From the beginning, Kyouko Kirigiri had been nothing but terrified.

She had to admit, this wasn’t the first time she returned to Hope’s Peak Academy after her “graduation”. Every now and then, she would work up the courage to tiptoe through the halls and scour the building for anything on the group called “Super High School Level Despair”. She never told her friends - the other “graduates” - about this. She worried for their safety far too much, because she could never stop fearing something like… this would happen.

So when a note showed up at her apartment beckoning her to the abandoned plot, she had to go. She really couldn’t help it. If anyone asked, she would admit to being a complete idiot.
Waking up in that classroom was reliving a nightmare, and she couldn’t help but go straight to the entrance hall to get the hell out.

And then there were other people trapped with her. 

So it became the waiting game - who would show up? Was it anyone she knew? Person after person, she was unfamiliar with them all - she couldn’t believe the mastermind behind this brought elementary students here - and she thought everything might have been okay despite others being familiar with each other, and then--
Conan Edogawa. A young detective she often saw in the news - he chased after that ridiculous phantom thief sometimes. When he fell through the doors, Kyouko’s heart dropped. He seemed so bright, and promising, and it really wasn’t everyday you saw someone so young on a crime scene. It reminded her of younger days with the Kirigiri family, and she couldn’t help but smile at his achievements.

But of course it didn’t stop there. Next was Heiji Hattori, and she would never admit it aloud, but she admired the Detective of the West. He may have been impulsive, but he did good work, and his case streak rivaled Shinichi Kudo’s (really, the only reason Kyouko has held herself together for so long is because he’s not here; he’s safe somewhere and hopefully will never have to deal with a situation like this).

And then to make matters worse, Saguru Hakuba was among them as well. And the daughter of Kogoro Mouri. Yet more names she had seen in the news.

Kyouko didn’t want to seem self-absorbed, but she had a feeling the mastermind behind this solely wished to plunge her into the deepest of despairs. And they all but confirmed it when they referred to her as the “main character”. 

“Kirigiri-san, were you able to explore the school previously?”

And here she was with Hakuba right now. No one else joined them, and hopefully they would still be a moment in choosing groups. Kyouko wished to head to the other side of the school to avoid everyone for the moment, but there was one place right outside of the cafeteria she wanted to stop by first.

...Initially, Kyouko intended to act calm and nonchalant about their situation. Like she had never seen it before. Of course, she vowed to be a better player - she didn’t want to let a single person die. She knew the minute she started explaining the truth, unnecessary attention would be brought upon her and people would begin having doubts. People would suspect her, and then cease trusting her. She couldn’t have that happen.

And then Monokuma acknowledged her. All her pep talks went to waste. Her goal changed to: “I must help them, no matter what they believe”. The simple fact he called her out - in addition with the fact that she knew this wasn’t the mastermind she was familiar with - left her treading on thin ice. Something told her the rules had changed - and perhaps, there were no rules. Perhaps they were already condemned, and this was just the pre-show. But even if that was the case, Kyouko swore she would get everyone else out alive. She didn’t have Oogami’s strength, or Naegi’s unwavering heart, but she wasn’t going to sit back and watch everyone be slaughtered.

So, since she had been thrown to the wolves by that damned bear, she decided to switch tactics and get aggressive. They were all going to survive no matter what, and to do that, she had to see how far she could push the mastermind. 

“...I admit, I’m familiar with the layout, but I haven’t gotten the chance to go through each room on this visit,” Kyouko said, returning her focus to the blond detective. “Pardon me, Hakuba-san, do you mind if we stop here first?”

They were right in front of the public bath, which was sealed off with police tape. Kyouko peered inside and was itching to tear the blockade down.

“Heyheyhey! Can’t you read?!” Monokuma jumped in front of them, seemingly from nowhere, stomping at Kyouko’s feet. “It says ‘KEEP OUT’! You can’t go in there!”

“Why is it blocked off?” Hakuba asked. Monokuma turned to face him.

“It’s a bonus level for the lucky players that can reach level two! So once you beat level one… You all get to go in there! Why d’ya wanna know?!”

“That’s a bit unoriginal, isn’t it?” Kyouko couldn’t hold back a sly smile and the bear huffed a bit more, deciding to take a different approach.

“Oooooh, I get it! So you’re into these kinds of men, Kirigiri-san? No wonder you tried so hard to make Naegi-kun a good detective! Looks like I didn’t put you in a despairing situation this time at all…!”

“We’re done here. Let’s investigate somewhere else, Hakuba-san.”

As the female detective began walking away, Monokuma hunched over and stared at the ground sadly. “Uuuuu, looks like I’m a third wheel again…”

Hakuba, however, didn’t follow her just yet. “Does reaching this ‘level two’ have to do with the special rule you proposed to us earlier?”

“Yes indeedy! You’re just as bright as everyone says - I certainly hope you don’t become the first victim!” And Monokuma was back to his giggling self. Absolutely amazing. “Every time someone dies, I open up new worlds for you guys to explore! After all, you’ll get too bored to kill people if I just leave you with the ground floor! And if I gave it all at once, you’d all be too busy explorin’ to kill anyone! A healthy balance leads to a healthy kill-or-be-killed game!

“And just between you and me,” Monokuma shuffled closer, darting his head back and forth to make sure no one else was listening. Hakuba was tempted to kneel down to hear him better, but he decided against it (especially because of that probably-threat just a moment ago). 

“I gave my last class a revised exam for their final mark. I let them graduate if they could figure out all the mysteries of the school!”

The bear unsubtlety glanced over to look at Kirigiri, who was still walking towards the other end of the room. If Hakuba wanted to confirm the various things he was implying, it was too late now, because Monokuma was already galloping away in the opposite direction, “upupu”ing all the way. Not wanting to lose his detective partner, the blond decided it would be best to catch up with her for now.

The duo made their way towards the gymnasium - Kyouko was carrying out her plan to get as far away from everyone as possible. She was sure someone would come this way, but since they had been in here as a group not long ago, she wagered it was the least important place to check in everyone’s minds.

They only had an hour, so Kyouko got to work right away. Suddenly she was crawling on the ground, inspecting the floor and the walls from the ground level. Hakuba didn’t follow suit, but he took a good look around as he asked questions.

“The ‘Naegi-kun’ that Monokuma mentioned, I presume he was the student ‘Makoto Naegi’? A friend?”

The lavender detective didn’t answer immediately. She should have. She should have said exactly what Makoto Naegi was to her - it would probably score her some trust points. But instead--

“I tried to kill him once.”

If she was aggressive with the students too, she might be able to discover where their allegiances lie. That was her excuse, at least.

Kyouko was staring at the ground, so she couldn’t see his expression, but the period of silence told her all that needed to be said.

“...’Tried’?”

“He deserves his title.” Kyouko couldn’t help but smile fondly, and she was thankful no one could see it. “Framed twice - once on purpose, the other by circumstance. Nearly died perhaps three times during our stay here. And yet, out of us all, he came out the strongest. He brought everyone back when we had given up…”

“So you’re not the only student who escaped.” It wasn’t a question, and he had this annoying “I knew it” tone that reminded her of Togami. Although, she did let that implication slip, so there was no one to blame except herself. “You, Makoto Naegi, and at least one other person escaped after you solved the mystery of this school.”

Kyouko didn’t know why she wanted to keep the truth hidden, but she was doing it. Maybe it was because she had met too many corrupt detectives, one of whom was her best friend once upon a time. Her grandfather was right: you couldn’t trust a detective who basked in the spotlight. They always had motives hidden in the darkness.

…Or maybe she wanted that to be proven wrong. Because if one of those detectives could drag the truth out of her with evidence, then they would understand. They would believe her and believe in her.

She wanted to guide everyone to the right answer. It wouldn’t hold any meaning or serve as a judge of their characters if she just told the truth plainly.

“What if we each escaped by killing our classmates?” is how she finally responds, the claim feeling wrong in her mouth.

(He didn’t know that was impossible, because Monokuma was withholding the punishment rule, but.)

“I highly doubt that.”

“Oh? Where’s your proof?”

“Nothing definite, but…” The pause made Kyouko stop. She didn’t raise her head to look at him, though. “From my understanding, Hope’s Peak Academy closed down a year after the last class was enrolled. It’s hard to imagine a tight-knit group like that turning on each other so suddenly.”

“What do you suggest, then?”

“I’m not quite sure, to be honest. Just a moment ago, Monokuma mentioned students were released after unraveling the mysteries of the school. Perhaps something like that happened.”

Damn that bear for giving him hope. There’s no way this mastermind would let them leave if they could “solve” the mystery. Not if they invited her here to be an observer to the madness. But either way: a contradiction! Kyouko was almost giddy to be pointing out a flaw in a so-called great detective’s logic. 

“So, your theory is… sixteen students - who knew each other quite well - were trapped in their own school. They simply explained the truth and motives of their own situation to their captor, and they were released?”

She stood up, and the female detective could see it: the shock on his face, the confusion, the realization. But oh no, she wasn’t going to just let him correct his thoughts, she was going to shoot holes into them until there was nothing left.

“Why would the culprit bother? The students had been there for so long, so surely they realized what was going on. And, what happened to everyone after that? Why don’t you hear about those famous people anymore? Why isn’t this event known worldwide?”

And she approached him, her mouth twisting into a smug smile, because he was an idiot, he didn’t understand a damn thing, and all these spotlight detectives were just arrogant, self-absorbed little brats, weren’t they? Hakuba took a few steps back, unable to speak, and it was good he did, because Kyouko wasn’t about to stop. She might have hit him or yelled if he tried to interrupt her.

“And it’s strange, isn’t it? Why, I was sure, at least eleven people died during that timeframe. Would a tightly-knit, all-knowing group do that?”

“Eleven…? But that means there should be more than sixteen students…”

“One culprit can kill up to two people.” Monokuma put that in the rules this time from the get-go, thankfully. “And I’ll admit, one was not a student and had been murdered prior to these events. So ten. Ten out of sixteen. Six culprits. Four people kill two each, and the last two each kill one.”

Hakuba was clearly struggling to build a case here, and that made Kyouko inexplicably happy but also angry. Perhaps he believed her “theory” for just a moment. How frustrating!

(She wanted him to understand her, but she didn’t know how to admit it.)

“The rules also say you have to avoid being caught. Why would you kill more than one person if that were the case?”

“Perhaps we just wanted to kill them all. Six people plot against the rest of their class - it’s not impossible. Either way, you can’t deny that this is the theory that makes the most sense. Honestly, I can’t believe you were stupid enough to follow me out here alone.”

It actually hurt her to be so condescending, and she was close to apologizing for being so rude. Especially because, oh gosh, she secretly sometimes admired these spotlight-hogging detectives and wondered what it would be like to be them for a day. What it was like to take credit for your deductions, and not have to sneak onto crime scenes, and crawl in grimy alleyways just to find the trace of a potential case. What was it like to be hired by someone real and not by someone dragging in players for their twisted detective game?

But then, unexpectedly, Hakuba smirked, as if he caught her in a slip-up.

“Regarding my actions: if something happened to me, you would be the only suspect no matter what you claimed.”

...Kyouko had realized that, of course. That’s why she made it her responsibility to keep whoever accompanied her safe from harm. Because either way, the cost would be her life, wouldn’t it? Die defending someone, or die in the trial. She wouldn’t find a single victory if the latter happened.

“...And there is no proof that anyone died here. Only rumours and your word, which are both unreliable.”

Ouch. He got that right. Looks like Kyouko got all riled up for nothing - it seemed he didn’t believe a word of it. But it was clear he had no stable theories now.

“I could prove it,” Kyouko mumbled - and he had heard, because he was tilting his head and urging her to continue with his expression. The words just tumbled out, and she didn’t know why she said it. She looked at him straight in the eyes, and really hoped that she didn’t sound desperate for someone to believe her.

“--Not now, I mean. The bodies… They should be still in the school. They were kept in the biology room on the fifth floor. If you make it, I’ll let you… You’ll be able to see them.”

“...If I make it?”

The female detective hissed inwardly at herself. She wanted to shut herself up, but the words wouldn’t stop. “Monokuma spoke about this just a moment ago. When someone dies, the survivors get to explore more of the school. The fifth floor would be ‘level five’. So five cycles. A minimum of four murders. There’s… a chance he won’t open it up immediately, so perhaps it will take longer.”

That had been a pain in the last game. The biology lab was only opened up when they were told to solve the mysteries of the school, wasn’t it? But, unless this mastermind intended to reuse bodies, there was no point in blocking it off, right? 

...She really hoped that wouldn’t happen again. Without luck and help from Alter Ego, she couldn’t imagine anyone here surviving a wrongful execution.

“Four murders, hm? That’s a minimum of eight people. Whether I live or die from now until then... it’s similar to flipping a coin, isn’t it?”

It certainly was - that was about half of their numbers. Disregarding motives, there was a fifty perfect chance of death between now and then. With motives, Kyouko imagined Hakuba’s chances of survival decreased to at least forty or thirty percent. He had the whole rich and smug thing going for him, after all. He reminded her of Togami at times, and she was still amazed that nobody targeted him during the last game.

And she didn’t even want to think about herself - she would be surprised if everyone didn’t gang up on her for the first round.

...God. She was already assuming there would most certainly be murders. She shouldn’t think like that. She didn’t know this group. Most of them were respectable individuals with a clean record (assumedly). But everyone knew someone - no memory loss involved, it seemed. Murder seemed so unlikely unless the mastermind had a mole or a trick in store…

(She didn’t want to think about the kind of motives that could make this group snap.)

“I still find it difficult to believe you and five others escaped by killing everyone else.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “Oh? Then tell me, what do you believe?”

Hakuba looked so confident, and Kyouko wished she could be that certain of herself and the situation around her. She had always been good at putting up a cold, calm front but she was often all jitters on the inside (especially when high school or mutual killing is involved). Considering last time she started this game with amnesia, it was amazing how well people thought she was handling it.

“I believe there’s a piece of evidence that you’re keeping from me that would lead me to the answer.”

Kyouko smiled wryly. “Do you mean the whole story?”

“Well, yes,” he chuckled, studying her with bemused eyes, “but just one or two facts could lead me to the answer, correct?”

She shrugged, but the facts he was talking about scrolled through her mind. One, the punishment rule. He would understand the killers would be executed if they were caught, which lead to the odd numbering in victims and survivors.

Two, the amnesia thing. Because otherwise, his claim was sound: why would a class who had been together for one full year suddenly agree to killing each other? There were also the motives from the culprit side, such as how this all started in the first place, but that was just additional information. He might not even understand if she told him that motive anyways.

“I believe we’ve seen all there is to see in here,” Hakuba proclaimed. They didn’t exactly continue a careful search after they started talking, but Kyouko had to agree. It didn’t matter how much she crawled around - there wasn’t anything she didn’t already know about in here. “Shall we backtrack to the trophy room for now?”