[Hajime's open palm presses back more firmly into Ryuji's chest as he answers, his arm stretched out straight between the two boys. He knows full well that Ryuji won't back down, and Hajime isn't leaving without answers.
Li peeks out from beneath Gundam's rumpled covers, letting out a questioning, purring mrrrrow? and then a bark. Hey friends, she's here too!!
Hajime keeps his hand between Ryuji and Gundam, without breaking eye contact with the animal breeder. His heart is pounding obtrusively loudly in his chest as he shakes his head.]
Tanaka, show me the handbook. This has to do with... with Jabberwock Island, doesn't it?
[If there ever was a look that could capture "please let me kick his ass, Hajime," that's the one Ryuji is sporting on his features right now, because he absolutely believes Gundam deserves it at the moment. But Hajime is the one speaking, and Ryuji keeps the ball in his court, leashed up and caged behind the smallest nod for approval to go ahead and do it.
This is a fucking mess, that's for sure- and a huge misunderstanding, probably, but there's no sign that he's gotten the inkling he's wrong here, and Gundam keeps provoking him more--- Ryuji just doesn't know if he's more pissed off about that, than the obvious... whatever it is he's trying to keep under wraps.
But, also, if the time difference in their home world is actually a thing, he's conflicted here. He's close enough to someone who can control time itself to know not to fuck with major spoilers in the sequence of events, since it has the potential to alter them... is that a thing? Which is more important, though? Confirming Gundam's not a killer and keeping Hajime safe right now, or potentially messing something up down the road otherwise?
Fuck it, the only thing that matters is right now.]
Why are there pictures of DEAD STUDENTS in there!?
[Gundam wishes that Hajime would just let Ryuji attempt to punch him. A battle might make Ryuji shut up for once-- although that's a stretch. If he wants to play a hapless hero, Gundam will assume his birth rite and be his villain!
It's only when Li mewls and barks behind him, that he realizes that this might not be an ideal scenario to unleash his forbidden powers on everyone present in this room.]
...
2/3 this is way harder than doing russian roulete with one bullet
[Gundam's mind reels trying to figure out a way around this, before Ryuji can mindlessly shout out anything else to complicate the situation.
He could just give Hajime the handbook as requested. However, he knows that Hajime has met some of their classmates in his timeline. Showing him a dead portrait of someone he can or might recall is not a viable option. Plus it would do nothing to tilt the situation in his favor.
Although the pixel renderings of the students did not denote deaths. If he merely flipped to a living student's profile, it would allow Hajime to see the original number of students that were trapped on the island to start.
Combined with the rules Ryuji had read about the "killing games" and the "class trials" one could figure out that the conclusion Ryuji implied was not possible.
Hypothetically Gundam couldn't have single-handedly murdered more than two students on his own. If he'd been caught his name would be listed with the dead. If he'd gotten away with it he would be the only one not dead.
...Of course this doesn't clear him entirely because they could simply assume he was pulled from a timeline before the conclusion of a trial--!!]
The answers to human's questions are always so simple...
[Gundam pulls up the Rules, keeping the handbook in his grip as he shows it to Hajime. There's twelve all together and they outline the life Gundam and his classmates have been living while trapped on Jabberwock Island.]
[Well, no shit, Gundam- that's a very obvious thing, so Ryuji will counter that with an equally obvious thing that places the suspicion right onto him.]
And you're still alive according to this thing. People die if they're killed! What the hell is this, some sorta killing game!?
[Ryuji's voice is kind of just ringing in his ears as he reaches out, though it seems Gundam won't just give him the handbook. It's... not going to stop him from scrolling down, brow furrowing as he reads through the rules. "Extreme violence is prohibited on this island," right, okay, it must be referring to the Jabberwock Island Gundam had mentioned before. "Hope Fragments"...? He has no idea what that means.
It's the following rules, the ones next to the little bouncing bear sprite, that make it hard to hear anything going on around him. His hand lowers from Ryuji's chest, less out of conscious effort and more just from not really being aware of what's going on around him.]
A class trial... execute the blackened?
[He sounds like he's talking to himself, not the other two boys.]
If the blackened gets away, the others... will be executed?!
[Hajime looks up then, eyes wide as he looks to Ryuji first for some kind of reassurance, then to Gundam just as quickly for some kind of refutation. This... this can't be real, right?]
[Yeah, he's pretty dumb, all petty and destructive thoughts accounted for in this giant fuckass of a mess that he's charged right into. Hajime lowers his hand, and Ryuji still has it in him to haul off and start a chargin', but he's concerned with how touched Hajime seems to be about this entire thing.]
Uh, no, I mean.
[You're asking Ryuji Sakamoto if, given the opportunity between completely misreading a room and getting hot-headed versus taking the time to sort stuff out... that he won't go for guns blazing route?
Well, Gundam... Don't know what to tell you here.]
Look, somethin' is goin' on here, for real, can you at least... I dunno, promise me or just say something to the effect that you're not a killer? This shit is fishy as all hell, s'what I'm sayin'.
[Hajime's not even looking at either of them, he's just staring down at the handbook. He can be incredibly dumb like... 80% of the time. But when it's important, when he can focus, he's observant. It takes him a bit to try to put pieces together, it's true, but he's from the kind of game where those kinds of time limits are okay.
He shifts his grip, trying to actually take the handbook. There must be evidence in it that proves that Gundam's not a killer, right? There has to be.]
I won't believe... someone like Tanaka can be a murderer.
Though! I assume despite your denials, Hajime Hinata! You require something more substantial than the mere words of the world's most terrifying calamity, Gundam Tanaka!
[He sees your hand and he really doesn't want to hand over this hand book to him.]
The mask fades away into particles of weird blue distortion, and that's that. If Gundam says he didn't kill anyone, he might as well believe him. He takes people for their word; it's once you break that to Ryuji that he will never forget that.]
Alright.
[That didn't really fill in the gaps of all the other absolutely fucking batshit stuff that looked like it was going on back wherever Hajime and Gundam had come from. He thinks back to all the talks he had with Hajime, too, about what it would be like to go home.
If that's the home he has to go back to ...]
The only calamity I'm seein' here is how you ain't lettin' him see that book. Might as well just give up the ghost, dude.
[Hajime glances to Ryuji, surprised at how quickly he accepts what Gundam's saying. But... he really shouldn't be, he realizes almost as quickly. Ryuji is just the kind of guy who's so willing to believe in other people that even something like this...
He still wants the evidence to prove it. It's in his hand, he's sure of it, and he doesn't let go of the handbook.]
If... if this has a list of students in it... the people you're saying thought I was their classmate... I want to see it, Tanaka.
[Well... he didn't really come from a world where that was actually a luxury he could afford either. There were a lot of corrupt people whose sins had turned them into monsters that hid under sheep's skin in their own society. Ryuji and his friends, then, only ever worked to alleviate those corruptions.
And also? If this were a murder game, he'd probably wipe the floor with his persona. He loved his inner demon monkey king.
He'll stay quiet as Gundam hands over the book. He's curious to know what's going on, but it's not his story to tell.]
[Would Persona fall under the "excessive violence" clause?? Who knows.
Hajime takes the handbook, hefting it in his hands. He's never seen anything quite like it; sure, it seems like a normal smartphone or tablet, but there's something weird about that little dancing bear. Like a malice deeper than any he's ever felt before.
He shakes his head, tabs over to the Report Card, and-- selects his own pixelated portrait after a deep breath to steel himself. ...Well, he doesn't look dead, though what's with the only things listed on his profile being mochi? Not to mention--]
Super High School Level...
[Super High School Level What though? It's all just question marks, even in Gundam's handbook. Beep, beep, he taps on Gundam's portrait. Nothing surprising there. Then Chiaki's, again with the same kind of trepidation from looking at his own. Again, nothing surprising. It's... nice, seeing her face again, his own expression softening.
The next one he clicks on is Mahiru Koizumi, and he flinches, a whole-body shudder at the greyed-out portrait labeled DEAD. Though he doesn't recognize most of the faces, the more he taps on, the more dead students he sees. He feels faint, like he might throw up. But--]
There's... it's evidence that he's not a killer, isn't it? There's just-- too many people. I...
[He clutches his tie with a hand, looking to Gundam again more pleadingly.]
What happened? Why... this is what you meant about people turning on each other, isn't it?
[Souda keeps suggesting Super High School Level Traitor. This is probably because Souda is an idiot-- and it has nothing to do with his tragic backstory that Gundam doesn't know anything about because he also won't give Gundam any of his goddamn hope shards.]
Be assured you are alive and shall remain that way, Hajime Hinata. You don't have my permission to perish and you will remain safe under my vigilant watch.
That's... that's Koizumi. Satou's friend in the Main Course. And this guy... this has to be her brother. Kuzuryu, the Super High School Level Yakuza.
[This is all good and normal. Apparently their(??) classmate is a yakuza heir, that's fine. Don't worry about it, Ryuji.]
Did... he couldn't have killed her, right? I-I mean... there's the rule. About... about a blackened getting away.
[Vaguely, he's aware that uhhh the door is still open. Let's just-- head inside, kids, Hajime stumbling a little as he makes his way over to sit heavily on the floor. Li rolls off the bed with a chirping meow and promptly buries herself in his lap. She's too big to really fit in his lap these days, but it doesn't stop her from trying.]
How come the police didn't get involved...? I mean, you guys are all talented students. They'd know you were missing.
[Ryuji is chill over here, but when Hajime looks to move so that there's some privacy to their discussion, he has a moment where he looks over at his friend for a cue- like, he knows this is kind of something personal, and he doesn't want to really be there if it makes either of them uncomfortable.
But it's not like the door closes in front of him or anything, so he'll join in, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.]
The police are useless, dude.
[Speaking very much from personal experience here. He was there when Ren came back from interrogation, saw all the bruises and marks all over his face and arms.
The police didn't save the world from anyone. They were absolutely, positively, fucking useless.]
[Gundam doesn't seem to mind if Ryuji stays. If he's going to be loyal to the singularity, he can be privy to what shall come to pass in his future.
Besides. He's right.]
It was the failure of the police to begin with that allowed Monokuma to provide such a successful motivation.
While the memory of this event was never restored to any of us in full, there were enough hints made available for those who deliberately sought them out. They drew their own conclusions as to what had transpired.
Conflict occurred as Monokuma desired and in a heated moment, Koizumi was felled. Not by his own hand, but by one so devoted to him she would sacrifice us all and herself if it meant he could somehow escape.
...He is an barely ursine monstrosity who preys upon their fragility and drives them to unforgivable acts.
Perhaps they are looking for them... but what could they do to reveal our locality to them? There is no way to escape. No way to communicate. They are stranded, clinging desperately to the last vestiges of hope in the face of despair.
[And if they looked for them right now and managed to find Jabberwock Island -- there is no escaping that funhouse.]
[The police are useless, it's true. They didn't investigate Natsumi's murder beyond a cursory glance. But these are people with talent. The police should be trying to find them! How could an entire class just vanish?!]
Your whole class is trapped there...
[And somehow, someone like me got mixed up in this, too. In the future... after the Project.
His fists clench at his thighs, and he just looks down at the fluffy ball of digicat curled up in his lap. A whole class full of talented students, being forced to kill each other. He can't fathom it. He wants to tell Gundam to give up the joke, but there's just no way he'd joke about this.]
Why... didn't you tell me about this before, Tanaka?
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[Hajime's open palm presses back more firmly into Ryuji's chest as he answers, his arm stretched out straight between the two boys. He knows full well that Ryuji won't back down, and Hajime isn't leaving without answers.
Li peeks out from beneath Gundam's rumpled covers, letting out a questioning, purring mrrrrow? and then a bark. Hey friends, she's here too!!
Hajime keeps his hand between Ryuji and Gundam, without breaking eye contact with the animal breeder. His heart is pounding obtrusively loudly in his chest as he shakes his head.]
Tanaka, show me the handbook. This has to do with... with Jabberwock Island, doesn't it?
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This is a fucking mess, that's for sure- and a huge misunderstanding, probably, but there's no sign that he's gotten the inkling he's wrong here, and Gundam keeps provoking him more--- Ryuji just doesn't know if he's more pissed off about that, than the obvious... whatever it is he's trying to keep under wraps.
But, also, if the time difference in their home world is actually a thing, he's conflicted here. He's close enough to someone who can control time itself to know not to fuck with major spoilers in the sequence of events, since it has the potential to alter them... is that a thing? Which is more important, though? Confirming Gundam's not a killer and keeping Hajime safe right now, or potentially messing something up down the road otherwise?
Fuck it, the only thing that matters is right now.]
Why are there pictures of DEAD STUDENTS in there!?
1/2
It's only when Li mewls and barks behind him, that he realizes that this might not be an ideal scenario to unleash his forbidden powers on everyone present in this room.]
...
2/3 this is way harder than doing russian roulete with one bullet
He could just give Hajime the handbook as requested. However, he knows that Hajime has met some of their classmates in his timeline. Showing him a dead portrait of someone he can or might recall is not a viable option. Plus it would do nothing to tilt the situation in his favor.
Although the pixel renderings of the students did not denote deaths. If he merely flipped to a living student's profile, it would allow Hajime to see the original number of students that were trapped on the island to start.
Combined with the rules Ryuji had read about the "killing games" and the "class trials" one could figure out that the conclusion Ryuji implied was not possible.
Hypothetically Gundam couldn't have single-handedly murdered more than two students on his own. If he'd been caught his name would be listed with the dead. If he'd gotten away with it he would be the only one not dead.
...Of course this doesn't clear him entirely because they could simply assume he was pulled from a timeline before the conclusion of a trial--!!]
3/3
[Gundam pulls up the Rules, keeping the handbook in his grip as he shows it to Hajime. There's twelve all together and they outline the life Gundam and his classmates have been living while trapped on Jabberwock Island.]
They are dead.
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[Well, no shit, Gundam- that's a very obvious thing, so Ryuji will counter that with an equally obvious thing that places the suspicion right onto him.]
And you're still alive according to this thing. People die if they're killed! What the hell is this, some sorta killing game!?
[He clenches his fist.]
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[Ryuji's voice is kind of just ringing in his ears as he reaches out, though it seems Gundam won't just give him the handbook. It's... not going to stop him from scrolling down, brow furrowing as he reads through the rules. "Extreme violence is prohibited on this island," right, okay, it must be referring to the Jabberwock Island Gundam had mentioned before. "Hope Fragments"...? He has no idea what that means.
It's the following rules, the ones next to the little bouncing bear sprite, that make it hard to hear anything going on around him. His hand lowers from Ryuji's chest, less out of conscious effort and more just from not really being aware of what's going on around him.]
A class trial... execute the blackened?
[He sounds like he's talking to himself, not the other two boys.]
If the blackened gets away, the others... will be executed?!
[Hajime looks up then, eyes wide as he looks to Ryuji first for some kind of reassurance, then to Gundam just as quickly for some kind of refutation. This... this can't be real, right?]
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...Did you even read anything on this page you fiend or did you solely focus on the tab with pictures?
[Gundam eyes Hajime wearily, motioning for his Devas to work together to grab his pillow from his bed.
...He doesn't want Hajime cracking his head open.]
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Uh, no, I mean.
[You're asking Ryuji Sakamoto if, given the opportunity between completely misreading a room and getting hot-headed versus taking the time to sort stuff out... that he won't go for guns blazing route?
Well, Gundam... Don't know what to tell you here.]
Look, somethin' is goin' on here, for real, can you at least... I dunno, promise me or just say something to the effect that you're not a killer? This shit is fishy as all hell, s'what I'm sayin'.
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[Hajime's not even looking at either of them, he's just staring down at the handbook. He can be incredibly dumb like... 80% of the time. But when it's important, when he can focus, he's observant. It takes him a bit to try to put pieces together, it's true, but he's from the kind of game where those kinds of time limits are okay.
He shifts his grip, trying to actually take the handbook. There must be evidence in it that proves that Gundam's not a killer, right? There has to be.]
I won't believe... someone like Tanaka can be a murderer.
1/2
[You would die on that island ten times over.]
2/3
Even one as diabolical as myself has never forcibly sacrificed a being in pursuit of my desires.
3/3
...
Though! I assume despite your denials, Hajime Hinata! You require something more substantial than the mere words of the world's most terrifying calamity, Gundam Tanaka!
[He sees your hand and he really doesn't want to hand over this hand book to him.]
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Good enough for him.
The mask fades away into particles of weird blue distortion, and that's that. If Gundam says he didn't kill anyone, he might as well believe him. He takes people for their word; it's once you break that to Ryuji that he will never forget that.]
Alright.
[That didn't really fill in the gaps of all the other absolutely fucking batshit stuff that looked like it was going on back wherever Hajime and Gundam had come from. He thinks back to all the talks he had with Hajime, too, about what it would be like to go home.
If that's the home he has to go back to ...]
The only calamity I'm seein' here is how you ain't lettin' him see that book. Might as well just give up the ghost, dude.
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He still wants the evidence to prove it. It's in his hand, he's sure of it, and he doesn't let go of the handbook.]
If... if this has a list of students in it... the people you're saying thought I was their classmate... I want to see it, Tanaka.
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It must be rather pleasant to live in a world where you are afforded such a luxury among those who surround you.
...Ryuji is most definitely a being who requires continuous protection.]
...very well. I have no murderous sins to lay bare.
[He'll let Hajime have the handbook.]
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And also? If this were a murder game, he'd probably wipe the floor with his persona. He loved his inner demon monkey king.
He'll stay quiet as Gundam hands over the book. He's curious to know what's going on, but it's not his story to tell.]
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Hajime takes the handbook, hefting it in his hands. He's never seen anything quite like it; sure, it seems like a normal smartphone or tablet, but there's something weird about that little dancing bear. Like a malice deeper than any he's ever felt before.
He shakes his head, tabs over to the Report Card, and-- selects his own pixelated portrait after a deep breath to steel himself. ...Well, he doesn't look dead, though what's with the only things listed on his profile being mochi? Not to mention--]
Super High School Level...
[Super High School Level What though? It's all just question marks, even in Gundam's handbook. Beep, beep, he taps on Gundam's portrait. Nothing surprising there. Then Chiaki's, again with the same kind of trepidation from looking at his own. Again, nothing surprising. It's... nice, seeing her face again, his own expression softening.
The next one he clicks on is Mahiru Koizumi, and he flinches, a whole-body shudder at the greyed-out portrait labeled DEAD. Though he doesn't recognize most of the faces, the more he taps on, the more dead students he sees. He feels faint, like he might throw up. But--]
There's... it's evidence that he's not a killer, isn't it? There's just-- too many people. I...
[He clutches his tie with a hand, looking to Gundam again more pleadingly.]
What happened? Why... this is what you meant about people turning on each other, isn't it?
1/2
...
[Souda keeps suggesting Super High School Level Traitor. This is probably because Souda is an idiot-- and it has nothing to do with his tragic backstory that Gundam doesn't know anything about because he also won't give Gundam any of his goddamn hope shards.]
Be assured you are alive and shall remain that way, Hajime Hinata. You don't have my permission to perish and you will remain safe under my vigilant watch.
2/2
...Humans are such foolish creatures.
no subject
[This is all good and normal. Apparently their(??) classmate is a yakuza heir, that's fine. Don't worry about it, Ryuji.]
Did... he couldn't have killed her, right? I-I mean... there's the rule. About... about a blackened getting away.
[Vaguely, he's aware that uhhh the door is still open. Let's just-- head inside, kids, Hajime stumbling a little as he makes his way over to sit heavily on the floor. Li rolls off the bed with a chirping meow and promptly buries herself in his lap. She's too big to really fit in his lap these days, but it doesn't stop her from trying.]
How come the police didn't get involved...? I mean, you guys are all talented students. They'd know you were missing.
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But it's not like the door closes in front of him or anything, so he'll join in, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.]
The police are useless, dude.
[Speaking very much from personal experience here. He was there when Ren came back from interrogation, saw all the bruises and marks all over his face and arms.
The police didn't save the world from anyone. They were absolutely, positively, fucking useless.]
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Besides. He's right.]
It was the failure of the police to begin with that allowed Monokuma to provide such a successful motivation.
While the memory of this event was never restored to any of us in full, there were enough hints made available for those who deliberately sought them out. They drew their own conclusions as to what had transpired.
Conflict occurred as Monokuma desired and in a heated moment, Koizumi was felled. Not by his own hand, but by one so devoted to him she would sacrifice us all and herself if it meant he could somehow escape.
...He is an barely ursine monstrosity who preys upon their fragility and drives them to unforgivable acts.
Perhaps they are looking for them... but what could they do to reveal our locality to them? There is no way to escape. No way to communicate. They are stranded, clinging desperately to the last vestiges of hope in the face of despair.
[And if they looked for them right now and managed to find Jabberwock Island -- there is no escaping that funhouse.]
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Your whole class is trapped there...
[And somehow, someone like me got mixed up in this, too. In the future... after the Project.
His fists clench at his thighs, and he just looks down at the fluffy ball of digicat curled up in his lap. A whole class full of talented students, being forced to kill each other. He can't fathom it. He wants to tell Gundam to give up the joke, but there's just no way he'd joke about this.]
Why... didn't you tell me about this before, Tanaka?
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Gundam clenches his jaw, feeling an overwhelming pressure pushing against him when Hajime speaks.]
I had no desire to bring calamity to your mind!
[Main course or reserve course -- talent or no talent. "We're not classmates."--"Your whole class."
...it's a barrier.]
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1/2
2/2
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1/3
2/3
3/4
4/4 like i said the whole time
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