Chapter 1: Class Trial II
I'm hoping with every fibre of my being that I'm wrong about this. I just can't bring myself to accuse Nanima. No way can I believe that she could ever be responsible for something like this. Please don't tell me she listened to the voices…
"Shinji, stop staring into space and focus on the case!" Alicia reprimands me. She has an arm outstretched ready to slap me across the face if needed.
"Somethin' wrong, Zombie?" Zange asks. At least she seems to actually be concerned for my welfare. "You ain't lookin' so hot."
"I think I know a cure for that," Hikari says. Whatever she has in mind, there's a very real chance of me not being alive by the end of it. Everyone's voices seem to be echoing, gaining an ethereal quality. Nanima's right in my line of sight and all I can focus on is the trail of red running down her face, dripping onto her black hoodie as she stands there with all the stillness and rigidity of a statue. What's going on?
"He's bottled it," I hear Haru comment.
"Nanima…" I gasp at last. "You… you were in that storage room, weren't you?" She's still standing there staring straight ahead, and the trial's completely ground to a halt. Silence reigns over the courtroom and Monokuma is fidgeting on his golden throne, waiting for something despairing to happen. It's not long until he's satisfied.
"I-I didn't do anything!" Nanima screams, shielding her face with her hands. "You have to believe me! I swear I'm not the killer!"
"Nobody said you were," Haruki says calmly. "Shinji, what makes you think Nanima was in that storeroom? Seems like you're just pulling stuff out of thin air now." I don't want to have to divulge Nanima's secret to everyone, but if it comes down to it, I may be forced to. The voices may have regained their control.
"Puhuhu! Looks like the insomniac's addled by his lack of sleep! Didn't I tell ya not to let those bed-bugs bite?" Monokuma fails to remain an impartial party in the class trial with his irksome commentary. I don't even have any Truth Bullets that can allow me to pursue this angle, which is making me doubt myself.
"You all have to believe me," Nanima says hurriedly. "I'm definitely not the killer. I was never in that storeroom. I've got no idea what Shinji's talking about!" It's not easy, but I'm going to have to present my case.
"When we first met, it was in that very same storeroom, and you were acting awfully reclusive. You could've easily known about the supplies in there, how spacious it was, that nobody was likely to bother you in there. The perfect place to hide until the body was discovered." I'll admit, it's very shaky logic, but it's the best I've got.
"Why are you doing this to me?" she wails, my pragmatism causing more harm than good in this situation. She brings her hands away from her face and the backs of them are coated in blood. "How many times do I have to declare I'm innocent before you believe me?"
"As soon as I mentioned that storeroom, you completely froze like you did in the cafeteria. Plus, you're bleeding again..."
"Alright, I was in there earlier, but only for a little while. Ryusuke took me there because I'd forgotten something in there yesterday, and he made sure I didn't take long." She scrolls down her screen delicately and dextrously, displaying her technological proficiency, and shares a Truth Bullet, a game cartridge for her device. How on Earth did that get left behind? "Now do you believe me?"
"Before anyone says anything, I was off duty, and this was long before the murder took place," says Ryusuke, running a finger along the silver chain around his neck. At her own podium, Rin stirs into action to castigate me.
"Do you not see how completely unreasonable you're being, Shinji? How can you so callously accuse someone who poured their heart out to you about their fragile mental state, especially after the promise you made?" Of course Rin would use that little black book of hers against me. Sadly, she's totally right to call me out this time. I've not contributed anything worthwhile to the courtroom proceedings with my accusation of Nanima, and now I'm drawing a blank.
"Enough," I say. "Okay, maybe that's not right after all. Eizou, can you confirm where Nanima was before the body was discovered?"
"She was next in line after you guys on the rations so I didn't get chance to drop in," Eizou replies. Fantastic timing there, champ.
"Allow me to present my account," Rin says icily, tapping the screen with her fancy black pen. My screen is suddenly inundated with words, hundreds upon hundreds of them. "As you can clearly see, the body was discovered by me and Daisuke Kobayashi, which triggered Monokuma's announcement. Nanima was among the first to arrive upon the scene, and she was not hiding in the storeroom."
"I can most definitely corroborate Ms. Hinamoto's account," Daisuke says, giving me a discerning look.
"So, just to be clear," Haruki says, attempting to recap, "the current theory is as follows: Eiko received a threatening letter from someone asking her to meet at the consultation room at 4pm. Eiko hid said letter, went to the room as agreed, and was strangled and cut up. Then, the killer went to the storeroom where they hid the broken scalpel and used bandages. Have I got that right?"
"That pretty much sums it up," I confirm.
"Cool. So, does anyone else have anything to contribute? This is a team effort, after all. Ryusuke, was there anything on Eiko that might give us some clues?"
"No calling cards or anything of that ilk, Haruki, sir!" Ryusuke announces. "The one thing I did find on her was a piece of paper soaked in blood, which I believe is the one from the ballot." That's right, she never got to vote, and there were no slips left behind once we'd all voted, so it's entirely possible that she'd taken her ballot paper with her and simply forgotten about it, but still, I get the feeling we should be looking into it further.
"That reminds me of something we've not figured out yet. How did the killer get that note to Eiko when there was a curfew going on?" I ask.
"Nobody followed that curfew anyway," Daisuke says dismissively. "I was able to leave my room several times without incident. None would dare tangle with the intellectual might of Daisuke Kobayashi!" If that's the case I'm going to hazard a guess and say Eizou was on duty all those times. No way would Ryusuke let him get away with that.
"I thought I'd heard something moving around those old corridors," Eizou says. "Phew, I thought I was going paranoid for a bit there!"
"Ugh, my face…" Nanima looks around, not knowing where to put her hands to avoid getting blood everywhere.
"Here, you can use this, I don't mind," Haruki says, offering her his scarf. It's red, so the bloodstains won't be too noticeable. Nanima takes it with gratitude, mopping up the blood with the woollen garment.
"Maybe they sent it via postal service," Akira suggests.
"Dude, that's not funny," Alicia says. "What an utterly ridiculous suggestion!"
"Well, maybe they handed it to one of the passing guards or something," Akira says, refusing to back down. "That reminds me of one time at one of my first tourneys, there was this one girl in the crowd I had the hots for…" Not another one of these bloody anecdotes. He's missing something completely obvious, so thankfully I can stop him in his tracks.
"Akira, you're wrong again!" I announce. I don't even really need to present any evidence for this one because we've already had it. "Eizou, Ryusuke, did either of you take any notes from anyone?"
"Nope," says Eizou.
"I personally did not," Ryusuke says. That was too easy. Akira's becoming a bit of a liability in these trial situations with his consistently dumb theories. Then again, I suppose I didn't fare much better earlier, did I?
"Well, there you go. They must've delivered it themselves. There's not really any other possibility, is there?" This case is meandering along at a glacial pace. Someone needs to kick things into gear with a shocking revelation that will absolutely shake things up.
"Yo, guys, uh… maybe they sent it before the curfew," Dulce suggests. Of all the people to come up with something, I certainly didn't think it'd be her. She's been pretty laid-back during this whole trial, letting everyone else do all the hard work until she just throws a curveball out there.
"Boy, this whole thing musta been totally pre-medicated," Zange says, slipping in a little malapropism while she's at it. I think she can be forgiven for that, given her background in criminal activity. In fact, she's probably the most eloquent burglar in the world.
"But who could've done that?" I ask. "From what I recall, me, Nanima and Hikari were in the cafeteria. Everyone else bar Rin and the candidates went to the reception."
"Whoever it was, they stole some of my paper," says Dulce.
"And the murdering scoundrel had the audacity to rob one of my pens!" Zygoth bellows in fury. "How dare they disturb the equilibrium of the universe by stealing one of my carefully arranged pens!"
"Perhaps in future you should be more careful about who you lend them to," Alicia suggests. Come to think of it, there was a point in time where there was a perfect opportunity for someone to steal those supplies.
"I think I've got it," I say cautiously. "Zygoth, when was it you noticed that you were missing a pen?"
"Why, it would have been just after we finished up those ballots… no, wait! Now I distinctly recall what happened. When Monokuma vanished in a billowing puff of smoke, I felt something touch my pocket. It couldn't be…"
"No, it couldn't be!" Monokuma says, waggling his tiny gavel around. "I've already told you, the killer was one of you students! Honestly, kids these days, having such little faith in authority figures…" Like anybody would trust the words of a black and white bear who seems to get off on other people's suffering.
"I'd say you're on the right track looking for who stole those supplies," Nayumi says. "Whoever they were, they had a plan, and they used the distraction to their advantage to get what they needed to carry it out."
"I'm gonna bring up that note we found in Eiko's room again," I say, scrolling to the bottom and showing everyone the invitation to the consultation room for an appointment with Doctor Death.
"Whoever the killer was, they're an idiot," Daisuke says.
"Yeah, who the hell would sign it like that?" asks Dulce, resting her elbows on the podium and her head on her hands.
"Oh, I know, I know!" Hikari pipes up again, jumping up and down. "Someone whose name begins with H! I wonder who that could be…"
"Hikari, could it be you, by any chance?" Alicia enquires. "We all know that you've got vested interest in both Shinji and Zygoth, so you could well have used that to your advantage. You were also in Dulce's room before the announcement of the curfew, so paper would have been in plentiful supply. Let's see what your precious boyfriend has to say about all this, shall we?"
"Alicia, you're wrong," I say to her face. Oh, how I relish that. "I'm not her boyfriend! Also, Hikari couldn't have killed Eiko, she stayed in my room the whole time."
"But can you prove that? Do you have actual evidence to prove, beyond all reasonable doubt, that Hikari wasn't the killer?" I swallow, knowing I haven't got anything in my Truth Bullets that can definitely clear her.
"Hey, Pyro, what's that hangin' off your arm there?" asks Zange. I look to see what Zange's pointing at, and there's a white thread dangling past her left sleeve. A white thread that looks suspiciously like it came off the roll of gauze bandages. Have I already started succumbing to the hallucinations? No, that's not possible. It's not even been two days yet, I should be absolutely fine. Is there something about this oppressive hospital exacerbating my condition?
"Oh, this? It's nothing," Hikari says, shoving the thread up her sleeve.
"Hikari, you're gonna have to show us," I insist. I have to know she's innocent. "Nobody else here will believe you if you don't."
"Sure thing, Shinji!" she says, reaching down to remove her entire top.
"Just roll up the sleeve, for fuck's sake," I say quickly before she ends up exposing herself to the entire courtroom. Thankfully, there's another layer beneath the grey top, meaning there probably wouldn't have been much of an incident, but even so she relents to my demand and hikes up her sleeve to reveal a rather messy dressing that extends right the way up her arm. Through the gaps in the dressing I can see some nasty-looking burn scars. No wonder she's got those long sleeves; that burn looks seriously painful and hideous. Several people react with a gasp and Akira, who's to her left, recoils in horror.
"That happened a long time ago. I made a mistake and poof! My arm got really badly burned, but I never let that stop me becoming the Ultimate Pyrotechnician. Just like whatever happened to the killer didn't stop them! Just bandage it all up and away you go!" I think that's the most sense we're gonna get out of Hikari in this entire trial.
"If you think about it for more than one second, is Hikari really the type to meticulously plan a murder like that?" I ask the collective, but I'm hoping Alicia in particular is listening.
"Nope!" Hikari admits happily. "If it'd been me, I would've burned her to death, just like she did to her parents! A fitting punishment!" She takes far too much glee in fire and destruction, but her word should assure everyone that she is, indeed, not the one we're looking for. Besides, Hikari found something that could possibly incriminate somebody else whose name begins with H. I search for the relevant Truth Bullet in preparation. It's not something I particularly relish, but this time I might just be on the right track.
"Everyone, try to think who else's name begins with an H," I command as I deploy the Red String bullet.
"What's this got to do with anything?" Eizou asks. "It's just a bit of string."
"It's not just any bit of string, though. Haruki, let's have a look at that scarf of yours." Nanima's still got the scarf tightly wound around one hand like a bandage, but she starts to unwind it slowly. Once it's been fully unwound, she holds it up for everyone to see. A small loose thread dangles limply from one side, almost mournfully so. One that looks to match the one I've got in my pocket.
"I've had this scarf for a long while," Haruki says. "That's just a bit of normal wear and tear, y'know." Unexpectedly, another Truth Bullet smashes its way onto everyone's monitors from Nayumi, showing us the red piece of fabric she found on the floor of the consultation room.
"This might also be from that scarf," she suggests. "Now, do you have an alibi for when Eiko was killed?"
"Totally. I was in my room, just like everyone else was." Evidence is mounting against the Ultimate Singer here and he knows it. Was I wrong to vouch for him as our potential leader?
"Is it not convenient that you knew to find those supplies in the storage room?" Zygoth asks. "Not only that, you knew exactly where to look for them."
"Again, that's not proof of anything," replies Haruki.
"Perhaps not… but your neck and hands are permanently covered. Is something hiding beneath the gloves? Or maybe the headphones and high collar are meant to obscure something…"
"Zygoth, I think you might be onto something," I say. "Eiko was strangled, right? What if Haruki choked her out with the scarf? If he managed to break her trachea, then the force could've torn a bit of it off…"
"You're roaming off topic again," Alicia warns. Think I got a bit ahead of myself there, assuming Zygoth was going to bring the scarf back into it. Not good.
"There's an easy way to settle this," Rin says, pulling out the little black book, tearing out a blank page and offering it to Haruki along with her pen. Damn, if I hadn't eventually relented and let Hikari burn all the ballots, I could've checked to see if any of them matched the notes, but since nobody thought to provide a name on theirs it wouldn't have helped. Unless… no, that's ridiculous.
"Suppose there's no point me hiding it any longer," Haruki says, refusing Rin's offer. "I give up. Yeah, I was there. But before you all vote for me, I've got a bit of evidence of my own to submit." Instead of comparing his handwriting with the existing evidence, I'll have to take his word and trust this Truth Bullet, another note worded exactly the same as the one we found on Eiko's bed, except this one has no signature.
"Why the hell didn't you show us that earlier?" Akira asks. "Withholding evidence is a very serious crime!"
"I wasn't exactly gonna broadcast to the world I was there when the onus wasn't on me, was I?" Haruki retorts. "Honestly, I was waiting for you all to incriminate me first just to be able to show you this. Good job, everyone. And I mean that."
"When and where did you find that note?" I ask. Was it addressed to him specifically, or did he just pick it up off the floor?
"Found it in my pocket just after the curfew started," he replies, adjusting his gloves. "Someone must've slipped it in while I wasn't looking." The room becomes almost silent. Haruki's as good as admitted to the crime, and yet this case isn't over. We still have to work out who's behind those notes. We don't have time to make everyone write a sample piece or attempt to copy that H...
"Guys, guys, guys!" Hikari says frantically, puncturing the building tension. "What if… the evil spirit did it?" What the hell is she talking about? I might have to tell her to stop hanging out with Zygoth; I'm beginning to think he's a bad influence on her fragile suggestible mind. Amazingly, people seem to actually be contemplating this suggestion.
"Evil spirit, huh? That'd be a turn-up for the books," Eizou says, pulling that mad menacing thinking face again.
"I'm thinkin' Pyro might be smarter than she lets on," Zange says, smiling.
"I'm surrounded by superstitious fools," groans the ever-sceptical Daisuke, the kind of man who refuses to believe anything that doesn't have hundreds of research papers backing up its existence.
"Allow me to elaborate on Hikari's current theory," Zygoth starts. "Upon entering that consultation room, I felt an overwhelming dark presence within the room, emanating from its epicentre. It is my firm belief that this hospital lies in an area where the realms of man and spirit intertwine, a crossroads, if you will. I was able to deduce that the presence I was feeling was that of a vengeful spirit, and I am the only one of us here qualified to banish such a creature back to its realm of origin. I enlisted the help of Hikari, knowing her to be a most trustworthy ally." I swear I hear a snicker from somewhere, but Zygoth simply ignores it and continues.
"Indeed, I was correct, for her enthusiasm in lighting the black candles required to ward off such a spirit meant it could do harm no longer! Now, I must repeat what I told her: a dark spirit such as this one needs to possess a host in order to interact with the living world in any meaningful way. It shouldn't take too much of a leap of logic to figure this out." Alright then, I guess I have to think about this logically. Let's pretend that there are such things as evil spirits, and that there was one in that room. I encountered Zygoth just after I'd finished investigating inside that consultation room, and he was just finishing off the ritual. By that time, Haruki was back in the storage room with Daisuke and Haru. There's only one person that he could have been referring to as being possessed.
"Hold on… you've been suggesting Haruki acted in self-defence this whole time, haven't you?" Amazing. Hikari's ramblings have actually provided us with some very valuable insight into how this whole case went down.
"I knew it!" Akira announces. "Ever since I laid eyes on that weirdo I knew she was trouble."
"That's right," Zygoth says triumphantly. "The real mastermind behind Eiko's death… was Eiko Uno herself!"
A.N.: Got this one out nice and quick. Next trial part hopefully won't be too far off either.
So, did Haruki really do it? Was it all an elaborate suicide plot? Or could someone else entirely be involved? Answers on a postcard. Or, y'know, in the review box.