The elevator ride down into the courtroom was soaked in suspense. No one said a word. No one dared to breathe too loudly for fear of invoking further chaos in this despair-filled day. Makoto couldn't blame them. Today didn't exactly have the best track record in being stable. Something as small as a whisper might create even more mayhem. All he could think about was how little evidence he had gathered. How little he knew. All he had at his disposal were small pieces of glass, a tie and a small handful of testimonies, none of which concretely pointed towards a killer. Was this it? Was this case going to be impossible to solve?

Were they all going to die soon?

The doors opened on a makeshift courtroom, where Monokuma sat on a little throne, still smiling.

Everyone headed to their respective podiums, trying to ignore the empty one inhabited by a signpost with a portrait of Junko attached to it, her face crossed over in neon pink. Black ribbons decorated the top of the frame, indicating what they already knew: she was dead.

Monokuma gave another explanation of the rules of the class trial. If the killer was identified, they would be executed. If the killer was not identified, they would graduate and walk free, with everyone else being executed in their place. Either way, one fact was perfectly clear:

More death was coming their way.

"Now, without further ado…" Monokuma began, voice overflowing with uncontainable joy, "...let the class trial begin!"

The debate began with a declaration from Leon. "I'm just gonna come right out and say it… the killer is obviously Kiyotaka!"

Kiyotaka gasped, eyes wide. "I… What?! How could you say something like that? Lying can have you thrown in detention, you know!" The offence and the outrage in his voice was absolutely clear. Makoto couldn't blame him. For the first point to be discussed in the case, it was definitely not one he had expected to hear.

"Leon isn't totally wrong," said Fukawa, standing at her podium as twitchy as ever. "H-He was the one who discovered the body, right? M-Maybe he killed Junko and then said he found it to make himself look innocent!"

"I hate to say it, but Kyoko said she noticed Junko's body was still warm," said Sayaka. "When Kiyotaka found the body she would have only just died. Isn't that a little suspicious?"

Celeste took the opportunity to chime in, too. "Sakura and Asahina were the ones he told first, weren't they? Maybe one of them noticed something strange."

"Well," said Asahina, "he was definitely in a state of panic, but-"

"A-HA!" Hifumi cried. "That proves it! He was panicking because he'd just killed someone and the guilt was kicking in!"

Tears were welling up in the prefect's eyes now. "I'm telling you, I didn't do it! I would never hurt any of you!"

"See what I mean?" Said Leon. "It's gotta be him!"

"No, that's wrong!"

Makoto wasn't sure from where within him that shout had come from. He only knew that it had apparently come flying from his mouth at full volume, considering the stunned reactions pointed in his direction. He didn't dare, however. There was something about Kiyotaka's words and reaction that seemed true, and he wasn't going to sit by and let the others gang up on him.

"Whaddyamean 'that's wrong'?"

"You're all jumping to conclusions too quickly. Maybe it is Kiyotaka, maybe it isn't, but we can't make that judgement just yet!" He turned to Asahina suddenly. "Asahina, didn't you tell me you saw someone crawling at the end of the dorm hallway earlier, right after the murder took place?"

"Well… I think I did."

"Kiyotaka was with you at the time, right?"

"Uh, yeah. He was taking us to the locker room, remember."

There it was. The justification he needed. "See what I mean?" Said Makoto. "Something suspicious happened while Kiyotaka was with Asahina and Sakura. Whoever Asahina saw at the end of the hallway couldn't have been Kiyotaka. It might have been the real killer getting away from the scene for all we know!"

"Or it could have been something totally unrelated," said Byakuya with a grunt of disgust. He didn't look anywhere near as panicked and desperate to solve this thing as the others. If anything, he looked bored by it all.

"You're right," said Makoto, "but until we know that for sure, we can't make any judgements. We have to discuss the evidence first!"

"Makoto's right," said Sayaka. "We don't know anything yet! Leave Kiyotaka alone!"

From the corner of his eye, Makoto could have sworn he saw the prefect breathe a genuine sigh of relief as the abuse came to a halt for the time being. He breathed one of his own, too, amazed that he had managed to turn the situation around. For now, anyway. They were one step closer to finding the truth. It was a tiny step, sure, but a step in the right direction, all the same.

Of course, as one debate ended, another quickly began.

"That's true," said Chihiro. "Kiyotaka could be innocent. We don't even know what killed poor Junko, l-let alone who actually did it."

Mondo rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. Did you even look at the crime scene? It's obvious what was used to kill her."

With a defeated sigh, Chihiro bowed her head. "I'm… I'm s-sorry. I was just trying to help."

"Well go on, wise guy," said Leon, "what did the killer use?"

"Are you for real, man? It was obviously the tie on the floor next to her."

"Oh… I, uh… I never noticed that."

"It's obvious what happened," Mondo explained, arms folded. "The killer somehow got the tie off her and used it to strangle her!"

Wait… wait, that didn't make any sense!

"No, that's wrong!"

"Jesus, will you stop with the shouting?!" The Ultimate Biker Gang Leader replied, ironically shouting at twice the volume Makoto had used.

Makoto blinked. "Oh, uh, sorry." Still, he shook his head. His volume didn't matter. What mattered was the contradiction in that statement. "You said the killer took her tie off and used it to strangle her, but is that really what happened?"

"Whazzat supposed to mean?"

"Well," said Makoto, "her tie was already around her neck. If the killer was insistent on using her tie for whatever reason, they wouldn't need to take it off at all! And yet they did."

"Maybe that's because it was easier to use as a weapon if it was removed," Celeste added. "I imagine it's possible to kill someone while they're wearing the tie but it wouldn't be easy at all."

"If the tie was already secure around her neck to begin with, it wouldn't be easy to remove. The killer would have to undo the tie, and that would be near-impossible without Junko's consent. The only other way is to rip the tie off, and the tie wasn't torn. Stretched in the middle from what looked like strain, yes, but not torn off!"

"Okay," said Mukuro quietly, dark circles around her eyes from how hard she had been crying earlier, "so what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that the killer couldn't have removed Junko's tie," said Makoto. Of that he was certain.

"But the tie was removed, you fool," said Byakuya with another grunt. "Are you really forgetting such a basic fact of this case? If the killer didn't remove the tie, then why was it removed and lying next to her corpse?"

Makoto still wasn't certain. Not at all, but… the facts seemed to be pointing in a certain direction, and he had no choice but to follow it. It was impossible for the killer to remove her tie, but the tie had been removed all the same. If only Junko and her killer were at the scene, and the killer didn't remove it…

"Junko took off her own tie." There were several sounds of surprise and confusion from the others, as he had expected. "She was the only one who could."

"Why would she take off her tie?" Asahina asked.

"Maybe she was going to bathe?" Said Kiyotaka. "Perhaps she was about to take off her uniform, and began with removing her tie when she was suddenly attacked from behind with that same tie!"

"How would they have known she was going to the locker room to begin with?" Said Mukuro.

"P-Perhaps they were following her, had it all planned out, and they struck when she was vulnerable!" Kiyotaka replied.

Mukuro shook her head. "No, that's not possible. She was with me the whole time before the murder. We were standing by the giant steel door in the entrance hall. She told me she was going to the bathroom and told me to wait where I was for her, but she never came back…" It was clear she was fighting off a fresh round of tears. "...the body discovery announcement played soon after. I would have noticed someone following her."

"Well maybe the killer didn't have it planned, but followed her in, saw the removed tie, and used it as an opportunity!" The prefect countered.

"No. Junko was insanely analytical. She noticed everything and anything that went on around her, no matter how small. She might have been a Fashionista, but she was so sharp that it sometimes scared me." She shook her head again. "She would have seen someone following her, and she would have taken them down. No doubt about it.

"Well, then I..." Kiyotaka paused, only to sigh in frustration. "...I don't know."

"So then why did she take off the tie if she wasn't changing?" Said Leon, his expression indicating that he, too, was beyond stumped.

At last, Makoto had the chance to explain the hypothesis he had developed. He didn't want to say it. He didn't even fully believe it himself, but…

"Junko took off her own tie because… because she was the one planning on using it as a weapon."

A further burst of confusion followed straight after, and his eyes turned to Mukuro to see her staring daggers at him.

"She…" The Ultimate Soldier clearly didn't believe him. "...she what?"

"It's the only conclusion that makes sense," said Makoto. "She would have spotted someone following her, so she wasn't taken by surprise. The killer couldn't have removed the tie in the heat of the moment, either, because it was impossible to remove without Junko letting them take it off or without tearing it apart. It's clear what happened: Junko met with someone in the bathhouse, her tie at the ready, because she was planning on killing them. Junko was the true attacker. This was a crime of self-defence!"

Mukuro fell into silence once more, but her eyes remained locked on Makoto like crosshairs. He only prayed she wouldn't take a shot. It wasn't a pleasant truth to face, and it might not have been the truth at all, but it was the only thing that made sense right now!

"So... what are you trying to say here?" Hagakure spoke up through the confusion. "The killer grabbed the tie off her and used it in self-defence?"

"That's a possibility," said Makoto, "but I don't think that's exactly what happened."

"And how the hell do you know all this?" Said Leon. "What next? Are you going to tell us that the tie wasn't the murder weapon after all?"

"As a matter of fact," said Makoto, "that's exactly what I'm about to say."

The sarcasm was wiped off the Ultimate Baseballer's face in a heartbeat, and he was left gasping in shock. "Wh-WHAAAT?!"

"He's right," said Kyoko suddenly. It was the first time she had spoken up in the entire trial. Up until now she had been silent. Watching. Waiting, apparently. "Remember the bruising around Junko's neck. Thick splotches of purple all over. Her tie was far too thin to have caused that sort of damage. If the tie had been used, we would have seen a thin line of bruising but we didn't. The damage was far too heavy to be consistent with the tie. The tie wasn't the murder weapon."

She had completely taken the words out of Makoto's mouth, and phrased them much more professionally, to boot. The Ultimate Lucky Student almost found himself jealous for a moment, but quickly found himself thankful instead that she had jumped in to help him.

"It's true," he said. "A tie wouldn't have caused damage like that. At least, not that I can imagine."

"So what killed her?" Asked Asahina.

"The marks were too wide and random to be a specific item like a tie or rope or even a belt," said Makoto. "If this was a crime of self-defence, that meant the killer was trying to fend her off. The killer wouldn't have been armed with any sort of weapon, so the only thing they would have..."

"...are their hands," said Kirigiri, finishing his sentence for him.

"So they strangled her with their bare hands?" Asked Chihiro, a look of horror crossing across her petite face.

"What sorta asshole would do somethin' like that?" Said Mondo, fist clenched. "I don't care why he did it – no man should ever hurt a woman, even if it is in fuckin' defence!"

"Why do you assume the culprit is male?" Asked Byakuya. "That makes you look a little suspicious, wouldn't you say?"

Mondo blinked. His eyes widened. He had clearly realised his mistake. "Wait… you're not saying. You don't think…" He slammed his fist down on his podium. "I'M NOT THE FUCKIN' KILLER!"

The Ultimate Affluent Progeny let out a chuckle of what sounded like genuine amusement. It was the sound one would expect to hear from a sadistic child after setting his puppets on fire and watching them dance, regardless. A description that Makoto could totally see fitting Byakuya in his younger years, even if he had only known him for a day. He actually appeared to be enjoying this, and that thought terrified him.

"I know you aren't, so please refrain from acting like an ape. Violence only makes you look like more of a fool, you know. It's obvious who the real culprit here is," said Byakuya, with that first part setting off Mondo's anger. The Affluent Progeny was hit with a tirade of curse words and threats, but he didn't seem to care at all. He pointed across the circle to none other than… "Mukuro Ikusaba! You were the one who killed Junko Enoshima!"

Makoto hadn't seen that coming. Not at all. What the hell was he playing at?

"...Excuse me?" The Ultimate Soldier stared at him with a look that threatened to kill without hesitation. The glare of a true battle-hardened soldier on the front-line of war.

"The only evidence we have that Junko wasn't taken by surprise is your account of being with her and knowing her personally. Yet no one else here can corroborate that. You have no alibi. Only your sister could have given you one, and she's dead." Byakuya began his explanation, but those last words seemed to hit a nerve in Mukuro, as tears began welling up in her eyes.

"S-Shut up..."

"I can only assume," he continued, "that you both trusted each other, so if you were the one who attacked first, her guard would have been down, giving you a prime opportunity. If the truth is as Makoto says and she attacked you, then as the Ultimate Soldier you would have had the combat experience to turn the situation around. Your hands would certainly be strong enough to strangle someone to death, especially with your experience in the military."

"You…" Mukuro had been rendered speechless, hunched over her stand, inhaling heavy breaths of outrage and despair. "...Shut your mouth… you're wrong… shut up!"

"That's why you've spent the whole time since the body discovery crying about her death. It's not because she was your sister and you care. That couldn't be further from the truth! You were crying to make us think you couldn't possibly be responsible, in an effort to hide your crime! Save us all the time and admit it. You killed her!"

At that moment, Mukuro Ikusaba let out a scream. A wail of agony and devastation. Every chord her yell hit was soaked with greater and greater amounts of agony, and it seemed there was not a single person in the room who couldn't feel it. Makoto could almost feel tears building himself just watching her, so great was her anguish.

"I would never! I… Junko… She… I… NOOOOOO!"

"You might not want to face it," said Byakuya, "but self-defence or not, you killed her. You're the one responsible for this atrocity!"

Mukuro had become a shadow of her former self, and that was being generous. Wailing and screaming, crying and hyperventilating. She had been gripped in the midst of a full-blown breakdown, mixed in with what seemed like some sort of panic attack. She could barely speak. She could hardly even breathe. She had been reduced to babbling her words, not making any sense, eyes darting around the room, her entire being overcome with distress. She was trying to speak but every word failed to form. She was entirely defeated.

"I guess… from that reaction, anyway..." Leon began, a look of regret on his face, "...I guess she really did do it."

"She was your sister, you idiot. How could you do something so cruel?" Fukawa hissed.

"This is a turn of events I never expected!" Hifumi exclaimed.

"Mukuro… why? Why did you do it?" Said Kiyotaka, brows raised in concern, his tone making it clear of just how sorry he felt for her. "Please talk to us and explain yourself!"

Was this… really how it was going to end? Was she really the one responsible?

"Monokuma," said Byakuya, suddenly clicking his fingers as he issued his command, "let the voting begin. It's time we end this charade."

The teddy bear chuckled. "Upupupu! So full of vigour, Byakuya," he cooed, "I love it! Very well, then. If we're all agreed, let's start the voti-"

"NO! NOT YET!"

Every eye in the room fell on Makoto for the second time in the trial.

"What do you mean 'not yet'?" Byakuya glared at him. "We're all decided, aren't we? Don't interrupt justice. I want to get back to my room already. I've had enough of this nonsense."

Makoto shook his head defiantly. "You're all forgetting one piece of evidence that we haven't mentioned yet!"

"Oh?" Said Byakuya, his arms folding. "And what's that?"

"There were little shards of glass found south of her body, remember."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"We don't know what the glass is from! There's no reason why it should be there, and yet it is. It doesn't add up. Neither Junko or Mukuro appear to have had anything on them that contained glass or was made of glass. Think back to when Junko was alive. She didn't have anything like that. There isn't naturally glass in the locker room, either, so something with glass in it had to have been brought to the crime scene! If Mukuro strangled Junko like you said, Byakuya, then that glass shouldn't be there!" Makoto slammed his hands on the podium in front of him. "Until we know why it was there, we can't vote yet! Mukuro could be entirely innocent!"

The sound of the headmaster's chuckling reverberated around the room. "I can see you kiddos still have more talking to do. Voting Time is called off for now until you can come to an agreement!"

With that said, the room seemed to spin, and yet another debate kicked off into full swing. Makoto was relieved to have, once again, prevented the room from making another stupid mistake, but Byakuya didn't appear happy in the slightest. That was the closest they had come to walking into what might have been a trap, and Makoto's heart was still pounding from that close call.

"S-so where did the glass come from t-then?" Asked Fukawa.

"It's irrelevant," Byakuya replied. "It has nothing to do with this case."

"Is there really anything in this building that could create shattered glass?" Leon asked. "I mean, all the windows are covered up so it can't be them!"

"This glass doesn't make any sense!" Hagakure cried, hands in his birds-nest of hair.

"Now that you mention it… the way the glass was shaped… wasn't there something weird about it?" Sayaka pondered, finger on her chin.

"There was nothing odd about the glass at all. How it got there is entirely irrelevant. It's just normal glass."

"No, that's wrong!"

Just as the glass had been shattered, Makoto felt confident in having completely shattered Byakuya's point. Or, at least, he was about to.

"The glass was curved, Byakuya," said Makoto. "Only a little bit, sure, but it was curved. Normal glass, like a generic pane, is completely flat. This glass was tiny, and it was curved. That doesn't seem weird to you?"

"Who cares if the glass is curved," Byakuya countered. "It makes no difference."

Kyoko shook her head. "Makoto's right. If you think about it, it's clear that the glass could only have come from one thing, and it's key to solving this case."

One thing?

What could that be?

"Hey, I remember Hagakure saying he has a glass ball for all his Clairvoyant stuff! It's a ball, so it'd be curved too!" Said Leon.

Hagakure let out a cry of offence. "It's not from my ball! It's safely in my room where it belongs! And hey – it's not glass, it's crystal! How many times do I have to tell you?!" He shoved his hands in his pockets, almost pouting with how much the comment had apparently hurt him. "Besides, who takes a crystal ball to a planned murder scene?"

"You might have u-used the ball as a murder weapon! You could have whacked it over her head!" Fukawa declared, pointing at him accusingly. "I wouldn't p-put it past you… not when you have hair like that…!"

Makoto shook his head. "That's impossible, Fukawa. The cause of death was strangulation, remember, not blunt force trauma. Plus, these pieces were far too few and too tiny to belong to something like a crystal ball."

"Then where the hell did it come from? This glass is really starting to piss me off!" Mondo's fists were clenched, as usual.

Delving deep into the realm of logic, Makoto brought a hand to his chin. Individual letters began forming in his mind, piecing together like a mental game of hangman. "It had something small. Something with a slight curve. Something that would be normal to take with you, even to a murder scene." Yes. Yes! That was it! He had it! His eyes met Kyoko's for a moment, and she gave the tiniest of nods in his direction, as if she knew he had worked it out and was now encouraging him to blow the lid off the entire thing. "The glass could only have come from a pair of glasses!"

Hifumi let out a yell of surprise. "Wh-Whaaaaat?!"

"I believe that Junko knocked the culprit's glasses off their face as she tried to fight back, sending them to the floor where, in the struggle, they were broken, shattering the glass! The killer tried taking the glass and the frames with them after they'd finished strangling her, but, totally blind without them, they missed several pieces and accidentally left them behind."

Surprise overtook the room once again, and Makoto cast his gaze over to Kyoko who, to his surprise, wore the tiniest little smile on her face. She almost looked proud of him, but he was sure he was just imagining it.

"Dude," said Leon, "that's cool and everything, but look at Byakuya. Look at Fukawa. Look at Hifumi. They're the only ones who wear glasses and, uh… they all have their glasses."

Oh.

That was true.

Oh no.

"Hey, when I checked around in my room earlier I had spare copies of my usual gear waiting for me in the wardrobe. Like, the exact same stuff. Like, to a fuckin' T. If I had the same brand of hairspray in there that I normally use, then who's to say those guys wouldn't have spare glasses, too?"

"I have spares of every single one of my accessories," said Celeste. Coming from her, of all people, that really meant something. Just how much thought and detail had Monokuma put into all of this? "I don't think it's beyond the imagination to say there would be spare glasses provided, too."

Monokuma, at long last, finally piped up. "You are both correctamundo! You all have exact spares of everything you wear and need in your rooms. From the essentials like glasses and underwear, all the way down to the little things like shoelaces and prefect badges! Anyhoo, carry on kids! This is getting exciting!"

"That's it, then," said Sayaka, "the killer could have just headed back to their room after the murder and got a new pair!"

"So wait… that means..." Leon turned his attention to the three glasses wearers, clearly stunned. "...that means one of these three is the killer!"

Makoto looked to each of them.

To Fukawa, who had hunched over a little, fingers trembling and fidgeting, a look of severe strain and anxiety on her glasses-wearing face.

To Hifumi, who had half his hand in his mouth, appearing to be biting on his nails, eyes averted, his forehead a pale blue of worry.

To Byakuya, who had his arms folded, an uncaring expression on his face, making a point of staring straight back at Makoto defiantly.

The suspect pool had just narrowed down from fifteen to three.

One of them was the killer.

Working out which one of them it was would be the final puzzle of this case.

And Makoto was about to solve it.