Part 123: Super High-school Level Update #111

That huge school building was built on a prime plot of real estate in the very center of the city, as if it was the center of the world itself.



"Hope's Peak Private Academy"...

It is a super-exclusive academy, officially recognized by the government, aspiring to gather and cultivate high school students excelling in their respective academic fields.

General opinion is that graduating this school leads to certain success in life.

It is a school with several hundred years of history, legendary for sending its top students into leading roles in every professional field time after time.

Its stated goal is to raise this nation's "hope" that will bear the country's future on their shoulders. Accordingly, some people call this remarkable place the "Academy of Hope".



To be accepted as a student, there are two qualifications:

"You must be currently enrolled at a high school"
"You must super-excel at your field of expertise"

The school doesn't advertise for new students. To be accepted one must be scouted and invited by the school itself.

And so, looking at the front gate of that super-amazing academy...



...I... stood...



...
......
.........

...huh?







Where... am I?

I woke up on top of a hard desk.
My entire body was awfully weary.

I fell asleep in the middle of a boring class before, of course, but...

...But, why am I sleeping on top of this desk right now?

Even stranger, this is a classroom I've never seen before.

What's... going on?



............
U...!



At long last...

At long last my consciousness started syncing with my body... and then...
I woke up...

Or maybe... this is still a dream...?

Maybe this is still a despair-inducing nightmare...

No... This isn't a dream...

I could tell by the unpleasant stench drifting through the air...

It... really stinks in here...

I was in a dim space that light doesn't reach.

Piles of garbage covered the entire floor.

I'm probably... at an underground garbage disposal room...

...So, this is the situation I find myself thrown into.

But, my troubles are just beginning.

Am I going to... just die like a dog in this place...?

I can't let that happen...
I mean... I owe my life to a friend...

I remember it clearly... I remember what happened back then...



Alter Ego saved my life.

He spared what little strength he had left and saved my life...



That's why... I can't give up.
Not just for my own sake, but for Alter Ego's as well...!!

That's how my attempt at survival began.

First, I should look for an exit...





There's one obvious lead if we're looking for an exit, but before we approach it, let's see what else is here with Naegi.



That's... a desk.

It must be the one that fell in here along with me.





Is that... an airplane?

What is it doing here in the school's garbage disposal room...?





It's some kind of a rocket... isn't it?

I don't want to think about how it came to be in this condition...



Now let's see if we can leave.



* rattle rattle *

It's locked...

* rattle rattle *

No matter how many times I try, it's useless. I pushed, pulled and kicked, but it didn't budge.

I guess it's not going to be that simple...

...It can't be helped. In that case, rather than an exit...



I should look for food.



Everywhere I look, everything is rotting...

...I guess this is useless as well.



Then, I looked for water.



How can I tell which liquid is safe for drinking and which isn't...?

...This is also useless.

Looks like I'm in a real mess...

Nevertheless, that's not enough for me to give up... I mean...

I'm still alive!
As long as I'm alive, I'll never give up!

After yelling that declaration at no one but myself, the next thing I did...



...was sleep.


I slept earnestly...
I had to preserve whatever strength my weak body, that lacked food and water, had...

...I must have slept for more than an entire day.


And then, I slept some more...

And then, I waited. I waited for inspiration to fall on me from the sky.

But...
What fell from the sky wasn't inspiration.



* CRASH *





...Eh?!

I jumped in surprise at the sudden noise in the middle of the quietness that surrounded me since I got here.



When I looked, there was a strange shape bulging out of a garbage pile that wasn't there before...

Did something... fall here with it...?

Something big... fell from above...

What... is it...?





That's a lot of trash... did something fall down along with it...?

Shaking, I reached my hand into the garbage pile...



"Sorry for bringing the trash with me..."

Accompanying the voice, she came out of the garbage pile.








It really stinks in here...
K...Kirigiri-san?!
You look healthier than I thought you'd be...
W...What are you doing here...?
What does it look like I'm doing? I came here to rescue you.
Kirigiri-san, it's not like I'm not happy to see you, but...
Um, you have garbage on your head...



............



Kirigiri-san swiped the garbage off her head and then turned back to me once more, never changing her blank expression.



First, I should give you this.



Eat. We'll talk after you're done.
...!!
T...Thank you!!



I snatched the bread and the water away from her hands...

...and wolfed them down in just a few seconds.

I feel better now...
I think I'm all set to get going again...!



So, you never gave up, did you...
Of course I didn't...
My one and only saving grace is being an optimist, after all...
That's a fantastic saving grace, you know...





So, Kirigiri-san...
Why did you come to save me?





I'm returning a favor... No, maybe I should say I'm atoning for my sins...
Atoning...?



During the school trial, you knew I was telling a lie, and yet you kept quiet, didn't you?
You noticed that...



Nevertheless, I couldn't save you...



I ended up... abandoning you...
I...I don't think you've abandoned me...!



No, I am not exaggerating. In order to save my own life, I abandoned you.
You tried to help me, and yet I abandoned you.



I'm not trying to make up any excuses, but...
There was a reason I had to survive, no matter what the cost was...
...But I guess that is really just a cowardly excuse, isn't it.



You have... my honest apology.

reason I had to survive

A reason you had to survive...?



I guess... I should tell you everything.
I had to survive... because...



I came to this school for a reason.
...Eh?
I came to Hope's Peak Academy out of my own resolution. I had a very important goal...

very important goal

So, you had some kind of a goal, and that's why you came to Hope's Peak Academy...?



That's right... I think.
You think?
I have... forgotten about that important goal until very recently.

Forgotten...? Is that...?!



My memory is gone.
Your memory is gone...? You don't mean...?!
Is that what they call "amnesia"?
............



So, it was true? Kirigiri-san has amnesia...?



...Naegi-kun, do you remember?
Right after we came to this school, the first strange thing that happened to us...

The first strange thing that happened to us...?

Do you mean... how we lost consciousness?
And then, when we woke up, we were already locked in this place...



It was just after I woke up at that time...
I felt... a strange discomfort I couldn't explain...



When I think about it now, my memory must have already been gone back then.
And the two things I've forgotten everything about were...
The goal came to this school in order to fulfill... And the skill they called me a "Super High-school Level" for...
But... Why would you forget those two specific things...?



It's a mystery, isn't it? It can't be a coincidence. Not in this place, where everything is tinted with opportunism...
So, maybe... Your memory was gone because...





I have no doubt. It's the mastermind's doing. The mastermind took my memories away.
B...But... Why would the mastermind do that?
There's just one reason I can think of.
My goal... and my skill... they were inconvenient for the mastermind.

Inconvenient for the mastermind...? That's why he took her memories...?



But, you see...
If we look at it from a different direction, my memories must be tied to this school's mystery and the mastermind's identity...
I was determined to seek them out.
That's why I always investigated alone.
But, if you were so troubled... You shouldn't have acted alone. You should've let us all help you...



If everyone helped me it would have caught the mastermind's attention. And also...
There's a chance the mastermind is hiding in plain view, and is one of us...
Eh...?
...Don't make that face. It's just a possibility.
But, as long as it's a possibility, I couldn't just ignore it, could I?

The mastermind... among us...?
In other words... someone we would never suspect...

And that's why she always acted alone, searching for her lost memories...



Nevertheless, there are limits to what one can do alone. That's why I asked for your help.
But... Why did you choose me...?



I thought you were the person most unlikely to be the mastermind. It's just an intuition, though.
I... I see...
...But, your intuition was on the spot. It's impossible for someone as ordinary as me to be the mastermind...







I... know...
I... should know everything...
My goal... isn't to leave this place...
It's... to stay here.





Uu...!

It happened again... That dream I saw before... But...

What was that... just now...?





...Naegi-kun, are you alright?
Y...Yeah... It's nothing...

It's nothing... isn't it...?

............



...I did end up trusting you, though, didn't I?
It's just that... I am not very good at relying on other people.



I probably didn't do too well when I asked for your help... I probably made it tough for you to understand...

Honestly, everything about her is tough to understand...

But that's... just part of what makes her Kirigiri-san, I guess...





How to be a video game: stop the conversation at an arbitrary spot and make the player click again to continue.



I understand why you acted alone all this time, but...
Did you find anything? Do you remember what you forgot?



There are still many things I don't remember, but... At the very least...



I managed to remember some things about my goal and my ability.

my goal and my ability

Your... ability...?



"My special ability". That is, that's probably what everyone called me...



"Super High-school Level Detective"...

SHOCKING PLOT TWIST!!

Super High-school Level... Detective...?

And then, my reason for coming to this school was...
I came here in order to meet a certain person.
It was necessary that I meet him, no matter what the consequences were.

a certain person

"A certain person"...? Who was it...?



It was...
Hope's Peak Academy's headmaster.
T...The headmaster...?!
W...Why did you need to meet this school's headmaster...?!



Because he's my father.

SHOCKING PLOT TWIST!!