"I heard Komaeda-kun pulled a knife on his girlfriend!" Kazuichi Souda exclaimed, one day after class, eyes alight with fear and worry. "Isn't that so scary!?"
"Komaeda pulled a knife on Nanami-neechan!?" Hiyoko Saionji blurted, alarmed at the news.
"What? No. He pulled it on Enoshima, from the class under us."
"What?" Hiyoko blinked. "But you said 'girlfriend'. Nanami-neechan and Komaeda are dating, no matter how distasteful I find it."
"No, I'm sure he and Enoshima are!" Kazuichi protests, "I'm sure because I asked Enoshima out on a—I-I mean, I'm sure because Enoshima told me herself!"
"And Nanami-neechan told me!" Hiyoko huffs. "Wait... could it be...? You don't think that no good, rotten trash is cheating on Nanami-nee!?"
"Ahem."
Both Hiyoko and Kazuichi jumped.
"O-Oh, Miss Sonia! Uh... how much of that did you hear?"
"I don't care that you asked Enoshima on a date, Souda-kun," Sonia said pleasantly.
"Arck! I swear it was a momentary weakness! I'm dedicated to you, Miss Sonia!!"
"What I do care about," Sonia ignored him, "Is the two of you slandering Komaeda-kun for two timing, when I heard from Enoshima and Nanami themselves that the two of them were dating."
"Wait, huh...?" Kazuichi looked perplexed. "Now that's just confusing. Who's dating who?"
"They're dating each other," Mikan cut in with a sour look on her face. "I know, because all three of them rejected me."
Hiyoko processes that information, before she broke out into cackles. "Ahahaha! Pig barf is so repulsive none of her crushes wanted her, even when they're in their own harem!"
"So, wait," Mahiru cut in, "All three on them are dating? And... Komaeda-kun pulled a knife on Enoshima-san?"
"R-Right!" Kazuichi remembered what originally started this conversation. "I heard it from Ando; she saw the whole thing go down! Well, just the ending, I think. She said that Komaeda was pointing a knife at Enoshima-san! Now that I think about it, she also mentioned someone holding him back..."
"I heard about this!" Hiyoko lights up. "I didn't realize it was Enoshima and Komaeda, though."
"It's not nice to gossip like this," 'Ryota Mitarai' frowned.
"Ibuki heard it was actually Chiaki-chan who was holding Nagito-chan back!" She frowned, a second later, "Though Kimura-san said she couldn't actually tell which one was holding the knife and which one was holding the other back... But there's no way Chiaki-chan would pull a knife on someone, so it must be Nagito-chan! His smile gives Ibuki the creeps..."
"Is, like, Nanami-san even safe with someone like that...?" Mahiru wonders. "And poor Enoshima-san! Shouldn't he get arrested for doing something like that?"
"Hmmm. Komaeda-kun has always had a way of worming out of trouble," Sonia says, "But that's assuming he did this in the first place. It could have just been a misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding where he pulls a knife on her?" Hiyoko said, looking at her like she was slow. "Fat fucking chance."
"Maybe we should talk to Yukizome-sensei..." Mahiru floats the idea hesitantly, "If he's really dangerous, she could help."
"That's a great idea, Mahiru-nee!" Hiyoko cheered, and it seemed like for now, that was that.
Except....
This is how it actually happened:
Chiaki Nanami pulls a knife on Junko Enoshima.
It's not spur of the moment, either. Since the three of them have gotten 'together', Chiaki Nanami has been thinking of doing so for almost as long. She runs through the pros and cons, and everytime before now shelfs the idea as "too insane to actually do."
Until Junko Enoshima hits Nagito Komaeda.
Actually, that's a bit misleading. It's actually until Junko Enoshima gets caught hitting Nagito Komaeda, because it is immediately obvious that this has happened before.
So. Chiaki pulls a knife on her.
She wasn't going to kill her! Jesus, that would be so dramatic. She was just going to scare her. Threaten her into compliance. Nothing big, or anything—but it was kind of hard to keep her cool with all the shit that was flying out of Junko's mouth.
Nagito, predictably, had frozen when Chiaki roughly grabbed his pocket knife from his pocket. Well, she says pocket knife, but it was more of a multi tool that just included a pocket knife. Still, it was more than enough to harm, even kill, and therefore it was more than enough to threaten.
And that's all she was going to do, honest! Just threaten.
But Junko Enoshima would not. Shut. Up!
So maybe Chiaki started to lunge. Just to scare her, not to attack! She wouldn't attack her girlfriend. She loved her. And maybe, that lunge prompted Nagito into finally acting, unfreezing from his shock. Maybe he grabbed her hand that gripped the knife, and to the outside viewer it was hard to tell who originally held it. Point is, Nagito physically held her back from pouncing.
Chiaki didn't like that in the moment. She was just so angry. In hindsight, it makes sense! She had scared Nagito; he thought she was actually going to hurt her; he was protecting both Junko from getting hurt and herself from doing something she might regret, something she couldn't take back. But in the moment, it just made her feel betrayed that he would side with her.
So they may have struggled with the knife. And that may have attracted viewers. And that spectacule may have been spread, with poor Nagito taking the blame.
Maybe.
After all, who would believe sweet, harmless Chiaki was the instigator?
Chisa Yukizome looked over the three of them, in the aftermath, after their classmates had come to her in concern. But Nagito, Junko, and Chiaki were in agreement: from here on out, they will insist that nothing happened.
It was just a fight; no one pulled a knife on anyone; they had already made up; people were just blowing it out of proportion.
After all, you know how the rumor mill at Hope's Peak High goes.
Chisa Yukizome had no choice but to believe it.
"You know, it was kind of hot how you pulled that knife on me, Chi-chan," Junko Enoshima giggles after the fact. "Getting so up on arms when I only treated Nagito how he wanted to be treated, really! You're such a sensitive soul."
Chiaki glared. "Do you need me to threaten you again?"
"Ahahaha! You really are just too cute!"
"Please, the both of you... please just drop it and move on..."
Such is the incident these three will take to their graves.