Sayaka felt guilty.
She was standing outside Makoto’s room, stuck in a killing game.
It had been 3 days, the motive videos had been released, and she had finally been pushed over the edge by them.
Makoto had managed to comfort her and had promised to get her out of the school.
He had put his trust in her, a very honest action.
An honest action that she would now rip into pieces with a lie.
Back to the guilty part.
Sayaka had felt guilty in many other parts of her life. Being an idol wasn’t an honest business. Not by a longshot. She had to lie to the public whenever she was in sight, take down other idols through the dirtiest tricks imaginable.
As much as she would want to apologize to them, they were gone, gone from sight because of her.
And now back to the part where she’s standing outside his door.
The plan was simple, convince Makoto to switch rooms with her, invite Leon Kuwata to her room via a note, knowing he wouldn’t be able to resist.
Then finally, commit murder.
Once this was all done, she would leave Makoto to be framed of this murder.
F r a m e d f o r t h e m u r d e r
The idea of this felt worse than the idea of killing someone. Even thinking of the look Makoto would have after the experience made her entire body ridge up in fear.
I have to do it, my idol group! They’re everything to me!
She straightened her posture, put on a nervous look, and rang his doorbell.
So… Fake.
Less than a second later, the door swung open, Makoto appeared in front of the door.
W-what
She wasn’t surprised by the speed in which the door opened, but rather the look on his face. Sayaka was naturally intuitive, being able to read faces accurately to the point of being able to claim psychic powers.
Taking in his normally determined or happy face being something else was quite startling to her naturally.
His face had a mixture of guilt, tiredness, dread, sadness, and happiness much more fake than anything Sayaka had ever put on her face.
He looked like the most depressed person in the world trying and failing to act happy.
“I’m really sorry to come in so late.
She said, not even having to fake the fear
“Is everything ok?”
Even his voice sounded depressed.
“Sorry to bother you, but something really weird just happened.
She waited for a response, but he just gave a knowing nod, waiting for her to continue.
“Just a while ago, I was laying down in my room. And all of a sudden my door started rattling and shaking.”
She looked at him again, waiting to see any emotion of fear or concern fly across his face, none. He just looked sad and dreadful.
Is this… the same person who promised to help me a few hours ago?
“After a while… it just stopped. I let some time go by, then I got up and opened the door to check outside”
She looked at his face again, the dread and sadness disappeared, leaving only a blank slate of emotions, the look of someone who had resigned to something.
“But there was nobody…”
She trailed off, her desperation turning to concern.
“Naegi-kun, are you okay?”
She watched one of his eyebrows raise the slightest amount, before he silently walked over to his bed, and collapsed on it, exhausted.
“Of course, I’m not”
He said bitterly, malice in his voice directed to no in particular. She flinched.
“W-what do you mean-”
“Someone claiming to be my friend is trying to frame me for murder, of course I’m depressed”
He laughed bitterly, Sayaka jolted in shock.
There were two options, deny or accept the claim. What he had said described the situation with complete accuracy. There was no point in denying it, so she had to accept it.
“H-how-”
His upper body stood straight up.
“YOU’VE DONE THIS SHIT OVER 500 TIMES!”
He finally yelled and swore for the first time in his experience at Hopes Peak. The shock factor almost debilitated her.
“Somone-tried-to-break-into-my-room this, Please-switch-rooms-with-me that, Please-let-me-kill-Leon-and-frame-it-on-you, I’M DONE!”
After this rant, he collapsed on the bed again.
500 times…
The pieces
started falling in place like she was in a video game.
T_M_ _ _ A _ _ L
There’s no way to normally experience an encounter 500 times.
TIM_ T_ A V _ L
Even if it sounds and is physically impossible
TIM_ TRAVEL
It’s the only possibility for him knowing a plan I made that was never mentioned on camera
TIME TRAVEL
…
“Time travel right?”
She murmured, the phrase sounding ridiculous.
He stood up with ease, softly smiling, and pacing around the room.
“Yeah, a real psychic huh.”
She watched him walk around the room, familiar with every material making up the floor.
“May I ask… how many times you’ve looped?”
“I’m not fully sure at this point, but I’d say around 549 times at this point.”
She gasped in shock, having to experience the same killing game once was already bad enough, anything over 100 times crossed into borderline insanity.
“For how long…”
She didn’t want to know
“A lot of years honestly, sometimes I get killed early on, other times, later on, sometimes I survive the entire damn game, then boom! Back at the start again on a desk.”
Maybe he had gone insane sometime throughout the loops.
“Is there any way out?”
“As far as I know, the only way out is surviving with everyone alive, but that’s pretty much impossible.”
He switched back to his bitter form.
“So many possibilities Sayaka, I save you, a new event happens and someone’s dead, I try again but mess up along the way slightly and a new scenario with a new person dead, I’ve been told by a lot of people that I’m bad at lying, and it’s coming to bite me. Each time, a new scenario. I have bottled up all that damn stress from all of these killing games trying my hardest to SAVE EVERYONE! BUT NOTHING WORKS! AND I’m JUST STUCK FOREV-
He froze as a pair of arms wrapped around his waist, a warm weight against his chest.
“You don’t have to suffer anymore, I can’t say I understand your situation, but at least let me help you.”
Out of all the loops, this scenario had never happened genuinely, just fake hug after fake hug in the classroom. But he knew from his experiences that this was real.
He reciprocated the embrace, holding it tightly like the only thing suspending him to life.
After a while, they broke free, Makoto genuinely turning red for the first time in 500 loops, he looked at Sayaka who was more determined than he would have imagined her to ever be.
“So you’ll really help me… escape?”
He said, hope filling his voice, Ultimate Hope.
She nodded firmly.
“Of course I will! I am the Ultimate Assistant after all!”