Author's Note: And I'm back, as promised!
On the advice of some real life friends, I am going to try out a new update schedule for a while. Daily updates will continue from Sunday through Thursday, but I'm going to be taking Friday and Saturday off from posting. Hopefully this will let me do a few things - build up a chapter reserve, keep better track of my plot planning, and also (unfortunately) deal with the way reality keeps happening no matter how much I try to put it on pause. It seems like it should be a good balance of both finishing the story at a reasonable pace and also maintaining my sanity.
So just to repeat - new chapters will be out Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday only. We'll see how it goes!
Ogami didn't flinch as all the other students followed Monokuma's pointing claw to look in her direction. She held her head high as she looked back at the bear, her face settling into lines of grim resignation.
"I think it's time for you to explain things to the rest of the class, Sakura Ogami," Monokuma said. "Why don't you tell everyone exactly what a locked door looks like – before and after you break it down?"
"We already discussed this during the trial," Kirigiri said, before Ogami could answer. "We established that there is a loophole in the wording of the rule about breaking down doors."
"That's right!" Asahina said, her face pale. "Sakura didn't do anything wrong! Taking the door off the hinges doesn't count!"
"Oh? I don't remember saying that." Monokuma tilted his head.
"It's clearly implied by the wording," Kirigiri said, her gaze fixed unwaveringly on the bear.
"Is it? Is it clear?" Monokuma asked. He looked over at Asahina. "What do you think? Did you fight so hard to hide what happened because you think it's clear?"
Ogami stepped forward, putting herself between Asahina and Monokuma. "Leave her out of this. I'm the one who broke the rule."
"No!" Asahina grabbed Ogami's arm. "No, you can't say that – you didn't!" She spun towards Monokuma. "It was my idea! It was my fault, she only did it because I asked! I made her do it!"
"Oh, really? Did you hold a knife to her head to force her?" Monokuma asked. "Have you developed amazing magical girl mind control powers?" His eye gleamed. "Or do you mean that you think planning the act is more disobedient than doing the deed?"
"Hina didn't make me do anything," Ogami said. She sent a fierce glare up at Monokuma. "I know what this is really about, and it isn't my dormitory door."
"Is that so?" Monokuma sounded puzzled. "I don't know what I'm talking about? Then maybe you should share with the rest of the class!"
"Share what?" Asahina looked up at her friend, terror written across her face.
"I knew that there was a high risk that the mastermind would consider opening my door to be a violation of the school rules, but I didn't care." Ogami closed her eyes. "Because I'd broken that rule already."
"Wh-what do you mean?" Asahina's voice trembled as she clutched Ogami's arm in both hands. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that I've kept my word in regards to the mastermind." Ogami looked around at all of them. "I know that after everything I've done to work against you, none of you would ever be able to trust me again. My actions have caused rifts among you, and my continued presence only made it worse." She sighed heavily. "I'd hoped to defeat the mastermind on my own and prove myself by freeing you all – but I see now that this is beyond my power. All I could do was try to remove the source of the breach among you, and give you a weapon to use against the mastermind yourselves."
"What are you talking about?" Asahina demanded, her words high with panic. "Sakura – what did you do?"
"I broke down the door to the headmaster's room." Ogami smiled faintly up at Monokuma. "I think you'll find that the lock and hinges are both beyond repair."
"No." Asahina looked like someone had punched her in the gut. "No, you – you're lying. You can't have done that. Someone would have noticed!"
"Of course I noticed!" Monokuma said brightly. "When a big hulking brute like the Ogre starts vandalizing school property, it's not the sort of thing an attentive headmaster can miss!"
"If that's the case, then why didn't you punish her?" Togami asked.
"It's rude to interrupt someone before they're finished!" Monokuma said with a grin. "And I'll have you know that I happen to be a model of ursine courtesy!"
Naegi frowned at Monokuma's words. "What does he mean, before you were finished?" he asked Ogami. "Did you do something else?"
"I… intended to." Ogami took a deep breath. "I knew I had marked myself for death when I broke one of the school regulations, but I had no intention of allowing the mastermind to execute me. Their threat against the hostages still stood, and although I no longer wished to act against any of you, I did fear for the hostages' safety if I entirely ignored their orders. Therefore, I had planned to kill the only person among us who I could honorably act against in this situation." She closed her eyes. "Myself."
"What?" Asahina covered her mouth with both hands, tears filling the corners of her eyes. "You were going to go that far?"
"I saw no other choice," Ogami said heavily. "Alive, I presented a threat to those I care for, both inside and outside this school. Dead, I could protect you all in the only way I had."
Something clicked in Naegi's head, and he realized what Ogami had intended. "The bottle of poison in the trash – that's what you were going to use," he said.
"That's right," Ogami said. She looked down at Asahina's horrified face, and her expression wavered for the first time. "I'm sorry, Hina. I – I knew this would hurt you. That was why I didn't want to say goodbye to you in person – I feared that if I did, I might lose my resolve. I didn't even dare take my room key back before I acted."
"So you planned to leave your corpse in a room where I had the only key?" Togami demanded, glaring at her. "I suppose you didn't care that it would make me look guilty of your murder?"
"I wrote a note explaining my actions," Ogami said calmly. "It would have absolved you of any involvement." She looked over at Naegi. "If you found the poison, you should have seen the note, as well."
Naegi remembered the ink-covered pages he'd found in the trash and nodded. "I think I did – but you'd crossed it all out. Did you change your mind?"
Ogami's eyes went to Asahina, and she grimaced. "My own weakness got the better of me. I had found the envelope Hina left for me, but I had thrown it away unopened. But in that moment before I took the poison, I hesitated. We had argued, the last time we spoke, and I couldn't bring myself to end it without knowing what her last words to me had been. And when I read the letter and found the screwdriver – I faltered." Pain crossed her face for a moment before she locked it away. "Hina – in that note, you sounded as though you blamed yourself for all that had happened. I couldn't let you go on believing that. And so I gave in to my own wish to see you one last time – and I opened the door."
Tears were streaming down Asahina's face now, her whole body trembling as she shook her head in silent horror.
"I knew that I had already doomed myself by breaking down another door," Ogami went on. "I could no longer back away from my own death. But – I thought that I might be able to make your life easier if I spoke to you in person." She looked straight into Asahina's eyes. "You can't let this stop you, Hina. You have to go on from it."
"But I don't want to go on," Asahina said, her words barely loud enough to hear. "Not – not if this is what happens to you."
"You must." Ogami hesitated, then raised a hand to press against Asahina's cheek, soft and fragile. "I – I never wanted to hurt you, Hina. Never you. I'm sorry."
And with that, Ogami let her hand fall away and turned to face Monokuma. "All right. I'm ready to face the consequences for my actions."
"Huh?" Monokuma looked up from where he'd been examining his talons. "Oh, are you done? With the daytime soap opera you had playing out here, I was waiting for a commercial break!" He threw his head back and laughed. "You say you're ready? Well, sounds to me like you're trying to jump the gun! Or did you forget?" He grinned out at them. "You aren't the only rule-breaker under fire!"
As he spoke, the light blasting down on Ogami and Asahina blinked into darkness, leaving only Togami, Kirigiri, and Naegi in the spotlight.
