Hinata Hajime was sitting in the waiting room, waiting for Officer Megure to bring Akagi Eito over.

To be honest, although Akagi Eito's behavior was strange, the police station did not find any evidence that Akagi Eito committed murder. Instead, he was diagnosed with dual personality during a psychiatric evaluation, and the police decided that it would be best for him to be hospitalized for treatment as soon as possible.

However, Inspector Megure always felt that this case was related to Akagi Eito, so he kept Akagi Eito for the time being.

If there is no progress in the case after three days, Akagi Eito will be sent to a mental hospital for psychiatric treatment.

So after Hinata Hajime came, Inspector Megure quickly agreed, as he urgently needed to find a breakthrough.

But unfortunately, Hinata Sou's purpose was not to help them solve the case.

After all, the Fragments of Despair are such strange things. They use magical powers to force desperate hosts to commit self-destruction. These things are different from ordinary science, and no one will believe them. Therefore, in this world, solving cases basically means failing to serve the public.

Perhaps it would be better to leave it as a mystery.

"Mr. Policeman!" When he saw Hyuga Hajime, Akagi Eito almost threw himself over. He looked at Hyuga Hajime intently, with grievance and confusion in his eyes, "Mr. Policeman, are you here to save me? They said I was sick and wanted to send me to the hospital, but I'm not sick at all."

"Help me, you must have a way to save me!"

Hinata Hajime looked at him calmly, "But the illness was diagnosed by the doctor, it has nothing to do with me."

"No, Mr. Policeman, you can do it!" Akagi Eito looked at him with a savior-like look, "I'm so scared, I don't want to go to the hospital."

"I'm not sick, I'm really not sick!"

Akagi Eito kept refuting.

"I remember everything and I've never had any memory loss issues. How could that be a problem? Absolutely not!"

However, the more Akagi Eito refuted, the more Hinata Hajime understood: Akagi Eito actually knew about the existence of the secondary personality a long time ago.

"Are you sure you don't know?" Hinata Sou said, "I remember you told me before that you always suddenly become unconscious and don't know what you are doing."

"Ah, ah..." Akagi Eito looked at Hinata Hajime in horror. After a moment, he lowered his head and said, "Well, that's because I'm too stupid."

"I was so scared of people that I was in a trance, so I just..."

Hinata Sou said: "Tell the truth."

"But!"

"How can I help you if you don't tell the truth?" Hinata Sou whispered, "Since you want me to help you, you need to tell me all the truth. You should know about that person. Don't worry, no one will blame you. You don't want to hurt anyone."

Akagi Eito looked at Hinata Hajime blankly. He tightened his fingers, and after a few minutes, he nodded slightly.

"Yes, I do, I think, know a little bit."

"Well, only a little."

Akagi Eito tried hard to say less and less about those things.

In fact, Akagi Eito knew everything.

How could a person who couldn't draw suddenly become a person with such a strong talent for painting? How could a cowardly child suddenly be lying in the alley with injuries all over his body, with those who always bullied him looking at him with fear in their eyes.

His favorite classmates no longer approached him, and the school bullies no longer harassed him, but he found a paintbrush in his home.

What a strange thing it is, the paintbrush turns those knife marks into colorful butterflies and turns the decayed home into spring.

It was so magical that his life was changed. That day, he was noticed for his painting and came to Tokyo to study painting. He no longer had to endure hunger and he even had money to earn.

But, but…

He is very scared.

There is another person living inside his body, whom he can neither see nor touch. That person is changing his life at will, using a pen to disrupt everything and making him feel helpless. He is terrified and filled with fear for those paintings that are clearly not in his memory but suddenly appear in his home.

So he sold all his paintings and threw those that were not signed into the trash.

Yes, he did it on purpose.

Give up painting, destroy all your works, and erase all traces of that person.

He wants to live alone.

Rather than adapting to a ghost living inside his body.

This is not a despair about whether or not one can paint, but a despair of opposition between co-existing beings.

"Why me?" Akagi Eito cried, "I just made painting my everything. I don't like painting at all. I even think that if I hadn't followed my teacher to come here to paint, I would have found something I like."

“Painting keeps me alive, but why is painting the only thing that keeps me alive?”

"I want to do something else, even if it's selling bento at a convenience store."

"I am afraid of people, but I can overcome it. Why don't you let me try? I just hate drawing." Akagi Eito looked at the table in front of him with disgust, tears falling. "I have been thinking about asking the principal to expel me immediately. I don't want to participate in that competition at all."

"As long as you don't paint, I can leave."

"I was told to throw away the painting that suddenly appeared in my house. I knew it was painted by him, so I had to destroy it even more." Akagi Eito kept crying, "I just don't want to paint. I have been painting for ten years. It is so terrible to spend ten years doing something I hate. I don't want to continue, never again."

There is no reconciliation between them.

Hinata Hajime almost heard Monokuma's laughter.

Yes, how can the Despair Fragment find a host when it is looking for one? Those things that seem to be tempting actually pull it into the dark abyss.

Even if the competition went on normally, even if all the participants died and only Akagi Eito was left, he would not be the champion.

Akagi Eito would just give up the competition, he decided to give up painting, this was the only thing he had decided on over the years that he would never change.

This is a game doomed to despair.

No one gets hope.

Akagi Eito was shaking with tears. At this moment, he suddenly pressed his temples. When he raised his head again, his eyes became sinister and terrifying.

He stared at Hinata Hajime dimly, his eyes red with tears, but that didn't make him look any less harmless.

"Hello, Mr. Policeman." Akagi Eito smiled, tears dripping down his chin, "We meet again."

Hinata Hajime looked at him, and after a moment he spoke, "Do you know what the situation is now?"

"Ah, of course I know. This guy is going to be sent to the hospital." Akagi Eito sneered, "If everything goes well, I will never help him deal with the mess again. If it doesn't go well, I guess I will see a lot of interesting scenes in there."

"I heard that mentally ill people can't control themselves. Maybe this can give me some inspiration."

As he spoke, Akagi Eito started laughing. He leaned back in his chair, and his laugh was a little scary.

"If everything goes well, you will disappear." Hinata Hajime said, "As Akagi Eito's secondary personality, the treatment in the hospital will only be targeted at him."

"It's not that easy for me to disappear." Akagi Eito looked at Hinata Hajime, "Let's give it a try and see who is stronger. I will never give up until my dream comes true."

"This game is gone, but it doesn't matter. I can always find other ways." Akagi Eito clenched his hands tightly. "Mr. Policeman, that weak guy can't stand me because he has been unwilling to face reality since the beginning. He gave all the pain to me."

"He will fail."

Hinata Sou closed his eyes and sighed silently in his heart.

So sad.

"Have you ever thought about communicating with Akagi Eito?" Hinata Hajime tried to speak, "Tell him how important painting is to you."

"He did this because it was important." Akagi Eito sneered, "Those paintings that were sold at a low price were all mine. There is not a single painting in that house that was made by me. They are all his garbage."

"That's ridiculous. Did I want to be born?"

"It was obvious that he wanted to please his important classmate, so he gave birth to me, but now he is doing this and I hate him."

Unable to communicate.

Because they are each doing things that make each other painful.

Hinata Hajime finally gave up.

He lowered his head and fell into silence for three minutes.

At the table opposite, Akagi Eito did not speak again.

No one has died since the competition was cancelled, because Akagi Eito's goal was to win the competition. Now that there is no competition, killing other people has no meaning for him.

Hinata Hajime reached into his pocket and took out his cell phone. Then he turned on the screen, clicked on a photo in the album, and pushed it in front of Akagi Eito.

Akagi Eito looked at him strangely, then lowered his head to look.

The moment he lowered his head, he saw a photo that made him widen his eyes.

The painting that had been ravaged and thrown into the trash had been carefully treated. All the ugly wrinkles had become smooth, and it was almost impossible to see that it had been rubbed violently. The black footprint had also been carefully wiped off, but it was impossible to completely clean it, and a faint trace could still be seen.

In the unfinished bird cage, the bird is flapping its wings.

It looked up at the sky, determined to fly out of the cage even though it was covered in blood.

"The competition has not been cancelled." Hinata Hajime said, "I went to see the curator, and he agreed to let me participate in the competition as a non-staff member, using this one painting."

Akagi Eito looked at Hinata Hajime in surprise.

"I won't sign my name, nor will I put Akagi Eito's name on it, and probably no one will know who painted this picture."

"Of course, a half-finished work is unlikely to win a prize." Hinata Hajime said, "But I won't help you complete it."

Akagi Eito's hands were shaking. He looked at Hinata Hajime strangely. After a moment, he frowned hard.

He said, "You're such a weirdo."

"Mr. Policeman, you are such a weirdo."