No, she means me. When Hajime passed out last night, I stayed up a bit after getting back to Hope’s Peak and learned a bit from Yoruko-san and Sora-san.

I found out what you pressured Hajime into doing. Do you even realize how much pain you probably caused him? Plus he only has a limited number of resets, and he lost two of them thanks to you! All just to prove your stupid theories when you could’ve just talked to us!

Well, sorry about that, but I had to be sure that this would actually work. By your own logic, because he had knowledge of the future, there was no way he was going to trust me, and talking it out would’ve taken far too long.

And if he died, then he died. There was no getting around that it was a test, to be sure.

A test?

What sort of a test? You mean when your girlfriend and her sister get back to Japan?

You know, there’s another thing about that that’s really been bugging me. You killed Umeko-senpai and Hajime, then you eavesdropped on us and decided to tell me you were aware Hajime must be Kasugano and a time traveler.

And I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to believe that maybe, just maybe, you had good reasons for this and you were willing to turn against her because you wanted to save lives.

I do want to save lives. Why the hell do you think I went through all this trouble? Not just here, but in those other times before he reset.

Oh, so when it’s the actions in your future we’re talking about, suddenly it does matter?

My point here, is that you and your friends are doomed if you keep this up. There’s no way in hell you’re gonna beat Junko with the methods you’re using now.

You’re all so concerned about standing up there on your moral high ground as opposed to doing things that’ll actually change the course of history. If you actually tried, I think maybe you could’ve ensured Junko’ll have no edge when she finally comes.

What? By killing people?

You can’t expect to actually win this without a few sacrifices, can you?

This is the fate of the entire world we’re talking about here.

If you were smart, you’d understand that, sometimes, you need to put your morals aside and do what’s necessary. Beating Junko means we’ll need to get our hands dirty.

Okay, one, no. There is no “we” in this discussion. You are not part of our team.

Second, how would that make us any different from her? If we just started randomly killing people we were sure posed a threat to us and the world at large?

Are you really worrying about that stupid “I’m not better than them” argument?

Here’s the reality, gamer girl: you either win this or you don’t. You stop the Tragedy or whatever from happening, or it happens and everyone you care about still dies. This is not a game with a morality system. This is not pagentry.

The only thing that matters here is winning. You can worry about the ethics of it later. In fact, I’d say it’s more ethical since a few dozen lives barely compares to 7 billion.

How very utilitarian of you. Is what you suggested for Kanade you testing the waters for us? Seeing how far we’d go?

Not exactly, but I guess it still works. And you’re still getting hung on up on this stuff, you’re never gonna stop her. You don’t know Junko like I know Junko. If I can take two of your boyfriend’s resets, he’s gonna lose so many more to her and her tricks.

...

You know, I actually might’ve thought you had a point for a second if I didn’t consider something else.

What happened yesterday, really? We found someone making a deal with the Police Commissioner, who we know is working with her. Then Kanade goes missing from her prison cell and makes her way to Hope’s Peak, meanwhile someone blows a hole in Fuchu Prison and lets a ton of prisoners into Tokyo.

And then, after we catch Kanade, you come in and tell us that, no, we really need to mindwipe her. You force us debate about it, telling us we don’t have time, we all have conflicting thoughts on it, but we go along with it anyway. And you don’t even bother to help Mitsume-sensei or Nakamura-kun afterward.

The only thing you gave us as evidence that you’re not telling her about all this is your word. But you still expect us to follow you just because you act like you’re smarter than us. If I didn’t know better, I’d say this was all planned to get us to start turning on each other.

Oh goody, a conspiracy theory. My favorite.

If I wanted you all to fall into despair, why would I do anything at all? Sounds to me like you all aren’t ready for grown-up discussions and you can’t handle getting your hands dirty. You’d have no chance against her anyway.

...

You know what? You might be right about that. Maybe we’re not ready, and maybe we did need this wakeup call.

And you can act all smug and arrogant, like you always know what you’re doing, even thought you have no idea how time travel works and would rather just test your own theories instead of talking to us. But in the end, Kanade is a normal girl again. I’m not particularly happy with that, but it’s how things are now and I’ll learn to deal with it.

But I’ve saved a lot of lives already. I’ve helped change the future, even if it’s in small ways. Your girlfriend is not as strong as you think she is. I know people who’ve beaten her and an AI based on her, who almost trapped my friends in a no-win scenario. They still won, and they did it without resorting to the horrible things you’re saying we need to.

So you can look down on us all you want, you might think you’re smarter and more qualified, and you can try and tell us we can’t win against her. But we’re gonna try anyway.  And you’re so convinced that morality can’t help us here, that nobody has a shot against her but you.

No. That’s wrong. I’m gonna show you just how wrong you are.

And I’m also gonna say this: right now, we know who our enemies are: Enoshima, Storm, people like that. You aren’t going on that list. You’re most definitely not our ally, but you’re not going to be our enemy either. At most, we have the same goals.

But if you’re lying, if you ever turn on us and hurt my friends for whatever reason you might come up with...there isn’t a single timeline, no possible future, where you’ll find a safe place to hide. 

...

Noted. I’d show myself out, but this is my lab.

Yeah. We’re going. C’mon, senpai.

...And that’s when they took off to find the others.

They’re amazing, aren’t they? I’m really proud of them. Always have been.

Kaede reminds me so much of you. That determination must be genetic.

But...I guess I am a little nervous that they might end up fighting.

*Greetings! We are glad to see you again!