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“So you’re the Himiko of another world?” Tenko asked, eyes wide. “And he’s the Shuichi of another world, correct?”
Himiko was surprised by how quickly she was grasping this. “Yeah, that’s right,” she said. “And in that world, everyone else in our class besides Maki got killed. Not just you and Angie.”
Tenko nodded. “And so… your spirits persisted to another world in order to reunite with the ones you lost?”
“I… I guess?” Himiko shrugged. “Actually, no clue why we’re here now, but that’s one way to put it.”
“And I was the one you sought out, because my demise pained you the most… A-and… you found yourself still loving this cowardly me despite not being the strong and stunning girl you once knew?” Tenko clasped her hands in front of her heart, staring pleadingly at Himiko, almost.
“You’re still Tenko,” Himiko said resolutely. She felt just the same as she always did. Her strong spirit was still just the same. Even if she looked a little different, she had to still be Tenko, and she loved Tenko! “Just like how I’m sure I’m still Himiko even if my hair’s longer and I’m wearing heels, and Shuichi is still Shuichi even if he looks all fancy. Whatever’s going on, it has to be for a reason, right? I dunno if the reason is something so poetic as giving us a chance to not have to say goodbye to the people we love, but I know your spirit is the same!”
But there was the question… she faintly remembered seeing the other her before she woke up. How could she have seen herself then, but have no doubt in her mind she was seeing Tenko now? Was she simply believing what she wanted to be true, or was there something else at play? The cognitive dissonance was enough to hurt her head, but truth had lost all meaning.
“I hate to interrupt your heartfelt reunion, but that’s really… not the conclusion I’d come to,” Shuichi interjected. “It seems more likely this version of ourselves overwrote the versions here.”
“So? We’re still the same,” Himiko insisted. “Just cause a phone updates to a new version of the software, that doesn’t mean you got a new phone.”
Shuichi’s brow furrowed as he frowned. “I… suppose you have a point. But, that doesn’t explain why memories aren’t persistent. But, it could explain why Rantaro remembers things that happened after his death.”
Maki nodded. “As much as it pains me to do so, I think it would be a mistake to approach what is happening from a purely logical standpoint. This defies logic, so therefore, positing it pertains to some immaterial spirit might be the wisest approach.”
“Himiko… it’s fine if I’m really not your Tenko,” Tenko said softly. “I… I know I’ll love you regardless of if you’re a princess or a survivor of a tragedy, but if you don’t feel the same-”
“You’re proving my point!” Himiko exclaimed. “That’s the kind of thing my Tenko would say! She’d believe in me no matter what, so I’ll believe in you no matter what.”
Tenko hugged her. “Thank you, in that case, I’ll not doubt myself!” Himiko let herself relax into the hug a bit. This was the kind of thing she’d imagine to comfort her to sleep for so many restless nights. She could almost just fall asleep right here, it was so tempting to let her eyes close…
An annoyingly loud ringtone interrupted her. “Maki! Give me my phone back!” Kaito exclaimed. She threw it at him, and he answered it with a cheerful. “Hello!”
His face fell only a moment afterwards, and he wordlessly put it on speakerphone. A tinny recreation of Kokichi’s voice pounded through it. “Uh… good news and bad news? Good news is I found Angie and Rantaro but… uh, Angie, she’s unconscious in the library. What do I do?”
“No, no, no!” Himiko’s entire body felt cold as she jolted up. “I’m not… not again… Never again!” She’d just gotten here, and already a friend was in danger of falling again? No, she wouldn’t let this happen. “Tenko, can you take me to the library? I don’t know where it is, and I don’t want to go alone.”
“Of course.” Tenko whipped the door open and began running out. “Is everyone else coming?”
While Kaito and Shuichi got up as well, Maki looked around and grabbed for a pad of paper. “I’ll be right behind you- I’m going to leave a note for Kaede when she gets here so she knows why we aren’t here.”
“That’s a good idea,” Shuichi agreed. “Let’s hurry- if something is wrong, we need to help quickly!”
Tenko and Kaito led the way. Himiko struggled to keep up- since she’d taken her heels off, she was slipping and sliding on the hardwood floors in her socks, but she didn’t have the time to stop to take the socks off. Her heart pounded as she cursed her lack of coordination. She had to get there in time! Dammit, why did the library have to be down so many halls? She ended up being the last one to enter the library, and she half expected a familiar voice to pop up saying a body had been discovered before she did.
The scene lacked any magenta stains, but other than that, resembled all too closely the kind of crime scene they’d seen too many times in the other world. Angie was unconscious in front of a bookcase, looking as if she’d been pretty much perfectly still judging by the lack of any disturbance around her on the rug. She noticed little else strange about the scene, other than the fact Angie had a book next to her on the ground, and there was a large gap in the books on the case in front of her.
“Looks like a book must have landed on her head,” Kaito posited. “That real big one next to her, and it knocked her out.”
Kokichi, who Himiko only now noticed was standing on a table, huffed. “No, that’s definitely not it! Don’t move it, but read out the name of the book, Shuichi.”
“Why are you- never mind.” Shuichi took a few steps closer to the unconscious Angie and bent down to read the book’s cover. Whatever it said must have been bad, as his face paled when he read it. “The New Semester of Hope and Despair by Junko Enoshima?”
“Junko Enoshima? Oh, she’s that one bitch!” Himiko blurted out. The surprised looks she got from Tenko and Kaito indicated that wasn’t her typical language here. “Uh, she was supposed to be the originator of the Killing Games. Allegedly, at least. Ultimate Despair or something, right Shuichi?”
The Ultimate Detective nodded gravely. “That’s right. And, the name of someone who wrote books about killing games in this world, or at least their pen name. It seems they don’t exist anywhere online, but Kokichi found these books in the library yesterday.”
“Interesting, but we need to take care of Angie first,” Himiko affirmed. She scanned the room. “Where is Rantaro, didn’t Kokichi say he’d found him?”
“I sent him to get Keebo, he’s the Ultimate Nurse here,” Kokichi said, sitting down on the table he’d been standing on. “And while waiting for you guys, I got pictures of the crime scene, as many as I could without disturbing it, at least.”
“Crime scene?” Tenko questioned. “Oh, no, that’s definitely not the case! Angie just fell asleep while looking for a book, I’m sure! She’s a pretty heavy sleeper, so if she wasn’t responding, just try shaking her awake!”
Himiko went closer, as if to shake her awake as Tenko suggested, but noticed a reddish-purplish mark on the side of her face. “It looks like she was struck by something,” Himiko noted.
Shuichi followed her lead and bent down to look closer. “Yes, and it doesn’t match the shape of the book,” he said. “It looks like she was punched more likely than not, or maybe elbowed.”
“Then what knocked her out?” Kokichi questioned. “A punch in the face isn’t likely to knock someone unconscious.”
Tenko’s eyes were threatening to spill over with tears as she approached Angie and gently shook her. “No, she’s just asleep, see?” She insisted. She began shaking her a bit more rigorously. “Angie, please, wake up!” She almost shouted. “You’re starting to worry people…”
Maki finally entered the room, eyes sharpened into daggers. “So you can’t wake her up?” Maki questioned. “Interesting. But she is still breathing, right?”
Himiko watched her chest rise and fall. It seemed her breathing was normal, but she didn’t know enough about medicine to say if that was for certain. “She is,” Himiko confirmed. “But she’s unresponsive. We don’t know what happened to her, but it looks like there’s a bruise on the left side of her face.”
Maki nodded. “Well, nothing like this has happened before, so it doesn’t seem implausible this is something to do with what happened to you all,” she mused. “Is it possible she’s going to wake up with memories as well?”
The idea of that filled Himiko with dread. “I hope not,” she mumbled. “I don’t want her to remember dying! That would be awful.”
Tenko bent down to look at the book beside Angie. “Well, if this really is a mystery, we should examine this book for fingerprints, right?” She suggested. “Is there any way for us to do that here?”
“Maybe in one of the research labs?” Shuichi suggested. “I don’t think there’s an Ultimate Detective in our class, but there wasn’t anything like that in mine, so I don’t even know if that would be a safe bet.”
“No, there’s nothing like that in any of the research labs,” Kokichi affirmed. “Trust me, I’ve looked. Said it was a useless expense.”
Maki snorted, as if laughing, but stopped after Kaito shot her a dire look. But, Tenko seemed to share Himiko’s confusion at that comment. “Why would the Ultimate Child Caregiver be looking for fingerprinting? Wouldn’t you be more looking for fingerpainting?”
“Let’s just look at the book,” Kokichi said, picking up the book himself. “Even if we can’t fingerprint it, there might be-”
As he picked it up, a sheet of paper fluttered out of it. It was a bright white shade as compared to the yellowed pages of the book, and folded up neatly. “Huh?” Tenko picked it up and began unfolding it, setting it on the nearby table. “It’s a note. Did the person who attacked Angie leave this here?”
Shuichi rushed to read it, and began doing so out loud.
To the Ultimate Detective and Ultimate Magician-
Good morning from this world. I presume you find the peace here to your liking? If so, I advise you to play along with my little game.
A student in your class attacked Angie Yonaga, the Ultimate Moral Compass, and rendered her unconscious. You must determine who by 8:00 A.M. tomorrow morning. If not, she will not wake, and the game you so loathed will begin anew.
You may enlist the assistance of whoever you’d like from your class, but do not involve any adults. As far as they are concerned, she simply fainted and for some mysterious reason won’t wake up.
With love, M
“N-no!” Himiko blurted out, gripping the back of a chair so tightly her knuckles turned white. “We can’t let this happen! We have to figure out who did this! I… I refuse to lose anyone else!”
Shuichi, similarly pale, nodded. “M… Do you think that stands for Monokuma? Or Mastermind?”
“It could stand for Miu, or Maki, or Momota,” Tenko mused. Maki glared, and Kaito gasped a little, before Tenko waved her hands in front of herself frantically. “I-I’m not accusing you! I was just listing all the M names I could think of!”
“M could be a red herring for all we know,” Kokichi said. “It seems this M figure isn’t necessarily the one we’re looking for, though, and even if it is, I doubt M would be any sort of hint to their real name.
“Hey, Shuichi, didn’t you say that Kokichi found more books like this in the library yesterday?” Kaito questioned.
Kokichi was the one who answered. “That’s right, they pertained to Shuichi’s whole other world issue so I brought them to him! I can go get them from his room if you want-”
Maki closed the door as Kokichi began making strides towards it. “So you had books like the one Angie was found with, and you were in the library yesterday?” Maki questioned. “Interesting. And you were the one who found her here?”
“Maki, you can’t just accuse him of that!” Kaito exclaimed. “Please, just put aside your beef with him for one day! Angie could be in serious danger!”
“I’m not accusing him of anything,” Maki insisted. “But, I don’t think we should trust the word of someone who can’t even be honest about his own Ultimate Talent.”
All the eyes in the room fell on Kokichi, who looked pale, before letting out a deep sigh. “If that’s how this game is to be played, then I’ll do all I can to defeat it. It seems I’m being framed, and because I know it wasn’t me, and because I don’t want anyone to be hurt, I’ll do everything in my ability to find the real culprit. I promise, as the Ultimate Detective, I’ll clear my name.”