Maki had no clue where they were going.

Just like the email had told them, a car was there at Himiko's house the morning after the slumber party. All the windows were heavily tinted, and the driver refused to say anything, no matter how much any of them tried to talk to her.

Shuichi wasn't saying anything. The driver had taken their phones from them before they left, so the detective was just looking down. Maki was good at reading people, but Shuichi didn't really take an expert. They were tense, anxious, nervous.

Meanwhile, Himiko had fallen asleep, her snores the only interesting sound available.

If only Maki could let herself be so idle. But it was her job now, to protect those two.

She was running the odds in her head.

55% said that she was worrying for nothing. After all, Moriko had done right by them thus far.

35% said they would be needed for the trial after all. Maybe even as defendants. After all, Maki had attempted to kill Kokichi.

10% said that this was a transfer of property. They were being given back to Team Danganronpa.

If the last one turned out to be the case, Maki's hands wouldn't be clean for long. No matter what she had to do, no matter who she had to kill, she would keep them out of the hands of those monsters.

The drive didn't end up being too long after all. When the car finally stopped, and the woman at the front of the car told them to get out, they found themselves in a nondescript underground parking garage, and were led to an elevator.

A very familiar elevator.

The last time they had stood in it, Maki and her friends were being escorted out of this very building.

They were once again in the headquarters of Team Danganronpa.

The odds shuffled in Maki's head. The last option was now at least 40%. She prepared herself for what she might have to do.

Up and up the elevator went, until they got out in what looked like a fairly normal office building.

It was almost normal enough to make Maki forget that the people who worked there had killed her friends for entertainment.

The driver led them down a hallway, past a bunch of offices, until opening the door for them. It was a conference room, and there were already a few people waiting inside for them.

Two of them they knew already: Moriko Masa and Zatsu Kokaki. The third was a stranger, a skinny man in his late twenties who seemed to already have a receding hairline, and was wearing a suit.

The door was shut behind them, but just as Moriko began to speak, Maki talked over her. "We trusted you." Maki made no effort to hide her feelings.

Judging by how terrified the guy in the suit looked, it showed.

The therapist looked concerned, as usual, but Moriko just seemed frustrated. "Uggghhhhh," she groaned, rubbing the bridge of her nose with one hand. "Maki, pump the breaks, we're not handing you back over to them."

Maki blinked.

While the prosecutor continued to look annoyed, Zatsu spoke up. "We'd never let that happen." As cynical as Maki could be...she felt like the woman meant that. Gesturing to some of the open chairs, she added, "Take whatever seats you want, and don't worry, this should be good news."

Maki waited for Shuichi and Himiko to pick where they wanted to sit, then made sure she would positioned between them and the adults. Maki gave a reply, still looking at the only man in the room, "I don't see how any good news means we had to come back here." There were murmurs of assent to that from her friends.

"We can revive the other contestants!"

The room went dead silent.

Now, everyone was looking at the one who'd spoken, the man who looked so nervous. Maki didn't know what she could say to that. Shuichi, at least, tried to speak. "What?"

Moriko took a deep breath, and Maki felt fairly sure she was mentally debating what she was going to do to that guy later for his outburst. The recognition came from familiarity.

"This man is Fumi Takahada, and he works for Team Danganronpa in their Mental Reconditioning Department," Zatsu explained, taking over the conversation smoothly once it was clear no one else was very keen on talking.

Fumi coughed. "We prefer to be called the Programming Department..."

As if he hadn't said anything at all, Zatsu kept talking. "He, like most employees with his company, have found themselves responsible for at least twelve counts of negligence in the death of minors, as well as numerous other crimes." Maki didn't miss the implication. Were they considering suing the company for not only the deaths of her other friends, but everyone else they'd led to their deaths for the show?

"You're here because they're interested in cutting a deal," Moriko said, eyeing the technician with obvious disdain. "If they can successfully bring back some of the other teenagers they helped kill, those deaths will be dropped from their charges." Judging by how the man winced as she said that, he didn't agree with her word choice.

Well too bad. Maki felt Moriko was still putting it mildly.

Still, the actual thing they were discussing...it rattled Maki's brain.

"How can they resurrect people? Even I can't cast spells like that," Himiko said, her voice filled with awe.

The sallow-faced worker brightened a little at that, seemingly happy to explain the idea. "It's pretty genius, actually! See, we already have their backstories and character concepts from the beginning of the season, right? We just need to put them in new bodies!" His words made Maki's stomach twist in nausea.

That just...it made some sense. But it sounded so callous, dehumanizing. "But what about the experiences they had while we were in the Ultimate Academy," Shuichi asked, seemingly less bothered by the concept, instead picking apart the practicality of it.

"That's the best part!" Fumi exclaimed. "Normally, there'd be nothing we could do, but you were all recorded 24/7! We know everything they did, and so we just need our writers to turn those experiences into more backstory. It won't be perfect, and it's still untested, but it could work!"

They could come back.

Kaito could come back.

But would it really be them? "What if it doesn't work?" Maki asked. "What if you try it, and they're just bad imitations of the people we knew?" It would hurt. She knew that. If she let herself hope and she gave it a try and it failed it would hurt.

The prosecutor was ready to answer that question. "We're willing to give them a trial run. A month or so for you to make a decision if it really worked or not. If it does, we drop some of the charges. If it doesn't, they're getting the worst penalty we can muster." There was no mercy in Moriko's voice. Good. Maki didn't think anyone at Team Danganronpa deserved any.

"Since you'll be the ones observing them to see how well the process worked, you three will get to choose who is brought back during the trial period. Not only that, who gets brought back period is up to you," Zatsu explained. A kink in her cheery armor briefly surfaced as she flinched. "We're aware that there may be some from your school you aren't particularly interested in having back."

The weight of that decision started to settle on Maki's shoulders. Pick who would come back.

All three adults got up and walked over to a nearby door. "Talk about it, we'll be back in ten minutes for an answer."

Then, it was just Himiko, Shuichi, and Maki in a room together. Left to look at each other, thinking about what to say first.

"Should we even be doing this?" Maki asked to start with. "Do you think they can really recreate our friends like this? It seems more likely that they'll just be cheap knock-offs." She felt they might as well face that truth first.

Shuichi didn't look convinced. "Possibly. But it isn't any different from what happened to us. If we were to say that this method couldn't bring them back out of hand, without proper consideration, wouldn't we be denying that we're really ourselves?" They had a point.

It looked like the conversation was going over Himiko's head. "Let's just say they'll really be our friends," Himiko said, simplifying things. "We gotta bring back Tenko! She didn't kill anyone, and..." her voice trailed off. Maki knew the topic of the dead Ultimate Aikido Master was a sore one for her.

But it wasn't like Maki could throw stones. "Kaito." She didn't feel like she had to say more than that. He may have killed Kokichi, but only to save Maki's life.

She knew what Shuichi would say before they even opened their mouth. "Kaede." She was a bit of a rougher sell, compared to Himiko and Maki's picks. After all, even if she'd been exonerated posthumously, she had tried to kill Rantaro. Of course, Maki had tried to kill Kokichi, so she couldn't really throw stones.

No one objected though. "Okay then, those three for the test," Maki said. "What about if the test works? What do we do?"

Himiko looked confused by the question. "Nyeh? We bring them all back." She said it like it was blindingly obvious.

It was almost enough to make Maki laugh. Of course Himiko would look at it that simply. "Korekiyo was a serial killer, and he killed Angie and Tenko. Kirumi murdered Ryoma in cold blood. Tsumugi..." Hell, listing everything that bitch had done wrong would take all day.

She'd expected Shuichi to take her side, but they surprised her. "But all of those crimes were motivated by a past that wasn't real. Outside of the Ultimate Academy, Kiyo didn't kill anyone. Kirumi only killed Ryoma because she thought she was in charge of Japan."

"Tsumugi didn't have any excuses like that."

"Are we sure? Do we really know that everything she said about herself was true? How do we know all of that wasn't planted in her head?" Shuichi asked question after question. "Maybe we could ask them to, I don't know, edit out those parts of-"

"No." Maki stared into Shuichi's eyes. "If we're bringing anyone back, we're bringing them back as themselves. No editing. No changing." She couldn't believe Shuichi would never consider the idea. If she had died in the show, would they now be considering editing out her past as an assassin? Making her into the Ultimate Child Caregiver for real?

She didn't know if Shuichi knew that was what she was thinking, but Himiko brought up another problem. "Plus, it wouldn't be like we could hide the truth forever. They'd be able to look up what really happened online."

Both of their arguments seemed to work. "Okay, you make good points. I guess we'll-"

The door opened. "Done yet?" Moriko asked, sounding bored.

They all looked at each other. "I think we know who we want for the trial period," Shuichi said, speaking for them. "But we need more time to decide on what to do after that." It sounded good to Maki.

The answer didn't phase her. "Fine. Tell us who, and they can get started." They told them who they wanted, and got a nod back. "Okay. According to them, it'll take at least two weeks to reformat their backstories and find new bodies for them."

That feeling came back to Maki's stomach, but it was Himiko who asked, "Where are the bodies...coming from?"

Fumi rushed to answer. "We'll just be reusing actors from other shows, or pulling some out of deep storage! We're not accepting any new performers right now for, uh, obvious reasons."

That was a better answer than Maki expected but still...actors? Performers? Were those the words they hid behind to feel better?

It seemed to make Himiko feel relieved. "Good. It would be nice, if all sixteen of us could be together again?"

What she said seemed to surprise Fumi. "Sixteen? Oh! You're counting K1-B0 and Tsumugi." He looked, for the first time since they met him, conflicted about how to feel. "We're rebuilding the robot right now, and it will be even easier to restore it to how it was before it exploded, since we were backing up its memory regularly. But as for Tsumugi..." His face became tight, like he was sucking on a lemon. "She wasn't fictional. We messed with her abilities, played around with her personality a little, but...we can't bring back real people."

Zatsu pointedly cleared her throat. "They are all real people." Maki's appreciation for the therapist grew quite a bit at that.

"Yeah, sure," Fumi said, but he made no effort to hide the fact he clearly didn't really agree. "...some days, I still head into the cafeteria, and I think she'll be sitting in her usual spot..." Then the man just trodded away, his job apparently done.

If he thought that would make Maki care even an iota about Tsumugi Shirogane, he was wrong. She deserved what happened to her, and worse. The fact she couldn't be brought back was fine with her.

"A few more things before you go," Moriko said, as they all stood up to leave. "One, this is top secret. Aside from the families you're living with, tell no one. The press cannot find out about this deal if it doesn't work." That was fine with Maki. She could be quiet. "Two, these new bodies are probably not going to have families willing to take them in, like yours did. You were all pretty lucky. See if they can stay with you? If they can't, I can pull some strings, but the penny-pinchers are looking for any way to save money."

The idea was really starting to hit Maki, as they all walked out to the elevator. She might be getting Kaito back.

Her first impulse was to harden her heart, to prepare herself for it to go wrong.

But...things had been going well.

Maybe, just maybe, Maki could look forward to this.