Chapter 46: Know Despair 2

"Do you recognize him?" Zenkichi asked as he crouched down at the unconscious boy's side.

The boy was about his age, has short light brown hair, scrawny and somewhat frail-looking, with heavy bags under his eyes and wearing a brown suit; he basically looked like a young underpaid desk worker.

"What the hell?" Naze muttered, scrutinizing the unconscious boy with her one eye. "Yeah, I know this guy. He's one of the Ultimate Students; the Ultimate Animator. He's Mitarai Ryota, a first year in Class 12 and is basically a nerd that makes animated videos."

"Huh. Out of curiosity, how good of animated videos does he make?"

"You tell me. He made One Piece, Gurren Lagann, Naruto, Fruits Basket, etc...."

"Damn. I might need to get his autograph." Zenkichi was speechless. He knew that this world might have animes, mangas, etc. related to his previous world but he didn't think that just one boy managed to recreate them.

"...So, how exactly are we going to wake this guy up?" Zenkichi said as he set the unconscious guy up against one of the supercomputers. He kept an eye out for any unexpected surprises hiding in the shadows.

He might be near unkillable by normal means but that wasn't the case for either Naze and Ryota.

They were still important informants.

Naze rolled her eyes and said, "Step aside noob," she then lightly shoved Zenkichi and slightly bent forward, cracking her knuckles. "watch as how a master wakes someone up from unconscious."

Slap!

"Wake up!"

"AHHH!" Ryota jolted awake, his eyes wide with shock and fear. His left cheek had a red handprint.

Naze smirked in satisfaction while Zenkichi looked at her with an impressed expression.

"Well done," Zenkichi said, giving her a thumbs up.

Naze shrugged, with a smug smirk, a look of satisfaction appeared on her face. "Heh, I'm just that good."

Ryota looked around, confused and disoriented. "Where am I?" he asked, rubbing his head.

"We found you here, unconscious," Zenkichi explained. "Do you remember what happened?"

"I..." Ryota opened his mouth, with widened eyes, he remembered everything. He then turned and got up for a moment before crumbling down, and started vomiting.

Blagh....

Both Zenkichi and Naze took a few steps back.

"I...Oh god. What have I done...?" Ryota had a look of horror and regret in his face. "It's over. It's all over. I'm dead. All of us, are dead!!"

"Hey, hey. Calm down." Zenkichi said, putting a reassuring hand on Ryota's shoulder. "What happened? What's going on?"

Ryota looked up at Zenkichi with tears in his eyes. "I-I messed up. S-She made me do it." he turned and grabbed the latter's arms, "SHE MADE ME DO IT!!"

"Woah! Okay, okay. Calm down." Zenkichi raised his hands and leaned back away from Ryota, clearly uncomfortable.

"Alright, alright simp. Calm down." Naze intervened and shoved Ryota off Zenkichi, making him yelp down on the floor. "Now, what exactly did you do?" she asked after a brief pause with a raised eyebrow.

Ryota bit his lips to the point of bleeding and muttered, "I-I uploaded...that Accursed video!"

"Video?" Zenkichi repeated witn narrowed eyes.

"Now that you mentioned it," Naze nonchalantly said as she went and looked up the large screen, "That weird red symbol has been showing up this entire time..."

Suddenly, the screen started to glitch out and a swirling white and black swirl with numerous dark symbols appeared in the screen.

Ryota's face quickly paled, raising his hands, he yelled, "No, don't! Don't stare at the screen!!"

"Huh?" Naze turned to him, confused. "Why? Did you upload some cursed video or something?" she tilted her head, her sole eye gleaming an evil light, "Was it some weird hentai or something? Cause if it is, I hope it's good."

Zenkichi raised his left eye, staring at the screen for a brief moment, he turned towards a in-disbelief Ryota and said, "Gotta say, of all the works you made, this one's sucks the most."

Ryota was slacked jaw, a flash of anger appeared in his eyes but the surprise he was feeling took first.

It took a while for him to recover and mumbled,

"N-No way. You guys, you aren't infected?"

"What are you talking about?" Both narrowed their eyes in doubt and Zenkichi was the one who asked, getting a bad feeling.

Ryota had a hesitant expression but as he took a deep breath he said, "You both know who I am, right?"

"Somewhat, yeah." Zenkichi nodded.

"Duh. I was your fucking doctor once and temporary handler." Naze scoffed, sending him a deadly glare.

Ryota trembled looked down, ashamed. "I'm sorry. But that's not important right now. What's important is that, as the Ultimate Animator, I have the ability to create videos that can basically...brainwash people. And I...I was forced to create a video for this...this...!"

He had a look of anger and frustration on his face, clenching his hands tight, he started punching the ground.

"Ahh! I'm so stupid! I can't believe I fell for her!!"

"Hey, hey!" Zenkichi immediately went to stop him by holding his shoulder and Ryota froze. "Stop that. I know you're frustrated and filled with a lot of self-loathing right now, but we really don't have the time for that right now. So, focus and properly tell us on who plotted all of this and what's their entire plan."

"O...Okay. It's Junko, Junko Enoshima. The Ultimate Fashionista, no, the Ultimate Despair!" Ryota took a deep breath and finally told them on who the mastermind is.

Both didn't have a look of surprise, having already known this and only needed confirmation, and Naze had an unpleasant expression.

"You're right, it was her. But why would it her of all people..."

"B-But well, she isn't the only one." Ryota had a look of surprise that they already knew.

"Let me guess, her sister as well?" Zenkichi said.

"No, I mean yes!" Ryota shook his head. "But what I mean is that the true masterminds, the ones those Despair Sisters follow, are just so...strange, psychotic and terrifyingly powerful, even though they were all around my age."

'What? They have an accomplice?'

Zenkichi's eyes widened in shock, he honestly didn't expect that.

What's more, from what Ryota said, those Despair Sisters took orders from them...?

"Do you recognize any of them?" Naze asked with a sharp eye.

"N-No," Ryota had a confused and shocked expression. "I-I know that they were about my age but I can't seem to recall their faces, their voices and even their gender! What the hell's going on..."

"What do you mean by that?" Naze started interrogating him.

'Dammit. They were meticulous enough to alter his memories.' Zenkichi grimaced. Whoever they are, they were not to be underestimated.

"...Alright, fine. Since we can't get their identity, unless we get to those sisters, we need to know what that video you uploaded does."

"W-Well, anyone who views the video would slowly succumb to its hypnotic trance and start going crazy and...." He then started to explain. But he also inwardly wondered why these two weren't affected by the video.

He was hopeful that the video wouldn't work but he recalled how quickly Junko managed to replicate his techniques, he even watched several videos she made and knew she recreated his techniques' effects all perfectly, and was quickly dejected.

Both Zenkichi and Naze were silent, taking in the information. Zenkichi was the first to break the silence. "So, the video, which is sent to every electronic with a screen, brainwashes people to make heinous acts with the sole desire to spread fear and despair all across the world."

"Yes."

"But the video you uploaded could only be transmitted to only this city because someone had created some sort of digital barrier around the city that would last for at least an entire day?"

"Yes, fortunately."

"No, dude." Zenkichi let out a deep sigh and palmed his face, instantly getting up, "Don't underestimate the internet and people, it wouldn't take an hour before this shit spreads all across the globe if someone gets out of the city, brainwashed, and sends the video on either YouTube or Twitter."

'The people behind this had probably done this...but I hope that the person behind that barrier might have delayed them.'

He turned towards Naze with a serious expression.

"C'mon, we need to go. Now."

Naze nodded and started typing something on a keyboard.

"Sure but hold up for a moment, let me get the access for the elevator so we can get the hell outta here."

"...There was a elevator here?" Both guys asked in surprise.

.....

Author: Wrote this when I was still feeling unwell, oof. Not satisfied but I don't have anything to add so...

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