(3rd Person's POV)

The dining hall is usually where we meet up... Sora thought as she and Kyoko walked up to the doors to the hall. Wonder how they'll react...

---

The two girls opened the doors to the dining hall, and the first thing that greeted them was...

"Skrgh@yaGfew, anji&\krakAW;! fzzlbRff#[]" Monokuma popped up, speaking with unintelligible gibberish.

"What the...?" Sora mumbled.

"Hrskzzzz_dat.; EgspllER103.2.1.255"

"Uhhh...what's up with him?" Sora wondered.

"I suppose his emotional instability reached its limit." Kyoko guessed.

"aG^3. 4sum=(SEN|akt~____ 61!" Monokuma spoke and just as quickly as he appeared, the bear hopped out.

"I...I don't..." Sora was at a lost for words.

"I wonder what that was all about..." Kyoko mused.

Sora let out a sigh. "Jeez Louise..."

"Ah--!" A voice exclaimed as the two turned to see the other students staring at them with bewilderment.

"Is that...Shirayuki?" Hina asked in awe.

"Oh hey, guys." Sora casually greeted with a wave.

"It is! There's no two ways about it, that's Shirayuki!" Hina beamed.

"You're okay!" Makoto smiled, relieved.

"Huh? You s-survived?" Toko stuttered.

"Jeez... You're like a stubborn little cockroach, you know that?" Byakuya rolled his eyes, though a faint smile was present on his face.

"I'm just asking to make sure, but...you're not a ghost, right?" Hiro apprehensively asked.

Everyone was there. All her comrades that she had struggled with and survived together... As soon as she saw their faces, Sora couldn't help but make a small smile.

But suddenly, everyone stopped in their tracks. "Wait...what's that smell?" Byakuya asked.

"Yeah man, that seriously stinks!" Hiro groaned as he covered his nose.

Hina widened her eyes as she realized. "It's Shirayuki! She smells like a wet dog!"

"Agh! Mistress, get away! Shoo! Shoo!" Toko demanded as she backed away.

"..." And in a flash, Sora's smile quickly dropped back into her uncaring expression.

---

"Shirayuki!" Hiro greeted. "What was it like hanging out in the spirit world!?"

"...I'm not the Avatar, Hiro." Sora deadpanned. "I didn't go into the spirit world." 

"Did you get to talk to her?"

"Who?"

"Miss Cleo!"

"Nah, I didn't talk to her. ...No wait, I didn't go to the spirit world at all!" I don't even know who "Miss Cleo" even is...

---

Byakuya folded his arms. "I still can't believe you survived."

"Yeah, I can't either..." Sora sighed.

"You do realize why it is you escaped execution?" Byakuya asked.

Sora nodded. "It was Doppelgänger. She...she saved my life."

"Not too many people can say they had their lives saved by a computer program. Especially one that's designed after you. I imagine it was a learning experience for you." Byakuya chuckled.

---

"What have you guys been doing while I was gone?" Sora asked Hina.

"Well, we figured that since the trial was over, we'd have access to new places again." Hina assumed.

"...Was there?"

Hina shook her head. "Nah, nothing. All the rooms that were locked before...were still locked."

There aren't anymore areas...so how are we supposed to find any clues for the trial? Sora wondered.

---

"Ugh, you s-stink...! Are you rotten!?" Toko recoiled in disgust. "Rotten ph-physically, mentally, every way you can b-be rotten!"

"Yeah well, being trapped in a garbage room can do that to you." Sora pointed out.

"This smell is s-so...smelly...!" Toko blushed and then started laughing. "Ahaha! Super smelly! You smell even w-worse than me! Way worse than m-me! ...I win."

"..."

---

"There's no time to indulge in an extended happy reunion. We need to explain to everyone what happened with Monokuma." Kyoko told Sora, who nodded in agreement.

"Explain...? Explain what?" Byakuya inquired.

"But is it okay that you're here? What if the mastermind catches you?" Hiro pointed out.

"That's related to what I have to tell you all." Kyoko said.

"I need to tell you guys about the last class trial." Sora said.

"Last class trial...?" Hina repeated in confusion.

"We're going to redo Ikusaba's trial." Kyoko told them.

"What!? Seriously!?" 

"What's the point of redoing it? Shirayuki killed her, right?" Hiro asked.

"...Are you asking me to go insane again?" Sora shook her head. "Like I told you before, I didn't kill her."

Kyoko let out a sigh. "Shirayuki isn't the killer. And of course, it's not me or any of you."

"Th-Then...who is it?" Toko asked.

"What she's saying is, it was all the work of the mastermind." Byakuya responded.

"What!? You're saying the mastermind killed Ikusaba!?" Hiro exclaimed.

Kyoko nodded. "That's right. It was all an elaborate trap contrived by the mastermind. Shirayuki spotted the trap in time, and did what she had to to stop it. But her decision meant that she would be the one to die.

Byakuya looked at Sora. "You spotted the trap, did you Shirayuki?"

Sora scratched her head. "I mean, technically..."

"But executing Shirayuki, who wasn't the blackened, is a clear violation of the school regulations. The rules state that only the blackened is to be executed. The mastermind broke their own rules." Kyoko folded her arms and smirked. "Which is why I went and negotiated with them to have the trial one more time."

"And the mastermind agreed!?" Hina widened her eyes. "Does that mean they really did break the rules...?"

"They had no choice but to agree. You used the TV broadcast to gain the leverage you needed, didn't you?" Byakuya correctly guessed.

"Very observant of you." Kyoko confirmed with a nod.

"I recall what you said at the end of the last trial... When you said "Now it's the mastermind that's ensnared," that's what you were referring to."

"Hey! I'm totally in the dark here!" Hiro yelled.

Byakuya sighed. "For anyone who doesn't understand, you can ask Kirigiri to explain it again. Later."

"So, knowing all th-this...what do we do now?" Toko wondered.

"It's about who killed Ikusba, right? So our job is to expose the mastermind...?" Hina mumbled.

"But there's more to it than that, correct?" Byakuya assumed.

"Yeah." Sora nodded. "For us to win the class trial, we have to solve every last mystery surrounding the school."

"Every last mystery...?" Hina blinked. "But we've been looking around all this time, and we still don't know anything, right?"

Kyoko nodded. "You've probably guessed already, but if we lose this time...everyone dies."

"E-Everyone!?" Hiro jumped in shock and fear.

"H-Hey! Who said you could agree to those t-terms without talking to the rest of u-us!?" Toko screeched. "I'm fine with things the w-way they are! I'm fine living here forever with M-Master!"

Byakuya groaned. "I, meanwhile, want to get out of here as soon as humanly possible."

"Anyway, at this point the only way for us to survive is to unravel the truth." Kyoko said.

"In other words, one decisive final battle." Byakuya smirked. "A rather interesting development, I'd say."

"But figuring out who the mastermind is, AND how they killed Ikusaba, AND all the school's mysteries..." Hina let out a sigh.

"It's a pretty tall friggin' order..." Hiro added, looking downtrodden.

"Maybe, but this time the trial is different." Makoto spoke up. "We know who our enemy is now. So if we work together and search as hard as we can, I'm sure we'll solve all those mysteries!"

Sora nudged Kyoko on the shoulder. "Told you he'd say something like that."

Kyoko sighed. "I'm not so sure about that."

"Huh...?" Makoto said in confusion.

"I can't agree with the idea of working together with everyone."

" You...can't agree? Why not? I mean, working together with everyone seems like the most obvious way to solve all the mysteries..."

"That's what I thought, too...at first. Until Monokuma gave us that little hint of his..." Kyoko looked to Sora. "You remember, right Shirayuki?"

Hint... Sora mused as she memories flowed through her.

---

"Kehehe... It's a very polarizing approach, I know, but--okay, enough puns. Anyway, here's a hint... I'm sure I told you this already, but...this killing game began with seventeen participants, all of them high school students. And the only people to take a single step in Hope's Peak since the killing game began...are those seventeen students."

---

"Monokuma said that, did he?" Byakuya mused, placing a finger on his glasses. "Then Kirigiri's opinion is perfectly reasonable."

"Huh? But why...?" Hina tilted her head in confusion.

"If the mastermind really is the one who killed Ikusaba, as Kirigiri says...then the mastermind would have had to set foot in this school, right? Monokuma could probably murder Ikusaba, but there's no way he could have disguised the scene like that." Byakuya explained. "But according to Monokuma, the only people who have set foot in Hope's Peak...are the seventeen students who have been taking part in the killing game."

Toko widened her eyes in realization. "Then...the m-mastermind is...! There were sixteen of us in the m-main hall at the very beginning... Add in I-Ikusaba, and you get seventeen... So the mastermind w-would have to be...one of them?"

"And of those sixteen people we started out with, the only ones still alive...are the people standing right here." Byakuya concluded. "Need I continue, or do you get it now?"

"You're saying the mastermind is one of us!?" Hiro placed his hands on his head in fear.

Hina felt her face turn blue. "Y-You can't be serious!"

"W-Wait! We can't say for sure that's true yet! Monokuma might have just said all that to confuse us...!" Makoto pointed out.

"It's certainly a possibility." Kyoko mused, placing a hand on her chin. "But only one among many... The mastermind being one of us is also a possibility."

"And that is one possibility we can't ignore." Byakuya sneered.

"Yeah! I mean, they're an u-ultimate, right? The Ultimate Despair. So they m-must be a high schooler!" Toko assumed. "You can't say it's not p-possible...!"

"But if one of us was the mastermind, they'd have to be controlling Monokuma somehow, right? But did you ever see anyone acting suspicious any time Monokuma was active?" Makoto asked.

"Maybe they s-snuck off and controlled him i-in secret..." Toko guessed.

"I don't care how sneaky you are, we would've noticed someone sneaking off that many times." Hina pointed out.

"Then maybe Monokuma was on autopilot! Maybe they loaded up all the dialogue and actions beforehand!" Hiro said.

"Well...it wouldn't be entirely impossible, if they directed the flow of the conversation." Byakuya said.

"W-Well, maybe...but still!" Makoto argued.

DING, DONG! BING, BONG!

Everyone stopped as the looked up to the monitor.

"Ahh, this is a school announcement. You've all probably figured this out by now, but at this point, the killing game has now entered "True Ending" mode. So in the name of fairness, I will unlock every room in the school! Look wherever you want! Solve the mystery in whatever way you see fit! Puhuhu... Then we can all meet up at the class trial, okay? Gaahahaha! Ahahaha...!"

The monitor then shut off. "How very magnanimous of him to unlock all the rooms." Kyoko dryly commented.

"The time for talk is done. Now we need to begin our investigation." Byakuya folded his arms as he looked away from the students.

"B-But...!" Makoto tried to argue.

"I was planning on working alone from the beginning anyway." Byakuya sighed as he looked towards the students. "At this point, I can rely only on myself, on the Togami blood flowing through my veins. I have no time to worry about the rest of you. Each of you must uphold your responsibility. Well then..." After making that final statement, Byakuya left the dining hall.

"Gaah! M-Master! He didn't take me w-with him...!" Toko complained.

"Do ya blame him?" Hiro mumbled.

"Without Master, the r-rest of you are like...coffee with cream w-without the cream! Or c-coffee! Except Mistress, of course!"

Sora sighed. "Mama mia..."

"Apart from her, the rest of you are totally useless! S-So...bye!" With that, Toko trudged out of the dining hall.

"And now she's gone..." Hiro scratched his hair before looking at Kyoko. "And you're gonna go off by yourself, right Kirigiri?"

"That's right."

"Which just leaves Naegi, Shirayuki, Hina, and me..." Hiro realized before deciding. "In that case, I'm gonna go by myself, too!"

"Wait, how come!?" Hina asked.

"Just wait and see! I'm gonna use my totally awesome spirit power to figure out the mastermind's identity! Hahahaha!" Hiro laughed loudly as he left the dining hall.

"Everyone's really gonna go off by themselves...?"

"What about you, Hina?" Makoto asked.

"Umm... I guess I'll do the same thing.  I mean, it's not that I don't trust everyone, ya know? But...up till now, I haven't really been all that useful. I just depended on Sakura, and everyone else." Hina sighed.

"C'mon, don't say that." Sora spoke up. "To be honest, if you hadn't been here, I probably would've died."

"S-Shirayuki...!" Hina blushed before scratching the back of her head nervously. "Nng...that's really nice of you to say...! But still, I know I've mostly been totally useless. So I figure, at least here at the end, maybe I can find something that'll help us all get out of here. So I'm gonna go off and do it all on my own! Okay, see ya later!" She smiled as she dashed out of the hall in high spirits.

"Well, I guess I'm gonna go alone, too." Makoto said. "I would've preferred if we go with a partner, but if everyone wants to go alone, then I guess I'll have to, too..." He mumbled as he walked out of the dining hall. And with that...

"...It's just us two." Sora said as she and Kyoko were the only ones left.

"Indeed."

"So, you're going on your own, Kiri?" Sora asked.

"Well, don't misunderstand. I told you, didn't I? I will always be on your side, no matter what. Just because we're going to do our searches separately doesn't mean we can't still work together." Kyoko pointed out. "That goes for all of us."

Sora nodded. I see what you mean... Doing our own investigations doesn't mean we can't work together in the end. I should just see it as us splitting up to cover more ground, just like before. And then we can get back together and share what we found.

"Well, I'd better get going. I have an endless list of things I need to check." Kyoko said. "Monokuma said all the doors in the school had been unlocked, right? So we should be able to investigate every nook and cranny in the school."

"So we can visit all the places we couldn't before..." Sora realized.

Kyoko nodded as she turned her back to Sora. "Shirayuki...no matter what it takes, we have to uncover the truth. By any means necessary..." With that, Kyoko was gone, leaving only Sora.

"I don't have time to waste, either." Sora mumbled, putting her head down. "I have to begin my search, too..." It's time...I'll prove whether or not the mastermind's one of us. I'll expose their true identity, and solve the mysteries of this school. Every. Single. One. "And then..." Sora lifted her head back up, her pupils shining with newfound determination. "We can all escape this horrid place..."

IT'S...INVESTAGATION TIME!

Chapter 42: End

To be continued...?