Hope for The End (Book 3)

9. Ch1-Aki

Kyoko Kirigiri ran through the halls. She wanted to deny all the possibilities. Surely that fake was lying. There were too many possibilities. Her hopes died down quickly as she ran through the halls of the Future Foundations old Headquarters.

Nothing. Not a soul in sight.

Her heart raced as she realized. That Makoto hadn't been lying after all. He really was...

She shook her head. One last place to check. It should have been so obvious, so plainly clear. She didn't understand why she hadn't realized it before.

She started running to the nearest exit. As she approached the hole leading outside she heard something. An airplane? No... That's a helicopter. She stared up as she saw her friends helicopter land on the patch of ground in front of her.

"Kyoko what were you thinking?" Aoi shouted at her, leaping out of the vehicle before running over to her.

Kyoko stared at her, "You followed me all the way here?"

"Of course we did? What else were we supposed to do?" Aoi asked in slight amusement, "Wait forever until you got back? We're your friends, Kyoko."

She helped Kyoko out of the exit. She began dragging her by the wrist to the helicopter.

"Wait, Hina." Kyoko halted a few yards away from them, "There's somewhere I need to go. Could we use the helicopter to get there?"

Aoi stared at her before nodding, "Only if you tell us what's going on."

"...Fine."

Aoi helped her up into the helicopter and Byakuya started it up again.

"I didn't realize you actually knew how to fly these things," Kyoko called to Byakuya, "I thought you had other people do the flying."

"I did," Byakuya frowned in concentration, "but eventually they had me learn how to use one in case of emergencies. To me it felt like a big hassle but I suppose it's for the best."

Aoi cut off their conversation, "So what's going on? And where do you want to go?"

"I'll explain along the way." Kyoko said blankly, "I need to get to Hope's Peak. The one we were originally stuck in."

Byakuya nodded that he understood.

"you guys got stuck in Hope's Peak?" Komaru asked.

"It's a l-long story..." Toko muttered, she seemed very anxious as they flew up in the air, "Basically, we were f-forced to k-kill our own classmates because of J-Junko Enoshima."

"You never told me any of this!" Komaru frowned, "You kept me in the dark all the time!"

"Sh-shut up, I d-didn't want to t-talk about it. A-and I never will." Toko argued back.

"Guys please be quiet." Asahina butted in, "I need Kyoko to tell us what the heck is going on!"

They quickly went silent. The memory of Kyoko's chat with the fake Makoto echoed in her head.

"...A katana would have killed you for sure, even with Naegi's luck. Where is the real Naegi?"

Makoto smirked before giving his answer.

"He told me that the real Makoto is with my father and the others." Kyoko said, without a trace of emotion in her face, "I was checking the Future Foundation base to make sure his claim was true."

"What does he mean by, the others?" Asahina asked in confusion, "Surely he doesn't mean our old classmates?"

"T-that can't be! It's I-impossible to bring b-back the dead!" Toko yelled.