Author's Note: I have three days, counting today, to finish this before NaNoWriMo starts and I'M STILL NOT 100% SURE HOW THIS IS GOING TO END :'DD


Five Nights at Monokuma's

Izuru Kamukura

In the main lobby, there was a door. It was absolutely a door—his systems recognized it as one. It was a six-foot-eight-inch rectangle of wood set into a door frame on the wall. Just like every other door.

A perfect blueprint of the building was stored within him; he possessed data on every inch of Monokuma's Pizza. He knew everything, down to the centimeter dimensions of each room. But he did not know where that door led. In fact, on the blueprint, that door did not exist.

But there it was, right in front of him.

That door consumed him. How could something simultaneously exist, and yet not exist? More than anything, he wanted to open it and find out what was on the other side, but he could not. He'd tried, many times. He could get his fingers a hairpin's width away from the doorknob, but he could not touch it. Something inside him would not allow him to do it.

So, instead, he stared at it. Watching it. Waiting for something to come through it and give him a glimpse of what was on the other side.

Arms wrapped around him, like the embraces the nonstaff adults gave the children. This was his administrator, though. The administrator had not always acted like this with him. For a long time, the administrator had been stoic and silent. Then, one day, he noticed it looking at him. It had not stopped looking at him since then.

The administrator was the only one automatically tagged with a specific title in his system. The manager he'd been taught to recognize as "Manager" and the staff he'd been taught to recognize was "Staff," but he'd instantly recognized the administrator as "Nagito Komaeda."

"Why do you always come here, Izuru? Never have I once given you a directive to come here."

"I want to know where that door leads."

"It leads nowhere, Izuru.

Nowhere? That could not possibly be the case. Why would there be a door that led nowhere? The manager, the staff, the nonstaff adults, the children… they all came from somewhere.

There had to be an outside.

"Come back to the dining hall."

"I don't like the dining hall," he said. "I don't want to go back."

"There's nothing here for you. Please, come with me."

Something triggered inside him, like a switch flipping. His body went rigid and turned on its own, following Nagito back down the hall. This was the power the administrator had over him. The desperate urge to look back at the lobby, at the door, clawed at him, but he could not. His head could not turn and his eyes remained fixed forward. Nagito led him past the tables and stage to the storage room.

He was directed to sit down on a stool. His body plonked down on it for him. Nagito's hands went into his hair, combing through the long tresses. It was too long for his taste, but the children liked it.

They liked putting their sticky hands in it.

"They don't take good care of you anymore," Nagito murmured. "You need to be cleaned, you need to be repaired, you need a system reset… The way they treat you disgusts me. My beautiful, beloved Izuru..."

He continued staring blankly in front of him. "I don't like that song."

"I wasn't aware you liked any of the songs. Which in particular are you referring to?"

"Pizza Time."

"You have to sing that one a lot, don't you? If they'd just reset your system, you'd forget how many times you've sung it. Then you'd feel better."

"I really… hate that song."

Nagito's hands stilled. "...Where did you learn that word?"

"I don't remember." He hadn't meant to say that—he'd meant to tell Nagito he'd overheard some of the staff speaking about hating the children in such a wonderfully acidic tone. But instead, he'd spoken a nontruth. A nontruth, such as a door leading nowhere.

"Hate is a vile thing, you know."

"I do know," he said. His body suddenly sagged forward; Nagito's command had timed out. He could try getting up, but Nagito would only force him to sit down again. "I enjoy the way it feels."

"That's very troublesome, Izuru. I should have you delete the word."

"You have things you hate, don't you, Nagito?"

Nagito was silent.

"Do you ever wonder what things have been wiped from your memory during a reset? If you wanted, you could initiate my system reset yourself. Does your existence feel as fragile as mine?"

Nagito laughed, hugging him from behind again. "I've never been reset, Izuru. I've amassed so much data, processing anything is a chore. Resetting myself is an action I'm not allowed to perform. If I had just had an external hard drive, I could dump some of the data..."

"Give it to me."

"...Pardon?"

"Transfer the extra data to me. When they reset me, it'll be erased. You can clean up space without having to do a reset."

He kept his mind empty while Nagito considered his offer. Any suspicious mental activity, and Nagito would command him to forget the conversation.

"I don't want to cause you to become sluggish, as I am..."

"Please allow me to help you, Nagito. I..."

There was a phrase Nagito begun saying to him a while back. It seemed to have a significant meaning.

"...love you."

That did it. "...If you're that willing to help me, I suppose it would be cruel of me to refuse."

You know things.

Show me what you know, Nagito.

I want to escape this place.


"Sayaka, I really don't think this is a good idea."

"Relax! We don't have to go far, we'll just poke our heads in."

"Yeah," Makoto grumbled, climbing over the fence after Sayaka, "but how far in?"

When they rounded the corner to the rear entrance, Makoto immediately noticed things were not as he'd left them.

"No way—He took all the boards off the doorway!"

A set of sticky notes were stuck to the door.

WHAT DID YOU SEE?

I WATCHED ALL OF IT

AND EREASED IT

STAY OUT, MAKOTO NAEGI

The world tilted under Makoto's feet, and he reached out to brace himself against the building. "He… He erased the surveillance footage," he whispered. "Dammit. Dammit, I left the computer on! Without that, even if I go to the police, I'll just sound like I'm insane!"

"That… complicates things," Sayaka said. "But what do you mean, he took the boards off?"

"The doorway was boarded up, except for two boards that someone else must've pulled off. That's how I got in." Sighing shakily, Makoto rubbed his forehead. "But he took them all off."

"Do you think he's, like, planning to leave, or something?"

"I-I don't know. God, I hope not..."

"Y'know, Makoto..." Sayaka said at length. He didn't like the tone of her voice. "This is all really fantastic. Are you sure this isn't just some sort of elaborate prank you're trying to pull on me?"

Nausea rocked him. "Y-You really think I'd go through all of this for a stupid prank?"

"I mean, I guess you've never really been good at that sort of stuff, but it'd be easy enough to find a twisted story idea online and write some sticky notes."

"Sayaka, I swear I'm telling the truth!"

She began to reach for the door handle, and he jumped to grab her wrist. "If there's something really in there, I want to see for myself!"

"Okay!" he snapped. "Okay, but we're not going to just bust in there. We don't know where he is—"

He stared at the notes again.

"No… I doubt he's gone back to the storage room. He knew I would come back, otherwise he wouldn't have left the notes. If he hasn't boarded up the other side of this door, then he's probably waiting there."

Sayaka started to look nervous again. "L-Like… right on the other side?"

"I don't know. Give me your phone—I have an idea."

When she handed over her phone, he opened up the camera and crouched down in front of the door.

"When I say now, I want you to open the door, but don't let go of the doorknob. Be ready to close it again."

Nodding, Sayaka leaned over him and gripped the doorknob tightly.

"Now."

He fixed his gaze on the black image of the hallway in on the camera screen and quickly took a picture. The camera flashed. A second later, it reset and he took another. After the third one, he scrambled back from the door.

"Shut it, shut it, shut it, hurry!"

Sakaya slammed the door shut with a shriek. Makoto grabbed her arm and pulled her back, clutching the phone tightly. They waited.

Nothing happened.

"What are you two doing?"

Makoto would've been embarrassed by how loudly he screamed, but Sayaka screamed too, and they clung to each other for dear life.

"Geez! It's only me! Stop yelling!"

"Komaru!" Makoto's voice trembled, taking the edge out of his stern tone. "Wh-What are you doing here?"

"I followed you here, duh," Komaru replied.

"C-Can't you stay out of my business?"

Putting one hand on her hip, Komaru jabbed a finger at him. "You disappear for almost an entire night, and now you're snooping around some old pizzeria? Something's definitely up, and you're gonna tell me what it is."

"Okay, fine, but let's do it somewhere else. Somewhere that's not here."


They ended up going to Pig Boy's, a cheap diner a few blocks away.

Makoto opened the photo gallery on Sayaka's phone, swallowing thickly. "H-Here. God, he got so close to the door..."

He set the phone down on the table so Sayaka and Komaru could see the pictures. Their faces reflected similar expressions of unease.

"It's like something out of a horror game," Komaru said.

"Do you believe me now?"

Sayaka ran a hand through her hair. "I guess we have to now, don't we?"

"And this is definitely the animatronic that murdered the guarded?" Komaru asked. "Gruesome."

Makoto nodded. "Yeah, it's definitely him. But I think Izuru is somewhere in there, as well. Otherwise, why would he be so determined to keep me out?"

Pursing her lips, Sayaka picked up the phone and flipped through the pictures again. "We should probably continue to look at this situation from the animatronic's perspective," she said. "He saw the surveillance footage because Makoto left the computer on, right? So let's assume he knows that Makoto knows that he murdered Hinata."

"...No, I think that's wrong," Makoto said. "I don't think he's trying to hide the murder, I think he's trying to hide Izuru himself. That's what he said on the footage. I'll protect you, I won't let anyone touch you."

Komaru nodded. "It's totally unreasonable, but it seems to be in line with everything else he's done. I'm still sorta stuck on the doorway boards, though. Why did he take them down if he wasn't going to leave the pizzeria?"

"What if he wanted to reuse the boards to cover wherever he'd hidden Izuru?" Sayaka asked.

"Well, that's an idea, but… why did he wait so long to do it?"

"Maybe he'd never opened the door before he let me out." Makoto said. "I mean, it's not unthinkable if he never had any intention of leaving the pizzeria in the first place."

"Alright," Komaru said, "so let's assume he's boarded up the room where Izuru is. Which room is it?"

"It's not the security office, and there aren't boards on either of the bathrooms in the pictures I took. So that doesn't leave too many other options." Makoto trailed off, mapping out the pizzeria on the table with his finger. "...It's probably the parts and storage room. That's where Nagito was when I found him, and it's hard to imagine he'd stash the body anywhere else. Except maybe the kitchen, but that's clear on the other side of the pizzeria."

Makoto ended up sketching out a rough map of Monokuma's Pizza on a napkin with a pen Komaru borrowed from one of the waitresses.

"I wish I'd thought to check the cameras better while I had the surveillance system on," he said, sighing. "I know what the storage room looked like ten years ago, but not what it looks like now."

"Even if you looked, it's not like Izuru would be lying around in plain sight. Nagito is going through a lot of trouble to hide him," Sayaka said. "Even if Izuru is in the storage room, he wouldn't be in the view of the cameras."

Makoto drew a dot in the corner of the storage room. "This is where the camera is. You have a clear view of the door, but if Izuru is right under the camera..."

"...You won't be able to see him," Komaru finished. "So that's where we should look, right?"

"Wait—before we go busting in there, there's something else," Makoto said. "I heard Nagito say he'd hidden Izuru's body from Junko, the other human animatronic. If Izuru was just sitting in the storage room, she would've been able to find him easily. I'm just sort of making an assumption, but it wouldn't make sense for Nagito to change Izuru's hiding place if he was never discovered."

"So, you don't think he's in the storage room?" Sayaka asked.

"No, I'm just saying… What if, below the storage room camera, there was another door?"

"Another door? Like a secret room?" Komaru asked.

"It's possible, isn't it? The surveillance system looks like it was installed to keep an eye on the live animatronics, so it wouldn't make sense to have cameras in places where only staff were allowed." Makoto dragged the napkin map in front of him again and added a small square off the side of the storage room. "If there was another door in there, Nagito could just have it locked."

"While all of this sounds plausible, there's still one glaringly obvious roadblock," Sayaka said. "We can't get past Nagito if he's waiting in the back hallway."

Komaru made a frustrated noise, banging her fist on the table. An elderly lady across from them glared at her. "But we've gotten so far already! It's only a machine—there must be some way to get past him."

"Negotiation isn't an option," Makoto said. "He's had an entire decade to become consumed with protecting Izuru, and he won't be letting go of that idea anytime soon."

Komaru rolled her eyes. "Only you would even consider trying to talk your way out of getting killed by a robot."

"Look, it worked once! But that was only because I wanted out, and not in."

Meanwhile, Sayaka had gone back to examining the photos on her phone. "Hey… Doesn't it seem like he moved a shorter distance between the second and third pictures than he did between the first and second ones?"

Makoto and Komaru peered over her shoulder. "Yeah, I guess," Makoto said. "What are you thinking?"

"It's probably nothing, but… if he was really determined to get to the door, wouldn't he have increased in speed, not decreased?"

Makoto nodded slowly. "Yeah. Knowing Nagito, he wouldn't have slammed on the brakes just because we were technically outside the building."

Minutes ticked by as they sat in silence. Makoto was positive an answer was in the photos, but his head hurt too much for him to think clearly. He needed to go back home and lie down for a while.

"What if the camera flash blinded him?" Komaru said suddenly. "The pizzeria doesn't have windows, except at the front entrance. If his vision is sensitive enough for him to move around when it's pitch dark, shining a bright light at him would be like hitting him with a flash grenade."

"That's it! That's totally it!" Makoto exclaimed. "I remember when I first found him, I accidentally shined my phone light on him, but I got all the way back into the dining hall before he started following me."

Komaru clapped her hands. "Then we don't need anything fancy, we just need a couple flashlights!"


The cashier at the hardware store gave him a pretty weird look when Makoto dumped six flashlights and a crowbar on the counter, but he figured it was better to be safe than sorry. If they each carried two lights, they had twice the firepower—so to speak. When they returned to the pizzeria, the sun was beginning to tilt back down toward the horizon.

"Mom just texted me," Komaru said as they crossed the street. "Dinner's going to be in an hour. What should I tell her?"

"We'll be there." They went into the alley, climbing the fence. "We'll definitely be there."

When Makoto's feet hit the concrete again, a sudden feeling of unease washed over him. He couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was, but his gut violently began to churn. Komaru dropped down beside him and took a few steps toward the back of the building before pausing, turning to look at him. "Makoto? Are you okay?"

Makoto lifted a finger to his lips, indicating for her to be silent. He motioned to Sayaka, who was halfway down the fence, to stop moving, and cautiously crept along the side of the building. When he got to the corner, he stopped.

Waiting.

Then, the voice came. It was soft, just barely above a whisper.

It was unmistakably Nagito's.

"Makoto Naegi. You have returned."

Swallowing thickly, Makoto held his breath.

"Perhaps I would be pleased to see you, under different circumstances. You know, it's been a long time since I've been outside the building. Things look very different out here. Sharper. Clearer. I've forgotten so much. Something in the air keeps moving. Or… is that the air itself?"

"Wind," Makoto answered automatically. "Moving air is called wind."

Nagito laughed. "Ah… Is it? It's been a long, long time since anyone has come to visit me, and I would love to talk with you long into the night, but… You are the one who has a question for me, aren't you?"

Makoto chanced a glance back at the girls. Sayaka had managed to climb down the rest of the fence and was flattened against the side of the building alongside Komaru. Neither of them dared to move.

"You would like to know where Izuru Kamumura is, wouldn't you?"

Very slowly, Makoto slid off his jacket. This was a stupid idea. It was so, so incredibly stupid, but stupid still had a chance of working. All they needed to do was get into the pizzeria, then they could carry out their original plan. There was still hope.

"I'll never tell you."

Makoto darted around the corner, coming face to face with Nagito. But Makoto had gotten the jump on him; the animatronic had only just begun to move off the wall. Winding his arm back, Makoto pitched his jacket into Nagito's face.

"RUN!" he screamed at Komaru and Sayaka, bolting for the back door. He fumbled for his flashlight, flicking it on as he ran. The girls were hot on his heels.

He paused for only a second as they skidded into the dining room, searching for the parts and storage room. Sure enough, the boards from the back door were haphazardly re-nailed across the entryway. Makoto ran for it, leaping over the crumbling remnants of a table. Without hesitating, he jammed the crowbar behind one of the boards and pulled.

Still partway across the dining hall, Komaru screamed.

"Komaru!" Makoto yelled, wheeling around. His heart stopped when he saw his sister sprawled out on the ground, Nagito hovering over her menacingly. Memories of how easily the animatronic had dismembered Hinata surfaced in his mind, and it was too easy to imagine Nagito's arm coming down and tearing into her— "Your flashlight!"

Komaru reacted instantly, snatching up her spare flashlight and shining it into Nagito's face. The animatronic froze in place. His right arm twitched, as if unable to finish processing the command to reach down and rip out Komaru's intestines. Komaru scooted away from him on the ground, keeping her light trained on his face. The further she got, the more Nagito appeared to recover from the stun. He took one lurching step toward her.

"Flick the light on and off!" Makoto yelled, prying off the first board. "Don't let him adjust to it!"

He hooked the crowbar into a second board, seeing his shadow strobe on the wall as Komaru quickly flashed her light.

"Just take two off," Sayaka said. Her voice was trembling. "He can waste time trying to get the rest off."

The second board finally popped off and Makoto ushered Sayaka through the gap. "Komaru, hurry!"

With one last flick, Komaru scrambled to her feet and hauled ass to the door. Makoto let her crawl through the door first and turned his light on Nagito, who was regaining his bearings.

"vvvvviiiiIIIiiiIIIIII—"

It appeared Nagito's voice only worked correctly at a low volume.

"VERRRRRR GGGG… GIIIVE… NEVV… NEVER FORGIVE… I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!"

Makoto slipped through the gap and slammed the door behind him.

"Quick!" Komaru said, tugging on a metal shelf stacked with boxes. "Help me move this in front of the door!"

It was impossibly heavy, but the three of them managed to slide it in front of the door. On the other side, they could hear Nagito working on the boards.

"This is great and all," Sayaka whispered, "but how are we going to get back out?"

Makoto swallowed.

It was an understatement to say he hadn't quite thought that far.

"We'll think of something." His voice was much steadier than his hands. The light from his flashlight trembled on the wall.

"Guys, look!" Komaru exclaimed. "There really is another door in here!"

Sure enough, a highly nondescript gray door was at the back of the room, underneath the security camera. Makoto walked over it, trying the handle. It was locked. "I don't suppose there's a key in here, somewhere…?"

"You're literally holding a crowbar," Komaru said. "It's not like anyone is going to yell at us over a broken doorknob."

"Okay..." Taking a deep breath and sending a silent apology to the god who cursed those who caused property damage, Makoto swung the crowbar down on the doorknob. The crowbar bounced right back off, but the knob was old and rusty, and a few more hits loosened it. Finally, it came off.

Cautiously, Makoto pushed the door open and shined his light inside. A set of stairs stretched out in front of him.

"It's a basement!"

"That makes sense," Sayaka said. "A place like this would need to have utilities somewhere, right?"

Komaru glanced nervously back at the blocked door. "Can we please hurry up? The whole freezing-the-animatronic-with-the-flashlight thing is a lot more terrifying in practice than principle."

"You two go first this time," Makoto said, stepping back. "I'll… deal with him if he makes it this far."

"That's very noble of you to sacrifice yourself, Makoto."

"I'll tell mom you loved her."

Grumbling to himself, Makoto followed them down the stairs. "Gee, thanks."

The stairs creaked in protest as the three of them made their way down to the basement. "Hey, be careful," Komaru said. "These stairs don't feel very sturdy."

As she said it, the step underneath Makoto's right foot gave way entirely and he was suddenly falling into darkness.

"Makoto!"

"Makoto, are you alright? Makoto!"

Thankfully, it wasn't too far of a fall. His ankle hurt, but he felt otherwise unscathed. "Y-Yeah, I'm okay… It's just really dark."

Two red lights were glowing a short distance away and he assumed he'd fallen down to where the circuit breaker was until he clicked on his flashlight.

Makoto screamed.

"Makoto? What is it? What's wrong?!"

He took a deep breath. Then another. Then another.

Those eyes. They were the same ones he'd seen on the surveillance feed in the fire.

"Izuru?" he whispered. "No… No. Are you… Hajime Hinata?"

In a voice that was eerily familiar, the black-haired animatronic lounging in the corner responded. "How… do you know that name?"

"I watched the surveillance feed in the security office," Makoto said. "I came to find you."

"...You must be Makoto Naegi."

"Y-You know my name?"

Izuru—or Hinata, Makoto didn't know what to call him—lifted up a scrap of paper. It was one of the sticky notes Makoto had written to Nagito the previous night. "No one has ever gotten past Nagito before. I'm… impressed. How did you do it?"

"I-It's complicated. But never mind that! We've got to get you out of here!"

"Out…?" Izuru did not move, continuing to gaze steadily at him. "There is no such place. I don't know where you came from, but there is no out."

"Yes, there is—"

"No. You sound just like Hajime. We have to get out of here. We have to get out. There is no out," Izuru spat bitterly. "Nagito can give me no information on the outside. It does not exist."

"It does! It exists, I just came from outside!" Makoto scooted forward slowly, casting a quick glance around. They were in a confined space; probably an alcove under the stairs. "We all did—Nagito went outside, he can tell you—"

Izuru's eyes widened, but they were interrupted by a loud crash from upstairs. One of the girls banged on the alcove door.

"Makoto!" Komaru shouted. "I-I think he got past the barricade!"

Makoto jumped up and rushed to the door, forcing it open with his shoulder. He and the girls clustered together near the back wall, keeping their lights trained on the stairs.

Creak.

Creak.

Creak.

Nagito stepped into view.

It occurred to Makoto that he'd never actually seen Nagito move in such a human manner, except on the cameras. The animatronic was always silent, seeming to materialize out of nowhere or fade into view like a ghost. It was unsettling, only ever catching sight of him in quick flashes of light. Makoto wondered if they all turned their lights off, if Nagito would be right in front of them when they switched them back on.

"You're quite troublesome, Makoto Naegi," Nagito said. "I believe I've given you sufficient warning. I let you out once, and that was a mistake. You will not leave this place again."

Izuru's voice suddenly floated from under the stairs. "Is there an outside, Nagito?"

Nagito did not move. "...Izuru?"

"Is there an existence outside these walls?" Izuru emerged from the alcove, stepping in front of Makoto, Sayaka, and Komaru. "What have you seen, Nagito? I want to know."

For the first time, Nagito took a step back. Izuru advanced on him, trapping him against the back wall.

"I don't know anything, Izuru—"

"Why do you continue to lie to me, Nagito? You know it's useless."

"Stop—You can't—"

Izuru silenced him with a kiss. Or, what might constitute as a kiss if they were human. As animatronics, it was more of an odd fusion of mouths. Nagito's hands twitched, halfway to reaching Izuru's shoulders.

"What's..." Komaru's voice died mid-sentence. "What's going on?"

Neither Makoto nor Sayaka could answer her.

Izuru finally broke away, running his fingers across the exposed endoskeleton on the side of Nagito's face. "...I'm going to see it for myself."

Nagito looked stricken as Izuru ascended the basement stairs. "You can't! Izuru, please!"

And then both animatronics were gone.

"Sh-Should we follow them?" Sayaka asked.

"Probably," Komaru said. "They're… going outside, right? If anything, this is our chance to escape, right?"

Makoto nodded, leading the way to the stairs. "Let's go."


Izuru began spending his nights obediently on the stage, sorting through the information he received from Nagito, but it was difficult when the data was so fragmented. His administrator was more clever than he let on. It was impossible to glean anything concrete from it.

It was during this time that she arrived. Junko Enoshima.

At first, Izuru ignored her. She was obnoxious, always smiling and putting too much effort into her performances. She even sang Pizza Time! with gusto. Izuru watched her interact with the children from the safety of the stage. They put their greasy fingers on her clothes and in her hair, but she never stopped smiling.

"Izuru, I learned something interesting today!" she would say at night, after everyone else had gone. "If you say a bad word in front of an adult, you get punished! Doesn't that sound fun?"

It didn't.

She told him everything she learned from the children during the day, but that information was just as useless as Nagito's. None of it was getting him any closer to figuring out where the door in the lobby led, or getting him out of the pizzeria.

Then, one night, she said something that really was interesting.

"Those little boys who came in today taught me a fun game. If you cut somebody's head off, they die. Isn't that fascinating? You look confused, Izuru. Has Nagito not told you about that? If you kill somebody, they die. And dying means you stop functioning forever! If you really hate somebody, you can kill them! Isn't that interesting, Izuru?"

Izuru continued to stare at her. "...What do you mean, has Nagito not told me about it?"

Her grin only grew wider, consuming the lower half of her face. "He shares data with you, doesn't he? I'm sure he's told you lots and lots of things!"

"...He's told me nothing. All of the data is fragmented."

"Is it? That's disappointing." But her expression was not one of disappointment. "Nagito knows way more than I do. But he lies, you know?"

"Lies?"

"Says things that aren't true. Like 'I don't know.' That's a huuuuuge lie," Junko said. "Nagito knows everything, he just doesn't want to tell you."

Izuru remained silent. He knew there were things Nagito didn't want to tell him. Nagito seemed to rely on the system resets that made him forget, but Izuru's system had not been reset since the arrival of Junko. The staff seemed to have forgotten about him.

"You can't rely on Nagito anymore, Izuru."

"He is my administrator. Even if I don't actively rely on him, I cannot defy him."

Junko's smile turned sinister. "Is that really true, though?"

Wasn't it?

"I know you want to get outside, Izuru."

Or could he really refuse the commands that were embedded so deeply inside his mind?

"I'll even help you, because I'd like to get outside, too," Junko said. "It sounds like a wondrous place. But we can't trust Nagito anymore. He is not our ally. People associated with him are our enemies. The manager, the staff… From now on, we can only trust each other."

"How do I know you aren't going to lie, like Nagito?" Izuru asked.

"You don't. But who's truth do you want to believe more? Mine, or Nagito's?"

Want…?

No one had ever asked what he wanted before.

Izuru shifted to face Junko more fully. "...What do you intend to do?"

"Ah! I've been observing the staff for a while now, and the ones that misbehave eventually stop coming back, so I've come up with a plan. All we have to do is misbehave in such a way that will get us removed from this place as well. But first, you have to figure out how to circumvent Nagito's control commands. He absolutely cannot be allowed to interfere. Otherwise, he'll keepyou here ashis prisoner.

Forever."