Okay. This is by far the longest chapter in this series, by a long shot, at a whopping nine thousand words. Have fun, kids.
To be honest, I wasn't really sure how to go about the class trial. That's one of the many reasons I didn't want to change the first case, so that I could at least experiment first. I thought about splitting it into two parts, but I couldn't really find a point to split where it wouldn't be awkward, so I left it in one piece.
What I said back in the prologue still stands; If you have any advice or criticisms on how I could do this better for the next trial, feel free to let me know. Other than that, I hope you can enjoy this chapter as it is.
Chapter 6
"Let's begin with a basic explanation of the class trial!" Monokuma decided. "So, your votes will determine the results. If you can figure out "whodunnit" then only they will receive punishment. But if you pick the wrong one... then I'll punish everyone besides the blackened, and the one that deceived everyone else will graduate!"
"And the killer really is one of us, right?" Makoto asked.
"Of course!" The bear confirmed cheerfully.
"Okay then..." Taka began. "Everyone close your eyes, and whoever did it, raise your hand!"
"Don't be a goddamn idiot!" Mondo insulted. "Why the hell would they raise their hand?" Well, hey, I bet if Taka ever killed someone, he'd probably fall for that.
"Before we move on and start the trial, can I ask a question real quick?" Kyoko asked. "What's going on with... those pictures." She gestured to Sayaka's and Junko's portraits.
"I'd feel awful if they got left out just because they died." Monokuma explained. "Friendship penetrates even death's barriers!"
"Friendship... penetrates?" Hifumi repeated.
"Okay, that about does it for the preamble." Monokuma decided, cutting off any other questions. "Get ready to get started! First up is the case summary. Now, let the class trial... begin!"
Alright, time for the first non-stop debate. Except now it's just people talking. Not as cool as I remember. Everyone seemed to shift awkwardly a bit, since we weren't really sure where to start. I noticed Makoto squaring his shoulders, preparing himself for whats to come. He doesn't know it yet, but he's gonna be right at home in this courtroom.
"I assert that the one who was murdered was Miss Sayaka Maizono!" Taka started.
"...Yeah, we know that part already." Hiro sighed.
"And the murder took place in Makoto's room." Byakuya noted.
"In the bathroom..." Hina added.
"So it seems most likely that... The killer must have taken her by surprise while she was in the bathroom." Chihiro deduced. "She didn't even have a chance to resist..."
Before anyone else had a chance to speak, Makoto spoke up. "No, that's wrong!" He didn't say it nearly as forcefully as in the game, but maybe it's a contextual thing. For now, it was enough to draw everyone's attention. "Just a second, Chihiro. Try to remember how my room looked... With the way things had been damaged, I think we can definitely assume there was a struggle."
"A struggle? Between who... and who?" She asked meekly.
"Between Sayaka and the killer, of course." Makoto answered.
"So you're saying... Sayaka wasn't caught by surprise in the bathroom...?"
"She must have been attacked in the main room first, then she ran to the bathroom to try and hide." Celeste said. "The killer followed her in, and that's where they finished the job..." Yeesh, that's an insensitive way to put it, but okay.
"That much should have been obvious after taking one look at the scene." Byakuya scolded. "It shouldn't even need explaining."
"S-Sorry..." Chihiro sniffled. A few of the nicer students shot Byakuya dirty looks, but he didn't seem to notice or care.
"...Okay, so what's next?" Hiro asked, moving the conversation along.
"Next is the subject of the murder weapon." Sakura decided.
"Wow... this is starting to sound like a real trial!" Hifumi said.
"It's been feeling pretty damn real to me this whole time." I muttered. I wasn't quite sure how much I wanted to interfere here. If I just let everything run it's course, Makoto will eventually figure out the killer. On the other hand, I think being silent might make me seem a little odd. I also don't want to sit around during the really drawn-out segments.
"So what was used to kill her?" Sakura repeated.
"There was some kind of sharp object thrust into her stomach..." Taka observed. "Without a doubt, that is the murder weapon!"
"So the killer used some random knife they had on 'em..." Mondo started, before being interrupted by Makoto.
"No. I do think it was a knife-but not just any knife. I'm almost positive it was a kitchen knife." He stated.
"Huh? A kitchen knife...?" Mondo asked.
"After the murder, we discovered that one of the knives from the kitchen was missing." Makoto explained.
"Which means the knife must be the murder weapon." Sakura concluded.
"Ohh... yeah, I guess that makes sense." Mondo agreed. "You could sorta see the weapon stickin' out of her stomach... And if you look real close, I could totally see that being a kitchen knife."
"Okay, so the murder weapon was a kitchen knife." Leon accepted. "But where does that get us? I mean, we all know Makoto killed her, right!?"
"That's r-right..." Toko said. "Makoto's room was the s-scene of the crime. What more proof do you n-need?"
"H-Hold on a second! I'm-!" Makoto tried to defend himself, but was interrupted by Kyoko.
"Let's draw our conclusions after we've presented our arguments. Otherwise, what's the point of the trial?"
Leon rolled his eyes. "Well we can talk all we want, it's not gonna change that conclusion."
"I don't think that's true at all." Kyoko argued. "I'm sure if we keep at it, something new will reveal itself."
"You really believe that...?" Hiro asked. Kyoko didn't respond.
Leon sighed. "So I guess there's no question that the kitchen knife was the murder weapon. But where does that get us?" He repeated.
"M-Makoto must have taken it f-from the kitchen, right?" Toko asked. "He did it in s-secret, when nobody was in the d-dining hall..."
"Okay, wait, hold on." Makoto said calmly. "I didn't take the knife from the kitchen."
"Next you're g-gonna say you're not the k-killer, right?" Toko shot. "Go ahead and say it all y-you want...!"
"Well, what if I have a witness?" He countered. "What do you think, Hina? Remember what you were telling me earlier? Just to be perfectly clear, the knife disappeared while you were in the dining hall, correct?"
"Y-Yeah, that's right..." Hina confirmed.
"And at any point while you were there, did you ever see me come into the dining hall?" He pressed.
"Umm... no, I don't think so..."
"You don't "think" so?" Byakuya repeated.
"No, he definitely wasn't there!" Hina recalled.
"The knife disappeared while Hina was in the dining hall." Makoto restated. "But I wasn't there the entire time. In other words, there's no way I could have taken the knife!"
"Okay, th-then what about this...? What if the i-idiot swimmer girl and M-Makoto are in on it together, a-and lying to protect each other?" Toko suggested.
"Idiot swimmer girl!?" Hina exclaimed. "Oh, and more importantly, why would I get involved in something like that!?"
"Yeah, I don't think that's how this works." I stated. "The blackened is the one who committed the killing. Any accomplices would just get "punished" along with everyone else." Then I realized I had no reason to know this. I looked up to Monokuma. "Is that right?"
"That about sums it up!" Monokuma confirmed.
"So in other words, two people can work together, but one of them has no chance of profiting from it..." Kyoko restated.
"Then there's no way anyone would work together, right...?" Mondo asked.
"But... what if they did work together, and they just didn't know about the rule?" Chihiro theorized.
Monokuma squirmed impatiently in his throne. "Uggh, good grief! Enough already! No, okay!? There are no accomplices in this case! ...Oops! Did I say that out loud...?"
"Anyway, I didn't go to the dining hall, and I didn't take the knife." Makoto asserted. "So I'm not the killer!"
"Okay, so then... who did take the knife?" Chihiro asked.
"Hina seems the obvious candidate." Celeste accused. "After all, she just said she was in the dining hall..."
"N-No way! I swear it wasn't me!" She promised.
"Sure, but can you or anyone else prove that?" Hifumi challenged.
"I can." Sakura said shortly.
"That's right! Sakura was with me the entire time I was drinking my tea..." Hina explained.
"Uhh... I hate to have to ask, but just to be sure, Sakura's..." Leon hesitated.
"Me." Sakura clarified.
"...Right." Leon nodded nervously.
"But then, couldn't either one of them have grabbed the knife?" Hiro asked.
"Actually, no. Because... um... well..." Hina hesitated.
"Just spit it out already!" Mondo barked.
"I stayed in Hina's room last night." Sakura answered.
"I got so scared thanks to those creepy videos." Hina explained. "I wasn't really thinking, I just asked her to stay over. Which means we have airtight alibis!"
"You s-stayed over...? Doesn't that v-violate one of the school r-regulations?" Toko wondered.
"We're not allowed to sleep anywhere but the dorms, but it doesn't say we have to stay in our assigned room... So, I don't think that's a problem." Chihiro said.
"It IS a problem!" Taka shouted. "A boy and a girl spending the night together!? It's... it's... unwholesome!"
"But... I'm a girl." Sakura said.
"Wh- You are!? Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" Taka apologized.
"Also, the fact that we can sleep in any room we want supports Makoto's alibi of switching rooms with the victim." I noted.
Celeste gestured to Hina and Sakura. "But if it wasn't either of you, then what other possibility is there?"
"Actually, there is one other possibility." Sakura proposed. "Right, Hina?"
"Oh, yeah, that's true! One other person did come to the dining hall while we were there."
"Why didn't you say so in the first place...?" Byakuya asked.
"Well, because... they're not here anymore." Hina lamented. "Sayaka. She's the one who came to the dining hall. And then later... she wound up dead..."
"Then... Sayaka is the one who took the knife...?" Makoto realized.
"That's the only possibility." Sakura said. "And thinking back on it, she was acting kind of unusual... When she came into the dining hall, she didn't even look at us. She just went straight to the kitchen. As she left, she said she just wanted a drink of water. But most likely..."
"Then the person who took the knife was the victim herself!" Taka said.
"I'm sure... I'm sure she just took it for self-defense..." Makoto assured.
"So you're saying the knife she took... was then taken from her, and she was killed with it?" Byakuya recapped. "In that case, you may not have taken the knife, but you still could have killed her."
"What!?" Makoto gasped.
"S-See!? He did do it, a-after all!" Toko accused.
"No, you're wrong!" Makoto tried to defend himself. Everyone else was back to accusing him, just like at the start.
"So that's how you would twist the argument and send us all off in the wrong direction...!?" Hifumi observed. "Hm-hmm... You possess a most terrifying talent..." I mean, not really.
"Hold on." Kyoko's calm voice was just loud enough to silence the banter. "It's still too early to decide conclusively that Makoto is the killer, wouldn't you say? Because, you see, if the room did belong to the killer, then they did something most bewildering. And until we unravel that little mystery, you simply can't declare that he's the killer."
"Bewildering? What the hell are you talking about!?" Mondo asked.
"Something was missing from the scene of the crime that by all rights should have been there." She explained. "You know what I'm talking about, don't you?" She looked to Makoto.
Makoto closed his eyes for a moment, lost in thought. Before long, his eyes darted open. "That's right! There wasn't a single hair on the floor!"
"So... the culprit removed some evidence?" Chihiro asked.
"Yes." Makoto answered. "And if I were the culprit... Why would I need to get rid of all the hair in my own room? It wouldn't be unusual at all to find my hair at the crime scene, if the crime scene is my own room."
"The reason all the hair was gone... was to remove any trace Sayaka had ever been there." Celeste theorized.
"Yeah, but the corpse in the bathroom was totally inconspicuous." I said sarcastically. "I'm pretty sure that would've been their main priority."
"Ah-ha-ha! Yes, very true, very true!" Hifumi agreed.
"Okay, then why wasn't there any hair on the ground?" Leon asked.
"The killer got rid of it all, of course." Kyoko stated. "To remove any trace that they had ever been there."
"Wait, then that means...!" Mondo started.
"Precisely." Kyoko said before he finished. "It's simply beyond reason to believe that the room's owner and the killer are one and the same."
"Then... Makoto isn't the culprit?" Chihiro realized.
"But are you sure we can decide something so important based solely on the absence of some hair!?" Taka asked.
"No. There are other reasons that prove why Makoto couldn't have done it." Kyoko said.
"I would like to hear these reasons..." Sakura said.
"Do you remember anything remarkable about the bathroom at the scene?" Kyoko asked the class. "Sayaka was attacked in the main room first, then fled into the bathroom, right?"
"Yeah, then they ran after her, got into the bathroom, and stabbed her..." Mondo recalled.
"And how did the killer get into the bathroom?" Kyoko asked rhetorically. "Did they have any trouble with it?"
"What do you mean...?" Celeste asked.
"It's fairly certain the killer had some trouble getting into the bathroom..." Kyoko stated. "There was clear evidence left behind. Do you remember, Makoto?"
Makoto thought for a moment. "Evidence that the killer had trouble getting into the bathroom... You're talking about the doorknob, right?"
"Huh? The doorknob? What doorknob?" Hiro asked, confused.
"The doorknob for my bathroom..." Makoto answered. "It was completely broken. See how the top part was unscrewed, and the doorknob's about ready to fall off?"
"Oh yeah, true... But what does it mean?" Chihiro asked.
"In trying to bypass the lock, they ended up nearly removing the entire doorknob." Kyoko explained. "This is another most bewildering act for the room's owner. It proves Makoto is beyond suspicion."
"So what, you're saying he wouldn't break the door in his own room?" Leon asked. "But if the only choice you have is to break it, you break it! There's nothing "bewildering" about it!"
"You still don't see? Okay, then..." Kyoko said. "Let's take another look at how the incident unfolded. Hopefully that will help you understand... The incident took place in Makoto's room. Sayaka was first attacked in the main room. She then fled into the bathroom."
"Then the killer ran after her..." Mondo continued. "And they got into the bathroom."
"At that point, the killer had to try and bust down the door..." Leon stated. "Because Sayaka had locked it."
"No, that's wrong!" Makoto called. Now that was the voice clip I remembered. "The reason my bathroom didn't open wasn't because it was locked. After all, the girls' rooms are the only ones with locking bathrooms, right?"
"Yes... Now that you mention it, that is true." Sakura said.
"Then... why didn't your bathroom door open...?" Chihiro asked.
"Because it was stuck." Makoto said.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Leon asked. Obviously, his confusion was justified.
"My bathroom door doesn't fit in the frame quite right." Makoto explained. "Monokuma over there can testify to that."
"Yup! True as true can be!" Monokuma announced. "But ya know... you're supposed to be the Ultimate Lucky Student, right? But to have such a cruddy door... Puhuhu...! That's not lucky at all!"
"I don't know about that." I said with a smirk. "The fact that the killer thought the door was locked means that they didn't own the room, which effectively proves Makoto's innocence." Monokuma didn't say anything in response. I'd finally managed to shut him up.
"Okay, but then why would the killer even think the door was locked in the first place?" Celeste wondered. "Everyone should have known you can't lock any of the boys bathrooms."
"The killer could easily make that mistake, thanks to one important detail about the scene of the crime..." Kyoko claimed.
Makoto nodded. "The killer must not have realized that it was my room."
"What!?" Hifumi gasped. "Are you saying the culprit didn't even know where he was? That's... inconceivable!"
"And yet, he's absolutely right." Kyoko said.
"SAYWHAAA!?" He screamed.
"Well, to be more specific... What the killer didn't know was that Makoto and Sayaka had switched rooms." Kyoko clarified. "Which is what led to the misunderstanding about the bathroom. If Sayaka had been in her own room, then..."
"Then there would have been a lock on the door, and they would've had to break through...!" Taka finished.
"So they had no idea how unnecessary their actions were..." Sakura said.
"Ultimately, we can't know if it came open by force or simply by accident, but... The killer must have been considerably confused, with no idea how they actually got the door opened." Kyoko said.
"Regardless, it was a pointless act." Byakuya insulted. "Wasting time trying to break down a door that wasn't locked is..."
"...definitely something I wouldn't do, since I would've known exactly why it wasn't opening. Right?" Makoto said, pushing my earlier point further.
"That is... a definite possibility." Byakuya admitted.
"So the killer would have to be someone who didn't know they'd switched rooms...?" Chihiro wondered.
"Then Makoto c-couldn't have done it...!" Toko realized.
"Okay, so who did do it!?" Mondo asked.
"Sorry, but I give up!" Hifumi shouted. "Quit without saving!"
"But... what happens if we can't decide on who we think did it...?" Chihiro worried.
"Well then, why don't we just vote right now?" Taka suggested. "Majority rules!"
"Majority rules?" Leon paled. "Do you really think that's a good idea...?"
"Yeah! Our necks are on the line here!" Hiro reminded. "Someone seriously needs to do something. For serious...!"
"Does no one have any other thoughts or questions?" Celeste asked. "It does not matter how trivial they may seem..."
"In fact, I have one." I said, raising my hand slightly. "Just how did the culprit get into Makoto's room? I mean, surely the vicitm would've locked the door, right?"
"Hmm... Yes, how did the killer get inside?" Sakura wondered.
"Maybe Sayaka just dropped the key somewhere and the culprit picked it up." Leon suggested. "That's possible, right?"
"I don't think so." Taka shook his head. "That seems way too convenient."
"Then... maybe someone picked the lock?" Chihiro suggested.
"Negative!" Taka shot down. "If you remember, Monokuma made it quite clear that the locks are all unpickable."
"Fine. How about this? They got in the easy way." Hifumi proposed. "They could've knocked and said they wanted to talk or something, and Miss Maizono just... let 'em in!"
"No, that can't be it, either." Makoto said.
"O-ho! Trying to argue against me? Sounds like someone doesn't know his place!" Hifumi gibed. "Hello!? Why, exactly, can't that be it!?"
"Because Sayaka was already scared, remember? That's why she asked me to switch rooms in the first place." Makoto reminded. "Knowing what she'd been through, I just can't believe she would have opened the door for anyone."
"...What if her being scared was a lie?" Kyoko hinted.
"Huh...?" Makoto was stunned for a moment. When he regained his composure, he started shouting. "Wh-What the hell is that supposed to mean!? Why would she lie about something like that!?"
"I know you don't want to consider it, but look at this and tell me... can you still deny the possibility?" Kyoko pulled a sheet of paper out of her coat pocket and started passing it around.
There's something I want to talk to you about, just us two. In five minutes, come see me in my room. Check the nameplates to make sure you don't get the wrong room, okay?
Sayaka
"I found a notepad during my search, and I shaded the top sheet with a pencil." Kyoko explained. "And these are the words that appeared."
"Oh man, I've totally seen people do that on detective shows!" Hina exclaimed. "When you write, it can leave an imprint. Sketch over the next sheet of paper, and you can see the words! When I saw that, I was like, "Holy crap! I better make sure I rip the paper out before I use it from now on!""
"It's a pretty old-fashioned technique, but even the classics can be surprisingly useful sometimes." Kyoko said with a smile. "Oh, and I should also mention... I found the notepad on the desk in Makoto's room."
"Huh?" Makoto yelped.
"Which means, only someone who had been in Makoto's room before the incident could have written it." Kyoko explained.
"Then either it was Makoto, who lived there, or Sayaka, who switched rooms for a single night..." Byakuya said.
"So, Makoto... did you write this?" Kyoko asked.
"N-No, I didn't. But-"
"Of course you didn't." Kyoko said. "Because the note also bears a perfectly legible signature-Sayaka's signature.
"B-But why? Why would she write that?" Makoto pled.
"The note was likely her way of getting in touch with a certain someone." Kyoko hinted. "She must've slid it under their door to let them know she wanted to meet with them in secret."
"If you got an invitation like that from the Ultimate Pop Sensation, what young man could resist?" Hifumi asked. "Of course, I'm only into 2D, so it wouldn't have any effect on me!"
"...But can we be sure anyone even got this note?" Celeste asked. "And honestly, even if they did, I do not think they are at all involved in what happened."
"Huh? What makes you say that?" Chihiro asked.
"Hmhm... Would you like to hear what I have to say? Very well, then. Pay attention!" Celeste cleared her throat. "Sayaka and Makoto switched rooms, correct? But in the note, the place they were asked to come to... It specifically said "my" room."
"I see... So if someone read that note... then they would have gone to Sayaka's room!" Chihiro realized.
"Exactly. The room that Makoto was staying in." Celeste barely finished her statement before Makoto shouted again.
"No, that's wrong! The nameplates on my and Sayaka's rooms got switched."
"They got... switched?" Celeste repeated.
"That's right." Kyoko confirmed. "The nameplates got switched, just like the rooms themselves. As a result, the nameplate on Sayaka's room actually had Makoto's name. And the nameplate on Makoto's room had Sayaka's."
"So what you're saying is, the room Sayaka was staying in, was actually marked as her room." Byakuya rephrased.
"Then... if someone did do what the note said, they would end up in Makoto's room, where Sayaka was..." Chihiro said.
"Plus, their rooms are right next to each other." Kyoko noted. "So switching the nameplates would be no problem. And the one who switched the names was... Well of course it wasn't you, right Makoto?"
"R-Right..." Makoto admitted.
"Okay... then who did it?" Leon asked.
"Me and Sayaka were the only ones who ever knew about us switching rooms." Makoto said. "So the only other person besides me who would even know to switch the nameplates... was Sayaka."
"You can also infer as much from her note..." Kyoko stated. "She specifically tells the ready to check the nameplate. She would only have written that if she knew the nameplates had been switched."
"But... why would she switch them in the first place?" Chihiro asked.
"She wanted someone to come to the room she was in, and also hide the fact that it was Makoto's room." Kyoko decided.
"What...?" Makoto was once again stunned.
"Inviting someone to your room, but not telling them you'd switched rooms... Why would anyone do that?" Hina wondered.
"To understand that... we first need to understand what happened after she invited the person into the room. That's where the answer lies..." Kyoko speculated.
"What happened then was... probably... Whoever she invited over... came in, and... attacked her!" Taka theorized. "We figured it out! We know who did it! Whoever invited her over is the culprit!"
"But we still don't know who it is, ya goddamn idiot..." Mondo insulted.
"Sayaka fought with her killer there in the room, yes?" Celeste asked. "Perhaps the answer to our previous question lies in that initial struggle."
"Yes, I think you're right." Kyoko agreed.
"Then... we just have to figure out what happened during the fight, right!?" Hina said confidently.
"That reminds me... there was a replica sword at the murder scene." Sakura recalled. "Was that perhaps used during the fight?"
"Oh yeah, what's the deal with that sword?" Mondo wondered.
"Sayaka suggested I should hold on to it." Makoto explained. "I thought it might come in handy if I had to defend myself... It seems pretty likely that the killer used it to break Sayaka's right wrist."
"How the hell could you possibly know that's what broke her wrist!?" Leon asked, maybe a bit too quickly.
"All you have to do is take a good look at her right wrist, and it should become pretty clear." Makoto told him. "Right there where her wrist is all swollen, there's something glittery there, see?"
"Is... is that gold?" Chihiro asked curiously.
"It sure is." Makoto stated. "Specifically, the gold coating from the replica sword. You barely have to touch that stuff and it'll stick right to you. And there's some on her wrist because..."
"I got it!" Taka shouted. "Because she got hit with the sword, right there on her wrist!"
"I see, I see..." Hifumi muttered to himself. "And so the truth draws ever closer..."
"Alright! Then it's about time to solve this mystery!" Hiro declared. "When the fighting broke out... the culprit grabbed the sword. And that's when the first blow was dealt! A sword-based sneak attack!"
"No, that's wrong!" Makoto declared. "I don't think the fight started with the sword."
"Huh? Why not?" Hiro asked.
"Because the sword's sheath had been scratched." Makoto answered. "See? There's a gash in it, like someone cut into it with something sharp."
"Something sharp... You mean, like the kitchen knife?" Chihiro decided. "That was the only sharp thing found at the scene..."
"Stop jumpin' ahead!" Mondo demanded. "Slow down and explain it so I get what the hell's goin' on!"
"If the sword was used first, there wouldn't be any explanation for the scratch on the sheath." Makoto explained. "If you were going to attack with a sword, you'd take it out of it's sheath first, right?"
"That's true." Mondo admitted. "With the sheath on, it'd be heavy and bulky and useless as shit."
"Okay, so how did the sheath get damaged?" Hifumi asked.
"If they got attacked with the kitchen knife, maybe they grabbed the sword as a defensive impulse." Kyoko offered. "In that situation, there wouldn't be any time to actually unsheathe the sword."
"So you're saying the sword was initially used to defend against an attack from the knife..." Sakura restated.
"Which means whoever had the kitchen knife... was the one who attacked first!" Hifumi decided.
"I think I get it!" Taka said, nodding along. "So here's how it all played out... The culprit came in, found the kitchen knife hidden somewhere... Then they took the knife and attacked Sayaka before she knew what was happening! So she grabbed the sword to defend herself, but then the culprit took that from her, too...! Then, after they broke her wrist with the sword... they took the knife and... finished it..."
"Sorry, but I don't think Sayaka used the sword to defend herself." Kyoko stated.
"Wh-!? How the hell could you not think that!?" Leon exclaimed.
"Because she never held the sword at all." Kyoko asserted. "There's a certain part of her body that makes this clear." She nodded toward Makoto.
"You're talking about her palms, right?" He answered. "The palms of her hands were perfectly clean, so I don't think she ever picked up the sword..."
"How can you know all that just by looking at her palms...?" Hina asked.
"Like I said before, the gold coating on that sword comes right off. All you have to do is touch it. In fact, if you look you'll notice that a lot of the gold has already come off the handle. It's safe to assume that's because whoever used the sword got some of it on their hands. There's really no way she could have picked it up and some away completely clean."
"Maybe she w-washed her hands after she e-escaped into the bathroom..." Toko suggested.
"Sorry, but I don't think so." Makoto responded.
"Why d-do you say that? Is it b-because you think I'm u-ugly...?" She stammered. I was very tempted to just say "yes" so we could move on quicker.
Luckily, Makoto is nicer than me. "N-No, that's not it at all! According to the Monokuma file, Sayaka's time of death was around 1:30 a.m. In other words, at "nighttime." And the water in the bathrooms shuts off at nighttime, right?"
"Oh... I didn't know that." Toko admitted. "Actually, I haven't taken a shower here yet..."
"Regardless, I doubt the victim would be washing some glitter off her hands with a killer in the room." I reasoned. "It'd be especially hard with one of her wrists broken."
"...So, if Sayaka never touched the sword, then that means... The killer is the one who used the sword." Taka decided. "But hold on. If that's right, then the one who damaged the sheath with the kitchen knife was..."
"Sayaka...? She had the kitchen knife...?" Makoto's eyes widened as the truth dawned on him
"But... we already said that the attack started with..." Chihiro hesitated.
"The person with the knife attacked first, and the sword was used as an impromptu defense." Byakuya stated.
"Then the one who attacked first was...!" Hifumi gasped.
"...S-Sayaka!?" Makoto exclaimed.
"Now do you understand?" Kyoko asked. "She wasn't a blameless victim in this."
"No, far from it." Byakuya smirked. "It's almost as if... she had been planning to commit a murder of her own. She took the knife from the kitchen, then invited the culprit to the room she was staying in. And if it's true she had the kitchen knife and attacked without provocation..."
Sakura nodded. "Indeed... these are all the acts of an assailant."
"Which brings up another point... Makoto, Sayaka was the one who suggested you two switch rooms, correct?" Celeste recalled. "Maybe the reason she wanted to switch rooms... was so that she could pin the crime on you. That is a possibility, is it not?"
"Sayaka wanted to- on me!?" Makoto stuttered.
"That would also explain why she would switch the nameplates." The gambler continued. "She wanted to get whoever she had targeted to come to Makoto's room, where she was staying in... And by committing the murder there, instead of her room, that would implicate Makoto. But for that to work, the target had to be lured out while still keeping the room swap a secret. If the target knew she switched rooms, they would have become suspicious right away."
"So that's all why she switched the names...?" Mondo asked, dumbfounded.
"But doesn't that plan seem a little risky?" Hifumi asked. "For one thing, even if her plan worked, Mr. Naegi would just tell everyone they'd switched rooms."
"Oh, yeah, because that was working so well for him ten minutes ago." I deadpanned.
"Besides... I don't think our softhearted Makoto is capable of that kind of cutthroat behaviour." Byakuya said doubtfully. "I'm sure Sayaka realized the same thing, which is why out of all of us, she asked him to switch rooms."
"P-Plus.. she was the Ultimate Pop Sensation..." Toko offered. "A t-totally forgettable kid, o-or a national superstar... who are you m-more likely to believe?"
"Wait, then... you're saying she had this all planned out...?" Hifumi realized.
"Holy shit!" Mondo shouted.
"But in the end, her plan backfired." Celeste noted calmly. "She launched her attack with the knife, then found herself under attack in return. That must have been when her wrist got broken, and she was forced to drop the knife."
"The tables were suddenly turned on her, and she died at the hands of the one she'd planned to murder..." Sakura stated, almost poetically.
"J-Just hold on! That can't be true!" Makoto asserted. "Because...! Because..."
"Hey, hey! You guys have totally derailed the argument!" Monokuma shouted over everyone, silencing the courtroom. "You're being super boring right now! Come on, hurry up and decide who did it! Wouldn't it be awful if I had to punish you all just because you ran out of time!?" Everyone seemed to get the hint.
"Oh yeah... We gotta decide on who we think did it..." Hiro repeated.
Kyoko nodded, and turned to Makoto, who was looking at the floor. "Makoto, right now you just need to concentrate on figuring out the answer to this mystery. If we can't uncover who murdered Sayaka, it's over for all of us..." Makoto nodded, but didn't raise his head.
"It's easy to say, "Hey, decide who did it!"" Leon told Monokuma. "But there just aren't anymore clues, right?"
"Objection!" I shouted suddenly, surprising myself. I wasn't sure what came over me. Makoto seemed too hesitant, and I wanted to be more helpful for him, considering I got his friend killed. I guess I was also tired of listening to everyone argue among themselves, going back and forth. Either way, everyone's attention was on me. "There's still one clue we haven't talked about. The victim left a dying message."
"Dining- wait, what did you say?" Leon stammered.
"The dying message." Kyoko repeated for me. "She wrote something on the wall behind her, remember? 11037, written in her own blood. There must be a clue about the killer hidden in there..."
"Well, before we get too far into that, I need to ask... Can we really be sure that Sayaka is the one who wrote it?" Celeste cautioned.
"Her left index finger had blood on it." Makoto answered. Obviously, his optimism wouldn't let him be down forever. "That can only be because she used that finger to write the message." I mean, it's possibly that the killer wrote the message using the victim's finger, but since I know that's not the case, I decided not to bring that up. It would just lead to more confusion and make this take longer.
"I see..." Taka nodded along. "She broke her right wrist during the fight, so she'd have to use her left to write..."
"Sure, I think we can all agree Sayaka wrote it, but still... What the heck do those numbers mean? 11037?" Hina asked.
"Hey Chihiro, you're a computer nerd or whatever, right?" Mondo recalled. "You should know all about numbers and shit!"
"N-No, that's not... Yes, I'm a programmer, but I don't see any kind of meaning in these numbers." Chihiro explained.
Almost on cue, Mondo turned towards me. I took a second to ask Toshihide if those numbers actually meant anything in physics. They do not. was the answer I got. I shook my head. "They're not physics numbers, to my knowledge. Besides, I don't know what business the victim would have writing programming code or quantum equations on her deathbed."
"... Of course. It's because they're not numbers." Kyoko stated.
"Oh!" Hifumi gasped. "Yeah, it looks like..."
"Huh? What? What!?" Mondo demanded.
"No, it's just... look at the numbers assuming they're not numbers." He explained cryptically. "Don't these first two, 11, look less like two numbers and more like one letter?"
"Ah, you're right!" Chihiro said. "The connecting line is barely there, so I assumed it was 11, but... Looking at it now, you could also read it as an N!"
"Whoa! You might've finally just said something worth a shit!" Mondo congratulated.
"Bwehehe!" Hifumi laughed. "Our little grey cells are really getting excited now!"
"But even if that really is an N, N037 doesn't make any more sense than before..." Sakura said.
"Yes, but if it's an N, we can probably assume the other numbers are also letters." I noted. "Have any of you guys ever played with a calculator before?" Blank stares all around. "Y'know, you type, like, 5318008 and flip it upside down, and it says boobies? Chihiro, you do numbers, help me out here." Nobody seemed to get what I was saying. Man, Japan is boring.
"Oh my god... Now I see!" Makoto exclaimed. "She wrote down the killers name..."
"Huh!? You just shot past the clue part and right on to who did it!" Hina said.
"So wh-whose name did sh-she write...?" Toko asked.
"The key to solving this mystery is flipping the writing 180 degrees." Makoto explained. "If you turn the image around... it becomes the letters L-E-O-N. L-E-O-N... or more accurately, Leon!"
"Wh-!?" Leon choked on his own words. "What the hell are you talking about!? I-it's just a coincidence! It's just a bunch of random squiggles that happen to look like my name!"
"No, it's not random at all." Kyoko said calmly. "She wrote that message on the wall behind her as she was leaning against it. In that position, she couldn't move to write normally, and had to write upside down, as it were. And as a result... When you look at it standing in front of her, it ends up getting flipped. Try it for yourself, if you want. Write something sitting like her, and the letters will be inverted."
"Th-That sounds like one hell of a stretch to me...!" Leon hesitated. "I'm the killer!? You can't just go and say shit like that!"
"If you're not the killer, then why did you try to destroy the evidence?" Kyoko accused.
"...Huh?"
"You know what I'm talking about, right, Makoto?" She asked. "The evidence that Leon tried to get rid of?"
"You mean... the burnt shirt piece I found laying on the ground by the incinerator, right?" Makoto responded.
"As the killer stabbed Sayaka, they must have gotten some of her blood on them..." She explained. "And to get rid of the shirt covered in the victims blood, they threw it into the incinerator."
"But one piece burned off and got left behind..." Celeste stated.
"And the killer didn't notice." Kyoko continued. "If they had, they most certainly would have panicked. Isn't that right, Leon?"
"Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-!?" The accused stuttered and stammered.
"But is one scrap of fabric really enough to conclude that Leon is guilty?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah... I mean, Leon's not the only one wearing a white button-up..." Chihiro defended.
"Th-That's right! There are plenty of people here with shirts like mine!" He shouted. "With just that one little charred piece, there's no way you can say for sure who it belongs to!"
"You're right." Makoto admitted. "That alone isn't enough. But there are some other points that may reveal the truth..."
"...Are you finally starting to understand?" Kyoko asked Makoto. "The answers to all the riddles are right here."
"Yeah, I think so... If we look closely at how the shirt was disposed of, we should be able to figure out who the killer is."
Leon breathed a sigh of relief. "O-Oh, yeah... that's a good point. I think I know what you're gonna say... You can't reach the incinerator without opening the gate in front of the trash room, right? And obviously you wouldn't be able to hit the switch to turn it on, either. You'd need the key to get in, and the one with the key was... the person on cleaning duty! So the killer had to be whoever was in charge of taking care of the trash! Right!?" My, Leon, that was a suspiciously specific deduction for someone of your competence.
"Hahaha. Interesting..." Hifumi rubbed his chin in thought. Then his eyes went wide as the accusation sunk in. "...Gweh!?"
"The key to the trash room... Whoever was on cleaning duty must've had it, right!?" Leon repeated.
"So the only one wh-who could get to the in-incinerator was... the p-person in charge of the t-trash?" Toko continued.
"And you'd have to get close to the incinerator to in order to destroy the evidence." Leon asserted.
"No, that's wrong!" Makoto shouted once again. "I think I know how someone could dispose of the evidence without using the trash room key!"
"But if you can't get past the gate, you couldn't possibly turn on the incinerator, could you?" Sakura repeated once more.
"Yes, you could." Makoto asserted. "If you used this."
"What is it, some kinda glass ball? It's busted to hell..." Mondo observed.
Hiro scratched his head. "Actually, it was supposed to be a crystal ball. But, uh..."
"But... how would you use it?" Chihiro asked. To Makoto, not Hiro.
"The killer simply took aim at the incinerator switch and threw the ball through a gap in the gate." Makoto explained. "All they had to do was hit that switch, and the incinerator would come to life."
"Someone threw that.. through a gap in the gate!?" Hifumi gasped.
"Remember what you said before, Hifumi?" Makoto asked. "You said that the incinerator was turned off last night, but when we checked earlier, it was turned on. Hifumi had the key, so the only way the incinerator could have been turned on without his knowledge... was because the killer was able to hit the switch without opening the gate. Once they'd gotten the incinerator going, all they had to do was ball up the shirt and toss it in!"
"H-Hey, come on... what the hell is this?" Leon asked.
"All you have to do is look at the scene to know that the killer never actually went inside the trash room." Kyoko said. "The shards of glass, the incinerator left running, the piece of shirt that escaped the fire... If the killer had been on cleaning duty, the evidence would have been taken care of much more thoroughly."
"W-Wait, no... just hold on!" Leon demanded.
"But the distance from the gate to the incinerator has to be at least... thirty feet, right?" Chihiro pointed out. "The pinpoint accuracy you'd need to throw a glass ball that far and hit something that small... Could someone really do that?" On cue, everyone turned toward me. Right. Physics.
Well, Toshihide, what are the chances of someone hitting something that small? What, you mean someone who isn't the Ultimate Baseball Star? Low enough. At most, lower than one percent. I shrugged. "Well, I'd need some more info, but I can safely say it'd be less than a one percent chance. For your average person."
"Th-That's right! There's no way! It'd be impossible!" Leon asserted.
"Difficult? Absolutely. Impossible? I don't think so." Makoto said. "Because the killer is the Ultimate Baseball Star. Isn't that right, Leon!?"
"D-Do you have any idea how stupid you sound right now!?" Leon burst.
"A target from thirty feet away would surely be little challenge for the Ultimate Baseball Star." Celeste said.
"Y-Y-Y-You can't be serious! I...! I...! I'm not the killer!" He shouted to no one in particular. "These goddamn shit-for-brains have got it all wrong, I'm telling you!"
"You still won't admit it? Okay then..." Kyoko decided. "Makoto, go ahead and review the incident one more time to make his crime perfectly clear. And with that, we can end this..."
"Listen to me! What the hell do you mean, end this!?"
"Say what you want, Leon, but all the questions have been answered, and the truth has been revealed." Makoto said, turning everyone's attention to him. "Now here's what happened... Last night, the killer went to the room that Sayaka was staying in. In other words, my room. From what we can tell, Sayaka invited that person there intending to kill them. She attacked them with the knife she'd taken from the kitchen earlier... But then something happened that she wasn't prepared for. They grabbed the fake sword I'd put in my room, and fought back. During the struggle, a strike from the sword broke Sayaka's right wrist... And that's when she lost her grip on the kitchen knife.
"Finding herself cornered, Sayaka panicked and ran into the bathroom. The killer went after her, but couldn't get the bathroom door open. What they didn't know was that my bathroom door got stuck easily, and there was a trick to opening it. Sayaka knew about that because I told her, but of course the killer had no way of knowing. So instead, the killer forced the door open, took the kitchen knife... and stabbed Sayaka. But with what strength she had remaining, Sayaka left a dying message... To keep the killer from noticing, she wrote it on the wall behind her... and with that, all her strength was gone.
"With Sayaka dead, the killer quickly began destroying the evidence. First, they took off their shirt, which was covered in their victim's blood. Then they took the lint roller in my room and cleaned up the entire area. They wanted to make sure they got rid of any trace they'd ever been there...
"Afterwards, the killer headed to the trash room to destroy their bloody shirt. They tried to burn the shirt using the incinerator there. But the trash room was blocked off by an especially sturdy gate, preventing access to the incinerator. So they came up with a plan to use Hiro's crystal ball, which he'd left in the laundry room. The killer managed to throw the ball through the gap in the gate and hit the incinerator's switch. For any normal person, that'd be an impossible throw, but the killer had the confidence to take the shot. And that's because the killer... was the Ultimate Baseball Star. The crystal ball, thrown with absolute precision, hit the switch on the incinerator... which then quickly roared to life. Having destroyed the final piece of evidence, they left the area with, I imagine, a sigh of relief. But there was one thing they missed... Part of the shirt they'd thrown into the fire burnt away and fell out of the incinerator. The killer didn't notice this, and so left behind a piece of indisputable evidence."
"Isn't that right... Leon!?" Makoto pointed an accusing finger across the courtroom, and Leon looked like he was ready to burst. "It would appear that Hiro simply forgot his crystal ball in the laundry room. You went there to try and wash the blood out of your shirt, and that's where you saw it, right? Seeing the ball, you thought of a way to take care of everything..."
"So, Leon... do you object to anything that's been said?" Kyoko asked.
"Do I object...?" Leon repeated. "Hell yes I object! Of course I do! I object, I object, I object! I mean, all of this is just a bunchof stupid theories! You need evidence! Where's the evidence!? Without evidence, it's all bullshit! It's bullshit and I refuse to acknowledge it!"
"Well then... I guess this is as good a time as any to present the evidence that proves you did it." Kyoko decided. "Makoto... I believe you're in possession of that evidence? When the killer removed the screws from the doorknob, they didn't use anything from your room to do it. Instead they must have used something that belonged to them."
"I refuse to acknowledge you!" Leon shouted. "You're stupid! Stupid stupid stupid! Stupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupid!" Sadly, no one was really paying him any attention.
"The screws on the bathroom door were removed. I wonder what kind of tool the killer used to remove them..." Makoto wondered rhetorically.
"I mean... it had to be a screwdriver, right?" Mondo asked.
"Oh yeah. I'm pretty sure the toolkits we got each had one inside." Hiro recalled.
"Then that must be what he used!" Hifumi decided. "There aren't any other tools anywhere."
"But the toolkit in my room had clearly never been used..." Makoto said.
"That's because the killer didn't know they were in your room! They thought they were in Sayaka's room!" Taka realized.
"Only the boys got toolkits, so the killer naturally assumed there wouldn't be one in there..." Chihiro said.
"Okay, then whose toolkit did the killer use?" Makoto asked. "It had to be their very own! Leon, would you mind showing us your toolkit? If I'm right about this, then... the screwdriver will show some evidence of being used!"
Leon's inane blabbering was halted. "Stupidstupidstu... uh, huh?"
"And if you say you used if for something else, you'll have to explain exactly when, where, and why..." Byakuya pushed.
"And let me say this right now... "I lost it" isn't an excuse at this point." Kyoko said.
I shook my head solemnly. "It's over, Leon. I'm sorry."
Leon muttered the word "stupid" under his breath a few more times, and fell to his knees at his spot.
Byakuya smirked. "So, you have no rebuttal?"
"Then it would seem... we are finished here." Celeste ended.
Monokuma laughed quietly from atop his throne. "Looks like you've reached your verdict! Then are we ready to cast our votes? You all have a lever in front of you. Use it to make your selection! Oh, just to remind you all... Make triple sure you vote for someone! You wouldn't want to be punished for something so minor, right? Okay, then let's get excited! Who will be chosen as the blackened? Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one? What's it gonna be? What's in gonna beee!?"
I grabbed the lever that had popped out from the stand in front of me, and took a deep breath. Once I had worked up all my courage, I pulled the lever and selected Leon. With that, is fate was decided, and that came the end of our first class trial.
Yeah, Albert saying objection was an Ace Attorney reference. That's the mystery series I have more experience with, so why not? He'll probably use that a couple more in future trials, but Makoto is still the lead investigator in the courtroom.
I'll be honest, I really did try to think of ways to have Sayaka, Junko, or Leon survive. But considering how little screen time they get, I was kinda afraid of messing up their character. I also feel like their deaths will work as great character development for Albert from here on out, and give him a legit reason to try and change things. I know Leon isn't technically dead at this point, but you can probably guess that's where this is going. Either that, or they all voted wrong, and everyone dies next chapter. Maybe I'll do that for April Fools, who knows?
Anyway, now that the first class trial is over, and Albert plans to prevent future murders, that means everything's going to work out, right? Haha, if only it was that easy.
In the next chapter, I'll have both the aftermath of the trial, and some more advancements in the story.
