Danganronpa MV 3: At Destiny's Edge

by Otterplay

Sixteen Ultimate Students wake up in the remnants of a long abandoned city only to find out they are going to be forced into a killing game. What choices will they end up making. And will it even matter, or is there something bigger at play here?

7. Chapter 3: In Honor Of - Deadly Life

All of us were still frozen by what we just saw. We couldn't believe it. None of us could. Jean had just been hung in front of us. How is one supposed to react to that.

Lily was hiding her face in her hands. "N-not again!" She cried out.

Serena took out an arrow, probably in an attempt to shoot him down.

Suddenly, the bursts open and Stephan came running in. A snapping noise could be heard and the rope had been snapped by the arrow, probably. I don't actually know, since I was too preoccupied by the parkourist.

He slid across the ground and managed to catch Jean before he hit the ground. He quickly checked for any pulse, but shook his head. "No…" He mumbled to himself.

.

Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Ding!

.

Monokuma showed his face again, this one more sinister than the last. "Another body has been discovered! After a certain amount of extra time, a class trial will be held." He paused for a second. "I should probably go there in person, huh?" And then the screen turned off.

Suddenly.

Bear.

That was quick… I rubbed the back of my head. "So how exactly do two bodies work?

"Puhuhuhuhuhu!" He laughed at my misery. "If they were killed by the same person, then obviously I would punish them. If there are two killers…" He paused briefly. "Then you can decide with the vote." He laughed again. "There's nothing more despair inducing than having someone's last moment realize that you prefer someone else more than them." He paused for a couple of seconds before letting out a depressing sigh. "Of course, that only works if there are two killers. So you'll just have to see." And with that, he vanished.

"Didn't he forg-" I started to ask.

Suddenly.

Bear.

Again.

"Oh right! Thanks for reminding me of this!" He pulled out the file and handed it out to me. "Have fun on this one!" And he was gone again.

I let out a small sigh before opening up the file. Might as well get started on this now.

.

Monokuma File #4

.

The victim this time is the Ultimate Librarian, Jean Libri. He died at 8:30 am when he was hung. His neck shows other damage that would indicate something else besides being hung.

.

"Something else besides being hung, huh?" I mumbled to myself, putting the file away. Doing this a third time didn't feel great, but I had no choice. If we didn't find who did this, we would all die. I looked around the room, and all the girls looked unnerved. God… I really don't want to do this again. But then, let's start.

The first person I approached was Lily, who still had her eyes covered. "You can uncover them again… you know?" I told her.

She shook her head repeatedly. "No… I don't want to see another dead body. I think I'll stay like this for now."

I frowned slightly. I didn't want to see another dead body, but here I am anyways. "But we need to figure out who did this, or we will also die."

She stopped her crying for a few seconds before uncovering her eyes. "R-right…" She mumbled, holding her arm. "Not like I'd be too useful in finding information."

"You were useful last trial." I told her with a small smile.

Lily quickly shook her head. "That was only because plants and stuff were involved."

Well, that was true, and I didn't have any counter points, so time to change the subject. "Had you seen Jean this morning?"

The florist quickly shook her head. "Nope, I hadn't seen him at all. Not even at breakfast." Well, he's normally a night owl, so it's probably he wasn't up by then. I sent a glance towards his body. Although… if he wasn't up by then, there's no way he would have ended up here. Did someone do this while we were in the changing room?

Well, that was it for what I wanted to ask from Lily, I walked over to the next closest person, which was Serena. She was fiddling around with a metallic object. When she was me approaching, she put it away, instead messing around with an arrow now.

"Nice call shooting the rope…" I mumbled, holding my arm. It's hard to open on these conversations when I want information.

She blinked a few times, glancing at the rope. "Oh… RIght. Shooting it down…" She placed her arrow back in her quiver. "What did you come here to ask? I don't really have any worthwhile information to give you."

"That's what I feared… On the bright side, I don't think one of us did it." I looked around the room of girls. It couldn't be one of us, right?

Serena glanced down at the ground. "I wouldn't be so sure of that." She glanced around the room. "The time of death doesn't prove much. Who knows how long he was actually there for."

I glanced down at the ground. "That's right…" But… I saw someone else up there! There was a shadowy figure who was next to Jean when it first started to open. Seems like they were who tied the rope to his neck. So who else could it be but them? And if it's them, then the rest of us here have to be innocent. "Till then, I'll keep thinking that none of us here did it."

She shook her head. "A very dangerous way of thinking, but you do you."

Now that I think about it, Serena is very hard to talk to…

The next person I walked over to was Caren, who was simply covering her mouth. Unlike Lily though, she was looking at the body.

"Another person has passed while staying here." She mumbled sadly. "Children killed left and right…"

I let out a small sigh, grabbing my arm ."You don't have to put it like that. I'm just going around asking people for what they know…"

The babysitter shook her head. "I don't know anything, I don't think any of us really do. We were all together anyways, so it's not like one of us has a loose alibi."

"Right, it's what I'm saying." But if there's even the slight possibility that one of us did it, I have to look into it, right?

Caren turned to look at the wall. "Anyways, I can maybe provide some help…" She pointed to a button on the wall. "This is what's used to open the roof." She trailed off. "But I'm sure none of us had even gotten close to it when it opened, so it's likely that there's another way to open it."

I looked at the button on the wall. I didn't notice that the first time I came here, but I guess Caren must have been here every day, so she would notice something like that. "Thanks, Caren." I smiled at her. At least I could mark down something as a clue.

The next person I approached was Historia, who had her arms crossed and didn't seem to be in the best mood right now. Not that she was sad, it was more so that she was angry. ."What are you angry about?"

"Can we just have like, a week where someone doesn't just up and dies?" She asked in an insensitive tone.

"That's.. Not really the most polite thing to say. Shouldn't we be mourning the dead?" I asked her.

The historian looked over at Jean's body. "I guess… but I never spoke to him much. Not like I talked to many people." I think the only people you would like talking to would be me, Enima, and Jack. Besides that… Yeah, can't say I can think of anyone else.

There was a long pause before she let out a sigh. "I just want all of this to stop. I don't mind living here, but I don't want bodies to keep turning up."

"You don't mind living here?" I tilted my head slightly.

"At least until I run out of stuff to read, that is. The museum is rather large, so I should have a week to get the details of everything." Sounds to me like you are inconvenienced by this body, and can't go back to reading. "As for anything I could help with, I don't know anything. I'm not a expert in this field."

"Neither am I." And I feel like I'm one of the main people solving all of these cases.

Historia put a hand on her hip, looking up at me for a few seconds. "Touche." Was all she said.

Doesn't seem like I'm going to get anything else of use from her, I should probably just move on to the next person

Next person I approached was Enima, which made me realize I was really avoiding going anywhere near the body. Stephan had it, right? "Hey Em."

"Em?" She asked. "The second letter is an "N"," She had a small grin on her face.

"Yeah, but then I'd just be calling you N." I informed her.

"But isn't the other one just M?" This was a battle of wits I wasn't winning.

"W-well… Huh…" Yup, not winning this one. "Whatever, find anything interesting?"

Enima glanced around the room, probably looking for anything of interest, which told me my answer.

"Alright, so no…" I let out a small sigh.

She rolled her eyes. "Not everyone here will be useful, I don't really know much. Although…" She trailed off. "When I first saw Jean start falling, he didn't seem to be conscious until he fell down a little more."

"Didn't seem to be conscious?" I repeated. But I also got that feeling, so I don't know why I'm surprised.

She now had a smirk on her face. "Well, his body probably woke him up because he started falling, so in an attempt not to let him die, it probably kicked in some adrenaline. Which…" She turned to look over at the body. "Doesn't do much when you snap your neck."

I started feeling a little uneasy now. "Ugh… don't remind me of what happened…" But… I glanced over at the body. "I guess I should go see it up close for myself."

And so, I walked over there… Stephan had just got down untying the noose of the rope, and placed it aside. I coughed a few times to get his attention.

He looked over at me. "Hey Riley…" He said solemnly. "I didn't get to see it, but I did hear a snapping noise and screaming from outside the gym, so I came to investigate."

"Were you just in the passing area?" I asked with a small tilt of the head.

He gave me a quick nod. "Us guys didn't have anything to do, so we mostly wandered around."

"Oh, so you wandered around and you heard the commotion?" I mean, not exactly sure on the credibility of it, but whatever.

He nodded. "And even more so, the body discovery announcement drifted me here too. Although, I didn't expect it to cause another one to ring out." He let out a small sigh. "I don't know who else died, but obviously it's not someone here. And given that the others haven't popped up here, they must be preoccupied with the other body."

There's four possible people who it could be… Cameron, Daniella. Jack, and Robin… I don't want it to be any of them. "Anything you can tell me about the body?"

Stephan turned back to look at Jean. "Well, yeah, he definitely had his neck snapped when he fell." He glanced to the open ceiling. "I'm guessing he was up there, wasn't he?"

"Yeah, that's right. The ceiling opened up after the body discovery announcement played.

"I see…" He then turned towards the rope. "And then this… There was one in the weapons store, right?

"Yeah, but Daniella had the only key to it. I'll have to ask her about it when I see her." Then a thought crossed my mind, which I simply shook my head to. "Anyways, anything you can tell me about the rope?"

He held it, playing around with it. "Well… It seemed to have been used twice in different locations." He said, pointing out some of the frays on it. "And used really hard, that is…" He mumbled. "Although I'm no rope expert, so I can't really tell you much else."

"Then what's your weird hook thing?" I asked.

He pulled it out. "It's not really a regular rope." He started pulling on it, which caused it to stretch. "It's more similar to a bungee cord if anything. That way my fall isn't halted immediately and I have time to slow down." He patted his stomach. "If it stopped me immediately, it would kill me since I have this wrapped around my stomach."

My face paled a bit. "Isn't that dangerous, though?"

He blinked a few times before flashing a grin. "Yeah, probably, but it's worked out for me so far." He put his hook away. "Anyways, I think the next thing we should be doing is worrying about how the killer got the body up there."

"Right, I didn't even think of that!" I glanced around. "Maybe Lily or Caren would know more about this gym's layout…"

Stephan stood up, placing the rope over his shoulder. "Then I guess we should go talk to them about it."

I feel like I should have spoken to Stephan first, but it's too late for that. I walked over to Lily, who still seemed to be crying lightly.

"Hey… Lily… me again…" I mumbled lightly.

She slowly looked up at me. "Y-yes… Can I help you?" The tears seemed to be gone, but that looked more like she was holding them back.

"You know the layout of this place, yes?" Stephan asked up front. I guess there was no reason to beat around the bush, huh?

The florist nodded her head. "Yeah, I would say so. Since it's been open, I stopped by every day to get a little exercise in."

"Perfect!" He seemed rather happy to hear that. "Is there anyway to get to the upper sect-"

"Nope." She said quickly.

That probably wasn't the answer he was expecting, and it showed on his face, with his mouth slightly agape like he was annoyed. I couldn't help but laugh a little bit. He ran his hand through his hair, messing it up even more. "Well then, there has to be some way to get a body to the top…" He glanced up, humming. "Let's go ask Caren, then."

Caren had been watching our conversation, so she had made her way over here already. "I can't think of any way to get up there… Although…" She brought her hand to her mouth. "There are some windows outside that don't seem to lead anywhere, so maybe start with there?"

I looked over at Stephan. "Well, I don't think we'll find much else, so maybe it's best to just leave now, right?"

"Of course." He said in agreement, turning towards the exit. "If there are windows, they should be on the right side of the building, since that's where the gym itself is located."

"But isn't that just an alleyway?" I inquired, tilting my head slightly.

He hummed in thought as he left the building. "Probably, but that shouldn't be a problem, right?"

I mean, if there's a window there, that's kinda sketchy.

Soon, we made it to the alleyway, and the first thing I did was step on glass. Yay for me. Feeling it I stepped back a couple of times, wincing in pain, only to realize that it didn't pierce my shoe, so I should be fine.

Stephan let out a little laugh at me. "Watch yourself." He looked up and sure enough, there was a window.

The window itself had been shattered. Although only a couple pieces of glass were on this side. How unlucky do I have to be to step on barely any glass. There was like one or two pieces, what the hell?

Stephan kept staring at the window. "Well, I guess I'll go up there." He said with confidence.

I shook my head, closing my eyes slightly. "I know you think yourself a great parkourist, but there isn't any footing to get up ther-"

"Done!" He called out, which made me open my eyes in disbelief and look up. Sure enough, he was up there.

"H-how?!" I yelled out.

He simply shrugged as he headed into the building. It might be a while, so I decided to look around the area. Although, it was an alleyway, so there was nothing of interest besides some crushed garbage bags against the gym wall. Like something had fallen on it. And… I stopped looking around when my eyes stopped on something. It looked like a weird podium of sorts. Although it was cracked into several pieces. I wonder if that had anything to do with all of this.

"Hey, Riley!" Stephan called out, making me look up.

"Yeah?" I called out.

He jumped out the window and landed on the crushed garbage bags. "Saw a few interesting things up there."

"Oh, I thought you'd only find one thing at best…" I told him.

He shook his head, a small confident smile on his face. "Please, put a little more trust in me than that. Alright, well first of all, there's another way up there."

"But Lily and Caren-" I started to say.

He shook his head, looking at the ground. "I tried to open the door, but it was locked, and there doesn't seem to be a keyhole to use. So it's unlikely that it was even used. Unless whoever the killer is somehow procured a key for the other side."

Well, if it's obtaining a key… I quickly shook my head. "Well, what else do you have?"

"The rope itself was attached to a system of sorts. When I pulled on it, it closed up the roof." I nodded my head. "And then the final thing. There seemed to be some sort of hole in the wall on the far left side. Although, I'm not sure how related that is to the thing as a whole."

"Doesn't sound like much, but hopefully it does help us figure out who did it." Or at the very least, how they did it. I don't think a hole in the wall is going to point us to the exact killer any time soon. "So, what now?" I started to walk out of the alleyway.

Stephan was stroking his chin, deep in thought. "Let's head to the museum."

The museum? "Why there, is there any good reason?"

He raised his hands in defence. "It's right next to the gym, so I thought it would be best to check if there are any clues nearby."

I couldn't exactly argue with that logic, so I just nodded my head. "Then I guess there's no harm."

Walking into the museum, it looked the same as it always did, but I guess because of finding Jean dead, it did feel a little unnerving at the moment. I shivered slightly, getting a cold feeling. "I don't like the atmosphere here anymore…"

But Stephan didn't listen to me, instead, he continued to walk off towards the left side of the museum.

"H-hey…" I scratched my head. "Wait for me." I ran after him, catching up. "You seem like a man on a mission…" I chuckled lightly, before reading the mood.

We made our way to the second floor of the museum, and soon enough, I saw some people gathered in the distance. And that's when I saw it…

.

A podium lay crashed on the ground, covered in some blood. The edges of it had a little bit of dried up blood, but some more of it was still liquid. On the ground, was what appeared to be a metal pipe of sorts, which had some more blood on it. There were three people standing next to the body, all talking to each other. I was too dazed to make out who they were, but they all seemed to be in conversation. My eyes focused back onto the body, as they were lying down in their own blood. They were faced down, and their heads tilted away from me, although there appeared to be a dent in it. But still, even then, I could tell that it was the Ultimate Secretary, Daniella Rubia.

.

I knew I was going to have to see another dead body again today, but… I covered my mouth slightly. I didn't think there would be so much blood.

Jack looked over at me. "Ah, there you are, I was wondering where the rest of the girls were." He had kept himself a fair distance away from the body. "This is horrible. And Monokuma's body discovery announcement glitched out and played twice, amongst other things…"

I let out a small sigh. "Actually… that wasn't a glitch…"

His face seemed to grow a little worried. "What do you mean that wasn't a glitch?"

"We found Jean dead…" I mumbled.

He was rather taken aback by that. All he could do was turn around and cross his arms. "..." He didn't even want to say anything else.

Robin and Cameron then approached us, they had been closer to the body, so they probably didn't hear what we were talking about.

"What's the stitch?" Cameron asked, covering his mouth slightly, like he was trying to hide his emotions. Well, I guess that makes sense. Daniella is dead, and he really liked her…

"Jean died in the gym… he was hung." I took out the Monokuma File I had and handed it to them.

"Ah." Jack took out his own Monokuma File and handed it to me. "I received this from Monokuma."

I took it, and opened it up.

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Monokuma #3

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The victim this time is Daniella Rubia, the Ultimate Secretary. She died of blunt force trauma to the head. Her time of death was around 7:21am, so earlier this morning. Besides the hit to her head, she seemed to have suffered hits all around her body.

.

This is the third one… I didn't even realize that the other one was the fourth one. It just goes to show how bad I am at noticing things.

Robin had a frown on his face. "Who would want to hang Jean…" He then looked over at Daniella. "This couldn't be the same person who did this… What benefit would they have to kill two people?"

"Clearly, to get rid of a witness." Jack said coldly. "If someone saw me killing someone, I would also try and silence them."

"Monokuma said it could be different people. If that's the case, the one with the most votes gets executed." I informed him.

Jack clenched his fist. "That's a little messed up, don't you think?"

"Oh trust me, I don't like any of this either." I glanced over at the body. "How much investigation have you done?"

"None…" Jack let out a sigh. "I'm not someone who just wants to approach a body without any thought so I waited for other people to show up." Then he had a smile on his face. "And my wish was granted when these two showed up." The two in question had gone back to the body, so they were out of this conversation.

"What happened when you found the body?" I asked him.

"Well, the usual stuff happened. Once I discovered the body, the announcement went off, and Monokuma then appeared to hand me the file." He took the file back from me, and handed me mine back. "Best to keep the ones we have."

I kinda wanted to keep that file on me, but whatever…

"So did anything else happen besides that?" I inquired.

He shook his head. "No, that was pretty much all I remembered."

Then I should probably go talk to the other two.

I glanced behind to see if Stephan was still with me. He was, he was just choosing to be silent. Probably thinking of all the different possibilities.

I approached the two boys. "What were you two doing when the announcements happened?"

"We were walking together when the first one rang out. We were in the museum."

Cameron nodded. "I was looking for some more inspiration for my DnD campaign, and since there's a war going on inside of it, I thought, what better way than a museum that probably contains some information on war!"

The tactician nodded. "Understandable. I came here because I also like reading on it."

So basically the two have an alibi. "How about when the second one rang?"

"Oh, we were on our way towards the body. I thought it was a glitch, since it played so close together, but I guess that was too much to ask for." Robin said with a sad tone.

I looked down, a sad frown on my face too. "Losing two people like that back to back…" They were all part of our DnD sessions too… I looked at Cameron. "Hey… What does this mean for DnD?"

He was taken aback by that. "I… I don't…" He seemed even sadder now. I guess that wasn't the right thing to say.

Well, that seems like all the things I would be able to get out of them, so I guess onto the body now…

I approached Daniella and bent down.

"I can handle this if you want me to…" Stephan offered.

I shook my head. "No, I have to see all of this stuff myself. Relying on someone else's words won't do me any good."

"Do… do you want to explore the top of the gym?" He asked me.

"O-oh! That's not what I'm talking about." To be honest, I didn't quite know why I said it like that.

Like the file said, she had been pretty beat up. Her arm seemed injured, as well as her back and she was hit several times in the head. "This seems way too excessive…" I mumbled to myself. Some of the blood in the area had dried up, which might make sense. It's been well over an hour. About an hour and half since she would have died.

Next, onto the murder weapon. It had to obviously be the metal bar, I'm assuming. It's covered in blood, and it's definitely something that would have caused all of this. Besides that, I noticed that one of the podiums also had some dried up blood. It probably got splattered on when she was hit.

"I'd say she was at least hit five times. Probably more, though." Stephan noted. "Whoever killed her wanted to make sure she stayed dead." He hummed in thought. "Or just wasn't confident enough in their own strength, so it took several hits to do them in."

"I mean, that could also be a possibility…" I let out a small sigh. Then, I felt a shiver go down my spine. "Say… isn't it a little cold in here?"

"No." Said the guy covered up in nice warm clothes. Well, I assumed they were layered, because he seemed to wear other stuff under his regular shirt. "But the window is open over there." He pointed to the window at the end of the hall.

I nodded my head and over to it. Sure enough, the breeze was coming from this place. I went to close it, but managed to glance down before that. The gym was directly below us, which caused me to let out a sigh. I hope the girls were doing good over there on their own. I would probably need to swing by again to see if I can find anything else of value. I then closed the window and started heading back towards the body. Although, I'm pretty sure I was done investigating.

When I got back, Stephan was twirling around an old looking arrow.

"Where did you get that?"

He pointed towards the podium that contained dried blood. "It was on there. As well as a bow and arrow."

"Why are you playing around with it?" I asked, trying to see if I could get a better look at it. The arrow seemed dented at the tip. It must have been something they recovered and decided to show in a museum. Did it kill anyone… Or maybe it managed to take down a plane, and the dent was from striking metal. I quickly shook my head, I can't let my mind wander like that. "Why are you playing around with it?"

Stephan blinked a few times before putting the arrow back. "I guess I was just bored and wanted to twirl something around."

I turned back to look at the podium, and from this angle, I didn't notice it, but it seemed to be somewhat damaged. Did someone hit it at all?

.

Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Ding!

.

The screen lit up to show Monokuma's eager face. "I think enough time has passed since the investigation has started. So I think it's finally time for that class trial!" He let out a loud laugh. "Please meet in the hotel lobby. This one is going to be a doozy, for sure." And then the screen went out.

"I… I don't think I'm ready for another class trial…" I mumbled to myself as I started to leave the museum.

"I don't think any of us will ever be ready for a class trial… no matter how many times we do them." Robin told me as we kept walking. You got me there.

Because the two buildings were right next to each other, we met up with the others pretty quickly.

"What ended up happening with the other body discovery?" Enima asked as she looked around at us. "Ah…" She realized who was missing.

"Daniella is… missing…?" Lily asked. "We did lose another!" She took a step back.

"Keep your voices down…" Jack adjusted his glasses. "You are being too loud…"

The rest of the walk to the hotel was rather quiet, none of us really wanted to say much, after all.

When we got there, we stepped into the elevator like normal.

"This is already the third time…" Caren pointed out with a sad sigh. "I don't want to do any more of these…"

"Well, it's going to keep happening, whether we want to or not." Serena said coldly, glancing at the door. "Seems he doesn't even need to provide us a motive for us to do it."

That was odd… not providing a motive. It's like he knew something would happen. I felt the elevator change direction to vertical as we approached the courtroom. "Well, we'll have to figure out the reason that this all happened…"

"Do you think there's only one killer…" Lily asked before looking at us all. "Or did two of us kill?"

I don't know the answer to that… But like I said. "We'll figure it out in this trial, I'm sure of it." I smiled at her.

Finally, the elevator stopped, and the doors opened up.

I took a deep breath before stepping out and heading towards my usual podium. This was nerve wracking, but I need to get used to it.

Now, there were three new picture frames. One of Josef with a red star blocking his face. However, both Jean and Daniella only had a red X on their faces.

I surveyed the room, making sure to look at everyone in front of us.

.

Several pictures appeared.

One of Jean leaning back to the side, reading his book.

One of Lily holding a bouquet of flowers, picking the petals off.

One of Marcus, tipping his hat down, with a small smirk on his face.

One of Serena, loading her bow with an arrow.

One of Stephan with a smile, waving.

Two victims this time…

One of Historia, with her arms crossed, unhappy.

One of Bella holding her hands together, with a small frown.

One of Enima grinning to herself, her eyes, conveying an unknown emotion.

One of Josef holding his cane against his forehead.

One of Cameron, throwing his dice at the camera.

Two killers, or only one?

One of Robin, cloaking himself in his robe.

One of Caren, running her hands through her hair.

One of Jack adjusting his glasses, looking off to the side.

One of Riley looking determined, with a little fear in her eyes.

One of Daniella smirking with her eyes closed.

.

.

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Class Trial!

Commence!

.

.

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"So… what should the first point of topic be?" Jack said with his arms crossed. "This case is a little different from all the ones that have come before it. Now, we have two victims. Monokuma never really said, but it is possible for there to be two killers, or it could just be one killer." He pulled out his E-Handbook. "And even if he didn't say it could be the same person, if we turn to rule twelve…" We all did so just to see what that rule was.

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Rule #12: Please try not to slaughter everyone. Only a maximum of two people can be killed by one person.

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"Right, so we shouldn't rule out any possibilities right off the bat." Robin pointed out. "But we also shouldn't use this as proof that it was one killer. They were found in two very different locations."

Serena nodded. "Not to mention an hour in between both killings. If the killer was going to kill two people like that, they would have done so in succession."

"So what you are saying is that it's likely there are in fact two killers?" Lily asked, bringing a finger to her mouth. "How could two of us be so horrible?"

"Say…" Enima tilted her head slightly. "Say there are two killers. The one who gets the most votes gets executed."

Monokuma stood up in his chair. "Yup! That way you can just vote for the person you hate the most! Then they will surely die!"

A wicked grin appeared on her face. "Alright, we're ten people. What if they tie?"

The bear remained silent, clearly not expecting someone to be this crazy. "W-well… Then I'll execute them both!" He let out a wicked laughter.

Enima then turned to everyone. "Alright, if there turns out to be two killers, let's avoid tying as much as we can. We don't want to lose four people in one day." Oh, so that was her true intention. It's hard to tell half the time.

"W-what! You tricked me. I thought you were eager to watch your friends die." The bear yelled out.

The mysterious girl leaned back slightly. "Please, I don't want my friends to die." She deadpanned.

"So, what death should we even focus on first?" Lily asked with a frown.

I thought for a few seconds before suggesting one. "Daniella's came first, so we should figure out what happened to her." As much as I would want to focus on who killed Jean… "If we focus on Jean first, we're likely to have missed some stuff from Daniella's murder. Or…" I didn't know how to phrase this.
"Let me be the intelligent one here." Historia cut in. "Daniella was first, so by going through hers first. It's likely we can find a clue that would hint at Jean. Basically, we want to know the order of events to fully picture the situation."

I let out a small sigh. "Thank you Historia."

"You owe me." She replied. So cold.

"Well…" Jack adjusted his glasses. "As the first person on the scene of the crime, I think I should be the one who talks about the body." He pulled out the Monokuma File. "Based on here, her time of death was early in the morning. Earlier than most of us would even consider being up for. Although, Daniella was peculiar, since she tended to wake up much earlier than the rest of the people. She seems like someone who would wake up at seven in the morning." He crossed his arms, leaning his head back. "So it's not much of a surprise she would wander off to a museum that early."

"But, what makes me wonder, is that someone else followed her there, more likely." Serena brought up. "Not many people would even consider waking up that early. Sure, we have a few early birds. And a couple night owls. But most of us just wake up around eight, or even nine."

"Last I checked…" Enima started to say before pointing at the huntress. "You are an early bird."

She nodded, although taking a small step back because of the accusation. "While yes, I do wake up rather early. I spent all my time downstairs because of the gym session we were all going to do."

"Did you see anyone walking in and out of the hotel?" Lily asked her.

Serena shook her head. "No, I was alone until the others showed up. I didn't even see Daniella pass by, so she was long gone by the time I woke up. I woke up at around seven, so she left much before that."

"So, she left before seven. I can't see her leaving that early for a simple museum trip." Cameron rubbed the back of his head ."You sure there wasn't anything else she was trying to do?"

"I mean, if I can compare her to Historia and Jean for a second. She just seemed like someone who liked to read." I informed him. "So it's possible she just wanted to read. Not just that, but what if she always heads out early in the morning. And when we see her, she just came back from whatever trip she goes to."

Serena shook her head. "No, I don't think that's the case. I normally wake up before her, so I see her come downstairs. This was the one exception."

Oh, well there goes that. "Either way, she wanted to go to the museum. It's likely she never got to see it. She's been hanging out at her Ultimate Lab over the past couple of days. She's been there at least three days. Every time I went there, she was there, so it's likely more than that."

"Pfft, why does she hang out there all the time?" Enima laughed a little. "Someone misses working?"

I nodded. "Yeah, exactly, every time I've gone there, she's either been working, or pretending that the mayor was out."

"This could be her coping mechanic." Robin pointed out. "She was a strong woman, who barely showed her emotions. But I barely show my emotions, and my coping mechanic is to keep my mind distracted."

Jack nodded. "I see what you're saying. By staying occupied, she's basically tricking her brain into thinking everything is fine and that there's nothing to be stressed about. It's a common tactic, honestly. If you don't change your habits at all, your brain sees everything as fine. Fake it till you make it, if you will."

"I'm not sure how accurate that is, or if you just made it up on the spot…" I mumbled out. It was hard to tell. "But we should move on. It doesn't really matter why she went to the museum in the long run. All we need to know is that she was there, and that she died."

"Right, now, I wasn't there, so mind giving us girls an idea on what happened." Historia asked, looking around at the other girls except me. Thanks.

"She was beaten to death." Robin said without missing a beat. "It was rather bloody, honestly…" He covered his mouth slightly.

Jack adjusted his glasses. "Alright, let me give you more details… The murder weapon was the metal bar that was next to her body. She had been hit several times. Once in the arm, once on the back. And several times on the head until blunt force trauma killed her."

Lily had covered her mouth. "S-she must have been in pain."

The critic glanced away. "Yeah, if she was hit several times in a row, she most likely was in pain. Or the first strike killed her. It's hard to tell based on the minimal details Monokuma gave us."

The bear stood back up in his chair. "It's no fun if I tell you everything! You all have to figure it out yourselves.

"Yeah, yeah…" Enima waved him off. "Anything else of note at the scene?"

Stephan shook his head. "Nope, nothing else. There was a damaged podium with some dried blood, but that's it."

"Then I guess we have no choice but to focus on Jean's body, because what kind of case can we make with just that." Historia put a hand on her hip. "Sure she was beaten to death, but anyone of us could have done that."

"I'll have to agree on that front." Jack said. "Although our biggest clue right now, would be the time of death. Since it was very early, the killer was either someone who wakes up early all the time. Or they had planned to kill someone, so woke up early."

"Planned to kill someone? Wait, why would-" I started to say before being cut off.

"May I remind you that Josef planned the murder a day in advance?" The critic glared at me. "And so did Marcus. Nobody here has killed on a whim." He clenched his fist. "Every single murder here has been planned, which is what made it harder to discover all the time. Even Jean, I'm sure, was planned. No one just carries around rope for the hell of it."

Why did he need to be so on edge about all of this. "Calm down Jack. I'm not saying you're wrong. But we just shouldn't make assumptions like that."

"Can we just all agree to move on to Jean for now…" Caren sighed.

He looked around the room before nodding. "Very well…"

"So, his time of death was 8:30, which is a minute after the body discovery announcement played for Daniella." The babysitter started to say. "And somehow, it worked out perfectly for the killer, since as soon as we stepped in, the ceiling opened up and Jean dropped down."

"I'll never forget the sound his neck made…" Lily said sadly.

That made me shiver slightly at how disturbing it sounded. "Right, it was all a shock to us. All the girls except Daniella were there when it happened, so I think it gives us all an alibi. None of us could have pushed a button."

"But isn't the button for the ceiling… in the gym?" Robin pointed out. "I stopped by once, and I saw it there. Someone had to push it while you weren't looking."

"Tsk, when would someone have the chance to even push it? We were all looking at each other the entire time." Historia had a hand on her hip.

The tactician's smile grew larger. "I think they would have had one opportunity to do so."

One opportunity to do so…? "You mean during the body discovering announcement? When I heard it, my first instinct was to look up, since that's when the sound was coming."

"Ah, I see what you mean." Serena nodded. "So while we were all distracted with looking up or around, someone could have easily moved over to the button and pressed it."

"The general premise, yes." Robin nodded.

"So… Let me get this straight." Enima jumped into the argument. "You think one of us used the announcement to our advantage. That means that we would have to know one was coming." She trailed off ."Which means not only did one of us have to kill Daniella, but then also have to hope someone finds her while we're at the gym. Seems kinda convoluted, doesn't it? Especially since the one person who would religiously go to the museum, was with us."

Historia had a faint blush on her face. "I don't go religiously… Don't make it weird."

Robin glanced down. "I guess that does seem a little more absurd now that you bring it up. A lot of perfect coincidence would have to go into it."

"But…" I trailed off. "There still was a weird coincidence with it. The body dropping right after the announcement played. That couldn't have just been some random luck. Someone definitely meant for that to happen I think."

"So, either way, we're back to having Jean's killer being linked to Daniella's murder." Cameron pointed out.

"So then let's concentrate on him, now." Stephan said.

I nodded. "So, from when he fell, Jean was unconscious it seems. At least until he fell a certain distance, in which case he woke up before he died."

"So, the killer made him unconscious." Enima noted.

"What reason would they have needed for that?" Lily asked, covering her mouth slightly. "It's like they didn't want him to go anywhere."

Stephan nodded. "That's my guess, exactly. There's a chance that the killer was long gone from there when Jean fell, and if he would have been awake, he could have walked over to one of the ledges to avoid falling down."

"Oh, that's right, you went to explore that area." I nodded.

Serene glanced over at him. "He went… to explore that area? How, I don't think there was an entrance to it anywhere accessible."

"Just use your brain…" Stephan put his hand on his hips. "They had to get a body there somehow. It didn't just magically spawn in there."

She didn't take well to the insult, and her bird flew towards Stephan.

"H-hey! Get your bird away." He tried shooing it off.

The huntress whistled to call it back. "So, how did you get there?"

Stephan ran his hands through his hair to mess it up again. "I told you already, I'm the Ultimate Parkourist. The city is my playground."

Serena glanced at me, hopefully trying to see if I could explain it. I simply shrugged. "I looked away for three seconds and he was already gone."

The huntress rolled her eyes. "Moving on. What could have knocked them out?"

"Well…" Stephan trailed off, taking out the rope he had brought. "If I had to take a guess, strangulation. The rope here is frayed in an area it shouldn't be. It's not something that would happen from being hung." He put the rope away. "Then again, I'm no rope expert."

"So they strangled him, and then brought him to the attic of the gym." Robin summarized.
"That still seems like a hard feat to actually do."

Serena nodded. "I would have to agree. Especially if the window was the only way in."

"I mean…" Stephan trailed off. "There was a door up there. So that's still a possibility."

"A door?" Caren blinked " I don't remember seeing such a thing ever. I checked all the doors and saw nothing of the sorts."

"Well, every door but the man's locker room." Cameron added.

She was silent for a few seconds, only glancing away.

"I-I don't like that silence." The dungeon master said.

Caren had a small smile. "I wanted to be throughout. And there were no rules. Not like any of the guys came to the gym. They're too busy being nerds."

Well, that was true. All but one guy was part of nerd gang. "Anyways, that's irrelevant-"

"Monokuma!" Cameron yelled out. "That's not fair, I thought there would be rules to stop us from doing that."

The bear simply laughed. "No, I thought you would have been responsible people and learn not to peep on people. Maybe I need to add some measurements now."

Caren quickly shook her head. "N-No! I won't do it again!"

"Please, let's not get sidetracked. We have two murders to solve this time. We have a mysterious door that we don't know where it leads. So it's likely it's not even a door we can access at all. So that would leave the one place to get in as the window."

"Then once again, who could even get a body up there." Serena pointed out.

I shook my head. "I don't know. I'm trying my best here."

The huntress took out an arrow, and loaded into her bow. "Then I think it's time we start looking at the obvious answer." She pointed it at Stephan. "It was you, wasn't it?"

"W-what?" The parkourist took a step back. "Geez, how many times are you going to try and attack me in one trial."

"As many times as I need to." She replied coldly.

"Calm down!" Lily called out. "Shooting him now would just…" She turned to Monkuma. "Would there be a trial if someone was murdered during a trial?"

"Yes." The bear laughed.

"Shooting him now would just cause another trial. So please don't kill him." The florist begged.

However, Serena didn't seem to be lowering her bow. "I won't shoot him. I'm just making sure that he doesn't try anything stupid."

I glanced over at the parkourist, who had his hands up in the air. Doesn't seem like he was going to try anything soon. "Well, please, stop pointing your bow anyways." I bit my thumb trying to think. It couldn't even be Stephan, right? He helped me out with the investigation, and exploring the top part would just hinder himself, right?

"Don't you find it weird that he was where he needed to be when he was needed? He was right outside the door, and as soon as the body dropped, he was there, right around the corner." Serena informed me.

Historia hummed in thought. "You know, now that I think of it, that was rather weird, wouldn't you think."

Lily frowned slightly, she didn't want to admit it, but she was thinking the same thing right now. "Don't take it too hard, Stephan. But if this is the truth, we gotta pursue it."

The parkourist still had his hands in the air. "I won't take it too hard." He seemed more annoyed than anything.

But… could it really be Stephan…?

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Class Trial!

Intermission!

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"I refuse to believe it's him." I told everyone else. "He's been so helpful in the investigation. He would have no reason to help out if he was the killer."

Jack hummed in thought. "Well, did any of you stop to think about this… He might be one of the murderers, but he wants to help out with finding the other murderer…"

Robin shook his head. "I highly doubt it's that convoluted. From what I've seen of Stephan, I have no reason to believe he would do such a thing."

At least I have someone who believes me.

"And what's your reasoning behind that?" Serena looked over at him. "You better have a good one."

The tactician frowned slightly. "We might not have talked that much, but he's been nothing but helpful for the group. Why would he turn his back on us like that? Besides, Riley did bring up that he was helping out with the investigation." He turned to look at Jack. "And only someone like him would think of that plan. I'm the tactician, and I didn't even think of helping out so that they would vote to kill the other person."

I nodded my head. "In the end, he should be trying to throw us off his trail."

"Did you go up there, through the window, I mean?" Serena asked me.

"I… what?" I blinked a few times. "No…" I admitted.

She closed her eyes, content with the answer. "Then who's to say what he found was actually up there, or that he's telling you everything."

T-that's right… If he truly did do it, he might have some evidence. But no, I'll fight for him! I'll fight for his-

Then I just remembered something… Something I saw when the ceiling had first opened up.

Yes, true, my attention was on Jean the entire time. But for a brief second, there was someone else up there. A shadowy person who jumped back at the first sign of it opening.

"I…" Oh God, should I even bring this up? "I saw something when it opened up."

Serena narrowed her eyes. "This better not be something you made up to try and save Stephan."

I shook my head. "No, it's not something I made up at all, and it probably won't help him. When the ceiling opened up, I saw a shadowy figure standing on top of Jean. They jumped away too quickly to actually see them."

"A shadowy…" Lily mumbled. "I… I think I saw it too…" She covered her mouth. "I was so concentrated on Jean that I didn't pay it any mind."

Enima shook her head. "I didn't see anything like that."

"Nor did I." Historia added in.

From the looks Serena had on her face, she didn't see it either. "There could be a possibility that there was a person up there."

Jack had a cocky grin on his face. "If there was a person up there, then the answer becomes obvious doesn't it?"

"Obvious… how?" Robin turned to look at him.

The critic fixed his glasses. "Well for starters, it can't be any of the girls, since they had all gathered in the gym in the first place. It can't be me since I was the one who set off the body discovery announcement." And then, he looked over at Robin and Cameron. "As for these two, they were with each other when it played off. Which leaves the only viable person… Stephan."

I knew the moment I said that, it was going to turn out like this. Was this the wrong thing to say? But if it's really him, I gotta go for assault. "As for why he chose the gym, I actually told him I had gym plans in the morning. So maybe he chose that location because he knew people would be there."

"And once Jean fell, all he would have to do is do a mad dash towards the gym itself and act like he just got there." Enima pointed.

The parkourist laughed a little bit. "You guys really think it's me huh." He lowered his hands.

"Hands up." Serena warned him, pulling back on the arrow a little more.

He shook his head. "No, I don't think I will." He took out his E-Handbook. "Hey, Jack."

"Y-yes?" The critic glanced away for a second.

"Would you mind reading through the rules again?" The parkourist asked.

"What's even the point of tha-" He glanced over at Stephan, who had a serious expression on his face. "Very well." The room was silent when Jack read, but he soon stopped and had a frustrated expression on his face. "What does… Does that… Does that mean?" He slammed in his hand against the podium.

"W-what does it say?" Lily asked, quickly taking out her own E-Handbook.

"Rule #7." Stephan started to say for him. "Once three or more people have discovered the body, a body discovery announcement will ring across the city." Then he took a pause. "Were you alone when you found the body?"

Jack had his arms crossed, tapping away at his left arm. "Yes. I was alone. No one else was there."

"Then, two other people discovered the body." The parkourist pointed out. "I was one of them."

"That doesn't mean anything." Historia had a hand on her hip. "What's stopping you from having found the body, and still murdering Jean?"

He shrugged with a small smile. "But then, who's the extra person who discovered the body?" He looked around the place. "They aren't speaking up, are they?"

The room was silent.

"My point exactly." His smile was wiped off his face. "No one wants to talk."

"What's stopping Jean from being the other person to have discovered the body? You could have still killed him." Cameron pointed out.

The parkourist took a step back. "Alright, let's view this from a subjective point. "Say, I killed Jean, but he saw Daniella. Then who killed Daniella, because if I discovered her body, I clearly didn't do it and I would have no reason to kill someone for discovering it. Now let's say Jean killed Daniella, and I killed him. That still leaves one person who didn't see Daniella. No matter what way you look at it, this proves my innocence."

"That doesn't prove shit!" Historia called out.

"No… nono. He has a point." Robin jumped in. "Think of it, regardless of whether he's telling the truth or not. Nothing can deny the fact that Jack was the third person to find the body. So if Stephan claims to have seen Daniella before, that leaves one person who needs to see her."

"The reason I was at the gym was because the body discovery announcement didn't play." Stephan started to explain. "I knew the girls would be there because Riley told me, so I rushed over to them to tell them. I just so happened to stumble upon another body." He crossed his arms.

Serena looked at him for a few seconds. "Very well…" Seems she was going to trust him for now. "So that means, someone here is keeping quiet about all of this." She glanced around the room. "So someone here saw Daniella… and kept quiet about it. For what reason…?"

"If I had to guess…" Stephan let out a small sigh. "They killed Jean." He looked up at the ceiling.

"W-what? Why would they kill Jean?" Lily quickly asked. "There would be no reason for them to kill Jean, right?"

Robin stroked his chin slightly. "That's not exactly true. There could have been a reason. They for sure had to have killed him, I think. That's the only reason they would be quiet about seeing Daniella's body."

Cameron nodded. "That makes the most sense to me. Talking about it would only incriminate them, as it were."

"So now we finally have some leads to this whole thing." I said with a confident smile. "So where exactly does that leave us?"

"If Stephan didn't get the body up there…" Jack hummed in thought. "Then how did the actual killer do it?"

Serena nodded. "Our entire premise for accusing him in the first place was because he could easily make it there."

"I feel like you had other reasons besides that." The parkourist rubbed the back of his head. He stopped when the huntress aimed at him again. "Alright, I get it."

"So, they couldn't have gotten to the window from the ground, right?" Caren asked. "I didn't see the window, so I don't know how high it was."

"No…" I shook my head. "It's a miracle he could even parkour up there." I informed her. "But for comparison, it was a foot below the windows from the museum."

"And how could you make that measurement?" Serena asked.

"Oh, because I sa-" I froze slightly. Oh my god. "That's how! The window from the hallway Daniella was killed in!"

Cameron scratched his head. "What about it?"

"They leapt out of the museum window, and landed in the gym window!" I cried out.

"Ohmygod!" The dungeon master yelled out.

"Ohmygod!" I replied.

Enima shook her head. "While that does seem possible, let's ask from a reliable source." Her head turned towards Stephan. "Hey, would a jump like that be possible."

"Oh yeah, totally!" Stephan said with a smile before growing more serious. "But the killer had a body to carry, so they couldn't have just chucked it or anything. And besides, the window was shattered, so they would risk getting the body, or themselves, cut up if they did that."

"You're right…" I rubbed my arm.

"I wasted my ohmygod moment on this." Cameron sounded slightly disappointed.

"H-hey, not my fault!" I tried to defend myself.

Jack tapped his arms. "Is there anything they could have even used to go to the other side? I didn't see anything like that in the museum, and did you, Stephan?"

He shook his head. "The killer didn't leave anything up there at all."

The killer didn't leave anything up there? Well, that's not true. "The killer did leave one thing. And it was being used for something else, so you wouldn't have noticed. They left the rope."

"The rope?" Cameron titled his head slightly.

I nodded. "They could have used the rope for something like a ropeway!"

The room was silent.

"W-what? Was it something I said?" I looked around.

"Who the fuck calls it a ropeway?" Historia had her hand on her hip. "Wouldn't zipline work better?"

"I… I guess…" I mumbled sadly.

Cameron shook his head. "Besides, doesn't that come with its own problems? How would they even get the rope to the other side?"

"I… Well I didn't think of that yet." I told him.

"Well, clearly, the obvious answer is this. They had two ropes, attached tw-" Robin started to say, almost like he was making fun of something.

"Alright, ignoring that." Serena said. She was fiddling around with her arrow, since she didn't have anything to aim it at.

Wait a second. "Oh, I've got it!" I said with a confident smile. "In the exhibit, there was an old bow with an arrow. The arrow seemed special."

Robin nodded. "It was a special arrow made from a rather hard metal. For the most part, depending on who was pulling it, it could pierce metal. Although you had to be really efficient with a bow." He saw Serena aim at him. "Or just be very lucky!" He fixed his statement.

Cameron shook his head. "Yeah, they could have used that. But you're forgetting one thing! They were both still there."

Stephan nodded. "And I never found any arrow on the other side."

That may be true, but. "That would be all and well, but you're forgetting one thing!" I told him. "You said there was a dent in the wall in there, could that have been caused by the arrow?"

He tilted his head over to the side. "You know, you might be right. It could be because of the arrow."

I nodded. "And before someone even asks me what they used to hold down the other piece of rope. They used a podium from the exhibit, of course!"

Stephan realized what I meant. "Ah, they secured it to the podium. It's a heavy object, but not immovable."

"When they reached the other side, all they had to do was pull on it and send the thing plummeting out the window." I told everyone. "I saw it broken in pieces on the ground. And with it broken, the rope was probably no longer secured to it, so they just had to pull it up."

"A genius move, might I add." Robin said with a smile.

"No… don't praise them…" Caren mumbled.

Cameron shook his head. "That's actually really creative… but they would have needed something to cross the rope, right?"

Oh god, I'm about to be on fire. "The bow itself, I think. They should have been fine carrying the body because Jean seems rather light. And the bow was in such great condition."

Robin nodded. "Not to mention that the bow was made in such a way that it was super sturdy."

"Sure you it wouldn't have snapped under the pressure. And plus, even if he was light, no hands to hold him." Lily cried out.

That is a rather hard snag in my plan. "There's also the possibility that the killer just had the body lean on them. It didn't have to work for too long, only a fraction of a second."

"Even more genius!" Cameron commented. "But we've reached a snag again… We can't forget about the shadowy figure, can we? That ruins everyone's alibi, right?"

Yes.. that does ruin everyone's alibi. "It's a possibility that I imagined it… No one else saw it, besides Lily, and she only thinks she saw it."

Lily poked her fingers together. "I don't even know if I ended up seeing it or not."

"So if that's the case, then this could have been done at any time, right? Like right after Daniella was killed, even." I continued on.

"I think we're forgetting one big thing…" Caren jumped into the conversation. "How did the killer plan out when the ceiling would open up. Doesn't seem like something that just so happens to open up."

That's the one thing that destroys my entire argument. How the hell did the killer manage to do that? I turned towards Stephan. "I'm sorry, but you were the only one up there. This is going to have to be on you."

He let out a small nervous laugh. "No pressure, huh?" He hummed in thought. "The only thing… And I mean the only thing I could possibly think of that would do this, is where the rope was tied to."

"Where the rope was tied to? Please elaborate." Jack looked down at him.

"I'm getting there, I'm getting there…" Stephan raised his hands in defense. "The rope seemed to have been tied down to the top of the thing that activates the mechanism… So it's possible it could have activated it."

"Yeah… but what possible thing could have activated it…?" I mumbled to myself, biting my thumb. "Unless… no way!"

Lily glanced over at me. "Did you find out what did it?"

"Did… Jean moving around perhaps do it? What if the rope was set up in a way that any movement would trigger the ceiling opening. Which is why he woke up so quickly, he was stirring from his sleep."

"So, had he stayed unconscious, it's likely he would have died later." Robin said… "Unfortunate that he woke up when all of you girls walked in."

"There's still some loose ends left, we can't call this a cleared mystery, or even call out that it's correct!" Cameron pointed out. "What about leaving the gym. It was still a large fall that could have broken their legs."

"Well, that's simple." I informed him. "There were some crushed garbage bags, which I'm willing to bet weren't crushed before today. The killer used them as a landing pad, just like Stephan did when he came down. And they were crushed before he landed on them, so someone else did it first."

He clenched his fist. "There's other stuff too! Like the bow and arrow were at the gym, but they were found in the museum."

"They… brought it back?" What did he think my answer would be?

Cameron shook his head. "But they were found neatly on the podium in the museum right? It's like they never left. There's no evidence to say they were even taken!"

Cameron? What are you doing? "No, it was definitely taken. And here's one thing that proves it." That's right, you got this. "The podium that the bow and arrow was on was extremely damaged, like someone bashed Daniella's head against it. It most likely toppled over. So the bow and arrow would have made more sense on the ground, if anything. The killer would have no reason to put them back unless they used them." I pointed out. I think… I think I'm getting a clearer picture of who it is now… I sighed sadly under my breath.

"But why… Why would they kill Jean?" Lily asked. "Daniella was already dead… right?"

That's… that's the question I was going to avoid answering. The reason why the killer killed Jean, was because… "It's because Jean killed Daniella." I said, finally coming to a conclusion. "That's the only thing that makes sense. And then, the killer found him and fueled by rage, attacked Jean."

"Wait, isn't there something we are missing?" Cameron asked, looking around at everyone. "If there wasn't a person up in the ceiling, doesn't that just mean no one technically has an alibi?"

"Hmm…" Caren hummed to herself. "That would mean even us girls don't have an alibi."

"But once again, none of us would have gone out early to do stuff." Lily defended herself.

The babysitter tilted her head slightly. "Except… well…" Her head turned to look at Serena. "You."

"Not this again." She sounded really annoyed. "I told you, I didn't do it. What reason would I have for killing Jean if he killed Daniella. Not like I was close to her." She defended herself.

Close to her… Huh…

"Well, either way, the killer would have to know that we were going to the gym." Caren said. "Stephan proved his innocence already, so it could only be a girl!"

"Only be a girl, huh?" I asked, looking around.

The babysitter blinked a few times before looking at me. "Oh, and who do you imply it could be?"

I'm sure someone else had to know we were going. "I told someone else besides Stephan. And that person just so happened to be hanging around the museum when I told them." My focus changed to look at the person in person. "Cameron, you killed Jean, didn't you?"

"W-what?" He said really defensively. "Why me? What did I ever do?"

I'm sorry Cameron… but it can only be you. "You killed Jean when you found that he killed Daniella, it's such a thing you would do too. You really cared for her, and would probably do anything for her. So seeing her dead probably enraged you…"

The Dungeon Master had some dice in his hands. "I refuse." He said coldly. "I refuse to have the world fall for such deception! My insight allows me to see right through all of this!" He rolled a dice, which landed on a 16. "Oh yeah, then we had been talking this entire time that Jean's killer was probably preplanned, but then if what you are saying is true, that was a crime of passion." He countered.

Oh that's right! If it was a crime of passion, what the hell was he doing with a rope.
"Like someone said, no one just carries a rope for the hell of it." Cameron said with such confidence, I almost believed he wasn't guilty.

"Y-yeah, but only you would carry rope around for no reason!" I tried to counter, but it's like I rolled a four. It just didn't work at all. I glanced around the room, and I saw doubt in their own face. But not about his argument, about mine. It's like the dice dictated what was happening. Well, I wasn't going to let those stop me.

What reason, what reason could he possibly have to carry rope around.

"Not just that, but why would I be in a museum at 7 in the morning? Don't you think that's a little too early?" Cameron continued his assault.

Oh god, Cameron was a night owl too, we've seen the fact before. There's no way he would be up that ear-

"Planning." Was all Robin said.

Planning? "What do you mean?" I asked him.

He had a small smile on his face. He seemed to be the only other person who was going to fight. "You've stated to me before in private that you wanted to go to the museum for planning, after all. The stuff there always gave you ideas. It's what you told me when I found you there, after all."

Cameron clutched his dice even more before rolling another one. This time, it was an 18. "That may be a reason I would go. But I had all day to go there. What are the odds I decide to go when Daniella and Jean go there? Besides, you still haven't answered my rope question. Why would I carry a rope if I wasn't commiting murder. Do you think I saw them and ran back to find rope somewhere."

I didn't have a counter to this-

"Allow me to step in for this one." Jack said, adjusting his glasses and looking at Cameron. "It pains me to go against someone as great at DnD as you, but I'm sorry. It's come down to this. But, you said the other night that you wanted to make a scenery of sorts. It's what you told me, and you mentioned briefly to everyone else that fact. Not just that, but you said you'd need a variety of items not typical for a DnD campaign. A rope, could have just been one of them."

We were all going against Cameron at this moment.

The dungeon master remained silent for a few seconds, thinking of a new argument. Finally, he thought of one last thing. He rolled the dice, and it landed on a 19. Doesn't he ever roll low?! "That may be true that I was looking for some extra things for the campaign, but there's no way to prove it was a rope. Besides, even if I wanted the rope, I wouldn't have been able to get one. Remember, the only ropes around here are the ones locked behind the cases." He countered.

"And those are no longer glass cases, so he couldn't have just busted into them if he wanted to." Enima countered. "I went to check recently, and sure enough, no glass."

So he couldn't have just broken the cases, and he didn't have a key. Did he pick the lock? No, I know DnD is his whole thing, but he doesn't seem like a person who's able to…

Then it finally struck me. "The answer to that is rather simple, might I add."

"Oh yeah, then prove to me, what that answer is!" Cameron called out.

A small smile appeared on my face. "It's simple. You asked Daniella for the key."

That seemed to have caught him off guard. Was he not expecting me to have called that out?

"You asked her during the last session. When everyone was heading back to the hotel, you stopped her to ask if you could borrow something."

The dungeon master grabbed his last dice and rolled it on the ground. But this time, it only rolled on a one. "Nat one!" He yelled out before leaning down on the podium. He simply frowned, not saying anything. It seemed that was him admitting to it, it seemed.

"Now, I don't know the exact extent of Jean's motive…" Him being mad about DnD couldn't have been all of it… "But Cameron's motive is rather clear. I'm going to say the entire crime from start to finish…"

.

"Act 1: It all started early this morning when Daniella went downstairs. The first place she likely decided to go was the museum, since she just liked reading. Unbeknownst to her, Jean had seen her, and decided to follow her there. And even more unbeknownst to him, the killer had set off to the museum for a similar reason as her. They wanted some potential material for his campaign… Nerd." "Hey!" "Continuing on.

.

Act 2: Daniella was walking around the left wing of the museum. There seemed to be a lot of interesting things there for her. But, before she knew it, or could even realize it. Jean hit her with the metal bar. He then proceeded to hit her several more times, probably to make sure that she was indeed dead. In the process, he would accidentally hit the podium, knocking over the bow and arrow.

.

Act 3: With her blood splattered everywhere, Jean was probably going to start cleaning up, including getting rid of evidence. Unfortunately for him, this was when the killer walked in. Or… well… they are both killers, but only one of them is alive. The second killer, upon seeing the scene that laid in front of them, grabbed onto the rope they were holding, and proceeded to start strangling Jean. He didn't really last long, and quickly passed out.

.

Act 4: With what they had already started, they chose to finish it. They grabbed the bow and arrow from the podium and attached the rope to the arrow. They aimed it out the window, and fired it at the gym window, which luckily for them, held onto the metal. Then, they tied the other end of the rope to the podium. Finally, they grabbed the body, and took a zipline down the rope using the bow for it. The bow was surprisingly durable, and allowed them to cross down. And for carrying Jean, they angled themselves in a weird way.

.

Act 5: Once inside the gym, they had to quickly set up the next part. They pulled on the rope to have the podium fall out of the window and shatter all over the ground. Once that was done, they pulled the rope back up and tied it to the ceiling. They had figured out how the system worked, and prayed that it would work for them. They untied the arrow, and made that end into a noose, which was then wrapped around Jean's neck. With everything else done, they jumped out of the window.

.

Act 6: Jumping out of the window, they managed to land on some garbage bags, which cushioned their fall. Being safe, they rushed back over to the museum to return the bow and arrow. Sadly, returning them to their spot is what showed us they were used. Once that was done, they went around roaming the museum, and eventually found Robin somewhere in the museum.

.

This is a murder that could only be commited by you, Cameron Parker, the Ultimate Dungeon Master!"

.

Cameron wouldn't look up, he was just looking down at his podium.

"Cameron…" Lily mumbled, holding her hands together. "Cameron, talk to us…"

He simply shrugged. "Wow, you got everything right, honestly." It seemed more like a hurt smile.

"Shall we… Get onto voting…?" Robin asked solemnly.

"Yes…" Jack crossed his arms. "Let's get to the voting.

We all voted, and we all chose Cameron.

Monokuma came to life when the results came in. "Oh boy! You guys chose correctly again! Not like it was a mystery." He laughed. "Yes, the Ultimate Dungeon Master is guilty!" He laughed out loud.

Caren crossed her arms. "Killing because Daniella was murdered, pathetic. You probably would have helped her had she killed Jean instead…"

Cameron shook his head. "No… the outcome would have been the same."

"Huh?" She blinked a few times.

"If someone would have killed for no discernible reasons, like Josef did. I lose all respect for them. Jean didn't even have a motive, and I wouldn't be able to think of one for Daniella had she been the one to do the deed. I would have reacted the same way." He continued.

Caren quickly looked away. "O-oh…"

Cameron let out a rather sad sigh. "And it's not like my motive was any good, so I lost all respect for myself. I just remember being in rage, her body was already cold when I got to her." He clenched his fist. "Monokuma! I'm rea-"

"No!" I yelled out.

Historia glanced over at me, annoyed. "What's gotten into you?"

"We still aren't done yet, you can keep talking to prolong your execution!" I informed him. The others have done that, so.

"What is there to talk about?" The dungeon master asked. "I'm nothing but a killer…"

"I think I'm going to bow out of this conversation before they talk about nerd sh-" Enima started to say.

"How was the campaign going to end?" Jack asked.

"Fuck." The mysterious girl mumbled to herself.

Cameron rubbed the back of his head. "Actually… all of that is improvised. There was not much story to begin with…"

"I-Improvised!?" The critic was taken aback. "... I would expect no less from the Ultimate Dungeon Master."

Cameron tossed a book from his bag to Jack. "Here, read this tomorrow with the others, that was the small things I had planned, but the rest of the story would have been completely on the spot."

The critic caught it, and looked like he was going to open it, but he stopped himself. "Very well, I'll do as you wish."

"And Riley." He fished in his bag, pulling out a pair of keys. "You were right, I did have the keys." He tossed them to me. "I trust them in your hands more than any other."

I caught them, and took a glance at them. Strange, there was only one key for the weapon room… so why were there two now?

He let out another sigh. "And also, please, don't let others force you what to do. You are in charge of your own destiny. If someone gets you to do something you don't want to do, say no. Don't just agree to appease them. I know it looks like the dice defines my destiny, but it just shows me the best course of action. It's never been wrong before. So stand up and think for yourself from now on."

"O-OK…" I mumbled lowly.

"Are you done now?" Monkuma asked us.

"Yes, I think I'm done here. I leave the world with no regrets…" He paused briefly, frowning. "Although I didn't get to see my family one last time…"

"I've prepared a very special punishment for Cameron Parker, the Ultimate Dungeon Master!" The bear said with even more glee than last time. He must be really happy about this one, huh?

Cameron looked down at the ground. "If you ever make it out of here alive, can you please make sure my sister is safe at least? Her name is McKayla. She should be good on her own, but just in case anything bad happened outside."

"Let's give it everything we've got!" The bear continued.

"She's a sweet thing, although she can be dramatic at times. Protect her with your life if you can!" The dungeon master continued on.

"IT'S… PUNISHMENT TIME!"

Cameron flashed everyone here a thumbs up. "Make sure you get out of here safely. "I don't want any more meaningless death." He paused for a few seconds. "Nor do I want any death at all." He turned towards Monokuma, smiling softly.

Cameron Parker has been found guilty. Time for punishment!

.

Cameron was walking a field of sorts, he was wearing a knight's outfit, and he had his hand on the hilt of his sword. He was off to combat, but little did he know that this would be his last battle.

.

Cameron Parker, Ultimate Dungeon Master's Execution: The Wrath Of Tiamat

.

Sure enough, down came a wyvern. But this dragon was unlike any other. Upon seeing it, Cameron had a look of acknowledgment on him. If he was going to go down, he was going to go down fighting a God. This wyvern had five heads, each one a different colour. Those colours being black, blue, green, red, and white. Cameron gripped his sword tightly and started rushing towards the blue one first. The blue head opened its mouth and lightning started to come out of it. A dice rolled on a low number. Quickly sidestepping, Cameron was able to avoid the attack. Just let the dice guide this battle. He gripped his sword as he swung down, giving a good dent into the neck of the blue head. It moved back in pain, shooting lightning into the air. He had a smirk on his face, but it was short lived as another head went for him. It was the white head, and before he could react, a breath of ice went towards him. The wind was chilling and quick, ripping off all of his armour, sending it flying away. Luckily, that wasn't all Cameron was. He was more than just some Paladin. Once the ice had cleared away, he was now wearing a robe of sorts. He had on a wizard hat of sorts. He held on tightly to the staff he had as he lifted it up. "Fireball!" He called out as he aimed it at the ice head. Not having time to react, the head was hit by the entire force of the fireball, falling back down with a screech.

However, playing with fire, he was met with fire of her own as the red head came in front of him and breathed fire on him, burning up the robe completely.

But no matter! He still had more to him than just that. He was now holding a flute. Jumping back slightly, he played a tune on it as some beams of light appeared beside him. They were then sent towards the red head. They appeared to be magic missiles of sorts. Not only did they hit the red head, but they hit the white and blue heads too. In fact, it hit a little of all the heads.

This is when the black and green heads joined into the battle.

Cameron jumped back, tossing out his flute before removing his clothes to reveal a set of Rogues clothes underneath. Then, he started rushing back towards the wyvern, getting ready to strike.

The blue head went to chomp on him, but he avoided it, instead landing on top of her. He stuck the dagger into the head before running down the neck.

The black head was the next one to attack with the acid. But thanks to his dexterity, Cameron was able to avoid it with ease, letting go of his thieves getup to reveal one of a Ranger. He pulled out an arrow from his quiver. Swiftly, he shot it into the eye of the black dragon, which roared in pain.

The one thing he didn't plan completely was the landing after he made the jump. He landed on the ground, spraining his ankle slightly as he fell down. By the time he got back on his feet, he was surrounded by all five heads.

He gripped his bow tightly, ready to fight. But there was no hope at all, all five heads shot out their own breath. He couldn't resist lightning, fire, ice, acid, and corrosive gas. Once they stopped, he was nothing but scorched bones.

.

I glanced away, biting my thumb. Another trial… another execution. I couldn't stand any of this anymore. "When will this end."

"Probably never…" Enima said, being a realist.

Jack adjusted his glasses. "I think Monokuma has no intention of stopping any of this any time soon."

"Puhuhuhu!" The bear laughed. "I'm having way too much fun. But this one sure was gruesome! There's no saving him from this."

Head pierced… head crushed… and Cameron, reduced to nothing but scorched bones. How many more executions would await us? Pierced by spears, poisoned, hung, beaten… How many more victims would there be?

"Let's just go back…" Historia mumbled as she turned around.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked him.

The bear had his back turned when I had asked, but quickly turned towards me. "Oh, why am I doing this?" He let out another laugh. "Because it's fun! Why else would I do this?"

"I'm not buying that!" I yelled out. "What did this city do to you?"

This was met by silence. Did I hit a sore spot? "What have you been doing in your free time…" His face was growing red. "Have you been snooping around?

Serena stepped up. "Are you saying there's stuff to find."

Monokuma took a step back. "Of course not, you think I would be this reckless to leave stuff like that lying around."

Historia sent me a look. "What are you doing Riley?"

I wasn't going to reveal the journal I found, but… "This city used to be a flourishing place, but now, it's ruined. We can see what surrounds the city, someone… or some people… destroyed this place. And I'm willing to believe you are the one behind all of this."

Monokuma dropped down from his chair. "Oh, is that so?" He covered his mouth. "Maybe I am. But the question now lies with… What can you do about it?"

What can I… I didn't think that far. "N-nothing…" I held my arm.

"Exactly!" He screamed out. "Now, enough talking to me, I don't want to see your face again today." And then he left.

Stephan frowned slightly. "So the state of this city is his fault?" He glanced outside. He tried to open the doors to head outside the courtroom. "Still locked…"

"You tested out if it was locked before, when did you have the time to do that?" Serena glanced over at him.

The parkourist started walking towards the elevator. "During the first trial, it was part of the city, and I was curious if we could access it at all."

"Let's just head back to the hotel." Robin pressed the button on the elevator, waiting for it to open.

The doors opened up and we all stepped inside.

The ride back was silent. It had been several hours since Jean died, maybe even longer that it would appear, because the sky was already dark. I was feeling rather tired. The guys were ahead of us, and us girls stayed behind the pact. I was walking beside Serena.

What caught my attention was when she started walking faster. She took out an arrow and loaded it into her bow.

"Serena…?" I mumbled to her.

But she didn't hear me, or at least, didn't want to listen to me. She instead aimed it at Stephan.

She wasn't going to shoot him, was she. "Hey, what are you doing!?"

It was fruitless, as she let go of the arrow, sending it fly towards Stephan. It connected into the back of his head and some of the girls let out a scream.

But, for a few seconds, his body seemed to glitch out. No… that wasn't the case. It's like he was moving way too fast for our eyes to even keep up with. And then, where he used to stand, he was no longer there.

"W-what!?" I took a step back. "Where's Stephan?" I quickly wiped my head over to Serena. "Why did you do that!?"

But, she wasn't even paying attention to me. She was too busy looking up.

Following her gaze, I glanced up on top of a light post, where there was a shadowy figure on top of it. "Stephan…?" I mumbled.

He was standing on it in a weird way. In one hand, he held the arrow in his hand. "Why did you just try and shoot me." He crushed the wooden part of it, and tossed it to the ground.

She loaded her bow with another arrow. "My instincts are never wrong."

"Instincts…" He repeated, clearly annoyed at all of this. "What are your instincts telling you?"

The huntress narrowed her eyes. "That you are no normal man. Nor are you just some parkourist."

I glanced over at the others who were watching this, and they were just as speechless as me.

"What do you mean by that, you think I'm faking being a parkourist? I'll have you know that not many people can be a parkourist, so it wouldn't make sense to try and fake being one." His entire expression was much more serious now. What was with him? And the way he avoided the arrow.

"No, I think that's just to explain what your true talent is." Serena told him. "I think you are someone who can pass for a parkourist, especially with your skill set. You were able to not only avoid my arrow, but to catch it and make your way up the lamp post. All, in mere seconds."

Stephan sat down on the lightpost. "Then tell me, what do you think I am?" He covered his mouth with the top of his shirt. "Please, oh wise huntress." His words were dipped in bitterness.

"Stephan… come down from there." I asked him, taking a step forward.

He sent me a glare. "This doesn't concern you. What am I?"

Serena took something out of her pocket, before throwing it at Stephan.

He caught it between both of his fingers. "So, you took this." He looked at it.

Despite the darkness, I could still see what it was. It was a shuriken of sorts. Wait! He wasn't…

"You threw this as soon as you got into the gym." The huntress told him. "That's why the rope snapped. You just failed to think all of us wouldn't have sharp eyes. I'm a huntress, something as small and quick as that won't escape my gaze."

Stephan had a frown on his face. "Fine, you're right. I'm the Ultimate Ninja. Nor is Stephan Dellanote my name."

"W-what?" I took another step forward. "Why lie about that."

He placed his hand behind his bag, and I heard the faint sound of a zipper. Right, I noticed that detail when I first saw him, but I didn't think anything of anything. He unzipped his shirt. It didn't actually open his shirt, it just opened up two flaps which he flipped over to reveal his ninja outfit. It was mostly black, with some spots of grey, but it was also a little baggy. And, I could see the hook thing, as well as the bungee rope wrapped around his stomach. He also put the face mask that was around his neck. Now, it was covering his mouth and nose. "Alright, you've seen what I truly look like now."

"Why lie?" Historia had a hand on her hip. "What benefit is there to do that?"

The ninja glanced away. "What kind of ninja just reveals themselves to be one? I work from the shadows, I'm not one to just go." Then he reverted back to his old expressions. "Hey! Did you know I'm a ninja! The greatest of the world!" Then, back to his cold expression. "Doesn't seem too practical, does it."

"You aren't the one behind all of this, are you?" Jack glared at him.

Robin shook his head. "No, I don't think he is."

"But he's even using a fake name!" Lily pointed out. "Who uses a fake name?"

Stephan lowered his mouth mask slightly. "While it may be a fake name, it's one I would like to be called by. Even if my last name translates to "Of the Night.""

"Stephan of the night?" I mumbled. "But if you lied to us, how can we fully trust you know?"

The ninja dropped down from the lightpost. "Look, I'm trying to prevent deaths here too. I've always been here to help. You think I'm just doing all of that to appear on your side? To appear as some sort of hero?" He rolled his eyes. "Even if I lied about my identity, my actions are genuine. But now, I'm worried I'll be a target."

"Pfft, who would even attempt to try and kill a ninja." Caren pointed out. "I don't think any of us are confident in trying that."

Serena placed her bow back, as well as her arrows. "Well, I think that's enough for tonight. I know I'm the one who initiated it, but I just wanted some answers. And I got some. We can resume this tomorrow morning." She glanced back at where Stephan was and… He was gone? "He wastes no time, at all." She let out a small sigh as she started to walk away.

Everyone else looked at each other. What was even going on anymore?

.

.

.

Meanwhile, in the forest in the outskirts of town. The man with the cloak was sitting down on a stump next to a fire, writing down something. When he was finished, he whistled and a black bird landed on his shoulder. He opened a little pouch attached to it's leg, and then he sent the bird off. "Come back safe." He told the bird, before putting out his fire.