School is now 100% over! I'm going to dedicate myself to the story more from now on since I ahve the time and motivation, so I expect to complete it some time in 2021!

Monoyaki stretched back in his chair, and leaned against its right armrest. "Okay, in case anyone's forgotten, the goal of the Class Trial is to figure out whodunnit."

Molly sighed. "Who did i-"

"Whodunnit! Once you figure out who the killer is, or if anyone's even been killed at all, vote them out and they'll be executed! And, of course, failure means death for everyone aside from the entrepreneur."

"So," Charlotte started, "if it turns out nobody's actually dead, and nobody killed anyone, that means nothing happens even if we figure it out, right? 'Cus there's no way someone just died without... Dying. Nobody died yet?"

"Well, if you dunno what happened, I might just kill everyone anyway if you don't get to the bottom of it."

I momentarily sweated. "If there isn't a killer, then there won't be anything to get to the bottom of, though?"

"Eh. I dunno. Not my job to figure it out."

I remembered seeing Terry's corpse, or whatever it was. Terry was there with us, alive and well, so what exactly was happening wasn't clear. However, whoever this body was, somebody definitely killed them. I reassured myself that all I had to do was prove the body's existence and track down the perpetrator.

"So, if there aren't any more questions, then we can begin!" He clicked his fingers and grabbed the carton of orange juice that fell from the ceiling, and took a quick sip.

Mary immediately spoke, trying to get the trial to properly start already. "Has anybody acquired information regarding the victim of the possible murder, if there has been one?"

"Y'mean has someone found the body?" Rocky was perplexed for a moment. "I don't see why y'all gotta speak so complex-like."

"I dunno..." Mia shrugged. "It's probably just how she talks or something. We barely ever see her around, anyway..."

Mary sighed. "Well, there's a very good reason why I don't attend your meetings-"

"Can we stay on topic please?" I interrupted. "We did find a body, yeah. Me and Archie saw it in the trash dump while we were investigating."

"Well what were you doing there, anyway?"

"There was a spare set of keys that Terry made, and somehow they ended up in Lucy's room. She gave it to us, and we figured it'd be a good idea to check it out, and we found, uh..." I looked over at Archie. "Do you still have the apron you took there?"

He nodded, and, from the pocket of his trousers (not entirely sure how he fit the whole thing in there), he procured the apron from earlier, in its two pieces.

"As you can see," I continued, "this apron belongs to Terry. It matches his one perfectly."

Terry gave a concerned look, with a hint of surprise. "So is that it then? Was there a body with it?"

"Well, the reason we brought it out is to prove, that, uh..." I paused, trying to figure out how to explain this. "We saw a body that looked exactly like you, Terry. Same hair, face, clothing... We're not entirely sure what to make of it."

"..." The rest of the class were just staring blankly at me and Archie.

"Aaaaand you're making shit up." Jo looked off to the side. "Not surprised that you'd just not find a body, and then, I dunno, steal one of his aprons and cut it up. I mean, you two are always the ones getting way too obsessed with the details of the crime. So... You'd probably notice that the victim would've been cut in half with the buzzsaw." He crossed his arms, smirking. "And so you nabbed one of his aprons and cut it in half, and made up some story about a body."

"Absolutely genius!" Charlotte snapped her fingers. "You did it, Jo! You figured out that Jane and Archie are the murderers!"

Molly exhaled forcefully. "Can we not get ahead of ourselves? I know this sounds over the top on their part... However, it's so insane that I think they'd probably try to come up with a better lie than that."

"A-and I don't think there can be two entrepreneurs, anyway.", Amber added.

"But, err..." Terry seemed the most awestruck out of any of them. "I'm not dead."

"Well, yeah." I said, feeling somewhat awkward. "I don't really know what's going on either."

Lucy tilted her head back. "I don't think I know what's going on every day of my life."

"... If anybody wants more evidence that we're not lying." Archie turned the sliced apron in half, and revealed that the inside portion of it was somewhat soaked in blood, especially along the cut line. "I believe these stains happened when the body was sliced by the buzzsaw. It travels right along the middle where the cut would have happened." He draped the apron pieces over the front of the railing before him, keeping them displayed.

"... Well," Jo responded, "it doesn't look like ketchup to me. Looks like Terry really IS dead." He smirked a little, as if the idea of it entertained him somehow.

"Th-that's impossible!" Dan frantically pointed at Terry. "He's right there! Can't you see?!"

Terry himself seemed rather distant, as if he was considering the situation genuinely. "... Dead. I'm dead." His joints twitched. "Dead dead dead. Dead, dead dead, dead..."

"C-comrade?" Robin sweated. "Are you feeling well...?"

"Dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead-" He fell forwards, his head slammed on the railing. He didn't drop down like a normal person, rather, he seemed almost like a wine bottle leaning against a shelf. Completely frozen.

Smoke began rising out from the back of his neck. Not a cigarette or anything, literally out of his body.

"... He's..." Dan blankly looked at the smoke.

"Busted." Rocky tightened his collar. "He's busted. He's... That ain't Terry."

"Wh-what the hell are you talking about?!"

"That smoke's thicker than the smoke off a pistol. That's... That's a machine."

Everyone stared at... That, for a while. Even though Rocky had explained it clearly, it was hard to grasp the fact of the matter. That wasn't Terry. Someone, somehow, had built some sort of android that looked, acted, WAS just like him. Somehow. Surely artificial intelligence wasn't that far along yet, right?! But there it was, leaning in place, letting off smoke, crashed and bugged. We kept staring for a few more minutes.

"Okay, now SAY SOMETHING!" Monoyaki slammed his juice carton onto his arm rest. "Great job figuring that first part out, but you have to follow up on it! This is boring! Do something already!"

"But where do you expect us to go from here?" Lucy readjusted her posture. "I don't think this makes any sense."

"W-well, I..." I racked my head trying to explain it. I mean, what it was was obvious, but it was so surreal that putting it into words felt incredibly awkward. "What I think happened is that, well, someone made this robot in order to, well, 'replace' Terry. By hiding the original body in the rubbish, they'd mislead us into thinking that nobody was actually dead... And then they'd leave behind one of Terry's fingers in order to activate the body discovery announcement."

"So..." Molly looked at the broken 'Terry' for a second, then back to me. "You think that whoever killed Terry made the robot then?"

"Either that, or whoever's the mastermind who's managing the killing game in the first place made it."

"What, just to mess with the case?" Monoyaki reclined in his chair. "I would neeeeever think of doing that... That'd be cheating, and cheating's bad."

"U-um," Dan stuttered out, "Isn't murder bad too...?"

"Look, we've had this conversation before, I don't see a problem with it in the first place."

"B-but he..." The long haired boy shook for a second. "I mean, there's no way Terry's actually dead though, right? I mean I didn't see the body, I mean, nobody would kill him, right? He's t-too nice. I-I mean, I liked him, I don't think anyone else didn't like him?"

"Look, it's not about whether or not you liked someone, it's about killing for the sake of killing and stuff. Anyway, I shouldn't be talking this much during the trial anyway, so I'm gonna shut up now." He yawned.

"... So." I tried to restart the conversation. "Unless the android manifested from out of nowhere, it had to have been made by one of us for the sake of the murder."

"But what if it did manifest out of nowhere?" Charlotte poised. "I don't wanna cross out any possibilities!"

Mary glared over at her as she spoke. "We should just stick tape over her mouth or something. She's slowing things down."

Charlotte pouted in response. "Of course, everyone wants to silence the truth..."

"Well," Robin interjected, "The truth is... I can't program, and I'm not aware of anyone else here who can. Making an automaton that can effortlessly replicate a human would be near impossible, and certainly remarkable with the current level of technology."

"There!" Charlotte asserted. "Since nobody here can do any programming or anything, that proves that the robot appeared out of nowhere!"

"Just a second!" I shouted, before pausing for a moment as I tried to recall a relevant piece of information. "Aside from not necessarily proving that he appeared out of nowhere... The first bit isn't true anyway. I had a conversation with somebody recently, and she told me that she was working on something to do with coding."

"A-and who's that?" Mia quietly asked, speaking very slowly as if she was stalling for time.

"... You?"

"A-and j-just because I said, um, that I said... Wh-what did I say again?" She shivered in place.

"That you finished coding something very recently."

"And th-that makes me the killer?"

"I-I'm not saying that, I just want to find out what you were working on."

"W-well..." She stopped for a moment in consideration, then sighed. "Y-yeah. I helped him make it."

"Wait," Rocky responded, suddenly, like some sort of instinctual response, "so y'were workin' with him? He made the metal parts 'n you did the brain stuff?"

"I-if you wanna call it that, yeah."

"How?" Archie looked genuinely stunned. "You did that in a few days? You actually created a sentient AI within a few days by yourself?"

"I-I mean, it's not sentient, uh, it just imitates his personality and mannerisms."

"That's not what I mean, how did you accomplish... Whatever this is?"

"I-I dunno. I just sorta felt like it." Mia shrugged. "When I feel like doing something, I just sorta do it."

"And... If you just felt like it, that means it wasn't for the sake of covering up a murder?" he asked. The amount of work the seemingly lethargic girl had put into the android seemed unnecessary for any reason other than a murder plan, honestly. She seemed to be getting a little less jittery as she explained herself.

"Well, that's why I'm telling everyone now. If I admit that I made it, people won't assume that I made it for the sake of the murder."

"Nice plan." Jo smirked again. "Doing something they won't expect so they won't think you're the killer. I mean, who else would it be? Who else even knew there just happened to be a robotic version of a potential victim?"

"Look, I don't even know who turned the robot on! It was inactive last night, a-and it was stationed in his workshop. The killer might have noticed it after killing Terry and just used it to their advantage."

"But, Mia," I started again, "If the robot wasn't made for murderous intent, what was the purpose of it then? I don't see why you'd create a technological marvel out of boredom..."

"... Terry looked kinda overworked. I figured he could have a break if I made him a robot that could do all his work for him." She looked off to the side. "He didn't seem very approving of the concept, really. He said that if he just had a machine replace him, people would think he was lazy or something. So I offered to make it so that the robot would be able to mirror his personality and appearance to the point that people wouldn't realise he was taking a break. He was still hesitant, but he did it anyway. Just because I asked him to. And, he just... Didn't seem to be able to say no to a task or something. I dunno."

"... He must have felt somewhat useless, then. If he could just be replaced effortlessly like that. Wouldn't that have had an impact on his self-esteem or something...?"

"We have a case to solve.", Mary said. "You can save the therapist appointments for later. He's dead, anyway. Not like it'll make him feel better."

"Well then." Molly redirected us for a moment. "Whether or not Mia is the entrepreneur in this case can't exactly be proven. The mystery about the victim and the robot and all of that nonsense is taken care of, and there isn't really anything more down that rabbit hole, it seems."

"I suppose so, Molly." I thought for a second about any other possible leads, though not much came to mind. There was a lot to account for.

Amber raised her hand, as if asking permission to speak. "M-maybe the thing about the keys from earlier? I-I dunno how they got in Lucy's room like that..."

"I-I guess it's..." Dan said, or at least tried to say, already starting to get overwhelmed. "L-like framing her? Like, the killer put it there?"

"Uh..." Lucy blinked a couple times. "Maybe they just wanted me to take the rubbish out on their behalf."

"That does actually make sense though," I pointed out, "because when we went into the rubbish area, we saw the scythe that Terry made for her. I think that the murderer put it in there, and by giving you the keys, hence invited us to look at the items in the rubbish, thus implying your incrimination."

"Except..." Robin glanced at Lucy. "Are you entirely sure it was a framing? The fact that she even asked for a scythe in the first place forces us to consider that she may very well have planned this from the beginning."

"Planned what...?" She glanced back at him.

"... I sometimes wonder if her apparent ignorance of the situations happening around her is feigned."

I ended up looking at her as well, looking deep into her blank eyes. "... Are you really sure?..."

"Well, no, there isn't any way to be truly sure. However, feigning reactions and ignorance alike is something I've learnt while studying methods of insurrections. Such a skill becomes useful during circumstances in which one is interrogated by opposing government forces... And although I wouldn't expect her to be accustomed to such a skill, even the most unlikely possibilities must be acknowledged."

"B-but..." There couldn't be a way Lucy had actually done this. She would never, right? Though perhaps it was only motivated by instinct, I started looking for ways to prove her innocence. "If she did kill him, she would start by using the scythe, right? Although Terry was eventually killed via the buzzsaw, she would have managed to injure him with that scythe." I smiled confidently. "After all, the crime scene was a wreck, so there must have been a prolonged struggle. There wasn't any noticeable injury that could have been made by the scythe, however, so I don't find it likely the scythe was used at all for the sake of the murder."

"Hold on." Archie said, right after I had finished speaking. "That isn't accurate. There was one major piece of evidence that was very likely created through the use of the scythe. The finger that was lying on the floor was cut off cleanly, as if sliced, and was lying far from the saw. It therefore had to have been cut off by a different tool, and the scythe, being immediately on hand, would have been the logical choice. Its red colouring would have even prevented it from looking bloodstained." The boy paused in thought for a moment. "I'm not entirely sure if it was cut off during the struggle, or cut off post-mortem for the sake of activating the body announcement, but either way, the scythe would have been used."

"H-hang on, though." Mia said, though still with some of the meek tone from earlier. "Wh-while it's useful to know that the scythe was used, uh... That doesn't really prove anything, if we're talking about whether Lucy used it. I mean... Anyone could have used it..."

"It does seem to imply her, however. At the very least, she's a major suspect."

"B-but she isn't!" I interrupted, somewhat desperately. "J-just because someone else probably used her stuff, doesn't mean she did it, r-right, Lucy?!"

She stared at me with that same blank expression. "I dunno... They're rather convincing..." She yawned. "Maybe I did do it..."

"... Lucy..."

"... I mean, I guess I didn't. I felt quite shocked when I saw all the bl-blood there, so, I probably didn't do it..."

"Again," Robin noted, "the reaction may have been staged. Perhaps she performed the murder at night, then came the next morning, and pretended to have fainted, in order to instead portray herself as a witness..."

"W-witness..." I engaged in excruciatingly focused thought, tying to figure out what I could say next. "... That... That's it! The witness order!" I pointed up at Monoyaki. "Can you confirm something for me quickly?"

The goat adjusted and stopped slouching, with an annoyed expression. "Ugh... I guess... What is it?"

"In total, after someone has been killed, three people, excluding the entrepreneur, have to see the body to activate the announcement that starts the investigation. Did I get any details wrong?"

"Nope. You didn't need me to check for you..." He pouted.

"It was mostly just so nobody doubts whether or not I remembered it correctly."

"And..." Charlotte spoke, "What are you trying to prove with that?"

"Well, to put it simply, this decreases the odds that Lucy's the killer. When I found her, she was the only other person in the room, and as I saw the crime scene, the body announcement played afterwards, meaning I was the third person to see it. If Lucy's innocent, that would make her the second one to discover the area, and only one other person saw it before either of us. However, if she was the killer, that would mean that, between her killing Terry and pretending to faint in the morning, two people would have seen it without saying anything. The idea that not one, but two people saw this without saying anything is remarkably unlikely."

"But neither is one." Archie said, bluntly.

"Well, yeah, but... Perhaps the one unaccounted for person is some sort of accomplice to the killer. Having two accomplices would be far more unnecessary and risky, since one of them could snitch about it or something..."

"But what'd be the point of it?" Rocky leaned forward a little, deliberating. "Far as I'm aware, there'd be no reason to assist the scheme. I mean, the rules say 'the killer' escapes, right? Not 'killers'?"

"Uh... Yeah?" Monoyaki scratched his plushie head. "I didn't really plan for anyone trying that, but it'd be pointless. Only the person who physically killed the victim is considered the entrepreneur, and only that person can graduate. The accomplice would be killed if successful."

I felt vastly more confident. "That could be our way to finding out the killer! I mean, if they had an accomplice, and they were under the impression they'd get free too... Now that they know they'll die if the murderer succeeds, they would be willing to just say who the killer is!"

There was a short bout of silence.

"So, uh," I restarted, "whoever it is can say so now."

More silence.

"Great work." Mary sighed. "If there is an accomplice, they would still be hesitant to reveal their role in the murder, as it would corrode anyone's trust in them. Therefore, they would instead try to direct the case towards the killer without denoting that they were participating in the murder. This, of course, is impossible, so your strategy has no way to succeed in solving the case."

"B-but..." I froze up a little. "I d-don't get it... There's nothing else we can talk about. W-we've gone through all the evidence, right?"

"W-well," Amber said, looking around at various people, "I-I don't kn-know anything more so, um, is there anyone who... Wants to say something? S-something that we missed?"

One more silence.

"... Wow. Are you kidding me?" Jo seemed incredibly disappointed.

"Wh-what are you talking abo-"

"You really couldn't take ONE guess at who turned the android on?" He yawned.

"U-uh," I said, somewhat startled, "it had to have been the murderer. If anybody else did it, it would only make the case harder for them. Nobody would intentionally botch the..." I noticed a look in his eyes. Raised eyebrows, almost mischievous in nature.

"Nobody?"

"... Of course. Why wouldn't you..." I shook my head. "You'll go this far? Messing with the case just to make a point?"

"Well, it's not just a point, it'll work if the rest of you join in. Once the guy running this cracks, frustrated with the dysfunction of the killing game, it'll end. It's simple."

"And you're simply insane!" Molly yelled. "This is a serious situation! We can't have troublemaking idiots interfering in this, we're in a life or death situation!"

"Look..." Continuing to smirk, he casually stretched his arms behind his back. "If you're REALLY stuck with anything I set up, I'll just tell you, alright? I already had to tell you this time, after all... Idiots~"

"How can we trust you to reveal your actions consistently?" Charlotte questioned. "I mean, how can we trust you on anything?! You're just saying and doing whatever you feel like."

"Eh, just don't worry about it, Char."

"A-again with that..." She pouted.

"Ignore him." Mary said, not even bothering to look over at Jo. "His little attention seeking show's over, just get back on who the killer is."

"But what if I'M the killer?" He said, as smug as ever.

The uniformed girl twitched a bit. "Shut up. Shut the hell up."

"He could be." Archie closed his eyes for a moment, I noticed he was tapping his foot rhythmically. "He probably isn't, but... It'd be safer to try and prove that he isn't."

"... Yeah, that's easy." I clicked my fingers, which, honestly, was somewhat over the top, but I was genuinely feeling kind of clever about it. "He must have been the first person to see the body, followed by Lucy and I. Provided he isn't lying about having activated the robot, that proves all three of us are innocent."

"And what if he's lying, then?"

"That seems unlikely. The alternatives are the murderer activating the robot with an accomplice, or the murderer doing so without an accomplice, which requires someone seeing the body without reporting it. I can't think of someone who would leave it unreported other than Jo."

"B-but again," Dan spoke, "we have no idea if there was an assistant or not."

"Well... While a possible accomplice would be reluctant to come out and admit their involvement, this claim by Jo provides a possible lead, and we don't have any other leads whatsoever. With this, it seems far more likely that the killer acted alone. Again, he could be lying... But unless we believe him, we won't get any further. We don't have much of a choice."

"Fine." Mary uttered, forcefully as usual, still not really looking at anyone. "I swear I could punch someone in the face right now. This is so stupid."

Mia fiddled around with her facemask, gazing off to the side. "But like... It's great that we've established a few people aren't innocent, but... That's... All we have." She turned in my general direction. "I mean, the killer could kinda be anyone. I mean, anyone else, like... All we know is they went in, grabbed the scythe, killed him, dumped the stuff in the stuff... Anyone could have done that, everything they needed was already there on the scene."

Though this was indeed a good point, her lengthy explanation gave me time to ponder over it before she even finished. While anyone could have used the items available in the workshop, how effectively they would have used it would vary. "I understand where you're coming from, but I feel we can narrow it down further. While anyone could have used the scythe to fight, the results wouldn't be consistent. I can't really imagine someone like Amber or Archie being able to hold their own in a prolonged struggle against Terry." I looked over at the still broken robot replica of him. "As you can clearly see, the boy was rather strong. In fact, I think most of us would have been subdued by him."

"I reckon so, but..." Rocky, still leaning towards the railing, tapped his fingers along it. "How far's that gonna get us?"

"Further than you might expect... As already mentioned, it rules out Amber and Archie, whose small bodies make them far less able to put up a fight. Charlotte's considerably small too, so-"

"No, I'm not!..."

"... She must be innocent as well. Aside from size, some of us just aren't that athletic or experienced with physical combat, so I think that also excludes Mia, Dan, and Molly."

"So overall..." Archie paused to count. "The remaining suspects are Robin, Mary, and Rocky. They all seem capable enough to hold a struggle, and each one's talent involves some degree of familiarity with combat."

"But surely," Robin poised, "if we split the vote between all three of us, it wouldn't count?"

"Well! Hmm." Monoyaki stroked his chin. "Never had to think about the possibility. I might just decide by spinning a wheel or something, and that'd be your choice in the event of a tie."

"So, uh..." Lucy blinked a couple times, then looked at each suspect. "One in three chance of us all dying, then?"

"Basically, yeah."

"... Guys, everyone, just, um... Vote for me. Then you'll have a 100% chance of winning."

"B-but Lucy," I quickly explained, "You're innocent because of the body announcement rule, remember?"

"... Oh yeah... But... What are we gonna do?..."

"Die." Dan was looking at the ground, hyperventilating. "We're gonna die, that's what we're gonna do. Yep, that's it."

"No." Archie said. He was showing signs of stress, sweat on his brow and the like. "I can't say much right now. All of this is starting to get to me. Just..." He exhaled. "Out of these three, there's one who is undoubtedly the killer. It's hard to put it into words, can't think straight."

"Alright..." I looked at Mary, for a second or two, then over to Robin, followed by Rocky, and cycled between them periodically, mulling over any possible solution. There had to be something. Something about one of them, something that was different. Something that the other two didn't share... The odd one out... It's... "Robin."

As I looked over to him, I was expecting some sort of shocked expression, but it looked completely blank. "... Explain."

"Simply imagine yourself as Mary or Rocky. You've headed up to the metalworking room, planning to kill Terry, and you grab the scythe, struggle with him, and eventually kill him by pushing him on to the saw and turning it on... But, then you wonder... 'Why didn't I just shoot him?'"

He continued to stare at me without emotion.

"Since Mary and Rocky avoided handing in their weapons, they would have had a far easier time simply shooting Terry from the other end of the room, avoiding any dangerous close combat. Out of the three suspects, the only one who relinquished their weapons was you, Robin. Without your survival knives on hand, the scythe was the most convenient tool due to its close proximity to the victim, since he had finished working on it. Through process of elimination, there really aren't any possible candidates for the entrepreneur other than you."

His expression continued to stay frozen in place. "I am unaffiliated with the death of Terry Hampshire."

"H-hang on, there's..." Dan started seeming more attentive than before. "There's no actual evidence, though. I mean, no proof, you can't know it's him, right?"

Amber shifted in place a little. "I... Guess there isn't, but... It can't really be anyone else, can it...?"

"No, there uh, there has to be some sort of mistake! He wouldn't do that! H-he thinks Terry is great and stuff, right?! They were friends!"

"I thought nearly everyone liked Terry though..."

"Th-that's not the point, j-just... Can you at the very least provide some sort of motivation? He trusted Terry completely, it wouldn't be over the food, so..."

"Perhaps he trusted him at first.", I elaborated. "However, when I had visited the metalwork room last night to pick up my... Err, spoon... I saw him feeding his pet mouse, using the same paste from the cafeteria we all had to eat."

"... Are you saying..." Molly took on a look of extreme offense. "He kept extra food to himself?!"

"Well, he said that it was part of his personal ration, so it didn't appear to be an extra amount he took out. In case you don't believe me, we found the mouse scampering around outside the workshop and gave it back to Terry, or rather, his replacement." I looked over at the robot and realised that Joan was still probably sitting in its pocket. "It should still be hiding in the clothes."

"Yeah," Jo confirmed, who was standing next to the broken robot, "I've been hearing it squeak the whole trial, it's beyond noisy."

"And that's a good point, actually... If the mouse didn't have any food and was starving, it wouldn't be as active and loud."

"A-and," Dan said, "what does it have to do with the motivation then?"

"Well, if I remember correctly, Robin was first to propose splitting the food evenly, in fact, he became quite adamant over the very idea of inequality. If he saw Terry feeding his pet, and assumed that this food wasn't part of that personal ration... I wouldn't be surprised if he took direct action without thinking."

"I-I guess, but... U-uh, what about his knives? You said that the others would just use their own weapons!"

"And I also said that he had turned those knives in..."

"I-I-I... W-well you still don't have any proof!"

Mary spoke while adjusting her jacket. "It doesn't seem like we'll need to. The chances that it isn't him are incredibly slim at this point..." For about a second, there was a hesitant look on her face. "Except one thing doesn't add up."

Although I was starting to get a bit exhausted, I figured that I wouldn't have to prove much more to incriminate Robin. "Lay it on me."

"Throughout the first investigation and trial, Robin was borderline comatose. After witnessing Sadie's murder, it seemed he was almost entirely locked up, only aware of his surroundings for the sake of going to the trial room and voting. If this is his reaction to only witnessing a murder, I can't imagine him being able to dispose of evidence and even make an attempt to frame Lucy. He'd be far too distraught."

"... A good point..."

I focused intensely on what she had said. It seemed like sound logic on Mary's part, but something wasn't right... If Robin really was so numb he couldn't speak or interact with anyone, it didn't make sense that he was able to pay close enough attention to notice the announcement to gather in the hall for the first trial, nor vote for James at the end of it. It had to have been some sort of act on his part, something not entirely genuine...

"Except for one thing."

Mary seemed somewhat annoyed by the prospect of her being wrong about something, but conceded. "Go on."

"Your argument is based on the assumption that Robin was genuinely dissociative during the first investigation. However, I believe something he said earlier during this very session goes against that. When I mentioned Lucy's reaction to the bloody crime scene, he noted that it was possible she was simply pretending to be more sensitive to blood in order to appear innocent. And... He just so happened to mention that he has first hand experience with expressing false reactions. If his unresponsive state during the prior investigation was staged, that would explain why he was still able to attend the trial and vote for the killer like everyone else; he was still fully aware and attentive... And fully able to commit murder without going into such a state."

"... S-so that's it?" Dan said, quiet. "Is that all you can say? Y-you still don't have proof!"

"There isn't concrete proof, but he's the only possible suspect, so by that logic, he must be guilty."

"W-well why don't you ask the man himself?! G-go on, tell them! Y-you didn't hurt anyone, r-r-right?!"

Robin was still unflinching and expressionless. "I am unaffiliated with the death of Terry Hampshire."

"Actually," I said with a hint of exasperation, "you're the only one who is. After all, you yourself said that you trained to feign ignorance if you were ever interrogated..."

"I am unaffiliated with the death of Terry Hampshire."

Lucy tilted her head, looking over at the boy with the blank face. "... Maybe you should try explaining it to him... He might admit it if you go through everything..."

"... If it helps convince anyone, then sure. Having entered the metalworking room on the second floor, the perpetrator saw Terry at the other end. Approaching him, they saw that he was feeding his pet mouse, Joan, with the limited food rations he had been given. They then accused Terry of hoarding extra food, and reached into their pocket, only to remember they were unarmed; and so, they grabbed the nearest weapon, the scythe Terry had crafted for Lucy. Engaging in combat, they were evenly matched for the most part, and the killer was able to cut off one of his victim's fingers. Eventually, they managed to push Terry onto a buzzsaw, and, thinking quickly, turned it on, cutting through his body and killing him instantly. Next, the killer attempted to hide the evidence; rather than repairing or cleaning the area, they chose instead to relocate the body. Grabbing the spare keys to the rubbish dump that Terry had made, they took the body and the scythe, and disposed of both. Then, in order to provide a false lead, they slipped the keys under the door to Lucy's room, implying her involvement; she would be the most logical choice for framing, due to the use of the scythe she requested. Having done all they could, the entrepreneur retired to their quarters for the night. As the evening passed further, Jo happened upon the crime scene, and, assuming Terry had been killed, activated the android replica of him; this robot had been left in the workshop overnight, perhaps hidden in a wardrobe that the killer hadn't noticed. Nevertheless, with the robot activated and the corpse hidden, it was a cold case on the surface... But with the victim's identity revealed, it became possible to figure out the murderer's identity: none other than Robin Hazelwood!"

... Robin continued to stand there, no change whatsoever to his face. "I am unaffiliated with the death of Terry Hampshire."

"... Y-you heard him." Dan quivered slightly. "He wasn't involved. H-he didn't do it. Because he would never have done that."

"Who, then?" I felt a little irritated. "I just explained it in the most detail I could. What more do you want to hear?"

His breath quickened, and he shook a little more. "I-I won't hear anything, b-because it's not true! H-he wasn't the killer last time, a-and he isn't this time! A-and I'm n-not going to l-l-let this h-happen, b-because he's innocent! I... What am I supposed to say to you?! This is impossible! You haven't proven anything!"

"While there's no concrete proof that he's guilty, there is concrete proof that nobody else is... There hasn't been any signs of an interloper or an extra student, so the only thing that's impossible is for it to be anybody other than Robin."

"So?! So?! I-I d-don't care! E-everyone's constantly saying this, a-and saying that, a-and saying, s-saying, I, y-you, I, y-you're wrong!... He... He wouldn't do that. He's not like that, he's n-not like th-that, he wouldn't, there's, there's no way he has, he couldn't of, he... H-he didn't... Do... A-anything..."

"Dan, can you... Just... Calm down? You really aren't making things any better for yourself, or for whatever it is you're trying to word out. Whatever it is, just... Take a deep breath or something?..."

While I was at first focused primarily on refuting any arguments Dan could pose, I had at this point realised that he wasn't capable of that in the first place. He wasn't even really speaking English now, it was some mess of sounds just barely short of coherency, as he wildly gestured with tremored hands. I'd expect a look of desperation in his eyes, but instead, they looked to be completely overwhelmed to the point of being unaware of their surroundings.

This would've been where I refuted one final point and cemented my argument, but there wasn't anything to refute. Instead, Dan just slowly lost all energy, panting, slumping, and eventually, collapsing completely. There wasn't anyone to pick him up this time.

Clapping was heard from the throne at the end of the court, leather gloves once again muting the sound. "What a performance! So worked up, so riled! And the best part is that it's completely pointless! It brings a tear to my eye..." He pretended to wipe said tear away, before hitting the empty juice carton off of the armrest. "Anyway, I think everyone'd like to vote now, correct?"

Amber raised her hand meekly. "But... I don't think Dan's able to."

"How attentive... After all, not voting results in imminent death!~"

"But that's..." Mia stared at the collapsed boy, lying in a pile behind the railing. "... Kinda dumb."

"Dumb? I don't see why. Lemme guess," the goat continued, putting on a whiny voice, "THAT'S NOT FAIR! Uwehehe... It's not supposed to be fair."

"Uh... Could one of us just vote on his behalf?"

"B-but... THAT'S NOT FAIR!" He turned a slight reddish shade. "Y-you're not allowed to do that! That's against the rules!..."

Molly looked off to the side. "No, if I recall correctly, there isn't anything saying you can't, so..."

"Look, do you want him to die or not?!"

Everyone stared at him awkwardly for a short moment.

"... No?" I said.

His expression changed back to his neutral one. "Well, I guess I'll have to give him a pass this time... B-but it's not my fault he had a mental breakdown on me!"

With that, everyone retrieved their Monopads and voted. Though I hadn't necessarily pinned down the entrepreneur perfectly, I felt about 95% confidence that it must have been Robin. For a moment, I again reflected on how I seemed to have far more vigour and self-assurance in these trials than I do in my profession... But, this wasn't the time for that, I suppose.

After everyone had voted, Monoyaki stretched back in his chair. "Thank you for voting, the verdict's in! Now it just comes down to if you were right or wrong!" The large monitor from last time lowered down above him once again as he slouched back.

Once again, it showed us a slot machine, with profile shots of us on the slots themselves. As they slowed down, I noticed that the students who had died already had their portraits greyed out. Soon enough though, the machine had stopped on three pictures of Robin, and played a fanfare as before.

"And there we go!", Monoyaki said. "The entrepreneur has been exposed as none other than Robin Hazelwood, the Ultimate Revolutionary!"

"... That's it, then...?" Robin's paralysed look shifted by the tiniest margin, his eyebrows rising slightly.

"Well, yeah. That's it I guess. Just get your last goodbyes and stuff out of the way like last time."

"... I don't have any."

Last time, everyone was in disbelief that James would bring himself to murder, but this time, well, we just didn't have much to say. For one thing, Robin was a far more likely candidate to be a killer, he always seemed somewhat unstable... And after all, his talent literally involved inciting violence in order to achieve his goals. He didn't have anything to explain, either. We had basically figured out his motive and everything, so...

Then there was just the way the boy was taking. The fact he didn't even care to say goodbye to anyone. Maybe it was just because Dan was out cold.

Before anyone else could talk, Amber meekly piped up. "N-none?... Why not?"

"I don't see why I should. I understand that you had no choice but to vote for me. I understand that it was a life or death decision." His eyebrows shifted again, this time inwards. "But by saving yourselves today, you have gotten rid of humanity's one chance at freedom. Thanks to your actions, the working man will permanently be shackled under the oppressor's yoke, with nobody to turn to for another answer. You had the chance to be martyrs, and sacrifice yourselves for the greater good... You would have been remembered as-"

"Shut up." I said, under my breath.

"Wh-what-"

"Shut up." I glared at him. "You're really going to lecture us about how important you are to the greater good after having murdered one of us? It's because of that very ideology you follow unquestionably that you killed him in the first place... And he wasn't even violating that ideology, anyway. You had the audacity to jump to conclusions and play vigilante, and look where we are now."

"... I should have been more careful, I underst-"

"You should have just stopped seeing everything through that tiny lens, and you wouldn't have made that mistake in the first place." Having gotten everything off my chest, I just stood there, looking down at the grass.

Monoyaki sat up straight and attentive. "Okay, speeches and melodrama are done, right? We can get underway, right?" There was no response from anyone, a silent 'get it over with'. "Well, if there are no objections... Then I'll begin the special execution I've prepared for the Ultimate Revolutionary, Robin Hazelwood!"

"L-look..." Robin began speaking, looking suddenly more anxious, realisation setting in. "You could just give me a quick and painless death and make things faster for everyone at least-"

"It makes it even more fun when they beg for mercy, uwehehe... Whatever!" He snatched his mallet and held it high in the air. "IT'S PUNISHMENT TIME!" And with that, slammed it down.

The monitor then showed a pixel sprite of Robin, as before, who was then dragged off by a sprite of Monoyaki, until both went offscreen. The text below read 'ROBIN HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY. TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!'

Just as last time, the culprit was quickly snatched up by a chain mechanism, and whisked out of sight. The screen displayed what looked to be a spare Monoyaki, dressed in regal robes and a magnificent crown, sat on an extravagant throne in a gold-adorned chamber. The camera panned around, showing Robin, propped up upon a tall set of gallows, rope around his neck and hands tied behind his back. He didn't make any effort to struggle out of them. Then, a huge mob burst into the room; an army of spare Monoyakis, dressed in ragged, peasant-like clothes, carrying pitchforks and torches, toting signs demanding the king's head. The crowned Monoyaki quickly pulled a rope, and a curtain separated the mob from the gallows and throne. Text was painted on the curtains:

THE COUNTER-COUNTER REVOLUTION

When the curtains came up again, the king Monoyaki was now dressed in a green soldier's outfit with a red star upon his cap, and pointed up at Robin, who was now wearing the monarchal robes from earlier, looking perplexed. The crowd didn't need much time to adjust, and the gallows were quickly surrounded by them. They gathered around a lever at the side of the gallows, and piled onto it, until their small, toy-like bodies weighed it down enough to pull it down, activating the trapdoor beneath Robin's feet. After a momentary plunge, his neck cracked sharply, and his cloak dangled in place.

... As if one murder and execution wasn't enough, now it had all happened again. We had solved both, but we hadn't... 'Won'. Winning would have been preventing any from happening in the first place.

Words went unspoken. Of course, there was shock at the execution, but, less than before. I personally even felt a little resigned. If anything, I felt that I'd have to find a way to stop this from happening again... But we'd already said that it would never happen again, and it just did.

I could hear people walking into the lift behind me. I didn't quite feel ready to do so. Something felt wrong.

"Jane?" Archie had walked up near me. Having been pulled out of thought, I looked and saw that the only people currently remaining in the trial room were me, Archie, and Dan, who was still unconscious.

"... Yeah?"

"I'm assuming you're thinking the same sort of thing as me. About preventative measures."

"Yes, well, I... Can we wait until tomorrow? I need some time."

"Of course. It's fine. All I'll quickly say is..." He slowly started to walk towards the elevator, head turned back to me. "Try not to be too cold."

"Cold? How was I...?"

As he stopped in front of the elevator, which had come back down without anybody in it, he gestured towards Dan. "You didn't have to argue against him like that before, I think everyone was basically convinced. He clearly wasn't stable, so it would have been better to ignore him." Hands in his pockets, he entered the lift, and was gone.

It was a bit hard to think clearly about what he said, but looking over at Dan, perhaps Archie had a point.

...

It's all down to that. People don't trust each other. Not even good friends. Not in a situation like this. Only through kindness and absolute faith in humanity can we prevent another murder. After all, how can we be peaceful if we don't believe we even can?

...

So I dragged Dan along the ground and into the lift. He was too tall for me to just pick up or something. But I wasn't going to leave him there. This would be the first act of kindness, the start of a new age. No more violence and hatred. This... This was how we'd win. The mastermind behind this would have no choice but to give up once they admit that we won't kill each other ever again.

I took Dan to his room, went into mine, and slept. Tomorrow would be a new day.