A wave of relief washed through Naegi as he recognized Genocide Jill's voice through the door. She was still alive — barricaded inside the hidden room, sure, but at least well enough to be able to talk to him.

"Are you okay?" he called, trying to raise his voice enough that she could hear him through the door. "You've been missing all night — we were really worried about you!"

"I'm locked in an empty room — how do you think I'm doing?" Jill's furious scream came through loud and clear, even through the door. "And on top of that, all I keep hearing are bells, bells, bells, like you're trying to train me to kill on command! Want me to start slicing every time I hear another one ring?"

The bells? Naegi frowned. A bell did usually ring to alert them to one of Monokuma's announcements, but why would Jill focus on that and not the actual content of the messages?

And then he realized — she wouldn't have heard the announcements. The hidden room was free from both the security cameras and the televisions Monokuma used to communicate with them. If Jill had been stuck in there since she'd gone missing last night, then she would have been cut off from everything other than the bells, which rang loudly enough to get anyone's attention no matter how distracted they might be. She really didn't know anything that had been happening.

"It's not just random bells," he told her. "One of them was a body discovery announcement."

"And I missed it?" Jill said, sounding outraged. "Sounds like grounds for a do-over to me!"

"No, we haven't had a trial," Naegi said, hoping that she'd been referring to the investigation and not the murder itself. "We're still trying to figure out what happened."

"Well, it's not like it can be all that exciting," Jill said. "I mean, you're alive and kicking, and no way my White Knight would give it up for anything but the best killer out there! So that just leaves girl-on-girl action, and that's only good for a cheap ratings boost!"

Naegi cringed at the reference to ratings. It was only Jill's usual way of speaking, but still — she had no idea how right she was. "Actually, about that —"

"So which one was it?" Jill barreled on before he could find the words to explain the horror of the broadcast. "Only two of 'em left now, right? So did the Ogre finally go all the way off the deep end, or did Nancy Drew stick her nose in one place too many?"

"Uh… neither, actually," Naegi said. "There was actually a sixteenth student here working on the mastermind's side, and she's the one who got killed."

"An enemy, huh? Well, sounds like a win to me!" Jill said brightly, and Naegi could hear the grin in her voice. "Whose hand do I need to shake? I'll give 'em an extra special thank you, Genocider style!"

Naegi hated to think about exactly what that might mean. "No, it's not a good thing," he said. "She counted as a part of the game, so we've still got to have a trial for her. And we haven't figured out much yet."

"Oh, so we're talking cover ups?" A spark of interest entered Jill's voice at that. "Well, I always like to admire a fellow master's work! Get me the hell out of here and I'll see what I can find!"

"Sorry, but I don't think I can," Naegi said regretfully. "The door isn't actually locked — it's barricaded shut, and I can't get it open by myself."

"What, my White Knight isn't there with you?" Jill sounded genuinely shocked to hear that. "How big a crowbar did it take to pry him away?"

"We had to split up to investigate," Naegi said, figuring that Togami probably wouldn't want him to tell Jill about his physical vulnerabilities. "I was going downstairs to find Ogami." An idea occurred to him. "Oh — but I bet she could get the door open pretty easily! I can ask her to do it once I wake her up."

"She's napping on the job? Sounds suspicious to me!"

"No, she was drugged." Naegi paused, his voice dropping lower as he considered that thought. "And that would have happened last night… at close to the same time you were locked up… taking both of you out of the investigation…"

"Didn't anyone ever tell you to project from the diaphragm, Big Mac?" Jill demanded. "Speak up!"

"Sorry!" Naegi did his best to speak up again, though the effort of talking so loudly was starting to wear on him. "I just thought maybe the culprit is the one who locked you in here. Did you see anything?"

"If I saw them coming, you think I'd've let them touch me?" Jill snapped. "One minute I was looking for cleaning supplies, the next — wham, right through here! And not even my White Knight came running to help when I screamed."

"He probably couldn't hear you through the door," Naegi pointed out. He knew Togami didn't appreciate Jill's stalking, but still, he was sure the other boy wouldn't really have ignored her cries of distress if he'd actually been able to notice them. "I think at first he figured you just went to bed or something."

"And miss the once in a lifetime chance to watch him get all down and dirty with the electronics?" Jill snorted. "Did he find anything good?"

"Uh… he didn't say," Naegi said. "The investigation pretty much took priority once he found the corpse upstairs. We're pretty short on time."

"Then what are you wasting it here for?" Jill demanded. "Go on, run find the Ogre so I can finally get out of this place!"

"Right," Naegi said, nodding sharply before realizing Jill couldn't see him. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Not like I'm going anywhere," was the last thing he heard from Jill as he moved away from the door.

Exiting the bathroom, Naegi looked down the hall towards the final set of stairs. Had he rested enough to chance them? Telling Jill about the situation had only reaffirmed its urgency for him - he didn't want to sit around the second floor, not when there was so much left to do. Besides, it didn't seem right to leave Jill stuck in the hidden room… and with the limited amount of investigation time they had, it could only help to have another pair of eyes looking for clues.

Carefully, Naegi decided to begin his final descent, pausing after every slow step to make sure he still had his balance. He'd never spent so long on a single flight of stairs, and he couldn't help but think wistfully of the days when he'd only viewed these steps as a minor inconvenience. He was never going up the stairs again after this, not if he could help it. He was going to stay on the first floor as long as he possibly could.

Finally, after far too many hair-raising moments, Naegi stumbled off the last step of the staircase onto the blessedly solid ground of the first floor. He never thought he'd be so glad to be back in these first hallways, where it had hit him for the first time just how badly his world had been turned upside down. But now, after the creepy chill of the fifth floor, the horrifying revelations of the fourth floor, and the terrors of the staircases in between, coming back to the familiar layout of the gym, the nurse's office, and the school store seemed almost comforting.

But as he turned the corner that led to the first floor dorms, the sight of the glaring red door to the trial chamber snapped Naegi out of that mindset. What had he been thinking? Sure, the first floor might be a little less upsetting than the higher floors, but that didn't make it a good place to be. Walking through the dormitory gates shouldn't feel like he was returning to a safe haven. The entire school was a prison, even if some areas were worse than others. There was nowhere safe here.

Half expecting Monokuma's announcement to summon them all back to the trial with every step, Naegi kept moving doggedly onward towards the dorm rooms on the far end of the first floor. His steps only faltered once, as he passed Kirigiri's room… but he knew that even if he stopped to ring the bell, there was no one inside to answer. His handbook had shown him that much when he'd checked it a few minutes ago. Wherever she'd gone, it would take more than a doorbell to find her.

He tore his eyes away from Kirigiri's name plate and took the last few steps to reach Togami's room. Leaning against the edge of the door frame, he managed to wrestle Togami's key from his pocket. He gave the doorbell a good long press so that he wouldn't take Ogami by surprise, then slid the key into the lock. It turned easily enough, but when he tried to turn the doorknob, moving the heavy door even a few inches made the whole length of his arm tremble from the effort.

Naegi relaxed his grip on the knob, the door slamming shut in his face. How was he supposed to get it open one-handed? Maybe if he braced himself really well and tried to kick it, he'd manage better…?

And then the door knob twisted sharply beneath his fingers. Naegi only just had time to let go before the door wrenched open to reveal Ogami standing in front of him, eyes wild and a palpable aura of threat radiating out from her. When she focused on Naegi, the menaced drained from her expression, though she still looked tense enough to spring into action at a moment's notice.

"You're awake!" Naegi smiled up at her in relief.

"Only for a few minutes," Ogami said, craning her head to scan the hall around Naegi. She frowned. "Are you alone?"

"Oh — yeah, Togami had to stay upstairs," Naegi explained. "It's kind of a long story —"

"Then you should sit before you tell it," she said at once, stepping aside to usher him into the room.

Naegi felt a little guilty for not immediately insisting that Ogami run upstairs to let Jill out of the hidden room… but the thought of finally getting a chance to sit and rest his shaky legs after all those stairs was too much to ignore. He let Ogami help him across the room until he could collapse gratefully down onto the edge of the bed, his iron grip on the music stand pole going slack at last as his hand cramped from the tension.

Ogami's eyes widened as the pole clattered to the ground. "Have you been using that thing to walk around? You mentioned stairs?"

"Well… I didn't have much choice," Naegi said. "You read the note Togami left for you, right?"

"I did," she said grimly. "Not that it had much of an explanation. It simply said that you'd discovered another body and went to investigate. But if that is what happened, why didn't you wake me? I know I failed in my responsibility to you by dozing off, but —"

"No, you didn't just fall asleep!" Naegi interrupted, alarmed by the guilt surging across Ogami's face. "I guess he didn't have time to write everything, but we did try to wake you up — and we couldn't. We think someone must have drugged you somehow."

"What?" Ogami stared at him. "But — no, I was paying close attention to the door. No one could have gotten in."

"I know you were being really careful, but… could you really have paid attention every moment, all night?" Naegi asked. "It would only have taken a few seconds."

But Ogami was already shaking her head. "No. Even if I were not looking directly at the door, I would have noticed one of the other students entering. After observing you how you all move for the last few weeks, I know none of you possess the skill to evade my awareness."

"Not even Kirigiri?" Naegi asked, her profile flashing back through his mind. Surely the Ultimate Detective would have had some training in stealth…

"But… I thought you two were friends," Ogami said, her eyes wide with shock. "Are you saying that the genocider was the one you found — and that Kirigiri —"

"No!" The word burst out of Naegi's mouth with more vehemence than he'd meant. "No, I was just thinking about — well, something else." He wasn't sure if it would be right to spread Kirigiri's talent around without her permission… not when he couldn't even ask her why she'd been hiding it in the first placed. "It doesn't matter right now."

"Then… it was Kirigiri you found?" Ogami asked, confused. "Togami didn't specify whose body you discovered."

"Because he didn't know at the time," Naegi said. "But we figured it out, and it wasn't Kirigiri or Jill. You were right when you told us there was a sixteenth student here in the school with us. Her name was Mukuro Ikusaba — and she's the one who got killed."

"The mastermind's trump card," Ogami breathed. "That's what Monokuma called her. And she's dead?"

"Very dead," Naegi said, his stomach twisting as he recalled the wreckage of a corpse. "And I guess you missed the body discovery announcement, too, but the trial will be starting soon."

"A trial?" Ogami frowned. "But… how could one of us have killed one of the mastermind's agents?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Naegi said. "Look… you were the first one to mention a sixteenth student, when you told us about how the mastermind blackmailed you. You knew she existed before any of the rest of us." He took a deep breath, looking her straight in the eye. "Can you tell me anything about her that might help?"