CHAPTER 1, ACT 4

Truth Bullet List:

Monokuma File

Evidence of a Struggle

External Wounds

Dried Blood

Cluster of Hair

Glass Shards

Shredded Paper

Flame Lily
Itsuki's Account

(Dawn)

"Alright!" Monokuma sat up from his grand chair, explaining the rules of the trial. "For each Class Trial, you will have a period of debate during which you will present your arguments for the Blackened, after which, you will vote! Choose right, and only the Blackened will be executed. If you choose wrong… I'll execute everyone else, and the Blackened will be free to leave the mansion!"

Souta was finally beginning to calm down, enough to process the situation at hand. "Okay, I-I just wanna make sure of this. The killer's one of us fifteen, correct?"

"Roger wilco! I didn't get my paws involved in this situation in the slightest, so the culprit's one of you fifteen!"

"Okay… Alright. One of us did this, that narrows things down slightly."

Hajime spoke up. "I'd recommend starting with how the scene itself played out. We still don't know everything about how Sayori was killed, so I'm guessing that if we go from there, we can figure things out, right?"

Sora nodded. "That seems like a good approach to things."

(BREAK)

Yukari: "Our unlucky victim was Sayori Kalashikov, and she got done in at the Art Room, right?"

Aino: "We've already established that, Rapper."

Ari: "It happened around 5 AM. She probably just woke up…"

Shinjiro: "And she made her way to the Art Room on her own, right?"

Haruka: "From the looks of it, she wasn't expecting this whole thing to happen. From the looks of it, she was killed instantly."

Dai widened her eyes at the statement. Something about that didn't line up!

"You've got that wrong! Think of the crime scene again, and how things played out. The knocked-over stuff, the blood on the walls, if she was killed in one blow, she wouldn't have had the time to mess the hall up like that!"

"I see…" Haruka looked down. "Apologies. In that case, her death likely took a little bit to happen. Thirty seconds to a minute seems like a decent timeframe between the injury and death."

"Alright, sweet!" Yukari cracked a grin, confident as ever. "So, we've got ourselves a timeframe of the killing, both when it happened, and how long it took for things to go down!"

Shinjiro wasn't nearly as enthusiastic, however. "Even then, we've still got a big mystery at hand. Anybody know what was used to end her life?"

"Well, I dunno, there were stab wounds at her chest…" Aino looked at Shinjiro. "Sooo… What would you say was used to kill her?"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. She got shanked twice, I know. Just wondering what with, and… That other thing."

"Other thing?"

Daisuke spoke up. "You, uh... You're referring to the blood around her mouth, right? That seems kinda weird… What caused that?"

Mikiko looked over the body's picture in the Monokuma File again… "It looks like she threw it up after she got stabbed, is that it?"

"Right, that… That's probably it… What caused that?"

Dai closed her eyes… She had to think of something, visualizing the options in front of her. It likely wasn't a result of the stabbing, nor was getting injured before the attack likely, either… When she thought about it, there was only one major option.

"The Flame Lily," Dai began to explain, "that's our only option. Haruka was talking about it the night earlier, how so much as a single leaf could kill someone. And unless Monokuma had given it to somebody as a weapon… There's a good chance that's what made her throw up blood."

"But that brings a bit of a question, doesn't it?" Itsuki stared at Sayori's portrait, confused. "I mean, why get her to vomit if she'd already been stabbed? Just doesn't make any darn sense, y'know?"

"Well, that's certainly a bit off, I've got to agree… There has to be some sort of reason for using both the knife and the Flame Lily." She began pondering to herself… "Odds are, it was used to confuse the cause of death-"

"Now wait just a second!"

(Cross Sword)

"H-Huh?" Dai turned to her side. Surprisingly enough, Ari was the one to have shouted out so suddenly.

"Dai, you need to look at the case again… Something isn't adding up here!"

/*Something about this just doesn't make sense in the slightest, you know?*/

/*We've established this far that she was stabbed and vomited, right?*/

/*And you're suggesting that the killer stabbed her to confuse the cause of death?*/
/*I can see where you're coming from, no doubt...*/

/*But still, it wouldn't work like that, at all!*/

"Ari, what do you mean?" Dai questioned, piecing things together. "What's so wrong about both being used?"

/*You need to remember how her body looked, Dai!*/

/*She was stabbed in the chest, remember?*/

/*You can't discount the potential of that causing her to cough up blood!*/

/*And with blood being in both areas...*/

/*It's clear everything happened at the same time!*/

Another contradiction, a false lead!

"I'll cut your words down!"

Ari laughed a little. Nothing malicious, more or less a playful giggle. "Cut your words down… That's a nice line!"

"Well, uh… Thanks." Dai raised her head again. "But I seriously mean it! Eiken can attest to why that's incorrect, right?"

The cold scientist nodded. "I can. While not by much, the blood around her mouth had aged by about five minutes longer than her chest wounds. It supports the theory that the poison caused her death, then the culprit had stabbed her."

Ari looked back, embarrassed. "Ah, I see... Apologies, I almost derailed things there!"

"It's fine. Don't apologize."

(Solar)

"With that…" Mikiko began to explain, "that means the killer needed to know of the flower's effects at any point before the killing, is that correct?"

"Yep! So…" Takeshi stared just about everyone in the trial down. "Whichever one of you bleedin' idiots figured out that flower's effects yesterday… FESS UP ALREADY!"

Daisuke ducked down, in a defensive stance. "Wh-Why is everyone so loud!?"

Ari glared at Takeshi for his outburst. "Yeah! QUIET DOWN ALREADY!"

"G-God…!" Daisuke remained crouching down…

Sora looked at a notepad she'd been writing in. "With that… The six main suspects in this case should be myself, Dai, Mikiko, Eiken, Shinjiro and Hajime. We were all present when Monokuma hinted to the flower's potential, correct?"

The remaining five confirmed their presence. Six potential culprits narrowed things down a lot… This may be what they needed to pin someone down.

(BREAK)

Hiroto: "We finally have a list of suspects…! But of the six, which one had killed Sayori?"

Sora: "I can say for certain I didn't commit this crime. I never had the chance to..."

Shinjiro: "What makes ya think I'd do in Sayori? I wouldn't, ever."

Hajime: "Well, neither would I… I'd never do that, I swear!"

Eiken: "There's no good reason to take that plunge… Wasn't me, of course."

Mikiko: "I'm not akin to other officers, I don't kill for no good reason."

Dai: "We're stuck again… Aren't w-"

Looking over the suspects again, and considering all of the info… There was one potential culprit. But… It just seemed out there, unreasonable. She ran through the facts again, checking in one last time. As horrid as it was… This might be the truth.

(Wonderful Story)

"Hey… Hajime?" She looked towards the therapist, horrified at herself.

"Yeah?" He looked back with confusion. "What's going on, Dai?"

"Does…"

She pulled out a few strands of grey hair… A match to his shade.

"Does this look familiar to you?"

". . . I-I'm sorry, what now?" He became nervous, wh… What is that thing? Where did she get it from?

"Hajime, I found this next to Sayori's body. While she was struggling, she might've tried to fight back against the culprit. And... " She looked back at him. He… He killed someone, she shouldn't have empathy, why… Why is this so hard? Why can't she believe this?

He looked around, panicking. This isn't right, it… He didn't do this, if they voted for them, they were all gonna die! He tried opening his mouth, speaking, there… There wasn't anything coming out.

"Y-Y… You're seriously… I didn't… You n-"

"That's enough, Hajime." Sora looked over at the therapist with an ice-cold stare. "The evidence is stacked against you. You're just prolonging things at this point, give it u-

"W-Wait, hold on a second!" Souta shouted out, looking around… "There… We still need to look into this, do you seriously think Hajime would do that? He just wanted to help, he wouldn't-"

Takeshi slammed his podium, screaming at the top of his lungs yet again. "YE IDIOT! There's so much evidence against him! He's the culprit, through and through!"

Hajime's breath quickened, doing everything he could to get his words out. "I-I didn't! I swear on my life, I didn't kill her!"

And within a second, the courtroom descended into chaos.

(PANIC)

Hajime: "I keep telling you, I didn't do this!"

Daisuke: "C-Can we be sure he's the culprit?"
Mikiko: "Just admit it already, Narukami!"

Itsuki: "Like hell he'd do this! Just look at 'im!"
Hajime: "Come on, there's gotta be something…"

Eiken: "... A-All of the facts do point to him…"

Takeshi: "CRAM IT ALREADY, YOU KILLED 'ER!"

Hajime: "M-Maybe there was something with the wounds…"

Yukari: "He's guilty! Can't we just vote already!?"

Hajime: "Or the flower, it could be that…?"

Ari: "I seriously doubt he'd actually kill, but…"

Hiroto: "It must've been him, IT'S MUST HAVE!"

Souta: "Everyone, just calm down…!"

Shinjiro: "There's no way he'd do this!"
Hajime: "Or the hair itself…? G-Gah! I can't…!"

Dai noticed something there. The very evidence used to implicate Hajime might just be his way out!

"Wait, I heard it!"

(Odd)

"Wait, huh?" Sora looked in her direction. "Heard what, what happened?"

"That's the thing, something Hajime just said… The hair!" Dai pulled it out, feeling it… "It's kinda heavy, unnatural. Not like someone's normal hair, but to be more exact… A wig? Maybe?"

Sora's eyes widened. "A wig…? Wait, that'd mean that it wasn't there as a result of the struggle…"

"Just to implicate him! That's why it was all clustered, too! It's not a guarantee, but… I think he might actually be innocent!"

"Wait, what!?" Takeshi looked around again… "He's… He's innocent. I see… Sorry for raisin' my voice earlier, Hajime."

His breathing was heavy, focused, trying to bring himself back to normal… "N-No problem… I thought we were all screwed… But it's fine…! We're fine…!"

"Well… Not quite," Dai pointed out, "we may have crossed one culprit off the list… But we're back to square one again."

SURVIVING STUDENTS: 15

Note: (Things certainly picked up for a little while there, huh? I tried implementing some of the more gamey mechanics of the class trials, hopefully it went ok!)