DORM: SAYA'S ROOM

Jane looked absolutely delighted as she gathered up her clothes and excused herself. She weaved a path between me and Lucina, both standing there, stock-still, awkward. She opened the door, waved goodbye, and stepped out into the hallway. It wasn't until the door closed that I could hear her laughter.

"I'm... actually kind of impressed with her restraint," I remarked. Lucina didn't react.

I sighed, walked over to her, and took her hand. I led her over to a nearby chair and positioned her in front of it. I sat down in the adjacent chair, smiling as warmly as I could.

Lucina blinked, looking completely bewildered about the concept of sitting down, then regained herself. She plopped down in the chair, fiddling with her paper and pen, before writing out, Am I being weird? I'm being totally weird.

"Uh... a little, but it's fine," I said, giving out a little forced laugh. "It's an awkward situation! It's fine."

Still not looking directly at me, she wrote, I shouldn't be weird! You can do what you want. I want you to do what you want!

"If it helps, I'm probably as surprised as you are," I said. "I didn't think I'd ever be friends with Jane, much less, uh, hookup-friends."

She held up a message, Are you dating her?

"Oh, uh no!" I exclaimed quickly. "No. For many, many reasons: no."

Then why did you do that? She seemed to regret showing me that one, and she pulled it away quickly.

I couldn't react for a moment, but eventually I shrugged. "Killing game, I guess? It kinda felt so weird someone was into me, especially a girl, I just went with it."

Lucina glared down at the carpet for a moment. A long moment; so long it started to get uncomfortable. "Um... Lucina?"

She jerked her eyes up, and then she angrily wrote out a new note, Do you really think you're not hot?

I immediately threw my hands up around my face, blushing terribly. "Um..."

She slapped the arm of the chair, startling me. She quickly wrote, This is that same but then she tossed the paper away, flustered and mad. I didn't know what to do, but she took a breath, then held up an index finger, telling me to give her a second. She wrote out a long message, still blindingly fast, and handed it over to me.

This is the same thing I told you after Therion died. You convince yourself you don't have power and then use that as a reason why you don't have to be careful. You said you were going to work on this You promised you'd fix it. YOU HAVE THE POWER TO HURT PEOPLE You need to understand this. Of course Jane will act like she's okay not dating, but is she really? Did you think to make sure? Did you worry for a second she might feel different? WE ARE ALL TERRIFIED and everyone knows you're the only one who can save us and you keep

The message just ended like that, mid-sentence.

And weirdly, unexpectedly, I had a choice. I somehow knew, like I was looking at a light switch, that I had two options. I could see the rage, just oozing around like magma, burning and destroying. But I could also see coldness. That mindset I snapped into during trials, where everything was just clear and empty and open.

I closed my looked down, folded Lucina's note, and placed it gingerly in my lap. Breathing deeply, I met her eyes. They looked angry... but also scared.

"You're right," I said.

She literally gasped in surprise that I wasn't screaming at her. "I think some of this isn't fair," I continued, tapping the folded message softly. "But most of it is absolutely right. I'm sorry."

She didn't do anything. She barely even moved.

I thought of my mom. Times I'd put myself down in front of her, times I'd avoided confiding in her, times was cold to her. And though the image of her face didn't change in my memory from how it was before, I suddenly realized there was pain in her eyes. Rejection, fear, regret. I'd done that.

I thought about my dad.

"All I can do is say I'll try," I said to Lucina. "I don't want to be in the center of things; I want to be the forgotten little nerdy girl off in the corner. But. I'll try."

Lucina took a deep breath. Oh thank god I thought you were never going to talk to me again.

"I couldn't bring myself to do that," I said almost automatically. "Even if I didn't..." I paused and then barreled through. "Even if I didn't have feelings for you, all of us who survive this are going to be in each other's lives. No one else will understand what we've been though."

She nodded, and then, eyes cast down to the floor, she showed me, It wasn't about sex.

"Uh."

I didn't want you to think I was insisting on sex.

"Ahahahah." I very much became the nerdy awkward girl again. It was not a strategy this time, it was just how I was reacting. "Aha. Yes. Okay. Um." I must have been bright red. "Well. It... it wasn't about sex for me, either. It was... um, being close to someone I cared about. It scared me. That's why I ran."

She nodded. Okay, because I wouldn't just make someone do that. Katy and I haven't even done it.

I opened my mouth to say something. Then I closed my mouth again.

Looking like she was trying to shrink her body into nothingness, Lucina wrote, I shouldn't have told you that.

Making words still wasn't working very well, but I forced out, "it's okay?"

I'm pretty sure she wants to! She does care about me! I just think she wants me to be innocent? Or pure? Something. We're working on it!

"Um."

She was so agitated, she dropped her notebook. Dazed, I watched her jump down and grab it and very messily write out, oh my god I will stop trying to explain it I am making it worse

She gathered up her materials and jumped to her feet and walked quickly to the door. As she went, she scribbled a message quickly and she showed me, I criticized you and then made it as hard as possible to do what I asked that is just

But she got to the door by the time I had read that far, so I stopped reading. Just as her hand touched the doorknob, I did it without even thinking, I threw my hands around her, holding her from behind and I just held her.

Her pen and notebook thumped to the floor, and she completely froze in place.

My one arm was wrapped around her collarbone, my hand pressing on her chest. My other arm wrapped around her stomach. I just held her.

"Hey," I said. "We're scared. Everything is crazy and complicated and messed-up because we're scared. Okay? When we get out of here, things will settle down and we'll all work this out and we'll be surprised it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be."

She placed her hand on top of mine, leaning back against me.

"And we're almost done," I said. "We're almost free."

I pulled back, and she turned to face me. "Katy has been a really good friend to me," I said. "I haven't liked admitting it, because I'm jealous of her, but she's really been wonderful. I trust her. We'll all work this out."

She looked at me, then she nodded firmly. I took a step back and let her bend down to pick up her stuff. When she stood back up, she paused for a moment, and then wrote a note, When you say you trust Katy, does that mean you think she isn't the mastermind?

I didn't answer for a moment, but pretty quickly I was able to smile. "Of course," I said.

I caught a tiny hint of a frown, but then she smiled back. She placed her hand tenderly on my shoulder, nodded once, and slipped out the door.

MAIN QUAD

After a shower and a surprisingly dreamless sleep, I headed out to meet the day. I was a little early for breakfast, and I found Rocky and Rodrigo fiddling around with the music production equipment.

"Good morning, friend Saya!" Rodrigo greeted.

Normally, his friendliness wouldn't surprise me, but after the whole thing yesterday, I felt a little on edge. "Hey," I replied, walking up to them. "You guys... doing okay?"

"Our dirge has mostly taken shape!" Rocky answered happily. "Just got a few more layers. I did the beats and structure, Roddy did the melody."

"Ah!" Rodrigo blushed, scratching his cheek in embarrassment. "I was inspired to honor our classmates, but I really did no more than advise..."

"Hey!" Rocky smacked his arm playfully. "Remember what I told you, huh? You wrote half this song, period."

"Um, I was just wondering about the library thing yesterday," I ventured. "Rocky said it was pretty extreme."

"Yes." Rodrigo glowered down at the ground for a moment, then sighed. "Several weeks ago, friend Katy was telling me of a cultural theme here in this country." He paused. "My country, I suppose."

After a slight, uncomfortable cough, he continued. "A young, naive student goes off to college and learns the world is much larger and more complex than they had ever dreamed. And even more importantly, they learn truths about themselves they'd never expected."

"Yo, I think she meant, uh, something different," Rocky said.

"Perhaps." Rodrigo shook his head. "She made it seem frightening, but exciting. Necessary for a full life. But this I have learned... I know not how to even respond."

"Are you angry?" I asked.

"I was at the beginning," Rodrigo said. "The rage was nearly blinding. But as I kept reading what had been prepared for me, my feelings changed. I am overwhelmed." He clasped his hands in prayer. "I was mostly concerned the words of the saints and the gospels had been a lie. When I explored the library and realized they are not, I was put at ease."

"Hm." I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. "Jane kinda said the same thing. She was really angry, but then she didn't know what to think."

"Ha!" Rocky chortled. "That pretty much describes every day, for me."

"Not so!" Rodrigo objected. "You have been admirably keeping your temper, despite the stress of our circumstances."

I nodded. "Yeah, you haven't flipped out in a while."

"Uh. Well." Rocky looked away from both of us. "I have, kinda? Just in my room. And once, out here. Just not when anyone else was around."

I raised an eyebrow. "Hmm. What set you off?"

"Oh, I dunno, something," he replied, shrugging. "I just kinda held it in until I was alone. Listened to music or something."

"I... actually think that's not so bad," I pointed out. "You're controlling yourself!"

"I should be able to do it all the time," he grunted.

"Maybe eventually, but I dunno if peak mental health is really something to strive for in a murder game."

"'Tis true!" Rodrigo added. "Your temper may make you vulnerable to evildoers, but you keep it in check except when alone! I am grateful."

Rocky replied with a grunt.

"Ah... friend Rocky?" Rodrigo ventured. "Are you... growing angry right now?"

"No!" Rocky snapped angrily.

Rodrigo and I glanced at one another, but he simply held up his palm to me and strove forward. "Come." He grabbed Rocky by the arm and began pulling him towards the gym. "I will help you bear the storm of your fury!"

Rocky let out a wordless objection, but he allowed himself to be pulled away.

STUDENT UNION: CAFETERIA

Rocky and Rodrigo were only a couple of minutes late to breakfast, but no one seemed to consider the our regular meeting to be particularly urgent. Jane acted for all the world like a preening, proud cat, and Lucina was awkward, but thankfully neither of them said anything.

In fact, both Lucina and Katy were withdrawn and distracted. I'm not sure they made eye contact once during the whole meal.

Discussion was mostly light, but in that tense kind of way where everyone knows we're all trapped until at least one more person gets murdered. I tried not to think about the fact that I recognized that as a mood, now.

When the meal broke up, I pulled Rocky aside. "Hey, um... are you okay?"

He blinked in confusion. "Okay?"

"After this morning. You know... when you were getting mad."

"Oh!" He grinned widely. "You're checking in on me?"

"Yyyyes?" I wasn't quite sure what to make of him. "Is that strange?"

"Kinda! But not for you!" He clapped his hands in his enjoyment. "I just realized it. You're doing leadery things. You're our leader!"

"I am?"

"Of course you are, darling," Jane called out casually as she dropped her used plates off at the dish station.

Rodrigo looked over his shoulder from picking out a last piece of fruit. "Yes, I have been considering you such since Friend Earl passed away."

"Why, do you not want to be leader?" Rocky asked, still grinning.

"No, I hate it," I answered simply. I glanced around for Lucina, but she and Katy had already left. "But I guess I'll do it." I glanced at him. "So? Uh, leader-question I guess: are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah! Me and Roddy talked about it. I don't get the Catholic thing, but he said some shit that helped." He glanced over his shoulder; Jane and Rodrigo had left and we were alone. "Hey, question?"

"Yes?"

"Have you ever, uh..." He was blushing again. "Have you ever crushed on a straight girl? Or a gay dude, I guess?"

"Oh." I took a deep breath. "I mean, in retrospect, a kabillion, but I didn't know it at the time. Are... you asking for the reason I think you're asking?"

"Yeah, probably." He fiddled awkwardly with his headphones. "It's been the thing that's made me mad a couple of times. I really don't like that."

I gestured to a table, and we both went and sat down. "Why do you get mad?"

"Aggghhhh I don't knowwwwwww," he moaned. "I just doooo. I hate thinking about this inside-my-head shit."

"I think..." I began, then I cut myself off. "Okay, leader-time. I'm gonna be hard-ass leader-girl, is that okay?" He grimaced but nodded, so I continued. "You gotta let me know if you're mad at someone in particular. That puts both of you in danger, you understand?"

"Yeah. I know." He leaned back, staring at the ceiling thoughtfully. Eventually, he said, "No, I don't think it's anyone else. I just start, like, spinning around all crazy, I'm not mad at anything."

"Yeah." I nodded to him firmly. "All right. I like your idea of going to your room to let it out. You're safe locked in there. Keep doing that, if you have to. And you have friends here. Lucina, and me, and even Jane, right? You can talk to us."

He frowned for a moment, then looked up and smiled a big, genuine smile. "Yeah. Thanks." He tapped the side of his head, thinking. "There was something else... oh!" He held up an index finger in realization. "My Juliet thing! That's gonna suck, huh?"

"Your... what?"

"My thing she's got! Whatever she has on me that's like what she gave to Jane and Roddy. I'm kinda freaked out about that." He looked at me hesitantly. "Could... you go get it for me?"

I blinked at him in surprise. "Me?"

"Yeah! Dude, I'm dumb, I don't know anything. But you can go and read it and you can decide if I should know or not!"

"Rocky... I can't do that."

He was leaning forward eagerly, almost in an aggressive way. "C'mon! Bring Roddy? At least you can give it to me in a nice way?" He leaned back, deflating. "This is shit that's supposed to make you mad, right? I can't take that."

I held his gaze for a moment, then found myself nodding. "Fine. I'll bring Rodrigo, and we'll look at it together."

"Fuck yeah!" he cried, so exuberantly it was like he'd never felt an emotion but joy in his life. "Dude, I am so relieved you're our leader."

I just wasn't sure what to say to that.

SOUTH QUAD

I spend the rest of the morning walking around feeling anxious, but nothing really happened. I was able to check in with Rodrigo to confirm his participation in receiving Rocky's information, but other than that, I didn't see anyone. Things still just felt weird.

But as luck would have it, Juliet's email summoning Rocky to the library came out in the early afternoon. I headed to the south quad right away, but found Rodrigo there already waiting for me.

"Greetings, Friend Saya!" he said.

"Hey." I walked up to him. "Ready?"

"Indeed. Friend Saya?" I paused; he looked at me very seriously. "I wish to thank you. I've been concerned about how to help Friend Rocky, and it seems your conversation with him helped a great deal."

I just nodded. "I hope so, at least. You've been worried about him?"

"Eh..." He looked away. "Excessively so. I'm thankful for this chance to offer protection in a direct way."

"Hmm."

He looked up suddenly. "What?!"

"...nothing."

"Friend Saya!" he sputtered, but I was already walking to the entrance of the library.

"It's okay!" I called over my shoulder. "It's not a big deal. Let's go help him out, okay?" I heard him trot after me.

LIBRARY: STACKS

Juliet expressed absolutely no surprise or concern when she saw Rocky himself wasn't with us; she just gave us the directions through her library maze ("go in the top floor, take the second left and the second right") and said nothing else.

Rodrigo and I proceeded carefully, but the journey was uneventful, despite my general agitation. When we reached the location we were directed to, we just found three books on the floor, all charred. "Kind of a minimal set-up," I remarked.

"Aye." Rodrigo walked forward, poking his toe at the books. "Ah, here it is!" He bent down and pulled a couple of papers out from under the books. He held it out and I leaned over so we could read it together.

It was hard to parse, but from what I could tell, it was a transcription of some phone calls among employees at...

"New York City Hall," Rodrigo read haltingly. "New York is a grand metropolis, correct?"

"Yeah, and it's where Rocky's from." I pointed to one of the blobs of text. "They're talking about some... incident? Hm, 'outdoor festival...' 'just because someone's hands got too sticky for even basic maintenance...' oh my god." I looked up at Rodrigo. "Okay, I think what happened is, there was some big accident at a street festival. The sidewalk collapsed, or something. And people in the government were stealing the money instead of using it to keep things safe."

Rodrigo glowered. "'Multiple fatalities.' A truly grotesque breach of trust."

"But... but look at this." I indicated the bottom of the first page and flipped over to the next page. "They're talking about how someone started a fight just before the accident, and... oh, shit." I exhaled deeply; even after this whole experience, human evil could still baffle me. "They're fixing records. They're making it look like it was the fight that made the accident happen. 'Unprompted violence...' 'only known by a pseudonym...' Rodrigo, this is Rocky. They're pinning the accident on Rocky."

Rodrigo put a hand to his chest, then looked over at me. "But he is not truly to blame?"

"No, I don't think so. He started the fight, but the collapse would have happened anyway."

Rodrigo walked a few steps away, then turned back, confused. "Friend Saya. I don't understand. This is grossly unjust, but could it really be akin to what Friend Jane and I learned about our pasts?"

I frowned. "Rocky loves New York. It might actually really shake him." I tapped my chin in thought. "The city might be something he really trusted his whole life, like you trusted the monks."

"Then how can we tell him of this?" Rodrigo close-to-fretted. "We cannot be deceptive, but we must all stay safe."

"Well... I think that's why we have this second part." I held up the last paper, which was a print-out of a news article. The headline read MAYOR'S OFFICE ROCKED BY EMBEZZLEMENT SCANDAL.

"According to this, Rocky never actually got accused. Some people... like, a clerk and a custodian and a secretary... they exposed these guys before they could do it."

Rodrigo brightened, and he came over and glanced over the article. "So all is well? Why..."

Juliet's voice suddenly and loudly cut him off. "What are you doing here?"

We paused in surprise and glanced at one another. "Uh... Juli..."

"You can't get in, no matter how much you bang on the door." A pause. "I'll let you in if you want to use one of my nooses. But that's the only way I'll... to kill yourself, of course, what else would you use a noose for? ...Look..." She actually paused in what sounded like surprise. "That... doesn't make sense. I was seven when I stopped going. Listen, the timing doesn't... My journal... Christ, if you'll just stop throwing a tantrum and listen, I'll explain..."

"Something's happening," Rodrigo said grimly. I nodded, and we raced back through the shelves.

LIBRARY: MAIN ROOM

Juliet kept on in the same manner as we moved, and just before we emerged from the stacks and got up the stairs, she let out a disgusted, "Fine, believe what you want!" And a crackle of static.

We emerged just in time to see Katy descending the stairs from the rare books room, tears clearly on her face even at a distance. I tried calling out to her, but she ignored me and ran toward the library exit.

Rodrigo and I stood, bewildered, in the main room. I looked up at the big window to the rare books room, and I could see Juliet staring down at us.

"What happened?" I asked out loud. She didn't move.

DORM: SAYA'S ROOM

I didn't see Katy for the rest of the day. She didn't come to dinner, but Lucina claimed she was safe.

We told Rocky about the street festival thing (leading with the good part) and he, just like Jane and Rodrigo, seemed overwhelmed but basically fine.

The five of us lingered at dinner a while, things actually seeming like group of college friends hanging out. It was late before we even realized it.

After getting back to my room and into bed, I lay awake for a long time, imagining an alternate universe where this was just a regular university, and all our friends were still here. I'd complain to Bepi about Lucina-drama and he'd roll his eye and we'd go get pizza. Me and the Vandal would have a terrible relationship that would last about a week and be super-fun and end with us just petering out into friendship. I'd get drunk for the first time, JP watching over me, and probably start telling everyone how awesome my mom was. I'd argue politics with Nicole late into the night.

I felt cold. The reality was just... empty compared to that. And it'd probably get emptier soon.

In my dream, JP stood sadly in what appeared to be a teenager's bedroom. The door opened and Bepi walked in, serious and stoic. "Well," he said. "We learned a lesson today, didn't we?"

JP nodded morosely and a little fearfully. Bepi stepped closer. "And what lesson did we learn?"

"Don't drink and drive," JP answered. "Or you might kill your little sister's horde of baby ducks."

"That's right," Bepi replied sternly. "Any time there's baby ducks nearby, you should never, ever drink and drive! Especially at night, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"And why's that?"

JP hung his head. "Because baby ducks are nearly invisible in the moonlight."

"Yes!" Bepi put his hands on his hips and leaned forward. "And I don't know what you were thinking, going off alone with that bicycle repair man! I hope you learned a lesson from that, too!"

"Yes, sir," JP moaned. "'Bicycle repair men love to murder baby ducks.'"

Bepi stared at him harshly for a moment, then his face softened. "Come here, son," he said, spreading his arms. JP walked over and they embraced.

A gentle sound came from the window behind them. A baby duck stood on the windowsill, staring at them. "Wait..." said JP, "is that...?"

Another baby duck flew in through the window. And another. And another.

"Oh god, here they come!" Bepi shrieked. More and more ducks flew in, until the room was nothing but fuzzy chaos and screams.

My head hurt when I woke up.

GYM: YOGA STUDIO

The rest of the day was uneventful but tense. Katy came to breakfast, but she didn't say anything to anyone the whole time.

I spent most of the day by myself, trying to avoid being anxious about the fact that I was the only one left Juliet hadn't exposed her big information to. This was a terrible strategy: being alone just made the potential horrors more and more elaborate.

My daily exercise session helped a little. On my way out of the gym, I glanced into one of the yoga studios, and I saw Lucina in there, eyes closed. I felt an uncontrollable rush of a billion emotions at once as I realized this was exactly a situation that had happened our second or third day here. The first time I really spent time with her.

I knocked hesitantly on the door and went in. She jerked her eyes open in shock and then relaxed when she saw me. She waved, then pointed near the door to her pen and notebook.

I picked up her stuff and walked over, sitting down next to her. After receiving her writing equipment, she scribbled out, Giving meditation another try?

"Just checking in," I replied. "I'm the leader, apparently. I gotta make sure everyone's okay. Oh!" I concentrated a moment and then tried to enact the signs for 'How are you?' that I'd seen in the book I'd found at the student stores.

She stared at me blankly for a moment, and then she burst into silent laughter. "Hey!" I snapped. "What... what's so funny?!"

She waved her hands placatingly and calmed her laughter, before writing out, You don't actually cup your boobs when you do that. But I got what you were saying. She demonstrated the correct sign, and, blushing, I repeated it back.

"Thanks," I mumbled, still blushing. Then I realized something. "But... you didn't answer my question."

She paused a moment, and her face fell. Eventually she showed me, Worried and scared. But before she turned the note around, she'd looked at is, as if she'd wanted to write more.

I leaned forward a bit. "Is it Katy?"

She looked away and then nodded, but she didn't do anything else.

"I... saw her at the library today," I said, causing her to jerk her head up in surprise. "She was trying to confront Juliet about something." Lucina grimaced and clenched a fist, but she didn't respond. "Did she read her Juliet-information? Is that why she's acting weird?"

Lucina wrote out a new message, No. But I can't find my DVD. And she avoided the question when I asked her about it.

"Your..." My mind spun. "You think she knows your information?"

I don't know. I'm scared she'll do something stupid.

There was another hesitation before she showed me that one, and I felt my chest icing out. "Hey. You're not telling me something." She looked up in frustration, but I barreled through and kept going. "Trust me as your leader and your friend, okay? I can take it."

She hesitated and then jotted, It's not important. It's just I don't know what I'd do if she died because of me. I love her.

I had known that, of course, but seeing it written out felt like a hole opening up in my gut.

She noticed. I'm sorry. I keep hurting you and hurting her and hurting everyone. Everything I say is painful to everyone I care about and

She was crying, and she jumped to her feet. She turned to run from the room, and I tried to follow, but she tore off a note and thrust it into my hands before dashing off. It said, I'm sorry. Please leave it to me. I'll help Katy. It's not fair to make you do it

After a moment of surprise, I decided, on complete impulse, to chase after her. But before I even got out of the room, there was a sproingy sound and suddenly a living teddy bear mascot was standing in my way.

"Hey, you!" Monokuma snapped. "Kill someone!"

Grunting in frustration, I ran around him and out the door.

GYM: ENTRANCE

But by the time I got out of the yoga studio, Lucina was already gone and I wasn't sure where. My jaw clenched as I heard waddling footsteps following me. "Hey! Kill someone! Now now now!"

"Gagggh!" I twirled on him. "Shut up! I'm not going to kill anyone!"

"Oh, of course you won't!" he ranted. "Everything is just total chaos and nonsense. Nothing will make sense until someone gets murdered! But you just revel in it, don't you? You just..."

Unable to withstand anymore, I stomped out of the gym. He didn't seem to even care; I could hear him railing to no one as the door closed behind me.

DORM: SAYA'S ROOM

Katy and Lucina showed up to dinner, but they avoided me as well as anyone could in a group of six people.

After dinner, I spent a little bit of time with Jane, but I felt tense, and I excused myself pretty quickly. I convinced myself I was going to go to bed, but sleep didn't come. I just stewed.

It was almost a weird kind of relief when I heard my tablet buzz. I went over and turned it on, nothing the time was just after midnight. Unusually, instead of being sent to everyone, it was just sent to me.

It just said, Saya: Your turn. Come alone.

LIBRARY: ENTRANCE HALL

Everything was bright and clean, just like always, but something about the nighttime made this place incredibly creepy. My footsteps seemed to echo more on the tile floor; the sprawling rooms and vaulted ceilings somehow felt oppressive.

I stopped in the entrance hall, closed my eyes, and breathed in and out slowly. Even though I was pretty sure what was coming, I had no clue what twist would be on it or what the point of any of it was.

"Hey Saya," Juliet's voice crackled out of the speakers. "I thought I told you to come alone."

"Huh?" I opened my eyes, confused. Monokuma stood on a stack of paint cans I hadn't noticed before, waving. "Agh!" I jumped away and ended up almost falling over.

"Oh..." Juliet said, the smile obvious in her voice. "Is he not with you? Do you have a stalker?"

"I am not a stalker," Monokuma said, chuckling in a very not-Monokuma way. He picked up a nearby spool of string (what?) and tossed it up in the air playfully. "I'm just curious. What are you up to, little girlfriend? What are you doing with all the information I gave you?"

I glared at him. "You're not Monokuma."

He literally did a little bow. "Hello, again."

"Well!" Juliet exclaimed, still sounding amused. "It's the mastermind! How nice!"

"Why, thank you!" You've always been one of my star students." He hopped down off the paint cans, then glanced back at them curiously. "Hey, Juliet, planning on doing some painting?"

"Something like that!"

I glanced at the door and then back to the bear. "Isn't it risky for you to do this?"

"You think I'd come here without planning it?" He put his paws on his hips and shook his head at me disdainfully. "All of our classmates are currently alone, and I'm monitoring the situation carefully."

"Yeah, but... I know you're not Juliet, now."

"Not true!" Juliet's voice interrupted. "I could be speaking into two different microphones!"

"It's true," Monokuma added sagely. "The two-microphone trick."

Deciding there was nothing I could do, I sighed and just walked into the library. I could hear Monokuma waddling after me, but I tried not to look back.

LIBRARY: STACKS

Juliet's instructions were vague: "Go in the bottom floor, then just head straight forward for a while. I'll tell you where to turn."

I walked slowly. I couldn't help it: I felt very nervous surrounded by these bookshelves, especially with a murder-bear and a murder-voice accompanying me.

But for their part, they just seemed kind of cheerful.

"I've been wondering," Monokuma said, "why are you using the library for this, Juliet? Seems kind of huge and unnecessary."

"Oh, I like having a headquarters," Juliet replied. "I can just lock myself in this pleasant, comfortable room, safe and secure. It feels nice, being able to see what's going on in the whole building! I can't imagine how great it is to see the whole campus!"

"Couldn't be the mastermind without it!" Monokuma chirped. "Wouldn't be able to plan. And I'd probably get myself killed!"

"I also like books," Juliet continued. "There's some wonderful finds, in here. Oh: turn left at the next opportunity." We complied, and she kept talking. "There's an amazing, old first folio."

"Be careful with that!" Monokuma snapped. "It's from the eighteenth century!" He called after me, "Hey, Saya! Do you like Shakespeare?"

"I... don't know much," I answered cagily.

"Juliet, do you know Aaron the Moor's monologue?" he called.

"Hmm, no. Where is it?"

"Titus Andronicus, Act V, Scene 1. Line 125."

"Titus Andronicus?..." Juliet mused skeptically, but I could hear her flipping through pages over the microphone. "...Found it. Hm."

Monokuma stopped walking. He gazed down at the floor for a moment dramatically, then looked up at me. "Even now I curse the day–and yet, I think,

Few come within the compass of my curse,–
Wherein I did not some notorious ill,
As kill a man, or else devise his death,
Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it,
Accuse some innocent and forswear myself..."

Juliet joined in, now. They both continued the speech: "Set deadly enmity between two friends,
Make poor men's cattle break their necks..."

Monokuma faded out; Juliet continued alone. "Set fire on barns and hay-stacks in the night,
And bid the owners quench them with their tears.
Oft have I digg'd up... pfft!" She let out a snorting giggle. "This is great. Oft have I digg'd up dead men from their graves,
And set them upright at their dear friends' doors,
Even when their sorrows almost were forgot;
And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,
Have with my knife carved in Roman letters,
'Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.'"

Monokuma came back in. It felt like neither of them were talking to me or to each other or even to themselves, just some bigger thing they imagined or felt that was always following them around. "Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things
As willingly as one would kill a fly,
And nothing grieves me heartily indeed
But that I cannot do ten thousand more."

The library was silent for a moment.

Raising an eyebrow, I glanced up at the ceiling, as if I could see Juliet up there. "That speech is from a bad guy, I'm assuming?"

"The worst guy," Monokuma replied. "I was thinking about that monologue after I listened to that conversation the two of you had the other day, about saints and heroes."

"Oh?" Juliet asked. "Which would you be?"

"Doesn't matter. I was just thinking about why you can't turn it around." He was staring right at me. "A saint does good because they just are good deep down, and it comes naturally to them. I can imagine the evil version of that: someone just bad. But what's the evil version of a hero? Someone who is good in their heart, but who struggles to be bad?"

"Hmm," Juliet mused. "Well, there's evil that's chosen and evil that isn't. You can't blame a wolf that mauls a woman to death, but you can blame the man who releases the wolf upon her."

"Well then," Monokuma leered. "Does that mean you'd prefer to be evil by nature than by choice? Because then one can't be blamed?"

"D..." Juliet sputtered for a moment. "That's not what I said."

"Sounds like it was..." Monokuma taunted. I very much hoped I wasn't just witnessing a debate the same woman was having with herself in two different microphones.

I spoke up. "Which are you?"

"Eh?" Monokuma turned to me, puzzled. "Which what?"

"Which kind of villain? Are you bad inside, or do you just do bad things?"

"I'm neither!" he argued, pulling himself up to his still very small height. "I'm not evil at all!"

"You literally call yourself a mastermind," I said, giving him a side-eye.

"Oh, that's just marketing," Monokuma argued. "It's a brand!"

"Uh huh," I said skeptically. "Why would you brand yourself as a villain?"

He clasped his paws behind his back in a prim, dignified pose. "When you considered murdering Katy, you knew it was wrong. You struggled with your conscience."

I involuntarily took a step backwards, as if he'd pulled a knife on me. I almost yelled, but I forced myself under control and glared. "You see a lot."

Ignoring me, he held up a paw. "But! At the same time, there was a part of you that didn't struggle at all, because you felt like you were doing something good. You wanted to kill her because you believed in your heart that something was going to be better with her dead. That's why you wanted to do it at all. It's not a war between right and wrong; it's a war between two different rights."

"What's your point?"

"I've just been thinking." He waddled closer, seeming to leer and grin even though his facial expression never changed. "Even if your parents felt remorse, it doesn't matter. They still thought it was right to hurt you. They thought the world would be better if you suffered."

I had no idea what to say, but Juliet broke in. "Oh, stop talking like a whiny little kid."

Monokuma tilted his head. "Huh?"

"It'd be easy if they were like Aaron the Moor, right?" Juliet continued, voice hazy and calm. "Just vicious. It'd make everything so much simpler. You're young and they're these perfect beings that protect you and hold you. Then you grow up, see them in new eyes, all the ways they controlled and rejected and damaged. It's so... cathartic. You can just hate. But then... you grow up more."

I raised an eyebrow. "You do?"

Monokuma whapped his paw against a nearby shelf. "Hey! But they might actually be monsters!"

"Sure," Juliet agreed breezily, "but you get tiny glimpses of them outside yourself. Monsters or angels, they're just idiots who were making it all up as they went along. And as much as they hated or loved you, it was never close to how much they were afraid of being dead and forgotten."

"I'm perfectly fine just stopping at 'monster,'" I remarked.

"You can float in the water and let the current pull you in," Juliet replied. "Or you can float on the water and let the current push you out. Neither one's the same as swimming."

I was done. "Hey, Juliet? I noticed this a second ago, and it's been bothering me. Do I smell chocolate?"

"What?" Monokuma stiffened, looking around frantically. "Chocolate?!"

"Yeah." I glanced up at the ceiling. "Why do I smell chocolate, Juliet?"

"Oh, right, the explosives." She seemed enormously unconcerned, which I guess wasn't a surprise. "Don't worry. Those aren't for you."

Monokuma placed his hand over his eyes like a visor, peering around. "I'm not picking up on anything in this hallway with my Predator-vision."

"Uh. No offense, but I am not really inclined to trust either of you."

"Don't be silly!" Monokuma reassured me. "I don't think either Juliet or myself wants you dead. I think we're actually kind of battling over your soul, believe it or not."

"Please don't battle over my soul."

"It is what it is!" Monokuma began marching forward fearlessly, passing me. "See? I'm not exploding!"

"You're almost there, anyway,": Juliet said. "Just take the second left and it'll be right there." I stood there, uncertain, but she continued. "I swear, on love itself, you won't be hurt."

Monokuma had already disappeared around the corner. I sucked it up and followed.

As I made the turn, I should have expected what was there, but for some reason, I didn't. Of course one of the bookcases was overturned, books spilled out onto the floor, the heavy shelves leaning like a tree that came down in an ice storm. Of course the thick, large envelope lay on the floor under the bookcase. But still, I couldn't breathe.

"Do you like it?" Juliet's voice asked.

"She loves it," Monokuma assured her.

How did they even know?

"I… I'm here to tell you that I got into New Hope University. The special program. I'm just one of sixteen in the whole country." She took a step forward, clenching both fists. "And I did it without you. You didn't have anything to do with it." Energy was building up; she felt swirly and hot. "This is the last time I'm ever going to talk to you, and…"

He resumed walking up the stairs, just turned into another room and shut the door behind him. With a wordless shriek of anger, she followed him and banged on the door, shouting. After a moment, she thought to check and found that it turned. He hadn't even locked the door.

She swung the door open. It was some sort of study, and he stood near a huge, wooden bookcase in the middle of the room. He was looking at the rows of books, making it as clear as possible his attention was fully captured by deciding what to read, and not anything else.

"Don't you…" she snarled, storming up to him. "Don't turn your back! Listen to me!"

Apparently deciding what book to read, he reached up and started pulling one out.

She noticed she had tears on her cheeks, and that, in turn, somehow led her to realize she was absolutely, uncontrollably furious. She was angrier than she had ever been in her life, angrier than she thought it was possible to be angry. She grabbed his hand firmly, screaming, "Look at me!"

He finally did. And it was with such vicious contempt, that even with her anger, she was stunned for a moment.

He pulled his hand away violently; so violently his hand swept across the books on the shelf, scattering them to the floor and knocking her back. She was amazed by his strength. He was so powerful. He kept looking at her in that same way, cruelty just part of his face like his nose was.

Neither of them noticed the bookcase until the first, loud cracking sound. What must have happened was, his hand's impact jostled the wood, and the thing was overloaded anyway. Two shelves on the opposite side had broken, spilling out books, so the weight was unbalanced. It tilted. It fell.

That's what Saya figured out later. In the moment it was just: he was an ogre, and then magic happened, and then he was on the floor, the bookcase on top of him.

She stared for a moment as if she was not really sure what she was looking at was physically possible. He was grunting and moaning. Just his shoulders, head, and right arm were sticking out, and as he tried to clear the heavy books away, it looked like every movement hurt. There was blood, for some reason, but she couldn't imagine where it had come from.

She realized, slowly, she wasn't angry anymore. As the shock faded, she realized she wasn't really anything. She recognized that as strange, but felt nothing. She stood up.

He coughed. When she looked down, he was reaching his arm up to her, bloodshot eyes huge and pleading. "Saya," he rasped. "Saya. Help. Help me. Saya. Call someone."

She tilted her head in feigned confusion. "I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know you."

His mouth fell open, lipstick-blood dripping out.

She considered him, ice forming in her chest. "Who are you?"

He made a wordless, helpless wheezing sound. She turned around and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Later, when the police came and told her and her mother the news, they both cried, but it was perfunctory and they both knew it. They ate dinner. They watched a movie. Saya fell asleep with her head in her mom's lap for the first time in a decade.

"She thinks she knows what it is," Juliet's voice buzzed.

I blinked. "What?"

She sighed, exasperated. "Saya, the thing about secrets is, they're secret. You don't already know them. If you did, they wouldn't be secrets. This little tableau here is something I've known since I was in the freezer."

Monokuma ran over and prodded me forward, goading me with a chant of "Open your present! Open your present!" I let myself get nudged to the envelope, and without really thinking about it, I bent down, picked it up and opened it.

The packet of paper that slid out was a cheap photocopy, but it seemed to glow. This looked... official. As I scanned it, I realized it was a memo of some kind. It took me three times to read it before I grasped even the slightest bit of what I was seeing.

TO: Maj. Kindschwall

SUBJ: Your daughter

Sir,

The upcoming semester is almost upon us, and before it's too late, I'd like to address some concerns about the inclusion of your daughter in the new class of Ultimates.

I have met her and have no doubts about her intelligence. However, her level of maturity is a concern for me, particularly regarding her sexuality (she seems to legitimately have no idea, which is astounding). I'm concerned this could be exploited during the game.

I would find her easy to work with (particularly compared to some earlier classes' masterminds) and would be in constant contact. However, as always, I cannot guarantee her safety. Does she truly understand the risk? Do you?

Her pseudonym is not particularly egregious, but I'm concerned that 'Wild' is a bit... on-the-nose. These students are quite intelligent; it is possible they would be suspicious. Likewise, making the mastermind a literal chessmaster might be too obvious for some of these players. I understand her talent is genuine, but it may be best to establish a more subtle cover-identity.

Again, I am not concerned about her competence. Primarily, I am motivated to preserve her well-being. All previous masterminds have graduated safely, but we all understand it's especially important for the child of an administrator!

I looked up at Monokuma. Then I looked back down at the paper. Then I looked back at Monokuma. He didn't do anything.

"Well, we caught you now!" Juliet's voice rang out gleefully. "Our diabolical mastermind was the daughter of Major Kindschwall all along!"

"Who the hell is Major Kindschwall?!" I yelled, too baffled to do anything but address the most obvious issue on the table. "What kind of... my dad's name isn't Major Kindschwall!"

"Well, the three of us know that!" Juliet replied. "But does, say... your friend Lucina know that? How would she have reacted if, just like was planned, this was left for her to find?"

I froze, but it wasn't cold. It was hot. I felt like my whole body was just terror. I stared down at the paper dumbly.

"Oh, Juliet," Monokuma murmured with near-wonder. "What are you even doing?"

"Just setting fire on your school," she answered, voice suddenly cold as darkness. "I bid you: quench it with your tears."

Monokuma sputtered in silence a moment. Then he fell over onto his back, laughing and laughing and laughing.

FACT 10: Rocky's information was that some people in the New York City government planned to frame him for a big accident, but they were exposed before they went through with it.

FACT 11: For an unknown reason, Juliet is stockpiling random items in the library. She has paint cans, Barrett's explosive chemicals, spools of string, and, most strangely, six nooses hanging from the ceiling in the rare books room.

FACT 12: Katy may have watched Lucina's DVD, and she attempted to confront Juliet about something. Lucina insists she will handle it, because she doesn't want me to have to.

FACT 13: Juliet's information to me is a fake document framing me as the mastermind. She said the original plan was to leave it for Lucina to find, bur she gave it to me instead. The mastermind actually seems kind of okay with this.