I was sitting in my seat right now, wearing the kind of expression that practically screamed nerves.
"K. You nervous?"
"K... take a deep breath... don't shake too much."
"Y-Yeah... haha, thank you..."
"...Jeez. I can't believe we have to hand Kirigiri over to a guy like this."
"Kizakura, please don't worry so much. Even if K looks like this, you know he's actually a very dependable kid, don't you?"
"Yukizome, are you taking his side just because you used to be Class 78's homeroom teacher?"
Today was the day of my wedding with Kyoko Kirigiri.
"Come on now. K, you were entrusted by Jin to look after Kyoko together with him, remember?"
"Hah, that? Good grief... He looked at me like I was unreliable, but when he looked at K, his eyes were full of trust... Do you have any idea how bitter that felt?"
"Well, it makes sense. How many incidents did K solve while he was at Hope's Peak Academy? Even Izayoi, Ando, and Kimura, who are executives in the Future Foundation now, would've been expelled for good back then if K hadn't uncovered the truth at the last second..."
"True enough. Because of that, you got moved to the reserve course as a homeroom teacher, then after the case was cleared up, you became Class 78's teacher. So yeah, it's not like the guy's incompetent... Still, something about him just doesn't sit right with me. Looking at him through a scout's eyes, that brat has the face of a man who's gonna make Kirigiri suffer."
Kizakura had come to the wedding as Kyoko's guardian in place of her grandfather, who'd become too ill to attend, while Yukizome had come as my guardian.
For all his grumbling, Kizakura was an incredibly dependable man, and Yukizome was as gentle as ever. Back at Hope's Peak Academy, she had always looked after me, since I didn't have any family.
"Ah, K. So this is where you were?"
"K, that suit looks quite good on you."
"Ah... Naegi, Maizono. You're here already?"
"Of course. We said we'd be handling the gift money, didn't we? Naturally we had to come early."
"Not just us. Everyone from Class 78 is already here. They all wanted to see you as early as possible."
The moment he said that, the door opened, and the others started filing in.
"Hahh~ well, would you look at that? A guy who never dressed up actually looks pretty damn cool once he does."
"Ah, Leon?"
"That's my best bro for ya! Hahahaha!!"
I felt a little bad about it, but back then I'd brushed it off by saying I'd set the escape code to 11037 because I thought of him as my best friend. Leon had been so deeply moved by that excuse that, even now, he still called me his best bro without fail.
Well, if he was happy, maybe that was all that mattered.
"Ah, h-hello..."
"Ah, you are...?"
"You've seen her a few times, right? My cousin, Kanon Nakajima."
Leon had brought Nakajima, one of the mandatory rescue targets, to the wedding. Honestly, judging by the way those two had been acting lately, it looked like they'd be getting married themselves before long.
If you were a Korean raised in a Confucian culture, you'd probably keel over in shock, but even if people frowned on it, it was legal in Japan, so it probably wasn't an issue.
For the record, Naegi and Maizono had already set a date for their own wedding.
"Yo! K, you bastard!! So you're finally getting married!?"
"K, congratulations! What a wonderful day!"
I was exchanging a few greetings with Leon's cousin when Mondo Owada and Chihiro Fujisaki came in.
"Yeah, sure, once you're married, I'll allow all the lovey-dovey crap you want. But from here on out, your happiness is over and the suffering begins, you bastard!!"
"M-Mondo... you can't say stuff like that at a wedding..."
Maybe he had a lot pent up, because Owada suddenly stomped on the gas and started ranting, while Fujisaki broke into a nervous sweat trying to calm him down.
Come to think of it, Owada was still single. The reason was simple: he still hadn't fixed his habit of shouting whenever he confessed to someone.
As for Fujisaki, the number of times he'd been confessed to by men had risen to seven in total. For a while, he flinched whenever any man approached him, but lately there had been rumors that he and Gekkogahara, the one who made that Usami communication program for him, had some kind of thing going on.
"My, my. All dressed up, you look rather handsome. If you came to me even now, I'd be willing to accept you as an A-rank slave."
"H-Hey, Taeko Yasuhiro! Last time you said something like that, Kyoko Kirigiri found out and your workload exploded for days..."
"And what of it? It's not as though I found it difficult."
"That's because you dumped all that work on me and Kiyotaka Ishimaru..."
"What? So that's what happened!? I was told the people in the 14th Division had created a Work Processing Day in admiration of me!"
The next ones to arrive were Celeste, Hifumi Yamada, and Kiyotaka Ishimaru.
Celeste had built a slave legion under her command, while Ishimaru had gathered like-minded people and formed a passion legion of his own. One side worshiped Celeste with blind devotion, the other worshiped hard work with equally blind fervor, and by now the two groups had become a full-blown attraction of the 14th Division.
And Yamada was stuck rolling helplessly between them. At that point, you'd think all that rolling around would've made him lose weight, but somehow he'd only gotten rounder. Honestly, it was kind of amazing.
"Congratulations. Now you'll be together for the rest of your lives."
"If it's the two of you, then you'll make the world brighter together from here on as well. Keep striving forward, just as you always have."
Sakura Oogami appeared hand in hand with her boyfriend, Kenichiro.
For the record, Oogami hadn't just reverted her body to how it had been in middle school. She'd somehow gone beyond that and hit the absolute peak of her beauty. Because of that, every single wedding staff member kept staring at her with drool practically spilling from their mouths, only to snap their heads away in a panic whenever Kenichiro glared at them. It was a whole farce.
I heard Kenichiro's illness had been improving thanks to intensive treatment from the Future Foundation. Apparently, once he made a full recovery, he'd promised Oogami they'd fight again for the title of strongest in the world. There was no way I was missing a title match like that, so no matter what happened, I was absolutely going to watch it.
"...Congratulations on your marriage."
"Byakuya, my loooord!!! When exactly is our wedding going to be—"
"For the love of God, on a day like this, keep your mouth shut."
Byakuya Togami and Toko Fukawa & Genocide Jack were bickering like always. Honestly, even if those two got married, they'd probably still be like this.
"Congrats, K! From here on out, may your path be nothing but flowers!"
"Congrats, man! Oh, and I tried reading your fortune, and..."
"Nope. Don't wanna hear it..."
"You're still gonna be rolling around in misery for a loooong ti— mmph... mmmph!!"
Aoi Asahina had been going on blind dates a lot lately. The problem was, every single date spot she picked had something to do with donuts, so the results hadn't exactly been great.
Yasuhiro Hagakure, meanwhile, had enjoyed a burst of popularity for a while. His fortune-telling accuracy had suddenly shot way up, which caused the whole thing, but once people realized he was only dead-on when it came to bad predictions, his popularity crashed right back to normal.
"....."
"Ah, Ikusaba..."
"Congratulations... on the wedding."
"Y-Yeah..."
Ikusaba stared at me in silence for a moment, then broke into a bright smile, offered her congratulations, and turned away toward where the others were gathered.
For a while, she'd been like a bomb that could go off at any second, but today, of all days, she seemed surprisingly stable. At this rate, there probably wouldn't be any bloodshed.
"K, long time no see."
"K, you look like a dating sim love interest. Handsome."
"Huh? Hinata? Nanami? I mean, Nanami being here is one thing, but Hinata, how did you...?"
"We just got permission from the Future Foundation. All of Class 77 are allowed to attend the wedding."
"Seriously!?"
After the [New World Project Incident], Class 77 had originally intended to walk their own path of atonement, but inside the Future Foundation, fierce debate broke out over what should be done with them.
One side argued that the already rehabilitated Class 77 should be allowed to pursue their own road to redemption. The other insisted the Future Foundation had to keep them under control. The two camps clashed violently for a long time, and it was only after a final vote involving every related party, including Class 77 themselves, that a conclusion was finally reached.
Seriously. What a dysfunctional mess of an organization.
Anyway, as a result, Class 77 ended up operating publicly as "executives among the rehabilitated [Remnants of Despair]," and internally as "advisors to the Future Foundation."
Even though all kinds of restrictions had been placed on their activities, Class 77 accepted that with humility, seeing it as part of the burden of their sins.
That aside, I heard Hinata and Nanami were getting married soon too... I should ask later when the ceremony was going to be.
"Long time no see. You look even skinnier than before. Looks like you're being thoroughly henpecked, huh?"
"All right! I, the great Hanamura Teruteru, will make wedding food so unforgettable it'll stay with you for life! You better count your blessings!!"
The guy had apparently really gone and set his own name to "Pig's Trotter-kun," and was continuing his intelligence work using his talent. I had no idea how someone with that body managed to deceive the forces of despair, but really, he was incredible.
Hanamura, together with Kimura and Tsumiki, had developed food capable of neutralizing the despair-inducing dishes he'd once spread around, and now they handed it out for free to people on the streets every single day. Aside from occasionally trying to hit on Tsumiki and Kimura, I heard he was actually working pretty diligently.
"K, it's been a while! Have you been doing well?"
"Ahahahahaha! A master marrying his own familiar... what a romantic and beautiful love story this is!!"
"Me too... someday, with Sonia..."
I was chatting with Hinata after not seeing him for so long when Sonia Nevermind, Gundham Tanaka, and Kazuichi Souda showed up.
Sonia was currently devoting herself to rebuilding the Novoselic Kingdom, her former homeland. Thankfully, the king and queen of Novoselic—her parents—had been protected by the Future Foundation, so the reconstruction seemed to be going fairly smoothly.
Tanaka had initially planned to quit working as a breeder, but the animals he'd cared for launched a hunger strike, forcing him to abandon the idea. So he returned to the job, commanding animals to assist with disaster recovery and rescue efforts, helping the world in his own dramatic way.
Souda's machines had been an enormous help in wiping out despair forces and cleaning up the environment. And lately, he'd even taken on work related to the "Anti-Monokuma Final Decisive Weapon" project, so his achievements were downright dazzling.
"With you, I doubt I need to step in as a manager. So stand up straight and keep your shoulders back."
"Hey, K! You made sure to wash a man's tail real ni—"
"You damn fool!!! How can you say that so loudly!?"
Nidai was using his talent as a manager to train Future Foundation agents, while Owari had joined the combat division and was taking the lead in exterminating despair remnants.
That said... it sounded like Owari had become very familiar with what exactly a man's tail was used for. Surely not...?
"Congratulations on your marriage, K."
"Congratulations."
""Congratulations on your wedding!!!""
"You idiots!! Stop acting like a bunch of yakuza!! You're with the Future Foundation now!!"
"Even useless, pathetic, clumsy big bro K is getting married... so when are you marrying big sis Pekoyama, huh?"
"S-Shut up...!!"
Kuzuryu and Pekoyama had gathered up the scattered remnants of the Kuzuryu group and were training them as Future Foundation agents. Thanks to the Kuzuryu name, they were an impressively elite force no matter where you looked, but they still followed yakuza codes of conduct, which occasionally made things difficult for the two of them.
Though... did Natsumi just say I was "taking a bride"? In a moment like this, shouldn't it be that I was "getting married"— ah, wait. Come to think of it, I really was the one being taken.
"K-K-K, K... m-marriage..."
"Honestly... sis, what did I tell you? I said you should at least try saying something."
"...Congratulations on your wedding!!!!"
After blurting that out, Koizumi ran off somewhere at full speed.
"Good grief... She used to be more dependable than anyone. How did things end up with our positions completely reversed?"
Koizumi went around taking photos of people's smiling faces, helping with Future Foundation publicity. That said, there was one time she took around a hundred photos of me smiling in all kinds of poses because she said they were necessary for promotion... so why had none of those ever shown up in any actual promotional material?
Saionji was also helping with Future Foundation PR by making use of the popularity she'd always had. And apparently, now that their relationship had completely flipped, she'd also taken on the role of looking after Koizumi.
"Congrats on the wedding!!! Please look forward to the song Maizono and I are gonna perform for you today!!!"
"C-Congratulations on your wedding... hehe..."
The Future Foundation had been recording Mioda's songs and using them as sonic weapons against the [Remnants of Despair]. If she, who was now handling publicity alongside Saionji, ever found that out, wouldn't she be pretty devastated?
But wait. Did she just say she was singing the wedding song with Maizono?
...Please, for the love of all that was holy, let Maizono's influence push her toward something bright and cheerful.
Tsumiki, meanwhile, was thriving in all kinds of medical fields together with Kimura and Gekkogahara. Unlike in the past, she always wore a smile now, and people adored her so much they called her an angel on the sickbed.
"Ahahahahaha!!! To witness two hopes moving toward the future with my own two eyes... today is the luckiest day of my entire life..."
"Komaeda, please shut up."
"....."
Komaeda had been assigned to advise on Monaca's whereabouts and handle impossible operations. He was better than he used to be, sure, but he was still obviously not all there, so the Future Foundation kept him under very close watch.
Still, hearing him say something like that made me a little uneasy. This wasn't one of those situations where some recoil of bad luck would come crashing down afterward, right? And if it did, I hoped it would only hit him.
"K, we'll handle greeting the guests now, so shouldn't you head in and start getting ready?"
"Yeah. When the ceremony starts, you've gotta show the bride your absolute best self, right?"
"More importantly, Kirigiri's wedding dress... I can't wait!! K, have you seen it yet?"
"No... she said it was a secret until the wedding day..."
"My, so even someone who always seems that cool-headed has such a girlish side?"
"Man, you lucky bastard... I'm jealous, seriously jealous..."
"Well, he has the ability to deserve it..."
"I heard you two put in for marriage leave with the Future Foundation? The branch chief and vice branch chief taking time off at the same time... you really are trying to make the rest of us suffer to death, huh?"
I gave the rowdy crowd an awkward smile, exchanged a few more greetings, and headed for the groom's waiting room.
"...Mukuro, let's have a drink today... I seriously can't endure this without one..."
"....."
"...Hm? You'll drink with me... right?"
"Koizumi sis... stop picking on Mukuro sis already... Mukuro sis is way more..."
"...Yeah. Let's drink."
"Thanks... I knew you were the only one..."
Meanwhile, at that very moment, Ikusaba and Koizumi—who had somehow become close friends through the shared misery of feeling defeated by Kirigiri—were making plans to drink together so they could forget their bitterness.
"Let's drink ourselves to death. Both of us."
"...Huh?"
Without the faintest clue what kind of ripple effect that would unleash.