The spotlight burned on Naegi's skin, the glare of the light making his head spin more than ever. If it hadn't been for the anchor of Togami's arms around him, he wasn't sure he could have remained upright, even with Monokuma's red eyes aimed at him. Naegi gritted his teeth and forced himself to focus, ignoring the way it made his head ache. He had to try to keep himself together – he didn't dare face Monokuma at anything less than his best.

While he fought to focus, Kirigiri crossed her arms and eyed Monokuma with a slight frown. "Using special effects on us won't change the facts." She gave the spotlight a brief, dismissive glance. "Neither Naegi nor I have broken any of the rules, including the new one about locked doors."

"Oh? Are you sure?" Monokuma asked, his voice taking on a sing-song cadence.

"Yes." Kirigiri was unruffled by the mockery. "We've had nothing to do with any of the locked doors in the school."

"She's right," Naegi agreed. "We were the only ones who had nothing to do with what happened in Ogami's room, and we haven't been near the other locked doors on the fourth floor."

"And you think those are the only locked doors around?" Monokuma tilted his head. "Hmm. You know, I don't think all of you are embracing your school life to the fullest extent."

Naegi blinked at the sudden change of topic. "What?"

"You never take advantage of the opportunities available to a class of high school students!" Monokuma heaved a melodramatic sigh. "Maybe it's because your headmaster hasn't been giving you the full high school experience. Maybe I've been denying you the ability to succeed."

"What the hell are you blathering about?" Togami demanded.

"I've given you the reading materials, but I've been remiss in checking up on whether you've done your homework." Monokuma grinned out at them. "So in that case – I think it's time for a pop quiz!"

A whirring came from the ceiling, and Naegi looked up to see the machine gun swing around to take aim at them.

"I hope you've been studying!" Monokuma said brightly.

Naegi couldn't tear his eyes away from the stark, cold metal of the machine gun. Even after the horror of so many dramatic executions, the naked menace of a gun pointed at them was still chilling in its own right.

"So Naegi, why don't you tell us," Monokuma said, looking straight at him. "What exactly is a locked door?"

"Um." Naegi thought about possible answers, trying to figure out what Monokuma meant. Was it a trick question? If so, he couldn't see the catch in it anywhere. He tried his best to ignore the machine gun and gave the only answer he could think of. "It's a closed place that's been sealed with a key?"

"Hmmm. That's a veeeery interesting answer." Monokuma rubbed at his chin. "Sorry, Naegi."

A violent burst of staccato explosions shattered through the air, and Naegi stumbled backwards against Togami as the floor quaked beneath their feet.

"You're absolutely right!" Monokuma threw back his head and laughed.

Naegi looked down at the ground in front of him, where three bullets had gouged their way deep into the floor mere inches from his feet. He knew he probably ought to be afraid of how close the shots had come, but it was getting harder and harder to focus on anything past the roaring at the edge of his consciousness. Fear felt like it was happening to someone else, just a little too far away to reach.

"Is there a point to these theatrics?" Kirigiri asked, tapping her fingers against her crossed arms as if she were bored by the entire situation.

"Of course!" Monokuma said. "I just want to make sure that everyone listening can follow along. I wouldn't want anyone to think I'm unfair! I'm very serious about my rules – even if the rest of you aren't."

"Then you're saying that there's something about the definition of a door that we haven't understood?" Kirigiri asked, frowning.

"What is there to understand?" Togami's voice might have sounded icy and controlled, but Naegi could feel the other boy's hands gripping his arms tight enough to bruise. "A locked door isn't something that can be mistaken. All you have to do is look at it."

"But what if you can't look at it?" Monokuma asked, sounding like he was genuinely curious to hear the answer. "What if the door isn't physical? What if it's – oh, let's say – electronic?"

And then, finally, Naegi caught up to what Monokuma was saying. He wasn't talking about any of the locked doors they'd found around the school. He was accusing them of trying to break into the locked school network.

Kirigiri had clearly worked it out, too. She glared up at Monokuma. "There was never any indication that your rule referred to anything other than the physical doors in the school."

"Oh? So I have to spell it out for you?" Monokuma shook his head. "That's the trouble with high school students today – you're all content to coast along and let your teachers spoon feed information to you instead of using your critical thinking skills!"

"If the rule applied to metaphorical doors, you should have specified," Kirigiri said, refusing to waver from her point. "You can't claim we broke a rule if we didn't know we were doing it at the time."

"You didn't know?" Monokuma asked. He paused, tilting his head and giving Kirigiri his friendliest smile. "But if you didn't think you were breaking a rule, why did you try to hide it with that fake murder plot of yours?"

Kirigiri went very still, her eyes going wide.

"Oh? Did you think I didn't notice?" Monokuma laughed. "Sorry, but I saw through your little game right from the start!"

"What game are you talking about?" Togami demanded, eyes darting suspiciously from Kirigiri to Monokuma. "What murder plot?"

"Oops – was that a secret?" Monokuma covered his mouth, cheeks blushing bright pink. "I guess that's what happens when you stay on the straight and narrow – you don't get to find out all the juicy secrets!" He tilted his head and grinned at Togami. "But on the bright side, if I have to get rid of all the rule-breakers, you could win the game by default!"

Togami went deathly pale, and Naegi could feel the other boy's chest go still for a moment as the breath stopped in his throat. He groped for Togami's hand, and gave a shaky squeeze to the other boy's frozen fingers.

"Oh, that's right," Monokuma said into the silence. "You don't want to win anymore. You want to live happily ever after with your high school sweetheart." He shook his head. "That's a shame."

Togami wouldn't look down at Naegi, his jaw tight and his expression locked into a haughty mask, but now Naegi could see through the ice to the bone-deep terror he knew would be flooding through the other boy right now. It cut through the distant roaring and dizziness in his head to pierce right through to his heart, and Naegi had to look away.

"But then again," Monokuma said thoughtfully, "I've always been a sucker for young love. And let's face it, that wouldn't be much of a heart-pounding conclusion to our little game if you all got yourselves punished on a technicality."

Naegi looked up at Monokuma, not quite trusting the faint hope beginning to bloom in his chest at the words.

"Besides, we have a rule in place about this already, don't we?" Monokuma went on. "About who's really at fault when more than one person is involved in a scheme?"

"You – you mean the accomplice rule, don't you?" Naegi asked, after a long moment of thinking back on the rules. "When two people work together, the real culprit is the one who came up with the plan."

"And we can't go around changing the rules this far in, now, can we?" Monokuma said with a bright smile. "Accomplices don't get anything out of their crimes – only the mastermind behind your nefarious rule-breaking plot will be punished."

Naegi frowned. The one who'd come up with the plan – which of them would that be? And how did Monokuma think he could tell the difference? He looked over at Kirigiri to see if she knew, but she hadn't moved a muscle since Monokuma had revealed her fake murder plot. He felt a little bad for her. She must have been terribly shaken to find out that she'd been seen through so easily.

"So for this little bout of rule-breaking, I've prepared a very special guest!" Monokuma said, his voice taking on an all-too-familiar cadence as he gestured to the open window on the opposite side of the room. "Let's give it everything we've got! It's punishment time!"