The man approached Junko Enoshima's throne carefully, as though he was scared of his sister. However, she did not seem quite as intimidating now that he had appeared, and it was not so hard to see traces of the sweet little girl she must have been before tragedy had struck her family.

"Nii-san…I don't understand. Why are you inside the school?" Junko was subdued, unusually so. Kyouko inferred that this wasn't one of her interchangeable moods, but something more genuine.

The man took off his fedora and ran a hand through his black hair.

"I should have done this sooner, Junko. What you're doing is wrong. What I'm doing is just as wrong."

"But you aren't doing any of the major things. That's all my job, my idea."

"I am helping you, which in itself is wrong."

"Ichiro Enoushima, could you explain your presence here?" Kyouko said, interrupting their flow.

"Piss off!" Junko was fiery again. Ichiro laid a hand on her shoulder, and faced the students.

"I go by the surname Hisanuma now. I'd prefer to keep it that way."

"You seriously think we should listen to your preferences?!" Arisa asked, annoyed.

Ichiro hung his head in shame for a moment.

"You're probably right about that. I am being rather presumptuous. But I'll only justify myself by saying this-I thought letting her do this was the right thing for her, that it would finally give her the closure she's needed for so long. But as I mentioned, I was wrong."

"Yeah, we've noticed the running theme." Emi sniped.

"Please…can I tell a story?" Ichiro asked mournfully.

Kyouko considered this. The story was more emotion than fact, she was sure, but without that emotion, a lot of this might never have happened. She glanced at the two policemen briefly, and then turned her gaze back to Ichiro before nodding.

She expected him to start from the beginning, at Maiko Enoushima's death, but instead he talked of a media frenzy, of children who fell victim to it despite there being laws to protect their identities. He talked of a cruel court case and children being separated from their parents and shunted through foster homes during the course of this case, abused horribly for no real reason. He told of a nasty divorce, and then finally, when the case was closed, being given new identities and sent off to the other side of Japan and then left to get on with it, no apologies or support offered. And it was only after he told of that that he went back and explained how that came about-the murder of his sister at the hands of drunk high-school boys.

Ichiro was able to speak strongly as he recalled the jeers of the boys and the way his elder sister had tried to protect them and ordered them to run away. But his voice faltered as he reached the end of the story. Shaking a bit, he paused to pull himself together, and then uttered the final sentences of the story.

"And, so, they reluctantly got over their distrust of the police, and begged them to bring their children home. And bring them home they did. But they only brought home two. And so, the story had no happy ending."

Ichiro looked around at the students when he had finished. All of them looked shocked, and outraged. Arisa, Emi and Chihiro were openly weeping at the story.

"That…that must have been the worst thing ever to happen to you. But this…this is neither understandable nor inexcusable!" Janus said eventually. Kyouko watched him carefully to make sure that he didn't provoke the brother or the sister. Out of all of them right now, it was Janus who was still the most volatile.

Stay calm, She mentally commanded. Weirdly enough, it seemed to work for Janus did not say anything else.

"You're right." Ichiro said "But I denied it for so long, because I thought it was the best thing for her. But she didn't seem to get better. But I convinced myself that she was…to be honest, it was your girl that snapped me out of it, Janus Abandonato-san."

Janus blinked, but said nothing.

"Nii-san, don't say anything!" Junko ordered imperiously. Ichiro half shook his head.

"Not everything. But it's over now, Junko. Some things, they need to know." He turned to the students again, and said "Ok, what questions do you have to ask me?"

"What is it you were responsible for?" Kyouko asked immediately.

"I brought food to Junko and other supplies from the outside world. I also subbed and uploaded the videos."

"Videos?"

"Yes. Junko put the feed from the surveillance cameras around the school into videos and sent them to me to upload to a website, to catch people's attention…the idea…the idea was it would only be found when too late, and the country would feel the same helplessness and anger we did upon losing Nee-san."

"But clearly, someone did. Otherwise the police would not be here." Kosuke pointed out.

Ichiro laughed weakly.

"Yeah…actually, it was a British boy that brought this to our attention. A boy in your age group. He met Arisa Ishi-san's sister."

"Onee-Chan?!" Arisa went bug-eyed.

"Yes. Your sister's university friend's cousin has a friend who has apparently been following this video series-for lack of a better term- quite diligently. "

"That's mad! No way! " Arisa was dumbstruck.

"A boy? I was found out by another kid?!" Junko demanded.

"No." Ichiro said bluntly.

Junko stared at him as though he was utterly mad. Ichiro sighed.

"Well, yes. But I turned myself in first. It was only when the boy's findings were connected to what I was saying that things started happening. We've...I mean, they've been slowly gathering evidence for a few hours now, Junko."

Junko seemed uncomprehending. Then, all of a sudden, she realised.

"There are people in this school? Other, unauthorised people?!Since when?"

"Junko, There are policemen with me. Did you not notice?"

Apparently, she had not, for she looked at them as if it was the first time.

"You're arresting me?!"

"We're both being arrested, Junko." Ichiro was quick to sooth his sister. "As soon as the kids are out of the building, we're being taken into custody. As I've said endlessly-it is over."

"But I've done nothing wrong! Nothing at all! They deserve it!The world deserves it!"

Junko stopped her tirade suddenly, and turned suddenly to look at all of them. The expression on her face was dark, and Kyouko somehow sensed what she meant by that look.

You are not leaving this place.

Suddenly, something bumped her arm. She turned, and saw that Makoto had moved from his stand and was standing next to her. Akihito was on her other side, and Emi was slowly edging over.

"Kids, come this way!" one of the police officers spoke suddenly.

"NO!" Junko's voice screamed out, but Kyouko blocked it out as she followed the back of the officer. She didn't think, she just ran. She heard the others follow to catch up, different legs struggling to catch up or speeding along almost effortlessly.

Suddenly, she felt someone grasp her right hand-someone with an average sized hand that was soft and slightly warmer than hers. Another person's hand, rough and large this time, grasped her left. This person moved forward, so that he was leading them, and she saw it was Akihito. She turned her head slightly to see that Makoto was the person holding her right hand, and that Arisa was clinging on to his other hand, with Emi holding on to her other hand. To look properly would mean stopping, but Kyouko figured out that they had become a chain, all linked by hands as they made their way out into the world.

The police officer said a few words to them as he went ahead.

"I'm Police Inspector Rei Ashitaka. Please, you do not need to worry anymore. Ichiro-san is correct, it is 're safe now, and we'll reunite you with your families as soon as possible. "

"Do they know? Do they know what happened to us?" Janus asked.

"Yes, they do." Came the reply." In fact, there are a couple of relatives who actually aided us with the investigation."

"Whose relatives?" Kyouko asked curiously.

"Oh, you'll see."

They didn't talk as they navigated long corridors but eventually, they were at a large door. Rei Ashitaka tapped a code into a pad on the wall next to the door, and it swung open slowly.

They re-entered the world cautiously. Kyouko blinked at the brightness her eyes encountered. It took her a moment to realise that this was sunlight. The others seemed a bit confused as well, judging by the muttering and occasional shrieks.

Eventually, they stopped walking. They all stared at the expanse of land in front of them, still hand in hand .There were a couple of police cars and a fair few ambulances nearby, while further off in the distance there were other buildings. And, most importantly, they could all see the sky.

"Onee-Chan!?" Arisa was the first to break the chain they had made, running towards a young woman dressed in pink and white. This woman was accompanied by two men-one old, one young. Both were wearing suits. Arisa ignored the men, and instead leapt into her sister's arms.

They all took that as a signal to break apart finally, and get used to the world again. While the others wandered off, Kyouko opted to stay where she was and watch everything that was going on.

She noticed paramedics coming out, each of them carrying out an unconscious person-most likely the sleeping students Mirai had seen- in their arms. She guessed that this was because stretchers would be too unwieldy and would require two paramedics to get one person. The students were bundled into ambulances, and then they drove off. Judging by the number of ambulances as well as their size, there were a lot of drugged, possibly injured students in those secret rooms.

The younger man, a sever blond with glasses, was talking to one of the policemen. She recognised him as Byakuya Togami, a successful name in the world of economics, and a former student at Hope's Peak. She wondered how and why he was here, when she overheard a snatch of the conversation he was having, about the friend of his teenage pen pal. Perhaps this was the British boy Ichiro had mentioned, the one who had first noticed the videos and brought them to the attentions of the Japanese police. If this boy had a friend that was penpals with Togami, it would make sense for him to be here.

The older man appeared to be someone related to Janus, for the two were talking animatedly-sort of. Janus seemed to be pouring his heart out and the man comforting him, but she couldn't understand a word they were saying. It took her a while to figure out that they were talking in Italian, and after hearing the term 'Nonno' a few times, she realised that this was the person Janus had referred to a few times in passing, the person who had been looking after him.

"Hey, detective, this is taking a bit of getting used to, huh?"

Kyouko gave Akihito a look. Only he would address her as 'detective' when surrounded by actual, trained adult detectives.

"Something like that." She responded.

"So, no looking around for you yet?"

Kyouko shrugged. Akihito laughed.

"Well, let me warn you now, Kobayashi's trying to take over the job of the paramedics over there! It's mad!" he laughed again, and then a sad look passed over his face. "Kiyomizu-san would have been laughing at that."

"I think she would." Kyouko agreed, remembering the basketball game they had played soon after their entrapment.

"Anyway!" Akihito grinned again. "Let's pester Kobayashi."

Kyouko shrugged, and followed him over to the ambulance when a peal of laughter interrupted her. She paused, and at first she thought the laughter was coming from Arisa, who had introduced Emi to her sister, but it was actually coming from Chihiro.

Chihiro was with Eirik and Mirai, and they appeared to be throwing tufts of grass at each other and giggling. Occasionally, Chihiro would spin around and around dizzyingly, her skirt dancing with the motion. Nobody would suspect she was anything other than an innocent little girl.

Fate played a cruel trick on that child.

"Kirigiri-san!" Kyouko turned instinctively at the sound of Makoto's voice. "Come and meet Maizono-sempai!"

Makoto was at another ambulance which had its back doors open, revealing that he was sitting next to a blue haired girl who seemed groggy and confused, but otherwise conscious. She decided to go to them.

"Kyouko Kirigiri." She told the girl when she got there. "Pleased to meet you."

The girl blinked.

"I…Sayaka Maizono, Idol. You're Naegi-kun's classmate, right? The detective girl? It's coming back to me…"

"Your memories are gone too?" Kyouko probed gently.

Sayaka nodded, and then shook her head before shrugging and yawning. Kyouko decided at that point to go back to Akihito.

As he had said, Kosuke was arguing with one of the paramedics, who was tending to an unconscious silver-haired boy. But what was crazier was the fact that Kosuke was still managing to answer the questions Police Inspector Rei Ashitaka was asking him.

"Inspector, I have a question or two of my own to ask you." Kyouko said. Rei turned and smiled at her.

"But of course. Fire away."

"How come we're not being taken away immediately?"

"Once it was ascertained that none of you were severely injured, we decided that it wasn't urgent to remove you from the grounds, as it was only the building that held the threat. Plus, I have a feeling you wouldn't want to be utterly separated just yet. So we've arranged for a minibus to take you to the hotel where you'll reunite with family. Of course, those upperclassmen of yours are another story, hence the large ambulances-as soon as one fills up, they're gone."

"I see…what can you tell me about this boy, the one who watched the alleged videos?"

"Oh, the videos exist. The boy is 16 years old and apparently has a penchant for weirdness on the internet-which is how he came across the website Enoshima and Hisanuma made. Arisa Ishi's sister is best friends with the cousin of one of his friends-they both go to the same university, and were on holiday. So the cousin and Kimiko Ishi come to the family restaurant the boy owns, Kimiko offers to tutor the boys in Biology, and they get talking about their families…"

Rei trailed off, distracted by some noises in the distance. Rather than ask, Kyouko decided to turn her attention to the noise. A police officer was running towards them so quickly that he was kicking up dust. He was shouting something to them, but the voice he used was so panicky that nobody could distinguish his words. Whatever he was saying, it echoed out there in the open for the disturbance had silenced everyone.

Eventually, the police officer quietened, but he continued to kick up dust. Everyone continued to stare, stunned. The 10 who had just escaped with their lives, however, were anticipating something.

And sure enough, something happened. Just as the police officer reached them, Hope's Peak Academy blew up.

And there we have end. There will be an epilogue, as mentioned before, but I'm just gonna take my time on that. So until then, please leave feedback-I hoped you liked this story!