The elevator was just a little emptier this time around, but just as quiet as last time.
Hifumi had been with them back then, travelling down in this elevator to hell, but he hadn't returned. He had been found guilty of murder, stuffed full of candy, and then burst like a balloon.
Leon and Hagakure had been here that first time, too. Unlike Hifumi, they had the good fortune of being able to return, but they hadn't lasted long. Both of them had been strangled to death, and here were the others again – this time to solve their murder, or else die themselves.
Suspicious glances were exchanged, just like last time. Fear filled the eyes of everyone, just like last time, too.
Well, almost everyone.
Byakuya's expression was neutral. Unbothered, almost. Like he was playing a game, and was finally starting to get bored with it.
As the doors opened on the courtroom, Monokuma grinning and seated on his throne, everyone silently made their way to their podiums. There had only been one left empty last time – that had been Junko's, the face of her portrait crossed over in neon pink. There were four, now.
Junko. Hifumi. Leon. Hagakure.
Another would soon be joining them.
Faces they had lost.
Soon they would lose another.
They were faces Makoto vowed to avenge.
Monokuma explained the rules again, but no-one seemed to be listening. They all understood them well, as much as they wished they couldn't. From the trembling shoulders of Chihiro to the empty eyes of Mukuro to the troubled expression of Kiyotaka, no-one wanted to be here.
"Now then," Monokuma chimed. "Let's start with… hmmm…"
He tapped his chin, apparently thinking.
"Hmmm…"
He drew that sound out. Even a fool could tell he was mocking them.
"HMMMMMM..."
"Can you just fuckin' decide already?!" Mondo, it seemed, was already done with this.
"Jeez, can't you give a bear some time to think?" Monokuma sighed, clearly crushed by the aggression. "Very well. Let's start off with something simple. Let's talk about… the cause of death!"
"The cause of death was obvious," Mondo announced, kick-starting the debate. "Seriously, it'd take a dumb-ass not to be capable of figurin' it out."
Byakuya peered at him judgementally from behind his glasses. "Is that so? Then why don't you enlighten us?"
"There was blood on Leon's jacket," Mondo continued. "Right?"
"There was a trace of it, yes," Kyoko replied, arms folded.
"Then that settles it," said the biker. "Obviously they were stabbed to death or somethin', which is why the blood was there!"
"No, that's wrong!"
Makoto was quick to cut through him. They didn't have time to waste on topics like this – the answers to which were literally right in front of them.
"Look at the Monokuma File," said Makoto. "It says it right here: 'The cause of death for both victims was strangulation.' There weren't any stab wounds on the body."
Byakuya was quick to roll his eyes at Mondo, his glare just as judgemental as it had been a moment ago. "Did you even bother to read the Monokuma File?"
"What, the book the teddy bear gave us?" Mondo shook his head. "'Course not!"
Perfectly on time, Monokuma growled.
"For the last time," he hissed, "I am not a teddy bear! And I would strongly recommend you read the material I give you! It's important for your education."
"See, that," Mondo continued, pointing a finger at the manic little bear, "is exactly why I didn't read it. Like hell am I going along and doin' what that little bastard wants. I didn't read the file the first time around, and I didn't read it this time. I ain't reading it in the future, either."
Makoto didn't even bother opening his mouth to respond. As a matter of fact, no-one did. The collective stares of judgement and bewilderment expressed more than words ever could. Mondo had walked into a class trial without even reviewing the evidence. If there was any way to guarantee a disaster, Makoto thought, that was it.
"Um, I have a question," came a quiet voice out of nowhere. Trembling and shaking, nervous to even breathe, it broke through the silence. Its owner, none other than Chihiro, had raised her dainty hand.
"Go right ahead," said Kiyotaka, tone filled with reassurance. "We're all listening!"
"W-Well, if strangulation was the cause of death," she said, "then why was there blood in the first place? There was blood on Leon's jacket, right?"
For a moment, there was silence. Perplexed gazes and knitted brows crossed the faces of each student, until-
"I-It obviously came from s-some sort of injury," said Touko, nervously fidgeting with her thin, pale hands.
"That makes no sense," said Kiyotaka. "Neither of the victims had wounds apart from the marks around their necks. The blood couldn't have come from either of them! Wait… then how did it get there at all?"
"That's it!" Cried Asahina. "If the blood didn't come from the victims, then it must have come from someone else, right? Like the killer!"
Bingo.
"That's what I was thinking," said Makoto. "There was a struggle against the killer, during which the killer was injured. Blood from the killer fell onto Leon's jacket. It's the only explanation."
Nervously, Makoto's eyes met with Kyoko's, trying to see her response. As usual, her expression was neutral, but she returned that glance. She nodded ever so slightly in what seemed to be agreement.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Makoto could feel that they were making progress. Unlike last time, there was still a decent amount of evidence to get through, too. It would be easier this time, he thought. They were going to get through this!
"There's one problem," said Sakura, snapping Makoto out of his thought. "If someone is fighting back, they'll most likely go straight for the face. To make someone bleed enough to create a blood droplet that big, you would need to do some real damage, but… I don't see any faces with any injuries here."
"She's right," said Celeste, pondering the thought. "You wouldn't even be able to cover a wound like that with makeup, either."
"Maybe they didn't hit the face," said Mondo. "They could'a hit their body somewhere."
Kyoko shook her head. "It's difficult to make a body bleed with bare hands alone. You can scratch a face, yes, but a body isn't anywhere near as easy to damage if it has clothes to cover it. You would need a weapon – something sharp."
Makoto didn't fully understand how she knew something like that, and with such confidence in her words, too. He wasn't sure that he even wanted to know. Kyoko's Ultimate continued to be a mystery, just like the girl herself. Who was she?
"A weapon? Don't be a fool," Byakuya grunted, dismissing the girl with a flick of his wrist. "There isn't anything in the hallway that could be used as a weapon."
"They could have brought something in from outside the crime scene," said Kiyotaka.
"Is that so? Good luck narrowing that down," the Ultimate Affluent Progeny scoffed. "There are many rooms that connect to that hallway. If they did bring something in, it's impossible to determine what it was and where it came from. The point isn't worth discussing."
Was that really true?
Byakuya was right; there were several rooms that branched off from the hallway. The library. The classrooms. The bathrooms. The stairwell. The changing rooms… the pool…
Wait.
The pool! There had been something out of place there, hadn't there? Something that shouldn't have been there in the first place. Words began to fly around in the Ultimate Lucky Student's head, his eyes narrowed in thought, thumb and index finger pushed against his chin. Like an odd game of hangman, he continued to fill in the gaps, knowing that he almost had it. He was close. So close.
R.
That was it!
"No, that's wrong!" As Makoto made his outburst, Byakuya eyed him with contempt. Makoto didn't care. "During the investigation, we found something interesting. At the bottom of the pool, there was a screwdriver, remember? We had no idea how it got there, but we managed to figure out it was from the boy's toolkits. It hadn't been there when the pool was first unlocked a few days ago, either. It's just a hunch – but it might have been involved in the murder!"
"We all had our toolkits with us, though," said Mondo. "Unopened. Screwdrivers intact."
"Exactly," said Makoto, heart starting to race as conclusion after conclusion bombarded him. "Yet we haven't seen every kit. We didn't see Leon and Hagakure's, which are most likely still in their rooms. What if one of them, most likely Leon, suspected someone was trying to kill them? What if he brought along his screwdriver for defence, just in case someone tried to attack him? If he stabbed it hard enough into, say, a shoulder or an arm… it would be more than enough to draw blood. He might have used his screwdriver to injure the killer, causing them to bleed onto him!"
For a moment, there was silence again. Something that, Makoto thought, was usually a sign that things were going well, or that things were about to go very badly wrong.
"Uh… Makoto?" Sayaka's voice rose up faintly. Uh-oh. "There's one thing wrong with that. The screwdriver was found at the bottom of the pool. The killings happened in the hallway. The bodies weren't found anywhere near the pool area. How did the screwdriver get in the pool if it was used in the hallway?"
Oh. How had he not noticed that?
Glancing around the room, Makoto felt like an idiot, as a sea of mostly-confused, occasionally judgemental glares hit him. Had he gotten it wrong? Apparently so. Yet why did he feel like he had been onto something? The embarrassment was strong.
Until, that is, he dared to meet Kyoko's eyes again. Unlike the others, she didn't share their look of contempt. On the contrary, there was something about her blank face and stern gaze that suggested the exact opposite. He was onto something.
"Uh… Well… you see… I suppose… hmm…"
He might have been onto something, but he couldn't think what it was. Why would a weapon used by one of the victims during the murder in the hallway end up at the bottom of the pool?
Had there been anything else about either room to suggest what might have happened? The hallway had been spotless, with the exception of the two bodies lying in it. The pool had the screwdriver and…
"The locker!" He shouted, entirely without meaning to. Another embarrassing moment. Way to go, Makoto.
"W-What are you talking about?" Touko hissed.
"In the pool," Makoto began, "there was something else that was off besides just the screwdriver."
"Oh!" Sayaka gasped. "I remember now! There were blood smears, weren't there? Inside the locker at the back of the room?"
"Exactly," Makoto replied. "The hallway didn't have any blood in it at all. There were no signs of a struggle or a fight of any kind. Yet the pool had a weapon and blood smears. I think we've been going about this all wrong. We've fallen into a trap that the killer has set for us."
Again, glances were exchanged across the room.
"W-What trap?" Chihiro squeaked.
"The crime scene isn't where we thought it was," said Makoto. "I think Leon and Hagakure were killed somewhere else, and then brought into the hallway to distract us. The crime scene wasn't the hallway – it was in the pool area!"
"Wh-Whaaaat?!" Kiyotaka gasped, his eyes about to fall out of his head if they opened any wider.
Byakuya, however, was unimpressed as always.
"You haven't answered the pop star's question yet," he muttered. "How did the screwdriver end up at the bottom of the pool?"
Oh, right. He'd forgotten about that. Although, he imagined it was pretty self-explanatory.
"There was a struggle," said Makoto, "between the killer and Leon. Leon managed to wound his attacker, but the screwdriver was knocked into the pool afterwards during the struggle. With his weapon gone, it would have made him easier to kill."
"That doesn't make any sense," Celeste combated. "You're deciding all of this based on some blood and a screwdriver? What if this is the killer's plan? A double-bluff to make us think the crime scene is the pool when, in actual fact, it is the hallway all along? They could have placed the screwdriver there themselves to confuse us."
"She could be right, y'know," Mondo added. "If the killin' happened in the pool, but the killer wanted us to think it was in the hallway… why would they leave the screwdriver behind? Couldn't they just jump in, grab it, and throw it away or somethin' to stop us from findin' out the truth? The fact they left it there must have been intentional, right?"
Makoto shook his head. He had a feeling the question would be brought up, and he was already prepared to refute it.
"No," he began, "it wasn't. The killer couldn't have grabbed the screwdriver once it fell in the pool. If they had jumped in after it, they would have had to swim to the bottom to grab it. They would have been completely soaked. Once they got out, they would have left water trails everywhere, making a clean-up impossible and most likely compromising them. Once the screwdriver hit the water, they were forced to leave it there."
Shaking her head, Fukawa didn't seem to agree.
"T-Then what was the point in moving the bodies?" She asked, still fidgeting, teeth clenched and shoulders tensed, clearly beyond nervous. "If the killer couldn't move the s-screwdriver, then their plan was ruined. If the screwdriver was still at the bottom of the pool, then t-there wasn't any point in moving them into the h-hall at all, right?"
"That's the one thing I'm not sure about," Makoto replied. "I don't think the killer moved the bodies into the hallway straight away, though… they placed them somewhere else first."
"Somewhere else?" Sakura asked.
"Yes," said Makoto. "There were blood smears inside the locker at the back of the pool, remember? The smears were about chest height. I'm not sure why, but after killing them both, I think the murderer must have moved Leon and Hagakure's bodies into the locker. The blood on Leon's jacket would still have been wet, considering the fight only just happened. When he was shoved in, the blood rubbed off against the wall of the locker. That's why it was there, and why it was chest-height."
"B-But the bodies weren't found in the locker," Fukawa screeched, "they were found in the hallway! Are you saying the killer moved them again? Why would they do that?!"
Makoto rubbed the bridge of his nose, staring down at his podium. That was the one question he couldn't answer. Everything else made sense, he thought, apart from that one thing. Why would the killer hide the bodies in the locker, only to then move them into the hallway? He looked to Kyoko for a moment, praying she might have another silent hint for him, but… she looked just as confused as the rest of the room.
Damn it.
"I…" He sighed. "I don't know."
Byakuya folded his arms, the smugness oozing off of him. "If you don't know, then your entire argument is flawed, and you've just wasted precious time." He shook his head. "Congratulations."
No. Makoto was sure he was right. It was the only argument that made sense. Leon and Hagakure were killed in the pool room, he was sure of it. Leon defended himself with his screwdriver, wounding his assailant and causing them to bleed onto his jacket. Afterwards, the screwdriver was knocked into the water, and the killer finished them both off, only to hide their bodies in the locker, causing the blood on Leon's jacket to smear against the inside.
It all made sense.
Apart from the bodies ending up in the hallway.
"There's another thing I don't understand," said Mondo. Great. Another hole in Makoto's argument. He braced himself for impact. "When we found Junko durin' the last case, her body was fine. But when we found Leon and Hagakure… they were stiff and the smell was fuckin' awful. Doesn't anyone think that's strange?"
"When we found Junko, she was a fresh kill," Byakuya interjected. "Leon and Hagakure had been dead all night. That's more than enough time for them to start to rot, thus the smell. Don't bring up a case that's already been solved. Don't talk about things you clearly don't understand, either."
"Wait," said Asahina, "are you sure, Byakuya? If they were killed at night, and we found them in the morning, they couldn't have been dead for more than eight or ten hours… I've seen TV shows where they go into that sort of thing, and I don't think that's enough time for them to start to smell."
Byakuya stared her down, arms still tightly folded. "Of course it is," he snapped. "If your primary source of knowledge is television, then I suggest you-"
"She's right," Kyoko said suddenly, completely interrupting the bespectacled snob. "Remind me… what was the time of death again?"
"It was 11pm," Kiyoktaka correctly replied. "It said so in the Monokuma File."
"Goody-two-shoes here is right," Monokuma chimed in. "They both bit the dust at 11pm!"
"Exactly," Byakuya replied. "They died at 11pm. This is a fact. It doesn't matter how fast or how slow you think decomposition works. They died, and ten hours later we found them. There is nothing to argue about here."
Kyoko wasn't convinced by his argument at all, it seemed. As a matter of fact, she wasn't even looking at him. Her violet eyes were too busy staring down at the floor, brows lowered, gloved hand folded on her lower lip. Makoto could see the cogs turning, even if he had no idea what she was on to.
"Monokuma," she said, turning to face the bear, "you just told us that the time of death was 11pm, yes?"
The bear nodded. "That's right, toots! Heaven got two new angels at 11pm!" He pretended to wipe a tear away from his eye. The display of fake sympathy and heartfelt words only made Makoto hate him more.
Kyoko paused, seemingly satisfied with the answer, until…
"Do you mean 11pm last night?"
She had put extra emphasis onto those last two words, and suddenly Makoto understood what she was getting at. Of course. Of course! Why hadn't he thought of it?
Every eye in the room was fixed on the bear, who said nothing. Instead, a droplet of almost cartoon-like sweat slid down his face, which he quickly dabbed. "H-Heh. What? Sorry. I couldn't hear ya." He was nervous. That much was obvious.
"Did Leon and Hagakure die at 11pm last night?" Kyoko asked again.
Monokuma leaned forward. "Sorry, what was that?" He tapped his ear. "The ol' hearin' ain't what it used to be! You'll need to speak up!"
Suddenly, Mondo slammed his hands onto his podium, voice booming. "SHE ASKED IF THEY DIED AT 11PM LAST NIGHT, JACKASS!"
Monokuma paused again, utterly silent, until he finally spoke up. "Sumimasen, Eigo-ga wakarimasen."
"Wha…?" Mondo, the rest of the room included, were baffled. "What the hell does that mean?!"
"That's Japanese," said Sayaka suddenly. "He just said he doesn't speak English."
"He's dodging the question," said Asahina, her face lighting up. "Kyoko, I think you're onto something here!"
Makoto agreed. The bear's behaviour had betrayed him. It was odd, he thought. All Monokuma had to do was say nothing, or state that he couldn't answer either way, and it wouldn't have been so obvious. Had he meant to make it obvious, he wondered?
It didn't matter.
They were one step closer to the truth.
Kiyotaka seemed concerned, staring at the bear with confusion in his eyes. He quickly turned back to the rest of the room, shaking his head, as if snapping out of some sort of trance. That was strange. What was that about, Makoto wondered.
"U-Uh. I'm confused," said the prefect. "What are you saying, Kyoko?"
"The bodies showed signs of the beginning stages of decomposition," Kyoko replied. "While rigidness will usually occur within ten hours of death, it's rare for bodies to produce a foul odour within that time frame. The Monokuma File only specified that Leon and Hagakure died at 11pm… but it didn't specify the day they died."
"The day?" Celeste narrowed her eyes. "Do you mean..."
"Yes," said Kyoko, "I do. We all assumed that Leon and Hagakure died last night, but I don't think they did. Two days ago, Leon became ill. Yesterday, neither he or Hagakure turned up to breakfast, prompting us to search for them. We found nothing. It wasn't until today that we found them both dead, already decomposing. You understand where I'm going with this, don't you?"
"They weren't killed last night," said Makoto. "They were killed the night before that. Two nights ago. The day Leon got sick!"
"Yes," said Kyoko, having apparently taken Makoto's role in being the mystery solver here. "That's exactly it. Both of them died the night before the first search. By the time we began searching, they were already dead."
The entire room seemed stunned, the collective sound of mental gears whirring verging on becoming outright defeaning.
"Holy shit," Mondo muttered, "are you serious?"
"Absolutely," said Kyoko. "I'm sure of it. The killer had the bodies hidden while we searched."
"Why would they do that?"
"While I'm not entirely sure," she responded, "I think it was most likely done to throw us off. If we didn't know the date of death, and just assumed they had died the night before we found them, it would increase the killer's chances of getting away with it."
"B-But we searched everywhere," said Sayaka. "We split up and looked all across the school and we found no sign of them! If they were killed the night before last, then where were the bodies hidden? Why didn't he find them sooner?"
Suddenly it all made sense. Makoto had to stop himself from gasping, literally gripping onto his podium as the revelation hit him. He had the answer to her question, and he could feel his heart threatening to leap out of his chest at any minute.
"The locker," he said. "They were hidden in the locker at the back of the pool!"
"Wait, seriously?" Asahina watched him with a puzzled face. "How is that possible? The locker isn't that big. If you stashed two entire bodies in there, wouldn't they have fallen out eventually? Even if they hadn't… someone would have noticed the smell, surely. They would have been found before today!"
A shadow fell across Makoto's face as each piece of the puzzle began to slot together. Some were still missing, yes. The truth wasn't fully composed just yet, but they were getting to it. One realisation had dawned on him. One that made him feel sick just thinking about it, but it was the only logical answer at this point. As awful as it might have been.
"Yes, they would have been found before today," he replied. "As a matter of fact… I think they were."
"Huh?" It was Sayaka's turn to be confused again. "I don't understand."
"During the search, we all split up, just like you said, Sayaka. We all took on different search shifts, remember? You and I took the classrooms and the hallway. Mondo and Kiyotaka searched the library. Kyoko and Celeste searched the first floor, along with Asahina and Chihiro. Sakura sat with Mukuro in the dining hall, to make sure she was okay after what happened to her sister."
"Wait," said Asahina, "who searched the pool?"
There were only two names in the room right now that Makoto hadn't mentioned. One by one, each classmate thought it through, and one after the other began to realise.
"That's right," said Makoto, as he turned to face the pair. "Touko and Byakuya searched the pool."
He didn't need to explain what that implied. The bodies had been hidden in the pool in such a way that it was inevitable they would be found. No-one else had searched there between the time of Leon and Hagakure going missing and their bodies being found apart from those two.
"Are you trying to imply that we had something to do with this?" Byakuya scoffed. "We didn't search the locker. We didn't smell anything, either. Your accusation is meaningless."
"Liar," said Makoto. "You told us during the investigation earlier that you had searched, and I quote, 'every inch' of the pool. If you searched every inch, then why didn't you search the locker?"
"W-We didn't," Touko replied. "N-Not at all! We never touched the locker! Never! You're the liar, Makoto! Liar! Dirty, filthy, mouth-breathing liar! How dare an u-ugly boy like you even attempt to insult someone as perfect as Master?!"
Her reaction only made she and Byakuya's defence worse.
"Master?" Mondo gasped. "The hell is she talkin' about?"
Makoto didn't know. He didn't care, either.
"Touko, it's the only answer," he responded. "If you and Byakuya searched the pool, there's no way you couldn't have found the bodies. Why are you lying about it?"
"It's obvious why," said Mondo. "They're lying 'cause one of them is obviously the killer!"
"B-But," Chihiro muttered, her petite figure shaking, "w-which one?"
Suddenly, every voice seemed to rise up, giving varied opinions all at once. Fingers were pointed between Byakuya and Fukawa as the accusations continued to fly.
"It must be him! She looks too weak to strangle two guys – but he could do it, easily!"
"Did you hear her response, though? She's sketchier than he is!"
"Aha! So they're in on it together!"
"Well obviously they're in on it together, dumbass! That doesn't answer who the killer is! We can only vote for one of 'em!"
"She called him master, right? He must have made her help him. That's it! He's the killer, and she's an accomplice!"
"What if it's the other way around? We don't know anything for sure!"
The trial room had descended into chaos. Arguments continued to pile up, voices battling against each other, anger and confusion and panic and stress being unleashed in all directions.
"Everyone," Makoto cried, "calm down! We can't discuss this if you're all shouting!"
Yet no-one seemed to hear him, let alone care about what he had to say anymore. Their minds had been made up. Just like last time, the suspicion had fallen on the exact same pair. Byakuya or Fukawa? One of them, even with so many questions left unanswered, was supposedly the killer, right?
...Right?
As the shouting continued, all hell having broken loose, Makoto looked over at the pair.
Fukawa was fidgeting, grinding her teeth, currently experiencing what looked to be a full-on meltdown.
The Ultimate Affluent Progeny, however, was the precise opposite. He wasn't panicking at all.
No.
Byakuya Togami was smiling.