Chapter 4-5

The Bronzed Pentagon

LET THE TRIAL BEGIN!

Monokuma drummed his claws on his arms before speaking his usual introduction. "Now then, everyone, allow me to briefly recap the town trial. We have a Deviant Tourist amid our guests! You all need to work together to find out who is the Deviant Tourist, and if you do…

"I will subject the Deviant Tourist to an execution, where they will be tested to see if they are truly worthy of being a citizen of Penjar! However! If you vote for the wrong person, everyone besides the Deviant Tourist dies! And they will get all the rewards for it!

"So will you find out who killed our beloved serial killer, whose methodology was so diverse and creative, it makes me miss him already? Phuhuhuhu! Anyway! Let the fourth Town Trial commence! Upupupupu~"

"Since we don't have Emanuel trying to run the show," Ishiku said, "by yelling at us and threatening our every move, do we have a starting point this time?"

Souma cleared his throat as he stared disapprovingly at Ishiku. "I know you were not fond of him, but maybe we shouldn't joke about the dead?"

"You weren't the one he was punching and threatening trying to kill!"

Isaac rubbed at his forehead, and said, "Ishiku, please, I know it may feel like a breath of fresh air to you, but I think it's best we focus on an actual start. Fortunately, I think I have an idea where we can start."

"At the risk of coming off as a bitch," Aka spoke up, raising her hand, "and I know you've done a lot during these trials, but are we one hundred percent sure we can trust you?"

"How could we not trust Isaac?" Saiko declared, folding her arms in a huff. "He and Hara are the least likely to have done something like this!"

"I wonder," Futaba said, crossing her arms too as she stared between the reporter and the explorer. "At the very least, if we're going to go over where to start, we should see if Isaac and Hara are trustworthy."

Isaac and Hara appeared rather shocked by this, but they collected themselves quickly. "Alright," Isaac said, "I don't mind proving our innocence."

"It might be more tricky than just that," Shuuya said, staring down the reporter.

"Can't we joo'st discuss Yejoon's death," Fiora muttered, staring to the side sadly, "instead of going at each other's throats a'geen?"

"Just be glad it's not you, B-Movie Maker," Blake remarked.

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"So how could Isaac or Hara committed this crime?" Saiko snapped. "Shouldn't we discuss how someone could do this crime?"

"There's actually quite a lot of events that happened last night," Souma remarked. "On both sides of the plaza, apparently."

"But doesn't the fact that so much happened last night," Yitro said, "point towards the notion that more than one person was involved in everything that happened?"

"Again, why are we immediately trying to prove someone," Saiko started to shout, throwing her fists down in fury, "did this, rather than outline the crime scene?!"

"Saiko, you're losing your cool," Eisei spoke up.

"Of course I'm losing my cool, this is no different from letting Emanuel leading the scene!"

"Fur the sake of argument," Kimiko said, "if we're going to argue Isaac or Hara, how coo'd either of them do this? They were directly forbidden from going to the other side!"

"They're forbidden from going there," Shuuya said, "but they could have passed items between each other in the chapel."

"What 'items'?" Odelios declared. "Yejoon's severed hand?"

"Wait, are you guys implying that Isaac killed Yejoon," Fiora hollered incredulously, "and then gave his severed hand to Hara to free Crystal?"

"I… I don't know what to say," Hara admitted. "You're all talking so fast…"

"I do know what to say," Isaac declared, "and I'm putting a stop to this!"

"Listen, I know you all think that it could be Hara and I working together," the reporter said, "but you all have to take into careful consideration: the limitations of how one can move outside after 9:30 PM."

"That's true," Drake declared, raising his hand. "I mean, you need an item that belonged to one of the deceased to go outside if you aren't married to someone."

"Which would mean that both Isaac and Hara," Pyrrha remarked, "need an item each! But I don't see how that's possible."

Crystal was watching the debate with silent interest, then she spoke. "Maybe we need to consider this important fact first and foremost. First off, let's list off the departed."

"Takeo, Jin, Angelique, Samson, Shinobu, Emanuel, and now Yejoon," Shuuya listed off.

"Don't… forget Taro," Drake spoke up again. When most of the others stared at him questioningly, he remarked, "He's dead too, he was a person…"

"Not really," Ken replied with a roll of his eyes.

"Let's save that debate for another time, please," Hikari pleaded, placing a hand over her heart. "Darlings, can we think of who could have had something that belonged to the departed? Especially considering the following…"

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"When we were sent to the northern plaza, all of us were taken there without a chance to go back to our rooms," Hikari said, twirling her parasol. "We only had what was on us."

"And whatever Monokuma or the Kubs have given us throughout our time here," Drake offered. "Those were already in our rooms, they said."

"There's also the fact," Isaac spoke up, "that none of us knew of this rule before we went, so none of us would have had the knowledge to bring something of the departed with us to breakfast two days ago!"

"But could any of our victims or executed killers have had something that we could have used?" Anzu asked. "I mean, all of Takeo's belongings were gone after his trial."

"None of us touched Jin or Samson's stuff," Hara remarked. "That was also gone after the executions."

"Wait, what about Samson's gun?" Ishiku asked. "That was something we kept. Or rather, Crystal kept it."

"It's still in my original room," Crystal said, "I didn't bring with me that morning."

"And I think we all would have noticed a gun sticking out of her clothing," Kimiko remarked.

"Then there's Angelique, Shinobu, Taro, and Emanuel," Ken said. "Yitro, did you keep Angelique's locket?"

"That's in my room too," Yitro said. "I said so when the rule came up."

"So you claim," Blake said, shooting an accusing look at the swordsman.

"I cannot prove that I didn't have something! But you also cannot set me up over such a flimsy accusation!"

"We're not getting anywhere with 'maybe's' like this," Saiko grumbled.

"There's one thing I noticed in all of this," Ken bellowed, "and I'm getting to its bottom!"

"I believe that for most of the people mentioned, we never received any of their belongings, or had them with us that morning," Ken said, then glanced over at Drake, "but I believe the cartoonish, young man there did."

"It's 'cartoonist,' Ken," was the reply from the now quite nervous Drake. "Are… are you referring to Emanuel's key ring?"

Ignatia motioned toward him, and held out her cell phone. Drake read it aloud. [Why did you have that jerk's key ring still with you?] "I just… thought maybe he had found the keys for something in the town or something? I didn't want to misplace it, so I kept it with me."

"And you had it in your hotel room, as you previously claimed," Ken remarked. "But you believe it to be missing now, which means someone could have snuck into your room and stolen it!"

"That's ridiculous," Aka said. "A woman would need an item like that to get over to the man's side, so it's not possible for her to do it."

"Yes, but not for a man," the cavalryman responded, glancing over at Isaac and then Hara, "to sneak in and give the key ring to a woman so she can come over to his side!"

The trial room was rather quiet, as Hara and Isaac exchanged worried glances. The reporter took a deep breath, and then said, "Fine, that certainly sounds possible… but how does the man in that agreement get to move outside?"

"For this kind of plan to work, only one soul needs access to outside of the hotel. Therefore, you could have stolen the key ring from inside of Drake's room, given it to Hara, and she could have carried out the diabolical plan!"

The trial room went quiet again, and then there was an incredulous laugh. Saiko slapped her palm against the railing of her podium, and barked out another laugh. "Are you serious? Hara? You're telling me Hara Pathik, the most shy and gentle woman I've ever met, bludgeoned that serial killer to death, amputated his hand, and carried a bloody hand around with her?!"

"And why not?"

"WHY NOT?" Saiko shrieked so hard that a great deal of the humans and bears flinched. "You stupid, moronic, idiotic, fucking ridiculous-"

"Saiko," Eisei called out, snapping the investigator out of her rant. "Please, that isn't help Hara's case, or yours."

The purple-topped investigator glared at Ken, then took several deep breaths. "Your accusation is directed at a gentle and innocent woman, Ken. I don't understand where this is coming from, but you have no proof and even less sense."

"I have to agree, Kenny," Kimiko said, staring questioningly at the cavalryman. "Why are you going at them so hard?"

"Um, Kimiko, I believe I told you I prefer not being called Kenny in public," the Novoselician said, adjusting his hoodie's collar nervously. "But I don't believe that being a 'sweetheart' should be proof, considering we have seen people we thought were good do awful things throughout the years, and even here."

"I can scarcely believe this," Isaac said, frowning at Ken. "You're accusing my Hara of one of the most brutal murders ever?"

"Honey, please, let's try to be more logical," Hara implored. She had collected herself as well, and then asked, "Before we go down this path of accusations, we should finalize the questioning over how someone was able to be outside at night."

"But we already discovered that possibility," Crystal remarked.

"We discussed the killer, but what about the victim?"

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"Yes, how did Yejoon get to be outside at night?" Shuuya said, stroking his chin. "I believe we need to discuss this."

"How are we ever going to know?" Hikari asked. "Surely the killer took whatever was on him and hid it in their room?"

"Process of elimination," Souma suggested. "Yejoon could only use an item from Jin, Angelique, or Shinobu, the deceased ladies."

"Oh, couldn't he have had something of his sister's?" Fiora spoke up excitedly. "I mean, he probably had something of hers from the get-go!"

"Fiora, he hated his sister," Futaba remarked. "He cared nothing about her death, he discarded that disgusting doll she was made into!"

"But there's no way he had anything of Angelique's," Yitro said.

"Nor do I think he would have been carrying around something of Shinobu's," Pyrrha added.

"So it had to be something of Jin's," Fiora declared, pumping her fists into the air. "Haha, I got it right, eh!"

"Stop celebrating," Crystal snapped at her, "until you have something to prove it!"

"But there's no way to prove it," Hikari said, nervously fiddling with the gears around her hat. "I mean, like I said, how can we? The killer must have destroyed the item!"

"Wait a minute," Fiora cried out one more time, "I'm sure I have this, eh!"

"Do you all remember what happened after the end of the first trial?" the movie maker said. "I mean, it was pretty hard to forget, but…"

"It was, but what does that have to do with what we've been saying, Fiora?" Aka asked. "We all know Yejoon threw away that doll."

"But doo'nt you all remember how he got it?"

"A touch sloppy," Yejoon said. "You sure seemed to delight in making her suffer at the end. I always did think she'd go out kicking and screaming, but it seems you stopped one of those from happening."

"Here, have a consolation prize, Yeou," Monokuma said, and he tossed the plushie towards Yejoon. The artist extended a hand, and it landed on his palm with a disgusting splat. Blood oozed from it, as the eyes studded on its face seemed to stare up at Yejoon from underneath the bangs styled after his sister's hair.

He grunted in disgust. "Poor quality. Not worth even considering as a keepsake, much less art."

Yejoon snapped his arm back, and the plushie was hurled back against the wall. The stitches burst upon impact, and the plushie was nothing more than fabric, gore, and blood splattered against the wall and floor.

"Wait a minute, what?" Odelios declared. "That counts?"

"Monokuma gave that doll to Yejoon, so it falls into place," Fiora said, grinning victoriously.

"But Yejoon busted that thing," Yitro pointed out. "It was nothing but broken fabric and gore."

The movie maker tapped her lips nervously, as a drop of sweat ran down her forehead. "Um, well, it coo'd have bin restored when given to him, or he jo's carried it around as Jin's… innards."

"Ew," Monophanie whined.

"Yuck," Drake agreed.

"Okay, if it were anyone except Yejoon," Anzu said, "I would have said you were being farfetched, sweetheart. But it was him, he'd so do that."

"Is there any proof that this is true, however?" Saiko asked. "We need proof."

There was a brief pause in the discussion, and then two hands reached up, one short and cute, one clown and proud. "I have proof," said Eisei and Odelios simultaneously.

"What is it?" the investigator asked Eisei, and seemingly only him.

"Do you remember when we found blood in the spa the day before?" Eisei said, taking his lollipop out of his mouth to enunciate better. "A dripping trail on the floor, like someone had a wound or something similar. This was before Yejoon had his hand amputated, and we never discovered the source of this blood."

"And my proof backs it up," Odelios shouted triumphantly. "In the bowling alley, Ken and I found a trash bin full of Yejoon's throwing knives, blood, and fabric. I'll bet you anything that the blood and such was the dead doll of his dead sister's dead remains!"

Ken nodded to affirm this story, and the visitors of Penjar were all struck silent with how grizzly it was. The only real noise was Monophanie puking over such details. Monokid also declared someone should clean it up, but they weren't paying him heed.

"So Yejoon, the serial killer, the sadistic fiend," Shuuya growled, his eyes almost glowing red with how furious he was, "was given a ticket to the other side over all of us?"

"Awww, whazza' matter?" Monokuma called out. "You mad, bro? Should you have gotten a pass too? You're a pretty good killer."

The bounty hunter threw his fists down on the railing of his podium, then let out an exasperated sigh. "Okay, as horrendously frustrating as it is, I believe this is sufficient proof that Yejoon could have gotten outside."

"So it was him who left the door in the hair salon open," Crystal remarked.

"He went to the women's side," Aka said, "and investigated all of the rooms? And he didn't tell any of us, he just did it for his own amusement! That bastard!"

"But now we have the answer to how Yejoon was outside," Souma remarked, "and we have a possible method for how Hara could have been outside too."

Isaac bristled, taking deep breaths as he stared at his fiancé across the trial room. "Wait a minute, everyone. You claim all these possibilities, but how could Hara or myself know Yejoon would be outside last night?"

"It could have just been a coincidence," Shuuya said. "After all, whoever the killer was must have stumbled upon Yejoon being outside as well."

Isaac shook his head, and declared, "No, I can prove that you're wrong!"

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"We found taser marks on Yejoon's neck," the reporter said, "and there are no tasers to be found on the man's side!"

"Yeah, tasers are on the women's side," Fiora grumbled, crossing her arms protectively, "in our gift shop."

"That just makes Hara look more suspicious, I'm afraid," Souma commented.

"No! The current theory is that the killer and victim accidentally bumped into each other," Isaac declared, "but our killer was obviously planning something if they had a taser!"

"So you think our killer was planning to murder someone?" Pyrrha inquired. "But that would mean that they would have known someone was outside!"

"Wait, all of our bedrooms were unlocked last night," Drake said nervously. "I mean, if that's how someone stole the key ring from my room, it means they could have killed any of us…"

"Perhaps that is how they knew Yejoon was outside," Aka declared. "He wasn't in his room!"

"But why were they trying to kill Yejoon?" Fiora asked.

"…" was the response from everyone in the trial room, staring at Fiora incredulously.

"Alright fine lemme rephrase that," the movie maker grumbled, adjusting her fedora anxiously. "Why kill Yejoon now? Why was it so important to kill him last night?"

"We all know if a murder had been discovered, the locked rooms would be forever locked," Futaba remarked. "Was that the goal?"

"Aha, I believe I have an answer to this," Souma declared, clapping his hands together.

"I do not believe everyone knows this, but the Hall of Fame was desecrated last night with graffiti," the public speaker announced, "with slurs on all of our portraits, destruction of the Hope's Peak survivors' portraits, and ominous messages."

"Murder Authority, Uphold Kaos, Undo Management, Kill Unity," Ishiku read off from his cell phone. "And then there's all those awful things written on ours, some of which I don't wanna repeat."

"You may have to," Saiko said, shaking her head, "because those phrases sound like something the Entity of Chaos would write."

"But wait, what does that have to do with murdering Yejoon?" Fiora shouted incredulously. "You… you don't think he was the Entity, do you? He couldn't have bin!"

"Why, because he was such a nice guy?" Aka remarked with a roll of her eyes.

"N-no! I mean, I knew he was into Despair, not Chaos…"

"Having two masters would be highly conflicting," Blake remarked. "Yeah, he was definitely hard for despair, so I doubt he was the Entity."

"I believe what I was going to say," Souma said, "is that our killer may be the Entity of Chaos, and in the midst of vandalizing the Hall of Fame, they decided to kill Yejoon!"

"Wait, why?" Anzu asked. "Was that so people would see what they did to the Hall of Fame?"

"Is that our hypothesis?" Isaac muttered, shaking his head more. "Our Entity of Chaos decided to do some graffiti and kill the most dangerous member again?"

Blake chuckled, the sound echoing around the trial room. "Well, if you were the Entity of Chaos, Isaac, then maybe that explains why you sent your bitch to do all the dirty work."

"SAY THAT AGAIN!"

Isaac leaned over his railing, his eyes blazing with the kind of fury that unnerved almost everyone there. "You son of a bitch! I will go over there and knock all your teeth in! How dare you talk about Hara like that!"

"Isaac!" Hara called out to him, but he was heaving in unbridled fury; the reporter appeared ready to go over to Blake and eliminate him.

"Please, everyone, calm down," Souma called out. He stared at Isaac, waiting for the reporter to settle down; this didn't happen, he was still staring hatefully at the pyro. "Let's not jump to conclusions here. We cannot declare Isaac and Hara as agents of chaos, the killers, and other heinous things when we have no proof it was them…

"And we also owe them a great deal in the previous trials. Both of them helped us uncover the motives of Jin, Samson, and Emanuel. We should not jump the gun."

The trial room went quiet, as Isaac was slowly cooling down, though he was shaking with his outrage. Hara and Saiko watched him with great concern, as the others contemplated this as well as the evidence.

"If I may," Eisei said, holding his hand up again, "we have discussed the possibility of a couple doing this, but we have acted like they are the only ones."

"Who else but them?" Blake remarked.

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"Hara and Isaac are not the only couple here, you know," Futaba said, crossing her arms. "And we shouldn't discard them so readily?"

"Are you speaking of Anzu and Ishiku?" Shuuya asked.

"Wait, why's it gotta be a couple?" Ishiku blurted out, gripping his hair as the stares went to him and Anzu. "Why you gotta be accusing?"

"It's funny how suspicion keeps falling on you, Ishiku," Ken said with a disapproving frown.

"The same goes to you, you know," Anzu shot out, glaring at the cavalryman.

"Do you have any evidence that it couldn't have been you two?" Eisei asked, raising a lavender eyebrow.

"We were locked in our honeymoon suite," Ishiku said, glancing over at Anzu. "After we ventured out yesterday, we were told Monokid was onto us, and then we were locked there until this morning!"

"He was 'onto' you?" Pyrrha asked. "What do you mean?"

"Oh! Um… I… um, well… that is…"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Anzu said with a sly smile. When Ishiku stared at her in panic, she continued, "They hated the fact that there was a couple who actually completed the motive, and could unlock all the answers, so they kept us from doing so!"

"That is so not true," Monosuke shouted.

"Oh really now?" Anzu countered. "You got a better answer!"

"No, but I may have an explanation," Monokuma shouted.

"Ahem! I know this trial is all about you people finding the killer, but I feel like us bears are getting more and more involved!" Monokuma said, laughing a little as he whirled his paw around.

"What have you got to say, Monokuma McCormick?" Odelios asked, pointing his rubber chicken at the bear.

"Just that Anzu and Ishiku are very lucky that they aren't going to be punished for their actions! That's why I had them locked up through the night!"

Anzu and Ishiku exchanged nervous looks, as the others were highly confused. "Why on Earth," Blake asked, "are you giving people alibis now?!"

"Upupupu! There's method in my madness, my parent-killing Aussie!"

Fiora glared at Blake, then spoke up. "So what are you saying Ishiku and Anzu did wrong? Because all the other couples were stopped by Monokid when they were with the wrong person."

"Yes, they consummated the marriage, did they not?" Ken asked, glancing between the actress and magician.

"What do youse take me for?" Monosuke shouted, stomping his paw as he pointed down at the trail members. "Youse really think I didn't do my job properly?!"

There was a growling noise from Monokuma, and Monosuke flinched. The orange Kub tapped his paws together nervously, and muttered, "I mean, youse really think… I'd forget… things like that?"

"Youse bin forgetting things left, right, and center," Fiora declared. "Youse doo'nt even remember 'oor names half of the time, you mook!"

"Why are you talking like him?" Souma asked, staring in confusion at the movie maker.

"You know, that's something I've noticed about all of the Kubs," Ishiku said, finding his courage. "They've all been forgetting things. Our names, what we look like when they cannot see us, who knows what else they've forgotten?"

"Ahem! My Kubs have not forgotten any of the rules! I have seen to that," Monokuma shouted. "So if you think they got the marriage pairings wrong, or any of the laws of the northern plaza, think again!"

"Then what did Ishiku and Anzu do wrong?" Hikari asked. "Though it's not really important now."

"Why's it not important?" Yitro responded.

"I mean, Monokuma just said he had them locked in their room until this morning, so they have alibis. We don't have to pry into this any more, right? They couldn't have killed Yejoon."

"I think most of us refuse to leave stones unturned in this matter," Souma said, glancing around the trial room. "Ishiku, Anzu, if you could share what it was that you did?"

Ishiku stared nervously at Anzu, who managed to brave a smile and waved at him. "It was my fault," she said, turning towards everyone else. "I… couldn't go through with it, though we became really close to doing it."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Blake shouted. "You are telling me that the porn star was against having sex?"

"Don't you fucking judge her, you chauvinistic bastard," Aka hollered.

"I don't want to get into why and why not," Anzu said, curling one of her blue bangs around her fingers. "But Ishiku and I were allowed to the western side when we passed by Monokid and Monosuke."

"What the fuck, bro!" Monokid shouted, glaring at Monosuke. "You told me those two shagged!"

"W-w-well, I thought they did!" Monosuke cried out, as 'sweat' rolled down his forehead. "I knows how sex works, that was why I took the role!"

"…" Monokuma growled again, crossing his arms.

"W-w-well, I thought I did! I mean, it's so complex and emotional, and how do youse define it?"

"How coo'd youse forget how sex works, ya great big palooka?!" Fiora shouted at the orange Kub. "Youse was in charge of the chapel and honeymoon suites fur a reason!"

"Again, why are you talking like him?" Souma asked, scratching the back of his head.

"Um, I was a little busy," Monophanie said nervously, "taking care of Hara. So that was Monosuke's job…"

"It was BOTH of your jobs!" Monokuma shouted, making the Kubs flinch and jump (except for Monodam). "What was your excuse, Monophanie?"

The pink Kub's emotions betrayed her, and she glanced over at Ishiku. Staring at him for a good few seconds before hanging her head in shame, the father bear let out an explosive cry. "You're STILL hung up on him? What is this!? As your father, when I tell you to get over a boy, you do it! That's how it works, you're not supposed to go full teenaged angst over it!"

"I'm not a teenager!" Monophanie protested.

"Dude, seriously?" Odelios said with a grin on his face. "Ishiku was so good that you're still pining over him?"

"Awwwwwww~" Pyrrha crooned, hearts in her eyes as she clasped her hands together. "Love conquers forced amnesia in robotic forms!"

"This is fucking weird," Blake remarked.

"Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with that," Saiko muttered incredulously. "This is so very detached from reality, it's like a freaking video game."

"Or fanfiction of video games," Fiora offered.

"We're digressing here, people," Anzu announced. "Though it is concerning that Monotaro's worst feature is now part of the other Kubs, this proves that Ishi and I couldn't have killed Yejoon."

"Hey, I call him that!" Monophanie wailed. "You harlot, you man stealer!"

"This is really, truly, incredibly fucking weird," Blake declared.

"So we're back to Isaac and Hara being the only suspects," Futaba shouted, pointing at the two accusingly. "Because we know that none of the other couples worked out!"

Isaac took a deep breath, and spoke as he finally fully regained his composure. "Are we sure about that? Have we taken into consideration all of the couples?"

"In fairness, we should," Eisei spoke up.

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"So the first couple was Fiora and Yejoon," Isaac asked as he opened up his notepad, "correct?"

"Yes," Fiora muttered, hiding her face in her hands.

"Then Drake went into the chapel from the man's side, and Hikari from the woman's side?"

"Yes, I believe that is so," Hikari said with a nod. "He was carrying Monodam, and Yejoon was still in the chapel."

"Next was Blake and Aka?"

"Unfortunately," both of them said at the same time, glaring at the other.

"So then I believe Crystal entered the chapel at noon?"

The military adviser nodded slowly, staring up at Monosuke. "And the orange one said I was married the moment I walked in there!"

"Wait, the order was already off by then?" the reporter asked, staring at her. "Because you should have been single and registered when you went there!"

"Is someone lying?" Futaba questioned. "Did someone else sneak in or something?"

"But the next people to enter the chapel would have been Anzu and Ishiku," Isaac pointed out, "and despite the issue there was, they were considered officially married!"

"Yes, this is truly infuriating," Souma commented. "And they both went to the chapel at 12:30 PM?"

"Yes," Ishiku and Anzu simultaneously said.

"Then how did the rotation get thrown off?" Yitro asked. "Who could be lying?"

"It was thrown off when Crystal entered," Aka pointed out. "Are we sure she's telling the truth?"

"Why would I lie?" the military adviser replied coolly. "I cannot be the killer, I was stuck in that room in the hair salon all night; someone had to free me."

"Oh no no no," Drake suddenly shouted, eyes widening in fear, "I made a huge mistake!"

"What is it, cinnamon roll?" Kimiko asked, looking with concern at the cartoonist. "How could you have made a mistake?"

Drake winced, practically hiding behind his sketchpad. "I, um, think I know how the rotation got messed up, and it's possibly my fault."

"Yours? But you were there in the chapel with me," Hikari said, tilting her head to the side. "Did you go earlier or something?"

"N-no… but I brought Monodam with me when I went to meet you."

The trial room went quiet, all of them staring incredulously at the cartoonist who did not like being stared at. Ignatia put her hand on his shoulder, and glared at all of them to stop.

"That's really, really fucking stupid," Blake remarked. "The bear cub doesn't count."

"He cannot count," Eisei remarked far more calmly. "He's one of the leaders and designers of this motive."

"B-but it makes sense if you think about it," Drake tried to spit out.

Hikari's pretty face was aghast in shock, and she slapped a hand on her cheek to knock her out of this flabbergasted state. "I… I married Monodam."

"…" responded her green hubby.

Ken let out a frustrated sigh, and declared, "Enough of this nonsense. That is not a viable possibility."

"Actually, I think our little cinnamon roll is correct," Hikari said, shaking her head. "I believe when he carried Monodam into the chapel, it counted-"

"Stop this farce, because we are not getting anywhere with fights of fantasy," Ken shouted, hammering his fist on the podium railing.

REBUTTAL SHOWDOWN!

Hikari stared at Ken, and then placed a hand over her heart. "Ken, we've been through a lot together. Could you please trust me on this?"

"I do not believe this is the correct course, and it is starting to annoy me how much everyone is going with it," Ken shouted, clapping a hand against his forehead. "There's a lot of ways this isn't a realistic solution."

"Then explain it to me, and I'll see if I cannot counter what you say, darling."

The two podiums of the steampunk model and Novoselic cavalryman moved into the center of the trial circle, and the two friends stared each other down. The rest of the trial participants remained quiet, allowing this to go uninterrupted.

"Monodam cannot count as a person, because he is one of the Kubs," Ken explained. "The rules were that the visitors were going to be married, thus he cannot qualify!"

"The Kubs never made that official in the wording of the rules, the only ones they said were disqualified were Isaac and Hara," Hikari countered.

"But the Kubs said that they were in charge of the chapel and the marriages!"

"Actually, they repeatedly said that Monosuke and Monophanie were responsible for the chapel and the marriages. That those two, and only those two, were part of it…"

Ken blinked in surprise, but got his flow back. "Even if that could be true, how do we know it to be the fact?"

"If Crystal was married when she entered the chapel, that means that another male entered other than Yejoon, Drake, and Blake. And since Ishiku and Anzu were married afterwards, there could have been only one person to throw off the rotation!"

"But that would mean that Monokid or Monodam could have entered the chapel at any time!"

"I'm sorry, darling, but I can refute that!"

Hikari twirled her parasol around on her shoulder, and spoke calmly. "Monokid couldn't have entered before all of this, and I know he never did because he used an intercom to talk to us, to scare us out.

"That foul-mouthed little git couldn't willingly enter the chapel, because the rules were that Monosuke and Monophanie were to be in charge of that place and only them. Monodam became an exception when he was carried in."

Ken stared at her, and then slumped against the podium. "I failed so horribly, my honor will never, ever be restored."

"Oh darling, no need to go that far…"

"Darn it, kid," Aka shouted, glaring at Drake, "why were you protecting that bear anyway? They are the enemy!"

"I really muddled things up," the cartoonist sobbed, as Ignatia tried to soothe him by rubbing his back. The mime frowned at Aka, who lost the angry look almost instantly.

"I… I mean, you couldn't have known," Aka remarked.

Isaac was writing in his notebook, making all sorts of notes during this discussion. He stared at it, and then said, "Okay, if Monodam was part of the rotation, then here is how it went if Hara and I had all of the entries correct:

"Pyrrha entered at 1 PM, and Shuuya entered at 1:30 PM. So those two were married, and yet from what I gathered, Shuuya and Futaba thought they were married because she entered at 1:30 PM?"

"Yeah, I got there first," Futaba admitted. "I guess that's why we didn't suspect anything when Monosuke told Shuuya he was married… because the little bastard didn't specify."

"Oh," Pyrrha let out a sad little noise, as she glanced between Shuuya and Futaba, "so, I was supposed to marry him? Sorry. But at least you two are happy together, right?"

"I am not interested," both Shuuya and Futaba said in unison and equally dismissive, "in a relationship."

Pyrrha looked like a child who had been told their birthday had been cancelled. She sighed heavily, and muttered something under her breath. Isaac took all this in, and decided he should continue.

"So then Kimiko entered at 2 PM," he said, "and Ken entered at 2:30 PM?"

"I waited in there for someone, and that's when we showed up," the biker gang leader stated. "We met up, had sex, and then that blue bastard told us we weren't married."

"Argh, my honor!" Ken shouted, pounding his head against his podium railing. "I embarked in infidelity!"

Kimiko glanced to the side nervously, trying to make sense of this. "You knoo' you weren't really married to Futaba, right? Why you gotta make it sound like sleeping with me is so bad?"

"Darling, his honor code is kind of sensitive right now," Hikari said with a sad smile. "You might need to give him some time."

"And then," Isaac spoke up, "Yitro entered the chapel at 4:30, and he was declared to be married?"

"Yes, that is true," the swordsman said. "I waited there to see who Monosuke meant, but no one showed up. I guess that person was Kimiko."

Kimiko winced, as a very guilty look glanced over at Yitro. "I, um… that is… I doo'nt think that…"

"It's not really important now, Kimiko," he responded. "Let's not dwell on this any longer than need be."

"So then the people who didn't ever enter the chapel were," Isaac said, "Ignatia, Odelios, Eisei, Souma, and Saiko. And, well I guess, Monokid."

"You guys put me in the same category of 'marriagelessness' that Monokid is in," Odelios shouted, waggling his fists around. "How dare you! I don't want to be lumped with that bastard!"

"Screw you, crossdressing clown!"

"Up yours, your hit ratio is probably below 50%, little sniper bitch!"

"Yeah, this is helping," Saiko muttered.

Futaba cleared her throat loudly, interrupting the argument between Kub and clown. "So there are no other couples. The original theory stands, Isaac and Hara are the only two who could have done this!"

"Wh-what?" Hara stammered. The explorer had been very quiet, and was now alert as well as upset. "You… you think we did this horrible thing?"

Isaac slammed his notepad down on the podium railing. "Stop accusing Hara! How can you people think someone as sweet and gentle as her is capable of such brutality?"

"I don't want anyone here accusing either of you two," Saiko shouted, crossing her arms in a huff. "I've known you two for years, I know that you aren't crazy psychopaths!"

Souma sighed heavily, rubbing the back of his head. "But can we rely on character witnesses here?"

"Yeah, especially since she's a crazy bitch," Aka declared, pointing at the scowling Saiko. "She was even working with them on the autopsy!"

"I really," the investigator snarled, "really hate you! After everything those two have done to save you all, you're going to accuse the nicest girl ever of being a vicious killer? That she is some sycophant for Isaac?"

"I'd like to say," Anzu spoke up, "that it does sound incredulous. I think we would have noticed if Hara and Isaac had that kind of relationship."

"Do we really?" Blake said, scowling at the two. "Why doesn't offer the slightest bit of proof that this isn't a conspiracy that was set up between the three for them?"

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"What cannot be explained by the two working together?" Aka said. "There's the knives that were swapped between the two sides."

"There's the fact that Hara could have used the baseball bats," Blake added, "since she's a woman and can open the baseball shack."

"The instruments needed for the vandalization," Souma regretfully said, "and the murder were in both the western and eastern gift shops."

"Not to mention that they were able to communicate with each other at night," Futaba remarked, "due to being in the honeymoon suite."

"Ooo, I got one too," Odelios shouted, raising his hand. "How about the fact that all four of you have been WRONG every single trial on who the culprit is?"

"Fuck off, clown," Blake muttered.

"I'm just saying, every time you all have grouped up to discuss who the culprit is, you've been wrong, wrong, WRONG."

"You're not helping their case," Shuuya said with a sigh. "If you want to prove them innocent, try something of merit."

"Well, why on Earth would they free Crystal?" Anzu asked. "I mean, that seems like an unnecessary risk."

"Sounds like Chaos to me," Crystal muttered. "Do something good so people don't get suspicious…"

"Crystal, you've been burned by Chaos-loving fanatics," Ishiku pleaded, "don't let it cloud your judgement!"

"Don't tell me how to think!"

"Hara isn't possible of killing Yejoon," Saiko shouted. "He was a vicious murderer with lightning reflexes! She'd be dead if she attacked him!"

"Murderers still sleep or drop their guard," Yitro said. "I'm sorry, but as much as I hated that bastard, he was still human. The fact is, he is dead, and it had to have been one of us."

"But… but… you're saying that this timid, gentle woman was the one who killed the serial killer with ninja like reflexes? Yejoon could take on Ken in a sword fight with his arm blades!"

"Hmm," the swordsman said, "and he did threaten violence towards anyone who tried to hurt him…"

"He's not going to fight if someone jams a taser into his neck," Crystal remarked.

"I'm cutting in! There's a hole in this whole subject," Yitro shouted, raising her hand high, "and I want to point it out!"

"I found it odd that Yejoon was caught off guard so easily," he admitted. "Surely it would have be someone like me with combat experience who could take him out; however, when we were investigating the body, we found out he was missing his arm blades."

"But he had his throwing knives," Ken protested, "those were thrown away along with the bloody doll."

"Yes, but the arm blades were his strongest defense, he could stop a sword swing from you with that, Ken."

Shuuya sighed, and remarked, "It's possible that Yejoon simply didn't wear them because he felt he was unstoppable and wouldn't be disturbed at night."

"No, there's something else bothering me. Before I went to the chapel," Yitro said, "Yejoon approached me. He spoke of the idea to… um, amputating someone's hand to use it on the other side."

"He suggested that?!" Aka shouted. "Yejoon actually gave the idea to do it before it happened to him!?"

"Man, his killer is as crazy as him," Ishiku remarked, "it's official now."

"Yejoon was beyond crazy, there was despair in his eyes. It was like," Yitro continued to speak, "he had given up."

Fiora gasped in terror. "Wait, Yejoon was suicidal? But… but… no, I doo'nt believe that!"

"Fiora," Pyrrha started to say, but the movie maker stomped her foot.

"He had so many goals and aspirations… though most of them were really bad stuff, like the kind of stuff that even I wouldn't make movies 'oot of. Yejoon didn't show any signs of suicide!"

"Oh my God," Futaba said, crossing her arms, "are you actually upset that we're discussing this? Did you actually care for him?"

"N-no! But doo'nt you think I woo'd knoo' him well enough by now, eh? And how does being suicidal explain his death?"

"If he's not interested in living any more," Shuuya said, his voice dangerously calm, "he drops his guard and allows someone else to kill him."

"NO! I won't believe that!"

"Fiora, I've hunted down a lot of bad people," the assassin said, adjusting his trench coat as he spoke, "and thus I have to get to know a lot of their habits, their personalities. While not common, there are some that are suicidal, who are going through pain so great that even though they hurt others, they cannot stand what they're going through."

"I think someone who's killed almost two hundred people woo'd be over that moral horizon line!"

"Why are you so against this idea? Is it because you think he would have told you?"

"That's not it! I joo'st doo'nt understand how he coo'd suddenly become suicidal… like… like I did…"

Fiora gripped her hat and hid her eyes from everyone, shivering a great deal but managing to get more of her thoughts out. "I… when I tried to kill myself, there was this horrible feeling in my mind, in my heart, that nothing woo'd ever, and I mean ever, be happy a'geen. It was like the eyes of the most soulless, evil, and all-encompassing power were on me…"

"That's how I felt," Kimiko said, staring at Fiora as she clutched something in her hand; those who were close to her saw the thing was a bracelet of three dog tags. "That's exactly how I felt, Fiora… I joo'st… felt I had to blow my brains 'oot, because it was all over…"

"Yeah. And… I mean no offense when I say this, Kimiko, I really doo'nt… but I doo'nt see how Yejoon could have bin overwhelmed by that."

"It's hard to imagine how someone who cares a'boot no one can feel so distraught over life," the biker gang leader agreed. She sighed, and muttered, "Then a'geen, if he saw the same thing as us…"

The trial room was quiet as everyone took this in, as a slight rustling sound came from Shuuya. The bounty hunter pulled a notepad from his pocket, and he held it up. "If anyone can read Korean, we might have some insight on if this is true. Can any of you?"

He scanned the trial room, not seeing anyone raise their hands or speak up. Shuuya almost gave up, until there was a defeated sigh from Ken. "I do," the cavalryman said. "Novoselics learn twenty languages, Korean is one of them."

"Twenty?!" Odelios hollered. "Sacre Dios, nani?"

Shuuya flung the notepad towards Ken, who opened it up and scanned the writing. The cavalryman's face scrunched up in confusion, and remarked, "This is not Korean."

"What?" Ishiku gaped. "But it's not Japanese, so which language is it?"

"It's not a language I have seen, and I know Chinese and Vietnamese too! It's… not making any sense, I've never seen any of these symbols before in my life!"

"Oh good grief," Crystal muttered. "Our serial killer wrote in code. One last spiteful move towards us, to assure we couldn't read what he was writing!"

"Why would he do that?" Pyrrha asked. "I mean, if he was suicidal and was writing notes for after he was killed…"

"Maybe he wasn't suicidal after all," Futaba said with a dismissive sigh. "This has been a lost cause!"

"No, there has to be some point to it!"

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"I refuse to believe that Yejoon left us written notes," Pyrrha stated, "that none of us could read!"

"You do know you're talking about Yejoon Nahm," Futaba bluntly responded, "the vicious, parent-killing, serial killer who stalked a woman he couldn't help but daydream about murdering?"

"Yeah, he was kind of that," Fiora admitted.

"Look, sometimes there is no good reason behind a psychopath's mind," the anthropologist said. "They do things that only make sense to them."

"Couldn't we try to decode the notepad?" Ishiku asked. "I mean, someone could do that."

Ignatia tugged at Drake's sleeve, and silently requested him to read her text. [We trusted Emanuel to read the message Shinobu had on her, look how well that turned out.]

"But Ishi and I have alibis," Anzu spoke up. "Perhaps one of us could try?"

"Ack! You called him 'Ishi' again?!" Monophanie shouted. "How dare you! Tramp! Trollop!"

"You cannot seriously think you'll have time to decode coded message in the time we have for the trial?" Crystal asked. "It could take hours!"

"Well, we should try at the very least," Anzu declared. "Yejoon wrote it for a reason, so we should-"

"HOLD ON A SECOND THERE," Fiora announced in her worst indoors voice. "I think I got this!"

"You really need to watch the decibel level," Souma grumbled as he rubbed his ears, "on your voice, Ms. Stenton."

"Soo'ry! But I think I knoo' what it could be… can I see Yejoon's notepad, Ken?"

"I thought we," the cavalryman said, "were only going to give it to someone who had an alibi."

"Oh come on, sweetie, Fiora couldn't have killed Yejoon," Kimiko said with a smile. "Trust me on that."

Though not everyone in the trial room was as convinced, Ken couldn't look into Kimiko's trusting stare for long without falling prey to it. The cavalryman tossed the notepad to Fiora, who missed catching it and having it bonk off of her forehead into her hands.

"Ow. Well okay then, lemme take a look…

…

…

…

"HOLY SHIT!"

"Wait, you know it?" Isaac asked her.

"Do I? I made this language!"

"Come again?"

"It's the language from my movie, Undead Flying Objects, that I made up fur the aliens! He… oh my God, he memorized it?"

Fiora started shaking, and tears welled up in her eyes. "He… he was that big of a fan of my work? He memorized the made-up language from one of my movies? Wh-why? How? I doo'nt-"

"Fiora, sweetie?" Hara called out to the sobbing movie maker. "I know it's very moving, but it might be best if you start translating it as soon as possible."

"Oh… oh of course! Joo'st… give me a few minutes, and a pen, if someone could?"

Isaac tossed her a pen, which she missed to catch and thus it bonked off of her forehead and fell to the ground. As she scurried to get it, the others all exchanged glances. Futaba was the first to speak by saying, "Okay, I hate to sound repetitive, and I don't actually like being accusatory like this, but whether or not Yejoon was suicidal, how does that change the accusation towards Hara and Isaac?"

"It really doesn't," Aka spoke up. "In fact, if it turns out to be true, that just means Hara could have killed Yejoon because he had dropped his guard!"

"I am afraid to admit that the evidence is mounting," Eisei remarked, "and there is little to counter it. Isaac, Hara, you'd best speak up."

Isaac took a deep breath, and glanced over at Hara. She was frazzled, trying so hard to keep it together; he knew how much this kind of negative attention could really get to her. And seeing her like this made his blood boil, but he had to keep his cool…

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"So what you are all saying is that I snuck into Drake's room, stole the key ring," Isaac stated, "then gave it to Hara so she could go kill Yejoon?"
"Why wouldn't you have just killed Yejoon right then and there?" Odelios asked. "I mean, you had the means…"

"Wait, how did you even have permission to leave the central area?" Anzu asked. "I thought you were confined there for the evening, like we were confided on our side of the hotel!"

"They were never confined to the central area," Monosuke declared. "That was just youse two!"

"Oh great, even the Kubs are trying to frame you," Saiko said with a snarl. "How can even trust you, you don't even remember our names!"

"I don't forget the rules, sweet cheeks!"

"Maybe if youse woo'dent be such an unreliable host to your town," Fiora snapped at him, glancing up from the notepad, "youse woo'dent have these problems!"

"Why do you keep talking like him," Souma asked, "every time you argue with him?"

"Isaac, the plan could have been for you to kill Yejoon," Shuuya argued, "but when he wasn't in his room, you improvised. That is the argument."

"But why? Why now?" Saiko shouted, stomping her foot. "They were organizing the marriage rotation, they were trying to solve the problems!"

"They failed to do that properly," Crystal remarked bitterly. "The times were messed up, and we only had one married couple."

"That wasn't their fault, that was the Kubs interfering and dragging Hara off when she was describing the plan!"

"I was trying to save her," Monophanie protested.

"I was trying to shoot her," Monokid exclaimed.

"If you had anyone to verify that they didn't leave their room," Shuuya remarked, "you might have an alibi."

"Anyone… wait, wait that's it!" Saiko said.

"Pyrrha!" Saiko pointed at the romance writer, making her jump a little. "You volunteered to stay up late in the chapel! You are our witness!"

The redhead turned red, and turned away to hide that blush. "I… I failed, I'm sorry."

"Wh-what? But you said you were going to do it! What happened? How late did you stay up?"

Pyrrha nervously tapped her fingers together. "I wasn't at that post for long, sorry."

"Okay, why are you being so suspicious? You couldn't have gotten in trouble!"

"Pyrrha," Kimiko spoke up, staring at the redhead, "if you were monitoring a post in the chapel last evening, Ken and I didn't see you when we came doo'n."

"You weren't there when Futaba and I came back to the chapel," Shuuya added.

"You weren't at the post at all?" Hikari asked the increasingly red-faced Pyrrha. "That doesn't sound like you, you've always seemed pretty reliable."

"Will everyone back off of Pyrrha?" Aka shouted angrily. "She's not suspicious here!"

"She sure is acting suspicious!" Saiko replied. "Though I know you're just defending her because you want her as one of your future conquests!"

"Shows you what you know, you short, stacked bitch. Pyrrha and I already have gotten it on!"

Pyrrha proceeded to hide behind the podium railing, while Hikari turned a little red in the face too. "Aka, you really need to stop being so blunt about these things, women don't like it."

"Why's that? Don't you two like having sex with me?"

"Hey hey hey," Anzu called out, "as much fun as it is to discuss lesbian sex, we have something far more serious here."

Futaba adjusted her collar as she muttered under her breath, "Yeah, like I gotta have her teach me how she does it…"

"Pyrrha, please," Hara spoke up, staring at the podium that Pyrrha was hiding behind. "I know you're embarrassed, but this is very serious. Please tell us what went wrong?"

"I… I can't," the romance writer said. "I mean, I don't believe you two are guilty, but all I have to say is that I abandoned my post…

"I… I suddenly grew really sleepy, and then I went upstairs. I wanted to stay up, I really did, but I crashed harder than I thought I could."

"Guess my time with you wore you out?" Aka said with a cheeky grin.

"Alright, enough of that," Shuuya shouted, slapping his forehead with his palm. "It's obvious Pyrrha failed that goal, but she's not suspicious. She couldn't have snuck over to the men's side to kill Yejoon."

"I don't know about that," Saiko said, glaring suspiciously at Pyrrha. "I mean, you all keep talking about Isaac and Hara being the only possible suspects, but we haven't talked about a lone suspect."

"That's a mighty bold claim," Souma said, as Pyrrha whimpered from her hiding spot. "Care to try and back it up, Miss Kobayashi?"

"Gladly!"

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"What if someone had some item or another that we weren't aware of? Wasn't Pyrrha getting cozy with Takeo? How do we know he didn't give her anything that she kept on her person?"

"Oh that's such a flimsy argument," Aka muttered. "There's no proof of that, and besides, why would she carry something around so intimately?"

"No, you know what? That idea that we had to carry something around from the deceased? That's bullshit, the Kubs don't follow the rules with their stupid amnesia!"

"Hey!" the Monokubs (sans Monodam) protested.

"If you all followed the rules, then why is she alive?" Saiko said as she pointed at Crystal.

"Me? What did I do?" the military adviser asked.

"You were out past 9:30 last night, you were locked in that room. By the rules of this town, you should have been punished, and we all know how trigger happy Monokid is!"

"Oh my God, I didn't realize that," Anzu declared, clapping her hands over her mouth. "You could have been killed, Crystal!"

"And yet I'm not," she responded, "so clearly there is a contradiction here somewhere."

"The Monokubs don't actually follow the rules, or they don't remember items that the dead had on them," Saiko continued. "Anyone could have used anything to falsify a way to the other side! If they cannot remember things like how sex works, or our names or faces, how could they-"

"Um, Saiko?" Drake spoke up, staring over his sketchpad quite spooked by the intensity of the investigator. "I believe I have an answer…"

"Crystal may… have had something that belonged to someone who is gone," Drake admitted. "She has her jacket."

The military adviser stared at the young man, before running her fingers around the collar. "What do you mean? This is my jacket, Drake."

"Yes, but it was given to you by Monodam, or more specifically, Dam."

Crystal flinched as she recalled her original jacket being ruined, then her memory brought her back to a few days ago. In the tailoring shop, the human version of Monodam, Dam, had given her this jacket.

"That's true, he gave it to me as a gift," she said, glancing up at the green Kub.

"But Monodam's not dead," Ishiku said.

"No, he's not, but Dam is gone," Drake said sadly. "After all, when Dam got back in the tank, his body was disintegrated into biomass; so, realistically, Dam, the one who gave you that jacket, is dead."

Crystal sighed, and remarked, "That does explain why I am alive."

"So much for that protest, ya short bitch," Aka said with a sly grin on her face. "Ya ain't got a leg to stand on, and now we're just wasting time."

"I'm not done yet," Saiko shouted. "Just because I was wrong about that doesn't mean it's impossible for one person to have done this!"

"Well you'd best stop accusing my adorable, widdle Kubbies," Monokuma called out, "of not following the rules! Because I can verify that they did to the best of their abilities!"

Saiko let out a long, frustrated groan. Isaac strained as well, pressing at his head as he tried to think of something, anything. Hara was starting to shake, staring aimlessly as her mind was racing harder than she could process.

"Is that it?" Souma asked them. "I don't wish to believe it, but this is starting to sound one-sided."

"Please, people," Saiko cried out, her angry edge gone and replaced with desperation. "Think of how many times Isaac and Hara helped you out! Isaac fought to uncover the impossible truth of Angelique's murder, Hara stood firm against so many of you to prove that Emanuel was guilty! You… you have to give them a chance!"

The trial room was quiet for a minute, then Drake felt another tug on his sleeve. Ignatia handed him her cell phone, and the cartoonist took it. [I haven't forgotten when I thought I was the reason Angelique was dead, and how much Isaac struggled to prove I was innocent, saving us all. I haven't forgotten…]

The mime took her cell phone back briefly to type another message, and gave it to Drake. The cartoonist sounded much more emotional as he read it. [There is another way for someone to get over to the other side, and that is to pretend to be the opposite gender. I saw Odelios try it, and it would have worked if we hadn't given him away.]

"Oh yeah, I did attempt that," the clown said, sticking out his tongue as he rubbed the back of his head. "Almost worked!"

"Hmph, is that all?" Futaba asked. "You really think the clown's attempt to pretend to be a woman is good enough?"

"Monokid cannot remember names and faces, now that he has suddenly become as amnesiac as his late brother," Ishiku protested. "I mean, how could that not work?"

"Let's discuss that then," Shuuya suggested, "but I don't think you're ready to handle that truth."

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"I already see a flaw in this idea of yours," the bounty hunter continued to speak. "Yejoon was tased, no doubt about that. The tasers are in the eastern gift shop.

"If a man pretended to be a woman, that would mean they'd have to go over the eastern side, and then back again to tase Yejoon, and then back yet again to plant the hand in the hair salon!"

"If a woman pretended to be a man," Futaba added, "then the same problem happens that she has to go back to the hair salon with the hand."

"If a woman did this," Anzu commented, "then all they had to do is admit the truth to Monokid to return."

"Wouldn't he shoot them dead for lying like that?" Yitro questioned.

"I'm not dead," Odelios declared. "Even if I don't update my Facebook status all that often!"

"No, but he remembers you as someone who tried to trick him," Eisei remarked. "He refers to you consistently as a crossdresser."

"Yeah, that's true, I guess you cannot trick him more than once. He may look like an idiot, he may speak like an idiot, and he act like an idiot, but that shouldn't follow us: he really is an idiot!"

"Crossdressing circus fucker!"

"Blue bear bastard-bitch bugger!"

"What does this mean?" Kimiko asked. "That only a woman or a couple could have killed Yejoon?"

"Or a couple women," Eisei remarked with a raised eyebrow.

"Let's not complicate this, my friend, please," Souma implored.

"So are we claiming that a woman picked up a taser," Shuuya started to list off, "went to the man's side, and murdered Yejoon?"

"Does that not sound believable?" Isaac inquired.

"There is one major flaw in all of that," the bounty hunter countered.

"If a woman had gone over to the western side while pretending to be a man, how did they open the baseball shack?" Shuuya declared. "They needed the baseball bats to bludgeon Yejoon to death!"

"Weren't the bowling pins the cause of that?" Ken asked. "They were bloody and dented."

"Bowling pins may be tough, but used to break every bone in someone's body, to cave in a skull? No, no I won't believe that for a second, especially since I'm certain the bowling pins are a red herring."

"Why is that?" Isaac asked.

"If the bowling pins were the instrument of death, why was he killed at the baseball field? We know by the amount of blood there that he had to be killed there, so he had to have died there!"

"But we found the knives and remains of the doll in the bowling alley," Odelios pointed out.

"That's a good point, but consider this: Yejoon was tased and knocked out in the bowling alley, stripped of his weapons and means of getting around, and then dragged to the baseball field where he was murdered."

"Actually, about that, if I may?" Futaba said, glancing over at Shuuya. "You're very familiar with murders, so tell me something: how did the killer pretend themselves from getting blood all over themselves?"

"Who is to say they didn't?"

"Something Hara told us last morning makes me think otherwise: she said that the honeymoon suites did not have changes of clothes, so she and Isaac are wearing the same clothes they were from two days ago."

"That's true, actually," Anzu remarked. "In the honeymoon suite Ishi and I were trapped in-"

"Stop calling him by the pet name I gave him, you hussy!" Monophanie shouted angrily, throwing her pink paws around in a flurry. "You floozy, you concubine, you-"

"Okay, please stop, Monophanie! I promise not to use it anymore! I meant to say, where Ishiku and I were, there were only sexy costumes and underwear in the clothing drawers."

Shuuya tapped his chin. "Did the eastern gift shop have anything that could cover their bodies?"

Hara whimpered and glanced away, which made several of the people stare accusingly at her. She could feel those stares, and definitely noticed them when she dared to look at them. With a defeated sigh, she said, "Um, there was rainwear."

"What, like raincoats?" Shuuya asked.

"The quick-use disposable kind, like the clear plastic that you wear over yourself like a onesie?"

"Oh, yeah," Odelios affirmed, grinning triumphantly, "in that trash bin that had the blood and knives, there was also some plastic like that!"

"Odelios, you really should tell us all the details first off," Shuuya remarked. "Was there anything else in there?"

"Nope, that's all."

"So there you have it, Futaba," Shuuya said. "Our killer… wait a minute, if they went over to the other side with rainwear…"

"Our killer was clearly planning a murder!" The anthropologist snapped her fingers, and chuckled. "Yeah, they definitely aimed to murder Yejoon from the get-go!"

"But wait a minute," Pyrrha spoke up, "we were discussing how it could have been a woman, and you can only go outside with a married partner, or with an item of the deceased! Pretending to be a guy would just give them access to the western side of the hotel!"

"It appears we're not quite done with this possibility," Isaac said. "Come on now, let's go into depth about it, because it sure is sounding likely too!"

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"So if a woman pretends to be a man," Isaac remarked, "what does she have to do to fool Monokid?"

"She cannot be highly feminine or have large breasts," Saiko remarked. "That's all the little twerp remembers."

"You're a twerp," Monokid retorted."

"But wouldn't the plan be foiled from the moment," Pyrrha said, "when they went to Yejoon's room to kill him, but he wasn't there?"

"Why wouldn't she just kill some other guy then?" Aka asked. "I mean, there's always Blake."

"Screw you, bitch!"

"Why not kill someone else is irrelevant, Yejoon is dead and not someone else," Shuuya remarked. "But Pyrrha is right, the killer wouldn't have a way to get outside to go after him."

"What about the key ring?" Drake asked. "If you all think Isaac stole it, couldn't this singular culprit do that?"

"Kid, have you been paying attention?" Blake spoke up. "If the woman is pretending to be a man, she'd need an item from someone of the opposite gender; Emanuel was a man, the chick pretending to be a dick needed a man's item."

"Not if she told Monokid that she was a woman, then she had the right tool to be on the western side."

Blake opened his mouth to speak, then closed it. "Huh. Good one, kid."

"Wait, so she sneaks into your room, steals the key ring, and then tells Monokid that she's a woman?" Ken asked. "That's… horrifically simple!"

"How did people know Drake had the key ring anyway?" Ishiku asked. "He wasn't announcing it."

"Probably a lucky guess after what happened," Shuuya clarified, "or maybe they snuck into more rooms than we are aware of. However it went down, this is all still possible."

"The vandalization of the Hall of Fame works with a couple or a single person working on it," Souma remarked.

"What about the hair salon?" Yitro asked. "Was Yejoon's hand enough to open the door?"

"The Kubs told us," Odelios said as he casually twisted Rubarrow's neck, "that a hand can work only once on a palm scanner."

"Hold on a minute here," Hikari called out, "because I think I found a cog out of place!"

"Listen, I really don't want to cast doubt on Hara and Isaac, but why would our killer need rainwear?" the steampunk model asked. "All they had to do was wear other clothing, if they weren't trapped in the honeymoon suite. Not to mention, that stuff squeaks like crazy, they couldn't hope to sneak up on Yejoon…"

"If Yejoon was suicidal," Kimiko pointed out, "then he wouldn't have cared."

"The idea of Yejoon being ready and willing to die was not in any of our heads until during this trial. Even if you count the symptoms while he was alive, how could a woman know of them? We were all separated from the men, we never would have seen them."

"We should take into consideration," Isaac said, "that no one knew of the rooms being locked in the morning until today. Our killer could have been worried we'd search the rooms."

"But… why? I mean, if the original plan was to sneak into Yejoon's room, why wear the rainwear?"

"Actually, I have an idea about that," Pyrrha said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out something wrapped in paper towels: it was the bloody knife with the blue handle. "This was in the eastern kitchen, the women's kitchen."

"Oh, you mean your place?" Blake said with a mean grin. "Haw haw haw!"

"Haw haw haw!" Monokid echoed.

Pyrrha took a deep breath as she tried to keep her temper. "Aka and I found it when looking around, and it was in the butcher block."

"Drake and I found a pink-handled knife in our kitchen," Souma responded. "Wait a minute… was the knife the original weapon of choice?"

"Tase Yejoon, and shank him in the throat," Shuuya said. "It ensures he doesn't fight back, and the rainwear catches any blood that sprays as a result."

"Blarrrghgharhgghgh," was Monophanie's regurgitation response.

"So our killer takes a knife with her to kill Yejoon," Ishiku said, "discovers he is not in his room, and thus gets the key ring to go search for him."

"But what about the Hall of Fame vandalization?" Hikari asked. "If this is a single woman, she would have to get the equipment from the western guest room, and then use it."

"About that," Yitro said, drumming his fingers on his arm, "there's something I wanted to discuss about it."

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"Are we even sure that the vandalization of the Hall of Fame was truly the Entity of Chaos?" the swordsman asked. "What if the killer did it to throw us off?"

"You mean paint insults and such, break shit," Blake said, "and thus get everyone pissing scared that this Entity is after us?"

"But they also did it in the locked part of the Hall of Fame," Anzu pointed out. "And that wasn't just vandalization."

"There were some clear implications that the killer knew something about Ryōko and Mahiru," Ishiku said.

"Those two were, respectively, the last and first portraits," Souma remarked. "It could have been as simple as that."

"I thought we agreed it was something to do with the visions?" Anzu asked.

"I know it does draw parallels, but if this was all a bluff by our killer instead of the real Entity of Chaos, that would be the reason why it was done like that."

"Was there anything telling about the insults?" Aka asked, grinning slightly. "Like if they could be done by someone who knows us? Ooo, what was mine?"

"…" Anzu stopped talking, glancing nervously around the room as she tried to find something, anything, to look at.

"Um, the insult on yours, Aka, was 'slut,'" Ishiku said as he peered at his notes.

"Ha! That the best they got? I call myself that, I get called that as a compliment!"

"Some of the others were weird," the magician said as he continued looking at his notes. "Isaac had 'serial killer bait,' Ignatia had 'tattletale,' Ken had 'scarlet'…"

"I do not know what that means," Ken admitted. "Does scarlet mean something in slang that I am missing?"

"…!" Ignatia's jaw dropped and her eyes became pinpricks, and she gripped at her clothing as Drake watched her with great concern.

"Ahem ahem ahem," Monokuma interrupted. "I do believe it is time for… penance!"

"We had a bargain, Isaac, and I told you that I would take advantage of it," the bear of despair said, his wicked voice echoing around the trial room. It sent chills down most of their spines, they just weren't comfortable with Monokuma sounding so pleased.

"You don't intimidate me, Monokuma," Isaac said. "This trial will be guided by the truth, by the facts."

"Is it not also a fact that you have a hatred of serial killers? Maybe one by the name of… Shizuka Akui?"

The reporter froze up, his eyes diluting as all color left his face. He reached up, grabbing his hair and beanie so tightly that it was obviously causing him pain. Hara and Saiko both gasped, as everyone else appeared confused.

"No no no, don't bring her up," Hara shouted. "That awful, evil woman!"

"Monokuma, you bastard, don't think I don't see what you're doing," Saiko hollered.

"Puhuhu, I'm just warming up!" Monokuma said. The bear had pulled out a vanilla envelope, and was flipping through the papers. "Oh, I'm sorry, everyone. Do you not know who Shizuka Akui is? Maybe you would know her by her other name, the Beautician of Death?"

"The serial killer?" Futaba asked. "Wait, what? Isaac, do you know that woman?"

"Upupupu! Does he ever! A few days before his thirteenth birthday, the Beautician of Death discovered that Isaac's father was investigating her. So she paid his home a visit… oh poor, foolish Jack Bellamy. Got him and his wife Joan, their eldest daughter Marie, their youngest child Elise…

"Even I cannot imagine the despair a five year old girl would feel as some woman poured burning wax on them. She was the last to go, according to the police report-"

"STOP IT!" Hara shrieked. "Stop it right now!"

"Stop it? But we had a bargain! Though Isaac sure did, because he was hiding at the time. He couldn't save any of them, he could do nothing but hide, how tragic! But isn't that how you got the description of her to the police?

"It was that incredible eye for detail that helped the police eventually find her, was it not? That keen eye, that memory, it's how you became the Ultimate Reporter, following in your late father's footsteps! Well, you eventually did, but you had to live in such an abusive, uncaring orphanage for a few years because your entire family was dead, huh?"

Monokuma's devious chuckle felt like a hammer slamming down, a combination of a judge's gavel and a coffin having its nails pounded in. "So that is your penance, Isaac. Hope it wasn't too prying, but hey, you're a reporter! You should be used to that, upupupu!"

"I didn't know all of that about him," Monosuke commented. "Pops is so resourceful."

"How tragic, how gory," Monophanie wailed. "That poor family!"

"Upupupu… HAW HAW HAW!" Monokid cackled, smashing a guitar at the same time.

The trial participants were quiet, until Yitro let out an exhausted sigh. "Isaac? You do realize how this is highly concerning to us, right?"

"Wh-what?" the reporter had been shaking the entire time, gripping the podium for support. He managed to glance up at the swordsman, and ask, "What are you saying?"

"Your whole family was murdered by a serial killer, and now the serial killer is dead. We've been asking ourselves why now, why kill Yejoon at this point in time, and there's an answer now, though I don't like to admit it…"

Yitro crossed his arms as he continued, appearing off-put but determined to see this through. "If you couldn't tolerate his presence any longer, and normally I cannot blame you, but he was becoming intolerable amongst us."

"I didn't kill him!" Isaac protested, slamming his fists down on the podium.

"No, you didn't. Our killer is a woman," Futaba said, frowning darkly, "due to how impossible it would have been for any of the other men to get something that belonged to the late ladies.

"If you couldn't kill that bastard in his room, your fiancé sure could go outside and do it for you."

The words made both Isaac and Hara flinch, shocking them so much that they couldn't find the words to describe it. Saiko was also gaping in horror, but she managed to pull herself together. "That's… that's just a theory! It's not proof, it's just Monokuma giving you all a plausible motive!"

"It's an answer to one of our biggest questions," Crystal pointed out. "We have a general idea how and where Yejoon was killed, but we didn't know why, and why now. This makes so much sense."

"Don't be foolish! Monokuma gave you that information! MONOKUMA!" Saiko slammed her fists on the podium railing, and shouted, "Do you honestly, truly believe that that bastard bear gave you all that information out of the goodness of his heart to help you?"

"That is a good point," Souma remarked, as he rubbed his chin in contemplation. "Monokuma doesn't give information like that normally."

"It was penance," Blake argued. "Isaac wanted an advantage during the investigation, so Monokuma made things more difficult for him during the trial! If you ask me, he foiled himself with this!"

Isaac strained as he felt a stress headache forming; it felt like something was trying to gnaw its way out of his temples. He gripped at the areas, and declared, "Hara would not murder someone for me! She's not that kind of person! Don't you people know her at all by now?!"

"The only one who knows her besides you is Saiko," Ken said, glaring suspiciously at the reporter, "and we cannot trust her either since you three have been thick like thieves since you got here."

"I must object to this," Eisei spoke up, glancing around at everyone as he, with purpose, removed his current lollipop. "If you are going to insist that Saiko lied in her autopsy report, you should prove it."

"We don't need to prove it, Yejoon's death was obvious, and the use of whichever weapon matters not," Futaba argued. "Hara could open the baseball shack or go into the bowling alley for one of the pins, because Isaac knew where those were!"

"He didn't know about one of them," the dentist said. "Come now, there's still room to debate this."

"No there isn't," Blake shouted.

"We will debate it until all of us are sated for an answer, and that," Eisei's normally peaceful eyes were steeled with resolve, "is how we shall carry on!"

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"If Yejoon was beaten to death with a baseball bat," Eisei started the argument, "then the killer had to have opened the baseball shack!"

"Isn't it obvious what would have been in there?" Ken asked. "It's not like anything else could have been there."

"When we first found the locked rooms, we didn't know what could be in them. There was a science lab in the hair salon!"

"Wait, he might be onto something there," Hikari remarked. "I mean, all of the women were aware of that, and thus wouldn't we be suspicious that what could obviously be in those rooms is not what we think?"

"Are we sure about that?" Souma inquired. "I mean, the Hall of Fame's locked room was more of the same, just different people in it. The men's side seems to be what we would expect."

"Hold up a minute here," Saiko shouted. "I have an answer!"

"There was the other locked room in the spa," the investigator said, clapping her hands and rubbing them together. "Anzu, Ishiku, and myself were able to get in there."

"That's probably because Yejoon went in there first," Crystal remarked. "Odd he closed that one behind him and left the containment tank room open."

"Not really, because the room had nothing but office supplies!"

The trial room went quiet, all except for the clown. "Are you telling me the Kubs put a Staples inside of the luxury spa? Were there mechanical pencils and printer ink?"

"The whole works, clown man, everything you could imagine. Including," Saiko reached into her pocket and pulled out a notepad, "this!"

"Wait, isn't that Yejoon's?" Shuuya asked, as he glanced over at Fiora. The movie maker had paused from her work of writing on the notepad she still had in her hands.

"It's the exact same type of notepad that Yejoon had, that room is where he got it," Saiko answered. "He probably closed the door there because there wasn't anything of worth and didn't want us to waste our… time?"

The investigator slapped her palm against her forehead, and muttered, "I just realized I was applying logic to our demented serial killer."

"We can only theorize," Eisei offered to the embarrassed investigator, "just like how we can only guess why one of these locked rooms was just office supplies."

"Okay, that's all well and good," Yitro called out, "but it doesn't answer all of our questions. We need to go back to the debate, which was if Saiko's autopsy can be trusted!"

"Didn't you investigate the baseball bats?" Isaac inquired.

"Shuuya and I didn't find anything absolute, so we must push the issue and get to the truth!"

FURTHER PRESENT YOUR CASE!

"The question is if Yejoon's death was by bowling pin or baseball bat," the swordsman said, crossing his arms defiantly. "And wasn't the general consensus that he was knocked out in the bowling alley?"

"But the one thing that cannot be faked is blood," Shuuya said. "The killer couldn't clean up blood in the bowling alley if Yejoon was beaten there."

"Not to mention the amount of blood," Isaac spoke up, "that was under him at the baseball field proves he was murdered there."

"Being beaten to death with a bowling pin really splits the bones," Odelios cracked.

"If Yejoon was knocked out in the bowling alley," Drake spoke up, "and then carried to the baseball field, it would mean that the killer wanted to f-finish him there."

"Why was that, exactly?" Aka asked. "I mean, why couldn't the killer just finish him off in the bowling alley?"

"I would think that that it shows us that the killer would know what was in the baseball shack," Souma said, "but the women wouldn't think that what was expected to be in those rooms was there!"

"How could our killer know what was truly in the baseball shack?" Anzu inquired. "The only ones who knew were Ishiku and myself!"

"What time did you go to the baseball shack?" Pyrrha asked.

"Oh, that was probably around 3:30 PM and 4 PM?"

"Aha, I have discovered something!" Ishiku declared. "I think I have the answer!"

"So get this," Ishiku said, clapping his hands (and scattering chocolate coins around him), "the fog was extremely thick when Anzu and I went around the western plaza! Someone could have spying on us!"

"That makes sense, that's the only way a woman would have known that there was actual baseball equipment in the shack," Souma said.

"Aha, thanks for providing us the answer, Ishi!" Blake said, pumping his fist. "We now know-"

"STOP USING MY PET NAME FOR MY ISHI!" Monophanie shouted, throwing a frying pan at Blake. The pyro dodged in time, and balked at the pink Kub.

"It was just a joke, for God's sake! Anyway, think about it! Isaac spied on Anzu and… Ishiku… when they went to the baseball shack! So he could tell Hara about the shack!"

"That's absurd!" Hara cried out, grabbing at herself as she tried to calm down her shaking.

"Stop accusing Hara!" Isaac declared. "That's ridiculous, anyway! Why would I spy on them?!"

"You were planning a murder, so all information and spying would be good for you, Mr. Reporter," Blake said with a devious laugh.

"Blake, I don't think you should celebrate this," Souma said. "If Anzu and Ishiku were at the baseball shack around 4 PM, the Kubs had locked some of us in the bowling alley, Isaac included.

Blake ground his teeth, and grabbed at his hair. Then his eyes widened, and he shouted, "Wait! There is that backdoor in the bowling alley, the one you can sneak out. And the best part of it is, you exit out next to the baseball field, nearby the shack!"

"And I can verify," the public speaker said, "that Isaac was in the bowling alley the entire time, because I spent the whole time in there talking to him. He couldn't have left to spy on Anzu and Ishiku."

Saiko let out a laugh of relief, and shouted, "See? See that proves that Isaac didn't know about the baseball equipment!"

"That doesn't clear him and Hara entirely," Shuuya spoke up, crossing his arms. "I do not wish to believe it was them, but maybe the simple fact is that no one spied on Anzu and Ishiku."

"Are we sure about that?" Aka asked. "I mean, someone could have, it just wasn't anyone stuck in the bowling alley. Who wasn't?"

Souma cleared his throat, and spoke up with clarity. "The ones in the alley were myself, Isaac, Blake, Odelios, Drake, and Yejoon. Drake and Yejoon were in the arcade, Odelios came in the latest and fooled around in the lanes, Blake was at the bar for the most part, and Isaac and I conversed the entire time."

"So either one of you could have snuck out, or someone outside could have overheard Anzu and Ishiku!" Aka declared, punching her palm as she grinned in excitement.

"I was," Ken spoke up, glancing at Kimiko, and then swallowed nervously. "Kimiko and I were together."

"I was with Futaba during this time," Shuuya said.

Yitro glanced around at everyone, then sighed and said, "I don't have anyone to verify my whereabouts, I was in the gift shop trying to pick out a gift like Ken suggested. But I did see Yejoon a little after 4, though that doesn't prove anything…"

He stopped talking when he saw Drake slowly raising his hand, and the swordsman paused. "Yes, Drake?"

"Well, you brought up Yejoon, and I wanted to say that he wasn't in the arcade with me the entire time."

Yitro stared at him, then said, "Come to think of it, Yejoon did tell me he snuck out of the bowling alley, through the back of the building!"

"Wait, Yejoon was the one who snuck out?" Crystal said, then shook her head and groaned. "So it was a false lead after all."

"Why do you say that, Crystal?" Eisei inquired.

"Are you kidding me? Yejoon is the victim! If he spied on Anzu and Ishiku, then he knew about the baseball equipment in the shack. Would he have told his killer that?!"

"Didn't we argue he was suicidal?"

"Are you really, truly going to tell me that Yejoon saw someone coming at him, and told them where proper equipment to break his body and bludgeon him to death?! I don't care how crazy he was, that's beyond all reason!"

The trial room was dead silent, as everyone contemplated everything that had been discussed. Hara and Isaac were trying to keep themselves calm, with everyone watching them the most. It was Aka who spoke up first.

"I… didn't want to do this," she said, "but I told Pyrrha I had a theory on who I think could have been the killer. And with what was just said, I think it's proven."

"What?" Pyrrha blurted out. "You told me that, yes, but what makes you think your theory is correct now?"

"Because of what Eisei and Crystal were discussing, the idea that Yejoon helped his killer exterminate him. I had wondered how someone could have slain that bastard, but if he wanted to die, if he gave up to have it be done, there is one possibility…

"Yejoon worked along with his killer to have his death be as impactful and confusing as could be."

"Who," Anzu asked, tugging at her blue bangs, "would trust that monster? Even if they could trust him, who would he ask to do that?"

Aka sighed, and then pointed…

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SELECT A SUSPECT!

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… at Fiora R. Stenton, who missed this pointing accusation because she was still making notes on Yejoon's notepad.

"Fiora?!" Yitro cried out.

"Yes?" the movie maker asked, glancing up at him. It was then that she noticed all eyes were on her, and that Aka was pointing at her. "What?"

"Fiora," Hikari asked, her fingers on her trembling lips, "did you… work with Yejoon to kill him?"

Fiora's eyes widened and her jaw dropped as she was stunned speechless. Her hands flew up to her head, knocking off her fedora as she shrieked with absolute appall:

"YOU'RE ACCUSING ME YET A'GEEN?!"

…

TRIAL INTERMISSION!