Watching Kyoko head back and forth down the hall to jam her finger against both Jill's doorbell and Sakura's, Naegi could see that this repetitive motion was the closest thing the collected young woman would allow herself to nervously pacing the halls. She was worried, worried about Byakuya, and seeing her fears made Naegi's own cold dread creep even closer to his heart.
Since he still didn't quite dare look directly at the screens showing either of the girls' locked dorm rooms, it came as a shock when Sakura's door flew open at last. "What's wrong?" she demanded, snapping to alertness when she saw Kyoko alone in the hall.
Before answering, Kyoko spun back to Jill's door and pressed the bell in a fierce, relentless ring that grated like sandpaper on Naegi's nerves even filtered through speakers. A blur of motion shot across one of the screens in the corner of Naegi's eye, just before Jill tore the door open with a furious snarl. "What the hell do you want?"
That was right — Jill had been angry at Kyoko about something, hadn't she? When they'd last been in the same room, the genocider had pinned the other girl to the ground and tried to make use of her scissors. With the evidence still visible in Kyoko's lopsided haircut, Naegi couldn't believe it had slipped his mind. No matter how worried he'd been about Byakuya afterward, that was no excuse for forgetting that one of his friends had attacked another.
But Kyoko couldn't have forgotten it — and she'd gone to summon Jill anyway. She didn't even look ruffled by the burning red eyes glaring directly in front of her face, stepping back from the door only to make sure both of the other girls were encompassed in her field of vision. "I need both of your help," she said, meeting first one gaze, then the other.
"Don't care." Jill spun back into her room and slammed the door —
Or tried to. But Kyoko was faster, one booted foot shooting between the door and frame quicker than a snake. "Togami needs your help, too."
Those were the magic words. Jill's glare didn't lessen in the slightest, but she did stop trying to bludgeon Kyoko's foot with the door.
"Have you seen him, then?" Sakura asked, the lines in her face deepening in a frown of concern. "I'd been under the impression that he'd returned to Naegi's room to rest for the night."
"He left again, and we ended up talking for quite some time," Kyoko explained, moving briskly along before they had a chance to interrupt with questions. "But when he left, he was not in a state of mind in which he ought to be left alone. He made it quite clear that my presence was not helpful, so —"
She didn't even get a chance to finish the request before Jill was off and running, braids flying back in a long horizontal stream as she disappeared out of the dorms.
Kyoko turned to watch her go, a hint of a frown crossing her face for a moment. "Well, I suppose that's one problem dealt with."
"Should I go in search of him as well?" Sakura asked, muscles tensing as if she planned to break into a sprint the moment Kyoko said the word.
But Kyoko shook her head. "Unfortunately, Togami isn't the only issue in need of immediate attention. We'll have to assume that Jill can handle him, because I need your help with something else."
That got Sakura's attention, all the blood draining from her face as she stared at Kyoko. "Something else? Not — not another murder?"
"No, not that I've discovered," Kyoko said, dispelling that idea immediately.
"Then what else could be so urgent?" Sakura asked, baffled.
"Yeah, what else is there to worry about if no one's turned up dead?"
The cheery voice hit Naegi like a blast of winter wind, chilling him to his bones. He tore his gaze from the wall of monitors to look around the data center — only to see that the chair where Junko had been sitting now spun in a lazy circle on its own, no occupant in sight.
And sure enough, when he looked back up at the screens, Monokuma stood between Kyoko and Sakura wearing his innocently inquisitive smile.
"I mean, shouldn't solving aaaallll of those fun mysteries be the Ultimate Detective's top priority?" Junko's voice echoed out from the control room, overlapping with Monokuma's modified voice in a doubly terrifying onslaught. "If you're not gonna try to untangle everything, then what are you even doing here, huh? Huh?"
Sakura dropped into a defensive stance, prepared to spring into action at a moment's notice — but Kyoko just rolled her eyes. "I wondered when you were going to decide to interrupt. I'm surprised you waited this long."
"I was waiting for an invitation." Junko's voice quivered with sorrow, almost as if she really was close to tears. "It hurts when you never want to include me in your super-secret nighttime rendezvous, you know."
The sadness had to be an act, of course… but even after everything she'd done, even knowing she almost certainly didn't mean a bit of it, Naegi couldn't help feeling the same urge to offer comfort that came on him when he saw one of his friends in distress.
"Yes, I'm sure you were devastated." Disbelief practically dripped from Kyoko's tone. "But I would have called you shortly in any case. I want to talk to you."
"Ehh? You mean I'm finally invited to sit at the cool kids' table? Or are you just here to take my lunch money and run?" Monokuma laughed gleefully — but this time, Junko didn't laugh along with him. She fell silent, apparently causing the sound through her controls rather than by voice… and as disconcerting as it had been to hear the two voices at once, it was somehow even creepier to hear Monokuma laughing alone.
But Kyoko didn't even blink, cocking one eyebrow as she waited for Monokuma to finish his cackling as if it were no more than white noise. She wasn't talking to the robot in front of her, not really… by refusing to engage with Monokuma's antics, she was making it clear that she would talk only to the mastermind behind the bear.
And it seemed like Junko was willing to let her. Monokuma's laughter faded, but she didn't rush to fill the silence with another flood of nonsense. It wasn't much of an invitation — but Kyoko seized the opportunity without hesitation.
"I want to ask you how it feels to know you've lost at your own game."
Naegi only had an instant to blink in bewilderment before Junko's short, sharp laugh rang out. "Oh? I've lost? Hmm… sounds to me like you've gotten yourself all mixed up. You're the ones who are playing a game here, not me!"
"But that's not quite true, is it?" Kyoko countered. "We might be the players, but this entire game has been yours from beginning to end. You wrote every rule in it — including the one that says that the blackened will be executed only if he or she is identified during a class trial." She narrowed her steely eyes. "And you broke that rule when you executed Makoto Naegi for a murder that you committed."
"Oh, really? Is that what you think?" Monokuma tilted his head inquisitively. "That's a pretty big accusation to throw around when you haven't got any proof to back it up!"
Kyoko crossed her arms with a small smile. "Oh, I'm happy to try to prove it — in fact, that's exactly what I want to do. I want to redo the trial for Mukuro Ikusaba to prove once and for all that you cheated at your own game."
"I see… so what you're really saying is that you want to aim low!" Monokuma's sharp teeth gleamed as he grinned too wide. "What kind of detective only wants to solve one mystery, huh? I say that if you're gonna try your hand at one, you might as well go for broke! I'll give you your trial, all right — but you aren't just gonna be solving the last murder. No, you're going up against every single mystery left in this school. If you can solve each and every one — then I'll accept your victory! But if you can't…"
"You'll execute all of us." Kyoko nodded once, as though she'd expected as much. "We'll do it."
"Oh? Do you speak for everyone now?" Monokuma asked, looking over to the side where Sakura had been watching in silence.
Sakura's eyes narrowed at the obvious challenge. "That's right. If this is our final opportunity to battle you, we will not retreat. We will not allow you to drive us further into your despair."
"Really?" Monokuma's brightest laugh rang through the room. "I wonder if that's what all of you will think once you learn the truth you've been fighting for!"
Naegi froze, the words echoing round in his head. Kyoko had agreed to uncover the mysteries of the school… the mysteries that all centered around the memories none of them knew they'd lost. The memories of despair, of the Tragedy, of the ruined world outside the shelter doors… memories that had been terrible enough to live through the first time, when they'd all at least had one another for support. But now… what would it do to them to learn that horrible truth now, after seeing so many friends die in pursuit of a world that no longer existed?
What would it do to Byakuya to learn that he had no one left beyond the school walls?
"I'm looking forward to it," Kyoko said, smirking with a confidence that couldn't possibly last. "I wonder what it will look like when the cause of all our despair falls into despair themselves."
She was determined now, Naegi could see it in her eyes. She would solve the mysteries and uncover the horrible truth… and she would only make everything worse.
