Summary: Stand your ground, protect your ideals. May you find what you seek in the process.

The stunned silence following his bold declaration was punctuated by the rattle of metal as Naegi harshly stepped on one of the door locks, a cold sneer carved across his face that did nothing to show the bubbling rage demanding to be released. He ignored the war drums starting up once more in his head, and his next breath came out in a harsh, rattling wheeze, a clear sign of his flagging condition. Still, the teenager pushed past it with the dull apathy that had slipped back into his psyche, a welcome relief from the caustic agony.

"Tch." Mondo spat to one side, something indiscernable gleaming in his eyes before it was once again subsumed beneath his mounting temper. "Trying to pick a fight again, ya weakling?"

The Lucky Student smiled, all teeth and no mirth, leaning back to rest his head on the door. He shrugged, a dismissive gesture that appeared to serve its purpose, judging by the murmurs of dissent that rippled through his classmates.

"Naegi-san!" Ishimaru spoke up, an almost scandalised expression on his face. "Damaging school property is a violation of the rules! Please, cease and desist!" He had to choke back a laugh at that one.

"Hoh? The dog is deciding to bark back at its betters again?" Togami adjusted his glasses, but the way he stiffened when Naegi's glare fell onto the Scion spoke volumes of the things left unsaid between the duo.

"It would appear that our classmate has decided to raise the stakes." Celeste clasped her hands together, her dainty smile fixed firmly. "I must implore you to reconsider."

"A sudden plot twist!? A dastardly betrayal!? Could it be…that Naegi-dono had a terrible secret he wishes to keep!?" No Yamada, you're missing the point entirely.

Naegi folded his arms over his chest, masking the trembling of his right hand. "We lost two people because we were naive. We thought that no one would be willing to stoop to murder, even when given a motive to do so. This time, I refuse to let it happen again. Especially since we can stop it before it even begins."

"S-stop acting so noble, y-you animal!" Fukawa bit down on her thumb. "I bet you'd h-have us rev-veal all our secrets and then u-use them against us!"

"Seriously!?" Hagakure gasped. "Not cool, bro!" It was incredibly hard not to roll his eyes.

"I have no interest in your secrets." Naegi scoffed, taking a step forward. "But to refuse to reveal them, even when it can cost another life in the process utterly disgusts me." He spits the words out like they burn to be said, and relishes in the flickers of anger he can see in his opponents. Good, rile them up further. It would make the whole process far more likely to succeed.

[ Locus standi Has Been Initiated]

[Replay the Tutorial?]

[Yes]

[No]

…

Selected: [No]

…

[Influence]: 4

[MAKE YOUR CASE!]

"We need to make sure that no one here is driven to kill someone else. And what better way to do that than to remove the motive entirely?"

"Yeah…but like, some of ours are probably kinda embarrassing, right?" Asahina rubbed the back of her head, looking surprisingly sheepish considering her previous hostility towards the Lucky Student.

"It is rather rude of you to demand such a thing of us," Celeste was still smiling, but there was malice in her eyes, "after all, you're still keeping your own secret . "

Truth Bullet: [Celeste's Identity]

Truth Bullet: [Naegi Makoto's Secret]

Truth Bullet: [Monokuma's Plan]

…

Truth Bullet Selected: [Naegi Makoto's Secret]

"Sure, go for it." He withdrew the unmarked envelope from his pocket, deriving a small bit of amusement from the way their eyes tracked it as he waved it in the air a little. "Here you go, Ishimaru-san."

"Me? I do appreciate your confidence, but perhaps you should be the one to divulge your own secret?"

He laughed, forcing the folded paper into the Ultimate Moral Compass' hand. "With the way they look at me, anything I say will probably be considered a lie. Besides, you were the only one to actually decide on doing something logical when faced with the second motive. Feel free to hand it over to someone else once you're done."

Ishimaru puffed up, holding the envelope like he had just been given something incredibly precious. "Very well! In that case, pardon me." He pulled the sheet of paper from its confines, unfurling it more flamboyantly than he really needed to. "Naegi-san's secret! It turns out that he…wet the bed until he was in the 5th grade?" The Lucky Student managed to push down the immediate and reflexive flare of embarrassment at having that fact revealed to a bunch of strangers. Nothing world ending, but certainly something the teenager would still find a little mortifying for others to know.

"Pfft!" A sharp huff of air that sounded remarkably similar to a strangled laugh escaped the originally silent Fashionista as she covered her mouth, looking away with a blush painting her ears. He averted his eyes before a similar embarrassed reaction could work its way onto his features. Nonetheless, he waved his hand, drawing their attention back onto him. "I'm not dishonest enough to demand a secret without revealing my own. It's nothing I would ever kill someone else about, after all."

"I told you before, peon ." Togami spoke up, an audible sneer in his voice. "One cannot simply assume that your worthless life has enough in it to create a secret worthy of keeping. Don't flatter yourself." His words were harsh, but they carried weight. Those who had refused to release their own secrets into the light shared a general look of agreement, and Naegi fought back the urge to remind Togami what exactly happened the last time he said something in the same vein.

[Influence]: 3

He sighed, adopting a look of false resignation and raising his hands. "I suppose you're right. A teenager with a normal life can't exactly match up to the Ultimates of the world." He tilted his head, eyes gleaming as he grinned at the blond. Something hungry crooned in the back of his mind, an offer extended that he snatches up without hesitation. "Allow me to try and guess then."

Truth Bullet Selected: [Togami Empire]

"Togami Byakuya." The words roll off his tongue with practiced ease, "The heir to the international financial conglomerate, the latest in a long line spanning from the early days of the modern era." He picks his words carefully, watching the way his classmate seems to tense before relaxing, his thoughts clear as day before Naegi pulls the rug out from underneath him.

"Unlike most other families, the Togami have an…interesting, inheritance system." The Scion's head snaps up so quickly he swears he can hear a bone pop, and the Lucky Student smiles before continuing. "Well, not exactly that interesting, but certainly abnormal, to say the least. Rather than marrying someone, or even taking multiple wives, the current head of the family ends up having children with the most exceptional women from around the world, bearing as many of them as possible." He shrugs, carefully masking the sheer revulsion he feels at the eugenics-based idea being unpacked, something between sympathy and contempt running through his veins as he barks out a laugh, unfazed by the reactions of his classmates.

"That's…kinda gross, really." Enoshima speaks up, lips curling with distaste. Much to his delight, it seems to be a common consensus among the others.

Yamada seems to be foaming at the mouth, but before anything can escape it, Naegi not-so-subtly pins him in place with a glare, causing the Doujinshi Writer to squeak and shut up before he can make a comment in poor taste. Togami clenched his fists, striding forward with the fury of a much bigger man, anger contorting his features into something animalistic. It's certainly a far cry from the dignified, almost regal air he usually upheld, even in the midst of the Killing Game.

"Who told you that!? How did a commoner figure that out!?" He knows that the Ultimate Affluent Progeny wants it to sound like an order, but the undercurrent of desperation turns it into something more like a plea. The Lucky Student ignored him and mercilessly pushed on, eyes glinting as he presented the facts and analysis carefully filed away in the back of his mind.

"Togami Byakuya ended up as the sixteenth and youngest Togami of his generation, forced to fight with his half-siblings in order to become the next head of the family. There's a reason he's an Ultimate, after all. For the first time in the history of the Togami empire, the youngest male won, cementing his position as a future leader of a global corporation…" He trailed off meaningfully, relishing the way that Togami twitched, both of them knowing what exactly he was about to say next. "And his siblings were exiled from the family, a fate akin to death to the top 1% they all belonged to."

"Jeez…" Asahina looked somewhat uncomfortable. "Just like that? They got kicked out of the family?"

Hagakure shrugged. "Least they didn't end up dead. Rich customers always want to hunt me down when they don't like their readings. Bunch of jerks."

"Well—" Naegi interjected, "—I wouldn't say that."

"You mongrel —"

"After all!" He declared over the noises of one very angry Togami Byakuya. "They had to fight it out, in many fields and challenges, all for one person to come out victorious. When the dust settled and the winner was declared, it was with no small amount of blood spilled. And afterwards…can you imagine how many enemies the Togami family must have? The number of so-called commoners they stepped on, the lives they ruined through their very existence?" He closed his eyes, seeing the redacted case files behind them and tasting the bile that burned the back of his throat with the information he uncovered.

He left the question hanging in the air, allowing his classmates to ruminate and come to their own conclusions. Togami glared at him, hand twitching and murder in his eyes. Naegi made sure to smile as unpleasantly as he could, even as he felt the smallest sliver of pity in his heart.

"In that case." Kirigiri spoke up for the first time in a while, eyes narrowed with the look of someone who had come to an unpleasant conclusion. "There are only a few possibilities for Togami-san's secret, especially if we follow Monokuma's logic of his selected ones being the deepest, darkest, most concealed information that we have."

"Bingo~" He snapped his fingers, gesturing towards his classmate. "So then, Togami-san, what would you prefer? For me to reveal it for you? Or maintain some level of dignity and tell it to us yourself?"

The blond gritted his teeth, as though the very thought of conceding anything to someone who was supposed to be below him physically pained him. Naegi allowed him a few moments to mull it over. The information that he was forcefully dragging into the light was unpleasant, to say the least. And it would make him a far crueler person than he was already being to air out all of Togami's dirty laundry. He still had some semblance of standards to follow, even if it was when dealing with a thoroughly unpleasant human being like the one standing in front of him.

The other teenager was clearly fuming by this point, completely caught off guard by the way Naegi had simply relayed a short sypnosis of his history, a carefully guarded part of the Togami family's culture that were only speculated about in rumours. And when confronted with a story far closer to the truth than anyone else bar the Togamis should have known, it was rather obvious that his next question was going to be…

"How!?" He reiterated his demand, a hair trigger away from closing the distance between them and picking Naegi up by his collar. Which he probably could, if the Luckster was being honest about his relatively frail nature. A strong gust of wind could probably pick Naegi up like a leaf in the breeze. He snickered at the thought, right before stepping into Togami's range and catching the backhanded slap that would have sent his head spinning.

"Now now," he chided almost mockingly, "it is unbecoming of someone like you to raise a hand against someone like me, remember?" He batted away the arm poised to strike him across the face, returning to a more neutral stance. "I didn't have to look very far. After all, you, and every single other person here, are Ultimates."

Naegi walked around the Scion, looking briefly at each and every one of his classmates. "We live in the digital age, among superhumans dubbed the best in their fields, surpassing those far older and more experienced than them. Remember Kuwata-san?" He suppressed the instinct to flinch when reminded of the twisted rage of their unfortunate acquaintance. "The Ultimate Baseball Star…the ability to single-handedly win a team game without any difficulty whatsoever. And without a single day of training put into it."

"Here's a lesson from the ordinary. The more famous you are, the more you stand out, the more you shine like a star…" He punctuated his statements with a grin. "The more people want to know about you. Your lives, laid out in strings of text across every corner of the internet. Whatever secrets you think you have, forget trying to keep them. Because chances are, someone, somewhere knows it."

"You…You!" Togami stammered , composure broken as he fumbled for something to say, to put up some form of defence against Naegi's hypotheticals and coming up empty. The Luckster sighed, shaking his head almost theatrically. If the Heir wanted to cut Naegi off, he should have pushed harder when he still held enough sway over the paranoid and suspicious Ultimates. Allowing Naegi to continue talking was allowing the construction of a narrative, after all.

The tragic affairs of the Togami Empire. A family linked solely by blood and power, an empire built on the bloodied bricks of those that were unfortunate enough to lose in their struggles. And center stage, Togami Byakuya himself. Whose callous behaviour when faced with a Killing Game spoke of experience with similarly dangerous challenges, battles against people he must have known at some point, siblings cast aside, tearing each other apart for a single prize…

…and for the teenager to come out victorious, it must have been he who was the most vicious of the sixteen individuals.

What did he do? What didn't he do? To stand at the top of such a cold, uncaring system indicated volumes on the character of the person himself. Like Kirigiri mentioned, there were only so many things that Togami would want to keep secret, desperate beneath a guise of cold arrogance, distanced from those he considered beneath him. It was simple, when all the puzzle pieces were put together. And all he needed to do was hammer the final nail into the coffin.

He chuckled, a bitter sound. All he needed to do was to load another bullet in the chamber and reveal the last bits of information he held within the confines of his mind. Turning to regard Togami, the teenager sighed, guilt coiling around his spine and resting its head upon his shoulder.

"In any case, it's obvious enough what Togami-san's secret is. So, does anyone else want to share?"

"Of course!" Surprising absolutely no one, Ishimaru stepped up to contribute. "I am deeply ashamed of my own secret…but I cannot allow you to stand alone, Naegi-san! Not after you have demonstrated your trust in me!" Right, it was trust that fuelled his motivations. Totally. He gestured silently, motioning for the Moral Compass to get to the point.

"Right!" Ishimaru was sweating, but his posture remained determined. "My secret…my secret is…" He seemed to be struggling to get the words out. "Is…" Any day now. "Is!" Really, at this rate they would have to move on to the next subject by the time Ishimaru got his sentence out. The teenager scowled, straightening up and belting out the next string of words hurriedly. "That I, Ishimaru Kiyotaka, cheated on the entrance examination to get into high school!"

You could probably hear a pin drop in the silence. He could guess what exactly everyone else was thinking, but the Moral Compass seemed to take the absence of sound as heavy judgement. He slumped, falling to his knees and wailing. "I have committed a truly heinous crime! To be considered the Ultimate Moral Compass despite cheating to get into high school…I am a failure as a human being!"

"Okay, shut up already." Owada interjected harshly, looking more than a little amused at the sudden turn of events. "Everyone's cheated on a test at some point in their life."

"Is that seriously the worst thing you've done?" Hagakure laughed, wiping away some sweat from his brow. Ishimaru didn't respond verbally, but a trembling hand extended his own envelope, presenting it with the sort of finality you would get from a death sentence. Fujisaki, standing nearest to the ball of misery, took several small steps before plucking it from its owner, glancing through the contents before nodding and passing it around. Naegi didn't bother reading it. As long as more than two people agreed on the contents, it was likely to be true.

"Right." He clapped twice to bring their focus back to the topic at hand. "Anyone else want to go before I start choosing people?" The general mood of the room was immediately brought down several notches, the remaining Ultimates exchanging uncertain looks as Naegi crouched down to awkwardly pat Ishimaru's shoulder a few times. They might not have gotten off on the right foot, and he was still itching to punt the fool for cracking that unseemly joke, but he could appreciate someone willing to stick to the moral code that defined him…even if he seemed to regret it afterwards.

The awkward silence seemed to grow heavier as Naegi examined each Ultimate, information flickering through his mind as he moved from person to person. Of course, there were a couple he could just call out like he did Togami, but the fact remained that he had been fortunate to step exactly onto a landmine that lent credence to his theories. Mess up with someone else's, on the other hand, and what little credibility he did get would be dashed in an instance. Still, he would push forward. The more people that revealed their secrets, the easier it would get.

"Nothing? Really?" He sighed, getting back to his feet with the beginnings of a snarl etching itself into his expression. "In that case—"

"Hold on for a moment, Naegi-dono!" Yamada spoke up, adjusting his glasses nervously. The usually confident Ultimate looked almost…normal that way. Less bombastic. "I acknowledge your resolve!" Nevermind, he was already back.

"The truth is," Yamada chuckled somewhat sheepishly, turning away and fiddling with his fingers at the same time, "the secret I hold is rather silly." He wiggled in place, a remarkable imitation of Monokuma's own odd dance from time to time. "I decided to become a Doujinshi Writer because a girl rejected me when I asked her out." Don't laugh, Naegi Makoto. Do. Not. React. Odd motivations aside, it was remarkably tame, and thankfully so. He nodded slowly, beginning to tune out the passionate rant about the "wonders of 2D" that Yamada immediately segwayed into. Well, that was another person he could cross off the list.

"Thanks for speaking up." He cut off the rant before it could get too far. "But we've still got quite a number of people to talk about."

"O-of course, Naegi-dono." Yamada blinked twice, moving to one side. "In that case…would you mind if we discussed Miss Ludenberg's secret next?" He began to pant heavily, rubbing his hands together. "I would love to know what kind of scandalous—"

Naegi raised a hand. He did not want to hear what sort of depraved ideas the portly teenager was currently coming up with. Still, it was an important point. He locked gazes with the Ultimate Gambler, a shiver running along his spine at the unspoken threat within that poker face.

"Celeste-san…everyone has to reveal their secret at some point. Surely you could just concede this one point?" He offered her a chance to own up to whatever it was Monokuma had selected for her. He was making enemies, but there was a limit to how many bridges he wanted to burn. Distancing himself from everyone else would be a surefire death sentence, even if the second motive ends on the right note.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Naegi-san." Celeste smiled, closing her eyes for a brief moment. "There is no discussion to be held. After all, a Gambler like me has to keep her secrets, no?"

He grimaced, pressing a little harder. "Are you sure you don't want to reconsider?"

"Fufufu…you seem to have misunderstood something, Naegi-san." Her smile gleamed like a dagger's point. "My acknowledgement of you does not mean that you are on the same level as me. Stop talking. Now."

Influence: 2

He sighed, the slightest hint of hurt flickering across his face before being snuffed out once more. "Very well. I suppose you probably don't have something as important as Togami-san had to hide, so I'll just throw out a theory, okay?"

Truth Bullet Selected: [Celestia Ludenburg's Identity]

"Celestia Ludenberg, the self-styled Queen of Liars. A woman wrapped up in so many mysteries and lies that it's hard to figure out where one ends and the next begins. But I suppose the biggest mystery of all would be the one she tries so hard to hide." He pointed for dramatic effect. "Celestia Ludenberg's original identity!"

"Original identity?" The Ultimate Gambler adopted a look of faux bafflement, although her tone became significantly colder. "I have always been Celestia Ludenberg. It would do you some good to end this inane line of questioning before you say something you regret."

Naegi shrugged, information already flowing from the places they had been tucked away. "I don't know if you forgot about this, but we did exchange a couple bits of conversation before Maizono-san…well, at the beginning of it all. You mentioned several things that don't quite make sense when I put them together. Remind me, who exactly is Celestia Ludenberg?"

"My father—"

"Was French nobility, and your mother is part of a German family of musicians. Despite this, you were born in the capital of Tochigi." He side-eyed her, smirking slightly when she lapsed into silence. "Those were your exact words when I asked about your family the first time. Funnily enough, you claim to be half-French and German, but ended up born in Japan? If you were telling the truth, why exactly would you have stayed here? And that's before we even take into consideration your fascination with gyoza…" He trailed off, allowing the words to linger for a moment. "Not that it's an issue. I could be wrong, after all."

"That's right. You utter complete and utter falsehoods. But please, do continue to make an absolute fool out of yourself." He hummed, allowing the veiled threat to pass him by like dust in the wind.

Taking a couple seconds to catch his breath, Naegi shrugged, not in the mood to entertain any further attacks on his character. "Of course, there's a surefire way to prove this, no risk needed, am I right?"

"There. Is. Nothing. To. Prove."

"Alright then." He smiled like the devil was here to seal a pact. "In that case, you wouldn't mind showing us your E-Handbook, hmm?"

You could almost hear the record scratch in the Ultimate Gambler's mind. Naegi took a step forward, casually extending a hand in her direction. "Our E-Handbooks are registered specifically to our own personal particulars, including our genders, blood type…and most importantly in this scenario, our names. So then, Celestia Ludenberg-san." He drawled out the name with just the slightest hint of mockery. "All you've gotta do, is show us that your true name is what you say it is. And that's that. Simple, right?"

"Simple?" Her voice dropped to a low murmur, eyes staring daggers through him. "I suppose it's simple for a shit-for-brains like you."

He cocked his head to one side, stepping close enough to lean into her personal space. "Careful there. You're slipping up."

"To think that you'd take your false accusations so far…I don't know whether to laugh or to spit in your face!" She exploded, jabbing a steel-tipped finger in his face as he grinned, quickly getting out of range before he could experience a metal claw through the eye. "Enough with your idiotic blather! Shut up shut up shut up!" You'd think that the Ultimate Gambler knew how to lose with some amount of grace.

Naegi huffed, a slow and rattling exhalation of breath that left his limbs shaky. He could see the mood of the room shift once more, a sort of uncertain and suspicious fear of the boy who was revealing things they had kept locked tight. It made him feel ill, but he pressed forward nonetheless. There was one more person he wanted, no, he needed to address, before it all came crashing down. Still, he would give the rest another opportunity.

"Please…" He intoned, looking as meek and harmless as he possibly could. "Just reveal whatever it is you all have to hide. It'll be easier that way."

"Easier?" Owada grunted, something akin to rage flickering in his eyes. "That's a really fucked up thing for you to say."

He blinked, baffled. "Hmm?"

"You locked us in here like rats in a cage, then forced us to spill our guts? It takes a certain kind of sick fuck to do something like that!" As with the Biker Gang Leader's usual penchant for violence, he closed the distance between the duo with startling speed, picking Naegi up by his collar with both hands. The Luckster briefly admired the feeling of dangling in the air, before the crude nature of the other's words finished bouncing through the air.

Influence: 1

"That's an awfully rude thing to say, Owada-san." More than rude, it was outright offensive, and Naegi wanted nothing more than to educate the punk on that.

"Quit talking like that, you disgusting piece of shit!" He shook the Lucky Student twice, before dropping him. Naegi let out a quiet "oof" upon impact, ignoring the way it sent a tremor up and through his protesting body. He grimaced silently, before readopting a challenging look on his face. He couldn't falter here, not this close to the end.

"Owada Mondo…I wonder, do you like beating me up to assert your strength? Or perhaps it's to try and get me to stop before I talk about your secret?" His eyes gleamed with deadly intent.

Truth Bullet Selected: [Owada Mondo's Past]

"Owada Mondo…if I recall correctly, you lead the Crazy Diamonds, the current biggest and most infamous biker gang in Japan. But that wasn't always the case, was it?"

"You piece of shit—"

"In fact, the gang was first led by your older brother, Owada Daisuke." Naegi grunted as the younger Owada slammed him against the door, feeling something at the back of his head split open from colliding with solid metal. Ignoring the beginnings of a new injury, he smiled unpleasantly, a hand straying to his back while he continued to run his mouth.

"Isn't it interesting? How your brother mysteriously died when colliding with a truck?"

His admittedly cruel comment was punctuated by another slam that sent a burst of pain through his head, and he had to blink away the stars he was beginning to see before continuing.

"A skilled biker like him must have had a reason for his accident—"

"Don't you dare—"

"—perhaps he placed someone's life above his own? The ultimate sacrifice—"

"Don't you fucking dare—"

"—especially with his less experienced, younger brother around—"

"I SAID—" Naegi went limp in Owada's grasp after the next set of introductions to the doors, but before he could black out from the pain, he made his move.

Slipping the bat from its position, he tucked in his legs before kicking against Owada just as he reeled back for the next slam, swinging his new weapon around and straight into the Biker Gang Leader's ribs with a grunt of exertion. The impact was harsh, and allowed him to break free from his assailant's grasp before the bat clattered onto the floor, dropped from nerveless fingers. He hissed, swiping a hand across the back of his head and flicking the blood onto the floor.

"Really…" He managed to ekk out with no small amount of pain before wheezing. "I should really be used to this by now…but it still hurts."

"Come on then," Naegi murmured, attempting to get up before falling to a knee, "we're…not…done…yet."

Influence: 0

[ Locus standi Has Concluded]

[Failure]