Since Monokuma’s money motive had been introduced, no murders had happened. Aside from Celeste, no one tried anything. Not even Hagakure attempted murder (though he did often stare wistfully at the giant mountain of cash).

For every single day a murder didn’t happen, Monokuma decided to add an extra 100 million yen. “Sweetening the pot” was what he called it. But two weeks pass and no one made a move. The original prize for winning had been increased from one billion yen to almost two and a half billion yen. Despite this, no one went through with a murder.

Not even Celeste, who desperately wanted the money to build the castle of her dreams, tried anything.

Once again, Monokuma’s motive fails.

“Oh, woe is me! Woe is woe! How could this happen to one as fair as I? For if no deaths occur, what does the despair’s covenant mean to the world? Is there no point? Even with the prize of any man’s dream, these fools hath not pulled the trigger!”

The students of Hope’s Peak could only stare at Monokuma as he moaned dramatically, lazing about on the gigantic pile of yen. He was shedding a few tears and wiped them using the stacks of cash he had.

“It’s a tragedy! For me beloved yen has no one to be with! Alas, the teenage devils of yonder has forsaken thou…” Monokuma slowly gets up and walks away from the yen, sniffling to himself.

…

“Oh well. Guess I don’t need the money anymore.”

*FWOOSH*

In the blink of an eye, all of the money suddenly bursts into flames.

“Nooooo! Dude, what the hell?!” Hagakure hastily scrambles up to the bonfire and runs around it, searching for any bills that may have been spared from the fire. Unfortunately, every single bill had gone up. Already, a giant pillar of smoke began to fill the stadium as an unpleasant smell wafts from the flaming pile of yen.

“Huh? No one murdered for it, so I kind of assumed that no one wanted it. Why are you worrying now of all times?” Monokuma asks, staring at the panic stricken Hagakure.

“Couldn’t you have left around eight million yen untouched?” The clairvoyant gives up and sits on the floor, groaning. He stares longingly at the ashes from the fire, shedding a few tears all the while.

“I would happily give you eight million if you murder someone!”

“Heck no!”

“Gahhh!” Monokuma snarls, red eye glowing menacingly. Steam literally blows out of his ears as he begins jumping up and down in a rage. “You damned kids! What’s so bad about murder, eh? All you gotta do is commit a moral atrocity and you can get out of here! Why won’t anyone just kill?!”

“As you have said, it’s a moral atrocity.” Kirigiri deadpans.

“Screw you!” Monokuma shouts. “Fine, get out of here before I murder all of you myself! The next floor is unlocked, so go explore or jack off or something!”

“How vulgar.” Togami sneers, apparently unaffected by seeing the billions of yen go up in flames.

“What a waste of money.” Celeste sighs sadly. “Well, we really should get out of this room… The smoke is beginning to thicken considerably.”

Ishimaru sharply claps, gaining the attention of all of the students, sans Togami and Fukawa who had already left the gym.

“Alright! Let’s do our best to explore the new floor! Ready, team?”

“...”

“Okay!” Ishimaru says, grinning proudly. “Let’s go then!”

“The music room, huh?”

Naegi looks around the giant room. This place didn’t seem very relevant during the 1st killing game Naegi went through, so it was one of the places he wasn’t too familiar with. The music room was so big that it resembled more of a concert hall then anything else.

Kirigiri, who also happened to be in the room, walks up to Naegi.

“You know, you haven’t told me what you think yet.” Kirigiri looks at Naegi expectantly.

Right… This had also happened last time. Kirigiri asks me about the secret room in the bathroom and I tell her that I was attacked by the mastermind. Afterwards, she tells me what I was hiding but got mad when I didn’t tell her… But Ogami is already revealed to be a mole, so I don’t think she has any reason to think I’m hiding anything.

“About the secret room in the boys bathroom?”

Before the investigation, Kirigiri had asked Naegi to investigate it for her - apparently as a sign of trust. He was attacked the last time he had looked through it, but this time, by the time he got there, the files were already stolen.

“I did find the secret room, but there wasn’t really anything in there. It was empty.”

“Empty?” Kirigiri’s eyes widen slightly. “I see… I suppose the mastermind must have stolen them. That means there must have been some clue in there related to the mastermind’s identity.”

Naegi nods in agreement. “I guess so. He must have seen you go in the boys bathroom through the cameras, right?”

“Right. I wanted to see how the mastermind would react to you going in… But apparently it was too late. I had already read what I needed to, so it wasn’t a total loss… but It’s still a shame that he beat us to it.”

Suddenly, Kirigiri steps closer to Naegi. “Unless you’re the mastermind… and cleared out the room yourself.”

“W-What?!” Naegi stammers. “I’m not the mastermind! Why do you think that?”

“...” Instead of responding, Kirigiri begins to look over Naegi. Her eyes slowly go up and down his body as she examines him. At the same time, she seemed to be muttering something to herself. Naegi had no idea what to do, so he just stood there awkwardly as Kirigiri looks at every single inch of him.

…

“I don’t think that you’re the mastermind.” Kirigiri finally says as she backs away from Naegi. “But… I do think that you’re hiding something. Something big.”

“W-What?!” Naegi gasps.

“You thought that I wouldn’t notice?” Kirigiri gives him a small smirk. “I’ve been studying you since the beginning of the game. No matter what Monokuma threw at us, no matter what kind of crazy events happen, you never seem surprised. It’s like you knew everything that was going to happen… which I think you do.”

Naegi blinks in amazement. She was this perspective?!

“Kirigiri, I-”

“That’s not all.” Kirigiri interrupts. “At the very beginning of the game, you fainted and had to be carried around by Owada. But when you woke up, you somehow knew that we were in a killing game… despite the fact that Monokuma didn’t mention it while you were conscious.”

Kirigiri starts pacing around now, with a hand on her chin. Her eyes were slightly clouded and she seemed to be talking to herself rather than to Naegi. “Ever since then, I had been keeping a very close eye on you. There was a good chance that you were the mastermind, considering your knowledge of the game. However, there were three things that convinced me that you weren’t the mastermind.”

She abruptly stops in place and holds up a single gloved finger. “One - you convinced Maizono to not murder anyone.”

“Y-You knew about that?!” Naegi stammers.

“Yes. Did I not tell you that I had been paying attention to you since the game started?” Kirigiri asks. “Anyway, that’s not all. You also saved Ikusaba from the mastermind’s betrayal, stepped in between Owada and Fujisaki before another potential murder coud break out, and even confronted Celeste and Yamada.”

“O-Oh…” Naegi blinked owlishly, apparently dumbfounded. “So that’s why…?”

Instead of responding, Kirigiri ignores him and puts up a second finger. “Two - Not once had I seen you done anything to operate Monokuma. It’s possible that Monokuma is a fully functioning AI, but I doubt that one at that level of complexity is impossible at the present. At some point in time, Monokuma would have needed some sort of maintenance… yet you haven't done anything of the sort.”

Finally, Kirigiri puts up a third finger. “And third… To be frank, you just don’t seem suspicious. Aside from your apparent knowledge of everything that Monokuma had been planning, nothing you have said or done anything to warrant any suspicion.”

“...”

“So tell me. What are you hiding? I don’t think your the mastermind, but how do you know about all of this?” Kirigiri looks into Naegi’s eyes expectantly. “Can you tell me?”

Slowly, Naegi nods. “O-Okay… Kirigiri, I’ve gotta say… You are really smart. Like, I don’t even know how you do this stuff. You’re amazing.”

An almost imperceptible blush touches Kirigiri’s cheeks. She shifts her eyes downwards, breaking eye contact. “It’s just simple reasoning… no need to flatter me. Just tell me what your secret is.”

“Do you have a paper and pen?”

“Worried about the cameras? That’s good.” Kirigiri says approvingly. She reaches into her jacket pocket and brings out a pen and a napkin.

…

“Go to locker rooms tonight. Complicated situation. Too much to explain through writing down.”

…

As Kirigiri reads his message, her mouth curls in disappointment. Despite this, she doesn’t raise any protests.

“Very well.” Kirigiri nods and doesn’t say anything more.

*ding dong bing bong*

“Emergency, emergency! Come to the gym at once! I have something VERY important to tell all of you!” Monokuma’s blaring voice echoes throughout the school as he shouts into the PA system. “So get here, pronto!”

“Ugh, is that a new motive already?” Owada scowls at one of the school speakers.

“I-I guess we will have to discuss our findings later…” Fujisaki comments, obviously disappointed. Fujisaki had been waiting all day for the perfect time to tell everyone some news - Alter Ego had just finished analyzing all of the files! He had found a bunch of useful stuff… If she kept bottling up this info, she might just explode.

They had just finished exploring the 4th floor. Investigation had revealed that this floor contains the Music Room, the Staff Room, the Headmaster’s Office, the Chemistry Lab, and Classrooms 4-A and 4-B. The Data Processing Room is also on this floor but it was kept locked.

“Hey, why is this door locked?” Kuwata scowls as he starts banging on the door to the Data Processing Room. “Let us in!”

“Stop that! No touchy, no touchy!” Out of nowhere, Monokuma springs up and shoves Kuwata backwards.

“Hey!”

“Do you wanna get executed?! Read the new rule! God, youth these days!”

“There’s a new rule?” Kuwata checks his E-Handbook and sure enough…

Breaking down a locked door is now prohibited!

“Jeez… what’s even in there?”

Along with the Data Processing Room, the Headmaster’s office was also under lock and key. The door breaking regulation had to be added when Owada started slamming on the door hard enough to cause the walls to shake.

These two locked rooms contained vital clues - Naegi knew this. The Headmaster’s office contained the Headmaster’s handbook, which unlocked pretty much everything in the school. It also held a class registry with profiles on every single student. The Data Processing Room connected to the Monokuma control room and held live footage from all of the security cameras in the school. But it wasn’t like he could just tell everyone about these things.

Well, I suppose I will have to tell everything to Kirigiri...

“Alright you kids, I have decided to throw a lifeline out! It’s pretty pathetic watching you people run around, looking for clues. So I’ve decided to give you a clue that doubles as a motive! Puhuhuhhuhu!” Monokuma guffaws sadistically.

“When will you learn, Monokuma?!” Ishimaru shouts fiercely. “Your silly motives will never break us!”

“Yeah, bro is right!” Owada slings an arm around his shoulder. “Our bonds are unbreakable!”

“Puhuhuhuhu! Just shut up and listen, why don’t ya? There’s yet another traitor in your midst!”

“Another?” Ogami glares at the bear with malice. “Have you forced yet another student to take part in your schemes?”

“Oh please… I would never force any student to do something unwillingly! That would be unbecoming of a headmaster! Everything you say or do here is of your own free will, you know? Freedom is a very important right in these parts!”

“Quit lying, you demonspawn!” Yamada yells, pointing at Monokuma. “You have forced us to live here forever!”

“Are you surrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeee?” Monokuma asks.

“Of course! I’m not here of my own free will, that’s for sure!”

“Back on topic…” Togami interrupts with a sharp tone. “Is this your motive? Saying that we have another spy here working for you?”

“Oh no no no! This is a package deal! I’m going to TELL you who the traitor is!”

Naegi looks around cautiously. This was a completely different scenario from the other time line, but he had been expecting it to be different. Monokuma couldn’t use the fact that Ogami was a traitor as a motive anymore, after all. But this meant that he was going to experience this for the first time, just like everyone else.

Who could the new spy be?

“This DASTARDLY traitor is…”

Monokuma grabs a wooden stick out of thin air and points it to the middle of the group.

“Makoto Naegi!”