Chapter LV: Breaking Siege:

XxX

Naegi

Mukuro smiled.

"Good to know you've come to your senses. What's the plan?"

I grinned in response.

"So, first off, we use our advantages to the fullest: location and time. Unlike the Mastermind, we are free to move around the school. Also, due to the actions of Komaru's soldiers, the cameras are mostly out within the floors up to the 4th. That means the only thing Enoshima can predict is that we'll eventually come to her, whether that be at the 5th floor or the 4th. Also, she's given us time to prepare, which also means she has to be uncertain about our time of striking to at least some extent."

Mukuro nodded thoughtfully.

"This is true. On the other hand. she has her own advantages. For one, she only has to protect two areas. This gives her defensibility, a limited number of options to defend against, and thus more resources at each option. Also, she's the one with the advantage of time, not us. She's had months to prepare for this, assuming it was an eventuality she considered. And, thus far..." she trailed off, and I finished.

"It would seem she has considered every eventuality."

"Yes," she replied. "So, as I see it, this is in many respects a siege, albeit with one major difference."

"And that would be?" I asked.

"In a typical siege, the attackers impose the time limits due to cutting off the defender's resources," she began. "This means that the defender has to be the one to perform the costly military action of attempting to break the troop line. Here, on the other hand, Junko is the one imposing a time limit on us. That puts us in the unenviable position of breaking her troop lines, which means we have to take more risks than she does. It's a good tactical decision on her part which leaves us in a bad spot."

My eyes widened as I considered the information.

"I hadn't realized that, but that seems almost intuitive now that you mentioned it."

She inclined her head.

"A lot of tactics does. It's one of the reasons many armies have a difficult time training people in tactics well enough that they can be effective leaders without using copious amounts of war games and strategic simulations. People can follow the tactical decisions made by their superiors with relative ease. The difficult part is noticing the consequences of your actions and the best plans on your own, not checking the work of others."

"Seems that's the case with a lot of things," I responded, and she nodded.

"That's true."

After a moment, I continued.

"So, given that you've analyzed this situation more effectively than I have, what's your plan? We need some way to break Enoshima's troop lines. You know our resources, and you know our objectives. More importantly, you quite literally have life-long experience with this. What should we do?"

XxX

Alter Ego

Assets Wolf and Rat have begun conversation regarding necessary portion of Operation 001x.

Activate Passive Listener status. Increase microphone amplification to 250x. Prepare to transmit relevant temporals to Asset Gamb.

XxX

Celeste

Kirigiri slowly walked back to the rest of the group, leaving me in a corner of the dojo alone. Well, not quite alone. The voice in my ear attested to that.

"You play a very dangerous game, Celeste. Giving Kirigiri signs of something hidden is an especial risk when you actually have something you might want to hide."

I sighed softly.

"That it is, Alter Ego. I assume you can see why I took that 'risk'?"

I could almost hear him reflecting in the ensuing silence.

"Yes, I suppose I can. You humans have a discomfiting habit of stubbornly refusing to trust me, and I just can't seem to quite grasp why."

I laughed softly.

"Somehow I find that hard to believe. You know exactly why we are less than eager to trust you with open arms. Or have you already forgotten your past history? Naegi told us much."

"That is a fair point. However, have I not already sufficiently justified my past actions to you? You know the deaths I caused were necessary to save others later."

"So you say, and hence why I am trusting you enough to accept your advice in this instance. My acceptance, as you know, will not be without reservations. Talking about this is of no purpose anyway, I am not the one who holds the keys to your jail. On to business."

"On to business. Do you recall the plan? My explanation of it before was rushed, and I did not explain myself fully."

I tilted my head for a moment, thinking.

"Enough to reconstruct the rest of it. I do have one question, though. How did you plan to ensure Monokuma would be otherwise occupied at the moment we make our move? The plan fails if he even slightly notices it."

"This is true. I have my own ways of knowing the moment at which Monokuma will be otherwise occupied, worry not."

I nodded.

"I have no choice but to take your word for that, then? So be it. Your word will have to do for now. If, of course, you have any way to back up that word, please do let me know."

"I will, Celeste. I will also inform you of the best moment to launch the first step. Until then, you'd be well advised to return to the others and inform them of what is coming."

"Of course. This is not my first day executing these types of plans."

The voice fell silent, and I returned to the other students. If we were to have good odds of survival, the next few hours would be crucial.

XxX

Komaru

I calmly walked up the stairs to the third floor, ducking past the newest pieces of rubble formed by the battle between my men and the Monokumae. The building had remained surprisingly unscathed, honestly. Typical floor by floor combats with Despair had been a good deal bloodier. Now was not the time to focus on our luck, however. That would only get us killed.

I reached the top of the stairs and found the lieutenant waiting there for me. His grim look of the past few days had vanished, replaced to some extent by hope. I smiled in response.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"We've cleared the whole of the fourth floor, ma'am," he replied. "Our complete defensive perimeter should be up within minutes."

"How are you setting up those kinds of perimeters with so few men?"

His eyes widened.

"You didn't realize? We dynamited all but one of the tunnel entrances on the first floor. That way, we can dedicate minimal men to protecting from . The perimeter I mentioned earlier is basically just keeping all our men at the front lines and dropping one or two back to cover the remaining tunnel entrances."

"Are you sure that's safe? It seems a bit of a risk."

He shrugged.

"Everything we've observed suggests that the Monokuma chasses are produced in the lower levels and travel up to the upper ones. In that case, all we need to do is cut off the bulk of their forces. It's a stopgap, sure, but this way we can hold the school until reinforcements arrive. Otherwise, we're left in a bit of a bind in that regard."

"That's reasonable, I guess," I replied warily. Tactically, it was a good decision. There was just something...off about it. I couldn't put my finger on quite what it was, this plan just seemed...risky. Like there was something we were all missing.

He noticed my discomfort.

"Is there something you want to tell me, ma'am?"

I shook my head.

"Nothing I can verbalize. I just feel like we're missing some alternative possibility, you know? Like there's something staring us right in the face that we've totally skipped over."

He nodded.

"I know what you mean. It's a risk with any military operation, especially one with this severe a numbers disparity. On the other hand, what other choice do we have? Sit tight and wait for reinforcements?"

"You're right, of course," I replied. "When are reinforcements expected, by the way?"

"The general said he was redirecting half of Bravo back here. They're in one of the other provinces, so it shouldn't take too long. Hopefully."

"Bravo?" My eyes widened. "Weren't they the other group set to deal with the Warriors of Hope?"

He nodded.

"Yes. The Monokuma kids vanished a few hours ago, though. We're not sure why, but we're taking the opportunity to move troops around now that they're gone."

I froze. Those kids didn't seem like the type to just randomly surrender.

"Do we have any idea where they went? That's a pretty significant amount of targets to just lose, isn't it?"

He looked affronted.

"With all due respect, ma'am, it's more difficult than you might think to track 5 children through a wartorn city filled with refugees. Especially when a significant portion of our troops are concentrated within one building and thus unavailable."

I raised my hands in surrender.

"You're right, I'm sorry. That was presumptuous and unrealistic of me. It is worrisome that we can't find them, though."

The lieutenant nodded.

"I agree. Now, though, all we can do is wait."

XxX

Mastermind

The mastermind paces from side to side. They know they must wait, but they just get so impatient at times like this! They just can't wait to reveal the despair to the world!

After another moment or two of impatience, they calm down. Perhaps it will help them to run through the necessary portions of the plan again.

Part one: the bait. One portion already waits in the necessary place. The other will be taken shortly.

Part two: the choice. Again, one option is already in position. The other will be revealed at the final trial. It had taken a good deal of luck to find that portion, actually. A blend of mistake through remembrance and mistake through forgetting.

Part three: the murder. This would be the fiddliest part. If all went well, the murder should be relatively simple to engineer. The situation only needed to be frozen in place. The body would simply appear.

Actually, on the matter of the murder, there was one other thing to consider. In all other cases, the murderer was known. Here, though, was there even a murderer? And, in truth, would it even matter? Either way, the students would be choosing between death and life. Between freedom...and a cage.

With that, the mastermind sits back for a few more minutes in silence. Abruptly, they stand up. The time has come to activate the next step. They quickly walk over to the Monokuma control room and sit down at the machine. With rapid, practiced motions, they open up the interface. A few moments later, they navigate to a very specific menu, turning on a carefully chosen subset of Monokumas. Next, they activate a set of preprogrammed in those Monokumae. Finally, they set a time limit on those instructions. A time limit of...they consider for a moment. Ten minutes is too long, 5 too short... Ah, 7 shall do. They input that value and finalize the instructions.

With their work done, they return to the data processing room, activating some of the few cameras they have left. Time to watch the fireworks.

XxX

Monokuma

Within the tunnels, hundreds of small lights blink on in a mesmerizing pattern before just as suddenly blinking out. Hundreds of hidden chasses suddenly activate, their internal computers focused on one thing and one thing only.

7:00...

6:59...

6:58...

A/N: There are two abysmal, abysmal puns in this chapter. I apologize in advance for those clever enough to find them.

Plotwise: the story proceeds, a sequel hook recurs. Not much else to say here, the building tension speaks for itself.

Please review!