Azumi

I am concerned. We have already seen that Gou and Hachi were involved in this horrid production from the beginning, and furthermore, Wakumi was drawn into the role of traitor partially through. Now we must wonder about Joanie's status? That is a quarter of us! Were a quarter of us sincerely instrumental in causing this tragedy? "I cannot fathom the possibility that Joanie was a part of this. Her death was due to our in-fighting. She threw herself away purely to prevent our hostility from causing another murder!" I insist. "This email... surely Team Danganronpa has other scriptwriters."

"Oh? Well, this isn't really a 'Team Danganronpa' project. I mean, kind of. I was a low-level writer when the series collapsed, so I guess you could say my presence makes it a Team Danganronpa thing. And I piggybacked off a lot of their tech." He relaxedly lounges across his seat, as though he is a gossipy guest at a slumber party. "But this is much more about White Daisy Room!"

I notice Yuu play with the hair stick I gifted to him, which strangely motivates me. "On top of the Joanie weirdness, I've kinda been wondering. Why would Hachi give us any of the information she did? She didn't need to tell us about Sora, especially not the only person who actually would've remembered that about her. She also never needed to hint toward the secret passage or flat-out give us the name of White Daisy Room. Honestly, if we'd figured any of it out much earlier, it could've seriously mucked up whatever they were planning. Neither of their actions are particularly consistent with someone in on all of it, but we know at least Hachi was."

"Ah! Actually, that's kind of simple! It's because they didn't have—" In his overeagerness to assist us, Gou presumably says too much, for his sentence gets caught in his throat.

It is strange, perhaps a little offputting, the way that Hibiki's spirit and demeanor are so bright. He comes across as something of an everyman, or like an exasperated older brother. "I love that spirit, bucko, you know I do, but you're gonna ruin the surprises with a mouth like that," he says.

"Okay, guys! We know that the reason Hachi and Joanie behaved strangely is because of something they didn't have! Let's brainstorm!" Chimon urges. Ever since Hibiki emerged, he has been aggressively latching onto any lead that we receive. Chimon's manner has become akin to a fierce athlete in the midst of a rally.

"Uh... well, maybe it's resources? Seems like Hibiki has a lot of tech, but most of it wasn't used until after they'd both died," Ren speculates.

"But if they had access to the inside scoop, as it were, they would be aware of when that would become available, right?" I bring up.

Fujiko chokes out her statement. "This is kinda out there, but, like, what if what they didn't have was a purpose? Like, what if they were dropped in here and didn't have a mission? Wakumi got told to kill Tozen, but maybe Hibiki just sorta let 'em loose in here."

"I am not entirely convinced by that. For all we know, their missions may have been self-sacrificial; Joanie could have been told to cause another murder to keep the game going, like with Wakumi," I mention. I am certainly not reveling in the possibility.

"Missions," Ren mumbles. "We kind of all had missions, if you think about it. Our first trials. Joanie was part of the group meant to enlist our Monoinu unit. He was supposedly designed to be our friend, but he wasn't aware of it. Could she have been there to make sure Chimon and Bisque didn't find some other way out? Like, miss something important?"

Yuu puts a finger to his chin. "Speaking of him... I've seriously been wondering about a few things. First of all, why was a Monoinu unit specifically programmed to be our ally?"

Hibiki gasps and places a hand to his chest, falsifying scandalization. "I have over a hundred Monoinu! Do you really think I wouldn't spare even one adorable puppy for my cousin's buddies?"

This goes ignored. "That, and apparently our first trials were meant for 'bonding,' and to help us figure out each other's strengths and weaknesses. To show off the 'team' assets. I didn't understand the emphasis on us being a united front or whatever, but the Monoinu we were interrogating glossed over that."

"I feel like we're getting an itty bitty bit off-topic... um, but if you guys think we should shift wheels– I mean, gears– then you're probably right," Fujiko bashfully states. She suddenly procures a compact mirror from her bag and winces at her reflection. I provide her with a water bottle and a handkerchief so that she may wash her face.

"She's right, though. We shouldn't let him off the hook for the thing Gou said. But I am curious about just how much WDR knew about us, even before we got here. Remember, one of the tips we got was asking how our motives were so specialized. Sayuri got a secret from each of us, and Wakumi said that Hibiki knows more about us than we expect," Chimon summarizes.

"Given that we lost our memories of one another, we have no reasonable account of what we did or did not tell Gou. White Daisy Room had reference for our darkest fears and several, several secrets. That trivia game in particular catches my attention. Some of these things I only told because I thought you all may be the last people I ever converse with."

"It could've been our loved ones? We know cause of our letters that Hibiki knows where to reach people we really care about, or who know a lot about us. They coulda told him stuff."

"Unless he was bluffing, Gou knows stuff about me that nobody in my normal life knows about," Chimon retorts. "I don't know what would've convinced me to give that up until I was here. But then again, I do have a hole in my memories."

"Memories. Memories... Memories! That's something Gou has that we don't! And it's possible that Wakumi got them back when she turned traitor. If we're asking about something Joanie and Hachi didn't have that would cause them to behave strangely... it could be our memories!" Yuu announces. Gou beams and then, when Hibiki whips his head to look, suppresses the smile. It becomes a grimace.

"But then, how did Hachi know about the secret passageway?"

Hibiki sighs and crosses his arms. "I guess we had a little issue. Missed a stray memory or something. And since she remembered crawling through the passage in the past but had no surrounding context, she construed it as a dream. Besides! It helped your investigation, so count it a blessing!"

"Wow, you have a lot of 'little issues', huh?" Ren mocks with a sneer.

Even so, the Mastermind takes it in stride. "Sure. I'll be the first to admit I don't have much experience with the memory removal. Again, former low-level employee over here."  He tilts his head. "And I'm no Junko Enoshima, five million IQ Ultimate Analyst fictional bitch, I make mistakes." This comment makes Gou laugh without a sound, and even the rest of us cannot help but smirk. "Oh, but for your information, the problem with the FTE's was NOT my fault."

"That aside... the implications are that Joanie and Hachi were involved with WDR before this killing game, and yet were entirely unaware of it once it began. This would mean that Hibiki's associates would effectively be of no help to him. Why would he choose to erase their memories?" I muse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fujiko

I'm so confused. I'm so scared. Kana would've been so much stronger than me in this situation. She'd have totally taken charge and, like, torn Gou and Hibiki a new one. But each step we take forward makes me feel more and more sure that things are gonna keep getting worse and worse for us. I didn't read the Danganronpa book, but they've told me how it's despair this and despair that and how there's so much you could drown in it. I haven't come up with any actual good ideas since this whole thing started, and now I know that Gou, Hachi, and Joanie were all in cahoots with Hibiki to make this happen to us. Why?! What is this for?!

"Is it true that Wakumi got her memories back when you chose her to kill Tozen?" Ren asks. He's glaring.

"Yessir."

"Why'd you choose her? Just cause she was pissy at us?" Hibiki doesn't answer anything at all, but smiles, challenging us to figure it out.

Azumi tries to stretch and then realizes again that her ankles are trapped. "Recall our discussion on the qualities differentiating Gou from the rest of us. Inheritance... Gou is listed first, and Wakumi second. Our assumption was that the Inheritance was something you had yet to bestow upon the chosen heir... were we incorrect? Was this list meant to determine which of us received our memories?"

"Gou, I don't want to be the only one having any fun! How about you tell them this one?"

Gou coughs a couple times and blinks in surprise at getting his voice back "This isn't... fun for me."

"Really? But you fought so hard for– well, you know."

He doesn't backtalk. He doesn't even look at us. He holds onto his arm and says, just loudly enough to be clear, "I called myself a 'co-Mastermind,' but that's not exactly what I'm called. I'm the Inheritor." His breaths shake. "We voted on it. The seventeen of us made the initial list. If I had been killed, all my responsibilities would've been passed down to Wakumi. And if we both died, it'd go down to the next living participant. White Daisy Room... is all of us." When literally none of us can even say anything to that, he stutters out a quiet, "A-And a small handful of others... like some of my cousin's work friends and a f-few of our relatives."

Nothing. I like, literally can't even say anything. My brain blanks out and I yank at my own hair just to stop feeling like I'm floating away from my own body. But something else does that way better. I gasp as a huge THUNK shakes the table, and Yuu's slammed his head down on it. He does it again. And again. To the point where it terrifies me. But none of us can get past our frazzle long enough to do anything about it.

"You can't be serious. Tell me... tell me that's a lie. For once in my life, I want for you to have lied to me." I reach out my hand to grip his shoulder but have just enough sense to realize that would be the literal worst thing I could possibly do right now. Irresponsibly, Gou doesn't seem to have any idea what to say to make this better. "This place was hell on Earth! My so-called 'biggest fear' in that damn simulation doesn't hold a fucking candle to this! I had a psychotic episode here! I was the reason two people died! I MURDERED someone! And you're telling me I WANTED this?!"

"You did! You were actually pretty eager," Hibiki responds, like this is such a natural thing.

"Why would we EVER put ourselves through this?!" I scream, finally finding the words.

"Th-The email to Joanie implies that it was for the sake of ideology... even so, I simply cannot believe this. Nothing could have possibly occurred within the time we lost to warp us into entertaining such an idea, let alone following through with it!"

"Oh, Azumi. You always were so keen on denying truths that make you uncomfortable. Sure, I hyped this up as a societal thing, and I was being totally legit about that, but for some of you– actually, for most of you– there were way more personal reasons. You told Bisque about your circus accident. What do you think would happen if this was being shown live? The journalists extorting your folks would be partially responsible for the imprisonment of a minor, and even if you survived like this, they'd look like REAL assholes for profiting off the exploitation of a defenseless child!"

"I..." Her honey brown eyes dart around, like she's trying to find some way to say no, and she starts panting.

"And to be honest... this is the truth. We fly under the banner of showing the world that it is anything but peaceful and boring... and we do so by sharing the horrible things that people have done to us."

Gou explains a little more. "W-We... did this so that those people would have to live every day knowing they have blood on their hands... it was all for revenge. And I was the idiot stupid enough to introduce you all to Hibiki." Suddenly, that conversation he had with me just yesterday runs through my head. If you could take revenge on anyone in your life, would you? My answer was no... or at least something tiny. So... why?

Somehow, hearing just a little blurb of Azumi's history has managed to snap Yuu out of it. He sits up and his expression goes from total anguish to concern. He grabs a useless random page of Danganronpa and starts to fold it. She sees it. "What are you...?"

"Just hang on. It's gonna take me a second," he answers.

I sigh in relief that he's okay-ish, but that doesn't seem to be the case for anyone else. I look to Chimon. He's scrunching up, clutching at his key. His skin looks almost green and he's shaking. It hits me again just how young he is. He might've been as young as fourteen when we met Hibiki, and he looks even babier. It stings.

And Ren? His teeth are grit, and his pointy canines are looking hella creepy. His fists are so tight that his knuckles are somehow even whiter than normal. He pulls himself to a standing position and his chains rattle. "This is fucking sick, you bastard. Vile. You cannot convince me that I willingly took part in this. Sure, I may have some grievances with my family, but I would NEVER hurt them like this. You can't convince me that she was in on this, either."

"Ducky, do you know where you were on the list when we made it? Tenth. There were six whole people we thought would be worse Inheritors. And she's right above you. Like it or not, I knew you wouldn't fuck this up if it somehow fell on your shoulders. Which means, if you had your memories, you'd probably go through with it."

"H-He wouldn't. Not anymore," Gou says softly.

"What was that, chicky?" The tone is oddly strained.

"N-Nothing."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chimon

I know I should say something. I guess even now I still feel like it'd look weird and people will find me suspicious, which makes no sense. We're all guilty. Each and every one of us is at fault. Every murder may have had a Blackened, but we're responsible for all of it.

"Y-You must be mistaken! There is simply no manner in which you could convince each and every one of us to participate in a plan so completely and utterly cruel!" Azumi insists. "Perhaps not me... perhaps even I have to admit that liberating my family from those blackmailers would be nice. But all sixteen of us?"

"Like, honestly! I may be stupid, but I'm not that stupid!" Fujiko nods emphatically. "What about Haruto? And me? I'd never do something so mean!"

"Oh, it was actually pretty simple to get some of the... trickier members on board. I just had to start small."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Yuu squeaks. He hands an origami heart to Azumi– apparently that was what he was working on, to try and cheer her up– and despite her wavering, she's able to blow him an appreciative kiss.

"I know what you mean. You snagged some of the more willing of us and used us to get to everyone else. It's suggestibility. Peer pressure. And maybe you also exploited our desire to help each other," I explain, feeling my blood run cold. "If you got everyone else first, especially the dancers, Fuji might give in. It would be the same for Haruto if you dragged Tozen and Azumi into this."

"Yep! It was like a Rube Goldberg machine. You need all the components to reach your goal in a chain reaction. Oh, but Kana, the one who'd know anything about that, is dead. Anyway! What a smart little ducky, Chimon! Your understanding of how people work made you a seriously valuable asset! I was genuinely blown away by you. I wanted you to be the Inheritor, to be honest, but my beloved little cousin really wanted the job, and his ability to rally the team made him a good pick for everyone. It was the right choice, luckily. You got your ability to love back, so I had to push you way lower."

"You— You what?! Got your ability to love back?!" Ren interrupts instantaneously. Azumi covers her gaping mouth with a hand. Yuu grimaces in sympathy and Fujiko reaches across the table to hold my hand. Gou can only look down, saying nothing and seemingly shrinking.

I swallow. My stomach churns and I feel legitimately ill. Not only did he just expose my darkest secret to everyone, but I was a hair's breadth away from being in Gou's position right now. And unlike him, I wouldn't have felt the same sense of remorse. Or maybe I'd have wound up like Wakumi. Slashed in the throat. My hands are shaking. "What did I do?"

"A lot! But your biggest power move was the way you played the dancers like a fiddle. Wanna know how?"

"Chimon, you don't have to listen to this!" Ren insists.

"What did I do?" I repeat.

With a look of genuine admiration, Hibiki beams. "You invited them to your house. Pretended as though you thought your lifestyle was completely normal. When they discovered that you do most of the work for your household, they both completely lost their shit! They nearly got themselves kicked out!"

"You WHAT?!" comes a chorus of stunned voices. Fuck, that secret was even more important to keep.

"Please, shut up. I'll explain later, I just need to hear this," I plead.

"You cried and begged them not to call CPS. Tozen came up to Kana explaining our idea the next day, wiggled just enough to stop her feeling guilty about 'being a bully.' Then she talked her way past Monterio's reservations. They came to YOU with the plan, and you pretended you hadn't heard about it before! They were already on board, but once you sobbed about how you were so grateful that they wanted to protect you... Ah, like putty in your hand!"

I clutch onto my key for protection, even though I know it's just a powerless hunk of metal. He respects me. I hate how much he respects me. "And how did you get me?"

"Keiji and I did most of the work on you. Keiji's job was to research the hell out of all of you, which was easy considering he'd already done quite a bit of that before even meeting you. He couldn't find a Chimon Ueda in the field of hypnotherapy, but he found a Fumihiro Ueda, a disgraced retiree. Admittedly, we didn't know about your legal shenanigans— not exactly sure how the people in charge of the weekend convention even knew you were a minor. We just figured you may want revenge on whoever got your father's license revoked. We had no clue how deep your little rabbit's hole went."

"Gou, is that true?"

"I never heard anything about legal shit until Hibiki started listening to your conversations with Monterio here."

Hibiki laughs a bit. "The only questions you asked were whether you'd be taken care of during and after the killing game! Y'know, like whether there'd be lots of food and the lodging would be nice! Nothing about if your parents would be provided for, or if your friends would be okay! I should've pieced it together sooner that you were sociopathic!"

"Shut the fuck up, you bitch!" Yuu hisses immediately.

"I'm more annoyed by your misuse of a stigmatized term than by your attempt to insult me," I retort, trying not to let it show that it hurt.

But of course it hurt. I thought that, just cause I couldn't love other people, it didn't mean I was a bad person. I could be thoughtful enough to choose the right thing, even without shame to hold me back. Sure, I knew I had a manipulative streak, but I never actively tried to hurt people. But I was swayed to do something so terrible so easily. I'm such a bad person. I'm disgusting.

"Honey, it's gonna be okay," Fuji murmurs reassuringly, rubbing my hand. It's not! And you know it's not! You've been distraught since we caught Gou!

"Why did you ever let him meet us?" I ask him. I hope the tone doesn't come across as too accusatory. It seems obvious to me that he doesn't have much control over this situation anymore.

"I–" He shudders, finally looking at me. "She– Hachi remembered her trauma, just like you thought. She wasn't herself anymore. She would call me in the middle of the night cause she kept having nightmares. She'd suddenly burst into sobs when we were hanging out. The things that used to cheer her up did nothing. She used to tell me that she couldn't even remember the last time she was super angry or super sad, but after she remembered, it was all she could feel. And even though I didn't know a whole lot, I knew that it wasn't just her who suffered. I felt so powerless. I couldn't do anything to make it better. But... I knew someone who could, and I was desperate, so I... leaned on my cousin. I've always been able to rely on him. What he proposed, though... it was awful. I should never have agreed to it."

"Awful?" Hibiki finally manages to catch Gou's eye. His stare is intense, like he's gonna bore a hole straight through him. "Is getting justice for your friends awful? For a bullied boy whose ex broke him so bad he couldn't believe in unconditional love? The daughter of a drug addict who thought her own life would be cut short for choices her mother made? How about an orphan forced to fend for herself on the streets? Or a neurodivergent child abused by a teacher for being 'rambunctious?' A kid whose mom is so paranoid that she keeps him locked up like fucking Rapunzel?"

"Hey, it's more nuanced than–" Ren starts to interject.

"Is getting justice for my little brother so awful, Gou? Do you even care at all?" Tears break through my eyes and I can just barely see Gou recoil like he's been slapped.

This is Hibiki Iwai. This is the sway that led all of us here. The kid gloves are off.