Chapter LIV: Falsifiable Information

XxX

Naegi

She tilted her head for a moment before responding.

"Yes, there was. A note of some kind We found it reasonably quickly and my sister removed it."

My eyes widened.

"Did you know she replaced it?"

She froze.

"Don't tell me. You found a note and believed the contents? In a situation where you were surrounded by enemies of unknown capability?"

I shrugged slightly.

"It had an identification code I had never used in public on it. I presumed there was no way that code could be retrieved. Also, the note was extremely general and everything on it is independently confirmable."

"What was on it, then?" Her voice grew slightly harder.

I closed my eyes, trying to remember the precise text of the note.

"It revealed that I had been taken by Despair, that they had the ability to modify memories, and it pointed me at Kirigiri. It also explicitly warned that I should stay inside Kibougamine. Anything on there seem strange to you?"

She sat down slowly, considering my words. A moment later, she shook her head.

"Everything on there seems correct. I presume it matched your writing style?"

I nodded.

"Of course. I wouldn't have trusted anything on it otherwise. Is your sister able to replicate style that convincingly?"

"I presume so. She was capable in related areas."

"Understood," I replied. "In that case, we can't rule out modification. However, the question now becomes what her motive would be to change the note. Of course, she might have wanted to get rid of sensitive information, but then why leave the note in the first place? She clearly had something she wanted to get across."

"Of course. After this long dealing with my sister, I assume you've seen how she likes to play this type of situation."

"Slowly," I responded. "She likes to build suspense, to let us stew. Actually, this almost looks like..." I fell silent, considering the information I had. The note was general, providing information about 3 things: hidden secrets, Despair, and Kirigiri. Or, to think about it another way, motive, antagonist, and party member. But in that case...

"She's been building me up to this the whole damn time."

Mukuro swiveled so her body faced me.

"What?"

My voice grew cold.

"The whole time, she's been making me think I was the hero. The only one that mattered, like everyone else was expendable as long as I won. That's what the note was: some sort of twisted dramatic motivation to get me to start playing my role. That's how she always knew what I was planning. It didn't matter if I had some specific idea she hadn't thought of, all that mattered was that I kept following the general path she'd set out."

Mukuro evaluated my words calmly.

"That does sound like her. Now, the question is, what are you going to do about it? If what you say is true, everything she's done has been to build to this last moment. Will you go to her? Or will you stay back and risk the deaths of your friends?"

My eyes closed for a moment.

"I suppose I have-no. No, I'm falling into the trap again. Enoshima's always wanted this to be about me versus her for some reason, but the game is larger than that. The game has always been larger than that. And, more importantly, we aren't the only parties to the conflict."

She smiled.

"Good to know you can fight off my sister's role. So, what are we going to do?"

I grinned.

"We're going to go to her, of course. I never said anything about going unprepared. And I most decidedly said nothing about going alone."

XxX

Kirigiri

Celeste's eyes widened at my anger and she stepped back.

"Yes, I was in part looking into who you were because of your father. Why is that a problem?"

"Because he abandoned my family, perhaps?" I could barely hold my voice at a steady tone.

She stepped forward, putting one hand on my shoulder.

"I had no idea. All I knew was that you were related and he did not follow the typical Kirigiri path of detective work."

I gradually calmed down.

"We were careful to keep our internal family struggles internal. Did you find anything about my name in the rumor mill that I should know about?"

She tilted her head for a moment.

"That's relevant to our current problems? Nothing. There are some stories I'd like to hear about, but those can wait until after we get out."

I focused on her eyes again. There was not a trace of uncertainty. Either Celeste was a better bluffer than even the most outlandish of rumors about her, my skills were waning, or she truly believed we were going to get out alive.

"Your confidence continues to astound me, Celeste. I wonder what motivates it."

She sighed, smiling softly.

"The best way to avoid showing fear is to not have it in the first place, Kyouko. Why would I give Monokuma the satisfaction of being afraid of him?"

"Why indeed..." I mused.

Her eyes glittered as her smile widened.

"Of course, there is even less reason to fear he who provides such enjoyable opposition."

I considered this for a moment.

"Because he enjoys the fight just as much as you do? That seems rather dangerous reasoning to rely on."

She laughed sharply.

"Dangerous or accurate? Monokuma thinks in stories, like most do. His stories are rather darker, but stories they are. It makes him strong in some ways but predictable in others."

"And you assume he has not anticipated this predictability?" I asked.

Her smile became more fixed.

"Of course not. I fully expect for him to try to outmaneuver us even as we do him, just as he has this whole time. That is where the fun lies."

I stepped back from her.

"You continue to speak of this as a game, as a source of fun. I wonder how far you will go to preserve it."

"Do I detect a hint of warning in that question, Kyouko? Let me put your worries to rest. I would not intentionally preserve this game, any more than I would give money to an enjoyable opponent at cards after they had lost all they owned. The game is exquisite because of the eventual taste of victory. To give up that victory is to lose sight of the game."

Her words felt true, but I couldn't shake the feeling that she was planning something. That Celeste held one more card which she was playing close to the vest. I couldn't pinpoint why I felt this, but my instincts had almost never led me astray. Something was wrong here.

XxX

Komaru

I dropped down from the tunnel entrance into the physics laboratory, landing softly behind the remainder of my soldiers. A few of them had already broken off to examine the air purifier, but others stood still. I walked up to their senior officer.

"Any word from the rest of our men?"

He nodded.

"We've reached the fourth floor. The data processing room has proved impregnable to all our breaching equipment. Preliminary scans indicate that the walls of the room would be impervious to almost anything short of sufficiently large conventional explosives or a nuclear weapon. The place is even sealed off against chemical and biological attacks."

"I expected something like that," I responded. "Our primary enemy target is in there."

"Primary?" His eyes widened. "There's a secondary as well? I thought we had turned Gemini Beta."

I nodded.

"You thought correctly. Our secondary target is a good deal more...nebulous. We may be able to get our hands on the bodiless voice."

The soldier paused for a second, then focused entirely on me.

"Where are they?" I could hear the controlled eagerness in his voice. Eliminating Despair's best source of reconnaissance clearly excited him, and justifiably so. If Alter Ego was the bodiless voice, then stopping it and Enoshima simultaneously would bring this war measurably closer to its end. The close of our conflict might be in sight. We might be able to rebuild

"Let me be more precise," I began. "We have an agent in our possession that may or may not be the bodiless voice. We can't afford to terminate them immediately since they have provided us with valuable tactical information. We are, however, keeping them on a tight leash."

The officer nodded.

"Understood, commander."

Another soldier walked up to us, smiling and holding a wrench. He turned to face me.

"We've retrieved the neurotoxins, ma'am. The purifier now only performs its stated function."

I smiled.

"Thank you. We shouldn't assume that's the only source of neurotoxins, though. Send a few men into the vents."

He nodded.

"I will immediately. What should our next objectives be?"

I thought about that for a moment. We could either push for the fifth floor or focus on clearing the school entirely. The one made it more likely for us to save the students, the other was likely safer in the long run And, when phrased like that, the choice was obvious.

"Keep clearing room by room. It means slower progress towards our principal objectives, but it also means not being outflanked. Also, make sure a few men hang back by data processing. If Gemini Alpha drops a pin, I want to know its velocity and direction."

"Will do, ma'am." He moved away and began issuing orders to his men. A few seconds later, the officer and I were alone in the room. He turned to me.

"Do you really think we'll save them, commander?"

I shrugged.

"We'll save whoever we can, lieutenant. However, if it comes down to it...there are a lot more people out there than there are in here. My loyalty is to humanity as a whole."

XxX

Mastermind

The incessant pounding on the door has begun again. The soldiers are trying to breach, then. No matter. The students built this room to be impregnable to even their own weaponry, and any attempt to break in will fail. The noise is almost comforting, in a way. It brings back memories of the first days of the rise of Despair, when buildings fell daily. In truth, that's what this has all been about, isn't it? A return to the beginning, to a simpler time of hero fighting villain back before all this complexity and grayscale invaded. Black and white are so much more lively, after all.

The mastermind paces, waiting for the time of the next step. They know not how all this will end, but they know what must be done to bring it to the climax. For now, that means waiting for the signal. Waiting for the precise last moment to unleash the next step.

The pounding redoubles, and they sit back down calmly. Their cameras have been destroyed throughout the school, and they expected no less. Far be it from them to discipline the soldiers. After all, they control only the students. All else who followed them did so of their own free will. However, this does leave them with a bit of a quandary. They have become like a blind animal that thrashes about ere its demise.

After a few more moments of thought, they come to a decision. They will activate the next phase in 20 minutes. That should provide adequate time for the pieces to fall into position.

A/N: As plot threads close, the story narrows. Only one path remains. Can you see it?

Please review!