The killing game was like a trainwreck; you wanted to look away, but you couldn't. Chiaki would have suspected that Enoshima was using her brainwashing techniques if Kamukura-kun hadn't already assured her he detected no signs of subliminal messages. She had, he suspected, grown bored of and discarded them. No, it was sheer desire to know her underclassmen would be alright that kept her watching.

Enoshima's next motive was threatening to spill their deepest secrets to the world, and Chiaki's hands balled into fists, red-hot rage flaring. She didn't doubt that the model had coaxed those secrets out of her classmates during their two years together, just for this purpose. How can she throw something as precious as friendship aside so casually?

And once again, despite all the assertions to the contrary, a corpse turned up.

She didn't know who could have killed someone as sweet as Fujisaki-san in such a cruel manner. She took some comfort that the Monokuma File reported death as instant, so the poor girl hadn't been forced to endure the crucifixion.

Throughout the investigation, she listened to Togami-kun lay out all the data gathered about Genocide Jack—the message in blood, the method of killing, the theory that he was a high school student with dissociative identity disorder. He clearly suspected Jack was responsible for this murder, which meant Hope's Peak had willingly let a serial killer in. Chiaki couldn't find it in her to be dismayed. She was just angry, angry that the academy she'd so loved had proven itself to be so rotten to the core, something like this didn't surprise her.

When the investigation period ended, Chiaki fled upstairs. She'd wanted to watch the trial, for support if nothing else, but remembering the panic that had seized her upon seeing the elevator…she knew she wouldn't be able to watch them actually arrive. So instead she waited in her room until Kamukura-kun came up and told her they'd left the elevator behind.

Returning downstairs, she took in the sight of the room with disturbed curiosity. Enoshima had actually set up a trial room, with podiums arranged in a circle and a judge's seat and everything. Among the podiums were portraits of the deceased, large red Xs—which she hoped wasn't blood—slashed over their faces. It was, she realized as Naegi-kun shuffled to his place, trying not to meet any of the painted gazes, just another way to make the students uncomfortable and depressed.

The trial, she thought as she watched it unfold, went about as well as could be expected of high school students. Which was to say not very well. It was nothing like the structured trials of Ace Attorney, where evidence was presented and dissected in an orderly fashion; it was a scrambled mess of overlapping voices and jumping to conclusions and general, pointless arguing. Only Naegi-kun, Kirigiri-san and Togami-kun seemed able to steer it in any one direction, and with their guidance progress was gradually made.

She felt so bad for poor Fukawa-san, having her secret outed like that. Unnerved when Genocide-san made her appearance, scissors snipping away and tongue waggling. Shocked when Fujisaki-san turned out to be Fujisaki-kun. And then furious when Togami-kun claimed to have altered the crime scene.

"Why would you do that, you idiot?!" she yelled at the screen. "You put everyone's lives at risk!"

"Most likely, he had a failsafe in place for a worst-case scenario," Kamukura-kun droned in his soft voice. "Some decisive evidence to oust the culprit. Togami is not a suicidal person."

"Even so…just why?"

"If he already knew who the culprit was, he would have found this case boring. Ergo I calculate the most likely reason to have been making it more interesting. Understandable, if a pointless endeavor when he knew the end result."

Incredulity welled in her. "But they're his friends!"

"No, they are not. They are individuals who, as far has he knows, he has been acquainted with only recently. He has no emotional attachment to them and ergo no need to be concerned about their well-being."

"That's still not a good enough reason to put people in danger!"

He gave her a hard stare. "It was enough for me."

Chiaki flinched, remembering Kamukura-kun's indifference to the world's destruction. Was that really so different from what Togami-kun had just done? Both men had encouraged or allowed chaos for their benefit. Did she have a right to get angry over one's actions, but not the other's? Especially when, from the most emotionally cold, distant perspective, she could kind of see his point?

She bowed her head. "…Sorry."

Kamukura-kun was silent. Was he hurt or insulted? She didn't think so, but she felt a need to explain anyway. "You're right…I've already accepted your reasons for your actions, and they aren't so different from Togami-kun's. So…even though I don't agree, I'll back down. I really didn't mean to upset you."

"I was not upset. You do not have to give up your belief system to placate me."

She smiled tentatively. "So…agree to disagree?"

"Yes."

Several hours later, her nerves were frayed to the breaking point. Chiaki genuinely had no idea who the culprit was. The students had been debating about Fujisaki-kun's jersey for a while now, and she was still coming up blank. The obvious candidate was Togami-kun, but she agreed with Naegi-kun; his attitude was too casual for him to be the culprit, and he'd been shocked at Fujisaki-kun's gender. He should have known that if he had killed the programmer.

Her jaw dropped when Naegi-kun and Kirigiri-san finally pinned Owada-kun as the culprit, citing his speech variation. They noticed a detail as tiny as that?! Her respect for them went up a notch; she was sure Kamukura-kun had spotted it, but something as small as that would have gone completely unnoticed by most people.

After that, it was pretty much over.

She teared up as Ishimaru-kun sobbed and begged Monokuma to postpone the execution. But mercy wasn't in the bear's vocabulary, and the chain slammed around the biker's neck, dragging him to his death. She couldn't bring herself to watch it, burying her face in her hands when the motorcycle engine revved up. Kamukura-kun picked up on her mood and turned off the sound, and by the time she dared to glance at the screen again the students were slowly filing away.

The next few days were thankfully dull. Monokuma's next motive, money, failed to really catch anyone's interest. The students started to disappear into the bathhouse more often, where there were no cameras. During those periods the broadcast would just show what Monokuma deemed "the blossoming young love between Togami-kun and Fukawa-san". Watching her either stalk him from the shadows or chase him while proclaiming her love got old fast, but, Chiaki reminded herself, it was far better than another murder. The only thing truly of interest was that the students would sometimes whisper about an "Alter Ego" over breakfast in the cafeteria.

"I'm sure my precious viewers are very confused about this 'Alter Ego' my students keep mentioning!" Monokuma narrated with a laugh, as Naegi-kun brought Ishimaru-kun to the locker room. "Just this once, I'll give you a little behind-the-scenes. The build-up for a big reveal is fun and all, but I'm more of an instant gratification kind of bear!"

He made a big show of looking around, then leaned in, whispering conspiratorially. "'Alter Ego' is the laptop hidden in that room they've all been visiting, a technical marvel left behind by the late Fujisaki-kun. 'Oh, but Monokuma-sama', you may say, 'there are no cameras there! How could you know such a thing?' I'm the headmaster of this school, you bastards! I know everything that happens here, cameras or no!"

The bear giggled. "Upupu…isn't that despairful? They think they have a hidden advantage over me, but really, they're just puppets dancing on my strings! Putting on a pretty play for your purloined pleasure! And when the curtain falls, the curtain calls will go unanswered…upu…upupupu!"

"She doesn't really know everything, does she?" Chiaki asked, frowning, when the bear left. On-screen the scene was depicting another round of Fukawa-san's stalking, which she knew by now was safe to tune out. Sometimes she and Kamukura-kun even focused on therapy, leaving the TV on in the background, though now was not one of those times.

"She does not," Kamukura-kun confirmed. His back was to her as she ran a brush through his hair. Chiaki had quickly found she had to do something with her hands while watching the game, or she'd get antsy—petting Yumigami was the most common distraction, but styling his hair like that first time was her favorite. "There are cameras in the students' bedrooms. She would have witnessed Fujisaki working on his artificial intelligence there. But presenting a facade of omniscience is a good tactic for mental warfare."

I love his hair. Twisting a hairband off her wrist, she tied his black locks into a high ponytail as she spoke. "Why wouldn't she do anything to destroy the laptop, then?"

"She deliberately leaves loopholes and chances to lose in her schemes. The possibility of them failing pleases her."

She brightened. "Oh, good! There's a chance they can really get out alive after all!" This entire time she'd been afraid it was just going to be killing and killing and killing until there was only one survivor.

And for a while, nothing happened, until the morning when Naegi-kun and the others went on a chase for 'Justice Robo' that ended with them discovering Yamada-kun and Ishimaru-kun's bodies. The backs of their heads were caved in; cranial fluid and blood intermingled on the ground around them, and there were bits of skull flecked among the mixture. Chiaki turned away, pressing a hand over her mouth, when Yamada-kun stirred, somehow horribly still alive.

In the blink of an eye, Kamukura-kun crossed the room and returned, trash can in tow. Immediately she learned over it, and he held her hair back as she retched. In the background, she vaguely heard Yamada-kun's raspy breath, his hoarse voice as he struggled to croak out words. Then he stopped speaking; then the body discovery announcement; then silence.

"Celeste-san is acting pretty suspicious," Chiaki mused, watching the gambler debate with Naegi about the dolly. "She's being way too pushy. Plus, wasn't she the only one who 'saw' Justice Robo?"

In a neutral tone, Kamukura-kun said, "Yamada claimed to have seen him as well."

"That's right, I forgot…" She frowned, tapping a finger against her chin. "But we saw Asahina-san stumbling about in that costume. I don't think it would let you move with the speed and mobility required for a case like this…so it couldn't have been Justice Robo who murdered them."

Not to mention, Hagakure-kun was stuffed into a locker in the pool…if he somehow did kill them in that costume, he'd have designed it to be taken off so he wouldn't be incriminated…then why would Yamada-kun…?

A metaphorical lightbulb went off above her head, and she gasped. "He was helping her! Yamada-kun was helping Celeste-san!" She'd jotted down notes during the investigation, and she snatched the paper, looking over it rapidly. Things like the note Kirigiri-san found, how Yamada-kun's big body could be moved in such a short time, Ishimaru-kun's broken wristwratch, started to make sense. "If he worked with her to kill Ishimaru-kun, faked his death, then got betrayed and killed by her while they were all split up...that's got to be it!"

Kamukura-kun nodded slightly, giving up his pretense. "Togami and Kirigiri figured it out as well, before even stepping in the trial room. …What a boring case. I expected better from a liar of her caliber."

She silently watched Naegi-kun refute Celeste-san. "…How terrible…getting betrayed like that…" It just struck way too close to home, and once again Yukizome-sensei's manic grin flashed before her eyes. She closed them and focused on breathing deeply, her hand automatically stroking Yumigami for purchase. Not there, not there, not there…

As the trial continued, Naegi-kun's eyes became narrower, more focused. And eventually, he reached the same conclusion as her, turning to Celeste-san and pointing out all the strange things surrounding her testimonies. Togami-kun and Kirigiri-san chimed in with their evidence, and the gambler's smile became minutely more fixed, her laughs a tad more forced. Two blotches of color appeared high on her cheeks, and her teeth ground together as her attempts to prove them wrong were all deflected. Until finally—

She slammed her hands against her podium, eyes bulging and enraged. "DON'T FUCK WITH ME, BASTARDS! HAA? YOU'RE NOWHERE NEAR A CHECKMATE!"

Well, if they weren't sure of her guilt before, that outburst just sealed it, Chiaki thought.

In the end, though Celeste-san fought like a lioness, Naegi-kun overpowered her arguments and laid out the tale of her murder. Her shoulders bowed when her defeat came, and Chiaki tried not to judge Celeste-san as she gave out her reasons. She could understand being scared and wanting out, but…killing people for money?

At least she was graceful about her defeat. The gambler stopped only long enough to place an object in Kirigiri-san's hand. And then, with her head held high, Yasuhiro Taeko marched off to her execution block.

Chiaki didn't watch that one either.

The remaining students started to splinter after that. It started with something small: a fight between Naegi-kun and Kirigiri-san. Chiaki had noticed the two gradually growing closer, but they'd apparently been spending more time together than she'd thought; Kirigiri-san kept mentioning snippets of conversations that hadn't happened on-screen as she pushed the Ultimate Lucky Student to trust her with some worry he was having. When he apologetically refused, her face hardened, closed off. Spinning on the balls of her feet, she ground out a clipped goodbye and left, heels clacking harshly against the floor.

Their fight chilled her not just to him, but to the rest of their classmates. And all of them seemed to have a thing to say about it.

"Um, Naegi-chi," Hagakure-kun said, very seriously planting a hand on the boy's shoulder, "When a boy and a girl's relationship goes to shambles, the two people involved aren't the only ones whose lives get wrecked. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about! So just make up with her quickly, 'right?"

"I said her type was easy to win over, but you've been doing it all wrong!" Asahina-san grouched at breakfast, when Naegi-kun was told Kirigiri-san wasn't eating until he'd left. She waved her fork at him, a bit of waffle wobbling on the end. "It's dirty, Naegi. Real dirty. You're the king of dirty boys!"

"…Do they not have more important matters to discuss than a classmate's hypothetical romantic endeavors?" Kamukura-kun questioned as said boy spluttered.

"Worrying about silly little things like that probably makes them feel normal." With a pang, she remembered Mioda-san's excited conspiracy theories about how Pekoyama-san and Kuzuryu-kun had to be secretly dating. "Like they don't have to worry about killing games and murders."

Things only got worse when Monokuma, probably attempting to further increase tensions, revealed his mole—Ogami-san. Chiaki felt for the martial artist; she believed her about being blackmailed, and she believed that she really wasn't going to kill anyone. Unfortunately, it seemed only Naegi-kun and Asahina-san shared that belief; Hagakure-kun, Togami-kun and Fukawa-san immediately shunned the large woman. Asahina-san became defensive and angry of her best friend, snapping at the other three for their suspicion and fear. The next morning the brunette actually slapped Togami-kun over it. Which he'd deserved, but that wasn't the point. Class 78 was falling apart, and Chiaki could only hope they'd put themselves back together before things got worse than one slap.

They didn't.

The fourth trial was heartrending. She ended up crying alongside Asahina-san as the swimmer tried to take the blame for Ogami-san's death. Chiaki refused to believe she'd done it, and Naegi-kun proved her right. Then she cried for a different reason, because it was just awful that Asahina-san was in so much despair she thought the only way left was for them all to die.

"You do not seem angry she attempted to kill her friends," Kamukura-kun noted, as the trial began to wind down. He'd figured out that Ogami-san had committed suicide almost instantly and declared her case to be the most boring of all. "Yet you were angry at Togami, whose intentions were not malicious."

She sniffed and rubbed her eyes. "It's not as clear-cut as that… I am mad at what Asahina-san tried to do, but I empathize with her too. She's grieving, and that makes people do stupid things."

"Indeed. Her despair was interesting to watch."

Chiaki almost lunged at the screen, sadness forgotten, when Monokuma started taunting Asahina-san, mocking her for almost making Ogami-san's death meaningless and not understanding her suicide letter. She cheered when Naegi-kun turned Monokuma's words against him, as Togami-kun announced his withdrawal from the game. And she smiled so broadly her cheeks hurt when she saw them all forgive Asahina-san.

And then, of course, Monokuma ruined the mood by ordering an execution anyway.

Again, she had to avert her gaze away as the bulldozer crushed the laptop. Even if she hadn't met Alter Ego before now, even if it wasn't a human, it...no, he, he had been helping the students. And he must have been as much of a person as the rest of them. At the very least, enough for Class 78 to consider him a friend.

Naegi-kun exploded at Moonokuma for that.

"Naegi-kun was great after the trial," she commented, when it was finally over and she and Kamukura-kun were finishing up a late dinner. "I didn't know he could get angry like that. It was really cool to see him let Monokuma have it."

"You appear to hold a considerable amount of admiration for him."

Chiaki's drink paused on its way to her mouth. To anyone else Kamukura-kun's tone would have sounded as stolid as ever, but she could detect the barest hints of…she wasn't sure. If pressed she'd say he sounded bothered, but that didn't make any sense. Why would this bother him? "Well, yeah. Leading his class in the trials, directing everyone to fight Monokuma, talking about hope…it's like he's a real hero from a game."

"Do you have romantic designs on him?"

She choked on her soda like in some comedic anime. "Wh-What?! Where did that come from?"

He didn't answer. "Do you?"

"No! I mean, yeah, he's cute, but I'm not…he's more kouhai material than love interest material for me. Besides, I…" …prefer taller men, she almost finished, but an unusual feeling of self-consciousness seized her. Instead she said, "Besides, I think he and Kirigiri-san are a much better match."

"I see." And in a frustrating bout of typical Kamukura-kun behavior, he shut down completely, leaving her flustered and wondering why the hell that was on his mind.

It did not occur to her until much later, as she was starting to fall asleep, that maybe Kamukura-kun had been jealous.

The students were unified, now. Togami-kun was still snippy and cold, but something in his demeanor had changed. He was cooperative. At one point he even paid Fukawa-san a compliment, which utterly melted the author.

But more than that, all six of them were focused on overcoming Enoshima. Chiaki thought her chest would burst with pride when she saw them dismantling Monokuma and making plans to break into the mastermind's office. It was a similar feeling to what she got when she raised a party all the way to the level cap, even though she hadn't had any hand in this party's growth.

She was worried about the missing Kirigiri-san, of course, but she'd come to think of the quiet woman as another Kamukura-kun—stoic and distant, but more than capable of handling herself. Knowing her, she was probably using secret passages or something to investigate even deeper than everyone else.

Which is why her heart lodged in her throat when, on the third day after Alter Ego's executions, Genocide-san blithely mentioned seeing a body on the rooftop. A body…but they're all here except Kirigiri-san. So, that means—

The body did not look like Kirigiri-san. It didn't look like anyone; the face was covered by a mask, and it was dressed in a body-concealing white robe. As the camera panned over it Kamukura-kun stiffened, and she glanced at him. Chiaki frowned at the look on his face. She'd become adept at reading the minute changes in his expression, the subtle differences that indicated his mood. But this one, with the slightly tightened lips and clenched jaw, was new to her.

Anger, she realized, it's anger.

I've…never seen him angry before.

It was disconcerting. The notion of a Kamukura-kun who wanted to hurt someone, and had all the talent in the world to do it…it was frightening. He was like a taut bowstring, tense and thrumming with potential energy.

"Are you okay?" she asked hesitantly.

He didn't answer, just continued to glare at the screen, and she knew she would get no answers from him.

Nothing added up.

Chiaki knew the other four had been together all night, and she knew Naegi-kun wasn't the type to kill anyone. The most suspicious person was Kirigiri-san, but she didn't think the lavender-haired woman had done it, either; she spent a lot of time off on her own, but she'd been so helpful in the trials. And then she made that point about how she wouldn't be able to return to her room to get the locker key—

"I can't figure it out," she gripped, "Nothing's making sense. Naegi-kun should be the only one who could have done it, but…it's Naegi-kun!"

"Naegi Makoto did not kill Ikusaba Mukuro." She started; it was the first time Kamukura-kun had spoken since discovering the body. That dark look still hadn't left his eyes. "Neither did Kirigiri Kyoko. Nor the other four."

At first, she just felt relief, because none of them would get executed. Then confusion. Then…how did she die? Was it suicide? Her breath caught, and she snapped her gaze back to the screen, where the students were voting. No, that's not important. If none of them killed her, and they vote anyway, then—

"Well done, everyone!" Monokuma praised, as the votes came in and Naegi-kun was declared the culprit. "You were correct once again!"

...Huh?

Naegi-kun looked just as shocked as she felt. His eyes were the size of dinner plates, and a trembling finger pointed at his chest in disbelief, a wide-eyed me? "She is framing him." Kamukura-kun answered her unspoken question. If tone could kill, the thinly-veiled venom in his would have struck Monokuma dead. "She is breaking her rules and framing him. …She's ruined the game."

Chiaki could have screamed at him. Who cared about the game? Naegi-kun was going to—

The collar clasped around his neck, and he was dragged into a classroom and slammed into a chair. The camera pulled back to show them the set-up, and Chiaki's vision grew blurry—he was on a conveyor belt, facing away from a massive slab of metal. Every few seconds it came crashing down. After letting them soak that in, Enoshima zoomed back in to Naegi-kun's face, treating them to a close-up of his terror-filled green eyes.

BAM.

Usually this was the part where Chiaki looked away, but she couldn't. Komaeda-kun's luck saved him—Kamukura-kun's luck saved him—so then his should too. It has to. It has to—

BAM.

As the conveyor belt carried him to his destination, Naegi-kun's face slowly drained of color. His small body shook, helpless to only listen to the sound of his death approaching.

BAM. BAM. BAM.

The tears on her eyes started to spill was right behind him now, so close the vibrations were making his body jolt slightly.

BAM.

Naegi-kun passed under the block. Chiaki moaned and pressed her face into her hands.

Except the sound of him being crushed into bloody chunks never came. A metallic groan reached her ears instead. Peeking through her fingers, she saw a girlish, determined face flash on the monitor, the shock on Monokuma's, and the block stalling. Fujisaki-kun? ...no, wait…Alter Ego?

The conveyor belt had not stopped moving. Naegi-kun was carried past the block and—disappeared. Falling down a chute of some sort? It didn't matter; his luck had saved him. Air rushed shakily out of her mouth, and tears filled her eyes again—this time of relief. "Oh, thanks goodness…thank goodness…"

"I hope they've grinded enough," she fretted, watching Class 78 investigate the school. Enoshima had been determined to make her audience believe Naegi-kun was gone; the broadcast the day after hadn't shown him at all, but followed the other five as they fruitlessly searched for anything new. But she'd seen Kirigiri-san slipping off on her own, and hope had flared bright in her chest—hope that proved true when, the very next day, she returned, Naegi-kun in tow. And now it was time for them to win and escape.

They must be high level by now, after all the trials they'd done. This wasn't going to be like her and her classmates, rushing in unprepared. They'd already gone up against Enoshima, via Monokuma, several times and triumphed. This would be no different. It had to be.

Of course, Enoshima didn't play fair. She tried to trick them with photos, laying false trails and implications to turn them on each other. But despite her best efforts, the class hounded and harried her, until Naegi-kun tied all the evidence together in a neat little bow and declared Enoshima Junko the mastermind and murderer of Ikusaba Mukuro. Stabbing his finger at Monokuma, he finished up his statement with a tone of finality. "How about it?! This is the whole truth about this case!"

Monokuma went completely silent, not even responding to the students' taunts. With his slumped shoulders, he almost looked defeated. A notion that was quickly proven false when he slowly raised his head, a chilly tone entering his voice. "…Over? Upu… Upupu…"

He began to laugh. "Did you really think it would be over with that climax…? You're wrong! There's still so much to do!"

His red eye gleamed brightly, and then smoke billowed out of the vents, obscuring the entire courtroom. Naegi-kun and the other students recoiled, coughing. And when it cleared, there she was, hands on hips and chin lifted proudly. Enoshima Junko. Ultimate Despair and orchestrator of the Tragedy. The sight of her painted Chiaki's vision red, and something curdled black and heavy and sour in her stomach. I wish Komaeda-kun had shot you, she thought vehemently.

It was awful, to wish one of her friends had killed someone, but she did. She wished, with her whole being, that the Ultimate Lucky Student had just shot Enoshima on the spot. So much would have been prevented if he'd just pulled the trigger.

She hated Enoshima. And that hate only grew as Enoshima revealed that Ikusaba Mukuro had been her twin sister, killed on nothing more than a whim. As she rattled on about how much despair she'd felt at her sister's death, and how stimulating that despair was, and how jealous she was of Ikusaba for experiencing the despair of betrayal.

She did all this…destroyed the world…had her classmates, her friends kill each other…murdered her own sister…because it felt good?!

"Unforgivable…" Chiaki hissed. "It's absolutely unforgivable…"

Not content with just using her words to break their spirits, Enoshima pulled up footage of the outside world. The riots, the desecrated monuments, the Ultimate Despairs. The red sky and the fires burning bright. By the end of it, the color had completely drained from the students' faces.

And then, with a broad, gleeful grin, Enoshima broke them down with a simple ultimatum: sacrifice Naegi-kun and live in safety forever, or kill her and be forced into the outside world. Class 78 visibly shrank, curling up and suffocating under the weight of her words. Even Chiaki was feeling crushed, and she knew things weren't nearly as bad as the Ultimate Despair was pretending. And then—

"DON'T LOSE HOPE!"

Naegi-kun's words shattered the black gloom that had been creeping on everyone's faces, and Chiaki felt her heart lift as he looked each one in the eye and spoke to their souls. His rallying cry resonated deep within them, reigniting their fighting spirit. With the softest smile she'd ever seen on the woman, Kirigiri-san murmured, "You're the one who can defeat Ultimate Despair. You're the one who was willing to face despair without ever giving up... I guess we should call you Ultimate Hope... Shouldn't we?"

Ultimate Hope, huh? That does fit him. His hope really is infectious. You feel better just by listening to him. She glanced at the other Ultimate Hope, who was completely impassive. I wonder what Kamukura-kun thinks of this?

Enoshima gaped at the brunet. Her eyes flicked to Kirigiri-san, who was nodding, to Togami-kun, whose eyes had regained their fire, to grinning Asahina-san and smirking Genocide-san and firm Hagakure-kun. All the despair had been purged from their faces, and they stood, resolute and strong. In only a few minutes, the tables had turned. Her shocked eyes returned to Naegi-kun. "What's going on…? What the hell are you…?!"

As she devolved into mindless ranting, Naegi-kun smiled wryly. "Nobody special, really. I don't have any special talent…"

"You dare to stand against us? You suck! You're gross! Would you like to die?"

"They may say I'm 'hope', but I don't really think that's true…"

"Everything is pointless! Hope is a joke! Suffer from despair!"

"But…but… I…!"

"Despair at the future! Despair at the unknown! Despair at your memories!"

He stabbed his finger at her, eyes blazing. And maybe it was just a trick of the camera, but for a moment Chiaki thought he seemed to be surrounded by a glowing, golden aura. "I will not give up. I will not wear down. I will not throw hope away. I will not despair!" Then, with a little laugh, Naegi-kun added, "I mean, my one good quality is being optimistic!"

As Enoshima floundered for a reply, the students nodded at each other and cast their votes in unison. The slots spun, slowed, and then Enoshima's face smiled on the voting machine's screen, GUILTY flashing beneath it. As the victory music played, a burst of confetti showered down around the gawking model. She'd lost.

Chiaki tried to guess how she'd react to her defeat. Would she rage? Would she cry? Would she try one last, all-out attack? Final bosses were sometimes hard to predict, and she quietly urged Class 78 to be ready.

But none of those happened. Instead, to everyone's confusion, Enoshima squealed in delight, wrapping her hands around her body. "This is…Despair, isn't it?! My elaborate plan for this school, which I worked so hard on for more than two years… The plan I even killed my own sister for… And then, at the last moment, that plan failed!" She cackled. "This is super-Despair like I've never felt before!"

Naegi-kun gaped at her. "W…What are you saying…?"

Her gaze sharpened and her lips curled into a sneer. "I had always been Despair-inducingly Despair-inducing! I've been bored of everything since the moment I was born! There is only one thing I ever looked forward to my entire life… The first, last and greatest Despair! The moment I die!"

Bored since the moment she was born…just like… Chiaki glanced at Kamukura-kun, who had been quiet this entire time. His eyes were narrowed at Enoshima, almost-imperceptible hate flickering in them. That bare hint of emotion, of loathing, reassured her. Impulsively, she took his hand, and he looked at it.

Even if he is similar to her…he's choosing not to be her. He's choosing not to be as much of a monster as she is. And that's enough for me.

Her attention returned to the screen. Enoshima had finished firing off a few last taunts to the students. Now, her smile stretched impossibly wide as she reached a hand, shaking with excitement, for the red button. "Let's give it all we've got! It's PUNISHMENT TIME! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Chiaki watched the entire execution. She had to, to get closure and see with her own eyes that Enoshima would no longer be a danger to anyone.

It was impressive, the gamer thought reluctantly, how much fortitude Enoshima had, to endure the baseballs and motorcycle and fire and everything. Even at the end, when she was bruised and burned and bloodied, she was still smiling, swaying happily in her chair as the conveyor belt moved her towards the block. Her fingers flashed a cheeky victory sign, and Chiaki hated that Enoshima was enjoying this.

Right as she came underneath the block, the machinery groaned, stalled. Chiaki inhaled and leaned forward. Surely she can't be as lucky as Naegi-kun...

The world seemed to hold its breath. Seconds ticked by without anything happening. Enoshima's eyes flickered open, a look of confusion replacing her smile. She glanced up—

And then the block fell with the justice of a headman's axe, and Enoshima Junko was dead.

A/N: Aaaaaaah, and such words never rang sweeter.

Chapters three and four were actually pretty empty, since so much of them occurs in that bathhouse, where there aren't any cameras. A lot of Makoto and Kyoko's sneaking around happens during Night Time, when the game isn't broadcast, too.

Some of Junko's dialogue near the end is taken from her Panic Talk Action. Makoto's dialogue there is basically his thoughts externalized, since they seemed as good counters as any.