Chapter XXXV: Stricken

*2130 minutes after Revelation*

At 7 am the next morning, Kirigiri and I left the room, each splitting off to perform our final preparations. Having emptied my backpack the night before, I was already prepared to pick up the tools I'd need. And so, about half an hour later, I found myself in the art room, loading a buzzsaw into my bag, when something hit me. The soldering iron had, yet again, been moved from its location to the floor. Again, the tip was covered with a metal that I couldn't quite recognize. However the longer I looked at it, the more it felt like I should have recognized what it was. The glossy, brassy color of the metal looked like something I had seen before, and just never focused on...I cleared my head. I couldn't allow something like this to distract me. The plan which I was going to execute later today required my full attention. And so, I resumed packing, blind to the immense danger I had just barely avoided.

*Switch POV to ?*

I quickly retreated back out of view of the art room. While it was unlikely that Naegi would look in this direction, I hadn't gotten this far by taking chances. Especially at this stage, being sighted a single time could prove disastrous. After I was safely back in the shadows, I allowed myself to relax, hands dropping from a combat ready stance. If Naegi had realized what it was on the soldering iron, I would have had to move the strike timeline up a day and a half, and damn the consequences. The commander's orders were based on an admittedly incredible tactical prediction by our reconnaissance, but something about that source sat wrong with me. Perhaps it was the ease with which it had switched to join us...after all, a traitor once can become a traitor twice with little effort. As I considered this, something came to mind. Memories, from a different time. A battle, months, even years, ago. I had seen my leader take orders for the first time then. And the voice he had heard was oddly familiar... While I couldn't put my finger on anything specific, suspicion still lingered. And I did know one thing for certain: it was time to start cutting ties with the bodiless voice.

*Switch POV to Naegi*

After I finished packing all I needed from the art room and chem lab, I returned to the fourth floor. At that point, Kirigiri, Fujisaki, and Celeste were already waiting, each burdened with their own tools.

"Does everyone have their roles down?" I asked.

"Yes, Naegi. We are ready," Kirigiri responded, " Will there be comms distributed?"

Fujisaki shook his head.

"N-no, Kirigiri. I c-couldn't use the same n-network vulnerability. M-monokuma seems to have found it."

"However, that shouldn't be a problem," I added, "This shouldn't require much individual communications, beyond the starting time. Fujisaki, what's the signal?"

"S-same as w-we agreed on last night." As I watched, his shakiness receded behind a veil of confidence. The last time I had seen him like this was, fittingly enough, right before the last strike on Monokuma I had made. Moments like these really showcased how mentally strong Fujisaki was, once something pushed him past his outer fear. I cleared my head. Now was not the time for woolgathering.

"If there is nothing else, then let's do this. Everyone, to your positions."

They nodded, and we split up. I went right, heading for the faculty room. Once I was inside, I sat down near the upper left corner of the room. Now, all I could do was wait.

*2180 minutes since revelation*

I suddenly heard a loud buzz and opened my eyes to see the school clock spinning crazily. That was the first signal. I stood up and moved to the last 2 feet of the wall, bringing my bag with me. I opened up the backpack and pulled out a spray bottle filled with clear fluid and a pen. I marked out a quick square, checking it against the map on my electroID. Once I was certain that I was in the right place, I began spraying the clear fluid onto the wall, careful that it only landed on the pen markings. The hydrochloric acid in the bottle quickly began eroding away at the drywall, leaving a dark groove on all four sides of the section of wall I'd marked out. After another few minutes, that groove extended through the wall to the other side, and light shined through the crack. I quickly reached into my bag and pulled out another spray bottle, this one filled with liquid Polytetrafluoroethylene, one of the components of teflon. After a liberal application of the spray, I pushed experimentally on the square block and was rewarded with something which was shockingly easy to push. One step down.

About a minute later, I heard a high pitched whistling coming from down the hallway. I waited 12 seconds, then pushed the block out of the wall, the thud of its landing on the ground coinciding perfectly with the loud explosion which rumbled through the walls. I grinned as I stepped through the new hole in the wall to the headmaster's office, bringing my bag with me. With any luck, Monokuma would now be running to protect the Data processing room, the target of that first detonation.

Once I was inside, I began looking around, searching for things that might prove useful. I caught sight of a key emblazoned with a Monokuma head on the desk in the center of the room and grabbed it rapidly, pocketing it. The key which was adorned with a usb-like design soon followed. As I was looking around the room, I noticed something strange. The room looked...disheveled. Almost as though it had been ransacked. Which, in turn, implied that someone not the headmaster had been in here. The only plausible explanation for that was that Despair were unrelated to the headmaster. Or that the headmaster merely wanted me to think that. As I continued looking through the piles of paperwork on the ground and desk, a stapled group of a few sheets caught my eye. I walked closer to examine them and gasped. It would seem Monokuma left the floor plans for the entire school lying around. Those would certainly prove useful...I chuckled darkly, and continued searching. Every so often, my eyes fell on the computer in the center of the office, and I considered it briefly. On the one hand, the possibility of gaining a large amount of information quickly was alluring... However, on the other hand, I could easily accidentally set off something unintentionally and alert Monokuma early. Come to think of it...I thought briefly to myself, and then nodded. It had been about 10 minutes, which meant that the final stage of the plan was about to begin, and I needed to set up for that.

I turned back to the block of drywall on the ground, pulled out the saw, and began cutting into the sides. Once I finished turning the once cleanly cut piece of walling into an unrecognizable jagged blob, I turned to the wall and did the same. After that, I cut a quick hole into the front door of the office, making sure to avoid the lock itself. After all, it simply wouldn't do to actually break the rules while I was trying to exploit loopholes in them. That would defeat the entire point. Once I had cut through the entire door bar a small, thin layer at the front, I sat back and waited. A few minutes later, a gloved hand punched through the door, followed by another, and in a few seconds Kirigiri stuck her head through the now reasonably large hole.

"Are you ready to leave, Naegi?"

I nodded.

"I've finished up the search, at least as much as I can in this time frame. Are both Celeste and Fujisaki ready?"

Kirigiri nodded.

"They are."

She withdrew her head, and I followed her out through the hole. The hallway was now slightly smoky, likely from the explosive I'd set off earlier. Thankfully, the shaped charge had done its job, directing the blast away from the lock, otherwise Monokuma would likely have been a good deal more annoyed with us. However, for now, it looked like the strike had gone off perfectly. As we walked away from the room, Kirigiri turned to me.

"It still feels wrong to leave so much lying around," she said, an indefinable expression on her face.

"Given our methods, it was a necessary risk." I responded, keeping my expression carefully necessary. With that, we returned to our room. A few minutes later, a note slipped under the door. I picked it up and grinned, my grin widening as I read it.

"I kept him talking for as long as I could, at least 15 minutes. I have done all I can. The rest is your job.

-Celeste."

I folded up the note. With any luck, Monokuma would find the broken door just after we left, and immediately come to the correct conclusion: I had left Celeste there to cover up our loud exit. Hopefully, he would find the block in the wall and realize it was scarred the same way. He would see that it was cut with a saw which, as I had already tested, wasn't able to cut through the plates on the windows. However, given the large amount of debris, the smaller traces of my original method of entry would have evaporated by now. The small amounts of acid, which, while far slower, had one distinct advantage. They would go right through most substances. Including metal...

*Switch POV to ?*

I slid the trapdoor open a bit, and pushed aside the debris, allowing me to see the carnage which remained of the headmaster's office. As had been predicted, Naegi had picked today to make his strike. And, judging by the remains of the wall, he had stopped caring about being covert. I began searching through the papers on the floor, before breathing deeply and relaxing as I realized that the student folder was still there. It could have proved disastrous if Naegi had gotten his hands on that information. However, that relaxation turned to ice-cold fear as I realized what he had taken: the Monokuma key. With that, he could break everything we had planned... I took a few deep breaths, forcing myself to calm down. My superiors had anticipated this exact scenario, and I knew what to do about it. And, in less than 36 hours I would implement that plan.

*2320 minutes since Revelation*

A/N: This will be the last chapter before I return to my normal 1-2 chapters per week, barring special circumstances. The next chapter will either be called Melted or Broken.

Story-wise: yes, there's a new character POV occasionally. Beyond ?, I might do Kirigiri's every so often. I feel it makes the story more enjoyable.

Thanks to all of those who have read/reviewed/favorited/followed my newer stories!

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