Naegi made a mistake.

What the hell was he thinking, introducing himself to everyone like that? Sure, he was a time traveler. That didn't mean that he needed to go around and appease all of his classmates. Naegi didn't even know why he did it - was it because he wanted to see their reactions? Was it just because he could? He should have just gone through the introductions regularly. But he didn't, and now he was stuck in this dilemma.

It started out innocently though.

"Naegi, I need to talk to you about your… situation." Right after Monokuma made his announcement commanding the students to go to the gym, Kirigiri approaches Naegi. "Let's walk and talk."

Naegi happily agrees. He was willing to do whatever it took in order to make sure Kirigiri believed him. He knew that it would be a hundred times harder to solve whatever situation he was in by himself. "Sure. Let's go!"

"Hey, wait a second!" Maizono hastily walks up to the pair before they could leave. "Can I join you two? I would like to talk some more to Naegi as well."

"Well…" For obvious reasons, Naegi couldn't talk to Kirigiri with Maizono around. As he tries to think of a way to politely decline, Yamada suddenly rushes towards Naegi.

"No! I will not let anyone take my apprentice from me!" Yamada shouts, pointing at Naegi. "Come with me, my student! I shall begin your lessons as soon as the entrance ceremony is over!"

From there, the situation only got worse. Much worse.

"Hey, wait a second here." Naegi laughs nervously, backing up a bit. He turns to look at Kirigiri with a pleading look, but she seemed completely indifferent to the trouble that Naegi had gotten himself into.

"Not so fast." Kuwata joins the rapidly growing group of students. "Let me walk with him!"

"I-I will not let any of you take away my white knight!" Out of nowhere, Fukawa runs into Naegi, latching on to his hoodie. She glares at the other students with vehemence, hissing at anyone who tries to inch closer.

"W-White knight?!" Naegi stammers. Wasn't Togami supposed to be her white knight?! What happened to her?

"Sorry folks, I got dibs!" Asahina chimes in. "I already have him pegged as my best friend, so all of you better back off!"

"No, I believe that I have priority on Naegi!" Ishimaru shouts. "Naegi and I have a relationship as a tutor and student!"

"I'm your student?" Naegi blinks.

"Obviously!"

Hagakure breaks through the crowd and grabs Naegi's arm. "Sorry dudes!"

Before anyone could react, Hagakure pulls Naegi hard, shoving everyone else out of the way.

"Hey!" Asahina shouts. "What gives?"

"N-No fair…" Fukawa scowls.

*ding dong bing bong*

"HEY!" Monokuma screeches over the PA system, irritation clearly present in his voice. "Get to the dang gym already! I'm not getting any younger over here! If you guys don't show up soon, then I'll start assigning penalties!"

Hagakure nods at Naegi. "Hear that buddy? Let's split!"

"Wha-"

Once again, Hagakure runs off, dragging Naegi behind him forcefully. It seemed that Hagakure was particularly fond of doing this, for some reason.

What have I done?

Other than that small blip, everything actually went along as expected.

Monokuma appears out of nowhere.

Most of the students call him a teddy bear.

He denies it and then tells the students to kill each other if they want to escape.

Owada gets pissed and picks up Monokuma.

Kirigiri tells him to throw it - he complies.

It was all happening exactly as Naegi had expected it to.

…

"So? What are we going to do now? Just stand around glaring at each other?"

Kirigiri's pointed comment was directed at everyone in the room. They were all still in shock from Monokuma's announcement, but this helped pull them back to reality. Out of everyone there, Naegi, Kirigiri, and Ikusaba were probably the only ones who didn't seem surprised at all.

"R-Right. She's right! Times like these are when you're supposed to step forward!" Ishimaru cries out. "T-To have forgotten such a simple fact, it is unbecoming of the Ultimate Moral Compass! I'm so ashamed! Someone, please hit me!"

Owada scoffs, glaring at Ishimaru. "If you have time to yell about it, then you have time to actually do something about it."

"Perhaps…" Yamada says nervously. "But what exactly would be the mission?"

"Duh!" Kuwata rolls his eyes. "Look for a way out of here!"

It's happening again… Naegi thinks to himself. I already feel exhausted.

Kirigiri walks up to Naegi with a cold glare. "So, care to explain what happened on the way to the gym?"

Naegi grins sheepishly. "Erm… I don't know? That didn't happen the last time I went through this."

The detective sighs and brushes away a few stray hairs from her face. "Whatever. As it stands, I'm either convinced that you're either working for the person behind Monokuma, or that you're telling the truth about time travelling."

"If I really was working for Monokuma, wouldn't it be a bad idea to tell me that you think so?" Naegi asks nervously.

Kirigiri waves her hand dismissively. "Perhaps. But it would be obvious to assume that I suspect you anyway. I don't think there's any harm in voicing my opinions."

"Oh."

"Anyway…" Kirigiri refocuses her glare at Naegi. In her mind, she knew that Naegi was telling the truth about being from the future. She didn't know how such a thing was possible, but it didn't really matter how it was done. For now, she wanted to milk as much information from Naegi as possible. "If you're from the future, then tell me. What's my talent? You knew that I can't remember it."

"Oh. You're the Ultimate Detective." Naegi says simply.

"The Ultimate Detective…" Kirigiri muses to herself, a hand on her chin. She knew that she had an unusually keen eye for details - being a detective correlated with that. "Alright then. For now, I want you to tell me two more things."

Naegi hesitates for a moment, then nods. He knew from experience that knowing things about the future could be dangerous. He hoped that Kirigiri wouldn't overextend with this information.

"First, I want you to tell me who the mastermind is. Second, I want you to tell me another event that's going to pass." Kirigiri says. "The prediction about Owada was correct, but it could have just been a prediction on his behavior. Give me another prediction to prove it wasn't a fluke."

Naegi exhales deeply. The second thing he was perfectly willing to do. But the first… that information was extremely dangerous. Junko was perfectly willing to bend her own rules in order to try and frame Kirigiri. If she found out that Kirigiri knew her identity… well, there was no guarantee that she would live through this game.

Kirigiri must have noticed his worry, because she suddenly gave him a small smile. "Don't worry about me. I can handle myself." She probably meant it to be reassuring, but Naegi couldn't help but notice that it looked forced.

"Alright…" Naegi says reluctantly. "Well, the mastermind is Junko Enoshima."

In a knee jerk reaction, Kirigiri whips her head around, scanning the gym to see if Junko was still there. She was - 'Junko' was arguing with Ishimaru about something. But before Kirigiri could say anything, Naegi quickly adds - "That Junko isn't the real Junko. She's an impostor. Her real name is Mukuro Ikusaba."

"... I see." Kirigiri mutters.

"And about a second prediction…" Naegi's eyes drift around the room as he tries to think about a good prediction to tell her. It needed to be something sort of significant, something that could easily be observed. Then, his eyes land on Fujisaki.

"Chihiro Fujisaki takes a broken laptop from the library and repairs it. He uses it to create and AI known as Alter Ego."

Kirigiri raises a brow. "He?"

"Oh." Naegi turns slightly red as he remembers the promise he made to Fujisaki earlier. He said that he wouldn't tell anyone… but if it was Kirigiri, then hopefully it was okay. "Yeah, Fujisaki's a guy."

Kirigiri stares at the programmer with a slight hint of curiosity. "I… see. Well then, I will stake out the library. If she… he takes the laptop as you predicted, then I suppose I'd have no choice but to really believe your story."

Naegi's shoulders sag as he sighs in relief. "Thank you, Kirigiri. I just want to stop myself from being stuck in this… time loop. I'll save everyone from being murdered again. But this time, I hope it doesn't all just restart again."

"I'm sure that I can find some sort of solution." Kirigiri says simply. "See you later."

"Yeah…"

From there, Naegi relives the events of the Killing School Life yet again.

Though most of it remained the same, there were a couple of differences here and there. Most of it stemmed from Naegi's beginning introduction - most of the students treated him a lot nicer this time around, especially Fukawa and Asahina. In fact, Owadad didn't even try to punch him when he stepped in between his argument with Togami.

"Fucking hell. Can't you just let me punch that asshole once?" Owada asks darkly, sending a deadly glare at the affluent prodigy.

"We can't be fighting each other. Let's just calm down, alright?" Naegi puts his hands up in a placating gesture. But at the same time, he tenses himself in preparation to dodge Owada's punch.

"Hmph. Whatever." Owada scowls, but doesn't press the issue further.

Huh. He didn't try to hit me this time around? That's… different. Not that I'm complaining though.

Though instances like these happened every now and again, most of Naegi's actions stayed the same - and so did the actions of his classmates.

"I'm really sorry to come by so late."

Nagei stares at Maizono who was standing in front of his room. This was the third time she had knocked on his door. Like every other time, her body was trembling and her face was deathly pale. There were hints of tears in her eyes.

"Sorry to bother you but…. Something weird just happe-"

"Be honest with me Sayaka." Naegi puts his hand up, interrupting Maizono. He stares into her eyes with an uncharacteristically stoic expression.

"H-Huh?" Maizono blinks. "What do you mean?"

"I know, Maizono. I know that you're planning to… to murder someone."

Maizono's eyes fill with panic. Her heart was already beating at a million miles an hour - but when she heard Naegi confront her, it somehow began to beat even faster. Instinctively, she takes a step back and gapes at Naegi. "Naegi, I-"

"Maizono, there's no need to be so desperate, really." Stepping closer to her, Naegi grasps Maizono's hands, causing her to flinch. "Please. Don't do this."

…

"My pop idol group was on the motive video. I… I need to check up on them. I need to get out of here! My dream, it's…"

Maizono gasps as Naegi suddenly pulls her into a gentle embrace. The comfortable warmth that suddenly seeps into her body causes her to shiver. Slowly, she puts her arms around Naegi and returns his hug.

"We will get out of here, together. I promise, okay?"

Why? Naegi knew that I was going to kill someone… But he still trusts me? I don't deserve this.

"I was going to… kill someone. I was going to frame you."

"I know."

"I-If you knew, then why are you being so trusting towards me?" Maizono whispers. "If you knew I was going to kill someone then you shouldn't be like this! In fact, you should hate me!"

"No, that's wrong." Naegi pulls away from the embrace and puts both of his hands on her shoulders. He stares into her eyes with a grim determination in his face. "I shouldn't hate you. You're my friend! I want to help you, Maizono… even if you were planning to frame me.. I know that you don't really want to kill anyone Maizono. You were just backed into a corner."

Guilt starts to slowly crush Maizono. Had she really been planning to kill someone and then frame this innocent boy?

I'm disgusting.

"No, I used you. I didn't even hesitate to frame you for… for a murder." Maizono shakes her head. "You were… just a tool."

"... Maybe I was." Naegi says softly. To hear him confirm it caused a jolt to run through Maizono's body. "But if you thought of me as just a tool, then wouldn't it be a lot easier to try and kill me instead of Kuwata?"

"..."

"Maizono, you're my friend. I only wish the best for you. That's why I promise that we will get out of here, together."

"N-Naegi…" Maizono stares at him in a sort of awe, tears starting to slowly fall down her cheeks. She had no idea how he knew about her plan, but… she was grateful. She was grateful that he had decided to stop her.

"So don't go through with your plan, okay?"

The very next morning, Naegi runs into Kirigiri in the hall. Before he could issue a greeting, Kirigiri grabs his arm and whispers into his ear -

"I believe you."

That confirms it then. She saw Fujisaki pick up the laptop to fix it up. Hopefully, Kirigiri would be able to find a solution for him then… He didn't even know if he was actually time travelling or not. Naegi didn't even know where to start with his dilemma. In fact, Naegi wasn't sure if Kirigiri could even help him with a problem as unique as this one.

Kirigiri can help me out. Naegi ressaures himself. She must be able to find something. I mean, Kirigiri is… well, Kirigiri.

All he needs to do now is wait… and focus on saving his friends.

"Violence against Headmaster Monokuma is not allowed. You've violated a school regulation. I invoke the mighty summon spell! Help! To me, godly spear Gungnir!" Monokuma shouts, raising his paws out from the floor.

And, here we are.

Right as Monokuma finishes his sentence, Naegi rushes forward and shoves Ikusaba as hard as he could. But for some reason, she ends up falling onto the floor this time.

"Hey! What's the big…" Ikusaba's sentence dies in her throat as she sees what she had just been spared from. Dozens of spears, reaching up from the floor was stabbing up into the empty air that Ikusaba had been standing in just seconds ago.

What?

"You okay, Junko?" Naegi looks down at her with a tinge of worry in his eyes.

Ikusaba doesn't respond, instead opting to just sit there, glued to the ground. For once in her life, her mind moved sluggishly, not able to process what just happened. Her eyes told her what they saw, but her brain refused to process it.

What…? How? What just happened?

"You!" Monokuma turns his attention to Naegi, steam pouring out of his ears. His face seemed as red as a beet. "How dare you interfere with a punishment! Why, just for that, I might execute you instead!"

"No." Naegi couldn't help but smile smugly as he recalls what Kirigiri had said the last time this happened. "No where in the rules does it say that I can be punished for interfering with an execution. Punishing me would break your rules."

"Grrr..." Monokuma stares at both Kirigiri and Naegi with malice. For a second, it seemed as if Monokuma would end up killing Naegi anyway. But then, unexpectedly…

"Puhuhuhuhuhu… Sure, sure!" This may be more interesting anyway! I won't even finish off 'Junko' over here!" Monokuma waddles towards the exit, still giggling to himself. "Next time though, I will DEFINITELY kill the rule breaker! So stay on your toes!"

"What did he want me to do? What was I supposed to do?" Owada rants. "Was I supposed to just sit back, let me secret get revealed, and ruin everyth-"

This was it. It was time for Naegi to interfere again so that things don't get out of hand. Taking a deep breath, Naegi barges into the charging room.

"Owada!"

"What the?" Owada spins around in shock.

"Ah! N-Naegi!" Fujisaki squeaks.

"What the hell are you-"

"Remember Daiya. Would he have wanted you to act like this? Don't pretend like his death was a murder! He wouldn't want you wallowing in self pity all the time. You are strong, Mondo Owada. Don't let your emotions overpower you like this."

"D-Daiya…? What… What the hell do you know about what he would have wanted?" Owada growls, face completely red. He steps towards Naegi, cracking his knuckles.

Naegi shakes his head. "I was not as close to him as you are. Clear your head and ask yourself. Ask yourself about what he would have wanted… would he want you to let his death hang above you like a cloud for the rest of your life?"

…

Amazingly, Owada's face breaks into a toothy grin. "You're one tough ass kid, you know that? Besides you, Daiya was the only one to lecture me like that. No one else had the guts, not even adults."

"..."

"Yeah… yeah, I won't let my emotions overpower me." Owada nods to himself. "Fujisaki, I'll… talk to you tomorrow, okay?"

How the hell did he even know about Daiya? Whatever…

Naegi sighs to himself and scratches his head. He probably wasn't ever going to get used to Owada acting like this. He seemed to actually respect Naegi now, which just seemed weird to him.

"Um… Naegi?" Fujisaki asks nervously. "About all of this, I-"

To Fujisaki's shock, Naegi shakes his head. "You don't need to say anything. See you later, Fujisaki."

With a reassuring smile, Naegi leaves the changing room as well, leaving Fujisaki to himself.

"Celeste." Not long after Monokuma announced the billion yen motive, Naegi decides to save some time by approaching Celeste before she even got the chance to carry out her plan. It would be much simpler to just confront her right away.

"Oh, Naegi." Celeste smiles in her usual sweet way. "Is there something that you need?"

Mustering up the courage, Naegi looks up and stares directly into her red eyes.

"I know what you're planning."

Celeste subtly flinches. One of her eye twitches as the smile on her face quickly disappears.

What the hell?! Did this guy just… read me?

"Whatever do you mean?" Celeste asks as calmly as she could, regaining her composure.

"You're going to have Yamada murder someone. Then, you're going to betray him by murdering Yamada yourself. Isn't that right?" Naegi deadpans.

…

"How…" Celeste's mask cracks as her face turns slightly red. Not once in her entire gambling career had someone been able to see through her so clearly. She didn't even tell Yamada about this yet, so it wasn't as if she was ratted out by him. "How the fuck do you know about this?!"

"I've already told Kirigiri about your plan." Naegi says quickly. 'So don't try to target me either."

"So what?" Celeste scoffs bitterly. "You two are just going to tell everyone else in the morning, aren't you? Then, they will all shun me. I will be the first murder victim. If that's the case, perhaps I should take a gamble on your life anyway!"

"No." Naegi replies calmly. Well, as calmly as one could when being threatened by someone such as Celeste. He could already picture her stabbing him with her metal finger. Being stabbed was something he definitely didn't want to experience again. "We won't tell anyone. Nothing happened, so why would we? Just know this, Celeste. Killing someone right now isn't worth it."

"YOU…" Celeste gives Naegi the deadliest glare she could muster up.

Naegi manages to return her glare with a defiant look of his own. It was clear that he wouldn't back down.

Then all at once, Celeste deflates and her rage vanishes without a single strace. "Fine. I concede. That's what you wanted to hear, right?"

"Yeah."

"Get out of my sight." Celeste says with venom in her voice.

Nodding wordlessly, Naegi removes herself from Celeste's presence.

It was almost time for the final motive. Naegi has waited and waited, but Kirigiri hadn't given him any updates. He was beginning to get worried - despite all of his hopes, was it possible that Kirigiri had failed to find a way out of this time loop?

As Naegi explores the newest floor, he finds himself in the giant music room again. If events happened the same way as they did the last two times, Kirigiri would be here.

Sure enough…

"Kirigiri!" She was up on the main stage, inspecting the grand piano with interest. This time, it's Naegi who walks up to her expectantly.

"Oh, Naegi." Kirigiri looks up at him with a blank look. "How's your investigation so far?"

"Kirigiri, Have you found a solution to…" Naegi glances worriedly at the camera in the room. "To my situation?"

As if she was expecting it, Kirigiri swiftly pulls out a piece of paper from her jacket pocket. It had something written on it.

"Here." She drops the piece of paper into his hands.

…

"Too little info. Only correlation is someone pushing the button to open the gates to the outside world. Actual causation and method is unknown. If you don't want to time travel, don't let anyone press the button to go outside."

…

"W-What?" Naegi chokes out.

Now that he thought about it, every time he time traveled so far, it was because someone pressed the button to open the door to the outside world. Was that really what was causing this?

Naegi suddenly winces as he remembers his third loop. Well, besides the one time Ikusaba stabbed me…

Kirigiri shrugs carelessly. "Sorry. I don't have enough information. I tried to investigate, but found basically nothing relevant to your situation."

"I see…" Naegi says, biting his lip. If this was true, then the only way to stop going back in time was to stay in this place… forever.

"According to you, the last motive - the one where you get labeled as a traitor is coming up. You should prepare yourself."

"Right. Thanks, Kirigiri."

The detective nods wordlessly and makes a swift exit, leaving Naegi alone with his thoughts.

I can't go outside, huh…

"I for one, vote to let her live." Naegi comments. "She should atone for her acts. We could bring her out from the clutches of despair, rehabilitate her."

The last motive went over like a lead balloon with everyone, just like last time. In fact, everyone was even more outraged at Monokuma. No one believed him at all. Everything went off without a hitch.

"Um, Mr. Naegi?" Yamada tentatively raises a finger. "Are you sure that's the right choice? I mean, what if Ms. Enoshima tries to set us up in another killing game? I'm sure she has the means… I mean, she was able to set all of this up."

"Oh man…" Hagakure clutches his head with his hands as sweat began pouring down his face. "What are we supposed to do?!"

"Puhuhuhu…" An abrupt giggle interjects itself into their conversation. All at once, everyone falls silent and stares down at the previously unconscious fashionista. She was still laying down on the floor, and her makeup was smudging.

"Isn't it obvious?" Junko whispers weakly. "Kill me. I tried to force all of you to kill your own friends. Isn't execution the right thing to do here?"

Naegi frowns and shakes his head. "I think the right thing to do would be to keep Junko alive. We stay here, safe within the school just like we promised the principal. Until we can ensure that Junko is free from Despair, we should keep living here."

"S-Stay here?" Fujisaki asks nervously.

"Puhuhuhuhuhu…" Junko's voice drops to a dangerously low tone. "So, that's how it is, huh? You've seen all of this before and you failed. You failed."

At this, Naegi's heart freezes up. "W-What?"

Kirigiri narrows her eyes at Junko. This basically confirmed that Junko was the one responsible for Naegi's time traveling - not that it wasn't obvious already.

"Oh, this is gonna be way better than my death! This despair… it's going to eat you alive, Naegi! Mark my words! AHAHAHHAHAHA!" Junko's mouth contorts as she cackles insanely, rolling around on the floor like a maniac.

"Uh, did she finally lose it?" Kuwata stares down at Junko, obviously confused about what was happening.

"Do you really think that opening that door is the only trigger I have set up?! Naegi, you naive idiot!" Junko suddenly jumps up from the floor and into a standing position. She raises her arms and all at once, the ropes that were so tightly bounding her falls off. Somehow, she had been able to untie them.

"S-She's gonna run! Grab her!" Fukawa shrieks, shying away from the fashionista.

"Nuh uh!" Before anyone could react, Junko reaches up and pulls the black Monokuma pin out of her hair. The red lightning shaped eye shifts downwards slightly as Junko quickly presses her fingers into it.

Eyes rolling madly, Junko's mouth breaks into a smile that was so wide that it looked as if her face was being split into two. "There's no escape, Makoto Naegi! Revel in despair!"