(A/N: chapter title taken from a song by Lacuna Coil, and the choice Aizawa faces is directly inspired by one in the Saw video games.)

Ide can feel the world slipping. Not as bad as it did after Matsuda died, when it really did feel like everything had torn itself to pieces and no one else had noticed. But... it's like a prelude to that. Cracks all over the surface. He can taste dust and blood and he feels like the air's too thin, though god knows whether that's nerve gas or the memory of being shut in that box or just psychosomatic.

At any rate, the others don't look any better. Ukita is still passed out, Chief Yagami's barely conscious and it seems like every breath he draws is an effort, and Aizawa and Eriko, in each other's arms, are both staring numbly at the door that must be the exit to Mogi's trap, looking as if they expect the worst any second. Aizawa would never normally let you see he was this stressed. Or if he was giving himself away, it'd be through shouting and slamming the table. Ide wants to say to him you okay? but that's a stupid question and besides, what would he do if Aizawa said no? Tell him things could be worse?

His thoughts swing back to what Ukita told them. The letter. Matsuda. It clinches it, really. Jigsaw had had someone in the police helping him all along, or at the very least since Toyama's death. Ide can see it, Matsuda slowly being convinced that he needed to do something - that just being a police officer wasn't enough, that these people deserve to be punished. He would have heard what Toyama had said when being questioned - he knew, like they all did, that the guy was guilty as sin - and Matsuda had always seemed to struggle with the idea that the world wasn't fair -

So stupid -

But there's no point in feeling sad about it, for god's sake. In fact, it's good if that is what happened, right? Makes you the innocent victim - makes you a survivor - if the truth comes out then it'll all stop, he'll get his life back, no longer feel like everyone's talking about him just out of earshot -

Yeah, let's see if I survive this first. The Chief's leg wound has left a wide trail of blood all along the landing; the burns visible on Ukita's back and arms are fierce red edged with a horrible dead white; Eriko's injured arm is hanging limp at her side and her face and legs are striped with more cuts.

Just as he wonders what's happening in the other room, he hears the door rattle. Then it swings open, and Raito, covered in blood, stumbles out into the corridor.

He stares at them, eyes wide, trembling, and he swallows and starts to say, "Mikami..." and then, "Oh, god, I'm sorry..."

Ide waits but there's no other movement, no one else walks through the doorway, and Raito swallows again, says, "I tried..."

"Where's Mogi?" Ide hears himself say, angry like any of this is Raito's fault. He's not angry. He's - it can't be, it -

"Mikami..." Raito takes a deep breath, visibly getting a grip, and - so clearly trying to be the mature, responsible detective-to-be making a report - says, "Mikami killed him. There was a pit full of... of broken glass..." He holds out his hands, which are striped with cuts. "We were talking about Jigsaw. I think Mikami told Mogi some things earlier, in the other trap... I think he realised he shouldn't have given a police officer that much information. He kept saying God would punish him and then..." Shuddering, he rubs a hand over his mouth. "Then he picked up a piece of glass and..."

"You're sure?" Aizawa says. "You're sure Mogi's dead?"

"Yes. There was..." Raito swallows. "There was blood everywhere, Aizawa-san..."

"What happened to Mikami?" Eriko says.

"I... I panicked," Raito says. "I was... I was holding... there was glass everywhere and I... he was coming after me and I just... I didn't mean to, but he was crazy and I just... I didn't want to die..."

Ide can't tell if he's horrified or if he's not actually feeling anything. The world's definitely splintering now. And at the back of his mind a small voice is going they'll pin this on you, you know that - first Ukita, now Mogi - they go into a trap with you and only you make it out - that's what Jigsaw wants -

Which is a horrifically selfish reaction but the fact is, it's true -

"Did you get the key?" Eriko says, abruptly.

Raito nods, holds it out. It's speckled with bloody fingerprints, but Eriko grabs it anyway.

"If Shuichi and I carry Ukita-san," she says, "the two of you can bring Yagami-san?"

"We should..." Aizawa's voice is hoarse. "We should go and... Mogi might still..."

"I don't... I don't think there's time," Raito says, numbly. "If he wasn't dead when I... when I left then... It was right across the jugular. It... all that blood..."

Ide expects Aizawa to argue, but although his friend starts to say something, it trails off, and his shoulders slump. Eriko puts a hand on his arm.

"Come on," she says. "We have to go."

Raito takes a deep breath and walks over to his father. Ide goes to help him. Chief Yagami's breathing is slow, shallow, and he stares blankly at them both like he doesn't know them. As they haul him up, each resting one of his arms across their shoulders, Ide finds himself waiting for the next breath, terrified it won't come (and then Raito will lose it, and then they'll all lose it, and then, and then...) They don't have far to go to the next door - it's only at the end of the landing - but every step feels like an effort, not least because Ide wants to get out, he wants to flee, not stumble along weighed down by a dying man...

The Chief tries to say something. Even that makes him tremble with effort, and Ide snaps, "Don't try and talk." Anger again. As if they're all equally to blame for all of this.

Eriko, staggering under Ukita's weight, is pulling the door open, and then she and Aizawa are already stumbling through it. As Ide and Raito catch them up, Ide hears her crying "Oh, thank god..." and then, softly, "Yumi, sweetheart? Just stay still, we're going to get you out of that thing..."

Ide feels a stab of relief run through him. If they've found the kid, then that means this must be over, right? He tries to ignore the thought that two of them - three, if you count the Chief - haven't had to face a trap. Still, maybe Jigsaw thought Raito was too good to deserve it. Maybe he thought Aizawa had suffered enough. You can't start complaining because you haven't seen enough death traps. The point is that they're at the end, they'll make it out -

The room is dark - the only source of lights are another bare bulb in the corner and a TV screen, hanging on the wall opposite Yumi but showing nothing but static. Yumi herself stands in the middle of the room, still, the lower half of her face encased in rusty metal and wires like a giant, horrific set of false teeth. Eriko rushes over to her, but slows down as she gets there, swallows.

"There must be a key," Raito says. "Don't touch it, Aizawa-san - we don't want to trigger anything -"

In one hand, Yumi is holding a torch; in the other, a knife. Eriko grabs them from her, stares desperately at them, but then Yumi tugs at her mother's sleeve and then, shakily, points. Below the TV, on the ground, is a covered tank, about a foot high. Through a narrow slit in the cover, Ide can just see the glint of light on water.

Take a proper look. I bet you it's not anything as harmless as water.

"In there?" Eriko says.

Ide moves over to the tank. Even as his eyes adjust to the dark he can hardly see anything. But he knows. Things coming full circle. A trap, Matsuda showing up again, and now this -

"Did he - were you given a message?" he says to Yumi, trying to keep his voice calm, looking her in what he can see of her face. Her eyes, wide and pale, stare back at him from above the metal of the bear trap. She nods, points to the TV.

"Did it say there's something in here?"

She nods again, puts a hand to the trap, then points. Eriko's telling Aizawa what they can see, but Ide isn't hearing it any more. He kneels down on the chilly floor, rolls up his blood-encrusted sleeve.

Don't drop it once you've got hold of it. And don't let the stuff splash up into your face.

God, he'd been giving advice to Matsuda like the bastard had actually needed it.

The sudden stab of anger makes him able to shove his hand down into the darkness of the tank before he can think about it. And yes - cool liquid, again, that starts to sting and then to burn as his skin wakes up to what's happening - but it's not as bad this time, it's not, the scar tissue must - everything deadened, nerves buried - his mind is screaming at him to get his hand out of there but he curls his other one into a fist, digs his nails into his palm and feels around, through the pain, against the smooth floor of the tank -

Ready?

No.

Eriko is saying something but he can't hear what it is. Just him and the liquid and - hurts - and Matsuda saying Ide, wake up - please? No, that had been later - it hurts - a hand clutching his wrist - he clenches his fist - it - his breath is sticking in his throat and he can't, he can't, he -

Against his fingers, something small and hard, and he almost loses his grip on it because he's so shocked to find what he's looking for. Scrabbles after it - ripples and waves in the liquid, coolness rising up his wrist followed by the needles-and-pins of the burn - and then it's in his hand and feeling like he's tearing himself free from it all, he yanks his arm from the tank and drops the key onto the ground.

"Are you all right?" Eriko says, looking at him warily like he's bleeding to death in front of her. She goes to pick up the key, wrapping a fold of her shirt round her hand first.

"Dry it off," Raito says, quietly. "We don't want to short-circuit anything."

Ide can hear himself breathing. At first it's too fast, but as he listens, he feels it sink back to normal. In. Out. Still alive. Like this was the final test, like now he's proved himself. Maybe it is. They'll get Yumi out, and then they'll get out of here and it will all be over -

Really? When two other people are dead and you've survived, again?

They can fix it this time - this has got to throw up some leads -

There's a clank, and he looks round to see Eriko gently lifting the bear trap off her daughter's head. Yumi stands very still. There are lines of blood from either corner of her mouth, oozing down towards her jaw. Eriko, shuddering, places the bear trap on the ground, and then whispers, "Let me see..." and tilts Yumi's face slightly, checking the wounds, patting her down for other injuries. Aizawa stands, watches without seeing, teeth gritted.

Now Ide's eyes are adjusting to the dim light, he realises there are photographs all over the walls. He squints at them, trying to ignore the pain in his hand. It's hard to make them out properly, but he thinks he spots Aizawa and his family - the Yagamis - Mogi and Ukita -

Himself, just opening the door to his apartment block. The photographer must have been on the other side of the road - maybe in a parked car. So - what, Jigsaw's been watching all this time? One of Eriko at the shops; Mogi walking up the steps of the NPA headquarters; Raito walking down a blossom-lined path on Tokyo University campus. As if everyone here is just entertainment - as if Jigsaw just checks in with what they're doing to keep himself occupied -

Except that scrawled in red paint along the top of the wall, drips of it spattering the top line of photos, is writing. NOT WHAT THEY SEEM. Ide stares at it, feeling again like everyone's watching him, waiting for him to react. No pictures of Matsuda. That would make it too obvious, right? He should be looking, searching for clues, but he doesn't want to - seeing their lives fragmented and pinned up on the wall is making him feel like there really is nowhere to hide, like this will never end -

Stop it. He's trying to mess with our heads. That's all it is.

A crackle of static. The TV flickers and that puppet appears on it again. Ide doesn't even find himself that surprised, but he sees Raito twitch, and Eriko clutches at Yumi.

Well done. If you have made it to this room, at least some of you have faced and defeated your flaws. But two of you will have remained untested, and in order to win your freedom you will have to make another choice."

Raito's eyes widen; Eriko, still holding Yumi, reaches out to grab Aizawa's hand.

"Aizawa-san," that voice carries on, "You've seen now the consequences of blindly sticking to the same path. It didn't just hurt you, but nearly destroyed your family. Don't pretend you want to hunt me down for any altruistic purpose. It's for revenge, isn't it?

"Next to the door are two choices. One of them will give you another piece of the puzzle, but I warn you that knowledge is never gained without cost. Make your choice."

Ide looks round. The door is in the far corner, below the light bulb. And next to it, in the glow, there are two buttons. He takes a step towards them, then another, feeling like he's dreaming.

One is labelled Freedom, the other Truth.

Eriko whispers the words, then, shakily, says, "He wants us to pick freedom. That's obvious. If - if we pick truth, something will - he'll kill us -" She takes a step forward as if she's about to press the button herself, then glances back at Aizawa, who is staring numbly ahead, the light from the screen flickering on his face. "For god's sake, it isn't a binding contract! Let's choose freedom and get out!"

She's right, of course she's right, and yet - Ide can already see it, the way Aizawa's shoulders are slumping, the bitterness in his face -

"No," he's saying now. "No, if we - if we walk out of here alive, we can't go back. What Ide and I were doing before, it - it won't get results fast enough. I can't... what's happened to you, to Yumi..."

The shadows feel like they're growing darker, like there's just the light bulb and the two buttons and Aizawa's voice, flat and hopeless: "He wins. If we make it out of here, he wins. I'll let it go."

"We can - we can talk about it later," Eriko says, swallowing, and at least she's not going I told you so, but it doesn't make Ide feel any better. "Look, I'll choose freedom and we can just go -" She's already taking a step forward and it hits Ide that's it, that if he doesn't do something now then -

"What about me?"

Eriko stops, frowns at him. "What about you? Ide-san, you're in as much danger as the rest of us."

"That's... that's not what I meant." His voice is shaking, he can't tell if it's with anger or something else. Look at me, you bastard, just look - "You. You... give up, you walk away from it... that's great. That's fine, you have your reputation as the man who survived two Jigsaw traps, you... and after what's happened to - no one will judge you."

"Ide..." Aizawa begins, weary-sounding like he's humouring a child.

"Don't talk to me like it doesn't matter!" Doesn't Aizawa get it? Hasn't he seen what it's like? "I... they'll find... all the - the - you give up on me and - that's it -" He doesn't want to hear it said but might as well make the point, rub it in exactly what Aizawa's considering doing - "I'm screwed -"

"It's not like that," Aizawa says, but he's not even bothering to direct his words to where he knows Ide is, he's just speaking into the dark. "It isn't like the whole investigation will be halted. They'll look into it and they'll find out you were innocent."

"Yeah, because they've done a great job of that so far, haven't they? And you don't think, after six detectives have been put through the mill, that they might not want just to settle for the easiest option and keep their heads down? You don't think they might not charge me just to show they're doing something?"

"That's not the damn point!" Aizawa yells. "He could've killed Yumi - he nearly killed Eriko - Mogi's dead and the Chief and Ukita aren't far off - we can't do this any more!"

"And Jigsaw doesn't know that? Sure, great, why don't we give in to all the killers and lunatics to save our own skins! Doesn't matter if they make other people cut out their own eyes - as long as we're safe that's all that matters!"

"You should talk -" Aizawa throws out the words, his voice cracking - "Isn't that what you thought last time you played one of these games?"

Ide stares at him and at first he actually can't believe he heard right. He thought - he thought Aizawa had understood, at least wasn't hating him for what he'd done. He thought one person, at least, had forgiven him. And... and all the time, Aizawa had been despising him just as much as everyone else -

Well, of course he would -

So stupid - just like Matsuda, just watching and amazed I'm actually falling for it -

Well, not any more. He's sick of everyone else getting to play the hero and making him the villain. He's sick of trying to do what's right for others. He's lost everything already and for once, just once - lied to and screwed over and suspected and hated and - this time he's going to win the game for himself -

He dives forward, so angry he's almost stumbling over his own feet, and slams his hand down on the button marked Truth.

Eriko is already screaming "No!" and she grabs at his arm but already all around them the basement is full of the grinding of machinery. The TV flickers, shows just static for a few seconds, and then, all at once, the white-and-red face of the puppet appears again and a canned cackle echoes round the room.

"If you want to know the truth, you have to find it yourselves. You hold all the pieces, and you must put them together. The apprentice of mine who belongs to the police has been in the house with you since the start. As I suspect they aren't feeling motivated to search for the truth, I've given you an incentive to co-operate and pool your knowledge. The way out of this room has sealed, and escape will only be possible with the resources my apprentice carries within them. You now have eight minutes until the explosives in the walls of this building activate. I suggest you solve the puzzle - quickly."

A timer appears on the screens, and starts to tick down. 7:59. 7:58.

"You idiot -" Eriko screams, and for a moment Ide thinks she might actually hit him. He swallows, tries to pull his thoughts together and not think about how they're going to die, how he's doomed them all, not thinking -

He - it means Matsuda, right? It must do - Jigsaw talking about someone who's already dead, it's a typical misdirection - but what resources? They already used those two keys -

He's about to suggest to Raito that they try them in this lock anyway but then Aizawa says - coldly and calmly, "All right. The bastard's been in the house with us since the start. It's obviously not Raito, Eriko, or Yumi, and we know Mikami was on his side anyway. So that leaves me, you, Mogi, Ukita, and the Chief. You wanted to solve this, so let's hurry up and do it."

Ide can feel the fury his friend is just keeping back and he wants to say he's sorry, but they don't have time for that. "No - no, it's not -" How the hell can he explain it? He tries to remember what he and Raito discussed before, in that room, in the dark - "Not us. It's Matsuda. He means Matsuda."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Aizawa says, voice rising.

Get a grip, you can do anything if it means you survive, that's the point - "He set us up. I told you, I said, he kept thinking about it all." "I suppose some of them deserved it, right?" "He kept going on about all the victims, he was questioning it. Then he tried to delay me." "Hey, you got any plans for the evening?" "He was waiting, he - and it was going to be him, he was going to survive like me, instead of me and I didn't know, all right?" It hurts gripping the weapon with both hands it hurts but he's still pulling the trigger - "If I'd fucking known I wouldn't have let him get the jump on me, but I didn't figure it out! I never figure it out!" And the clock counting down and he can feel it, the solution staring him in the face, laughing -

"Get a grip!" Aizawa shouts at him. "Just think about something other than what you've done for once!"

"I am!" A deep, shaky breath. In. Out. Still alive. "He thinks so -" He looks round for Raito, who's watching them, actually looking perturbed now like finally something's got to him. "You said - it all made sense..." He sounds so stupid begging a college student for the answers, but Raito's smart, Raito knew -

"It was a hypothesis." Raito's looking wary, and though he's clearly making an effort to stay calm, his voice is shaking. "I thought Matsuda-san could have been indoctrinated. He certainly always wanted to do good and didn't always think things through."

"I don't believe it," Aizawa says, and Ide feels sick at how easily the dismissal comes, oh, Matsuda would never do anything wrong, but you - "Besides, he's not here -"

"He is," Raito says. "For Ide's trap, he had to find keys in the corpse." He hurries over to the door, fumbling in his pockets: "But they were for the door there. Nothing said anything about a third key." He's trying both keys in the lock, but shakes his head. "If Jigsaw did mean Matsuda-san, then we've... we've failed. Whatever the puzzle was, we didn't solve it."

6:44. 6:43.

"We're not going to die here," Eriko says, wrenching out the words. "Shuichi - Ide-san - you've been thinking about this for weeks. Look, didn't Ukita-san say that - that this spy is the one who killed that Toyama criminal? Wrote the man a letter blackmailing him? And Matsuda-san found it and told the... the wrong person - let's assume he wasn't the spy and... and just -"

"If the spy was the one who killed Toyama," Ide says, trying not to look at the numbers ticking away out of the corner of his eye, "then he's been working with Jigsaw since very early on. Toyama was the fourth victim. And..."

What about Toyama and Shirami? We got nothing from them because of the fire damage. Hell, Amane's body would've been burnt to a crisp...

What's special about those victims? Or are you trying to tell me there are two killers?

"Or... or he wants us to think he'd been working with Jigsaw," he says.

The solution staring him in the face...

"What?" Aizawa snaps. "Of course he's working with Jigsaw, that's why we're here."

"Not - he is now, but Toyama - he was burnt to death and that destroyed most of the evidence. We got nothing forensically from him, we didn't even get the tape. The spy wanted us to think Toyama was killed by Jigsaw, so he used fire to cover up anything that wouldn't match Jigsaw's MO. And - and then I bet Jigsaw got in touch with him. Forced him - or maybe didn't even have to force him, maybe he was happy to keep helping -"

"Someone who had a motive to kill Toyama?" Aizawa says. "Who'd that be, apart from Amane?"

"If it's a cop, they'd have seen how he got away with those murders. Maybe that pissed them off enough that they decided to kill him and pin it on Jigsaw. Doesn't... it doesn't narrow it down, but..."

"And, what, they killed Shirami too?" Aizawa frowns. "The other one who got burnt to a crisp? And Amane?"

"Wouldn't surprise me if he killed Shirami," Ide says. "Either Jigsaw told him to, or perhaps he thought he'd got away with Toyama's death and he liked being an avenging angel. Amane..."

I still think we're missing something with Amane, Aizawa had said...

The Chief, slumped on the ground, groans, draws a breath.

"Amane..." he says, hoarsely. "Amane didn't... Mogi told me... Amane faked her... her trap..."

"What?" Aizawa gasps.

"To meet him. Ji... Jigsaw." The light of the screen glows on the Chief's damp face, but he forces out the words: "He... he killed Toyama. She was grateful... Mikami told Mogi..."

"Right, so that's why he targeted her," Ide says. Another piece of the puzzle. The clock at the corner of his eye. 5:10. 5:09. He tries not to look at it. "He knew she'd borrowed his name, as it were, so he got in touch with her, arranged to meet her - hell, perhaps she knew who he was from the start. Mogi said she talked about him loving justice, being young - like she knew -" He tries not to think, the person who best fits that profile is Matsuda. Matsuda would've been able to get a date with Amane. Assume Matsuda's innocent, which makes you guilty -

"But Amane was burnt to death too," Aizawa says. "I guess he could've wanted to make it match up with what the spy did - keep us guessing - but..." He frowns. "Hang on, why would Jigsaw kill her? The spy killed Toyama, but Jigsaw recruited him. He co-opted Mikami too. He likes having allies. Amane pretty much says she's on his side, and he murders her for it?"

"Perhaps he didn't want a woman assisting him?" Raito says. "Or perhaps he thought she... she was arrogant, taking control of his traps that way? The spy eliminated someone he would have wanted dead himself, but she didn't..."

"Or perhaps," Ide says, and he feels like he's finally waking up after being asleep for weeks, "perhaps it wasn't him. Perhaps it was the spy after all. He... okay, Jigsaw is happy to test his own allies, right? He put Mikami in here, and the spy as well if that video's right. So... so maybe this was a test as well. He... put Amane in touch with the spy, or he gave her some information, and he wanted them to work together. Like he wants us to. And Amane -"

"Amane confronted the spy with what she knew," Aizawa says, nodding, "and he panicked and killed her. He'd have more access to Jigsaw's equipment and methods by now, so there weren't so many differences for us to spot, but he still used fire because he was hoping it would destroy anything he'd missed. Which means she... which means she could have been talking about the spy, when she said that to Mogi. She could have been enjoying that she knew something he didn't..."

3:53. 3:52.

"Someone smart. Someone who thinks a lot about justice. And someone... someone who's her own age," Ide says.

The Chief. Aizawa. Ukita. Mogi. Eriko. Matsuda. Each one of them falling away, and the only person left is...

He turns to stare at Raito.

"What... Ide-san," Raito says, eyes widening, "you can't think it's me."

"You fit." Ide can't tell if he's still thinking straight or if this sounds crazy to everyone else, but Aizawa's frowning, and even the Chief hasn't started protesting at it yet. "You're smart as hell and you're obviously so. You care about right and wrong, you want to join the NPA. You're Misa's age, you're good-looking, she'd jump at the chance to go somewhere with you. You... you're not meant to have access to police information but your father does, and you certainly know most of us and how the case is going. And..."

It hits him, suddenly. "And Matsuda liked you. He would have trusted you. And not only that - you're not part of the police. I wondered why he didn't tell the Chief about the letter, who he'd have trusted more than him - well, who better than his son, who is officially not part of the investigation and surely couldn't have known anything about Toyama? He'd have thought you were the one person who couldn't be the spy."

"This is ridiculous," Raito says, eyes narrowing. "You've got absolutely no evidence to prove any of that. I know we're in a desperate situation here, but throwing accusations around isn't going to help!"

"All right, how about this?" Ide says. "Mikami seemed devoted to Mogi when they went into that trap. He really seemed to feel he owed him one. And then he just turns on him and kills him for no reason? But maybe what he did do was talk about Amane in front of you. And you realised he was going to spill his guts about everything. So you killed them both."

Aizawa and the Chief are both staring, shocked, but they're not arguing - they're not seizing on any obvious holes in the story -

"Dad..." Raito says, "Aizawa-san... you're not really going to let him go on like this, are you? He's already killed one person, he's latching on to me because he's scared -"

The Chief swallows and he whispers, "Raito..." but then he doesn't say anything else. Ide makes himself stop looking. Guilt at what this will do to Raito's father is the last thing he needs.

"In my trap," he carries, trying not to think about what Raito's just said, "you were so keen to make me think Matsuda had been the spy, weren't you? You really pushed that. If I hadn't been so -" He remembers the darkness and the stench and the blood, and for a moment he thinks he's going to be sick, but the timer is still counting down and it doesn't matter - what matters is - "Jigsaw even told me - he said, he said there were a number of clues - and I might be closer than I think - and it was Toyama's trap in there, that was the one he chose to mock up-"

2:09. 2:08.

The puppet, smiling at him. Its laugh, its mouth falling open, and carved inside...

"It was the moon. It was a crescent moon."

"No," Raito says. "No, you can't seriously think -"

"Doesn't matter what I think, does it?" Ide walks towards him. 1:58. 1:57. "You've got the key on you. You give it up, or we all die."

"I haven't!" Raito snarls at him. "You think I'd be keeping it back if I had some way of getting us out? I don't want to die either! Search me if you want, but I haven't got any sort of key apart from the ones we got from Matsuda!"

Ide wants to dive across and choke him until he admits it - because he is right, he's sure of it, that moon symbol seals it - but he's pretty sure that if Raito had the key, he'd be using it. There'd be bluffing, claims that he was being framed, some clever argument as to who the killer really was, maybe even a pretense he had picked the key up from Matsuda - but while that door stays locked, Raito's as dead as the rest of them. So - so he must not know he has it -

The resources my apprentice carries within them -

Carries within them -

Yumi holding the knife -

And the ache in his own side, under his ribs, where he thought he'd cut himself on a nail or something -

"Do you all have a cut - a wound - in your stomach?" he says. "Here - under your ribs?"

If they all say no - if it is only him after all -

But Eriko fumbles with her torn blouse, nods; Aizawa says, slowly, "Yes - I can feel -" and Raito puts a hand to the spot under his shirt and goes dead white.

"We were all cut open," Aizawa says, "and... and one of us has the key?"

"No," Raito says. "No, no, don't you -"

"That's got to be it," Eriko says. Unlike the others, she doesn't look horrified. She looks... determined.

Ide reaches over and takes the knife from her. Raito takes a step backwards.

"Don't you dare -" he hisses. "It's you - you betrayed Matsuda, you betrayed all of them -"

1:11. 1:10. There's always a way out. Always a hope you'll win the game.

"Why do you even think you've worked this out?" Raito says. "You didn't manage the last one, did you? You were so sure Matsuda was out to get you... what makes you think you know any better this time?"

There's always a way out

If we don't do something

Don't want to die

And that's it. This is the only chance. If he's wrong, then they're out of time. And he's going to survive. This time, he's going to survive.

He dashes forward and punches Raito as hard as he can in the stomach. Raito doubles over, gasping and retching, and Ide shoves him backwards onto the ground. He dives onto him, but Raito is already scrambling to sit up, kicking out, and Ide can't keep a grip on him and hold the knife at the same time -

Footsteps, and suddenly Eriko's there, throwing herself across Raito, struggling to grip his wrists, her uninjured arm pressed across his throat. "Hurry up -" she screams at Ide, and he sees the clock behind her - 0:50 - 0:49 -

He manages to kneel on top of Raito's legs and then he claws at the guy's shirt - underneath it he sees the thin cut below the ribs, exactly the same place as his own wound. The knife is clammy in his hands, and Raito's screaming and cursing but that's not important, it's almost out of hearing as he grips the knife tighter and slams it into Raito's stomach.

Blood welling up from where the blade meets the skin. Raito screaming, yelling for his father. Ide dragsthe knife down, cuts through the fine stitches that closed the original wound, and then sticks his fingers of his free hand into it. Wet slipperiness and blood oozing down his wrist. God, how deep is the key, what if they can't find it, what if he is wrong - Raito manages to half-shake Eriko off and Ide desperately widens the opening with the knife, claws frantically amid the blood -

Hard metal against his fingers -

He wrenches his hand free and in his blood-drenched, glistening fingers there's a key. Eriko snatches it off him and runs for the door. The knife is still under Ide's hand. He grips the handle and - god, he could just wrench it to the left, drag it across the length of Raito's stomach - gut him like a pig - serve him right - he killed Matsuda - he set me up - he set me up and he was watching all the time and he probably thought it was funny -

Raito's face is dead white and his teeth are gritted with pain but his eyes are glinting and as their gazes meet, he smiles.

Ide yanks the knife out of him and Raito is already scrambling up, far faster than anyone who's just been stabbed should be. Ide staggers to his feet. Yumi and Aizawa have gone too. Get out. 0:14. 0:13.

But the Chief - and Ukita -

Ukita's nearest. Ide flings the knife aside, grabs his colleague and hauls him up - the door's only a few feet away but with someone else's dead weight on you that might as well be miles - hurry -

He'll come back for the Chief -

Two more steps - one -

0:06. 0:05.

Cold night air. His arms and shoulders burning with the effort of supporting Ukita's weight. Stumbling forward. Everything still for a few moments, as if nothing is wrong - as if it's all in his head -

And then the world explodes behind him.

When he opens his eyes, at first there's nothing but more darkness. But then - or maybe later, because time's gone strange - he starts to pick things out. Paler blackness of sky above jagged roofs. The smell of smoke. A low ringing in his ears. He aches all over, feels covered with blood and grit. He's on the ground - he can smell earth and rain - and liquid, like tears but not, more blood, is oozing down his face.

Someone is kneeling next to him. He turns his head, and can just make out Raito's face, ghostly white in the darkness. His breathing's hoarse, and he's got his arms wrapped round his body, shielding the wound.

Their eyes meet again.

Raito smiles, and Ide wishes like hell he had the strength to get up and back away. No one with any sanity left in them smiles like that. Particularly after they've been hacked open for a key and then narrowly escaped being blown to bits.

"I knew you'd do it," Raito says at last.

Oh, come on. If he hadn't, one of the others would. Hell, Raito would probably have managed to do it himself if he'd not been panicking.

He opens his mouth to try and say some of this, but his throat's too dry to speak.

"Oh... not that." Raito laughs - sharp breaths. "Not the key. With Matsuda. I told him. I told him, bring someone you trusted. I don't want it just to be us two. I said, how about Ide? He seems like someone you can rely on." Indistinct; his breathing's harsh and sharp. "I knew if it was you, Matsuda would never leave that building alive." His smile widens. "I just thought you'd like to know."

Ide feels dizzy and sick and the words reshuffle and form themselves into nonsense. As if he can pretend he never heard them.

You're a liar, he thinks, or wants to say, you've always been a liar, but he can't get the words out.

Raito laughs again: "After all, you risked everyone else's lives just now because you couldn't bear to admit you'd lost." He's scrambling to his feet. Go after him, Ide yells at himself, he's a killer, you need to stop him, but as he pushes himself up, everything lurches and sends him sprawling again.

"Your father..." he manages to say, because he wants to hurt Raito and this is the only way he's even got a hope of doing so. "You..."

Raito looks down at him, face blank now, firelight glinting in his eyes.

"My father would have understood," he says, softly. "You saw what he did. He'll do anything if it's the right thing to do. Just like me.

"You - you just didn't want to die. Pathetic."

His footsteps crunch on wreckage, and he's gone.

Aizawa rings the doorbell several times, and then thumps on the door, but Ide doesn't answer. He almost gives up - his funeral suit is too crisp, it itches at his neck - but Ide's been looking like death all week, worse and worse as the day of Matsuda's memorial service draws closer, and Aizawa can't just walk away and leave him now. And besides... he's not worried, exactly, but he's... he would like to see that Ide's there, see that he's basically all right. Just to make sure.

In the end he gets his mobile out and calls the apartment landline. He hears it start ringing, distant, beyond the door. After twenty rings, he hears movement, someone staggering to their feet, and then a clatter as the receiver is, fumblingly, picked up.

"It's me," he says. "Let me in."

Ide is blind drunk. Which isn't entirely surprising, but Aizawa's taken aback by just how much his friend must have had. He doesn't think he's ever seen Ide that out of it before. But he sticks around anyway - Ide's not typically an abusive drunk, and on this occasion he's more numb and still than anything else. Aizawa forces water and coffee on him and then waits, telling himself he's just making sure Ide doesn't manage to choke himself or fall down the stairs. He knows perfectly well he was worried about more than that, but it hasn't happened, so there's no point in thinking about it.

By the evening, Ide has moved from drunken bleariness to hungover and wincing every time he blinks. Aizawa itches to say to him drinking yourself to death won't help, you know, but he keeps his mouth shut. He doesn't have the energy for an argument. Matsuda's funeral tired him out, particularly when the man's father asked him what steps were being taken to hunt Jigsaw down and why there weren't any leads.

And besides, there are worse ways of escaping a situation than alcohol.

"Do you want something to eat?" he says instead.

Ide shudders, shakes his head.

"You... you think I'm being stupid," he says at last, voice just above a whisper.

"I think getting that drunk is generally pretty stupid."

"It's none of your business."

Aizawa shrugs. He doesn't want an argument and he doesn't think Ide actually does either. This is just reflex. Or feeling like shit and lashing out at the nearest available person. Whatever, there's no point in reacting to it.

"Anything changed?" Ide says, coming to sit at the table, resting his head on one hand.

"With what?"

"The case. Matsuda. What they're... if they're..."

He's shaking. Aizawa wonders if he realises it.

"No," he says. "Still no leads."

"They... they wouldn't have wanted me there." Ide indicates Aizawa, his black suit.

"It's all right." Which is a stupid comment to make, but what else is he supposed to say?

"It's not fucking all right." Ide snarls it, but his voice cracks. Aizawa goes to get him another glass of water, lets them both pretend it's just a dry throat from alcohol-induced dehydration. From behind him, Ide carries on, "I'd want to see... if it were me, I'd want to see me dead. You haven't even gone off on one. You haven't even said..."

"What's the point of yelling at you? It's not like you don't get..." Aizawa nearly says how bad this is, but decides that probably won't help and switches it to "It's not like you're pretending it was nothing."

"I know it wasn't nothing," Ide says, like Aizawa accused him anyway. "It's not just about suspension or whatever. It's not just about getting charged for it or everyone thinking I'm Jigsaw or whatever the hell. I wanted..." He swallows. "I wanted him to make it out. I wanted it to be okay."

"I know you did."

"He didn't deserve it."

"Neither of you did," Aizawa says. "That's why we're going to track Jigsaw down and make him pay."

Ide smiles, though it looks like the movement hurts him. "Have fun with that." He accepts the glass of water, sips, closes his eyes for a moment. "Anyway..." But then he doesn't say anything else. Fair enough. There's probably not much else to say.

It's the middle of the next day before they get back to the Suzuki household, where Youko is still being looked after. Aizawa's so tired he thinks he keeps falling asleep without realising; the hum of the car engine constantly blurs in his ears, turns into breathing. Ide, Eriko and Yumi are all silent, have been since they made it to the hospital. Aizawa wants to kid himself they're just tired, that the fact that his wife and daughter aren't shouting at him or crying means that they're basically fine, but he knows it is just kidding himself. Pretending that just because he can't see the damage, it isn't there.

From the back seat, Eriko says to Ide, "This one - with the red door -" and Aizawa feels the car judder to a halt. The slam of the doors makes him think of their journey twenty-four hours earlier, the one where they'd never reached their house. He hears Yumi whimper a little, but Eriko whispers to her, "It's okay... it's going to be okay..."

As Aizawa climbs out of the car, he hears Yumi whisper back, "I'm not... I'm not going to be scared any more..."

"It's all right to be a bit scared," Eriko says, and Aizawa can hear her voice shake a little.

"No," Yumi says. "He... he told me being scared was only... it was like I was locked in. Like the... the thing on me, it was like that. He said I had to... I had to live with being scared... like, I had to be okay with how stuff can just... explode any moment. He knew I'd been... ill and stuff, he wanted to make me get better..."

They're both listening and Aizawa hears Eriko's breath catch in her throat. He wonders if she's as angry as he is. But she only says, "Well, you were very brave. Now, let's go and find Youko -" and he hears them start walking up the path.

"This way," Ide says, next to him.

"How do they look?" Aizawa asks him, keeping his voice low.

"Tired. Battered. But the doctors said the wounds will be fine. Nothing - nothing vital was damaged."

He must know that wasn't what Aizawa meant, but Aizawa suddenly doesn't want to press the issue. He thinks he'll know what the answer is.

He thinks, too, that Ide knows he still means what he said, about walking away. He can't go on, not now. Not when the price would be this high. And perhaps Ide's come to the same conclusion. At any rate, he hasn't mentioned continuing the hunt, despite his own future still being uncertain. The NPA will continue to pursue Jigsaw - and Raito, of course, assuming his wound wasn't fatal - but the two of them won't be part of the search, not now.

Perhaps it's just that Ide knows that choosing Truth was too big a gamble. Maybe he's disturbed himself by how easily he chose to risk everyone's lives - Yumi and Eriko's lives - to find more clues. Aizawa certainly hopes he's bothered by it. His fury had been white-hot at the time, but now, after being knocked half-conscious by an explosion and then waiting in hospital for hours, it's been exhausted. Better to let things lie. Too many people have died for him to stir up fury at one of the survivors.

Mrs Suzuki's opened the front door, is talking nineteen to the dozen as usual: how terrifying it must have been, how tired they all look. "Now, Youko-chan, don't you tire your mum and dad out. They've been a bit hurt and they're going to need lots of rest, so you be a good girl, all right?"

"Thank you so much," Eriko is saying to her. "I'm so sorry to have put you out, but thank you for taking care of her -"

"Don't worry about that," Mrs Suzuki says. "We had a nice time, didn't we, Youko-chan? And I wasn't on my own the whole time. There's a gentleman lives across the road, he pops in every so often to see how I'm doing. He's a foreigner, but even so he's a good neighbour. I thought we might have had a prowler last night - there was definitely someone wandering about on the street - but he heard them and he came across right away to check I was all right."

Aizawa can feel Ide shifting, obviously keen to get going, and he's just about to follow him back down the path when Mrs Suzuki carries on, "And he was ever so concerned when he heard you had got into a - well, an accident, Aizawa-san. He said to give you all best wishes and he was sure someone as sensible as the two of you would have made all the right choices. And he'd even brought a jigsaw puzzle to do, to keep Youko-chan happy - didn't he, Youko-chan? Kramer-san brought the jigsaw round and we finished it all, didn't we?"

Aizawa feels Eriko press close to him, her fingers digging into his arm; on his other side, Ide has drawn a sharp breath and Aizawa feels him tense.

"It... it can't be..." he whispers. "It... can it?"

Aizawa's willing to bet that it was. He's in no state to believe in coincidences, not now. And wouldn't that be just like the bastard? He'd be fully aware of where Youko was, and he'd want to make sure they knew that - to show them the promise couldn't be an empty one -

And, perhaps, he wanted to make sure his disgraced apprentice didn't do anything unexpected. A prowler, she'd said. That could be paranoia, but there's nothing wrong with that, either.

He and Ide can pass the information on - a name, a description - but he's willing to bet the nice neighbour will be long gone by now.

They walk back to the car, silent still, Eriko's hand in his.

"The game's not over," Ide mutters, as they reach it. "That's what he was saying, isn't it?"

"For us it is. He gave us his apprentice - clued us in to the spy - and in return for that, we back off."

"Deal with the devil."

"We've both got an excuse to walk away," Aizawa says. "Don't knock it. At least we -" He thinks of Mogi, of the Chief, and swallows. "Come on. Let's go."

THE END

(A/N: and that's a wrap! Thanks for reading, reviews welcome!)