I had been talking to Chou for what felt like hours, as her questions kept coming, and I was providing answers. It was probably foolish of me, but I couldn't help but somewhat enjoy just talking to her. After all, it was something to do in this boring grey place.

I talked about my life before all this happened, my family, like Chou had said, everything. At the end of it I had almost forgotten that I was talking to a murderer.

"You're even more interesting to me than before, I'm gonna keep my eye on you." Chou said with a smile. "Hm, since you've said so much I should probably tell ya something too." She thought for a moment, tapping her chin until her expression brightened. "Oh, my real name's Chouko! Every girl in my family has a name ending with 'ko', it's kinda weird. Don't you dare call me that though, I hate how it sounds. Just Chou is much better."

I nodded, taking a mental note of what she'd said as it may prove important. "Okay... yeah, that is a little weird."

"Right?" Chou laughed a bit. "Well, it was nice talking to you Akira, but you might wanna consider sleeping since it's one in the morning."

"Seriously?" I let out a small sigh, just noticing how tired I really was. "Maybe I wouldn't still be up if you put clocks around here..."

Chou only shrugged. "Maybe after the next death, who knows. Whelp, see ya~!" With that, the screen turned off.

I decided to just do as the mastermind suggested, and went to sleep.

~*~

It was the following day, after our meal, and I was sitting in Itsuki's room with him. He had invited me in as he had promised to talk about his condition the day before, but I had gotten myself preoccupied with Chou. I didn't tell him that, of course, I knew the others wouldn't approve of it.

"Um... so, sorry if I can't explain it well." Itsuki said, looking a little nervous. "I've always had Jirou to help me... a lot of people don't even believe this exists, but I really am telling the truth. I couldn't make this up...."

I nodded, though becoming a little worried. "Is it really that bad?"

Itsuki shrugged, his amber eyes looking away from me. "Of course I'd rather not have it, but I can deal with it. It's just normal to me now..."

"Um... I guess it's some kinda mental thing if the ultimate therapist could help with it..." I guessed, and Itsuki gave a small nod.

"You see, I'm not alone up here." Itsuki said, pointing to his head. "There's a few-"

He was cut off by the screen in his room turning on, Chou appearing on it with a disappointed frown. "Aw, c'mon! Don't tell her! Your mental state will be better if you have support and you'll be less likely to kill!"

"I don't want to kill anyone..." Itsuki sighed, shaking his head.

"But it'd be awesome if a cinnamon roll like you snapped!" Chou whined. "Plus this could be used as a plot twist later!"

The brunet started to look a little scared. "Please don't use my brain as a part of your game...."

I decided to speak up. "Chou-chan, if we get closer it's more likely one of us will kill for the other, right?"

Chou pulled at her hair. "Don't use my own logic against me! Ugh, whatever, I don't care anymore!"

The screen turned off, and I turned back to my friend. "So... what were you saying?"

"I'll just get right to the point, I guess..." Itsuki took a deep breath before continuing. "I have dissociative identity disorder, or multiple personalities. There's two others, one takes control more often than the other, and I'm glad that I'm in control most of the time, that's thanks to Jirou..."

I just stared at him for a moment, shocked, not knowing what to say, yet it made sense. All the weird things he had done were finally adding up. "Wow..." I managed to mutter. "That... must be tough..."

"Kinda... I'm mostly worried about Eiichi, he has breakdowns even in normal situations. Koichi was able to calm him down, but..." Itsuki sighed, then gave me an apologetic look. "Sorry, I hope I'm not throwing too much at you at once."

I quickly shook my head. "Oh no, it's just a little difficult to take in, y'know?" I smiled a bit. "But I'm glad you're telling me, Itsuki-kun... I guess Eiichi's the stuttering one, right?"

"Yeah... looks like you saw him, then." Itsuki let out a small nervous laugh. "Sorry about that, I hope he didn't do anything bad... I don't really remember much when I'm not in control."

I just gave a small shrug. "No, Nozomi-kun was there... it was just a little weird at the time, now it makes sense."

"That's good..." Itsuki looked down at his lap. "Thanks for listening and being so nice, Akira-chan."

"Of course, we're friends, aren't we?" I replied with a small smile. "We gotta stick together."

Itsuki nodded, smiling back. "Yeah, you're right."