Kyoko took a deep breath and calmed herself. It was a moment before she trusted herself to speak. Then she turned to Celeste, who was staring at the abandoned room, brow furrowed. "Celeste, did you tell anyone about this place?" Kyoko asked, failing to conceal her suspicion.

Celeste turned towards Kyoko. Her eyes flashed angrily. "No!" she declared firmly. "I've been with you ever since we plugged it in!"

"You could have snuck away while I slept," Kyoko pointed out. "And no one else knew about this place but the two of us."

"The Mastermind must have discovered it on his own!" Celeste retorted. "He must have been suspicious of our performance here yesterday. Or he detected Alter Ego's connection!"

Kyoko exhaled sharply. "That's possible," she admitted. "But if there is an imposter among us, it is almost certainly you. This event is further evidence against you."

Celeste scoffed. "Forget about the evidence, Kyoko!", she shouted. "Monokuma can manipulate that. Look with your heart! Read me, see my emotions, see the sort of person I am! Would I betray you?"

Kyoko was taken aback by Celeste's outburst. She examined Celeste carefully, noting her face contorted in rage. As she peered closely, she saw that Celeste's narrowed eyes hid a cleverness and determination… and also loneliness, and a hurt that Kyoko surmised was caused by being suspected by someone she considered a friend.

Kyoko tore her eyes away and looked at the ground. "I do not believe you would betray me. But I also do not want to believe you would betray me. And we both know that you are adept at lying with your face and the emotions you present. I could simply be seeing in you what we both want me to see in you. I cannot blind myself to the possibility that you have deceived us."

Celeste growled. "You're impossible. Fine! What do you intend to do 'bout it, huh? I know ya won't kill me. You gonna tell the others, hope one of them will do the deed for ya? Or just lock me up at night?"

Kyoko paused and pondered the question, while Celeste waited impatiently. Several different possibilities occurred to her. She knew she would not feel comfortable exploring the school beside Celeste anymore, but she doubted she could convince Hina and Sakura to split, and there were no other girls to pair with. The ideal solution would be to find some way to prove Celeste's loyalty, to regain Kyoko's trust in the gothic girl, but how could that possibly be achieved?

As Kyoko racked her brains, her mind started to wander, sifting through the recent conversation for clues. She realized with a start that while they had been talking and Celeste had been filled with anger, she had dropped her French accent. Kyoko had noted this a couple times in the past when Celeste had been angry at someone or another, but this time, she had been talking long enough that Kyoko identified the accent she adopted while angry: it was a "yokel" accent, an unrefined accent from the Japanese countryside. That must mean… suddenly, Kyoko felt she had a good understanding of Celeste's background and motivations.

"Well?" Celeste demanded.

Kyoko's eyes snapped back to Celeste's. "No, I don't want to do any of those things. What I want to do is trust you. But in order to trust you, Celestia Ludenburg, I need to know the truth of you. I need to be sure that what I am seeing is the real you, and not a front you put up to hide your true emotions."

Celeste's anger slowly evaporated, replaced by confusion. "What…" she cleared her throat, and spoke again with her French accent. "To what could you possibly be referring?"

Kyoko bit her tongue and thought carefully about how to word this. "I know that Celestia Ludenburg is not the name you were born with. I know that that French accent is not the accent you were born with. It is only me here, no cameras and no one else to overhear, and I swear I will not share your secrets with anyone else. I want you to trust me with the secret Monokuma must have used as your motive. I want to know your birth name and your true background. Tell me these things, and I will again believe you wholeheartedly."

Celeste's face dropped as Kyoko spoke. She stared now at the floor, as though it contained answers she desperately sought. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said softly. "My name is Celestia Ludenburg. I was born to European parents living in Japan. I was born with a talent for gambling." It sounded like she was rehearsing a line she had repeated many times before.

Kyoko shook her head. "Celestia Ludenburg, please look at me."

Celeste slowly lifted her eyes and met Kyoko's gaze.

"I know that is a lie. Please, tell me the truth. For the sake of our friendship, if nothing else. I… I am also lonely." Kyoko began to confess sadly. "I remember so little of my past, including whether or not I had any friends, but something… something tells me I did not. Since I got here I've had to constantly put on a front, posturing to these other fools to try to keep them from killing themselves. There was no one I felt I could really respect, could be myself around, until I met you. I consider you my friend. But friends are vulnerable with each other. They confess their fears, their hopes, their dreams. They share the things they are ashamed of. They support one another no matter their past. No matter what your secrets are, even if you're really the Ultimate Assassin and Monokuma's traitor and kill puppies in your spare time, I swear I will keep your secret and be your friend."

Celeste's eyes were soft and wet, though the comment about killing puppies coaxed a chuckle out of her. It was her turn to pause. She took a deep breath, and Kyoko could tell she was considering her options. Kyoko waited patiently, the air thick with the weight of both girls' turbulent emotions.

Finally, Celeste spoke, her voice weak and her French accent absent. "Okay. Kyoko. Fine. I will confess to you my greatest shame. I was… born to ordinary country folk in an ordinary country town. I was born with the plain and stupid name of Taeko Yasuhiro. I hated it. I got out of there as soon as I could, and crafted a new identity, built off of tales of dignified European royalty. I wanted to be just like them. Special, famous, respected, refined. Not some plain bitch from the middle of nowhere. I still do." She looked up at Kyoko with intense eyes. "Do not share this with anyone else. Please."

Kyoko nodded. "I won't. And I will respect your decision and still call you Celeste, not Taeko. But I want you to know that even if you dropped all pretense and again lived as Taeko Yasuhiro, ordinary girl from an ordinary place, I would still value you and be your friend. It is not the refined identity of Celestia Ludenburg that I respect. It is the real girl behind the mask, whatever she may call herself."

Celeste smiled weakly. "I wish we could have met under better circumstances, Kyoko. It would have been nice to have a real friend on the outside."

Kyoko smiled back. "You still might. We'll find a way out eventually."

"Sure, sure," Celeste said, clearly unconvinced. "Anyway, we're good now, right? Shall we get out of this cramped room?"

Kyoko nodded. "We're good. I believe you did not betray us. Monokuma probably just noticed Alter Ego's intrusion into the school network on his own. Let's get back to the others and make sure they have not killed themselves yet."

Celeste chuckled not at all demurely, and followed Kyoko out of the room.

…

As it turned out, the others had not killed themselves. A few days passed in relative peace, and it seemed Monokuma's motive was having no effect. The only one full of distrust now was Byakuya, and he was not exactly trusting to begin with. The others seemed content to assume Monokuma was lying or misleading them.

And as Kyoko expected, after a few days took place with no murders, Monokuma called the survivors into the gym once again. Kyoko wondered how he would sweeten the motive this time.

"It's okay, guys!" Hiro proclaimed cheerfully as the survivors waited on the gym floor. "There won't be any more murders! I've seen it! Since it's coming from me, you know it's true!"

"You'll forgive us if we don't take your word for it," Celeste commented drily.

"No more murders?!" Monokuma cried out, suddenly appearing in front of the podium. "Oh no! Say it isn't so!

"Gah!" shouted Hina, startled by his entrance.

"What will it be this time, Monokuma?" Kyoko asked.

"Ah, well I'm glad you asked!" Monokuma answered pompously. "See, I think you kids have had it too easy. All this teamwork and junk. I even tell you there's an imposter among you, and yet you have not kicked a single member of your crew out of life's airlock! Why, you're basically sharing your test answers, and that's cheating! Your headmaster will not stand for this, no no!"

"Get to the point," Byakuya demanded.

Monokuma grinned heavily. "Very well. I am only going to say this once, so listen up! You are all confined to your rooms for the next 3 days. Your REAL rooms. All other doors will be closed and locked except for the ones to the kitchen and to the gym. You may get food from the kitchen as needed, but NO TALKING to one another in the kitchen or the hallways! That will be treated as cheating on a test and punished accordingly! Also, no going into someone else's room!"

Monokuma paused to allow the students to process his words, as their faces showed varying degrees of shock. Kyoko recovered quickly. "And the gym?" she asked calmly.

"Gettin' to that, toots!" Monokuma retorted. "See, we're going to hold a little trust exercise here. Find out if you really are all as buddy buddy as you think. At any time, starting in one hour, one of you can come meet me secretly here in the gym, and I will give you this!" Monokuma pulled out a small object that Kyoko quickly identified as a key. "This is my own key! The headmaster's key! It will open any door in the school! But wait, there's more! I will also give you this!" Monokuma pulled out what was very clearly a pistol. "It is loaded with six bullets, but remember, you can only kill up to two people if you want to graduate! Puhuhu!" The bear placed the items on the podium in front of him, threw his head back, and laughed.

The students recoiled, their faces showing varying degrees of shock. The implication was obvious. With everyone confined to their rooms, whoever took Monokuma's offered items would be able to freely unlock anyone's room door and shoot them in their sleep. It would be an easy murder, with little evidence to work with in a trial.

Makoto recovered first. "None of us will want that!" he declared firmly.

Byakuya shook his head. "You don't speak for everyone, Makoto. I wouldn't be so sure. I think we need to elect one of us to take the items, if only to ensure no one else will."

"Hey, yeah, that's a good idea!" said Hina. "I would feel much safer if I knew Sakura was the one with the gun and the key."

"Nuh-uh-uh," sang Monokuma, wagging his finger at them. "See, it has to be a secret. If someone else finds out who possesses an item, I will simply take these items back, and we shall start this little exercise over again, resetting the clock!

"Whaaat?" cried Hiro. "So someone's gonna have a gun and a way into our rooms, and we won't know who?! For serious?!"

"Well, could it be that none of you will come for the items?" Monokuma asked as he smiled slyly. "See, if you manage to make it 3 days without anyone speaking to me in the gym, I'll give you all a reward! Access to the last floor of the school, no trials needed! After all, this is a test of trust: if none of you take my almighty power, you'll pass the test! But can you really afford to stand by? If someone else takes my gifts, they can kill you in your sleep and get off scot-free, easy peasy despair squeezy! Maybe you should take it first!"

"And if someone does take the key and the weapon, but does not murder during the time limit?" Celeste inquired, pensively holding a hand to her chin.

"Ah, then I take the items back and you all go back to your peaceful school life, with no reward and no punishment," Monokuma answered brightly. "I'll just have to come up with a different angle for this motive instead."

Of course, Kyoko thought. He's going to try different variations of getting us to mistrust one another until one works. She thought carefully about how to strategize her response to this dilemma. A thought occurred, which she brought up to Monokuma. "What if multiple students come for the items at the same time?" Kyoko asked.

"Ehh?" Monokuma paused, tilting his head in thought. "Well I suppose I would pick one of you at random, and give the items to you in your room later so it stays a secret. Unless it's exactly two of you, 'cuz then whoever doesn't get them will know the other one did! So I'll just send you back out of the gym if you show up in a pair."

Kyoko nodded. So having everybody ask for the items at once would not undermine the game like she hoped. Could have exactly three people go, though, because then everyone could narrow it down to one of three people having it without violating the secrecy rule. But was that a better option than hoping no one took Monokuma's offer?

"Alright, enough talking!" Monokuma decreed suddenly, breaking Kyoko's concentration. "Get to your rooms! Your real rooms! Remember the rules! No talking to one another! No cheating off your classmates! And that starts now! I better not see any of you talking on your way back! Remember, you may come for the items starting in exactly one hour! Enjoy your pleasant school life!" With that, Monokuma disappeared, and the students were left to ponder this new problem. And this time, they had to ponder it alone.

…

Kyoko carefully observed the other students as they all wordlessly moved their beds and belongings back to their original rooms. She wondered what the penalty would be exactly if she opened her mouth to provide a recommendation about what they should do. Would Monokuma really execute her? Surely that would not be the kind of execution Monokuma really wanted, for whatever the Mastermind's plans were for the killing game's effect on Japan. Maybe it would just be a longer imprisonment, so some key words could be worth the punishment… but she just didn't know.

And if she did recommend something, what would she recommend? She did not think it likely anyone remaining would kill. Everyone wore scared, worried faces, except Byakuya and Celeste. Byakuya seemed the only one who lacked empathy, but shooting someone in their sleep would not be his style. Celeste had confessed she was desperate to get out and would probably not mind killing someone in their sleep if it got her what she wanted, but even if it wasn't entirely based in reason, Kyoko trusted Celeste now, and felt she would not betray them. Still… perhaps she should try to grab the items, just in case? It would at least give information about who had them. But of course the ideal scenario would be if no one grabbed the items, and that seemed like a likely enough possibility that it might be worth the gamble.

Ugh, Kyoko spent the hour racking her brains, feeling more stressed and uncertain than she could remember ever feeling before.

...

Makoto knew he wanted nothing to do with Monokuma's offer. If they were denied the reward, he refused to let it be because of him. The only question in his mind was whether someone else would take the offer, and if so, how could he protect everyone? He didn't think anyone would take the offer, but he knew by now that he was trapped with some… eccentric personalities. He had learned he could not predict what Hiro, his current partner, would say or do. And the others also all had their own levels of unpredictability. His experience with Sayaka had particularly taught him that he couldn't take for granted that these Ultimates would be honest and straightforward, like he was. So as much as he hoped they would all stay away from the gym, he figured he should at least try to keep an eye on things. He left his bedroom door open. The door would be useless anyway if someone got the key.

…

Sakura and Hina refused to leave each other's side until nightfall. They stayed in Hina's room, wordlessly comforting each other. Sakura didn't think Monokuma would punish her for simply spending time in Hina's presence, as long as she went to her original room to sleep. And she was upset enough at the bear for putting Hina and the rest of her friends through all this hardship that she almost hoped the bear would actually challenge her. She hadn't seen Monokuma show any martial skill, only use bombs and a spear trap. She was confident she could avoid those. So she could just fight Monokuma, if it came to that. Still, that wouldn't be her first choice: she wasn't stupid enough to blindly assume that those were the only tricks the bear had. So she stayed silent, thinking.

If someone asked her to go to the gym and safeguard the items, she would. But she didn't want to make a move without the approval of the others. She had gotten close enough to betraying her friends at the start of all this. She had no desire to repeat that mistake. So, when night fell, she simply returned to her room, praying that if one of her friends did have murderous intent, they would shoot the gun at her, not her other friends.

For her part, Hina was distraught, more concerned about her growing emotions of terror that she might lose another friend and hatred for Monokuma for putting them all in this situation and shame that she wasn't strong enough to stop this and the general feelings of dread, anxiety, and overall despair that dominated her inner turmoil than about any kind of strategizing. She cried herself to sleep.

…

Byakuya returned to the same room he had slept in since this game started and pondered his options. There were only three possibilities. Possibility one: ignore the offer and barricade himself in his room. A key wouldn't matter if he upturned his bed and placed it in front of the door. Any attempt to displace it would certainly wake him up, allowing him to defend himself. Though, he detested the idea of so much physical exertion, or of sleeping anywhere but in a bed. But without a barricade he simply could not guarantee his safety, and that was unacceptable.

Possibility two: take the offer and refuse to kill. This would allow him to guarantee his safety without indignities, but it would sacrifice the opportunity to gain access to the final floor. Though, he didn't really think that opportunity would come to pass anyway. Kyoko or Celeste would take the items. Of course, not at the earliest time, the one hour mark. People would certainly be peeking out their doors to see if they could catch someone in the hallway then. At the very least, he would be. But if he had the items, it wouldn't really matter who suspected him anyway.

Possibility three: take the offer and kill. The option was tempting. It was the easiest opportunity to get away with murder yet, and no better option was likely to come along. Unfortunately, Byakuya biding his time to wait for a guaranteed win had ended up working against him a bit: everyone left seemed to trust one another, the fools, so he would likely be the prime suspect if someone did end up dead. He didn't think he could successfully frame someone either, not as long as Kyoko was around. And he couldn't simply target Kyoko: The earlier conversation where he had attempted to cast doubt on Kyoko's intentions had failed, and the others all seemed to trust her and knew he would be the most likely one to target her. Besides, Byakuya despised the idea of playing right into the Mastermind's game like some kind of pawn. But he was a genius after all, maybe there was a way he could get around these problems…

Byakuya lay awake reasoning out his options for the next hour, before finally coming to a decision.

…

Celeste dropped her mask as soon as Kyoko left her room with her possessions and closed the door behind her. The sweet refined face was quickly replaced with a face twisted by a nasty grimace. More than anything else she had encountered since entering this horrific school, this current predicament was a gambling game. And she was good at gambling games. So why were her usual gambling instincts not telling her what she should do?

True, this gamble did not involve any straightforward elements of chance like card and dice games. But it did involve other people, and she thought she had a good read on her fellow prison inmates. Speaking of prison, this challenge reminded her of the famous prisoner's dilemma. In the prisoner's dilemma, you and your criminal partner are both offered the same deal: go free if you testify against your partner, which will give your partner 3 years in prison. But if you both testify, you are both imprisoned for 2 years. And if neither testify, you both serve 1 year in prison.

The dilemma was supposed to prove that sometimes the most rational option is betrayal. Whatever your partner does, you will get the least prison time if you testify against them. But… that wasn't true if you cared as much about their time in prison as your own time. In that case, whatever your partner does, the least overall prison time comes if you refuse to testify.

The same reasoning applied here, thought Celeste as she scowled. In the past, she had always believed the right answer would be to betray if it benefitted you. She still had half a mind to march up to Monokuma, take the key and gun, shoot Kyoko (so she couldn't solve the crime), and pin the blame on Byakuya, who everyone hated anyway. She could get away with it. Probably. And probability had always worked in her favor before.

But… she couldn't bring herself to do it. She knew confessing her secret to Kyoko was a bad idea. Now she cared about Kyoko's prison time too. She wanted Kyoko to be safe. And she felt certain that neither Kyoko nor anyone else would betray her - they were all too trusting or too cautious, easy marks at the poker table. So it seemed that for once, the smart thing to do would be to cooperate, to try to minimize the prison time for the whole group.

Aaargh! It wasn't supposed to be like this! Celeste's reasoning gave way to colorful unladylike swearing and furious rage, She wanted out, dammit! But at the cost of killing her only friend? Aaargh, what a stupid game!

...

Once Makoto moved his stuff out, Hiro took a nap. Monokuma's announcement had been exhausting to understand, and not for the first time the Ultimate Clairvoyant fervently wished he had some of his relaxation herbs in the school with him. He was not cut out for this kind of stress!

But Hiro tried to look on the bright side. He would need to go without herbal aids anyway once the plants rose up to take their bloody vengeance on mankind, so this was good practice. Besides, there was nothing to worry about. Like he had told the others, he had spent a great deal of time trying to divine the future lately, and he had seen that there would be no more murders! So there was nothing to fear. Probably.

Maybe he should do another reading. Just in case. Once he woke up from his nap a couple hours later, he set up the mystic energy and tuned in to winds of time. It took several minutes of intense concentration before the beginning of a vision appeared in his mind's eye. With further meditation, he fed the vision's arcane flames and coaxed it to life.

While the vision was still vague, a feeling of dread overtook Hiro. Then, it slowly grew clearer and more lifelike than any vision he had ever had before. This was the future. There was no room to doubt. The feeling of dread turned into grief, and as he meditated he slowly went through all of what he assumed were the five classic stages of grief: hyperventilating in panic, denying what he saw, desperately searching for a way to avert the depicted future, wallowing in self-pity, and finally, determination.

The terrible sight he saw with his inner eye? His own mangled body lying dead in a pool of his own blood.