It was my nerves, falling like dominoes in a chain reaction. The dominoes with the words

‘Yasuke Matsuda’, ‘Junko Enoshima’, and ‘Passionate Kiss’ written on them all came crashing
down like an avalanche.

Everything was arranged.

Everything was arranged by Junko Enoshima.

My relationship with Matsuda. All my feelings toward Matsuda, were arranged by her.

Matsuda. Matsuda. Matsuda. Matsuda. Matsuda.

…Matsuda?

Betrayed… That word played in the back of my mind. Betrayed, fooled, used, manipulated…
that was the truth. The truth of this incident.

Yasuke Matsuda. Junko Enoshima. Passionate Kiss. They clattered as they were colliding with
one another on their way to the ground. At the same time, the elevator door was clattering as
Kamishiro pried it open.

“C’mon, Big Sis. For the time being, let’s get out of here. We’ll talk about the rest once
everyone’s together… C’mon, hurry up, hurry up!”

Still in a daze, I was pushed out of the elevator by Kamishiro.

As I staggered out clumsily, I found myself in a massively tall circular chamber, almost like a
miniature theater.

“Hey, this place is pretty nice…”

Kamishiro’s voice, coming from behind me, echoed throughout the hall.

“Yep. This could actually be a fitting stage for my resolution phase to take place in.”

It certainly looked like a stage developed with some greater use in mind… but there was nothing
there, nothing that would give the impression of anyone currently using it. Interior design was
kept to a minimum, with wallpaper and carpeting, and the only pieces of furniture were a bed
and a chest of drawers, as well as a toilet in the corner. Either a wide, extravagant prison, or a
low-budget play setting… That was the impression it gave.

What drew my attention more, however, was the fact that no one was there.

Junko Enoshima, Mukuro Ikusaba, Matsuda… even Izuru Kamukura, who was supposed to be
hidden here… none of them could be seen.

It was peculiar: instead of any of the important individuals Kamishiro just spoke of, only the
outsiders Yuto Kamishiro and Ryoko Otonashi were standing there.

But… I wondered if that was really so.

Maybe I’d been making a huge misunderstanding. All this time I’d thought that I hadn’t met

Izuru Kamukura even once… but I couldn’t help but wonder if that really was the case?

Maybe he’d been watching over me all this time. Maybe the person I’d been looking for was
watching over me all this time.

Could it be that… Izuru Kamukura’s true identity was…
Yuto Kamishiro?

I immediately turned around.

But, Kamishiro wasn’t there.

The moment I thought that, my vision perceived Kamishiro’s appearance.

He was crouching at my feet.

No, more like… kneeling down on the ground.

But even so, our eyes met.

I instantly jumped back.

Nothing but shock toward such an illogical display.

Sheer horror at such an incoherent sight.

The pressure in my skull grew, increasing to a point where it wouldn’t have been surprising if my
nose began to bleed, and my nerves began trembling to the point where they couldn’t connect to
form a single thought.

Kamishiro, despite kneeling down on the ground, was looking not at the floor, but at the ceiling.

That’s impossible.

To turn one’s head all the way toward their back, that’s impossible, for, a, living, human.

And that’s exactly what it was.

Out of nowhere, he was no longer one of the living.

Kamishiro, with his head turned 180 degrees back and glaring at the ceiling, was completely
stiff. The only part of him that seemed to be ‘living’ was the red stream of blood dribbling out
from his mouth. He would show no response to anyone’s voice, or to any sounds.

This was too much for me.

It was too much, to the point where my conscious couldn’t fully comprehend the scene of
someone dying in front me. In that moment, my reactions were all delayed. If they weren’t, I
would have already run away from here. After all, the first thing to come to mind would be the
fact that the person who did this to Kamishiro must be very close by.

But… I was too slow.

“Poor kid.”

A figure appeared next to the elevator.

It was a slim, fair-skinned man, wearing a dirty shirt and pants that were of the Hope’s Peak
Academy uniform.

“If only he didn’t meddle in Junko Enoshima’s affairs… then maybe he wouldn’t have met such
a brutal end.”

As he said those words with his face hung down, not one single emotion could be felt.

“W-who are you?”

As I asked, trembling, he lifted his face as if he only just noticed me.

“Are you… talking to me?”

He looked exhausted.

The face of someone who lost everything.

The face of someone who had lost all his thoughts, all his senses, and all his emotions.
“…You don’t remember me?”

The man’s response came in a cold tone of voice. He paused for a moment before continuing
even more coldly.

“Why don’t you remember?”

“W-why I don’t remember… well… I-I easily forget things…”

Stricken by fear and confusion, I was in complete panic.

“U-um… Hold on a minute please!”

Flustered, I dropped my eyes toward Ryoko Otonashi’s Memory Notebook, and at that moment…

I was hit by that wave of itchiness.

The itching soon turned into pain… but it was a pain that brought fever, feeling like a blaring
alarm. The frictional heat emitted from the conflict of the Ryoko Otonashi who remembers and
the Ryoko Otonashi who forgets… that was the cause of the pain.

“Does Izuru Kamukura ring any bells?”

“Eh….?”

Hearing the words of the man’s unexpected murmuring, the pain went away all at once.

“…Is that true?”