Ultimate Psycho (Danganronpa 1 x Male! Reader)

Chapter Fifteen

3rd Person POV

"G...gh... Oww..." Makoto groaned in pain. His vision was somewhat blurry and for a moment he didn't even remember where he was.

"Ugh, focus..." Makoto tells himself as he tries to recall what happened. "Apparently, something hit me, and I lost consciousness. That's all I understood. This dull, throbbing pain in my head proved that much at least." Makoto picked himself off the ground and scanned the room he was in, eventually noticing an empty bookshelf.

"An empty bookshelf... Huh? Empty...?" It took a moment for things to click in his head, but once he realized what happened, panic set in.

"Gone... It's all gone!" Makoto shouted as he ran to the book case and looked around.

"The yearbooks... the student registry... and... even the note that had fallen on the floor. It's all... gone? What does this mean...?" Makoto's head was still stinging in pain, and that pain began spreading across the rest of his body. Despite the pain, he felt something in his pocket. It was kind of uncomfortable, so he reached inside to see what it was, and to his surprise, the note that he thought had gone missing along with everything else in the room was there, crushed into a paper ball, but still there. It was readable still, so at least there was that.

"... I-I don't get it. Why did whoever did this leave the..." As Makoto was wondering what was going on, he recalled what he saw before passing out. A strange person and what looked like...

"Ugh... I just don't understand. F-For now... I should go back to my room... Get some rest... and think about it then." Makoto told himself. His body was heavy with pain, and his mind heavy with thought, but he still made his way back to the dorms. Somehow he managed to make it all the way to the 1st floor of the school.

He felt like he might collapse once again in the middle of the hallway, but something caught enough of his attention to keep him awake for a few moments longer.

"Hm...?" A faint sound that seem to come from a vast distance caused Makoto to perk his head up in curiosity. It was an odd sound, as if something metal was being hit with immense force

"That sound... It's coming from... the gym...?" Makoto realizes. Something about this gave him a bit of a bad feeling, and that feeling forced Makoto to take a quick detour to see what was going on.

When Makoto reached the gym, he began to walk up to the door as quietly as possible, not wanting to make his presence known to anyone that may be inside. He made sure that when he opened the door to the gym, not a single sound was made... The sounds coming from inside, meanwhile, only intensified that much more.

When he looked inside the gymnasium, before him there raged a battle beyond anything humanly possible.

"Monokuma and... Sakura!" Makoto didn't understand what was going on one bit. Sakura and Monokuma were going at it with one another. Makoto hasn't seen that many fights in his life, but no matter how many he could have seen, he knows that there wasn't much that could top the intensity of this one.

And despite the fact he was unsure of what caused this fight, Makoto began cheering on Sakura in his mind.

Not too long after Makoto began watching them, the two backed off from each other and began speaking, but what was said left Makoto with more questions than answers.

"Why you...! What do you think you're doing?" Monokuma angrily questions Sakura

"..."

"I asked you a question! What's the meaning of this? How dare you defy me...? This wasn't part of the deal!"

"The deal...?" Makoto whispers.

"I've made a decision... I will no longer retreat, no longer compromise, no longer regret... I've made my decision! I'm going... to resist you!" Sakura tells him with a determined expression on her face.

"Hmm... Okay. But...you do realize what will happen if you go through with this, right? You haven't forgotten, have you? What I'm holding hostage...?"

When Monokuma said this, Makoto noticed Sakura's expression falter for a moment. A split second of regret about something. And that brief moment of Sakura seemingly faltering in her determination worried Makoto.

"What am I looking at...? What am I hearing...? A hostage?" Makoto was confused for a moment, but as soon as he recalled the hostage part, Byakuya's words about a second traitor echoed in his head.

"Then... could this mean that...? The mastermind's second spy is... Sakura...?"

Makoto really couldn't make sense of any of it, but he knew sitting here wasn't going to help, so he thought it would be best not to sit around for much longer.

He quickly ran back to his dorm, hoping that he wasn't noticed by either Monokuma or Sakura when he left. He really didn't know what to make of this situation, but he definitely knew that anyone knowing that he knew wouldn't be good for now.

Trying to make sense of it all was already difficult enough, and the throbbing pain in his head was making things much worse.

"Maybe I should just rest for now, I'll try and think about it in the morning." Makoto tells himself as he laid on his bed, drowsiness already setting in. And in no time, he was completely out cold.

****

****

Soon enough, morning time had arrived, followed by Monokuma's announcement. The fact that he has to hear that same announcement every morning was driving F/N even more crazy than he already is... somehow.

Regardless, he picked himself out of bed to get dressed, since even if he went back to sleep, Ishimaru would definitely show up at his door to harass him until he woke up again, followed by giving F/N an earful he wasn't willing to hear.

To make sure he was awake, F/N went to the bathroom to splash some water on his face, and when he did so, he stared at his reflection in the mirror.

Of course, all F/N saw staring back at him was himself. His eyes devoid of any light seemingly staring into his soul. He closed his eyes as he wiped his face off with a towel and when he was done he tossed the towel to the floor. He'd pick it up later. For now, he had to get to the dining hall before Ishimaru came hunting for him.

When F/N exited his rooms, he expected the hallways to be rather empty, as the others should already be on their way to the dining hall. He was partially right, most of the remaining students didn't seem to be around, but F/N wasn't expecting to see Mukuro leaning against the wall beside the door. It seemed like she was waiting for him.

"Mukuro... what are you doing by my door?" F/N pulled his scarf over his mouth as he spoke. "Were you so excited to see me that you just couldn't wait a second longer than what was possible?" He squinted his eyes as he spoke and it seemed like he was smiling under his scarf, but it was hard to tell by looking at him.

"Actually, Taka was planning on making sure you didn't show up late to the dining hall, so he was gonna annoy you until you left the room, but I offered to do it for him." Mukuro explains as she and F/N start walking towards the dining hall.

"That... definitely sounds like Taka to me." F/N's eyes shift to the side as he lets out a sigh. He looked back to Mukuro with a curious expression afterwards. Something about this still seemed off to him, and he didn't know why. Maybe he was just on edge about what just happened a few minutes ago.

"Well, did you sleep well last night?" F/N questions Mukuro.

"It was no different than any other night." Mukuro responds.

"...even the night when we slept together?" F/N asks, making Mukuro stop in her tracks for just a moment.

"The only difference then is that you were there, and you didn't move or make a sound, so it wasn't any different from sleeping alone." Mukuro claims.

"Hm? So what you're saying... is that sleeping with me feels completely natural?" F/N asked as he leaned close to Mukuro.

"I... guess that's one way to interpret it." Mukuro admits as she brushes the hair of her wig away from her eyes.

"Well, if you ever want that natural feeling again, you're free to ask." F/N tells her.

"Hm." Mukuro paused as she thought of a way she could respond to that. Eventually, a thought did pop into her mind.

"And what if I did ask? Would you say yes?" Mukuro wonders

"Hm? Are you starting to get your hopes up about my offer?" When F/N asked her this, Mukuro stopped and grabbed his hand, making him stop walking as well.

"Who's hope am I getting up here exactly?" Mukuro asks as she grabs F/N's collar and leans into him. "Mines...? Or yours?"

"You- uh... I..." F/N had trouble coming up with a response to that, as he didn't even expect Mukuro to say anything back. All he could do was scoff and try moving away from Mukuro, but she seemed to not want to let go of him.

"Well, if you really do want that... all you have to do is ask." Mukuro rested her forehead against F/N's chest, leaving him even more dumbfounded than before. Fortunately for Mukuro, the wig she was wearing was covering the view of her face from the side. Even her mouth wasn't visible to anyone, including the cameras.

"A-Aren't we supposed to be heading to the dining hall right now? If Taka has to come drag us over, we'll both get an earful." F/N reminds Mukuro. He was going to try and back away from her, but he heard her whispering something strange when he put his hands on her shoulder.

"Somebody has been watching us all go through this killing game for a while. And that same person wants to speak with you..." Mukuro whispers to F/N.

"Hm?" F/N narrowed his eyes when he heard what Mukuro said. "Is this person the mastermind, or... someone else?"

"Somebody not a part of the killing game... but still important to Hope's Peak. That man wants to speak with you." Mukuro responds to him.

"...and when can I meet this important man?" F/N wonders.

"It's hard being able to speak with him. Every time I do, it's always while being watched. Whenever that changes is when I'll bring you to him."

"I see. I guess I'll just have to wait to meet this mystery man then." F/N mutters. "Now, how about we finally get to the dining hall? I don't want to try and explain what's going on here if Taka shows up." He adds while pulling Mukuro off of him.

"Oh, that reminds me." Mukuro speaks up just as F/N turns away from her.

"What is it now?"

"I was just wondering... if my offer from earlier got your hopes up?" Mukuro questions him

"...tch." F/N turned away from Mukuro again as he pulled his scarf up to cover his face. Without another word, he stomps off.

"Oh... did I say something to make him mad?" Mukuro thought as she felt regret, thinking she made some kind of mistake. Nevertheless she followed after him since she also didn't want Taka to chew her out right now.

Soon enough, Mukuro makes it to the dining hall just a few seconds after F/N, where everyone else has already gathered.

"Ah, I was wondering where you two were. I thought I might have to go looking for you." Ishimaru says as the two join the rest of the group at their table.

"I apologize for doubting you like that, even if it was for a moment." Ishimaru apologizes to F/N, who puts a hand on his shoulder.

"I should apologize for giving you reason to worry." F/N assures him, flashing a thumbs up alongside his words. Ishimaru of course responds with a thumbs up of his own.

"But, uh... you probably shouldn't bother apologizing over something simple like this." F/N thought, but he decided not to say it and risk ruining the moment.

Junko looked around the room and noticed that Toko and Byakuya were gone like usual, meaning that this is obviously all that is left.

"It makes sense... everyone else is dead. They killed each other.... then she killed them." The girl remembers as she took a seat at the table. "And nobody knew even just before they died. Not even F/N truly knows. Only me and her really know the truth. And yet, I-"

"So now there's only seven of us here..." Aoi speaking up snapped Mukuro out of her thoughts, and when she looked up she took notice of the miserable expression Aoi wore.

"That's less than half of the number of people we started with..." Ishimaru points out.

"Loneliness has become commonplace." Kyoko states

"That's true..." Sakura says

"What an utterly boring despair this is." F/N sighs as he leans back in his chair, putting his feet up on the table.

"..." Makoto remains silent as he stares at the table. His eyes seemed almost unfocused as he was entranced in his own thoughts.

"Makoto, are you okay?" Sakura asks him.

"Ah-! N-No, I'm fine...!" Makoto quickly reassures her. He didn't want to seem too suspicious in front of her especially. Not after what he saw.

"I can't bring it up in front of the others. If I did that...it would just confuse everyone that much more." Makoto reminds himself as he tries to just not think about it while others are around. However, he didn't seem to notice Kyoko's gaze on him. She looked concerned about something, but she didn't speak a word about it.

"Okay! In that case, let's eat till we pass out!" Aoi advises the whole group as she suddenly stands up, making F/N flinch from her sudden movements.

"What do you mean by, "In that case"?" F/N questions her as he readjusts his position.

"Well, cuz look how scary everyone looks! It's gotta be cuz you're all fighting on empty stomachs, right? If you fill your belly, I'm sure you'll all cheer up! So, let's eat!" Aoi answers him with an assured smile.

"Let's fry up some fish and donuts and eat till we can't stand up!" She adds.

"Fish and donuts sounds... putrid. Just thinking about it makes me queasy." F/N admits as he covers his mouth with his scarf.

"What!? Those are both breakfast time top sellers!" Aoi claims.

"No, they're not. At least, they better not be." F/N adds

"Still, the "till we can't stand up" part is a problem. After we're done, we need to go explore." Kyoko reminds everyone.

"That's right. Since the class trial is over, new areas should have opened up for us to investigate!" Ishimaru said as he stood up from his chair. "We have to be sure to search every nook and cranny for an escape as soon as possible!"

"Aside from the new floor, we still have Alter Ego. We don't have to give in to despair just yet." Kyoko says.

"She's right... We have to plan ahead and think about the future!" Makoto chimes in.

"Yeah, yeah! Think happy thoughts! Not deathy thoughts!" Aoi advises everyone.

"Hm. Camaraderie like this isn't something I get to see everyday. I'm grateful to see something of this level of beauty." F/N speaks up. "Truly, this is a blessing."

"Saying it in such a creepy way just makes it sound way weirder than it actually is, you know." Aoi points out as she finally sits down again.

"Do you know any adjective other than "creepy"? It's becoming your catchphrase at this point." F/N sighs while leaning back in his chair.

"Of course I do!" Aoi claims.

"Like what?"

"Um... delicious!" Aoi quickly responds.

"...of course that's what you answer with." F/N grumbles while Aoi merely giggles in response. "Whatever. You're lucky that's actually correct."

"You should apologize for doubting me." Aoi tells him, only for F/N to roll his eyes.

"If I liked you any less, I'd probably ignore you." F/N sighs.

"Then it's a good thing that you're also a part of this "beautiful camaraderie" isn't it?" Aoi purposely spoke in a much deeper tone in the middle of that to try and mimic F/N's voice.

"I don't sound like that." F/N mumbles as he turns away from Aoi.

"...I wish Byakuya and Toko were here for this, too." Sakura suddenly admits.

"Speak for yourself. At least if Jill is the one roaming around." F/N says.

"Yeah... they're so hard to deal with. They only think about themselves." Aoi adds

"Honestly, those two have such horrible attendance for these meetings. It's just awful. How could they not be ashamed of themselves?" Ishimaru sighs.

"Hm? Hehe. Ahaha..." F/N snickers as he closes his eyes.

"What's so funny?" Aoi questions him.

"Sorry. I was just thinking." F/N begins. "No matter how beautiful and amazing a garden may be... all it takes is a single weed left unchecked for long enough to doom it all to total destruction..."

"Uh..." Aoi couldn't really wrap her head around what he was trying to say. Unlike her, Kyoko and Mukuro had a feeling they knew exactly what he meant.

"What does that even mean?" Aoi asks F/N.

"It means: next time you think about snacking on donuts, consider the health benefits of a crispy salad instead." F/N answers her question, which obviously just made her mad.

"Hm. A single weed..." Makoto repeated F/N's words in his head as everyone began eating their breakfast.

"Maybe... he's not wrong...

****

****

Once the group finished eating their breakfast, they all made their way to the fourth floor of the school, splitting up once they got there to be able to search every last portion of the new area. Since nearly everyone went on their own, Makoto was investigating the floor by himself.

The first thing to catch his attention was a blue door that seemed to be called the 'data center'

Unfortunately, it was locked tight, so Makoto couldn't get in to figure out what that could mean.

"If it's locked, then maybe whatever's behind it is important. But... if it's a data room, then there's obviously data stored in it somehow. I wonder what kind of data it could be." Makoto decided to just leave it alone since there wasn't anything he could do about it. Maybe this room will be accessible later on. At least, he hoped so.

The next place he checked was actually unlocked, and according to the name played next to the door this was the music room, however, it seemed like the nameplate was downplaying it a bit.

"This is... the music room? It's hardly even a classroom. It's more like an actual concert hall..." Makoto thought as he looked around the spacious area, as he did so he noticed Kyoko was already here, and she was standing next to the stage.

"Kyoko." Makoto spoke up as he walked over to her. She looked up upon hearing her name, and when she saw Makoto she fully turned to face him. But before he even had a chance to say anything, Kyoko spoke first.

"You know, you haven't told me what you think yet." She reminded the luckster, who looked confused for a moment.

"What I think...?" Makoto inquired

"About the secret room in the boys bathroom..." Kyoko whispers to him.

"...Ah! W-Well, um...I did find the secret room, but... As soon as I started looking around, I was attacked..." Makoto admits with a somewhat ashamed expression.

"Attacked? By who?" Kyoko questioned him with clear worry in her eyes.

For a moment, Makoto recalled the last thing he saw before passing out. The mask person and... mukuro. He considered telling Kyoko, but... he at least wanted to question Mukuro about it before letting everyone else know. He just had some kind of weird feeling regarding it. Something wasn't right.

"Well... they came from behind, and I didn't have any time to react. So I didn't see who it was... And when I came to, the mountains of files and documents... were all gone." Makoto tells Kyoko. He didn't completely lie, but he was still worried Kyoko might see through him.

"..." Kyoko said nothing as she stared at him. She sighs as if this was just a mild nuisance more than anything else, but Makoto thought she was upset at him over it.

"I'm sorry. I know how important those were." Makoto apologizes

"...It's okay. I already saw what I needed to in there." Kyoko reassures him. "That... and I half suspected the mastermind might come after you."

"What...?"

"When I discovered the room, the mastermind must have seen me on the surveillance camera in the hallway. They must have seen me go into the boys bathroom, and not come out again. Still, I wanted you to go and see it... I wanted to see how the mastermind would react. Essentially, I wanted to find out if the mastermind actually knew about that room." Kyoko explained her little plan to Makoto

"But to attack you, and steal everything in the room... That must mean there was some unknown clue in there that could reveal the mastermind's identity." She grumbles, wondering what it could be exactly.

"Then... you knew I was gonna get attacked?" Makoto questions her with a bit of a dumbfounded expression.

"You can handle that kind of thing though, right? After all, you're a boy." Kyoko assures him

"What does she think a boy is...?" Makoto asked himself.

"Fine... I understand." He sighs. "Then let me ask you something else. When I was there, I saw a note that said "you must not leave"..." Makoto was going to reach into his pocket to show her the note he still had, but Kyoko stopped him.

"We... shouldn't talk about that. Not here." Kyoko stole a quick glance at the surveillance camera, which Makoto immediately understood.

"I'm looking into it. If I find out anything, I'll let you know. Is that okay?" She made it sound like she was asking, but it was clear that Makoto wouldn't have any say in the matter.

"So, now it's your turn. Let's hear your secret." Kyoko mentions as she glares at Makoto.

"...Huh?"

"Did you think I wouldn't notice? You're hiding something. ...Am I wrong?"

"Th-That's-!" Makoto honestly wasn't that surprised that Kyoko of all people figured it out this fast. But still... not even he understood what he saw, so to tell someone else would probably cause even more confusion. The worst part is that he didn't know if she knew he was hiding more than one thing. Saying one while she was suspicious of something else would make things even worse.

"What's the matter? If you're worried about the camera, why not just write it down?" Kyoko reminds

"U-Um... well..." Makoto didn't want to bring unnecessary suspicion towards either Mukuro or Sakura. At least not until he could try and make more sense of it.

"...We're friends, so you should be able to trust me. Isn't that what you said before?" Kyoko reminds him.

"You're right that there shouldn't be any secrets between friends, but... There's nothing worse than expressing doubt about your friend when you don't have evidence for it..." Makoto almost spoke his thoughts out loud, but for Sakura and Mukuro's sake, he kept his mouth shut.

"S-Sorry... I can't tell you. Not yet..." Makoto tells Kyoko, and the moment he said that, Kyoko furrowed her brow before quickly turning away from him.

"...So... that's your answer." Kyoko mutters.

"But do you think that's fair? You were happy to hear what I had to say, but now you're unwilling to share?"

"I'm sorry. I really am..." Makoto felt awful after what Kyoko said, but he still didn't want to put Sakura and Mukuro in a terrible position.

"..."

"It's fine. Goodbye." With those as her parting words, Kyoko left him standing there alone.

"I... I really made her mad, didn't I...?" Makoto asked himself as he stared at the door. But at this point it was too late. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place and he made his choice. He just hopes he can make it up to her somehow.

Makoto really wanted to find Sakura and Mukuro to at least get some answers, but first he had to finish searching through this floor. So he wandered around some more, and eventually he found something that had to be important.

One door had a nameplate next to it that read: Headmaster's Office. And those words alone got Makoto's hopes up for some kind of answer to everything here.

"The headmaster's room... There must be something worthwhile in there..." Makoto put his hand on the door knob and try turning it but all it did was rattle in place instead of turning.

"Huh? The door's locked..." Makoto realizes. "Dammit...!" He kicked the door, but obviously nothing happened. He was disappointed, but at this point, what else is new?

Makoto knew he still couldn't do anything about the locked doors so he just moved on to the next. Eventually he came across a place called the chem lab, which he entered rather quickly. At least something wasn't locked.

"So this is the chem lab... I hope inhaling all this stuff doesn't do permanent damage..." Makoto thought as he looked around. In the corner of the room, Sakura and Aoi were conversing with each other about something random, while Mukuro and F/N were standing by a remarkable shelf stocked full of medicine. F/N was holding two different bottles in his hands, reading the labels with a surprisingly intense look. It seemed whatever he was reading was troubling him.

"Mukuro..." Makoto thought as he looked at the girl. She was wearing the same wig as always, but he just couldn't go back to thinking of her as Junko. Not after whatever happened last night.

Makoto walked up to the shelf beside F/N and Mukuro, and the moment he did, F/N spoke to him.

"Be careful around here, Makoto. This shelf has more than just medicines." F/N warns him as he holds up one of the bottles in his hand. "There's also poisons as well."

"P-Poison!?" Makoto exclaims as he reads the bottle F/N had.

"At least they're labeled properly..." He sighs.

"Hm, I suppose that's something to take solace in. Though I can't imagine that having these just sitting here is good regardless." F/N sighs as he puts everything back where he found it. As he did, he noticed Aoi and Sakura were looking through the shelf too, and they seemed to find something that got them excited.

"Ah! Listen, you guys! Listen! Just take a deep breath and calm down and LISTEN TO ME!" Aoi exclaims as she grabs F/N and Makoto's hands, pulling them to the other side of the shelf.

"O-Okay, Hina... we're listening, just chill out..." Makoto tells her

"Look! There's all kinds of stuff we didn't have before! Vitamins, minerals, amino acids, creatine and-! WHAT!? They even have Proteinzyme-X!" Aoi exclaims in pure ecsta- excitement. Makoto and F/N glanced at each other for a moment, both of them thinking the same thing.

"I have no idea what that is." F/N speaks both their thoughts.

"A high-quality protein drink! It's nothing like that cheap swill in the warehouse. It's connoisseur level!" Sakura tells him. Even she seemed pretty excited about it.

"Oh, so it's just protein?" Mukuro mutters. "I guess I shouldn't be that surprised." She mutters.

"This is amazing! It's a gold mine! Ahh, my prayers have finally been answered! Time to load up some more prayers, then!" Aoi says as she claps her hands together.

"Well, while you're busy doing that, me and Makoto have to step out for a bit." F/N speaks up, confusing Makoto over what he wanted.

"Huh? What are you two gonna talk about? Why can't you just do it here?" Aoi asks him.

"It's guy talk, you girls just wouldn't get it." F/N answers her.

"What on earth even is guy talk?" Aoi wonders.

"Me and Makoto are gonna talk about pretty girls for an extensive amount of time, okay? You three just won't be able to follow along. So just wait here for a bit, okay?" F/N claims as he starts pushing Makoto out the door. "We'll be back in a bit!" And they left, leaving all three girls completely confused.

"Pretty girls...?" Aoi mutters after a few seconds of complete silence. As she said this, Mukuro looked off to the side with a rather curious look.

"Who... who do you think they'll talk about?" Mukuro asks Sakura and Aoi, who both look at her with surprised looks.

"Huh? You wanna know?" Aoi questions her, before she suddenly seems to realize something. "Are you wondering if they'll talk about you?" She asks the girl in a teasing manner.

"What? No." Mukuro shakes her head. "I... was just curious is all. Maybe they'll talk about you instead."

"Uh..." Aoi scratches her face as she thinks about what they could possibly say about her. "I'm not sure if I should be flattered or offended by them talking about whether I'm pretty or not behind my back." Aoi admits with a bit of an embarrassed look.

"W-What about you Sakura? You think they'll mention you?" Aoi quickly asks to avoid those embarrassing thoughts.

"I... doubt I'd come up in conversation." Sakura admits, as she said that, Aoi was quick to try and disagree with her. She even dragged Mukuro into backing her up just to prove Sakura wrong. But what's more important was what happened to F/N and Makoto.

"Hm. This should be far enough." F/N says as he drags Makoto all the way to the end of the hall.

"Uh, why did you bring me here again? I'm pretty sure you aren't actually going to talk about girls... right?" Makoto questions F/N.

"I am. Now tell me, who do you think is the prettiest girl here?" F/N asks Makoto, who really didn't want to answer that question.

"Uh... I don't really know. I never thought about it." Makoto claims.

"I see, what a lame answer." F/N responds.

"Didn't even try sugar coating it..." Makoto sighs.

"Well whatever, I'll just give you my answer first. Maybe then you'll have an idea for your answer." F/N tells him as he leans against the wall.

"Okay..." Makoto mutters.

"Don't you think Kiri is rather pretty?" F/N questions Makoto, which definitely surprises him. This wasn't the answer he was expecting. Then again, he couldn't really imagine what F/N finds as pretty anyways.

"Uh..."

"Yep, she sure is a lovely young lady, isn't she?" F/N asks Makoto as he pulls his scarf over his mouth. "It's... such a shame..." He whispers.

"Huh? What is?" Makoto asks.

"It's a shame that recently, she seems troubled by something." F/N mentions. "Not even troubled. It's more like she's... upset." He pointed out.

"I-Is she...?" Makoto asked. He had a feeling as to why F/N thought this, and it was just making him feel even more guilty.

"Yes, I noticed right away. I only passed by her, and she didn't even say hi, but something felt off." F/N begins.

"What was off about her...?"

"Kyoko is usually rather aloof, but... now she seems angry. Maybe I'm just a bit too observant when it comes to these things, but... I guess I have my talent to blame for that." F/N mentions.

"When I walked by her, she wasn't walking normally. She seemed to almost be stomping around. It wasn't that intense, but it was a bit different than normal. Plus... she always has this neutral expression, almost as if she's trying to be completely emotionless. Yet when I saw her... her brows were somewhat furrowed. Isn't that weird?" He asked Makoto.

"Ah... that's kinda impressive that you could even notice something like that." Makoto mentions.

"Is it? Usually when I point out miniscule things like that to people, they just find it weird how hard I'm trying." F/N mentions before shaking his head. "Anyways, I was curious why Kyoko seemed so upset. She wasn't like that yesterday, so something must have happened in the time between when everyone else left so you and her could check on alter ego and when I saw her a few minutes ago. And... you're the only person that I know who was with her at some point. So tell me... what happened with you and Kyoko last night?"

"...So this is why he wanted to talk to me." Makoto realizes as he shifts uncomfortably.

"Uh... nothing in particular, really happened." He claims.

"Really?" F/N whispers. "Is it a secret that you can't tell anyone?" As he asked this, Makoto stared at the ground instinctively.

"Were you and Kyoko getting up to some suspicious activities, and you can't let me know, and that's why you can't say? Or... am I not the only person you can't tell?" F/N immediately noticed the guilty look in Makoto's eyes, as subtle as it was, and he figured he had to be on the mark.

"I see then." F/N sighs and leans against the wall. "Guess it can't be helped. Everyone has their fair share of dirty little secrets... don't they? Kyoko especially. So what's the big deal if you do the same?"

"That's the thing though..." Makoto speaks up. "She... told me something that nobody else knows of. Something seriously important. And... I couldn't do the same."

"...So that's why she's so upset." F/N mutters.

"Even now... I still can't tell her." Makoto shoves his hands in his pockets and sighs. He thought that F/N just wanted to know why Kyoko was upset, so he was ready to head off again, but before he left, F/N wrapped his arm around Makoto's shoulder and pulled him back.

"Don't forget what I just mentioned, Makoto. Everyone has their dirty little secrets. Some are worse than others. Not all secrets are equal." F/N reminds Makoto as he snakes his hand underneath his scarf. "So how about this? If you're so upset about not being able to return the favor, I will tell you a secret of mine and you tell me the secret Kyoko told you." Before Makoto could reject his offer, F/N showed him an envelope that he had on him. On it was F/N's name.

"Huh? This is the envelope Monokuma gave us for the second motive...!" Makoto realizes as he looks up at F/N. "A-Are you sure about this? Aren't these like... our biggest secrets?"

"Don't worry about it. Just think of it as a sign of trust and friendship." F/N pats his back and urges him to open it.

When Makoto opens the envelope and reads the contents inside, his face immediately shifts to one of surprise. He glanced over to F/N with a nervous look at what he just read.

"T-This..."

"Before you ask, yes, it's the truth. At least I'm pretty sure it is..." F/N whispers that last part under his breath, though Makoto still caught it.

"I-I don't understand. Why...?" Makoto mutters.

"I wanna know the same thing. But I guess life just isn't that easy." F/N sighs. "But this just further proves my point. Every single person has a secret of their own. And that shouldn't be held against them, because everyone has a reason for everything that they do. It's all for their own form of hope at the end of the day. All secrets are kept because of that hope. The hope that they won't be singled out over something nobody has to know. After all... nobody likes to get singled out, do they?"

Makoto was silent for a moment as he handed the envelope back to F/N. He really didn't know what to make of it.

"Don't think too hard about it, Makoto, that's my job. It's my secret after all." F/N assures him. "We all have one. Toko hid her secret of having a serial killer split personality. Mondo kept his secret, and... Chihiro did too. Not just them. Hina... Taka... even Mukuro..." As he said this Makoto turned his head towards F/N immediately, shocked by the fact that he knew about her too.

"You... you know about her too, huh?" Makoto asks.

"I've known about it way before you have, actually. Even Sakura and Hina know about her." F/N tells him.

"Them too?!" Makoto exclaims.

"It's like I said. Everyone has a secret. None of which are equal in severity to the other. Some people have insane secrets, like hiding the kind of person you truly are. So if you have one that you can't even tell Kyoko, it's nothing to beat yourself up over." F/N tells him.

"...Last night, she told me about a secret area in the boys bathroom on the second floor. Apparently in the storage closet, there's a secret room behind the wall facing the door." Makoto begins. "But when I went to check it, I was hit from behind and fell over. It was probably the mastermind who had done it." Makoto concludes.

F/N was silent as he processed this new information. He faces forward as Makoto waits for him to say something. Soon enough, he finally broke the silence with a question that Makoto wasn't expecting.

"Did you see Mukuro there?" F/N asked, and Makoto, in his surprise by F/N's accurate guess, stares at him without saying anything.

"I'll take that as a yes." F/N says with a weirdly serious expression. "If my assumption is correct... then you obviously must suspect that Mukuro has a connection with the mastermind, don't you?" F/N asks.

"You said you've known about it for a while now, right? You probably know a lot more about her than I do. So... do you think it's possible?" Makoto wonders.

"Well... if you really did see her, then you must've seen whoever attacked you." F/N concludes.

"Just before I passed out... I swore I saw someone wearing a weird mask. And next to them, it looked like Mukuro. Even if I was out of it, the wig was a dead giveaway to her."

"Well, even if you didn't see who this masked person was... if Mukuro was with them and didn't try to stop them, guess there's only one conclusion that can be drawn from it." F/N tells him.

"Then she really might be..." Makoto trails off.

"Considering the circumstances, I'm guessing that this is the thing you don't wanna tell Kyoko. I mean, if you told her all that, it could bring unnecessary suspicion towards Mukusaba. And nobody wants that." F/N concludes. "But... why do you care? There's no reason to care if a suspicious person like her is put under a lense by everyone else."

"Well, I don't know if she's completely untrustworthy. I found a note in that room that said "you must not leave" and even though everything else disappeared from the room after I passed out I found the note in my pocket. I was holding it when I was knocked out. I know that for sure so it doesn't make sense why the person that knocked me out let me keep that." Makoto explains to F/N, who already came to a conclusion.

"You think Mukuro left it in your pocket, right? And if she did, then obviously she must be somewhat trustworthy." F/N says.

"Yeah... but I don't want to just go telling everyone about her secret identity without confirming with her first." Makoto adds

"Such a gamble you're taking here, Mak. But maybe you're not the Ultimate Lucky Student for nothing." F/N tells him.

"I... still feel bad that I can't tell Kyoko about this just yet. But..."

"Hey now... before that, I have another question." F/N cuts him off.

"Huh?"

"Is that really the only thing you can't tell her? You're not hiding something else, right?" When F/N asked this, Makoto could barely even feel surprised at this point. Maybe he was just too obvious.

"Wahaha... no need to be so annoyed with me. Whether you're keeping secrets still or not doesn't matter to me. I gave you a secret of mine and you returned the favor in full. Sounds like a fair trade to me, yeah?" F/N reassures him, but his friendly smile quickly falls as he frowns at Makoto. "But now I understand what's up with Kyoko. She told you about that secret room, told you a secret of hers, and you couldn't do the same to her. That's not exactly how fair transactions work, am I right?"

Makoto stared at the ground out of shame, but even now he still didn't plan to say anything to Kyoko. At least until he got to speak with Sakura and Mukuro himself first.

"You know... maybe it's just my talent finally being useful for something, but did you know that you can see more than just pretty orbs when looking into someone's eyes? At least if you're skilled enough." F/N mentions.

"I think I've heard about that somewhere." Makoto recalls. "I'm not sure how accurate it can be though..."

"Well... no matter how hard you try to hide your emotions, it's just that. You're only hiding them. Just because it's hard to see doesn't mean it's not there." F/N says. "Kyoko is still a person at the end of the day. People can only hide so much of themselves."

"...what are you saying?" Makoto asks him.

"When I walked by Kyoko, her brows were furrowed, and she seemed to be glaring, but... there was a weird look deep in her eyes. I only saw it for a moment before she was gone but... there was something else there other than anger. I wonder what it was..." F/N explained to Makoto as he walked around the corner. "Perhaps I'm just overthinking things, who knows?"

Makoto didn't respond to that as he thought about everything F/N told him.

"It's hard for people who may not know everything about each other to truly understand one another. Isn't that just a shame?" F/N asks, but before Makoto could even think of responding, he continued.

"Well, let's hurry up and head back. I bet the curiosity of what we've been doing for so long is eating them up by now. Oh, but before we go... you never did answer my question."

"What was the question again?" Makoto asks.

"Who is the prettiest girl here?"

"U-Um... I'm not sure I should answer that." Makoto tells him.

"Wahaha... I'm guessing that's another secret of yours, hm~? Too bad. Maybe I'll hear about it one day." F/N says as the two of them finally return to the chem lab, where the three girls were still hanging around. When they got back, Aoi immediately ran up to them to question them about what took them so long.

"Hm? Are you hoping I say that you were concluded to be the prettiest one here?" F/N asks her.

"I-I don't care about that! But you guys were talking for forever! What else did you do out there?" Aoi questions them.

"Don't worry, you made it to the top three, Hina." F/N assures her.

"I still don't know if I should be flattered or offended..." Aoi grumbles.

"Who else made the top three?" Mukuro asks F/N out of the blue.

Makoto and F/N glance over to each other for a moment, somewhat surprised she would actually wanna know.

"Uh... guy talk is for guy ears only." F/N claims. "Anyways, we should really start searching other areas on this floor now. I bet everyone else will be gathering in the dining hall any minute now."

"We pretty much checked everything else by now, so I suppose we'll see you at the dining hall." Sakura tells them.

"Y-Yeah... see you guys later." Makoto says, and he, as well as F/N and Mukuro leave the chem lab.

As the three were walking around, F/N glanced at Mukuro for a moment. It seemed like he was contemplating on whether or not he should say something. Eventually, he decides to just say what he was thinking to her.

"You know... you do get bonus points when the wig isn't on." F/N mentions, which causes Mukuro to twirl the wigs' pink hair with her fingers, a curious expression on her face.

"F/N..." Makoto sighs.

"What...?" F/N questions Makoto.

"Nothing. How about we just... check out that room?" Makoto suggests, leading everyone into what seems like the schools office.

"Well, this is clearly the office. But... there's no hint of any teachers that we'd normally be able to rely on. Guess I shouldn't be surprised by that." Makoto mutters as the three walk around the room. Eventually, he notices that he stepped on something that felt like paper, but when he looked to the ground he saw a photo with a few familiar people on it.

"Guys, come look at this..." Judging from his tone, F/N and Mukuro could tell it was something pretty important.

"What is it, Makoto?" F/N peeked over his shoulder to see what Makoto was holding. And his reaction was no different than Makoto's.

The picture they saw was undoubtedly of three people who were long gone, yet they were with each other as if all was normal.

"...Is that Sayaka with them?" Mukuro questions Makoto as she also takes a look at the photo. Though unlike the other two, she only bothered giving it a quick glance, as if it was nothing special.

"It... it is. This photo is exactly the same as the one I saw before!" Makoto realizes. "First it was Chihiro, Mondo, and Leon together... now this."

"I can't wrap my head around this. You and... Sayaka, didn't you two go to the same middle school?" F/N questions Makoto, who confirms this.

"We did but... Hifumi and Taeko definitely didn't. So this picture doesn't make any sense." Makoto couldn't believe that this photo was real. At least that's what he tried to convince himself. Deep down, however, there was something in him that kept him from fully dismissing it.

"Well if it's a photo, then it must have happened, right? It doesn't seem to be fake... at least I don't think it is." Mukuro speaks up.

Makoto glanced at her for a second. Somehow, he felt like she was trying to keep him from ignoring it. But... something about it was off. Mukuro seemed so sure of what she said, to the point that Makoto found it almost odd for some reason.

"Mukuro... what do you-?"

"Nyohoho! YOU'RE fake!" Monokuma suddenly popped up out of nowhere and cut Makoto off. He jumped at him to try and snatch the picture from his hand, but F/N was quick to grab the picture first, keeping Monokuma from getting his grimey paws on the photo.

"Hey! Thou shalt not steal!" Monokuma tells F/N as he tries to grab the picture from his hands, but considering how much taller he was compared to Monokuma, F/N raised the photo above his head, which got Monokuma to give up trying to grab it.

"Who the hell do you think you are preaching to me?!" F/N shouts at him. "Why don't you make yourself useful and tell us whether this photo is real or not?"

"Hm. Sure, but first..." Monokuma paused for a moment, as if he was waiting for something.

"F/N, above you!" Mukuro tried to warn him, but F/N didn't react in time for Monokuma to suddenly fall from the ceiling and take the photo from his hands.

"Thank you for returning my lost property!" The second Monokuma hands the photo to the original, who takes it and turns towards all the students, who were still in shock from what just happened. He then bows and walks out of the room without saying another word.

"Ugh... I can't believe I let my guard down like that." F/N scoffs. "You're like a roach sometimes. I never know what crevice you plan to crawl out of next..."

"You flatter me, F/N." Monokuma giggles.

"Can you at least tell us if it's fake or not?" Makoto questions him.

"Fake? A forgery plot? What are you, a middle schooler? You think the moon landing was faked, too? Come on!" Monokuma exclaims in disappointment.

"Then... you're saying this picture is... real?" Makoto asks him for clarification.

"If there were such a thing as the Nobel Truth Prize, I'd take first, second, AND fourth place!" Monokuma claims.

"That's not true." Mukuro says.

"I asked you a question! Is this picture real, or is it a fake!?" Makoto asks Monokuma,this time with a bit of frustration in his voice.

"Oh, Makoto. You're so eager to split things in half, aren't you? But it's no use. It's just no use... If you try to split something that can't be split, you'll end up feeling like YOU'RE the one being split. The picture is real. No more, no less." Monokuma admits.

"Really? Thanks for the help then. You're free to go." F/N is obviously just trying to get him to leave, but Monokuma seems to want to hang around more.

"I think you should sound a bit more grateful." Monokuma says.

"Keep dreaming. Now shoo already.

"Shoot? Did you just say shoot?" Monokuma asks him

"What? No, I-"

"Shoot you say? As in... shoot your load?" Monokuma says, his face burning up from the thought.

F/N didn't respond to that question. And the whole room fell silent as a result. Makoto groaned in disgust while Mukuro seemed almost unsurprised by this.

Monokuma was gonna say something but F/N cut him off with an uncharacteristically angry voice.

"Get out."

"Nyohohoho!" Monokuma quickly skedaddles, almost as if he was a bit scared of the reaction he got.

"Ugh..." F/N groans. "I don't know how much longer I can take this."

"...Please don't do anything that'll put yourself in danger." Mukuro advises him.

"Yeah, yeah. I get it." F/N sighs.

"Ignoring that... we've pretty much explored the whole place by now. Everyone's probably waiting for us at the dining hall." Makoto reminds them, convincing the group to head over there.

***

"So, is this everyone?" Ishimaru asks as the last few people arrive at the dining hall from their investigations of the fourth floor. "In that case, let's hear what everyone has discovered!"

"Yeah, good idea..." Junko mutters

"There was a big shelf in the chem lab on the 4th floor, and it had all kinds of chemicals and stuff. And there was an all-star cast of nutrient additives and supplements! You should at least go take a peek. I highly recommend it!" Aoi says

"I'm almost certain that you and sakura are the only ones here that are interested in stuff like that..." F/N says

"Oh, but... it's not all good stuff, though. There was medicine and health stuff, but on top of that there was also a bunch of different poisons." Sakura says

"Poison!?" Ishimaru exclaims.

"They were all labeled clearly, though. So it would be hard to grab one by mistake..." Sakura adds

"Still, we'd better make sure we're careful around there." F/N says

"And...we probably shouldn't tell Byakuya or Toko about the poison, right?" Aoi suggests

"What do you mean...?" Ishimaru asks her.

"Well, just in case... You know what I'm trying to say." She tells him

"I don't know if that's enough. We can't have such dangerous things lying around like that!" Ishimaru reminds her.

"Outside of someone's dorm, I can't think of a place that they'd be hidden in for long. Plus... it's easier to keep track of them if we leave it where it is." F/N suggests.

"Er... I understand you bro, but still..." Ishimaru grumbles. "Maybe Hina's suggestion is all we've got."

"It's Byakuya. It won't be long before he's discovered it for himself." Kyoko reminds him

"Well, moving on from that, I found a couple rooms on the 4th floor, but they were locked! The data center and the headmaster's room!" Ishimaru says.

"The headmaster's room, huh? I wonder what could be in there." F/N mutters.

"Whatever it is, that just sounds like exactly the kinda place we'd find some clues! If it's locked, then it's important!" Aoi concludes.

"Well, we can't know unless we somehow unlock the door and get inside..." Makoto reminds her.

"Well, breaking the door down seems like the obvious solution. I'm sure Sakura can manage that." F/N suggests.

"...What was that?" Monokuma pops up

"Great..." F/N sighs.

"No, please. Continue." Monokuma urges him.

"Did you say I've got the nicest butt on the block? The curviest hips in town? Is that what you said!?" Monokuma asks.

"Stop talking."

"Well if you didn't say that, then what DID you say? Cuz I KNOW you weren't talking about tearing down the door to the headmaster's room." Monokuma exclaims

"...is there a problem with that?" F/N asks him.

"Knocking down your headmaster's door? What kind of war on education are you trying to start here!? That's MY room, ya know? It is now anyway... And you're thinking of busting it down?"

"So what if I am?"

"You seriously don't wanna piss me off. Do you have any idea how much bacteria lives on a single bear claw?" Monokuma warns him.

"Please stop talking."

Monokuma sighs at this response.

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to add a rule for this, but if you're gonna go around having those thoughts... I have no choice but to add to the school regulations!"

"Seriously...?" Ishimaru exclaims.

"Breaking down a locked door is prohibited! There, that's a rule now, ya jerks!" Monokuma leaves

"Well... that idea is a bust." Junko scoffs.

"Guess we won't be getting into the headmaster's room anytime soon." F/N sighs. "Whatever. I guess this was to be expected."

"But if he would go out of his way to make up a rule like that, there's no doubt that something important must be hidden in the headmaster's room." Sakura points out.

"But... now that it's a rule, there's nothing we can do." Makoto sighs

"That's a little disappointing, but no matter! I'm sure we'll still be able to find a way out." Ishimaru reassures everyone.

"Yeah, maybe..." F/N mumbles "Anyways, does anyone else have something to say?"

"Metal sheets had been attached to all the windows on the 4th floor. None of them budged an inch. Just like everywhere else, escape from the 4th floor seems unlikely. That was to be expected, though." Sakura says in a disappointed tone

"Yeah..." Junko sighs.

"Um... Kyoko?" Makoto speaks up to try and get the girl's attention.

"..."

"Hey, Makoto... Does Kyoko seem upset to you?" Aoi asks

"Uh..."

"She is, isn't she!? She's totally mad!" Aoi realizes.

"Y-Yeah, it looks like it..." Makoto mutters as he rubs the back of his neck.

"..."

"I bet it's your fault, isn't it? You must've done something to her." Aoi accuses him.

"Uh... Well..." Makoto says

"So... has everyone said what they need to say?" F/N chimes in.

"I think so..." Ishimaru says

"But it looks like nobody found any actual clues at all, let alone a way out of here. Though that isn't much of a surprise." Junko mutters that last part

"Um... can I say something?" Makoto asks

"Go ahead." Ishimaru tells him

"Alright, well... you guys all remember, right? You remember when I found that picture up on the 3rd floor the other day?" Makoto asks.

You mean the one that showed Mondo, Chihiro, and Leon all together, right? Yeah, I remember. What about it?" Sakura says

"Well, I found another one. Another picture, almost just like that one." Makoto says

"Another one...?" Ishimaru questions him. "I-Is it of those three again? Leon, Chihiro and... Mondo."

"Well, no... this time the picture was of Celeste, Hifumi, and Sayaka." Makoto tells him.

"Huh...?"

"Me and Junko saw it as well. In the picture they were all smiling... And the classroom in the picture didn't have any metal covering the windows." F/N recalls.

"So the picture of Mondo, Chihiro, and Leon wasn't the only one... Now you found one that had Celeste, Hifumi, and Sayaka?" Sakura wonders

"But... how can that...?" Aoi mutters

"Monokuma must have faked it!" Ishimaru concludes

"But if the picture is real... then everyone who was in it..." Makoto mutters.

"There would have to be some kind of hidden connection there, don't you think? Some deeper truth... that we just don't understand..." He adds.

"Can't be! It's a fake!" Aoi claims. "None of them acted like they knew each other before."

"But Monokuma said it was real. I know we could just write that off as a lie, but..." Makoto trails off.

"Then you trust Monokuma's word over the people who have died?" Kyoko chimes in.

"Huh...?"

"That's what you're saying, isn't it?" She continues

"No, that's not it..."

"I'm shocked. You told everyone how we should believe in our friends, but you refuse to do the same." Kyoko tells him.

"That's..." Makoto paused, as he couldn't find a way to respond to her.

"Hm..." F/N sighs

"Sometimes it's a pain that nobody can read the minds of others, just as how most people can't simply put themselves in another person's shoes. I guess that's why the only way for people to come close to understanding each other is through conversation."

"Huh...? Where'd that come from? What's it even mean?" Aoi questions F/N out of confusion.

"Hm? Sorry, I was just thinking out loud. You should just ignore me." F/N advises her. "Anyways, I think we should recall everything Monokuma has said to us up until this point. Some things he says may not be important, or it may not be the full story... but to brush it off without a second thought may not be the right choice."

"I mean... why'd Monokuma bother making fake pictures anyways? Does thinking it's real make a difference?" Junko wonders out loud.

Kyoko, just as Makoto before, didn't respond to both of their two cents on the matter. But the look in her eyes seemed a bit more intense than usual.

"Are you still so conflicted?" A voice makes its presence very well known as it catches everyone's attention, causing them to turn towards the entrance of the dining hall where that voice had come from.

"It looks like you guys have stopped playing nice." Byakuya points out with an annoyingly smug expression.

"Hm. Isn't it frustrating?" F/N says.

"It seems so. You all have the same sunken look on your faces. You were all so ugly before. You shouldn't let them sink any lower." Byakuya advises them.

"When I look at you, it makes me think of a frog sinking into a pile of manure."

"Leave us alone! You're not a part of this!" Aoi shouts at Byakuya, clearly fed up with his insults.

"That's true enough. Your problems aren't mine. We are, and always will be, completely separate. So whatever's causing your faces to turn so ugly has absolutely nothing to do with me. And if I happen to discover a vital clue, it wouldn't concern you in the slightest." Byakuya mentions.

"Huh...?"

"Did he finally just say something useful?" Aoi asks

"...Byakuya. What have you been up to?" Kyoko asks him

"I don't mind telling you. Perhaps forcing your lazy brains to get to work might do you some good. I was in the bath. What else would you like to know? Today's lottery numbers?" Byakuya questions her.

"Well, perhaps a bath will help us calm our nerves." F/N suggests.

"Ah... good idea." Ishimaru says.

"Let's go then." Sakura says.

***

When everyone made it to the dressing room, they were met with Toko, who was sitting alone on the bench, the laptop in front of her. She seemed like she was waiting for something.

"...Toko. Did you decide to come hear what Alter Ego has, too?" Ishimaru asks the girl.

"I-I already heard it... with M-Master..." Toko tells him.

"With Master!" She repeats

"You don't have to keep saying it..." Aoi tells her "Anyway, so what are you doing right now?"

"Shut up. Stop b-bothering me." Toko snaps at her.

"We'll get right on that if you move out if the way so we can get to Alter Ego." F/N tells her

"N-No. I made Master a p-promise." Toko tells him

"A promise?" Junko inquires.

"Master told me to w-wait here, so that's what I'm d-doing." Toko responds.

"What are you, his dog!?" Aoi asks

"If it's wh-what Master wants, I'd do anything h-he asks."

"Well can you do this one thing we asked and give us Alter Ego?" F/N requests.

"Y-You're not master, so why s-should I even listen to you?" Toko questions him.

"Because I asked nicely. Would you prefer I be more like Byakuya and insult you while I do it?" F/N asks her.

"W-Well fine, if you really want me gone, by a-all means- Hachoo!" Before she can finish speaking, Toko sneezes and of course, Jill takes her place.

"Hey guys! What's goin' on!?" She asks

"Um... we'd like you to move." Makoto tells her.

"Sure thing! Just kneel before me and beg!" Jill commands.

"Um, Toko...? Seriously, I'm asking you nicely to let us use the laptop." Makoto tells her

"Didn't you hear what I said!? I told you to kneel and beg! In fact, I want the pretty boy to be the one to beg me." Jill says

"Well you heard her Makoto." Ishimaru says as he turns towards the boy.

"Hm... no, not pretty enough" Jill says as she looks around the room. The moment she looked at F/N she stopped.

"Not happening." F/N immediately tells her.

"Well then I'm not budging!" Jill exclaims.

"A shame." F/N sighs.

"Come on. Just hurry up and do it already, pretty boy. We need to see what Alter Ego wants." Aoi tells him.

"You do it then. I'm not getting on my knees because of Jill of all people." F/N responds. It seemed like he wasn't going to budge on this. As he said this, Mukuro managed to remain out of everyone's attention, even Jill, as she was still waiting for F/N to kneel to her. It's a good thing Mukuro was quick about it, as she managed to grab the laptop before Jill could do anything about it.

"Huh? Hey!?" Jill tries to snatch the laptop back, but Junko avoids her and quickly hands the laptop over to Makoto as he was the closest.

"There. Now F/N doesn't have to grovel at her feet, and we get the laptop." Junko sighs.

"Ugh... you and your sticky fingers. Now how am I gonna see a pretty boy beg at my feet?" Jill shakes her head in disappointment.

"Why do you even want that?" Aoi questions her.

"Just the thought of it gives me an ultra miraculous feeling of happiness! All my pent-up anger at Master for abusing me is sure to evaporate if it actually happened!" Jill admits.

"So even you realize it's abuse..." Aoi sighs.

"How are you just okay with that?" F/N wonders.

"He's always playing so hard to get I can't help but be on fire because of it! You understand what I mean, right F/N?" Jill asks him.

"I understand that you're wasting all of our time." F/N says, the expression on his face showing just how done he was with this girl.

"We have the laptop already, so why don't we hurry and take a look at what it has to say." Kyoko reminds everyone.

Makoto then places the laptop on the bench and opens it up, revealing Alter Ego, who seemed to be rather excited right now.

"Everyone, come closer! I already told Byakuya, but... I was finally able to crack open all the files that were on this laptop! Sorry to have kept you all waiting!" Alter Ego says

"Just what I thought..." Kyoko mutters.

"Finally... the time has come." Sakura sighs.

"Hm. The anticipation is eating me up. I wonder..." F/N trails off as he begins thinking to himself.

Hearing everyone's words, Makoto couldn't help but feel anxious himself. His hands that were on the keyboard began to shake as he was about to type.

"Move." Makoto nearly jumped out of his skin when Kyoko spoke. But without even bothering to say anything back, he steps aside and lets her take over.

"Ha..." F/N sighs as he watches Kyoko begin typing to Alter Ego.

"Can you tell us what you found out?" She types

"Sure. I analyzed the files and extracted all the useful information I could find. And one particularly important fact I discovered was that a certain plan had been put into effect here. It was to isolate the students of Hope's Peak Academy and create a communal life for them."

"That was the stated goal of the plan... But it was meant to be more than just a normal school life. The students were intended to live out the rest of their lives here." Alter Ego explains

"That sounds exactly like the situation we've found ourselves in." Ishimaru points out

"It's quite unthinkable, isn't it? And what's more, the one who came up with the plan was none other than the administrators of Hope's Peak themselves." Alter Ego states

"What!? Wait, hold on! Then the reason we've been imprisoned here... It wasn't the work of some psycho freak or criminal organization or whatever... It was...the school itself?" Aoi asks

"Well, it's not like that wasn't a possibility from the beginning. But..." F/N mutters.

"That doesn't make any sense! Why would they do that!?" Ishimaru asks

"I don't think Alter Ego is finished. Perhaps we should hear the rest..." Kyoko suggests

"It seems that the reason they devised this plan was because of what happened one year ago. This is how they described that event... They said it was the biggest, most awful, most tragic event in human history." Alter Ego continues

"What does that mean...?" Sakura asks

"Yeah, what kind of name is that for something!?" Aoi asks

"..." Junko remains silent as this conversation goes on.

"Otherwise known as The Tragedy, it was apparently some sort of devastating occurrence. Because of The Tragedy, Hope's Peak Academy was forced to discontinue its role as a school and close down." Alter Ego says.

"I see. Things are finally starting to make sense... What this means is, one year ago, this thing, this tragedy, took place. And whatever it was, it forced Hope's Peak to shut down. From there, they decided to use the school as a kind of staging ground..." Ishimaru summarizes

"They planned to sequester the students here, where they would live out the rest of their lives." F/N says.

"But... why would the Hope's Peak administrators want to shut everyone in like that?" Aoi asks

"And what could this tragic event have possibly been?" Sakura questions

In a flash, Kyoko had typed their questions into the computer. And the answer they got was...

"Sorry...I don't know. If that information was ever on this computer, it's gone now... I'm totally useless... I'm sorry."

And that's all he said.

"Then... is this really the end? We get halfway through the answer, and that's it?" Ishimaru sighs

"It would appear so. Disappointing..." Kyoko says

"Oh, wait! There's one other thing I forgot to mention. I think it might be important. I believe it has to do with the mastermind..." Alter Ego says

"The mastermind?" Junko inquires.

Kyoko's fingers moved even faster than they had so far...

"Did you figure out the mastermind's identity?" She types

"No... that I still don't know. But I did find a clue, I think. The one leading the Hope's Peak staff, the one who finalized the plan to isolate you was the Hope's Peak headmaster. So that same person may very well be the mastermind who planned all this out. And according to the files, the headmaster is a man in his late thirties. It seems possible, even likely, that he's somewhere in this school right now." Alter Ego says

"The headmaster... is here in the school!?" Kyoko exclaims. She seemed almost uncharacteristically shocked by this.

"Then he's got to be the mastermind! I mean, Monokuma's been calling himself the headmaster, right?" Ishimaru asks "That makes the real headmaster that much more suspicious..." He adds

"Well... Monokuma did get rather upset when we suggested breaking down the door to the headmaster's room. Perhaps he just didn't want us going around busting into every room we find... or maybe if we go into that room, we may find the mastermind hidden away there." F/N theorizes as he looks over to the door of the room.

"Well, it's not like we can figure that out. Breaking down the door is against the rules now." Ishimaru sighs

"I'll find a way..." Kyoko mutters

"Huh?" Junko glances over to Kyoko.

"No matter what it takes...I will find the headmaster. No matter the cost..." Kyoko mutters to herself

"Kyoko...? Are you alright?" F/N questions her.

"...I can't explain why. I just... know that I have to find him." Kyoko tells him.

"Hm?Such determination... I wonder why that is." F/N says

"...We should see if Alter Ego has any more information." Kyoko says, ignoring F/N.

"Did you learn anything else?" She types

"I'm sorry... That's everything I found. All the information on this laptop seems to be pretty old, so that's all I can do from here. I'm really sorry..." Alter Ego tells her

"Then that's that." F/N says

"Wait. Alter Ego seems to have more to say." Kyoko tells him

"Um, well... It's kind of a different topic, but...I was wondering about something. I haven't seen Celeste, Hifumi, or Hiro since yesterday..." She says

A heavy silence fell across the room. The only sound was the flat, precise clicking of keys as Kyoko typed.

"They're all dead." She types

"...I see... Certainly I knew that was a possibility, but... it really happened..." Alter Ego says solemnly

"Oh, sorry... There's no point in me getting depressed over things I can't do anything about..."

"Well then, I guess that's it." Kyoko says as she begins typing again...

"You've done your job. Thank you."

"I'm done? I guess I am, huh? Then...maybe I'll take a little rest. I'm kinda tired... Goodbye, everyone. See you later..."

With that, the laptop enters sleep mode...

"So in the end, Alter Ego did everything he could..." Sakura says

"We won't have to talk to him all that much anymore." Kyoko says

"But... I feel kinda sorry for him." Aoi admits

"I do feel kinda bad that we're just going to toss him aside now that we've gotten what we wanted from him." F/N admits. "He's all that's left... just leaving him be like he was just an ordinary piece of machinery doesn't feel right."

"But he's just a computer program, right?" Junko asks

F/N remains quiet after that question. Staring down at the now closed laptop he seemed... unsatisfied with something.

Ishimaru, somewhat understanding what was going on in F/N's head, quickly changes the subject.

"Anyways, we should go over what Alter Ego said one more time." Ishimaru suggests

"Alter Ego said that what happened one year ago is what started everything." He recalls.

"Yeah, he said it was the biggest, most awful, most hopeless event in human history, right?" Aoi asks for clarification

"It must have been a huge incident, whatever it was... But did something like that really happen a year ago?" Ishimaru wonders. "And what could it even be to force Hope's Peak into no longer being a school?"

"I don't remember anything happening that you could describe that way. What about you guys?" Sakura asks everyone.

"I don't really watch the news, so..." Aoi trails off

"Sorry, nothing comes to mind..." Junko claims.

"Yeah..." Makoto responds.

"That event led to the closing of Hope's Peak. If nothing else, it must have had some kind of connection to this school." Kyoko says

"Maybe... there was some kind of accident here that led to whatever happened to the school. Like some crazy natural disaster." Junko suggests.

"I don't recall hearing of anything like that." Sakura spoke up.

"What if it was something else? Like... what if there was an incident within the school itself?" F/N wonders.

"What could have happened to force the school into such drastic measures?" Sakura crosses her arms.

"Hm? Did... something happen to the students? That could explain it." Ishimaru suggests.

"Like what? You think they all suddenly died or something?" Junko questions him.

"There's no way something like that could happen. That kind of catastrophe would have been all over the news. At least one of us would remember that..." Sakura says.

"Then... maybe they covered it up! That would explain why none of us knew that the school had been shut down!" Aoi theorizes

"Totally covering up something like that... I suppose it's not totally impossible." Sakura says

"Maybe. But right now there's only one path open to us... We have to find the headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy. We have to find him, and make him tell us everything." F/N tells everyone.

"As long as we can get our hands on him, that is." Makoto says.

"But even that is a problem not so easily solved." Sakura says

"Yeah... you're right..."

"Well, our business is done here, so for now we should get out of here." Kyoko suggests

"Oh yeah, good idea." Ishimaru says.

"Then I... Ah...achoo!" Jill sneezes and toko returns

"Huh...?"

"O-Oh no! I'm not w-waiting anymore!" Toko says

"I'm n-not guarding it... Byakuya's gonna b-be so mad at me...!" She says with an excited expression

"Let's avoid getting involved any further." Kyoko suggests

"Good call..." Sakura says before leaving with the rest of the students.

***

As the remaining students left the dressing room, someone was there waiting for them...

"My heart is pound-pound-pounding away..." Monokuma says as he stands in front of the door. It was like he was waiting for them or something.

"It's pounding... with anger!" He shouts.

"Are you still upset about that whole "breaking into the headmaster's room" thing?" Aoi asks him.

"Oh, that little matter doesn't matter even a little. And I'm a little jealous of you guys enjoying an indecent mixed bath, but that doesn't matter, either." Monokuma claims.

"It's building... I feel it building..."

"My head's about to boil over with rage!"

"Did you just come here to vent your frustrations about something...?" F/N questions him.

"Etch this on the walls of your brain, okay? When you do something to me, I do it right back! An eye for an eye, a fang for a fang..." Monokuma abruptly leaves after saying this.

"Fang for a fang? What on earth was he talking about?" Ishimaru asks

"..."

*Ding dong, bing bong*

"Mm, ahem, this is a school announcement. It is now 10 p.m. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then...sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite..."

"So, it's nighttime. What does everyone want to do? Celeste was the one who suggested our nighttime rule, but she's gone now..." Kyoko says.

"I think we should still avoid being out at nighttime. I know it'll make me feel better that way..." Aoi says

"I agree." Ishimaru adds

"Very well then. In that case, time for bed." Kyoko says and everyone begins to go their separate ways.

"Oh, before that, there's something important I have to tell you, Kyoko." F/N speaks up, catching her attention.

Kyoko looked back at him, as if she was contemplating actually going back, but eventually she gives in and turns around to face him. By this point, everyone else has left, meaning it was just them now.

"Well, what is it that you need?" Kyoko questions F/N as she crosses her arms.

"I was just wondering... do you think that the mastermind might actually be the headmaster?" F/N questions her.

"We'll know that when we find him. Wherever he is." Kyoko responds. "Why are you even asking me this?"

"Well, I was just wondering what you thought." F/N claims. Kyoko thought that was it, but F/N kept on going before she had a chance to walk away. "I mean, if the headmaster is behind all of this, what would bring him to do such a thing?"

"...I have no idea. Monokuma said he wanted "despair" from us, but it's a bit difficult to think that's as far as it goes." Kyoko says.

"Hm. That's true. I have no idea what the mastermind's motives are. But I'm sure they have some kind of deeper motive than we think. Everyone has a reason for what they do, don't they?" Kyoko didn't respond to his question, as she already knew what he was getting at.

"Hm." F/N hums as he waits for Kyoko to say something, and when she didn't, he shook his head.

"You know, the mastermind may be difficult to understand, but... some people are a bit more simple. Sometimes having respectable motives for actions can lead to making mistakes." F/N says.

"...why are you so invested in this?" Kyoko questions him. Her voice had a hint of annoyance in it.

"Hm? Who knows? Maybe I just find arguments between friends to be annoying." F/N answers her. Kyoko seemed to be surprised by this answer, but she decided not to say anything about it.

"Well, I can tell you're sick of me talking, so I'll get going. See you tomorrow, Kiri." Before Kyoko could say anything back, F/N patted her shoulder and walked off.

"...." Kyoko sighs as she brushes her hair aside.

"He always has to make things more complicated..." She mutters before finally going back to her room.

****

****

*Ding dong, bing bong*

"Good morning, everyone! It is now 7 a.m. and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!"

"It's morning..." Makoto sighs as he gets out of bed. "Well, first things first... I need to get to the dining hall."

The walk over was rather uneventful, as he didn't even see anybody in the hallways. However when he entered the dining hall, he immediately noticed that unlike every other day, Toko was actually here this time.

"Good morning, Makoto." Junko greets him as he walks into the room.

"Huh? Oh, morning, Junko." Makoto greets her before glancing over to Toko, which she notices.

"What are you s-staring at...?" Toko asks him.

"Oh, Toko...?" Makoto mutters.

"What, you think y-your eyes will rot just by l-looking at me?" Toko questions him. "Fine, then DON'T l-look at me!"

"I think he's just surprised to see you at the breakfast meeting, is all..." F/N points out as he leans his chair back, the only thing keeping him from falling over being that he had his feet on the table.

"Indeed. It's been quite a while since you joined us." Sakura adds.

"Yeah, what made you change your mind?" Aoi questions Toko, who just scoffs at her.

"Byakuya said he... l-likes girls to have some meat o-on her bones, so... I'm g-gonna start eating! I'm gonna force it d-down into my stomach! I'm gonna eat till I d-drop!" Toko tells everyone.

"I find it hard to believe that he actually said that." F/N admits.

"A-Are you saying that Byakuya's a liar?" Toko asks him. She seemed pretty angry at this accusation.

"When you're involved, I can't be surprised. How long will it take to realize that he hates your guts?" F/N asks her.

"You just d-don't get it! I bet you've never felt love before!" Toko accuses him.

"Have you?"

Toko immediately closed her mouth after this. It was like F/N brought up some terrible memories or something.

"Woah, she stopped talking real fast!" Aoi exclaims.

"...Did I accidentally bring up some kind of traumatic experience?" F/N wonders out loud.

"I-It's none of your business! Forget it!" Toko shouts at him.

"...Sorry." F/N crosses his arms and looks away.

"Um..." Makoto looks around the room, noticing that someone else is missing. "What happened to Kyoko?"

"I was wondering the same thing. I went to her door not too long ago, and she said she'd be here in a few minutes. But she's still not here." Ishimaru mentions with a curious expression.

"I bet she's still avoiding Makoto!" Aoi concludes.

"Maybe your terrible advice is to blame." F/N suggests.

"I know I said she wanted you to show some backbone, but you didn't need to show her THAT much!" Aoi shouts at Makoto.

"Huh? It really isn't like that." Makoto assures her. Before Aoi could make any more ridiculous accusations, she noticed that Kyoko had just shown up at the dining hall. Though Aoi couldn't tell if she heard the previous conversation before arriving.

"Oh, you finally showed up Missy." Ishimaru says once he notices Kyoko. "What happened with you anyways?"

"I... just lost track of time." Kyoko admits.

"I see... well if it becomes a habit, maybe try showing up earlier than you normally would. So if you do lose track of time again, you might not even be late!" Ishimaru advises her.

"I appreciate the suggestion." Kyoko responds as she takes her seat. Makoto stared at her for a moment, but when Kyoko looked up at him, he quickly looked away.

"At least she's not completely avoiding being around me. I still feel a bit guilty not being able to tell her about what I saw. But I haven't gotten much of a chance to talk with Mukuro or Sakura yet..." Makoto thought. "Well, I don't know how willing Mukuro is to talk, but I might be able to at least talk with Sakura." As he came to this conclusion Makoto shifted in his seat and looked over to Sakura.

"U-Um...Sakura?"

"What is it?" Sakura looks away from Hina after Makoto caught her attention.

"Can you make some time later? I was hoping I could talk to you."

"Ah! Now that Kyoko's ignoring him, Makoto's cutting his loses and is trying to win Sakura's heart!" Aoi points out.

"What?" Makoto exclaims.

"Are you in h-heat, Makoto? Don't care who they a-are as long as they've g-got the right equipment?" Toko questions the boy.

"Why is this happening to me...?" Makoto asks himself while Kyoko just shakes her head at the ridiculousness of the conversation.

"Can our talk wait till tomorrow? I'd like to get some rest today... For some reason, I've been feeling worn down these last few days." Sakura explains to him while rubbing her shoulders.

"Huh? Are you sick? Did you get hurt?" Aoi questions her.

"No, nothing serious. I've just had some minor aches and pains..." Sakura tries to keep Aoi from being worried, but it only seems somewhat effective.

"That... must have been from her fight with Monokuma." Makoto realizes as his expression shifts to one of concern.

"But it must be pretty bad if you have to rest. Are you sure you're okay?" Aoi asks Sakura.

"I'm sure a protein shake and some sleep will get me back on my feet." Sakura assures her.

"That's true, protein is good for all kinds of stuff!" Aoi aggressively nods her head.

"You act like it's some kind of healing potion or something." F/N mutters.

"Makoto! I dunno what it is you wanna talk to Sakura about, but save it till tomorrow! She's in pain!" Aoi says.

"Y-Yeah, I got it..." Makoto sighs, knowing that it'll be a while longer before he will have a chance to get some answers.

"Sorry..." Sakura mutters.

"Well, if nothing else needs to be said, we should start eating now!" Ishimaru suggests.

"E-Eat? I'm kinda n-nervous..." Toko admits as she fidgets in her chair.

"What's there to be nervous of?" Ishimaru wonders.

"Cuz... I don't usually... e-eat in front of other p-people. Ever since I w-was a kid, I'd... eat b-by myself." Toko admits.

"What about your family?" Aoi asks her as she sits down with her breakfast.

"Oh, well-y-yeah. I used to live with my d-dad, my mom, and my m-mom." Toko recalls.

"You had two moms?" F/N mutters in confusion.

"What? That's just how th-things were..." Toko responds.

"That... sounds like a pretty serious issue for a household." F/N mutters.

"Just let it go. You're asking for trouble getting involved with her more than you have to." Aoi advises him

"How d-dare you speak to me with that d-disgusting mouth of yours..." Toko stands up from her seat with a disgusted look.

"S-Stop saying stuff like that!" Aoi snaps back.

"Enough arguing you two! You should spend your energy eating, not bickering!" Ishimaru suggests as he also stands up from his chair.

Surprisingly, this actually managed to get everyone to finally calm down, and so they all ate their breakfast together. Nothing much else of note happened, so after eating, everyone went their separate ways for the day.

"In the end, I still didn't get a chance to talk with Sakura..." Makoto sighs as he walks back to his dorm. He thought about looking for Mukuro, but for some reason he just couldn't find her anywhere.

"Well... I guess that just means I have a bunch of free time now. Maybe I should go look for F/N." He decided on it rather quickly, and unlike Mukuro, F/N wasn't as hard to find, as he was just sitting in the laundry room by himself.

"Makoto... what are you doing here?" F/N immediately questions Makoto when he enters the room.

"Oh, sorry, were you in the middle of something?" Makoto questions him.

"No " F/N shook his head as he looked over to one of the washing machines. "I was gonna wash my clothes, but I came to make sure nobody else was using the machines here."

"Ah, sorry to bother you then." Makoto apologizes.

"It's fine. I was in a procrastinating mood anyways." F/N assures him. "But... I bet you were looking for me, huh? What, you wanna hang out some more? Get to know me better?" He questions Makoto.

"Sorry... are you not in the mood?"

"Well..." F/N paused as he looked back at one of the washing machines. "You really shouldn't be getting so chummy with your enemy, Makoto. I still technically work for Monokuma. Well, more like a partnership, but you get the idea "

"That's... why do you even side for him? You clearly don't like him, what's in it for you?" Makoto asks him.

"...I guess I'm just looking for despair." F/N answers his question.

"Despair... that doesn't really make sense." Makoto mutters.

"There's an uncountable amount of people who do bad things every day. They steal, they cheat, they hurt everyone around them, they kill people... and they get people killed. People like these, they deserve despair, just as much as good people have earned hope." F/N explains to Makoto as he balls his hand into a fist. "It's only natural that I should try my best to make sure a balance is present. Because the balance of hope and despair is truly beautiful. Teaming up with Monokuma is just a means to an end. ...I could've sworn I said this before."

Makoto was silent for a moment as he repeated F/N's words in his head. He didn't know why, but he felt like F/N was trying to tell him something, something important...

"F/N... you-"

"Well, you've got me talking this much already, we might as well go somewhere better suited for this." F/N suggests, and Makoto decides not to question him and follows along.

"You know..." F/N begins, catching my attention "I've been meaning to get some new reading material. How about we visit the library?" He suggests.

"Sure I don't mind. I can't remember the last time I came here... well, other than the time we found Hifumi here." Makoto recalls.

"Well, it has gotten a lot quieter without those three..." F/N admits as the two reach the library to see that it was empty.

"Yeah... this place seems so barren when I think about it. Seven people are gone... it feels like it's been so long since most of them..." Makoto couldn't finish his sentence as he stared at the ground.

"I won't lie to Makoto..." F/N stopped in front of a bookshelf and instinctively reached up to a book on the second highest shelf. "All those deaths could have been avoided, if only things were a little more different. If only I..." He pauses.

"Regardless, the point is that what's done is done. Thinking about it beyond that isn't good for your health. Trust me." As he said this, F/N brought his hand up to eye level and stared at the bracelet he was wearing.

"I know... I know I couldn't have done much to stop this, but... I still can't believe this is real. What did anyone here do to deserve to be here?" Makoto asks himself as he leans against a bookshelf.

"Well..." F/N opens the book he was holding and flips through the pages. "Bringing everyone back that died isn't possible, so you should be more worried about keeping all your friends from killing each other, no?"

"I... I wish it was that easy. I don't know what I'm supposed to do sometimes. Kyoko is still mad at me, and... I don't think Byakuya or Toko get along with everyone else either." Makoto sighs as F/N hands him the book he was holding. Makoto was confused by this, so he checked the cover to see it was a book on human psychology.

"Even if people at their core can't get along with another person, it's still possible to pretend to. If you're able to understand what kind of people a person does and doesn't like, you can become whatever they could want you to become." F/N explains to Makoto.

"Huh? What do you mean? Are you saying I should act like a different person?" Makoto questions him while flipping through the pages of the book.

"Well, it's not that hard in all honesty. For example, if you wanna get along with say... Hina, you just have to be a friendly person. Be nice and easy to talk to and don't act arrogant like Byakuya, that's all it really takes I think." F/N explains to Makoto.

"Maybe that's true, but... I don't know if I can just pretend to be a different person or anything like that. I can't think of anyone who can..." Makoto paused as he looked up from the book towards F/N, who was staring off in a different direction.

"F/N, are... are you doing that?" Makoto questions him.

"...I do whatever I feel is necessary. Just as any respectable gardener would do whatever he needs to if it assures the longevity of his garden. If I think risking my life is necessary, I'll do it. If I think that going along with a lie is necessary, I'll do it. If I think causing pain to others is a necessary evil, then I suppose I don't have a choice. And if I think I should be punished for my actions... so be it." F/N responds.

"That isn't really a direct answer." Makoto thought. "I thought I was slowly getting to know F/N, but how can I know if I was understanding him, or who he tries to be? And... why would he pretend to be someone else anyways? I don't get it."

"Well, if it's hard to grasp, don't think too hard about it, that may be necessary for your own well being. You talk to me because you wanna reach a mutual understanding, right? Is it really worth the trouble? You should just take the easy path and look at me as the weird guy that works for the mastermind." F/N suggests as he pulls his scarf over his mouth

"What is he saying...?" Makoto asked himself. For a moment he thought about it. No matter how many times he talks with him, he doesn't feel like he knows more about him, he just can't understand it. But... Makoto had a feeling. He felt like F/N was just trying to push him away. He didn't know why this was. He only met F/N when they arrived at this place, but somehow, something about what he said seemed familiar, though he didn't know why.

"I don't know who you are F/N, I think I understand that now." Makoto admits. "But to be honest, you're right. I did talk to you because I want to understand you. I don't know if I've ever spoken to the real you, and I don't know if I ever will. But if I did understand you, I wouldn't keep coming to talk with you like this."

"...Did you forget, Makoto?"

"Forget what?"

"About Sayaka." F/N mutters.

"..."

"She was the only person you knew here, she was your friend. And she's dead now. You know it happened in part because of me. What more is there to understand." F/N turned around, it was as if he could no longer look Makoto in the eye as he spoke. Either that, or he didn't want Makoto to look him in the eye.

"Well... was that the real you who did it F/N?" Makoto questions him.

"..."

"Maybe it was, I don't know at this point. But, I have no way to tell if I don't even know what you're really like. It'd be unfair to judge someone I don't actually know." Makoto explains to him, but before he could go, on F/N interrupts him

"Ugh, you're annoying." F/N suddenly tells him.

"Uh... eh? Am I being a little too pushy?" Makoto wonders out loud, his previous tone replaced with an uneasy one.

"Aren't you embarrassed to hear yourself speak like this?" F/N questions him with a seemingly mocking smile on his face, though his brows were somewhat furrowed, as if he was a bit frustrated. "Confidence is one thing, but shouldn't everything be done in relative moderation?"

"Ah... maybe." Makoto admits as he rubs his nape. "But... I guess I just feel a little optimistic."

F/N paused for a moment after Makoto said this. He shook his head and looked as if he was about to say something, but he instead patted his scarf as if he was feeling for something.

"Optimistic, huh...?" F/N let out a heavy sigh as he walked over to a nearby table, sitting on the chair that was beside it. Makoto was quick to follow him, sitting some distance away from F/N.

For a few minutes they sat in complete silence. F/N was slightly slouched in his chair with his arms crossed and his eyes closed, at first Makoto assumed he was deep in thought, but as time passed, he was beginning to think F/N had fallen asleep.

"Is... is he...?" Makoto mutters as he stares at F/N.

"Makoto..." F/N finally speaks up as he shifts in his chair. "You keep coming to me just to get me to tell you about myself, so... let's make it fair. I have a question."

"Alright, what is it?"

"You mentioned before that you have a sister, right? Do you have any other siblings or family members?" F/N opened his eyes but he just stared at the table waiting for Makoto to answer.

"No, it was just me, my sister and our parents." Makoto answers him, a little confused about the reason behind the question.

"I see. Then you must be eager to get out of here and make sure your family is okay, aren't you?" F/N questions him further.

"Of course I am." Makoto answered rather quickly this time. "I feel like I'm slowly losing my mind thinking about what happened to them. Ever since that first motive, it's completely driven me insane!"

"The first motive..." F/N cups his chin. "So your entire family was in that video, huh? Hm. It must've nice to have something that you want to protect."

"I... wouldn't say anything about this is nice. I wish I didn't have to worry about whether they're safe or not..." Makoto mutters.

"Of course. Ordinary people will always be worried about their loved ones." F/N admits.

"Aren't you worried about your family too? I mean, at least your grandparents and sister." Makoto questions F/N, who stands up from his seat after hearing the question, the only sound being the creaking of the wooden chair.

"Hm." F/N hums under his breath as he stares off to the side.

"You think so?"

"Uh, I mean, I kinda assumed so." Makoto admits, confused by such a puzzling reaction from F/N.

"But... if you don't mind me asking, what was it even like living with them? If that's alright to ask." Makoto wonders.

"What was it like...?" F/N whispers to himself as he takes a moment to collect his thoughts. "To be honest.. it wasn't too interesting. My grandparents never paid that much attention to me, they really only cared about my sister." He admits to Makoto.

"Oh. I'm sorry for bringing that up." Makoto apologizes.

"It's fine, I didn't really think about it too deeply. I can't blame them either. My sister was pretty amazing. She had so many friends, everyone liked her, she even managed to attend and graduate Hope's Peak actually. I don't know what it was, but... she was just amazing. No matter what it was, I feel like she could've been great at it. I never met a person that really disliked her. She was just... ah, ahem." F/N cleared his throat upon realizing he was beginning to go on a tangent.

"W-We got a bit sidetracked there, the question was about my grandparents, yes?" F/N asks Makoto for clarification.

"Uh, yeah." Makoto answers him.

"Anyways... my sister got most of the attention from my grandparents, But it wasn't all that bad. My sister would always make time for me. So I wasn't completely alone. She was the only person who indulged in my interests and cared about what I talked about." F/N explains to Makoto

"She seems like such a kind older sister." Makoto points out.

"Yeah. I think that she was the best sister I could've asked for." F/N admits with a heavy sigh following his words.

"She seems so great that I almost feel like I should be jealous. But... F/N has been referring to her in past tense for a while now... he mentioned his grandparents in the same way as well." Makoto thought to himself for a moment. An odd sense of anxiety welled up in his stomach as he opened his mouth to confirm the suspicions he began to have.

"It really must be hard being stuck in here, not knowing if your sister or grandparents are doing alright." Makoto says, hoping he didn't offend F/N by accident.

"Huh." F/N sighs. "There's nothing left to worry about. My grandparents' time came some time ago."

"I- I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up." Makoto admits with a remorseful expression.

"It's fine. It was bound to happen eventually. They lived a long and satisfying life." F/N assures him. "Plus, after my grandfather passed away, I knew my grandmother would follow him not too long after. Especially since not too long after..." F/N trails off,

"Huh?" Makoto was confused as to why F/N suddenly stopped talking. It seemed like he was conflicted about something.

"Ha..." F/N sighs and turns towards Makoto. "In your motive video was your family, right Makoto?"

"Y-Yeah, why?"

"I do envy you, Makoto. If you manage to leave this place alive, you'll have something to go to. Something to get your hopes up over. I wonder how many people in the world lack such luxury."

"Then, does this mean even his sister is...?" Makoto thought, but before he could inquire about it, F/N sighs.

"How about that? Are you satisfied with this much today? Do you feel you've learned enough? I'm... tired." F/N admits.

"O-Oh, that's fine. I kinda lost track of time anyways." Makoto tells him as he stands up from the chair.

"I guess I know a bit more about him, but... I still don't really know what's true anymore. So I can't tell if I made much progress."

"You know, you talked a lot about understanding, Makoto. But... isn't there someone else you should be trying to understand more?" F/N questions Makoto.

"Yeah... you're probably right."

"Hm. Well, good luck with that then. Girls are never easy to understand." F/N warns him, and with a clear lack of energy, F/N trudged out of the library.

"In the end, I have more questions than answers now." Makoto sighs. "Maybe I should take some of his advice and think about it too much. At least for now."

"I still have to talk with Sakura and Mukuro about what I saw before, maybe that'll be less confusing to think about than F/N..."

Makoto left the library afterwards, unfortunately for him, he wouldn't get a chance to discuss things with Sakura. At least not in private that is...

****

*Ding dong, bing bong*

"Attention! Attention! Please gather in the gym as soon as you possibly can! Quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly!"

"Monokuma... he made a special announcement... to ask us to come to the gym? And he sounded pretty serious about it, too..." Makoto mutters to himself as he stares up at the ceiling. It's been a while since he went back to his room, and he already felt like he didn't want to leave to see what Monokuma wants.

"I have a bad feeling about this. But I have no choice..." Makoto takes a deep breath as he leaves his room.

...

Not too long after monokuma's special announcement, the remaining students all gather together in the gymnasium and when the final person arrives, monokuma makes his entrance from behind the podium once again.

"Okay, let's get this show on the road!" Monokuma gleefully exclaims.

"You're about to give us your next motive presentation, aren't you?" Byakuya asks, not wanting to waste any time.

"Hmm?"

"You got us all together to present another motive, right?"

"I-Is he right...?" Toko stutters

"We have to go through this again!?" Aoi mutters with the fear in her voice being very apparent.

"Y-You fiend! How many times must you do this until your satisfied?" Ishimaru questions the bear whilst gritting his teeth in frustration.

"I'm impressed by your level of dismay. You finally see just how low on the totem pole of life you really are." Byakuya says

"Let's not start a back and forth. Can you just give us the motive already? I wanna go back to sleep." F/N sighs.

"No... No, no, no... No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no NO!" Monokuma shouts

"That's not it at all. We're not here to talk about a motive. The reason I gathered you all here is so that I could get rid of my grudge." He says ominously

"Your... grudge?" Junko questions him, a bit of hesitance in her voice.

"We have a grudge against you, of course, but I don't recall you ever having a grudge against us." Kyoko mentions.

"I told you yesterday, didn't I? An eye for an eye, a fang for a fang." Monokuma says

"Stop beating around the bush! Just tell us what you're talking about!" Byakuya orders

"Well, Byakuya. You've already told everyone how one of you might be working as a spy for me, right?" Monokuma says

"Yeah, so, what about it?"

"Well today I'd like to tell you a bit about that spy." Monokuma tells him. The moment he said that, everyone glanced over to F/N, who didn't notice all the eyes on him at first.

"Hm?" F/N only looked over because he first thought Monokuma might expose Mukuro's identity, but he quickly took notice of everyone except Mukuro and Sakura staring at him.

"Why are you all staring at me like that?" F/N questions them, but the look on their faces made it pretty obvious why.

"No no! Not him! Ignore that attention hog!" Monokuma informs everyone, which causes the entire class to be shocked by this.

"What the hell. Don't suddenly be surprised when it's not me." F/N tells them with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Forget about the old news! The true spy is none other than Sakura Ogami!" Monokuma exclaims which causes everyone to look towards the martial artist in question.

"What...? What did you just say?" Ishimaru questions Monokuma.

"He said the spy is Sakura." Byakuya repeats with a look of anger present.

"Wh-What are you talking about?" Aoi mutters as she covers her mouth. "There's... there's no way Sakura's a spy! Right, Sakura?"

"..." Sakura says nothing as she looks away from Aoi out of shame.

"Sakura...?"

"And I might just make Sakura fulfill the promise she made sometime soon... And if she doesn't...I can't be responsible for what might happen to that hostage of mine... Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. What you guys choose to do with that information is up to you. Roast her, boil her. Kill her, don't kill her. Whatever! Puhuhu... Either way, I can't wait...!"

And just like that, Monokuma had left... Finally, everyone understood what he had been talking about. An eye for an eye, a fang for a fang... In other words, betrayal would be met with betrayal.

"Is it true? Has Sakura really been spying on us for the mastermind?" Ishimaru asks

"What are you saying!? There's no way!" Aoi shouts

"But that is wh-what the stuffed animal said, r-right?" Toko tells her. "I-I bet F/N probably knew already! H-He's barely said anything!"

"Hm." F/N exhaled as he glanced at the rest of the students, he seemed like he was thinking of something to say, but whatever he thought of seemed to not be a good idea to him. Eventually though, his lips curled into a smile as he squinted his eyes.

"Look at you guys. The moment you can't make sense of something, you come crawling to me. I gotta say... it's flattering to be one of your last hopes-"

"S-Stop messing around! This isn't funny, F/N! Tell them that Sakura isn't the spy!" Aoi shouts at him.

F/N pauses for a moment, just a moment though. It was hard to even notice, but Makoto did take note of it. The face he briefly made was hard to read, but somehow, Makoto felt like he could tell that F/N was thinking of something.

"Regardless... Do you ever wonder if Monokuma has other motives in all this? Maybe he just wants some kind of a distraction." F/N theorizes.

"...distraction." Junko mutters under her breath as her hand instinctively reaches up to her hair. "I-"

"Food for thought isn't what I'm interested in for now." Byakuya speaks up.

"Look, it doesn't matter what Monokuma wants! Obviously he lied like he always does!" Aoi claims.

"Well, Sakura? If he's wrong, all you have to do is tell us." Kyoko assures the woman.

"...I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier..." Sakura finally speaks up.

"What...?" Aoi asks, her heart sinking into the pit of her stomach when she heard what came out of Sakura's mouth.

"Then... he was being serious!? Sakura has been working for the mastermind!?" Ishimaru says with a shocked expression. "I... I can't believe that! I won't!"

"I'm sorry..."

"So you've b-been lying to us all this t-time?" Toko asks her.

"How annoying..." F/N thought. "No matter what I said, it didn't matter. I guess they're not surprised by anything I do. They already think I'm Monokuma's spy."

"Then... is that why Monokuma said that before? Is that why he told everyone I was the spy? To keep me from interfering in a situation like this?" F/N wondered as he stared at the empty stage. "Did... did Monokuma predict things would turn out this way? What even happened between those two?"

"I-It's not true...! Sakura was probably...being controlled! There's gotta be some...some reason! She didn't have a choice, she was just...forced to do it!" Aoi shouts, bringing F/N back to the situation at hand.

"Such fierce defense. What a... vast contrast..." F/N stated at his balled up fist as he realized this. "Oh well. Everything happens the way one could expect."

"Yeah, I'm sure Hina's right." Makoto speaks up. "The mastermind probably threatened her somehow, and Sakura had no choice but to do what she was told." Makoto says

"Wh-What...? You're talking like y-you know that for a f-fact!" Toko tells him.

"Because...I do know it for a fact. Because I saw it!" Makoto admits.

"I saw Sakura and Monokuma... fighting. And that's where I heard it... Monokuma mentioned a "hostage" a second ago, right? And during their fight, I heard Sakura say she'd decided to fight against the mastermind." He explains

"You... saw all that?" Sakura mutters with a shocked expression.

"The mastermind took a hostage, so you were forced to swear loyalty to them, right? But in the end... you made up your mind to "betray" the mastermind." Makoto concludes.

"Which means Sakura isn't our enemy. She's a friend who we can trust without question. Is that it?" Byakuya asks in a sarcastic tone.

"Ridiculous. Do you live in some sort of alternate reality fairy tale?" He asks "She was the mastermind's tool. You absolutely cannot trust someone like that."

"H-He's right! We can't just believe whatever she says now!" Toko says.

"How can we even be sure she really did betray the mastermind? Maybe this is a double-bluff, and she's still doing exactly what the mastermind wants." Byakuya theorizes.

"Sakura would never do that!" Aoi claims.

"Okay, then Sakura...if you really have cut ties with the mastermind, tell us who they really are." Byakuya asks

"...Sorry, I can't. Even I don't know that." Sakura admits with an ashamed look.

Mukuro was going to speak up after Byakuya asked this, but she quickly looked up towards the camera in the gymnasium. Even though it was clearly pointed towards all the students, Mukuro felt like she was the only one actually being watched, so she kept her mouth shut and stared at the floor. Her hands fell to the side as she decided not to do anything about this situation.

"Oh? You don't know?" Byakuya questions Sakura. "That just makes you all the more suspicious." Byakuya says

"She's telling the truth! You have to believe her!" Aoi yells at him.

"Shut up. I'm not finished questioning her." Byakuya snaps at Aoi briefly before turning back to Sakura.

"Next question. What's this about a "promise"? What did the mastermind order you to do?"

"...I was told... to kill one of my friends." Sakura admits.

To everyone in the room, it suddenly felt like the temperature in the room had dropped twenty degrees. The weight of those words...

"I see. So even now, you've taken aim towards our lives." Byakuya sighs.

"It's no use... I don't think I can do anything to turn the focus away..." F/N mutters. "I wonder what Monokuma serves to gain from this though. Did he really just want to get back at Sakura. Or... does he see an opportunity for something more...?"

"You're wrong, I'm telling you! Sakura would never do that!" Aoi yells at Byakuya.

"Y-You don't have to yell, we can hear you just fine. Don't you have an i-inside voice?" Toko questions her.

"I'm yelling because you're not LISTENING to me!"

"Ah... well we definitely won't be able to if you keep screaming like that." F/N grumbles as he covers one of his ears.

"Please, stop. You don't need to defend me anymore. I have to take full responsibility for this..." Sakura assures Aoi.

"How do you intend to do that?" Junko asks her

"By destroying the mastermind." Sakura immediately responds, which causes Mukuro to ball her hands into fists out of instinct, though she quickly catches herself before doing anything else.

"What...?" Makoto mutters.

"I'm going to challenge them. Even if it means we both go down, I will defeat them. That is how I intend to take responsibility." Sakura claims.

"What do you mean, if you both go down!?" Aoi asks her

"Hina... I'm sorry I didn't tell you about this."

"What...?"

"I didn't know what to do. I went back and forth about confiding in you again and again... But I was scared. I thought if I told you, you might think less of me." Sakura admits before looking away from everyone.

"S-Sakura!"

"I'm sorry..." Sakura turns her back from everyone and walks out of the gymnasium, leaving everyone in a state of shock.

One person amongst them, however, can't help but wonder about one thing in specific

"Sakura was a spy for monokuma? Did Mukuro know about this?" F/N asks himself as he glances over to the girl, who was staring at the door with a surprisingly emotionless gaze. Before F/N could talk to her, he gets interrupted by the nighttime announcement.

*Ding dong, bing bong*

"Mm, ahem, this is a school announcement. It is now 10 p.m. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then...sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite..."

"Well, it's nighttime. We should all go to bed." Byakuya suggests.

"Hold on! This whole thing with Sakura is-!"

"Over. She's our enemy. There's nothing more to discuss." Byakuya cuts Aoi off.

"No! Sakura is NOT our enemy!" Aoi claims.

"...Why...? Why doesn't anyone understand her...?"

"What is it you think you understand? You didn't even know who she really was." Byakuya swiftly reminds her

"Th-That's-!"

"Let it go for now, Hina. Talking about it isn't going to help anything." Kyoko advises her.

"But-"

"But nothing." F/N cuts Aoi off. "Are you willing to argue all throughout the night or something? There's nothing left to discuss for now. You can ask Sakura more about it tomorrow."

"...fine." Without making another sound, Aoi left the room, and slowly, everyone else did as well. In the end, only F/N and Mukuro remain in the gymnasium.

"Mukusaba, did you...?"

"Know?" Mukuro finishes F/N's sentence for him. "Yeah, I did. I never mentioned it before because I didn't want to trouble Sakura. Especially since I never really had a chance to talk to her without Hina being nearby."

"I see. That's all I wanted to know. So I'll see you tomorrow." F/N was going to leave, but Mukuro grabs his hand, keeping him from leaving.

"Huh? What's wrong, Mukusaba?" F/N questions the girl.

"...nothing. Sorry. Let's just go back." Mukuro suggests, but she doesn't let go of F/N's hand.

"...Is there something bothering you?" F/N wonders.

Mukuro looks away from him, but she quickly gives in and starts talking.

"When Monokuma told everyone Sakura was the spy, I thought about taking the wig off and telling everybody about myself. I think then Sakura would be the least of their worries. But... if I do that, I can't go back to just helping her. She'll definitely be angry. So I wanted to ask you what I should do?" Mukuro questions him.

"...."

"I couldn't do anything about this, but Mukuro, she...." F/N shook his head to cast away such thoughts. It wasn't his business, so he didn't have a reason to care.

"I don't know. Do whatever you want. I'm not the one wearing the disguise here." F/N tells her before beginning to walk back to the dorms. Mukuro still didn't let go of his hand, so she walked with him the whole way over. F/N was a little confused why she wouldn't let go, but he chose not to question it.

As they walked, Mukuro stared down at her hand that was in F/N's. Holding his hand like this felt nostalgic. For a moment, she didn't feel like there was nothing else in the world but her and F/N, as if this single moment was all that there ever was and ever will be. It felt somewhat peaceful.

However, this peace, as all things, eventually came to an end when they reached the dorms and Mukuro had to release her grip on F/N's hand. And just like that, Mukuro was reminded of where she was and why she was here.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Mukusaba. Maybe then it'll be a bit less tense in the group." F/N waves goodbye to the girl, who waves back as he enters his room.

"...." Mukuro stared at her hand once she was alone yet again. This conflicted feeling she's had for the past couple of days was slowly eating at her. But when she brought her hand against her chest, she felt at ease, even to the point where she let out a sigh as her lips curled into a smile.

She felt both relaxed and on edge now. She could feel a piercing gaze fixated upon her just as much as she felt a strange warmth in her chest. The feeling left her ultimately confused and her smile fell just as quickly as it appeared.

"...what am I supposed to do?" Mukuro asked herself as she slowly creeped back into her own dorm, hoping the night would give her time to think of an answer.