-This is made by Starrshard on Ao3 and Wattpad, please check them out. I have been given permission to upload this to , as they do not have an account on this website-
"Puhuhu... nice to see you all again." Monokuma gave his usual greeting atop the throne as the students walked in. He was sitting in Mr. Compress's lap; the masked man was reclining cross-legged, twirling a dagger in his gloved fingers. "Get to your spots!"
"Monokuma." Shouto's voice was cold as he regarded the robotic bear. "Why did you cut investigation time short? Are you trying to kill us?"
"Nonsense, nonsense," Mr. Compress drawled. "We cut it short because you uncovered all of the evidence you had to at the scene. The note, the wals, the body. That was all, and you found it all. There's no need to waste time and dawdle around, right?"
"How do you know that was all the evidence in the room?" Yaomomo pressed.
"Because we watched the crime take place through the cameras," Monokuma replied, growing visibly agitated. "Now hurry up and start the trial! No more questions!"
Class Trial : Start!
"Let's start with the Monokuma File, as usual," Hitoshi suggested. Yaomomo nodded and complied, pulling out the tablet and opening it up.
"Alright. The victim was Tamaki. There are cuts on his body inflicted by a sharp-edged object. The weapon in question was a knife," Yaomomo said. "That's all the File provides. It's not much, but at least it's something to go off of."
"I think the most obvious thing we can add to the File would be the time of death," Shouto began. "Did anyone see him last night, before everyone turned in?"
"Uh... yeah!" Denki spoke out. "I saw him in- in the cafeteria. Hitoshi and I were getting dinner, and we ran into Tamaki exiting the kitchen. He was carrying a... a bag. We didn't speak."
"So the timeframe is during the night, all the way to this morning," Yaomomo mused. "We can work with it. And Denki, your account also provides us with one more thing-"
Select the correct answer:
Time of death
Motive of murder
Origin of weapon
Cause of death
Origin of weapon : I got it.
"-being the origin of the weapon. Tamaki was found exiting the kitchen with a bag. It makes sense that the kitchen knife found at the scene was retrieved by Tamaki himself."
"That's... something sounds wrong with that idea," Nejire whimpered. "Tamaki... Tamaki got the knife..?"
Yeah... something's odd here, Yaomomo thought. What could Tamaki holding the weapon that wound up killing him indicate?
The answer's coming to me... I just have to grasp it..!
Hangman's Gambit 3.0 : Begin!
What is a possible explanation for why Tamaki got a knife from the kitchen?
? ﾟﾗﾆ? ﾟﾗﾆ? ﾟﾗﾆ?
...
...
...
SUICIDE : I got it.
"Perhaps... he committed suicide," the Detective suggested, a finger to her lips.
"Eh..? Tamaki..? Sui... cide..?" Nejire's voice was filled with disbelief. Distress was clear in her recoiling posture, shoulders curling inwards, as if she were trying to cocoon herself into an illusion of a safe-place. "There's... there's no way..!"
"Calling it a... a suicide, and so soon... a-are you sure..?" Denki's voice was soft. "W-We should talk this one out..."
Non-stop Debate : Start!
Truth Bullets: Kitchen Knife, Monokuma File #8, Body Discovery Announcement, Denki's Account, Tamaki's Note, Writing on the Walls
"Tamaki... committed suicide..?" Nejire's voice was disbelieving. "He- he'd never do that-!"
"I find it strange, too," Hitoshi murmured. "There's something wrong about the thought that Tamaki killed himself..."
"It seems reasonable to me," Shouto said. "The slashes on his arms look self-inflicted... and the fact he himself was responsible for his own murder weapon is suspicious."
"B-But... what if Tamaki himself wanted to kill someone, and that's why he got the knife?" Denki suggested. "And... someone snuck into his room, grabbed it, and killed him..?"
"Yeah! There's no indication that Tamaki was ever actually suicidal, either!" Nejire cried out.
"No, that's wrong."
Tamaki's Note : Break!
"When I was doing the autopsy, I found a crumpled-up note in Tamaki's pocket," Yaomomo explained. "It read, 'I have decided that I want to die. Goodbye. Thank you.'"
"Wh... what..?" Nejire's voice was stunned. Tears cascaded down her face; her voice hitched on her next words. "T-Tamaki..."
"It's very clearly a suicide note," Shouto murmured. "I found the top piece of paper ripped off of the notepad in the room, too. That's where the paper came from- Tamaki's own room."
"B-But... Tamaki wouldn't just..!"
"The facts don't lie, Nejire," Hitoshi murmured. "The note, the knife, everything... it looks like he killed himself."
He's right, but... Yaomomo frowned, pressing her lower lip with her pointer finger. They keep talking about it, and as I think it over...
Why is it that the more I think... the more I think something's wrong?
"It looks like a suicide from face value, but... what about the hole in his head?" Tsuyu inquired meekly.
"R-Right. The suture wound..." Denki muttered. "How... how does that fit into this?"
"Maybe someone showed up later and vandalized the body," Shouto offered.
"Or he inflicted that wound himself," Hitoshi added.
"Do you know how blood loss works? How the heck would he drive that knife into his own head after losing so much blood? It's clearly fatal," Yaomomo cut in, attempting to slow down the rapid-fire shooting of exchanges the students were spiraling into. It was like a gunfight; nothing gained, only damage created.
"W-Wait, what's with the sudden change in tone, Yaomomo?" Hitoshi asked, but was promptly ignored.
"But... but if someone else did it, what does th-the note imply?" Denki spoke up.
"He could've had an accomplice do the stabbing for him," Shouto pushed.
"But there's no evidence of-"
"HOLD UP!"
Oh, for god's sake, not this.
Break!
"If ya'll are gonna have a split opinion, we might as well get the room in order, hm?" Monokuma giggled. "Puhuhu... it's time... for the critically acclaimed SCRUM DEBATE!"
He flicked a button and the trial chamber was gently illuminated with light, casting faces in a foggy pale-blue aurora, catching the gleam of eyes filled with hope, with desperation, with fear, with despair.
Yaomomo thought that she'd never seen anything more beautiful.
Scrum Debate : Start!
Did Tamaki commit suicide?
Yes: Shouto, Hitoshi, Denki
No: Tsuyu, Nejire, Yaomomo
"The cuts on Tamaki's arms look self-inflicted," Shouto argued.
"Nejire."
"But... but can we really be sure who inflicted the... the cuts?" the bluette murmured.
"It looks like Tamaki wrote on the walls with his own blood after cutting himself," Hitoshi concluded.
"I'll do it."
"But some of the writing is too high up to have been written if he were sitting down," Yaomomo pointed out.
"Tamaki could've teamed up with someone and had them vandalise the body afterwards," Shouto said.
"Tsuyu."
"If you're going to team up with someone, why not just have them kill you, too, and make it look like a suicide? You'd help your friend," she reasoned.
"There's- there's no evidence anyone else was ever there," Denki claimed.
"Tsuyu."
"The evidence you missed is that there were water droplets in the sink," the Swimmer said. "Why would Tamaki use the sink?"
"Tamaki got his own knife. Why else would he get it if not to kill himself?" Hitoshi noted.
"I'll do it."
"Maybe someone saw him take the knife and targeted him because he readily had one," she ventured. "Then, that means he originally got the knife to kill someone else."
"How would... how would a person even b-break into Tamaki's room?" Denki stammered.
"Nejire."
"People have gone through the vents before... It's n-not impossible to break in," Nejire replied.
Crouch Bind : Set!
S - A - W - D
Full Counter : Break!
"You guys! It's very clear that this case isn't a suicide!" Yaomomo declared.
"What's with this sudden change of attitude? You brought up the suicide thing in the first place!" Hitoshi said, pointing an accusational finger at her across the circle.
The Detective sighed. "Yes, I know, but looking back on it, there's too many factors that don't line up. For starters, the wound in his head is strange. It's a clean stab to the suture on the crown of the skull; it's a fatal wound. There's no way he could have inflicted it on himself; he would've had to cut his arms and torso up first, so he'd be both extremely weakened and quickly die from blood loss. Even if he weren't injured, stabbing yourself that hard and at that angle is difficult."
"What if he just teamed up with someone, and had them mess with the body after he killed himself?" Shouto suggested.
"If you're going to be like that, then there's also the problem of the writing on the walls. It's definitely written in Tamaki's blood, which means his arms and torso were slashed first, so he must've been sitting down. If he were standing, he wouldn't have collapsed into a perfect sitting position. Some of the writing is too high up on the wall for Tamaki to reach. That means someone else must've written those things using Tamaki's blood.
"The third thing is the water droplets in the sink. Tamaki has no reason to use a sink in this situation, and so recently that we can still see water during investigation. It would make sense, however, that the killer would have to wash their hands after stabbing and slashing him up."
Shouto met her gaze evenly. "Hm. I'll respect your logic for now. Let's say that Tamaki was murdered. What now?"
"I think an important thing is the writing on the wall," Tsuyu spoke up. "It's all creepy."
"What do you mean?" Hitoshi inquired.
"Dunno." She shrugged. "But it's weird."
She's so vague... Yaomomo sighed and began to think. How is the writing on the wall weird? And how does it tie into there being a killer?
Psyche Taxi : Start!
...
Question 1: Who wrote the messages on the walls?
Left: Tamaki
Middle: Both
Right: The killer
Right: Correct!
...
Question 2: What indicates that Tamaki never wrote anything?
Left: His posture
Middle: His hands
Right: His wounds
Middle: Correct!
...
Question 3: Was there a third person involved?
Left: No
Right: Yes
Left: Correct!
Success!
Question 1: The killer
Question 2: His hands
Question 3: No
Break!
"She's right," Yaomomo cut into the useless suggestions and bickering ringing through the trial room, effectively silencing everyone. "The writing on the walls shows us a few things."
"Mmh? We know it proves there was a killer, since Tamaki couldn't have written the higher notes-" Shouto began.
"No, it proves that he didn't write any of those notes," Yaomomo interrupted. "Ah, sorry..."
"No, go on."
"Well, if he'd written with blood, there'd be blood on his finger. Looking at both of his hands, there's no blood other than the dripping trail from his arm wounds," the Detective explained. "Also, all of the handwriting of the messages seems to be the same, so there were only two people involved. Tamaki and his killer."
"B-But... some of the messages... sound like they were written by- by him," Nejire whimpered. Yaomomo watched her sympathetically; it was as if the words written in blood were broken pieces of a porcelain doll, her only friend, and she was clutching the shards even as they dug deep gashes into her pale palms and her blood poured onto the floor- she was clinging to a fairytale that might have been him, in another timeline, perhaps, but meant nothing in the face of theirs. "Like... 'My sunshine'... Tamaki always called Mirio his sunshine..!"
"I'm sorry, Nejire." Yaomomo tried her best to muster warmth into her voice; it was beginning to grow tiring, sounding so strong, so clever as well as now likable. "But the writing doesn't lie."
What's the other piece of evidence that solidifies the fact that Tamaki didn't write on the walls?
Select a Truth Bullet.
...
Tamaki's Note : I got it.
"Remember the note Tamaki wrote, as well as anything else he may have written that you saw," the ravenette said. "Comparing the handwriting of the two... there's a clear difference. For example, their y's are written differently. Tamaki loops the tail of his 'y' in 'Goodbye', while the 'y' in 'My sunshine' has a straight tail. Two different people wrote these things, and since the evidence in Tamaki's fingers and the height of the phrases up the wall point to the killer writing on the wall, Tamaki himself wrote the farewell note." Yaomomo lowered her voice; she wouldn't have been heard if the trial room hadn't been dead silent. "Those are the final words you're looking for, Nejire."
The bluette stared at her for a moment, before turning away silently and staring at her feet, her arms wrapped around her fragile chest and shoulders, a waterfall of blue cascading around her; she was a perfect, ever so blue persona. The epitome of grief, of pain, of loss and self-blame and sadness.
Oh, how agonizingly beautiful she is.
How pleasant it must be, to simply be sad with nobody telling you to lift your head.
"S-So... The killer wrote the notes on the wall, while Tamaki wrote his own note," Tsuyu clarified. "The killer... seems like a nice person."
"Yeah... phrases like 'Kill me' and 'This never should've happened' make it seem as if the killer regretted killing him the moment he finished completing the act," Shouto affirmed. "Unless, of course, they were trying to make it look like suicide messages and messed up."
"On the other hand, Tamaki's note seems to be authentic," Hitoshi murmured. "If that's really his handwriting, then..."
"What if... wh-what if the killer forced him to write it?" Nejire mumbled, her eyes bleak as she glanced up.
"If Tamaki were forced into writing a suicide note, I think he'd at least try to slip something in," Shouto decided. "However, there's nothing odd with the note we found in his pocket, and if the killer had taken Tamaki's original note and forged another, the appearance of teardrops on the paper doesn't make sense," He paused. "So... I think we can assume the note is authentic."
"None of this... makes any sense," Denki murmured. "He was m-murdered, but there was a- a suicide note in his pocket? And- and that's not to mention the kn-knife..!"
"These two factors together could only come to one logical conclusion," Yaomomo replied, twirling a strand of black hair around her finger. "And that is..."
Select the correct answer:
Tamaki knew he was going to be murdered
Tamaki and the murderer were working together
Tamaki committed suicide after all
Tamaki and the murderer were working together : I got it.
"...that Tamaki and the blackened were working together."
"Tamaki... and the blackened..?" Nejire's voice was small; weak. "How..?"
"It's clear, isn't it?" Hitoshi prompted. "Tamaki created a plot that involved having someone else kill him and making it look like a suicide. Or, maybe, he didn't intend for them to do anything with the body after making the suture wound, except they went crazy on it anyway. Or maybe-"
"Hush." Yaomomo was watching Nejire; the bluette was beginning to tear up again, listening to Hitoshi reel off possible ways Tamaki insinuated his own death. "Whatever the case, all we have to do now is figure out who Tamaki teamed up with."
"Something tells me this is going to be a lot harder than it sounds," Tsuyu muttered.
"Tsu's right. Perhaps the question we should be asking is who Tamaki would bother teaming up with. The guy seemed... to put it simply, shut in before his death, no offense," Shouto said, mismatched eyes flitting to Nejire for a moment before fixating on the floor. "So... which of us would he single out?"
"Someone as despairful as he was, maybe?" Hitoshi suggested.
"S-Someone... someone weak..?" Denki prompted.
"Someone he... trusted?" Nejire asked meekly.
Yaomomo turned to her. "That's it."
"What? Wh-What's it?" Cloudy cerulean eyes met a steady pair of silver ones.
"Tamaki would surely team up with someone he trusted, right? Especially in a scenario like this, where he had to trust in his accomplice to cooperate with him and carry out the plan correctly after he died and could no longer pull the strings," Yaomomo declared. "In that case... the one most suspicious would be you, Nejire..!"
A tense silence fell upon the chamber. "Wh... why me?" Nejire whimpered, her arms still wrapped around herself. "Why?"
"You were his closest friend." Other than Mirio, Yaomomo thought, but she left that part unsaid. "You still are; even if he tried to push you away, it was clear he still cared more about you than anyone else."
"Yaomomo, this is ridiculous!" Shouto interjected. "We can't just go blindly accusing people with no rhyme or reason!"
"But is there any evidence left to go off of?" The Theorist shut his mouth on that one. Yaomomo sighed, brushing her ponytail back. "We can't do anything but look through our selection of suspects and determine who's the most likely."
"Come on, surely there's got to be somethi-"
"Let's look through all the evidence again, then," Yaomomo relented, exasperated. "Then you'll see there's nothing left to do."
Non-stop Debate : Start!
Truth Bullets: Yaomomo's Autopsy, Sink, Writing on the Walls, Denki's Account, Tamaki's Note
"There has to be something left to dissect," The two-tone-haired boy insisted. "We just have to think! Blindly suspecting won't get us anywhere!"
"So what do you propose?" Hitoshi inquired.
"Well, the height of the words on the wall, for one," Shouto stated. "It's obvious the suspect didn't step into the shower, since the water was never turned on in there and there were no footprints anywhere."
"Th-That would mean... the suspect had to lean over to write," Denki murmured. "So if you were too short, it w-wouldn't work out..!"
"But... it's not like we can go back and measure that out," Tsuyu retorted.
"But at the very least, the reasoning puts you out of jeopardy, Tsu," Hitoshi pointed out. "Some of that writing was definitely too high up for you to reasonably write."
"But that's just abstract envisioning, which is pretty much what I was doing, not solid evidence," Yaomomo cut in. "Give me something definitive here, or we can start mapping out everyone as suspects."
"Oh, well..." Shouto paused. "Perhaps... did anyone see Tamaki hanging around with someone recently?"
"N-No..." Nejire's voice quivered. "He's... he's always shut in his room..!"
"So when would he have come out without people seeing him?" Tsuyu muttered.
"No, that's wrong."
Denki's Account : Break!
"Tamaki did come out of his room, and he didn't do it alone," Yaomomo explained. "Denki and Hitoshi running into him in the cafeteria is an example of that. It doesn't seem like he's sneaking around; rather, it's more of a problem that most of us shut ourselves in after the Ultimate Punishment. Trying to pull out eyewitness accounts isn't going to work. None of us have seen anything," she concluded. "Our best bet is to go through our own ranks and pick out who's the most suspicious."
"..." Shouto was silent. He looked like he wanted to protest the Detective's skewed way of determining the blackened, but he didn't voice it. "Fine. I can't think of anything else, so I'll leave it to you. I trust you, Yaomomo." He lowered his voice. "I hope you know what you're doing."
"Of course." Yaomomo brushed herself off and returned to what she was saying before. "As I was stating, our goal here is to determine who here Tamaki would most likely work with, or can work with. Of course..." She turned to Nejire, who was gazing at her with an anxious expression. "That makes Nejire our prime candidate."
"B-But- how could you suspect Nejire?!" Tsuyu wailed. "She'd never- she would never do this!"
"Yeah... yeah, that's right!" The bluette herself clenched her hands over her chest. "I couldn't possibly have k-killed... Tamaki..!"
"You were his closest friend."
"No! I wasn't!" Nejire cried out. "Why can't you see that there's no way Tamaki would've asked me to help- help him?! I've got to convince you of the truth!"
Argument Armament : Start!
{Nejire's Audio Clips Letters to Counter}
Phase 1 : Start!
"Yaomomo, what are you thinking-?!" (W) (A) (W)
"Tamaki, working with me..?" (S) (D) (S)
"He would never..!" (W-A-S-D)
"A-After Mirio... we've only been getting farther apart..." (W) (A) (S) (D) (S)
"He even shut me out when I- when I tried to help him..." (D) (A) (W) (S) (W) (S)
"There's no way he'd ask me for help!" (A) (A) (A)
Phase 2 : Advance!
"P-Please... stop..!" (A) (D)
"All my life... all of my life..!" (W) (S)
"I've only ever wanted... to save people..!" (D) (A) (W) (S)
"I just wanted to be a hero..." (S) (D) (S)
"...to save everyone..." (W-A-S-D)
"So please..." (S) (A - hold)
"Don't... don't think I would kill Tamaki..!" (S) (S) (W) (D)
Phase 3 : Advance!
"Please, stop!" (W) (W)
"You don't know anything about me..!" (D) (D - Hold) (A - Hold) (S)
"I've always thought you were smart..." (W-A-S-D)
"I've always thought you were so kind and caring..!" (W-A-S-D)
"So, please! Stop blindly suspecting us!" (A) (A - Hold) (S)
"Stop suspecting me just because I was a member of the Big Three!" (S) (S) (S) (A) (A) (W - Hold)
"I'm not the killer!" (W-A-S-D)
Final Blow!
W = Publically
A = Secretly
S = Distant,
D = Plotting
"Tamaki has been acting distant to me ever since- ever since Mirio's death!"
"But what if?"
W-S-A-D : PublicallyDistant,SecretlyPlotting : Break!
"However, for all that you're arguing, what if you're lying, Nejire?" Yaomomo accused. "What if you and Tamaki were just acting distant to fool the rest of us, when in actuality you were still working together? You care for him greatly." She softened her voice. "I know you do. You care enough for him that you'd work with him, if he so wanted you to."
"Even then, I would never help Tamaki kill himself!" the Beauty Pageant Star screamed. "I would never hurt him, even if he wanted to be hurt! That's how much I loved him!" Tears cascaded down her face again, and her voice was beginning to crack and grow raw from yelling. "He was one of my best friends, even if he always loved Mirio more than me... and while I may not have loved him like Mirio did, I loved Tamaki Amajiki! I- I really did!" She was crying now, her voice dying and her words getting choked in her throat.
And yet, she didn't sob, didn't break down like all the times before in the trials, overcome by grief and misery. She simply stood there, hands clenched in fists at her sides, teardrops streaming silently down her blotchy face.
Yaomomo met her gaze evenly. "If you're lying, you're very good at it."
"Yaomomo, why are you being so mean?" Tsuyu suddenly piped up. "Nejire is innocent. You heard her. She cared for Tamaki, and I can tell you it's true." She cocked her head. "We proved I was innocent because I'm tiny, right? So you should trust me."
"True..." Yaomomo left her doubts in Tsuyu's perspective go unsaid. What if her admiration for Nejire is clouding her better judgement?
The Swimmer shook her head, dark green tresses swirling in a wave around her. "Whatever. Suspect her, suspect all of us all you want. Use your own head and help us out, okay?"
"Ahem." Hitoshi cut into the discussion. "If I may make a suggestion, I'd like to see what your opinions on Shouto are."
"H-Huh?" Yaomomo blinked, momentarily confused. Her ears reddened. "Um-"
"Oh, no, I didn't mean it like that." Hitoshi huffed, averting his gaze. "I meant, don't you think he's been suspicious, too?"
"H-Hey! Where is this coming from?" The Theorist himself cried out in alarm. Yaomomo felt something twist in her stomach. "What have I done?"
"Well, you were the one who insisted we all go find Tamaki in the first place," Hitoshi pointed out. "A convenient hunch, finding a body in the process."
"Like I've said before, it was just a hunch," Shouto insisted, his expression hardening. "I felt like something was wrong. Most of us hadn't seen each other for days. It's only right to be a little paranoid, a little worried, right?"
"But I must agree with Hitoshi... it does seem a little suspicious." All heads snapped around to stare at Yaomomo, who'd spoken out against her companion's favor. Shouto's mismatched eyes widened; he gazed at her, incredulous. "Rather convenient, guiding us to the body," she continued, her eyes fixed to the floor. She couldn't possibly meet Shouto's eyes.
"Yaomomo... you can't mean that." The taller's voice was hushed. "I..."
"You know I'm right, though, don't you?" She didn't want to do this, honesetly, but Hitoshi had brought up such a valid point that it now took up all of her mind and more. "You led us straight to a dead body."
"I... You're right." Shouto sighed, and Yaomomo looked up to find herself trapped in a pair of silver and cyan jewels. "You have a right to be suspicious of me. I did lead everyone to the body, whether unintentional or not."
"I don't want to, but... give me your story, your account," Yaomomo pushed, trying not to think too hard. For some reason, whenever she tried to imagine Shouto killing Tamaki, it left a bitter taste in her mouth and a ringing in her ears. She couldn't possibly see him doing something so cruel, so despairful, especially after Izuku.
Izuku. The thought of them together was making her head spin, too. She shook herself off and clenched her sweating hands into fists. "Do your worst," she murmured.
"Alright." Shouto tugged at his coattails, straightening out his outfit. "If you so insist that I'm suspicious, I'll try my best to prove you wrong."
Rebuttal Showdown : Start!
Shouto Todoroki : Momo Yaoyorozu
Truth Blades: Tamaki's Note, Yaomomo's Autopsy, Nejire's Account, Body Discovery Announcement
"Like I said earlier, I went hunting for everyone off of a hunch I had that something was off," Shouto explained. "Paranoia, I think; I hadn't seen most of you in days, so one is bound to assume the worst. I found you in the library, Yaomomo. From there, we went to every room to check up on our classmates. You know the rest."
"But I don't," the Detective muttered. "How can I trust all that you're saying from your perspective is true? You found a body off of a hunch. It sounds incredibly suspicious, wouldn't you agree?"
"That's true," he admitted. "However, there's another factor that puts me out of the running," he continued. "I helped to initiate the body discovery announcement, so therefore, I cannot be the blackened."
"I will cut through your words."
Body Discovery Announcement : Cut!
"You can't be certain you helped trigger the announcement," Yaomomo declared. "Nejire, Tsu, you, and I were present at the scene when the announcement went off. Only three people are needed to set it off, so one of us could've been the blackened, and it would still work."
Blackened. Her fingers tingled. The word seemed so impure, and the very notion that she'd been standing so close to Tamaki's killer was unnerving.
"Okay, so maybe that was a bit of poor reasoning on my part." Shouto tried to smooth over his mistake. "But I also have no motivation to kill. What would I kill for? And why would I listen to a suicidal maniac, if we're being blunt here? I would never work with Tamaki. Besides, if I were the killer, it seems rather unwise to lead you all to a fresh body. It'd make more sense to let the body lay there and rot, which would hide evidence."
"Ah... th-that... makes a lot of sense, actually," Denki commented. "Why would the blackened themself lead us to their victim? It makes... it makes them more suspicious, and h-helps us, not them."
"Precisely so." A small smile slipped onto his face. "How about it? Still suspect me now?"
"Mmh..." Yaomomo stalled for a moment. "You could just be using reverse psychology, though. You're insisting you couldn't have been the killer because of this logic, when in actuality you could be the killer and done that to create this logic in the first place."
"That's cold."
"But you have good points... and so did Nejire." Yaomomo pursed her lips, but when she met Shouto's eyes, she could tell he was relaxed. "We can't exactly rule out anyone for certain yet except Tsu, because she's too short, which is physical evidence."
"S-Speaking of which... if we're still in the business of suspecting... how about Hitoshi..?" Nejire suddenly spoke out. She wasn't crying anymore; instead, there was a sharpness in her expression, in her eyes, one of determined, crooked righteousness. "He's been locked up in a closet for the past few days, right?"
"How'd you know that?" Hitoshi's voice was cold.
"Well... one night, Tsu went to get drinks for us while I was s-sleeping," the bluette said. "She said... she said you were in a closet, digging through a box, a-and muttering to yourself."
"That's..!" The violette's eyes widened, and his face flushed in embarrassment at being called out. "Sorry... I couldn't help it, honestly. I swear, I wasn't working for Tamaki!"
"But it is still odd, right?" Yaomomo murmured. "Why were you in that closet, Hitoshi? What were you doing?"
"Do you really believe I killed Tamaki, Miss Yaoyorozu?" Hitoshi's voice was cold. "Incredible, how despair has twisted our lovely Detective. I'll show you what's right! I can prove I'm innocent!"
Argument Armament : Start!
{Hitoshi's Audio Clips : Letters to Counter}
Phase 1 : Start!
"Come on, Yaomomo." (W - Hold) (W - Hold)
"I'll explain myself, and when everything becomes clear..." (A - Hold) (A) (D) (A - Hold)
"...promise me you'll quit this bullshit, okay?" (S) (S) (W - Hold)
"Suspecting everyone blindly..." (W) (D) (S - Hold)
"Wouldn't it make more sense to use reasoning, as you did before..." (S) (A) (W) (D) (S - Hold)
"...in order to find the killer?" (D) (A) (S - Hold)
"Has Cynthia's death finally driven you over the edge?" (W) (W) (S) (D) (A) (W - Hold)
Phase 2 : Advance!
"Allow me to explain myself." (S) (S) (W - Hold)
"I was digging through the closet..." (A) (A) (D - Hold)
"...because I was trying to find any dangerous objects." (W) (A) (S) (W) (D) (S)
"After Hizashi... after Hizashi died..." (S - Hold) (W) (W - Hold)
"I wanted... to make sure that none of you would get hurt unnecessarily as well." (D) (S) (A) (D) (W) (A) (S - Hold)
"Th-That's respectable, right?" (W-A-S-D)
Phase 3 : Advance!
"You're still pushing?" (W) (W) (W - Hold)
"Of course... I look mighty suspicious, don't I?" (A) (D) (A) (D - Hold)
"I'm sorry... I couldn't help it." (S) (W) (S)
"I didn't want to act strangely..." (A) (W) (A)
"But when I tried to just stay in my room..." (D) (A) (W) (S) (W - Hold)
"...it made me feel so horrible that I couldn't resist temptation." (A) (D) (S) (W) (S - Hold)
"I know that... that Hizashi and Eri's deaths have hurt me, hurt all of us." (A) (A) (D) (W) (S) (W)
"But please... Hizashi would never have wanted me to do this." (A) (D) (A) (S) (W)
"Eri wouldn't have wanted this, either." (W-A-S-D)
"So, please... stop!" (W-A-S-D)
"I'm not the killer!" (W-A-S-D)
Final Blow!
W = Finding
A = Tamaki
S = For
D = Weapons
"I was just trying to protect everyone... th-that's all!"
"But what if..?"
W-D-S-A : FindingWeaponsForTamaki : Break!
"Your argument is all over the place," Yaomomo stated bluntly.
"H-Hey!" Hitoshi averted his eyes. "I have a point though, don't I?! I'm not some debater like you, Miss Detective."
"You bring up nice points, but those same points can be used against you," she continued. "You were looking for weapons in the closet- you say that it was to protect us, but what if you were just looking for a weapon for Tamaki? Secondly, the despair caused by your father and sister's death and capture respectively is also surely enough to drive anyone crazy."
I mean, it did for me.
I miss you, Kyouka, Cynthia.
Wildly suspecting all my friends... You two wouldn't like that, would you?
...I'm sorry.
"Tamaki could easily manipulate that despair and get you to work with him," the ravenette finished.
"Can't you just believe my word?" Hitoshi hissed. "I just... I just want you to stop jumping from person to person, blindly calling them out one after the other with no basis other than the fact that one of us definitely did it."
"Someone could always be lying. We must consider all the options." Yaomomo couldn't meet his indigo glare. "Let's move on, already. We've heard what you've had to say, so what next?"
"I think Denki is a little interesting," Tsuyu noted, going along with Yaomomo's suggestion. "He accompliced- hm, accompliced, is that a word?" She paused, tapping her pointer finger against her lower lip. She seemed lost in thought, all of a sudden.
"Ahem. As you were saying?" Hitoshi's voice made her jump and blink. She seemed momentarily dazed, before picking up right where she left off.
"Ah. Right. Um, Denki was Mezou's partner in crime, so there's something to consider," the viridian-haired girl said. Her gaze was emotionless as she looked at him. "That's just what I think."
"W-Wait! I wouldn't- I wouldn't be another accomplice, not after- after that!" Denki seemed horrified; his eyes were wide -was that fear Yaomomo could see?- and his hands clasped together in front of his stomach. His shoulders pulled inward, as if he were trying to collapse into himself and escape from the atmosphere of the trial room. "I- I wouldn't! I wouldn't, I wouldn't I WOULDN'T!"
He wrapped his arms around himself; he was shaking, and tears were beginning to overflow from his dilated, unseeing eyes. "D-Denki? Denki, are you okay..?!" Even Hitoshi's cries of concern didn't snap him out of it. The blonde merely stood there, shaking and holding onto himself, as if attempting to ground himself as he began to swiftly unwind.
"Y-Y-You're all idiots! IDIOTS! M-Mezou- Mezou abused me! He forced me into it!" Denki was screaming now, the words torn from his lips as he began to cry. "I- I-!" Whatever he was going to say seemed to have been stuck in his throat, as he abruptly cut himself off and looked down, shuddering like a leaf in the wind. He was bent over, his eyes fixed to his shoes. Tears slipped down his nose and fell to the floor.
"Leave him alone," Hitoshi muttered before deserting his podium, hurrying over to his friend's side. "Hey. Hey, Denki?" He reached out to place a reassuring hand on the smaller's back, but Denki abruptly jumped and jolted away at the touch. "O-Oh. Okay. I'll just stand there, then, okay? I'm here. Shh. It's okay." The violette continued to murmur hushed phrases of comfort to the Electrician.
"Well... while they're doing that..." Shouto looked away from the scene and turned back to Yaomomo. "There was something I was thinking about after that last trial."
"Go ahead." Yaomomo ripped her own gaze away from Denki and fixated on the Theorist, instead.
"Denki helped Mezou during the trial by pushing blame onto Tamaki, right? Saying he triggered the announcement, giving Tamaki the chance to be the killer, all that," Shouto began. "If you look at it differently, though, technically he was also helped Tamaki. Also, when Tamaki was initially accused of being the blackened by poisoning Mirio with his drink, Denki jumped to defend him. Remember that?"
~*Flashback*~
A beat of silence followed the short girl's words. Denki turned to the Florist in question, who stood stiffly, shadowed gaze fixed to the floor. "H-Hey, Tamaki... it's okay! She- she's got to be mistaken..!"
"It's okay, Denki."
"Wh-What..?"
"It's okay, Denki." Tamaki looked up, tears like crystals gleaming in his eyes. He turned away from the Electrician to address the room as a whole. "I'm sorry for lying earlier. You can stop now."
~*Back to Present*~
"Ah... I do think I recall that." Yaomomo tapped her chin. "So you're saying... that Denki worked not only with Mezou, but also Tamaki?"
"Precisely so." Shouto turned back to Hitoshi and Denki at the podium. "Of course, we can only ever get confirmation from Denki himself. Let's wait a minute."
"The lot of you are insufferable," Hitoshi hissed, turning away from his friend. Denki wasn't shaking anymore; instead, he was wiping the tears from his face. "You're still going on and suspecting people while they're having a fucking panic attack?" His expression was one of hatred, of fury. "You're all fucking sick. You make me sick, ALL OF YOU! You're all fucking disgusting!"
"Th-That's... that's enough, Hitoshi..." Denki's voice was small and raspy, but he appeared coherent. He lifted his head; there were tearstains on his blotchy face, but his eyes gleamed. "I... I don't want you all to suspect me... on terms that were out of my control..!"
"What do you mean..?" Yaomomo tried not to look at Hitoshi, instead focusing on the electric blonde.
What hurts the most is that he's right.
"E-Exactly! You don't- you don't even know the whole picture!" Denki's voice was strained. "Why should I tell y-you all what I actually w-went through when all you want- want to do is suspect me?!"
"Because unless you want to be suspected, it would be ideal to give your account." Tsuyu was unphased by his and Hitoshi's ranting. "Spill it."
"W-Well..." The girl's tone seemed to have unnerved him. Denki stared at his feet again. "Tamaki- Tamaki forced me into working with him! Just like M-Mezou... I didn't want to! But I did it anyway!"
"Why? Why would you accomplice them if you didn't want to?" Tsuyu was bluntly leading the questioning, her expression blank as words without a hint of empathy spilled over her tongue.
"I was scared, okay?!" Denki's voice was rising, Hitoshi's expression softened as he returned his attention to his companion, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I was... I was so scared!"
"Why? Denki... what did they do to you?" Yaomomo kept her voice gentle, lest Hitoshi turn to her with detest clear in his eyes again. He did anyway. "No, seriously. How did they hurt you to get like this?" There was something bitter twisting in her stomach, something vile on her tongue. She couldn't see the old Denki in this tortured soul anymore; she couldn't find the enthusiastic, happy boy who just wanted to electrocute his enemies and have fun, the boy who wanted to be a hero- no, not even that- to be a kid enjoying his life. Something had happened- something more than just Kyouka and Mashirao's deaths, something more horrific than even that.
"I... Mezou... h-he..." Denki gulped, and his arms tensed around himself. "He cornered me... in a closet... he threatened me... he t-touched... my eye... it burned..!" He began shaking again, blinking sporadically and rapidly. He rubbed his left eye violently. "It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts so bad-!"
"D-Denki!" Hitoshi gently took his wrist, tugging his hand away from his eye. "Denki, it's okay. Mezou's dead. It's just me, Hitoshi." The Electrician looked up, turned to stare at the violette for a moment. His left eye had started watering from how harshly he'd been rubbing it. "It's okay. We're going to be okay."
The Psychic reached up and placed a hand on Denki's face, cupping his chin in his palm. "No more pain, okay? Let's get through this together." His voice was gentle, oh so gentle and filled with love. Yaomomo looked away; it seemed too intimate a moment to watch. She dragged her eyes around the circle instead; Nejire was crying, Tsuyu seemingly confused, and Shouto was gazing at the floor. Yaomomo tried not to study the curve of his face too hard.
In her peripheral, she saw Denki reach up and place one shaky hand over Hitoshi's. "Yeah," she heard him mumble. "Alright, Hitoshi."
The violette smiled and pulled back. He turned back to the other students, and Yaomomo's attention immediately snapped to him. Denki was looking out, too. "Now do you understand him?" Hitoshi's voice was still as soft as it was before. "Mezou abused him into working with him, and Tamaki picked him up while he was still reeling. It shouldn't be too tough to understand human emotion." He fixed a certain ravenette with a glare, and his face and voice both turned flint-sharp once more. "So, is that good enough for you, Miss Detective? Still think we're suspicious?"
"..." Yaomomo couldn't say anything without upsetting someone- either herself or Hitoshi and Denki. She couldn't trust anyone fully; nobody was truly out of the clear. There was no evidence other than their own words, which could be twisted this way and that and still seem as authentic as the truth. However, she couldn't do anything but speak sweet words. "I suppose... nobody is truly not suspicious, but I must say... I can't imagine it being either of you, truly."
Is that the truth, Momo? Or is it lies?
Do you even know anymore, Yaomomo?
The line's blurring...
Who's lying? Who's not? I can't tell.
Anyone could have been Tamaki's accomplice, anyone could've killed him.
There was nothing.
Absolutely nothing but words.
Words.
Words could be as powerful as a bullet, as a blade, as a punch. Yaomomo knew that firsthand.
So why was she at a loss for them, at now of all times?
Why was her head empty?
She couldn't think of anything but that horrid scene of Tamaki lying in the shower, surrounded by words written in blood by a fingertip, pink liquid running down his face, gashes covering his arms and torso, a slight smile tugging at his lips.
One blink, and it was Kyouka.
Another, and it was Cynthia.
Another, and it was back to Tamaki.
Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink.
"Yaomomo? What should we do now?"
Shouto's voice barely brushed the void surrounding her.
Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink.
The blood kept spreading.
But wasn't it supposed to be dry?
Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink.
Yaomomo couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't breathe, couldn't think.
It was just the ever-growing, flashing image of Tamaki sitting in the shower, blood running down his face, staining his hair, his clothes, the tile floor.
Shutting her eyes couldn't do anything anymore. It was engraved in the back of her eyelids, burning through her eye sockets and scorching her brain itself, tickling the void and coaxing out a handful of snapshots, like photos, worn and tea-stained polaroids.
She couldn't get it out of her head out of her sight out of her very being and she was drowning in it.
blinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkYaomomoareyouokay?blinkblinkblinkblinkblink It was always Tamaki blinkblinkYaomomoblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkYaomomowhat'swrong?blinkblinkblink
Blink. There was suddenly a blurry vision of a knife in his head.
Blink. It was replaced by the image of a silver blade slicing open his skin.
Blink, and it was a vision of blood all over a pale, slender-fingered hand, fingers gripping the blood-speckled handle so tight the knuckles were turning white. Everything was in full detail, illuminated under the golden glow of the bathroom lights.
It was all crystal clear.
What?
Blink, and she was trapped in a still shot of his face, the hallway lights reflecting off of his hair. Dark navy eyes, dull yet so deep with untold thoughts and wicked planning, pierced her through the flickering picture in her bloody fingers.
It crumbled into dust, and she was stuck in shadow once more, alone with just her and the voices telling her stories of things she couldn't remember, stories where she was the main character.
Kyouka and Cynthia giggled and laughed, as if they were doing nothing more than exchanging gossip with her over a cup of tea.
It was always just Tamaki
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and you.