Danganronpa: Locked Doors of Despair

Ch.6 Deadly Life Part 8: Of Fear

Azumi

Despite the circumstances being extenuating (and that is an understatement), I was raised to believe that it is rude to stare. I try to wrench my gaze away from Gou, but no matter how valiant my efforts, I cannot. His eyes look darkened and lifeless, like he is hollow. His eyebrows curve upward and his lips quiver subtly despite biting on the lower one. "You say that your care for us is not a lie?" I say, shattering the silence.

My words seem to break him out of a trance and he looks straight at me. "Yes! I swear it! I know it sounds literally unbelievable right now, but I promise I was never lying about how much you guys mean to me!"

"Who do you intend to help, from this point on?"

"I– I want to help you guys. I really do. I just don't know what I can do. My... uh... cohort has me on a real short leash over here."

"If you claim that, in spite of your station, you are our ally, then you must strengthen your resolve! You are Gou Kita! You have never taken any challenge lying down and now is sure as hell not the time to start!"

He turns his head slightly. "You'd really... I mean, is this really okay?" In all honesty, I am not sure precisely how everyone feels about this. But, because this situation is urgent, or perhaps because I was forgiven despite my faults during the last trial, I cannot hold onto any feelings of betrayal.

Ren grabs my hand. His grip is clammy but firm. "C'mon, man! How much longer are you planning on acting all wishy-washy? That's so not like you. If you wanna be a Kamen Rider, then you have to help defeat the supervillian! Sure, you can't do a whole lot, but commit yourself to doing everything you can!"

Fujiko turns her head away from Gou and blocks her face with her hands. She breathes in that unsteady, congested way that indicates she's near tears. "Am I the only one who's angry? I thought we were a team! I thought you were our leader! You just... fed us to your coworker or whatever, and we followed you cause you were always so nice!"

Yuu hands her a pack of tissues he'd stowed away in our evidence backpack. She blows her nose loudly. "I'm... conflicted, too. You don't have to feel bad for not believing in him. We can leave the faith to the others. There's a place for skeptics. You and I can listen to what he tries to tell us and call him out if it looks like he's trying to trick us."

"He says he loves us but he was partially in charge of this whole thing! I just can't understand!"

"Fujiko doesn't get something? What a surprise!" Monkuma snickers cruelly.

"Hey! Enough! Leave her alone!" Gou interjects.

Chimon, newly exonerated, runs a hand through his hair. "Fujiko, it's okay. I'm just as confused, honestly. Gou, you blew your own cover when you could've told everyone my darkest secrets... but you went through all that to frame me in the first place."

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to do that."

"Then why did you? Why do any of this?"

"I can't answer why I helped make sure this killing game could happen. But as for why I accused you... my partner said I had to put up a fight. They said it was too soon for me to get outed. I didn't want to listen, but I know I can be of more help to you all if I'm here! If they kill me... well... let's just say I'm not ready yet. So I had to comply."

"How could the person operating Monokuma say all of that to you when Monokuma's right here?" Ren ponders.

Gou takes a pause to look at Monokuma, sighs, and then pulls his helmet off. "There's a tiny speaker in here. They can broadcast any kind of message to me whenever they want. It's sort of similar to how Monokuma communicates with the Monoinu units. It's how I know when the coast is clear to go through passageways."