Naegi didn't understand what was happening in the trial room around him. Raised voices pounded through his aching head, the reflections of garishly bright lights stabbed through his tired eyes, and he thought — he thought he'd heard — something impossible, something that couldn't have been real. At the end of the voting, when Monokuma sang out the final results — it had sounded like he'd heard his own name.

But that couldn't be right. He'd voted for himself for the same reason Ogami had in the other trials — because he couldn't choose between the options the other students were considering. It had been an attempt to throw his vote away, not a serious guess, not something he'd meant. It hadn't been a real vote —

No… that was wrong. It was a real vote, even if he hadn't intended it to point to the true culprit. He knew, after watching so many beloved friends die in this room, of course he knew that everything he did here had to be serious. He hadn't meant that he was the culprit — but he'd meant what the vote represented. If it came down to it, another crushing choice between his boyfriend and his best friend, he'd choose a third option every time.

But even so… even so… it shouldn't have meant that his own name was the one ringing out, twisted by Monokuma's laughter. He hadn't killed anyone, he would never kill one of his treasured friends — and even if he'd thought about trying, he couldn't have, not after Jill's attack. With only five surviving students, it would take three votes for a majority… and who else would have chosen him, the one person who couldn't possibly have been the culprit?

Unless that had been the reason they'd done it. After all, Ogami herself had told him about the idea of miscasting votes… but no, no, she'd promised not to do it this time. And even if she'd forgotten her promise, surely she would have chosen herself again. But… what about the others? Could two of them have picked him in a desperate attempt to avoid the impossible choice?

Did it matter if they had?

No. It didn't matter, not any longer. The questions running through Naegi's head were useless now. However it had happened, the votes had been cast, and he'd been the one chosen. And that meant… that meant…

That meant they'd chosen wrong.

"Too bad for you! They're absolutely correct!"

The words sank through Naegi's head like dead weight, dragging everything around them down into shadows. Correct… the word felt heavy and wrong in his mind, distorting all the thoughts around it. Correct. The votes had tallied up to call him the culprit… and the mastermind said that answer was correct?

For a wild, dizzy moment, Naegi almost wondered if such a thing could be true. His mind had betrayed him, memories twisting into a past that had never happened… maybe it wasn't so impossible that he could have done this. Maybe he'd just forced himself to forget, wiping the painful past out of existence by tearing his mind apart. It wouldn't be the first time he'd lost important memories. What if she was right? What if — what if he'd really —

But no. No, he couldn't have — not when he'd been too weak to move. Relief washed through Naegi's heart, rinsing away the darkness of self-doubt. He couldn't have done it, he knew he couldn't have done it, no matter what she said to the contrary. Anyone who'd seen his injuries at their worst would know he couldn't have killed Ikusaba.

And that meant the mastermind was lying.

Except… that was impossible, wasn't it? The entire point of the class trial was to force them to uncover the truth about the killings, to find out who had committed the murders — because they'd all be killed if they guessed wrong. But this vote had been wrong, definitely wrong, obviously wrong — and instead of leaping on the opportunity to execute them all, the mastermind was pretending it was right.

It made no sense, none at all… or maybe it was just the confusion roiling through his head that made it seem nonsensical. There were so many lies, everywhere he turned he found another once-solid fact crumbling away beneath his feet. Togami had lied, lied to protect him, turning the trial on its head. Kirigiri had lied, turning his understanding of the game upside-down as she tried to hide her master key. His own head lied, showing him visions of a world that didn't exist instead of the memories he'd thought he could believe. And now, now, now the mastermind was lying, dodging her own rules and giving up the chance to beat them once and for all. Everything and everyone was lying to him, for good reasons or bad… lying so much that he didn't know where to find the truth any longer.

"I mean, you wouldn't want to be wrong, would you?"

No… no, he didn't want to be wrong… but he couldn't see how to be anything else. Everything was wrong… there was nothing he could trust, nothing he could believe. If this result was being called true, then everything in the world around him had gone horribly wrong.

"Unless, of course, someone wants to challenge the verdict."

Challenge…?

The word spun round through Naegi's head, a thousand questions tied up in that single idea. Challenge the verdict? Argue with the mastermind? Tell the truth and call her a liar with the whole world watching? If he tried… if he found the strength, if he found the words, if he dared… what would happen?

Nothing, of course nothing would happen, there was nothing he could say that would change anything. He'd been found guilty, it was to be expected that he'd claim innocence. Monokuma would laugh it all away, call him a liar, say it wasn't true…

Except that it was true. They both knew it was. That was the difference between this trial and any of the ones that had gone before. So then… was it also the reason that the mastermind had allowed him a chance to argue? But why would she bother when she knew, she had to know, that there was nothing he could say, nothing he could do, nothing he could —

And then, almost without his conscious direction, Naegi found his eyes locking onto the profile page that Kirigiri had placed in his pocket.

Mukuro Ikusaba's profile… that Kirigiri had found in the headmaster's office… when she'd taken the master key.