"Are you okay...?"

"...Yeah, somehow."

"..."

The shelters cover was pushed off, and the three remaining students emerged into the now completely destroyed academy, reduced to nothing but rubble.

"We... survived..." Maki trailed off.

"So Aki-san was telling the truth... The outside world and Kiibo-kun wanted us to survive." Shuichi said.

"But why?" Maki inquired. "Why would the outside world want that?"

"I supposed... the outside world wanted this lie to become the truth." Shuichi looked at the ground with hesitance.

"Saihara?"

"...Was this really all worth it? 14 people... We started with 17 people, now we're down to three..." Shuichi clenched his fist.

Maki's eyes drifted to the ground. "We won...but the price for winning..."

"It's too great. How can we consider this a victory when so many people have died?" Shuichi's eyes grew warm. "We were all supposed to escape together but..."

"Stop it!" Shuichi and Maki froze. They turned to Himiko, who had tears streaming down her face, yet looked absolutely infuriated.

"Y-Yumeno-san...?"

"Y-You... You two need to stop your whining!" Himiko yelled through her tears, tightly clutching the blue badge. "It wasn't worth it...? What are you talking about!? Of course it was worth it!"

Maki blinked. "It... was?"

"Yes, yes it was! Ichika and Kiibo... they both kept us alive because they wanted us to be alive! They sacrificed themselves for us! If it wasn't for Ichika... I wouldn't be alive right now... I don't think any of us would be... If only I moved out of the way, then she'd still be here..."

"Even if Aki did survive, she said that she'd only live for a week." Maki said bluntly.

"..." Shuichi looked at the ground.

"Even so, I'm still alive thanks to her! So that's why..." Himiko's grip around the gem tightened. "There's no way I'm going to let you two just stand there and question if it was worth it or not! It was worth it! It was definitely worth it! Ichika and Kiibo died because they knew it'd be worth it! And it's not just them..." Her hands started shaking. "It was Akamatsu too... And Gokuhara, and Momota... everyone..." More tears fell down Himiko's face. "They all gave their lives because... Because they know it would all be worth it in the end, didn't they!? They wouldn't have done what they did otherwise!"

"Yumeno-san..."

"So... So that's why-!" Himiko stood up straight with tears still streaming down her face, still tightly clutching onto the badge. "We need to live! We need to go to the outside world, to prove to them that it was all worth it! Because it was! So please..." Himiko sunk to her knees. "Don't say it wasn't worth it... because if you do... they aren't you just throwing away their sacrifices...?"

"..." A small smile grew on Shuichi's face. "Yeah... I'm... I'm so sorry, Yumeno-san. This was all definitely worth it."

"I'm sorry too. After all, I didn't think we'd even survive the explosion..." Maki's expression grew soft. "...But I guess the impossible is possible. All you gotta do is make it so, right?" Maki gave Himiko and Shuichi a soft smile.

Shuichi chuckled. "Yeah..." he then turned to Himiko and gently took the badge from her, then clipped it onto her coat.

"Nyeh?"

"There. Now you won't lose it."

"It looks good on you." Maki added.

Himiko smiled brightly. "Thanks! I'm glad I got through to you guys..." She quickly wiped her eyes, getting rid of the tears.

Shuichi looked ahead at the glowing light. "Well then... Come on, everyone. Let's head outside. With confidence. The outside world is waiting."

"To the outside world, huh...?" Maki sighed. "A peaceful world with no fighting, and no despair. That's why Shirogane said, right?"

"Yeah." Shuichi froze. "Ah... if she wasn't lying."

"Nyeh!? It might be a lie!?" Himiko exclaimed.

"Remember when she said, 'My plan was such a flawless copy'? She said 'copy'... That means she must have been copying someone, right?"

"What does that mean?"

"What indeed..."

"What!? You don't know!?"

"Ah, well, I have some theories. Perhaps Hope's Peak Academy and the Remnants of Despair really exist."

Maki gasped. "So Shirogane lied about this whole world being just fiction?"

"Wh-What!? A surprise ending!?" Himiko shouted in astonishment.

Shuichi shook his head. "No, I don't really know for sure. She might have been lying when she said 'copy.' But if she were telling the truth, then... it would make sense that was a lie."

Himiko tilted her head. "What do you mean, ?"

"What Shirogane-san showed us... The way we were when... we first arrived. The fact that we were... happy that we got to participate. I still don't believe it. I can't believe that any of us would volunteer for this."

"We forgot everything about our old selves after we got the first Flashback Light, didn't we?"

"That's what Shirogane-san said, but... something's been bugging me about that. Even if we were obsessed with this killing game, I still can't believe we would participate in it. I just... I don't believe it." Shuichi let out a small chuckle. "Ah, but... I don't really have any logic behind that."

Himiko smirked. "One of Momota's hunches, huh?"

Maki sighed. "Anyway, there's no way for us to check when we all applied to the Academy, right?"

Shuichi nodded. "Yeah..."

"What? We can't check?" Himiko whined.

"So in the end..." Maki continued. "We still don't know what was true or not..." She looked up at the giant hole in the sky. "The fictional world ends here, and the real world lies out there. Perhaps just beyond here is the truth... But maybe it isn't."

"Maybe it's still fiction in that world, or... Maybe Danganronpa still continues in that world, or..." Himiko trailed off.

"Or maybe the outside world is the same as this world." Maki giggled. "It might be a world... filled with lies."

"Well... if we can get out from here, we'll know for sure."

"Yeah... but I feel like... there's not too much meaning in truth and lies..." Shuichi said.

"Nyeh? What do you mean?"

"I mean that... even if something is a lie, even if it's fiction... If it has the power to change the world, then it must contain some kind of truth." Shuichi explained. "Aren't we proof of that? In this fictional world, we overcame all these fictional struggles. But those things changed us. And we were able to change the world. So it doesn't really matter where the truth ends and where the lies begin. If lies can change the world just as well as the truth can... Then lies... are just another way of telling the truth. Some lies can lead the world to hope... Some truths can lead the world to despair. So I don't think anyone can really say which is more right in the end."

"I guess it's not important whether it's a truth or a lie. Just what it leads to..." Himiko mumbled.

"Yeah. That's what I believe. We stand with one foot in fiction, and one foot in reality..."

"Then, we need to see for ourselves whether this fictional world has changed the outside world and what we can do from this point on..." Maki said.

Himiko nodded. "You're right. We can't stay in this fictional world forever. It's already over. We gotta take the experience we earned in this world and go on to the next."

"Yeah. Let's go." Shuichi smiled. "We'll see what this world gained, and what it lost, and all the rest. Let's find out, together."

The three remaining students walked on, towards the outside world, still heavy with grief and pain from everything that has happened.

But that grief and pain... That's what is pushing them forwards.

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Word count: 1299