"Oh hey Mondo! What are you doing up this late?"
Makoto had been waiting for a while in the hallway, just outside of Ishimaru's room. Last time, Ishimaru had been baited by Yamada's note, so Makoto had been planning to tail Ishimaru.
"Sup, Makoto? I just got some note saying that they found a way out of here."
At this, Makoto's blood freezes. Why did Mondo get the note instead of Ishimaru?
"H-Huh?" Makoto stammers, trying to keep cool. "Um, if that's the case, can I come with you?"
Wait a minute... This time around, it was Mondo who was primarily opposing Yamada, not Ishimaru... Dang! Why didn't I realize this sooner? Makoto berates himself for not coming to this conclusion earlier.
"Sure! Let's go." Mondo cheerfully agrees and beckons with his hand.
As Makoto and Mondo enter the equipment room, a small gasp can be heard from behind the door.
"Crap!"
"Huh? Oh, hey Yamada. Did you get a note too?" Mondo turns torwards him with a grin.
"Oh, uh yeah... Mr. Naegi! Y-You came here as well?" Yamada hastily changes the subject. He had been holding something behind his back. A large sheen of sweat was visible on his forehead and he was shaking nervously.
"Yeah... Yamada, what are you hiding behind your back?" Makoto asks with an edge of accusation in his voice. Of course, Makoto had known that Yamada was only expecting one person. He reasoned that if two people show up, he would be a lot more hesitant to go through with murder.
"Huh, now that you mention it... What the hell is that?" Mondo glances at Yamada suspiciously.
"U-Um, T-That is... W-Well you see..." Yamada starts fidgeting, backing up against a wall.
Suddenly, Mondo's eyes bulge out. "Holy crap! That's one fricking huge hammer! Why the hell do you have that?"
"Wait a sec... Don't tell me you were gonna try and attack m-"
Instantly, Yamada throws himself at the floor in a dogeza posistion. "I'M SO SORRYYYYYYYYYY!" Yamada screeches, tears pouring out.
"I-IT WAS MS. LUDENBERG!" The otaku sobs loudly. "SHE PLANNED THIS! SHE TOLD ME A BUNCH OF STUFF ABOUT YOU AND..." Yamada sniffs before rushing through his words rapdily. "IJUSTGOTANGRYANDAGREEDTOHERPLANIMSORRYITWASASPUROFTHEMOMENTTHINGISWEAR!"
...
"Hey, chill dude." Surprisingly, Mondo didn't seem angry at all. In fact he looked as if he felt sorry for Yamada.
"I know that being angry can get you to do some dumb shit. Let's just forget all of this, huh?" Mondo says quietly, offering his hand to the sobbing Yamada.
"H-Huh?! Y-You... Really forgive me?"
"Well, nothing bad happened right? Just tell us about what Celeste told you to do, alright?"
"To be honest, this is pretty uncharacteristic of you, Mondo." Makoto was flabbergasted. He thought for sure that he would have to restrain Mondo to prevent him from attacking Yamada.
"I-I swear Mondo. I will never forget your one true moment of kindness! I swear on my honor, I shall repay you one day!" Yamada bounces up and looks at Mondo gratefully.
"W-Whatever dude..." Mondo brushes Yamada off, clearly uncomfortable. "Just tell us about what you were trying to do, huh?"
"Yes sir!" Yamada straightens up and salutes.
"Celeste approached me earlier and accused you of doing extremely undecent things to her!"
"U-Undecent?" Mondo's face quickly turns red. "I would never do anything to harm a woman! It's my code of honor!"
"Y-Yeah, I thought about that too, but Celeste said that you did those things. To be honest... I was still angry that you were guarding me from Alter Ego, so I didn't think that much about it."
"Anyway, what happened next?" Makoto already knew most of the details about Celeste's plan, but it wouldn't hurt to see if things had changed, like Ishimaru being the target.
"She told me that I could help her take revenge... In a m-murder scheme... Celeste didn't say much about it, but she told me to give two notes - one to you, and one to Mr. Hagakure."
"Wait a sec, Hagakure got a note to? So where is he?" Mondo looks around, confused.
"Ah, yes... That was also a part of Ms. Ludenbergs plan. His note had him come way before you did... We were going to frame him for the murder."
"Again, so where is he?"
"... We stuffed him into one of the pool lockers and put him inside a robot suit."
"A robot suit, huh?" Makoto asks thoughtfully.
I guess that part stayed the same...
"Y-Yeah. Afterwards, I was to fake my own death in order to create an alibi while Ms. Ludenberg murdered someone else. She didn't tell me her target though."
"..." Makoto averts his gaze, uncomfortable. Yamada didn't know that Celeste was going to kill him in cold blood, even after being an accomplice.
"Man, that's fucked up. Me and one other person were supposed to die?" Mondo shakes his head in disbelief.
"Y-Yeah..."
"Alright, that's it!" Mondo shouts, cracking his knuckles. "Let's go find Celeste and make her explain herself!"
"I'll go too." Out of nowhere, Kyoko steps into the room, arms crossed.
"H-Huh? Kyoko? How did you..." Makoto stares at the detective in confusion.
"I leave my door open at night, remember? Yamada's shouting woke me up. I overheard most of his account." Kyoko explains, hardening her gaze. "In any case, I have questions for Celeste too."
"Okay then." Makoto looks at the other three people in the room.
"Let's all go together!"
Just as Celeste had finished faking her assault, Kyoko, along with Makoto and Mondo comes in. In order to fake the attack, she had torn her uniform in several places and applied makeup in order to form a bruise, along with some scratches on her cheek. Though not that deep in detail, it seemed like a legitmate injury.
Shit! Celeste cursed to herself. How did they find me so quickly? And why isn't Mondo dead yet?!
Was I betrayed by Yamada?!
"O-Oh!" Celeste quickly steps up to face Makoto. "I-I was stupid... I got attacked!"
Makoto raises an eyebrow. "Attacked?"
"Y-Yes. By some sort of strange man."
"You shouldn't lie, Celeste." Kyoko frowns disapprovingly.
"I'm telling the truth!"
Mondo sighs and shakes his head. "We heard everything from Yamada."
"..."
With that, Celeste's fears were finally confirmed. The dumb fat Otaku couldn't keep his mouth shut and now she had nowhere to run.
No. I must lie.
"Well..."
I need to lie. I'm the queen of lies I
"Yamada..."
must survive I must get out of
"He was the one who attacked me! I have a"
here I need to get out I will get out
"picture of him attacking Hagakure!"
lielielielielielielielielielielieLIELIELIELIELIELIELIELIELIELIELIELIE
"Yamada tried to murder both of us!
I MUST LIE
"... Would you show us the picture then?" Kyoko asks with a cool demeanor.
"Yes, here it is. It's on the camera I found the other day..."
...
"See for yourself. Yamada was carrying Hagakure on his back after knocking him unconcious. I managed to take a picture on that camera but he noticed me so Yamada decided to attack me as well. He must have decided that I should take the bl-"
"I don't see Hagakure in this picture." Kyoko deadpans, interupting Celeste in the middle of her ramblings.
"W-What?"
"I just see Yamada carrying some sort of robot."
Celeste gasps as she realizes her mistake. How would she explain her knowledge of who was in the robot suit?
KEEP LYING KEEP LYING KEEP LYING KEEP LYING KEEP LYING KEEP LYING KEEP LYING
"Oh, Did I forget to mention? I witnessed him stuffing Hagakure into that suit. That should explain it, no?"
Makoto suddenly places a hand on her arm. "Celeste. You don't need to keep this up. We know what you two planned."
KEEP LYING KEEP LYING KEEP LYING KEEP LYING
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Celeste's mask suddenly breaks as he flies into a fit of rage. "That DAMNED tub of lard tried to kill Hagakure and I! Why don't you see that?! HE'S THE ONE TO BLAME!"
"No, that's wrong!" Makoto shouts, pointing a finger at Celeste.
"?!"
"Celeste... if Yamada attacked you after catching you taking a picture, why didn't he break the camera that you had? A picture would certaintly be crucial evidence."
KEEP. LYING.
"... Yamada noticed ME, not the camera. I hid it from him."
"But Yamada told us that you had a picture before we even came here."
keep...
"I..."
lying...
"That is..."
Suddenly, Mondo speaks up. "Look chick, I know you wanna get out of here. Hell, we all do. But we need to team up on that fucking bear to do it. We shouldn't be killing each other here."
...
"That's right! We can do this together. Mark my words, we will take down the mastermind together!" Makoto states confidently, a smile plsstered on his face."
...
"Killing each other is just what Monokuma wants. Don't play into his hands." Kyoko hands Celeste's camera back to her.
...
"Fine... I admit defeat."