Soldier… kidnapped… Fenrir…

The words tumbled through Naegi's mind, spinning over and over through more repetitions than he could count. They had to mean something, he knew it — Kirigiri wouldn't have gone to so much trouble to give him a paper with them written on it if they didn't. There was something about this paper she'd needed him to know, something she'd trusted him to be able to understand. And she'd never asked him to do something if it wasn't important… so he couldn't let her down.

As the words sounded through his head, something about them began to sound strangely familiar… like he'd heard them somewhere recently. But that wasn't surprising, not with all that had happened involving Ikusaba in the past couple days. It felt as though the girl hadn't been far from his thoughts ever since —

Ever since Kirigiri had told him her story.

Naegi's head slumped back down until his forehead rested on the ground again, the will to keep it upright draining out of him. So in the end, that was all that the profile was — a summary of the same story Kirigiri had told him in their first conversation about Ikusaba. He'd been hoping for a critical clue, something that could change the course of the mastermind's trap and avert the impossible decision of voting… but it looked like that had never been an option.

But why would Kirigiri have bothered to give him a paper that only contained information he already knew? That couldn't be the case — he had to be missing something. Maybe the problem was that he hadn't read the entire profile… if he could have done so, surely he would have noticed whatever she'd meant for him to find.

There had to be something… because otherwise it made no sense. Why would Kirigiri even risk taking the paper out of the office if it wasn't important? Obviously she hadn't had a problem keeping it hidden from the mastermind, but she wouldn't go to the effort so for something trivial. And… did that mean she'd taken the paper with Ikusaba standing right in front of her? Or was it that Ikusaba had given it to her? But that made no sense, because Ikusaba had told Kirigiri to keep her presence secret… so she wouldn't have had a reason to let Kirigiri walk out of the room with proof of her existence.

He must have misunderstood what he'd read… or maybe the story Kirigiri had told him about Ikusaba had gotten muddled in his head. That wouldn't be a surprise, not when so much pain had shuddered through his head every time he'd tried to think further back than the last few hours. Words could sound in his ears or images flash before his eyes seemingly of their own accord, but any attempt to call up a memory consciously left him blinded by agony. With his head an untrustworthy mess, the specter of pain lurking behind every thought, of course his piece of the puzzle would be the one that didn't fit.

But even so… the words wouldn't leave him alone. Soldier… kidnapped… Fenrir. He tried to turn his thoughts away to consider some other aspect of the problem, but the words he'd gleaned from the paper brought him twisting back. Some buried part of his mind couldn't let go of those words, no matter what he thought he wanted — and he wasn't sure it was wrong. After all, if he gave up on finding meaning in the words, if he accepted that the profile had no hidden clues for him to decipher… then that meant he was back where he'd started, facing a decision he couldn't bring himself to make. Puzzling through a jumble of confusing words was better, even if it turned out to be useless.

Soldier… well, that one he knew. Ikusaba had been a mercenary, despite being young enough to qualify as a member of their high school class. Extraordinary, yes, but no more so than any of the other Ultimates who attended Hope's Peak. A teenage mercenary couldn't be too out of place in a class that included the Ultimate Martial Artist and the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader. Nothing in that idea rang false.

Kidnapped… yes, that was what she'd said, she'd been kidnapped and brainwashed. The thought sent a shudder of horror through him. What kind of mercenary group recruited new members by kidnapping children? It would take a monster to do such a thing… maybe the same kind of monster that would think up the killing game. Could that be the connection? It might be… or it might not.

Fenrir… the name of the shadowy band of mercenaries, a group so elite that apparently Togami had already known all about them. That had to be true, it had been confirmed too many times. There were even documents here in the archive about it, Togami had told him so — papers and files that told about a world far removed from the one he knew. Secret troops of soldiers hired by world leaders, children snatched away to be trained as professional killers, symbols of the apocalypse as identifying tattoos… he'd never really believed those stories could be more than fodder for action movies.

Ikusaba's hand flashed before his eyes, burn marks scorching down her wrist to mar the wolf tattoo snarling up from her skin. It hadn't even been hidden, not really — that tattoo would've been visible to anyone who knew to look for it. What kind of secret group could afford to be so bold in marking their members? She had to be good, better than good, to be able to handle it and survive… like she really was the super soldier Jill kept calling her. But could anyone really be that good? He wasn't sure. How was he supposed to know what was real when it all sounded so strange?

It all sounded strange.

Strange… it had sounded strange…

All the members of Fenrir can be identified by a tattoo somewhere on their body. She raised the hem of her shirt just enough for me to identify it.

The hem of her shirt, that was what Kirigiri had said… and he'd usually assume that meant the bottom. It was vague enough that maybe, maybe it could have meant the sleeve instead… except that Ikusaba's tattoo had been on her hand, where her sleeves wouldn't cover it.

It didn't fit. Even through the aching of his head he could see that it made no sense. Did that mean Ikusaba had two tattoos…? No, why would she have two identical symbols on different parts of her body? Even if that were the case, surely it would have made more sense to show Kirigiri the more accessible mark on her hand, instead of lifting her shirt.

Then… did that mean that the Ikusaba who had spoken with Kirigiri and the girl lying dead on the fifth floor were two different people? But if so… the murdered girl had to be the real Ikusaba. That was why they were having a trial — because one of the students playing the game had died. And Monokuma himself had admitted Ikusaba was the final member of their class… so she was the only possible victim.

But if the corpse really was Ikusaba… then who had Kirigiri met? Could there be another member of Fenrir hiding in the school, one who didn't count as part of the mastermind's game for some reason? The thought sent goosebumps crawling down his spine, as though an entire army of super soldiers was already watching them all from the shadows. And for all he knew, that really was the case. It wasn't as though they had any way of knowing who else might be in the school — even Kirigiri hadn't known about Ikusaba until the girl confronted her.

Or whoever it had been who had really talked to Kirigiri. It seemed strange to use Ikusaba's name, though… wouldn't it have been better to keep the real name of the hidden player secret? Though it hardly seemed to have made much difference, not when Kirigiri hadn't had any reason to know Ikusaba in the first place. After all, someone would need to know the actual location of the real Ikusaba's tattoo in order to identify a fraud, and Kirigiri had never —

Even though the bomb made the corpse's face unrecognizable, we could still see that tattoo on her hand.

Naegi could feel his own words burning on his tongue, when he'd told the rest of the circle exactly how he and Togami had been able to identify the corpse as Ikusaba. He'd used the tattoo as proof — and he'd even mentioned that it was on her hand. Surely Kirigiri, the one person who always noticed everything, couldn't have missed that contradiction. And even if she somehow had… he'd sent her up to look at the body right before the trial began. There was no way she hadn't known about the difference between her story and the body.

And yet… she hadn't said anything. This was important, it had to be… and she hadn't said anything. Even knowing they all believed something untrue, she'd done nothing —

No, not nothing. Not exactly. Naegi's eyes flickered back to the paper that Kirigiri had hidden in his pocket, the one that had started him down this path of realization. She'd given him the key to the puzzle, a profile detailing the information that Ikusaba had told her. Maybe if he'd been able to read the entire thing, he would have spotted the problem faster. He could have found the differences between Ikusaba's story and reality —

Wait, that wasn't right, was it? He'd never actually talked to Ikusaba himself… so it ought to be the difference between Kirigiri's story and reality. As he had the thought, Naegi could feel something shifting in his head, like the ground trembling before it was overrun by an avalanche.

Kirigiri should have seen the differences between the stories and reality, and yet she hadn't said anything about it.

She had given him the profile that described Ikusaba's life story… before she'd had any way of knowing about the different locations of the tattoos.

Knowing more than she should have, not acting as he'd expected… it all added up to one conclusion that Naegi was beginning to fear he had no choice but to believe.

Kirigiri had lied to him.