Fujiko

"Guys, hold on a second," Yuu jumps to start talking. "Before we forget any of that, can we please write down everything we remember hearing in those... uh... Free Time Events? I know some of it is personal, but we heard Sora Yamamoto's name, and I'm sure that wasn't the only important part!"

We look to Gou, whose little clip seemed like one of the most personal. He nods. "So be it," Azumi sighs. We start working together to make sure we don't forget anything. It's super duper weird that we kept falling asleep and waking back up at the same times, but I feel like we'll probably understand that more later.

TRUTH BULLET: FREE TIME EVENT CLIPS

"This is looking good. We can probably start actually discussing all of this now," Ren nods.

I try to make my voice strong. "Okay! We should–"

"Oh! I do want to clarify something real quick," Monokuma cuts me off, and without thinking, I clench my fist in frustration. "I said that there's no time limit, and that's true... but also, you can't leave this room until you figure everything out and reach an ending... and I won't be bringing food. Puhuhu! Isn't that just so wonderfully awful?"

Yuu's hand goes to his stomach and the color drains from his face. "Shit, I knew you were gonna kill us if we didn't win, but your plan is to starve us? You're not even gonna make it quick?"

"Oh, relax, you baby. It takes ten days on average to die of starvation, so if you drag this out that long, you're seriously more incompetent than I thought! Though, this will get less pleasant the longer you take."

"Do you intend to let us sleep?" Ren asks.

"Hmmm... why not? I don't want to stay up for days on end either. Besides, sleep deprivation can cause cognitive rigidity, memory issues, problems making decisions... none of that is conducive to a fun class trial."

"I do not understand why you are suddenly being so... merciful. I assumed you would be far more vengeful and malevolent given your history of behavior toward us."

"Hey, hey, hey! What could you possibly mean by that? You know all about Danganronpa, little missy, so you should know how lenient I've been this whole time! My punishment for guys entering the girl's bathroom and vice versa is being temporarily locked out of your dorm. Hell, I've let people take naps outside their dorms consequence free multiple times! I bet you even forgot that was a rule!" he rants.

"Sure, you did that. But you also mentally tormented us for months and set up a whole fake trial so you could execute someone and get us to keep murdering," Gou points out.

"We'll get to that soon, though. I've always been curious why you try to act so chummy with us when you obviously just want to hurt us, but I bet we'll understand that a lot more once we unmask you," Chimon says. He stands up straight and points all dramatic like he's taking charge.

I take advantage of the way he steers the conversation to finally get a word in. "Okay! We should probably start with the obvious."

Ren huffs. "What's obvious about this?"

"Don't get your kickers in a twist," I warn.

"Erm, Fujiko... It is 'knickers.' The 'k' is silent and there is an 'n' after it," Azumi corrects me gently.

"Sorry. Point is, we know something." After I say this, my enthusiasm goes away. "I have literally no idea how or why, but I think we're like ninety percent sure sweet little Hachi is involved in this... Right?"

"I suppose we've no choice but to make that assertion. She somehow prophesied the passageway in the office lights. A memory of hers is very likely the meaning of WDR. Most urgently, however, we saw and heard her state the name Sora Yamamoto– in reference to herself, no less!" Her eyes are squinty, like she's having a hard time believing it.

I try to see how Gou is doing. He's looking away and his body language is kinda small. "I'm sorry for forgetting about that... she only said the name once."

"Hey, honey, don't even worry about it. How could you have known it was supposed to be important? Besides, it was MONTHS ago."

"I'm gonna take this to its most extreme just to see what happens. Take it as like a round of Crazy Ideas, but very wrong," Ren announces, leaning forward and resting his chin on his laced fingers. "So. Hachi being the Mastermind..."

"Suuuuuuper impossible. I mean, she's dead," Chimon points out the obvious.

"Just playing Devil's advocate, imagining somehow that she fudged it..."

"First of all, fucking no," Gou interrupts, suddenly seeming a bit angry. "Her eyes were gouged out, her ears were punctured, her neck was stabbed, and then later it was broken. Nobody survives all that. Second, if she really is Sora Yamamoto– and we have no reason to doubt that she is– then the emails prove that she's not the Mastermind. She received emails from someone who called themself the leader of WDR." He slides that transcript toward himself.

"What if–?"

"If the leader of WDR isn't the Mastermind? That's possible, but even if that's the case, Hachi still can't be the Mastermind. The email says that, for some reason or another, she 'can't be the one they choose,' but that they'll 'always carry out her will.' None of that reads like she has any sort of authority here."

Azumi hums. "Carry out her will... is there perhaps a chance WDR constructed this for her?"

"Why would Hachi want a killing game?!" I ask, feeling my jaw drop.

"Mmmph. As much as we would all wish to say we would never support Danganronpa... it was a worldwide phenomenon for years. And Hachi liked, er... 'fiction.' WDR is clearly affiliated with Team Danganronpa in some way– the fear machines with both logos are evidence of that. And the family of WDR's leader apparently cares deeply for Hachi. She very well could have been a fan. For Heaven's sake, we lost our memories; for all we know, we were all fans!" I shudder at the idea. Imagine not knowing whether all of us, like, actively checked in to watch this happen to other people!

Yuu challenges that. "This other email, to some third party who worked with WDR on the fear scenarios, makes it seem like it was more about principle, though. This weird, grandiose vision of waking the world up or something. It doesn't seem as simple as trying to do something to make Hachi happy. Maybe we have to bench the 'how she was involved' stuff for now. I'm curious as to what the name Sora Yamamoto actually means to her. Why was she calling herself that?"

"When she talked to me about it, it sounded like it was just a dumb, cheesy story that her mom tells that she enjoyed. She said that her mom used to tell this story where Hachi ran away from home and was found in an entirely different prefecture pretending to be an entirely different person. She said she likes the story because her mom tells it dead-serious regardless of how ridiculous it is."

My little buddy has been quiet for a bit, with his hand to his chin like he's thinking hard. Now, though, his eyes go all big and he messes with his key. "It might be stupid irresponsible of me to say any of this, but I have... a Crazy Idea."

...

Chimon

Am I really about to say this shit? My heart is pounding. This is such conjecture, this is so illogical, but if I don't try, we might not get anywhere. I take a deep breath. "I'm just gonna cover my own bases here and say that I am not qualified to diagnose anyone with anything, and it's probably especially bad post-mortem, but I think my hunch might change our perspective on some of this stuff, so please, just take this with a grain of salt." I stop to gauge how everyone is responding. All stone silent, all eyebrows raised, they're intrigued and they don't seem like they're preemptively judging me. "Do you remember that one fear simulation? The one where you find yourself in a park, with no idea why you're there and nothing but your phone? And how, when you called your mom figure, she seemed so fucking casual about it?"

They all nod. "I remember crystal clear. Do you think it's important?" Fuji asks.

"I do. It reminds me an awful lot of Hachi's mom's story. And THAT reminds me of Dissociative Fugue. Do any of you know what that is?" Head shakes and confused blinks all around. "Dissociative Fugue is a sub-classification of Dissociative Amnesia, characterized by episodes of sudden wandering away from home. During these episodes, you have little to no memory about your life and even identity. If an episode lasts too long, you may even start to make a new one. If Hachi's mom tells the 'story' so seriously, and being somewhere despite not remembering going there is part of Hachi's biggest fear, then maybe it wasn't just a story after all. Dissociative disorders come about due to trauma, and the thing is, we already know Hachi had some."

"Yeah. Later on in the simulation, there's a guy in the car, and he makes us panic. We don't even know why, either, but we're seriously terrified just at the sight of him. Is the reason why we don't know... because she didn't remember why she hated that person?" Ren asks.

"It seems likely to me."

"There is also the matter of the White Daisy Room. She did not seem to recall its personal significance to her in much detail, but it frightened her to the point that she pondered it for weeks on end."

Very softly, Gou says, "It scared her enough to write it sixty-two times in less than a month."

"And the thing is, dissociative disorders are so fucking stigmatized, and they're diagnosed so much less often now than a few decades ago. Because we live in a 'happy, safe, boring world.' Mental health is for things like imbalances in brain chemicals, and sure, some people need therapy because there's trauma, but they're weird outliers," I say, waving my hands mockingly. "If she had this– and that's a big if– she probably didn't know. And what would happen if she suddenly remembered the trauma?"

"It would be awful. Horrifying. Especially since people would judge her for speaking up. Or, uh... maybe not people, on an individual basis. But institutions." Ren nods.

"I'm not saying she was necessarily having a fugue episode when she wrote that email— it might have just been what she used as her alias. But either way, we see that the story made a much deeper impression on her than we thought."

Yuu quivers, possibly putting himself in her place. "So you're saying that, out of some concern and care for Hachi, this thing was constructed to show the world how real and powerful trauma actually is? So that they stop treating people like her as lesser?"

Gou squares up his shoulders and puffs out his chest a little. "That definitely seems more solid than anything we've thought up so far. But it makes me wonder. Why would she be in the game? She died first, right? If WDR did this for Hachi's benefit, why would they risk her life?"

None of us have an answer to that. "Well... maybe there's more than one reason that this killing game happened! Maybe it was made for Hachi, but maybe there's some other reason why she had to be a part of this," Fuji speculates, twirling a lock of hair with her finger. Monokuma snorts as if her idea is ridiculous or stupid. She glares, but rubs her wrist self-consciously.

I quickly jump in to address her. "I don't think I have any idea what a second reason would be yet. But that doesn't mean you're wrong, necessarily. Honestly, it would make the most sense."

Azumi supports me. "I concur. This is likely not a contradiction, rather a hole we've yet to fill." Everyone else nods.

Eventually, she sighs. "Anyway. We're super lucky we checked her bedroom. Without that, we'd totally have like nothing to work with here!"

"Hey, umm..." Yuu pauses. He's talking in a pretty low volume and he interrupts himself with a nervous laugh. "If... we wind up having to accuse each other of being the Mastermind... can we promise not to take any of it personally? I know I don't wanna say that anyone's guilty, but we'll probably have to eventually." His skin is pasty, and a big pile of evidence surrounds him.

Ren nods firmly. "We won't really make any progress if we worry too much about hurting one another's feelings. We have to say what we think. Why do you ask? Do you have any suspicions?"

Yuu wavers. "I don't know if I have enough evidence to say it with a clear conscience. Just a couple of weird coincidences."

Azumi stretches her hand across the table past Monokuma to get closer to him. He sets his on top of hers briefly. "Organize your thoughts. If you elaborate, perhaps the rest of us may have some additional information. Our input may strengthen or disprove your idea."

"O-Okay. First... Monokuma, did you genuinely intend for us to watch ALL of the Free Time Events? Did something seriously go wrong?"

"Something happened. I wanted to get all your precious little secrets out of the way so that none of you would have to find out anything big and scary during the trial, but I could only manage to keep you all conscious for most of the important shit... plus a few useless things to keep the puzzle!"

"Do you know what happened?"

"Oh, absolutely. The issue wasn't exactly subtle, and I am a very smart bear! Bears are one of the most intelligent non-human animals, didja know that?"

"Unimportant," he dismisses. He writes something down and then winces. "Can I ask you guys a favor?"

"What's that, sweetie?"

"Can everyone but Chimon plug your ears for a minute?" My heart skips a beat. What is this about? Why does he need to tell something to just me?

"Mmm... that looks real weird, honey. Are you sure you can't just say it to everyone?"

"Please trust me on this. I'm trying to keep somebody's private information... well, private."

Azumi does so without hesitation and then watches for everyone else. "Fuji, please," I ask. She sighs and follows suit. Ren shrugs a second later and complies, and Gou waits the longest before taking his helmet off and plugging his ears. Once they all acknowledge each other, they even close their eyes thanks to Azumi's lead.

He scans the group for a second and then looks dead at me.

...

Yuu

I feel like I'm gonna fly out of my own skin, like my body isn't mine. This is all crazy. I slide two sheets of paper towards Chimon. It's one of the newspaper clippings and the stuff we wrote about the Free Time Events. It's a little difficult for him to reach since he's on the opposite end of the table, but he just barely manages. "So, you see the article about Gou's crash, yeah? It's dated two years ago. That clip we saw, when Gou was talking to you, he said that 'it's already been three years' since something happened. Was he telling you about the crash?"

His pupils dilate and he blinks frantically. "That's— There's no way. He was temporarily paralyzed in that crash! His cousin fucking died in that crash, there's no way he just casually gets the year wrong!"

"Do you see anything else?" I ask. For all I know, that could've just been a misspeak, or an accident, or something stupid like that. I can't just accuse someone I care about by exposing his trauma without further proof.

He dutifully looks over what I gave him. "I found something, but it could just be a big coincidence. I don't feel good about this, Yuu," he admits.

"May we stop now?" Azumi asks, opening one eye. Hesitantly, I nod, and one by one, everyone tunes back in.

"What was that about? I want you to whisper sweet nothings to me, too."

"Priorities, man," I jab in retaliation for earlier. He sticks out his tongue. "We did come up with something, but I'm not sure if it's enough. Let me look at some things real quick, I might be able to scrounge up a solid argument." I pull all the evidence toward myself and tap the table repeatedly, in sets of eight. I have to think, I have to think. Come on. "I'm gonna try something. I want to reiterate: everyone try their best to not take our spitballing personally. It's more of a Crazy Idea than an indictment."

"Sure," Gou agrees, putting his helmet back on. I bite my lip hard.

Now's not the time to panic or run away. But God, am I sick and tired of being the one to blame people. "I... can see some evidence indicating you, possibly."

He gets this far-away look in his eyes and then shakes his head softly. "No." The objection is more of a murmur than anything.

"No? What do you mean by that?"

"I'm not gonna— I mean— Okay, lay it on me."

"There are just... a lot of small things differentiating you from the rest of us. For example, did anyone see anybody but Gou conk out right before the Free Time Events started?" Head shakes. "So he was the first, and then the rest of us went all at once. I don't know exactly why that matters, but then there's him being at the top of the Inheritance. You wrote the closest to Hachi. You're also the reason we're in this courtroom in the first place."

"And how would that make me the Mastermind? Sure, I get that it's weird, but those tiny little differences don't mean anything." I see his fist clench, unclench, reclench over and over, and he makes a face like he's trying to decide something. "Honestly, don't you think there's someone way more obvious we're overlooking?" It takes me a second to figure out what he means.

"You have a point, but that seems a little too obvious. Don't you think?"

"Like Bisque?" I flinch the second the words are out of his mouth. He recognizes this immediately and a spark of remorse brightens his eyes. "Oh my God! I'm sorry, that was way out of line! I didn't think before I spoke!"

"I know what you meant. But I'm still not convinced."

"Um, sorry, I don't know who you two are talking about. This is kinda going over my head right now," Fujiko admits, looking down in embarrassment.

Monokuma, silent until now, smirks. "Yeah, Gou! We're gonna need you to be more specific for Miss Teruya's sake over here!"

Gou gives him the middle finger. "If we're considering me a suspect, we can't let Chimon off the hook without even questioning him."

His mouth is a straight line. "Welp. Figured that was coming eventually. And I don't really have an iron-clad defense or anything."

"Erm... purely to perform due diligence, we ought to at least address our concerns with Chimon, yes?" Azumi looks at everybody.

"Yeah. Admittedly, a case against Chimon seems a lot more solid than one against Gou," Ren adds.

Fujiko shakes her head. "Well, I said I'd believe in him no matter what, and I'm not gonna break a pinky promise! There has to be some way to prove it's not him!"

"Oooooh! Do we have a... split opinion?" I groan at Monokuma's announcement, and our chairs begin to lift, rearranging the six of us into two opposing sides. "Scrum Debate, Begin!"

"We must take note that Chimon kept the torn out book pages a secret from us," Azumi begins.

"Yeah, but I was keeping it secret, too. And I was willing to take all the heat. He could've gotten away with it, but he confessed to his part!" Fujiko points out. "Besides, literally all of us keep secrets."

Ren tugs at his choker begrudgingly. "His necklace opened the door to the Vault. I know we speculated that someone stole it to make the lock, but doesn't that sound a lot more complicated than him doing that willingly?"

"Remember that Sayuri stole Kana's remote. And all of our pottery wound up in the garden while we were busy investigating. Theft clearly isn't as difficult here as we'd like," Chimon reminds us. "Besides, we don't have any idea why Gou is at the top of the Inheritance list."

"We don't know why you were moved down the list, either. And hey, like you mentioned, I'm the reason this trial happened at all! Why would I try to end this game if I was the Mastermind?"

"The email to Hachi made it sound like WDR's leader knew we'd be reading them. Maybe the plan depends on the game coming to an end?" I theorize. "By the way, any idea why you were the first one to fall unconscious earlier?" It's a genuine question.

"Well, he was struggling an awful lot. Chimon was, too, but Gou's a lot stronger. Maybe Monokuma had to do something to stop Gou from breaking his cuffs?" Ren speculates.

Fujiko pouts thoughtfully. "Maybe. Gou was the closest to Hachi, though. And he was the closest of us... alive... to Wakumi. Don't his ties to them seem kinda weird now?"

"If I was trying to hide my own trail, don't you think I'd cut out my conversations with Hachi and Wakumi? Keep in mind, we didn't hear anything from Chimon."

"We established earlier that Monokuma wanted us to hear everything. He even made it dead clear who Sora was. It's possible you weren't trying to hide your trail at all." I shrug.

Azumi tilts her head. "Did anything in Gou's conversations even prove anything?"

I look to Chimon, but he shakes his head. Not yet. "Maybe not in the ones with Hachi and Wakumi. But when he talked to me, he mentioned a friend of his has a pilot's license... like Nari told Ren."

"Look, I know a lot of people. Is it all that unbelievable that someone you've never met has a pilot's license? We're stuck in a stalemate here. You don't have anything critical against me, right?"

It's gotta be now. I try to speak in a temperate, sympathetic tone. "Gou... your crash... you told Chimon it's been three years. It's only been two, according to this newspaper article. Or at least, it's been two if our memories are accurate. But we already know they've been tampered with. You're hiding something from us. That seems pretty critical to me."

He sits in silence for an alarming amount of time, clutching at his head. I start to panic. What if that was nothing? What if I reminded him of something awful, even told the rest of the group, for no reason at all? "H-Hiding something?" he says. "Sure, maybe I'm hiding something. But you have no idea the type of shit he's hiding." He points straight at Chimon, and his voice is terrifying. It's somehow flat but filled with venom.

I flash a look at Fujiko, and she looks mortified. Is he seriously about to expose the secret about Chimon being unable to love for so long?! Chimon grips his key necklace and his expression is utterly stricken, like he's been slapped in the face. Tears well up in his eyes. But then he grits his teeth and looks down. "Okay. If you want to tell Azumi and Ren, I can't stop you. They're the only ones who don't know. Unless you mean the shit with my dad. But screw it. I can't prevent that either." He tilts his head backwards, staring into the spotlight pounding down on him. "I've had too many close calls. I couldn't keep getting lucky forever."

"He's... his..." Gou's voice cracks and shakes, like he's having to fight to get each word past his lips. "No. I'm not going through with this. I can't." He scratches at his arms, and it feels like I know that. I did that, when I was caught. "I... well, I'm not the one controlling Monokuma. I'm very closely affiliated with them, though. I guess you could call me a co-Mastermind? But I swear, every time I said I love you guys, I was telling the tru–" He grabs at his throat in surprise.

"Relax! Your voice is just gone. I didn't slice you like Wakumi. I'll give it back, but you know you can't go exposing all of our secrets!" Monokuma smiles. Gou nods, and I can see it in his eyes. Total resignation.