Naegi's mind went blank as it finally hit him just what Junko was saying. If he understood just what she meant by a gossip session, then she was suggesting that they could talk about anything. He could ask the mastermind anything, right to her face without the mask of Monokuma between them. She might not answer, of course… and even if she did, he'd never be able to tell how much of it he could trust. But even the chance to ask was more than he'd ever thought they'd get.
And he had no idea what to do with it. Kyoko would have been neck-deep in her interrogation already, doing her best to pry out new information about the game and the mastermind's goals. Sakura would have demanded the truth in a blaze of righteous fury, and Jill would have simply foregone answers in favor of immediate vengeance. And Byakuya… he would have lashed out with biting insults and brilliant insights, commanding the mastermind to give up her answers while mentally working out the truth from what she didn't say. Any one of them would have known how to seize this opportunity. They wouldn't have been like him, speechless and confused about what to ask the mastermind.
No… not the mastermind. Naegi knew what he wanted from the mastermind, the faceless entity behind so much horror. He'd been able to imagine standing up against the monster he'd envisioned as the culprit, demanding an explanation for their actions. He was pretty sure he could have done it, if the offer had come through Monokuma or one of the television monitors. He could have figured out how to handle the mastermind.
It was Junko Enoshima that he didn't know how to face. Questions that he wanted to ask the mastermind twisted out of his grip when he thought about applying them to the girl who'd been his friend. Knowing her identity, knowing who she'd been… he knew so much more than he had just a day ago, and he still felt like he didn't know anything at all. What was he supposed to ask her, when he barely understood what was happening? After everything that this knowledge changed, what still mattered?
But even so, he had to ask something. If he squandered this chance, he'd never be able to look his friends in the face again. In a desperate fumble for anything that might start her talking, Naegi reached for the first thing, the only thing, that he could think when he looked at Junko.
"Why… did you kill… Mukuro?"
Junko tilted her head. "Huh? That's what you're gonna go with after I gave you a blank slate? I thought you'd at least ask about where I got my super-cute new hairclips!"
Naegi couldn't stop his gaze from flickering up towards her hair - and icy shock shot through his blood when he realized two tiny Monokumas were grinning down at him from the top of each bouncy pigtail. The clips seemed to belong so naturally in her hair that he'd hardly noticed them… but they'd been present all along, quietly proclaiming her true identity. No one other than the mastermind would wear Monokuma as an accessory… and no one but Junko would joke about discussing fashion instead of her sister's death.
If it had been a joke at all. Dozens of offhand quips about annoying siblings rang in Naegi's ears as he looked away from the grotesque hairclips, imbued with a greater gravity than they'd had at the time. He glared up into Junko's heavily made-up eyes and mustered just enough breath to say, "No."
She sighed. "Ugh, should've known that a boy wouldn't appreciate these little details. But what the hell, right? It sure would've made her day to hear you ask about her, and I'd be a pretty terrible twin if I didn't do nice stuff for my big sis once in a while! Fine, then — it was because I didn't need her anymore. Now come on, let's get on to the important stuff — what do you think about the soap we've got stocked in the storage room? Because the label says it ought to moisturize, but my poor hands are definitely drying out after using so much of it!"
She thrust one delicate hand in front of his face, close enough that the back of her wrist nearly brushed his lips — but Naegi could hardly focus on it. He asked for the reason she'd killed her sister, the motive behind the worst betrayal of everything she'd done… and Junko had thrown the explanation away in a single dismissive sentence before leaping on to a new topic. It was exactly the same way she'd always spoken, twirling from thought to thought as her interest shifted… as if her sister's death hadn't affected her at all.
"Don't you… care?" Naegi knew the words were dangerous, challenging the friendly facade Junko still wore… but the memory of a blackened corpse wouldn't let him stay silent. "She was your… your sister… and you…"
"Killed her?" Junko filled in helpfully, when the rest of the sentence was too much for Naegi to manage. "Well, yeah, I guess it does kinda suck not to have a spare pair of hands sometimes… but the rest of you would never have taken me seriously without making an example of someone! And you've gotta admit she was a pretty awful fake me, right? So dying like this was really the best use such a disappointing girl could ever expect to be!"
She said the horrifying words so lightly, denying her sister's memory even a moment of dignity… and Naegi didn't understand how she could do it. Even if she'd hated the rest of her classmates, could she really have despised the sister that she'd always kept close by her side?
"Aw, what's the matter?" Junko leaned forward, propping her chin on one fist as she peered down at him. "Don't tell me thinking about Mukuro's gonna send you into another panic attack! I mean, sure, I get the impulse, but she's not worth —"
"Stop!" Naegi shoved the word out with all the force he could muster. "Don't… say that. Even if… you hate her… don't talk about her… like that."
"Huh? Hate her?" Junko blinked, mildly taken aback. "Well, that's a weird idea. Who'd hate her own twin sister?"
She was so convincing that for a moment, Naegi almost believed her. But… no, he knew he couldn't, not when he still had a grip on the facts. Whatever she said, he had to remember what had really happened. "You killed her."
"Sure — I told you I had to!" Junko shrugged. "And if she had to go, it wasn't like I could let anyone else do it." She looked off into the distance, an eerie smile touching her lips. "There's nothing like it… and there never will be again."
For the first time since Naegi had woken up, the look in Junko's eyes wasn't one he remembered from his lost memories… but he recognized it anyway. It was the look of someone who had fallen so far into grief and sorrow and horror that they began to embrace their own nightmares. He'd seen it too many times, in those awful days after the Tragedy as the world he'd known collapsed around him. He'd seen it through the cloudy lenses of gas masks as the sky burned, frozen on the faces of corpses and splashed across the blood-splattered faces of their killers.
Despair. That was why she'd done it. Of course it was. Naegi had never quite been able to grasp the way people thought once it seized them — he wasn't sure he wanted to — but after it had played out so painfully over and over, he knew what they would do first. A person who had fallen into despair would always target the ones they loved best in the most horrific ways. And so Junko hadn't hated Mukuro… not really. She'd gone to the trouble of killing her first, in a vicious betrayal that added emotional destruction to those final moments.
"So you… you loved her. That was… why." Now that he had the answer, Naegi almost wished he'd never asked the question.
Junko clapped her hands, her strange smile melting into a much friendlier expression. "I knew you'd get there eventually! Nothing stops you from plugging away when you're determined, huh? You know, I never really got why Mukuro liked you so much, but I've gotta say I'm starting to see it!"
Naegi blinked. Mukuro had liked him? Well, everyone in their class had gotten along, of course, but he hadn't realized that the standoffish girl had considered him a particularly close friend. Or… a pang of sadness hit him with the thought that maybe she'd just wanted to be closer friends… but the Tragedy had prevented it from happening.
Shying away from that idea, he looked back at Junko. She seemed to be waiting for something as she watched him, one eyebrow slightly raised in anticipation. He wasn't quite sure what, though… was she waiting for him to continue the conversation? Was there a conclusion he was meant to draw?
Although now that he thought about it… that did raise another question. "Is that… why you used her… to frame me? Because she… wanted to be… my friend?"
Junko giggled, although Naegi wasn't entirely sure why. "And he completely misses the point!" She rolled her eyes and shrugged. "Oh, well. Nope, that didn't have anything to do with it. I mean, how could it? That trap wasn't meant for you!"
That was news to Naegi. "You said…"
"That I tried to kill you?" Junko broke into the silence as he paused for breath. "Sure, sweetie, but not till later. No, that trap was for Kirigiri - shame it didn't work out!"
