Deadly Life

As we saw Mihama's dead body laying on the desk, the three of us stood there, frozen. We'd known that in all likelihood, someone would have to die for us to leave this island, but we thought we'd have time to explore the office complex. If nothing else, the prospect of Tachibana and Himemiya's sacrifice meant that this wouldn't end with a murder. Despite that, we'd been too naïve, even in a situation like this, and now the worst possible outcome had come to pass.

"Oh no... Mihama-san!" Chiyuri said. "She's not dead, is she?"

Moments later, the answer came- a ping from our student handbook informing us of the body discovery. A second later, we heard a voice from the ceiling.

"Is that you, Chiyuri-chan?" Sayuri said. "Are Akira-chan and Kotaro-kun with you?"

Chiyuri looked around for a minute, as did Kumakura and I. We were all confused as to why we were hearing the voices of someone who was supposed to be on the second floor, along with the dead body of her group leader... until we saw a hole in the ceiling, directly above Mihama's body, which answered both our questions. The hole was at least one and a half meters wide, and I could see Sayuri peering through.

"We're here, Sasaki-san," Chiyuri said. "What about your group? How did you get separated?"

"Himemiya-san's with me," Sayuri said. "Miharu-chan went on ahead to check the office for traps, and..."

Sayuri choked back a sob. While she was one of the top two suspects for Mihama's murder, a part of me didn't want to believe that she could do it. It would've been virtually impossible for Sayuri to kill Mihama without Himeno catching her in the act or at least realizing that she'd done it, and it seemed most reasonable to assume that Mihama had simply gotten caught in a trap and died. Of course, while that would be the simplest explanation for her death, it wasn't necessarily the right one.

"Should I go get the others?" Himeno said, her voice coming from the second floor. "They probably won't realize something's wrong until they meet up and we aren't there."

In this moment, I thought of another use for our cell phones, apart from calling for help. If we had service on this island, Chiyuri, Kumakura and I could each text or call one of the other groups, and they'd know about Mihama's death instantly.

Suddenly, Monokuma appeared, jumping on the desk and standing near Mihama's corpse.

"Well, looky here," Monokuma said, speaking a bit more loudly than usual so that Himeno and Sayuri could hear him through the hole in their floor and our ceiling. "I thought we'd have to wait for Himemiya-san to string up Taiga-san, but it looks like someone jumped the gun and got this party started!"

"So Mihama's death was a murder, not an accident or suicide?" I said.

"Not telling," Monokuma said. "It's up to you to find out the truth... assuming you can handle it, of course."

"I think we can," I said. "It may be difficult to accept that one of our number betrayed the group and will have to die for that betrayal, but if finding the truth enables the rest of us to survive, then I can live with that."

"That's the spirit, Azuki-san," Monokuma said. "Check your notebooks for the Monokuma File, and get cracking. I'll bring the Ursa Major around to the north beach, so you won't have to walk all the way to the south end of the island."

That was a bit of a relief, since it meant I wouldn't have to hike through the woods between the prison and the south beach again.

"What about everyone else?" Chiyuri said.

"Oh, don't worry," Monokuma said. "I'm telling them as we speak now, so you won't have to waste time getting everyone back together."

I couldn't help but wonder what Monokuma meant, and how he could be in multiple places at once. That being said, I had more pressing questions to answer, namely who killed Mihama and how, so I checked my handbook and accessed the Monokuma File.

Monokuma File 3

The victim is Miharu Mihama, the Ultimate Legal Expert

The approximate time of death is 11 AM.

A dart pierced the victim's eye, and she has multiple bruises on her back.

At the time of her death, the victim had a healthy body temperature and hydration level, and was not suffering from any diseases or allergic reactions. While she had eaten a few hours prior to her death, no drugs or chemicals were detected in her body.

So the cause of Mihama's death wasn't natural at all. The good news was that someone had satisfied Monokuma's motive, and if we got through the class trial, most of us would get to leave the island. The bad news was that to do so, we'd need to convict and sacrifice the killer... or if it was an accident, someone who wasn't at fault. In the latter case, even if we went the obvious route and chose Tatsuki, then even that would feel like an injustice; even if she believed she didn't deserve to live, she didn't want to die.

I then checked my watch while I had the chance. Since it was only a few minutes past 11, Mihama had died just before we set foot in the room.

"I'd also like to announce another one-time rule," Monokuma said. "Since this island's fairly dangerous, the trial is only for Mihama-san's death. If someone else gets killed during the investigation period, the killer won't be eligible to graduate, but they won't be executed if they're caught."

A chill went down my spine. If anyone hated someone badly enough to kill them and didn't care about graduation, they'd act now. Now that Tatsuki wasn't going to be hanged, and probably wasn't the one who'd killed Mihama, she would most likely survive the trial, and the people who couldn't forgive her knew it.

"That's all for now," Monokuma said. "I'm willing to answer any questions that you have about the murder or this island, as long as they're not about the blackened's identity."

"Yeah, I've got a question," I said. "There wasn't really something that would let us get off the island without murdering someone, was there?"

Monokuma let off a "Puhuhuhu!" laugh, making me wonder if my question was that stupid.

"I can't believe you would ask that, Azuki-san," Monokuma said. "After all, you and Nagato-san, as well as the late Mihama-san, found that thing on the day you arrived on this island."

After hearing the specific combination of people who'd found it, I knew that only one thing could qualify. So did Chiyuri, who'd been with me when we discovered it.

"You mean the gallows," Chiyuri said.

"Bingo," Monokuma said. "If you'd let Himemiya-san hang Taiga-san, then executed Himemiya-san, the rest of you would have been able to leave, and no one would have had to murder anyone."

"If you say so," I said, "but essentially, at least two people would have had to die here."

"That's right," Monokuma said, "but I have to admit; I wasn't expecting Mihama-san to be one of those two people. The investigation and trial will determine who joins her, so get cracking- your lives depend on it. Later!."

Monokuma jumped behind the desk and disappeared.

"So, it's started," Himeno said. "Once again, we'll have to find out who the killer is if we want to survive."

"It seems so," I said. "Don't go too far; I'd like to talk with you and Sayuri at some point."

"All right," Himeno said. "We're counting on you to investigate the crime scene."

I nodded, then turned to the other two in my group. While it was possible that no one would even make it over here, considering the dangers, we couldn't be too safe. Unfortunately, one of our two crime scene guards was now dead.

"Ordinarily, I would ask Mihama-san to guard the crime scene with me," Kumakura said, "but now that she's dead, I'm not sure I should do by myself."

"It's fine, Kumakura-san," Chiyuri said, "since Akira-san and I can vouch for the fact that you're not her killer. If it would make you feel better, though, I can do it with you."

"Thank you, Nagato-san," Kumakura said. "Mihama-san and I didn't talk all that much, but we came to trust each other. I'm counting on you, too."

"Me too," I said. "While you two are holding down the fort, I'll investigate."

I looked around. Considering the condition of the room, and the fact that I hadn't been in it before, it was hard to tell how things had been before Mihama' body dropped down. That being said, since there wasn't any rubble below Mihama's body, the hole in the ceiling had probably been there all along.

I quickly scanned the area. The window was intact and relatively clean, although it also seemed to be stuck, meaning that the only way to get it open was to break it. The walls were lined with bookshelves, but there were no holes for dart shooters anywhere, much less anywhere that could have hit Mihama.

"Do you two see any dart shooters in this office?" I said.

"Not at all, Akira-san," Chiyuri said. "They're usually somewhat noticeable, so it's a bit of a surprise that I don't see any in this office."

"Me neither," I said. "Mihama probably got killed by one of the dart launchers, or at least a dart, but if that's the case, it didn't happen up here. It was probably upstairs, in the room Sayuri's group was investigating."

"Probably," Kumakura said, "but what if one of those two killed her? Or maybe a third party, presumably from the third floor's group?"

Chiyuri shook her head.

"I doubt they did, Kumakura-san," Chiyuri said. "There are more than a few problems with that, particularly that it's unlikely that a killer would stay around long enough to get caught."

"Yeah, that's true," I said, "and they would've been spotted by our group, or Sayuri and Himeno. Unless..."

As I tried to find a way to finish that half-formed thought, I checked the floor for pressure plates, and I couldn't find any, either. What I did find, however, was a hole behind the desk, one large enough for a person to fit through.

"You know, I think I've found a possible escape route for the killer," I said. "They could drop down that hole and escape to the basement, then possibly circle back around and rejoin their group, with their teammates none the wiser."

"That's possible," Chiyuri said, "but what's at the bottom of the hole?"

"Good question, Chiyuri," I said. "Looks like I'll have to find out."

Having investigated all I wanted to, I then headed out of the office, being careful not to step on the pressure plate on my way out.

It took me a while to find my way around the building, since apart from the route my group had taken to reach the office with Mihama's body, the rest of the building was unfamiliar territory. The fact that I had to keep an eye out for pressure plates didn't help; even in places where running in the halls was forbidden, you moved a lot faster when you didn't have to worry about what you were stepping on.

Eventually, I reached the basement, which was a series of twisting corridors full of storage rooms and offices. As I followed the floor plan, I ran into Higurashi near a map of the floor. Karita was nearby, peering inside a door that was partially open.

"Oh, hello, Azuki-san," Higurashi said.

"Hey, Higurashi," I said. "I guess you heard about the murder, right?"

"I do," Higurashi said. "We got a notification on our handbooks, and Monokuma showed up to personally inform us within a minute of the body discovery announcement. Since we were all together at the time, he was able to tell us everything we needed to know- about the murder, the new rule, and where we'll meet up with the ship."

"Wow, that's fast," I said, "but something's strange. Since Monokuma spoke to my group and the other members of Mihama's group, would have to literally be in two or three places at the same time."

As Higurashi shrugged, I jotted down this information. It would probably come in handy later, assuming we lived long enough to find a use for it.

"That's probably true," Higurashi said. "Anyway, since no one in my team left the basement since our investigation began, all of us have an alibi for the time of the crime."

"Got it," I said. "Did you see anyone besides Kirishima and Karita in the basement?"

"No," Higurashi said, a bit confused. "How would they even get inside?"

"They could have jumped down," I said, "and gotten in through this hole in the floor of the crime scene."

I pointed out the room I was talking about. Karita, who'd been listening to our conversation, walked over to get a closer look, then shook his head.

"That isn't possible, Azuki-san," Karita said. "Want to see why?"

"Yeah," I said. "Show me the reason and I'll see if I can't find a way a suspect could have managed a workaround."

Karita walked over to the door, which opened inwards and had a small window in it, and tried to open it further. The door slammed against a hard obstacle midway through, and was only open a crack, barely large enough for me to stick my arm through. Peering inside, I could see rubble strewn across the room. Through the window, I could see the hole in the ceiling, confirming that it was, in fact, the same room. While the visibility was so-so at best, there was one very important thing that I couldn't see- any sign that anyone else had been there or was still inside.

"As you can see, it isn't possible to open the door wide enough to get through," Karita said, "so even if someone jumped down, they couldn't have gotten out of here."

I sighed. Karita had won our impromptu bet of sorts, but the jury was out on whether that was a good thing.

"Well, that simplifies matters," I said, "or maybe it complicates them. I'd assumed that the killer got away by jumping down the hole and into the basement, but if you didn't see them, that couldn't have happened."

"What about the office windows?" Karita said.

"They weren't opened or broken open," I said, "and they overlook the cliff, so it wouldn't be safe to jump down without a rope. I'm going to head back upstairs and find out what I can."

I said goodbye to the others, wondering why I'd ever thought this was a good idea. I'd scratched off one theory about how the culprit had gotten away, but I'd have to stop eliminating theories I knew to be wrong and start confirming what I knew to be right, or I'd never solve the mystery.

As I started to leave the basement, Kirishima, who'd waited nearby during my conversation with Higurashi and Karita, approached me.

"Do you have a minute, Azuki-kun?" I said. "There is something I would like to show you."

"I do, if you make it quick," I said. "Time's a precious commodity in an investigation."

"Then I will be brief," Kirishima said. "While our luck was not as dismal as Mihama-kun's, we found nothing that would help us get off the island in the basement. Despite that, we did find something intriguing. It is right this way, but please be mindful of the trap."

Kirishima showed me to a room off to the side, and tested the pressure plate to show me. I heard the dart shooter nearby give off a clicking sound, like when someone tries to fire an unloaded gun. Maybe these traps could run out of ammo, too.

Kirishima opened a door and showed me a large room. In it, there were about two dozen vaguely cylindrical pods that were each large enough to house a person, even someone as tall as Kumakura. The pods were busted up pretty badly, so they probably wouldn't work even if the office complex had power.

"What the hell is this?" I said.

"Apparently, a major research project," Kirishima said, "codenamed Project Phoenix. According to the documents I found, the prisoners were meant to be used in this experiment, although it does not say what it was for."

"So this isn't relevant to our investigation," I said.

"Perhaps not," Kirishima said, "but it will most likely be important later, and considering that we will leave this island if we find Mihama-kun's killer, then this is our only chance to retrieve this information."

I sighed, then jotted down the basics in my notes, and making a note to ask Kirishima later. Since he probably wasn't the killer, I could talk to him after the trial once we caught whoever was responsible for this.

"Got it," I said. "Anything else?"

"There certainly is," Kirishima said. "I found a document inside with a list of serial numbers connected to seventeen names- the students in our class and Nagato-sensei."

"Why the hell would they know our names?" I said. "And what's the list for?"

"Unfortunately, I do not know," Kirishima said, "since while this was one of several pages, it was not the first one. All the other pages were illegible, so the rest of the document has likely been lost forever."

"Well, that sucks," I said, "but we'll puzzle over it some other time. I've got bigger fish to fry right now."

I said goodbye to Karita and quickly headed upstairs.

Since the investigation of the basement didn't pan out, I decided to check out the second floor. The central stairway connected the four stories, so it wouldn't be that hard tog get from one floor to the other. Luckily, the stairs didn't seem to have any booby traps on them.

Once there, I found Sayuri, still in the office above the room where we found Mihama's body. The hole in the floor in the middle of the office was recognizable, even from the other side.

"Oh, hello, Akira-chan," Sayuri said. "Watch out; there's a trigger over there, and the dart trap is over there."

Sayuri pointed at the floor between the hole and the wall to the left of the entrance, then the wall itself. There was a short distance between the trigger and the dart shooter, probably half a meter, so if I triggered the trap, I wouldn't be able to dodge the dart, at least not without accidentally falling into the hole.

"Got it," I said. "Any other traps?"

Sayuri shook her head.

"Good," I said. "Anyway, how are you feeling?"

"Awful," Sayuri said. "A part of me hoped that Tatsuki-chan and Himemiya-san wouldn't have to die, but I certainly didn't want Miharu-chan to die, either, to say nothing of whoever killed her... which might be Himemiya-san."

"Do you think Himeno did it?" I said.

"I don't know," Sayuri said, "so it could be any one of us, including her. A part of me actually felt relieved that she wouldn't have to die, but then I realized that might happen anyway."

I could sense a bit of disgust in Sayuri's voice, clearly hating herself for wanting someone to die in her friend's place. I personally couldn't judge her for feeling that way, especially not when I was in a field as competitive as acting. My mom always celebrated whenever I got a part, even knowing that many other people's daughters walked away empty-handed, so I'd long accepted that it was only natural to care more about yourself, your friends and your loved ones than it was to care about random strangers. Maybe that was why I didn't judge Tatsuki as harshly as some of our classmates did.

"I know this is difficult," I said, "but I'd like a full account of what you, Himeno and Mihama did when you got onto the floor."

Sayuri nodded.

"All right," Sayuri said. The three of us were together the entire time, but while exploring, I accidentally stepped on a pressure plate, barely dodging a dart trap. Noticing the danger, Miharu-chan decided to scout ahead for traps, having us wait around the corner until she called out to give the all-clear and let us in to investigate. We proceeded room by room, until we reached the office above where you found her body to scout it out so we could investigate. As she did so, Himemiya-san and I stood perfectly still, While inside, the trap must have triggered, killing her. I then convinced Himemiya-san to investigate the room, and then saw Miharu-chan's body."

I wrote down Sayuri's testimony in my notes.

"Got it," I said. "That pretty much covers between when we split up and you saw us through the hole?"

"It does," Sayuri said. "I went around the hole to get a better look, which is when I saw her dead body, as well as you."

Sayuri gestured at the hole, then at the far end of the room. If the office were like the one below it, there should have been a desk where the hole was, but either they moved the desk out, or it fell below.

"So my group found the body first, right?" I said.

"I think so," Sayuri said, "since the body discovery announcement played a few seconds after I looked down. I heard Chiyuri-chan's voice almost immediately after I did, although I don't think she noticed me until I called out to her."

"I see," I said. "I'm going to go talk to Himeno to see what she knows."

"Please do," Sayuri said. "I think she's looking around the second floor."

I headed out of the office, in search of Himeno.

I then decided to talk to Himeno, who was in the corridors of the second floor, peering into the rooms on the hallway. Said rooms were smaller offices, which my group had looked into on the way to the one where we'd found Mihama's body. If the second floor group's luck was anything like ours, they probably hadn't found anything in those offices, either.

"Hi, Himeno," I said. "What are you looking for?"

"A possible escape route for the culprit," Himeno said. "Unfortunately, the only way into the office Mihama-san was investigating at the time of her death would have led past the spot where Sasaki-san and I were waiting, while the hole into the floor would have led to your group."

"Yeah," I said. "There's another hole in the floor of the office where I found Mihama's office, but if the killer dropped through there, they probably would've ran into Higurashi's group... if they could get out of the room that the room below the office where Mihama's body fell."

"Then that eliminates another possibility," Himeno said. "A few rooms on this floor are similarly inaccessible, so it seems unlikely that they could be used as escape routes."

The more we explored, the more unlikely the killer escaping through a hole in the floor seemed. Falling a story onto a hard service might not necessarily be fatal, but anyone who tried it wouldn't walk away unscathed.

"By the way, I have some questions for you," I said. "I'd like a full account of what you, Sayuri and Mihama did when you got onto the floor."

"Very well," Himeno said. "I was investigating the floor with Mihama-san and Sasaki-san when the latter accidentally triggered a dart trap. After she did, Mihama-san offered to scout ahead for possible dangers. She entered each room to search for traps, with us waiting around the corner and out of danger. After she confirmed each room was safe, the two of us went in and investigated in more detail. Unfortunately, when we reached the office, a trap seemed to have killed her. At Sasaki-san's insistence, we investigated the office, whereupon Sasaki-san found Mihama-san's body."

I wrote down Himeno's testimony in my notebook, on the opposite side of the page with Sayuri's testimony. Before I finished, I noticed that Himeno was staring at me intently.

"I would like to know something, though," Himeno said. "How suspicious am I?"

I sighed. It wasn't pleasant to be asked this question, or to answer honestly, but considering what was at stake, and Himeno realized she was a suspect, I had to tell the truth.

"Very," I said, "since you and Sayuri were on the same floor as Mihama when the latter died, and the only ones in a position to kill her. After all, you were willing to be the one to execute Tatsuki to save us, so maybe you're willing to kill someone and die to get us off of here."

"Yes, that is true," Himeno said, "but while I hoped that Tatsuki-san would not have to give her own life to save us, she, at the very least, would have chosen to do so, as would I. Saying that we were 'willing' would be going a bit far, but at least we had a choice."

I nodded. Just as the killers so far (or attempted killer, in Kojima's case) had made their choices, so too had Tatsuki and Himeno.

"True," I said. "For what it's worth, while you're a likely suspect, I can't prove that you did it. All I can think about at the moment is a possibility- that you put one of the darts on the tip of an arrow, then fired that arrow at Mihama's eye."

"It's not a bad theory given my talent," Himeno said, "but there are more than a few holes in it. First, as Sasaki-san can also attest to, neither of us had a clear line of sight to Mihama-san at the time of her death; while arrows don't fly in a perfectly straight line, they can't go around corners. Second, I would need some sort of adhesive to bind the dart arrowhead to my arrow. Third... if Mihama-san's body fell to the floor, where do you suppose the arrow went?"

I paused a moment, before realizing that Himeno actually hoped I'd answer.

"I don't know," I said. "I guess it might break off from the dart, but we'd most likely find it in the office."

"Exactly," Himeno said. "Since Sasaki-san went into the office besides me, she would have found it first, assuming it had landed on the second floor and not the first. Fourth, I have not used any of my arrows since we set foot on the island; check my quiver if you aren't convinced. Fifth, if I were aiming at Mihama-san with the intent to kill, I would most likely target her torso or her neck, not her eye, even if I was confident I could hit the latter."

"Because she'd see you?" I said.

"That, too," Himeno said. "The main reason that it would be more practical to strike a larger target, even if I have the element of surprise. Of course, I can only speculate, since I've only ever shot arrows at targets, not people."

While Himeno was a high school-level archery champion, I didn't know how well she'd fare as an archer for a medieval army. She could expertly aim her arrows at targets while taking factors such as the wind into account, but she'd have a hell of a lot more trouble doing so against a moving target on the chaos of the battlefield, knowing that if she didn't kill the enemy, they'd kill her.

"And the last and most important reason," Himeno said, "is that Sasaki-san and I were watching each other the whole time. She would not have sit back and watched me kill her friend and roommate."

"Gotcha," I said. "Your story seems to check out, so I'll have to investigate elsewhere."

While asserting that Sayuri wasn't the type to kill Mihama didn't hold a lot of weight in this killing game, there didn't seem to be any possible way for Himeno or Sayuri to be the killer, unless they were both lying about it. But if neither of them did it, who could have?

I went up to the third floor and decided to question the group that was up there. Tatsuki, Kurogane and Himeno were together, at the top of the stairs.

"Hey, you three," I said. "I'd like to hear where you were at the time of the crime."

"You first," Asakura said. "You, Nagato and Kumakura were the first to discover the body, so I'd say that makes you three the most suspicious."

"But they discovered the body, didn't they?" Tatsuki said. "If the three of them triggered the announcement, then none of them are the culprit."

"If you believe that Monokuma can be trusted, I've got a bridge to sell you," Asakura said. "There's no saying he won't change the rules when it fits- it's the only reason you're still alive, after all."

I sighed and shook my head, wondering why the hell Higurashi thought it was a good idea to put Asakura in the same group as Tatsuki. Of course, since Asakura's shit list was pretty long- at minimum, Chiyuri, Karita, Tatsuki, and I- it was pretty hard to assemble a group without someone who hated his guts.

"If you want my alibi, you can ask Kumakura," I said. "Or Chiyuri, of course, if you can actually be nice to her for a change. Either way, if I'd killed Mihama, either one of my teammates would have seen me."

"Sure," Asakura said, "and what if they're covering for you? You and Nagato seem pretty buddy-buddy, so maybe one of you's lying to protect the other."

"If Azuki-san gets away with murder, both Nagato-san and her mother will die," Tatsuki said. "As for Kumakura-kun, he isn't close enough to Azuki-san to die for her. If they know Azuki-san is the blackened, they'll tell us at the trial"

I smiled at Tatsuki, then shot a dirty look at Asakura.

"I don't have all day to deal with your bullshit, Asakura," I said, "or even all morning. Tatsuki, Kurogane, I'd like to hear your alibis."

"All right, Azuki-san," Kurogane said. "The three of us were together the entire time. I didn't let either Asakura-kun or Tachibana-san out of my sight."

Tatsuki nodded and said "That's right," while Asakura scoffed.

"That's what I wanted to hear," I said, "but you're sure about that?"

"Absolutely," Kurogane said. "I was afraid that if I got separated from the others, Asakura-kun would kill Tachibana-san. There's also the traps, like with what happened to Mihama-san..."

While this seemed more or less airtight, I decided to make absolutely sure that the three of them couldn't have made it downstairs.

"I'd like to know something," I said. "Are there any holes in the floor connecting this floor to the one below it?"

"None more than a meter wide," Tatsuki said, "so it's impossible to climb up or jump down through them. We found an elevator on this floor, but it can't be used, and there isn't anything like a maintenance ladder available. That leaves the stairs as the only way to go between floors."

I jotted down those facts in my notebook. If this was anything like an ordinary investigation, I'd have taken the time to scout out the building in advance, like I'd done with the inn on the first island and the house on the second, but I didn't have that luxury this time. All of us were exploring the building for the first time, so I'd have to rely on those whose job it was to explore this floor.

"So in other words, none of you guys could get to or from the second level without going downstairs," I said, "and if you had, Mihama's teammates would probably have noticed you."

"That's right," Kurogane said. "Believe me, the three of us were really surprised, and not in a good way, to hear Monokuma say that a murder had occurred downstairs."

While it was probably not a shocking as being the one to actually find the body, I had to admit that I'd freak out if I got an announcement of a murder being committed on my student handbook.

"Speaking of murders," I said, "I'm relieved that Asakura didn't kill Tatsuki during the investigation."

"You're welcome," Asakura said, "but there's no point. Because Mihama died, Monokuma got what he wanted. The only question is who's going to have to die for killing her."

Ordinarily, that would include the blackened, or in the worst case scenario, everyone else, but there were two new possibilities. The first was that someone else would have to be sacrificed if Mihama had caused her own death, with Tatsuki being the most obvious volunteer, and the second was that Monokuma might "accidentally" kill someone in the culprit's place. None of these were at all pleasant, but if I got too distracted by the possibilities, we'd most likely end up with the worst possible one.

I said goodbye to those three. Having ruled out most possible ways out, as well as everyone besides the people on the second floor, there was one more thing I wanted to check out, even if it was a bit of a long shot. Perhaps by doing so, I'd be able to determine once and for all whether her death was an accident or a murder.

I headed back to the office above the crime scene, and found that Sayuri had departed. I looked at the pressure plate, as well as the dart trap nearby, which was probably between a meter and a meter and a half off the ground. One way or another, the dart that killed Mihama had most likely come out of the slot on that wall, whether it had shot Mihama in the eye, or someone had thrown it. Now that no one else was around, the time had come for a little experiment to settle that.

"Time's up!" one of the drones outside the window announced. "All of you, please meet up at the north beach and report to the ship for the trial!"

Moments after the announcement, I saw a dart fired out of the shooter in the wall. The dart flew toward the bookshelf on the opposite wall, and lodged itself in one of the books. I nearly pissed myself, since while I'd wanted to test the trap, I was damn sure that I hadn't pushed the pressure plate.

Wondering if the trap was faulty, about a minute later, I pressed down on the plate... and nothing happened. The trap didn't go off or even make a sound. I'd pushed hard as possible, and these things were sensitive, so it should have triggered the trap. I tried it again for good measure, but it did jack squat- no dart, no sound, nothing.

I then took the dart out of where it had lodged itself in a book, and tossed it at the office chair, causing it to sink into the padded backrest. In other words, the darts were still sharp, but since there only seemed to be one dart hole in the office, I couldn't see how any possible blackened could have gotten a dart without launching a dart into a relatively soft wall, before retrieving it to use on the victim.

That seemed to get me a bit closer to the truth. If the pressure plate didn't trigger the trap, then either Mihama just happened to be in the line of fire when it randomly went off... or someone had murdered her and made it look as though the trap had killed her. I'd need to determine how she had died, and once I did, the answer would lead me to whoever was responsible.

It took a while for everyone to get back to the ship. Even though I'd stayed behind for a couple minutes due to my experiment, I wasn't even the last one; Chiyuri was right behind me, as was the group from the third floor. Luckily for us, though, Monokuma was patient. The gangplank was down when I got here, and I quickly walked up it toward the elevator. Before long, I was joined by the rest of my classmates, and the eleven of us waited for the elevator, knowing that at least one of us wouldn't be riding it back up.

While the killer obviously was the one responsible for us ending up in a class trial, whose fault was it if we couldn't find the blackened? I didn't think any of us was clever enough to commit an unsolvable murder, so the responsibility would lie with all the spotless, since in that case, the outcome could have been prevented if any of us had done more. Because of that, I was willing to do whatever it took to find the culprit, no matter the cost.

I turned to Chiyuri, who was fidgeting nervously, and was still carrying the shopping bag with the extra suit for Nagato-sensei. She hadn't gotten to visit her mother since we'd left for the island, and if we didn't solve Mihama's murder, the Nagatos would never see each other again.

"I see you still have your bag with you," I said.

"That's right," Chiyuri said. "If I get through the trial, I can deliver the bag to Mom. If not... it won't matter."

An awkward silence followed. Since I knew Chiyuri was innocent, the only scenario that would result in her death was if the person responsible for killing Mihama got away with it. Of course, even if we found and convicted that person, which was by no means guaranteed, it wouldn't be a happy occasion.

"So, Chiyuri," I said, "are you scared?"

"Yes, I am," Chiyuri said. "We're already up to the third class trial, but I don't think I'll ever get used to this."

"Neither will I," I said. "In fact, I'm scared, too."

"Really?" Chiyuri said. "You don't seem to be afraid at all."

"Appearances can be deceiving," I said. "Being brave doesn't mean not feeling fear- it's being strong enough to overcome it. Anyone who values their life would be more than a little nervous going into a trial that could end with all of us being executed, but that will happen if we don't keep our heads on straight."

Chiyuri only ended up looking more frighted, which only further proved that pep talks were more Higurashi's thing (and even he had mixed success). By now, I'd learned to manage my stage fright, but helping other people with problems like that wasn't my thing. All I could do was be honest and hope for the best.

"That being said," I said, "that outcome is by no means predetermined or inevitable, especially not when we've done this two times before. The killer left behind clues, and all we have to do is follow them to find whoever's responsible."

"You're right, Akira-san," Chiyuri said. "I'm counting on you."

I shook my head, a faint smile on her face. As a girl with no special characteristics save for the stigma of being born out of wedlock, so it wasn't surprising that she didn't have too high of an opinion of herself. She probably thought that her existence caused trouble for her mother, but I hoped to show her that she had the power to help people.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," I said, "but I only can do the job because you and the other spotless help me. If all of you do your part, we'll find the truth."

Chiyuri nodded confidently, which helped me feel at ease. Whether acting or in a class trial, I couldn't do my job if my co-stars couldn't do theirs, so having people like Chiyuri around helped me feel at ease.

We then boarded the elevator and rode it down again. It was already a little roomier with eleven people on it, rather than the fifteen who'd gone down the first time, and if we returned to it for the return trip, that number would drop to ten. This outcome was preferable to everyone starving to death on the island, but I sure as hell wasn't happy about it.

Miharu Mihama was the Ultimate Legal Expert. She didn't act very much like a girl her age would but she was one of the most intelligent and mature members of the group, which was saying a lot for an eleven year old. She'd had a promising legal career ahead of her, and had died far too young. She'd deserved better, and should have had a longer live, with her youth as idyllic as mine had been when I was her age.

Perhaps Mihama's death had been an accident, but considering our circumstances, I wouldn't be surprised if someone was willing to kill her to escape this island and the killing game. I couldn't imagine who in their right minds would want to kill a kid like her, but I couldn't let them get away with it. There was no justice in Monokuma's killing game, but there was the promise that the spotless would be executed if they failed to find the murderer, so that's what we'd have to do, no matter the cost.

Author's Notes

One unfortunate trend in the Danganronpa series is that the third trial tends to have less of an impact than the others. The first trial sets the tone for the game, and the second tends to have at least one surprise apart from the culprit's identity, so it can be difficult to follow up on these. Luckily, the fourth trials shake things up, while the fifth trials set the stage for the climax.

Next up is the trial itself. I'm interested in hearing your guesses as to who the culprit is this time. While it seems as though Azuki's a bit farther from the truth than in the previous trials, she has all the information she needs; the only question is whether she understands each piece of evidence's significance well enough to find the culprit.