"Seems like you have a theory. How about you stay silent and don't embarrass yourself any further?" Koshimizu said, condescension dripping in his voice. Kobayashi flinched, but the incentive of helping to catch the killer made him continue forward. He hadn't helped very much since the first trial; this was his chance to actually pull his weight around.

"R-right...I think you or Hasegawa-san carried the body to the Cafeteria, donned clothes like his, and tried to shoot Hikari-kun"

"Why would we do that?" Hasegawa inquired, although she didn't seem very worried about the accusation. After the way Kobayashi tried to pursuit Mitsuhiko as a culprit, it was to be expected nobody else would be too worried about what the illusionist thought.

"What, the duel? You did it because...you wanted Hikari-kun to believe you had done it. That was already discussed!"

"It's true we said that already" Romi rubbed her eyes "But I don't really think Hasegawa-san or Koshimizu-san is the culprit here. What do you say, Hikari-kun?"

"I say this is all a waste of time. You all are missing something very important. Take a look at this piece of evidence and you'll have the identity of the person I encountered"

Monobear File #5

Blood on the File

Body Discovery Announcement

Bullets in the Body

Bullet Wounds

Gash

Cloak

Veritas' Shoes

Ventilation Shaft

Soot Footprints

Bullet on the Wall

Bullet on the Floor

Blood in Yurie's Room

Lilith's Wires

Shackles

Tampered Food

Bloody Room in the Basement

Buried Body

Twin M9 Beretta

Silencer

Bullet on the Wall

Mitsuhiko once again threw the crushed bullet from the wall on the table. This didn't amuse it at all, he expected much more from the other commanders. If they couldn't find out this by themselves then it was a wonder they all had managed to take part of the trials until now. "Do you all remember where this came from?"

"That's the bloody bullet I found in the wall" Hasegawa nodded "The bullet from the shoulde-" her eyes widened, noticing the huge oversight they all had done "...oh"

"What? What's...ah. Aaaagh!" Kobayashi was the second to realize it, and it seemed he was more horrified than the rest. He was the one pushing for an argument, after all.

"I think I'm missing something that should be here" Koshimizu put his hand over his right shoulder "Don't you think so...Kobayashi-kun?"

"Yeah, y-y-yeah, um, I see it now. I...oh, fuck it" he sank in his seat, blushing. That was it, no more trying to create new arguments.

"Whoever has a hole in the shoulder is the culprit. That's it!" Romi stretched the neck of her vest, showing most of her right shoulder area "It's not me"

"You were the person who triggered the dead body announcement, it wasn't you" Hasegawa said "Hikari-kun, Kobayashi-kun and Koshimizu-san are our suspects here. Hikari-kun already proved it wasn't him, so..."

"Again, I have no wound" Koshimizu repeated but this time proved it. Indeed, there was no trace of wound.

"I-I'm experienced in getting shot, but I think everyone would know if it had happened again" Kobayashi winced "I'm no good with pain. Koshimizu-san knows that"

"My ears ringed for hours after I was done with your whining" the medic scowled "If he had been shot again we'd definitely know it"

"Just in case, it isn't me either!" Hasegawa unbuttoned her shirt and showed her shoulder "See?"

"But...the announcement...one of you three is supposed to be the culprit. What's going on here?" Romi looked at Monobear accusingly; who pretended to not to notice "Did you lie to us, bear?"

"Nope!" he replied "I'm an honest bear, promise!"

"It's simple" Hasegawa said "The culprit and the person Hikari-kun encountered are two different people"

"An accomplice? Are you saying two different people were involved in a plan to kill Veritas?" a vein popped on Koshimizu's forehead. To him, the thought of two commanders cooperating to kill Veritas was the biggest crime anyone could have committed in the Headquarters.

"That's how it seems to me. And since the possibility of there being two different people involved, you three continue being the main suspects"

"But who was the accomplice?" Kobayashi inquired "If none of us have a bullet wound, then...wouldn't the only possibility be..."

"Yes" Mitsuhiko nodded. This was something he had suspected since the investigation, everything he had found and knew pointed at that person being the accomplice he had shot. Everything was explained with that "The accomplice can only be one person"

Mitsuhiko Hikari

Shizuka Hasegawa

Mamoru Takayama

Akira Hosoya

Kimiko Sugita

Harumi Kayano

Tetsurou Koshimizu

Chiyo Yasumoto

Sumida Kishio

Kouhei Kobayashi

Daisuke Mitsuishi

Kumakichi Fukuyama

Hiyoko Romi

Kyrie Mimori

Yurie Oyama

Tohya Sasuga

Lilith

Monobear

Kyrie Mimori

"Everyone in this room has already shown to not to have a bullet wound. The only conclusion we can reach from this is that the wounded person is not in this room. The only commander who could be that is...Mimori-san"

"Mimori-san? Are you sure?"

"Yes! The bullet wound and the escape route shows she's the most likely to be that person. Sure, she's not as tall as Veritas, but I'm sure she and the culprit thought of something to disguise that"

"But that is...she isn't the only one who isn't here. What about the masterminds? Couldn't one of them have tried to kill you?"

Mitsuhiko considered that for a moment. To be honest he hadn't thought of that possibility, but he had a hard time believing one of the masterminds would put themselves in risk like that. "...I don't think so..."

"Of course. Why would a mastermind be the culprit's accomplice? That doesn't make sense" Hasegawa said. That wasn't what Mitsuhiko was thinking, but for now that was good enough.

I SEE IT CLEARLY NOW

"Guys, maybe we're letting ourselves be misled" Romi interrupted the current discussion, leaning forward in her seat. Her new line of discussion was related in a way to the discussion about the accomplice, but it was meant to be a way to solve it once and for all. "There's something I think you are all forgetting:

The only witness to the whole accomplice thing is Hikari-kun. If he's the culprit he can have lied about this and everything else"

"...Romi-san has kind of a point there" Koshimizu nodded "Do you have any decisive proof of your duel?"

"Yes, do you, Hikari-kun?"

Do I? I need to think back, there must be something that could work. I know what I saw, but that won't be good enough. I need something that could prove it...and that everyone else can see. There must be something like that!

Rebuttal Showdown

Bullet on the Floor / Twin M9 Beretta / Veritas' Shoes / Bullet Wounds / Bullet on the Wall

ROMI: Your testimony makes sense...

ROMI: But since it was only yours...

ROMI: ...we can't automatically trust it

ROMI: Kobayashi-kun arrived too late to see anything

ROMI: If there's no physical proof...

ROMI: ...then we'll have to doubt what you say

MITSUHIKO: What kind of physical proof are you looking for?

ROMI: It's obvious, isn't it?

ROMI: We want proof there was a shooting...

ROMI: ...between two people

ROMI: Otherwise, we'll have to think...

ROMI: There was no imposter

ROMI: And that there was no shooting either

ROMI: It all relies on that, so come on!

ROMI: Got something?

"I can prove there was somebody else shooting, somebody that isn't me" Mitsuhiko took out the second bullet from his pocket "Hasegawa-san found this bullet too. It's undeniable evidence there was somebody shooting at me"

"Where did you find this bullet?" Koshimizu took it to examine it.

"It was embedded into the floor" Hasegawa explained "Hikari-kun explained it isn't from his gun, so it must have been from the imposter"

"But can we trust that?" Romi inquired.

"I think we can. Hikari-kun doesn't have other guns. There are guns in the arsenal in the Fourth Floor but only the masterminds can enter, so it isn't like he can go there"

"He could if he's involved in something with the masterminds" Kobayashi pointed.

"No, Hikari-kun isn't an accomplice...I think. He hasn't cooperated with them at all" Koshimizu returned the bullet to Hikari-kun "This is good enough proof to me, so let's take his testimony as true, shall we?"

"Then...Mimori-san is an accomplice and either Koshimizu-san or Kobayashi-kun is the culprit" Hasegawa leaned backwards on her chair "What do you think, guys?"

"I think Koshimizu-san is more likely to be the culprit. There's something pointing to him" Romi announced. While Koshimizu shook his head in disbelief, he at least didn't immediately dismiss her proposal.

Nonstop Debate

Soot Footprints / Bullets in the Body / Blood in Yurie's Room / Ventilation Shaft / Veritas' Shoes

ROMI: The culprit isn't Mimori-san

ROMI: But she had to obtain the gun from somewhere

ROMI: Hikari-kun gave Koshimizu-san a gun

ROMI: I think that's the same gun Mimori-san used!

KOSHIMIZU: I have the gun right here.

KOBAYASHI: Mimori-san may have given it to you...

KOBAYASHI: ...at some point before the trial.

KOSHIMIZU: Without anyone noticing?

KOSHIMIZU: I doubt it.

"No, the gun Mimori-san used is different. The bullets found in the corpse shows the culprit used a gun similar to mine, and the bullet in the floor doesn't match to any of those bullets"

"How did the culprit get a gun like yours?" Romi inquired. Hasegawa grinned, knowing the answer to that.

"It must have come from the armory in the Fourth Floor. I don't know if I'm right but I'm sure there was a Twin Beretta M6 up there"

"So the culprit at some point took that gun?"

"That seems like the logical conclusion here" Koshimizu nodded "No, I didn't take it"

"How are we going to guess which one shot Veritas? It can have happened at any time" Hasegawa said.

"I was in the basement. Hikari-kun can confirm it"

"You can have killed Veritas and left him in the Cafeteria before returning to the Basement" Romi argued "That doesn't make you innocent"

"Guys, guys, you're overthinking this" Mitsuhiko said with a notable dose of condescension. Everyone was getting into a wrong path, and the hunter was the only one who could see it. In a way he couldn't blame them. The clues pointing at the real culprit were subtle if they didn't know what to look for. Mitsuhiko himself had gotten to the truth due to a piece of evidence only he had.

There had been enough padding already. Surely the culprit had gotten complacent, feeling nobody would catch them. And now that Mitsuhiko had proven there was no way he could be the culprit, everyone would trust what he was going to say.

"What? You know who the culprit is?" Kobayashi asked with a dose of admiration. Of course Mitsuhiko did, he had solved four cases already.

"Yes. The amount of proof pointing at them is minimal, though, so you may have to trust me on this, okay?"

"It'll be easier to trust you if you at least show us some of that evidence" Koshimizu said. That seemed smart enough.

"Right, I can do that. Okay, the big evidence I have that shows who the culprit is can be found on the corpse: I'm talking about the large gash on the body, the one that was left when the culprit had to extract a bullet to put on the shoulder"

"You had said the culprit left that ugly wound because they had no more choice" Romi remembered "You know what was used for that?"

"Listen, to know what made that wound, first we need to think something: what that gash was made for. If it was made to extract the bullet and put it on the shoulder wound, it tells us something very important about that area of Veritas' body, something that will prove to be vital proof against the culprit..."

The shoulder wound was made around that time

Veritas was shot after the gash was made

Veritas was alive when the gash was made

Veritas wasn't in the Cafeteria when the gash was made

The shoulder wound was made around that time

"...it proves the shoulder wound must have been done around the same time the bullet was extracted"

"Why do you think that?" Kobayashi inquired.

"There's a reason why the culprit put in a bullet in the shoulder: because I shot Mimori-san there. If the culprit had left the body like that, then I would have immediately known there was something wrong going on. I wouldn't have thought for a moment I had killed him"

"Wait, wait a second here! What about the shoulder wound proves who the culprit is?"

"It's not just one thing, it's actually two. The first element that proves who the culprit is..."

The bullet inside the wound

The location of the wound

The goriness of the wound

The shape of the wound

The shape of the wound

"...is the shape of the wound. Keep in mind the culprit had to make something that could pass for a bullet wound. It had to be of a certain shape, or else nobody would believe Veritas had been shot there"

"That is true. Now that I think about it, the wound had something strange" Koshimizu closed his eyes "There were these two smaller round wounds nearby, shallow and aligned with the bullet wound"

"And that is exactly one of the biggest mistakes the culprit made. I'll tell you this: the culprit had to use the same tool they used to extract it. That tool is what made those strange wounds on Veritas' shoulder"

"And what tool was that?" Kobayashi asked, intrigued to hear the end of this line of reasoning.

"I'll go into that for a moment. First, there's something else that wound tells us. Think about this:"

Why it was made

When it was made

How it was made

Where it was made

When it was made

"Think when the shoulder wound was made. As I said, the culprit had to do it to imitate Mimori-san's state. You know what that means?"

"It means the culprit had to do it shortly after Mimori-san was shot! The culprit was in the Cafeteria while Mimori-san was being shot"

"The culprit had to move real fast, too. Hikari-kun didn't take that long to get to the Cafeteria. What bothers me is that I don't know how the culprit ran away from the Cafeteria so soon" Hasegawa pointed.

"Right. I'll tell you through where the culprit ran away"

To the hallway

To the ventilation shaft

To the Kitchen

To the window

To the Kitchen

"I'm fairly sure the culprit had to escape through the kitchen. It can't have been through the hallway, for obvious reasons. The ventilation shaft is too high, and the window, well, it can't have been that. It's just that the Kitchen was the easiest escape route the culprit had"

"But there's no way out through the Kitchen" Romi said.

"That is right. The culprit stayed in the Kitchen until the body was found, and once that happened, the culprit took advantage of the confusion and sneaked out to the Hallway. None of us saw them because we were too focused on the body. Once the culprit got to the hallway, they got our attention, that is how it happened"

"...attracted our attention? Wait, none of us really did that. What did the culprit do?"

"One last thing: in the hallway there were only footprints from shoes. The culprit can't have come from the Hallway at that time, as the culprit has a very distinctive something about their feet. I would have seen their prints on the hallway, but they weren't there. Think of all that"

The confusion was understandable, but to Mitsuhiko it was clear. All they had to do was think of a few things: who would be able to sneak around the Cafeteria, whose feet would leave distinctive prints, who couldn't have been in the Cafeteria while Mimori was being shot, and what tool the culprit used. If one considered all those things, more and more commanders were eliminated.

And once everyone who couldn't have done it was eliminated, there was only one person who fit all that.

"The one who was in the Cafeteria and mangled Veritas' shoulder was..."

Mitsuhiko Hikari

Shizuka Hasegawa

Mamoru Takayama

Akira Hosoya

Kimiko Sugita

Harumi Kayano

Tetsurou Koshimizu

Chiyo Yasumoto

Sumida Kishio

Kouhei Kobayashi

Daisuke Mitsuishi

Kumakichi Fukuyama

Hiyoko Romi

Kyrie Mimori

Yurie Oyama

Tohya Sasuga

Lilith

Monobear

Monobear

"...it was Monobear. That gash and that wound were made with something we all have seen several times already: Monobear's claws. That also explains why the gash happened, it was impossible for the bear to extract the bullet any other way.

And we all know what that means, right?" Mitsuhiko turned his head around to glare at the bear. Monobear didn't say anything, evaluating what Mitsuhiko was saying "The masterminds are the culprits here.

Veritas was killed by the masterminds and Mimori-san was their accomplice in framing me"