So... Yeah. I may need to add some more edits to this update as well as the previous one (whenever I get the chance), but that won't affect any plot points. Enjoy~

Also, please leave a review or message if there's something you think I should know ^.^


The courtroom today wasn't decorated in any way that stands out… Well, except for the fact that it actually looks like a courtroom. It was only when we stood behind our podia that one thing stood out—it was snowing in here.

"What's with the snow?" Tobiki asked. Hanneko claimed his seat at the throne.

"Snow?" Hanneko asked. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Anyway, we haven't got all day. If you wait any longer, what meager information you found will escape your tiny brains!"

Well, the snow itself wasn't really bothersome. The temperature was the same, and it could have easily been wiped away.

Seconds after Hanneko said this, that same whimsical music from earlier began playing. We all turned to find the source behind the podium Irina normally took.

"Ah, so you've decided to join in this trial, Monokuma?" Hanneko asked.

"Puhuhu, of course~" he said. "I miss these events so much, I decided to participate today! Plus, these hopeless bastards could use all the help they can get."

"Thanks for the help," Bunpei said sarcastically. Or, I assumed he was being sarcastic.

"Can we stop wasting time?" Tougo asked impatiently. Hanneko giggled.

"Nyaha! Someone's cranky," he teased.

"Whatever," said Tougo. "Let's just finish this final chapter, shall we?"

"Right," I said, even though my emotions would say otherwise. There's almost no clues that form anything resembling a coherent pattern. Hopefully the guys found more clues that I missed, or we'll end up having to guess the killer on this one.

"So, what did we all find out?" Bunpei asked hopefully.

"Nakauchi and I didn't find much beyond what was already learned," said Tougo. I guess we really didn't…

"Uh… Furuda-kun and I didn't get to figure out much either," said Tobiki dejectedly.

"Déjà vu," said Bunpei, to Tougo's shock.

Hm… So, we haven't got much of anything to present… But still… Maybe the killer is only pretending to be dead…

"Okay," I said. "We learned from Hanneko that at least one body has been hidden. If you ask me, it sounds like he's implying one of those three girls is still alive." The other three looked like they were considering what I was saying.

"But," said Tobiki. "Isn't class trial attendance mandatory? If one of them is still alive and not here, she'd be breaking the rules."

"Tobi's right," said Bunpei. "Hanneko would never let anyone just skip out."

"We don't know that," said Tougo. "He let Alice break an established rule just so someone would die. Plus, it was only implied that we must all go to the class trials. No one ever refused, so we can't say that he'd make us."

He has a point… But still. Something's telling me I'm not wrong… Irina's still alive, and she's hidden away, so she must have something to do with this…

"Uh, BTW," began Hanneko. "Class trial attendance is mandatory. Rarely has someone been able to get out of it, and that's not happening right now."

"But!" I exclaimed for no real reason, pointing at Hanneko. "How can we be so sure that all of the students are actually forced to comply with the rules? Of course, a certain someone may not be restrained by the laws like we are."

Hanneko somehow seemed nervous.

"And exactly who would that be?" Monokuma chimed in.

"Irina Fujimori," I said. A couple of confused "Fujimori?"s floated around. Oh, right, that was a secret… Oh, well, doesn't matter at this point.

"What are you trying to say, Nyakauchi?" Hanneko challenged.

"Irina very well may be the culprit in this case," I said. "As well as being—"

"If you're about to say that Irina's the one behind everything, you're completely mistaken," said Tougo defensively.

"What?" I asked. "How is that 'completely mistaken'? Unless you can prove that someone else is?"

"Ahem," said Hanneko irritatedly. "It sounds like someone's breaking a rule. We're here to discuss who the culprit is."

"Who says the two are mutually exclusive?" I asked. "Anyway, Glasses, you need to get over whatever attachment you have to her. Don't think it's not possible for anyone here to have betrayed you."

Tougo seemed taken aback. Maybe I was being a bit harsh when I said that…

"I already realize that someone I care about has betrayed me," said Tougo. "But I don't appreciate the fact that you're trying to lead us astray here."

"Hey," interjected Hanneko. "Y'all remember that life-threatening situation that was happening right now? Yeah, can we get back on track with that?"

"Hanneko's… right," said Bunpei reluctantly. "What's most important here is solving this case."

"It's starting to look like we won't even be able to do that," said Tobiki.

"We will," I said automatically. To be honest, I'm not sure I even believe this, but we can't just give up. If we do, Hanneko will execute us all… Actually… He could be bluffing about executing us all. In fact, it probably wouldn't even really matter if we were. The outside world is…

What am I saying?

"Someone's hopeful, pupupu," said Monokuma. I almost forgot about him.

"NYAAAAA!" Hanneko yelled. "You guys are getting on my nerves! Get back to the god-nyanned trial!"

"Hm," Monokuma hummed. "Whenever I had this problem, I would just put a time limit on the trials. That certainly put them under a lot more pressure!"

"That's a good idea," said Hanneko. "I'll definitely need to remember that for next time! Should I start one up now?"

"Nah, man, we're good," said Bunpei quickly. "Come on guys, we need to get back to the matter at hand!"

"Agreed," said Tougo. "Now, it's not possible that none of us figured anything out. Furuda and Wakabayashi, surely you know something."

"Hm…" Bunpei said. "We found a pile of ashes, wire, and broken glass in the kitchen. Not sure if that has any connection to the case, but it's really too unusual to ignore."

"While we're talking about weird things," I began. "Glasses and I noticed a fan amidst all the flour in the kitchen."

"That's true," Tougo confirmed. "We believe it may have been in use prior to our visiting the scene."

"What makes you think that?" Monokuma asked in a tone that conveyed no seriousness. What did convince us that the fan was on…?

"The flour in the room." I said. "It coated everything except for that fan. In fact, a short distance away from the fan, you could see the end of the flour layer sloping towards it. If it weren't on, flour would be all over it."

"Ah!" Bunpei said. "That's right. There was flour everywhere around the room! But do you guys think it has to do with the case?"

"It has to somehow," I said. I literally have no idea how, but something's telling me that I need to keep it in mind…

"Furuda-kun," said Tobiki. "Didn't you say you found something on our doorknobs?"

"Yeah, I did," said Bunpei. "A couple of our doorknobs had scratches on them on the inside parts. I'm still not sure what it means, though…"

"It could just be because this used to be a school," said Tougo.

"Definitely not!" Hanneko said. "If anything, I take pride in how much care I put into the upkeep of this school! Each night at midnight, I have a team of highly-trained, specialized Hannekos clean the entire school spotless!"

Does he really need a highly specialized team just to clean the school? Even so… That could help us figure some stuff out.

"Wait," I said. "That could help us figure more out!"

"How can it… actually, you've got a point," said Tobiki. "That means that the time of death is some time between midnight and 8:00, which is around the time we found her…"

"But I checked last night," Bunpei said. "I'm pretty sure most of us—if not all—were in our rooms by midnight."

If that's the case… then it must have been later that the girls went missing…

"Wait," I said. "Maybe the incident from this morning has to do with it. If we can figure out what was going on then, that could help us reach a conclusion about the time of death."

"But when was that?" Tougo asked.

"Dude, I sent you a message," I said. "It started before the morning announcements were read. The doorknobs suddenly started to burn our hands."

"Oh, right." Tougo said. "Your warning managed to keep me from using them directly. Thanks."

He actually sounded sincere about that… "Uh… No problem," I replied. "But we still need to know what that was all about." I turned to Hanneko, but I was cut off before I could utter a word.

"Don't blame me for that," he said. "Some other clever bastard figured out a way to burn your hands. It was a pretty impressive trick, actually."

Trick? So it wasn't Hanneko's fault? That doesn't make sense. Those gloves were way too convenient for it not to have to do with him.

"You're lying," said Bunpei.

"Wait," said Tobiki. "He might be telling the truth. I think I know exactly how we managed to be caught up in that situation."

Tobiki picked up samples of the glass and wire from the kitchen that had been placed in a bag. He must have picked it up when I wasn't paying attention.

"Furuda-kun," he said. "Do you still have my cup from this morning?"

"Ah… Yeah," said Bunpei as he procured the white glass from one of his pockets (they must be pretty baggy).

"Alright," said Tobiki. "Everyone, look at that cup. It came from the kitchen cabinets, which seemed to have some missing. Does it look similar to the shards in this bag, as well as the ones on the ground we saw?"

They're exactly the same…

"If you're thinking that they're the same, then you're exactly right," Tobiki said. "The doorknobs to our rooms are metal, same as the wire in the bag. The killer probably put one part of the wire around our doorknobs, and the other part inside the cup, along with a burning object. Having those things together would cause the wire to conduct heat that traveled from it to the doorknob, effectively burning our hands when we'd try to open it." He's right!

"Good job, Tobi!" I said, excited. For the first time in what may have been a long while, he seemed more cheerful and confident.

"You're right," said Tougo. "A clever answer for a clever trick."

"But…" said Bunpei. "There are still two things that need to be explained. What was that shattering glass sound we heard? Also, if they used the glasses from the kitchen, why are the shards in that bag gray? The full cups are white."

"I may be able to help with that," said Tougo. "If there was something burning inside that cup then the inside should be covered in soot, similar to how the glass inside a candle would turn black over time. If you clean them enough, they should still be white, like how the opposite sides would be."

"Speaking of candles," said Bunpei. "When the fire's too hot, then the glasses tend to crack… It makes so much sense now! That's probably why we heard those shattering glass sounds!"

Bunpei seems to be taking this a lot more seriously… I remember when he'd just leave investigation to the rest of us, but now he's even going so far as inspecting doorknobs for clues. I'm proud of him.

"Good work," I said to them. We may be closer to figuring out this case thanks to that! But… is there really still hope for us?

"We still need to figure out how that connects to the murder case," I said. "Plus, we still don't know how exactly the mess disappeared from around our doors."

"That's true," said Tougo. "We were all trapped, so that means…"

"The only culprit could be one of the three girls," said Bunpei. That's right. But… That's wrong. Wait… It can't be wrong. It's completely impossible for one of us to be the culprit…

"… We should discuss the crime scene more before we jump to any conclusions," I said trying to stop myself from confusing my brain.

"Coming from someone who was so adamant about a certain culprit earlier," said Tougo.

"Shut up," I snapped back.

"Rin-chama's right" said Bunpei. "But… Now that I think about it, we kinda already know all that we need to know about the crime scene."

"There's got to be more to it than the fact that it's covered in flour," I said. "We don't yet know why or how, but we should know that before we continue."

"I think we probably already know how everything got covered," said Tobiki. "Nakauchi-san and Hanai-kun already said that there was a fan on while she was killed. The culprit may have used that to disguise the real cause of death, maybe to hide blood stains or something like that."

"I agree that the fan is definitely a factor," I said. "But when I inspected her, I couldn't find any kind of cuts or anything. It just looked like she was burned…"

"There shouldn't have been any wounds on the body," said Monokuma. We all turned to look at him. The guys all glared.

"Why should we trust you?" Bunpei asked. Monokuma did his weird "upupu" laugh.

"You guys trusted me for all the other cases," said Monokuma. "And now that I'm here to confirm everything, you guys don't want to believe me. I can never win with you people."

Well, we don't really have a choice but to trust him now, do we?

"Okay, assuming there are no wounds on her," I said. "The fan did serve to spread the flour to an extent. It was big, and it appeared powerful, but there's no way it was strong enough to rip open the bags at the beginning. That had to be done by human hands."

"But then," said Bunpei. "Who could have done it?"

"Hm…" said Tobiki. "Is it possible that the victim was the one to spread the flour around?"

"What?" Tougo asked. "That makes no sense. Why would anyone try to throw flour around everywhere?"

"Maybe she got in a fight," Bunpei said. "She probably had to defend herself somehow since there isn't really anything else in there that could be used as a weapon…"

"True," I said. "When we found the kitchen, we were able to note that there were no dangers you'd find in a normal kitchen. The stoves are all electric, and the utensils are all plastic. Everything else in there was either an oven or pastry ingredients."

"So, anything used as a weapon would have had to come from outside it," said Tobiki.

"There were no such weapons when I looked around," said Tougo. "I can't figure out where they could have hidden it, since I think we'd have noticed if it were covered in flour."

"Then…" Bunpei said. "Is it possible that she inhaled some sort of poison?"

That's true… There could be a poison in the form of a powder hidden in there… But…

"We'd have noticed it," I said.

"You guys are so hopeless," said Monokuma. "There was no poison, no stabbing, no beating, no nothing before she—and at least one other girl—died. She was burned to death."

Dang. Well, I got nothing.

"Wait," I said. "How do we know how many people were even in there?"

"What do you mean?" Tougo asked.

"When we went by there," I began. "The floor outside the room was clean. Nothing that could give away what was happening in there." I waited to see if someone else would catch on.

"But," said Bunpei. "When Tobi and I left, we left flour footprints. There were only two sets, now that I think about it."

"Right," I said. "That could mean that the killer was still in the room, or they found another way to escape."

"But… The only way I can think of is through the vents," began Tobiki. "But they're too small for anyone to fit through."

"You know that's saying something, coming from him" said Hanneko.

"Thanks," said Tobiki sarcastically. "I think we were all beginning to forget how short I am."

"Anyway," I said. "It's completely possible that there's at least one other way out… But it's also possible that the culprit never went in."

"… Okay, I don't see it," said Bunpei. "How could the killer have killed them from outside? The doors don't have any windows on them, so it'd be impossible for them to even know someone was on the other side…"

"That's… kinda true," I said. Now that I think about it… that really makes no sense.

"Plus," said Bunpei. "The killer left fingerprints on the doorknob. If I remember correctly, the door only opens inward, so someone had to have pulled it from outside in order to leave. The culprit more than likely had a broom, so they could have very easily swept away the flour. Nice try, Rin-chama, but I think I've bested you at this one!"

He probably has… I can't justify—wait.

"Furuda-kun," I said. "It's completely possible that the culprit was tricked into committing the crime."

"Oho! A twist!" Hanneko meowed. "Was the killer hiding in the shadows, or is he really here in this very courtroom? Find out next time on—"

"This isn't a goddamned TV show!" Tougo shouted. "We're in the middle of a discussion."

"Yeah," I said. "And we're definitely not ending it here!"

"But Rin-chama," said Bunpei. "How exactly could any of us be tricked into killing someone? I don't see how that could have happened on accident."

"I do," I said. "Remember when we first explored the building? Kotaka told us about a stone called flint that could set off sparks if it were rubbed together. When Luka noticed the sparks coming from me opening the door, we figured out that it was made out of that stone."

"I remember that," said Tobiki. "She warned us all later that day about it."

"That she did," I said. "But we all dismissed it, since we couldn't see how a few small sparks could do more than give someone a minor injury."

"So…" Bunpei began. "Whoever opened the door accidentally threw sparks onto the body?"

"Not exactly," I said. Everything's starting to make more sense… Why that room was filled with flour, and why that part of the door was replaced.

"It's time for a science lesson~" Hanneko mewed.

"Stop with the interruptions!" Tobiki exclaimed.

"Actually," said Tougo. "I think we should listen."

Hanneko hopped down from his throne and pulled out a chalkboard covered in what seemed like unnecessary equations and Greek symbols. "Most organic compounds are made of various mixes of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen," said Hanneko. He's now wearing goofy glasses reminiscent of Irina's. "Many of them being common household objects such as sugar, powders, grain, and even all-purpose baking flour! Due to the fact that these particles have a big surface area compared to their mass, and it's easier to burn something at its surface, if these objects are all in the air rubbing against each other, you could cause a dangerous explosion if these things were to come in contact with a heated surface, friction, or even a teeny tiny spark. The fire would spread quickly and injure—or even kill—someone unfortunate enough to be caught up in it."

"…" We were all silent. He basically gave away the entire murder… Something's seriously up…

"Okay," said Tougo. "So, which of you went to open the door to find them?"

"… I did," said Bunpei. His eyes and nose became watery. "Does this mean I killed them?! Everyone, I'm so so so sorry!"

"Please calm down," I said. "You already know why you didn't do it, Furuda-kun."

He stopped sniffling for a moment. "How?" Bunpei asked.

"Because," I said. "There's something you checked as you were leaving."

"The… fingerprints?" He sniffed as he asked this.

"Yeah," I said.

"But it's kinda useless," said Tobiki. "We have no way at all of knowing whose fingerprints those are."

"You've got that wrong, Wakabayashi-kun," I said. "The fact that there are fingerprints at all indicates who could have done it." I turned to address the culprit, who, in turn, looked at me with a glower.

"Tougo Hanai," I said. "You were the one who opened that door first, weren't you?"