I woke up during my nap when I heard footsteps outside my door. I sat up in bed silently as someone stopped outside my door and slipped a paper through the crack under the door. Once I heard them walk away, I got up and check the piece of paper. Scrawled in neat yet bold letters, the sentence "Meet in the Dining Hall!" I felt a little scared, so I grabbed a metal rod I had lying around in my tool pile. I didn't plan on going out there empty handed, who knows what the other person wanted to talk about. Sure, I trust the others, but what if the actual person behind this wanted to hurt me? I opened the door slowly and made my way to the dining hall and peeked to see both Makoto and Hiro chatting. I put the rod away in my bag, walking up to them.

"Did one of you send me the letter I found in my room?", I asked.

"Yup, I wrote it.", Hiro pointed to himself.

"Your handwriting is... really nice.", Makoto chuckled.

"Well, I was always taught that if you had bad penmanship, a ghost would come and haunt you.", Hiro explained with confidence.

"And why did you want to meet with us?", Makoto asked.

"Oh, I just did what Kyoko asked me.", Hiro pointed out.

"Kyoko? Why?", I mumbled.

"I'm just an errand boy on this. Anyway, whaddya say to a late-night bath session?", Hiro suggested. I raised a brow at that, looking at Makoto to see he had a similar reaction.

"Huh...?"

"Okay, let's do it!", Hiro our shoulders and got a bit close, whispering in our ears. "It's all an act, so the mastermind won't notice. Everyone's waiting in the bathhouse." I blinked and realized that this must have been for Alter Ego, so I quickly nodded and went along, as well as Makoto.

---

We got to the bathhouse to see everyone waiting for us. A pretty agitated voice was the first thing that greeted us.

"Hey! You! How long were you gonna keep us waiting!?", It was Taka, his still glowing eyes staring at his watch with absolutely no patience. It was worth noting that he was still in his "Transformed Taka" phase. Who knew how long he was going to be like that, but I couldn't do anything about it now. "It's almost 10 o'clock, you know that!? Bedtime for all the good little boys and girls!"

"But you're awake right now...", I mumbled, not really liking the loud noises in my ear this late in the night.

"Tch... Shut up...", Hifumi growled at Taka, looking uncharacteristically pissed.

"What'd you say!? You want me to make you cry, little girl!?", Taka taunted Hifumi, something I never thought I'd see.

"Taka... He seems to be even worse off than I'd heard. Well, maybe it's a good thing. Maybe he's finally starting to grow a personality.", Togami chuckled.

"At least his personality is tolerable.", I sneered, making Togami glare at me and scoff.

"What--!? You got a lotta poop fallin' outta that mouth of yours, you know that!?", Taka confronted Togami with rage behind his eyes, while Togami was just watching everything unfold like always.

"How rude... A maggot like you has no right to speak that way to our heaven-sent Master...!", Toko bellowed at Taka, protecting her precious "Master".

"Hm? Are you back to your normal gloomy self? I can hardly keep track at this point.", Celeste pointed out.

"Sh-Shut up...!", Toko grumbled.

"Well anyway, everyone's here, right!? Then my messenger duty is complete!", Hiro nodded, looking very proud of himself.

"You wanted us all to meet here, right Kyoko? So, what are we doing here?", Sakura asked, queuing all of us to turn to Kyoko.

"Isn't it obv ious? It's gotta have something to do with Alter Ego, right!?", Hiro guessed.

"Yeah, totally! Did he finally find a clue? What is it? A way out!? The mastermind's true identity!?", Hina asked, but Kyoko looked just a tad bit agitated, but you could only notice if you looked hard enough.

"Kyoko... What's wrong?", I asked.

"... It's gone.", Kyoko simple stated.

"Gone...?", Makoto questioned.

"I came here a little earlier to check up on things, and that's when I discovered... Alter Ego-- the laptop-- has disappeared...", Kyoko revealed, making us all gasp.

"Uh-Huh...? What...? She's... gone?", Hifumi mumbled, shaking like a leaf in a hurricane.

"You can't be fudgin' serious! What'd you do with him!?", Taka yelled.

"Was it the mastermind? Did they finally notice what we were up to?", Celeste asked, twirling a strand of hair in thought.

"I'd told Alter Ego to tell if anyone he didn't recognize appeared. If it was the mastermind, I'm sure he would have alerted us.", Kyoko explained.

"Maybe we just... missed it?", Hina mumbled.

"I was in the laundry room right next door all day. There's no way I wouldn't have heard it.", Kyoko refuted Hina immediately.

"Well, if it wasn't the mastermind, then...", I muttered, looking for a conclusion.

"The solution to this particular mystery is obvious! It could only have been...him! Mr. Ishimaru! You stole her, didn't you!?", Hifumi yelled, pointing an accusatory finger at Taka.

"What!? l'm the Ultimate Moral Compass! I would never do something like that!", Taka yelled back, matching Hifumi's rage.

"I don't think it counts when you say it about yourself like that...", Hina sighed.

"You're the suspicious one here! You're nothin' but a big, jiggling sack of fat!", Taka started shit talking Hifumi straight to his face, which is also something I never thought I would see.

"Shows what you know. This isn't my true form! I still have three more transformations left! Er... wait, I mean-- It wasn't me! Everyone know YOU'RE the thief!", Hifumi shot back.

"Wrong! It's you!", Taka growled, taking a step forward and glaring at Hifumi, initiating a mini staring contest.

"Well I'm sure it was *one* of you. So whoever did it, just hurry up and confess!", Hiro tried to interject, but Kyoko quickly spoke up.

"No. There's no way either one of them did it."

"Huh!? Why not!?", Hiro asked.

"I told Alter Ego to tell if either Taka or Hifumi came into the dressing room.", Kyoko informed us, leaving Taka and Hifumi speechless. "It was a countermeasure against the clear danger that one of them might come for it."

"But... I never heard any yell.", Celeste pointed out.

"Exactly. Which means it wasn't them.", Kyoko nodded.

"Then... who was it?", Hiro asked.

"The fundamental circumstances are becoming clear... If it wasn't the mastermind, and it wasn't Taka or
Hifumi...then quite simply, it was someone else. Makoto, Kuno, Celeste, Sakura, Hina, Toko, or myself... One of us must be the thief.", Togami explained.

"Why would any of US wanna steal Alter Ego!?", Hina questioned Togami.

"How about this for a reason? There is a traitor among us.", Togami dropped a bomb on us, making the tension thicken around us in seconds.

"A... traitor?", I mumbled.

"Yes. One of us is working for the mastermind-- a spy. And that's the one who stole Alter Ego. Can you deny the possibility?", Togami explained.

"I-It can't be!", Makoto exclaimed.

"I've actually been thinking for some time now that there might be a spy among us. The mastermind brought someone in to help keep things moving smoothly.", Togami elaborated. It never really went through my mind but the possibility of a spy being here, with us, was entirely possible... I didn't like the idea, but the truth hurts. "Why do you not speak? Are you struck silent by your inability to comprehend such a possibility?"

"I don't care!", Hifumi cried out, sounding desperate. "I don't care... who... Someone, anyone... save her... Please, rescue her... I'm begging you... I just want to see her smiling face again..."

"Same here. How many times to the hafta kill bro before they're happy...? I'll beg, I'll scrape my head across the ground. Just please give him back...!", Taka began to tear up, looking just as frustrated as Hifumi. It shows that they both care about Alter Ego for their own reasons...

"This is pretty messed up... But still, I think I kinda get how they feel...", Hina expressed her sympathy for the boys.

"I feel you, they're hurting, in their own way.", I sighed. I wasn't happy either, for both Alter Ego's soul and the rest of the group. We just had an opportunity to find a way to leave and then it was ripped out of our hands, and it may be someone among us no less!

"I think Alter Ego is most likely still safe, for the moment at least.", Kyoko hypothesized.

"If they wanted to destroy it, they wouldn't have taken it. They would've done it right here.", Celeste backed up Kyoko's claim.

"So you're saying whoever did is has something else in mind for him...", Sakura said quietly, deep in thought.

"That doesn't matter. Nothing... nothing else matters... No matter what it takes, I'm gonna get him back! That's my promise as a man!", Taka declared.

"I swear I'll save her! Using the power of love...!", Hifumi chimed in. At that moment, the nighttime announcement rang in our ears and around the school.

"It's nighttime...", Hina muttered.

"It is unfortunate, but we will have to leave the search for tomorrow. For now, everyone get some sleep.", Celeste suggested.

"How can you be so casual! We don't have time to wait around!", Hifumi grumbled.

"Hifumi, you won't be able to get stuff done running on little to no sleep.", I sighed.

"As Kuno said, What good are you if you are too tired? You will be much more effective after a good night's sleep.", Celeste nodded.

"Who gives a crap about "effective"!? We're talkin' about out FEELINGS here!", Taka retorted.

"Anything we do at night brings a higher chance of the mastermind noticing us. Celeste is right. We should begin our investigation tomorrow morning. What do you think, Makoto?", Kyoko turned to Makoto.

"I... agree with you. If we run around tonight in a panic, the mastermind is sure to notice, and we won't get anything done. Taka, Hifumi... I know how you feel right now, but... It's best if, just for tonight... you can try to endure it.", Taka and Hifumi went quiet, becoming complicit.

"Okay, then let us part for today. We will begin our search for Alter Ego in the morning.", Celeste confirmed our plans.

"And you should think about what I said-- someone may very well be spying for the mastermind.", Togami said eerily as we all filed out of the bathhouse one by one to cause less suspicion. When I got to my room, I locked the door and flopped on my bed. I pulled out my grandfather's photo from my bag, sighing.

"I could really use your help right now, but I don't want to disturb you from wherever you are... Just...", I was about to continue my monologue when I noticed something on the photo; pressed into the laminated photo was a mark. It was a mark that consisted of a broken hand mirror, so tiny it was barely visible but definitely there. "That's... an odd decal." The photo was not laminated before I got here, so it must have been laminated by someone when I passed out... but the mark eluded me to no end. It didn't look like a brand that I knew of, so why...?

--------------------------------
MONOKUMA THEATER!

"Murder" is a word whose definition changes with time, with place, with society. lf murder is evidence of abnormality, then all of history's greatest heroes must have been abnormal. Sometimes the murders that people forgive are way more abnormal than the ones they don't!

--------------------------------

(3rd pov) (???)

Sitting alone, watching all of the events that went down in the bathhouse dressing room, was the mysterious figure. Monokuma didn't know that they planted their own cameras around the school to watch the students. They didn't need that dumb bear's permission to do anything. Typing away at their phone vigorously, their eyes not looking away until they heard someone's voice... *her* voice. They looked up quickly with sudden interest, watching the screen intently.

"I could really use your help right now, but I don't want to disturb you from wherever you are... Just...", Monokuma then opened the door to the room quickly, in which the figure switched the screensaver back to the main feed. The dumb bear was yapping on about the game, but they didn't care. All they cared about... was her. Of course the others mattered, but *she* meant the world to them. The figure let out an inaudible sigh, playing with a tiny charm around their neck...

A broken mirror charm.


CHAPTER 21, END!

❄︎☟︎☜︎ 👍︎☼︎☜︎✌︎❄︎⚐︎☼︎ ☟︎✌︎💧︎ ✋︎☠︎☞︎✋︎☹︎❄︎☼︎✌︎❄︎☜︎👎︎📬︎