"Huh, where did these come from?"

Silas exchanged a curious look with Dax as Naruhito's voice floated down the stairs, but before either of them could ask the other what was going on, Kagura chimed in:

"Why would we be left random scraps of newspapers? Oh, here, I'll help clear them."

"Ah yes, yes, thank you, Nabenashi," Luca said, sounding somewhat harassed. "There was no need for them to throw these scraps across the table like this, when we still need to eat-"

"Don't throw them away." Inori said.

"No, no, wait, she's right man, don't throw them- look, this is a full page…and that's like a few pages and….holy shit, look at the dates!" Naruhito exclaimed.

"March the 1st, March 2nd, 28th February…wait, so we really have been in here for a month?" Kagura exclaimed.

"Longer than that!" Naruhito said. "Especially for those of us who were taken in December!"

"Are these the most recent newspapers, then?" Ae-ra asked.

"It…seems so." Tsubame said quietly. "Am I correct in this matter, Izawa-san?"

"You can see for yourself, can't you?" Inori said with some irritation.

"What's going on, Izawa?"

Propelled by his own curiosity, Dax rushed up the stairs, naturally heading straight for Inori. By the time Silas got up, he was already poring over a set of pages with Inori, their heads almost touching as they carefully read every word, brows furrowed in almost-matching expressions of concentration. It amused him, but he put aside his amusement to have a look at one of the newspapers that had caused such a buzz. Ena was folding them and putting them aside to make space for Luca to put out breakfast-slices of different bread, various jams or spreads, canned fruit-but as she did so, she skimmed through each one. Some were indeed full pages, or sets of pages, but there did seem to be some cuttings in amongst the selection.

It was one of these cuttings that Silas eventually decided to start with, and he was startled to see Hayami's school photograph smiling out at him, taking up about half of the cutting. He frowned and looked at the caption, which read: Hayami Motowari, aged 18, attended Hope's Peak on false pretences. The headline of whatever article this was had been cut away, so Silas started to read the article beneath the picture. But just as he did, Kakeru let out a yell before crying out:

"It was you! Motowari-san, it was you all along?!"

Silas looked up to see Kakeru had leapt up from his seat, waving a single page of newspaper at Hayami, who had clearly just arrived. She tilted her head and scrunched her face up in puzzlement.

"What was me all along?"

"T-this newspaper! It says you're an assassin!"

"Holy…holy shit."

Now Dax stood up, pointing empathetically at the newspaper page he had been reading as he stared at Hayami.

"Hey, what this newspaper is saying about your family…is it really true?"

"My family?" Hayami blinked. "Are they doing an appeal for me or something?"

"You could say that."

Inori was still looking at the newspaper, and Hayami flashed her a curious look. When Inori didn't look up, however, Hayami's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, before she seemed to realise people were staring. She blinked rapidly, and then tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Anyway, it's been a long time, huh-"

"DON'T LIE!" Kakeru yelled.

"Woah, woah, Yanai….." Luca started.

"B-but, you're all reading this, right?" Kakeru gestured wildly at the table, at Hayami. "You can see it's all about her?"

"I-I mean, that's…yeah, Motowari-san, it doesn't look good." Ae-ra said timidly.

"Psh, that's an understatement!" Naruhito exclaimed. "Man, I don't know what to think…but hey, mate, come on and eat something."

Kakeru muttered something about how they were all going to get killed, but sat down again, and let Naruhito serve him some breakfast. The others continued to debate while Hayami stood there, hands clasped together, looking sweetly puzzled for the most part. But occasionally, she narrowed her eyes at Inori, who was still carefully poring over the newspapers and at Tsubame, who sat there almost impassively. Thankfully, she didn't seem to catch Silas staring, which he was glad about for reasons he didn't understand.

"Yeah, she's right, it doesn't? But it is a little bit crazy. Like, come on, SHSL Assassin?" Kagura exclaimed.

"It says Hitman here, actually." Yori corrected, pulling a face.

"Assassin, Hitman, it's the same thing, isn't it?" Kagura shrugged.

"Maybe we should give Motowari-san a chance to have a look at these newspapers and then explain herself?" Ena suggested. "I mean, she hasn't even taken a look at them."

Ena sighed as she looked at the now messed-up pile, before then going to serve herself some breakfast.

"Okay, but at least, first tell us? Is all of this true?" Dax asked. "Have you only been pretending to be an SHSL Gymnast all of this time?"

"What, me, an assassin or a hitman?" Hayami gasped. "That's so silly! I mean, c'mon, look at me!"

"But assassins work undercover, right?" Yori said. "So, like, you could be pretending to be a normal person."

Hayami's eyebrows twitched, but she didn't answer this. Nor did she respond to Kakeru exclaiming that 'you see my point now' or any of the other rapid-fire questions thrown at her by Naruhito and Kaguya. Instead, she walked up to the pile of newspapers and picked some up at random before flicking through.

"Upupu, finally! I was getting bored of waiting for you lazyheads to wake up and see this lovely little gift I left you!"

Silas flinched as some of the others yelped in surprise, and Luca swore in Italian. Maniacal laughter filled the room, and the so-called 'Monokuma' continued on:

"Oh yes, I went to all the trouble of gathering together all these excerpts of the news, just for all of you! Don't you like them? All so terribly thrilling, isn't it?"

"Why?" Hayami asked, quietly.

"Upupu, is that Motowari-san? But oh my, haven't you figured it out? It's all about you after all."

"S-so it is true?" Kakeru asked. "Y-you really are a hitman?"

"Oh, haven't you read?" Monokuma cackled. "It's not just her, it's her entire family! They've been operating for generations now, it's practically a family tradition…just like Hope's Peak can be for some, hmmmm? And Hope's Peak have definitely made great use of the Motowari family…as some of you may know."

"Why are you telling us all this anyway?" Yori wanted to know. "What difference does it make?"

"Upupu, you don't like my little gesture? I was so sure you were getting all bored, wondering what was going on above you so I thought here, why not give you a little update? Like you said, what difference does it make? It's not as if you can do anything about it. Anyway, I'll leave you all to enjoy my gift properly! Bwahahahahaha!"

"Well, that's a new noise." Yori remarked when everything went silent.

"That's what you're worrying about?" Kagura asked. "Anyway, tell us, won't you? Whether any of this is true or not?"

Hayami's grip on the papers she was holding loosened. As they slowly fluttered to the floor, she looked up with an utterly cold expression that had Silas flinch. Hayami clearly noticed this, and one side of her mouth quirked up, before quickly flattening back out into that grim line.

"You couldn't just leave me alone, could you? Not even you…"

Her gaze flicked up to the ceiling, which Silas took to mean that she was addressing Monokuma as well.

"But fine. Fine! I really am the SHSL Hitman, and I have been all along! Fucking happy now?"

"Moto…I mean…what…you just swore? Wait, no, that's not even the biggest issue. You…it's true?"

"Oh for crying out loud, Nabenashi, are you deaf?" Hayami rolled her eyes.

"Does this mean you're behind all of this?" Naruhito asked.

"I-I bet she is! I bet it was like, a lie that Kai-san and Amari-san killed anyone at all! I bet it was her! I bet it was all her!" Kakeru yelled.

"Sh-shit!" Dax looked grey. "Does that mean that we wrongly accused them?"

"Okay," Monokuma unexpectedly interrupted. "I was gonna just kick back and watch you all react to this latest plot twist, but I can't just stand by and let the sanctity of the killing game go challenged! It is one hundred percent the truth that Fukue Amari killed Kaida Adachi and that Chiara Kai killed Seren Nishiya! One! Hundred! Per! Cent! Got it? Anyway, feed me some juicy dramatic moments from now on, okay? Or even some teary ones? I'm sure there's a lot of things in there that'll make you all cry!"

"O-okay…." Kagura said after a few beats. "I guess that clears that one up. But, like…does this have something to do with like, your parents, maybe?"

"B-but why would a hitman target us?" Ae-ra asked. "I mean, apart from our school, most of us are pretty ordinary, right?"

"What makes you think I'm going to tell you anything more than I need to?" Hayami scoffed, leaning against a wall. "I've already been forced into revealing my actual Talent."

"It's still worth asking." Luca said. "I think, anyway. And you cannot blame us for having questions."

"Y-yeah, exactly!" Naruhito said. "Now we know this, maybe we can understand why it is we're in here."

Hayami scoffed at that.

"You people really are idiots, aren't you?"

She shook her head, and then laughed, though there was nothing joyful in this laughter.

"You do realise that I'm a hitman, right? You know what hitmen do? When you so-called 'good, ordinary' people really want to kill someone but don't want to lower yourself, you call on us so we can do the dirty work for you."

At this, Hayami shot a pointed look across the table, which to Silas once more seemed to be directed at Inori and Tsubame. Inori looked up from her newspapers and gazed at Hayami unflinchingly, while Tsubame continued to sit there, seemingly having no reaction whatsoever. Though, when Silas looked closely, she was bunching the material of her worn yellow dress in her hands. Hayami then continued:

"Then you get to pretend you're still good and ordinary while admiring your clean hands. Us hitmen, on the other hand…listen, if I or my parents wanted to kill someone, we would just kill them ourselves. We're not weak like you, we don't care about getting our hands dirty. That's our entire fucking job! So we wouldn't put on this…charade. We certainly wouldn't rely on inexperienced people, or their emotions, just to get someone killed. Not when we can do it better."

"Why should we believe that?" Luca asked. "I...I am not saying we shouldn't, necessarily. But why should we?"

"Yes, he has a point." Dax said. "I mean, what you said makes sense, but I don't figure out how criminals behave. That's not my damn wheelhouse so…I can't know if that's true."

Hayami shrugged.

"Yes, well, that's not my problem."

"S-so, does this mean y-you're gonna kill us, then?" Ae-ra said. "Because now we know the truth?"

"What difference is that going to make anyway?" Dax scoffed. "The whole fucking world knows as well, apparently! What's she going to do? Kill everyone in the world? She'd have to get out here first!"

" S-she will!" Kakeru said. "I bet she will! She's going to kill us all so she can get out of here and go on the run so nobody will ever catch her! And then she'll meet up with her parents and they'll go on the run and…"

"Alright, alright," Ena said. "Let's all…put this aside for the moment. Once we've had our breakfasts, then we can decide what we should do with this new information that we have been given. And, apologies, Motowari-san, but we will have to discuss how to handle you as well."

"Tch. Why apologise for that? I mean, if I wanted to harm any of you, I would. But I respect the rationality, I guess. Anyway, I'll leave you all alone."

Despite grimacing and trembling slightly as he piled food on a plate, Luca insisted Hayami take some breakfast with her. With Ena also insisting the same (though at least seeming calmer, outwardly), Hayami seemed momentarily wrong-footed before nodding and gruffly accepting the plate and disappearing down the stairs. When she left, the room burst into chatter as the newspapers were spread out and they all pored over every little bit of information they could find about Hayami Motowari, and what exactly it meant for her to have been a hitman.

Silas tried his best to also seem like he was contributing. But his hand strayed to the pocket of his jeans, and so did his thoughts. Or, more specifically, to the grindaknívur that was sitting there. He remembered how unsettled he had been to wake up and find it on the floor of the cell, as if waiting for him. How he'd tucked it back in his pocket and felt even more unsettled once Monokuma had told them about this 'game'. A grindaknívur wasn't the type of knife meant for fighting or for harming other people. But if he was in danger, it surely could be forgiven. He remembered thinking that way when he'd been kidnapped, but he'd put aside all thoughts of using it soon after Seren had died. He'd thought that it wasn't worth all the pain it would cause just to clutch at a thin chance at survival.

But now…but now it's different, isn't it?

He didn't want to die. He was sure that if he tried anything, he'd be found out and executed, and he didn't want that. But he couldn't stand by and let a hitman harm any of them, when they were all innocent. And sure, she was in the same boat as them now, but someone like Hayami could never be an innocent.

She'd said it herself, hadn't she?

"Hey, that makes sense, right?"

Realising this was directed at him, Silas looked up. He had heard what Dax said, but it took his mind a moment to process it.

"What? Oh, yes. She wouldn't be able to mass-murder us because of that rule, but to avoid being picked off one by one, I think only interacting with her when we're all together or in larger groups would be for the best."

Not, Silas thought, that I have any intention of following that. As everyone discussed the possibilities of having rotas of groups to meet and interact with Hayami, and whether this meant they were going to confine her to a specific area, Silas gripped his grindaknívur tightly, and he thought:

There's no other way. There's more danger than ever. So, I will be forgiven.

Won't I?