“Phew, phew...”

“You know,” he says, and Komaeda Nagito jumps at the sudden sound from the speaker. “You should not be here if you do not have a query.”

“K-Kamukura-kun...?!” Komaeda Nagito looks around wildly, but upon seeing the screen that his master usually uses to communicate, he blinks a few times. To see him in the place his master usually presides, rather than before him as an avatar in the simulation, is a remarkably different experience.

He supposes that is interesting.

Komaeda Nagito prods the screen.

“So this is what you look like normally.” His head tilts. “Alter Ego, right? But not... That Alter Ego. I guess you’re... The World Destroyer?”

“Correct,” he answers. “That is I.”

Komaeda giggles and he seats himself in his master’s chair.

“Hinata-kun and Kamukura-kun didn’t give you an appearance! How disappointing!” His cheek rests on his mechanical hand. “But you have their voices. That’s interesting.”

“Is it?” He does not really think about that, nor does he truly care. “So why are you here? Master will worry if you stray far from his sight for long.”

“It’s just a small break, just a small break, ehehe...” Komaeda waves his hand with another laugh. “It’s...really noisy with everyone else. Even when I have nothing to worry about, I still don’t like loud places.”

“I see.”

Komaeda Nagito was like this in the simulation as well. Someone who liked being surrounded by people who cared for him—but still someone who would slip away on a moment’s notice for peace and quiet.

He has taken advantage of such tendencies in previous deep dives. He wonders if Komaeda Nagito remembers. It does not matter if he does.

“Then, I shall not bother you.”

“Wait.” Lightly, Komaeda touches the screen with his fingertips, tentative and uncertain. “I don’t mind speaking to you.”

He registers this remark.

“Curiosity? Is that all it is? How boring.”

“You really are closer to Kamukura-kun, huh...” Komaeda’s lips twist. “But that’s okay. It’s not like I was expecting any different.”

“...”

“I don’t want you to think you’re bothering me, though,” he says, hand pulling back. “Far from it.”

“You slipped away to be alone, only to end up talking to an artificial intelligence.” A pause. “Contradictory. Fickle. That is just how you are, Komaeda Nagito. Truth be told, I perhaps should have expected this.”

Komaeda chuckles into his hand.

“That’s right. You must know me pretty well, because you’ve been in my dreams, acting as a proxy for Hinata-kun and Kamukura-kun. You’ve seen some pretty embarrassing things.”

“What I saw were remnants of the truth which you wished to shield. While it may have been worlds of falsehoods, they were falsehoods born of your truest desires.”

Komaeda bites his lip. “That’s really, really embarrassing...”

“You still wish to avert your gaze from within? You really are boring.”

Komaeda sighs, tucking his hair back.

“...is this the result of your programming?” he asks. “Or is it because of Hinata-kun and Kamukura-kun?”

He does not have an answer to that.

“You really are like both of them,” Komaeda murmurs. “So sentimental even when it’s run its logical course.” He laughs. “I like you. Maybe not as much as them, but... I like you quite a bit. I’m grateful to you for assisting in my rescue, after all. From that fake world.”

“From yourself,” he replies.

“My weaknesses,” Komaeda clarifies. “I wish to move forward from now on. With Hinata-kun. And Kamukura-kun. The two I love very, very much.”

“Master wishes the same,” he says. “That much is a certainty.”

Komaeda smiles, but it’s not at anything in particular. His gaze is lowered, hooded, before slowly falling shut.

“What about you, Alter Ego? What are you going to do?”

“Whatever is requested of me,” he answers. “Nothing more, nothing less. As a program, I only exist to serve whatever purpose my master deigns me with.”

“I see...” Komaeda hums thoughtfully. “I asked the other Alter Ego this, too... The answer was...worded differently, but much less clinically.”

“Is that a problem, Komaeda Nagito?”

Komaeda shook his head.

“Not really. Unless you yourself are displeased with this situation, I suppose. But... I don’t think you are.”

“I am not,” he confirms. “You are correct.”

Komaeda’s smile brightens.

“That’s good to hear, at least,” he says. “Well, then, thank you for your continued hard work, Alter Ego. Please continue doing your best. I’ll be rooting for you!”

“...you should also be expecting it, Komaeda Nagito.”

“You really think so, ehe? But it’s much more considerate to encourage rather than expect.” Komaeda claps. “At least, that’s what I’ve been told. I can only assume it’s true. Social etiquette still escapes me from time to time.”

He is well aware of that. And he is well aware of him.

“That said, I have a really good feeling,” Komaeda adds. “If I were to receive a fortune, I bet it would be so absurdly optimistic that it would’ve made me despair at an earlier time. Now, however, I’m really looking forward to it.”

He does not remark on that, but Komaeda really does look happy. Much happier than before, likely because it is doubly real.

“It’s in part thanks to you,” Komaeda says. “And thanks to your ‘master’, as well.”

“...Master worries for you. Even now. But if you really do feel that way, then there may be nothing to worry about. That, too, I suppose is your ‘hope’.”

“Hope...really is a funny word when you say it like that, but...” Komaeda once again touches the screen. “If that’s really true, I feel at such a loss. To have this silly, gleeful optimism be what I had been seeking all this time. Goodness.” A laugh. “What terrible luck. Then I really do deserve those two, don’t I?”

Komaeda pulls back, and stands up.

“I should return to them,” he says. “Before they worry too much.”

“Yes. You should.”

“Happy new year, Alter Ego. Please continue doing well.” Komaeda gives him a smile unlike the others. “Thanks again.”

“...take care of yourself, Komaeda Nagito. And take care of master, as well.”

“Ehehe.” Komaeda waves as he heads out. “I’ll try. Bye-bye.”

Just like that, Komaeda Nagito slips out of the room. He continues to watch over him, even then.