Naegi sat in the bathhouse locker room for a moment after Kirigiri walked out, trying to give her enough time to prepare before he drew Monokuma's attention. If he was supposed to provide her with a distraction, he wanted to be sure she had as much time as possible to do what she needed.
Maybe he should have asked her how long he should wait before beginning, or how long a distraction she thought she might need. Now that Kirigiri had left, dozens of questions he should have asked her kept popping up in his head – but it was too late to get answers. He'd just have to do his best, and hope that it would be enough.
He'd probably given her enough time by now – maybe even too long. Naegi struggled to his feet, bracing himself for the rush of dizziness that rocked through his body as he stood. Yes, Kirigiri had definitely been right – there was no way he could have helped her investigate, not like this. He would have liked to be able to do more to help – but since he wasn't up to it, he'd just have to focus on what he could do.
Once he'd passed through the bathhouse door to return to the main part of the first floor, Naegi braced himself against the wall, trying to ignore the painful knot in his stomach. He wouldn't mess this up. Everything was going to be fine. He repeated those thoughts just one more time, then looked up towards the closest camera.
"Hey, Monokuma! You can see me, right? Get out here!"
He'd tried his best to sound confident and stern, but even to his own ears, his voice wavered from the lingering effects of exhaustion. Even standing was getting difficult. Maybe he should have tried to do this somewhere that he would be able to sit down?
Well, it was too late to worry about that now. Before Naegi could think about moving, Monokuma came bounding out to land a little too close in front of him, grinning widely.
"Well, well, well – I never expected you to call me out, Naegi!" he said brightly. "Do you want someone to gossip with about your steamy little midnight rendezvous?"
"Uh – what?" Naegi frowned, looking nervously at the bear in front of him. Trying to follow Monokuma's ramblings was always tricky – but tonight, it was worse than ever before.
As he stared at Monokuma, Naegi couldn't stop his thoughts from wandering back to one of the first questions he'd had when they first arrived here – just who was the person talking to them through this strange stuffed animal? Was he talking to Mukuro Ikusaba, the girl who had approached Kirigiri and offered her aid? Or was this the true mastermind, the one who'd been behind this entire bizarre scheme of murders and kidnapping? He wished there were some kind of signal, some sort of tell to let him know just who was talking –
But of course there couldn't be. Even if this was Ikusaba, she'd told Kirigiri not to tell anyone about her existence. If she found out that Naegi knew, who knew how she'd react? At the very least, she could take back her offer to help – but she could easily do so much worse. She'd only have to say a word to the mastermind, and they'd be finished – especially now, at the very moment that Kirigiri was sneaking into a secret part of the school.
No, even if this really was Ikusaba and not the mastermind, that didn't make it any safer. Naegi still had to manage a good distraction, one that wouldn't reveal what Kirigiri had told him.
Fortunately, Monokuma didn't seem to notice Naegi's distraction – or maybe he just chalked it up to Naegi's injuries.
"Oh, I think you know what I mean," Monokuma said, leaning forward as if to whisper confidentially. "You and Kirigiri? In the bathhouse? Just the two of you? In the middle of the night?" A few droplets of sweat beaded along his face. "I bet it was getting pretty hot in there, huh?"
"What? No!" Naegi couldn't stop his eyes from darting in the direction of the dormitories, to make sure that Togami hadn't suddenly materialized in the hall to overhear Monokuma's insinuations. "It wasn't anything like that!"
"Aw, are you sure?" Monokuma tilted his head inquisitively. "And here I thought you were going to try to catch them all!" His grin widened, and something about it made Naegi wish he hadn't decided to stand with his back to the wall. "If you collect the full set, you might just fulfil the requirements to unlock a super duper secret hidden character!"
Naegi grimaced. It was hard enough to follow Monokuma's rambling even when his head didn't spin with every movement. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said, figuring it was a pretty safe response to whatever the bear meant.
"You don't? Too bad!" Monokuma heaved a sigh. "Well, whatever. Unlike you, I have absolutely no interest in late night bath scenes. I like to maintain a healthy life of observation, far away from X-rated X-ploits!"
Naegi snorted at that blatant lie. "Sure. Except for those recordings of Togami and me."
"Well, you can't expect me to ignore it when it's right under my nose!" Monokuma shook his head. "It's so upsetting for a headmaster to see his students acting out that way, you know? It just makes me shudder every single time I see it."
"Wait – every time?" A chill crept down the back of Naegi's spine. "You mean you still have the recordings?"
"Of course!" Monokuma beamed at him. "All the grown-ups need something blood-pumping to watch after the kiddies are in bed – and there's nothing else on television these days!" He threw his head back and laughed wildly.
Naegi felt his stomach lurch, and not just from the lingering dizziness. The mastermind had kept those recordings – and watched them? More than once? He felt like something slimy had begun dripping down his neck, and an involuntary shudder rocked through him.
"You have to get rid of those recordings," Naegi said, glaring at Monokuma and trying to ignore the flush creeping up his cheeks. "You can't just keep watching them!"
"Huh? I can't?" Monokuma asked, sounding puzzled. "Oh, I see, I see – you're saying that you want them! Is that it? Do you need something to get you through the long, lonely nights?" He grinned. "Is that why you called me out here? Because I'm more than happy to give you all the copies that you want!"
"No – no, that wasn't it," Naegi said. "I just don't want to think about you watching that."
"You don't?" Monokuma tilted his head. "Okay."
Naegi blinked at the simple, uncomplicated agreement. "Just – like that?"
"Of course!" Monokuma said brightly. "I'm a very accommodating headmaster. You don't want to think about what I'm doing behind closed doors? Well, I can help you out with that!" A wide grin spread across his face. "I can give you something else to think about!"
