Act 1-7
Pages As White As Snow
Everyone was shocked, unable to move or really do much of anything in response to the revelation. Jack continued laughing for a minute longer, before it finally died down and he smiled at the others.
"Oh!" Monokuma interjected from his seat, going from looking sleepy to shocked in a matter of seconds. He clutched his chest in mock pain. "The ultimate reveal! I can't believe this!" He leered at the other students, his smile seeming to widen. "Are ya shocked? Angry? Terrified? I thought he'd be a good addition to our little crew. But don't worry your pretty little heads, he's not a mole." The bear covered his mouth with his paws, laughing. "Upupupupu~! He's in the same boat as the rest of you!"
Kasumi, unsurprised, was the first to speak up. With everyone silent, she was heard. "We need to find Chieko-san's killer before we can speak of anything else."
Mikala took a shaky breath, nodding. The others, at varying levels of shock and/or recovery, eventually followed suit.
Kasumi glanced at everyone before speaking again. "If SR does not mean Stark, Raymond, we need to find the true meaning."
Irja was the first to take the reins of the conversation. "Let's review what we've gathered so far. We know that she died by a blow to the head by a blunt object in the library. We've already clarified that the murder weapon was a book; specifically, a copy of Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The killer put blood on the corner of the encyclopedias to confuse us, meaning that this particular book has some sort of important meaning as to who the killer is. There was also a dying message left at the scene: the number 19."
As she spoke, the most important points of evidence popped up in holograms in the center of the room; pictures of the crime scene and of the murder weapon.
"Mikala said that 19 is a reference to numerology, and Jack clarified that it stood for the letters SR."
"But how can we trust him?" Rie asked, receiving several outbursts of agreement.
"He wasn't lying." Yuhei gave her a steady look before turning to an amused-looking Jack. "He showed no signs of lying when he said that." He clarified upon receiving several incredulous looks. "He was telling the truth."
Those looks turned skeptical, and the Lip Reader hid a sigh of frustration. "When people lie, they give away minute signs in their body movements and facial expressions."
Ray was the one that brought the conversation back on track. "So we know 19 means SR. Everyone has a confirmed alibi except for Alex, Jack, Mikala and I." He crossed his arms defiantly. "Though I can tell you that I'm definitely not the killer."
"Same here." Mikala piped up quickly.
Alex nodded absently, fingers tapping on the cover of his closed book. "Same."
Jack scoffed, hands on his hips as everyone turned to him. "And you think I'd do something as boring as bashing her head in? One of those three are the culprit…" He grinned, leaning forward with a feral grin and wild electric eyes that sent shivers down spines. "…and I know who it is~!" He sang, and everyone went into a shock, leaning forward in a flurry of questions. Jack laughed, howled. "Aw, you think I'm gonna tell you? Guess the killer will just have to live with the knowledge that I know, and I could rat them out at any minute~!" He put emphasis on every syllable, pronouncing the words playfully, though his intentions were most definitely not innocent in the slightest.
"Then we'll just have to figure it out for ourselves." Amelia snapped back, crossing her arms defiantly.
"Jack didn't kill her." Everyone turned once more to Yuhei, who seemed somewhat uncomfortable with the sudden attention, but continued speaking nonetheless. "That doesn't mean he didn't interfere somehow, of course."
Jack laughed, causing several people to startle, but didn't say anything otherwise.
Kasumi pursed her lips in thought, turning to her left to stare at Jack. "That is what you were doing. When I saw you in the dorm halls."
"I see," Alex spoke up, "You manipulated the evidence. You faked the dying message." Eyes widened at this comment. "You knew what it stood for because you were the one that wrote it."
Jack grinned wide. "Ding ding ding~! We have a winner! But…" He paused for dramatic effect, waiting until someone looked like they were about to snap at him before finishing his statement. "It's not just a random dying message. It has relevance! What does SR stand for that relates to gymnastics?"
Rie answered within the minute. "Still Rings, right?" When everyone looked at her, she brightened just a little bit, smiling sheepishly. "I do acrobatics," she said by way of explanation.
"Those are the ring things gymnasts use and swing from, right? What do Still Rings have to do with this?" Mikala asked, eyebrow raised.
Jack scoffed, but didn't give any sort of answer. Irja seemed to catch on, however, explaining it for the still thoroughly confused students, her hand holding onto her jaw thoughtfully. "It's not Still Rings in particular, but rings in general that he's referencing to. Since Aimi is the Ultimate Acrobat, it makes sense to relate it somehow to her occupation."
"What does it matter? Jack made it, so there's no point to it." Ray scoffed, crossing his arms.
Jack laughed loudly at his statement. "Who said it was pointless?"
"He did say he knew who the culprit was…"
"So, um…" Celinel spoke up quietly, absently petting the bird sitting on their shoulder. The rest had perched themselves somewhere nearby. "…Who here is related to rings…?"
Everyone began looking around, muttering. Kasumi and Irja flipped through their diary and notes, respectively, but Yuhei appeared to figure it out the fastest.
"Raymond Stark has a gold earring on his left ear; Rie Hayaikawa, being the Ultimate Circus Performer, would be able to perform gymnastics, and thus could also use Still Rings; and both Mikala Nuri and Alex Nagamine wear rings on their thumb."
Irja nodded in agreement. "And we've already ruled out Rie, so that leaves the three original suspects."
"Well that didn't help much. We're right back where we started."
"Why don't you just tell us who the culprit is already?!" Jack smirked, sipping on a mug of coffee.
Kasumi questioned when and how he got it.
"One little piggy went to the library, one little piggy did not. One little piggy was framed, and one little piggy went B, B, B, all the way to hell." He sang, out of tune and interrupted frequently by sips of coffee.
There was a moment of silence following his little song.
"…What. Was that."
Jack laughed, leaning against his podium and swirling his cup around. "Why so confused? I answered your question, didn't I?" his response caused tempers to flare, though they were interrupted by Vergil, who had rarely spoken since the Trial started.
"The 'piggies' represent the victim and the three suspects." Everyone went silent, looking at him expectantly. "The one that went to hell; that has to be the Aimi. Therefore, the one who went to the library was our culprit, and the third was framed."
"I was the one framed, right?" Mikala asked, an almost urgent tone in his voice. "Since Kokkonen found that book in my room. So the culprit has to be either Stark or Nagamine."
Ray crossed his arms defiantly, giving Mikala a hard look. "Well it definitely wasn't me."
Alex frowned. "It wasn't me either."
"One of you is lying." Yuhei retorted.
The four stared off defiantly, a silent battle of wills, and minutes passed as someone waited for the other to speak up. The tension was high in the air, until Monokuma sighed loudly from where he lay sideways in his chair. "I'm getting bored… Let's wrap this up already!"
"Why don't the both of you recount your alibis just one more time?" Amelia suggested, crossing her arms and looking pointedly at Alex and Ray.
They both looked disgruntled, but did so nonetheless.
"I was exploring the outside all morning until noon. Checking out the ski lift and ice skating rink and stuff." Ray grumbled.
"I was in the library with Jonathan from 7:30 to 9:45. After that I went to my room, and didn't leave until noon." Alex stated curtly.
Irja nodded, flipping through her notes. "And from the time you both were alone, there are no witnesses confirming this."
"But I didn't kill her. I didn't speak to her once today and barely even saw her!" Ray snapped.
"Same here."
Kasumi looked over at the two, speaking up and surprising several. "Out of curiosity, Nagamine-kun, when you left your room, did you notice anything unusual?"
He gave her a strange look. "No, why do you ask?"
She continued staring steadily at him, light blue eyes betraying nothing. "Surely you would've notice something. You are very perceptive after all." She pressed, and Alex's fingers tapped agitatedly on the cover of his book.
"W-Well, I think there was something, yes. Stark and Nuri's doors were somewhat open, but I didn't think anything of it at the time." Kasumi sighed, and it almost sounded like disappointment.
"Kokkonen-chan, Frischt-san, Kuza-kun. Did you notice anything strange when we looked around the dorms?"
They all shook their heads. "There was… nothing strange. Except…" Celinel paused, taking a moment to reflect before answering. "…Wasn't there blood on the carpet…?"
Kasumi gave the Ultimate Choir Conductor a smile—though really, it was nothing more than a twitch of the lips—and a nod. "That is correct. It was hard to see because of the color of the carpet, but there were droplets of blood. I saw Jack-san leaving one of the rooms, thus they came from whatever he was carrying."
Irja's eyes lit up in realization. "And we know that he messed with the evidence; in particular the murder weapon."
Jack laughed, and from the folds of his trench coat pulled out one of the many bloody encyclopedias. "Perhaps this will help~?" He sang, tossing it to Jonathan.
The Ultimate Procrastinator flipped through the book, and everyone watched him, no one but Kasumi noticing the way Alex's face began to pale. When he finally stopped, eyes widening, he inhaled sharply before showing the page to the rest of the students.
"This is the real dying message, isn't it?" The encyclopedia—the letters A, B, and C—had been flipped to the a section in B. A bloody fingerprint pointed to the word bookworm. Everyone turned to Alex, who opened his mouth to deny it, to say something to prove it wasn't him, but he crumpled.
"Why?"
Alex took a shuddering breath, closing his eyes for a moment to compose himself. "Monokuma's motive. If, within seven days, there is no murder in the Moon Mountain Winter Lodge, all families and relatives of the fifteen students residing in the Lodge will perish very painful and bloody deaths. My family is all I have. I couldn't lose them."
"But why Aimi? Why did you attack her?"
His hands gripped the book tightly. "She was the one that insulted my family; my father. I… I lost it, after what Monokuma said. And I killed her."
Irja sighed, looking down at her notes with pursed lips. "So, in summary, you hit her with a book, killing her. She didn't die immediately, as she was able to create a dying message. Jack came and found the book, and decided to hit her with the rest of the encyclopedias and put them away to confuse us, as well as writing the fake dying message. Later, he retrieved the murder weapon and put it in Mikala's room to frame him. Is this correct?"
Alex shook his head quietly. "When I first hit her, she was still alive. I came back and… killed her, hitting her with the encyclopedias. Jack simply wrote the second dying message and stole the murder weapon."
Monokuma, looking very much asleep, woke up with a start, looking around. "Well, it appears we've come to a conclusion! That means it's ballot time~! Please vote for someone using the switch in front of you! You wouldn't want to be punished for something so silly, right~?" Monokuma laughed whimsically. "Who will you vote for? Who will it be? Will you be right, or oh so wrong~?"
Everyone looked around, but one by one, they reluctantly entered their votes.
A bright, colorful machine popped up in the center, the word VOTE in gold letters lit up on top. On all four sides, a section cordoned off by bright lights, labeled GUILTY, spun. A small, cartoon version of Alex's face appeared three times, and the entire machine lit up, blinking in a seizure-inducing way as little bouquets of plastic flowers popped out of the sides.
"Upupupu~! That is absolutely correct! Alex Nagamine, the Ultimate Bookworm, was the one to kill the Ultimate Acrobat, Aimi Chieko!" Monokuma sang, his tone entirely too happy for someone announcing the culprit of a murder.
It was at this point that Jack burst out laughing, and everyone turned to him with a sharp look. "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I can't believe you still haven't realized it!" He laughed some more, and Alex glared at him.
"Realized what?"
Jack grinned at them. "She wasn't being insensitive when she said all that stuff. I was the one who told her! AHAHAHAHA! Her father treated her like dirt; it wasn't that hard to manipulate her thinking."
Everyone whirled around on him, but it was Alex whose eyes widened in anger.
"You…!"
"That's enough chit chat!" Monokuma interrupted, and he seemed to grin wider than usual. "It's time for the villain to get punished!"
Alex whirled around to face the bear, eyes widening in shock and fear. "W-Wait…! Wait a minute…!"
The bear ignored him, laughing. "Let's get this punishment started! Everyone's waiting! I've prepared a very special punishment for Alex Nagamine, the Ultimate Bookworm~!"
"W-Wait…"
"It's Punishment Time~!"
So, sorry to end it there, but I didn't want it to end up too long. :P The execution and thus the end of Act 1 will all be next chapter.
On that note, I'm so sorry for that impromptu hiatus after Christmas. Long story short, a lot of things happened, and I had little time. I still have people (most notably my parents) piling this after that on me, but it's less than before. I won't be back to the usual schedule, but I'm going to try to update more often from here on out.
Kasumi Nikki, Ultimate Diary Keeper, female
Yuhei Kuza, Ultimate Lip Reader, male Courtesy of Reapergenesis32
Raymond "Ray" Bishop Stark, Ultimate DJ, male Courtesy of Oscar – The Undead Brony
Ruiza Maria Andrade (El Torbellino Dorado), Ultimate Luchador, female Courtesy of dashunterman
Rie Hayaikawa, Ultimate Circus Performer, femaleCourtesy of SpectralTriangle
Amelia (Von) Ebers, Ultimate Classical Composer, femaleCourtesy of TheLaughingStone
Alex Nagamine, Ultimate Bookworm, maleCourtesy of Alex The God Killer
Jonathan Junmaru, Ultimate Procrastinator, maleCourtesy of Mechblade007
Makoto Kudou, Ultimate Forensic Scientist, maleCourtesy of Starnightking
Irja Sari Kokkonen, Ultimate Investigative Journalist, femaleCourtesy of Lupus Overkill
Aimi Kimiko Chieko, Ultimate Acrobat, female Courtesy of SatoIchinose
Mikala Kaimi Nuri, Ultimate Cosmetologist, male
Vergil, Ultimate Friend, male Courtesy of lVergil
Celinel Frischt, Ultimate Choir Conductor, polygender Courtesy of my friend Frankie (who's too lazy to get an account, apparently)
Jack Doe, Ultimate Bad Luck, maleCourtesy of RestinDarkness