The Circumstances of Two Girls
We settled onto the locker room chairs and started talking.
"Hahh... Kirigiri, what the hell is going on? You told me to play along with whatever you said, so I just winged it, but..."
"There was a reason I made that announcement this morning."
So Kirigiri noona had a plan all along?
"First, it let me minimize the fallout from your secret."
She wasn't wrong. Kirigiri's bombshell had more or less buried how serious my own secret actually was. If Togami and Celes hadn't jumped in, I might have talked my way out of it without much trouble.
"On that note, I'll give you credit for catching Monokuma off guard. Because you spilled your secret first, his plan fell apart — which meant mine became the highlight, and the shock landed at full force."
"Th-thanks, I guess... but why go that far...?"
"Because I needed to help you as quickly as possible. I told you earlier, didn't I? I made a bet with Celes. And if we lost, she added a rule that refusing to obey the winner would mean execution."
"Yeah... she did..."
"That was far too reckless."
Kirigiri's voice was flat and absolute.
"You're the one holding the key to ending this killing game. From now on, instead of trying to handle everything alone, how about starting with the idea of asking for help?"
Her tone was ice, but the worry underneath it was unmistakable. Making Kirigiri worry about me. Some devotee I was. I gave her an awkward smile.
"Thanks for worrying about me... Next time something like that comes up, I'll talk to you first. I promise..."
The apology loosened something in her expression. She cleared her throat and went on.
"...As long as you understand. Anyway, the other reason was so that we could have meetings like this more often."
"Meetings like this...?"
"Yes. Right now, this is the only place without cameras or listening devices, so if we need to discuss anything the mastermind can't be allowed to hear, we have to come here. But if the two of us — who supposedly mean nothing to each other — keep showing up in this room, people are going to notice. Don't you think?"
She had a point. The last time Kirigiri and I had met in the locker room alone, Monokuma had latched on and refused to let go. For all I knew, that was the moment Enoshima had started suspecting I knew the killing game's secrets.
If Kirigiri and I were a couple, though, the story changed. Coming here would look like two people sneaking off to a private place to be together.
But still...
"I get that, but... Enoshima isn't a normal girl. Even if we say we're a couple, she's not going to drop her suspicions..."
"...Which is exactly what you and I need to discuss."
"Discuss...? Discuss what?"
"From this point on, you and I will act like a couple whenever we're outside. As convincingly as we possibly can."
".....!"
My heart lurched. Me. A guy with exactly zero dating experience. Pretending to be someone's boyfriend. The sheer weight of it pulled my face into a grimace all on its own.
"What? You don't want to...?"
"No, no! That's not it... I mean... uh... are you okay with this!?"
I was so flustered I asked a question that wasn't even funny. Kirigiri let out a sigh.
"We already agreed to cooperate as much as we could... Acting is well within what I can do. Provided you hold up your end, of course."
"Yeah... okay...! I'll do my best...!"
I nodded in a hurry, then started laying out the information I hadn't been able to finish earlier.
"First — at this point, the people we need to watch most carefully, not counting Celes, since she lost to me today, are Togami, Ikusaba, and Ogami. Togami, as you already know, is enjoying this killing game. Ikusaba is the mastermind. And Ogami is a spy."
"Wait. Ogami is a spy?"
"Yeah. Right now, the people from her dojo are being held hostage by the mastermind. They're probably pushing her to commit a murder as we speak."
"And how do you know that?"
"Uh... I happened to see her standing up to the mastermind. Refusing to go along with them..."
I'd seen it while playing the game, but seeing it was seeing it.
"She hasn't killed anyone yet, but... if things keep going like this, there's a real chance she becomes the first murderer."
"Do you have a way to deal with her?"
"Well... talk her down, I guess...?"
Kirigiri looked at me like I was an idiot, then sighed.
"...I'll take that to mean you don't have any real plan yet. Then explain the other two in more detail."
"Ikusaba has the combat ability you'd expect from the Ultimate Soldier. Barehanded, she'd lose to Ogami — but put a weapon in her hands and she can fight her on even terms."
Come to think of it, when the killing game first started, I'd been sure Ikusaba would find herself in danger before long. Nothing of the sort had happened — and lately she'd even been getting in my way. Her original plan must have changed.
In the game, Enoshima decided she had no more use for Ikusaba and killed her rather than locking her away, which is why she was eliminated so early on. The fact that she was still alive meant Enoshima still considered her necessary. That meant I had to revise the plan I'd made at the start — the one where I'd protect Ikusaba from Enoshima and set her on the path to redemption.
The moment Enoshima ordered Ikusaba to kill, someone was going to die. I needed to start thinking of Ikusaba not as someone to save, but as someone to stop.
"As for Togami... he's insufferable, but in terms of raw intellect he's almost on your level. You're still smarter, of course, but..."
Togami might fall a little short of Kirigiri, but when it came to using his head, he was still among the very best of our current lineup. The problem was that right now, he was committed to trolling.
"So you intend to keep Ikusaba and Togami in check from here on?"
"No... I still want to try talking them ar...ound...?"
Kirigiri's eyes went cold enough to frost over, and I tripped over my own words.
But the fact remained that they needed to be persuaded. I'd decided to treat Ikusaba as an enemy, at least to a degree — but redemption was still possible for her, and if I could reach her, I had to try.
Togami, in the end, turned himself around and became a steadfast ally to Naegi, the original protagonist — and he went on to play a major role after that. One way or another, he had to be brought over. I just had no idea how.
"People can be fixed. It's just hard. And right now, we need every ally we can get. That means we have to put in the work to fix them."
Kirigiri stared at me for a long moment. Then she spoke.
"You really are... an idiot."
"H-huh...?"
"...It's nothing. Then—"
She was about to say something more when a voice carried in from outside the locker room.
"Yoo-hoo~ you two~! Did you rent the whole locker room out? I'm trying to take a bath before bed, so how long are you planning to make me wait? I'm coming in!"
Damn it. Ikusaba. She'd come to keep an eye on us, no question. If she was going to barge in like this every time we used the locker room, we were going to have a serious problem...
".....!"
Kirigiri threw herself into my arms.
"What on earth are you two doing in the lock—"
Ikusaba's mouth fell open. She froze in the doorway, one hand still on the door.
"U-um... Enoshima...? C-could you maybe close the door..."
"........"
Ikusaba had died on her feet. If she really just dropped dead, then who'd be the blackened? Don't tell me we'd end up with two of them?
"H-huh...? What... were you two actually... that kind of... relationship...?"
Fortunately, it didn't look like a Class Trial would be convened. Ikusaba just stood there staring at us, her face gone scarlet, muttering under her breath.
"You're interrupting. Would you mind leaving?"
Kirigiri's voice could have cut glass. Ikusaba nodded in a frantic hurry and shut the door. The instant it closed, Kirigiri pulled away from me.
"Haa... There are going to be a lot more situations like this, so you'd better prepare yourself. We should leave it here for today. You go on ahead."
"......Okay."
I had a feeling I wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight.
Of course, part of it is to deceive the mastermind...
Kirigiri watched the boy hurry out of the locker room, and the thought turned over in her mind.
This way, I'll know soon enough what this feeling actually is.
The Kirigiri clan was a family of detectives who uncovered objective truth without distinguishing between good and evil. If the feeling that rose in her every time she looked at him really was what she thought it was...
When that time comes...
That kind of emotion was fatal to a detective who had to render objective judgment. She turned her grandfather's words over and over: a detective whose subjectivity has begun to cloud their sight loses their light.
When that time comes...
The answer was already decided. Even so, Kyoko Kirigiri could not bring herself to give it. Not today.
In the dead hours before dawn, while everyone else slept, a towering girl sat alone in her quarters, deep in meditation.
She had been sitting in silence with her eyes closed. The moment she felt another presence, she opened them.
"Upupupu... The kids are standing night watch, so it's pretty hard to get any spying done, huh...? If it's really that much trouble, you could just go ahead and commit a murder... Upupupu..."
"Today will be the last time you laugh like that. I have decided I will no longer follow your orders."
"What's this, what's this? A traitor betraying all over again? I guess you're not worried about the people at the dojo anymore?"
"Today's vote taught me something. Even if I walk the wrong path, the others will keep moving toward the right one. To break people who hold that kind of conviction, just to protect my dojo, would be nothing but a disgrace to them."
"Hahh... What are you, the hero of some shonen manga? Well, I figured you'd say that — which is why I came prepared!"
".....What?"
Light shot from Monokuma's eyes, and an image bloomed across the wall of the room.
".....!"
On the wall, the one fighter Ogami had never been able to defeat — Kenichiro — lay in a hospital bed.
"You... you...!"
"Upupupu... A little early to get angry, don't you think....?"
The hospital room changed. The place had been torn apart. Signs of a violent struggle were everywhere. And the bed was soaked through with blood.
"So? How do you like the present I prepared...?"
"I will not... forgive this.....!"
Blind with rage, Ogami lunged at Monokuma — and Monokuma grinned, and exploded.
"....!"
Her reflexes were superhuman; she cleared the blast. But the swarm of Monokumas that filled the room in its wake dragged a low sound from her throat.
"Hey, if you keep resisting, the life of that Kenichiro you love so much is gone! If you're fine with that, be my guest! Upupupupupu....!"
With that, Monokuma tossed a set of instructions onto the floor, laughed in her face, and vanished.
Ogami read what had been left for her. Then she crushed the paper in her fist, and the voice that came out of her was raw.
"Kenichiro... what am I supposed to do..."
And until the night gave way to dawn, Ogami too could not find her answer.