Chihiro found it pretty hard to let himself fall asleep that night. After safely hiding the combat knife in his desk, he lay face up on his bed, unable to help himself from worrying about Kyoko. Yes, one thing that was true about what had been brought up is that Kyoko clearly didn't plan on talking. Chihiro couldn't help but think that Byakuya did have a point however. The whole amnesia thing could easily have been a lie...Even so, Chihiro was under the impression that the Mastermind's basic goal of the killing game was to see everyone die, either one by one. If Kyoko was a spy in the group, as it was being suggested, or if she was in fact the Mastermind herself, then by now she would have had plenty of opportunities to send everyone off to their deaths. Instead, she'd been nothing but helpful the whole time, giving Chihiro subtle encouragement whenever he needed, and had an eye for detail and steeled stomach that didn't mind looking or touching bodies, that really came in handy during class trials.
That being said, Makoto had greatly helped out proving Mukuro innocent in the previous class trial, in which he himself was the real killer. However, Makoto at least had an understandable reason for doing such a thing.
The main issue on his mind was what he was going to do. Kyoko had helped him out majorly in the past...and now he had to figure out just how to pay it back.
No sooner did Chihiro just manage to slip into sleep that the intercom to his room suddenly buzzed. He sat up and got out of bed, heading towards the door. When he opened the door, the gloved girl herself was standing there, a serious expression on her face.
"Kyoko?" Chihiro blinked a few times "hey...are you alright? Do you know what time it is?"
"It's 3 in the morning," she said "sorry to arrive so late...I have a favor to ask of you?"
"Let me guess...you're going to ask me if you can stay here?" Chihiro questioned.
"No," Kyoko said "I fear what may happen to you if Byakuya or the others found out I spent the night here..."
"Then what's the problem?" Chihiro asked. However, as he did, Kyoko leaned forwards, bringing her lips to Chihiro's ear.
"I want you to meet me at the data processing room on the fourth floor," she said "get there as soon as you can, please."
Before the tiny programmer could ask her what she meant by that, the lavender haired enigma made her way out. The words looped over in Chihiro's mind.
The data processing room... he thought wait...wasn't that supposed to be locked?
Although he was slightly nervous, Chihiro opted to trust Kyoko and made his way out of his room and up to the fourth floor, thankfully still not that sleepy due to everything that was on his mind. He ambled through the schools late night halls, until he eventually arrived. However, despite what she'd said, Kyoko wasn't there. Or at least, she wasn't there yet...
Unless...
Wait... Chihiro thought don't tell me...
Upon instinct, Chihiro reached out and grabbed the door handle to the data processing room. However, as it had been for the whole time it had been present, it moved not an inch. Chihiro tried it a few more times, but still no dice. Chihiro was beginning to wonder what Kyoko had to gain from him coming here, when suddenly, the black and white bastard that was Monokuma suddenly appeared, with a huge frown on his face.
"Well, well, well! What'cha doin' there!?" he snapped. Chihiro yelped as the headmasters high pitched voice blasted full blare in his ear.
"Do I need to remind you of the school rules!?" Monokuma snapped "you are forbidden from breaking down locked doors!"
"What part about that l-looked like I was trying to break it down?" Chihiro sighed "I was literally just trying to check if it was still locked..."
"And? It is." Monokuma grumbled "I know what I saw! Anyone with a decent pair of peepers can clearly see what you're doing!"
"And yet, you still felt the need to show up?" Chihiro asked.
"Look, it's not what you were doing that annoys me, it's WHY you're doing it that I'm suspicious about!" Monokuma growled "it's like...3 in the fricken morning! Even I'M asleep at this time! Quit messin' around and get your ass in bed!"
"Is there a problem?" Chihiro suddenly heard a familiar voice behind him "what's with all the commotion?"
"Gah...of course, you WOULD be here..." Monokuma growled at the sight of her.
"Well, it's not like I have an awful lot else to do other than wander around," Kyoko sighed "after all, I recently had my room key confiscated from me..."
"Can't you do something about that?" Chihiro tried to change the subject "can't you give her a new one or something?"
"Sorry, I only made one of each key," Monokuma smirked "I try to look at all the possible outcomes of a story beforehand and limit my choices to see just how you guys will deal with it..."
"Alright, fine..." Kyoko sighed again "in which case, I'll escort Chihiro back to bed. That's the least I can do right now..."
"Wha-Hey!" Chihiro exclaimed, still utterly confused about everything "what was that all-!?"
He was cut off as Kyoko secretly pinched him, signalling him to shut up.
"Go on! Shoo!" Monokuma spat after them, as they made their way back downstairs.
Instead of taking Chihiro back to his room, like she told Monokuma she would, Kyoko instead guided them to the bathhouse dressing room.
"I'm assuming, since we're here, whatever it is that you tried to pull back there is something you don't want Monokuma knowing about, right?" Chihiro asked "I might be getting ahead of myself, but would you mind explaining to me what happened and why you called me out? if it's about what I think it is then I may have to get back to you on that..."
"No, it's not about that..." Kyoko said, getting straight to the point "I had you go to the data processing room so that I could keep Monokuma distracted..."
"Distracted?" Chihiro repeated "why?"
"So I could steal this..." She reached into her pocket and produced a key. Of course, it wasn't just any key. It had a very noticeable handle that was shaped like Monokuma's face. Clearly, it was one of a kind.
"Where'd you get that?" Chihiro said "and wait, you STOLE it!? From where!? And how!?"
"Calm down," Kyoko frowned "I took it from the Headmaster's Office."
"Huh!?" Chihiro exclaimed "you got inside the headmasters office!? That place is locked tighter than Byakuya's butt! How'd you break in?"
"There was a trick to opening the door and getting inside," Kyoko explained "Mukuro told me about it."
"Mukuro told you?" Chihiro asked "when? And how?"
"She told me about 2 hours ago, just after we broke out of the cafeteria for the evening," Kyoko explained "there's something I noticed about the way Mukuro's belt works earlier. During our investigation, she said things that could be potentially damaging to the Mastermind's cause to stop us figuring out the mysteries of the school, but were subtle enough not to go noticed."
"So...?" Chihiro tilted his head "what did you get out of that?"
"I think Mukuro's belt prevents her from telling us the truth about the academy, the killing game, the Puppetmasters and everything else that is being kept from us," Kyoko theorized "but I don't think it prevents her from giving us a limited number of clues about it. I had her give me some hints about how to open the door without actually asking her how to open it. Her response was "behind every locked door is a treasure...but a door needs treasure in order to be locked..."
"So she answered your question with a riddle...and left you to figure it out on your own! That's genius!" Chihiro exclaimed.
"Thank you," Kyoko smiled "although, I can't guarantee we'll be able to get away with that forever. We should only have her do this for us when we're in dire need of her help. Regardless, yes, I figured out her riddle."
"What did you do?" Chihiro asked.
""Behind every locked door is a treasure...but a door needs treasure in order to be locked..."" Kyoko repeated Mukuro's words "hence, I used this..."
She reached into her pocket and produced another item. A singular Monocoin.
"I used this monocoin in place of a key to open the lock. This was honestly a risk, since I only had one shot at trying it out, but I was confident I'd figured out what she meant," Kyoko explained "the other problem to deal with besides getting into the room was, of course, hiding the fact that I had done so from Monokuma. That's why I called you up there..."
"Ah...I get it now...!" Chihiro realized "you used me as a decoy."
"That's right," Kyoko nodded "I knew if I told you to go to the data processing room and I wasn't there, you would think I was inside and tried to open it. That would attract Monokuma's attention and allow me to get inside. In case it wasn't obvious, I succeeded, and the fruit of our labor was this key."
"Did you happen to find anything else in there?" Chihiro asked "any clues as to the identity of the Mastermind?"
"Actually..." Kyoko said "I did find something..."
"And that is?" Chihiro asked, on the edge of his seat. Once again, Kyoko suddenly leaned her head in. It was unnecessary, since no one else was around and there were no cameras, but it seemed whatever Kyoko had to say was of the utmost secrecy, so Chihiro listened...The words that came out however, were far from expected.
"There is a 16th student hiding somewhere in this academy...They are the one known as the Ultimate Despair..."