Chapter 2: Class Trial II

Having established what could be a rather key point in the narrative, I can follow on with another vital piece of evidence.

"The killer removing their shoes goes some way towards explaining something that had me a bit baffled earlier," I say as I bring up the sock in the hydrotherapy room. "I found a sock at the bottom of the hydrotherapy pool. My guess would be that the killer washed the blood off their body in there, but when collecting up their clothes, they dropped the sock and were in such a hurry they didn't bother to pick it up."

"This could be a big one," Nanima says, eyes widening. "In fact, I think this could be enough to find the killer. If we just find out who wears that kind of sock, we'll know who they are."

"Indeed, that counts out many of us women," Alicia adds, jumping at a chance to pin this crime on the guys. "Zange's are knee-highs, Hikari doesn't wear any and I alternate between long socks and ankle socks, which discounts three of us. I can't speak for any of the others, though."

"If anyone recognises this sock, now would be a good time to speak up," Haruki says, as though the killer would fall into such an obvious trap. Many of the others nod in agreement, but Haru raises a hand in protest.

"Hold it right there," he says. "Shinji, what makes you think the sock was accidentally left behind?" Okay, that's a fair question, and one that needs to be answered before we can go any further.

"That was just my hunch," I reply. "People lose their socks all the time."

"Not good enough," Haru says, shaking his head. "I've been regularly using those facilities the past few days, and I know that there are changes of clothes available in the changing room. In fact, we both know a set of those was taken." He is, of course, referring to that set of clothes we found in the laundry room, and sure enough, he deploys the relevant Truth Bullet to strengthen his argument. "Could they not have just taken the sock from that set of clothes and planted it on the scene as a diversion?" I can't deny that as a possibility, but there's another bit of evidence available that could swing things back in my favour.

"That's possible, I guess, but aren't you forgetting something?" The bloody towel that Zygoth was using in his ritual is the key to this. "The killer washed off all the blood in the hydrotherapy pool, used this towel here to dry themselves off, and left. Plus, we didn't find a sock in that laundry, which we should have done if that's where they got it from. I'm not saying it's definitely the killer's sock, but it's more likely than being stolen from the changing rooms. Alicia, Haruki, you guys checked them out before, right?" Both of them confirm this with a nod of the head. "Did either of you notice anything missing?"

"Nope," Haruki says.

"The only things missing were the clothes Haruki forgot to put back," Alicia says, gritting her teeth when she mentions Haruki's incompetence.

"Alright, I think that settles it. Let's assume these socks do indeed belong to the killer. Where do we go from here?" I ask.

"How about everyone takes their shoes off?" Nanima of all people chimes in with an idea. "If someone's only wearing one sock, then we'll know who did it."

"Don't be silly," Eizou says. "Whoever did it has had a ton of time to change their socks, so that most likely won't help us."

"Yeah, but most of us have been wearing the same sets of stuff all this time, right?" Nanima asks. Alas, this isn't quite true. While it's certainly true that my own personal wardrobe solely consists of multiple copies of my old school uniform, not everyone is limited in their choices of clothing.

"Nanima, you're wrong," I say, although my heart's not quite in it. "Hikari's wardrobe change is proof enough of that. Those clothes are similar to Zange's, but not identical. Likewise, Alicia's got her school uniform and her sports gear, and let's not forget the laundry that was left behind in one of the washing machines. It's a good idea, but it might not necessarily lead us to the culprit."

"There's no knowing unless we try though, right?" Nanima argues. "What if the killer is wearing the same type of socks today? Even if they're not the same pair, if someone is wearing similar socks, then that might make them a suspect." I like the way she's thinking, trying to narrow down our list of suspects so we can attempt to apply details specific to them to the situation. Even though I pointed out it might not work, I figure it's worth a shot.

"I'm all for it," says Akira, crouching down to untie his shoelaces.

"Stop, golfer," Zygoth says. "Before we begin this activity, we should seek permission from Monokuma, just in case this contravenes the draconian regulations he and our oppressive government have placed on this court!"

"Oh, goodie, you guys are finally including me!" Monokuma says gleefully, laughing in that horrible way he always does. "I'll allow you to remove your shoes and socks, as long as one of you cleans up afterwards. It's bad enough covering up the smell of one stinky pair of feet, but thirteen… why, I'm getting all queasy just thinking about it. It makes me almost as sick as exposure to hope!"

"How about you make that the punishment instead?" Hikari retorts.

"But by doing that, you'd be letting the killer off lightly," Monokuma observes. "A punishment is meant to serve as a deterrent to discourage others from committing crimes, and the punishment has to be adjusted according to severity. Therefore, execution is the only fitting punishment for the blackened! For your insolence, Hikari, I suppose it'll have to be you who cleans up. Although I'll have to give you some surgical slip-ons so it doesn't all go to waste." Once his bizarre tangent is wrapped up, several people start removing their shoes. Haru can't even reach his own feet so Zange helps him out. I follow suit, undoing my laces and slipping my feet out of the shoes, preparing to remove both socks to show I've definitely got two. Of all the people who display their socks, none of them are wearing a pair even remotely like the one I found. However, Daisuke refuses to participate, looking upon us with a look of pure scorn on his face. Could he be hiding something beneath those shiny shoes?

"I absolutely refuse to partake in such a preposterous activity," he says, arms folded across his chest. "It offends me."

"Well, if you're not gonna take your socks off, you're under suspicion," Eizou says.

"We'll need an alibi," Haruki adds to Eizou's statement of intent. "Tell us why, beyond all reasonable doubt, it couldn't have been you who killed Dulce, and we'll let you keep your feet covered."

"I spent the entire night in my room," Daisuke says, not being able to provide a decent alibi in spite of his massive intellect. "There is nothing you can do to prove otherwise." I check through my Truth Bullets, hoping to find something to question the veracity of that statement, but there's nothing in here that really proves otherwise.

"Hold it!" Of all the people to counter his argument, it's Nanima who's taking a stand. She's been unusually active in the courtroom proceedings today. "You weren't in there all night. I know because I went out for a walk down the corridor at about 1am, and your door was wide open. I looked inside and I couldn't see you anywhere. Where were you, then?"

"Perhaps I merely required the circulation of fresh air into my room," Daisuke says with an air of sarcasm and superiority. "I assure you, your suspicions are much mistaken."

"Nanima, why didn't you bring this up before?" I ask the gamer. It would've been nice to have known about this earlier. This could be exactly what we need to pin down our suspect.

"You never asked," she replies. "You walked right past me!"

"Well, you looked pretty busy," I say.

"You forget that, as the Ultimate Internet Star, I have to be able to focus on lots of things at once. I could've answered your questions while gaming, y'know!" Wow, wasn't expecting her to be so fierce and forceful against me. Certainly a lesson to be learnt for next time.

"You'd take the word of a paranoid schizophrenic over the unquestionable logic of the Ultimate Critic?" Daisuke spits in disbelief. Get him, showing off his medical knowledge and being a total dick about it.

"I never said I believed her, but I'm inclined to now," I respond, crooking my eyebrow at him. He looks to be in quite a tight spot, and notably has made no extra effort to remove his shoes. "You are acting awfully suspicious, after all. Actually, come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen your dorm room door open. It certainly wasn't when I came and visited."

"Those were totally different circumstances!" the critic blathers, his arguments weakening by the second.

"Why, Daisuke, anyone would think you've got something to hide," Rin says. "Perhaps… your greatest fear." That's got his attention. He turns sharply towards the Ultimate Librarian, glowering at her.

"Don't you even think about it, you duplicitous wench!" Daisuke yells.

"And why should I not? Is there a particular reason you'd like for me not to reveal…"

"I said SHUT UP!" Daisuke roars, clearly enraged. "How dare you insinuate that I am in any way linked with this crime!" His breathing grows laboured and heavy as his whole body starts to shake. Someone really needs to calm this guy down.

"You're not making the most convincing case, buddy," Akira comments flippantly, ignoring what's going on around him. "My old mentor, he told me all sorts of stories about this guy he took under his wing…"

"YOU SHUT UP TOO!" Daisuke shouts, causing Akira to rear back and almost trip over his shoes. "YOUR MERE PRESENCE IRRITATES ME!" After jabbing a quivering finger in the general direction of Akira, he slumps over his podium and his glasses fall off his face, clattering dramatically on the floor in front of it. I've never seen anything like this happen in my life. I've seen people get worked up over things, but not to the extent where they actually pass out from it. Is that even a thing? I don't even know, and I don't think anyone else does either, as the others are simply staring in abject horror at the scene that has just unfolded. Nobody attempts to help him, not even Nanima who's situated next to him.

"Does that mean he did it?" asks Hikari, breaking the silence.

"This is a most curious case, Hikari," Rin says, making a point of flicking through that notebook and finding a specific page. "You see, Daisuke's greatest fear is losing control of his emotions. Can anyone hazard a guess as to why that may be?" I'm willing to guess, but I don't know quite how right I am. I load up the Truth Bullet I think is applicable and fire it off anyway.

"I think it's something to do with those files," I say tentatively. "There must have been something in those about what's just happened. Something that causes him to fear losing control."

"Indeed, you are correct," Rin replies. "In fact, why don't we let Daisuke speak for himself about the issue?" There's a collective gasp as Daisuke rises up from his slumped position, sweeping back his hair and whipping off his tuxedo jacket. He ties the arms of the jacket around his neck, donning it like a cape. There seems to be an odd glimpse in his eye, and his expression looks rather more manic than any of us are used to.

"Grahahahaha! Did I scare you?" he asks. What the fuck is this? No, seriously, I'm completely lost. What the actual fuck is going on?

"DEMON!" Zygoth screams, pulling out his trusty red chalk and pointing it like a wand at Daisuke. "Quickly, everyone say ten 'Our Fathers', five 'Hail Marys' and forty-thousand 'Corpus Christis!'" I don't think we've got time for that. Daisuke lets out a laugh that sounds like it comes from the very depths of Irkalla, and due to the spaciousness of the courtroom it reverberates around all the walls with an evil echo.

"You fools don't recognise a god when you see one? You should all bow before the might of Deus!" Deus? Has he totally lost the plot? Did he even have the plot to begin with?

"You are no god!" Zygoth cries, jabbing the chalk forwards. "There are no mentions of a 'Deus' in the teachings of Hrothgar-Throm, and Phillip would never go so low as to inhabit a human host!"

"I expected such a reaction," Daisuke, or Deus as he now calls himself, says. "You mortals are always quick to disbelieve anything that does not conform to your preconceptions. The mighty Deus is here to elucidate you all! I am the only god worthy of your worship!"

"Dude, stop acting like a complete whackjob and take your shoes off," Eizou says. "Everyone else has."

"A god does not submit to the whim of a mere mortal, especially one so pin-headed as you!" Daisuke (or should that be Deus?) says.

"You're all equally pin-headed as far as I'm concerned," Alicia says. "Come on, let's get this trial back on track. Is this even relevant in any way?"

"It could be," Haruki says, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "You all remember that message Eizou found on the wall, don't you?"

"You mean that one that was saying stuff about God?" asks Nanima.

"Precisely," Haruki says. "If this guy's going around claiming to be God, and that message on the wall says 'I am God', then of course the two must be linked!" It can't be that easy, can it?

"Look at you, being the master detective!" Dai- Deus- oh I don't even fucking know, the Critic, says. "Don't think for a moment you can outsmart a god!"

"The hell is his deal?" Akira asks. "It's like he's…"

"I cannot permit you to finish that sentence," Rin says coldly. A Truth Bullet of her own pops up on screen. "What you see before you is an example of Dissociative Identity Disorder. It's an odd affliction, and one that many psychologists dispute the existence of, but here we see for ourselves living proof of it."

"Guess I should've read those files after all," I say.

"Yes, perhaps you should have," Rin says, pointing at her screen. "That abnormal brain scan Daisuke showed you with the deformed amygdala was his own brain. Being a mere librarian, I'm afraid I can't elaborate on how this led to Deus' existence, but I know this much: Daisuke fears what he really is. He can't accept his flaws, so he has to instead focus on the flaws of others and suppress his emotions, lest the god within be released." So that's why he was acting so strangely around the coffee machine that time. He was trying to keep Deus locked away, for his own safety if not for that of everyone else. I dread to see how he'll react when he realises he's lost that battle.

"This Daisuke fellow sounds like a pathetic loser," Deus proclaims. "But he is right to fear the mighty Deus!" There's no doubting that in this state, every element of Daisuke as we know him is gone, replaced by this maniac. If this is what happens, then I'm not all that surprised that Daisuke fears Deus. The ultimate extension of that fear might be that Deus could take over permanently and destroy him completely, erasing Daisuke Kobayashi, the Ultimate Critic, from existence.

"But did you write that message?" Haruki asks, surprisingly calm about the whole thing.

"You dare accuse Deus, almighty ruler of all the Universes, of doing something so uncouth as announcing his own existence in such a manner? I'll grind your face into the dirt, mortal!" Deus appears to be easy to rile up, as he looks even more furious than Daisuke was before his collapse. He almost looks ready to leap over his podium and sock Haruki in the face.

"Y'all need to calm down and focus," Zange says. "Deus, are you gonna work with us and catch this killer?"

"Don't ask lightly for the assistance of a god!" Deus booms, swishing his tuxedo-cape like a matador. "But I suppose for someone with such charming beauty as yourself, I might be willing to provide assistance. For a price, of course…" So not only is Deus an egomaniac, he's also a pervert. The perfect storm of shit personalities. No wonder Daisuke hates this guy so much.

"Sort that out afterwards," Haru says. "We need to know for sure that Daisuke, or Deus, didn't do it. We can't just trust this guy's word. Nanima, you said you thought he was out of his room at that point, right?"

"Yeah, I did," she replies meekly, hood and headphones flipped back on after Deus' awakening. "I was having… thoughts, and I went for a walk to try and clear them away. I thought I could smell blood, and I might have heard someone moving around, but I'm not sure if my senses were playing tricks on me or not. I don't know who it was, but…"

"Alright, can we wrap this up now?" Eizou asks. "I don't see much point in us continuing. We know he did it." But do we? Honestly, it might be worth us getting an alibi off Deus if we can to clear this up.

"Not yet, Eizou," I say. "There's still something I want to know. Deus, do you share Daisuke's memories and stuff or is all that completely separate? He obviously knows you exist somehow or else he wouldn't fear you."

"Pahahah! You think I'd ever allow him access to my memories? While I slumber, he awakens with no recollection of what I've done with this fleshy vessel of his. I am perfectly cognisant of every monotonous detail of that gastropod's life, down to the most intimate of details. Although most of those intimacies occur when I'm in charge, if you fleshbags comprehend my meaning..." So Daisuke can only get his end away when this twat's in the driving seat? Boy, that's depressing. And slightly less surprising than it should be given what he's normally like.

"Spare us the details, dude," Alicia says, wishing to divert the subject away from Deus' sexual conquests. "Just tell us what happened last night. Are you or are you not the murderer?" Everyone eyes Deus expectantly, perhaps hoping for a confession from the deranged critic. I notice Akira's hands quivering in anticipation, while Nanima buries her hands deeper inside her hoodie's pockets. Nayumi almost falls asleep at her podium but as her nightcap's tassel falls in front of her face, she stops herself from drifting off. Alicia looks ready to punch someone, and I wouldn't put it past her to follow through with that.

"Well, isn't this awfully tense?" Monokuma says, bursting the dramatic bubble in his horribly screechy manner. "Puhuhu, if it builds up anymore, you're gonna blow the roof off this place!"

"One does not simply request as to the whereabouts of Deus!" the Critic says. "I could end this case right now if I so desired, for my powers are unparalleled, but I shan't. If you wish to live, start thinking for yourselves, maggots!" If you distilled all of Daisuke's negative traits into their purest form and inserted them into the mind of a megalomaniac dictator, this is what you'd get. All we can do at this point is just ignore him and see if there's anything glaringly obvious we've been missing.

"If you're not the killer, you'll die too if we don't figure this out," Haruki says. "Is there any way you can prove that you didn't do it?"

"Those clothes that were bein' washed looked nothin' like what he'd wear," Zange says. She's one of the few people that have actually been civil with Deus this whole time. "I guess he coulda changed just to kill, but would he do that?"

"Maybe…" Nayumi starts a sentence, but lets out a long yawn midway through, meaning the point she was going to make gets lost in the commotion of the courtroom.

"Could he even carry a body bag?" Alicia enquires. "Look how weedy he is. Bulking up your brain doesn't compensate for your physical weaknesses, you know!"

"We don't know if he was in super-crazy mode or not last night," Akira says. "I mean, normal Daisuke would probably have been smarter about the whole thing, but with this dude, who knows?"

"But I could've sworn I saw his door open last night…" One of these things has to be relevant, but I just don't know which. I'll have to give this some thought, or hope that someone else gets to it first.

"Nanima… are you sure it was Daisuke's door?" To my surprise, it's Nayumi issuing a challenge to the Internet Star's account of last night's events. "I knew Dulce well, and she had a rather unfortunate habit of leaving her door open at night. Maybe because it was late at night, you were mistaken as to whose door you went past."

"B-but…" She blanches as the realisation dawns that she could have been wrong and her body language shifts to defensive, shying away from everyone else. "M-maybe I am wrong. Just like with everything else…"

"It's not your fault," Nayumi reassures her. "Everybody makes mistakes." That clarification could potentially lead us somewhere with the case, though.

"That's a thing nobody's tried to address," I say. "What was Dulce doing in that ward anyway? Why wasn't she asleep?"

"Excellent question, Shinji," Haruki says, latching on quickly. I'm beginning to feel some suspicion towards the Ultimate Singer. The laundry that was in that washing machine was his responsibility, after all. I shouldn't address this until I can support my theory, though. "My best guess is that she's messed up her sleep pattern having naps during the day, making her more active at night. There's nothing suggesting that she was lured into the ward by anyone, nothing obvious anyway."

"There's no letters, sure," Akira says. "Could be that they just told her to show up there at midnight. It was pretty busy in the cafeteria yesterday, and she was talking to everyone, so you never know."

"Or perhaps we have a telepath in our midst," Zygoth suggests. "Communication through the mind would bypass everything! She'd be taking that secret to the grave!"

"Or m-maybe she wanted to go somewhere where nobody would bother her," Nanima says, not very confidently. "After all, there was the prospect of our fears looming over everything." Way to turn this around, Nanima. Even though there isn't a lot of conviction in what she's saying, that's our best angle of pursuit. The motive had to have played a bigger part in all this than we've been thinking.

"Nanima, I agree!" I declare, pumping my fist. I'm at a loss as to which Truth Bullet might correspond with this statement, so I end up resorting to the medical files again. "I know this might seem slightly tangential, but Dulce was the first to discover those medical files. Come to think of it, she was also the first one to read them…"

"I found some documents, but I couldn't understand 'em," Dulce said with a bit of a perplexed expression. The way she crooked her brow at the time suggested to me annoyance and frustration at not being able to understand their contents, but perhaps, in retrospect, she did understand them. She just wasn't happy with what she encountered when she came across her own file…

"So you reckon she read up on herself and didn't like what she saw?" Eizou enquires.

"Almost certainly. Can anyone who's read those files back me up on that?" I blush slightly, embarrassed that I never considered looking in-depth at anyone else's pages, even after the threat of being confronted with our greatest fears. Just taking some of my plentiful time to properly get to know my fellow students in a manner I never would have thought possible could have gone some way towards preventing a loss of life. Of course, there's no point lamenting that now, we've got a case to crack. Let's see what everyone has to say.

"I, the Almighty Deus, will impart my knowledge to you peons, and I shall do so in incredibly simple terms lest your brains be liquefied by my might and intellect!" Deus is… actually being helpful? Well, it was gonna be either him or Rin, and the librarian tends to be a rather closed book, both metaphorically and literally speaking. "Some of you may be aware that the victim was a supplier and user of narcotic substances, cannabis chief among them. Such a disgusting habit had rotted away her brain, leaving her incapable of rational thought. Her chronic drug use left her in a state of self-induced psychosis, but she would never have admitted to it…"

"But that's impossible!" Zange says. "She seemed just fine and dandy yesterday. Nothin' outta the ordinary there."

"She always felt safer when she had someone else to talk to," Nayumi reveals. "I was the first person she ever spoke to in this hospital, and she was always very open with me as a result. Even before our greatest fears were revealed, she'd often tell me how much she hated being trapped in this place. Sometimes at night, she'd spend time examining the hospital's architecture, attempting to work out if there was any route of escape, but she never found one." The Ultimate Sleeper sends another Truth Bullet out, displaying a collection of intricate maps of the layout of the hospital.

"Well, that explains that one," Nanima says abashedly.

"Now, only one question remains," Rin says cryptically, opening up her notebook. "Which of us encountered her that fateful night?"


A.N.: Well, it's been a long time coming, but I finally got this done. An addiction to Monster Hunter 4 and a brief stay in the hospital that inspired Cresthaven are among the factors leading to this. I think the days of churning out two chapters a week are well and truly over, but I have no intentions of abandoning this. No matter how long it takes, I plan to see this through to completion. As always, any contributions from my audience are appreciated.