A minute later, a woozy Makoto Naegi was still doubled over on the love seat.
"Just take deep breaths," Kyoko advised him, rubbing his back gently with one gloved hand.
"I... I don't think I'm gonna throw up or anything," he said, smiling weakly. "I-I hope not, anyway."
"I know you're upset," Kyoko said, "But try to focus on the lack of context we have. Besides, no matter what the context is, this doesn't reflect on you or your value."
Easy for her to say, he thought. Makoto tried to see the best in people, and he thought he was a pretty good judge of character as well. Now, however, he felt like he was so blinded by his skill at the first thing that he was utterly awful at the second thing.
Makoto started to sit up straight but stopped himself to make eye contact with Kyoko while still slightly hunched over. "I appreciate your support," he told her, "Just like I always do. But it doesn't make me feel any better about being that blind." He stood up, trying to walk off his initial shock.
Kyoko stood up with him and leaned on the edge of his bed as he paced the length of the room. Folding her arms, she sighed. "You're ignoring that as the Ultimate Detective, I had to be the blindest of all to not see the threat of our two classmates."
Makoto shook his head as he paced. "Maybe you did see it," he said. "Maybe someone else just ignored your suspicions or blocked your investigation. You can't know how we got here."
"Then the same applies to you," Kyoko responded. "If you're telling me that I can be forgiven based on unknown aspects of the context, then... " She raised her eyebrows and gestured towards him with one hand, the implication clear.
"Yeah, touché," Makoto conceded. He finally stopped pacing a couple of feet from her. "Honestly, though? This is more than just the fact that Iku... " He paused to swallow, feeling a little sick when he reached her name. "...the fact that she turned out to be a manipulative liar who helped trap us in the killing game and then pretended to be someone else. It's that she was always a violent killer to begin with, and there's no way I didn't know that. She was the Ultimate Soldier, after all. She was a mercenary with countless kills on her belt, and I just... what? What was I thinking? Why would I have thought that seemed like a good person to hang out with?"
"You looked past it," Kyoko explained, giving him a firm, sympathetic smile. "You forgave it, just like you always do. You have to admit that if you met someone just like her today, that's exactly the course you would take. You'd try to get to know her, to understand her, and to see the good in her. Those are the things that make you represent Hope for so many, after all. Don't sit there and wish you had treated her poorly because of her past. That's not who you are, and if you had done that, I don't think you'd forgive yourself."
Kyoko took a couple of steps away from him, heading back towards the love seat, before she spun back around to continue. "I know you're really just upset because you wish you'd seen everything coming before it happened, and that you had some chance to stop it," she said, maintaining the level calmness in her voice all the while. "I know there are plenty of people who feel the same way, myself included. It's hard — not knowing how we reacted when it first hit, not knowing what we did or didn't do to prevent it. Maybe that's what you were doing here. Maybe you did sense something amiss with her, and you tried to bring her towards the light. Maybe you saw something good in her that she couldn't even see within herself. Or maybe she was the one who came to you, because she sensed a hope in you that she secretly longed for. You can't know the whole story, and none of us can. I can't know... " She took a deep breath and blinked a couple of times before she went on. "I can't know how things really were between me and my father when he died. I can only imagine the possibilities. But I know that we reached out to one another after years apart, and I take comfort in that. And knowing that you reached out and befriended someone like Ikusaba, someone with such a... a complicated history, who was also troubled in the present? That just makes me... " She trailed off and took a moment to sigh before she finished. "It just makes me admire you more."
Makoto felt the color return to his face, albeit maybe a little too fast. He put a hand over his mouth, feeling the heat emanating from his cheeks, and murmured "Th-thanks" from between his fingers.
Kyoko lowered her head, closed her eyes, and smiled a little to herself. "After all you've done for me, there's no need to thank me for anything. Shall we continue?"
"I guess... " Makoto said, feeling rather unprepared to resume their yearbook review due to being exceedingly flustered and flattered by Kyoko's praise. Regardless, they both returned to their positions on the love seat.
As he stumbled back into his place, it occurred to Makoto that if he didn't feel like he was completely blindsided and knocked for a loop by the Ikusaba revelation, this might have been the perfect time to tell Kirigiri about some difficult things. Things that his sister had correctly guessed before he was willing to tell anybody — in fact, he hadn't told even her once she brought it up. Things that Asahina was also constantly pushing him to admit, but which he repeatedly denied.
Things that he believed would probably just mess everything up in his life.
Don't get carried away, he warned himself sharply. She's your superior, and that means it's inappropriate to think like that. She's your good friend — probably your best friend — and that means you shouldn't ruin how great things are. She's also a beautiful genius who is always composed and on top of everything, whereas you're a poofy-haired dork who cries when a dog gets hurt.
Besides, he thought, Who has time for stuff like that when we're trying to fix the whole world?
Although... she deserves to know, doesn't she? But either way, not right now.
After a ragged sigh, Makoto tried to get his mind off of the woman next to him and fix his gaze back on the yearbook. Of course, his eyes fell back on that picture again.
At least Munakata never saw this, he mused darkly. Or anyone else on the old council, for that matter.
For a brief second, he idly wished that it had been Kirigiri in the photo next to him. If it'd been the two of them, maybe that could've pushed him to say something to her.
Focus on what's in front of you, he thought, shaking his daydream away. Ikusaba's the issue. Try to think like Kirigiri-san. Focus on the logical implications, not the feelings.
There was no denying that he looked happy in the photo. Was he shocked by Ikusaba's kiss, or was this a common occurrence for them? He was clearly embarrassed, but the level of surprise was hard to determine — and this particular photo wasn't printed very large, so there was definitely some detail that was lost in translation. Had they been friends? Had they been a couple? If they were close, how did Ikusaba feel when she betrayed him? Did she struggle with it? Did she do it in a fit of anger at him? Was she resigned to it all along? Or was it all an act, and she never really cared to begin with?
He swallowed away the lump in his throat, attempting to accept that he could never be certain of their relationship...
...until Kyoko spoke again. "I don't think you two were a couple," she suddenly volunteered.
Makoto looked at her uncertainly. She paid him no mind and held her attention steady on the photo of him and Ikusaba. "Why do you say that?" he inquired.
"Enoshima," she answered. "Would she really have failed to mention such a thing during our final trial?"
Makoto only needed to consider that for around five seconds. "Hard to imagine," he decided. "It's too juicy for her. She'd have definitely told me that her sister who helped her put us all into the killing game was also my girlfriend, right?
"I believe so," Kyoko agreed. "It would be too good of a despair resource for her to pass it up."
However, her words lingered in the air as she thought further on the subject. Makoto could tell she was thinking of some other implications or possibilities.
"What is it?" he prodded. "Did you think of something else?"
"Just a minor possibility, " Kyoko offered gently. "Enoshima seemed to be quite the long-term planner. She might have expected us to find this photographic evidence later on... perhaps she thought of it as a Despair Bomb on a time delay, or some such thing. As I said, the likelihood is relatively low. I believe that even someone with her analytical abilities would have a hard time drilling down to where we are now."
Makoto laughed a little bit for no particular reason, still feeling a bit stunned by the whirlwind of emotions he'd just gone through. "I... thanks, okay," he managed to utter.
Kyoko gave him a concerned glance before she reached over and turned the page.
The next spread contained yet approximately 10 photos of various sizes. There were some spring-themed pictures, such as Sayaka Maizano planting some tulip bulbs. The setting of that one was unclear — greenhouse or outside? That picture was too close to its subject to be certain. It shared the left-hand side of the spread with a shot of the group racing around a running track — another familiar image they got from Enoshima. This time, the Ultimate Despair's back was turned in both the yearbook and in the photo they'd received, so no manipulation was required on her part. That photo also had Kirigiri sitting down beside Yasuhiro Hagakure, which made Makoto ponder for a moment if they were friends before the Incident. Even if that were the case, the two weren't really looking at each other.
Makoto recognized another picture that Enoshima provided. It included Oowada, Leon Kuwata, and Chihiro Fujisaki lined up back-to-back, as well as a classroom shot that Enoshima had given to Hagakure during their final investigation period. The latter showed Toko Fukawa — evidently in "Genocide Jack" mode judging by the tongue hanging out of her mouth — staring intently at Byakua Togami, who was seated in front of her. Makoto noted to himself that Toko would at least be happy to see her interest in "Master" was relatively consistent. Kyoko jotted something onto her notepad.
The top of the right side of the spread focused on a prominent shot of Fujisaki and Maizano, both seated at a picnic table outside, leaning towards one another as they engaged in conversation. The image took place at either sunrise or sunset, and they were framed quite beautifully by the orange sky. Makoto wondered for a second who took such a gorgeous photo, but more importantly, he noted that Fujisaki was dressed in jeans and a buttoned-down men's shirt with a collar.
"Fujisaki-kun," Kyoko said as she reached the picture. There was warmth in her voice.
"I'm glad he got comfortable with himself," Makoto affirmed. "I just wish he wasn't forced to do it twice."
"I suppose this implies that Enoshima needed to change some of our clothes before initiating her killing game," Kyoko noted.
It was an observation that hadn't struck Makoto yet, and the concept made him feel a little queasy once more. He tried to move on to distract himself, but found that the next set of pictures showed another image of himself with Mukuro Ikusaba — this time, both were laughing as she gave him a piggy-back ride.
Makoto grimaced a bit. "I guess this one clinches it," he said flatly.
"You must admit that it's pretty cute if you don't focus on the subjects," Kyoko said, suppressing her desire to smile. "But I don't think your relationship is definitively romantic here, either."
"It's okay," he assured her, still looking a bit rattled. "I think we can skip the denial at this point."
"I admit it's looking increasingly otherwise," Kyoko stated plainly. "Although that doesn't explain why Enoshima never brought it up as a way to hurt you."
Makoto concentrated on that particular oddity. "Maybe it was just an intel-gathering mission that she sent her sister on, or something like that," he suggested.
"Maybe she never knew about it in the first place," Kyoko shot back.
That was something he'd never have considered. "Do you really think she wouldn't notice her sister's relationships?" he asked doubtfully.
"I've read the transcripts of Mitarai-kun's numerous debrief meetings when he joined the Future Foundation," Kyoko explained. "He told the Foundation a lot about those two. Enoshima saw her sister's loyalty as absolute, despite verbally and physically assaulting her on a regular basis."
The topic of this abusive relationship made Makoto feel sick once again. It wasn't that he was surprised, given that Enoshima had murdered her own sister and then spoke about her like she was garbage during their final classroom trial. But the confirmation still made him doubt whether Enoshima ever had a shred of humanity in her.
Kyoko continued, seemingly unaware of his reaction. "Moreover, she was generally correct in her presumption of such loyalty. After all, if you spend a lifetime convincing someone they're useless to anyone but yourself, it's not hard to keep them at your heel."
"Not that we know how long she treated Ikusaba like that," Makoto interjected. "Maybe they had a better relationship at some point."
"I believe we — that is, the Future Foundation — have pieced together enough disasters and murders that followed Enoshima's path through life to assume that she was Ultimate Despair since she was pretty young," Kyoko noted. "It would stand to reason that she was always inducing despair in her twin sister, too. So let's follow that. By assuming that she had Ikusaba's loyalty locked down, she likely saw any relationship between Ikusaba and the rest of the class as merely a method of gathering intel, just as you suggested. Which is not to say that it truly was that."
"Maybe," Makoto acknowledged. "But Enoshima was some kind of genius with a talent for analyzing everything around her. I mean... surely she would've seen and understood the situation you're describing. Right?"
"Maybe," Kyoko said, echoing him. She kept looking at the photo, evidently lost in thought.
"Soooo," he continued, "Maybe you're only suggesting this as a way to make me feel better about dating one of the Despair sisters?"
Kyoko looked over at him with sympathetic eyes. "Maybe," she confessed via repetition. "But I still think it's a valid possibility."
After giving Makoto a moment to think as he stared at the picture, Kyoko transformed her expression by adding a tiny smirk and attempted to lighten the mood.
"You know, I do hope Asahina-san won't be jealous when she sees this," she stated, allowing an edge of humor into her voice.
Makoto jerked his head away from her in surprise, stumbling back against the arm of the love seat. "Wh-what are you talking about?" he asked with complete incomprehension.
Kyoko tilted her head down to face him. "Only that Asahina-san wasn't your first. Piggy-back ride, that is," she playfully teased.
His mouth went from being turned down in shock to turning upward into a smile. He laughed at her suggestion and sat up straight again as he guffawed.
"Ouch, my dignity," Makoto cracked, still laughing a little as he said it. Kyoko smiled tightly to herself.
Makoto glanced back at the yearbook. "Speaking of Asahina-san," Makoto observed, pointing towards the book, "Look at that."
Kyoko saw that he was pointing at an image of Aoi Asahina and Leon Kuwata sitting together on the couch in the rec room, holding hands and smiling at one another as they leaned together. Kirigiri made another appearance in this one, visible behind them and to the side as she searched through the room's magazine rack.
"That looks... couple-y?" Makoto guessed, indicating Hina and Leon.
"It does lend itself to that interpretation," Kyoko agreed. "I suppose they had athletics in common."
"Not that Kuwata-kun cared that much for his talents," Makoto said.
"Perhaps he changed his tune over time," Kyoko wondered. "At any rate, that's not too shocking a turn, but she'll definitely be interested." Kyoko wrote down more notes on her pad.
As she wrote, Makoto's attention drifted to Kyoko's presence in the background of the same picture. "I wonder what you were thinking of reading," he said.
Kyoko glanced up, regarding herself in the picture momentarily before lowering her eyes back to her notepad. "I can't rightly guess. I was probably just desperate to kill time."
Makoto shook his head in disbelief. "It's still so weird to me," he said. "Seeing these lives we had, things we did. And we don't get to remember anything about any of it."
"In some ways, that's probably a blessing," she replied as she finished up her notes. She turned slightly to give Makoto a look before turning her line of sight towards the yearbook again.
"Yeah, I hear you," Makoto acknowledged. He watched her regard him, then kept his eyes on her as she stared back at the photograph. "Without memories of all the times we palled around with the Despair sisters or any memories of how we were abducted and subjected to mental manipulation, maybe ignorance is bliss sometimes," he continued. "Still... I think it might be worth it for the happy memories of our friends." He managed a small smile. "Even if they do somehow involve Mukuro Ikusaba, honestly."
Glancing back at him, Kyoko said, "I do envy how quickly you come around to the positive side of things."
"Well, I envy how cool and composed you are all the time," he offered back sincerely.
Kyoko looked down at the carpet for a second and smiled only slightly before she turned the page.
The left-hand side of the next spread seemed to be the last page centered around their class, whereas the right-hand page began the part of the book about "The 77th Class of the Academy of Hope."
Kyoko's eyes honed on a particular photo atop the left page. She gasped when she caught sight of it — a rare sound that naturally lured Makoto to immediately look in the same direction.
The photo in question showed Yasuhiro Hagakure seated on a large rock somewhere on the campus. He had a beautiful young woman on his lap, with his arms wrapped around her waist. The woman was leaning back and laughing, putting a hand on the fortune teller's cheek, and Hagakure was grinning slyly at her with his face nuzzling up against her neck. Seeing Hagakure attracting women like this was bizarre enough, but the brain-melting aspect of the image was the identity of the woman he was happily canoodling with: Junko Enoshima.
"Wha-HUH?!" Makoto blurted. "Hagakure-kun? I... Hagakure?!"
Kyoko was similarly nonplussed, as evidenced by her eyes standing open far wider than usual. "All riiiiiight," she began, trying to formulate her thoughts. "This is... quite surprising."
I've gotten a good start on Chapter 5 already, but alas, it seems the yearbook "78th Class Section" review is now three chapters instead of my original plan of only two. I'm sorry about that, but things have a tendency to take more time and space to write than you initially anticipate sometimes, don't they?
Thank you so much for all your reviews and feedback so far. Your responses have been my motivation and my lifeblood.
Next time: Things will get more complicated in both the past AND the present.