"Seto, why do you have claw marks on your face?" Steven asked, horrified.
"I-Isn't it obvious?!" Ryan shouted, clenching his fists. "Jerome must have attacked him in self-defense! That's the only way he could have gotten those marks! Regular fingernails wouldn't do that!"
"But how come we didn't see them earlier?" Husky questioned. "How come we're only seeing them now?"
"Maybe he tried to hide the marks using his magic, but the spell unfortunately wore off..." Jordan mused, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
"Last time MonoWither made Seto take a pill to weaken his magic, right? Maybe MonoWither gave him one before this trial as well," Jason said quietly. "That must be it. It must have worn the spell off faster than Seto intended..."
"But that means... Seto's the killer?" Bodil shrieked shrilly.
"Well of course that's what we mean, Bodil!" Ryan replied. "See? He doesn't even have anything to say for himself!"
Ryan was right, unfortunately. All the blood had drained from Seto's face, making the scratches look even more apparent, and his eyes were as wide as saucers. Murmurs broke out, filling the courtroom, when suddenly...
"EVERYONE SHUT UP!" Tyler cried out, startling everyone into silence with his unexpected outburst. "It's not Seto! It can't be him! Seto wouldn't kill anyone! I won't believe it one bit!" He crossed his arms over his chest, trembling. "A-After all, when I got drunk, he took care of me when he could have easily just killed me! If he really wanted to kill someone, he would have murdered me right then and there when MonoWither suggested it, but he didn't!" The poor man turned to Seto and stared at him with pleading, desperate eyes. "R-Right, Seto? I trust you! You would never kill anyone, right?"
Seto didn't respond.
"But that was before the motive, isn't that correct?" Annie asked. "Don't you remember how Seto reacted after seeing his slip of paper?"
"B-But... No... it can't be... Seto..." Tyler said, trailing off. Seto closed his eyes tightly, his face twisted with shame. "What the hell are you guys saying! It- It's just a theory!" Tyler shrieked frantically, his eyes darting back and forth. "You have no absolute proof Seto did it! Jerome must have been killed by someone else!"
"Oh Tyler, that's exactly what you said about Sky, isn't it?" MonoWither suddenly cut in.
Tyler flinched. "Wh- What are you talking about?!"
"You know what we mean! You kept on blindly defending Sky during the last trial, refusing to listen to reason, when you knew all along he was the culprit! And now there's proof Seto did it, and here you go again, defending him without any rationality! Loyalty is a virtue, but too much is just ridiculous! You're the Super Duper Minecrafter Level Drama Actor, you should know full well that tragic flaws always bring about destruction! You never learn, do you? Geez Tyler, get with the program!" MonoWither said, cackling.
When Tyler heard this, he looked like the whole world had come crashing down on him. "But... But..."
"The motive changes people," Jason said in a low voice. "Sky had no intention of murdering anyone, but then MonoWither showed us those videos..."
"Don't you guys get it?" Ashley asked, her tone startlingly darker than usual. "Anyone can be a murderer here... No one can be trusted once a motive comes out..."
Tyler flinched and looked away. "No... Not again..." he whispered. "It... can't be... Seto wouldn't... This isn't like Sky... It can't be..." He trailed off and stared emptily into the distance, all the hope dying from his eyes.
"But Seto told us what his secret was yesterday," Steven said. "You can't be saying that Seto would... lie about something like that, right?"
"I wouldn't put it past someone capable of murder..." Ryan muttered darkly as he glared daggers at Seto. "I swear, I will make you pay for killing Jerome-"
"-Let Seto defend himself first," Jordan interrupted. "If he doesn't have any proof, then we'll know for sure."
"Y-Yeah!" Bodil stammered, clearly disturbed by the prospect of Seto being the killer. "We can't just gang up on him! I'm not sure if you know this, but it's really hard to defend yourself when everyone's accusing you all at once! I'm sure Seto has a good explanation, so if we'd just calm down and let him say something..."
"Seto? Don't you have anything to say?" Husky asked. It looked like he wasn't too eager to believe the whole thing either.
Seto's mouth opened and closed as he tried to say something, but found some strange force closing off his throat. "I... I..." Seto whispered, shaking his head slowly. "It wasn't me... I... I wasn't lying about my secret... I swear..."
"Then can you say where you got those marks?" Ryan asked.
Seto began to hyperventilate. Come on, just tell them the truth! Just say it!
His heart started to palpitate, pounding in his ribcage like war drums. His vision was starting to blur at the edges and he was on the verge of passing out right then and there. He could just feel everyone's eyes staring at him, glaring at him accusingly. Why, oh why had he tried to kill Bonks? Now everyone would realize who he really was. He could hear their voices echoing in his mind, repeating a mantra over and over again.
Monster. Monster. Monster.
Just say the truth!
Monster. Monster. Monster.
SAY IT OR YOU'LL BE KILLED!
MONSTER! MONSTER! MONSTER-
"It wasn't Jerome who gave Seto those marks," Bonks said suddenly.
Everyone turned to her, stunned. "How do you know for sure?" Jason asked curiously.
Bonks closed her pink eyes and took a deep breath, steadying herself, before replying. "I didn't want to say this earlier because I had a feeling you'd all get the wrong idea and jump to the wrong conclusions. But, the truth is, I was the one who gave Seto those marks. And I know for a fact that Seto didn't kill Jerome, because he tried to kill me instead last night."
There was silence as everyone processed these words.
"What?!" Bodil cried out, clutching his yellow tie.
"Seto tried to kill you?" Annie asked, horrified.
"Then how are you still alive?!" Husky demanded.
Bonks swallowed nervously. "At first he tried to use his magic, but he got too emotionally distressed. Then he tried to stab me, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. I don't think he even wanted to do it in the first place, because he freaked out and ran into my shower room and he didn't come out until morning..."
"This is just getting more and more confusing by the minute..." Ashley muttered.
"So what you're saying is that Seto tried to kill you, but couldn't make himself go through with it?" Jordan asked for clarification.
Bonks nodded. "That's why I didn't want to tell you guys earlier. Seto really regretted it, I could tell. And after we found Jerome, I was afraid you'd all get the wrong idea if I mentioned it, even though it technically clears both of our names..."
"How?" Steven asked, perplexed.
"Seto stayed in the bathroom the entire night, so he couldn't have killed Jerome. He can confirm that I wasn't the one who killed Jerome either. These are our alibis for what happened last night."
"I don't believe you," Ryan muttered.
"Huh?" Bonks asked, bewildered.
"Are you sure that's the reason why you didn't mention this at all? Because that sounds suspicious to me... In fact, you know what I think?" Ryan jabbed his finger at Bonks. "I think you and Seto worked together to kill Jerome!"
"No! That's not it!" Bonks shrieked, her eyes widening in horror.
"Leave Bonks out of this!" Seto shouted angrily. "You have every right to suspect me, but not her! She didn't do anything wrong! It's not her fault I tried to kill her, all right?!"
"That just further proves my point!" Ryan declared with conviction. "You two must be allies! Why else would you defend her? Remember when I said that you weren't off the hook yet? Remember when I said that Bonks could have written the letter?"
"N-Now hold on a second, Ryan..." Steven said, clearly disturbed by the idea Ryan had suggested. "We can't just jump to conclusions..."
"We understand you're upset about Jerome. We all are!" Jordan said. "But acting like this won't help anything!"
"Then give me some proof Seto and Bonks are innocent," Ryan hissed, glaring at Seto with a deadly expression. "Jerome could have given you those marks, after all!"
>>>-HAND-SIZE-> ((COULD HAVE GIVEN))
"You want proof?" Seto asked, fighting to keep his voice steady as he raised his head and lowered his hand from his face. "Take... Take a good look at the marks. Does it look like Jerome could have given me these? We all know how large Jerome's paws were. Doesn't it look more like a smaller hand gave me these scratches?"
Ryan's face paled. "Well..."
"You're right!" Husky remarked. "Jerome would have left wider claw marks than that!"
"And now that I think about it, Jerome's a bacca," Ashley noted. "If he swiped at Seto with his claws, he probably would have torn half his face off."
"Y-Yeah... that wasn't a mental image I really needed right now..." Bodil said, tittering nervously.
"But that means Seto didn't kill Jerome, right?" Tyler asked hopefully.
"Any objections, Ryan?" Annie asked.
Ryan looked strangely furious, for some reason. "No," he spoke through his clenched teeth.
"Then I suppose this supports Seto and Bonks' alibis, however... strange they are for alibis," Jordan concluded.
Ryan grumbled to himself, fuming silently.
"Hey... Ashley?" Bonks asked.
"What?" the SDML Survivalist replied.
"About what you just said, how Jerome would have torn half of Seto's face off... Could Jerome have been able to fight back? I mean, it would have been pretty much impossible to fight Jerome head-on, right?"
Something dawned in Ashley's eyes. "The killer must have taken Jerome by surprise... Is that what you're saying?"
Bonks nodded. "Fighting Jerome head-on probably wouldn't have ended well for the attacker, even if he had a sword..."
"But Jerome was stabbed straight in the chest," Husky pointed out. "Which means that Jerome was facing the attacker when he was stabbed."
"What if the killer was going to stab Jerome from behind, but Jerome turned around at that moment?" Jason asked.
"The stab wound was too straight for that," Seto said. "It was angled slightly upwards, I'm assuming because the person was shorter than Jerome, but still. The killer had to be facing Jerome head-on when he suddenly pulled out the sword and stabbed Jerome before he could react. This rules out the possibility that Jerome was trying to kill someone."
There was a stunned silence. "W-Wait, that was a possibility?" Bodil asked, thunderstruck.
"I was trying to find a reason why Jerome would leave his room voluntarily," Seto replied.
"Well Jerome would never do something like that!" Ryan yelled furiously. "Jerome would never think of killing anybody, asshole!"
"I know, Ryan," Seto said quietly. "I know Jerome wasn't trying to kill anyone."
"Then why the hell did you even consider that idea?!" Ryan shrieked. "What kind of fucked up person are you?!"
"Do you think I enjoy doing this?!" Seto suddenly yelled back from across the circle, startling everyone. "Do you think I enjoy considering any one of my friends as killers?! Of course I don't! I hate this! I hate this so much! But I have to do this! That's what I have to do, or else everyone but the killer's going to die, all right?! So don't you dare call me a monster, I'm not a monster anymore!" Shocked silence filled the courtroom once again. Not even Ryan had the heart to speak. Seto breathed raggedly, sniffling as he quickly wiped away the tears that had welled up in his eyes. "I... I'm sorry... I just..."
"No one called you a monster..." Tyler whispered, disturbed. "Seto, what did you mean when you said 'I'm not a monster anymore'?"
Seto's face paled. "That's not important right now," he replied, his voice shaking as he suppressed the overwhelming urge to break down into sobs. "Let's... let's just get this over with and go back to the trial... S-Sorry for going off track..."
"Seto's right!" MonoWither cut in. "Seto's emotional baggage isn't important whatsoever! No one cares about all that angsty stuff! What's really important is finding that killer, which you're all so far away from getting! Seriously, all this time has passed, and you guys have barely solved anything!"
"Seto, do you still think Jerome wasn't told by the killer to go to the pool area?" Jordan asked.
"Yeah, what about how you said Jerome wasn't killed there at all?" Husky questioned.
Jason looked apprehensive. "Do you still think that's true?"
Seto stared down at the floor. "...I'm not sure, I just have a feeling that's the case. After all..." He looked at Tyler. "Tyler, we investigated the infirmary, right? Did you remember anything strange about it?"
Recognition lit up in Tyler's eyes. "Yeah, it seemed like one of the gurney's had been used recently!"
"How?" Steven asked.
"There was an imprint on the mattress, indicating that a body had been placed there recently," Seto recalled. "I even took a photo of it using the e-Handbook... Take a look."
"That does look like someone was lying there recently," Annie said in agreement.
"That's not all," Seto continued. "Tyler found that one of the packets of blood was emptied and dumped in the trash can, hidden from plain sight underneath a pile of tissues." He showed them that picture as well. "Put these two clues together and you'll see what I'm getting at here."
"The gurney must have been used to transport Jerome's body to the pool," Ashley muttered.
"And the blood must have been used to fake the crime scene!" Bonks declared. "That's gotta be it!"
Seto nodded. "That's exactly why I think the killer moved Jerome's body to the pool."
Tyler suddenly looked hesitant. "But... there's just one problem..."
"What do you mean?" Seto asked.
"...You know how the infirmary logs the name of whoever enters?"
"Yeah?"
Tyler gulped. "W-Well, I checked the logger, and..." He used his e-Handbook to present them all a photo of a screen.
SETO. ENTERED 7:34 AM ON DAY 9.
JEROME. ENTERED 4:09 AM ON DAY 9.
JEROME. ENTERED 3:17 AM ON DAY 9.
"The first one was when I entered the infirmary during the investigation," Seto explained. "But the other ones... Logically, they should say the killer's name..."
"I'm not seeing things, right? Why does it say Jerome entered last night?!" Bodil asked, bewildered.
"I'm confused now..." Annie said, staring at her e-Handbook and tilting it in all sorts of angles, as though the image would change if she did so.
"Why didn't you show us this earlier?" Husky demanded.
"I- I don't know, I just didn't know what to make of it!" Tyler replied hysterically. "I thought maybe there was a glitch in the system or something!"
"That's unlikely though..." Jordan murmured.
"Agh, just when things were finally starting to make sense!" Ashley cried out.
It was here that Dave smacked his fists against the podium stand, gaining everyone's attention.
"Dave? What is it?" Steven asked, confused.
Dave grabbed Steven's hand and uncurled his fingers so that his palm was facing upwards. The zombie then reached into his pocket and pulled out something before placing it carefully in Steven's palm. Steven looked at what Dave had given him before holding out his hand for everyone to see. On his palm were several paper-thin shards of a plastic object.
"It looks like a sliced-up credit card," Husky blurted out.
"I think you meant, 'sliced-up e-Handbook'," Annie corrected.
"Y-Yeah! That's what I meant to say!"
"That's got to be what's left of Jerome's e-Handbook," Jordan mused. "No one lost theirs, right?"
"But how'd it end up like this?" Bonks asked.
"Well, the killer did have a sword at their disposal..." Ashley pointed out.
"But it had to be Jerome himself who used the e-Handbook and not the killer posing as him, right?" Jason questioned. "After all, didn't MonoWither give us that rule stating we couldn't use another person's e-Handbook or else we'd get punished?"
"The rule said that participants couldn't use each other e-Handbooks..." Ryan muttered. "But Bart and Dave aren't participants, right? Maybe they posed as Jerome and used his e-Handbook to enter the infirmary!"
Steven turned a ghostly shade of white. "They wouldn't do something like that! They would never kill Jerome! How dare you say something like that?! How dare you!"
Bart placed a hand on Steven's trembling shoulder, silently indicating that Ryan wasn't in his right mind and that it wasn't worth getting upset about.
"I'm not saying they killed Jerome, I'm saying you did!" Ryan yelled. "There's no reason why Jerome would enter the infirmary before he died! Plus, we never found his e-Handbook in his pocket, right? That means the killer must have found some way to pose as Jerome, and the only possible way would be if a nonparticipant used his handbook! You could have ordered Bart and Dave to do it for you!"
Steven looked positively horrified. "F-First of all, I don't order them around! They're my friends! Second of all, I'm not the killer! There's gotta be some other explanation for Jerome's name being there!"
"Oh yeah? Then how did Dave get those remains of Jerome's e-Handbook in the first place? Don't tell me he just found them lying around somewhere!"
Dave's withering look indicated that that was exactly what had happened.
"Um, Dave? Where'd you find these?" Steven asked.
Dave grabbed Steven's e-Handbook and typed something on it rapidly before presenting his note to everybody.
POOL AREA TRASH CAN
"Yeah? Well how are you going to prove that's what happened?!" Ryan asked. "Bart and Dave are the only nonparticipants who could have posed as Jerome! You must be the culprit!"
"I didn't kill Jerome!" Steven retorted.
"Likely story!" Ryan yelled back.
"Cut, CUT!" MonoWither suddenly shrieked, silencing everyone. "Excuse me participants, a moment of your time! There's actually another loophole to this rule! You see, technically a dead person isn't a participant anymore, right? So if you used one of their e-Handbooks, it wouldn't break the rule! But we're so upset the killer chose to destroy the e-Handbook afterwards to confuse you all... Do they realize how much each one is worth? Geez, how insensitive to our feelings... But we guess it can't be helped..."
"So, the killer could have used Jerome's e-Handbook, as long as Jerome was already dead," Seto murmured.
"And I'm not the killer, right?" Steven asked.
"Well no, there's still no proof you didn't do it..." Ryan muttered. "But we've still only eliminated Seto, Bonks, Jason, and Tyler..."
"However, we now know the approximate time of death, which was much earlier than 5 am, and that the location was hidden by the MonoWither File." Seto cleared his throat and placed his hands on the podium stand. "All right, so at 3:17 the killer entered the infirmary, took out a gurney, rolled it to wherever Jerome's body was, and used it to transport the body to the pool. They also took a packet of blood and used it to make it seem like Jerome had died there. At 4:09, approximately an hour later, the killer returned to the infirmary to return the gurney and dispose of the blood packet."
"But where did Jerome die then, if it wasn't by the pool?" Ashley asked.
"I think it was on the first floor," Seto murmured.
"What makes you say that?" Jordan questioned.
"The gurney the killer used was one that had special wheels enabling it to move up and down stairs," Seto replied. "The killer must have chosen that gurney for a reason. If Jerome had died on the second floor, it would have been easier for the killer to use a regular one."
"But where exactly could Jerome have died on the first floor?" Annie inquired.
"Yeah, we searched everywhere!" Jason declared.
"There would have had been a place with a bunch of blood, and there's no way the killer could have hidden that!" Ashley asserted. "...Right?"
"Yeah Ashley..." Bodil replied. "There's no way the killer could have hidden something like that..."
"Did we somehow miss something when we were searching?" Steven asked timidly.
I think there's one place that no one thought to check...
1. Cafeteria
2. Bathrooms
>3. Bedrooms
"Did anyone check the bedrooms?" Seto asked.
"Uh..." Jason said, trailing off.
Annie's eyes widened. "Well..."
"No, I don't think so..." Bodil said awkwardly.
"So Jerome must have gone to the killer's bedroom, where the killer stabbed them to death!" Ashley said. "...Right?"
"That must be what happened..." Steven reasoned.
"But then who did it?" Tyler asked.
Seto bit his lip, connecting all the facts together. He felt like he'd finally come to a conclusion. But was this the right choice? Because if he was right... if this person was truly the killer... then that meant...
No, he couldn't afford to keep on hesitating... He couldn't keep ignoring this hunch.
"...Ryan?" Seto asked, staring at the SDML Warden.
The man in question turned to face him. "What?" he grunted in annoyance.
"...Tell us the truth. Did you really see Jerome leave the room in the middle of the night?"
A strange look crossed Ryan's face. "What- What the hell are you talking about? Of course I did! Why the hell would I lie about something like that!" Ryan shouted. Then his blue eyes widened. "Don't tell me... Are you accusing me of being the killer?!"
"Ryan and Jerome were close..." Bonks whispered. "Seto... I don't think Ryan would do something like this..."
Seto bit his lip. "I've... been thinking about this for awhile... I didn't want to believe it either... But I can't ignore all the signs. First of all, Ryan, your behavior's been weird this whole time."
"Excuse me?!" Ryan thundered, clenching his hand tightly into a fist.
"You've been accusing every possible person for the most baseless of reasons," Seto pointed out. "Even for you, that's... unusual..."
"Well I'm not letting the killer get away with what they did to Jerome!" Ryan countered. "I'm doing all I can to catch the killer! Don't like my methods? Well too bad! That's not concrete proof that I'm the killer!"
"He's right, it's really not," Jordan murmured.
Seto sighed. "I know that's not proof at all, but that's not all I've noticed. The second thing is the fact that if Jerome was killed on the first floor, and the killer transported him up to the pool, the killer must have had a lot of upper-body strength to push the gurney around, especially up the stairs. Plus, Jerome was a bacca, and his dead body would have been even heavier and harder to transport. I can't think of anyone else who would have had the strength to do all that except for you."
Ryan's face paled. "W-Well..."
"Ryan is really strong..." Bodil admitted reluctantly.
"But is that really enough proof?" Husky asked. "Could someone else have been able to do it?"
Ryan's eyebrows furrowed in determination. "Yeah! For all we know, Seto could have used his magic to push the gurney!"
"But I can't be the killer, Ryan!" Seto retorted. "You see what I mean? You keep irrationally accusing other people! It's almost like you're trying to confuse us on purpose!"
"That still isn't proof, dumbass!" Ryan shouted. "If anything, you're accusing me for baseless reasons! Do you think this is going to somehow magically prove I'm the killer?"
"Tell me who else could have transported Jerome's body around like that," Seto demanded. "Please. I can't think of anyone else who'd be able to do this other than you and me, and there's proof that I didn't do it because of my alibi."
"Shut up you fucking asshole!" Ryan shrieked.
"Seto, where's this all coming from?" Jason asked, horrified. "Why are you suddenly accusing Ryan of all this?"
"The main reason why I've been suspecting Ryan for awhile is because he seemed really out of breath," Seto said, turning to face the man in question. "Ryan, when you told us you'd found the body, it seemed like you were exhausted. Maybe you were panicking because you had just seen the dead body of your friend. Or maybe it was because of the extensive labor you went through to cover up your crime."
The pulsating vein on Ryan's temple looked like it was about to burst. Seto continued on, relentless.
"First you woke up Jerome in the middle of the night and led him to your room, where you took him by surprise and stabbed him to death. Then you went up to the second floor, entered the infirmary, and wheeled out a gurney. You pushed the gurney down the stairs, all the way to your room where Jerome's body was. Then you hauled Jerome's body on top of the gurney, rolled him out of your room, pushed him up the stairs, then dumped his body in the pool. You then went back to the infirmary to return the gurney. Night Time was almost over, so you woke up Mitch in order to 'search' for Jerome's body. Mitch found the body much later after searching the whole first floor for him. Then you ran all the way back down to the cafeteria to give us the news. After doing all this, you were exhausted, sweaty, and out of breath. You tried to make it seem like you were panicking, but no one else was as physically worn out as you."
"That... That's not proof at all you bastard..." Ryan cursed. "You dumbass! Are you trying to get us all killed?!"
"Ryan, just give him proof!" Annie snapped. "If you really aren't the killer, then just prove it and he'll stop!"
"Ryan, did you lie to us?" Seto asked as calmly as he could. "Did you make up the story of how you saw Jerome leave the room by himself? It's the only thing that doesn't add up with what we've found. Without a letter, Jerome would have no reason to trust someone and go to their room in the middle of the night. But... if you asked him to, he could very well have trusted you. Therefore, it's likely that you lied about seeing him leaving the room..."
The SDML Warden remained silent, gritting his teeth as he trembled violently.
"Ryan, say something!" Husky yelled.
Ryan looked like he was ready to pummel Seto to a bloody pulp. Then all of a sudden his rage simmered down and the fire from his blue eyes froze into a cold, deadly glare. "...Hehe... Hehehe..." he laughed unstably under his breath.
"R-Ryan?!" Steven stammered, suddenly terrified.
"You want proof? Huh? You want proof, don't you?" Ryan asked, still laughing quietly in between his sentences.
"What in the- What's gotten into you?!" Tyler demanded, equally afraid.
"You and your proof," Ryan continued spitefully, not hearing anyone's words. He was speaking through his clenched teeth. "Proof, proof, proof. Oh, I'm sick of that word. I don't have any, all right? But that doesn't mean I'm the killer. Has it ever crossed your little mind that maybe the killer used a Potion of Strength from the infirmary? Maybe that's why they were able to transport Jerome's body without getting so tired. Ever thought of that?!"
>>>-INFIRMARY-STATUS-> ((POTION OF STRENGTH))
"But no Potions of Strength were taken from the infirmary, or any potions for that matter," Seto replied. "I checked, and the number was the same. The killer couldn't have used a Potion of Strength. You're still the only person who could have done this."
Ryan snorted. "Oh yeah? Well, what about if the killer had an ally to help them, huh? Ever thought of that?!"
"Then we would have two exhausted people, and not just one."
Ryan glanced around, staring at everyone in the courtroom pleadingly. "C-Come on guys, help me out here!" he shouted, a tinge of desperation seeping into his voice. "Don't any of you guys have something to back me up?"
The only answer he received was only a horrified, stunned silence.
Ryan snarled as he punched the podium stand, his fury engulfing him once more. "You idiots! All of you! Don't you see? I'm not the killer! Why would I kill Jerome?! Jerome and I were close friends! I would never sacrifice him to get out of here! I wouldn't sacrifice any of you! If you vote for me, you're all going to die, you hear?!"
No one could say a single word.
Seto merely stared at Ryan, filled with remorse. Why did he have to do this again? Why? "Ryan, stop. I've got two more pieces of evidence that proves you did this."
"What, huh?" Ryan growled. "What more do you have?"
Seto turned to face MonoWither, who was still on their throne. "MonoWither, I'd like to ask you something."
"Oh? What does Seto-senpai want from us?" MonoWither asked, tilting their heads in interest. "Could you be asking for our nonexistent hands in marriage? Then we accept-!"
"Last time, when Jade was murdered, I saw the body first," Seto said, cutting them off. "But the body discovery announcement rang only when Annie and Ashley appeared. Is there a certain amount of people needed in order for the body discovery announcement to ring?"
MonoWither grinned. "Good question Seto! Yes, three people must find the body in order for us to sound the alarm!"
"Then I'm assuming that the killer doesn't count as someone who 'discovers' a body, correct?"
"Correct once again, Seto!" MonoWither replied. "Anything else? Wanna continue with that marriage proposal-"
Seto turned back to the circle. "Assuming Ryan wasn't the killer, then he and Mitch would have been the first two people to have discovered Jerome's body. But when I got there before the rest of the people did, the body discovery announcement didn't ring. There can only be one explanation for this. Ryan, got anything to object to?"
Ryan seethed as he breathed heavily, not saying a word. "That doesn't mean a damn thing..." he whispered. "That doesn't mean a damn thing at all... I didn't do anything..."
>>>-HANDWRITING-> ((DIDN'T DO ANYTHING))
"There is one thing that can either prove or disprove you did this, Ryan," Seto said. "Look at the letter. If we can match the handwriting with yours, then this seals the deal."
"No you can't!" Ryan yelled. "I can write something for you right now-"
Seto shook his head. "You could be faking it. Do you have something you've written prior to this?"
"Oh, oh! We do!" MonoWither declared proudly. "Ryan here wrote down his whole planned exercise workout in his notebook! Somehow we had a feeling this could come into play... Anyway, here you go Seto!"
MonoWither flew over and dropped the notebook in Seto's hand. Seto opened the notebook and turned to the mentioned page before holding it up next to the letter, scanning both carefully. "...it matches. Everyone can check for themselves." He offered the papers to Husky, who examined them before passing them on to the next person. "Does everyone agree with me? Anyone who disagrees?"
There was only silence.
"...Ryan? Got anything left to say? If... If I'm wrong about this, then... you'd better explain how..." Seto whispered. "I don't want to believe you'd kill Jerome... I really don't..."
Ryan had closed his eyes. A strange calm had settled over the man as he stood there, hunched over slightly. "You're a fucking idiot... I'm not the killer... I'm not the killer you bastard! I'm not! I'm not and I'll say it a million fucking times until it gets into your stupid head! I'M NOT THE FUCKING KILLER!"
"Really?"
Ryan began to breath heavily. "Of course... You really think I'm that heartless? That I'd kill Jerome? Well you're fucking wrong! Jerome was my friend! Do you have any fucking idea how much Jerome meant to me?! Do you?! I'm not the goddamn killer! How many times to I have to repeat myself?! HOW MANY GODDAMN TIMES?!"
"...Repeating yourself won't change our opinions," Seto murmured. "Unless you can think of something to prove yourself, our verdict is done here."
"I DON'T NEED ANY FUCKING PROOF I'M NOT THE KILLER! IT WASN'T ME! IT WASN'T ME AND I'LL SAY IT AS MANY TIMES AS I NEED TO! I'M! NOT! THE! KILLER!" Wild panic filled Ryan's blue eyes as he stared at the sorcerer, panting heavily as he struggled to catch his breath. His exhaustion had returned. "I... I'm not... the killer... I'm not..." Then he bowed his head, released a long sigh of resignation, and stayed like that for awhile before he began to laugh quietly once more. "Well... Guess that's it then. You want proof? I... I can't... think of any more defenses..." he whispered, raising his head to meet Seto's eyes. "You... You got me... You really got me..."
"So... you admit you killed Jerome?" Seto asked, his voice hollow with pain.
Ryan smiled bitterly. "There's nothing left for me to say, is there? Haha... Hahaha... And here I thought I was going to get away with it... I thought my friendship with Jerome would be enough to convince you guys I didn't do it... Guess I was wrong, huh? I took a shot, and I missed by a landslide..." He turned his gaze to stare at Mitch, who was now trembling violently, his unblinking eyes still as wide as saucers. "...Mitch?"
For a few moment, Mitch hyperventilated loudly as he stood there, rooted on the spot. Then his eyes suddenly rolled back in his head as he fell backwards and collapsed spread-eagled to the floor, the sound of impact echoing across the courtroom like a gavel striking a sound block.