Chapter III: Egoistic, Easy-going Elegy of Emprise: Class Trial Part 1

Tsumugi stops in her tracks and lets Kaede catch up to her. "Kill?" Her pale hands coil themselves into a tangle of fingers. "That's a bit harsh, isn't it?"

Kaede shakes her head. "Ah, no. Well, I didn't mean kill as in kill, y'know? I meant just— well—" Memories from her previous attempt flood back into her mind.

"It's okay," Tsumugi says quietly. She smiles. "I know exactly what you meant."

Uncomfortable silence falls between them. Chuckling, Kaede rubs the back of her head. "W-well, we better get going, then, huh? We, uh, don't want to be late for the trial and get punished." She walks a littler quicker, and urges Tsumugi to do the same.

(But as Kaede walks ahead, she misses the bitter grin that stretches across the other girl's face.)

Kaede had expected herself and Tsumugi to be the last ones to arrive at the Shrine of Judgement, but much to her surprise, they weren't. Kokichi and Angie are happily chatting away on one bench beside the waterfall. Rantaro leans against the wall, tapping his foot in a steady rhythm. Kaito, Korekiyo, and Himiko all sit silently on separate stone benches. Kaede stares at each of them in turn, echoes of their 'infected' selves roaring in her ears.

"Um, are Maki and Miu coming?" Tsumugi wonders. "It's been nearly five minutes."

Kaito scoffs. "Of course they are. Just believe in them, yeah?" His eyes flit to the Monokuma statue looming over them. "I'm sure they just, y'know, got caught up in something... or something."

No sooner do the words leave his mouth, the red door bursts open. Maki steps into the shrine, dragging Miu by the arm. Monokuma tails the pair with a raised claw.

Miu seems even more jaded now than she had seemed back in the lab, the bags under her normally immaculate eyes protruding like little grey puffs.

"I— I don't w-wanna go," Kaede hears her whimper as the pair pass her by. "If I don't go they c-can't kill me..."

"If you don't go I'll kill ya twice as fast!" Monokuma barks loudly, prodding at the inventor's boot.

Miu screams.

"Now, chop chop, the lot of you, before I really lose my patience!" Angrily slashing at the air, Monokuma disappears around the back of the Shrine. The statue begins to crumble, and the elevator opens out for them once more.

Like a bullet from a gun, Kaito jumps up to help Maki. Together, the pair coax the blonde into the open elevator. Kaede feels a pang of concern for Kaito's health, but as long as the class trial loomed over them, there was nothing she or anyone could do to help him.

Not a single word is uttered once everyone's loaded into the elevator. The doors close. Silence. Save for the electronic humming as the elevator descends further into the earth. Everyone stands apart from each other, giving the others sideways glances, suspicion in their eyes. Kaede's eyes land on Maki, standing in the corner again, arms crossed tight over her chest, and head bowed. Swallowing and shaken by her own lack of direction, Kaede finds herself doing the same.

After what feels like an age, the elevator doors slide open onto the trial room, and Kaede grimly steps into to her stand, and everyone else does the same.

Nerves shooting through her, Kaede steals a glance around the room. The eyes of Kirumi's and Kiibo's portraits glare daggers at her. The feeling only worsens when Rantaro steps into his own stall nearby. Kaede watches him stare into his podium with an expression she can't quite place. Flex his fingers. Study Gonta's portrait looming over them both. Biting her lip, Kaede looks away before their eyes meet. And then the trial begins.

CLASS TRIAL: IN SESSION

After opening the trial as he'd done previously, Monokuma explains. "Oh, right, and just for those absent earlier - This trial is strictly for the murder of Kiibo, the Ultimate Robot! As mysterious as Miss Tojo's situation is, I'm afraid rules are rules, and thus—"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it." Kokichi leisurely tugs at a strand of his hair. "It doesn't matter. And even if it did, It's preeeeety obvious who killed Kirumi anyway."

Kaito slams a fist onto his podium. "Are you seriously gonna do this shit again?"

Kokichi shrugs. "Yeah, I admit, I messed up last time with Ryoma killing Gonta." He clutches his chest. "And I take full responsibility for that!" Then, like a switch, his entire persona lights up. "But this time, I can guarantee I know who did it!"

"Is that so?" Says Korekiyo. "Then please, do enlighten us."

Kokichi quirks an eyebrow at him. "Really, Kiyo? You're gonna act like you don't already know?"

"I beg your pardon?"

Kokichi jabs a finger in the direction of the anthropologist. "You! It was obviously you that killed Kirumi!"

Korekiyo blinks. "I-I see." He closes his eyes and folds his arms. "And may I ask how you came to such a conclusion so quickly?"

"A-ah, well, I don't mean to point fingers," Tsumugi says. "But Kirumi, she was a girl..."

"Exactly!" Kokichi snaps his fingers. "And who did Rantaro and Kaede find on the fourth floor, the same floor her body was discovered on?"

"Oh, Kiyo was there, too!" Angie says.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Kaito snaps. "That's just a coincidence! Tell 'em, Kiyo!"

"Kaito is correct," says Korekiyo. "I was simply going about my morning as usual. I wake earlier than all of you to allow time for me to dress myself and, once I had done so, went to my research laboratory."

"Hmm." Ryoma frowns. "So it was just a coincidence?"

"That's correct."

A guttural laugh resounds. Eyes narrowed, Kokichi leers over his podium. "Geez, Kiyo, for a serial killer, you aren't putting up much of a fight, are you? Tell me, tell me, how on earth did you get away with nintety-seven murders before this if this is the way you act under pressure!?"

"Ninety-eight." Himiko yanks her hat down over her head and mumbles, "After all, it's cuz of him that Tenko..."

"Not just Tenko," Maki says, "Gonta, too."

"And Monosuke!" Monotaro shouts from the peanut gallery.

"I apologise." Korekiyo's grip on his upper arms tightens. "I didn't mean to—"

"Mean to what?" Kokichi sneers. "Kill all those innocent girls? Sure doesn't seem that way to me." He throws his arms behind his head. "Whoops, I tripped and my knife just so happened to go through ninety-seven girls'—"

"Stop it!" Kaito yells, his nails digging into the railing of his stand. "Stop ganging up on him! This isn't gonna get us anywhere!"

"I don't know why you're taking all your anger out on Shinguuji." Ryoma says. "Have you guys just forgotten what I did?"

Miu frantically pulls at her hair, babbling, "I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die..."

➢ Present your Argument

"It's clear as day that the culprit is Kiyo!" Kokichi reiterates. "All of the evidence matches to him."

"What evidence!?" Kaito growls.

"Him being on the fourth floor just before the body was discovered, duh." Kokichi continues. "It's much too coincidental, don'tcha think?"

"He's also killed women before..." Tsumugi says, playing with her fingers. "It wouldn't be out of the ordinary for him to have killed her."

Kokichi nods. "So, while we were all shocked over Kee-boy's death downstairs, Kiyo killed Kirumi, locked the door somehow, and ran all the way back to his lab, where he waited for Kaede and Rantaro to find him.

"That also explains why he ignored the body discovery announcement. He was too busy covering up his own crime scene!"

BREAK

"No," Kaede begins, "that's—"

"I don't think that's entirely correct, Kokichi," Rantaro says.

Kokichi pouts. "What do you mean, 'not correct!?' I thought we were friends, Rantaro!"

"Well, we can chat about that later on, yeah? For now..." Rantaro holds his chin. "I get that it's suspicious that Kiyo was alone on the fourth floor, but you remember what he said outside the door to the Ultimate Artist's Lab? Korekiyo told us back then that he didn't hear the body discovery announcement."

"And?" Kokichi pulls a face. "He could have been lying about that?"

"He wasn't, Kaede chimes in. "Remember when we found Kirumi's body? What happened after we entered the room?"

Angie's hand flies up. "Angie remembers! Kaede ran in first, then Angie, then Kiyo, then Rantaro!"

"Right." Kaede nods. "You were there too, weren't you, Kokichi?"

Kokichi's hands fall to his sides. "I don't know what you're trying to get at, Kaede."

"What she's getting at," Rantaro says, "is that there was no body discovery announcement for Kirumi."

"That's not true," Himiko counters. "There was one. By the Monokub that looks like Kiibo. Me and Ryoma heard it in the dorms."

"I-DID-INDEED-ANNOUNCE-THE-DISCOVERY-OF-A-SECOND-BODY."

"Yeah, I heard it too! I was just..." Tsumugi glances at Kaito apologetically. "...a little too worked up for it to properly register in my brain, I suppose."

"According to the student handbook, the minimum amount of people needed for a body discovery announcement to be triggered is three," Kaede continues. "And there were five of us present at the scene. So everyone who wasn't on floor four when the announcement went off heard it." She shoots Kokichi a look. "That backs up Kiyo's statement that he didn't hear it, doesn't it?"

"But that doesn't mean he's off the hook just yet." Kokichi wags a finger. "All it proves was that he didn't know Kiibo's body had been found. For all we know, he could have killed Kiibo, and then gone to finish off Kirumi!"

Everyone gives Korekiyo looks of uncertainty, but the anthropologist remains unfazed. "But that makes no sense, does it?" Korekiyo says, his words muffled by his mask. "What use would it be for me to kill Kirumi if I'd already killed Kiibo? Only one victim is sufficient to escape the killing game, is it not?"

"Perhaps the killer didn't know Kiibo had already been killed." Ryoma suggests. "Just because two people were killed doesn't automatically mean the incidents are connected in any way."

Angie pulls at her pigtails. "Angie's so confused, you guys! Like, why was Kirumi even in Angie's lab to begin with? That's what Angie doesn't understand."

"Maybe she was bored and wanted to do some painting?" Himiko asks.

"But, that doesn't explain why she was dead, y'know?" says Tsumugi. There's a moment of pause. Gasping, Tsumugi claps a hand over her mouth. "Unless... she killed herself!?"

"Don't be ridiculous, of course she didn't—"

"Now, hold on a damn second!" Monokuma yells over Kaede. He rises from his throne, claw brandished. "What's all this about not hearing the body discovery announcement?" He slashes at the air. "I'll have you know that those monitors are state-of-the-art, and my staff made sure that they were working perfectly before we opened that floor up." He glowers down at the Monokubs. "Right, kids?"

"They were working just fine when we tested 'em, pops," Monokid says, "It ain't our fault, honest!"

"Th-that's right!" Monotaro adds. "They were in tip-top condition, same as all the other floors!"

"Why do you care so much about some stupid monitors." Maki rolls her eyes. "It's not like they even matter. We're wasting time here."

Kaede bites back a snide remark as Maki's sealed lab door flashing back into her mind. "Maki's... Maki's right." She says instead, "Let's forget about the body discovery announcement and move on to—"

"Absolutely not!" Monokuma snaps. "I'm not allowing any of you to move on until you figure out who broke my expensive monitors!" His red eye glowers. "Solve that mystery first, or I'll be forced to punish you all for vandalism."

"What the hell!?" Kaito shouts. "That's ridiculous!"

"Is it though?" asks Kokichi. When all eyes turn back to him., he smiles. "Maybe this is just Monokuma's way of saying that the damaged monitors are a vital clue to Kirumi's murder."

Tsumugi pushes her glasses up her nose. "But why would Monokuma give us a clue?"

"I think Kokichi's right." Rantaro says. "The fact that they ended up proving Kiyo's earlier claim as true means something, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Kokichi practically bounces up and down in his stand. "C'mon! Let's think! This is finally getting exciting!"

➢ Present your Argument

"The monitors on the fourth floor were broken at some point," Ryoma says. "So what?"

"There's gotta be a clue in there somewhere!" Kokichi insists. "Just think a little more, 'kay?"

"My brain hurts too much from thinking today," Himiko grumbles. "Can we just talk about something else?"

Angie pulls out her mallet and waves it around. "Maybe someone went around and smashed all the monitors up!"

"We were up there earlier, were we not?" Korekiyo says, "There was nothing outwardly off about the monitors, nor was there any debris of any sort to suggest they had been tampered with."

"Rule twelve of the student handbook: with minimal restrictions, you are free to explore the campus at your discretion," Monokuma recites. "That does NOT include vandalising the property without good reason!"

"Not only that," Rantaro adds, "but if that were the case, the culprit would have had to individually break the monitors in every room." He covers his mouth with a hand. "And all of the floor four monitors seemed to be out of order at the time that the bodies were discovered."

"Maybe there was something in the air?" Himiko suggests. "That floor is creepy anyway, so maybe a ghost didn't wanna hear those morning announcements anymore, and he—"

"STOP!" Kaito yells, hands flying to cover his ears. "D-don't say anything else..."

BREAK

"Himiko, I think that's it!" Kaede exclaims.

"What!?" The blood drains from Kaito's face.

"No." Kaede sighs. "Not the ghost thing, but what you said about something being in the air."

"Oh." Himiko shrugs. "I wasn't being serious; it was just a suggestion."

"Korekiyo," Kaede continues, "Remember when I met you first? There was an awful smell in the air."

"Ah." Korekiyo brings a hand to his mask. "You're right. There was indeed an odd aroma, wasn't there?"

"What did it smell like?" Tsumugi asks.

Kaede shrugs. "I'm not sure. Like smoke, I guess." She taps her chin. "I think it was almost certainly coming from Angie's lab. Or at least, in that direction."

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Angie huffs. "Angie only used fire one time in her lab, and it was to burn the book that brought Rantaro back to us!"

"Would the smell have been there that long?" Himiko tilts her head.

"Nah, it'd be gone within a few hours." Kaito's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "It's weird though, right? I mean, would smoke from that be even enough to break a bunch of high-tech monitors like that?" He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. "I'm not too good with techy-stuff if it isn't space-related."

Blinking, a thought pushes it's way into Kaede's head. "You might not be," She says, "but there is someone here who's great at that sort of thing..."

SELECT SOMEONE

"...Right, Miu?"

A strangled noise escapes the inventor. Flanked by Shuichi's and Kiibo's portraits, Miu's eyes don't leave their spot on the floor.

"Miu?"

"Ghhhhhh..." Miu's fingers entangle themselves though her hair. "I c-can't do this..."

"Miu..." Kaede's expression softens. "You want to know too, right? The culprit behind Kiibo's death?"

"We're talking about Kirumi here, Kayayday—" Kokichi begins to say before being swiftly shushed by Kaito.

Kaede shoots Kokichi a look. "But Kirumi— she was also such an important member of our class." She places a hand on her chest. "And Kiibo cared for her as well, very much so. Remember when he wore Kirumi's uniform for a few days?"

Miu shuffles and mutters, "Fucking dumbass."

"But it was him trying to prove to us that he was just as human, and just as helpful as someone as Kirumi was." Kaede continues. "And the fact that—" She takes a breath. "The fact that something like this has happened... I won't rest until we've found justice for both of them. I think that's what they'd both want." She meets Miu's eyes. "You agree too, right?"

"Wow, Kaede." Kokichi says. "Who knew you were such a good manipulator? You're almost as good as me!"

"Will you please be quiet for two seconds!?" Kaito growls, slamming his hand down onto his podium.

"S-smoke is notoriously bad for audio equipment." Miu mumbles. "If— if there was a significant amount of smoke, either from someone s-smoking or from an in-house explosion, a heavy film of residue can build up inside the speakers and impair their volume or functionality... And if they're connected to other pieces of equipment in the area, th-those can be affected as well."

"That would make sense!" Monophanie exclaims, "All of the monitors on each floor are connected to one another!"

"From the sounds of things, all the monitors on the fourth floor went down because of something that happened in Angie's lab." Rantaro surmises.

"Oh, so it was part of the murder after all." Monokuma grumbles. "Very well. You're all off the hook— for now."

"But— but Angie wasn't even in her lab!" Angie says. "Her key wouldn't even work in the door. Remember?"

"Which means that it couldn't have been Angie that killed her." Kokichi leans over his podium, eyes sparkling. "So, that means we have a real-life locked-room mystery on our hands, you guys! Isn't that great?"

"Can't you pick locks, though?" Asks Himiko.

"Can't you pick locks too?" Ryoma counters.

"But Himiko has an alibi." Kaede says. "She was with me all night."

"Oh!" Angie presses her hands into her cheeks. "Soooo, it was Kokichi who did it?"

"Are we not getting a little off-topic?" Korekiyo asks. "I thought we were discussing the issue of the broken monitors."

"Well, Miu says it was either due to smoking or an explosion of some sort, right?" Tsumugi muses. "So, it's gotta be the explosion, right?"

"Right." Says Ryoma. He pulls out a candy cigarette from his jacket pocket "As a former smoker, there isn't any way a cigarette would emit enough smoke to break an entire sound system." He tilts his head. "Was there any evidence of an explosion happening when you found the body? Other than the smoke, that is."

Kokichi taps his chin. "Well, there was an ominous dark mark on the wall by the back door, but other than that..."

"No there wasn't," says Kaede. "I didn't see anything like that in Angie's lab."

Kokichi pouts at her. "There was!" He bats his eyelashes. "Would I ever lie to my beloved Kaede?"

Kaede sighs and turns away from him. "Did any of you guys see the mark Kokichi's referring to?"

There's a pregnant pause before Angie's hand slowly rises. "Angie did, too." She says finally. She juts out her bottom lip. "But it was hidden behind her canvases, so she didn't see it until Kokichi showed her!" Her shoulders slump. "Atua's really annoyed that someone messed with our room like that... they ruined the aesthetic."

"I thought the aesthetic of your room was black and white anyway..." Tsumugi mutters.

"So, we can agree that something happened in Angie's room last night which ignited a ton of smoke." Rantaro states. "Whatever it was marked the wall, filled the entire room— and floor with smoke, and broke the monitors at the same time." He hums. "Then the culprit covered the mark with the spare canvases, locked the door, and went on their way?"

"Perhaps that is indeed what occurred." Korekiyo pinches the bridge of his cap "But then, where on earth does Kirumi come into the picture?"

"Let's figure that out now!" Kokichi announces. He leans over his stall, a Cheshire grin dancing on his lips. "How about we start with that sickle—"

"No." Says Maki.

Kaede's head snaps to the caregiver. "Excuse me?"

"I said no." Scowling, Maki's grip on her podium tightens. "Have you all forgotten? Kirumi's case doesn't even matter here. It's Kiibo's killer that we're voting for."

"Well, duh, I know that." Kokichi shrugs. "It's not my fault they got all caught up in Kirumi's case."

"What the hell!? Yes it is!" Kaito's shouts, eyes flashing with irritation. "You're the one that started pointing fingers at Kiyo in the first place!"

Kokichi examines his nails. "I was simply stating my opinion on what I think happened. That's what this class trial is for, no?"

Kaito recoils, clenching his whitened fists.

"We're going to figure out both cases, Kaede states. "I don't care that Kirumi's case isn't counting for the vote. She was our classmate, and our friend, and it's only fair we try our best to give her as much justice as we will Kiibo."

"But that's ridiculous," Maki argues. "What's the point? She's dead. Are you that much of a bleeding heart?"

"If you want to call me a bleeding heart," Kaede says, "then that's fine by me." She straightens Shuichi's cap. "I just want to find justice for everyone, rules or not." Her eyes narrow into slits. "I can't help that I'm not selfish enough to disregard people's deaths – it's just the way I am."

Looking away, Maki crosses her arms and frowns.

"As expected of you, Kaede." Rantaro grins. "Always the one to knock some sense into everyone. "If both cases are, in fact, completely unrelated like Ryoma said, I think investigating Kirumi's death might cast a new light on Monokuma's rule. The one about only Kiibo's death mattering."

"Hey!" Monokuma barks from his throne. "What's that supposed to mean!? You better not be accusing me of anything shady, mister!"

Smiling nonchalantly, Rantaro shrugs. "I don't know what it means, it's just a thought, is all." His smile dissipates into something more serious. "I say we focus on Kiibo's situation first and foremost, and if we get stuck, we can introduce elements of evidence pertaining to Kirumi."

Kaede chews on her lip. Various noises of reluctant agreement are made around the room.

"And Kaede?" Rantaro crosses his arms. "Are you okay with that, too?"

"I..." The room spins, and for a moment, Kaede sees Rantaro's crumpled form lying by a bloodied shotput ball. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "Y-yeah, all fine here."

"...All right." He turns back to the courtroom. "So, what should we start with?"

"Nyeh... what even happened yesterday?" Himiko asks. "I went to sleep the day Atua used His resurrection spell on Rantaro, and when I woke up this, Kiibo and Kirumi were dead." She wrinkles her nose. "It's like... someone put a sleeping curse on me, or something."

Kokichi snorts. "It's not our fault you were sleeping the whole time, Himiko." He shrugs. "Besides, your head's empty half the time anyways."

"Empty head...?" Himiko parrots. "What's the matter with that? It means I can fill it up with all of my dreams..."

"Himiko's not alone, though," Korekiyo interjects. "I'm afraid I don't have a grasp on the case, either."

"We shouldn't go any further if Yumeno and Shinguuji are gonna be confused with what's been going on," says Ryoma. He turns to Kaede. "How about Akamatsu goes through the incident and events, just to ensure we're all on the same page?"

Kaede rubs the back of her neck. "Um... it's difficult to explain, but—" She takes a breath and straightens her back. "Sure. I'll give it a shot.

"It all started when the Monokubs gave us a new motive... the Despair Disease, in which Kiyo, Himiko, and Kaito were all infected with different variants of the same fever."

Pale-faced, Kaito brandishes his fist. "I didn't have that st-stupid fever to begin with!"

"Quiet, Kaito!" Kokichi barks, "We'll never get anywhere if you don't shut up!"

Kaede shoots Kaito a look, then continues. "Korekiyo had the 'Love-Sick Disease', where he exhibited behaviours of what we guessed was his late older-sister—"

"That's..." Korekiyo's voice is softer than ever, but he hardly looks calm – simply stunned. "That doesn't make any sense… that's…" He lowers his head and snakes his arms around his waist. "I-I don't understand..."

Not meeting Korekiyo's eyes, Kaede pulls down the brim of Shuichi's hat. "...And Himiko was diagnosed with 'Chabashira Syndrome' – like the name suggests, she acted just as Tenko used to."

"Ch-Chabashira Syndrome..." Himiko's hands fly up to her mouth. "I think I'm gonna be sick again..."

"P-please wait until the trial is over!" Monophanie shouts. "We don't want to have to pause for a cleaning break!"

"We split into two groups to combat the motive," Kaede continues, "The first group consisted of those that stayed with the infected at the dorms; Korekiyo, Himiko, Kaito, Maki, Rantaro, Kirumi, and me."

Tsumugi folds her hands at her waist. "The other five in the hotel group were... myself, Kokichi, Ryoma, Miu... and Kiibo."

"I was woken by Rantaro this morning," Kaede says, "he explained to me that he'd woken up everyone— literally everyone else in the dorms, was missing. Only myself and Himiko were where we were supposed to be."

"And so, we decided to search the school for the others," Rantaro adds, "just in case there'd been an incident we'd ended up sleepin' through, y'know? So, we went along with our plan of checking all the research labs first, but when I opened the door to the first one in our path, Kirumi's lab..."

Kokichi grins. "You found Kiibo's decapitated corpse instead!"

Kaede nods. "That's right. And it wasn't just Kiibo that was decapitated, either – the three mannequins sitting at the dining table were also decapitated."

"It's horrible..." Tsumugi whimpers. "To make a mockery out of Kiibo like that... it's just plain cruel!"

"We filled the Hotel team on what had happened when they arrived," Kaede explains, "and again, we decided to split up to make sure no one else was hurt; Tsumugi took the ground floor, Ryoma went out to the courtyard, Kokichi and Angie stayed with Kiibo's body, and myself and Rantaro continued upstairs."

"But the mystery doesn't end there," says Rantaro. "as we found the heads of the mannequins as we progressed up, at the doors of Ryoma's, Maki's, and Kiyo's research labs. And not just that – each head had something written on it in red paint – the letters A, R, and T."

"ART, huh?" Kaito mutters. "The hell's that supposed to mean?"

"We assumed it was directing us to the 'ART' lab, where we assumed we'd find Kiibo's head waiting for us in some sick sort of game," Rantaro explains, "but the room was locked when I got there, so I had go back down to where Kiibo's body was to fetch Angie to unlock the door for us."

"After confirming Maki was..." Kaede hesitates. "...still alive, I went up to the fourth floor, where I met Korekiyo, and together, we went to Angie's lab to wait for Rantaro to return with Angie."

"Which he did," Kokichi says. "And I came too!"

"But when Angie tried to open her door, the key wouldn't work!" Angie huffs.

Throwing his hands over his head, Kokichi smiles. "Mhmm, mhmm! So instead, I used my super awesome lock-picking powers to open the door! And BAM! There was Kirumi, lying in her own pool of blood..."

"I see," Korekiyo says, regaining his composure. "And that is how we uncovered both Kiibo's and Kirumi's bodies."

"Wait, so you two seriously don't remember anything?" Kaito asks. "How the hell did you forget all that? We were practically quarantined!"

"Well, I didn't forget all of it." Himiko fiddles with the brim of her witch's hat. "There is one thing I remember..."

As all the eyes in the room land on her, Himiko begins to fidget in her podium. "It's not that interesting," She mumbles. "But I woke up last night."

"Oh." Kokichi pulls a face. "That is pretty uninteresting."

"Nyeh, it's weird, though." Himiko continues. "'Cause I never wake up during the night. Like, ever."

"Himiko's a really, really good sleeper." Angie adds, "So her waking up is very unlike her!"

"Well, we are in a killing game." Tsumugi mumbles. Her eyes slide to Rantaro on her left. "Weirder things have happened to the best of us."

"Akamatsu was with you, right?" Ryoma asks.

Himiko nods. "Yeah. She was sleeping on the couch. I tried to wake her up, but..." Himiko looks up at Kaede. "It was like you'd been cursed with a sleeping spell, or something, 'cause you wouldn't budge. Like, at all."

"What?" Kaede blinks. "That's..." She presses a finger to her chin. "That's unlike me..."

"And then what did you do?" Korekiyo asks.

"Oh." Himiko stifles a yawn. "I went back to bed."

"You just went back to sleep?" Asks Tsumugi.

Himiko shrugs. "I mean, she wasn't doing anything suspicious, so I figured it was fine."

"Do you happen to remember what time this was at?" Rantaro asks.

"Mmm.. my student handbook said three-fifteen AM, or something close to that time." She looks up. "Why? Do you suspect me or something?"

"Three-fifteen..." Kaede crosses her arms. Better remember that for later.

Rantaro lifts his hands. "No, no, of course not. I just wanted to confirm something." He taps his finger on the railing of his podium. "Anyway, now we've gotten that out of the way, let's focus our energy back onto Kiibo, yeah?"

Biting her lip, Kaede nods. "All right." She smiles a half-smile. "Let's keep trying to figure this out, everyone. I'm sure we'll get there eventually!"

➢ Present your Argument

"It says in the Monokuma File that it was a fatal internal malfunction that killed him." Angie muses. "But what does that mean?"

Himiko points a finger. "Maybe he self-destructed!" I've heard some robots can do that."

"If he had self-destructed," Korekiyo says, "I don't think there'd have been any of him left to investigate."

Himiko deflates. "Oh, that's true..."

"Maybe he was dropped from a height!" Tsumugi exclaims. "And that in turn messed up his system?"

"I highly doubt that." Says Maki. "The ceiling in Kirumi's lab isn't that high up."

"Speaking of Tojo's lab, what about Kiibo himself?" Ryoma proposes. "I don't understand how he ended up in that room when he'd been with us for the most part."

"Well, whatever happened, clearly happened at night-time." Rantaro replies. "So it'd be natural for you guys to have been asleep."

"Kiibo was at the Hotel, wasn't he?" Kaito asks. "Did anything seem off about him back then? Or anyone else?"

"Other than being way more uptight than he normally is? No, not really." Kokichi replies.

BREAK

"Wait, Kaito!" Kaede says. "I've just remembered something."

Kaito's eyebrows fly into his hair. "What do you remember?"

"Last night I was with Kirumi, in Himiko's dorm room," Kaede arrows her eyes as her mind's eye plays back the event.

"M-me? Uh... yeah, sure." Miu mumbles. Her face falls into a scowl. "You bitches are so lucky, y'know that? The cult chick has me 'nd the Tennis Gremlin practically on house arrest over here after night-time. They can all go wherever they fucking please, but us? 'No, no, is much too dangerous!' Man, I'd fucking kill to get out of here—"

"Miu!" Kaede hisses at her.

"Heeeee! I didn't mean literally! J-just a figure of speech, y'know? 'Sides, I—" Miu's voice is drowned out by distorted fizzles and crackles, and the entire tablet screen fills with monochrome static.

"Miu?" Kirumi calls out. "Are you all right?"

"I— What— K—"

Blip

Miu visibly tenses. "Y-you saw that?"

"It's not much, but that's all I can think of right now," Kaede says, but no sooner had the words left her mouth, the courtroom explodes.

"Kiibo and Miu were alone together in the casino?" Angie gasps.

"On the night he died, no less." Ryoma adds.

"No wonder she's been so quiet all this time!" Kokichi exclaims, "She knows way more than she's letting on!"

"I— I didn't want to think Miu would do such a thing to Kiibo..." Tsumugi mutters, "But it's really looking like she did it, isn't it?"

"Whoah, wait a second, hold on!" Kaede shouts over the rising volume. "I didn't say anything about Kiibo." She tilts her head. "It was only Miu there. And I wasn't trying to say she did anything wrong, just that the camera—"

"Oh?" Kokichi looks over at her. "Don't tell me she never told you? Or any of you guys that were staying at the dorms?"

Kaede frowns. "Told us what?" She snaps her gaze to the inventor. "What's he talking about, Miu?"

"I— I didn't wanna tell them!" Miu shrieks from the opposite stall. She shrinks into her uniform. "I knew they'd get all suspicious, s-so I just..."

"Just spit it out!" Kaito holds up a fist. "We won't be mad, just tell us!"

"Before that." Kokichi holds up a hand. "Humour me, team dorm. How did Miu explain the communication system to you guys?"

"We used the Kubs Pad to communicate with you guys over at the casino." Maki begins to explain what Miu had told her and Kaede a few days prior.

"I was gonna show Kaede anyway, so... I guess it's fine for you to see, too." Miu holds the pad out for the girls to see. "Okay... see the black button at the bottom of the pad? Function is originally just the on-off button, but if ya hold it down long enough, I've installed a second function so that it'll send a signal over to us and allow whoever answers it to talk to you guys. We'll have a camera set up there for after the night-time announcement every night, so you'll be able to see and talk to us that way, exchange information, whatever shit y'all wanna do. Only thing is, we won't be able to see you guys. Sucks to suck, but can't do shit about that."

"Why the casino?" asks Kaede. "Wouldn't it be easier to do it from the lobby of the hotel or something?"

"I only had eight fucking hours to make this thing, piano freak." Miu grumbles. "I may be a goddess, but I ain't a fucking miracle-worker." She glares at the device. "It works the best when both the camera and the tablet are aligned parallel from each other, otherwise the connection goes all grainy and shit. This building and the casino are built directly parallel from each other, so it works out."

"Is that what this antenna is for?" Maki presses a digit into the protruding silver wire stuck into the top of the tablet.

"Ah, d-don't touch that!" Miu snaps at her. She coughs and clears her throat. "A-anyway, this thing wasn't originally made to be used to interact with anything, let alone wirelessly, so I, uh... ended up havin' to resort to using somethin'... unconventional. B-but it works, and that's the main thing.

"Yeah, pretty much." Kaede says when Maki finishes. "But it did work like that, it wasn't like a lie or anything."

Kokichi brings a finger to his lip. "The best lies are the ones shrouded by the truth."

A chill shoots down Kaede's spine.

"So, what should we do?" Tsumugi tilts her head. "Is there any way we can check?"

"Oh! Wait a second!" Kaede exclaims, shrugging her backpack off her shoulders. She pulls out the Kubs Pad and turns it around in her hands.

"Well?" Kokichi's eyes light up. "Do you see it?"

"See what?" asks Himiko. "It's just a Kubs Pad, right? With a weird antenna thingy sticking out of it."

"Yeah!" Kokichi leans over his podium. "But haven't you seen that antenna before somewhere? On a certain person, perhaps?"

"A person with a silver antenna," Kaede mutters. "That can only be..."

SELECT SOMEONE

Kaede's eyes snap to the Ultimate Robot's portrait. "...K-Kiibo, right?"

Maki's eyes go wide. "That's... Kiibo's antenna?"

Korekiyo's hand flies to his mask. "Oh, my."

"Of course it is." Rantaro slaps a palm to his forehead. "I can't believe I didn't realise sooner."

"Wait, antenna?" Kaito parrots, "Are you guys talking about that piece of hair he always had sticking up?"

"It's called an ahoge, Kaito." Tsumugi corrects him. "It's a protagonist-specific trait for characters in visual novels and anime!"

"I-I was gonna tell you guys," Miu whines. She wipes her forehead. "K-Kiibs came to me the day the disease broke out for maintenance and requested that I install t-two new functions for him..."

"What kind of functions?" Asks Himiko.

"The first was a flashlight, and the second was an... an image recording function for—" Miu shakes her head. "That's not important. But see, the thing is, they were both functions to be installed in his eyes." She grips the railing of her podium. "B-but when I went to check his eyes out, there was... there was a..."

"A what?!" Kaito shouts.

Miu crumbles. "Hyeeeeee! There were... there were already cameras installed in them!"

A premonitory chill trails its icy way down Kaede's backbone. For a fleeting moment, the world stops, and she's standing at a grey podium, in a grey courtroom, with grey classmates, in the midst of a grey silence.

"Cameras." Rantaro says, voice uncharacteristically shaky. "Cameras as in... image recording cameras?"

Miu nods. "V-video cameras." She pauses. "And they— they were on."

"V-video cameras!?" Kaito splutters. "What the hell did he have they for? What was he filming?!"

"Apparently they were connected to the antenna on his head." Ryoma says. "And that they were sending the footage somewhere, right?"

"I... I couldn't track down where they were sending the footage to," Miu replies, "B-but it was somewhere far away from wherever the hell this is."

"So then," Kaede begins, swallowing back the "Kiibo... was the traitor..."

Kokichi tilts his head. "Ya think so? I didn't get that vibe from him at all."

"He... he had to have been, right?" Kaede looks up. "One of them, at least."

"We can talk about that later on." Rantaro says, shaking his head. He narrows his eyes at Miu, ignoring the way she wilts at his scrutiny. "So, you found out Kiibo was recording through his vision, yeah?"

"Y-yeah..."

"What did you do after that?"

Kokichi's head snaps up. "Oh, oh! Are we finally interrogating the whore biscuit?" He cracks a cheshire grin. "About time!"

Miu sends him a glare, but pays him no mind. "I... I realised that the cameras were wirelessly hooked up to the antenna, which was transmitting the footage, s-so I panicked and I..." She bites her thumb. "I removed it from his head."

"So no footage was being sent out once you did that?" Korekiyo asks.

"Th-that's right." She folds her arms and sighs. "K-Kiibs had told me beforehand that y'all needed some sorta communication device for goin' back and forth between the dorms and the hotels, so I re-programmed the antenna into the K-kubs Pad I'd kept from before. So instead of Kiibo's cameras sending footage to his antenna, which then sent footage to wherever, it now only sent footage to the Kubs Pad I installed it into." She twiddles her fingers. "That's the easiest way I can explain it."

"So all those times we spoke to you guys from the casino." Maki surmises. "Kiibo was standing in front of you, filming?"

"Yup, yup!" Angie confirms. "He did a super good job, too! Angie surely couldn't stand still for that long!"

Miu continues. "I— I never told him, about what I found. I-I wasn't sure what he'd do if I t-told him I knew, so I just told him they were new stuff I installed when he woke."

"And all of this explains why Kiibo was never in the shot during the transmission times, too." Kaede pulls Shuichi's cap down. "Which brings us back to what I saw last night." She presses a finger to her chin. "So if the camera was Kiibo, what made his connection with the Pad shut off like that? That hadn't happened any other night."

"He'd been acting kind of off, ever since Miu removed his aho— antenna." Tsumugi says. She shrinks when all attention shifts to her. "I mean, it might be just a coincidence, but he seemed, as Kokichi said earlier, a little more 'uptight' than usual?"

"Can you elaborate?" asks Korekiyo.

"He kept saying things like 'I'm going to end the killing game" and "I'm going to destroy the Ultimate Academy.' It was kinda scary, y'know! Even Atua was terrified!" Angie recalls.

"It doesn't take much to scare Atua, it seems..." Kaito mutters.

"He's not a scaredy-cat!" Himiko pipes up. She grips her heart over her blazer. "He's just sensitive... like me."

"Aaanyway, that's why I don't think he was the traitor, Kokichi explains. "'Cause wouldn't a mole hiding amongst us want to killing game to continue, not want to destroy it?" Sighing, Kokichi hangs his head. "I couldn't even make fun of him while we were over at the hotel, he was constantly angry at everything and everyone! Even just mentioning the word 'despair' or 'killing' got him all worked up."

"Wait, Kokichi," Kaede says, "Did you say, 'killing'?"

"Yeah?" Kokichi cocks his head. "Why?"

Kaede closes her eyes and thinks back.

"They can all go wherever they fucking please, but us? 'No, no, is much too dangerous'!" Miu sighs. "Man, I'd fucking kill to get out of here—"

"That's it!" Kaede exclaims. "Miu said she'd 'kill to get out of there'! And that's what set Kiibo off."

"Oh, she said that, huh?" Kokichi mutters. Then, grinning, adds, "I see!"

"Then Miu killed Kiibo in order to get rid of the despair disease!" Angie throws her hands up into the air. "It all makes sense now!"

"Well, Iruma?" Asks Ryoma.

"I-I didn't!" Miu shrieks, blood draining from her face. "I'd never! Not to Kiibs!"

"I agree." Rantaro says. "I don't think Miu would have willingly offered up all that information if she'd killed him, right? She didn't have to disclose anything about the cameras to you guys, but she did, didn't she?" He lifts a finger. "Therefore I think everything she's told us so far we can count as the truth."

"I mean, she only spilled the beans after a good hour of probing!" Kokichi throws his arms up over his head. "But yeah. I guess you're right." He pulls a face. "Sadly."

"With that being said." Kaede turns her attention to Miu once more. "What happened after the cameras cut?"

Miu thinks for a moment. "N-nothing really. It took about ten... ten minutes, yeah, for Kiibs to calm down, and we just went back to our room after that. B-back at the hotel."

"You guys were sharing a room?" Kaito raises an eyebrow.

"Y-yeah!" Miu spits. "What about it!?"

"And that was it?" asks Kaede. "Nothing happened after that?"

"I-I went to sleep after that." Miu fiddles with a lock of hair. "I thought Kiibs did too, but... but he..."

"He clearly did not," Korekiyo punctuates. "In which case, where does that leave us?"

The class recedes into quiet once more. Kaede racks her brains, but to no avail. Her eyes trail round the room at the others, as if hoping their faces would inspire something – anything but the only one that caught her interest was Miu's. A look of discomfort's plastered all over her face, but Kaede could swear it was mixed with something else – particularly given she's muttering something under her breath, and looking back and forth. Was there something she'd noticed? If so, why wasn't she saying anything?

"I think it had to have been someone in the hotel group, Rantaro finally says, shattering the quiet.

"Huh?" Angie leans to one side. "Are you just saying that cuz we were all together in the same place at the same time?"

Rantaro scratches his temple. "I mean, not just that, you guys also had a motive, right?"

"We did?" Tsumugi asks. "What was it?"

"The cameras." Rantaro replies. "Miu found out that Kiibo was video recording all of us, and sending it to an unknown source." He twiddles his pendant in between his fingers. "Whether he actively knew about this feature or not, the fact that he was in communication with an outside source is a huge red flag."

"So it'd make sense if someone wanted to get rid of that red flag, is that what you're saying?" asks Ryoma.

"Precisely."

The tennis star folds his arms. "Can't argue with that logic."

"Where were the rest of you last night?" Maki asks. "We know what happened with Miu, but what about everyone else?"

Kokichi's hand shoots up. "Me and Ryoma have alibis! We were downstairs playing in the casino!" He smiles. "Ryoma can confirm, right?" Ryoma nods.

"Wait, you guys were in the casino?" Kaito asks. "Together?"

"Yup!" Kokichi grins. "Jealous?"

Kaito snorts and looks away. "N-no... like I'd ever be jealous of someone like you."

"We were originally going to help Iruma and Kiibo make the call to Akamatsu and Tojo," Ryoma explains. "But Ouma..." He sighs.

"I wanted Ryoma to teach me his tricks in gambling!" Kokichi says, eyes sparkling. "I mean, he was amazing the other day with getting all those expensive hotel keys, so I just had to know his secrets, y'know?"

Ryoma pulls down his hat. "I told you there isn't any secret to it. It's just a knack I have for it."

"Can Miu confirm that this is true?" Korekiyo asks.

Miu's brow furrows as she stares daggers into Kokichi's bouncing form. "Yeah," She says eventually, huffing out a large breath of air. "They're tellin' the truth."

"How about you guys?" Kaede asks, turning her focus to Tsumugi and Angie.

Tsumugi scratches her head. "Ah, well, I was in my room most of the night." She hangs her head. "Sorry, I don't have an alibi... Ah, wait a second! I did see Angie in her room on my way to the bathroom!"

Kokichi pulls a face. "What's with you and bathrooms for alibis?"

Himiko frowns at him. "Don't make fun of her. When you gotta go, you gotta go."

Tsumugi continues. "It was around... was it, ten or eleven o' clock? It was only through a crack in the door, but I definitely saw her!"

"Oh?" Angie says. "But Angie didn't see Tsumugi..."

"Way to throw her under the bus." Kaito mutters.

"Well, we left the casino at around midnight," Ryoma says. "And I can't speak for Ouma, but I'm pretty sure Yonaga's door was ajar. Didn't pay too much attention to it, though."

Tsumugi breathes out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Ryoma..."

"You guys do realise that none of these alibis ever matter, right?" Maki reminds them. "The murders happened sometime during the night. You all seeing each other at different times before that doesn't mean anything."

"Maybe if we tried to figure out what time Kiibo, or Kirumi, even, died at, we'd get somewhere." Kaede says, straightening her cap.

➢ Present your Argument

"Is there anything, anything that can tell us when the first death happened?" asks Tsumugi.

"The call to Miu happened after the night-time announcement, which sounded at ten pm," Kaede explains. "The call didn't last for more than ten minutes before it cut off."

"And Kiibo was still alive then," Ryoma adds. "As was Tojo."

"What time was it when you went back to the hotel with Kiibo, Miu?" Korekiyo inquires.

"I told you, i-it was shortly after the call ended, s-so... so like, I dunno, before ten th-thirty." Miu stammers.

"Why are we so sure it was someone at the hotel?" asks Maki. "In reality, it could have been anyone."

"It was a wild guess based on what motive the killer could have possibly had," Rantaro says. "Nothin' more, nothin' less."

"Well, if I had any hand in anything whatsoever." Korekiyo dips his hat. "I apologise. The Despair Disease completely wiped all memories of any happenings up until this morning. So I cannot assist you in this situation."

"Yeah," Himiko mumbles, "stupid Despair Disease..."

BREAK

"Hold on, Kiyo." Kaede says as the pieces begin to fall into place.

"Hmm?" The anthropologist blinks at her. "Do you believe me to be lying, Kaede?"

"No, no." Kaede lifts her hands. "I don't think you are. But, I'm just thinking about it again— the Despair Disease, Himiko also can't remember anything from the past few days, right?" As Himiko opens her mouth, Kaede continues, "Aside from last night at three fifteen. Which is making me think we've have it all wrong."

"What?" Tsumugi furrows her brow. "I'm confused. What do we have that's all wrong...?"

"Because memory loss, fine, sure, that'd make sense," Kaede says, "but the third person who had the despair disease remembers everything that happened—" She looks up. "Don't you, Kaito?"

"For the last time," Kaito growls, slamming his fist on his podium. "I didn't have that stupid illness in the first place!"

"Why are you still in denial, Kaito?" Angie sings, leaning over her podium. "Why won't you just accept it? Why? Why? Why?"

"I know we've been adamant about it, Angie." Kaede says, "but now, I'm starting to think that all this time, Kaito's actually been telling the truth."

"Finally!" Kaito throws up his arms. "Thank you, Kaede. That's what I've been saying this whole time!"

Tsumugi thrusts a finger in his direction "But— but you were acting so weird! You completely fit the narrative of acting out of character!"

"But don't forget, Tsumugi," Rantaro says. "The theme of the Disease was something to do with 'reviving the dead', right? Korekiyo and Himiko both showed examples of that, but Kaito?"

"He was just being a complete pussy!" Kokichi punctuates.

"D-don't call me that!" Kaito yells at him.

"But... you kind of were," Kaede says with a half-smile. "Thinking back, even before the motive was given to us, you weren't leaving your room, you didn't come to eat at the dining hall, you didn't even come to the memorial service for Tenko and Gonta!" She points a finger at him. "Don't you think that's kind of weird?"

"Especially for Kaito," Kokichi adds, "who's all about friendship, and sidekicks, and rainbows, and—"

"Hey, thinking about it," Angie says, "Didn't someone ask the Monokubs what Kaito's disease was called? What did they say again?"

Kaede hums in thought as she thinks back to the first day of the motive.

"We don't care." Maki walks out from behind Kirumi, unimpressed. "What did you do to them, Kaito and Himiko?"

"Kaito?" The red bear tilts his head. "That's... a great question! I actually have no idea!"

"That's right," Kaede replies. "They didn't answer, did they?"

"Oh, oh no... I gave it away!" Monotaro's paws fly up to his face. "I'm so sorry, Monodam!"

"IT'S-OKAY." Monodam drawls. "YOU-HAVE-HELPED-THEM-TO-FIGURE-OUT-THE-MYSTERY. THAT-IS-A-GOOD-THING-TO-HELP-THEM-TO-GET-ALONG."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Monokuma waves a paw. "You guys are taking way too much time with this mess, but if it'll help move things along—" He sighs. "You're right. Kaito Momota was never administered with the Despair Disease to begin with. You're all just idiots!" He drags a paw down the arm of his chair. "I mean, I did consider it, but... I wasn't sure if his system could handle it."

"Nyeh?" Himiko taps her lip. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Kaito says, a little too quickly. "Anyway, weren't we talking about the time of the first death? How'd we end up here?"

"The time that the first death occurred is super obvious, now that Kaito's been cleared as faking it the whole time." Kokichi sneers.

"I was never faking it!" The astronaut snaps. "You guys were the ones who didn't believe me!"

"Wait, Kokichi!" Kaede shouts over Kaito. "You know the time it happened?"

"Uh, yeah? That's what I said?" Kokichi gives her a sideways glance. "Surely you've figured it out, too."

It takes a few minutes, but it hits Kaede like a ton of bricks. "That's it!" She exclaims. "It had to have been then!"

"Did we miss something?" Asks Tsumugi.

Kaede clears her throat. "We've cleared up that Kaito never had the Despair Disease, which means the fact that he remembers the past few days isn't so abnormal anymore." She clasps her hands together. "But there was someone earlier who said they remembered something as well, right, Himiko?"

"Oh, me?" Himiko thinks for a moment. "When I woke up last night?"

"Yes, exactly." Says Kaede. "We assumed it was her under the influence of the motive because she said it was unlike her to wake up during the night, but what if her waking up at three-fifteen - and remembering it, was actually the motive coming to an end?"

"Monokuma said the Diseases would be cured once someone was killed," Rantaro calmly recalls, "So her waking up — from her disease – after the first death occurred actually checks out."

"Hooray!" Angie throws her hands up in the air. "Praise be to Atua, we have solved this mystery!"

"Please." scoffs Maki. "We've barely scratched the surface. We've spent all this time talking and all we have are useless alibis and one time of death." She twirls a strand of hair around her finger. "We don't even know who it was that died first."

"We don't yet." Kaede corrects her. "But we will. We'll figure it out." Her fists whiten against the metallic railing. "I promised him I'd get us out of here." She lifts her chin, clenching her jaw, and as Kirumi's and Kiibo's portraits gaze back at her, for the first time in a long time, a surge of confidence rushes through her veins. "And if that means we stay here until night-time figuring this out, then so be it. I'm done with letting people down, and..." She steals a glance at Rantaro, who stares back at her, green eyes piercing lavender. "...I'm done being scared of the past."

She stands tall, poised like a lioness ready to strike. "So then, what should we look at next?"

I can't believe it's been over a YEAR since I last wrote a trial chapter! ⁀⊙﹏ ⁀ (◑_◑) THAT'S MAD. I'M SO SORRY ABOUT THAT. WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN. HOPEFULLY. FINGERS CROSSED?

Also a side note bc I'm dumb: Kokichi's comment on Kaede not noticing the dark mark on the wall is really just aimed at myself because it's a piece of evidence I forgot to write into the investigation. Sorry about thattttt! ( ˘︹˘ )

Chapter 20: I promise there will be more substance and ground covered in the next one! (╥﹏╥) More spicier truths will be written. ~ (̶◉͛‿◉̶)