Shika blinked , opened her mouth as if to form words , but then stayed silent. She began hopping from one foot to another , and the tension grew.

Then , finally , she spoke.

"Yes." But her voice was shaky , and she didn't look any of the others in the eye. This caused another outcry from most of the others , and even Kyouko's calm authority could not quell it.

Reuben watched all of this with confusion , not knowing what to think. And then his confusion was further heightened by the sound of a bell cutting through the noise.

Suzu.

Unlike most other times when she was trying to get the attentions of the others , her ringing was insistent , and harsh . When she had got everyone's attention , she put the bell in her little bag , and then held up her notebook , already open at a particular page. Reuben hadn't noticed her writing , so this surprised him.

But that did not surprise him as much as the words she had written did.

"She is lying. It was me." Eirik read out.

"No! No , no , no!" Shika cried out. Suzu looked at her sadly, and shook her head.

No way!

"Ouch!" Reuben realised that he had fallen off his chair , and he rubbed his head tiredly.

I am taking this way too seriously. He thought , getting up.

"What the flip are you doing?" Reuben turned around , seeing Megan and Matilda in his doorway. Matilda took the fact that he noticed them as invitation to rush into his room and dive under his quilt.

As he extracted the wriggly child, he asked Megan.

"When did you get here?"

"About 20 minutes ago. Don't worry, I haven't been stalking you. Mum said either she or Dad will be back around 10 , and one of them will drop in to check on us at some point before. Are you weirding yourself out again?"

"Megan, you think that everything I do is weird. "

"Good point. Even so, you look too skinny. And tired."

Reuben put Matilda down , and ruffled Megan's hair affectionately.

"Geez!" Megan said irritably , although she smiled. "Come , Mattie. I'll fix you a snack."

"Yay!" Megan and Matilda left the room , and Reuben went back to the video. Annoyingly , it had continued playing on , so he went back to where he had been before falling off the seat .

"Ah. So this is the truth." Kyouko said oddly.

"Kirigiri-san, did you know it was Isaki-san all along?" Makoto asked.

Kyouko shook her head. "But I did know Sayuri-san was lying. For what purposes, I do not know. But I think I can infer it now. "

"I ,…I don't understand." Janus said.

Neither do I.

Suzu looked sadly at him, and tilted her head, asking a silent question. Janus watched her for a moment, and then nodded, before proceeding to close the gap between them. He looked at the others defiantly, as if daring them to condemn her.

"But what I don't get is , why?" Emi asked.

Suzu wrote something, and handed it to Eirik to read. When he got the notebook, instead of simply reading it out , he went pale.

"Maeda-kun?" Makoto asked

"Oh , right , sorry." Eirik composed himself, then read out the reason.

"Because she asked me to."

"Ask…wait, whaaaat? I don't get it." Arisa said.

"Assisted suicide." Kosuke explained.

It was at this point both Suzu and Shika started to cry. Shika noisily, Suzu silently. The pieces fell into place for Reuben. He knew why Suzu had been upset the night before, why Shika had been strange all this time.

It was all so sad.

But what was worse was that while Suzu had Janus to comfort her, Shika had nobody, and so eventually she sat on the floor and hugged her knees.

For a while, everyone just stood there , unsure what to do. Then, Emi spoke.

"Why did you try to cover it up, Sayuri-san?"

"Because she's my friend!" Shika wailed.

Emi considered this, and then asked.

"So, you were trying to protect her?" Emi played with the glasses on top of her head absently. "You are loved, aren't you, Isaki-san?" She mused when Shika didn't say anything.

Suzu didn't answer.

"But…surely that's a bit redundant. " Chihiro said. Everyone stared at her as if she had two heads , and she went red. "I mean , if we hadn't found out it was really her , we'd all have gotten executed instead. "

Shika looked up at this , and then stared at Chihiro , shocked. Her tears dried.

"Oh." She said. "Oh. I..I guess I forgot about that."

"You freaking serious?" Arisa gasped. "You mad or something?"

Shika looked away at that.

"Dude , that was harsh." Emi pointed out.

"There's still one thing that bothers me." Kyouko said.

"What would that be?" Makoto asked.

"Sayuri-san's actions were completely independent of Isaki-san's…so she could have confessed earlier. Why , then , did you not?" The last sentence was directed at Suzu , and she went straight to her notebook to write an answer. But instead of showing it to Kyouko ,as would be expected , she showed it to Janus.

"I…I can't read this , Suzu."

"Allow me." Eirik came over , and read it quietly . Then , he leaned in and told Janus what it said , but in such a quiet voice that nobody else could hear it. After this , Eirik went back to his stand.

Janus fixed Suzu with a hurt look.

"Did you really think that?" he asked softly. Suzu looked at him , unreadable expression on her face.

It was at this point Reuben turned away. The moment was too raw , to private for him to look at.

He waited until he head a different voice speak. He looked back at the screen. It was Arisa who was speaking.

"So , what exactly happened? This is all a bit confusing."

"I haven't figured out the entire details , but I think it would be useful to know. " Kyouko said. "Sayuri-san?"

Shika got up , and unzipped her hoodie. She reached into her inner pockets , and pulled out a notebook.

"Akaya-Chan used this sometimes , when she was too weak to talk. It was especially useful with Suzu-Chan." Shika smiled wryly. Suzu nodded in agreement when Kyouko looked at her to confirm this.

Shika turned it to a particular set of pages , and then tossed it to Eirik.

"Read from halfway down and continue till the end." She ordered. Eirik made a mock-annoyed noise , and then took a look at the page.

"I'm guessing this goes Kiyomizu , Isaki , Kiyomizu , Isaki and so on?" he asked without looking up.

"Yeah."

"In that case… Hey , Suzu-Chan. Can you do one last thing for me?
-One last thing?
Yeah. One last thing.
-I don't get why it would be the last…but sure.
Could you kill me?
-I...I don't understand. I mean, I do , but I don't get why.
This life hurts too much.
-But you'll get better. This isn't a brain disease or some cancer.
That's where you are wrong. It is a disease , albeit one of the mind. It is my inheritance , and I am tired of fighting it. So , so tired.
-You can't say that. It isn't hopeless. I don't want you to die. The others wouldn't want that either , I'm sure of it. Especially Watari-kun.
Watari-kun , huh?
-Yes.
Well then. That is something.
-You can't seriously be telling me you haven't noticed anything.
I haven't.
-I don't believe you. In any case , I can't do that. I'm sorry , I just can't , Akaya-Chan.
I want to see my mother and father again, Suzu-Chan.
-Oh.
So , please…
-I…I guess so. But Jay…
He'll understand. It will be okay. I promise.
-In which case , okay… "

Eirik stopped and looked at them. To Reuben , his eyes seemed to glisten. Perhaps the conversation had reminded him of something in his past.

"Suzu…." Janus said.

"Do you see now?" Shika demanded of them. "Do you see?"

Yes , I do. Reuben thought. All too clearly.

"But how did you find out in the first place?" Emi asked Shika.

"I…Suzu-Chan took the notebook with her to dinner that night , and accidentally dropped it. I noticed it , and took it , and read it…by the time I realised what was going to happen , Kobayashi was finished for the night , and I tried to stop it myself…but I was too late. I was too late to stop Suzu from being such a good friend. So I became a good friend in exchange. "

"And you forgot the consequences." Kyouko said , non-judgementally. Even so , Shika flared , but didn't say anything.

"It isn't her fault." Janus said flatly. "It is nobody's fault."

"This is hardly a blame game. " Kosuke pointed out. "Although I , myself , feel some guilt over this. "

"He's right!" Makoto said. "It's just so sad. "

"It is, isn't it?" Emi commented.

"Hey, what are you thinking, Kirigiri-san?" Makoto asked on an impulse. Kyouko didn't answer him. Instead, she turned to Monobear.

"Monobear."

The bear woke up with a start.

"Upupupu..I was getting bored! You guys get anywhere?!"

"Put up the video feed of Akaya's room from before she died on the screen over there." She pointed at the screens that were placed on the walls of the room, and the video ended at that point.

Reuben sighed, and leaned back in his chair. He wasn't entirely sure what had happened. He went to shut down the computer, but then, on an impulse, changed his mind. He went into his email account instead, and sent the link to the videos to Arielle.

After he had done that , he shut down his computer , and briefly considered studying before deciding to go and hang out with his sisters instead.

…

He made dinner, made sure Megan was actually doing her homework, got them to eat , told his father that they were all doing okay when he dropped in, put Matilda to bed , did some revision , and it was only after all that he was able to get to bed.

He was looking for a good song to listen to on his phone when it buzzed. It was a text message. It was from Arielle, so he opened it to see what it said.

I am coming around to yours tomorrow.

Reuben facepalmed. It was typical of her to invite herself around. Still, at least it was a Saturday tomorrow.

"Well." He said aloud to himself "This could get interesting. "

I get the feeling that the ways things turned out will cause some controversy. I guess you can see why I decided that in the end, Naegi should survive. It'd probably be too mean of me otherwise.

In any case , please leave feedback!