Chapter 4-6

The Silver Lining

*Monokuma Family Trial Intermission*

*Monokuma and the four Monokubs are all standing at the front steps of Town Hall. Monokuma is standing on the top step, the Kubs two steps below him.*

Monokuma - "The battle of the genders is quite the horrible thing to watch, as the wars rage on, many deaths, so many innocent casualties."

Monodam - "NOT-TO-MENTION-THE-GENDER-FLUIDITY-AND-IDENTITY-"

Monokuma - "Nope! No no no! We are not diving into that!"

Monosuke - "BUT-AREN'T-WE-ALL-GENDERLESS-HERE? WE-ARE-NON-REPRODUCTIVE-ROBOTS."

Monokuma - "Son, you are insightful and creative, traits I normally admire. But if you start this subject up, you do realize that we will set the internet ablaze?"

Monokid - "The internet is always ablaze!"

Monosuke - "That's right, crafty flames like a fire fox, a burning safari, exploring into the hellfire of this dumpster fire! Youse has never seen flame wars like the gender wars online!"

Monophanie - "I feel a trifle bit outnumbered here."

Monokuma - "Oh you don't qualify, my beautiful daughter! You've already betrayed your gender by falling for a man. So you're out of the discussion."

Monophanie - "Waaaaah, Daddy's a meanie and I hate this family!" *She runs away sobbing.*

Monosuke - "Psssh, women, they is so emotional, is they not?"

Monokuma - "That's right, boys, always remember that, your father teaches you well! Monokuma's logic is flawless, that's why I have my own theater show! Remember what I taught you?"

Monokid - "Fuck bitches, get money!"

Monosuke - "Fuck money, get bitches!"

Monodam - "…"

Monokuma - "And now, on with the show!"

LET THE TRIAL RECOMMENCE!

"Aka, sweetheart," Pyrrha said, clasping her hands as she faced the skier, "please tell me you aren't serious! Hasn't Fiora been through enough?"

"Oh great, Aka wants Emanuel's job now that he's gone," Odelios grumbled. He lifted up his rubber chicken and declared as well, "That was supposed to be his job, he's the cock!"

Aka stared down the clown, then spoke, "Look, I don't take any enjoyment from this, but if we are seriously considering that Yejoon gave his killer assistance, who is the only person he would do that for?"

"If he was suicidal enough to let himself die," Eisei spoke up, "that would be anyone."

"And I'd hate to break it to you, you purple-topped trollop," Fiora shouted, "but there's no possible way I coo'd have bin on the western side! I have nothing from the people who died!"

Aka crossed her arms, and said, "Don't you have one of Yejoon's throwing daggers on you?"

Fiora flinched, stammered a great deal, then glanced at Pyrrha. "Did you tell her?"

"It… may have come up," the romance writer said, blushing furiously. "I'm sorry! I was trying to tell her how affected you were by this!"

"That wouldn't have worked," Isaac said, shaking his head. "Yejoon would have to be dead for Fiora to use it as a way to cross over."

"There's more than one to get around those loopholes, but listen to me when I say," Aka remarked, "it's that we have to consider who would be the only person that Yejoon would allow this to happen to!"

"Fiora hated his guts," Hikari argued. "Why would she-"

"I didn't hate him!"

The movie maker blurted out the words so strongly that all focus was on her, especially when she smacked a hand over her mouth as she gasped in terror. Her wide eyes showcased a kind of shame that the others didn't think possible.

"You actually liked him?" Blake said, then he cackled. "Did you fall for your stalker? That's a fucking hoot! Oh, did you have sex with him, since you two were married?"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!"

Fiora heaved in fury, her eyes blazing at the pyro. "I doo'nt have to listen to you, of all people! Not you, never you!"

Aka cleared her throat, and said, "It's me you should answer to, Fi, not that bastard. We should discuss this, and maybe then you could prove your innocence."

"Why? Why do I always have to prove I'm innocent?! Why woo'd I kill Yejoon? Didn't you all ask me to translate his notes?!"

"And if we prove you are innocent," Isaac said, "it will make your words undeniable to everyone here. Let's just discuss it, Fiora."

The movie maker gaped at the reporter, and blurted out, "But you're the main suspect here, if you prove I'm innocent… the suspicion is all on you!"

"Fiora, I know Hara and I are innocent, and I also don't think you're guilty. And there are people here who are willing to go to bat for you."

Fiora winced, and muttered, "Not the best terminology to use right now, brah."

"Oh, sorry. But anyway, let's put their worries to rest, shall we?"

Isaac smiled at Fiora, until the movie maker took a deep breath and nodded. Aka watched this exchange, tapping her lips. She was rather curious about where this was going, and now the debate would be begin again.

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"If we think that Fiora is guilty, there's one of two ways she did this," Aka spoke up, "one of them is that Yejoon went to the eastern side and she killed him there. The other is she did sleep with him, and thus they were both on the western side."

"We've already deduced that Yejoon had been murdered on the western side," Shuuya said. "Between Saiko and myself, I can assure you that there's no way she could have murdered him and then transported him."

"Why's that, exactly?"

"For lack of a gentler way to say this, Yejoon's skull was smashed in, and his brains were on the ground near his body."

"Yes, if he had lost some of his brain in transport," Saiko remarked with a roll of her eyes, "I would have known. Guess Shuuya knows too."

"What if he was beaten to death?" Futaba inquired. "Bludgeoning doesn't result in great blood loss."

"If you are going to beat someone to death, that would," Saiko remarked. "And that would get all over the floor, which would be noticeable in the hotel, the only place Fiora could be."

"If she didn't fuck him," Blake added with a snicker.

"Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!" Fiora shrieked.

"Yes, do shut up, Blake," Aka added. "Anyway, what if she killed him in her room?"

"We didn't know the doors would be locked this morning, they were unlocked all night," Eisei commented. "She wouldn't have risked us spotting a bloodstain on the floor."

"And also the blood that would stain the floor along the way," Shuuya added. "There's nothing in our rooms that would be thick enough to prevent blood from dripping."

"How gory!" Monophanie whimpered in horror.

"But do we have any proof she didn't have sex with Yejoon?" Futaba asked, crossing her arms. "I don't care if it is crass, we need confirmation."

"Could it have been in the morning," Eisei inquired, "before we all met up for breakfast?"

"She woo'd have smelt of sex, or had to have showered," Kimiko said. "Trust me, we woo'd have noticed."

"What about during the previous night?" Shuuya inquired.

"No, I was with her," Anzu said.

"How is it possible you're sleeping with everyone here," Blake shouted incredulously, "and yet you're NOT having sex with anyone? Are you the Ultimate Tease?!"

"Shut up," said multiple people all at once.

"I think if this is possible," Futaba spoke up, "she visited him during the evening, after we all went to sleep-"

"No no, wait a minute here," Hara exclaimed, "there's something wrong here!"

"Um, this may not be the most conventional of arguments," Hara said, as everyone stared at her in surprise, "but is the ongoing belief that Fiora worked with Yejoon to have him killed?"

"Yes, that's the theory," Aka pointed out.

"But then why would Yejoon need to be disarmed and carried anywhere? Wouldn't they have plotted this out without such inconsistencies?"

The trial room was silent for a moment, as everyone tried to process this. "You mean," Isaac said to his fiancé, "why wasn't Yejoon wearing his arm blades? Or why his knives were all thrown away?"

"I would think," Blake snapped, "that would be because they didn't want to make it obvious he was flat out murdered! Armed, Yejoon could take us all on!"

"But then why disarm him and such in the bowling alley? Why stun him?" Hara continued. "Why do things to make it more complicated if you all think they planned this out?"

"To confuse us," Shuuya commented. "And there's also the issue that the messages Yejoon left behind can only be decoded by her."

"Oh come on, it is not that hard," Fiora said as she waved the notepad in the air. "It is literally the alphabet done in symbols, eh! I am halfway done with it!"

She chucked that notepad at Shuuya, who caught it and studied the letters that Fiora had written underneath the symbols. The bounty hunter observed the progress, and sighed in defeat. "Okay, she appears to be telling the truth."

"But how do we know she didn't write what's on the notepad in the first place?" Aka asked. "It's her made-up language!"

"Handwriting is completely different," the bounty hunter said. "I've had a ton of experience analyzing handwriting over the years, I know even by the difference of these symbols and her letters."

"And if you couldn't, I could too," Isaac offered.

"I think we need to stop accusing Fiora," Hara said, staring down at the floor as she tried to make a stand. "She's been through so much, she wouldn't have done this."

"Yeah, this joke has been milked so hard," Odelios declared, "the cow is begging for mercy! Think about the udders, people, because now it's getting udder-ly ridiculous to accuse Fiora any more."

Anzu let out a sigh, and remarked, "Look, I know emotions are like a pair of deuces in the card game that are these trials, but don't you think we would have been able to tell if Fiora had done it?"

Shuuya tossed the notepad back to Fiora, saying, "I believe that settles it; however, it is unfortunate of where that lands us."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Aka stammered, glancing between Shuuya and Fiora.

"If Fiora cannot be our culprit, then our main suspect is Hara once again," the bounty hunter said, staring at the explorer. "That was never disproved."

"What?" Isaac exclaimed in disbelief. "You seriously think Hara and I conspired to kill Yejoon?"

"Isaac, there is the concern of the vandalization as well," Souma remarked, shaking his head. "You have to realize, it showcases that our killer has fallen into Chaos."

"Which we know can clash with Despair," Hikari muttered, nervously fiddling with her hat, "which Yejoon was all about."

"No no no!" Saiko shouted, waving her hands about and shaking her head. "This is all theory, guesswork that can fit any woman who decided to kill Yejoon!"

"But there's no other woman who had the ability to cross over to the western side," Ishiku remarked, nervously scratching the back of his head. "I mean, what other way could a woman have gotten over to the other side?"

"There's nothing of Takeo, Samson, or Emanuel's stuff left except for that key ring," Kimiko ruefully pointed out. She shook her head and muttered, "I doo'nt want to believe it either, but there's also your motive."

"It's not hard to believe that Hara would kill Yejoon for you," Pyrrha nervously said, "because of what you've been through. And with how frantic and desperate we all became yesterday, how badly we botched the plan…"

"But wait a minute!" Odelios hollered. "Isaac and Hara came here for answers, and they aren't going to get anywhere by Yejoon's death."

"It wouldn't be the first time someone gave up on the hunt for facts," Crystal stated, "and turned to a more wicked way of getting what they want. Haven't we seen that over and over in this town alone?"

"… I don't think it was them."

It was the person who said the latest statement was what shocked everyone there. They turned to Aka, who was scratching the back of her head, wiggling her goggles on her head. "Yeah, I kind of changed my mind on this."

"What? You, of all people?" Blake shouted. "You're usually the one to latch and never let go. Like when you're munching on-"

"SHUT UP," was the general consensus.

"I have my reasons," the skier said, "but can we not debate this further before we end it here?"

"YOU WANNA DEBATE? THEN SCRUM DEBATE!"

Monokuma's sharp shouting alerted everyone, as the bear put down the megaphone next to him. "It would seem that we need to make a decision here and now, if we want to vote, or continue debating this!"

"If they had anything to counter our arguments," Shuuya remarked, "we would have heard it by now."

"So long as some of us are unconvinced," Drake boldly stated, "we should keep this debate going."

"Well said, cartoonish boy! Now then, you all know the drill, you see the two options on the digital touch screen on your podiums. Pick which one you are thinking right now!"

There was a quick rush of electronic beeps, then a scattering of people who had to finally make up their minds. Most everyone did not look excited, they were rather upset in general. Monokuma held up a tablet, surveying the screen.

"Oh, this one is a bit lop-sided, so it looks like the members of the smaller team are going to have to fight hard! After all, if you don't convince me, I will end the trial to get to the vote for the other team!"

"Youse all ready for this?" Monosuke shouted. "I am going to have so much watching youse all struggle!"

"Don't make me get my sniper rifle again, fuckers," Monokid announced. "No one slacks off under my watch!"

"Ugh, I don't like all this fighting," Monophanie whimpered. "Couldn't we instead play a game of cards?"

"…" Monodam pontificated.

Monokuma lifted a large key, labeled "Key to the City" on the side. A large lock raised up from the floor in front of his garish throne, and he inserted the key into it. With a twist, power could be heard charging up and machinery running throughout the trial room.

The platforms lit up at the base of their stands, and then hovered into the air. Everyone was used to this by now, so they were balanced and ready. As the podiums lifted up into the air, the ceiling opened up, and moving into the hallway-like room.

This was their fourth Scrum Debate, but it was the first time the teams hadn't been even or nearly even. This was either going to be a curb-stomping, or a defiant defense…

SCRUM DEBATE!

Team Ahri ("Hara and Isaac are responsible for this!")

Members: Shuuya, Crystal, Blake, Futaba, Hikari, Eisei, Souma, Yitro, Ken, Kimiko, Ishiku, Pyrrha.

…

Team Ninetales ("Someone else is the killer!")

Members: Hara, Isaac, Saiko, Aka, Anzu, Fiora, Drake, Ignatia, Odelios

The podiums rose up into the room, with everyone facing each other now on two sides. Monokuma and the Kubs were standing at the end of the room, as the debate came to life and with heated intensity.

"Hara and Isaac had more opportunity to kill Yejoon than any of us," Shuuya pointed out, "what with their ability to meet together in the evening, and plan something accordingly."

"Simply having more opportunity doesn't mean that they are the only possibility," Anzu said, twirling one of her blue bangs in her fingers. "With the doors being unlocked, anyone could have tried to kill Yejoon last night."

"The unlocked doors aren't the obstacle that points to Isaac and Hara," Souma said. "It's the fact that Yejoon was killed outside on the western side of the plaza that showcases who had the real opportunity."

"About that, why does the western side prove it was Hara?" Drake asked. "Yejoon had access to both sides of the plaza with his, um, item."

"It doesn't matter if Yejoon could have been on both sides, he was killed on the western side," Ken barked. "That means the killer had to have found him on the western side, when he was tasered and then beaten to death!"

"So why did Hara need a taser?" Aka asked. "Why would she need to do anything except stab him to death with the knife she had with her?"

"Why wouldn't you take more than a knife when you aim to kill a serial killer?" Blake asked, crossing his arms. "You stun him, then beat him to death with baseball bats!"

[But Hara couldn't have known the shack actually contained baseball bats,] Ignatia's text, read out by Drake, said. [The locked rooms on the women's side were all things not found in the buildings they were connected to!]

"About that, one of those locked rooms matched the building it was connected to," Ishiku said. "The stables' locked room was full of horseshoes, saddles, and barn stuff."

"But Hara couldn't have known that about the stables," Isaac declared. "It was never opened until you and Anzu opened the stables' locked room!"

"Someone had to have opened the stables' locked room," Kimiko argued, "or we never could have opened it during the investigation. It had to have been Yejoon's doing."

"But how would Yejoon opening that room point to Hara being the killer?" Saiko shouted. "What, you think he is going his killer, 'Oh by the way, some of the locked rooms due contain relevant equipment, so the baseball shack totally should have baseball equipment?'"

"Yejoon personally saw what was in the baseball shack when he spied on Ishiku and Anzu," Crystal coolly countered. "And since we know that Yejoon was suicidal, he would help his killer to make his death all the more confusing."

"Even if Yejoon was suicidal and woo'd allow his killer to execute him so brutally," Fiora spoke up, "you've set up Hara to be doing this as a crime of passion, to murder him for Isaac's sake. Why woo'dent she joo'st flat 'oot murder him? Why complicate things with the baseball bats and moving around?"

"Complicated just means harder to pinpoint a killer, Fiora," Yitro remarked. "It was their way of hoping that no one could figure out it was them by making the evidence all ambiguous."

"Yeah, about that," Odelios said as he scratched the back of his head with Rubarrow, "ambiguous is one thing, but if Isaac and Hara really did this, why didn't they do one thing to and hide it was them? You'd think they'd try for an alibi!"

"An alibi is not necessary when they can claim there is no proof against them," Eisei said. "They can be relying on people to consider this matter emotionally rather than logically."

"All of these trials have been decided through logic," Hara argued, "and we fought against the emotional outbursts. We're being accused of masterminding a heinous plan but having no reason to it besides emotion!"

"Are you forgetting that whoever is behind this is the one who most likely vandalized the Hall of Fame?" Souma said. "The reason could very well be Chaos."

[Samson was an avid follower of Chaos,] Drake read aloud Ignatia's text as she folded her arms stubbornly, [and he had the most organized and cunning murder plan we've seen here. Chaos doesn't mean shooting yourself in the foot, it means rebelling against the rules.]

"But Samson relied on the rules to try and get him out of his murder," Pyrrha reasoned. "This murder still relies on rules, and it happened by following them last night, not rebelling against them."

"Funny you should mention last night," Isaac said, raising an eyebrow at Pyrrha. "Didn't you tell the ladies that you'd be up all night keeping watch at the chapel? Both Hara and I knew that, but if we had come back downstairs, you would have seen us! There's no other way back down from the honeymoon suites!"

"Keeping watch last night wouldn't have been enough," Shuuya said, "because the murder took place in the early morning. The rigor mortis proves that he had been dead for hours, a victim of his own viciousness."

"See, there you go again, thinking that Hara was able to take on Yejoon by herself with how vicious he was," Isaac barked, glaring at the bounty hunter. "There was no way the two of us could have known he was suicidal, and yet you think I sent her out there with a taser and a knife to take on the murderous fiend! She would die against him!"

"Whoever killed Yejoon most likely thought they could die against him," Ken remarked, "but someone did indeed kill him. Logic and reason don't fit in here, this is a killer who had strong emotional reasons to want him dead. And you fit the buck, Isaac."

"Isaac was the one who asked for an advantage," Drake protested, "despite the fact that it would give him such a disadvantage. Why would he do that if he was part of this murder?"

"He's only part of it, not the actual murderer," Blake said with a scoff. "Hara is the killer, she gets executed, not him."

"If Isaac doesn't love Hara and is fine with her being executed," Saiko shouted, "then why doesn't he just confess now? By your reasoning, he doesn't care about her!"

"He's not confessing because this is just a cruel game to him, if we are correct," Crystal snapped. "All to look innocent to the very end and appeal to your emotions."

"But he hasn't done anything to set himself as innocent, if he truly was guilty," Odelios hollered indignantly. "You're telling me that they framed themselves over and over and over, and did absolutely nothing to defend themselves properly?"

"They still have you all defending them, that's all they need," Futaba said with a roll of her eyes. "Just a few emotional people who don't want to see the truth that Hara is the only person to be able to commit this crime."

"How is she the only person?" Aka asked, shaking her head. "We were just discussing Fiora a few minutes ago, and while we were, may I add, Isaac and Hara were trying to prove Fiora's innocence!"

"Is that why you're over there, darling?" Hikari inquired. "Because they stuck up for Fiora being innocent? That could simply be to make themselves look innocent by defending someone else."

"But what if this is a case of someone else?" Aka said with great determination. "We haven't discussed anyone else but these two and Fiora being the killers, and that's why we shouldn't stop the trial now!"

"There's no point in prolonging the trial," Shuuya said. "Hara and Isaac have no defenses or alibis, and thus they are the only ones capable of committing this crime."

"How are we the only ones capable of this crime?" Hara asked. "We never even discussed anyone else, so how can you say that with such clarity? Why don't you tell me now how I'm the only one who could have done it?"

"If you wish to know how you're the only one via evidence, so be it," Eisei said. "This crime involved being able to go to both the western and eastern side. A man on the western side could not have gone to the eastern side, because none of them have an item from the deceased."

"And," Souma cut in, before someone on Team Ninetales could speak, "the only item from the deceased for the women to use was Emanuel's, which was in Drake's room, on the western side. A woman couldn't get in there!"

"No one could have gone to both sides," Crystal declared, "no one except for Isaac and Hara!"

"Face it, you're finished," Ken said. "This proves you are the guilty party!"

"THIS IS OUR REASON!" Team Ahri shouted in unison, making the Scrum Debate room shake with their resolve.

…

…

…

…

…

…

"You know, there is another way," Odelios said, unperturbed with a sly smile on his painted face. The other members of his team stared at him in confusion, all of them stressed and worried.

It was Isaac that realized what he was implying first, and the reporter slapped his hand on his forehead. "Yes, Odelios is right, there is a way that all of us seem to have forgotten," Isaac responded defiantly. "The fact that someone could have tricked Monokid into thinking they were the opposite gender!"

"If someone did that, they could have access to both sides of the hotel and the plaza," Aka declared. "The gift shops, the kitchens, and the buildings are all open to them, just like Yejoon had it!"

"And before you say anything, we know it couldn't have been a man," Anzu said. "But that's because we know it had to have been a woman!"

"A woman could pretend to be a man, sneak into my room," Drake said, "and stolen Emanuel's key ring when I was asleep!"

[Then she admits to Monokid she is a woman, but it's too late, because she now has an item from the deceased to allow her to go anywhere she wants,] Ignatia's next text was read as the mime smirked triumphantly.

"On the western side, she can open the baseball shack because of the gender-specific hand scanner, and beat Yejoon to death with the bats," Saiko countered.

"You claimed that I was the only one capable of this crime," Hara said, "but we never explored this possibility! And it's shaping up to be plausible!"

"Yeah, where's yoo'r counter to that one, eh?" Fiora mocked, pointing at the other team. "Because there ain't one, this killer coo'd very well have bin a different woman, and for that reason, you cannot end this trial here!"

"THIS IS OUR REASON!" Team Ninetales declared with the utmost intensity.

"Now THAT is what I like to see," Monokuma said with happy clapping on his part. "People yelling at each other with such resolve and anger and spirit! Victory goes to Team Ninetales, so let the trial recommence!"

The platforms all lowered, with everyone still getting over the adrenaline rush that the Scrum Debate gave them. Hara had her hands over her heart, as she took the deepest of breaths to get herself under control.

"Well then, who is it?" Ken asked, staring around the room at the nine members of the winning team. "You claim another woman could be the murderer, but you haven't named someone."

"We don't know who it is off of the top of our heads, Ken," Isaac snapped. "But we can analyze everything to narrow down the list of suspects."

"Really now?" Shuuya asked. "Because I'm pretty sure the women all have the same alibi: they were sleeping that night."

"Why not let them debate this, please?" Pyrrha said, staring at Shuuya with a misty look in her eyes. "They proved a point we all overlooked, we shouldn't slap at them because we lost the argument."

The bounty hunter pinched the bridge of his nose, and let out a loud sigh. "This seemed so straightforward, but I guess it never is, is it?"

"Alibi time for the ladies!" Odelios cheered.

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"So we've discussed Hara and Fiora," Odelios said, "now let's go over everyone else on the eastern side."

"I was trapped in that containment tank room," Crystal said, as she tried to maintain a calm nature after that Scrum Debate. "And I was found in there this morning, that is my alibi."

"We did check the inside of that room, the only way back out was a male-specific hand scanner," Saiko remarked. "She's definitely telling the truth."

"Well, what about you then, shortie?" Blake said with a scoff. "You got an alibi?"

"No," the short woman said with an angry frown towards the pyro, "I do not have one. I was in my room, alone."

"The same goes for me," Eisei said, "I have no one and nothing to back myself up."

"Aka was with me last night," Hikari said, adjusting her hat as she tried to appear as collected as possible.

"Heeheehee," the skier giggled impishly.

"I know," Pyrrha muttered to herself. "Err, what I mean to say is, I don't have an alibi either! Just my… shoddy guard post work."

Ignatia shook her head and shrugged, implying she had nothing to go on either.

"I was alone as well," Futaba said, while correcting her glasses. "Monosuke let us know that just because we used the honeymoon suite under a false marriage meant we weren't allowed to stay there for the evening, we had to go back to our own rooms."

"He told me the same thing," Kimiko said. "I doo'nt have an alibi either, soo'ry."

"Well, I was locked in that honeymoon suite with Ishi… ku, Ishiku, all night," Anzu said, glancing nervously at Monophanie. "I guess I am one of the few with a solid alibi."

"So how are we going to do this?" Yitro asked, crossing his arms as he scanned the trial room. "How can we possibly prove who committed the murder amongst the women? Who pretended to be a man, as was alleged?"

"I have an idea there, chief," Odelios declared, as he pulled out a pistol that shot out confetti and a flag that said, "BANG!"

"It doesn't take much to fool that little cerulean simpleton," the clown said, chuckling impishly. "So we have to think as simple as him, and what rules he imposed."

There was a mean laugh from the Monokub podium, as Monokid turned towards Monosuke and said, "I think he's talking about you, dumb shit!"

"Youse has no idea what youse is talking about, ya great big palooka!"

"Monokid has simplistic ways of ascertaining if someone is a woman," Odelios continued. "He admitted as much to us, that there are only really two things that he takes into consideration: if they have really feminine features, and/or if they have a giant rack."

"Really now?" Souma remarked, narrowing his eyes at the clown. "Do you really need to be that crass?"

"Fine, if the lady has a really large medieval torture device. Or a dish collection device for the washing machine."

"We have bigger problems than slang for tits," Kimiko said. "So it was that simple, huh? You couldn't be super hot or have big gazoomazooms."

"But how does that help us?" Ken asked. "Any woman could wrap her breasts down and hide how big they were."

"With what, exactly?" Saiko inquired. "Keep in mind, our rooms did not have anything different than what we're wearing now, and there isn't exactly medical wraps or the like to keep our tits down."

"Wasn't there a clothing store on the women's side?" Isaac inquired. "Couldn't someone put on something more covering there?"

"They could also cover their face to hide their feminine features," Yitro remarked, drumming his fingers on his arm. "That way-"

"HOLD ON A MINUTE! YA FUCKS!"

Monokid pointed at the startled trial participants, and shouted, "You think I would just let someone cover their face and walk around suspiciously? Do you? DO YOU!?"

"He was ultra paranoid," Hikari said. "I mean, he was getting more and more draconic with the rules, I highly doubt you could get away with hiding your face around him."

"DO YOU?! You better say yes, bear-damn it!"

"Okay, we get it, you cannot hide your face," Anzu said with a roll of her eyes. "But can you wear clothing from the clothing store to hide your form?"

"…" Monokid's tongue dangled about a foot from his mouth, as he scratched his head.

"Youse might have to wait for a proper answer from him," Monosuke said. "I don't think he remembers."

The graduates groaned in frustration, Monokid getting on their last nerves. Hara took a deep breath, and spoke, "Alright, so we don't know if our culprit could have worn an alternative choice of clothing."

Ishiku sucked in a deep breath, and said, "Actually, I think we do know."

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"Don't you remember that the rainwear was found in the bowling alley's trash bin, by Odelios?" The magician clicked his tongue as he shot a thumbs-up to his friend. "My buddy found that along with the other discarded items."

"What's that change anything?" Crystal asked. "Why couldn't our culprit have worn additional clothing and the rainwear?"

"They could get blood on that additional clothing, and throw it out!"

"No, that makes no sense," Ken remarked. "If we found bloody clothing that didn't belong to anyone, we would know it had to have come from the clothing store, and thus our killer was a woman!"

"No, I'm afraid that doesn't hold water, hon," Kimiko said with a shake of her head. "Our killer left such an obvious trail that we woo'd knoo' she was a woman. Besides, it's not like we have everyone's spare clothes memorized."

"But why wouldn't a woman use clothing to pretend to be a man?" Blake asked. "I mean, that's the best way to hide you got tits and such!"

"Crassness aside, that makes me think," Isaac said, "that our killer didn't need such a disguise."

"Why would a woman not need a disguise?" Shuuya asked. "With feminine faces and breasts being the only things Monokid would recognize, you'd have to hide those!"

"I literally have no idea," Eisei said as he rubbed his forehead.

"Damn it, this was easy enough when I pretended to be a woman," Odelios grumbled. "How could it be that tricky for someone else to fake it?"

"Ha! I got this now," Blake shouted as he clapped his hands. "I got the answers right here!"

"So clown boy tried to fake being a woman by pretending to have big tits, right?" the pyro said. "But you're all confused how a woman can hide having big tits and a pretty face, huh?"

"Yes, that's what we've been discussing, damn it," Saiko muttered.

"The answer is, they didn't have either! They didn't have big tits, and they weren't feminine hot!"

The trial room was quiet for a minute, and Odelios remarked, "He considered me a woman because I acted all feminine, is it possible you had to act all masculine to convince him you were a man if you really were a woman?"

"It comes off as rather simple, kind of like this scheme you all say had to have been the case if it weren't Hara and Isaac," Blake said, smirking as he shrugged. "So you think about it, you don't have big boobs sticking out, you act masculine, you cover up your feminine face…

"Don't we have someone like that? Miss Trash Can Kicking Silent Bitch?"

Ignatia stared down Blake, then crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. Drake flinched, and stared at her, to which she shook her head. "No," the cartoonist said, turning towards Blake, "no it couldn't have been her!"

"She's literally the only person who could cover her face like Odelios did," the pyro said. "And I highly doubt you could do a Mrs. Doubtfire and splatter cake on your face! She's the only viable choice!"

"No! No no no, I refuse to accept that-"

"It ain't your call against the facts, ya little twerp!"

REBUTTAL SHOWDOWN!

Drake and Blake's podiums moved out, and despite trying to hide behind his sketchpad, the cartoonist didn't back down from the pyro. "Listen, you're a Goddamn adult now, even if you are just eighteen," Blake said to him, "so I'm not going to treat you like a child. Your feelings towards her do not matter."

"I… I don't need to rely just on my feelings," Drake said. He took a deep breath and set his sketchpad to the side. "I believe I can stand up to you, and prove it wasn't her."

"That'll be quite impressive, considering you don't know anything that happened on the eastern side, mate."

The two men stared each other down, and then, with no outside interference, began their argument.

"Kid, you know as well as I do that Ignatia fits this profile that the defiant ones of you built up. And you cannot possibly have evidence that proves she's innocent," Blake said, crossing his arms as he stared down Drake.

"Just because Ignatia fits a profile well doesn't mean she has to be the culprit! Hasn't the biggest problem that we've deliberated here in these God-awful trials been that someone is suspected based on a profile?"

"That's what happens when there isn't a smoking gun, mate," Blake declared, pointing at the nervous cartoonist. "We don't have anything definitive, so we have to accuse someone! You just don't want to admit it could be someone you like!"

"I… I just don't want to accuse someone for the sake of accusing someone," Drake protested, as he steeled himself. "Besides, you cannot just say it was her without looking at the other women involved!"

"You're going to have to accuse someone eventually, mate. There's no innocents in these trials, you accuse someone, you vote for them. And you've made the accusation before, so don't tell me you ain't got the balls to do it now!"

Drake shivered, thinking back to accusing Jin during that first trial. The cartoonist sighed, as his eyes scanned the others. "To accuse someone… do I really have enough evidence to do so?"

"Here's why Ignatia is most suspicious," Blake said, as he extended his fingers while he counted, "she can appear as masculine, she doesn't have large breasts, she would use the rainwear to protect her white clothes from blood splatter, and her face paint hides her feminine face!"

"So you're telling me I have to point out another woman who fits all of those categories too?"

"I'm telling you right here, right now, that you're gonna have to make a damn good argument who else could bash Yejoon's brains into a thicker paste than vegemite than your psycho, mute girlfriend!"

Drake swallowed hard, and then declared, "Fine! If that's what needs to be done, I'll prove who else can fit the exact criteria!"

The cartoonist was shivering as the podiums returned to their correct places. He gripped the railing, as he summoned all of his courage to speak in front of the others. "First off, I think I should just try to explain to you why I don't think it's possible for Ignatia to be the killer, other than the fact that I… care about her."

"Aww~" Pyrrha cooed.

"Shut it," Blake snapped at her, glaring at Drake.

"If Ignatia was going to pretend to be a man, how was she going to tell Monokid that she was a guy?"

"She has that cell phone of hers that you read from," the pyro remarked. "She would text him an explanation."

"But Monokid judges solely on stereotypes and appearances, and it is the stereotype that girls are always on their cell phones, isn't it?"

"Where would he get that idea?"

Drake glanced at Saiko and Crystal, before pointing at them. "Well, the only ones who have been using their cell phones are those two, for games. And Ignatia before this motive, she used it for communication."

"Wait, really?" Saiko asked, crossing her arms. "I mean, I know that stereotype applies to teenaged girls, but has it really only been girls using our phones?"

"There is no service here, and I do use it for games," Crystal said, staring with an observing eye at Drake. "Seems someone is showcasing how observant they are."

"That's not exactly evidence," Aka remarked, "but can't we ask Monokid for verification? Hey, sexist blue Kub!"

Monokid took a deep breath, usually the sign that angry yelling would follow. It didn't this time, however, as Monosuke slapped one of his paws over Monokid's mouth. "Excuse youse, but youse cannot just pry information out of this palooka whenever you please, princess."

"I'm not asking him to be a witness," the skier objected, "I'm inquiring if he really thinks that!"

"Nope! Nope nope, youse get all my nopes! No dragging information out of the stupid and gullible."

"Ah fffkn hayff oo," Monokid remarked from behind the paw on his mouth.

"I don't know if he thinks that," Monophanie admitted, as she pressed the touch screen of her cell phone. She continued to do this for a few seconds, while glancing over at Ishiku. The magician returned the glances with a smile, and turned to the others.

"I believe one way or another, Drake has earned the right to carry on," Ishiku said. "He definitely brings up a good point."

"He also needs to be a man and accuse someone properly," Blake said with a snarl. "Because if it was not Ignatia, then who? WHO?

"Who is the killer who snuck over to the western side, into your room to get that key ring you brought along, then snuck up on Yejoon and bashed his fucking brains in?! You have to tell us this now!"

The pyro slammed his fist on the railing of his podium, adding, "What evidence is there that points to someone, if there even is something like that?"

Drake was sweating hard, and he was finding it hard to breathe. He felt a warm hand on his back, and there was Ignatia, giving him the rare gift of a smile. The cartoonist managed a small smile back, then summoned everything he had to speak the next part.

"Our culprit… has to be someone who isn't… busty, can pull off a masculine attitude and something that Monokid would accept as a manly man trope. They also picked the rainwear instead of a change of clothes, and this had to be for… a reason…"

Drake felt himself shiver, as he realized all of the possible suspects were watching him. There they were: Futaba, Pyrrha, Kimiko, Hikari, Eisei, Aka, and Saiko. The cartoonist realized he was unleashing a can of worms, as he prepared himself.

"And I think that the person who fits this case is," he said as he pointed…

…

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…

…

…

…

SELECT A SUSPECT!

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…

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… at Aka Fuyu, the Ultimate Skier, as he finished his sentence, "would be her."

"What?!" Pyrrha shrieked incredulously.

"WHAT?" Hikari hollered, flinching as if someone slapped her.

"Me?" Aka said. She, despite all of the astonished shouting, hadn't become riled in the least. Quite the contrary, she was smirking as she stared down Drake. "Aw, lil' cinnamon bun, I'm flattered."

"Aka," Hikari declared, her face pale and even turning blue with horror, "what is going on? Why does he think it's you?"

"He'll have to explain that himself, won't he?" Aka said with a shrug of her shoulders. "Come on now, Drake, you sound like you have a theory. We've already had those for others, but you're going to have to back it up if you want to convince-"

"No!" Pyrrha shouted. "No no no, this isn't acceptable! We wanted proof, remember?"

"If… if I could?" Drake whimpered.

"NO!" The romance writer stomped her foot. "There isn't proof! It's just another theory! I don't want to hear it!"

"You can't stop him from speaking," Isaac pointed out, frowning at the writer. "He has as much right to explain himself as anyone else has."

"I don't want to hear this either," Hikari protested. The steampunk model was breathing hard, trying to keep her emotions in check, but slowly failing. "What possible reason could be good enough that Aka is a main suspect?"

"Come on now, kid," the skier herself said, still grinning at Drake. "Lay it on me."

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"Our main theory is that our killer pretended to be a man to sneak onto the western side of the hotel," Drake clarified. "But he wasn't there…"

"Yes, but how's that imply Aka above everyone else?" Fiora asked.

"W-well, we also know that the killer used that plastic rainwear instead of clothing from the clothing shop, so I think that our killer had put it on at the start, when they… she went to Yejoon's room."

"Again, kid," Blake grumbled, "how's that signify Aka is guilty above everyone else?"

"It doesn't," Pyrrha shouted indignantly.

"Because Aka wasn't returning to her room after committing a murder," Drake said, blushing profusely. "She was returning to Hikari's."

"Wh-wh-what?" Hikari blurted out.

"Aka is the only one who wasn't returning back to their room, so she's the only one who would need to make sure blood didn't get on her clothes," Drake explained.

"But the killer wouldn't want bloody clothes, because they wouldn't know the rooms could be locked for the investigation," Anzu pointed out. "Any of them would have used the rainwear to prevent getting bloody."

"By your chain of logic, Drake, Hikari can be just as guilty," Blake said. "What would stop Aka from going to her room and getting fresh clothes?"

"…" Aka commented, still smirking as she watched the spectacle.

"Except our killer didn't do that, they used the rainwear," Isaac interrupted the pyro. "And the knife, they planned to stab Yejoon to death. They planned for it to get very bloody."

"Stop this, please," Hikari begged. "Rainwear or change of clothes, what's it matter? It doesn't prove Aka would need to do any of this!"

"I'm sorry," Drake shouted, "but I can prove it!"

"The reason Aka would wear rainwear instead of changing her clothes," the cartoonist said, sadly staring at Hikari, "would be because of you, Hikari."

"M-me?"

"You're a model, you have an incredible eye for detail. If Aka had different clothing from yesterday, you would notice."

"But it all looks the same!" Hikari blurted out. "I mean, we are given clothing that looks the same, same colors, same style… same… same look, darn it!"

"You're very persistent about the look of the clothing," Saiko remarked, then she glanced around the trial room. "Is there something you're trying to hide?"

"Absolutely not! I'm just flustered because someone I care about is being accused. There is nothing I need to hide!"

The forensic investigator noticed the beads of sweat on the model's pretty face, and then she said, "There's something about this that you're hiding, because you don't want to believe it to be true."

"I must insist," Hikari protested, "there is nothing-"

"Didn't Aka say earlier during this trial that she had been sleeping with both you and Pyrrha? Why are you protecting someone who would use you like that?"

"I'm not being used," Pyrrha and Hikari declared in unison. The two women stared at the other incredulously.

"Dear God, how does she do it?" Futaba muttered bitterly.

"I doo'nt even do that well in my dreams," Fiora grumbled.

"I happened to realize that Pyrrha was rather positive, but a little off, during our meeting last night," Saiko remarked. "I also remember that you, Aka, were nowhere to be found around the same time."

"She was helping me with Ignatia," Pyrrha cried out. "Ignatia touched something that put her in one of those comas, and she… she was trying to kill herself during it!"

"What!" Drake turned to the mime, who merely shrugged and smiled at him nonchalantly.

"Ignatia would be dead if it wasn't for Aka!" Pyrrha passionately announced. "She stopped her from stabbing herself when she had that dagger clutched in her hand. She's NOT a kille-"

"And what happened after you helped Ignatia?" Saiko demanded. "You and Aka had sex, didn't you?"

"Wh-wh-what?" Pyrrha muttered. "What has that got to do with anything here?"

"The scent of sex can stick to clothing pretty well," the forensic investigator said matter-of-factly. "Some see it as gross, some see it as an aphrodisiac. I'm guessing someone else," she eyed Hikari when she spoke, "saw it as the latter, and thus knew that our little skier slut was really sliding the slopes."

"Hey, that is completely uncalled for," Hikari shouted, glaring fiercely at Saiko. "I ought to slap you for-"

"Hahahahaha!"

Aka was clutching her stomach, laughing so hard that tears spilt from her eyes. "Oh God, did you plan that, Saiko? That alliteration, how have I not heard that before?"

"Wh-why are you laughing?" Pyrrha cried out to her. "This is serious!"

"They're accusing you of murder!" Hikari clasped her hands as she stared at Aka pleadingly. "I know you're a carefree spirit, but please!"

"Alright alright," Aka said with a final laugh and a dismissive wave of her hand. "So, Drake, if your theory is based off of my need to protect my sex-scented clothing from blood, then how did I trick Monokid?"

"By pretending you were a guy?" he asked.

"Yeah, how'd I pull that one off?"

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"Monokid has specific stereotypes for how he sees men and women," Aka carried on. "How could I have fooled him?"

"No one fools me!" Monokid protested. "No one gets to dupe the Monokid! Nosiree!"

"Odelios duped you by sticking a couple balloons under his shirt," Futaba remarked, "and speaking in a high-pitched voice while giving himself a woman's name."

"I blame everyone for me for that duping!"

"Well, you don't have big tits to hide, washboard," Blake said with a mean smirk. "So no need to hide those!"

"Kindly fuck off to hell, dickhead," Aka responded with a dismissive middle finger towards him.

"Why are you being harsher towards him than the ones accusing you?" Pyrrha protested.

"Aka, I don't want to accuse you," Isaac admitted, "but you do have a tomboy look to you. You don't wear make-up, you don't wear feminine clothing…"

"And you're always talking about sex," Saiko said. "You never freaking stop."

"Aw, you a little jealous, Saiko~?" Aka said with a laugh. "You could have been one of my partners if you weren't so straight. And bitchy."

"Take this seriously, damn it! Hikari and Pyrrha are defending you more than you're defending yourself!"

"Sure, I'm not a girly girl," Aka said. "But is that enough to convince Monokid? I mean, what could I say that'd persuade him that I was a manly man?"

"I'm closing in on the truth, here and now," Isaac declared.

"Aka, if this isn't true, I'm sorry, but I think it's obvious that you have something that Monokid would see as that stereotypical manly man: your sex life."

"How's a lesbian manly, buddy?" Aka asked with a giggle.

"You know what I mean. If you told Monokid that you had sex with two different women when you were pretending to be a man, that is more than enough to convince him."

"N-no," Pyrrha protested. "No, he wouldn't believe that! Monokid would know that it was lesbian sex, not straight sex!"

"That's right!" Hikari spoke up. "Because the Monokubs had to monitor us for consummating the marriages!"

"There's two faults with that," Eisei said, shaking his head as his lavender locks bounced around. "One, Monokid was not responsible for that part of the motive, Monosuke and Monophanie were. Two, even if he was, are you forgetting that the Kubs don't remember how sex works?"

"Monosuke forgot, that doesn't," the steampunk model stammered, "that… it can't mean… Monokid! Tell them you know how sex works!"

"…" Monokid stuck his tongue out, and then started strumming on his guitar.

"Damn it, you stupid Goddamn bear, ANSWER ME!"

"Hikari-babe, you know he can't," Aka said, holding her hand up for peace. "Come on, they're just building up a profile on me, you don't need to lose your head."

"What?! But… they're accusing you of the murder!"

"And if something is off, we'll find it. Drake, Isaac?"

The skier turned to look at both of the guys, and spoke with a smile on her face. "So if everything you said is true, I went over to the western side of the hotel to murder Yejoon, found he wasn't there, and then ventured outside to hunt for him."

"That sounds about accurate," Isaac commented.

"Wait a minute," Anzu spoke up, staring suspiciously at Aka, "you were on our team during the big, deciding debate. You were defending this idea!"

"Yeah, because it sounded more realistic than Hara and Isaac pulling off a sadistic mad couple like that one fucking movie I regretfully saw," Aka admitted. "But there is a bit of a flaw in myself being the killer."

"What's that?" Drake asked.

"Oh my little cinnamon roll, don't you know me at all?"

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"Isn't it obvious who I would have killed if I was hellbent on murder like that?" Aka said. "I would have murdered Blake!"

"What? You fucking bitch, I would have liked to see you try!"

"You can fuck right off, you cad."

"You fuck farther off, you cunt!"

"Dickhead!"

"Lesbo-whore!"

"And apparently, this is where our debates are going," Souma muttered.

"She does raise a point," Shuuya remarked. "Wanting to kill someone you truly hate, compared to someone who is exceedingly dangerous, is more believable."

"Why would she want to kill Yejoon, anyway?" Fiora asked.

"Fiora," Yitro started to say, before the movie maker groaned and spoke again.

"Fine, fine, is there a specific reason why Yejoon, and why last night?"

"Aka has no reason to kill someone so dangerous," Hikari declared. "Don't forget, Yejoon being suicidal was unheard of to all of us!"

"I fail to see how Yejoon being the target dismisses anyone as a particular suspect," Crystal remarked. "He's dead, someone had the guts to kill him."

"I believe I have the answers here," Kimiko called out, "though I doo'nt really want to admit it, eh…"

"Look, I'm not fully convinced a'boot all of this, eh," the biker gang leader admitted, "but I can imagine there is one reason why Aka, or anyone else, would target Yejoon so specifically…

"Fur the thrill of it, for hunting doo'n and killing the most dangerous person here. Aka, you've talked a'boot how much you love thrills, your talent is a'boot the intensity of it, and I've heard you during some pretty dark times how much you like the exhilaration.

"And it doesn't help that we knew someone from the western side had come over to our side. It was something I considered… trying to figure 'oot who that was, and if they were a danger to us."

Aka tapped her chin, as she said, "That's a pretty good reason for anyone to do it. With how fervent desires have been in this town, I'm just one adrenaline junkie around a bunch of other possibilities."

"If the argument is that Aka killed Yejoon instead of Blake for the thrill," Crystal said, "we do have to take into consideration that Yejoon was hunted down, so our killer wanted him specifically. However, I don't really see how this points to Aka, there is no proof."

Isaac sighed and rubbed her forehead, glancing between Hara, Saiko, and Drake. All four of them were perplexed, trying to think of what to say and do. Drake spoke out first amongst them, "The problem is, we know how the crime was committed at this part; however, we don't have any evidence to definitively prove who did it. Just really big set-ups…"

"But if Hara is the killer," Saiko said, "she wouldn't wear the rainwear, she would get something at the clothing store!"

"Aka could do that too," Hikari shouted. "Not to mention that Aka couldn't do the vandalization!"

"Why not?" Eisei inquired. "It's just as possible she has embraced Chaos."

"Allow me to prove it!"

DEBATE YOUR CASE!

"Listen, the Hall of Fame was vandalized by tools found in the western gift shop, correct?" Hikari said.

"The hammers and spray paint cans were there, correct," Shuuya said. "But if someone could kill Yejoon, they could access the gift shop too."

"But how would Aka know about all of that crap? If you all think she was hunting down Yejoon, she wouldn't know what was in the gift shop!"

"I fail to see how that absolves her," Ken remarked, "because it was simply a matter of Yejoon's killer looking around for him to discover what was there."

"Our killer had a timetable, they only had so much time before everyone else would wake up!"

"Even if the killer was up at, say, 1 AM," Yitro said, "that gives them eight and a half hours to do everything. I'm sorry, that's more than enough time to for the murder and vandalization."

"Well… what… what about how Aka managed to wake up without waking me up?"

"Your arguments are getting more and more flimsy," Blake said, shrugging at the struggling model. "What, you gonna say she couldn't do the insults that were spray painted in the Hall of Fame? Anyone could have done them!"

"We don't know how involved everyone is with Chaos or Despair," Crystal remarked. "Not after all we have seen. None of what's been said disproves Aka, but it doesn't prove it was her."

"But how would Aka have even known about the Hall of Fame?" Hikari desperately said. "I mean, Yejoon was the killer's target, why would they go off to explore the Hall of Fame?"

"She's right, how would our vandal know about the Hall of Fame if they were on the eastern side?" Pyrrha asked. "We didn't know what that building was, it would be like someone knowing about the hair salon on the western side!"

"It's not unthinkable to set up a distraction," Yitro remarked. "Unless we're all thinking that the Entity of Chaos themselves is the one who committed the vandalization?"

"What were the words of chaos spray painted in there again?" Fiora asked.

"Murder Authority, Uphold Kaos, Undo Management, Kill Unity," Ishiku read off.

"But there were also the insults directed at us," Isaac said. "How I am, as it were, 'Serial Killer Bait.'"

"There's a lot of those that sound oddly specific," Ken commented. "Like how I am 'scarlet'? What does that even mean?"

"Stop right there," Pyrrha hollered, "there's something we need to address!"

"Look, I know you all might think I'm just desperate, but I have to ask you," Pyrrha said, clasping her hands as she looked around at her fellow graduates, "are we absolutely sure that this vandalization was done by the killer? Or even by one of us?"

"What do you mean?" Hara asked. "You think this was done by someone else?"

"Murder Authority, Uphold Kaos, Undo Management, Kill Unity, those were the phrases," the writer listed off. "And you take the first letters from those phrases, you get KUMA."

All eyes swept towards Monokuma, who tilted his head to the side. "Aww, is this tribute to one of the most amazing bears there be?"

"Daddy, you have a fan!" Monophanie squealed in delight.

"I wonder if you'll have to dye your hair eventually," Monokid remarked.

"Father's work is world-known, that's for sure," Monosuke proudly stated.

"…" acknowledged Monodam.

"We should consider that Monokuma, or one of his Kubs, did the vandalization as a distraction," Pyrrha said. "I mean, it wouldn't be the first time one of them interfered with a crime scene…"

Monokid chuckled deviously, then nudged Monosuke. "I think she's talking about you, fucker!"

"How could they have spray painted the portraits and such?" Souma asked. "They're too short."

"Seriously, Souma?" Odelios said, raising an eyebrow. "They're making entire buildings overnight, and this trial room is completely different every time we enter it! How the hell does height matter at this point?"

Aka let out a frustrated sigh, and said, "Okay, look, this is getting us nowhere. I think it's time we stop theorizing, and we do something a little different. Isaac!"

The reporter almost flinched at being called out, but he stood firm. His eyes met Aka's, and there was a kind of tension in the air that was hard for people to describe, but they could feel it.

"You know that Hara is the prime suspect if it's not me," Aka reminded him. "And yet, when I said that Fiora was most suspicious, you defended her…

"You've been doing this for a long time, haven't you? Finding out the answers, and fighting against awful crimes committed by vile people. You hated Yejoon, and you had damn good reason to…

"But you're going to have to put up a bigger fight, a stronger resolve, if you're going to stand up against me! Every slope I've gone, I could have obliterated my face against a tree, snapped my legs like twigs with a bad jump, buried alive under an avalanche!

"So if you cannot prove Hara didn't do it, you have to prove who did!"

She was pointing at Isaac, focusing on him with a fire in her eyes. The trial room was quiet, as the reporter took in all of this. He took off his beanie to run a hand through his hair, then put it back on. "Aka, you were defending us during the Scrum Debate. Why… why are you sounding like you want me to prove it was you?"

"Maybe I just want you to narrow it down so we can find the real killer. Let's do this now, you and me!"

SUSPECT COMPACTOR!

Isaac took a deep breath, as he and Aka stared each other down. The two of them were almost like two souls standing around the edge of a dangerous precipice, and if they fell here, it would be their end.

In their minds, it felt a bit like they were in front of a gigantic garbage compactor, and they had to figure out what needed to be discarded. Aka extended her hand, as if to offer Isaac something to review.

"Let's discuss every single person on the eastern side," the skier said. "You need to give me a reason why it couldn't have been them."

"Okay, Aka," Isaac cracked his knuckles.

"Let's start with your friend Saiko, how is it that she cannot be the killer?"

"We know that Monokid can only be tricked by a woman who can realistically pretend to be a man. Saiko is… too busty to convincingly pretend to be a man."

"But couldn't she have worn a different outfit from the clothing store?"

"We weren't allowed to leave the hotel unless we had a married partner or one of those items belonging to a dead person of the opposite sex. She couldn't leave the hotel, and the rainwear wasn't going to work as well."

Aka chuckled, and opened up her clenched fist, as if to drop the idea into a garbage compactor. "There you go, it's impossible for Saiko to do it! Perfectly done!

"So what about, say, Hikari?"

"Same reasons as Saiko, she's far too feminine and has no way to hide it from Monokid."

Aka mimicked dropping again, and then added, "What about Pyrrha?"

"It's the same case as the last two, there's no denying and hiding she's a woman."

"Well then, how about one of the ladies who isn't so feminine and busty? We were discussing Ignatia, what can we say about her being innocent?"

"Drake pointed it out, she had no way of communicating with Monokid except for her cell phone. And since Monokid goes by stereotypes, being on your cell phone comes off as feminine to him, especially since women have used their phones here more than men."

"Uh-huh, uh-huh. And if I may add my two cents, Ignatia had that comatose experience that's been going around; I cannot imagine she'd suddenly plot a dangerous murder mission."

Aka pretended to drop the mic again, and then laughed happily. "We're doing well here, Isaac. So what about Crystal?"

"She was locked in that lab room last night, with no possible way of getting out."

"But could she not be involved in some way? The killer did let her out."

"At this point, it matters not if Crystal worked with the killer or not, she cannot be the killer; that's what we are looking into here."

"Yep! And Anzu?"

"Locked in her honeymoon suite with Ishiku, no way she can commit the murder."

"Correct! Now we already went over Fiora big time, so let's just pass over that. How about Eisei?"

"From the beginning, Monokid had it set in his head that Eisei was a woman, and no matter how many of us said otherwise, he refused to believe us."

Aka tapped her chin, and said, "But why is that? I mean, couldn't Eisei drop his pants and show Monokid his junk? Wouldn't that convince him?"

Isaac took a deep breath, then glanced over at Saiko. He mouthed, "Sorry!" to her, and then did the same to Eisei. "I believe the reason wasn't just because of Monokid's dumb stubbornness."

"HEY!" Monokid interrupted the debate. "Don't make me get the sniper rifle again, you mint-topped bastard who is probably a woman in disguise!"

"The Kubs and Monokuma like to act like their shenanigans are solely for comic relief, but there's a reason Eisei was put on the eastern side, and it's the same reason Hara and I weren't allowed to participate in the marriage motive.

"Saiko and Eisei are… comfortable with each other. They, like Hara and myself, would be able to take to the motive and open all the doors that were locked. The Kubs couldn't have that, so Monokid stuck Eisei on the eastern side because of how he looks.

"And thus, I believe it impossible for Eisei to fool Monokid, because they needed him to stay on that eastern side. I also believe that due to his physical stature, he cannot possibly be our killer."

"Huh? Why is that?" Aka asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Yes, please, go on, Isaac," Saiko muttered from behind her arms, her cherry-red blushing hidden from everyone. "Expose more humiliating details to literally everyone, please."

Eisei didn't look embarrassed at all, he merely tilted his head and asked, "Is it my height?"

Isaac sighed heavily, and muttered, "The rainwear is meant for a grown adult, and if Eisei tried to put it on, it would be multiple sizes too large."

"I do have to get my clothing custom made for my body structure," the dentist admitted with a shrug of his slender shoulders. "This is enough to prove my innocence, is it not?"

"Yes," Saiko wailed from her hunched over, humiliated state, "but now I'm going to die of embarrassment, damn it!"

Aka chuckled, getting a little enjoyment out of Saiko's state, and turned back to Isaac. "Correct! But we're getting into the home stretch, Isaac, and you need to tell me how Futaba isn't the killer."

Futaba adjusted her glasses, and said, "That's impossible, I don't have an alibi and I could pull off a masculine look."

"Actually, you cannot pretend to be a man to Monokid, Futaba," Isaac spoke up. "Don't you remember? You and Shuuya tried to fulfill the marriage motive, but Monokid stopped you."

"Yes, I remember that, but how does that humiliating event prove," Futaba angrily fired back, until her eyes widened as realization dawned on her. "Oh."

"Monokid knows you are a woman because you and Shuuya argued that you consummated the marriage, and the Kub responded that you were married to different people. So in other words, he knows Shuuya is a man, and you are a woman."

Isaac adjusted his beanie, as he added, "Monokid may be suffering from amnesia, like the others are, but he has to remember who is married to married to who, and thus he isn't allowed to forget that you're a woman.

"Which brings me around to Kimiko, if I may take the lead. Kimiko and Ken tried the same thing, and were denied by Monokid, so our biker girl cannot be the culprit!"

"Wait a minute there," Aka said, holding up her hand as a devilish grin spread across her face. "Wouldn't that mean that I cannot possibly be the culprit? I got married to that bastard Blake!"

"Actually, you technically were married to Drake," the reporter corrected her. "But you never tried to make the marriage motive work, Aka. You didn't have sex with a guy, and you didn't argue with Monokid about the rules."

"But wouldn't he remember me due to the fact that I was married, even if I never acted on it? He isn't allowed to forget, remember?"

"He isn't allowed to forget when the rules need to be upheld."

"But if I became a man, wouldn't it be a violation of the rules for me to be married to a man?"

Isaac rubbed the back of his head, and replied, "They never went over those rules with us, if that was a loophole or not."

"Clown boy wasn't married to anyone when he tried it," Aka argued. "You'd better think fast, Isaac, because we narrowed down everyone from the eastern side to myself and Hara!"

"Well, why don't I just ask the bears? HEY! Kubs!"

Isaac rounded on the bears, who all (sans Monodam) jumped in surprise. They blurted out, "Yes?" "Yes?" "Yeah?!" "…?"

"You never did tell us what would happen if someone was revealed to be of the opposite gender from whoever they were married to! What are the rules for that?"

"Um, rules?" Monophanie stammered. "What were they again?"

"Youse really wanna know?" Monosuke asked.

"Ha! You think you can fool us?" Monokid shouted defiantly. "What makes you think we had a plan for that?"

"YOU of all people cannot make that excuse Monokid!" Isaac declared. "You hunted for Hara because you wanted to declare her to be a man! You were suspicious of the women lying over their gender! If you were going to force people to switch sides, you had to have rules for what would happen then!"

"…" Monokid's impression of Monodam didn't do so well, because he immediately started caterwauling. "Who says there always has to be rules? Rules are for SUCKERS! I ain't no sucker, fucker! Fuck everything that has to do with this micromanagement bullshit you're spouting."

"I-BELIEVE-WHAT-HE-SHOULD-BE-SAYING," Monodam said, "IS-THAT-THERE-WERE-NO-PLANS-OR-RULES-FOR-IF-SOMEONE-WERE-TO-BE-"DISCOVERED"-AS-THE-OPPOSITE GENDER."

"So what you're saying, Monodam," Isaac said, "is that someone married at the chapel could still be declared the other gender by Monokid without it being illegal."

"YES."

Isaac pumped his fist, and pointed at Aka, "There's your answer! That's everyone on the eastern side except you!"

Aka grinned happily, and clapped. "Well, it's everyone but me and Hara. But you're right! Nice job, reporter boy, you got all the unnecessary details out of the way!"

The mechanics underneath the podiums clanked, and Aka and Isaac were pulled back into the circle of the trial room. It was as if the compactor had finished pressing, and now everyone would see what was left: a choice between one or the other.

"I really am impressed with ya, Isaac," Aka said with a proud grin. "You've always managed to hang in there against all of the odds."

"A-Aka," Hikari stammered, tears in her eyes. "You… you didn't?"

"Please tell me why you're doing this!" Pyrrha shouted. "You sound like you're confessing!"

"When did I ever say I did it?" Aka inquired, flicking one of her purple bangs out of the way. "I never once said that I was guilty."

"You've all but admitted it," Ken said with an aggressive huff. "You've led us on like someone who has a secret that they just cannot hold in anymore. I've seen that behavior many times before."

"Really now, where?"

"People infected with Despair," the Novoselic man said with a snarl. "So many times there are people who committed atrocities, and when no one knew it was them, they turned it into a big spectacle when they announced it was them. This usually led to more pain and death, because Despair is never sated."

"Wait a minute, please," Hara spoke up, nervously glancing around the trial room. "Isaac, my love, I very much appreciate everything you did for me, for us."

"Hara?" the reporter stammered as he stared at his fiancé. "What's going on?"

"I… I don't think Aka is infected with Despair. She stood with us when the majority thought we were guilty, that doesn't sound like something someone who enjoys suffering would do."

"Now you're defending her?" Blake shouted. "Oh good fucking God, what is wrong with you people? Are you all retarded? Are you fucking brain-dead?"

"Blake, calm yourself," Souma chastised the pyro. "There is no call for that kind of language here-"

"Fuck that, I'm not going to stand here and play the emotions game. It doesn't matter if that carpet-munching slut is infected with Despair or not, she is clearly guilty! This is all a game to her, and the only people who don't think she did it are the two lezbo bimbos she's screwing!

"So get the fuck over these emotional, whiny, crying cases of feelings, and get with the facts! Aka is admitting to us she did it, she doesn't have to fucking say it for it to be true!"

The trial room was quiet, quite aghast at Blake's abhorrent behavior. The pyro groaned as he slapped his palm against his forehead, and added, "Or are you all just going to debate feelings further? Stop putting our lives in danger because you don't want your widdle feelings hurt!"

"As awful as his words are, there is something to take into consideration," Shuuya spoke up. "We need to discuss who our killer is: Hara or Aka."

"Were you not fucking listening?" the pyro shouted furiously. "I just said there is no point to discuss, Aka is clearly guilty!"

"Shut your Goddamn mouth, you bastard," Hikari hollered, shaking her fists at Blake. "Ten minutes ago, you were shouting how Hara was clearly guilty and we needed to vote for her!"

"So were you, ya dumb lesbo-whore."

"Okay, that does it," Kimiko shouted, as she pulled her leather jacket off. "That tears it, I'm kicking his ass, I've HAD it with him!"

Yitro ran over to restrain Kimiko, preventing her from attacking Blake. Hikari and Pyrrha both appeared ready to fight too, despite not being fighters, they were just that vexed. Blake barely seem perturbed by this, and continued to speak.

"Is there any point in debating this, honestly?" he asked the people in the trial room. "Do any of you think Aka is innocent after that?"

"If we have time," Drake pleaded, "we should put everyone's mind at ease."

"You idiots, she wants this! She is getting off on the excitement of this trial, and you're just feeding this attention whore!"

"You know," Aka said, putting the back of her hand under her chin and wiggling her fingers mockingly, "the more you talk, the more they don't want to listen to you, ya vile bastard."

Blake fumed, throwing his fists down as he visibly gave up. Kimiko finally calmed down, and Yitro didn't have to restrain her any longer. It was Ken who spoke up then.

"So what is the course of action we are taking, my friends?" he asked, placing his hand on his sword's handle. "I mean, is it true that the majority of us believe Aka to be guilty?"

"People, please," Pyrrha implored all of them, clasping her hands. "You cannot just declare Aka guilty without something definitive!"

"But the majority of you were ready to declare Hara guilty without anything definitive," Anzu argued. "You claimed she could be the only person who did it, but now we know Aka is a viable suspect!"

"But viable isn't the same as guilty," Souma said. "Her method of narrowing down suspects was unorthodox, but then again, aren't we all?"

"No one innocent behaves like she is," Futaba remarked. "If we put it to a vote now, we'd declare her the guilty party."

"You cannot rush this," Hikari pleaded. "We weren't trying to rush Isaac and Hara's verdict, we just didn't know who else it could be! But that doesn't mean it was Aka."

"There's. No. Point. To. This," Blake angrily barked out every word. "Aka's clearly guilty!"

"We haven't all decided on that," Ishiku hollered, "you kangaroo-humping bastard!"

ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRNTTTT!

Everyone in the trial room flinched from the sudden, piercing scream of an airhorn. The acoustics in the large room allowed the noise to echo painfully for a few good seconds. The trial participants gathered their wits to see Odelios holding up the air horn, a deathly serious expression on his made-up face.

"Taro from beyond the grave would like to remind you all," Odelios said as he put away the air horn that once belonged to the late Taro, "that arguing pointlessly will not get this trial solved. Yejoon's killer needs to be found through logic, not shouting and yelling."

"But," Hara stammered out, "but I cannot prove I didn't do it."

"And I'm not admitting to it," Aka remarked.

"Odelios, if you have something to say, please just say it," Isaac implored of the clown. "The theatrics aren't necessary."

"It seems like they are, since an air horn," the clown replied, "is the only way to get you all to listen to reason."

"Damn it, Odelios, I'm trying, I really am, but my fiancé is being accused of murder! And no matter how I try to think about the situation, I cannot find anything damning in the evidence to prove who did it."

"Is there?" Odelios asked, raising an eyebrow. "Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way."

"What would you suggest?"

Odelios took a deep breath, and he tapped his temple as he started to drift off into deep thought. "Let's start off by thinking about the crime scene, and what felt off about it…"

Isaac and Saiko are a little overwhelmed by the accusations thrown at Hara, so I think someone else needs to take these things into consideration. Because I, Odelios Shintani (and Satsuki Iranami), am the greatest clown detective there is!

…

Alright, so the real debate is if the culprit is Aka or Hara. Both of them have plausible motives, opportunity, and lack of an alibi.

…

After all, if it was Hara, Isaac would be working with her. If it was Aka, Hikari was asleep during the time she was gone.

…

All of the set-up can imply either of them. The proof works both ways, and there was ample time for either of them to do it.

…

So what is the main difference between them? What is the way of looking at this that we haven't fully explored?

…

Because we know HOW they could have done it…

…

Is WHY the thing we haven't really looked at?

…

…

…

No, revenge and thrills, those are the reasons why. When, where, what, who, how… for what reason… ugh…

…

Maybe I need to look at how they are different.

…

The way proposed for Hara to be guilty is that Isaac wanted to kill Yejoon, but when he couldn't do it himself, he had Hara do it for him.

…

The way proposed for Aka is that she pretended to be a man, popped over to the western side, and wanted to kill Yejoon. However, finding he wasn't there, ventured outside to hunt him down.

…

One is vengeance, one is for thrills.

…

Isaac's reason for wanting Yejoon dead are very clear, more clear than they are for any of us. Aka's reason is out of the thrill of it.

…

So what makes the crime different? WHY would the crime be different?

…

…

…

If Hara did it, she doesn't want to be caught. Isaac doesn't want her to be caught, Saiko doesn't want her to be caught.

…

If Aka did it, does she care as much if she is caught? Even after showcasing a very transparent side of herself, she isn't admitting it. She could be executed…

…

…

…

Wait a minute now. Hold the phones, hold your horses…

…

Hold your horse's phone, hold the horse-shaped phone.

…

A guilty party who cares about being caught doesn't want to leave any evidence.

…

If there is any evidence that points to someone in particular, it would have been destroyed or removed from the scene.

…

But what proves that the killer did or didn't care about leaving evidence behind? Looking at the evidence, everything seemed to be hidden very well…

…

The way the carving knives were switched between sides.

…

How Crystal was saved without being seen.

…

The Jin doll being destroyed and stored in that bin.

…

Even Yejoon's cause of death was a mystery with how the killer hid what the instrument of his death was.

…

Everything about Yejoon's death was mysterious, especially since even his killer didn't know he was suicidal.

…

Was there anything that said otherwise? Yejoon's hand? His notebook? The blades? The vandalization?

…

Lemon curry?

…

…

…

Wait.

…

Hold all the phones and horses, hold them in one great big horsey phone pile.

…

THAT piece of evidence, the one that we talked about earlier. If it was THERE…

…

Oh ho.

…

Ho ho ho!

…

But if that's the case, if that's how our killer felt about the murder, then why aren't they…

…

…

…

Wait.

…

Emanuel's keyring.

…

If… if I'm right…

…

THEN I AM THE SMARTEST CLOWN THAT HAS EVER CLOWNED THIS TOWN BY TURNING THIS CASE UPSIDE-DOWN!

Odelios burst out laughing, which rather startled everyone, as he had only a few seconds ago asked everyone to contemplate the crime scene. The clown stretched out, and then clapped.

"Alright, contemplation done!" He finished his short-lived applause, and said, "I believe I have all the answers we have been looking for, because I asked the questions that we should have asked a long time ago."

"What are you on?" Ken muttered. "Are we really going to entertain this court jester at a time like this?"

"Odelios buddy," Ishiku spoke up, "you really need to drop the theatrics if you want them to hear you out."

"Alright alright, fine fine fine. First off, there's something I need to ask of you all, because I wasn't there when it happened: where was Yejoon's notebook found?"

"Oh, I found that," the magician spoke up again. "It was on the pitcher's mound at the baseball field."

"So we can assume that the killer took it from Yejoon, and casually threw it some yards from his body. Now, we already know that they disposed of a lot of the evidence in the bowling alley, and destroyed his mask…

"Then I ask all of you, why didn't our killer destroy the notebook?"

Shuuya scoffed. "We all thought it was Korean, so the killer assumed no one would be able to read it."

"But why not destroy it? Wouldn't you destroy something that could have incriminating evidence? And so close to the body!"

"It's not like he could write down his killer's name," Futaba remarked with a roll of her eyes.

"If I was going to kill someone," Eisei commented, "which I definitely would not do because that's not within my nature, but if I was, I wouldn't allow such a thing to be left behind in a readable state."

"Why?" Pyrrha asked. "Again, it's not like he could name his killer."

"Yejoon's mask was smashed," Kimiko stated. "His weapons were all stripped from him, the doll of his sister turned into a bloody mess, and he himself was beaten until every bone was shattered, his skull caved in, his body resembling pulverized meat.

"Someone hated him. They enjoyed desecrating everything about him. So it does beg the question, why not destroy the notebook?"

"Someone," Isaac started to say, as his eyes widened and turned towards Aka, "who doesn't care if there can be anything incriminating on there."

Aka smirked at the reporter, and asked, "Oh? How's that point to me instead of Hara, Isaac? I mean, wouldn't Hara just leave it be? He couldn't have been writing about her, or me."

"But he could have written about me," Isaac announced. "Yejoon knew I hated him, feared him, and couldn't stand him for being a serial killer. He told me as much, he suspected my reason for hating him more than any of you was more personal. If he had written this down, it would look bad for me."

"But you didn't kill him, the suspect is Hara!"

"But Hara would have destroyed the notebook," Saiko cried out, "because she wouldn't want to leave anything that bastard had on him that could be dangerous!"

"You really shouldn't say things that make it sound like," Futaba remarked, "you know how she could murder someone."

"Wh-what? I don't… she wouldn't…"

"Settle down, everyone," Odelios called out. "This piece of evidence merely connects to the second and far more important piece of evidence that we all overlooked."

They all stared at him, until Aka asked, "What are you getting at, clown?"

"You see, we were thinking long and hard about all the evidence left behind. The knives, the blood, the hand, the vandalization, but out of all of it, we forgot about one of them, one vital piece of evidence that is still missing…

"And that would be Emanuel's key ring."

The clown smirked triumphantly, while the others stared at him, perplexed. "Odelios honey?" Anzu spoke up. "Maybe you could tell us why you find that to be so damning."

"Aw fine. Because it's the one piece of evidence that we don't know where it is now, but if we think about if the culprit cares about being caught or not, we will know where it is!"

"Whether the culprit cares or not?" Pyrrha balked. "Of course the culprit cares! They could be executed!"

"Right! So if Hara is the culprit, then that keyring should be in her honeymoon suite, a place no one else could enter but them, far away from here, keeping that damning evidence out of sight like an excessive furry porn collection…

"However, if Aka is the culprit," Odelios rounded his eyes on the skier, who flinched slightly at the direct attention from a clown, "then where is that keyring?"

"That doesn't prove anything, Odelios," Hikari said, heaving in frustration. "If she was the culprit, she hid them in her room."

"But she went back to your room," Fiora pointed out.

"But… look, I'm not saying Aka is the culprit, but if she was, then she would have just put the keyring in her room, and-"

"No, that's wrong!" Isaac shouted. "No one knew of the rooms being locked, and thus the culprit wouldn't just leave it in their hotel room!"

"The only rooms that had such privacy were the honeymoon suites," Ishiku remarked.

"So, what does that prove?" Crystal asked, raising an eyebrow at the clown. "Couldn't Aka have just dropped the keys somewhere to keep them hidden?"

"No, you have to have that item if you want to be on the other side," Anzu said, "and where could she have hidden them on the eastern side that we wouldn't have looked during an investigation?"

"The only place, no, the only thing she could have done with them," Yitro said, "is keep them on her person."

"A giant keyring?" Hikari said with a scoff. "That would have been rattling around like a noisemaker with every step she took!"

"Yeah, I think I would have noticed," Pyrrha shouted, then her hands slapped over her mouth. "I think we would have noticed."

Aka smirked at Odelios, and said, "Nice try, clown, but it sounds like you just did a whole bunch of nothing. If I was the culprit, and I didn't care about being caught, then you really think I could have gotten away with it by carrying the keyring on my person?

"There was no time to drop them, someone was always with me throughout this morning. There's nowhere on my clothing that could stop the rattling, or maybe you want to frisk me? You wanna search my jacket, my pants, my shoes, my bra and panties?

"Actually, get Hikari or Pyrrha to do that, you're not allowed near me, clown."

"Oh, come on now, Aka," Odelios said with a smirk as strong as her's, "we both know where you hid those keys."

…

…

…

…

…

…

"Come again, clown?" Aka asked, crossing her arms as she stared at him. "If I had the keys on me, someone would have noticed."

"Then you wouldn't mind," Odelios said, as he pointed at her, "taking off your goggles for us, would you?"

…

…

…

…

…

…

"I'm sorry, what?" Aka, her smirk gone, asked him.

"Your goggles. You see, the culprit doesn't care about being caught in the end, they only cared about the thrill. And what is more thrilling, more dangerous, than carrying the most damning piece of evidence with them to the trial?

"You cannot carry something like that on your clothing, people would hear it. But the solid coloring of your goggles' lens, the face that you wear them on that head of dark purple hair, and you keep them strapped tight to your noggin to prevent rattling around…

"So why don't you prove me wrong and just lift up your goggles?"

…

…

…

…

…

…

"You know, all my life, I've been scared of clowns," Aka said as she uncrossed her arms and sighed. "I know it is an unrealistic phobia, but I feared that one of them would be the death of me.

"How fitting that it would be you to find this out, Satsuki. And to think, you gave me the idea that started all of this."

Aka grinned, and lifted her hand up to her goggles. Lifting them up, something metallic fell from her purple hair and clattered on the floor. It was the familiar sound of a keyring hitting the floor.

"… What?" Hikari and Pyrrha exclaimed in horror.

"What?!" cried out Hara and Saiko.

"Oh my God," Isaac muttered in shock.

"THERE'S YOUR ANSWER!" Odelios declared triumphantly.

There was a lengthy pause in the trial room, until the skier let out a laugh and turned towards the youngest member of their group.

"Hey, Drake? Lil' cinnamon roll?" Aka said, still beaming with pride. "You want to do that summation that you normally do? It's okay to guess the parts you don't know, I'll let you know what you got wrong later."

"O… okay," Drake stammered. "It's time for the truth to come to light, and… I honestly wish it hadn't come to this."

"Sorry, but I don't feel the same. This is so damn exciting!"

CLOSING ARGUMENT

Our marriage motive and a great deal of the rules didn't apply to our murder here, as our culprit wasn't interested in taking part in any of it. They wanted to hunt down the most dangerous person amongst our group, and so last night, they went after him.

…

Yejoon Nahm, our victim, had been given a gift by Monokuma and the Kubs that allowed him access to the eastern side of the plaza. Two nights ago, he left the locked room in the hair salon open, which caused Crystal Wilson to be stuck in the room for all of yesterday.

…

Our culprit, a member of the eastern side, gathered a taser, a pink-handled carving knife, and rainwear to prepare to kill Yejoon. Monokid was there to stop them, but our culprit knew how to trick him after witnessing an attempt from Odelios. Pretending to be a man and bragging about stereotypical manly things was enough to fool Monokid.

Upon entering the western side of the hotel, they moved up to the rooms and searched for Yejoon's, but upon finding it, they were startled to see Yejoon was gone. So our culprit entered my room, and stole Emanuel's keyring, and then told Monokid they were actually a woman. Now they had the ability to go outside of the hotel, like their target.

…

Taking a blue-handled carving knife from the kitchen, our killer ventured outside, and eventually found Yejoon. Attacking him turned out to be far easier, as the artist had become suicidal and was waiting for someone to kill him. Because of this, he informed our culprit that the baseball shack had baseball bats in it, the perfect method to beat him to death.

…

The… artistic way… since those baseball bats had been used to murder someone else before…

…

Stunning Yejoon with the taser, our culprit carried him to the home plate of the baseball field. Able to open the shack due to being a woman, the culprit took out the baseball bats and…

… And proceeded to beat Yejoon to death with them.

…

After violently murdering Yejoon, our culprit scattered the evidence around. They left the notebook on the field. They put Yejoon's knives and his sister's doll and the rainwear worn to catch the blood in a bin inside of the bowling alley. They also took the bowling pins and tried to make them look like they could have been the murder weapons, after cleaning off the bats of blood.

…

I don't know how much time the culprit had then, but there was also the case of the Hall of Fame vandalization. Smashing the portraits and spray painting them must have taken some time, because at this point, they realized it was time to retreat back to the hotel before morning woke everyone up. And there was one more thing they had to do…

…

Using the blue-handled carving knife, our culprit cut off Yejoon's hand, and moved over to the eastern side of the plaza. The hand could be used to open one locked door, and they chose to open the hair salon room, propping the door open so that Crystal could escape once she woke up in the morning.

…

After this, they headed back to the hotel, placing the bloody knife on the eastern side and the clean one on the western, just to make the case more confusing. It was time to go back to bed, but not to their own room.

Our culprit had spent the night with Hikari, and thus had to strip their belongings and lay them out on the floor, which included Emanuel's keyring. When morning came, they hid the keyring under their goggles, the only place it wouldn't rattle around and give away that they had them.

…

I don't know if I got everyone correct, I don't know why one of our friends would do this exactly. Though our culprit brutally murdered Yejoon Nahm, they also stood up for someone being wrongfully accused during this trial, and that's the case for…

Aka Fuyu, the Ultimate Skier!

Aka clapped with an appreciative smile on her face. "You did such a good job! Granted, you did get one thing wrong, so I'll say that-"

"Stop it," Hikari shrieked. The steampunk model was hunched over, gripping her podium. Tears were falling from her eyes, as she shouted with her eyes squinted shut, "How could you do this? How… why?"

"I… I wish to know why too," Pyrrha said, holding her hands over her heart. "Please, I didn't think you were capable of this."

The skier looked at the two crestfallen ladies, and her enthusiasm dimmed. "I'm sorry, I guess I do owe you all an explanation."

"Your actions made everyone suspicious of my best friends," Saiko said, glaring hatefully at Aka. "People thought Hara was a murderer. There's no explanation that's good enough in my book!"

Aka glanced at Hara, who still appeared shaken and hurt. The skier sighed heavily, and muttered, "Okay, but we do have to finalize this trial."

"Now hear this, now hear this," Monokuma declared. "The trial time is over, so everyone, focus your attention on the touch screen tablet at the center of your podium!

"You will see pictures of every graduate here in Penjar! Poke the one you believe to be the Deviant Tourist, and select the Confirm button!

"Will you make the right call, or the dreadfully wrong one? Let's find out!"

Twenty-one fingers poked the touch screens on their podium, and the Confirm button was selected by all of them. Digital sounds echoed around the room, then the gigantic screen came down from the ceiling above Monokuma's throne.

The blackboard-like screen turned on, with the chalk drawings of their pixel art representations for each person. Taro's was still there, which some of them noted.

"And the votes," Monokuma cheerfully announced, "are in! Let's see what the results are, shall we everyone?"

Tally marks drawn by an invisible chalk were made in front of one of the pixel drawings, like if someone was tapping a screen to add strokes to a blackboard app. They came relatively fast, as it was quite one-sided.

Aka Fuyu - 20 votes.

Blake Shokyaku - 1 vote.

"And with that, let's see if you were correct!" the despair bear host carried on.

The blackboard disappeared from the screen, and was replaced by the digital roulette wheel. On each portion of the wheel was the pixel picture of the Penjar visitors, and the wheel was spinning with slot machine-styled sound effects.

The wheel spun around, highlighting the one at the top, until it started to slow down, and coming to a stop rather suddenly, it rested upon Aka's portrait.

The machine lit up with tons of lights, confetti spraying out the top. The bright neon sign showcasing "WINNER!" turned on overhead, and millions of Monocoins spilled out from the slot.

The trial room echoed excruciatingly with the erratic noise. When the screen turned off, and retracted back up into the ceiling, Monokuma jumped up and spun around merrily.

"Hot-diggity-dog, what a confusing and convoluted case of rules and evidence, but in the end, you saw the light at the end of the tunnel! The Deviant Tourist who took the life of good, innocent, sweet, never-hurt-anybody Yejoon Nahm was indeed Aka Fuyu, the Ultimate Skier!"

Aka knelt down and picked up Emanuel's keyring and tossed it over towards Drake. "Here you go, I should return this now. Gotta say, kid, you really made a friend with Monokid; scariest part of all of this was wondering if he'd blab on me."

"What are you talking about?" Drake asked. "He wasn't in my room last night, he said so."

The skier chuckled, glancing over at the green Kub. "Then I guess I'm not the only liar here in the trial room."

"…" Monodam pontificated.

"Aka, why?" Pyrrha shouted, leaning on her podium's railing. "Why did you do it?!"

"Wait a minute, everyone," Ishiku said, nervously holding up his hands. "Are we sure she's not armed in some way? That's been a continuous problem with our guilty parties!"

"Holy crap, I forgot about that," Odelios shouted. "What else is she carrying in her goggles?"
Aka smirked, reached into her pockets…

…

…

…

…

…

…

… and pulled out absolutely nothing.

"I'm not going to hurt any of you guys," she said cheerfully. "I know I've been kind of harsh, but I actually like a lot of you; well, everyone except you, Blake. Fuck you, that's why I voted for you instead of myself. Hah!"

The skier giggled and dusted off her hands. "So, I guess I got a lot to explain. Where would you like me to start?"

…

THE TRIAL HAS CONCLUDED! STAY TUNED FOR THE FINAL RESULTS!