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The moment Makoto was sent down the trash chute, Kyoko had already made up her mind to rescue him.
Following the conclusion of the class trial, she spent hours coming up with a plan and beginning her preparations. She unlocked the hatch in the trash room, she gathered up food to bring him, and she even started collecting trash and excess items from the warehouse to use as cushion for her own descent down the trash chute. She did consider trying to go down the hatch in the trash room instead, as that would undoubtedly be the safer option, but it would take longer. Additionally, she had no idea if the end of the hatch would place her anywhere near Makoto, and her goal was to find him as soon as possible. Makoto likely wouldn’t have wandered too far from wherever he landed, so using the same trash chute as he did was the best option for finding him quickly. As risky as that plan was, she was willing to take it.
By the time the morning came around, she was almost ready. There was just one more thing she needed to do. As much as she was reluctant to do so, she recognized that it was probably to her benefit to tell someone about her plan. She knew that, in the eyes of everyone but Makoto, she had been acting incredibly suspiciously over the last few days. And if she disappeared yet again, while it would not be out of character for her, it would do no favors for anyone at this point. She really did not like relying on people — the fact that she had been working with and trusting Makoto as much as she had was a surprise to her, and spoke to the kind of draw he had on people, herself included — but if they were going to ultimately solve this mystery and get out of here, they needed to be a team. Makoto would say that they were stronger together, and Kyoko agreed. It would take collective strength to defeat the mastermind, and disappearing without some kind of warning would not serve that goal. Therefore, the smart thing to do was to tell someone. Even if she didn’t divulge all details, she should make someone aware of where she was. Not just so that it alleviated suspicion on her, but also so that in the case that the plan went awry and something happened to her, they could at least attempt to take up the reins in her stead and try to get out of here, even without her and Makoto. It would not be easy for the others without them, but she did not want to leave them completely without chance of escape if things went wrong for her. It wasn’t fair to them. So she had to tell them.
The only question was who to inform of her plan.
And unfortunately, as much as she hated to admit it, Byakuya was the best, most reliable candidate to tell. Despite how much of a selfish asshole he had been, particularly at the beginning, he had proven himself smart, somewhat of a leader, and determined to beat the mastermind and escape. He was certainly most likely to keep his head on his shoulders during a crisis. And realistically, who else could she tell? Toko was a complete no-go when it came to telling important information simply due to her nature — not to mention she likely wouldn’t listen to Kyoko in the first place. Hiro, while with well-meaning intentions, was not the brightest bulb and tended to crack under pressure. The only other person Kyoko would consider telling was Hina, but despite her generally positive outlook and determination to keep going, she had proven she could succumb to her emotions under pressure and, like Hiro, was more of a follower than a leader. When it came down to it, it had to be Byakuya.
With that decision made, Kyoko sat at the desk in her dorm room and wrote Byakuya an emergency letter. Ideally, he would never see this; this letter served as a contingency plan in case something happened to her. Its contents included an overview of the important information she had uncovered so far in her investigations about the school and their situation, and it informed him about the existence of the master key in her possession as well as the fact that she had unlocked the hatch in the trash room. If it came down to it, Byakuya could use this information to either come find them himself if things went wrong, or use her knowledge to solve the mystery of the school and escape with the others. Hopefully, that would not become necessary — this would only be applicable in a scenario in which she and Makoto were either lost or dead, and the letter was a latch-ditch effort. But at this point, she had to be prepared for all outcomes.
When she finished writing, she got to work covering her tracks. She sealed the letter in an envelope and disguised it as a sappy, heartbroken love letter to Makoto, to alleviate any suspicion in case the mastermind noticed her writing on the surveillance cameras or decided to come snooping around in her room and happened upon it. A hidden love note to someone who had just died would be much less suspicious to find in her room than a letter to Byakuya of all people. Next, she disposed of the remaining paper on her writing pad and added them to the trash she was planning on taking with her down the trash chute, to avoid anyone using the same shading technique she had used to uncover Sayaka’s writing back in the first murder case. Then finally, she hid the letter under her sewing kit in her drawer. She didn’t like leaving this sensitive information where technically anyone could find it, but once again she was going to have to take that risk.
And with her preparations finalized, it was officially time to enact her plan, so she left her room and went to find Byakuya.
The downside of having only six students remaining in such a large school (with one of them currently trapped in the garbage dump) was that it made the building feel even larger and emptier, and it made it even more impossible to find anyone. She didn’t know where Byakuya currently was, but she would find him, even if she had to search the entire school.
As her luck would have it, she actually came across all three of the others before she came across Byakuya. First, she ran into Toko in the dorm hallway, looking like a guilty, despondent house pet. The moment Toko spotted her, she yelped and scurried back into her own room. Kyoko decided to push her to the back of her mind and move on, not wanting to expend any of her mental energy on her.
Next she ducked her head into the dining hall, where she saw Hina and Hiro with downtrodden looks on their faces, sitting at the same table but not really saying anything to each other. Hina noticed her and gave her a friendly greeting, but it was hollow. The light behind her eyes was dim, and the same thing was reflected in Hiro’s eyes.
Kyoko figured she would at least see if they knew anything. “Have either of you seen Byakuya?”
They both shook their heads. “Not today, I’m sorry,” Hina answered gloomily.
Even though neither of them could seem to bring themselves to make eye contact with her, Kyoko gave them a curt nod before promptly leaving the room to continue her search. She didn’t have any time to waste.
So, she searched. After knocking on the door of his room (no answer), she proceeded to look in the laundry room, warehouse, sauna, trash room, bathrooms, school store, A/V room, front hall, gym, and nearly every single room on the first floor.
And then finally, she found him.
As she was preparing to enter the nurse’s office, she spotted him coming down the stairs from the second floor. When he noticed her, he stopped right in his tracks, staring right back at her as she was him.
She spoke first.
“Byakuya.”
“I do not believe I gave you permission to call me by my given name,” he snapped.
Kyoko didn’t flinch. She barely registered his little outburst at all. She could tell by the tired look on his face that there was no true hostility behind it; he was no threat to her right now, and in all honesty, he never had been. All she could see in his eyes at this moment was guilt — guilt over what they had all done last night sentencing Makoto to his death.
Something that she herself was responsible for causing.
He had the same look she’d seen in the eyes of the others moments ago, though he was much less obvious about it. He could pretend that voting for Makoto hadn’t affected him, but she knew better. Maybe at the beginning, it wouldn’t have affected him much aside from some vexation over not being right, but sometime during the course of the game, something had changed in him, and while it may not have been empathy at the level the others felt, it was something. Kyoko could tell that much. It was why she was even going through with this plan at all.
She stood there for a few moments, not saying anything in response to his outburst. Her silence was apparently aggravating him, as he ended their brief standoff with an angry, impatient huff.
“What do you want?”
“I want you to come with me.”
“What?”
“We have something to discuss.”
She didn’t let him get another word out before grabbing him by the elbow and dragging him all the way through the halls to the bathhouse. He didn’t fight her even a little bit, so he must’ve known this was about something important if she was going out of her way to talk to him like this, especially in the location where they couldn’t be overheard.
“Now what is it you wanted to discuss?” he asked once they were within the walls of the dressing room.
“I wanted to let you know that I’m going to go and find Makoto.”
“Find him? I don’t think it’s a secret where he went — we all witnessed him fall into the garbage dump.”
“Alright, fine then, not ‘find.’ I’m going to go rescue him.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Rescue? I’m afraid that might be a lost cause, as he is likely dead. He may not have been crushed by the compactor, but that does not mean he’s still alive. The chances of him surviving a fall like that feel very slim.”
“You do make a good argument. However, we can’t say for sure that he’s dead. And as long as there’s even the smallest possibility that he’s still alive, I have to believe that he is. I’m not going to give up.”
Byakuya sighed. “Alright. Let’s say for argument’s sake that he is alive. Now, you say you’re going to go rescue him. How exactly do you plan to do that?”
“Well, first I’m going to gather up some food to bring to him, because he’s likely starving. And then…I’m going to jump down the trash chute after him.”
Byakuya’s eyes boggled. “Are you out of your mind?!”
“Possibly. But I have a plan. Once I find him, we’re going to make our way out of the dump. There has to be a door or an exit of some kind. It’s a simple safety precaution. And how else would they have removed the garbage back when this school was still functioning if there were no doors of any kind?”
“A reasonable assumption. But what if that door is locked? Most doors in this building have been locked at some point, and the outside sealed. What is your plan then?”
“I have…my ways,” she said carefully, thinking about the master key currently sitting in her pocket. She didn’t want to tell Byakuya about its existence. Not yet, at least. She didn’t quite trust him with that information yet. Not unless things truly went south. And in that case, he’d have to find out in the letter.
He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “That’s awfully cryptic of you.”
“I understand you may find that to be a vague and suspicious answer. But rest assured, I have my way through a locked door.”
He scrutinized her for a moment. “You have proven yourself smart and resourceful in the past. Were you any of the others, I would assume you were about to jump to your death. However, given your track record…I’m going to surmise that you know what you’re doing. But, the real question is: why are you going through all the trouble?”
Kyoko couldn’t help but get defensive, even if it meant she got more outwardly emotional than she would’ve liked. “Because Makoto is still down there! Alive! We don’t know if he’s hurt, or weak from hunger. He needs help. And even if he isn’t hurt, he would need help getting out.” By that, she meant that he didn’t have the master key that she had in her possession, though Byakuya probably thought she was just calling him stupid. She was okay if that’s what he thought.
Suddenly, Byakuya’s lip curled into a small, smug grin. “That was quite passionate of you, Kyoko. Unexpectedly so. Is it possible you harbor some feelings for dear Makoto? That would be quite a surprise if so. I didn’t think someone like you would concern yourself with something as trivial as a crush.”
She should have expected the dig, but it got under her skin nonetheless. Of course he would take the opportunity to try and make fun of her, to disarm her and allow him to get the upper hand. Luckily, no blush appeared on her face. Good. She needed to keep this conversation on track.
“That’s not what this is about.”
“Are you sure? You seem to be very concerned about finding him. To the point where you’ll risk your own life hurling yourself down a trash chute, which doesn’t seem very logical to me. Are these the actions of a teenage girl pining for a boy?”
“I assure you, that’s not what’s happening here. I am doing this because if we’re going to get out of here, we will need him. And after what we did, we owe it to him to help him. We were the ones who voted him guilty when he was completely innocent. I owe it to him, after he protected me. I’m not going to leave him for dead.”
There were many factors behind Kyoko’s drive to rescue Makoto. Including her ever-growing guilt for essentially sacrificing him for her mission, betraying him when he’d put his full trust and faith in her. There was also the knowledge that he was going to be very useful in winning this game — him living was essential to the negotiation she planned to have with the mastermind for a final showdown, since his being alive and his innocence would back the mastermind into a corner with the broadcast viewers. Her reasons for wanting to rescue Makoto were logical: she wanted to make it up to him by repaying the debt she was in from him covering for her in the trial, and he would be useful in solving the mystery of the school and ultimately escaping. It was simple practicality.
However, she was not going to think about the other reason why her heart was screaming at her that she had to find him and make sure he was alive, the one that had nothing to do with her guilt or any practical reasons. The one that explained why Makoto was entering her mind much more frequently than he had any business to, why she felt inexplicably drawn to him despite her efforts to stay away, and why she had chosen to disguise the emergency letter as a love letter when realistically it could have been just about anything. Byakuya’s words, though they were assumptions, perhaps were more truthful than she’d ever like to admit.
Kyoko tried to push all of these thoughts to the back of her mind. She couldn’t afford to think about such feelings right now.
Luckily, the smug grin disappeared from Byakuya’s face, and he seemed to be taking this seriously again. “If you want to do that, then be my guest. But do not expect me to follow you down there,” he stated.
“I would ask no such thing of you.”
Byakuya crossed his arms over his chest and sized her up. “Why are you telling me this? So far you haven’t been very forthcoming in telling anyone your plans, aside from Naegi. So why are you telling me your plans now? And why should I believe what you have to say? There is still a chance the mastermind is one of us, and it might very well be you.”
“Why would I be doing any of this if I were the mastermind?” she challenged. “Why would I go well out of my way and risk my own life to save Makoto, effectively reversing my own judgment and admitting it was wrong? That would undermine my authority with the viewers of the killing game broadcast. And if I were truly trying to inspire despair, wouldn’t I leave him to rot in the garbage? Saving Makoto offers no positives to the mastermind whatsoever, and in fact has many negatives. I would have no reason to do that if I were the mastermind.”
“...I must admit, you bring up some valid points,” Byakuya conceded begrudgingly. “For now, at least, I will choose to believe that you aren’t the mastermind. So, tell me: why are you telling me your rescue plans? For all you know, I could be the mastermind.”
“You are not the mastermind.”
“You sound very confident. What makes you believe I am not the mastermind?”
Kyoko could hear the real question hidden beneath his words: Why are you choosing to trust me? She had to handle this weighty question with the delicacy it deserved. The fate of her plan relied upon it.
“Because your recent actions have provided compelling evidence of your innocence,” she answered. “Firstly, you’ve been very outspoken about your determination to defeat the mastermind for many days now. And more significantly, your role in the disassembly of Monokuma goes a long way toward making me believe you are not the mastermind. You led that effort and spent all night on the task. Why would you do that if you were the mastermind? If you were, you would already know what was inside and would have little reason to spend so long taking him apart. Additionally, because you were disassembling Monokuma during that time period and had the others alongside you, it gives you an alibi for the recent murder, which we know the mastermind was the perpetrator of.”
“Hm,” Byakuya uttered in response, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Good to know you’re not basing your belief on nothing. And that your brain is still working adequately.” He regarded her for a second before continuing. “Alright. I accept your reasoning. Now again, I will ask: why are you telling me your plans?”
She took a breath to steel herself. “I’m telling you because…I have to.”
A beat. “What do you mean by that?”
“For my plan to work, I require the assistance of another person. So, I’m telling you because while I’m not asking you to help rescue Makoto, I do have something I need from you.”
“And what might that be?”
“While I’m gone, I need you to be in charge of the others.”
“You’re asking me to…babysit?” Byakuya asked, turning up his nose.
Kyoko rolled her eyes. “Just make sure no one does anything stupid, okay? Or are you that incompetent as a leader that you can’t even do that?”
He bristled, the obvious jab at his pride and skills working just like she thought it would. “Fine. I’ll ensure they don’t go off the deep end.”
Kyoko nodded. “Good. Now, that’s not all. I have something else I need you to do.”
“Something else?”
“Yes. I presented you with the smaller task first, just to be certain you’d agree, before bringing up the more important one.”
“Keeping everyone in line is simply a smart course of action, regardless of your plan. Just because I agreed to this does not mean I’ll agree to your next ask. Tell me what it is before I agree.”
She hesitated for just a moment before voicing what she truly needed. She would be putting herself in a vulnerable position, and his response would determine whether or not she could really depend on him, and whether she could pull off this plan the way she intended.
She charged forward. “In addition to the first task, I need you to cover for me. Make sure Monokuma doesn’t suspect where I am.”
“That’s a little more directly involved than ‘keeping an eye on the others,’” Byakuya pointed out.
“It is,” she admitted. “But it still should not require too much of you.”
“Perhaps not. What you’ve asked of me is easy enough. But why exactly should I help you? You’ve made it clear why you need my assistance. I’m still waiting to hear what good this plan does for me. Convince me why I should help you.”
“Because you need me,” Kyoko stated firmly, looking him directly in the eye. Her steady, unyielding words left no room for doubt. Tact had gotten her this far, but they’d reached the point where she needed to be clear and upfront about the significance of this plan and what exactly was at stake. “Me and Makoto. The both of us know much more about what’s going on here than you do. The chances of you getting out of here without us is very slim. So it would be in your best interest to ensure that my plan has the greatest possibility of success.”
Byakuya said nothing. He had no comeback to that.
“Both your tasks are simple, but crucial. I can’t have Monokuma interfering with me. And things can’t go off the rails with the others, either. I better not return to find the school on fire or something because they decided to panic. When I get back, we’re all going to need to work together. Do you understand?”
At those words, he stared her down, assessing her. It felt like the moment of truth, of whether or not they were going to ultimately put some modicum of trust in one another, even if it was blind. Kyoko had already taken a step, by revealing her plans to him and asking him to cover her and hold down the fort here. Now it was his turn to meet her in the middle and decide if he was going to believe her and venture down the path of working together, as much as neither of them liked working with anyone. And though she hadn’t said so specifically, Byakuya must have concluded that she had some sort of bigger plan in the works that extended beyond rescuing Makoto — perhaps even a way they could all get out of this.
Because eventually, Byakuya nodded at her, wordlessly agreeing to her plan. And to a tentative trust. “You said you needed cover, correct? Earlier, I heard Hiro and Hina discussing possibly exploring the school again to search for new areas, as is custom after we complete a trial. I think now might be the time for me to push that we start that exploration. That should provide plenty of distraction for you to do what you need to do.”
“Yes, that should suffice.”
And then she came to a mental crossroads. There was one final decision to make: whether or not to actually tell Byakuya about the emergency letter. She could tell him, which would undoubtedly incur a bunch of questions she didn’t want to answer, or she could just leave it be and hope he would get the initiative and go looking for it when the time was right. Even though he’d already agreed to the plan, this part of it felt more personal, for whatever reason, and Kyoko was unsure of what she wanted to do. Putting her trust in others was already difficult, and letting them in further could potentially leave her susceptible to danger. But she thought about Makoto, and how he’d challenged her usual way of operating. He’d inspired her to trust him, and she had already benefitted greatly from it. She owed her life to it. Perhaps she was going soft, but his influence made her feel more open to trusting others.
So, while she did go back and forth a few times in her mind, ultimately she decided that letting this matter be was too risky. She wrote the letter for a reason. She’d gone this far with the trust, and she needed to trust Byakuya with this, too.
“Before I go, there is one last thing you should know.”
“Yet another thing? Enlighten me, then.”
“You still have my room key, yes?”
“I do.”
“In the case that over a day passes and I do not return, there is…something I’ve hidden in my room. Retrieve it. Hopefully it can be of some use to you and the others in my absence.”
Byakuya lifted a brow. “Well, you certainly have my attention. What exactly is this thing?”
“It is a contingency plan,” she said, purposefully keeping it vague. She was not going to mention that the item in question was currently disguised as a love letter to Makoto, which would surely earn ridicule from him. If he ever saw the letter, she wouldn’t be around for him to tease. “In the case that something happens to me.”
“Tch. Not going to say anything more about what it actually is? Fine, then.”
“It should be obvious when you see it. I believe you’re smart enough to figure it out.”
Suddenly, he narrowed his eyes, cogs spinning in his head. “Wait a moment. If I have your room key, how did you get in there to hide something?”
“It’s been in there since before you took my key,” she lied seamlessly. “It concerns more than my rescue plans.” That part, at least, wasn’t a lie.
His suspicion settled back into intrigue. “I knew you’d been planning something for a while.”
“Of course I have.” That was also true. She’d been investigating this school and making plans from the very beginning. “Listen. That item is in case of an emergency only. I’m hoping that you shouldn’t need to go looking for it at all. If I’m here, you will not need it.”
“What’s to stop me from going in there right after you jump down the chute and retrieving it regardless?”
“Nothing,” she said simply.
“Nothing? A very risky move on your part to tell me.”
“We’ve reached the point where we have to take risks. And like I said before, we have to work together. So I’m hoping you’ll trust me like I’ve decided to trust you.”
That was the first time the word “trust” had been said out loud in this conversation, and both of them felt the significant weight of the word, as if they were physically holding it between them.
After staring at her again for a long, tense moment, he closed his eyes and let out a deep exhale.
“Trusting people is, inherently, a foolish endeavor. Do not make me regret it.”
His concession signaled a definitive checkmate, yielding victory to her in their tête-à-tête. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a moment to revel in it. Now that she had secured what she was looking for, she needed to move out. She’d spent enough time here as it was, and the clock was ticking to reach Makoto.
“We’ve discussed all that we need to discuss, so it’s time for me to head off. I’ll be gone for hours, likely, before I return.”
Byakuya stood up straighter, his body language shifting as he also recognized that it was go-time. “Okay. Do try not to perish. At this point I’d like to avoid being held responsible for your death, and meeting with you alone like this might implicate me.”
“Don’t worry, I think the others realize that if you were going to kill someone at this point you would’ve done it already.”
He gave her a hard glare that did not faze her at all. “You’d better get going. No need to waste any more time.”
“Yes. I’ll leave first, and then you go. Do not follow me.”
He nodded one final time. It almost felt like a goodbye. “If you have any kind of luck on your side, I will see you in a few hours.”
A small grin tugged at the corner of her lip. “Well, then it’s a good thing I’m on a mission to find the Ultimate Lucky Student.”