Phantom Thieves of Hope - A Danganronpa X Persona 5 Story.

Chapter 35: Convergence of Conspiracies

Cool Morning - Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

"Hm...That was surprisingly nice of Enoshima-san," Kyoko considered once Makoto recounted the story to her, "I'm glad she could pick you back up on your feet. I'm sorry I never noticed such concerns before."

"Hey, it's fine. It's not like I was suffering internally over it. They were just some intrusive thoughts I let get out," Makoto assured her, "it's nothing new."

Makoto sat down in a cafe with his detective friend after school. With not much to do in the evening, he'd decided to spend some time with her, to catch up on the goings on in her life, as well as potentially seeing if she'd made progress in her investigation.

"By the way Kyoko," Makoto piped up, "you said that you were going to show up for the Sports Festival, right? Which events are you participating in?"

"I've only signed up for a few. Just doing the parts that I can," Kyoko took a sip of her iced tea, "but the main one I've been assigned is captain of the three-legged race team."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure Hifumi, Hiro, and Mukuro are doing that one as well..." he recalled.

"It's not my style, but I don't want to drag anyone down," Kyoko smiled, "I hear that Shuichi's classmate Harukawa-san is participating too. I should be careful of her. She seems unnaturally fast."

"I've actually done some strength training with Harukawa before. Her, Shuichi, and their classmate Momota," Makoto explained, "and yeah, she is weirdly athletic for someone who looks after kids for a living. Maybe she just trained to chase after them?"

"Most kids aren't that fast..." Kyoko sipped her drink.

"I guess that's fair. Masaru-kun is pretty fast though, at least that's what I've heard from Kotoko," Makoto took a bite out of his muffin, "although to be honest, I was hoping to ask you how things are going on in your investigation. In you-know-what, I mean..."

He lowered his voice, and Kyoko did a very quick look around to see if anyone was listening in. She then lowered her voice as well.

"Well, I haven't had much of a chance to do much on-field investigation yet. But I have given it some careful consideration, and I think I've come to at least SOME conclusions..." she explained, "and to be honest with you, there's more than one reason why I intend to practice for the sports festival this year..."

"Oh, really?" he asked. She nodded.

REAL • FICTION - Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

"As I said before, I tried thinking about it the other way. I gave it some thought and began searching for potential suspects who may have had a connection to our previous targets and people of interest, like those involved in the scandals," she explained, "and right now, there's one specific group that had caught my attention...Have you noticed that a lot of the incidents seem to revolve around Hope's Peak?"

"Now that you mention it, some of the news stories I've seen of the scandals do somehow tie back to the academy. Not to mention, all of our big targets have a connection to the school of some kind," Makoto considered, "Towa was the lead funder and constructor for the school's latest and greatest scheme, and Fuhito and Kirie were connected to Kaede and you. You think someone in the school might be involved?"

"What's your opinion of the Steering Committee, Makoto?" Kyoko asked suddenly. Makoto took a second to think about this.

"Well, to be honest, I don't have much of one. It's very rare that anyone actually gets a chance to meet them face to face. Any information is usually passed through them through Headmaster Kirigiri or Councilman Tengan. I think the only two students I know that have actually met them are you and Kaede," he said, "but based on the Towa incident and what he told me, Toko and Junko, they seem like arrogant and selfish men...Like their own goals take priority over anyone else's, and they'll even do cruel things, like protecting that pedophile, to achieve them..."