Seconds after Naegi had spoken the words directing his friends' attention to the mastermind's cameras, he almost wished he hadn't. He watched their gazes turn from the cameras to Monokuma and back again, doubt and confusion flickering across their faces in a way that was all too familiar. This was exactly what happened whenever the mastermind chose to involve themselves in the affairs between the students… but this time, they hadn't had to act through Monokuma to send the students reeling in discord. This time, Naegi had done it himself.
And worst of all, when the others finally looked away from the cameras to glance around the circle again, Naegi could see the one thing that he'd hoped would never cross their faces again — suspicion. Jill's wild red eyes darted from person to person, her scissors a whirl of silver in either hand. Ogami looked as stricken as if someone had actually managed to land a blow on her, hands clenched into useless fists. Beside her, Kirigiri seemed as cold and untouched by events as ever… but her gaze was locked across the circle, where Togami glared back at her in a blaze of fury
"I knew it." Togami's vicious words scorched through the air, as much an attack as if he'd used a physical weapon. "I knew all along that we had another of the mastermind's snakes lurking among us. Why plant just one agent in a group of fifteen, especially when she's proven to be the type to change her allegiance given proper incentive?"
Kirigiri tilted her head, one eyebrow arching up in a sharp curve. "Are you expecting argument? Because you won't get it. I'm quite in agreement that it seems likely the mastermind wanted to control our behavior far more closely than they could achieve simply by blackmailing Sakura Ogami. But I don't see what this particular theory has to do with that possibility."
"Oh, really?" Togami scoffed. "You can't think of any possible connection between the mastermind's spy and a theft that could only have been done by someone with access to the mastermind's tools? And here I thought you were supposed to be good at deductions."
Kirigiri paused just long enough for a single blink before shooting a cold smile back at him. "I might say the same. Or are you so blinded to alternate theories that you've failed to notice that we already have a perfect candidate fitting all the qualifications you just described?"
Naegi frowned. "Wait, a perfect candidate… to be the mastermind's agent?" It sounded like Kirigiri was implying one of the students had been working for the mastermind… but she didn't seem to be acting like she was accusing anyone. Instead, she was behaving as though they all ought to know what she was talking about already. But that didn't make any sense — Ogami was the only agent they already knew about, and even before she'd turned on the mastermind, she'd never had access to their cameras. There was no one else —
Access to the cameras.
Naegi almost couldn't believe the realization that flashed through his mind — but it made too much sense to ignore. Togami wasn't looking his way to read his lips, so just for a moment, he let himself turn towards Kirigiri so he could face her as he asked the question.
"Are you talking about Mukuro Ikusaba?"
And he had the dubious satisfaction of seeing one corner of her mouth curl upwards as a short, sardonic laugh escaped her. "I thought you'd be the one to work it out."
"Work what out?" Togami demanded, his eyes widening with alarm as he spun towards Naegi. "What did you say to her?"
"I said that Ikusaba would have been able to see the cameras, too," Naegi said, feeling a little more confident in the words now that Kirigiri had confirmed she'd been thinking along the same lines. "She was working for the mastermind — in fact, she told Kirigiri that watching the cameras was one of her jobs! It would have been easy for her to figure out when Ogami wouldn't be able to see her."
"Hold it, Big Mac!" Jill snapped, narrowing her red glare in his direction. "I know you wanna show off your smarts for our darling, but don't shoot your load before it's ready! Ikusaba's the corpse here, remember? I'm not gonna let you turn this into some third-rate horror flick where a body can stop rotting the second the hero looks away — either a body's dead or it isn't!"
"Yes, that's true," Naegi said slowly, working the idea out in his head as he was speaking it aloud. "Ikusaba's definitely dead now — but we don't know when exactly that happened. The Monokuma File didn't give a time of death, and after the bomb destroyed her body, there's no way for us to be sure when exactly she died. And since we don't know exactly when the knife was stolen, either, Ikusaba could have been the one who took it."
"That would explain how someone was able to move through the room without alerting me," Ogami said, her forehead wrinkling as she considered the idea. "You said Ikusaba was a soldier, did you not? My ability to sense the presence of others is merely a side effect of my martial arts abilities, not a skill I have trained on its own. If Ikusaba possessed training in stealth and combat, she would likely have the skills to evade my notice."
"Before you waste any more time on this, try to remember where we found that knife," Togami snapped. "In case it's slipped your mind, let me remind you — it was buried in Ikusaba's chest! Are you suggesting that one of us managed to disarm a Fenrir mercenary and use her own weapon against her?"
"I don't know what happened after the knife was stolen," Naegi said, "but I think she must have been the one who took it. I don't see how anyone else could have done it."
Togami's lips thinned, but he didn't snap out another angry retort — that was something, anyway. Instead, he crossed his arms and eyed Naegi. "All right, then, if you're so sure, tell me this — why do you think she wanted that knife? It was a lot of trouble on her part to get it. Why would the mastermind's agent bother with all that effort?"
Naegi thought over the possibilities… but if he was going to proceed along this road, then there was really only one possible answer. "She must have wanted to kill someone… and frame one of us for it."
