CW: Mildly graphic descriptions of blood/injuries

Ding dong bing bong!

I hate that stupid chime, Reijirou thought. It is going to haunt my nightmares forever.

Heedless of his displeasure, the announcement continued. "A body has been discovered! Everyone, please gather at the back of the barracks. After a period of investigation, the class trial will begin!" There was a short pause, then Monokuma added, "I'm ever so slightly extending the investigation time so you bastards can put on actual clothes. I don't wanna see you in your jammies at my trial! You're welcome. Now, get investigating!"

Reijirou made a quick glance around the scene to check on everyone. Seihiko had helped Kashie up, and though she still shook a little bit, she seemed more stable than… the last time they'd found a body. This is the third time in… a week? Ten days? Oh God, this really is a nightmare… Okay, time to get it together. You've done it before: do it now. Seihiko thankfully seemed steady, though certainly pale. Shiori and Rika both seemed a bit worse for wear. Thankfully, Rika had not fainted, but Reijirou could see her shaking and breathing fast as she leaned against a tree. Shiori, meanwhile, was pacing a bit, biting her nails.

"Hey! We're still stuck up here!" Reijirou looked up and saw Homura leaning out one of the windows, with Isao and Ikeda peaking around her.

"Okay, let me just get the—" Reijirou stopped as he suddenly realized they'd left the ladder back at the front of the barracks in their rush. "Um, I have to go grab the ladder."

"I can do that," said Seihiko. He looked eager for a chance to get away from Remy's body.

Gorou stepped up. "You need at least two people to carry the ladder. I'll come too." With that they headed back around the barracks.

Walking towards the remaining students, Reijirou said as gently as possible, "...How are you guys?"

Shiori started slightly, brought out of her own thoughts. She sniffed, then just shook her head. Rika took a shaky breath and straightened up. "I'm… I'm gonna guard the body! Since, we, uh, don't have Akiko to do that anymore…"

Kashie gave her cheeks a quick wake-up slap. "Okay. We... we aren't going to figure this out if we don't get started." With that she pulled out her Monopad. "Let's read the Monokuma File."

Reijirou followed Kashie's lead and opened up the Monokuma File. The victim is Remy Lander, the Penultimate Animal Photographer. The time of death was 4:26 am. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head from a fall. In addition, the back of the body has numerous tiny cuts.

Reading over Kashie's shoulder, Shiori whispered, "If… if he fell, the cuts must have been from… going through a window." Everyone winced as they looked from Remy's body to the fallen tree.

Truth Bullet Obtained: Monokuma File #3

Before anyone could say anything more, the sound of heavy footsteps caused everyone to turn around. Kenji rounded the corner of the gym, panting slightly, with Take right behind.

"Who is it?" Kenji's voice seemed strangled, fighting to be heard through his lack of breath and possible panic. "Please, please tell me it's not—"

Reijirou tried to move to block Remy's body, but he was too late; Kenji saw. Immediately, the gardener dropped to his knees. He didn't cry, but instead stared off into space, like his mind was off somewhere else. Crap, this is going to be messy... Reijirou took a step forward, and that seemed to break Kenji out of his trance. He stood and ran to Remy's body all in one motion. The intensity of Kenji's expression made Rika back away. Turning back to the group, he growled: "Don't any of you fucking touch him."

"Jesus…" said Take, making his way over to the rest of the group. "Take a chill pill, dude."

"I'm mostly talking to you, asshole!" Kenji shouted back. "I wouldn't put it past you to loot him if you had the chance, so stay away!"

"Someone's just grumpy 'cause his boyfriend got ganked by a tree," Take snapped as he rolled his eyes.

Kenji stiffened, but before he could say anything, Reijirou stepped right up to Take. "You need to stop," Reijirou ordered. "That was out of line, even for you. Kenji can guard the body, and you can investigate, so we don't all die during the trial. Got it? Good." I have been too lenient with you during investigations, Take. It's what let you bully Seihiko last trial.

Take just sneered. "Okay, first of all, as an 'employee of the camp' and all that bullshit, you aren't in danger during the trials, Teach. Second of all, we don't even need to investigate anything! The guy fell out of the window when the tree came down. End of story."

By this time, Seihiko and Gorou had returned with the ladder. While Gorou held the ladder steady, Seihiko joined the discussion. "Given Monokuma's love of dramatics, he'll probably make us prove it was an accident. So, yeah, we do need to investigate."

Shiori took a cautious step forward. "Uh, Kenji? Can you check to see if Remy's camera is okay?"

"Yeah… why?" Kenji was already leaning down to carefully remove the camera from around Remy's neck.

"I just thought if it's not too damaged, we might be able to get the last few photos he took off of it, even if the view screen doesn't work," Shiori explained. "They might help us figure out what happened. But if… if it does turn out to have been an accident, who would we vote for?"

"I can answer that question!" Came the voice of Monokuma, laughing cheerfully as he came out from behind a tree. "If you conclude that our blank-faced photographer did indeed get 'ganked by a tree,' as Take so eloquently put it, then that means Remy got himself killed! So you vote for him. Man though, that'd be a boring answer to all this. So, you bastards do a thorough investigation, got it?"

For a moment it seemed like Monokuma was about to leave, but before he could, Kenji held out the camera. "Can you get us the photos from on Remy's camera?"

"They could be important evidence," Gorou called over from the ladder in a slightly mocking tone. "Wouldn't wanna deprive us of vital information, right?"

Monokuma snatched the camera. "Fine! At least it's a digital camera this time." he continued muttering in an annoyed tone as he disappeared into the trees again.

'This time…' Reijirou pondered. More fuel for my 'Monokuma has run other killing games' theory.

Looking back to the fallen tree, Reijirou walked over to more thoroughly examine it. There were no signs that lightning had struck it. Must have been the wind then… He rubbed his eyes to fight off the last remnants of sleep. The storm, plus all of the worries of the previous day, had kept him up far later than he'd wanted. As he got closer, Reijirou saw that the tree truly had fallen in such a way that it completely blocked the stairs; there was no way to get up or down them. As he looked up towards the top of the tree, he saw that the window closest to the tree was broken. I guess it's technically possible Remy just fell… but, last time we thought it could have been an accident, it didn't turn out that way...

Truth Bullet Obtained: Fallen Tree

"Seihiko!" Homura's long squeal jerked Reijirou out of his thoughts. He turned around just in time to see Homura almost jump into Seihiko with a tackle hug. "Seihiko, oh my God! I was so freaking worried! I woke up when the tree fell in, and you weren't there! I was scared half to death! Don't you dare do something like that again!"

Seihiko tried to give her a reassuring pat through her death grip. "Homura; Homura, calm down—" Finally he sighed, giving up. "I won't. Of course I won't."

Over Seihiko's shoulder, Homura glared at Reijirou, but then she saw Remy's body. She pulled away immediately with a small shriek. "Oh geez! I… I heard the announcement, but I didn't think… I mean, it's Remy! He's, like— why would you wanna kill him?"

"Maybe it really was an accident, like we said before," Seihiko suggested.

"Don't get complacent," called Ikeda from the window above. "We must use due diligence. It is our duty to the dead."

Reijirou noticed that, although Isao had come down the ladder to join everyone, Ikeda made no such move. "Are you coming down?" he asked Ikeda. "Isao said you were hurt; do you need some help?"

"There's something I want to check out first." Ikeda seemed to think for a moment, then added, "Feel free to come up."

"You're the last one up there?" asked Gorou. "We shouldn't be investigating alone."

Homura's eyebrows furrowed. "When the storm ended, it was just me, Isao, and Ikeda upstairs."

"So by then, everyone else had to have been downstairs," Kashie concluded.

Truth Bullet Obtained: Homura's Account

"...Wait," said Reijirou, dread sending a chill down his spin as he searched the group. "Where's Karen?"

"She… she wasn't with me when I woke up during the storm," Rika offered, her voice quivering.

Take shrugged. "Didn't see her while me and Kenji were walking back."

"If she's not upstairs, or in the barracks, then she's either in the woods, or in the gym!" shouted Shiori, as if suddenly struck by a thought. "Something might have fallen on her, and now she's stuck, or trapped, or—!"

"We gotta find her then!" Rika interrupted. "I'll look in the gym; come on!" With that she grabbed Shiori's arm and began dragging the violet-haired girl away.

"Wait! What about the—?" From her tone, Kashie seemed torn between following her friends and staying with the body.

"I'll go with them," Reijirou offered. "You can't do everything at once. Help with the investigation; we'll find Karen."

Kashie nodded gratefully as he left to join Rika and Shiori, once again having to run around the outside of the barracks. Why doesn't the gym have an entrance on this side? It would make all this much less of a hassle. He shook his head. C'mon, Saiki. Get it together. Someone's dead, and I'm worried about a little running. Now more than ever, Reijirou wished he had someone to vent to. But, when his options would have been one of the students, who definitely didn't need that added stress on their minds (laying aside that only a handful even trusted him at the moment), or Monokuma, Reijirou kept his thoughts to himself.

When he finally entered the gym, the first thing that struck him was how dry it was, at least in the center of the room. Despite some of the large windows being broken, it seems the roof was wide enough to stop most of the rain from entering the building.

The next thing Reijirou saw was that the floor of the gym nearest the door to the showers was covered in broken glass. With a glance up he saw where it had come from; the window separating the upper floor from the gym was shattered, a gaping hole left in the middle.

More broken windows. Did the tree break this one too, or…?

Truth Bullet Obtained: Broken Window

Suddenly he heard Rika give a long whine that ended in a shout. "She's not here! Karen!" She paced back and forth. "Uh… Uh, where else could she be!?"

"The shower room?" Reijirou suggested.

Rika shook her head. "I was in there during the storm, and she was already gone when I got there."

A grunt of exertion from one corner caught Reijirou's attention. Shiori stood by a line of rusted out lockers, attempting to pry one open. "What are you doing?" he asked as he jogged over.

"Getting this open!" Shiori ground out through clenched teeth, "I can see something in here!"

"But we already called and called!" said Rika. "If Karen was in there, she'd have come out, or answered us when we called, or, or something!"

Finally, the locker door opened with a slam. And for a moment, the air went still.

At first, Reijirou didn't recognize her; no glasses, hair in a ponytail, all thrown into shadow from the gloom outside. But then, the clouds shifted, allowing the sun to illuminate the horrible scene.

Skin covered in bruises, hair in disarray from being squished into the locker's tiny space, nightgown drenched in blood, and a deadly slash across the throat.

Such was the state of Karen Oshiro, Penultimate Jujutsuka.

"Don't look!" Reijirou shouted, trying to turn Shiori away, but it was too late. Shiori scrambled back, mouth gaping. She seemed ready to scream, but no sound emerged.

Rika clutched her head in her hands and muttered, "No, no, no, no…! This wasn't supposed to..."

Reijirou looked desperately back and forth between the two girls and Karen's body as the body announcement began to play again. Fuck! Two people dead? What does this mean for— for everything?!

Above he heard Ikeda swear. "Damn it! Karen too?! What is going on?"

As Monokuma finished the announcement, he continued on past his usual script. "And since I know you'll be asking questions, a little preemptive rules clarifications! In the event of two deaths, if both murders were committed by the same person, obviously they are the blackened and the person you need to discover at the class trial! If the murders were committed by two different people… You know what? Screw it! Usually I'd say you just have to find the culprit of the murder that occurred first, but no! You guys are smart, right? You'll have to find both killers! Assuming there are even two in the first place, of course. Just double the chances for a graduation, and for a positively unbearable execution! All the new rules will be added to your Monopads. So, you bastards've better get to it! Chop-chop! Upupu!"

The new revelations left Reijirou even more off balance. If there are two killers, they have to uncover both of them!? That's insanely difficult! It feels like we've only gotten lucky the past two times. Of course they're smart, but this could be impossible! He took a breath and turned his attention to Shiori. She's going through a lot right now, but she's done such a good job these past two cases. I'll make sure she gets back on her feet. And hopefully alleviate some of the pressure.

Before anyone else entered the gym, Reijirou went to Shiori's side and said, "I'm right here with you, Shiori. This isn't all on you."

"But everything just got harder…" Shiori whispered. "And… couldn't you get in trouble with Monokuma for helping us, like before?"

Reijirou was taken aback. She figured that out? Well, if she found out on her own, it's not like I'm telling her, so hopefully, Monokuma won't be too petty about it.

Rather than answer aloud, he just nodded. Shiori's eyes widened, but Reijirou held up a finger to his lips. "Let's focus on the matter at hand."

It only took a few moments after that for everyone to come into the gym. Some, like Kashie, Seihiko, and Homura, looked worried, while others, like Gorou and Kenji, seemed simply resigned. While no one seemed surprised that it was Karen's body that had been found, the state of her corpse clearly turned several stomachs.

Isao was the first to speak. "I… I thought it was strange she was the only one missing, but…"

"Karen!" Rika wailed. Tears streamed down her face, and she wobbled slightly from trying to stay up.

Kashie quickly went to Rika's side to help her stay standing. "Rika, are you still sick?"

"No…" said Rika, but from the way she looked away bashfully confirmed she was lying. Kashie led the small gladiator over towards the wall and the two sat down.

The tension in the room finally broken, the rest of the group re-dispersed. Seihiko and Homura took up guard by Karen's body. Kenji immediately walked back out of the gym with a simple, "Watching Remy." Take just got out his Monopad. Reijirou followed suit, and (much to his relief), Shiori did the same, trailing beside him.

The victim is Karen Oshiro, the Penultimate Jujutsuka, the Monokuma File began. The time of death was 4:35 am. The cause of death was blood loss. The victim's throat was slit. This was done in a single cut. The body also has some small bruises, but otherwise there are no other injuries.

Truth Bullet Obtained: Monokuma File #4

4:30 am? That's only a couple minutes after Remy… I really hope that doesn't mean there were two different culprits, Reijirou thought, biting his lip a bit. And with only those bruises, it seems like if there was a struggle, it got deadly very quickly. And how someone managed to get the drop on Karen, I don't know.

Shiori was on the same page. "I wonder how the culprit managed to… to hold onto Karen long enough to kill her. Or maybe she was caught off guard? Distracted, or something?"

She hummed at the thought, then continued to speak. "Let's look for signs of a struggle. That might clear things up."

The gym was much larger than Reijirou had anticipated, so when Shiori started her search near to the body, he decided to head to the other end of the gym, closer to shower room. The only other person investigating on that side of the room was Isao. He looked very tense as he stepped around the broken glass that was strewn everywhere.

"...Did you hold up okay last night?" Reijirou asked. "I don't suppose you heard anything?"

"No, nothing," Isao replied, clearly off in his own thoughts. "Didn't even wake up until the tree fell in. I had a near miss though, since I was sleeping near the stairs. I heard more of what people were saying downstairs than on my own floor..."

Reijirou scooted closer carefully. "And was there anything in what you heard that could help?"

Isao looked up when he realized how close Reijirou was and jumped back. He sighed. "Just… just Shiori wanting to know if we were okay." There was a strangely bitter note to Isao's voice.

Reijirou remained silent for a moment, hoping that Isao would continue on his own, but he had no such luck. When he turned his attention back down to the ground to pick his way through the glass, he noticed something. He kneeled down carefully to get a closer look. That confirmed his suspicions that something was awry Though very faint, the floor had some strange, streaky marks on it, like when a floor dries with too much water on it. The smeared patch was almost four feet wide around, just a few steps away from the wall. What in the world could have made these? Just as he was about to stand back up, Reijirou spotted a shape along the edge of the smears; the impression of several small toes.

Truth Bullet Obtained: Smeared Floor

Reijirou gulped. Once he was standing again, he looked up at the broken window. Ikeda was examining the ledge and what remained of the window intently. Suddenly he gingerly plucked something from the broken glass of the window.

Not sure how much of an answer he'd get, Reijirou still called up to Ikeda. "What'd you find there?"

"Threads. White threads caught in the glass," Ikeda replied, clearly still lost in his own thoughts.

"How could those have gotten there?" Reijirou wondered.

Truth Bullet Obtained: Caught Threads

Ikeda did not say anything more, instead disappearing from sight.

I guess he's done investigating up there, Reijirou concluded. With another glance around the room, Reijirou opened up the door to the shower room. Might as well be thorough.

Inside the dimly-lit shower room, he saw Take poking around at the various piles of debris, his neckerchief re-tied to cover his face. Reijirou coughed. He has the right idea; the dust in here is awful. Doing his best to shield his nose and mouth from the dust, Reijirou began to investigate. Thankfully, the building was so old that no water remained in any of the urinals to go stagnant, and the thin windows had spared the room from the rain.

Unfortunately, Reijirou couldn't really concentrate on any of that, because just being in the same room with Take was making his head spin. I can't just ignore him because he's intimidating. He might be a jerk, but it's not fair for me to just not try… He took a breath. Here goes nothing. "Take, are you… doing okay?"

Take straightened up from where he'd been examining one of the shower drains. "I'm investigating, like you said to. Get off my back, Teach."

"No, I mean—" Reijirou sighed. "Yes, I did ask you to do that. Thank you. But what I mean is, how have you been doing the past few days? I noticed you seem to be avoiding everyone."

"Yeah, and?" Take deliberately avoided looking at Reijirou, as if the counselor wasn't important enough to engage with. "My two 'friends' decided they were too good to be in my posse, and everyone else is too boring. Well, Shiori's fun to mess with, but that's about it. 'Sides, no one's gonna wanna hang with a 'troublemaker,' right?" He actually almost scowled. "Bunch of goody-two-shoes."

Reijirou took a step closer. "You know, if you changed your behavior—"

"Ha! Ain't happening. I'm not gonna change just to get some losers to like me. Guess what, Teach? When I ran away from home, it wasn't because of some sad, traumatic thing. I was just bored. I lived off whatever I could with my gang just so I could be myself and take what I wanted, without anybody telling me I couldn't. It's just who I am, and I take 'being myself' very seriously." Take took an abrupt step into Reijirou's space, and Reijirou was suddenly extra aware of the difference in height and build between them. "Aren't you supposed to 'be yourself,' Teach?"

Reijirou gulped, but managed to stand his ground. "Being rude isn't a character trait. It's behavior." He stepped around Take to start investigating again. "You can always change your behavior. You just have to want to change." And… I don't think you do.

The last place to check in the shower room was the toilet stalls. The first two held nothing of interest, and Reijirou was ready to just head back to the gym. But, in the interest of being thorough, he checked the last one.

At first, Reijirou didn't notice it through the shadows, but when he leaned in closer, he saw it; stuffed deep down into the toilet bowl was some kind of cloth. As he gingerly began to pull it out, he realized it was one of the sheets he'd brought the students. And it was covered in blotchy, faint brown stains. Blood. It has to be from blood. With a final tug he got the sheet completely free, and it revealed something else. He has to reach in and pick it up, but when he brought it out of the dark of the drain he saw it was a pink pocket knife.

Truth Bullet Obtained: Bloody Sheet

Truth Bullet Obtained: Pocket Knife

This… this is probably the murder weapon, Reijirou realized as he held the knife carefully with two fingers. He set the sheet and knife down on the floor and left the stall, feeling just slightly nauseous.

Take peeked inside the stall and whistled. "Wow, looks like we hit the jackpot. It's gonna be a cinch figuring out who killed Glasses Girl with this."

"You could at least use her name," Reijirou grumbled, but he was just too tired to deal with Take any more. He left the shower room.

Back out in the gym, Reijirou immediately saw Shiori waving frantically to him from the far back corner. "Mr. Saiki! I think I found something!"

Encouraged by her excitement, Reijirou ran over. Shiori stood by a door he hadn't seen before. "What's this?" he asked, carefully stepping over rubble and plants to walk right up to the door.

"See, we found this door before, and it was locked," Shiori explained, "And, uh, it's still locked now, but, see! Look at the lock on the handle."

Reijirou leaned in closer. Around the lock were numerous tiny scratches. "Where does this door lead?"

Shiori shrugged. "We aren't sure. Not directly outside; when we were exploring I found a little side room with Isao—" She stopped mid sentence. "But uh, yeah. Side room, different door to outside, but no idea what's in there."

Truth Bullet Obtained: Scratched Side Room Lock

Reijirou jiggled the handle. "Yep, it's still locked, so I'm not sure how that helps us."

Shiori tilted her head in thought, then shook her head. "We'll figure it out later." She gestured back over towards the lockers and said, "I think… I think I'm ready to double check Karen's body, then I'm going back outside."

"Before we do…" Reijirou hesitated. Is now the time to pry? No, but I don't wanna forget either. "When this is done, let's chat about whatever happened with you and Isao yesterday, okay?"

Shiori sighed, deflating just a bit. "You already noticed? It's uh, not a huge deal, and… I really just need to talk to him. Alone."

"Alright. Let me know how it goes then." Reijirou reached out, almost about to ruffle her hair, before he managed to stop himself and redirect his kind gesture to her shoulder. Wow, I thought I had realized how emotionally attached I'd already gotten, but nope. And that's not to mention what Rika said before, which I still have no idea how to process… I can't be their family; I don't have that right. Shiori thankfully didn't seem to notice his hesitation, just giving him a smile before pulling away to continue investigating.

The two of them walked back over to the lockers, where Ikeda was staring intently at Karen's neck wound. Shiori carefully stepped up beside him to look as well. "Oh geez, that much has been a bad way to go…" Shiori murmured, frowning.

"It takes five to seven minutes to bleed out from an injury like this," Ikeda explained. "And from the length and angle of the cut, it was made from behind. So the culprit must have managed a sneak attack." He leaned in so close he was barely inches from her face. "And to make an injury like this in one cut, the knife must have been small but very sharp. Maybe medical grade."

Shiori swallowed thickly. "Oh god, Karen…"

Truth Bullet Obtained: Ikeda's Account

Standing up quickly and wiping her sweaty hands on her shorts, Shiori said, "Okay, thanks, Ikeda. I'm gonna double check out back."

With that, Shiori turned and headed back out of the gym. Reijirou gave one last glance around; Isao looked like he might want to follow them, but he remained where he was.

"Mr. Saiki?" Reijirou jumped, caught off guard by Rika's voice to his right. He turned and saw she'd stood, although she leaned heavily on the wall. "Did… did you find anything in the shower…?" She asked, something strangely nervous in her voice.

"Yeah," Reijirou replied with a smile. "I think they'll really help us figure this out. We'll figure out who killed Karen. Don't worry."

As he went back towards the door outside, Reijirou almost thought he heard Rika say something else, but it was too soft to make out. Then, with that, he was out the door.

He quickly caught up to Shiori and asked, "Hey, so I had this thought. Whatever happened upstairs or in the gym, no one seemed to notice at the time. Why was that?"

"It was the storm," Shiori replied, sullenly. "I don't know how it was where you were, but it was crazy loud. With all the rain, and the wind, and the thunder, I could barely hear myself think. Plus, the wind blew in the cots we used to block the windows, so that was just more noise." Shiori clenched her fists at her sides. "The whole storm lasted off-and-on from a bit after you headed back until just before the morning announcement. Definitely during the period of both murders."

Truth Bullet Obtained: The Storm

The two had gotten back behind the building, with only their only company being Kenji, guarding the body, and Seihiko holding the ladder to the second floor.

Shiori gave a nervous smile to Reijirou. "Oh! Even though I didn't hear anything, that doesn't mean someone couldn't have." She rushed over to where Kenji sat leaning against the building. "Kenji, did you hear anything last night while the—?"

"No." Kenji looked up at them through his messy hair, eyes fiercely glistening. "I heard nothing. None of us heard anything while they were dying under the same fucking roof. We could have stopped it, or helped, or something, if we'd just listened!"

Kneeling down so he (hopefully) didn't overwhelm the boy, Reijirou said, "You cannot blame yourself for this. Or, anyone but the culprit. I know it might seem… better, if it was something you did wrong, because then at least you would have had the power to change it."

Kenji buried his face in his pulled-up knees. "He left while I was asleep. If I'd been awake, I could have stopped him from going upstairs. I told him not to try it before we drifted off, so if I'd just—" His voice cut off with a hitching in his breath, and his shoulders began to tremble.

And, here it is, Reijirou thought sadly as he carefully sat down beside Kenji. All the pent-up feelings coming out. And, of course Kenji isn't handling this well; Remy was the first person Kenji really felt comfortable with, and once they became friends they were basically inseparable…

Finally, Kenji seemed to pull himself together, but now, instead of sadness, his voice and expression were filled with anger. "But… If I couldn't save him, then at least I can make the one who did this pay." He stood up. "I'm pretty sure the last person to see Remy alive was Seihiko. When I woke up at about 4:20-ish, he was already there, and he said that he'd past Remy on the stairs on his way down. But we only talked for a little while before the tree fell."

Strangely, Shiori seemed a bit sheepish for a moment. Then she looked over to Seihiko and called, "Can you confirm that?"

"Yeah," Seihiko replied. "Remy said he wanted to try and take pictures of any animals he could spot in the rafters."

Truth Bullet Obtained: Kenji & Seihiko's Account

"So there really wasn't much time between when Remy went upstairs and when the tree fell," Shiori concluded. "Which was also right around when he was killed."

"Which could either be a coincidence," Reijirou continued, "Or somehow involved in the incident."

Kenji bristled. "Remy isn't stupid! He couldn't have let a tree knock him out a window!" He shouted.

But, I can't say Remy was always particularly observant of his surroundings, especially if his focus was pointed elsewhere. Reijirou looked up at the second floor, then down at Remy's body with a shiver. Still, something about this scene doesn't look right…

Before he could make a conclusion one way or the other, Homura came whooping down the ladder, somehow making her way down with her bad hand clenching a piece of paper. It was quite impressive. "Ah-hah! I was right! I knew I remembered this from when we were searching this place yesterday!" She jumped down, skipping the last few rungs, and quickly held it out triumphantly. "Behold! A complete layout of the barracks! When I found it in the uh… what were they called? Right! The officer's quarters! Anyway, I had to keep them with me so no one could mess with them! And yeah, it got wet at some point, so you can't read the labels, but it's gonna like, totally break this case open, I just know it!"

Truth Bullet Obtained: Barracks Blueprints

When Homura made no move to share the blueprints, Reijirou took a tiny step towards her. Here's hoping… "Could we take a look?"

"No!" Homura snapped.

Unsurprised, Reijirou sighed. "Homura, we can't solve the case if we don't share evidence, so can you at least let the other students look?"

Homura looked over at Shiori and Kenji, having apparently forgotten they were there. Narrowing her eyes, she waved Shiori over. "Make it quick. I'm keeping it secret from everyone else until the trial."

Shiori whispered a quick "Sorry!" to Kenji before making her way to Homura. Kenji just folded his arms.

It was only then at Reijirou noticed that Kenji's pants and shirt bottom had a few blood stains on them. He… He must have been holding Remy's body, Reijirou concluded. Clearing his throat slightly, he said, "You can uh, er, if you need help with the stains, I know a couple tricks for getting blood out of clothes. My mom did most of our own washing to save money when I was a kid, so…"

Kenji blushed, but didn't stiffen up or close off. "My… my mom would use hydrogen peroxide."

"That's the go-to, yeah," Reijirou agreed. "But there are other things we'd use in a pinch. Baking powder, vinegar, even crushed up aspirin pills once."

Kenji pondered those answers. "...Maybe Rika still has the aspirin from before. I don't… I mean, I know we're supposed to have time to change, but—"

As if summoned by Kenji's words, Monokuma's voice suddenly came blasting out of the intercoms. "Attention! The investigation period is officially over! No more hanging around. Go get into real clothes and meet at the fire pit!"

Kenji stiffened. "I… I guess I can't stay…?" His gaze was fixed over Reijirou's shoulder, on Remy's body.

Reijirou hesitated, then said, "Take some time. I'll make sure you're not late."

Kenji blinked in surprise, but simply nodded, and walked past Reijirou in a rush.

With Seihiko and Homura already on their way, Shiori jogged back to him. "Aren't you coming, Mr. Saiki?" Her voice seemed a tad nervous.

"Just gonna stay and catch any stragglers," said Reijirou. "Don't worry. Go get dressed."

Shiori perked up a bit. "Okay. We're… we're gonna do this. Don't be late, though!" With that she turned and began the trek back to the main camp area.

Reijirou watched her go, but a few moments later the sound of Kenji clearing his throat made him turn to the boy. Kenji sat next to Remy's body, but he was holding something up towards Reijirou. "I… This was on the ground near his body. I think everyone must have missed it before because it was… kinda underneath him."

Stepping up, Reijirou took a closer look. He took a sharp breath. "This… this is the aspirin bottle. From the first aid kit." How in the world could it have ended up here? He took the bottle and popped off the cap. Empty… completely empty.

Truth Bullet Obtained: Aspirin Bottle

Kenji stood awkwardly, whipping invisible stains off his hands and onto his pajama pants. "I'm… Well, I'm as ready I can be at this point." After another tense moment, Kenji turned on his heel and headed out as well.

The sudden silence and stillness in the air caught Reijirou off-guard. He hadn't actually had a true moment to himself since they'd found Remy. I've always stuck with Shiori or one of the students for the whole investigation, he realized as he felt a horrible, guilty weight fill his chest. No, no. You can't do this right now. The trial hasn't even happened yet. He tried to calm himself with one of his go-to breathing exercises, but it didn't help. His breathing was fine; he just felt the awful weight of grief. Changing tactics, he shook himself slightly. Go make that last check. Move to the next thing.

Thankfully, all of the students had taken Monokuma's announcement seriously, and no one remained in or around the gym. Once he'd checked the last corner of the building, Reijirou sprinted towards the fire pit. If Monokuma decides to leave me out of the trial because I'm late, I might have to figure out how to climb down an elevator shaft.

When Reijirou finally reached the clearing around the fire pit, he was surprised to see Monokuma in front of the group of students (all dressed now, and looking a bit less disheveled in general).

"Finally!" Monokuma groaned, long and exasperated. "Seriously, Saiki. Are you letting your privileges as camp staff go to your head?

Reijirou felt his eye twitch, but managed to remain silent.

Kashie held up her Monopad. "We just got copies of the photos from Remy's camera."

That caught Reijirou's attention. In a flash he'd pulled up the Truth Bullet app and scrolled to the bottom. With a click, a series of photos appeared. He swiped through them. Most were simply photos of birds, one of a snake (he very quickly scrolled past a picture of Remy and Kenji), but on the last two, he stopped. The second to last picture was of the dark, stormy night sky through one of the second story windows. The last one was blurry, as though Remy had taken it as he was moving. All Reijirou could make out was the sway of someone's long hair just out of left frame. Who is that? I can't even make out the hair color… And why did Remy turn right then? What did he notice?

Truth Bullet Obtained: Remy's Photos

With a snort, Monokuma waddled away behind the elevator, saying, "Alright, I want my trial to start A-S-A-P! Get to it!"

And before Reijirou could really register it, the students were filing into the elevator. For a moment, Reijirou was tempted to speak, to try and make an encouraging speech as he had many times over this whole ordeal. But now, with so many doubts, and fear swirling in his head and gut, he found he couldn't think of anything to say that would help. What could I say now? 'I'm sorry I've let this happen three times already'? 'Don't worry about having to solve two murders this time because you're all smart, possibly smarter than I am'? 'I care about you all so much that it honestly scares me, because if I can't be an objective counselor, then what's the use of me being here'?

He didn't dare voice any of these questions aloud. In the end, with one last, shaking breath, Reijirou Saiki followed his students towards the Class Trial.

We have the investigation! It took some doing, but it's finally here. What do you all think? Who seems suspicious? Where there two culprits or one? What exactly happened during that fateful stormy night? Next time we will start answering those questions. As always, please please please leave a review with your thoughts. Even if it's something simple, I love hearing what you all have to say. The other usual announcements: There's a poll for you to vote on who the culprit(s) might be. The link to this story's discord server is in my profile; join us for speculation, fanart, and silly aus! And once again, huge thanks to starsinherwake on twitter (carryingstarlightinherwake on AO3), who beta-ed this chapter. See you all next chapter, and stay safe.