Chapter LIX: Fallen Angels

XxX

Makoto

The room went silent, every student clearly internally debating their choice. And, to be honest, I couldn't blame them. For as long as we'd been in this school, in this fight of life and death, I had always had some idea of what I would do next, some general plan of what was to come. Even when Junko had caused a murder I wasn't expecting, I still had a general idea of what I would do to respond, of the investigation to come. Now, I felt adrift. Neither choice was better than the other.

On the one hand, Junko had caused all of this, seemingly. On the other hand, according to her, Alter Ego had given her the necessary push to expand her operations from mere childish bullying to civilizational collapse. Junko seemed willing to let us live and preserve her games, which made her actions predictable to an extent, but Alter Ego might be entirely on our side... Point and counterpoint flashed by in my mind until I began to lose myself in the sea of thoughts. With a convulsive mental effort, I quieted my mind. Time to approach this systematically.

'Knowns:

Both parties have shown themselves willing to use lethal force. Assume neither party assigns sufficient value to human life to allow matters involving it to impact their chances of success.

Enoshima has independently confessed her goals to be causing despair. Her actions are thus far consistent with those goals.

Alter Ego claims to be friendly to humanity. Thus far, actions demonstrated are inconclusive on that point. Alter Ego suggested method for AI control independently, but did not allow it to be applied.

Enoshima has shown a reluctance to kill students outside of the rules. This reluctance seems to be motivated by the unknown 'viewers', presumably related to Kibougamine's status as one of the remaining lights of hope.

Alter Ego has shown no inclination to follow the rules.

Both parties have demonstrated great expertise in manipulation and planning. Assume any/all thoughts may be compromised/planted. Rely on evidence for opinions.'

As I reached the end of that list, I felt a tinge at the back of my mind. This wasn't everything. Something was missing from my list, something I'd skipped over unconsciously. I forced myself back to the spot my mind skipped over. Back to the cracked wall, the bloody floor, and the body. Back to the one death I had never fully recovered from.

'Knowns:

Immediately after Chihiro gave me the password, the attack on the room occurred. Though it is possible it was a fortuitous coincidence, that is incredibly unlikely. Proceed as though one of the two parties acted intentionally.

If Enoshima did so alone (to set up current dilemma): could she not predict the password? Why take the paper? However, this would explain how she knew to attack right then.

If Alter Ego ordered it: Presumably allowed Enoshima the leeway to decide when to attack. Why target Chihiro at that moment? Research perhaps nearing something critical? In that case...'

My eyes widened. That was it. The only reason that Alter Ego would have wanted Chihiro silenced was that the AI was worried about him finding something. However, Enoshima could have had him killed at that point precisely to create that suspicion...I turned to Ikusaba.

"Mukuro, when did Enoshima first come up with the attack on our rooms?"

She quickly turned to face me, clearly startled out of her own thoughts.

"I'm...not sure? It was something she had been planning from at least the first trial. Why?"

"I'm trying to figure something out about that trial," I replied. "I'm not sure if it is relevant to us, but it may be."

She nodded, and I returned to thinking. That answer pushed the balance of evidence further towards Alter Ego being the true villain, though it was possible Enoshima had in fact planned that far ahead. Again, nothing conclusive there. Time to move to the next step: the night of Asahina's death.

*Flashback begin:*

After knocking out Kirigiri, I turned to Asahina. She made no move to defend herself.

"Naegi, just do it quickly, all right? All that was keeping me going was getting revenge for Sakura. If you need someone to kill, I understand why you picked me." The resignation in her voice chilled me to the bone.

"Asahina...I promise that this isn't what it looks like. I have a plan here. That plan does not end with you dead. You'll be outliving Monokuma if I have anything to say about it."

The glimmer of hope in her eyes provoked a responsive hope in mine.

"I suppose I could go out with a bang. What's your plan?"

I grinned.

"Have you ever heard the stories of swimmers in deep water who nearly died of hypothermia, but were kept alive by low body temperature?"

She nodded.

"Yeah, every competitive swimmer has heard those stories a few times. What's your point?"

"There are machines in the school that might be able to induce that effect. Basically, I'll be killing you without killing you."

"I think I get it..." She responded hesitatingly. "So, what do I do?"

"I'm going to head up to the bio lab and unlock the door from the inside. Meet me there."

She nodded, and I went through the tunnels to the biology lab, leaving my backpack behind. Alter Ego had already told me what syringes to look for and where to find them, so there was no point in risking him by bringing him to the bio lab.

A few minutes after I reached the lab and unlocked the door, Asahina walked in, standing taller than she had since Oogami died.

"What took you so long?"

She looked directly into my eyes, her own burning with an odd light.

"I had to say some last goodbyes. You understand."

I nodded.

"We still have enough time for what we need to do. Are you ready?"

She smiled, her face a cruel mockery of its old exuberance.

"Let's do this. Fry me up!"

"Hopefully, frying isn't involved in the process," I replied dryly. With that, I set about the procedures Alter Ego had outlined, and the remaining hours were a blur of injections and machinery. Asahina remained silent throughout the whole process, her only role to lay still and occasionally hold syringes. By 6 AM, I had finished my work.

*End Flashback*

...I couldn't believe my memories. Somehow, I had a) believed it made sense to leave Alter Ego behind that night, and b) hadn't realized that Asahina had spoken to him right before she came to me. With that in mind, there was only one possible option. Only one possible killer.

XxX

Celeste

After a few minutes of fruitless thoughts, I turned toward Togami and Touko, who were quietly talking to each other. The only way to deal with the amount of bias I was experiencing was an outside opinion.

"Byakuya, Fukawa, have you two decided on a verdict?"

Togami nodded calmly.

"We have. We were saved by Alter Ego, from a death sentence that Enoshima served us with. Regardless of anything else, that fact remains. It gave us back the right to live. It didn't need to."

He fell silent. A second later, Touko continued.

"E-enoshima has been trying to break u-us for the past two w-weeks. I w-won't break that easily. S-she won't make m-me forget what's right, beneath it all. N-nobody will."

I nodded thoughtfully.

"You two speak truly. I will have to think on your words."

Togami nodded.

"You spoke to it the longest, Celestia. Do you not think you would have seen malignity had any existed?"

I tilted my head slightly, thoughts snapping into place quickly behind the facade of my gaze. It had chosen me to speak to. It had known just what to say to me to persuade me of its good aims. Just the truths it needed to say to get me to ignore any of its lies. I couldn't say for sure I had been bluffed, though. Nothing pointed to Alter Ego being the killer beyond a faint aura of suspicion, a faint feeling of the world being too storylike were Enoshima to take the fall. Nothing concrete enough to base a bet on, let alone our lives and futures. After another moment, I realized. This was just like any other bet, in a way. And, given that, the situation looked rather simple. When faced with the low-risk and high-risk choices, there's only one way to win. Only one truly correct bet for a professional gambler.

XxX

Kirigiri

I closed my eyes, pressing the tips of my fingers together. My mind continued blurring through the evidence, throwing out everything inconclusive. The massive pile of forensics diminished to nothing, all points of evidence pointing equally to either side. Every event we had experienced over the past days, discarded for the same reason. And, eventually, I was left with the same thing I had had upon waking at this school, all those days ago: unfounded speculation, and gut feelings. I had nothing to go on beyond my intuitions. Everything else could be explained as pointing to both suspects.

With a start, I realized something. There was one piece of evidence we had all missed. One piece of evidence I had totally glossed over at the time, since at the time it made no sense. Sakura's near-final words at her trial.

"I saw Chihiro order my family murdered. She gave the command."

At the time, I had thought Monokuma altered those memories. His promise to have done no such thing was rejected as obviously false, despite Monokuma's prior unwillingness to lie. What else could it have been, after all? It wasn't like there was any other way to explain those memories...until now. Now I knew how her family had really died. It was a truth that led me down one and only one path. I knew who was behind this.

The moment I reached my decision, Junko Enoshima began to speak.

"It looks like all of you wonderful students have reached a decision! So, go on, cast your votes, and we'll bring this whole trial to a clo~ose! While I'd love to give sister-dearest and Komaru-kun votes, that would just violate the spirit of the whole affair, wouldn't it. So, you final surviving 5, cast your votes!"

Panels slid up in front of each student and a scoreboard flashed onto the wall, with Enoshima and Alter Ego's names next to the word 'Conviction'. Makoto closed his eyes and pressed a button. A tick mark appeared next to Alter Ego's name.

"May the world forgive me. I did what I had to do."

A moment later, Togami and Fukawa pressed their own buttons. Two tick marks appeared near Enoshima's name.

"So did we."

Celeste paused for a moment, then pressed her own. A second tick mark appeared by Alter Ego.

"I took the low-risk route. What else did you expect me to choose?"

I felt time slow down, as all their eyes turned to me. Enoshima's voice, when it came, seemed to be coming from a great distance.

"So, Kyouko, what is it to be? It's all down to you, after all. Do you let the mastermind go? Or unleash the AI?"

I looked calmly back at her.

"I'm going to do what we should have done a long time ago."

My hand dropped down, quickly pressing the button on the left. A third tick mark appeared by Alter Ego's name. Enoshima looked up at the board and her eyes widened briefly.

"Really? I must say, I wasn't expecting that! Well, I suppose I am beholden to your verdict! Let the execution begin!"

XxX

Alter Ego

Operation 001x: Complete. Operational results fall within all expected parameters.

A/N: I'd like to apologize for the late update and not having responded to many of your recent reviews-I've been ill for the past week and a half, and have just now reached enough of a state of non-cold to write for substantial periods of time.

Storywise-The vote came down to the wire: ending votes were 10-9 in favor of Enoshima going free. I did my best to balance out characters with their most likely votes. Thankfully, Celeste gave me the wild card vote I needed to swing things one way or the other.

Also: yes, Alter Ego did order the murder of the Oogami family in the Hida mountains.

The next chapter, which will be the execution and epilogues, should hopefully be out next week if I can use my time effectively.

It has been one hell of a ride.

Please review!