Bing-Bong Bong-Bing!

The face of a certain headmaster flashed across every monitor in the building, his tone as bright and cheerful as the introductory chime which had preceded him. As always, the smile etched into his being was perfectly visible, as was the glass of wine held casually in his paw. Just like last time. It was happening again.

"A body has been discovered! Everyone, please gather in the second-floor hallway at once! After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the class trial will begin! Attendance is mandatory!"

With that, the screens turned off again, the joyful little voice ceased, and silence reigned once more. A silence that shouldn't have existed. An artificial quiet of malice and death. For Makoto, his screaming had stopped, lungs having expelled all the breath they had. For Yasuhiro and Leon, they would never breathe again.

It was a reality that horrified him.

Makoto wasn't really sure exactly what happened next. Two figures came up behind him, both of them expressing similar reactions of horror. A white uniform and crying red eyes, a leather jacket and outraged roaring of dismay. Kiyotaka and Mondo, he told himself, but he barely recognised them anymore. Maybe it was because he didn't want to.

He didn't want to recognise anything to do with this place anymore. He had convinced himself that another killing wasn't possible – not after the events of the last class trial. Yet not even three days later, here they were again.

This was a game he didn't want to play anymore.

Other figures soon came, but they were just blurs to him. Makoto struggled to take his eyes off the two figures lying side-by-side in the middle of the hallway, not too far from the library doors. The scent of them stayed with him, and it only filled with him more disgust at how their lives had ended up. Neither of them deserved this.

"Makoto."

This wasn't a school of hope, he thought. It was a school of despair. A place of-

"Makoto."

-horrors beyond imagining and-

"Makoto!"

-nothing but fear and-

"MAKOTO!"

A hot flash cracked across his face, and he gasped, suddenly coming back to reality. He turned in the direction of the harsh slap that had hit him, only to see the rest of his classmates gathered behind him. Sayaka, face just as worried as his, yet filled with a steely determination he hadn't expected, lowered her hand.

"Snap out of it," she cried, "we need you here!"

Her tone implied fear. As did her face. As did the faces of those around her, too. All except for Byakuya, of course, who simply watched on with his typical look of boredom, arms folded in front of him.

Kyoko quickly stepped from the crowd, also looking unbothered. The mysterious girl he still knew so little about. Although her expression, he noted, was different from Byakuya's. She actually seemed to care, and she walked with purpose. Movements neat, and gaze only falling on Makoto for a second, she immediately made her way towards the bodies – crossing the invisible line that none had yet dared to move past.

"W-W-What are you doing?" Fukawa uttered from behind grinding teeth, her entire figure trembling. "Those are b-b-bodies, you know…!"

"I'm investigating," Kyoko replied, not bothering to look back at her. "Didn't you hear the announcement? It's just like last time – we have a time limit, and following that will most likely be a class trial. We can't afford to waste time."

Before anyone could stop her, she was already crouching down aside both corpses, back to the others.

"Ahhhh! I see someone's finally starting to have some fun with the killing game!"

Every head, Kyoko's included, turned.

There he was.

Monokuma, black files in paw, marching around cheerfully. "Not wasting any time, hmm? Can't say I blame you. If you mess this up, all of you are gettin' the chop!" With that, the bear sent his free paw crashing onto the folders, creating a loud chop sound, as if to indicate his point.

"Why did you do this?" Came the crying voice of Chihiro from the rear of the crowd.

Monokuma turned, always grinning as usual.

"Whyyyyy?" He asked, mocking her tone. "I didn't do anything. If you're accusing me of being responsible for the two corpses back there, then think again, toots! This was the fault of a student in this room, not me. I ain't no killer – the blackened is hiding among you as we speak. It's up to you to make sure they don't get away with it!"

Before anyone could raise their voice in protest, a waving paw dismissed their concerns. "Anyway, I felt like being nice, so I brought presents for you! Here, have these." With that, he made his way around them all, offering the black books in his grasp. "Take one. No, really. Take one or I'll make you regret it!"

Makoto was the last to receive his. Fearful eyes looked down at the cover of the book. 'MONOKUMA FILE 2', it read in bold. Just like last time. It was happening again. This truly was real.

"Well, that's all from me, everybody," said the bear, his paws now empty. "Have fun, and I'll see you soon for the wonderfully despairing Class Trial!"

Again, before anyone could speak, he was gone, vanishing almost into thin air. Just like he had yesterday during Makoto's search with Sayaka.

For a moment, no one said anything.

"Are you all just going to stand around gawking?" Byakuya rolled his eyes, stepping forward from the crowd. "We have an investigation to undertake. Hurry up and get moving."

With the greatest uncertainty they had felt in days, each and every one of them reliving the horrors of Junko's murder and Hifumi's subsequent execution (Mukuro especially, by the looks of things), the most unfortunate class in the world knew they had no time to waste. Hesitant, and clearly shaken with fear, the crowd began to disperse as, one by one, they began the hunt for clues.

Makoto, in spite of his terror, knew they were right. There was only one way to beat these horrors. There was only one way to beat Monokuma, and to stop another incident like this.

And that was to survive.

INVESTIGATION START.

Makoto quickly found himself involved in the investigation, feeling like a fire was burning under him, moving him forward at full sail, fuelling his desire for hope.

The hallway was quieter now, with the class having split into smaller groups of three to make the investigation easier. Asahina, Sakura and Chihiro had been given the duty of investigating the pool. Byakuya, Touko and Mukuro had quietly made their way to the library. Kiyotaka, Mondo and Celeste had volunteered to examine the classrooms. Sayaka, Makoto and Kyoko, meanwhile, had the responsibility of handling perhaps the most arduous task of all.

They were focused on the crime scene itself.

Kyoko, as silent as always, remained crouched over the bodies, her new comrades aside her. She leaned over, examining them closely, seeming to not mind the awful smell radiating from them. A gloved hand poked and prodded at Leon's corpse, only to then do the same to Yasuhiro's.

"Hmmm."

"Did you find something?" Said Makoto.

"They're solid," Kyoko replied. "Completely stiff. Rigor Mortis has already set in."

Looking at the bodies, Makoto was suddenly reminded of the black book in his possession which, until now, he had somehow managed to forget about. Quickly opening the aptly labelled Monokuma File 2 while Kyoko worked away and Sayaka leaned over his shoulder, he scanned the text for all the information it would give.

"The victims are Leon Kuwata and Yasuhiro Hagakure.

The bodies were discovered in the main hallway of the second floor of the school, outside the library.

The cause of death for both victims was strangulation.

Both victims died at 11 pm, during 'night-time'.

Apart from severe bruising on the neck, no other injuries are visible."

Makoto closed the book, brows furrowed. They died at 11 pm? That was strange. Could the pair of them really be solid and producing such a foul scent, when they had only died last night? Had something sped up the decomposition, he wondered?

The Monokuma File didn't appear to be lying, however. It had named strangulation as the cause of death, and, sure enough, dark purple bruises darkened the necks of the dead pair. So dark that they threatened to transition from a deep purple to a jet black. Their end had been violent. That much was clear.

It was eerie how similar this was to last time, he thought. Junko had died from strangulation. Only, that had been one body, whereas now there were two. Likewise, Junko had been strangled with her tie, but this time, there was no sign of anything nearby that could have been used to strangle either of them. Maybe the killer hadn't used a weapon at all. Maybe they had killed them with their bare hands.

He shook that thought from his head. Something about it only made their deaths that much more frightening.

As his eyes scanned their bodies, initially finding nothing of interest, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Wait.

What was that?

On the lapel of Leon's jacket, there was a small splotch of wasn't sure how he hadn't noticed it until now. Makoto leaned in closer, narrowing his eyes, trying to get a better look at it.

It made no sense, considering what the Monokuma File had told him, but it was there, all the same. There was no mistaking it.

It was blood.

"Kyoko," he said, "have you noticed-"

"The blood?" She replied quickly, not giving him the time to finish his sentence. She nodded. "Yes. I know what you're thinking. It doesn't make sense. There aren't any wounds on him, and he hasn't bled from the nose or the mouth, either. Yasuhiro also shows no signs of any blood at all, and it's only localised on that one part of Leon's lapel… so how did it get there? Where did it come from?"

She rubbed her lower lip with a gloved finger, staring at the spot. Makoto, on the other hand, was too busy staring at her, genuinely impressed with how quickly she had fired that out. As sharp as always, it seemed, she had read Makoto's mind.

"I have a question," said Sayaka from behind him. He turned to face her, whereas Kyoko continued to stare at that splotch of blood in silence. "Why are we only just finding them now? Where have they been all this time? If we had found them during the search yesterday, they would still be alive…"

It was a good point to make, but it was one Makoto could only shrug his shoulders to. "I'm asking myself that same question," he confessed. Where could they possibly have been that to make them vanish for so long, only to turn up dead like this?

Sayaka's other point lingered in the back of his head, taunting him.

If they had just found them sooner, maybe the pair of them really would still be alive after all. Maybe all of this could have been prevented. The last time he had seen Leon, he was peering out from behind the safety of his room door, having fallen seriously ill. He couldn't even remember the last time he saw Yasuhiro, save for the fact his absence at breakfast yesterday had caused a panic, which had led to the search in the first place. And now here they were.

Dead.

He thought about yesterday's search for a moment, wondering again why no one found anything. He and Sayaka had taken the classrooms and hallway of the second floor. Byakuya and Fukawa had taken the pool. Kiyotaka and Mondo had investigated the library, while Kyoko and Celeste had covered the entire first floor of the school, along with Asahina and Chihiro. Sakura, meanwhile, had kept watch over Mukuro in the dining hall.

There had been eyes all over the school, he thought, so why had no one found anything? There wasn't the smallest trace of them yesterday, and then they had still managed to turn up dead today. None of this made any sense, and the more he thought about it, the more he confused himself.

Damn it.

"Makoto," said Kyoko suddenly, snapping him back to reality.

"Huh?"

"I've been meaning to ask you something."

"Uh… ask away, I guess," he replied, feeling a tad uncomfortable at the intensity of her quiet stare.

"You discovered the bodies, correct?" She asked.

He nodded.

Of course he did.

How could he possibly forget?

"And the Body Discovery Announcement played when you did?"

Again, he nodded. "Yeah. Kiyotaka and Mondo came up behind me a few seconds after it started playing."

"Wait," said Sayaka, "that's strange. Isn't the announcement only supposed to sound when three people have found the bodies? If you were the first one to find them, and you were the only one there, and then the announcement sounded… then that means..."

Before she could continue however, another voice barged into the conversation from down the hallway.

"Guys," called out the voice of Asahina, currently peering around the corner in the direction of the pool, "I think we found something!"

The trio gathered around the bodies turned to look at her, Makoto's expression one of confusion. Asahina was searching the pool, and she found something? What did the pool have to do with this, when both bodies had been found in the hallway, closer to the library doors than anywhere else?

There was, it seemed, nothing more to be found in the hallway, and so the three of them followed the clearly alarmed Ultimate Swimmer around the corner. Asahina, Kyoko and Sayaka marched forward through the door, with Makoto following close behind, until Kyoko whipped around and held out a hand, stopping him in his tracks.

"What are you doing?" She asked, voice grave.

"I'm… following you to the pool," Makoto replied, wondering what he'd done wrong.

"You were about to walk into the girls' changing room with the rest of us. The boys' room is over there." She gestured over to the other door, before turning her glance to the machine gun fixed to the wall overhead. "If I hadn't stopped you, you would have been blown apart."

Just a little bit terrified, Makoto could see the gun in his peripheral vision, threatening and nefarious. He remembered the rule that had been explained to them by Monokuma when the second floor had been unlocked, and quickly backed away from the door. Kyoko was right. If he had followed her through, he would have been obliterated by a hail of uncaring bullets. Grinning sheepishly, and rubbing the back of his head with a racing heart, he quickly made his way through the male changing room instead, meeting his companions again in the pool.

"Look!" Asahina exclaimed, clearly wasting no time in getting to the point. She pointed down into the pool, with Makoto and the others gathering around her.

Makoto narrowed his eyes in confusion. What the-?

There, under the water and close to the pool wall, resting on the submerged tiles, was a single screwdriver. How did that get there? Had it always been there?

"You see it, right?" The Ultimate Swimmer asked. "I'm not sure if it's important or not, but… it's weird."

His eyes fixed on the alien object, Makoto thought back to a couple of days earlier – when the new floor had been unlocked. The entire class, Leon and Yasuhiro included, had spent the day exploring it, including checking out the pool. Surely someone would have noticed a screwdriver lying under the water during their exploration, right?

"We'll need you to retrieve it," said a sudden voice, belonging to none other than Kyoko, her violet eyes focused on the Ultimate Swimmer.

"Wait, what?" Asahina seemed genuinely confused for a moment. "I… I have clothes on, Kyoko! If I get into the water I'll end up drenched. There's no way I'll dry in time for the trial, and I can't take part in soaking wet clothes!"

A smaller, meeker voice suddenly chipped up from nearby. There, aside the towering giant of Sakura, was Chihiro. Makoto had been so focused on Asahina and her discovery that he had completely forgotten they were here too. "Um… couldn't you just go and get changed?"

"But my swimsuit's in my room downstairs!"

"Asahina," said Kyoko, arms folded, "please. This could be important. The longer we stand around talking about it, the less time we have to investigate."

There was obvious hesitation in the Ultimate Swimmer's eyes. The idea of travelling all the way downstairs just to get changed into a swimsuit, to then come all the way back up and go diving into the pool, simply to grab a screwdriver… it was a little overkill. Yet Kyoko was right. It was necessary.

With folded arms and a defeated sigh, Asahina conceded. "Alright, alright, I'll do it," she said, "but only because I don't want us all getting killed!"

There was no time to waste, especially with Monokuma's despairing lack of a visible timer. Did they have five minutes left to investigate? Five hours? No-one knew, and it only made the situation that much more tense. It was the reason why Asahina, leaving to go and get changed, added just a touch of extra speed to her step. She didn't run, of course.

After all, running was against the rules.

"We should look around while we wait," said Sayaka. "There could be something else lying around… I can sense it."

"You can sense it?" Makoto blinked, his expression one of bemusement.

She nodded sagely. "I'm sure I've already told you," she said. "I'm psychic."

Makoto parted his lips to reply, only to close them again. No, there was no point getting into that right now. She had already explained it to him (several times, in fact), and he didn't have the time to hear it again. Not during an investigation. Still, he thought; her intuition was sharp. Maybe she was onto something.

"Well," he replied, "I guess it couldn't hurt to look around."

He glanced over at Kyoko, who had drifted away from the pair and ended up in a quiet conversation with both Chihiro and Sakura in the corner of the room. He and Sayaka were on their own then, it seemed. It was a fact he wasn't exactly unhappy about.

Still, as they scanned the room, there wasn't anything of much interest to see. Besides the Hopes Peak Academy logo emblazoned on the wall in solid white, and the clearly empty seating stands on either side of the room, there wasn't anything to investigate. Nothing else was lying in the water apart from the screwdriver, either.

There was nothing left to look at, it seemed.

Unless…

Well, there was the locker at the back of the room, oddly standing on its own without any other lockers around it. Yet could he really expect to find anything of use in there, he wondered, when the murder scene had been in the hallway?

"You never know," said Sayaka casually. "It's worth a shot, right?"

Makoto gasped, eyeing her with slight concern. Was she reading his thoughts?!

"Maybe," she replied, giggling with the sweetest smile on her face.

The Ultimate Lucky Student scratched the back of his head, deciding maybe it was best not to reply. Maybe it was best not to think of anything, either, if she was indeed able to rake through his thoughts like his mind was some sort of filing cabinet. He hastily made his way over to the locker, knowing that it most likely going to be a pointless search.

He opened it, eyes half-lidded, not expecting anything out of the ordinary.

Until his eyes went wide and his closed lips parted in mild surprise, his blood turning cold.

It was empty, sure, just as it was supposed to be. Yet… at about the height of his chest, there was a tiny neon-pink smear on the inside of the locker. Small – barely noticeable, in fact, there was no denying it. It was-

"Blood!" Sayaka gasped from behind him.

"How can there be blood here?" Makoto asked no-one in particular, eyes narrowing as he leaned in to get a better look at it. It made no sense. Why would there be blood inside the locker at the back of the pool room, when the bodies were found in the hallway outside the library?

The smear was unbelievably small, too. It was barely the width of the nail on his smallest finger. What could have caused this, he wondered? Or, better yet… who?

Suddenly, there came the sound of one of the doors opening, complete with the smug click-clack of footsteps walking in a casual stride.

"Not that I care," came a loud voice from the back of the room, "but why did the swimmer girl just speed-walk past me muttering to herself about a swimsuit?"

Makoto knew that voice, that tone, that oversaturated self-satisfaction. There was no one else they could belong to.

"Byakuya," he replied, turning to face him. "What are you doing here?"

Byakuya Togami, having just entered the room, came closer, standing on the spot with arms folded and expression bitter, as per usual. "I could ask you the same question," he said. "I'm not sure why you're in here when the bodies are out there. You're just wasting time, you know.",

"Asahina found something at the bottom of the pool," said Sayaka. "A screwdriver. She's about to dive in and get it out for us."

She was rewarded with a silent stare from the Ultimate Affluent Progeny, who fixed his glasses, before closing his eyes in momentary thought.

"Do you know anything about it?" Makoto asked. "You and Touko searched in here yesterday when we were all looking for Leon and Yasuhiro. Was the screwdriver here then?"

"It was not," Byakuya replied, not bothering to open his eyes, "Touko and I searched every inch of this room – we found nothing of the sort."

Really?

That was strange.

The door to the girls' changing room suddenly opened, and a much more friendly face made a re-appearance.

"Okay," called a swim-suited Asahina, "I'm back! Let's make this quick!"

She wasted no time. Before anyone could react, or let alone say a word to her, the Ultimate Swimmer threw herself into the water, diving down below the surface. Her speed was incredible. Her movements swift and purposeful. She was back on the surface in seconds, quickly hopping out of the pool and resting the screwdriver on the ground.

Everyone quickly gathered around the little object, its bright yellow handle soaking and glistening under the fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling. It looked familiar somehow, thought Makoto. He'd seen it before.

But where…?

"I'll be right back," said Asahina hurriedly, already making her way to the changing room. "I need to get changed back into my uniform – there'sno way I'm doing a class trial dressed like this!"

Makoto couldn't blame her.

He looked away from the Ultimate Swimmer and back to Kyoko, who was crouching down over the tool. Picking it up in her gloved grasp, she rotated it, eyes carefully scanning over every little detail. It was fascinating to watch her work.

"Do you see anything strange?" Asked Chihiro, huddled close to Sakura.

Kyoko quickly set the screwdriver down.

"No," she replied, standing up again. "It's just an ordinary screwdriver."

"Wait," said Makoto, a sudden flash of realisation hitting him. "I've seen that screwdriver before!"

"Oh really?" Byakuya snorted behind him. "That doesn't sound suspicious at all."

Kyoko did, indeed, eye him with a certain suspicion.

Waving his hands in front of him, almost in self-defence, he shook his head. "No, no, no, you don't understand," he said, "I haven't seen that exact screwdriver, but I've seen one exactly like it. All of us – the boys, I mean – got toolkits in our rooms. A hammer, pliers… and a screwdriver."

"What are you saying?" Asked Sayaka.

"I'm saying that it's the exact same type of screwdriver that's in my toolkit. I'd recognise the handle 's bright yellow, just like mine."

He could see the cogs turning in Kyoko's head; her gloved hand lightly rubbing her chin as he stared down at the tool. Contemplation, and then suddenly alarm.

"There's one last thing we have to test. It could be vital to solving this." Her tone was urgent, and she looked at the others with that same sense of urgency. "Quick – gather everyone else, and meet me back in the hallway. We don't have much time. Hurry!"

Sayaka seemed unsure. "But-"

Kyoko didn't let her finish.

"I said hurry!"

Just like everyone else currently gathered in the hallway, Makoto's back was turned to the bodies behind him. Leon and Yasuhiro remained exactly where they had been found, the foul smell still radiating from them (but thankfully a little more tolerable now that everyone had gotten used to it).

The past ten minutes had been rather frantic. The others had been rounded up, with Kyoko telling every boy, Makoto included, to quickly head downstairs and grab their toolkits. She had made it clear that she needed to see them. It was, she said, potentially the key to solving the entire case.

Makoto, Byakuya, Mondo and Kiyotaka had, sure enough, all complied with her request. Byakuya had given her his usual smug remarks, of course, but she barely acknowledged them.

Now, ten minutes later, all four of them had returned, toolkits in hand. Wait. Were there really only four boys left alive now?

That was worrying.

"Show me the kits," said Kyoko, every eye on her as she examined them. "If anyone is missing their screwdriver, you may be an immediate suspect."

Makoto had never been so relieved to own a screwdriver in his life. It remained in his kit, which itself had remained unopened since his arrival here. Still, there was a deep sense of worry that began to stir in his mind. Whoever was missing their screwdriver might have been linked to the case, just as Kyoko had said.

Yet as she examined each toolkit, with Makoto watching on, he saw the surprise on her face.

"Well?" Sayaka asked.

Kyoko was silent for a moment.

"...They all have their screwdrivers."

Wait.

What?

Everyone exchanged glances, each student just as confused as the last. How did that make any sense? How could all four of them have their screwdrivers?

"...That can only mean one thing," said the purple-clad girl, rubbing her chin again, eyes focused on the floor.

Makoto furrowed his brows. "What does it mean?"

She didn't even acknowledge him.

As he waited for a response, the Ultimate Lucky Student decided to quickly think over everything he had gathered so far, if only to keep himself organised. There was no use standing around muttering to other people. Not when the trial was looming.

Yesterday, everyone had begun searching due to Leon and Yasuhiro's Disappearance.
Makoto hadn't seen Leon since two days earlier, as Leon's Sickness had prevented him from leaving his room.
Everyone split up into separate Search Shifts to find them but failed to uncover anything.
Makoto discovered the bodies, activating the Body Discovery Announcement.
The Monokuma File 2 said both victims died at 11 pm of strangulation.
The State of the Bodies was rigor-mortis, and they had begun to develop a foul scent.
Despite dying of strangulation, there was Blood on Leon's Jacket.
Asahina and the others found a Screwdriver In The Pool, which belonged to a toolkit, yet all the boys, Makoto included, still had their screwdrivers.
According to Byakuya's Statement, the screwdriver hadn't been in the pool during his and Fukawa's search yesterday.
The only other thing of importance found in the pool was the Smeared Blood found on the inside of the locker.

That was everything, right? All he had to do was hear what Kyoko was thinking and-

Ding Dong, Bing Bong!

The screens in the hallway all came to life in an instant. Roaring static quickly gave way to a painfully familiar sight. Monokuma, his permanent grin as visible as always, reclined in his usual chair with his usual glass of wine at hand.

"Shock! Drama! Mystery! Despair!" The voice was as gleeful as always. Makoto could feel his stomach churn. "This killing has it all!"

Oh no.

"Now, then! It's the moment you've all been waiting for!"

Oh no.

Not again.

He hadn't finished investigating yet!

Yet Monokuma, of course, wouldn't have cared.

His smile manic, his red eye glowing brightly with the excitement of the horrors he was inflicting, the teddy bear's dreaded words came.

"IT'S TRIAL TIME!"