Togami rolled his eyes in disgust — he'd thought Enoshima could think faster than that. She'd been piloting Monokuma, after all, so she had to have at least a few functional braincells rattling around in her head. But if so, she certainly hadn't decided to use them yet. "If I could do anything to stop them from attacking Makoto, I would have done it already!"
She tilted her head innocently, and he could almost see a cartoon question mark pop into the air above her head. "Huh? But that's weird — it looks to me like there are lots of things you can do." She tapped a finger against her chin in a cloying show of calculated cuteness. "Three is lots, right? Seems like a lot to me!"
"Three? Three what?" He glowered at her as she let out a childish giggle. "Can't you be serious for two minutes? This is no time for acting ridiculous?"
"Acting? You think I'm acting?" And in a flash the cuteness vanished, leaving a grim young woman staring into the distance with empty eyes. "I wish it were that simple." She looked up into his eyes, and a chill whispered along all of his exposed skin. "No one is taking this more seriously than me."
All the hairs on the back of his neck prickled, a primitive instinct hissing through his brain to retreat, retreat, retreat — but he refused to show weakness to the mastermind's mouthpiece, no matter how clever she could act. When all was said and done, she only ranked second in command — the real mastermind would never let her touch him. With that firmly in mind, he forced back the unnecessary fear and glared at her. "If you're genuinely attempting to be of assistance, then explain yourself."
She glanced over at Makoto, probably believing that she'd hidden the debate warring through her head — and let out a cheerful schoolgirl giggle as she bounced to another personality. "Well, okay — I guess I can humor you, if you're going to insist!"
"No!"
A whir of motion, and Makoto's wheelchair zipped up to him. "No, don't — don't listen to her! You can't believe her, she's trying to trick you!"
Trick him? Enoshima, a girl who didn't seem capable of holding the same thought in her head for more than thirty seconds together? Togami rolled his eyes at the idea. She couldn't be a complete idiot, not if she'd been left to administrate so much of the game herself — but he couldn't believe that she was in his league.
"You're still trying to convince us of your story?"
Sharp tension shot through Togami's shoulders at the sharp sound of Kirigiri's voice. He refused to give her the satisfaction of looking her way, but he didn't need to see her. After five trials with her, he knew how she stood at her podium with arms crossed and one eyebrow raised, studying Makoto like a specimen she planned to dissect.
"Are you trying to maintain a veneer of plausible deniability by refusing to acknowledge it?" She paused, presumably in the hopes of some kind of reaction — but of course Makoto didn't break at such an obvious attempt. She sighed, a huff of frustrated breath faintly audible even across the circle. "I don't understand what you're trying to accomplish."
No, of course she didn't. How could she, when the mastermind had already proved himself smarter than all of them put together? They should have seen this so much earlier — who other than Makoto deserved to run rings around them all?
These continued objections couldn't be serious attempts to deceive them, not really. No… they were just more proof that Makoto couldn't trust him enough yet.
And that… that hurt, a knife twisting deep into the emptiness of his chest. Makoto still thought that Togami would try to interfere and ruin the careful plans he'd set in motion, given the opportunity. In spite of all the promises and explanations Togami had tried to offer, Makoto still feared that he would reject the ultimate goal of the game and side with those who stood against him.
Clearly words wouldn't be enough — and Enoshima must have realized it already, too. His eyes darted back to her, and she met his gaze with a bright smile ever so slightly reminiscent of a shark's wide grin. "Soooo…?"
She really wanted to make him say it? The childish insistence on spelling it all out brought a faint sneer to his lips, but nevertheless he gave her a curt nod. "If you have any useful advice, get on with it."
"No —"
"Glad to hear it!" Enoshima drowned out Makoto's attempt at another protest, but even the knowledge that he'd tried again gave the knife another twist into Togami's heart. "But I mean, it really ought to be pretty obvious." She toyed with a loose curl, tugging it away from the rest of her pigtail before letting it spring back to the place where she'd wanted it. "After all, it's not like the game has actually stopped or anything."
After so many shocks and shifts in his world, he had to blink for a few seconds before grasping what she meant. "You're talking about the killing game?"
"Well, duh, it's the only game on these days — unless you guys have started up a Monopoly marathon while I wasn't looking!" And just like Monokuma, she paused to giggle at her own joke, in spite of her audience's cold silence. "You know, I think there might be a copy stashed in the rec room somewhere. Maybe the winners can take it on for round two!"
Brushing aside the stupid fluff of her nonsense, Togami zeroed in on the key point she'd talked around. "What does it matter if the killing game is still on? We're in the middle of a trial!"
"So?" She held up her Monokuma again, wiggling him in front of her face so his head bobbled slightly. "There's no actual rule saying we can't make it two for the price of one!"
She dropped the robot with a clatter, letting it roll into the darkness just beyond the halo of light illuminating her throne. "So like I said — if you really wanna prove you can help out Team Mastermind —" She waved a hand in a grand gesture around the circle at the other three girls. "You've got a choice of three!"
