Kyoko is whisked away into the darkness.

Before Kyoko could decide which bad option of where to go was the least awful, the decision was taken from her. A hand clapped over her mouth, and an arm around her waist. Her gasp at the bump of a clothed body against her own bare behind was muffled. Ordinarily, she might have had some chance of defending herself and overcoming her attacker, but her combination of shock and nakedness made her forget her training. Before she knew it, her captor had pulled her out of the hallway and into the broom closet. Whoever had grabbed her shut the closet door easily and carefully, which told Kyoko clearly he was trying not to be heard.

When they were inside, her captor let her go. She could tell from the noise that he was locking the closet door from the inside. If the person who'd been out there tried to investigate, it would be entirely possible she'd find nothing but an irritatingly locked broom closet, not an unusual way for most people to find a closet to be. She might decide it was her imagination and leave... If, of course, Kyoko didn't shout for help, which she was free to do now that her captor had released her.

However, she held her tongue. Even in this situation, her wits were sharp enough to give her pause for consideration. If this was going the worst possible way, she'd have been hit with chloroform or otherwise knocked out by this point. The first thing she needed was information and understanding. Therefore, even before grabbing for something to defend herself with, Kyoko pulled the chain for the closet light to reveal her captor.

... It was Shuichi Saihara, the other Ultimate Detective who she'd already run in with earlier that day. As she'd expected, he'd been locking the door. When the lights came on, however, he turned his attention and his fair face towards Kyoko again, quickly becoming red.

Kyoko had the switch in one hand, so she had just one hand to cross over her breasts. She was aware of his gaze snaking down her shoulders, to her belly, and certainly even lower...

Barely keeping herself from letting out a yelp, Kyoko yanked the chain again to cast the closet into darkness once more. "Shuichi Saihara," she hissed in a barely audible whisper. "I want an explanation for this, and I advise you to make it a good one. If you can't do that, my next advice would be to defend yourself."

"Calm down, calm down!" the other detective hissed in return, not doing quite as well as she was in keeping his voice to a practiced low volume. "Look, I think I got us here safe. Nobody else knows we're here, so I saved you, right? Now, if anyone's gonna start explaining anything, I think it ought to be you!"

"Forgive me if I don't say 'thank you.' You know who I am, so I ask you: do you think I'm an idiot? For you to 'save me' that fast, you must have been tailing me! How long have you been watching me run around in the nude?!"

"I wasn't tailing you, I was watching- I mean, I wasn't watching you! N-not any more than I had to! But, yes, I was tailing you. I have no idea what's going on, but you don't have to be a detective to tell it's something strange. And... and I can tell you're in trouble! I want to help you, Kyoko."

"Help...?" Kyoko's eyes widened in the dark. She put her hand to her lips pensively. "That'd be a good arrangement... You're free to move and get me something to wear. Shuichi, I apologize for snapping at you. If you could find me some clothes, that would actually be a tremendous help."

"Ahaha!" Shuichi laughed nervously. "It'd be my honor to help the great detective of Hope's Peak Academy! Think I could put it on my resume, actually?"

"Obviously not," Kyoko replied without humor.

"... Yeah," Shuichi sighed. "And, of course, you don't owe me an apology for snapping at me. I understand if you're freaked out. There's only one thing I want an apology for you snapping," Shuichi laughed again.

Kyoko paused, not understanding what joke he'd been reaching for this time. "An apology for snapping?"

"Oh, uh... y'know, I can tell you're obviously in the middle of something crazy here, with a lot on your mind. And of course, I want to help you, it's just... My phone. I-I guess something like that probably isn't a big deal to someone like you, in your line of work, but..." The young man trailed off, then gulped, speaking more formally. "I'd, uh... I'd like you to pay for my phone. Please."

Kyoko didn't know if Shuichi could tell in the dark, but she'd almost jumped. She felt her heart catch in her throat. When she spoke her next words, they were in the calm, cool tone of one practiced in hiding their feelings. "Shuichi... Are you extorting me? Even if you're going to do me a favor, why would I pay for your phone?"

When Shuichi spoke up again, he sounded incredulous. "W-well... Because you broke it? I'm sure you had your reasons... f-for that crazy stuff you were doing. I'm sure someone put you up to it...!"

"When was this? I still don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about."

"Huh...?! Um, you were wearing a Monokuma head and doing a sexy- ah! D-doing a weird dance, or uh, some kind of p-performance! C'mon, there's no way you forgot!"

"Shuichi..." Kyoko sighed, still displaying practiced calm, as though he were the one being ridiculous. "You've got quite an imagination. There's a logical story for why I'm dressed the way I am, but it has nothing to do with whatever you're imagining."

"You were shaking your butt at me and talking in Monokuma's voice!" Shuichi shouted now, no longer doing any fair job of keeping his voice down. "Are you seriously trying to say that wasn't you?"

"How could it possibly be me? I would never dance like you're describing, even if my life depended on it. I'd die first."

"I s-saw your hair! I saw the hair down there," Shuichi declared in a high-pitched voice. "There's only a couple of girls in this school that would likely have hair that color. Can you please just admit it so we can move on to you paying for my phone?!"

... Kyoko stayed silent for a moment. She was thinking. There was no way she could admit to what Shuichi was accusing her of. By all accounts, he had her dead to rights; she could probably foot his phone costs, painful though that expense might be; furthermore, he did seem genuinely interested in helping her.

But...

"I can't admit it. I'll die before I do," Kyoko spoke to herself, feeling the sweat beginning to bead on her forehead as she gripped her forearm tightly. "If I admit I broke Shuichi's phone, I admit I did that dance for him. As long as I don't admit I was there, there's no evidence that actually ties me to that scene. It's his word against mine. Above all else... I simply can't let another member of my profession, a boy about my same age, know that I did... some sort of booty dance for him, hardly dressed in a ridiculous mascot outfit... It'd be the end of me."

So, she denied it again. "I don't know how much time you spend thinking about the pubic hair of your classmates, Shuichi, but that's none of my business. I don't admit to anything but having a very unfortunate day on an abnormal case. If you're not going to help me with my problem, I'll ask you to leave me alone."

"So you think I'm an idiot," Shuichi sighed, exasperated. "...Okay, Kyoko. Fine! You don't have to admit anything. There's another way we can do this."

Her bluff had worked... Or, maybe, her willpower had just won out over Shuichi's own weakness, Kyoko admitted to herself. Still, this was a huge relief. "Another way sounds good. Let's hear Plan B."