After finding a storeroom with food and drinks and availing themselves of both, Ryota Mitarai, Aoi Asahina, Makoto Naegi, and Kyoko Kirigiri go over the deaths in the Monokuma Hunter Killing Game thus far, and what the victims' suspected or known forbidden actions were. Makoto recounted what he had seen on the security camera feed after Miaya Gekkogahara had hacked into that system. Kyoko was distracted, but she merely let that show as her usual quiet self as the three debriefed and compared notes on what had happened since they had split apart.

Ryota, who was very shocked, could only get out, "Chairman Tengan... "

Makoto attempted to be reassuring as he stated, "When Miaya hacked into the security system, I saw the chairman on the monitor. He wasn't moving, so I can only assume that he was... anyway, I saw a message to the left of his body."

Now interested, Ryota asked, "Message? What did it say?"

Ryota wasn't the only one who was interested in the turn the conversation took. Kyoko was paying rapt attention at this point as Makoto replied, "The message read 'I entrust the hope of the world to you.'"

Ryota nervously dipped his head, looked at his phone, and quietly said, "The hope of the world? I can't keep... " As his statement trailed off, he didn't take notice of Kyoko almost staring him down. 'There's something wrong with how he's acting right now, but I can't place what exactly it is,' Kyoko thought.

Hina, confused, asked, "What does that mean, 'the hope of the world'? What was the Chairman referring to?"

Makoto shook his head, but offered, "I don't know. At first, I thought he meant me."

Kyoko very pointedly asked, "At first?"

Ryota gasped but otherwise stayed quiet, which Kyoko also took note of.

Makoto nodded and looked to Kyoko. "Yes, at first. It's no secret that the worldwide broadcast of the School Killing Game showed you calling me the Ultimate Hope. But I thought about it before Hina and I found you and Ryota. At this point, I don't think that the message wasn't meant for me at all."

Kyoko prodded further with, "Is that a gut feeling?"

Makoto smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I'd have to say that it is. But I don't know why."

Kyoko stood up, her right index finger on her chin as her left hand was balled up at her left hip. "And with no other evidence from the Chairman about what that message may mean, we can only speculate at this point." She turned to look to Makoto, after giving Ryota a sidelong glance. "Makoto, while your gut feelings aren't conventional evidence... that's really all we have right now."

Hina stood up to stretch, then said, "I don't know about this hope of the world stuff myself but... we should gather up the trash and barricade the door." Makoto and Ryota immediately moved into action, while Kyoko still stood deep in thought, then looked at her left wrist once again. As the others went about their tasks, she reached into the pouch on her left leg, then palmed one of the two things in that pouch. 'It's a good thing I put these here, and not in my jacket. I have to have hope that this will work,' Kyoko thought as she surreptitiously went about consuming the contents of what she held in her left hand.

As Kyoko went about her business, Hina muscled the rest of the barricade in place, causing the struggling Makoto and Ryota to fall to the floor. Hina exclaimed, "Okay, that does it!"

Kyoko kept her attention focused on the trio as her left hand gripped and hid something. 'I've heard the footsteps of the God of Death before. I should be hearing them now, too,' she thought as she once again checked the bangle on her left wrist, barely hearing the other three laughing about Hina's muscular prowess. "It's almost the time limit," she stated, after hearing the trio giggling quietly.

The trio looked to Kyoko as they quieted their giggles, and Hina proudly proclaimed, "Well, we've checked that the door is locked, and the barricade is now fully in place!"

Kyoko pragmatically stated, "We still may not be safe, though."

Makoto nodded while Ryota replied, "Yeah, that's right. The attacker has complete control of this facility. They could use that control to open any lock... "

Kyoko crossed her arms to deliberately hide her left hand. 'Makoto... Hina... my hope tells me that I'm doing the right thing, but I'm sorry if this will cause you hurt or pain... and I know that it will,' Kyoko thought through the situation a little nervously as Hina replied, "So... there's no way for us to be one-hundred percent sure, is there?"

Kyoko quietly drew a deep breath and blinked noticeably, then opened her eyes and stated, "Hey, Makoto. No matter what happens, don't give up on hope. I shall always be by your side.."

Makoto is stunned and his eyes open wide, but he nodded and replied, "Yeah. Of course. I'll do what I can. We won't lose. We can't lose!" 'That unquenchable optimism... Makoto, you're going to need that more than ever,' Kyoko thought as Hina excitedly replied, "Yeah! Yeah!"

As if on cue, the time limit chime is heard from everyone's bangles. 'There's never enough time to say what you really would like to,' Kyoko thinks to herself as Ryota laid down on the floor. Hina kneeled, then also laid to the floor and succumbed to the fast-acting sleeping medicine injected into their bloodstream through the bangles. Makoto then yawned, and laid to the floor too. Kyoko, still tightly grasping what is clasped in her left hand, has enough time to get the other item out of her leg pouch, all while smiling to Makoto before she herself succumbed to the sleep injection. 'You are my hope, Makoto. You always have been.' Still smiling, Kyoko is the last to lay down on the floor.

Before she fully fell asleep, she also feels another effect. If she were fully conscious, she would likely have gasped out quietly in pain, but she's too groggy to do so. She does have enough time to place one of the two items from her leg pouch close to her left hip. 'I really hope this works. If it doesn't... ' Her thoughts are cut short by the sleep meds.

Kyoko's sleep is broken by a sudden gasp a while later. Though she attempted to move her fingers and toes or anything else, she couldn't. 'The side effect... I must be... in a near-death state... ' Her thoughts feel like mud in her head at first as she heard a voice exclaim, "We're alive... Good, no one's been killed!" 'Makoto... I'd know that voice anywhere... '

Kyoko barely registered hearing someone stirring in their sleep, then she heard a high-pitched groan. 'That has to be Hina... '

Hina tiredly stated, "It looks like we're safe."

"Yeah, the barricade is still in place." 'Makoto again.'

Kyoko then heard someone else standing up. 'That has to be Mitarai.' She then makes note of the fact that her left hand no longer clenched what was previously tightly held within it, but it wasn't like she could move any part of her body anyway, though she can still hear everything around her. 'If I were in a coma, I likely wouldn't be able to hear anything,' Kyoko reasoned to herself.

She heard a sharp gasp and a high-pitched questioning sound. She doesn't hear anything for what seems like almost an eternity until she heard Makoto ask, "Kyoko? Her... forbidden action? Kyoko! KYOKO!?" 'Makoto... I'm still here. I just... can't move... '

Kyoko heard the trio quickly move closer to her, and barely heard what was in her left hand rolling along the floor, presumably unnoticed by anyone in their current state of shock. She felt a familiar hand very gently grasp her left wrist. 'Makoto, I'm so sorry... '

It is then that Makoto saw what Kyoko has known from the beginning of the Monokuma Hunter Killing Game. She felt a light push on the bangle, which would reveal her forbidden action to Makoto, Hina, and Ryota.

Passing the Fourth Time Limit With Makoto Naegi Still Alive

Kyoko heard Hina gasp after the bangle was activated to show Kyoko's forbidden action. She also heard Makoto gasp again, then heard him say in a stunned tone, "N-No... "

She heard Hina gasp again before the former Ultimate Swimming Pro frantically asked, "Was that the fourth one?"

Kyoko thought back to when they were all first gassed in the conference room, then to when she, Ryota and Future Foundation Chairman Kazuo Tengan all woke up in the conference room after the second time limit was over, and lastly to when she, Ryota, and Koichi Kizakura woke up in the room that Great Gozu was murdered in. 'Yes, Hina, that was the fourth time limit.'

Hina almost immediately starts crying very hard, while Ryota is stunned silent. Makoto is in deep shock as he asked, "Why... "

Kyoko remembered what she had told Ryota before Hina and Makoto overheard her talking. At first glance, Makoto probably looks like someone who wouldn't be able to help. But when he needs to be, he can be stronger than anyone. He has this... unquenchable optimism. He always thinks of his friends first and he never gives up, even if that means ignoring his own needs. That's why I sometimes worry about him, but... that's also why I believe in him with all of my heart. Back then, it was only because he was with all of us that I could...

'Makoto was the reason I could survive the atrocity of the school game, and her. His hope... became mine. Ours. When hope is shared, it shines even brighter. Well, that's what I would have said... but his luck allowed him to hear me speak very highly of him... and I'm glad for that. He'll need that memory to guide him through the rest of this awful game,' Kyoko thought.

Makoto continued after a pause of his own, most likely with him remembering the same event Kyoko had in her mind... his voice thick with emotion as he asked, "Why didn't you say anything!?"

Kyoko heard Hina starts to sob even louder after Makoto voiced a question that Kyoko believed that Hina was too distraught to ask aloud herself. 'Hina... please... please don't cry. Please don't lose your hope.'

Kyoko then heard something that she didn't expect to hear at all. Makoto spoke barely above a whisper, but he called her a name she hadn't heard since their escape from Hope's Peak Academy. "Kiri... " 'Makoto... please don't lose your hope, too. Let my hope bolster yours, just like it did back at the Academy.'

She then heard Hina's dam break, which served to break Kyoko's heart since she had no possible way to comfort her classmate and best female friend. "Kyoko... no!" 'Hina... I'm still right here.' Kyoko felt the ghost of a lump in her throat but her body otherwise made no other signs or indications of movement.

Kyoko finally heard the voice belonging to the third person in the room. Ryota, still stunned, managed to state the obvious. "This... this can't be happening." 'Sorry, Ryota. I had to make this happen to save Makoto from doing something rash.'

Kyoko still heard Hina's sobs as a loud whine squawked over the intercom speakers, followed by a menacing voice.

"Makoto Naegi." 'Munakata.'

The voice continued, "Have you learned Kyoko Kirigiri's forbidden action?" 'Bastard.' "Now do you understand how useless your platitudes are? It's time to finally settle whose hope is right. Yours... or mine."

After Kyosuke Munakata, now the de facto leader of the Future Foundation, finished his barbs directed towards Makoto, Kyoko felt a second gentle brush of a familiar hand against her left eye. 'Makoto, I meant what I said. I shall always be by your side. I promise you that.'

Hina on the other hand could only sob loudly, and Kyoko felt Hina's hot tears hitting her cheek.

She then heard the rustling of clothes as someone presumably stood up, and she then hears who she thought was Ryota speak again. "Where are you going?"

Kyoko heard Makoto reply, "I'm going to see Munakata. I have to end this."

Ryota makes no effort to hide the emotion in his voice as he asked, "Why?"

Makoto is level-voiced from Kyoko's reckoning as he asked, "Ryota, could you please stay with Hina?" 'That's the Makoto Naegi I know. I know you're scared, but you're right. You HAVE to end this.'

"Wait. So you're just leaving Kirigiri HERE? Wasn't she your friend? Aren't you sad that she's dead!?" Kyoko heard the sheer astonishment in Ryota's voice. 'If I had to guess, he's quite sad. But hope won't survive if you don't move forward. I told Makoto that once, and he most likely remembers me telling him that too.'

Kyoko notices that Hina's sobbing had ceased as Ryota continued to speak. "How? How can you get over this so fast!?"

There was an audible cluck of someone's tongue before Kyoko heard a sigh and a response. "Of course I can't just get over this. Kyoko... she kept me alive. She kept her forbidden action a secret, because she knew that if I learned it, I'd do something reckless. She entrusted me with her hope. You heard as much before the last time limit expired. So... I have to do this. I have to move forward." 'Makoto... you do remember.'

Kyoko then heard Hina reply to Makoto, her overwhelming emotion thick in her voice. "Makoto? You do have to do this, so... go. I believe in you."

"I'll be back soon." Kyoko heard the soft click of Makoto's dress shoes as he left the room they had barricaded themselves in. 'I believe in you too, Makoto... and you also, Hina.'

Kyoko had no measure of time but she faded into a light sleep for a while until she heard Ryota speak once more, mostly to himself. "How can he be so strong?" 'Because hope trumps despair, every time.'

Hearing Ryota speak, Kyoko then heard Hina sigh sadly before she sadly and quietly stated, "Kyoko... " 'I'm so sorry, Hina.'

She then heard Hina gasp, and Kyoko then felt her notebook being removed from underneath her left arm. She heard the pages of her notebook being flipped through carefully before she heard Hina gasp aloud again. The prior Ultimate Swimming Pro then stated with the fierce determination she showed during the School Killing Game, "Mitarai? I think I found something that may help us all, thanks to Kyoko. Come here and take a look at this." Kyoko heard Ryota shuffle over, then she heard clothes rustling again as he presumably knelt next to Hina. Kyoko heard two separate gasps and more careful turning of the pages in her notebook, which then came to a sudden stop.

"Kyoko... you may have just saved all of our lives," Hina said with deep respect. Kyoko then heard a yelp as she could only assume that Ryota was pulled up from the floor by Hina.

"Asahina, where are we going? Naegi wanted us to stay here!"

"Nope, not happening. This is too important. Munakata needs to see this too. We're going to end this game for good," Hina replied as Kyoko heard two sets of shoes leaving the room to her left.