos when K quietly asked everyone,
"Do any of you know anything about the [Ultimate Hunt]?"
"Th-the [Ultimate Hunt]?"
"What's that?"
"Nghah... that's the first I've heard of it."
"...Forget it. That was nothing."
"K-kun, do you know something about this situation?"
"It's really nothing. I'm just a little confused, that's all."
K dodged Tojo's sharp question, then headed for the dining hall entrance. He stopped there for just a moment and, in a voice cold enough to freeze the room solid, spat out one final line.
"...Just as I thought. I can't trust any of you."
With that, K walked out of the dining hall. The atmosphere, already bleak, sank even lower. Then Oma cried out in a trembling voice.
"I-I don't want to die yet... I'm gonna survive! No matter what I have to do!!"
"N-no matter what...? What is that supposed to mean!? You can't seriously—"
"Then will Akamatsu-chan take responsibility?"
"Huh...?"
"At least if I died, there'd be someone who'd be sad about it."
"Th-that's..."
"Nishishi... Just kidding. There isn't anyone who'd be sad if I died! Well, no idea about the rest of you, though..."
"....."
"Anyway, I'm heading out!"
"Oma-kun? Where are you going?"
"Nowhere special. I just thought I'd go back to my room and think things over nice and slow~"
With that, Oma disappeared. Then Iruma started speaking in a shaky voice.
"A-alone in his room...? W-what is that, some kind of invitation to come kill him or something...?"
"...Iruma-san?"
"N-no! It's not like I'm aiming for some first-print bonus or anything...! A-as if a refined genius like me would do something as barbaric as murder..."
"...Then why are you trailing off like that?"
"I-I dunno! I need to go rest in my room too!"
Iruma hurried out of the dining hall as well. After that, Shinguji, Hoshi, Harukawa, Angie, and Shirogane began leaving one after another.
"Kukuku... What a splendid opportunity to peer into the true nature of humanity..."
"...You guys really okay acting like this? At this rate, everyone's gonna die soon enough."
"So much for those stopgap platitudes. They really were useless after all."
"Angie is gonna go pray to Atua now~! To tell him we'll be seeing him very soon~!"
"Th-then... I guess I'll go too..."
Thanks to that, the atmosphere completely fell apart. The other students, who had been lingering uncertainly, started filing out one by one with stiff faces, each making some excuse or another as they fled the dining hall.
"Tch, I can't give up here. I haven't even gone to space yet! If I don't give up... then there's gotta be a way!!"
With that blazing declaration, Momota stormed out of the dining hall. Most of the students had now left, and only a tiny handful remained behind.
"......"
And the students who remained...
"So far, it's going according to plan, huh?"
...were exchanging meaningful glances with one another.