The second time? Naegi turned to stare up at Byakuya, trying to figure out what he'd meant by that. Kyoko had never said anything like this before — he would have remembered!

Or rather… he would have remembered if she'd said it to him. But he'd been gone, trapped in Junko's lair, unconscious for the majority of the investigation. If Kyoko had wanted to bring up the possibility that he'd been their enemy, she would have had the opportunity. And if the bruising pressure of Byakuya's fingers on his hand was any indication, that was exactly what Kyoko had done.

"When we met in the bathhouse, before you made your challenge to Monokuma," Byakuya went on, his unflinching eyes leveled at Kyoko, "you told me that until his execution, you'd suspected Makoto of being the mastermind. Your entire strategy for the last trial focused on your goal of exposing him."

"What?" The word tore itself from his throat before Naegi could stop it, ragged with an edge of a sob.

And after everything else, that was what it took to send a spasm across Byakuya's face. He moved his thumb against Naegi's hand, a small curve of comfort as he traced the outline of one knuckle — but even as he did so, he never looked away from Kyoko.

"You pretended that you'd come to your senses." Any whisper of sound would have drowned Byakuya's words into nothingness, as quiet as if Kyoko were beside him instead of at the opposite side of the circle. "You said that you didn't think Makoto could have been the one behind everything any longer, not after everything he did during that trial." His lip curled up in a sneer. "So the only question is whether this is a burst of insanity brought on by shock, or if you were lying to me from the start."

Kyoko watched him for a moment, and Naegi could hear her voice murmuring from his memories. "Always give an opponent the opportunity to finish speaking before you make your argument. It's much easier to know how to counter them after they've revealed their hand."

Advice she'd given him a dozen times in the midst of class debates and friendly arguments, accompanied by wry smiles or rolled eyes. He'd been happy in those moments, he knew he must have been… but now the vicious edges of the trial left the memory cut to ribbons. He tried to focus on the memory of Kyoko with warmth in her eyes, warmth that he knew was still somewhere in her heart no matter what Junko had erased — but with the cold iron of her expression in front of him now, he couldn't summon up any other image of the woman he'd considered his best friend.

"If you're going to quote me, do it without twisting my words." She crossed her arms, with only the faint tapping of one finger against her elbow to hint that she might be annoyed with them. "I told you that I no longer suspected Naegi of being the mastermind because he was executed." One eyebrow arched upward. "It didn't occur to me that it might not stick."

"Then you mean… you're conceding that Togami's accusation is correct?" Sakura stared at Kyoko as though she'd suddenly revealed herself to be a complete stranger. "You really did believe that Naegi was the mastermind before the last trial?"

"I suspected it quite strongly," Kyoko said, and Naegi had to remind himself that just because he couldn't see any remorse on her face, it didn't necessarily mean that she didn't feel it. "I'd given him a few tests to reveal further information, and none of what I learned painted him in a good light."

"How do you test for being an evil mastermind?" Jill asked. "What'd you do, plant a fake magazine quiz about whether you secretly want to kidnap and torture a bunch of your friends?"

"Don't be stupid." Byakuya didn't even spare a glance in her direction, dismissing her attempt at humor with even less patience than usual. "She's talking about that pack of lies she told him about Ikusaba."

"Lies?"

Sakura's confused voice echoed the question whirling through Naegi's mind. He'd realized that Kyoko couldn't really have met Mukuro, sure… but he'd thought that it was all part of some complicated plan on her part to outsmart the mastermind.

Knowing he'd been right about that much of it didn't make him feel any better. He'd thought they were on the same side.

Sakura looked as bewildered as he felt for a moment — but then realization lit behind her eyes. "Oh, I see what you mean. Of course it must have been a lie. After all, if we just learned that Ikusaba was killed before the first trial, then Kirigiri couldn't possibly have met with her a few days ago."

"Obviously — though I doubt our master detective here knew that she'd based her little trick on a corpse." The sneer Byakuya sent across the circle would have made anyone but Kyoko flinch. "She gave him information in confidence to see if the mastermind would act on it."

"Which they did," Kyoko broke smoothly into the conversation. "The fact that Ikusaba was already dead is irrelevant. The point is that barely a day after I'd confided in Naegi about our supposed meeting, her body turned up as victim of a murder that incriminated me."

"And it didn't even occur to you that the mastermind could have found out about it some other way?" Byakuya shot back. "You really just assumed that the person watching our every move wouldn't have other ways of uncovering our secrets?"

"Such as… what, exactly?" Kyoko asked, for all the world as if she genuinely wanted to know the answer. "I've considered alternative explanations, and none struck me as plausible. But if you think you've spotted one I missed, I'm open to hearing it."

"Of course you are." The sarcasm dripped from Byakuya's tone. "That's why you waited to bring this up until the trial, when no one else would get more than a few seconds to think their arguments through — because you're so willing to listen to anyone else."

"I never said it would be easy to change my mind." She shrugged. "But nevertheless, you can try if you want." Her gaze settled on Naegi with an almost physical weight. "So, Naegi… is there anything you'd like to say?"

Any information he'd like to reveal… that was what she meant. What was his strongest defense that she would need to break down, where were the easiest weaknesses for her to target. She was assessing him like an opponent…

No. Like an enemy.

A pit opened in the bottom of Naegi's stomach, empty and roiling. If he knew anything about logic and debating, it was because Kyoko had taught him how to do it right. How could he hope to go up against her in a battle of wits — a real one, not the persistence-based logic he'd muddled through in the earlier trials? No matter how much he wanted to protect his friends, it was impossible.

And so he stared at Kyoko in frozen silence, all the words gone from his mouth. For the first time in one of these trials, he had nothing to say.