Danganronpa Zero

Section Thirteen

The strength within those hands gradually began to weaken as energy left the entire body.

Then Matsuda finally relinquished his grip on that girl.

clang

A sound rang out from the ground. It was a knife tainted by blood. It was a knife engraved with Hope's Peak Academy's emblem. Blood could be seen dripping down around it, and soon it developed into a sizeable pool of red.

Putting my hand towards my stomach, I could feel a warm sensation. Matsuda then returned his eyes to that girl.

"...Listen, you bitch."

He spoke while suffering.

"B-Before I die, you should know that...what I told you was a lie. That wasn't any kind of treatment. I've been...preventing, you, from, remembering, anything, at all..."

I already know that

I then heard that voice.

The mouth of that girl who responded began to swerve.

It must have been a smile.

Smiling from the taste of the knife that pierced Matsuda-kun's flesh. And that's when Matsuda confirmed it.

The fact that the person known as Ryouko Otonashi, no longer exists.

"Um, by the way..."

Mukuro Ikusaba's murmuring voice could be heard.

"I was only supposed to appear in Junko-chan's likeness in front of the real one, but I accidentally got caught by Madarai at one point...but I really didn't caught by anyone else..."

"O-Obviously..."

Matsuda coughed up blood along with his resentful voice."

"A-Anybody who knew would easily be able to tell...even if you are sisters, you two are still different people...besides, the Enoshima who appeared before me...is definitely the real one."

Hearing the words "different people", Ikusaba, as if annoyed, turned her eyes away from him and instead placed them only on that girl and spoke.

"That's why...for this case, besides me being disguised as Junko-chan, the real Junko-chan conducted her own secret plans as well...it's just that, she herself did not even realize that...meaning, Junko-chan was deceived by herself."

"I-In the end...everything went just as planned...from the very beginning straight to the end..."

Matsuda spoke to that girl as well. While speaking, his consciousness was beginning to fade away, and just standing appeared to be a struggle. But even so, his frail gaze continued to focus on that girl.

"B-But there's one thing I don't understand...why you planned such a troublesome turn of events. Why you went so far to have me take away your memory...in order to escape investigation from the school...it doesn't sound pleasant at all...but even so, you were able to push through all of it. T-Then why..."

Failing to keep his ground, he finally sat down. But Matsuda continued his interrogation, resolute on obtaining his answer.

"W-Was it to...p-pull me, who was always thinking of you, into despair?" That girl then began to finally move.

She gently caressed his face with her hand in an almost lovingly way, and sat down next to him, paying no matter to the blood spread around the area.

She then drew Matsuda's face, whose eyes were beginning to drift away, towards her own, and whispered.

I'll tell you.

That whisper was filled with a gentle feeling love, but it soon radically changed.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Don't get so ahead of yourself! There's no way in hell I'd go through this pain in the ass mess just to bring you into despair! What the hell are you thinking!?"

As soon as those words finished, that girl immediately thrusted her hand away from Matsuda's face. Doing so, Matsuda collapsed onto the pool of blood he created.

"Y-You don't give a damn...is what you're saying, huh..."

Matsuda muttered those words as he laid on his back gazing towards the ceiling.

Staring at that face from straight above was that girl. Their faces were close enough for the tips of their noses to easily touch. But even so, his gaze didn't exactly match up with hers, as it began to absent-mindedly falter.

"I guess...I don't have anything to with this...t-that really was the case after all..."

Because of the overflowing blood, I felt an unnatural warmth developing in the back of my throat. But, that soon faded away.

"H-How long have you felt that way...has it been since...we were children?"

"Upupupupu."

That girl's face then warped into a cruel smile.

"What if I told you...that the reason your mom got that way was because of me? What kind of face would you show me?"

"...Wha-?"

Pain as if a sharp needle passed through his heart was displayed.

"You're, you're not serious...are you?"

As he spoke with that shivering voice, bits of blood splattered onto that girl's face from his mouth. It stood out more than even her cruel, inhumane smile.

"A-answer me..."

While Matsuda grew more and more grave, Enoshima on the other hand seemed to fall into ecstasy. Without giving any response, that girl just continued to watch as she cupped her chin in her hands.

Matsuda's soul was falling into the depths of despair.

His own meaning of life was thoroughly and decisively violated, and was then rejected.

He had completely given in to despair. "P-Please...respond..."

His clinging words barely formed into words at all. "C'mon...what's your answer...Junko Enoshima..." That was the end.

Without ever hearing his answer, Yasuke Matsuda died.

Completely submerged in despair, he died.