“Oh, hey Owada! What are you doing up this late?”

Naegi had been waiting for a while in the hallway, just outside of Ishimaru’s room. He was planning to tail Ishimaru. Last time around, Ishimaru had been baited by Yamada’s fake note. He was lead to believe that an exit had been found and was supposed to meet up in the equipment room. Unfortunately, it was all just part of Celeste’s plan… instead of getting out of here, Ishimaru was killed.

Surprisingly, Ishimaru hadn’t come out of his room though… and instead, it was Owada who he ended up seeing.

“Sup Naegi?” Owada raises a hand in greeting. He seemed unusually cheerful. “I just got some note saying that they found a way outta here.”

At this, Naegi’s blood freezes. Why did Owada get the note instead of Ishimaru?

“H-Huh?” Naegi stammers, caught off guard. “Um… If that’s the case, can I come with you?”

Wait a minute… this time around, it was Owada who was primarily opposing Yamada, not Ishimaru. It would make sense for Celeste to lie about Owada instead. Dang! Why didn’t I realize this sooner? Naegi berates himself.

“Sure!” Owada says, completely oblivious to Naegi’s thoughts. “Let’s go.”

As soon as Naegi and Owada enter the equipment room, a small gasp can be heard from behind the open door.

“Crap!”

“Huh?” Owada turns around and looks at Yamada. He was hiding in a corner, right behind the door. “Oh, hey Yamada. Did you get a note too?”

“Oh, uh yeah. M-Mr. Naegi, you came here as well?” Yamada hastily changes the subject. He was holding something behind his back, and not very well. A large sheen of sweat is visible on his forehead and he was shaking nervously. Anyone who looked at him for longer than three seconds would have gotten suspicious.

“Yeah, I did. Yamada, what are you holding behind your back?” Naegi asks with an edge of accusation in his voice. Of course, Naegi had known that Yamada was only expecting one person. He reasoned that if two people showed up, he would be a lot more hesitant to go through the murder. It was a gamble, but one that was clearly paying off.

“Huh, now that you mention it…” Owada glances at Yamada suspiciously. “What the hell is that?”

“U-Um, t-that is… Well you see…” Yamada starts fidgeting around nervously. Consequently, his hands shifted around a bit and the object that he was holding became partially visible from behind his large back.

Owada’s eyes bulge out. “Holy crap! That’s one fuckin huge hammer! Why the hell do you have that?!

…

“Wait a sec. Don’t tell me that you were gonna try and attack m-”

Before he could even finish his sentence, Yamada abruptly throws himself at the floor, bowing in a dogeza position. “I’M SO SORRYYYYYYYYYYYY!” Yamada screeches, waterfalls of tears pouring out of his eyes.

“I-It was Ms. Ludenberg!” The otaku sobs loudly. “She planned this! She told me a bunch of stuff about you and…” Yamada sniffs before rushing through his next sentence rapidly.

“ Ijustgotangryandagreedtoherplanimsorryitwasapurespurofthemomentthingiswear!”

…

“Hey, chill dude.” Surprisingly, Owada didn’t seem angry at all. In fact, there was even pity visible on his face. Instead of flying into a rage, he actually offers his hand to the sobbing Yamada. “I know that being angry can get you to do some dumb shit. Let’s just forget all of this, huh?”

“Y-You…” Yamada glances up at him through wet glasses. “You really forgive me?”

“Well, nothing bad happened right? Just tell us what Celeste told you to do, alright?”

“Huh? Owada, you're not mad at him?” Naegi was flabbergasted. In his mind, Owada would have been the one to murder Yamada if he ended up finding out about the murder plan. He thought for sure that he would have to restrain Owada to prevent him from attacking the otaku.

“I-I swear Mr. Owada, I will never forget your one true moment of kindness! I swear on my honor as an Uber Neo-Samurai Assassin Master, I shall repay you one day!” Yamada bounces up and looks at Owada gratefully.

“Whatever dude.” Owada brushes Yamada off, clearly uncomfortable. “Just tell us about what you were trying to do, huh?”

“Yes sir!” Yamada straightens up and salutes. “Ms. Ludenberg approached me earlier and accused you of doing extremely indecent things to her!”

“I-Indecent?” Owada’s face quickly turns red. “I would never do anything to harm a woman! It’s my code of honor!”

“Y-Yeah, I thought about that too, but Ms. Ludenberg said that you did those types of… things. To be honest, I was still angry that you were guarding me from Alter Ego, so I didn’t think that much about it.

“Anyway, what happened next?” Naegi already knew most of the details about Celeste’s plan, but it wouldn’t hurt to see if anything had changed… like how Owada was the target this time instead of Ishimaru.

“She told me that I could help her take revenge… in a murder shceme. She didn’t say much about it, but she told me to give two notes - one to you, and one to Mr. Hagakure.”

“Wait a sec, Hagakure got a note too? So where is he?” Owada looks around, as if he expected Hagakure to be in the room with them.

“Ah, yes… That was also a part of Ms. Ludenberg’s plan. His note had him come way before you did. We were going to frame him for the murder.”

“Yeah… so again, where is he?”

“... We put him into Robo-Justice and stuffed him into one of the pool lockers.”

“Robo-Justice?” Owada blinks.

“Ah… Robo-Justice is a giant warrior robot from one of the animes that I watch! He goes around the world and acts as an ally of ju-”

“Okay okay!” Owada quickly puts both of his hands up. “I get it. So a robot suit, right?”

A robot suit… I guess that part stayed the same. I still don’t really get it, but Yamada seems to really like this character.

“Y-Yeah. Afterwards, I was to fake my own death in order to create an alibi while Ms. Ludenberg murdered someone else. She wouldn’t tell me who her target would be though.” Yamada mutters the last sentence and seemed to deflate as he said this.

“...” Naegi averts his gaze, quickly becoming uncomfortable. Yamada didn't know this, but Celeste was going to kill him in cold blood, even after helping her with her plan… it was pretty cruel.

“Man, that’s fucked up. Me and one other person was supposed to die?” Owada shakes his head in disbelief.

“Y-Yeah…” Owada glances at his feet guiltily. He still couldn’t believe that he was actually going to go through with the plan and actually kill someone.

“Alright, that’s it!” Owada suddenly shouts. “Let’s go find Celeste and make her explain herself!”

“I’ll go too.” Out of nowhere, Kirigiri suddenly steps into the room, arms crossed. Judging by the look on her face, she likely heard everything about Yamada’s attempted murder.

“H-Huh? Kirigiri? When did you…” Naegi stares at the detective in confusion.

“I leave my door open at night, remember? Yamada’s incessant shouting woke me up. I overheard most of his account.” Kirigiri hardens her gaze. “In any case, I have questions for Celeste as well.”

“Okay then.” Naegi looks at the other three people in the room. “Let’s all go together then.”

Just as Celeste had finished faking her assault, Kirigiri, along with Naegi and Owada comes in. In order to fake the attack, she had torn her uniform in several places and applied makeup in order to form a bruise. She also put some scratches on her cheek. Though not that deep in detail, it seemed like she was legitimately injured.

Shit! Celeste cursed to herself. How did they find me so quickly? And why isn’t Owada dead yet?! Was I betrayed by Yamada after all?

“O-Oh!” Celeste quickly puts her mask on and quickly steps up to face Naegi. “I-I was stupid. I got attacked!”

Naegi raises a brow. “Attacked?”

“Y-Yes. By some sort of strange man.”

“Celeste. I’m going to have to ask you to stop lying.” Kirigiri frowns. “It would make things a lot easier.”

“I’m telling the truth! Why would you think I’m lying?!”

Owada sighs and shakes his head. “We heard everything from Yamada. Give it up.”

“...”

With that, Celeste’s fears were finally confirmed. That dumb fat Otaku couldn’t keep his mouth shut and now she had nowhere to run. If by some miracle she wasn’t ostracized by the rest of the group over this, she would at the very least be made into a giant target for murders.

No. That can not happen. I must live. I must lie.

“Well…”

I need to lie. I’m the queen of lies. I

“Yamada…”

must survive I must get out of

“He was the one who actually attacked me! I have a”

Here I need to get out I will get out

“picture of him attacking Hagakure!”

lielielielielielielielielieLIELIELIELIELIELIELIE

“Yamada tried to murder both of us!”

I MUST LIE

“... Would you show us the picture then?” Kirigiri asks in her usual cool demeanor. She didn’t show it, but she wasn’t convinced in the slightest.

“Yes, here it is. It’s on the camera I found the other day.” Celeste says as she pulls out a small toy camera. It was decorated with graphics from ‘Pretty Pudgy Princess’.

“See for yourself. Yamada was carrying Hagakure on his back after knocking him unconscious. I managed to take a picture on the camera but he noticed me so Yamada had decided to attack me as well. He must have decided to blame-”

“I don’t see Hagakure in this picture.” Kirigrii deadpans, interrupting Celeste in the middle of her ramblings.

“W-What?”

“I just see Yamada carrying some sort of robot.”

Celeste gasps as she realizes her mistake. How could she have been so careless? Hagakure being in the robot suit was one of the most pivotal parts of her plan… and she had made a careless slip of the tongue.

NO!

KEEP LYING KEEP LYING KEEP LYING KEEP LYING KEEP LYING KEEP LYING

“Oh, did I forget to mention? I witnessed him stuffing Hagakure into that suit. That should explain it, no?”

Naegi suddenly places a harm on her arm. It took all of her willpower to not jerk her arm away. “Celeste. You don’t need to keep this up. We know what you two planned.”

KEEP LYING KEEP LYING KEEP LYING

“I’m not lying, okay?” Celeste replies calmly.

“This is just getting sad.” Owada scoffs. “It’s obvious that you’re lying.”

KEEP LYING KEEP LYING

“SHUT THE HELL UP!” Celeste’s mask suddenly shatters as she flies into a fit of rage. How dare these idiots talk down to her like this?! An average kid, some moody girl, and a meathead all acting so smug just because some fatty ratted her out?! They weren’t better than her. All of them were inferior. “That DAMNED tub of lard tried to kill Hagakure and I! Why don’t you see that?! HE’S THE ONE TO BLAME!”

“No, that’s wrong!” Naegi shouts, pointing a finger at Celeste.

“?!”

“Celeste… If Yamada attacked you after catching you taking a picture, why didn’t he break the camera you had? A picture like that would definitely be crucial evidence in a class trial.”

KEEP. LYING.

“Yamada noticed ME, you moron. Not the camera. I hid it from him.

“But Yamada told us that you had a picture before we even came here. He knew about the picture.”

Keep…

“I…”

Lying…

“That is…”

Suddenly, Owada speaks up. “Look, I know you wanna get out of here. Hell, we all do. But we need to team up on that fucking bear to do that. We shouldn’t be killing each other here. We’ve survived through two motives so far, why can’t we make it a third?”

“...”

“That’s right! We can do this together. Mark my words, we will take down the mastermind... together.” Naegi states confidently, with a smile plastered on his face.

“...”

“Killing each other is just what Monokuma wants. You’re smart enough to know that playing into his hands is a bad idea.” Kirigiri hands Celeste’s camera back to her.

“... Fine.” Celeste sighs heavily. “I admit defeat.”

“Hello, Yamada.”

“Oh… Ms. Ludenberg.”

The otaku and gambler awkwardly stare at each other. At Naegi’s insistence, the two had met up in order to make amends. It would be bad to harbor grudges, especially in a situation like this.

If I lose my temper again, that would just make my life at this damned school even harder…

Swallowing her pride, Celeste makes the first move. “I would like to formally… apologize.”

“Ah, yes indeed I- WHAAAAAAT?!”

“Oh, put a sock in it. I’m capable of empathy you know. I lied to you and dragged you into a murder scheme. For that, I apologize.” Celeste gives a sickly sweet smile to an astonished Yamada.

“I-I see now!” Yamada exclaims, rubbing his chin with his fingers. “You… really are a tsundere!”

“Don’t push your luck…” Celeste kept smiling but the atmosphere got considerably more dense.

“Eep! Erm, I accept your apology! Water under the bridge.” Tamada quickly waves his hands in surrender.

Celeste lets out a small sigh of relief. “Good.”

But apologizing to Yamada was actually the easiest part. He was always one of the more gullible ones. Plus, he held plenty of guilt himself. But once Naegi and the others return to the group and told them of what she had planned, then…

Well, I’m not looking forward to explaining myself to Togami or Fukawa…

“Hey Celeste! You were kinda late today. We were getting worried.” Kuwata waves his hand lazily as he eats his lunch.

It was around 1 PM - nearly the middle of the day.

“I thought that perhaps Monokuma’s game had finally begun…” Togami sighs with a slight tinge of disappointment in his face. “What a shame.”

“Hm?” Celeste looks at the two with confusion. They were acting as if she hadn’t tried to murder anyone!

“Monokuma’s game really did begin, I’m telling you!” Hagakure shakes his finger in front of Togami’s face, causing him to sneer in disgust. “He himself had kidnapped me this morning!”

This only sought to bring Celeste more confusion. Why did Hagakure think it was Monokuma who had kidnapped him?

“Kidnapped?” Celeste questions with a tilt of her head.

“Exactly! He sent me a taunting note and then drugged me! When I woke back up, I was laying near the pool with some seriously stiff joints!” Hagakure exclaims. “I think that he donated my body to aliens and had me probed!”

“Don’t listen to the moron.” Togami rolls his eyes. “He’s likely just finishing for attention.

“Well the pool part I can confirm.” Asahina interjects. “When Sakura and I looked for everyone this morning, we found him passed out near the pool lockers.”

“About that…” Ogami says with a hint of annoyance in her voice. “What were you all doing? You, along with Togami, Fukawa, and as mentioned before, Hagakure, were absent from the morning meeting. Kirigiri and Naegi were both late as well but they didn’t offer any explanation. Togami and Fukawa, I can understand. But what about the others?”

Suddenly, comprehension dawns in Celeste’s mind. For some reason, the others didn’t tell anyone about her scheme… but why?

Celeste makes a mental note to interrogate Naegi later. He would probably be the most willing to divulge information out of the trio. For now though, she needed to come up with some ort of explanation.

“I had dedicated this morning to do some… self-maintenance.”

“Self-maintenance?” Maizono echoes.

“Yes. Cleaning my room, and myself as well as organizing my belongings… I apologize if my absence worried the rest of you.”

“...” Ogami stares at her for a moment before sighing. “That’s fine. Just tell us in advance in the future. Missing over a third of our group was worrying, to say the least.”

Celeste offers a small smile and nods.

“I won’t make the same mistake twice.”

Makoto Naegi is facing a dilemma.

Was this the right thing to do?

The reason why he had told everyone to keep Celeste’s murder plan as a secret was because that might have been the last straw.

First, Fukawa as named as Genocider Jill. Then, Junko was revealed to just be Ikusaba in disguise and was working for the mastermind. Ogami was also revealed to be a mole for the mastermind. On top of that, Maizono as well as Owada were shown to have caused the deaths of two other people, though indirectly.

Though no murders had happened yet, distrust was relatively high in the group. Knowing that Celeste was planning a murder, AND that Yamada went along with it would be too much.

He had a good reason, but was it good enough?

Just thinking about this actually made Naegi feel bad. It was almost like he was admitting that his friends couldn’t be trusted.

But that’s not true… I do trust them! That’s why I’m trying to save them… That’s why I was given a second cha-

“Naegi?”

Someone’s voice abruptly breaks Naegi’s line of thought.

“Ah!” Naegi immediately jumps up in a knee-jerk reaction and finds himself facing…

Celeste.

“Oh, Celeste.” Naegi rubs his chest and lets out a sigh of relief. “Jeez, you really scared me there!”

Celeste frowns, disappointment plastered all over her face. “You shouldn’t keep your room unlocked.”

“Oh, I left it unlocked?” Naegi laughs sheepishly. “That’s kind of a bad habit of mines… I can never remember to lock my door. Anyway, what are you doing here Celeste?”

The gambler sharpens her gaze. “I want you to explain.”

“Explain?”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone about my murder attempt? What are you planning?” Celeste asks, voice slowly climbing in volume. “Are you trying to blackmail me? Is that it?!”

“W-What? No, of course not!” Naegi says.

“So why?! Tell me!”

“Look.” Naegi puts his hands out in a placating gesture. “It’s just that… Well, I don’t want to create more tension, you know? We’re already under high pressure from Monokuma and all of his motives… A murder might really happen if more stuff keeps piling on top of everything.”

“...” Celeste could do nothing but stare at Naegi in shock.

“Besides, nothing really happened right? I don’t want you to become isolated because of this. I think that everyone deserves… a second chance.”

“A second chance.” Celeste says tonelessly. “I see.”

…

“ARE YOU INSANE?!”

Naegi’s face quickly turns pale. “Eh?”

“I tried to kill TWO people, Naegi. TWO! You shouldn’t be so damn forgiving! You’re just going to get exploited someday! You won’t last a single second in the real world with that kind of optimism!” Celeste snarls as she points her metal finger at him.

“...”

“If anything, I deserve to be isolated! It’s the logical thing to do… I did just plan out an entire murder, Naegi! Get that through your thick skull, why don’t you?”

“No, that’s wrong!”

Celeste gasps as Naegi suddenly counters her finger point with one of his own.

“You don’t deserve isolation! No one deserves something like that! If you think that you deserve to be separated from the rest of the group, then wouldn’t Yamada and Fukawa both deserve it as well?”

“What?!”

“Yamada attempted murder too. And Fukawa herself is literally Genocider Jill. Despite this, you haven’t made any argument to isolate either of them yet.”

“Th-That’s different!” Celeste argues. “Yamada only tried to kill because of me! And Genocider Jill might as well be an entirely separate person - she has a split personality disorder!”

“But did Yamada not decide to go along with your plan of his own free will?”

“...”

“And can’t Genocider Jill appear at practically any time?”

“...”

“It’s okay, Celeste.” Naegi smiles gently at her. “You don’t need to punish yourself for this.”

“Naegi… You are too kind for your own good.” Celeste shakes her head in amazement. “Not to mention annoyingly bright.”

Naegi laughs awkwardly. “I’ve heard that one before.”

“Very well then… I suppose that I shall take my leave. Farewell.” Celeste slowly walks out of his room, seemingly dazed.

“See you, Celeste!”

As soon as Celeste closes the door behind him, Naegi collapses onto his bed in relief. He didn’t show it, but he was actually pretty scared there. It kind of freaks him out whenever Celeste snaps like that. Her metal finger didn’t really help either.

But despite feeling mentally exhausted, Naegi still felt good.

He was making progress.

He would do this - he would save his friends.

All of them.

*knock knock*

No more than 30 seconds after Celeste leaves, someone else knocks on Naegi’s door.

“Huh? Now who is it?” Naegi mutters to himself as he pulls himself up from his bed.

Opening the door, he finds himself in front of…

“Oh! Maizono, what’s up?” Naegi greets her. “Do you need something?”

“...” Maizono doesn’t say anything at first. Instead, she opts to walk into her room and looks around. There was a look of clear suspicion on her face and for some reason, she seemed to be fixated on his bed.

After a minute, Naegi clears his throat. “Um… Maizono?”

“So you two were alone in your room together.”

“... What?”

“Wouldn’t you say that Celeste has a great poker face? I mean, she would have to have a good one. She is the Ultimate Gambler.” Maizono says as she turns her gaze from the room to Naegi.

Baffled, Naegi slowly nods his head. “I guess so?” Why is Maizono asking about this all of the sudden?

“I noticed that Celeste had just walked out of your room. She was acting rather flustered, you know.” Maizono’s gaze slowly turns into a glare. “Now, what could you and Celeste possibly have done together that was embarrassing enough to make a girl like her get flustered?”

“No, no! Maizono, she just wanted to talk to me about something, I swear!” Naegi laughs nervously and takes a step back. He really did not like how Maizono looked right now… she looked as scary as Celeste did.

Maizono studies Naegi’s face for a moment before exhaling. “You’re telling the truth… But what were the two of you talking about?”

“Oh, um… It’s a secret, sorry.”

“She told you a secret then. Probably an embarrassing one too, judging by how she was acting…”

“Huh?”

Suddenly, Maizono slams her fist into the door with an enraged look on her face.

“That damn BITCH beat me to the punch! I hate goths like her!”

“Ah!” Naegi yelps. “Maizono, are you okay?!”

“How could I be?!” Maizono was practically shouting now. “Celeste just confessed her feelings to you and I-”

“What?!” Naegi’s face suddenly erupts into a blush. “Wait, don’t get the wrong idea Maizono! It wasn’t about anything like that at all!”

“... It wasn’t?”

“N-No. I promise.” Naegi says tentatively. Why was Maizono so angry about the idea of Celeste ‘confessing’ her feelings anyway…?

Maizono’s face flushes as she realizes her mistake.

“Oh… okay. If it wasn’t anything like that then I’ll just make my way out… Sorry for disturbing you, Naegi.” The pop idol mutters under her breath as he hurriedly leaves.

…

“Jeez… why was she so worried about that? Where did she even get the idea that Celeste would… confess her feelings to me?” Naegi asks himself.

…

*knock knock*

…

Naegi opens the door.

…

Ikusaba is standing there with a deadly serious look on her face. She was twirling a sharp looking butterfly knife around in one of her hands, glinting dangerously in the light.

“So, I noticed that you and Maizono were in your room together… Alone.”