Togami couldn't tear his eyes away from the photograph Monokuma held, staring at the little he could see. Was it really what he thought? Was Monokuma actually offering him a picture of Naegi?

There would be a catch, he knew there had to be a catch. The mastermind would never give out something to make the loss of one of the students easier, especially not for something as simple as listening to Monokuma's chattering. But as his feet brought him one step after another back towards the center of the room, Togami knew it didn't matter. Whatever the mastermind demanded of him, he knew he'd have to do it, no matter the consequences.

Finally he came to a stop in front of Monokuma, his stomach lurching with disgust at his own weakness. He scowled down at the bear's grinning face and said, "Fine. What are your terms?"

Monokuma looked wounded, eyes quivering like he might burst into tears. "What's that? You don't trust me?" He shook his head. "All right, if you're going to insist… you stay and listen to my thrilling lecture, and I'll give you this picture. How does that sound?"

Togami narrowed his eyes, thinking through the wording as carefully as he could. "You'll give me the photo immediately after the lecture? Without any delay?"

"Of course!"

"And the lecture won't go indefinitely?" he pressed. "It will end today — before the nighttime announcement?"

"Way before!" Monokuma grinned. "So what do you think — do we have a deal, or do I tear this useless scrap up right here and now?"

"No!" Togami didn't mean to shout, but the word was out of his mouth before he could stop himself. He knew he was still missing something, some key question that would explain how this benefited the mastermind — but he didn't have time to ask anything else. "All right, it's a deal. I'll hear you out in exchange for that photo. Now let's get on with it."

"Oh, I see — you just can't wait to hear the fabulous new information!" Monokuma laughed gleefully, the photo disappearing as he clapped his paws. Togami's lips tightened at its disappearance — but it still existed, even if it was out of sight. "Well, what kind of teacher would I be if I let that thirst for knowledge go unquenched?"

Togami took a deep breath, squaring his shoulders as he braced himself to deal with the coming onslaught of Monokuma's nonsense. The bear's cutesy facade set his teeth on edge most of the time… but for a picture of Naegi, an actual tangible image that he could keep, he was prepared to do a great deal worse than just spending the rest of the day enduring the bear's babbling.

"Okay, boys and girls, I hope you're ready! It's finally time for an extra special tutoring session with everyone's faaaaaavorite teacher… Headmaster Monokuma!" The bear beamed up at them, gesturing grandly as if he expected applause. Togami just crossed his arms in frozen silence, gaze never wavering from the robot. He'd agreed to listen, but he had no intention of playing along with Monokuma's idiocy any further than he was forced to.

But Monokuma had never required encouragement for any of his strange performances. He carried onward with as much energy as if they'd given him the most enthusiastic response imaginable. "If you check your syllabus, you'll see that the topic we're covering today is… voting!"

The shadows of the room shifted in the corner of Togami's eye. He didn't look away from Monokuma, lest the mastermind claim he hadn't really been listening after all — but even so, he could tell that Ogami had circled around the room to watch from a slight distance away. From what he could tell, she'd positioned herself so that she could keep a view of the entire room, easily able to reach either the door or Monokuma if the need arose. He wasn't sure why she'd decided such a thing was necessary, but he could only approve of her decision to take sensible precautions.

"Now, I know math can be an awfully tough subject," Monokuma went on, "but I'm sure you can do it if you just keep at it! No matter what kind of problem you're trying to solve, the solution will definitely turn up if you keep trying aaaaaaall the different possibilities!" He heaved a sigh. "But I guess that's pretty tough, huh? So many questions, and only one right answer… it could be enough to drive a poor student to do something desperate if you're not careful!"

Togami didn't let his scowl alter as he watched Monokuma, but the knot of tension in his stomach began to twist a few infinitesimal degrees tighter. He'd agreed to listen to Monokuma's stupid lecture without making any stipulations about topic, even knowing that it could easily go very badly indeed. Both he and Ogami still had dozens of wounds bleeding on their souls, and it would have been so very easy for the mastermind to use the lecture to exploit one of those vulnerabilities. But even with the opportunity there for the taking, they didn't appear to be doing so… and that was far more alarming than an obvious attack would have been.

"But none of you have any reason to worry about those brain twisting problems!" Monokuma said brightly. "Your headmaster has come up with an extra special bonus tip to help you out with any tough math question you come up against. And since you've all been listening to this lecturing so very attentively, I'll give you a special one time only bargain — you can use my math tip for absolutely free!"

A dozen sarcastic responses burned on Togami's tongue — but he made himself swallow them back. He was not going to antagonize the mastermind over something so minor, not with the photo at stake. If this stupidity was the worst thing he had to endure to get that picture, he'd count himself lucky.

"So remember, when you get stuck on a super difficult problem and you don't know what to do, just keep this tip in mind to give you that extra edge you need!" Monokuma grinned up at them. "Are you ready? Okay, then, here it is — numbers don't lie." His red eye gleamed bright in the dim room. "Be sure you remember it!"

Togami hadn't been expecting to hear anything useful in the lecture — but he couldn't quite believe that Monokuma had chosen to go with inanity when he could have used cruelty instead. Was the mastermind really ignoring all the harm they could do in this situation… or was he missing something? It had sounded like nothing more than a lot of gibberish about math, but —

No, wait. Not math, not exactly. Monokuma had told them the topic at the start of his ridiculous lecture, and all his chatter about math had only been in support of his real point. He'd never been talking about math… he'd been talking about voting. Math and voting… which had to mean the vote counts.

Before trying to leave, he'd called the mastermind a murderer and a liar. He'd accused the mastermind of manipulating the trial and cheating at their own game. And this lecture, the one that Monokuma had gone so far as to bribe him to listen to, had been the mastermind's response.

Numbers don't lie.

It hadn't been about math at all.

Togami stared at Monokuma in shock as the mastermind's real message formed in his head. "Are you trying to claim that you didn't alter the voting results?"

Monokuma beamed as though he really was a proud teacher watching a student succeed against all odds. "I knew you'd get it eventually!"