Naegi didn't know what to think in the face of Kirigiri's calm declaration. She'd "been found" by a mysterious sixteenth student? Was that bad? Had she been in danger? He stared at the girl's impassive expression, trying to figure out what she'd meant, but he couldn't see any clues – no remembered shock, no lingering fear, no hint of anxiety. She might have been describing a shift in the weather, not a potentially game-changing revelation about their imprisonment in Hope's Peak.

Maybe he'd misunderstood what she'd been saying.

"What do you mean, she found you?" Naegi asked. "What happened?"

"What I told you." Kirigiri shrugged. "Last night, I waited until it was late enough that the mastermind would assume I was sleeping, and then I left my room to go up to the fourth floor. I'd hoped that by moving at night, I could avoid detection – and at first, it seemed like I'd succeeded. I reached the headmaster's office and found the door broken."

"Just like Ogami said it would be," Naegi said, nodding.

"But I didn't know how long it would stay that way," Kirigiri said. "I was surprised that the mastermind left the office open for as long as they did, and I didn't want to waste the opportunity." She sighed. "And my haste left me distracted enough to be caught."

"Was it bad?" Naegi looked her over anxiously, wondering if he'd somehow missed a horrifying injury. "I mean – you don't look like you're hurt. Did you get away?"

"In a manner of speaking," Kirigiri said slowly. "No, I'm not hurt, but I wouldn't say I 'got away,' either. If Mukuro Ikusaba had wanted to kill me, I'm quite certain that I'd be dead. But she chose not to. She let me go."

Naegi frowned. "So you're saying she's dangerous? Did she threaten you?"

"Not overtly," Kirigiri said. "Though she did keep herself quite firmly in my path to the door. But I didn't need threats to tell she was dangerous. I imagine that it was rather like standing in a room with a tiger – you don't need to see it pounce to know that it could."

What kind of girl could inspire that kind of description? Kirigiri was usually very direct and clear-spoken, not inclined towards imaginative language. Naegi envisioned a huge hulk of a girl, with muscles to rival Ogami's – but even then, he had trouble picturing Kirigiri feeling threatened by such a person. This Mukuro Ikusaba really must have made a strong impression on her.

"What did she do if she didn't threaten you?" Naegi asked at last, when Kirigiri didn't elaborate further. "Did she say anything?"

"Oh, yes – she said quite a bit, actually." Kirigiri's mouth quirked in what might have been a hint of dark humor. "She was much chattier than I would have expected, for an ally of the mastermind."

"You think she's working with the mastermind?" Naegi bit his lip. "Well – I guess she'd probably have to be, if she's been hiding in the school. She could stay out of our way pretty easily – but I don't think she could avoid the mastermind's cameras."

"That's part of it," Kirigiri said. "But the real reason I believe she's working with the mastermind is because she told me so."

"She just admitted it?" Naegi asked, startled.

"Yes." Kirigiri looked off in the distance, her hand clenching tight around the box of bandages from the first aid kit. "I'd only just started going through the headmaster's desk when I heard a voice beside me. 'The Boss wouldn't like that.' And then, when I looked up – there she was." The box crumpled under her hand. "I never even heard the door open."

"You mean she's been in the headmaster's office this whole time?" Naegi asked. "Or – did she just happen to be in there last night?"

"She couldn't have been inside when I arrived at all," Kirigiri said sharply. "I looked around when I entered, and that office doesn't have a place for a full-grown student to hide. No, Ikusaba snuck up on me somehow."

Naegi frowned. Of all the students in the school, Kirigiri was by far the most observant. Even the smallest details didn't get past her. He couldn't count the number of times she'd set him in the right direction of some tiny clue or hint that he might have overlooked in his own investigation. If she hadn't noticed Ikusaba approaching – well, then either the headmaster's desk had been unbelievably distracting, or Ikusaba was even more dangerous than he'd thought.

"You must have been pretty startled to get caught like that," Naegi said. "Especially by someone you didn't know."

"It was unnerving, yes." Kirigiri's lips tightened. "More than you realize. It wasn't just that she caught me unawares. She'd taken pains to conceal her appearance, and it left her looking rather – alarming."

"You mean – like a mask?" Naegi asked.

"Yes, she had a full-face mask on, but that wasn't all," Kirigiri said. "Almost every inch of her skin had been hidden – long sleeves, heavy pants, gloves, and a bulky coat over all of it. Even her voice had an odd tone to it – like she was speaking outside her natural pitch." She shook her head. "I don't know if I would even be able to identify her if I saw her again without the disguise. I hope I would – but I can't be certain."

"That seems weird," Naegi said slowly. "Why would she need to wear a disguise when we're all trapped in here? I mean, she's still going to be the only one we don't recognize, whether she's wearing a mask or not."

"There could be any number of reasons," Kirigiri said, shrugging. "It might simply be something the mastermind ordered her to do if she ever had to interact with us."

"So – the mastermind sent her after you?" Naegi asked. "Is that what she said?"

"No," Kirigiri said. "Actually, she rather implied that the mastermind didn't know she'd come after me."

"What do you mean?"

Instead of replying right away, Kirigiri turned and glanced back at the bathhouse door again, as if she thought it might have opened itself while they were speaking. It seemed unlike her to double-check her own actions like that – but then again, if there really was a sneaky sixteenth student creeping around the school, maybe that was justified paranoia.

Kirigiri looked back down at the box of bandages crumpled in her hand, tugging it open and pulling out a second bandage. She leaned forward to press it to his cheek just below the first one, as if to anchor it in place. With her head tilted near his own, she was able to whisper directly into his ear, so softly that even someone a yard away couldn't have deciphered the words.

"Mukuro Ikusaba told me that she might be willing to turn on the mastermind."


Author's Note: Regular updates will resume this Sunday!