Regrets, Restarts, and Forgiveness

Chapter 39

We all relaxed a bit with a nice meal in the dining room, thanks to Kirumi. Everyone agreed they had wanted a breakfast meal, so Kirumi prepared buttermilk pancakes, scrambled eggs, muffins and sausage for everyone to enjoy. 

"Mmm~! Damn Kirumi, you've done it again! Made an incredible meal for us all! Thank you very much!" Kaito stated. Kirumi giggled, sitting beside Ryoma. "Thank you very much, Kaito. I am merely satisfied that I was able to prepare a meal to everyone's liking." she replied.

"Kirumi is very talented. Isn't Kirumi talented, Kokichi?" Gonta asked. But I barely heard him. I was eating quietly, deep in thought. When he noticed he didn't have my attention, he gently tapped my shoulder, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Kokichi, you okay?" he asked. 

"Oh uh, yeah, I'm fine.....I'm just thinking a bit." I said. 

"Thinking about what?" Tsumugi asked. I hesitated to speak at first. I was used to keeping my thoughts to myself. But, I remembered that these were my friends. I can rely on them. Maybe they could help me somehow. "....I'm trying to think of how we can get out of here. We saw before that actually trying to bust out of here doesn't really work well." I replied. "Yeah, the Exisals were just too strong back then." Angie replied.

"But the Monokubs aren't around anymore, so there shouldn't be anymore problems with the Exisals, right?" Kaede said. "Well we don't know if Monokuma could still be controlling them with a remote controller or something. Plus, he knows we've used Electro-hammers and Electro-bombs, so he might have a new defense system to defend against them." Shuichi said.

"Okay, well....maybe we can make a trade with Monokuma. We give him something in exchange for all of us leaving." Tenko said, taking a bite of her pancakes. "No, that won't do any good. All Monokuma wants from us is our despair and suffering." Rantaro stated. 

"You said he was magic or something, Kokichi?" Miu asked. "Kinda. He said he was a despair demon. He gets his power from people who are in despair, absorbing our negative energy. That's why he sets up these killing games. Cause it seems like the perfect why to get people into despair, right?" I said. 

"Getting friends to back stab each other with murder....yeah, that'll do it." Ryoma said.

"I wonder if the other kids from the previous killing games had this much trouble trying to overcome Monokuma...." Himiko murmured, setting her fork down as she looked down sadly. "Huh? What do you mean?" Kiibo asked. "You know, the other kids. The ones trapped in Hope's Peak High School. And the ones trapped on that island. I wonder if they had to get through this kind of obstacle before." Himiko said.

"Well remember, a lot of our personalities and identities were made up for this game. We don't even know if those killing games really happened." I said.

"I refuse to believe that everything about us is a giant fake! I'm Himiko Yumeno! I know that for sure! No one can change my mind!" Himiko stated. I looked into her eyes. She was completely serious. The determination in her eyes stated so. I chuckled, and she looked at me puzzled. "Sorry, I just....I've never seen you so positive before." I replied. 

"Well, I have a few friends who help me hold onto hope." Himiko replied, looking to Angie and Tenko, who both smiled. 

".....I do wonder sometimes what the murder cases in Hope's Peak High School were like," we looked to Korekiyo, who had relaxed into his chair and had a hand on his chin, "merely to study. To see exactly what those kids did indeed do. Maybe it's fiction, maybe it's not. That wouldn't change the fact that something must've happened in those stories." he replied. 

"Hell, I wonder if we could solve one of those cases." Rantaro said. 

That was when Shuichi perked up, and stood up.