"Bye bye, honor student."

"Hope's Peak reject, Shujin dropout. What a loser!"

"Zero percent! How do you even do that bad?!"

"I heard he was hanging out with Kamoshida? Dude deserves a zero."

"Was he getting some action, at least?"

"Nah, he's out playing detective all over the place."

"Maybe he should detect some of the words in his textbooks."

Every day on the train was some new incendiary rumor. And today, it was about Makoto. Of course, today it was about Makoto. It was just his luck that on the day he picked to do something significant, the school had already made up its mind about him. If what he was going to do was truly anything significant.

Makoto looked out the window, at the passing shape of Hope's Peak, at the gates below, at Niijima, every one of them so distant and small. And maybe he imagined it, and he was just seeing things that weren't there, but for an instant, she looked back at him. One last little glow of hope. Makoto tugged on his blazer, checked every button, and gripped the handrail before the bump.

He walked past his locker. He stomped up the stairs. His determined march caught every eye in the school, if only for a moment. He knocked on Principal Kobayakawa's office door.

"Naegi," Kobayakawa said. "I trust you've made some progress on the Phantom Thieves investigation." Makoto sat down, and watched the Principal navigate around his desk back to his own chair. "Have you reached a conclusion?"

Makoto nodded. "I think so."

"Good," Kobayakawa said. "Good. We can finally put an end to this, then. First, let me explain what I expect from you, which is simply the identities of the Phantom Thieves. In order for me to take action, we must ensure our logic is sound. Take as long as you need to establish that logic. With that said, you may begin wherever you want."

"I think we should start with what Kamoshida said himself at the assembly on the second of May," Makoto said. "Pinning down what actions he confessed to should give us a foundation for who tried to draw that confession out of him."

"I should clarify something. We discussed this before, Naegi," Kobayakawa said. "We do not know for a fact that Mister Kamoshida is truly responsible for anything he mentioned at the assembly." The Principal rubbed his head. "However, I've had some time to reconsider the situation, and it seems the damage has already been done. If you think this is the best way to figure out who targeted him, then you may proceed."

He still insisted on Kamoshida's innocence, but at least now he wasn't being so obstinate about it. Makoto could work with that. "Then, let's review what he said. Mainly, he abused the volleyball team, but he also went after students closely connected to them. If we assume the Phantom Thieves acted in retribution, then the most likely suspects are among Kamoshida's victims."

"Can we just make that assumption?" Kobayakawa said. "You may be right about a potential motive for the perpetrators to threaten Mister Kamoshida, but I want to be sure that this limited scope of suspects does not exclude someone who may be the real culprit. So," the Principal dragged his arms around over his desk, "What makes you so sure of this?

Makoto dug into his pocket, and unfurled his copy of the Phantom Thieves' calling card. "This is it." He smoothed it out on the edge of the desk. "This is the threat the Phantom Thieves posted the day before Kamoshida's leave of absence."

"I think we're both familiar enough with the calling card." Kobayakawa snatched the letter from Makoto's hands, giving it another scornful pass. "What does it actually prove? The cutout letters conceal the author's handwriting, and the message seems vague enough that it could be derived from the very rumors we're trying to refute."

"The calling card itself might not prove anything," Makoto said. "Instead, the proof is in the timeline of events surrounding the calling card. It states with certainty that the Phantom Thieves would act the next day, and then Kamoshida went on leave. Whoever wrote the calling card must have known something was going to happen, and the only way to know for sure, is if they did it themselves."

Kobayakawa set the calling card down, and rubbed one of his chins in thought. "I think I see what you're getting at," he said. "You're saying that because the Phantom Thieves acted against Mister Kamoshida, they must have been students with a motive to do so." His hand shifted down to the next fold of flesh that could be a chin.

Put that way, Makoto realized how circular that logic sounded. Kamoshida's abuses had been going on for a long time. In order for someone to make such a sudden threat as the Phantom Thieves did, something equally sudden must have happened. So, that's what it was.

"More than a motive," Makoto said, "I think we can determine an exact cause. It was most likely Shiho Suzui's suicide attempt, on April fifteenth. Kamoshida said he was the reason for that."

"No doubt, that was a tragedy this school will not soon forget," Kobayakawa said. "But even so, this is something we cannot simply take Mister Kamoshida's word on. He could not have known what someone else was thinking."

"It's not just his words," Makoto said. "It's Shiho's, too. I spoke to her at the hospital. It was definitely his abuse that drove her to jump off the roof." Makoto looked to his left. In class, there would be an empty chair there. "That's probably the incident that started everything."

"Then our prime suspects are the students closest to Suzui."

That was probably right. Before her suicide attempt, things were stable, for better or worse. Everything started at once on that day, like an explosion of air pressure. Whoever suddenly stood against Kamoshida must have been motivated by that.

The students closest to Shiho. Without a doubt, that was Ann. She visited Shiho at the hospital not long after Makoto was there himself. She likely talked to Shiho before exams too, and even before Kamoshida's confession at the beginning of May, based on what she shouted back to him. But she wasn't acting alone, was she?

"You look like you're onto something, Naegi." Slanted forwards, Kobayakawa linked his hands together. "Have you determined the culprit's identity?"

"The culprit?" No, not as such. Whoever made him get up on stage, whoever made Kamoshida confess to everything he did, the crimes were still his own. The culprit, the person truly to blame, was Kamoshida. But was that what Kobayakawa wanted to hear? "I'm not that certain about a culprit yet," Makoto said. "But for the Phantom Thieves, our prime suspect is Ann Takamaki."

"Takamaki," the Principal said. "She was the one who spoke out of turn at the assembly, wasn't she? Even at his lowest point, she berated Mister Kamoshida as a coward." Kobayakawa nodded along with his reasoning. "I even heard she was the one who accompanied Suzui to the hospital, on that unfortunate day. Since she told you about her thought process, it's likely she told Takamaki the same thing. Then," a grotesque smile took form on Kobayakawa's face, "you are right. Takamaki has the strongest motive."

"Still, motive is only one part of it," Makoto said. "The greater mystery here is how the Phantom Thieves convinced Kamoshida to admit his actions. I remember that was something you stressed, back at the start of this."

Kobayakawa withdrew his arms to slump off the edge of his desk by his wrists. "I did say something to that effect. But our priority now should be uncovering who is responsible for this."

"But without knowing what they actually did, we can't sort out who's capable of it." Realistically, that would be the end. Makoto couldn't imagine there was a way to do it. The Kamoshida in jail was so different from before, it shouldn't have been possible to make such a change.

It happened, though. That much was undeniable.

"While I spoke to Kamoshida in prison," Makoto said, "Prosecutor Niijima seemed to be focused on the means as well. Kamoshida couldn't explain it, and we kept getting to a point where he couldn't remember what happened to him."

"I believe Miss Niijima should have mentioned that her investigation was separate from yours," Kobayakawa said. "This talk about methods is something better left to her. After all, it doesn't help us to conclude that the method was impossible. If every suspect is eliminated, then we're right back to where we started."

"It's not necessarily impossible," Makoto said. It might have seemed unbelievable, but it was the last possibility he and Sae were left with while questioning Kamoshida. If the Phantom Thieves were real, if their warning was as real as Kamoshida's absence suggested, there was only one explanation that made sense. "Not if we believe the Phantom Thieves really can steal desires."

"And how do you suppose that would happen?" Kobayakawa said. "To be quite frank with you, Naegi, this suggestion is simply absurd. Certainly, no one at Shujin is capable of something like this." No one at Shujin… "I suggest you cease this line of inquiry, Naegi. Our priority is to find the culprits responsible for Mister Kamoshida's sudden change of personality."

The real culprit responsible for this. The real truth of this case. This was where the door led. If this was what Principal Kobayakawa wanted, then there was only one conclusion left. "The person who's responsible for what Kamoshida did." Makoto pointed an accusing finger across the desk. "The real person to blame… Is you, Principal Kobayakawa!"

The Principal shook his flabby head. "This is ridiculous," he said. "Let me remind you, it was definitely a student, or a group of them, that threatened Mister Kamoshida with that calling card. I'm starting to think you're not taking this seriously. We must prevent another scandal from jeopardizing the school's reputation."

"No, that's wrong! You know what tarnishes Shujin's reputation?" Makoto said. "Weird, perverted bastards like Kamoshida being idolized and allowed to do whatever they want!"

"Naegi, I don't know where this is coming from, but this simply isn't true," Kobayakawa said. "Until the Phantom Thieves intervened, everything was fine! I had Kamoshida under control. That's why it's so important that we-"

"Under control?" Makoto said. "Yeah, that's one way to put it. You told him to back off from Kasumi, didn't you? She was like Shiho, like Ann. Like all the other girls Kamoshida abused. That day, when we all found out, I was so worried for her, but it turned out she barely knew anything about it. Kamoshida never touched her. What made her different?"

Kobayakawa turned his head like he didn't understand. "This is about your friend, Kasumi Yoshizawa, yes? She's a top honors student and a national level gymnast. Of course I couldn't let Kamoshida ruin that."

"So why did you let him hurt anyone?! This whole time, for a whole year, you could have stopped him, but you didn't!"

"I have had enough of this baseless accusation, Naegi!" Kobayakawa said. "You don't know you're talking about, and you clearly have no interest in dealing with this threat to the integrity of my school. This investigation is over. Return to your studies at once. I'm told you have a lot of ground to cover in that regard." He made a point to look away, busying himself with his paperwork. "I expected so much more from you."

Makoto sighed, and pushed his chair back. He got up for the door, and as he reached for the handle, he saw a girl hunched over her phone ducking away from the window. He stepped back, too. He had one last thing he needed to say.

"I spoke to Miss Niijima's sister. Makoto."

He heard something snap. When he turned around, he saw it was the tip of the Principal's pen. Black ink spilled onto a layer of paperwork.

"Naegi, we're done here."

"She told me you did this to her, too," Makoto said. "Last year, when Kamoshida broke Ryuji's leg, you had her investigate the incident. Only, you concealed everything she found. You chose Kamoshida over Ryuji. But it wasn't just about protecting Kamoshida, was it? You were looking out for yourself. You still are."

"Naegi." Kobayakawa pulled his stained documents apart and shook his head in exasperation. "This is over."

"This time, like you said yourself, the damage has already been done." Makoto looked around at all the decorations and mementos put around the room. There wasn't a single sign of academic achievement in the Principal's name. "So who's counting on you to identify the Phantom Thieves so badly? And for that matter, how did an SIU prosecutor get involved in this case, anyway?"

"That is enough!" Kobayakawa scooped up his stained documents and pitched them into the trash. "I have had it up to here with this crusade of yours, Naegi! Get out of my office at once! One more word, and you're suspended!"

Makoto breathed out, all the weight on his shoulders carried off by the wind from his heart. He turned halfway to the door, and looked back to the fat man for one final challenge. "I know who they are."

As he stepped outside, and the Principal was left stammering, grasping for words, the girl just behind the door let out her own breath she'd been holding for longer than she knew. For the first time in as long as she or anyone else at Shujin Academy could remember, Principal Kobayakawa was powerless.