Coming Full Circle
"Did he just say that was boring?" Soda flailed in the general direction of the burning cabin. "Didn't those things go off under –?"
"Yes, yes. The site in question was underneath my bedroom," Kamukura said monotonously.
"Your bedroom caught on fire while you were sleeping in it and you consider that boring?" a terrified-looking Koizumi said.
"I wasn't asleep," Kamukura said. "Nor was I in my room."
". . . You weren't?" Naegi asked.
Kamukura tossed his hair, and it conveniently generated a wind that blew away previously unnoticed soot on his shoulders. "I was sleeping. Then I woke up and left my room because someone was shouting underneath the floorboards. It was annoying."
Komaeda quickly looked at Naegi. Naegi was stone-faced. He must have just realized he was the reason his own plan had failed.
Kamukura strode forward. Komaeda stumbled out of the way, though Kamukura stopped a foot away from where he had been. Kamukura glanced at him, then turned to the others. He lazily took them in, pausing only when his gaze landed on Naegi. Kamukura stared at Naegi, then looked at the ground near Komaeda's feet – at the bloody debris – then back at Naegi with a quirked brow.
Komaeda released a rattling breath. He knows.
"Well?" Ren pressed. "What did you hear? Details would be greatly appreciated."
Kamukura's general calm and apathy meant he was never quick to answer questions. There was always a pause between, which was why Naegi was able to cut in and ask, "Is there a point?"
"Of course," Ren said, surprised. The corner of his lips dipped. "Information is always valuable."
"I know," Naegi said, "but he's the worst person to get it from. He's smart and he says he sees everything, but when does he ever do anything with what he knows? He knows all his super important information, but he doesn't tell anyone. He doesn't care enough to tell us."
Naegi stared straight at Kamukura as he said that. Kamukura didn't look back at him; instead, he had turned his face about forty-five degrees off from Naegi.
"Kamukura-kun sits back and . . . a-and lets everything happen." Naegi's words sagged with exertion. He didn't look angry, but genuinely pained. "It's. . . it's funny to him. He doesn't care. None of us matter to him. Only a naïve fool wouldn't know that."
Kamukura's lips parted as if to speak, but nothing came out of his mouth.
"I do not doubt that Kamukura-kun has kept many things from us," Nevermind said. "However, he was the only other witness."
"And we can trust him?" Naegi demanded. "After everything he's done?"
"Makoto, surely there is no harm in asking?" Nevermind asked that gently, like she was approaching a wolf caught in a snare.
Something in Naegi broke for a second. But then he inhaled and seemed to simply suck back in all the hurt. He glanced at Kamukura, who quickly looked away to avoid eye contact.
Shrugging, Naegi said, "I can't talk you out of it."
"Well, Kamukura-kun, what did you hear?" Nevermind requested.
"I. . ."
Kamukura hesitated.
He hesitated.
"Kamukura-kun?" Nevermind raised her hand just above shoulder-level, like she was on the brink of commanding a legion of troops to march over and force an answer out of him.
Still, Kamukura hesitated.
What is he . . .?
It was then that Komaeda took a second look at Kamukura's body language. Shoulders curled inward. Bent neck. Visible lines in his face. Staring at the ground rather than meeting Naegi's eyes.
This wasn't apathy.
"Naegi-kun. . . I heard him," Kamukura said. Those blood-red eyes settled on Komaeda. "He was shouting at Komaeda, demanding to know what he was doing."
Something cold settled in his gut. "Kamukura-kun - !"
"I told you!" Kuzuryu crowed. He slammed a fist into his palm. "Of course, it's him."
"Shit, so we coulda just asked this guy the entire time? Man, what a waste of time," Owari pouted.
"So, what are we gonna do with this freak?" Soda demanded.
"Wait! Just calm down for a second!" Komaeda shouted. He held his hands up, trying to show he wasn't a threat. "That doesn't prove anything. Naegi-kun didn't expect to see me down there, so it's natural for him to shout."
"But he said 'what are you doing?'. That sure sounds like you were up to something," Koizumi said.
"No, I wasn't. . ." His throat was painfully dry; it felt like the skin was cracking. "He wanted to know why I had showed up."
Nevermind watched him with sharp eyes. "But can you prove that was his intent?"
"Can I? No, but . . . What about everything else that's been brought up? You can't push that aside!"
"But all of that was circumstantial evidence, was it not?"
"That was . . . That doesn't matter. His evidence is circumstantial, too. There's nothing to prove either of us did it. You can't. . ." He looked desperately for a friendly face. "Just give me a chance!"
Having found no refuge in his classmates, he turned once more to Kamukura. How could you? he wanted to scream. How could you do this to me, to Naegi. You know better than anyone else what the consequences are.
But Kamukura did not answer his plead. He continued to stare at the ground in front of his feet, listening, yet somehow isolated from it all.
Hey. . . What's wrong with him?
That thought cut off with a gasp. Something rough and warm tangled into his hair and pulled. He fell backwards, kept from hitting the ground only by the hand in his hair. A second hand pulled on the back of his shirt, making his collar painfully dig into his neck.
"All right, I got him!" Owari said. Uneven nails grazed his scalp. "Now which body part do we start with? I learned a bunch of neat tricks from Tsumiki."
"Hold on!" Ren said. "We need to go about this with a calm head."
"We tried that, and it just wasted our time," Saionji said with a yawn. "Let's hurry so I can go back to bed."
"Sounds good to me." Owari yanked again, and he found himself curled backwards, back resting on her knee. She asked, "So, you wanna see it happen, or should I take out your eyes first?"
The pressure around his neck disappeared. In exchange, her hand hovered over his face like a claw.
"HEY GUYS, I'M BACK. . ." Nidai blinked. He glanced at Komaeda and Owari. "Huh. Hey, careful there or you'll throw out his back. Anyways, I checked the flashlights, but there's something else . . ."
"Did they work?" Kuzuryu cut in.
"Nope."
"See?" Komaeda said. He tried to yank himself free, but Owari's grip on his hair only tightened. "My luck is more dramatic than that, and it doesn't even work when Naegi-kun's around!"
"Yeah, but. . ." Naegi began to say.
"Exactly as expected," Kamukura cut in.
Everyone looked at Kamukura. Owari nearly dropped him.
"This is a tropical island," Kamukura said. "The air has an above-average salinity which promotes corrosion and. . . "
Kamukura gave a short, but complicated answer that Komaeda didn't understand. He doubted the others did any better.
". . . And that is why this has nothing to do with luck," Kamukura concluded.
"Uh . . . Sure?" Koizumi said.
"Hey, uh. . ." Soda trailed off, scratching his head. He sounded confused, but he didn't look confused. He stared at Kamukura like he had grown a second head.
"Eh. Who cares?" Owari said. The claw-like hand rose again.
"Wait, that's not the big news," Nidai said. "I checked things out around the front desk, and the spare cabin keys are missing!"
"Duh!" Saionji said. "How else would Komaeda have gotten into there?"
How else indeed? Having the key was the only way to get in without breaking something. And if that was the case. . .
"Owari-san, my p-pocket!" He twisted, trying to get in a position where it was easier to reach his pants. "There's a key in my pocket!"
Owari licked her lips, and then gleefully went for it. She wasn't gentle about it, and he was left feeling a little bruised. The small key passed into her hands, and she raised it into the moonlight.
"Hah! Solid proof. And all you losers couldn't find it –"
"It's the wrong cabin!" Komaeda gasped. "It's for the other cabin. Try it."
After a pause and a permissive nod, Owari tossed the key to Koizumi. She took it, walked away, and everyone waited as she walked up to the second, empty cabin.
Click. The key turned. The door opened. Owari's grip on him slackened and he finally broke free. He stumbled away from her and faced the crowd.
"I didn't take the key for the cabin with the fireworks," he panted. He was hunched over, lungs straining to make up for the oxygen he'd been partially deprived of. "The cabin with the fireworks was already unlocked when I got there."
"But how. . .?" Ren trailed off, likely answering his own question in his head.
Komaeda forced himself to stand straight. "Naegi-kun, empty your pockets."
All eyes focused on him. Naegi said nothing. Tsumiki stood closely behind him. She put her hands on her shoulder, like a mother bear ready to protect her cub. An uneasy silence swept over the island, carried by an icy wind.
"Naegi-kun." Naegi looked at Pekoyama hopefully when she spoke, but she swallowed and said, "Naegi-kun, please."
Very quietly, Naegi reached into his pockets. He pulled out a lone key.
Nevermind gasped. "Makoto, you. . ."
"That is why you must return items after you used them," Kamukura said. "I imagine the energy spent moving the crates with Tanaka made it easy to forget you still had it, but that is no excuse to hold onto keys others may need later."
Komaeda's gaze snapped to Kamukura. What -?
"Uh, yeah. That's what happened. I'm sorry, everyone," Naegi said. "I never put it back after I moved the crates with Tanaka-kun this morning."
Kamukura-kun, you -! It would have been easier if Kamukura stared back at him with smugness or hate. But instead, Kamukura continued to avoid all eye contact. To a regular person, he would have merely looked disinterested. But Komaeda had watched the prideful man from afar long enough to see something else, to see how defeated he was. But no one else could see what he did. They all had swallowed Kamukura's lie without choking, although Tanaka was making confused hand gestures. . .
Tanaka. . . confused. . .
But before he could wrangle something out of that, someone else started speaking.
"Does it matter who had the key?" Hanamura asked. "Komaeda admitted to being in that cabin."
"True. Even if he had the wrong key, that does not change his testimony. Like I said, a criminal's testimony is often his own undoing!" Nevermind said cheerfully. She struck a strongman pose while saying that.
"Naegi accidentally gave Komaeda access to the fireworks by not locking up, but that doesn't make it his fault," Soda said.
"Komaeda admitted to being in the cabin that had the fireworks, and to being under the crawlspace." Kuzuryu shrugged. "He's admitted to being there for each step."
"No, that's not true," Komaeda said. "I said was in the cabin. And I said I was in the crawlspace shortly before the fireworks went off. But I never said that I was the one who moved them there and that's the most important part."
"You've admitted to everything up to that point," Naegi said. He was doing a marvelous job at hiding his impatience. "Why wouldn't we believe you were part of that last step, too?"
He had nothing. His word against Naegi's. His hand curled as he considered how that would go.
And as he clenched them a little too tightly, a dull pain radiated though the muscle on his thumb. He opened his fists again. He stared at the thick bandages wrapped around them, and the small hint of red from before.
"I didn't move it," Komaeda murmured. Louder, he said, "I couldn't move it."
"What?" Naegi asked warily.
"Look." He raised his hands so everyone could get a good look. "They're still injured. When I was in my cabin, I couldn't move my mattress properly – that's why I was looking for a new place to sleep. There's no way I could lift a crate and carry it all the way to Kamukura-kun's cabin. I didn't drag it either, because if I had, you would be able to see a trail."
That was it. Finally, he –
"Uh, Komaeda, you didn't take the crate. You left it in the washroom." Naegi pointed at the empty cabin.
Wait, was that. . .?
Damnit, he was right! The fireworks hadn't been in a crate.
"Naegi-kun, if the crate was left behind, then the fireworks were moved by hand," Ren said.
"Of course," Naegi said.
Ren was quiet. His eyes flickered to Komaeda, catching his gaze for a heartbeat before returning to Naegi. Calmly, Ren asked, "How long would that have taken?"
Komaeda's nerves lit up like a string of Christmas lights. Komaeda caught Ren's gaze again. A spark flashed between them and Komaeda knew: there was proof.
"Uh. . . It wouldn't be quick. . . You'd have to make several trips back and forth," Naegi said. "I wouldn't say they were heavy, but there was a lot of them."
"How big was that create, anyways?" Soda asked. Tanaka stuck out his hand just below shoulder level, and Soda squawked.
"Kamukura-kun, how many would you predict were in there?" Ren asked.
Kamukura did not answer. A wise man would have seen this, and realized he was keeping silent for a reason. A wiser man would have realized it could only mean that testifying would be incriminatory. But Naegi was not a wise man; he was someone watching an assured victory slipping away from him, and he was desperate to stop it.
And so when Naegi gave his best estimate and it was a decent amount, Komaeda felt the weight of the world finally lift away.
They had their smoking gun. Now, he simply had to wait for a chance to use it.
"That many. That would have taken some time to move," Koizumi agreed.
"Well, Nagito-chan could have been running the entire time!" Mioda's cheerful voice was a stark contrast to the seriousness of the others.
"Not unless he wanted to draw attention," Pekoyama said. "It is more reasonable to assume that the culprit's maximum speed would have been a walk."
"How does ten minutes sound?" Hanamura suggested.
Tanaka shook his head.
"Twenty?"
"Yeah, I can see it taking that long," Naegi said. "Somewhere around twenty minutes."
"Yes, I can agree with that." Komaeda said. "Hey, Tanaka-kun, I'm guessing those demonic rituals you wanted to perform are very precise. I bet there's a particular time you want to perform them, and you were keeping an eye on the clock."
Tanaka – and the hamsters sitting on his shoulders – nodded.
"I'm guessing the fireworks went off close to half past eleven. Can you confirm this?"
Tanaka considered it, as did his hamsters. All of them stroked their chin and tapped their (adorable) feet. Tanaka made a hand gesture that let them know it was closer to twenty minutes past the hour.
It's over.
"Thank you, Tanaka-kun." He gave the silent man a small bow. "I sure am lucky that you were awake this evening. Or maybe Naegi-kun was unlucky, because you've proven that I can't be the culprit."
". . . What?" Naegi hissed.
"I wasn't at the hotel for most of the evening. I only returned a short time before the fireworks went off. I don't have an exact time, but I know I was here less than twenty minutes before it happened. I didn't have time to set this up."
"That. . . You're lying." Naegi didn't shout. He didn't snarl. He stated that monotonously, like reading from a book
"No, he isn't. Until eleven, Komaeda-kun was attending a therapy session I arranged at the diner," Ren said.
"Ren-kun suggested – well, demanded – I attend," Komaeda said quietly. "That's the truth."
A hush fell over the crowd. Kamukura's frown grew more pronounced as he bore a hole in the ground with his eyes.
"The truth. That's the . . .? No, that's wrong! You're not getting away with this!" Naegi shrieked. To everyone else, he pleaded, "Come on, guys, it's obvious he's playing you. I don't know how you convinced Ren to play along, but I won't let you win."
"Then let's hear it," Komaeda said. He would endure this last desperate counterattack like he had the rest. And once he was finished, Naegi would have no ground to retreat to.
If Naegi fails to rebut me now, we can finally lay this to rest.
"Therapy," Naegi snorted. "Did you think I'd fall for that? Who would you be getting it from? Kamukura's the only person that's qualified, he would never give you therapy."
"You're right. He is the only person qualified on the island. But I spoke to the Ultimate Therapist, Gekkogahara Miaya," Komaeda said.
"You didn't. . . You liar. . ." Tsumiki ran her hand through Naegi's hair and down his neck. Without her touch, Naegi likely wouldn't have been able to calm himself enough to speak. "So, what? It doesn't mean anything! You could have went to therapy, and then came here immediately to set up the fireworks."
"Wrong. It's at least a ten minute walk from here to the diner, and Tanaka-kun said the fireworks went off close to twenty after . . ."
"You're just saying things!" Naegi bellowed. "You say you were at the diner. You say you were there for your entire scheduled session. But that's just an empty claim. You can't prove it!"
That's it!
"Yes, I can prove it!" Komaeda declared.
Naegi paled. "How. . .?"
"Because I used Kirigiri-san's laptop – the same laptop that Alter Ego lives on. If we ask him, he can tell us exactly when I signed off the session with Gekkogahara-san."
"No. . ." Naegi shook his head. His arms rose and his fingers curled into his hair. "No! No!"
"Naegi-kun, stop," Komaeda said quietly. "It's over."
"Over?" That wasn't Naegi hysterically laughing at him. That was Tsumiki. She laughed with her teeth showing and tongue lolling like a hyena. "Nothing's over. All of you are just a bunch of bullies. Making him do what you want, telling him how he should think and feel. . . W-well, I'm done with letting you walk over him. You hear me? I'm done!"
That wasn't even an argument. It was pure chaos, pure panic. A final gasp.
One last battle. Then it's finished.
"You just can't help yourself. The only thing you're good for is hurting him." There were tears leaking from Tsumiki's eyes. They could have been crocodile tears, but the emotion behind them was real enough to make his stomach flutter uncomfortably. "You take any opportunity you see to go after him!"
His jaw clenched. "I didn't start this. Naegi-kun's the entire reason we're having this debate!"
Her fingers curled; her hands rested at chest height, knuckles pressing into each other. "Oh, so you're going to hate him because he did one thing wrong? You'd forgive yourself if it was his fault. So, forgive him! Why won't you forgive him?"
"We can talk about forgiveness afterwards," he said. "First, you need to accept he's responsible."
"No! It's not fair that you get away with everything. It's not fair that he's the one who gets punished for it. It'snotfairnotfairnotfairNOTFAIR!"
"I know. It isn't fair," he choked out. "But it's the truth."
"The truth?" Their eyes locked and he knew: this was the final rebuttal. "How can it be the truth? It goes against Makoto's entire character!"
This is it!
"I agree. It goes against his entire personality, which is why. . ." He trailed off, staring at Naegi. No. It shouldn't be possible.
Except it was. Because he'd seen it happen before.
". . . Which is why it makes complete sense it was him," Komaeda finished.
Naegi didn't move when Komaeda took a step closer, but Komaeda saw a hint of fear. Naegi hated him, hated Kamukura, and Komaeda had assumed that was his motivation. But after what he had seen today, there was no mistaking the truth.
"It makes complete sense because you're in despair."
