The key was certainly important and Kyouko would give up anything that wasn’t a life for it.
    
But there was one other thing in this place that she treasured dearly.

A year ago, Kyouko Kirigiri had awoken in this school with so little of her memory. Her ID card confirmed her name and other irrelevant information, but there wasn’t much else she could remember.

She remembered that first night vividly. Shutting the door behind her and warily investigating her own room - something that felt so very natural, but Kyouko had no idea as to why. When she lied down for the night, she merely thought the beds were just uncomfortable.

After a significant amount of tossing and turning and some sleepless nights, she thought to check under the mattress.

She didn’t know it then, but the Kyouko Kirigiri in the present day deduced that she had hid that thing there in anticipation of the memory loss. Or maybe the Kyouko of the past merely wanted to leave a message to prove that she was there.

The thing that kept her company during those long, anxious nights was a book. It was incredibly thick, so it was amazing that Kyouko managed to find a way to hide it under the mattress without making its presence obvious from the outside. If anyone found it, they never took it away from her.

As an amnesiac, Kyouko got to fall in love with Sherlock Holmes all over again.

She was thankful for her choice - what other book would be big enough to make an elaborate code out of? It was the entire collection crammed into one book, so Kyouko never got bored and could always let herself escape into a new mystery despite the terror around her. The difficult codes certainly kept her busy as well.

She had made no decoder or anything in fear of the mastermind finding it and solving it for themselves. All she had to rely on was various pencil markings, instinct, and trial-and-error. 

Among other things, it helped her remember she was a detective.

There was a knock on the door and Kyouko found herself merely staring, motionless. She had been absorbed into the book and wasn’t sure if she heard right.

There was another knock.

Quickly, the detective jumped out of bed and threw the book under the mattress, squishing it down so it looked somewhat natural. The new masterminds finding it didn’t really matter, so she didn’t make an effort to hide the book from the cameras anymore. She considered fixing the blankets, but decided against it and rushed to the door instead.

She opened it to see Hakuba had already turned to walk away.

“...Hakuba-san?” He turned to face her and Kyouko found herself running a gloved hand through her hair in an unconscious effort to undo any bedhead that lying down may have caused. “...It’s late. Did something happen…?”

Hakuba shook his head and smiled. “No, nothing of the sort. I merely wanted to speak with you. May I… come in?”

Kyouko hesitated and glanced up and down the hall. It seemed they were alone. After studying him for a moment longer, she stepped aside and he walked in.

“I apologize, did I wake you up?”

He gestured to the blankets on the ground with an amused smirk. Kyouko shut the door and scurried over to them, picking them up and starting to fold them (albeit haphazardly).

“...Something like that.” She felt a bit embarrassed and found herself frowning. “So? What is it?”

“Well…” He came further into the room. Kyouko noticed he was positioning himself so his back was to the camera. Oh boy. “I just wanted to return your key to you. I understand you said you don’t want it back, but--”

“I’m not taking it back.”

Hakuba frowned. “Kirigiri-san, please--”

“Don’t make me repeat myself.” She sighed and put the last blanket back on the bed. She was tired and wanted to lie down, but Kyouko stood her ground instead. “If that’s all you came here for, you may as well leave.”

He was silent for a moment and Kyouko could tell he was considering his options.

“...The others know I have it.”

Kyouko blinked. And then again. “Excuse me?”

“I believe you heard me just fine.”

Kyouko squinted, her mouth hanging open in disbelief.

“...You’re not lying?”

“I am not.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

So she slapped him across the face.

Hakuba winced and his eyes went wide. Kyouko felt like she just hit a puppy, but she didn’t care. This puppy just admitted to breaking a promise. To hell with that.

“You said you wouldn’t!”

“I… I am sorry. But they agreed that you should be the one to hold onto it…”

“If you were scared of getting hurt, you should have just said so!” She growled and held out her open palm. “Give it to me then.”

It seemed he wanted to say something but in the end, he merely nodded and closed his mouth. The blond carefully retrieved the Monobear-adorned key from his pocket and went to put it in Kyouko’s hand.

And he would have - if she hadn’t suddenly (and harshly) grabbed his outstretched wrist with both hands.

“Kirigiri-san? What are you--?”

“Don’t ask to borrow it ever again, got it?” A part of her was kicking herself for this, especially because: maybe Hakuba really didn’t want to be responsible for the key. If anyone found out, she would be putting him at risk. But if they all expected he was giving it back, then it would be fine if he kept it, right?

He didn’t respond - his mouth merely hung open as if he didn’t understand what was happening. Kyouko released his arm and, from one of her hands, she threw a key onto the desk. Her actual room key. It had fallen and gotten lost in the blankets, but she managed to grab it discreetly. Hopefully, the people on the other side of the camera would be fooled.

“Tomorrow you can tell everyone that I begrudgingly accepted the key from you.” She sighed and shook her head. But then she let a little smile slip through her mask. “...I can’t believe you got them to agree to it though.”

Hakuba slipped his hands into his pockets and smirked. “It wasn’t difficult. They were all rather susceptible to the idea.”

“Is that so? I don’t think I believe you.”

“...I really wish you would. It… hurts when you don’t, admittedly.” With a small chuckle, he rubbed his cheek, which had gradually turned bright pink. Kyouko kind of felt bad, but not really. “Honestly, did you have to do that with the gloves on?”

He meant it in jest, but Kyouko’s mood immediately dissipated. Hakuba realized he had struck a nerve and opened his mouth to move on, but it seemed like something stopped him.

“...You never… take off those gloves, do you?”

She watched him carefully, suddenly feeling incredibly conscious of the fabric enveloping her fingers.

“...Of course I do. I have to wash them. I have to wash my hands. I have to… sleep.”

He raised a brow and smiled. “Is that so? Surely, I thought you slept with them as well.” And when Kyouko’s face didn’t change, his face dropped in response. “...Ah… so you do.”

“Why don’t you just ask and get it over with?” she sighed. Hakuba played innocent, of course.

“Ask what?”

“You want to see my hands, right?”

“...May I?”

He had looked just a little bit too hopeful there. “No.”

“I see.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Kyouko huffed and looked away. Really, she should have just kicked him out earlier. Shouldn’t even have opened the door.

“Has Makoto Naegi seen your hands?”

“What?” Kyouko’s head snapped back to the other detective. He seemed genuinely curious, but Kyouko regarded him suspiciously. Then, she smiled to cover up the odd sensation in her chest. “Jealous?”

“Of course not.” Of course he was. Suave rich boy who melts the hearts of many suddenly is in a situation where his charm isn’t working to get what he wants. Meanwhile, some normal nobody from nowhere seemingly gets it no problem. Kyouko wanted to giggle like a schoolgirl at the situation, but she held back for his sake. She'd been cruel enough to this boy today.

“If it makes you feel better,” she started, glancing off to the side, “I was forced to show him and the other survivors. It was during the final trial, and I had to remove my gloves to prove I wasn’t the culprit…”

Her smile faded as she remembered. Everyone had to see them… If it had been up to her, maybe she would have never showed her hands to those five. They didn’t need to know, after all.

“I’m sorry,” was all Hakuba could say. He had no idea what Kyouko had gone through, yet it was clear he could tell it was something big. Unconsciously, Kyouko found herself massaging her hands as the silence drew out.

“...I only show them to my family,” she explained eventually, “my hands, I mean. That is why… I cannot show them to you.”

She held back on revealing that someone didn’t have to be blood-related to be considered family in her mind. After all, her blood-relatives were so few.

There was her grandfather, who was always traveling and she rarely found opportunities to see him.

And there was the skeleton of... her father, who hung in her apartment and often served as a verbal punching bag.

That was it, wasn’t it? 

“Is that so…?” Hakuba absorbed her words and thought about them carefully. Kyouko hoped he didn’t make a marriage joke. Or else she was going to slap him again. It was only funny when she did it.

“...I suppose it’s impossible for me to see them then, correct? Unless I become a part of your family?”

There was the ghost of a smile on his features - he was thinking about it. Kyouko kept a stoic face.

“...Alternatively, you could frame me for murder and make the culprit’s hand a key piece of evidence.”

“Well, yes, I suppose I could do that as well. But I don’t count solutions that involve the death of another.”

“That’s a shame. Because you’d have to find a way to dispose of my incredibly eager and long line of suitors before you’d be able to marry me…”

There. She made the joke herself, so that means it's funny. ...She should slap him anyways. It was probably still his fault that she said it. Look, he was smiling - he definitely was entertaining the idea.

“It’s much preferable to the previous option, at least.”

She snorted - very unladylike, but whatever.

“If you say so.”

Silence. Kyouko felt there wasn’t much else to do, but she secretly wanted to keep talking just a little longer.

She yearned for her former classmates. Very few of them had detective instincts, so she rarely had the uncomfortable feeling that she was being studied. Far too many people in today’s situation did exactly that. She missed how Togami would disregard everyone’s feelings, and how people like Maizono, Ishimaru, Asahina, and Hagakure would always try to lighten the mood and keep everyone’s spirits up. She missed unraveling Celes’ lies and she sorely missed Naegi’s naivety and light.

At the time, their situation may have been filled with horror and distrust, but looking back on it, Kyouko regarded them all as family.

Everyone here was too smart for their own good.

“I want to show you something.” Kyouko turned and reached under her mattress, pulling out the thick book and thrusting it towards Hakuba’s chest. He seemed startled and confused, so Kyouko went on to explain.

“I… left it behind when I escaped the school with the others. It’s the only personal item I have with me.”

He smiled curiously and took the book into his own hands. She looked away as the blond idly flipped through it.

“...Were you the one who wrote in it?”

“Yes.” Or she thought so, at least. It looked like her handwriting. “It was before the students and I were trapped in here. ...I anticipated something might happen, so I used this to encode a message to… whomever needed it, I suppose. If the mastermind found it, they never thought to take it away from me.”

“I don’t suppose you’ll tell me what you wrote?”

“Of course I won’t. That’s for you to find out, great detective.”

Hakuba hummed in amusement as he continued to flip through pages. He was smart, but Kyouko was certain he had absolutely no idea as to how to decode the message. 

Messages. There were multiple. The SHSL Detective had tried to put in as much information possible. It made certain pages a bit messy and occasionally illegible but she knew the story by heart anyways.

“...I presume this contains an explanation of what happened, correct? Such as the events that caused the school to close down?”

“Among other things,” Kyouko confirmed. Of course, despite the size of the novel, it would have been unthinkable to explain everything in detail. So each message was often short - usually a few words. Names, places, titles... It was all things that Kyouko had wanted to remember.

In other words, it probably had more personal details about Kyouko Kirigiri than important events.

But Kyouko didn’t mind too much. How else would Hakuba find out about the memory loss? Yes, if he managed to decode even just a little bit, surely he’d understand…

“Am I permitted to take this with me…?”

The silver-haired detective studied him carefully. She thought about it seriously, considering what may happen if the book leaves this room.

…

“I would prefer…” she said slowly, “...if you didn’t.”

Obviously, she didn’t want the masterminds to get their hands on that book. If it was kept in this room, it would decrease the number of opportunities they got. Although, primarily, the book was almost like a security blanket for her. If she suddenly woke up with amnesia again, what would she do…?

“But if you ever want to look at it… just say so and I’ll let you into my room. I prefer if it doesn’t leave, but…”

Kyouko sighed and looked directly at Hakuba, making sure to not break eye contact.

“...If something happens to me, I want you to take it.”

“Kirigiri-san…”

“I mean it. Sherlock Holmes has all the clues you need to solve this mystery.” She crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly feeling distant. “Detectives like ourselves like to claim certain areas or cases as their own, correct? Perhaps because of the people there, or because it’s a familiar location… The case surrounding Hope’s Peak Academy has always been my territory. This... has been my only case for several years now. To my knowledge, there are no other detectives who could take my place. We… tried to keep everything a secret as best as we could…”

(“So it could never happen again,” was the excuse. But no, they six of them did it out of fear. Who had known that they were even trapped in the first place? Next to no one. Who would believe them? Who could they trust?)

“But now you’re all here. You, Hattori-kun, Edogawa-kun, and the other detectives… It’s too late to get you out of this while leaving you oblivious to the truth, so I want you all to solve this mystery. That’s why you have to take this case if I die.”

“Kirigiri-san, you’re not going to die.”

“Maybe.”

“No, not maybe…” Hakuba exhaled deeply and frowned. “We’re both going to live.”

“...Promise. That you'll survive no matter what.”

“Only if you do.”

Kyouko furrowed her brow and tried very hard to pretend she didn't hear that. “I’ll get everyone out.”

“Don’t forget about yourself.”

The female detective shook her head. “You all have promising, hope-filled lives ahead of you. I have already failed Mouri-san by making the same mistakes I made a year ago… So I must resign myself to my fate and change my strategy.”

“Kirigiri-san--”

“One of the doctrines of the Kirigiri clan is that we must fulfill our duties no matter the cost, even if it brings about the death of a family member. After watching my own peers die before me, I realized I cannot abide by this. Finding the solution to a mystery is not worth risking the lives of others.”

Aside from a dear friend who is now long gone, Kyouko had never spoken to anyone about this. Who could she speak to? Certainly it was a rule she questioned as a child, but she had broken so many of their rules that she hadn’t thought about it much more. So her emotions merely grew more chaotic as time passed. She exhaled shakily and collected her thoughts.

“...That is why I cannot promise you that I will live through this. My goal is to assist and succeed in the escape of as many people possible. I have selfishly left the mystery to all of you so that I know… this is all worth it, and I haven’t been living in a nightmare for the past year. I have turned my back on my family and the only hope within me is the hope that everyone can escape safely and return to a peaceful life. I have already succumbed to despair, so there is nothing left for me outside of this school…”

Hakuba didn’t say anything and instead let Kyouko continue.

“You have deduced it, haven’t you? The true target of the masterminds… is me. The rest of you mean very little to them. Assuming they will involve themselves in our game in the future, they will act in ways that will lead to my suffering. So if I--”

Kyouko stopped, her mouth hanging open. Her eyes traveled to the camera above them. Watching. Listening.

The shadowy figures behind the lens had already proved to be infinitely more ruthless than Junko Enoshima. They wouldn’t follow rules. They may have wanted Kyouko to despair, but it wasn’t out of love or sadism.

They wanted revenge.

(The repeated sounds of the crusher rings in her ears.)

“...Take the book with you tonight,” Kyouko finally said, using a more serious, business-like tone. “Return it to me first thing in the morning. As I was saying earlier, just ask me if you want to take a look at it in the future. If something happens to me, take it. Share it with the others.” She paused. “...Take anything else of mine you find as well. Once I’m dead, I cannot stop you from looking at the contents of the disc in this room. And if you happen to find my cellphone, it will have information on last year’s events and the people behind this. You might be able to contact the others as well. If you just explain my fate, you should be able to--”

“Kirigiri-san.”

Hakuba took one of her gloved hands in his own and offered a reassuring smile.

“You are going to survive this.” 

She tried to smile back, but it felt fake. Staring at the book he held, she found herself squeezing his hand, trying to feel his pulse and the rush of blood beneath the too-thin layer of skin.

“...Of course.”

  (Coward.)
    (Fool.)
      (Selfish.)
        (Weak.)
          (Liar.)