CHAPTER EIGHT

One Final Stroke of Sadness

-INVESTIGATION-

A list of ammunition so far:

1: Hideaki: Monokuma claims that Hideaki himself is a "hint."

2: Hideaki's Exit and Entrance: Hideaki left the school after escaping his execution, and came back to the school later. He doesn't remember why, and fainted like he did when entering the school.

3: Sub-Zero Fridge: The fridge has thirteen bodies lined up against a wall, stuck on meat hooks. The room was covered in blood.

4: Fridge Properties: The bodies inside the fridge are decayed, but fridges like these would perserve bodies instead of letting them rot. The blood is also dried, meaning no one was recently killed here.

5: Security Cameras: Watched over us inside of the control room.

6: Monokuma Controller: A machine in the back of an unknown room controls Monokuma.

7: Photos: There were photos found in the box of the AV Room supply closet.

8: DvD: A DvD labelled: "Top Secret: Despairifcation Project," was found in the box in the AV Room supply closet. Monokuma took it from us. In the trial, he stated that we'd eventually see this DvD, but it wasn't the "right time."

9: Boxes: In the boxes we had previously thrown into the lake, are parts of our deceased friends.

10: Eyepatch: An eyepatch was found in one of the boxes.

11: Wooden Plank: A board with dry blood on it.

12: Box of Spares: Spare eyepatches found in one of the boxes. One eyepatch is missing, corresponding with the other eyepatch found in the other box.

13: Note: A note addressed to Hideaki, telling him to not speak of the Despairification Project.

(Mini-AN: Part of this chapter is in Hideaki's POV. When it returns to Ayako, it is marked by three asterisks: ***)

"Are you ready for your final class trial?" Monokuma asked us through the intercom.

That was our question. Of course I had every intention of beating the puppetmaster. Monokuma asked us through the intercom whether or not we were ready for our class trial. Perhaps I wasn't; but I wasn't going to lose. I had to win for the sake of Ayako. For the sake of all my friends. Everyone surrounded me and Ayako after Monokuma's announcement ended, and I could feel their hostile stares pointing straight at me. Next to me; Kouichi was dead. In front of me, Ayako was on the verge of death.

"Y-you killed them!" Suguru cried. "W-we caught you red handed!"

"Ayako isn't dead," I sighed. "She was stabbed by Kouichi."

"I-I don't believe that bullcrap!" Kyouko cried. "I don't!"

"Never mind that," Saya said. "If that announcement was made, then that could only mean that Hideaki isn't the puppetmaster."

I nodded, and placed my hand on Ayako's cheek. Her chest was still bleeding, but it had slowed down after I wrapped something around it.

"I'm taking her to the infirmary," I said.

"We're coming with you," Saya said.

"No, investigate. We don't have much time."

I knew this was very well a lie. I killed Kouichi; I was the villain. It was me who had to face punishment again. I ran my hand through my hair, and headed up the stairs. Everyone followed behind me, to my annoyance.

"I thought I said to investigate," I said.

"I'm not listening to you," Saya rebuttled. "Besides, the only one who could have killed Kouichi was you or Ayako. We need to be there when Ayako wakes up."

Ayako? They suspect Ayako too?

"You suspect Ayako?" I asked.

"She's a likely suspect," Saya said. "Kouichi was going after you, Hideaki. He wanted to kill you as we all thought you were the puppetmaster. That was Monokuma's offer. That we were allowed to execute you ourselves."

"That didn't seem weird at all?" I sighed.

"Either way, she had an attachment to you. She protected you – that is a likely method to murder."

"Don't waste your breath," I said. "I killed Kouichi."

"W-what?!"

"What indeed!" Monokuma said, arriving in front of us. Kichiro tripped down the stairs in surprise, and the others squealed as Monokuma appeared before us.

"It's you!" Kyouko screamed.

"Yup! It's me!" Monokuma said. "But Hideaki! What the hell, man? You totally made this climax anti-climactic! Don't you have any feel for adrenaline?"

"They were suspecting Ayako," I said. "I won't let that happen. She wouldn't lay a finger on anyone. Now I have to get her to the infirmary."

I pushed Monokuma aside, and headed up the stairs with the others in pursuit.

"You suck!" Monokuma said, calling out. "But you're just talk! Maybe you didn't murder Kouichi!"

I smirked. What would this investigation be? A time to convince someone I'm the murderer? How interesting that was, but if it was to protect Ayako, I could easily partake in it. All the evidence points to me anyways.

As we piled into the infirmary, I laid Ayako on a bed. She was still breathing, but her breathing grew weaker, in tiny lapses of breaths. I grabbed a clean gauze and tried to stop the bleeding; but the wound was deep and the blood kept coming out.

"Shit," I muttered under my breath.

Grabbing a towel, I wrapped it tightly around Ayako's chest to place pressure on it. Cleaning up blood around her chest, I turned to the others. Monokuma had given us the Monokuma File on the staircase, as tradition, even though I had already admitted to committing the crime.

:::/NEW AMMO))

14: Monokuma File 7: The seventh Monokuma file. Reads: Victim: Kouichi Akazawa | Time of Death: 1:33 PM | Kouichi was killed by a gunshot; a bullet shot through his chest.

"You shot him?" Saya asked. "With the gun he grabbed to try and kill you?"

I nodded.

"But why? W-why did you kill Kouichi? Because he tried to kill you?"

"My methods aren't that cheap," I said. "By the time he was killed, Ayako had already been stabbed to the hilt by a katana. It's a miracle that she's alive at all."

"So you killed him in vengeance?" Saya asked. "That's ridiculous."

"It wasn't vengeance," I said. "Kouichi would have killed Ayako. It was to save the only person who trusted me. That's all."

The room turned silent after that. Was there some weight to what I said? Did the others perhaps feel upset for not trusting me? The atmosphere of the room turned heavy; as if something was pushing down on the air and we were all being crushed by its force. Maybe that was an exaggeration; but I knew nothing about "awkwardness," it was a completely new feeling after being shut off from everyone for so long.

"I'm not leaving Ayako here," I said, as the others headed out of the infirmary.

"No one is going to murder her," Saya said.

"No one would, anyways," Kichiro said, putting his hand in his pocket.

"I'm still not leaving her here," I said. "She needs to be watched. Her wound is that bad."

"Do what you want," Saya said. "Just cause you admitted to the crime doesn't mean you're in the clear, though," Saya said.

"What?"

"It's easy to lie for someone that you love," Saya said. "It all stems from sentimentality." After those words, Saya left the infirmary to head for what I presumed to be the catacombs.

"Damn it," I sighed. But all the evidence pointed to me. There was no doubt about it. I looked down at Ayako, her breathing becoming more regulated. I unwrapped the blanket I had wrapped around her chest, and noticed that the bleeding had stopped. Cleaning up the dry blood, I placed a wet towel around her forehead to keep her head cool; she had a pounding fever.

Looking down on her… she was peaceful looking. Like she was sleeping. A regular girl sleeping on a regular bed. I wrapped some bandages around her chest to cover the wound, and then I covered her with a blanket.

"This is weird," I said to myself. This was weird. I always felt it was weird, how I felt about Ayako. This feeling in the pit of my stomach; what was it? I knew what I felt towards Ayako was deeper than friendship, but I couldn't explain this emotion. What was it? What… what was it?

As I was thinking to myself, I heard a groan from the bed. Turning around, I smiled to see Ayako… slowly… and slowly…

…opening my eyes, to see Hideaki there in front of me.

"H-Hideaki," I mumbled. He turned to me, and grabbed my hand, squeezing it tightly.

"Are you okay?" he asked. I grabbed my chest, it stung immensely, but the pain was tolerable.

"Y-yeah," I said. "K-Kouichi…"

"He's dead," he said. "I killed him. You know this."

"Why?" I asked.

"He was going to kill you," Hideaki said. "I needed to stop him."

"O-oh," I said. "That sucks."

I was barely aware of anything right now. I felt like I was drunk with pain; saying random things at random times because I didn't know what the hell was going on.

"We're holding a class trial," Hideaki said.

Those words immediately sprung me back to life. If Hideaki killed Kouichi… then…

"You'll be executed!" I gasped. Hideaki nodded.

"But the point of this trial is also to pinpoint the mysteries of the school," Hideaki said. "It's not just about the murder."

"B-but either way –"

"Yup!" Monokuma said, popping out of nowhere with a bouquet of flowers. "Here you go, Ayako! I picked them especially for you!" The flowers were all daisies, neatly aligned to each other and made very pretty.

"But I'm allergic to daisies," I said.

"Oh, I know," Monokuma said. "Anyways, I should probably just execute Hideaki now, but that wouldn't be fair, now would it?"

"B-but, he's going to die?"

"Unless he's found out to actually not be the murderer. Then he'll live!"

If he's not found out to be the murderer? Hideaki could survive?

I had a small flashback to all the others. They mistreated Hideaki so many times. They didn't take the time to understand him. Hideaki deserved to live. Is it something I could change? Could I convince the others someone else did the murder?

"I'm going to the catacombs!" I said.

"A-Ayako! Wait!"

Kouichi died there. I know it – I remember. If the others are there, I need to convince them I did the murder. I knew what I had to do.

Save Hideaki.

Location: The Catacombs | Time: 2:59 PM | Chapter Eight

I ran as fast as I could to the cafeteria. The weather outside was terrible; it was pouring rain and the water was seeping into my bandage, making my injury burn even greater than before. That didn't help with the already existing pain; I felt like I was going to die.

But I couldn't die.

Heading down the Catacombs, I saw everyone investigating the scene of the crime. How could I convince everyone that the murder was comitted by me?

"Ayako!" Suguru called out. "You're awake! Say hi Roger!"

Bark!

"H-hi."

I wondered if I could face my friends without any guilt, knowing that I'd I try to send them to their death. I asked myself many times whether or not it was worth it. Everyone here would die because of my selfish desire to save Hideaki.

"Ayako," Saya called out. "Come here."

I walked over to Saya, and she held up a handgun.

"A classical Colt M1911 with a silver finish," Saya said.

"How did you know that?" I asked.

"Movies. Anyways, this is undoubtedly the murder weapon."

:::/NEW AMMO))

14: M1911: The murder weapon used to kill Kouichi.

"That's obvious, I guess," I said.

"Who used it though?" Saya asked. "That's the question."

Who used it? I didn't, but the point was to save Hideaki.

"It was me," I said. "I killed Kouichi."

"What?!"

"H-He was going to kill Hideaki! I panicked!"

"Stop making up lies," Saya said.

"W-what? I'm not lying!"

"Hideaki already admitted to comitting the crime," Saya said. "Why would he lie about it?"

"T-to protect me, of course!" I said.

"Then prove to me you shot this gun," Saya said. "During the trial."

"W-what?"

"There's no evidence of it right now. The trial is going to be a fight between you and Hideaki to convict yourselves."

A fight between Hideaki? Would it a fight between Hideaki and I to convict ourselves. I turned around and saw Hideaki running towards me, and I had to think quickly.

"Which one of you is the real killer, I wonder?" Saya asked herself. "May the real killer win, otherwise, we'll all be killed."

Saya left quickly, finishing her investigation, and Hidekai ran over to me.

"You shouldn't be running with that wound," Hideaki sighed.

"S-sorry," I said. I looked at Hideaki. He closed his eye and rubbed his other one on his eyepatch. When Takako had gouged his eye out, I wonder what it felt like? How painful was it to have your eye ripped out of your head? Not that I actually wanted to know. I'm wondering like how someone wonders what death feels like. No one really wants it.

That was a weird comparison, huh?

I walked over to the corpse of Kouichi and kneeled down beside him. I knew very well how he was killed, yet it seemed traditional to take a look anyway. In his chest was a bullet wound. The M1911 bullet was stuck in his chest.

:::/NEW AMMO))

15: M1911 Bullet: The bullet shot out of the M1911 that shot out of the gun and killed Kouichi.

"Na, na, na!" Rin said. "It's your friendly homicidal maniac!"

"Y-you're not homicidal though, are you?" I asked.

"Nope!"

"Then why did you call yourself homicidal?"

"Huh?!"

…

"Never mind," I said.

"Bye!" Rin said, and she ran up the stairs after Saya.

"That was disappointing," I said, returning back to Kouichi's body.

I looked at the open hole in Kouichi's body. I could barely reach the bullet… sticking my two smallest fingers in there, I pulled out the bullet from inside his body. Wiping away the blood on his shirt, I jammed the bullet into another part in his body, and moved his body a little bit so it didn't look too suspicious. I then entered this information in the evidence list.

:::/NEW AMMO))

16: New Bullet Hole: A bullet hole suggesting a second shot has been fired.

I went over to the area of where Kouichi stabbed me in the chest, and I took the katana off the floor. It was undoubtedly used to stab me, and blood was all the way at the hilt.

"How did I survive this?" I asked to myself. "I guess it's a miracle indeed."

I walked back over to Kouichi's body, and placed the katana behind is body when no one was looking. Hideaki walked over to me, having investigated elsewhere, and sat down next to Kouichi's body, placing his hands on his forehead.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing," he said. "I just have a headache."

I looked at Hideaki, his face solemn.

"It's sort of weird," he said. "I know I'm going to die soon. It's a weird feeling, don't you think?"

"Y-you're not going to die," I said. "This class trial isn't just for Kouichi. If we take down the puppetmaster –"

"The puppetmaster would have prepared for that," Hideaki sighed.

"Yup!"

Monokuma appeared from the ceiling and dropped down in front of us, wearing a tutu.

"Why are you wearing a tutu?" I asked.

"It's a beartu!" he snapped. "Anyways, Hideaki's words speak truth! The moment the murderer for Kouichi is revealed in the trial, I will promptly execute the villain. Simple as that."

"D-damn you," I said. "And I still need an answer on that tutu."

"It's a beartu!" Monokuma snapped again, and he left. I sighed, and stuffed my face into my palms. This wasn't happening, was it?

I looked at Hideaki, who was placing his hand on his cheek. I'd convict myself, and he'd go free. But for some reason, it looked like he didn't want to go free.

"W-we'll get out," I said. "Or, you will."

"No, I killed Kouichi," Hideaki said. "You know that."

"No, I killed Kouichi," I said.

"What?!" Hideaki asked.

"I'm trying to convince myself too," I said. "But you're getting out of here. I don't care about anything else. You're going to leave, and you're going to fight against Monokuma."

"T-that's ridiculous," Hideaki said. "The others –"

"I want you to live!" I told Hideaki. "I don't care about anything else!"

"S-stop it," Hideaki said. "You're spouting bullshit."

"What?!"

"Why do you want me to live so much?" Hideaki asked. "Is that just a tunnel for you to feel good about yourself?"

"No! I want you to live because you've been one of the best friends I ever had!"

"Friends," Hideaki said. "Friends come and go. You don't kill five others just because you want to save me. That's preposterous."

"I'm convicting myself whether you like it or not!"

"Well, I don't like it," Hideaki said. "You think you're being strong, or something, by saving me. You wouldn't be doing me a favor by doing this."

"You'll live!"

"I'll see everyone die in front of me," Hideaki snapped. "I'll have to live carrying the dead souls of everyone here. They would have all died in despair. Besides, how do you think I'll feel after having to see you gone? If there's anything I hate most, it's any form of pity."

"How do you think I'll feel?!" I asked. "You aren't considering anything about me either!"

"Are you really prepared to die for me?" Hideaki asked, standing up. "Because if you are, then I have no objections to that. You do your own stupid thing without me."

I looked at Hideaki in the face. He was genuinely angry, and held that face for as long as I could sense.

"…then I have no objections to that."

Why did that shock me so much?

Hideaki climbed back up the stairs, and I was left in his dust. Either way, I wasn't done investigating. There was still the secrets of the school to investigate.

"H-hey, you two alright?" Kichiro asked, coming in from nowhere. "I heard you like, yellin' at each other."

"We're fine," I said abruptly. "I'm going to the AV Room."

"The AV Room?"

"There might be more to find there," I said. "I want to find out about this despairification project that Monokuma is talking about."

"What do you mean?" Kichiro asked. "I don't follow ya over here…"

"Following?"

"I-I guess," Kichiro said. The two of us walked to the AV Room slowly. I turned back to stare at Kouichi's body, and I suddenly had strokes of guilt. I manipulated his body to save someone else. It was if as Kouichi's death never affected me in any way. He was a good friend. No – a great friend. Yet I did that to his body. It was as if I had complete disrespect towards him. Was it good to think like that? Should I have thought in a different way?

"Are you okay?" Kichiro asked. "You're actin' weird."

"S-sorry," I said. "I'm just sort of shocked about Kouichi's death." No, that wasn't a lie.

"Y-yeah," Kichiro said. "I actually thought the deaths were over."

He turned to me, and sighed.

"Did you really kill Kouichi?"

"What?"

"I know you said something about that," Kichiro said. "I don't really believe it though."

"I was saving Hideaki," I said. "Nothing more, nothing less."

"Huh? Is that true?" Kichiro asked. "When we were down there, you were with Hideaki. He was holding you. How is it possible that you killed Kouichi?"

"Kouichi lived long enough to stab me with a katana," I said. "Is that believable enough?"

"Yeah, sure," Kichiro said. "It's a believable story. Not believable words."

I turned to Kichiro, who stared at me. "Whatever," he finally said. "We'll find out in the trial."

*Ding, dong! Ding, dong!*

"Attention, you guys! Please head to the gazebo right away!"

What? What about the AV Room?

"W-wait!" I called out, hoping Monokuma heard me. "We didn't find anything out about the school!"

"That's not my problem," Monokuma said. "You shouldn't have been such lazy investigators. All focused up on Kouichi's death."

"You gave us barely enough time!" I choked.

"Whatever, head to the gazebo unless you want to be punished."

Punished?

"Seriously though, I sort of agree with you. An anti-climactic investigation, huh? It's as if this is just a regular investigation for one of those regular filler cases when someone like Tomakazu was killed by that what's-her-face priest."

"Stop referencing that," Kichiro said. "We're coming."

"Yes, sir!"

Kichiro grabbed my hand, and forced me to go to the gazebo.

"Wait! What are you doing?!" I asked.

"We're going to the gazebo," Kichiro said. "Our final class trial."

"What about the AV Room?"

"We'll be okay," Kichiro said. "I have confidence in us."

That's right. Our final class trial, will be orchestrated by us.

A battle between me and Hideaki?

Who's going to be convicted? Who's going to die?

This class trial is not to live. Only to die.

Let's finish this once and for all!

"A-alright," I said to Kichiro. "We can do this."

Here comes Ayako Kawasumi, to end Monokuma's treachery, and save Hideaki.

Continued in Chapter 8: Class Trial

AN: Okay seriously I am so disappointed with this. I tried hard to get this update finished for you guys today, and the result is NOT what I wanted it to be. Either way, this is just the investigation. The class trial is coming soon, and I swear to you I will not rush that one. I'm sorry if this was so crappy. But you know, there wasn't really anything to investigate in this "investigation."

Oh, crap! Did that tell you something about how the trial will be played out?! I hope it didn't, because if you guys manage to find out a spoiler from that, you know, would sort of suck.

;)