"Hey. It's me again. No bat this time, I just wanna talk."

Even with this dubious promise, Mikuru turned just as hesitantly to face Makoto as she had the first time around. Needless to say, Yuki had been much quicker.

"Right," Makoto said. "First of all, that photo. When am I gonna share it? The suspense is killing you, right? Well you better get used to it! Sometimes it's more fun to leave the flies on the web. Speaking of, you wanna hear about another catch of mine?

"Lately I found some creep wandering around with a blank CD and looking real proud of himself. It really didn't feel right for him to have it all to himself, so I took it off him, and do you know what I found?"

As she expected, Mikuru was looking the most distressed of the two during this monologue, which wasn't really what Makoto wanted. Luckily, what she showed next would finally turn the tables. Like before, she got out her phone, but this time she selected a video, the contents of which were all too familiar to Mikuru and Yuki.

The screen showed Yuki pouncing on Mikuru and struggling on the ground with her, with all the panic around them making it quite clear that this hadn't been scripted. Neither one of them had really considered how the scene might look to anyone unaware of the behind-the-scenes context, and there were probably better times to have done so than before Makoto explained what it was she saw.

"You can't control yourself around her," she said. "The outfit probably didn't help, but it's obvious you look at her like that no matter what she's wearing. Even when a drunk driver's about to hit her, all you see is another chance to run over and grab her."

Mikuru looked at Yuki, desperately hoping she'd speak up and prove Makoto wrong. Surely a calm and logical explanation could smooth things over?

But Yuki knew Makoto wouldn't listen to reason. It was typical human behavior to see something bizarre and come up with their own explanation for how it actually made perfect sense in the mundane world they thought they lived in. Yuki had seen several examples of this, and in most cases she could recognize what kind of starting point the person was working with, such as their understanding of the laws of physics. But Makoto's starting point wasn't something as logical as that, despite it clearly being set in stone for her.

No matter what facts were presented to Makoto Kamada, they wouldn't make sense to her unless they could be twisted to align with her belief that Yuki was the enemy and Mikuru was her victim.

"The silent treatment won't work this time," Makoto said. "I know what it looks like when you're quaking in your boots like you should be. And it's no good playing dumb either. You have to know there's no way out for you this time!"

"But…!"

Now she'd done it. All attention turned to Mikuru. If Yuki thought any kind of defense was futile, what chance did she stand? But listening to Yuki be spoken to like this was just unbearable.

"You don't understand… both times, she did it to save someone… she's a good person!"

Makoto looked at her with as much doubt and confusion as someone trying to gallantly defend her honor possibly could. "...you're telling me this bookworm actually happens to come across people in life or death situations that often?"

"Uh…" Mikuru's stance quickly shifted from 'butting in was probably a mistake' to 'butting in was absolutely a mistake'.

"And it was to save 'someone'," Makoto said. "If it was you both times, you woulda said that. Her answer to someone else being in danger was to rush over to you and grab you like that."

On the inside, Mikuru was begging herself to keep quiet, but a retort came to her regardless, forcing itself out in the form of a tiny squeak. "...you'd understand if you were there…"

"But I wasn't," Makoto said. "All I've got is this very persuasive video evidence here. If there's something I'm missing, can't you just tell me?"

Finally, Mikuru had nothing to say. Maybe that should have come as a relief, but it was probably too late for that.

"SAY IT!" Makoto's exclamation was almost enough to make Mikuru lose her balance and fall over. "What happened that day, that made it in any way acceptable for her to treat you the way she did?"

"That's cl-" Mikuru bit her lip. No, she thought. Not now, please not now! That familiar sentence, forced into her head to help ensure she wouldn't reveal anything dangerous, was now demonstrating just how unhelpful it could be.

Since this encounter began, she'd been trying and failing to avoid saying things she really shouldn't have been saying. With just a bit of that willpower she envied so much in others, she probably could have managed it. But willpower wasn't a factor this time. She'd begun to say it, and not even biting down hard enough to taste her own blood would have kept the rest of it from coming out. Her tears flowed freely as she fell to her knees and finally surrendered to it.

"That's classified information."

Makoto's jaw dropped. "What does that mean?" She thought she'd be glad to have this kind of ammunition. Even Yuki was starting to look more like she did in the photo that started this mess. But even with the horrific things Makoto was confident were being done to Mikuru, this development took things much too far beyond her expectations.

"What the fuck did you do to her?! What does it take to keep her from going against you no matter how much she wants to? Hypnosis? Torture? Can it even be undone? Because if not, you'd better…"

"That video has been edited."

Without either of them noticing, Yuki had reverted to her usual self. Or at least, that's how it seemed at first. In the silence that followed, an underlying fury was not only visible but tangible to the others. Makoto had once again pushed her past her breaking point, but without the same feeling of helplessness. Yuki had what she needed to turn the tables, and deep down, much of her anger was directed at herself for not making use of it sooner.

"The hell are you talking about?" Makoto wanted to laugh, or get angrier, but those options seemed to have been robbed from her. She'd come here expecting to expose a monster, but had no plan ready in case Yuki decided to offer the slightest glimpse how monstrous she could really be. "Anyone can dig up that movie and see the same thing. If you're trying to say it was smoke and mirrors, why's it look so real compared to all the other effects?"

"That is not what I meant," Yuki said. "Before the film was transferred to your phone, the irrelevant parts were cut out so you could better make your point. In addition, the image has been cropped to better fit the screen's portrait orientation."

Makoto didn't like where this was going. "And…? What's that got to do with what actually happened?"

"It suggests an above-average level of technical prowess," Yuki said. "You might possess it, which would come as a surprise to many. But such a feat would be much less surprising if attributed to the person you stole the disc from: Kenta Higuchi."

Makoto forced herself not to panic. Panic would lead to her asking stupid questions like "how did you know his name?" Of course Yuki knew it. He'd gone straight to them to ask for the movie. Her belief that he could make the necessary edits was troubling, but unfounded as far as Makoto could tell. Maybe that was all she needed to shut down this train of thought.

"What makes you think he could?" She said. "Better yet, what makes you think he would?"

"Kenta Higuchi is a former member of the Computer Research Society," Yuki said. "He departed before I began to interact with the group, and judging by their reluctance to discuss him since, he did not leave on amicable terms. I was wary when he entered the SOS Brigade Clubroom, and now it appears my concerns have been validated."

Makoto was sweating bullets as she backed away. "Y-you really think so, huh?" The further she got, the more her nerve came back to her, bit by bit. "...but don't think you get to sweep what you did to Asahina under the rug! I was expecting something unforgivable, but that is so much worse than I was ready for! I swear I'll be ready next time! Whatever it takes!"

She made one last attempt to look Yuki in the eye, and when that proved too difficult, she simply turned and ran away. Yuki hoped this would be enough to calm Mikuru down at least a little, but her crying wasn't showing any signs of slowing down.

It soon occurred to Yuki that Makoto hadn't been the only problem. Mikuru had a long history of being nervous around Yuki that still affected her older self, who was otherwise much more confident. Seeing Yuki truly angry was sure to make things much worse, no matter who was on the receiving end of that anger.

"I'm sorry," Mikuru murmured. "I've done something selfish, haven't I?"

Author's note: One of my big struggles with this chapter (besides life being a Big Darn again) was how I tried to start with Makoto confronting Tsuruya first for some reason, and that had a lot of trouble going anywhere. I'm terribly stubborn about starting over with anything, and if after writing this I come back to it tomorrow and see I've messed up the pacing or something, I don't know what I'll do.

Now it's tomorrow and I guess I've got something publishable wow what idiot put me in charge of deciding that sort of thing.