"Hello, you hapless bastards! One of your friends has been murdered by one of you jerks! Check your ElectroIDs in a couple of minutes. You will have a brief period of time for investigation. Good luck~!"

Hannneko's Corpse Discovery Announcement. Tamaki's bleeding has stopped, and he's lying on the stage in a pool of his own blood. I scream, but my voice isn't the only one. Alice is running over to Tamaki's side, and Tougo's over by Irina's. The audience is sitting in their seats, and I can barely make out some faces in the dark. They all look calm…

Wait. This audience is completely calm. Certainly they don't think this is part of the play.

I feel myself becoming angry. What the hell is wrong with these people?! They all just watched a child die, and they're sitting as if they're watching a performance!

"WHAT THE HELL?!" I'm yelling at the audience now. "A KID JUST FUCKING DIED! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!?" They turn to look at me silently, then look back at the stage.

Suddenly, Hanneko jumps on the stage from the orchestra pit. "Nya ha ha!" He laughs his stupid laugh and flips a switch on a remote control that he shouldn't even be able to hold considering he has no fucking thumbs. The lights in the theater come on, and the audience completely disappears. Several confused phrases come from the other students.

"Nya ha ha! Beautiful! The despairing look on your faces is just beautiful!" He's spouting more nonsense than usual.

"What? WHAT?!" Jay starts yelling and looking more frantic than she did when working on the play. "WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!"

"Hahahahahaha! As if I'd let actual people in this school! Haven't you figured out by now that there's no way in and only one way out? And that one way is death! Much like your poor faggot friend here—"

At this comment, Alice runs toward Hanneko and kicks him into the orchestra pit.

"Don't. You. Dare. Insult. Tamaki," said Alice. Of course, Hanneko jumps back up.

"I'm going to let you off with a warning, since I'm not ready to have you die just yet," says Hanneko. "Violence against the headmaster is against the rules, Miss Darlington."

Alice looks like she wants to say something, but then she just stands still and cries angrily.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Can we get back to how Hanneko made all these people disappear?!" Bunpei came out from the curtains. He and the other backstage crew are dressed in black.

"Wait—Don't tell me—" began Tougo, but he was cut off.

"That's right, Hanyai. These people are NPCs!"

"NPC? Like something in a game?" This comes from Nezumi.

"Yep. In case most of you dipshits haven't figured it out yet, you are currently mentally in a game~" Hanneko explains.

"That—That makes no sense!" Kotaka yells this.

"Oh, but it does. You know that feeling of amazement you get whenever you walk in and see the theater? That's when your brains are mentally changing from the real world to this virtual reality!"

"But—That still makes no sense!" Bunpei yells this with a confused look on his face.

"Doesn't need to, kid. Point is your friend is dead—"

"Wait," said Tobiki. "If this is inside a game area, then anyone who died here—"

"Nice try, kid. But we're doing stuff Sword Art Online style here," said Hanneko. "Their brains are shocked, and they're killed in real life. You won't be seeing that meathead again outside of a refrigerator."

Tobiki looks downward and becomes very obviously upset. Nezumi tries to comfort him, but she's crying too much for it to be effective.

"OMG, SAO is one of my favorite older shows!" Only one person could have said something so stupid. Ying slaps her.

"Take this seriously! Yanacchi just got stabbed to death by Irina," she said to Neko. "This isn't a game!"

"But it is," said Hanneko.

"I swear to god, I will destroy you," said Jay. No one's really fond of Hanneko, but Jay was obviously the most hateful toward him, so I wouldn't be surprised if she were to act on this.

"Um… that brings up another point…" said Ko quietly.

What point?

"I know exactly what she means," said Alice. Most of the tears have left her face, which is pink with anger (even under all her makeup). "There's no point in even doing an investigation. We saw that stupid slut kill Tamaki with our own eyes, so we may as well—"

Tougo gets up and slaps her. "Hypocrite," he says. "Don't insult another friend while telling someone not to insult Yanaihara." She begins to cry again, silently this time. Dear God, why is everyone so violent today?

"Everyone, can we please stop assaulting each other? We still have to investigate, and fighting amongst ourselves will only lead to our demise," said Yasushi.

"But—"

"I have some explaining to do," said Hanneko. "Since this is way too freaking obvious, I'll rule the clever bastard who put the knife in with the props as the culprit. I can't just have you all vote on something so obvious, that's boring as hell. There's no suspense, and the ratings won't be as good. Miss Esperanza will just be seen as an accomplice, but who knows? She may have been the one who put the knife there." Ratings?

"Ay, Dios mío! Tienen que creerme, no lo hice! Por favor, no podría matar a nadie!" I have no actual idea what the hell Irina's saying, but I'm guessing she's pleading her case. She's very clearly shaken by this. I probably shouldn't just yet, but I don't believe she intended to kill anyone either.

"Está bien, amiga. Resolveremos que paso, relájate," said Tougo comfortingly. Irina calmed down a bit, but she was still visibly upset. When did they get so close? Anyway, I shouldn't think about that right now.

"In any case, you losers are wasting precious investigation time. Good luck~" said Hanneko before disappearing to god knows where.

"But how are we even supposed to investigate?" Nezumi asked this. "The only evidence we have so far is that the knives were replaced."

"How do we know they were replaced, Nezu-chan?" Neko asked this.

Nezumi looked slightly annoyed. "Don't call me that," she said. "And the remaining members of the set crew can attest to that. There's a room hidden in the prop shop that has fake weapons for scenes like—well, yeah."

"I've never heard of such a room," said Kotaka.

"That's because it's a secret. The only people who know about it are me, Bun-kun, Tobi-kun, and Rin-chan," said Nezumi.

"Then it's obvious that one of you did it! Fess up, lowlife!" Alice yelled at us. She seemed to look at me the most, though.

"Whoa, we can't say that for certain," said Bunpei.

"And just why not?" Ying this time.

"Because… Rin-chama, say something!" I sighed. Why would Bunpei throw me under the bus like that?

"Uh… Okay, for starters, we need to look at the knife," I say. That was the first thing that popped into my head, and I really wanted to get the attention away from me.

"It's just a typical knife," said Nezumi.

"Of course it's not, silly little mouse," said Alice. "It's the knife that killed Tamaki…"

"Um, Alice-san has a point… kinda. That knife's from the kitchen," said Ko. "I think it's part of a matching set…"

"But it looks exactly like the prop knives," said Tobiki. That cat bastard. He knew something like this was going to happen.

"I feel like that's no coincidence," I said. "I think Hanneko expected something like this to happen."

"Figures," said Jay.

"Well, should we split up for a while to cover more ground? There was evidence in other places last time, and this may be the case again," said Tougo.

"Okay, but should someone keep watch here?" Yasushi asked this.

"I can do so," Tougo replied quickly. "Furuda, stand watch with me." Bunpei agreed readily. But why Bunpei? I know Irina would probably not want to, and Bunpei's not really one for investigating… I guess I answered my own question there.

I left the stage to go to the props room. Everyone else pretty much dispersed. Neko and Jay went with Irina (probably to console her). Yasushi and Ko went to console Alice. Nezumi and Tobiki followed behind me.

We walked in the props room, and it was significantly messier than when I first saw it. Tools were lined with sawdust and paint was splattered everywhere.

"Let's investigate the weapon room," said Tobiki. We all walked toward the door hidden by boards. This room looks pretty much the same as when I entered it with Bunpei (minus the prop knife set that was used in the play). We looked around, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"This is odd," I heard Nezumi say from across the room.

"How so?" Tobiki asked.

"This room looks pretty much the same. It even has all the same stuff except the knife set," said Nezumi. I think I see what she's getting at.

"You're trying to say that it's odd how there's nothing here that seems out of place? Not even the knife that should have been part of that set?"

"Yeah," she says. "It might be in the culprit's room!"

"Then we should go look in them," said Tobiki.

"Alright. If it's okay with you guys, I think I'll investigate somewhere else," I said. They both say it's fine, and we part ways after going back to the stage together. Tougo and Bunpei are both sitting by Tamaki's body.

"So, did you find anything? I'm sure Rin-chama—"

"Sorry, Furuda-kun, but so far we only noticed that the fake knife was missing," I said, cutting him off.

"So, you know where it is, right? Then you shouldn't need to go there," said Tougo.

"Yeah, Wakabayashi-kun and Mouse girl are going to search rooms," I said.

"That's not where it is," said Tougo assuredly. What?

"We're not dealing with an idiot here. If anyone kills, they'll put the most effort into not getting caught. They wouldn't be so dumb as to try to hide it in their room," said Tougo. I open my mouth to make a rebuttal, but then I realize he has a valid point.

Eh. It could still help investigations if we had someone searching rooms, so I don't mention anything to Tobiki and Nezumi yet. I run to where I think Tougo says the fake knife is. On my way there, I see Irina, Jay, and Neko sitting in the cafeteria.

"Daijoubu, Iririn! We'll find the hannin and clear your name! Anshin-shite!" There was Neko talking in that annoying way in which she talks. Iririn—I mean Irina just looked downward sadly. Even when she's sad, she's enviably gorgeous. No wonder Tougo probably likes her.

"Hey," I say to them. "Can I talk with Irina for a moment?" Irina looks up at the mention of her name, and Jay and Neko move to another table.

"Sí?" Irina looks at me questioningly. We've never really talked before this, I realized.

"Uh… so, you're not the culprit, right?" Smooth.

"Yes! I didn't know those knives were—I never got to use the props, so—"

"Wait," I say. "You guys never ran through the entire thing before the show?"

"No! Furthermore, I never knew about the secret room in the props room and—"

"Okay, calm down. It's harder to understand you when you talk fast in that accent."

"I'm sorry. My accent normally comes out when I'm scared or nervous," she says. That explains a lot.

I continue speaking. "So, you never got to rehearse with the knives?"

"No! During the rehearsals, the handsome blue-haired boy just told me to grab the closest one to me when we did the performance."

"What, you mean Glasses?"

"Yeah. He's also my partner for the classmate-watching thing. He can vouch for me," she said. I'm starting to feel weird pangs… Anyway, I have to ignore that. As much as I don't want to believe it (what the hell? Why should that bother me?), Tougo is starting to look more suspicious. He did last time as well, but why would he volunteer so readily to watch Tamaki? Plus, he did write the script and instruct Irina on which knife to grab.…

But if he did it, he wouldn't go to Irina's defense so quickly. If he were the culprit, he'd probably try to make her look even more suspicious.

I tell Irina thanks for the information, then decide to go to the kitchen like I intended. Ko, Kotaka, Ying, and Yasushi were all there.

"I'm sorry! I noticed one day that one knife was missing, but I saw it soon afterwards, so I thought nothing of it! This is all my fault," said Ko.

"No, it's not," said Kotaka. "You've done a good job managing the kitchen, don't worry." I'm starting to think Kotaka might have a bit of a soft spot for Ko.

"Hey, Icchi! Nakacchi's here," said Ying.

"Yeah, I'm here to see if the fake knife is—"

"Excuse me? Can I have your attention? Investigation time is soon coming to a close. Do any last-minute lookovers and meet me in the gymnasium. The class trial will start in twenty minutes. Thank nya for listening. Bye~"

Oh, crap! The trial's starting soon, and I barely had any evidence! Wow, how arrogant of me. The kitchen group, Tobiki, and Nezumi probably collected a lot of information as well. I'm not sure if Alice or the girls with Irina were able to do much, and I'm pretty sure Tougo and Bunpei just inspected the area they were confined to…

The twenty minutes pass faster than expected. I spent some of that time discussing with Yasushi, Kotaka, Ying, and Ko, but they didn't find much either. We all walked to the gym together, and Tougo and Bunpei showed up soon. Nezumi still wasn't here, so I used my ElectroID to see where she could be. I saw her name in a rectangular area inside the props room. Judging from the location, that must be the weapons room. It isn't labeled, for some reason.

"Ugh! Where is that slowpoke mouse? I'm ready to start the trial," said Hanneko. Appearing out of nowhere, as usual. I checked the ElectroID again, and her name was now in the hallway on the way to the gym. The room inside the props area has disappeared completely now. This is just getting more odd, but I make a mental note of it.

"I'm here," said a winded Nezumi as she ran towards the logo. She put her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath.

"Yo, Karacchi," said Ying as she tossed a water bottle from her bookbag towards Nezumi. "My first rule for survival is to always keep water with you, even if you might have access to water." I just noticed that Ying had a bookbag with her. Now that I realize it, I've never seen her without it…

"Thanks, Yin-chan," said Nezumi. Without warning, the logo descended. This is it. We're going into the courtroom now. I have close to no evidence, so I'm hoping for the best.

But of course, hope is useless here.

The courtroom now looks… odd. The walls have been painted sky blue, and the podia are now surrounded by columns that look like giant bones. Smaller bones branched off from them, and skulls were placed at the ends of each smaller bone. They looked like… bony trees of death. Wow, that was lame. But still, this was like a pretty morbid forest.

"So? Whatcha think? Fitting look?" What nonsense is Hanneko spouting now? This look doesn't fit at all…

"Yeah," said Tougo. I look at him questioningly, and he does that thing where he tells me the answer to the exact question I was thinking.

"One of the scenes in the play involves the main character running off into the forest while hiding from the police, and she begins to see the trees as bones," he says. Jesus Christ, what kind of fucked-up play was that?

"Anyway, stand by your podiums, we're about to start this," said Hanneko. I walk over to my podium and look at the others once I get settled. I notice the pictures in Shinobu's and Tamaki's places. Shinobu's X is the four-pointed star that helped solve the case, and Tamaki's picture is crossed out by a hand needle and a paintbrush.

"Alrighty! Everyone settled? Good! The class trial is now in session, and you all should know the rules by now, so I won't bother explaining. Fire away, and remember that your lives are on the line! Figure out who used poor Irinya in their scheme to escape this place!"

"Alright," said Kotaka commandingly. "Let's begin by discussing what we know."

Silence. It's broken by Bunpei after a couple of minutes.

"Aagh! Please don't say that you guys don't have any leads," said Bunpei.

"Well, not really. All we know is that the knife is from the kitchen and there's a hidden props room," said Yasushi.

"There's more than that," said Tougo. "Nakauchi, enlighten us."

Why do I have to do all the work? Oh, well. "Uh… The two knives were switched out, and I'm willing to bet that the fake knife is still in the kitchen," I said.

"Wait—so, if the knife's in the kitchen and it was switched out with the fake knife, then…" Nezumi trailed off.

"Yes, you're on the right track, Karafuto," said Tougo. "The culprit has to be someone who's been able to visit both the theater and the kitchen."

"Sugoi! That narrows it down to…" Neko thought for a moment, and a look of horror struck her face. "ALL OF US HAVE BEEN IN BOTH OF THOSE PLACES!"

"Not necessarily," said Jay. "Remember, the prop knives came from that secret room, and the only four people that confessed to having visited it are Rin, Nezumi, Tobiki, and Bunpei."

"So, one of those four did it," Alice accused. She was still glaring madly at me.

"You've got that wrong," I say. She looks almost offended that I'd challenge her.

"H-How?!"

"Okay, this is really leaving a lot up to chance, but remember that these ElectroIDs have maps showing real-time locations of all the students in the school no matter where they are," I began. "While we were each given partners, that in no way restricts you from seeing where anyone else is. There's a good chance that the culprit noticed the members of the set crew enter this room."

"But how would they know that the other room was there? Isn't it inside the props room itself?" Yasushi asked this. (Silly Author's Note: I just noticed that the word "sushi" was in Yasushi's name, and it's somewhat amusing to me).

"Yes, it is. This is where it's left up to chance. The room within the room only ever shows up when someone's inside it. A rectangular outline matching the shape of the room appears. At any other time, it's invisible and not labeled," I said.

"Aha! That narrows it back down to… possibly everyone," said Neko.

"No, it doesn't. Set crew," said Tougo. "When did you guys notice the secret room?"

"I found it late in the afternoon on Tuesday," said Bunpei.

"So, it was a while before that happened," said Tougo.

"Before what happened?" asked Alice.

"I think I know," I said. "He means before we were assigned partners to watch."

"So, you're saying that the culprit could be anyone on the set crew, partnered with the set crew, Hikikomori-san, and whoever's partnered with Hikikomori-san?" Ko asks this.

"Honestly, I think those are the most likely people," I said. I knew I was grouped in that, but I was confident that I could prove that I wasn't the culprit.

"Wait," said Kotaka. "We're overlooking something that I think is very suspicious."

"What could that be, Icchi?" Ying spoke up.

"The play itself," she said. Tougo looked slightly shocked.

"How is it suspicious?"

"How is it not suspicious? It's about a girl who murders her own freaking family. You're the one who wrote it—to be honest, it was obvious that Yin-cchi didn't contribute too much. You're the one who gave Iri-cchi the instruction to pick up the knife closest to her despite the fact that you're not even a director, and you were quickest to volunteer to watch Tama-cchi along with the most trusting and the least intelligent person here," said Kotaka. Even in this serious situation, she's using her Ying-inspired nicknames…

"Furuda-kun, aren't you offended?" Tobiki asked this.

"Nah, it's kinda true. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, and I do trust you guys! But starting an argument right now won't do any good, so we may as well wait until after the trial is over," said Bunpei. Despite what Kotaka says, Bunpei is intelligent for making such a decision.

"Anyway, all this makes me suspect Hanai even more. While I don't want to, he should probably be on the list of most suspect people," said Kotaka.

"That's fine," said Tougo. "But I can assure you that I never planned anything like this."

"How?"

"Well…" Tougo actually seems to be at a loss for words. That, or he's hiding something…

"It was me!"

Huh? A confession?

Irina spoke for the first time since I spoke to her. "I mean, I'm the reason for the play being so violent! I wanted to take on a new challenge with my acting, so I asked Tougo to create a character that was dark, psychotic, and slightly complex. I thought I'd want to try pulling something like that off, since I've only ever played the main girl in girly drama movies…"

Oh, so she does know his name. He's not "handsome blue-haired guy" anymore. Anyway, the entire courtroom seems to be in shock. I'm not sure if the others are taking that as a confession of guilt or not…

"So, we're back to this. Come on guys, the obvious answer is that this fucking whore killed Tamaki," said Alice. "We may as well vote—"

"Irina's not guilty," I said.

Alice looked at me. "What?"

"Irina's only ever been in the kitchen when everyone else was around, and she's never even been able to use the knives until the premiere of the play. That incident was the first time she even touched one, so she probably wouldn't have been able to feel any difference between the fake knife's handle and the regular knife's handle. The fake knives are incredibly realistic-looking," I said.

"That's true. We didn't have any props when we first ran through with the lines, and we had no time for another rehearsal," explained Yasushi.

"Okay, so now what? Are there any more clues?" Ko asked this.

"Hai! There's got to be more clues-desu!" Dear freaking god.

"Oh, really? Why don't you tell us what they are?" Nezumi seemed a bit hostile when asking this…

"The list of partners! Duh, silly baka-mouse!" Neko giggled and grinned after she made her statement. Nezumi looked increasingly more annoyed.

"Okay, you have a point. Does anyone know who was paired up with whom?" Nezumi looked around, then her gaze stopped at Yasushi.

"Oh, right, well—" Yasushi began, but he was cut off.

"Wait," said Tougo. "First, I want to ask some questions."

"Hey, don't go interrupting your vice leader," said Kotaka. She immediately placed her hands to her mouth and stopped talking. She looked embarrassed.

"Heh, thanks, but I don't mind," said Yasushi.

"Shut up," snapped Kotaka.

"Aww, Kotaka-tan's being tsundere!" Neko said this excitedly.

"Shut UP! Anyway, just continue with your question," said Kotaka.

"Wakabayashi, where was Ido on Wednesday morning after the meeting?" Huh? What did this have to do with anything?

"Uh, she stayed in the cafeteria with Ying for about an hour after the meeting ended," said Tobiki.

"Yes! She reminded me to check my partner using the ElectroID!"

"Irrelevant," said Tougo. "Neko—."

"Neko-chan—"

"Right. Can you tell me where Karafuto was late Wednesday afternoon?"

"Yeah! She and Rin-tan were in the gym!" Neko then smiled and gave a victory sign.

"Ying," said Tougo. "Where was Furuda on Thursday evening?"

"Oh, so now I can say something relevant? Anyway, when I checked the ElectroID, he was just in the theater with Karacchi and Wakabacchi. They didn't look suspicious, so I didn't check again that night," she said.

"Alright. Yamamoto and Alice, who are your partners?" I still have no idea what he's trying to do.

"Tamaki was my partner," said Alice. "He never went in the kitchen when I wasn't around, so don't go accusing him of trying to execute himself!"

"I'm not," said Tougo.

"Uh… I was with Diplomat-san," said Ko.

"Alright, I thought so," said Tougo. He looked at Jay expectantly, and she looked back in shock as if she had a sort of realization…

"Miss Caraway," said Tougo. "Where was Nakauchi on Wednesday morning after the meeting?"

What? He used that time already… Jay looked at Kotaka slightly nervously, then she looked down. "I don't know," she said finally.

"What? Jay, you didn't know you were partnered with Nakauchi, did you?" Kotaka asked this.

"I'm sorry! I forgot to check in and never got a chance to ask. I figured maybe someone checked in on everyone—probably one of the leaders— so I didn't bother to figure out," Jay admitted, much to her chagrin.

"What? Is she supposed to be a suspect now?" Alice again.

"Nope. In fact, in my humble opinion, she's cleared of suspicion," said Tougo.

"Okay," I decided to interject. "Can you please explain what the point behind all that was, Glasses?"

"I didn't pick Furuda to volunteer completely out of doubt. I wanted to see if he knew who was partnered with himself and the set crew, by any chance. Luckily, he did, and he told me that he and Nakauchi visited the secret weapons room on Wednesday after the meeting. This clears her, since she seemed to have no idea that the room existed beforehand, and I wanted to test and see if that was true as well as confirm who was partnered with whom," he explained. "By the way, I was partnered with Irina."

"So, currently Jay and Irina are no longer suspect," said Nezumi.

"Hey! That was way too chancy," said Jay.

"Well, do you want to be clear or not?" Bunpei asked this.

"So, two out of thirteen people probably didn't do it. Good job, guys," I said.

"Hey! Watch it. You've contributed close to nothing to this trial, hikikomori," said Alice.

"Well, I guess it's time to change that. I think I have an idea of who it was, too," I said. Listening to everyone speaking has helped me formulate a guess. Plus, the culprit may have made an unintentional slip…

"Nakauchi-san, are you sure? It won't do any good to accuse anyone outright," said Yasushi.

"Honestly… no, I'm not," I admit.

"Nakauchi probably is right, though. The culprit revealed quite a bit of information." Tougo came to my defense.

"Guys, don't keep us waiting! Tell us who did it," said Ying.

"Ying, you should have the best idea who did it," I said looking at her. She looked surprised.

"I—How should I know?!"

"Because my prime suspect is you, Ying Yanmei!"