#aer plot

Everyone turns to glance at Atsuko who seems to be in thought for a bit before speaking up once more.

“We’re... well, we’re all grown up now, right? It seems... like a waste. We missed out on a lot of stuff.”

It’s hard to know what to make of that. While it is true, it’s not like much can be done about that now. She seems to shuffle on the spot, a troubled look on her face.

“I know... there’s nothing we can do about that now but it feels so... sudden. Incomplete. Like... I wish we could do something.”

Izo, who’d been leaning on a wall flicks open his tired eyes and offers an almost gentle shrug.

“Like a graduation?”

“... Yeah! Yeah, like that! C’mon guys, let’s-- let’s do it properly!”

[♫♫♫♫]

Atsuko ushers them all together. Yasu arrives at her side first, followed by Izo. Sachi gives Yuichi a sort of ‘it can’t be helped’ look and joins them. Yuichi’s hand remains on the door for a good few seconds before he, too, joins them. The five of them together.

“Okay you guys, all together.”

Atsuko takes a deep breath. Perhaps they all do.

“Hope’s Peak Class 1-A is proud to graduate! Sensei, Midou-san, thank you for everything!”

Their hands all rise to the air and, despite everything, they manage to smile, even laugh a little.

“I’m thankful for the friends I made over the last couple of years!” Yasu begins to speak up once more. “I know they’ll be here fore~ver and ever!”

“... I-I’m g-g-grateful for... the c-courage and k-kn-knowledge I gained, I g-g-guess...“

“... I’m happy I don’t feel the need to. Hide who I am and what I look like anymore.”

“Oh! Oh! I’m thankful for all the fun times we had before! All the festivals and the games!”

The four look to the only one who hasn’t spoken. Who’s... in fact, sniffling a bit. He quickly rubs at his eyes and glares.

“D-don’t give me that look!”

“It’s your turn, Yewitchy!~

“... I-I won’t take part!”

“Come on, we all did it.”

“T-that’s right. Together.”

“Don’t back out on us now!”

He makes a disappointed click of his tongue before looking away from them all, instead opting to adjust his glasses.

“I’m... t...hankful for... thankful... no, I’m hopeful... for the future.“

Somehow that answer feels right and the others, flash their companion reassuring smiles.

Perhaps out of embarrassment or perhaps because the timing really does feel right, Yuichi zips to the door and opens it for real. The sunlight pours onto the white floor, painting it a beautiful golden and for the first time in years, the five kids see real sunlight. Stepping outside on the pavement, they spy overgrown grass surrounding the path and growing on the outside wall of the hospital.

Just as LISE promised, the building sparks in places and windows are blown out as smoke blows out through the hollowed out hospital husk. It really is the end of Shiawase Hospital.

As for what’s out there...

Time will tell.

But whatever it is, surely...

The five of them can weather it.

Yuichi glances down at his ID and spots the bobbing pink LISE floating up and down. A private smile. They all look back one last time.

“Goodbye, Shiawase Hospital!”

Because rather than hope or despair... what truly triumphs...

[♫♫♫♫]

Now... after all this... it really is over.

Shiawase Hospital will disappear, and LISE with it.

There’s... no point in staying here anymore. The way home is free and... you have a world to see. If LISE... or Midou, is to be believed, with their decision made, Shiawase Hospital will destroy itself anyway. Nobody wants to be there for that. One by one, the children file into the elevator. The lights seem dimmer, likely due to the dwindling power, but it kicks into action and begins its trek.

As the elevator goes back up, to the very first floor you awoke on, many things go through your minds. About Shiwa. About LISE. About the project. Given the resilience they’d shown, perhaps, in some sick way, the Hope Project was a complete success. After all the horror they’d seen, it was unlikely they’d ever turn to despair. But that didn’t make it worth it. It didn’t make any of it worth it. As you ride the elevator, you remember the session, from beginning--

“I’ll do my best….to make sure everyone’s okay, alright? Even you. You’ll be fine. I’ll do my best to make sure of it.”

Yasu Shimamoto.

“Regardless. It’s fine, you didn’t mean to startle anybody…. Tengan-san. For now it seems that I’m Chuichi… Genda. I doubt it sounds familiar to you either, since I can’t say I’ve ever heard your name before.”

Chuichi Genda.

“Tubular, you know like bodacious, radical, sweet, swag, dope, chill. I could totally, like, go on forever dude! Hahahaha!! Nice to meet you, lil’ cute betty. My name’s Mizushima Ryota I guess hahahaha!”

Ryota Mizushima.

"God have mercy upon you, for I fear you shall not find that mercy here... I am sorry, Monsieur Genda."

Félix Achille Krier.

"It's a shame you didn't want to join me on my quest for despair. But I will love you all the same.”

Kimiko Genkaku.

“We’re in a dire situation, don’t be the jester. Don’t disappoint me like that."

Hibiki Inori.

"Yes, I heard you. But then I saw your face and had the overwhelming urge to punch you. It’s science, really.”

Hiro Morikawa.

“I tried to make it quick and painless. I just wanted everyone to go free. It was. Never. Supposed to end like this.I. . Messed up. So bad."

Katashi Miyashita.

“You’re gonna be okay. I-I mean, it’d be worse if you weren’t feeling anything, wouldn’t it?  And LISE will have to help you when we get back.  Y…You’ve just gotta hold on…”

Niki Ikutano.

“You guys all have each other, you'll be okay. The perfect surviving cast, everyone bouncing off each other! ...I was probably never meant to get this far. But I'm glad I did and I got to know you guys. I really really liked you, Chinen-chi. Maybe if you liked me too it could've been something.”

Nijino Takajo.

“You can take your time getting to know me. And I’ll take my time getting to know you. And if you feel like… you want to tell me in time… well then, you can. And if not, that’s alright too.

It’s not like I’m going anywhere, Sachi-chan.”

Renri Kogasaka.

"All of you. Should know. You have nothing to fear from me."

... Shiwa Hirayama.

Rivals. Friends. Precious ones.

The elevator rocks to a stop and finally, the floor is in view, as pristine as it always was. Your steps echo through the empty hospital. By this point, you expect the whole place to smell like death but the strikingly fresh smell of antiseptics greets you instead. Given how much has happened, you can’t help but choke on the smell a little. A hospital, where people should be saved, was a battleground where so many had been lost, sacrificed.

But it’s over now. You all approach the door and it’s Yuichi who moves ahead, wrapping his hand around the handle. It seems to open. He looks back at the other four and nods.

It’s time.

It didn’t matter. It hurt so much and it didn’t matter. No matter what you said or what you voted, Shiwa Hirayama was going to die. A bad person? A good? Perhaps they were no worse than the scientists that promoted the game in the first place.

A child, like the rest of you. Unfortunately, like those before them...

It’s time to die.

CULPRIT: SHIWA HIRAYAMA, SHSL HARPIST DESPAIR [♫♫]

[♫♫♫♫]

The door creaks open, perhaps with age, perhaps due to the sheer weight of the door. The figure that comes through seems altogether more striking, much smaller than the door they came in from.

You take in a breath and gaze upon...

[♫♫♫♫]

After everyone searches over respective things in the Control Room, it’s time to leave. There’s a heaviness in your step as you walk away. At the end of the dark corridor, LISE glows a faint blue shade. The elevator seems to be operational now. There’s nothing left for you on this floor - there’s only one way to go at all, in fact.

Forward.

Fear. Trepidation. Uncertainty.

And yet, your feet move. They have to. LISE is running out of power and there are so few of them left. It may not be a trial to find a killer but it is a trial to find the truth. And they are so close now to finishing all of it.

Unfortunately, and perhaps expectedly, Renri’s body is still there, off to the side. The smell of blood was already in the air but the fresh tang of it cuts you to the core.

There’s no use lamenting any further.

The five of them file into the elevator, just like always.

Rather than heading up, however, the elevator heads down.

The last trial room...

It’s a bit different from the others. There aren’t any unnecessary desks this time, it appears. Five in total. One for each of them. Gone are the portraits of those lost as well. The room is metallic, no colour, no glitz, with monitors surrounding the walls and a door to the north ahead. A diamond-like structure sits in the middle. LISE fizzles and then appears in place...

“Ggg g gGGGgood. Morning. Night. After. After. Evening. Noon. Morning. It is time to finish everything. Ooonce. And For. FOr. For. All.“

As you approach the half-open door, you smell that familiar rusted scent. Blood. Part of you wonders if you should go that step further, but, you don’t wonder for long. There are answers to get. You push the door open and enter into a tiny room with a single board-like bed, a chair and a strange device you imagine is supposed to be placed on your head. There are straps attached to the chair and as you look around, you become more and more aware of the damage of the room. Tears in the bed, not just the sheets, pillows, but in the mattress itself. Dried speckles of blood on the floor. Droplets of old blood everywhere, in fact. Some you can tell are more recent than others but it all looks like it’s been here for a while.

A splintered table, cleaved in half has a notebook on it…

“The doctors said I couldn’t participate anymore… my head’s more fragile than everyone else’s, I guess. People said it’s cause of the blunt trauma... I guess... no wonder. Maybe if I’d gotten treatment earlier it’d be okay. But they found me... and I’m here now. It’s not all bad. It just sucks because I know I could help, I could do something. Maybe I’ll focus on helping the others. Hey, I got admitted as the SHSL Neurologist, I should at least be able to help with their studies, right? For now, I’m supposed to just stay in here. But they said it’s okay to watch the game sometimes. It makes me sick when I do that. I know it’s all staged but when I think about them dying…

Sometimes on the screen I’ll see them crying. Krier-kun does that a lot. Sometimes Miyashita-kun, too. Komori-chan tries not to… but I can tell. I want to tell them that it’ll be alright. That it’s all fake and that they’ll all be together very soon but I can’t. I sent a message to Shimamoto-san once. The doctors told me off. Haha.

...

It’s so weird being the only one who remembers! Sometimes I accidentally see them but they look at me like I’m a stranger. Like I’m the only one in the know. It’s spooky. The tech here must be really good... maybe the New Hope Foundation really can beat this. Right! I’ll work hard too! ... Somehow.

…

Whenever the game resets, they all go to this room far down. I got to see it in action once. They lay down in these devices and the lid goes on top of them. They’re super complex. They recover their bodies and a device hooked to the brain blanks their memories. That’s how they do the ‘resets’. We’ve been here for months now... maybe years. Just doing the same old resets. I’ve been here the entire time, but you guys always think it’s the same day. I feel awful about that. Hmph... I want some alcohol for my trouble! If I’m a grown-up now, I deserve that much. I wonder what you guys will say when you find out about all the resets? There have been so many.... ten... twenty maybe... they’re really going all out. I wonder if the Hope Program is worth it... a little. But that’s between you and me, diary!

...

I heard Tengan-chan found out about it once! It was a panic. She left behind notes so that the new her with a blanked memory would figure it out. The doctors probably tried to destroy it though, huh. She really is a smart girl!

...

The doctors seem strange these days, more hurried, more frantic. I feel like I’m losing it in this room. I don’t know how long it’s been. I miss my friends. I miss my mom, my little sister… I don’t know where they are or what become of them. When I ask, I don’t get an answer. I want to do something. I want to be helpful.

…

I asked the doctors if I could leave. Maybe if I were out there I could do some good. They told me I was… too weak. So I begged. I said I’d do anything. They told me about a procedure, they said it’d make me strong - strong enough to go on out there. Midou told me not to do it. She reminds me of my mother. But her attitude also reminds me I have my little sister to protect, too. She’s going to be so disappointed. But I said yes. I was desperate. I just want to help.

…

The procedure’s more painful than I thought. I think it’s been a few months now. I can’t really tell. My head hurts all the time now. Sometimes I wake up and my nose is bleeding. Or my ears. I kept it a secret for a bit but I ended up blabbing eventually. They told me it’s my body getting used to the new data. I’m not sure… about it. I’m not sure about this. They look different now. Dazed. I remember Genkaku-kun having that same glazed over look. Like… everything was meaningless… like she was in… they were in… true despair. But those guys out there are trying their best… so I have to brave and tough it out. It’ll be worth it in the end.

…

It hurts… it hurts all the time. I don’t feel stronger at all! They don’t talk to me anymore at all. I overheard them talk about making weapons. More and more weapons to fight ‘the despair’… they don’t even call me by my name. Patient something… or something. They’re talking about me like I’m not there, like I’m one of their weapons… I need to get out of here. I need to talk to Midou. They lock me in all the time. Only open the door when it’s time for a treatment. I’m so lonely. I miss the others. Is this really helping...?

…

That one kid... they’re suspicious. I think they’ve been working against us the whole time. No wonder. They were never even in any of their classes. I told the doctors but they just silenced me. Who will listen? What can I do?

...

It hurts… it hurts… it hurts…  I don’t want this anymore. I’m scared. I just want to go home. I want to see my friends. I miss everything. I black out sometimes and I don’t know what happens. There’s blood everywhere on my face and my head is always hurting. I just want it to stop. They don’t let me out. I’m banging on the door and they don’t hear at all. When it’s time for the treating, they strap me into the chair. I can’t fight back at all. It just goes on and on.

…

hurts… i’m  tired… i ‘ m tired . .. and i want to sleep…

someone find me please… i want to go h ome… help me please anyoen

anyone

…”

It ends with writing getting more and more strange and indecipherable. From the date on the pages… you can guess that it’s about two year’s worth of content. Scratch marks, tears and blood decorate the pages and many pages are gone, lost to time.

You now know of Renri’s struggles.

You notice the folder of a CD pop up. It has a single video, several minutes long, and a notepad. Clicking the video brings a familiar place to the screen; the Consultation Room. You cannot see the face of who’s speaking, but you can see who’s sitting in the chair opposite. It’s Hiro Morikawa.

“Before I go on… I’ll tell you a bit more about all this. The New Hope Foundation… after… Hope’s Peak fell, we gathered whatever survivors we could. People like you. And like the staff. Together… we vowed to eliminate SHSL Despair. Any means necessary. But the general public… well… Hope’s Peak itself is a dirty name now. What we want is to bring back… the good side of Hope’s Peak. To bring back hope itself.”

“We will not force you to do anything, you understand.” The man says. He has a deep and gravelly voice, giving you the impression he’s seen things you never want to.

“This is a risk, after all. It would be safer to stay with Midou and continue therapy but… while you’re here… the others, your schoolmates, would…”

“I’m in.”

It feels… strange to hear Hiro’s voice after all this time. The man looks up from his papers.

“Do you know what it involves?”

A pause.

“The old lady said it was a bunch of tests. I’m used to acing tests so it shouldn’t be a problem. Besides… if it means bring those despair guys down… it’s not even a choice, right.”

Hiro obnoxiously takes a cracker from the desk without permission. The old man’s back tenses and for a second there’s a sense of peace and normalcy. Seeing Hiro here like this, relaxed and in control. Confident in his statements. Definitely alive.

“We’ll be saving Hope’s Peak. Of course, I’m not really doing this for the institution. And I’m certainly not doing this for your foundation. In a few years, give or take, I might just take this thing down, too. I’m only doing it to pay them back. Killing our classmate and then going ape-shit on the school itself? Puts a bad taste in my mouth.”

He talks in between bites of his snack. The man pushes a clipped set of papers towards Hiro.

“Then you agree to stay here with the New Hope Foundation and staff of Shiawase? In the name of hope… to fight against those infected by this plague of despair… and to show the world there is nothing to fear from Hope’s Peak’s best?”

Hiro looks up at the man over his glasses, slamming down his palm and dragging the papers closer. He gestures for a pen and upon receiving it, he begins scribbling away.

“I. Said. Yes. Already. Thank you. The redundancy gets old.”

The rhetorician, pleased, leans back in his chair and throws the papers back onto the desk. You only a small glimpse but you can clearly see the paper seems to match the one Atsuko Tengan herself was given so long ago.

Closing the video down, you bring up the notepad. It appears to be a class list of some kind.

Atsuko Tengan, SHSL Cult Leader (prefers Fan Club President)

Chuichi Genda, SHSL Conspiracy Theorist

Félix Achille Krier, SHSL Poet

Hibiki Inori, SHSL Epidemologist

Hiro Morikawa, SHSL Rhetorician

Itsuki Kawashiro (prefers Niki Ikutano), SHSL Survival Expert

Izo Omori, SHSL Marionette Puppeteer

Katashi Miyashita, SHSL Astrophysicist

Kimiko Genkaku, SHSL Naginatadoka (SHSL Despair member)

Nijino Takajo, SHSL Confidant

Ryota Mizushima, SHSL Surfer

Sachi Kikkawa, SHSL Axe Thrower

Shiwa Hirayama, SHSL Harpist

Yasu Komori, SHSL Horror Game Developer

Yasu Shimamoto, SHSL Commercial FIsher

Yuichi Chinen, SHSL Coroner

There is a video detailing the Hope Program…

You hit play.

It takes place in the Control Room - the very one you’re standing in now and you can’t help but notice how much nicer it looks on the video. Natsuki Midou smiles back at you. Albeit... sadly.

“If you’re seeing this, it means you’ve completed your treatment. And I’m dead. It means I failed my mission.”

“Three years ago, Hope’s Peak Academy was turned inside out by a group known as SHSL Despair. They kept… corrupting… people. Students. Even some teachers. It was subtle. A lot of us didn’t know. When they struck… it was too late. Several classes were massacred. All in the blink of an eye. Hope’s Peak… immediately contacted us. They needed safety and we were happy to oblige them. That’s when we found you.”

She smiles.

“You were so young and so innocent… there is no excuse… for what happened to you all. I tried my best to fix it… I was… I graduated Hope’s Peak a while back. The Super High School Level Hypnotherapist. I worked with you all. We got to be good friends. I… grew to love you all. Truly, like my own children. With the help of many others here, most of us HPA graduates, we were able to slowly try to mend your hearts. And then… the director had an idea. To turn you into symbols of hope.”

Natsuki’s face grows a little concerned, perhaps a little dark.

“… I wasn’t sure. I never really signed off on it. But he… asked you all personally when I wasn’t around. And you all consented. Well, all of you bar Genkaku-san, of course. You must’ve really wanted to help your fellow classmates… so… when the director offered you a chance to get stronger, you must’ve felt… like that powerless feeling could finally be conquered. After that, we begun work on the Hope Program. SHSL Pharmacist. SHSL Surgeon. SHSL Psychologist. SHSL Geneticist... we all worked tirelessly to create a program that’d make you… essentially symbols of hope. We created the Saviour Serum… and we staged all of this. We put you through rigorous challenges… but something was missing. You were still… essentially the same. We had the idea of taking away your memories… restarting. I should’ve… I should’ve known right away that was wrong. But part of me thought… forgetting what happened in Hope’s Peak was for the better. But the challenges still weren’t enough. More and more… they wanted you to suffer so as to create a brighter hope. More resets… more challenges. We decided on the mutual killing format to see who was worthy and who wasn’t… nobody would get hurt. Not with the serum. So we would continuously fake the deaths. Those who killed were unworthy, they would simply return home. Those who abstained, who kept their heads up and held hope in their hearts... those were the kids we’d use. We did the process again, expecting the same results… but they changed. The kids we had believed to be heroes. to be our hope, ended up murderers in another rendition of the game. We were obsessed with it. What was the right answer? Who could be our hope?“

Tears begin running down her face and she manages to bat them away with the back of her sleeve.

“So many times I thought about putting a stop to it… but every time I thought of my Asami… and how she was killed by them… I thought… ‘no, in order to stomp out despair for good’. I saw her in you all, a bit. I felt like a mother again.”

A grief-struck smile through the tears.

“That’s why… I knew we had to stop it. But when they brought in those two… the one that survived your class’s attack…. and the one survivor… it was too late. I realized it when they took out their plant. It was their fault. I don’t know how long they’d been doing it but... they were... spreading despair inside here. Being so cut off from the rest of the world cost us dearly. They... went mad. They wouldn’t listen to me anymore. Maybe it was my fault. Maybe I should’ve stopped it a long time ago, before all this. I’m… recording this now. Before I go. The Saviour Serum is mostly out now. And I don’t think… I don’t think it’s going to stop them. I think the next mutual killing will really… oh my god, I think they’re going to kill my children all over again. Forgive me– please…“

She tries to contain herself, going through an array of emotions before turning to the camera once more.

“I’m so truly sorry. You all deserved so much better. We were adults… we should’ve taken better care of you, known better. Instead we… performed experiments on you… for years. For three years. When we could’ve told your family you were alive. When we could’ve– I’m so sorry…. I’m sorry…”

Midou takes a moment, gulping back some emotion before looking back at the screen. Her voice seems even, but her hands are shaking.

“... Shiawase Hospital... was redesigned. For you and you only. The things, you saw, the clues... all planted to make you think. All the names. The paintings... if you ever thought you were clueing onto something, you were likely... supposed to. To make you experience an array of things, to challenge you. Your appearances... you clothing... it’s all been carefully tended to. I’m sorry. Some of the treatments also slowed that process too. I don’t think you’ll age as quickly as most people. Another thing we did wrong.”

Another pause.

“I have... time at least. The next reset is beginning soon. I sent one of them data on who they really are. They’ll help guide the others out. They won’t know... everything. But their talent... to keep hope in their hearts... not to listen to LISE... they’ll know. It’s a side-chip I implemented into LISE themselves. It’s the only way they wouldn’t know. This person, this traitor... will help lead the others out. This is my last effort. In case my final stand doesn’t go well. But I hope it does. I’m ending this now and I’m heading to the main door. I’ve told Atsuko we’re going tonight. She’s such a good girl. It’ll... work out. I hope. If not... I’m pinning my hopes on you,

Yuichi.”